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Two melancholy short scifi and fantasy stories, new this year, about grieving the loss of parents. "Comments on Your Provisional Patent Application for an Eternal Spirit Core" is by Wole Talabi: "So you’ve been using the money they left us to develop this thing?" "All Worlds Left Behind" is by Iona Datt Sharma: "I, uh, used to come here with my dad? I don't speak the language as well as he did."
posted by brainwane at 11:06 PM PST - 6 comments

Guardian: Soviet TV version of Lord of the Rings rediscovered after 30 years. Parts one and two of the 1991 TV movie are now available on Youtube. Although there are no English subtitles, the visuals are not to be missed. [more inside]
posted by Countess Elena at 8:23 PM PST - 36 comments

Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986), the infamous classic short underground documentary by Jeff Krulik and John Heyn, has an hour-long prequel! Shot in 1985 in the woods somewhere in Maryland, released in 2010, and free on youtube since August 2020—HEAVY METAL PICNIC! Trailer | Full Documentary | Krulik documentaries previously on MeFi
posted by not_on_display at 5:55 PM PST - 9 comments

But what if I’m yelling and I want to show the proper regard for your humanity by capitalizing the first letter of your name? Then I want the [first letter of your name] to be upper-er case, even more upper case than before. Similarly, I might want to be super casual and disregard your humanity with a lower-er case letter. So that’s what this video is about… Now I’m definitely not going to blow you away with the results here, but they’re kind of interesting - and I think some of the story of we get there is fun and interesting as well. But this will be an example of derp (sic) learning.
tom7 previously
posted by Going To Maine at 3:39 PM PST - 27 comments

Money manager bigwigs are ironically complaining that government may need to rein in passive, low-fee or no-fee index funds. [more inside]
posted by wibari at 3:08 PM PST - 54 comments

Yahoo Answers, [previously], is shutting down on May 4.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 12:49 PM PST - 42 comments

An AI writes songs by musicians who died at 27 to raise awareness of mental health in the music industry "As long as there’s been popular music, musicians and crews have struggled with mental health at a rate far exceeding the general adult population. And this issue hasn’t just been ignored. It’s been romanticized, by things like the 27 Club—a group of musicians whose lives were all lost at just 27 years old." New? Tracks from Amy Winehouse, Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison written by an AI.
posted by burningyrboats at 12:13 PM PST - 40 comments

A recent article examines the use of advertising tactics in Sesame Street. (Via Daniel Willingham).
posted by eotvos at 9:14 AM PST - 34 comments

Love the *idea* of Blaseball, but can't quite be arsed to actually follow the mutant-surreal fantasy baseball process in real time? Quinns from Shut Up and Sit Down has you covered! A quick and jaunty recap of the last 14 seasons, with illustrations. Part 1 (The Discipline Era) and Part 2 (Peace and Prosperity) [more inside]
posted by FatherDagon at 8:04 AM PST - 21 comments

The United States Supreme Court has decided in favor of Google [pdf] in the case of Google v. Oracle, essentially resolving a case begun 11 years ago. The 6-2 majority* avoided deciding whether or not the Java API was copyrightable. Rather, it held that, even if the API is copyrightable, Google's use of the API for Android was fair use. SCOTUSblog has more. [more inside]
posted by jedicus at 7:38 AM PST - 61 comments

Anne Helen Petersen's latest piece for Vox, in her series on "the hollow middle class," is April 2's One weird trick to fix our broken child care system. [more inside]
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:09 AM PST - 36 comments