MetaFilter

Jamie Loftus (previously previously previously previously) has a new podcast! Ghost Church is an exploration of Spiritualism, its history, beliefs, regrettable relationship with Black and Indigenous people, and so much more. [more inside]
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:31 PM PST - 8 comments

In 1928 a young writer named Gertrude Beasley sailed from London to New York and was never heard from again. She left behind only one book, My First Thirty Years (Contact Editions, 1925). The strange and horrifying story of Gertrude Beasley, who pulled herself out of poverty to receive an MA in Education in 1918, then wrote a shocking memoir (content warning for talk of child abuse). [more inside]
posted by maggiemaggie at 3:28 PM PST - 15 comments

"Inside a Corporate Culture War Stoked by a Crypto CEO" (SLNYT (archive.org) about crypto app Kraken and CEO Jesse Powell)
posted by box at 1:21 PM PST - 56 comments

Friends build real castle from scratch with simple tools only [more inside]
posted by ilikemefi at 12:16 PM PST - 21 comments

On Twitter, Isle McElroy asks, "can anyone recommend a good slim novel? Looking for something very good--impossible to put down--and unthinkably slim, like zero to zero pages or so." [more inside]
posted by taz at 10:50 AM PST - 37 comments

Electronic pop/dance flourished internationally: Be a Boy, Gina X Performance; Thrash, Cowboys International; Day Breaks, Night Heals, Thomas Leer & Robert Rental; Aurora B., Krisma; Chip 'N' Roll, Silicon Teens; I Need Somebody To Love Tonight, Sylvester; Faites le proton (Inst.), Casino Music; Kameari Pop, P-Model; Margherita (Inst. Hot Edit), Massara; The Visitors (Inst.), Gino Soccio; Alien (12" Disco), Nostromo; Underwater, Harry Thumann. Minimalism too: 1, Galen Herod; Ice Floe, Young Scientist; Have a Good Ride, Pyrolator; Sei Note in Logica, Roberto Cacciapaglia. Trash Theory's Before Are 'Friends' Electric gives a genealogy for high-profile British synth-pop of the year: Electricity (Version II), OMD; Are 'Friends' Electric? Tubeway Army; Cars, Gary Numan. And, technically, it was the year of The New Sound of Music (1979).
posted by Wobbuffet at 9:30 AM PST - 8 comments

The Hollywood Reporter's TV Comedy Actress Roundtable for this year [50m] brings together Amy Schumer, Bridget Everett, Molly Shannon, Quinta Brunson, Selena Gomez, and Tracy Ellis Ross who spend a bit less than an hour in delightful, funny, honest conversation and insights about being them and doing what they do.
posted by hippybear at 7:16 AM PST - 3 comments

The Theft of the Commons by Eula Biss.
posted by latkes at 6:09 AM PST - 27 comments

“We must start now to develop the new, unconventional sources of energy we will rely on in the next century” In 1977 Star Wars hit movie theaters, New York City had a blackout that lasted 25 hours, and the Apple II personal computer went up for sale. It was also the year that a remarkable one-page memo was circulated at the very highest levels of US government.
posted by mumimor at 2:49 AM PST - 22 comments