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The most common last name in every country | See also: Why are there so many Smiths in the world?
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:23 PM PST - 95 comments

Faith Hope Consolo was a commercial real estate trailblazer in New York City, specializing in flagship retail stores. But shortly after her obituary was published in 2018, its writer "received a message through LinkedIn, the kind that every journalist dreads"... She Was a Star of New York Real Estate, but Her Life Story Was a Lie [NYT, but I promise it's worth it]
posted by Mchelly at 2:22 PM PST - 25 comments

This is the summer I will leave America, after 12 years as a foreign correspondent, and return to London. My decision to come back to Britain was prompted by banal, personal factors that have nothing to do with current events; if my aim was to escape aggressive policing and racial disadvantage, I would not be heading to Hackney. In 2015, Gary Younge moved back to the U.K. But first he wrote a long read about all the reasons why, as a Black father, moving made sense. (Content warning for violence and racism.) [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 2:15 PM PST - 6 comments

We listened as Emily explained the four major elements that are involved in climbing: the mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional. I think my jaw dropped when, partway through the clinic, Emily asked us, “How is anyone going to ‘go for it’ when their heart center is heavy and weighing them down?”

Anaheed Saatchi writes about how the climbing community can become more inclusive and intersectionally aware, starting with one challenging move: the dyno.
posted by daisyk at 12:08 PM PST - 21 comments

Somebody figured out where the hell exactly all those WikiHow images come from. (Spoiler alert: low-paying distributed freelance labor.)
posted by cortex at 11:51 AM PST - 25 comments

"If I gave you $100, would that change your life? What about $100,000? How about $100 million? Your answer will depend on many things including age, family situation, and your current net worth. More importantly though, how you change your behavior after receiving such money can tell you a lot about your current financial standing." Climbing the Wealth Ladder
posted by COD at 11:31 AM PST - 65 comments

Will artificial intelligence fix hiring discrimination? Well, no, but what do people think about it? And if AI isn't the answer, what is? In two blog posts, data scientist @ryxcommar discusses the snake oil of HireVue et al, public discourse thereof, and conducts a mini-survey of his own, with disconcerting results. [more inside]
posted by theodolite at 10:06 AM PST - 14 comments

The Untitled Goose Game and Philosophy [Sidequest] “The Goose does good, but it is a self-serving good. Were it not a goose but a man, would we not praise the Goose’s efforts? Would we not commend him for disrupting capitalism? For returning the carefully confined garden to its wild and free nature? Perhaps, and yet the Goose is trapped in an earthly, goosely flesh. Each day the Goose drives the humble village further from God’s light and closer to depravity. But is that not what was foretold? Boehme theorized that not only would the Fall of Man occur, but that it was necessary, that it would catalyze man’s evolution. To the villagers, the Goose can do no good. The Goose is devilry and chaos. The Goose is the catalyst.”
posted by Fizz at 9:46 AM PST - 46 comments

Harriet Tubman may be the best-known conductor of the Underground Railroad, but a new album highlights another key figure: William Still [an abolitionist, historian and conductor for the Underground Railroad], who helped nearly 800 enslaved African Americans escape to freedom in the years before the Civil War. He's featured prominently in the new film Harriet [...] and he's the central figure of Sanctuary Road, a new oratorio (official YT playlist) by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec based on Still's 1872 book The Underground Railroad (Archive.org). Kent Tritle deftly leads the Oratorio Society of New York Orchestra, Chorus and a dynamic cast of African American soloists. (NPR) [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:42 AM PST - 1 comments

Rag mags and monthly issues: Five period zines to stop you seeing red [more inside]
posted by youarenothere at 8:54 AM PST - 4 comments

Eight years into the restoration of the famous Ghent Altarpiece, overpainting has been removed to reveal the face of the Lamb of God as envisioned by the Van Eyck brothers, unseen since it was covered up in the 16th century. [more inside]
posted by Copronymus at 8:29 AM PST - 47 comments

So your local techno-libertarian wants to build a new home off-world. What are the challenges (YT) to supporting human life on Mars? What's most likely to kill you? And even if we can keep people healthy for more than a short period, what would it look like to work on Mars?
posted by backseatpilot at 6:18 AM PST - 102 comments

Grizzly Bear Fight!
Elephant Investigates Hotel

And because humans are animals: Baby's First Taste of Ice Cream
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:58 AM PST - 14 comments

A fraught, multi-million-dollar legal battle over the frozen head of a now-deceased biochemist escalated into fraud claims this week, after four years of wild allegations that at one point involved talk of a wax dummy head and an alleged hidden will.
posted by Etrigan at 5:51 AM PST - 19 comments