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Gary Paulsen, author of wilderness-centered young adult fiction, has died at the age of 82. [more inside]
posted by egregious theorem at 7:14 PM PST - 55 comments

Woman finds 50 year old cans of food and… eats them. On tiktok. This may be a potential datapoint for the perennial askmefi question- can I eat it?
posted by slateyness at 6:21 PM PST - 34 comments

Harry Potter fanfic marks dialogue with "said" less often than Harry Potter books do. A bit of quantitative analysis of Harry Potter fanfiction, by Suzanne R Black. Another post with more analysis.
posted by escabeche at 4:18 PM PST - 54 comments

Two scifi stories about people finding tendrils of human connection while confronting modern grief. "A Glut of Nothing, and Yet… Something" by Monte Lin: ""The Singularity had come, but not the one people wanted.... the Glut: a grayed-out area that evaded vision, comprehension, and perception..." "Love at the End" by Deborah Germaine Augustin: "I woke up hungover the day after Kuala Lumpur was supposed to end.... Eddie poured water from our last six-litre bottle into the kettle." Both published this year.
posted by brainwane at 1:28 PM PST - 3 comments

Have you ever wanted to give your friend or lover a Voight-Kampff test? Then you should probably consider trying Inhuman Conditions (BGG), a free (cards, rules, thematic form) two-player RPG/Quiz in which an interrogator has five minutes to try to determine if an interviewee is a human or a replicant robot.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:26 PM PST - 15 comments

Canada's Navy Absolutely Furious Over Sailor's Parody of Mid-Tier Mötley Crüe Song: "The Ottawa Citizen first reported on the Navy’s failed investigation of the crooner of the navy-tinged Crüe hit. An email chain obtained via an access to information request was posted online and it chronicles how unhappy navy brass were with the mystery man's performance, and how they threatened their sailors with punishment if they shared the video." [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:10 PM PST - 28 comments

Peter Staley, an HIV/AIDS activist who'd been featured in the documentary How to Survive a Plague [FanFare thread], was offered a small part in the (eventually-Oscar-winning) film Dallas Buyers Club. Staley agreed, but then he read the original script... [Vanity Fair] [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:41 AM PST - 12 comments

Paleofeces reveal diet of ancient salt miners (links to article on cell.com) Paleofeces material displays an archaeological information source that provides insights into the diet and gut microbiome composition of ancestors. Here, we had access to four paleofeces samples from the Hallstatt salt mines dating from the Bronze Age to the Baroque period. The constant low annual temperature and high salt concentrations inside the mine preserved both plant macro-remains and biomolecules (DNA and protein) in the paleofeces. [more inside]
posted by 15L06 at 11:36 AM PST - 35 comments

"The reintroduction of endangered species comes from the heart, a good place, but we have a lot to learn about the species we are reintroducing and the habitat where we want to reintroduce them before we do so..."

Butterflies released in Finland contained parasitic wasps – with more wasps inside [more inside]
posted by y2karl at 11:24 AM PST - 35 comments

A new trailer has been released for "The Beatles: Get Back", directed by Peter Jackson and premiering on Disney+ November 25th.
posted by Ipsifendus at 10:01 AM PST - 50 comments

I want a prominent media home that reflects our size and heterogeneity. I want stories about wealth as opposed to income inequality and its effect on intergenerational and social mobility. I want stories that aren’t just about our problems, but that are also told by, for, and with us. We are civic participants who matter. I want us to set the terms of debate. What could the political effects be of a media that actually served working-class Americans?
posted by sciatrix at 9:33 AM PST - 29 comments

Tetris is not just a fun diversion, but also has remarkable trauma-fighting properties. Playing Tetris within 24 hours of a traumatic event has been found to significantly reduce the likelihood of intrusive memories, and the game has also been used as a behavioural intervention for treating established PTSD. [more inside]
posted by acb at 9:10 AM PST - 33 comments

Rod of Iron Ministries has purchased a 130-acre property in eastern Tennessee to be used as a training center and spiritual retreat.
posted by box at 7:59 AM PST - 65 comments

I waited a day respectfully to see if President Biden, a big fan, would post here first but Pádraig Ó Maoldomhnaigh Paddy Maloney, founder of The Chieftains and Claddagh Records died on Monday. The Chieftains put Irish Trad on the world stage not least by listening to music from outside Ireland and riffing on that. [more inside]
posted by BobTheScientist at 3:54 AM PST - 42 comments