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"5G transmissions will involve many frequencies, but the key one under discussion is 23.8 gigahertz. Water vapour in the atmosphere naturally produces a weak signal at this frequency, which satellites use to measure humidity. Those data feed into weather forecasts. But if a 5G station is transmitting a signal near the 23.8-gigahertz frequency, a weather satellite might pick it up and interpret it as water vapour. And that bad data could degrade forecasts."
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:29 PM PST - 23 comments

Wanted to get into cosmic horror roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu but thwarted by the rulebook? The 7th edition of the game makes combat a lot more rigorous where most attack rolls are opposed, adds more specific procedure to insanity, and beefs up a lot of other areas of the system. It can be a lot for a new player, so CJ has made an entertaining and informative animated series that lays out how the game works, with lots of examples.
1. Introduction — 2. Basic Rules — 3. Combat — 4. Firearms — 5. Insanity — 6. Character Creation — 7. Investigator Development — 8. Chase — 9. Magic [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 8:23 PM PST - 46 comments

The Cinema of Inadvertence, or Why I Like Bad Movies
posted by Chrysostom at 6:41 PM PST - 25 comments

Fans of the Trader of Stories series have been patiently waiting for the next chapter of this series from the Rudowski brothers, and it was released today. Play it (and all the previous installments) on their website, rudowscy.com. Chapter Two is mobile-friendly. [more inside]
posted by invokeuse at 5:58 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

La Blogothèque - "We film beautiful, rare and intimate sessions with your favorite artists, and the ones you are soon to fall in love with." (e.g. Lianne La Havas | No Room For Doubt & Sigur Rós - Við spilum endalaust) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 5:14 PM PST - 4 comments

A person going by the name post 10 clears blocked storm drains and posts unexpectedly satisfying videos of doing so to YouTube. [more inside]
posted by plastic_animals at 3:57 PM PST - 46 comments

Five fabulous boogie woogie piano performances!

Bonus!: Elton John playing "Benny and the Jets" live in Central Park in 1980. (Cool piano solo from 1:07 to ~4:30). Have a lovely Sunday!
posted by dfm500 at 1:58 PM PST - 8 comments

Director Josh Trank Reviews Director Josh Trank's Fantastic Four (2015) [Letterboxd] “Fant4stic... Huh. Okay first of all, I thought it would be GREAT if I searched FF2015 and the shit wasn’t even on here. Low key I kinda was hoping it wasn’t. But it was! And I’m here. Anyway. Where to begin...The movie is ALRIGHT. I was expecting it to be much worse than it was. I literally haven’t seen it since like two weeks before it came out, and I was in a heavily fucking traumatized state of mind. Why? Eh, save that for another time. Anyway, movie review: Great cast.”
posted by Fizz at 12:27 PM PST - 42 comments

In 2004, Japanese nursing student Manami Ito lost her right arm in a traffic accident. While coming to terms with this life-changing event, she decided to put her dreams on hold. However, when she went to pick up her new artificial arm at a facility, she noticed people with similar disabilities playing basketball. This inspiring sight motivated Ito to overcome her obstacles and set new goals for herself. Since the accident, she has become a nurse (the first in Japan to have a prosthetic), a world-renowned Paralympian swimmer, and a one-armed violinist. [more inside]
posted by growabrain at 12:08 PM PST - 4 comments

This past September, the FTC reached a $170M settlement with YouTube over their knowing and intentional violation of COPPA. In response, YouTube has implemented policies well beyond what the FTC required which are having major negative impacts on content creators, as explained by Dan Olson (a.k.a. Folding Ideas) in his video, What's Gone Wrong With the FTC's COPPA Agreement With YouTube. [more inside]
posted by tocts at 9:42 AM PST - 47 comments

Vulture has a serious conversation about the NCRCU - the Netflix Christmas Romance Cinematic Universe - and how the The Knight Before Christmas, in which the characters watch Holiday in the Wild, fits in with other movies in the Vanessa Hudgeons-centered universe like the Princess Switch in which characters watch A Christmas Prince. Note that the NCRCU is - as far as we know - entirely separate from the HCCU.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:50 AM PST - 21 comments

Taipei held its first drag ball in June, the organizers taking cues from American ballroom culture to build a runway of their own. They had big plans: a much larger venue than before, a lip synch battle, and more drag kings than I’d ever seen on stage in Taiwan. [...] “There are very few drag kings in Taipei by comparison to queens. ‘Folks didn’t know there was a place for them,'” according to Skye. “Another aspect is that often AFAB (assigned female at birth) people are taught to be quiet rather than to stand up and be loud. Drag is a place to be loud, so it takes a special kind of courage to take chances and get out there.” The Drag Kings of Taipei, an essay for Autostraddle on "being a diaspora kid and doing drag and how sometimes they feel the same" [via mefi projects]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:15 AM PST - 5 comments

It’s part of a bigger push around the country. Trans children have been in the national spotlight in recent weeks, with the governor of Texas stepping in to try to stop a mother from allowing her child to transition. And on Wednesday, South Carolina legislators joined in with a bill that would ban a variety of medical treatments for trans children, potentially even antidepressants for gender dysphoria. [more inside]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 7:45 AM PST - 41 comments