November 4, 2016

The rhythm of the one

The Story of Funk - One Nation Under A Groove is a 2014 BBC documentary about the birth and evolution of funk music. [SLYT]
posted by Room 641-A at 4:13 PM PST - 31 comments

Climate goals rapidly moving out of reach

Ars Technica: "UN report: climate goals rapidly moving out of reach." Paris Agreement made progress, but 2°C warming limit takes much more. [more inside]
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:31 PM PST - 32 comments

all of the above statements are mine, written on this date, and true and

Well, like most anyone looking to get ahead in natsec punditry, [Robert Caruso] is a big fan of going to war.
How hard is it to con people in Washington, D.C.? Easier than you might think, considering it’s the place where things like nuclear war get decided.
A disturbing case study in the "national security" commentariat's appetite for talented Mr. Ripley's (Brendan James for Deadspin). [more inside]
posted by grobstein at 2:12 PM PST - 11 comments

Clean cracks help improve the smoothness of everyone’s experience.

Bewildered residents wonder why toilet paper is being spread all over town. Toilet paper is used to keep newly-applied tar in smaller cracks and off our shoes, bikes, and cars. Single-ply only.
posted by asperity at 1:27 PM PST - 20 comments

at least I won't die of dysentery

NY Times presents The Voter Suppression Trail [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:16 PM PST - 32 comments

A Syzygy, for you Scrabble players

On November 14 the moon will be closer to the Earth than it has been in 70 years, creating a massive "supermoon." [more inside]
posted by Mooseli at 12:28 PM PST - 46 comments

“We just don’t think you’d work on TV.”

Joan Rivers’s Remarkable Rise to (and Devastating Fall from) Comedy’s Highest Ranks: "In the new biography Last Girl Before Freeway, writer Leslie Bennetts explores the peerless career of comedian Joan Rivers. Here, Bennetts revisits Rivers’s darkest hour, along with her shining moments in the high-flying 1960s and 1970s." (SL Vanity Fair)
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:26 PM PST - 32 comments

Ahoy, ye scurvy dogs! Are you eating your spinach and lemons?

Limestrong is a slightly cheeky but also totally serious attempt to prevent and end scurvy, based in part on an ill-fated Sunkist ad campaign from the 1970s. That was just one of the company's many odd forays into fighting scurvy and sell more California citrus with an awkward nod to the present culture, like Just1.com (1998) and Scurvy Boy Television (2000; both archived sites hosted on Internet Archive), radical marketing approaches for this conservative group. Just like scurvy boy was adopted by cheeky Gen-Y skaters and such in the late 1990s, Limestrong self-promotes through desktop images, photos of cats wearing fruit helmets, and more. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:11 AM PST - 44 comments

why is running so white?

Why is running so white?
posted by garlic at 11:03 AM PST - 33 comments

The first 600 miles is the hard part

From Kottke.org, a quick story about the Quintuple Anvil Triathlon, which is five Ironman triathlons over the course of five days. And then he finds out about the Triple DECA Ironman, which is thirty triathlons over thirty days. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 10:57 AM PST - 16 comments

🎶It's a Felony, of the fi-irst de-gree, cookin' pot browniiii-eees.🎶

The law firm Hutson & Harris of Waco put together a funny and informative song about the consequence of getting busted with pot brownies in Texas. Their Youtube channel has more, including "Please Shut Up!," and "Miranda."
posted by emjaybee at 10:23 AM PST - 20 comments

Once in love, I'll be the death of you

25 years ago, Loveless was released. The seminal record that influenced a movement, also known for allegedly almost bankrupting pre-Britpop Creation Records over dozens of recording studios and producers that couldn't match Kevin Shields vision among other legends makes a quarter of a century today. [more inside]
posted by lmfsilva at 10:14 AM PST - 45 comments

One week in God’s Country at Creation, the biggest Christian music fest

I was at a Sheetz eating mac 'n' cheese bites, considering my faith—or lack thereof—on my way to a Christian rock festival in rural Pennsylvania. My interests in the Creation Music Festival and reasons for being there were layered. As a music editor who'd noticed a lot of artists becoming more vocal about their beliefs (rappers like Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, and Chance the Rapper, who earlier this year released an album that was essentially a banging hip-hop gospel record), I wondered if there'd been a change in the long tradition of Christian music sucking. I also wanted to know what it's like when tens of thousands of Christians gather in the name of rock 'n' roll, a genre steeped in and born of a tradition of substance abuse, sex, and rebellion. Like, do people smoke weed? But most dauntingly, I wanted to better understand why I left this faith. But if I'm being honest with myself, all the other questions were just excuses to answer this last one.
posted by josher71 at 9:20 AM PST - 43 comments

Why do Colleges have so much art?

The Important Role of Art on College Campuses Thoughts on the role of the campus museum (SLTheAtlantic) [more inside]
posted by PussKillian at 9:16 AM PST - 10 comments

Conversations with Tyler

Tyler Cowen is an economics professor and chairman / general director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Since April 2015, he has been hosting "Conversations with Tyler", lengthy, one-on-one podcast interviews with "thought leaders from across the spectrum — economists, entrepreneurs, authors and innovators. All have one thing in common — they are making an impact on the world because of their ideas." His latest is with Steven Pinker. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 8:36 AM PST - 16 comments

Rise Up Remix

While the rest of the Hamilton Mixtape doesn't drop until December 2, you can get a taste today, with "My Shot" (feat. Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz & Nate Ruess) (lyrics here) and Kelly Clarkson's "It's Quiet Uptown." [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:09 AM PST - 73 comments

“It’s a dog you can ride.”

Where’s the Love for Donkeys? [The New York Times] “About 5,000 years ago, 10 donkeys were laid to rest in painstakingly constructed brick grave chambers at a site connected with one of the earliest Egyptian kings. They were buried in a place of importance, “where the highest lords would be,” said Fiona Marshall, an archaeologist at Washington University in St. Louis who studies the domestication of donkeys. Because of their importance in trade across the Sahara, she said, donkeys had “superhigh status.” Unfortunately, even the most passionate defenders of donkeys recognize that the animal they love gets little respect in the wider world today.”
posted by Fizz at 7:52 AM PST - 30 comments

7 Reasons So Many Guys Don’t Understand Sexual Consent

7 Reasons So Many Guys Don’t Understand Sexual Consent "I've spent two solid decades trying to deprogram myself, to get on board with something that, in retrospect, should be patently obvious to any decent person. Changing actions is the easy part; changing urges takes years and years. It's the difference between going on a diet and training your body to not get hungry at all." That resonated with me.
posted by Anonymous at 7:19 AM PST - 194 comments

Romano Hänni

Romano Hänni makes beautiful hand-printed books. For example [PDF links]: Typo Picture Book; Typographic Notes (i); Typographic Notes (ii); The Book with the E.
posted by zmacw49 at 3:20 AM PST - 1 comments

Apply yourself to supply your wealth

The Universal Right to Capital Income - "If a universal basic income is to be legitimate, it cannot be financed by taxing Jill to pay Jack. That is why it should be funded not from taxation, but from returns on capital." (via) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 12:12 AM PST - 54 comments

Two Mummified Ancient Cave Lion Cubs Found

For more than 30,000 years, northern Russia's cold permafrost has preserved the small bodies of two furry and wide-pawed cave lion cubs... The two mummified cubs, nicknamed Uyan and Dina after the Uyandina River where they were found, were just about 1 week old when they died, likely crushed by "extensive collapse of the sediments in the den," the study's researchers wrote in a summary of their research. The report was presented as a poster here on Wednesday (Oct. 26) at the 2016 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting. SIBERIA'S FROZEN CAVE LION CUBS: DNA, CAUSE OF DEATH & OTHER SECRETS
posted by grobertson at 12:04 AM PST - 11 comments

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