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A short documentary about a magical San Francisco resident and artist (SL Vimeo) (CW: while not the majority of the film, he does talk about his experience of living through the AIDS crisis)
posted by treepour at 4:30 PM PST - 5 comments

"I love Anne of Green Gables. I have for years. That’s one of my favourite things. She’s such a can-do kind of girl, that’s why I’m crazy about her. And that Gilbert Blythe? He’s a charmer. And Marilla, a lady who knows just how she wants things to go? Oh yes, I think I can appreciate that as well.” Aretha Franklin loved Anne of Green Gables, and Canadian author and journalist Evelyn C. White explores why that might be.
posted by ChuraChura at 1:07 PM PST - 16 comments

In 2017, a 29 year-old woman in Mexico City was given an MRI while undergoing an exorcism. Then things got weird: 8 out of 13 participants (61.53%) [in the research] had accidents and sudden events that put their lives in danger. [pdf paper] via Tom Whitwell's annual list
posted by gottabefunky at 12:04 PM PST - 46 comments

Oscar-nominated actor Elliot Page announces that he is transgender. Variety also posted an article about his announcement.
posted by Tabitha Someday at 10:35 AM PST - 97 comments

You looking for Platonic solids? Maybe some versi-regular polyhedra? How about some regular hexagonal toroidal solids? We've even got self-intersecting quasi-quasi-regular duals, though we can't legally insure those.

We got all this and more down at dmccooey's visual polyhedra site, your one-stop shopping destination for HTML5 polyhedral renderings.
posted by cortex at 9:48 AM PST - 27 comments

He Was a Stick, She Was a Leaf; Together They Made History — A surprise clutch of eggs has solved a century-old leaf insect mystery. (SLNYT)
posted by beagle at 9:36 AM PST - 8 comments

The Supernatural Finale Aired, And Tumblr Exploded - a longform video dissection of the long-running CW show Supernatural, its exceptional fandom, their favorite ship (Destiel), and the controversial finale, by vlogger Sarah Z. [YT, 1:45:34; video has spoilers for virtually the entirety of the fifteen-season show] [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:22 AM PST - 34 comments

The Best Ways to Remove a Rusted Nut from a Bolt. It's an aggravating DIY challenge. And it turns out that the most commonly used techniques (WD-40, simple wrench, Vise-grips) aren't the most effective. The simple wrench in fact, makes things worse. (SLYT). The video lists sixteen (!) ways to conquer the rusted nut, from easiest to hardest.
posted by storybored at 8:52 AM PST - 55 comments

Tesla has released a re-written version of its "Full Self Drive" software. Beta testers has been posting enthusiastic reviews. The company has pulled off the trick of getting customers to pay for and test software where they still bear responsibility as drivers. Others, such as Waymo, prefer to run trials in carefully mapped areas with driverless vehicles. Autonomy promises fewer cars on the road and , less space dedicated to parking. Perhaps manufacturers will prefer to profit from their own vehicle networks rather than by selling cars to the public? Tesla talks (contentiously) about providing systems which are much safer than imperfect human drivers - but the developing technology must cross a chasm of "edge cases" to succeed. This can be painful: there have been fatalities associated with driver's employing Tesla's auto-pilot and FSD, to date. A world of Robotaxis will also end numerous transport related jobs. But can we be confident it will never happen? The technology will surely tempt governments and planners.
posted by rongorongo at 7:08 AM PST - 102 comments

One of the surprises of the 2020 Presidential election was that Trump’s percentage of immigrant votes grew. By this I mean that my white friends were surprised. I was not surprised. Let’s talk about immigrant racism. To look at me, I am white. I have certainly benefited from my skin color throughout my life, but that whiteness was a suit I had to learn to wear. When my family moved to Philadelphia in 1970, they were moving into one of the most racist cities in America at the time, presided over by racist mayor Frank Rizzo. Mike Monteiro on Medium: My People Were In Shipping. [more inside]
posted by Bella Donna at 4:47 AM PST - 41 comments