December 23, 2015

He always uses the element of water in his telenovelas.

Chances are your favorite telenovela was written by Julio Jiménez. For sure his Wikipedia page was. [more inside]
posted by infinitewindow at 11:11 PM PST - 5 comments

Seymour M. Hersh on US intelligence sharing in the Syrian war

“We have the power to diminish a presidential policy in its tracks.”

Did the Joint Chiefs of Staff share intelligence with foreign leaders in a behind-the-scenes attempt to circumvent Obama's Syria policy? [more inside]
posted by kanuck at 10:03 PM PST - 46 comments

How smart animal shelters aim for zero kill.

How smart animal shelters aim for zero kill. Some shelters are euthanizing far fewer animals than others, and it's not because they have more funding: they're adopting different, smarter practices, including feline Trap-Neuter-Return, emphasizing spay and neuter in communities, encouraging owner retention, and making adoptions easier. Initiatives like Target Zero and The Million Cat Challenge help make it possible for cities achieve greater live-release rates. "In five years, Jacksonville’s shelter went from saving less than 30 percent of its animals to saving 90 percent, including many more dogs than before."
posted by Violet Hour at 8:59 PM PST - 10 comments

we could be listening to "Tinkle Bells"

A Brief History Of The Hit Christmas Song - Ben Yagoda
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:21 PM PST - 8 comments

Derren Brown Shocks Commuters with Creepy Victorian Stunt

Controversial magician Derren Brown gave commuters a rush-hour shock with these two chilling Victorian sisters. [more inside]
posted by isthmus at 7:05 PM PST - 17 comments

No more men in gold suits

What's it like to be Noam Chomsky's Assistant?
posted by jason's_planet at 6:00 PM PST - 8 comments

Is this real life? Yes, yes it is.

The "heist" of legend! The fourth wall animated.
posted by reedcourtneyj at 5:11 PM PST - 2 comments

The Blue Glow

There were times when we practically lived at the Shark Tank. We’d be there for two weeks, spending most of the time living in the catwalks above the ice. We’d have all of our computers, work area, and everything up there... The initial test of the RF system was frankly scary. We saw that this repeater was bigger than we had hoped it would be. So rather than a half dollar buried in the puck, we were starting to think this was going to be a puck-shaped piece of electronics painted black. And that was scary to us.
First-Hand Recollections of the development of the FoxTrax hockey puck tracking system
posted by mannequito at 5:00 PM PST - 12 comments

Inequality impacts retailers too

High-end malls are doing just great. It’s malls in middle-class communities geared to middle-income customers that are suffering from high vacancy rates and failing tenants. [more inside]
posted by cynical pinnacle at 4:40 PM PST - 33 comments

Fewer people associate Chipotle with “healthy” now.

Inside Chipotle’s Contamination Crisis
Smugness and happy talk about sustainability aren’t working anymore.
posted by andoatnp at 2:23 PM PST - 100 comments

Chrindie '95

Chrindie '95: A collection of essays about a seminal year in Christian indie rock. [via mefi projects].
1995 was also an incredibly important year for the scene we've come to call “Chrindie,” for Christian indie rock. Much has been written about the weird world of contemporary Christian music, but whatever you think it is ,  you’d be surprised by how many genuinely great Chrindie records were released twenty years ago. During the course of the year, we’ve been writing about brilliant, beautiful, challenging, difficult, weird albums that went mostly unnoticed by mainstream radio and the music press and MTV, in part because they were released on tiny labels with no budgets and marketed primarily to evangelical teenagers in the suburbs.
[more inside]
posted by naju at 1:29 PM PST - 28 comments

The 10 Best Articles Wikipedia Deleted This Week

When the faceless, unaccountable (and nearly exclusively male) editors of Wikipedia decide that an article is not fit for public consumption, it’s gone—disappeared into the site’s recesses, and only accessible to the most elite editors. These deleted articles have been a dark spot in Wikipedia’s otherwise laudable transparency. That is, until now. [SLGawker] [more inside]
posted by graymouser at 1:04 PM PST - 130 comments

Broad Money includes Narrow Money

All of the World’s Money and Markets in One Visualization [more inside]
posted by soelo at 12:45 PM PST - 14 comments

Atlanta: Darker Than Blue

Atlanta: Darker Than Blue presented by Black Vrchives, November 2015. A curated journey through Atlanta's history. [more inside]
posted by ob1quixote at 12:26 PM PST - 6 comments

Spectacular images, troubled lake

Ontario photographer Dave Sanford's photos of waves on Lake Erie capture weather conditions on the world's eleventh largest lake. Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, with an average depth of only 62 feet (19 metres). This makes it prone to a weather phenomenon known as a "seiche." [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:04 AM PST - 23 comments

distance x time

The Typical American Lives Only 18 Miles From Mom
posted by four panels at 9:50 AM PST - 95 comments

Various tales of Mrs. Santa Claus, helper and hero in Christmases past

The stories, legends and history that lead to the modern Santa Claus go back to the third century, but what of his better half? She is a relatively recent invention, at least in written form. First mentioned in reference and passing in 1849 and 1851 respectively, Mrs. Claus finally appears in person, with a babe in arms, in 1854 in a story written in The Opal volume 4 (a literary journal written by the patients of New York Lunatic Asylum in Utica). She didn't get a name until the 1996 musical TV movie, Mrs. Santa Claus, where Angela Lansbury is Mrs. Anna Santa Claus, the plucky wife of Mr. Claus who takes the sleigh out herself. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:59 AM PST - 29 comments

Equality is necessary, but it is not enough.

"Last week the Empire State Pride Agenda, one of the nation's largest LGBT advocacy groups, announced its closure. This came on the same day that staff members of Freedom to Marry finished packing up their cubicles, and a few weeks after cutbacks had been announced by other gay equality groups. For decades the LGBT movement has advocated for legal equality. The new LGBT movement should recognize that equality is necessary, but it is not enough." [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:46 AM PST - 57 comments

I'm assuming the red nose is going to be a laser.

Happy Holidays from Boston Dynamics (slyt)
posted by curious nu at 7:57 AM PST - 38 comments

Swipe right on monogamy

Swipe right on monogamy [more inside]
posted by triggerfinger at 7:51 AM PST - 71 comments

Turn Off, Tune Out, Get Bored.

In Praise of Boredom by the creative Adrian Shaughnessy, a graphic designer and writer based in London, is a thought-provoking look at the link between creativity, reflection, and boredom. Shaughnessy is a senior tutor in Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art and a founding partner in Unit Editions a publishing company producing books on design and visual culture.
posted by spock at 7:40 AM PST - 16 comments

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