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As we come up on Ukraine's independence day on the 24th, we have seen very little movement in the actual front lines during the last month, but several other developments. Ukraine has been able to target a number of installations deep behind Russian lines, both in Crimea and Russia proper. Responsibility for the assassination of Daria Dugina has been claimed by a previously unknown anti-Putin group inside Russia called NRA. [more inside]
posted by Harald74 at 11:08 PM PST - 103 comments

Psychologist Greg Matos, PsyD believes that, "Men need to address skills deficits to meet healthier relationship expectations." In what is not a post on the Onion, but instead Psychology Today, Dr. Matos suggested that, "Dating opportunities for heterosexual men are diminishing as relationship standards rise. Men need to address skills deficits to meet healthier relationship expectations." More here on Dr. Matos' analysis of women unwilling to date duds and Men's Rights Forums on Reddit trying to parse what the article means.
posted by Word_Salad at 9:16 PM PST - 170 comments

A roundup of July and August 2022 in humanity's exploration of space. Humans and robots explored, rockets ascended and descended, various preparations are under way, and many plans were aired. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 5:59 PM PST - 18 comments

Unvarnished This digital history project reveals a comprehensive history of housing discrimination and segregation across the US' North and West. Complicating the notion that most racist policies existed only in the Jim Crow south, Unvarnished includes a national narrative on how racist policies and practices created a segregated nation, along with six "local spotlight" stories for Appleton, WI; West Hartford, CT; Brea, CA; Naperville, IL; Oak Park, IL; and Columbus, OH. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by aniola at 5:38 PM PST - 7 comments

BookRiot delves a little deeper into the most recent Barnes & Noble changes. According to YA award-winning author Kelly Yang, Barnes & Noble has a new, unwritten policy of no longer stocking new hardcovers unless they are top 1-2 for their publishers. BookRiot notes that the unofficial stocking policy has been confirmed by other authors and publishers. [more inside]
posted by toastyk at 1:09 PM PST - 25 comments

From In “The Private Library,” Mr. Byers goes to the heart of why physical books continue to beguile us. Individually, they are frequently useful or delightful, but it is when books are displayed en masse that they really work wonders. Covering the walls of a room, piled up to the ceiling and exuding the breath of generations, they nourish the senses, slay boredom and relieve distress.... Mr. Byers coined a term — “book-wrapt” — to describe the exhilarating comfort of a well-stocked library. The fusty spelling is no affectation, but an efficient packing of meaning into a tight space (which, when you think of it, also describes many libraries). To be surrounded by books is to be held rapt in an enchanted circle and to experience the rapture of being transported to other worlds. A written and visual tribute to home libraries by Julie Lasky in the New York Times (December 2021; non-paywall version without images here).
posted by Bella Donna at 11:38 AM PST - 26 comments

Outdoor Sound Propagation in the U.S. Civil War. "In each of these seven battles listed above, the inability of commanders to hear and interpret the sounds of battle was directly responsible for the outcome. One might even go so far as to say the acoustical shadows determined the course of the entire war."
posted by kaibutsu at 10:37 AM PST - 21 comments

“It’s Either Going to Be Really Funny, or They’re Going to Be Horrified”: An Oral History of Superbad [Vanity Fair / Archive / via]
posted by ellieBOA at 9:32 AM PST - 16 comments

On Friday, journalist Jon Brady discovered via freedom of information laws that Scotrail (the Scottish national railway operator) had published a 2-hour-long MP3 containing every speech fragment used in their automated station announcements. Before long, it had been split into 2,440 individual MP3s and a crowdsourced transcription process had begun (with notes about the more peculiar phrases). Now, you can get (very) random announcements in your Twitter feed, make your own with an online soundboard, or even listen to ambient lo-fi beats with ScotRail announcements. Alison McKay, the voice artist who uttered the original announcements, is very much amused.
posted by acb at 5:38 AM PST - 38 comments