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A convincing explanation of the mysterious Voynich manuscript is offered by Nicholas Gibbs in the TLS. Previously and many previouslier. [more inside]
posted by Segundus at 11:29 PM PST - 63 comments

Macedonian ‘Moby-Dick’ Translator Ognen Čemerski, 42, Was a Meticulous Linguist and Engaged Educator, passed away last month. - "By far the biggest challenge faced by Čemerski was the lack of Macedonian vocabulary for everyday terms used by American sailors to designate parts of the ships, which had become commonplace words in the English language." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:34 PM PST - 6 comments

Celebrating the art of the cover song, which often surpass the original, such as what happened when Aretha Franklin got ahold of Otis Redding's R E S P E C T. And to accompany these twenty covers is an interview with Lyle Lovett, whose latest album is all covers, some of which he's been playing in his live concerts for many years The Long Road Home
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:28 PM PST - 19 comments

Watering a Flower (花に水) is a cassette of ambient synthesizer music by Haruomi Hosono, commissioned by MUJI in 1984 for use as store background music. Well, sort of. [more inside]
posted by theodolite at 8:14 PM PST - 32 comments

Boston Red Sox Used Apple Watches to Steal Signs Against Yankees by Michael S. Schmidt [The New York Times] “For decades, spying on another team has been as much a part of baseball’s gamesmanship as brushback pitches and hard slides. The Boston Red Sox have apparently added a modern — and illicit — twist: They used an Apple Watch to gain an advantage against the Yankees and other teams. Investigators for Major League Baseball have determined that the Red Sox, who are in first place in the American League East and very likely headed to the playoffs, executed a scheme to illicitly steal hand signals from opponents’ catchers in games against the second-place Yankees and other teams, according to several people briefed on the matter. The baseball inquiry began about two weeks ago, after the Yankees’ general manager, Brian Cashman, filed a detailed complaint with the commissioner’s office that included video the Yankees shot of the Red Sox dugout during a three-game series between the two teams in Boston last month.” [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 7:42 PM PST - 40 comments

The Emergency Pupper Service featuring patented Scroll-to-Smile™ technology. For when you're plumb out of evens. (h/t Miss Cellania)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:51 PM PST - 27 comments

Tucked into an article about The Violet Hour, a popular sipping spot, is a photo essay about Chicago Chocolate Cakes Underneath the cool bar story, and I cannot separate the two, is a photo essay about Chicago's ten best chocolate cakes. This is cakes, to think about, cakes to attempt if your are intrepid and talented, at interpretive baking. The images, drove all politics out of my being, for a short while. Oh yes. The Violet Hour sounds pretty cool. San Francisco and its cakes. Here is some New York City action.
posted by Oyéah at 3:33 PM PST - 15 comments

The effects of climate change are already upon us. Here's what the 2020s and 2030s will look like if we fail to change things.
posted by standardasparagus at 3:25 PM PST - 72 comments

Pauline Dakin believed her family was fleeing the Mafia. Then she uncovered the real story (Transcript available here). By the time she was 11, Dakin had attended six schools in seven years: "I knew there was something very strange about my family all the time I was growing up. My brother and I would talk about 'what do you think it is?' A couple of times we had moved away without telling anybody and turned up thousands of kilometres away and picked up the pieces again." [more inside]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:49 PM PST - 20 comments

As Brits eat through gin-flavoured yoghurt - 0.25% alcohol - and crisps, so the legendary drink revival gathers pace. Made in many places, from Viking islands and the Hebrides to Worcestershire and the South West, it's the return (post title) of "mother's ruin" - though, allegedly anti-ageing. There's good and bad gin festivals, and 'Breach of the Peace' (Buckfast), or add Irn Bru to make the 'Nedgroni', rhubarb crumble gin, 'magic' gin, marshmallow gin, and others. More substantive? Try ice lollies (4.5% alcohol), chocolate, popcorn, cupcakes, bigger cakes, cheese or cheesecake. Or watch gin and tonic battered fish being made (recipe), or try many recipes galore. Perhaps a tart or America's dish or add to tea? There's a gin truck! Previously, and with Christmas getting ever closer...
posted by Wordshore at 2:38 PM PST - 50 comments

From the Encyclopaedia of Art Education. Starting with c.40,000-25,000 BCE: the Venus of Hohle Fels, the Lion Man of Hohlestein Stadel, the Chauvet cave paintings, Kimberley rock art and the Burrup Peninsula rock art. [more inside]
posted by Catseye at 1:22 PM PST - 7 comments

Jenny Odell investigates the provenance of a "free" watch (PDF) for the Museum of Capitalism.
posted by selfnoise at 12:04 PM PST - 40 comments

"Whenever African writers get together on our own, we talk about glossaries." In "Glossing Africa," Namwali Serpell looks at the work glossing does at the sentence-level, story-level, and sociopolitical level in African fiction.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 11:13 AM PST - 4 comments

With its horrible writing, shoddy effects, and budget cosplay costumes, it’s hard to understand why Inhumans is even on TV, never mind getting a high-profile IMAX release. Imagine if Marvel had spent this much hype on the delightful Agent Carter! Is it possible they had to make Inhumans for some reason? Was it a tax thing? Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter's pet project has launched in IMAX to almost universal disdain. Will it's failure hurt the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
posted by Artw at 10:27 AM PST - 99 comments

Stanford press release: "A new survey of DNA fragments circulating in human blood suggests our bodies contain vastly more diverse microbes than anyone previously understood. What’s more, the overwhelming majority of those microbes have never been seen before, let alone classified and named..."
posted by aleph at 10:18 AM PST - 35 comments

"If you agitate cream enough, you will make whipped cream. Continue agitating it and skim off the liquid, and you will make butter. Put that your coffee, and you have now wasted a lot of energy to put cream into your coffee." Gizmodo considers the science and health claims behind bulletproof coffee.
posted by jenkinsEar at 10:09 AM PST - 67 comments

9 years ago last week, my all-time favorite video of amateur strength, courage, and stupidity was posted by user carjumper2008 to the video-sharing website YouTube. I present it here without further commentary. "Insane Jump by a Buick La sabre".
posted by stinkfoot at 9:36 AM PST - 34 comments

Binging with Babish is a cooking show "dedicated to discovering what the delectable (and occasionally horrible) foods from fiction actually taste like." The website includes both video and written instructions for recipes such as Chocolate Babka (Seinfeld) and Blood Pie (Game of Thrones). More videos, like The Moistmaker (Friends) and Tampopo Ramen (Tampopo) can be found on his YouTube channel. Bonus: Title reference.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:32 AM PST - 15 comments

The 21st century has seen some amazing discoveries and inventions so far: the the Higgs boson, Gravitational waves, potentially habitable exoplanets, self driving cars, gene editing tools and many other amazing and wonderful things. Today we can add one more that that list of epic human achievements: a fourth form of chocolate.
posted by auntie-matter at 8:47 AM PST - 37 comments