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The Gold Pyramid House, built by Jim Onan in Lake County, IL, was badly damaged in a 2017 fire, but has since been rebuilt, and is available for event bookings.
posted by box on Oct 4 at 2:37 PM - 17 comments

The Remarkable Religious Disaffiliation of Young American Women and What it Means for the Future from Chrissy Stroop. More on the whiteness and increasing maleness of US churches. Title from the NYT article being critiqued in the linked essays, in which a young churchgoing man is quoted saying, “Young men are attracted to harder truths.” As Stroop notes, what's so hard (for a man) about the "truth" that God wants you to be in charge and wants women to submit? [more inside]
posted by spamandkimchi on Oct 4 at 12:47 PM - 42 comments

“You have these big pension funds looking at this from a spreadsheet,” looking for ways to better maximize their investment. The end result is that all of these otherwise fine panels are junked. [engadget]
posted by HearHere on Oct 4 at 9:56 AM - 7 comments

Unintentionally feeding a croc becomes an offence in Queensland. Under the new rules, which come with a $6452 fine [$4381 US], it will be illegal to feed a crocodile by discarding food in a way that attracts them to a public place. Context: salt water crocodiles can grow up to to a weight of 1000–1500 kg (2200–3300 lb) and a length of 6 m (20 ft), rarely exceeding 6.3 m (21 ft), and can and do kill people. Leaving food lying around at jetties and fishing spots attracts them, making the next people fishing less safe.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries on Oct 4 at 9:41 AM - 10 comments

A bone-chilling gust of incompetent collusion swirls around this extremely outer-Boston saga, like a Dennis Lehane novel adapted by the Coen brothers. The bumbling attempts to close ranks, the incestuous conflicts of interest, the Wahlbergian “R”s and vowels, the incantation of technical terms such as “butt-dial”—all of it can almost make you forget about the man freezing to death at the foot of the lawn. from The Irresolvable Tragedy of the Karen Read Case [The New Yorker; ungated]
posted by chavenet on Oct 4 at 5:49 AM - 46 comments

In a world-first, Australian electric vehicles have fed the national power grid during an outage. A new report reveals power from a small number of electric vehicle batteries in Canberra was used to respond to a blackout in Victoria, and experts believe this could be done on a much larger scale.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries on Oct 3 at 10:14 PM - 44 comments

Dan McClellan is a scholar of the Bible and religion and makes videos in response to related misinformation. His goal is to increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion. "Absolutely none of the Bible was written for us today" and as ancient literature it should not be viewed as either univocal or inspired or inerrant, because we are the authority, according to Dan. He has discredited politicized doctrines on abortion, homosexuality, and the rapture, in addition to addressing faith-affirming rumors and fallacies spread by influencers. He has mentioned restrictions placed on scholars employed by religious institutions which prevent them from doing what he does. Wikipedia. A brief interview with Texas Public Radio.
posted by Brian B. on Oct 3 at 9:01 PM - 94 comments

At GoodReads, Cybil lists The 78 Most Popular Horror Novels of the Past Five Years. At LitHub, Drew Broussard suggests a spooky season starter kit for the genre-curious. At CrimeReads, Kelley Armstrong describes 7 Great Haunted House Novels Written by Women. On her blog Jump Scares, Emily Hughes tracks 2024's New Horror Books (and several previous years too). Meanwhile on r/horrorlit, recent threads ask "What are we all reading this spooky season?"; "What's a horror book you like that not many know of?"; and what are some "Horror novellas you could knock out in one sitting?" For film suggestions, see also "It is less than 100 days until Halloween ..." and especially DirtyOldTown's "Pre-Halloween Guide to Streaming 2024." Incidentally, Women in Translation Month is long over, but ... [more inside]
posted by Wobbuffet on Oct 3 at 4:58 PM - 14 comments

Banks still provide far too little green financing compared to fossil fuel financing. Banks have made headlines in recent years for committing to reach “net-zero emissions” by 2050 and pledging to mobilize trillions of dollars in the fight against climate change. But are banks on track to fulfill their promises? World Resources Institute's Financial Institutions Net Zero Tracker focuses on Transparency & Ambition; Implementation; Credibility; and Nature & Equity. Data from publicly available reports as of November 2023 (About & Technical Note).
posted by spamandkimchi on Oct 3 at 4:17 PM - 6 comments

How Deep-Sea Comb Jellies Hold Their Shape Under Crushing Pressure. The delicate sea creatures fall apart when brought to the surface but can survive miles deep in the ocean due to special cell wall structures, according to a new study.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries on Oct 3 at 10:42 AM - 3 comments

Across the nation, Republican-controlled state legislatures and conservative activists have passed bills and embraced legal strategies that encourage Americans to monitor one another’s behavior and report their friends, family members, and neighbors to the authorities. [...] Republican legislators in Texas have proposed numerous additional restrictions since Roe v. Wade was overturned, including bills that would punish employers who help their workers get abortions, outlaw abortion funds that help women seek the procedure in another state, and circumvent local district attorneys who refuse to criminally prosecute abortion providers. Some proposed measures would restrict access to contraception. One would criminalize speech by making it illegal to provide “information on how to obtain an abortion-inducing drug” and forcing internet providers in Texas to censor such information. [...] As of this writing, no one has yet been successfully sued under Texas’s bounty law, and other measures that seek to turn citizens into informants have faced challenges in court. (If reelected, former President Donald Trump is likely to appoint more federal judges who would look favorably upon such measures.) But these policies have chilling effects whether or not they are strictly enforced. The mere threat of having one’s privacy invaded and one’s life potentially destroyed is sufficient to shape people’s speech and behavior. American history shows us where this could lead.

"The Right-Wing Plan to Make Everyone an Informant" by Adam Serwer for The Atlantic [ungated, archive] [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi on Oct 3 at 10:22 AM - 47 comments

"Footnotes" is a very short science fiction story by C.C. Finlay, originally published in 2001.

1. Report of the Joint Investigating Committee (Washington DC, 2027) pp. 2-3....

4. Werks to Beverly Dohnt (and 79 others), 11:21 a.m. PST, 8 Jan 2019, Subj: Fw: one more thing.

posted by brainwane on Oct 3 at 7:18 AM - 30 comments

The Golden Owl is won after 31 years [more inside]
posted by chavenet on Oct 3 at 5:17 AM - 17 comments

SciTechDaily: Groundbreaking Study Finally Reveals How Rubbing Generates Static Electricity. ACS letter: An enduring question in science has been why sliding plays a major role in the triboelectric generation of static electricity–the “tribo” in triboelectricity. We provide here a general explanation which is rooted in established science . ARXIV: A Quantitative Model of Triboelectric Charge Transfer. Bonus Quanta: The Hidden World of Electrostatic Ecology Invisibly to us, insects and other tiny creatures use static electricity to travel, avoid predators, collect pollen and more.
posted by ShooBoo on Oct 2 at 9:13 PM - 14 comments

Here’s how microgrids are empowering regional and remote communities across Australia. Small renewable energy systems are replacing dirty diesel generators in remote communities. This study of 20 Australian microgrid feasibility projects reveals widespread benefits.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries on Oct 2 at 8:29 PM - 10 comments

Fat Bear Week 2024 The first day of voting for Fat Bear Week closed today with Gully (903) deftly defeating 909, and 909 Jr pulling ahead of 519. Nice going, (not so) little guy! [more inside]
posted by lianove3 on Oct 2 at 7:28 PM - 17 comments

The Anchor - Masterpiece [more inside]
posted by signal on Oct 2 at 5:23 PM - 9 comments

"There are various factors that contributed to the crash of flight 447. Some people point to the fact that the airbus control sticks do not move in unison, so the pilot in the left seat would not have felt the pilot in the right seat pull back on his stick, the maneuver that ultimately pitched the plane into a dangerous angle. But even if you concede this potential design flaw, it still begs the question, how could the pilots have a computer yelling 'stall' at them, and not realize they were in a stall?" [more inside]
posted by mhoye on Oct 2 at 1:58 PM - 21 comments

Science reports that "We recorded from individual neurons in the human hippocampus during a reading task. Cells that were selective to a particular noun were later reactivated by pronouns that refer to the cells’ preferred noun." [more inside]
posted by aleph on Oct 2 at 12:22 PM - 19 comments

Taco wants revenge: an outstanding musical number (IMO) from one of the latest episodes of Inanimate Insanity, which is the 2nd most popular Object Show, second only to Battle For Dream Island, created in 2010 by Cary and Michael Huang (previously)
posted by bq on Oct 2 at 11:38 AM - 4 comments