“I tried to give them $20,000 for nothing!” [Tim] Pool said on his show, claiming to be perplexed by the skaters’ ingratitude. But Pool has also described the purchase as a win for the right, saying it was part of “real-world efforts to win a culture war.” Jeremy Hambly, a popular YouTuber associated with Pool who goes by the name “The Quartering,” said in a video that Pool’s decision to buy the land was like “a mini ‘Elon buying Twitter’ scenario.” from The skate park was thriving. Then a right-wing YouTuber bought it. [Washington Post; ungated]

The rape joke is you went home like nothing happened [more inside]

Exceptionally rare octopus squid dissected by researchers at SA university. School-age, university students and keen members of the public have gathered to observe a rare public dissection of a 140kg Dana octopus squid (Taningia danae) found off South Australia's Eyre Peninsula.

In preparation for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the planners are looking to make the event accessible for delegates - including installing ramps to allow wheelchair users to sit with their delegations on the floor for the first time. [more inside]

Is Your Workout Not Working? Maybe You’re a Non-Responder “nonresponders to one form of exercise can probably switch to another exercise regimen to which their body will respond. And a simple test you can do at home will help you determine how well your workout is working for you.“ (Reynolds, NYT, 2017). [more inside]

Kamala Harris is taking power back from the press corps .

A photographer captures the Perseid metor shower over Stonehenge. Every time you think that the universe has nothing left to show you, it rains wonder.

The Atlantic: The People Who Quit Dating Being single can be hard—but the search for love may be harder.

They still want a relationship—and they wouldn’t refuse if one unfolded naturally—but they’ve cycled between excitement and disappointment too many times to keep trying. Quitting dating means more than just deleting the apps, or no longer asking out acquaintances or friendly strangers. It means looking into Lewis’s crystal ball and imagining that it shows them that they’ll never find the relationship they’ve always wanted.

[more inside]

Two short fantasy stories about teaching and burnout. "This Mentor Lives" by J.R. Dawson & John Wiswell, published July 2024 in Haven Speculative: "We're not sure how your lungs are still working. You can't run around in this state. You're not 900 anymore." (Wiswell previously.) "By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars" by Premee Mohamed, published June 2024 in Strange Horizons: "She didn’t want another apprentice. She wanted peace and quiet." (Mohamed previously.)

Scientists find humans age dramatically in two bursts – at 44, then 60 - suggesting ageing is not a slow and steady process, which could explain spikes in health issues at certain ages. From Nature Aging: Nonlinear dynamics of multi-omics profiles during human aging.

Nick Cave speaks. On loss, on love for his wife, on collaborating with Kylie Minogue. On the beauty and privilege of answering questions on the Red Hand Files. On becoming a grandfather. On growing as a musician, and on realising what actually matters. Previously. Previouslier. Previousliest.

YouTube If It Had Channels

Cynics may say José and Betty were never in love, just using each other for beauty or status. Perhaps their lifelong performance of fame was a golden cage, a distraction from a toxic dynamic. But it also seemed possible that the artifice was the passion. All romance starts with a dose of delusion: We fall in love with the idea of someone until, over time, our fantasy of the other person either buckles under the strain of reality or carries on forever, eclipsing whatever reality may have once existed. from The Twisted True Love Story of Lady Betty Grafstein and José Castelo Branco [Vanity Fair; ungated] [more inside]

The promise will be kept. Two entire eras after introducing it, gorgeously retro puppet show The Creatures of Yes (previyesyes) will return this fall to finally resolve the storyline from the epic Splintered Mind saga in its first feature-length movie, whose trailer dropped less than two weeks ago. Will Tom finally... COME ON BACK? [more inside]

When Vultures Nearly Disappeared in India, Half a Million People Died, Too, Study Finds. By being nature’s clean-up crew, the often maligned birds help prevent the spread of diseases, according to a new study [Smithsonian magazine].

Sokoblox is a fascinating and challenging Pico-8 [previously] game combining classic block puzzles Sokoban and Bloxorz [previously]. Xenpaper is a text-based, in-browser microtonal sequencer. It's difficult to write music with, but it's a surprisingly convenient way to actually listen to the difference between, say, a standard tuned dominant 7th chord and the just-intoned equivalent characteristic of barbershop music. [more inside]

Harris campaign reports record-breaking volunteer surge in key swing states. Harris' campaign is transforming big crowds into volunteers on the ground in key swing states. Surge of volunteers makes Harris team bullish on Florida, where GOP still has tight grip. There's a lot of work to do. It can feel good to join in, even if you only have a little bit of time or energy or money to bring to the party. [more inside]

Wisconsin's primary election on Tuesday, August 13th was the first held under the new legislative maps that provide fairer competition where 'the party that wins the most votes will win the most seats.' While the nature of primary elections makes it difficult to assess the impact this will have on a general election, there may be clues to what Wisconsin voters are looking for come November. [more inside]

Wally Amos, best known to most Americans for his company Famous Amos Cookies (now owned by Ferrero) passed away on August 13th at home in Hawaii at the age of 88 [more inside]

Disney wants wrongful-death suit thrown out because widower bought an Epcot ticket and had Disney+ (CNN, BBC, NPR) Court documents show that the company is trying to get the $50,000 lawsuit tossed because the plaintiff, Jeffrey Piccolo, signed up for a one-month trial of the streaming service Disney+ in 2019, which requires trial users to arbitrate all disputes with the company. Company lawyers also claim that because Piccolo used the Walt Disney Parks’ website to buy Epcot Center tickets, Disney is shielded from a lawsuit from the estate of Piccolo’s deceased wife, Kanokporn Tangsuan, who died of a reaction to severe food allergies.

This will inevitably get flagged as pizza blue, but now you can swap out the purple cover on your Playdate handheld for one that looks like a pizza box. [more inside]

American gymnast Jordan Chiles was awarded the bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She was then ordered to return it. Deep dive from Vox. [more inside]

Early mammal could help answer one of biology’s biggest question, say experts. Krusatodon kirtlingtonensis, which lived 166 million years ago, "a piece of the puzzle" explaining mammals’ success.

A man who claims to have fractured his ankle by jumping into the sprinkle pool at the New York City location of the Museum of Ice Cream has filed a lawsuit contending that the museum was “reckless, careless and negligent” in its operation of the facility. [more inside]

The world premiere of the Ojibwe-language version of Star Wars: A New Hope had its premiere this past weekend in Winnipeg! [more inside]

Is it (Oslo) even a city? [more inside]

The Anime Where a Man [more inside]

Matt Baume has a new documentary about the life and career of Howard Ashman -- the Off (Off) Broadway writer/director who brought us Little Shop of Horrors and later, Disney's Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. [more inside]

The year is 1996. MetaFilter does not yet exist. Social media are tapes, disks, books, and other objects shared between friends. The Web is a new, exciting place for exploring new kinds of texts. As such, it's a perfect time to dig into Borges, Calvino, Cortázar, and kin, along with state-of-the-art graphics, in order to help think about the theory and future of multilinear narrative. [more inside]

What they found was that the readings collected by Insight are best explained by the presence under the surface of the Red Planet of a deep layer of fractured igneous rock saturated with liquid water [new atlas; uc berkeley]

"If any -ology helps us understand these people, it’s sociology: assembly-line slaughter makes the underclasses deranged; technology makes them irrelevant; unemployment makes them hungry. Scarcity underlies almost everything the characters do, whether they’re killers or not—like that other stagflation classic, 'Mad Max,' this is a story about precious fuel and the lengths some people will go to get it." Jackson Arn, on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in The New Yorker.

I think it is actually somewhat generous to call the Loop an underground system, as most maneuvers and operations occur at surface level. It is perhaps best thought of as a taxi system that makes use of underground connectors to bypass traffic. Future expansion plans involve significantly more tunnel length and more underground stations, which will probably cause the system overall to feel more like a below-surface transit system and less like an odd fleet of hotel courtesy cars. from a pedantic review of the las vegas loop [computers are bad] [more inside]

Scientists celebrate first Maugean skate hatchling born from a captive-laid egg. Scientists working to conserve the endangered Maugean skate are celebrating the first skate to hatch from an egg laid in captivity.

Although artifacts do need upkeep from time to time, some might look strange with a pristine exterior. Most people don’t expect a bronze cannon used at the Battle of the Alamo to be shiny, for example...

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and Independent Publishers Group (IPG) have announced a groundbreaking agreement that will allow libraries to purchase ebooks under the aegis of the IPG instead of renting them at eye-watering prices. [more inside]

Thousands of Taylor Swift fans flooded museums in Vienna over the weekend after multiple institutions waived entry fees after three of the singer’s concerts were cancelled due to security threats.(...)The Albertina fully embraced the moment, waiving its €19.90 regular entrance fee (€15.90 for visitors under 26 years) for more than 20,000 Swifties between Thursday, August 8 and Sunday, August 11. “On a normal and regular weekend, we would have, I would say 2,000 a day,” spokesperson Nina Eisterer told ARTnews, noting that these types of visitor numbers are usually for blockbuster exhibitions like the one for Claude Monet in 2018.

Two short fantasy stories about journeys, meant to provide care, that go in unexpected directions. "Median" by Kelly Robson (published March 2024 in Reactor (formerly Tor.com)): a horror story in which "a professional caregiver’s commute takes an unsettling detour when car trouble forces her to pull over on the highway, where she begins receiving distressing phone calls from strangers…" (Via Jason Sanford who said it "left me completely unsettled.") And "A Pilgrimage to the God of High Places" by Marissa Lingen (published May 2024 in Beneath Ceaseless Skies): "When I had taken leave from the Archives to go on this pilgrimage, no one had expected that a pilgrimage to the god of high places would cure me. Friends expressed shock that I would even try."

United Auto Workers files federal labor charges against Trump, Musk (WaPo) After Trump said, in an interview with Musk, “You walk in, you say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike. I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s okay. You’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.’” In a statement, UAW president Shawn Fain said “When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean. Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns.” [more inside]

Keep track of all the counties you've visited in the USA, Canada, and more: "The rules are simple: you visit a county, then you count it. To visit a county, just cross the plane of the county line." Similar to USA County Highpointing's site (MeFi post), mob-rule.com's design still feels like when it was created: way back in the 00s. Generates pretty maps (like heat maps for all users for the US and for Canada). Useful new features added in 2021 include HTTPS! Take a randomized county quiz!

As instructors struggle to meet the complex needs of students, schools are leaving both to fend for themselves. (slTheWalrus)

"Like watching a soap opera": The splendid social life of Australia’s bluest bird. They may seem like just a beautiful blue bird, but under the surface the social dynamics of the splendid fairy-wren is anything but simple.

tramstertram A minimalist Amsterdam-inspired town builder with trams.

So youth in English-speaking Canada are becoming sadder faster than those in French-speaking Canada, and measures of teen suicidality are rising in the Anglosphere but less so in similar less-English-speaking countries. What’s the deal with Anglosphere despair? from America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety [The Atlantic; ungated] [CW: suicide, depression]

Pop has moved on. Someone needs to tell Katy Perry. Katy Perry's latest two singles have been utter flops, falling off the radar within days. We all loved Hot n Cold but it ain't 2008 no more and pop has drastically moved on. [more inside]

Interactive map of the locations of horror movies by afloweroutofstone. [more inside]

Famous Poems Rewritten as Limericks From https://geekxgirls.com/ via misscellania

South Australian app helps people find conversation-friendly restaurants. Have you ever struggled to hear a conversation over the din of a lively restaurant? For people with auditory processing issues or hearing loss, socialising in loud restaurants creates significant challenges — but an Adelaide audiologist hopes her app will help match people with acoustically-friendly venues.

Day 900 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine: President Zelenskyy confirms Ukrainian incursion on Russian territory. Over the last week, a series of audacious raids has caught the Russian military flatfooted, caputring over 1000 square kilometers, occupying 28 settlements, and forcing the evacuation of over 100,000 Russian citizens from Kursk and Belgorod oblasts. As the operation continues to expand in scope, Ukrainian leadership aims to use the surprise gains as a potent bargaining chip for changing the trajectory of the war, forcing a peace settlement -- and potentially securing the return of occupied lands in the east. [more inside]

Tsung-Dao Lee (November 24, 1926 to August 4, 2024) shared his Nobel with Chen Ning Yang. Many say the experimentalist Chien-Shiung Wu who validated Lee and Yang's hypothesis should have also shared the prize. That the laws of physics don't work in a mirror image universe (parity violation) came as a big surprise.

...Nobel-prizewinning physicist Isidor Rabi, said at a press conference: “A rather complete theoretical structure has been shattered at the base and we are not sure how the pieces will be put together.”

"Since when did Angelique Lancaster even look at this table, much less schlep over and sit at it?" A wish-fulfillment story fragment, inspired by the prompt "A loving, married couple wake up one day to find that they have returned to their high school days, when they were the most popular student and the class geek." Do mind the content notes at the start.