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Started yesterday. Previously, and also previously.
posted by clawsoon on Mar 24 at 8:48 PM - 36 comments

The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing. This is going to require some explaining.

The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans: U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling. [Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic]
posted by Rhaomi on Mar 24 at 10:39 AM - 139 comments

Why Dads Take Their Gay Sons to Hooters (NYTimes gift link, archive). Consider the delicious irony that a chain restaurant famed for its cleavage and chicken wings somehow became a secret sanctuary for young gay men.
posted by ShooBoo on Mar 24 at 6:04 PM - 7 comments

The queer people who are buying guns to prepare for Trump’s America
Since Donald Trump’s reelection in November, nontraditional gun groups across the city and country have seen a flood of interest. The national Liberal Gun Club said it has received thousands of training requests since the election, more than in all of 2023. A spokesperson for the group estimated that roughly a quarter were from LGBTQ people.


Bang Bang Bang - Tracey Chapman [more inside]
posted by constraint on Mar 24 at 7:52 PM - 21 comments

Most mainstream sports, while awe-inspiring at the professional level, also tend to serve as fun and accessible pastimes for amateurs, even young children. Think soccer, tennis, basketball. Snooker declines to lend itself so readily to the amusement of dilettantes. The cultural status of the game stems therefore not from mass participation but from mass viewership. Bad snooker would be painful to watch; mediocre snooker is notoriously boring; but great snooker is sublime. from Angles of Approach by Sally Rooney (NYRB; ungated) [more inside]
posted by chavenet on Mar 25 at 1:43 AM - 9 comments

Improbably Poppy | Episode 6: Nature The language and depictions of religious characters could be NSFW.
posted by signal on Mar 24 at 3:01 PM - 3 comments

"For many on California’s North Coast, Lear Asset Management’s heavy-handed tactics in Idaho were no shock. For decades, CEO Paul Trouette has straddled the line between private security and hired gun, hired by logging companies to police forest protesters." The mercenaries who took on Northern California's hippies resurface by Matt LaFever in SFGate.
posted by goatdog on Mar 24 at 7:36 PM - 3 comments

Now those difficulties are real, and governments should take those economic concerns seriously. And I’m all here supporting more affordable housing, greater access to safer, accessible childcare. However, I don’t think that explanation is a full story, because it won’t explain why it’s happening everywhere, all at once, even at very, very different levels of income. from One big reason for fewer babies: phones?, an interview with Alice Evans [Vox; ungated]
posted by chavenet on Mar 24 at 1:48 PM - 40 comments

The Goblin-based and previously ASCII-based base builder is back. [more inside]
posted by Zarkonnen on Mar 24 at 12:59 PM - 5 comments

As the song about sauna, the Swedish entry for Eurovision, continues to delight fellow musicians and climb various music charts, the Free Thread for this week asks: what situation, event, or incident were you hot, sweaty, comfortably or uncomfortably warm in, maybe needing to cool down? Either deliberately or accidentally; perhaps a trip to Death Valley or Burning Man? Eating a chilli-laden meal? Falling asleep while sunbathing? Something else?
posted by Wordshore on Mar 24 at 7:57 AM - 63 comments

If one hit is a miracle, then two hits is a near impossibility. Two-hit artists sit in a weird space ... pop stars a remembered because they are very famous. One-hit wonders are remembered for the opposite. Their un-memorableness makes them great answers to bar trivia questions. Two-hit wonders are stuck in the middle. Some might be able to parlay those two hits into careers, but others are lost in a musical no man’s land, too many hits for trivia, not enough to be legends. Still, there’s got to be a greatest two-hit wonder. from The Greatest Two-Hit Wonders [Can't Get Much Higher]
posted by chavenet on Mar 23 at 3:22 PM - 87 comments

Meditation And Modern Art Meet In Rothko Chapel [more inside]
posted by Lemkin on Mar 24 at 5:11 PM - 14 comments

Biologists discover new species of skink on north Queensland island The discovery of the Scawfell Island sunskink marks the second unique species to be unearthed on Scawfell Island near Mackay.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries on Mar 24 at 8:29 PM - 3 comments

If you’re Canadian and you listen to rock music on the radio in Canada then you’ve heard Sloan. If you’re not Canadian then you need to know all about the harmonies, handclaps and guitars so please step inside. [more inside]
posted by ashbury on Mar 24 at 9:00 AM - 40 comments

Pilot Akseli Meskanen's cockpit is warning him that his Airbus A330 passenger plane is about to crash into the ground... But he's 33,000ft in the air. So what's happening? Why could his aircraft be telling him things that aren't true? from "Pull up! Pull up!" [Sky News]
posted by chavenet on Mar 24 at 2:33 AM - 25 comments

Lewelyn Dixon has been a green card resident of the US for 50 years. She immigrated from the Philippines at age 15 and currently works at the University of Washington in Seattle as a lab technician. On Feb 28, while returning from visiting family in the Philippines, she was detained at Sea-Tac airport by ICE, and has now been held in the Tacoma ICE detention center for over three weeks. [more inside]
posted by lizard music on Mar 24 at 9:11 AM - 33 comments

Full Remarks: AOC in Tempe, Arizona - "I am here to remind you of a simple fact. In spite of what Trump wants you to believe, we are not powerless in this moment."
posted by kliuless on Mar 24 at 1:26 AM - 49 comments

On March 8, 2025, Palantir co-founder and Trump ally Joe Lonsdale described the fear generated by the antisemitic conspiracy theorists recently hosted on some of America's top podcasts.

For the first time in my lifetime, a lot of successful Jewish friends called me worried this week — names we all know — asking what is going to happen as these libels re-enter the mainstream, and are shared by millions.

[more inside]
posted by Violet Blue on Mar 22 at 4:08 PM - 83 comments

Storm the wedge-tailed eagle returns to skies after feather transplant. Aptly named, Storm the wedge-tailed eagle has been released back into the wild more than a year after being injured in wild weather in Victoria.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries on Mar 21 at 8:46 PM - 4 comments

Andy Kaufman's: 'Mighty Mouse'. "This performance raises a host of questions concerning performance and identity. What exactly are we seeing? Is it Andy Kaufman simply being (or presenting) himself executing an action?"
'Missed Connections: Performance, Art, and Popular Culture' [more inside]
posted by clavdivs on Mar 16 at 8:09 PM - 13 comments