Posts with Recent Comments
"A fantastic success story": How brush turkeys are taking over
"A fantastic success story": How brush turkeys are taking over Australian cities. Researchers have charted the historical crash, comeback and conquest of cities by the Australian brush turkey.
Biden may be edging closer to dropping out of presidential race
"Complaints having been made as to football being played by women…"
Dick, Kerr Ladies is a website by Gail Newsham about the legendary women's soccer team of munitions factory workers who started playing in 1917 and who routinely played against other women's teams for tens of thousands of paying spectators, until a combination of misogyny, fear of competition, and assholery, led the English Football Association to ban women's football from professional grounds. John Simkin has written short biographies of Alice Kell, Lily Parr and many other pioneering female footballers. On a recent episode of their football history podcast It Was What It Was, Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper tell the story of Dick, Kerr Ladies and place them in historical context.
Singapore Approves 16 Insect Species for Human Consumption
MetaFilter: a time capsule from another internet
Wired's Steven Levy writes about MF in his newsletter (archived): This month, the venerated site celebrates its 25th anniversary. It’s amazing it has lasted that long; it made it this far in great part thanks to West, who helped stabilize it after a near-death spiral. You could say it’s the site that time forgot—certainly I’d forgotten about it until I decided to mark its big birthday. Metafilter is a kind of digital Brigadoon; visiting it is like a form of time travel. To people who have been around a while, Metafilter seems to preserve in amber the spirit of what online used to be like. The feed is strictly chronological. It’s still text-only. Some members may be influential on Metafilter, but they don’t call themselves influencers, and they don’t sell personally branded cosmetics or garments. As founder Matt Haughey, who stepped down in 2017, says, "It's a weird throwback thing—like a cockroach that survived.”
Five year prison sentence for attending a Zoom call.
Reported by The Guardian. Five supporters of the Just Stop Oil climate campaign who conspired to cause gridlock on London’s orbital motorway have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms. Roger Hallam, Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin were found guilty last week of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for coordinating direct action protests on the M25 over four days in November 2022. Hallam received a five year sentence on Thursday, while the other four were each sentenced to four years. All five had spoken on a Zoom call trying to recruit potential volunteers for the actions, which involved activists climbing motorway gantries at strategic points on the motorway, which encircles London and is a key road transport link.
Shots fired at Trump rally in Pennsylvania
NYT Live: Former President Donald J. Trump was escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents and into his motorcade just minutes into his rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday, after a series of pops that sounded like gunshots rang out. The exact source of the noises was unclear, but Mr. Trump’s ear appeared to be bleeding heavily as he was rushed off the stage. Mr. Trump ducked quickly after the noises began, with the sound coming from the bleachers to the left of where he was standing. As members of the crowd began screaming, Mr. Trump was tackled by Secret Service. Officials shouted for the crowd to duck and cover, whisking members of the news media off the press riser where they had been watching Mr. Trump’s speech. After a brief pause, Mr. Trump rose, surrounded by a group of uniformed Secret Service members. He pumped his fist to the crowd, and then was rushed off the stage and ushered into his motorcade, which quickly left the venue, the Butler Farm Show.
1929-2024
Bananas Don’t Taste Like They Used To. Here’s Why.
The breads, puddings, and tarts of your grandparents’ generation were made with a completely different banana. Brandon Summers-Miller at epicurious. (archive.org link)
If that pattern isn’t size inclusive, you can fix that
Frustrated because the patterns you want to knit aren’t in your size? Tried to “scale up” only to find that some measurements were waaaaay off? DH’s Guide to Knitting for Big Bois is an extensive video that will walk you through how to knit that amazing garment and make it fit YOUR body.
The creature's popularity was wonderfully wide.
I had a hippopotamus. "I had a hippopotamus; I kept him in a shed
And fed him upon vitamins and vegetable bread.
I made him my companion on many cheery walks,
And had his portrait done by a celebrity in chalks.
His charming eccentricities were known on every side.
The creature's popularity was wonderfully wide.
He frolicked with the Rector in a dozen friendly tussles,
Who could not but remark on his hippopotamuscles.
If he should be affected by depression or the dumps
By hippopotameasles or hippopotamumps
I never knew a particle of peace 'till it was plain
He was hippopotamasticating properly again...." [more inside]
Featuring two Sean Connerys
Oreo Blue
Consumers often find broken Oreo cookies to be a disappointment, viewing them as imperfect and less enjoyable. However, the philosophy of Kintsugi teaches that there is beauty in imperfections and that items can become more valuable when repaired thoughtfully. from Oreo — Kintsugi By Leo Burnett Tailor Made, São Paulo [CW: advertising, ad agency preening] [more inside]
"Excuse me madam, were are you going with this..."
"Wherever I goddamn like." (slyt, 1:11) Shohreh Aghdashloo as Chrisjen Avasarala in a key diplomatic scene from the series The Expanse. Aghdashloo in a interview:
"Well, my major is political science and international relations. I studied political science in the UK, forty-two years ago I started, and got my BA in 1984. As of then, like any other political student, I used to call myself a student, the fact that I was coming from a revolution in Iran, made me believe that leaving Iran, there was no place for a young outspoken actress like myself".
'The Ethics of Avasarala'
Learning by doing, and getting paid for it
This week, the Biden-Harris administration announced the largest federal investment in Registered Apprenticeships in the history of the United States, with new policies "to ensure all workers – including women, people of color, veterans, and those that have been historically left behind – have equitable access to good-paying jobs". [more inside]
Unions, Progressive Dems Have Biden's Back
It’s far from “Joever” for them The United Steelworkers, Communications Workers of America, Laborers’ International Union of North America and Unite Here, among other unions, confirmed to The Washington Post that they plan to continue to support Biden, despite his disastrous debate performance last month.
“Put us in the group of doubling down unequivocally,” said Brent Booker, president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, which represents some 400,000 U.S. workers in construction and other sectors. “He’s done more for our members than any president in my lifetime.” [more inside]
"Phoenix is a vision of America's future"
George Packer on "the most American city" as a harbinger of what's coming for us collectively. [more inside]
Neil Gaiman Accused of Sexual Abuse
The Demon Slayers
To fans and foes alike, he comes across as an outrageous yahoo, and he knows it, a Chick tract come to life for internet virality. (slLongreads, Harper's)