Posts with Recent Comments
Be hot and steamy and sweaty in this week's Free Thread
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?
“I contrast. It's cool.”
Kylie Minogue announces “I am a typeface” in a 1997 song she made with producer Towa Tei. As this lyric suggests, the techno-pop track in question, “GBI (German Bold Italic)”, is delivered from the perspective of a font. Minogue’s breathy, almost robotic vocals bring the absurdist premise to life, reciting declarations of design compatibility over a minimalist reverb-drenched beat. from Whitney Mallett on When Kylie Minogue Was a Font [Dinamo]
The Irish Pub
A curious tendency among Western philosophers?
Why were so many major Western philosophers childless? As Mary Midgley once pointed out and as the Crooked Timber article further investigates, it seems that a surprising number of the Greatest Wester Philosophers were not only men, natch, but childless men. [more inside]
calibre e-book manger
calibre is one of the preeminent pieces of open-source software of our time, and it just reached Version 8, so I thought I would make a post about it. [more inside]
Stanley Donen's "Saturn 3"
"It seemed to have everything … an Oscar-winning visionary at the helm, a hot young writer, astounding production design, a sex symbol who defined a decade and Harvey Keitel – not to mention Kirk Douglas’ butt. So what went wrong?"
Like sardines in a jar
Accounts from immigrants held at the Krome North Processing Center in Miami allege life-threatening inhumane treatment. Of 6 deaths in ICE custody in FY25 so far, half were at Krome. [more inside]
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 - present, deportations, detainments
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 is a wartime authority that allows the president to detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy nation. It has been used in the most recent past to detain Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. It is being used in the present by Trump to deport Venezuelan nationals; most recently a federal judge has ordered a hold on the deportations and ordered planes to turn around while the case is being considered. [more inside]
23andDelete
Genetic testing and analysis company 23andMe has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with the intent of putting its corporate assets for sale - including its genetic library. [more inside]
Rothko Chapel
Liqueurs: where flavor and finesse meet in every sip
These 7 Liqueurs Are Distinctly Canadian and Just a Little Strange Liqueurs are as distinctive as the places they come from and Canadian liqueurs are just as unusual. [more inside]
Of Dandelions and Palestine
Why Chinese netizens call Palestinian fighters "dandelions". "Palestine today is China's yesterday". Why young Chinese are rediscovering Mao's support for Palestine. [more inside]
Sloan - the Canadian power pop band non-Canadians need to know
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]
The right wing, the left wing, and then there’s the Alice Evans take
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]
“Conversion therapy with a side of ranch”
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.
It's like going to the zoo but they're all dead.
Improbably Poppy | Episode 6: Nature
The language and depictions of religious characters could be NSFW.
The March of Links
LinkMe, March '25: Come across an interesting link recently that you'd like to share, but don't want to work it up into a full post? Share it here for our perusal, nbd. And if you'd like to post something but need some inspiration, check out the links here to see what other members have found interesting and would like to read more about! Just tag the resulting post "LinkMe" and include a nod back to the original suggestion. No self-linking and usual site rules apply, but otherwise feel free to post whatever you like! Look inside for a round-up from last month. [more inside]
On Bleatedness
Welcome to your belated bleated Free Thread! Since the thread had not been posted yet, I figured I would throw the conversation starter out about how one feels about tardiness and/or belatedness. Are those the same to you? Are you the type of person who shows up 15 minutes early to everything and stress out if you are only one minute early? Or, are you the type of person who takes a time to meet as a guideline and don't mind showing up 10 minutes late?
Then, I typo-ed the title and that sounds like a good question, too. Do you like bleats? Do you have a preference of sheep bleats or goat bleats? Do you have a preference of one of those animals over the other?
Or, talk about whatever you so prefer (excepting Politics)! It's your weekly Free Thread!
Billions people not counted
There could be billions more people on Earth than previously thought. The UN estimates there are about 8.2 billion people on Earth. However global population datasets miss a significant portion. [more inside]
Free Lewelyn Dixon
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]