January 22

John seemed to be living in an eternal present

In a Shakespearean play about UCLA’s little historical family, John would be a central and memorable character. He was our truth-telling hermit, able to turn a mirror on historians’ follies. He was indigenous to the university, to the buildings, courtyards, and benches where history was made. Some said he also spent his time in the library working on an epic poem. There is more than a little John in every graduate student and professor, and perhaps anyone who has worked in that instantly forgotten genre, the dissertation. How many others were one bad trip away from falling into the narrow gap between fact and fiction? from The Last Intellectual [n+1; ungated]
posted by chavenet at 12:01 AM - 1 comment

January 21

"Ohhh and all the rest"

Stairway To Gilligan's Island.' 1977. Little Roger & The Goosebumps. (slyt) [more inside]
posted by clavdivs at 9:57 PM - 6 comments

In a lawless and hungry Britain a family fights to survive

The dystopian young adult novel Noah's Castle, written by John Rowe Townshend, was released in 1975. Written against the background of the 1973 oil crisis, the UK miner's strike and escalating tension in Northern Ireland - which spilled over into bombing attacks in mainland UK - the novel reflected the increasingly bleak national zeitgeist. [more inside]
posted by tim_in_oz at 7:59 PM - 2 comments

Extraordinary nesting season for endangered freshwater turtle

Extraordinary nesting season for endangered freshwater turtle. A record number of clutches of white-throated snapping turtles have been found along the Burnett River in Queensland's Bundaberg region.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:58 PM - 3 comments

The metaphor we didn't know we needed

A late-night bus ride from New York City to Washington, D.C., reportedly took a disturbing turn after one passenger claimed the trip suddenly went off course. The account, shared in a now-viral BlueSky thread, described growing confusion and fear after a driver switch at a rest stop. The passenger, who posted from the account @musicologyduck.bsky.social, wrote that they had been asleep when things started to feel wrong. “I just woke up from a nap and somehow while I was asleep, everyone on the bus has figured out we are not going to the right place.”
posted by chavenet at 11:07 AM - 50 comments

Genuinely horrible vibes

The erdstall, medieval mystery tunnels. (Substack link)
posted by PussKillian at 10:31 AM - 22 comments

Canadian TV needs to get weird again

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, English Canadian screens were filled with bizarre, fever dream-like shows. [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 10:07 AM - 78 comments

Bari Weiss Is The Symptom

I worry some of my colleagues in the industry are getting the Bari Weiss phenomenon exactly wrong. She isn't a saboteur brought in to destroy one of the last remaining citadels of high journalism. She is one of high journalism's purest products, a perfect symptom of its old, unresolved contradictions. Her disingenuousness about motive is the industry's in miniature.
posted by postcommunism at 6:39 AM - 34 comments

No word on what the raccoons think

When tourists go on vacation, the area around them becomes a liminal space. Their geographic location is no longer real, but a fantasy that they are living in. If tourists have the fantasy disrupted, they can get really mean. And that is why this raccoon biologist has to conduct her research wearing a bikini.
posted by clawsoon at 6:26 AM - 28 comments

She's not going out today because she's too upset

London, Ontario band MVLL CRIMES is arguing with strangers in the Internet. They also have some career advice. [more inside]
posted by Shepherd at 5:21 AM - 6 comments

Predator-free fence project restoring Kangaroo Island's native wildlife

Predator-free fence[1] project praised for restoring Kangaroo Island's native wildlife. Five years after feral cats were removed from inside the Western River Refuge on Kangaroo Island, populations of endangered species have boomed. [more inside]
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 4:47 AM - 7 comments

If our national security rests on US tech, we have no national security

Palantir is the most terrifying of the US companies but it’s also just one of a whole raft of compromising, self-sabotaging deals that the UK government has entered into. The UK ‘Sovereign Cloud’ has been contracted out to Oracle, owned by another key Trump ally, Larry Ellison, the man whose son is behind the disastrous buyout of CBS and the upcoming US TikTok takeover. And then there are deals with OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Amazon, BlackRock, Nvidia and Scale AI. And this was the “win”, the brilliant triumph that Keir Starmer pulled from the jaws of defeat in the trade tariff negotiations. from Peter Thiel's New Model Army by Carole Cadwalladr [How to Survive the Broligarchy; ungated]
posted by chavenet at 12:03 AM - 7 comments

January 20

Aniles fabulae

"A myth, once lodged in our cultural imagination, is difficult to dislodge. Only gradually in the mid-twentieth century did maternal impression theory begin to fall into disrepute in the U.S.. Maternity guides refuted the idea that pregnant women’s imaginations could mark their fetuses, while lamenting that it remained widespread. Yet misinformation about birthmarks continues to circulate today. “Birthmark meaning” and “birthmark spiritual meaning” are among the most popular Google search terms related to birthmarks. People still seek to assign some greater meaning to birthmarks."
from: 'Marked: Birthmarks and Historical Myths of Maternal Responsibility.'
Via: Nursing Clio
posted by clavdivs at 8:01 PM - 7 comments

Trump administration admits DOGE accessed personal Social Security data

A DOGE employee signed an agreement to share Social Security data with the aim of overturning election results in certain states, according to a new court filing. The filing said DOGE personnel used unapproved third-party services to circulate SSA information internally and that at least some access occurred while a court order restricted DOGE’s use of the data. Previously 1 2 3. Archive link. [more inside]
posted by subdee at 7:18 PM - 19 comments

use_colormap('cat')

Finding order in chaos. A lovely exploration of the fractal parameter space of the double pendulum, physicists' go-to simple chaotic system. Youtube, 26 minutes.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 3:30 PM - 7 comments

The Harry Hill Show - Stewart Lee

Harry Hill and Stewart Lee have a meandering chat. It's a kind of "visual podcast", if you will. Hill and Lee are well known comedians in the UK. Lee is well on his way to legendary status for his acerbic, self-aware stand-up. Hill favours a more whimsical approach. Expect ludicrous costumes, surreal satire and a lengthy digression about the history of castles.
posted by mokey at 1:54 PM - 16 comments

The curse word triggers more than just emotional release

Deep inside the brain, the pituitary gland and the periaqueductal gray—a column of gray matter in the midbrain—release beta-endorphins and enkephalins, the body's natural painkillers. These chemicals dull pain and create a faint sense of relief, turning language into a physical act—mobilizing breath, muscles and blood before returning the body to calm. This integrated response—from brain to muscle to skin—explains why a sharp expletive can feel simultaneously instinctive and satisfying. from The Health Benefits of Swearing [The Conversation]
posted by chavenet at 11:03 AM - 47 comments

Free Thread: What were your odd road trip stops?

Maybe while driving through Texas, you dropped in on the Tomball Pickle Man. Passing through Vermont, maybe you took a detour to check out the three giant middle fingers. Weird Al gave us a musical tribute to The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota. Our Midwest Emo-loving teen had us stop in Urbana, Illinois yesterday so that he could snap a photo of himself in front of The American Football House. One of the weird joys of road trips is stopping to check out something that is odd, funny, or just personally interesting to you. What are some favorite stops you've made? This is your weekly #freethread.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:05 AM - 53 comments

"The power of the less powerful begins with honesty."

Canadian PM Mark Carney speaks at Davos [more inside]
posted by mrjohnmuller at 9:00 AM - 104 comments

The cult of virtuality encourages superstition, subjectivity, & myth

Generative AI gives us a parody of Eliot’s creative process. Tradition is replaced by a vast statistical model constructed of digital representations of the works of the past. Individual talent is replaced by a prediction function that mindlessly extracts patterns of data from the model and serves them up in the form of text, image, or sound. “Poetry,” Eliot wrote, “is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.” He immediately added a crucial clarification: “Of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.” from How Big Tech killed literary culture
posted by chavenet at 12:01 AM - 42 comments

January 19

Trailblazing strikers jumped out of windows to oppose government control

Fed up with restrictions over what they earned and where they could go, pearl boat workers embarked on nine months of industrial action that would change the face of their communities forever. Ninety years on, their legacy is still felt across the Torres Strait.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:35 PM - 1 comment

Colourful images about culture and language

Starkey Comics: Colourful images about culture and language [more inside]
posted by infinitewindow at 9:05 PM - 5 comments

Is your spiritual life stalled?

Perhaps you could use some possum meditation
posted by BungaDunga at 7:49 PM - 20 comments

conspiracy

“I find it breathtaking that I have been compelled on the evidence to find the conduct of such high-level officers of our government—Cabinet secretaries—conspired to infringe the First Amendment rights of people with such rights here in the United States,” Young said, alluding to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio [tnr] [more inside]
posted by HearHere at 3:40 PM - 40 comments

Cybersyn, Chile, and "strategic interests"

"Project Cybersyn & The CIA Coup in Chile" When an empire targets a place like Greenland, it’s either taken openly or undermined quietly: pressure, leverage, fragmentation, then control. [more inside]
posted by beesbees at 12:13 PM - 12 comments

Ralph Towner

Ralph Towner has died in Rome age 85. He was an American jazz musician who was perhaps best known for playing twelve-string guitar, but also played and recorded classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion, trumpet, and French horn. As well as a player he was a composer, arranger, and bandleader, and guested on many albums, including Weather Report's "I Sing The Body Electric".
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 11:32 AM - 20 comments

Swap Worlds: Space

The digital artist Wren Durbano has created “Escheresque”, a trippy little browser game where you walk around a faux-3D isometric world composed of platforms, stairs and tunnels — all done in a style vaguely reminiscent of Escher. [Via The Linkfest]
posted by chavenet at 11:04 AM - 6 comments

Free thread - family whistle

Free thread: Do you have a family whistle? No, not a shrill noisemaker shared among household members, but a unique set of sounds or notes that help identify or locate your relatives and loved ones. [more inside]
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:49 AM - 79 comments

Cow Tools

Meet Veronika, the tool-using cow. “Perhaps the real absurdity lies not in imagining a tool-using cow, but in assuming such a thing could never exist.”
posted by fedward at 8:30 AM - 28 comments

Of Men and Men

"Mankind learning to harness nuclear power, is like a mouse finally figuring out how to build a mousetrap. One cannot but admire the mouse's ingenuity, but the obvious question remains, do you really understand what you've built?" From the BBC audio drama Fukushima, which I have just re-listened to, today. [more inside]
posted by BrStekker at 5:52 AM - 19 comments

Wolf’s dinner preserved for 14,400 years sheds light on woolly rhino

Wolf’s dinner preserved in Siberia for 14,400 years sheds light on woolly rhino.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 4:31 AM - 5 comments

Historian Analyzes the Wicked Movies as if it's Actual History

(Fashion) Historian Analyzes the Wicked Movies as if it's Actual History. The great and powerful Bernadette Banner has a spoiler-filled 1hr37min video explaining what we know of Ozian history. Previously 1, 2, 3.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 3:51 AM - 6 comments

“He would hate this”

This is, perhaps, the only approach one can take now. Who would presume to say anything new about Kafka? How much more is there to say? We rightly feel like Josephine, the operatic mouse in the last story Kafka ever wrote (after the tuberculosis spread to his larynx and took away his voice): How can she sing? She can barely squeak! The most it seems anyone can do is add and disclaim. from Kafka Inc. [Liberties]
posted by chavenet at 12:02 AM - 6 comments

January 18

Tree bark captures and eliminates harmful greenhouse gases

Tree bark captures and eliminates harmful greenhouse gases. Tiny, gas-eating microbes hidden in the bark of trees offer scientists a crucial clue in the fight against global warming.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 5:05 PM - 3 comments

1 down, 11 to go

Crofton workers rescue mill site’s feral cats before mill closure. The 12 kitties, some as old as 18 years, are dependent on the workers for food and would otherwise be in a bad way once workers leave in February.
posted by Mitheral at 5:04 PM - 6 comments

How ... much ... do ... you ... want ... for ... this ... shrine?

In the meantime I’m trying every possible method for relieving stress besides being healthy. The best method I’ve found is keeping my copy of Army Man on my nightstand and just opening it to a random page. It always makes me feel better, but without the horrible burden of trying to be positive about literally anything. from Army Man: America's Only Magazine by Kaleb Horton [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 11:55 AM - 12 comments

“Is the moon...?”

11 years (and a few days) ago, on television, host Shawn Killinger famously debated the status of the moon with Isaac Mizrahi. A retrospective analysis of this scientific/astronomical debate in The Cut in 2020.
posted by Wordshore at 10:59 AM - 46 comments

It’s all down to the fibers

Why do some clothes shrink in the wash? A textile scientist explains how to ‘unshrink’ them
posted by ShooBoo at 9:29 AM - 13 comments

We don't want that miss spilling onto Legoland.

"Dear America, We’d Like to Speak to the Manager" Danish comedian Huxi Bach explains why Trump's Greenland scheming is very dumb. (SLYT)
posted by doctornemo at 8:59 AM - 90 comments

assist the war effort

Poison Fountain: We agree with Geoffrey Hinton: machine intelligence is a threat to the human species. In response to this threat we want to inflict damage on machine intelligence systems. [more inside]
posted by mittens at 5:29 AM - 41 comments

You’re smarter than everyone else, but for some reason it isn’t working

Adams knew, deep in his bones, that he was cleverer than other people. God always punishes this impulse, especially in nerds. His usual strategy is straightforward enough: let them reach the advanced physics classes, where there will always be someone smarter than them, then beat them on the head with their own intellectual inferiority so many times that they cry uncle and admit they’re nothing special. For Adams, God took a more creative and – dare I say, crueler – route. He created him only-slightly-above-average at everything except for a world-historical, Mozart-tier, absolutely Leonardo-level skill at making silly comics about hating work. from The Dilbert Afterlife in which sketchy psychiatrist Scott Alexander pens a gimlet-eyed requiem for MetaFilter's own Scott Adams.
posted by chavenet at 12:47 AM - 93 comments

January 17

RED BLUE BLUE RED BLUE RED

Urjo is a series of logic puzzles. Each circle in a grid of either 4x4, 6x6 or 8x8 circles will 1. have every row and column contain an equal number of red and blue circles, 2. every numbered circle will have as many of that space's same-colored circles adjacent to it (including diagonals), and 3. there will be no two adjacent rows or columns with the same pattern of red and blue. Each puzzle has a unique solution, and there seems to always be a way to figure out each one without mistakes. Play the tutorial to get used to the rules, then plunge into solving puzzles. You can create an account to place on leaderboards for each puzzle.
posted by JHarris at 11:02 PM - 19 comments

Tasmania to expand fire detection tech after AI cameras spot 550 blazes

Tasmania to expand fire detection tech after AI cameras spot 550 blazes. As fire crews were responding to two fires on Tasmania's east coast in December, an AI camera nestled in a nearby vantage point spotted a third blaze. The early detection meant the fire was extinguished just two hours later.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:03 PM - 5 comments

Face²

Square Face Generator
posted by chavenet at 1:44 PM - 4 comments

there's no place like 127.0.0.1

Europeans quietly shift away from US tech services, share lists of local alternatives A new wave of online lists is mapping out European alternatives to everyday apps and platforms, encouraging users to switch from US tech platforms and instead support local innovation, reclaiming control of their digital lives. [more inside]
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:27 PM - 30 comments

Orcas in Wellington Harbour

Some Cetacean related news from the Antipodes as Orca surround a swimmer on a pontoon at Wellington’s Oriental Bay. As the video (linked in the article) draws to a close, a child asks what would happen if the figure on the pontoon did jump in, prompting a dry reply from another voice: “He’ll probably get eaten, Tom.” [more inside]
posted by phigmov at 10:11 AM - 19 comments

GWAR, what have you done?

GWAR on AV Undercover, covering Pink Pony Club
posted by Gorgik at 9:42 AM - 23 comments

he wants that cookie so effing bad*

Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) continues to welcome and support trans kids. [more inside]
posted by cooker girl at 9:22 AM - 8 comments

What is Greenland

Today the 17th of January has seen massive demonstrations in Denmark and Greenland Greenland is becoming a focus area for many different interests because of global warming. Politicians and a comedian have been trying to explain why it's very strange and stupid. The US can already put all the troops and all the investments they want into Greenland. They don't need to own the land.weirder backstory. [more inside]
posted by mumimor at 8:48 AM - 128 comments

hornse🎵

hornse🎵
posted by BungaDunga at 8:34 AM - 3 comments

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