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A twenty minute youtube video with a bit of history and a breakdown and restoration of a Geochron Global Time Indicator, possibly the most comprehensive and over-engineered electromechanical clock and map assembly in history!
posted by Dysk at 3:17 AM - 1 comment

Meanwhile, there is an ethical conundrum to consider here - and with it a charge of hypocrisy. Many in the West, myself included, have enjoyed the fruits of the post-war travel boom, exploring far flung parts of the world without thinking of the unwanted consequences of mass tourism. So who are we now to preach to younger generations for whom gap years and backpacking are almost a rites of passage and indeed life enhancing experiences? And who are we to lecture people from developing economies who can only now afford to do the same? from Global tourism is booming. These people would rather it wasn’t [BBC] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 1:06 AM - 5 comments

A shark vomited up a human arm. It led to an unusual criminal case seen at the New South Wales Supreme Court. For two centuries, the Supreme Court of NSW has heard countless cases. Here are some of the most historically significant or strange ones. (Note for people outside Australia, in Australia there are three levels of courts; each state has it's own Supreme Court, then beyond that there is the High Court for all of Australia. This is because the Supreme Courts existed and were named before Federation happened in 1901.)
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:42 PM - 2 comments

Actor William Russell, best known these days for his role as Ian Chesterton, one of the original companions of Doctor Who from 1963-1965, has passed away aged 99. [more inside]
posted by jjderooy at 5:09 PM - 18 comments

“There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money either,” Robert Graves famously said. While there have certainly been numerous poets throughout history who have been “professional poets” (poets supported by patrons or sponsors in classical times or poets whose main income comes from their books, readings, etc., in more contemporary times), still larger is the number of poets who had surprising or unorthodox occupations outside of their literary careers...
posted by jim in austin at 12:12 PM - 29 comments

Thread of fashion designs inspired by art by James Lucas [X; Threadreader version]
posted by chavenet at 11:11 AM - 11 comments

Metaflora: “The family tree of the plant kingdom (which scientists call Viridiplantae) is broad and beautiful... but also complex! Metaflora is a game that tests your green thumb by seeing how well you can navigate its leafy branches. Your goal is to figure out today's Mystery Plant in as few guesses as possible. Wrong guesses will narrow down the answer by taxonomic rank (kingdom, phylum, class, order, etc.) The more your guess has in common with the answer, the more you will learn about the Mystery Plant.” Previously and related: Metazooa.
posted by Wordshore at 10:09 AM - 19 comments

"Books are an important part of our lives but many of us still struggle with what to do with old books. When we decide it’s time to part with them, we want to know they are going to a nice home where they can continue to enrich and improve other people’s lives." [more inside]
posted by cupcakeninja at 8:42 AM - 37 comments

If you want to pop into a no-shame-no-blame-if-you-can't-do-it, trounce the rich boycott with heart, enjoy this continuing saga. Background below the fold. The Loblaws boycott was set to take place in May, but continues, and rumour has it that it's had an impact. Alt.grocery is up and running with crowdsourced information. (Reminds me of Vaccine Hunters.) Executives are posting replies to social media complaints on LinkedIn. Some folks are creating posters in satiric support -??? - of Galen Weston grocery overlord. Support for the boycott crosses political lines. And oh yes, there's swag for sale (one example of many.) [more inside]
posted by warriorqueen at 8:09 AM - 36 comments

Spiders and frogs return to cotton farms as industry cleans up its act. Once devoid of insect life, Australian cotton paddocks are now teeming with spiders and other animals as the cotton industry moves further away from pesticide use.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 5:31 AM - 11 comments

Canada's horniest newsletter is changing the way we think about sex, desire, & queer culture. (NSFW for content; the pics chosen are spicy but not THAT spicy. It's still the CBC, after all.) [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 5:31 AM - 7 comments

German computer user discovered that programming is much easier on an American ANSI keyboard than his native German ISO-DE keyboard... in most programming languages except HTML (which is a Markup language, but I digress). His research lead him to several realizations, as he attempts to code his open source programming project that will appeal to a world-wide audience...
posted by kschang at 3:28 AM - 57 comments

Classically trained Indigenous chef says native Australian ingredients key to creating uniquely Australian cuisine. Indigenous chef Jack Brown is trained in traditional French cuisine, but he's on a mission to get more native Australian ingredients into everyday cooking.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 5:25 PM - 7 comments

Secret to flipping eggs. (slyt)
posted by clavdivs at 2:52 PM - 32 comments

This is a song from the second series of We Are Lady Parts. I like it a lot. Here's some context in a scene from the show (including a cameo which may surprise you) and some Previously.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:45 PM - 11 comments

Well, not exactly. For nearly five decades, the corner of Castro and 18th Streets has been an important site for San Francisco’s LGBTQ community: Hibernia Beach. While Hibernia Bank no longer occupies the property at the plaza, the current owners, Bank of America, have learned the significance of the space to the community.
posted by majick at 11:18 AM - 8 comments

The Man Who Couldn't Stop Going to College (SLNYT)
posted by sy at 10:28 AM - 49 comments

Nineteen percent of cotton on the U.S. market still sources back to the forced labor heartlands of East Turkestan (Xinjiang), according to a new analysis from Applied DNA of 822 cotton-containing products sampled from February 2023 to March 2024.... More info on enforcing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which prohibits the importation of goods produced wholly or in part from the so-called Xinjiang Autonomous Uyghur Region unless it can be proven that they are not the fruits of coerced labor.
posted by spamandkimchi at 8:59 AM - 20 comments

We've known about Genyornis newtoni for quite some time. The species, which died out around 45,000 years ago, was first described in 1913. An imposing bird standing up to 2.25 meters (7.4 feet) tall and weighing up to 230 kilograms (510 pounds), Genyornis newtoni would have been a formidable presence in the grassland habitats it preferred across a vast swathe of the Australian continent. But a new discovery suggests that we may have misinterpreted the bird.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 8:23 AM - 14 comments

After yesterday's rosin-fest, I thought it would be useful and uncontroversial to post definitive information about how* to bake a potato. [more inside]
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:51 AM - 48 comments

Spending the last couple of weekends late spring cleaning required confronting the dozens of books I've held onto over the years, jammed on dusty shelves and closet boxes, with the oldest dating all the way back to summer reading favorites from grade school. Some of these I keep not so much because I love the story itself (I'm a big fan of ebooks and have most of my reading history digitized), but because the book as an object holds special meaning. Do you have any physical books you keep around more for the memento libri than for the text inside? Tell us about them (or anything else) in our weekly Free Thread!
posted by Rhaomi at 5:29 AM - 137 comments

Transporting billions of tonnes of freight generates huge emissions. What if it was moved by rail not road? About 4 billion tonnes of goods are delivered across Australia each year, mostly by road, but one train can carry the same freight as 54 trucks. So why doesn't more freight go by rail?
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 5:28 AM - 29 comments

Quine Clock – code that displays itself as a digital clock.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:54 AM - 18 comments

South African election results. What happens next? For the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994, the once-dominant party will need to make a deal with other parties to form a coalition government. [more inside]
posted by Zumbador at 1:02 AM - 7 comments

Ben Myers posted to X last year about his grandmother's reading list, and followed it up a year later after her death. This My Modern Met article summarises the tweets.
posted by paduasoy at 12:41 AM - 12 comments

Since then, the myth of Nickelback's awfulness has only grown through gifs, worst-of polls, clickbait articles, comedian punchlines, and YouTube mashups. But why is Nickelback the internet's punching bag of choice, and what seeded this collective animosity? Is there a quantifiable explanation for all of this Nickelback hatred? from Why Do People Hate Nickelback So Much? A Statistical Analysis [Stat Significant]
posted by chavenet at 12:14 AM - 76 comments

Copacabana Dollmation [3m50s] is THAT song with a video made with stop motion dolls. That is what it is.
posted by hippybear at 6:50 PM - 24 comments

This 130,000 Year Old Decorative Bear Bone May Be the Oldest Known Neanderthal Art. Researchers say the carved artifact was not a utilitarian item and instead served a symbolic purpose.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 5:42 PM - 14 comments

In 1994 the Pet Shop Boys were invited to perform 'Go West' at the Brit Awards. They agreed and brought with them 3 separate choirs of miners. Some of those miners had marched with the gay and lesbian members of LGSM in the 1980s. It is one of the great, near-lost music moments [Vimeo, via John Bull, via MetaFilter's own JScalzi]
posted by chavenet at 1:05 PM - 40 comments

The Moral Economy of the Shire is an analysis by Nathan Goldwag of how hobbit society is structured in Middle Earth, explaining what models Tolkien drew on, and how its shown in the books. This is one of a series of posts about Tolkien’s works, which range from an alternate history of a victorious Sauron to a consideration of whether dwarves are analogous to Jews and the metafictional nature of Lord of the Rings.
posted by Kattullus at 11:25 AM - 47 comments

“CuriousMarc” talks to Oscar Vermeulen about his scale replica of the PDP-10, the MIT AI Lab, and the Incompatible Timesharing System. [more inside]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:55 AM - 16 comments

Rosin is highly flammable, and its fumes are noxious. So what better way to cook a potato? Boiling potatoes in molten rosin - a byproduct of pine sap distillation - seals in the flavor. "You get the most intense potato flavor you've ever experienced." If you're not up for boiling rosin yourself (Joy of Cooking, probably wisely, removed its recipe in the '98 edition), head to the Catface Country Turpentine Festival in Portal, Georgia, a "Rockwellian small-town festival replete with event-themed floats and beauty queens". (Catface refers to the scars left behind by the extraction of resin.) Alternatively, you can hop in your DeLorean and head to Cracker Barrel, which served rosin potatoes in the 80s. Or Doctor Potato (not a real doctor, but a team of potato experts) notes you could try coating your spud in a jacket of salt and egg. Previously...
posted by dmd at 8:17 AM - 56 comments

New Scientist writers pick their favourite science fiction books of all time - some classics, some obvious modern picks, and some genuine surprises.
posted by Artw at 8:16 AM - 24 comments

In his memoir, “The Way of the Hermit,” Ken Smith dispels myths about the solitary life off the grid. Review by Laurie Hertzel The first half of this book is a rip-roaring read, filled with death-defying adventures — fighting off grizzly bears; avoiding a charging bull moose; nearly freezing in an ice-encrusted tent. Smith falls into a raging river, loses his supply pack and nearly drowns. Still, he loved it all: “It was intoxicating, invigorating, and utterly liberating.”
posted by bq at 8:14 AM - 12 comments

As teenagers in 1974 Phil Buehler and Steve Siegel rowed out to explore the ruins of Ellis Island. They made a film (NY Times gift link), one of the first picks for the NY Times OpDocs “Encore” series. The filmmaker-photographers reflect on the symbolic power of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, as they revisit the ruins that remain and the restored main Registry hall that now draws millions of tourists a year. [more inside]
posted by ShooBoo at 7:21 AM - 1 comment

The sex worker who fought debanking and got his EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer At Point Of Sale) machine back. Sex workers can now fight debanking in some parts of Australia, but others are left hiding their jobs and battling financial discrimination.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:08 AM - 3 comments

Who will claim the king’s throne? RenFaireHBO, a 3-part HBO Original Documentary Series which chronicles a fantastic and farcical succession battle of Shakespearean proportions at the Texas Renaissance Festival, premieres June 2 TRAILER [SLYT] (Warning: language.)
posted by Glinn at 7:00 AM - 21 comments

The Hollywood Reporter's Full Comedy Actress Roundtable: Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig, Quinta Brunson, Michelle Buteau and More [Ego Nwodim, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Lacey Rose (host) 55m] is full of mutal support, deep sharing, and honest stories that you don't expect from this kind of round table. However, the women are usually like this, and they are always my favorites.
posted by hippybear at 6:05 AM - 3 comments

"Nevertheless, we have shown that a candle flame at roughly 2.6 km would have an apparent brightness comparable to a 6th magnitude star. Could the keenest human eyes on the planet see a candle flame at 10 miles? We have provided strong evidence that the answer is No, for it would be as faint as a star of apparent magnitude 10, and that would require a pair of 7 X 50 binoculars mounted on a tripod, even for experienced observers with good night vision." [more inside]
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:30 AM - 9 comments

Before you go "Aw, this is programmer b***s***!" and huck (maybe "huque" if you're Canadian) (or French) your laptop out the window, just hang on. TLDR: Python Notebooks for Fundamentals of Music Processing [more inside]
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 5:09 AM - 12 comments

Earlier this week, a giant dump of Google documents revealed how the search advertising seller linked up adverts bought to pages they're on; then Wired published an excerpt from a book explaing the link between the advertising auctions and the disinformation sites taking money to display those adverts: How Advertising Funds Disinformation (archive). [more inside]
posted by k3ninho at 3:49 AM - 10 comments

Lore Olympus, the biggest name in WEBTOON's catalog, has come to an end after 280 installments since beginning six years ago. It retold the story of Hades and Persephone, with subplots of every other Greek myth you can think of, and won the Eisner, Harvey, and Ringo awards multiple times. Also available in print at your local library or comic book store.
posted by one for the books at 2:55 AM - 5 comments

Can you reach net zero by 2050? Play the Climate game by the Financial Times
posted by chavenet at 2:02 AM - 17 comments

At the end of the nineties, technology and the Internet were a playground for young engineers and ‘hackers’. Some of them regularly gathered in the w00w00 IRC chatroom on the EFnet network. This tech-think-tank had many notable members, including WhatsApp founder Jan Koum and Shawn Fanning, who logged on with the nickname Napster. In 1998, 17-year-old Fanning shared an idea with the group. ‘Napster’ wanted to create a network of computers that could share files with each other. More specifically, a central music database that everyone in the world could access. This idea never left the mind of the young developer. Fanning stopped going to school and flanked by his friend Sean Parker, devoted the following months to making his vision a reality. That moment came on June 1, 1999, when the first public release of Napster was released online. Soon after, the software went viral.

Napster Sparked a File-Sharing Revolution 25 Years Ago [TorrentFreak] [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 9:59 PM - 38 comments

Major League Baseball has incorporated the statistics of former Negro Leagues players into its historical records on its website, meaning legendary leaders in some categories like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb have now been replaced in the record books by players who were not allowed to play on the same fields as them during segregation. Josh Gibson, one of the greatest sluggers in the history of the Negro Leagues, is now listed as MLB’s new all-time career leader in batting average at .372, moving ahead of Ty Cobb at .367. The MLB website shows Gibson also overtaking Babe Ruth in career slugging percentage. [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 11:59 AM - 28 comments

Many authors have written stories or novels inspired by RPG campaigns. There is debate about whether or not tabletop RPGs should be used as writing tools. Plenty of folks give the idea a thumbs-down, but save some room in your heart for the LitRPG. B&N has you covered with, of course, a list of novels that started life as RPGs. [more inside]
posted by cupcakeninja at 11:55 AM - 50 comments

This is the story of how a low-budget Australian film – The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – changed the course of history, loudly and proudly bringing a celebration of gay culture to the world that continues to resonate 20 years on. Narrated by Terence Stamp, Between a Frock and a Hard Place [57m] is also a social history of gay culture in Australia, drawing on footage from the famous movie as well as Sydney in the 80s. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 8:48 AM - 14 comments

Once extinct in central Australia, this little kangaroo-looking marsupial is now thriving in a remote desert safe haven. The number of brush-tailed bettongs and burrowing bettongs surveyed at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary in central Australia has nearly doubled since last year.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:42 AM - 8 comments

“Me and monotropism : a unified theory of autism,” suggests that attentional differences explain not only the diagnostic criteria for autism, but better yet, they explain the internal phenomenology: inertia, sensory and social overload and insensitivity, stimming, and particularly hyperfocus and intense interest.

Test yourself here.
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:52 AM - 125 comments

This gown, from one of Kahlo’s long hospital stays, is stained with both paint and [content note:] blood. It is a garment that portrays a very different image than the technicolor Tehuantepec dresses that were the artist’s signature style in public. [getty.edu] [more inside]
posted by HearHere at 5:46 AM - 3 comments