~metafilter | Bookmarks (1009)

"The fun's in the fight" is an essay by Molly Ivins (previously), published in Mother Jones in 1993.

The days of the calendar differ. But it intrigues me that there is a wide swathe of the world which celebrates a holiday marked by sweets, blurred boundaries between the living and the dead, votive candles or bonfires, and costumes. How much can we really know about things like this — cultural patterns which might share a common origin in the distant past, but...

Tobias (Electrotrucker) quit his job to move to driving electric trucks. Here, he shares the experience of a working week spent driving loads around Germany and Austria in a Scania 40R . We see some of the attractions and some of the challenges. Dubbed in English from the original German.

The Fall band talk 'Grotesque'! : the John Robb interview The former members of The Fall have taken control of their back catalogue with a novel rerelease schedule that recreates classic albums with live versions of tracks. They talk to John Robb about this and how they wrote the songs in the first place, dealing with the legacy and working with Mark E Smith....

Meet Kirsty, Betty and Desmond — the giant rats fighting the illegal animal trade. Scientists say their research shows the rats have a similar sense of smell to dogs, but they're able to fit in tighter spaces.

Combing through excavation material from Mount Zion in Jerusalem, lab director Gretchen Cotter noticed something unusual on an Abbasid-era clay jug

President Biden issues 'formal apology' on behalf of Indian Boarding School Policy Biden called the 150-year boarding school era "one of the most horrific chapters in American history" and is the first U.S. President to issue an apology. "After 150 years the United States government eventually stopped the program, but the federal government has never, never formally apologized for what happened until today. I...

When you meet these people, most of the time, you're going to be disappointed. Either because they're mean, or they're just not like what you thought they were going to be like. The Hollywood publicity machine creates a certain image, and it's very rare to meet a celebrity who is genuinely an amazing, brilliant, kind, humane person to everyone all the time. from What...

Teri Garr, the quirky comedy actor who rose from background dancer in Elvis Presley movies to co-star of such favorites as "Young Frankenstein" and "Tootsie," has died. She was 79. Garr died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis "surrounded by family and friends," said publicist Heidi Schaeffer. I had interviewed her for several DVD extras. Funny, kind and charming.

Admire the musical chops of Band-Maid - from now on (thx Thorzdad), the kawaii metal vibes of Antimental by STMLT, this live version of Angel Eyes by Spiritbox, in case you missed it when it came out, Nita Strauss - The Wolf You Feed ft. Alissa White-Gluz, and let's end with the growls of Killing Spree - Snake Chamber.

Uncovering the mysteries of the deep with a little help from AI. The artificial intelligence used for passport facial scanning is now helping Australian conservationists track elusive sea turtles.

"Something arcane is afoot at Queen's College Cambridge! Possibly it's the prestigious conference, with visitors from around the country. Or it could be the 450-year-old monarch, waiting in the dim chapel for someone to listen to her. A novella-length meander into Dark Academia." writes E. Saxey of their fantasy novella "On the English Approach to the Study of History", published last year. "I like...

"There are many things we can do to reduce our risk of developing dementia. Several research studies have concluded that physical activity is one of the best ways to reduce risk significantly. For example, after analyzing 16 studies on exercise and dementia, the Alzheimer's Society found that regular exercise reduces the risk of developing dementia by 28 percent and, specifically, AD by 45 percent."

All media becomes lost without intervention. It only stays at our fingertips if it's archived, often by librarians and historians, but also amateurs. Preservation is connected to curiosity, a deeply human emotion found in everything from Marco Polo traversing the globe to Lostwavers trawling through old radio archives. Lost media movements are a beautiful testament to humanity's love for details, chasing the unknown, and...

Shirtless lessons from the king of getting everyone else all hot and bothered. By Jazmine Hughes for The Cut.

Baby crocodile walks 2km [1.2 miles] to remote Aboriginal community in search of water. Remote residents were taken aback to discover a baby crocodile in a woman's front yard.Wangkatjungka is about 2km from the nearest waterway, Christmas Creek, and it seems the crocodile trekked to the community. Four Ngurrara Rangers were called to the scene, including locals Zenith Thomas and Justin Andrews. Women's ranger...

In a new peer-reviewed study, Ne'Kiya Jackson and Calcea Johnson outlined 10 ways to solve the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry, including a proof they discovered in high school. As published in American Mathematical Monthly: "We present five trigonometric proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, and our method for finding proofs (Section 5) yields at least five more."

For some, though, the delight of daydreaming can turn into a curse: The fantasies become such a successful form of escape that they take over the mind, becoming compulsive and preventing the dreamer from paying attention to important facets of reality—work, school, other people. from The Strange Rise of Daydreaming [Nautilus; ungated]

Wholesome Reddit Stories With Green Flag Energy. More wholesome Reddit stories are here to brighten your day. Green flag folks are everywhere in today's vid. A man confesses his love for his longtime best friend, a dad embraces his son and his new boyfriend, and a restaurant manager changes a homeless man's life. Dustin Poynter on YouTube reads stories from the AITA subreddit and...

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a 200-metre-long blimp that could transform freight transport. An aeronautical group wants to create a global airship network to revolutionise freight transport. Outback Queensland has signed up to host the first Australian airship base.

Much has been made of the impending "great wealth transfer" as baby boomers and the Silent Generation pass on a combined $84.4 trillion in wealth to younger generations. Getting less attention is the "great stuff transfer," where everybody has to decipher what to do with the older generations' things. "What we're finding unilaterally across the board, pretty much without exception — you'll get a...

Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal Australian politician, first made claims of "genocide." ... Then, as she was being escorted out of the Great Hall of Parliament House, she kept calling out, "This is not your land, This is not your land. You are not my King, you are not our King." [people]elsewhere: Trump Encourages Genocide [truthout] 3/24 Trump administration rejects Congress vote on Armenia 'genocide'...

In 1877 the Brits were holding a celebration of "400 years of printing" to commemorate William Caxton's introduction of the first printing press to the Isles. At that event, the British public was invited to see examples of domestic and foreign printing. It wasn't pretty: British printing was visibly behind that of the Austrians. Tuer and Hailing decided to elevate British printing through a...