Favorites from Kattullus
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I feel that you should be aware some asshole is signing your name to stupid letters.
In 1974, a Cleveland Browns season ticket holder was frustrated with a new fad of throwing paper airplanes in the stadium, and wrote to the Browns to let them know. The Brown's response likely failed to alleviate his concerns.
☆彡 ☆彡 ☆彡 ☆彡 It was like fireworks. ☆彡 ☆彡 ☆彡
It is the late 1800s. You are an innovative fireworks manufacturer in Yokohama, Japan, with an increasingly international audience (including, on at least one occasion, Ulysses S. Grant). But how to demonstrate to your worldwide customers what, exactly, you have on offer? Introducing the beautifully minimalist Hirayama Fireworks' Illustrated Catalog of Night Bomb Shells.
No Tech for Apartheid organizers fired
In an internal memo Wednesday, Google announced the firing of 28 employees in connection to a protest of Project Nimbus. The previous day inside Google offices in New York and California, a couple dozen employees staged a sit-in to bring awareness to the $1.2 billion Israeli government contract. It began in 2021 and provides cloud computing services to Israel—specifically, we’ve recently learned, to the Israeli Ministry of Defense—and though it has faced internal criticism since its inception, efforts against it have naturally intensified since October 7th.
The memo from Google’s global head of security Chris Rackow was ominous. “If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies,” he wrote to the company’s thousands of employees, “think again.” From Marisa Kabas of The Handbasket.
The ultimate con
His real name appears to have been John McCarthy.
And he was the con man who sold the Brooklyn Bridge. By Dean Jobb. (Previously on selling landmarks)
"so many tech demos end up hiding an ugly truth deep down"
Amazon Go, "a new kind of corner store," that company's futuristic storefront where you installed an app on your phone, and could shop for things just by picking them up off of shelves and walking out the door with them, is being shut down. Some random internet person called "Matt Haughey" described his experience with the store, and how it wasn't nearly as magical as it seemed: as it turned out it was a kind of technological sleight-of-hand, instead of using RFIDs and weight-sensing shelves and other techno-devices, they just had a whole lot of people watching cameras. Another random person on Mastodon points out the whole-lot-of-people part was probably a bunch of subsistence contractors in other countries. A third random person notes, even doing that, the store concept couldn't be made to work. Meanwhile the important gigantic hovering electronic head of Jeff Bezos floats above us all, unmoving but watching, silently.
Lemming Soufflé düh Shenanigan
Greig Johnson (previously) offers a beginner's guide to playing the ancient, elegant instrument known as the shenanigan. More of his work can be found on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Here I am
The Etak Navigator
"Today, I’d like to tell you about the Etak Navigator, a truly revolutionary product and the world’s first practical vehicle navigation system."[via]
RIP Rico Wade, 1972 - 2024
Rico Wade of the Organized Noize production team has died.
Operating from Wade's mom's dirt-floor basement in the early 90s, Organized Noize convened a group of artists that came to call itself the Dungeon Family. That group gave the world the first couple Outkast albums, the first Goodie Mob album, and several great singles. It's not an exaggeration to say that Rico Wade made some of the greatest American music of the last 50 years. It's an incredibly sad loss.
Apparently, Meta deems climate change too controversial for discussion
How Meta Nuked A Climate Story, And What It Means For Democracy, David Vetter, Forbes, April 11 2024
We Lived Alone: The Connie Converse Documentary
A documentary (40m youtube video) from 2014 covers some of the life of the enigmatic singer/songwriter Connie Converse. Interviews with some of her closest relatives, and animator Gene Deitch, all of whom kept many of her letters and recordings.
previously: 2016, 2009
(cw: depression, probable suicide)
Selbstbestimmungsgesetz
Landmark Vote for Trans Rights Law (Human Rights Watch) – "Germany’s parliament on April 12, 2024, passed a landmark law that allows transgender and non-binary people to modify their legal documents to reflect their gender identity through an administrative procedure based on self-identification …"
Six months and counting
Gaza in a Million Pieces
- Arwa Damon, founder and president of the charity INARA, writes for New Lines Magazine of her observations now that she's able to enter Gaza || Le Monde: Despite promises, Israel still restricts aid to Gaza (ungated) || Washington Post: Crutches and chocolate croissants: Gaza aid items Israel has rejected (ungated) || New Yorker (Isaac Chotiner interview with Yuval Abraham): Inside Israel’s Bombing Campaign in Gaza || Haaretz: Israel Has Declared Record Amount of West Bank Land as State-owned in 2024 || Mondoweiss: ‘Come out, you animals’: how the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital happened || Sydney Morning Herald (12 April): Australian former reporter, now aid worker, shot at in Gaza
When quaint becomes cult
Jared Shurin on Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs, a "heart-warming/breaking portrayal of lost-and-found geeks captured the zeitgeist of a new [tech] subculture," from casual coding to its Silicon Valley extremes:
Looking back. . . we can see the first seeds of a spin-off culture, one that is not only aware of its incompatibility with the rest of society, but also revels in it. . . thirty years on, it now feels a lot less quaint, and a lot more frightening.
ZachsMind: "It's awesomely awesome!"
Culled from a cancelled FMV 3DO game from 1996, you may never have seen anything so incrediculous as the 7 1/2 minute trailer Duelin' Firemen. While the trailer has been bouncing around the internet for 16 years (previously from 2007 by hypocritical ross), a higher resolution version has turned up that's almost watchable. It contains Rudy Ray Moore, the Rev. Ivan Stang, Mark Mothersbaugh, Dr. Timothy Leary and Tony Hawk. The Youtube channel of a documentary about the game's making has some other obscure clips from it.
"If that offends them, so be it."
"Our Trump reporting upsets some readers, but there aren’t two sides to facts" A letter from The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) editor Chris Quinn
A computer that could expand with the addition of modular components
The Apple Jonathan
: A Very 1980’s Concept Computer That Never Shipped
Hugo Award Finalists Announced
Announcement video: ”Hello, my name is Nicholas Whyte and I have a baller accent.” (video with transcript).
Text announcement on the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon Bluesky account. Full list of finalists with details about nominating numbers and disqualified or self-withdrawn items is online at File 770.Previously, censorship report- Previously, scandal erupts - Previously, 2023 boycotts - Previously, full tag list.
Conviction for illegal voting
Crystal Mason: Texas woman sentenced to 5 years over voting error acquitted.
Mason, who has remained out of prison on an appeal bond, said in a telephone interview on Thursday evening that she received the news while going through a drive-through and became emotional. “I was thrown into this fight for voting rights and will keep swinging to ensure no other citizen has to face what I’ve faced and endured for the past seven years, a political ploy where minority voting rights are under attack,” she added.
They are risen
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence began in 1979 when a small group of gay men in San Francisco donned the habit of Catholic nuns, and used camp to subvert expectations & promote social and political change in San Francisco. Sacrilege or serious parody? Illicit joy or elicit compassionate apraxis? The Sisters have grown into an organization of queer joy with 65 houses in 10 countries. This Sunday Easter in the Park: Hunky Jesus and Foxy Mary Competition is set to attract 10,000+ attendants, but the works of a Sister is never done.
“Every day, there were fewer and fewer kings.”
The Achilles Trap doubles as a surprisingly sympathetic study of a man who, as his powers slipped away, spent the last decade of his life jerry-rigging monuments of his own magnificence. Coll draws much of his material from extensive interviews with retired American intelligence officers and former members of Saddam’s bureaucracy, as well as from a previously unavailable archive of audio tapes from Saddam’s own state offices. What emerges is a portrait of Saddam as an eccentric in the mold of G.K. Chesterton—if Chesterton were bloodthirsty, paranoid, and power-mad—a man driven ultimately by deep reverence for the sense that hides beneath nonsense. from Saddam’s Secret Weapon, a review of The Achilles Trap by Steve Coll [The American Conservative]
The Devil - a Life
"In the past nine years, [Nick Cave] has lost two sons – an experience he explores in a shocking, deeply personal new ceramics project. He discusses mercy, forgiveness, making and meaning."
A longish interview from this morning's Guardian.
The idea that it was mostly white guys was totally true
I don’t think it has anything to do with the audience for this stuff. I don’t think it has anything to do with the buzziness or the culture surrounding the site itself. I think it is just these money people coming in and making bad decisions. If they’re going to lay off people in Boeing and cut safety protocols or whatever, they’ll do it to anyone. from The Oral History of Pitchfork [Slate]
—You got the wrong guy, pal.
If Minute 9 is the first time we hear the names Deckard and Blade Runner, it’s also the first time we meet the plainclothes cop who will play a key role in LAPD surveillance of Deckard — and in the changed emphasis of four subsequent versions of Blade Runner released over the next twenty-five years. from Minute 9: Blade Runner [3 am magazine]
His invention was instrumental
Shigeichi Negishi, the inventor of the world's first commercially-available karaoke machine, has died in Japan. He was 100 years old.
I Spy 🗿
moai.games is a list of 954 examples (and counting) of moai seen in video games, compiled by MeFi's Own game designer gingerbeardman. Why? "Moai are cool. And video games are cool. Oh, and lists are cool too." Read the NintendoLife interview for background on the project, get educated on the history of the grand sculptures (and real-life efforts to preserve them), or if you crave mo' moai, check out MoaiCulture.com's "Popular Culture" page for a comprehensive illustrated guide to 500+ moai in television, film, animation, comic books, literature, poetry, music, board games, magazines, advertising, and more.
Posts for Donations?
Is anybody out there up for the old "you donate money to Metafilter, I'll make a post for you" thing? I have a topic I'd really like to see posted, but I don't have the time to do it myself. I'd donate $25 to our Bean Plate Overlords if someone would do this for me. (I feel like someone was doing this project in the past but I don't remember who.)
“To read a book well, one should read it as if one were writing it.”
After Mrs. Dalloway and before To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf wrote her first essay for The Yale Review. Nine more followed.
TYR republished them online today, with an introductory essay by Claire Messud.
TYR republished them online today, with an introductory essay by Claire Messud.
"We're at the end of a vast, multi-faceted con of internet users"
Are We Watching the Internet Die?
(Edward Zitron's 'Where's Your Ed At' newsletter)
Serena is an amazing, one-of-a-kind cat!
My Cat Shoots Rubber Bands From Her Paws [6m16s] My black cat Serena has not only learned how to shoot rubber bands, she has mastered the art. I feel like a circus hawker, but YOU WON'T SEE THIS ANYWHERE ELSE BUT HERE! ... Serena is a 4 year old Domestic Short Hair. She has no top incisors, so her tongue sticks out ALL THE TIME!!!! 😺
Why Can’t People Be Normal About Sydney Sweeney?
To be born beautiful is a gift, but to end up hot can be a curse. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it is also true that you can look in the mirror and be the beholder of yourself. Beauty is something intriguing; “beauty is not a need but an ecstasy,” the poet Kahlil Gibran once wrote. “A heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.” This is not the same thing as being hot.
That's a beautiful speech, but nobody's listening. Let's go.
"As of 2024, UbuWeb is no longer active. The archive is preserved for perpetuity, in is entirety."
Ubuweb, founded by poet Kenneth Goldsmith in 1996, was the best repository of avant-garde material in the Internet. Over the decades it accumulated an unparalleled collection of poetry, mp3's and video.
Ubuweb, founded by poet Kenneth Goldsmith in 1996, was the best repository of avant-garde material in the Internet. Over the decades it accumulated an unparalleled collection of poetry, mp3's and video.
¡¡CERVEZA CRISTAL!!
In the past week or so, the internet has suddenly become incredibly aware of a unique approach to sponsorship taken around twenty years ago, when a beer company in Chile sponsored TV broadcasts of the Star Wars trilogy with no commercial breaks. Instead, they inserted small, subtle edits for product placement along the way from time to time. Needless to say, people have been enjoying riffing on this particular theme.
Live those dreams, Scheme those schemes
Todd In the Shadows undertakes an epic troll of Brits with ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
What’s More Unsettling? The Prospect of 2024 or Another Ghost Story?
It’s early 2024, nights are shortening (at least in the northern hemisphere), and here’s another roundup of weird audio dramas to take your mind off other horrors. While these roundups are, of course, invaluable, you might want to check out the Audio Drama Directory as a searchable guide to audio dramas and actual plays (mostly SF, Fantasy, and/or Horror).
Asian Elephants mourn and bury their babies, Indian study finds
Asian Elephants mourn and bury their babies, Indian study finds. A study conducted between 2022 and 2023 finds elephants travel a great distance to bury their young with care.
Sometimes a sandworm is just a sandworm
What do King Arthur, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Aragorn and Paul Atreides have in common? Call it Magic Dick Theory. (Although on closer inspection, maybe not Paul so much.) The Ringer offers up a "psychoanalytic reading of canonical chosen-one narratives in fantasy and science fiction."
Can I have some Moor? The saucy metaphysics of moles, chili, and curry
"There are, however, a few surpring similiarites in our practices and customs. For example, the prominenance of chilies in both Indian and Mexican cooking. In the global gastronomic geography the two cuisines share a single place that can only be called eccentric: they are both imaginative and passionate infractions.... There is an undeniable similarity between curry and mole: the combination of sweet and the spicy, the reddish color full of sumptuous reflections, and its accompaniment to a meat or vegetable. ...Is [mole] an ingenious Mexican version of curry, or is curry a Hindu adaptation of a Mexican sauce? Our perplexity increases when we consider that there is not one but many kinds of curries and moles." -"In Light of India", Octavio Paz, Nobel Laureate in Literature & Mexican Ambassador to India
Long-deceased humans found in peat bogs
"Archaeologists in Northern Ireland have uncovered well-preserved remains of a teenage boy dating back up to 2,500 years - including bones, skin and possibly a kidney - in a rare find that may shed new light on the region's ancient history." Did you know that Wikipedia has a page entitled "List of bog bodies"? Now you do. The Finns have bog bodies, and peat bogs have a special role in Finland [PDF]. Finally, van Beek, Quik, Bergerbrant, Huisman, and Kama have conducted an exciting large-scale overview study [PDF] "of well-dated human remains from northern European mires, based on a database of 266 sites and more than 1000 bog mummies, bog skeletons and disarticulated/partial skeletal remains."
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Pig Butchering Scams
This week: West Virginia considers a law that would impose criminal penalties to people who expose children to "obscene literature," and similar moral panics grip lawmakers across the nation. The Alabama Supreme Court rules that frozen embryos are people "regardless of developmental stage," putting the legality of in vitro fertilization in jeopardy. Anti-abortion figures try to keep quiet that the Comstock Act could be used, in a second Trump term, to harm access to abortion drugs nationwide without going through Congress. And Now: More Explicit Readings From Concerned Citizens At Public Meetings. Main story: "Pig Butchering Scams," where malign entities send out-of-the-blue messages to people attempting to engage them in conversation, build a connection with them, and eventually con them. And Now: Local News Loses It Over Major League Baseball's New Pants.
I know you will probably put it up again
just to tick me off.
In the early 2000s, gaming magazine GameNOW spent two years sneaking the same screenshot of Final Fantasy VIII into every issue, just to needle a single irate reader.
Not every prediction came true
The top thinkers of 1974 were gathered together in the pages of “Saturday Review,” for a special issue celebrating that magazine’s 50th anniversary. In a series of essays, each one tried to imagine their world 50 more years into the future, in the far-away year of 2024 ... The future they’d hoped for — or feared for — is detailed and debated, offering readers of today a surprisingly clear picture of the future they’d expected in 1974. from 50 Years Later: Remembering How the Future Looked in 1974 [The New Stack]
The food is not what it seems
While Minnesota sushi can ostensibly be found in restaurants, and has appeared on television, its origins are both obscure and humble. The "Minnesota" part of the claim is, however, base calumny. The European mode is another variant. The dish may share some DNA, cultural or otherwise, with molded salmon mousse. Could it be traced back to the Roman tradition of "concealed food?" Probably knot, that would be stretching it. Order falls, chaos reigns.
The Lost Meteorite
A giant meteorite has been lost in the desert since 1916—here’s how we might find it
"Captain Gaston Ripert was in charge of the Chinguetti camel corps. One day he overheard a conversation among the chameliers (camel drivers) about an unusual iron hill in the desert. He convinced a local chief to guide him there one night, taking Ripert on a 10-hour camel ride along a "disorienting" route, making a few detours along the way....The 4-kilogram fragment Ripert collected was later analyzed by noted geologist Alfred Lacroix, who considered it a significant discovery. But when others failed to locate the larger Chinguetti meteorite, people started to doubt Ripert's story."
All of a sudden, these days, happy throngs, take this joy
Michael Idov's stellar article for GQ.com about being In Athens With Michael Shannon, the Night He (Sort of) Reunited R.E.M. And you better believe there's