Favorites from May Kasahara
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You're not supposed to actually read it
A GOP Texas school board member campaigned against schools indoctrinating kids. Then she read the curriculum. The pervasive indoctrination she had railed against simply did not exist. Children were not being sexualized, and she could find no examples of critical race theory, an advanced academic concept that examines systemic racism. - Her fellow Republicans were not relieved to hear this news.
User Inyer Face
You kind of just have to click through to experience the madness.
It's literally the worst. All the worst "features" combined into the worst interface of all time - so far.
A visual comparison of USDA gardening zones from 1976 to 2020
The USDA has updated their plant hardiness zone maps.
The 2012 USDA hardiness zones were calculated using the average lowest winter temperature for the observation period of 1976-2005. The new zones are calculated using the years 1991-2020. These two observation windows overlap. Colors show the difference between the two 30-year averages for each place on the map. Choose a city or region to see what's changed over 44 years.
public domain [book cover] atrocities
[B]ooks in the public domain—books anyone with a digital file, a printer, and a dream can produce and sell—can be a sweet side hustle for people looking to make a quick buck, and they are free to make their own choices when it comes to the cover art they select, but this one cracked me up because it is not even close to representing the contents or the tone of the book. I decided to do a deep dive into the world of public domain publishing, to see what else was out there… (Karen T. Brissette) Bonus: 50 Very Bad Book Covers for Literary Classics (LitHub)
Special Event: Eurovision 2024 - The Grand Final
Good evening, Europe! Good morning, Australia! It’s the big day! The Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 is today, May 11th, at 21:00 CEST/3:00 PM EDT. Come on in to discuss the highs, the lows, and the grand spectacle that can only be Eurovision.
The Sun Is Down, The Battery's Up
NYT: Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity
California draws more electricity from the sun than any other state. It also has a timing problem: Solar power is plentiful during the day but disappears by evening, just as people get home from work and electricity demand spikes. To fill the gap, power companies typically burn more fossil fuels like natural gas.
That’s now changing. Since 2020, California has installed more giant batteries than anywhere in the world apart from China. They can soak up excess solar power during the day and store it for use when it gets dark.
Special Event: Special Event: Live Stream: Semifinal 1 (2024 Eurovision Song Contest)
Good evening, Europe! Good morning, Australia! Semifinal 1 begins Tuesday May 7th (today!), at 2100 CEST / 3:00pm EDT. Who will qualify for the Grand Final on Saturday? Which countries will be good, bad, or so bad they're good? Come on in to chat about the first round of performances!
Mirror Mirror On The Ball
The process of making a mirror ball. The last remaining mirror ball manufacturing factory in Japan. [14m30s] Depicts making a mirror ball. Actually pretty interesting.
Renters get to join in on the solar boom
On a patch of earth big as a Bunnings car park, renters get to join in on the solar boom. A five-hour drive from Sydney, a community garden of sorts has sprouted. But instead of sharing tomatoes or lettuce, "gardeners" harvest solar energy. And it's already a hit with people otherwise excluded from the rooftop solar boom.
Best printer 2024 for printing printers who love to print in 2024
It’s weird because the correct answer to the query “what is the best printer” has not changed, but an entire ecosystem of content farms seems motivated to constantly update articles about printers in response to the incentive structure created by that robot’s obvious preferences. Pointing out that incentive structure and the culture that’s developed around it seems to make a lot of people mad, which is also interesting! Anyway, here’s the best printer for 2024: a Brother laser printer. You can just pick any one you like; I have one with a sheet feeder and one without a sheet feeder. Both of them have reliably printed return labels and random forms and pictures for my kid to color for years now, and I have never purchased replacement toner for either one. Neither has fallen off the WiFi or insisted I sign up for an ink-related hostage situation or required me to consider the ongoing schemes of HP executives who seem determined to make people hate a legendary brand with straightforward cash grabs and weird DRM ideas.Best printer 2024, best printer for home use, office use, printing labels, printer for school, homework printer you are a printer we are all printers / After a full year of not thinking about printers, the best printer is still whatever random Brother laser printer that’s on sale. [Previously]
Art, games, music, zines, and a list of fictional badgers
The blogging platform Cohost (previously) has launched a new section: Artist Alley, where members pay to advertise their podcasts, zines, art, games, and other creations (many of which are free to enjoy). Or sometimes members advertise just to play around - the "#doing a bit" tag is replete with Rickrolling, "Hey check out this picture of a pileated woodpecker I took", a silly survey, etc. Artist Alley is "a take on user-to-user ads we feel good about — a dedicated space which users can access to see promotions from other users, like an artist alley at a convention" and "a revenue product" for Cohost, which had a poor financial forecast in March which has since improved.
Mailing books from London to US?
Is there any kind of "media mail" equivalent in the UK? This is for a student who wants to bring his textbooks back to the US after a semester abroad. Shipping speed isn't an issue; obviously the weight of (ahem) too many books is.
men's shaver for women??
I'm a woman who's fed up with using disposable razors designed for women. I often don't bother with shaving for a while and then when I do it's an absolute nightmare - it takes forever and I get bad razor burn. So I'm looking for alternatives!
Strippers' bill of rights bill signed into law in Washington state
Strippers' bill of rights bill signed into law in Washington state. The new law requires training for employees in establishments to prevent sexual harassment, identify and report human trafficking, de-escalate conflict and provide first aid. It also mandates security workers on site, keypad codes on dressing rooms and panic buttons in places where entertainers may be alone with customers.
The World's Largest Wildlife Crossing Will Help Animals Walk Safely Over
The World's Largest Wildlife Crossing Will Help Animals Walk Safely Over Eight Lanes of California Traffic. The 210-foot-long bridge across a busy freeway in Los Angeles County is expected to be finished in 2025.
Passersby were amazed at the unusually large amounts of synergy
G/O Media, the much-reviled owner of such internet landmarks as Kotaku, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, and The Root, has been selling off their assets recently, including ClickHole (sold to Cards Against Humanity), Lifehacker (Ziff Davis), Deadspin (gutted), Jezebel and the AV Club (Paste). Latest on the auction block is The Onion... who ended up with a surprising buyer: Global Tetrahedron, a name that might ring a few bells for longtime readers. But what does the advent of this ominous conglomerate mean for America's Finest News Source?™
Policymakers in other cities can learn from Minneapolis
Minneapolis Land Use Reforms Offer a Blueprint for Housing Affordability:
Rents stayed flat as more apartments were built, even as the rest of Minnesota saw increases.
Revolution in Tennessee
The NLRB announced tonight that UAW won a historic union election at Volkswagen in Chattanooga Tennessee. The union won by a margin of more than 70% as votes [continued] to be counted. With labor shortages throughout the manufacturing sector, many of the workers hired by Volkswagen were much younger and more diverse. Some had even moved from more pro-union parts of the country to work there.
“It’s a totally different ball game,” [Renee Berry] said. “The atmosphere is different. You see more pro-union than anti-union [workers]. A whole lot of people who were anti-union in the past have switched.”
See also Arkell v. Pressdram
The maker of a "Fuck the LAPD" t-shirt received a takedown notice from the Los Angeles Police Foundation on the grounds that the shirt infringed its trademark on "LAPD". Their lawyer's response was nothing if not concise.
The world's oldest-known wombat is about to turn 35
Lovingly known as Mr Wine, the world's oldest-known wombat about to turn 35. Found as an orphan in Tasmania in 1989, Wain the wombat — also known as Mr Wine — is shuffling toward his mid-30s at a zoo in Japan, exceeding the average age of his wild counterparts by an estimated 20 years.
Is a sleep study worthwhile?
Has your life been substantively improved by the results of a sleep study that diagnosed something other than sleep apnea? If so, how?
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 …"
Wide Awakes in America
And that Northern strength, to many, looked like the Wide Awakes. The Republicans, after all, had performed best in states where the movement was largest, among exactly the kind of young, laboring moderates the Wide Awakes mobilized. In the final assessment of the New York Tribune, the most popular Republican newspaper, the election was decided by the Democratic Party’s internal divisions and by the massive Wide Awake movement. That organization “embodied” the Republican cause, the Tribune argued, becoming a concise symbol for millions who hated the Slave Power. from The Club of Cape-Wearing Activists Who Helped Elect Lincoln—and Spark the Civil War [Smithsonian]
Tell me more about news music. What is it doing to me?
A lot of news and current affairs channels use theme music that I would describe as orchestral, rising, presidential, and military. It often has heavy use of brass, strings, drums, satellite beeps, and whooshes. Intuitively, I feel that this music inserts a lot of bias into the stories covered. It feels a bit aggressive and it also implies credibility, gravitas and urgency. To me, it feels like it could create a sense of danger, fear, and reliance on the news, or even a need for protection from "the assault" of the news. Has anyone studied or quantified this? Can any musicians break it down?
Low-key mom's birthday events in DC
We'll be traveling from CA to Washington, DC, in a few days to meet my mother and stepfather, who'll be flying in from Massachusetts. The day after we arrive is my mother's birthday, and we'd like to celebrate it in a low-key, not-too-expensive way. But I'm stumped.
Marty wanted to get every movie there ever was, we recorded everything
The collection is also a physical manifestation of his famously omnivorous appetite for visual media. Scorsese has frequently spoken about growing up asthmatic in a New York City household that lacked books but was one of the first on the block to get a television set in 1948, when he was six years old. For young Marty, who wasn’t able to play in the streets as frequently or vigorously as other kids, the 16-inch screen of the black-and-white RCA Victor in the living room became his window to the world – and, critically, his first exposure to great cinema. from
‘He was always voraciously watching’: Scorsese’s secret life as an obsessive VHS archivist [Grauniad; ungated]
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone
When a hurricane struck Florida in 2018, Christina’s neighborhood lost electricity, cell service and internet. For four weeks her family was cut off from the world, their days dictated by the rising and setting sun. But Christina did have a vast collection of movies on DVD and Blu-ray, and a portable player that could be charged from an emergency generator. Word got around. The family’s library of physical films and books became a kind of currency. Neighbors offered bottled water or jars of peanut butter for access. The 1989 Tom Hanks comedy The ’Burbs was an inexplicably valuable commodity, as were movies that could captivate restless and anxious children. “I don’t think 99% of people in America would ever stop to think, ‘What would I do if I woke up tomorrow and all access to digital media disappeared?’ But we know,” Christina told me. “We’ve lived it. We’ll never give up our collection. Ever. And maybe, one day, you’ll be the one to come and barter a loaf of bread for our DVD of Casino.”The film fans who refuse to surrender to streaming: As more movies vanish from streaming services, cinephiles are rallying to physical media. Can they save a seemingly dying format?
"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
An Infamous Anime Genre Comes To English
As part of their regular updates to the English lexicon, the Oxford English Dictionary has added a number of Japanese loan words, most notably the term for a notorious genre of anime and manga - isekai, or "portal fantasy".
Capsule shopping in New York
Between Covid, getting older, and getting fatter, my wardrobe is no longer sufficient and I need to go shopping for some decent capsule pieces. I want more brick and morter stores in New York that are like Madewell, Everlane, Sezane, COS, Uniqlo, Muji and carry plus sizes in the store (so many Uniqlos make you order anything over a 10 these days, killing me!).
Sell all my stuff in NYC?
I'm looking for a NYC service or individual who, for a fee and commission, will sell an apartment's-worth of belongings via eBay, The Real Real, Poshmark, etc.
Significantly, they have the same dust jacket art
"The book club edition. You probably remember your first encounter with this indecent denizen of the book world. It wasn't pleasant, was it? Learning that your priceless first edition─the one you had considered selling so you could buy that NHL skybox─was...what? Worthless? Really? Why, you wondered, is this sneaky breed of book imposter allowed to trick and taunt the hapless collector? Why are book club editions even a thing?"
Recycling ceramic waste into new ceramics
IKEA's recently introduced SILVERSIDA line of blue-speckled white ceramic dinnerware are made with ~60% post-firing ceramic waste. Broken pottery is ground up into powder then mixed with a portion of raw clay and water and used to make these new pieces.
Give me your best big batch vegetarian freezer friendly recipes
Breakfast lunch or dinner, stuff I can make in one go and then portion out to freeze for later.
A Native Solution To Vancouver's Housing Woes
Vancouver, BC has been dealing with a major housing crunch for years due to a number of factors. But the Squamish First Nation has an answer - Sen̓áḵw, a major urban mixed use development on Squamish land in the Vancouver metro area - which means that it can be developed bigger and denser than Vancouver regulations would allow...and without NIMBY interference. (SLMacLean's)
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!!!! 😺
Using artificial leopard fur to save the lives of real leopards
Program providing artificial leopard furs for religious/cultural use to save the life of real leopards. After discovering that Shembe followers were using as many as 15,000 leopard furs during religious gatherings, Panthera, in partnership with the leadership of the Shembe Church, initiated the Furs for Life program in 2013.
Working with the Shembe community and graphic designers, Panthera created high-quality and affordable synthetic leopard fur capes, known as Heritage Furs or amambatha.
Supported by Cartier for Nature Philanthropy, the Royal Commission for AlUla, and Peace Parks Foundation, the program has distributed more than 18,500 capes to the Shembe Church, resulting in a 50 percent reduction in authentic leopard fur use.
Heritage Furs have thus prevented thousands of leopard deaths and have even resulted in some wild leopard populations stabilizing or increasing in the region, all while promoting a culturally sensitive conservation solution supported by Shembe leaders.
¡¡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.
Plastic-free products?
I'd like to buy products that are 100% biodegradable and/or rustable and/or melt-downable. That is, no plastics. Wood, paper, glass, metal, ceramics. Even the packaging.
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."
Road Worrier
The "Atlanta Magnet Man"
bikes around Atlanta with a hitched trailer that uses magnets to attract metal debris that poses a risk to people’s car tires. The idea is completely his own, and he does it for free.
“I can’t really find anybody that says what I’m doing is a terrible thing unless, you know, they own a tire shop,” he said.
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.
To the Moon (eventually) but with great food!
Victor Glover will be the first African-American to eat maple cream cookies and smoked salmon while traveling to and from the Moon on the Artemis II mission
U.S. Hotels with great breakfasts
I love a good, European-style breakfast buffet. But U.S. hotel breakfasts have been going downhill for a while. For reasons, I want to stay in the US right now, but I want a fantastic breakfast! Where have you found one?
Recommend me a microwave oven
Super boring question, but I want to buy a small, simple microwave oven that'll last decades and I won't dislike the whole time like our current one.
Sticky notes with style?
Has anyone bought any cute decorative sticky notes that actually stick?
Death, Lonely Death
Billions of miles away
at the edge of the Solar System Voyager 1 has gone mad and has begun to die