Bookmarks (953)

Unlike patents, which are owned, licensed, bought, and sold, standards are developed collaboratively and published by SDOs on "reasonable and non-discriminatory" terms, ensuring that they are widely available. Even Friedrich Hayek, in "The Use of Knowledge in Society," practically the ur-text of free market fundamentalism, notes that the free market needs a process by which knowledge is constantly communicated and acquired. from The Anti-Capitalist...

The Texas County Where 'Everybody Has Somebody In Their Family' With Dementia (slAtlantic)Diverting away from posting about Canada for today with a story that is painfully close to my heart. My own mother, a Hispanic woman, has dementia (Alzheimer's) and my maternal grandmother does too.

It's the semi-regular LGBTQIA+ News Post. I'm including news people added to my last post, and I will credit them with giving me that information. A little delay today because of some last-minute addition to the bad news.Dear friends, today's song is "The Light" by Disturbed, because it talks about how in the deepest darkness you can find the light; in the depths of...

While the internet debates who would win in a fight between 100 men vs 1 gorilla, the real question is why fight the gorilla? Yes, they're powerful, but they're also known for being gentle with strong family bonds.Besides, ants are the real problem.

"Beyond the Black and White: Female Domestic Servants, Dress and Identity in France and Britain, 1900-1939" Urbanisation and industrialisation contributed to a public anxiety concerned with the difficulty of distinguishing people according to their rank in the anonymous crowd of the city. In this context, the uniform was used to create a distinction between the mistress and her maid, to underline who was inferior...

A City Drowned in God's Black Tears (bandcamp) - an album by Infinity Knives and Brian EnnalsWhere to start with, if you want: Rage Against the Machine on Gaza: track 1, The Iron Wall Head-bopping and relatable: track 7, Sometimes, Papi Chulo or track 8, Everyone I love is Depressed Hilarious whiplash from the opening line: track 4, BAGGY Via FD Signifier's Can Hip...

Under the fold, Canadian small presses Anvil Press, Talonbooks, and the Ville-Marie Literature Group.Here's the fourth in a series of Canadian small press roundups. Vancouver's Anvil Press publishes "contemporary Canadian literature with a distinctly urban twist." Recent titles include: 10 Women, a short fiction collection by George Bowering (whose New Star Books novel Burning Water won the 1980 Governor General's award for fiction), the...

Maclunkey Treasure Island - An All-Star Live Reading of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (SLYT) On March 15th The Star Wars Minute Podcast and The George Lucas Talk Show staged a live reading of the original screenplay to 1977's Star Wars, with a cast including Laraine Newman, D'Arcy Carden, Tatiana Maslany and more.

Lolita seduces us with language, and insists, in the intense pleasure of its verbal play, on being read. Whether we pay attention to what Humbert is actually saying is, of course, up to each reader. To turn away from the novel without reading it—to hide the book, and spare ourselves, with the problematic veil—bespeaks a dangerous, even immoral, incuriosity. To insist upon our own...

RFK Jr. Goes Full Tinfoil, Pledges to Stop Chemtrails in Latest Dr. Phil Interview.RFK Jr. also continued spreading misinformation about vaccine safety, particularly the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. He repeated the debunked claim that autism is an epidemic (though this time he stopped short of suggesting children with autism have no future.) And alleged that teenage boys today have half the testosterone...

Professor Lars Schmitz is in this video guiding us through a giant tree of life mapping the evolution of eyes in the animal kingdom: how they work, why they've taken the form they have, and the evolutionary advantages they've unlocked across species. (36m)

In one of the world's most fire-prone regions, cutting edge techniques are protecting precious habitat. Indigenous fire management methods being used in Western Australia's Kimberley are drawing international acclaim, as rangers say they are making a big difference to the health of the tropical savanna landscapes.

From Anthropic: AI's Impact on Software Development "In our previous Economic Index research, we found very disproportionate use of Claude by US workers in computer-related occupations: that is, there were many more conversations with Claude about computer-related tasks than one would predict from the number of people working in relevant jobs. It's the same in the educational context: Computer Science degrees—which involve large amounts...

In 1822, someone in northern Germany shot a stork. The bird fell, revealing a 31.5-inch arrow lodged in its neck. The real question wasn't how it could still fly—it was where that arrow had come from. For Centuries, People Thought Birds Flew to the Moon During Winter—Until an Arrow Shot in Africa Landed in Germany [Xatakaon]

DC band Sub-radio here to give you a catchy lil ditty about one of the worst people! And tbh, a pretty fun Cake cover.

Fossil clue suggests echidna ancestors lived in water like platypus. A study of a 100-million-year-old bone suggests the ancient relative of the echidna and the platypus was semiaquatic — and echidnas moved back to the land from the water as they evolved.

A poetry competition using the words flagged by the Trump Administration. (Link goes to the Submittable portal which requires registration). Submit an original poem that makes creative use of the words that the Trump administration is flagging on government websites and research papers. See the list (PDF). There is no fee to enter. Final judge: Jendi Reiter. A free anthology will be published.I feel...

For a group of not-terribly serious holiday romance movies, Netflix's Christmas Prince films actually demand a long and significant alternative history. The map shown in the third movie of the series, A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby, show three kingdoms ruling over eastern Europe, two of which have royal families that speak RP English, and one of which is east Asian and uses Chinese...

Under the fold, Ontario small presses Guernica Editions, Invisible Publishing, and Palimpsest Press.Here's the third in a series of Canadian small press roundups. Guernica Editions publishes poetry, novels, short story collections, literary and cultural essays, and theatre. CBC recommends As Good a Place as Any, a novel set in 1970s Toronto by Rebecca Păpucaru, Remaindered People & Other Stories, fiction about people on the...

What is remarkable about the 1970s, and the subsequent half century, is, from Foucault's perspective, not that a "new" liberalism emerged (as, he implied, "new" liberalisms are continually emerging) through a reshuffling of economic policies, but that its ideological dominance was established through, or amid, the narrowing of this formerly expansive repertory down to a single, minimal figure of "economic man." from Just Another...

Ander Louis, an author from Melbourne, Australia, is in the midst of translating Tolstoy's epic, War & Peace into Bogan Australian.As he rightly says: "Early 1800s Russia wouldn't be all that bad a place to live, if it weren't for all the social protocol and that bloody Napoleon bastard, trying to invade the place. This is not a parody. This is not a spoof....

The series is considered to be among the most influential comedy programs in history. In 1998, Entertainment Weekly praised the series as one of the "100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time". In 2007, Time magazine selected it for its "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME". Jerry Seinfeld has declared that The Abbott and Costello Show, with its overriding emphasis upon funny situations...

One Million Chessboards . Moving a piece moves it for everyone, instantly. There are no turns. You can move between boards.From the brain behind One Million Checkboxes, you can read more about it on the creator's website.

There are four cor-ten forms in a row, four objects different than they appear. Not closer, not through a mirror. Stand to one side and see an inverted, truncated cone; shift your vantage point a few feet to the right, and it's a parallelogram in front of you. But the point is to go inside—you don't look at them in space but inhabit the...

There are glimpses of hope, even beauty: whispering Koranic Hadiths on the Autobahn while doing Amazon runs, savoring self-made wine in a French village where a family has lived for six generations, or finding queer liberation in Berlin. Judah's dispatch on the war in Ukraine, one of the best in the book, reflects the otherworldly terror of battle. He describes a swamp «where everything...

Rick Steves' The Story of Fascism in Europe - "In this one-hour special, Rick travels back a century to learn how fascism rose and then fell in Europe — taking millions of people with it. We'll trace fascism's history from its roots in the turbulent aftermath of World War I, when masses of angry people rose up, to the rise of charismatic leaders who...

In tonight's Last Minute, a note on Bill Owens, who until this past week was executive producer of 60 Minutes. He was our boss. Bill was with CBS News nearly 40 years -- 26 years at 60 Minutes. He covered the world, covered combat, the White House. His was a quest to open minds, not close them. If you've ever worked hard for a...

The signal (and apparently extemporary - almost certainly not) Vatican meeting between Zelensky and Trump is producing a wide range of analysis seeking what was going or or alluded to. Women's Wear Daily / WWD delves into Zelensky's wardrobe and it reads like a retelling of William Gibson's Pattern Recognition / PR [coffeeandflapjacks blog a book review blog].History has definitely returned [.pdf @ C21...

A group of Indonesian and French (among others) researchers has, for the first time filmed a living Indonesian coelacanth in the wild, at a depth of 145 m. In addition to the various PR buzz, they've also published a scientific paper on the sighting.Often called a "living fossil"* (a term I, as an evolutionary biologist, don't especially like, but it's used all the time)...

For more than a decade, O'Brien kept a meticulous log of mixed metaphors and malaprops uttered in Ford meetings, from companywide gatherings to side conversations. It documents 2,229 linguistic breaches, including the exact quote, context, name of the perpetrator and color commentary. from The Ford Executive Who Kept Score of Colleagues' Verbal Flubs [WSJ; ungated]

Wes Anderson has had many creative partners. But have any stimulated the juices of anticipation more than his most recent? Richard Ayoade will feature in The Phoenician Scheme (also Hanks, Del Toro, Ahmed, Johansson, Cumberbatch etc.). This is the trailer.A bit more on what it's about.

Under the fold, a small press roundup for Canadian presses Above/Ground Press, Figure 1 Publishing, and Inhabit Media. (Small press previouslies.)In honour of Canada's federal election on Monday (discussion here), I put together a big post of over 60 Canadian small presses. But it was so long I felt like most of it would end up getting glossed over. So instead here's three (and...

Pat Finnerty is boycotting Chevrolet over the crappy interpolations in its commercials and the lack of Bob Seger. It seems to be going okay, so far.

The Identification of Non-binary Gender in Prehistoric Burials in Central Europe A new paper from Cambridge University Press on evidence of non-binary people in prehistoric Europe.There is some reason to believe that much evidence of the existence of non-binary people was intentionally erased [reddit] by Western colonizing nations over the last few centuries. The work of re-claiming this history, and restoring these cultural realities...

Do you like writing instruments? Do you like being able to stab people if necessary? Have I got something for you.instructional video

A new reality show featuring the talented and emotional judge from The Great Pottery Throw Down (highly recommend), Keith Brymer Jones, and his partner Marj Hogarth, actor and self-taught textile designer, as they renovate a new home and studio: Our Welsh Chapel DreamFrom Channel 4's website: Keith Brymer Jones and his partner Marj throw themselves into the restoration of a derelict Welsh chapel, as...

Natural caves, just like artificial mining shafts, occur in rocks that are made up of minerals. In these environments, the phenomenon of luminescence can be observed on a much larger scale... My photos, taken under ultraviolet light, reveal a side of familiar places that likely no one has seen before. Gray walls shine like starry skies or glow in rainbow colors.

Repetition at a mass scale. Ghibli. Ghibli. Ghibli. Repetition close enough in concept space. Ghibli. Ghibli. Doesn't have to be a perfect copy to trigger the effect. Ghebli. Ghebli. Ghebli. Ghibli. Ghebli. Ghibli. And so art—all of it, I mean, the entire human artistic endeavor—becomes a thing satiated, stripped of meaning, pure syntax. from Welcome to the semantic apocalypse by Erik Hoel

'I'd like to go up in space as a very old lady and just be pushed out'. Guardian Australia, part of the 10 Chaotic Questions series. Warning for mention of rabbit death. Previously on the book burning she mentions.

Henry Wadsworth's Hiawatha, with the Kalevala's trochees (viz. trochaic tetrameter), instantly inspired jokesters to lampoon its rhythmic style. One short passage, more than others, gained especial notoriety. Generations worked together to compose a mitten manual. Underneath the cut I've gathered two recordings of this passage, emphasizing the good humor of Longfellow's repetition.Hiawatha, 1850's: He had mittens, Minjekahwun, Magic mittens made of deer-skin; When upon...

Two teens plead guilty to trafficking $1 million worth of giant ants in Kenya. The haul of Giant African harvester ants could have been worth more than $1 million, and has drawn attention to wildlife trafficking of smaller animals.

A century before publishers started marketing novels as "essential sad girl literature" and newspapers ran headlines about the "cult of the literary sad woman", Mary MacLane confessed all, at the age of nineteen, and became the enfant terrible of American letters, seemingly overnight. "This is not a diary. It is a Portrayal. It is my inner life shown in its nakedness. I am trying...

In case the news cycle has anyone wondering when the side of the angels will win - George Santos has been sentenced to over seven years in prison.Three years ago (previously), George Santos was elected to Congress, but rumors started circulating that most of his background was made up out of whole cloth. There was also evidence he had involved himself with a Ponzi...

The Fable of Complexity A video in which a .... medieval?... office worker gets overloaded, asks for help, gets help, and then things get worse and worse and more and more complicated.While I was out yesterday, my work team was told to watch this video, which I gather has been passed down from a higher-up and has been passed around. A recap: Abby the...

milwaukee judge hannah dugan is accused of helping a man evade immigration agents dugan is charged with "concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest" and obstructing or impeding a proceeding. she's accused of escorting the man, eduardo flores-ruiz, and his lawyer out of the courtroom through the jury door on april 18 as a way to help avert his arrest, according to...

Lena Moses-Schmitt and Martha Park (LitHub, 04/25/2025), "Art and Craft: An Illustrated Conversation": "How does it feel to move between writing and art, for you? Do they overlap?" Lena Moses-Schmitt's website links to more of her work, e.g. "The Matrilineal Pleasures of 'A Life of One's Own'," "Drawing Cars," "Indoor Feeling," "Skating Costumes I Have Known," and "Blue Mountain." Martha Park's website links to...

Maybe you'd meet somebody out, remotely checking the answering machine plugged into your landline for messages. Maybe you'd go home to make dinner and catch the news on TV or NPR. Then, if you were into computers, you might turn on the one you had at home and dial in to the baby internet via modem and read funny things or post on message...

For Charlotte Proudman, only one opinion matters: that of the women and children she defends in the family courts. It is 15 years since Proudman qualified as a barrister, but she still feels a sense of alienation when she walks into the formal dining halls. "It's largely a sea of male, pale, stale figures sitting there, all in their suits. They all look identical,...