October 4
Builder of 3D-printed home says tech on the cusp of being the norm. A new 3D-printed home build in Victoria's west is due to be completed in October, with the construction team hoping the technology could be another solution to the housing crisis.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:41 PM - 1 comment This recreation of the diner from the classic 1942 oil painting "Nighthawks" is an HO scale (1:87) model. Dusty the uncooperative cat is not.
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posted by brundlefly at 8:34 PM - 0 comments Whether spent well or wasted, time encompasses both love and loneliness, gain and loss, pleasure and pain, as song¡¯s camera pans across New York and out across America, embracing its outcasts and oddballs, its damaged and its dreamers. Yet for all its carnivalesque quality, Rain Dogs isn¡¯t ever a freak show, but rather an expression of empathy for the unconventional in a coldly conventional age. from Shine Like a New Dime: Tom Waits¡¯ Rain Dogs at 40 [The Quietus]
posted by chavenet at 12:22 PM - 14 comments Apple pulls ICEBlock from the App Store due to 'objectionable content' after demands by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Google removed the Android equivalent RedDot without a request from the DOJ, claiming that ICE agents were a "vulnerable group". While there are
previous concerns that these apps are "activism theater", these removals highlight the government's influence on big tech companies.
posted by autopilot at 12:10 PM - 20 comments A young man barged into a 400-person human sexuality lecture at the University of Washington on Wednesday, making what appeared to be Nazi salutes and hurling insults at the class.
But it wasn¡¯t security personnel who escorted him out of the Kane Hall classroom. It was the students and their professor. Here's the Reddit link with video
posted by Sock, Sock, Sock, Sock, Sock, Goose! at 11:04 AM - 31 comments Kyle's a janitor, and a werewolf, and that wasn't a problem until he got assigned to the night shift. Sneak around the office, clean up the messes, and try to make sure you don't get spotted and, you know, eat somebody. The WereCleaner is a cute free stealth game where the player is the (adorable) danger.
CW: cartoony, low-poly gore
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:42 AM - 5 comments How reading in the park is turning poor literacy rates around for kids. An Australian Federal government backed weekly reading session led by experts is helping improve literacy rates in Queensland children.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 9:11 AM - 2 comments The recent uptick in Americans moving abroad is usually read solely as a symptom of Trump. But there is something broader happening. Moving is a circuit-breaker. It is a re-set. The social equivalent of a Wim Hof breathing session. The personally-branded iteration of the trans-cultural and trans-historical practice of deep breathing exercises resets your autonomic nervous system. It¡¯s a physiological hack for psychological problems. from The new Lost Generation [The Face]
posted by chavenet at 1:13 AM - 25 comments October 3
'Somewhere in the dark and nasty regions, where nobody goes, stands an ancient castle. Deep within this dank and uninviting place lives Berk
("'Ello!"), overworked servant to the THING upstairs.
("BERK! FEED ME!!") But that's nothing compared to the horrors that lurk beneath the
trap door... for there is always something down there... in the dark... waiting to come out!'
A classic 80s claymation kids show from the UK with a spooky theme is on Youtube in its entirety. Series 1 (3½ minutes x 25 episodes) - Series 2. (3½ minutes x 15 episodes)
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posted by JHarris at 10:19 PM - 14 comments Researcher captures three endangered sharks mating. A Sunshine Coast marine biologist has captured unique footage of two male sharks mating with a female in waters off New Caledonia.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:10 PM - 10 comments Among the many very good things in season four of Babylon Berlin (
previously) is the show¡¯s up beat signature song,
Ein Tag Wie Gold, memorably performed by Meret Becker>
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posted by BWA at 8:11 PM - 3 comments " He is Mr. Cool, just the right fellow to have around to de fuse unwanted electronic bombs, deliver withering ka rate chops to plug©\uglies, and restore beautiful kidnapped heiresses to their anxious fa thers. His speech is cool, too, and he handles questions with an aloof, computer©\like precision."
'Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting.' (PDF)
by Dr. Robert Vaughn.
posted by clavdivs at 4:47 PM - 5 comments In today¡¯s world, we barely think about picking up a fork. It is part of a standard cutlery set, as essential as the plate itself. But not that long ago, this now-ordinary utensil was viewed with suspicion, derision and even moral outrage. It took centuries, royal marriages and a bit of cultural rebellion to get the fork from the kitchens of Constantinople (today¡¯s Istanbul) onto the dining tables of Europe. from The thousand-year story of how the fork crossed Europe, and onto your plate today [The Conversation]
posted by chavenet at 11:38 AM - 32 comments "Allowing yourself time to digest important stories is as vital as consuming them. Stuffing yourself like a news-glutton is as dangerous as stuffing fries in your face at the drive-thru." In "How I Put Boundaries on Pete Hegseth" Tia Levings* ( Substack | Archive ) reflects on how to stay informed but not let an intentional triggering strategy take over your nervous system, speaking from the point of view of a survivor of religious trauma.
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posted by warriorqueen at 9:48 AM - 11 comments Actress Dame Patricia Routledge, known for playing Hyacinth Bucket in the classic BBC TV sitcom
Keeping Up Appearances, has died at the age of 96.
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posted by JoeZydeco at 8:27 AM - 35 comments L.A.'s Entertainment Economy Is Looking Like a Disaster Movie. "At the end of 2024, some 100,000 people were employed in the motion picture industry in Los Angeles County, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Two years earlier, there were 142,000.
The primary reason is that Hollywood is making less stuff. The film business has yet to rebound from the shutdown of theaters during the pandemic. TV production was booming in the 2010s and early 2020s as companies tried to jump-start streaming services, but in 2022, investors saw streaming growth was slowing and decided what actually matters is profitability. Entertainment companies, which plan productions many months in advance, cut spending dramatically when the strikes ended the following year." ungated
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posted by storybored at 8:23 AM - 30 comments When is a house not a home? After 133 years, a major coffee is rebranding. Maxwell House shall henceforth be known as Maxwell Apartment. Please discuss.
posted by kinnakeet at 7:30 AM - 90 comments Sarah Mullally is the new Archbishop of Canterbury. She had a distinguished career in nursing before becoming a priest and is already a Dame.
posted by Phanx at 5:57 AM - 28 comments Dormant coal mine turns green electricity generator in world-first test. A disused coal mine in Wollongong will be the first test site for a renewable energy company that lowers weights down old mine shafts to spin turbines and create electricity. (Australia)
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 4:55 AM - 16 comments I recently finished reading Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka, and it offers a compelling critique of our algorithm-driven media landscape. Chayka, known for his work with The New Yorker, argues that platforms like TikTok and Netflix have transformed our cultural experiences into a homogenized, algorithmically curated environment he dubs ¡°Filterworld.¡±
The book suggests that instead of passively consuming content dictated by algorithms, we should take a more active role in curating our media. Chayka recommends strategies such as creating personalized content pools, engaging with niche communities, and even undertaking an ¡°algorithmic cleanse¡± to rediscover authentic tastes and interests.
To quote Chayka ¡°We live in an age where attention is currency, and the default settings of our apps are designed to capture it endlessly. Filterworld is my attempt to provide a guide for stepping back, curating your feeds, and reclaiming your focus.¡±
This Radio NZ web site provides both a written and video interview with Kyle Chayka.
One of the best chapters in the book is on the need for human curation and how he gave himself a detox from sites like; Spotify, Facebook and Twitter.
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posted by Narrative_Historian at 1:06 AM - 39 comments You don't have to swallow frogs - "[
Ezra] Klein and [
Ta-Nehisi] Coates show that if you don't know what your core beliefs are, you're going to get played." (via)
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posted by kliuless at 12:12 AM - 97 comments I realized these guys are essentially my cousins, my brothers, my friends around the way, people who are trying to figure it out like we¡¯re all trying to figure it out. In this current celebrity culture, there¡¯s this notion that they don¡¯t have the same issues and the same problems [as the rest of us], whereas when I looked at Pos, Dave, and Maseo, I saw that they were also trying to figure it all out. That was the ultimate takeaway. from F¡ª Being Hard, De La Soul Is Complicated, in which Oliver Wang speaks with two De La Soul biographers, Dave Heaton and Marcus J. Moore, about their respective portrayals of the rap group¡¯s complex legacy. [LARB]
posted by chavenet at 12:01 AM - 1 comment October 2
Take macaroni art to the next level and make a crocheted pasta bag.
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posted by Mizu at 9:36 PM - 8 comments Goodreads recs "Ten Years of Horror Hits," but Emily Hughes lists 400+ horror books in 2025. There's been translated work by Uketsu (x2), Mariana Enriquez, Irene Solà, Ave Barrera, Olga Ravn, Bora Chung, & Hache Pueyo; more novels by Ling Ling Huang, Chuck Tingle, Charles Stross, Michael Cisco, Bitter Karella, Andrew Joseph White, T. Kingfisher, Gretchen Felker-Martin, Natalia Theodoridou, & Ned Beauman; collections by Thomas Ha, Debbie Urbanski, Nadia Bulkin, Hailey Piper, Julia Elliott, John Langan, & Marie-Helene Bertino; anthologies on folk horror from the Asian diaspora, Afrofuturism, ancestral horror, the music of Neutral Milk Hotel,
The Stand, WWII, scary story nostalgia, & by filmmakers; non-fiction on
Scream & feminism; and comics by Anna Meyer, Mattie Lubchansky, Keezy Young, Michael Walsh, Antoine Revoy, & Mike Mignola.
posted by Wobbuffet at 9:18 PM - 10 comments Forest rail trail grows from artist and tree scientist's seedling deal. A unique partnership between an artist and a botanist has resulted in an old rail corridor in South Australia becoming an eucalypt forest.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 4:38 PM - 1 comment The Drumbeat Forever After is "a podcast focusing on the Bronze Age in the Near East, from the development of agriculture during the Neolithic to the collapse of the Late Bronze Age world system at the end of the second millennium BCE and everything in between. Every episode also includes a look at a particular myth or ancient text." Available in most (if not all) podcast apps.
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posted by GenjiandProust at 3:58 PM - 14 comments
Forgotten Languages is a strange website. Ostensibly a blog, the posts are written mostly in either cyphers or a constructed languages. The Above Top Secret community started discussing the site in 2013 as a possible vampyric cult, but things got weirder from there. The Crowhouse Community also had an interesting thread about it. To get to grips with this high weirdness, watch this 44 minute overview by a pseudonymous YouTuber which starts with a reference to it in a congressional hearing about UFOs. From there it gets into the lore of the site and theories about it, from it being a secret government program, to being linked to the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit. The Strange Minds blog has a good overview, with a guide to decyphering posts.
posted by Kattullus at 2:25 PM - 3 comments A scan of the horizon in Montana¡¯s Big Hole Valley reveals plenty of examples of the land reclaiming what once belonged to it. Derelict jackleg fence. Log calving sheds with caving roofs. Rusting Chevrolets and spools of barbed wire. A giant compost pile of livestock carcasses, bones protruding from the mulch like seashells at low tide. Then, every five miles or so, an old, spindly implement punctuates the scenery. from Why don't you beaverslide? [Offrange]
posted by chavenet at 11:34 AM - 8 comments Debt Markets Are Making Wall Street Nervous With Their ¡®Star Wars Garbage Chute Situation¡¯...It¡¯s a good time to sell corporate debt, but many experts are starting to wonder if the time is too good. Private credit, a newer phenomenon that does have 2008 vibes and origins, has emerged as a big trillion-dollar player in debt markets, and the rising defaults in this relatively new and opaque industry are becoming more worrisome by the day. Earlier this month, Bank of America said private credit is facing ¡°clear signs¡± of rising stress as it found that realized losses across business development companies were at ¡°the highest dollar value since the pandemic,¡± which ¡°suggest[s] portfolio companies continue to struggle with interest costs.¡±
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posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 11:04 AM - 37 comments Gem Getter Pro is a free in-browser polyomino-based roll-and-write game. There's a daily challenge or you can just play as much as you want. I strongly recommend starting with the "how to play" tutorial.
I hope you get lots of gems!
posted by aubilenon at 10:54 AM - 23 comments The Ultimate Slop-Bowl Ranking The fast-casual bowls of veg-and-protein slurry that rule our lunch breaks may all look the same. But some slops are sloppier than others.
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posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:08 AM - 73 comments Early on the morning of October 1st, federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives raided an entire apartment building at 7500 S. South Shore Drive, knocking down doors and dragging men, women and children from their apartments:
My building is shaking. So, I'm like, 'What is that?' Then I look out the window, it's a Blackhawk helicopter," said witness Dr. Alii Muhammad. [more inside]
posted by oneirodynia at 7:21 AM - 251 comments "$5" is a punk song by activist & musician Evan Greer (ft. Eve 6), released a few months ago.
"$5 at the door / 60 kids, 7 bands, only four chords / pass the hat to cover gas / pass our pamphlets, stop the war..." The music video (includes lyrics annotations) moves through footage of years of Greer playing at protests, basement shows, etc.
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posted by brainwane at 5:00 AM - 5 comments Researchers employed a specialized brain imaging technique to identify a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for Long COVID.
posted by tiny frying pan at 4:24 AM - 10 comments The Nine Billion Names of God is a short film by Dominique Filhol adapting the short story of the same name by Arthur C. Clarke. It¡¯s been adapted by others too, including as a short comic book by Michael L. Davis. There are many interpretations of the story out there, and I like this recent video about the story as cosmic horror by Quinn Howard. And if you want a deep dive on the ¡°philosophical problem of some difficulty¡± mentioned in the story, here¡¯s Prof. Fran O¡¯Rourke¡¯s The
Triplex Via of Naming God.
posted by Kattullus at 2:05 AM - 13 comments The transmission of knowledge ¡ª the most ancient function of the university ¡ª is breaking down in front of our eyes. Writers like Shakespeare, Milton and Jane Austen whose works have been handed on for centuries can no longer reach the next generation of readers. They are losing the ability to understand them. from The dawn of the post-literate society by James Marriott [Substack; ungated]
posted by chavenet at 12:02 AM - 36 comments October 1
Boston Mayor's Blowout Victory Jolts CEOs Seeking New Direction [ungated] - "Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is coasting to reelection after her main opponent quit the race, giving her a commanding mandate that's putting city business leaders on edge."
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posted by kliuless at 11:43 PM - 7 comments Cooking oil turned into snack packaging in Australia-first trial. Hundreds of litres of used cooking oil is disposed of every year as a by-product of making some of Australia's favourite snacks, like chips ¡ª but one company is trialling a method to reduce waste.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:11 PM - 1 comment Do Viruses Trigger Alzheimer's? "In the summer of 2024 several groups of scientists published a curious finding: people vaccinated against shingles were less likely to develop dementia than their unvaccinated peers. Two preprints came from the lab of Pascal Geldsetzer at Stanford University. Analysing medical records from Britain and Australia, the researchers concluded that around a fifth of dementia diagnoses could be averted through the original shingles vaccine, which contains live varicella-zoster virus. Two other studies, one by GSK, a pharmaceutical company, and another by a group of academics in Britain, also reported that a newer ¡°recombinant¡± vaccine, which is more effective at preventing shingles than the live version, appeared to confer even greater protection against dementia." ungated.
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posted by storybored at 4:43 PM - 27 comments "Oh So Near: The Cars¡¯ Deep (and Deeply Underrated) Influence on the Future of Music" by Steven Hyden at The Ringer.
posted by goatdog at 3:34 PM - 27 comments Whatever the Bud Light fiasco was, it was just the beginning. On multiple fronts, the Republican Party has inaugurated an epidemic of teetotaling. Maybe it¡¯s not exactly surprising. Trump abstains from alcohol, though he also abstained from alcohol during his first term, during which time Republicans were tipping them back. from The Curious Conservative War on Beer [Slate; ungated]
posted by chavenet at 12:29 PM - 52 comments ABC News Obituary Jane Goodall, famed for her work with chimpanzees in Tanzania and her efforts via the Jane Goodall Institute has passed away at the age of 91 while on tour in the US.
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:11 PM - 103 comments Million-year-old skull challenges timeline of human evolution. A crushed million-year-old skull found in China that has been digitally reconstructed reopens a debate in human evolution.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:50 AM - 5 comments The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas has become notorious as a compendium of name-dropping, of Picasso and Matisse and everyone else, but it¡¯s in fact far denser with the names of single women: Janet Scudder, Mildred Aldrich, a network of lesbian coding. Its major subject is always marriage ¨C an assertion of Stein¡¯s love for Toklas, and Toklas¡¯s love for Stein ¨C as the centre of a new history of literature, whose creator exists because another person loves her. from Devotion to the Cut by Adam Thirlwell [LRB; ungated]
posted by chavenet at 12:04 AM - 3 comments
September 30
Q-Up (link to free demo on Steam) is a new game from Frank Lantz, the
Universal Paperclips guy. It asks, what if esports contained zero gameplay and literally random outcomes, but still had all of the addiction mechanics? The result is something with a lot of jokes, but that might also do the thing where a parody just becomes the thing it's supposed to be mocking.
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:38 PM - 17 comments Farmers paid to fence off land forever for conservation. Farmers in southern New South Wales are protecting parts of their land in perpetuity, fencing off tens of hectares for conservation.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:45 PM - 8 comments Jemaine Clement and Matt Berry want you to orchid the best you can. An advertisement/instruction manual for the Tame Impala synthesiser.
posted by Sebmojo at 7:49 PM - 24 comments Angela Collier on how the rise of pop science conspiracy is fueled by the audience. It's a long watch, but she breaks down how the audience responds to science content and how the media fuels bad faith arguments and the actors that capitalize on them.
posted by finalbroadcast at 7:46 PM - 34 comments After 20 years, Reading Rainbow is coming back as a digital series beginning October 4th through KidZuko on YouTube operated by Sony Pictures. Link is through The Hollywood Reporter.
posted by ichimunki at 6:49 PM - 12 comments To honour the XXVth anniversary of their debut album ¡°Spit¡± Kittie has released a reimagined, re-recorded EP with four of its songs: Kittie - Spit XXV.
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posted by signal at 4:35 PM - 2 comments « Older posts
