May 2
Satanic, heavy metal version of The Osmonds
Chris Poole (@chrispoolemusic) plays The Osmonds’ “Crazy Horses” slowed down from 45 to 33 rpm for a good-natured Donny Osmond, so Donny can hear what he would have sounded like in his alternate career as a heavy metal singer. [more inside]
Flying photographers
In 1907 Julius Neubronner had an idea to figure out where his pharmaceutical delivery pigeons were going: aerial photography. He'd strap a camera to his delivery pigeons and see what they were seeing. [more inside]
Sears 1975 Spring Summer Catalog
As people watched the fall of Saigon on television, they were dressed in clothes from the Sears 1975 Spring Summer Catalog.
“Smart survives… they’re the ones holding the duct tape…”
The Functional Melancholic delivers a slow, quiet essay, The Death of Intelligence: Why Modern Society Celebrates Stupidity, in a 23 minute video about the seemingly constant drive in American culture into the stupid. His simple and straightforward talk really sums it up well. And, yes, he does mention Idiocracy, describing Mike Judge, now standing and chain smoking on a balcony, saying, “Don’t you realize, it was all just a joke?” Despite his nom de plume, he does say there is hope, see the post’s title, but he also says that we have a lot of work to do. This is well worth your 23 minutes.
You can’t see where the light comes from
I’m just trying to get my seven bucks an hour. I didn’t sign up to stare into the abyss. from Hot Glazed Now by Kate Durbin [The Baffler]
Gladys has Left the Building
Ruth Buzzi has left us If you grew up in a certain time, you watched her a lot on Laugh-In
She was good...
.
Dry conditions draw emu mobs from outback to city streets
Dry conditions draw emu mobs from outback to city streets.
A wildlife rescuer is urging people to take caution as drought conditions force emus to migrate from their usual outback habitat into Broken Hill in search of refuge and water.
(Mob is the collective noun for a group of emus, an "emu mob" does not necessarily imply any particular type of behaviour.)
📚 Canadian small press hat-trick #5 📚
Under the fold, Ottawa small presses The BumblePuppy Press, shreeking violet press, and Wyrdsmyth Press. [more inside]
Instant Monty Python Record Reviews Collection
Four years ago, the pop culture blog(ger) Holy Bee of Ephesus covered the entire history of Monty Python's sound recordings in four extensive blog posts, which anyone who knows only the shows and films owes it to themselves to read. (Then track down the albums themselves, and then the books.) [more inside]
Flatpack Curta
Like a flatpack extendable Curta Roons is a fully mechanical portable computer (just don't lose your marbles!), and a very fun learning thing (too useful to call it a toy). [more inside]
It’s how the world actually prioritizes its issues
When it was first created, in 1963, the Munich Security Conference brought together German military officials with their U.S. and NATO counterparts to discuss countering the USSR. Typically, a few dozen people attended. This year, some 450 CEOs, generals, and politicians participated in what is often called “Davos with guns.” Caitlin L. Chandler was among them, and wrote that although officials like U.S. Vice President J. D. Vance made the splashiest headlines, the most interesting discussions took place away from the main stage. [An article by and interview with Caitlin L. Chandler, in The Dial]
May 1
hello and is nice to meest you
There.com
One of these days I'm gonna stop saying one of these days
Starting with a debut album in 1990, Jill Sobule gained prominence and respect as a singer-songwriter, perhaps most remembered for the 1995 tunes, "I Kissed a Girl", and "Supermodel". Though not hugely successful as a recording artist, she managed to write tunes for TV, movies, and stage, with songs that were often ironic, humorous, personal, story-driven, and observational.
Sobule died in a house fire in Minneapolis, MN, early May 1, 2025, at age 66. [more inside]
How sustainable is your weekly grocery shop?
How sustainable is your weekly grocery shop? These small changes can have big benefits. The last thing we want to do is take the pleasure away from eating. But bite-sized changes add up to significant environmental benefits.
April thinking brings May linking
LinkMe, May '25: Come across an interesting link recently that you'd like to share, but don't want to work it up into a full post? Share it here for our perusal, nbd. And if you'd like to post something but need some inspiration, check out the links here to see what other members have found interesting and would like to read more about! Just tag the resulting post "LinkMe" and include a nod back to the original suggestion. No self-linking and usual site rules apply, but otherwise feel free to post whatever you like! Look inside for a round-up from last month. [more inside]
Australian Federal Election 2025
A rare example of an economic system that does not depend on capitalism
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 Case for Standards [MIT Press Reader]
"We take care of our own."
The Texas County Where 'Everybody Has Somebody In Their Family' With Dementia (slAtlantic) [more inside]
The LGBTQIA+ News Post, Today With Extra Rage: May 1, 2025
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. [more inside]
Ok, who's going first?
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. [more inside]
Female Domestic Servants, Dress and Identity in France and Britain
”Beyond the Black and White: Female Domestic Servants, Dress and Identity in France and Britain, 1900-1939” [more inside]
A City Drowned in God's Black Tears
A City Drowned in God's Black Tears (bandcamp) - an album by Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals [more inside]
📚 Canadian small press hat-trick #4 📚
Under the fold, Canadian small presses Anvil Press, Talonbooks, and the Ville-Marie Literature Group. [more inside]
...and Richard Kind as Darth Vader
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.
We manage our uneasiness by deflecting and denying
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 projected vision—to “solipsize” Lolita and Humbert both, if you will, or to reduce them to symbols or types, or more broadly to read without rigorous attention to the finer details of the text; to be shoddy, inadequate readers—is equally to be condemned. from In Its Purest Form by Claire Messud [LARB]
April 30
When you think you reached the bottom, you find a trapdoor leading down
Every Eye In The Animal Kingdom
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)
Indigenous fire management methods being used in Western Australia
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.
(Best books *so far*)
A.I. Coding
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 of coding—show highly disproportionate AI use." [more inside]
The Moon felt like a reasonable answer
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]
"He's rigging the system/he's always on speed"
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
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.
Live and Let DEI
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. [more inside]
The complicated alternative history of A Christmas Prince
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 characters for writing. How did this happen? [more inside]
📚 Canadian small press hat-trick #3 📚
Under the fold, Ontario small presses Guernica Editions, Invisible Publishing, and Palimpsest Press. [more inside]
The conjoined projects of critique and utopia
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 Liberalism? [The Hedgehog Review] [more inside]
April 29
Human connections to seagrass meadows date back 180,000 years
G'day mate!
Ander Louis, an author from Melbourne, Australia, is in the midst of translating Tolstoy's epic, War & Peace into Bogan Australian. [more inside]
The Abbott and Costello Show
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 rather than life lessons, was the inspiration for his own long-running sitcom, Seinfeld.*
Joint Subreddit Statement: The Attack on U.S. Research Infrastructure
The mods of the academic subreddit r/askhistorians, with the support of about 30 other research & academic subs, have posted a call in defense of the US research, which is under an unprecedented attack by the current administration. The text is signed by historian Dan Howlett with inputs by researcher and specialist of online communities Sarah Gilbert.
ALL KINDS OF VEGETABLES
Twelve years ago (gosh, really??) I made a post about Woody the Spoon, an animated character voiced by Bette Midler for the 70s kids show Vegetable Soup. Recently, Vegetable Soup has appeared in an official channel on Youtube, with entire runs of both seasons. It has a whole playlist of Woody the Spoon recipes, and within the episodes themselves, the kids-go-to-space puppet adventure Outerscope.
Hey, it says "gullible" on the ceiling!
“There is this myth of the digital native, that because some people have grown up with digital devices, they are well equipped to make sense of the information that those devices provide,” says Joel Breakstone, who led the 2021 study. “The results were sobering.” from How Gen Z Became the Most Gullible Generation [Politico] [more inside]
Who you gonna trust, me or your lyin' eyes?
“Is it nonsense? Is it brilliance?”
28 slightly rude notes on writing "The more you think, the closer you get to the place where the most interesting writing happens: that tiny slip of land between “THINGS THAT ARE OBVIOUS” and “THINGS THAT ARE OBVIOUSLY WRONG”."
'Tis a silly place
50 years ago this week Monty Python and the Holy Grail was released: Monty Python and the Holy Grail at 50: a hilarious comic peak (The Guardian). Monty Python and the Holy Grail turns 50 (Ars Technica). Monty Python and the Holy Grail cast 50 years later: Here’s what became of the iconic comedy troupe (EW).
Wario Metafilter
Ben Smith writes in Semafor about the private group chats where tech billionaires and right-wing pundits hash out their ideas. [more inside]
Modern Beatboxing
Beatboxing has been on the fringes of the music scene for years. The current crop of beatboxers are trying to break into the mainstream. (Lots of Youtube links) [more inside]
a leaking sack of heuristics
'The work of these researchers suggests there’s something fundamentally limiting about the underlying architecture of today’s AI models. Today’s AIs are able to simulate intelligence by, in essence, learning an enormous number of rules of thumb, which they selectively apply to all the information they encounter. [...] This research might also explain why AIs from different companies all seem to be “thinking” the same way, and are even converging on the same level of performance—performance that might be plateauing.' We Now Know How AI ‘Thinks’—and It’s Barely Thinking at All (WSJ; archive) [more inside]