~metafilter | Bookmarks (975)

"How Long to Read is a book search engine that helps you find out how long it will take to read books and provide reading time data that is tailored to you. With our simple WPM (words per minute) test you can find out how long it will take you to read almost anything, and also use our search engine to find books that...

A sad and sweet animated clip made for the Queen song All Dead All Dead. This song came out in 1977 on the album News of the World; the video was made in 2017 at the 40-year anniversary of the album. The lead vocals on this version were sung by Mercury, not May, who sang them on the original version.If you prefer to watch...

The question of student surveillance is made more difficult by a lack of clear data on whether it works and if so, whether the collateral damage to privacy is justified. School officials across the country defend the use of such surveillance by arguing that if it saves just one life, it's worth it. But is it worth it if it turns schools into virtual...

A few days ago, Drew Daniel posted on Twitter: had a dream I was at a rave talking to a girl and she told me about a genre called "hit em" that is in 5/4 time at 212 bpm with super crunched out sounds thank you dream girl In the days since, people have kept sharing their own.

Journalist Evan Gershkovich has come home. Gershkovich and two other Americans who had been wrongfully imprisoned in Russia came home today - along with citizens of Germany, Britain, and Belarus. Seven Russians - political prisoners, some of them associates of Alexei Navalny - were also released. This is the largest prisoner swap since the collapse of the Soviet Union.Heather Cox Richardson lays out the...

Louie Zong adjusted Bobby Darin singing Beyond the Sea (original), so that every note is a C. Unjoy! (both links 3 minutes long)

Donald Trump at the National Association of Black Journalists (PBS, C-SPAN, The Hill, Axios, USA Today, NYT, Chicago Sun-Times, Politifact)

Our starlet narrators position their fans against the media, with media imagined as vicious and venal, while fans are pure-hearted and devoted. What these characterizations elide in their attempts to appeal to their audiences is the fact that we're guilty too, always grasping at shards of these girls and in this process tearing them apart. Like Eve, these are girls denied depth by the...

We'll find out who won the veepstakes next week: Kamala Harris to appear with running mate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Aug. 6 (Guardian link). Meanwhile in her Atlanta rally Harris tells Trump to 'Say it to my face' (Guardian link).More Than 100 Silicon Valley Investors Pledge to Support Kamala Harris (NYT gift link) Business is Buzzing Again for the Meme Makers of the Left...

Roots of Pacha is a cozy game in the vein of Stardew Valley. What sets it apart is a strong communitarian vibe where you are one member of a community working together to improve their village.Most farming games have a capitalist grounding where you grow crops to make money to buy tools to grow more crops. Roots of Pacha is more communitarian. You give...

To combat the rising anti-trans hate in Canada, a group of lawyers wrote a handbook on how to help schools and libraries fight back. (slarchiveph) (originalTorontoStarlink)

Snow Belt to Sun Belt Migration: End of an Era [pdf] - "Given climate change projections for coming decades of increasing extreme heat in the hottest U.S. counties and decreasing extreme cold in the coldest counties, our findings suggest the 'pivoting' in the U.S. climate-migration correlation over the past 50 years is likely to continue, leading to a reversal of the 20th century Snow...

"What are the best methods of capturing thematic similarity between literary texts? Knowing the answer to this question would be useful for automatic clustering of book genres, or any other thematic grouping."(This post brought to you by my recent faffing around with recent Shakespeare scholarship to decide which edition(s) to read.) Abstract: What are the best methods of capturing thematic similarity between literary texts?...

We learn in Parade that the female condition is "unlasting yet eternal," that behind its "volcanic cycles of change" there lies something "darkly continuous" yet "unknown." The female artist, we are told, must reckon with "the mystery and tragedy of her own sex." What Cusk really means is that women must make art about being mothers. If they refuse to do this, they are...

From none to 50,000. Why flying foxes are moving west across Australia. Flying foxes are being driven further west in search of food and shelter. Camps have been found west of Adelaide for the first time.

Project 2025 director ends work on plan for Donald Trump presidency after continued attack from Democrats The director of the "Project 2025" plan for a Donald Trump presidency has stepped down after Democrats made attacking it central to their election campaign and Trump repeatedly distanced himself from it."But the Trump campaign said it had "been very clear for over a year that Project 2025...

Francine Pascal, Creator of 'Sweet Valley High' Book Series, Dies at 92. The series and its many spinoffs have sold more than 200 million copies and revolutionized the world of young adult publishing. This American Life episode #186 (Prom) contains a nice interview with Ms. Pascal. Transcript at the link.

White Dudes for Harris "...is the latest in a series of Zoom gatherings backing the vice president." [source]

"I was hesitant to join the crowds of U.S. Americans descending on the Caribbean, but Ramona maintained that Paradisus was the best option for my needs: parents who never vacation, mostly shop at Costco, and harbor a fundamental dislike of restaurants and an extremely low tolerance for what they determine is not worth their money." (Simon Wu for The Paris Review) This may be...

An ecological/epidemiological assessment of pesticide use patterns and cancer risks suggests that pesticides exposure ranks as dangerous as smoking for some cancer types (via, healthline, forbes). As a bonus, pesticides increasingly contain PFAS aka forever chemicals., and so does drinking water.As some highlights.. "Our findings demonstrated an association between pesticide use and increased incidence of leukemia; non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; bladder, colon, lung, and pancreatic cancer;...

After 14 years AppleVis is shutting down. A major online forum and news blog for the disabled community AppleVis featured a massive app directory that primarily provided reviews on how accessible or functional an app was for VoiceOver users. AppleVis was a critical resource, as approximately 70% of the disabled community primarily use iOS and Voiceover for their mobile assistive tech.AppleVis also regularly put...

Back when I was at Pokémon, some kid figured out how to extract the images from the card game. He found an icon from the developer and said 'Holy s----, I found a new Pokémon.' This kid included his email, and because of the way Pokémon did account creation, when we got the child's account, we got the parent information, which included a phone...