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Eleven years ago, English Heritage launched a historical cooking series on YouTube - The Victorian Way - and a viral star - Kathy Hipperson. She portrayed a historical head cook of Audley End House - Avis Crocombe. (Historical research, writing and occassional scullery maid Mary Ann by Dr. Annie Gray)

In 2024, due to budget cuts at English Heritage, they cancelled both the live reenactments and video segments after more than 100 episodes of glorious Victorian shade.

Recent video discoveries indicate that she had a descendent - Mrs Wilding - the post war cook at Abbot's Hall (home of The Food Museum). [more inside]
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:34 AM - 1 comment

Skub is a (mobile friendly!) open source daily puzzle game with simple rules: Slide the puck to the target. Fewest moves wins. [more inside]
posted by pwnguin at 10:52 AM - 9 comments

Jeff Tweedy and Hayley Williams performing Unknown Mortal Orchestra's "Ffunny Ffrends" on Colbert's show Featuring a Hayley Williams theremin solo!
posted by dismas at 9:50 AM - 9 comments

Do you enjoy supernatural horror westerns? Dust n' Dread is an episodic webcomic about a dead man, a werewolf and the odd jobs they do. With 9 chapters complete and a 10th in progress there's no better place to start than the beginning.
posted by Lorc at 9:25 AM - 1 comment

"the finest specimens were logged off in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Historically, Douglas-fir often grew 300+ ft tall, and some forests were studded with ~1000-year-old titans perhaps surpassing 400 ft in height. " The extant titans of trees, coastal redwood and sequoia, may only hint at a history of even larger trees on our planet.
posted by rubatan at 9:02 AM - 3 comments

One of Canada's finest and creepiest bands. [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 7:41 AM - 9 comments

In Australia, homeless camps are rising as affordability falls. It’s a problem Australia has solved before. In the 1940s, tent cities and shanty settlements appeared across Australia, as families struggled to find homes. The government acted then – and needs to act now. (The Conversation).
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 4:10 AM - 16 comments

Seated on his patio decked with posters of old Hollywood films and actors, from Marlon Brando to The Godfather, Ramos-Horta told the Guardian and OCCRP that in private conversations Lin had told him he wanted to do business in Timor-Leste. “And if his businesses are legitimate, you know, as appeared in some of his formal presentations – blockchain, this and that, you know, hi-tech, all of that – yes, we would like to have that,” he said. from Private jets, deserted shores and an unbuilt resort: alleged links to sanctioned ‘scam’ empire revealed in Timor-Leste [Grauniad]
posted by chavenet at 4:06 AM - 1 comment

Am I Perhaps in Italy? and Men Watching Men by James Butler and Tom Crewe respectively, are two recent essays in the London Review of Books about gay men in history and historical gayness, the former taking a broad view of homosexuality in 15th, 16th and 17th century Europe, and the latter looking carefully at the impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte. Malin Hay asked the two writers to discuss their pieces on the LRB Podcast, which they did in an entertaining and wide-ranging manner, and brought up another piece from last year by Alice Hunt about King James I.
posted by Kattullus at 3:41 AM - 2 comments

Soldier Used Classified Information to Bet on Maduro’s Ouster - US prosecutors say that Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who was involved in the operation to oust Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela, used the information to place bets on Polymarket.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:41 PM - 21 comments

Face lift for Queensland dinosaur after discovery of 1300 more bones. The dinosaur's face lift has become the butt of online jokes among palaeontology fans, but researchers say it is the most accurate depiction of the creature yet.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 5:06 PM - 7 comments

Josh Scott of JHS Pedals, arguably the biggest guitar-tech nerd in the known universe, shows how AI is rewriting the history of guitar pedals in a feedback slop-loop.. Maybe this will finally get people to rethink their relation to AI?
posted by signal at 4:38 PM - 26 comments

A Maine lawsuit has suddenly become the most significant anti-corruption battle inside America’s legal system, offering the first serious chance in decades to challenge the disastrous Citizens United decision. [more inside]
posted by subdee at 1:15 PM - 25 comments

Next week, representatives from 54 nations will gather in Brazil to begin planning their transition away from fossil fuels. The conference, cosponsored by the Netherlands, was motivated by petrostates' ongoing success at blocking climate COPs from advocating for this obvious step. Conference website. January story from Climate Change News.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:11 AM - 14 comments

On April 2 of this year, the Radio-Canada (Canada's French national broadcaster; not actually just radio) program Enquête uncovered a Quebec maple syrup producer selling adulterated syrup, labeled as pure, that was actually 50% corn syrup, under his business -- the numbered corporation 9227-8712 Québec inc. aka "Érablière Steve Bourdeau". But there's more. [more inside]
posted by Shepherd at 9:59 AM - 75 comments

Sleepyhead is... Weird. YouTuber/musician Ego Dip deconstructs/reconstructs Passion Pit's most interesting track from scratch.
posted by Christ, what an asshole at 8:36 AM - 6 comments

Benches are microcosms of an expansive debate about who belongs in urban public spaces. When they are removed or made uninviting, we lose more than just a place to rest. (slPlacesJournal) [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 6:36 AM - 41 comments

Finding hidden gems in 100 years of soil stored at national archive. Far from brown dirt, the Australian National Soil Archive houses 100,000 soil samples — some a century old — that represent a slice through time of the ground beneath our feet.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 5:19 AM - 4 comments

Don Quixote was likely one of the few readings I did for pleasure during my doctoral years. Reading it in company and out loud — precisely how Cervantes’ readers would have read it in the seventeenth century — constantly reminded me that literature is at its best when shared. Books bring people together, and their meaning only shines through when they are read in community. When we make them part of our relationships, they come to life, turning into objects that sustain us. Like her beloved errant knight, Alexandra allowed herself to be transformed by the stories she loved.
posted by chavenet at 3:25 AM - 26 comments

Do you like longish honest wild science/math/engineering videos? Making an autocorrect mini golf club (part 1) - YouTube. Watch part 2.. Robot golf vs holes that keep getting harder - YouTube Well worth it for his wife's 9/10 rating.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:10 PM - 4 comments

Your name in Landsat. A little gizmo from NASA. “Type in your name to see it spelled out in Landsat imagery of Earth!” Here’s MetaFilter.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:39 PM - 21 comments

Pianist Jon Batiste re-imagines Für Elise (from Beethoven Blues)
posted by roaring beast at 7:38 PM - 10 comments

In its purest form, fish sauce is made from just two ingredients: fish and salt, fermented together for months. Despite the fact that some fish sauce labels depict squid, shrimp, or even a man carrying a giant shrimp over his shoulder ..., the base formula remains the same. Both fish and salt are placed into huge vats, usually three parts fish to one part salt, and weighted down to prevent the fish from floating to the surface as fermentation begins. Once liquid begins to seep out of the fish, it is drained and reintroduced to the vat for the full fermentation process, which lasts long enough for it to reach concentration, but not so long that off-flavours develop. Usually this process takes nine months to a year, with the vats sitting in the sun as the sauce takes form. [more inside]
posted by ShooBoo at 6:44 PM - 29 comments

Australia's rarest reptile found after being considered extinct. Not found anywhere else on Earth, a skink considered functionally extinct has been found in a national park in far west New South Wales.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 2:19 PM - 11 comments

Writing for Vogue, Lisa Wong Macabasco recounts attending a performance of Lunch Dances - a musical performance performed in the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. (SLVogue) [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 1:02 PM - 30 comments

The biological motor that powers the motion of bacteria is now finally understood. Wheels are rare in biology, but they exist. Recent research has completed a project that started with the discovery of a molecular-scale spinning wheel in the 1970s. [more inside]
posted by SaltySalticid at 12:33 PM - 21 comments

Amazingly, after years of being held up and even being threatened with destruction by David "Head Up His Ass" Zaslav, the trailer for the approaching release of Coyote vs. Acme is out.
posted by JHarris at 10:06 AM - 62 comments

How To Make a Cheese Sandwich Today I show you how to make a cheese sandwich. Learn how to make the perfect cheese sandwich in just a few simple steps. [more inside]
posted by davidmsc at 9:34 AM - 23 comments

The Impossible Case of Lilly and Jack: How Did Two Kids Vanish in Nova Scotia? (slTheWalrus) [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 7:03 AM - 13 comments

"My head assploded and harsh words came out after reading the ABCs stupidest ever 730 report on EVs." John Birmingham has many pertinent thoughts on stupid people trying to appeal to stupid people. In this instance, it's to do with a particularly stupid article about electric vehicles. (Sorry about Substack;, I'm sure he'll eventually get the message and change venues. He's an Australian national treasure who sums things up very well indeed).
posted by h00py at 6:23 AM - 34 comments

"ADHD Symptom Manifestation in Adulthood" A new study in the Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine argues that current diagnostic tools are stuck in a "childhood" mindset, focusing too much on physical hyperactivity. Through interviews with ADHD adults, researchers identified six new critical dimensions that better describe the adult experience but are often ignored by the DSM-5. [more inside]
posted by wenestvedt at 6:19 AM - 32 comments

[CW: sexy times] Alice Giddings in Metro: “To splosh is to derive sexual pleasure and arousal from being covered in wet and messy substances like food products and beverages” ... “and Gigi says cake-sitting is hugely popular. She explains: ‘Cake sitting is very popular on OnlyFans, there are a lot of women who sit in cakes as a part of their content creation” ... “When 'Sploshing' first occurred in our history I don’t know for sure. But the earliest records showing grapes being crushed under feet for wine was in 7000BC and I have a feeling someone would have been watching those women with a semi in their pants.”
posted by Wordshore at 2:43 AM - 29 comments

Whether in the form of fail videos, of clips of highway accidents, or of footage of celebrities eating really spicy foods, pain is one of the last forms of “real”—because spontaneous, anti-theatrical—experience left. Human suffering has been refigured as the opposite of algorithmic slop. And even if the fathomless availability of others’ pain has dulled our affective responses, what has changed is the way in which we select, frame, and invest particular instances of others’ pain with heightened symbolic meaning.
posted by chavenet at 2:42 AM - 11 comments

Bandicoots bounce back in Brown Hill Creek as team works towards "superhighway". A small colony of endangered brown bandicoots just south of Adelaide continue to breed as conservationists hope to connect them with other populations.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 9:48 PM - 5 comments

The SPLC indictment, the Klan history behind it...... and the ignominy of Todd Blanche. A very detailed legal explainer of the background of the recent court case. [more inside]
posted by Silvery Fish at 9:21 PM - 14 comments

Guinea worm disease is poised to become the second human disease in history to be eradicated. When the Carter Center's work began in 1986, Guinea worm disease afflicted an estimated 3.5 million people every year in 21 countries in Africa and Asia. In 2025 there were only 10 reported human cases. The eradication effort is the first to be done without vaccines or medicine. Instead, thousands of community volunteers were recruited, teaching people to filter all drinking water and keep infected people and animals away from water sources. [more inside]
posted by storybored at 7:24 PM - 8 comments

This scammer used an AI-generated MAGA girl to grift ‘super dumb’ men. (ungated)
posted by Literaryhero at 4:41 PM - 32 comments

Why are Harvard’s slavery researchers quitting or being fired?: "Three Harvard-affiliated academics stepped down from their posts with the Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Initiative, alleging the university was getting in the way of their work. The former executive director of the initiative stepped down for “personal reasons”, and 10 researchers who had been working on projects related to the initiative had been fired."
posted by hydropsyche at 1:46 PM - 15 comments

Every cheese is a combination of milk, texture, rind, mold, aging, and processing. Put all the combinations in a grid and you find holes — cheeses nobody has made yet, or that only exist in one remote valley. This is that grid. Click any cell to expand it.
posted by chavenet at 1:30 PM - 28 comments

Most people care about farm animals — our food system doesn't reflect that. An article about the disconnect between our values and how the sausage is made. It is interesting that there is such broad agreement that these common practices are not acceptable, when our values and opinions are generally fractured along so many lines.
posted by SaltySalticid at 12:50 PM - 17 comments

Fandom is *REALLY* intense these days (archive link) [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 8:23 AM - 96 comments

Disabled Aotearoa/New Zealand parrot uses broken beak to achieve status. Without a curvy upper beak to get in the way, Bruce the kea uses his lower beak to stab or joust at other birds in his social group.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:21 AM - 8 comments

Popularity of names in the US over time. A fun little toy.
posted by Sebmojo at 5:24 AM - 74 comments

"There was no need to say that things were bad. Everyone knew it. The mood wasn’t sour—citrus farmers could handle sour. It was something else. Postapocalyptic. Florida is in the midst of its worst drought in 25 years, but the dry spell actually ranked far down on the list of challenges these bedraggled growers were facing. In 2003, the mighty Florida orange industry produced 242 million boxes of fruit, with 90 pounds of oranges per box, most of which went on to become orange juice. Now, not even 25 years later, the United States Department of Agriculture was forecasting a pitiful 12 million boxes of oranges, the least in more than 100 years, the worst year since last. A decline of more than 95 percent." Who Killed the Florida Orange?, in Slate.
posted by mittens at 2:20 AM - 50 comments

If people with limitless resources could sponsor litigation against news organizations they disliked, constitutional protections would be no match for the sheer cost and complexity of defense. Now, they’ve found an AI-assisted way to supercharge those effects. [Coda Story] [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 1:44 AM - 20 comments

In The Verge, Liz Lopatto writes well on a tried-and-true theme: “Silicon Valley has forgotten what normal people want”.

Within recent memory, people who made software and hardware understood their job was to serve their customer. It was to identify a need, and then fill it. But at some point following the financial crisis, would-be entrepreneurs got it into their heads that their job was to invent the future, and consumers’ job was to go along with that invented future.

posted by Going To Maine at 12:35 AM - 38 comments

Giant echidna fossil rewrites understanding of Victoria's prehistoric past. A fossil hidden in a museum collection for 119 years has revealed giant echidnas once roamed Victoria's east, filling a major gap in Australia's prehistoric record.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:09 PM - 7 comments

in 2004 truck driver Joe Macken started making a model of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. He then spent the next twenty years creating a model of all of New York's five boroughs and more, including every building, street and bridge, now on display at the Museum of the City of New York.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:58 AM - 28 comments

Global Tetrahedron, owners of The Onion, have officially taken control of Free Speech Systems and InfoWars. [more inside]
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:50 AM - 45 comments

What do you spend most of your time thinking about? The past? The present moment (whoops, too late)? The future? Positive events or negative? Yourself or others? Work or leisure time? The Meaning of Life? Flights of fancy or pragmatic facts? Do you think about the things you need to do? Do you need to write yourself lots of to-do lists so you don't forget them? Do you think about what you're forgetting to think about? Or just talk about whatever's on your mind (except politics, of course), because this is your weekly Free Thread!
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:06 AM - 84 comments