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In a state with prolonged bouts of drought and unquenching thirst, stolen water is an indelible part of California lore. But this was not Los Angeles' brazen gambit to take water from the Owens Valley. Or San Francisco's ploy to flood part of Yosemite National Park for a reservoir. The water grab described in a federal indictment allegedly happened cat burglar-style, siphoned through a...

Good morning Europe! The Grand Final of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest 2024 will take place today in Malmö, Sweden (detailed previously on the Blue). At least, it's supposed to.Never a simple show to arrange, this year has been particularly dogged by controversies and protests around the inclusion of Israel in the lineup, with many criticising the EBU's "apolitical" stance. But what looks to...

This Is What Being in Your Twenties Was Like in 18th-Century London. A newly restored collection of letters describes a 27-year-old's office job, social life and financial concerns beginning in 1719.

So, Jeff Daniels recently visited the Kelly Clarkson Show [13m]. It was an entirely lovely and kind visit full of humanity. But the real surprise is his confession of the love of playing guitar, having written a zillion original songs, and his performance of a song about how the guitar is his best friend and he moves Clarkson to tears with his performance. It's...

AI has fostered a lot of mash-ups in various styles. Some guy named demonflyingfox has been turning popular animated and live-action series into colorized versions from the fifties. I'm not really doing it justice so check out Friends, The Simpsons, and SpongBob SquarePants among many others.He's also got some "this but that"-style videos like Star Wars But in Japan or South Park But 80s...

Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones, an English comedian with an interest in geography and a former geography teacher who's also very funny, are the Map Men ("...Map Men, Map Map Map Men Men" ), whose highly entertaining YouTube channel is chock full of educational cartographic goodness. Try any of their (27) videos at random, or all of them—even the ads are worth watching. Their...

Context: Cheese Award Controversy. Cheese Professor: "In the US food-selling world, there is a term called Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS). For our store, and most natural foods stores, buyers won't buy foods with ingredients that are not GRAS I looked at the Climax Blue ingredient list and there was something I didn't recognize: kokum butter. I looked it up and, while approved for...

This conference was only a minor part of the significant and apparently well-resourced campaign to elevate Karl to sainthood.

Haidee Chu writes about Manhattan's Flower District for The City - its history, its shop cats, and its remaining vendors' opinions on which is the better holiday for florists, Mothers Day or Valentines Day. With photos by Ben Fractenberg."It's funny, because men love their moms more than their wives, so they always order ahead of time for Mother's Day, but they always ask me...

Madonna's free Brazil concert at Rio's Copacabana beach attracts more than 1.6 million fans. That's a lot of people. I wish I could see that. Oh, here! MADONNA THE CELEBRATION TOUR IN RIO FULL SHOW 04/05/24 HD [2h15m, ProShot]

On Thursday, May 9, 2024, the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch -- its first since January 2005. Coinciding with a new moon, aurorae should be visible (weather permitting) much further than typical. The Northern/Western-specific current predictions from NOAO show the view line extending below 40 degrees Northern latitude.On the flip side, strong solar storms (notably the Carrington...

The Waning Reign of the Wetland Architect We Barely Know (Hint: Not a Beaver) Little-appreciated, semiaquatic, and cute-as-hell, muskrats can survive almost anywhere. So where are they? (Brandon Keim for Hakai Magazine)Since the early 1970s, muskrat populations appeared to have fallen by at least one-half in 34 US states. In a handful of states, the collapse was near-total, coming in between 90 and 99...

In the dreamworld of the arts, every inanimate thing is animate, every object contains the entire world, millions of years of history and future and feeling. As she writes her story, which is ultimately her life, it can look like anything she wants. The more she thinks about it, the greater the possibilities. The more she's cast out, the more she must innovate. The...

Rare handfish population returned to wild after riding out marine heatwave in tank. They've been gently coaxed out of the plastic bag and into the big, bad underwater world where they are exposed to the elements. Now, researchers have big hopes this small group of red handfish will not only survive, but thrive — the species is depending on it.

I believe this is from 2007. The Seinfeld Roundtable [1h] has the core cast plus Larry David sitting around talking about the show. Michael Richards doesn't speak much. I enjoyed it enough to share.

Steve Albini, lengendary producer (engineer) and musician has died of a heart attack at age 61. He worked with everyone from Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to Nirvana, Pixies and The Breeders.

Eccentric conspiracist and Presidential candidate RFK, Jr. had brainworms. NYT: R.F.K. Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain. "The presidential candidate has faced previously undisclosed health issues, including a parasite that he said ate part of his brain."The infection was apparently diagnosed after an apparent cysts appearing on a scan was determined to be the "remains of a parasite." The information...

A rare archaeological object – thought to be the only one of its type in the former Roman Empire – has been discovered in Carlisle, England. The remnants of the Roman bathhouse at the Carlisle Cricket Club have revealed an extremely rare chunk of Tyrian purple dye, the first of its kind ever discovered in northern Europe and possibly the entire Roman Empire. [...]...

A solution that is only a solution for the people who can afford to be a part of the solution is not a solution A hour long video about cooking, food, race, gender, class and capitalism.