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Food and Wine: According to Jeff O’Neill ... Alpine cheeses are what cheesemakers call cooked and pressed. “The curds are heated a second time so they all melt back together,” he explains. “That creates a smooth, uniform texture and the ability for the cheese to melt beautifully once it’s fully set. Pressed cheeses like cheddar lack that step, which is why they tend to separate.” This is why even the most beloved cheeses - Parmigiano-Reggiano, aged Gouda, sharp cheddar - are better admired from afar when fondue is on the menu.
posted by Wordshore at 12:27 AM - 0 comments

The current conjuncture requires a movement between two political concepts: sovereignty and dignity. These are intertwined concepts of our era, with different movements and state projects operating with relative degrees of commitment to each of them. from The World Wants to Advance to Socialism [Monthly Review]
posted by chavenet at 12:01 AM - 2 comments

RFK, Jr. could completely eliminate the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) or delegitimize the independent body like it did with CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), two original USPSTF members warned. [more inside]
posted by subdee at 7:23 PM - 7 comments

Blood omega-3 is inversely related to risk of early-onset dementia (incidence drops from 0.19% to 0.11%).
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 12:48 PM - 19 comments

What I Found When I Tried to Walk Across Dallas in a Day On two different days in May, Jeffrey McWhorter walked across Dallas, beginning at the southernmost edge, traversing through the center, and ending at the northern limit. He initially thought the trip would take just one day, but he realized he wanted more time to take photographs and talk to the people he met. There are 53 photos of people and places that you've never seen before. Unless you live in Dallas, of course. (archive link if you've used up your one free story at Texas Monthly)
posted by tuesdayschild at 12:31 PM - 10 comments

The much loved weekly comedy news show started airing new episodes on a new channel this month. [Archived]
The show will still be hosted by Dara Ó Briain. Rhys James will be the only regular panellist ending the long, tyrannical reign of Hugh Dennis. [more inside]
posted by robotmachine at 12:16 PM - 8 comments

Police statement: "Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday, 23 February and has been taken to a London police station for interview. This follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas.” BBC live, Guardian politics live. Previously, 4 days ago: Andrew MBW arrested. BBC, 11 days ago: Norway's former PM charged with gross corruption over Epstein links. BBC, 22 days ago: Slovakia PM's national security adviser resigns over Epstein links.
posted by Wordshore at 11:27 AM - 17 comments

Let the adventure begin! Select the difficulty level, touch and move to reveal the image, guess what it represents... Castlelight
posted by chavenet at 11:02 AM - 6 comments

UK comedian Cody Dahler helps you get up to speed with the news! The first linked special is about the tariffs! [more inside]
posted by Kitteh at 10:04 AM - 4 comments

A fabulous, heartwarming version of the song (SLYT)
posted by dfm500 at 9:53 AM - 5 comments

"For the player to achieve their goal of (as the title suggests) coming out to their parents, they would normally have to make a cross-country road trip back home to tell them in person." “The History of Coming Out To Your Parents Any% Speedrunning” is a short science fiction story by Jubilee Finnegan, published this month, that describes a video game, speedrunners' approaches to completing it, "a rare moment in which IGN and GLAAD converged", and fans' -- and the lead designer's -- reactions. Speedrunning scifi previously.
posted by brainwane at 6:59 AM - 10 comments

The AI Disruption We've Been Waiting for Has Arrived [ungated; cf.] - "We're entering a new renaissance of software development. We should all be excited, despite the uncertainties that lie ahead." (previously, viz. usw.) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 2:06 AM - 147 comments

Scarecrow of the sky in full flight to protect Australian fruit and almond crops A new peregrine falcon drone wards off peckish birds that have been destroying valuable fruit crops. [more inside]
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 1:46 AM - 3 comments

Whatever Edge was supposed to be, it became something sinister. The salon played yenta to billionaire money and alpha-male minds, and together, over decades, they all converged on a master philosophy: they were apex predators ordained by nature to exploit and subjugate others. This creed allowed the Edge set to steer intellectual history into its current fascist dead-end. from The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science [The Nerve]
posted by chavenet at 12:01 AM - 18 comments

The seasons turn, and with them the prevailing weather. Shockingly, it's stopped raining and there's predictions of a hot, yellow, ball of fire in the sky. As MeFites break out the suntan lotion and sip cocktails by the pool, what are you looking forward to doing when the seasons and weather changes - or talk about anything as it's your Free Thread. [n.b. Your Meteorology May Vary]
posted by Wordshore at 11:32 PM - 49 comments

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. [more inside]
posted by Reverend John at 7:17 PM - 8 comments

What kind of running or walking shoes are the best? There are a number of other factors that you can ignore. For example, “we used to prescribe a shoe based on foot type, so if you had flat feet or pronating feet, we’d recommend a motion control shoe,” says Esculier. (Pronation is the natural inward rolling motion of your foot when it lands. When people overpronate, their foot rolls in too far.) “But that’s been debunked by several studies. We shouldn’t be recommending it because it changes nothing related to your injury risk. So selecting a shoe based on your foot type is not indicated.” --- The article discusses the difference between minimalist and maximalist shoes, and the pros and cons of each. [more inside]
posted by storybored at 7:08 PM - 34 comments

Rare bird spotted on outback cattle station for first time. A project with dozens of monitoring sites across the Queensland property confirms the presence of the critically endangered plains-wanderer by analysing bird calls.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 2:13 PM - 5 comments

"In this video I describe an articulated model scythe figure I constructed in wood to demonstrate aspects of body movement and posture when using a scythe to mow grass." [SLYT]
posted by cichlid ceilidh at 2:08 PM - 4 comments

Click the phone to pick it up and hear a poem. Click again to hang up. Click again to hear another. First launched in 1969 by poet John Giorno, Dial-A-Poem began as a radical experiment: pick up the phone, dial a number, and hear a poem. Today, it’s a global network. Working with partners around the world, Giorno Poetry Systems records contemporary poets reading in their native languages and makes their work available through freely accessible local phone numbers. [more inside]
posted by Shepherd at 1:55 PM - 11 comments

Guess the daily world capital in 6 tries. Each guess shows distance, a directional arrow, and matching attributes: Capitalle
posted by chavenet at 12:07 PM - 24 comments

Scientists found that pediatrician blood had "levels of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) antibodies that were three times greater than that of control subjects" and discovered several new ones that were "up to 25 times better at blocking RSV than existing antibodies" in lab tests.
posted by autopilot at 10:46 AM - 17 comments

Armed only with a pack of playing cards, delve into the Tomb of the Four Kings and recover their treasure hordes. Read the rules (PDF, Spanish PDF, Korean PDF,) or watch a demonstration*. [more inside]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:37 AM - 8 comments

How far back in time can you understand English? is a story by Colin Gorrie, where every section is written according to the grammar, vocabulary and orthography of a previous century. The story starts in the year 2000 and ends in the year 1000, and different readers stop understanding at different points. Gorrie writes a newsletter about the history of English called the Dead Language Society.
posted by Kattullus at 3:50 AM - 54 comments

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman commissioned an independent report into the trouble-plagued Boeing Starliner mission that left astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore having to spend several unscheduled months aboard the ISS. Announcing the publication of the report (although with a lot of redactions) Isaacman sent a frank and uncompromising memo to NASA employees that makes sobering reading. Six decades after Apollo 1, four decades after Challenger and two decades after Columbia, NASA came closer than admitted at the time to losing another crew. [more inside]
posted by Major Clanger at 3:04 AM - 18 comments

Amazon delivery van accidentally gets stuck in the sea in Britain. HM Coastguard Southend says the van driver had been trying to get to Foulness Island and ventured out onto tidal mudflats. [more inside]
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 2:05 AM - 22 comments

If you're planning on flying out of the US during this partial gov shutdown, plan for more time at the airport.
posted by Higherfasterforwards at 1:22 AM - 37 comments

I believe that human communication is becoming more oral. And by that I don’t just mean that people are talking more with their mouths, although I do think that is the case. It’s more that communication in general, whether in the spoken form or in the digital form, has the characteristics of conversation. And it truly harkens back to a time before really the written word or, certainly, mass literacy. from The Obscure Media Theory That Explains '99% of Everything' [Derek Thompson]
posted by chavenet at 1:06 AM - 16 comments

The Pentagon is rethinking its ties with dozens of universities, which could affect tuition assistance and other programs for military students. The list, which a defense official told Business Insider remains "up in the air," contains Ivy League schools and other prominent institutions, as well as some lesser-known universities. [more inside]
posted by subdee at 8:26 PM - 34 comments

One group of people, dubbed Bigfooters, are so intrigued that they have taken to the forests of Washington, California, Oregon, Ohio, Florida and beyond to look for evidence of the mythical creature. But why? That’s what sociologists Jamie Lewis and Andrew Bartlett wanted to uncover. They were itching to understand what prompts this community to spend valuable time and resources looking for a beast that is highly unlikely to even exist. In other Bigfoot news, Jeffrey Meldrum, anthropology professor and Bigfoot researcher, died in 2025. (NYT gift link, archive)
posted by ShooBoo at 6:33 PM - 26 comments

For many foreigners “Indian food” means safe, reliable treats such as butter chicken, onion bhaji and naan. Even to many Indians, curried bee larvae sound alarmingly exotic. They belong to another India: to a cuisine that is one of the world’s richest, yet practically invisible. Its recipes are shaped by cruelty, scarcity and shame. This is the food of Dalits, once called “untouchables”. It is widely shunned—yet fabulous. from From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s “untouchable” cooking [The Economist; ungated]
posted by chavenet at 1:57 PM - 15 comments

"Smiling" fossil discovered in Northumberland. The unusual-looking fossil is estimated to be about 350 million years old.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:54 AM - 11 comments

February 21 is World Mother Language Day. Al Jazeera looks at the most spoken languages and which ones are endangered. More than 7,000 languages are spoken around the world today and at least 3,000 of them, or 40 percent, are endangered. Just 25 countries are home to some 80 percent of the world’s endangered languages.
posted by wicked_sassy at 5:30 AM - 10 comments

To the modern eye, it seems obvious that microwave cooking can only be about reheating ready-made frozen food. It’s about staring blankly at the buzzing white box, waiting for the four dreadful beeps that give you permission to eat. It’s about consuming lukewarm processed slop on a rickety formica table, with only the crackling of a flickering neon light piercing through the silence. But this is completely misinterpreting Microwave Cooking for One’s vision. from My journey to the microwave alternate timeline
posted by chavenet at 2:39 AM - 130 comments

Wikipedia is moving to blacklist archive.today after it was leveraged in a DDOS attack and editors discovered that the site’s operator was manipulating snapshots, reports Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica: “There is a strong consensus that Wikipedia should not direct its readers towards a website that hijacks users’ computers to run a DDoS attack (see WP:ELNO#3). Additionally, evidence has been presented that archive.today’s operators have altered the content of archived pages, rendering it unreliable.”
posted by Going To Maine at 10:16 PM - 38 comments

Lemmons the Shiny Clown has been performing live since 1994 and live on the Internet since 1996. His first performance at a now-demolished venue in Raleigh, North Carolina has not yet been made (more) public, nor his 1997 Cooking With Lemmons stream on the MBONE from Rensselaer Poly, but his MBONE pre-Valentine's Day event from 1996 and his Urgency Broadcast from 2001 originally hosted at Carolina's iBiblio.org are both now available on Youtube.
posted by infinitewindow at 8:29 PM - 9 comments

Researchers From McGill University and Drexel University Demonstrate Proboscis of Female Mosquitoes Can Print in Finer Detail Than Expensive and Fragile Commercial Tips [more inside]
posted by ShooBoo at 1:54 PM - 18 comments

Arch Enemy , the Swedish melodic death metal band, has a new vocalist and a new song, To the Last Breath. [more inside]
posted by signal at 1:44 PM - 5 comments

Caroline Klidonas made a SPACE MOVIE 🚀 without leaving her apartment.
posted by brundlefly at 12:45 PM - 12 comments

William Shatner, the actor and author known for his role as Captain Kirk in Star Trek and the oldest person to go to space, is now preparing to release a new metal album. Built around collaborations with 35 hand-picked artists from across the metal world, worlds are colliding with science fiction, actual space, and metal. Known for blending spoken-word intensity with cinematic soundscapes, Shatner’s latest project leans into heavy guitars, dramatic arrangements, and narrative-driven performances.
posted by chavenet at 11:50 AM - 29 comments

Once-in-a-lifetime red-rock waterfall in Western Australia's north delights onlookers. The question of whether there is water in Python Pool is often asked around the pubs and message boards of Western Australia's Pilbara. For the moment, the answer is very much yes.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 11:42 AM - 4 comments

"Held: IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs." A 6-3 vote determined that the Trump administration didn't have authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 8:40 AM - 129 comments

Today in Politics (2/19/26) - Heather Cox Richardson. Covers a lot of ground for anyone who wants a little catching up, with HCR's excellent analysis. Truly weird, mostly terrible. [YT 49:50]
posted by Glinn at 6:37 AM - 22 comments

Esoterica (channel trailer) is the YouTube channel of Dr Justin Sledge. His website's FAQ with much info about him. [more inside]
posted by 15L06 at 6:25 AM - 8 comments

Routine medical procedures are harder for women – here’s why. When medical procedures are designed around male anatomy, women often pay the price – in pain, difficulty and dismissal.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 12:36 AM - 43 comments

Jean-Christophe, Dani and Foucault are partying. Later in life Foucault will become more ascetic, but not yet. He likes to drive fast, often having little accidents. I imagine the three friends as a kind of ménage-à-trois, it’s like a game, sometimes they dress up, I imagine it as a life outside the archive and the academy, I think about what you have to do to survive. Triangles of drama. Like an adventure and conflict. I think of the family vacation. from An Archive of Associations: When My Father Bought Foucault’s Old Car by Anna Nygren [LitHub]
posted by chavenet at 12:01 AM - 10 comments

"Tyler Perry is a lot of things," F.d. Signifier says on early in the recently released The Tyler Perry Video. [more inside]
posted by midmarch snowman at 2:56 PM - 20 comments

Thomas Germain made a blog post that ranks tech journalists at their hot-dog eating contest prowess. Shortly after, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google's AI Overviews would confidently parrot these fictions to anyone who asked. I found a way to make AI tell you lies – and I'm not the only one. [more inside]
posted by polecat at 1:44 PM - 24 comments

Could Spinosaurus swim? A new fossil with a scimitar-like head crest provides new evidence on the unsettled question. [more inside]
posted by brundlefly at 1:38 PM - 4 comments

U.S. Engaged in Massive Military Buildup as Threat To Bomb Iran Grows “In case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it,” Trump has said. Iran remains defiant in the face of ultimatums, pledging unprecedented retaliation to any attack. (DropSite News) [more inside]
posted by subdee at 12:10 PM - 52 comments