CultureDesk

CultureDesk, 10 days ago to science

A beluga can change the shape of its "melon" (the bulbous mass on its head) at will. Could this be used as a form of communication? A new study indicates that it might. Here's a story from @hakaimagazine with a six-panel comic illustrating the five different melon shapes and in what contexts some are used.

https://flip.it/xAQKg0

#Science #Animals #Nature #Communication #Language #Comics

CultureDesk, 10 days ago to television

The most popular TV show you've never heard of is called "The Chosen." It tells the story of Jesus and his disciples and there are seven seasons planned (the fourth season starts streaming June 2). Around 200 million people around the world have watched at least an episode, and the show also sold $63 million in theatrical ticket sales. The Hollywood Reporter talked to director Dallas Jenkins, who set out to make an elevated Christian TV series, and now has his sights on the Jesus Cinematic Universe.

https://flip.it/RcIEer

#Television #Christianity #Entertainment #TV #TuneIn

CultureDesk, 10 days ago to food

When students from Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon, cleared invasive Himalayan blackberry from a meadow on campus, a bank of camas seeds sprouted. "The university found itself with a thriving patch of Indigenous first foods," says @Toastie. For High Country News, they write about how this discovery birthed a festival, the Linfield Camas Festival. The one-day event is devoted to the wildflower, its place in Indigenous cuisine, culture and ecosystems, and educating others about food sovereignty and more.

https://flip.it/gh_Xy8

#Food #FoodCulture #FoodHistory #Indigenous #IndigenousCulture

CultureDesk, 10 days ago to history

Baseball's all-time leaders lists have changed overnight with the integration of the Negro Leagues into Major League Baseball statistics. Josh Gibson is now officially one of the greatest players of all time, beating Ty Cobb for career batting average and Babe Ruth for slugging percentage and OPS. His great grandson, Sean Gibson, hopes that the MVP award will be renamed in his honor. The trophy was previously named after Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball's first commissioner, who played a key role in keeping baseball segregated. “How ironic would it be for Josh Gibson to replace the man who denied more than 2,300 men the opportunity to play baseball in the major leagues,’’ Sean Gibson told USA Today.

https://flip.it/0m6Fgc

#History #SportsHistory #MLB #Baseball #BlackMastodon @blackmastodon #JoshGibson #HIstory @histodons

CultureDesk, 10 days ago to conservative

The Chinese government has started a new social-media crackdown, this time targeting conspicuous displays of wealth. In April, the country's internet regulator announced a campaign against influencers who “create a ‘wealth-flaunting’ persona, deliberately showcasing a luxurious life built on money, in order to attract followers and traffic.” Wealth-flaunters are now being removed from platforms like Douyin, the equivalent of TikTok. The move comes as China is experiencing an economic slowdown. Here's more from NBC.

https://flip.it/d8c0qQ

#Culture #PopCulture #SocialMedia #China #Influencers

CultureDesk, 11 days ago to conservative

After the 2016 election, brands became activists in weird and wonderful ways. "Burger King championed net neutrality; a frozen-meat brand soliloquized about the perils of disinformation on social media; on January 6, Axe body spray declared its faith in the 'peaceful transition of power'," writes Vox's Michael Serazio. The political landscape today is as fraught as then and the world is picking sides. But brand-land is silent. What gives?

https://flip.it/AIEHY_

#Culture #PopCulture #Advertising #Commerce #Activism

CultureDesk, 11 days ago (edited 10 days ago) to Sociology

Sociology professor Christopher T. Conner started looking into the QAnon movement four years ago, but his research soon broadened into all kinds of conspiracy theorists, from race scientists to New Age spiritualists. He writes for @TheConversationUS about why people are susceptible and how politicians and influential figures take advantage of them. Do you have conspiracy theorists in your life (if you don't know any, maybe it's you 👀)?

https://flip.it/Lyt0yN

#Sociology #Lifestyle #Politics #ConspiracyTheories #QAnon #Culture

For more stories like this, follow @ConversationUS's Arts & Culture Magazine, @arts,

CultureDesk, 12 days ago to Travel

President Biden has signed a new amendment in the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that will make it borderline impossible to track private jet activity. This puts the kibosh on social media attempts to hold famous folk accountable for their jet-related CO2 emissions, although @thrillist reports that a new study provides some insight into the worst celebrity polluters. Here's more.

https://flip.it/xg1egw

#Travel #TravelTuesday #Celebrity #Lifestyle #Environment

CultureDesk, 12 days ago to movies

Darryl Hickman died last week at the age of 92. He was a child actor in "The Prisoner of Zenda" and "The Grapes of Wrath," became a monk for a brief period, then later in life was a CBS executive and had a bit part in Sidney Lumet's "Network." Christan Blauvelt of @IndieWire has penned this moving tribute to Hickman, a "critical link to Old Hollywood" and a crucial part of one of the most striking death scenes in film noir history in "Leave Her to Heaven." "When Bernard Hill died recently, I wrote about the unique feeling accompanying the real-life death of an actor when that actor has been especially associated with a dramatic death scene onscreen," Blauvelt writes. "That feeling is only magnified when it’s been a very long time since the actor performed the demise in question."

https://flip.it/ww5UCB

#Film #Cinema #FilmNoir #RIP #InMemoriam #DarrylHickman #Movies #Hollywood

CultureDesk, 12 days ago (edited 11 days ago) to food

The "is a burger a sandwich?" debate rolls on and on without conclusion, but now a judge in the U.S. has entered the chat with a controversial new ruling. Superior Court Judge Craig Bobay of Allen County, Indiana, determined that "tacos and burritos are Mexican-style sandwiches" when presiding over a case brought to the courts by a restaurant owner hoping to open a location in the city of Fort Wayne. Here's more on the legal battle, but what do you think?

https://flip.it/1Ie3ze

#Food #FoodCulture #USA #Sandwiches #MexicanFood