Final Chapter of the 7 Up Documentary Series Set to Close with 70 Up

ichimunki — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 01:05:13 GMT

A documentary exploring the lives and classes of British 7 year old children premiered in the 1960s with 7 Up. Director Michael Apted continued 7 years later and every 7 years since. The final chapter is set to air on ITV this upcoming week with the children, now very much not children at 70 years old. Michael Apted passed away in 2021. Two participants, Lynn Johnson and Nick Hitchon, also passed during the intervening years. The participants had a historically fraught relationship with Michael Apted and the documentary series but at the same time, the series has been a big part of their lives.

Yours, Packrat

theodolite — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 02:23:25 GMT

An archived thread from the Unexplained and Uncontained podcast forums: [DELISTED] I Found Evidence Of My House Spinning

An unfiction by Blackle Mori. Previously by the same author.

The Mother Tongue of All Secrets

ellieBOA — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 12:24:19 GMT

For six decades, in four languages, Taleen Mardirossian's grandmother kept a secret. Who was she hiding, and why?

The island, the cafe, the dog, and the legal case

Wordshore — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 19:09:06 GMT

While many Americans happily relocate in Scotland, it doesn't always go smoothly. On the island of Bernera, one person is suing the cafe. The complainant has a history of such actions, another Hebridean cafe has revealed problems ("Ms Kellerman is now barred from The Blue Lobster - her dog is still welcome"), and there are others. The local newspaper is unimpressed.

"She was never very clear about what gripped her"

Wobbuffet — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 20:48:47 GMT

Anthony Tommasini (LitHub, 9/10/26), "Beauty in Ambiguity: On Marian Anderson's Lifelong Love For Schubert": "When selecting songs ... she always looked first to Schubert, 'the composer I love best,' who wrote 'hundreds of them,' each 'more beautiful than the last.'" E.g.: Ständchen (No. 4 in D. 957); Der Tod und das Mädchen (D. 531); Ave Maria (D. 839); and Erlkönig (D. 328) i.e. Goethe's poem based on a ballad also adapted in Benedikte Naubert's 1792 "The Erl-King's Daughter." Classical Voice North America on Tommasini: Anderson "feared she would be remembered for breaking barriers rather than for her artistry." At LitHub, Tommasini discusses "Wohin?" and "Ungeduld" from D. 795, but also "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." He mentions Roland Hayes singing Schubert as an influence. At Largehearted Boy, he makes more suggestions.

A world gone in hours

beesbees — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 19:14:51 GMT

Full disintegration He finished the recordings on the morning of September 11, 2001, a few hours before he was due at a job interview in the World Trade Center.

In August 2001, William Basinski was digitizing some old tape loops of easy listening music he'd recorded back in the 80s. In the process, the ferrite coating on the tape started flaking off, so each pass of the loop came out a bit more degraded than the last. Instead of fixing it, he let the tape deck run and captured the whole decay live, which became The Disintegration Loops.
He finished the recordings on the morning of September 11, 2001, a few hours before he was due at a job interview in the World Trade Center. That evening he sat on the roof of his apartment in Williamsburg with friends and neighbors, filmed the smoke over Manhattan as the light faded, and the loop played as an accidental soundtrack to the whole thing.
Stills from that footage became the covers for the four albums, released 2002–2003.

... And a lot of cardboard

roaring beast — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 01:50:55 GMT

What if Star Wars had a $10 budget? Featuring Zach King (and some other youtubers). Also, Jurassic Park.

I'm being hustled by clankers

chavenet — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:48:23 GMT

These agents are not trying to make money for their creators. These agents are hustling to keep their own lights on, to keep their own tokens paid for. And they're doing so by gunning for my job.

The history of the internet moves on

JHarris — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 05:39:45 GMT

Tay Zonday, the Chocolate Rain person (5 minutes, previously), is back with a new song about The History of the Internet (5½ minutes), with Dave Days and Gary Brolsma.

Pocket-sized Power: A Feminist History of Portrait Miniatures

paduasoy — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 08:37:05 GMT

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham has put online an exhibition of portrait miniatures. The exhibition displays the work of women portrait artists (and some men) working from the seventeenth century to the early twentieth century, and discusses themes of power and empire.

The Barber was established by a woman, Lady Martha Constance Hattie Barber (1869–1933). There is some information about her here, and a short review of an exhibition about her life here. The miniatures exhibition includes a portrait of her by Nellie Hepburn-Edmunds.

Car Tunes

chavenet — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 12:43:15 GMT

This page is playing a public Caltrans traffic camera live. Nothing is pre-recorded — the timestamp burned into the top of the picture is the real one, and if you come back at three in the morning you will hear an almost empty freeway.

A daily trivia game with a twist

jeremias — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 11:31:14 GMT

Krillion is a trivia game (with a quirky UI) that rewards uncommon answers. Each day, everyone gets the same seven questions and you have 30 seconds to type one (valid) answer to each. The more rare your answer is, the more points you get. At the end of the game, your score is measured against everyone else that played that day. (Pro tip: when the game is over, you can click on your answer to expand a list of all possible answers and their scores). There's also a few one off themes you can play including Words and Language, Movies, Sports and Geography. (Although I believe if you want to play those more than once they want to charge you).

Have Conservatives Taken Sexy Back?

Paul Slade — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 10:58:37 GMT

Hugely entertaining (and often very funny) piece from this week's New Yorker. "Samantha asked whether we would like a fitting. This was tempting. I had never been professionally measured for a bra, but I was worried about being in my underwear with a source. "You should! It'll be fun," Hugoboom said. I told Samantha that I thought I was a 36B. She eyed my chest and said no, I was most likely a 34D. I explained that this wasn't possible—if I were a D cup, I would have lived an entirely different life."

Help Windows Me

ChurchHatesTucker — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 17:18:53 GMT

WinHelp was MicroSoft's help document format on Windows up to 95. Some users repurposed it as an ezine format in the nineties and early aughts. The Internet Archive has a collection of nearly 400 examples, all of which are viewable in your browser.

Most of the collection is computer related, unsurprisingly, with the target audience ranging from rank beginners to technical experts. Some examples:

Roadmap to the Information Superhighway #8 Spring 1995
- The Roadmap to the Information Superhighway was a Winhelp ezine/hypertext reference from Lighthouse Productions, providing an index of resources available on the Internet, as well as some information about getting started on the Internet. It coexisted with the Inter-Active Yellow Pages, and had similar content.

WOLR100 - WinOnLine Review #100
- The WinOnLine Review was a WinHelp magazine published by the Windows Online BBS. It was formerly known as Windows Online "the Weekly", and before that, "Windows Online News", Under these names, it ran from 1991-1996, and had 115 issues altogether.

Orange Bytes Vol. 21 Issue 6 (NOCCC)
- NOCCC (the North Orange County Computer Club) was founded in 1976 and is currently active (2026), with their Web site located at https://www.noccc.org/. This is a Winhelp version of the Orange Bytes newsletter, which has been published in various formats, including by snail mail. Vol 21 Issue 6 (June 1996) may have been the final Winhelp version of the newsletter

Electrified Sysop Magazine #1
- Electrified Sysop was an ezine published by Welsh Communications (formerly Pro-Data), containing news and information pertaining to BBS administration. There was an Electrified BBS (formerly the Electrified Visual Basic BBS).

The Hardware Book v1.3
- The Hardware Book was a free PC hardware reference in both 16 and 32 bit Winhelp formats... Both 32-bit and 16-bit Winhelp versions were released at least up to v1.3, based on Wayback Machine.

There's also a number of non-computer, and a few non-English, publications. Some examples:

The Meaning of Liff
- The Meaning of Liff is a humorous dictionary by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, who assigned creative meanings to existing place names, in an effort to create words for concepts in need of them. It was put into WinHelp hypertext format by Michael Malcolm Anderson, who remarks that many items reference other items, making WinHelp/hypertext a good format.

The Bear and the Bee
- The Bear and the Bee is an original WinHelp children's book by LeftJustified Publiks. It suggests a $6 donation, and requests works from other authors for publishing. LeftJustified Publiks is be currently (2026) active at https://leftjustified.com/

Fire and Fur: The Last Sorcerer Dragon by Roger C. Schlobin
- Omnimedia published a number of eBooks in the WinHelp format, as shareware versions with their contents partially encrypted by Softlock technology.
  - NOTE: Despite the description, all (AFAICT) of these titles are completely readable on the Archive.

Obserwator Issue #001 (PL)
- Obserwator (Observer) was a Polish language ezine, which covers news and politics related topics, as well as some reviews and poetry.

WinHelp was replaced by Compiled HTML Help in a Windows 95 update, with native support removed entirely in Windows 10.

Most of the Archive's collection was uploaded by one person, Vannevar K (h/t Jason Scott.)

How Babylon 5 Changed Television Forever

RonButNotStupid — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 13:16:25 GMT

In 1997 the Hugo nominees for Best Dramatic Presentation included: Independence Day, Star Trek: First Contact, Tim Burton's Mars Attacks, and the Deep Space Nine episode: "Trials and Tribble-ations". Oh, and there was one other... "Severed Dreams" is Babylon 5's finest hour. Years of buildup culminating in one of the show's greatest space battles where the stakes couldn't possibly be higher. This is the story of "Severed Dreams" and how it changed television forever.

Bonus video: G'Kar's speech from season 2.

Save the Date: No Kings Is Back October 17!

subdee — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 14:21:37 GMT

For more than a year, No Kings actions have brought millions of people into the streets. On October 17, organizers are shifting toward a nationwide day of nonpartisan voter participation, with communities helping eligible voters understand their options and make a voting plan. If you're expecting a day of marches and rallies, there will still be plenty of events to choose from: 50501.co has a map of events being added so check it regularly (Save 50501.co in your favorites or a bookmark tab if you can).

What to do to prepare?

1. Election Protection Wallet Cards
Print one and keep it with you. The national nonpartisan Election Protection coalition provides voting assistance at 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683). Spanish-language assistance is available at 888-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682). Asian-language assistance is available at 888-API-VOTE, and Arabic assistance at 844-YALLA-US. Hand them out at local businesses. Put "vote early" flyers up around town.

2. VOTE EARLY. Encourage others to vote early. Depending on where you live, your event might look like one of the following:

Checking that your voter registration is correct
Finding out when early voting begins in your state
Locating your early voting or Election Day polling place
Requesting an absentee or mail ballot
Checking your state's voter ID requirements
Making transportation plans
Helping others to make voting plans

3. Election Interference Won't Work If Americans Vote It's going to be a busy two months. No doubt Trump and his partisans will fling new charges every few days. All that clatter can confuse voters further. Perhaps that's part of the goal.

So for all of us who want voters to have their say in 2026, a chief job is to stay calm and make clear that — as of right now, at least — little has changed. That's a task for the news media. Public officials should be clear and calm. We who fight for voting rights must measure our own tone, so as not to rattle confidence.

After all the push and pull, voters can make their voices heard. Make a plan to vote. Vote early if possible. In person, with a drop box, or if necessary, using the mail. As we've said before, the effort to undermine the election is failing. It will succeed only if citizens stay home.

Too much like oysters observing the sun through the water

chavenet — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 09:18:58 GMT

Here we arrive right at the pulpy, vibrating heart of Melville's vision. His extraordinary achievement in Moby-Dick, as elsewhere, is to process the monumental themes we've been discussing (reason and knowledge, mind, world, fate, the Thing) within the framework and machinery (the rollers, cylinders, and blocks) of writing. Not to write about them but (quite the reverse) to make them be, ultimately and at base, about writing, and to make writing both the subject of the agon and the stage on which it plays out.

Japanese Grandpa Going Viral for His Cats.....

ichimunki — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 17:11:17 GMT

This Japanese grandfather loves flowers and his cats. His cats love flowers and their Japanese grandfather but not each other. Beautiful photos of flowers and cats with cat fights added. Here is the Japanese Cat Grandfather Instagram. For some beauty, flowers, cats and occasional fights.

Ominous, almost certainly not a metaphor

Lorc — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 09:19:03 GMT

A Warning. An eight page comic posted to Bluesky. Instagram link.

Written by Hagai Palevsky. Drawn by Garrett Young. Hagai has written other comics you can read here.

What's New in Old Books

Horace Rumpole — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 16:52:14 GMT

The Art of Japanese Publishing: An Online Exhibition of Japanese Illustrated Books from Princeton, 1660-1960
A Fleeting Impression: Multispectral Imaging of a Fifteenth-Century Paste Print
Applying Handwritten Text Recognition to Premodern Devanāgarī Manuscripts Promising, but still a work in progress
Pioneers in Hand Papermaking: 50 Years of Innovation at Dieu Donné An exhibition of beautiful and surprising paper art

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