CultureDesk

When Mats Steen died at the age of 25 from a degenerative muscular disease, his parents were surprised to hear from people from all over Europe who were mourning his loss. Robert and Trudy Steen knew that their son was an avid gamer, but they didn’t know that for nearly a decade Mats had had another virtual life in the game World of Warcraft. The story of Mats, and his avatar, is now being told in a documentary, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin. The BBC has more: https://flip.it/KLP6Ip
#Culture #Gaming #VideoGames #TV #Documentaries #WorldOfWarcraft #TheRemarkableLifeOfIbelin

#PCGaming

Kmart enjoyed its heyday in the 1990s, when there were more than 2,300 branches across the U.S. It filed for bankruptcy in 2002, unable to stave off competition from Walmart and Target, but has limped on ever since. Earlier this month, the last full-size Kmart in the contiguous U.S., located on Long Island, closed, leaving just five on American soil. For The Dial, reporter Jasmine Stole Weiss visited the Kmart in Guam, a little piece of America in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.

https://flip.it/ETLWvX

#Lifestyle #HumanGeography #History #Guam #USHistory #Kmart #Retail

The Beatles’ 1964 trip to America was a before/after moment in rock music history. And it will be chronicled in a new documentary from Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi. “Beatles ‘64” will be released in late November on Disney+ and feature never-before-seen footage of the band and the hysteria the members created at the height of Beatlemania. @Variety has more: https://flip.it/IQiUuN
#Culture #Music #Entertainment #TheBeatles #RockMusic #History

OK, this happened to us, we promise. Driving through the suburbs one night, we saw a young woman in a white dress on the side of the road. We pulled over and asked if she needed a ride, which she accepted. After a short drive, she asked to be dropped off just past the gates of a cemetery. By the time the car stopped, she was gone.

Vanishing hitchhiker legends are just the latest version of a folktale that may go back millennia — and continue to spread and evolve. Atlas Obscura explores the history of these classic creepy stories: https://flip.it/.pzoi5
#Culture #Folklore #History #Halloween #ScaryStories

Canadians will be celebrating their Thanksgiving this weekend. Here, @thecollector explains the holiday's origin, traditions and more. Click the second link to discover what satirical site The Beaverton says is the most popular side in your province (we're "Some bullsh** from their home garden").

https://flip.it/wU7519

https://flip.it/CFkggd

#Canada #Thanksgiving #CanadianThanksgiving #History #Culture #Satire

100 years ago, Andrew Comyn "Sandy" Irvine vanished when attempting to climb Everest with George Mallory, whose body was found in 1999. Last month, a team of climbers filming a documentary for @NationalGeographic found a preserved boot and foot, with a sock labeled "A.C. Irvine." Now, the search is on for the rest of Irvine's body — and the camera and undeveloped film he is said to have been carrying. "It could potentially help solve one of mountaineering's biggest mysteries: whether or not the pair succeeded in becoming the first people to summit Everest, 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the top," write @BBCNews's Tessa Wong and Flora Drury.

https://flip.it/_4shbM

#History @[email protected] #AndrewIrvine #GeorgeMallory #Everest #Mountaineering #Exploring #Photography #Documentary

Research by a short-selling firm claims that Roblox is dishonest about its daily active user count and that it is not doing enough to protect children from predators. Here's @Gizmodo's report.

https://flip.it/cVlekj

#Gaming #Videogames #Roblox #Parenting #Technology #Finance

#PCGaming

Lily Ebert, the Auschwitz survivor who became famous when she tried to find the family of a soldier who saved her, has died at age 100. Ms. Ebert, whose mother and two sisters died in the concentration camp, set up a TikTok account where she shared videos of her Holocaust reflections. “I would talk for my own sake, and I would also speak for those I loved who hadn’t survived,” she wrote in her memoir. “And for all the millions of people I never knew who died with them, all over Europe, I want the world to never forget this terrible crime against humanity.” Here's more from @newyorktimes. [Story may be paywalled]

https://flip.it/AANphm

#LilyEbert #History #Auschwitz #RIP #InMemoriam #HolocaustSurvivor

Lily Ebert, the Auschwitz survivor who became famous when she tried to find the family of a soldier who saved her, has died at age 100. Ms. Ebert, whose mother and two sisters died in the concentration camp, set up a TikTok account where she shared videos of her Holocaust reflections. “I would talk for my own sake, and I would also speak for those I loved who hadn’t survived,” she wrote in her memoir. “And for all the millions of people I never knew who died with them, all over Europe, I want the world to never forget this terrible crime against humanity.” Here's more from @[email protected]. [Story may be paywalled]

https://flip.it/AANphm

#LilyEbert #History #Auschwitz #RIP #InMemoriam #HolocaustSurvivor

A fraught and ugly election period led to an attempted insurrection by anti-government conspirators, with the tacit and active encouragement of powerful men. We speak, of course, of the New York arson campaign in November 1864. Betsy Golden Kellem explains it all in this Atavist longread.

https://flip.it/37l8YK

#History @histodons #USPolitics #USCivilWar #AbrahamLincoln #Longreads

What's believed to be the most valuable shipwreck in the world has been lying at the bottom of the Caribbean sea for the past 300 years. The San José was discovered off the coast of Colombia in the 1980s, and ever since, there's been a battle over who owns it and its cargo, which could be worth as much as $18bn. The Colombian and Spanish states have laid claim to it, as have a U.S. salvage company and Indigenous groups in South America. Some archaeologists and historians also say it should be left where it is out of respect for the 600 people who died upon it. The case is now before the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague. Here's more from @BBCNews.

https://flip.it/tBaU1C

#History @[email protected] #Archaeology #Shipwrecks #Law #MaritimeLaw #SouthAmerica #Spain

Photographer Greta Rybus loves hot springs — the way they help her rest, be warmed and feel cared for. In this photo essay for The Dial, she visited springs around the world, from Greenland to Tokyo, and spoke to the people who bathe in and care for the waters.

https://flip.it/.oVhOf

#Photography #Photos #PhotoEssay #Lifestyle #Culture #Swimming #Wellness