The Distortion Is Inherent in the Signal - "Social media is a machine for 'creat[ing] publics with malformed collective understandings'... we know that the people who use social media are not representative of the population-at-large." [link-heavy FPP! ;]
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 1:49 AM on January 27, 2025 (14 comments)

BBC Rewind has a collection of freely downloadable sound effects available, as well as a mixer mode you can use to play around with them to your heart's content. For the deep-cut retrotech enthusiasts among us, I call your attention to the Electronics section, but there's a lot here to enjoy.
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 12:34 PM on June 19, 2024 (12 comments)

The Deep Ark is an eight hour plus mix of 1990's Warp Records "Electronic Listening Music" and related beats.
posted to MetaFilter by The Ardship of Cambry at 1:48 PM on June 9, 2024 (14 comments)

✨There he is, ✨he's a magical cat, ✨everybody loves him ✨he's a ＭＡＧＩＣＡＬ  ＣＡＴ!✨✨✨🧚🦄🧜‍♀️🧝🐈
(5 1/2 minute video, claymation animation compilation, silly, meow)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 1:41 PM on April 2, 2024 (16 comments)

"Before I get into the whys of it, let me say that having my first four colonoscopies all happen within one twelve-month period allowed me to rapidly refine my prep techniques. 'Prep', here, being the common nickname for the nasty stuff you must swallow to thoroughly clean out your guts for a proper examination. I learned that prep takes many forms, today." Jason McIntosh shares "How not to screw it up" and a preparatory technique that includes "Eight coins or other tiny objects you can use as tokens." He further recommends "the delightful 'Welcome to Colonoscopy Land' by Anne Helen Petersen" (previously) which aims to break taboos and discuss "pooping your guts, the best fake sleep of your life, and having no memory of getting a camera pushed up your butt."
posted to MetaFilter by brainwane at 9:58 AM on February 29, 2024 (165 comments)

My Parents Are Dead: What Now? A resource (aimed at Millennials, but useful to people of any age) for those who have no idea what to do when their parents die. From the last days through the funeral to probate and beyond, useful advice and links for folks who are working through one of the awful parts of adult life. US-centric.
posted to MetaFilter by gentlyepigrams at 9:48 PM on August 16, 2023 (53 comments)

Instead of turning to influencers, (sponsored) top-ten lists, or Amazon “sales,” the Metafilter community has collaborated to create gift suggestions by and for real people, who want to have real connections, and make a real difference in the world. Read below the fold for the gift guides, or check out the tag #MeFiGiftGuide2022. 
posted to MetaFilter by rebent at 9:02 PM on November 21, 2022 (8 comments)

Strangely, formerly Big Earrings Only me is really into tiny stud earrings. Please share your favorites - from etsy, regular storefronts, wherever!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by tiny frying pan at 2:36 PM on November 14, 2022 (16 comments)

The story so far: So until some random assortment of matter and energy somehow arranged itself into what we think of as 'life', the universe was just that: a random assortment of matter and energy. After life, life began to arrange matter and energy, according to life -- creating life (and death) at least on the third rock from some star...
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 1:23 AM on August 3, 2022 (13 comments)

emoji.supply provides two services:

• Customized emoji wallpaper for you background needs
• Adding two emoji together to create a custom .png as defined by Google's Emoji Kitchen

posted to MetaFilter by Going To Maine at 11:29 AM on July 26, 2022 (32 comments)

Salt Lake City Confronts a Future Without a Lake - "In July 2021, the Great Salt Lake reached its lowest level since measurements began in 1875. The lake's surface area has shrunk to about 950 square miles, according to the US Geological Survey, less than a third of the 3,300 recorded in 1987. This week, the record was broken again."[1,2] (previously)
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 6:09 AM on July 11, 2022 (63 comments)

A free "workbook on the kind of bullshit you need to do when someone you love dies", available as a "version with lots of swearing at the useless, shitty situation you're in" or a "version with a fair amount of black humor but no cursewords". Including "Prepare to spend a long and miserable time on the phone," "Depressing Mad Libs" (obituary templates), "So You Suddenly Have To Become Some Kind of Hacker," and "How to plan a non-religious death party". Published 2019.
posted to MetaFilter by brainwane at 9:37 AM on July 1, 2022 (27 comments)

corporate libertarianism v synthetic technocracy v digital democracy: "Yes I think the defining political divides of the 21st century will be roughly captured in the terms laid out by Civilization VI: Gathering Storm Expansion... Current crisis is largely transition from the 20th century mode of fascism v communism v democracy to this."
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 6:22 AM on June 22, 2022 (27 comments)

A couple moved into a house on Fire Island and found 20 years worth of cassettes, documenting DJ sets and party soundtracks from 1979-1999. Over 200 tapes are being digitized and uploaded to MixCloud.
posted to MetaFilter by hwyengr at 4:12 PM on April 29, 2022 (19 comments)

Mr. 77 and I are heading to San Diego this weekend for 4-5 days. We haven't vacationed much outside of visiting family, and I'd like your help with general advice as well as San Diego-centric advice.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by hydra77 at 9:43 AM on August 20, 2018 (21 comments)

We will be landing in San Diego around noon on Monday and have about 4 hours to kill before we can check into our rental house. What should we do? Some complications below the fold.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by LKWorking at 1:07 PM on August 1, 2019 (14 comments)

electricityMap shows the carbon intensity of the electricity generated in countries and regions around the world. It's open source. Sadly, missing data from China, Russia, Africa et al.
posted to MetaFilter by storybored at 6:44 PM on March 21, 2022 (33 comments)

Halfway through the third book of the Hitchhiker's Guide series, there is a throwaway reference to a doomed starship, one whose incredible splendor was matched only by the cosmic absurdity of its maiden-day annihilation. But the story didn't end there. Unbeknownst to many fans, this small piece of Adamsian lore was the inspiration for an ambitious and richly-detailed side-story: a 1998 computer adventure game called Starship Titanic. Designed by Douglas Adams himself, the game set players loose in the infamous vessel, challenging them with a maddening mystery laced with the devilish wit of the novels. The game was laden with extra content, including an in-depth strategy guide, a (mediocre) tie-in novel (and audiobook) by Terry Jones, a whimsical First Class In-Flight Magazine, and even a pair of 3D glasses for one of the more inventive puzzles. Key to solving these puzzles was the game's groundbreaking communications system -- players interacted with the ship's robotic crew through a natural language parsing engine called SpookiTalk, whose 10,000+ lines of conversational dialogue spawned 16 hours of audio recorded by professional voice actors, including John Cleese, Terry Jones, and even Douglas Adams himself in several cameos (spoiler cameo). Want to experience the voyage for yourself? Then pick up a $6 modernized copy of the game on Steam or GOG, watch this narrated video playthrough... or peruse this spectacular MetaFilter comment from developer Yoz Grahame, which touches on not just behind-the-scenes trivia and unknown easter eggs, but the most remarkable story of accidental online community you're ever going to hear.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 12:18 PM on February 19, 2022 (23 comments)

A cell phone tower maintainer requires an impressive mountainside Jeep rescue.
posted to MetaFilter by circular at 2:19 PM on December 29, 2021 (53 comments)

Gamesnacks.com has over 140 simple games you can play in browser with no ads or crap. I've played most of them.
posted to MetaFilter by rebent at 10:23 AM on November 19, 2021 (29 comments)

The real tragedy of purity culture, authoritarian parenting and the culture war ethos is not that we failed, but that we succeeded. This unholy Roman trinity may not have produced culture warriors or even prevented us from losing our faith, but it nevertheless worked as designed. Raised on war, we came to see all the world as a threat. Our birthright was not holiness, but hyper-vigilance and crippling anxiety.

Author KucingNoir talks about how the evangelical christianity movement (and authoritarianism in general) of the 80s and 90s has created a generation of people who are terrified of something bad happening all the time.
posted to MetaFilter by rebent at 12:21 PM on October 15, 2021 (31 comments)

Why Are Moderates Trying to Blow Up Biden's Centrist Economic Plan? [ungated] - "In attacking the Build Back Better Act, they are working against their own purported aims."
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 4:44 AM on September 24, 2021 (54 comments)

Three Simple Policy Heuristics - "The most important thing to understand is this: Harm ripples, kindness ripples. People you hurt go on to hurt other people. People who are treated with kindness become better people, or more prosperous people, and go on to help others. Yes, there are exceptions (we'll deal with those people), but they are exceptions." (via)
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 11:42 PM on September 6, 2021 (15 comments)

Why I'm so excited about solar and batteries - "Instead of the Jetsons future, we got the cyberpunk future. Why did that happen? ... I blame the slowdown in energy technology... we didn't get anything better than oil during this time. Nuclear fission provided a bit of a boost to electricity generation (and a big boost in France), but nobody ended up driving fission cars around or flying fission planes through the sky."[1]
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 11:56 PM on December 17, 2020 (44 comments)

In flux and under threat: Around the world, democracy is losing ground. Polarization and disinformation have rendered liberals and conservatives unable to agree on basic facts. State violence and suppression of citizens' rights are resurgent. Free and fair elections are being threatened. A special issue of Science critically examines the state of democracy and how it must adapt to achieve its ideals in the 21st century. All the articles are free, and the content is geared towards both academics and the general public. Tage Rai has a twitter guide to the papers [threadreader].
posted to MetaFilter by Westringia F. at 12:35 PM on September 3, 2020 (2 comments)

"...the bailout ‘has been described as a stimulus’ but it is ‘more accurately’ for ‘stability and relief’. It is better understood, that is, as an instrument for enabling non-financial and financial businesses to continue along the path they had already been taking—to the extent indeed they wished to do so—by placing money in their hands without conditions on how they should spend it, rather than burdened by conditions designed to set them on another path." Robert Brenner, NLR
posted to MetaFilter by blue shadows at 5:59 PM on July 4, 2020 (6 comments)

Study: A year is too short for a U.S. worker to earn middle-class life - "The widening gulf... between what American life costs and what American jobs pay is a central fact of American political economy that the public appears to have understood long before economists." [The New Midlife Crisis]
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 3:33 AM on February 22, 2020 (48 comments)

The Fed is going to revamp how Americans pay for things. Big banks aren't happy. "America's central bank plans to build its own real-time payment system, much to the chagrin of big commercial banks. The news: The Federal Reserve has announced that it will create 'FedNow', a system that will allow real-time bank-to-bank payments, all day every day."[1,2,3,4]
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 2:34 AM on September 16, 2019 (47 comments)

A history of the Pyramids of Giza and the people who explored them. Jimmy Maher (The Digital Antiquarian) with an extensive history on the Pyramids at Giza and the people who explored them.
posted to MetaFilter by GnomePrime at 1:23 PM on September 12, 2019 (4 comments)

“It’s a very different, and more disquieting, achievement to create a high-rise district on a plinth so sealed-off and yachtlike that nobody need ever leave.” On March 15, after 12 years of planning and six of construction, the Related Companies (which is actually just one mammoth real-estate company) will open the gates to its new $25 billion enclave, Hudson Yards -an agglomeration of supertall office towers full of lawyers and hedge-funders, airborne eight-figure apartments, a 720,000-square-foot shopping zone, and a gaggle of star-chef restaurants. Live Blog of the first day of opening by The NYC Eater (start at the bottom) “It is always a little sad to see what the people rich enough to have everything actually want. ” Hudson Yards Is An Ultra-Capitalist Forbidden City “Unlike a real neighborhood, which implies some kind of social collaboration or collective expression of belonging, Hudson Yards is a contrived place that was never meant for us.” Hudson Yards Has $4.5 Billion In Taxpayer Money. Will We Ever See It Again?
posted to MetaFilter by The Whelk at 10:16 AM on March 22, 2019 (84 comments)

Over in the Hyucking Hyuck thread, MysticMCJ proposed the idea of a US politics megathread challenge coin as a physical symbol of, er, whatever this all is. People got into the idea, and a quick straw poll having shown sufficient interest to potentially make production worthwhile, here's a space for those interested in the idea to talk about it.
posted to MetaTalk by zachlipton at 3:50 PM on January 29, 2019 (125 comments)

D-D-Dance Party Time
posted to MetaFilter by zabuni at 9:31 PM on February 1, 2019 (10 comments)

With a new nationally representative survey of registered voters shows that 81% support a “Green New Deal” for the U.S and strong bipartisan support, what even is The Green New Deal? A Primer on the Green New Deal—the Plan to Literally Save the Planet (Paste) “CJA says any jobs plan should restore and protect workers’ rights to organize and form unions, and it should be predicated on non-extractive policies that build “local community wealth that is democratically governed.” Any deal must ensure “free, prior and informed consent by Indigenous peoples,” CJA insists, and should be directed by those communities bearing the brunt of the “dig, burn, dump” economy.” We Have To Make Sure the “Green New Deal” Doesn’t Become Green Capitalism. (In These Times) “There is an uncomfortable scientific truth that has to be faced: economic growth is environmentally unsustainable.” (Degrowth.org) Is there any green policy plan that can go far enough or be global enough (Naked Capitalism) considering the U.S Military is one of the largest polluters on the planet?
posted to MetaFilter by The Whelk at 9:03 AM on December 18, 2018 (35 comments)

"A List of Books for Home Reading of High-School Pupils" was published in 1912 by the National Council of Teachers of English, a group that formed the year before and still makes recommendations to teachers today. Forerunners to the NCTE list include the NEA's report on college entrance requirements (1899), Franklin T. Baker's "Bibliography of Children's Reading" (1908), and the Newark Free Public Library's popular list of "A Thousand of the Best Novels" (1904-1919). But many NCTE members would also help shape a thorough recommendation for the "Reorganization of English in Secondary Schools" (1917) and contribute to The English Journal, issues of which from 1911-1922 are free online.
posted to MetaFilter by Wobbuffet at 3:09 PM on November 10, 2018 (9 comments)

Say you're Mary Queen of Scots, or Galileo, or Machiavelli, or Marie Antoinette. Say you want to send a tamper-evident letter, but the mass-produced envelope hasn't been invented. You could still secure your message using letterlocking: a system of folds, slits and seals that made a letter its own security system .
posted to MetaFilter by zeptoweasel at 7:52 AM on November 9, 2018 (5 comments)

"The promise, the deal, was almost unheard of: “work hard, work smart, create value for society, and you’ll become wealthy, your own master for all eternity.” The slave works for his owner. The indentured servant for his master. The communist for everyone. The American for himself. It’s a powerful idea, a powerful motivator, and a powerful system. [...] And they make perfect competitors. For those who have forgotten their first Economics lecture: Perfect Competition: 'In a perfect market the sellers operate at zero economic surplus…This equilibrium will be a Pareto optimum, meaning that nobody can be made better off by exchange without making someone else worse off.' Oh. Right. That sounds fun.
posted to MetaFilter by kaibutsu at 10:25 AM on October 9, 2018 (28 comments)

Cardgames.io: your one-stop shop for rounds of cribbage, euchre, gin rummy, hearts, idiot, manni, classic rummy, spades, spit, switch, whist, and more. No bells, few whistles, mostly cards (plus backgammon, checkers, and Yahtzee).
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic at 1:17 PM on May 25, 2018 (57 comments)

A brief(ish) review of 'Radical Markets' - "The most radical thing about their proposal to reform property rights is the notion that private ownership of property is in some way a fundamentally flawed idea, and that progress requires movement toward a new norm: that social ownership of property is more just and efficient." (via)
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 3:33 AM on May 16, 2018 (17 comments)

I have joined the legion of Instant Pot owners (the 3 qt. variety). I’m new to the world of pressure/multi cookers and… well, cooking in general. What recipes, recipe resources, accessories and/or general all around tips can you give me so I can amaze Mrs. Jabo with my culinary awakening?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jabo at 12:55 PM on April 30, 2018 (23 comments)

NetHack 3.6.1 has been released. Release notes. Downloads (so far the only ready-to-run version is Windows). Usenet announcement on Google Groups.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 8:13 PM on April 27, 2018 (60 comments)

Big Companies Are Getting a Chokehold on the Economy - "Even Goldman Sachs is worried that they're stifling competition, holding down wages and weighing on growth."
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 2:34 AM on March 1, 2018 (46 comments)

On a small Greek island, practitioners of an ancient whistling language are holding onto their culture as it slowly dies out.

Antia is home to the last whistlers of Greece. Sfyria, as the whistling language is called in Greek — it comes from the Greek word sfyrizo, to whistle — is not technically a language; linguists refer to it as a speech registrar, like shouting or whispering. It’s the same as modern Greek — the grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure all remain intact — but the sounds come out in high-pitched musical notes. Each letter of the alphabet is individually whistled (alpha, beta, gamma), and strung together to create an ariose warble.

posted to MetaFilter by the man of twists and turns at 1:05 PM on February 7, 2018 (7 comments)

Japanese family crests are known for their tasteful design and simplicity, but what might surprise you is the incredibly simple geometric principles used to create even complex ones. (No English in the narration, but give it a moment and you won't need it.)
posted to MetaFilter by DoctorFedora at 3:04 PM on December 5, 2017 (17 comments)

Finance isn't just an industry. It's a system of social control - "A system for constraining the choices of other social actors."
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 11:12 PM on November 7, 2017 (19 comments)

The complete (so far) Gazorra TNG Edits. Returning to the internet thanks to the deniably plausible youtuber Byron Hussie. A fresh new shelf for a mefi fave (Previously. Very Previously.) Because unceasing suffering needs some laugh breaks.
posted to MetaFilter by mrjohnmuller at 8:49 AM on October 19, 2017 (22 comments)

In February 1338, the English Parliament approved a forced loan from Edward III's English subjects in support of his war against King Philip VI of France: 20,000 sacks of wool, which were to arrive in friendly Antwerp just before Edward landed with his troops in July. English wool, then the best in the world, could easily be converted into the gold needed to pay for troops and supplies. When Edward landed in Antwerp, his allies were there to greet him: The Duke of Brabant, the Count of Hainault, the Duke of Guelders, the Margrave of Juliers, and a host of lesser princes. But the wool wasn't.
posted to MetaFilter by clawsoon at 6:13 AM on July 24, 2017 (17 comments)

I've been on Tumblr on and off since 2014, and many of my favorite blogs have deactivated or gone silent. Help me refresh with some new content!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by scruffy-looking nerfherder at 12:04 PM on July 7, 2017 (7 comments)

Hun Choi, the artist better known as Hunee, is a daring DJ -- he's gutsy enough to play classic tunes to a crowd of heads and adventurous records to packed dance floors. "My aim is always to maintain a certain freedom," he says. "Very early on I realised there are two kinds of paths with DJing. You can really specialise in what you play, but I knew pretty quickly that's not how I work. I've always liked to explore different sounds." Enjoy 2 hours of a curated musical journey with Hunee's recent Essential Mix (BBC; Mixcloud; Global DJ).
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 8:23 PM on May 1, 2017 (1 comment)

A Summer Reading List for Wretched Assholes Who Prefer to Wallow in Someone Else’s Misery by Claire Cameron [The Millions] “By some secret law of lists, “summer reads” often settle on books that are light and fluffy and happy. Like a marshmallow, they are usually too sticky and sweet for my taste. What about a list for us wretched assholes who prefer to spend the summer wallowing in a someone’s else’s misery? On holiday, I cut myself off from my regular writing regime to focus on the people I’m with — I understand this is called “relaxing.” As my real life is relatively drama free, this means I have dangerous spare capacity to obsess over…what? While a happy book might distract me temporarily, it’s far easier to become completely consumed by an epic novel full of anguish.”
posted to MetaFilter by Fizz at 8:30 AM on June 29, 2016 (24 comments)

Kennedy was right - "Much that is valuable is neither tangible nor tradable... Gross domestic product (GDP) is increasingly a poor measure of prosperity. It is not even a reliable gauge of production."*
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 1:01 AM on May 11, 2016 (9 comments)