352 posts tagged with world.
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A Better World
A Better World - Alternate History Simulation. Choose events to modify in the timeline of history, and see how the timeline changes.
Hide my head, I want to drown my sorrow / No tomorrow, no tomorrow
The Most Insane Weapon You Never Heard About - "At the height of the Cold War, a terrifying concept emerged: a bomb so powerful it wouldn't need to be dropped. Known as Project Sundial, this doomsday device would have left a 400-km radius in flames and plunged the world into darkness. It was a bomb that would destroy everything – not a weapon, but an apocalypse. How close did we come to pressing the button?" (previously) [more inside]
Miku Earth: cultural self-portrayal
It's time to learn Geography (𝗡𝗢𝗪)
On October 15th, 2014, budding Korean-American YouTuber Paul "Barbs" Barbato uploaded a 6-minute guide to the country of Afghanistan. A longtime geography geek disappointed by the lack of country-by-country educational content on the platform, his Geography Now! series set the ambitious goal of making one in-depth episode for all 193 UN-recognized sovereign nations. Following a basic four-part structure (Physical and Political Geography, Demographics, and "The Friendzone" for foreign relations), these initially amateurish episodes slowly expanded in size and scope over time, incorporating motion graphics, increasingly absurd vexillological running gags, myriad side topics, faux-country April Fools, fan content from "Geograpeeps", special correspondents and history skits from eclectic friends from around the world, and even on-location specials in select countries -- deep dives into culture whose breezy humor revealed a deep love for the world and all the people in it. Now, ten years after it started, Barbs has released the final episode in the series: Zimbabwe. While he's implied the channel may evolve into a travel-focused one (perhaps modeled on his moving "Letter to..." series of travelogues), for now you can check out the completed A-Z playlist on YouTube to experience the impressive journey for yourself.
&$!#%
Swear words and profanities from around the world. [CW: swear words and profanities from around the world]
You are the MeFite ... it's your weekly free thread
After last week's epic thread of The games MeFites play - which you can still contribute to - this week there's no optional topic. It's just ... you. Talk about anything and everything in your life and your world as this is your free thread.
Size Matters, Also Thrust
Local Music From Out There
Podwireless has just dropped its Best of 2023 episode, featuring an hour of the year's best "folk and roots music and associated weirdos". Toppermost of the poppermost in this particular world is Shirley Collins with her excellent 2023 album Archangel Hill.
Música Mexicana
Mexican Music Is Taking Over the World [ungated] - "Artists like Peso Pluma, Grupo Frontera and Natanael Cano have become massive stars who are popularizing Mexican music around the globe."[1,2]
But What Kind of America?
The world is bullish on America and American power. You read that right. This is the same world that looks on with glee or horror at the carnivalesque, occasionally violent politics on Capitol Hill. The same one that barely a year ago dismissed an America defeated in Afghanistan as a has-been and hailed the rise of a new authoritarian age led by China, with an assist from Vladimir Putin’s confident Russia. Now some caveats.... from America in Decline? World Thinks Again.
[more inside]
universal radio
Radio Garden - This is a globe. It has green dots. Each green dot represents a radio station somewhere in the world. This website plays those radio stations. There are a lot of radio stations. [more inside]
"The Color of Dreams"
From Serena Jones on Mastodon (@SerenaJ@historians.social): "The Albert Khan Museum in France has just made available for download thousands of early autochrome photos from around the world: Khan, a banker, had top French photographers travel the world documenting everyday aspects of global life which he believed would soon vanish as the world rapidly developed. Such prescience." [more inside]
So Many Barbies
Play-Doh in Panama and Monopoly in Malawi: the most popular toys in the world.
Cloud Computing
It happened all over the world
Among the nominees at next month's Grammys for Best Historical Album is Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World's Music (1907-1967). Released by archival label Dust-to-Digital as a digital download only, the album is a collection of 100 songs recorded around the world in the early days of recorded music. The liner notes in the accompanying digital booklet provide great context to the artists, locations and recordings, where each song gets its own short essay. The digital transfers beautifully capture the spirit of each song and the music, beyond being mere curios, is sublime. Excavated Shellac is the nom du blog of Jonathan Ward, an archivist who organized the project, researched and wrote the liner notes, and selected each song from his own personal collection of 78s.
Thirty Five maps that simplify world history
Thirty Five interesting maps that explain different facets of world history. Shows the extent of the Roman, Viking and Mongol Empires. Other maps are on the slavery states, World War 2 and many other topics. Definitely worth a visit if you like browsing maps. [more inside]
Climb Every Mountain
Ultra-runner Sabrina Verjee is struggling through blizzards even as you read this, on her latest attempt for a record-setting run of the Wainwright Fells Round, after becoming the first woman to do the run continuously last year. Her almost unbelievable effort to climb 214 peaks, without stopping, in less than six days, in the British "spring" weather, can be followed live here. [more inside]
Text Adventures: Past, Semiconditionally Modified Past, and Present
Aaron Reed's 50 Years of Text Games (intro) so far covers 1971-1986, e.g. Oregon Trail, ROCKET, Hunt the Wumpus, Super Star Trek, dnd, Adventure, Zork, Pirate Adventure, CYOA novels, MUDs, and HHGTTG. But dissertations by Carra Glatt on "... Counterfactual Plotting in the Victorian Novel" [PDF], Alex Solomon on "The Rhetoric of Probability" [PDF] in 17th-18th C. lit (including proto-science fiction by Kepler and Godwin), Jessica Saxon on "... Paratexts, Narrative Interventions, and the Queering of Possible Worlds ..." [PDF] in "illicit" 19th C. narratives, and Peter Sorrell on "Narrative Worlds and Fictional Worlds" [PDF] in novels by Queneau, Simon, and Robbe-Grillet take up Meinong's Jungle, "Truth in Fiction" [PDF], and especially "Possible Worlds" narratological theory to reconsider texts from the further past in similar terms: "machine[s] for producing possible worlds" [PDF]. Incidentally, Reed's uniquely-generated horror novel Subcutanean is a current finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.
Monkey Business
“Stick that gorgeous vaccine in my eyes and up my arse...”
[Contains frequent British profanity] In which Flo and Joan return for their tribute to the year 2020. Previously: the 2016 song. Also, a song for anti-vaxxers.
Biogen Boston Superspreader Event Tied to 300K+ COVID-19 Cases
Biogen Conference in Boston Now Tied to More than 300,000 Coronavirus Cases (NBC, Dec. 11, 2020; latest research paper; NYT link). On February 1, Massachusetts confirmed its first, and the USA's eighth, coronavirus patient (NBC). The Biogen leadership conference, held February 26-27 at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf, drew approximately 175 US and international attendees and was linked to eight cases of COVID-19 on March 6 (STAT News), 100 cases on March 17 (Biospace), and 20K cases by August 26 (TheScientist.com). Biogen has about 7,500 employees around the world. [more inside]
Gnarly... Tubular... Way Cool
Herald of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nov 21st marked the 30th anniversary of Super Mario World. [more inside]
This Woman Surfed the Biggest Wave of the Year
Mory Kante rip
Legendary world music superstar and one of the most influential died at 70. Seriously how could anyone vote this as the worst, not the best, song of the 80's? However, his 70's career as the vocalist of Super Rail Band made his name. 2020 is bad for world music so far.
A Farewell to Disruption in a Post-Platform World
Bright Simons is President of mPedigree and a member of CGD’s Study Group on Technology, Comparative Advantage, and Development Prospects.
This note is part of a special series authored by members of CGD’s Study Group on Technology, Comparative Advantage, and Development Prospects. Learn more at cgdev.org/future-of-work
Daily
The. Whole. World.
Amid ongoing criticism of high-end restaurant guides like the Michelin Guide [The New Yorker] and the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants [Eater] list, Food & Wine and Travel + Leisure have teamed up to release their own, one that aims to celebrate different cultures and cuisines found across the world.
The list, along with commentary on each restaurant, is split between articles for North America, South America and Africa/Middle East [Food & Wine] and Asia/Australia and Europe [Travel + Leisure]. [more inside]
The list, along with commentary on each restaurant, is split between articles for North America, South America and Africa/Middle East [Food & Wine] and Asia/Australia and Europe [Travel + Leisure]. [more inside]
A map of 675 video walks around the world
On Reddit today, /u/watercookerch writes: "I made a map showing the locations of 675 video walks around the world." Direct link to Google Maps. The SlowTV and walking sub-reddits.
Humans are an extremely prosocial species.
The world is a rapidly changing place. Among the fastest changing aspects are those relating to how people communicate and interact with each other, whether in their schools and workplaces, their neighbourhoods, or in far-flung parts of the world. This year, we deal with three sets of factors: the links between government and happiness, the power of prosocial behaviour, and changes in information technology. This is the 7th World Happiness Report. [more inside]
Capable of enduring adversity, severity, or hardship.
Endurant [SLYT], the latest music video from Bloodywood, the hardest-working metal band in New Delhi.
And if you like that, you might like this, too: Ari Ari. (Previously on Metafilter here and here.)
And if you like that, you might like this, too: Ari Ari. (Previously on Metafilter here and here.)
"You won't have to worry about feeling desolate when autumn comes"
Hiroaki Sato (LitHub, 11/5/2018), "Haiku: The Evolution of a Strict Poetic Game": "In simplest terms, haikai meant rejection of poetic diction and adoption of language in daily use. Orthodox court poetry did not tolerate references to quotidian, down-to-earth things like shiru, 'soup,' and namasu, 'fish salad,' so incorporating daily elements was haikai. As Bashō himself explained, harusame no yanagi, 'willow in spring rain,' represented the world of court poetry, but tanishi toru karasu, 'a crow picking pond snails,' was haikai, according to Bashō's disciple Hattori Tohō." [more inside]
Gallup's Migration Research Center
Measuring our world in motion - How many people want to leave their country? Where do they want to go? How do people feel about migrants living in their communities? How do migrants feel about their own lives?
Nora K. Jemisin wants to talk about cities
So you say you're under a curse? So what? So's the whole damn world.
How do you live with a true heart when everything around you is collapsing? Hayao Miyazaki’s Cursed Worlds
Panopticism
Airbnb and the commodification of home - "What does this to do our relationships with one another? When every interaction becomes a rateable exchange, we can no longer just be two humans holding a conversation: we are conducting a business transaction in which your ‘communication’ will be given a score out of five."
RIP Rachid Taha
A World Music legend. Taha is considered as one of the godfathers of what we call today "worldbeat / global fusion", as he blended Algerian Rai and rock early from the 80s as a member of the Carte de Séjour band through his diverse Solo career as an international music star. He has suddenly died yesterday, just six days before his 60th birthday. [more inside]
HAU
HAU is dead, long live OA initiatives
Open Secrets: On Power and Publication
chronology
#hautalk
meaning and pronunciation
Open Secrets: On Power and Publication
chronology
#hautalk
meaning and pronunciation
Restoring a market economy took priority over human rights and justice
“Within the Mont Pelerin Society, the problem of how to end colonialism without destroying property rights was much debated. The English economist William Hutt imagined that voting power in postapartheid South Africa could be made proportional to economic weight. Milton Friedman agreed that one man, one vote would be terrible for South Africa, and Hayek worried that putting sanctions on South Africa would upset the global order. They didn’t favor apartheid, but they were against almost anything that might bring it to an end.” - WORLDS APART - Patrick Iber discusses the roots and causes of neoliberal/“Post-Ford” ideaology, it’s growth in European economic circles, and it’s destabling effects on nations and democracies worldwide. (The New Republic)
Fast. Slow. Weird. Taxi.
Pick a country on the map. Pick a decade between 1900 and now. Lean back and listen.
Use Taxi-mode to create a round the world trip sampling the sounds of the continents. [more inside]
Use Taxi-mode to create a round the world trip sampling the sounds of the continents. [more inside]
How well do you know the world?
River basins of the world
Explore Wealth and Income Inequality around the world
The World Wealth and Income Database WID.world "aims to provide open and convenient access to the most extensive available database on the historical evolution of the world distribution of income and wealth, both within countries and between countries."
World Parliament
In existence since 1958, the World Constitution and Parliament Association has been taking preliminary steps to form a World Parliament, as mandated by the Constitution for the Federation of Earth, which had its first draft in 1968. This constitution, under the auspices of the so-called Earth Federation Movement, sets out in detail how a world parliament should be construed, as well as defining the steps and processes we need to take towards achieving it. Jindal Global University is hosting a conference in Delhi this week: “Building the World Parliament 2017”. [more inside]
Running Through the Magic Forest (with bonus eccentric synthesizers!)
Things are a bit rough these days. Do you need some exceedingly happy music? Then The Happiest Guys In The World may be a cure for what ails, with their 1999 summer jam Hey Hey It's The Vegetable Man. Come inside for further info and highly unique synthesizers! [more inside]
Syria’s refugees are feeding the world
Food has always been at the heart of Syrian identity, and for nearly a million refugees that is true in a new, sharper way. When homes are destroyed and families scattered, food is a rare constant. It can also be a means of survival. For those who have lost jobs and professional status, cooking is an easily transferable skill, so conflict tends to spread cuisines.~ source article
Smile! Things are getting better! Really.
Fun Fountains
Miniature Bottle Library - [frames!!] You can view alphabetically, by country, etc. but I will only link to one set - the alcohol fuelled nightmare theme that is (no, not sex or zombie but, clown)
In the mix with Hunee: "My aim is always to maintain a certain freedom"
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). [more inside]
Peep Neat Street Eats
Hey friend! Do you like cities? Do you like watching people preparing food? Now there's a YouTube channel just for you! Street Food World is a series of videos documenting street vendor cuisine all over the world. Let's start with Japan. [more inside]
Wherefore art thou, Mariotto, Romeus, Rhomeo, Romeo, Etc.?
Three lines from Dante's Purgatorio (early 14th C.). A few motifs from Boccaccio's Decameron, 10th Day, 4th Tale (1353). Masuccio Salernitano's Mariotto and Gianozza (1476; orig. "Ganozza" [PDF]). Luigi da Porto's Giulietta and Romeo (1531; alt. translation). Matteo Bandello's Romeo and Giulietta (1554). Arthur Brooke's Romeus and Juliet (1562; orig. orthography). William Painter's Rhomeo and Iulietta (1567) ... These are just a few antecedents of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1597, etc.), according to Olin Moore's The Legend of Romeo and Juliet (1950; PDF). [more inside]