Activity from Winnie the Proust
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Right, wrong, or ambiguous, and does it need a rewrite?
I have a question about the following sentence: "The journalism that I hope to participate in would go beyond simply identifying our world's problems, whether it be investigating their root causes, writing about potential solutions, or simply focusing on things currently going right."
Backing up Macs to a Sinology NAS
I'm looking for simple reliable software that will backup several Macs to a Synology NAS in my home. Does such a thing exist?
Help me find a specific kind of compact VESA mount
I would like to attach a lightweight monitor to a secretary desk. The desk is something like this one. The idea is to screw the mount to the underside of the top of the desk, inside one of those slots, with a very short arm extending outward that I can attach the monitor to. The desk does not need to close when the monitor is attached.
Cat wrestling gloves
Our ferocious cat (tax) loves to wrestle. However, she is very serious about it, and her front and back claws get involved as well as her teeth. Can you recommend a cat-proof gauntlet I can wear that will protect my hand and forearm while I give my cat a good loving workout?
Gamified SAT Words
Tween Proust loves to practice her Spanish with Duolingo. The app's gamification strategies work very well for her, getting her to play for 10-20 minutes per day. Is there a similar app she could use for expanding her English vocabulary?
Movable stationary bicycle
We'd like to get an exercise bike that we can easily relocate from the living room to a bedroom when we have company. Do you have any recommendations?
Substitute for Thayers Slippery Elm Throat Lozenges
My child's beloved Thayers Slippery Elm Throat Lozenges are no longer available. It's not clear whether they'll come back. Retailers don't have them in stock, and they don't appear on the Thayers website. Can you recommend a substitute?
I don't want to push your button
I love Sharpie S-Gel pens, but I like to carry a pen in my pocket. Is it possible to turn a push-button pen into a cap pen?
Ode to royalty payments
Did Ludwig van Beethoven make any payments to the estate of Friedrich Schiller for the use of Schiller's Ode to Joy in his Ninth Symphony?
What should a smart high school kid learn in three weeks, and how?
A high school senior I know has three weeks / 50-80 hours to work on an independent project. They want to spend the time learning something. It should be interesting and practical. Current thoughts include Excel, web development, Wikipedia editing. They're looking for course recommendations within those areas, and also other suggestions of possible projects. They want to develop a skill that they'll apply throughout their life.
MacOS - restricting use of an app to certain users
Can I reliably restrict the use of an application to certain users on a Macintosh, and prevent other, non-admin users, from using the app? And will this work for Minecraft launcher? Details below the fold.
Out Damn Tap!
My Dell laptop has an oversensitive touchpad. How do I stop it from interpreting the barest touch as a tap?
Character / setting continuity in generative AI images
I've started playing with DiffusionBee on my Mac and enjoying it (thanks gregr!). But one limitation is that each time I run a prompt, it generates a new person, new setting, etc. Are there AI image generation tools that let me develop characters & places, and then use them in different prompts?
Lumbar support that doesn't leave you on the edge of your seat
Someone I know purchased a lumbar support pillow to use with their office chair. Their back has been hurting, and they thought this would help. They like the back support (yay), but the pillow is so thick that it pushes them out towards the front of their chair. Are there lumbar support pillows that can be used with an office chair, but that is just thick enough to provide support without pushing your whole body forward?
Was my melodic nature lost in translation?
I received an enigmatic fortune cookie fortune that I’d like to try to understand. Is it a poor translation of an aphorism that makes sense in the original Chinese? The fortune read, “Because of your melodic nature, the moonlight never misses an appointment.”
Well done easy fantasy/HisFi recs
What's a good fantasy or historical fiction series for an adult getting back into reading fiction? Think of "wind down at the end of the day" books. Good to feature more relationships and less epic war and conflict. The reader just finished rereading Heralds of Valdemar. They also loved Bridgerton and its spinoff(s).
Because this is where the answers are
What is the cliche / aphorism, "they look for the x in y, because that's where the z (or x or y) are"?
There's some stock phrase that uses this formulation in a way that sounds tongue in cheek because it is so obvious. It's often repurposed to cover other domains. But I can't think of what the original (or most common) formulation was. Help?
The Depths of the Sea on Metafilter
Looking for a website that was posted to the blue that showed the depths to which different marine animals dove. The website had a beautiful continuous-scroll design that took you deeper and deeper into the ocean. Anyone remember that link? I can't find it.
Does an unmanaged switch make sense as a next step?
The network problems described in this question are still occurring. I get very poor connectivity from the wired connection on my TP-Link router. Wifi connections from the router are fine, but don't reach the whole house.. Does it make sense to try adding an unmanaged switch between my cable modem and the TP-Link router?
What are the best ways to debug this home network problem?
Portions of our home network are not reliable. Should I replace the main wireless router? What tools and methods can I use to test and monitor network activity?
Does "described" always need an object?
Is the following sentence grammatically incorrect?
As de Vauban described, day laborers had “no particular calling.”The sentence was flagged and points deducted by a teacher, who said that "describe" is a transitive verb, and must always have an object. Metafiltarians, what say you? Is the sentence acceptable, or should it be rewritten? How would you rewrite it?
Why is a string of letters better than an actual name?
What's behind the trend of well established organizations replacing their meaningful, recognizable names with an intentionally unevocative string of letters? This has gotten so common, I have to think some business school white paper is behind it. What gives?
Buying Apple equipment from Amazon versus Apple
Following my previous question, I've tentatively decided to buy a 5th generation iPad Air. Should I buy it from Amazon (cheaper) or from Apple (better in some way)?
Hanky Panky in Valdemar?
How detailed and extensive are the descriptions of sex in the Valdemar books? I read them a while ago, and I remember people having sexual relationships (and also hooking up), but I don't remember how much that happened. I'm wondering this in the context of listening to them as audiobooks with my 12 year old.
How is the iPad Air better than the vanilla iPad?
I'm looking into getting an iPad. This would mostly be for work-related reading and note taking. That is what would justify the expense.
Is there any good reason to get an iPad Air (5th gen) rather than a vanilla iPad (9th gen)?
App-focused versus window-focused navigation
Is it possible to make the Windows 11 Taskbar behave more like the Macintosh Dock? Are there keystrokes I can use to cycle through the windows of a single application, rather than cycling through all open windows?
Where to get prescription glasses with anti-glare coating
I need to get new eyglasses, and I want to try purchasing them online. I also would like to get glasses that look good in video conferences. My current glasses reflect a lot of light, so I always look weird in online meetings and in photos. Where do I go what do I ask for?
How to track and attribute multiple users of an EV charger
I live in a 2-family house. We are thinking of installing a level-2 charger. We would like to let our neighbor use the same charger, if they get an EV. What is the best way to keep track of how much each of us is charging, so we can share the electricity cost?
The rain in Jamaica Plain falls almost every day
How many days has it rained in Boston since June 1st? It feels like it's been raining almost constantly all summer.
Varieties of life, varieties of mind
I've recently listened to An Immense World,
Finding the Mother Tree, Entangled Life, and Other Minds. What I should I listen to next?
Home cooked meals, delivered in Seattle
Is there a service that will deliver something approximating a family meal to an address in Seattle? Ideally the recipient would get to choose from a menu of options, and the food would be delivered during the day to be (re)heated for dinner. Doesn't have to be super fancy, but should be good quality. At this time I'm looking for pre-cooked meals, not a box of ingredients with cooking instructions.
Dealing with ants when we have a cat
Every summer our home gets visited by lots of small ants. In the past we've had success with Terro Liquid Ant Baits. Now we have a cat, though, and it looks like there's some risk associated with using borax-based products around cats. What should we do?
Does this rhetorical device have a name?
A news story begins by describing a situation without identifying the protagonists or setting. The second paragraph then says, "You may think we're talking about blah blah, but we're really talking about blee blee." See, for example, this New York Times article about Google+ and Threads.
Convert GIFs to MP4s on a Mac
I have a bunch of old GIFs that I would like to turn into videos, preferably MP4 format. I am using a Macintosh. This should be easy, right? No options, just drop in the GIF and out comes the MP4. But when I search for "GIF to Video" all I get is software that converts videos to GIFs, which is the opposite of what I want.
Can I sell this book?
I found a copy of the 1960 edition of The Labyrinth by Saul Steinberg in my attic. It's in very good condition. Similar books on Amazon are listed for $40-$50. Is there practical way for me to sell it?
Has the Maharaja in Harvard Square Resumed their Buffet Brunches?
The Maharaja Restaurant in Harvard Square used to serve these fabulous over-the-top brunches on the weekend. Those stopped during Covid, and I can't tell whether they have resumed. The website hasn't been updated. There are old, unanswered questions about it on Yelp. Has anyone from Metafilter been there recently?
How to park in downtown Boston 3x per week
I may be starting a new job in Boston, near the Financial District / Quincy Market / Downtown Crossing. I will need to drive 3 days per week, on weekdays. What's the best way to get reliable parking?
What is the best way to buy ebooks in 2023?
My teenage child is about to start buying ebooks for school. This will continue for several years, and probably entail purchasing thousands of dollars of books. What is the best way to purchase ebooks to maximize portability and minimize lock-in? They want to be able to read the books and take notes on an iPad and Macintosh.
Seeking high school backpack that won't fall apart
My teenager has gone through two backpacks from The North Face in less than a year. The North Face replaced the first one under warranty, and I expect they'll replace the second one, but we'd like to have something more durable.
Does an all-black stuffed animal dachshund exist?
My child would like to get an all black stuffed animal dachshund as a gift for a friend who has an all black real life dachshund. Unfortunately, we've been unable to find one. Searching for an all black stuffed animal dachshund yields endless results that have black bodies and tan paws and chest. Does anyone know where we can find one that is actually all black?
Photo printing app for Mac
I am looking for a simple app that will let me print photos at specified sizes. For my current project, I have about 50 photos that I want to print at 4 x 6 inches, two per page. I will then cut them out and put them in frames.
Looking for a short excerpt from Thinking, Fast and Slow
In his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman describes a training exercise used by the Israeli Army. It is something like, "A group of soldiers have to get from one side of a ten foot wooden wall to the other. Their only tool is a 12 foot log, and neither the log nor any of the soldiers are allowed to touch the wall at any time. (The hardest part is getting the last soldier across.)"
I'm hoping someone can provide the actual anecdote.
Who left these digestive remains in my driveway?
I went out to my car this afternoon and found this scary pile of goo in my driveway. It clearly contains hair. There's a lot of it. Could this have been coughed up by a bird of prey? I live near Boston.
Getting high quality still images from videos
Are there tools for generating high quality still images from videos? I am not looking for a simple frame capture utility. There are plenty of those and I have some. I'm looking for something that goes beyond frame capture and instead uses multiple frames to generate an image that is significantly clearer and less fuzzy than the individual frames are, possibly even higher resolution.
Can Safari & iCloud Keychain play nice with subdomains?
I use Safari saved passwords and iCloud Keychain as my password manager. For the most part it works very well, and it greatly simplifies my life. Unfortunately, it doesn't understand that subdomains may need different login credentials, and this makes it useless for that subset of websites.
Is a cable modem really a modem?
A modem (modulator/demodulator) is a device that converts analog to digital signals and vice versa. Is the coax cable bringing internet into my house really carrying an analog signal? I find that surprising in 2023.
Isn't it sarcastic? Don't you think?
How would you describe the difference between irony and sarcasm? What if you were talking to a ten or twelve year old? Assume native English speaker.
Seeking details and dynamics of Amazon deforestation
I am looking for a book or book-length report that provides detailed information on deforestation in some portion of the Amazon Rainforest. It should be relatively recent. I don’t want an overview, but something with names, numbers, locations, policies, and a discussion of competing interests and the dollar amounts at stake.
The Mathematician and the Cat
In the last year I read about a mathematician or scientist who wanted to credit his cat for helping him with much of his work. I believe he lived in the 19th century. Publishers refused, but eventually, after his death, a statue was erected of him and his cat together.
I’ve lost a remote uninhabited island
What is the name of the island in the South Pacific that looks like a huge craggy spike rising steeply from the sea. It has hardly any shore, and has been declared a protected natural area (IUCN?). It looks like something from a fantasy novel, forbidding and majestic.