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My Year of Adornment
is an essay by Afua Hirsch about embracing aging instead of fighting it.
Full text meme search
Find That Meme, by Matthew Bryant provides full text search for memes.
How it’s made
h/t Today in Tabs, by rusty
How it’s made
h/t Today in Tabs, by rusty
“When I think of colleges, the word courage doesn’t come to mind”
Why Won’t Elite Colleges Deploy the One Race-Neutral Way to Achieve Diversity? Giving a leg up to poor students of all races would diversify elite schools. Officials would rather do anything else.
The Right to Read
“What they’re trying to do offends me at the root of who I am and what I’m about.” - LeVar Burton Wants You to Read Banned Books
“It’s not really folk, but it’s sort of like… that.”
Elliott Smith playing "Clementine" for a mostly human crowd.
Or as Stereogum put it, Watch An Unearthed Elliott Smith Appearance On A Goofy 1995 Morning Show Co-Hosted By A Puppet.
the difference between a story and a painting or photograph
From 1986, Susan Sontag's short story "The Way We Live Now." (SL New Yorker) (I only just came across this story yesterday and loved it and thought I would share it with you.)
First word discovered in unopened Herculaneum scroll
The first word has been discovered from the Herculaneum papyri! The Vesuvius Challenge is a machine learning and computer vision competition to read the Herculaneum Papyri, which are a library of papyrus scrolls, preserved by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. While the scrolls have been preserved, they're too delicate to unfurl without destroying them. However, the scrolls can be virtually unwrapped using 3D scanning and ink detection.
A "Frasier" episode animated in every style imaginable
A collaborative animation project headed by Jacob Reed, "Our Frasier Remake" has enlisted over 130 animators to remake one Frasier episode, with each contributor imaginatively animating 6-12 seconds of the show's Season One finale, "My Coffee with Niles." Absolutely amazing...
He stumbles on like a rumour of war..."
'The War Horse', by Eavan Boland.
"When studying Boland’s poetry, the students rightfully began to discuss their own struggles—and, remembering Yeats’s “I, being poor, have only my dreams”—were better able to resist the oppressive forces in their lives, to understand the strength needed to overcome provincial societal norms, to rally against antiquated ideas and histories that demand women conduct themselves in ways antithetical to a free-thinking person." from, “Shadows in the Story”: An Interview with Eavan Boland.
It's IRC, but you get to be a cat!
Unlike every other IRC client, where communication is done purely in text form, Comic Chat allows you to assume an avatar and use it to chat in the form of an ongoing comic strip. Every line you say can be punctuated with specific emotions/poses. It still works perfectly to this very day. Comic Chat is arguably one of the greatest communication methods out there for autistic people (if not the greatest). It provides all of the advantanges of being able to hear your conversational partner's words and see their facial expressions and body language, without being overwhelming and while still allowing one plenty of time to process everything.
Busting myths about daddy-long-legs spiders
Busting myths about daddy-long-legs spiders. You probably have a daddy-long-legs in your house right now, but there's so much about them that is commonly misunderstood.
Giving to food banks effectively
Rick Beetham on Mastodon asked a local food bank for the best items to donate to them, and came up with a list of 20 tips. The comments also has useful info, including that it's better to donate directly to the food bank instead of through the grocery store (and that way you might even get a receipt for writing it off on your taxes), and that giving money is usually best, because food banks often can get discounts that are unavailable to donators.
Snakes in the Grass, or On the Vertical Within the Horizontal
As with any disruptive phenomenon, there are both enthusiasts, whose close-meshed nets catch some dubious fish, and deniers, who insist that even the big ones should be thrown back. For many years, insanity was a common metaphor employed for those who believe acrostics in ancient poetry are intentional. The most influential one-paragraph Classics article ever written, Don Fowler’s playful intervention about the acrostic MARS spanning Vergil’s description of the Gates of War, ends with the memorable sentence: ‘I await the men in white coats.’ What Fowler did not anticipate was that, four decades later, acrostics would begin to be recognised as not just an occasional jeu d’esprit in ancient poetry, but a widespread phenomenon and a major source of meaning. from Vergil’s secret message
A First Nations first
Manitoba has elected Canada's first ever Indigenous provincial premier, Wab Kinew. Kinew's father was not allowed to vote as a young man under Canadian law at the time.
The Tube map but make it aeroplanes
In the mid-1930s, Harry Beck, of London Underground 'Tube' Map fame (previously), created a similar map showing air routes from London, England, to destinations across the globe.
MeFi Business/Legal Update
Thanks for your patience as I have worked through talking with lawyers who talk with their experts. This is a substantive update with some news and some questions for the community. The short form is: everyone on the team of people I spoke with agrees that MeFi could potentially be a non-profit organization (with the ultimate determination being made by the IRS). Now we need to decide how to move forward and make MeFi into a community-run organization. I'll give some backstory and a "where we are with this" situation inside.
Notes on a Criminal Conspiracy: Google's Enshittification Memos
Cory Doctorow writes:
"Right now, Google's on trial for its sins against antitrust law. To secure a win, the prosecutors at the DoJ Antitrust Division are going to have to prove what was going on in Google execs' minds when the took the actions that led to the company's dominance. They're going to have to show that the company deliberately undertook to harm its users and customers. Of course, it helps that Google put it all in writing."
Waste coffee grounds make concrete 30% stronger
Waste coffee grounds make concrete 30% stronger. Researchers have found that concrete can be made 30% stronger by replacing a percentage of sand with spent coffee grounds, an organic waste product produced in huge amounts that usually ends up in landfill. The method also reduces the use of natural resources like sand, further contributing to a greener circular economy approach to construction.
The size of the bet up against the size of the market seems irrational
The pool of podcast listeners is growing, but the flood of shows on various streaming platforms makes it tough to break new hits. Facing competition across genres and formats, Spotify found that exclusive podcasts generally don’t draw subscribers away from its rivals. Podcast costs at the company rose €29 million in the first half of this year. from Spotify’s $1 Billion Podcast Bet Turns Into a Serial Drama [WSJ; ungated]
Only Murders in the Building: Thirty
It's Mabel's birthday and she wants to spend it solving a crime!
Official rundown from IMDB:
Having amassed a plethora of clues, suspects and theories but no concrete answers about Ben's murder, the trio devise a peculiar method of recreating the final moments of his life.
AV Club review.
A farmer caught a quoll thought locally-extinct for 130 years
A farmer set a trap to catch whatever was killing his chooks. He caught a tiger quoll (marsupial carnivore that reaches up to 3.5 kilograms/7.7 pounds) that had been thought to be extinct in South Australia for 130 years. When farmer Pao Ling Tsai set a trap to catch the predator that had been killing his chooks, he expected to catch a feral cat or fox. Instead, he caught a species that was thought extinct in South Australia more than 130 years ago. The quoll has now been vet checked, had DNA samples taken, treated for mange, and will be released into the wild.
What the whomst?!
Back in the spring of 2022, professor of linguistics David Pesetsky was talking to an undergraduate class about relative clauses… Before long a student, Kanoe Evile ’23, raised her hand. “How does this account for the ‘whom of which’ construction?” Evile asked. Pesetsky, who has been teaching linguistics at MIT since 1988, had never encountered the phrase “whom of which” before. “I thought, ‘What?’” Pesetsky recalls.
Ahsoka: Dreams and Madness
Hera must face the New Republic, while in a galaxy far, far away a reunion takes place.
"They bent, then broke, and gave us what we deserve"
WGA writers union reaches agreement to end strike vs Hollywood studios
"The Negotiating Committee, the WGAW Board and WGAE Council all voted unanimously to recommend the agreement. It will now go to both guilds’ memberships for a ratification vote." WGA's updated chart comparing what the studios offered on May 1st to what the writers got after their 148-day strike [PDF], including writers room protections, streaming residuals based on actual viewership numbers, and more.
International Terroirists
For centuries grape growers in different communities passed down lore about where their grapes came from. Some governments, particularly in Europe, designated appellations—strictly circumscribed regions with rules on how and where a varietal such as burgundy, rioja or barolo was legally allowed to grow and be produced. But genetic studies to discover where vines originated thousands of years ago began in earnest only 10 or 15 years ago. from Wine’s True Origins Are Finally Revealed
I'm Never Gonna Honk Again
Many vehicles have horns. There are some who think bicycles should have one. And then there are those who just want to make a little music with them.
Good evening, and welcome once again to A Man in a Room, Gambling.
To celebrate the eightieth birthday of UK composer Gavin Bryars, Leo Chadburn of The Quietus interviews him about his selection of ten pieces from a long and hugely varied career.
Do you still recall the time we cried?
The war in Ukraine continues with Ukraine seeming to finally break through to the other side the primary defensive line that has been holding up their progress during the summer counter offensive.
[MeFi Site Update] September 20th
Welcome to your monthly Site Update for MetaFilter, our beloved community weblog! The last update is here. You’ll find some updates regarding the site below. I’m looking forward to your feedback and questions.
Reminder: I will be the only mod monitoring this thread so please be patient and constructive as I reply to your feedback and questions.
Reminder: I will be the only mod monitoring this thread so please be patient and constructive as I reply to your feedback and questions.
Only Murders in the Building: CoBro
Charles finds an unexpected source for a major clue; a Broadway icon comes knocking at Oliver's door; Mabel forms an alternate trio to pursue a lead that sheds light on Ben's bro and CoBro history.
a drink is quietly mixed by Mixie & a snack is quietly munched by Munchy
Mixie and Munchie are 2girls1bottl3 on TikTok.
The premise: Munchie has a snack while Mixie makes an elaborate boozy drink, which is then shared. Without a word of dialogue. In fact there is no monetization, no names, nothing more. Often the pair are wearing the fast food uniform, or glam, or not, and while the setting is usually just a booth at a fast food joint, the location is often completely different countries.
After a viral tweet Nicolaia Rips attempts to get to the bottom of it all in The Face.
US Chess President lashes out at victims and their allies
Earlier this year we talked about the Me Too Movement hitting the world of Chess. Here is a depressing update.
They figured out a thing!
She wrote to a scientist about her fatigue. It inspired a breakthrough: Her dogged efforts lead to a new scientific discovery that may help others with long covid and other chronically fatiguing illnesses (For those who aren't reading things that include animal research, this contains animal research) (Archive.org, abstract)
I'd say, 'How's it going?' And he'd say, 'Fine--fine.'
Douglas [Adams] enjoyed being a famous writer, but he loathed the process of becoming one. That entailed writing. He just hated doing it. It was hard work and lonely. He was a man who coped badly on his own; he needed company. Without it, he could fall into a kind of listless vacancy. from The Berkeley Hotel hostage [The Bookseller; ungated]
I can’t even hope to be nothing
In translating Pessoa’s heteronyms, one thing we see clearly is the influence of reading on Pessoa’s plural and inquiring mind. I have no doubt that reading more than writing was his primary and long-lasting literary occupation. His marginalia are of great interest; so are his many influences. This is to say that the more we know about what Pessoa read and when, the better equipped we are as translators of his works—especially to see more clearly his poetical diction, meters, and rhythms at the core of each heteronymic voice. from Fernando Pessoa’s Unselving [The Paris Review; ungated]
Heisse Preise
"In Austria, inflation is way above the EU average. There's no end in sight. This is especially true for basic needs like energy and food. Our government stated in May that they'd build a food price database together with the big grocery chains. But...."
Reminder: Everyday acts of civil disobedience are always an option.
Here's a couple examples. The present: A young woman walks down a street in Tehran, her hair uncovered, her jeans ripped, a bit of midriff exposed to the hot Iranian sun. An unmarried couple walk hand in hand. A woman holds her head high when asked by Iran's once-feared morality police to put a hijab on, and tells them: "Screw you!"
Newton's First Law Redux
You will recall it as "“Every body perseveres in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impress’d thereon.” Or words to that effect.
Newton, however, wrote in Latin, and his first translator either took a liberty with or had his own views of a critical word.
She Invented Being an Influencer- and was Vilified for it.
Looking back at Julia Allison
(SL Rolling Stone- Exerpt from Taylor Lorenz's forthcoming book Extremely Online)