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Merde / Merda / Scheiße / Shit
Last week's EU parliamentary elections have resulted in big wins for right (and far-right) parties across the continent, with inflation- and migration-driven campaigns seeing late surges in support from Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy to Geert Wilder's Party of Freedom to the extremist (and Nazi-curious) Alternative for Germany. Most notable was the unprecedented success of Marine Le Pen's hard-right National Rally in France, whose demolition of the ruling centrist coalition was so complete that President Emmanuel Macron has unexpectedly dissolved the legislature and called for snap elections later this month in a high-stakes bid to disrupt the national-populist wave. Not all is grim for the left -- socialist parties held their own in multiple nations, proudly illiberal Viktor Orban's Fidesz fell short of projections against a rising Péter Magyar, and France's two-round system has reliably kept the far-right out of power. Still, this week's results have massive and troubling implications for climate change, Ukraine, and a swath of other critical issues.
Ways to find truly off-the-beaten path travel destinations?
My husband and I are avid travelers -- like everyone else these days, it seems. While we love big cities, I've found that many to be full-to-bursting at the seams with tourists, even in the off-seasons now -- and it makes me feel keenly guilty for ruining the place for others. Moreover, even when avoiding cities, Instagram and TripAdvisor feel like they've routed everyone to the same quaint mountain towns, hikes, islands, experiences. How do I plan a trip where I won't be tripping over others just like myself?
G__d_ye, P_t S_j_k
“Well, the time has come to say goodbye ... It’s been an incredible privilege to be invited into millions of homes night after night, year after year, decade after decade. I always felt that the privilege came with the responsibility to keep this daily half-hour a safe place for family fun. No social issues, no politics, nothing embarrassing I hope, just a game.” from ‘The Time Has Come to Say Goodbye’: Pat Sajak Bids Farewell to ‘Wheel of Fortune’ [NY Times; ungated]
Movie: Hit Man
A professor moonlighting as a hit man of sorts for his city police department, descends into dangerous, dubious territory when he finds himself attracted to a woman who enlists his services.
The World's Largest Democracy Goes to the Polls
The Votes are in, and Narendra Modi has won a third term as Prime Minister of India. However, in a surprising upset, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to win a majority, much less the supermajority Modi had predicted.
"We Have Normalised Horror."
Guardian: Mass casualty incidents caused by the Israeli military offensive in southern Gaza are becoming normalised in the west and leading to a sense of fatalism inside Gaza itself,
according to Sam Rose, the director of planning for the Palestinian relief agency UNRWA (after its school in Nuseirat was bombed by Israeli forces) || Democracy Now: “Apocalyptic”: 40 Killed in Israeli Airstrike on U.N. School Sheltering Displaced Palestinians in Gaza || BBC: US urges Israel to be transparent over Gaza school strike || Sky News UK: Experts told Sky News the [bomb] fragment [at Gaza school strike] can be identified as part of an American-made GBU-39 bomb; NPR: Israel used a U.S.-made bomb in a deadly U.N. school strike in Gaza [ground reporting that concurs] || MEMO (reporting of a Yedioth Ahronoth article): UN adds Israel to blacklist for harming children in conflict zones || ICYMI: Aharon Barak steps down as Israel's nominated judge to the ICJ case; Israel's Attorney-General urges Netanyahu to form commission of inquiry to provide legal cover from international judicial investigations such as through the ICC; Which ten countries have joined South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ?
Patience with getting fit in my 40s
How do/did you manage not to rush your fitness improvement? How were you able to embrace "slow and steady wins the race"?
Not an accurate depiction of the fur trade
Hundreds of Beavers is an indie film made in six weeks for $150,000. It's like a modern combination of 20s and 30s slapstick films and live-action Looney Tunes. It's currently available on Apple and Amazon streaming platforms. A 19th century trapper battles nature and wildlife (depicted by people wearing mascot costumes) to win the hand of a furrier's daughter. It's filled with hundreds of gags. Here's the trailer, the opening, and a clip showing the costumes.
Satanic Paper Mills
One of those tools, the “Problematic Paper Screener,” run by Guillaume Cabanac, a computer-science researcher who studies scholarly publishing at the Université Toulouse III-Paul Sabatier in France, scans the breadth of the published literature, some 130 million papers, looking for a range of red flags including “tortured phrases.” Cabanac and his colleagues realized that researchers who wanted to avoid plagiarism detectors had swapped out key scientific terms for synonyms from automatic text generators, leading to comically misfit phrases. “Breast cancer” became “bosom peril”; “fluid dynamics” became “gooey stream”; “artificial intelligence” became “counterfeit consciousness.” from Flood of Fake Science Forces Multiple Journal Closures [WSJ; ungated]
H5N1: Vibes are off. How are you preparing, if at all?
With governments starting to swing into action globally, it's hard not to feel like we're at the start of a familiar film. Though it's very hard to forecast risk, my partner and I are starting to discuss what, if anything, we should be doing and how to know when we should react(we're in California, have a toddler, have savings, are generally lucky to have options). We've all been through a pandemic before. If you thought you might be in November 2019 again, what would you do this time? What are you doing now?
very, very difficult, and very, very fun
What's the most virtuosic catchy music you know? Or, alternatively, what's the catchiest virtuoso music you know?
Why don't you get smart with me
The Imitation Game, Twister, Apollo 13 - these favorite movies of mine all have in common teams of smart people working together to solve problems. While this is not the only type of movie I like, I'd like recommendations for more of this kind. I realize that I may have seen some that you'll recommend but don't worry about how old the movie is, I might watch it again anyway.
html hidden text - can it stay hidden on highlight?
I'm trying to help a colleague with their experiment: adding hidden text to exam questions to foil copy/paste chatgpt operations. Our rudimentary efforts can hide text (we found a few ways that work okay), but it still shows up on highlight. Is there an html-only way around that?
🌈🐕ciao
窓からは柔らかな光が射し込み、Kabosu, the beloved Shiba-Inu behind the globally popular Doge meme, has passed away peacefully at home today at the age of 18.
[Soft light streamed through the window]
窓の外では鳥たちが歌う美しい朝に、
[Outside, birds were singing on a beautiful morning]
私に撫でられながら眠るようにそっと逝きました。
[As I petted her, she passed away gently, as if falling asleep]
長い間かぼちゃんを愛して下さったみなさま、本当にありがとうございました。
[To everyone who has loved Kabo-chan for a long time, thank you very much]
かぼちゃんは世界一幸せな犬だったと思います。そして私は世界一幸せな飼い主でした。
[I believe Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world, and I was the happiest owner]
Sundowning Mom Terrified of Caretaking Dad
My 83-year-old mother, whose full-time caregiver is my father, has started experiencing hallucinations, paranoia, and delusions as a component of her dementia. We all understand this is common, and she is under medical care and following “sundowning” protocols. The issue is that when an episode comes on, her central focus is terror of her caregiver: my 84-year-old father and her husband of 60 years. I am looking for any suggestions to help them manage this stage of the disease and these episodes specifically.
Ten Blue Links
On May 15th Google released a new "Web" filter that removes "AI Overview" and other clutter, leaving only traditional web results. Here is how you can set "Google Web" as your default search engine.
If you want to give people easy access to an AI-free Google search, send them to [udm14.com].
How the internet revived the world's first work of interactive fiction
Life is not a continuous line from the cradle to the grave. Rather, it is many short lines, each ending in a choice, and branching right and left to other choices, like a bunch of seaweed or a genealogical table. No sooner is one problem solved than you face another growing out of the first. You are to decide the course of action of first Helen, then Jed, then Saunders, at each crisis in their lives. Give your first thought, without pausing to ponder.Consider the Consequences!, a 1930 gamebook co-written by author Doris Webster and crusading journalist Mary Alden Hopkins, is the earliest known example of a choose-your-own-adventure (CYOA) text, offering players a series of forking narratives for three interconnected characters with 43 distinct endings, fifty years before the format was popularized (and trademarked). Just a few years ago this pioneering work was at risk of falling into near-total obscurity. But thanks to the efforts of jjsonick on IntFiction.org, you can now read the book on the Internet Archive (complete with nifty graphs of all possible storylines), or -- courtesy of itch.io developer geetheriot -- play the game online in an interactive fiction format powered by the Twine engine. More in the mood for radio drama? Listen to Audio Adventure Radio Hour's 2018 dramatic reading of the book (based on listener suggestions), and wrap it up with a delightful retro-review by librarian pals Peter and Abby on the Choose Your Own Book Club podcast.
The one person who’d know can’t tell me .
I’m sitting in hospice with my mom, who would know the answer to this question, but I can’t ask her.
Make Anim(ation) Real
Over 15 years ago, Microsoft released Photosynth [previously], a nifty tool that could correlate dozens of photos of the same place from different angles in order to make a sort of virtual tour using photogrammetry, a technique that went on to influence Google Earth's 3D landscapes and virtual reality environments. But what if you tried the same thing with cartoons? Enter Toon3D, a novel approach to applying photogrammetry principles to hand-drawn animation. The results are imperfect due to the inherent inconsistency of drawn environments, but it's still rather impressive to see a virtual camera moving around glitched-out versions of the Krusty Krab, Bojack Horseman's living room, or the train car from Spirited Away. Interestingly, the same approach works about as well on paintings or even AI-generated video; see also the similar technique of neural radiance fields (NERFs) for creating realistic high-fidelity virtual recreations of real (and unreal) environments.
‘He likes scaring people’
These details emerged in 2010, when the Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s equivalent of the FBI, was investigating the killings. The CBI charged Shah with kidnapping, extortion and murder. It alleged that the officers who killed Sheikh and his wife were working on Shah’s orders... Today, Amit Shah isn’t home minister for Gujarat, but all of India. From the heart of power in Delhi, he is in charge of domestic policy, commands the capital city’s police force, and oversees the Indian state’s intelligence apparatus. He is, simply put, the second-most powerful man in the country. How Modi’s right-hand man, Amit Shah, runs India.
User Inyer Face
You kind of just have to click through to experience the madness.
It's literally the worst. All the worst "features" combined into the worst interface of all time - so far.
Green sky at night
On Thursday, May 9, 2024, the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch -- its first since January 2005.
Coinciding with a new moon, aurorae should be visible (weather permitting) much further than typical. The Northern/Western-specific current predictions from NOAO show the view line extending below 40 degrees Northern latitude.
Where can I get Hungarian cherry soup (NYC)?
Is there anywhere in New York City (or near New York City) where I can get Hungarian cherry soup?
Adding year of release to Fanfare front page posts
This has been asked before, in Nov 2022, when the site owner called it a "really good idea" and a then-current tech person said it seemed "uncontroversial and positive, so I'll put that on the pile of things to do." Is this still something the community thinks is worth doing? If so, any chance it could be implemented? It might increase engagement in an area of the site that could use it. I know I'd find it useful, anyway.
Brian Potter explains the construction of a semiconductor fab
How to Build a $20 Billion Semiconductor Fab
. By Brian Potter of Construction Physics.
Where's the new The Good Place??
I'm pretty sure nothing else like it exists, but if it does I feel like MetaFilter people are my best bet to find it!
Forgotten but good novels before about 1960
I have a book group. Members have some pretty specific preferences and are unfortunately well-read. I'm looking for lesser known classics that meet certain criteria:
“Big Sky is a strange town, in the sense that it’s not really a town.”
Slippery Slope: How Private Equity Shapes a Ski Town (Nick Bowlin for Harper's)
The Battle for Attention
Nathan Heller on the secretive Order of the Third Bird:
There is a long-standing, widespread belief that attention carries value. In English, attention is something that we “pay.” In Spanish, it is “lent.” The Swiss literary scholar Yves Citton, whose study of the digital age, “The Ecology of Attention,” argues against reducing attention to economic terms, suggested to me that it was traditionally considered valuable because it was capable of bestowing value. “By paying attention to something as if it’s interesting, you make it interesting. By evaluating it, you valorize it,” he said. To treat it as a mere market currency, he thought, was to undersell what it could do.
More books like these, please
Four books have really opened my eyes to the details of exactly how capitalism and imperialism transformed parts of the world for the worse: Sweetness and Power, Coffeeland, Late Victorian Holocausts, and The Making of the English Working Class. What I appreciated about them was that they told a historical story about a specific place with lots of detail, but also tied it to larger actions being taken to transform the world economy. What should I add to that part of my bookshelf?
Spectrum of views towards Israel and Gaza
In a comment to one of the Gaza-related posts, I (thought) I saw a great breakdown of the ideological spectrum, ranging from “Death to the opposition!” at each extreme to what I thought was a very reasonable spectrum of intermediate positions in 10-15 steps.
My conservative Christian friend wants to learn about gender identity
She is perplexed by talk of "nonbinary" and "transgender" and says she wants to learn more (I'm her token liberal she goes to with these kinds of questions). She specifically wants a book to read. Any recommendations?
“Our enemy is the Precautionary Principle.”
“I’m glad there’s OxyContin and video games to keep those people quiet.”
"It was 2017, and a YIMBY activist invited me to talk about my book Nixonland with his book club, which also happened to be Marc Andreessen’s book club."
Passersby were amazed at the unusually large amounts of synergy
G/O Media, the much-reviled owner of such internet landmarks as Kotaku, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, and The Root, has been selling off their assets recently, including ClickHole (sold to Cards Against Humanity), Lifehacker (Ziff Davis), Deadspin (gutted), Jezebel and the AV Club (Paste). Latest on the auction block is The Onion... who ended up with a surprising buyer: Global Tetrahedron, a name that might ring a few bells for longtime readers. But what does the advent of this ominous conglomerate mean for America's Finest News Source?™
"One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea"
When you often notice people "why-don't-they-just"-ing their way into a proposed solution to a gnarly problem, you might turn your criticisms into a checklist. "Your post advocates a [( ) technical ( ) legislative ( ) market-based ( ) vigilante] approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work." These templates often offer a summary of the problem space and a glimpse of experts' frustrations. Solution rejection checklists exist for fixing the housing crisis, beating the CAP Theorem, protecting against DDOS attacks, improving pharmaceutical drug discovery success rates, creating new programming languages and distributed social networks, and (MeFi comment!) saving journalism.
Recipes with high return on investment
I'm looking for dishes where the taste, appearance or "wow factor" is much more than the effort, time or money put into the dish. For the purposes of this question, there are no other restrictions.
Recommendations for Vacation to San Juan or Orcas Island.
I'm thinking about a trip to the Pacific North west and am looking for hotel recommendations on the San-Juan or Orca Islands. A bit rustic is OK but we're traveling with my older mother so no camping. I want something upscale cabins or resort, preferably part of a larger complex with a spa. What do you suggest?
How do live concerts in Fortnite work?
Here's a sentence from this week's New Yorker article on game engines: "There are now live concerts in Fortnite, attended by millions of people". What do the words "live" and "attended" mean in this context?
☆彡 ☆彡 ☆彡 ☆彡 It was like fireworks. ☆彡 ☆彡 ☆彡
It is the late 1800s. You are an innovative fireworks manufacturer in Yokohama, Japan, with an increasingly international audience (including, on at least one occasion, Ulysses S. Grant). But how to demonstrate to your worldwide customers what, exactly, you have on offer? Introducing the beautifully minimalist Hirayama Fireworks' Illustrated Catalog of Night Bomb Shells.
Fine-Feathered Friends
The two flat “blades” of a feather on either side of the main shaft are called vanes. In living birds that fly, the feathers that arise from the hand, known as the primaries, have asymmetrical vanes: the leading vane is narrower than the trailing one. It stood to reason that vane asymmetry was important for flight. And because fossils of Microraptor and its kin show asymmetrical feathers, some researchers argued, these animals must have been able to fly.Scientific American: Why Feathers Are One of Evolution’s Cleverest Inventions [includes helpful illustrations -- and some truly stunning 4K+ photography]
Recent work by flight biomechanics experts, including me, has overturned this received wisdom about feather vane asymmetry. Our research shows that feather shape is largely optimized to allow the feather to twist and bend in sophisticated ways that greatly enhance flight performance. Merely being anatomically asymmetrical doesn’t mean much. What matters is that the feather is aerodynamically asymmetrical, and for this to be the case, the vane asymmetry must be at least three to one—that is, the trailing blade needs to be three times wider than the leading one. Below this ratio, the feather twists in a destabilizing rather than stabilizing way during flight.
“I still wanted to help. But I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.”
The Deaths of Effective Altruism
[archive] by Leif Wenar is a critical assessment of the effective altruism movement, taking in Sam Bankman-Fried and billionaires, Peter Singer and other philosophers, and GiveWell and the wider network of charities working off effective altruistic ideas.
How easily & cavalierly the works of decades & centuries are demolished
It seems there is only one model for today’s ‘man of action’, and that is Shock and Awe. Overwhelming force deployed suddenly and overwhelmingly. A theatrical performance with no audience as such, only a houseful of victims. The lions eat the circus and then tweet about it. Ask no questions, tell only lies, and double down, triple down, quadruple down. The ineffably stupid ‘move fast and break things’ that has so much to answer for in our time. Our new ‘Innovation Hub’ has an asinine three-word slogan: ‘Grow Ignite Disrupt’. It would make just as much sense to have ‘Paper Scissors Stone’ for a motto. And rather more to have ‘Smash Grab Run’. from In Florida by Michael Hofmann [London Review of Books] [CW: DeSantis]
Your magic work phrase
Someone told me if you are late to a meeting, say “Thanks for your patience”. I liked that and use it often. A Mefi whose name escapes me, when put in the spot. suggested saying “I don’t want to give you my first answer, I want to give you the right answer, let me get back to you”. I also liked that and use it often. What are the phrases you use at work that help better communicate / frame / set expectations / lead / work with your colleagues?
Digital preservation, access control, and scholarly needs
'So, I hope CLOCKSS does have a complete digital copy of the journal, but the question is: will CLOCKSS make it available? This all depends on CLOCKSS assessment of whether a “trigger event” has occurred here.' Ross Mounce, commenting on the disappearance of recently-concluded chemistry journal Heterocycles from the web more than four months ago, raises questions about nonprofit digital archive CLOCKSS ("Controlled LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe)"), and similar "dark archives" that preserve research journals in a kind of escrow. (CLOCKSS has, so far, released "66 journals comprising 13,000 articles" into Open Access.)
Movie: Hell or High Water
Two brothers (Chris Pine, Ben Foster) rob small-town banks in Texas. Two Rangers (Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham) pursue them.
Recommendations for dialogue-heavy films a la Glengarry Glen Ross?
I have lately been hooked on Glengarry Glen Ross and The Big Kahuna, small casts with stellar scripts and casting. What other dialogue-heavy films in this vein should I be watching?