August 5
Is MetaFilter smooth or bumpy, hot or cold... and it's your free thread
Grass underfoot, Leipäjuusto in the mouth, stroking a cat, nettle stings on the body, fingers in clay and chocolate, and cold water and steam on bare skin ... after recent topics of smells and sounds and tastes, what are the textures, things you feel, which linger in your memories ... Or write about whatever is on your mind, in your heart, on your plate or in your journal, because this is your weekly free thread.
August 4
Famous Sycamore Gap tree illegally cut down now showing signs of life
Famous Sycamore Gap tree illegally cut down now showing signs of life. Eight new shoots appear on the stump of a famous tree that was illegally felled in northern England last year.
"Displacement of residents and change in neighborhood character."
I changed how I think about gentrification (Lindsay M. Miller, author of the 2019 essay 'We need to change how we think about gentrification', writing for Denver's Westword)
Muffin reigns supreme
Norwegian Olympic swimmer Henrik Christiansen really really really likes the "choccy muffins" served in the Olympic Village. [more inside]
Re-sourcing the Mind
What might we lose and gain through widespread usage of Large Language Models? The invention of writing allowed a way to offload our thoughts and memories onto objects and it has since formed an indispensable part of our civilization. Technology philosopher L.M. Sacasas examines the historical parallel and asks if we might be losing something fundamentally human as people start using it not just for boilerplate but deeply personal expressions.
Absolutely Nothing
More frightening still is that the stakes are becoming absolute all around. For China, Russia can’t lose in Ukraine or its most powerful ally against the West seeking to contain it will be formidably weakened. For Western leaders and their Asian allies, Russia can’t be allowed to win or the entire liberal order of open societies will be at risk of geopolitical bullying by well-armed autocrats, notably Xi, who they fear will come to believe seizing what they please by force will only be met with limited repercussions. from The World Is Assuming A Pre-War Posture [Noema] [more inside]
Threatened nativeplant species key to unlocking climate-resilient future
Threatened native plant species aren't cute and cuddly, but the key to unlocking a climate-resilient future. Brandan Espe goes to great lengths — and occasionally puts his life at risk — to collect rare plants due to their environmental importance.
August 3
The history of chemical laboratories: a thematic approach
“designed from the beginning to operate while in tatters”
Was the Internet Designed to Survive a Nuclear Attack? is an essay by computer historian Chris McKenzie which traces the origins of the popular myth that the Internet was the result of an attempt to create a military command and control network that wasn’t vulnerable to a single nuclear strike. Via Bruce Sterling, who wrote an early version of the narrative.
Milestone Achieved At Caltech
Earlier this week, Caltech announced that for the first time in its history, it has reached gender parity in its incoming undergraduate class. [more inside]
How do you kill this pest? By importing its natural enemy
How do you kill this pest? By importing its natural enemy. The
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) introduces a biocontrol fungus in the hope it reduces the spread of African boxthorn weed, but it is not available outside New South Wales due to lack of funding.
Jax wrote a song for her dad
I wrote a song about my dad getting older - Jax and her dad in the car. One of several charming and heartwarming songs/shorts by Jax. Recently discovered by me - though she has 3M followers on YouTube and 14M on TikTok. Enjoyable content for enjoyment. [more inside]
The most bleeding edge stack of all time
How to save $13.27 on your sAAs bill. Hilarious. Sometimes, the boundary between the real and the parody is just a few lines of code.
The very serious function of racism
On 30 May 1975, Toni Morrison, Primus St. John, John Callahan, Susan Callahan, and Lloyd Baker convened for the second part of the “Black Studies Center Public Dialogue" [PDF transcript] at Portland State University. During the dialogue, Toni Morrison said a number of important things, but one piece in particular has stood out in later years [previously; previouslier]. [more inside]
Bossman vs Roadman
As if a baby orca had been hitched to two snowplows
People in the industry tend to think that flight is useful and awesome, and not necessarily in that order. One of the reasons that the idea of flying cars has endured is that it seems to promise two different kinds of freedom: on the one hand, to get from point A to point B without a lot of hassle; on the other hand, to know the euphoria of exploring the third dimension. Most people at these companies got into the business because they were personally enraptured by flight. They are nonetheless well aware that airplanes and automobiles have vastly different requirements, and that the vision of a car that both drives and flies never made a ton of sense. from Are Flying Cars Finally Here? [The New Yorker; ungated]
"People are idiots."
What does it mean that hundreds of thousands of players are clicking on a banana? Clicker games are the inevitable end-point of the rise of bots and microtransactions.
August 2
Everyone thought this tiny lizard was extinct — then it turned up
Everyone thought this tiny lizard was extinct — then it turned up on Melbourne's fringe. Emi Arnold and Pat Monarca were about to finish work when they spotted a long-lost tiny dragon. Now Zoos Victoria is leading the charge to bring the reptiles back from the brink.
Stumpy lives! Iconic Tidal Basin cherry tree’s little ones take root
It was a sad farewell in D.C. when a beloved Tidal Basin cherry tree had to be removed in the spring. But there’s hope on the horizon as cuttings from “Stumpy” have taken root.
I was always more of a Maru guy.
The legend of Keyboard Cat: How a man and his cat(s) won the internet lottery. Part of Mashable's Tales of the Early Internet. [more inside]
Simone Biles has reached heights previously considered impossible
"Biles’s aerial somersaults reach an incredible height. In Tuesday’s floor routine, seven feet of air separated her four-foot-eight frame from the ground beneath her. Through the power of arithmetic, we can confidently say that means her head was eleven feet and eight inches above the ground. If that feels abstract, allow us to provide some concrete examples for you." A Partial Inventory of Items Simone Biles Could Jump Over in Her Floor Routine, from Dan Solomon at the always fabulous Texas Monthly.
See Me, Feel Me, LinkMe
The third in an ongoing series of experiments for a different kind of MetaFilter experience: Come across an interesting link recently that you'd like to share, but don't want to work it up into a full post? Share it here for our perusal, nbd. And if you'd like to post something but need some inspiration, check out the links here to see what other members have found interesting and would like to read more about! Just tag the resulting post "LinkMe" and include a nod back to the original suggestion. No self-linking and usual site rules apply, but otherwise feel free to post whatever you like! Look inside for a rundown of posts to come out of the last few threads. [more inside]
I Can Feel It Coming In the Gatorwine
Babish, aka Andrew Rea of the Babish Culinary Universe, ranks the strangest recipes submitted to him by his viewers. Featuring gatorwine, a number of brief musical interludes inspired by gatorwine, and a range of scores for the strange recipes going from 0 (tuna tacos. but not like, the good kind. you'll see.) to 10 (pokkorn, a delicious looking take on popcorn).
Cobra venom could potentially be treated with a blood thinner
Blood thinner could revolutionise treatment for cobra venom. Cobra venom could potentially be treated with a commonly prescribed blood thinner, new research has indicated.
At the Great Florida Bigfoot Conference
“You know, stranger things have happened than Bigfoot.” (slTheParisReview)
Team 10
$10M cash withdrawal drove secret probe into whether Trump took money from Egypt by Aaron C. Davis and Carol D. Leonnig (WaPost gift link)
The Data behind "Childless Cat Ladies"
WaPo's Dept. of Data looks at the numbers. (gift link) In a similar fashion to Trump being confused about Harris being both Indian and Black, I stand for all of us who have cats and dogs. We're out, we're proud, we're spending too much on cat food because the dogs keep sneaking in and helping themselves to it.
The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector: 11 hours and 31 minutes
"How Long to Read is a book search engine that helps you find out how long it will take to read books and provide reading time data that is tailored to you. With our simple WPM (words per minute) test you can find out how long it will take you to read almost anything, and also use our search engine to find books that will fit the time you have to read." [more inside]
a babe without a name (SL music video)
A sad and sweet animated clip made for the Queen song All Dead All Dead. This song came out in 1977 on the album News of the World; the video was made in 2017 at the 40-year anniversary of the album. The lead vocals on this version were sung by Mercury, not May, who sang them on the original version. [more inside]
An antidote for fear
The question of student surveillance is made more difficult by a lack of clear data on whether it works and if so, whether the collateral damage to privacy is justified. School officials across the country defend the use of such surveillance by arguing that if it saves just one life, it’s worth it. But is it worth it if it turns schools into virtual prisons? “Through a careful review of the existing evidence, and through interviews with dozens of school staff, parents and others,” wrote a group of Rand researchers in February, “we found that AI based monitoring, far from being a solution to the persistent and growing problem of youth suicide, might well give rise to more problems than it seeks to solve.” from Spyware turned this Kansas high school into a ‘red zone’ of dystopian surveillance [Kansas Reflector]
August 1
it's the sound of the summer
A few days ago, Drew Daniel posted on Twitter: had a dream I was at a rave talking to a girl and she told me about a genre called “hit em” that is in 5/4 time at 212 bpm with super crunched out sounds thank you dream girl
In the days since, people have kept sharing their own.
“Today ... was a very good day.”
Journalist Evan Gershkovich has come home. Gershkovich and two other Americans who had been wrongfully imprisoned in Russia came home today - along with citizens of Germany, Britain, and Belarus. Seven Russians - political prisoners, some of them associates of Alexei Navalny - were also released. This is the largest prisoner swap since the collapse of the Soviet Union. [more inside]
Cute Story in Aisle Five
A social media post about 90s game show contestants brought the internet some warm fuzzy feelings this week. Dan Kois interviews the Supermarket Sweep set building "business partners" for Slate and reveals a bonus twist.
Differences between USA and AUS broadcasts of the Opening Ceremonies
On Friday, July 26, 2024, during the opening ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, an artistic performance intended to be a part of the planned program was not broadcast in the United States. At approximately two hours into the broadcast, shortly after the introduction of France's athletes (the last group to be introduced), the program moved to a series of music and dance performances, including a floating disco and a Dionysian feast. During this, the US broadcast cut away to advertising breaks and exclusive interviews with US-based athletes while audiences outside the US remained with the main program. • See the differences in this segment, each broadcast side-by-side, via this fifteen-minute video hosted by the Internet Archive. [more inside]
Puts the Nom into Phenomenology
Evolution of the Italian pasta ripiena: the first steps toward a scientific classification - Pievani et al h/t RadicalAnthro [more inside]
we'll oppose it until we don't
Kill Bill x Rav x Hatsune Miku - THINGS WILL GET MUCH WORSE FROM HERE. Single link music video (3:18). [ CW: fast flashing images, body horror, AI discourse, depressing earworm bop with some absolutely devastating lines. ] [more inside]
Greater Stick Nest Rats Surviving On Island
How this tiny native rat on the brink of extinction is thriving on an island infested with snakes. A rat which became extinct on mainland Australia by the 1930s is staying safe from predators on an island off South Australia by living in one of Australia's worst invasive weeds.
Queer Quest
Queer Quest- All In A Gay's Work is what happens when a gay Monkey Island meets a feminist Liesure Suit Larry. [more inside]
Faster, Better, Lighter
Samsung has announced its pilot solid-state EV battery production line is now fully operational. The solid state batteries can power electric vehicles with a 600-mile range [YMMV but the range is projected to double in the same volume with less mass], charge in 9 minutes [10%-80%], and have a lifespan of 20 years.
Geology and Chicanery
The Swindling Geologist, as he came to be called, first appeared in the news in 1884, following his arrest on February 9, in Philadelphia (Part 1). Pretending to be W. R. Taggart of the Ohio Geological Survey, he had befriended Ferdinand V. Hayden, of the United States Geological Survey, and stolen one of his rare books and made off with $20. Of course he was innocent, he said. Someone acting as an imposter and smearing his good name was responsible for the charges of swindling attributed to him. (Part 2) . By David B. Williams (substack)
tiny houses
a miniature renaissance is upon us. “There’s an explosion of popularity around miniatures these days; it has emerged as this pop culture phenomenon" [AD]
Why the world's oceans are changing colour
A vexed and interesting enterprise
A finished novel stands as a kind of monument to the author’s pristine intentions, plans, themes. The actual making of the text (at least in my case) is actually vagrant and random. I can’t quite remember how I stumbled into writing a book with quite a bit of football in it, but part of the decision must have been that I had to make use of the countless hours, probably adding up to years, that I’d spent playing, watching, and having feelings about this sport, most of them devoted to Manchester United, the team I’ve followed since I was seven years old. I wasn’t proceeding like a complete zombie, however. I had a basic drama in mind—the search for an African soccer prospect who tantalizingly appears in a video—and of course I was aware that in recent years football has become a global industry of incalculable financial value, not to mention an industry of travels, transactions, human adventures—the fun stuff. from Joseph O’Neill on Writing a Socially Relevant Soccer Novel [LitHub] [more inside]
July 31
Black cockatoo with rare condition taken into care after rejection
"Never seen anything like this": Black cockatoo with rare condition taken into care after rejection by flock.
Tweety the yellow-tailed black cockatoo is mostly yellow due to a rare condition. While that has resulted in it being shunned by its kin in the wild, collectors see Tweety as a prize — and that is a problem.
Beyond The 'C'
Louie Zong adjusted Bobby Darin singing Beyond the Sea (original), so that every note is a C. Unjoy! (both links 3 minutes long)
"I didn't know she was Black."
Donald Trump at the National Association of Black Journalists (PBS, C-SPAN, The Hill, Axios, USA Today, NYT, Chicago Sun-Times, Politifact)
In the meantime, they've become women
Our starlet narrators position their fans against the media, with media imagined as vicious and venal, while fans are pure-hearted and devoted. What these characterizations elide in their attempts to appeal to their audiences is the fact that we're guilty too, always grasping at shards of these girls and in this process tearing them apart. Like Eve, these are girls denied depth by the people in charge, understood as fallen women when they seek life experiences we didn't think they were ready for. Which brings me back to the bimbo summit, and the dumb blonde image all these girls inhabited far into adulthood. from American Bimbo, a collection of essays edited by Emmeline Clein [Post45] [more inside]
Kamala Harris Campaign: Week 2
We'll find out who won the veepstakes next week:
Kamala Harris to appear with running mate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Aug. 6 (Guardian link).
Meanwhile in her Atlanta rally Harris tells Trump to 'Say it to my face' (Guardian link). [more inside]
Stunning Olympic surfing photo
Roots of Pacha, a cozy communitarian game
Roots of Pacha is a cozy game in the vein of Stardew Valley. What sets it apart is a strong communitarian vibe where you are one member of a community working together to improve their village. [more inside]