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"we decided on the wingnut because we thought it represented us"
Berkeley, CA now has a Wingnut Museum.
"The wingnut was invented in the first half of the 19th century and quickly became an indispensable piece of hardware. It lets users fasten bolts by hand, without tools, using little wings jutting out from the nut.
Over time the term became slang, applied pejoratively to mentally unsound people, to political extremists, to freaks, eccentrics and weirdos. But in the Bay Area especially, it’s come to take on a more positive connotation, describing a certain type of creative tinkerer with a DIY, outsider ethos.
The wingnut, in all its many guises, is being celebrated at the Wingnut Museum, which opened in July at Grand Opening, the art salon in Berkeley’s Gilman District that is also home to the Illusion Room. "
Acknowledging fears while avoiding doomsaying
I have a suggestion for community communication standards for posts such as the one on the shootings at Trump’s July 13 rally that make many of our fellow Mefites highly anxious.
Italicization is significant (again).
Should the search results pages' excerpts reflect the italicization of the original comments?
Another Week of Police Brutality
The Justice Department’s report [on Minneapolis PD] was almost uniformly critical, painting a disturbing portrait of a dysfunctional law enforcement agency where illegal conduct was common, racism was pervasive and misconduct was tolerated. Minneapolis Police Used Illegal, Abusive Practices for Years, Justice Dept. Finds
Systems
Some chiptune dnb* played on an sms** and an snes***, both midi controlled.
When a possum is NOT an Opossum
Meet the Common Brushtail Possum, an Australian tree-climbing marsupial that keeps its young in a pouch until they are too large, at which point they ride on their mother's back. It eats leaves; bark; flowers; fruits; fungi; insects; birds eggs; small to medium birds; and sometimes rats. It likes living in the hollows of old trees; with tree loss, it is now often found in people's roofs or garages or sheds. They sometimes come into people's houses through cat flaps. In urban areas, they will accept fruit from people's hands.
New Moderation Team Member
Hello Everyone!
Please join me welcoming our newly-hired Moderator: Brandon Blatcher!
secrets of the abyss
A short surreal animated film by Felix Colgrave: DONKS.
The entire early vocal style itself is ornamental
Medieval European singing sounded more "Middle Eastern" than is commonly believed.
Musician Farya Faraji looks at "how the overall singing style of European Medieval music was markedly different from current Classical conservatory techniques, and resembled current Greek, Arabic, Bulgarian or Turkish forms of singing far more—styles of singing defined by less precise pitch and florid melismatic delivery."
the grim reapers of their own obsession
But buyers beware: Nepenthes [carnivorous plant] collecting—as I eventually learned almost too well—is next-level stuff. There’s a lot more to these plants than fertilizer and YouTube how-tos. They’re botanical prima donnas, liable to walk out on life without notice if their specific needs aren’t met. And your new hobby will shove you into a strange world. There’s something dark in the pits of those pitchers, and it’s not the rotting bugs. If you fall in, you may land in an acidic soup of crime, addiction, and existential angst. Mat Orchard thought he could handle Nepenthes. They nearly ate him alive.
Yes, again!
The Creatures of Yes (previ-yes-ly, previ-yes-lier), the strange and supremely endearing puppet show made using 70's technology, just keeps returning - this time with The Midnight Special.
"I don’t personally vet every prophecy that comes through these halls"
Catelyn Winona (Caffeine and Magix) has published several short stories or vignettes recently that subvert epic fantasy or superhero tropes. Here are three: "No Heroes Here" ("Daz was raised by a hero. That’s probably why she isn’t one."); a piece in which the Chosen One immediately takes up the Dark Lord's offer to join their cause; and "Wizards Stole My Brother" ("Being the Chosen One fucking sucks. That’s why Erika is furious when she finds out her brother got picked.").
Substituting for onions
What can I substitute for onions that will provide the sweetness, bulk, depth, and general infusion of flavor that you get from sauteing onions with various spices? I can't use anything in the onion/allium family: no leeks, shallots, garlic, etc. Also, no mushrooms and not too much celery.
GET OVER HERE!
"We certainly did a ton of prep for our video shoots, but some ideas came to us while filming. With Scorpion’s spear, it started with “You know what would be a cool ass move?”. From there you can be a fly on the wall and see us working through the details." How Scorpion got an iconic move: Twitter thread (and threadreader)
The State Birds Are Garbage (SLYT)
Not the fauna themselves, but rather their selection.
Not only is the content compelling, the author uses a totally novel (to me) low-tech fake-high-tech "this is a unix system" style presentation medium. To me it's as interesting as the content! I had to keep asking myself: why is this good? It's like a layer cake of nostalgia and... is that irony? I can't tell! Keep it comin'...
Site Update #2, 2020
Hello again, Metafilter! It's time for another update on the state of the site. Comments are turned off for these, but we’re happy to hear from you via the Contact Form. If you want to discuss a particular subject with the community, you’re welcome to open a separate MetaTalk thread for it.
How important is "food safe"?
I hear a lot of talk about food-safe plastics and need to know, how much do I need to care? I mean I've chewed so much random plastic in my life from pen-lids to action figures, how seriously do I need to take this? The specific case I am concerned about in this case is that I want to press something against the top of freshly poured chocolates (in a food safe mould) to leave a mark.
Need a printer, stat
My older all in one printer has officially just kicked the bucket, and I need a replacement pretty quickly. I'm having trouble sorting out printer wheat from chaff and need your recommendations. Mac OS.
AI Escape Rooms: "You can't hide from the cat, [it] is always watching."
If you’ve ever done an escape room, you know that you can pay to be stuck in a room - except that you get to choose your own form of peril and there’s generally less time spent baking and watching shows. In case we run out of ways to be trapped in a room, Jesse Morris, an actual escape room designer, sent me the names of about 1100 existing escape rooms so I could train a neural net to generate more. Escape rooms, from AI Weirdness (previous AI weirdness).
"woo-ooo-ooo-ooo what is that?... the ghost of PacMan"
The rare and mysterious Deepstaria jellyfish looks like a cross between a plastic bag and a Victorian specter (with resident isopod).
(From Nautilus Live. Direct YouTube link)
Why I don’t cook
I said to my boyfriend, “Cooking is really stupid.” He said that he knew what I meant. I said that I was never cooking again. He said he thought that was a great idea. I said, “I have to make homemade tomato sauce with Christine on Saturday. And I have to make some more galettes because the last ones sucked.”
“That sounds like a lot of cooking,” he said.
“I know,” I said. “I’m going to make the galettes and the sauce, and then I am never cooking again.”
You're not going crazy, Arthur, you're going sane in a crazy world!
In 1986, 18-year-old cartoonist Ben Edlund created The Tick as a mock-hero mascot for a newsletter for New England Comics, where he was a customer. A few pages of The Tick were included in the New England Comics Newsletter in '86, and two years later, NEC published the first of the black-and-white comic book series, featuring wacky superheroes and bizarre super villains. From there, The Tick and his compatriots has been in a three-season cartoon series on Fox Kids, a live-action series on Fox in 2001, and again as live-action in an Amazon exclusive production. One of the many things that makes The Tick’s situation unique is that Edlund has been centrally involved with every version since the ’80s, including the most recent live-action series.
Meet the Scutoid
Scientists have discovered a new shape [Nature]. Matt Parker, with some help from Laura Taalman and Clara Grima, is here to explain [YouTube].
MetaFilter revenue update: holy cow, y'all!
Recently, I announced that MetaFilter was in serious financial trouble, and asked you to help with additional community funding of the site.
Y'all have really, really come through. Recurring contributions supporting the site are up by almost $10,000 a month and growing, erasing our current shortfall and helping move MetaFilter toward a more sustainable, independent revenue model. Community funding alone now covers very nearly half our operating budget. That's amazing.
Come on in and I'll give you the details on what's happened and what we're up to next.
Y'all have really, really come through. Recurring contributions supporting the site are up by almost $10,000 a month and growing, erasing our current shortfall and helping move MetaFilter toward a more sustainable, independent revenue model. Community funding alone now covers very nearly half our operating budget. That's amazing.
Come on in and I'll give you the details on what's happened and what we're up to next.
Unfortunately, nothing about Robert Frost
Yesterday at E3, the cast of Lucasarts' 1998 adventure game Grim Fandango reprised their roles in a reading of much of the game's script (SLYT, skips to 8:15:22 in the video).
Jello Knife
How to make the sharpest jello kitchen knife in the world (SLYT).
How to talk to bears
What to do when there's a bear in your yard? As in any other interpersonal/ursine situation, communication is the key. Here are some practical demonstrations on how to establish boundaries with your furry neighbors. Canadians like to do it politely, while we Finns like to be a bit more assertive. Via SATW.
This is not exactly what happened but it is basically what happened
Okay, so: Latin has this word, sic. Or, if we want to be more diacritically accurate, sīc. That shows that the i is long, so it’s pronounced like “seek” and not like “sick.”
"If I touch Henry’s leash, [Baloo] will start screaming at the door."
This Cat And Dog Love Travelling Together, And Their Pictures Are Absolutely Epic (Bored Panda). Also on The Dodo. Also on Instagram.
Q: Why was the big emu so lonely? A: He was ostrich-sized.
By popular demand, here is the second in a series about disheveled animals. Emee Emu was hatched, as birds are wont to do. She was soon running about and playing with other young animals. She especially enjoys fetch.
Wedding rings don't grow on carrots, you know. Oh wait, they do.
August 2017: Canadian woman finds long-lost diamond engagement ring on a carrot growing in her garden. November 2016: German man finds long-lost wedding ring on a carrot growing in his garden. November 2011: Swedish woman finds long-lost wedding ring on a carrot growing in her garden.
Not all eggs are egg-shaped
"Cracking the Mystery of Egg Shapes"
Short graphic-rich description of a study of egg shape, with a software model in which the egg definitely came before the chicken.
"an occasional draft will look like a passing cloud"
A demonstration of Schlieren photography, which makes minute changes in air's index of refraction visible, allowing us to see air that is moving or that contains gases that would otherwise be invisible. A segment from a Science Channel program has some additional examples and some explanation.
Q: What's llama's favorite film? A: Llamadeus
By popular demand, here is the first in a series about disheveled animals. They're slimy when they first come out, but they lose their shevel pretty quickly and begin to display their sunny dispositions and other quirky behaviors. Humans notwithstanding, they seem to get along well with other animals (mostly goats, but a few dogs of course). [all videos are ambient noise punctuated by shrieks of laughter and/or disgust] (Llamas previously)
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