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The whole family had enormous fun playing Gorogoa together. Just one of us holding the controller and the whole family calling out and arguing what to do. We had similar fun with Chants of Sennaar. Are there other games like this that we can play together like this?
posted by derbyshire to Ask MetaFilter on Aug 17 at 6:14 PM
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Gisnep (Gisnep?) is a new daily word puzzle from MetaFilter's own ironicsans.
posted by Horace Rumpole to MetaFilter on Aug 20 at 11:53 AM
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“I had gone to install a dishwasher in a loft in SoHo. While working, I suddenly heard a noise and looked up to find Robert Hughes, the art critic of Time magazine, staring at me in disbelief. ‘But you’re Philip Glass! What are you doing here?’ It was obvious that I was installing his dishwasher and I told him I would soon be finished. ‘But you are an artist,’ he protested. I explained that I was an artist but that I was sometimes a plumber as well and that he should go away and let me finish.” from The Blue Collar Jobs of Philip Glass by Ted Gioia
posted by chavenet to MetaFilter on Aug 21 at 12:35 AM
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In the 1950s, the U.S. Department of Defense undertook the Heavy Press Program, funding the construction of ten colossal forging and extrusion presses, powerful enough to create entire aircraft components as single pieces of metal, replacing hundreds of smaller parts. Not only did the large parts produced by the presses greatly reduce the cost and increase the performance of military aircraft, the presses also proved useful for making parts for things like helicopters, submarines, spacecraft, and commercial jets. Six of the ten presses are still operational today.
posted by automatronic to MetaFilter on Aug 21 at 11:18 AM
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Some Basic Facts about Language for Political Bullshit Artists
posted by signal to MetaFilter on Aug 21 at 4:41 PM
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Monotypes have been around for a long time and have been invented and re-invented several times. Lasting Impressions: The Monotype Medium from Edgar Degas to Elizabeth Peyton. Currently they're undergoing a revival of sorts thanks to the Gel Plate which has made it very easy for the beginner (like me!) to make their own prints and papers.
posted by Art_Pot to MetaFilter on Aug 22 at 3:43 PM
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“I set out to read 26 traditional epics about woman heroes, and so far I have found 32.”
posted by clew to MetaFilter on Aug 19 at 7:39 PM
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The Onion has put the entirety of its classic book Our Dumb Century online as part of its website redesign. For the unfamiliar, Our Dumb Century was a collection of fake Onion front pages from the 20th Century, with headlines such as “World’s Largest Metaphor Hits Iceberg”, “Feds Gun Down Nixon Outside Arizona Motel”, “Drugs Win Drug War”, and, of course, “WA- (headline continued on page 2)”.
posted by Kattullus to MetaFilter on Aug 18 at 11:11 PM
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Maybe you're the sort of person who likes to start the day with the New York Times Mini Crossword, but perhaps you're looking for a new sort of challenge. Minute Cryptic is a new website that features one UK-style cryptic crossword clue to solve each day, with hints available. New to cryptic crosswords? Here's an explainer video from the New Yorker that covers the way they work, with plenty of examples. It takes a while to get used to them, but it's incredibly satisfying to find yourself learning to speak their wordplay language over time.
posted by DoctorFedora to MetaFilter on Aug 19 at 6:01 PM
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I've read a few books that really had an impact on how I viewed my behaviour and the behaviour of others and I'd love to read some more. Books that include anecdotes as examples are best as that helps me put the information into context.
posted by Dynex to Ask MetaFilter on Aug 18 at 2:50 PM
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I am a humanities librarian and have the dubious privilege of becoming an accidental generative AI subject matter "expert". I don't expect to be using this technology on the regular anytime soon, but I do teach information literacy skills to peers and users and would like to be equipped to evaluate vendors that are adding LLM functionality to their products. How I keep current on this rapidly evolving technology without drowning in nonsense?
posted by toastedcheese to Ask MetaFilter on Aug 22 at 9:05 AM
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I have really tight hips and hamstrings and I believe that it's making my spine issues worse. I've been to PT but haven't found a routine that really helps. You?
posted by Frowner to Ask MetaFilter on Aug 23 at 6:49 AM
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An overdue update about the transition to a non-profit.
posted by Gorgik to MetaTalk on Aug 19 at 8:19 AM
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The use of full, unedited pages from the sketchbook, which include notes from the anthropologist, demonstrates how the artists contextualized the history of the sketches—adding another layer of complexity to unaulutu [getty]
posted by HearHere to MetaFilter on Aug 17 at 11:02 AM
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The contest to write the worst opening lines to non-existent novels have been announced. The grand prize winner is Lawrence Person of Austin, TX: "She had a body that reached out and slapped my face like a five-pound ham-hock tossed from a speeding truck."
posted by AlSweigart to MetaFilter on Aug 19 at 6:26 PM
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35 years ago, Belgian techno anthem “Pump Up the Jam” was released.
posted by Pronoiac to MetaFilter on Aug 18 at 7:28 PM
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The Feenstras escaped woke and are now headed for broke.
posted by Kitteh to MetaFilter on Aug 19 at 12:47 PM
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Corporate security work has long elevated routine business worries—like shoplifting, loitering, and homelessness—into urgent criminal problems. (slHarpers)
posted by Kitteh to MetaFilter on Aug 20 at 7:07 AM
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Even Lee’s washing machine collection began with his wife. As he often tells the story, the couple bought an RV when Lee retired in 1985, and they planned a road trip from Colorado to Maine. Somewhere in Iowa, they stopped at a farmer’s estate sale. There, among the implements and tools, Lee spied a 1907 Maytag Model 44. He loved the machine’s beauty and the mechanics of it. Over time, he began to love the idea that these machines changed women’s roles at home. Barbara didn’t object when Lee paid $100 for the contraption and loaded it into their ride. She didn’t complain much, either, when he kept stopping and buying up antique washers. “We bought 12 more all the way to Maine,” Lee says. “We came home with a mobile home and a new trailer filled with washing machines.” from The Charming, Eccentric, Blessed Life of Lee Maxwell [5280]
posted by chavenet to MetaFilter on Aug 20 at 1:06 AM
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Like the Enigma, the HX-63 was an electromechanical cipher system known as a rotor machine. It was the only electromechanical rotor machine ever built by CAG, and it was much more advanced and secure than even the famous Enigmas. In fact, it was arguably the most secure rotor machine ever built. I longed to get my hands on one, but I doubted I ever would. from The Scandalous History of the Last Rotor Cipher Machine [IEEE]
posted by chavenet to MetaFilter on Aug 22 at 11:57 AM
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[more posts]

I went to school for music composition. Once I graduated I worked at a couple of hip hop studios and a Caribbean studio. Highlights of that time were playing keys on a Big Pun track and helping to record a Mighty Sparrow album. But there wasn't very much money it it, at all, and I was living at home in suburban Long Island and slowly becoming an... [more]
posted by grumpybear69 to MetaFilter on Aug 21 at 6:27 AM
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So many thoughts on this, I'll see if I can make some sense of them. No one's born fully formed but running through this there seems to be a sense of surprise that Glass had mundane jobs outside of music but I'd reckon that would be the norm rather than the exception. It's a very lucky and very unusual person that can go to school, go to... [more]
posted by deadwax to MetaFilter on Aug 21 at 3:56 AM
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Speaking as a person who thinks the topic is worth discussing, I also think this community has members who are bad at talking about it, and continually resort to name-calling, judgementalism, condescension, oversimplification, etc. There are a couple of commenters I just have to totally ignore, not because I disagree with their politics (they are... [more]
posted by A Most Curious Rabbit to MetaTalk on Aug 21 at 3:23 PM
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If you're not in an intimate relationship with this person, this is way too much thought to be devoting to this. The check-ins sound like his attempt to assuage your fears of being left out, but clearly they're backfiring. It sounds like you would have expected a lot of handholding throughout the trip, and don't really take "no" for an... [more]
posted by sagc to Ask MetaFilter on Aug 18 at 6:47 PM
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I wish TFA didn't reference pierogi so much, since those are the freedom-loving food of the Polish people, unlike the degenerate, Kafka-esque vareniki which are emblematic of terrible non-free Russia and also probably filled with PCBs and Novichok. [view]
posted by 1adam12 to MetaFilter on Aug 19 at 1:09 PM
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Or he could contribute significantly to the USD $7 billion that the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation donates each year. Billionaire's donations should be replaced with progressive taxation. [view]
posted by signal to MetaFilter on Aug 17 at 7:41 AM
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I didn't think it possible, but this story exhausts my strategic schadenfreude reserve. [view]
posted by adamrice to MetaFilter on Aug 19 at 1:13 PM
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In the mid-1990s I was able to print film negatives and positives on digital imagesetters or slide printers, which could then be used to make prints. The images themselves could be wholly novel or just heavily-retouched. These kind of comments are mind-boggling to me. Yes, photos could have been manipulated at any time throughout... [more]
posted by dobbs to MetaFilter on Aug 23 at 9:37 AM
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I’d point out two things with that essay: First, it’s a polemic within hip-hop, which has forever had a head/body conflict, heavily freighted with concepts of authentic American Blackness, which the Patton leans hard into here—the narrative of Black Liberation through hip-hop has to appeal to authenticity, because it falls to popularity.... [more]
posted by klangklangston to MetaFilter on Aug 18 at 5:29 PM
53 users marked this as a favorite

These people did not wake up one morning and decide "Hey let's completely shit our lives away in the dumbest possible fashion!" They got to where they wound up because the people they looked up to have been lying to them all their lives. Sorry, no. The adults here lived in Canada in the 21st century, not in North Korea or in... [more]
posted by praemunire to MetaFilter on Aug 20 at 7:50 AM
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> I didn't think it possible, but this story exhausts my strategic schadenfreude reserve. I understand the military has begun airlifting emergency Nelson Muntz gifs to affected regions. [view]
posted by Sauce Trough to MetaFilter on Aug 19 at 1:22 PM
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As a former resident of Saskatchewan, it boggles my mind that ANYONE could look at that place and go "hey you know, SASKATCHEWAN is too woke!" A land where the flags exhorting Trudeau fornication are only second in number to Alberta, where the common clay keep voting for the Saskatchewan Party and somehow keep expressing surprise that... [more]
posted by barc0001 to MetaFilter on Aug 19 at 4:08 PM
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I would absolutely not agree to do this. Since your management wants to paper over the past and promote the bully, they are looking for excuses to downplay the bullying. It is likely that your involvement in this meeting will be framed afterwards as "letting go of the past and starting with a blank slate" or even "OP recanted the... [more]
posted by vienna to Ask MetaFilter on Aug 17 at 1:54 AM
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No one has ever earned a billion dollars. [view]
posted by Faint of Butt to MetaFilter on Aug 17 at 9:25 AM
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Wow, it's almost like you can give some money away and still be a bad person who hoards wealth. [view]
posted by SaltySalticid to MetaFilter on Aug 17 at 7:25 AM
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As a Minnesotan, I can assure you that they mean just the contents of the can. [view]
posted by advicepig to Ask MetaFilter on Aug 22 at 8:09 AM
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Another said “when you register for something you forfeit your rights.” Sounds like you ran into a sovereign citizen! You're lucky you didn't get more of an earful! [view]
posted by praemunire to Ask MetaFilter on Aug 17 at 11:28 AM
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For a very long time I have been struggling... with everything. But especially politics. So when Harris became the nominee and polls (yeah, I know) and the press started being a little brighter, I needed a place for vibes. I needed that thread. I am not ignorant of the genocide or the atrocities occurring in the Middle East. But to folks like me,... [more]
posted by terrapin to MetaTalk on Aug 22 at 11:46 AM
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@aeshnid your friendly metafilter farmer here, happy to answer questions. Many farmers are very well aware of climate change, fossil fuel usage, and the very likely possibility of their livelihood vanishing. It's hard to change the massive systems that led us here as an individual though. Perhaps they should farm less water intensive crops on... [more]
posted by birdsongster to MetaFilter on Aug 18 at 3:57 PM
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When I teach intro in our library program I make an extra-special point of pointing out how letting preconceptions influence collection development is a Bad Wrong Thing. The example I use is from a friend of mine, who early in her career did colldev at a public library in a non-wealthy, majority-Black-and-Latine area of a major city. The Nice... [more]
posted by humbug to MetaFilter on Aug 21 at 5:10 AM
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[more comments]