MetaFilter

Would you believe: a PDF?
posted by Lemkin on Jan 15 at 5:12 PM - 1 comments

Is there something you can do on your phone that's the opposite of doom-scrolling? It would probably need to be cute and encouraging and maybe it somehow allows friends to support each other... That's basically what Finch is trying to do. Sadly, their own website provides very little information about what using the app is like, so I've selected some reviews to give you an idea. [more inside]
posted by demi-octopus on Jan 15 at 2:59 PM - 6 comments

Israel and Hamas have agreed a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal following 15 months of war, mediators Qatar and the US say. The ceasefire deal will take effect on 19 January, but a long-term truce is still being negotiated. BBC live coverage. Al Jazeera live coverage.
posted by fight or flight on Jan 15 at 11:43 AM - 40 comments

Andreas Wannerstedt is a Stockholm based artist and art director who crafts unique 3D sculptures and mesmerizing looping animations. The imagery of Andreas is both sophisticated and whimsical, featuring simple and playful geometric shapes in balanced compositions, together with organic textures and harmonizing color palettes.
posted by chavenet on Jan 15 at 11:15 AM - 3 comments

Until 2020 Diamond Comic Distributors had a decades-long near-monopoly as supplier of comics & merchandise to the North American direct market. This changed following the arrival of COVID-19 when many of the biggest publishers signed deals with new distributors. Yesterday Diamond announced that it had filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. [more inside]
posted by Alvy Ampersand on Jan 15 at 10:00 AM - 17 comments

"[Joe] Strechay has a unique role in the entertainment business: making sure people with visual impairments are portrayed realistically -- well, at least as realistically as they can be in a sci-fi show about a post-apocalyptic world where everyone is sightless."
posted by jessamyn on Jan 15 at 9:26 AM - 6 comments

Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza [more inside]
posted by toastyk on Jan 15 at 7:14 AM - 3 comments

Alice is Missing is a stunningly beautiful storytelling game that delivers an utterly unique and unforgettable experience. ... A high school student named Alice has gone missing, and the players will take on the roles of her friends as they try to figure out what happened while dealing with the emotional trauma of her disappearance. The central conceit of the game is this: You don’t talk. Instead, all of your interactions — all of your roleplaying — takes place via text messaging. ... Alice is Missing is one of the best storytelling games ever made. [more inside]
posted by Lemkin on Jan 15 at 5:59 AM - 9 comments

"Sections of the Alphabet, a guide" is a short Tumblr post that describes the 26 letters as belonging to 5 distinct neighborhoods. "The heavy lifters in this area draw a sharp disparity with Q, which is unique for its specialist role."
posted by brainwane on Jan 15 at 5:06 AM - 9 comments

"The famous king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar II was lately enthroned when a group of Phoenician sailors watched their boat sink in shallow water off the coast of Spain ... The sailors would have been beside themselves watching the boat go down in just 7 feet of water, but before they could recover it and bring it to the shore around 65 yards away, a storm suddenly descended on La Playa de la Isla in the town of Mazarron, southeastern Spain": Divers Recover Ancient Shipwreck Amazingly Preserved for 2,600 Years Beneath Spanish Waters. [more inside]
posted by taz on Jan 15 at 2:37 AM - 15 comments

Vietnam fines reckless drivers half the average annual salary. Vietnam, where 11,500 people die in traffic accidents every year, has introduced severe new penalties for those who break road rules as well as bounties for those who dob them in.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries on Jan 15 at 1:26 AM - 27 comments

Tags: mondegreen
posted by one for the books on Jan 15 at 12:19 AM - 11 comments

The American Dialect Society has selected rawdog as Word of the Year for 2024. [more inside]
posted by Westringia F. on Jan 15 at 12:16 AM - 55 comments

Now the outlines of a popular political movement are becoming clearer, and this movement has no relation at all to the right or the left as we know them. The philosophers of the Enlightenment, whose belief in the possibility of law-based democratic states gave us both the American and French Revolutions, railed against what they called obscurantism: darkness, obfuscation, irrationality. But the prophets of what we might now call the New Obscurantism offer exactly those things: magical solutions, an aura of spirituality, superstition, and the cultivation of fear. from The New Rasputins by Anne Applebaum [The Atlantic; ungated]
posted by chavenet on Jan 15 at 12:07 AM - 20 comments

For many, Hungary’s Victor Orban is the contemporary patron saint of autocratic rule. Certainly, he leaves “little doubt over what his model calls for,” A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times noted in a Washington Post op-ed this fall citing, “loud applause from attendees of a Republican political conference held in Budapest in 2022,” when Orban said, “Dear friends: We must have our own media.” [more inside]
posted by Violet Blue on Jan 14 at 8:12 PM - 10 comments

The YouTube channel of AlmazanKitchen is technically a series of advertisements for its fancy-pants chef's knife. It is also the most intense, voice-free, music-free, 4K food porn you will ever see. Suggested starting points: Pork Belly with Crispy Skin. Carbonara with Handmade Pasta and Dry-Aged Bacon. Cheese and Egg Toast. Carolina Reaper Triple Chili Chicken Wings. Szechuan Pork Noodles.
posted by Lemkin on Jan 14 at 5:07 PM - 20 comments

The Good Dogs (and People) of the LA Wildfires [YouTube Short approx 2:56] With quiet apologies to the good people now discussing the properties of good posting in Metatalk, I offer this single link because someone may appreciate a good cry right now. [more inside]
posted by Glinn on Jan 14 at 4:12 PM - 8 comments

We Don't Need More Cynics. We Need More Builders.

"Here’s a more charitable reading of cynicism: it’s not an intellectual position. It’s an emotional defense mechanism. If you expect the worst, you’ll never be disappointed. If you assume everything is corrupt, you can’t be betrayed. But this protection comes at a terrible price. The cynic builds emotional armor that also functions as a prison, keeping out not just pain but also possibility, connection, and growth."

posted by otherchaz on Jan 14 at 2:43 PM - 68 comments

Giant neon-pink slugs back with a vengeance after bushfires. Citizen slug sleuths are helping scientists keep track of unique creatures that have made a remarkable comeback at Mount Kaputar in New South Wales (Australia).
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries on Jan 14 at 1:17 PM - 9 comments

Mike Rinder, spokesman for and then critic of Scientology, dead at 69.
posted by chavenet on Jan 14 at 12:03 PM - 15 comments