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Facility is a new print-only magazine about bathrooms. One part of the magazine is available online, however: a list of codes for public restrooms in several US cities.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:26 PM PST - 33 comments

How do you cross that invisible line that takes you from being in the Aboriginal 'good books' to being on the s**t list?, writes Summer May Finlay. (SBS NITV) [more inside]
posted by freethefeet at 8:57 PM PST - 15 comments

Welcome to the first edition of the McMansion Hell Yearbook - a year by year account of how the McMansion came to be. We begin our tour of time in the year 1970.
posted by waving at 7:33 PM PST - 70 comments

Systematically Improving Espresso: Insights from Mathematical Modeling and Experiment — Considering a 25% reduction in coffee mass (i.e., $0.025 saving), and considering the daily coffee consumption in the United States (124,000,000 espresso-based beverages per day), our protocol yields $3.1 million savings per day, or $1.1 billion per year.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:47 PM PST - 17 comments

First there were little gods. People then developed complex civilizations, and those people then created big, "morally concerned" gods. That's a very succinct summary of a study using a huge historical database (The Conversation, March 20, 2019), which was published in Nature (abstract; link to full PDF via Nautilus article titled The Worth of an Angry God: How supernatural beliefs allowed societies to bond and spread, which poses a counter-argument to this theory). The huge database is Seshat Databank, named after the ancient Egyptian goddess of wisdom, knowledge, and writing (Wikipedia). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:18 AM PST - 39 comments

Envelope - temporarily transform your phone into a simpler, calmer device [YouTube] “A set of envelopes which temporarily transform your phone into a simpler, calmer device, helping you to take a break away from your digital world. Many people feel that they spend too much time on their phones and struggle to find a balance with technology. We have designed a series of special paper envelopes which completely transform the functionality of your smartphone for the time it is sealed inside, allowing you to enjoy fewer distractions for a little while. One envelope turns your phone into a very basic device which can only make and receive calls, while the other turns your phone into a photo and video camera with no screen, helping you to focus on what’s in front of you. Printed buttons which subtly light up allow you to dial and take photographs, creating a calm but magical “Envelope User Interface”.” [Android app](Currently only supports the Google Pixel 3a)[GitHub][.PDF]
posted by Fizz at 10:09 AM PST - 57 comments

Why Finland And Denmark Are Happier Than The U.S.
(Previously): World Happiness Report
posted by growabrain at 9:52 AM PST - 36 comments

The IRS Decided to Get Tough Against Microsoft. Microsoft Got Tougher. For years, the company has moved billions in profits to Puerto Rico to avoid taxes. When the IRS pushed it to pay, Microsoft protested that the agency wasn’t being nice. Then it aggressively fought back in court, lobbied Congress and changed the law. (SL ProPublica by Paul Kiel)
posted by crazy with stars at 9:47 AM PST - 9 comments

Signed into law Dec 20, 2019, Space Force is alive and has a space force hub named SPOC [more inside]
posted by mightshould at 9:23 AM PST - 80 comments

Online public spaces are now being slowly taken over by beef-only thinkers, as the global culture wars evolve into a stable, endemic, background societal condition of continuous conflict. As the Great Weirding morphs into the Permaweird, the public internet is turning into the Internet of Beefs. [more inside]
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 8:48 AM PST - 98 comments

Lefty youtube channel Philosophy Tube drops the politics to talk about what really matters: The Trouble with the Video Game Industry. Previously: 1, 2, 3, 4.
posted by postcommunism at 8:31 AM PST - 9 comments

This is the story of a spider bitten by a radioactive man and imbued with the powers of being human. This comic is not based on a true story (it’s based on billions of true stories).
posted by Etrigan at 7:58 AM PST - 9 comments

P. Carl writes an essay about his experiences with masculinity as a trans man. [SLNYT]
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 7:42 AM PST - 25 comments

[Lizzo] has become a new kind of pop superstar, full of relentless positivity. But it took a long time and a lot of heartache [medium length read] Rolling Stone profiles the top Grammy nominee, also a minor MetaFilter favorite. [NSFW for artful naked/near-naked photography]
posted by hippybear at 6:12 AM PST - 22 comments

Monty Python's Terry Jones has died aged 77.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 5:36 AM PST - 191 comments