MetaFilter

Tell me about a complicated man. / Muse, tell me how he wandered and was lost / when he had wrecked the holy town of Troy, / and where he went, and who he met, the pain / he suffered in the storms at sea, and how / he worked to save his life and bring his men / back home. He failed to keep them safe; poor fools, / they ate the Sun God’s cattle, and the god / kept them from home. Now goddess, child of Zeus, / tell the old story for our modern times. / Find the beginning.

Emily Wilson is the first woman to translate The Odyssey into English. via [more inside]
posted by Rumple at 11:05 PM PST - 29 comments

All the News and Trailers From Blizzcon 2017's Opening Ceremony [IGN] New characters, new expansions, and much more. Blizzcon kicked off today with an opening ceremony full of new announcements for StarCraft 2, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft. Below you'll find all the news and trailers from Blizzcon 2017's opening ceremony. [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 8:40 PM PST - 40 comments

The rise and decline of one college's student movement. Chris Bodenner chronicles the career of Reedies Against Racism. (Reed College previously)
posted by doctornemo at 6:06 PM PST - 38 comments

4 years old. 5 years old. 6 years old. 7 years old. 8 years old.
posted by clawsoon at 4:30 PM PST - 4 comments

Reddit has banned several hate groups in the past couple of weeks, including r/Nazi, r/EuropeanNationalism, and r/pol. Also gone: r/NationalSocialism, r/whitesarecriminals, r/Far_Right, and r/DylannRoofInnocent. The new policy explanation says,

Going forward, we will take action against any content that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people; likewise, we will also take action against content that glorifies or encourages the abuse of animals. This applies to ALL content on Reddit, including memes, CSS/community styling, flair, subreddit names, and usernames.

[more inside]
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 3:36 PM PST - 104 comments

Maths crusader and football fan, Matt Parker, has started a campaign to fix the football image on street signs in the U.K. which are mathematically incorrect. He explains here.
posted by agatha_magatha at 3:21 PM PST - 30 comments

8 sci-fi writers what Star Trek show they would write if given the chance.
posted by Artw at 11:27 AM PST - 184 comments

Nick Stewart: Fountain pen inks are made up of dyes. When the inks are applied to blotting paper the dyes are released and the colours spread outwards – imagine a drop of petrol on wet tarmac. I have found a way of achieving and utilising this effect on watercolour paper. The chromatic process is very much serendipity led and the beauty of the final outcomes are invariably dictated by this. Because they are natural and non contrived, the viewer is naturally drawn to them, like watching clouds or a sunset. I’m also a firm believer in the concept of ‘less is more’ and through these processes you can get so much from so little. I also love the idea of alchemy or in this case, creating a gold effect through subjecting fountain pen inks to bleach.
posted by rewil at 10:45 AM PST - 15 comments

After the LA Times reported how Disney uses its power to dodge paying its fair share of Anaheim local government, the company banned the newspaper from its press events, in effect preventing them from reviewing and reporting on their movies before public release.
posted by grobstein at 10:03 AM PST - 24 comments

Lindsay Ellis once again gives a deep dive into movie history and film theory with Disney’s The Hunchback Of Norte Dame (38:00), touching on Victor Hugo’s original work, authorial intent, the history and problems of adaptation, visual mass media, internal Disney power struggles and ...Nazis.
posted by The Whelk at 9:48 AM PST - 17 comments

"The reason bosozuko are gone now is that Japan is a fully developed country. It won't allow any flaws in the system. Current society will not allow the average low-life to succeed at life by doing low-life things."

-Revisiting the Glory Days with One of Japan's Most Violent Biker Gangs [more inside]
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 9:16 AM PST - 18 comments

The Great Diary Project: "Diary rescuer" (and also British Museum curator) Irving Finkel, founded the Great Diary Project, a repository for any all diaries in non-digital formats by private individuals. Finkel believes that every diary is a valuable resource full of remarkable details. "All human life is there, and every entry is helpfully dated for future historians." For the sake of posterity, you can donate your own. via ALDaily.
posted by Miko at 6:19 AM PST - 36 comments

How Martin Luther Changed The World [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:15 AM PST - 19 comments