September 13
no, it's the jared diamonds who are wrong
"An international team of geneticists has found evidence that this famous cautionary tale never actually happened. The true story of Rapa Nui (named Easter Island by colonial Europeans) is not one of self-inflicted population collapse, the new findings suggest, but of cultural resilience. In the 1600s, it seems that the ancient people of Rapa Nui were not utterly isolated on their island, and it is clear that they did not overexploit their resources to the point of 'ecocide'." Genetic Evidence Overrules Ecocide Theory of Easter Island Once And For All.
Hey, there's a fundraiser going on!
Help Fund Metafilter! In its typical low-key style, this middle-aged online community launched its annual fundraiser last month. You can contribute to a cookbook, set up a recurring contribution, or donate via GoFundMe. [more inside]
Affirmative Action Was Banned. What Happened Next Was Confusing.
Here is what we know about the effects of the Supreme Court’s decision curtailing race-based admissions at selective universities. And why many experts and administrators are baffled. By Anemona Hartocollis and Stephanie Saul (Gift link).
wind up tree
If the Wind Tree is deemed tall and large to occupy an allotted space, Wind Palm may be an ideal alternative. It is made up of three to five steel trunks & branches with 18 to 30 rotating leaves[ ]with the option of adding the solar panels at the bottom of the leaves for extra energy generation [designboom] [more inside]
SCROLLBARS
SCROLLBARS – A guide on overriding native scroll behavior to provide your own objectively better experience. [more inside]
These low-grade blueberries are being turned into wine
Once destined for the tip, these low-grade blueberries are being turned into wine. A food recycling charity has taken blueberries destined for the tip to create a zero-alcohol wine alternative, which is now being served in restaurants and ultimately helping feed more people.
Our energy system is stuck in the past
Fire has been our primary source of energy for over a million years, providing the essential heat needed to survive. This reliance on fire made sense when our principal energy needs were purely for heat. However, today’s energy demands have evolved far beyond this primal necessity. Unlike in past millennia, we now require more work than heat: we desire mobility, motors, electrical appliances, and data processing in greater quantities than we do warmth. Despite this transformation over the past century from heat demand to work demand, our fundamental energy supply methods have not changed much, and are still mostly heat generation. This has led to incredible inefficiency.... We need energy sources fit for an era of work demand, not heat demand. Fortunately, thanks to the rapid growth and cost decline of solar, wind, and electrification, “firepower” faces inexorable decline. from Energy after Fire [Rocky Mountain Institute]
September 12
mahna mahna? Memnon (mnemonic)
“To hear Helen speak for herself is wild,” says Andrea Patterson, who plays Helen [getty] [more inside]
Fracking ban takes effect in Queensland's Channel Country
Fracking ban takes effect in Queensland's Channel Country, protecting one of the most unique river systems in the world.
It took 10 years, but Channel Country communities say they're relieved and overwhelmed as a promised ban to prevent future fracking projects in the precious river system becomes official.
less effective on superficial misinformed beliefs
Meet DebunkBot: an AI chat bot that provides factual explanations and counter-evidence for these conspiratorial events. It's strength appears to be that the LLM is inexhaustible
and will argue indefinitely. They found that the targeted dialogues resulted in a relatively durable 20% decrease in the misinformed beliefs, which is better than similar dialogues with humans. Science has published the paper, Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI as well as a perspective on this research. [more inside]
"What about the train moving?" "Yeah. We'll see."
Bike Flip on a Moving Train (SLYT)
Don’t worry about the sharks
A gambling career with a gardening hobby
Wrecked rain gauges. Whistleblowers. Million-dollar payouts and manhunts. Then a Colorado crop fraud got really crazy. The sordid story of two ranchers who conspired to falsify drought numbers by tampering with rain gauges on the plains of Colorado and Kansas, resulting in millions in false insurance claims. By Michael Booth for the Colorado Sun.
The World We're Designing
One day, James Williams —the former Google strategist I met—addressed an audience of hundreds of leading tech designers and asked them a simple question: “How many of you want to live in the world you are designing?” There was a silence in the room. People looked around them. Nobody put up their hand.
US and the Middle East
The Washington Post challenges Biden's claim that Turkish-American activist Aysenur Eygi's death was due to an accidental ricochet with new video and eyewitnesses. (archive.is) The Biden administration has released $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt, overriding human rights concerns, citing Egypt's assistance with Gaza talks. Brown University held the first of two forums on the issue of divestment and the advisory committee is expected to issue a recommendation within the next three weeks, to be voted on in October. Various colleges and universities have issued new restrictions on protest and free expression on their campuses, including limiting the use of masks, ban on encampments, and more. (archive.is) UC Berkeley is launching a new Palestinian and Arab studies program this fall due to demand.
*squeeks* And One More Thing
Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars
Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic active dynamo at Mars's dead core? No? Well. It's fine. I'm sure you have some other workable, sustainable plan for shielding live Mars inhabitants from deadly solar and cosmic radiation, forever. No? Huh. Well then let's discuss something else equally realistic, like your plan to build a condo complex in Middle Earth.
“word in one hand and a Danish axe in the other”
Calling the mound 'howe' would make perfect sense, as 'haug' (pronounced howg) is Old Norse for a mound [Orkneyology] [more inside]
"You're kidding!" ... "I must be, the Bahamas are islands."
At that point, Groves was just walking a well-trodden path of exploitation and chicanery first blazed by Christopher Columbus, whose initial steps in the New World were taken on the island now known as Grand Bahama. Within two decades, Spanish explorers had killed or carried off the island’s native inhabitants, and for centuries afterward, Caribbean historians note, pirates made the Bahamas their base and became the de facto rulers. From then on, being a law-free zone intermittently boosted the economy of the Bahamas. from
The American Con Man Who Pioneered Offshore Finance by Brooke Harrington [The Atlantic; ungated]
Calls to protect northern Australia's ancient stone wall fish traps
Calls to protect northern Australia's ancient stone wall fish traps from tourists, climate change. Traditional owners say World Heritage listing would help preserve Australia's largest archaeological site, an elaborate network of stone walls designed to trap fish at low tide in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Rolamite!
Whatever happened to Rolamite? Invented in 1966 by Donald F. Wilkes, it looks like a simple gadget made with two rollers and a steel band, but it's much more. As basic as the wheel, the lever, or the hinge, it is the only simple machine discovered this century. Its use will be widespread --- in everything from switches, thermostats, and valves to pumps and clutches, and as almost frictionless bearings. More details. In 1969 the "First Symposium on Rolamite" was held (186 pages). How to build one. Two videos. Maybe rolamites' promise didn't live up the hype, but here's a scale, and from 2023: How To Clean a Mass Flow Controller Rolamite Valve.
September 11
filterfilter
initial attempts with the silk nanofibrils alone didn’t work. The team decided to try adding another material: cellulose, which is abundantly available [mit] [more inside]
Some innovative, many spit-balled, and most quickly abandoned
In recent years, the Arctic has become a magnet for climate change anxiety, with scientists nervously monitoring the Greenland ice sheet for signs of melting and fretting over rampant environmental degradation. It wasn’t always that way. At the height of the Cold War in the 1950s, as the fear of nuclear Armageddon hung over American and Soviet citizens, idealistic scientists and engineers saw the vast Arctic region as a place of unlimited potential for creating a bold new future. Greenland emerged as the most tantalizing proving ground for their research. from The Golden Age of Offbeat Arctic Research [Undark]
Logging ceases in NSW state forest after rare emu chicks hatch
Logging ceases in New South Wales state forest after rare emu chicks hatch. Forestry Corporation of NSW has ceased logging operations near Grafton after the hatching of endangered coastal emu eggs.
Exploration of an abandoned Texas Mall
VFX artist KanePixels, creator of the breakout video series set in The Backrooms, has finished their latest project: The Oldest View (Youtube playlist). [more inside]
September 11, 2001 shown through multiple video cameras in real time...
102 Minutes That Changed America [YouTube] is an American television special documentary film that was produced by the History Channel and premiered commercial-free on Thursday, September 11, 2008, marking the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The film serves as a compilation of amateur footage taken by numerous people filming the attacks, edited together to present the film in real time. ***[NSFW] [Content Warning: contains graphic footage]***
She's gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club
Europe's filing its nails while Mario's Draghing his take
Former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi's long-awaited report [PDF] on Europe's competitiveness has finally seen the light of day - and its first lesson for Europe's slowing growth since the turn of the century is to stop procrastinating. "We have reached the point where, without action, we will have to either compromise our welfare, our environment or our freedom," Draghi warned at the report's launch on Monday.
September 10
Taylor Swift Endorses Kamala Harris for President
Camera-trap photo competition spots wild neighbours
"Something we've never seen before": Tasmanian camera-trap photo competition spots wild neighbours. The traps have captured photographs of threatened species, unique animal behaviours — and even a currawong lifting a bin lid.
Billionaire vs Greenpeace USA
The Texas Billionaire Who Has Greenpeace USA on the Verge of Bankruptcy - WSJ (ungated) Warren sees green activists, who he once said should be “removed from the gene pool,” as a serious threat to the industry.
September 10 US Presidential Debate thread in FanFare
chavenet has kindly started a debate watch thread over in Fanfare. If you'd like to share your thoughts while watching - or thank the brave MeFites who are watching so you don't have to - please join us over there.
Rankception
House of Blog Monetization Leaves
Powered by hot air?
As it turns out, AI has a lot in common with steam power, which improved productivity in a range of jobs and clearly foreshadowed the major changes that were to come. Still, steam-powered machines that could automate farm work were available for more than 100 years before it actually happened. Complementary innovation was required, and I suspect that will be true as well with generative AI. from What steam power and generative AI have in common [Forked Lightning]
"some little inspiration for baseball was from oina"
"I no longer believed in good people and pure things until we started this whole oina thing. It’s a thing that sustains from nothing, only from passion, from pure and real feelings. It was such a surprise." Photographer Sorin Vidis describes his project to document the Romanian sport of oina, a baseball precursor, called "a fascinating game" which has been played in the country since at least the 14th century. It became Romania's national sport in 2014.
11 months - the status quo spreads
Guardian Explains: What is al-Mawasi and why did Israel attack a ‘safe zone’? || CNN: Infected wounds, maggots and no escape. Gaza’s humanitarian crisis hits new lows as sanitary conditions plummet || +972: Inside the brutal siege of Jenin [in the West Bank] || MSF: Access to medical care at risk in West Bank as Israeli incursions intensify || Guardian: ‘I am the police, I am the army’: sanctioned settler’s rule in West Bank [more inside]
"There will be cues from the natural world that something is amiss."
Climate and Loss: Notions of Eco-Apocalypse in Zoroastrian Literature [PDF file] by Toby A. Cox of the Harvard Divinity School (Sino-Platonic Papers, Number 335, July 2023)
CW: It is a terrifying read. [more inside]
Reunion between injured cassowary chick and father caught on camera
Beautiful reunion between injured cassowary chick and father caught on camera.
An abandoned cassowary chick, also called a "stripey", is reunited with its dad by wildlife officers, after being found listless and hurt in Far North Queensland. There's a 51 second video of the reunion.
"The narrative got reduced to resemblance to UFOs"
Concrete clickbait: next time you share a spomenik photo, think about what it means Photos of Yugoslav monuments known as spomeniks are often shared online, exoticised and wrenched from context. But now, argues Owen Hatherley, it is vital that we make the effort to understand what they truly represent.
The answer is encoded in the problem
Every trade has a winner and a loser. Somebody makes money, and is therefore proved right; somebody loses money, and is therefore proved wrong. The binary nature of right or wrongness, repeated over thousands of transactions, confirms in many financially successful gamblers the feeling that they are right about everything. It’s not a question of being right more often than you’re wrong. It’s a question of being better than other people: right where others are wrong, clever where others are stupid, rational where others are emotional, insightful where they are blind, brave where they are timid, strong where they are weak. But awareness of superiority comes with a terrible sting, which is that the others don’t seem to see it that way. from For Every Winner A Loser by John Lanchester (LRB; ungated) [more inside]
September 9
Irish museum solves mystery of bronze age axe heads
"When the stars threw down their spears "
'New Mass.(achusetts) law bars circuses from using elephants, lions, giraffes and other animals.' though "Exceptions include animals that live at a zoo and the use of animals in filming movies. Non-exotic animals like horses, chickens, pigs, and rabbits can continue to be exhibited." [more inside]
"you can make your own choices even if they are mistakes sometimes"
Two short scifi stories about the pain, hope, and fear that we carry. “What was it you told me that ‘dysphoria’ meant, etymologically?” “Something that cannot be carried. Cannot be borne.” "A Dragon in Two Parts" by Kiya Nicoll (published in audio and text in Escape Pod in 2021): a disabled person has reservations about biorefurbishment. "Hello aliens, I am scared of you so please turn around." “Letters From Mt. Monroe Elementary, Third Grade” by Sarah Pauling (published Sept. 3, 2024 in Diabolical Plots): kids and a teacher react, starting in 1967, to the prospect of first contact with aliens, as a generation ship approaches.
If you happen to be in the neighborhood...
This old saloon tells the story of a small Central Texas town. The McDade Historical Society operates the museum, which was also a former Post Office, doctor’s office and drug store.
Exit, Stage Left
I sit around and watch the tube but nothing's on....
When Boston went ‘Basket Case’ On this day, 30 years ago (aka 1994), Boston's WFNX (101.7 - Boston Phoenix Radio) threw a "Welcome Back Weekend" concert series to celebrate the return of the college crowd to the city. Booking months in advance, they put together a pop punk show at the famous Hatch Shell. They booked a little known opening act (The Meices) and an up and coming main act - Green Day touring in support of their album Dookie. Who could have predicted the result of booking a suddenly hot band to a free show and packing 60+ thousand people in the park? ">We Want The Airwaves Back segment on the 1994 Green Day Riot and The local news reacts
What’s In And What’s Out
Tennis is making bets on its future — one driven by data, sports betting, and foreign investment. But how big of a swing is it willing to take? [via]
What could be more amazing than a musical? (Free thread)
"You're doing a play, got something to say So you sing it? It's absurd!" In honor of finishing Something Rotten, one of the best musicals I've ever been in (and guess what song is still rolling through my head today), here's your free thread. [more inside]
a sentence can also be a space for living
"We should rid our writing of the domestication of atrocity, rid our writing of the tense that insists on the innocence of its perpetrators, the exonerative tense of phrases like 'lives were lost' and 'a stray bullet found its way into the van' and 'children died.' We should rid our writing of this dreadful innocence. We should refuse the logic that produces a phrase like 'human animals' and a 'four-year-old young lady.'" Christina Sharpe in the Yale Review, on writing and thinking during and about genocide, climate change, deaths in the family and death in history: The Shapes of Grief.
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