MetaFilter

Large portions of this article were debunked, a year ago, by Lincoln Michel.
posted to MetaFilter by Happy Dave at 12:33 AM on April 23, 2024

Roy Underhill and Christopher Schwarz discuss the Anarchist's Tool Chest on The Woodwright's Shop.
posted to MetaFilter by ActingTheGoat at 8:31 PM on April 15, 2024

I've got a paper copy of this book and I can spill a terrible secret: Mere access to a build-yourself-a-toolbox book is not enough to cause a toolbox to get built.
posted to MetaFilter by Western Infidels at 9:20 AM on April 15, 2024

People keep pretending hard mode doesn't exist.

Also that Wordle is about "winning" or "optimizing" rather than "fun."
posted to MetaFilter by chavenet at 1:05 PM on April 14, 2024

[One deleted. Reminder that thread sitting is not allowed. Neither is the OP picking apart the points made by other posters of their own thread. Utilize the flag feature if something is against guidelines, otherwise please disengage.]
posted to MetaFilter by travelingthyme at 11:26 AM on April 14, 2024

Presidents of the United States of America -- "Kitty"
posted to MetaTalk by dismas at 10:59 AM on April 5, 2024

Yes, CPBC needs to receive some kind of award for making MetaFilter massively more magical and less depressing.

Even if she does keep making up imaginary animals like puggles and quolls and bandicoots.
posted to MetaTalk by mmoncur at 5:10 AM on April 6, 2024

the pacific rim working group of the committee for bombastic pronouncements on metafilter (lowercase) has ruled this earthquake unacceptable and has furthermore noted that no future earthquakes east of the rocky mountains will be allowed, with an exception made for future new madrid quakes due to how that one they had a while back was totally awesome and sick.
posted to MetaFilter by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 11:09 AM on April 5, 2024

PS. I logged into my old bank to make sure that's not also my current account number before I posted it here and discovered they have been charging me $8 a month in service fees on an account I rarely use for the past year, so thanks MetaFilter for making me log into my old bank and fix that.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 7:36 AM on April 3, 2024

Something that I realized recently was that a lot of people I know hire housecleaners and then never mention it. I assume that their houses are so clean because they're much more organized and competent and non-ADHD than me, and I'm sure they are, but it's partly that there's stigma on paying for housecleaning services, so people don't mention that they do it.
posted to MetaFilter by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:01 AM on April 3, 2024

I've already died four times due to dirty water bottles. Don't be like me!

Seriously, this is just dumb. Yes, wash it once in a while. I only use water and ice in mine, and I wash it when it looks a little funky. You have an immune system, and tap water is chlorinated. My father in-law was just warning me about this (he watches an absurd amount of daytime Tv and local news, but at least he's not a right-winger). This story must be making the rounds.
posted to MetaFilter by SoberHighland at 5:17 PM on April 2, 2024

There comes a point (a different one for each household, depending on a variety of factors) where cleaning becomes a hobby. I am happy for people who feel fulfilled by their cleaning hobby. I will not be joining their ranks.
posted to MetaFilter by EvaDestruction at 3:46 PM on April 2, 2024

Thank you for this awesome post, PearlRose! You covered many important angles. I will note that here in Sweden, a few of us are a wee bit grumpy that Sweden's entry consists of a pair of Norwegian brothers. You probably know how that happened but it seems weird to me when the artists representing a country are not from that country. Is it as weird as countries like Israel and Australia being a part of Eurovision? Probably not. But then again, at least Eurovision isn't boring...to some of us,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Bella Donna at 1:12 PM on April 3, 2024

Several of my favorite perpetually weirdo entrants aren't on board this year.

Guess I'll have to go all in on Moldova.
posted to MetaFilter by DirtyOldTown at 1:06 PM on April 3, 2024

I won't judge you about your cleaning regimen if you don't judge me for mine

my regimen is sporadic, infrequent, and I suspect the experts would call it less than adequate. also my dog sleeps on my bed and sometimes we eat chips together and she will lick the crumbs off the bed so I have dog lick on my topcover, so you can safely place me on the Pigpen end of a spectrum and mostly I'm a pretty happy person so there
posted to MetaFilter by elkevelvet at 3:19 PM on April 2, 2024

Did you know that you don't do enough housework? It's true! Experts recommend that you do more cleaning than you are doing now. Run your finger along the top of the nearest picture frame. See all that dirt and dust? Living inside of that dirt are six trillion bacteria, and they're all judging you. When was the last time you disassembled and disinfected your thermostats? Last month? Last year? God help you, never? Do you even own an erotic robot vagina that keeps your phone... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by phooky at 2:58 PM on April 2, 2024

I have some invites left if anyone needs one.
posted to MetaFilter by goatdog at 5:22 PM on April 1, 2024

My son made some bad life mistakes in his late teens and early twenties that he will never, ever be able to recover from and that is a whole other way that Millennials have been terribly and uniquely screwed.

I have a friend who has two sons in that same position. The consequences of messing up when you are young are a lot higher than when I was young. I messed up, pretty badly, at that age (as did my friend with the two sons), but there was a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Dip Flash at 12:29 PM on April 2, 2024

Sounds like we very nearly literally dodged a bullet in that he didn't go out in a mass shooting. You don't go to jail for being creepy in email to 17-year-olds in California, and I'm sure he would have had his defenders in the community--at worst, he would have taken a hit to income and wouldn't have been invited to certain events anymore. After five years, some of us would go "ugh, that creep" when we heard his name, and a bunch of others would be or have grown oblivious. So to do... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by praemunire at 7:57 AM on April 2, 2024

Ed was talented and flawed. He made some mistakes, more than we knew I guess. He followed them up with a worse one today, a final one. It's a messy legacy. Maybe in time the good he leaves will outweigh the bad. That's the best most of us can hope for, after all.

Sympathies and solidarity to the women affected, sympathies to Ed's family and friends. Sadness for everyone involved. Thanks for the post Alvy.

.
posted to MetaFilter by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 12:34 AM on April 2, 2024

It’s always sad to see a small company go, but in this case I won’t miss the industry at all.

I won't live long enough to see it, but let me tell you, as someone that has spent the last ~25 years beating his head against the problem: physical media is *all that's going to survive in the long run*.

We're standing on the edge of a gaping black hole, culturally. It's all going to go.
posted to MetaFilter by ryanshepard at 5:45 AM on April 2, 2024

Made my best guess where that link was supposed to go and fixed it. Drop a note on the contact form if it's not right. Carry on.

It's right, thanks & apologies (though I appreciate the V. jokes)
posted to MetaFilter by chavenet at 1:31 PM on April 1, 2024

POS in the context of retail doesn't (usually) mean "piece of shit"

That one always amuses me because back when the first POS systems started coming out in the 90s they really were pieces of shit.
posted to MetaTalk by Greg_Ace at 3:25 PM on March 30, 2024

Haha:
Toronto (3) canada (2) 👈(waves to Jessamyn) racist (2) children (1) artists (1) arrival (1) angelaliddon (1) alittlemorelove (1) albertmaysles (1) alarm (1)

I need to post more.
posted to MetaTalk by chococat at 9:23 AM on March 22, 2024

Obituaries for me!
posted to MetaTalk by Melismata at 9:09 AM on March 22, 2024

He was a fellow-keeper of commonplace books: "A thousand times this. A commonplace book is a reflection of the mind that compiled it, and cluttered and widely-read minds are often models of instructive digression. If I want to look up the exact wording of that famous line from Flaubert about human speech being like a cracked kettle, then any search engine will find it for me in 0.08 seconds. If I want to look it up in my commonplace book, I will have to ponder roughly when I read Madame... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by MonkeyToes at 2:57 PM on March 20, 2024

[One removed (though many responses quoting and responding remain). If you are saying that criticism of the actions of Israel (as an ethnostate or otherwise) is anti-semitic in the sense of being hateful against Jewish people, you are accusing most people posting here (including very many Jewish members) of being hateful, racist, and/or prejudiced against Jews. Israel is not a synecdoche for Jews or Judaism, but Israel is the topic under discussion, so please do not attack... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by taz at 1:25 AM on March 16, 2024

The previous policy of "no I/P threads" is looking less paternalistic and more like self-preservation. I don't think it was sustainable in this global situation or with the MeFi move to self-rule, but we have to find a way forward where people old and new don't just walk away from our community in disgust.

The threads that cendawanita has been putting together have largely been going well for the last few months, and without the worst... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 4:58 AM on March 15, 2024

I think it'd be very funny to fill an old thrift store duffel bag with much much cash and then walk into the room like omg honey look what I found in a crashed plane in the woods our lives will be forever changed for the better and nothing can possibly go wrong Bill Paxton A Simple Plan style.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by phunniemee at 11:06 AM on March 14, 2024 marked best answer

[[btw, this post has been added to the sidebar and Best Of blog!]]
posted to MetaFilter by taz at 3:08 AM on March 12, 2024

I'm not doing anything with my life. If you want me to do a post for you, MeMail me and I'll do a short one for $25 and a longer one for $50.
posted to MetaTalk by hippybear at 2:47 PM on March 12, 2024

Mr. Know-it-some... you're sounding a lot like "playing devils advocate" and "just asking questions". if you're not trans, i don't think that's so helpful here. if you want to learn, ask your questions.
posted to MetaFilter by kokaku at 8:56 AM on March 12, 2024

Yeah, as somebody who works in cultural heritage, I think it’s a principle worth fighting for that Getty did not hold copyright in photos of 2D public domain works in its collections, and that museums in the US (and now the UK) who claim they do are committing copyfraud, but nevertheless this project is good and they should feel good.
posted to MetaFilter by Horace Rumpole at 8:22 AM on March 10, 2024

have you heard the good news about the typo team?

It me! I may have to join a club that will have me as a member.
posted to MetaFilter by rhizome at 3:00 PM on March 8, 2024

The student actually didn't "put his hands on you" which is a euphemism people often use to describe domestic violence like punching, slapping, or strangling. He elbowed you in the breast during a meltdown. Single elbow, no hands at all. This is important because the first phrase you used painted a picture that implies a much more malicious action than what you described after.

It's a red flag to describe an area as "crime heavy", a victim blaming... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by nouvelle-personne at 6:45 PM on March 7, 2024

Here's my advice for actively improving Wikipedia articles:
1. Think of someone you know or someone your friends know who has a Wikipedia entry.
2. Make contact and ask three questions:
-- What is incorrect or missing on your Wikipedia page right now?
-- What have you done since the last time someone updated your page?
-- Where can I find webpages that independently verify that information?
3. Update their page.
posted to MetaFilter by Hogshead at 8:20 AM on March 8, 2024

Coincidentally (I haven't watched Molly's video yet) I created my first Wikipedia page just the other day - after decades of just making minor edits.

I tried to follow the various onboarding guides on Wikipedia itself, and the experience was genuinely enlightening - a lot of people have clearly invested a huge amount of work and making that flow clear, while also strongly supporting Wikipedia's editorial values.

Finding citations to support... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by simonw at 1:24 AM on March 8, 2024

Reading mathematics pages on Wikipedia is illuminating. They almost all seem to be written by post docs who are domain specialists. Which makes them basically useless.
posted to MetaFilter by constraint at 11:19 PM on March 7, 2024

what israel is doing at the moment is a monstrous crime against humanity.

but the idea that members of this site support hamas's (armed wing) 'tactics' as executed on october 7 - as justifiable makes me sick to my stomach.


The fact that this thread has been redirected--within the first like 20 comments--into talking about what Hamas did almost six months ago, rather than the genocide that is literally unfolding... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lizard2590 at 1:10 PM on March 7, 2024

Metafilter’s current toxic state
Just popping into this (terrible) thread to say it is NOT Metafilter. It is SOME of Metafilter's members. Just don't read this thread (or, admittedly, a few others). I am here to tell you the non-politics threads are often delightful to this day!
posted to MetaFilter by Glinn at 10:55 AM on March 4, 2024

I disagree that it's sooo much work to just look at a book. It only takes a few minutes to skim the intro and table of contents.

(Opinions will vary but to me this would be much more disrespectful than just honestly saying you won't read it.)
posted to Ask MetaFilter by trig at 8:12 AM on March 3, 2024

[Note: re tigrrrlily's comment, please note that the terms“male” and “female” and “man” and “woman” to refer to a person’s gender identity, and transgender people are men or women, full stop. (People who do not identify specifically as male or female might be nonbinary, or just "genderqueer." ) Here is a pretty good guide to transgender 101 info, but as super quick shorthand here, when speaking about men or women, that includes transgender men or women, and when speaking about trans... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by taz at 2:41 AM on February 27, 2024

Love that guy. He’s the best.
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 1:05 PM on February 24, 2024

[ Another comment and response removed. Going forward in this thread, folks who take the time to made denigrating comments about the subject of this thread or people who enjoy that subject may find themselves facing some sort of ban.

If you don't like this subject, please go ahead and make a post about a topic you do enjoy. ]
posted to MetaFilter by Brandon Blatcher at 11:13 AM on February 24, 2024

It’s awesome. It dates c.1890-1910 or so, so late Victorian/ Edwardian. Looks like brass, I’d leave it unpolished, that mesh is a misery to polish.
There is also a pig variation, which sold at auction for I believe $1600.00 though I don’t know when.
As far as trying to find a maker or designer, I don’t know where you would even begin. I’ve never seen one in the wild in 40 years of vintage hunting or in my books.
So I guess this isn’t a very helpful answer, sorry!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by antiquated at 8:01 AM on February 24, 2024

When I was a teenager, my dad had a plow on his truck, and if we were driving somewhere and he saw someone shoveling out their driveway, he'd always offer to plow it for them. I don't do this because I don't have a plow, but I do offer to help dig when it seems warranted.

I do the shopping carts, and also always make sure the baskets are stacked neatly in the express lane so no one trips over them and there's room to stack more. Pick up as much trash on a beach/park... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by dizziest at 6:55 AM on February 17, 2024

It's not a thing anymore because I'm in private practice but when I had agency jobs I tried to volunteer if there was stuff that required attendance on Christmas eve because I'm Jewish at to me it's just Thursday.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by less-of-course at 9:40 PM on February 16, 2024

When I have finished reading a graphic novel in good condition, I donate it to my local public library, which almost always adds it to the permanent collection.

As a result, my local library is now choc-full of graphic novels featuring
a) LGBT people
b) Disabled people
c) people of colour.

(This is in Australia, so it won't lead to anyone asking for a librarian's head on a spike.)
posted to Ask MetaFilter by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:58 PM on February 16, 2024

-- be a poll worker in every election possible. It's easy, pleasant, and in many locations they pay you.

-- if someone drops their mitten or hat, I put it on a taller thing like a sign post so it doesn't get buried in the snow.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by blnkfrnk at 7:08 PM on February 16, 2024

I should confess that I want to be the unfailing yielder of seats but more often I am the spacer-out does not notice anything person.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by spamandkimchi at 5:30 PM on February 16, 2024