Sideblog Archive

August 29, 2016
Can I Vote?: lampshade has been collecting voter info resources for the US elections. Handy!

August 24, 2016
Okay, so I said I'd tell the full story of the perennially misbehaving student from the 18th-century. Here it is!: Catseye presents a provocative potboiler about a puckish pupil from the past.

August 21, 2016
My current job is reading novels and what's called "writing coverage" on them...: Sara C. has an interesting job, and some good advice on context, details, sources and backgrounds for historical fiction, in answer to the question, "what were the details of everyday life in late 16th century Italy?"

August 20, 2016
Omnes viae Romam ducunt: Kattullus invites us to explore the roads leading to Rome via "The Peutinger Map Reconsidered" with a variety of ways to view this ancient artifact, including overlays and lists of geographical features, while BWA offers What Latin Sounded Like and How We Know, and other linguistic treats from Nativlang.

August 18, 2016
Kid, champ, you, we: what do you call yourself when you're talking to yourself?

Humor, family history and linguistic innovation: some great Mefite stories about minority languages in threads on Yiddish and Chinese dialects

Rolling your tongue and using bright light to induce a sneeze: body tricks that not everybody can do

Seeing where it all starts: fun experiments on your toddler's amazing brain

August 16, 2016
Heyyyy, whatcha readin'?: ArbitraryAndCapricious asks Mefites to share their seasonal reading/ listening/ whatever list

August 15, 2016
I'm an anxious beanplater in desperate need of a positive distraction. I want to come up with a long list of activities I can refer to that will help me 'get out of my head': Ask Mefi helps nightrecordings out with some distraction action.

August 11, 2016
Super Models: If you didn't catch it, blahblahblah's post about Gabriel Weinberg's list of useful mental models is a good roadmap for exploring approaches to brainstorming, deciding, reasoning, negotiating, strategizing, managing, mitigating, and much more.

August 8, 2016
MetaBuffy: pjsky's post I'm Buffy and You're History discusses the Slayer as a "role model for the modern feminist" (plus the show's intersection of feminism, pop culture and rock, and Buffy-inspired diy feminist queer pop band "The Potentials"). Mefites might have a few opinions.

August 5, 2016
Come join us on FanFare to discuss the Olympics! Tonight the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. All athletic events will be in the Olympic all-sports thread, and specific sports will be listed on the Olympics page as the games go on.

There's a MetaTalk thread for giving feedback on this experiment.


Podcast episode #119 is here!

August 2, 2016
Tornado sirens, the shape of butter, and more... What are some locally-normal things unique to your home area, that you thought were universal until you left home?

fraula and others describe food culture in France

beagle explains some of the appeal of Dutch carbide shooting - "perhaps the pinnacle of cultural achievement in a nation of soccer-playing, bicycle-riding dairy farmers with long winter nights"

Want to be recognized as an independent nation-state? First, get a national football (soccer) team -- diplomacy by sport in occupied Western Sahara.

"Even outlaws have to grow old" -- the story of a legendary Florida marijuana bust in 1973

Take it from a tv person, these two reporters "are the gold standard of TV news feature journalists." -- Minnesota stories

Get to know tiny Hans island, center of a genteel Canada vs. Denmark conflict -- with booze.



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