MetaFilter

it is profoundly understandable that since you fear being alone, you choose an imbalanced, humiliating relationship with an unsatisfying man over no relationship with nobody - you feel like something is better than nothing. as long as you believe in your heart that something is better than nothing it is going to be hard to believe people who say that being alone is better than being with someone who makes you feel bad. it is better, but they mean it feels better, too. and... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by queenofbithynia at 9:35 AM on April 21, 2024

My husband actually had this coloring book as a child, and recently bought one on eBay because he wanted to make sure it was as weird as he thought it was.

It had no ill effects on him other than convincing him that the Dune movie was actually a good film. He insisted I sit down and watch it with him because "I loved this film as a kid - I even had the coloring book!" After 15 minutes of painful viewing, he shut it off in embarrassment.
posted to MetaFilter by castlebravo at 7:50 AM on December 11, 2015

I have been pricing cruises for a vacation. My youngest hates holidays and longs for structure. Someone at work was a cruise ship staff for 20 years and still goes on cruises as his family’s preferred vacation. He has a family member with similar challenges and the cruise ship meant they could eat the same pizza and wander around while everyone else did their own thing by too.

What I really want is an introvert’s boat trip. Lots of books, coffee and occasional quiet activities.
posted to MetaFilter by dorothyisunderwood at 12:55 AM on April 7, 2024

I have deep quaker roots. One thing that I learned: the testimony of peace is not always seen as absolute. Quakers fought in both world wars, believing them to be just.

With the possible exception of Operation Deliberate Force in the Bosnian war (intervening to stop genocide), funding Ukrainian self defense may be one of the only just wars the West has been involved in, since then. It has led me to dramatically shift my relationship to pacifism.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by constraint at 3:29 AM on March 27, 2024

Indigenous way of building.
posted to MetaFilter by sir_patrick_o'veal at 11:33 AM on March 13, 2024

The "surelythis" meme around these parts has been with us since the Bush years. The joke, as should be evident by now, is that there is never enough evidence, for many people. It's been pointed out many times, we have no lack for it being mentioned.

People talk about tribalism, but I think it's the right-wing news ecosystem that keeps them floating in a comforting bath of ideas and opinions that's why they're so resistant to facts. That's what has to change,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 2:09 PM on March 10, 2024

if Trump's ineffably malicious incompetence hadn't gotten ~500,000 of his idiot supporters killed in 2020 he might have scraped together enough states to again win (he only needed 43,735 votes across Az, Ga, Wi).... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by torokunai at 1:16 PM on March 10, 2024

As a teacher, when an incident like this happens, there are almost always moments that you wish you might have acted or responded differently. But I really fail to see how the teacher/OP in this scenario conducted themselves in a way that was retaliatory, ill considered, or clearly against best practices.

Some posters seem to be rushing to blame the OP and frame the incident against the racial dynamics of... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by gnutron at 6:27 PM on March 7, 2024

It is exceedingly clear that we lack the legal infrastructure to do anything meaningful about actual attempts at insurrection.
posted to MetaFilter by grumpybear69 at 11:46 AM on March 4, 2024

Any contact from you (or a friend or agency responding on your behalf) will only "reset the clock" and encourage more contact. Do not, DO NOT respond in any way. Block, ignore, return to sender, etc. is the right approach. Get yourself a copy of The Gift of Fear by Gavin Debecker (it's mentioned a lot in AskMeFi for good reason; it's brilliant. (Even though you're not afraid of this guy the book is still relevant).... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mezzanayne at 7:10 PM on March 3, 2024

Cory Doctorow has written about Amazon extensively, but this past Friday's article focuses on Amazon's claims that AWS is their big profit center. The seller junk fees for their retail business are astonishing.

The company's profits - they insist - come from selling AWS cloud service. The retail operation is just a public service they provide to us with cross-subsidy from those fat AWS margins.

This is a hell of a claim. Last year,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Umami Dearest at 6:16 AM on March 3, 2024

We have an amazing, accomplished, experienced 59 year old VP right there who will step up and do a great job if anything happens to Biden. She has indeed been trained and mentored by him just like folks are saying the older generation was supposed to do. Anyone who ever watched her speeches in the Senate knows she was already up to the task before she got 4 years experience as VP. Anyone suggesting that we need a brokered convention where a few well connected people debate who the best nominee... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hydropsyche at 12:12 AM on March 3, 2024

Rebuttal from Josh Marshall.
posted to MetaFilter by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:14 PM on March 2, 2024

The Soviets had a word for it: Dezi, short for "DEZINFORMATSIYA"
posted to MetaFilter by torokunai at 7:45 PM on February 27, 2024

Also; this is my standard post in any TFG thread

Fiat ju$titia ruat caelum, motherfuckers!
posted to MetaFilter by lalochezia at 12:51 PM on February 16, 2024

We're just going to be wearing VR goggles exploring perfect AI generated landscapes while the real world perishes around us, aren't we
posted to MetaFilter by alex_skazat at 5:50 PM on February 15, 2024

There's a lot of personal detail in this article, but one general thing I found interesting was the reference to the Victor Book of the Opera, which is in the public domain and available in editions describing 70 operas (with clear illustrations) and 100 operas (with scan issues affecting the illustrations). It's probably not the best representation of the genre, but something that introductory is where I am on this.

I'll admit to having had... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Wobbuffet at 1:15 PM on February 13, 2024

> The art world is still a man's world unfortunately...

> We studied so few women artists at all in my Western art history classes in high school and university.

The recent book The Story of Art Without Men by art historian Katy Hessel gives brief but well-researched biographies of 100+ underrecognized female artists — including Berthe Morisot — and puts them in the context of their... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lisa g at 1:28 PM on February 9, 2024

TheophileEscargot - there's a Morisot exhibit in Paris through March!
posted to MetaFilter by ersatzkat at 6:00 AM on February 9, 2024

Tangentially related, I recently learned of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), which is due to launch in 2035. Three satellites, separated by 2.5 million km, in a triple-helix orbit around the sun, bouncing lasers off each other to detect gravitational perturbations smaller than a helium atom.
posted to MetaFilter by adamrice at 2:54 PM on February 9, 2024

Be polite, and it might work.

For context: May I recommend Reddit's sub Tales From the Front Desk? Everyone is always trying to get a credit from the front desk person for their complaints. The front desk person can help but if you don't make them want to, you are just one in a long line of people who are angling for a credit for various reasons.

I hate hotels in general but this sub is hilarious.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Peach at 6:15 AM on February 3, 2024

The most recurrent delusion in American political life is that fascists will lets norms, laws, or morals get in the way of what they want to do.
posted to MetaFilter by The Manwich Horror at 9:11 AM on January 28, 2024

I've commented here a bunch of times on the history of parlor games and posted to Projects about translating them more than once. I don't think I've explained why though, and I think there's just a ton of interesting reasons to look into them:

Several had classical mythology and/or fairy tale elements that, even without a complete fantasy 'world,' still connect them meaningfully with histories and ethnographies of fantasy gaming that I've enjoyed reading but that just... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Wobbuffet at 8:47 AM on January 22, 2024

But it also sucks because of what it tries to steal from us, and how it tries to trick us into paying to get that stolen thing back, but worse, lesser, uglier, and emptier. It sucks because it exists to try to sell us on a future of even more content with even less meaning and it sucks because it does that by leveraging real human emotions of missing someone, missing their contributions to our culture, and wishing they were still here. It sucks because it uses our humanity against us, so some... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by biogeo at 11:25 AM on January 25, 2024

I'm a software developer, and I remember in the 90s and 2000s being of the narrow mindset of "Go away before I replace you with a very small Perl script" and "Get a real major" that the EE students wore. But you don't need to be young and have good test-taking skills to mistake immaturity for cleverness. One of the biggest feeders of my engineering arrogance: the Dilbert comic strip.

It's pretty clear in hindsight to see what this attitude leads to.
posted to MetaFilter by AlSweigart at 6:32 AM on January 25, 2024

"The communication, argumentation, and writing skills I acquired in that [freshman composition] course have served me well throughout my career[.]"

- Very technical roles require effective communication.
- We ought to value education for reasons in addition to employability.
- Marshalling human language is a technical skill.
- Without art, poetry, sport, camaraderie, respect, empathy, compassion, emotion,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by GPF at 5:16 AM on January 25, 2024

Recent items from the WTIIF collection:

Atomic Rockets
Stained Glass Sundials
Toaster Museum
Niche Museums
Sphere Research Corporation
Security Envelope Patterns
Tangible Media
The Seed Site
Ice Tools
Washing Machine Museum
Disraeli Gears
Passport Index
Cash Railways
Cave Inspired Music
LEGO logic... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by zamboni at 12:26 PM on January 12, 2024

I've found several dozen episodes:

A quick Google search (Google results are so much worse than they used to be, but they do still work a lot of the time, thank goodness) turned up a Reddit thread about Schickele Mix, with links two two archives:

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL2Jlbm9mc2t5LmNvbS9taXgvP2ZlZWQ9cnNzMg?ep=14
... which actually has a link to the original site, with excellent notes, so actually please use this... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kristi at 10:46 AM on January 18, 2024

I didn't have time last night to flesh the post out, but there are some other great performances from the competition, including the LSU Tiger Girls and Ohio State University.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 6:27 AM on January 18, 2024

We have a new puppy, and (like a unicycle) it's something that really gets you attention at the park park. It's like walking round with a celebrity. Every kid wants to pet him, every dog owner wants to know all about him. Reactions from younger men are uniformly about how he's a handsome dog and looks like he'll be big. A lot of kids are surprisingly polite about asking if they can pet him. You get the odd dog-walker who just jerks their little beast away and avoids your gaze, which is an odd... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by pipeski at 3:31 PM on January 14, 2024

OK, age- and grnder-appropriate comments aside, this is cool. Shades of Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking, or at least the sections where she talks about busking.
posted to MetaFilter by cupcakeninja at 3:19 PM on January 14, 2024

I got a similar set of responses when I commuted to work with a longboard and paddle/push stick for a couple of years. It's something I've never seen anyone else doing, and evidently nobody else had, either.

Unfortunately, the only science-adjacent data that I collected was that my paddling style led to a shoulder injury that prevented me from lifting my should over my head for a couple of years.

Thinking back, the sex ratio of positive to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by clawsoon at 3:01 PM on January 14, 2024

Add another grand or two and you’ll be leading a comfortable upper-middle-class life with a nice apartment or house, some domestic help, and whatever you want to eat and drink, going out regularly.

You suddenly become one of the elites.

For now, Argentina is still stuck in one of its worst times ever financially, which is saying a lot, but that’s a turn of good fortune for you if you can come in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by rrrrrrrrrt at 10:51 PM on January 13, 2024

This comment of mine in particular specifically identifies the genre of writing of this FPP
posted to MetaFilter by cendawanita at 12:36 AM on January 14, 2024

I don't read a lot of X-Men so I also don't know the issue numbers you're looking for, but I do know that when you figure out what issues you want, you can look them up on Crushing Krisis, which is a very thorough site that lists, by character/team, which issues are collected in which trades. They have a section for X-Men, and that will almost certainly tell you what book(s) you need to get.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by sineala at 5:31 PM on January 11, 2024

I think the way it could happen "productively" (to use that term very loosely) would be after some significant event. A civil war? Possibly - but I think the threshold is much lower. And if it were something ghastly but not at that level, it might be survivable. And I think Jan 6 is/was pretty damn close to a civil war.

January 6th, "pretty damn close to a civil war," resulted in 147 Congressional Republicans voting to support the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by delfin at 2:28 PM on January 9, 2024

I would not be surprised to see a Constitutional Convention in my lifetime.

If we do, given that (as JSCS points out) the right has been trying to make this happen for some time, the experiment will be over.

It's well past time to revise The Constitution, don't get me wrong. It was a decent draft document to start a country at the time – but it's a lot like Conway's Law where (paraphrasing) what gets shipped looks a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jzb at 1:20 PM on January 9, 2024

Here's a comprehensive site.

Mnemonic is such a cruel joke of a word, isn't it?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by weapons-grade pandemonium at 6:25 AM on December 2, 2009

aramaic, it sounds like you're thinking of sponsorblock? It's available for firefox as well as chrome and it makes youtube a lot more bearable for me.
posted to MetaFilter by Proofs and Refutations at 6:59 PM on January 5, 2024

I strongly encourage you to look into the ExoSym and see if it's an option for you, before getting an amputation. Lots of folks previously scheduled for lower leg amputation (or with partial foot amputations already) have gotten ExoSyms instead and been very happy with them -- running ultramarathons, competing in powerlifting competitions, and (at least one person I know of) working as an active-duty firefighter -- just generally living extremely physically demanding, athletic lives doing what... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by cnidaria at 9:03 PM on January 4, 2024 marked best answer

You wrote an award-winning academic book! (I skimmed your history to make sure :)

I have a PhD and I'll never do that. There's an old Mark Twain line "I never let my schooling interfere with my education"; I think that you should take that to heart and it may help you frame things more positively.

You clearly have a lot of eduction and knowledge, how it's gained is somewhat irrelevant, and certainly less important than what you do with... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by SaltySalticid at 10:01 AM on December 31, 2023

Argh, nerdsniped, after a lot of dead ends I believe I found it.

WNYC Small Things Considered, later renamed Kids America then after that was cancelled in 1989, presenter Kathy O'Connell started a new very similar show Kid's Corner (still going!)

Sometime around 1991 Joel Martin Kohn aka Joe Gizmo aka Citizen Kohn released an album called "Computer Kids Sing" or possible "Computer Kids Sing v2.0" with a song called... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by samj at 1:12 PM on January 1, 2024 marked best answer

Echoing that you did a great job. If you want to appreciate how great, I recommend bystander intervention training - the link is my fav org for that. Taking that training may help you intervene with more confidence and intent.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by warriorqueen at 5:37 PM on December 29, 2023

When I was a kid I read this joke: "Q: How do you get down off an elephant? A: You don't; you get down off a duck".

Twenty years later, I finally got it.
posted to MetaFilter by acrasis at 10:30 AM on December 30, 2023

I bet jellyfish are sad that there are no peanut butter fish.
posted to MetaFilter by DreamerFi at 2:54 AM on December 30, 2023

How open are you to challenging the premise of attachment styles as a way to understand relationships?

There are criticisms of that approach. But I'm not sure if you'd find that helpful.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Zumbador at 8:17 PM on December 24, 2023

@zadcat Here is a site with all the Montrealer covers
posted to MetaFilter by bluefrog at 6:21 AM on December 22, 2023

And way back in 2008 (a decade before Fall; or, Dodge in Hell), Stephenson wrote this in Anathem:


“Early in the Reticulum-thousands of years ago-it became almost useless because it was cluttered with faulty, obsolete, or downright misleading information,” Sammann said.

“Crap, you once called it,” I reminded him.

“Yes—a technical term. So crap filtering became... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mbrubeck at 9:11 PM on December 20, 2023

Seems like a good thread to drop this: Channel1 is launching an entirely AI driven news ecosystem in 2024. They're using AI generated anchors with real news footage, and planning on "generating AI imagery to support stories where images don't exist." ArsTechnica had a writeup on it, but the 22 minute preview newscast they posted looked convincing enough.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by msbutah at 3:35 PM on December 20, 2023

Re serious business, Cory Doctorow, "What Kind of Bubble is AI?"
posted to MetaFilter by mittens at 1:05 PM on December 20, 2023