Arcane Fortune is, essentially, a grand strategy game inspired by SimCity, Dwarf Fortress,, and the Civilization series, among other inspirations. It's free to play and the source code is available.
posted to MetaFilter by Alensin at 10:02 AM on January 26, 2021 (14 comments)

People say that kids are rotting their brains and not getting outside, but do you know what we were doing outside? We were lighting our mom’s perfume on fire, right on the stoop. Whatever you do online, at least it doesn’t leave burn marks in front of your door. Of course kids can join terrorists group like the Republicans, or be groomed online, but that stuff was happening anyways, only IRL. It’s not that being online is necessarily safe but, by God, at least it’s not flammable.

Indi Samarajiva is skeptical about the dangers of too much screen time compared to his own childhood.
posted to MetaFilter by MartinWisse at 11:34 AM on January 26, 2021 (64 comments)

An innovative op-ed by Stuart A. Thompson for The New York Times embeds audio clips of QAnon supporters from a Discord(-like?) chat service to make their views palpable: “Three Weeks Inside A Pro-Trump QAnon Chat Room”: There’s a persistent belief that the online world is somehow not real. Extreme views are too easily dismissed if they’re on the internet. While people might say things online they would never do in person, all it takes is one person for digital conspiracies to take a deadly turn… Listening to the conspiracists — unfiltered and in their own voices — makes that digital conversation disturbingly real.
posted to MetaFilter by Going To Maine at 3:09 PM on January 26, 2021 (16 comments)

Hillel decides to interview people, who switched from traditional engineering to software engineering. If you ever used the example of bridge building to explain the differences between software and real world engineering, you are in for a treat: One person talked about how frustrating it is to start work on a bridge foundation, only to find that this particular soil freezes in a weird way that makes it liquefy too much in an earthquake. Back to the drawing board. [Part I], [Part II], [Part III]
posted to MetaFilter by kmt at 2:14 AM on January 26, 2021 (57 comments)

UNESCO has added Sauna to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity They made a 10 minute film to justify their decision. Technical terms: vihta: the whisks made of birch twigs: ideally made of both Betula pendula and Betula pubescens one for engineering structure; one for frothiness. The latter probably due to dammarane esters rather than saponins. Löyly: the steam / soul of the experience. [move over hygge?]. Let's hear it for Finland! Kylӓ Vuotti Uutta Kuuta (The Village was Waiting for the New Moon)
posted to MetaFilter by BobTheScientist at 6:07 AM on January 26, 2021 (29 comments)

Gary Gates, 82, managed a multibillion dollar pension fund for the state of Wisconsin until he retired in 1993. Since then, he has recycled two million cans. He bikes around Madison from dumpster to dumpster, collecting cans. (Student apartments on fraternity-dense Langdon St. are the richest source.) He also moves cardboard and glass he finds in trash cans to recycling bins, and non-recyclables from the recycling bins to the trash. Most of his clothes come from dumpsters. He and his wife give tens of thousands of dollars to charity every year.
posted to MetaFilter by escabeche at 11:58 AM on January 24, 2021 (17 comments)

"I studied code because I wanted to do something great like you / And the real tragedy is half of it was true.... If only you could be what you pretend you are." Via Casey Fiesler (who used it as background music for a TikTok video recommending books about tech ethics): "Rät", a song by Penelope Scott "on the promise, failure, and disappointment of technology" and about complicity and vulnerability, available on the album "Public Void". Analysis by Fiesler. "When I said take me to the moon, I never meant take me alone / I thought if mankind toured the sky, it meant that all of us could go / But I don't want to see the stars if they're just one more piece of land / For us to colonize, for us to turn to sand." Lyrics on Genius.
posted to MetaFilter by brainwane at 12:22 PM on January 24, 2021 (8 comments)

I call this Death Star thinking. Many of us grew up profoundly influenced by Star Wars. What’s the lesson too many people take from that first and most influential episode in the franchise back in 1977? One incredibly well-placed shot into the thermal exhaust port and the entire apparatus of our oppression explodes spectacularly. All we really needed were the plans to the Death Star and a very talented fighter pilot guided by the truth (“the Force”.) Never mind that there are countless Death Stars ahead of us as the Imperial war (and the franchise) continues.

Jennifer Pahlka: Death Star Thinking and Government Reform.
posted to MetaFilter by MartinWisse at 1:55 AM on January 24, 2021 (26 comments)

What's the difference between a theory about a conspiracy and a Conspiracy Theory? How to spot a conspiracy theory when you see one begins The Conversation's Expert Guide to Conspiracy Theories, which includes a 6-episode podcast if you prefer audio.
posted to MetaFilter by harriet vane at 2:00 AM on January 24, 2021 (23 comments)

Dr. Walter Freeman was obsessed with finding a cure for mental illness. Eventually, he developed a technique which entailed putting a long ice-pick like stick through the eye sockets of patients. [Content Warning: Disturbing material]
posted to MetaFilter by antihistameme at 9:01 PM on January 22, 2021 (47 comments)

"This is a process for me, and I don’t have it totally figured out." Crystal Martin writes about withdrawing and "dimming her light", professional skills and personality, and things we tell ourselves we're doing. "I’m not one to cry in front of people, and most of the mean things people say to me don’t really matter, but what I’ve found…especially in my first year as a developer, is that I fall apart…I mean I…CRACK when someone questions my intellect." (Essay is from 2019 and is on Medium. Please also note the postscript which contextualizes the anecdote at the start of the piece.)
posted to MetaFilter by brainwane at 3:59 AM on January 23, 2021 (17 comments)

Larry King died this morning at age 87. The host of Larry King Live on CNN for over 25 years, and before that The Larry King Show on nationwide talk radio. Cause of death has not been published but he had been hospitalized with COVID-19 in mid-December. King had previously expressed his intentions to be cryonically preserved.
posted to MetaFilter by ardgedee at 9:04 AM on January 23, 2021 (66 comments)

Threadreaderapp twitter link by @bernoid.
posted to MetaFilter by rikschell at 9:05 AM on January 23, 2021 (20 comments)

Recently, there was news that the train dispatching system of Dalian Railway in Liaoning Province was directly paralyzed due to the suspension of Flash, after which technical staff installed a reduced version of pirated Flash to solve the problem.
posted to MetaFilter by signal at 3:13 PM on January 21, 2021 (31 comments)

Twenty years of doubting your commitment to Sparkle Motion - an oral history of the making of Donnie Darko.
posted to MetaFilter by dnash at 8:54 AM on January 22, 2021 (49 comments)

Watching others paint is relaxing, even when the painter is not the beloved Bob Ross and his happy trees and friendly squirrels. Why don’t you try watching someone paint over chill lo-fi beats? Maybe some speed paintings of Ghibli scenes backed by delicate piano music? Or what about more traditional landscapes in oil? How about plein air painting with instructional narration?
posted to MetaFilter by tofu_crouton at 8:50 AM on January 21, 2021 (7 comments)

The inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris: Live camera feed from C-Span; live updates from CNN; NYT live updates; NYT live stream and analysis; The Guardian live updates; NPR coverage beginning at 11 a.m. EST; streaming beginning at 10:30 a.m. EST at bideninaugural.org.
posted to MetaFilter by taz at 6:41 AM on January 20, 2021 (1592 comments)

While sea shanties and experiencing joy are in vogue, perhaps you would like to see The Longest Johns, recently famous as seed crystal of The Wellerman phenomenon on TikTok, making the video for their recent song Hoist Up The Thing.
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 1:05 PM on January 20, 2021 (8 comments)

The finest of Corporate TikTok: @tegaalexander's Every work email thread ever, @cearajane's Every millennial vs. their boomer boss, @charles_rojas' SexySlack.
posted to MetaFilter by adrianhon at 2:08 AM on January 21, 2021 (67 comments)

Click for a made-up bit of folklore. This page generates two-sentence lore on demand. One sentence describes its origin while the next summarizes the story. For example, "There is a legend which comes from the book The Ghosts of Shildon & Stanley by Cleveland Kendall. In 1841, the Devil himself died of 'rising of the lights', contracted from a witch named Mother Liliana."
posted to MetaFilter by doctornemo at 8:47 AM on January 20, 2021 (27 comments)

Joe Biden, Welfare King "Joe Biden's presidency could be one in which the toxic ideological bias against a proper welfare state and active government dies an extremely deserved death. Free money is both good and fun!"
posted to MetaFilter by schoolgirl report at 8:03 AM on January 20, 2021 (112 comments)

Solo Video Game RPG's are not like Group Tabletop RPG's.. [SLYT 5min 6sec] 5 min 6 second amusing YouTube video.
posted to MetaFilter by Faintdreams at 3:22 AM on January 18, 2021 (61 comments)

Have you ever considered owning a pet leech? You're not alone! While some might keep leeches for medicinal reasons (hirudotherapy, previously) there is a small, but enthusiastic, community of leech fans that sing the praises of these simple to care for creatures. If you are ready to welcome a new bloodsucking friend into your life then Emzotic's video has everything you need to know about leech care.
posted to MetaFilter by forbiddencabinet at 4:52 PM on January 19, 2021 (38 comments)

Want to just sit back and watch some birds? Enjoy Carole's Hummingbird Feeder Cam, live from Studio City, California.
posted to MetaFilter by Katemonkey at 7:25 AM on January 19, 2021 (30 comments)

A cute game about an awful year.
posted to MetaFilter by jenkinsEar at 9:48 AM on January 18, 2021 (33 comments)

Hot Pepper History was a YouTube series from the Indiana Historical Society. The concept is simple: a staff member prepares a (short) history lesson and then eats a hot pepper and... tries to deliver it. Explaining that they didn't feel right about doing a Drunk History project, the IHS settled on this method instead. You can learn about the squirrel migration of 1911, the 1909 National Balloon Chapionship, or where the term hoosier comes from (there's even a bloopers reel or two)
posted to MetaFilter by jessamyn at 9:20 AM on January 15, 2021 (13 comments)

Looking for a creative distraction? Want to study with comics luminaries like Mira Jacobs and Ben Passmore? You're in luck--since last April, the Believer Magazine has been hosting hour-long, interactive comics workshops through the Black Mountain Institute YouTube channel, all of which have been archived here.
posted to MetaFilter by carrienation at 11:39 AM on January 15, 2021 (3 comments)

New Zealand allegedly has no dangerous animals, birds or bugs. But it has one insect that left Cook's expedition with "ulcers like the small pox:" the sandfly. These blackflies, called namu in Māori, commit their dastardly deeds brazenly in the full light of day, using their serrated claws to saw through human flesh. Māori used crushed ngaio leaves to both repel them and soothe bites, while early settlers rubbed rancid bacon on their bodies to keep the critters away. Entomologists note that sandflies will leave humans alone if there is a delicious penguin nearby to feast on; however, the Department of Conservation frowns on the use of a personal penguin as pest deterrent.
posted to MetaFilter by rednikki at 8:14 PM on January 15, 2021 (35 comments)

Animals Interrupting Wildlife Photographers. A Thread. Threadreader version.
posted to MetaFilter by hippybear at 10:59 AM on January 17, 2021 (32 comments)

Captain Hamster has to escape the dungeon. Captain Hamster is thinking with portals.
posted to MetaFilter by fight or flight at 3:41 PM on January 17, 2021 (21 comments)

Jenny Nicholson takes a deep dive into the Vampire Diaries.
posted to MetaFilter by Pendragon at 12:40 PM on January 15, 2021 (21 comments)

Ann Wood's house of fabric ants who like midcentury furniture and modern art. And their Christmas preparations. More information about making the Beaumonts and their house. And some ideas for having ideas. And, via a comment from MeFite umwhat in Ask in 2015, Ann Wood's workspace.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 2:14 PM on January 15, 2021 (14 comments)

"The Great Gatsby" has entered public domain as of 1/1/2021, and a Reddit post suggesting a Muppet Great Gatsby adaptation went viral. Now Redditor Ben Crew has written a 104-page Muppet Great Gatsby adaptation, complete with songs and a poster.
posted to MetaFilter by skycrashesdown at 10:51 PM on January 15, 2021 (37 comments)

The Republican Party’s most Pro-Trump members have been elected by higher income white homeowners in the fast-growing exurban fringe. They feel the social status traditionally associated with their identity as white Christians is being degraded and that left wing political movements pose a threat to their livelihoods and political power.
posted to MetaFilter by latkes at 9:58 PM on January 16, 2021 (151 comments)

Prince as birds. (Twitter) Avian avatars of the Artist. thread reader link For the Twitter averse (or Donald Trump).
posted to MetaFilter by barrett caulk at 10:33 AM on January 16, 2021 (11 comments)

Having garnered considerable online fandom, the curious player names of Fighting Baseball (previously) have since been researched in depth by redditor Cincinnati Redlegs, who has since published a spreadsheet of the complete list of player names.
posted to MetaFilter by CarrotAdventure at 2:51 PM on January 16, 2021 (7 comments)

In 1803, Spanish health officials wanted to get the smallpox inoculation to the New World. The problem was that it required fresh lymph which wouldn't last the journey across the Atlantic. The plan involved putting two dozen Spanish orphans on a ship. Right before they left for the colonies, a doctor would give two of them cowpox. After nine or 10 days at sea, the sores on their arms would be nice and ripe. A team of doctors onboard would lance the sores, and scratch the fluid into the arms of two more boys. Nine or 10 days later, once those boys developed sores, a third pair would receive fluid, and so on.[SLTheAtlantic]
posted to MetaFilter by ShooBoo at 3:37 PM on January 16, 2021 (21 comments)

The storming of the U.S. Capitol has resulted in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi setting a hard deadline for moving forward with a 2nd impeachment of Donald Trump. Meanwhile, many of the insurrectionists caught on film are now under arrest. And the GOP has shifted from attacking the election to asking for everyone to move on and embrace unity.
posted to MetaFilter by valkane at 8:28 PM on January 11, 2021 (2009 comments)

because normies are getting creative during the pandemic! (sl twitter)
posted to MetaFilter by miles per flower at 7:14 AM on January 15, 2021 (22 comments)

"I am very persistent about my small, stupid story, about the idea that I’m the main character here, on the couch, looking at my phone, doing nothing at all. All the people I once loved and don’t speak to anymore all crowd in real against the convenient backdrop of these big and horrible days. "
posted to MetaFilter by Miko at 7:47 AM on January 15, 2021 (5 comments)

By request, a thread for happy thoughts, kindness, positive vibes, good news sharing, comfort, random cute or fun stuff, and general hugginess.❤️🤗❤️
posted to MetaTalk by taz at 9:31 AM on January 7, 2021 (53 comments)

The exonerated five talk about why they made false confessions and a proposed law against bad police practice. "It’s hard to imagine why anyone would confess to a crime they didn’t commit. But when you’re in that interrogation room, everything changes. During the hours of relentless questioning that we each endured, detectives lied to us repeatedly. They said they had matched our fingerprints to crime scene evidence and told each of us that the others had confessed and implicated us in the attack. They said that if we just admitted to participating in the attack, we could go home. All of these were blatant lies." The proposed law.
posted to MetaFilter by Nancy Lebovitz at 6:08 AM on January 6, 2021 (25 comments)

covid, Fox News, America, and me “You know, your parents have been on the receiving end of weapons grade psy-ops for years now, right?” I think about that a lot. Sometimes it’s the only thing that allows me to approach this situation with any equanimity.
posted to MetaFilter by bitmage at 6:41 AM on January 5, 2021 (61 comments)

The UK's Health and Safety Executive has no patience for unhelpful "health and safety" excuses. There's no legislation against the staff at a burger van cutting your burger in half, there should indeed be mirrors in disabled toilets, frilly socks do not endanger students, kitchens are allowed to have knives and it's reasonable to ask for your trout to be filleted at a fishmonger's counter. (h/t @ZiziFothSi)
posted to MetaFilter by Vesihiisi at 10:06 AM on January 4, 2021 (40 comments)

Sea urchins wear shells like hats so aquarists made tiny hats for them to wear instead. There are 950 species of sea urchins living on seabeds, making them one of the most widespread and common echinoderms in our oceans. The sea urchins not only look stylish, but the hats also help to keep them safe. Sea urchin in a witch hat.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 9:13 AM on January 4, 2021 (17 comments)

For 10 years, the “independent archive of typography” Fonts In Use has collected and organized examples of different fonts in the real world.
posted to MetaFilter by Going To Maine at 1:44 PM on January 4, 2021 (7 comments)

Sign is a game about Nicaraguan Sign Language, which was invented by children at Nicaraugua's first school for the deaf in the 1970's and 80's. In the game, players act as the children struggling and then learning to communicate with one another, creating signs to convey their history, hopes, and fears. Notably, the players abandon spoken language for the duration of the game, and mark their hands whenever they make 'compromises' in their communication. Proceeds from printed copies go to the Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects, but there's also a free pdf [booklet and cards].
posted to MetaFilter by kaibutsu at 2:39 PM on January 4, 2021 (6 comments)

Vu Le writes "21 tips to make getting back to work this week more bearable". "5. List out stuff you’re grateful for. It’s important to remind ourselves regularly of our blessings. Make a list of five things you’re grateful for. That feels great, right? That’s a lot of emotional progress. Go ahead and take the rest of the day off from work." His blog, Nonprofit AF (previously), frequently features satirical takes on life working in the nonprofit/NGO sector (previously), such as "Honest email auto-replies you can use during these challenging times".
posted to MetaFilter by brainwane at 4:57 AM on January 4, 2021 (7 comments)

In the run-up to the Georgia run-off election for the Senate, one man has stepped forward as a self-proclaimed "pattern recognition expert", claiming to be on "approximately about 12 billion devices globally", and erstwhile "full-blown treasure hunter" (dig it--the Ark of the Covenant is on Oak Island!), and most notoriously, the inventor of the :CueCat. Brace yourselves, America, here comes Jovan Hutton Pulitzer--again.
posted to MetaFilter by Halloween Jack at 11:29 AM on December 31, 2020 (37 comments)

2020 final boss. Exhale.
posted to MetaFilter by aniola at 11:42 AM on December 31, 2020 (11 comments)