Change - "Think about how you think. You can fluidly look at something, identify and modify it in your head, move it around, describe it ... What we call understanding isn't the sum of knowledge, it's the sum of the relationship to all of that information. Knowledge is the layer above information, which is transformative." (previously)
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 11:56 PM on February 4, 2023 (31 comments)

When held up to the light no useful information can be gained through a security envelope. […] What is kind of mind boggling to me is just how many different patterns there are. If you think about it, five to ten patterns could have been created and that would have satisfied any security needs. There seems to be a lot more than ten patterns…
posted to MetaFilter by cardioid at 4:24 PM on February 3, 2023 (28 comments)

That's it. (SLYT)
posted to MetaFilter by Ipsifendus at 11:25 AM on February 3, 2023 (17 comments)

For the 20th anniversary of Dinosaur Comics, creator Ryan North posted a special giant-size update.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic at 1:34 PM on February 2, 2023 (13 comments)

The '70s Ends On a Cliffhanger (SLYT)
posted to MetaFilter by Meatbomb at 10:55 AM on February 2, 2023 (5 comments)

I watched Groundhog Day every day for a year. Here’s what I learned
posted to MetaFilter by chavenet at 7:22 AM on February 2, 2023 (58 comments)

A short surreal animated film by Felix Colgrave: DONKS.
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 8:40 AM on February 2, 2023 (14 comments)

He has never interviewed a scientist for any of his stories despite the fact that, because of their fidelity to scientific ideas, they often read like they were written by one. “My understanding of science comes entirely from the written word,” Chiang says. Just as SFI’s scientists can’t predict what fresh perspective they might glean from conversations with Chiang, Chiang can’t predict whether those conversations will spur him to write new stories. 1000-word press release via MeFi's own Nelson's linkblog
posted to MetaFilter by cgc373 at 2:58 AM on February 2, 2023 (5 comments)

Why Tokyo is the land of rising home construction but not prices - "The city had more housing starts in 2014 than the whole of England. Can Japan's capital offer lessons to other world cities?" (via)
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 2:02 AM on August 12, 2016 (39 comments)

Bay Area Cities To Lose ALL Housing Zoning Powers [today; thread] - "Old law proposes to turn the Bay Area's zoning system into something like Japan's in just two days."[1,2,3,4,5] (previously)
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 12:12 AM on February 2, 2023 (32 comments)

Wonders of Street View
posted to MetaFilter by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:02 AM on February 1, 2023 (47 comments)

AI has been generating an endless Seinfeld episode for more than a month now [Reid McCarter, AV Club]
"At the time of writing, Nothing, Forever showed Elaine and Kramer sitting on a couch, just having clipped into each other and melded into a strange new creature. The scene changed to show George talking to Elaine about a restaurant that won’t allow people to use ketchup on steak. "Rules, rules, there are always rules," Elaine replies, prompting the laugh track. She recalls there being rules about trying to order a decaf coffee once in the past and the laughs play again. The pair then stand together in silence for a while, nary a synth bass slap or pop to end their hilarious bit. After a while, George sits down on the couch and Elaine slowly falls diagonally into a wall." [Link to the Twitch stream]
posted to MetaFilter by Atom Eyes at 12:59 PM on January 31, 2023 (75 comments)

WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER WHOPPER | JUNIOR DOUBLE TRIPLE WHOPPER | FLAME-GRILLED TASTE WITH PERFECT TOPPERS | I RULE I RULE I RULE THIS DAY | LETTUCE MAYO PICKLE KETCHUP | IT'S OK IF I DON'T WANT THAT | IMPOSSIBLE OR BACON WHOPPER | ANY WHOPPER MY WAY WHOPPER MY WAY
posted to MetaFilter by creatrixtiara at 9:05 PM on January 29, 2023 (32 comments)

Chronophoto is a game in which you guess the dates of some photos — the closer the guess, the higher your score. That's it!
posted to MetaFilter by swift at 4:31 PM on January 27, 2023 (76 comments)

This Guy Noticed Jigsaw Puzzle Companies Use The Same Patterns, So He Made Some Mashups. "Jigsaw puzzle companies tend to use the same cut patterns for multiple puzzles. This makes the pieces interchangeable. As a result, I sometimes find that I can combine portions from two or more puzzles to make a surreal picture that the publisher never imagined. I take great pleasure in “discovering” such bizarre images lying latent, sometimes for decades, within the pieces of ordinary mass-produced puzzles. As I shift the pieces back and forth, trying different combinations, I feel like an archaeologist unearthing a hidden artifact." Via shepgo@mastodon.social
posted to MetaFilter by taz at 11:50 AM on January 22, 2023 (29 comments)

Cory Doctorow on why we can't have nice (Internet) things
posted to MetaFilter by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:58 PM on January 21, 2023 (93 comments)

To celebrate the pioneering electronic music experimentation of Radiohead
and the roughly 15-and-a-half birthday of their pioneering pay-what-you want release of their album In Rainbows
please enjoy this pioneering (and surprisingly upbeat) pay-what-you-want release of In Rainbows covered using samples from N64 games (mostly Mario 64)
posted to MetaFilter by Going To Maine at 10:38 AM on January 20, 2023 (8 comments)

Elden Ring GeoGuessr game tests your knowledge of The Lands Between [lostgamer.io] “Elden Ring players can now test their knowledge of the game's world in a fan made GeoGuessr game. For the unfamiliar, GeoGuessr is a browser game that drops players somewhere in the real world and tasks them with pinpointing their exact location on a map. Now, thanks to reddit user TheEdenChild, there's an Elden Ring version that drops players into The Lands Between. [...] After being dropped into the world, players must pin their location on a newly created satellite map of the world. There are also custom settings - you can select specific areas, length, and timers - plus a leaderboard and support for multiplayer, with more features planned in the future. BONUS: There are also Genshin Impact, GTA 5, Skyrim, World of Warcraft, and Fortnite versions of the game, with Breath of the Wild, Final Fantasy 14, and others coming soon.” [via: Eurogamer]
posted to MetaFilter by Fizz at 6:36 AM on January 18, 2023 (19 comments)

Remember the time that Channel 4 sent some reality TV contestants to space for five days? Probably not, because they didn't, but they spent millions of pounds on tricking the contestants into thinking that they had. The resulting show, Space Cadets, is not fondly remembered -- or much remembered at all -- but a YouTube retrospective by science/culture vlogger Chris James has recently been making the rounds. It shows the highlights and the painstaking detail that went into the hoax, from embedded method improv actors to "spacecraft" constructed by Hollywood engineers. Whether it was a greater cruelty than I Wanna Marry Harry is a matter for debate.
posted to MetaFilter by Countess Elena at 8:16 AM on January 15, 2023 (17 comments)

David Cronenberg's Galaxy of Flesh (1985) Keith Schofield used AI art generator Midjourney to produce images from another movie which never existed. (CW Cronenberg body horror, obviously)
posted to MetaFilter by doctornemo at 6:05 AM on January 13, 2023 (48 comments)

Find That Meme, by Matthew Bryant provides full text search for memes.
How it’s made
h/t Today in Tabs, by rusty
posted to MetaFilter by Going To Maine at 1:35 PM on January 12, 2023 (9 comments)

I remember seeing a short film on the internet some time ago. I want to say it's comedy horror, or maybe just comedy.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by KChasm at 9:09 AM on January 5, 2023

If you looked at this post title and thought, that is some hyperbole, I would have agreed with you if I had not already watched it. He Thought He Had Friends. They Were Paid Actors is a YouTube video by channel T1J that popped up in my feed and which I tried to ignore, because it sounds like a horrible mean-spirited thing I would not enjoy. But finally I couldn't help it, I had to know the ending. Reader, I cried. And you might.
posted to MetaFilter by Glinn at 10:35 AM on December 31, 2022 (20 comments)

Gamespot has an epic series of videos covering various bits of esoterica concerning The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Here's a playlist of all of them. Youtube channel Looygi Bros has a similar playlist covering Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Wind Waker. Added together, it totals 841 miscellaneous pieces of Zelda lore! By the time you've finished watching them all, it'll probably be Zelda Day 2023!
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 12:14 AM on December 26, 2022 (14 comments)

Stable Diffusion can generate images from text. Spectrograms are graphical representations of audio. Riffusion mixes the two. rock and roll electric guitar solo, lo-fi hiphop beats, the sound of metafilter
posted to MetaFilter by simmering octagon at 12:35 PM on December 17, 2022 (17 comments)

With the new year upon us, it's time for Defector's annual reviews of What We Got Stuck In Our Various Orafices and What We Did To Mr Happy for 2022.
posted to MetaFilter by NoxAeternum at 4:20 PM on January 2, 2023 (81 comments)

Mortals should think mortal and not immortal thoughts.

Epicharmus of Syracuse

I feel I must point out a serious discrepancy among the membership demographics

Simply put, we are overloaded with divinities and royals and have too many cooks to spoil the less than enough porridge with a severe deficiency of the salt of the earth.
posted to MetaTalk by y2karl at 1:13 AM on January 2, 2023 (143 comments)

In 1978, ABC aired a 12-minute version of West Side Story. Cher played all the roles.
(previously in 2008, but all the links have rotted.)
posted to MetaFilter by Going To Maine at 11:18 AM on December 22, 2022 (18 comments)

Let's take a second to appreciate what just happened.

• You lost the first game.
• You won the second game.
• So you've won 50% of your games.
• But you have less money that you started with.

This might not seem like a big deal. But let's keep playing…
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 12:45 PM on December 21, 2022 (50 comments)

Skeal is a short (about 3-5 minutes) browser game made in Unity. Sound required for the full effect.
posted to MetaFilter by May Kasahara at 9:49 AM on December 21, 2022 (15 comments)

I’m fascinated by books that masquerade as unique found objects. Sometimes they pretend to be a collection of separate items (like Dennis Wheatley’s Crime Dossiers); other times, the conceit is that you have found some fictional character’s unique personal copy of a book (as with Ship of Theseus, Battle Bunny, or Quidditch Through The Ages). Can you recommend other examples? And is there a widely accepted term for this kind of book that I can search for? (Note that "metafiction" is not the term for reasons explained below.)
posted to Ask MetaFilter by yankeefog at 6:00 AM on December 14, 2022 (48 comments)

The recently published Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food you can make so you don’t die, by Zilla Novikov and Rachel A. Rosen, is here to rescue those of us struggling to feed ourselves. "Life is hard. Some days are at the absolute limit of what we can manage. Some days are worse than that. Eating—picking a meal, making it, putting it into your facehole—can feel like an insurmountable challenge. We wrote this cookbook to share our coping strategies."
posted to MetaFilter by Bella Donna at 8:55 AM on December 7, 2022 (73 comments)

What was that creepy indie Windows game from several years back that started out as a sort of generic Super Mario style side-scroller but got weirder and more unhinged the further you got?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by glonous keming at 8:22 PM on December 5, 2022 (7 comments)

Extremely talented singer/songwriter and performer Todrick Hall has written, directed, choreographed, produced and performed in a 1 hour 31 minute long musical film, Forbidden, full of great songs, great choreography, great costumes and great sets which is FREE to watch on his youtube site. The supporting cast includes Cynthia Erivo, Tiffany Haddish, Jade Novah, and RuPaul.
posted to MetaFilter by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 9:27 PM on December 18, 2022 (7 comments)

toldinstone is a podcast by Historian Garrett Ryan who discusses the ancient world. His latest episode is 'Trivia, Ancient and Modern' with Ken Jennings of Jeopardy fame.
posted to MetaFilter by clavdivs at 4:31 PM on December 18, 2022 (1 comment)

Exactly what it says on the tin. A brief, but informative interview with the author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility, in Slate, about what she's been up to this year.
posted to MetaFilter by damayanti at 6:43 PM on December 17, 2022 (14 comments)

ChatGPT's transcripts were all the rage
posted to MetaFilter by dyslexictraveler at 1:45 PM on December 4, 2022 (94 comments)

Subtitles, rich lifeguards, heavenbanning, and gold-plated Morse Code keys: Tom Whitwell brings us 52 things I learned in 2022. (SLMedium)
posted to MetaFilter by swift at 4:11 PM on December 2, 2022 (36 comments)

Using the Midjourney AI, graphic designer Johnny Darrell has come up with some mind-bending imaginings [Facebook link] of a "Tron" directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
posted to MetaFilter by ryanshepard at 6:15 AM on November 26, 2022 (27 comments)

"The songs and stories on "Free To Be" showed kids that they could question the world they lived in, that parents are just people and that emotions are real. And what's on TV might not be."
posted to MetaFilter by jessamyn at 7:21 AM on November 26, 2022 (53 comments)

The inaugural Metafilter Events is finally here! As one of the closing initiatives under our Metafilter Fundraising Drive, our online events series features presentations, workshops and discussions across a fascinating range of topics, themes and perspectives - from Mefites and friends-of-Mefites that have generously volunteered to speak and/or teach on these subjects. Tickets, bundled passes and gift cards are available now, and you can also sponsor fellow Mefites to attend paid events.
posted to MetaTalk by aielen at 8:40 AM on November 19, 2022 (45 comments)

Would anyone else be game for a club / regular series of rewatches of classic (single digit season) Simpsons?
posted to FanFare by Paragon at 1:10 AM on November 16, 2022 (13 comments)

Two pro wrestlers developed ‘The Progressive Liberal’ to be the bad guy at matches. Then the atmosphere turned far darker (previously on MeFi)
posted to MetaFilter by Etrigan at 11:52 AM on November 23, 2022 (21 comments)

Instead of turning to influencers, (sponsored) top-ten lists, or Amazon “sales,” the Metafilter community has collaborated to create gift suggestions by and for real people, who want to have real connections, and make a real difference in the world. Read below the fold for the gift guides, or check out the tag #MeFiGiftGuide2022. 
posted to MetaFilter by rebent at 9:02 PM on November 21, 2022 (8 comments)

Kiwix is a utility that allows you to download entire websites including wikipedia, Khan Academy.....
posted to MetaFilter by storybored at 5:59 PM on November 20, 2022 (24 comments)

The Official Apple Rankings with accompanying scores and reviews. 100% accurate. Sample: "The Cameo Apple tastes like a juicy dog fart wrapped in used Whole Foods napkins." How apples are ranked.
posted to MetaFilter by swift at 5:21 AM on November 16, 2022 (92 comments)

From the creator of Best of Nextdoor comes Best of Dying Twitter, a chronicle of the bird site's current Elon Era. While Best of Dying Twitter retweets some informative threads (Threadreader links here and here), most of the account is devoted to the lulz.
posted to MetaFilter by May Kasahara at 9:19 AM on November 15, 2022 (92 comments)

If you like waving bubble wands and/or putting bubble wands in front of a fan or even popping bubbles then this bubble simulator may please you.
posted to MetaFilter by swift at 6:39 PM on November 11, 2022 (21 comments)

A CSS puzzle box from Blackle Mori (previously)
posted to MetaFilter by solarion at 8:25 PM on November 10, 2022 (16 comments)

When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan's dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan's untimely death.
posted to FanFare by the primroses were over at 6:07 AM on November 23, 2019 (190 comments)