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Julia Evans (previously) is making interactive in-browser text puzzles to help people learn how to debug computer networking issues, and asking for feedback as she tries stuff out. "The Case of the Slow Websites" and "The Case of the Connection Timeout" are already up (source code using Twine), and she's thinking of making several more. "I'd love to know what folks think of this approach to learning debugging! One of my favourite ways to learn is by debugging weird problems, so my idea with this style of game is to sort of share the experience of past bugs I've run into so that other people can learn from them too."
posted by brainwane to MetaFilter on Apr 16 at 8:53 AM
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"One could make a case that some of the very earliest Enlightenment salons were held not in Europe but in Montreal, during the 1690s. It was there that an indigenous statesman called Kandiaronk, acting as liaison between the Wendat (“Huron”) confederation and the regime of Louis XIV, sat down regularly with the French governor-general, the comte de Frontenac et de Palluau, and his deputies—including a certain Baron de Lahontan—to debate issues such as economic morality, law, sexual mores, and revealed religion."
posted by clawsoon to MetaFilter on Apr 17 at 5:42 AM
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One person reminisced about, as a child, writing capital letter Es with several redundant horizontal lines so that it looked like a ladder. Other Tumblr users yes-anded with sentiments like "All capital letters should have a leveled-up form" and "Please add your own unsettling godtier capitals!" as well as calligraphy and a font (.otf) file for an "Anxiety" font.
posted by brainwane to MetaFilter on Apr 18 at 1:36 PM
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"Good ol' Charlie B" is a sad-and-sweet, talky comic by Marina Kittaka taking place years after the events of Peanuts: "half essay, half tribute to visiting old friends". A text-only version is available. "Yeah. I've been having a hard time, just. Figuring out where to go from here. Trying to piece something together that actually... feels like a life." Kittaka has also written about art and community and co-option, noting, "to practice my philosophy I must learn to be okay with people not getting it, to stop fighting to stay legible and correct-feeling in everybody's mind."
posted by brainwane to MetaFilter on Apr 14 at 7:46 AM
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Kissinger Death Tontine “Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia – the fruits of his genius for statesmanship – and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević.” — Anthony Bourdain [previous]
posted by - to MetaFilter on Apr 13 at 7:51 PM
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Recent research suggests that when you’re feeling burned out, the best person to help you recover may be yourself. Burnout is not a monolithic phenomenon, but rather, it can present as any combination of three distinct symptoms: exhaustion (a depletion of mental or physical resources), cynical detachment (a depletion of social connectedness), and a reduced sense of efficacy (a depletion of value for oneself). To recover from burnout, you must identify which of these resources has been depleted and take action to replenish those resources.
posted by folklore724 to MetaFilter on Apr 19 at 2:02 AM
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Just posting some blue on the blue, as you do "That's the surreal hue of Indonesia's Kawah Ijen Volcano, which glows with an otherworldly 'blue lava' at night. The mountain contains large amounts of pure sulfur, which emits an icy violet color as it burns, turning the rocky slopes into a hot (at least 239 degrees Fahrenheit), highly toxic environment." Some pretty stunning photos here!
posted by CarrotAdventure to MetaFilter on Apr 16 at 9:30 AM
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It was a phone call from an acquaintance in Tokyo who often travels to Oregon for business that started it all. He told me there were two people from Oregon roaming around the northeast with what sounded like an impossible mission: they were in possession of what appeared to be parts of Torii gates that had washed up in their state in 2013, presumably the result of the tsunami two years earlier, and they wanted to find out where the wreckage came from. "Can you help?" he asked.

For NHK Ebara Miki tells the story of how parts of Torii gates washed away with the 2011 tsunami were found in Oregon in 2013 and returned to their rightful place.
posted by MartinWisse to MetaFilter on Apr 19 at 11:15 AM
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"Ships so big they get stuck in the Suez Canal literally define 'chokepoint' but other waterways will play much more serious roles as the rivalry between China and the U.S. heats up." A Twitter thread by David Fickling of Bloomberg on the strategic importance of ocean straits throughout history, including the Trojan War, the British Empire, and China's Belt and Road Initiative. Article by Fickling and Anjani Trivedi.
posted by russilwvong to MetaFilter on Apr 17 at 7:53 AM
40 users marked this as a favorite

Mind the Gap, a handbook of clinical signs and symptoms in black and brown skin, is available to be downloaded online at no cost.
posted by Iris Gambol to MetaFilter on Apr 16 at 11:50 AM
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If you have an abnormally high need for solitude, and once felt guilty about it but have come to feel not-guilty, how did you make that change? Answers that are not just "go to therapy", please; that does not work for everyone.
posted by Anonymous to Ask MetaFilter on Apr 18 at 3:24 AM
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Kiran Sidhu talks to Wilf Davies, a Welsh farmer who’s had the same supper for 10 years and only left Wales to visit a farm in England 30 years ago (The Guardian). “People might think I’m not experiencing new things, but I think the secret to a good life is to enjoy your work. I could never stay indoors and watch TV. I hear London is a place best avoided. I think living in a city would be terrible – people living on top of one another in great tower blocks. I could never do it. Walking around the farm fills me with wonder.”
posted by adrianhon to MetaFilter on Apr 17 at 5:23 AM
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We're introducing a new visual styling for moderator comments today! Instead of the older [small text and brackets style], mod comments will now feature a contrasting border, full-sized text, and for text browsers and screenreaders an explicit "Mod note:" text prefix to compensate for the lack of graphical cues.
posted by cortex to MetaTalk on Apr 14 at 12:05 PM
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'Avril 14th' arranged for harp; for banjo; for pedal steel; for two vibraphones {MLYT}.
posted by misteraitch to MetaFilter on Apr 14 at 4:08 AM
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A first-ever study of homeless encampments finds that cities are paying millions in clearance costs — only to shuffle unhoused people from one camp to another.
posted by aniola to MetaFilter on Apr 18 at 12:37 PM
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"We can say human beings have flown a rotorcraft on another planet." On April 19th the Ingenuity copter, part of the Perseverance rover mission, took off from the Martian surface, hovered, took a photo of its shadow, then safely landed. It is the first time a human-built craft has flown on another world.
posted by doctornemo to MetaFilter on Apr 19 at 6:23 AM
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In the summer of 2001, before the ruination of modern times had become apparent to most of us, Gillian Welch released her album Time (the Revelator). In addition to her breakout song "Everything is Free," it included two tracks about April 14.
posted by rikschell to MetaFilter on Apr 14 at 5:30 AM
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Craig Murray ex British Ambassador to Uzbekistan 2002 - 2004 : The real story of the occupation of Afghanistan has hardly been aired in the mainstream media.
Caitlin Johnstone: US Intelligence Warns Withdrawal Could Lead To Afghanistan Being Controlled By Afghans.
Juan Cole: No, Biden ending the Afghanistan War isn’t a Disaster: The disaster was Dropping 7,400 Bombs on the Country Annually and Biden: ''Our reasons for remaining in Afghanistan have become increasingly unclear.'' As the US plans its Afghan troop withdrawal, what was it all for?
A view from the India and from Pakistan.
The withdrawal is only the solution to America's problem. The Taliban have different ideas.
With 18,000 contractors currently in the country is this just moving from Endless War to Endless Operations?
China sees an opportunity. Afghanistan previously on Metafilter.
posted by adamvasco to MetaFilter on Apr 16 at 6:49 AM
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The City as a Survival Mechanism: Kim Stanley Robinson - "A future with far more cities, and cities that are asked to do far more." (Bloomberg)
posted by kliuless to MetaFilter on Apr 19 at 12:21 AM
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The violence is occurring daily while Derek Chauvin’s trial tries to convince us that we did not see what we saw. Veterans of color say video of police pepper-spraying a Black Army officer shows that not even a military uniform is protection from police violence. Meanwhile, mass shootings are happening as frequently as ever.
posted by ichomp to MetaFilter on Apr 16 at 12:51 AM
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[more posts]

I would not buy any house in the US right now unless the seller would agree to deliver it vacant. Please consult a lawyer. The cost of evicting this tenant may dramatically increase the price of this house for you. It may be months or years, and tens of thousands of dollars before you can move in to this house. The current owner should pay off this... [more]
posted by KayQuestions to Ask MetaFilter on Apr 15 at 9:24 PM
219 users marked this as a favorite

No, it won't. We know how to fix it. In study after study and trial after trial, it comes out that the most effective and cheapest way to solve homelessness is give people a place to live without means testing or requirements or paperwork. Offer services like drug and alcohol counseling and whatnot, but let them be services they can access, not... [more]
posted by Ghostride The Whip to MetaFilter on Apr 18 at 1:31 PM
185 users marked this as a favorite

Is this where I get to tell my Kissinger story? I was invited to a dinner with him (there was debate among the invited postdocs, of which I was one, whether to boycott the dinner or ask him hard questions, I chose the latter). He spent a bit of time talking about how great it was that the US had intervened in Rwanda and how that had saved lives.... [more]
posted by lab.beetle to MetaFilter on Apr 13 at 10:24 PM
141 users marked this as a favorite

Super weird how Cancel Culture is somehow unable to stop someone from broadcasting literal Nazi ideology to millions of people every weeknight?? Can we get someone on that [view]
posted by theodolite to MetaFilter on Apr 15 at 9:30 AM
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In Vancouver, the government has been buying motels/ hotels and putting people up - the problem is that there are subpopulations of the underhoused who are unsocial and immediately destroy whatever housing is provided to them, not to mention, pose a source of violence against to other sheltered persons and the community at large. That's... [more]
posted by gusottertrout to MetaFilter on Apr 18 at 3:34 PM
112 users marked this as a favorite

For as long as we continue to conflate "burnout" (depletion of resources, very management-y) and "moral injury" (witnessing or taking part in acts that violate core values), we're never going to make any headway. Take the example of social service workers in the article, for instance. Are they chronically burned out because... [more]
posted by basalganglia to MetaFilter on Apr 19 at 4:11 AM
93 users marked this as a favorite

"I still don't get the obsession that FOX News-watching neo-Nazis have with Israel. Republicans fairly openly hate Jews, but love their country. Is it the food? The arms deals?" "The unspoken part of this is that Israel will become the Holy Land of Christians and Jews all over the world will be forced to convert or be killed.... [more]
posted by Eyebrows McGee to MetaFilter on Apr 15 at 3:25 PM
90 users marked this as a favorite

I wish y'all weren't so cynical about this. Marvel movies are at their best when they don't have a lot of associated baggage. The more unpopular or obscure the comic, the less faithful they have to be, and they can have fun with it. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy. Simu Liu is a great actor with a ton of charisma. One of my Chinese... [more]
posted by explosion to MetaFilter on Apr 19 at 4:54 PM
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Harvard Business Review would like the workers of the world to know that when capitalism has ground you down so much that you are not producing up to corporate mandated standard that it's your responsibility to deal with it and get back to work. Perhaps if we accepted burnout for what it is, a red flag of injust treatment, we might start to... [more]
posted by seanmpuckett to MetaFilter on Apr 19 at 5:01 AM
77 users marked this as a favorite

The failure mode of a friendship that peters out is "acquaintance." It's good to have a wide circle of acquaintances. It's socially healthy. If you orchestrate a formal friend breakup and cut off all ties, then instead of a large field in which many casual relationships are free to breathe, you have a big ass field full of land mines. It... [more]
posted by phunniemee to Ask MetaFilter on Apr 17 at 7:40 AM
74 users marked this as a favorite

Unless there are some kind of extenuating circumstances that you failed to mention, I would not make any extra concessions to a stranger who has only lived there for a few years and is currently month to month with well below market rent. Find out what the law is and follow it. [view]
posted by Kwine to Ask MetaFilter on Apr 15 at 8:10 PM
68 users marked this as a favorite

This pilling thing has to stop. Here's how the creator of the term feels: "After Musk took to Twitter on Sunday to encourage his followers to "take the red pill," in which Trump responded "Taken!," Wachowski criticized the Tesla creator and first daughter: "F— both of you," she wrote. [view]
posted by thoughtful_jester to MetaFilter on Apr 15 at 9:06 AM
66 users marked this as a favorite

Sure she's being criticized for a hundred different things by a thousand different people, many of them shouting and being abusive, but it's quite telling that she hasn't responded correctly to my reasonable, important, and politely-worded criticism. [view]
posted by straight to MetaFilter on Apr 16 at 2:34 AM
64 users marked this as a favorite

[Hathaway] admitted, “You know how sometimes your optimism tips into delusion and you’re just like, ‘If I’m just really, really nice to everybody, everything’s going to work out?’ It did not work.” That quote hits me in a deep, desperate part of my soul. Anyone, especially women, who has tried to host an outing, a family dinner, project... [more]
posted by gladly to MetaFilter on Apr 15 at 6:57 AM
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A friend once told me that cat saliva is a concentrated source of dignity. When a cat does something particularly foolish it must stop and reapply. [view]
posted by arrmatie to Ask MetaFilter on Apr 17 at 7:23 PM
64 users marked this as a favorite

1/3 of the first comments on a link i enjoyed: here is a reason to not enjoy this link, instead you should contemplate unsolvable systemic reasons it is wrong and bad mefi ftw, never stop never stopping [view]
posted by Caxton1476 to MetaFilter on Apr 14 at 1:18 PM
64 users marked this as a favorite

"...as the rivalry between China and the U.S. heats up", this could have been an interesting dicussion about environmentalims and logistics, but I guess we're doing this again? I don't know about you, but I vividly remember 1999/2000 when, before the World Trade Center was destroyed, and the usual military-imperialist proxagandists... [more]
posted by mhoye to MetaFilter on Apr 17 at 8:40 AM
61 users marked this as a favorite

When it comes to foreign policy, Hillary Clinton says she has a clear mentor. The former secretary of state, Henry Kissinger. "Kissinger is a friend, and I relied on his counsel when I served as secretary of state. He checked in with me regularly, sharing astute observations about foreign leaders and sending me written reports on his... [more]
posted by dancestoblue to MetaFilter on Apr 14 at 2:54 AM
61 users marked this as a favorite

If I told my friend that I needed a break from them and to give me space and they ignored that, any reservations I had about ending the friendship would be gone and all they’d do is confirm that I’d made the right decision. We would definitely be over at that point. [view]
posted by Jubey to Ask MetaFilter on Apr 14 at 9:30 PM
61 users marked this as a favorite

I have no idea what makes a socially acceptable outfit in 2021 Based on my research if you have changed out of pajamas you are way ahead of the game. [view]
posted by phunniemee to Ask MetaFilter on Apr 19 at 5:05 AM
60 users marked this as a favorite

[more comments]