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My Parents Are Dead: What Now? A resource (aimed at Millennials, but useful to people of any age) for those who have no idea what to do when their parents die. From the last days through the funeral to probate and beyond, useful advice and links for folks who are working through one of the awful parts of adult life. US-centric.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 9:48 PM Aug 16 2023 - 55 comments [288 favorites]

I’ve known since I was 11 who these people, this Eyebrows McGee and this languagehat, are. After graduating from college, I still thought of Metafilter as a rarified club of experts that I’d somehow snuck into. I also thought of Metafilter as a perfect window onto the world. I was sure I could better understand different life experiences because I read strangers’ thoughts, freed by anonymity to be honest. I knew I lived in a tiny bubble, and Metafilter seemed my best defense against that insularity. [more inside]
posted by mecran01 at 5:15 PM Oct 21 2023 - 238 comments [176 favorites]

You need to do a thing - NOW! For when you need to calculate a thing, or look up a thing, or be able to do the thing in your Browser without any faff. Most of the tools listed are NOT from https://freetinytools.com/ but I had to put a link in the description.... [more inside]
posted by Faintdreams at 9:15 AM Aug 29 2023 - 48 comments [170 favorites]

Most of us will experience the death of a parent. That experience is unique for everyone, yet there is so much we can learn from each other. Sumana Harihareswara has created an extraordinary collection of resources about Eldercare, Family Caretaking, and End-of-life Logistics: Stuff I Learned. It is full of detailed advice, good sense, and compassion. (created by brainwane, found at MeFi Projects)
posted by kristi at 11:11 AM Dec 7 2023 - 20 comments [160 favorites]

Anger over an astronomical increase in Reddit's API prices [prev.] boiled over this week as multiple third-party app developers were forced to close down, with one -- Apollo dev Christian Selig -- posting a scathing exposé detailing the company's shady dealings... including a recorded phone call disproving CEO Steve "spez" Huffman's claim that Selig blackmailed them. Huffman took to the site's vaunted AMA format to do damage control, only to double down, ignore tough questions, and reap thousands of downvotes. In response, the community has organized a massive subreddit "blackout" to protest the rate hike that will bankrupt popular apps, hamper critical moderation tools, and exclude blind users. While such protests are not new, this one is unprecedented in scope: 20,000+ mods from over 7,000 subreddits with more than 2 billion collective readers, from familiar mainstays like /r/aww, /r/videos, and /r/todayilearned to niche subs like /r/Eragon and /r/Panda. Facing layoffs, a major pre-IPO valuation cut, and a runaway user revolt reminiscent of Digg [prev.], could this be the end of the "front page of the internet"? Watch the site wink out in real time [livestream], join the fight on /r/Save3rdPartyApps and /r/ModCoord, backup your data, or check out some up-and-coming /r/RedditAlternatives. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 8:36 AM Jun 12 2023 - 704 comments [152 favorites]

--about a question that has been plaguing me for months: Why is this bridge here?" The deepest of deep dives into the history of a seemingly trivial phenomenon: a footbridge over a suburban freeway south of Minneapolis. At the same time, an amazing piece of citizen research and reporting on a bit of pre-internet local history. (via)
posted by Kat Allison at 7:18 AM Aug 29 2023 - 58 comments [152 favorites]

Still mourning the death of Flash, and with it an entire era of online gaming? Enter ooooooooo.ooo (9o3o), the new searchable (and playable!) web frontend for the incredible Flashpoint preservation project. Browse over 145,000 preserved Flash games powered by the Ruffle emulator, and share your favorites with a simple link. Highlights: DICEWARS - Fly Guy - Alien Hominid - Samorost - Crimson Room - Nanaca Crash! - Line Rider - Don't Shoot the Puppy - Bloxorz - Gimme Friction Baby - The Impossible Quiz - Portal: The Flash Version - Feed the Head - Sprout - Achievement Unlocked - QWOP - Cursor*10 - Dino Run - Grid16 - Meat Boy - SHIFT - You Have to Burn the Rope - 6 Differences - Canabalt - Don't Shit Your Pants! - Nevermore 3 - Small Worlds - Don't Look Back - Redder - VVVVVV (demo) - Synopsis Quest - The Room Tribute - The Scale of the Universe - Mitoza - Wonderputt - Bullet Bill 3 - Frog Fractions - Dys4ia - Snakes on a Cartesian Plane - Want (gulp) more? Download Flashpoint Infinity to stream over 156,000 games from 70+ platforms (including Shockwave, Java, and Unity) plus over 27,000 animations... or clear some space for the monster 1.76 terabyte Flashpoint Ultimate to store every single file locally. So much more inside! [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 12:04 PM Jul 14 2023 - 71 comments [133 favorites]

Te shares scripts one can use in a medical setting to make it more likely one will get adequate pain medication and mobility devices; other Tumblr writers share additional tips on bringing a patient advocate ("medibuddy"), bringing written notes and defending using notes, etc. "Remember not to use too *much* *correct* medical jargon — they get suspicious about that."
posted by brainwane at 4:54 AM Jan 12 2024 - 43 comments [124 favorites]

Surprising detail is a near universal property of getting up close and personal with reality. You can see this everywhere if you look. For example, you’ve probably had the experience of doing something for the first time, maybe growing vegetables or using a Haskell package for the first time, and being frustrated by how many annoying snags there were. Then you got more practice and then you told yourself ‘man, it was so simple all along, I don’t know why I had so much trouble’. We run into a fundamental property of the universe and mistake it for a personal failing.

Blogger John Salvatier talks stair carpentry, boiling water, the difference between invisible and transparent detail, and how paying closer attention to the beguiling complexity of everyday life can help you open your mind and break out of mental ruts and blind spots. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 1:28 PM Mar 18 2024 - 48 comments [119 favorites]

• How to draw Ronald McDonald
• How to be a Playboy bunny
• How to care for your Pet Rock
• How to run the Haunted Mansion
• How to fly to the Moon
• How to commit sabotage

A selection of digitized manuals from the Internet Archive curated by Jason Scott posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:07 AM Aug 25 2023 - 46 comments [116 favorites]

goblin.tools is a collection of small, simple, single-task tools, mostly designed to help neurodivergent people with tasks they find overwhelming or difficult. [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 9:29 AM May 11 2023 - 59 comments [110 favorites]

After a traumatic experience in college, April Burrell was catatonic for twenty years. She was diagnosed with a severe form of schizophrenia which did not respond to treatment. “She was the first person I ever saw as a patient,” said Sander Markx, director of precision psychiatry at Columbia University, who was still a medical student in 2000 when he first encountered April. “She is, to this day, the sickest patient I’ve ever seen.” [more inside]
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:17 PM Jun 8 2023 - 31 comments [108 favorites]

Welcome to my [Robert Reich's] final UC Berkeley course on Wealth and Poverty. [YT playlist, 14 lectures, ~1h30m each] Drawing on my 40+ years in politics, including my time as secretary of labor, I offer a deeper look at why inequalities of income and wealth have widened significantly since the late 1970s in the United States, and why this poses dangerous risks to our society. Class 1: “What’s Happened to Income & Wealth” [1h30m] Each class page has a link to a syllabus of notes and readings in the "more inside" of the description.
posted by hippybear at 11:27 AM Jul 14 2023 - 38 comments [104 favorites]

Ex Astris Scientis has identified over 160 different commercially-available chairs that have appeared in Star Trek productions. So many classic modern chairs. (via)
posted by Pronoiac at 9:00 PM Oct 19 2023 - 52 comments [100 favorites]

Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump's vision - "Led by the long-established Heritage Foundation think tank and fueled by former Trump administration officials, the far-reaching effort is essentially a government-in-waiting for the former president's return — or any candidate who aligns with their ideals and can defeat President Joe Biden in 2024." [link-heavy FPP] [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 1:56 AM Sep 21 2023 - 60 comments [99 favorites]

A jargon-free explanation of how AI large language models work - "Want to really understand large language models? Here's a gentle primer." [link-heavy FPP!] [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 11:59 PM Sep 26 2023 - 28 comments [99 favorites]

Rice is one of the world's most important crops. Chicken is one of the world's most consumed meats. (In the US to the tune of 100 pounds per person per year). Naturally, there's an large variety of combinations of the two across the world, so let's try a few! Again, as with all things culinary, this is woefully incomplete, short sighted and missing a bunch of other combinations (plus some of these combinations are seen with different meats! [more inside]
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:39 PM Sep 18 2023 - 35 comments [98 favorites]

While hunger may be the best sauce in the world, most prefer something with a bit more taste. And since it's summer and beautiful herbs abound, let's look at many ways of bringing a "green" zip to the plate. (Plus it's Hatch Chile season!) As with all things culinary, this will be woefully incomplete, short sighted, lacking the complete picture and not the way your nana made it and that's great - more green sauces! [more inside]
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:10 PM Aug 21 2023 - 40 comments [97 favorites]

Sleep With Me has put me to sleep for 10 years and 1200 episodes, entertaining me and helping me feel better about the brain bots that keep my mind busy at night. Northwoods Baseball announces games for a made-up league in northern Michigan. Everything Is Alive is back for another season, this time exclusively interviewing animals. And EIA's sister-show In The Scenes Behind Plain Sight rewatches a fictional show about a nudist colony, as an homage to rewatch podcasts (and it drives my husband up the walls).
posted by rebent at 2:40 PM Oct 4 2023 - 47 comments [97 favorites]

On Lit Hub, Rebecca Solnit writes about how to comment on social media:

1) Do not read the whole original post or what it links to, which will dilute the purity of your response and reduce your chances of rebuking the poster for not mentioning anything they might’ve mentioned/written a book on/devoted their life to. Listening/reading delays your reaction time, and as with other sports, speed is of the essence.

[more inside]
posted by yasaman at 1:50 PM Jan 31 2024 - 57 comments [93 favorites]