MetaFilter

Trump eyes privatizing U.S. Postal Service, citing financial losses - "Told of the mail agency's annual financial losses, Trump said the government should not subsidize the organization, the people said. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private conversations." [link-heavy FPP]
posted by kliuless to MetaFilter on Dec 17 at 1:49 AM
77 users marked this as a favorite

In 1982, while working with 21 Royal Shakespeare Company members, including Judi Dench, Ben Kingsley, Ian McKellen, Roger Rees, Patrick Stewart, and David Suchet, John Barton recorded nine workshop sessions for London Weekend Television. - Wikipedia --- 1: The Two Traditions 2. Using the Verse 3. Language & Character 4. Set Speeches & Soliloquies 5. Irony and Ambiguity 6. Passion & Coolness 7. Rehearsing a Text 8. Exploring a Character 9. Poetry & Hidden Poetry
posted by Lemkin to MetaFilter on Dec 19 at 6:11 AM
38 users marked this as a favorite

The Invisible Hand: How Dark Money Is Inventing Prestige for Right-Wing Academics

The [American Academy of Sciences and Letters] website features an impressive picture of the Library of Congress, a Board of Trustees hailing from elite academic institutions, and almost nothing about the organization or its origins. That’s because, despite its name suggesting a long, storied history—echoing esteemed institutions such as the National Academy of Sciences,the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters—the AASL did not exist until 2022.

posted by Why Is The World In Love Again? to MetaFilter on Dec 16 at 11:54 AM
36 users marked this as a favorite

This post is about finally finding a book from one’s youth forty years later – and after nearly thirty years of searching. It is also a tale about goblins and Christmas decorations; about the perils of ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence; and about the real value of librarians, cataloguers, indexers, and archivists – what should be called the Noble Professions. And it is an account that ends with not one but two wonderful events.
posted by verstegan to MetaFilter on Dec 21 at 7:02 AM
35 users marked this as a favorite

"You are the victim of a con — one so pernicious that you’ve likely tuned it out despite the fact it’s part of almost every part of your life. It hurts everybody you know in different ways, and it hurts people more based on their socioeconomic status. It pokes and prods and twists millions of little parts of your life, and it’s everywhere, so you have to ignore it, because complaining about it feels futile, like complaining about the weather." Ed Zitron with a magisterial manifesto / mission statement / year in review / cri de coeur: Never Forgive Them.
posted by mittens to MetaFilter on Dec 18 at 7:24 AM
34 users marked this as a favorite

“Each year we find ourselves having less social interaction, and we are starting to realize that getting to know people outside of home and work does not just happen on its own,” he said. “We have to be intentional about meeting and talking to others.” from Gen Z Grew Up Chronically Online. Now, They're Craving 'Third Places.
posted by Ghidorah to MetaFilter on Dec 19 at 5:00 PM
33 users marked this as a favorite

At the prehistoric passage tomb of Newgrange, built around 3200 BCE, the light from the rising sun at the winter solstice shines along the 19m passage to the wall of the tomb, illuminating the triple spiral carvings. There is a livestream of the event from 8.40am on the 21st (I think that's 3.40am Eastern Standard Time and 12.40am PST). Last year's recording is here.
posted by paduasoy to MetaFilter on Dec 20 at 1:03 AM
31 users marked this as a favorite

I'm like, ma'am, this is a map store. Half my customers are on the spectrum. I have a trains and transit section. You're among friends.

Andrew Middleton is a GIS specialist and map nerd who last year won ownership of New England's oldest map store. (Content warning: Mercator projection map.)
posted by MartinWisse to MetaFilter on Dec 18 at 2:25 AM
29 users marked this as a favorite

Welcome to the human doom loop "Throughout the pandemic, the media focused on the idea of the “urban doom loop,” in which remote work would kill downtowns, triggering a downward spiral of reduced services that would cause people to leave cities. What went overlooked has turned out to be the bigger and even more consequential story: the human doom loop, a cycle in which people stop connecting in real life, reducing the quality of in-person activities and the physical realm itself, further discouraging IRL activities, and so on. Nearly five years after the pandemic, it’s not the real estate we need to worry about. It’s us."
posted by box to MetaFilter on Dec 20 at 2:25 PM
29 users marked this as a favorite

You have a massive collection of e-books, music, video games, software, and movies that you bought as a digital download, and you probably think you own them, like you own a physical book or a DVD. Think again. from Do I really own the digital media I bought?
posted by chavenet to MetaFilter on Dec 15 at 1:34 PM
28 users marked this as a favorite

Jingle-Rock-Bell: The worst and best holiday song ever As another year draws to a close, and some face the future with worry, one thing remains a constant in our lives: the instinctive, full-body flinch when you hear Jingle-Rock-Bell.
posted by wenestvedt to MetaFilter on Dec 18 at 8:45 AM
25 users marked this as a favorite

When I first heard about the killing of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson, I immediately thought about a story in Cory Doctorow's collection Radicalized. Doctorow posted his reflections on the similarities and writing process a few days ago. You can also read the short story for free.
posted by chiefthe to MetaFilter on Dec 17 at 5:38 PM
25 users marked this as a favorite

The 2024 Hater’s Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog Festivus Airing of Grievances season has officially started!
posted by indianbadger1 to MetaFilter on Dec 20 at 7:56 AM
25 users marked this as a favorite

"In the vastness of empty space surrounding Earth, the Moon is our closest celestial neighbor. Its face, periodically filled with light and devoured by darkness, has an ever-changing, but dependable presence in our skies." Learn about the Moon and its path around our planet in this highly interactive essay from Bartosz Ciechanowski.
posted by AndrewStephens to MetaFilter on Dec 17 at 7:12 PM
25 users marked this as a favorite

The universe of Beatrix Potter - I spent a lot of the summer of 2016 reading Beatrix Potter to my 2-year-old, and I became obsessed with trying to work out if the recurring characters all exist in the same universe. So I started drawing myself a diagram of how they overlapped...
posted by Wolfdog to MetaFilter on Dec 18 at 7:35 AM
23 users marked this as a favorite

Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigns from cabinet hours before delivering a fiscal update for the Liberal party minority government and sets up a political crisis. Full text of her resignation letter here [Reuters]. More coverage: Reuters, BBC, The Guardian.
posted by mazola to MetaFilter on Dec 16 at 8:59 AM
21 users marked this as a favorite

"Unless compelling evidence emerges that mirror life would not pose extraordinary dangers, we believe that mirror bacteria and other mirror organisms, even those with engineered biocontainment measures, should not be created."
posted by They sucked his brains out! to MetaFilter on Dec 16 at 1:21 PM
21 users marked this as a favorite

Christmas Rhapsody, posted to MeFi Music in 2008 by the amazingly talented doubtfulplace, is actually the best holiday song ever. That is all.
posted by evilmomlady to MetaFilter on Dec 18 at 1:45 PM
21 users marked this as a favorite

"What happens when the fundamental things no longer apply? What is a man to a girl who can buy herself flowers? [...] Here's the thing: the material basis of the patriarchal bargain is breaking down, and it has been for about two centuries. This was obvious in 1988, when Kandiyoti coined the term "patriarchal bargain," and that breakdown has not abated a whit in the intervening decades."
posted by AlSweigart to MetaFilter on Dec 18 at 9:39 AM
20 users marked this as a favorite

The Invention that Accidentally Made McMansions. Architecture youtuber Stewart Hicks breaks down how a simple invention you've probably never heard of transformed the American residential landscape.
posted by theodolite to MetaFilter on Dec 18 at 12:35 PM
19 users marked this as a favorite

[more posts]

i know more about truss connector plates than you can possibly imagine. i was a industrial carpenter for almost a decade, assembling the component pieces of southern yellow pine in a jig, hammering them together with nails and truss plates before running over the assembly with a big dangerous roller before sending out through a finish roller in... [more]
posted by glonous keming to MetaFilter on Dec 18 at 1:09 PM
114 users marked this as a favorite

the constellation Orion Meh, Orion's Belt is a complete waist of space. Three stars. [view]
posted by Greg_Ace to MetaFilter on Dec 17 at 9:51 AM
78 users marked this as a favorite

I remember when we Gen X were hot shit and everyone cared about what we did. Gen Z's turn to get thrown on the trash heap is coming. They just don't know it yet What does this have to do with the article and, as the first comment, set a helpful and curious tenor of discussion? [view]
posted by rhymedirective to MetaFilter on Dec 19 at 5:10 PM
66 users marked this as a favorite

*climbs atop soapbox, clears throat* The All Digital Everything Future harms so many public library users specifically. A LOT of the people who visit my rural Oregon library system use our DVD catalog as if it was [Popular Streaming Service]. They have either spotty internet or none at all, so grabbing a stack of movies and TV seasons sets them... [more]
posted by The demon that lives in the air to MetaFilter on Dec 15 at 2:28 PM
62 users marked this as a favorite

That the FAA is nonplussed tells me all I need to know. I, for one, admire the intelligence of the aliens and how they infiltrated the FAA first. [view]
posted by Brandon Blatcher to MetaFilter on Dec 17 at 9:20 AM
50 users marked this as a favorite

The other thing that happened is that doing nearly anything is EXPENSIVE now and my paycheck hasn't kept up. The article mentions 4800 movie screens going dark, but taking my kids out to a movie can cost north of $100, which is the same as pretty much subscribing to ALL the streaming services I could want. [view]
posted by Dr. Twist to MetaFilter on Dec 20 at 3:13 PM
48 users marked this as a favorite

As a federal public servant, the Values and Ethics guidelines advise me not to comment publicly on political matters. I am not commenting so hard right now. I am not sure I have never so emphatically not commented on anything in my life. [view]
posted by jacquilynne to MetaFilter on Dec 16 at 10:59 AM
47 users marked this as a favorite

When COVID started, someone said, “This is the introvert Olympics and I’ve been in training for it my whole life.” They spoke for me. [view]
posted by Lemkin to MetaFilter on Dec 20 at 2:35 PM
42 users marked this as a favorite

It’s very considerate of these aliens to have blinking red, green, and white lights for proper visibility per FAA regulations. I think that bodes well for first contact. [view]
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl to MetaFilter on Dec 17 at 9:50 AM
41 users marked this as a favorite

As someone who will celebrate her 6 year sobriety milestone in a couple of months, there is a lot of disconnect between what people think alcoholics are like (see: The Lost Weekend, When a Man Loves a Woman, etc) and what it is. Rock bottom, I have found out, looks different for everybody. And right now, all of us who are in recovery, this is an... [more]
posted by Kitteh to MetaFilter on Dec 21 at 1:15 PM
39 users marked this as a favorite

Five years after into the pandemic. [view]
posted by SaltySalticid to MetaFilter on Dec 20 at 6:04 PM
38 users marked this as a favorite

Ditto what i_am_joe's_spleen said about COVID. I feel like it's completely disingenuous and missing the point to blame people's unwillingness to go out as much on nonsense like "oh no, they might see an unhoused person" without actually addressing the reasons more people are unhoused, or the fact that people are still getting COVID. I saw... [more]
posted by limeonaire to MetaFilter on Dec 20 at 5:25 PM
36 users marked this as a favorite

Notice that Baldoni et al hired the same PR crisis management team as Depp. I fell for some of their BS a couple weeks ago when I heard about her "tone deaf" promotion for IEwU, how she was talking about "Ladies wear your florals!" or whatever on the red carpet, whereas Baldoni was talking seriously about domestic violence.... [more]
posted by Saxon Kane to MetaFilter on Dec 21 at 6:11 PM
36 users marked this as a favorite

No mention of climate change. I have to think that's part of the birthrate thing. But anyway yes, I broadly (ha) agree with this essay's central points, but I think it misses something: how shitty a lot of guys are right now. She writes about the manosphere, without really pointing out that manosphere dudes are absolutely terrible to date. Most... [more]
posted by joannemerriam to MetaFilter on Dec 18 at 10:54 AM
35 users marked this as a favorite

And this, folks, is why you get someone who loves comics to direct your comic book movies. Because Gunn is the sort of fan who is going to put Krypto in the movie, because he knows that Krypto is awesome and that farm boys from Kansas need their pupper. [view]
posted by NoxAeternum to MetaFilter on Dec 19 at 7:37 AM
33 users marked this as a favorite

I have to say, I genuinely had no idea that regular cheap laptops are that bad. My family has been a Mac family since the nineties and although this has often meant stringing old, old computers along or buying the cheapest or reconditioned ones, we've been fortunate enough to be able to stick with them. Of course, morally speaking, Apple is no... [more]
posted by Frowner to MetaFilter on Dec 18 at 8:05 AM
32 users marked this as a favorite

> Interestingly, Wegovy is being prescribed for alcohol use disorders, now, too. It appears to be effective. I work in this field and I'm low key obsessed with the research around substance use disorders and GLP-1s. If I get it together I may do a FPP on it. Fascinating stuff. [view]
posted by gingerbeer to MetaFilter on Dec 21 at 2:25 PM
32 users marked this as a favorite

I just want to note that this is boring, important, anonymous government work, done by career civil servants who care deeply about their work. It is also the kind of thing that gets cut, or at best, level funded, year after year. It isn’t unlikely that this entire chunk of the USDA will be proposed to be cut altogether in coming budgets. [view]
posted by rockindata to MetaFilter on Dec 18 at 7:40 PM
32 users marked this as a favorite

hey nasa you forgot elon [view]
posted by lalochezia to MetaFilter on Dec 21 at 1:41 PM
30 users marked this as a favorite

They don’t love them like I love them, that’s for sure [view]
posted by thecaddy to MetaFilter on Dec 18 at 4:56 AM
29 users marked this as a favorite

[more comments]