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Iceland approved the 4-day workweek in 2019: nearly 6 years later, all the predictions made have come true. - "In 2019, Iceland made headlines by becoming one of the first countries in the world to adopt the four-day working week, not through a general law, but through agreements allowing workers to negotiate shorter weeks or reduced hours. Five years on, the results are indisputable."[1,2,3]
posted by kliuless to MetaFilter on May 16 at 12:12 AM
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Forty years ago, city police dropped a satchel bomb on the rowhome at 6221 Osage Ave., killing six adults and five children inside. The May 13, 1985, blast followed a lengthy standoff in which cops fired tear gas canisters, high-pressure hoses and over 10,000 rounds of ammunition into the house. They had arrived to arrest several members of MOVE, the Black liberation group that lived communally at the property and whose followers adopted the last name of its founder, John Africa.
posted by chavenet to MetaFilter on May 13 at 11:25 AM
43 users marked this as a favorite

I put these functional, foldable structures together in a collection so that our class might develop new ideas from the same starting point of "classical" paper-engineering knowledge. These fundamental structures are scattered between the non-overlapping disciplines of origami, compliant mechanisms, pop-up books and the study of Victorian papercraft.
posted by Wolfdog to MetaFilter on May 19 at 6:33 AM
41 users marked this as a favorite

The popular narrative that the English colonists were victims of native aggression has been proven wrong. Scott Dawson, author of “The Lost Colony and Hatteras Island,” together with British archeologist Dr. Mark Horton, has unearthed abundant evidence that the colonists were in fact assimilated.
posted by kinnakeet to MetaFilter on May 17 at 6:25 PM
38 users marked this as a favorite

Mark Zuckerberg is giving public interviews on Meta’s AI strategy, often dropping that chatbots could address the epidemic of loneliness by serving as friends or, more surprisingly, as therapists.... Yesterday, as if on cue, the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the U.S. House of Representatives passed this proposal to prohibit state regulation of AI and “automated decision systems” for TEN YEARS, which is defined as systems that "materially influence or replace human decision making."
posted by subdee to MetaFilter on May 14 at 7:02 PM
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I wanted to make a programming language that resembled magical circles.
posted by Wolfdog to MetaFilter on May 18 at 5:58 AM
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"[T]his terrifying global network can have its intellectual core traced back to one single book: James Mason’s Siege. And it, in turn, only exists because of the efforts of a handful of people in a corner of the 1980s counterculture who worked together to make its publication a reality."

Spencer Sunshine in The Quietus: The Countercultural Figures who helped give birth to the Neo-Nazi Terrorist Networks of Today
posted by Pope Guilty to MetaFilter on May 15 at 6:28 AM
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An interesting take on a fairly depressing study about English majors' reading abilities. Spoiler: most can't read.
posted by signal to MetaFilter on May 13 at 5:08 AM
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I had high hopes for Mark Carney, but then he created a Ministry of AI and appointed Evan Solomon to the position. On Carney's new, gender-balanced cabinet.
posted by joannemerriam to MetaFilter on May 15 at 6:13 AM
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David and Goliath each have a six-sided die. David’s die has the numbers {1, 1, 4, 4, 5, 6}, and Goliath’s die has the numbers {0, 1, 2, 6, 6, 6}. If each of them throws his die n times and announces the total, then Goliath is more likely than David to have the higher total, except when...
posted by Wolfdog to MetaFilter on May 17 at 5:17 AM
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The Trump administration used U.S. diplomats to pressure African governments into fast-tracking approvals for Elon Musk’s satellite company while Musk was working in the White House. The effort involved close coordination between the State Department and Starlink, who described their goal as to “ram this through.” Kristofer Harrison, who served as a State Department official in the George W. Bush administration, said: “If this was done by another country, we absolutely would call this corruption. Because it is corruption.”
posted by subdee to MetaFilter on May 15 at 6:37 PM
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"The Blasters emerged in 1979, put out four albums in six years, and then promptly fell apart. A great band that barely was, but in that time they put out some truly incredible music."
posted by Lemkin to MetaFilter on May 17 at 7:55 AM
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Addicted to ICE: Trump's Deportation Plans Hinge on Small Towns Hooked on Private Prisons [ungated] - "Like a growing number of US communities, Torrance County, New Mexico, is convinced its financial survival depends on locking up immigrants."
posted by kliuless to MetaFilter on May 15 at 1:01 AM
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A $10 trillion opportunity for US employees (yt) - "By 2035, nearly 3 million businesses — collectively valued at $10 trillion — will transition ownership as baby boomers retire. Instead of getting acquired by big corporations or private equity firms, Skoll Awardee Apis & Heritage Capital Partners is empowering employees to take ownership."
posted by kliuless to MetaFilter on May 13 at 11:42 PM
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American cartoonist Sylvia Odhner's single serving comics about the need for better designed communities.
posted by Kitteh to MetaFilter on May 13 at 10:28 AM
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Pro-EU centrists posted critical election wins in Romania, Poland, and Portugal this weekend against far-right extremists.
posted by DirtyOldTown to MetaFilter on May 19 at 10:22 AM
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I’ve worked on web archives in a professional setting, but this one is strictly personal. This gives me more freedom to make different decisions and trade-offs. I can focus on the pages I care about, spend more time on quality control, and delete parts of a page I don’t need – without worrying about institutional standards or long-term public access. In this post, I’ll show you how I built this personal archive of the web: how I save pages, why I chose to do it by hand, and what I do to make sure every page is properly preserved.
posted by chavenet to MetaFilter on May 19 at 11:58 AM
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On his 99th birthday, David Attenborough’s ‘Ocean’ highlights ‘the most important place on Earth’ - and includes never-before-seen footage of bottom trawling and its devastating effects. Bottom-trawling and dredging have remained hidden from view for hundreds of years – until now. The visceral, heart-wrenching footage featured in the clip is the first time the process of bottom trawling has been filmed in such high quality and the immense scale of trawling’s destruction revealed. Iron chains bulldoze across the seabed, leaving trails of devastation in their wake that are visible from space. As Attenborough declares, “If we save the sea, we save our world.”
posted by thecincinnatikid to MetaFilter on May 12 at 3:32 PM
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In 1997, a 19 year old Danny Cashman, influenced by his favorite late night talk shows, created Bangor, Maine's first, with himself as host. The Nite Show enjoyed success as one of the few ever local programs in this format, running through a few incarnations over the years, with several breaks for college and various gigs. Then finally revived in 2010 for an extended run, until now. For the penultimate show, he got a visit from one of people who inspired him from the beginning.
posted by 2N2222 to MetaFilter on May 13 at 4:57 PM
18 users marked this as a favorite

Every year, the British satirical magazine Private Eye runs The Paul Foot Awards to draw attention to the best investigative reporting work of the past 12 months. The mag's Page 94 podcast is devoting an episode to each contender, the first of which describes an FT journalist's determined work to bring cases of lead poisoning to light.
posted by Paul Slade to MetaFilter on May 16 at 5:45 AM
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[more posts]

for everyone worried about "efficiency" and "productivity" these metrics are almost always from the point of view of the capital owner, not the worker. A worker has only their labor to sell, so if you are paid the same for less hours you are getting a better deal. If productivity goes up, but wages stay the same (as they... [more]
posted by stilgar to MetaFilter on May 16 at 3:53 AM
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I wish Mark Zuckerberg would use his fortune to just get some goddamn therapy and leave the rest of us alone. [view]
posted by RakDaddy to MetaFilter on May 13 at 1:53 PM
91 users marked this as a favorite

Speaking from within Gen X, I will just say I was shocked we were mentioned at all. [view]
posted by DirtyOldTown to MetaFilter on May 14 at 1:55 PM
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Okay, just asked my kid what the version of "OK, Boomer" was for Gen Xers. He said "It's still 'OK, Boomer,' because pretending your generation doesn't really exist is what drives them crazy." [view]
posted by DirtyOldTown to MetaFilter on May 14 at 2:08 PM
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I also read the first seven paragraphs of Bleak House (Gutenberg) before starting on the linked study, which is why, reading the study and starting into the methodology, I hit the below and and went "good god no!" Students read each sentence out loud and then interpreted the meaning in their own words—a process Ericsson and Simon (220)... [more]
posted by postcommunism to MetaFilter on May 13 at 7:14 AM
61 users marked this as a favorite

Is he one of the ones we all already knew for 30 years was a sex pest and didn't do anything about it or am I thinking of that other guy* *consults list of 500 other guys I always get so mixed up [view]
posted by phunniemee to MetaFilter on May 14 at 8:47 AM
61 users marked this as a favorite

Uh, Millennials became middle-aged and middle-aged people have never been cool. It's the eternal cycle. [view]
posted by star gentle uterus to MetaFilter on May 14 at 1:31 PM
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For all of the people reading this and being confused - most of the comments are from americans. They can't imagine freedom so they have to insist on having bad work/life balance. And this is one more thing that will be cosmically impossible and insane and not workable at all at any time, just like gun control, maternity, vacations, all of the... [more]
posted by mayoarchitect to MetaFilter on May 16 at 5:07 AM
58 users marked this as a favorite

> But isn't part of successful reading being able to file away those mysterious things until you get to the next paragraph, where it then becomes clear? That's what I would think. The ability to use mental placeholders for things while seeing if more information is going to be provided. Sort of like linguistic algebra. "Solve this... [more]
posted by trig to MetaFilter on May 13 at 7:21 AM
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What I find interesting is how this all ties into a complex with Ignatius Donnelly and all the other Southern pseudohistory... the preferred the narrative of 'they vanished into history' to 'they intermarried with the local races that we worked strongly to exterminate, and we don't want to recognize Gullah or Creole." It makes me think of... [more]
posted by LeRoienJaune to MetaFilter on May 17 at 11:02 PM
56 users marked this as a favorite

Another Gen X'er here. Don't you kids make DirtyOldTown and me turn this Internet around. [view]
posted by The Ardship of Cambry to MetaFilter on May 14 at 1:57 PM
54 users marked this as a favorite

[I've only read about the first 1/4 of the comments, so forgive me if I repeat something] I've taught literature to college students since before the turn of the century. These are nearly always upper-level elective classes, often within the "honors track", so, self-selected for reading nerds with the occasional STEM student who needed... [more]
posted by outgrown_hobnail to MetaFilter on May 13 at 12:01 PM
51 users marked this as a favorite

I do it already on a small scale for inanimate objects. The crouton really does love you back, though. [view]
posted by kaibutsu to MetaFilter on May 13 at 1:42 PM
49 users marked this as a favorite

carnage raccoon Well that's way more metal than the OP's actual handle. [view]
posted by axiom to MetaFilter on May 16 at 12:42 PM
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Imagine if production companies were on the hook for The production company behind The Expanse TV series investigated the assault allegations made about one of the 4 primary cast members and kicked him off the show. The series is based on a 9 book sci fi saga which that character is a major part of and survives through the duration of... [more]
posted by phunniemee to MetaFilter on May 14 at 10:28 AM
45 users marked this as a favorite

This is such a weird thread. ICELAND: We reduced the standard work week by four hours and literally everyone is happier! AMERICANS: But what about the profits of our corporate overlords?!!! [view]
posted by kyrademon to MetaFilter on May 16 at 6:37 AM
45 users marked this as a favorite

It would be one thing if the league was doing this as a way of separating the celebration of a player's achievements from celebrating him as a person. I wouldn't approve of that personally, but it would be an argument I could understand to some degree. But what is actually happening here is that Rob Manfred and the rest of MLB's executives have... [more]
posted by DirtyOldTown to MetaFilter on May 16 at 4:14 PM
44 users marked this as a favorite

Some interesting observations here, but the [Tumblr] author’s stubborn refusal to capitalize even where it’s necessary for clarity about what they’re saying, or to edit with any care generally, is really off-putting in this context. [view]
posted by jon1270 to MetaFilter on May 13 at 5:43 AM
44 users marked this as a favorite

Yep. Once again, nothing here has convinced me that my belief that "AI" and all its proponents should be launched into the sun is wrong. [view]
posted by outgrown_hobnail to MetaFilter on May 13 at 1:39 PM
43 users marked this as a favorite

Superman is such an impossible hero. The only rational action for a nigh-omnipotent being to "do good in the world" is to destroy capitalism utterly. Anything less is not doing as much good as possible. And replace it with what? Communism? Feudalism? Rule by a benign God-Emperor who personally delivers resources worldwide to... [more]
posted by tdismukes to MetaFilter on May 14 at 12:16 PM
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[more comments]