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Thy gown was of the grossie green, thy sleeues of Satten hanging by:

The Greensleeves Project "is an interdisciplinary collaboration between a team of established historians and practitioners to look at one of the most famous English historical songs, the Elizabethan ballad of Greensleeves... The earliest surviving text of Greensleeves dates from 1584. It’s a long song, with 18 verses, written in a somewhat stalker-like fashion, by a man who showers his would-be beloved with gifts, including a lot of clothes. Put together, these gifts provide us with a rich resource of information on clothing, fabrics, embroidery, and other aspects of material culture."
posted by sardonyx to MetaFilter on Jul 1 at 8:31 PM
33 users marked this as a favorite

"The Great American Poet of Daily Chores'

"In November of 1963, A. R. Ammons, known to family and friends as Archie, the author of a single, privately printed book of poems and a manager at his father-in-law’s glass factory, picked up a roll of adding-machine tape at a local store and began to “contemplate . . . some fool use for it" Alas, "Ammons’s poems, from the first to the last, are a record of American life, speech, and imagination in the twentieth century, a master inventory of the vicissitudes of human existence, worked by genius into memorable shapes."
'American Expansion.'.
posted by clavdivs to MetaFilter on Jun 27 at 11:03 PM
33 users marked this as a favorite

Read 'em and weep

New Supreme Court decisions have dropped, nearly all of them appalling if you happen to be a fan of the rule of law or constitution. 1. The US supreme court has limited federal judges’ power to block trump orders (which seems to have repercussions involving birth-right citizenship). 2. The US Supreme Court allows parents to opt out of lessons with LGBT books. Other decisions were also handed down today but your OP is too exhausted with sorrow to include those.
posted by Bella Donna to MetaFilter on Jun 27 at 10:24 AM
26 users marked this as a favorite

Beyond a threshold of similarity, our brain stops making distinctions

The article introduces the concept of “semantic pareidolia” - our tendency to attribute consciousness, intelligence, and emotions to AI systems that lack these qualities. It examines how this psychological phenomenon leads us to perceive meaning and intentionality in statistical pattern-matching systems, similar to seeing faces in clouds. from AI and Semantic Pareidolia: When We See Consciousness Where There Is None by Luciano Floridi [SSRN]
posted by chavenet to MetaFilter on Jul 1 at 12:38 PM
26 users marked this as a favorite

"Three forgotten tales"

Bruce Gaston, ed., (2024), Saki (H.H. Munro): Original and Uncollected Stories: "This book reprints--for the first time in over a hundred years--thirteen stories originally published in newspapers and magazines ... Three ... have so far been missed by anthologists." The title character of "Mrs. Pendercoet's Lost Identity: A Tragedy of the Chelsea Arts Club Ball" (alt. edition) would not yet have had access to Dennison's Party Magazine but could have consulted Ardern Holt's Fancy Dresses Described, perhaps referring Rollo to Gentleman's Fancy Dress. "The Optimist" (alt. edition) was published only about two months after "The Open Window," a more famous story with multiple adaptations and a notable analysis. And "The Romance of Business" has context that the editor explains in "Saki and Mr Selfridge." Previous unanthologized stories by Saki.
posted by Wobbuffet to MetaFilter on Jun 28 at 9:52 PM
26 users marked this as a favorite

Today's death toll in Gaza rises to 47


Green Lanterns of the US Federal Government

Five hundred eighty six current and former employees of the EPA have posted a signed declaration on the Stand up for Science website shining a light on the pattern of lies and potential violations of the Hatch Act of EPA Director Lee Zeldin.
posted by Ignorantsavage to MetaFilter on Jul 1 at 10:11 PM
26 users marked this as a favorite

Train in Souterrain

As any new homeowner will know, there are always unknown things to be found in a new place. From a kitchen cupboard that never seems to close properly, a curiously painted over area or the real performance of an air-conditioning unit, discoveries abound. But after Daniel Xu and his wife finalised the purchase of their house in Melbourne's northern suburbs, he found what can only be described as a train enthusiast's dream beneath their feet. from 'I was shocked': Melbourne man's 'unbelievable' find after buying house
posted by chavenet to MetaFilter on Jul 2 at 11:35 AM
26 users marked this as a favorite

Civil War Tails

Miniature cats fighting the American Civil War. Located in Gettysburg, PA, Civil War Tails at the Homestead is a unique presentation of key battles from the American Civil War (1861-65) using dioramas filled with thousands of inch-high uniformed clay cats. Built and operated by two sisters. Go expecting kitsch, and you will be disappointed to learn that they are extraordinarily learned scholars of the war who have turned a hobby into a livelihood (for one sister; the other practices law in her spare time). I have visited twice and plan to return! (And, yes, you can by souvenir cat soldiers; we own two.)
posted by JimInSYR to MetaFilter on Jun 29 at 1:17 PM
25 users marked this as a favorite

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago"

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? … If… if… We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation. … We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
posted by Lemkin to MetaFilter on Jun 28 at 2:00 PM
25 users marked this as a favorite

It's "Parasite" at No. 1

The New York Times conducted a massive poll of “directors, actors, and notable Hollywood names” to come up with the Best 100 Films of the 21st Century. Individual ballots from folks like Mel Brooks, Sofia Coppola, John Waters, and Stephen King have been published as well. (NYT link for those with access.)
posted by Clustercuss to MetaFilter on Jun 27 at 1:40 PM
24 users marked this as a favorite

Quiet on set

Sound designer and podcaster Dallas Taylor has started a YouTube channel that promises to explore "how iconic audio is made and the people behind it". First up, Inside the Sound of Jeopardy! and Behind the Boom Mic at SNL.
posted by redct to MetaFilter on Jun 30 at 11:26 AM
24 users marked this as a favorite

Knights LARPing as Knights at the Renaissance Faire in the Renaissance

In Pas d'armes and Late Medieval Chivalry, Marina Viallon's essay on "a Roleplay Game from the Pas des Armes de Sandricourt (1493)" says "the 'knights-errant challenge,' was held in the nearby wood dubbed the forêt dévoyable (Labyrinthine Forest)" and its participants "left the castle ... to wander at random, two by two, in the nearby forest and its surrounding fields ... 'looking for adventure as the lords of the Round Table used to do.'" Source. Related project website and database of events. Virtual exhibition: "This event ... was an example of a pas d'armes ... a type of chivalric tournament inspired by themes from courtly literature." See also Ringhieri's 1551 parlor game "Giuocho del Cavalliero" in which players invented emblems, mottoes, and clothing colors for imaginary knights at a joust, or see Azgaar's Armoria, which can generate them for you.
posted by Wobbuffet to MetaFilter on Jun 28 at 8:04 AM
24 users marked this as a favorite

John Coltrane, Antibes, July 1965

In late July 1965, the John Coltrane Quartet performed at the Antibes Jazz Festival. It played a quartet arrangement of "Ascension", which the saxophonist had recorded in the studio with large forces just four weeks earlier. If I could present only one piece of evidence to someone to show them why John Coltrane is a big deal, I would show them this.
posted by Lemkin to MetaFilter on Jun 26 at 4:51 PM
24 users marked this as a favorite

If I took a picture, I reasoned, I’d have a memory

Whenever Doug Biggert (1941-2023) picked up a hitch-hiker in Northern California he took their picture: Riding With Strangers: California Hitchhikers in the 1970s
posted by chavenet to MetaFilter on Jun 29 at 12:38 PM
22 users marked this as a favorite

Cheaper Than Cheep

Sorry for the late post, but Frank Zappa's Cheaper Than Cheep a live TV special from 1974 that never aired due to audio sync issues is streaming on youtube this weekend for free.
posted by Catblack to MetaFilter on Jun 29 at 7:56 AM
22 users marked this as a favorite

It’s hip to be square

Square Theory The story starts in Crosscord, the crossword Discord server. ... Something about this concept—two sets of synonyms (PUB and BAR, QUIZ and EXAM), which when paired together, form phrases that themselves are not synonyms (PUB QUIZ and BAR EXAM)—captured the minds of Crosscord. Suddenly, the floodgates were open...
posted by Wolfdog to MetaFilter on Jun 27 at 5:15 AM
22 users marked this as a favorite

I want Tandy

From leather shoe bits to the TRS-80: The Tandy Corporation: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4 [Abort, Retry, Fail]
posted by chavenet to MetaFilter on Jun 28 at 12:56 AM
22 users marked this as a favorite

We're all rats now

Via Paul Krugman: We're all rats now. A roundup of recent racist moves from the trump administration.
posted by subdee to MetaFilter on Jun 30 at 8:18 AM
21 users marked this as a favorite

Venice, Billionaires, and the Spectacle We Keep Endorsing

The Daily Beast: How Bezos and Sánchez’s Venetian Bacchanal Delivered a Pitch-Perfect Ad for Socialism Jeff Bezos married Lauren Sánchez in Venice, surrounded by a who's who of global elites: Oprah, Gates, DiCaprio, von Fürstenberg, Diller, and more. They came by jet and yacht, to toast obscene wealth in a sinking city. Many of them speak about climate change and justice. But when it comes to billionaire weddings, the contradictions are ignored. We still celebrate wealth, even when it's the problem.
posted by beesbees to MetaFilter on Jun 28 at 7:15 AM
21 users marked this as a favorite

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Back in the day, soon after Jimmy Swaggart got caught and apologized, I got a new computer, a Mac LC II, for college. My family are fundamentalists, and their preacher at the time happened to be a big Mac head. So he came over to the house to help me set up my new computer. One of the things he did was install a bunch of new sounds in the system... [more]
posted by vibrotronica to MetaFilter on Jul 1 at 10:42 AM
70 users marked this as a favorite

So why would someone like Oprah — supposedly a symbol of empathy and empowerment — show up to a billionaire pageant in a city drowning from climate change? The same Oprah that mainstreamed anti-vaxx, Dr. Phil, and Dr. Oz is the billionaire who is happy to show up for a fellow billionaire in a city drowning from climate change. [view]
posted by tclark to MetaFilter on Jun 28 at 7:48 AM
63 users marked this as a favorite

Meanwhile, Mackenzie Scott has spent $19B on philanthropy since the divorce. There’s a spectacle worth toasting. Much classier than the Masque of the Red Death party Bezos is spinning up in Venice. [view]
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl to MetaFilter on Jun 28 at 8:31 AM
54 users marked this as a favorite

Oh boy I hope he's reincarnated in someone from Chicago, can you imagine the memes [view]
posted by phunniemee to MetaFilter on Jul 2 at 10:28 AM
54 users marked this as a favorite

As someone who was born and raised Malaysian, but as the "wrong" kind of Muslim (Bangladeshi) and also queer and neurodivergent and artsy: this article is spot on and doesn't have Muslim-bashing. Some of the respondents in that article are themselves Muslim! Some of the targets of repression and censorship are Muslim! But if you don't... [more]
posted by creatrixtiara to MetaFilter on Jun 28 at 11:30 PM
49 users marked this as a favorite

As my grandmother would say, "He died years ago, he just forgot to lie down." [view]
posted by Capt. Renault to MetaFilter on Jul 1 at 9:19 AM
48 users marked this as a favorite

If the answer isn't "Everything," I'll eat my digital hat that I bought as a $3.99 microtransaction. Retired game designer, worked at EA for a hot minute, (though on a very atypical project). Spent my time in the free-to-play trenches. Many of my friends have worked at EA, and I worked with and under survivors of the EA Spouse... [more]
posted by chromecow to MetaFilter on Jul 2 at 10:08 PM
48 users marked this as a favorite

“We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar... [more]
posted by robbyrobs to MetaFilter on Jun 28 at 2:09 PM
47 users marked this as a favorite

The polite, clean chicken shop that puts a blandly pleasant and cheery face on their christofascist homophobia has been sinister since long before the current political circumstance. [view]
posted by phunniemee to MetaFilter on Jun 29 at 7:07 AM
44 users marked this as a favorite

Yes, children. There was a time when a public figure who was merely caught hiring a prostitute would be subject to intense shame and humiliation. Wild, right? [view]
posted by heyitsgogi to MetaFilter on Jul 1 at 9:15 AM
44 users marked this as a favorite

One of my favourite quotes: “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own... [more]
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza to MetaFilter on Jun 28 at 4:01 PM
42 users marked this as a favorite

If you visit Pag, Croatia, you'll see a desert-like landscape. The island, which was once covered in trees, was completely clear cut to build the foundations that Venice was built on, and to build the ships that Venetians sailed on. Venice is without question a classic example of hyper capitalism: built by wealthy businessmen exploiting the... [more]
posted by UN to MetaFilter on Jun 28 at 9:22 AM
41 users marked this as a favorite

oh my god baby you’re in a hospital eat all the chik-fil-a you want, i’m a queer cancer survivor, it’s fine but if you have access to a fridge you can get a multi pack of sammies and soups from panera if that would work! [view]
posted by sickos haha yes dot jpg to MetaFilter on Jun 29 at 9:25 AM
41 users marked this as a favorite

Hahaha these are Southern White Pilates Ladies. Popeyes is MUCH better, but Popeyes is for [whispers] those people. "We don't feel it's up to our hygeine standards". I should note that my kids' school is roughly 50% black, and the swim team about 40%. I was chatting with my daughter's mom, who's black, about just this, and... [more]
posted by outgrown_hobnail to MetaFilter on Jun 29 at 7:48 AM
34 users marked this as a favorite

it's in our interest to say that a multi-billion parameter LLM isn't conscious because doing so eliminates the moral hazard of intellectual slavery. It's in our interest to say that a multi-billion parameter LLM isn't conscious because it literally isn't and believing that it is leads to misunderstanding what it does. OpenAI and... [more]
posted by Pope Guilty to MetaFilter on Jul 1 at 2:06 PM
34 users marked this as a favorite

'Gaza must be eliminated': Israel’s airwaves are filled with pro-genocide propaganda I'm not sure if this has been shared here. This is not news, but Mahdawi has collected some of it together to paint a terrifying picture of a society where one can argue that an entire population, including children, should be exterminated because they are... [more]
posted by Kutsuwamushi to MetaFilter on Jun 29 at 11:23 AM
32 users marked this as a favorite

Given that this is Australia, has anyone checked if the model train layout is venomous? [view]
posted by RonButNotStupid to MetaFilter on Jul 2 at 12:15 PM
32 users marked this as a favorite

Oh, for fuck's sake. The board authorized $150MM in stock buybacks and a increased the dividend 20% five months before declaring Chapter 11? They should probably be in prison, but that's for little, poor people. [view]
posted by Ickster to MetaFilter on Jul 2 at 7:57 PM
32 users marked this as a favorite

Ah yes the classic "Capital Allocation Strategy"! This would be a lot less annoying if it weren't very clear that a bunch of vulture capitalists are getting a big chunk richer by destroying yet another long-running and ostensibly successful business. You might think that capitalists destroying capitalists would be a good thing, but... [more]
posted by SaltySalticid to MetaFilter on Jul 2 at 7:39 PM
31 users marked this as a favorite

This is so backward! The interesting point isn't, companies are making things that seem like people to fool us, but rather that we have evolved the mental ability to assume minds when we aren't sure they're there. That ability is at our core as social beings--including domesticating other animals, or writing fables in which... [more]
posted by mittens to MetaFilter on Jul 1 at 1:03 PM
30 users marked this as a favorite