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"It’s different than knowing you can get women, or wanting to control women, or even loving women. He likes them. He appreciates them. He enjoys their company. Tom Cruise doesn’t like women. Neither does Miles Teller. Channing Tatum likes women. So does Ryan Gosling. Brad Pitt used to like women but doesn’t anymore."

"But isn’t that pretty basic? Don’t most men like women?"
posted by clawsoon to MetaFilter on Sep 7 at 7:06 AM
53 users marked this as a favorite

Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic active dynamo at Mars's dead core? No? Well. It's fine. I'm sure you have some other workable, sustainable plan for shielding live Mars inhabitants from deadly solar and cosmic radiation, forever. No? Huh. Well then let's discuss something else equally realistic, like your plan to build a condo complex in Middle Earth.
posted by AlSweigart to MetaFilter on Sep 12 at 6:21 AM
50 users marked this as a favorite

Guardian Explains: What is al-Mawasi and why did Israel attack a ‘safe zone’? || CNN: Infected wounds, maggots and no escape. Gaza’s humanitarian crisis hits new lows as sanitary conditions plummet || +972: Inside the brutal siege of Jenin [in the West Bank] || MSF: Access to medical care at risk in West Bank as Israeli incursions intensify || Guardian: ‘I am the police, I am the army’: sanctioned settler’s rule in West Bank
posted by cendawanita to MetaFilter on Sep 10 at 10:34 AM
43 users marked this as a favorite

Meet the right-wing Canadian influencers accused of collaborating with an alleged Russian propaganda scheme. A CBC investigation identified far-right media outlet Tenet Media, launched in November 2023, as the organization referred to in a September 4 indictment of two Russian nationals for disinformation and election interference.
posted by heatherlogan to MetaFilter on Sep 6 at 7:57 AM
39 users marked this as a favorite

Who Gets to Kill in Self-Defense? (NYT, Sept 4, 2024, ungated gift link) "We make this allowance when we acquit men like George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse, neither of whom for a single second were dragged by the hair through a hallway or had their children threatened with an ax. We do so because throughout the history of our legal system, we have been inclined — in many cases, overly inclined — to make exceptions for men’s violence while giving very little thought to what might drive women to the same act."
posted by cnidaria to MetaFilter on Sep 8 at 8:42 AM
37 users marked this as a favorite

Your lumberyard awaits, my Lord.
posted by AlSweigart to MetaFilter on Sep 10 at 1:20 PM
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NASA discovers Earth's electrical field at last after 60-year search
posted by sardonyx to MetaFilter on Sep 7 at 7:55 PM
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It kind of just came to me. “If there is ever a year to have an unhinged werewolf ripping its shirt off as the “I Voted” sticker … it’s 2024.”
posted by Toddles to MetaFilter on Sep 6 at 6:33 AM
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The Pivotal Importance of Air Quality and Ventilation (podcast with transcript). See also environmental engineering professor Linsey Marr's work, who was inspired to focus on bioaerosols after their kid came home with an awful cold. Joseph G Allen's paper Recommitting to Ventilation Standards for Healthy Indoor Air Quality
posted by spamandkimchi to MetaFilter on Sep 7 at 11:12 AM
33 users marked this as a favorite

While research and anecdotal reports suggests that autistic people may be particularly drawn to the hobby due to its structure and inclusivity (Fein, 2015), understanding how TTRPGs could function as social support was of specific interest. As such, this study aimed to investigate how autistic individuals experience TTRPGs in groups of all autistic players. In what way do TTRPG games function as a safe space for autistic people where they can interact comfortably and expand their social lives?
posted by bq to MetaFilter on Sep 6 at 8:33 AM
30 users marked this as a favorite

Strange timing.
posted by Silvery Fish to MetaFilter on Sep 10 at 8:12 PM
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Ezra Edelman has made a nine-hour documentary about the complicated life and passing of the musician Prince, but disputes with the late artist's estate over his portrayal may mean it might never be seen.
posted by They sucked his brains out! to MetaFilter on Sep 8 at 11:32 AM
28 users marked this as a favorite

Whatever happened to Rolamite? Invented in 1966 by Donald F. Wilkes, it looks like a simple gadget made with two rollers and a steel band, but it's much more. As basic as the wheel, the lever, or the hinge, it is the only simple machine discovered this century. Its use will be widespread --- in everything from switches, thermostats, and valves to pumps and clutches, and as almost frictionless bearings. More details. In 1969 the "First Symposium on Rolamite" was held (186 pages). How to build one. Two videos. Maybe rolamites' promise didn't live up the hype, but here's a scale, and from 2023: How To Clean a Mass Flow Controller Rolamite Valve.
posted by ShooBoo to MetaFilter on Sep 12 at 12:05 AM
26 users marked this as a favorite

"Please save it for me": Scientist carbon dates his own kidney stone to find out when it formed. Kidney stones are an annoying, painful condition that affects many of us, but it's not easy to tell when they form. A scientist who carbon dates objects for a living decided to work out the age of his kidney stone.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries to MetaFilter on Sep 7 at 7:43 AM
25 users marked this as a favorite

Two short scifi stories about the pain, hope, and fear that we carry. “What was it you told me that ‘dysphoria’ meant, etymologically?” “Something that cannot be carried. Cannot be borne.” "A Dragon in Two Parts" by Kiya Nicoll (published in audio and text in Escape Pod in 2021): a disabled person has reservations about biorefurbishment. "Hello aliens, I am scared of you so please turn around." “Letters From Mt. Monroe Elementary, Third Grade” by Sarah Pauling (published Sept. 3, 2024 in Diabolical Plots): kids and a teacher react, starting in 1967, to the prospect of first contact with aliens, as a generation ship approaches.
posted by brainwane to MetaFilter on Sep 9 at 5:20 PM
25 users marked this as a favorite

But despite the riot and its fallout, militias are far from extinct. AP3 has expanded at a dramatic pace since Jan. 6, while keeping much of its activity out of view. This rise is documented in more than 100,000 internal messages obtained by ProPublica, spanning the run-up to Jan. 6 through early 2024. Along with extensive interviews with 22 current and former members of AP3, the records provide a uniquely detailed inside view of the militia movement at a crucial moment. from Armed and Underground: Inside the Turbulent, Secret World of an American Militia [ProPublica] [CW: "This story discusses threats of violence and contains a racial slur."]
posted by chavenet to MetaFilter on Sep 6 at 12:20 AM
24 users marked this as a favorite

102 Minutes That Changed America [YouTube] is an American television special documentary film that was produced by the History Channel and premiered commercial-free on Thursday, September 11, 2008, marking the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The film serves as a compilation of amateur footage taken by numerous people filming the attacks, edited together to present the film in real time. ***[NSFW] [Content Warning: contains graphic footage]***
posted by Fizz to MetaFilter on Sep 11 at 6:45 AM
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"But the outcome is up to you. So get out and vote!" American University professor Allan Lichtman (previously) calls the 2024 election, according to his keys to the White House model. (SLNYT)
posted by doctornemo to MetaFilter on Sep 6 at 12:50 PM
23 users marked this as a favorite

"It never helps historians to say too much about their working methods. For just as the conjuror’s magic disappears if the audience knows how the trick is done, so the credibility of scholars can be sharply diminished if readers learn everything about how exactly their books came to be written. Only too often, such revelations dispel the impression of fluent, confident omniscience; instead, they suggest that histories are concocted by error-prone human beings who patch together the results of incomplete research in order to construct an account whose rhetorical power will, they hope, compensate for gaps in the argument and deficiencies in the evidence." Working Methods, an LRB essay by historian Keith Thomas on the joys and horrors of note-taking. (h/t Gavin Jacobson)
posted by mittens to MetaFilter on Sep 6 at 9:55 AM
23 users marked this as a favorite

One day, James Williams —the former Google strategist I met—addressed an audience of hundreds of leading tech designers and asked them a simple question: “How many of you want to live in the world you are designing?” There was a silence in the room. People looked around them. Nobody put up their hand.
posted by signsofrain to MetaFilter on Sep 12 at 7:26 AM
23 users marked this as a favorite

[more posts]

Raw-dogging metafilter threads by not reading TFAs before commenting (fist bumps 80% of mefites) [view]
posted by phooky to MetaFilter on Sep 8 at 1:14 PM
127 users marked this as a favorite

I can't watch because of my personal PTSD, but I was there -- a few blocks from the WTC walking my puppy when the first plane hit. The pictures I took have stayed in my camera roll, phone after phone, photo service after photo service, traveling with me for all these years. Each year I scroll back and look. I'm still not sure I have any way to talk... [more]
posted by The Bellman to MetaFilter on Sep 11 at 8:05 AM
113 users marked this as a favorite

who tweeted over the weekend some silly shit about his Martian colony, ah—what even is the word here? Plan? Vision? Intention? Concept of a plan? [view]
posted by AlSweigart to MetaFilter on Sep 12 at 6:24 AM
79 users marked this as a favorite

asceticism without enlightenment [view]
posted by glonous keming to MetaFilter on Sep 8 at 1:08 PM
78 users marked this as a favorite

“To say that straight men are heterosexual is only to say that they engage in sex (fucking exclusively with the other sex, i.e., women). All or almost all of that which pertains to love, most straight men reserve exclusively for other men. The people whom they admire, respect, adore, revere, honor, whom they imitate, idolize, and form profound... [more]
posted by Pope Guilty to MetaFilter on Sep 7 at 10:45 AM
77 users marked this as a favorite

“Pink Kitty Club, you're gonna keep on meowing at the Pink Kitty Club, Pink Kitty Club," I sang to my cat this morning. I am a 44 year old straight man who works for a bank. She has broad appeal, is what I'm saying. [view]
posted by leotrotsky to MetaFilter on Sep 11 at 6:18 AM
71 users marked this as a favorite

In fact, the money they make creating the hellscape is precisely how they will guarantee that they don't have to live in the hellscape. [view]
posted by Frowner to MetaFilter on Sep 12 at 9:03 AM
66 users marked this as a favorite

One blustery November, Mr. Hypatia and I traveled to Newport for a weekend. I noticed the “Newport Museum of American Illustration” listed somewhere and we set forth on foot. We literally rocked up to a courtyard in the dark, filled with the creepiest statuary of deer and such. “It said it was in a historic house, here is the sign”, I said... [more]
posted by Hypatia to MetaFilter on Sep 7 at 6:22 PM
65 users marked this as a favorite

A generational vocal talent. Star Wars and Lucasfilm owe their success to his Darth Vader. Everything orbited and reflected off the menace of the Empire, personified by Vader. The “emperor” was a joke in comparison, the Stormtroopers clowns. One can justify that entire franchise and the billions it’s earned as a response to James Earl Jones’ voice.... [more]
posted by seanmpuckett to MetaFilter on Sep 9 at 2:41 PM
57 users marked this as a favorite

For me, the question about men and how they see women is simple: Do the men see women (including specific women) as having utility, or value? For some men, women largely have utility: They bear children, they maintain the household, they manage the portion of one's life related to sustaining familial and community ties,... [more]
posted by jscalzi to MetaFilter on Sep 7 at 11:55 AM
57 users marked this as a favorite

Lots of banger quotes here, the full article is worth a read: This, I think, is a consequence of more people having gotten their science education from the movie character Ian Malcolm than from actual science classes. The doomsday scenarios that science-fiction writers—and their contemptible counterparts,... [more]
posted by AlSweigart to MetaFilter on Sep 12 at 6:22 AM
55 users marked this as a favorite

I just dislike this whole situation so much. Things I hate: - there actually being this whole Russian scheme, because "it's the RUSSIANS persuading you to think that" is used to silence many perfectly legit criticisms of the US - people being willfully stupid about the state of affairs in Russia both on the left and on the... [more]
posted by Frowner to MetaFilter on Sep 6 at 8:32 AM
53 users marked this as a favorite

> I remember, years ago, when Republicans saw Russia as the Evil Empire. That was when they sported Communism as their official ideology. Now that they're gangster capitalists instead, they're speaking the same language. Whether there's no functional difference between the two systems in practice is beside the point. [view]
posted by I-Write-Essays to MetaFilter on Sep 6 at 8:14 AM
49 users marked this as a favorite

I can't help but draw a line between this and the parasociality/Chappell Roan thing. The truth is, we don't know Tom Cruise. We know the performances Tom Cruise gives in movies, the performances he turns in on talk shows. I think it's a mistake to base judgments about who does and does not like women on that kind of information, or indeed judgments... [more]
posted by kittens for breakfast to MetaFilter on Sep 7 at 9:46 AM
47 users marked this as a favorite

When conservatives rail against "indoctrination," what they really mean is that they want to be the ones doing the indoctrinating. [view]
posted by Ben Trismegistus to MetaFilter on Sep 9 at 6:58 AM
45 users marked this as a favorite

That first link is by Anne Helen Petersen, a writer who (imo) absolutely shines brightest when she writes about celebrities and culture. She received her PhD in media studies and wrote her dissertation on the Gossip Industry from 1910-2010. She knows her stuff! I feel like any woman who's experienced having a male senior manager walk through... [more]
posted by kimberussell to MetaFilter on Sep 7 at 8:43 AM
45 users marked this as a favorite

Before we go terraforming the Earth, we can try stopping ourselves from veneriforming it first. [view]
posted by runcifex to MetaFilter on Sep 12 at 6:58 AM
44 users marked this as a favorite

I want to preface this by saying fuck Jordan Peterson and all that he represents, this ridiculous frog voiced sonofabitch. That said, oh man I forgot where I was going with this. Well, have a good day, everybody [view]
posted by kittens for breakfast to MetaFilter on Sep 9 at 10:46 AM
44 users marked this as a favorite

I've always considered this "grew up with a cool big sister energy". As a young person I felt like it was always super obvious to me when a guy I knew had a woman in his life he really looked up to. Maybe in some cases it's an older cousin, or a close friend...but I think a lot of the time a guy like this just really thought the world of... [more]
posted by potrzebie to MetaFilter on Sep 7 at 9:58 AM
44 users marked this as a favorite

"just thinking" I'm an old person and a weirdo, and I am fighting the urge to say really mean things about the fact that this type of man needs a whole Manly Project in order to sit still with himself for a few hours. I guess it's like the people who need to play loud music while riding a couple of miles on their bikes lest... [more]
posted by Frowner to MetaFilter on Sep 8 at 1:28 PM
43 users marked this as a favorite

[more comments]