Best Of MetaFilter

The Tapestry of the Search for Terrestrial Intelligence at the Science Gallery Dublin

If an alien civilization picked up one of the Voyager probes a million years from now, what would they make of the information on the record? They probably wouldn’t think they way we do.

The Tapestry of the Search for Terrestrial Intelligence: MetaFilter's own moonmilk took a copy of a copy of the audio data on Voyager's Golden Record, and turned it into a 40-meter-long tapestry of human images-as-sound. (w/bonus Peter the Morkie!)

Join today's livewatch and discussion in Fanfare for the World Cup Final!

Birthday pie by Droid Gingerbread (cc by)

Happy 19th birthday Metafilter!

Wim Wenders' 'Until the End of the World' mentioned by under_petticoat_rule

what are some of the most egregious examples of sloppy screenplay work that have resulted in a TV or movie character doing something or drawing conclusions that no actual person would ever do IRL?

In Ask Metafilter, helloimjennsco asks for examples of Lousy character logic in movies and/or TV shows

The Queen Attacks by malias (cc by)

Queens, Queens, Queen, Spider, Spider Queen.

tea & thumbprint cookies by EatLiveGrowPaleo.com (cc by)

Mefites tell their tales in the Lede-Buried Voicemails post. All these stories stray and ramble, but some are less reined in than others. (CW)

...sometimesnowhere.. by *ines_maria

Take a moment to look around you. Really look. See the city — the streets, the buildings, the spaces between them — and realize for a moment that virtually everything you see has been designed and shaped by men. Now imagine what it would be like if it were women-led. — Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman

supercrayon's Cities of ladies post is a stunning collection of great links about women-built cities, gender, women and urbanism / city planning.

Reading by the fire by isfullofcrap (cc by)

Wobbuffet has been crushing it with wonderful posts about excellent SF/F short stories, and the latest, Some reviews & reviewers of 2018's SF/F short fiction so far, is a link-rich feast for hungry readers ... but check it out: nearly every day in July so far has been a new treat:

Three recent SF/F short stories about memories lost and found

"We are chaos. We are the teeth of dragons, shed like seeds."

Relationships unfolding in moments of realization--two SF/F stories

Ledger B, 1772 - 1793: pg.179

Four charming and/or dryly humorous SF/F short stories

Winner of The White Review Short Story Prize for 2018

Stay tuned!

Belle Shore Deco Detail by Atelier Teee (cc by-nc-nd)

What do Art Deco and Archaeology have in common? Quite a bit, if you look at enough Art Deco architecture. Another fabulous deep-dive post from filthy light thief!

i love you <3 by vivek jena (cc by)

In Ask Metafilter, heavenknows asks for "ideas that are little things you can do or plan ahead for to make life a lot better later": Help me be kind to my future self!

Of Monsters And Men - From Finner

In Ask MetaFilter, all the light we cannot see is looking for new / lesser known music with a travel / adventure theme ("Bonus points if the songs are European or have a European feel. They don’t have to be in English.")

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? by Bistrosavage (cc by)

The question of what information the visual system gets right before the eye movement is, quite literally, a chapter in my dissertation ...

Mefite Making You Bored For Science has some very interesting observations in the thread on saccadic masking (and other eye/brain illusions) in which we discover our visual systems blatantly lie to us all the time. (Also see Rhaomi's comment about the sci-fi novel that employs saccadic exploitation by space aliens!)