Best Of MetaFilter

Posts from January 2023

Space Trek

With a partial image of Jupiter huge in the top foreground, we see two two small moons in black space below itNASA photo of Jupiter moons

doctornemo boldly goes where ... well, it turns out almost everyone has gone before, with an impressive roundup of current space busyness and business in orbit, moon news, ambling among the astroids, snack time with a black hole, and what's stirring re Mars and Jupiter. 🌏🚀🌝🛰💫

01/31/23
by taz

Which Stitchery

A close-up color photo of a sunflower on the left, and on the right, the image converted to a cross-stitch patternimage via pixel-stitch.net

In Ask Metafilter, HotToddy is asking about the best needlepoint kit sellers, and SinAesthetic posts about an app to convert your images into cross-stitch patterns.

01/29/23
by taz

Japanese Music Sirens

A technician works on a large outdoor rooftop mechanical music sirenimage via Evan Vander Stoep at airraidsirens.net

Rash linked an amazing deep dive post on the remaining mechanical Yamaha music sirens of Japan at airRaidSirens.net. The sirens have signaled the start of the working day at some locations, but "some were being removed or are going to run until they die and will not be repaired." And there's a playlist!

01/28/23
by taz

Harmonica and minds: Completely Blown

A man with shoulder-length blonde hair and black sleeveless t-shirt in studio setting playing harmonica with intense concentrationWill Wilde video screen cap

A truly astonishing Free Bird harmonica solo, plus interesting insight and context from msbrauer.

01/25/23
by taz

Eye on history

Collage of coronation portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, ca 1600, in full regalia, wearing gold cat-eye eyeglasses with small embedded jewels and light grey tint

In Ask Metafilter, Thorzdad wonders, Are there any accounts of how poor eyesight may have affected history? and asks for writings, studies, research or ancient documentation of world events affected by vision problems, pre-spectacles.

01/23/23
by taz

The Enshittifying

Giant Teddy BearGiant Teddy Bear by focusc (cc by)

Great link on the enshittification of the internet and how platforms die by Cory Doctorow

01/22/23
by taz

Standup Comedy Recommendations?

large neon sign on a wood wall reading Photo by Louis Smit on Unsplash

In Ask Metafilter: My New Year’s resolution was to watch more standup as it brings me joy! Please recommend me your favourite standup comedy specials, I like feminist, pro LGBTQ+, no punching down comedians...

01/21/23
by taz

Modular homes, kit homes, and DIY homes

Modern Wooden HouseModern Wooden House (cc by)

A nice roundup from rebent: "Rural Studio is a post-grad program that researches affordable design principles. a handywoman in northern Michigan vlogs herself building a modular house (ongoing). A designer researches sustainable homes and decides to build a net zero home. Bungalow In A Box is a family operation that builds timber frame + SIP small houses, with lots of pictures of the build and install."

01/20/23
by taz

What is "knolling"?

Close-up photo of camera, tablet, tablet pen, watch, mobile phone, multi-tool, loupe (?), and leather strap all arrayed in a pleasing composition on a nice wooden table topPhoto by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

"... a totally different organizational method born from the studio practices of artists, designers, and DIYers that involves laying out related objects—paint pens and ink markers, wrenches and chisels, metal chains of all sizes—in a precise but simultaneously stylish way, intended to streamline workflow."

01/18/23
by taz

Wild about Harry?

Spare Barnes & NobleSpare Barnes & Noble by Phillip Pessar (cc by)

There's an interesting ongoing discussion of "Spare" in FanFare with a 2-part extensive summary in the comments.

01/17/23
by taz

THE WINGS ARE RIGHT SIDE UP

a photorealistic fluffy kitten with sparkly bright rainbow colored fur, monarch butterfly wings, and a white unicorn hornrainbow unicorn butterfly kitten by dogwelder

Hi, gang! I made this, and I've still got the psd file laying around here to prove it! Oh hey, it turns out Metafilter member dogwelder is the original rainbow butterfly unicorn kitten creator. "My friend's daughter wanted a rainbow unicorn butterfly kitten, so I made this for her. My friend posted it and it went viral."

01/16/23
by taz

brr ⛄️

Daylight photo of a round red apple-like pod structure in foreground with a background of a mostly flat, empty snowy expanse and beautiful fluffy clouds spreading out over a huge skyShelters strategically placed along routes that are far from town and stocked with emergency blankets, clothes, cots, food, first aid, and other supplies you may need if you’re caught out in a storm or experience an injury.

Tedious posts about infrastructure ... but in Antarctica! "This is the premise of brr.fyi ⛄, a cool little blog written by an IT worker who is currently at the South Pole."

01/15/23
by taz

"There's no false valour in Autism"

mandalamandala

Zumbador has assembled an amazing, expansive collection of helpful links about autism in adults."Where possible I've prioritised resources created by neurodivergent people."

01/14/23
by taz

Metafilter podcast 190: New Year, New Me... Fi is up!

01/11/23
taz

Highlighting the best bits from the MetaFilter universe

MetaFilter started as a community weblog in 1999, later added question and answers, then music by members, jobs, projects by members, a podcast, and finally an area dedicated to meetups.

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