Best Of MetaFilter

courage dear heart by distelfliege (cc by)

We've borrowed the quidnunc kid's kind message of love and sharing to all of us to wrap up some touching, interesting, inspiring, educational, fun and/or funny posts to take our minds off certain recent events:

Dear hearts, I should write to you all and each only to say: you are dear, precious, lovely and great hearts. But my words are all worthless, and your honest hearts are greater than my useless words. Persist, I beg you; if we cry together maybe fate will let us halve our tears. But better that you have relief, if the Earth did not make hearts for only weeping.

1960 Summer Paralympics by brizzle born and bred (cc by-nd)

There has been some good stuff around lately. Hope you didn't miss the inspiring ass-kicking Paralympic athletes...

...or the "spiritual black metal blues" of Zeal and Ardor...

...or this jewelbox of an animated video from the Israeli band Jane Bordeaux....

...or this essay about literature and magic realism in contemporary China...

...or the wide-ranging playlist of music from all over Africa from the 1930s to 1960s...

...or the influential landscapes by once-neglected but newly-renowned African-American painters from Florida.

WC [toilet facilities] by State Records NSW

History pals!

Enjoy some newly-animated historical city photos, plus barnacles on the history of Australian public bathrooms "in case you're the sort of person that wants to see 115-year old survey sketches of toilets and urinal blocks".

Or listen to the meticulously recreated ambient sounds of 1700s Paris.

How about Marie Duval, 19th century woman cartoonist called 'one of the forgotten wonders of nineteenth-century art .. the bizarre dreamlike distortions of her comic world look like some steampunk 21st-century version of Victorian London."

Or the re-discovered ancient Chinese texts that rewrite the early history of Taoism and Confucianism.

Speaking of, what are some examples of historical events that are commonly misunderstood?

Did you catch teponaztli transcribing some diary pages from 1799-1804 New York City? "The most I've seen her write about anything was how much she hates games, which I love for its being an angry rant from 200+ years ago."

Or enjoy the brief video on the baseball fan Wild Bill Hagy, which is a time capsule of 1979 Baltimore.

Harking back to 1979, share some sense-memories in what was it like when everybody smoked?

Or looking further back - what was sugar like in 1631?

Finally, what are the best history nerds on Youtube?

Will Hart Holding Mike Jittlov on His Right Shoulder - The Wizard of Speed and Time PAL VHS Cover - 1988 by CthulhuWho1 (Will Hart) (cc by)

Passed hand-to-hand among geeks on VHS and screened at sci fi cons in the 1980s, flash back to The Wizard of Speed and Time, a stop-motion live-action superhero short handmade by Mike Jittlov in 1979, and the cult feature film it inspired. First post by turtlebackriding.

"if that's all stop motion he's a fucking genius!" Madman, genius--the line is so fine.

A couple of fantastic examples of animated stichwitchery recently on Mefi:

Nudinits knitted animation

In 27kjmm's debut post, Nina Paley and Theodore Gray beautifully animate the traditional Passover folk song "Chad Gadya" in embroidery on matzoh covers in one of their most labor intensive feats, taking a year and a half

and

"Oh my god, it's knitting, stop-motion and bum jokes" in jacquilynne's post on the Nudinits: Tickled Pink, an all-knit, all nude, stop-motion animation