Best Of MetaFilter

This is great: Uncovering Edinburgh’s forgotten lives, one stair at a time. "Each entry starts with a specific Edinburgh front door and takes us step by step through 200 years or so of the individuals who've lived there."

07 pole by london road (cc by)

A very interesting discussion of architecture, operational energy, design, density, carbon costs, and urban planning in this thread.

Excavating for a New York foundation, 1903

I feel like the lead character on a Hollywood Forensics show, able to produce amazing results from the other characters by saying "...Enhance." In Ask Metafilter theatro asks "Manhattan history detectives: what church is (was?) this?" and gets a great investigative analysis.

My Social Graph from facebook by paul_irish (cc by)

I'm aware that my saying all of this is like when Ollivander referred to Voldemort as "Terrible, but great." But I think it's important, on some level, to understand that Facebook wasn't a fluke: Metafilter member Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted on witnessing the rise of Facebook, its early underestimation by most tech folk, and why it "was a radically different beast than Livejournal, MySpace, and anything else remotely adjacent to the scene"

Mmm. Sweat. by BitBoy (cc by)

Interesting dip into the details and deeper history on the adoption of ORT (oral rehydration therapy) by biogeo in the Dr Dilip Mahalanabis thread.

Crepuscular rays at dawn over the Normandy coast by TeaMeister (cc by)

Eisenhower then makes the biggest call of his life and an example to leaders everywhere: He trusts the expert ... A really great analysis by garius of Blacksod, D-Day, the planning, the storm, the leaders, the meteorologists, the arguments and the massive intwining, nerve-shredding drama of it all.

Jump! by EoinGardiner (cc by)

ASF Tod und Schwerkraft has a bonkers-good comment explaining the evolution of Irish dance costuming in the thread on the Irish dance competition cheating scandal.

the Catherine Palace (35) by Dmitry Karyshev (cc by)

mumimor has some interesting thoughts about Eyebrows McGee's question on Decorating a Baroque palace

Dumplings, Steamed by iamNigelMorris (cc by)

"Map showing the spread of dumplings," "Stuffed boiled dumplings and the Mongol Empire, 1200–1350," "In the Beginning, There Were ... Dumplings?" and more in kliuless's delicious dumplingfest.

Histories by Aldaron (cc by)

In Ask Metafilter, ordinary_magnet says, "I'm looking for popular songs that relate events or profile people from history in a straightforward, informative way. Can you help me add to this weird playlist?"

Cold Dawn, Warm World by marktmcn (cc by)

For millennia, people of all different cultures have done things with unintended consequences that changed and sometimes ruined their environment, from over-hunting megafauna in the Americas to salination of ancient Sumerian irrigated fields to deforestation which led to disasters in 19th century northern China ... jb on the the climate crisis, with an historical view of human perception and the externalities leading to disastrous outcomes

Wild grain by ibm4381 (cc by)

clew's post Stones speak and ashes live explores recent archeological research and evidence that "shred the long-standing idea that early people subsisted mainly on meat."

It strikes me that the past is funny and odd and serious and heart-breaking and packed full of people who feel a lot like us: hurdy gurdy girl posts Tom Jackson’s quirky Postcard From the Past Twitter feed and podcast.

Via Buzzfeed, Photos Of How People Celebrated Juneteenth 100 Years Ago.

Judith: The First Crowned and Anointed Queen of Wessex... At Twelve Years Old

My aim with my newsletter is to eventually have written a biography of every single woman we know existed in England between roughly 500 and 1100: Wobbuffet posts historian Florence H R Scott's excellent and accessible "Ælfgif-who?" collection, with links to each entry so far.