Best Of MetaFilter

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.

0528_marokko_2014 by HerryB (cc by)

History questions recently in Ask Mefi: Books on the history of Africa in antiquity? Easily digestible video history resources? Engaging history audiobooks? Relearning history k-12 that hasn't been white-washed? Rural Religious Life in the 18th Century? Dangerous, semi-realistic adventures in pre-modern Europe?

Meanwhile, over in Metatalk, Site Update #2; Metatalktail Hour: Good things on the cheap; planning for Secret Quonsar 2020; LearnedLeague referrals.

Push to travel by whatleydude (cc by)

Peter Brathwaite recreates historic Black portraiture at home; 2020: A sheltering in place Space Odyssey; hopping back in time to Chrono Trigger; posting Cats of travels past; Star Trek, The New Regeneration: integrating the outtakes; revisiting the prescient Hollow Man; back to the future with the first science fiction story, second century AD.

Desktop computer GALAKSIJA via Museum of Science and Technology Belgrade

The Galaksija computer was a craze in 1980s Yugoslavia, inspiring thousands of people to build versions in their own homes.

Waiting to come home by mripp (cc by)

Dame posted Retours, "a digital magazine on the intersection of railway history, design and photography."

Cooking & Eating by ☼☼Jo Zimny Photos☼☼ (cc by-nc-nd)

A digest of recent food culture posts on Mefi:

The Food Timeline, evolution of foods dating back to before 17,000BC ⏳; Maria Orosa, Filipina food technologist, chemist, humanitarian, war hero 👩🏽‍🔬; The D.C. Region Doesn’t Have Full-Time Food Critics of Color. Why That Matters 📰; Archeology of Taste is a project about childhood memories 🍭; Consider the potato: How do you prefer yours? 🥔; The Food Flow Model, a web of connections across the continental U.S. 🚚; What Makes Good Comfort Food? A LitHub conversation 🍝; The most taxing work in the kitchen is brain work 🧠Iceland’s last McDonald’s burger simply won’t rot, even after 10 years 🍔.

Census punch card reader by shandrew (cc by-nc)

From the constraints of 1860s banknote sizes to "the opulent luxury of two entire kilobytes of display memory," MeFi's own mhoye dives 2500 words deep into the history of terminal aspect ratios in cgc373's post, "80×25."

Night Vision by Tracy O (cc by-sa)

The Underpants Monster tells a gravediggin' story; Stanczyk tells a tale of paper and love beyond the grave; elgilito talks about the death of French rural disco

verstegan has a great answer for divabat's question Why do magic wands look the way they do?

Figure of the Past by george.bremer (cc by-nc-nd)

egeanin on Ask Metafilter: I'm looking for first-person accounts (or long-reads) about the experience of being forced to abandon a town in a valley that's scheduled to be flooded as part of a dam/hydroelectric plant project.