Best Of MetaFilter

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.

Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium by paukrus (cc by)

Some great recent posts on the natural world:

A 17th-Century Woman Artist’s Butterfly Journey: gorgeous images and bio info on early entomologist-artist Maria Sibylla Merian

The inner life of the fig: documentary on the sycamore fig tree, focusing on the intricate mutualism between a fig tree and its fig wasp

A tree grows in Israel: an extinct Judean Date Palm is grown from an ancient jar of seeds unearthed by archaeologists

My hovercraft is full of Petromyzon marinus: science, lore, and more on the fearsome sea lamprey

Satan Put the Kettle On: the mystery of Devil's Kettle Falls' vanishing waterfall