Photo by Kendrick Erickson, via Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/wheresmysocks/)
Turns out the internet actually is a series of tubes! Or at least cables, laying on the floor of the world's oceans, with all the muck and salt. Somebody has repair them, as chronicled in this post by 'the duck by the oboe', which looks at the undersea cables, how they get damaged, and how they get repaired.
Shoe repair by knapjack (cc by)
Bella Donna's post about France offering subsidies for clothing repairs has spawned an excellent collection of tips on clothing and shoe repair!
Ain Manawir (VII) by isawnyu (cc by)
JoeZydeco on how a vending machine knows what coin you've put in (and why the Mars candy company spun off an electronics company)
seasparrow on ancient underground water-distribution systems called "qanats"... including diagrams
codacorolla on their academic research on Minecraft players
The evolution of thimble technology, as seen in artifacts found scattered across England
A nice discussion of the importance of the skills needed to maintain old systems
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.
