~metafilter | Bookmarks (966)

Scientists left questioning how a corella turned pink. You've probably heard of the Pink Panther, but have you heard of the pink corella? This bird has caused academics to ponder how it became the bright colour. (Australia)

Oak trees are some of the most important trees in the world. Watch as Dr. Andrew Hipp discusses his Oak research. Besides being the backbone of many of our forests, they also support as stunning array of insect life, animal and fungal life, and have also been key to humans since time began. There are a lot of oak species in North America. Some...

Some people want to log on to find a job. Some want to find new clients. Some want to hire someone. Some want to sarcastically comment on a coworker's promotion. Some want to snoop on their colleagues. Some just want to play "Queens" for 10 minutes on their lunch break. I have even been asked by friends to look people up on the platform...

Though Melodifestivalen 2025, the six week qualifying competition to determine Sweden's Eurovision entry, is not yet over, one particular song and performance has caught attention: Bada bara bastu, by the Finnish collective KAJ. KAJ qualified from their heat for the Melodifestivalen final on 8th March. r/Finland: Their techno-style humor music is based on the Vöyri dialect of Finland-Swedish, which is difficult to understand even...

Many small mirrors reflect light to a giant mirror wedged into the side of an office block, and back to a target which gets to over 3000C. Even before the oil crises of the 1970s drove additional funding to R&D in renewable energy, a French research programme led by Prof. Felix Trombe was investigating the potential for energy from the sun. The furnace consists...

"Helen Nearing felt that she should be the last person on earth to write a cookbook, but she also felt intrigued. 'I am a library inebriate,' she said. 'I began spending long hours in the rare book room of the New York Public Library every time Scott and I were in New York. I made my way through the introductions of 14,000 old cookbooks...

"What does one say about a poet who, having left his wife and daughter for another marriage, then titles a book with their names, and goes on to appropriate his ex-wife's letters written under stress and pain of desertion, into a book of poems nominally addressed to his new wife?" Rich wrote in The American Poetry Review, before revealing she had a suggestion of...

Whale songs follow a lot of the same rules as human language. Scientists have discovered that human language and whale songs have remarkable similarities in the way they are segmented and structured.

Operation Whirlwind. "A federal prosecutor and President Donald Trump ally who made it his mission to safeguard DOGE has escalated his scrutiny of officials who criticize the agency's leader, Elon Musk, in a letter to a California congressman this week. ... "Some" people interpreted Garcia's remarks as a threat to Musk and his staff, Martin wrote in his letter, describing Musk as "an appointed...

In my dreams (no pun intended), I play rock guitar like George Lynch.You could copy his guitars, effects, amps, and licks, but you're not going to play like this. They don't call him Mr. Scary for nothing.

Feeling heartbroken by the greed and selfishness in our world? Though the systems we live in prioritize profits, we can choose giving and generosity as an antidote to fear and isolation - looking for the helpers and becoming them ourselves.Learning about gift economy and gift thinking may help challenge the scarcity mindset and increase our awareness of alternative possible realities. Those who are interested...

Please enjoy the joyous Indian Folk Metal of Tadka by Bloodywood.If you have 93 spare minutes, you might enjoy Raj Against the Machine - The Documentary.

A secret move some Linux and Unix users know is that typing special characters needn't be a chore involving Alt codes or a character map application. You go into keyboard settings (on KDE go under Keyboard then Key Bindings; on Gnome you'll have to install Tweaks) and pick a key to be the compose key (I suggest Caps Lock). Then press it, then a...

An early favourite for this year's Eurovision Song Contest is the entry from Finland: Ich komme, by Erika Vikman. Wikipedia: The lyrics reflect "the joyous message of pleasure, ecstasy and a state of trance" and sexual pleasure and reaching the climax, reflected in its structure, which corresponds to the way a sexual climax is reached. Eurovision World: Erika herself says about her song for...

'What if I were to tell you about an obscure clique of consultants that concoct dubious economic analysis to convince regulators to side with corporations, enabling a massive rip-off of ordinary Americans? I think your curious, cautious response might be, "You're going to have to be more specific." OK, so this obscure clique has a name. They're called the Society of Utility and Regulatory...

"Though frequently remembered as a pornographer, Roth importantly shaped the Modernist movement by compelling many of its key players to think more seriously about issues of censorship, artistic freedom, and literature's relationship to the law. Roth dedicated the first issue of Two Worlds Monthly to Joyce, "who will probably plead the cause of our time at the bar of posterity." And indeed, Ulysses has...

Tassie devil trapped by mistake released into the wild. Wildlife researchers say they have never come across a male Tasmanian devil with such markings. A Tasmanian devil with highly uncommon markings has been spotted after it mistakenly wandered into a private landowner's trap. Due to its unusual appearance, the devil was taken to a wildlife park on Tasmania's east coast and checked for signs...

The MetaFilter Moderation Oversight Committee is looking for a few interviewees to test out our intake form. Please consider signing up! This process is a part of user-centred design, which has been around for a long time. But in the age of AI, human-centred design may be more important than ever.- Five reasons to test even when you "know" the answer (video) - Why...

60 years a martyr: on this day in 1965 CE, Malcolm X was shot by assassins. On February 21, 1965, two men shot El Hajj Malik El Shabbaz (Malcolm X) in New York City.Many people come to know of Malcolm X via his indelible Autobiography, on which he collaborated with writer Alex Haley (who went on to worldwide fame for his groundbreaking book about...

What distinguished Landi from a run-of-the-mill fraudster, though, was the outlandishness of his maneuvers, which exploited every loophole the globe had to offer. Landi was a libertarian who sought freedom from meddling governments and their cumbersome regulations, but in a select few nations, he found willing accomplices. Landi hid money in Switzerland, skated around extradition treaties while living comfortably in Dubai, registered companies in...

Canada wins the 4 Nations Face-Off final after Connor McDavid scores in overtime.. Trump's teams keep losing.

"One of the sources of richness within the medium [of comics] has long been the play between creators who favor naturalism versus absurdity. Coming down squarely in the latter camp is Bob Burden who dreamt up one of the most surreal series in comics' history: Flaming Carrot Comics."Chronicling the mundane and outrageous adventures of its titular hero, Burden crafted a book that defies reason....

The first kangaroo embryo has been produced through IVF. An IVF breakthrough could prove crucial for some of Australia's most iconic species.