~metafilter | Bookmarks (975)

There's almost no cost for scientific fraud. Thinking about whether legal punishment would be a good idea.

The actual monetary system is a politically anchored multi-layered web of IOUs, in different forms, that holds the so-called economic realm together. Analysing the separate elements of that foundation as if they were free-floating commodities subject to monetary cost considerations (that the foundation itself underpins) is delusional on multiple fronts. Not only does the foundation get weakened if you remove cash, but we incur...

"Memories. You're talking about memories." User @vga256@dialup.cafe posted about a mesmerizing piece of Internet art history over on Mastodon, and wrote about the recovery and safeguard of "Blade Runner: the Aquarel Edition" on the Internet Archive."twelve years ago, a painter by the name of anders ramsell painted 12,597 aquarelle paintings of blade runner, shot by shot, of the entire film edited down to ~35...

These crabs congregate on Australia's shores in a spectacular fashion but their story remains a mystery. Faced with an enduring ocean mystery and next to no money, researchers studying thousands of crabs on Australia's southern coast have turned to the public for help.

My fellow worms and Americans It is I, your friend, the worm who ate part of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s brain, then died.As a creature who seeks only to gorge myself willy-nilly on whatever life offers without concern for what devastation I leave in my wake, I have long admired Donald Trump's way of doing things. To live off the production of others in...

Hank Green (who has a long-standing (nearly seminal) relationship with both Google and Youtube [even before youtube was eaten by google]) has some things to say about data-mining and AI practices, especially as they pertain to those outfits.

"Shining an ultraviolet light over the stamps in the set of eight reveals a hidden image. The Owlbear, Gelatinous Cube, Mind Flayer and Displacer Beast stamps show the stylized dragon ampersand from the Dungeons & Dragons logo. A dragon head appears on the Red Dragon stamp, and the Vecna stamp shows a skull. The Mimic and Beholder stamps show different images of each of...

Monotypes have been around for a long time and have been invented and re-invented several times. https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2016/05/27/lasting-impressions-the-monotype-medium-from-edgar-degas-to-elizabeth-peyton/ Currently they're undergoing a revival of sorts thanks to the Gel Plate which has made it very easy for the beginner (like me!) to make their own prints and papers.If you haven't been exposed to Gel Plates yet, they're similar to traditional monotype plates made of Gelatin...

Like the Enigma, the HX-63 was an electromechanical cipher system known as a rotor machine. It was the only electromechanical rotor machine ever built by CAG, and it was much more advanced and secure than even the famous Enigmas. In fact, it was arguably the most secure rotor machine ever built. I longed to get my hands on one, but I doubted I ever...

Black Ox Orkestar performs their song Viderkol (Echos) at the Montreal Jewish Museum.In the early/mid 2000s members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mount Zion released two albums as Black Ox Orkestar. The music took the post-rock of GY!BE and SMZ and infused the sounds of traditional Jewish folk music and Klezmer. A few years ago (unbeknownst to me) they released a...

ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) has successfully completed a world-first lunar-Earth flyby, using the gravity of Earth to send it Venus-bound, on a shortcut to Jupiter through the inner Solar System. The closest approach to the Moon was at 23:15 CEST (21:15 UTC) on 19 August, guiding Juice towards a closest approach to Earth just over 24 hours later at 23:56 CEST (21:56...

These days, he sets a light by his garage and photographs whatever moths show up, as many as seventy species and thousands of individuals in a single night. He's now counted 550 species at his own home.Eckerman posted his first moth images to iNaturalist ten years ago, and other users coached him on how to take better photos to make identification easier.

When we look at the Northeast, we see familiar places: New York, Philadelphia, Syracuse, Rome, Lancaster, York. All of these names are imports: New York designated the dominion given to the Duke of York, others recalled the powerful ruling families of England, or were echoes of the classical world. Yet beneath these names sites an older and very different cultural landscape. Some Indigenous place...

Dog walker bluff charged by pack of territorial emus in startling confrontation. Ruby Buchanan was getting ready to take her dogs for a walk when she and a friend were "fully charged" by four emus outside Broken Hill. A ranger says the large flightless birds can attack around June as chicks mature. It is worth noting that emus will often do bluff, no-physical-contact charges...

Exactly how fully this event defines either book is something that the authors at times fiercely dispute — an argument that will seem sometimes to be about writing, sometimes about the contested debris of past relationships. But let's use a term that both books employ in different contexts: the "inciting incident." At the very least, these two books share the same inciting incident. And...

RFK Jr to weigh dropping US presidential bid to join forces with Trump (Reuters)RFK's running mate suggests they can't win in November (Politico) RFK running mate says they're considering endorsing Trump (CNN)

Gisnep (Gisnep?) is a new daily word puzzle from MetaFilter's own ironicsans.Nitpickers' notes: the site is still in beta, and I've seen a couple of quotes that are probably not reliably attributed. Neither has affected my enjoyment of the game. Well, the misattributions a little, but I got over it.

Corporate security work has long elevated routine business worries—like shoplifting, loitering, and homelessness—into urgent criminal problems. (slHarpers)

Where do Australian white ibis (Threskiornis molucca) actually live? Where do bin chickens go when they leave the bin? It turns out, pretty far away! This is a 5 minute video from the Australian documentary series, The Secret Lives Of Our Urban Birds.Historically rare in urban areas, the Australian white ibis has established in urban areas of the east coast in increasing numbers since...

Even Lee's washing machine collection began with his wife. As he often tells the story, the couple bought an RV when Lee retired in 1985, and they planned a road trip from Colorado to Maine. Somewhere in Iowa, they stopped at a farmer's estate sale. There, among the implements and tools, Lee spied a 1907 Maytag Model 44. He loved the machine's beauty and...

"I set out to read 26 traditional epics about woman heroes, and so far I have found 32."

The contest to write the worst opening lines to non-existent novels have been announced. The grand prize winner is Lawrence Person of Austin, TX: "She had a body that reached out and slapped my face like a five-pound ham-hock tossed from a speeding truck."

Just in case you missed this absolute bop during this year's Eurovision, 5MIINUST, Puuluup - (nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi.Eurovision finale video. Translated lyrics.

Maybe you're the sort of person who likes to start the day with the New York Times Mini Crossword, but perhaps you're looking for a new sort of challenge. Minute Cryptic is a new website that features one UK-style cryptic crossword clue to solve each day, with hints available. New to cryptic crosswords? Here's an explainer video from the New Yorker that covers the...