~metafilter | Bookmarks (971)

Back in 2016, an oil painting surfaced at a flea market in Minnesota and was bought for less than $50. Now its owners are suggesting that it could be a lost Van Gogh, and therefore would be worth millions. (One estimate suggests $15 million.) The answer—at least to anyone with functioning eyeballs and a passing familiarity with art history—was a resounding "nah." The painting...

Shenmue Revealed as 'Most Influential Video Game of All Time', According to BAFTA Poll. Some notes and reactions from Rock Paper Shotgun and Eurogamer.

South Korea's highest court has removed embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol from office, ending months of uncertainty and legal wrangling after he briefly declared martial law in December and plunged the nation into political turmoil.

On the occasion of Hooters' bankruptcy, a look back: "How Hooters Air went from a successful airline to a $40 million failure in three years"And a reminder that the Internet (I will not stop capitalizing it just because some people have crazy newfangled ideas) is still a wonderful thing... Planespotters.net can tell you the registration numbers of all 7 Boeing jets in the fleet.

Bruce Springsteen is set to release over 80 new songs this summer with his newly announced "Tracks II: The Lost Albums" collection. Planned for release on June 27, the seven full-length albums will include songs by The Boss that have never been heard. The songs span Springsteen's decades-long career and were written between 1983 and 2018. First single is: Rain in the River

Wigglewood is a series of humorous D&D-styled short Youtube animations styled like cutscenes from an old DOS adventure game. A couple of inept adventures are on the trail of Wormdahl the depressed wizard. The longest is just 2 ½ minutes. Currently the episodes are: The Wizard's Gummy, Magician's Brick, The Dark Summoning, The Magic Lamp, The Cursed Throne, Elven Riddles and Shifting Sorcery.

"You would like us to rebuild the deranged robot in order to catch another one?" M3GAN 2.0 (YT Trailer) goes full Terminator 2: Judgment Day, with the killer child robot returning, this time to defend Cady against a new robot. The film is a sequel to 2023's M3GAN (FF link), which was, btw, 93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

After months of bluster, spin, and head fakes, President Trump finally committed to punishing global tariffs during a high-profile "Liberation Day" event at the White House yesterday. The policy invokes emergency authority to impose a 10% baseline tariff on all imports, a 25% fee on imported cars, and dubious "reciprocal tariffs" on everywhere from China and the EU to key strategic suppliers to remote...

Trump Is Asking the Supreme Court To Let Him Have Black Sites (Slate) In a court filing, the government acknowledged that it had deported at least one migrant to El Salvador due to an "administrative error"—but argued that the individual had no right to contest his imprisonment because he is in the custody of a "foreign sovereign." This argument confirms what's been clear for...

"The Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Wednesday revealed a revamped map of the city's subway system that takes its cues from a 1970s throwback that was cheered by design connoisseurs and reviled by many traditionalists. It is the first major overhaul of the subway map to be introduced by the authority in almost 50 years."Terrific Wikipedia article on the history of the New York City...

Sometimes the NIMBYS don't win: Brisbane home owners fail to stop church building affordable houses. A bid to build affordable units on church land in Brisbane's east has been approved despite protests from home owners who claimed it was inappropriate. Most of the 44 units in the New Cleveland Road, Wakerley project will be capped at 74.9 per cent of market rent. The home...

Malaparte "had less to be forgiven for than many of his colleagues, who were generally more capable of reinventing themselves after the war." The question of Malaparte's "credentials" is dispensed with at the outset, leaving the reader with the even more troubling suggestion of authentic principle behind what looks at first glance to have been a lifetime of craven opportunism. from Revenge of the...

Article by Allegra Rosenberg about AO3 statistics and what they show about changes on the site: "The data collected by statistically minded fans is hugely helpful in visualizing the shifts brought about by successive fan generations". Via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.

Jaime Hernandez: A Master Cartoonist Ages Alongside His Heroine. A colorful tribute to Love and Rockets, a long-runnng ground-breaking comic that began in 1982. ungatedA previous NYT piece on L&R's 40th anniversary. We Never Learned that We Shouldn't Be Doing This. An interview with the Bros. Artbound: Love and Rockets. A 56 minute PBS video.

Scoreboard Pressure is a blog dedicated to both kinds of scoreboards, Australian Rules Football and cricket. Adelaide Oval. Warramiyunga Oval, Bathurst Island. Henson Park, Marrickville. West Wyalong vs. Lake Cargelligo. Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Donnybrook, WA.

How Three American Women Translated One of the World's Most Popular Qurans (inspired by chavenet's recent post)You can compare translations here.

Super Bunnyhop (03/28/2025), "Kriegsspiel! How Napoleon Accidentally Invented Strategy Games": "Napoleon's contribution to game history means getting into gaming's ideological history ... Strategy games are the most immediately obvious example of how games are political." Related: Play Ludus Latrunculorum online. Browse the International Kriegsspiel Society's collection of rules, videos, Tabletop Simulator modules, inclusiveness info, and Discord info. Consider other meanings of miniatures games in...

Last month was the 15-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act being signed into law. Which means that anyone born this century probably has no idea what life was like for anyone with a body before the ACA. So let me tell you!

LinkMe, April '25: Come across an interesting link recently that you'd like to share, but don't want to work it up into a full post? Share it here for our perusal, nbd. And if you'd like to post something but need some inspiration, check out the links here to see what other members have found interesting and would like to read more about! Just...

The annual 'Great Lakes Whale Migration 2025 Begins on the Old Mission Peninsula' has begun. 2023. 'Great Lakes Whale Migration Begins – 2 Whales Spotted in Old Mission Harbor' 2021. 'Humpback Spotted in East Bay, Great Lakes Whale Migration Begins'.

A Working Man left me thinking: Where would Statham single-handedly taking down a human trafficking operation fall on the list of his greatest accomplishments? Obviously, the only way to get to the bottom of this mystery is to blog through it. Join me for a thought exercise that has plagued scientists since the aughts: What is the most impressive thing Jason Statham has ever...

Livestream of Senator Cory Booker's Filibuster on the Senate Floor This was linked in the previous US politics post but I thought it was worth posting separately.

"I feel like any job, any creative enterprise, that's the thing you do after the "chore"—you know there's the thing that's paying the rent and there's the thing that just for kicks —those kinds of jobs always have a spirit to them that's ineffable. It's just a great, spirited way to work, and you're just having fun. You can sense it." John Flansburgh and...

"brands and a holiday dedicated to hoaxes are rarely a winning combo." Starting a post to collect "real or not real," well done prank websites, and possible confirmation of what's actually really happening today (sigh).Why we're no longer doing April Fool's Day. Are we too suspicious of a fake story? Tom's Guide prank roundup. USA Today prank roundup. Ad Week Weirdest Brand Stunts. Washington...