~metafilter | Bookmarks (989)

At least according to Carter Vail, a musician on YouTube (and probably Tik Tok, but I am old). Let him tell you about the thing all guys do, how to succeed at wizarding school, or how to appreciate marine life. Or you could listen to his really good serious music if you are into that sort of thing, I guess.

There are some interesting people moving their bodies interestingly in the music video half•alive - Sophie's House (Official Video). [5m]

Explore the beautiful, intricate paths of ships over a year - tracked from America's busiest ports to the open ocean via AIS marine tracking data.

Euripides Unbound is an account of the recent discovery by archeologist Heba Adly of a papyrus containing 97 lines from Polyidus and Ino, lost plays by Euripides, written by Robert Cioffi who participated in the dig led by Basem Gehad. The fragment was deciphered by classicists Yvona Trnka-Amrhein and John Gibert, who have been interviewed about it by Johanna Hanink on the Lesche Podcast....

"It is not often that one in the process of learning of, or reading, a book develops three different opinions about the book. I have heard of Lea Ypi's Free after it became an international bestseller. I was even then somewhat intrigued by the topic, an autobiographical story of growing up in Albania at "the end of history", given that Albania was somewhat of...

A few short, brisk fantasy stories, published this year, involving peril and rescue. "The Dragon Shepherd" by George S. Walker, in Electric Spec: a young girl challenges complacent dragonslayers. "The Doomsday Book of Labyrinths" by LM Zaerr, in Uncharted Magazine: a tax assessor (who doesn't care to look too closely at his own emotions) needs to figure out why a scared kid is running...

How to be a butler to the super rich. (archive link here)Yes, Jeeves and Wooster are referenced. How could they not be?

All large planets in our Solar System have rings, and it has been suggested that Mars may have had a ring in the past. This raises the question of whether Earth also had a ring in the past.

Ring of Gyges: A shepherd named Gyges discovers a magical ring that grants him the power of invisibility when he twists the ring on his finger. With this newfound power, Gyges seduces the queen, kills the king, and takes over the kingdom. The Ring of Gyges is a dialogue featured in The Republic by Plato. The story raises a moral question: would people still...

For the second time ever (the first was in 2020), Scientific American endorses a presidential candidate. For the first time since 1996, the Teamsters union does not.Endorsements, endorsements, endorsements.

BatCam offers glimpse into secret life of threatened flying fox species. A live-streaming camera is offering insights into a grey-headed flying fox colony in northern New South Wales, aiming to change public perception that the animals are pests, and guide conservation work.A new initiative known as BatCam is giving people a glimpse into the normally secret world of Australia's largest native bat. The grey-headed...

Everyone was bereft and unnerved at the loss of this soft-spoken person they had been tending to near constantly for months. "I couldn't believe it," Cheatham says. "I was so sad that he died. They were telling me that they were hoping he would get over the spell that he was in." But that day, Flores and Moore also managed to spend $7,017.73 at...

She was literally the biggest story on the planet in 1952. Her story knocked the story of testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific off the front page. It blew Queen Elizabeth's coronation off the front page. A former GI, who knew from childhood that she was in the wrong body, went to Copenhagen and became Christine, who she really was all along.And the amazing...

UN General Assembly overwhelmingly calls for end of Israeli occupation The UNGA demanded that "Israel brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which constitutes a wrongful act of a continuing character entailing its international responsibility, and do so no later than 12 months". || previouslyOr you can go with the Haaretz headline (ungated): UN Overwhelmingly Votes on...

Our reactions to prostitution are steeped in what Melissa Gira Grant calls "the prostitute imaginary." They may feel visceral, rooted in some primal disgust reflex, but often derive from a combination of American puritanism and second-wave feminist rhetoric. Increasingly, we project our helplessness in the face of capitalist exploitation onto the sex worker, using her to signify human commodification distilled to its basest form....

Stuck in a World of Twin Languages and 600 Pronouns tells the story of a dimension-hopping linguist trying to understand and survive a language spoken by intelligent and/or cybernetic palm trees. Each chapter brings new orthographic and societal horrors. And yes, there's a tonal variant, since creator ZeWei has experience making songs with conlangs.This is just one entry in Agma Schwa's third Cursed Conlang...

To the sigmas of Australia, I say that this goofy ahh government have been capping, not just now but for a long time. A few of you may remember when they said "there'll be no Fanum Tax under the government I lead..." .Western Australian senator Fatima Payman delivers a speech.

With few exceptions, it is more accurate to divide most politicians into two broad categories: Enemies, and Cowards. (Hamilton Nolan's 'How Things Work' substack)

27 years on, having been adopted by business woman Prue Leith, Li-Da Kruger returns to Cambodia in search of her biological parents (2001). Made by The Cambodian Film Company/FulcrumTV and directed by Tamara Gordon. This is a 12 minute short video Li-Da Kruger, the adopted daughter of British Baking Show judge Prue Leith. A full documentary chronicling her search for her birth family was...

Canada is in the midst of the greatest wealth transfer of all time, as some $1 trillion passes from boomers to their millennial kids. How an inheritance-based economy will transform the country. (slMacleans)Speaking for myself, and only for myself, I definitely did not get the kind of Boomer parents who have any of that potential wealth!

Tumblr user baddywronglegs: I've asked this question before and been surprised by the results, now I have access to more weirdos it's your problem: It is the middle of a Sunday afternoon. You have nothing on, and aren't expecting visitors, deliveries or post. Unexpectedly, there is a knock at the door. Which of these would surprise you more to find on the doorstep? Fairy...

Michaela Mabinty DePrince died September 10 (gift link, NYT).From the article: Her remarkable back story as an orphan from Sierra Leone, included in miniature in "First Position," was told in full in her widely praised memoir, "Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina," which she wrote with her adoptive mother, Elaine DePrince. It chronicled as complete a transformation in circumstances as could be...