~metafilter | Bookmarks (953)

Wikipedia portraits are famously bad, so much so that there's an Instagram page dedicated to them. They're amateurish. They're old. Sometimes, like in the case of English footballer Kyle Bartley, they're just weird. (Is that a referee's finger in his mouth?) WikiPortraits, a group of volunteer photographers, has been covering festivals and shooting celebrities specifically to improve images in the public domain. (404Media)

The office of London design studio DUDE was vandalized... so they turned the graffiti into a free* typeface for everyone to use.*The studio requests that if you download it, that you please donate £5 to Bow Arts Center.

the letter S is never included — the editor Sam Ezersky said that using an S would make the puzzle way too easy Today's (March 12, 2025) New York Times Spelling Bee Puzzle is #2,500. It has an "S."In 2022, Ezersky said: I love the letter S — it's my favorite besides Z. But if every other word is a plural, it can make...

Terrifying reporting from ProPublica about the SSA describes a meeting held by acting head of the Social Security Administration Leland Dudek in which he seems to admit that the "DOGE kids" may very well actually break the social security payments process and tries to disavow all responsibility because he is clearly alarmed by what he is being asked to do.Apparently, the social security IT...

Canadian Geographic explores Canada's national symbol. The noble beaver will show up in your Canadian citizenship study manual but to your eternal disappointment, you will not be asked about it.

elodieunderglass (previously quoted on MeFi) and derinthescarletpescatarian wrote a moving, funny composite narrative about human biology: "Wait a minute," you say a couple of generations later, because you're not actually a small animal but an evolutionary process personified and simplified to the point of dangerous inaccuracy for the purposes of a Tumblr post... That link won't work well unless you're logged into Tumblr, so...

Plans are underway to create "Freedom Cities" around the United States on large open tracts of protected federal lands, following in the footsteps of California Forever, Próspera, Yatai New City and other law and regulation free Special Economic Zone safe-havens for anarcho-capitalists, libertarians and criminals.'Startup Nation' Groups Say They're Meeting Trump Officials to Push for Deregulated 'Freedom Cities' The architects of projects like Próspera...

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on an ICC warrant for crimes against humanity in Manila. According to his daughter, who is currently the country's vice president, "As I write this, he is being forcibly taken to The Hague tonight. This is not justice – this is oppression and persecution." Internal Philippine politics made the arrest possible, as a former power-sharing agreement between...

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Addresses General Assembly, 78th Session (pdf) - "Terrorists have no right to hold nuclear weapons." I welcome all who stand for common efforts! And I promise – being really united we can guarantee fair peace for all nations. What's more, unity can prevent wars. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Secretary General! Fellow leaders! This hall saw many wars but not as...

A Message of Love is a long interview with Danish photographer/activist Jakob Holdt. Long haired hippy Jakob Holdt hitchhiked in the US for 5 years in the early 70's, documenting the lives of the most marginalized people, as well as some of the most affluent. His "adventures" resulted in an output of 15,000 harrowing photographs, which he later published as the book "American Pictures"....

Don't pick up wild baby wombats. Picking them up can injure them; can cause their mother to abandon them (a death sentence if they are still breastfeeding); and could cause you to get seriously injured by an angry mother wombat (wombat claws can disembowel a person if the wombat gets angry.) US influencer criticised for temporarily taking joey wombat from mother. A US influencer...

"Not many people come out in the rain," says Goody, with a smile. "But we just batter on. You never know, we could pull out Rob Roy's sword, fingers crossed". They fish "for the history," he adds. A lot of this history seems to be embodied by weaponry, judging from the list Goody reels off. Unexploded ordnances are a particular pain. "We're a bit...

The Roland TR-808 had a larger impact on commercial music than any other branded musical instrument except perhaps the Fender Stratocaster. So someone made a documentary about it.There's an in-browser emulator if you want to drop a def beat. (previously)

Kevin Drum, one of the earliest left wing political bloggers, has passed away after a long battle with cancer.Throughout his career, Drum had been a fixture in the left wing "blogosphere", both under his own shingle as well as the auspices of larger outlets with a considerable tenure at Mother Jones. Beyond his blog punditry, he was best known for championing the environmental lead...

If there's one thing McDonald's is known for among its American customers, it's its uniformity. Almost all McDonald's from Maine to California look the same and have the same offerings. And when McDonald's began to open restaurants outside the States over the course of the later 20th century, the standard menu of the United States McDonald's held an exotic appeal for non-Americans. McDonald's was...

Oh sure, there's always the usual mainstream things every article trots out, blah blah blah. But what unusual/surprising/interesting hobby, activity, or task do you find works as a creative outlet? Or talk about anything else - it's our weekly free thread!

The first season of Andor is now streaming on Hulu and Disney has uploaded first three-episode arc to YouTube. This is done to build momentum for the April 22nd premiere of the second, and last, season. A day which happens to be, as Damien Walter notes in a recent video essay, Lenin's birthday. This fits Walter's argument that Andor is a Marxist story. Others,...

Baroness Von Sketch was a sketch comedy show by women for women! Four Toronto-based comedians--Carolyn Taylor, Aurora Browne, Meredith MacNeill, and Jennifer Whalen--created BvS in 2016. The show aired for five seasons. Episodes are still available to watch on CBC Gem. Whalen and MacNeill have a new sitcom, Small Achievable Goals, airing on CBC. It focuses on when life hands you menopause...and you have...

Emily and Amelia Nagoski discuss how to cope when you've either lost your hope or never had any. Emily and Amelia made the Feminist Survival Project podcast in 2020. In 2025, they brought it back. In a recent episode, they discuss what to do when you don't have hope.Notes I took from the podcast: * Emily has to say that her hope is "broken"...

Is a bone a viable weapon when combating a Rancor? Estimating the bite force of an intergalactic mega-predator. S. Lautenschlager and T. Clements, Journal of Geek Studies, volume 12, issue 1, pages 25-36 (2025). The ability of the Rancor to snap the femur with apparent ease poses interesting questions: (1) how much dorso-lateral force is required to snap a femur of the size used...

Please enjoy this POV video of the winner of this year's Cerro Abajo Valparaiso race. 2km descent through the streets, sidewalks, stairs, rooftops, and houses of the hills of Valparaiso.

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is ending. "It is with deep regrets that I announce the conclusion of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Being a year and a half older than Joseph Biden, I find the BLFC becoming increasingly burdensome and would like to put myself out to pasture while I still have some vim and vigor!" — English professor Scott E. Rice at San Jose...