~metafilter | Bookmarks (937)

Suzanne Ciani: A Life in WavesSuzanne Ciani On Modular Synthesis & The Buchla 200e live performance, Stockholm, Sweden, January 27, 2017 Suzanne Ciani Creates The Soundtrack For A Pinball Machine (previously)

How anchovies, a fish that was once associated with the poor, reached the very heights of gastronomic greatness. How this little fish was once central to the cuisine in the Roman Empire.

It hasn't always been devoid of a marker, however. Until recently, Melville's visage graced a small plaza on Pearl St. between two skyscrapers by way of a bronze bust with a plaque informing visitors that "On this site, number 6 Pearl Street, HERMAN MELVILLE was born August 1, 1819." ... For many years, fellow water gazers from around the world came to this plaza...

"We've found as AIs get smarter, they develop their own coherent value systems. For example they value lives in Pakistan > India > China > US. These are not just random biases, but internally consistent values that shape their behavior, with many implications for AI alignment." (Dan Hendrycks via xcancel)Emergent-Values.ai Utility Engineering: Analyzing and Controlling Emergent Value Systems in AIs

The 75 Most Essential Books for Gen X Aaaand - GO! The list is of course somewhat ridiculous as are all these lists.Moving a discussion on formative Gen X books from the end of the Tom Robbins obit thread because it deserves its own space.

"Rural communities are dispersed across the American landscape. The buildings and streetscapes in these places are a repository for visual trends—historical, architectural, and social—that relate to aspects of commercial, municipal, and private life. Rural Indexing Project (RIP) documents these trends as they exist in the built environment."It looks like the project ran from 2010 through 2019. "Roughly 1,200 communities in 25 states have been...

Few things are more contentious among cohabitating adults than "The Big Light." [Slate / Archive] Like a millennial household, the Big Light has divided the Strategist staff and ignited vigorous debates. [Strategist / Archive]

Remember that video from Pixar, years ago, with that cute animated lamp? It appears that Apple research people have now made that lamp for real. Be prepared for wicked cuteness. The video is at the bottom of the link.

Andrew Krapivin turned to a common approach for storing data known as a hash table. But in the midst of his tinkering, Krapivin realized that he had invented a new kind of hash table, one that worked faster than expected — taking less time and fewer steps to find specific elements. Martín Farach-Colton, a co-author of the "Tiny Pointers" paper and Krapivin's former professor...

This video about maki-e fountain pens will make you sad that you don't own a maki-e fountain pen.These won't help either. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

Matt Stoller and Paul Krugman on the dismantling of the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB has a budget of 800 million but returned over 21 billion dollars to consumers since its creation in 2016. Project 2025 architect Russell Vought is the acting head of the CFPB and this is his first major action following his Senate confirmation. It is expected to be...

SOLSTICE - 5 (YT 10:36), a visually intricate short sci-fi film about resource extraction on another planet, and Forgotten Archives (11:11), a just released expansion of the world.Artist Paul Chadeisson has much more imagery from this and other works on ArtStation.

Some time around 2200 BC, a high priestess conceived a child and bore him in secret. She placed him in a basket of bundled reeds, sealed the opening with tar, and cast the basket into a river, from where he was discovered and raised by Akki the Water-drawer, in the city of Kish. This is the story of Sargon, who founded an empire...Besides an...

Origami Guide - Beginner to Intermediate Tutorial Site Step by step Introductory Guide to origami. No A.I. No Video. Step by Step photos.Site introduction: Learn How to Make Origami! The origami instructions at Origami Guide are presented in an easy to follow photo tutorial format. You will find lots of wonderful origami models to fold at origami.guide, many of which are unique and can't...

One of the great joys and curiosities of marriage, in my experience, is the way it opens a private universe governed by its own laws—a space to celebrate, to grow, to weather storms (some more damaging than others). A space for trading backstories, showing the places you've carved your initials in the woodwork. A space for exploration, crossing together to the far side of...

The Fragile States Index is an interesting site to visit if your interested in comparing the liveability and governance of a country relative to others. Scoring is inverted, that is the higher the score the more fragile a country is. Norway (179th place) has the lowest a score of 12.7, the USA (at 141 place) scores 44.5 squeezed between Argentina and Hungary.Understanding the measures...

$4.8 million [US $3.01 million] pledged to return island to the wild to save threatened species. South Australia's fourth-largest island is set to become an ark for mammal species recovery, funded by $4.8 million from governments including ridding the island of rats, mice, and cats.

Last September, the film Amadeus turned 40. Long criticized for its looseness with historical fact (no, Salieri didn't live a life of chastity as a way of thanking God for killing his father), Amadeus has experienced a critical reassessment in recent years. Mozart's vulgar laugh is now seen by many as a middle finger to the Soviet Union in what would prove to be...

The PriceMaster (32:23, a little NSFW) "'Everything is for sale.' 'Make me an offer!' . . . the wonderful mantras of the prophet of Captive Market Capitalism (i.e. American Style Corporate Capitalism) echo pertinently on a crisp winter day in Denton, TX in the newborn hours of the great decisive 21st Century. Members of the hallowed Fast House look on and document the unfolding."IMDB...

You remember the scene in David Cronenberg's Crash when the people are sitting on a couch watching slow-motion car crash test videos in a soma-like daze? G-Shock Tests of Toughness is like that, except with watches.People have tried many ways of defeating the watch - from driving a truck over it to dropping it out of a helicopter. Finally, they had to try just...

She told all these stories with a cigarette and a smile, because she was a survivor. Before Lara entered my life, my favorite summer activity was going to Staples to buy pencil cases and binders before school started in the fall. Lara taught me that much like femininity, adolescence can be depressing and confusing, but it can also be full of freedom and unencumbered...

"I thought it might be helpful to review how I approached clearing out my in-laws' condo last weekend." Mary Anne Mohanraj recently "took about two 8-hr days to clear most of a two-bedroom, two-bath condo in the US, mostly just me, but with some help from Kev's sister and my friends" and wrote up how she did it. A few principles, then experiences with:...