~metafilter | Bookmarks (953)

The Distortion Is Inherent in the Signal - "Social media is a machine for 'creat[ing] publics with malformed collective understandings'... we know that the people who use social media are not representative of the population-at-large." [link-heavy FPP! ;]"The far right are settling now. They know what their plan is: anti-immigration is the big idea, Muslims are the bad guys, tariffs. There is a battle...

In an article that deserves to go viral, the Guardian's former Johannesburg correspondent Chris McGreal traces how Musk and Thiel's South African and South West African boyhoods continue to influence Musk and Thiel's worldviews.As it turns out, Musk's Nazi salute is also the salute used by the AWB (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging), a neo-Nazi party, founded in the early 1970s to oppose any relaxation of apartheid....

"As the new typeface for our diverse and global brand, IBM Plex® is just as important as our name or our logo. It fine-tunes the tone of our words. It represents who we are and what we believe — as a company and as designers. Every decision was made with purpose; every detail has a reason for being." (previously)"When I came to IBM, it...

Australian oysters' blood could hold key to fighting drug-resistant superbugs, researchers find. Researchers find a protein in the hemolymph (analogous to blood) of Australian oysters which has antimicrobial properties, including against biofilms of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a common cause of pneumonia. The oysters likely evolved the peptide to help prevent infection by similar microbes, and the discovery could help down the road in the development...

Unless you roam the "shady underbelly" of the Internet looking for information on "get rich quick" schemes, you probably have never heard of Danny de Hek, also known as "The Crypto Ponzi Scheme Avenger" on Youtube, Facebook, and other social channels. A few days ago, (21-JAN-2025) de Hek's Youtube channel as terminated for policy violations. Normally this was not newsworthy. What was interesting, however,...

Spending several months out in the woods and small towns of Eastern America, much of it alone, has scrambled my life in ways I'm just beginning to notice, let alone figure out how to live with. I left at the end of May unsure if I would come back and resume writing Tabs, and here we are in January, halfway through a new Tabs...

Two short, suspenseful horror/fantasy stories about people who think they can outwit or outlast their predators. "The Devil's Wheel" by creepyclothdoll (found via roach-works): "You're smarter than he thinks you are– a devil deal always has a catch, and you're determined to catch him before he catches you." An untitled story by inkskinned a.k.a. Rowan Perez: "it's quiet here, i love the location, and...

The Fictive Non-Fiction exhibit at the Grolier Club presents the embodiment of imaginary books mentioned in other books. Come for Thoughts on the Prevention of the Diseases most usual among Seamen, stay for The Key to All Mythologies. Museum labels very worth reading.

Fog, freezing, lashing winds, and baseball... On Saturday, June 5, 1914, the wind at San Francisco's Ewing Field was so strong it "lifted many a cap from the head of the players and tossed it about the diamond." Only 200 people showed up in similar conditions for Sunday's baseball game. From then on, newspaper reports mostly just took note of when the weather was...

Huldufólk: The Truth Behind Iceland's Obsession With ElvesIceland's Magical World of Elves (4:28) is prettily filmed but is overly skeptical on the elves question. New York Times, March 1982: Saying that they were looking for elves who might be endangered by American phantom jets and Awacs reconaissance planes, about 150 Icelandic leftists trooped out to this North Atlantic Treaty Organization base last weekend. As...

"My biggest mistake was I did not read the room well, in terms of understanding what we were triggering," Daedone says about her company's downfall. "Not just the suggestion that women had power or women had desire, but that we had the right to pursue it." She Made Orgasmic Meditation Her Life. Not Even Prison Will Stop Her [WSJ; ungated]

A Few Things, Maybe Several Things Written over the course of a decade, this (gloriously ad free) blog has 644 posts about every Mountain Goats song ever written.

Remains of Indigenous ancestor welcomed home after 150 years as elders fulfill sacred responsibility. The Wagonga lady is one of more than 1700 ancestors returned to Australia from overseas collections in the past three decades, but many more remain to be found and returned.

Teen's dream to inspire her nephews and nieces with language book reconnects a community to its culture. Wirangu teen Mia Speed say she treasures the difference her book is making to empower and inspire her younger family members.

The Nokia Design Archive is a graphic and interactive portal designed by researchers from Aalto University in Finland. It currently hosts over 700 entries, curated from thousands of items donated by Microsoft Mobile Oy and representing over 20 years of Nokia's design history — both seen and unseen. You can freely explore the archive, learn about designers' experiences working in Nokia and discover interesting...

Did you know that a bald eagle makes a sound like a teakettle when it is laying an egg? I know that now, thanks to the Friends of Big Bear Valley (CA) Eagle Cam, going in to its seventh year. More about the eagle nest and the camera. [via]

Storm Éowyn has caused widespread damage across Ireland (and the UK).With extensive power and mobile phone network outages the full extent of the devastation is still coming to light. Ongoing live coverage (which also summarises the events to date): Irish Times RTÉ Irish Independent The Journal While some are discovering the challenges of power cuts in 2025, others are turning to the comforts of...

"Findings from a 2023 survey of NYPL patrons show that the vast majority of responding patrons report that the Library positively contributes to their well-being. ... While this report directly draws upon the experiences of NYPL patrons, it presents a theoretical model of how and in which ways libraries impact well-being—which is likely relevant to libraries across the nation." Libraries & Well-Being: A Case...

"An equally blunt assessment today would conclude that a large part of the digital media, trafficking in fake news and conspiracy theories, is now systematically dishonest. The mainstream press, often owned by big business tycoons, maintains its pretensions to political and ethical responsibility, claiming to be a beacon in the darkness where democracy supposedly dies. But the evidence of its inadequacy and even corruption...

Ford tells a reporter his PC party needs the largest majority it has ever had to make its voice louder amid a period of political turmoil. (slCBC, live coverage)Opposition reminding voters to not loose sight of family doctor shortage Ford and his cabinet fast-tracking annoucements in preparation for snap election Why it's the wrong time for Ford to call for a provincial election "Canada...

The Man who used Nazi propaganda to help the Allies win " The German soldiers and civilians listening to the station knew the Soldatensender was a British station masquerading as a German station. And the British who broadcast the station wanted the Germans to know it was the British. Their aim was not to deceive the listener, but to give 'cover' to German listeners....

"We're talking about a black comedy that hardly delivers any laughs. A comedy that isn't funny because it portrays the hilarious albeit sad constituent of our everyday lives, something we don't find funny because we're a part of it, because we give our best to help the carousel continue spinning. That's why The King of Comedy hit a little too close to home to...