https://www.metafilter.com/favorites/all Posts from across all sites, marked as a favorite most often in the past seven days. Tue, 21 Apr 2026 19:55:38 GMT Tue, 21 Apr 2026 19:55:38 GMT en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 Tie Xi Qu. In 1999, filmmaker Wang Bing used a camcorder and walked into a dying factory district in northeast China and spent two years filming what he found. The result was Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks - nine hours long, no narration, no score, no interviews. This is one of the most important documentaries ever made, and almost no one has heard of it.

This is a fourteen minute explanation and overview by Youtube Ken D.

Tie Xi Qu is banned in China. It has never been shown on Chinese television. Wang Bing's entire filmography is erased from Chinese internet as of today.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212908/The-Greatest-Documentary-youve-Never-Heard-Of www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212908 Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:06:38 GMT Sebmojo [Kottke] For decades, a guy named Aadam Jacobs has been recording live music shows. His collection of over 10,000 shows since 1984 feature the likes of Nirvana, R.E.M., The Pixies, Björk, Depeche Mode, Liz Phair, Sonic Youth, The Cure, Phish, Fugazi, and so many more. With the help of archivists, the entire collection is making its way onto The Internet Archive.

Aabsolutely aamazing aarchive for aaudiophiles!]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212873/Now-Online-a-Treasure-Trove-of-1000s-of-Secret-Concert-Recordings www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212873 Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:31:18 GMT AlSweigart delphitools is a collection of small, focused utilities that respect your privacy and work entirely in your browser. No data leaves your machine, no accounts required, no tracking. Just tools that do what they say. [by Ruby Morgan Voigt]]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212879/From-Typography-and-Text-and-Print-and-Production-to-Turbo-nerd-Shit www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212879 Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:37:00 GMT chavenet Global Tetrahedron, owners of The Onion, have officially taken control of Free Speech Systems and InfoWars.

Previously.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212941/Info-Has-Won-The-InfoWars www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212941 Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:50:46 GMT NoxAeternum Read all of that in one breath. A MOIS-operated persona whose unit head was killed three weeks earlier walked into one of the largest medical device manufacturers in the world, exfiltrated 50 TB, then pushed a destructive button that bricked 200,000 endpoints across 79 countries in minutes, postponed surgeries, stated a retaliation motive, absorbed a $10 million FBI bounty, had four of its domains seized, and was operating a replacement site the same day. from We May Be Living Through the Most Consequential Hundred Days in Cyber History, and Almost Nobody Has Noticed [ungated]]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212907/Just-the-ones-that-broke-through www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212907 Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:45:03 GMT chavenet very few involve mathematics or mathematicians. However, people who like mathematics (or are mathematicians ourselves) may especially enjoy reading those few that do. Moreover, as I argue in an article in the AMS Notices, mathematicians should be interested in these works of "mathematical fiction" even if we do not enjoy them because they both affect and reflect the non-mathematician's view of this subject."
"At the moment, there are 1726 works of mathematical fiction listed in this database. This is much more than I expected when I started, and I have every reason to think that it will continue to grow as I learn of new works to list here."

The Mathematical Fiction Homepage is Alex Kasman's attempt to collect information about all significant references to mathematics in fiction. You can see the entire list (sorted by author, title or publication date). You can browse through the database to find your favorite genre, topic, motif or medium. If you've got more specific criteria in mind, try the search page. If you've been there before and just want to see what's been added recently, look at the listing of new/recently modified entries. For a more curated list, you can also check out Kasman's personal recommendations.

Articles about mathematical fiction can be found on the resources page. The same page also makes note of other websites listing maths in the movies. There is some overlap between these sites and Kasman's database, but differences in criteria ensure they're not the same:
The Mathematical Movie Database at QEDCat.com (With transcripts! Also a book) and their must-see list
Oliver Knill's Mathematics in Movies page (With clips! And a 2006 povray gif?)
Arnold G. Reinhold's The Math in the Movies page
Brian Harbourne's Math Movie Picks

Bonus:
Wikipedia delves into the topic; so does TVTropes (pre-anti-adblock archive)

(previously in 2009)]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212931/Math-as-Beautiful-Exciting-Useful-109-Math-as-Cold-Dry-Useless-61 www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212931 Sun, 19 Apr 2026 23:55:32 GMT polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice Boots on the Ground - Massive Attack & Tom Waits

Film created by Massive Attack (working with US photo artist thefinaleye). This montage work portrays a momentous American epoch that is yet to be named, and comes in the aftermath of the largest public protests in American history - focused on opposition to ICE raids, the militarisation of domestic forces, and state authoritarianism.

The film quotes statistics and research by the following sources: American Immigration Council, American Civil Liberties Union, Inside Higher Ed, National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, US National Library of Medicine, US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Privacy International, FactCheck.org. Viewers seeking further information or wishing to take action are encouraged to visit aclu.org, veterans-aid.net, immigrantdefenseproject.org, and freedomforimmigrants.org.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212895/We-trim-your-hedges-we-fight-your-wars- www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212895 Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:00:59 GMT Kitteh ITV's beloved 7 Up series will end after 62 years with "epic and moving" final chapter 70 Up [Radio Times]

The Up Series [YouTube Playlist]

Previously: 2007, 2019, 2019 again; 2021 - RIP MIchael Apted]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212903/Feelin-70-Up-Im-feelin-70-Up www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212903 Thu, 16 Apr 2026 21:26:00 GMT chavenet This clock displays the current time alphabetically.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212914/Is-It-Time-What www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212914 Fri, 17 Apr 2026 22:20:32 GMT chavenet We are the federal workers who protect America from discrimination. The federal government is dismantling YOUR right to safe housing and essential services—and silencing us to hide it from you. We break that silence and ask you to stand with us, before it's too late. Read the letters.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212910/Dear-America-Your-rights-are-on-the-line www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212910 Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:33:42 GMT Winnie the Proust now on display at the Museum of the City of New York.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212942/He-Built-the-City-He-Built-the-City-with-Balsa-Wood www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212942 Mon, 20 Apr 2026 18:58:05 GMT MartinWisse Three cat moms and fifteen newborn kittens (so far) . Tiny Kittens (Facebook page) a cat rescue based in Langley, BC, found itself this month in an unprecedented situation with five expectant cats, all which were/are due to give birth within a ten day period. The entire pile of 15 (so far) kittens and their three moms are settled in a shared nest, and the cuteness, as they say, is off the charts. You can watch the livestream on Youtube, and take a break from, you know, all this other stuff.

Some details: The first batch of six (Smudge and the Smudgelets) arrived the night of April 10/11th, the second litter of five (Spectra, kittens not yet named) on April 12th/13th, and the third litter of four (Oriana) on April 14th. Two more catermelons are in the wings: Cornflower, litter expected on April 17th, and Opal, April 18th. All the births were streamed live.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212902/Kittenpalooza www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212902 Thu, 16 Apr 2026 20:29:58 GMT jokeefe Splendid isolation: how I stopped time by sitting in a forest for 24 hours. "When you're actually in it, the reality of the solo is, at least at first, one of total boredom. I cannot stress enough how little there is to do when you have confined yourself to the inside of a small circle of stones and sticks in a forest. But it is an instructive kind of boredom, insofar as boredom is the raw and unmediated experience of time. It is considered best practice not to have a watch, and to turn off your phone and keep it somewhere in the bottom of a bag so as to avoid the temptation to constantly check how long you've been out and how long you have left. And as you become untethered from your accustomed orientation in time – from always knowing what time it is, how long you have to do the thing you're doing, when you have to stop doing it to do the next thing – you begin to glimpse a new perspective on the anxiety that arises from that orientation. Because this anxiety, which amounts to a sort of cost-benefit analysis of every passing moment, is a quintessentially modern predicament."

"The word that comes to mind is immanence – a term I learned as a philosophy undergraduate and which I did not remotely understand until I began to have these experiences of being alone in nature. In his 1836 essay Nature, American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson identifies precisely this sublime phenomenon. "The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister," he writes, "is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them." It's a phenomenon that he views as both an apprehension of the divine and a return to the child's perception of the world. "In the woods," he writes, "a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child."
"
----
"One of Roberts's major themes was the idea that our particular civilisation, at our particular time, was unusual in not having as part of its cultural repertoire some ritual whereby during periods of change or upheaval people went out alone into nature. When he talked about the practice of the wilderness solo, he talked about it in such terms – as a ritual whereby you stepped out of the flux of the world, in order to gain some perspective on the flux, and your place within it.

A word he used a lot in talking about his work, and in describing the experience and value of the nature solo, was "re-enchantment". He was of the opinion that most people, most of the time, lived life in a state of disenchantment. What he wanted to do, above all, was to help people strip away the layers of hard rationalism that accrued around the adult mind, so that they could return to a more childlike engagement with the world. And in reaching this state, he said, this place of re-enchantment, we could come to see ourselves not as separate from and in control of nature, but as part of it."]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212887/If-I-could-stop-time-I-wood www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212887 Thu, 16 Apr 2026 01:32:42 GMT storybored The Daily Baffle is a free site with word and logic puzzles in several new-to-the-world formats.

Puzzle designers are always coming up with new kinds of puzzles, and I think this one has some really interesting takes. As a crossword fan and occasional constructor, Morphology -- with it's crossword-style clues and themes -- is the one that's up my alley (and today's happens to be by a very frequent contributor to New York Times crosswords, LA Times crosswords, and many other puzzle publishers).

Maybe my personal favorite thing about the site is that you can construct and submit Morphology puzzles, and get paid for them. I learned via crosswords that constructing is even more satisfying than solving. But diving right into crossword construction can be hard, and constructing a Morphology develops some of the same skills while being much easier.

Full disclosure: I've constructed and had two Morphology puzzles accepted, and in the process and since then, I conversed a fair bit online with the site creator/editor. But several months ago, I checked with the mods whether that was too close of a connection for a MetaFilter post, since I do also just think it's a cool site. They said to go ahead, with this disclosure, so I'm finally getting around to doing that.

P.S. Have we had a post about crossword construction, with links to guides and resources? Should I make one?]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212893/New-ways-to-be-puzzled www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212893 Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:26:09 GMT daisyace YouTube link Protect this man at all costs]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212885/Mamdani-introduces-pied--terre-tax www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212885 Wed, 15 Apr 2026 22:50:06 GMT St. Peepsburg Too chonk to fail. Private Equity Vet lets you see if your local D.V.M. is just a PE with a lab coat. (previously)]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212911/Private-equity-neutering-independent-vets-since-2010 www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212911 Fri, 17 Apr 2026 20:28:01 GMT MiltonRandKalman What Children Actually Want From Picture Books.

"Children do not come to picture books hoping to admire them from a tasteful distance. They come wanting an experience. They want to laugh. They want to shout the refrain. They want to spot something in the illustration before the grown-up notices it. They want the page turn to land like a joke. They want the story to build enough tension that the whole room leans forward. They want the thrilling little power of knowing what is about to happen and being right.

"They want humor, rhythm, weirdness, surprise, tension, and the joy of being in on the joke.

"And honestly, they are right."

(Yes, I know it's Substack. Nonetheless, this is a piece worth discussing.)

Updated to add AlSweigart's suggested archive.today [https://archive.ph/RRygO] link to the essay]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212872/The-Pigeon-Has-a-Meltdown-What-Kids-Really-Want-From-Picture-Books www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212872 Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:34:36 GMT MonkeyToes

• EP1 Why The Miata Exists

• EP2 1989 The First NA Miata
• EP3 NB Slow Evolution
• EP4 NC Forcing Change
• EP5 ND Final Chapter?

Bonus content!

• Review | Honda S2000 | In Memoriam - a roadster that didn't make it.
• Car Talk, Traveling in Vintage Porsches - a trip to Hawaii with some complicated feelings.

]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212881/Miata-is-Always-the-Answer www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212881 Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:41:01 GMT postcommunism figure out what ⍼ (U+237C ⍼ RIGHT ANGLE WITH DOWNWARDS ZIGZAG ARROW) means finally has an answer.

Part 2: update: U+237C ⍼ ⍼
Part 3: Monotype Mathematical Sorts
Part 4: U+237C ⍼ is (also) S9576 ⍼

[Part 5 (spoilers)]

Part 5: U+237C ⍼ is Azimuth

via: trivium]]> https://www.metafilter.com/212897/ www.metafilter.com,2026:site.212897 Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:33:15 GMT zamboni
Has in-person shopping always been this bad? I just spent two hours shopping and rejecting every dress I saw in real life and am now willing to consider online shopping. I'm looking for a dress to wear to work, but "work dresses" look like cosplay to me, with their brass buttons and pointy collars.

Here's a dress I'm considering, to give a point of reference: amera. This one isn't skin tight, nice fish design, no ruffles or flowers, slightly weird that they couldn't find a person to put it on for a pic but otherwise this is pretty good. Not 100% sure it accommodates boobs. It does look like it would hide bra straps which puts it in the 95th percentile of dresses I've evaluated today.

I am even willing to forego pockets.]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/389493/Dresses-Complications-I-have-boobs-a-job-and-I-dont-like-flowers ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.389493 Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:15:54 GMT Vatnesine