https://www.metafilter.com/favorites/all Posts from across all sites, marked as a favorite most often in the past seven days. Wed, 08 Jul 2026 21:08:08 GMT Wed, 08 Jul 2026 21:08:08 GMT en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 In the mountains of Southwestern Switzerland , a renegade bishop, himself excommunicated by John Paul II (and de-excommunicated by former Hitler youth Pope Benedict XVI), has defied the authority of the Pope, and proceeded after multiple warnings that it would constitiute a schismatic act and lead to immediate de facto excommunication, has ordained four bishops without Papal approval.

The group of recalcitrant clerics, who call themselves the Society of Saint Pius X, claim that their doctrinal differences stem from Vatican II. Their origins, however, are much darker. They were founded by "the late French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1906-1991), an antisemitic wartime collaborationist."

Born into a conservative Catholic monarchist family, when the Dreyfus affair still generated passionate anti-Jewish sentiment in France, Lefebvre entered the church in the 1920s as fascism was rising in Europe. He attended the French seminary in Rome, the rector of which was a strong supporter of the proto-fascist Charles Maurras, the founder of Action Française and coiner of the phrase l'anti-sémitisme de coeur.
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Lefebvre spent most of the period from the 1930s to the early 1960s in colonial west Africa. Even at a distance from Europe, he enthusiastically endorsed Marshall Pétain's Vichy regime for what he termed its "Catholic order". Indeed, until his death, Lefebvre offered his support to Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front Nationale...
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In 1989 it was revealed that for some 16 years his followers had been harbouring Paul Touvier, indicted for his central role in the deportation of the Jews of Lyons to German death camps. Touvier was finally arrested, aged 74, at the Lefebvrist St Francis Priory in Nice.

So you know, Nazis.

The Pope, for his part (through the official press organ of The Vatican) has stopped referring to the organization by their chosen name, instead referring to them as "Lefebvrists," a move seen by church watchers* as evidence that the Pope is considering declaring the entire sect schismatic, which would put their hundreds of thousands of followers at risk of excommunication, but most especially the tens of thousands who attended the ordination. (*Bluesky thread that starts before the schism and comments throughout.)

The takeaway and TL;DR here is that Pope Bob from Chicago (who previously removed institutional sanction for the ultra right wing group Opus Dei) continues to play hardball and is taking direct, clearly anti-racist action against another persistent stronghold of the reactionary right.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213691/Schism www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213691 Thu, 02 Jul 2026 01:07:34 GMT Smedly, Butlerian jihadi
Anything and everything welcome, regardless of genre, and talk radio shows too are fine with the exception of political talk. I'm looking for these kinds of things:

- that one beloved DJ that's kind of a local icon
- speciality music shows devoted to a specific music genre, any genre
- great stations that go their own way - often whether community-supported, commercial, or sponsored
-shows and stations that express something unique about their region

No need to recommend stuff from the major syndicators (NPR, iHeart/ClearChannel, Disney, ABC, CBS), though if you have a local show carried on one of the stations they owned that works - I'm just mainly looking for radio content that's not already distributed nationally. Also, I don't speak non-English languages myself, but I'm open to listening to shows that aren't in English if they have music or other content that I could access without more language learning.

Tell me what you love to hear. Thanks for your recommendations!
0]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/390113/Whats-the-Frequency-Recommend-me-some-radio ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.390113 Sat, 04 Jul 2026 15:11:05 GMT Miko
The Board has formally voted to dissolve the Election Committee, following a request from committee chair joannemerriam. With the current board in place, and with new bylaws that include a formal process for Board elections the committee has successfully worked itself out of a job.The best committees are the ones that eventually become unnecessary, and the current Board would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped bring the community to the point where the Election Committee can retire in triumphant obsolescence.Our thanks go to all of the MetaFilter members who advocated for member elections. In particular, atoxyl, dg, joannemerriam, and NotLost put in an heroic amount of work to turn the will of the community into reality. They formed the committee, developed the interim election process, and worked with the previous Board to get both the committee and the election plan formally recognized.Without that work, there wouldn't have been an election; accordingly, all of MeFi owes the Election Committee a huge debt of gratitude. Thank you for your time, your labour, and your faith in the future of MetaFilter. We hope that you enjoy your retirement and that you are all looking forward to a November election you don't have to organise!]]> https://metatalk.metafilter.com/26942/The-election-committee-is-relieved metatalk.metafilter.com,2026:site.26942 Sun, 05 Jul 2026 11:20:43 GMT MeFiBoard The first synthetic cell with a complete life cycle Researchers at the University of Minnesota have created SpudCell, the world's first synthetic cell built entirely from non-living chemical components that can complete all fundamental life processes.

Have no fear, SpudCell is here.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213690/Its-alive-Its-alive www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213690 Wed, 01 Jul 2026 23:30:22 GMT Fizzy Kimchi The University of Bologna has opened the Biblioteca Eco , a new public library housing the personal book collection of writer and semiotician Umberto Eco, a decade after his death.

The collection, comprising more than 32,000 volumes from Eco's study in Milan, has found a permanent home in the 20th-century wing of Palazzo Poggi, with its entrance on Piazza Puntoni.

The collection was donated to the Italian state by Eco's heirs in 2020, on condition that it be placed on permanent loan to the University of Bologna.

Before the move, the library was surveyed shelf by shelf in Milan, with the position of every volume, thematic groupings and connections between authors and disciplines carefully documented, so that the new premises in Bologna could reproduce Eco's original arrangement exactly, down to which books he kept lying flat and which stood upright.

That arrangement follows the "good neighbour" principle developed by art historian Aby Warburg, which Eco adopted for his own shelving: placing seemingly unrelated texts side by side so that unexpected connections between them could emerge.

The library's themed rooms, covering subjects from mediaeval philosophy to popular fiction, comic books and occultism, allow visitors to trace the same interdisciplinary connections that shaped Eco's own research and writing.

Among the holdings are more than 2,000 editions and translations of Eco's own works, around 600 volumes about him and his work, and a complete run of the magazine Linus, which he co-founded in 1965.

Many Eco previouslies.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213742/The-Masters-Study www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213742 Tue, 07 Jul 2026 17:54:11 GMT Smedly, Butlerian jihadi An American Tune. Rhiannon Giddens and Paul Simon perform "a song of simple grace". Written by Simon in 1973, it seems even more resonant as time has gone by. The version performed here has a slightly modified lyric in the second last verse that sharpens the historical edge.

The original verse:

"We come on the ship they call The Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon"

The sung lyric is

"We didn't come here on The Mayflower
We came in a ship in a blood red moon"

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A musical note - the melody of American Tune is based on a chorale written by Hans Leo Hassler which was in turn used in Bach's St Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio and a couple of his cantatas.

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The song is searing in its tenderness, poetic in its indictment. It is political without being so. And its voices sound like truck drivers or factory workers, men and women who hustle for their daily bread while the world above them, the one of bankers and politicians, spins on indifferently.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213711/Cant-help-but-wonder-whats-gone-wrong www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213711 Sat, 04 Jul 2026 04:14:43 GMT storybored Like most outdoor laborers during peak season, Rashid drinks 15 to 20 liters of water daily to survive the relentless heat. (While this can seem like an excessive amount of water, a worker can sweat as much as 1 to 1.5 liters an hour from heavy labor in 45°C temperatures. To compensate for the loss of electrolytes through sweat, workers here consume yogurt and lime drinks with added salt, and eat pickles and other salty foods.) By mid-morning, sweat soaks through his clothes as his body's cooling mechanism works overtime. He chews on sugarcane during breaks, which provides quick calories — an ancient practice that sustained ancestors but now compounds health problems. Nothing about his general health seemed unusual at first. But when I asked about saliva — that often-overlooked component of oral health that most people never think about — there was a long pause. "My mouth is always dry," he said quietly in Urdu. "Even when I drink water until I feel sick. My mouth stays dry." Dentist Zain Azhar documents how extreme heat is ruining teeth. A long read in Earth Island Journal.

That's when something clicked into place that would fundamentally reshape my understanding of what I'd been observing in my practice. I'd documented this pattern of tooth decay in 37 patients by this point, all agricultural workers, all from the same climate-ravaged zones in the central-eastern state of Punjab. I just hadn't connected the dots to heat-induced dehydration and its catastrophic effects on oral chemistry. Their mouths weren't just dry — external climate forces were fundamentally turning them into hostile environments for their own teeth. I realized I was witnessing something far more systemic and urgent than a collection of individual dental problems. This was environmental collapse writing itself directly into human biological systems.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213730/When-the-heat-steals-your-smile www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213730 Mon, 06 Jul 2026 16:25:30 GMT Bella Donna A Love Letter to Handsome John, a loose, 54-minute documentary streaming free on YouTube. The film is a ramshackle tribute to John Prine, told almost entirely through the chaotic, affectionate memories of Todd Snider. But with Snider's recent passing, the project has taken on an incredibly bittersweet weight. What began as an intimate thank-you note to Prine has unexpectedly morphed into a final, heartbreaking monument to both of these singular Americana icons. It is loose, imperfect, and essential viewing for the folks who love these weirdos.

Gibbs made a post on his site introducing the movie as free to watch on YouTube, as of July 4th.

Check out the trailer.

Todd Snider's official site.

A complete (and excellent) recording of a show from late in Todd's career (but pre-health issues).

The music video for Todd's final single: High, Lonesome, and then Some.

MeFi obit post for Snider. And the obit post for Prine.

Todd and John singing "Illegal Smile."]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213740/A-Love-Letter-to-Handsome-John-and-Todd-Snider-too www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213740 Tue, 07 Jul 2026 17:22:29 GMT DirtyOldTown 850,000 fireworks in a 40-minute show. But what, in practical terms, does such a large number of fireworks even mean? An analysis by Williams College professor Chad Topaz goes into the sheer magnitude of what a terrible idea this display is.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213698/Three-Hundred-Fifty-Four-Fireworks-per-Second www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213698 Thu, 02 Jul 2026 13:54:32 GMT Pope Guilty
Gunditjmara man Craig Molyneux buys back land that was stolen from his ancestors and infuses the property's old church with his Indigenous culture.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213705/This-man-bought-the-land-stolen-from-his-Indigenous-ancestors www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213705 Fri, 03 Jul 2026 16:12:06 GMT chariot pulled by cassowaries
An Anti-Nazi Woman in the Propaganda Ministry: The Katrin Janecke Diaries (1941-1945) Newly digitized and in English.

Architectural Watercolor Works of the 19th Century

From Atlanta Bar Rags to Victorian Erotica: Newly Available LGBTQ+ Rare Books & Print at the Rose Library (Behind an anti-scraper captcha, but worth the effort.)

Superboy Saves 1776 Actual dialogue "According to history, Paul Revere got the right signal, so I'm not really changing history if I relight the lantern wick with my heat vision."]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213724/Whats-New-in-Old-Books www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213724 Sun, 05 Jul 2026 17:19:49 GMT Horace Rumpole The Carp of My Dreams" (1776) is among Ueda Akinari's influential Tales of Moonlight and Rain and, like Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther ('74), a key text of its era. Inspired by Charlotte Buff, Goethe had also been fond of "Blind Man's Buff" ('70-'71) near when Phillis Wheatley Peters played poetry games ('73) deflating American self-mythologization ('71). Other poets opposed wealth inequality ('70), misogyny ('74), slavery ('75), and debtors' prisons ('77), and a utopian imagined the 25th Century ('71; v. 2). More weird lit: The Devil in Love ('72) became a woman and a theory of desire and isolation; "Sir Bertrand" ('73) ventured into the Gothic; and "Lenore" ('74) aided Romanticism by summoning her dead lover back from a global war. It-narratives ('70), picaresques ('71), and erotic lit ('77) were around, but a novel still taught is Frances Burney's Evelina ('78).]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213707/Some-prose-and-poetry-of-the-1770s www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213707 Fri, 03 Jul 2026 19:05:33 GMT Wobbuffet Some of you may remember web "rings" where one option was to get sent to a random site in the ring. it was fun. kind of like sitting down with a random volume of the encyclopedia, opening to a random page and just reading. People sometimes end up on obscure sites run by just... anyone. A page made by a local club was as easy to find as a corporate site.

Back in the early days of the Internet, any interest, no matter how niche, could be shared with anyone else interested. I still have a couple of "forums" discussing niche interests that I visit once in a while, but there are fewer every year. All of the communities that were spread around are now all just "groups" on Facebook or sub-Reddits
The entire web feels somehow homogenized. It's as if the internet transformed from an interesting shopping district into a bland strip mall. And now with the rise of AI, it's going to get even worse.

In the spirit of returning to the Human-centered internet of the bygone days, some folks have started a Human-made Webring
, a webring of sites that are "human-made". They are against using AI slop in their personal websites, and if you have a human-made site, you can join and help this webring grow.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213696/Human-made-Webring www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213696 Thu, 02 Jul 2026 12:23:48 GMT ambulocetus The gorgeous astrophotographs highlight the dazzling night sky and remind viewers what we risk losing to light pollution.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213723/Images-From-the-2026-Milky-Way-Photographer-of-the-Year-Contest www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213723 Sun, 05 Jul 2026 15:55:41 GMT chariot pulled by cassowaries The establishment of Mission Dolores and San Francisco are intertwined; through a calendrical quirk both are tied to the founding of the United States itself. To understand who we are in the present—in San Francisco, in America—you need to start with the mission's past. [Esquire; ungated]]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213738/Its-not-so-much-what-you-see-here-as-what-you-dont www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213738 Tue, 07 Jul 2026 10:23:35 GMT chavenet Jim Henson's experimental surrealist film The Cube [55m]. Created with Jerry Juhl, and created outside his work with puppets. I have no idea what it means but the journey certainly was something. Wikipedia.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213735/The-Cube www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213735 Tue, 07 Jul 2026 04:34:23 GMT Dawn Trask-Dontell Infowars has resumed broadcasting, headed by Tim Heidecker under the purview of The Onion. Who else is going to tell you that JFK couldn't have killed himself by hanging himself from the roof of his car, because the top was down? Who else is going to sell you cans and cans of FDA-unapproved Hogwater™, now in new Green Flavor? Who else will offer to tell you the secret means by which you can turn your gold into piss? Enjoy the new Infowars theme song, featuring the Infowars Elf! Previously]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213700/Welcome-the-Elf www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213700 Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:25:39 GMT JHarris
For example:
Rob Hart - The Paradox Hotel. The hotel is the setting but not the book's focus.
Grace Curtis - Floating Hotel. Close to what I'm looking for, but I'm sure you can find something closer.
Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast. Not a hotel. Disqualified despite hitting most of the notes above . Hotels only please.

Genre-wise I'm not fussy. SFF, crime novels, slice of life, romance, all fine.

I know I can find lists on the internet (I already have). I'm asking here because I'm interested in people's personal recommendations.]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/390115/Novels-about-the-running-of-a-hotel ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.390115 Sat, 04 Jul 2026 21:30:03 GMT Lorc Octopus Pie is a complete long-form webcomic by Meredith Gran. it had a ten year run of regular updates so you might want to read by chapter instead of just from the beginning. The story of two young women in Brooklyn; their jobs, friends and love lives as, despite their best efforts, they find themselves growing up. We were fortunate enough get an epilogue in 2021. And another in 2022!

Octopus Pie is available in a print collection from Image Comics.

Meredith (technically Mefi's own) has since released two adventure games - Perfect Tides and its sequel. They're emotional point and click adventure games about a very online girl coming of age while stuck living on a "destination" island in the year 2000. Everybody loved them.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213719/Good-people-making-bad-decisions-but-doing-their-best-about-it www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213719 Sun, 05 Jul 2026 08:34:48 GMT Lorc finances and party incomes. In an attempt to control the narrative, Farage will fight for his now-vacated seat in the forthcoming by-election. All the main political parties have refused to participate and stand candidates, seemingly giving Farage an easy and pointless re-election. However ... enter Count Binface, who may stand and is picking up support.

This is just a normal day in British politics, which will soon have its seventh Prime Minister in the decade or so since the shooting-yourself-in-the-foot act of Brexit.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213753/Binface-vs-Fascist-dumpster-fire-it-is-on www.metafilter.com,2026:site.213753 Wed, 08 Jul 2026 14:25:29 GMT Wordshore