https://projects.metafilter.com/ The past 20 posts to MeFi Projects Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:15:27 GMT Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:15:27 GMT en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60
By treating a cryptic poem on a 1614 tomb as a potential riddle, I followed a trail of clues that led to a nearby chapel, an obscure Kentish MP named Edward Master, and a web of unexpected literary connections. I've mapped out this archival detective story—including a side-by-side handwriting analysis using modern AI tools—and I'd love to hear what any history buffs, codebreakers, or genealogists think of the path I followed.

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6497/I-Know-What-Happened-to-Christopher-Marlowe tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6497 Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:15:27 GMT iotic https://projects.metafilter.com/6497/I-Know-What-Happened-to-Christopher-Marlowe/rss The Museum Of Everyday Items (to be renamed The Museum Of Obsolete Objects in 2066) is a small collection of common yet otherwise unremarkable artefacts from contemporary Britain. All items were collected on June 23rd, 2016, at the moment of their use. A diary of the day kept by the curator of the museum places the items in their appropriate historical context. There are 36 objects in The Museum Of Everyday Items. These items were kept in storage until June 2026, when they were photographed and catalogued for the opening of the museum on June 23rd, 2026. A handful of contemporary notes were added to each item which reflect the curator's current thoughts rather than those of the day in question. Further observations on the items will be recorded on June 23rd, 2036, and at ten year intervals ever after, or at least until the curator forgets and/or dies.

The primary purpose of The Museum of Everyday Items is simply to provide a permanent record of some the artefacts we use and encounter in a relatively normal day, and present them in a way which reflects their prevalence in everyday living. Of course even here, having collected items such as food packaging and receipts which would normally be discarded, there are still many omissions (clothes, crockery, cutlery, are all conspicuous by their absence). But still, I think keeping (and in displaying here, actually looking at) items such as cash machine receipts and carrier bags is interesting, at least on some level. A secondary idea behind this was the thought of telling the story of a day in its entirety. Even now in an environment of near ubiquitous social media coverage of every aspect of our lives, we pick out moments to share, shorn largely of context (or even, perhaps most often, with the context purposely obscured or misrepresented entirely). This museum therefore presents a day as a day, each artefact here presented as evidence of the reality of the attached narrative [#036]. Thirdly, I've always been interested in how, while the objects themselves don't change, our perceptions of them do. This is often clearest in old photos, where what was once the subject of the photo (the people in it, usually) becomes less interesting over time, while the background itself achieves the reverse and becomes endlessly fascinating. Old furniture, wallpaper, the clothes worn, technology, toys, shop signs, adverts. All the things that were transitory, momentary. So here we get a snapshot of 2016 where all the things are items from that periphery. Receipts from shops that no longer exist, items that have either become or are becoming obsolete through changing consumer habits (CDs, newspapers) or legislative changes (carrier bags) or simply the passing of time (actual paper £5 notes). And through it all still the reassuring ever unchanging presence of Tunnocks Tea Cakes.

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6496/The-Museum-of-Everyday-Items tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6496 Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:15:12 GMT dng https://projects.metafilter.com/6496/The-Museum-of-Everyday-Items/rss
I made a summary post that links to each of my more in-depth posts. I also provide a one-page summary PDF and an easy-to-share image to help people take the guide to the polls; I distributed a paper version at a weekly in-person outreach table I run. This is the third time I've written up local election recommendations (I did this for the primary and the general elections last year). For this election I expanded to covering some more kinds of races, and one of them -- State Senate District 13 -- is incredibly controversial, and I spent a lot of time trying to cover all the nuances. I don't think there's any other non-paywalled source that collates the New York City Bar Association, LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York, and Queens County Bar Association evaluations of the candidates in the Queens judicial election. I also met some of the candidates for several races and incorporated my impressions of them into my recommendations. In one case I even filed a Freedom of Information request to get more info about a candidate as part of my research. Overall I did significantly more research for this election than for previous ones.

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6495/Hyperlocal-primary-election-recommendations-for-part-of-Queens-NYC tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6495 Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:43:22 GMT brainwane https://projects.metafilter.com/6495/Hyperlocal-primary-election-recommendations-for-part-of-Queens-NYC/rss kunstschule.wien, explores the tension between one's own perception of the body and how others see it.

My Body is a Foreign Object Photo credit for all photos: Simon Spitzer. This work, created for my diploma at kunstschule.wien, explores the tension between one's own perception of the body and how others see it. It consists of a life-size self-portrait set against a background that illustrates how I perceive my body. By using myself as a model and comparing myself, during the creative process, with the three-dimensional form I had created, I was forced to confront my own, divergent inner perception of my body. I realised just how alien my own body feels to me. The books incorporated into the background collage and the handmade paper of the top layer – the 'skin' – played a formative role in my youth: C. Ransmayr, Die Schrecken des Eises und der Finsternis. Brandstätter, Vienna/Munich 1984; C. Ransmayr, Morbus Kitahara. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1995; G. García Márquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude, Aufbau-Verlag Berlin and Weimar, 1980; G. Heyer, Beauvallet, William Heinemann London, 1929; G. Heyer, Pistols for Two, William Heinemann, London, 1960 I selected the books for the inner, invisible layers of paper and the papier-mâché based on their technical properties: a high cellulose and lignin content, few to no additives; heavy paper, such as that used for book printing in the 1950s to 1970s. Diploma paper on the work

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6494/Mein-fremder-Krper-My-Body-is-a-Foreign-Object tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6494 Fri, 19 Jun 2026 19:39:19 GMT 15L06 https://projects.metafilter.com/6494/Mein-fremder-Krper-My-Body-is-a-Foreign-Object/rss
Frank Doyle was going places. As the only sophomore on his high school's varsity baseball team, he had it all—popularity, an all but certain scholarship, a future. He was somebody. Then he got marked, and lost it all. Sure, the mark gave him the power to teleport (sort of), but it meant he couldn't play baseball, or any other sport. It meant he didn't fit in. It meant he had to transfer to The School where he was just another kid with a power—a nobody. Now he's got no real friends and no real future, and for the last year and a half, he's been making that everyone else's problem. When a stunt gone wrong leaves him trapped in a form that he knows he should hate, his attempts to prove that he hasn't really changed leave him stranded with his worst enemy, far from home. Frank will have to choose between clinging to an identity that never really fit, or facing the consequences, and the future, as herself. Retconned is self-published and available as a paperback or ebook from multiple platforms.

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6493/Just-Super-Retconned tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6493 Thu, 18 Jun 2026 01:17:00 GMT Tabitha Someday https://projects.metafilter.com/6493/Just-Super-Retconned/rss
[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6492/I-made-a-divorced-bird-universe tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6492 Thu, 18 Jun 2026 01:16:32 GMT poppypetalmask https://projects.metafilter.com/6492/I-made-a-divorced-bird-universe/rss Hub of Universe is a fish-eye circular map of the whole world with you in the middle. Pan/Zoom. Double click flies anywhere fast.

Fun webtoy I have been working on since I retired. Looks best on bigger screens. Uses the obscure logarithmic azimuthal projection. Source at https://github.com/bitslayer42/hub-of-universe

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6491/Yes-its-true-the-world-does-revolve-around-you tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6491 Wed, 17 Jun 2026 13:22:01 GMT bitslayer https://projects.metafilter.com/6491/Yes-its-true-the-world-does-revolve-around-you/rss
[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6490/Happy-Foot-Sad-Foot-sign-a-Wikipedia-article tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6490 Sat, 06 Jun 2026 05:10:54 GMT dreamyshade https://projects.metafilter.com/6490/Happy-Foot-Sad-Foot-sign-a-Wikipedia-article/rss
I was helping my friend Manuel with a short horror movie last year (about a haunted cassette deck, possessed by a 1960s psychadelic rock icon, who was in turn possessed by Satan). He submitted it to a few film festivals, then we decided to have our own. Details are all at the website, but in a nutshell, we've paid out of pocket to rent a theatre at the local indie cinema for six hours on Saturday, September 26. We're looking for short (ideally under 15 minutes), weird (the sky's the limit), cheap (made for couch change) things to screen. Selection will be lightly biased to people who might be able to make it to the festival to join in the fun, but we accept all comers. Also up at Film Freeway at https://filmfreeway.com/Attackofthe5dollarFilmFestival.

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6489/Attack-of-the-5-Film-Festival-Submissions-open tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6489 Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:56:30 GMT Shepherd https://projects.metafilter.com/6489/Attack-of-the-5-Film-Festival-Submissions-open/rss
A good tournament poster lets you easily see what's ahead and track the current standings. If you image search for "world cup poster" you'll see lots of loud/busy/confusing designs. This poster is meant to be easy to use and eye pleasing. It has a calendar for the group stage and a bracket for the knock-out rounds. Groups are color coded, and there are areas to record group round match results. The poster is big (24"x36" or A1), but that's what you get with a 48 team field. I've been able to print copies on self-serve large format printers for $20. Professional options cost a bit more. I've had good luck with the poster print services at FedEx and Staples. You can scale down to smaller paper, but it gets difficult to fill in. You can go straight to the PDF download page or the instructions or read about the design's history.

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6488/A-Useful-Pleasant-Poster-for-Following-the-World-Cup tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6488 Mon, 01 Jun 2026 20:32:23 GMT bruceo https://projects.metafilter.com/6488/A-Useful-Pleasant-Poster-for-Following-the-World-Cup/rss
[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6487/No-Borders-Geography-Quiz tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6487 Wed, 27 May 2026 12:19:23 GMT AlSweigart https://projects.metafilter.com/6487/No-Borders-Geography-Quiz/rss
It started with an Andrew Weatherhead tweet about poetry as a list of horses. It grew into a creative writing project, a database, a tumblr account, and a series of increasingly advanced search tools. Now I am opening my little horse poetry project to the world. Current in open beta so bug reports and suggestions are welcome. The site is currently set to allow posting without admin review so please behave ;)

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6486/poethorse-a-horse-poetry-website tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6486 Mon, 25 May 2026 18:30:13 GMT metaphorever https://projects.metafilter.com/6486/poethorse-a-horse-poetry-website/rss newsletter and are planning to have a blog during the tournament. I wrote about Belarusian football and the Lukashenko regime for the newsletter, and the topics of other pieces include the 1998 match between Iran and the US, an embarrassing moment for Gianni Infantino and the time Bolivia reached the World Cup. The Editor's Note lays out what the people running the magazine envision for it.

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6485/Golden-Goal tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6485 Thu, 21 May 2026 15:50:06 GMT Kattullus https://projects.metafilter.com/6485/Golden-Goal/rss
[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6484/Texas-Water-Quality-Visualization-Map tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6484 Tue, 19 May 2026 15:02:33 GMT gregr https://projects.metafilter.com/6484/Texas-Water-Quality-Visualization-Map/rss
A Cave in the Woods is a short interactive fiction game, powered by a few things: writing from me, responses from AI (Claude), and whatever else you wish to add. I want to talk more about the details of this project, but doing so feels like it would spoil the fun of discovery. So I'm going to just keep quiet about all that. I had a lot of fun making this game, and actually got a lot of experience working with AI more and more as the development progressed. One huge thing I cannot emphasize enough: every so often, the AI would come up with a bit of writing that had me literally laughing out loud. I don't think I ever quite experienced that before. I'll let a little slip: I've long been interested in comedy, and in particular - the mechanics behind it: what makes something funny, what makes someone laugh? Trying to describe or structure humor, and to convert it into code/instructions for an AI persona was... a really fun exercise. Best thing about this project: I laughed a lot. Unexpectedly so. I hope you laugh a lot as well.

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6483/A-Cave-in-the-Woods tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6483 Tue, 19 May 2026 06:38:47 GMT avoision https://projects.metafilter.com/6483/A-Cave-in-the-Woods/rss this poem, using my wildest goblin-acting abilities.

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6482/Voice-Acting-Overheard-On-A-Saltmarsh tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6482 Thu, 14 May 2026 04:13:37 GMT Greg_Ace https://projects.metafilter.com/6482/Voice-Acting-Overheard-On-A-Saltmarsh/rss clock scene in Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6481/Metropolis-Shift-a-game-about-futility tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6481 Fri, 08 May 2026 00:54:26 GMT AlSweigart https://projects.metafilter.com/6481/Metropolis-Shift-a-game-about-futility/rss Your Internet Radio Dial (YIRD, ya heard?) is an ad-free and free-to-use interface that comes preset with a bunch of stations organized into bands, but you can customize your own collection of both. It has a bunch of fun lil' features (working VU meter, song identifier, a doze setting to gradually fade out (for sleepytimes), a scan function like a car radio, all kind of stuff that I had a blast building. I think it's pretty, too! Hope you like it, and if you can think of any ways it could be better or run across any bugs or want to suggest a station for the default presets, let me know here or through the site's Suggestion Box. Happy listening!

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6480/An-old-timey-radio-dial-for-the-internet tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6480 Wed, 06 May 2026 06:59:53 GMT slappy_pinchbottom https://projects.metafilter.com/6480/An-old-timey-radio-dial-for-the-internet/rss
It also does some tricks that make it feel more native, like letting you import ,webloc or .url bookmarks from your desktop by dragging. It's also a PWA so you can install it and run it in your Dock alongside all your other apps. And last but not least there's a Chrome extension on the way this week. But for me the biggest feature is that this is an intentional, algorithm-free way to store and organize things you like on the web. It's better than what ships with your browser, but also not some "second brain" productivity play. I'm super proud of this, maybe irrationally so. I hope folks here will try it and let me know if it helps them.

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6479/Booooookmarks-is-simple-gratifying-bookmarking-for-people-who-miss-Pocket-RIP tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6479 Tue, 05 May 2026 05:29:22 GMT littlerobothead https://projects.metafilter.com/6479/Booooookmarks-is-simple-gratifying-bookmarking-for-people-who-miss-Pocket-RIP/rss Reeder for years and love and respect it a lot. The latest version requires a subscription to be useful, and includes a lot of features I don't really care about. So I made my own low-frills feed reader and then decided to make it public and share it.

Some features I'm proud of: I'm using Cloudflare's SQLite backed Durable Objects to create a database per user so no one's feeds, favorites, or archives are intermingled. I'm using WebAuthn (passkeys) for authentication (no passwords to store or lose) and heavy use of Cloudflare's "cron" functions to refresh feeds on an hourly schedule. I wrote about some details here.

[Link]]> https://projects.metafilter.com/6478/Teensy--News tag:projects.metafilter.com,2026:site.6478 Mon, 04 May 2026 17:53:09 GMT device55 https://projects.metafilter.com/6478/Teensy--News/rss