MetaFilter https://www.metafilter.com/ The past 24 hours of MetaFilter Wed, 06 May 2026 22:39:02 GMT Wed, 06 May 2026 22:39:02 GMT en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 It's notable to me that the Met Gala gets compared to the Hunger Games For many people, these outfits are not art but signs of social decay. [a BlueSky thread by Derek Guy]]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213113/Its-notable-to-me-that-the-Met-Gala-gets-compared-to-the-Hunger-Games tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213113 Wed, 06 May 2026 22:39:02 GMT chavenet Art Charity Craft Criticism Fashion MetGala Wealth https://www.metafilter.com/213113/Its-notable-to-me-that-the-Met-Gala-gets-compared-to-the-Hunger-Games/rss To infinity and beyond Life tip: Hang out more with socionauts. "Our trip helped me realize that the world isn't like one of those games with predetermined levels; it is a game of generated landscapes where the world keeps growing the further you go. You can go out and talk to people and do stuff, and the world opens up vista after vista. Or, as Werner Herzog likes to say, "the world reveals itself to those who travel by foot." "

"This was, looking back, classic exposure training. I was afraid to go out into the world, talk to people, and do things, so we came up with playful ways of practicing these skills until the anxiety went away." --- "What all of these experiences had in common was that they expanded my world. By tagging along with people bolder than me, I learned that it wasn't dangerous to reach out to and talk with people and make stuff happen. You could be playful with it. It wasn't dangerous to fail. The TV series never happened, for instance, but it didn't matter, because now that move in social space was part of the game, and we could play around with it and see what would happen (a year later, we ended up securing money to do a feature-length documentary instead)."]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213112/To-infinity-and-beyond tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213112 Wed, 06 May 2026 22:16:57 GMT storybored henrikKarlsson socionauts https://www.metafilter.com/213112/To-infinity-and-beyond/rss [A] little box with reeds of metal plates and bellows fixed to it World Accordion Day! It marks the date of the first accordion patent, filed May 6, 1829 by Austrian inventor Cyrill Demian. World Accordion Day was created by the CIA* in 2009 and is a"promotion for the accordion in which every accordion enthusiast can participate and help bring our accordion world together as well as strongly promote the accordion."

While earlier similar instruments existed, Demian's was the first to allow the playing of a chord with a single button (hence the name). It would go on to become a staple for a wide variety of music genres, featuring in blues, jazz, Vaudeville, polka, norteño, rock, zydeco, and just about every other genre I can think of (including a very specific subgenre). There are lots of ways to celebrate World Accordion Day, including playing your accordion! If you don't know how to play the accordion, there are lots of ways to learn, including online! I like Accordion Love myself, but there are other options out there too. If playing isn't for you, you can read about the accordion's history in the US in Accordion Revolution: A People's History, or listen to Accordion Noir online or on the radio (geographic limitations may apply). And if you hurry, you can still get a 2026 Accordion Babes pinup calendar! *The Confédération Internationale des Accordéonistes, natch!]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213111/A-little-box-with-reeds-of-metal-plates-and-bellows-fixed-to-it tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213111 Wed, 06 May 2026 21:54:30 GMT nickmark accordion accordionbabes accordionrevolution polka squeezebox WorldAccordionDay https://www.metafilter.com/213111/A-little-box-with-reeds-of-metal-plates-and-bellows-fixed-to-it/rss Maryland is the first state to ban dynamic pricing Maryland is the first state to ban dynamic pricing, which uses AI and other data to up prices at stores.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213110/Maryland-is-the-first-state-to-ban-dynamic-pricing tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213110 Wed, 06 May 2026 19:42:58 GMT chariot pulled by cassowaries DynamicPricing https://www.metafilter.com/213110/Maryland-is-the-first-state-to-ban-dynamic-pricing/rss Computer Literacy in the Late Nineteen Hundreds Guide to Computer Jargon (1983) included cartoon robots moving the bits between registers and the ALU, and Creative Computing's Katie and the Computer (1979) had surprisingly accurate depictions of how busses and CRTs work, as well as periodicals like Compute! magazine which contained lengthy type-in BASIC programs (like the very fun Laser Chess) for children to learn the fine art of debugging.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213109/Computer-Literacy-in-the-Late-Nineteen-Hundreds tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213109 Wed, 06 May 2026 17:57:07 GMT autopilot atari basic children coco ComputerLiteracy computers eighties nostalgia programming retrocomputing trs80 https://www.metafilter.com/213109/Computer-Literacy-in-the-Late-Nineteen-Hundreds/rss You Damn Companies Get Off My Lawn The internet you grew up on isn't dying. A commercial veneer glued on top of it is.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213108/You-Damn-Companies-Get-Off-My-Lawn tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213108 Wed, 06 May 2026 17:02:46 GMT Leeway Gemini HTTP Icecast Internet SMTP Usenet https://www.metafilter.com/213108/You-Damn-Companies-Get-Off-My-Lawn/rss catfishing - the Wikipedia guessing game Guess the Wikipedia article from its categories. Every day there are 10 notable, diverse, and interesting people, places, and things to guess. It's a challenging test of general knowledge, and a source of new Wikipedia discoveries!]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213107/catfishing-the-Wikipedia-guessing-game tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213107 Wed, 06 May 2026 16:53:49 GMT AlSweigart daily game wikipedia https://www.metafilter.com/213107/catfishing-the-Wikipedia-guessing-game/rss The vase is broken, the damage is done. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.

He goes on to caution the UK against opening new oil fields in the North Sea: "They won't provide any significant quantities of oil and gas for many years to come. They will not lower the bills... I am not even talking about the climate change effects – just from a business point of view, making a major investment in exploration might not make business sense." In late March, Birol was cautioning that it would take "some time to come back to the normal days we had before the war was started." He is now telling us those days will never return. Background on the IEA.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213106/The-vase-is-broken-the-damage-is-done tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213106 Wed, 06 May 2026 16:50:01 GMT Winnie the Proust ClimateChange FatihBirol FossilFuels IEA InternationalEnergyAgency IranWar Oil https://www.metafilter.com/213106/The-vase-is-broken-the-damage-is-done/rss John Doe was not seeking entry to the U.S. & has not done so since 2015 Canadian sues U.S. Homeland Security, which allegedly sought his Google data after critical social media posts

Related: Canadians Are Continuing to Avoid Travel to the US, StatsCan reports Where are all the Canadians going? Maine tourism suffers as Canadians continue to steer clear of U.S. U.S. border crossings from Canada down 24 per cent as U.S. projected to lose billions]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213105/John-Doe-was-not-seeking-entry-to-the-US-and-has-not-done-so-since-2015 tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213105 Wed, 06 May 2026 15:32:11 GMT Kitteh aclu bbc globaltv impactoftrumpadministration johndoecanadianlawsuit nonustravel tourismloss https://www.metafilter.com/213105/John-Doe-was-not-seeking-entry-to-the-US-and-has-not-done-so-since-2015/rss The Unsolicited Book Cover Library redesigned her personal library under a strict set of self-imposed constraints.

What's interesting is watching her break her rules, gradually and then completely, over time. (The oldest covers are at the bottom of the Unsolicited section.) The Published and Unused sections are worth your time too. More covers that didn't make it: designer Nathaniel Roy's A Book Designer's Notebook, where he regularly posts his rejected work alongside what was chosen, and why.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213104/The-Unsolicited-Book-Cover-Library tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213104 Wed, 06 May 2026 13:03:15 GMT Laura in Canada art books covers design graphicdesign reading https://www.metafilter.com/213104/The-Unsolicited-Book-Cover-Library/rss Yuki you so fine, u so cute Annyeonghaseyo, Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba heads to Thailand for Mahiiya. Should Pitbull watch out? Is there a new Mr. Worldwide?

More Yuki: ]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213103/Yuki-you-so-fine-u-so-cute tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213103 Wed, 06 May 2026 12:59:48 GMT postcommunism bigsnake boredteenagerflow japan japanesemusic rap TourismAuthorityofThailand yukichiba https://www.metafilter.com/213103/Yuki-you-so-fine-u-so-cute/rss At least this was the story he told me Or had I just landed on a major cover-up? [Harper's; archive.ph version]]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213102/At-least-this-was-the-story-he-told-me tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213102 Wed, 06 May 2026 09:23:57 GMT chavenet Conspiracy Coverup Radiation USArmy https://www.metafilter.com/213102/At-least-this-was-the-story-he-told-me/rss Why send a unit when you already had a ghost? In an act of folly or courage, in December 1982 Rodney Wilkinson walked four bombs into South Africa's only nuclear power station, weeks before it was due to come online. On 17 December, he pulled the pins, made it out of the control room, had a farewell drink with his colleagues, and then disappeared. The man who blew up a nuclear power station and disappeared, a captivating longread by Stephen Robert Morse in The Guardian. Koeberg powerplant bombing, previously.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213101/Why-send-a-unit-when-you-already-had-a-ghost tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213101 Wed, 06 May 2026 06:36:40 GMT Rumple ANC Apartheid Bombs DirectAction History Koeberg NuclearPower NuclearReactors Sabotage SouthAfrica https://www.metafilter.com/213101/Why-send-a-unit-when-you-already-had-a-ghost/rss A bizarre, perpetually-open clam A bizarre, perpetually-open clam from Australia is running for Mollusc of the Year, offering scientists a chance to study how unusual animal forms evolve. (University of Colorado Boulder)

Most clams have two-part shells that open and close to protect their soft tissues from predators and the environment. Unlike a typical clam, the moon clams' shells remain apart at nearly 180°, forming a moon-like shape. "I wasn't sure how these animals survive in the ocean, which is a very dangerous place with tons of predators," Li said. "It turns out they live in houses built by other animals." Smaller than a fingernail, moon clams live tucked inside burrows and cracks built by shrimp and sea sponges. They hide in these shelters, feeding on plankton that drifts by. Maintaining a thick hard shell takes a lot of energy, Li said. She suspects that by relying on such a symbiotic relationship with shrimp and sponges, moon clams no longer need to invest as much in building their shells. Instead, the clam seems to have redirected that energy to a different task: sensing the world. Their mantle, the soft flesh that typically lines a clam's shell, extends outward and folds over the shell surface. There are small bumps and tentacle-like structures all over the mantle, and Li said these may act as sensory organs, helping the animal detect changes in its environment through touch or chemical signals.]]> https://www.metafilter.com/213100/A-bizarre-perpetually-open-clam tag:metafilter.com,2026:site.213100 Wed, 06 May 2026 06:05:46 GMT chariot pulled by cassowaries Clams Molluscs MoonClams https://www.metafilter.com/213100/A-bizarre-perpetually-open-clam/rss