151: A Birdwatching Mecha

April 5, 2019 12:30 PM

It's podcast time, and it's a (relatively) brief, (relatively) under-produced episode this time, with me and Jessamyn chatting about MeFi stuff for about 70 minutes because my voice was a little worn out.

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Because I just want to get this dang thing out the door, there are no extra musical bumpers this episode, but I assure you there's lots of good stuff to listen to over on MeFi Music so if you feel so inclined you should probably just hit pause on this every twenty minutes or so and listen to something.

Misc
- don't miss the Crouton Petting Zoo
- of which, the history of MeFi April Fools stunts
- episode 151 more like Bacardi 151
- principles of food prep
- play the census bracket game

Jobs
- Full time flexible admin in NYC by 6thsense
- Project Manager by ochenk
- Service Desk Consulting Engineer in Portland, OR by churl
- 🖌️ 📐 📲 Emoji designer needed 🕴️ by Homeboy Trouble
- Crop scanned photos by k8t

Projects
- A Random Walk Through The Library of Congress: LOC Serendipity by metasunday (MeFi Post)
- Puzzling Art by Margalo Epps
- Make money. Rip off hard-working people. Earn cool stuff for your desk. by missjenny
- Terrible Things Happening in Cold Places by daisyk
- 18 short plays about Python and programming by brainwane

MetaFilter
- Can you help a brother out with a little money laundering? by sylloge
- A Rally of Librarians Who Are Nonetheless Human and Other Bibliohumor by MonkeyToes
- One Man and One Dog by janell
- Why You Shouldn't Bury Your Pet in the Back Yard by jjderooy
- “It was a labour of love” by bq
- "Mad weave is triaxial" by clew
- Transporting Fabrics. by Capt. Renault
- not kosher due to its extra dragon-typing by readinghippo
- ɾ, ɹ, l, ɫ by gwint
- Sorry, Albany, no Sweet Sixteen for you by not_on_display
- Knight to Bifurcating Tentacle Monster Three by cortex
- Am I just paranoid? Or am I just steamed? by Doktor Zed

Ask MeFi
- The Nuns at Sunday School Didn't Prepare Me For This by EmpressCallipygos
- Leave an empty seat for the dead by mermaidcafe
- Ever heard an explanation of a number that gave you an 'aha!' moment? by blazingunicorn
- Convince me to visit you! by backseatpilot
- Are there names for different types of snow drifts? by Sequined Ballet Flats
- Help me mine the Internet of yore...first ISP and web site for Spfld, IL by arniec
- What is your favorite little-known perq (from credit card, prime, etc.)? by AgentRocket

MetaTalk
- The Paint Roller AskMe's shared memory hits 2019 television by cashman
- Thank you, Metafilter by infini
- We're Married! by Fizz

posted by cortex (staff) to MeFi Podcast at 12:30 PM (28 comments total)

The paint roller MeTa thread has a link to a dailymotion video which the thread generally concedes is the answer to the paint roller question that has torn at my soul for five years, and the LINK IS BROKEN, and if this is all an elaborate belated april fool's thing y'all are conspiring against me with then i might literally die
posted by churl at 1:28 PM on April 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

"Dewey decimated"? (◔_◔)
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:44 PM on April 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

Also, "Electronic Croutons" was the name one of my bands (back in my salad days).
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:45 PM on April 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

Ha ha ha. I'm about 25 minutes into the podcast, and I am here to tell you that I'm your user workflow issue.

I went to post the LOC Serendipity project, and got distracted by the Boston Public Library thing and was all like "Oooh shiny new thing," with the full intent of returning to post metasunday's very awesome project, but couldn't because it's showing as posted to Metafilter.

I may not have completely deleted the post draft before switching them up, but I was pretty sure I had.

Anyway, if that can be resolved, I'd be thrilled to post that to the front page, or if someone else wants to have at it, by all means go ahead, because it's great!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:56 PM on April 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

I can't recall exactly, but I did one of two things:

Scenario A

1. *hit post this project to MeFi* -> 2. *get distracted by something else while intending to come back and post it a day or two hence* -> 3. *start composing new post, without deleting the initial draft and populating a brand-new FPP form* -> *post FPP*


Scenario B

1. *hit post this project to MeFi* -> 2. get distracted by something else* -> 3. *deleted previous draft, without populated a brand-new FPP form* -> *post FPP*

If Scenario B, does this mean that hitting "post to mefi" creates some sort of user state where deleting the draft and posting something else still shows as a post for that project?

But it's equally likely it was Scenario A, in which case the issue was between the keyboard and the chair.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:11 PM on April 5, 2019

Y'all better start selling plush metafilter croutons right fucking now.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:43 PM on April 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

Y'all better start selling plush metafilter croutons right fucking now.

They are open source croutons!
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 3:02 PM on April 5, 2019

Squishable.com will manufacture custom plushies, but they require a minimum order of about a thousand. A friend of mine ran a Kickstarter campaign to make and sell a plushie she had designed.

Or you could pet the whole salad.
posted by mbrubeck at 3:07 PM on April 5, 2019

Update: I have posted metasunday's great project to the front page as I had intended to and forgot to do.

*slinks away, hides in shame.*
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:23 PM on April 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

churl: "The paint roller MeTa thread has a link to a dailymotion video which the thread generally concedes is the answer to the paint roller question that has torn at my soul for five years, and the LINK IS BROKEN, and if this is all an elaborate belated april fool's thing y'all are conspiring against me with then i might literally die"

I thought the same thing! But there's another copy available here. I guess the first just got a copyright takedown.
posted by Rhaomi at 4:19 PM on April 5, 2019

Just wanted to quickly note that I really love Jessamyn's occasional tidbits about learning and speaking Romanian and living in Romania. I am (very casually) teaching myself Romanian from Duolingo, and it's always awesome to hear her experience and I appreciate learning a bit more about how to pronounce things. So thank you!
posted by kalimac at 6:25 PM on April 5, 2019

A thing about python and spreadsheets is that spreadsheets feel like the tool that gets no respect. They lack a certain nerd cachet (is there a stackoverflow section for excel?) yet at the salt time are indisputably potent and geeky tool that solve all kinds of problems. What's more, given their friendliness, graphical orientation, and inclusion in office suites, it seems ridiculous to pretend that they are going somewhere any time soon.
posted by Going To Maine at 6:44 PM on April 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

I have no idea how these people got their pythons wedged into their spreadsheets, or why.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:33 PM on April 5, 2019

Yay! I really had fun putting together the post on library humor--it was a very satisfying rabbit hole--but I confess that when I read Jessamyn's newsletter, I was like "Oh, Jell-O book preservation article, that's a great early April Fool's joke!" Then I realized it wasn't a joke, that this article exists, and felt silly. I was typing in the author's name, and saying it aloud--Nouleigh Rhee Furbished--and I was like WAIT A MINUTE, puns don't write scholarly articles!, and that's when I got the irrational urge to find out what was going on. It just grew in interesting directions from there. Thanks for encouraging me to indulge my curiosity, and for the shout-out!
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:33 AM on April 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

They are open source croutons!

The tragedy of the condiments
posted by Celsius1414 at 8:37 AM on April 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

Is Jessamyn’s scarf an illusion scarf?
posted by bq at 9:54 AM on April 7, 2019

No, though that is cool. It looks like this if you're staring down one end.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 6:04 PM on April 7, 2019

I believe that a company named Goslings still makes 151-proof rum.

Drink up!
posted by wenestvedt at 7:29 PM on April 7, 2019

jessamyn, can you post a close up of the texture near the edge? And all three of the “corners” at the end? My current guess is that it is Nuno Felt, i.e. fiber felted onto a (usually lightweight and open) fabric scaffold. It would be pretty trivial to make a triaxial form if the scaffold were folded, and allowed to laminate closed near the fold to form one rib, and not allowed to laminate (and subsequently felted on both sides) on the dangly ends forming the other two ribs.
posted by janell at 9:50 PM on April 7, 2019

Here's some close ups. Gosh I would love to find another one of these. It's so snuggly!
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 10:29 AM on April 8, 2019

Not Nuno felt. It is woven. The local structure looks like a slightly sleazy plain weave/gauze.

Do all three fins have the same drape/feel? My current guess is a three-later doubleweave, all stitched* at one end like a 3 page book. *Not actual stitching but structurally stitched together by the weft thread continuity as it is being woven.

I will have to make a mock-up to prove it, I think. It can be next on the loom.
posted by janell at 2:00 PM on April 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

All three have the same feel. Sleazy, is that a technical term?
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 6:38 PM on April 9, 2019

Yep! Sleazy = woven with the threads too far apart for their grippiness, where they slide around off grid in a random/uncontrolled way. Sometimes it’s a consequence of using a really energized yarn (with extra twist) or sometimes it’s just unplanned/unsampled to notice the problem It can be a design element but that’s pretty rare.
posted by janell at 8:58 PM on April 9, 2019 [6 favorites]

This scarf is driving me crazy. I had a dream about it. Can I post it on Ravelry? How about r/whatisthisthing?
posted by bq at 2:29 PM on April 10, 2019

Sure post wherever you want, it's been driving me crazy too! LMK if I can add more pix of anything.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 4:37 PM on April 10, 2019

if Jessamyn's scarf turns out to be an ARG promoting a ski resort I'm going to be very put out
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:57 PM on April 10, 2019 [5 favorites]

Okay, I am an idiot. I couldn't find this year's April Fool joke.... but I did play with the crouton petting zoo.


Yikes!
posted by jaruwaan at 5:54 PM on April 11, 2019

Hey, so, trivia-league-wise, I've set up the MetaFilter private rundle for LL81. Same name and password as always. Good luck, everyone!
posted by Huffy Puffy at 8:50 AM on April 13, 2019