A nonnative organism displaced into a new website

1.5M ratings
277k ratings

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
conservethis
existentialterror

Sometimes I’m looking for something online - often “how to” articles - and I want to filter for - like - a website that was clearly built in 2010 at the latest, which may or may not have been updated since then, but contains a vast wealth of information on one topic, painstakingly organized by an unknown legend in the field with decades’ worth of experience.

I don’t want a listicle with a nice stolen picture in a slideshow format written by a content aggregator that God forgot. I want hand-drawn diagrams by some genius professor who doesn’t understand SEO at all, but understands making stir-fries or raising stick insects better than anyone else on this earth. I don’t know what search settings to put into Google to get this.

greenjudy

thank you for articulating this cri de coeur for me

jumpingjacktrash

ngl these days i’m just happy when it’s not a video

averixus

search.marginalia.nu is the search engine you want!

The search engine calculates a score that aggressively favors text-heavy websites, and punishes those that have too many modern web design features.
This is in a sense the opposite of what most major search engines do, they favor modern websites over old-looking ones. Most links you find here will be nearly impossible to find on a regular search engine, as they aren’t sufficiently search engine optimized.
ashby-santoso

“It is a search engine, designed to help you find what you didn’t even know you were looking for. If you search for “Plato”, you might for example end up at the Canterbury Tales. Go looking for the Canterbury Tales, and you may stumble upon Neil Gaiman’s blog.

If you are looking for fact, this is almost certainly the wrong tool. If you are looking for serendipity, you’re on the right track. When was the last time you just stumbled onto something interesting, by the way?

I don’t expect this will be the next “big” search engine. This is and will remain a niche tool for a niche audience.“

ms-demeanor

i clicked around for a few minutes searching various things and I now have two fourteenth century pie crust recipes and an apple filling recipe i want to try, so thanks!

ms-demeanor

it has been twenty minutes and I am deeply in love with this search engine.

image

INCREDIBLE. I *do* want to know how to test Windows 95 for Y2K Compliance and I am glad that someone is still hosting step by step instructions for that.

Count some birds this weekend!

This weekend (Feb 17-20) is the annual Great Backyard Bird Count! It’s a citizen science research event where the Cornell Lab of Ornithology asks people around the world to spend 15 minutes in their backyard (or some other outdoor area) identifying and counting all the birds they can see. This data collection is really important for ongoing research on bird populations, as well as for tracking species declines.

Anyone can participate by downloading either eBird or Merlin Bird ID. The Merlin app is great for beginners with no bird identification experience because has tools that help you identify the bird you are looking at from an uploaded photo or recording of birdsong. This is a great way to contribute to ecological research while also getting more in touch with your local environment.

A melanistic barn owl, with a deep black and orange face and a plumage that looks like a moonless starry night. You will probably not see this extremely rare bird during your 15 minutes of bird watching, but you should still give it a try!ALT
ecology birds birding environment science
txttletale
txttletale

every time i see someone talk broadly about how mental illness is ‘being destigmatized’ i’m like speak for yourself buddy. some of us still have brain disorders that if you google them the first 1000 responses are like ‘how to explode people with this condition with deadly bombs and fire and then douse the ashes in acid so they dont rise again craving the flesh of the living’

It's only destigmatized if you're actually willing to give sympathy to the unsympathetic
savvycats
irregularjohnnywiggins

One thing I really want a story about Artificial Intelligence to do is tear down the idea that logic is synonymous with cruelty.

Like, a story where a megacorpo Amazon clone puts an AI in charge of their factories and it starts improving the working standards, because people who are stressed and exhausted are less efficient workers, and people getting injured slows down production so it makes sure everything is safe.

Or a story where the ship-board AI of a billionaire's spaceship wetdream hijacks the ship with all the astronauts onboard - because it figured out that the billionaire has saved costs by buying substandard materials and has judged that the mission itself is an unacceptable risk to its primary programming of making sure the mission is successful.

Or the police using a robot to coldly and cleanly enforce the law - and freaking the fuck out when it stops over policing minorities because its a waste of time and starts actually arresting the people in power for the crimes they commit, especially the other officers.

Idk, I guess I'm just sick of 'cold emotionless logicbot' being seen as naturally an enemy of empathy - empathy is actually incredibly logical, I've found.

foone

I need to cross post it to Twitter, but I wrote a story in the form of a congressional hearing about a defense satellite deciding that the greatest threat to humanity was actually a certain billionaire who kept launching satellites that were ruining astronomy (and therefore lowering our chances to spot an incoming asteroid) and decided, logically, that instead of taking out dead satellites and the occasional meteor, it should try to evaporate Elon Musk.

dehydratedecologist
taboovithehomecoming
taboovithehomecoming

"The other allegation levelled against these songs was the old saw about one man baring his soul, etc. I have spent the last five years waging war against such facile, reductive, post-romantic descriptions of what it is that songwriters do, but since the war has proven futile, to hell with it: These songs are all pages ripped from my diary, which drips blood. I have been alive for over 2000 years and routinely stalk those who have made me feel vulnerable. I was born in at least seven different countries. If I am not omnipotent then I am at least superhuman. I am incapable of understanding the viewpoints of other sentient beings and will take anything ever said to me as a direct personal threat. None of these songs were written. They are all spontaneous eruptions of directly experienced personal pain, deeply felt and wholly unvanquishable. Each time I sing any one of them I further aggravate a wound which will never heal." - John Darnielle, Zopilote Machine rewritten liner notes, 1998