Christians and politics. Do the two mix or are they diametrically opposed?

Why should we go to church on Sabbath? How did Jesus observe Sabbath?

How do we stand on the high ground? Stand fast in the faith. We need to come up to God's level. What we watch and listen to will either lift us up, or pull us down.

Unless you nurture it, reverence is lost and in losing reverence you lose the comprehension of what sin is and what salvation is. The nature of God is affected by our attitude about God and His holiness.

The parable of the workers in the vineyard is one of the most important parables. It can also be one of the most difficult and controversial parables that Jesus shared.

Everything you give to God, you get back. What you keep for yourself, you lose. The key to happiness is sacrifice.

There are interesting similarities between the feast at Simon's where Mary anointed Jesus, and his burial where He was anointed again. We need to pay attention to Jesus while we still have time.

We are not saved by works, but how we live our lives shows whether or not we are truly Christian.

I am so sad, angry and confused by the recent US election result that I created this: a fitting fanfare from the people of the rest of the world. It is puerile and disgusting.

This is a ~30 second excerpt from the full work, which is almost two minutes long. It was compiled entirely using the command line tool sox, including the stereo spatial effects. Yes, it's farts. Lots of farts. It shows the appropriate level of respect.

My spouse and I recently moved into a lovely big ole house in Amersfoort. We really enjoyed meeting those of you who came to the last meetup (June 2022), and would like to invite you to come join us for a hangout at our new place.

I'm thinking something like this: - A Saturday afternoon / evening in July or August - Food and drink - Patio games, video games setup for folks (we love a structured hangout or activities to have on-hand) thoughts?

here through the 24^th while moving randomly across the surface of europe. the last roll of the dice got me to sweden during midsommar, so that's pretty cool

Let's meet for Tuesday trivia night at Halcyon Brewing in Greenwood. Trivia starts at 7:30pm. Let's meet up at 7pm. Trivia is held in the room without the bar. The room may be empty at 7pm, but fills up as 7:30pm approaches. All ages. Maximum number of team members is 6, but we can split if there are more. No entry fee. Check Halcyon's Facebook page for category hints. Brush up on the latest news (regular, pop culture, and sports) beforehand, or not and we'll make our best guesses.

With MeFi's 25th anniversary coming up on Sunday July 14, WE'RE ON I'm contemplating Let's celebrate with a BBQ at my house in Seattle that day.

I live in Greenwood, within easy walking distance from either the E or 5 Metro bus lines. There's also plenty of street parking. The house has a large yard and deck (with a propane BBQ). Enter the yard through the gate in the fence in the driveway. Significant others and kids would be welcome, of course. I'll supply plates, cutlery, cups and napkins, and some food and drink. Please bring whatever you'd like to share. If you do know what you're going to bring, mention it in a comment.

I'll be at Burning Man for the first time in a long time and thought I'd post a placeholder for a meetup. We could meet at the Man base or Center Camp, maybe go on an art walk.

Oh snack! MetaFilter's 25 year anniversary is this weekend! East Bay (and other Bay Area) mefites, let's meet up! I couldn't think of an easy venue that is outdoors and works with who-knows-how-many-people, except for my back yard! Come hang out and eat some food! Sunday, Jul 14, 2pm until close. I probably won't start the grill until 4 or 5, so have brunch or late brunch (portmanteau: "lunch") beforehand.

It's last minute so I have no idea how much people will show up, so rather than provision based on guesses, let's just everyone potluck it up!

I am very sad to let the MeFi community know that one of its staunchest supporters and all around good guy digaman (Steve Silberman) has passed away as reported by his spouse on Bluesky. For people who didn't know digaman well, you might know his book NeuroTribes (MeFi post), the Grateful Dead box set he co-produced So Many Roads, or one of his 184 posts to MetaFilter (all from 2010 and before). He was always a great internet friend to me especially lately over on Mastodon and I know I will miss his voice. May his memory be a blessing, we are lucky to have known him.

Welcome to another week of the MetaFilter 2024 Fundraiser! Our community is mostly run by member contributions like yours and, as always, you can help the community by contributing directly to the site, via Paypal, Credit card or through our GoFundMe Campaign. But, seriously, we also want to have fun, don't we? To kick things off, we'd love to help us build our own Community Cookbook and prepare questions for the Ask Mods Anything Podcast... oh, and did you forget about the Pet Tax Wall? There's still time...

The Joy of MeFi Cooking: A Community Cookbook We'd like to hear all about your food adventures and traditions in this thread! Share your favorite dishes, the ones you can't stand, the ones you like but don't know how to cook and, of course, share any secret recipes you've concocted. Game Rules: 1. Use this thread to ask for recipes you are interested in and to talk about the food you love and miss. 2. Use this form to share your recipes for the cookbook. 3. Wait for the full recipe book and enjoy trying new recipes. Ask the Mods Anything 2.0: The podcast Want to know more about the ins and outs of the mod team? We want to make a podcast where Jessamyn will chat with Loup and ask questions directly from the community and you can vote on which questions get to be asked via one time contributions. Game Rules: 1. Use this form to submit your question (questions can be anonymous) 2. Wait for the next post to vote for your favorite questions.

In this post Shepherd suggested a book mark exchange and mine arrived today. Thanks to Shepherd for both idea and execution and to everyone who sent in bookmarks. I got a lovely selection, including a library one you can use to track your reading (I mean, I use StoryGraph, but more manual methods are also good) and 3 bookmarks for non Anglophone bookshops. If other people taking part could check in, that would be lovely.

I know a lot of us are in the path of Helene in Florida and Georgia (Alabama, Tennessee, SC, NC, too! It's a big storm!). I thought it might be nice to have a (text-based, low bandwidth) place to check in and provide information updates as it moves ashore this afternoon and across the Southeast overnight and through tomorrow.

Many MeFites are in the track of this beast, and there's a post on the Blue to share info. I thought we could use a space to check-in and keep each other company, share best wishes, worries, hopes and suggestions for staying safe.

It's the 8th MeFi Holiday Card Exchange!

Sign ups are open, and will close approximately 8am EST 11/17. I hope to have assignments out by end of day EST 11/19 - if you haven't gotten yours by end of day Friday 11/22, please check your spam/junk and contact me. This is our eighth year of the card exchange. We have 5, 10, and up to 20 options available. You can choose US only, send anywhere (international) or Europe only (if there are enough signups for this). Most of the people participating are in the US and Canada, so if you sign up for international, you will mainly get those addresses. I try to spread them out. If you're in Europe, and want a limited number of US addresses, just let me know in the notes section - I likely won't be able to give you 20 non-US/Canadian addresses, but I will do my best! (same if you'd rather mostly have US and Canadian addresses. I will do my best with specific requests.) Other answers to commonly asked questions- - There isn't a specific timeline on when you need to have your cards sent out by, just whenever you can. - If something happens and you can't send out your cards after all, send me a message, and I will happily send some for you! - Any type of card is fine - store-bought, handmade, postcards, etc. - While this is a holiday card exchange, and most people do send holiday themed cards, I have received all sorts of cards, so do what makes you happy! - Number of card options are 5, 10, and up to 20. If you are open to more than 10, but not 20, you can add that to the notes. Sometimes the sorting works out that I have some odd numbers. Also, if you choose up to 20, it is possible that you will have a duplicate (because you may be in two lists of 10) - so it may not work out perfectly evenly (I do my best to avoid this!). If you don't have the bandwidth to do the card exchange, but you'd like to get a holiday card anyway, I am happy to send one - just memail me your info! (Seriously - Costco had holiday stamps, and I said "oh, I'll take two!" and phew, I have a lot of stamps now!) I do have the form set up so that it sends a confirmation with a summary of what you've chosen - this means that it has to collect your email. If you don't want to let it do that, you're welcome to memail me, and I will add you to the spreadsheet. I'll try to check into this thread daily, but if you have an urgent question, please memail me. This is (still) truly one of my favorite things all year, so thank you for participating! Sign up form is here!

Since the coronavirus pandemic battered China's economy, tens of millions of urban and factory jobs have evaporated. Some workers and business owners have banded together to pressure companies or local governments for subsidies and payouts. But many of the newly unemployed have instead returned to their rural villages. China's vast countryside now serves as an unemployment sponge, soaking up floating migrant workers in temporary agricultural work on small family plots. "Say a factory used to hire 1,000 temporary workers; now, without new orders, these business owners can't afford to hire this many people," Yan Xiyun, a labor intermediary, told NPR. "The factory I usually go to in previous years could easily hire 2,000 people. Now there is scarcely anyone [on the factory floor]." Ten years ago, Yan left her own village near the small city of Zhumadian in Henan province for the first time and joined the migrant workforce. Now, she's a headhunter working on commission, placing thousands

After the coronavirus lockdowns forced it to shut down its 345 U.S. theaters, Texas-based Cinemark in April decided to do what a lot of companies have done: borrow money by selling bonds. The sale was made easier by the fact that the Federal Reserve was lending out trillions of dollars to businesses and governments, providing a much-needed boost to the corporate debt market in an effort to prop up the economy. Even as it was borrowing money, Cinemark also announced a number of steps "to endure a prolonged period of no revenue." They included laying off 17,500 workers with no guarantee when they'll be rehired. During the current crisis, the Fed, which began a two-day meeting on Tuesday, has pulled out all the stops to keep the economy afloat, lowering interest rates to zero and starting a series of unprecedented and historic new lending facilities practically overnight. "It has taken what were already extraordinary, exceptional, unusual, unconventional tools and has expanded them even

Updated at 4:12 p.m. ET The Federal Reserve left interest rates near zero Wednesday and once again promised to deliver whatever monetary medicine it can to an economy that's badly ailing from the coronavirus pandemic. "The Federal Reserve is committed to using its full range of tools to support the U.S. economy in this challenging time," the central bank said in a statement . While noting that "financial conditions have improved, in part reflecting policy measures to support the economy," the Fed's rate-setting committee reiterated its intent to leave interest rates at rock-bottom levels, "until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals." Notes released along with the committee's statement suggest no rate increases are expected at least through 2022. "We're not thinking about raising rates," Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference. "We're not even thinking about thinking about

Our national fascination with sourdough starter appears to have stopped. Or at least slowed down a bit. The price of baking flour fell last month along with the price of eggs, suggesting that the baking craze that gripped hungry and housebound consumers in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic has cooled. "Sourdough is definitely a commitment," says Kristin Hoffman, who makes instructional YouTube videos for aspiring bakers. "I have heard a couple of people say that they really don't understand why somebody would want to put so much effort into a loaf of bread." Hoffman's Baker Bettie website saw a surge of interest from first-time bakers in late March and April, when tens of millions of Americans found themselves stuck at home with time on their hands. "I saw four to five times higher traffic than even during peak holiday-baking season," Hoffman says. "It has started to kind of level back out, now that things are reopening." Even if the bake-off was a turnoff for some, people

A Free 42-page PDF you can read on your phone, tablet, or laptop and enjoy!

My friend Jordanlafordan, organised and compiled a Fanzine to celebrate Star Trek: Discovery. Full of Fanfic, essays, photos, games, poems, and quotes from our beloved Star Trek: Discovery, this is the first annual Celebrate Disco fanzine! I (Faintdreams) submitted the crossword. Enjoy! If you like it please let the organiser know. They have a mastodon account here: ( https://tenforward.social/@jordanlafordan )

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Reg Smythe's Andy Capp was the greatest British newspaper strip of the 20th Century, but few people realise how much of his own troubled childhood Smythe poured into Andy and Flo's lives. Andy was essentially a portrait of Smythe's wastrel father, Flo a version of his formidable mother, and their neighbourhood a portrait of the pre-war Hartlepool where Smythe grew up. My new book traces Smythe's own biography, explores its parallels in Andy's world, and tackles the strip's early wife-beating jokes. There's also a look at how the balance of power has shifted between Andy and Flo down the years and my own analysis of just what made Smythe such an accomplished and stylish cartoonist.

Down The Tubes has already reviewed the book, calling it "a terrific re-examination of Andy Capp, smashing myths about the strip". Paul Gravett, the UK's leading comics critic, describes it as "a rich, revelatory study". MeFites discussed an earlier version of the book's Andy Capp material here.

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A fundraising drive for the Election Protection Hotline. (Not a US resident or US citizen? Hate all the major parties? No problem! You can donate!) Then, on Oct. 26th, watch 8 minutes of nerd jokes about open source software and how programming skews your brain, and none about politics.

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The Shakespearean Sonnet Machine is a slighty pointless little randomiser app that spits out endless variations of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets. (Well, not quite endless, but there should be 562,448,656 different ones in there if you're patient enough to keep reloading.)

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By Satan's forelock, it's Jabo's Annual Halloween Cartoon 2024. Not much to be scared about this year, amirite? So this year I've just drawn up my favorite cartoon scalawags mixed in with a liberal dose of tales about THE END OF THE WORLD! Nuthin' special and no worries about HOW WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE. Enjoy!

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Octothorpes is an open protocol that lets you put hashtags and backlinks on your own website to connect with other independent sites across Rings. We're launching a public beta today.

My friend Nik and I have been slowly rolling this out, starting at the last XOXO, and we just opened the public beta after letting a really fun project called Weird Web October used the protocol to connect their sites last month.

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"Honeymoon in Oak Ridge" is a documentary that tells the story of my parents, two young newlyweds who unknowingly contributed to building the world's first atomic weapon.

In 1998, I returned with them to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where they shared on camera their wartime memories with pride and sorrow. Decades later, I sat down with their grandkids to hear what they think about their grandparents' role in this piece of history and how it affected our family and their view of history. The 20-minute documentary won the Jury Award for Best Short Documentary at the 2024 Uranium Film Festival. It's now available to stream on Docsville.com (free trial available).

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Toronto/Los Angeles-based indie pop artist Julian Daniel is making waves with his infectious new single, “do you feel me?,” a track he hopes will stir listeners' emotions through its seductive…

Sandhouse’s latest single, “Bite Me Back,” is a strong follow-up to their debut release, “Sick Of Your Face,” and it plunges listeners into an atmosphere of intense, dark allure. With…

Alternative indie artist Neito Han released his first fully original bilingual song, “Good Luck, Stranger,” on Friday. This is Nathan Sharp’s second overall release under this new moniker after seemingly…

The sweet and soulful DJ Teddie Bear marries country music with the sounds of down south blues in his latest single “Southern Soul Twerk.” DJ Teddie Bear is a Georgia…

NYC based and UK born folk singer-songwriter Joe Holt shares "Wanting More", the first taste of his upcoming highly anticipated album I Love You, Say It Back. The artist collaborated…

Bronson Scott’s new single, “Mistakes,” is the anthem for anyone who's ever wrestled with regret and wondered what life would look like without a few of their bad decisions. Scott…

Today, we hear from a group helping neighbors prepare for future wildfires. Then, a new anthology of love letters to San Francisco. And, ArtSpan's Open Studios celebrates 50 years.

Today, we hear from young Native Americans on what the land back movement means to them. Then, a Coast Miwok family advocates for the native people of Tomales Bay.

Residents in Richmond’s District 5 are calling for investment in arts and culture from their city leaders. And, in a new episode of Book It, the power of stories in medicine.

Even though they can’t vote, folks in California prisons will still be affected by this year's election. Uncuffed goes into San Quentin for this special elections episode.

Today, the contested future of SF's Great Highway. Then, a community group that’s building trust for better health. And, we honor Barbara Dane’s life and revolutionary music.

Today, we hear how states can begin to repair fractured histories around slavery. Then, local experts weigh in on Kamala Harris’s track record. And, we consider the power of Black immigrant voters.

Today, we hear why Alameda County's DA, Pamela Price, is facing a recall election next week and get her response. Then, SF's Prop G will expand affordable housing opportunities in the city.

Today we go inside San Quentin’s mock elections. Then, we hear about comic books and mental health — for veterans. And, the passionate mix of music and movement of Flamenco.

God wants to do more, exceedingly, abundantly more than we can think but we need to ask, and pray. How should we pray?

To understand the Bible, we need to understand the care of sheep because the Bible is full of stories about sheep and shepherds.

Christians and politics. Do the two mix or are they diametrically opposed?

Why should we go to church on Sabbath? How did Jesus observe Sabbath?