Displaying post 150 to 200 of 215
Wonderfully surreal. Five galleries of (literally) fantastic, mostly figurative images by Maggie Taylor. Serendipity has me reading
Perdido Street Station at the moment, and these quaintly eerie portraits seem almost as though they could have been plucked from Miéville's mythic population of bizarre Remades, uncanny constructs and outlandish alien races. Beautiful. (Click the eye.)
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 4:40 AM on June 14, 2004
(9 comments)
Arsole? Putrescine? Dickite? Moronic Acid? This list of
Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names (one NSFW image) proves that scientists can be funny, as does this
Stuffy Scientists page, and Mark Isaak's terribly thorough
Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature (see, especially,
Puns). If you are tempted to wonder what the
Father of Taxonomy might have thought of the irreverence of those last two collections, keep in mind that Linnaeus himself named
this plant "Clitoria Mariana" in honor of an 'acquaintance', according to
this page.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 1:42 AM on May 18, 2004
(10 comments)
My couch is depressing me. Someone who shall go unnamed (but his initials begin with "mr. taz") convinced me that we should buy a white couch - with predictable results. It's upholstered in a lightweight canvas type material, and I would like to do something (on the cheap) to change the color. I'm almost tempted to just take it outside with a big bucket of dye and paintbrush (and/or roller), but a) I know nothing about dying, and b) I'm sure that there are serious issues about the dye "setting" so that it doesn't rub off on clothes.
(more particulars inside).
posted to Ask Metafilter by taz
at 1:38 AM on April 25, 2004
(12 comments)
Dear No. 1: Maybe it's time for a little policy action. I think of AskMe much more in terms of archival value than I do MeFi, mostly because a great deal of the information shared there is anecdotal and experience-related, and as such is not wholly dependent on web links that may change or disappear. It seems that this is going to be a resource that will be referred to quite often in results for common searches, and in this way far less ephemeral than MeFi or MeTa. Therefore, I'm thinking that inline comments about the suitability or presentation of a posted question are especially unwelcome.
I understand that it will be overbearing and ridiculous to bring every single question of this sort to MeTa, but still, I think that in the long run it will be strange and distracting to have these asides remaining in the threads that survive to see another day, especially because they tend to drift off into discussions involving the complaint, and because the person complaining may have just been suffering from wrong-side-of-the-bed syndrome, the effects of which usually fade rapidly into obscurity on the blue and gray pages (and the inclusion of which is explicitly or implicitly more "built into" their more conversational structure), but which I suspect will end up being more "sticky", as well as oddly jarring, in the green. I also think that it will probably become impossible for you to monitor everything and delete all bad posts/comments one by one.
[More, believe it or not...]
posted to MetaTalk by taz
at 1:39 AM on March 24, 2004
(27 comments)
Windows XP users - let's help each other help ourselves! What are your most treasured bookmarks for XP troubleshooting, tips and tricks, etc. Two of mine are inside.
posted to Ask Metafilter by taz
at 11:13 PM on March 18, 2004
(13 comments)
Poppin' Fresh from the newly launched
QueerMeta community weblog:
We'Wha: The Zuni Man-Woman.
How could a six-foot tall Indian man be mistaken for a "maiden" and a "princess"?
This was no Pocahontas! Even more intriguing is the relationship
between Stevenson and We'wha. According to one gossip, "she" regularly
entered the ladies rooms and boudoirs of Washington. How could
Stevenson not know that her intelligent Zuni informant was really, in
the words of one gossip, a "bold, bad man"? More about the 'berdaches' of the Zuni [
1,
2,
3].
Google cache of last (Geocities) link here.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 3:36 PM on March 10, 2004
(8 comments)
The Lucky W Amulet Archive : "A folkloric resource that contains hundreds of interlinked pages describing and illustrating amulets, talismans, lucky charms, and good luck pieces from around the world and all eras".
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 1:58 AM on January 28, 2004
(10 comments)
China Avant-Garde is a wonderful site for exploring Chinese post Cultural Revolution art, with excellent accompanying texts. Browse the
featured artists and see an
Exhibition from a Private Collection. Also,
Inside Out: New Chinese Art is a beautiful site focusing on this recent "explosion of diverse work that is simultaneously exhilarating and bewildering", and you will find more great examples at
Chinese Contemporary (click on the artist's name for information and all thumbnails for that artist), plus marvelous Chinese avant-garde posters at Rene Wanner's
poster pages and
Who's Who in Chinese Posters, and at the
Hochschule der Kuenste, Berlin (view works
here).
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 5:22 AM on January 19, 2004
(2 comments)
Do you think it might be possible to
ask Windows-related questions on AskMe without being sneered at?
posted to MetaTalk by taz
at 12:06 AM on January 14, 2004
(14 comments)
There is just one thing that is preventing me using Firebird as my default browser at this point, and it seems like it should be such a ridiculously simple issue that I am left scratching my head...
posted to Ask Metafilter by taz
at 3:45 AM on January 4, 2004
(13 comments)
Help me! I'm naked! With my new computer I finally got Win XP (instead of win 98, which I had been using with the older computer), but after downloading and installing all the security patches, the system slowed down to the speed of molasses, taking forever to open any folder...
posted to Ask Metafilter by taz
at 3:02 AM on December 30, 2003
(21 comments)
I was contemplating
tranquileye's previous post, and thinking that it's a fun idea to give something to and get something from somebody you don't know at all, but even more fun if you know at least
a little something about them; wouldn't it be great to have a MeFi "Secret Santa" next year? And if so, how would we go about that?
more...
posted to MetaTalk by taz
at 5:18 AM on December 28, 2003
(38 comments)
Images of the Rom:
the Rrom of Romania from an award-winning book by Yves Leresche;
The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe by Raulf Bauerdick; David Dare-Parker's
Roma - Gypsies of Romania (the second image in the set won "Best Feature Photograph" in the
Walkley Awards); the
Chergari Gypsies
in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria (by Stacia Spragg - background
here); and
Itinerant Gypsies in Romania by Valeriu Campan. See also the photo-article,
Challenging Segregation of Roma schoolchildren in eastern Hungary by Jason Orton (article continues at far right), and an eviction series by Ph.D. student Cosima Rughinis: the Rom in
Pata Rat (dump site), Cluj-Napoca,
Piatra Neamt, and
Targu Mures, Romania. For some context on the last, view some
text snapshots (under "issues of Roma Rights") of the situation from the
European Roma Rights Center.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 5:57 AM on December 10, 2003
(18 comments)
Great, intelligent use of Flash for johncoltrane.com.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 5:43 AM on December 9, 2003
(18 comments)
You have been disciplined all your life :::: Nothing Changed - Nothing Will
Words of encouragement from Piotr Szyhalski's
Electric Poster Series (Animated gif images). Artist's web site
here.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 7:48 AM on December 4, 2003
(12 comments)
All your sperm are belong to us : play the condom game.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 12:15 PM on December 1, 2003
(8 comments)
Collage Machine from the National Gallery of Art. Click images to add; drag into place; click the green tab to bring an element forward, click red to send it backward; use the controls at the bottom to resize, flip, rotate and fade elements; see if you can ever, ever stop.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 5:30 AM on November 21, 2003
(7 comments)
Yeah baby! Bite my toenails! Funny,
sad,
simple,
sweet, it's all about the luuurve.
Remics Vol. 3 features illustrations by 29 artists on the theme of "love"; past editions (Flash and some sound) explored thoughts on "
Place" and "
Birthday".
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 3:08 AM on November 20, 2003
(7 comments)
Stories of Krishna: The Adventures of a Hindu God is a lovely interactive Flash presentation from the Seattle Art Museum: Click an image and hear the accompanying tale (or read the transcript), then click "close the story" and mouse over the image icons to explore the characters and view details. After you are finished you can test what you've learned with a drag and drop card game. No broadband? View images of Krishna
here and
here, and
read some background.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 4:38 AM on November 14, 2003
(6 comments)
Ecological art takes many forms,
fascinating,
beautiful,
provocative,
ephemeral,
live,
active, and even
bloggy. See
greenmuseum.org's featured artists and visit the Getty's
Ecological Art Gallery (see also
Art and the Earth, six photo essays).
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 3:45 AM on November 11, 2003
(4 comments)
The Virtual Colour Museum presents Colour Order Systems in Art and Science: "a complete cultural history of colour", including illustrated explanations of 59 colour theories from antiquity to modern time, plus the significance of colours in various cultural systems (click the small images to enlarge), and a "virtual colour-space" dedicated to illustrating the spherical colour system construction of early 19th century painter Philipp Otto Runge.
Walk this way >>
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 4:31 AM on November 9, 2003
(4 comments)
Astonishing geometric art using only folded paper plates, from Bradford Hansen-Smith at
wholemovement. View
the gallery of fantastic polyhedral creations, and learn
how to do it yourself. (For more fun with paper plates, see also
Paper Plate Education: Serving the Universe on a Paper Plate.)
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 5:18 AM on October 27, 2003
(7 comments)
Pick your poison:
highbrow (virtual tour of 10 Downing Street), or
lowbrow (virtual tour of the White House).
Hint: one of these is funny.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 6:06 AM on October 25, 2003
(10 comments)
The Open Video Project offers nearly 2,000 videos from various sources and collections, including such gems as 34 reels from the 1930s and 40s in the
Digital Himalaya Project, a series of
classic television commercials, and, from the Library of Congress, some shorts from the early 1900s, including the popular
2 a.m. in the Subway and
A Ballroom Tragedy ("Vaudeville" is a good search term for finding more like this). Also, especially for MeFi,
Johnny Learns His Manners.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 12:11 PM on October 12, 2003
(17 comments)
The Mandala Project by artist
Genevieve Gauckler will
make you happy. I promise. (For more happiness, also see
The Emperors,
L'Arbre Généalogique, and
everything else.)
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 12:59 AM on October 11, 2003
(3 comments)
Smithsonian Magazine is holding its
first-ever photo contest, open to all adult non-professional photographers to submit entries in five categories. (Professionals may want to see about freelance opportunities
here.) I find it particularly nice that there is no entry fee, and no citizenship requirements. For inspiration you may want to browse a
gallery of Smithsonian freelance photographers or view the beautiful (and seasonally appropriate)
Ghost Towns by Night Light and pick up
a few tips on night photography from the photographer.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 12:09 AM on October 10, 2003
(23 comments)
The Book of Roofs is a site to take your time with. Originally an art installation, the web site is a look at the concept of roofs - anthropological, biological, spiritual, metaphysical, social and political - in a collection of "roof tiles" consisting of short articles, personal narratives, mythological references, quotes, historic events, video and photographs, all related to the concept of shelter. If you feel so moved you can even contribute your own tile.
Flash and sound
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 11:29 AM on October 8, 2003
(2 comments)
Fragment: a writing meme. For creative writers who might need a small nudge in the ribs, three sentence fragments posted once a week "for you to fit into a bit of fiction/stream of consciousness/what-have-you... a quick bit of dirtiness to get your creative energy flowing". Write your bit and post your link.
(via the ever-enlightening Anne, of Fishbucket.)
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 2:07 AM on October 7, 2003
(5 comments)
The On-Line Picasso Project offers 6,893 works for your ogling pleasure, plus an obsessively documented chronological bio. I'm stunned.
(please read the user's manual, inside.)
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 3:55 AM on October 2, 2003
(12 comments)
Goddess : The Classical Mode, at the Met. Ancient Greek fashion and haute couture interpretations.
(via fashioNroll)
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 10:09 AM on September 17, 2003
(4 comments)
"A wicked noblewoman presides over a decadent court of masked revelers. The most beautiful of waxen automatons is brought to life by a sorceress, her very heart hiding a deadly secret. And then love triumphs, if but for a single moment, before a sudden and terrifying finale. This is the bizarre world of The Princess of Wax".
Limned by descriptors such as "sinister", "ravishing" and "decadent", illustrated by a noted
French surrealist painter, and inspired by a
real-life fantastical figure, "The Princess of Wax - a Cruel Tale" (
web site here), promises to be a satisfyingly twisted modern addition to the cherished fairy tale genre.
More >>>
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 4:01 AM on September 15, 2003
(9 comments)
Mark Ryden is to the iconic
saucer-eyed urchins of the '60s as Salvador Dali is to Hickory Dickory Dock. His delicate palette, fine details and classical references offer compelling counterpoint to the deliciously disturbing imagery of
les tykes terrible in collections such as "Blood: Miniature Paintings of Sorrow & Fear"; "Bunnies and Bees: Paintings Created to Illustrate DIVINE TRUTH in Accordance with the Secret Principles of SCIENCE AND SOUL"; and "The Meat Show: Paintings about Childen, God, and USDA Grade A Beef". Plus, they're kids - with
big eyes!
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 4:39 AM on September 8, 2003
(25 comments)
Make-a-Quake is discovery.com's simple, fascinating and creepy Flash interactive in which you choose the ground quality and construction prevention method for your multi-story building, then select a quake magnitude before you "Begin Quake" to find out how your property fared. Make-a-Quake is a feature of the "
San Francisco Earthquake of 1906" (also featuring a video gallery and audio slide show), a part of Discovery's "Unsolved History" series. Past Unsolved History features
here.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 7:08 AM on September 5, 2003
(19 comments)
How about a spawn-of-metafilter advice site? A site where mefites can go to give and get advice and suggestions regarding life's conundrums - technical, personal, financial, etc.? Most of us know a thing or two about something or the other, and most of us need a hand (or a shoulder, or other assorted body parts) on occasion. Who you gonna call?
Do any of you "philter" people have the inclination and bandwidth for an idea like this (Wendell? Metalifter?)? Would any of the rest of you participate?
And... did I just commit metacide?
posted to MetaTalk by taz
at 6:30 AM on August 4, 2003
(34 comments)
So very silly:
Make a pillow dance to the lovely music.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 7:56 AM on July 11, 2003
(4 comments)
Hot See-thru action! Radiography and Art: The obliging X-ray can
detect forgeries, reveal the hidden process of genius (Picasso
1 [6 pages],
2,
3), and even serve as a glorious medium itself (
Innervisions;
Beyond Light; Mefi thread
The Secret Garden).
Intrigued? Perhaps you'll want to check out
How to make radiographs on Polaroid film from noah.org's
X-ray page.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 12:09 AM on July 10, 2003
(8 comments)
Walking Things is an environment that generates small, walking computational organisms. "Each walking thing is built up from totally random conditions. Appearance, behavior, and walking characteristics are all assigned from a range enabling effective, functional mobility. Click on a walking thing to permutate its characteristics".
Just one of the very many wonderful (
open source) creations at
levitated.net (more bugs with bling
here). Kick off your shoes, fill your coffee cup or wine glass, and dip in.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 3:47 AM on July 2, 2003
(12 comments)
The Reverend Bunny's Secret Henna Diary. Sssh! Don't tell anyone, but this is a fascinating site featuring
tips and
tricks, and
a nice gallery of images annotated by
background information,
image sources,
history, and
interesting anecdotes.
You can also find
free patterns here, both
traditional and
non-traditional.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 12:59 AM on June 15, 2003
(7 comments)
Morbid Outlook is a polished, eclectic Goth magazine with a killer design and content to die for. With hundreds of articles and images in the categories of Art, Music, Fashion, Lifestyle, Fiction and Nonfiction, this is one of the very best online zines I've seen yet. Go to any feature, and you will find a list of related-interest articles accompanying the story, and, usually, a listing of online resources or suggestions for reading as well.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 7:19 AM on June 12, 2003
(31 comments)
Are you a reluctant slob? Are your resolutions firm but your follow-thoughs flagging? If the hallway to your personal housekeeping hell is strewn with good intentions, consider KISSing your bad habits goodbye. Cat Conner's (MeFi's
frykitty) new blog-style
KISS Living site is great for us fleeting-attention-span types, providing tips based on her "Keep It Short and Simple" technique. I may not know what day it is, or whether Martha spells her name "Stuart" or "Stewart", but even I can focus my energy for
10 minutes at a time.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 3:21 AM on June 1, 2003
(18 comments)
Cyberlicious: the Art and Culture Network. In a lo-brow search for "bubblicious", I happened upon the hi-brow and highly browse-friendly, ACN. Why? Because "
bubblicious" is one of its in-site "keyword" searches, describing that quality "shared by champagne, soap foam, hot air balloons, and gum... lighter than air, ephemeral, in a state of creative tension, colorful, beautiful, and amusing", and returning results for movements such as "Pop/Surrealism/Anti-Design", "Miniskirts", "The Digital Era", "Smarty Arty Pop" and "Glam Rock", along with artists such as Mary Quant, The Ramones, Mariko Mori, Gene Kelly, and Mouse on Mars. (more...)
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 3:20 AM on May 19, 2003
(5 comments)
Red Dog Army: "Red Dogs line up along the edges of the art-world. They have many objectives...
Their purpose is to put art into the hands of anyone who sees them and takes them home...
They are distributed by a person or persons unknown, tracing movement in cities across the world. They inhabit their new environment sometimes for just a few minutes before being destroyed or taken in by a new art collector. Or they may remain for months, changing shape and being forced into compromising positions. Above all, they are always seen by someone. Their presence is noticed, noted and very red."
Take note, Antipodeans, and keep your eyes open; the red dog comes for you.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 2:48 AM on May 3, 2003
(6 comments)
It was known as "dragon's spittle perfume" by the ancient Chinese and encountered by Sinbad in "The Thousand and One Nights". It was recorded by Marco Polo and mentioned in the literature of Shakespeare. Called "floating gold", "Neptune's niece", and a process of "divine chemistry",
Ambergris, or "Grey Amber", was once harvested as a rare and costly perfume additive and coveted as an aphrodisiac. But...
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 2:23 AM on May 2, 2003
(9 comments)
German Objectivist photographer Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) once said "the best constructions for industrial design have already been anticipated in nature." Do your eyes a favor and
look here.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 12:47 AM on April 30, 2003
(9 comments)
It's in the mail. Dylon Whyte's Art of Chainmail site features beautiful, clear renderings showing, step-by-step, how to join chain links to form different mail patterns, including European, Japanese, and (probably-not-)Persian designs. This is actually fascinating stuff even if you're not a medievalist or a Renaissance-faire type. Also, from the same source,
a brief history of armour and the
the secret behind the
chain bra!
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 8:55 AM on April 14, 2003
(13 comments)
Reality is beginning to seem more and more like
Naoto Hattori's surreality; check the
gallery and see if you agree. ("
Money, Blunts, 40's And Bitches" just amuses me hugely - I think it's the "bitches".) I particularly like the "
Extras" section, in which he reveals a bit of the process behind the paintings. (Plus,
snowboards!)
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 1:50 PM on March 28, 2003
(10 comments)
Something nice. In a refreshingly simple and visually appealing presentation, "Places" explores the synergy between artists and the locations that inspire them. From a virtual landscape created from the surface of an agate, to a 1787 map of Mecca included in the Dala'il al-Khayrat ("Guides to Good Things"), to an 1885 photograph of a single moment captured in the reflection of a gazing ball, these eight fascinating examples seem to suggest that places are nothing so much as what our own observation reveals of them at any given time.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 11:28 AM on March 22, 2003
(4 comments)
Apple pies to the people prepared not to scruple perversely or crumple prematurely in providing ample particulars to this disciple posting a simple problem.
posted to MetaTalk by taz
at 10:08 AM on March 19, 2003
(22 comments)
Wow.
Spartacus Educational is a masterwork of hyperlinked history with a rather eclectic list of focus topics that can suck you in and never let go. Start anywhere, and then just click, and click, and click...
In light of recent events, you might begin, if you wish, with a brush-up on the 1914
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, and from there go on to find out more about the
Black Hand secret society responsible for the killing. You may attempt to sidestep politics by going to
cartoonists, or
U.S. novelists and poets, but you will find that the site is organized against a backdrop of world politics (viewed chiefly from a British perspective), a point of view that weaves its own endlessly looping and mesmerizing mesh.
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 3:55 AM on March 14, 2003
(9 comments)
Is that
a blot I see before me?
Actually, no. At least not a Rorschach blot... "Most people have heard of the
Rorschach test (pronounced "raw-shock"), but few have ever seen a real Rorschach inkblot. The blots are kept secret. When you see an inkblot in a popular article on the test, it's a fake: it's an inkblot, but not one of the inkblots. There are only ten Rorschach inkblots." Viewing the information on
this page will compromise administration of the Rorschach test, invalidating your answers, so if you want to take the test in the future, don't peek. The site creators, however, recommend that you
don't take the controversial test, and provide an outline (literally) of the blots, including information regarding scoring, analysis, and expected or "normal" answers, as well as some "red-flag" responses. In other words, a Rorschach cheat-sheet. (more..)
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 3:56 PM on February 15, 2003
(39 comments)
"Bastarda"! What is it? Well, silly, it's a style of Gothic script, of course, used chiefly in the 14th and 15th centuries and so-called because it combines characteristics of the Gothic cursive style with the more formal "textura". Why do I know this? Because I've been surfing the mighty-wonderful
Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus.
More...
posted to MetaFilter by taz
at 7:23 AM on February 11, 2003
(9 comments)
