If the Apocalypse comes, I expect a MeFi podcast, with links to the highlights and an interview.
posted to MetaTalk by steef at 5:12 AM on September 6, 2008

I was really hoping the the final page would reveal that the ants hadn't actually gotten any larger, but that everything else on Earth had gotten smaller for some reason.

You are Rex Dean Levie. In 1965.
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 4:37 PM on September 5, 2008

Weather porn thread! Woot!
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 11:56 AM on September 5, 2008

Oh, dear. I have a terrible soft spot for that 1979 cartoon Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. They handled the story and characters really well, and just seeing this tiny thumbnail of Aslan's death makes me want to go back and hug my nine- or ten-year-old self: "Dummy, you read the books. You know it's going to be okay."
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 5:46 AM on September 4, 2008

The year 1994. From out of space comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction. Man's civilization is cast in ruin.

Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn. A strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super-science, and sorcery. But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice. With his companions Ookla the Mok, and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous sun-sword against... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 5:22 PM on August 31, 2008

MetaFilter: Like Peter Falk in a falcon suit. But this is really good stuff, and it's preventing me from getting out and doing my laundry this morning, as I ponder what peculiar obsession of mine I would like to indulge, today. Thank you, Chuckles (and asavage)!
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 5:15 AM on August 30, 2008

I am favoriting this post, and every comment in this post, so I will remember this post and visit it again and often.
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 5:22 PM on August 22, 2008

We're bathed, all of us, in a sea of muons.

Wait! There's one now! Wow. Bigger than I expected, really.
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 5:53 PM on August 21, 2008

Pick a reason to flag: Letting my flag freak fly.
posted to MetaTalk by steef at 4:20 PM on August 15, 2008

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
Can you pick up our tab? for cash, I have brought none.

(Thanks for this, Miko!)
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 3:57 PM on August 15, 2008

Yes, this is not what AskMe is for, but it's not specifically verboten in the guidelines. Perhaps clarification of no "needlessly self-link[ing]" is needed?
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 8:51 AM on August 13, 2008

That "Shaft" link is lifted from the 1972 Wattstax concert at the L.A. Coliseum. Here's a better version, with the Reverend Jesse Jackson introducing Hayes' arrival. It's an inspiring film.
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 4:07 PM on August 10, 2008

Buxton's theme is crap, but it has the better chorus:

I'd like a quantum of solace
but no more than a quantum.
I know they do big bags of solace,
but I don't want 'em.
I only want a teeny-tiny slice of solace...
before I shoot you.
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 9:00 AM on August 9, 2008

(Psst! Astro Zombie! Your suspicions are correct: the elephant skin photo is from the American Museum of Natural History's collection, previously posted by peacay. Aside from the fact that the ear looks like an Asian elephant's, the picture is listed as being taken in 1933, so it ain't Jumbo.

The AMNH does have Jumbo's skeleton, but Jumbo's skin was stuffed and mounted, and Barnum donated it to Tufts University in 1889. It was lost in a fire in 1975, but Jumbo's ashes... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by steef at 12:06 PM on August 8, 2008

What exactly happened after the first stage failed to separate? Did the second stage remain shut down, and the whole thing tumbled back toward the Pacific? Or did the second stage ignite regardless, resulting in what I can only imagine was a spectacular KABLOOIE?
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 2:11 PM on August 3, 2008

Hows about some Johnny Rivers doing "Secret Agent Man"? (Because I couldn't find The Plugz doing "Hombre Secreto.")
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 7:40 AM on August 1, 2008

Funny story: just the other day, I'm standing in my local grocery superstore's produce section, trying to find pitted kalamata olives to make a nice Greek salad, and this extinct Madagascar sloth-lemur the size of a gorilla sidles up next to me and asks if I know where the baobab fruit is.

"Sure," I said. "See where that giant elephant bird is, over there? They're right there." The lemur smelled like Prell.

Anyway, they ended... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 9:41 AM on July 31, 2008

It would save us all considerable time and energy if Kattullus were simply added as a contact to everyone's profile, and all his posts automagically favorited as soon as they are made.

That said, he really does make a lot of us look bad. Exile to Surtsey, I say.
posted to MetaTalk by steef at 7:21 AM on July 30, 2008

I would imagine that it's "birds and the bees" to maintain the same double-"b" alliteration from "flowers and the bees", despite the interspecies improbabilities in English. It's a mnemonic. Doesn't help figure out who adopted it from whom, though, but it would certainly seem to make more sense in the European languages.
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 6:21 AM on July 24, 2008

Slate.com slideshow on Perry.
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 12:18 PM on July 23, 2008

DU, I take umbrage with that. SciFi channel's movies are almost always single-word imperative exclamations, or portmanteaus like: Swarmed! or Volcanosaur! or Meteorsaurusswarm!.
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 4:13 PM on July 22, 2008

Wabba wabba wabba wabba... these are fun!
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 10:07 AM on July 22, 2008

Why are there no "none" choices after Physical, Professional, or Romantic? 'Cause I haven't been any of those in quite some time.
posted to MetaTalk by steef at 7:39 AM on July 22, 2008

Einstein explains. More here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 7:09 AM on July 22, 2008

Here's a Google Map of radio telescopes and radio quiet zones in the Americas.
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 6:18 AM on July 17, 2008

H. Beam Piper's Four-Day Planet takes place on the planet Fenris, which has an 8,000-hour year (similar to Earth's), but each day is 2,000 hours long (about a month of daylight, and a month of night). The book is also available online.
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 5:09 AM on July 12, 2008

Honk if you ♥ Hanny's Voorwerp.
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 1:17 PM on July 11, 2008

There's a really great book, Stranger in the Forest, which is a first-person account of a guy who hiked across Borneo. The whole book is a lesson in rain forest ecology, travel, getting help from the locals, dealing with mud and leeches, hunting and gathering food along the way. There's a lot you probably won't be interested in, but it does include some of the details you're looking for. Maybe there's a library near you with a copy?... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 4:03 PM on July 9, 2008

Yay! These are great. (This Halloween costume beats all.)
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 10:04 AM on July 8, 2008

Don't worry: that's just a roll of Certs in my pocket. Fresh breath is a priority in my life.
posted to MetaTalk by steef at 7:31 PM on July 4, 2008

Check out the law library when you arrive: they probably have a reserve section with copies of all the supplemental study aids you're going to be recommended, as well as some of your textbooks. If nothing else, you can save yourself a few bucks at the bookstore by only buying what the library doesn't offer, or try out the Gilbert's and Emanuel outlines, Examples & Explanations, CrunchTime, and Law Stories series before you buy... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 7:02 PM on July 4, 2008

Aw, crap. Astro Zombie made me cry. At work. Just before my boss walked into my office. (Honks! into 'kerchief.)
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 1:41 PM on July 3, 2008

I wish the NEXT link was at the bottom or in the last panel of each page, but other than that: SWEEEET.
posted to Projects by steef at 7:26 PM on July 2, 2008

Wasn't there a Bloodhound Gang episode where they kept getting a - - - . . . - - - signal, and the they wondered why someone was sending "Bear bear bear" in Spanish over and over, until one gang member figured out it was a distress call, and the sender had their dits and dots reversed? "Oso oso oso!" Ah, the formative television of my youth. Good times.
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 12:55 PM on July 1, 2008

I spend my Monday morning drinking coffee
and walking through 100 Wet Nurse woodcuts,
trying to find the perfect desktop wallpaper.
Outside, I fail to notice the rain and wind
are blowing down the last pink of the myrtles.

(This is good, tellurian. Thanks.)
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 5:34 AM on June 30, 2008

You can sort of do this with Google, but the results are boggling: site:youtube.com "00:13" (8,500,000 results).
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 1:20 PM on June 27, 2008

I think that's Billion Dollar Brain, with Michael Caine.
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 12:51 PM on June 27, 2008 marked best answer

I don't think War Day, by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka, got a mention in the last thread. It's done in a documentary style, the authors traveling around interviewing survivors after a US-Soviet nuclear exchange in the 1980s.
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 12:45 PM on June 27, 2008

What does it say in Acrobat: Edit > Preferences > Internet > Internet Settings > Programs? (Mine says "Internet Explorer is not the default / Make default" and a Set Programs button.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 12:07 PM on June 25, 2008

This forum page says Firefox wasn't supported until Acrobat 7+:

After upgrading to 7.0.5... Acrobat now recognizes a Firefox default browser setting.

By the way, I kept checking with the interim patches, and it was not until .05 that it started working.

Sorry. Can you update?
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 1:11 PM on June 25, 2008 marked best answer

(Hastily updates own version of Acrobat.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 1:47 PM on June 25, 2008

'the Hell? The Opera?
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 6:13 AM on June 25, 2008

Great. Just great. Now I have to throw out my new New Yorker when it arrives. With a pair of tongs. And aaaaa-all the way into her brain.
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 6:48 PM on June 24, 2008

OCR of old newsprint is understandably terrible, thus leading to lots of false and missing results for keywords. Still, this is a good good thing, and I hope somebody comes back and posts when they get the Sunday Times up, as well.
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 7:18 AM on June 23, 2008

This is a neat story: the Martian peanut probe.
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 1:46 PM on June 19, 2008

The killer is obviously an English major. Five feet would have been a pentameter, so the sixth makes it hexameter. Dactylic hexameter.
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 3:33 PM on June 18, 2008

The Willamette Meteorite is sacred to the Native Americans in the region where it was found in 1902. I believe they used to dip their arrow points in rainwater which had gathered in its many hollows to imbue them with magical accuracy. The tribe still uses the meteorite in a ceremony at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York.
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 1:36 PM on June 17, 2008

I've seen folks swimming unsupervised at Fossil Beach in Westmoreland, which is a short hike from the main rec area. The Potomac is like a hot bath in summer. Plus, Westmoreland has the benefit of having fossils to hunt.
posted to Ask Metafilter by steef at 8:22 AM on June 16, 2008

Okay, I simply had to look that up: Catherine Deneuve wearing the donkey head hat (Peau d'âne).
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 6:06 PM on June 15, 2008

Viiiiiiin-ceeeeeeeent!
posted to MetaFilter by steef at 8:15 AM on June 14, 2008