The Universal Studios logo circa-1930s. It's pretty similar to the modern one, except in black and white and with a little airplane circling the equator.

The old RKO logo was in a similar vein, though it only showed a partial globe.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 5:25 PM on July 21, 2008

Not Cloverfield. Hud, the guy with the camera, stops filming at several points in the film, skipping over sizable (though unimportant) sections of the story. See the walk in the subway tunnel, for instance. There are also a few scenes interspersed throughout the film that were recorded weeks and months earlier.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 5:58 PM on July 18, 2008

Maybe I'm completely uninformed here, but couldn't you achieve much the same thing as these data wiping apps much more cheaply by simply probing the hard drive with a reasonably powerful magnet?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 5:52 PM on July 18, 2008

Note to self: preview is useful, especially when the tab has been open for twenty minutes or so prior to commenting.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 5:54 PM on July 18, 2008

I'm pretty sure it's called a mini-map (Google Maps calls it an "overview map"). Wiki has a short article on it, but it's mostly game-related. Same concept, though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 12:53 PM on July 14, 2008 marked best answer

Agreed on the "one guy" theory. I had this talking globe toy as a kid, and the voice it had sounds identical to the one in the clip.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 8:18 PM on July 13, 2008

flyingcowofdoom: "The plant was exposed to space for longer than 30 seconds. WALL-E shows EVE the plant immediately after surviving the pod implosion, but then they "dance" for at least a minute or two. Sure, he put the plant back into his body compartment, but unless he has a life support system in there that would re-pressurize after being opened in space the conditions wouldn't be any more favorable."

As I recall, EVE sucked up... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 11:57 AM on July 9, 2008

No Mozbackup here... :/

Also, I tried your trick to disable all the add-ons, and it did work. But it's still not marking which extensions are incompatible. (There are one or two marked as such, but these were new ones I installed after bypassing the incompatibility check). I'm pretty sure that the Nightly Tester Tools add-on made some change to about:config to turn off the check... I'm just not sure what option got toggled. And whatever it is, switching to safe mode didn't fix it...
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 4:12 PM on June 28, 2008

I tried your suggestion, IndigoRain, and it didn't work. There wasn't anything in the Update Notifier options related to compatibility checking, and when I restarted Firefox, it didn't mark any of the incompatible extensions. I even enabled one that I remembered was incompatible and restarted, and still got nothing...
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 6:26 PM on June 29, 2008

I believe it's the same principle that makes iPod click wheels and iPhone touch screens work. So I guess you could operate your iPod touch with a hot dog stylus, if you were so inclined. It would leave some pretty nasty prints, though...
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 3:10 PM on June 28, 2008

My mom has a Christmas CD from the Christian group Avalon that she plays at every yuletide gathering. One song in particular, a remake of Winter Wonderland, is the very definition of upbeat. Lots of drums and swing music trumpets and enthusiastic shouting all backed by a lively piano. You can listen to/download it here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 5:46 PM on June 13, 2008

Noctis sounds like it would be perfect for you. It's a small indie game developed by just one guy, a computer programmer named Alessandro Ghignola. It's a space exploration sim in the purest sense -- no weapons, no aliens, no multiplayer. Just a vast universe of literally billions of star systems full of planets and moons that you are free to land on and explore at your leisure. The graphics are pretty outdated, but beautifully evocative in a minimalist way.

See this... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 8:40 PM on June 12, 2008

Thirding The Prestige -- I finished watching it a few hours ago and it's exactly what you're looking for. Twistiest plot I've encountered in awhile, along with some very interesting philosophical and metaphysical questions.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 8:25 PM on June 12, 2008

yay dinosaur comix!

And here's the Wiki article the alt-text of the comic refers to.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 2:40 AM on June 3, 2008

A little late to the party here, but I just got done watching the dystopian black comedy A Boy and His Dog, which fits what you're looking for pretty well. It's about a boy named Vic and his caustic talking dog Blood foraging for food and women in the ruins of post-World War IV Arizona. A good chunk of the story takes place in the subterranean city of Topeka, a strictly-ordered nightmare vision of 1950s suburbia swathed in a perpetual underground night.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 1:28 AM on June 3, 2008

How about Fez? It's kid-friendly, non-violent, puzzling in a fascinating way, and the whole game takes place way up in the middle of the sky. It nicely recalls the older 8-bit platform games while giving it a cool 3D twist.

It's also an independent game, which is nice. Cool music, too.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 1:05 PM on June 2, 2008

(I should mention that the fun part of the game doesn't show up until about a third of the way through the trailer)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 1:09 PM on June 2, 2008

The best match I could find via searchlyrics.org was "No Good Advice" by Girls Aloud. The relevant lyrics:

Daddy told me look into the future
Sit at your computer, be a good girl
And Mama said remember you're a lady,
Think before your play and straighten your curls

Well everybody's talking like I'm crazy
Danger is a lazy girl with no soul
But I've seen it all from... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 12:23 AM on May 31, 2008

Wikipedia has a page on Wikiholism, though it mainly refers to compulsive Wikipedia editing rather than reading.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 8:14 PM on May 27, 2008

chudmonkey's comment captures well the idea I was getting at -- essentially that infinite universes + variation between universes = anything can and will happen.

But if I'm interpreting gerryblog's comment right, the reality (as the theory describes it) is that if there are multiple physical universes, they are all identical at the macroscopic scale, and the only difference is what happens at the quantum level.

If that is the case, then how do... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 6:52 PM on May 24, 2008

NationStates (based on the futuristic political thriller Jennifer Government by Max Barry, and created by same) might interest you. It allows you to roleplay as the leader of an entire country. You start by answering a few questions about your political philosophy, and the game then generates a nation tailored to your ideals. From then on the game will periodically message you with some pressing political issue occurring in your nation, and your response will sway the nature... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 12:15 AM on May 23, 2008

The Dune series covers tens of thousands of years of human history, including tremendous social and political upheavals. There are also a handful of characters that survive from era to era and help to create a unified narrative.

The Space Odyssey series of books and movies charts a similarly wide swath of human evolution, past, present, and future.

For a more human-scale story, All the King's... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 5:11 PM on May 21, 2008

I'm not familiar with any titles off the top of my head, but a little googling led me to this page, whose "Software" link section sounds promising. The focus is on artificial life, but some of the links mention environmental models as well. The AI.Planet project sounds especially close to what you're looking for:

AI.Planet is a virtual world for artificial intelligence. The environment has water, land, suns, moons, and atmosphere. Plants, animals, fish,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 6:29 PM on May 13, 2008

I couldn't find any record of a "Reflexive songs" article, but they did used to have one called "List of Self-Referential Songs". Archive.org has a copy from February 2006.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 12:08 PM on May 10, 2008 marked best answer

You're thinking of tamim. Here's a comment thread discussing his investigations.

And for future reference, questions regarding Metafilter belong in MetaTalk. ;)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 12:37 AM on May 9, 2008 marked best answer

If you want piano only:

Chopin - Raindrop Prelude
Clint Mansell - Together We Will Live Forever
Michael Giaccondo - Win One For The Reaper

And if you don't mind a few strings or woodwinds thrown in:

Clint Mansell - The Last Man
Paul Cardall - Embraced
Glover Gill - Ballade... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 1:36 PM on May 8, 2008

WhatTheFont says it's Praetorian DT.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 12:11 PM on May 8, 2008 marked best answer

This may be a bit of a long shot, but the first thing it reminded me of was this strip from the webcomic Eegra. The series does have a pretty surreal and disturbing vibe, so there's a chance it could have been an inspiration for this piece.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 1:35 PM on May 7, 2008

The Halo 2 ARG ilovebees mentioned Alt Burgundy, a foul-smelling beverage produced on the planet Jericho VII. It was rendered extremely rare after the planet was razed by the Covenant (the game's alien villains).

You can listen to a short discussion of Alt Burgundy (from an excerpt of the ilovebees radio drama) here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 11:39 PM on May 4, 2008

Max Brooks' zombie novel World War Z has a fun site.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 11:11 AM on May 4, 2008

The "Unusual articles" page that Outlawed Yeomen is incredibly entertaining, and far closer to the funny/weird "Best of Craigslist" style you want than the more encyclopedic Featured Articles and the, well, bad jokes and other deleted nonsense of Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense.

PS: Contributers to the BJAODN pages that felt stifled by Wikipedia's pedantic environment eventually started their own Wiki dedicated to satire and humor -- Uncyclopedia.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 4:05 PM on April 30, 2008

It's not as common as "Western", but perhaps "Euro-Atlantic"?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 9:14 AM on April 30, 2008

In the Seinfeld episode "The Letter" (the one with the hilariously awful portrait of Kramer), an art critic studies the aforementioned portrait and comments:

"He is a loathsome, offensive brute... yet I can’t look away!"

Could that be the inspiration? The episode aired in 1992, for what it's worth.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 12:54 PM on April 28, 2008

You know, CrayDrygu, I was going to call out the lack of quotation marks in your searches (and thus their being far too broad). But:

"I am a retail clerk" - 6 results

"I am a receptionist" - 788 results

"I am a dragon" - 252,000 results

Wow.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 8:16 PM on April 25, 2008

I would ask him if seeing Earth from that distance has changed his perspective on human affairs or on life in general in any way, and that, if it has, how he thinks society would be affected by making space travel a more common experience. See this list of astronaut quotes I dug up awhile back for the kind of attitude shift I mean.

I once read that establishing a permanent lunar base would cause great changes in the mindsets of people around the world -- that looking up... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 5:25 PM on April 23, 2008

Um, there's no hard-and-fast rule on the boundaries between what is considered a list or a glossary or a full-on dictionary. It's pretty subjective. You might as well ask at what point does a pile of sand become a heap. (There's a Wikipedia article discussing this linguistic subject somewhere, but I can't seem to find it right now.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 3:28 PM on April 23, 2008

I know this! It's "The Problem of Cell 13", by Jacques Futrelle.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 9:27 PM on April 22, 2008 marked best answer

Wow, same link and everything. Great thinks mind alike, and all that.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 9:36 PM on April 22, 2008

Pathetic Geek Stories has a slew of illustrated and written recollections.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 7:05 PM on April 21, 2008 marked best answer

(Mostly cribbed from Halopedia:)

In the Halo universe, ships travel via "Slipspace" or "the slipstream", a polydimensional tangle governed by alternate physical laws which allow FTL travel without relativistic restraints. Most ships are fitted with specialized Shaw-Fujikawa drives which open rifts large enough for them to pass through into this realm.

Slipspace travel isn't instant; a distant journey could take longer than six... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 6:36 PM on April 21, 2008

I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but Google has a cached version of Wikipedia's (now-deleted) "List of Fictional Atheists" category. That should be a decent starting point.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 8:54 PM on April 20, 2008

SparkNotes produces little laminated print guides called "SparkCharts" for pretty much every subject imaginable: Accounting, Programming Languages, Shakespeare, German Grammar, Music Theory, Physics, etc. You can buy them at Barnes & Noble, or view, download, and print the entire lineup (in PDF form) on their website.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 1:32 PM on April 17, 2008

(Not as beefy as a booklet, no, but it packs a surprising amount of the fundamental info on each subject into a compact, easy-to-digest form. Also, if you want to get a deeper treatment of any one topic, there's a directory of study guides in the top navigation bar of the site.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 1:37 PM on April 17, 2008

For your second question, Machinima.com is a great source for these types of movies from a wide range of games, from Halo to the Sims. They also have a fairly popular YouTube channel.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 11:27 AM on April 17, 2008

HuronBob: "When I asked Zack about that, his answer was simply... "In the REAL zombie world......." and never finished that sentence....

Therein lies your answer..."

I know what you're getting at, but the "zombies" I'm talking about are a different animal. They're not reanimated corpses, with all the established canon (and the ridiculous suspensions of disbelief) that idea carries. They're just... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 6:06 PM on April 12, 2008

You know, kuujjuarapik, that first response in your second link was so knowledgeable that it almost made me feel okay about marking something from Yahoo Answers as best.

Then I saw...

Da Pretty Wahine: wow some very good answers, especially from crouching doggie, tell me little doggie, can you have an adrenaline overdose when having sex? =P

Gone! Good feelings gone.

(Still a good set of links, though)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 8:58 PM on April 12, 2008

Here are two I found after a quick google. They're both reasonably ginormous, and, with the nice solid colors, easily photoshopped.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 3:49 PM on April 12, 2008

I think your best bet is to ask the radio station in question. Here's their contact info.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 1:01 PM on April 10, 2008

Play?

"Bob pictured the tapestry in his mind, recalling its great beauty."

"Bob played the symphony in his mind, recalling the familiar harmonies."

You could also use "hear", depending on which usage of "picture" you're trying to replicate.

"I can picture it now..."

"I can hear it now..."
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 3:27 PM on April 6, 2008

Jeffrey Lee, the sole surviving member of the indigenous Djok clan of Australia, was offered $5 billion dollars by the French mining company Areva for extraction rights to the uranium on his ancestral lands. Mr. Lee refused.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rhaomi at 5:38 PM on April 4, 2008