MetaFilter

20th Century Avant-Garde is a great resource guide to experimental art from 1900 onwards. Special sections for dada, the situationists and fluxus. You can also browse by categories such as artists, film and video art, movements in art, publishers and many more. If you're interested in experimental art of the 20th Century you can get lost in this site for hours.
posted by Kattullus at 11:13 PM PST - 8 comments

"February is more than a diminutive month of love... It is a month of hair." Your mission should you choose to accept it, is to grow your beard throughout February, then shave back to a glorious mustache for a gala beer party at the end of the month. The rules are very, very serious. Apparently the reverse goes for the ladies i.e. shave everything from eyebrows to hair. [more inside]
posted by chime at 10:20 PM PST - 20 comments

"Fish Heads" (Lumania, 1980). Produced and Directed by Bill Paxton. Starring Bill Paxton, Barry Hansen; with Billy Mumy and Robert Haimer as Art Barnes and Artie Barnes. The song on which the film was based, by Barnes & Barnes, turns thirty years old this year, and has been retooled for the internet age by Haimer. Haimer and Mumy have also collaborated on some new material. [more inside]
posted by not_on_display at 9:54 PM PST - 39 comments

Stanislav Szukalski was born in Warta, Poland on December 13, 1893. When he was only six years old, a teacher sent him to the headmaster's office for whittling a pencil. The headmaster examined the pencil more closely and discovered that young Stanislav had carved a tiny, near-perfect figure. [more inside]
posted by louche mustachio at 9:18 PM PST - 8 comments

Cornell University and the University of Michigan collaboratively present two sites on the "Making of America" (Cornell Site; Michigan Site), together including over one million pages of 19th Century American books and periodicals online. At this Cornell page you can browse or search some well-known, full-text periodicals including: The Atlantic Monthly 1857-1901; Harper's 1850-1899; Scientific American 1846-1869; Putnam's 1853-1870; and The Manufacturer and Builder 1869-1894. From Michigan, you can browse less well-known journals, including American Jewess 1895-1899; Ladies Repository 1846-1871; and the Journal of the United States Association of Charcoal Iron Workers 1880-1891. warning: frames abound [more inside]
posted by Rumple at 9:08 PM PST - 8 comments

Paul the Wine Guy explains art, for geeks.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 8:41 PM PST - 10 comments

'Race' graphically illustrated - "most Europeans" vs. Ashkenazim (previously; see also IQ & Gladwell, viz. ;) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 7:40 PM PST - 101 comments

Since its inception in 1961, over 190,000 volunteers have served overseas with the US Peace Corps. In 2007, the Peace Corps had over 8,000 volunteers serving in 74 countries (2007 annual report (PDF)). Some volunteers have taken to blogging their activities and experiences. Peace Corps Journals maintains a directory of most of them, organized by region and nation. Every nation's page has Wikipedia, CIA Factbook, PC proper, PC staff listings and PC Wiki links; link(s) to site(s) pertaining to RPCVs that served in that nation (if any); and some even link to the nation's informative Peace Corps-published Welcome Book (PDF). Below those elements are the links to the various blogs. While you're perusing the journals, also check out flickr's Peace Corps photo pool
posted by cog_nate at 6:22 PM PST - 18 comments

Japanese places and people photographed by Felice Beato, a pioneer 19th century photographer who documented the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny and the Anglo-French military intervention in China before opening a studio in Yokohama in 1863. He also seems to have been the first photographer in Korea.Wikipedia NYPL archive First two links are units in MIT's Visualizing Cultures project.
posted by Abiezer at 4:55 PM PST - 12 comments

Sex, drugs and sleaze! Were the bad old days really the good old days? Native New Yorkers who remember the City in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, speak up! Was the Big Apple better off then or now?
posted by nangsta at 4:25 PM PST - 66 comments

This is definitely not a good time to be in the bond insurance business. With large-scale insurers Ambac and MBIA -- and with smaller players faring no better -- one could well think that in the end the lending crisis has brought to light considerable flaws at the very basis of the American -- and indeed global -- financial sector. (all links above except the first lead to 6-month stock charts) [more inside]
posted by clevershark at 4:17 PM PST - 19 comments

The Ugliest Yacht in the World? "Frankly, Sigma is a bit scary. With its razor-sharp hull and Northrup Grumman aesthetics, Sigma looks more like a cruiser for Darth Vader’s navy." Contenders include Asean Lady, "an office tower plunked down on an outrigger canoe", and Wallypower 118, "with all the elegance and charm of a WWII torpedo".
posted by stbalbach at 3:52 PM PST - 62 comments

Words Without Pictures. A web site about photography.
posted by chunking express at 2:27 PM PST - 4 comments

Everyblock has launched. It's local news culled from (any and all available) services, including photos, news, restaurant inspections, classified ads, and civic announcements. Sounds pretty dry, but looking at my old neighborhood in San Francisco, there's a wealth of hyperlocal information that you can't get in one place. They're currently in three major metro areas of the US with many more to come -- their launch announcement has more. This site was spearheaded by Adrian Holovaty, a pioneer of the intersection between journalism and computer science, and winner of a $1million grant last year to build such sites.
posted by mathowie at 2:07 PM PST - 34 comments

Turning a chapel into an apartment. The Dutch architectural firm ZECC has made a beautiful, modern apartment out of an abandoned chapel. There are more stunning photos and cross-sections in this PDF, though the text is in Dutch. Other stunning church renovations.
posted by desjardins at 2:02 PM PST - 25 comments

How to catch a bus.
And the paper in question. (PDF)
posted by johnny novak at 12:48 PM PST - 44 comments

The HF Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) (a Google Video) radio signals are clearly heard in the 40 meter band, echoing off the Moon. This video shows S-meter readings as seen on a Yaesu FT-1000MP amateur radio (ham radio) transceiver located in San Jose, California. And of course a thorough explanation of what you are watching/hearing can be found on About the HAARP - LWA Moon Bounce Experiment.
posted by jackspace at 12:47 PM PST - 7 comments

Dogcaught, a group blog about trains and the train experience. Some of the pictures are nice enough that they almost look tiltshifted. Others are beautiful and alluring. Hang around long enough and you might turn into a foamer. [more inside]
posted by cashman at 12:27 PM PST - 14 comments

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is often misunderstood (and is different from Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder.) From wikipedia: "OCD sufferers are aware that such thoughts and behavior are not rational, but feel bound to comply with them to fend off feelings of panic or dread. Because sufferers are consciously aware of this irrationality but feel helpless to push it away, untreated OCD is often regarded as one of the most vexing and frustrating of the major anxiety disorders." [more inside]
posted by agregoli at 12:19 PM PST - 65 comments

"'If Ranger Craig leads me to a freshly-dug open grave, I'm going to be very miffed,' I thought." Andy Ihnatko goes on a behind-the-scenes tour of Alcatraz. [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha at 12:12 PM PST - 11 comments

SpaceShipTwo (SS2) [the suborbital craft] and WhiteKnightTwo [its launch system], created by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, have been revealed. More images. Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn says the WhiteKnightTwo will have an "open architecture like Linux to allow other people to develop new vehicles and revolutionize new industrial uses of space". He continues that, if people come to Virgin with plans geared towards the use of WhiteKnightTwo, they will work with them.
posted by blatant gizmo at 11:41 AM PST - 21 comments

The product of an entire semester's work: one single type block. An essay on letterpress printing with wood. [via]
posted by Armitage Shanks at 11:28 AM PST - 17 comments

Irritated and indifferent -- consumers in the Expectation Economy. [more inside]
posted by tkolar at 11:27 AM PST - 20 comments

Rick Majerus has always been a bit controversial, but this has been a bad month. [more inside]
posted by ozomatli at 10:57 AM PST - 20 comments

Finally, one central point of aggregation for the complaints of white people. So this solves that problem -- now, who's going to make a mayonnaise jar with a mouth wide enough to make it easy to scrape out the last bits? GOSH!
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 10:12 AM PST - 67 comments

last.fm has gotten a major upgrade. Full tracks stream on-demand without login. Easily get a peek into genre favorites. [more inside]
posted by cowbellemoo at 8:51 AM PST - 64 comments

This epic battle scene from Zulu was great cinema, but wasn't quite accurate historically. [more inside]
posted by RussHy at 7:57 AM PST - 38 comments

How to win at the internet: Horse mask? Check. Wild mushrooms? Check. Improbable thongs and partial nudity? Check. Dancing? Check. Craziest goddamn thing I've ever seen on the internet? Absolutely. As if I even need to say it, this isn't safe for work, for human consumption, or retaining what few shreds of sanity you believe that you may still cling to.
posted by loquacious at 7:33 AM PST - 54 comments

All the recent Tom Cruise or LOLXTIANS posts made you feel picked on? Get your game on playing Faith Fighter and have the final say! Pick your deity, you're matched with an opposing deity and the fight is on to the death, or whatever recursive afterlife an immortal would experience. (via) [more inside]
posted by uaudio at 7:29 AM PST - 24 comments

Wang Chung. Pokemon. And now, Cloverfield.
posted by jbickers at 7:22 AM PST - 32 comments

While fellow mid-nineties stargirl Lisa Loeb is off becoming the next Jewish Dear Abby at the Daily Forward's storied Bintel Brief, Jill Sobule is hosting an online "telethon" to raise the money to record her next album. $100 (copper level) gets you a junior executive producer credit, while for $10,000 (weapons-grade plutonium level) you can actually sing on her CD (or at least play cowbell).
posted by ericbop at 7:09 AM PST - 36 comments

When a coyote or fox or pet dog tugs at the device, it unleashes a lethal dose of poison into their mouths, which mixes with saliva to form a gas that causes convulsions, then paralysis, and finally death.....And it's only a matter of time until M-44s claim their first human victim. Dennis Slaugh of Vernal, Utah nearly earned that distinction
posted by james_cpi at 6:53 AM PST - 37 comments

Best Cities to have a Baby Portland Oregon tops the list. Not surprisingly Detroit didn't fair so well
posted by Tablecrumbs at 6:36 AM PST - 52 comments

While it may be old news the US was drawn into the Iraq War under false pretenses, a new report by the Center for Public Integrity documents 935 specific falsehoods in public statements by eight white house officials: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Wolfowitz, Fleischer and McClellan. [more inside]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:32 AM PST - 71 comments

Tired of video sites that are 99% cats running into walls? Check out Big Think ("YouTube for Smarty Pants") and FORA.tv ("A hipper, Web-based version of C-SPAN"). Give your brain a workout! (Via, and earlier)
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:01 AM PST - 28 comments