MetaFilter

Confessions of a Fat Bastard: Texas Monthly's Daniel Vaughn on the life of a full-time barbecue writer.

"Since Texas Monthly named me the nation’s first and only full-time barbecue editor in March 2013 (previously), my health has been a topic of international discussion. My job requires that I travel from one end of the state to the other eating smoked brisket, one of the fattiest cuts on the steer. And I can’t forget to order the pork ribs, sausage, and beef ribs. Of course my diet is going to raise eyebrows. Including those of my doctor."
posted by porn in the woods at 10:37 PM PST - 47 comments

Looking for another source of public domain images? Yahoo research fellow Kalev Leetaru has extracted over 14 million images from IA public domain book scans, and so far 2.6 million of them have been posted to the Internet Archive Book Images photostream, where they have become part of The Commons. [more inside]
posted by fings at 9:31 PM PST - 25 comments

Mathematician Zachary Abel builds impressive Mathematical Sculptures from office supplies and other household objects. [more inside]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 6:48 PM PST - 12 comments

Big list of Games – "An unfiltered list of games featuring a leading lady, because such a list should exist."
Have a suggestion for a game?
Leading Ladies in Media – "Highlighting female protagonists in Film, TV, Comics, and Books."
Bonus link: hardcore gaming – Fuck Yeah 1990s
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 6:33 PM PST - 27 comments

Staging lives: "Who do you want to be? Or, more accurately, who could you have been? Czech photographer Dita Pepe takes these musings quite literally, re-imaging her life in a hundred different scenarios in her series Self Portraits with Men. Pepe’s photographs are disarming in their nonchalant subtly, the artist possessing an uncanny ability to become a seamless member of each family." [more inside]
posted by Salamandrous at 4:21 PM PST - 27 comments

"... now, my sight and my world and my life have all returned." Vision: Healing the Blind in Ethiopia [vimeo, 10m] [more inside]
posted by Westringia F. at 1:47 PM PST - 8 comments

St. Paul police roughly assault and arrest man, who is black and sitting in public area waiting for his kids. [SLYT] Police defended arrest but all charges were dropped by St. Paul police against 27-year old Chris Lollie. Lollie is filing complaint and now plans on suing.
posted by Mike Mongo at 1:30 PM PST - 435 comments

This week Allstate Insurance released its 10th annual Best Drivers Report for the 200 largest US cities. It's wicked pissah being at the bottom (again). [more inside]
posted by Esteemed Offendi at 12:57 PM PST - 111 comments

The Nishiyama Silk company explains their silk production process from reeling silk out of the boiled cocoons through handweaving the final cloth. Their factory video is a three minutes of hypnotic machine motion (along with some adorable socks on the weavers).
posted by janell at 12:44 PM PST - 10 comments

Justice Map [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:25 PM PST - 17 comments

“Worldcon is like a family reunion,” said longtime convention-goer and fanzine writer Curt Phillips, at a panel about the history of Worldcon. After a few days, I could only agree. It was indeed like being at a family reunion, in that it felt like you were spending your time with elderly relatives. You might want to talk to them and listen to their stories, but you’ll have to tolerate some offensive and outdated opinions along the way.

For the Daily Dot, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw examines how the growing generation gap is changing the face of fandom, comparing the recent London Worldcon with the Nine Worlds convention run the weekend before.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:20 PM PST - 59 comments

Elephant plays with blue streamer. (SLYT)
posted by overeducated_alligator at 11:55 AM PST - 24 comments

In this video edition of Chad Smith's interview series, the Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer sits down with his old friend, Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard, to talk about their early days on tour together, their attempts to form a "jazz odyssey" band, producers Rick Rubin and Brendan O'Brien, and a whole lot more. A jam-packed, laugh-filled hour-long chat.
posted by hippybear at 11:04 AM PST - 5 comments

A controversial player follows up a disappointing NBA career with a major success in the Chinese Basketball Association, including two national titles with the Beijing Ducks (yes, they're named after the delicious Peking Duck dish). Now, he's Starring in a musical about himself in Beijing.(NYT)
posted by ericbop at 10:00 AM PST - 15 comments

"But not doing things too disastrously is not some minimal achievement; it is a maximal achievement, rarely managed." Does it help to know history?
posted by theodolite at 9:26 AM PST - 46 comments

Former Nippon Pro Baseball home-run king Takashi Yamasaki tries to hit a 186 mph (300 km/hour) fastball from a pitching machine. Skip to 3:29 for the fun part. (SLYT, Japanese)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:49 AM PST - 57 comments

“Until a person has experienced career-harming bias...they simply don’t believe it exists.”
Why Aren't Women Advancing At Work? Ask a Transgender Person.
posted by sp160n at 8:44 AM PST - 47 comments

Pen Paper Ink Letter is a pen and paper blog maintained by Heath Cates. Currently holding Ink Week, its best feature is a massive index of product reviews, from the blog itself and other blogs. [more inside]
posted by Elementary Penguin at 8:32 AM PST - 10 comments

IBM's 1939 Corperate Song Book.
posted by The Whelk at 8:27 AM PST - 35 comments

Somebody: A new app by Miranda July (previously) allows you to send somebody a message… sort of. When you send your friend a message through Somebody, it goes — not to your friend — but to the Somebody user nearest your friend. This person (likely a stranger) delivers the message verbally, acting as your stand-in. Watch the Somebody movie.
posted by Cash4Lead at 8:07 AM PST - 50 comments

To entice new homeowners, Russia's biggest bank is running a special promotion which adds unusual perk with its mortgage - a cat. [more inside]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:03 AM PST - 24 comments

Researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital are reporting that xenon gas has the potential to become a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other memory-related disorders.
posted by we are the music makers at 7:04 AM PST - 52 comments

Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1971
posted by nadawi at 6:37 AM PST - 63 comments

So a little while ago, I set out to write some tutorials that would guide the non-coding-but-computer-savvy journalist through enough programming fundamentals so that he/she could write a web scraper to collect data from public websites.

[more inside]
posted by postcommunism at 5:29 AM PST - 40 comments