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Ignoranti

Website and podcast where the hosts confess their ignorance in a range of topics and ask intelligent people to explain things to them.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by MrMustard at 7:10 AM on June 13, 2014 (2 comments)

The editorial maxim was a simple one: Write the best story.

There's no simple or singular means of explaining why publications thrive or die. Entertainment Weekly rose and declined with larger waves affecting the entertainment and publishing industries at large, but its story is more than just that of print media at the turn of the century. That might be the environment, but the larger narrative is that of widespread deregulation in terms of media ownership and the resultant flurry of mergers, acquisitions, and conglomerate masterplanning.
The history of the business of EW.
posted to MetaFilter by psoas at 1:38 PM on June 11, 2014 (16 comments)

Mile 943: Day 44: Toulumne Meadows Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart

Writer Carrot Quinn is walking from Mexico to Canada for the second time. In 2013, she hiked the Pacific Coast Trail (2,663 miles) from Mexico to Canada.
posted to MetaFilter by Ideefixe at 8:57 AM on June 9, 2014 (13 comments)

My posse's got an orchestra!

The Seattle Symphony's "Sonic Evolution" program links up the Symphony with other Seattle area artists. Last night, the hip players at the Seattle teamed up with Sir Mix-a-Lot for what Mix described as '"Orchestral Movements from the Hood" Night'. The results are on youtube: Posse on Broadway and Baby Got Back
posted to MetaFilter by rmd1023 at 1:26 PM on June 7, 2014 (22 comments)

Peak Advertising and the Future of the Web

"Advertising is not well. Though companies supported by advertising still dominate the landscape and capture the popular imagination, cracks are beginning to show in the very financial foundations of the web. Despite the best efforts of an industry, advertising is becoming less and less effective online. The once reliable fuel that powered a generation of innovations on the web is slowly, but perceptibly beginning to falter. Consider the long-term trend: when the first banner advertisement emerged online in 1994, it reported a (now) staggering clickthrough rate of 78%. By 2011, the average Facebook advertisement clickthrough rate sat dramatically lower at 0.05%. Even if only a rough proxy, something underlies such a dramatic change in the ability for an advertisement to pique the interest of users online. What underlies this decline, and what does it mean for the Internet at large? This short [PDF] paper puts forth the argument for peak advertising—the argument that an overall slowing in online advertising will eventually force a significant (and potentially painful) shift in the structure of business online. Like the theory of Peak Oil that it references, the goal is not to look to the immediate upcoming quarter, but to think on the decade-long scale about the business models that sustain the Internet."
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 2:04 PM on June 3, 2014 (171 comments)

Ted Shawn, Father of American Dance

You've likely heard of Martha Graham and possibly of Ruth St. Denis, but it was the latter's husband, Ted Shawn, who pioneered and encouraged the participation of men in American modern dance. After the dissolution of their marriage and their boundary-pushing studio, Denishawn [NSFW/nudity], in the early 1930s he went on to form Ted Shawn and His Male Dancers, which frequently performed bare-chested or nude. Keeping with the precedent he and St. Denis had established, their work unapologetically appropriated from many cultures as a way to repudiate [NSFW/nudity] traditional preconceptions about professional dance. The company disbanded when most of its members left to fight in World War II, but the retreat space he purchased in western Massachusetts to house and train his dancers has since evolved to become a dance center and festival hub called Jacob's Pillow.
posted to MetaFilter by psoas at 5:24 PM on June 1, 2014 (6 comments)

WWDC 2014: Buttons so different you won't want to lick them anymore

WWDC is almost upon us, and with it comes the live-streaming keynote, delivered at 10am PST, in which Apple traditionally announces new software (and sometimes something else to boot). Rumors of an iWatch abound, but just as intriguing is the popularly-believed notion that Apple will be introducing a new design to OS X which matches last year's iOS 7, breaking clean of the Aqua interface which has defined the Mac since January 2000. Rumors abound.
posted to MetaFilter by Rory Marinich at 7:38 AM on June 1, 2014 (385 comments)

How well can you spell?

How well can you spell? is a spelling challenge from the Washington Post. Just click on the misspelled words.
posted to MetaFilter by zardoz at 9:49 PM on May 30, 2014 (109 comments)

Nervous Times, Photography by Lawren Hyder

Just what the internet needs, more still images. I spend the majority of my time as a photographer working in Victoria, BC, Canada, particularly within the 2 km² confines of the James Bay neighbourhood. Through the lenses of crap cameras, Leicas, Nikons, and everything in between, I've amassed a veritable mountain of mostly incidental photographs—snapshots, failed attempts at fine art, and, above all, an inordinate amount of stuff that makes me think “What exactly was I thinking when I tripped the shutter?”
posted to MetaFilter Projects by Lorin at 9:19 AM on May 30, 2014

Ren's List - Places to take your dog in the Buffalo-Niagara area

I was inspired by my dog Ren (named after the cartoon character) to create this website. A listing of local places that allow dogs, and a calendar of upcoming dog-related events.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by LaurenIpsum at 10:32 AM on May 29, 2014

How Not To Be Wrong

After three years of work, my book HOW NOT TO BE WRONG: THE POWER OF MATHEMATICAL THINKING comes out today from Penguin Press! It's about math. Also: baseball, Reaganomics, daring lottery schemes, Voltaire, the replicability crisis in psychology, Italian Renaissance painting, artificial languages, the development of non-Euclidean geometry, the coming obesity apocalypse, Antonin Scalia’s views on crime and punishment, the psychology of slime molds, packing 24-dimensional spheres, what Facebook can and can’t figure out about you, the invention of calculus, and the existence of God. The book is available at Amazon, Indiebound, Waterstones, and (I hope!) your local bookstore. MetaFilter has been a fantastically useful resource for me in putting this together; partly because I can use Ask for my questions about statistical significance in different languages and stockpicking scams, but more importantly because I've learned so much about how to write about math for non-mathematicians from writing about math on MetaFilter!
posted to MetaFilter Projects by escabeche at 10:33 AM on May 29, 2014 (13 comments)

Airline Icarus — experimental mobile site

I got a commission from Toronto's Soundstreams to make an experimental mobile site inspired by their new opera Airline Icarus. The result uses various fancy javascript video implementations to play around with interactive sound and video on mobile. Best viewed on mobile; it's a heavy site so your mileage / performance may vary.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by sixswitch at 10:10 PM on May 28, 2014 (1 comment)

Turns out that BUTTS LOL looks super classy in the Captain Sky Hawk font

The President has been kidnapped by ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to render text in a variety of sweet-as-hell video game typefaces using Arcade Font Writer?
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 10:18 AM on May 28, 2014 (18 comments)

Insights gained via one's career

What have you learned through your career, major, or specialization that you wish the general public knew?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Earl the Polliwog at 11:27 PM on July 2, 2009 (208 comments)

Books for the non-misogynist young reader

In the long, and incredibly insightful thread about misogyny that was spawned by the tragedy in California, I had a moment, going through my book collection, whereupon I realized that I had very few books with strong female characters that I would be comfortable giving to the kids. (Mine, and the crew that seems to live here during summer; boys and girls, ranging in age from 11-13.) I asked for recommendations, and the wealth of suggestions was amazing. I would feel selfish keeping it to myself, and wanted to share, so that other people with tween kids would also have them.
posted to MetaTalk by dejah420 at 9:18 AM on May 28, 2014 (69 comments)

CitiBiker

"This began my quest to find as many of the first 100 Citibikes as possible."
posted to MetaFilter by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 12:08 PM on May 23, 2014 (6 comments)

Conversely, android judges more likely to only have sons.

Does Having Daughters Cause Judges to Rule for Women's Issues? [PDF] New research on judicial empathy finds that when judges, specifically Republican judges, have daughters, they are more likely to rule in favor of women's issues.
posted to MetaFilter by MisantropicPainforest at 8:43 AM on May 22, 2014 (54 comments)

No quarters given

Arcade Story - the co-founder of innovative OS X and iOS software outfit Panic reminisces about learning how to beat Dragon's Lair in the pre-Internet age, but that's not the fun part...
posted to MetaFilter by Blazecock Pileon at 10:40 PM on May 21, 2014 (17 comments)

Internet Directory

According to ICANN, .COM domains were intended for business, .ORG for nonprofit, and .NET for internet providers and "Web Portals." Internet Directory is a listing of every domain using these TLDs -- beginning with the 115 million .COMs -- as they stand in early 2014. On a fast browser, it takes 599 days to watch every domain scroll by.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by rottytooth at 5:11 PM on May 20, 2014 (7 comments)

Poo vs Gravity

As a by-product of this FPP about a very large water slide, have just been involved in an inconclusive and heated argument about the physics aspects. Hypothetically, what would happen if, halfway down this very fast waterslide in a raft, you (accidentally or deliberately, it doesn't matter) defecated?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Wordshore at 2:07 PM on May 20, 2014 (13 comments)

GI Tufte

Military infographics are completely insane -- An analysis of some of the baffling infographics that the US military have made public on the web for some reason.
posted to MetaFilter by schmod at 5:37 AM on May 15, 2014 (59 comments)

Gag me with a spoon

Poolside Radio is a bizarre slice of the 1980s in a browser. Strange old clips of 80s movies combined with 80s synth music and a lovely pastel palette make for a good time.
posted to MetaFilter by mathowie at 10:02 PM on May 16, 2014 (28 comments)

Winter on Georgian Bay

Highlights of a four-month time-lapse taken from a cottage overlooking Lake Huron, during an absolutely epic winter. We planted a double-Raspberry Pi camera on Dcember 27th and recovered it in early May, and were somewhat surprised to find that the board hadn't frozen or been eaten by raccoons. And indeed, the more-reliable Pi had taken over 42,000 photos. Including the lake freezing and thawing, icicles forming right in front of the camera (and then miraculously breaking off just three days later, before they get boring), killer storms, and ghostly single-frame shots of deer passing by. Hope you like it!
posted to MetaFilter Projects by kaibutsu at 9:48 AM on May 16, 2014 (4 comments)

MetaFilter Radio iOS app

Put Metafilter Music in your pocket! With MetaFilter Radio for iOS, you can listen to songs posted to Metafilter Music, hear episodes of the Metafilter Podcast, and retrieve and play your playlists, all from your iPhone or iPod touch. Requires iOS 7 or higher.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by scottandrew at 5:37 PM on May 15, 2014

A twitter follower getting into stalker-uncomfortable territory

I have a follower of my twitter account who's constantly causing alarm bells to go off in my head, and I'm curious how to deal with it.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 3:17 PM on May 15, 2014 (32 comments)

Weird, unusual, and hidden parts of Washington, DC?

I've been reading Scouting NY ever since Slap*Happy's post about Willets Point and loving it the descriptions of bizarre landmarks, unusual neighborhoods, and hidden bits of history and culture in NYC. What are the equivalent places in Washington, DC?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by capricorn at 8:12 AM on May 5, 2014 (29 comments)

Healthy Food for Dummies

Buzzfeed published an extremely detailed "clean eating" plan the other day. Say what you will about so-called "clean eating", I don't really buy the idea of "detox" anyway. What I really liked was the level of detail included. I'd like to eat healthier and less processed food, but I need a lot of guidance. Most diet plans are general and include a few recipes here and there, but this plan was totally next level. Help me find similar plans.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fuego at 5:22 PM on May 9, 2014 (11 comments)

Fanfiction book club

So fanfiction. As someone who's loved the idea but never gotten into it, what should I read?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by litleozy at 3:39 AM on May 7, 2014 (35 comments)

IFTTT on iOS used 7.5GB of cellular data

I just received a huge cellphone bill due to excessive data usage. I checked my iPhone's cellular data usage, and the IFTTT app has used 7.5GB (yes, gigabytes) of data in the last month. WTF!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by krunk at 1:49 PM on May 9, 2014 (14 comments)

Cruelty Investigations Department Advanced Intern

Position Objective: As an advanced intern, you will strive to lend a hand to and learn about PETA's Emergency Response Team. During this internship, you'll jump right in as part of one of PETA's most fast-paced and critical departments, the Cruelty Investigations Department (CID). You will get in on the action and see firsthand the immediate impact that our work has on the lives of many animals. The Typical Day of a CID Intern: • Unfortunately, cruelty cases are always pouring in, so a big part of this internship is helping to route incoming correspondence and transcribing telephone calls that could end up in official reports. • In order to gain the most experience, you will be working alongside CID staff members to provide responses to calls for assistance and e-mails. You'll learn how to handle these tough situations. • Some cases require a lot of research, so it's expected that you'll be ready to learn how to track down information on miscellaneous cruelty-to-animals and neglect cases. • From time to time, some information on a case will be tossed your way and we'll look to get your help with note-taking. • This internship does involve some hands-on work with animals, as we'll need help with basic animal care and feeding. Who doesn't love a good dog walk or giving animals some TLC? • Part of your day could consist of administrative tasks, which are necessary to the continuation of our work for animals. • Of course, you'll also perform any other duties assigned by the supervisor. Position Requirements: • For starters, you'll need at least a high school diploma or GED in order to be eligible to apply. • Situations out in the field are very unpredictable, so you'll need to have a strong stomach and know how to keep your cool in tough situations. It's not easy seeing injured animals, but you'll need to be ready to help in a heartbeat. • Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail will help you keep everything on track, so résumés with grammar or other errors will be rejected. Sorry, but we can't risk it. • Consider yourself to be great at keeping secrets? Great, because we need somebody who can keep confidential information just that—confidential. • Many people say that they "thrive under pressure," but this position is a true test of that. We take on multiple cases at a time, and lives depend on us! • You must support PETA's philosophy and have the ability to professionally advocate our positions on issues. • Naturally, you'd need to be committed to the objectives of the organization.
posted to MetaFilter Jobs by srrh at 6:36 AM on May 7, 2014

Hacker In Residence (Full Stack Engineer)

Hacker In Residence We don't need better selfies. We need technology to make the world a better place. We at Significance Labs believe that technology can help to solve real problems for low income Americans and we are looking for excellent engineers to help us in our mission. Significance Labs is a not-for-profit socially conscious tech incubator in the heart of Brooklyn, focusing on bringing the lean startup methodology to the world of charity. We are looking for a handful of excellent full stack engineers who want to do more with their talents: take on a project that really matters, something that leverages the power of technology to help make the world a better place. To that end, we are offering a ten week residency, beginning in June, at our office in downtown Brooklyn, working with some of the best people in the business, experts in the field, academics, designers and technologists to tackle some of the real problems of poverty. You will be working with our fellows, in small teams, developing an app from scratch, with direct feedback from the very communities we are trying to help. This isn't a hackathon where your code gets left in the dustbin sunday night: we are going to be building projects that will continue to make a real difference long after the summer is over. You are a talented engineer, and could work anywhere: Why join us? This is an opportunity to build a greenfield project that really matters, something that leverages the power of technology to help make the world a better place. This is your chance to be the CTO of a social enterprise, level up your skills, and work with some of the best people in the business solving some of the most important problems of our time. This isn't just another gig, nor is it your friend's crazy idea... This is about changing the world for the better. About You: * An experienced engineer: you've built things that really work from the ground up, tools and applications that other people use. * You write quick, concise clean code that is as much of a pleasure to read as it is to run. * You are comfortable working across the whole technology stack, front to back and everything in between. * You know when to write tests and when to write experiments and are regularly the most productive member of your team. * You know that deleting code can be just as powerful as creating it. * User focused, you expect to iterate on the product in response to what works and what doesn't. Maybe the best user interface for the user are text messages instead of mobile web, maybe we need to build a kiosk. * You are comfortable across a range of platforms and languages, but are an expert in a few. You like to learn new languages in your free time, and have built a project in a new language just to explore. * We'd prefer you to be able to come and work with us at our sweet co-working space in Brooklyn, however, if you've successfully worked remotely, please don't hesitate to apply. * Preferred Languages/Frameworks: Linux/Opensource, Ruby, Python, Javascript, Rails, Sinatra, Django, Flask, Node, Express, Angular, Ember * Preferred Experience: Mobile web a huge plus, web applications, third party APIs, particularly social and telephony (twilio etc) * If you aren't in NYC, but have significant experience successfully working remotely, please don't hesitate to get in touch. What you’ll get: * Co-Working space in downtown Brooklyn * Expert engineers, entrepreneurs, UI and UX people as mentors * Local collegiate interns as dedicated as you * At the end of the cycle, we will do a demo day with VC’s, foundations, government organizations, etc. to help take the product and team to the next level. * An honorarium to pay your rent and bills. To find our more, visit http://significancelabs.org/hackers/ Send an email to hackers@significancelabs.org with your name, resume, as well as a link to a code sample of something that runs and that you are proud of: the next step will be a phone call to find out more about you and to talk about your code. Can't wait to hear from you!
posted to MetaFilter Jobs by Freen at 6:28 AM on May 7, 2014

A Chair of Ice and Fire

How to do you explain everything that's occurred on Game of Thrones to your annoying kid brother, who shouldn't be watching it? Here's one possibility!
posted to MetaFilter Projects by Brandon Blatcher at 7:11 AM on April 4, 2014

Keepskor: Build games around the people you follow on Twitter and Instagram [iOS]

Do you use Twitter? Instagram? Don't you wish there was a more fun way to look at the feeds than just a list of tweets? With Keepskor, you can build mini-games ("Who said it?" or "Who shot it are our first ones) that allow you to challenge this vs. that.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by TNLNYC at 7:30 AM on April 9, 2014 (3 comments)

A love song for New Orleans, except in photos

I've tried to present my New Orleans; how I see this place that surrounds me and won't let me go. It's the result of years' worth of photography and my desire to show what the Crescent City means - it's not a commentary about crime, or Katrina, or Bourbon St. tourism, but the scenes that stand out in the everyday.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by komara at 8:57 AM on April 11, 2014 (4 comments)

Vhoto - find photos in video

Vhoto is an app for your iDevice (no Android, sorry) that uses computer vision and machine learning to pull still photos out of video you shoot. You can use the built in camera or import video shot with another app. We also have a social component for sharing your photos, and you can also share to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The app is free, here's a download link: http://vho.to/gettheapp/chris
posted to MetaFilter Projects by keep_evolving at 9:45 AM on May 1, 2014

Hopefully bringing some good out of the tragic kidnappings in Nigeria

I was horrified when I learned about the 276 female students who were kidnapped (some raped, some killed, all survivors to be sold into forced "marriage") in April. I built this site to encourage people to donate to build a school in rural Africa, in a community that supports the idea of women learning. Some problematic bits about it, but the whole situation is so dark, I wanted to see if I could help something good happen.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by Alt F4 at 1:50 PM on May 9, 2014

I want a linkblog like John Gruber/Daring Fireball. How do I set it up?

I've long been an admirer of linkblogs like John Gruber's Daring Fireball and Dave Winer's Scripting News. I would like to start one on my own. What's the best way to go about doing this?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by zooropa at 2:17 PM on May 9, 2014 (6 comments)

And then the woman let out a cry. I cannot describe it.

At the Market, Very Late Last night in a supermarket about 3 AM, I saw a woman have a serious breakdown. [...] "I thought I had more money left," she muttered before bursting into tears. They were not tears of embarrassment. They were tears of desperation and panic and "I don't know what to do anymore."
posted to MetaFilter by Flexagon at 12:39 PM on May 9, 2014 (159 comments)

Impossible question: Can you identify this portion of an album cover?

When I launched Upcoming.org in 2003, I clipped this little piece of red texture from a vinyl album cover and used it as the header background. I'm pretty sure that the light bands are guitar strings, and I thought it was a Frank Zappa cover, but I can't find anything that fits. Can you identify it, or am I sunk?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by waxpancake at 2:01 PM on May 8, 2014 (9 comments)

Forty-three Werner Herzog films that can be streamed

Inside, please find a list of forty-three movies, TV episodes, and short subjects by Werner Herzog, all of which can be streamed, along with some short descriptions of their content. One or two of the films are in German without subtitles; this is noted in the description.
posted to MetaFilter by Going To Maine at 10:40 AM on May 4, 2014 (64 comments)

Are atheletes really getting faster, stronger and better?

The large got larger. The small got smaller. The weird got weirder. When you look at sporting achievements over the last decades, it seems like humans have gotten faster, better and stronger in nearly every way. Yet as David Epstein points out in this delightfully counter-intuitive talk, we might want to lay off the self-congratulation. Many factors are at play in shattering athletic records, and the development of our natural talents is just one of them. TED talk, 14:53
posted to MetaFilter by srboisvert at 7:51 AM on May 1, 2014 (22 comments)

What's a good movie to rent for a bunch of twelve year-old boys?

My son will be having a birthday sleepover in a couple weeks so we will be hosting about six twelve year-old boys. In addition to feeding them and the Minecraft LAN party, we'd like to watch a movie with them. Suggestions?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by bondcliff at 7:07 AM on April 29, 2014 (175 comments)

What is the approximate capacity for party attendance at Wayne Manor?

What is the approximate capacity for party attendance at Wayne Manor (yes, from Batman)?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by agregoli at 7:20 PM on April 27, 2014 (11 comments)

Help me be low maintenance, without looking low maintenance. For men.

Help with clothing grooming etc. for men?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by snowjoe at 8:53 AM on April 4, 2014 (27 comments)

Gonna be confusing when they call the fifth film "Terminator THREE"

An actual robot is playing THREES live right now on the internet. It is probably better than you at THREES, but at least your arms are longer, so.
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 12:12 PM on April 4, 2014 (51 comments)

Travel Bucket List

Travel Filter: What would you consider to be the "MUST DO" travel spots in your city/town/state? If I had 50 days left to live, and had time to visit one thing in each state, what would it be from your region?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by librarianamy at 12:09 PM on March 21, 2014 (39 comments)

Crystal Blocks of Yankee Coldness

"In 1805, a twenty-three year-old Bostonian called Frederic Tudor launched a new industry: the international frozen-water trade. Over the next fifty years, he and the men he worked with developed specialised ice harvesting tools, a global network of thermally engineered ice houses, and a business model that cleverly leveraged ballast-less ships, off-season farmers, and overheated Englishmen abroad. By the turn of the century, the industry employed 90,000 people and was worth $220 million in today’s terms. By 1930, it had disappeared, almost without trace, replaced by an artificial cryosphere of cold storage warehouses and domestic refrigerators."
posted to MetaFilter by Eyebrows McGee at 3:58 PM on March 12, 2014 (46 comments)

Tech industry April Fool's joke generator

For startups who haven't executed on their minimum viable funny yet.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by bwerdmuller at 7:10 PM on March 31, 2014

Help me sing a Dutch nursery rhyme to my daughter

My dad (who was Dutch) used to sing two nursery rhyme/children's songs to us and the grandchildren of my family. He passed away a few years ago and I'd like to sing it to my daughter but I have no idea how to spell (or even really pronouce the song title). Can you help me google it?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jojobobo at 4:58 PM on March 25, 2014 (8 comments)
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