The 50 Greatest Sports Gifs of 2011: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
posted to MetaFilter by Potomac Avenue at 8:57 AM on January 4, 2012 (135 comments)

Can the human head itself function as a percussion instrument? Why, yes! Yes it can!
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 10:06 PM on October 26, 2011 (22 comments)

Hanover Historical Texts Project is a collection of primary source texts from ancient times to the modern era in English translation. There is a great number of interesting texts, for instance accounts of Zeno, he of the paradoxes, the diary of Lady Sarashina, a lady-in-waiting in Heian era Japan, a letter from Count Stephen of Blois and Chartres, a crusader writing to his wife, Arthur Young's travels in France before and during the Revolution, a report by the American ambassador in St. Petersburg on March 20th, 1917, immediately after the February Revolution, and finally Petrarch's letter about his graphomania. That last one is from what is perhaps my favorite part of the website, a trove of Petrarch's Familiar Letters. But there's much more in the Hanover Historical Texts Projects besides what I've mentioned.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 9:53 PM on October 24, 2011 (6 comments)

Getting a gaming rig -- advice?
posted to Ask Metafilter by extramundane at 2:02 PM on October 14, 2011 (19 comments)

Rock Scene magazine - scans of every page of all 54 issues from 1973-1982, featuring artists like Bowie, Queen Lou Reed, the Ramones, The New York Dolls, Blondie, Talking Heads, Willy DeVille, and more. (via Dangerous Minds)
posted to MetaFilter by madamjujujive at 5:20 PM on August 20, 2011 (10 comments)

Plain Layne, a compelling weblogger from Minneapolis, appears to have disappeared (in the internet sense) leaving many of her cult followers grasping at straws. Aside from the cryptic Polish message left on her site, many are wondering: Was she even real?
posted to MetaFilter by KevinSkomsvold at 8:42 PM on June 15, 2004 (42 comments)

This site parses the emails sent and received by Sarah Palin while she was governor of Alaska and presents them in a more familiar interface. sarahsinbox.com
posted to MetaFilter by Antidisestablishmentarianist at 2:22 PM on June 16, 2011 (19 comments)

Rockstar Games/Team Bondi's open world adventure game LA Noire was released last month to near-universal praise. However, several long-form essays have been written exploring it's problems. The Shadows Of LA Noire criticizes its lack of noir feel. Press X For Beer Bottle (some spoilers) uses the game's lack of freedom to explore the nature of gaming. Finally, Kill Screen Daily's review finds a metaphysical explanation for some of its most obvious issues.
posted to MetaFilter by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 6:49 PM on June 16, 2011 (62 comments)

Internet K-Hole is an image blog consisting mostly of anonymous snapshots and Polaroids from the 1970s through the 1990s presented at random without description or context that go on for ever and ever and ever. (Some images NSFW.)
posted to MetaFilter by Hey Dean Yeager! at 8:01 PM on June 10, 2011 (121 comments)

Theta Music Trainer — Train your ear with fun music games. Sharpen your sense of pitch and tone. Unlock the hidden patterns in music. Strengthen your music theory skills.
posted to MetaFilter by netbros at 12:48 PM on May 25, 2011 (13 comments)

At a Toronto show on May 7, Paul Simon offered his guitar to a fan, inviting her onstage to sing.
posted to MetaFilter by futureisunwritten at 4:40 PM on May 9, 2011 (88 comments)

President Obama to make important announcement regarding Osama Bin Laden imminently
posted to MetaFilter by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 7:42 PM on May 1, 2011 (4504 comments)

Eighth grader silently expresses her anguish over being bullied for two years. [SLYT].
posted to MetaFilter by morganannie at 1:10 PM on March 30, 2011 (263 comments)

Playbutton embeds albums in wearable button badges.
posted to MetaFilter by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:41 PM on March 16, 2011 (57 comments)

Wes Freed (some images NSFW) is a painter who combines Southern gothic subject matter with an outsider art style. He's best known for his work with the great Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers and has designed most of their album covers, posters, and merchandise.
posted to MetaFilter by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:36 PM on March 14, 2011 (27 comments)

(SLYT) -- Suppose you are a pop star out on tour. Suppose that one night, your flight gets cancelled, stranding you -- and lots of other passengers -- and that subsequent flights also get cancelled and delayed, and that the other passengers are starting to get really angry, to the point that some tempers are starting to flare. What do you do? Well, if you're Cyndi Lauper, you get one of the airport mikes and lead a singalong.
posted to MetaFilter by EmpressCallipygos at 8:44 PM on March 6, 2011 (56 comments)

Meet Andrew Myers, one of the most patient modern-day sculptors around. He starts with a base, plywood panel, and then places pages of a phone book on top. He then draws out a face and pre-drills 8,000 to 10,000 holes, by hand. As he drills in the screws, Myers doesn't rely on any computer software to guide him, he figures it out as he goes along. "For me, I consider this a traditional sculpture and all my screws are at different depths," he says. Other work by Andrew Myers.
posted to MetaFilter by chavenet at 7:20 AM on March 1, 2011 (44 comments)

Fusing the energy of hardcore with the wall of sound of Detroit hard rock, Denver's The Fluid was the first non-Seattle band signed to Sub Pop Records. Particularly acclaimed for their live shows, Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks compared a performance of the five-piece to seeing the Stooges in their heyday. After breaking up in 1993, they reunited in 2008. Fluid guitarist Rick Kulwicki (who was also a founding member of Denver’s groundbreaking hardcore band the Frantix) died this week at 49.
posted to MetaFilter by scody at 11:02 PM on February 16, 2011 (20 comments)

Imagine your hometown never changed. That no one ever grew old or moved on. Part book, part film, part family photo album, Welcome to Pine Point unearths a place frozen in time and discovers what happens when an entire community is erased from the map. [Autoplaying music/film in links]
posted to MetaFilter by Potomac Avenue at 8:14 AM on February 14, 2011 (26 comments)

132 GB of music, a new computer, and iTunes mandatory thanks to iPad. What are best practices with iTunes and/or the best music software for 2011?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Shepherd at 12:20 PM on February 8, 2011 (22 comments)

Some guy named Spence Peppard takes a flying shot at Willie Nelson and Patsy Cline's Crazy.
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 9:44 PM on August 28, 2009 (50 comments)

A large chunk of the Yad Vashem Photo Archive has been made available online. The first batch consists of 130,000 photographs and more will follow. The photos and their keywords are indexed and searchable via Google. Readers can contribute to the archive project by adding stories, comments and further documents linked to the photos. Photos range from the horrific to the charmingly mundane.
posted to MetaFilter by jonesor at 10:29 AM on January 26, 2011 (11 comments)

The photography of John Divola Divola's website can be a bit overwhelming, containing four decades worth of photographs, but it is well worth the effort. From his landmark Zuma series from the seventies, to his more recent shots of the X Files and Brady Bunch sets, there is not a dull image in the lot. I would also recommend Five Prints from the '80s, Isolated Houses in the '90s, and Artificial Nature and Dogs Chasing My Car in the Desert from the '00s.
posted to MetaFilter by puny human at 3:37 PM on January 16, 2011 (3 comments)

Don't Touch That Dial! is a simple tumblr that collects radio shows and advertisements now in the public domain. The archive is pretty great.
posted to MetaFilter by Lutoslawski at 12:15 PM on January 12, 2011 (8 comments)

Wrong Side of the Art!: This is the place I post B-movie posters. One sheets, half sheets, daybills, locandines, quads – whatever I find. Also – some random movie stills. (previously, with outdated link)
posted to MetaFilter by Joe Beese at 7:59 PM on January 1, 2011 (8 comments)

"It's a stretch of pavement both enriched and torn apart by class and ethnic divisions. When you go over a bridge or under a viaduct on this street you've left one country for another. It's the American melting pot at full boil." Halsted Street USA. (1995, 56 minutes, Color)
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 8:22 PM on December 31, 2010 (13 comments)

What are the most inexplicable internet videos you know of?
posted to Ask Metafilter by cmoj at 12:28 PM on December 28, 2010 (87 comments)

In 1933, a mysterious benefactor posted an ad in the local Canton, Ohio paper, offering some Christmas funds to people who might otherwise shy away from asking for aid, even in those tough times. That Anonymous Giver went by the pseudonym "Mr. B. Virdot," and ended up giving some money to 150 families and people in town who wrote in with their personal stories. The unknown person's identity was never revealed, and his true identity was not even known to his grandson, until the mysterious benefactor's daughter gave her son, Ted Gup, a battered suitcase full of letters and checks signed by "Mr. B. Virdot". The mysterious man was Samuel J. Stone, a Jewish man whose family had fled Romania when he was young. Stone had done well in the United States, and owned a small chain of clothing stores in 1933. The story of the mysterious gifts hasn't faded from Canton, and on November 5 of this year, Stone's grandson, Gup, gave a public talk to the community and decedents of the original recipients of Virdot's gifts. And now, Canton residents are bringing back the spirit of Virdot.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 10:37 AM on December 21, 2010 (16 comments)

I cannot remember where I saw this comedy sketch.
posted to Ask Metafilter by KevinSkomsvold at 1:27 PM on October 11, 2010 (8 comments)

Never-before-seen footage of Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly in Back To The Future Before Michael J. Fox could take the part of Marty McFly, producers cast Eric Stoltz and filmed for five weeks. The producers eventually decided to go with Fox, fired Stoltz, and locked the footage away in the vault. Now, twenty-five years later, we finally get to see the "other" Back to the Future.
posted to MetaFilter by Servo5678 at 6:05 AM on October 12, 2010 (66 comments)

Should I move to Los Angeles to work in Teh Industry?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Sara C. at 6:42 PM on October 10, 2010 (25 comments)

I'm considering switching to Ubuntu with no previous Linux experience. Also, I'm no techie. If this is a dumb idea, tell me why. If not, do you have any tips for making the transition?
posted to Ask Metafilter by pintapicasso at 9:39 AM on February 16, 2010 (46 comments)

This is what it looked like then... Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov takes old WWII photos and go to exactly the same place it was taken, then combines the two. Some of my favorites
posted to MetaFilter by ShawnString at 8:02 AM on July 30, 2010 (53 comments)

Recreating pictures of your parents on zefrank.com. (Previous Project)
posted to MetaFilter by gman at 10:32 AM on August 28, 2010 (25 comments)

Do you want to see a photo of Tony Danza in the nude? It's from when he was younger... and he's uncut. Ok, talk to you later.
posted to MetaFilter by davebug at 10:10 AM on April 16, 2005 (152 comments)

Sixth-grader Jackson C. Frank was horribly burned when the boiler at his Cheektowaga, New York, elementary school exploded March 31, 1954, killing fifteen of his classmates. While recovering from his injuries, Frank was introduced to the guitar, and the insurance settlement he received a decade later helped fund a trip to England, where he recorded his first and only album.
posted to MetaFilter by Knappster at 6:30 PM on August 15, 2010 (34 comments)

Around the late 1800s and early 1900s, receipts, envelopes, letterheads, and other corporate correspondence often featured drawings of a factory or storefront. Columbia University's Biggert Collection of Architectural Vignettes on Commercial Stationery contains over 1600 examples. Why not browse through?
posted to MetaFilter by Guernsey Halleck at 10:39 PM on August 11, 2010 (15 comments)

"The TV Wheel was a television experiment created by and starring Joel Hodgson, of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame. Cable network HBO ordered a pilot, but ultimately passed on picking up the show. The pilot episode eventually aired once on Comedy Central as a special presentation following the last new episode of MST3K to be broadcast on that network."*

The pilot, bookended by introduction segments, is right through this door:
posted to MetaFilter by item at 12:54 AM on August 11, 2010 (41 comments)

Edward Mike Davis was the owner or Tiger Oil, an oil company operating in Houston during the 1970's. His irascible memos have been an Internet sensation for the past few years. Good things are not meant to last forever, and in 1980, Tiger Oil filed bankruptcy. Davis' hatred of people did not confine itself to the office, as this case shows. Tiger Oil was in litigation in relation to the bankruptcy filing as late as 1989.
posted to MetaFilter by reenum at 10:18 AM on August 3, 2010 (45 comments)

Portraits by Richard Dumas; a page (one of many) of actors and directors; a Brooklyn gang (photographed by Bruce Davidson) in 1959; photographs by Ernesto Bazan. Clive Limpkin. Some Warhol Polaroids. Film set photographs and portraits by Brigitte Lacombe. Photographs by: Dennis Hopper [nsfw], Weegee [nsfw], Jeff Bridges, Julia Calfee [nsfw], Ed Templeton [nsfw], Lauren Dukoff, Robert Frank, Sid Grossman and Allen Ginsberg. A Princeton Dance Weekend in 1960, an American family vacation in 1950, Los Angeles, Coney Island, et cetera. A diverse livejournal collection of photographs.
posted to MetaFilter by xod at 3:35 PM on July 29, 2010 (14 comments)

Where are the best places to buy used music gear online?
posted to Ask Metafilter by tmcw at 11:39 AM on July 13, 2010 (5 comments)

Free Geography Tools is Leszek Pawlowicz's invaluable collection of GIS links.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic at 6:07 AM on July 23, 2010 (13 comments)

If you don't mind installing Steam and are running a version of Windows, you can download and play Alien Swarm for free. It's a top-down shooter with four-player co-op of you and your friends against the aliens.
posted to MetaFilter by demiurge at 8:24 PM on July 19, 2010 (72 comments)

Isolated Keith Moon drum tracks for Won't Get Fooled Again and Who Are You? (via)
posted to MetaFilter by Crane Shot at 9:20 PM on July 19, 2010 (85 comments)

how can I watch BBC's iPlayer in the US? A one-step solution is ideal, without having to install and configure a system-wide proxy (which is the current way I can think of doing it). Some software or plugin custom-setup for iPlayer?
posted to Ask Metafilter by lrodman at 4:29 PM on May 8, 2010 (11 comments)

Let's say that you're Lenny Kravitz and you're relaxing on a balcony in New Orleans when you hear someone singing one of your songs. What do you do? Well, you could always join in. (SLYT)
posted to MetaFilter by ColdChef at 3:44 PM on June 29, 2010 (95 comments)

Housing woes, what should I do?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Anonymous at 11:51 AM on July 7, 2010 (15 comments)

"Do you find yourself pining for the days of gaming yore? ...for simple sprites and chiptuney soundtracks? Is your computer a bit crap and does 11,000 frames per second sound like something you might enjoy?" A Guide To Some Early FPS Games, Mods, and Source Ports. [via mefi projects]
posted to MetaFilter by killdevil at 11:32 PM on June 24, 2010 (50 comments)

Scans of early 20th-century American menus, courtesy of Colorado College's Tutt Library.
posted to MetaFilter by Greg Nog at 8:24 AM on June 17, 2010 (46 comments)

When Pablo Escobar escaped from prison in 1992, a lot of people in Colombia began to lose sleep. Some of these people formed Los Pepes - People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar - a collection of Escobar's fiercest narco competitors, paramilitaries and columbian authorities with perhaps even american intelligence assisstance. After taking care of Escobar the victorious narcos, as the Cali Cartel, went on to rule the world of cocaine. For about three years. A younger, more ruthless crew inside the Cali Cartel quickly did away with the old guard and established what is still today considered the largest supplier of cocaine in the world, the North Valley Cartel.With many former police officers in its upper ranks and the assisstance of one of the Colombian military's top antinarcotics officers, the North Valley Cartel was more likely to run a wiretap than be caught on one.Still, as to the whole omerta thing? North Valley Cartel bigshot Andres Lopez AKA Florecita (little flower?), after turning himself in to american authorities, cooperating and serving about 2 years in prison, wrote a book. El Cartel de los Sapos (Cartel of the Snitches) was then made into the most popular telenovela ever by Colombia's Caracol and dominated just about every market its played in. Oh yeah, and telemundo is streaming them all for free with subtitles as we speak. Not quite The Wire, but still a must see.
posted to MetaFilter by jake1 at 10:59 PM on January 28, 2010 (37 comments)