Slides used to be dangerous..... After climbing up those sandy, metal crosstrax steps you got to the top and stared down at that steep ride below. The slide was burning hot to the touch, a stovetop set to high all day under the summer sun, just waiting to greet the underside of your legs with first-degree burns as you enjoyed the ride
posted to MetaFilter by bluesky43 at 1:09 PM on July 21, 2008 (170 comments)

2 July 1863, second day of Gettysburg. Sickles has pulled his III Corps -- without orders -- off of Cemetery Ridge and positioned it a half mile in front of the rest of the Union lines. Longstreet smashes the hapless III Corps and its men are in full flight. Hancock rides back and forth inside the gaping hole left by Sickles. Below him, almost 2000 men of Wilcox's brigade are charging up the slope. They will gain a foothold on the ridge and be reinforced by Lee. As Longstreet pins down the Union left, Lee will roll up the center and right of the Northern army and chase them from the field. He will then march on and take Washington before turning north along the eastern seaboard. Lee will capture and burn Philadelphia and Boston in his March Along the Sea, chasing the Northern government from city to city until Lincoln finally sues for peace and the union is no more. Suddenly, a line of blue-coated soldiers comes into Hancock's view. "My God, is this all the men here? Who are you?" "1st Minnesota, sir." "See those colors?", says Hancock, pointing at the flags of the oncoming Confederates, "Take them."
posted to MetaFilter by forrest at 5:45 AM on July 2, 2008 (82 comments)

Buried in a beer can. As an appealing bonus, the coffin doubles as a beer cooler before it's needed for the stiff. With baby boomers getting ready to pop their clogs, many are looking to alternative ways to recycle their remains. A book and radio interview on green burials and some interesting figures on the quantities of wood, steel, copper, bronze and embalming fluid buried each year in the US in conventional funerals.
posted to MetaFilter by binturong at 4:25 PM on May 14, 2008 (22 comments)

A woman walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a double entendre, so he gave it to her. Ba-dum dum. What's green and has wheels? Grass. I lied about the wheels. Ba-dum dum. A baby seal walks into a club. (pause) Ba-dum dum. How many kids with ADD does it take to change a lightbulb? LET'S GO RIDE BIKES! Ba-dum dum. A priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar. The bartender says, "What is this, some kind of joke?" Ba-dum dum. Instant Rimshot. For all those times you need a big red Flash button that'll give you a well-timed rimshot. (Jokes courtesy of Ask Mefi.)
posted to MetaFilter by WCityMike at 7:10 PM on May 12, 2008 (250 comments)

Joanna Connors, a theatre critic, was raped on an empty stage. She tells her story in vivid, lucid detail-- then traces her rapist's twisted family history. One of the best pieces of journalism-- or writing, for that matter-- I've read for ages. Lots of resources for survivors and their families, as well.
posted to MetaFilter by Maias at 2:13 PM on May 6, 2008 (124 comments)

We've seen a number of Rube Goldberg machines in advertising before, but here's the first one I've seen that actually uses the controlled chaos of one to describe what their product actually does. Or doesn't, really. If you've ever worked in a print shop, you've probably seen something like this happen. Usually once or twice a day.
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 9:06 AM on April 29, 2008 (45 comments)

Once upon a time in the postwar, before the advent of EPA and OSHA and the Consumer Products Safety Commission and weenies in bike helmets and multilingual warning stickers on stepladders, crazy people walked this earth. Good, fun-loving Americans who knew that "instructions" were something you threw in the trash along with the empty Falstaff bottles. A halcyon era filled with manly men who savored the wholesome virtues of a rugged game of un-seatbelted automotive chicken. One of these men was Gene Middlebrooks, who founded Turbonique.
posted to MetaFilter by dg at 5:43 AM on April 23, 2008 (50 comments)

Life Before Death - (from the site) "This sombre series of portraits taken of people before and after they had died is a challenging and poignant study. The work by German photographer Walter Schels and his partner Beate Lakotta, who recorded interviews with the subjects in their final days, reveals much about dying - and living."
posted to MetaFilter by blue_beetle at 8:41 AM on April 1, 2008 (67 comments)

A handful of pretty great spacewalk pix from last summer's Endeavour mission.
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist at 11:16 AM on March 19, 2008 (59 comments)

My heartfelt thanks to loving MeFites: Brandon Blatcher, hadjiboy, Grammar Moses, madamjujujive, vronsky, hortense, It's Raining Florence Henderson, rtha and Hildegarde.
posted to MetaTalk by nickyskye at 5:13 PM on February 19, 2008 (133 comments)

Los Angeles! he walks again by night... ...out of the smog, into the fog. Relentlessly -- ruthlessly -- ("I wonder where Ruth is?") -- doggedly! ("Woof woof!" *) For the past 42 years the Firesign Theatre, the best comedy group of the 1960's, has been putting their art in cans from Canada to Kashmir. Up for the Grammy in 1998 and 2001, Firesign at their best combined clever, multilayered writing with pitch-perfect satirical performances as Rocky Rococco, Ralph Spoilsport, Art Holeflaffer, Hemlock Stones, Uh Clem and Barney, and many more. Back in the day, it would have been astonishing if at least one of your peers couldn't recite all of The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye, including the sound effects.
posted to MetaFilter by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 12:16 PM on January 31, 2008 (91 comments)

Half-human album covers. Also known as "sleevefaces."
posted to MetaFilter by KevinSkomsvold at 3:57 PM on December 26, 2007 (33 comments)

The Onion AV Club publishes their annual Worst Band Names List. Is your band on there?
posted to MetaFilter by Afroblanco at 8:10 AM on December 14, 2007 (142 comments)

I'm going to be a drinking bird for Halloween and need a clear plastic ball to fill with colored liquid and attach to my butt. How can I buy or make one?
posted to Ask Metafilter by ethorson at 7:34 AM on October 5, 2007 (19 comments)

4 Brothers Beats. This is a tribute to all the original music that built hip-hop – the best beats in soul, funk & jazz collected by four brothers. An amazing collection of out-of-print releases from the 70s and 80s.
posted to MetaFilter by KevinSkomsvold at 10:59 PM on September 20, 2007 (18 comments)

Stephen Fry just started blogging. His first post? A post on the iPhone, the history of PDAs and the nature of technological innovation and desire, that's roughly the length of a medium-sized novella.
posted to MetaFilter by flashboy at 4:21 AM on September 20, 2007 (127 comments)