I've been feeling slow lately. How can I sharpen my mental powers?
posted to Ask Metafilter by decoherence at 3:24 PM on July 30, 2008 (19 comments)

1 2 3 4: Feist visits Sesame Street, the latest artist to send up her work for an adoring audience of (what else?) furry happy monsters.
posted to MetaFilter by bicyclefish at 5:39 PM on July 16, 2008 (41 comments)

What's the name of that peak over there? Can my HDTV antenna see the broadcast tower? Can I see that fixed wireless base station? See viewsheds and labelled horizons from where you're at, with a list of what other people are looking at, and all done with someone else's computers.
posted to MetaFilter by the Real Dan at 11:03 AM on July 15, 2008 (21 comments)

Simply Noise. Streaming white noise for your auditory zen needs. That is all. That is enough.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 12:16 PM on July 5, 2008 (40 comments)

I'm looking for a nice summer suit that I can wear for an August wedding (outdoors). I'm currently in Vancouver, B.C.
posted to Ask Metafilter by tiamat at 11:05 PM on July 1, 2008 (8 comments)

The Bullitt chase entirely geocoded. (Previously.)
posted to MetaFilter by miss lynnster at 12:14 PM on June 30, 2008 (38 comments)

In great news for all fans of the dearly departed sitcom Arrested Development, Jason Bateman appeared on his friend's show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and confirmed that an Arrested movie is being worked out. (MSNBC video link. He talks about Hancock for a bit first; good stuff starts at 4:16.) And another special guest is there to share the announcement...
posted to MetaFilter by supercres at 7:04 AM on June 25, 2008 (130 comments)

MagCloud enables you to publish your own magazines. All you have to do is upload a PDF and they take care of the rest: printing, mailing, subscription management, and more.
posted to MetaFilter by FunkyHelix at 9:13 AM on June 23, 2008 (43 comments)

Mashup artist Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, is another artist to try the 'pay whatever you want' Internet release model. However, his 55-minute album consists of over 300 samples from other artists, with many current and past hits. No stranger to current controversies in copyright, Gillis also appeared in the documentary Good Copy Bad Copy. Previously.
posted to MetaFilter by uaudio at 2:32 PM on June 20, 2008 (44 comments)

In May 2006, we discussed switch pitcher Pat Venditte on MetaFilter. Many wondered: what kind of bizarre game-theoretic catastrophe would occur when the switch pitcher faced a switch hitter? Two years later, it has come to pass. (video)
posted to MetaFilter by escabeche at 9:20 AM on June 20, 2008 (78 comments)

These "track boards," or "fix push" boards, were initially developed to be raced in the velodrome, and differ from traditional skateboards in one major way: the rider can never coast. A brief documentary on the increasingly popular fix-push skateboard culture and its roots in San Francisco's Mission district.
posted to MetaFilter by whir at 9:38 PM on June 17, 2008 (54 comments)

Teach the Controversy. Because we know that the earth sits on giant elephants which in turn ride an even gianter turtle.
posted to MetaFilter by cerebus19 at 11:25 AM on June 16, 2008 (74 comments)

"On a Monday morning last month, highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School [Oceanside, California] to announce some horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend. Classmates wept. Some became hysterical. A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax — a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving." While the school defends its actions, some students are protesting: "Death is real. Don't play with our emotions."
posted to MetaFilter by ericb at 5:13 PM on June 12, 2008 (138 comments)

Kindertrauma is about the movies, books, and toys that scared you when you were a kid. It’s also about kids in scary movies, both as heroes and villains. And everything else that’s traumatic to a tyke!
posted to MetaFilter by stinkycheese at 3:37 PM on June 12, 2008 (64 comments)

Are you, like many others this summer, considering avoiding the costs & hassles of pricey foreign or domestic travel by having a "staycation" at home? Daily Show commenter John Hodgman (ably backed by Jonathan Coulton on the strings) enumerates the benefits of a "Holistay" (much better name) to help you make your choice.
posted to MetaFilter by jonson at 9:37 AM on June 12, 2008 (41 comments)

Take the Funny and Run , a history of notorious joke-thieves from Milton Berle and Robin Williams to Denis Leary, Carlos Mencia (previously) and Dane Cook.
posted to MetaFilter by Navelgazer at 6:35 PM on June 10, 2008 (53 comments)

The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Coporation) has decided to not renew a licensing agreement for the Hockey Night in Canada theme music (Youtube link).
posted to MetaFilter by jeffmik at 11:24 AM on June 5, 2008 (55 comments)

Ten simple, shattering comics about the earthquake in China. Via MoFi.
posted to MetaFilter by By The Grace of God at 1:35 PM on June 1, 2008 (63 comments)

The year is 1989, the world of hip hop in mainstream America is dominated by the street hard, in your face West Coast Gangsta Rap genre headed by NWA. And an army of increasingly forgettable imitators as well as genuine ingenuity coming from the opposite coast The pop music market is dominated by the sugary sweet vaguely hip-hopish pop of The New Kids On The Block. And on the corner Crendshaw and Exposition in South Central Los Angeles a group of kids at a health food store called The Good Life Health Food And Resource Center take a weekly Open Mike and turn it into an ongoing hip hop workshop where lyrical prowess, performance, and positivity instead of battling and trash talking was encouraged. In fact, swearing was strictly disallowed at The Good Life.
posted to MetaFilter by mediocre at 9:05 AM on May 17, 2008 (36 comments)

Geohashing: "As you may have noticed, today’s comic contains an algorithm for converting dates into local coordinates. For a given day, you can calculate what that day’s coordinate is for your region. Dan has put together a tool for calculating a day’s coordinates and show it using Google Maps."
posted to MetaFilter by Anything at 12:04 AM on May 21, 2008 (29 comments)

Ultraviolence chic again in Justice video Stress. NSFW
posted to MetaFilter by carsonb at 11:32 PM on May 3, 2008 (83 comments)

An extraordinary piece of magazine writing by Chris Jones. Jones tells the story of how the body of Sergeant Joe Montgomery makes its way from a Baghdad suburb to its final resting place in a grave in Indiana. It's one of the finest pieces of journalism that I've read in years. It’s extremely moving without being saccharine or twee. It’s a military story, but utterly without jingoism or indictment. And it’s wonderfully observed. If I taught a first-year creative writing course, I'd make this required reading.
posted to MetaFilter by dbarefoot at 9:57 PM on April 30, 2008 (87 comments)

The real secret to producing superheroes (bollywood or otherwise) is to start them young, really YOUNG. (Link to single video)
posted to MetaFilter by sk381 at 8:33 PM on April 27, 2008 (48 comments)

NPR article on World Where's Waldo Link to the website A Canadian woman made a giant waldo and put it on top of her house and is waiting for the google earth satellites to pick him up.
posted to MetaFilter by majikstreet at 3:30 PM on April 16, 2008 (14 comments)

I want to buy a train car and then travel in it. How do I do this?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Capri at 7:39 AM on April 10, 2008 (11 comments)

22 years after letting a ball roll through his legs in extra innings to lose game six of the 1986 World Series, Bill Buckner returned to Fenway Park to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day. Here's a post on the Curse of the Bambino and the 2004 World Series
posted to MetaFilter by Corduroy at 7:44 PM on April 8, 2008 (39 comments)

What are the things and places that make living in Vancouver and Toronto fantastic for day-to-day life? Or, to put it another way, what are the things and places that you would miss if you moved away?
posted to Ask Metafilter by ambilevous at 3:27 PM on April 9, 2008 (24 comments)

The SEO Rapper (a.k.a. The Poetic Prophet) spits rhymes on such topics as Design Coding, Link Building, Paid Search, and Conversion Closing for all your marketing campaign and web design needs.
posted to MetaFilter by dhammond at 4:28 PM on March 27, 2008 (9 comments)

Life and death of an urban recluse Odd and beautiful newspaper story.
posted to MetaFilter by Free word order! at 10:18 AM on March 11, 2008 (41 comments)

VVork is a blog showcasing contemporary art.
posted to MetaFilter by sveskemus at 3:37 PM on March 2, 2008 (11 comments)

This year's winners of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival's annual haiku contest were recently announced.
posted to MetaFilter by blue shadows at 6:52 PM on March 7, 2008 (10 comments)

Björk, in Shanghai, on Tibet: Declare Independence! [YouTube]
posted to MetaFilter by finite at 12:16 AM on March 6, 2008 (80 comments)

Prominent blogger Derek Powazek, who left his JPG project under prickly conditions, started a new project called Pixish. Pixish allows users to create open calls for submissions from designers, photographers and other artists who then offer up their work for comparison. Voting on the work reveals a winner, who then receives a prize outlined in the initial post. Following a post by Adam Howell that claims Pixish is nothing more than a 2.0 portal for spec work, a debate has emerged online as to whether Powazek's latest foray is a formula for ill-will amongst the design community.
posted to MetaFilter by brittney at 5:30 PM on February 12, 2008 (137 comments)

The space shuttle does a back flip while the earth races by underneath.
posted to MetaFilter by jouke at 3:15 AM on February 10, 2008 (50 comments)

Curious why the power is out at your office or the fire engines are rushing past your home? If you live in Seattle, public911 might be able to tell you.
posted to MetaFilter by The corpse in the library at 12:26 PM on February 7, 2008 (16 comments)

Here are 52 cover songs that Of Montreal have done over the years. via
posted to MetaFilter by carsonb at 1:11 PM on February 1, 2008 (37 comments)

THX for the eyes.
posted to MetaFilter by brownpau at 9:06 PM on January 29, 2008 (53 comments)

Why is your plane late? Airlines can make more money selling 70 airplanes worth of tickets per hour than they could if they limited themselves to the 60 airplanes per hour that the runway can handle. A long but excellent post on what is causing the delays at the airport.
posted to MetaFilter by Coop at 7:18 AM on January 30, 2008 (34 comments)

Don't Mess with Charles Bronson (Videos) Charles Bronson is not to be messed with on the street, in any man made structure, but certainly not on a train. When Charles Bronson wants to sit alone and read his paper on the subway, leave Charles Bronson alone.
posted to MetaFilter by thisisdrew at 5:57 PM on January 30, 2008 (34 comments)

Steve Martin on the development of his comedy.
posted to MetaFilter by bove at 9:14 AM on January 30, 2008 (61 comments)

Some skaters blowing shit up.
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 1:50 AM on January 27, 2008 (60 comments)

Fuck Planet Earth. The extreme beauty of the popular Planet Earth series comes alive with this comedic bit that simply repeats the F-bomb to great effect.
posted to MetaFilter by mathowie at 2:27 PM on January 26, 2008 (106 comments)

Recently, there was a thread in which someone was looking to meet nerdy people in the Vancouver area. Most replies mentioned organizing a meetup. This post is to explore that option and suggest venues and times.
posted to MetaTalk by MaxK at 11:31 PM on January 23, 2008 (50 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 to MetaFilter by mathowie at 2:07 PM on January 23, 2008 (34 comments)

How to catch a bus.
And the paper in question. (PDF)
posted to MetaFilter by johnny novak at 12:48 PM on January 23, 2008 (44 comments)

Because of an injury, I carry my laptop in one of those roller backpacks. I've heard that tiny vibrations (such as construction in the next office building) can be very damaging to computers. So does the vibration from the rolling on pavement potentially damage my laptop?
posted to Ask Metafilter by k7lim at 11:53 AM on December 19, 2007 (17 comments)

Joel Johnson of Boing Boing shows up to The Hugh Thompson Show to discuss gadgets but chooses a different topic

Yesterday, I was invited to talk about gadgets onThe Hugh Thompson Show, a television-style talk show sponsored exclusively by AT&T for distribution on the online AT&T Tech Channel. I eventually did talk about gadgets, but in light of AT&T's shocking and baffling announcement of their plans to filter the internet, I thought that a much more interesting and important topic.

posted to MetaFilter by device55 at 6:38 PM on January 22, 2008 (33 comments)

Justice, the french electro-whatever group (read: Daft Punk)(previously discussed here) recently had their addition to the prestigious FabricLive Series rejected for not entirely clear reasons, although the relatively short length (40-something minutes) and taste (or perhaps the lack of) may have been factors. Justice, being the gentlemen they are, decided to give the mix away as a Christmas present to their friends (yes, I'm a little late on this, but not as late as you, presumably), and it is now readily available for anyone to download here. I'm only familiar with a few of the artists in the mix (Fucking Champs! Goblin!), but it's a pretty good time, and definitely a big, fat middle finger to most of the minimal techno mixes which Fabric usually releases, which is probably why they rejected it in the first place. Lots of old pop, funk and super-cheesy french music (and the FUCKING CHAMPS!), tell me what you guys think!
posted to MetaFilter by domakesaypat at 4:12 PM on January 21, 2008 (52 comments)

Train tracker.
posted to MetaFilter by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:57 AM on January 21, 2008 (27 comments)

Michel Gondry Curates YouTube from Sundance; Pussy On The Mat : Ornette Coleman and Mark Kostabi: anxiety attack: Devendra Banhart - A Ribbon: Max Roach at his best: MIT sketching: game Over
posted to MetaFilter by post punk at 5:45 PM on January 18, 2008 (12 comments)