Looking for podcasts that could best be described as "really smart people shooting the breeze." Favorite examples would the various Slate podcasts that feature three writers discussing a range of topics, as well as NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. The subject matter can be about anything, though looking for something a bit more conversational and wide-ranging than, say, a panel of experts discussing their fields. Any suggestions?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by decoherence at 4:22 PM on January 9, 2014 (33 comments)

Today I wanted to unveil a new subsite featuring some experiments with our data called MeFi Labs.
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 10:12 AM on January 2, 2014 (247 comments)

Nelson Mandela has died peacefully at home at age 95. The Globe and Mail has a good roundup of information and resources about his life. The PBS Newshour already has a show online about his life and moments after the news broke even The Onion chimed in. Rest in peace, Madiba.
posted to MetaFilter by mathowie at 3:10 PM on December 5, 2013 (355 comments)

I am interested in gender stereotypes that used to be reversed or are the other way around in another culture. For example, pink used to be considered a vigorous masculine color and blue was a softer color associated with girls. Similarly, high heel used to be worn by men (as riding boots), but were introduced into women's fashion at a time when women were dressing to emulate men
posted to Ask MetaFilter by casebash at 12:34 AM on November 24, 2013 (25 comments)

What have you been wrong about, realized it, and it changed your life? I remember reading Albert Ellis' wonderful self-help book A Guide to Rational Living where he gives a great list of irrational and self-defeating beliefs that people have. Among these beliefs was the importance people placed on other's opinion of them as well the emphasis people placed on being perfectionistic in their own lives. Much of this underlies Cognitive Behavioral Therapy but the effect is even more prevalent than that. We all have had beliefs that have held us back, and I'm curious as to what things you once believed that were holding you back in your personal or professional life. Anything will do. It can be anything from knowing the importance of making good first impressions to the need for keeping oneself physically fit even when one doesn't want to. I'm looking to see whether I share of any of these traits or not. So what are the beliefs that have held you back or others that you know?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by RapcityinBlue at 10:56 AM on November 19, 2013 (59 comments)

Rolling Jubilee have spent just $400,000 to purchase $15 million of Americans' personal debt from banks before 'abolishing' it, freeing individuals from their bills.
Apart from The Guardian, HuffPo and Business Insider no one else seems very interested. Rolling Jubilee is a project of Strike Debt - slogan You are not a Loan. Previously - just on a year ago.
posted to MetaFilter by adamvasco at 1:39 PM on November 13, 2013 (79 comments)

Doctor Who is turning 50. There is a minisode. It goes there. If you are a fan, watch it.
posted to MetaFilter by Mezentian at 4:52 AM on November 14, 2013 (355 comments)

The Atlanta Braves have announced plan to move out of Atlanta to nearby Cobb County by 2017. The Marietta Daily Journal reports that a new $672 million stadium will be built just to the northwest of Atlanta. The announcement has left everyone "kind of stunned."
posted to MetaFilter by Panjandrum at 5:55 PM on November 12, 2013 (157 comments)

I am mentoring two new employees in my organization, both of whom could benefit from more confidence and "presence." They have both asked me for specific tips on how to appear more confident, even if they don't feel it. The problem is that beyond stating the obvious, such as standing up straight, looking people in the eye, etc., I am having trouble getting down to details in behaviour and appearance. What do you do to appear more confident? And what signals do you look for when assessing the confidence level of another person? How does someone "own the room"? (One of my mentees is a twenty-something man, just out of school, and a bit geeky. The other is a female in her early forties, recently returned to the work force after maternity leave followed by a divorce, and clearly lacking in body confidence, despite being "normal" weight and quite pretty.)
posted to Ask MetaFilter by rpfields at 11:05 AM on November 6, 2013 (29 comments)

Facial hair on men. Point: "The beard implies a monastic indifference to worldly cares, a hermetic withdrawal from ordinary concerns, and a fixed focus on the higher mysteries, whether divine, philosophical, or the split-finger fastball." Counterpoint: "Enough. It's time we stop congratulating these men for simply presenting a secondary sexual characteristic with no accompanying display of follicular craft or even basic self-control."
posted to MetaFilter by paleyellowwithorange at 5:59 PM on November 3, 2013 (116 comments)

Statlas, a way to visualize baseball.
posted to MetaFilter by the man of twists and turns at 4:04 PM on October 24, 2013 (4 comments)

Icelandic band Árstíðir sings the hymn "Heyr himna smiður" a capella in a German train station, to beautiful effect.
posted to MetaFilter by yasaman at 8:21 PM on October 13, 2013 (31 comments)

I have an intense 9-6 office job that is mainly editing fiddly details in legal paperwork and talking on the phone about fiddly details in legal paperwork. I'm also in charge of two people. When quittin' time rolls around, I am brain-fried. I'd rather not be so I can do things after work that are at all productive. Ideas?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by griphus at 8:11 AM on October 7, 2013 (50 comments)

Why Do Baseball Players Still Bunt So Damn Much?
It’s the most maddening and demonstrably ineffective strategy in baseball and has been for quite some time. So why do teams keep doing it?
posted to MetaFilter by andoatnp at 12:40 PM on September 17, 2013 (61 comments)

I liked Sim City, Age of Empires, and Civ, but I don't feel like fighting or freaking out about taxes or earthquakes. Click-management puzzle games and sandboxes are just boring. Glitch was awesome-- nonviolent, open-ended, good graphics-- except it wasn't really a top-down building game and I don't care about involving friends. Katamari Damacy was great, but too fast-paced and again, not a building game. What game am I looking for? Preferably for a PC; can't do zombies or apocalypse as a theme, very light cartoon violence might be OK, don't care what era it's from. Puzzles or video board games might be OK if they have complexity beyond the actual game. I'm aware that this might be too specific; looking for suggestions even if they aren't a perfect fit.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by blnkfrnk at 10:48 PM on September 16, 2013 (27 comments)

I'm looking for the most mind-blowing things you've discovered or realized about a major motion picture, during or after the watching. Bonus points: what are these called so that I can google more of them?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by allkindsoftime at 5:47 AM on September 9, 2013 (38 comments)

You know how it is, right, ladies? You know a guy for a while. You hang out with him. You do fun things with him—play video games, watch movies, go hiking, go to concerts. You invite him to your parties. You listen to his problems. You do all this because you think he wants to be your friend. But then, then comes the fateful moment where you find out that all this time, he’s only seen you as a potential girlfriend. And then if you turn him down, he may never speak to you again. This has happened to me time after time: I hit it off with a guy, and, for all that I’ve been burned in the past, I start to think that this one might actually care about me as a person. And then he asks me on a date.
posted to MetaFilter by Blasdelb at 7:46 AM on September 6, 2013 (500 comments)

When record store owner Jeff Bubeck buys an old record collection out of an abandoned storage unit, he has no idea what he’s stumbled across. Jeff learns the collection once belonged to the late great J. Dilla, one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. Along with the thousands of LP’s from Dilla’s personal collection, there is something else that is uncovered, something huge...
posted to MetaFilter by rollbiz at 7:56 PM on September 5, 2013 (14 comments)

Chase Utley Responds to Mac's letter from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Mac wrote a letter to Chase Utley five years ago and Chase finally responds.
posted to MetaFilter by NoMich at 4:43 AM on September 4, 2013 (23 comments)

I'm intrigued by a coupon offer for 60 minutes doing a sensory deprivation float at a local spa. Have you ever done this? Is it worth $29?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by bearwife at 10:15 AM on September 5, 2013 (18 comments)

Dizzee Rascal's new music video "I Don't Need A Reason" is probably the most giffable video ever made.
posted to MetaFilter by boo_radley at 9:05 PM on September 1, 2013 (28 comments)

The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates has spent the last few months in Paris specifically studying French. His latest dispatch, "Or Perhaps You Are Too Stupid to Learn French," looks at how hard it is to apply the rules of new language in real time, while fighting with one's perceptions and limitations (Other dispatches are here).

Washington Post writer Jay Matthews asks if learning a foreign language is worth it and recounts his own struggles studying Chinese. Another WaPo writer, Elizabeth Chang, recalls her experience in learning Arabic.
posted to MetaFilter by Brandon Blatcher at 6:17 AM on August 22, 2013 (199 comments)

"To launch a science-fiction anthology series is to dare comparisons with The Twilight Zone. Happily, Welcome to Paradox is not unworthy to be mentioned in the same sentence as Rod Serling's classic show. The weekly dramas, all based on short stories, are set in Betaville [a nod to Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 dystopian sci-fi/noir film, Alphaville], a future city filled with ultrahigh technology and perennial human unhappiness.... Bottom Line: Makes the future look intriguing." The Sci-Fi channel only produced 13 episodes (archived view of their site; ep list on Wikipedia), letting the series end with one season. The show was only released on DVD in Australia, which now seems to be out of print. But fear not! You can watch the episodes on YouTube in a convenient playlist, or with separate episodes linked below the fold.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 11:48 AM on August 18, 2013 (6 comments)

Need non-violent game recommendations. Have Xbox 360 (never used), a badass PC, and iPad. Like pretty, detailed environments, exploration, puzzles/deduction, mystery, adventure. Dislike all but the most very mild violence, and also not very good with things that are time-sensitive (like having to do things very, very quickly or have a good reaction time to succeed). Many years ago in the mid-late '90s I enjoyed Myst/Riven, The 7th Guest, Zork Nemesis, the X-Files game, the Titanic game, and a couple other exploring worlds/figuring things out things that I can't remember the names of.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by rabbitrabbit at 12:14 PM on August 16, 2013 (46 comments)

"I can envision no more perfect visual representation of my Dune world than John Schoenherr’s careful and accurate illustrations." –Frank Herbert
posted to MetaFilter by griphus at 12:56 PM on August 17, 2013 (17 comments)

Released today on Steam, Gone Home has garnered praise for its deeply affecting narrative, stripped-down design and a unique aesthetic steeped in 90's nostalgia and riot grrl culture. "When I played Gone Home I had the stunning realization that there could be a game for me. Someone can make a game for me." -Leigh Alexander. "It’s touching, unsettling, deeply honest, and enormously compassionate. -Rock, Paper, Shotgun. "Gone Home is an epic story, but its definition of epic is far removed from how we usually talk about scope and drama in games. It’s epic, personal and revelatory to the people involved, and that’s why it’s so special." -Giant Bomb. Polygon's 10/10 review. How Gone Home's design constraints lead to a powerful story. The Fullbright Company's Journey Home.
posted to MetaFilter by naju at 3:21 PM on August 15, 2013 (195 comments)

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
posted to MetaFilter by fearfulsymmetry at 5:22 PM on August 5, 2013 (752 comments)

Depending on who you ask, Cloud Rap either is "the best shit happening right now" or it doesn't exist. If you ask Killscreen, the genre owes a lot to Japanese Role Playing Games. But according to Philly cloud-rapper Lushlife, "All Rap Is Cloud Rap."
posted to MetaFilter by Potomac Avenue at 1:11 PM on July 25, 2013 (45 comments)

This is a question for the extroverts, the popular, those who play well with others and the possessors of good people skills. What do you know about meeting people, making friends and relationships (both platonic and romantic) that others might not?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by the hot hot side of randy at 12:28 PM on August 9, 2013 (37 comments)

Rape Joke, a poem by Patricia Lockwood (previously).
posted to MetaFilter by mahershalal at 12:40 PM on July 25, 2013 (84 comments)

The Sad and Rapid Decline of the Ball Cap: Including photos of the 67 hats that survived of the author's 90s-era Hat Collection.
posted to MetaFilter by Potomac Avenue at 10:40 AM on July 12, 2013 (82 comments)

Scorekeeping at baseball games is becoming a lost art. Many other traditions are vanishing from professional baseball as well. "Other traditions lost from our list included boiled hot dogs taken from tepid water and slathered with mustard by vendors, and dugout agitators formerly known as “bench jockeys,’’ and bad-breathed managers such as Billy Martin and Earl Weaver kicking dirt on umpires, while league officials look at it as entertainment."
posted to MetaFilter by Xurando at 12:53 PM on July 13, 2013 (65 comments)

Like a lot of us in our mid-30s, he has found his career has landed somewhere between optimal happiness and utter futility. These days, Cervenak is more valuable for his reliability than his potential. He would be a tough guy to lose but not a particularly hard guy to replace. He is organizational depth. He is not a prospect.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghostride The Whip at 7:53 PM on June 27, 2013 (17 comments)

I just appreciate silence In a world that never stops talking- "Introversion", a comic by Luchie.
posted to MetaFilter by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:54 AM on June 23, 2013 (71 comments)

Last spring, Chance the Rapper got suspended from High School for 10 days. Faced with an ultimatum from his Dad to make real progress as an artist or drop it and get serious about his studies, Chance spent his suspension making the mixtape #10Day, a critical hit. Now, Chance has released another mixtape, Acid Rap, that delves even deeper (and with even more complex wordplay) into his favorite subjects: hallucinogens, nicotine addiction, the 90s, his mom, and the current dire situation of the south side of Chicago. Many critics are calling it a masterpiece. Download for free here, or listen here.
posted to MetaFilter by Potomac Avenue at 8:27 AM on May 31, 2013 (60 comments)

108 stitches per ball. One stitch every 8.3 seconds. For a 10.5 hour shift*. 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Complicated?
posted to MetaFilter by basicchannel at 3:38 PM on May 30, 2013 (54 comments)

Daniel Dennett's seven rules for thinking. "A deepity (a term coined by the daughter of my late friend, computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum) is a proposition that seems both important and true – and profound – but that achieves this effect by being ambiguous. On one reading, it is manifestly false, but it would be earth-shaking if it were true; on the other reading, it is true but trivial. The unwary listener picks up the glimmer of truth from the second reading, and the devastating importance from the first reading, and thinks, Wow! That's a deepity."
posted to MetaFilter by Sebmojo at 5:56 PM on May 19, 2013 (147 comments)

You may remember the 7.5 hour documentary released in 2009 which allowed you to travel the journey between Bergen to Oslo from the comfort of your home. If your wanderlust was fired up watching that video, then you may enjoy some of the other trips you can take. Switzerland:

• Zermatt to Gornergrat in Summer (50m)
• Zermatt to Gornergrat in Winter Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 (30m)
• Le Train de Vignes (11m)

posted to MetaFilter by jontyjago at 5:39 PM on May 25, 2013 (28 comments)

(I've seen the term floating around for a bit, so I figured I'd write up a quick summary. My apologies if its too dumbed down; just trying not to leave anyone behind! Please note, most links NSFW due to language.) Hashtag rap, previously also known as yoda raps (noun, not verb), was officially coined by Kanye West on Funkmaster Flex's HOT97 radio show on November 2. The term--a nod to the way online posts are tagged (especially on Twitter, which Mr. West is a noted user of) using hash symbols in order to categorize the post's content--refers to the recent rise in rap lines which drop the usage of "like" and "as", and instead substituting those words with a pregnant pause (which is sometimes dispensed with), thus truncating what is normally a simile or metaphor into a sort of short setup followed by a (hopefully) funny punchline.
posted to MetaFilter by jng at 2:40 PM on December 24, 2010 (40 comments)

Last night in Cleveland, the visiting Oakland A's were down by one run with two outs in the ninth inning. A's shortstop Adam Rosales hit a ball that struck somewhere on the center field fence and was either a double or a home run. A home run would tie the game. To make sure they got the call right the umpires went to the instant replay.
posted to MetaFilter by dirtdirt at 11:39 AM on May 9, 2013 (63 comments)

Matt Kemp signs the ball of a young man who has 90 days to live. This kid has an inoperable tumor that has grown so large that it prevents him from being able to lift the ball he wanted signed. What happens next is beautiful.
posted to MetaFilter by Yellow at 5:01 AM on May 9, 2013 (24 comments)

I'm looking for recommendations for contemporary(ish) literary fiction written by folks who are not white men.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by shakespeherian at 9:23 AM on May 7, 2013 (55 comments)

How to see the best in other people?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by dinosaurprincess at 5:34 PM on April 28, 2013 (33 comments)

At the end of March xkcd posted a comic called 'time' of two people sitting on a beach. It wasn't particularly funny. But then people noticed that the comic was slowly changing. Every 30 minutes the picture would update, and the characters would slowly begin to move. They're still moving to this day. Once this was noticed the xkcd forums began to go a little crazy, with folks staying up until the wee hours to watch for pic updates (now christened Newpix). The comic was now The One True Comic, the thread The One True Thread. A Wiki soon followed. In case you're curious what all the fuss is about, here's the full comic animated by frame.
posted to MetaFilter by leotrotsky at 1:04 PM on May 1, 2013 (51 comments)

I have been trying to focus on my work...Usually I'll work for 15 minutes, and would have the urge to surf the Net, check forums, read up on TvTropes...
posted to Ask MetaFilter by crowbar_of_irony at 10:54 PM on May 1, 2013 (17 comments)

I aspire to write beautifully -- what is some great writing that uses colorful, creative language and style?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by switcheroo at 10:02 PM on April 29, 2013 (53 comments)

Jason Collins, a veteran NBA center currently playing for the Washington Wizards, is now the first active player in major league American sports to openly declare he is gay.
posted to MetaFilter by mightygodking at 8:20 AM on April 29, 2013 (217 comments)

If you're facing criticism and are having trouble "separating haterade from productive feedback", you might Ann Friedman's Disapproval Matrix helpful, especially when it seems as though everyone's coming down on you.
posted to MetaFilter by AccordionGuy at 8:52 AM on April 29, 2013 (16 comments)

If you were to consult the official play-by-play scoring for Friday's game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs, you would find nothing unremarkable about the bottom of the 8th inning. As the scoring tells it, Jean Segura of the Brewers hit an infield single, then stole second base. Ryan Braun walked and was thrown out on an attempted steal of second, Rickie Weeks struck out, and the inning ended when Segura was thrown out attempting to steal third base.
posted to MetaFilter by ubernostrum at 10:52 PM on April 20, 2013 (64 comments)

Between 1986 and 1993, rather than showing a test pattern, Global Television would, in the dead hours of the night, broadcast long videos of walking and driving through Toronto.
posted to MetaFilter by frimble at 12:38 AM on April 12, 2013 (35 comments)