Conceived at the Global Irish Economic Forum in 2009 as a way to engage with the Irish diaspora, the Irish government's Certificate of Irish Heritage program opened to applicants this fall. The €40 (€100 framed) certificate is a document that officially recognizes one's Irish heritage, and is aimed at those with Irish ancestry who do not qualify for Irish citizenship. Though initial reports indicated some tourist discounts would be attached, it confers no legal or financial benefits.
posted to MetaFilter by lovermont at 5:36 AM on December 23, 2011 (23 comments)

Several years ago I remember reading a very well-regarded article about the financial realities of the life of a band when it gets signed by a music label. I think it was from Rolling Stone, but I couldn't swear by that fact. I recall that it laid out in detail about how the advances work, how exciting it is for the band at first, and then how the entire industry is built to completely financially destroy them. Does this ring a bell with anyone? My nephew is going to become a world-famous millionaire rock star, and I want to give him something to think about while he is working for that big break....
posted to Ask Metafilter by Lokheed at 1:12 PM on November 21, 2011 (12 comments)

In 1602, a cobbler strolling outside of Bologna discovered a colorless stone with the curious ability to "accumulate light when exposed to the sun and to emit it in the darkness." His lapis solaris was to be the chemical sensation of the century.
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic at 11:55 AM on October 17, 2011 (13 comments)

World's Funniest Dinner Trick. But wait! There's more!
posted to MetaFilter by odinsdream at 7:45 PM on August 14, 2011 (59 comments)

There are precious few 7-footers that can turn into a jump hook while chewing gum at the same time, much less make a living out of it on the pro level. Yet, there Yao was. And he would have been there, even if he was 6 inches shorter than his 7-6 frame. Maybe if it weren't for those extra 6 inches, he and his Rockets would have played into the conference finals last spring. Yao Ming Retires from the NBA.
posted to MetaFilter by auto-correct at 1:43 PM on July 8, 2011 (40 comments)

Losing the War "From the beginning, the actual circumstances of World War II were smothered in countless lies...People all along have preferred the movie version: the tense border crossing where the flint-eyed SS guards check the forged papers; the despondent high-level briefing where the junior staff officer pipes up with the crazy plan that just might work...The truth behind these cliches was never forgotten -- because nobody except the soldiers ever learned it in the first place."
posted to MetaFilter by deern the headlice at 12:35 AM on January 3, 2010 (151 comments)

Ahmet Ertegun was profiled by George W. S. Trow in The New Yorker in a classic piece back in 1978. Ertegun was the son of the Turkish ambassador to the US and he remained behind in D.C. studying medieval philosophy at Georgetown. Instead of devoting himself to his studies he founded Atlantic Records with his friend Herb Abramson. Trow charted how Ertegun moved from tramping through muddy, Louisiana fields in search of hot new sounds to the whirl of Studio 54. Below the cut are links to the songs mentioned in the article, as best as I could find, in the order in which they appear.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 6:42 PM on August 17, 2009 (25 comments)

John Dillinger was paroled from Indiana State Prison in May 1933 after serving eight years for assault and battery and attempted robbery and launched a Midwest Crime Wave from June 1933 to June 1934.
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha at 8:38 AM on June 25, 2009 (28 comments)

Kind of a last minute request: I'm doing a bbq at my place tomorrow for my birthday, and I'm kind of stumped as to side dishes.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Ghidorah at 7:02 AM on June 12, 2009 (45 comments)

Two photojournalists got together over tea and decided they liked spending quality time with quality people on their wedding day. They liked the idea of documenting true love for the ages. After several months in a pressure cooker, Avow Weddings is the product of that little spark of an idea.
posted to Projects by TheGoldenOne at 6:35 PM on May 22, 2009 (2 comments)

Good grief! Described as "arguably the longest story ever told by one human being", the entire run -- just shy of 50 years -- of Charles Schulz's Peanuts can now, legally, be read online.
posted to MetaFilter by evilcolonel at 11:14 PM on March 11, 2009 (106 comments)

Tell me all about your favorite pizzas/pizzerias.
posted to Ask Metafilter by edmz at 5:46 PM on December 2, 2008 (44 comments)

I'm looking for a webcam setup for my technophobic mom who lives half a country away from me. She will be using it primarily to see and communicate with her grandchildren. Strangely for a technophobe, she works from home so she has reliable internet access but she is uncomfortable with complex installations and configurations. I'm looking for make/model webcam recommendations and also any hints on other accessories she might need.
posted to Ask Metafilter by answergrape at 8:03 AM on December 1, 2008 (7 comments)

Is it possible to undo any of the damage I've done to my arteries in 43 years of eating badly?
posted to Ask Metafilter by stenoboy at 7:29 AM on November 14, 2008 (17 comments)

I'm having a great deal of trouble receiving my University email in Outlook 2000. My University uses Google Apps, which allows me to use Gmail as my webmail service, but does not assign me a Google or Gmail account. The domain of my email address is myuniversity.edu, not gmail.com. For this reason, Outlook does not recognize the username and password that I use to log into my email (through my university's website). I have tried following gmail's tutorial (complicated by the fact that they don't offer one for Outlook 2000) with no success. I've tried reporting my incoming mail server as both pop.gmail.com and pop.myuniversity.edu. Any ideas? Did I miss any important info?
posted to Ask Metafilter by i_am_a_fiesta at 11:54 AM on September 23, 2008 (10 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)

Duke University has three image collections of old U.S. and Canadian advertisements. Ad*Access a database of over 7000 print ads from 1911 to 1956. Emergence of Advertising in America has 9000 images of ads from 1850-1920. Medicine and Madison Avenue has 600 medical ads and documents from 1911 to 1958. You can browse the collections by product, company, subject, year and categories or you can use the search function. Here are some of my favorites: Miss Clairol, They're Both in the Swim Today, Fancy Goods and Toy Bazaar, Sky Blue Pink, SAS Makes Airline History, A Montgomery Ward Hat that Becomes Nearly Every Woman, Radiant Peony and Hitler's Death Warrant.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 7:57 PM on April 14, 2008 (11 comments)

The worst of MetaFilter
posted to MetaTalk by Brak at 12:55 PM on December 6, 2007 (110 comments)

Looking for the best wireless keyboard/mouse/lapdesk solution to play PC games from my couch.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lattiboy at 2:06 PM on November 5, 2007 (6 comments)

Lofi is showing a cold fusion error if you are not logged in.
posted to MetaTalk by Jim Jones at 11:19 PM on February 13, 2005 (15 comments)

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted to MetaFilter by mathowie at 3:03 PM on July 14, 1999 (115 comments)

I own a small company and I'm at my wits end. We have some people who are good but not great, and they keep making mistakes or not following rules, which drive other people nuts because they have to catch these people's mistakes and otherwise clean up after them. Problems vary but are almost always caused by carelessness (putting in a wrong zip code, mistyping pricing, forgetting to get something signed off, etc) These aren't necessarily enough for the managers here to want to fire anyone, but there's only so many times you can say "don't do it again." It's also causing some of the better (more careful) employees to lose morale. I'm hearing things along the lines of "nobody cares if mistakes are made, so who cares." Please help me come up with ideas on how to discipline people. It seems like there's only so little you can do besides the usual, which seem severe (firing, less/no bonus). Where's the middle ground? How do we motivate these people to do better?
posted to Ask Metafilter by edjusted at 12:14 PM on January 31, 2007 (41 comments)

BBQfilter: Like many people, I use my (charcoal) BBQ to grill vegetables and meat, but I'd like to move on to the "smoking, indirect heat" type of cooking. While the technique seems simple enough, I'd like recommendations for simple recipes to get started.
posted to Ask Metafilter by bluefrog at 4:54 PM on June 14, 2006 (13 comments)