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Thought or not

Having taken some personal time out myself, and thus looking at things from a non-contributor perspective, is it possible that we can avoid terms like douchebag, asshole, dickwad, etc. These are violent words that make the reader take a step away. I am not saying they should be banned, but they really do have a proliferation within the site that is off putting to someone who might wish to contribute.
posted to MetaTalk by Sparx at 3:37 PM on July 25, 2008 (143 comments)

The Sacred Mushroom

One Step Beyond - The Sacred Mushroom. A 1961 episode of One Step Beyond investigates whether or not psilocybin mushrooms can give you extra-sensory perception. Part 2, Part 3. [Via Neurophilosophy]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 9:35 PM on July 18, 2008 (26 comments)

Bleeps and bloops

Charles Cohen improvises on the very rare Buchla Music Easel synthesizer.
posted to MetaFilter by Blazecock Pileon at 9:26 AM on July 18, 2008 (19 comments)

Forget about this," she says, "it's for interest only."

A recently uncovered musical experiment by Delia Derbyshire predicted the sound of modern dance music three decades before it became fashionable.
posted to MetaFilter by le morte de bea arthur at 2:54 AM on July 18, 2008 (37 comments)

We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.

Today is R. Buckminster Fuller's 113th birthday. Visionary, designer, inventor, engineer - 'Bucky' continues to inspire us. Known as the grandfather of sustainability, even today we discover that we've barely scratched the surface of his thinking and still have far to go and much to learn about managing Spaceship Earth. [ previously]
posted to MetaFilter by infini at 1:41 PM on July 12, 2008 (24 comments)

I don't want my pussy to taste like rain! I want my pussy to taste like pussy!

Connoisseurs of Cunnilingus: What does it taste like to you?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Ambrosia Voyeur at 7:54 PM on December 1, 2006 (93 comments)

"No fixed pushers, and no magnet skateboards."

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 (55 comments)

Optical illusions

Optical illusions and why they look that way.
posted to MetaFilter by OmieWise at 7:15 AM on June 16, 2008 (26 comments)

Talk to me, baby

How would a person go about becoming a phone sex operator?
posted to Ask Metafilter by CitizenD at 1:01 PM on June 11, 2008 (16 comments)

Is there any escape... from noise?

MAN - Mothers Against Noise. "Noise is music that uses unpleasant or painful or extremely loud or discordant sound. Noise is also a very dangerous musical trend that is hell bent on destroying civilized culture, this anti-cultural movement is quickly sweeping the globe, and is very dangerous to our youth." via MonkeyFilter and our own panoptican.
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 11:14 AM on December 26, 2005 (70 comments)

Garkov -- Garfield + Markov chains

Garkov -- Garfield + Markov chains [via mefi projects]
posted to MetaFilter by not_on_display at 3:31 PM on June 6, 2008 (54 comments)

IRC Redux

I'd like to take the time to invite everyone informally to #metafilter on slashnet (irc://irc.slashnet.org/metafilter)! Ops for everyone! Please check your steve at the door. That is all.
posted to MetaTalk by waraw at 4:39 PM on June 5, 2008 (68 comments)

VF: How the Web Was Won

Vanity Fair has a typically excellent article out -- "How the Web Was Won," an oral history of the Web. Even if you're familiar with ARPANet, Metcalfe's Law, Pearl Harbor Day, the VC rush, whatever -- the story told by the often-animated people at the center of the whirlwind is an enlightening and entertaining experience. And for those of you don't know the history of the Internet, learn it! This is part of your heritage now.
posted to MetaFilter by spiderwire at 9:02 PM on June 4, 2008 (21 comments)

Undeniable Examples of Women Geniuses?

GeniusFilter: Help me win an argument and prove that there ARE undeniable examples of women geniuses throughout history or even today.
posted to Ask Metafilter by DetonatedManiac at 10:36 PM on June 4, 2008 (66 comments)

Meh.

Perhaps this does not belong on the front page.
posted to MetaTalk by Blazecock Pileon at 11:07 PM on June 3, 2008 (50 comments)

A Friend in Weed Is a Friend Indeed

"Try Legal Weed" is the slogan printed on bottle caps made by Weed, California brewer Mount Shasta Brewing Company's latest microbrewed lager. The ATF has ordered the brewer not to use the caps, as they may "mislead consumers about the characteristics of the alcoholic beverage."
posted to MetaFilter by whir at 11:30 AM on May 29, 2008 (44 comments)

Not to be confused with the Glooper.

The Phillips Machine, also known as the Moniac, is a early analog computer for economic modeling with an unusual twist: all of the computation is done by water flowing through its pipes. The flows represent taxes, income, and so on, and the chambers represent balances held by various bodies. Floats attached to pens can provide graphical output such things as GDP and interest rates, and valves can be opened and shut to change the state of the system in real time. You can listen to a BBC radio segment on the origin of Phillips machine, or see a demonstration of one of the only extant working models at the University of Cambridge.
posted to MetaFilter by Upton O'Good at 10:46 PM on May 24, 2008 (12 comments)

The Is The Life: the most important period of hip hop you never knew existed (NSFW audio throughout)

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)

Dispatches from the edge

vagabondish "The Travelzine for Today's Vagabond" offers lots of tips for travellers. And if, like me, travel isn't really in your near future, you can check out the dispatches.
posted to MetaFilter by owhydididoit at 2:41 PM on May 10, 2008 (7 comments)

I checked, but oh man, I am hoping this isn't a double post...

Below Code. Comatonse Records has been around for a little over 10 years, and to celebrate, the owner, Terre Thaemlitz, put out a free best-of CD. The physical copies are all long-gone, but it's available for download (along with a bonus track that didn't fit on the original disc). Most of the stuff is relatively noisy (and some found sound stuff), but there's some cool electronic type pieces, rock and pop songs and solo piano pieces as well. Also of note is his own personal site, which has links to a lot of cool essays, typically about gender issues and music. (There's also links to images of graphical scores to some of his music.) [Poking around these sites are pretty much NSFW -- the only explicitly NSFW links are on "his own personal site" and "music", but there's quite a few naked people and suchlike around, including on one of the postcards that make up the main link, so, yeah -- take care!]
posted to MetaFilter by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 1:08 PM on August 1, 2005 (4 comments)

In which the girls continue to be girls. Sort of.

"Girls Will Be Girls", the hilariously tacky and tasteless story of a trio of women in Hollywood, earned Best Actress awards for its leads at both Outfest and the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 2003. This was notable largely because the parts were played by three male performers. Now, thanks to the internet, you can watch the continuing adventures of Varla, Coco, and Evie in streaming hi-def. Oh, the gays and their wit.
posted to MetaFilter by Help, I can't stop talking! at 10:11 PM on May 3, 2008 (14 comments)

There's a robot beneath the fluff.

In Vestimentis Ursum. Designer Matt Kirkland peels off the fur of mechanized stuffed animals to take a look at the robots lurking within.
posted to MetaFilter by hydrophonic at 8:39 PM on April 24, 2008 (25 comments)

At least as interesting as a one-link-to-wikipedia post.

Max/MSP is a graphical programming environment primarily used for music, video and multimedia. Max/MSP has sometimes been described as a digital erector set. David Tinapple describes Max in this way: "it's like you're drawing a diagram of what you want the program to do, and then when you're done drawing the diagram you've also sort of accidentally programmed it".
posted to MetaFilter by Crumpled Farm at 11:43 PM on April 21, 2008 (28 comments)

WTE MATHOWIE???

go elf yourself.
posted to MetaFilter by quonsar at 3:58 PM on December 17, 2006 (72 comments)

What Is Your Favorite Cookie?

The 50 Best Cookie Recipes on the Internet -- for me, the best food on the planet is an oatmeal raisin cookie. My palate just goes ooohhh! Everything else just fills the hole. For many, it's the good ol' chocolate chip. There's bound to be some cookie gourmet's in the MeFi universe. So tell us, what is your favorite cookie?
posted to MetaFilter by netbros at 9:31 AM on April 19, 2008 (40 comments)

Carlos Castaneda And The Shaman.

Carlos Castaneda And The Shaman. A BBC documentary on the anthropologist, best-selling author, con-artist, drug guru and cult leader: Carlos Castaneda. (google video, 1 hour)
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 7:38 PM on April 12, 2008 (59 comments)

What are the world's most useful dead-tree catalogs?

What is the iconic (or just "your favorite") dead-tree product catalog (listing of merchandise for mail-order sale) for your hobby, industry, or trade?
posted to Ask Metafilter by cadastral at 9:23 AM on April 1, 2008 (73 comments)

Cabinet of Curiosities

Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities features strange and surprising things from the rare book and manuscript collections of the Beinecke Library in Yale, including death masks, the philosophy of origami, the real adventures of Tintin, famous people and their pets, and American transvestite magazines from the 1960s.
posted to MetaFilter by verstegan at 10:40 AM on April 11, 2008 (12 comments)

Database of free speculative fiction online

Free Speculative Fiction Online is a database of free science fiction and fantasy stories online by published authors (no fan-fiction or stories by unpublished writers). Among the authors that FSFO links to are Paul Di Filippo (14 stories), James Tiptree, Jr. (4 stories), Connie Willis (3 stories), Eleanor Arnason (3 stories), Bruce Sterling (5 stories), Robert Heinlein (7 stories), Ursula K. LeGuin (3 stories), Jonathan Lethem (5 stories), Michael Moorcock (6 stories), Chine Miéville (2 stories), Samuel R. Delany (3 stories), Robert Sheckley (8 stories), MeFite Charles Stross (33 stories) and hundreds of other authors. If you don't know where to start, there's a list of recommended stories.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 1:52 PM on April 5, 2008 (34 comments)

A virtual 303, 909 & effects setup in your browser!

303, 909, FX, MIXER = ACID VARSITY. In other words, two virtual 303s, a 909, effects and a mixer running for free right in your browser.
posted to MetaFilter by 6am at 9:16 AM on April 4, 2008 (41 comments)

High-Tech Lightning Watching

A cool map of lightning frequency over time across the globe. And a live version for the U.S. Heck, a zoomed-in version on the Northeast for the past 60 minutes. It turns out that you can even buy a small Lightning Detector to map local lightning strikes on your PC. It listens for the signature static crashes from lightning, sometimes called sferics (short for atmospheric noise), much like you can hear on an AM radio during a storm. You can even listen to streaming audio from NASA's (Alabama) VLF receiver.
posted to MetaFilter by fogster at 8:55 PM on April 1, 2008 (22 comments)

Paper Pussy

DIY Ceiling Cat. That is all.
posted to MetaFilter by armoured-ant at 5:10 AM on March 26, 2008 (41 comments)

She blinded me with science!

Gorgeous images, selected solely for their artistic appeal, from the pages of Physical Review B.
posted to MetaFilter by dmd at 1:59 PM on March 22, 2008 (15 comments)

Shepard Fairey, Plagiarist?

Most well known for his "Obey Giant" street posters, Shepard Fairey has carefully nurtured a reputation as a heroic guerilla street artist waging a one man campaign against the corporate powers-that-be. Infantile posturing aside, Fairey’s art is problematic for another, more troubling reason - that of plagiarism.
posted to MetaFilter by dhammond at 2:58 PM on March 18, 2008 (91 comments)

He’s really excited about that girl.

Like a dog fucking a blender. Six-Word Reviews of each of the 763 SXSW Mp3s. [Previously] [Via]
posted to MetaFilter by churl at 9:40 PM on March 13, 2008 (68 comments)

Time Banking

Enjoy volunteering? Time banking allows you to get something back for your efforts. It's even the official currency of the micronation Lovely. Via
posted to MetaFilter by fermezporte at 8:01 PM on March 13, 2008 (6 comments)

golden ratio in the amen break

The Amen Break and the Golden Ratio by mathematics educator and author, Michael S. Schneider. Schneider, having already researched and written about the golden ratio extensively, noticed it right away when hearing the the amen break for the first time (amen break previously on the blue). While some composers have been known to intentionally incorporate fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio into their works, perhaps this is just another one of the many instances of the ratio showing up in nature.
posted to MetaFilter by p3t3 at 7:09 PM on March 12, 2008 (27 comments)

BP doesn't like identity "correction"

Oh dear. Robert White at BP's Legal Department doesn't like the Yes Men's immaculately executed spoof of BP's corporate site. The Yes Men pursue the tactic of "agreeing their way into the fortified compounds of commerce", and their apology is most agreeable. Is humorous exposure of "monstrous crimes" more effective than its humorless exposure, or all a bit too subtle to be effective?
posted to MetaFilter by falcon at 2:05 AM on March 11, 2008 (15 comments)

learning math online

Free math courses online, from very basic to brainiac.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 9:51 PM on February 26, 2008 (19 comments)

My eyes hurt from all the tiny lines!

Mazes and complexity Like mazes? Check out these computer generated mazes that might play tricks with your visual cortex. Each is available as a downloadable PDF that will take, um... at least a minute to solve.
posted to MetaFilter by daHIFI at 10:24 AM on February 26, 2008 (14 comments)

Mmmmwah!

Affairs of the Lips. "We kiss furtively, lasciviously, gently, shyly, hungrily and exuberantly. We kiss in broad daylight and in the dead of night. We give ceremonial kisses, affectionate kisses, Hollywood air kisses, kisses of death and, at least in fairytales, pecks that revive princesses." But, why do we kiss?
posted to MetaFilter by amyms at 7:34 PM on February 21, 2008 (40 comments)

Early Kraftwerk @ YouTube

Early Kraftwerk @ YouTube, from when they still had long hair—Ruckzuck live on WDR TV in 1970; Truckstop Gondolero (aka Rückstossgondoliere), a 1971 performance where the line-up is Florian with Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother, later of NEU!; Heavy Metal Kids (audio only), also from 1971; and a lovely version of Tanzmusik (1973).
posted to MetaFilter by misteraitch at 9:08 AM on February 16, 2008 (22 comments)

Mixing Oil, Water, and Little Falling People

The Falling Sand Game is an engrossing but hard-to-describe online toy/game that lets you create environments using falling streams of sand, water, oil, and salt by adding fire, plants, clay, and other substances. Inspired by The Falling Sand Game are a number of variations, such as PyroSand, featuring many kinds of explosives, and Hell of Sand, with little people who you can torture. One of the most interesting versions is The Powder Game, which lets you paint with superballs, adjust air pressure, and build very satisfying volcanoes and gardens. For even more, WxSand [downloadable .exe] is a Windows version with lots more options and many interesting mods. [Games are Java applets and are incredibly addictive, especially The Powder Game]
posted to MetaFilter by blahblahblah at 11:38 AM on February 7, 2008 (26 comments)

Call of the Cauliflower

I love Cauliflower! It's healthy and delicious! Help me find good ways to eat it! Right now, I've got one white and one golden head just waiting for adventure! Recipe suggestions?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Ambrosia Voyeur at 2:11 PM on February 7, 2008 (47 comments)
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