Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, just gave a historic six-day teaching of Je Tsong-kha-pa’s Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (the Lam Rim Chen Mo), a vitally important explanation of Buddhism written in 1402 and just recently translated into English by a team organized by Joshua Cutler of New Jersey's Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center. The teaching, attended by about 5000 participants (my estimate), consisted of two two-hour sessions per day, except for a public talk on Sunday afternoon, at which the Dalai Lama received an honorary doctorate from Lehigh and gave a speech. The speech is available as downloadable audio clips and for viewing online. It is possible that eventually the videos of the teachings themselves will be made available on DVD or for download at lamrim.com.
posted to MetaFilter by setver at 7:03 PM on July 16, 2008 (11 comments)

What does the phrase, "groBes malheur!", as used in this photo, mean and what language it is?
posted to Ask Metafilter by fuse theorem at 10:53 PM on July 15, 2008 (13 comments)

Is there a flash-less way to download and/or listen to songs on Metafilter Music?
posted to MetaTalk by umbú at 5:39 PM on July 15, 2008 (18 comments)

James Mundie is an artist and photographer whose work often includes sideshow themes. He recently returned from Europe having been allowed to photograph a number of anatomy museum exhibits. He has also contributed to a Flickr group entitled “Bottled Babies”, which , in a previous era, were known as “Pickled Punks”. (Probably NSFW)
posted to MetaFilter by Tube at 6:47 PM on May 5, 2008 (5 comments)

Modelling Human Memory. Or, really, predicting the point of forgetting.
posted to MetaFilter by weston at 2:03 PM on April 22, 2008 (26 comments)

"Charlie Rose" by Samuel Beckett. [SLYT post]. Strangely compelling.
posted to MetaFilter by LarryC at 9:04 PM on April 21, 2008 (23 comments)

What happens when a US President declares war on a concept? In 1964, Canadian photojournalist Hugh O'Connor traveled to eastern Kentucky to document the battlefields of Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty and was shot for trespassing. The incident is the subject of a wonderful documentary, Stranger with a Camera by filmmaker Elizabeth Barrett, produced by Appalshop, a non-profit organization in Whitesburg, Kentucky, that works with local artists to promote self-representation in media and the expediency of culture to counteract a stagnating local economy. Makes you think twice about nostalgic representations of poor Appalachian coal miners plucking their banjo strings in the hollers, doesn't it?
posted to MetaFilter by billtron at 11:02 AM on April 15, 2008 (14 comments)

Sierpinski Cookies. Also: Fimo Fractals.
posted to MetaFilter by signal at 6:21 PM on April 12, 2008 (8 comments)

Meet Larry Perrier, the Flip Flop Man.
posted to MetaFilter by jimmythefish at 10:47 PM on April 9, 2008 (12 comments)

What are the most incredible, maybe slightly offbeat, places in New York City to hang out? Stunning rooftop bars, strange nighttime museums, secret gardens, bizarre burlesques, etc. and more all welcome. Alcohol availability a plus.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Malad at 11:01 AM on April 10, 2008 (17 comments)

How does one socialize with the dead?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Anonymous at 8:49 AM on April 9, 2008 (11 comments)

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)

How to responsibly stay at a hotel for a night when I think my home has bedbugs?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Anonymous at 8:52 PM on April 1, 2008 (3 comments)

How To Speak Hip with Del Close and John Brent
posted to MetaFilter by Del Far at 1:24 PM on April 1, 2008 (27 comments)

The title is pretty self-explanatory really. Instruments: piano and reedy voice.
posted to MeFi Music by Dalton at 8:50 AM on March 28, 2008 (7 comments)

Just so you all know, I'm getting pretty sick of MetaFilter. Changes are coming very soon.

Big. assed. changes.

Call me mr. crankypants, but the level of discourse here is approaching an eighth grade level. Seriously. A lot of old timers say "it used to be so much better when..." and I hate to say it, but it's true. A long time ago*, people used to be a lot more respectful to others, people didn't attack each other, people of opposing viewpoints could bring their perspective to a topic and not just point out knee jerk political viewpoints and philosophies. Everyday I see the place getting more and more "mainstream" with all the closed minds and inflexible opinions that come with that.

Be prepared for the upcoming experiment at MetaFilter.

(I know I should just take a vacation from the site, but really, this place doesn't run on its own. I'm spending more time everyday here cleaning up self-posts, watching people attack each other, and banning IPs and accounts. So instead I'm making some huge changes.)

* - and don't go back into the archives and show me a year old thread that got ugly. I know the place used to be better overall, and you're not going to convince me of otherwise, okay?
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 4:13 PM on April 5, 2001 (85 comments)

Expanding on a previous post about Tom Lehrer, and in what is becoming a grand tradition of single link YouTube posts about him, 6funswede and YouTube present the entirety of An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer.
posted to MetaFilter by griphus at 5:40 PM on March 26, 2008 (15 comments)

There is a boy. I work at the same place as him, but in a completely different department. Face time is minimal -- what is the least freakish way to start a conversation?
posted to Ask Metafilter by als129 at 4:46 PM on March 26, 2008 (31 comments)

Yellow Drum Machine (google video), one of the robots that you can learn to build via Let's Make Robots (.com). This little guy finds a surface to tap a beat onto, then taps a beat on it. The fun starts at about 35 seconds in (via b3ta).
posted to MetaFilter by krautland at 7:54 AM on March 26, 2008 (32 comments)

ShortStoryFilter: A bachelor gradually finds out he has a wife? It's hard to explain it in one sentence.
posted to Ask Metafilter by lou at 12:05 AM on February 21, 2008 (8 comments)

Fans of Futbol (Links to futbol vids) should enjoy this short vid of some amazing skillz.
posted to MetaFilter by snsranch at 5:44 PM on February 19, 2008 (8 comments)

Can the British just sail right up the Mississippi?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie at 5:52 PM on February 18, 2008 (17 comments)

Prince Rupert’s Drops are quickly cooled teardrop shaped glass pieces that have amazing physical properties. While tough on the big end, they will explosively shatter if broken on the small end.
posted to MetaFilter by Tube at 12:33 PM on February 17, 2008 (49 comments)

delete adult scroll conflict for (or: 10 minutes of Perl scripting with Vista)
posted to MetaFilter by Blazecock Pileon at 11:17 PM on February 16, 2008 (62 comments)

Back in May, an Egyptian professor found a loophole to allow an unmarried female to be alone in the presence of a man. All she has to do is breastfeed him 5 times. Radā is a technical term from Islamic jurisprudence meaning "the suckling which produces the legal impediment to marriage of foster-kinship". Now the good people over at Haase & Martin have come up with their own way to get under that burka.
posted to MetaFilter by gman at 12:14 PM on February 15, 2008 (55 comments)

BLUTube is a specialty video site for law enforcement. This one's my favorite.
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea at 5:15 PM on February 6, 2008 (37 comments)

Solar, with lyrics. A very pretty, surprisingly wordy video. (via)
posted to MetaFilter by Pronoiac at 2:52 PM on February 4, 2008 (20 comments)

Today is the Day.
posted to MetaFilter by Burhanistan at 5:12 PM on February 3, 2008 (105 comments)

Is there a word that means "knowing something solely by references to it?"
posted to Ask Metafilter by flatluigi at 8:06 PM on February 2, 2008 (23 comments)

Were the "R2D2 Circle" and the "C3PO Walk" widespread children's exercises in the late Seventies, or were they just something my Phys Ed teacher made up?
posted to Ask Metafilter by breezeway at 8:44 AM on February 2, 2008 (24 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)

Someone takes your child and leaves a bag of cash. What happens to the money? Is it taken permanently by cops/feds and kept as evidence or is it yours to keep? (Note, I'm only interested in the legal answer, not the moral one.) Yes, this is hypothetical but for a story I'm working on.
posted to Ask Metafilter by dobbs at 8:35 PM on January 31, 2008 (20 comments)

How experts think we'll live in the year 2000 [via Paleo-Future]
posted to MetaFilter by hadjiboy at 6:54 AM on January 31, 2008 (43 comments)

I can has... wait, it's canned? Canned cheeseburger, only €3.95.
posted to MetaFilter by whir at 2:21 PM on January 30, 2008 (81 comments)

A "thriving necropolis" - The North Cemetery in Manila is populated by thousands of families - many living in mausoleums and even making their livings in the service of the dead.
posted to MetaFilter by honeyx at 12:20 PM on January 24, 2008 (11 comments)

While it may be old news the US was drawn into the Iraq War under false pretenses, a new report by the Center for Public Integrity documents 935 specific falsehoods in public statements by eight white house officials: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Wolfowitz, Fleischer and McClellan.
posted to MetaFilter by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:32 AM on January 23, 2008 (71 comments)

People Are Curious. A 3-foot-1-inch tall man with no legs propelling himself along by his hands on a skateboard tends to warrant a fair share of attention. Kevin Michael Connolly, who was born with no legs, used his X Games winnings (he won the 2007 Silver Medal in Skiing) to travel the world and photograph people's reactions to him.
posted to MetaFilter by amyms at 7:30 PM on January 22, 2008 (19 comments)

"I believe with every fibre of my being that every human being has the right to live without the pain of the past". An amazing collection of personal stories, reflecting diverse attitudes to forgiveness and reconciliation, hosted by The Forgiveness Project.
posted to MetaFilter by teleskiving at 10:06 AM on January 21, 2008 (12 comments)

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

Is there some significance to the colors blue and yellow in Peru?
posted to Ask Metafilter by sweetkid at 7:56 AM on January 21, 2008 (3 comments)

Dolphins create rings of air bubbles!
posted to MetaFilter by proj08 at 12:37 PM on January 20, 2008 (47 comments)

So apparently it's not the lack of oxygen which causes cells to die. Rather, getting oxygen back, which triggers the same cell death mechanism that guards against cancer, causes cell death.
posted to MetaFilter by Pope Guilty at 6:42 AM on January 19, 2008 (49 comments)

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes.
posted to MetaFilter by telstar at 2:12 PM on January 19, 2008 (64 comments)

Lost cosmonauts is a site detailing the radio site at Torre Bert, set up by Italian amateurs in 1959 to monitor the beginnings of the space race. The Torre Bert station was regarded as a legitimate tracking station, however they then released recordings of dying cosmonauts which were quickly denounced as exaggerations, or outright conspiracy. In 1991 Pravda admitted that Gagarin was not the first cosmonaut .
posted to MetaFilter by scodger at 10:17 PM on January 18, 2008 (40 comments)

Now, this is my kind of trebuchet! (via)
posted to MetaFilter by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:59 PM on January 18, 2008 (27 comments)

The Internet Party: When the Google's parents leave town all those Web 2.0 kids go crazy. [video via]
posted to MetaFilter by donovan at 6:17 PM on January 17, 2008 (47 comments)

DocumentaryFilter: In search of BBC's "What is Religion?"
posted to Ask Metafilter by mjklin at 11:15 AM on January 17, 2008 (3 comments)

The only thing scarier than the thought of being without my wonderful boyfriend in ten years... is the thought that I WILL still be with him. Help me make sense of this feeling!
posted to Ask Metafilter by Anonymous at 7:36 PM on January 15, 2008 (40 comments)

Top Gear is coming soon to America – unfortunately without the charms of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and The Stig. To produce a worthy rival program, the American version will have a lot to live up to:
posted to MetaFilter by bent back tulips at 10:44 AM on January 15, 2008 (82 comments)

Faithful live-action recreations of "classic" Garfield comic strips. (Quicktime required.)
posted to MetaFilter by Prospero at 1:57 PM on January 14, 2008 (83 comments)