Columbia University's Digital Scriptorium is a database of high quality scans from medieval and renaissance manuscripts. The highlights section alone is breathtaking, but you can search and browse through over 5000 manuscripts and almost 25000 individual images.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 10:06 AM on May 3, 2008 (15 comments)

99% of shoes hurt me so much that I can't walk after a few hours. The 1% that don't aren't appropriate to wear with suits. What do I do?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jacqueline at 6:42 AM on March 2, 2008 (24 comments)

The novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman is being offered for free in its entirety at the Harper Collins website (only viewable using HarperCollins' BrowseInside system). It was put up in celebration of the seventh birthday of Neil Gaiman's blog. Which is appropriate since Neil Gaiman started his blog to chronicle the process of turning the text of American Gods into a physical book. [via the man himself, natch]
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 10:25 AM on February 29, 2008 (25 comments)

Gym/Bag Lady filter: How do you minimize the crap you bring to the gym?
posted to Ask Metafilter by paddingtonb at 1:44 PM on June 7, 2007 (26 comments)

How can I get the most out of my Wii (without mods or hacks)?
posted to Ask Metafilter by explosion at 1:51 PM on December 23, 2007 (6 comments)

There You Go Again: Orwell Comes to America is a conference hosted by The New York Public Library on the past and present of propaganda. Dozens of speakers and hours of enlightening video. Panelists include luminary academics, journalists and George Soros, who along with the Open Society Institute, is sponsoring the event. (Previously)
posted to MetaFilter by stbalbach at 6:36 AM on November 8, 2007 (5 comments)

What words do you know which have a strong dissonance between their form and meaning?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 2:15 AM on November 3, 2007 (88 comments)

About 15% of the average American's household waste is compostable. Even apartment dwellers can turn their potato peelings and coffee grounds into gorgeous, nutrient-rich plant food with the help of worms. You can even buy the little dudes online! Once you have your worm farm set up, the big question is "Can I compost this?" You may be surprised at how often the answer is, "Yes!"
posted to MetaFilter by freshwater_pr0n at 9:45 PM on October 27, 2007 (48 comments)

During its run, Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed on over 50 short films. Almost all of them are now on YouTube or Google Video. See the list (shamelessly cribbed from here) inside for links.
posted to MetaFilter by cog_nate at 12:38 PM on October 24, 2007 (148 comments)

What single book is the best introduction to your field (or specialization within your field) for laypeople?
posted to Ask Metafilter by limon at 5:40 PM on September 8, 2007 (239 comments)

I bit the bullet and bought a Mr. Bento lunch box and it is awesome. Now what?
posted to Ask Metafilter by indiebass at 11:34 AM on October 15, 2007 (21 comments)

120 Minutes is a tumblr page put together by a fan of the long running MTV alt-rock show, with links to dozens (at least) of videos from the show's heyday. There's no search nor sort that I could find, but the site makes for fun browsing for fans of that particular musical era.
posted to MetaFilter by jonson at 10:22 PM on September 7, 2007 (17 comments)

Famous Poems Rewritten as Limericks , as brought to us by our very own Lore Sjöberg. English majors, begin your griping now.
posted to MetaFilter by SansPoint at 5:21 AM on July 23, 2007 (302 comments)

It's almost better than bubble-wrap. Just touch your expanding dot to make contact with other dots. Clear an entire screen and you'll see Boomshine. Friday flash fun was never so gentle.
posted to MetaFilter by squidfartz at 9:26 AM on April 13, 2007 (66 comments)

Studies in Scarlet: Marriage & Sexuality in the US & UK, 1815-1914 , courtesy of Harvard University, features digitized trial narratives for over 400 cases--some famous, most not. (Harvard also has a more general collection of trial narratives here.) There are earlier trial narratives at Rictor Norton's Homosexuality in Eighteenth Century England: A Sourcebook and Early Eighteenth-Century Newspaper Reports; see also CrimeCulture's Rogue's Gallery and a Victorian anthology, Curiosities of Street Literature (originally published in 1871). Albert Borowitz has a brief history of true crime narratives here. For more historical criminality from the investigator's point of view, check out the Forensic Medicine Archives Project at the University of Glasgow. (Main link via VICTORIA.)
posted to MetaFilter by thomas j wise at 5:05 PM on March 15, 2007 (13 comments)

Mandolux - photographic desktop wallpapers. Just keep hittin' previous.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 3:04 AM on August 20, 2006 (23 comments)

Pimp my freshman composition class: what essays would you put on the syllabus?
posted to Ask Metafilter by wheat at 12:37 PM on July 27, 2006 (30 comments)