Bandstand Busking have decided to put liven up the underused bandstands of London by, well, you know, putting bands on in them.
posted to MetaFilter by Helga-woo at 2:29 PM on July 20, 2008 (7 comments)

Futility Closet (This guy)
posted to MetaFilter by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 7:35 PM on July 9, 2008 (37 comments)

The Book of Accidents: Designed for Young Children (1831). "In presenting to his little readers The Book of Accidents, the Author conceives he cannot render a more important service to the rising generation and to parents, than by furnishing them with an account of the accidents to which Children, from their inexperience or carelessness, are liable. If generally studied it will save the lives of thousands, and relieve many families from the long and unavailing misery attendant on such occurrences." [Via]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 6:37 PM on July 3, 2008 (34 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)

As the Seattle PI notes "Paul Allen's 'Flying Heritage Collection' of 15 planes, mostly dating from the 1930s and '40s, is noteworthy both because of its rarity -- several are the only models of their kind remaining -- and its condition -- almost all of them have been refurbished so that they can be flown."
posted to MetaFilter by maxwelton at 4:27 PM on June 6, 2008 (30 comments)

Maps: Finding our place in the world is an exhibit at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, and it runs until this Sunday June 8. That page contains images of a few of the maps. One of the many great things included is an animated map of the US Civil War in 4 minutes (one week per second, timeline noted at bottom, casualty counter rolling in bottom right corner - info about this animation) The exhibition book was previously linked here; that site includes higher-resolution versions of some more of the maps. I was floored by all the stuff they have; in terms of the rarity of the stuff in it, and the geek-delight factor, I think it's probably the best gallery show I've ever seen.
posted to MetaFilter by LobsterMitten at 9:48 PM on June 4, 2008 (24 comments)

The continuity I have in mind has to do with the nature of information itself or, to put it differently, the inherent instability of texts. In place of the long-term view of technological transformations, which underlies the common notion that we have just entered a new era, the information age, I want to argue that every age was an age of information, each in its own way, and that information has always been unstable. Let's begin with the Internet and work backward in time.

The Library in the New Age by Robert Darnton, historian and Director of the Harvard Library. A wide-ranging overview of the status of libraries in the modern world, touching on such subjects as: journalist poker games, French people liking the smell of books, bibliography at Google, news dissemination in the 18th Century, book piracy and the different texts of Shakespeare. Some responses: Defending the Library of Google, The Future in the Past and Librarians Need a Better Apologetic.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 9:12 PM on June 1, 2008 (22 comments)

Ten simple, shattering comics about the earthquake in China. Via MoFi.
posted to MetaFilter by By The Grace of God at 1:35 PM on June 1, 2008 (63 comments)

The Man of Bronze. We've already thrilled to his magnificent covers, but pulp hero Doc Savage really existed in text. Therefore, The Groovy Age of Horror has done us the favor of working their way through the books of Doc Savage, providing in-depth reviews. Invaluable if you have ever considered purchasing The Sargasso Ogre or I Died Yesterday, but didn't know if it was worth it.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 9:27 AM on May 27, 2008 (19 comments)

Holy Transformation! Watch as Gotham City's favorite librarian Barbara Gordon becomes Batgirl with a only few flashy accessories and a skirt that doubles as a cape! Check out more tv good'n's here.
posted to MetaFilter by rokabiri at 4:48 PM on September 20, 2005 (23 comments)

What does a man do during the last 20 years of his life? We learn what every day was like for this unnamed soul who lived through the death of John Lennon, was there for the biggest television experience ever and who saw many presidents inaugurated and witnessed some of them shot.
It might have been because of the holidays or just to fit in but sometime around the early 80's he began smoking. Throught the 90's his health declined and eventually the illness took over.
What must we think about the Star Trek fan with a surreal taste for art and who loved pasta? I'm not sure, but I am certainly thankful for the images.
posted to MetaFilter by MikeonTV at 4:23 PM on May 21, 2008 (68 comments)

The [US] National Trust for Historic Preservation has released its 21st annual list of the nation's Most Endangered Historic Places. Among them: Sumner Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas, (where Linda Brown tried to register for school, resulting in Brown vs. Board of Education); New York City's Lower East Side; California's State Parks; Philadelphia's Boyd Theatre, and several others. The previous 20 years of Most Endangered Historic Places can be found in the Archive.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko at 2:28 PM on May 20, 2008 (16 comments)

National Geographic has a really neat photo gallery of nudibranchs. These are very colorful, very cute sea slugs. Enjoy.
posted to MetaFilter by phunniemee at 10:06 PM on May 18, 2008 (43 comments)

Which Star Wars set will give me what I want? I love extra special editions, but I want to buy a copy of Star Wars where Han Shoots first. I am looking for any advice on which versions I should or should not get.
posted to Ask Metafilter by slavlin at 9:01 PM on May 18, 2008 (10 comments)

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)

Three sisters gardens are a fine introduction to horticulture.
posted to MetaFilter by owhydididoit at 6:49 PM on May 3, 2008 (13 comments)

"Only Nixon could go to China," and only ex-Republican ex-Senator Lincoln Chafee can explain how George W. Bush set out "to preempt the Congress... on every issue", "turned his back on (his) bedrock campaign pledges", and become simultaneously America's most powerful and least popular President (and why there could never be a "surely this..." moment). NOT just another OMGBUSH commentary, this should be required reading for anybody who honestly wants to know what went wrong.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 11:59 AM on May 2, 2008 (46 comments)

Sailor Martin, a tattooed and pierced ventriloquist dummy, produces what sounds like his version of the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy meets the Munchkins, except, in this instance, he has been shipwrecked, eaten some potentially poisonous bark, and may be hallucinating.
posted to MeFi Music by Astro Zombie at 9:28 PM on April 30, 2008 (5 comments)

The Southern Foodways Alliance is one weighed-down church-supper table, full of oral history/blog projects like The Tamale Trail, the Boudin Trail, interviews and recipes from the Bartenders of New Orleans, photo essay/interviews from Birmingham's Greek-Americans, a mess o'homemade films, and a passel of event and BBQ-shack photos on Flickr, all smothered in the tangy-sweet academic goodness of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at Ole Miss. These folks get my vote for most flavorful, funkiest food-loving folklorists in the lower forty-eight.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko at 6:07 PM on April 28, 2008 (15 comments)

How far away from work do you live? How much of your pay gets used up to get you to and from work, get you around town, and pay for where you live? As gas and food prices continue to rise, "affordability" has become a more critical notion for everyday Americans. The Center for Neighborhood Technology developed their Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, which aims to help better inform renters and owners about the relationship of transportation options to where one lives.
posted to MetaFilter by Blazecock Pileon at 11:04 AM on April 28, 2008 (86 comments)

Paracord is a perennial survival kit favorite, but why carry a boring ol' hank of it when you can get crafty? Parachute cord lanyards, bracelets, watchbands, belts, and other braided items are surprisingly easy and fun to make by following some simple instructions. But they're just the beginning! From water bottle carriers and camera tripods to knife handles, Khukri conversions, flashlight & stick wraps, pace beads, magazine pulls, rifle wraps and rifle slings, there are tons of useful things you can make out of paracord!
posted to MetaFilter by vorfeed at 10:03 AM on April 28, 2008 (21 comments)

Stylish Blight (slideshow of awesome live/work architecture office) The outside says pure urban squalor, while the inside is pure awesomeness. Full story in today's NYT about the project. (via beebo)
posted to MetaFilter by mathowie at 5:31 PM on March 2, 2008 (25 comments)

You Walk Wrong. "It took 4 million years of evolution to perfect the human foot. But we’re wrecking it with every step we take." [Via]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 8:50 PM on April 22, 2008 (102 comments)

In celebration of my antipodean homesickness I've spent the morning catching up with some great Australian and New Zealand musical comedy acts I've been to. You've already met Flight of the Conchords previously on mefi. Now come and meet some...
posted to MetaFilter by steerpike at 5:40 AM on April 23, 2008 (15 comments)

Why bother? "That really is the big question facing us as individuals hoping to do something about climate change," by Michael Pollan.
posted to MetaFilter by stbalbach at 7:48 PM on April 19, 2008 (71 comments)

Sailor Martin, my pierced and tattooed ventriloquist dummy, attempts, and fails at, recording a song for children about pretty birds and fuzzy rabbits.
posted to MeFi Music by Astro Zombie at 1:58 PM on April 12, 2008 (12 comments)

Help me come up with easy, low-calorie lunches.
posted to Ask Metafilter by EarBucket at 7:01 AM on April 12, 2008 (26 comments)

I'm a heavyset, geeky guy with no sense of fashion or style. Can you help me change my look?
posted to Ask Metafilter by SansPoint at 10:23 AM on April 12, 2008 (32 comments)

Is sansgras the new Kaycee?
posted to MetaTalk by heatherann at 5:30 AM on March 10, 2008 (3649 comments)

Online Crayon Physics Flash version of stuff from here and here. No download needed (vs. prior posts) and totally addicting.
posted to MetaFilter by filmgeek at 7:41 PM on April 6, 2008 (38 comments)

Y peqgwtmeyv od y peqgwtmeyguop ptfafieav of luopu owd yawute lokk dlowpu y dqvntk of y dweofm tx lteid xte yf yfyktmtad dqvntk, yfi qta vadw lter taw owd teomofyk dyqofm. Uodwteopykkq, Dgyewyf vokowyeq ptvvafopywotfd ioi kyq metafilter, te yw vofovav ypw yd yf ofowoyk dutlofm tx peqgwtmeyvd, yfi gtkowopyk yggkopywotfd nq Etvyfd ioi xtkktl. Ftl, y peqgwtmeyv od, xte vyfq, y gtgakye utnnq. Yf yggetypu wt y dtkawotf pyf waef taw nydop, dapu yd kttrofm xte dutew lteid, te ioxxopakw--peqgwyfykqdod, adofm cayfwowq tx ofiojoiayk dqvntkd te iomeygud. Getmeyvd pyf ykdt yddodw, ox y peqgwtmeyv weakq ptfxtafid qta. Y ltei tx lyefofm, wutamu--peqgwtmeyvd pyf eaf ag ymyofdw domfoxopyfw ptvgkopywotfd ox netamuw ag ymyofdw y kogtmeyv, luopu od y xtev tx lteigkyq of luopu y gyewopakye dqvntk od ktdw xetv y gyeymeygu tx leowofm. Te, ox y gyeymeygu od wtt voki, y nttr tx xoxwq wutadyfi lteid. (Y jykoyfw iodgkyq tx vydtpuodv.) Y dyvgkofm tx geote yew.
posted to MetaFilter by Upton O'Good at 12:00 AM on March 27, 2008 (39 comments)

Here's a little quoting bookmarklet for Metafilter threads that I thought folks might find useful. Highlight a text snippit you'd like to quote and click the bookmarklet. It'll format the snippit as a quote and paste it into the comment box for you.
posted to MetaTalk by Jeff Howard at 10:17 PM on February 27, 2008 (32 comments)

An ode to some of the more vibrant personas and memorable events in Metafilter history -- and an homage to the classic tune by The Nails. Lyrics with tremendous amounts of annotation inside.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 10:47 PM on February 14, 2007 (91 comments)

I wish to end my barbaric method of cooking rice in a saucepan. I'm stuck between the Zojirushi NS-LAC05, NS-ZCC10, and NS-TGC10. I've checked the product comparisons. Will I miss not having "Extended Keep Warm" - and how is that different from the already-present "Automatic Keep Warm" anyway? What in the world is this "Rinse-Free" and "Sweet Rice" settings, and will I miss them? Is "Cake" decent? Why is picking a rice cooker so complicated?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Xere at 8:05 PM on November 3, 2007 (26 comments)

Building a landmark. Nearly 135 years after first rolling up Clay Street, San Francisco's famous cable cars are still using an elegant, yet antiquated system of understreet cables and two types of unpowered cars to move delighted tourists and patient locals across the city every day. But most riders don't realize that five specialized craftsmen in a shop in an industrial part of town make up the the last cable car factory in the world, still building cars by hand, from plans reverse-engineered from a car disassembled in 1982. [via]
posted to MetaFilter by toxic at 12:05 PM on February 25, 2008 (13 comments)

Does anyone know who created the now famous painting of an alien that is featured on the cover of Whitley Strieber's COMMUNION?
posted to Ask Metafilter by hodgman at 11:23 AM on February 19, 2008 (12 comments)

I really like albums that seem to exist in their own little world, devoid of obvious influences - some good examples being Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks"and Talk Talk's "Spirit of Eden". What else should I check out?
posted to Ask Metafilter by davebush at 3:18 PM on February 17, 2008 (36 comments)

Scandinavian Grace's beard cap has inspired the internet. Now plans are available to make your own bearded cap. Have a large head? No problem! Skeleclavas lack a beard, but make warming your head a little more hardcore
posted to MetaFilter by betaray at 8:52 AM on February 17, 2008 (15 comments)

Comedian Patton Oswalt has gotten a lot of mileage out of KFC's Famous Bowls ("a failure pile in a sadness bowl."); after years of mockery, he finally tries one for himself, and writes about the experience.
posted to MetaFilter by jonson at 2:26 PM on January 8, 2008 (91 comments)

Retro-future scooters. You can't buy them but you can try to make one.
posted to MetaFilter by damn dirty ape at 9:27 PM on February 12, 2008 (22 comments)

A new look at race through three lenses: History, human variation and lived experience. Be sure to check out some of the quizzes, notably White Men Can't Jump and other assumptions about sports and race. [via SpoFi] A product of the American Anthropological Association.
posted to MetaFilter by psmealey at 9:05 AM on February 3, 2008 (14 comments)

How to send that first email in the world of online dating.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Anonymous at 11:28 AM on January 28, 2008 (51 comments)

PISS LASER! How to use urine most efficiently in carving of urinal cake?
posted to Ask Metafilter by klangklangston at 12:08 PM on January 29, 2008 (43 comments)

How many ways can I blow my sheltered American mind while visiting Japan?
posted to Ask Metafilter by ZackTM at 7:27 AM on January 25, 2008 (36 comments)

I come to praise Wham-O, not bury it. Despite the recent death of Wham-O cofounder Richard Knerr, coming a half-decade after the death of hos partner Arthur "Spud" Melin, let us not mourn. Instead, let us remember what Wham-O gave the world.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 6:37 PM on January 17, 2008 (35 comments)

Didja know Metafilter's own hermitosis has been writing articles for AMC's website (mostly in the MonsterFest blog)? Hey check it out, it's ColdChef! (With awesome photo)
posted to MetaTalk by nanojath at 10:35 PM on January 15, 2008 (37 comments)

Photogalleries of Loyalist (UFF, UVF) and Nationalist (IRA) murals in Northern Ireland.
posted to MetaFilter by Rumple at 1:23 AM on January 14, 2008 (43 comments)

"But, it's a post on film noir!" I told her. She jerked away from me like a startled fawn might, if I had a startled fawn and it jerked away from me. I knew that caving into my desires meant I might lose her. But I didn't care. I went out to the kitchen to make coffee -- yards of coffee. Rich, strong, bitter, boiling hot, ruthless, depraved. I knew she'd be back.
posted to MetaFilter by miss lynnster at 12:56 AM on January 11, 2008 (48 comments)

I want to find a job in Australia or new Zealand. But I'm Canadian, in Canada. How do I do it?
posted to Ask Metafilter by GuyZero at 1:25 PM on January 30, 2007 (15 comments)

I want to live overseas for the summer, with an eye to emigrating, potentially. I am thinking of Ireland or maybe the UK. Please help by telling me about your experience if you were thinking about or did the same thing.
posted to Ask Metafilter by cotterpin at 8:34 PM on April 24, 2007 (16 comments)