In on attempted murder . . . According to evidence cited by Diane McWhorter in today's NYT: Bull Connor, eased out but still active, organized a police assassination plot against Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. The conspiracy failed, but it was known to the Birmingham News beforehand. (The News was & is owned by the Newhouse family -- Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, etc). According to McWhorter, the paper also funded and collaborated in police spying on civil rights activists. McWhorter won a Pulitzer for Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. Her point in today's piece is to recall how wide and deep the Jim Crow violence machine operated. Good And Evil In Birmingham
posted to MetaFilter by LonnieK at 1:38 PM on January 21, 2013 (11 comments)

Tea kettles: electric vs. stove-top. Tell me which one to buy!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by cooker girl at 8:46 AM on January 21, 2013 (67 comments)

"Most American high schools are almost sadistically unhealthy places to send adolescents." Does the "worst of adult America looks like high school because it’s populated by people who went to high school in America?"
posted to MetaFilter by zarq at 9:54 AM on January 21, 2013 (174 comments)

Richard Seymour has a new book out: Unhitched: The Trial of Christopher Hitchens. It is reviewed in In These Times: Christopher Hitchens Stands Trial

That said, Hitchens’ later years and the enormous celebrity he enjoyed during that period are a case study of just how handsome the rewards are for those willing and able to serve as attack dogs for the dominant powers of their place and time. Hitchens’ main service to the American elite was to employ a combination of innuendo and character assassination to cast aspersion on virtually every high-profile figure critical of American foreign policy after 9/11—a roster that includes Julian Assange, Noam Chomsky, George Galloway, Michael Moore, Harold Pinter, Edward Said, Cindy Sheehan, Oliver Stone and Gore Vidal.

posted to MetaFilter by the man of twists and turns at 3:11 AM on January 21, 2013 (139 comments)

Partner and I saw a segment on one of CTV, Global or CBC (national? maybe... we're in Calgary) in which an American professor of... kinesiology, or something like it, demonstrated what he said was the perfect core exercise. Desperately trying to track it down.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ethnomethodologist at 9:28 PM on January 20, 2013 (4 comments)

"A nanoscale coating that's at least 95 percent air repels the broadest range of liquids of any material in its class, causing them to bounce off the treated surface...". Video of the coating in action.
posted to MetaFilter by Evernix at 10:27 AM on January 20, 2013 (47 comments)

People not answering questions but instead trying to act as pseudo-psychologists as in this post. Can we not do this, please?
posted to MetaTalk by DisreputableDog at 11:02 PM on January 19, 2013 (84 comments)

Were you in a single-income doctor's family in the US during the 1990s? Help me reconstruct what lifestyle and education my siblings and I might have enjoyed if my mother hadn't been a pathologically miserly narcissist. Many, many details inside.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by stuck on an island at 8:03 AM on January 19, 2013 (84 comments)

Take a copy of Monopoly, cover it in lye for a few days, boil from off the bones whatever flesh remains, and give the clean white skeleton a tasteful, minimalist paintjob, and you end up with ONOPO, an extreme reduction of the original boardgame by Metafilter's own Matthew Hollett, aka oulipian. Via mefi projects, hat tip to fastcodesign c/o Rock Paper Shotgun's always-lovely Sunday Papers feature.
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 10:40 AM on January 20, 2013 (55 comments)

Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion [EN] ist eine deutsche Science-Fiction-Fernsehserie, die am 17. September 1966 von der ARD ausgestrahlt wurde, zwei Wochen nach der erste Sendung von Star Trek. Alle sechs Episoden der originalen Serie sind jetzt im Youtube verfügbar:

-Episode 1: Angriff aus dem All
-Episode 2: Planet außer Kurs
-Episode 3: Hüter des Gesetzes
-Episode 4: Deserteure
-Episode 5: Der Kampf um die Sonne
-Episode 6: Die Raumfalle
-Episode 7: Invasion

Aber warte! Es gibt jetzt eine neue Staffel, die einige Jahre nach den Geschehnissen der originalen Serie spielt:

-Episode 1: Angriff auf AE3000
-Episode 2: Die Erde in Gefahr
-Episode 3: In der Höhle des Löwens
posted to MetaFilter by dunkadunc at 9:19 PM on January 19, 2013 (32 comments)

Today it is an economic and even geopolitical necessity for oil companies, in order to maintain pipelines and offshore rigs, to send divers routinely to depths of a thousand feet, and keep them at that level of compression for as long as a month at a time. The divers who do this work are almost entirely male, and tend to be between the ages of twenty-five and forty. Were they any younger, they would not have enough experience or seniority to perform such demanding tasks. Any older, and their bodies could not be trusted to withstand the trauma. The term for these extended-length descents is “saturation diving,” which refers to the fact that the diver’s tissues have absorbed the maximum amount of inert gas possible.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 1:54 PM on January 19, 2013 (19 comments)

Complex scientific concepts explained using only the thousand most used words in the English language. In the spirit of xkcd's Up-Goer Five comic. (Previously.) Use the Up-Goer Five Text Editor to make your own contributions.
posted to MetaFilter by Cash4Lead at 11:54 AM on January 18, 2013 (107 comments)

Jihad in the Sahara. It is no suprrise that Mali is the latest Muslim country to experience western Intervention. This has resulted in escalation. The north of Mali is as alien to the average soldier from southern Mali as the Alaskan tundra is to a citizen of Massachusetts or Manchester. This is the land where the local Tuareg or Arab in his souped-up turbo 4x4 is king. A map of the various conflicts. In October a der Spiegel journalist spent 2 weeks in the north of the country and in November CS Monitor asked Will Mali be Africa's Afghanistan?
posted to MetaFilter by adamvasco at 9:15 AM on January 18, 2013 (75 comments)

DJ /rupture has made "8+ hours of mixes" available for free download (with a donate button).
posted to MetaFilter by neuromodulator at 7:53 PM on January 17, 2013 (16 comments)

According to Yelp reviews, a Chicago-area Taco Bell is one of the best dining experience in the city people on r/Chicago over at reddit call it "magical.
posted to MetaFilter by The Whelk at 4:59 PM on January 17, 2013 (168 comments)

A young Eddie Izzard contemplates Daleks. (slyt) A famous Scottish cow makes a cameo. Surprisingly funny youtube comments ensue. Related: This Dr. Who themed cookbook is available (as of this posting) as a free download on Kindle. Contains equal parts amusing episode commentary and gross food imagery.
posted to MetaFilter by tllaya at 10:36 PM on January 16, 2013 (26 comments)

I'm asking this question because I can't really verbalize it as well as I'd like to since I'm trying to look at it from all perspectives. I've been under the management or oversight for a couple of total assholes this past year and a half. The first was the director of the graduate program I am on leave from, and the second is my current boss, a cafe owner.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 6:34 PM on January 16, 2013 (30 comments)

I'm calling out MartinWisse
posted to MetaTalk by Blasdelb at 2:35 PM on January 15, 2013 (60 comments)

Texts from superheroes. (SLTMBLR, does what it says on the tin.)
posted to MetaFilter by MartinWisse at 2:06 PM on January 15, 2013 (31 comments)

Facebook today announced their Graph Search during a live event at their headquarters. Some say it is Facebook's attempt at taking down Google and taking over web search (they did partner with Bing), but more astute observers see LinkedIn, Yelp, and OKCupid in their crosshairs too based on the live event demos.
posted to MetaFilter by mathowie at 12:45 PM on January 15, 2013 (79 comments)

The Dude and the Zen Master is a new book by actor Jeff Bridges and Zen teacher and activist Bernie Glassman, in which the two men spend several days on a Montana ranch discussing the connections between the Dude in "The Big Lebowski" and common Buddhist teachings.
posted to MetaFilter by flyingsquirrel at 12:39 PM on January 15, 2013 (31 comments)

After reading the recent AP / Slashdot story on startups and Kansas City's new fiber internet infrastructure and startup promotions, I am thinking of moving to where I can get high speed internet. One commenter suggested Chattanooga. Any other suggestions?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by bukvich at 11:55 AM on January 15, 2013 (13 comments)

Cast Iron Pipe Legs? Check. Thick board top? Check. Basic plans for building this "industrial" table at home? Check.
posted to MetaFilter by OmieWise at 8:02 AM on January 15, 2013 (65 comments)

Here's the second most adorable version of Sweet Child O' Mine ever played. Here's the first (previously). Not Cute enough? Here's little Jonah rocking along with some System of a Down. Kids rock.
posted to MetaFilter by billyfleetwood at 8:52 PM on January 14, 2013 (19 comments)

From the creator of A horse takes it to the limit: An elephant and a giraffe, ridin' with their top down.
posted to MetaFilter by A dead Quaker at 7:21 PM on January 14, 2013 (29 comments)

Cottage cheese is my favorite. How can I eat it cheaply? Healthfully? And best?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Charity Garfein at 7:04 PM on January 14, 2013 (47 comments)

"I'm scratching, and I like to hide." SLYT. NSF arachnophobes.
posted to MetaFilter by kinnakeet at 2:39 PM on January 14, 2013 (43 comments)

Gary Busey explains the social and biological operations of Hobbits. (SLYT)
posted to MetaFilter by FatherDagon at 11:42 AM on January 14, 2013 (28 comments)

Last summer I finally finished Infinite Jest, and looking back on it changed my life in a good way. Recently, I bought a George Saunders collection after reading this glowing NYT profile of his work and it is starting to do the same thing in many ways. Can you suggest other authors in a similar vein whose fiction speaks to the reality of contemporary experience in a way that is both profound and suffused with kindness? I was recommended Richard Powers, and enjoyed the book of his that I read, but didn't make the same emotional connection that I did with Saunders & Wallace.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 8:03 AM on January 14, 2013 (20 comments)

I run the greasemonkey script that shows deleted posts on the front page, mainly for curiosity's sake. I've noticed this (screenshot) happening, when a post is deleted. Basically, the greasmonkey script shows the post that was deleted, with the title of the undeleted post immediately before the deleted post appearing as the deleted post's title. (Sorry if that's confusing; hopefully the screenshot explains this better.) I don't know if this is an issue with the greasemonkey script or with metafilter.
posted to MetaTalk by dfriedman at 8:30 PM on January 13, 2013 (2 comments)

What It's Like to Be a Woman Who Plays Professional Poker is an Atlantic piece profiling Vanessa Selbst, an amazing poker player who just got engaged last weekend, as well as an examination of the challenges of being a professional poker player in an often hostile and sexist community.
posted to MetaFilter by Lame_username at 12:17 PM on January 11, 2013 (21 comments)

Professor Martyn Poliakoff of Periodic Table Videos fame learns something about burning balloons full of hydrogen via high speed camera footage.
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 4:37 AM on January 11, 2013 (34 comments)

Sheed and Stack in the Big Apple is a new piece by Grantland's Jonathan Abrams about the NBA veterans Rasheed Wallace and Jerry Stackhouse
posted to MetaFilter by Cloud King at 1:28 PM on January 10, 2013 (5 comments)

The Depressive and the Psychopath, an article about mental state of the killers responsible for the Columbine high school massacre of 1999.
posted to MetaFilter by Brandon Blatcher at 12:44 PM on January 10, 2013 (75 comments)

Amazon just announced AutoRip, a service to provide MP3 versions of any song you buy on CD from their store. That's all well and good, but the kicker is that "Amazon is retroactively giving free MP3s to any customer who has purchased an AutoRip compatible CD since its Music Store first opened in 1998". Looks like I'll be knee deep in Blink 182, Cake, and The Spin Doctors again.
posted to MetaFilter by mathowie at 8:14 AM on January 10, 2013 (137 comments)

"La Machine à Ecrire le Temps" from Swiss watchmaker Jaquet Droz took nearly a decade to develop, with more than 1,200 intricately connected components; including 84 ball bearings, 50 cams and 9 belts. It costs nearly $350,000. What does it do? It writes out the time for you.
posted to MetaFilter by quin at 9:09 AM on January 10, 2013 (34 comments)

Can you think of any movies or tv shows that feature bearded zombies? Unless facial hair confers some sort of protective powers against post-death reanimation, it seems that there should be plenty of examples, but scanning Walking Dead images, I can't find any. (There are lots of Halloween costumes of bearded guys in zombie makeup, but I'm specifically looking for zombies from film and television.)
posted to Ask MetaFilter by roger ackroyd at 6:17 PM on January 9, 2013 (12 comments)

In case you missed it the first time around, on January 1 Phyl Gyford launched another cycle of daily posts by Samuel Pepys, the British diarist who started his journal on Jan. 1, 1660. The previous cycle started Jan. 1, 2003 and finished May 31, 2012. Previously.
posted to MetaFilter by beagle at 5:56 PM on January 9, 2013 (16 comments)

Listen, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take missed calls anymore. (SLYT)
posted to MetaFilter by cmoj at 3:24 PM on January 9, 2013 (48 comments)

"It looked like any neighborhood tavern in Chicago. The beer was cold, the bratwursts hot."

"The Mirage Tavern was a drinking establishment at 731 N. Wells St. in Chicago purchased by the Chicago Sun-Times in 1977 to investigate widespread allegations of official corruption and shakedowns visited on small businesses by city officials. The journalists used hidden cameras to help ensure that city inspectors caught accepting payoffs for ignoring safety hazards were all properly documented."

Thirty-five years ago this week, the Sun-Times began a 25-part series, which documented its work with government watchdog organization Better Government Association and venerated TV news program 60 Minutes* to capture the shakedowns, shoddy inspections, and graft galore. And now Sun-Times digital editor Marcus Gilmer is reposting every story on the day it ran in 1977 here along with additional reporting and details.
posted to MetaFilter by MCMikeNamara at 3:14 PM on January 9, 2013 (12 comments)

Amateur archaeologist and "forensic hairdresser" Janet Stephens has discovered how to recreate the Seni Crines, the elaborately braided hairstyle worn by the vestal virgins. Don't miss Stephens' other classical hairstyle videos.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko at 2:28 PM on January 9, 2013 (35 comments)

Animals Adopting Other Animals (SLYPlaylist)
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 2:20 PM on January 9, 2013 (8 comments)

Run away from Michel Foucault. Cameron Kunzelman is a games journalist and creator. He has made a little web game where you try to evade the French historian. His blog. His twitter. More Kunzelman Previously.
posted to MetaFilter by PinkMoose at 9:20 PM on January 8, 2013 (15 comments)

I am upset at a (once) close friend, how do I work out the anger on my own and get past it?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 9:22 AM on January 6, 2013 (16 comments)

Please recommend a protein powder for me: the kaleidoscopic variety available is leaving me with a deer-in-the-headlights immobility when I try to choose!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by UniversityNomad at 10:03 AM on January 6, 2013 (18 comments)

The poet Jayne Cortez passed away this past December 28th in New York City (New York Times obituary). She started publishing her poems in the late 1960s and in the 70s began performing her poetry backed by music, first in collaboration with bassist Richard Davis, and then backed by her own band The Firespitters. Some of their tracks have found their way to YouTube: I See Chano Pozo, If the Drum Is a Woman, There It Is, Maintain Control & Economic Love Song I, Everybody Wants to Be Somebody, Takin' the Blues Back Home, Talk to Me (for Don Cherry), I've Been Searching, You Can Be and Endangered Species List Blues. Just two years ago she performed solo with her son by Ornette Coleman, drummer Denardo Coleman: Find Your Own Voice, I'm Gonna Shake and She Got He Got. In 1997 she was featured on University of California television network in the series Artists on the Cutting Edge where she read poems and discussed her work. Finally, here's a brief clip from the 1982 documentary Poetry in Motion, where she was interviewed.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 10:08 AM on January 5, 2013 (4 comments)

My taste in novels has generally tended towards the classics but lately I feel like reading some good contemporary fiction. Please recommend some recent-ish books that are well-written and well-crafted, have emotional depth and deal with human relationships in insightful and moving ways. Kazuo Ishiguro is an example of the kind of writer I'm looking for.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by zeri at 10:07 PM on January 4, 2013 (24 comments)

I need to have access to all 16,679 of @Horse_ebooks' tweets. Twitter and most other archives will only give me 3,200. As you can imagine this is a dire need.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by six-or-six-thirty at 3:06 PM on January 4, 2013 (13 comments)

Jake Fried creates animation. In this particular case he utilizes only coffee, whiteout, and ink, layering the drawing in successive images to create a retro/psychedelic trip. I give you "The Deep End"

More here.

(I would suggest that the use of carefully chosen recreational drugs might be appropriate just prior to viewing, but that would be irresponsible of me.)
posted to MetaFilter by HuronBob at 4:39 AM on January 4, 2013 (20 comments)

Anthony Braxton offers bootlegs of his shows at his Tricentric Foundation website. We offer many bootlegs for free. 13 bootleg albums are added at a time and the newest batch is always available to the public.
He also offers a subscription plan for his record label, and a huge trove of his writings, among other things. (via this appreciation at The Awl)
posted to MetaFilter by OmieWise at 9:01 AM on January 3, 2013 (11 comments)