What's with my weird compulsion?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Alabaster at 7:08 PM on July 22, 2008 (108 comments)

Anyone CAN Cook [NY Times link] 101 incredibly simple 10-minute recipes from Mark Bittman.
posted to MetaFilter by dersins at 9:09 AM on July 18, 2007 (70 comments)

Find a short wave radio and before long you should be able to tune into The Lincolnshire Poacher - the station plays an introduction comprising part of the eponymous folk tune followed by a robotic female voice reading strings of numbers: listen! So called Numbers Stations have been a mysterious constant of short wave radio for several decades. The Conet Project [previously 1, 2, 3] has made a collection of the recordings available allowing you to listen to "Ready! Ready! 15728", "The Buzzer" (especially mysterious), "Gong Station Chimes", "Magnetic Fields" and many others....
posted to MetaFilter by rongorongo at 6:31 AM on June 30, 2008 (71 comments)

I am planning a trip to Chicago this weekend, and my goal is to learn the L by picking fun stops across the city (my husband and I are ex-New Yorkers who love mass transit.) What are some suggestions for fun places to shop/eat/sight-see that are close to L stops? Our starting point is Diversey and N Clark, but we hope to cover a lot of territory. Please include descriptions about your recommendations and (of course) the nearest L station name.
posted to Ask Metafilter by elgalan207 at 7:08 PM on June 18, 2008 (26 comments)

The Andy Rooney Game. Here’s how you play: take out everything but the first sentence and the last sentence from Andy Rooney’s latest segment on 60 Minutes. Then you put that on youtube. That’s it! Check it out:
posted to MetaFilter by hellbient at 9:27 PM on June 2, 2008 (64 comments)

We've discussed fixed gear bicycles before.
posted to MetaFilter by wfrgms at 1:56 PM on May 25, 2008 (99 comments)

What's the best thing (post, comment, question, answer, song, whatever) you've posted to Metafilter?
posted to MetaTalk by dersins at 1:16 AM on May 23, 2008 (160 comments)

from ACT I SCENE 4

J: Your pardon; did I break thy concentration?
Continue! Ah, but now thy tongue is still.
Allow me then to offer a response.
Describe Marsellus Wallace to me, pray.
posted to MetaFilter by 2or3whiskeysodas at 6:48 AM on April 20, 2008 (170 comments)

An Engineers Guide to Cats (youTube)
posted to MetaFilter by Lanark at 2:12 AM on April 13, 2008 (50 comments)

What makes a great photograph?
posted to Ask Metafilter by sixcolors at 3:14 PM on April 7, 2008 (19 comments)

Hey, kids, I've moved to Chicago. This seems to be a perfect excuse for a meetup.
posted to MetaTalk by eriko at 8:12 PM on March 30, 2008 (59 comments)

I'm fairly new to the Chicago area; now that my medical coverage has kicked in, I'm looking for a good general practitioner / primary care physician. I live in Oak Park, but that's not really a restriction; I'm certainly willing to travel a bit for an excellent doctor. So, Chicagoland submodule of HealthFilter: your suggestions?
posted to Ask Metafilter by korpios at 1:12 PM on March 25, 2008 (10 comments)

60 Brilliant Typefaces (for corporate design) plus 40 free ones. From Smashing Magazine (prev), which last year presented 80 Beautiful Typefaces for Professional Design
posted to MetaFilter by criticalbill at 3:05 PM on March 20, 2008 (34 comments)

What are some good books about Chicago?
posted to Ask Metafilter by nitsuj at 1:00 PM on March 20, 2008 (24 comments)

One of the most amazing user-led projects out there, CHDK firmware turns cheap Canon cameras into photography powerhouses. You can take take time-lapse movies as in this stunning sunset example; automatically photograph lightening; easily make pretty HDR images and stereograms; have unlimited depth-of-field; and, perhaps most impressively, take photographs with shutter speeds of 1/60,000 of a second!
posted to MetaFilter by blahblahblah at 8:18 AM on March 13, 2008 (69 comments)

Bacon lollipops. That is all.
posted to MetaFilter by Dormant Gorilla at 10:51 AM on March 13, 2008 (85 comments)

Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics... again! For the 12th straight year, this legendary group of music nerds from Hoboken, NJ encamps to the studios of local free form radio station WFMU to play, on the spot, three full hours of listener-requested covers. The request show, part of the station's annual pledge drive, happens tonight (Sunday, March 2) from 5-8 pm EST, and thanks to the wonder that is the internet you can listen (128k MP3 stream) and pledge live from anywhere in the world (or catch the real broadcast in FM at 91.1 in NYC / New Jersey and 90.1 in the Hudson Valley, Catskills, Western NJ and Eastern Penn).
posted to MetaFilter by kowalski at 6:36 AM on March 2, 2008 (46 comments)

Well, I have been onsite five or ten minutes and already flagged two posts...can I say I am sick and tired of seeing gratuitous and profane rants against God and Christianity in general-especially since I know for a fact that kind of speech is not tolerated for other groups here?
posted to MetaTalk by konolia at 12:30 PM on February 17, 2008 (657 comments)

Lego Eddie Izzard (full set here).
posted to MetaFilter by jonson at 2:31 PM on February 8, 2008 (27 comments)

Chicago Meetup this February?
posted to MetaTalk by Iridic at 10:42 AM on January 31, 2008 (64 comments)

Six Apart Announces New Home for LiveJournal: Russia
posted to MetaFilter by finite at 12:20 AM on December 3, 2007 (84 comments)

[first time holiday dinner filter] It's my first holiday FEAST. And I must impress FUTURE INLAWS. Give me your tried-and-true "omfg where on EARTH did you get this recipe" holiday recipes - traditional is okay, but I'd prefer the off-kilter.
posted to Ask Metafilter by damnjezebel at 12:29 AM on November 25, 2007 (34 comments)

"If the emergence of techno and the proliferation of its related genres thrust DJs and producers into the spotlight, it also spawned artists who, like Kraftwerk before them, chose to remain anonymous and distant. The Scottish duo Boards of Canada (Marcus Eoin and Michael Sandison) is a case in point, an even more enigmatic presence on the UK's electronic music landscape than Aphex Twin and Autechre. Eoin and Sandison have consistently minimized their role in the commercial side of music-making and have avoided its attendant lifestyle: They've shunned city life for the rural seclusion of their Hexagon Sun studio and its local collective of artists. They claim to record primarily for themselves and their friends. They have reportedly amassed an enormous archive of unreleased music dating back to the early '80s (numerous apocryphal BoC tracks make the rounds). They seldom give interviews or perform live."
posted to MetaFilter by bigmusic at 9:11 AM on November 26, 2007 (70 comments)

Ellen Von Unwerth's Revenge, roughly 60 (out of 190) images from a louche, erotic book (Salon review), recalling the Golden Age of Hollywood and Betty Page.

Other works from the insanely comprehensive site include: Omahyra and Boyd, a glammy, androgynous romp through lite-fetish; and "Erin Fetherworth," a video starring Kristen Dunst.

Be aware that most of her work involves glossy nude photography.
posted to MetaFilter by klangklangston at 4:58 PM on November 29, 2007 (32 comments)

150 Python (Monty) sketches collected. via Open Culture. Also previously.
posted to MetaFilter by Webbster at 11:10 PM on November 15, 2007 (32 comments)

See For Yourself - Purves Lab's optical illusions web page with empirical explanations of familiar and unfamiliar illusions.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 3:32 AM on November 16, 2007 (6 comments)

Portal's "Still Alive." The man who wrote it. The woman who sang it. The official skinny, with lyrics and chords. A music video parody. On piano, guitar, and Garry's Mod. Its place in video game history. And finally, one or two ways to get it. (Spoilers all.)
posted to MetaFilter by Soup at 12:09 PM on November 6, 2007 (121 comments)

Man, this guy really likes pencils.
posted to MetaFilter by dersins at 8:59 AM on October 29, 2007 (26 comments)

What are the best minimal (2-6) ingredient recipes you have?
posted to Ask Metafilter by flibbertigibbet at 7:56 PM on October 27, 2007 (65 comments)

In Philip Roth's latest novel, Exit Ghost, his literary alter-ego, Nathan Zuckerman, exclaims after hearing Richard Strauss's "Four Last Songs" that "the composer drops all masks and, at the age of 82, stands before you naked. And you dissolve." Renee Fleming performs Im Abendrot, September, Beim Schlafengehen, Fruhling. Head Butler provides some interesting background on Strauss and the different performances.
posted to MetaFilter by vronsky at 4:34 PM on October 27, 2007 (7 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)

Has anyone else noticed those boring finance/economy fpps...
posted to MetaTalk by klarck at 9:13 PM on October 16, 2007 (43 comments)

Margaret Talbot's wonderful profile of David Simon, the creator of "The Wire." Simon said, he and his colleagues had “ripped off the Greeks: Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides. Not funny boy—not Aristophanes. We’ve basically taken the idea of Greek tragedy and applied it to the modern city-state.” He went on, “What we were trying to do was take the notion of Greek tragedy, of fated and doomed people, and instead of these Olympian gods, indifferent, venal, selfish, hurling lightning bolts and hitting people in the ass for no reason—instead of those guys whipping it on Oedipus or Achilles, it’s the postmodern institutions . . . those are the indifferent gods.”
posted to MetaFilter by geoff. at 10:50 AM on October 15, 2007 (37 comments)

50mm, the Forgotten Lens Why You Should Ditch That Zoom for a Classic 50mm "Normal" Lens.
posted to MetaFilter by ColdChef at 5:45 PM on October 2, 2007 (116 comments)

Time for another Chicago meetup?
posted to MetaTalk by BuddhaBelly at 12:26 PM on September 17, 2007 (61 comments)

Is there a reason that we're allowing the blink tag?
posted to MetaTalk by Afroblanco at 9:18 PM on September 13, 2007 (290 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)

"Here is what makes the rise of supply-side ideology even more baffling. One might expect that a radical ideology that successfully passed itself off as a sophisticated new doctrine would at least have the benefit of smooth, reassuring, intellectual front men, men whose very bearing could attest to the new doctrine's eminent good sense and mainstream bona fides. Yet, if you look at its two most eminent authors, good sense is not the impression you get. Let me put this delicately. No, on second thought, let me put it straightforwardly: They are deranged." Feast of the Wingnuts - How economic crackpots devoured American politics, by Jonathan Chait. Counterlink: Arthur B. Laffer explains his curve.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 9:31 PM on September 5, 2007 (43 comments)

The most delicious pie recipe in the world. Naturally, there's
posted to Ask Metafilter by TwelveTwo at 2:45 PM on November 5, 2006 (44 comments)

[ChicagoFilter] I moved to Chicago recently, and I'm having difficulty making friends and meeting people who are around my age (early 20s) who share similar interests -- and I am looking for suggestions on how to branch out. (mi)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Anonymous at 6:37 PM on August 7, 2007 (33 comments)

Top 10 rescue videos from the US Coastguard, which celebrated its birthday by announcing it has saved 1,109,310 lives in its 217-year existence.
posted to MetaFilter by dersins at 9:00 AM on August 5, 2007 (7 comments)

Pretend it's 1980. Let's also imagine that you are in Rome, and for whatever reason you have decided to go see this musical group called The Talking Heads.
At the concert, these are the songs that the band plays: Psycho Killer; Stay Hungry; Cities; I Zimbra; Drugs; Take Me to the River; Crosseyed and Painless; Life During Wartime; Houses in Motion; Born under Punches; and The Great Curve.
posted to MetaFilter by Meatbomb at 1:12 PM on July 21, 2007 (154 comments)

Chicago--Friday night, July 27th. Original thread is closed, but if you're up for a meet-up at the Rock Bottom Brewery (due west of Navy Pier), I'll be there around 8 p.m. for some food, drinks, and a camera for pics.
posted to MetaTalk by misha at 2:34 PM on July 16, 2007 (24 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)

A Brief History of Errol Morris. His landmark televison interview/documentary series called "First Person" (ex. Rick Rosner : One in a Million Trillion [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], an interview with a man who went back to high school three times just to try to get it right; Denny Fitch : Leaving the Earth [2, 3, 4, 5, 6], where a pilot tells a harrowing tale of his passenger plane crash; and Andrew Cappocia : Mr. Debt [2 , 3], an interview with a passionate man about credit card reform.) ... see also: Fog of War [excerpt], an award winning full-length feature about Robert McNamara, US Director of Defense during the Viet Nam War; as well as some very compelling commercials [2,3, 4, 5] that you may remember, and an interview with the man himself. (Previously)
posted to MetaFilter by Dave Faris at 4:00 AM on July 2, 2007 (30 comments)

"I HATE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THIS DAMN WORLDDDDDDDDDD"... A dramatic reading of a break-up letter. (Audio may be NSFW, but the text is entertaining even without the audio) Via.
posted to MetaFilter by amyms at 7:48 AM on July 1, 2007 (84 comments)

Learn the 5 basic survival skills Planning that hike through the Northwest Territories this summer? You will need survival skills. Learning survival skills is an ongoing process that will last for your entire life. There is always more to learn and experience, which is part of the fun of being a survivor. And as your expertise grows the knowledge and abilities you gain is often useful in other areas. For example survivors prepare ahead of time, and they are experts in the art of ingenuity and inventiveness. Need more? Well try the survival blog for helpful answers to such questions as "How Long can I survive without food or water?" or "How can I maintain water discipline?"
posted to MetaFilter by psmealey at 4:25 AM on June 29, 2007 (47 comments)

63 years ago today, 20-year old German lance-corporal Hein Severloh was armed with a rifle, a machine gun and 16,000 rounds of ammo when American forces landed in the early morning hours off Omaha Beach on D-Day. During the next nine-hour "Longest Day", Severloh gunned down up to 3,000 Americans before running out of ammo, making him personally responsible for about three-quarters of all casualties at Omaha Beach, comparable in scale to 9/11 or the Iraq War. Nicknamed The Beast of Omaha, today he says "I never wanted to be in the war. I never wanted to be in France. I never wanted to be in that bunker firing a machine gun. Thinking about it makes me want to throw up."
posted to MetaFilter by stbalbach at 6:54 PM on June 6, 2007 (128 comments)

This lip sych of Flagpole Sitta is all kinds of awesome. An old favorite made new again by the office staff of Collegehumor et al in one take. It's a little slow to start, but it hits pure joy by the end.
posted to MetaFilter by mathowie at 9:57 AM on April 27, 2007 (105 comments)

Woodstock^ (YouTuner)
Day ☼ { Richie Havens ♪ Country Joe McDonald ♪ John Sebastian ♪ Sweetwater ♭ Incredible String Band ♪ Bert Sommer ♭ Tim Hardin ♪ Ravi Shankar ♭ Melanie ♪ Arlo Guthrie ♪ Joan Baez ♪ }
Day ☼☼ { Quill ♪ Keef Hartley Band ♭ Santana ♪ Canned Heat ♪ Mountain ♪ Janis Joplin ♪ ♫ Sly & the Family Stone ♪ Grateful Dead ♪ Creedence Clearwater Revival ♪ The Who ♪ ☻ ♫ Jefferson Airplane ♪ ♫ }
Day ☼☼☼ { Joe Cocker ♪ Country Joe & the Fish ♪ Ten Years After ♪ The Band ♪ Blood Sweat & Tears ♪ Johnny Winter ♪ Crosby, Stills & Nash ♪ ♬ ♫ Paul Butterfield Blues Band ♪ Sha-Na-Na ♪ Jimi Hendrix ♪ ★ ♫ }

posted to MetaFilter by pruner at 6:20 AM on May 15, 2007 (50 comments)