Ugly [single link photobucket post]
posted to MetaFilter by orthogonality at 9:31 AM on June 22, 2008 (146 comments)

While western banking institutions continue to reel from the credit crunch, Islamic banking, with assets approaching one trillion dollars, is growing at roughly 20% pa by offering Sharia compliant - and only Sharia compliant - financial products. But compliance to Sharia law in matters financial is not easy (previously).
posted to MetaFilter by Mutant at 8:40 AM on June 6, 2008 (44 comments)

This fun Japanese contact juggler's clip is proving popular lately, but he is not the first Japanese practitioner of the art to surface online. Here are several more highly entertaining Japanese contact juggler clips worth watching: one, two (starts about 1:06), three, four, five. (all via the highly entertaining Ministry of Manipulation's blog).
posted to MetaFilter by madamjujujive at 8:13 PM on June 5, 2008 (27 comments)

A teeny-tiny bloggie about itty bitty kitties. A foster parent of (usually) motherless kittens at the Tacoma Humane Society, Laurie Cinotto's blog IBKC has developed a following among ailurophiles through occasional shout-outs from Cute Overload.
posted to MetaFilter by lleachie at 12:46 PM on June 4, 2008 (31 comments)

Motorcycling to Dallas — meetup anyone?
posted to MetaTalk by Brittanie at 6:52 PM on April 15, 2008 (9 comments)

Any mefites living in Mumbai, India?
posted to MetaTalk by cyanide at 8:07 AM on April 15, 2008 (12 comments)

Hey, I'm listening to Jessamyn talking about MetaFilter and revolting users on FutureTense.
posted to MetaTalk by Miko at 6:39 PM on April 14, 2008 (63 comments)

I just found out that I have an phone interview for a faculty (assistant professor) position (biology) at a liberal-arts college this Wednesday afternoon. Yay! But I've never actually had a formal interview before. Help! Also, I'm pregnant. Questions and advice requests inside.
posted to Ask Metafilter by gaspode at 9:48 AM on April 14, 2008 (23 comments)

A Saudi national has made a short film intended to illustrate how all religions can be depicted as preaching violence. The Daily Telegraph reports that "Schism" is Raed al-Saeed's answer to Geert Wilder's "Fitna".
posted to MetaFilter by Flackjack47 at 7:04 AM on April 14, 2008 (102 comments)

I posted this thread on coming out of the closet several months ago and I've updated it a couple of times since. I left a final update at the end of the thread for those who might be interested.
posted to MetaTalk by GardnerDB at 9:50 PM on April 13, 2008 (59 comments)

A West Wing Writer Imagines a Deadlocked Democratic Convention
posted to MetaFilter by shivohum at 7:46 AM on April 13, 2008 (59 comments)

The Government Is Trying to Wrap Its Mind Around Yours. Why the Next Civil Rights Battle Will Be Over the Mind.
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 10:15 AM on April 13, 2008 (54 comments)

"What Have We Learned, If Anything?" Historian Tony Judt in the NYRB wonders if we have forgotten the lessons of the 20th century.
posted to MetaFilter by stbalbach at 12:25 PM on April 13, 2008 (82 comments)

In his effort to shed light on medical marijuana use, comedian Doug Benson documents not smoking pot for 30 days and then smoking pot for 30 days in a row in Super High Me.
posted to MetaFilter by gman at 12:50 PM on April 13, 2008 (91 comments)

Aryan Outfitters - a photo and audio essay from Mother Jones magazine about a day in the life of a 58-year old seamstress who caters to the Ku Klux Klan.
posted to MetaFilter by ooga_booga at 1:16 PM on April 13, 2008 (105 comments)

The War Relocation Authority Photographs of Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement, 1942-1945 collection is a searchable online archive which "contains approximately 7000 photographs and 317 Kodachrome slides which have been arranged into 18 series" (quoted from the Scope and Content page). Links to photo series are under the Container Listing header. Alternatively, you can just browse through them all.
posted to MetaFilter by cog_nate at 3:19 PM on April 13, 2008 (9 comments)

Young@Heart. What started as a 2006 British television documentary and became an audience favorite at the Los Angeles and Sundance film festivals in 2007 and 2008 opens across the United States this weekand will soon open in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Japan and Australia. The opening sequence showing Eileen Hall , then 92 , singing the 1982 hit from punk-rock group The Clash provided the inspiration for director Stephen Walker when he first saw the group on stage in London in 2005. Besides giving new meaning to lyrics from popular hits, the film is comedic and poignant as it explores friendship, old age and death.
posted to MetaFilter by mrducts at 3:21 PM on April 13, 2008 (24 comments)

Shepard Fairey's cover art for Penguin releases of 1984 & Animal Farm.
posted to MetaFilter by jonson at 6:09 PM on April 13, 2008 (29 comments)

Then and Now presents works from 8 South African documentary photographers - each contributes 10 photos taken during apartheid and 10 made since the democratic elections of 1994. (On display at Duke University through July 27.)
posted to MetaFilter by madamjujujive at 6:24 PM on April 13, 2008 (12 comments)

Dear God is a global project for people around the world to share their innermost hopes - and fears - through prayer. Some photos NSFW.
posted to MetaFilter by ColdChef at 9:25 PM on April 13, 2008 (39 comments)

I'm planning a trip up to DC over Memorial Day weekend. Anyone wanna meet up? My days of travel are somewhat flexible, but basically somewhere between Thursday the 22 and Tuesday the 27.
posted to MetaTalk by Stewriffic at 8:13 AM on April 12, 2008 (41 comments)

Russell Higgs has been adorning his face and head with various objects and posting photographic portraits online since July 2006. Dutch artist Levi van Veluw also likes to modify his face by putting things on it and photographing the results.
posted to MetaFilter by madamjujujive at 10:42 AM on April 12, 2008 (11 comments)

I would really really love to exchange souvenirs from all over the world.
posted to Ask Metafilter by leigh1 at 3:04 PM on April 12, 2008 (11 comments)

what has worked for you if you consider yourself overall an anxious person? i rarely suffer from any severe anxiety symptoms, panic symptoms or find that my anxiety is getting in the way of carrying out my daily activities, but rather it feels as if my general mood is of of rather high anxiety about a great many things and about nothing in particular, and has been so for years now.I come from a long line of worriers. i cant remember the last time i really relaxed in any kind of deep way. almost to the point where i cant even really remember how that felt, the world seems so colored with stress. I perhaps shouldn't even be using the term anxiety. by and large i do not meet any of the clinical criteria for this as a clinical definition maybe it really is the world we are in right now. i eat well, get plenty of rest and exercise, meditate. I take no medications. Drink a beer or glass of wine now and then. What has worked for you if you were once feeling like this?
posted to Ask Metafilter by dougiedd at 6:34 PM on April 12, 2008 (24 comments)

Is there a term for a situation where, despite the fact that it would be within one's legal rights to refuse, simple compliance would save more hassle than arguing the point?
posted to Ask Metafilter by vanoakenfold at 7:25 PM on April 12, 2008 (35 comments)

Give Us Today Our Daily Terror is an exact copy of Hitchcock’s 1963 film The Birds from which all the birds have been removed. Video: 1-2-3 Stills
posted to MetaFilter by vronsky at 4:58 PM on April 12, 2008 (47 comments)

Ever wondered what the number one song was on your birthday? Anniversary? the day John Lennon was shot?, the attack on Pearl Harbor? (last two links can open iTunes directly).

Well, wonder no more. (via reddit)
posted to MetaFilter by purephase at 7:29 PM on April 12, 2008 (80 comments)

Prior to 1990, over a hundred illegal immigrants died attempting to cross the I-5 in Southern California. The answer? Put up a sign, of course. The sign has been seen as racist, and sometimes as a joke. The L.A. Times profiles the man who designed the sign, a Vietnam veteran who grew up on a Navajo reservation. The sign in question has become iconic in the debate on immigration policies, and a copy of it now sits in the Smithsonian. Via Strongly Worded Letter.
posted to MetaFilter by jabberjaw at 8:33 PM on April 12, 2008 (51 comments)

"Ten Thousand Cents" is a digital artwork that creates a representation of a $100 bill. Using a custom drawing tool, thousands of individuals working in isolation from one another painted a tiny part of the bill without knowledge of the overall task.
posted to MetaFilter by sveskemus at 6:24 AM on April 12, 2008 (35 comments)

"Curse Tablets are small sheets of lead, inscribed with messages from individuals seeking to make gods and spirits act on their behalf and influence the behaviour of others against their will. The motives are usually malign and their expression violent, for example to wreck an opponent’s chariot in the circus, to compel a person to submit to sex or to take revenge on a thief. Letters and lines written back to front, magical ‘gibberish’ and arcane words and symbols often lend the texts additional power to persuade. In places where supernatural agents could be contacted, thrown into sacred pools at temples, interred with the dead or hidden by the turning post at the circus, these tablets have survived to be found by archaeologists."
posted to MetaFilter by amyms at 12:47 AM on April 12, 2008 (20 comments)

No doubt about it, that old midnight hour has long served as a potent muse for songwriters, as this sampling of live performances will attest: In The Midnight Hour ---- Walking After Midnight ---- Midnight Rambler ---- Midnight Rider ---- Midnight Special ---- Midnight Train To Georgia ---- Midnight Confessions ---- Midnight At The Oasis --- 'Round Midnight ----
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 1:12 AM on April 12, 2008 (70 comments)

MITOpenCourseWare offers an online high-school course on Douglas Hofstadter's much-loved 1980 Pulitzer-winning exploration of maths, patterns, music, art, recursion, and computability, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Previously, some here had indicated an interest in such a course.
posted to MetaFilter by orthogonality at 3:00 AM on April 12, 2008 (28 comments)

Isolation Studies are just some of the things found at Chuck Jones' personal site. {via waxy}
posted to MetaFilter by dobbs at 6:41 AM on April 12, 2008 (23 comments)

Can I successfully sue my parents under estoppel? Is it even a possibility?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Anonymous at 12:19 PM on April 11, 2008 (53 comments)

In 1958, Ezra Pound, after being released from a mental hospital, became a foreign correspondent for the Richmond News Leader. All but one of his dispatches were deemed unprintable by the editor and the one that was printed ran as a letter to the editor. The Virginia Quarterly Review has put scans of the dispatches up on their site.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 9:45 AM on April 11, 2008 (44 comments)

So anyway, here's a walrus dancing to Smooth Criminal.
posted to MetaFilter by XQUZYPHYR at 12:48 PM on April 11, 2008 (61 comments)

Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities features strange and surprising things from the rare book and manuscript collections of the Beinecke Library in Yale, including death masks, the philosophy of origami, the real adventures of Tintin, famous people and their pets, and American transvestite magazines from the 1960s.
posted to MetaFilter by verstegan at 10:40 AM on April 11, 2008 (12 comments)

John Oliver's "The Meter Is Running" is a loving* look back at the history of FOX News.
posted to MetaFilter by chuckdarwin at 3:27 PM on April 11, 2008 (34 comments)

Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone (via). More From America's Worst Mom: 9-Year-Old On The Subway, Continued.
posted to MetaFilter by blasdelf at 7:14 PM on April 11, 2008 (204 comments)

Mortified is a group in various cities that allows people to "share their own adolescent journals, letters, poems, lyrics, home movies, stories and more." It's embarrassing, to be sure, but it's frequently also hilarious (NSFW). Recently they've set up a page to share videos of live performances, and the latest is my favorite so far. "500 Miles To Hollywood" features Elijah Wood, James Denton (Desperate Housewives), Busy Phillips (Freaks & Geeks), Kevin McDonald (Kids in the Hall) and Curtis Armstrong (Revenge of the Nerds) "helping Jason Smith fulfill his dream and bring a 2-decade-old screenplay to life."
posted to MetaFilter by ktoad at 9:44 AM on April 10, 2008 (20 comments)

Remember Me. A multimedia documentary about one family's struggle to deal with the loss of a parent. This series is the 2008 Pulitzer winner for feature photography.
posted to MetaFilter by chunking express at 1:18 PM on April 10, 2008 (27 comments)

In 1943, over Allied bomb ravaged Germany, US pilot Charlie Brown's B-17 was badly damaged and straying further from friendly territory. Luftwaffe ace fighter pilot Franz Stigler pursued the bomber intending to shoot it down, but refrained when he saw the extent of the damage and directed Brown and his crew out of harm's way. The two pilots were reunited 46 years later. [via]
posted to MetaFilter by Burhanistan at 1:56 PM on April 10, 2008 (72 comments)

"Moralistic, prejudiced, racist, misogynist, manipulative, sexist, daring, exciting, critical, sarcastic and passionate - these are just a few adjectives that commonly describe Mexico's most widely-read publication: the historieta."
posted to MetaFilter by jbickers at 2:35 PM on April 10, 2008 (4 comments)

Yesterday marked the release of Perfumes: The Guide a "ravishingly entertaining" collection of over 1200 perfume reviews by Emperor of Scent Luca Turin and his bride, Tania Sanchez.
posted to MetaFilter by ottereroticist at 4:33 PM on April 10, 2008 (10 comments)

The antidote to LOLbushsuxx0rs. Over the course of the past week, Slate ran a ten (10!)-piece series, "Fixin' It", in which various writers postulated how the course of various aspects of the United States' military, culture, and policies could be redirected for the better. Although the articles are not entirely devoid of Bush criticism, there's mostly a fairly rare focus on the positive actions to be taken from here onward by the next President (whether it be McCain or Obama or Clinton).
posted to MetaFilter by WCityMike at 5:54 PM on April 10, 2008 (33 comments)

Social anxiety and depersonalization...How do you get out of your head?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Anonymous at 1:21 PM on April 10, 2008 (9 comments)

Why am i boring?
posted to Ask Metafilter by isoman2kx at 3:07 PM on April 10, 2008 (36 comments)

Slight preferences tweaks: birthday (year optional) and relationship status (datingfilter!) were just added. My profile shows what it might look like to logged-in users.
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 4:57 PM on April 10, 2008 (264 comments)

Country/jazz. acapella. An open letter to Amy Winehouse. Super Mario Galaxy.
posted to MeFi Music by By The Grace of God at 6:09 PM on January 5, 2008 (12 comments)

One week after 9/11/01, upstate New York. Worrying, whinging and existential musing with my friends. Karen says, "At least I'm not dust in New York City."
posted to MeFi Music by By The Grace of God at 8:16 AM on January 9, 2008 (9 comments)