Which is better, a Hong Kong tailor made suit, or a high-end off the rack suit?
posted to Ask Metafilter by TigerCrane at 5:02 PM on May 23, 2008 (8 comments)

Free Speculative Fiction Online is a database of free science fiction and fantasy stories online by published authors (no fan-fiction or stories by unpublished writers). Among the authors that FSFO links to are Paul Di Filippo (14 stories), James Tiptree, Jr. (4 stories), Connie Willis (3 stories), Eleanor Arnason (3 stories), Bruce Sterling (5 stories), Robert Heinlein (7 stories), Ursula K. LeGuin (3 stories), Jonathan Lethem (5 stories), Michael Moorcock (6 stories), Chine Miéville (2 stories), Samuel R. Delany (3 stories), Robert Sheckley (8 stories), MeFite Charles Stross (33 stories) and hundreds of other authors. If you don't know where to start, there's a list of recommended stories.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 1:52 PM on April 5, 2008 (34 comments)

I want to stop eating animal slices. Except there's a catch. Please help.
posted to Ask Metafilter by milarepa at 11:38 AM on February 24, 2008 (31 comments)

Over 400 classical images of Death [warning: embedded music]
posted to MetaFilter by hermitosis at 7:30 AM on February 24, 2008 (30 comments)

Please help me with my mild relationship idiocy. You see, there's this boy (as always), and I really dig him and I'm pretty sure he really digs me. How do I find out for sure?
posted to Ask Metafilter by kalimac at 2:30 PM on February 16, 2008 (25 comments)

Frozen Grand Central. A little bit of Saturday fun. The folks at Improv Everywhere are at it again. This time they freeze over two hundred people in Grand Central station. (via GoodSh** NSFW)
posted to MetaFilter by caddis at 7:56 AM on February 16, 2008 (22 comments)

A mindbending logic puzzle. A thousand people on the island, 900 brown-eyed and 100 blue-eyed; anyone who learns their own eye color must kill themself the next day; a visitor mentions that there is a blue-eyed person on the island; what happens? Nothing, you say, because they already know that? Wrong. Further details at the Terry Tao post linked above, but don't scroll down below the boxed description unless you want hints and/or spoilers.
posted to MetaFilter by languagehat at 7:47 AM on February 15, 2008 (391 comments)

Doc Watson: his warm and unprepossessing voice and rolling guitar stylings (both flatpicking and fingerpicking) are treasures of American music. The following video clips will be a treat for any Watson fan, but especially for guitar players: they feature closeup shots of Doc's left hand fretwork as well as insets of his right hand picking. So, without further ado: Deep River Blues, Blue Railroad Train, Black Mountain Rag and Bluebell.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 4:10 PM on January 20, 2008 (21 comments)

You desire to listen to "The Shadow Out of Time". You may also desire to listen to adaptations of The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Colour Out of Space. Possibly you desire to listen to Neil Gaiman's Lovecraftian Sherlock Holmes pastiche A Study in Emerald, the text of which is available in a fetchingly formatted PDF. Or maybe it's all academic, and you'd rather just listen to some lectures about Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
posted to MetaFilter by Pope Guilty at 11:51 PM on January 11, 2008 (19 comments)

VectorMagic is a new site that uses technology from the Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to transform your bitmap images into vector art that can be scaled without becoming blurry of pixelated. Here's the first image I submitted, before and after.
posted to MetaFilter by Turtles all the way down at 3:19 AM on October 29, 2007 (36 comments)

Jack Keller's winemaking site has not only the basics of home winemaking in 5 parts [12345], but also information on more advanced topics, including acidity, blending, and using a hydrometer. Equally interesting is his extensive collection of recipes for making wines out of things other than grapes, including dandelions and other edible flowers, wild plants (including nettles!), cabbages and beets, tea and coffee, mint, pomegranates, and pumpkins. A complete list of recipes is here, if you'd like to click through alphabetically, and a list of specially-requested recipes is here (scroll down a bit).
posted to MetaFilter by Upton O'Good at 7:26 PM on October 28, 2007 (11 comments)

DM of the Rings (comic). The Lord of the Rings if it were a Dungeons and Dragons game.
posted to MetaFilter by bugbread at 1:19 PM on October 27, 2007 (66 comments)

An espalier is a plant trained to grow flat against a wall, fence, or trellis. Developed by the Romans, they were popular in Middle Age Europe as a source of fruit in castles and monasteries because they could be grown against the keep's stone walls leaving open space unencumbered. Now they are an excellent choice for apartment and condo dwellers with small yards. For larger yards espaliers can be used as a decorative feature, to provide shade or to increase the variety of trees under cultivation. University of Florida PDF detailing the technique.
posted to MetaFilter by Mitheral at 1:52 AM on September 17, 2007 (16 comments)

Flash Sunday: Particle-based (explosive) sandbox - another fun toy to play with! Besides the classic earth, water, fire, and plants, this version has air pressure-based physics for wind effects. A mesmerizing tinker-toy. (requires java) (previously) (via)
posted to MetaFilter by anthill at 6:54 PM on June 2, 2007 (21 comments)