Twenty years ago this week, the biggest escape ever over the Berlin Wall took place, but the event went nearly unreported outside of the two Germanies. The 182 persons who jumped over the Wall in the early morning hours of 1 July 1988, instead of leaving East Germany, fled in the opposite direction (scroll down to "Wolfgang Ritter") to escape the West Berlin police. East German border guards waited with trucks on the other side of the Wall in the middle of the death strip to pick up the wall-hopping protesters; they were driven to another location, served breakfast, and then taken to the Friedrichsstrasse crossing to West Berlin with the admonition to "use the usual border crossing next time."
posted to MetaFilter by sister nunchaku of love and mercy at 10:01 PM on July 3, 2008 (16 comments)

Can you recommend any children's books along the lines of The Monster at the End of This Book? I'm looking for funny books, for kids, where the characters know they're in books. (This is to entertain two goofy kids, ages five and two.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by The corpse in the library at 3:28 PM on June 30, 2008 (11 comments)

Adventures in Stock Photography - David Schwimmer's Secrets of Natural Posture, I smell Pulitzer, The simultaneous quadratic face nutrition delivery system, Scenes from the battleground of sexual selection #3,344, Nuffield the rubbish hypnotist, Doctors & Doctoring #1, A Cavalcade of Thumbs... What is Adventures in Stock Photography?
posted to MetaFilter by fearfulsymmetry at 8:52 AM on June 25, 2008 (40 comments)

I love trivia! And, I love playing games on the internet. Problem is, finding both of these has been disappointing.
posted to Ask Metafilter by UseyurBrain at 7:50 AM on June 22, 2008 (11 comments)

I'm looking for musical suggestions that might help me ... fuck the pain away.
posted to Ask Metafilter by adipocere at 7:33 PM on June 3, 2008 (79 comments)

Recommendations/sources for good erotic writing?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Anonymous at 10:11 AM on March 1, 2008 (16 comments)

What is the iconic (or just "your favorite") dead-tree product catalog (listing of merchandise for mail-order sale) for your hobby, industry, or trade?
posted to Ask Metafilter by cadastral at 9:23 AM on April 1, 2008 (72 comments)

10 Universities Offering Free Writing Courses Online.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 10:45 PM on January 29, 2008 (16 comments)

Spiral Scouts are the wiccan/pagan answer to Boy Scouts (and Girl Scouts, since they're not a gender specific organization). And since pagans are apparently the new black, the scouts have been getting some recent attention. Although the Spiral Scouts started through a wiccan church, they've made a point of including all religions and/or non-religions (as opposed to the Boy Scouts). And while you can imagine what the conservative response might be, the left has found enough dirt on the Boy Scouts over the years that the Spiral alternative seems to be getting a fairly warm response so far.
posted to MetaFilter by p3t3 at 10:01 AM on January 31, 2006 (47 comments)

David Byrne's Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars Where there was one, now there are six: Six possible music distribution models, ranging from one in which the artist is pretty much hands-off to one where the artist does nearly everything.
posted to MetaFilter by psmealey at 12:01 PM on December 20, 2007 (36 comments)

What single quote is the best introduction (or accurately encapsulates) a philosophy, belief or conviction that you hold? Or alternately, a quote that describes something in a way that gives you a deeper understanding of a particular perspective that you may or may not endorse.
posted to Ask Metafilter by quadog at 10:44 AM on September 26, 2007 (96 comments)

Please tell me a book you think everyone should read and why.
posted to Ask Metafilter by pasici at 9:48 PM on July 20, 2006 (135 comments)

Do you love learning? I know you do. This might help keep you busy for a while.
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 10:44 PM on January 13, 2007 (44 comments)

The Best Places to Get Free Books.
posted to MetaFilter by Tommy Gnosis at 3:35 AM on May 15, 2007 (24 comments)

Possibly the greatest comic-book ever written about a dead man wandering through Hell in search of his pants, Stig's Inferno is available online! Issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
posted to MetaFilter by lekvar at 9:04 PM on May 10, 2007 (17 comments)

Have you played with Google Earth recently? You can track flights live and in 3-D, or watch an animation of global cloud cover over the last 10 days, or simply make Google Earth prettier using NASA images. Google Earth isn't limited to the current, you can also enable historical maps from the 1700s, and view an animation that will show you what will happen in the future to New York and San Francisco if the sea levels rise. Google Earth can also shed light on previous MeFi discussions, from the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (and, indeed many other ship wrecks) to the discussion over America's top 150 buildings, now in all of their 3-D glory.
posted to MetaFilter by blahblahblah at 7:10 AM on May 10, 2007 (26 comments)

Websites for toddlers?
posted to Ask Metafilter by slimslowslider at 8:09 PM on August 3, 2005 (14 comments)

Hi, does anyone have any good recommendations for great web sites for 2 to 4 year olds?
posted to Ask Metafilter by itchy at 11:49 PM on March 2, 2006 (15 comments)