"Five months ago, the kaleidoscope of power had been shaken, and Aringarosa was still reeling from the blow." Dan Brown's 20 Worst Sentences
posted to MetaFilter by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:19 PM on September 17, 2009 (228 comments)

Aunt Feminina Boots's Char-Broiled Book Club — Feminina Boots has been experiencing a lot of difficulty lately trying to find a book club where she can say things that aren’t just going to upset people.
posted to MetaFilter by netbros at 12:18 AM on August 27, 2009 (18 comments)

An Armadillo running and sniffing
The Mole-Cam
Cow Staring at Cow.
These and many more at the Museum of Animal Perspectives, a site run and curated by Sam Easterson.
posted to MetaFilter by vacapinta at 4:31 AM on August 27, 2009 (39 comments)

Old-time radio (often abbreviated as "OTR," also known as the Golden Age of Radio) refers to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the dominant home entertainment medium in the 1950s, with some programs continuing into the early 1960s. The origin of radio dramas in the United States is hard to pin down, but there is evidence of a remote broadcast of a play in 1914 at Normal College (now California State University at San José), and the first serial radio drama was an adaptation of a play by Eugene Walter, entitled "The Wolf," which aired in September 1922. Given the age of the programs and the fact that home reel-to-reel recording started in the 1950s (followed by Philips "compact cassettes" in 1963), it might be surprising that quite a few of these old shows have survived. Thanks in part to original radio station-sourced recordings made on aluminum discs, acetates, and glass recordings and other unnamed sources, many radio dramas and newscasts from decades past are available online, and more are being digitized and restored to this day.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 12:47 PM on August 25, 2009 (53 comments)

The Last Parcels of Nowhere Remaining in Manhattan. Photographs.
posted to MetaFilter by ocherdraco at 8:49 PM on August 12, 2009 (33 comments)

Takeshi no Chōsenjō: it came before the endurance test that is Desert Bus, and served as an inspiration for Janey Thompson's Marathon. In English it is known as Takeshi's Challenge. Released in December 1986 for the Famicom system, the game mechanisms include use of the Famicom microphone to sing karaoke for an hour. And that's after you drink to the point of blacking out, divorce your wife, quit your job, and learn to hang glide AND learn the Hintoba language, amongst other things. All of this takes place in lands populated with nothing but people that want to beat you to death. Of course, you can skip that all and complete the game in a mere 4 minutes by simply walking off the edge of existence, and magically ending at the final treasure room.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 2:34 PM on July 25, 2009 (42 comments)

This is how to start a wedding. Totally and utterly SYTLy, but still the best thing I've seen this week.
posted to MetaFilter by Hartster at 6:38 AM on July 23, 2009 (359 comments)

If you're tired of boring twee t-shirts with birds and swirly stuff and junk on them, maybe it's time you started running with the Big Dogs. From "Fart Now Loading" to "Talk Slower - I don't speak STUPID", Big Dogs brand graphic tees are a great way to communicate your hip, in-your-face, modern attitude.
posted to MetaFilter by Optimus Chyme at 12:30 PM on June 30, 2009 (135 comments)

Some comics about mental illness by Darryl Cunningham. (via)
posted to MetaFilter by MegoSteve at 9:39 PM on June 12, 2009 (39 comments)

At least one of these things is true, and possibly both: (a) This was the most tense game of baseball ever played; or (b) relations between Jews and the Klan have deteriorated dramatically since 1926. Bill Francis, a research librarian at the Baseball Hall of Fame, unearths a tantalizing newspaper clipping.
posted to MetaFilter by kosem at 3:59 PM on May 11, 2009 (44 comments)

The Pac-Man Dossier is an extremely detailed description of the game logic of arcade Pac-Man. It explains why, once in a while, monsters will harmlessly pass through Pac-Man. It explains why they won't go up through the tunnels above the monster box. It explains why occasionally, after losing a life, monsters will refuse to leave the box. It explains when and why Blinky becomes Cruise Elroy, and why sometimes Pinky gets confused and loses track of Pac-Man. It even explains, as far as the player can continue to play, what to do on the kill screen. It is awesome. Previously....
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 5:15 PM on February 19, 2009 (35 comments)

People took to the streets to celebrate Obama's victory in New York, Seattle, Austin, San Francisco, Boulder, New Brunswick, Oakland, Philadelphia, Gainesville, Los Angeles, Boston, Portland, Atlanta, Cambridge, Madison, Richmond, Baltimore, Santa Cruz, and Washinton, D.C.
posted to MetaFilter by twoleftfeet at 3:51 PM on November 5, 2008 (82 comments)

In 2001 some friends and I bought a used answering machine that still had the tape in it. From what we could figure out, it belonged to someone named Marta. Anyway, we set some of the messages to the melodies we felt they deserved (using the hokiest canned drums the Boss BR-8 had to offer).
posted to MeFi Music by Beardman at 7:31 PM on August 12, 2008 (21 comments)

An answering machine message to help us live our dreams.
posted to MeFi Music by Beardman at 9:49 PM on August 14, 2008 (35 comments)

By request...the last answering machine song I'll post. This one's about a pair of "protein shoes." If you can figure out what that means (even after hearing the phrase in context at the end), I'll give you ten dollars.
posted to MeFi Music by Beardman at 11:02 AM on August 16, 2008 (12 comments)

Attach syringes full of oil to the temples of a pair of double-lensed magic Harry Potter eyeglasses and let poor people see.
posted to MetaFilter by orthogonality at 9:53 AM on August 4, 2008 (57 comments)

"We're not building a themed adventure for Mega Man; just kill him!" Where does Mega Man's nemesis get his wonderful toys? How much does it cost to construct big spikes? Can one add ice blocks to the magnet level without violating a building code? It's not easy being in the Dr. Wily business.
posted to MetaFilter by Servo5678 at 2:47 PM on July 1, 2008 (43 comments)

A few questions related to Trance Music.
posted to Ask Metafilter by wildrain2008 at 7:03 PM on June 7, 2008 (6 comments)

Bacon caramel. Candied bacon and egg ice cream. Bacon lip balm. Bacon bra (NSFW). Bacon placemants. French-fry coated bacon on a stick. An overabundance of bacon cakes. Bacon cookies. Bacon and bourbon. And fifty other ways to use MeFi's favorite food--BACON.
posted to MetaFilter by youarenothere at 12:26 PM on May 4, 2008 (75 comments)

On Having A Black Name "I am a white woman, a blond, blue-eyed white woman, and I have a first name strongly associated with black women. My mother, a southerner by birth, never stopped telling me she made the name up. The fact that she truly could not remember ever hearing the name before, is a testament to the strength of southern segregation. It is likely she heard it once or twice, and simply forgot it until later. And so, even at 50 years old, I have a name that makes people do a double-take. "You're _____?" is something I have heard all my life. "Yes, that would be me," is what I say, as they look confused. I have upset the social order. Names, I have learned, are a big, big part of it."
posted to MetaFilter by nooneyouknow at 9:06 AM on April 24, 2008 (257 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 (74 comments)

"I found these in a red photo album marked "Darlene" at a swap meet in Huntington Beach, California." The Cocaine Photos. Images from a more innocent time.
posted to MetaFilter by oneirodynia at 9:03 PM on March 27, 2008 (91 comments)

Get me a jury and show me how you can say "in July" and I'll… go down on you. Orson Welles, famed for his acting and directing in such classics as Citizen Kane, also spent his later years doing occasional voiceover work for commercials -- most famously, this spot for Findus Frozen Peas.
posted to MetaFilter by MsMolly at 8:04 AM on February 18, 2008 (65 comments)

- This is the Title of this Story
- Self-reference in 'Self-reference in...'
- This is Not the Title of this Essay
- How I explained infodumps and saved humanity
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 9:36 AM on January 24, 2008 (74 comments)

What sweet, silly gift can I give to a sweet, silly boy? This question isn’t as cliché as one might think.
posted to Ask Metafilter by fiasco at 11:06 AM on December 25, 2007 (45 comments)

Map Paintings by Paula Scher: “These are absolutely, one hundred percent inaccurate,” Paula Scher declares of her colossal map paintings. Then, after a pause: “But not on purpose.” Another pause: they’re actually “sort of right.” [via]
posted to MetaFilter by dhruva at 4:58 PM on November 12, 2007 (10 comments)

Hot Chicks With Douchebags [possibly nsfw] [via #mefi]
posted to MetaFilter by Stynxno at 7:13 AM on August 23, 2007 (165 comments)

Is there anything good about men? In this address to the American Psychological Association, psychologist Roy Baumeister suggests that women have historically had a much greater chance of reproducing than men, and that this has had a profound influence on the way their respective roles in society have evolved:

For women throughout history (and prehistory), the odds of reproducing have been pretty good. Later in this talk we will ponder things like, why was it so rare for a hundred women to get together and build a ship and sail off to explore unknown regions, whereas men have fairly regularly done such things? But taking chances like that would be stupid, from the perspective of a biological organism seeking to reproduce. They might drown or be killed by savages or catch a disease. For women, the optimal thing to do is go along with the crowd, be nice, play it safe. The odds are good that men will come along and offer sex and you’ll be able to have babies. All that matters is choosing the best offer. We’re descended from women who played it safe....For men, the outlook was radically different. If you go along with the crowd and play it safe, the odds are you won’t have children. Most men who ever lived did not have descendants who are alive today. Their lines were dead ends. Hence it was necessary to take chances, try new things, be creative, explore other possibilities.

posted to MetaFilter by Turtles all the way down at 4:34 AM on August 22, 2007 (130 comments)

What Brazil tells us about torture today. A thoughtful discussion by Clive James of torture in the context of the movies in general and Terry Gilliam's Brazil in particular. Warning: occasional descriptions of awful behavior, and the reader may have his opinion of humanity lowered. "The historical evidence suggests that on the rare occasions when a state begins again in what a fond humanitarian might think of as a condition of innocence, a supply of young torturers is the first thing it produces... In the Nazi and Soviet cellars and camps, people were regularly tortured for information they did not possess: i.e., they were tortured just for the hell of it."
posted to MetaFilter by languagehat at 6:45 AM on February 25, 2007 (50 comments)

Because everything should taste like bacon.
posted to MetaFilter by mr_crash_davis at 8:48 AM on July 19, 2007 (113 comments)