On July 17th, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite completed its first survey of the entire sky viewable from Earth. After just seven months in orbit, WISE -- a precursor to the planned James Webb Space Telescope -- has returned more than a million images that provide a close look at celestial objects ranging from distant galaxies to asteroids. The first release of WISE data, covering about 80 percent of the sky, will be delivered to the astronomical community in May of next year, but in the meantime we can see some of the images and animations that NASA has released to date: Galleries (containing just a small selection of images): 1, 2, 3, 4. Videos and Animations: 1, 2
posted to MetaFilter by zarq at 10:15 PM on July 24, 2010 (11 comments)

New Orleans Bounce music is here. But, it's always been here, in the projects (nsfw), on the streets (gratuitous).
posted to MetaFilter by four panels at 12:48 PM on July 23, 2010 (14 comments)

Classical Music’s New Golden Age
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan at 7:27 AM on July 21, 2010 (63 comments)

Awkward Stock Photos
posted to MetaFilter by Cat Pie Hurts at 1:49 PM on July 16, 2010 (57 comments)

Land and Freedom, in its entirety. It's a film about a young English Communist who goes to fight the fascists amidst the Spanish Revolution as a member of the POUM militia. He sees both the reality of a people's revolution and the consequences of Stalinism. It's directed by Ken Loach, who also directed Bread and Roses and The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Subtitles will help a lot if you don't speak Spanish.
posted to MetaFilter by cthuljew at 1:26 AM on July 17, 2010 (29 comments)

Tarkovsky films. All of them. Free. Online. via @brainygamer
posted to MetaFilter by juv3nal at 3:05 PM on July 13, 2010 (134 comments)

With capitalism in crisis, can it be sustained or is it altogether outdated? As Umair Haque asks though, perhaps a better question is: "are organizations and markets making decisions that help make people, communities, and society better off in the long run, by allocating their scarce resources to the most productive uses?"
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 12:12 PM on July 13, 2010 (15 comments)

Lost Films, a project of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, is a wiki aimed at identifying the over 3500 films declared orphaned or lost in their archives. Other archivists and the public can go to the Identify section and look at surviving photographs, film fragments, and documents, as well as comment and upload any materials of your own, just in case you had promo materials for some unidentified 1915 German war buddy comedy just lying around. (Via Slate).
posted to MetaFilter by Weebot at 10:16 PM on July 9, 2010 (6 comments)

What in life did it take you a surprisingly long time to realize you've been doing wrong all along?
posted to Ask Metafilter by colinmarshall at 1:58 PM on July 6, 2010 (933 comments)

I'm aware of the Way of St. James, but what are some of the other long distance hikes in Europe?
posted to Ask Metafilter by crunchland at 8:13 PM on July 6, 2010 (14 comments)

I just finished Before the Big Bang by Ernest Sternglass. What's the other side of his argument?
posted to Ask Metafilter by kavasa at 12:23 PM on July 5, 2010 (8 comments)

An AWESOME collection of sci-fi illustrations by the prolific Shigeru Komatsuzaki (1915-2001), whose fantastic work appeared on plastic model kit boxes and in magazines and picture books in the 1960s to 1970s. via
posted to MetaFilter by Monkeymoo at 8:48 AM on July 5, 2010 (18 comments)

Pioneer One is an original series from the writer and director of The Lionshare. In one sense, it is an experiment in crowdfunded "television", beginning with a $6000 KickStarter budget. In another sense, it is an experiment in using a peer-to-peer distribution model (i.e., VODO's "DISCO"). The show's pilot, released two weeks ago, which can be downloaded or streamed, has been a huge success; is currently the best-seeded show on BitTorrent, and already has had well over 1 million downloads.
posted to MetaFilter by tybeet at 9:07 AM on July 5, 2010 (32 comments)

"Scream" a video by aspiring DIY pop-star (and ostensible straight person) Sky Smith.
posted to MetaFilter by Potomac Avenue at 11:18 AM on July 5, 2010 (30 comments)

How Goldman Sachs gambled on starving the world's poor - and won This was hinted at last August and in 2008
Merrill Lynch's spokesman said: "Huh. I didn't know about that." He later emailed to say: "I am going to decline comment." Deutsche Bank also refused to comment. Goldman Sachs were a little more detailed in their response: they said "serious analyses... have concluded index funds did not cause a bubble in commodity futures prices", offering as evidence a single statement by the OECD.
World Hunger Facts 2010
posted to MetaFilter by adamvasco at 1:58 PM on July 5, 2010 (99 comments)

On May 10th, 2010 ExxonMobile had an oil spill in Nigeria Delta. It is somewhere around the 16th worst oil spill in [wikipedia reported] world history, at 95,000 tonnes (696,350 barrels or 214,475,800 gallons). Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it. Oil spills are a regular occurrence in Nigeria, about 300 a year, it is estimated over the past 50 years about 1.5 million tons have been dumped in the Delta, equivalent to the Gulf War oil spill (the largest spill on record) or 50+ Exxon Valdez.
posted to MetaFilter by stbalbach at 9:23 AM on May 30, 2010 (50 comments)

Es gibt viele Quellen überall im Internet, wo man Deutsch hören und sehen kann. There are countless German TV channels, great podcasts, and news outlets online. Here are some of the best. Not fluent? Es geht weiter!
posted to MetaFilter by vkxmai at 12:07 PM on May 26, 2010 (45 comments)

Die anen foan noch Ibitza die ondren noch Udine
Wir bleiben im Parkbad machen Party in Kabiene
Hallo geile Biene gemma no a bissal schwimmen
i brauch nur mei Handtuch no des in der Kabiene drinnen

Wiener Hip-hop? Vollig Geil!
posted to MetaFilter by dunkadunc at 6:03 PM on May 23, 2010 (34 comments)

On the cusp of the long-awaited series finale of Lost, people are understandably confused. Fortunately there are plenty of ways to catch up, from the fan compendium Lostpedia to the 2-hour ABC recap tonight at 7:00 EST to YouTube summaries of Seasons 1-5 from ABC (in 8:15) and from costumed fans (in five minutes). As for longtime fans, why not reminisce by revisiting the show's infamous bookends -- the artfully inscrutable scenes which introduce or conclude each season? Look inside for these and more, along with a cavalcade of interesting fan videos and other fun stuff. [Warning: Spoilers (for everything but the series finale) inside]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 12:36 PM on May 23, 2010 (1195 comments)

Precocious 14-year-old Alfie McKenzie writes an article for The Guardian on his Warholian 15 after voting in the UK General Election.
posted to MetaFilter by Pranksome Quaine at 4:48 PM on May 9, 2010 (14 comments)

Following Steve Eley stepping down as editor of Escape Pod, the first and probably most popular science fiction podcast magazine, Mur Laffety has taken up the reins. Probably best known for I Should Be Writing, a podcast for wanna-be fiction writers, Mur also currently hosts Tor.com's fiction podcast.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 11:08 AM on May 8, 2010 (24 comments)

Christian right leader George Rekers takes vacation with "rent boy"
posted to MetaFilter by Faint of Butt at 12:10 PM on May 4, 2010 (379 comments)

A short film about Bernard Hare and his book Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew. The book (published in 2005) documents his time spent associating with the 'feral' teenagers of the Leeds underclass.
posted to MetaFilter by criticalbill at 9:35 AM on May 1, 2010 (10 comments)

China Miéville has won his third Arthur C Clarke award for his crime/weird fiction novel The City and The City - making him the first person to win the prize three times. Somewhat emotional video of him accepting the prize, where he thanks one special crime reader in particular, his mum, who passed away before it's publication. 10 Questions about China Miéville. An A-Z of China Miéville - 1, 2. An extract from his next novel, Kraken. A Bas Lag Wiki. A discussion of the best genre crossovers. An out of season Christmas tale.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 6:31 PM on April 30, 2010 (71 comments)

How can I lose fat, without losing a significant amount of muscle mass?
posted to Ask Metafilter by fatty magoo at 2:34 PM on April 19, 2010 (19 comments)

Often ignored when critics talk about the history of electronic dance music - "booty music" has long played an important role. Raw, bass-heavy, hyper-sexualized, its the exact opposite of the androgynous, slick techno and house that gets most of the attention. (all links NSFW, probably)
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 1:00 PM on April 12, 2010 (52 comments)

Fritz Lang's last silent film, Woman in the Moon, has just been released by Kino Video in a lovingly restored and remastered edition, expanded to its original running time of 169 minutes. (Prior releases of the film in the US had as much as half of the original footage removed, with altered title cards that completely changed the storyline.) Woman in the Moon is considered to be the first real attempt to depict a flight to the moon in film that wasn't completely fantastic, thanks to the technical input of Hermann Oberth, who later went on play a key role in the development of the German V-2 rocket. As a piece of futurism, Woman in the Moon gets a few things wrong (the Moon of the film has a breathable atmosphere, for one thing), but it's also surprisingly prescient as well (the rocketship that voyages to the moon has multiple stages). Its most significant contribution to popular culture is the reverse countdown to blastoff, which was invented by the filmmakers as a dramatic device.
posted to MetaFilter by Prospero at 2:36 PM on December 19, 2004 (10 comments)

For the last year or so, Frederik Pohl has been quietly blogging.
posted to MetaFilter by Pinback at 9:45 PM on March 13, 2010 (24 comments)

Once described by author Isaac Asimov as the "nearest thing to an artist in residence from outer space", his artwork has appeared on stamps and mission patches, posters from epic films and even the walls of the Smithsonian Institution. Renowned space artist Robert McCall died on Friday, February 28 2010. He was 90.
posted to MetaFilter by bondcliff at 8:40 PM on March 1, 2010 (33 comments)

What are some of the great but lesser-known films I've missed out on in the past, say, five to ten years?
posted to Ask Metafilter by turgid dahlia at 4:19 PM on February 19, 2010 (127 comments)

Announcing: The Art of Akira Exhibit Its stunningly fluid and detailed animation often required as many as nine separate cel layers. The 125 minute feature was comprised of over 160,000 cels and almost as many backgrounds, each one completely hand–drawn and hand-painted. Purists recognize Akira as the last completely hand-created animated feature.

Joe the Peacock, in collaboration with Toonseum, presents a project to 'expose as many people as possible to the brilliance' of Akira.

Akira previously: 1 2 3
posted to MetaFilter by shakespeherian at 6:15 AM on February 4, 2010 (76 comments)

The OpenLuna Foundation seeks to return mankind to the lunar surface, first through robotic missions, followed by manned exploration, culminating in an eight person permanent outpost, and to do all of this in a way that it is accessible to everyone. Our research and technology will be open-source, we are privately funded, and one of our specific goals is to reach out to the community and educational systems to spread interest, enthusiasm, and involvement.
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 5:10 AM on February 2, 2010 (42 comments)

The New York Times visualizes the proposed $3.83 trillion budget for 2011.
posted to MetaFilter by Joe Beese at 3:22 PM on February 1, 2010 (61 comments)

Sir Terry Pratchett, the popular comical fantasy author who in 2007 revealed that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, will present today his ideas about having a tribunal set up to help those with incurable diseases end their lives with help from doctors.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeremy Banks at 12:10 AM on February 1, 2010 (39 comments)

Imogen Heap (Previously: 1 2) was nominated for two Grammys this year, and won for Best Engineering for a Non-Classical Album. To share the occasion of her first Grammy nominations with her fans, she designed a dress and handbag onto which they could tweet pictures and messages of support by including the #twitdress hashtag or sending pictures to a Twitpic account. Video of the Twitdress in action - note that her name does NOT actually rhyme with "toboggan".
posted to MetaFilter by DecemberBoy at 12:26 AM on February 1, 2010 (29 comments)

Queens of Poland Long review/essay at the DRB on Michał Witkowski's Lubiewo (forthcoming in English translation as Lovetown; extract here), a book about gay life in Poland both in the days of communism and the subsequent Third Republic.
posted to MetaFilter by Abiezer at 3:42 AM on January 17, 2010 (7 comments)

Multitrack a cappella (mostly) videos feature the same person layering multiple harmonies to sing a song. The results can be incredible: "Thriller" in 64 voices, "You Rock My World" in 38 voices, "Baby on Board" from the barbershop quartet episode of The Simpsons, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", falsetto-tastic "Amazing Grace", "Poker Face", ...
posted to MetaFilter by spiderskull at 4:23 PM on January 12, 2010 (43 comments)

In Visions of Space, Robert Hughes tackles the work and lives of three remarkable 20th-century architects: Antonio Gaudi, Albert Speer and Mies van der Rohe - whose work did so much to shape the modern world. Hughes looks at how each one used space in different ways to express our response, respectively, to the power of religion (Gaudi), the power of the State (Speer), and the power of the corporation (Mies van der Rohe). Antoni Gaudi: God's Architect 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mies van der Rohe: Less is More 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Albert Speer: Size Matters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
posted to MetaFilter by vronsky at 3:29 PM on January 11, 2010 (15 comments)

Malaysian Catholic newspaper Herald was recently involved in a major lawsuit against the Malaysian government, stating that their constitutional rights were violated when they were stripped of their license to publish in East Malaysian indigenous language Kadazandusun. The ruling was overturned, amidst support by state ministers and protests by the Government, the Islamic Opposition party, and Muslim activists - some of whom have spent the past week attacking churches and convents through firebombs, Molotov cocktails, paint, and bricks thrown at glass.
posted to MetaFilter by divabat at 9:20 PM on January 10, 2010 (25 comments)

Nobuyuki Tsujii is a 21 year old blind Japanese pianist. Van Cliburn has this to say about Nobuyuki "Miracle is the only word to describe him. This is truly an act of God."
posted to MetaFilter by pwally at 11:39 AM on January 9, 2010 (35 comments)

Paprika Mars and other Strange Worlds by Matthew Albanese.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:33 AM on January 9, 2010 (18 comments)

There isn't a single decent candidate running for office, the homeless guy struck by a car was more fortunate than the auto workers and if you want a grilled raccoon they sure have a deal for you: it's Detroit 2009, The Movie, the chronicle of a rough year from The Detroit News.
posted to MetaFilter by krautland at 9:50 PM on January 1, 2010 (40 comments)

On Writing Gay Characters : Megan Rose Gedris.at Squidoo talks about common mistakes and preceptions to avoid when writing LGBT characters.
posted to MetaFilter by The Whelk at 8:36 AM on January 1, 2010 (130 comments)

From a simple insight, it has grown to some 4,000 pages. ... Whatever it is (he grudgingly calls it a novel, for legal reasons), [Larry Kramer] believes it to be an entirely true work. Certainly it’s epic. From primordial Florida swamps to the homophilic colony at Jamestown to Lincoln’s male love and the “holocaust” of AIDS, he reframes the country as a gay creation, culminating with the advent of modern antiviral drugs: “the single greatest achievement that gay people have accomplished in history.” (previously)
posted to MetaFilter by Joe Beese at 11:17 AM on December 28, 2009 (127 comments)

Transphobic feminism makes no sense, argues Laurie Penny For decades, the feminist movement has been split over the status of trans people, and of trans women in particular. High-profile feminists such as Germaine Greer, Jan Raymond and Julie Bindel have spoken out against what Greer terms “people who think they are women, have women’s names, and feminine clothes and lots of eyeshadow, who seem to us to be some kind of ghastly parody”. Some prominent radical feminists have publicly declared that trans women are misogynist, “mutilated men”.
posted to MetaFilter by parmanparman at 11:58 PM on December 21, 2009 (322 comments)

SffMeta - Metacritic for Science Fiction.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 12:26 AM on December 20, 2009 (40 comments)

NASA's MESSENGER team (previously: 1, 2, 3), with help from the U.S. Geological Survey, released yesterday the first global map of the planet Mercury.
posted to MetaFilter by SpringAquifer at 2:37 PM on December 16, 2009 (15 comments)

GJ 1214b is the most Earth-like planet ever found outside our solar system. And it needs a name.
posted to MetaFilter by Taft at 3:39 PM on December 16, 2009 (174 comments)

The best Star Wars: Episode 1 review ever (via techland, possibly NSFW, 7LYT, eponysterical)
posted to MetaFilter by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:16 AM on December 16, 2009 (112 comments)

Faux Friendship traces the evolution of friendship from classical times to the modern Internet age. By William Deresiewicz, literary critic and former associate professor of English at Yale. (Warning: long.)
posted to MetaFilter by the littlest brussels sprout at 5:23 AM on December 14, 2009 (17 comments)