I want a badass skill. I want to know how to do something that people will see and think "wow, that is badass."
posted by Autarky to Ask MetaFilter at Jun-29-09 at 8:36 PM
208 users marked this as a favorite

A relatively long list of music videos by Michel Gondry. From his humble beginnings with Oui Oui to his eventual mastery of both space and time.
posted by Weebot to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 1:59 PM
113 users marked this as a favorite

HTML Playground allows you to learn HTML and CSS by example.
posted by minifigs to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 3:13 AM
102 users marked this as a favorite

What are some useful skills or abilities that can be learned in a short amount of time, and are never forgotten?
posted by Orange Pamplemousse to Ask MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 8:55 AM
81 users marked this as a favorite

I love reading personal anecdotes on MeFi and AskMeFi. Could you link me to your favorite anecdotal comments and threads? Thank you!
posted by archagon to MetaTalk at Jun-27-09 at 12:54 AM
81 users marked this as a favorite

Canning makes a comeback. Is it just another foodie trend? Or is canning back for good?
posted by sararah to MetaFilter at Jun-30-09 at 1:49 PM
76 users marked this as a favorite

The Guardian's How to Believe series summarizes some great philosophical works in the reversed-date format we all know and love. Giles Frasier evaluates the lasting value of Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, Julian Baggini tells us what to believe about Hume's critique of religion, Mary Midgeley begrudgingly accepts the majestic contributions of Hobbes' Leviathan, and Simon Critchley throws himself into the hermeneutic circle of Heidegger's Being and Time.
posted by anotherpanacea to MetaFilter at Jul-1-09 at 5:05 AM
76 users marked this as a favorite

Before 9/11, the center of the conspiracy theorist's universe was the Kennedy Assassination. And probably the definitive statement on the ridiculousness of the conspiracy theories of that era was the Illuminatus! Trilogy[warning, the entire several hundred page novel in PDF], published in 1975 and written by two Playboy editors at the height of the era of flower power. It drew on many sources, but most distinctively, it drew from a little public domain pamphlet called The Principia Discordia. Many people know the catch phrases (Fnord! Hail Eris!), but not many people know the authors' very real connections to the Kennedy Assassination.
posted by empath to MetaFilter at Jun-29-09 at 6:29 PM
71 users marked this as a favorite

The Wire Files Open-access online journal darkmatter, "producing contemporary postcolonial critique," devoted its fourth issue to the television drama The Wire. An editorial explains that the "special issue aims to examine the place of race in the complex formation of the series." Thirteen articles cover The Wire's political economy, subversion of heteronormative assumptions, racial codes, Herc as a Zelig-like nexus, Baudrillardian urban space and much more in a veritable smorgasbord of academic bean-plating.
posted by Abiezer to MetaFilter at Jun-29-09 at 9:02 PM
65 users marked this as a favorite

One of the hardest things for people to understand about the universe is just how big it is. There are three approaches typically used in describing its size. The first, the song, was pioneered by Monty Python (NSFWish, wireframe of naked woman) and then done just as masterfully by the Animaniacs. The second, the zoom method has been featured twice before here on the blue. The third method is the comparison method (skip to 1:30, unless you like looking at a image of the solar system with terrible distorted orbits), yielding some truly beautiful videos (this one found via the fantastic Bad Astronomy blog). These videos go, at most, as far as looking at the local cluster or the Virgo Supercluster. There are two videos that attempt to show the size of the entire universe, one unsuccessfully (although with great music) and one successfully. (Warning, all links except the first one, are to YT videos).
posted by Hactar to MetaFilter at Jul-1-09 at 2:06 PM
62 users marked this as a favorite

What low cost (in terms of effort, time or money) things have you done that have had the biggest impact? Either on your life, on the lives of others, or on anything!
posted by devnull to Ask MetaFilter at Jun-27-09 at 6:52 AM
60 users marked this as a favorite

Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday is my go-to cookbook. Can anyone recommend any other cookbook authors that can teach me about other traditional world cuisines? Who's the Rick Bayless of Indian food? The Asian Rick Bayless? Who's the Mediterranean's answer to Rick Bayless?
posted by chrchr to Ask MetaFilter at Jun-28-09 at 11:00 PM
58 users marked this as a favorite

Ridiculous and rad combinations of 2 or 3 flavors. The weirder the better.
posted by tr0ubley to Ask MetaFilter at Jul-1-09 at 3:39 PM
57 users marked this as a favorite

Maybe you already know about film noir, how Italian-born French film critic Nino Frank coined the term in 1946, and that Dashiell Hammett's book The Maltese Falcon was adapted for film 3 times in 10 years. Or perhaps you've just browsed through the detailed Wikipedia page, and found the list of film noir series and films to be daunting, and IMDB search provides a list that is lacking. Either way, Noir of the Week has a wealth of information if you crave more details, but focuses on one film per week if long lists are daunting. Not interested in this week's film? They have over 240 movies covered to date.
posted by filthy light thief to MetaFilter at Jun-30-09 at 1:07 PM
52 users marked this as a favorite

Maira Kalman does it again, with a beautifully illustrated blog post about her visit to Mr. Jefferson's Monticello.
posted by gingerbeer to MetaFilter at Jun-28-09 at 7:46 PM
49 users marked this as a favorite

Michael Jackson, the undisputed King of Pop, has died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles, California. He was 50 years old.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing to MetaFilter at Jun-25-09 at 3:56 PM
48 users marked this as a favorite

Billy Faier got tired of burning copies of his long-out-of-print albums, and is giving them away: The Art of the Five String Banjo (1957), Travelin' Man (1958), The Beast of Billy Faier (1964), Banjo (1973) and Banjoes, Birdsong and Mother Earth (1987).
posted by scruss to MetaFilter at Jun-28-09 at 1:07 PM
48 users marked this as a favorite

There, I Fixed It - "Epic Kludges + Adventures In Home Pwnership"
posted by fearfulsymmetry to MetaFilter at Jun-29-09 at 4:54 AM
48 users marked this as a favorite

So, money is tight for many of us, my household not excepted. Belts are tightened as much as possible. Nearly all entertainment expenses cut, but we aren't giving up internet access, no way, no how.
posted by Jazz Hands to Ask MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 2:28 PM
48 users marked this as a favorite

What Periodic Videos did for chemistry, Sixty Symbols is doing for physics and engineering. Some behind the scenes action and general scienciness.
posted by DU to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 6:24 AM
41 users marked this as a favorite

Thanks Kattullus, this was wonderful to read. Especially because this Friday, I am celebrating one year of sobriety. This morning, someone on Twitter quoted Frank Sinatra saying that he feels sorry for people who don't drink because when they wake up sober, that's the best their day is going to get. Without being judgmental - because drink...
posted by greekphilosophy to MetaFilter at Jul-1-09 at 12:30 PM
147 users marked this as a favorite

Must we suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous 4chan?
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 to MetaFilter at Jul-2-09 at 8:00 AM
142 users marked this as a favorite

You know, my husband was a stay at home Dad during our daughter's short life. It drove me crazy when I read Parents magazine. The magazine is called Parents, right? But it's chock-full of ads for makeup, yoga classes, what Mom's should do, articles like "Be the best MOM in the playgroup," and so forth. It's been a long time since ...
posted by bunnycup to MetaFilter at Jul-2-09 at 9:17 AM
110 users marked this as a favorite

This all seems to check out.
posted by Jairus to MetaFilter at Jun-28-09 at 8:23 PM
101 users marked this as a favorite

You are confusing a person's brand of glasses with her moral worth. This is actually quite hard to do. Congrats!
posted by CunningLinguist to MetaTalk at Jun-29-09 at 3:00 PM
96 users marked this as a favorite

Describing him as an over-hyped non-talent is an understatement. The man had one half-good song, Billie Jean, and that is it. Let's see, how shall I put this... you have got to be fucking tone deaf or brain dead. And this goes for all of you coming with this fucking "oh he was just an overrated unit-shifting product" bullshit. Off The ...
posted by DecemberBoy to MetaFilter at Jun-25-09 at 7:01 PM
84 users marked this as a favorite

What small-ish changes have you made that greatly impacted your life? What are some cheap and effective ways to make your life easier? What are some useful skills or abilities that can be learned in a short amount of time, and are never forgotten? Obvious or creative ways to cut costs and live cheap? Simple tricks to improve MPG? Hel...
posted by malapropist to Ask MetaFilter at Jun-27-09 at 11:06 AM
78 users marked this as a favorite

John Kenneth Fisher: "And if the man was, as he almost surely was, guilty of just 1% of the many many rumors of child molestation that came up over the years, than he sure as hell wasn't worthy of respect, and he sure as hell isn't getting my "."" Optimus Chyme: "Michael Jackson was challenging in a lot of ways, mostly b...
posted by dgaicun to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 12:17 AM
76 users marked this as a favorite

Not that I don't think democracy is terrible, but his replacement is monarchy? Has he taken a look at the kinds of dudes who've been monarchs, and how well that's worked? Also, I'm bristling like hell at: civilization is crumbling Motherfucker, you will KNOW civilization is crumbling when I'm standing in your kitchen with a bowie knife, r...
posted by Greg Nog to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 4:38 PM
73 users marked this as a favorite

In an early episode of thirtysomething, Elliot did a riff on how microwave ovens impart all the abstract qualities of heat to food - yet somehow not genuine hotness. I feel that way about Megan Fox.
posted by Joe Beese to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 12:28 PM
70 users marked this as a favorite

you: All that happened was he sent me an email transfer of $1000 to my EMAIL!!!....I had to go into my email, just like you would do if a family/friend and picked my bank....$1000 was wired to my account and I picked it up and withdrew it. It was then in my pocket.....$30 was for gas, however I had a bike so I pocketed it. I had to transfer the res...
posted by koeselitz to Ask MetaFilter at Jul-1-09 at 11:54 AM
67 users marked this as a favorite

Well, I'll just comment based on personal tastes and experiences. I grew up in the country, with guns in fact. My little brother & I were reared around guns, and from an early age saw our parents using shotguns and rifles for hunting. When you're poor in rural America its far cheaper to buy a box of shells and eat for the winter than to ...
posted by Mutant to MetaFilter at Jun-27-09 at 4:23 AM
63 users marked this as a favorite

I'll try to be as brief as possible, but I had an ALMOST-perfect car buying experience recently. I'll post what I did, and then throw in blurbs where I felt I could have improved. It's long, but I needed to type this up for a friend who's about to buy a car anyway. Take it all with a grain of salt. DANGEROUS GROUND My dad is a pretty smart...
posted by cebailey to Ask MetaFilter at Apr-25-06 at 9:34 PM
62 users marked this as a favorite

I hope they're not suggesting what I think they're suggesting. Me neither. Moo means moo.
posted by jquinby to MetaFilter at Jun-30-09 at 9:53 AM
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No, your ridiculous, condescending comment is what is narcissistic.
posted by ageispolis to MetaFilter at Jun-25-09 at 11:47 PM
59 users marked this as a favorite

Good argument, except for all the EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE that points in the exact opposite direction. My all-time favorite dismissive response to something came in a long-archived Ron Paul thread on SA: "Good point. On the other hand, recorded history."
posted by Pope Guilty to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 4:35 PM
59 users marked this as a favorite

Good or bad are not useful concepts in discussing Michael Bay's films. "Exploded" or "not yet exploded" is useful, however.
posted by Astro Zombie to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 12:38 PM
54 users marked this as a favorite

My younger brother was excited about Transformers 2, made fun of me for suggesting that it might not be that great, and left the house last night expecting to enjoy it. When he returned, he said "The entire movie was like a woman with enormous breasts running in slow motion while behind her two blenders have non-consensual sex. Also the camera...
posted by Rinku to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 12:37 PM
53 users marked this as a favorite

Wow how things have changed. When I was 13 I was downloading MP3s from FTP sites that required ratios, converting them down to 64k (moving from stereo to mono), all so I could get twice as many songs on my 64MB Rio PMP350. The entire process was incredibly laborious. I think my entire library was about 300MB at the time, which drew a lot of &quo...
posted by geoff. to MetaFilter at Jun-29-09 at 7:52 AM
51 users marked this as a favorite

Yeah, Malice, except what about the times that birth control fails? What about the many, many women -- especially those who live in rural areas (and, obviously, are often part of a lower economic bracket) who don't have the benefit of a Planned Parenthood clinic around the corner? What about the teenager whose parents have preached abstinence-only,...
posted by shiu mai baby to MetaFilter at Jul-1-09 at 12:15 PM
50 users marked this as a favorite