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Popular posts RSS feed and comments RSS feed from across all sites, marked as a favorite most often in the past seven days.

What single book is the best introduction to your field (or specialization within your field) for laypeople?

What single book is the best introduction to your field (or specialization within your field) for laypeople?
posted by limon to Ask MetaFilter at Sep 8 at 5:40 PM
132 users marked this as a favorite

Bergen to Oslo from your armchair

On 27th November, Norwegian broadcaster NRK broadcast a 7.5 hour documentary showing every minute of the scenic train ride between Bergen on the Norwegian west coast, crossing the mountains to Oslo. Now, after removing all extraneous interviews, music clips and fancy trickery from the documentary, they are offering the entire, clean, 7 hour continuous front-camera version for free Creative Commons download. All 22Gb of it. Here's a fantastic 10 minute taster on YouTube.
posted by Beautiful Screaming Lady to MetaFilter at Dec 21 at 8:25 PM
129 users marked this as a favorite

Donald Barthelme’s Syllabus

Donald Barthelme’s Syllabus: I was given secondhand a list of eighty-one books, the recommendations of Donald Barthelme to his students. Barthelme’s only guidance ... was to attack the books “in no particular order, just read them.” Two of the books, Knut Hamsun’s Hunger and Flaubert’s Letters (numbers 15, 40), were written in the twentieth century, most in the past thirty years. And all have that dizzying sense of otherness and surprise common to great books, an affluence of vitality. There’s not a dull read in the group.
posted by geoff. to MetaFilter at Dec 22 at 7:14 AM
119 users marked this as a favorite

What are the world's best essays?

Inspired by Ask MeFi's most popular thread ever, what are the best essays you can recommend?
posted by Lifeson to Ask MetaFilter at Dec 17 at 9:00 AM
118 users marked this as a favorite

The Gauntlet Has Been Dropped.

Last week students of Shorecrest High School (Shoreline, WA) posted a video of their 'one-take' lip dub of Outkast's hit "Hey Ya" and then challenged their crosstown rival, Shorewood High School, to beat their video. Shorewood accepted the challenge and posted their 'one take' lip dub -- filmed in reverse -- to the Hall and Oates hit "You Make My Dreams Come True" (recently highlighted as a dance sequence in this past summer film '500 Days of Summer [autoplay muisc]. ' Debate is raging online about whose video came out on top, but there's no doubt: Shorewood rose to the challenge."
posted by ericb to MetaFilter at Dec 18 at 1:03 PM
106 users marked this as a favorite

Update on my daughter's broken back.

After our daughter was nearly killed back in April, we all struggled to find a way for her to heal both physically and emotionally. We found the answer halfway around the world.
posted by clarkstonian to MetaTalk at Dec 22 at 4:12 PM
104 users marked this as a favorite

What can I add to my spaghetti?

Help me improve my spaghetti.
posted by pseudonick to Ask MetaFilter at Dec 16 at 6:47 PM
92 users marked this as a favorite

I mean, how much more could you possibly fuck up the entire backstory to Star Wars?


How can I become more of a closet dirty hippie?

I don't wear deodorant, wash my hair, or run in shoes. What else can I stop doing?
posted by cmoj to Ask MetaFilter at Dec 20 at 3:19 PM
83 users marked this as a favorite

Music That Changed The World


Feynman at his best

"Fun To Imagine" is a BBC series from 1983 featuring theoretical physicist Richard Feynman thinking aloud. What is fire? How do rubber bands work? Why do mirrors flip left-right but not up-down? All is explained in his lovely meanderingly lucid manner.
posted by mhjb to MetaFilter at Dec 15 at 11:07 PM
80 users marked this as a favorite

Prisencolinensinainciusol - Ol Raight!


Help me develop confidence, sprezzatura, nonchalance

Help me develop sprezzatura, the art of "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it." The "zen valedictorian" approach, but applied outside of a school setting. Or old-style Hollywood glamour, but updated for our millennium.
posted by Anonymous to Ask MetaFilter at Dec 19 at 2:15 PM
70 users marked this as a favorite

Perfect Prime Rib


Great Cookies!


The Known Universe

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.
posted by srboisvert to MetaFilter at Dec 19 at 1:29 AM
59 users marked this as a favorite

he of the weird al hair and santa claus beard

R.Sapolsky on the uniqueness of humans in relation to the rest of the animal world (via)
posted by kliuless to MetaFilter at Dec 20 at 6:14 PM
55 users marked this as a favorite

VegetarianFilter: Give me your best veg taco recipes and tips!

VegetarianFilter: Give me your best veg taco recipes and tips!
posted by pghjezebel to Ask MetaFilter at Dec 19 at 10:31 AM
50 users marked this as a favorite

Regex Dictionary

Regex Dictionary - for those times when you want a web-based dictionary you can search with regular expressions.
posted by Wolfdog to MetaFilter at Dec 21 at 4:19 PM
49 users marked this as a favorite

Designing Space Fighters & Marines

The Physics of Space Battles "I had a discussion recently with friends about the various depictions of space combat in science fiction movies, TV shows, and books. We have the fighter-plane engagements of Star Wars, the subdued, two-dimensional naval combat in Star Trek, the Newtonian planes of Battlestar Galactica, the staggeringly furious energy exchanges of the combat wasps in Peter Hamilton's books, and the use of antimatter rocket engines themselves as weapons in other sci-fi. But suppose we get out there, go terraform Mars, and the Martian colonists actually revolt. Or suppose we encounter hostile aliens. How would space combat actually go?"
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey to MetaFilter at Dec 17 at 3:11 PM
48 users marked this as a favorite

throwing snowballs at a moving car? Idiots. Yes. Yes. That's the crucial major issue in American culture that is highlighted by this incident. Exactly.
posted by game warden to the events rhino to MetaFilter at Dec 20 at 6:32 AM
150 users marked this as a favorite

You're surrounded by morons. Pity their future partners.
posted by iamabot to Ask MetaFilter at Dec 21 at 11:05 PM
140 users marked this as a favorite

I wouldn't print that card. BECAUSE IT'S FUCKING CREEPY.
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter at Dec 17 at 9:39 AM
135 users marked this as a favorite

Is this the thread where I come out to MetaFilter as transgender? I think it is. *takes a deep breath* Forgive me, but I'm about to do a brave, terrible, painful thing. But I doubt it'll hurt me any more than I've hurt myself over the years and the truth can only set me free. I am very fortunate to have a lot of friends here that already know...
posted by loquacious to MetaFilter at Dec 22 at 11:57 AM
119 users marked this as a favorite

Uhh, guys, cops pulling a gun is not something that is excusable because they are "hot under the collar." In fact, it's REALLY important that cops DON'T pull their guns just because they are "hot under the collar." It's kind of like, lesson one in cop school. We let them carry guns because they are trained enough not to just ...
posted by furiousxgeorge to MetaFilter at Dec 20 at 7:20 AM
116 users marked this as a favorite

I remember when I took a few radio classes at Local Community College a while back. It seemed like a neat thing to get into and I've always been enchanted by the "magic" of radio, so why not? I remember the very day that our professor (a relatively famous local DJ) laid it all out for us: 1) This is not a business for people who lik...
posted by Avenger to MetaFilter at Dec 20 at 8:19 PM
102 users marked this as a favorite

My kid used to play it, until I saw all the Nazi symbolism, and the totally gratuitous violence. This game is why some people think video games are trash. Gods bless you and keep you, theora55; you are the reason teenage rebellion will never get old.
posted by Greg Nog to MetaFilter at Dec 22 at 7:30 AM
97 users marked this as a favorite

Is it just me or do we Americans have some pathological fear that someone, somewhere, is cheating the system? No. Americans have a pathological fear of what they perceive as someone having it off better than you. This is why we hate unions, health care, and illegal immigrants, and blindly support regressive taxes because we dream of ourselves ...
posted by XQUZYPHYR to MetaFilter at Dec 17 at 6:41 AM
93 users marked this as a favorite

FIIIIIIIVE MOOOOOOD THREAD! Four flame outs Three Self-links Two You-tube Posts And a dick in a chicken for me. sorry
posted by The Whelk to MetaTalk at Dec 16 at 8:55 AM
88 users marked this as a favorite

The following post contains Too Much Information. You've been warned. In the years I've been coming to this place, Metafilter has affected my life in a lot of ways. It's opened my mind and changed my views on a lot of things. It's helped me find anniversary gifts for my wife, helped me pursue an honest to god ADD diagnosis from a professional...
posted by bondcliff to MetaFilter at Dec 16 at 11:11 AM
84 users marked this as a favorite

There aren't any planets named Pluto. How about Pluto?
posted by Joe Beese to MetaFilter at Dec 16 at 3:44 PM
82 users marked this as a favorite

I was, until this very moment, utterly and completely unaware that people were even anatomically capable of wiping their asses while standing up.
posted by Baby_Balrog to MetaFilter at Dec 16 at 10:35 AM
79 users marked this as a favorite

The article is serious hagiography, and feels out of place on Jezebel. The author tries to place some blame on the Hollywood starlet machine, but Murphy had a live career until she started trashing it herself. All we know is that a woman who gave much of her life and herself to millions of strangers through her performances is dead at the age o...
posted by fatbird to MetaFilter at Dec 20 at 4:36 PM
76 users marked this as a favorite

I love you man, but my first reaction to being accused of anti-semitism would not be to make a front page post about how jews are stealing organs.
posted by empath to MetaTalk at Dec 20 at 9:53 PM
73 users marked this as a favorite

Um... Why would he take it "badly"? I mean, I doubt that any rational human being would think there's a line of code in HP's software that says, "Ignore all black people!" In my mind, the development work is done in the United States, and the QA testing is done in India, and QA keeps filing bugs that the face tracking softwar...
posted by davejay to MetaFilter at Dec 20 at 11:44 PM
69 users marked this as a favorite

I keep a notecard my the computer for when I'm actually working and think of something offline that I'd like to do but can't at the moment. This drives my offline time. Here are some things on that list. Some of them have online components, but they're directed, not just aimless clicking. - read books - return library books - cook dinner - ba...
posted by jessamyn to Ask MetaFilter at Dec 17 at 2:23 PM
69 users marked this as a favorite

No. Don't listen to these people. They do not know what the hell they are talking about.
posted by iamkimiam to Ask MetaFilter at Dec 21 at 11:04 PM
69 users marked this as a favorite

I wish I'd seen this a couple of weeks ago. *sigh* I'm picturing you sitting on the curb outside the smoldering remains of your home. Both your face and the sky are streaked with smears of black ash. The sun barely shines, its light reaching feebly through the gnarled tree limbs that once shielded your home. In the distance, a dog howls, but...
posted by robocop is bleeding to MetaFilter at Dec 18 at 9:58 AM
61 users marked this as a favorite

It looks like you are trying to quell an insurgency. Would you like some help?
posted by fire&wings to MetaFilter at Dec 17 at 8:51 AM
59 users marked this as a favorite

DTMFA. I am amazed at all these relationship posts where the OP is willing to turn a blind eye to or excuse a galling series of trespasses for some reason or another. Lying to you? DTMFA. Cheating on you? DTMFA. Stealing from you? DTMFA. The list goes on and on and on. People of AskMe: Having a trusting, supportive and kind relationshi...
posted by Admiral Haddock to Ask MetaFilter at Dec 18 at 3:05 PM
59 users marked this as a favorite