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How To Eat is a regular column at The Guardian. Today, they took on spag bol And there is no chance that could end well. The links are good, though. Sauce of controversy, THE SPOON QUESTION, OR HOW TO EAT PASTA LIKE AN EXPERT, and more
comment posted at 10:33 AM on Jan-29-21
comment posted at 11:26 AM on Jan-29-21

On their 1993 album Kingdom, techno-hippies Ultramarine recruited Robert Wyatt to sing two songs from a radical and lost English past.
comment posted at 2:45 AM on Jan-7-20

It's the end of May and the end of May, but of Brexit bafflement there is no end. With the UK's beleaguered prime minister Theresa May throwing in the towel and triggering a Tory leadership race, the EU parliamentary elections reflecting wild division and disillusion, and all other UK politics at a dead stop, what happens next?
comment posted at 4:41 AM on Jun-2-19
comment posted at 7:19 AM on Jun-2-19

"He made a comment about having a friend while he was in the woods -- his friend was a bear," Maj. David McFadyen with the Craven County Sheriff's Office told CNN Monday. "In the emergency room he started talking about what happened in the woods and he said he had a friend that was a bear with him while he was in the woods."
comment posted at 5:26 AM on Jan-30-19

Land of the Strays is a short documentary about Lya Battle and her dog sanctuary in Costa Rica. (Previously)
comment posted at 7:44 AM on Aug-7-18

MeFi's own mhoye has a question: What is the least plausible story about yourself that's true? It has gone viral, with thousands of replies and quote-tweets.
comment posted at 11:52 AM on Jun-26-18

Live from Omaha, here's a terrible pitch for a conservative Saturday Night Live
comment posted at 1:40 AM on Jun-8-18

Monkeys are stealing tourist's things to barter for food. Clever things.
comment posted at 4:29 AM on Jun-5-17

In 1993, UK music collective Beautiful People released Rilly Groovy [official video], the first single from the electronica/EDM/house album If 60s Were 90s, an album built largely around Jimi Hendrix samples.
comment posted at 2:12 PM on Feb-18-17
comment posted at 2:14 PM on Feb-18-17

In seven days, Donald J. Trump is due to be inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America. What happens next?
comment posted at 6:15 AM on Jan-17-17

At an October budget hearing Howard Brookins, alderman for Chicago's 21st Ward, asked an animal control official what could be done about aggressive squirrels. He didn't know he'd pay for it with a fractured skull, broken nose, and six teeth.
comment posted at 2:02 PM on Nov-23-16

Enigma - MCMXC a.D.. I don't know what the producers of this album were thinking, but obviously one should never put this album on during sex.
comment posted at 2:59 AM on Oct-1-16

Baby rhinos do not sound like what you think they sound like (SLYT)
comment posted at 4:17 AM on Feb-16-16

Writing for Thump, at Vice, Angus Harrison beanplates deconstructs, lengthily, Four Tet's remix of Opus by Eric Prydz. Four Tet previously; Eric Prydz previously, 2.
comment posted at 12:54 AM on Jan-12-16

12 games to play on Christmas day (or thereabouts), from Dr David King, a lecturer in games design and specialist in physical computing at the University of the Arts London.
comment posted at 6:00 AM on Dec-2-15

Sources can be tricky things. The Daily Mail doesn't have the greatest reputation. Lord Ashcroft is a Tory billionaire with a grudge against David Cameron. And so far they are the only sources for this one. That said, judge for yourself:

Prime Minister David Cameron ‘put a private part of his anatomy’ into a dead pig’s mouth .

(Over on Twitter, as you might have guessed, it's Christmas.)
comment posted at 2:33 AM on Sep-21-15

Doctors often say that you shouldn't use cotton swabs like Q-Tips to clean out your ears because you risk damaging the ear drum. But in that case, why does it feel so good? After all, people around the world have been using picks, candles, rakes, scoops, and swabs to clear out the wax for centuries. Turns out that while a build-up of wax can cause deafness, manually scooping that wax often shoves it further down the ear canal and makes everything worse. Worse, removing that wax makes your ears feel itchy--which makes every go-around with the old Q-Tip feel that much more satisfying. Previously.
comment posted at 6:15 AM on Sep-13-15

"A deleted scene from the Disney classic Frozen as directed by John Carpenter." (SLYT; colorful walls and language).
comment posted at 11:09 AM on Mar-29-15

Daevid Allen, founder of Soft Machine and Gong, died today at age 77. It's very hard to describe his music - space rock, jazz-rock, prog-rock or some weird combination of all of them, but there was nothing quite like it.
comment posted at 4:10 AM on Mar-14-15

...And I Don't Give A F**k About You. (SLYT - contains profanity)
comment posted at 3:09 AM on Mar-10-15

Britain's Co-Operative Funeralcare keeps records of their clients' requests and occasionally reports on “what's popular” at UK funerals. And their latest survey of “most requested music” (based on over 30,000 funerals) has a few surprises, starting with the song at #1: Eric Idle/Monty Python's “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, beating out Psalm 23 and “Abide With Me”. Also in the top ten: Frank Sinatra's “My Way” (although it may include the Elvis and Sid Vicious versions) and the theme from “Match of the Day”. There are also breakdowns by musical genre/style including Hymns, Classical, Film/TV, Sports and 'Humor', a category that includes the Python song as well as “Another One Bites the Dust” and “Don't Worry Be Happy”.
comment posted at 3:01 PM on Dec-4-14

FACT magazine runs down the 100 greatest horror soundtracks (that's a lot of horror soundtracks). Also, there's a companion streamable YouTube playlist.
comment posted at 9:34 AM on Oct-30-14

Heds will roll: Inappropriate but amusing headlines that never made it to print.
comment posted at 7:02 AM on Mar-21-14

Margaret Thatcher has died following a stroke her spokesman Lord Bell has said. Details are still coming out but the Iron Lady of British politics was and is a divisive figure even today. She will probably be best remembered for her role in the coal miner's strikes and the Falklands War. Her life in pictures is already online. The obituaries have been written for some time.
comment posted at 8:02 AM on Apr-8-13

His amazing music, ranging from haunting to groovy to velvety smooth, went barely noticed for most of his life. So it's oddly fitting that his death would pass barely noticed, too. Terry Callier died in Chicago last Saturday at age 67.
comment posted at 2:02 AM on Nov-2-12

There seems to be a recent golden age of genuinely terrifying indie horror games that experiment with new ways to upset you. Slender [PC/Mac, free], is based on the creepy Slender Man mythos and has been garnering rave reviews and videos of terrified reactions as you try to escape the being that draws ever closer. The 4th Wall [free or $1 on Xbox/PC] is a even more abstract take on existential dread. SCP Containment Breach [PC, free] features the very disturbing Sculpture (even the picture in that link will creep you out) from the SCP series, it follows another SCP game - The Staircase. And there is more - Which [PC, free] has you stumble in the dark; Ib [PC, free] places you in the shoes of a girl in an abandoned art gallery, and Candles [free, Win/Mac] is all about atmospherics. On top of that, there are some cheap independent commercial games that generate great scares, such as Lone Survivor [online demo] and the now-famous Amnesia: The Dark Descent [PC/Mac/Linux, $20], whose upcoming sequel A Machine for Pigs, may have the best title of any game.
comment posted at 6:56 AM on Aug-16-12

The long and rather surprising history of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, penned in 1957 by British singer/songwriter Ewan MacColl, has just taken another bold and dramatic turn with Erykah Badu and the Flaming Lips' starkly powerful cover of the song. Oh, and in the accompanying video, they've most certainly upped the ante as far as edgy eroticism in pop music goes, with Badu's sister Nayrok pushing the envelope into the stratosphere. Nota bene: explicit nudity. [NSFW]
comment posted at 5:41 AM on Jun-4-12

The Economist wants to know: Are four new translations of Homer’s “Iliad” a bit much? After nearly 3,000 years, does the “Iliad” really need translating again?
comment posted at 11:13 AM on Oct-22-11

jscott brings us a tale of the early days of the Playstation.
comment posted at 2:30 AM on May-12-11

Legendary disco and soul vocalist Loleatta Holloway passed away last night in Chicago, after a short illness. She was 64
comment posted at 9:27 AM on Mar-22-11

For many years the BBC had a tradition of showing a dramatisation of a classic ghost story at Christmas. This tradition is being continued this year with Whistle and I'll Come to You being shown tonight staring John Hurt. An adaptation of the same classic MR James story was shown in 1968 staring Michael Hordern beginning the tradition (1, 2, 3).
comment posted at 10:47 AM on Dec-25-10

Gil Scott-Heron, Godfather of Rap. Parts 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 and 6.
comment posted at 1:11 AM on Apr-17-10

For April Fool's Day, Wired's Game|Life goes over some of the meanest tricks games have done to their players. (note: spoilers)
comment posted at 2:18 AM on Apr-1-10

8 Unconvential Ways to Be "Buried." We've all heard about strange practices surrounding the remains of the deceased, but even I (who am morbid to a fault) hadn't been aware of half of these.
comment posted at 6:14 AM on Mar-10-10

Nik Turner was always hawking wasn't he? And he always had the most melodious wind.
comment posted at 1:24 AM on Mar-4-10

"Real Meals": Will Self's (relatively) new fortnightly restaurant column reviewing high street food outlets for The New Statesman. Thus far: McDonald's, KFC, Indian Restaurant, Starbucks, Subway.
comment posted at 9:26 AM on Nov-27-09

Journalism may be going through a painful period but thanks to the web the once lowly information graphic is finally growing up to be all it never could on paper. Especially the New York Times seems to currently stand out in how frequently and quickly they build amazingly detailed and insightful interactive features. Consider the tracking of US Airways Flight 1549 or the piece on raising its engine from the Hudson. Other recent highlights: 9,955,441 parking tickets issues in NYC mapped by street, The Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts 1986 — 2008, Ansel Adams's Yosemite, the view from the 10-meter platform explained, A look at the language of presidential inaugural addresses 1789 to the Present, A Map of the number of medals that countries won in summer Olympic Games, Going to the End of the Line, The 44 Places to go in 2009, an explanation of how the Pentagon responded to criticism of then-Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, The Soyuz Spacecraft, How the Towers Stood and Fell and many, many, more.
comment posted at 1:55 PM on Feb-14-09

From Steve Jackson to TSR to FASA to Mayfair - an awesome retrospective on the joys of microgames.
comment posted at 9:25 AM on Sep-23-08

Roald Dahl (1916-1990) is probably best known as one of the principal architects of the 20th century children’s fairy tale, with such sly, savage and addictive masterpieces as The Enormous Crocodile, The Witches, The BFG, and personal favourite The Twits.
comment posted at 4:47 AM on Jul-23-08

The 25 Greatest Electronic Albums of the 20th Century. From the instrument that was created by Leon Theremin, to the Moog Guitar that's been named after the legendary Bob Moog (the inventor of the Moog Synthesizer), Electronic music has come a long way since its early days. YouTube [a, b, (extreme caution advised: graphic images of death, destruction and 9/11 c), d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y] (Previously mentioned here, here, here, here, here and here)
comment posted at 4:37 AM on Jul-2-08

Hey Joe -- Hey Joe -- Hey Joe -- Hey Joe -- Hey Joe -- [please see hoverovers for link descriptions]
comment posted at 8:37 AM on May-28-08

The classic post-pub television program of the nineties, In Bed With Medinner had a simple format - Bob Mills would present and comment on clips from the many documentaries he had made over the years.
comment posted at 5:42 AM on May-22-08

New hope for a deadly disease. Marfan syndrome strikes 1 in 5000. Did Lincoln have this disease? Previously discussed here.
comment posted at 5:44 AM on May-13-08

Lies I've told my three year old recently.
comment posted at 5:06 AM on Apr-10-08

Flirting with the Forbidden, for centuries, Romans and French have enjoyed the pleasures of a unique songbird. Once caught, this tiny bunting is kept in a small cage, where its eyes are poked out. It is then force fed oats, millet, and figs until it's plumped up to four times its size. It is subsequently drowned alive in cognac, roasted at high heat, then served as an exquisite - and illegal - meal. Traditionally the diner enjoys this delicacy - approximately the size of a human thumb - underneath an embroidered napkin. The head is bitten off, the entire body eaten in one crunchy bite. Said to embody the "soul of France," it was, reportedly, the last meal of Francois Mitterrand. Writer Michael Paterniti recreates the experience of dining on l'ortolan, superbly told in an episode of "This American Life."
comment posted at 7:35 AM on Feb-21-08
comment posted at 3:57 AM on Feb-22-08
comment posted at 10:35 AM on Feb-22-08