MetaFilter

YouTube spending $1m per month, making $0 [less annoying version]
comment posted at 5:25 PM on Apr-29-06

OK - Lucas has pretty much ruined Star Wars for me. Still, lightsabers are freaking kewl with a capital K, and true to its title, this one is quite probably The Best Home Made Lightsaber Duel Ever. Man, I wish I was a Jedi!
comment posted at 5:12 PM on Apr-26-06

More map fun: The first world map of internet country codes. Large jpg here.
comment posted at 9:39 AM on Apr-21-06

Trek fans, geeks, meet your new leader!
Rick Berman is out, out, out. JJ Abrams, with Paramount's blessing, is taking over Star Trek for an eleventh journey to the big screen which will apparently have a "Kirk and Spock: The Early Years" flavor.
comment posted at 8:21 AM on Apr-21-06
comment posted at 8:26 AM on Apr-21-06

Teenage art students in Portage County, Ohio tried to create a public art project by placing life-size "question boxes" from Super Mario Bros. around town. The result? The bomb squad was called in, and for a few days authorities contemplated pressing charges against the teens. (via wigu)
comment posted at 7:42 AM on Apr-14-06

Meet the new New York Times. After five years, the most popular newspaper on the web has gotten a facelift. Joining a recent web design trend towards optimizing for wider screens, they've gone for no fewer than six columns on the front page. And while I wouldn't look for a wiki any time soon, they seem to be giving a nod to the web 2.0 crowd with javascipty scrollable image bars and prominent links to recent video (hello, YouTube) and current rankings of their most popular, most emailed and most blogged articles (hello, Technorati). The new Times Topics aggregate articles (and multimedia) from across the site, along with background info (hello, Wikipedia). All the more impressive, considering the head of their design team (who also redid The Onion!) was hired just three months ago. Of course, Mickey Kaus will still see this as proof that Sulzburger should be fired.
comment posted at 10:30 AM on Apr-3-06
comment posted at 12:41 PM on Apr-3-06

Star Wars in 2008? Rick Mccallum, producer of all six Star Wars movies and the franchise's only tv series to date, has told BBC Radio that he and George Lucas are set to do a Luke Skywalker tv series which should debut in 2008. Supposedly there will be at least 100 episodes covering the first 20 years of the young Jedi's life. It's not the first time there's been talk of taking Star Wars to tv.
comment posted at 6:24 PM on Mar-21-06

Metafilter posts its 50,000th post today. Congrats Metafilter! Here is to 50,000 more!
comment posted at 1:05 PM on Mar-13-06

3Hive has been rocking my face off for like a solid hour. I higly recommend the mp3's by the Hotel Lights, The M's, and Ex-Boyfriends. 3Hive has been on metafilter before, but its been more than a year. Tons of new stuff.
comment posted at 12:56 PM on Feb-16-06

Properly Chilled, "a great guide to the downtempo music scene/lifestyle, spotlighting not only the essential release reviews, label/artist profiles and other data on the genre but also exclusive DJ mixes and all kinds of other goodies" (via). Check out the totally free, totally chill Radio Jazztronica #3 mix from DJ Chicken George. It's 55+ minutes of "unpredictable, energetic and heart-felt" downtempo that packs a serious punch. Did I mention it's free?
comment posted at 2:55 PM on Feb-8-06

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly, specialization is for insects."

Robert A. Heinlein, "Time Enough For Love"
comment posted at 9:34 PM on Jan-28-06

We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."
comment posted at 9:41 PM on Jan-28-06

Top Ten Sources takes posts from RSS feeds and aggregates them in full for the public to see. Some take offence; some say it goes beyond expected usage; some call it plagiarism - others say it's legal, that detractors should get a life or are even thinking about investing. Some people don't appear to want their RSS feeds to be aggregated at all. Will this discussion set blogging policy for the future? Or will it block the web 2.0 pipe?
comment posted at 3:20 PM on Jan-19-06

Draw Batgirl. Jamie Dee Galey decided to draw Batgirl and post it on his livejournal site. And thus a meme was born. The list of LiveJournalers who have joined him keeps growing and growing. Many of them are pretty good!
comment posted at 10:24 AM on Jan-14-06

Re-Introducing the Real Windows Vista Bill Gates' demo of Vista from the CES show dubbed over footage of OS X. Apple told Microsoft to start their photocopiers and it looks like they did. [via]
comment posted at 6:16 PM on Jan-9-06

Futurama is probably coming back.
comment posted at 10:45 PM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 8:46 AM on Jan-6-06

BBC Open News Archive Eighty iconic news reports available in a variety of formats. Here is the full directory. For another example of the cool things Auntie as been offering lately, see the downloadable mp3 commentary for the Christmas episode of Doctor Who.
comment posted at 1:44 PM on Dec-30-05
comment posted at 7:24 PM on Dec-30-05

Is it too early to start throwing out the phrase "Kong Bomb?" Is Peter Jackson the next Michael Cimino?
comment posted at 5:22 PM on Dec-17-05

Bound For Glory: Color Photographs from the FSA The first major exhibition of The little known color images taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information. These vivid scenes and portraits capture the effects of the Depression on America's rural and small town populations, the nation's subsequent economic recovery and industrial growth, and the country's great mobilization for World War II. --- Taken from when Kodachrome Film was just being developed, the pictures document life in color during the depresssion era US. We're so used to seeing FSA photos in black and white; seeing them in color is just surreal.
comment posted at 4:28 PM on Dec-13-05

Like to listen to the ATC radio chatter while on long flights? Well now you can do it in the comfort of your own home.
comment posted at 1:11 PM on Dec-10-05

Big Eye in the Sky. A collection of absolutely incredible 360 degree panoramas by St. Paul photographer Ed Fink of the Twin Cities, Mt. Rushmore, the Post-Katrina Gulf Coast and more. He claims to be the first photographer in the world to do full spherical (180 x 360) panoramas from a helicopter. The effect is truly spectacular. Those with vertigo beware.
comment posted at 11:02 AM on Dec-8-05

Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter 2 has too much dialog, but once it get's going, it totaly kicks ass.
comment posted at 9:28 PM on Dec-2-05

A good film to watch BEFORE you bust out that turkey deep fryer for Thanksgiving tomorrow [12.7MB mpg file]. I've never eaten this delicacy nor seen one of these things used but after a moment's thought, it's not surprising just how dangerous they are. Be safe tomorrow, ye deep-fry eaters. [via Bifurcated Rivets]
comment posted at 12:15 AM on Nov-24-05

Dr Who - The Second Key. Original Dr Who strips made with photographed dolls and speech balloons.
comment posted at 7:09 AM on Nov-18-05

a few thousand science fiction covers is a flash presentation of thousands of SF magazine covers from the fifties through today, arranged chronologically from left to right, and grouped by color from top to bottom.
comment posted at 8:24 PM on Oct-18-05

Explosion Over the N-Word When Kanye West blasted President Bush’s treatment of poor black people in New Orleans after Katrina hit, the rapper unintentionally set off a hurricane of words in Florida. The Independent Florida Alligator, the student newspaper, ran a cartoon last week that criticized West’s statements by showing him holding a large playing card marked “The Race Card,” and having Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, exclaim with scorn at West: “Nigga Please!”
comment posted at 10:13 AM on Sep-20-05

Some of the best still images of what remains in Hurricane Katrina's wake are up over at the Washington Post; there are a lot of compelling shots there that put into perspective the horror of the situation. If you're looking for a well-edited group of photos that convey what the Gulf coast has faced over the past few days, and will face in the coming months, this is it; I'm in awe of the photographers that continue to work hard to document the disaster.
comment posted at 9:40 PM on Sep-1-05

Black people loot, white people borrow. Racist photo captions by Yahoo News/AP illuminate more than Katrina's aftermath. If these pictures are taken down, there are mirrors right here.
comment posted at 4:59 PM on Aug-30-05
comment posted at 5:11 PM on Aug-30-05
comment posted at 6:05 PM on Aug-30-05

Critical Mass in Milwaukee ran into some "problems" with police on the July 29th ride: “I unfortunately chose to lock my bike with a friend and go see what was happening with the group who had been stopped at the yellow light. I ran down the street just in time to see police tackle a man on a bike who had a baby carriage attached to end of his bike. After he was pulled to the ground another officer violently pushed over his baby carriage with the baby inside,” More coverage and some photos.
comment posted at 7:00 PM on Aug-24-05

Comic Strip Generator. Slovene/English dual language site [Flash] that allows you to generate your own comics from a pregenerated set of people and objects. You can also view other people's creations.
comment posted at 5:48 PM on Aug-11-05

First National Lampoon does a "parody" of the bumps on Cartoon Network's popular Adult Swim programming block. Then G4's Attack of the Show responded (and the editor of the Lampoon's site responds in the comments -- look for posts by JayPink), and then Adult Swim themselves did on Sunday (Flash re-creation of the aired bump). Main link NSFW/those with a sense of humor
comment posted at 8:00 AM on Aug-9-05

I wonder if Odetta will sing backup on "Debaser". The Pixies will do their first acoustic set ever this summer, and what more appropriate place than where Dylan plugged in and changed the rules? That's right, Newport, baby!
comment posted at 9:35 PM on Jun-16-05

Ikaruga putting you to sleep? Battletoads as challenging as Animal Crossing? If so, consider saving up for an XBox and/or Ninja Gaiden Black, expansion-of-sorts to the infamous Ninja Gaiden (the game so hard it kills your friends). Due out in September, the game's creator claims in an interview that roughly 1% of American players will complete the game's new "Master Ninja" difficulty. You can read the rest of the interview here or grab the outlandishly large trailer. Is there a legitimate demand for games this challenging, or is this just a case of misguided "difficult==better" thinking?
comment posted at 1:46 PM on Jun-7-05

42. I had always wondered why Jim Henson did The Muppet Show in England, after years of successful collaboration with The Children's Television Network in NYC. As a then 9-year old, I felt a kind of betrayal that I couldn't exactly put my finger on. As some little punk kid, what did I know about the financing of entertainment?

This analysis of The Jim Henson Co. as a globe-trotting band of gypsies goes a long way to explain the oddness of The Muppet Show and the change in tone that resulted when the puppets moved from Sesame Street to Lew Grade's London soundstages.
comment posted at 9:43 AM on May-6-05

Back In Black, Bold, Semibold, Roman, and Light: Ever wanted to write your name in the font The Scorpions used? Or make your wedding announcements in the AC/DC font? Maybe you'd like to create nametags with the official Ozzy font? Here are all the rock fonts you'll ever need, all for free.
comment posted at 6:27 PM on Feb-16-05

43 Amazon Things? Merlin Mann posted a link to a Salon article (registration required, watch an ad) that indicated that 43things is funded by Amazon. What does it mean? What would they do with people's 43 things?
comment posted at 5:22 PM on Feb-9-05
comment posted at 10:43 PM on Feb-9-05

Only Connect. NAI! The story of technological breakdown, a failure of true love, and how an Internet service non-provider ruined my life. Here's a choice quote, "The technician, as always, was very nice. He couldn't figure out why my password wasn't working, but he did go to the Web site himself to access my account and read my e-mails to me. Privacy was not an issue. At this point in my shipwrecked existence I was beyond trying to cling to any shred of dignity."
comment posted at 10:12 AM on Feb-4-05

Do you dig the Mad Ape Den? It is a fun and new dot com to jot wee lit. I beg you, cop the Mad Ape Den gig if you jot in our web gab box.
comment posted at 2:36 PM on Jan-21-05

Why is Red Peters not famous like George Carlin, for example? When you hear his famous songs "Ballad of a Dog Named Stains" or "Blow Me (You Hardly Even Know Me)", you know he’s an unrecognized genius. More on "I Laughed, I Cried, I Fudged My Undies”. Short Amazon introductory clips here
comment posted at 9:33 AM on Jan-17-05

Jeffrey Rowland, creator of Wigu, author of I Was a Teenage Billionaire Psychopath, and owner of a brilliant illustrated blog, has unveiled his newest project - the TV Network Channel.
comment posted at 9:31 AM on Jan-17-05

Will Eisner Dies at age 86 The father of the modern Graphic Novel and hugely influential comics figure has died today from heart surgery complications. His concept of Sequential Art helped move comics out of the idea of being solely "kid's stuff" and was seen as a cannon in the comic art world. He was working on a book called "The Plot" due out later this year. He will be missed. More info and Eisner Bio at Newsarama
comment posted at 9:17 AM on Jan-4-05

No artist's palette was found in the studio and the artist appears to have used just about anything he could find as a substitute. Even the walls of the studio itself were used to mix and test paints.
comment posted at 12:59 AM on Dec-14-04

self-reference in song led me to self-reference in story, to quines in brainf**k, also alarm clocks for some reason, and finally here.
comment posted at 8:20 PM on Dec-10-04