"Entering into one of the fiercest competitions in existence, I found art."
Sixteen mushers. 120 dogs. An adventure across one of the longest mushing trails in the world: the Beringia, a dog sled race stretching 683 miles across eastern Russia.
Twilight on the Tundra [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Nov 28, 2012 -
8 comments
A chance of a lifetime for aspiring filmmakers:
Kevin Spacey stars in three scripts from the Jameson-sponsored First Shot contest. In the phenomenal
The Ventriloquist a ventriloquist and his dummy are having a hard time relating to each other and humanity; in
The Envelope, a Russian man's hobby fulfills his purpose; and in
Spirit of a Denture a mild-mannered dentist faces off with a difficult patient.
posted by jocelmeow
on Jun 8, 2012 -
18 comments
The Eurovision Song Contest 2012's first semi-final begins tomorrow at 3 PM EST (12 PM PST).
Watch it online, and listen to the songs (below the jump).
[more inside]
posted by LSK
on May 21, 2012 -
204 comments
CBC Radio's
Day 6 is holding a
contest to break, in one sentence, all of Elmore Leonard's 10 writing rules.
posted by anothermug
on Jan 28, 2012 -
50 comments
SLYT: Brenda Hewlett: 5'3", 59 years old, has never held a hockey stick before. At an Akwesasne Warriors hockey game, however, she finally did hold a hockey stick in an attempt to win a new Ford truck by shooting a puck at a goal from 114 feet away.
You probably see where this is going. [more inside]
posted by schleppo
on Dec 27, 2011 -
65 comments
Amp Radio Calgary's controversial "Breast Summer Contest Ever", which provoked complaints to the Ad Standards Council and the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, has
awarded its prize of $10,000 towards breast augmentation surgery to Avery Mitchell, a 23-year-old transgendered woman. Mitchell received 76% online votes in the contest, supported by notorious "boobies"-loving website
FARK.com.
posted by Zozo
on Jul 21, 2011 -
27 comments
Marissa is an adorable toddler with a rare and terrible medical problem:
West Syndrome, a.k.a. infantile spasms. Her father Mike has been active in the online Special Needs community, chronicling her story for years now at his blog
Marissa's Bunny. Last year, his readers raised almost $30,000 through a ChipIn fundraiser to offset the costs of Marissa's neurosurgery. As a sort of 'thank you', and with the help of matching funds from his employers, Mike
offered to give away and/or raffle 40 iPads to the special needs kids of his blogger friends, to be used as assistive technology devices for many of their non-verbal kids. This follows on the heels of several other
iPad raffles he's held in the past year.
Guess what happened next. The Special Needs Parenting blog community is on the case:
Ellen Seidman (and her commenters),
Rob Rummel-Hudson,
Sarah and Joyce Hely,
Shannon Des Roches Rosa and others are putting together the pieces right now.
(previously on MetaFilter: the unravelings of Kaycee Nicole, JT LeRoy, Kodee Kennings, Alexa DiCarlo, and Amina Arraf)
posted by Asparagirl
on Jul 18, 2011 -
183 comments
"
Challenge: Create a game. The game can be of any theme or genre you desire, but there is one restriction: You're creating a 'new classic,' like Chess, Tag or card games. So, create a game to be enjoyed by generations of players for a thousand years.
Prize: $1,000 to the winning entrant, to be announced and awarded January 1, 2012."
Daniel Solis'
Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge.
[more inside]
posted by bayani
on May 23, 2011 -
61 comments
It's that time of year again! Time to vote for the
2011 Name of the Year! This year's contestants include such heavyweights as Col. Many-Bears Grinder, Ebenezer Noonoo, Yolanda Supersad, RexAchilles Imperial, and La'Peaches Pitts.
[more inside]
posted by eugenen
on Apr 5, 2011 -
61 comments
The International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge 2010 - "Researchers are generating mind-boggling volumes of data at exponentially increasing rates. The ability to process that information and display it in ways that enhance understanding is an increasingly important aspect of the way scientists communicate with each other and—especially—with students and the general public. That's why, for the past 8 years, Science and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) have co-sponsored annual challenges to promote cutting-edge efforts to visualize scientific data, principles, and ideas.
This year's awardees span scales from nanoparticles to colliding galaxies, and from microseconds to millennia."
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Feb 19, 2011 -
9 comments
Google is known to ask the following question in job interviews:
In a country in which people only want boys every family continues to have children until they have a boy. If they have a girl, they have another child. If they have a boy, they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country? Think you know the answer?
If so, Steve Landsburg may be willing to bet you up to $5000. [more inside]
posted by gsteff
on Jan 1, 2011 -
279 comments
10k Apart — Fond memories of the 5K Awards resurface with this modern spin on the idea. It’s time to get back to basics — back to optimizing every little byte like your life depends on it. Your challenge? Build a web app in less than 10 kilobytes.
posted by netbros
on Aug 2, 2010 -
29 comments
March Madness just got a little crazier... It's this year's
Name of the Year ballot! Names are submitted, verified to be real, then put in an NCAA-style bracket. Nohjay Nimpson might be a favorite this year, but I think Pepi Hamburger is going to be the dark horse. Voting for your favorites starts soon.
Previous winners.
Previously on MeFi.
posted by battlebison
on Mar 24, 2010 -
30 comments
Voting has now closed in the
NYC BigApps Challenge, a $20,000 contest to produce amusing, interesting, or even useful apps using the information in the
NYC DataMine.
Browse the eligible submissions here. Some highlights:
Taxihack: collects e-mailed and tweeted comments on NYC cabs, by medallion or license number.
Clean.ly: Did the restaurant across the street pass its last health inspection?
Walkshed: You tell Walkshed what kind of amenities you'd like to be within walking distance of, and the app makes you a heat map showing your most walkable neighborhoods.
SmartPark: Locates nearby garages and collects social information about available street parking. Buzzes you when it's time to move your car.
Trees Near You: Does what it says on the box.
(via
Indirect Collaboration.)
posted by escabeche
on Jan 8, 2010 -
13 comments
"To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet, DARPA has announced the
DARPA Network Challenge.... The challenge is to be the first to submit the locations of ten moored, 8 foot, red weather balloons located at ten fixed locations in the continental United States. Balloons will be in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roadways." Teams must register by December 1st and have two weeks to submit balloon locations.
[more inside]
posted by jessamyn
on Nov 2, 2009 -
108 comments
We're all familiar with the thrilling, pulse-pounding, edge-of-your-seat spectacle that is Chantal Akerman's
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (
Essay containing spoilers), and we've all run out to buy the new
Criterion Collection DVD, and of course, we often spend our time fantasizing about what it would be like to lead the glamorous roller-coaster ride that is Ms. Dielman's life. Well, now you can make those fantasies a reality:
"In honor of the release of Jeanne Dielman on DVD, we’re sponsoring the world’s first Jeanne Dielman–Criterion Collection Cooking Video Contest. Make a video of yourself (or someone else) cooking 1) meat loaf, 2) cutlets, or 3) potatoes, and upload it as a video response to Jeanne Dielman–Criterion Collection Cooking Video Contest on YouTube."
posted by Greg Nog
on Sep 1, 2009 -
27 comments
