Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government? This week, CNN interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone calls between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his wife. Clemente stated that the FBI had ways of accessing those calls, and that all calls are recorded. [more inside]
posted by benbenson on May 5, 2013 - 175 comments

Greatest calls in sports is a selection of 32 great calls in broadcast sports, chosen by Joe Posnanski, obviously US-centric but featuring some good choices. Want some elation this Friday? [more inside]
posted by LobsterMitten on Oct 15, 2010 - 47 comments

So^* you want to learn the Language of Birds? There's the mnemonic route and the youtube guide. You can listen to the birds in your local habitat or geographic area: New York State^**, Florida, Southwestern US, Tropical America^***, for example. Or, just find your favorite bird out of 104,517 audio and 33,693 video samples at Cornell's Macaulay Library, and listen. [more inside]
posted by not_on_display on Jun 16, 2009 - 19 comments

Future Phone: Call a number in Iowa, give them the international number you want to call, talk for free - well, at American long-distance rates anyway. No headphones required.
posted by trinarian on Oct 20, 2006 - 23 comments

Skype now provides free calls to all landlines and cellphones in the US and Canada. A milestone in the telecommunications revolution.
posted by bobbyelliott on May 15, 2006 - 51 comments

Owls are rad. Sometimes they look kind of metallic and scary, sometimes wise, sometimes puzzled, and sometimes like skulls, (Index); sometimes they sound like dogs or pigs, sometimes they sound like a little train, sometimes they sound alarmed, (Index of MP3s); sometimes you come across an extensive gallery of Central and North American owls with pictures, ranges, video, and even a description of the '04-'05 Northern Owl Invasion; sometimes it's a dynamic range map of Owls of the Western Hemisphere; sometimes it's the OwlCam homepage with downloadable owl movies, sometimes it's a series of articles on all things owl; sometimes at BiologyBase it's a printable owl sighting lifelist, sometimes it's Ruru, the morepork, New Zealand's native owl at NZBirds. Or, w0t! w0t!, it's attracting barn owls and building nest boxes at World Owl Trust. Previous MeFi birding FPP.
posted by OmieWise on Mar 28, 2006 - 34 comments

Why you yellow rat bastard...When I get ahold of you, I’ll put two zigs on both cheeks. You’ll remember me for the rest of your.... I know you! Don't worry! Louis 'Red' Deutsch spouted perhaps the filthiest, yet most eloquent cursing you may ever hear. I got an underground tape of the prank phone calls from a buddy of mine back in high school. Certainly it's influenced everyone from Matt Groening to the Jerky Boys. The prank calls to Red have even had a (lousy) movie feature (with perhaps the best casting I've ever seen). More than 25 years later I still laugh my head off at even the cadence of Red's profanity.
posted by Smedleyman on Oct 2, 2005 - 16 comments

Ideophones are words that are usually spoken but not written and are often onomatopoeic, including (but not limited to) the calls—often reduplicated—with which we beckon domestic animals, kindred to our animal imitations. In the States there are many more pig calls beyond soo-ee. Maxim Gorky wrote that the sound tse tse is used to call pigs in Russia. In Spanish coch is used. Americans use pipi and biddy to call chickens and turkeys. In Ambon Malay chickens are called with kurrrrr or pan kur. In Kiswahili you call chickens with gurúgurúgurúgurú, call dogs with aháháhá, and straying cattle with ishiyeeyeeeeee or ngoyéeeeee. In Sweden, they call cattle with a loud, high-pitched kulning (akin to yodeling). Cervantes wrote that they use tus tus to call dogs in Spain. One source says in Coolderry, Ireland, they use gen-gen to call pigs to ford, puddly pudde to call ducks, peopeo to call horses, and geg geg to call geese. In Iceland, kibbakibb is used to call sheep. In the Hiligaynon language of the Philippines, they call cats with míming. In the parish of Nantcwnlle in Wales they have their own set of calls.
posted by Mo Nickels on Aug 27, 2005 - 17 comments

SounderCover Are you the type who likes to call in sick to work... from the beach? This might just be for you. Seems like phonecams aren't the only cellphone app that raises some issues. (via cacheop)
posted by Stoatfarm on Mar 4, 2004 - 5 comments

Periodical cicadas , the 13-year and 17-year varieties made up of 23 separate broods, sometimes emerge concurrently, as they did in Missouri in 1998. The result of their combined mating calls is a cacaphony. There are many different varieties of calls: those by Magicicada cassini, Magicicada septendecim and Magicicada septendecula are just a few. Brood XXIII is due this year. The prime numbers of the two cycles make it difficult for predators to evolve matching breeding cycles. More cicada links.
posted by TurkeyMustard on Jun 28, 2002 - 26 comments

Crazy Drunk Guy. Hilarious. Web developer shares RealAudio recordings of an unknown, crazy (but entertaining) drunk guy who keeps calling him at the office to chat. An example of the miracle of the web, that he is able to share this with the world...
posted by Tubes on Jul 28, 2000 - 19 comments

I get so much phone spam that I leave my ringer off all the time.
posted by grumblebee on Jun 18, 2000 - 8 comments