MetaFilter posts tagged with events

Olympic turmoil in the Second City

honeybee413 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:01:12 -0800

On October 2, 2009, the International Olympic Committee will meet in Copenhagen to choose between Chicago, Rio de Janiero, Tokyo, and Madrid as the site of the 2016 Summer Olympics. While Chicago sends some of its most famous citizens to Copenhagen, a protest against Chicago's bid is planned at City Hall. On October 2, 2009, the International Olympic Committee will meet in Copenhagen to determine where the 2016 Olympics will be held - Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, or Madrid. The final report on each city is posted here (PDF link). Chicago 2016 has been aggressively promoting the potential benefits of hosting the games, citing economic benefits, lasting sports legacy programs, and the potential for increased federal funding for infrastructure improvements. Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey are going to the meeting in Copenhagen to sell the city. But, it appears that in much of Chicago’s populace, support for the Olympics is dwindling. At the time of the last IOC visit, the Chicago 2016 organizing committee had not provided complete guarantees covering budget shortfalls, with the city and state providing collectively $750M shortfall guarantees. On September 8th, the Chicago finance committee authorized Mayor Richard M. Daley to sign a host-city contract guaranteeing that Chicago, if chosen, will spend as much as is needed to host the Olympics, and absorb any operating losses. On September 29, a rally at Chicago City Hall is planned to protest the Chicago 2016 bid. The protests that have surrounded Chicago 2016 have been varied, and complaints range from a $500M budget shortfall and the need for better infrastructure for its citizens, Chicago’s corrupt political climate, and opposition to the plan to destroy much of the historic Michael Reese Hospital, the planned site for the Olympic Village. Meanwhile, on a different front, some Chicagoans have taken to promoting Rio’s bid, rather than protesting Chicago’s.

Derren Brown: The Events

ashaw — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:31:55 -0800

Derren Brown: The Events. On Wednesday 9th September 10:35, Derren Brown will predict the National Lottery immediately before the draw. On Friday he will reveal how it was done. As part of a four week series for Channel 4, he will be controlling the nation live, conducting a nationwide psychic experiment and finally a special on how to beat the casinos.

Online Gallery and Visual Archive

netbros — Sat, 16 May 2009 05:33:24 -0800

Blanka is a collection of original, vintage, and limited edition posters and prints.

Flyer on the wall

Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:54:24 -0800

Fly-Post —a community event site dedicated to the art and utility of the promotional flyer. Post flyers about your event, or search for flyers by location, event, or keyword. Browse by best designs, or the latest posts. It's in beta and serving only a few U.S. cities right now, but looks promising.

Events and Festivals Across the USA

netbros — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:49:11 -0800

Top Events USA lists their top 20 events across the USA, the top 10 events and festivals for each of the United States, and lists of the best annual events and festivals by category or theme. There are comment input boxes on every page - or nominate a new event or festival that you think is something important Top Events USA has missed.

She is your Virgil on the descent into L.A.

Scram — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:07:32 -0800

Kristin's List. There are plenty of events guides in Los Angeles, but none has as personal a voice, as finely honed an aesthetic (the Neutra font is an inspired touch) or as discerning an eye as Kristin's. Her weekly emails and web listings are one woman's recommended sampling of the most interesting music, film, architecture, food, fashion, literary and unquantifiable events across the megalopolis. And so far, it's completely ad-free.

Dalai Lama teaches the Lam Rim at Lehigh

setver — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:03:32 -0800

Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, just gave a historic six-day teaching of Je Tsong-kha-pa’s Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (the Lam Rim Chen Mo), a vitally important explanation of Buddhism written in 1402 and just recently translated into English by a team organized by Joshua Cutler of New Jersey's Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center. The teaching, attended by about 5000 participants (my estimate), consisted of two two-hour sessions per day, except for a public talk on Sunday afternoon, at which the Dalai Lama received an honorary doctorate from Lehigh and gave a speech. The speech is available as downloadable audio clips and for viewing online. It is possible that eventually the videos of the teachings themselves will be made available on DVD or for download at lamrim.com.

Overblown, conceptually thin, with nothing to say

divabat — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:38:56 -0800

Rick Poynor asks - isn't it time we demanded more from design conferences?

Stars In Your Eyes

Miko — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:36:12 -0800

See Saturn this Saturday April 12 is the second annual International Sidewalk Astronomy Night, a worldwide event coordinated by the Sidewalk Astronomers. The group, founded in 1968 by John Dobson (subject of this documentary), is dedicated to a sort of guerrilla astronomy -- experienced stargeeks bringing their really good telescopes out to places where people are. So even on your way to the bars, the shows, and the honky-tonk you can see stuff like this and this - like these people did.

In the flash of a click

hadjiboy — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 07:42:01 -0800

The Power of Photography (might or might not be NSFW) with accompanying articles: Stricken Child crawling towards a Food Camp [1994] | The Falling Man [2001] | The Youngest Mother [1939] | Born Twice [1999] (via)

24c3

kolophon — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:16:05 -0800

The 24th Chaos Communication Congress, "the annual four-day conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club is taking place in Berlin right now. The Congress offers lectures and workshops on a multitude of topics and attracts a diverse audience of thousands of hackers, scientists, artists, and utopians from all around the world." Lectures are also being streamed live (Check the CCC Tube) Among other topics: Open Source, a capitalist movement. Free Software, Free Drugs and an ethics of death; Cyborg Feminism, The Arctic Cold War; Absurd Mathematics; Linguistic Hacking, How to know what a text in an unknown language is about? Quantum Cryptography and Possible Attacks; Freifunkerei, And a Do-It-Yourself society against the state; All Tomorrow's Condensation, A steampunk puppet extravaganza by monochrom and friends. At 00:30 CET today you should be able to watch "I can count every star in the heavens above but I have no heart I can't fall in love…". The image of computers in popular music, presented by the Vienna art collective monochrom (linked above). Recordings will also be made available to download in a few days time; here are last years 23c3 lectures.

All browsers spy on Rome

Gyan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 22:22:19 -0800

Wiki City Rome - "anyone with an Internet connection will be able to see a unique map of the Italian capital that shows the movements of crowds, event locations, the whereabouts of well-known Roman personalities, and the real-time position of city buses and trains."

Scream and Run Away

niles — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 18:27:30 -0800

Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler in real life), author of the 13 books in "A Series of Unfortunate Events" [Flash], has now released the album A Tragic Treasury [Sound] in which he plays the acordian. The CD also features Stephin Merritt, with whom Handler was in the band called The Magnetic Fields. Handler is touring the country to plug the album and latest book. [via NPR]

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

sourwookie — Sat, 27 May 2006 13:44:46 -0800

Timeline of Trends and Events (1750 to 2100). Large image, lots of info. Via digg

Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.

amberglow — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 20:43:24 -0800

truthdig --drilling beneath the headlines. A new webmagazine, offering expert in-depth coverage of current affairs as well as a variety of thoughtful, provocative content assembled from a progressive point of view. The site is built around major “digs,” led by authorities in their fields, who will drill down into contemporary topics and assemble packages of content... Robert Scheer is editor in chief (you may know him from the SF Chronicle). The current featured "dig" is on religion and homosexuality.

Whatcha doin' tonight?

postmodernmillie — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 17:55:58 -0800

Whatcha doin' tonight? Me, I think I'll mosey over the block and a half to the Pit and take in the vibes at the Gathering of Nations Pow-Wow. Might even try to score some peyote. No, I'm not trying to reinforce a stereotype; I'm truly interested in the experience. Besides, I'm descended from Sequoyah - we're on the Dawes Rolls and everything. Ha! Who am I kidding? I'm just another stupid white girl.

HRW report

bumpkin — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 16:47:59 -0800

A year after the Abu Ghraib photos were widely circulated, and a few days after most of the low-ranking officers blamed were let off, Human Rights Watch releases a report clearly implicating the entire chain of command, and strongly urges the investigation of Donald Rumsfeld and George Tenet. (Full report here) Just some bad eggs, eh?

Moblogs in the dutch rain

sebas — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 07:10:41 -0800

Loglands. Ongoing mobile phone cam coverage from the ~~rainy mud~~ Lowlands Festival taking place this weekend.

I'd rather rent a serf (or a peon)

Stynxno — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 10:19:25 -0800

There are peasants who come from a simpler time and are willing to entertain you at your next corporate event.

Sky Ear

schoolgirl report — Fri, 09 Apr 2004 07:20:11 -0800

Sky Ear will be a one-night event in which a glowing "cloud" of mobile phones and helium balloons is released into the air so that people can dial into the cloud and listen to the sounds of the sky. The cloud will be made of one thousand large helium balloons each responding to the electromagnetic environment (created by distant storms, mobile phones, police and ambulance radios, television broadcasts, etc.) with coloured blue, red and yellow lights.

Fairy Congress aka Loonsville

zeoslap — Fri, 30 May 2003 14:21:49 -0800

Hoorah! Fairy Congress '03 is almost upon us. With the admiral goal of Promoting Quality Human & Fairy Relations and special guest Dotty Maclean of Findhorn Community fame who apparently has done more than any other person in the 20th century to popularize the idea that humans can communicate with devas, in attendance you'd be crazy to miss it. Sure looks like fun...

So lifelike! Soon humans will be unecess...

troutfishing — Sat, 05 Apr 2003 09:26:29 -0800

Gracefull bipeds, miniature robot ballets.... Titled by the BBC as "Humanoid robots wow Japanese", The world's largest robot exhibit this weekend in Yokahama features Asimo by Honda ["Asimo can now recognise individual faces and can understand gestures as well as spoken commands. Meet him once and he never forgets, responding by approaching and calling your name on subsequent meetings."] as well as Sony's newest Aibo accesories and their stunning SDR-4X ll, a biped sporting "fluid walking motion and lifelike gestures." Epson Seiko caught my attention, though, with their dozen tiny Bluetooth controlled 12.5 gram Monsieur ll-P robot prototypes which executed a miniature choreographed ballet.

Pretty soon they'll be scuttling around on our walls like cockroaches, watching us......

gig posters

lilboo — Thu, 27 Mar 2003 06:53:29 -0800

gigposters -- a collection of posters created by artists and musicians to advertise their shows and events.

Summer — Sat, 06 Apr 2002 04:31:10 -0800

Britishness at its absolute bloody best I watched the whole Queen Mum procession thing yesterday, complete with "frantically filling BBC commentators", and this Brains Trust article was the perfect antidote. My favourite though is Die Sissons Die

donkeymon — Sat, 03 Nov 2001 06:09:22 -0800

This weekend in Millsboro, Delaware is the 16th annual Punkin Chunkin World Championships, in which pumpkins are propelled distances approaching a mile from old-style catapults and huge air cannons. Anyone else going?