What the Hashtag?! is a Twitter wiki (a twiki?) that explains most of those inscrutable acronyms and helps users find the sweetest tweets on any given topic. If you set up the TwitterBot, you can investigate hashtags on the fly. For other topics, though, you may wish to tweet your local librarian.
posted by GrammarMoses on Mar 14, 2009 - 46 comments

The Quilt Index is a growing research and reference tool designed to share access to information and images about quilts provided by an array of contributors. You may search by category including time period, style and technique, location, or fabric.
posted by netbros on Mar 6, 2009 - 11 comments

Old Western Slang and Lingo also Insults and the Code of the West
posted by Del Far on Mar 3, 2009 - 32 comments

"Thank you" in 465 languages Also, Hello! in 800 languages, I love you in 89, How much does that cost? in 93, I don't speak [this language] in 58 and Go fuck yourself in 20.
posted by psmealey on Jan 18, 2009 - 53 comments

TARP, SSFIP, EESA, CPP, TALF, MMIFF... Are you feeling overwhelmed by all the new acronyms coming out of the US Treasury Department lately? Here's a handy PDF reference guide to untangling the US government efforts to rescue banks, financial corporations, and other companies.
posted by Asparagirl on Dec 29, 2008 - 10 comments

The Simpsons movie references, side-by-side. (two, three) Site is in Spanish.
posted by starman on Oct 19, 2008 - 29 comments

Tired of getting busted for illegally peeing* in New York City? Try Diaroogle.com, a toilet search engine that "helps you find quality public toilets from your mobile phone." [more inside]
posted by dhammond on Aug 6, 2008 - 40 comments

Online Encyclopedia of Mathematics Edited by Michiel Hazewinkel (CWI, Amsterdam), and originaly published in dead tree form in 2002, now free to browse and poke into. [more inside]
posted by Iosephus on Aug 2, 2008 - 7 comments

Glassdoor: an inside look at companies from those who know them best.
posted by allkindsoftime on Jun 16, 2008 - 25 comments

A runner's primer
posted by nthdegx on May 29, 2008 - 78 comments

Everything you need to know about playing Nintendo.
posted by dhammond on Apr 10, 2008 - 64 comments

The 5 Most Badass U.S. Presidents of All-Time. Just in time for Presidents' Day weekend. In ascending order of badassitude: Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, John Quincy Adams, George Washington and your number 1, Theodore Roosevelt. [more inside]
posted by psmealey on Feb 15, 2008 - 65 comments

Improve your Rock Band drumming technique. Rock Band as in the videogame, that is.
posted by nthdegx on Jan 11, 2008 - 124 comments

45 things you can learn online for free. To sample: Play craps. Chant. Dance Merengue. [more inside]
posted by drea on Jan 1, 2008 - 11 comments

Tax Info for Musicians. Musicians and taxes don’t seem to mix very well. Taxes and administrating the business of music are often last on the list of concerns for the working musician. The above link gives some helpful tips on what to look for and some simple dos and don'ts. Also, here's some information on the often confusing Section 179 Deduction and a list of common deductible business expenses
posted by psmealey on Dec 28, 2007 - 19 comments

A Big List of Sites That Teach You How To Do Stuff. That is what this is.
posted by brain_drain on Nov 30, 2007 - 14 comments

Top 10 Google Tools you forgot all about. Though some of these (Google Books, Google Trends and Google Base) have been mentioned a few times on MeFi, there are still some diamonds in the rough like Google Alerts, Google Code search, Google Notebook, Google's latest/experiment ideas and Flight Simulator in Google Earth.
posted by psmealey on Oct 24, 2007 - 53 comments

30 Usability Issues to be aware of In this article we present 30 important usability issues, terms, rules and principles which are usually forgotten, ignored or misunderstood. What is the difference between readability and legibility? What exactly does 80/20 or Pareto principle mean? What is the law of proximity? What is meant with minesweeping and satisficing? And what is Progressive Enhancement and Graceful Degradation? What is banner blindness? How can you measure eye-tracking? Why fold area isn't that important. OK, it’s time to dive in.
posted by psmealey on Oct 8, 2007 - 15 comments

Myers-Briggs personality types made relevant As you probably already know, the Myers-Briggs Personality Sorter is intended to be a general, universal personality ID that divides people into one of sixteen distinct personality types, along axes if introverted (I) or extroverted (E), Sensing (S) or Intuitive (N), Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), and Judging (J) or Perceiving (P). [more inside]
posted by psmealey on Sep 29, 2007 - 161 comments

More than fifty selected articles from The Princeton Companion of Mathematics (username: Guest, password: PCM) — a thematically-organized compendium of mathematics and mathematicians from Fields Medal-winner Tim Gowers. [via, previously]
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Sep 27, 2007 - 8 comments

Librarian Chick is a blogger who has put together a wiki of literally hundreds of online learning sources with over twenty categories for "students, educators & anyone else who's hip to learning." [more inside]
posted by jonson on Sep 21, 2007 - 18 comments

What's the fewest number of pitches pitched in a complete game? How many times has a relieving pitcher been awarded a win without even facing a batter? How many different pitchers has Julio Franco faced? What's the greatest number of hits in a game where all of them are home runs? Who's hit the most grand slams in the ninth or extra innings? These questions and many (many) more at Baseball-reference.com's fantastic Stat of the Day blog.
posted by Plutor on Aug 2, 2007 - 34 comments

Best (or Worst) Pickup Lines Ever. Other useful lists on this site include: Things nobody can like, Why I hate implants, Petite phrases that pack a punch, How to tell if your boyfriend is cheating and everyone's favorite, my favorite sex blogs
posted by psmealey on Jul 21, 2007 - 44 comments

The How-To Geek provides hints and tips for a variety of operating systems and popular pieces of software. The how-tos cover a pleasing range of head-slapping I-should-have-known-thats to relatively advanced techniques. Follow the latest page to read the site in blog form.
posted by nthdegx on Jul 8, 2007 - 12 comments

The Learn List is attempting to become a comprehensive online resource for free tutorials in Flash, PhotoShop, Fireworks, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, ActionScript, PHP, CSS & XML.
posted by jonson on Jul 7, 2007 - 22 comments

Learn the 5 basic survival skills Planning that hike through the Northwest Territories this summer? You will need survival skills. Learning survival skills is an ongoing process that will last for your entire life. There is always more to learn and experience, which is part of the fun of being a survivor. And as your expertise grows the knowledge and abilities you gain is often useful in other areas. For example survivors prepare ahead of time, and they are experts in the art of ingenuity and inventiveness. Need more? Well try the survival blog for helpful answers to such questions as "How Long can I survive without food or water?" or "How can I maintain water discipline?"
posted by psmealey on Jun 29, 2007 - 47 comments

How to tie a Prince Albert. Or, a four-in-hand, a full Windsor, a bowtie, an ascot, and a few others to suit your particular fancy/fetish.
posted by psmealey on May 26, 2007 - 77 comments

How to make a Ninja mask with a shirt.
posted by psmealey on May 6, 2007 - 22 comments

How to conduct a job interview. 5 steps to conducting good job interviews and finding the right candidates. Contains answers to the infamous why is a manhole cover round question. Also, 10 common mistakes managers should avoid when conducting same. On the flispide, here are some tips for interview preparation, the 25 most difficult questions an interviewee can prepare for and some things to avoid saying in interviews.
posted by psmealey on Apr 30, 2007 - 56 comments

A communication primer. A pretty basic, but well-written primer on effective communication, and proper understanding of the communication process, barriers, listening, feedback and non-verbal hints. Don Clark's site contains a lot of well-formed ideas on leadership and human performance without resorting to mumbo-jumbo and buzzwords. Not your typical MBA / self-help bs.
posted by psmealey on Apr 26, 2007 - 9 comments

22 basic suggested readings on the Middle East from history professor and informed commenter on Middle Eastern affairs Juan Cole.
posted by LobsterMitten on Mar 7, 2007 - 37 comments

Indonesia is a semi-annual journal from Cornell devoted to the timely study of Indonesia's culture, history, government, economy, and society. It features original scholarly articles, interviews, translations, and book reviews. (note AdBlocker strips the page banner) There's a fee for current issues but back issues are free.
posted by Burhanistan on Dec 13, 2006 - 8 comments

Journal of Visualized Experiments is an online research journal for publishing visualized (video-based) biological experiments
posted by Gyan on Nov 29, 2006 - 2 comments

Walk It is a website for planning walking journeys. It gives you a map and directions for the best route, and info on distance, walking time, calorie burn and even CO₂ potentially saved by avoiding the car, taxi or bus. London only, at present, alas.
posted by nthdegx on Nov 7, 2006 - 21 comments

Maqam World contains much more than maqamat. Rhythms, genres, instruments - all presented with audio examples, pictures, and even pronunciation. The podcasts are an added bonus. [Note: some multimedia features only work in IE, most audio in .rm (it's worth it, though)]
posted by imposster on Oct 31, 2006 - 6 comments

Analog by Design: Reality TV for Design Engineers (autoloads Flash with sound). Author, self-proclaimed Czar of Bandgaps, and minor hero to many scientists and engineers Robert Pease now has an online video podcast.
posted by fatllama on Oct 4, 2006 - 6 comments

Web programmers take note, gotAPI is an excellent collection of searchable programming references wrapped up into a customizable interface.
posted by Roger Dodger on Sep 21, 2006 - 17 comments

dg28.com: photographer eduction - 'Technique - Photography is all about light, and digital is no different. I try to light as much of my work as I can, and this was true before "Dig' day"'. Some great photography tips and techniques here, apparently from portrait photographer Neil Turner. Via Civil_Disobedient at Ask MetaFilter.
posted by nthdegx on Sep 3, 2006 - 8 comments

The Aria Database is a diverse collection of information on over 1000 operatic arias.
posted by Gyan on May 4, 2006 - 6 comments

Bumwine.com: "Call them bum wines, street wines, fortified wines, wino wines, or twist-cap wines. Whatever you call these beverages for the economical drunkard, this page explores the top five. So curl up on a heating duct and enjoy..." I stumbled (sober, honestly) across Bumwine.com while researching the right beverage to enliven a fictional description of lewd drunkenness in an email to a friend. It's an informative, sometimes humorous, reference site--historical and otherwise--to the world of inexpensive wines with useful links to other sites and articles, like this one (including a tutorial) from the Michigan Daily.
posted by josephtate on Mar 7, 2006 - 52 comments

Music: A survey of some quality resources is a brief look at music-related web sites from a research librarian's point of view. It is by Valery King, reference and government information librarian at Oregon State University, and published in the December 2005 issue of College & Research Libraries News. Ms King also has a more detailed Music Research Guide on the OSU library site. These are research and reference sites, not music download sites. (via)
posted by mmahaffie on Jan 3, 2006 - 7 comments

If this doesn't convert you... you may truly be lost.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson on Dec 21, 2005 - 43 comments

The journal Nature: "Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries."
Nature had experts review articles from both encyclopedias. (Also, 10% of Nature authors contribute to Wikipedia.)
posted by Tlogmer on Dec 14, 2005 - 31 comments

The first Transhuman Conference On the Law of Transhuman Persons: Whether or not you believe humans are set to evolve into gods, or AI is destined to achieve self-awareness the idea of the Transhuman is a thought provoking concept. Philosophers have debated the nature of the self, of the human for millennia. Is it time to start drafting new laws to govern all possible sentient beings on this planet? or is it all just a science of fiction? a comfortable humanist illusion?
posted by 0bvious on Dec 13, 2005 - 37 comments

Standup comedy cultural hot button Wikipedia hack. Standup comics! Need a cultural hot button topic for a joke? Check out Wikipedia articles with the most revisions. Comedy gold. Just pick a topic and start riffing.
posted by basilwhite on Nov 30, 2005 - 55 comments

À la carte explores French cookery in just about every angle one can imagine. Featuring an extensive list of recipes, suggested menus, and in-depth articles ranging from how to plan a meal, to what tools to use, including everything one needs to know about knives. Like Strawberries, & crêpes? Want to know more about ice creams & sorbets? Obsessive is an understatement.
posted by riffola on Nov 25, 2005 - 14 comments

Welcome to the internet's busiest one-person medical site. I'm Ed, "the pathology guy". He's not a postmodernist but he's an experienced lecturer and autopsy pathologist and an all around cool cat.
posted by pieoverdone on Oct 20, 2005 - 19 comments

Classics in the History of Psychology
posted by Gyan on Sep 26, 2005 - 3 comments

"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience." George Washington's Rules of Civility.
posted by nthdegx on Sep 12, 2005 - 21 comments

This link, which you are no longer looking at, will take you to a pretty cool essay.
posted by Citizen Premier on Aug 27, 2005 - 48 comments