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We have made the act of killing and shooting so fun, but we’ve also taken the importance out of it by piling so much of it in. You don’t ever have to think about the concept of pulling a trigger, because even if you run out of bullets, we’re going to give you so many more bullets! So many more people to shoot! In fact, even if all the people in the game aren’t enough, we’re gonna give you Horde mode! You can kill people until you can’t kill them anymore!

The writers of the controversial Far Cry 3 and Spec Ops: The Line discuss the past, present and future of FPS's. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
posted by empath at 11:59 PM PST - 78 comments

How NASA brought the monstrous F-1 "moon rocket" engine back to life - "The story of young engineers who resurrected an engine nearly twice their age." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 11:11 PM PST - 34 comments

What would a poverty map of India look like?
posted by Gyan at 10:02 PM PST - 10 comments

Gitmo is killing me. An op-ed written by a prisoner on hunger strike in his 11th year at Guantanamo Bay.
posted by disillusioned at 9:59 PM PST - 98 comments

David Glasheen was a wealthy executive in the 1980's, but he lost about $10 million in the 1987 market crash. That was his family's fortune, which lead to their house was repossessed by the bank, then his marriage of 22-years ended. Glasheen found his way to the semi-remote Restoration Island, where Captain William Bligh landed after the mutiny on the Bounty. Once Glasheen settled down, it was his plan was to live as a custodian of the island, until he died. Unfortunately, the beer-brewing hermit who hopes for love might be forced to leave, due to the fact that he hasn't been able to get an eco resort built on the property. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:38 PM PST - 3 comments

Quintin Smith (of Shut Up & Sit Down) argues that we're entering a golden age of boardgames (45m Vimeo talk). [more inside]
posted by kavasa at 6:54 PM PST - 158 comments

Upon proudly celebrating 10 years of the show's rich history at the forefront of Drum & Bass, Breaks, Dubstep, Grime, Broken Beat, 2Step and other emerging genres, the hosts of Future Breaks are satisfied that the time has now come to pass the torch and retire the weekly broadcasts of the program. The final broadcast of Future Breaks FM! will air live January 26, 2008 at 4pm PST. Our online presence at www.futurebreaks.fm will be preserved and we may continue to podcast select archival programs from the "vaults" as well as other surprises. Our small, non-profit radio show was founded in January 1998 by Ms. E, dj PUSH and Arc Angel Gabe Real as an outlet for underground 21st Century electronic dance music featuring weekly, live in-studio mixing by turntable DJs.

Future Breaks FM was a weekly electronic music show with a decidedly Jungle/DnB flavor that ran on KUSF, the University of San Francisco's radio station (which went off the air 2011) from 1998-2008. Forty-nine episodes, up to the last show on 26 Jan 2008, are still available on the podcast archive.
posted by changoperezoso at 6:02 PM PST - 7 comments

150 U.S. city flags, ranked from best to worst. Top-rated flags are typically tasteful and abstract, like that of Washington D.C. (#1) or subtly representational, like Madison, Wisconsin's flag(#11), which is more or less a glyph of Madison seen from above. The bottom of the list has some that seem stuck in a briefly popular graphic style, like Provo (#143), but most are timelessly ongepotch like the flag of Milwaukee (#147), which features a boat, a skyline, some smokestacks, some grain, County Stadium, a Native American,and a church. And then there is Pocatello (#150), whose flag was memorably profiled on badflags. (Vexillology previously on MetaFilter.)
posted by escabeche at 2:55 PM PST - 126 comments

DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee oversaw radical reforms to Washington, DC's failing public schools. Amongst the results were widespread irregularities on standardized tests that suggest they were tampered with by adults. [more inside]
posted by Westringia F. at 1:49 PM PST - 72 comments

David Sedaris buys an owl.
posted by Artw at 1:48 PM PST - 22 comments

The Black Classical History Of Spiritual Jazz 1955-2012: a 12-hour music mix [via Aquarium Drunkard]
posted by LeLiLo at 1:10 PM PST - 13 comments

The soothing feed of a thousand places around the world (especially parking lots). With a NSFW-sounding URL (and potentially NSFW content), Adrian Hayter writes about his exploration in the world of unsecured webcams. The feeds also include everything from store security cameras to aquariums and doggy daycare. His FAQ discusses the mechanics as well as the ethics this project.
posted by brilliantine at 10:33 AM PST - 259 comments

Controversy struck the exalted Augusta grounds of the Masters golf tournament on Friday as Tiger Woods put himself at risk of disqualification. It all began with a situation in which Woods had the extraordinarily bad luck of bouncing his ball off the flagstick on the 15th hole into the water. Instead of dropping his ball "as nearly as possible" to it's original position, Woods dropped it a couple of yards back. In an interview after the round, Woods said: "I went back to where I played it from, but I went two yards further back and I took, tried to take two yards off the shot of what I felt I hit and that should land me short of the flag and not have it either hit the flag or skip over the back." Woods signed his scorecard without assigning himself the two shot penalty the rules of golf require for an improper drop. The following day, the Masters Rules Committee ruled that Woods would not be disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard, justifying it by using a new rule that allows tournament committees to waive rules infractions called in by TV viewers, even though the intention of that rule was to prevent disqualifications based on tiny movements of the ball or sand imperceptible to the golfer but visible on close-up HD shots. Many in the golf world were outraged at both the ruling and the fact that Woods didn't withdraw himself from the tournament. Nick Faldo suggested it would be "the manly thing to do." [more inside]
posted by fairmettle at 10:17 AM PST - 72 comments

Mortgage fraud, faux-democracy and escrache in Spain. Those unfortunate enough to lose their homes are also burdened with a debt for life.
Anatomy of an ‘escrache’.
Spanish banks repossessed 30,000 family homes in 2012 and those who take part in doorstep protests may face fines of up to 6,000 euros in Madrid.
Between 2002 and 2008 an average of 754,000 new homes were built in Spain every year. It is currently estimated that up to 6 million homes remain vacant.
posted by adamvasco at 10:13 AM PST - 17 comments

Check out this video for a inside look at how an elite squad of knitting grandmas is trained. (SLYT).
posted by orange swan at 9:22 AM PST - 7 comments

"Maybe it's a sore point: your field should have an answer (people think you do) but there isn't one yet. Perhaps it's simple to pose but hard to answer. Or it's a question that belies a deep misunderstanding: the best answer is to question the question."
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:19 AM PST - 259 comments

The song that became "Get Back" began as an anti-immigrant satire so easily misunderstood it remains in the vaults. Writing for Salon, Alex Sayf Cummings delves into the story behind No Pakistanis.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:47 AM PST - 17 comments

There is a curious feeling of power you get when you drop a couple of twenties without a trace of critical thinking. "Here in the West, a lifestyle of unnecessary spending has been deliberately cultivated and nurtured in the public by big business." [more inside]
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 5:35 AM PST - 61 comments

Suguru Ito performs his own Csardas Paraphrase for melodica solo SLYT
posted by pleurodirous at 12:57 AM PST - 8 comments

Earlier this week, an Australian conservative state government minister for roads and other stuff... Duncan Gay, ordered the removal of Sydney's first and only rainbow crossing. It had been a highlight of the recent mardi gras celebrations. As it was ripped up. In the middle of the night. And now there is an organic backlash as people around Australia, and the world, create their own in chalk. Everywhere. (disclaimer.... we made one in Sydney Park, St Peters this afternoon.) The crossing on twitter The hashtag is diyrainbow. And they're being posted on facebook here. Some more here: here
posted by taff at 12:45 AM PST - 81 comments