Why stop at one great undiscovered site when you can have 100? PC Magazine released its top 100 undiscovered websites for 2007 which you can view as a slideshow or download as bookmarks. There are some cool new sites that would be postworthy in themselves, such as: Footnote, which has digitized millions of national archive documents; WebsiteGrader, which automatically tells you how good your website is (MeFi gets a 98%); Rentometer, which compares your rent to others in the neighborhood; and Yapta, which lets you take advantage of airline policies that refund part of your ticket when prices drop. Many others have been covered on the blue, but are still worth revisiting such as OldVersions.com for finding software before the bloat, the video how-to site VideoJug, and Zamzar for conversion between file formats. If you can't get enough, check out the 100 classic websites.
posted to MetaFilter by blahblahblah at 9:19 PM on August 30, 2007 (22 comments)

The Great Iraq Swindle: How Bush Allowed an Army of For-Profit Contractors to Invade the U.S. Treasury
posted to MetaFilter by mr_crash_davis at 11:00 AM on August 26, 2007 (78 comments)

A Soviet Poster A Day delivers what it promises, one propaganda rich helping of Soviet art every day to help you on your daily doings.
posted to MetaFilter by jonson at 7:53 PM on August 20, 2007 (12 comments)

The YouTubes have the African balafon you need. Alya Dioubate. Coulibaly Samadou. Kanazoé. Epizo Bangoura. Koeta Hakiri. Bala. Man and child. Danse Moderne Balafon!
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 9:06 PM on August 17, 2007 (14 comments)

An excellent video collection of live performances of jazz and Brazilian music from Youtube user Pedro Mendes. Including such artists as Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Derek Bailey, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Sun Ra, Miles Davis and many, many more. Plus a host of Brazilian musicians I had never heard of before, but are quite excellent, such as Édison Machado, Dom Um Romão, Hermeto Pascoal, Elis Regina and Maria Bethania.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 12:17 PM on August 17, 2007 (7 comments)

In early 1968, Jean-Luc Godard filmed The Rolling Stones in the studio writing/recording "Sympathy for the Devil".

Mick Jagger recalled in a 1995 interview with Jann Wenner: "... [it was] very fortuitous, because Godard wanted to do a film of us in the studio. I mean, it would never happen now, to get someone as interesting as Godard. And stuffy. We just happened to be recording that song. We could have been recording "My Obsession." But it was "Sympathy for the Devil," and it became the track that we used."

Later that year, Godard released a film (in Europe) titled "One Plus One" which featured the "Sympathy for the Devil" studio footage. To increase the commercial value of the film, the U.S. release was re-titled after the Stones song and the end of the film's soundtrack was altered to include a full take of the song in its final form, much to the dismay of Godard.
posted to MetaFilter by Poolio at 11:18 PM on August 9, 2007 (35 comments)

What was Jiroft? An ancient civilization in what is now southern Iran that was lost to history until very recently. Many beautiful artifacts have been dug up. It is claimed that writing originated with the Jiroft civilization and that this is the legendary kingdom of Aratta, subject of one of the world's oldest works of literature, Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta. There is dispute over both. Either way, it certainly was a commercial hub as early as 3000 B.C. The site has been extensively plundered in recent years, but is so rich in artifacts that excavations can go on for decades.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 3:45 PM on August 9, 2007 (17 comments)

Anti-War Songs of the Vietnam Era
Alice's Restaurant [1] Ball of Confusion [2] Billy Don't Be a Hero [3] Blowin' in the Wind [4] Eve of Destruction [5] For What It's Worth [6] Fortunate Son [7] Give Peace a Chance [8] I Ain't Marching Anymore [9] I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-To-Die Rag [10] Imagine [11] Machine Gun [12] Masters of War [13] Ohio [14] One Tin Soldier [15] Stoned Love [16] The Unknown Soldier [17] War [18] War Pigs [19] What's Going On [20] Us and Them [21] Volunteers [22] With God On Our Side [23]
posted to MetaFilter by Poolio at 4:52 AM on August 8, 2007 (119 comments)

Borderline personality disorder described firsthand. A very personal look at BPD - including the implications of sharing the news in a public setting - his blog.
posted to MetaFilter by 2shay at 11:17 AM on August 6, 2007 (153 comments)

Animated shorts and trailers potpourri: Alexei Petrov's shiny 3D Cags, Aleksandr Petrov's jaw-dropping paint-on-glass Моя Любовь (more), Maximov's Wind Along The Coast, Bakhurin's The White, The Black, Géza Toth's Maestro, Blur's A Gentleman's Duel, Alireza Darvish's What If Spring Does Not Come?, Giersz's classic Koń, Dumala's Sciany, a little Sports et Divertissements (to music of Erik Satie), and a nod to Daniil Kharms (previously) in Herzen and Tolstoy.
posted to MetaFilter by Wolfdog at 11:30 AM on August 3, 2007 (13 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 to MetaFilter by Plutor at 6:54 AM on August 2, 2007 (34 comments)

FolkStreams:" Remembering The High Lonesome " - Dillard Chandler
Roscoe Holcomb - Little Birdie
Roscoe Holcomb - Graveyard Blues
And from Roscoe Holcomb comes the song which is the soundtrack of the eponymously entitled Moonshiner. Dylan described a certain untamed sense of control in his singing and Ralph Stanley once said 'you could feel the smell of wood smoke in his voice'.
Yes, I watched High Lonesome Sound again, last night...
posted to MetaFilter by y2karl at 6:12 AM on July 26, 2007 (12 comments)

Macrohistory. Prehistory to yesterday. This site describes humanity from prehistory to the 21st century - stories about ideas and events. Maps. Timelines index. Country profiles.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 10:01 PM on July 24, 2007 (14 comments)

The British Library is posting the Diary of Dr. Saad Eskander, the courageous director of the Iraq National Library and Archive. His entries "detail the daily hurdles of keeping Iraq’s central library open, preserving the surviving archives and, oh yes, staying alive."
posted to MetaFilter by Alec at 12:48 PM on July 23, 2007 (11 comments)

Highway 61 Revisited: Like a Rolling Stone (1966); Tombstone Blues (2000); It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (1971); (Rolling Thunder version); From a Buick 6 (NOT DYLAN); Ballad of a Thin Man (1966); Queen Jane Approximately (1998); Highway 61 Revisited (1969); Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (1995); Desolation Row (1998).
posted to MetaFilter by OmieWise at 10:12 AM on July 23, 2007 (29 comments)

Pretend it's 1980. Let's also imagine that you are in Rome, and for whatever reason you have decided to go see this musical group called The Talking Heads.
At the concert, these are the songs that the band plays: Psycho Killer; Stay Hungry; Cities; I Zimbra; Drugs; Take Me to the River; Crosseyed and Painless; Life During Wartime; Houses in Motion; Born under Punches; and The Great Curve.
posted to MetaFilter by Meatbomb at 1:12 PM on July 21, 2007 (154 comments)

Motherland - a photo essay of Russia by Simon Roberts. (via conscientious)
posted to MetaFilter by sgt.serenity at 8:23 AM on July 17, 2007 (5 comments)

"What we have here is a Cabinet of Wonders, a place where things of interest are set out, in possibly bizarre, possibly fetishistic presentation, for perusal by the discerning, who understand that presentation, and scientific interest, are all a form of magic." [via Neil Gaiman]
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 10:43 PM on July 14, 2007 (15 comments)

Songs You Didn't Know Were Cover Versions: Good Lovin', Mambo No. 5, The City of New Orleans, Fernando, The First Cut Is the Deepest, I Love Rock 'n' Roll, Just A Gigolo, Without You, Don't Turn Around, Let's Live for Today, Dazed and Confused, Seasons in the Sun, Pass the Dutchie, There's Always Something There to Remind Me, Gloria, Respect, Turn Turn Turn, When the Levee Breaks, Do You Wanna Touch Me, Cum on Feel the Noize, Hanging on the Telephone, I Go Blind, I Will Always Love You, Take Me to the River, Louie Louie, The Twist etc. etc.
posted to MetaFilter by jonp72 at 6:17 PM on July 13, 2007 (110 comments)

The Centennial Project. During the 100th Anniversary of Oklahoma's statehood, MeFi'er Brittanie is serializing two personal first-person accounts of her family's journey into the Sooner State, including both her great-great-grandfather's efforts to make the 1891 Land Run and another relative's meticulous biographical history which extends as far back as the Civil War. [via mefi projects]
posted to MetaFilter by Ufez Jones at 10:00 PM on July 9, 2007 (10 comments)

Cinema Europe Extraordinary documentary series from the 1990s narrated by Kenneth Branagh which quietly demonstrates that most of anything you thought you knew about early cinema is wrong (embedded Google Videos).
posted to MetaFilter by feelinglistless at 8:47 AM on July 7, 2007 (23 comments)

/UBU Editions--Third Series. New, handsome, pdf editions of eleven out-of-print books, including ones by Maurice Blanchot, Claude Simon, Monique Wittig, and Rosemarie Waldrop. Be sure to also look at the first two series of /ubu editions. Previous ubuweb.
posted to MetaFilter by OmieWise at 12:36 PM on June 27, 2007 (9 comments)

Northwestern University hosts a fine collection of historic East African photographs, viewable as sample sets or in their original photo-albums (requires flash). But the real prize is their wonderful collection of 113 historic maps of Africa, which are zoomable to incredible detail, also 1, 2, 3. via
posted to MetaFilter by Rumple at 6:26 PM on June 11, 2007 (11 comments)

I thought I'd seen pretty much every bit of performance footage (whether live or lip-synched) featuring the Beatles, but lately I discovered some clips on YouKnowWhere that I hadn't seen before, and I'd wager there's more than a few folks out in MefiLand who've also missed these: a proto-psychedelic promo clip for Rain, and another promo clip for Hey Bulldog, and finally, this rarity, an alternate take of the promo clip for Hello Goodbye. Just for good measure, here's the more familiar (but still somewhat obscure) version.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 6:27 AM on June 7, 2007 (43 comments)

La Cumparsita Reputedly the most famous tango in existence, La Cumparista isn't just elegant, exquisite and sublime, it also once raised significant copyright concerns, a debate to which this collection doesn't add anything at all. Been ninety years _(Spanish) since the tango was written.
posted to MetaFilter by the cydonian at 11:00 AM on June 2, 2007 (8 comments)

The Internet Library of Early Journals :: A digital library of 18th and 19th Century journals
posted to MetaFilter by anastasiav at 7:08 PM on May 31, 2007 (23 comments)

Waymarking.com provides tools for you to catalog, mark­ and visit interesting and useful locations around the world. It's a fun site, packed with photographs, information and maps; a useful resource and tool for GeoCaching and other interests. Among the various categories included is Oddball Museums: The Glore Psychiatric Museum, Musee Mechanique, The National Plastics Museum with lots of great pics and links to other sites, Museum of Burlesque [nsfw], The Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum, Orange Show, wbur Museums of Dirt, Plumbing, Antiquated Technology, Lizzie Borden and more oddities.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 9:48 PM on May 26, 2007 (5 comments)

The current edition of Words Without Borders features a striking array of current and historical writing by prisoners held in such countries as Albania, Syria, Finland, Spain, and Argentina. previously on mefi
posted to MetaFilter by Rumple at 10:32 AM on May 21, 2007 (5 comments)

Perfect Scrambled Eggs | Really Fresh Venison | Pork Chops | Broccoli Soup | Gordon Ramsey Hates Liars
posted to MetaFilter by sluglicker at 1:12 PM on May 20, 2007 (92 comments)

Russian Book Jackets, 1917-1942, courtesy of the NYPLDG. [Via Growabrain]
posted to MetaFilter by Alvy Ampersand at 11:26 AM on May 16, 2007 (5 comments)

Woodstock^ (YouTuner)
Day ☼ { Richie Havens ♪ Country Joe McDonald ♪ John Sebastian ♪ Sweetwater ♭ Incredible String Band ♪ Bert Sommer ♭ Tim Hardin ♪ Ravi Shankar ♭ Melanie ♪ Arlo Guthrie ♪ Joan Baez ♪ }
Day ☼☼ { Quill ♪ Keef Hartley Band ♭ Santana ♪ Canned Heat ♪ Mountain ♪ Janis Joplin ♪ ♫ Sly & the Family Stone ♪ Grateful Dead ♪ Creedence Clearwater Revival ♪ The Who ♪ ☻ ♫ Jefferson Airplane ♪ ♫ }
Day ☼☼☼ { Joe Cocker ♪ Country Joe & the Fish ♪ Ten Years After ♪ The Band ♪ Blood Sweat & Tears ♪ Johnny Winter ♪ Crosby, Stills & Nash ♪ ♬ ♫ Paul Butterfield Blues Band ♪ Sha-Na-Na ♪ Jimi Hendrix ♪ ★ ♫ }

posted to MetaFilter by pruner at 6:20 AM on May 15, 2007 (49 comments)

The Free Voice of Labour [Flash video 57.11] traces the history of a Yiddish anarchist newspaper publishing its final issue after 88 years. One of 200+ films on anarchist and related themes at the ChristieBooks channel on Brightcove. Other films include Gordon Carr's documentary on the Angry Brigade, a wealth of Spanish-language material on the civil war and revolution, a Russian-language biopic of Nestor Makhno, the story of the Bonnot Gang and a history of Uruguay's Tupamaros. In other news, Franco is dead.
posted to MetaFilter by Abiezer at 12:27 PM on May 9, 2007 (10 comments)

Ruining science fiction: Not only are the science fiction cliches humorously skewered in the Tough Guide to the Known Galaxy, but the science itself is wrong. For example, despite the best efforts of SF writers, interstellar trade will never work, unless wine costs $11 billion a bottle. Slower-than-light travel is much harder than you think, and warp drives are far away. Space battles, if they happen, won't have fighters and dramatic dogfights, but instead involve vast distances and maneuvers lasting years. And you can ruin a whole lot more science fiction with real science (and wonderful examples) at Atomic Rocket. Don't follow the links if you want to read Heinlein or watch Battlestar Galactica with a light heart.
posted to MetaFilter by blahblahblah at 11:51 AM on May 8, 2007 (185 comments)

Karen Dalton - It Hurts Me, Too
Tim Buckley - Sally Go 'Round The Roses
Tim Hardin - If I Were A Carpenter
See also
The Other Side Of Greenwich Village 60's Folk Scene - Part 1
and Part 2  
more within
posted to MetaFilter by y2karl at 2:09 AM on May 4, 2007 (47 comments)

Great cache of interesting you tube clips including Alex Chilton, Paula Abdul stoned, The Pogues and James Brown drunk, Husker Du, John Lennon, and Captain Beefheart. And when was the last time you read something worthwhile on a music blog? Check out the Susan Choi post at moistworks. [And bonus essay from mefite gwint's wife!]
posted to MetaFilter by vronsky at 11:35 PM on April 30, 2007 (26 comments)

Tha interweb have the 70's funk you need: Stevie Wonder. Sly & the Family Stone. James Brown. Ohio Players. Bootsy Collins. Edwin Starr. And the documentary Make It Funky, parts 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 7:29 PM on April 26, 2007 (47 comments)

Joseph Frank Keaton Jr. was born into vaudeville. He quickly became a popular and controversial part of his family's stage act; an act that had his father violently hurling the "disobedient" child across the stage into scenery, the orchestra pit, or even into the audience, only to see him emerge amazingly unharmed. After the boy took an unplanned and particularly clamorous fall down a hotel stairwell, an astonished Harry Houdini cried out to the parents, "What a buster your kid took!" And thus, as legend has it, did little Joseph Frank Keaton Jr. become Buster Keaton.

At 22, Keaton made his cinematic debut with mentor Fatty Arbuckle. Afterward, he immediately founded Buster Keaton Studios, releasing a series of brilliant short (and later longer) comedies. Dozens of these are freely available to stream or download at the Internet Archive, including Steamboat Bill Jr, Convict 13, The Electric House, and his seminal The General (alt), which, despite completely failing at the box office, would be later hailed by many as one of the greatest films of all time. [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by churl at 7:54 PM on April 25, 2007 (58 comments)

Milestones in graphics, maps, and visualizations. An incredible site for anyone interested in the history of visualization of data. See the first town map from 6200 BCE. Take a look at some of the most important graphics through history, including the London cholera map and the diagrams that made Florence Nightingale's case, as well as recent examples of some of the worst. Also check out the fascinating history of timelines, or Cabinet magazine's beautifully illustrated Timeline of Timelines.
posted to MetaFilter by blahblahblah at 10:20 PM on April 24, 2007 (13 comments)

How To Talk To Girls At Parties by Neil Gaiman. Full text and reading by the author: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.
posted to MetaFilter by hoverboards don't work on water at 3:48 AM on April 18, 2007 (39 comments)

Ezra Pound: The Complete Poetry Recordings at PennSound
posted to MetaFilter by ubueditor at 8:30 AM on April 10, 2007 (31 comments)

Although I Am Dead (YouTube) (Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10) Compelling documentary by Hu Jie (胡杰) on the death during the Cultural Revolution of Bian Zhongyun (卞仲耘), recalled by her now octogenarian husband. He photographed her corpse after she was beaten to death by Red Guards, students at the middle school of which she was deputy principal. The film's inclusion in the documentary section of YunFest has apparently led to the authorities shutting down the event. (Via)
posted to MetaFilter by Abiezer at 4:26 AM on April 5, 2007 (19 comments)

Joyce Images—postcards of Ulysses. [A little backstory.]
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 6:12 PM on April 2, 2007 (25 comments)

The Punk Years, "A definitive history of the music that shook the world, looking at the origins and development of the punk rock movement as a social, historical, political and musical force. Achieved a record audience for Play UK on Saturday July 13th 2002." Parts 1: Wham Bam Thank You Glam [1,2,3] | 2: Year Zero [1,2,3] | 3: 1977 Never Get To Heaven [1,2,3] | 4: Take Three Chords [1,2,3] | 5: A Riot Of Your Own [1,2,3] | 6: Typical Girls [1,2,3] | 7: Ridicule Is Nothing To Be Scared Of [1,2,3] | 8: Punx Not Dead [1,2,3] | 9: Independents Days [1,2,3] | 10: California Uber Alles [1,2,3]. (via)
posted to MetaFilter by kolophon at 4:24 AM on March 27, 2007 (110 comments)

In Our Time Faced with a wet weekend indoors, I realised it's time to dig into the archive of In Our Time, the most unashamedly intellectual radio discussion series every produced. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and hosted by Melvyn Bragg (sorry, make that Lord Bragg), the show's format is simple: Take a topic that's shaped our world, invite a handful of academics who specialize in that field, and chat. But remember: Commercially suicidal program(me)s like this wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the unique way the BBC is funded.
posted to MetaFilter by humblepigeon at 8:28 AM on March 24, 2007 (25 comments)

The Criterion Contraption: Matthew Dessem is going to watch every last DVD in the Criterion Collection and blog about it. Illuminating and knowledgable film writing. You can start, if you wish, with the entry on my favorite film, The Passion of Joan of Arc, or pick from the complete index.
posted to MetaFilter by Falconetti at 9:24 PM on March 19, 2007 (55 comments)

The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library has 200,000 historic maps and 5,000 atlases. A whole heap of them is online in very high resolution and you can explore the collection by location, subject, date, publisher, author and projection. They give virtual tours, select a map of the month and have a section called Maps in the News, where they profile Darfur and Iraq.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 4:50 PM on March 19, 2007 (8 comments)

A new genre of literary wikis is in the works. Pynchon fans can find as well as contribute answers to questions about his works at the Thomas Pynchon Wiki. The site currently offers sections on The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow, Mason & Dixon, and Against the Day. Each offers spoiler-free page-by-page annotations, alphabetic search and a compilation of reviews. The Pynchon wikis were created by Tim Ware, "curator" of ThomasPynchon.com. Elsewhere, literary wikis have been started for James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake and the works of Shakespeare.
posted to MetaFilter by beagle at 7:18 PM on March 18, 2007 (35 comments)

Duclod man uncovered. Sarah Aswell uncovers but does not name the author of bizarre letters. "As early as 1992, students at Grinnell College, a small liberal arts school in Iowa, began receiving strange, anonymous letters in the mail. The letters contained homemade greeting cards with crudely drawn pictures—men crawling on the ground, toilets and trash cans, twin closet doors—and jokes that didn’t make any sense." Previously on Metafilter, plus this blip.
posted to MetaFilter by Mo Nickels at 5:51 PM on March 12, 2007 (156 comments)

What magazines have the best slush turnaround times? This is a question for submitters and editorial assistants alike about average response times for unsolicited works.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by shownomercy at 11:00 AM on March 12, 2007 (12 comments)

What cheese combination makes for the best grilled cheese sandwich?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by AloneOssifer at 10:54 AM on March 11, 2007 (72 comments)