In the years since the financial crisis, central banks across the world have struggled to stimulate adequate aggregate demand. Most mainstream economists agree that this is due to inherent impotence of monetary policy at the zero lower bound, although some, including some central banks, now say that the effective lower bound, though finite, is below zero. The Swiss and Danish central banks are currently testing that idea.
posted to MetaFilter by PMdixon at 7:22 PM on February 24, 2015 (31 comments)

Over 30 years since it was finally presented in full as a two-night, seven-and-a-half hour multimedia opera only a handful of times in only three cities, Laurie Anderson is revisiting her seminal work United States with United States V. Produced by pomegranate arts, who recently brought back Philip Glass' Einstein On The Beach.
posted to MetaFilter by hippybear at 10:50 AM on December 31, 2014 (34 comments)

In 1961, one dogged black woman took a stand against illegal police tactics. Today the fine folks at The Marshall Project profile one very important American you probably know almost nothing about.
posted to MetaFilter by deludingmyself at 11:21 AM on December 9, 2014 (8 comments)

The Senate intelligence committee's report on CIA torture has been released.
posted to MetaFilter by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 9:43 AM on December 9, 2014 (833 comments)

Remember the Sand Creek Massacre. "The 1864 murder of 200 innocent Indians is still largely forgotten. Many people think of the Civil War and America’s Indian wars as distinct subjects, one following the other. But those who study the Sand Creek Massacre know different." The Horrific Sand Creek Massacre Will Be Forgotten No More. "The opening of a national historic site in Colorado helps restore to public memory one of the worst atrocities ever perpetrated on Native Americans." [Previously]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 1:40 PM on November 29, 2014 (16 comments)

Before there was Chappie, there was Die Antwoord. Along with Die Antwoord came Ninja. But before there was Ninja, there was...
posted to MetaFilter by divined by radio at 5:34 PM on November 12, 2014 (13 comments)

I'm part of a group of middle-aged male librarians that get together periodically to talk shop, eat meat, and drink in DC. We're out of touch on the current restaurant explosion, have some specific requirements, and need your help, hivemind.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ryanshepard at 1:06 PM on October 31, 2014 (14 comments)

In infinite sandbox MMO Manyland, a world with no pre-set goals, what you draw becomes real and can be placed... so we all invent the universe pixel by pixel. Manyland is using HTML5 JS/ Canvas to display the world, and chat is real-time-as-you-type. There's over 9 million blocks placed so far, and a while ago we added a scripting language so you can add logic to blocks. This is a labor of love and we've now worked on it for over 2 years, and the community has done amazing things.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by philipp at 10:57 AM on October 29, 2014 (4 comments)

Big list of Games – "An unfiltered list of games featuring a leading lady, because such a list should exist."
Have a suggestion for a game?
Leading Ladies in Media – "Highlighting female protagonists in Film, TV, Comics, and Books."
Bonus link: hardcore gaming – Fuck Yeah 1990s
posted to MetaFilter by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 6:33 PM on August 29, 2014 (27 comments)

We are now entering day 10 of protests in Ferguson, MO, protesting the murder of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by local law enforcement officer Darren Wilson on August 9th.
posted to MetaFilter by Phire at 11:45 PM on August 18, 2014 (3234 comments)

After a couple months of fundraising and general money belt-tightening and Google up and downing, I wanted to give an update.
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 5:23 PM on August 5, 2014 (111 comments)

We've set up an official fundraising/​contributing/​support page here, and are now tracking the number of people signing on as monthly supporters.
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 9:20 AM on May 21, 2014 (1127 comments)

Wanted to let people know that while I'll continue to be hanging around here like I've always been, I'll be taking a (small) job at the Internet Archive being the support person and the user/tech liaison for Open Library.
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 7:41 AM on May 20, 2014 (254 comments)

Spherical Voronoi diagram of world airports
posted to MetaFilter by Wolfdog at 3:25 PM on May 8, 2014 (42 comments)

I recently bought a new bong so I can smoke salvia (which is legal in my state.) However when I put the screen in, the screen slides around. So whenever I pack the bong, the screen tips and salvia falls out. What can I do to keep the screen in place? Is there a substance I can use to make it stick that won't be harmful when it is lit and inhaled? Is there something else I can (legally) smoke that will leave a residue that will keep it in place? Thanks for your help!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 1:23 PM on May 2, 2014 (4 comments)

You know those websites and apps that let you color-in a state or a country after you've visited? I realized this weekend after a long road-trip that I'd love to a see a map of all the highway routes I've driven across the country. Does any such website or app exist? Thank you!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jefficator at 8:41 AM on April 7, 2014 (3 comments)

How did Pathfinder become the only table-top role-playing game ever to outsell Dungeons & Dragons, outpacing it 2:1? What were the economics of the Open Gaming License, whereby Wizards of the Coast effectively gave away the rules to its flagship D&D product? Why did the table-top market collapse? This and more on Episode 73 of the Game Design Roundtable podcast, with guest Ryan Dancey, architect of the Open Gaming License strategy at Wizards of the Coast, and former marketing exec at CCP Games (makers of EVE Online). Dancey is now the business lead on Pathfinder Online, an upcoming sandbox fantasy RPG broadly in the mold of EVE and Ultima Online. TGDRT is usually about game design, but this episode is a fascinating look into the business side of the RPG world, both online and off -- from someone who has been at the heart of the most interesting business cases in the space. The first 30 minutes are all about business history and economics.
posted to MetaFilter by grobstein at 6:42 AM on April 2, 2014 (68 comments)

Sorry, but I need to make a couple of callouts.
posted to MetaTalk by feckless fecal fear mongering at 3:38 PM on March 21, 2014 (62 comments)

Evgeny Grinko is a Russian musician who recently posted two gorgeous, minimal instrumentals to YouTube. He also has a free EP called Winter Sunshine.
posted to MetaFilter by fake at 2:17 PM on January 21, 2012 (8 comments)

My favorite new tumblr: Experimental Music On Children's TV.
posted to MetaFilter by naju at 8:10 PM on February 23, 2014 (22 comments)

We need three ice cream trucks to park at three specific locations in the SF mission district for an hour or so this Sunday. Help!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Dormant Gorilla at 12:02 PM on February 17, 2014 (10 comments)

Tencent Maps - Look at some of the remotest parts of China. While some of the off-the-beaten-path images on Tencent Maps are actually static panoramas, other more quirky routes offer full coverage for mile after mile, as seen on the Li river in Guangxi province where you can cruise on a boat amidst the famous karst peaks that don’t look like any other hill or mountain range you’ve ever seen before.
posted to MetaFilter by KokuRyu at 10:31 PM on February 11, 2014 (14 comments)

Jared Lorenzen briefly played backup quarterback in the NFL and became famous for his unusual size (for a quarterback). When videos of him dominating minor league arena football recently appeared online, SBNation tracked his entire fascinating post-NFL history in Jared Lorenzen: 300+ pound QB, American folk hero.
posted to MetaFilter by mathowie at 9:26 AM on February 4, 2014 (52 comments)

“Supposedly, it was set up for auto-pay, just like any other bill in real life, but either that didn’t happen or the money wasn’t in the wallet, and then everything just escalated..." EVE Online battles can be epic. Let's see how accidentally not paying the rent led to what is coming to be known as the largest battle in New Eden, and some would say gaming as a whole, to date.
posted to MetaFilter by RolandOfEld at 11:23 AM on January 31, 2014 (94 comments)

Programmers will tell you that coding is one of the most approachable skills there is. If you want to learn, there's Code Academy, or perhaps LearnPython.org. There are major non-profits that want to help you learn, free books, and videos. Great! Finished with all of those?
posted to MetaFilter by sonic meat machine at 5:27 AM on January 25, 2014 (97 comments)

Did Friendster have a "generic face" avatar for users who didn't add their own images to use as their avatar? Like a silhouette of a head, maybe that varied according to the gender of the user? If so, where can I get an image of it?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Mechitar at 6:26 AM on January 15, 2014 (5 comments)

Losing Aaron. "After his son was arrested for downloading files at MIT, Bob Swartz did everything in his power to save him. He couldn’t. Now he wants the institute to own up to its part in Aaron’s death." [Via]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 12:40 PM on January 5, 2014 (29 comments)

If all goes well, this weekend I will have my first encounter with a Prince Albert piercing. I am very excited about this prospect, but I'm also concerned about breaking the veneers on my two front teeth. Other than the obvious "be careful!" is there anything else I should know or do? Even better, is this really not a problem I need to worry about?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Schlock Puppet at 8:50 AM on November 26, 2013 (5 comments)

Boyfriend and I are planning a round trip (by rental car) through California and the Southwest and we'd love some input on the first rough draft of the route. We're going for 23 days in September next year and would like to stay in fairly affordable hotels and motels (no camping).
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Skybly at 7:20 AM on November 23, 2013 (34 comments)

Behold, a 1854 Map of the world's tallest mountains and longest rivers (alt. link), as understood at that point in time, when Dhaulagiri was thought to be the tallest mountain in the world. This is taken from the General Atlas Of The World: Containing Upwards Of Seventy Maps, which can be read (awkwardly) on Archive.org as scanned from black and white microform, or go straight for the good stuff and browse the full color maps in David Rumsey's collection of high-resolution scans of historic maps (via Dark Roasted Blend and io9).
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 7:59 AM on November 21, 2013 (17 comments)

We bought a house, yay. It’s a small 1910’s bungalow with gas appliances and everything basically works. The foundation’s been replaced in the not-too-distant past and it’s ready for an earthquake. I've never been anything but a renter, so what kinds of regular maintenance should I be thinking about to minimize the risk of catastrophic emergency repairs? Plumbing, gas, heating, electrical, sewers: what’s a good schedule, and what kinds of things do I ask for to make clear that there’s nothing particularly wrong but I’d like to keep it that way? I looked at this old question, but most of the interesting-sounding links are dead.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by migurski at 10:51 AM on November 12, 2013 (10 comments)

A Much Better Wayback Machine. Mefi's own rajbot programs for the awesome Internet Archive, and recently helped add some sweet new features. You can now instantly save a page and get a permanent URL; insert a 404 handler on your site to lead users past broken links; use new APIs; and plenty of other good stuff. [via mefi projects]
posted to MetaFilter by Jacob Knitig at 9:06 AM on November 4, 2013 (37 comments)

It's 1963. You're in a cold war with Russia. You want to keep up communication capabilities globally. Communication satellites haven't come into their own. The ionosphere is fickle and jammable. What do you do? You fire 480 million tiny copper wires into space to create an artificial dipole antenna belt around the earth. You call it Project West Ford. It works.
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 2:56 PM on August 27, 2013 (26 comments)

Hitoshizuku x Yama (or Yamashizuku) are producers for vocaloid, a singing voice synthesizer program (previously on mefi). Their most recent compilation album, EndlessroLL, is available on Amazon and iTunes. They seem most fond of Kagamine Rin/Len, but have also released songs featuring other vocaloids. Suzunosuke often does the artwork for their videos. Examples of their works below. Warnings for: singing robots, high-pitched Japanese voices, catchy tunes, English subtitles, occasional violence, death, melancholy, some mildly NSFW content, and more than a dollop of drama.

• Bad∞End∞Night / Crazy∞nighT / Twilight ∞ nighT - a villager is trapped in a mansion with a bunch of nuts! Can she find the key to survival, or can this only be a Bad End Night? Features the Vocaloid Eight - i.e., all 6 Crypton vocaloids + Gumi & Gakupo. TO BE CONTINUED.
• Alluring Secret ~Black Vow~ - An angel falls in love with a human girl, which is forbidden. But she has a plan.
• Soundless Voice / Proof of Life / Endless Wedge. A girl wants to leave something good behind. A boy grieves.

Click through the cut for more.
posted to MetaFilter by anthy at 2:10 PM on August 16, 2013 (9 comments)

Valve is in the middle of hosting The International 3, a DOTA2 tournament with the largest E-Sport prize pool in history - over $2.8 million dollars to be given out this weekend. This coincides with the official launch of DOTA2 itself, which saw player activity spike to over 500,000 concurrent users and 5.7 million unique monthly users. The game launched to wide acclaim, scoring an 89 on Metacritic, praised for its deep and rewarding multiplayer action [Gamespot] and "true" free to play model, where all gameplay elements are fully unlocked for everyone [Destructoid] - possibly the only competitive free-to-play game that is totally uncompromised by its business model. [PCGAMER]
posted to MetaFilter by xdvesper at 8:55 AM on August 8, 2013 (84 comments)

At dawn today, the arrivals unit of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport caught fire (pictures!), leading to the total indefinite shutdown of the largest air traffic hub in east Africa. No one knows the cause of the fire, which comes days after a stupidly corrupt businessman's duty-free shops were seized by the government.
posted to MetaFilter by kaibutsu at 3:33 AM on August 7, 2013 (14 comments)

Tekhnika Molodezhi was the Popular Mechanics of the Soviet Union. The magazine, whose name means Technology for the Youth, had illustrations of everything from space stations, computerized farming, transport of the future, friendly robots, to more abstract images. If you don't want to hunt through the archive, Mythbuster's Tested website has a gallery of 201 great images from the magazine.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 5:47 AM on July 15, 2013 (24 comments)

It may take months for this odyssey of a place to completely sink in: quirky and utterly fascinating, Tinkertown Museum contains a world of miniature carved-wood characters. The museum's late founder, Ross Ward, spent more than 40 years carving and collecting the hundreds of figures that populate this cheerfully bizarre museum, including an animated miniature Western village, a Boot Hill cemetery, and a 1940s circus exhibit. Ragtime piano music, a 40-foot sailboat (that traveled around the world for a decade), and a life-size general store are other highlights. The walls surrounding this 22-room museum have been fashioned out of more than 50,000 glass bottles pressed into cement. This homage to folk art, found art, and eccentric kitsch tends to strike a chord with people of all ages.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 8:50 PM on July 5, 2013 (11 comments)

Are you still confused by Ukraine's 2007 Eurovision entry?
posted to MetaFilter by Nomyte at 9:31 PM on March 30, 2013 (21 comments)

A contributor to the Gameological Society visits his local video game store in Nairobi to demonstrate the sort of games he found there, finding gems like "Guitar Hero: Beatles and Friends" (actually, mostly Bahasa pop music), "Robocop" (with extra rainbow), and what might just be the ne plus ultra of video game mods: Grand Theft Auto San Andreas: Kirk Douglas.
posted to MetaFilter by barnacles at 5:48 AM on February 6, 2013 (42 comments)

TRIODE.TXT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
a story of people[0xCF36] as told by shaman.Accumulator.Overflows(true)
In the beginning, there were too many numbers, and nobody could tell exactly what they were. Everybody was confused about what was big and what was small, because everything was kind of big, but also kind of small. Nobody knew anything for sure....
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 4:01 PM on January 27, 2013 (21 comments)

"When you run molten lead through a sieve and let it fall into a water tank far below, surface tension forms the lead drops into almost perfect spheres." The first purpose-built shot tower was built by William Watts of Bristol, UK, in 1782. America built its first shot tower in Philadelphia in 1808. The tallest shot tower ever built (but not the first in Australia) still stands in the center of Melbourne though now underneath a glass roof. As less costly methods of making shot were discovered these towers closed up shop, some not until the late sixties. Many of these towers have found new purposes as historical sites, art galleries or simply mysterious links to the past.
posted to MetaFilter by jessamyn at 7:17 PM on January 23, 2013 (39 comments)

On December 14, 2012, DJ Shadow, best-known for his genre-breaking Endtroducing... was booted off the stage in the middle of his set, later tweeting about the incident and his fit there. The venue, Mansion has since issued an an apology, but already has a bit of a reputation for kicking DJs off the stage, having done it to DJ Dennis Ferrer.

So what did Shadow get booted for? Well, why not give it a listen for yourself?
posted to MetaFilter by TheNewWazoo at 5:49 PM on January 19, 2013 (106 comments)

We're rolling out titles to the front pages of Ask, MetaTalk, and MeFi today (all the other subsites have titles on their front pages). In addition, we've revamped the posting pages on those subsites in order to make the title more obvious and prominent (along with improved helper text).
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 8:55 AM on January 7, 2013 (1832 comments)

To say that Messiaen's Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant-Jesus (Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus) is a masterpiece is a gross understatement. Over sixty years after its composition, it has rightfully earned the recognition of being one of the most important piano works of the 20th century. ... [It] is one of the most personal and intimate pieces Messiaen ever wrote, and it gives the listener a close look at Messiaen the person. Messiaen was a deeply religious person, and although his faith influenced every single piece he wrote, the Vingt Regards is almost like his own personal spiritual diary. - Keith Kerchoff
posted to MetaFilter by Egg Shen at 8:56 PM on December 13, 2012 (16 comments)

If you follow the usual crop of technology news sites, you will have read yesterday morning that Google had apparently acquired a little-known WiFi hotspot company for $400 million. This story spread with the help of the most popular (and most reputable) sites, like TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, The Next Web, and others. Only one small detail: the story wasn't actually true.
posted to MetaFilter by nickheer at 7:45 AM on November 27, 2012 (54 comments)

Secret Weapons. "David Cronenberg's seldom seen 1972 made-for-TV movie, 'Secret Weapons'. It is six years into a future American civil war. A man has created a drug that enhances fighting skills. But will he give it to the theocratic government, or the rebels?" [Via]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 11:40 PM on November 11, 2012 (4 comments)

Tool-assisted speedruns seek to create a perfect run by using tools such as slow motion, scripts and manipulation of random numbers. A few TASs have appeared on the blue before, but it's easy to get lost in the archives of TASvideos. The pages of popular videos and notable videos are useful here. You could browse by platform or use the tabs to sort the videos by various statistics. A good starting point might be Actraiser (yt), a hybrid of sidescroller and city simulation, which has been subtitled so that you can understand the choices made by the author (click on the 'closed captions' button). Some of the most impressive TASs take advantage of glitches: watch Link complete Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (yt - no cutscenes) by supersliding, bomb jumping, and eschewing boss keys or a long game like Super Mario 64 (yt) completed in 5 minutes in a no-stars run. However, sometimes watching a longer, competent run like Donkey Kong Country 2 (yt) 102% is just as fun. Here are some recommendations.
posted to MetaFilter by ersatz at 9:29 AM on September 21, 2012 (37 comments)

This is a collection of tweets from the roughly 400 attendees over the 4 days of the XOXO Festival in Portland, Oregon.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by bertrandom at 5:17 PM on September 20, 2012 (3 comments)

A festival of indie creativity in Portland, Oregon, XOXO was Kickstartered into existence as an alternative to SXSW and sold out in just over two days. Its speakers spoke of a new kind of individual creative entrepreneurship enabled by technology, and included Dan Harmon, Adam Savage, MakerBot's Bre Prettis (previously) and MeFi's own mathowie, while its attendees were a kind of who's-who of the Internet. Anil Dash wrote up every session, and you can pre-order videos on the main site.
posted to MetaFilter by bwerdmuller at 4:58 PM on September 18, 2012 (12 comments)