For all the faults of the poorhouse, the system it replaced was perceived to be even worse. In post-Revolution America, if you were poor, you could be "farmed out" at public auction to the lowest bidder.
posted to MetaFilter by Knappster at 11:59 AM on December 30, 2010 (8 comments)

YouTube has a fair number of recordings of well-played classic arcade games. Dig Dug, Mr Do!, Mr Do's Castle, Do! Run Run, Lady Bug Part 2, Bagman, Super Bagman, Q*bert, Venture, Zoo Keeper, Moon Cresta, Scramble, Make Trax, Phoenix, Rastan. click through for more
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 1:44 PM on December 23, 2010 (35 comments)

Halfway through the third book of the Hitchhiker's Guide series, there is a throwaway reference to a doomed starship, one whose incredible splendor was matched only by the cosmic absurdity of its maiden-day annihilation. But the story didn't end there. Unbeknownst to many fans, this small piece of Adamsian lore was the inspiration for an ambitious and richly-detailed side-story: a 1998 computer adventure game called Starship Titanic. Designed by Douglas Adams himself, the game set players loose in the infamous vessel, challenging them with a maddening mystery laced with the devilish wit of the novels. The game was laden with extra content, including an in-depth strategy guide, a (mediocre) tie-in novel by Terry Jones, a whimsical First Class In-Flight Magazine, and even a pair of 3D glasses for one of the more inventive puzzles. Key to solving these puzzles was the game's groundbreaking communications system -- players interacted with the ship's robotic crew through a natural language parsing engine called SpookiTalk, whose 10,000+ lines of conversational dialogue spawned 16 hours of audio recorded by professional voice actors, including John Cleese, Terry Jones, and even Douglas Adams himself in several cameos (spoiler cameo). Want to experience the voyage for yourself? Then watch this narrated video playthrough (intro (ads) - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9? 10 11 12 13) ...or click inside for a information on how to run the game for free on Windows, Mac, and Linux (along with a bunch of other goodies!).
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 7:28 PM on December 22, 2010 (109 comments)

Robert Quattlebaum shows how to hack GE Color Effects Christmas lights and makes the source code for his work available.
posted to MetaFilter by a snickering nuthatch at 10:41 AM on December 3, 2010 (30 comments)

During the show's history Mystery Science Theater did many musical bits. Topless Robot recently linked to the "13 best" Mystery Science Theater 3000 songs. It's not a bad list, although there are some notable exclusions. About those, click through....
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 5:22 PM on December 6, 2010 (61 comments)

First, Mark read Twilight. I think it's safe to say he's not a fan. Then he read Harry Potter and likes it a lot more. Now, he's watching Firefly, reading The Hunger Games, and rereading Harry Potter.
posted to MetaFilter by kmz at 3:10 PM on December 3, 2010 (27 comments)

Speak With Monsters -- A comic about the most interesting parts of D&D.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 5:09 AM on November 29, 2010 (35 comments)

always win.
posted to MeFi Music by chococat at 3:13 PM on November 15, 2010 (47 comments)

Jeff Vandermeer discusses Amazons top 10 SF/Fantasy books of the year, which he selected in consultation with Amazon editors : Part 1, Part 2.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 1:57 PM on November 4, 2010 (28 comments)

Chrontendo is a video podcast in which a guy systematically described and discusses every Famicom/NES game released. Currently up to 33 episodes and counting, and covering hundreds of games.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 2:39 AM on November 1, 2010 (23 comments)

I worked for a couple of days on a post on Chrontendo, the project of a guy to play every Famicom and NES game, and in chronological order to boot. (It reminds me a bit of Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, but no matter.) When I finished it and tried to post it I found out that it had already been posted. (In fact, I myself had commented on it, which was odd.) However, the work I had done in constructing the post, which links to every video's description page and notes which ones contain particularly interesting games, shouldn't go to waste I think. The original thread is long closed, so I'm going to paste my links in the More Inside of this post for people to peruse and enjoy.
posted to MetaTalk by JHarris at 1:36 PM on October 31, 2010 (7 comments)

Cartoonist and former high school teacher Sean Michael Robinson (flickr) on what to do with those darn anime kids.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 1:32 PM on October 14, 2010 (20 comments)

The 14 Best Title Cards From 'Batman: The Animated Series' (previously)
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 2:44 PM on September 24, 2010 (60 comments)

In a five part series he wrote a few years ago, blogger J. Brad Hicks breaks down how, in the mid-1960s, the Republican party made a conscious decision to rebrand themselves as the party of Christians, and in doing so, how they had to shift the ideology of the churches to what he calls a "false gospel".
posted to MetaFilter by quin at 1:36 PM on September 15, 2010 (190 comments)

Snippets of poetry from the Imperium; a sample folk tale from the Oral History; brief biographies of over a dozen Duncan Idahos; two differing approaches to Paul Muad'Dib himself and to his son Leto II; Fremen recipes; Fremen history; secrets of the Bene Gesserit; the songs of Gurney Halleck -- these are just some of the treasures found when an earthmover fell into the God Emperor's no-room at Dar-es-Balat. Out of print for more than two decades, disavowed by Frank Herbert's estate, and highly sought-after by fans, the legendary Dune Encyclopedia is now available online as a fully illustrated and searchable PDF [direct link].
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 4:30 PM on September 1, 2010 (55 comments)

One of the better online random dungeon generators out there. Scroll down a bit to see it. You can change the size and learn more about it from the home page.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 12:08 PM on August 5, 2010 (80 comments)

Flickr user Urtica posts pictures of elusive luna moths, surly bees, gregarious aphids, insect eggs, and of course beetles.
Most of these she finds in her backyard in Framingham, MA. She posts a new Bug picture every single day.
I give you Urtica's Bug of the Day!
posted to MetaFilter by vacapinta at 2:15 PM on July 23, 2010 (21 comments)

You know about TED, but do you know about the WGBH Forum Network? A project of the venerable Boston public TV station, the Forum is a web platform which aggregates lectures from cultural institutions, museums, libraries, bookstores, and colleges across the US - everything from current research in social science and hard science to author and poet talks. Presentations vary in topic, length, format, and level of eggheadiness, but if you love ideas, you'll find some good stuff here. Streams on demand, downloads often available if you register.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko at 9:09 AM on July 19, 2010 (10 comments)

They were one of history’s greatest teams. But by the late 2000s, Pro Vercelli were entrenched in the lower leagues, their glorious past forgotten. Until one day, a man bought a video game. Read the uplifting saga of a small-town Italian club, an unknown American manager, triumph, betrayal, passion, and several extremely good recipes, from start to finish
posted to MetaFilter by Joe Beese at 6:31 PM on July 3, 2010 (25 comments)

Motorcycle modification means something entirely different across the developing world. You can deliver cold drinks, cargo, one person, three or even more with a special sidecar. You can cook hot food and sell it. Or critically, you can quickly transport someone in need of emergency medical care when roads are bad and facilities remote. They're supported by roadside repair shops, tyre shacks, petrol pumps and more. Bonus FTW
posted to MetaFilter by infini at 8:55 AM on June 30, 2010 (13 comments)

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the release of Deus Ex, a revolutionary blend of first-person shooter and roleplaying game which debuted to universal critical acclaim and which has inspired much devotion among gamers. Its intro video has been reworked for the sake of comedy, it's been modded not only to "take the suck out" (and to improve the biomods) and for the plain sake of weirdness, but also to create entirely new games. Walkthroughs exist, from the helpful to the amusing to the simply insane, and even its music (such as its theme song) has inspired tributes and covers.
posted to MetaFilter by Pope Guilty at 6:37 AM on June 22, 2010 (74 comments)

She's been called "the greatest posthumous success story in music history." But when she died of melanoma at age 33, few people outside of the Washington DC-area had heard of Eva Marie Cassidy.
posted to MetaFilter by zarq at 9:55 PM on June 17, 2010 (62 comments)

old School Science Fiction RPGs: Traveller, Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma World.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 11:53 AM on May 27, 2010 (99 comments)

-Confessions of a Wall St. Nihilist: Forget About Goldman Sachs, Our Entire Economy Is Built on Fraud by Mark Ames (note: polemic)
-The Feds vs. Goldman by Matt Taibbi (note: vampire squid reprise)
-The Goldman Casino: Do investment banks do anything that helps America anymore? by Eliot Spitzer (cf. Robert Rubin, oh and Dick Fuld)
-William Black on Fraud interviewed by Bill Moyers (note: Moyers' penultimate PBS show)
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 4:28 AM on May 5, 2010 (57 comments)

Popular open source roguelike Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has updated to version 0.6.
It is a variant of the older game Linley's Dungeon Crawl, and is regarded by many as one of the best roguelike games out there. Unlike its rival game Nethack it is undergoing rapid development. Also unlike Nethack, the game retains a more consistent difficulty level (hard) throughout, and has a much greater variety of character types.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 1:02 PM on March 28, 2010 (61 comments)

Julian Cope reviews Tom Lehrer. In case you haven't heard Julian Cope, this is he. In case you haven't heard Tom Lehrer, this is he.
posted to MetaFilter by escabeche at 9:50 PM on March 25, 2010 (47 comments)

Eating healthy on a budget isn't just for hipsters on food stamps. While some have called Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman's ideas about cooking and eating "elitist," there are many cooks who are smart enough to know that cooking at home is the only way to eat healthy on a budget. While Jamie Oliver pledges to give all school children "10 recipes that will save their lives," almost anyone on any budget can change the way they shop for, prepare, and think about food.
posted to MetaFilter by sararah at 3:35 PM on March 17, 2010 (79 comments)

The Psychology of Video Games. Jamie Madigan has a Ph.D. in psychology. He's also a Gamer with a capital G, has written gaming strategy guides and countless game reviews, and follows the gaming scene like some people follow baseball. In his blog, Jamie tells you "why things are" when it comes to game psychology. Conan the Loss Averse Barbarian. How Reciprocity Yields Bumper Crops in Farmville. Phat Loot and Neurotransmitters in World of Warcraft.
posted to MetaFilter by Cool Papa Bell at 10:46 AM on March 10, 2010 (58 comments)

In the three years since it began, the most common question I've been asked about @Play, the roguelike column I do for GameSetWatch, has been is it possible to just get your column? You could always reload the @Play column homepage (http://www.gamesetwatch.com/column_at_play/), but there is no feed that collects the column that doesn't also publish all of GSW's many other (awesome) articles. Until now! Atom.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by JHarris at 6:47 PM on February 13, 2010 (4 comments)

How do you like your snow white pillow? How do you like your sheet?
And how do you like the fair young bride that's lying in your arms asleep?

What banks, what banks, are those, my love,
that rise so dark and cold?

And every jow that the dead bell gave
Cried: Woe to Barbara Allen.
posted to MetaFilter by Countess Elena at 12:35 PM on February 6, 2010 (30 comments)

8 Million Reasons for Real Surveillance Oversight. "Sprint Nextel provided law enforcement agencies with its customers' (GPS) location information over 8 million times between September 2008 and October 2009. This massive disclosure of sensitive customer information was made possible due to the roll-out by Sprint of a new, special web portal for law enforcement officers."
posted to MetaFilter by chunking express at 8:17 AM on December 3, 2009 (38 comments)

The development blog for the original Prince of Persia from Jordan Mechner.
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 12:13 AM on November 22, 2009 (30 comments)

The Apex Book of World SF gathers stories from around the globe, giving Science Fiction a global aspect not always seen. Charles Tan interviews the writers who contributed.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 6:22 PM on November 19, 2009 (13 comments)

One time, OK, see, one time Randy Beaman's [aunt, uncle, sister, little brother, best friend who's name is Linda, cat] [had like this bean dip for the chips, had a dream she ate a big marshmallow, ate some cornflakes, had to take baths with his brother] and [Jason made this gross noise, this was in Kansas, he thought it wasn't Dracula] and [they were in there so long they became skeleton people]. [AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH] (clips from Animaniacs, big youtube playlist of them all here.)
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla at 4:07 PM on November 14, 2009 (26 comments)

Animated Stereoviews of Meiji Japan
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 6:40 PM on November 13, 2009 (37 comments)

Stick with 'er Wiener! On March 9, 1987, a well-known derailment occurred here when a runaway CN train journeyed from Brunswick Mines to just short of the wye. There was a mixup in communications and engineer Wesley MacDonald ended up with more cars on his train than he thought, and the brakes on the engine alone were unable to hold the consist on the grade in the Brunswick Mines yard. Great radio show about the accident that we previously discussed here.
posted to MetaFilter by srboisvert at 2:46 AM on October 21, 2009 (7 comments)

From the satisfying click of its keys to its no-nonsense layout and solid steel underpinnings, IBM's 24-year-old Model M is the standard by which all other keyboards must be judged. (previously)
posted to MetaFilter by Joe Beese at 8:57 AM on June 22, 2009 (106 comments)

The funicular railway is a kind of cable-based railway that gives me great joy because of its peculiar shape and its uselessness for doing anything other than what it does. A funicular carriage is generally stairstepped or terraced, so you can't repurpose these cars for other uses. They generally work in a particular way, too, as pairs: one goes up the mountain, one comes down the mountain! Maybe this kind of glee is why they seem to be especially popular in Japan today, where they can be taken to many popular sightseeing areas--but a fair number of funicular railway riders are probably there for the journey, not the destination.
posted to MetaFilter by wintersweet at 8:29 PM on August 25, 2009 (64 comments)

I Married a MeFite!
posted to MetaTalk by BitterOldPunk at 10:48 AM on August 2, 2009 (180 comments)

Drawing and storytelling in sand.
posted to MetaFilter by dmd at 8:02 AM on July 3, 2009 (26 comments)

The US Food and Drug Administration started regulating the labeling of food, beverages, and medicines after the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, and added food coloring and cosmetics with the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. They have just released a new website, the FDA Notices of Judgment Collection, 1906-1963, containing data from thousands of cases of mislabeled or misadvertised products and drugs, available in multiple forms (text, PDF, metadata XML, .TIF image, etc.), with searchable archives. Poking around in the data will yield information on cases ranging from misbranding methamphetamine tablets, to quack "Film-O-Sonic" devices, to bacteria-laden unproven abortifacients sold over the counter, to purported "4-way" cures for baldness, to hunks of radium sold for putting in your drinking water to "stimulate the sex organs" (judged against for stating an unproven use, not for actual danger of product). Organized by the FDA's history office, the new database is a fascinating resource for historians, public safety advocates, researchers, and librarians.
posted to MetaFilter by Asparagirl at 1:26 PM on April 6, 2009 (27 comments)

Perfect Balance If this is Flash Fun, then today must be Friday.
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 6:06 AM on January 29, 2009 (46 comments)

Nearly a month ago jbickers made a post that mentioned the TIGsource Demakes competition. The competition is over, and the winners have been announced. All of these are playable. Most are for Windows, except for those that are Flash or something else:
1. Soundless Mountain II (Atari 2600 Silent Hill) (from previous post)
2. Gang Garrison II (Kyntt Stories-like Team Fortress 2, complete with multiplayer)
3. Aquarium (NES-ish Aquaria)
4. Little Girl in Underland (Soviet McGee's Alice)
5. House Globe (Homeworld)
6. S.T.A.C.K.E.R. (Nuclear Tetris)
7. Squish
(Crush is a PSP game where the player can switch the world between a 2D and 3D representation. Squish is a game in which the player switches between a 2D and a 1D representation. See for yourself.) 8. (tie) Fillauth and Advanced Set The Rope On Fire Cartridge (an Intellivision-like remake of this, previously mentioned)
9. Sexy Seaside Vollyball (NSFW, pixelated breasts) (Sinclair Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Vollyball)
10. Macarena of the Missing (A thematically-appropriate demake of Limbo of the Lost)

Lots more after the jump!
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 3:19 AM on October 7, 2008 (29 comments)

LOLFed. Doan cry, emo banker! If you hate the latest financial crisis news, but love image macros, then this is the site for you. It's like I Can Has Cheezburger meets the Wall Street Journal.
posted to MetaFilter by Asparagirl at 4:46 PM on September 22, 2008 (61 comments)

Whether Einstein's "spooky science" or quantum weirdness, the Geneva tests that show entangled photons traveling at 10,000 times the speed of light are stirring up challenges and "Alice in Wonderland" discussions about "subatomic particles communicating nearly instantaneously at a distance."
posted to MetaFilter by Surfurrus at 5:00 PM on August 24, 2008 (73 comments)

Are you savvy metaboffs?
posted to MetaFilter by chelegonian at 12:59 PM on August 24, 2008 (99 comments)

Do you enjoy classic 2D platformers? Then boy, are you in luck! The indie game community is thriving, and a good majority of its games are exactly that. I've spent many hours playing these unique, beautiful, and often exceptional projects, and there's quite a few - more than I can count on my fingers! - that could stand toe-to-toe with the finest contemporary games. Inside is a list of some of the greatest indie platformers, based on community recommendations and my own experience. Enjoy!
posted to MetaFilter by archagon at 3:28 AM on June 24, 2008 (48 comments)

Fascinating account (w/ pix) of a motorcycle journey through Angola. Stumbled onto this from the Black Flag forums and have not been able to stop reading it.
posted to MetaFilter by jcruelty at 9:29 PM on May 26, 2008 (40 comments)

"King Cotton" created a huge demand for land and (slave) labor that changed early America's borders, population, and economics. But just as cotton affected history, history affected cotton: the story of naturally colored cottons -- brown, green, yellow, mauve, and reddish cottons -- has almost been lost.
posted to MetaFilter by Asparagirl at 2:20 PM on May 9, 2008 (16 comments)

Free Speculative Fiction Online is a database of free science fiction and fantasy stories online by published authors (no fan-fiction or stories by unpublished writers). Among the authors that FSFO links to are Paul Di Filippo (14 stories), James Tiptree, Jr. (4 stories), Connie Willis (3 stories), Eleanor Arnason (3 stories), Bruce Sterling (5 stories), Robert Heinlein (7 stories), Ursula K. LeGuin (3 stories), Jonathan Lethem (5 stories), Michael Moorcock (6 stories), Chine Miéville (2 stories), Samuel R. Delany (3 stories), Robert Sheckley (8 stories), MeFite Charles Stross (33 stories) and hundreds of other authors. If you don't know where to start, there's a list of recommended stories.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 1:52 PM on April 5, 2008 (34 comments)