Tonight! He's "a well-meaning, poorly informed, high-status idiot." An it-getter. A knight. A doctor (of fine arts). A Real American Hero. And after tonight, his arched eyebrow of justice will never again grace American television screens in quite the same way. "Stephen Colbert": a brief retrospective. Truthiness - The White House Correspondents' Dinner - Better Know a District - Formidable Opponent - Tek Jansen - Papa Bear - I Am America (And So Can You!) - Americone Dream - The ThreatDown - Late Night Fight! - Testifying to Congress - The Rally to Restore Sanity - Colbert Super PAC - Maurice Sendak - Wheat Thins - Lorna Colbert - Tolkien-off - Ask a Grown Man - The Decree. So much more inside.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 8:15 PM on December 18, 2014 (130 comments)

Slate's "25 Best Podcast Episodes Ever" Podcasts are nothing new to the Blue, and roundup lists are a dime a dozen towards the end of the year, but it's always interesting to listen to a curated list of favorites. Most of the episodes they chose are from the last 5 years, featuring an eclectic mix of stories about love, popular culture, personal success, and public failure; there are deconstructions of the what seems mundane at first glance, and tragedy that is difficult to process.
posted to MetaFilter by Political Funny Man at 8:06 PM on December 15, 2014 (54 comments)

Brandon Rhodes is known for his excellent talks at Python conferences. At this year's PyGotham, he took the opportunity to discuss writing in general: How To Shut Down Tolkien.
posted to MetaFilter by ifandonlyif at 4:19 PM on November 10, 2014 (12 comments)

Boing Boing looks back on the truth behind the D&D Steam Tunnel tragedy Jason Louv writes for BoingBoing and outlines the truth behind the tabloid sensationalism of the D&D Steam Tunnel tragedy and what really happened to James Dallas. Note - it's far more complicated and tragic than was reported at the time.
posted to MetaFilter by Faintdreams at 7:58 AM on November 11, 2014 (82 comments)

I apologize to basically everyone.
posted to MeFi Music by cortex at 4:20 PM on November 6, 2014 (25 comments)

Please tell me the most Dad thing your dad has ever done
posted to MetaFilter by griphus at 7:05 AM on October 23, 2014 (254 comments)

Citizenfour is a documentary film directed by Laura Poitras concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal.
posted to FanFare by roolya_boolya at 1:24 PM on November 1, 2014 (9 comments)

How do I deal with my constant sense of outrage at things happening in the world? It's starting to take a toll on my health and stress levels.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by naju at 10:12 PM on September 1, 2014 (35 comments)

THE SPIRIT OF 99 VIEWING CLUB - A New York doctor accuses his wife of infidelity, even just in her mind, and ends up on a series of strange, sexually threatening adventures through the city.
posted to FanFare by The Whelk at 6:51 AM on October 30, 2014 (18 comments)

I'm looking for books, TV shows, and movies that avoid dark or scary themes (especially the subject of death), but would still be interesting for a bright 8-year-old. Specific recommendations and wider resources are all welcome.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Eolienne at 3:35 PM on October 29, 2014 (43 comments)

I thought it fitting that my first Mefi Music post should be something I've never done before and is pretty well outside my usual realm of experience, so tada! This is a beat I made for a friend, but things fell through and now it's a lost soul.
posted to MeFi Music by invitapriore at 8:35 PM on September 14, 2014 (5 comments)

The first song from my new EP, In Truth, available for free download. An Americana acousticish song about getting lost.
posted to MeFi Music by saul wright at 7:05 PM on August 24, 2014

Photogrammar is a web-based platform for organizing, searching, and visualizing the 170,000 photographs from 1935 to 1945 created by the United State’s Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (FSA-OWI).
posted to MetaFilter by ColdChef at 5:11 PM on September 3, 2014 (22 comments)

Going Deep with David Rees (yes, that David Rees) is a TV series about mundane things examined in a far from mundane manner. Episodes to date have explained how to tie one's shoes, how to make ice, and how to dig a hole, among other things. In an interview in The Atlantic, Rees explains his philosophy for the show: There are NO fake facts in our show. The humor comes from my interactions with the experts, who have all been incredibly good-natured and (sometimes) silly without compromising the integrity of the information they're sharing with me. That's important to us, because we really do want this show to be a celebration of everything that's right under our noses—and for that mission to succeed, we need to honor the topics by not bullshitting our way through them.
posted to MetaFilter by Cash4Lead at 8:14 AM on July 30, 2014 (31 comments)

Iron, Steam and Coal. Photographer Matthew Malkiewicz captures the timeless beauty of the steam locomotive and steam trains - the steam, the tracks, the folks who run them and just the folks who love them. (Via Petapixel)
posted to MetaFilter by caddis at 8:13 AM on July 22, 2014 (4 comments)

"Casually, I click in a compilation of clips I've never seen before. I think it's another video like other thousands of thousands, but I soon realize it's not. The clips are not Messi goals, his best runs, nor his assists. It's a strange compilation: the video shows hundreds of clips, two or three seconds long each, in which Messi receives strong fouls and doesn't fall to the ground." Messi es un perro is a short essay by Argentine writer Hernán Casciari on Lionel Messi. You can read an English translation on Reddit, Messi Is a Dog. Perhaps the best way to enjoy it is to listen to the original as read by Norberto Jansenson with English subtitles. [via this Deadspin article about Messi by Billy Haisley which you should also read]
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 9:13 AM on July 11, 2014 (23 comments)

Reddit's Slow TV channel offers long videos of continuous coverage by fixed cameras on a subject or event from start to finish. Take train rides, go the beach, watch fireworks, ride the Autobahn, visit the aquarium, check out a hot spring at Yellowstone, fry up some bacon or, tour the islands of Cat Ba near Ha Long Bay in North Vietnam
posted to MetaFilter by zarq at 9:22 AM on January 15, 2014 (18 comments)

You may remember the 7.5 hour documentary released in 2009 which allowed you to travel the journey between Bergen to Oslo from the comfort of your home. If your wanderlust was fired up watching that video, then you may enjoy some of the other trips you can take. Switzerland:

• Zermatt to Gornergrat in Summer (50m)
• Zermatt to Gornergrat in Winter Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 (30m)
• Le Train de Vignes (11m)

posted to MetaFilter by jontyjago at 5:39 PM on May 25, 2013 (28 comments)

I am seeking recommendations of fiiction set in medieval times - but, I'm not interested in mysteries, stories focusing on kings/queens/knights/battles etc, or fantasy. Rather, I'm looking for accurate depictions of people living in that era-- their lives, struggles, adventures. I've read the Ken Follett trilogy and enjoyed the first 1.5 books. Really liked Noah Gordon's The Physician. What are you favorites?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ecorrocio at 3:57 PM on May 18, 2014 (33 comments)

Acoustic fingerstyle blues instrumental. My first effort at writing a riff blues, and also my first effort at recording. Completed as a final assignment for a Berklee Music MOOC.
posted to MeFi Music by BlackPebble at 7:06 AM on May 16, 2014 (1 comment)

James Minchin's backstage photos taken during the filming of Mad Men show, among other things, Ken holding a Macbook.
posted to MetaFilter by mippy at 10:02 AM on April 28, 2014 (26 comments)

The second episode of the fourth season is the only one this season written by George R.R. Martin himself and mostly covers the events leading up to the royal wedding at King's Landing.
posted to FanFare by mathowie at 9:52 PM on April 14, 2014 (441 comments)

Web comic artists Ryan North and David Malki have been "discovering" obscure books "written" by each other, and posting their finds at BOOKWAR.
posted to MetaFilter by scatter gather at 11:39 AM on April 11, 2014 (30 comments)

I'm looking for good songs to practice various fingerstyle guitar patterns.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by rossination at 2:11 PM on April 10, 2014 (12 comments)

MeFi's Own™ brownpau gets to wear his 8-bit tie while being interviewed on BBC World News' 'Global' programme to discuss being a "punctilious killjoy" as PicPedant on Twitter.
posted to MetaTalk by terrapin at 12:36 PM on March 6, 2014 (26 comments)

Yesterday, Feb 21, Apple computer released a security patch with a vague description of SSL fixes. It turns out that it's quite a bug which would trivially allow Man in the Middle attacks for assumed-secure connections via SSL. Folks dug into the code and found the code resulting in the bug. If this affects you and your devices, you might want to go upgrade.
posted to MetaFilter by rmd1023 at 8:11 AM on February 22, 2014 (134 comments)

You are a clever and talented person. You create beautiful designs, or perhaps you have architected a system that even my cat could use. Your peers adore you. Your clients love you. But, until now, you haven’t *&^#^! been able to make Git work. It makes you angry inside that you have to ask your co-worker, again, for that *&^#^! command to upload your work. It’s not you. It’s Git. Promise.
posted to MetaFilter by jenkinsEar at 5:35 PM on February 11, 2014 (96 comments)

You don’t sit down to write a game and “add fun” or “make fun.” You make things. You design encounters. You plan plot points. You build NPCs. And you also put together and run campaigns. You hope that somehow, out of the campaigns and the decisions and encounters and plot points and NPCs, fun is a thing that will happen. But you don’t actually try to quantify fun. You don’t think about why fun things are fun. Until today.

In The Eight Kinds of Fun The Angry DM explores the nature of fun in tabletop roleplaying games, guided by scholarly research on the subject.
posted to MetaFilter by Skorgu at 7:53 AM on January 28, 2014 (43 comments)

I suspect there must be quite a number of books dealing with our need to classify things…
posted to Ask MetaFilter by MrMisterio at 6:52 PM on January 27, 2014 (11 comments)

This is a little fingerstyle blues thing I've been working on for a while, indebted to Mississippi John Hurt and a little bit of John Fahey.
posted to MeFi Music by gorbichov at 10:19 AM on January 20, 2014 (13 comments)

@Sweden is run by a different Swede each week. But what are the other @countries and @territories up to?
posted to MetaFilter by me3dia at 9:43 AM on January 20, 2014 (33 comments)

If the funnies in your local paper have gotten you down, with their limited space and xeroxed gags, why not take the wayback machine to the Golden Age of newspaper strips, courtesy of Gocomics' Origins of the Sunday comics? Started July last year and curated by Peter Maresca, it shows off how sophisticated and beautiful the American comic strip was almost from its birth in the 1890ties .
posted to MetaFilter by MartinWisse at 4:57 AM on January 19, 2014 (15 comments)

A short, sweet, rap-free collaboration with MC Frontalot.
posted to MeFi Music by grumpybear69 at 12:59 PM on January 16, 2014

I'm looking for geography books for my 9 year old son. He's into looking at maps, especially historical maps of countries that no longer exist or ancient civilizations (although that's not a requirement). History and cultural information is good too.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ShooBoo at 5:23 AM on January 14, 2014 (12 comments)

Looking for a gift under $20? $15? $10? Maybe you just want to know where all the shit you can afford on Amazon or ThinkGeek is hiding. We've all been there: a birthday or wedding coming up and no clue what gift to buy. Maybe your family disowned you after the last Secret Santa (and you were so sure that Heifer International donation was the way to go!), but 2014 is your year to shine.
posted to MetaFilter by misha at 9:55 AM on January 9, 2014 (13 comments)

Maybe I am just old-school, but I really enjoy getting well-curated newsletters in my e-mail inbox. My favorite is NextDraft, and I also enjoy Harper's Weekly Review, The Quartz Daily Briefing, and Quora's newsletter (that is apparently customized to my activity on their site). What do you look forward to seeing in your inbox on a regular basis?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by shotgunbooty at 8:46 AM on December 9, 2013 (11 comments)

Today I realized that I left my purse in my car for several days, in temperatures well below freezing. In my purse was an epipen. It was in the cold, and quite possibly frozen, for at least 72 hours, possibly longer. I know that the pens aren't especially shelf-stable even under the best of circumstances--is it still good?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by MeghanC at 10:40 PM on December 19, 2013 (12 comments)

On the Air: "While mixing the sound for an episode of the second season of Twin Peaks, Lynch was hit with a sudden inspiration. 'It just came into my head, the idea of people trying to do something successful and having it all go wrong.' Following the initial success of Twin Peaks, David Lynch and Mark Frost were hot properties in Television. When they approached ABC with the idea for 'On the Air,' the network was eager to take them up on the offer. The show itself was a half-hour absurdist comedy featuring many of the cast and crew from Twin Peaks. The pilot tested very well, and six more episodes were ordered. However, by the time it came to scheduling the On the Air, things with Twin Peaks had already fallen apart, and the network was no longer eager to work with Lynch." On the Air was received so poorly (due, in part, to being premeired in the summer on a Saturday timeslot) that only three episodes were ever aired in the states. However, the entirety of the program was aired overseas. In Episode 1 the misfit crew of the Zablotnick Broadcasting Corporation struggles to put together the first episode of the Lester Guy Show.
posted to MetaFilter by codacorolla at 8:49 PM on December 12, 2013 (22 comments)

I like jazz, and I like Christmas music. Which jazz Christmas music would I enjoy?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by rabbitrabbit at 7:39 AM on November 21, 2013 (20 comments)

137 Uncomfortable Plot Summaries of a wide variety of movies, TV series and even a couple books, from varying points of view (whatever is the most uncomfortable). A treasure trove of pop culture redefinition.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 12:06 PM on April 14, 2009 (421 comments)

So I've been reading Harry Potter to the kiddo (7) at nighttime for a while and she's loving it. I'm enjoying it too to the point where I don't really want spoilers on anything. However as things get darker I have some concerns about the stories ahead...
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Artw at 9:35 AM on November 14, 2013 (44 comments)

My raffled request came, I am told, from ODiV, who wanted to hear the "Are You Being Served?" theme song. I hope this is the version he heard in his dreams (because it is, roughly, the one I heard in mine).
posted to MeFi Music by uncleozzy at 5:22 AM on October 15, 2013 (20 comments)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim offer 474 free art books online. 99 art catalogs from the Guggenheim. 375 MetPublications. An example: Masterpieces of Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 6:20 PM on October 27, 2013 (11 comments)

Noise: A Human History is a cool 30-part radio series by David Hendy in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive and the BBC that explores the past 100,000 years of sound and listening.
posted to MetaFilter by Lutoslawski at 11:16 AM on October 22, 2013 (6 comments)

Graham Nash on hearing Neil Young's 'Harvest' album for the first time.
posted to MetaFilter by brokeaspoke at 11:40 AM on October 21, 2013 (19 comments)

Paul Kirchner's The Bus is a surreal gag strip that ran in Heavy Metal magazine in the early 80s. It can be bought as a book, but the book is out of print. Here it is on Imgur. Downright scrumptious, old-fashioned flavor with that 70s east-coast anomie vibe.
posted to MetaFilter by Nomyte at 2:01 PM on October 13, 2013 (44 comments)

Why Popular Science is shutting off comments.

A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics. Everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again. Scientific certainty is just another thing for two people to “debate” on television. And because comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories, within a website devoted to championing science.

posted to MetaFilter by SansPoint at 1:02 PM on September 24, 2013 (128 comments)

Bryan Schutmaat takes photographs of the American West, Heartland, and rural America.
posted to MetaFilter by klangklangston at 10:40 PM on September 17, 2013 (11 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)

As machines take over more of our work, we are going to have to find other ways of letting people fulfil these human needs. Forcing them to send 500 CVs out every week is not a good start. In stripping out inefficiencies and pushing digital goods to near-free prices, the Internet kills middle-class jobs. Digitization has already largely de-monetized academia, film, music, journalism, and lots more besides. More industries will feel the pain, including the legal professions, real estate, insurance, accounting, and the civil service, all of which are built on inefficiency, and all of which will be stripped of jobs in the years to come. As it becomes clear to those with established positions that there are no jobs for their children, they’ll push for a more radical solution.
posted to MetaFilter by Happy Dave at 4:04 AM on July 12, 2013 (112 comments)