The Smalls, a website about short films, has created The Smalls Street Sounds, a site where folks can upload sounds unique to their city and see them mapped (USAcentric). They have set a goal of having 5,000 sounds uploaded by March. via. My favorite.
posted to MetaFilter by agatha_magatha at 9:58 AM on February 3, 2010 (9 comments)

Antique radio tuning dials [flash] from Michael Feldt's collection. [via]
posted to MetaFilter by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 7:56 AM on January 26, 2010 (20 comments)

I just realized that I have 7 vacation days from 2009 that I need to use before the end of March or I will lose them. I'm considering taking a "destination" photo class somewhere for all or part of that time. I've already checked out the offerings at the Maine Media Workshop, but none of them really set my heart aflame.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Admiral Haddock at 2:41 PM on January 28, 2010 (4 comments)

Questions about bike gear for the rainy season.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by rabbitrabbit at 9:19 AM on September 21, 2009 (14 comments)

Writing English as a Second Language: A talk by William Zinsser to foreign students at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism | The American Scholar
posted to MetaFilter by AceRock at 10:29 AM on January 18, 2010 (12 comments)

The Baffler, storied zine of cultural and political analysis and criticism, is back, and excerpts of the latest issue are now online, including a review of Rod Blagojevich's memoir by Matt Taibbi, as well as articles by Christian Parenti and Walter Benn Michaels.
posted to MetaFilter by carrienation at 10:48 AM on January 12, 2010 (13 comments)

Body by Victoria. It started with an invisible handbag. Photoshop Disasters mocked Victoria's Secret for running a shot of a dress model clutching the straps of a digitally wiped-out purse. Then Neal Krawetz at Hacker Factor got into the act, analyzing the image to show that the photo editors had not only swiped the model's purse, they'd toned her arms, enlarged her breasts, and lightened her skin. In the comments, and in this follow-up post, tons of excellent nerdery about how to tell the photofaked from the real, by science.
posted to MetaFilter by escabeche at 8:51 PM on January 6, 2010 (93 comments)

Donald Barthelme’s Syllabus: I was given secondhand a list of eighty-one books, the recommendations of Donald Barthelme to his students. Barthelme’s only guidance ... was to attack the books “in no particular order, just read them.” Two of the books, Knut Hamsun’s Hunger and Flaubert’s Letters (numbers 15, 40), were written in the twentieth century, most in the past thirty years. And all have that dizzying sense of otherness and surprise common to great books, an affluence of vitality. There’s not a dull read in the group.
posted to MetaFilter by geoff. at 7:14 AM on December 22, 2009 (50 comments)

On 27th November, Norwegian broadcaster NRK broadcast a 7.5 hour documentary showing every minute of the scenic train ride between Bergen on the Norwegian west coast, crossing the mountains to Oslo. Now, after removing all extraneous interviews, music clips and fancy trickery from the documentary, they are offering the entire, clean, 7 hour continuous front-camera version for free Creative Commons download. All 22Gb of it. Here's a fantastic 10 minute taster on YouTube.
posted to MetaFilter by Beautiful Screaming Lady at 8:25 PM on December 21, 2009 (95 comments)

Any suggestions for a high powered telescope that is t-ring compatible (for DSLR) AND is tough and light enough for backpacking and camping? I'm thinking 40 lbs max.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by snsranch at 6:15 PM on November 23, 2009 (8 comments)

The Martin D-28. You have heard it thousands of times before. Its modest appearance belies its history and influence; there have been several changes in its design and construction over the years, but it remains largely the same since its introduction in 1934.
posted to MetaFilter by jimmythefish at 11:54 AM on October 25, 2008 (24 comments)

Andrew Zuckerman's Bird Book
posted to MetaFilter by ooga_booga at 2:27 PM on November 13, 2009 (31 comments)

Is there a name or term for the aesthetic these blogs contain?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by CitrusFreak12 at 11:04 AM on October 16, 2009 (22 comments)

These files, I thought, only tracked daylight savings time for all the different timezones & offsets from Greenwich Time. Actually, they have a detailed, fascinating history of timezones scribbled in the margins. (via)
posted to MetaFilter by Pronoiac at 9:40 AM on October 24, 2009 (18 comments)

What can I expect (mostly financially) from raising hens as pets?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by middleclasstool at 11:22 AM on October 21, 2009 (65 comments)

Two little flag ponies: after flagging a post or comment, can the text be elaborated beyond [Flagged], maybe [Flagged as Fantastic/ Noise/ Derail/ Etc]? I worry about mis-flagging items. Also, I often forget what I've flagged in the past, can we have personal, private histories of flags? Or are profiles either viewable to the public or MeFites, w/o options for personal views?
posted to MetaTalk by filthy light thief at 2:52 PM on September 11, 2009 (75 comments)

Medieval Gastronomy. Food, cooking and meals in the Middle Ages.
posted to MetaFilter by Ljubljana at 7:04 AM on August 21, 2009 (42 comments)

I'd like to learn to dress well and look sharp... but I've got no natural talent for it. Can anybody help me figure out how/where to start? (more inside)
posted to Ask MetaFilter by captainawesome at 6:35 PM on May 17, 2009 (39 comments)

June Challenge entry. With sincere apologies to Mr Cohen and fans of the song.
posted to MeFi Music by MajorDundee at 1:22 PM on June 6, 2009 (25 comments)

Good music for video slideshows of kids?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by moojoose at 7:16 PM on July 8, 2009 (18 comments)

Where should I camp this weekend in Oregon?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Lutoslawski at 9:50 AM on July 7, 2009 (13 comments)

The principles of Harmonics were discovered by Pythagoras c.587-c.507 B.C. during travels to Egypt and throughout the ancient world. Hans Kayser made a profound philosophic study of harmonics in the 20th century. Algorithmic composition is the technique of using harmonic algorithms to create music. Drew Lesso has been creating algorithmic music since 1975. Samples like Crystal, Constellations, or Planet Earth demonstrate the math behind the music. Over the years, Lesso has collaborated with many other musicians and poets to create an airy, evolutionary legacy.
posted to MetaFilter by netbros at 8:21 AM on July 5, 2009 (19 comments)

London Sound Survey collects the everyday sounds of the capital, including the bells of St Clement's, the call to prayer at the Whitechapel mosque, football fans outside Millwall stadium, a demo in Piccadilly, dubstep at the Notting Hill Carnival and a street preacher at Speaker's Corner.. not forgetting, of course, those ubiquitous sounds of London life, 'Big Issue! Big Issue!' and announcements of planned engineering works on the Tube. (Via.)
posted to MetaFilter by verstegan at 12:23 AM on June 25, 2009 (19 comments)

Do you know any good left wing propoganda for toddlers?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by RajahKing at 4:55 PM on June 15, 2009 (50 comments)

Parts 1, 2, 3 of a 1959 interview with philosopher, mathematician and peace campaigner Bertrand Russell (1872-1970). Works and pictures online include Anti-suffragist Anxieties, Why I am not a Christian, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto against nuclear weapons and the book The Conquest of Happiness. Russell is also known for his pithy quotes, his teapot and was the subject of poem Mr Apollinax by T.S. Eliot.
posted to MetaFilter by TheophileEscargot at 2:30 AM on June 8, 2009 (59 comments)

What is a good continuous light kit for a beginner photographer?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by austinlee at 8:17 PM on June 5, 2009 (3 comments)

What Is That Song They Always Use...?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jfrancis at 11:23 AM on June 3, 2009 (127 comments)

What are some books that people are particularly likely to be assholes about?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by I Foody at 8:05 AM on June 2, 2009 (135 comments)

To Hear Your Banjo Play is a documentary by Alan Lomax from 1947. It is narrated by Pete Seeger and features Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry, and Brownie McGhee among others.
posted to MetaFilter by RussHy at 9:57 AM on May 23, 2009 (15 comments)

PDX History is a veritable treasure trove of information about (and pictures and postcards of) the history of Portland (Oregon). Department stores, streetcars, long-dead amusement parks (yes, Jantzen Beach was once much more than a dying mall surrounded by big-box stores) and more. The web design leaves a bit to be desired, but the site is wonderful nonetheless.
posted to MetaFilter by dersins at 9:18 AM on May 15, 2009 (15 comments)

If you've ever heard the song Aquarela do Brasil (often called simply "Brazil" -- here's my favourite cover), then you'll probably enjoy this classic 1942 animation which first made it famous. The clip is the finale from the feature Saludos Amigos (hello friends), created during a US government-funded goodwill tour of South America aimed at strengthening Pan-American relations, which some argue may have helped bring South America onto the side of the Allies in World War II.
posted to MetaFilter by PercussivePaul at 10:25 PM on May 14, 2009 (25 comments)

Mapping sound at the British Library. The British Library has organized several of its archival sound collections on Google Maps. The results include Accents and Dialects, wildlife and soundscape recordings from Britain, music from India and Uganda, and a whole mess of noisy frogs.
posted to MetaFilter by LarryC at 11:44 AM on May 14, 2009 (8 comments)

Though written in the 1930s, it was not until Nat "King" Cole recorded it in 1949 that it became well known: Lush Life is Billy Strayhorn's signature song (well, one of his signature songs). A haunting ballad with surprisingly dark lyrics, its definitive treatment is probably the famous 1963 recording by Johnny Hartman & John Coltrane (Hartman sang it again for TV in 1983), but it has been done countless times by many artists: by pianists Phineas Newborn, Jr. and Oscar Peterson; by saxophonists Joe Henderson and Stan Getz; even by Linda Ronstadt and Queen Latifah.
posted to MetaFilter by ornate insect at 11:44 PM on May 11, 2009 (21 comments)

The Art of Penguin Science Fiction is a historical guide to the design of book jackets in the Penguin SF line by James Pardey. But before reading the essay I recommend looking at some of the wonderful cover designs, for example We, Deathworld, Rork!, The Drowned World, Star Maker, The Evolution Man, Fifth Planet and Alternating Currents. They certainly don't make SF book jackets like they used to. All hundred plus covers can also be browsed alphabetically by author. [via The Guardian Books Blog]
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 7:22 PM on May 7, 2009 (25 comments)

1959. Fifty years ago. Some great jazz was caught on camera that year: Ahmad Jamal Trio: Darn That Dream (1959); Horace Silver: Señor Blues (1959); Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers: Night in Tunisia (1959); Gerry Mulligan/Art Farmer: Moonlight In Vermont (1959); Miles Davis / Gil Evans Orchestra (1959); Bud Powell with Kenny Clarke - Get Happy (1959); The Future of Jazz TV show: Billy Taylor/George Russell/Bill Evans/etc. (1959 or possibly 1958). That is all.
posted to MetaFilter by ornate insect at 10:14 PM on May 3, 2009 (23 comments)

Frank Soltesz was a master of fascinating cutaway illustrations depicting "modern businesses" in the '40s and '50s - from hotels and hospitals to breweries, grocery stores, and more. (via Telstar Logistics Blog)
posted to MetaFilter by madamjujujive at 5:55 PM on May 3, 2009 (50 comments)

My first song post. An existential (yet musically simple) electronic/acoustic pop, sorta trip-hoppy, song.
posted to MeFi Music by lovermont at 8:42 PM on April 3, 2009 (23 comments)

After two years of work of collecting, scanning, and tagging, the Government Comics Collection at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln library has gone live. This digital collection features "comic books affiliated with state and federal U.S. government agencies, as well as the UN and the EU (and a couple from Canada and one from Ghana)" and includes comics and art by Will Eisner, Scott Adams, Hank Ketcham ("Dennis the Menace Takes a Poke at Poison"), and more.
posted to MetaFilter by Tesseractive at 11:23 AM on April 14, 2009 (7 comments)

"We're a demonstration project, if you would, of all the things that can go wrong at once." "You know Yolanda, I think most people watching this interview think to themselves that if they get cancer and they don't have health insurance that somebody’s going to take care of them," Pelley remarked. "No, no, there's nobody to take care of you," she said.
posted to MetaFilter by availablelight at 8:53 AM on April 6, 2009 (80 comments)

The niftiest thing at Coin Op World? The mp3 files of Classic Arcade Sounds.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko at 9:19 AM on March 13, 2009 (27 comments)

Please recommend me a book about disaster/survival along the lines of Shackleton's 'South', Jon Krakauer's 'Into Thin Air' or 'Between a Rock and a Hard Place'.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by dydecker at 7:52 PM on March 26, 2009 (23 comments)

There's a showdown in Ann Arbor, MI between geeks and suits. It starts when local public tax-funded parking garages start posting the number of available spaces on their site. A few geeks decide to make it more useful while driving so they code up some asterisk hacks to scrape the page and bridge the web content to a phone and presto! you can call to hear which garages have the most spaces available for parking. Not so fast says the city and they shut down access to the site from the app and stop publishing real-time stats (mostly grumbling about a loss of "control"). Geeks are in an uproar (mostly trying to teach the suits what "public domain data" means). This long ass blog post tells the entire tale from both sides of the fight.
posted to MetaFilter by mathowie at 1:57 PM on March 16, 2009 (55 comments)

Estranged father and son Chucho and Bebo Valdés, both pioneers of Cuban jazz, sat down and immediately played a duet after years of being apart. This recording of their reunion beautifully captures the range of emotions that could only be expressed without words.
posted to MetaFilter by roaring beast at 9:27 AM on February 23, 2009 (12 comments)

Some people have this mysterious ability to be - disarming. Please explain this skill and help me learn it!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by kitcat at 5:29 PM on February 10, 2009 (26 comments)

The Folkways Collection is a downloadable, 24-part podcast series that "explores the remarkable collection of music, spoken word, and sound recordings that make up Folkways Records (now at the Smithsonian as Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)."
posted to MetaFilter by Miko at 9:06 AM on February 16, 2009 (27 comments)

Colour on the Thames is a 7 minute film shot in 1935 using Gasparcolor, one of the many early forms of tinting black and white film. Beside Colour on the Thames, which provides a wonderful view of 1930's England, the only film made in Gasparcolor I could find online was Colour Flight by New Zealand artist Len Lye, an abstract cartoon set to instrumental 1930's pop music. The story of Gasparcolor is in itself interesting, for instance touching on Nazis, Hungary between the wars and early color animation.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 9:49 PM on January 27, 2009 (12 comments)

Punctuation question. Gentle reader - what connotation do you get from seeing Jesus' or Jesus's OR Niklas' or Niklas's? (Possessives with or without the 's' for nouns ending in 's'.)
posted to Ask MetaFilter by typewriter at 8:01 AM on January 23, 2009 (43 comments)

Microsoft has just announced Songsmith. What is it? I think it is some Karaoke / Garageband / Guitar-hero like thing.

All I do know is: The promotional ad video for it is a trainwreck.
posted to MetaFilter by mrzarquon at 6:20 PM on January 8, 2009 (189 comments)

The Recently Deflowered Girl. The Right Thing to Say on Every Dubious Occasion. Full text and illustrations of an etiquette parody from 1965, illustrated by Edward Gorey. via Jezebel
posted to MetaFilter by peep at 3:49 PM on January 8, 2009 (90 comments)

By request, this has been played through this. Unmodified or post processed in anyway, it sounds a little like a bad dub. But I thought I would post it as an example for other folks to see what is possible.
posted to MeFi Music by mrzarquon at 11:43 PM on January 8, 2009 (106 comments)