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What is the genealogy of the AMA?
The Atlantic attempts to explain how Reddit's Ask Me Anything became a "mainstream delight." [Previously]. [Even more previously]. [Even more previously than that].
R.I.P. Menahem Golan
Menahem Golan has died at the age of 85. The name may mean very little to you at first glance, but for those of us who lived through the 1980's, he was a very big part of it. Here's an interview with the late producer and a bit more about his legacy.
Freelance writers: Should I be charging more for my work?
I'm 25 and have been in the freelance scene for about a year. I saw Igyre's question and how she was unhappy with making $25/hour. That's about what I'm making now. I'm looking for perspective and what I need to do to start charging more.
Deep Space Nine. Deep Space Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine (Not Deep Space 8).
"You know, before Star Trek Enterprise, none of the Star Trek shows had theme songs with words. Until now. And so, I present to you, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the theme song, with words." [MMLYT]
Things to do with hummus
What interesting (food) things do you make with hummus? Sandwich combinations? Other ideas?
Allez Cuisine!
"Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are." -- Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Wanda Coleman RIP
The African-American poet
died yesterday, at 67, after a long illness.
Black Flag v. Flag
SST label honcho Greg Ginn's lawsuit against the other former members of Black Flag, several of whom now playing as Flag, isn't going so well. Henry Rollins isn't playing with either group, but is also named in the suit. Both groups (Ginn, 1979 vocalist Ron Reyes, and hired hands playing as Black Flag, the others playing as Flag) been on tour this summer.
eating out of the trash can
Slavoj Žižek on John Carpenter's They Live,
from the upcoming film The Pervert's Guide to Ideology. Slavoj Žižek delivers a Q&A on the film at TIFF.
S-A-W-F-T!
At the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, wrestlers-in-training (some of whom perform weekly on WWE's "minor league" show, NXT) learn both the art of working within the ring as well as how to cut a promo and improvise in-character. The WWE developmental system has promoted numerous successful young talents to the WWE's main touring roster, most recently Bray Wyatt and the Wyatt Family. Recently, the WWE uploaded a number of "performance evaluations" - promo practice routines by wrestlers in developmental - to Youtube in an account that was meant to be private. Unfortunately, they uploaded them publicly, and before they could close the account to the public, the videos had leaked across wrestling internet fandom.
Absolutely No Words
"We heard them yell, shout and scream. But, who ever pays attention when they take that deep breath before they shout it out? Nobody does except for me. Have fun." Professional wrestling frequently leaves the audience breathless, and this video is no exception.
Romance in Ireland
One hundred years ago today, W.B. Yeats published one of his best known poems, September 1913, as a letter to the Irish Times.
What Kind of D&D Character Would You Be?
"This [129 question] survey will determine your ability scores, fantasy race, class, alignment, and character level describing what you would be if you were transformed into a Dungeons and Dragons character."
Joe Hisaishi in Budokan, celebrating 25 years of Studio Ghibli music
Joe Hisaishi in Budokan was a series of concerts given in August 2008 to commemorate both the Japanese theatrical premiere of Ponyo and the 25 years of musical collaboration between composer Joe Hisaishi and film maker Hayao Miyazaki. This massive concert featured performances of these signature Miyazaki film scores composed by Hisaishi, conducting from the piano, and the 200-member New Japan Philharmonic World Dream Orchestra, along with six featured vocalists, the 800 combined voices of the Ippan Koubo, Ritsuyuukai and Little Singers of Tokyo choirs, plus a 160-piece marching band. Altogether there were some 1160 musicians and singers on stage, backed by images from Miyazaki's films projected on a giant screen. The almost two hour long show is on YouTube in HD, for your viewing pleasure.
reeks too much of "space pirate" or similar bad science fiction
How do you solicit freelance scripts for a science fiction television series that breaks the mold? You create a comprehensive guide to writing an episode of Star Trek.
The Author of Pro Wrestling's Weekly Bible
Frank Deford, a 50-year veteran of Sports Illustrated, once labeled Meltzer the most accomplished reporter in sports journalism. “You could cover the Vatican or State Department,” Deford said recently, “and not do as good a job as Dave Meltzer does on wrestling.”For nearly 30 years, Dave Meltzer has published the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, featuring weekly behind the locker room door insight into the business of professional wrestling. How far reaching has Meltzer's impact been? In one famous incident, Hulk Hogan, frustrated by what he perceived as consistently negative coverage in the publication, burned a copy of the newsletter during a live Pay-Per-View event.
How to fix the LOUD and the quiet on my TV?
When I watch a movie on my TV, the audio is very LOUD and the dialogue is often quiet. I have to turn up the volume--way up--to hear dialogue and then BAM! An action scene with lots of explosions and heavy music forces me to turn it way down. The constant switching drives me nuts!
The Short Films of Louis C.K.
Top dog comedian, Louis C.K., has picked up a number of industry nods for the talented writing, acting, editing, and directing he does for his show Louie on FX. The highbrow aesthetics of the show might come as a surprise to anyone that remembers his Hollywood flop, Pootie Tang, but C.K. also created a number of indie comedy shorts during the 90s and 00s that may now merit closer attention: Ice Cream (1993), The Letter V (1998), The Legend of Willie Brown (1998), Ugly Revenge (??), Hijacker (1998), Hello There (1998), Brunch (1998), Searching for Nixon (2006), Persona Ne'll Aqua (1999).
Starlog Magazine
Attention fellow aging gen-X geeks: the archives of Starlog magazine are now online.
Weight Watchers PointsPlus Fail?
WeightWatchers has ceased to work. What are my non-surgical options.
How American wrestling is more honest than American politics
"Professional wrestling fans, we who are "smart marks" especially, are in many ways more sophisticated than the political junkies who populate political blogs and web sites (what are really fan boy and fan girl mark hangouts) like the Free Republic or The Daily Kos.
They know that professional wrestling is a work and a game.
Do the Obamabots, Tea Party zealots, and true believers on either the Right or the Left realize that politics is much the same thing?"
They know that professional wrestling is a work and a game.
Do the Obamabots, Tea Party zealots, and true believers on either the Right or the Left realize that politics is much the same thing?"
Who's the Jamie Oliver of vegetarian cooking?
I'm well aware that this opinion is not shared by everyone, but I really like Jamie Oliver's style of cooking (and, I confess, presentation on tv): simple ingredients (but the best you can get), big flavours, lots of fresh herbs, very informal. The thing is, he's not that big on vegetarian recipes, and I'm making an effort to *not* eat meat 3 or 4 times a week, so could you recommend a vegetarian Jamie Oliver please?
Note: I googled this phrase and google came up with Simon Rimmer, but I was kind of underwhelmed.
What's the best 101 Aruduino kit?
It's been a few years (Almost 5!) since I last sat down to monkey with an Arduino. I now need one for a physical computing class and the number of kits has exploded. What's the best kit for no more than $100?
More details inside
Health Month is back!
Want some help keeping your New Year's resolutions? The Mefits at Health Month are starting up another month (and another year) of improving our lives and we'd love to see more folks on our team!
Mara Wilson Writes Stuff
Mara Wilson, child star of Mrs. Doubtfire, Miracle on 34th Street, and Matilda, no longer acts. She does, however, write a blog about girls and video games, Mormon missionaries, and the time she met Ira Glass.
Paul Feig Walks Us Through Freaks and Geeks
In the first of a five-part series, Paul Feig walks through the origins of and provides an episode-by-episode analysis of Freaks and Geeks
Books on history that are a delight to read.
Please recommend your favorite books on history that are a delight to read.
Podcasting 101, please
It's been a while since this has been asked, and I think more folks than me would benefit from it (hence me doing a MeTa rather than using the contact form): Could the podcast team talk about their current setup, hardware and software-wise?
The wrestling stars of tomorrow, today?
Last night at TNA iMPACT Wrestling's annual Destination X pay-per-view, Austin Aries defeated Bobby Roode to win the TNA Heavyweight Title. Meanwhile, in the WWE, CM Punk (previously on the blue) is currently the WWE champion and feuding with Daniel Bryan (seen here wrestling Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Title prior to his feud with Punk). And wrestling news sites today were abuzz with the news that the WWE has offered a developmental contract to Sara Del Rey, the "Queen of Wrestling," who has made a name for herself by wrestling men on equal terms.
What do Aries, Punk, Bryan and Del Rey all have in common? They're all alumni of Ring of Honor.
Fugazi Edits
It’s a fierce object, many-layered yet taut as could be. It’s a dense field made of raw materials so rarefied that even in combination the resulting effect is singular, tensile. The album in question is Fugazi Edits, for which Chris Lawhorn took the extensive discography of the hardcore band Fugazi and combined multiple songs into new hybrid compositions.
Hummus for Us
In light of this post, I would like for the extraordinary Hummus Makers of Metafilter to share their Hummus Recipes, please!!
"This never happens during MY matches."
Some folks in CHIKARA Pro were having a wrestling match, and a baseball game broke out.
[insert foley of post being written: keyboard buttons, mouse clicks, office chair creaking, etc.]
Jack Foley was the first Foley Artist. A Foley Artist's job is to physically create the subtler sound effects for most of the action in a film — usually, everything but the dialogue. Sometimes that involves smearing peanut butter on someone's face and recording the sound of a cow licking it off. • Here's the split-screen classic short, Track Stars: The Unseen Heroes of Movie Sound, and its Doppleganger, plus a similar tribute, replacing the sounds on a 1962 public domain film. • A couple of Porn Foley parodies [NSFW of course] and a murder-filled parody • Here's the process in detail for marking, recording, and editing Foley for 35mm film: Part 1 (excerpted), Part 2 • Technically, Foley only covers sounds you can tailor-make in the recording studio; other sounds (engines, explosions, etc) are the domain of the Sound FX person. If you don't have your own means, though, Sounddogs.com has an extensive collection of samples.
the dawn of a Star Trek generation
In Praise of Leisure
- "Imagine a world in which most people worked only 15 hours a week. They would be paid as much as, or even more than, they now are, because the fruits of their labor would be distributed more evenly across society. Leisure would occupy far more of their waking hours than work. It was exactly this prospect that John Maynard Keynes conjured up in a little essay published in 1930 called 'Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren.' Its thesis was simple. As technological progress made possible an increase in the output of goods per hour worked, people would have to work less and less to satisfy their needs, until in the end they would have to work hardly at all... He thought this condition might be reached in about 100 years — that is, by 2030." (via)
Jonah Lehrer's self-borrowing
Jonah Lehrer repeats himself in his articles for popular publications.
Laura Hazard Owen argues that, unlike in public speeches, where writers often recycle material, the expectations of writing for paid publication are different.
Bending in the Modern World
The season finale of The Legend of Korra is upon us - airing in the United States tomorrow on Nickelodeon. Korra creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko answer questions at the Wall Street Journal about the show and the finale (season spoilers) ahead of time. It's not too late to catch up by watching all 10 previous episodes here.
IAmAn Ex-Member of the Westboro Baptist Church
"I think my father is a hateful person first. The religious beliefs gave him a forum and permission to be cruel to the world."
Nate Phelps, son of Fred Phelps, answers questions about growing up in the Westboro Baptist Church, and his life after leaving it. (Warning: descriptions of domestic violence.)
I am an idiot, Ask me how I forgot to bookmark that site!
My google-fu is failing me, in finding a link of curated "best of"s for Reddit's popular "I am a.... Ask me anything!" posts. Help!!
English copyediting rates in the EU
What is the going rate for freelance English copyediting in the EU (specifically the Netherlands)?
Podcasts, away!
I've finally become interested in Podcasts. My tastes are under the fold, help me find more!
Help me use my DSLR to shoot auto races
I am a rank beginner at photography. Last night I took my DSLR to an auto race and most of my pictures turned out blurry or under/overexposed or otherwise sucky. Occasionally I got lucky. What am I most likely doing wrong, and how can I get better at shooting cars in motion? I'd appreciate your tips or links to online tutorials.
The Final Dark Days of Don Caballero
In November of 2001, Chunklet Magazine published Fred Weaver's tour diary chronicling the The Final Dark Days of Don Caballero (14 scanned JPGs). The final tour documented in this article marked the end of the collaboration between Damon Che and Ian Williams, the original creative machine behind the notable math rock band.
Live From New York's All Right if You Like Saxophones
Thanks to lobbying from John Belushi, on Halloween night, 1981, LA punk band Fear played a set on Saturday Night Live. The New York Post headline the next day read "FEAR Riot Leaves Saturday Night Glad To Be Alive.”
D&D Campaigns for a single player?
Can anyone recommend some simple Dungeons & Dragons campaigns specifically designed for two people (one DM and one player)?