Against Transparency. "How could anyone be against transparency? Its virtues and its utilities seem so crushingly obvious. But I have increasingly come to worry that there is an error at the core of this unquestioned goodness. We are not thinking critically enough about where and when transparency works, and where and when it may lead to confusion, or to worse. And I fear that the inevitable success of this movement--if pursued alone, without any sensitivity to the full complexity of the idea of perfect openness--will inspire not reform, but disgust. The 'naked transparency movement,' as I will call it here, is not going to inspire change. It will simply push any faith in our political system over the cliff." [Via]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 10:35 AM on October 11, 2009 (94 comments)

CUBEDUDES ...dig into Pixar Animator Angus Maclane's Lego figurine photostream.
posted to MetaFilter by bonobothegreat at 7:40 PM on September 22, 2009 (16 comments)

Sometimes, especially in winter, Kenneth Westhues can hear a flock of crows tormenting a great horned owl outside his study in Waterloo, Ontario. It is a fitting soundtrack for his work. Mr. Westhues has made a career out of the study of mobbing. Since the late 1990s, he has written or edited five volumes on the topic. However, the mobbers that most captivate him are not sparrows, fieldfares, or jackdaws. They are modern-day college professors.
posted to MetaFilter by parudox at 1:03 PM on November 11, 2008 (58 comments)

Million-dollar mistake at Dreamhost. A $7.5 million error this morning at the world's 15th largest hosting company has left most of it customers short by hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Discussion boards are reporting a litany of overdrafts, credit card overlimit fees, and bounced checks.
posted to MetaFilter by chips ahoy at 11:14 AM on January 15, 2008 (121 comments)

Thirty days from being broke. Four in 10 people said their savings would last only 30 days if they lost their job, while 38 per cent said they would have to use credit cards to cover household bills and other essential expenses. Is this just an Aussie thing? I find the trend towards using credit to pay day to day living expenses a bit scary, but how common is it really in your demographic/country/etc? Is living that close to the financial edge the new norm in the Western world?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Lolie at 11:08 AM on July 15, 2009 (50 comments)

How can I deal with bloggers uploading pictures of private events?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mhz at 12:05 PM on June 10, 2009 (73 comments)

"We don't answer questions." The owner of Jansen Medical Supply is quite possibly the worst customer service representative of all time.
posted to MetaFilter by granted at 12:29 PM on June 5, 2009 (88 comments)

How big and how small could a dog theoretically be? If people decided to breed the biggest dog possible, could they make one as big as a bear? If they tried to breed the smallest one possible, could they get it to the size of a shrew? If so, how many generations or how many years would it take to breed a bear-sized dog? I'm talking about standard breeding techniques, not genetic engineering.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by empath at 9:57 AM on May 26, 2009 (24 comments)

RelationshipFilter: She had an affair. I caught her. We're working it out. This sucks. I need help. Very Long Post of Drama.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Sock!Puppet! at 8:45 PM on May 4, 2009 (90 comments)

Metafilter's own Sean Tevis made history with his run for Kansas House of Representatives in 2008. Read more here, here, and here. Sean is back and ready to commence 'Option 4', once again changing the way politics is done in Kansas. From his website "Sean Tevis is visiting more than 50 politicians who can make open government a reality. He wears a different shirt with each politician. Eash shirt is unique and displays the names of 100 people like you. These shirts also have messages on them, which are Twitter-sized: 140 characters or less. The politician receives a copy of this shirt, too, for meeting with Sean. You get an account of this visit."
posted to MetaFilter by jlowen at 8:24 AM on May 6, 2009 (23 comments)

Three years ago, David Nixon took over the principalship at John C. Calhoun Elementary School. "Thirty minutes into his first day of school at John C, a father walked into Nixon's office and said, 'I want to give you the authority to whip my son's butt.' Nixon was surprised, but after he thought it over, he decided to give every parent the same option." Did corporal punishment save a struggling school?
posted to MetaFilter by jeeves at 2:00 PM on April 28, 2009 (155 comments)

Did the old yellow+orange+red spheres version of Trix taste better than the current multicolored Trix or am I just looking at the past with rose tinted tastebuds?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by HappyEngineer at 6:42 PM on April 7, 2009 (20 comments)

The trailer for "After Last Season" quietly appeared on the Apple site recently. But what is it? Some suggest a hoax, others a parody. Apple lists it as a comedy, IMDB as a thriller.
posted to MetaFilter by outlier at 2:39 AM on March 28, 2009 (82 comments)

Kutiman, the masterful Israeli funk musician and producer, outdoes himself by creating Thru-You: Multiple YouTube clips (mostly instructional and performance videos) edited into slick mega-mashups. They're not just patchwork assemblages, they're sample-based original creations that coud hold their own on anyone's album... Plus they're 100% audiovisual! It's a work of next-level genius.
(sorry for the hyperbole, but my mind has just been blown)
More Kutiman here. Music video here. And for you Pitchfork aficionados, here.
posted to MetaFilter by Silky Slim at 12:58 AM on March 4, 2009 (171 comments)

The "I Can Read Movies" Series is a set of fake film novelizations, done in 1950's and 1960's illustration style. [via]
posted to MetaFilter by piratebowling at 4:26 PM on January 30, 2009 (19 comments)

Doing research for a BBQ restaurant website, I ran across these. The names alone kinda' make me salivate... There's Famous Dave's (my vote for best website), Bubba Lou's, Bodean's (BBQ in London?), Armadillo Willy's, BJ's, Big Joe's, Dallas BBQ (in NYC, go figure), Dickey's, McClard's (going with the pig theme...), Stubb's, Texas Pride... it's pretty much a never-ending, mouth-watering list. And it turns out to be torturous, because I'm in the Yucatan and there's no real BBQ for thousands of miles around.
posted to MetaFilter by workinggringa at 10:21 AM on January 30, 2009 (98 comments)

It is the central, most eyecatching feature of the modern Oval Office. But for over a year, abandoned by a captain said to be harsh and venereal, it drifted slowly, its huge frame creaking, locked in ice, in the land of endless night.
posted to MetaFilter by felix at 9:56 AM on January 27, 2009 (122 comments)

President Barack Obama The text of the Inaugural speech will be posted after it's completed. Change.gov is closing up shop; Change has come to Whitehouse.gov.
posted to MetaFilter by theora55 at 9:19 AM on January 20, 2009 (651 comments)

Is my husband trying to kill me?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 7:31 PM on January 17, 2009 (146 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)

Everybody has one -- that album that first made you a music-lover for life. It could be the first album you ever heard or bought with your own money. It could be one you didn't hear until later in life. But everybody has one, and we want to know about yours.
posted to MetaFilter by davebush at 11:37 AM on January 10, 2009 (212 comments)

Why does Batman keep a giant penny and a huge replica of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the Bat Cave?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Spyder's Game at 10:56 PM on January 8, 2009 (6 comments)

While Adult Swim is generally regarded as the pioneer of irreverent short-form animation -- especially for 'toons that reimagine past hits -- it wasn't always the king. In fact, the late-night programming block arguably found its birth in a series of short toons and interstitials that ran in the heyday of its daytime alter ego, the venerable Cartoon Network. The brainchild of C.N. Creative Director Michael Ouweleen and Hanna-Barbera chief Fred Seibert, these cartoons reinterpreted the network's properties through stock footage, indie music, and original animation in a wide variety of styles, as well as introducing prototypes of characters that would become some of the most famous in the history of American animation. (warning: monster post inside)
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 9:50 AM on December 30, 2008 (80 comments)

Problem: spilled coffee on macbook, so it's out of warranty—now strange things are happening (like the period key isn't working), but at random, and I'm hoping the problem isn't as bad as all that, but need advice so I can finish a sentence properly; thanks!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by omnigut at 10:02 AM on December 12, 2008 (16 comments)

Never had an Indian mom? You poor, deprived wretch! Meet Manjula.
She'll be happy to teach you to make Naan, Rotis, Pani Puri, Vegetable Pakoras, Paneer, Raita, Navattran Korma, Palak Paneer, Pulav, Malai Kofta, Aloo Gobi, Chana Masala, Hari Chutney, Ras Malai, Gajar ka Halwa and much more! I can... almost... smell her kitchen. *sigh*
posted to MetaFilter by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:18 PM on December 7, 2008 (48 comments)

Can you suggest some replacements for standard, everyday household items that are far superior in terms of usefulness, luxuriousness and quality?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Balonious Assault at 9:03 PM on December 2, 2008 (100 comments)

How the Honeycrisp apple went from being nearly discarded to one of the tastiest best-named apples of all time -- NYTimes says "the iPod of apples" -- and more about the patenting and branding of apples.
posted to MetaFilter by jessamyn at 7:21 PM on December 1, 2008 (109 comments)

This is a really creepy mash up of the Rejuvenique infomercial and Joe Cocker's "You are so Beautiful to Me".
posted to MetaFilter by rageagainsttherobots at 10:12 AM on November 18, 2008 (28 comments)

I am a college student, and my cafe likes to charge 7 bucks for a wrap, as such, I try to scrounge food from around the campus, you know, going to events here and there to try and pass up the obscenely large food bill. I carry everything in my bag, from a few extra pieces of clothes, to an emergency flashlight, to an emergency can of slim fast, to everyone of my notebooks and class textbooks. I also carry some of my books in my hands nowadays for space. As you can imagine, my bag is stuffed, I've actually noticed a rip along of of the zippers, so that sections not being used so much anymore, hah, to think, I've only had it for 3 months! I Was wondering what would be a good food that could withstand not getting mushed in my bag, and that if it exploded [happened] that it wouldn't be horrible. Any ideas? PS - as you might be able to tell, I'm a little rough with my bag.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Nighthawk3729 at 6:39 PM on November 17, 2008 (76 comments)

People drank from a rumen. Although no-one died, is it really okay?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by tellurian at 11:13 AM on June 30, 2007 (17 comments)

How Obama Did It: an in-depth look behind the scenes of the campaign, assembled by a special team of reporters who were granted year-long access on the condition that none of their findings appear until after Election Day.
posted to MetaFilter by thbt at 6:56 PM on November 5, 2008 (251 comments)

Perhaps lost in the well-deserved joy of Barack Obama's victory is the race for the Kansas House of Representatives, district 15.
posted to MetaFilter by scblackman at 10:20 PM on November 4, 2008 (51 comments)

What is your favorite price point liquor of a given style and why?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Telf at 11:42 AM on November 3, 2008 (73 comments)

A man carrying a musket rushed at him. Another threw a brick, knocking him off his feet. George Kyle picked himself up and ran. He never did cast his vote. Nor did his brother, who died of his wounds. The Democratic candidate for Congress, William Harrison, lost to the American Party’s Henry Winter Davis. Three months later, when the House of Representatives convened hearings into the election, whose result Harrison contested, Davis’s victory was upheld on the ground that any “man of ordinary courage” could have made his way to the polls. The New Yorker looks at how we used to vote.
posted to MetaFilter by Durn Bronzefist at 1:38 PM on November 2, 2008 (24 comments)

The picture of a boat approaching a wooded island held a strange sway over the early twentieth century imagination. Strindberg closes The Ghost Sonata with the image; Rachmaninoff brought forth a symphonic poem from it; Freud, Lenin, and Clemenceau all owned prints, while Hitler hung one of the original five paintings on his wall. The work's creator, a Swiss Symbolist painter named Arnold Böcklin, never cared to give it a name. It was an art dealer who first called it Die Toteninsel — "The Isle of the Dead."
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic at 10:49 AM on October 31, 2008 (27 comments)

The Wassup boys have had a tough eight years, but things are looking up. (SLYT.)
posted to MetaFilter by william_boot at 2:33 PM on October 24, 2008 (58 comments)

Wanna play the first two Fallout games for totally cheap? Good Old Games is now open to the public. Via Blue's News, some interesting discussion there about "DRM Free" claims and whether or not Freespace 2 is really "free."
posted to MetaFilter by WolfDaddy at 2:38 PM on October 23, 2008 (59 comments)

Okay, this election is officially weird. Opie, Andy, Richie and the Fonz apparently want us to vote Obama. Sadly, it's missing the kind of catchy songs featured in Fonzie's other PSA (NSFW).
posted to MetaFilter by miss lynnster at 10:51 AM on October 23, 2008 (55 comments)

...As he pored over the mass of texts and thumbnail photos that the eBay search engine had pulled up on that day in 2005, one strangely worded listing caught Schein’s eye. It read, “Old Snapshot Blues Guitar B.B. King???” He clicked on the link, then took in the sepia-toned image that opened on his monitor. Two young black men stared back at Schein from what seemed to be another time. They stood against a plain backdrop wearing snazzy suits, hats, and self-conscious smiles. The man on the left held a guitar stiffly against his lean frame. Neither man looked like B. B. King, but as Schein studied the figure with the guitar, noticing in particular the extraordinary length of his fingers and the way his left eye seemed narrower and out of sync with his right, it occurred to him that he had stumbled across something significant and rare... the more convinced he became that it depicted one of the most mysterious and mythologized blues artists produced by the Delta: the guitarist, singer, and songwriter whom Eric Clapton once anointed “the most important blues musician who ever lived.” That’s not B. B. King, Schein said to himself. Because it’s Robert Johnson.

Searching for Robert Johnson reveals not only what may be the third picture of Robert Johnson but a Byzantine struggle over his legacy as well.
posted to MetaFilter by y2karl at 12:26 PM on October 9, 2008 (29 comments)

Charlie Brooker - Tapping The Wire (1, 2, 3).
posted to MetaFilter by fearfulsymmetry at 4:09 PM on October 8, 2008 (69 comments)

There was a flash game entitled Diablo III that circulated the internet five or so years ago, that was a parody of the Diablo series. The game basically consisted of clicking on a box as rapidly as possible. However, I can't find it anymore. Do you know where it lives?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by comwiz at 11:56 PM on October 5, 2008 (1 comment)

Video of Dictyophora Indusiata. "When they find it, they sniff it. The scent of this mushroom causes sexual arousal, often to the point of orgasm." ^ Other interesting articles available from Aphrodisiology: List of Aphrodisiacs l Visual Stimuli l Pheromones & Perfumes.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 11:54 PM on October 2, 2008 (49 comments)

Think you've got problems caused by economic meltdown? "Yesterday I had a balance in my account of $2,000 (at old value that is 20 trillion dollars / $20,000,000,000,000.00). This account is dormant, untouched for months. This morning I find I owe the bank $500,000 in service fees for one month’s bank charges to hold my $2,000. This is no joke." This is life in Zimbabwe under hyperinflation.
posted to MetaFilter by contessa at 9:56 AM on October 2, 2008 (13 comments)

Sometimes with Youtube, there's a specific part of a video you want people to see. Splicd generates a url to send people that clip. For instance: cooking a rat or an interesting part of a lecture. (On load, a small amount of each clip's beginning is played.)
posted to MetaFilter by Korou at 1:35 AM on September 30, 2008 (21 comments)

Living inexpensively in London
posted to Ask MetaFilter by sic at 1:37 AM on May 18, 2006 (18 comments)

SLYT: Crazy preacher comes to the defense of Bristol Palin. Starts out slow, but picks up steam.
posted to MetaFilter by greenie2600 at 11:03 AM on September 24, 2008 (98 comments)

Slacktivist has been discussed on the blue before. His epic deconstruction, interpretation, and at times even translation of the Left Behind book series started in October of 2003. Today, it has come to an end. In between, Slacktivist has explored the impact of the Left Behind series and the fundamentalist worldview on religion and the media, and even gone on to inspire Left Behind fanfic. Fred Clark, the Slacktivist himself, intends to continue his five year project with the Left Behind movie, followed by the second book, Tribulation Force.
posted to MetaFilter by Maastrictian at 2:04 PM on September 19, 2008 (39 comments)

Regarding this post and this MeTa thread, a few facts for you.
posted to MetaTalk by plinth at 7:19 PM on September 16, 2008 (151 comments)

How can I measure the weight of my head without cutting it off?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mammary16 at 5:41 PM on April 22, 2006 (66 comments)

Fox, the BBC and CNN have all revealed that Republican US presidential candidate John McCain has picked Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate on his 72nd birthday on the eve of the start of Republican National Convention. Despite being wildly popular in Alaska, Palin has recently been involved in an investigation over whether she dismissed a public safety commissioner because he refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law.
posted to MetaFilter by HaloMan at 7:52 AM on August 29, 2008 (5463 comments)