Help a "non present" person adjust their attitude during this holiday season, or any time of year for that matter.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Melismata at 8:35 AM on December 2, 2009 (22 comments)

What are the best video game blogs out there today?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by kmz at 11:59 AM on December 1, 2009 (23 comments)

Everything you never wanted to know about the American prison-industrial complex. Part 2: Prison Nation.
posted to MetaFilter by Optimus Chyme at 9:32 PM on November 30, 2009 (84 comments)

On pinball's downfall; draft Scrabble; strategies for choosing a seat; visiting our old friend, swoopo.com; and meatball theory: various and sundry economical, game theoretical, and miscellaneous morsels from the folks at Cheap Talk.
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 4:33 PM on November 18, 2009 (53 comments)

An incredibly detailed reconstruction of US Airways flight 1549, from takeoff to ditching in the Hudson. The first video is an animation of the flight, with audio from the LGA tower and a transcription of the discussion between Capt. Sullenberger and F/O Skiles. The work also includes reconstructed radar target displays, radar returns of the birds, and various audio transcripts. Based on the NTSB docket, released in June 2009.
posted to MetaFilter by Ella Fynoe at 6:57 AM on November 12, 2009 (51 comments)

I'm looking for films where female characters cheat... yes, I've seen this question, but most of the films involve men cheating on their female partners, and I am looking for the other way around (without having to read a summary of every film on that list).
posted to Ask MetaFilter by pumpkin11 at 9:57 AM on November 5, 2009 (55 comments)

Book like William Gibson's Pattern Recognition and Spook Country. Near-future, near-science fiction, non-fantasy, non-artsy-fartsy, delving into technological culture.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Cool Papa Bell at 9:38 AM on October 22, 2009 (37 comments)

What are the most well-written (i.e., enjoyable to read) textbooks and/or books written for an academic audience? I'm not looking for the "best" textbook on any given subject, but textbooks on any topic that are compelling to read because of the wit and lucidity of the writing style.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by crLLC at 9:19 PM on October 21, 2009 (32 comments)

The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office”. Warning: link may evoke baleful despair!
posted to MetaFilter by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 9:47 AM on October 16, 2009 (55 comments)

Looking for tips and advice to improve my customer service for my online store. When you buy something online - a tangible item that is posted - what makes you think "hey, great customer service!"?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Kerasia at 5:37 PM on September 30, 2009 (26 comments)

What album is so good that you never skip a song?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by cranberrymonger at 6:56 PM on September 15, 2009 (175 comments)

I love Sid Meier's Pirates! I loved the original back in the '80s, and I love the remake even more. What other games might I love?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by rikschell at 5:51 PM on September 13, 2009 (18 comments)

What cooking secrets take your food to the almost-pro level?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by chalbe at 8:34 AM on August 24, 2009 (131 comments)

Can you recommend some good modern horror fiction to me? No vampires or zombies, please.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Bookhouse at 1:05 PM on August 13, 2009 (34 comments)

Technical Writing -- Can I break into it without a degree/certification? and how?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by unlucky.lisp at 8:51 AM on July 31, 2009 (10 comments)

The 100 easiest, fastest recipes. Ever.
posted to MetaFilter by lalochezia at 5:20 PM on July 22, 2009 (70 comments)

I have a MacBook Pro running Leopard. It has two admin accounts. Some time ago I stopped using account "A" in favor of new account "B" (the reason behind the creation of account B isn't relevant to this question, however). If I delete user account "A," what precautions must I take to ensure the preservation of the files created under "user A," and what automatically happens to the ownership of those files?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Piscean at 4:35 PM on July 21, 2009 (10 comments)

A handy rating guide to 1980s saxophone solos -- "I realized about 5 years ago that at some point in the 80s, lots of the popular music started incorporating saxophone solos into their songs. Some of them are fine, but most of them are ridiculous to have in the songs. I have attempted to separate the quality and appropriateness of the solos from what I think of the song as a whole..."
posted to MetaFilter by miss lynnster at 7:13 AM on June 26, 2009 (135 comments)

Microkhan is a terrific, eclectic blog by Brendan Koerner. If he had only introduced me to WEFUNK's weekly show he would have earned my gratitude (previously). Other recent posts which have caught my eye: Why does Lehman bros. own the rights to enough yellowcake to make an atomic bomb? The existence of the sport of Unlimited Hydroplaning. Musings on the suicide rate in Montana. America's abandoned polar radar stations. Convict love tokens from Australia. Photographer Harald Finster. The 1898 book about the experience of the British in Afganistan The Rising on the North Western Frontier. Via.
posted to MetaFilter by shothotbot at 10:01 AM on April 18, 2009 (6 comments)

What interesting foods can only be found in ethnic grocery stores?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by twoleftfeet at 1:42 PM on March 23, 2009 (50 comments)

"American air superiority has been so complete for so long that we take it for granted. For more than half a century, we’ve made only rare use of the aerial-combat skills of a man like Cesar Rodriguez, who retired two years ago with more air-to-air kills than any other active-duty fighter pilot. But our technological edge is eroding. ... Now we have a choice. We can stock the Air Force with the expensive, cutting-edge F‑22—maintaining our technological superiority at great expense to our Treasury. Or we can go back to a time when the cost of air supremacy was paid in the blood of men like Rodriguez." - The Last Ace, a feature article in this month's The Atlantic by author Mark Bowden.
posted to MetaFilter by billysumday at 7:36 AM on February 15, 2009 (62 comments)

What are the marks of a true professional?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by PinkButterfly at 12:27 PM on January 22, 2008 (39 comments)

185. "Revolution 9"

Shortly after recording "Revolution 9", John Lennon allegedly went around telling friends that his new song was the music of the future. Well, here we are, 40 years later, and I don’t see the pop charts filled with experimental song collages featuring recording engineers, chanting football crowds, mangled orchestras, and bizarre non-sequiturs. [...]
posted to MetaFilter by swift at 2:59 PM on January 20, 2009 (114 comments)

Known as Black Box in the UK, Survival in the Sky was a four-episode 1996 series about commercial aviation accidents and the investigation of their causes. (Two additional episodes were filmed in 1998.) Not currently available on DVD, five of the six episodes are available in their entirety on YouTube (links within).
posted to MetaFilter by maxwelton at 1:16 AM on January 17, 2009 (12 comments)

How best to sensibly splurge at Whole Foods?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by scarylarry at 9:15 PM on December 13, 2008 (33 comments)

Book-Recommendation-Filter: I want a book that tells me all about how medieval warfare used to be waged.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Bobby Bittman at 10:46 PM on December 13, 2008 (11 comments)

So I want to be an actuary. My grasp of calculus at present is sketchy. This is a problem.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by leotrotsky at 8:19 AM on August 1, 2005 (10 comments)

Fall is here and if you're in the mood for barbeque why not make your own? Here is a helpful guide.
posted to MetaFilter by nola at 3:58 PM on October 20, 2008 (42 comments)

Broken koans to amuse and enlighten.
posted to MetaFilter by RussHy at 8:26 AM on October 14, 2008 (61 comments)

"A Solitaire Civization game that's compact enough to play on a plane ... Using only a pad of paper, a pencil, and a specialized deck of cards, lead your civilization through the ages to become ... civilized." A free "print-and-play" board game.
posted to MetaFilter by jbickers at 2:24 PM on September 25, 2008 (19 comments)

Dutch author Tim Krabbé, also an expert chess player, catalogues the unusual and sublime in chess: Tim Krabbé's Chess Curiosities.

Chess Records. The 110 greatest moves ever. Underpromotion in serious games. A poignant encounter with Garry Kasparov after a loss. Or you could just start at his Open Chess Diary and work your way back.
posted to MetaFilter by shadow vector at 3:58 PM on July 12, 2008 (20 comments)

I love nicely done home-built aircraft. I discovered Mark Langford's website over a year ago but forgot to bookmark it. Thankfully, I recently found it again. His dedication (obsession?) is obvious. I can't get over how many parts he custom built for his plane. He suffered an engine failure in his Corvair engine at one point, and I loved how he took the engine apart afterward and gave a full rundown about what happened.
posted to MetaFilter by eratus at 2:58 PM on June 19, 2008 (8 comments)

Wedding Readings: As the wedding draws closer, we need to find some interesting readings to have at the (register office) ceremony. The internet seems chock full of bog standard sentimental nonsense, but we want something light hearted, amusing, witty, fun.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by gaby at 10:53 AM on April 15, 2007 (16 comments)

Still paying a monthly fee for an MMO? Free-MMOs boasts an exhaustive (exhausting?) list of games that are free to join, free to play; try the excellent dungeon crawl Gods of Time, or the odd abandonware homebrew Ultima 6 Online.
posted to MetaFilter by jbickers at 3:10 AM on May 21, 2008 (24 comments)

The year is 1989, the world of hip hop in mainstream America is dominated by the street hard, in your face West Coast Gangsta Rap genre headed by NWA. And an army of increasingly forgettable imitators as well as genuine ingenuity coming from the opposite coast The pop music market is dominated by the sugary sweet vaguely hip-hopish pop of The New Kids On The Block. And on the corner Crendshaw and Exposition in South Central Los Angeles a group of kids at a health food store called The Good Life Health Food And Resource Center take a weekly Open Mike and turn it into an ongoing hip hop workshop where lyrical prowess, performance, and positivity instead of battling and trash talking was encouraged. In fact, swearing was strictly disallowed at The Good Life.
posted to MetaFilter by mediocre at 9:05 AM on May 17, 2008 (35 comments)

Help me market myself as a secondary math teacher. I am one year out of college with Econ and Finance degrees, have minor classroom experience, and have had jobs irrelevant to education.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by yoyoceramic at 7:32 AM on May 14, 2008 (11 comments)

Mulder's Big Adventure is an exercise in awesomeness by Metafilter members Secretariat and Cortex. Join them as they endeavor to riff on all 202 episodes of The X-Files. To refresh your memory of the series, you can watch the original episodes here. [via mefi projects]
posted to MetaFilter by cog_nate at 12:14 PM on May 14, 2008 (61 comments)

Best episode to introduce someone to This American Life?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by exhilaration at 1:49 PM on May 4, 2008 (45 comments)

What's some speculative fiction that uses magic or fictional technology to explore psychology, sociology, or political science in a deep way? I'm not as much interested here in fabulous monsters or space operas or even deep thinking about physics -- I'm interested in books that explore the nature of the mind and/or human society by imagining a world that worked differently.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by shivohum at 12:11 PM on April 13, 2008 (45 comments)

"1 Crunchwrap Supreme + 1 OCTO-MAC + 20 or so Taco Bell Fire Sauce packets + Taco Bell Cheese Sauce + Bacos + Garfield's Macaroni & Beef + A splash of Jim Beam + Approximately 2 cups of salsa = GODKILLER, for why else would it exist but to kill God?"
posted to MetaFilter by Del Far at 9:28 PM on April 2, 2008 (59 comments)

I am changing careers at the moment and am looking to get into technical writing possibly. Of the software that are industry standards (FrameMaker, RoboHelp) it all seems to run only on windows. I have a pre-intel Mac but would still love to get my feet wet, any suggestions?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by munchingzombie at 7:21 PM on January 27, 2008 (4 comments)

Are there any good single-player pen-and-paper games?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by SpacemanStix at 4:00 PM on March 14, 2008 (19 comments)

If yours is a winter beater, a rally beater, a diesel beater, your kid's beater[YT], or even a much sought after french beater, you don't need to be convinced of the value of disposable transportation (with color by Krylon). But if you need help choosing the next winning entry, worthy challenger, or judges victim[YT] for the 24 hours of LeMons, let the masters at Beater Review help.
posted to MetaFilter by toxic at 7:06 PM on November 30, 2007 (31 comments)

During its run, Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed on over 50 short films. Almost all of them are now on YouTube or Google Video. See the list (shamelessly cribbed from here) inside for links.
posted to MetaFilter by cog_nate at 12:38 PM on October 24, 2007 (146 comments)

The Daily Show online. Over 13,000 segments going back to 1999. [CNET story]
posted to MetaFilter by McLir at 6:20 PM on October 18, 2007 (81 comments)

Learn to Play Guitar! Justin, of JustinGuitar.com (not the dork with the TV camera strapped to his head) offers over 100 free video guitar lessons for absolute noobs & guitar enthusiasts, with lesson categories & written instrx as well. For people who want tablature to play along, the good people of Guitar Video Tabs provide full tab notation under videos hundreds of popular songs.
posted to MetaFilter by jonson at 4:26 PM on September 3, 2007 (17 comments)

BBC - The Conspiracy Files 911. A look at the conspiracy culture, internet movie makers, many unresolved questions and some politics. Finally the truth? [Google Video]
posted to MetaFilter by homodigitalis at 6:26 PM on September 2, 2007 (57 comments)

"It so often happens that I receive mail - well-intended but totally useless - by amateur physicists who believe to have solved the world. They believe this, only because they understand totally nothing about the real way problems are solved in Modern Physics...It should be possible, these days, to collect all knowledge you need from the internet. Problem then is, there is so much junk on the internet... I know exactly what should be taught to the beginning student...I can tell you of my own experiences. It helped me all the way to earn a Nobel Prize. But I didn't have internet. I am going to try to be your teacher. It is a formidable task."
posted to MetaFilter by vacapinta at 4:22 PM on August 29, 2007 (47 comments)

The 50 Greatest movie sex scenes of all time (with clips)
posted to MetaFilter by Roach at 2:55 PM on August 23, 2007 (104 comments)

How do I act like a New Yorker?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by brautigan at 2:36 PM on July 26, 2007 (98 comments)