Shane MacGowan is the face and name most often associated with The Pogues. Unraveling Shane's psyche would require a book-length study but the crux of his identity lies somewhere in that conflict between English experience and Irish heritage. The abbreviated story of his life starts with his birth in England, but he was raised in Ireland, and moved back to England some years later. He won a scholarship to the renowned Westminster School, where he was possibly enrolled alongside Thomas Dolby and other notable people. MacGowan was involved with drugs and publicized hooliganery before being in a band, the first of which was The Nipple Erectors in 1977.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 1:51 PM on September 13, 2009 (87 comments)

A five-page Washington Post epic about the pluralistic cults of WaWa and Sheetz. If you've ever spent any significant amount of time in the Mid-Atlantic states, you'll understand. (print format link)
posted to MetaFilter by potch at 3:50 PM on August 27, 2009 (102 comments)

How much should we pay a contract programmer to migrate some code for us? Is it customary for the programmer to present a bid, or do we come up with an amount to offer?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by LadyOscar at 11:20 AM on August 27, 2009 (9 comments)

Does 9/20 Sound like a good time for a DC Meetup to anyone?
posted to MetaTalk by Navelgazer at 8:48 PM on August 20, 2009 (150 comments)

CSA in Washington DC?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by RandlePatrickMcMurphy at 12:45 PM on August 17, 2009 (12 comments)

Halloween party meetup in Durham, NC--Saturday, Oct 31st, 2009.
posted to MetaTalk by Stewriffic at 7:54 AM on August 17, 2009 (22 comments)

I Married a MeFite!
posted to MetaTalk by BitterOldPunk at 10:48 AM on August 2, 2009 (180 comments)

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested for "breaking into" his own home.
posted to MetaFilter by ocherdraco at 2:19 PM on July 20, 2009 (979 comments)

Is it a long trip from your physician to the nearest approved cannabis dispensing station? Here's a solution. Get on your Iphone and download cannabisapps.
posted to MetaFilter by Xurando at 2:57 PM on July 25, 2009 (28 comments)

Scratch is a programming language designed for kids. Programs are created by hooking together jigsaw-puzzle pieces, which are keyed in such a way that it is impossible to create a syntactically incorrect program.
posted to MetaFilter by Chocolate Pickle at 9:56 AM on July 15, 2009 (37 comments)

"Text Utilities" is a useful browser-based tool for geeks. It's a web page that does all sorts of operations on text, e.g. escape/ unescape, hashing, regexp testing.
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee at 9:06 AM on June 24, 2009 (33 comments)

So, say you find out that your employer has been using a program to record your keystrokes. Is this illegal?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by citizngkar at 4:57 PM on May 20, 2009 (25 comments)

Ancient Venus rewrites history books: Female figure was carved from a mammoth tusk 35,000 years ago. [Via]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 4:24 PM on May 13, 2009 (77 comments)

Good free French-English dictionary online?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Electrius at 6:25 PM on May 11, 2009 (6 comments)

A catalog of unfortunate moments in maleness courtesy of Awkward Boners (NSFW).
posted to MetaFilter by hermitosis at 10:37 AM on April 30, 2009 (105 comments)

Can I show All Rights Reserved flickr pictures on my blog if they aren't mine?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by that girl at 9:24 AM on February 9, 2009 (19 comments)

Please recommend an authoritative beginner's text on occult/mystical Kabbalah. Perhaps with emphasis on the techniques of gemetria and correspondence to non-Jewish mysticism.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Netzapper at 12:36 AM on April 22, 2009 (10 comments)

Please find my super-comprehensive BMR calculator?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Andrhia at 12:48 PM on April 21, 2009 (5 comments)

I'm in the market for a skipping rope or jump rope. Recommend me a high-tech jump rope, please!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by fook at 3:28 PM on April 20, 2009 (8 comments)

Troubleshooting a weekend bathroom remodel: sealing a freshly painted tub and removing stains from said paint.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by siclik at 8:57 AM on April 20, 2009 (2 comments)

Does anyone have any recommendations for contractors in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area? I have bought a house in PG county MD which needs a complete renovation, and I need reliable contractors ASAP. All recommendations would be appreciated.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by gogomickey at 6:55 AM on April 15, 2009 (4 comments)

How to talk and 'entertain' my mother (with Alzheimers) when she no longer recognizes me?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by dbmcd at 11:21 PM on April 12, 2009 (16 comments)

DC Meetup! ThePinkSuperhero is finally coming to visit the nation's capital and we are obliged to celebrate her arrival. Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 25th.
posted to MetaTalk by mullacc at 11:27 AM on April 6, 2009 (53 comments)

"In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States in chronological order."
posted to MetaFilter by Pope Guilty at 9:49 AM on March 27, 2009 (129 comments)

Election Fraud in Kentucky. "I think this is the first documented case of election fraud in the U.S. using electronic voting machines (there have been lots of documented cases of errors and voting problems, but this one involves actual maliciousness)."
posted to MetaFilter by chunking express at 6:20 AM on March 24, 2009 (35 comments)

I have recently been working on PCI DSS Compliance at work for my company. I have been writing a lot of documentation and could use some help, but don't want to pay for it. Does anyone know where I can find examples for all documentation for PCI Compliance. Especially looking on Breach Policy documentation, interal infrastructure docuemtation examples, and all documentation for requirement 12. Any help would be appreciated
posted to Ask MetaFilter by sharp2403 at 7:59 AM on March 16, 2009

Steve Souders works on web performance and open source initiatives. His book, High Performance Web Sites, explains his best practices for performance, and is a bestseller. Steve is the creator of YSlow, the performance analysis extension to Firebug. He always shares best practices, for example, 14 Rules for Faster-Loading Web Sites, and the very informative State of Performance featuring his predictions for web performance in 2009.
posted to MetaFilter by netbros at 4:54 AM on March 12, 2009 (13 comments)

La Revolution Des Crabes (SLYT, French w/ subtitles)
posted to MetaFilter by Challahtronix at 9:08 AM on March 10, 2009 (4 comments)

Capitol of Punk, a walking tour and online documentary about the Washington DC hardcore punk scene.
posted to MetaFilter by skullbee at 7:24 PM on September 19, 2006 (46 comments)

I'm being asked to do a freelance project and I have no idea what I'm doing!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 7:49 AM on March 4, 2009 (12 comments)

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is signalling that marijuana policy will now be considered a matter of state jurisdiction. For obvious reasons, medical marijuana champions are celebrating the administration's committment to depart from the Bush and Clinton eras' previous policies of conducting frequent DEA Raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in California. But with recent signs of a U.S. economy in even more rapid decline than anyone anticipated, and with California being particularly hard hit, some California politicians are suggesting the time has finally arrived to end the prohibition and put full legalization of marijuana on the table, pointing to potential windfalls in the range of a billion dollars in new tax revenue annually.
posted to MetaFilter by saulgoodman at 10:16 AM on February 27, 2009 (124 comments)

The long delayed, frequently threatened Hampton Roads (VA) Bonfire is on for 3/13.
posted to MetaTalk by waraw at 9:43 AM on February 24, 2009 (7 comments)

A Real Doll "doctor" gives an interview, describing the art of patching up the dolls and questioning their treatment by their owners.
posted to MetaFilter by Grrlscout at 11:10 AM on February 22, 2009 (157 comments)

He Saw, She Saw. According to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, beauty may affect men's and women's brains in different ways.
posted to MetaFilter by teamparka at 2:46 PM on February 23, 2009 (33 comments)

It seems like the only thing that can get me off is extremely unpleasant written erotica (details inside, to keep the front page clean). Do I have a problem? Should I see a therapist?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 8:25 AM on January 30, 2009 (46 comments)

Help me design a stretching/exercise program to allow me to do the splits. What stretches should I be doing? How long should I hold the stretch? Any particular exercises I should be practicing? What's a reasonable timeframe for developing this skill?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by philosophygeek at 10:08 AM on January 30, 2009 (9 comments)

I would love to hear about your favourite yoga podcasts, vodcasts and other downloadable lessons.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by [ixia] at 5:14 AM on January 23, 2009 (6 comments)

Do muscle mineral soaks really work? If so, how?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:34 PM on January 19, 2009 (13 comments)

The best books , articles , gurus etc you have come across that can actually integrate most or much of the information out there, for investing purposes and for separating the signals from the noise.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by cluelessguru at 10:52 AM on January 15, 2009 (7 comments)

I can't pronounce 'th' sounds in normal speech. That is, I pronounce 'the' as 'vuh' and 'three' as 'free' (rather than putting my tongue against my teeth as apparently other people do). I'm very self-conscious now I'm aware of it and worry it will give people a poor impression of me - "vey might fink I'm fick". Has anyone else had this problem? How can I fix it?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by asb at 6:19 AM on January 8, 2009 (16 comments)

Raising boys filter: Mini-hellbound is not sports-inclined...
posted to Ask MetaFilter by hellboundforcheddar at 7:37 AM on January 6, 2009 (46 comments)

Dropbox syncs and backs up files between computers instantaneously. Site. Via.
posted to MetaFilter by chuckdarwin at 8:54 AM on December 17, 2008 (99 comments)

Stock market related questions-- help me drown in data!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Static Vagabond at 8:07 PM on December 9, 2008 (5 comments)

Thanks to a love affair with Dora the Explorer, my six-year-old daughter is fascinated by Spanish. She's too old for Dora now and has moved onto Strawberry Shortcake, but not a day goes by without her demanding to know how to say various things in Spanish. My husband and I are happy to help with this, and will look up translations on our phones, but her questions are rapidly surpassing my intro-level Spanish skills. I'd like to find some child-oriented websites that will help her learn Spanish.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by meghanmiller at 11:26 AM on December 9, 2008 (11 comments)

Indian Nipple Song and May He Poop? (Previously)
posted to MetaFilter by twoleftfeet at 3:06 AM on December 5, 2008 (32 comments)

Looking for good implementations of web based, on demand television, similar to BBC's iPlayer and Channel 4's 4OD services.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ReiToei at 2:14 AM on April 15, 2008 (4 comments)

Good off-the-shelf Flash player to play Quicktime (.mov) files? Or get one custom-built?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mark7570 at 6:28 PM on October 29, 2008 (2 comments)

I'd like to legally automate the conversion of quicktime .mov files videos to .flv, providing a drop box service, preferably under linux, but I'm getting tripped up on the first and last parts
posted to Ask MetaFilter by roue at 9:32 PM on November 18, 2008 (5 comments)

Need an American-themed starter (as in United States of America) to take to a friend's.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by paduasoy at 9:18 AM on November 11, 2008 (19 comments)

I'm pregnant, and very likely to miscarry. Telling the father that I'm pregnant will open up a gigantic can of worms, something I'd much rather avoid if I am going to miscarry anyway. How long can I ethically wait to notify him about my situation?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by iliketrafficlights at 1:12 PM on November 7, 2008 (44 comments)