If synthesizers were around, would Peter Illich Tchaikowsky have used one?
posted to MeFi Music by AppleSeed at 7:19 PM on December 2, 2015 (5 comments)

A remix of PinkStainlessTail's classic holiday anthem Jingle Bell Rock. I had such high hopes for this when I started, intending it to be even more annoying than original, but I kind of lost the will to live partway through doing it. Consider it then to be permanently incomplete.
posted to MeFi Music by nylon at 1:46 PM on July 31, 2006 (19 comments)

For a number of reasons, YouTube is overtaking streaming and other TV as the main way I consume moving images at the moment. My son watches a lot of Lets Play videos, and I enjoy them. But what else is there on YouTube.... for me?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by anastasiav at 12:19 PM on November 30, 2015 (13 comments)

In March of 2010, programmer Eric Fry discovered a cheap digital tuner from Realtek could be modified to receive more than mere TV and FM Radio. Much more.
posted to MetaFilter by endotoxin at 1:54 PM on November 28, 2015 (36 comments)

The IKEA dictionary explains the origin of over 1200 IKEA product names.
posted to MetaFilter by jedicus at 11:13 AM on November 28, 2015 (48 comments)

Thinking about getting your life together in 2016 with planners? Not only do you have many types of planners to choose from, you can also dive into the sparkly, colourful, washi-tape-and-sticker covered world of planner decoration. Let's begin!
posted to MetaFilter by divabat at 6:45 AM on November 27, 2015 (82 comments)

The term sakuga (作画) refers to a series of well-drawn movements in animation found in both western and Japanese animated shows.
posted to MetaFilter by chrono_rabbit at 12:51 PM on November 26, 2015 (9 comments)

For the first time in 35 years, an Chicago police officer has been charged with first-degree murder for an on-duty fatality, in this case, that of 17 year old Laquan McDonald. Last night, the city of Chicago released the dash-cam footage that had been kept out of the public eye for more than a year, showing Mr. McDonald being shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer. A second video, which was taken by a security camera at a nearby Burger King, was allegedly deleted by the police.
posted to MetaFilter by roomthreeseventeen at 7:34 AM on November 25, 2015 (307 comments)

Need to wrap an odd-shaped gift? Create a box for it! Measure it up, choose a template and print it. This page is a resource for DIY artists, graphics designers and everyone who likes paper crafts. It contains an ever-growing number of templates for gift boxes and increasingly more other interesting things that can be made out of paper. What makes this site special is that the templates are all dynamic: you can customize almost all dimensions. All templates are free, no login is required.
posted to MetaFilter by paleyellowwithorange at 4:30 AM on November 25, 2015 (14 comments)

Faig Ahmed mixes traditional carpet-weaving with 3D sculpting and computer display glitches. It really ties the centuries together.
posted to MetaFilter by Etrigan at 6:11 AM on November 24, 2015 (15 comments)

The Double Life of John le Carré James Parker reviews John le Carré: The Biography, by Adam Sisman:
posted to MetaFilter by the man of twists and turns at 1:39 PM on November 23, 2015 (23 comments)

Feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of feeding your holiday guests? Maybe you should refresh yourself on "How to Feed an Army" (1901). Perhaps a history lesson on feeding the troops would inspire you? (Break out your P38.) Ever wonder about the nutritional content of combat rations? Can sailors bring ship-grown lettuce to the table?
posted to MetaFilter by MonkeyToes at 3:17 PM on November 22, 2015 (24 comments)

Metafilter favorite Tony Zhou is back with a video about everybody's favorite visual comedian, Buster Keaton.
posted to MetaFilter by nushustu at 1:49 PM on November 21, 2015 (12 comments)

The CIA’s WWII Guide to Creating Organizational Dysfunction Perfectly Describes Your Toxic Workplace (and the link to the full 1944 document at cia.gov)
posted to MetaFilter by ShooBoo at 10:19 AM on November 21, 2015 (29 comments)

R3 Music Box is a YouTube channel that delivers peaceful music box versions of anime, movie, and video game themes, plus tons of J-pop, K-pop, and more.
posted to MetaFilter by knuckle tattoos at 12:14 PM on November 20, 2015 (13 comments)

You might know that mefites are making levels in Super Mario Maker. But in a shocking twist, so are game developers! Every Wednesday for the past ten weeks, Polygon has been recording a different designer putting together, commenting on, and playing through an all-new level in their video series “Devs Make Mario”. (YouTube playlist) List of episodes within.
posted to MetaFilter by Going To Maine at 12:29 PM on November 19, 2015 (52 comments)

Following a recent MeTa on which interest was expressed in the idea of a MetaFilter Music Podcast, I decided that hell yes and made one - check it out on Soundcloud!
posted to MetaTalk by greenish at 7:32 AM on November 13, 2015 (27 comments)

In light of the thread on the blue about unpaid emotional labor, I'd like to construct a self-assessment checklist so that I can actively work on being better at emotional labor. I've got 20 or so line items already written down (posted below the fold), which I've amassed from trying to distill the thread. What additional items should I add or change to more fully flesh out this list?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Maecenas at 11:57 AM on July 20, 2015 (76 comments)

Cyanide and Happiness is one of the most successful webcomics, combining very simple 'semi stickperson' characters with very simple gags, sometimes silly, more often gleefully offensive. Of the more than 3000 strips in its history, hundreds are three-panel interactions between 'Mr. Blue' and 'Mr. Green'. From those, they have now made a Random Comic Generator, which creates comics that sometimes make more sense than the originals.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop at 1:09 AM on November 7, 2015 (44 comments)

This is a weird question about a fantasy my son has about "cooking" with Halloween candy. For months he's been talking about making "Sweet Stew," a "recipe" he made up in which the Halloween candy is ground up in the food processor and then mixed with peanut butter. Is there any real recipe for something we can make with Halloween candy?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by pipti at 10:06 AM on October 25, 2015 (35 comments)

Twitch, the social media platform for video games, just launched ‘Twitch Creative': a section of the site dedicated to non-gaming videos from artists. There you'll find people creating paintings or illustrations, composing songs, designing costumes, and even glass blowing. To celebrate, Twitch is holding an 8-day marathon livestream of every single Bob Ross The Joy of Painting episode.
posted to MetaFilter by zarq at 1:59 PM on October 30, 2015 (44 comments)

The film Alien Nation was a hit in 1988, so the fledgling Fox Network figured building off its success with a human-alien buddy cop show was a can’t-miss concept....
posted to MetaFilter by zarq at 10:32 AM on October 28, 2015 (86 comments)

Bundesliga Fashion - nach ungefähr dreissig Sekunden fängt die Party an
posted to MetaFilter by a lungful of dragon at 11:52 PM on October 26, 2015 (16 comments)

What gift will blow my two year old's mind? Thank you!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Omnomnom at 1:47 PM on October 26, 2015 (34 comments)

Ivan Aivazovsky (1817–1900) - "In 1840, Aivazovsky traveled to Rome, where he became friendly with Nikolai Gogol. He also received high praise from the Roman critics, newspapers, and even Pope Gregory XVI. The pope purchased Aivazovsky's 'Chaos' and hung it in the Vatican...
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 6:59 AM on October 24, 2015 (10 comments)

The cultural appropriation thread here went very, very poorly, and I think it highlights a pattern in ways we interact with people of color and talk about issues of race here on Metafilter that create a hostile environment for PoC. I want to bring up some of the tropes we saw in the FPP, and highlight them as specific suggestions as to what I need our community to do and be mindful of going forward, so we don't continue to alienate PoC on this website.
posted to MetaTalk by Conspire at 6:33 PM on October 22, 2015 (584 comments)

The latest thing is Recipes as animated GIFs:
Pull-out monkey bread
Avocado & Eggs breakfast
Better than sex brownies
Homemade Nutella
Apple roses
Pizza dip
PES guacamole
Mozzarella sticks
Archer's Margarita

posted to MetaFilter by growabrain at 11:20 AM on October 22, 2015 (100 comments)

Six months after we first discussed Zappo's planned move to a Holocracy, how is it going? When the deadline arrived on the last day of April, 14 percent of the company, 210 people, took the [severance] offer. Twenty of them were managers, I was told, out of a total of 246. It was a difficult day. Tear-stained faces replaced the typical smiles on the Zappos campus.
posted to MetaFilter by ellieBOA at 4:36 AM on October 20, 2015 (178 comments)

'Opposites' features 12 musical interpretations of a somehow-biographical song that I wrote together with my daughter.
2 years ago, when my daughter was 4 years old, we started composing little 'songs' together. Since then, we wrote nearly 50 songs, and published one book.

Here are 2 other musical pages: 4 songs as played by Douglas Haines, and 4 songs read in sign language by Koli Cutler.
More than half of our songs had been put to music by musicians from around the world, some of them in multiple styles.

These are parts of the One A Day Project I started when she was born.
There are many similar pages inside.

Today is Adora's 6th birthday. Happy birthday, dear Adora.
posted to MetaFilter Projects by growabrain at 3:27 PM on October 18, 2015 (1 comment)

Get ready for the upcoming NBA Season with a refresher on the rules through the NBA Video Rulebook
posted to MetaFilter by Bulgaroktonos at 6:32 AM on October 19, 2015 (17 comments)

"Loadingicon are small, trippy-looking color-limited .gifs that would make good or at least interesting animated icons or loading screens.
Gifs posted should be a closed loop, and animated either by hand or computer.
Gifs drawn from film, television, or other video sources are not allowed. Reposts or posts that otherwise aren't a good fit may be removed at the mods' discretion.

posted to MetaFilter by growabrain at 7:04 AM on October 18, 2015 (12 comments)

I'm looking for examples of unexpected (and not widely known) practices of everyday life from bygone eras. I'll give a few examples of the type of information I seek.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by akk2014 at 5:24 AM on October 11, 2015 (41 comments)

Michael Twitty is becoming one of the most transformative figures in the world of food. Reinterrogating and recreating African-American history in the context of American culinary history through his blog Afroculinaria, Twitty argues for "culinary justice" in food writing and the conversation on food history. His project (and forthcoming book of the same name) The Cooking Gene is in part a product of his Southern Discomfort Tour, a journey retracing the preservation and transmission of culinary knowledge before, during and beyond slavery.
posted to MetaFilter by Miko at 9:58 AM on October 11, 2015 (8 comments)

A few of us (me, naju, Navelgazer, branduno and Elementary Penguin) have been making levels in Super Mario Maker for Wii-U. We've started a blog, mefimariomaker.blogspot.com, to show them off. You don't have to follow or friend us or anything to play 'em, just enter the 16-digit ID codes into Super Mario Maker and play! (This does mean you have to own the game and a Wii-U to play 'em, sadly.) Their difficulty is all over the map. If you have the game and want to post 'em too, just send me a MeMail with your email address and I'll invite you! There is no other requirement, besides being a MeFi member, for posting your levels. It's a Blogger blog, so you'll probably end up needing a Google account.
posted to MetaTalk by JHarris at 1:11 AM on October 7, 2015 (50 comments)

My 18 month old nephew LOVES "real things" that are not toys. For older kids in my life, I LOVE buying them things like rock tumblers, microscopes, binoculars, swiss army knives (when they're old enough and with parental permission), digital cameras, or things to support their hobbies (like nice fins for snorkeling). We send them money from foreign countries just for fun (various small bills and lots of coins) and rocks and seashells. I've also had great luck with kids magazines and non-kid magazines (like Science, or National Geographic). I'm also rather good at getting experiences for kids and older teens - museum passes, or concert tickets, or a special fun restaurant where they sing, etc. But I've realized that I'd love to buy the younger set more "real things" because they seem to love them so much more than actual toys! This is roughly for ages 1-5. Would love some additional help of "real things" that toddlers and preschool kids like!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by barnone at 11:30 AM on August 30, 2015 (59 comments)

Aby Ngana Diop was a practitioner of taasu (alternately spelled "tassou"), a form of performance poetry practiced by female griots in Senegal. In the 90s, she was "a sought-after performer at the weddings and funerals of the rich and powerful" (according to a tangentially related article from The Verge). In 1994, she released her only widely distributed album, Liital, which fuses traditional taasu with the more modern mbalax, a popular style of Senegalese dance music. It's worth it for the title track alone.
posted to MetaFilter by escape from the potato planet at 1:52 PM on September 30, 2015 (6 comments)

We've heard before about the Wood Database, which lists detailed information ranging from crushing strength to odor to sustainability for close to 200 different types of wood. But now, the project has a beautifully simple Pinterest page as well. You can browse images of burled wood, striped wood, golden wood, and even pink and purple wood - and every image links back to the database, if you want to find out more.
posted to MetaFilter by showbiz_liz at 10:22 AM on September 21, 2015 (16 comments)

Over the years, I've acquired a handful of very nice fountain pens, which I love to use. They are inspiring me to take a crack at improving my handwriting, which has never looked good or been particularly legible. I am left-handed, and I loathe Palmer script (cursive) with a fiery passion thanks to some awful shaming I received about my handwriting as a child. What are some good resources for a southpaw to improve his handwriting that don't involve the kind of cursive I was (not) taught as a child? Books, videos, websites are all welcome.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by gauche at 2:11 PM on September 1, 2015 (9 comments)

Typography design and illustration is still an active artform, and you can get an idea of the skills at play by looking at two rather different young penmen: Seb Lester (previously) and Jake Weidmann. While both started as self-taught artists, Seb designs fonts and draws free-hand typographic art pieces with no formal education in type design, while Jake mentored under calligrapher to the White House, Rick Muffler, and is the youngest of the 14 Master Penmen (one of the few programs where inductees must craft their own certificates). As an introduction to the craft and these artists, here's more of Seb Lester and his craft, and an interview with Master Penman Jake Weidmann, with displays of his works.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 9:11 PM on September 14, 2015 (7 comments)

corpora is a Github repository containing machine-readable lists of interesting words and phrases that "are potentially useful in the creation of weird internet stuff." The corpora range from the mundane (common English words, animals, corporations, pizza toppings) to the obscure (types of knot, wrestling moves, Lovecraftian deities) to the absurd (states of drunkenness, deceased Spinal Tap drummers, unrhymable words).
posted to MetaFilter by schmod at 12:33 PM on September 12, 2015 (40 comments)

This is not an easy read, but I felt that it was worth reading: PC Comedy and Paul Revere
posted to MetaFilter by Joe in Australia at 8:10 PM on September 5, 2015 (78 comments)

It was like a mirror world to YouTube comments, where several dozen anonymous people had come together in love and harmony to write a complex, logically coherent document, based on a single tweet.

Fan is a tool using animal. Maciej Cegłowski on what happened when fandom was forced to migrate from Delicious to Pinboard and he asked what his site could do better.
posted to MetaFilter by MartinWisse at 9:54 AM on September 2, 2015 (32 comments)

Someone misses all the quick time events in a Heavy Rain chase sequence. Benny Hill ensues. (SLYT)
posted to MetaFilter by zixyer at 11:12 PM on August 31, 2015 (34 comments)

Here's a list of things not to do in your Mario levels, consider it advice for when Super Mario Maker comes out in a week and a half. Also, here's things not to do in your Mario overworld. They both come from the rom hacking community at SMWCentral.
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 12:52 AM on September 1, 2015 (232 comments)

A campy, '60s-superhero-show theme for a video game I recently scored!
posted to MeFi Music by jake at 8:53 AM on August 15, 2015 (17 comments)

If you take Adam Parfrey's definition of a secret society as a social group that demands an oath of allegiance to join, and then consider that such societies include labor unions, business groups, rural/agrarian organizations, religious and occult organizations, sobriety groups, drinking groups, immigrants, anti-immigrant organizations, philosophy and science (including optometry) (previously), and groups for "persons of quality" who wanted to engage in "immoral acts." With that introduction, here is The Cyclopædia of Fraternities; a compilation of existing authentic information and the results of original investigation as to more than six hundred secret societies in the United States, written by Albert Clark Stevens and published in 1899, in full on Archive.org.
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 1:04 PM on August 29, 2015 (33 comments)

Dr. Joel Phillips, of West Trenton, NJ, is the 33rd grand-prize winner of the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which challenges writers to concoct the worst opening sentence of a hypothetical novel. (Or, to look at it another way, the best sentence in the genre of "bad opening sentences.") The full list of winners, runners-up, and dishonorable mentions.
posted to MetaFilter by Shmuel510 at 11:30 AM on August 29, 2015 (30 comments)

As transit systems go, the matatus in Nairobi exist somewhere between underground gypsy cabs and MTA bus service. The minibuses themselves aren't owned by any government agency. The fares aren't regulated by the city. The routes are vaguely based on a bus network that existed in Nairobi some 30 years ago, but they've since shifted and multiplied and expanded at the region's edges... Riders who navigate the matatu system rely on it in parts, using only the lines they know and the unofficial stops they're sure actually exist. As for the network as a whole – there's never even been a map of it... In the absence of a formal public transit system in Kenya's capital, people have created a comprehensive – if imperfect – one on their own. And now we know that it looks like this.
posted to MetaFilter by ChuraChura at 11:01 AM on August 27, 2015 (21 comments)

In a week when China's troubled economy and plunging stock market have made headlines worldwide, the Globe and Mail probes one of hidden causes of the difficulty the country faces in transitioning to a modern consumer economy: The Ant Tribe, the middle class Chinese who are literally being driven underground.
posted to MetaFilter by Diablevert at 6:59 PM on August 25, 2015 (20 comments)

Skrillex, Diplo, and Justin Bieber collaborate on a song and talk about the process in this NYT mini-doc.
posted to MetaFilter by swift at 6:52 AM on August 25, 2015 (83 comments)