What are some "can't miss" places to go and places to eat in Chicago? I'm taking someone who has never been in March and am trying to make sure they see the best of the city.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Breo at 6:00 AM on January 29, 2008 (33 comments)

Recent college grad now living in the real world: what are your favorite techniques, tricks, or products to get the everyday things done?`
posted to Ask MetaFilter by btkuhn at 12:36 PM on January 26, 2008 (27 comments)

'Race' graphically illustrated - "most Europeans" vs. Ashkenazim (previously; see also IQ & Gladwell, viz. ;)
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 7:40 PM on January 23, 2008 (100 comments)

Use your library. Make more GIF files. Trust the process. Make art - it's good for your heart. from advice to sink in slowly.
posted to MetaFilter by divabat at 12:03 AM on January 24, 2008 (8 comments)

Why do the poor commit more crime? Is it because they are irrational? (via marginal revolution)
posted to MetaFilter by wittgenstein at 5:56 AM on January 24, 2008 (104 comments)

I would like to begin the three year long process to adopt a child internationally. I am located in the state of Illinois. What kind of requirements will I need to fulfill through the homestudy?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by aetg at 5:00 PM on January 23, 2008 (14 comments)

I’ve been pondering becoming a vegetarian for quite sometime. This is more or less for ethical reasons but I suppose converting may also have an added health benefit. I’m in college and my diet is horrible. At 6 foot 180 pounds I’m not over weight, but I’m most certainly not very healthy with this type of diet. My current diet consists of mostly processed foods like hotdogs, chicken patties with fast food thrown into the mix 1-2 times a week. I’m ready for a change though and I’m looking for suggestions.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by my_impermanence at 8:40 PM on January 22, 2008 (41 comments)

Tired of video sites that are 99% cats running into walls? Check out Big Think ("YouTube for Smarty Pants") and FORA.tv ("A hipper, Web-based version of C-SPAN"). Give your brain a workout! (Via, and earlier)
posted to MetaFilter by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:01 AM on January 23, 2008 (27 comments)

Atlantic Magazine opens its archives. Atlantic Magazine announced today that they will drop subscriber-only access to the site, giving full access to every issue of the last 12 years. Where to start? Well, I particularly recommend David Foster Wallace's fascinating examination of right-wing talk radio (DFW trademark footnotes intact), Hitler's Forgotten Library, and Eric Schlosser's The Prison-Industrial Complex. (via)
posted to MetaFilter by Horace Rumpole at 12:36 PM on January 22, 2008 (51 comments)

Like to faire une photo? You're not alone. The inimitable (but perhaps for not much longer) National Geographic magazine has advice for taking portraits, travel photography, landscapes, excitingly vague 'adventure' photos and even plan old digital photography. After you've created magic how about selling it or getting published? Sharing is so 2007.
posted to MetaFilter by oxford blue at 11:09 PM on January 20, 2008 (13 comments)

Armchair psychologists and lifehackers: Please help me develop some basic assertiveness skills.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by justonegirl at 7:17 AM on January 21, 2008 (23 comments)

Can you recommend good books on the study of happiness?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by missjamielynn at 8:21 PM on January 17, 2008 (33 comments)

Are there any office chairs out there for petite women? I have a short inseam and rarely can touch the ground when I'm sitting all the way back in my seat.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by arnicae at 10:57 PM on January 17, 2008 (13 comments)

Two articles on how interaction may shape the buildings, work places and urban spaces of tomorrow: Design Week's Study takes sensory approach to improve office of the future [which mentions Duncan Wilson, who works with and blogs about this stuff]; and City of Sound's The Personal Well-Tempered Environment.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 3:25 PM on January 17, 2008 (1 comment)

The bastard offspring of New Age, Techno, Industrial and Acid House, trance is one of the most popular and most maligned musical genres of the 21st century. Trance can be bombastic or delicate, psychedelic or rock and roll, spacey or deep, euphoric or dark, commercial or underground, lush or funky, melodic or monotone, hard or laid back. You can try making some yourself with this toy, or go in depth with this tutorial. You can find it online, but if you want to really experience it, you need to hear it at a club.
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 7:42 PM on January 16, 2008 (183 comments)

Are We All Really Just Disembodied Brains Floating in Empty Space? Recent mathematical results in the field of cosmology related to the Boltzmann's Brain Problem may point toward a peculiarly arbitrary universe in which, as improbable as it sounds, it's more likely than not.
posted to MetaFilter by saulgoodman at 12:40 PM on January 16, 2008 (104 comments)

Help me hivemind: What methodology should be used to weight survey sample data, using two weighting variables (for example age and gender), to reflect an actual population?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mtstover at 11:46 AM on January 16, 2008 (4 comments)

Dance music toys. Get your cheese on. Via Music Thing.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 12:18 PM on January 15, 2008 (10 comments)

Mark Toorock demonstrates the art of Parkour. (Wash. Post video) And there is an associated article (Wash. Post). Parkour has been discussed previously on MeFi. {BugMeNot logins for WaPo if needed.}
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 10:33 AM on January 13, 2008 (37 comments)

The shadowy back alleys of MetaFilter...
posted to MetaTalk by carsonb at 6:21 AM on January 12, 2008 (124 comments)

How can a fool make a table in an Access database reference another table, using SQL and ASP?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by dirtdirt at 9:13 AM on January 11, 2008 (10 comments)

Can cognitive behavioral therapy be reconciled with mindfulness into a single, integrated approach to the world?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Gordion Knott at 6:47 AM on January 10, 2008 (17 comments)

Help this jack-of-some-trades find a job.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by McBearclaw at 11:57 PM on January 8, 2008 (5 comments)

Hugh Ferriss: Delineator of Gotham. Through his charcoal renderings of dramatic, imaginary skyscrapers in early 1900s New York City, Ferriss influenced the aesthetics of numerous architects with his bold compositions.
posted to MetaFilter by Blazecock Pileon at 2:53 AM on January 6, 2008 (12 comments)

Can anyone give some advice on starting up a website? Anyone out there with experience of setting up a website or websites but wasn't actually technologically capable of making the website them self?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by swisspotter at 5:24 AM on January 6, 2008 (26 comments)

VADS is a resource for visual art, a huge range of things from students' work to collections of historical art and design.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 7:56 PM on January 4, 2008 (6 comments)

I need career advice on how to become a graphic designer when I'm already a grown up. Bonus & intertwined question: can you help me see if I am on the path toward being screwed at my current job?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Anonymous at 8:24 AM on January 3, 2008 (6 comments)

Can you suggest articles or books that are anecdotal descriptions of people taking opposite-sex sex hormones?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by thehmsbeagle at 7:59 PM on January 2, 2008 (14 comments)

Self-Employment-Tax-Filter: I didn't expect to have much in the way of income from my consulting business in 2007... setting my deductions to '0' should've taken care of what I expected. However, I ended up making almost a quarter of my income by consulting. I understand you're not an accountant and you're not my accountant, but how can I end up not having to owe a ton of penalties for not having filed self-employment tax?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by SpecialK at 1:50 PM on January 2, 2008 (7 comments)

What are good "pocket-sized" reference books to carry in your bag/pack/purse, with the best ratio of useful information to page count and size?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mrbill at 1:37 PM on January 1, 2008 (29 comments)

Paris Changing Photographer Christopher Rauschenberg rephotographed the Paris images Eugène Atget around 100 years later for his book Paris Changing.
posted to MetaFilter by doug3505 at 10:18 PM on January 1, 2008 (25 comments)

How to learn to love exercise. How to quit smoking. How to stop drinking, or reduce your intake. How to love your body. How to feel good about yourself. How to find a career you care about.
posted to MetaFilter by jbickers at 6:47 PM on December 30, 2007 (36 comments)

I'm interested in attempting some work with Ruby on Rails. Other than some very elementary BASIC programming and HTML (yes, I know it's not a programming language), I have no programming experience.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by joshrholloway at 7:22 AM on December 29, 2007 (6 comments)

What is holding you back from doing the things you want to do? And if you were able to accomplish something special how did you do it?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by philad at 6:59 PM on December 27, 2007 (25 comments)

Open Culture's "10 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube" features "intellectually redeemable" channels from UC Berkeley, @GoogleTalks, TheNobelPrize, TED Talks, FORA.tv, the European Graduate School, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, BBC Worldwide, National Geographic, PBS, UChannel, MIT, Vanderbilt, and USC.
posted to MetaFilter by Soup at 5:40 PM on December 27, 2007 (21 comments)

A collection of unusual maps from Maps: Finding Our Place in the World by James Akerman and Robert Karrow, including slavery maps of the US from the 19th Century, maps of the voyage of the Pequod from Moby Dick and a mappe of Fairyland. All the maps are available in high resolutions with zoom functioning. [via The Edge of the American West]
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 12:33 PM on December 27, 2007 (12 comments)

What device can be used to send/receive text messages from very remote locations?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mateuslee at 7:41 AM on December 26, 2007 (11 comments)

TheDataWeb - a network of online data libraries on topics including census data, economic data, health data, income and unemployment data, population data, labor data, cancer data, crime and transportation data, family dynamics, vital statistics data
posted to MetaFilter by Gyan at 7:03 AM on December 26, 2007 (10 comments)

Census sensitivity. The Economist takes a look at the politics of enumeration.
posted to MetaFilter by goo at 2:40 AM on December 23, 2007 (14 comments)

What software should be in my arsenal of weapons for making some wicked music mashups?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by c:\awesome at 5:05 PM on December 16, 2007 (7 comments)

Elegant and simple way to create nice-looking graphs/charts from raw data?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jbickers at 2:28 PM on December 13, 2007 (10 comments)

What are the best essays, books, or scholarly articles regarding the social role of maps? Both pre- and post- web 2.0, google earth mash ups, and the like. I'm familiar with the Situationalist critique, but wonder where else to begin reading.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by pinto at 1:17 PM on November 25, 2007 (5 comments)

If I'm looking at existing statistical data, how do I try to find a correlation between two variables over time? Scatterplots have confused me, because they don't seem to reflect the passage of time, but just where x and y meet. Pearson's r doesn't seem to do it either w/r/t time.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by trondant at 12:40 AM on December 11, 2007 (13 comments)

The Four Essential Travel Phrases in 435 languages + 242 dialects + 49 conlangs!
Including Popculture English and more!
See also: I Can Eat Glass...it does not hurt me.
posted to MetaFilter by sushiwiththejury at 2:58 PM on December 10, 2007 (34 comments)

Louis Stettner: Atmospheric black and white photos of Paris and New York by Brooklyn-born photographer who now lives in France. Some are sexy, some amusing, some poignant. A series on Penn station in the 1950s is especially nice, and a big contrast to the candy colored Mad Men palette. Beware mispelled main url. via.
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist at 11:23 AM on December 7, 2007 (9 comments)

The Zen Mind - An Introduction. A Day in the Life of a Zen Monk. Zazen - A Guide to Sitting. Interview with a Zen Buddhist Priest (previously).
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 12:08 AM on December 8, 2007 (36 comments)

If you had to walk away from your life in a split second, how would you start over?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Smarson at 12:35 PM on December 7, 2007 (38 comments)

How do you handle "personal property" in a marriage. I understand the "what's mine is yours and what's yours in mine" in theory, but don't some things just plain belong to one person or the other?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Jazz Hands at 3:15 PM on December 7, 2007 (55 comments)

Google's new Chart API makes images of various charts based entirely on URLs. There's no key required, so it's very easy to start adding charts to the 86% of statistics we're making up. As a starting point for chart play, MetaFilter as a chart.
posted to MetaFilter by scottreynen at 11:53 AM on December 6, 2007 (55 comments)

Good, inexpensive, (preferably free) online course or certification in MS Access or other database software?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by shotgunbooty at 6:22 AM on December 6, 2007 (1 comment)