Guitar tuning through harmonics: Could you fine fine folks explain the physical/mathematical principles behind the increased "distortion" as two guitar strings being tuned through harmonics approach being tuned?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by poweredbybeard at 2:09 PM on May 19, 2007 (24 comments)

Is it bad for me to mention the good things in my life around friends who are unhappy with theirs?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by echo0720 at 10:53 PM on May 19, 2007 (19 comments)

Excellent 8,000 word essay on waste disposal in the endlessly superlative LRB. Andrew O'Hagen goes bin-raiding with Freegans, talks up Zero Waste, rides with the (contraversial) Harrow binmen, meets the Community Recycling Network, tramps over the Calvert Landfill Site and pays a visit to the London Waste EcoPark Recycling and Energy Centre aka the Edmonton Incinerator. Doesn’t meet any mafia though. 8,000 words and none wasted.
posted to MetaFilter by criticalbill at 7:02 AM on May 19, 2007 (10 comments)

Tape Findings. Every week RJ from Sweet Thunder posts excerpts from one of a kind cassette tape recordings he finds at garage sales. Found due to Week 15 [better recording]. Other greats: Week 49, Week 73, Week 86. Dog damn.
posted to MetaFilter by 6am at 4:46 AM on May 19, 2007 (13 comments)

Book Excerpt: The Assault on Reason Time Magazine publishes an excerpt to further whet appetites. Releases on the 22nd.
posted to MetaFilter by allkindsoftime at 8:01 AM on May 18, 2007 (91 comments)

The non-profit group, Public.resource.org, are challenging the Smithsonian Institution by downloading all 6,288 (mostly) public domain photographs from the very restrictive Smithsonian Images site and reposting them to Flickr. [more: here, here] {via Ramage}
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 12:28 PM on May 18, 2007 (25 comments)

"IdeaFarm (tm) Associates is an economic association for unselfish people. Its mission is to promote unselfish living by making life better for unselfish people. [...] The organizer is an economist and software developer. He is completing work on a new computer operating system that could destroy the Microsoft monopoly, create a new Internet safe enough for children and the elderly, and provide Associates with a new way to find work and sell products and services."
posted to MetaFilter by Avenger at 12:44 PM on May 18, 2007 (30 comments)

The 2007 University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt is concluded. Here is this year's hilarious and often cryptic list of items. [pdf!] [Official Scav Hunt Page] [U. Chicago News.] [Wikipedia.]
posted to MetaFilter by kosem at 1:43 PM on May 18, 2007 (24 comments)

This might be the first song that directly references a question in the green. I recorded this a few years back as a present to my mum. (The talented Mr Matt Evans added the scritchy-scratchiness.) This is the song as I remember my mum singing it to me. The only difference is that my Mum sang it in a lilting Scouse, whereas I tend to intone it pretentiously. BTW: My question in Ask still stands. I'd love it if anyone knew this song - or anything like it. I fully intend, one day, to illustrate the song as a children's book, sell millions and retire to a caribbean island to kill myself slowly with daiquiris. You have been warned.
posted to MeFi Music by Jofus at 7:05 AM on September 21, 2006 (8 comments)

Can British Men Photograph The Jazz? Well, Terry Cryer certainly can.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 5:26 AM on October 2, 2002 (7 comments)

Frustrated with my lack of photographic output, I resolved, starting Feb 1, to take and post a photo every day for 100 days. I just finished today!
posted to MetaFilter Projects by aubilenon at 8:33 AM on May 12, 2007

Four high school students -- gold chains, fake diamond rings, patchy, adolescent mustaches and sharp brains -- take on MIT and others in a robot competition. They're undocumented Mexican Americans living in trailers and shabby houses in Arizona. They raise only $800 from the community to fund their project, while the MIT team raises $11,000 from corporate donors. They have to scrounge for the "most best tampons" at the last moment to fix a leak in their robot. The other teams snicker at their garishly painted robot when it's unveiled poolside. You know how this is going to end. You know. But it's very satisfying to read nonetheless. (via Amygdala)
posted to MetaFilter by maudlin at 6:59 AM on March 30, 2005 (86 comments)

Enertia is producing "innovative new homes of remarkable strength, economy, and beauty, brought to life by an elegant new architecture and the discovery of a new source of pollution-free energy." The design took first prize in the Modern Marvels/Invent Now competition (previously). In an interview, the inventor, Michael Sykes, says "he was inspired by the way the earth’s own atmosphere keeps the planet at a relatively constant comfortable temperature despite the frigidity of space." He also notes that his wife calls herself a "homemaker," natch.
posted to MetaFilter by pithy comment at 11:03 AM on May 17, 2007 (17 comments)

Temperance. Silence. Order. Resolution. Frugality. Industry. Sincerity. Justice. Moderation. Cleanliness. Chastity. Tranquility. Humility. Benjamin Franklin's 13 virtues. "He committed to giving strict attention to one virtue each week so after 13 weeks he moved through all 13. After 13 weeks he would start the process over again so in one year he would complete the course a total of 4 times."
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 6:38 AM on September 10, 2005 (32 comments)

"If that's what's on, then that's what they watch. It's either that, or a cricket match between Scotland and Bermuda. Now, I am an educated man, Charlie, but when someone tries to explain cricket to me, all I want to do is hit him in the head with a teapot." Cricket Explained (An American Viewpoint) for those, following a recent cricket thread, that want to get it, but don't quite yet.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 6:34 AM on August 3, 2006 (41 comments)

There's a new site, just up and running, that aims to be the YouTube of How-To. Not exactly overflowing with clips just yet, but it could perhaps become a handy web resource, if people really start uploading stuff, and if the folks running it keep pumping out the in-house productions that so far comprise the majority of the site's content. Anyway, it's already the place to go if you want a tutorial on how to make a California roll, or how to hang a door. And if nothing else, some of these clips are just screaming for a mashup treatment. They're calling it VideoJug.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 7:12 AM on August 28, 2006 (51 comments)

dg28.com: photographer eduction - 'Technique - Photography is all about light, and digital is no different. I try to light as much of my work as I can, and this was true before "Dig' day"'. Some great photography tips and techniques here, apparently from portrait photographer Neil Turner. Via Civil_Disobedient at Ask MetaFilter.
posted to MetaFilter by nthdegx at 3:54 PM on September 3, 2006 (8 comments)

It's spring; build a boat, therefore.
posted to MetaFilter by OmieWise at 6:55 AM on April 2, 2007 (25 comments)

doFlick.com is a library of educational and instructional videos. It's short on content at the moment but it could turn out to be a useful resource. Who wouldn't benefit from knowing how to fold a plastic bag neatly?
posted to MetaFilter by tellurian at 7:35 PM on May 16, 2007 (24 comments)

In the 1920s Joseph Rock, an Austrian-born botanist went to live in Lijiang, in Yunnan province. During expeditions over the next three decades he photographed shamans, trulku, petty kings, nomads, astounding scenery and flora and fauna across much of southwest China. He also studied the language and culture of the Nakhi people previouslywhose homeleand centred around Lijiang. A contemporary blogger is now posting some then-and-now images of the places and people Rock recorded.
posted to MetaFilter by Abiezer at 10:07 PM on February 23, 2007 (18 comments)

Although I Am Dead (YouTube) (Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10) Compelling documentary by Hu Jie (胡杰) on the death during the Cultural Revolution of Bian Zhongyun (卞仲耘), recalled by her now octogenarian husband. He photographed her corpse after she was beaten to death by Red Guards, students at the middle school of which she was deputy principal. The film's inclusion in the documentary section of YunFest has apparently led to the authorities shutting down the event. (Via)
posted to MetaFilter by Abiezer at 4:26 AM on April 5, 2007 (19 comments)

Gina Trapani's Invisibility Cloak is a GreaseMonkey script for Firefox that blocks time-wasting websites while you're working. Conveniently, MetaFilter is included by default. Previously: Temptation Blocker.
posted to MetaFilter by russilwvong at 10:34 PM on May 16, 2007 (12 comments)

Darwin wrote to 2000 people during his life; 14,500 of these letters still survive. The Darwin Correspondence Project is putting annotated transcriptions of these online, and they've covered about 5,000 so far, including a letter written when he was 12 after he had got into trouble with his sister for not washing regularly while at school. There's an intro here. See also Darwin Online, discussed here. And the prolific network theorist Albert-Laszlo Barabasi has co-authored a paper on statistical similarities between Darwin's and Einstein's correspondence (#51 on the list).
posted to MetaFilter by carter at 8:39 AM on May 16, 2007 (11 comments)

Fascinated by Egyptian archaeology? View and learn all about the discoveries in Giza, the Valley of the Kings (and Queens), Memphis and Saqqara and the Sphinx from the comfort of home. Depending on today's pesky sandstorms and time of day, you may even be able to see the pyramids from the comfort of your couch. Want to go inside? Yeah, me neither.
Previously.
posted to MetaFilter by miss lynnster at 12:34 AM on May 16, 2007 (11 comments)

UniverseNewsFilter: Scientists claim to have detected dark matter! Here are NASA's press release, feature page and multimedia presentation. For an explanation what dark matter is, I refer you to this page. After all that excitement, you can sit down and work out how much dark matter is in the Milky Way.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 9:12 PM on May 15, 2007 (30 comments)

Awesome Tapes from Africa (via)
posted to MetaFilter by roll truck roll at 10:45 PM on May 15, 2007 (40 comments)

The Best Places to Get Free Books.
posted to MetaFilter by Tommy Gnosis at 3:35 AM on May 15, 2007 (24 comments)

The Cube (1969) , directed by Jim Henson. (Some background)
posted to MetaFilter by growabrain at 11:43 PM on May 14, 2007 (20 comments)

How did you turn your life around? I'm looking for inspiring stories and general patterns. Be as philosophical or as specific as you like.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by DarkForest at 7:55 PM on May 13, 2007 (27 comments)

Bent Objects is the blog of an artist named Terry who makes sculpture featuring everyday items, such as aluminum cans, tea bags, playing cards and other such things.
posted to MetaFilter by grapefruitmoon at 8:42 AM on May 14, 2007 (11 comments)

Flickervision (beta). Also, Twittervision.
posted to MetaFilter by psmealey at 6:36 AM on May 14, 2007 (37 comments)

I've been steaming a lot of veggies lately, much quicker than cooking them. I usually top them with tomato sauce/mozzarella and some spices. I'm getting kinda sick of tomato sauce, what are some alternative toppings?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by parallax7d at 3:07 PM on May 7, 2007 (44 comments)

Librarians and book collectors have many tales about ephemera left in books. While the legend of the bacon bookmark may be among the more pervasive reports of strange finds, a smallpox sample is probably the most bizarre. There are blogs and discussion boards that record other makeshift markers. Some readers prefer designated over spontaneous markers. Mirage Bookmark has an extensive collection of bookmark ephemera, with Bookmark of the Week and Bookmark Collector also offering noteworthy collections.
posted to MetaFilter by madamjujujive at 9:34 AM on May 9, 2007 (67 comments)

Paintings of Buddha dating back at least to the 12th century have been discovered in a cave in Nepal. Tipped by a local shepherd, a team of international researchers climbed to some old caves where they found a mural with 55 panels depicting the life of Buddha, reminiscent of the artwork of the Ajanta Caves in India (possibly NSFW). There are probably many other forgotten caves in the Mustang area (previously discussed here,) but they may be threatened by a planned trans-Himalayan highway.
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 10:06 AM on May 13, 2007 (22 comments)

"I sometimes wonder if anyone still reads this stuff." Here's an unique perspective for the self-styled brash, anarchist, punkrocker turned maturing, computer-geeky, old git in all of us, or at least those of us who remember John Coltrane's version of My Favorite Things. WrecklessEric dot com contains the words of a man filled with faux passion and finite jest, whose composed some good music and written some good lyrics to go with them. For those of you not that old, Wreckless Eric wrote the song Whole Wide World which is what Will Ferrell sings to Maggie Gyllenhaal in that movie before she jumps his bones. It was just last year. You might have seen it. Eric's done some other things too. I bring this to the blue cuz I happen to be fascinated by the wry, personable, unapologetic, self-referential, egotistical and occasionally self-loathing way the guy writes in his website, and cuz I'm a sucker for the history of punk, cuz I'm a geeky old git who used to fancy himself a shoegazing punk enthusiast. ...and cuz I'm bored.
posted to MetaFilter by ZachsMind at 12:07 PM on May 13, 2007 (10 comments)

Contesting Confucius [Single-link book review tour de force] In which a returned exile Chinese scholar uses a literary spat between two Francophone sinologists as a springboard for an exploration of the politics of New Confucianism and the role of the Chinese 'other' in Western philosophical discourse. Isn't globalisation something?
posted to MetaFilter by Abiezer at 8:08 PM on May 12, 2007 (13 comments)

Want to learn more about the media flood? Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting produces a magazine and a radio show. Browse their archives by issue area, region, or media outlet. Alternately, there's the Columbia Journalism Review (here's their requisite dig at digg), the American Journalism Review, and the (previously linked) On the Media (which doesn't attempt hard-hitting media analysis, but has some quality interviews and features that give back story behind a lot of stories).
posted to MetaFilter by serazin at 9:50 PM on May 11, 2007 (21 comments)

Asianart.com is a great site which I've been enjoying lately. The online exhibitions are lovely and the articles are fascinating. They also link to several private galleries. If you like Asian art, spend some time here. [Via plep, who linked to Wood and Transience recently.]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 11:59 AM on April 10, 2003 (6 comments)

Douglas Crockford, leading JavaScript Architect for Yahoo!, has been teaching a series of classes on JavaScript programming for other Yahoo! employees.
The JavaScript Programming Language [4 video clips: 1 (31 min) 2 (31 min) 3 (29min) 4 (20 min), presentation slides: zipped PPT]
An Inconvenient API: The Theory of the DOM [3 video clips: 1 (31 min) 2 (21 min) 3 (26 min), presentation slides: zipped PPT]
Advanced JavaScript [3 video clips: 1 (31 min) 2 (25 min) 3 (11 min), presentation slides: zipped PPT]
posted to MetaFilter by ijoshua at 2:09 PM on May 10, 2007 (27 comments)

Virgil Finlay, Fritz Eichenberg, Bernie Wrightson, and much, much, more, at datajunkie.
Warning: Non-Thumbnailed galleries and YouTube sidebar. May not be suitable for all CPUs.
posted to MetaFilter by Alvy Ampersand at 10:55 AM on May 11, 2007 (5 comments)

Have you played with Google Earth recently? You can track flights live and in 3-D, or watch an animation of global cloud cover over the last 10 days, or simply make Google Earth prettier using NASA images. Google Earth isn't limited to the current, you can also enable historical maps from the 1700s, and view an animation that will show you what will happen in the future to New York and San Francisco if the sea levels rise. Google Earth can also shed light on previous MeFi discussions, from the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (and, indeed many other ship wrecks) to the discussion over America's top 150 buildings, now in all of their 3-D glory.
posted to MetaFilter by blahblahblah at 7:10 AM on May 10, 2007 (26 comments)

Reality Sandwich is a new web magazine whose subjects "run the gamut from sustainability to shamanism, alternate realities to alternative energy, remixing media to re-imagining community, holistic healing techniques to the promise and perils of new technologies." Daniel Pinchbeck, the author of Breaking Open the Head, is the editorial director of the site. [Via Disinformation.]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 12:01 AM on May 11, 2007 (15 comments)

The Encyclopedia of Life project will create a compendium of every aspect of the biosphere. It aims to compile data on all of Earth's 1.8 million known species on one Web site, and will include species descriptions, pictures, maps, videos, sound, sightings by amateurs, and links to entire genomes and scientific journal papers. E. O. Wilson is getting his wish. [Via BB.]
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 10:15 PM on May 9, 2007 (31 comments)

Sex Education media has been around since the days of silent films. Seems most everyone can use a bit of guidance when it comes to the appropriate handling of their lustful urges... your geriatric, dementia-ridden parents, soldiers, Boys, Girls, couples, teens, Christians, and yes, trainables. On a less serious note, the topic of Sex Ed as addressed by: Monty Python, Conan O'Brien, fireside chats, Amy Sedaris, MAD TV, Fry & Laurie, Weeds, Ali G and the Simpsons, Family Guy, and some Florida trailer park slut on youtube. Note: this fpp will not play well in Bangalore. NSFW. Duh. (Previously.)
posted to MetaFilter by miss lynnster at 2:37 PM on May 9, 2007 (53 comments)

Sweet! Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has made a 3D printer that forms objects out of sugar.
posted to MetaFilter by exogenous at 1:02 PM on May 9, 2007 (36 comments)

The Blurter. The Complainer. The Know-It-All. The Spoiled Darling. You can handle them all.
posted to MetaFilter by mediareport at 8:06 PM on May 8, 2007 (33 comments)

Bandology! For those who loved Skyrates, here comes another casual, online community game from the brain-trust at the Carnegie Mellon University school of game design. Choose your instrument, join a band, and play old-school mini-games to build up your skills. Or choose track B to start your own band, recruit new members, and manage your gigs and travel. (And BTW, Skyrates has now rebooted from the beginning, with a new map and much more fun stuff implemented.)
posted to MetaFilter by Navelgazer at 8:45 AM on May 9, 2007 (7 comments)

The Long Take aka "The Greatest Long Tracking Shots in Cinema".
posted to MetaFilter by Armitage Shanks at 6:39 AM on May 9, 2007 (93 comments)

Lets play Mafia. It is normally a party game but I've seen it played on the internet a couple times. I've played it in real life, but there was always something so appealing about playing an online round. I've wanted to arrange a game but never had the right internet forum for the job. I think MeFi would be a perfect group of people for the task. Anyone else interested? If the admins are cool with it, I think it'd be a blast.
posted to MetaTalk by magikker at 4:33 PM on May 6, 2007 (140 comments)

Ruining science fiction: Not only are the science fiction cliches humorously skewered in the Tough Guide to the Known Galaxy, but the science itself is wrong. For example, despite the best efforts of SF writers, interstellar trade will never work, unless wine costs $11 billion a bottle. Slower-than-light travel is much harder than you think, and warp drives are far away. Space battles, if they happen, won't have fighters and dramatic dogfights, but instead involve vast distances and maneuvers lasting years. And you can ruin a whole lot more science fiction with real science (and wonderful examples) at Atomic Rocket. Don't follow the links if you want to read Heinlein or watch Battlestar Galactica with a light heart.
posted to MetaFilter by blahblahblah at 11:51 AM on May 8, 2007 (185 comments)