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To imagine the scale, picture this: almost every city in Western Europe and North America destroyed. Not reduced, not scaled down. People-don't-live-here-anymore-just-ruins destroyed.

Between about 1200 and 1150 BC, civilization in the northeastern quadrant of the Mediterranean collapsed. Mycenae and the other Iliad-era Greek city-kingdoms; the Hittite Empire; the Levantine possessions of New Kingdom Egypt—cultures which had flourished for five hundred years fell and dispersed within a single lifetime, their palaces razed, their every city toppled, burned, and abandoned. [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 10:42 AM Jul 18 2013 - 93 comments [201 favorites]

Neon Genesis Evangelion was an anime series created by Hideaki Anno, a rather mysterious and reclusive director who has declined most interviews and has been likened to Alan Moore in his attempt to up-end a major genre. Where Moore doesn't want to work on anything Watchmen-related, Anno has returned to NGE in a very major way with Rebuild of Evangelion, a tetralogy of films to re-tell the original story and present a new ending (again). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 1:50 PM Feb 7 2011 - 107 comments [200 favorites]

On 27th November, Norwegian broadcaster NRK broadcast a 7.5 hour documentary showing every minute of the scenic train ride between Bergen on the Norwegian west coast, crossing the mountains to Oslo. Now, after removing all extraneous interviews, music clips and fancy trickery from the documentary, they are offering the entire, clean, 7 hour continuous front-camera version for free Creative Commons download. All 22Gb of it. Here's a fantastic 10 minute taster on YouTube.
posted by Beautiful Screaming Lady at 8:25 PM Dec 21 2009 - 97 comments [199 favorites]

There was no wink and they never sold it out for these half-hour, densely, beautifully produced pieces, which is, for all possibilities, obscuring that this doesn’t at all sound like a comedy show. It is all the production elements you would use in a full-scale news production. All the gravitas, but just inflated to a point that it has no gravitas whatsoever. And I think that is where it became this excitingly subversive thing because it just showed that BBC Radio 4 and everything it stood for was just a big bag of shit.

John Oliver on why he's a fan of On the Hour. On the Hour, of course, is the legendary BBC news radio program created by, among other people, Armando Iannucci (The Thick of It, In The Loop, Veep), Christopher Morris (Jam, Brass Eye, Four Lions, Why Bother?), Stewart Lee (41st best stand-up comic ever), and Steve Coogan (Knowing Me Knowing You With Alan Partridge, I'm Alan Partridge). Short-lived but influential, On the Hour mimicked the tone and production of other radio news shows but replaced the content with what Oliver describes as "unremitting bullshit". On the Hour was aired in two six-episode series (S1E1 S1E2 S1E3 S1E4 S1E5 S1E6; S2E1 S2E2 S2E3 S2E4 S2E5 S2E6), and begat a television series called The Day Today. That show in turn added Graham Linehan (Black Books, Father Ted, The IT Crowd) to On the Hour's already all-star lineup, upped the already-insane levels of overproduction, and ran for six short-but-glorious episodes (one two three four five (WAR!) six), as well as a special 9/11 radio report. [more inside]
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:16 AM Jun 10 2013 - 62 comments [199 favorites]

Irshad Karim, creator of /r/ArtFundamentals on Reddit, has compiled a series of drawing lessons for free for all beginners and anyone looking to refresh their artistic skills. [more inside]
posted by chrono_rabbit at 7:43 PM Feb 25 2016 - 13 comments [199 favorites]

Contouring 101 (SLYT)
posted by Four String Riot at 4:17 PM Nov 15 2017 - 60 comments [199 favorites]

144 sites for online education. Categories include science and health, business and money, history and culture, law, computer science, mathematics, and languages. [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 5:53 PM Jul 18 2011 - 19 comments [198 favorites]

"The experiences of women may not be easy to portray in the aggressive world of videogames. If such a game is made - and I hope it is - it will be because its creators demanded to be heard. It will be created because women made it." (Source)

While the vast majority of video game titles are designed primarily by men, women have been a part of video game development since the earliest arcades. Here are some of their games: [more inside]
posted by subject_verb_remainder at 12:55 PM Dec 1 2012 - 39 comments [198 favorites]

Every single Calvin and Hobbes strip ever made, ever, all in a slick AJAX interface with instant full-text dialog search. Highlights: Stupendous Man - Spaceman Spiff - Tracer Bullet - The Thinking Cap - The Transmogrifier (and the Transmogrifier Gun) - The Duplicator (and the Ethicator) - The Wagon - Calvinball - The Get Rid of Slimy Girls Club - Procrastination - Camping - Valentine's Day - Leaf Collecting - The Haircut - Rosalyn - Summertime - Wordless (search for "No text" to find others) - Smock Smock Smock - Not to mention all those snowmen. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 11:52 AM May 1 2010 - 69 comments [197 favorites]

I Met A Convicted Serial Killer, And He Made Me Feel More Loved Than Anyone Else In My Life -- "Simply put, that afternoon, we—the serial killer and the young Marine sniper—were perfect for each other." [more inside]
posted by Ouisch at 2:15 PM Oct 28 2013 - 125 comments [197 favorites]

The Five Families were established by Charlie "Lucky" Luciano in the wake of the Castellammarese War (1929 - September 10, 1931), a gang war in New York between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and those of Salvatore Maranzano. The arrangement, under the administration of The Commission, was created to divide the city among the gangs with mutual interests, and prevent the continuous grab for more territory. Of course, the arrangement has been anything but peaceful, and the Five Families have all gone through periods of prosperity and decline. So who are they, and how are they doing now? [more inside]
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:51 PM May 14 2009 - 67 comments [196 favorites]

Axe Cop! A comic written by a 5-year-old boy and illustrated by his 29-year-old brother.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 6:37 PM Jan 27 2010 - 89 comments [196 favorites]

In 1984, Grenada Television produced a television series called Sherlock Holmes. The famous detective has been portrayed by numerous people including Robert Downey Jr., Basil Rathbone, and Benedict Cumberbatch, but British actor Jeremy Brett played one of the most holmesian detectives ever put to screen. Brett was known for his passion and skill as Holmes, as well as the humor and grace that he brought to the role. He was accompanied by a Watson played by David Burke, no slouch himself in accompanying the consulting detective. Granada was able to adapt 42 of Conan Doyle's stories during the show's ten year lifespan. Below is the entirety of the series on various youtube channels. [more inside]
posted by holmesian at 3:47 PM Jan 30 2013 - 84 comments [196 favorites]

Welcome to the complete online Infocom adventures page
0/0

>LOOK
Here you can find and play online every known version of every Infocom adventure.

What next?
>▂
posted by not_on_display at 9:32 PM Sep 9 2009 - 94 comments [195 favorites]

Theta Music Trainer — Train your ear with fun music games. Sharpen your sense of pitch and tone. Unlock the hidden patterns in music. Strengthen your music theory skills.
posted by netbros at 12:48 PM May 25 2011 - 13 comments [195 favorites]

What skill can learn right now in 10 minutes that will be useful for the rest of my life? Is a Quora thread that goes beyond the usual "life hacks" (though it has them, too) to include some neat skills [Quora requires registration, but links go to direct sites]. Learn to read Korean, eat a chicken wing properly, fold a t-shirt, become a better Google searcher, crack an egg with one hand, whistle with your fingers, learn to speed read (the most popular answer), use the peg system to remember things, and learn to change a tire. [more inside]
posted by blahblahblah at 8:04 PM Sep 3 2013 - 48 comments [195 favorites]

Maybe you wanna start getting ready for nanowrimo, maybe writing is for all year round. Either way, I've got around 50 links bookmarked just for you [more inside]
posted by Cozybee at 10:50 PM Jul 15 2019 - 20 comments [195 favorites]

An autistic woman "speaks" her language, then ours. (YouTube) "My language is not about designing words or even visual symbols for people to interpret. It is about being in a constant conversation with every aspect of my environment, reacting physically to all parts of my surroundings." [more inside]
posted by maudlin at 9:13 AM Jan 25 2007 - 170 comments [194 favorites]

Perhaps you were there in 1991 when someone spun We Are i.e. for the first time. Maybe you were a suburban rebel in the mid 1990s, listening to British pirate radio and taping the broadcasts. Or you kept it legit and heard Fabio and Grooverider on Kiss FM or BBC Radio 1. Perhaps you only caught wind of it when Goldie was on BBC's Maestro (prev). You might spend your time figuring out which breaks were used, from the well-known Amen, Brother sample (prev), to Both Eyes Open by Lucille Brown & Billy Clark. Or maybe you don't know the difference between clownstep and liquid funk, but it sounds like something you want to know more about. Step inside, junglist, and embrace the bass. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 7:28 AM Feb 9 2010 - 69 comments [194 favorites]

CSS Tips I Wish I Knew When I First Started - Seven JavaScript Things I Wish I Knew Much Earlier In My Career
posted by Artw at 12:31 PM Apr 21 2010 - 65 comments [194 favorites]