Ask MeFi: I need a badass skill

Autarky — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:36:41 -0800

I want a badass skill. I want to know how to do something that people will see and think "wow, that is badass."

Please don't suggest the Rubik's cube. There are so many how-to's that it's downright pedestrian to be able to solve it these days. I just want some skill/trick/ability that's really--for lack of a better term--badass.

I don't want gimmicks or cheap magic tricks. I'm willing to put in a lot of time learning it. I ask not because I'm not an egotistical prick, I just want to have something cool I can do that isn't easily replicated.

Lastly, it can't be really involved or expensive. I'm talking things you can do with something in your pocket or in someone's house or something.

Ask MeFi: Insights gained via one's career

Earl the Polliwog — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:27:36 -0800

What have you learned through your career, major, or specialization that you wish the general public knew?

I'm mostly curious about short and sweet things - stuff like "As a dentist, I've learned that you really should floss", or "It's worth it to understand the Fundamental Theorems of Calculus, even if you don't like math".

MeFi: For all your optical illusion and visual gimmick needs.

Weebot — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:59:45 -0800

A relatively long list of music videos by Michel Gondry. From his humble beginnings with Oui Oui to his eventual mastery of both space and time.

1988.
Oui Oui - Bolide
Oui Oui - Un Joyeux Noël
Oui Oui - Junior Et Sa Voix D'Or

1989.
Oui Oui - Les Cailloux

1990.
Oui Oui - Ma Maison

1991.
Peter & the Electro Kitsch Band - Dad, laisse-moi conduire la Cad
Les Objects - La normalité
Les Objects - Sarah

1992.
RoBERT - Les Jupes
Thomas Dolby - Close But No Cigar
Laurent Voulzy - Paradoxal Système
Oui Oui - La Ville
Etienne Daho - Les Voyages Immobiles
Mark Curry - Blow Me Down

1993.
Hothouse Flower - This is It
Belinda Carlisle - Big Scary Animal
Björk - Human Behaviour
Lenny Kravitz - Believe
Sananda Maitreya - She Kissed Me
IAM - Je Danse Le Mia
Jean François Coen - La Tour de Pise
Inspiral Carpets - Two Worlds Collide

1994.
Lucas - Lucas With the Lid Off
Stina Nordenstam - Little Star

1995.
Rolling Stones - Like a Rolling Stone
Björk - Isobel
Massive Attack - Protection
The Black Crowes - High Head Blues
Björk - Army of Me
Sinéad O'Connor - Fire on Babylon

1996.
Cibo Matto - Sugar Water
Björk - Hyper-Ballad

1997.
Björk - Bachelorette
Beck - Deadweight
Björk - Jóga
Foo Fighters - Everlong
Sheryl Crow - A Change Would Do You Good
Daft Punk Around the World
Neneh Cherry - Feel It

1998.
Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
Wyclef Jean - Another One Bites the Dust
Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You

1999.
Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be

2001.
Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
Radiohead - Knives Out

2002.
Kylie Minogue - Come into My World
Noir Desir - A l'envers a l'endroit
The White Stripes - Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground
The White Stripes - Fell in Love With a Girl

2003.
The Whites Stripes - The Hardest Button to Button
Lacquer - Behind

2004.
The Polyphonic Spree - Light & Day
The Vines - Winning Days
Gary Jules - Mad World
The Vines - Ride
Steriogram - Walkie Talkie Man
The Willowz - I Wonder

2005.
Kanye West - Heard'em Say
The White Stripes - The Denial Twist

2006.
Beck - Cellphone's Dead
Cody ChesnuTT - King of the Game

2007.
Björk - Declare Independence
Paul McCartney - Dance Tonight

2008.
Dick Annegarn - Soleil du soir

2009.
Flight of the Conchords - Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor
Flight of the Conchords - Carol Brown

MetaTalk: Anecdotes

archagon — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:54:03 -0800

I love reading personal anecdotes on MeFi and AskMeFi. Could you link me to your favorite anecdotal comments and threads? Thank you!

This thread is good, but not quite what I'm looking for.

MeFi: Back to the future of food

sararah — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:49:12 -0800

Canning makes a comeback. Is it just another foodie trend? Or is canning back for good?

Eating locally has been the trend for a while now, but in-home food preservation is starting to make a comeback. And with more people gardening, it's time to learn how to preserve those delicious delights of summer. Everyone's saying it's yet another indicator of a more frugal America.

How to get started? Well, here are some neat blogs: Food in Jars, Doris and Jilly, Bumblebee Blog

And lots of references: National Center for Home Food Preservation, Ball Book of Home Preserving, Canning USA

This year Ball has everything you need to get started, but really all you need are some jars and some other stuff you may already own.

MeFi: Blogging the Philosophers

anotherpanacea — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:05:36 -0800

The Guardian's How to Believe series summarizes some great philosophical works in the reversed-date format we all know and love. Giles Frasier evaluates the lasting value of Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, Julian Baggini tells us what to believe about Hume's critique of religion, Mary Midgeley begrudgingly accepts the majestic contributions of Hobbes' Leviathan, and Simon Critchley throws himself into the hermeneutic circle of Heidegger's Being and Time.

Perhaps most entertaining are the responses to comments. Hurf Durf Über Alles!

MeFi: I can see the fnords!

empath — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:29:52 -0800

Before 9/11, the center of the conspiracy theorist's universe was the Kennedy Assassination. And probably the definitive statement on the ridiculousness of the conspiracy theories of that era was the Illuminatus! Trilogy[warning, the entire several hundred page novel in PDF], published in 1975 and written by two Playboy editors at the height of the era of flower power. It drew on many sources, but most distinctively, it drew from a little public domain pamphlet called The Principia Discordia. Many people know the catch phrases (Fnord! Hail Eris!), but not many people know the authors' very real connections to the Kennedy Assassination.

Malaclypse the Younger (Greg Hill) worked in Jim Garrison's office in New Orleans and the very first copy of the Principia was run off of Garrison's copy machine. There's a copy of the first edition in the official House JFK assassination records. Kerry Thornley served in the Marines with Lee Harvey Oswald and wrote a novel based on Oswald before he assassinated Kennedy. He testified to the Warren Commission about his friendship with Oswald and later was accused of being part of the conspiracy by Jim Garrison, who ended up charging him with perjury. Garrison's theory was so convincing that Thornley actually came to believe that he may have been unknowingly involved in the conspiracy.

MeFi: The Life and Times of Fuzzy Dunlop

Abiezer — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:02:12 -0800

The Wire Files Open-access online journal darkmatter, "producing contemporary postcolonial critique," devoted its fourth issue to the television drama The Wire. An editorial explains that the "special issue aims to examine the place of race in the complex formation of the series." Thirteen articles cover The Wire's political economy, subversion of heteronormative assumptions, racial codes, Herc as a Zelig-like nexus, Baudrillardian urban space and much more in a veritable smorgasbord of academic bean-plating.

MeFi: It's full of stars

Hactar — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:06:50 -0800

One of the hardest things for people to understand about the universe is just how big it is. There are three approaches typically used in describing its size. The first, the song, was pioneered by Monty Python (NSFWish, wireframe of naked woman) and then done just as masterfully by the Animaniacs. The second, the zoom method has been featured twice before here on the blue. The third method is the comparison method (skip to 1:30, unless you like looking at a image of the solar system with terrible distorted orbits), yielding some truly beautiful videos (this one found via the fantastic Bad Astronomy blog). These videos go, at most, as far as looking at the local cluster or the Virgo Supercluster. There are two videos that attempt to show the size of the entire universe, one unsuccessfully (although with great music) and one successfully. (Warning, all links except the first one, are to YT videos).

(These links are not YT videos, with the one noted exception)

The last video shows the Sloan Great Wall (although it confuses the entire image with just the wall itself, which is only the largest galaxy filament (large mpg of a filament) that we can see in the sky. These filaments create the large scale structure of the universe, resembling a web or a cotton ball. (YT Video) Once one looks larger than the filaments, one hits the "End of Greatness", where the universe appears homogeneous. (This can be seen, more or less, in the first link.)

Finally, and perhaps the best link of the bunch, more pictures and videos of similar things from the Max Planck Institute of Astrophysics.

Ask MeFi: Low hanging fruit

devnull — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:52:02 -0800

What low cost (in terms of effort, time or money) things have you done that have had the biggest impact?Either on your life, on the lives of others, or on anything!

Ask MeFi: Unique flavor combinations

tr0ubley — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:39:53 -0800

Ridiculous and rad combinations of 2 or 3 flavors. The weirder the better.

I would like some ideas of flavors or spices that provide an interesting counterpoint to each other, but that are not well known. Mild examples that spring to mind: chocolate and chili, mint and strawberry, peanut butter and pickles. Even if 9 out of 10 people dislike it, but you really love it, I’d try it.

Ask MeFi: The Rest of the World, One Plate at a Time

chrchr — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:00:36 -0800

Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday is my go-to cookbook. Can anyone recommend any other cookbook authors that can teach me about other traditional world cuisines? Who's the Rick Bayless of Indian food? The Asian Rick Bayless? Who's the Mediterranean's answer to Rick Bayless?

Let me explain what I admire about Bayless. First of all, he ain't a famous TV chef slumming in ethnic food. Bayless has made Mexican food his life's work. That means that I trust the authenticity and integrity of his recipes. He does an excellent job explaining how they fit into the culture of Mexico, and his books provide a foundation for understanding the system of Mexican cuisine.

At the same time, he makes these recipes accessible to ordinary Americans. These are simple recipes that don't use too many exotic ingredients and don't take all day to make. They're mostly "week night" recipes.

I'm looking for similar cookbooks about other parts of the world.

Ask MeFi: Simple, useful skills.

Orange Pamplemousse — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:55:41 -0800

What are some useful skills or abilities that can be learned in a short amount of time, and are never forgotten?

Examples that I can think of include knot tying, rolling (from a fall), throwing a football and of course riding a bicycle. I'd especially like to know of potentially lifesaving actions that are extremely simple, but unlikely to come up in day-to-day life (eg. Stop, drop and roll for someone who is on fire).

MeFi: Film Noir: Flip Side of the All-American Success Story

filthy light thief — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:07:47 -0800

Maybe you already know about film noir, how Italian-born French film critic Nino Frank coined the term in 1946, and that Dashiell Hammett's book The Maltese Falcon was adapted for film 3 times in 10 years. Or perhaps you've just browsed through the detailed Wikipedia page, and found the list of film noir series and films to be daunting, and IMDB search provides a list that is lacking. Either way, Noir of the Week has a wealth of information if you crave more details, but focuses on one film per week if long lists are daunting. Not interested in this week's film? They have over 240 movies covered to date.

MeFi: Time Wastes Too Fast

gingerbeer — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:46:23 -0800

Maira Kalman does it again, with a beautifully illustrated blog post about her visit to Mr. Jefferson's Monticello.

Previously and previously, but she may be best known for the famous New Yorkistan New Yorker cover.

MeFi: The Beast of the Long-Neck Banjo

scruss — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:07:27 -0800

Billy Faier got tired of burning copies of his long-out-of-print albums, and is giving them away: The Art of the Five String Banjo (1957), Travelin' Man (1958), The Beast of Billy Faier (1964), Banjo (1973) and Banjoes, Birdsong and Mother Earth (1987).

Faier discovered banjo in Washington Square in the late 1940s, transcribed Pete Seeger's intricate Goofing-off Suite (which you might know better as this movie theme) and gave John Sebastian his first paid recording gig.

Banjo, recorded for John Fahey's Takoma Records, is on a different planet from the squeaky-clean folk recordings Faier made in the 1950s.

MeFi: Duct Tape FTW

fearfulsymmetry — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:54:43 -0800

There, I Fixed It - "Epic Kludges + Adventures In Home Pwnership"

Ask MeFi: They can take my internet when they...you know the rest.

Jazz Hands — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:28:44 -0800

So, money is tight for many of us, my household not excepted. Belts are tightened as much as possible. Nearly all entertainment expenses cut, but we aren't giving up internet access, no way, no how.

But I'm in such a rut, I haven't found anything new and interesting in ages! The post in the blue about the Sims3 blog "Alice and Kev" is what is prompting me to search out the new and interesting.

Now tell me what I should be entertaining myself with online. I like horror, sci-fi, comics, geography, trivia, history. I like to read works-in-progress stories, blogs, comic strips.

Note: I have read similar posts from the AskMefi past, and have gotten some suggestions. Oh CakeWrecks, how you amuse me so! Sites I do check out frequently: Metafilter(obviously), DailyKos, Sporcle, TWoP, several news sites, Daily Show, ColbertNation, and then just a few friends' personal blogs. See how limited my experience is?

MeFi: Hitting bottom

Kattullus — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:33:54 -0800

On 200 mg a day of baclofen, in an important meeting with several associate deans of my college and three new department chairs (I was made chair of my philosophy department just a few weeks before I tried to commit suicide), I fell asleep with my head on the conference room table and, for 40 minutes, everyone was too embarrassed to wake me. Somnolence is the most obvious and inconvenient side effect of baclofen. I reduced my dosage to 100 mg a day, and started taking it only at bedtime. A few days later, a colleague asked if I had changed my medicine. ‘Yes,’ I told her. ‘Why do you ask?’ She is German, an analytic philosopher, and therefore very direct: ‘You are drooling less than you were.’

My Life as a Drunk is a searingly honest essay by novelist and philosophy professor Clancy Martin about his experiences with alcoholism, AA, valium and baclofen.

MeFi: HTML Playground

minifigs — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:13:00 -0800

HTML Playground allows you to learn HTML and CSS by example.

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