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Good work you probably haven't seen
comment posted at 1:06 AM on Nov-12-17

The Best Horror Games [PC Gamer] “So you're looking to spook yourself with the best horror games you can play on PC, are you? Whether you're into jump scares, interactive fiction, thematically interesting stories or just large men running after you with a chainsaw, we've included a wide variety of games that'll hopefully freak you the hell out. Like our lists of best strategy games or best FPS games, we tried to focus on a variety of horror experiences that still hold up well today, though we've expanded the remit slightly to include a few retro curios as well.”
comment posted at 7:10 PM on Oct-23-17

Moonshadow was a ground-breaking graphic novel of exceptional beauty, a "fairy tale for grownups," beloved by Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut.
comment posted at 11:37 PM on Aug-15-17

"The 1970s produced acclaimed horror films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist, Jaws, Carrie, and Halloween. But the decade also unleashed cinematic oddities galore, most of which were low-budget entries that gleefully pushed the boundaries of good taste. You say “cult movie”—we say “essential.”" (io9)
comment posted at 6:37 PM on Oct-22-16

The Machynlleth Loop (or Mach Loop or CAD West) is a training area in Wales for low flying fighter jets. The terrain isn't closed to the public so it presents an opportunity to see jets (and the occasional cargo craft) flying by at eye level or below. Youtube compliations one, two, three, four, five. A view of the flight from the cockpit.
comment posted at 4:39 AM on Jul-15-16

Vox attempts to take a scientific look at the actors and actresses who most consistently appear in terrible movies.
comment posted at 12:30 PM on Apr-12-16

Hollywood's 100 Favorite Movie Quotes
comment posted at 1:49 AM on Mar-8-16

How do Strength ability scores in 1E AD&D translate into real life?
comment posted at 9:02 AM on Mar-5-16

Explore dead civilizations, write about what you find, and share your stories with the world.
comment posted at 3:58 PM on Jun-27-15

Poet, author, director, actor, cultural icon... Leonard Nimoy has passed away at age 83 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Rest well, Spock, you will be missed.
comment posted at 10:15 AM on Feb-27-15

From AC/DC to Zappa, these are the “artists” who have ruined music.
comment posted at 11:06 PM on Aug-28-14

Researchers at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have developed a technique for quantum data teleportation that uses deterministic methods to offer one hundred percent accuracy. Previous methods only worked reliably one in every 100 million attempts.
comment posted at 11:10 AM on May-30-14

The 100 Best (?) “B Movies” of All Time , a mix of Cheap Knock-Offs, the Almost-Good, the Too Weird for This World and Classic Corn, compiled by Paste Magazine's Jim Vorel, who has published more beer reviews than anything else, possibly because his "10 Most Unwatchable Films Featured on MST3K" drove him to hopeless alcoholism. He also previously listed "10 Essential Bad Movies for Your Collection", all of which are highly ranked here (if you want to save time). So pull up a chair and make plenty of popcorn, because the only thing more fun than watching cheezy movies is arguing about them. ("Hercules in New York" is ONLY #99? "Sharknado" only #90?!? Blasphemy!!)
comment posted at 4:36 PM on May-11-14

January 26, 2014 will mark the 40th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, and the anniversary will culminate with an event called Tyranny of Dragons. The playtest of the forthcoming D&D Next has been ongoing since 2012, and the final playtest version is available. Alternatively, the original game (complete with its supplements) is available as a boxed set.
comment posted at 8:36 AM on Jan-24-14

Top 10 Reasons Gay Sex Rocks this Straight Boy's World
comment posted at 1:07 AM on Jun-21-13

A DOS attack on Sunday, 3 June caused the moderators of the MMORPGs EVE Online and Dust 514 to shut down the server cluster that hosted both games. The games were offline for most of the day and into the following morning, having just recently been restored. The COO of EVE's parent company, CCP, described the situation this way:

What we can now confirm is that a person was able to utilize a vulnerability in one of the back-end services that support the operation of the Tranquility server. This vulnerability has now been secured and thoroughly tested. We would like to stress that at no time was customer data compromised or accessible in any way. The effort of returning the complex server structure of the EVE Universe and associated websites to service in a methodical and highly-scrutinized fashion began hours ago and Tranquility has now been brought online (at 10:13 UTC). Our teams will monitor the situation carefully in the coming hours to ensure that our services are accessible and that all customer data remains secure.

CCP also took the precaution of shutting down the games' websites, and so communicated with players via Twitter ("Your patience has been legendary and appreciated.") and its Facebook page.
comment posted at 7:40 AM on Jun-3-13

The sex lives of octopuses is often difficult to photograph in the wild, however Dr. Roy Caldwell got very fortunate with a pair in his lab. Here are some very rare pictures of the Abdopus aculeatus octopus mating, with a photo by photo explanation of what is happening.
comment posted at 4:27 PM on Feb-25-13

You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists say. "Researchers at the University of Kansas found that people were able to correctly judge a stranger's age, gender, income, political affiliation, emotional and other important personality traits just by looking at the person's shoes." Virginia Postrel responded: "The study made a solid contribution to research on first impressions, but it was hardly earthshaking. By getting so much attention, however, it demonstrated a sociological truth: People love to talk about shoes. Even those who dismissed the research as silly often felt compelled to call radio stations or comment on websites, providing details about their own choices. Why this fascination with footwear? "
comment posted at 4:40 PM on Oct-15-12

A team of Austrian archaeologists has discovered four bras from the 1400s. It reveals that women wore the garment some 500 years before fashion historians thought it was invented.
comment posted at 8:49 AM on Jul-25-12
comment posted at 8:50 AM on Jul-25-12

The top 25 American writers, as determined by the amount of scholarship on them. Literary flowchart by Jimmy Chen.
comment posted at 8:31 AM on Mar-30-12

10 Amazing Old Things That Still Work!
comment posted at 8:29 AM on Mar-26-12

Role Playing Game pioneer Mohammed Al Rahman Barker died last week (PDF). Inspired through playing dungeons and Dragons, M. A. R. Barker created what is possibly the world's second RPG, Empire of the Petal Throne, set in the world of Tekumel, a world he would continue to keep building for the rest of his life.
comment posted at 8:46 AM on Mar-19-12

I remember with crystal clarity when I realized I was making more money from this enterprise than I was at my full-time job. I quickly decided to expand and hired four guys in Singapore to play 24/7. I paid them unreasonably well for the time, almost 3x as much as they would for other re-sellers; this bought me loyalty, and in this enterprise, loyalty is everything."

How I Helped Destroy Star Wars Galaxies
comment posted at 2:42 PM on Mar-7-12

I'm making Cook's Illustrated's recipe for beef stew SLYT parody
comment posted at 8:49 AM on Mar-1-12

A video has surfaced, allegedly showing a woolly mammoth crossing a stream in Siberia. It's unclear if the video is a hoax, but if not it means that an animal once thought to have gone extinct 12,000 years ago still exists today.
comment posted at 10:32 AM on Feb-8-12

... it’s no exaggeration to say that LIFEFORCE tosses everything in but the kitchen in an attempt to entertain you. Actually, scratch that, it tosses everything including the kitchen sink. By the time the movie is complete, you may have to watch it again just to verify that you actually saw what you just saw. The movie is a mess of enormous proportions which I absolutely loved.* (previously)
comment posted at 8:43 AM on Feb-7-12

Future Shock (2, 3, 4, 5) is a glimpse at society on the precipice of the information age, in this 1972 documentary based on the Alvin Toffler classic about the world gone mad, due to technology and computers. Narrated by Orson Welles.
comment posted at 1:54 PM on Jan-30-12

The size of the known universe - A six and a half minute video which provides a view of the scale of the universe.
comment posted at 9:00 AM on Jan-19-12

Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil (previous)
comment posted at 10:41 AM on Dec-16-11

The Rules of Magic. Every fantasy saga has its own rules for magic, and its own explanations for how the magical arts work. Where does magic come from? Who can use magic, and how? io9 has compiled a list of the rules of magic in 50 fantasy sagas. (jpg)
comment posted at 3:28 PM on Dec-9-11
comment posted at 3:40 PM on Dec-9-11

Three Principles of Self-Defense, by Sam Harris
comment posted at 6:46 PM on Nov-9-11

How To Dress Like Edward Gorey (And everyone he ever drew)
comment posted at 11:58 AM on Oct-28-11

Dan Savage tells Herman Cain to prove that being gay is a choice. (Not really safe for work.) Dan Savage Previously on Metafilter.
comment posted at 2:26 PM on Oct-21-11

Dr. Justin O. Schmidt likes insects of the persuasive sort, the ones that bite, sting or squirt venom in your eyes. In the course of his entomological studies all over the world, he has met the defenses of about 150 different insects, and he has rated them, creating the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. On the low end: sweat bees, whose sting is "light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm." On the high end: Bullet ants, whose venomous bites cause "pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel." And it can last for hours, leaving you "quivering and still screaming from these peristaltic waves" [of pain].
comment posted at 9:50 AM on Aug-4-11

Today would have been Woody Guthrie's ...99th birthday, and the beginning of his centennial year.

"Woody is just Woody. Thousands of people do not know he has any other name. He is just a voice and a guitar. He sings the songs of a people and I suspect that he is, in a way, that people. Harsh voiced and nasal, his guitar hanging like a tire iron on a rusty rim, there is nothing sweet about Woody, and there is nothing sweet about the songs he sings. But there is something more important for those who will listen. There is the will of a people to endure and fight against oppression. I think we call this the American spirit." - John Steinbeck

For fans, there's a webpage to organize events and such around his centennial. And here's something for those that don't know his work, and those that want to remember:

This Land Is Your Land
Biggest Thing Man Has Ever Done
Talking Dustbowl Blues
So long it's been good to know you
comment posted at 1:28 PM on Jul-14-11

Mommy, what's it like to be a firework?
comment posted at 10:23 AM on Jul-6-11

Jess Nevins, author and librarian presents a History of Mad Scientists (both real and literary) in two parts: Alchemists, Astronomers, and Wild Men (part 1), and Organ Theft and the Insanity of Geniuses (part 2: the Industrial Age).
comment posted at 1:17 PM on Jun-8-11

The FHM 100 Sexiest list is an annual feature in the lad's mag that 'ranks' women on their percieved pulchritudinousness. However, this year, the 91st sexiest woman in the world isn't a woman at all.
comment posted at 4:19 PM on Jun-2-11

Hey You! What song are you listening to?
comment posted at 3:19 PM on May-26-11

She was Sarah Jane Smith: intrepid reporter, beloved companion, and stalwart defender. She was in two different spin-offs. The BBC is confirming that Elisabeth Sladen of Doctor Who and environs, is dead at 63.
comment posted at 2:53 PM on Apr-19-11

I'd like to welcome you all lords and ladies, gentlemen, ladies, time-ladies, time-lords, aliens and those of you in the cheap seats to a documentary produced and aired by WYES-TV New Orleans in 1986, focusing on Panopticon, the first US Doctor Who convention. (1, 2, 3) (MLYT, in authentic multi-copy VHS fuzz-o-vision!)
comment posted at 11:40 AM on Apr-14-11

We all know what happens when you take Garfield out of Garfield, but what happens when you take the punchline panel out of Peanuts? A never-ending morass of melancholy and despair.
comment posted at 8:53 AM on Mar-28-11

Celebrate "Buzzard Day" this weekend at Arizona's Boyce Thompson Arboretum. Too far away? You can always join the Turkey Vulture Society instead. They'll teach you how to attract vultures to your property (or if you prefer, how to discourage them).
comment posted at 1:56 PM on Mar-15-11

Engineering the perfect risotto.
comment posted at 8:48 AM on Mar-8-11

Star Trek Convention NYC 1973 - Interviews with the fans, some of the makers of the show and Isaac Asimov (SLYT)
comment posted at 3:48 PM on Mar-7-11

I think I have something in my eye. SLYT
comment posted at 4:04 PM on Dec-17-10

Dragon Magazine's "Sage Advice" column ran for over 30 years, offering advice to DMs and players about anything and everything within the D&D world. Comics Alliance has compiled The 11 Strangest D&D Questions Ever Asked, culled from this searchable archive.
comment posted at 9:18 AM on Dec-17-10

Should-we-eat-it-filter: A 2,400-year-old vat of soup has been discovered in China.
comment posted at 12:39 PM on Dec-14-10