MetaFilter

Guy buys engagement ring. Guy gets dumped. Guy sells engagement ring and buys a fully armored Master Chief suit.
comment posted at 12:45 AM on Nov-19-11
comment posted at 1:03 AM on Nov-19-11

American colleges find the Chinese-student boom a tricky fit
comment posted at 6:35 AM on Nov-20-11

Built by the Shona (1100-1500 AD), the empire of Great Zimbabwe, one of Africa’s greatest civilizations like Egypt and Meroe, stood between present-day Zimbabwe, eastern Botswana and south-east Mozambique. The empire’s highly developed architecture overwhelmed discoverers. And much in the same manner as German anthropologist Doctor Frobenius ignorantly mistook the Kingdom of Ife in Nigeria for the lost kingdom of Atlantis in 1911, some Europeans blatantly refused to believe that Great Zimbabwe was built by Africans. Dawson Munjeri, former director of Great Zimbabwe, a World Heritage site, discusses the history of the exceptional Zimbabwe empire.
comment posted at 10:52 PM on Nov-15-11

Save the Scrollbar! [slate.com] Why are Apple, Google, and Facebook eradicating a linchpin of user interface design?
comment posted at 7:36 PM on Nov-10-11

The beautiful sight of a black rhinoceros being airlifted to a new home
comment posted at 9:21 AM on Nov-8-11

The Ally From Hell. "Pakistan lies. It hosted Osama bin Laden (knowingly or not). Its government is barely functional. It hates the democracy next door. It is home to both radical jihadists and a large and growing nuclear arsenal (which it fears the U.S. will seize). Its intelligence service sponsors terrorists who attack American troops. With a friend like this, who needs enemies?" [Via]
comment posted at 10:16 PM on Nov-6-11

French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius wrote and "directed" the film La Classe Americaine (YT clip/full) in 1993, comprised entirely of scenes from Warner Brothers movies. Warner agreed to let the French TV channel Canal+ use its 4000-movie catalog free of charge and rights for a month, resulting in a pastiche parody of Citizen Kane, in which two journalists investigate the cryptic meaning Orson Welles' last words.

After La Classe, Hazanavicius directed two films lampooning the James Bond ouevre : OSS 117 - Nest of Spies and 0SS 117 - Lost in Rio, both starring actor Jean Dujardin. Which brings us to 2011 - Hazanavicius and Dujardin have just released a new film (via Warner Brothers in America) entitled The Artist, a heartfelt, old-school romance without the aid of spoken dialogue or sound, [p]rojected in black-and-white in the classic 4:3 aspect ratio...
comment posted at 9:37 AM on Nov-6-11

Sorry, kids I ate all the candy!
comment posted at 8:04 AM on Nov-4-11

With digital cinema on the rise, and DSLR video shooting becoming increasingly popular for low-budget and independent film making, expectations were high for Canon's big announcement at Paramount Studios today. And Canon delivered, the C300 is a DSLR-like camera that uses Canon or PL mount lenses (two different models), with no autofocus, S35mm sensor size, full HD to a 50Mbps 10-bit 4:2:2 stream, shipping in January 2012 for $20,000. They also announced a new range of high-resolution affordable zoom and prime lenses for cinema use, and, as an extra bonus, they announced they were developing a similar camera that could record 4k video for release at some time in the future. It all looked like a big win for Canon... But, a few hours later, the always controversial and disruptive Red Digital Cinema, makers of the ubiquitous Red One and the relatively new 5K, 120fps EPIC, announced the EPIC's little sister, based on the same sensor, the Scarlet, a camera that also uses Canon or PL mount lenses, with an interchangeable lens mount, autofocus on Canon lenses, S35mm sensor size, 4k video (with HDR option) and 5k stills to a 400Mbps 16-bit compressed raw stream, shipping December 1st for $9,750 for the body (under $14,000 for a full, ready to shoot kit with media, card reader and 5" touchscreen, minus the lenses).
comment posted at 2:33 AM on Nov-4-11

China’s Fox News: Meet "Global Times", the angry Chinese government mouthpiece that makes Bill O'Reilly seem fair and balanced.
comment posted at 8:29 AM on Nov-4-11

Unlike other forms of match fixing, spot fixing does not affect the final result, only specific events within a game. Last year, in a cricket match at Lord's between England and Pakistan, three Pakistani cricketers and one agent 'conspired to cheat'. Following the decision [PDF] at Southwark Crown Court today, all four men will face prison time ranging from six to 32 months. It is the first time this charge, brought in under the Gambling Act 2005, has led to a sportsperson's conviction.
comment posted at 7:56 AM on Nov-3-11
comment posted at 2:26 AM on Nov-4-11

The City of London Corporation has been in the news lately related to Occupy London. But the deeper story of how this medieval remnant functions in 21st century England is far stranger... and more sinister.
comment posted at 11:13 PM on Nov-2-11
comment posted at 12:57 AM on Nov-3-11
comment posted at 4:53 AM on Nov-3-11

The Formula for Complete and Utter BAYHEM or, How Michael Bay has Made Billions in Box Offices Worldwide. SLInfographic (the last graph is particularly depressing)
comment posted at 8:32 AM on Nov-2-11

The inside story of how Microsoft killed its Courier tablet
comment posted at 7:27 PM on Nov-1-11
comment posted at 9:35 AM on Nov-2-11

Could you pass a US citizenship test? 96 Questions
comment posted at 10:47 PM on Oct-30-11

Research In Motion has established a surveillance facility in India following a authorities applying pressure. Google, Skype, Twitter and Facebook are also under pressure to provide greater surveillance assistance.
comment posted at 12:06 PM on Oct-30-11

Disappointed Indian thrashers riot due to last minute cancellation by Metallica
comment posted at 9:16 AM on Oct-30-11
comment posted at 10:04 AM on Oct-30-11

What's your global ranking?
comment posted at 10:41 AM on Oct-27-11

Since 1988, the Center for Reproductive Rights has compiled a visual map of the laws regulating abortion throughout the world. Earlier this month, they released their 2011 Map in pdf and updated their online World Abortion Laws Map in a new interactive format which allows country comparisons and provides text of abortion laws for certain countries. (Via Good: Can I get an Abortion Here? The Abortion Rights Map of the World)
comment posted at 10:35 AM on Oct-27-11
comment posted at 10:37 AM on Oct-27-11

You've seen the popular LMFAO's Party Rock, but have you seen Potter Rock? The Christmas light show? How about the Pokemon! or Indian versions? Speaking of Indian parodies, have you seen Thriller recently?
comment posted at 3:04 AM on Oct-27-11

"If you buy bus or train tickets for me, do not give my name! Big Brother has no right to know where I travel, or where you travel, or where anyone travels. If they arbitrarily demand a name, give a name that does not belong to any person you know of. If they will check my ID before I board the bus or train, then let's look for another way for me to travel." Richard Stallman's rider. Via.
comment posted at 8:08 PM on Oct-26-11
comment posted at 10:22 PM on Oct-26-11

"We comb our hair each morning. We pick you up from school. We would always send you a birthday card. But it’s not enough.” Nokia's President and CEO Stephen Elop opened Nokia World with this frank assessment of his company - although he has been known for franker assessments in the past. Despite having created the most popular operating systems in the world for dumbphones (S40) and smartphones (S60), the Finnish giant has been a cause for concern in recent years, withdrawing from the lucrative US smartphone market and struggling to profit from sales of inexpensive phones to the developing world, while reviewers lamented the wasted opportunities in the form factor and hardware quality of phones like the Tron-tastic N8.
comment posted at 11:26 PM on Oct-26-11

The Best Little Whore in Texas Matt Taibbi on Rick Perry.
comment posted at 8:41 PM on Oct-26-11

The Mother of All Hot Wheels Tracks (SLYT)
comment posted at 10:32 AM on Oct-26-11
comment posted at 10:36 AM on Oct-26-11

Bangkok is facing the worst floods it has seen in over 50 years. This nice little animated video helps you make sense of the overall situation and the possible impact (Thai audio, English subtitles)
comment posted at 9:45 AM on Oct-26-11
comment posted at 9:48 AM on Oct-26-11
comment posted at 10:28 PM on Oct-27-11
comment posted at 10:38 AM on Oct-30-11

Time-lapse video of Tokyo set to the Blade Runner soundtrack. That is all. (SLVimeo)
comment posted at 7:59 AM on Oct-25-11

10 years since GTA 3 Grand Theft Auto 3 was released on 22nd October 2001 and everything we ever thought we understood about videogames changed.
comment posted at 8:00 AM on Oct-23-11

Why are computer voices mostly female? Apple's 1987 vision of a computerized personal assistant was originally male. Siri's voice is female in the US and Australia, but male in the UK and France.
comment posted at 4:32 AM on Oct-22-11

Muammar Gaddafi killed in gun battle. With multiple news sources now confirming, and Reuters now re-stating Al Arabiya's claims that the body is in Misrata, and with news that his hometown of Sirte has finally fallen, it appears that this phase of the revolution may be drawing to a close.
comment posted at 9:50 AM on Oct-20-11

You know those Coke Freestyle machines? Where you can make your own combos? Like, 127 of them?
comment posted at 10:58 PM on Oct-19-11

A year after the infrastructure-attacking Stuxnet worm was discovered in Iran, a new piece of malware using some of the same techniques (but apparently with different goals) has been found infecting systems in Europe. The new malware, dubbed “Duqu” [dü-kyü], appears to have been written by someone with direct access to the Stuxnet source code.
comment posted at 4:01 PM on Oct-18-11

The Great Tech War of 2012: Apple v. Google v. Amazon v. Facebook
comment posted at 8:30 AM on Oct-18-11

Four charts explain what the Wall Street protesters are angry about.
comment posted at 3:28 AM on Oct-18-11
comment posted at 6:43 AM on Oct-18-11

The hotel Bali in Spain is a wonderful place to base jump from.
comment posted at 9:43 AM on Oct-16-11

Another mind numbing tumblr blog- shit siri says. Apparently Apple Purposely Gave Siri Some Attitude. Here is a cnet demo of siri on youtube.
comment posted at 9:50 PM on Oct-15-11

The government of Mexico along with archeologists are releasing a film in 2012 that purports to prove alien contact with the Mayans
comment posted at 11:29 AM on Oct-14-11

A Harvard oncologist answers the question (and more): Why did Steve Jobs choose not to effectively treat his cancer?
comment posted at 12:21 AM on Oct-13-11