Best Of MetaFilter

Apollo 12 Pacific Recovery by NASA Goddard Photo and Video (cc by)

In a thread about the wonderful "writes upside down" spacepen, member eriko explains why pencils in space can be quite deadly and unsafe:

Realize that a piece of graphite between two conductors with enough current behind them becomes a light bulb. Briefly. This isn't good in sea level atmosphere, in a pure oxygen atmosphere, this is deadly. Gemini used mechanical pencils, which got rid of the wood, but left the graphite, and graphite+oxygen+spark=fire. Bad.

My 6th Grade Teacher: Mrs Grace by dok1 (cc by)

Seattle area MeFite femmegrrr gives us the inside scoop on why a school's teachers are boycotting a standardized test

This is not about school testing. This about an expensive, useless, misused test originally purchased under unethical circumstances. And about fabulous, heroic teachers doing their jobs -- standing up for their students.

Army Photography Contest - 2007 - FMWRC - Arts and Crafts - Death Valley by familymwr (cc by)

"Death Valley" isn't just a cute nickname. It's called Death Valley for a damn good reason. It's not a joke.

MeFite loquacious and others discuss their experiences in and around Death Valley.