Best Of MetaFilter

Will Hart Holding Mike Jittlov on His Right Shoulder - The Wizard of Speed and Time PAL VHS Cover - 1988 by CthulhuWho1 (Will Hart) (cc by)

Passed hand-to-hand among geeks on VHS and screened at sci fi cons in the 1980s, flash back to The Wizard of Speed and Time, a stop-motion live-action superhero short handmade by Mike Jittlov in 1979, and the cult feature film it inspired. First post by turtlebackriding.

"if that's all stop motion he's a fucking genius!" Madman, genius--the line is so fine.

WPA Land use survey map for the City of Los Angeles, book 3 (San Fernando Valley from Canoga Park District to Van Nuys District), sheet 12 (360) by Fæ

Inspired by xkcd's survey, Rock Steady took community input to create The Big MetaFilter Survey 2015. Today's the last day to participate -- the survey will close tonight. Data to be released shortly thereafter for your quantificational enjoyment.

end result example of Ryvar's Skyrim modding

I guess it's time I finally write a serious comment about Skyrim modding. Here goes...

Ryvar completes his quest with an amazing comment on what you need to mod your world, like a boss dragonslayer.

Mikel vinyl by aspitos4kids (cc by-nc)

Fun question in Ask Me: You spin me right round baby right round like a what? "I need songs with specific lyrics which I can play for my daughter which represent antiquated technology that she has no real understanding of."

Seb Lester calligraphy

Lovely ink links recently on Mefi:

Penmenship isn't dead: the vibrant art of well-crafted written forms introduces two talented young penmen

Chinese calligraphy and painting manual from 1633 now online, in full offers a view of "the earliest and the most beautiful example of multicolor printing anywhere in the world"

How the ballpoint pen killed cursive looks at the surprisingly complicated influence of the biro

I should be able to read that discusses Copperplate, a beautiful and elaborate script that in its time was considered a basic penmanship style

And in Ask Me: "What are some good resources for a southpaw to improve his handwriting that don't involve the kind of cursive I was (not) taught as a child?" and "What's the best non-bulky fountain pen you've used?"

Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium by paukrus (cc by)

Some great recent posts on the natural world:

A 17th-Century Woman Artist’s Butterfly Journey: gorgeous images and bio info on early entomologist-artist Maria Sibylla Merian

The inner life of the fig: documentary on the sycamore fig tree, focusing on the intricate mutualism between a fig tree and its fig wasp

A tree grows in Israel: an extinct Judean Date Palm is grown from an ancient jar of seeds unearthed by archaeologists

My hovercraft is full of Petromyzon marinus: science, lore, and more on the fearsome sea lamprey

Satan Put the Kettle On: the mystery of Devil's Kettle Falls' vanishing waterfall

NYC Subway 80s by Olivier Nade (cc by-nc)

What was it like to be alive on September 15, 1985? "from the mundane to the profound, what do you remember about that time?"

Out of the Blue: Metafilter Stories

Take thirteen minutes and listen to episode 2 of the new short-form MetaFilter podcast, Out of the Blue, with cortex talking to writer Jess Zimmerman about her essay that spawned an enormous and riveting MetaFilter discussion thread.

And in case you missed it, check out episode 1 as well, about the snail that wouldn't die.

You can also subscribe to the podcast (here's an iTunes link, too), and get show-specific updates on twitter by following MeFiOOTB.

vinyl by suzy_yes (cc by-nc-nd)

Thanks to the work of everyone in this thread, I was able to make a positive identification of the song, order the vinyl, and have it professionally converted to digital.

The OP has updated an old thread about a 30-year-old mystery tune in Ask Me with a YouTube video of the song. Yay, team!

Looking for more musical mysteries to solve?

What's the Baby Elephant song I heard at Burning Man?

I'm trying to identify a sample from the first few minutes of this album

Loving you is . . . easy to forget? What was that song from 2008 - 2009?

Finding a song based on a music video: "a woman riding a horse and she had dramatically long hair that floated through the sky"

Lying Liars by katmeresin (cc by)

Next you're going to tell me it was actually only a couple of hundred yards to go before he slept? – not_on_display

"the best example in all of American poetry of a wolf in sheep’s cloth" explains how everyone knows Robert Frost’s "The Road Not Taken" – and how almost everyone gets it wrong (though not everyone: "I wrote a whole commencement speech about this general idea")

Plus a post about Best American Poetry guest editor Sherman Alexie's response re a white male poet who appropriated a Chinese name for submission to the anthology

and in Ask Me, looking for the author who said (something like) "The poet lies ... most especially when writing about himself"

FGR: Belly by bloody marty mix (cc by-nc-nd)

The oldest use of the f-word has been discovered, dating the word some 165 years earlier that had ever been seen. It appeared in the name "Roger Fuckebythenavele"

and in the dream-jobs-you-never-knew-you'd-kill-to-have department, litlnemo offers, "I teach a class on dirty surnames (yes, really) and this one so has to go into my list. Those medieval English people were not the most delicate of speech, let's just put it that way."

In other deep thoughts on names and other things, MCMikeNamara asks, Has Axl Rose ever commented on the fact that his stage name is an anagram for "oral sex"?

Homo naledi skeletal specimens from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa

One of my friends from my graduate program is a "tiny caver" on this project, so I can't make my own post ... but I can comment!

ChuraChura adds some great link love to ladybird's post about the discovery of new hominin species Homo naledi, and the skilled slender spelunkers recruited to excavate the nearly inaccessible find.

Hannibal Rising

For those suffering Hannibal withdrawal, here's a reminder that the fannibals are still dissecting the last episode in FanFare, with over 1,000 comments (wherein Kitteh executes a real-life Mads and Gillian Fanfare.Metafilter photo op!), plus the brand new Cannibal Club has cooked up some ideas for those hungry for more, including a club talk post to discuss the book "Hannibal Rising" in anticipation of a movie re-watch. Dig in, my fiends.

"NeuroTribes" by Steve Silberman

Oh, hey, the author of new book "NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity" is Steve Silberman, also known as Mefi's own digaman, and he showed up to say hi and answer some questions in the thread about the book.

Sentiment Analysis for C-of-the-ACM by tsevis (cc by-nc-nd)

Recent comments from Mefites that go behind the scenes or look a little deeper:

pinback on using Google Mobilizer as a proxy to render encrypted and obfuscated TV listings to create electronic program guides "back in the dark early days of digital television in Australia"

Eyebrows McGee on the complicated manipulations and confusion of special taxing districts

allkindsoftime on the hair-raising dangers and machinations of Nairobi's "matatu" minibus transit chaos

yankeefog on the concept of "convening an electoral college" as One Weird Trick for negotiating disputes or decisions in a healthy marriage

a fiendish thingy on resumes and job search etiquette, and why "creative" at this stage is more likely to read as "confusing" and "non-functional"

Frowner on the various considerations of navigating content/trigger warnings or disturbing material in an academic setting