Best Of MetaFilter

nobody posted the beautifully minimalist Hirayama Fireworks' Illustrated Catalog of Night Bomb Shells from the 1890s, via the Yokohama City Library.

"The first Eyewitness News theme was literally lifted from the 007 James Bond movie theme" ... Wow! flug has a fantastic, chewy answer full of background and context for nouvelle-personne's fascinating question, "Tell me more about news music. What is it doing to me?"

Image of the F5 Sayler Park/Bridgetown tornado taken near Bridgetown Ohio, just west of Cincinnati, on April 3, 1974.

On April 3 and 4, 1974, thunderstorms spawned more than 100 tornadoes, killing more than 300 and injuring another 6000: backwoods has spun up a whopping megapost on the 1974 Super Outbreak, the most violent tornado outbreak in recorded history, and the changes it wrought.

Bust of Napolean from 'The Six Napoleans' in The Sherlock Holmes Museum by Gail Frederick

A hat is defined as a shaped covering for the head worn for warmth, as a fashion item, or as part of a uniform. So yes, there have been a lot of hats throughout history, as chronicled by the HatHistorian, in this post by ChurchHatesTucker. Click to check it out and discover the history of that oddly shaped hat worn by Napoleon!

photo by Steve Wilson on Flickr

Are you drawn to any combination of interesting tidbits about Australia, fascinating flora and fauna, natural history, and huge, fierce, flightless birds with blingy plummage, funky headgear, deadly talons, and an hypnotic stare? If yes, may I refer you to chariot pulled by cassowaries' entire body of work? Today we have the felicitous birth of a VIP (Very Important Puggle).

Irises by Vincent van Gogh

adamrice posted The Getty Makes 88,000 Art Images Free to Use However You Like, featuring a huge trove of images released under a CC0 license.

The one thing I have definitively learned is the old Doctor House mantra applies: Everybody lies: Mefi's own garius (Gareth Edwards) comments in the post on his article about the Rise and Fall of Steve Jobs’s Greatest Rival — and adds "a sneaky Mefi bonus" preview of next month's "The Crazy Ones" column!

US Canada border photo by Chris Connelly on Flickr

St. Peepsburg wondering about the days before crossing the US/Canada border became so painful, eh? People have answers and interesting anecdotes.

A hollow way at La Meauffe, Manche, France By Romain Bréget, CC BY-SA 4.0, By Romain Bréget, CC BY-SA 4.0

"Also known as holloways, they have inspired literary and artistic reflection, conjuring images of fantastic landscapes" ... cupcakeninja leads our path to a "serene and tranquil post" about the sunken roads of the Anthropocene. (Also, don't miss 43rdAnd9th's delightful tidbit about drovers getting geese to market)

via antigonejournal.com, The Linear B postcard written by John Chadwick to Michael Ventris, digitised by the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge.

The reviews are in: "A fascinating story well told. Truly the Beat of the Web." chavenet posted the excellent article Cracking the Code of Linear B by Theodore Nash, chock full of details.

Nice weekly free thread discussing the games we play! Don't miss Wobbuffet's commentary about the history of parlor games from antiquity to the present, and how old games reveal themselves in modern equivalents.

Photo by Scott Swigart on Flickr

Wobbuffet casts a mage hand with a smashing megathread for Dungeons & Dragons 50th birthday (more or less)! 🐉

image via generationamiga.com

Z303 has crafted an amazing megapost on demoscene history, techniques, creations, social scene, and more.

Twirl Time by The Boy from Bare (cc by)

Among other things, Mefites ponder fashion changes (or lack thereof) in the last 20 years, and whether 96 unfrosted brown sugar PopTarts is too many unfrosted brown sugar PopTarts. Also, bisons are BACK, baby, and, timely: a 24-hour Dr. Who charity livestream event beginning 11/25, POV, Time Lord time.

Cover of Arlo Guthrie's album, Alice's Restaurant

It's Throwback Thursday, and we're looking back at post's about Arlo Guthrie's song, Alice's Restaurant! There was Miko's 2010 epic post that goes into details about the story, graymouser's 50th anniversary celebration of the song in 2015, and Winnie the Proust's post in 2021 about Guthrie's retirement.