Best Of MetaFilter

"...one of the most influential and intriguing buttons in history." Community member brundlefly links to a story of the Zenith Space Command, one of the earliest examples of a remote control for television. Many memories ensue!

#metafilter #bestofmetafilter #retro #remotecontrol #remote #tv #television #history, #zenithspacecommand #cllicker

Greek and Roman epitaphs can be touching. They can also, in the case of Allia Potestas, even be risqué. But they can also be horribly, incredibly embarrassing -- as in the case of Aphrodisios of Alexandria Troas ... Mefites discuss an ancient death — and odd elegy.

paduasoy has posted the London Medieval Murder Map to scratch your 14th-century murders-most-foul demographics itch

McMansion by pasa47 (cc by)

Hello! Professional architectural historian checking in here ... Preserver addresses Mchelly's question about "McMansion" as architectural nomenclature.

image via AromaPrime

paduasoy posts an article from Current Archaeology about Aroma Prime, a company creating historical scents, including the smells of dinosaurs, dodos, mummification, candlemakers, ether, vintage sweets and the Wicker Man.

via BBC.com

Fizz posted Titanic: First ever full-sized scans reveal wreck as never seen before, the first full-sized digital scan of the Titanic, with visualizations pieced together from 700,000 images collected by remote controlled submersibles. (Title via pthomas745 in the comments!)

Histories by Aldaron (cc by)

paduasoy posted "English Historical Fiction Authors," a group blog that has been going since 2011, where researchers and novelists post about British history. "There are posts about wool and war, Schools of Gardening for Ladies, beds and bugs, aspirin, theatrical censorship, magazines, tours of Ruthin and Snowdon, slipcoat cheese and posset, subversive fairy tales, and The Learned Pig," and more linked selections. Lovely.

image via Miss T.Horn

My great-uncle was in a cell in the French Resistance during WWII ... An intriguing question about a 50-year old mystery photo location from Miss T.Horn, and a fabulous answer 37 minutes later by essexjan.

Explosion! by Rickydavid (cc by-nc-nd)

"I saw Moby naked! And I didn't like it at all!" — loquacious. Hey, mefites are discussing the Rolling Stones "When Rock Stars Screw Up" article!🤘🏼

In Ask Metafilter, iamsuper asks, How unfashionable were the medieval poor? "How fast did fashion spread in, say, medieval times, or Tudor times? Would people living in remote areas perhaps be wearing clothes that were 100 years or more out of fashion? Or would fashions evolve at similar speeds to today?"

columbo by whatleydude (cc by)

That time Peter Falk stopped a revolt in Romania? Kattullus posts about the great Decoder Ring podcasts examining this mystery. Oh, and there's just one more thing... in the comments DirtyOldTown talks about Irina Nistor and the "delightful documentary called Chuck Norris vs. Communism"

image via Chronoscope World

If you missed it, be sure to check out vacapinta's post on the excellent Chronoscope World, "a time machine to explore the history of the world by browsing maps dating back to 14th century B.C.," with more than 4,200 high-resolution maps.

Image via thepinknews.com

"Using recent breakthroughs in photo editing techniques, Eli colorizes, restores, and digitizes photos from queer and trans history. The following images are originally from 1897-1973." Great post from creatrixtiara!

gilded bronze head of Minerva at the temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath

misteraitch has posted Finding Britain’s Lost Gods, "the first four of an on-going series of hour-long lectures at Gresham College by cravat-wearing historian Ronald Hutton"

When I was a student in the mid-90s, there was a cubicle in one of the University ladies’ toilets that was “the problem toilet.” It was like a problem page...

Great comment by penguin pie on wowenthusiast's question about pre-internet physical bulletin boards.