Best Of MetaFilter

Nam June Paik - Megatron Matrix by Ryan Somma (cc by)

How did that bizarre avant garde show get broadcast, anyway? Mefi's own Dean 358 worked with pioneering video artist Nam June Paik, and explains how Paik's personal charm and enthusiasm got the art made and on the air. "...getting access to video equipment in the 1980s was a really big deal. Video edit suites took up lots of space and cost millions of dollars to build and operate. Getting access to a satellite...well, absolutely unthinkable."

1960 Summer Paralympics by brizzle born and bred (cc by-nd)

There has been some good stuff around lately. Hope you didn't miss the inspiring ass-kicking Paralympic athletes...

...or the "spiritual black metal blues" of Zeal and Ardor...

...or this jewelbox of an animated video from the Israeli band Jane Bordeaux....

...or this essay about literature and magic realism in contemporary China...

...or the wide-ranging playlist of music from all over Africa from the 1930s to 1960s...

...or the influential landscapes by once-neglected but newly-renowned African-American painters from Florida.

WC [toilet facilities] by State Records NSW

History pals!

Enjoy some newly-animated historical city photos, plus barnacles on the history of Australian public bathrooms "in case you're the sort of person that wants to see 115-year old survey sketches of toilets and urinal blocks".

Or listen to the meticulously recreated ambient sounds of 1700s Paris.

How about Marie Duval, 19th century woman cartoonist called 'one of the forgotten wonders of nineteenth-century art .. the bizarre dreamlike distortions of her comic world look like some steampunk 21st-century version of Victorian London."

Or the re-discovered ancient Chinese texts that rewrite the early history of Taoism and Confucianism.

Speaking of, what are some examples of historical events that are commonly misunderstood?

Did you catch teponaztli transcribing some diary pages from 1799-1804 New York City? "The most I've seen her write about anything was how much she hates games, which I love for its being an angry rant from 200+ years ago."

Or enjoy the brief video on the baseball fan Wild Bill Hagy, which is a time capsule of 1979 Baltimore.

Harking back to 1979, share some sense-memories in what was it like when everybody smoked?

Or looking further back - what was sugar like in 1631?

Finally, what are the best history nerds on Youtube?

Dog Intelligence by alicejamieson (cc by-nc-nd)

Learning a thing or two, recently in Ask:

How can I improve my vocabulary?

What are some self-help, therapy-ish books that have really helped you?

Where do I learn how to give an injection?

I need to improve my skills at making mobile apps (and websites) usable and beautiful.

What puzzles, games or new activities can I do to keep improving my critical thinking, analytical, and logical abilities?

In 140 characters or less, tell me one tip/trick/event that helped you understand how to use and/or like Twitter.

And in Mefi blue, Start Your Art Journey Today: a series of drawing lessons for free for all beginners and anyone looking to refresh their artistic skills

Radio tower by Łukasz Strachanowski (cc by-nc)

"William Carrà is a somewhat mysterious affiliate of Nicolas Jaar’s Other People record label who makes DJ mixes of eclectic sounds suited for late night."

Midnight Radio, A beautiful standalone comics story.

NYC - Metropolitan Museum of Art - George Washington by wallyg (cc by-nc-nd)

George Washington's hairstyle mystery -- how did he keep his white hair powder off his shoulders? Mefite nickyskye has the answer.

Almost Time by MikeSpeaks (cc by)

Need to talk about the new Star Wars? Fanfare's got you covered, including Mefi's own adrianhon checking in from a panel discussion with the cast.

If you've been brushing up on the original films to prepare, you might enjoy the Fanfare rewatches of all the previous Star Wars movies.

For more, check out the posts tagged 'StarWars' including fun odds and ends like Star Wars, the pencil game and real fencers doing light saber battle.

Star Wars art? Scenes made of Lego, and some paintings in classical Japanese style

Nerdy analytic overthinking? The economics of the Death Star and the legal case of Han vs. Greedo. Ask those hard questions like are the Jedi overrated? and of course is Jar Jar the big boss?

Chantal Stevens' fitness planner on The Happy Planner blog

Don't miss divabat's amazing post on planners, planner decoration, and the planner community!

Painting over a mural by WarmSleepy (cc by)

Some interesting ideas and answers in mermaidcafe's Ask Me post looking for examples of erasure in architecture, audio recordings, science, art, and other fields.

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

Ramses condom package design

Ramses condoms are named after Ramses II, who had almost 160 children. Condoms are kind of all about preventing lots of kids ... And the Trojans famously let a large object inside their city which discharged a swarm of invaders that destroyed it. Again, isn't this exactly the opposite of what a condom should do? – Sangermaine

Arousing, spacey, spicy and dashing design recently on Mefi: Vintage condom package designs; An extravagant symbol of a man who can’t hide his true nature – A brief history on Spats; Taxi Fabric connects young Indian designers with taxi drivers; When Airlines Looked Cool and Showed It, posters from flying's golden age; In the '70s, NASA commissioned a redesign of their "meatball" logo... unfortunately a lot of NASA engineers hated it. And of course, Mefites weigh in on the Google logo redesign.

and in the Green: Who originated the ubiquitous laser/neon grid design of the '80s?; Cool examples of generative art?; How can I make beautiful Powerpoint Slides?; "The best way I can describe it is 'whimsical'" – Where can I get more plates like this?

Copper engraving from 1755 shows Lisbon in ruins and in flames

Remembrances of things past via recent history posts on the blue:

More than 600 secret societies in the US, documented in 1899: here is "The Cyclopædia of Fraternities"; a compilation of existing authentic information and the results of original investigation

"Count Pier Francesco Orsini was a man much given to melancholy": Orsini's Sacro Busco, or the Park of Monsters

Ghosts at the Banquet: "Martin Gusinde documented the life and rituals of the Selk'nam people of Tierra del Fuego ... They had been nearly wiped out by a genocide led by Julius Popper, the Tyrant of Tierra del Fuego"

"In 1986, workers in Sichuan province in China were digging for clay for bricks when they stumbled onto an archaeological treasure: a major site for a Bronze Age civilization previously only guessed at"

Road tripping back in time on the Old Spanish Trail: "Today, you can still find remnants of that road, and there's a group of people who are trying to revive this historic highway."

"after the earthquake, King Joseph I was so afraid of buildings he moved out of Lisbon; his claustrophobia was so severe he lived in tents for the rest of his life. Artists depicted the chaos of the city in the aftermath of the disaster": The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755

Laputa: Castle in the Sky / 天空の城ラピュタ（バルス後） by Tatsuya Tanaka

Recently on Mefi, people and places around the world, enchanting, mysterious and magnetic:

World Jollof Rice Day, you say? Jollof rice is a traditional West African dish, but not a humble one

From the Persian for "eyebrow," Ebru (paper marbling) has a long tradition in Turkey

The villagers of Kannauj have inherited a remarkable skill: They can capture the scent of rain

Au Revoir, Mogadishu Vol. 1 — Songs From Before The War: '70s and '80s Somali sound

Since April 20, 2011, Japanese artist Tatsuya Tanaka has created tiny dioramas with common household objects as landscape for tiny people, one every day

Chiara Vigo is the last master of weaving the sea-silk cloth bysso and showcases her art at Museo del Bisso in Sant'Antioco, Sardinia

Expressionistische Tanzstudie Tanzbertchen der Tänzerin Lavinia Schulz

Knowledge of their astonishingly bizarre and tragic art is obscure and largely based on the rediscovery in 1986 of artifacts deposited in a Hamburg museum back in 1925.

The strange story of the 1920s German expressionist mask dancers Lavinia Schulz and Walter Holdt in Dying for their Art.

Miss Beasley by GW Bush

The subject matter is trite, but entertainingly so, and, to his credit, his portraits of the Scottish Terrier do convey a sort of essential dog-ness.

A real art critic (and MetaFilter member) reviews former President George W. Bush's art.