Best Of MetaFilter

Photo by Tom Fisk

kliuless has an in-depth post on "the move by national governments, financial investors and private security forces to snap up food and water resources." Robber barons in the food system.

Shopping cart thrown in a lake. Birds flying in the background by Ivan Radic (cc by)

Recently metalloid biologists have made the exciting discovery that in fact, bicycles and supermarket trollies are NOT as previously thought separate species, but are in fact dimorphic male and female forms of the same organism.

building in a glass of water by Jeanne Menjoulet (cc by)

Water in my NYC apartment tastes funny. How to test it? I'm a drinking water scientist and this is what we suggest to customers having water quality issues...

Hohonu Moana: Exploring Deep Waters off Hawaiʻi by NOAA Ocean Exploration & Research (cc by-sa)

More people have been to the Moon than the Hadal Zone.

Dive into motty's post of Neal Agarwal's awesome deep sea scroller to view unfathomable mysteries of the vasty depths, meter by meter

slab up by chris kuga (cc by)

Come ride the waves with not_the_water's great post about slab surfing

Seafloor Surveys After Katrina by NOAA Images

bassomatic says, "my dad and his team of underwater archaeologists were the first to find an ancient shipwreck using side-scan sonar..."

Scary stories and freaky facts about oxygen deprivation at altitude

How does a scuba diver smell shipwreck cheese underwater? And some other ancient foods, eaten in the name of science

AskMe offers some resources on cloudwatching for beginners

Moby Dick is fabulous - Mefites talk Melville and subtext, and what you thought of classic novels before you read them, and the linked writer drops by to respond

Submersible finds glowy purple orb in the depths

And finally, that pressing question, what if I fell out of an airplane in a tank full of water?

Water drops by sama093 (cc by-nc)

We don't know for certain if the Gas! GAS! in Wilfred Owen's devastating poem was chlorine, but we do know that it can kill and maim in the way he described. But when his poem was written, chlorine had already begun to play a completely different, quietly heroic role, going on to save hundreds of millions of lives over the course of the 20th century.

Check out clawsoon's great, in-depth post "Chlorine probably saved your life today"

Ain Manawir (VII) by isawnyu (cc by)

JoeZydeco on how a vending machine knows what coin you've put in (and why the Mars candy company spun off an electronics company)

seasparrow on ancient underground water-distribution systems called "qanats"... including diagrams

codacorolla on their academic research on Minecraft players

The evolution of thimble technology, as seen in artifacts found scattered across England

A nice discussion of the importance of the skills needed to maintain old systems