Test your musical skillz in 6 minutes! Can't carry a tune? Take the tonedeafness test and check your pitch perception ability. Can't dance? Take the rhythm test. (flash required)

A Systems Engineering Approach to Dating and Relationships

Participation Inequality. In most online communities: - 90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don't contribute). - 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time. - 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don't have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they're commenting on occurs. (And 0.1% just steal posts from MetaFilter.)

Paste Magazine's list of the 100 best living songwriters, along with a similar list chosen by their readers.

The Bilderberg Group are meeting this week in Ottawa, Canada. Who are they?. What do they do? Conspiracy theories abound. Previous discussion.

"Music fans are not the enemy" , says artists' coalition. A coalition of top Canadian musicians and the group that oversees Canada's recording industry sent out opposing messages Monday about the development of new copyright laws.

Kingda Ka holds the current records for tallest (456 feet) and fastest (128 mph) roller coaster in the world. Purists still love the old wooden coasters, while the Japanese seem to like longer rides, including the 8,133 foot long Steel Dragon 2000. Not everyone is a fan, however.

Eighth Annual Valentine's Day Poems from pamie.com. Also available: poems from years 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.

Rolex, schmolex! The Tour de l'Ile is the world's most complicated wristwatch, created to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Swiss watchmakers Vacheron-Constantin. Among it's many dials and features (on both sides) are sunrise/sunset time, a perpetual calendar, power reserve dial, second time zone, a tourbillon device and a representation of the night sky. More close-up pictures here.

A statue of Tommie Smith and John Carlos has been erected at San Jose State University. Smith and Carlos were (in)famous for their raised fist protest on the medal podium at the 1968 Olympics. via SportsFilter

What kind of banana are you? Stolen from metachat

If MonkeyFilter is a Metafilter clone, does that make msn filter a MonkeyFilter clone?

Julian Beever is an artist whose pavement drawings have to be seen to be believed. He uses an anamorphic technique that makes the images appear three-dimensional when viewed from the proper angle.

The Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries, according to the conservative weekly Human Events Online. Blatantly lifted from the blue.

Transparent Screens. Some of these are very well done...

The Boston Globe is the first major media outlet to pick up on the story of Jeff Gannon, "reporter" for Talon News, and an approved member of the White House press corps. Mr. Gannon is, in fact, a Republican Party shill and Press Secretary Scott McLellan's go-to guy for softball questions when the press conferences aren't going their way. Ongoing MetaFilter discussion here.

Is there anything cuter than two identical twin twelve-year-old girls who have a band together? How about if they dress in matching plaid skirts

Geek tattoos.

The Brill Building, located at 1619 Broadway in the heart of New York's music district, is a name synonymous with an approach to songwriting that changed the course of music. Housing legendary songwriters like Carole King, Jerry Leiber, Neil Sedaka, and Burt Bacharach, the Brill Building created some of the greatest hits of the rock'n'roll era. [more inside] more inside

The music of pi will convert the first 10,000 digits of pi (3.14159...) into music, based on starting notes of your choosing. From fuyugare's comment here.