Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with artifact

Is this a Masonic artifact?

rhizome — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:52:46 -0800

Is this piece of finished cloth related to Masonic membership in any way? Ten years ago I inherited a chair from my grandmother, that I later learned was the chair that my grandfather, who died when I was five, used to sit. Some time after that I was cleaning my apartment, and while vacuuming this chair pulled up the cushion and discovered this piece of cloth folded underneath.

There is not much about it that seems handmade. It is gold and purple, and if anything the trim could have been hand-sewn, but that's about it.

I don't know much about my grandfather as it would relate to anything like this, and my mom doesn't know what it could be, but we do know that he was a Mason of some degree, so I'm wondering if this is related to that in some way. He never went to college and there's nothing to indicate that it could have been my grandmothers.

I've perused various Masonic artifact catalog websites and have noticed that much of what they cover is quite a bit more elaborate than this is, but it's hard to figure out what else it could be. I supposed it could have been related to his foundrywork, but I don't know. My mom had never seen it before.

Freeing my games of artifacts

flatluigi — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:20:49 -0800

Help! My games are being plagued with screen artifacts. In several of the games I've been playing (Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Hitman: Blood Money) after a few minutes of gameplay "glitches" appear on the screen. These glitches look like small patches of green and sometimes purple that appear on the world geometry and disappear after a few milliseconds. If I keep playing, the glitches appear more and more frequent until I can't stand to play any more.

Interestingly enough, Source games like TF2, L4D, HL2, and Portal don't seem to be affected at all.

My system:

Manufacturer: VIAK8T
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3800+, ~2.4GHz
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Hard Drive: 500 GB
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit (6.1, Build 7000) (7000.winmain_win7beta.081212-1400)

So, do ya think it still works?

miss lynnster — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:25:29 -0800

Allegedly, this is the original key to the choir loft of Mission San Luis Rey. A) How can I confirm its origins? B) What should I do with it? My mother went to school at the Mission in the 1930s and tells that she was given this artifact by a priest who befriended her. It's just been kinda hanging out in our family ever since. I don't know how to verify its history, and I am not sure what the best place for it would be. I DO know that the best place for it probably isn't sitting on top of my television. No idea of its worth historically or monetarily. When I called the mission, they just sounded confused.

Perfect HDTV picture: Buy now or wait?

stewiethegreat — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:26:09 -0800

I haven't owned a tv since 2004. Since then, I've been downloading my shows, at first at compressed HD quality, and then more recently 720p and 1080i/p. I don't want to watch broadcast TV that looks like YouTube, I want a beautiful picture. Should I wait until 2010 to get an HDTV and service? Back in the day, I had digital cable on several TVs in an apartment on the other side of the country from where I live now. When I moved in 2004, I decided to save money and productivity by eliminating broadcast and cable/sat tv from my life. Indeed, I have been far more productive as a result. But, I still download a select few shows in hi-def and watch them on my laptop. Starting this past season, I've taken to downloading all of them in 720/1080 i/p depending on the rips available.

I'm starting to get in the mood to build an entertainment system again, and my field's audio, so I have that covered. My question is about the video side:

What HDTV, tuner, upscaler, DVD, Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player and HD cable/sat video service should I get for the most beautiful visual entertainment experience? (I've heard the DirecTV's video compression sucks, for example.) Will prices on this stuff drop dramatically after the big switch to HDTV in a few years?

I'm willing to invest in good equipment. So far, everything that I've seen at Best Buy looks like a youtube video, albeit with great color saturation, and I'm not going to waste my time and money on this if that's all I'm going to get. I'm also willing to wait a few more years until the broadcast and equipment quality catches up with what I had on my CRT.

So, what do I need? Should I wait? Thanks!

First, thou pullest the holy pin.

cmyk — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:30:23 -0800

A grey egg, covered with rows of bling and a teeny tiny cross on top -- encased in a block of Lucite. Holy hand grenade? Miniature pope hat? Yes, I have pictures. What is it? A friend gave it to me. All we know is that it was one of five frillion random objects in her recently-deceased grandfather's house. It looks like an award, but for what, I can't begin to guess. I don't even know what to tell Google to look for.

I have for you three photos ~~no more no less~~ because my camera's macro pitched a hissy trying to focus on the scratches in the plastic instead of the egg itself.

Front view, or, I think it's the front, because this side has the bling on the center of the cross on top.

Blur-tastic view of same, with a AAA battery for scale.

Sticker on the bottom of the thing, which I think reads thus: V. H. Blackton & Co * Attleboro Falls [and I can't read the rest of it because it's torn away]. Googling that takes me here, which leads me to believe this is some kind of award... but, for what?

Unidentified stone artifact

billtron — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:39:13 -0800

Geology/ArchaeologyFilter: What is this stone? Is it man-made? Is it natural? How old is it? Who made it? Should I donate it to a museum?