Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with era

Watched the Birdie

popcassady — Sun, 17 May 2009 03:44:53 -0800

A woman's head on an owl's body. What film did I see? Probably about twenty years ago, I saw a film on BBC2's DEFII programme. It was back and white, probably European and silent era (stylistically at least).

My memory might be vague but I'm sure there was a scene where a man wearing a straw boater was attacked by an owl (or possibly another bird of prey) with a woman's head. The man was walking beside some iron railings. The woman's head was shaven.

Scratching for more memories of the film: a suitcase, a book, someone getting into bed, tinted film.

Any ideas?

Much historical value to an old Guam WW2 Navy flight logbook?

Quarter Pincher — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:59:00 -0800

My grandfather recently showed us an old handwritten flight logbook from when he served in Guam in WW2 with the Navy. Would scanning this serve any interest to someone? Might it be considered classified info? It's a frailish, brown, pencil-written log books of flights, I presume in and out of Guam, in the WW2 time period. I thought scanning it might preserve the records made in it (no matter how scribbly).. is there someone who might benefit from its information?

A Video Time Machine

Funmonkey1 — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 15:31:33 -0800

{YouTubeFilter]: I am trying to build a list of US network TV programs and music videos from my formative years circa 1985 to 1990 . Any video viewing suggestions?

Movie setting search?

damnjezebel — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 17:58:07 -0800

Are there any websites that allow you to search for movies set in different eras? My brother has totally gotten a bum deal. It's his senior year, it should be easy...... right?!? I'm trying to help him look for research sources for his (hopefully) last project of the year. We're looking for a way to search for movies that were set in a different era other than the one they were filmed in. Examples:

Titanic
Memoirs of a Geisha
Gone with the Wind
Last Samurai
Alice in Wonderland
The Crucible

etc...

I've found lists on Amazon.com which I suppose helps somewhat. But not really what I had in mind.

Does anyone know of a website or search engine that does this (somewhat) easily?

Why were people in the 1800s smart about engineering while dumb about medicine?

stupidsexyFlanders — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 06:44:28 -0800

Why were people in olden days so smart about some things, but so dense about others? (more inside) Specifically: How is it that people knew enough to build huge ships that could sail thousands of miles, navigating by the stars, and enough to engineer huge, ornate buildings that would outlive them by hundreds of years, but it took until the late 19th century to figure out that splashing a little alcohol in a wound, and on surgical instruments, could reduce infection? How could no one have discovered this? They had alcohol -- wouldn't you think just through blind luck or trial and error, over millions of incidents of wound treatment, they would have uncovered this? Why was "cleaning a wound" such a foreign concept to them? They cleaned clothes, floors, their own bodies, etc. but nobody noticed that a clean surgical environment had a salutory effect?