Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with identify

What Kung Fu movie am I thinking of?

Lutoslawski — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:49:13 -0800

Please ID this Kung Fu movie with missiles and menstruation. A couple years ago at an artsy film place in Denver I saw a kung fu movie where the hero uses these missiles to fight bad guys. He is also trying to acquire the menstrual blood of a virgin for some reason. There is a chief bad guy who is very bad.

Unfortunately, that's all I got. Please hope me MeFi; I'd really like to find this film!

What printed this Certification?

Faint of Butt — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:50:52 -0800

What sort of machine printed this Certification of Birth Abroad? The letters are broken up and stencil-ish, but it's no ordinary dot-matrix printer. I have here a Certification of Birth Abroad of a US citizen, printed at the US embassy in Lima, Peru, in 1978, and it's blowing my mind because I've never seen printing like this before and I don't know what kind of machine produced it. The form itself is pre-printed, but the personal information filling in the blanks is the weird stuff.

The font is all caps, and the characters are broken up into individual lines and shapes. The letter H looks something like this:

| | - | |

and a Y looks something like this:

\ / |

Other letters and numbers contain curved lines, and an O is sort of like this:

n ( ) u

only not nearly as disjointed.

Identifont is no help. Do you have any ideas? I'll be happy to answer any other questions about the type.

Help me find the manual for my bike computer.

Barry B. Palindromer — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:21:04 -0800

What bike computer is this? I recently purchased a bike at a garage sale. I'm really happy with the bike; the change from my clunker of a mountain bike to this sleek road bike makes a ton of difference in my commute. It came with a bike computer, and I can't figure out how to change from metric to imperial, or how to make sure the wheel measurements are correct. So I'd like to find out what make and model it is, hopefully that will help me find a manual somewhere.

Identify This Rainbow Print

saxamo — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:16:22 -0800

Can anyone Identify this print? I've had this print since I was a kid. I rediscovered it in storage and adjusted the framing. I really wanted some context on it. As you can see in the picture, there is some text cut off. Le Parc? Le Dadc?? its hard to decipher!

Here's the link once more for good measure: Rainbow Print

Thanks!

Identify Artist

cheechman85 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:39:12 -0800

Can anybody identify this artist? http://tinyurl.com/yfmybfj I have found a bunch of pictures just like this and have been curious as to who is pictured in them!

Can anyone identify these songs by their melodies?

cdenman — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:34:39 -0800

Can anyone identify one of these songs I have stuck in my head? (Links below) - Please help! Song 1

Song 2

Song 3

(1) is a demo song that came with my Yamaha P200 keyboard - it's quite plausible that it was composed for the keyboard, but if it is a 'real' song I'd love to know.

(2) and (3) are melodies that have got absolutely stuck in my head and I would love to know what they are if anyone can tell me! I suspect (2) to be a very old song and (3) to be a very recent one, but anything's possible.

Identify THIS laurel wreath

bdoop21 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:42:19 -0800

Can anyone identify this symbol? Italian Resistance, perhaps? A friend was recently killed in a bicycle accident. We are making a memorial for him at the site of his death. This is the tattoo he had on his wrist; it is a defining part of who he was and so we want it to be included on the memorial. From what we understand this is a laurel wreath symbol for the Italian Resistance but none of us have been able to find out for sure what this symbol is.
We have contacted the tattoo artist but he has not returned our calls and yes I can draw the symbol myself from this picture, but it would be nicer if we had the actual symbol.
So if anyone has any idea what this is please let us know. I wish he could just come and tell us..maybe he will, RIP John.

What in the world is this?

Theloupgarou — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:50:17 -0800

Does anyone know what this beige, squarish thing is supposed to be? What's it used for? Anyone know? Very curious thing... Thanks in advance!

Probably a periscope for an underground lair

dreamyshade — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:01:09 -0800

Help identify a mysterious piece of infrastructure in Los Angeles. What is this squat metal pole? This is on Colorado Blvd. in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of LA. I've seen another similar pole up the street on a sidewalk, and I imagine there are more of them that I haven't noticed. The area also has a rusty old air raid siren up on a pole, so I imagine this isn't a siren. Old fire department equipment? A vent?

I see this when walking our dog, and I'm just curious because I like local weirdness & local history. Educated guesses are welcome. Thanks!

Name that book: super powers from imagining you're sucking on a funny shape?

vytae — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:57:29 -0800

Is this a real book? All I remember is that 1 or more characters could activate some kind of special powers or transformational abilities by imagining the shape of a particular object in their mouth. I vaguely remember a story from my youth in which the character(s) could trigger something special by very explicitly imagining how a particular shape would feel in the mouth. My memory is that they would try to vividly conjure the feeling of holding a diamond-shaped, dice-like object in the mouth. If they did it right, they would temporarily have some magical power, or they would change into another form, or something. I've also got this phrase "form the sembler" attached to this particular memory, but I have no idea whether it's really related. I think the characters had to use these powers to fight against something sinister.

I think I would have read this between the ages of 10 and 15, so early 1990s, but I was reading a mixture of youth and grown-up fiction at that point.

Does this sound at all familiar? Google is giving me nothing, probably because I can't think of a concise way to describe imagining the shape of an object in the mouth.

We'll talk in present tenses.

shakespeherian — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:28:07 -0800

(Asking for a friend) Is there a place on ye olde interwebbes where I can see a gallery of all the artwork currently on display at the Chelsea Hotel? ALTERNATELY can anyone help me identify this painting? Blurry cellphone picture here. The Chelsea Hotel's website has exactly six pieces on display, none of which is the correct one. My friend would love to know who painted this and any other information available-- she's currently on a bus going to Boston, and typically she lives in Portland, and I'm not sure if she'll be back in NYC anytime soon so as to inquire at the hotel. TinEye is predictably unhelpful. Any ideas on how to go about identifying this thing?

ID movie: Graffiti artist tricks drug dealer

Alaska Jack — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:33:21 -0800

Help ID 70s or 80s movie: Graffiti artist tricks drug dealer into committing one last crime. The ever-popular moviefilter: Movie was probably a late 70s or 80s movie. I suspect it was a TV movie. The protagonist was a graffiti artist. Somehow he runs afoul of a young gang leader. The sequence at the end of the movie goes something like this: The artist, and his girlfriend I think, convince the drug dealer to go in for one more big score the day before he turns 18. Together, the two drug the dealer and set his watch ahead a day. Sting goes down. Because the dealer is no longer a minor, he gets hard time.

Any takers?

A mysterious chirping from inside my wall...

Earl the Polliwog — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:37:41 -0800

There's a bug in my house that I want to identify. The tricky part? I've never seen it. While in the bathroom three days ago, I started hearing a sound. It was a chirping, that sounded very cricket-like but slightly less shrill, and each "chirp" lasted ten or more seconds. It was coming from inside my wall!

Having played more than my share of Animal Crossing, I investigated mole crickets, but the two species that have any chance of existing in this area (Lansing, MI) produce chirps that are lower and more scratchy, by my limited research.

Any clues? Maybe species that I am missing? Or could it be something non-cricket-like altogether?

Identify a simple font

phaedon — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:22:53 -0800

Can someone help me identify this font? Sorry, I am whatthefont retarded.

help identify song in lying trailer

kewlio — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:41:24 -0800

can you identify the song in the lying trailer see http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/lying/

Can Anyone Identify This Wasp?

Seeba — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:39:55 -0800

Can anyone identify this wasp? Can anyone identify this wasp?

A friend got stung, and though I'm not terribly worried, I want to make sure it's not going to give him The Death.

Thanks!

I know I've heard this before...

wongcorgi — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:53:03 -0800

Please help me ID this older rap/hip-hop song. I grabbed a portion of this song yesterday and its been bugging me since then. I've tried Shazam, Midomi, but theres just too much foreground noise.

It's fairly old, say late 90s? The intro sounds like Junior Mafia's "Get money". I swear its a Notorious BIG song but I've dug thru his library and can't find anything.

This is the chorus, there are rap verses but my recording gets worse in quality.

zshare link (mp3 auto plays)

Identify this old episodic flash game

Ampa — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:46:45 -0800

Can anyone identify this flash game? I played it at least 5 years ago, it is episodic (each episode online for a month), beautifully animated, by a French team, set on an island with many locations, populated by a wide range of interesting characters, full of little casual games, available in a number of European languages, and may have been called something beginning with B! The game...
Was a meta-game - a virtual world full of smaller games.
Had the feel of an adventure.
Each episode had an intro with newspaper stories about previous happenings.

You were...
A young boy, coloured, with dreadlocks.

Other characters included...
A pig who was the butcher.
A fishmonger
An old gnarled fisherman
A suspicious doctor or mayor (called Patchouli?)

Locations...
Your house (where you kept a diary, and could play the records you collected)
Your kitchen (where you could play a Cooking Mama style cooking game)
The beach (where you could enter a kite flying competition)
Inside a giant fish.
A cinema (where you could watch short animations by the same production team)
A casino
A wind farm
A blocked road (where you could play a game clearing logs)

The team...
Started work on a second game which revolved around Tiki masks / Aztec totem poles.
Made an animated short film about two characters in a flat (one with a skull for a head, and the other permanently on fire) who are attacked by special forces.

I'd really like to find this game, as I know I didn't imagine it!

Help me identify where this scene is from! Novel, most likely.

NikitaNikita — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:53:45 -0800

ID-the-scene-source: Someone watches a neighboring woman through a window as the neighbor carefully prepares for her lover to come visit. The lover comes in, gets it done with, leaves, and she cries. Please help me remember where I saw/read this, AskMeFi! Fairly sure it's a scene from a novel:

The narrator (a young boy, possibly) watches a neighboring woman from a window. The woman prepares carefully for her lover to come visit. She lights candles, gets dressed up, puts on makeup, etc. He comes in, has sex with her quickly (narrator describes him as being sweaty, oaf-ish, not good enough for her), then leaves, and she sits and cries, sobbing into her hands while seated on the sofa. Narrator describes this scene/the affair happening more than once, I think.

What is the best way to identify a font?

samengland — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:06:59 -0800

What is the best way to identify a font? What is the best way to identify a font (from an image, or screenshot)

This is the font in question

Help us identify this plant!

pghjezebel — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:52:46 -0800

IdentifyPlantFilter: A new plant has sprung up in my Mother's rock garden this year. She loves it, but had no idea what it is! Can you help us identify it? IdentifyPlantFilter: A new plant has sprung up in my Mother's rock garden this year. She loves it, but had no idea what it is! Can you help us identify it?

Characteristics:
Perennial
Tall
Silver somewhat fuzzy leaves
Spreads (in clumps) easily
Pink Flowers

I've upload a few photos of it over here on Flickr.

What bird is making this noise and what can I do about it?

Tin Man — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:54:03 -0800

What kind of bird is making this annoying noise (mp3 file; alternate link here) behind my Manhattan apartment building? And what can I do about it? This is our second summer living in our apartment in a residential area of Manhattan. During the spring and summer, we occasionally hear the above noise, which I assume is a birdcall, from somewhere behind our building. (You may have to turn up the volume a bit.) It went away during the winter, but then the weather got warm a few months ago and it started up again. Sometimes it happens every 10-20 seconds or every minute or every few minutes. Sometimes we don't hear it at all. Sometimes it's quite loud. It's usually during the daytime but sometimes at night. It's really annoying.

So I'm dying to know -- what kind of creature is making this noise?

Our apartment faces the back of the building, and there are other residential apartment buildings behind ours, so I assume someone behind us must own a bird and they have the windows open when the weather is warm. Or maybe some creature with a spring and summer migratory pattern roosts on a nearby roof. I've looked out the window numerous times scanning for birds in apartment windows and I haven't seen any. There's also more than one apartment building behind us, and sometimes sound can bounce around, so I have no idea where it's coming from.

Next question is, what can I do about it? I know the default answer would be to call 311, but how are they supposed to find a bird that makes noise only sometimes? Are the police supposed to come and hang around on the street for a few hours? What if they can't even hear it from the street?

So, (1) what kind of bird is it, and (2) what can I do?

How is it that people can post videos of illegal acts onto YouTube and they can't be found?

Sully — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:40:16 -0800

How is it that people can post videos of illegal acts onto YouTube and they can't be found? I remember watching a video where someone has a camera mounted on the front of their motorcycle and they thread through traffic at insane speeds. I always thought that there would be some electronic trail the cops could follow. A more recent example includes one where hunters shoot some ducks with callous regard in a pond, and another involves a man who let his 7-year old drive the car at 70 kilometers per hour. In both cases, the police are showing stills from the videos on the news in the hopes that someone can ID them. But can't they just trace it back electronically? I would have thought that the cops' ability to track down the posters would have been better than this.

Font I.D., please.

Tufa — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:12:57 -0800

Could someone identify the font used in the headings on this webpage? I am looking for the font used in Who We Are | What We Do | Special Services. I am much obliged.

Knot a potato?

Toekneesan — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 08:29:11 -0800

GardenFilter: We just harvested some potatoes and came across these potato-like knot things. We found about five or six in a bed that hosted both potatoes and garlic, though they were found kinda far from the garlic and well under ground—at least four inches. What are they? Cut-up old potatoes, and babies from last year's harvest that we cellared, were what we seeded with. We grow organic and did get a slight case of the potato bug, but again, not sure it's relevant

Inside they have the consistency of a potato or a root. Didn't see them obviously attached to a plant. Thought about them being garlic heads but they seemed too deep when we found them, and they're more solid than a garlic seed head, unless it fused together.

I joked with my wife that maybe they're truffles, and while I really doubt that, I wouldn't rule out a fungus of some kind.

Anyone else ever find these?