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Why bureaucracy, like gas, fills up all available space. From the archive of The Economist, 1955 [via ArchiveDigger.]
posted by digaman at 9:56 PM PST - 11 comments

The THX logo theme consists of 30 voices over seven measures, starting in a narrow range, 200 to 400 Hz, and slowly diverting to preselected pitches encompassing three octaves. [mp3 link] [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 9:14 PM PST - 59 comments

Janet Reid is a literary agent who helps aspiring fiction writers pitch their work in a public forum. Her feedback can be kind of brutal, but there are a few winning queries in there and it illuminates a part of the writing process that we civilians don't often get to see.
posted by ubermuffin at 9:05 PM PST - 37 comments

The makers of Ninja Gaiden 2 have decided on an unorthodox ad campaign. The game is being advertised by two white breasts protruding from a wall facing the street (SLYT). There are predictably funny reactions from passers by. Obviously, this is NSFW.
posted by reenum at 8:30 PM PST - 44 comments

Roots Reggae 7in's
posted by geos at 6:40 PM PST - 20 comments

Do you like Daft Punk? Do you like 8 Bit tribute albums? Then you'll probably dig Da Chip, a Daft Punk tribute album. [more inside]
posted by hellojed at 6:13 PM PST - 21 comments

You Only Live Once - Happy Belated Flash Friday.
posted by empath at 5:50 PM PST - 24 comments

The Mormon church's plaza walkway runs through the heart of downtown Salt Lake. It was originally a public sidewalk, and is still used as such by the city's downtown residents. It is common to see couples holding hands and walking arm in arm as they stroll. This hasn't been a problem, until recently. The church claims the couple was necking and groping. Video obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune doesn't show this., but it does show Mormon security in action. Charges were dropped, and the city's gay community is weighing in with a series of "kiss-ins."
posted by Crotalus at 5:41 PM PST - 42 comments

60 sticker-plastered Apple laptops
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 4:22 PM PST - 89 comments

...a very long time ago, a calendar came into my possession, a kitten calendar. It was placed on my wall as it was so offensively sickly I found it funny. But then, the graffiti started. And one by one the kittens had things added... creating... kitti graffiti!
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 3:55 PM PST - 25 comments

Evolution's third replicator: Genes, memes, and now what?
posted by homunculus at 2:40 PM PST - 67 comments

In the name of the Smith and Wesson and Glock.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:32 PM PST - 24 comments

Friday Flash Fun: William and Sly is a relaxing and fun side-scoller, reminiscent of Knytt and other recent "atmospheric" flash games. You play as Sly, the pet fox of William, and the game involves exploring the mountains and forests around William's house.
posted by i less than three nsima at 1:49 PM PST - 10 comments

Friday Frivolity. We use only the finest baby frogs, dew-picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in the finest quality spring water, lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope, and lovingly frosted with glucose. A recipe for the infamous Crunchy Frog. No frogs were killed in the making of this recipe. (via Neatorama)
posted by caddis at 12:37 PM PST - 33 comments

Herb & Dorothy Vogel is a documentary about a postal clerk and a librarian who amassed over 4000 works of conceptual and minimalist art on their modest income. Their only criteria: it had to be affordable, and it had to fit in their apartment.
posted by Extopalopaketle at 12:29 PM PST - 33 comments

Freakazoid! tells the tale of a hyperactive teen super hero whose personality is a bit of Jerry Lewis, Chris Farley and Batman. The show ran for two seasons from September 9, 1995 to June 1, 1997, with Cartoon Network airing reruns until March 8, 2003, and is available in full, online (YouTube Playlist). The love for the show lives on, with an amateur movie adaptation, memories from the cast, and other bits of show history. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 12:09 PM PST - 46 comments

Some famous cases of cannibalism at sea: 1816 The Medusa. 1821 The Essex. 1878 The Sallie N. Steelman. [pdf] 1884 The Mignonette [pdf] 1889 The Earnmoor. [pdf] 1988 Bolinao 52 incident. [story starts on page 2] 2008 Vessel not named. As a bonus here's the legal decision in the case of The Queen vs. Dudley and Stephens, who were on The Mignonette.
posted by Kattullus at 12:07 PM PST - 53 comments

Lernert Engenberts produces tiny, beautiful and exquisitely cruel films. Revenge on an innocent egg. Three ways to melt a chocolate bunny. Teasing the colour blind with colour correction. Abstract artists explain their work to their parents. But this may be the cruelest one of all. See more, including an ode to Alaska via AOL, on his site.
posted by maudlin at 11:57 AM PST - 23 comments

How to destroy an engine. (slyt) [more inside]
posted by nervousfritz at 11:17 AM PST - 120 comments

Challenge Your Senses
posted by blue_beetle at 11:06 AM PST - 24 comments

Dracula's drycleaner must die!
posted by Artw at 10:42 AM PST - 34 comments

Sitcom Idea #2 from the folks at The Blogulator.
posted by dersins at 9:55 AM PST - 35 comments

The latest tool to challenge homophobia: same-sex hand-holding. This past weekend, a same-sex hand-holding relay was held in London, to coincide with Olympic-related events. It's not just for gay and lesbian couples; sympathetic heterosexuals are encouraged to join in and take a stand, or rather a stroll, for tolerance.
posted by acb at 9:52 AM PST - 60 comments

Symbolic Gestures. How, exactly, does a simple picture go about telling you, "Be careful here. It's cold, and sometimes ice forms on the roof, and it can fall off, and it can be sharp, and that can hurt you"? Inspired by the upcoming Ken Burns documentary, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, Jesse Smith of The Smart Set examines the pictograph designs that convey important information to park visitors. [more inside]
posted by amyms at 9:12 AM PST - 35 comments

Football legend Sir Bobby Robson dies, following a long battle with cancer. Further tributes via the Guardian. Donate to his foundation via here.
posted by Webbster at 9:06 AM PST - 25 comments

Little Wesley sings Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues."
posted by phaedon at 8:22 AM PST - 58 comments

Peter Morville is widely recognized as a father of the information architecture field, and he serves as an advocate for the critical roles that search and findability play in defining web user experience. His recent project titled Search Patterns, is a sandbox for collecting search examples, patterns, and anti-patterns; for example spime search, the ability to query objects in motion and find things in the real world. Morville is also on the editorial board of the new Journal of Information Architecture.
posted by netbros at 8:06 AM PST - 4 comments

With tensions high on both sides, it might be time for a teachable moment. What made Pabst Blue Ribbon in alcoholic fuel of choice of the stereotypical hipster? Some think it is its No Marketing Marketing strategy. But Pabst's avoidance of advertising wasn't always the case (previously). Pabst marketed pretty heavily on TV back in the day, but given the quality of one of their final commercials, one could see why they gave it up. [more inside]
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:50 AM PST - 180 comments

Apologies in advance for yet another reddit link, but I thought these were worthy enough to post for the uninitiated. Reddit, a link aggregator site, is often dismissed as another digg, 4chan, or fark, perhaps justifiably so. Users, however, know there's some excellent subreddits (among the thousands) lurking beneath the main page... [more inside]
posted by thisperon at 12:48 AM PST - 57 comments

Fox have offocially announced that Ridley Scott has officially signed on to direct the new 'Alien' prequel. He certainly did a great job on the original but can he match his previous truimph? Given the number of projects he has in gestation (heh) maybe any celebration is premature...
posted by Mintyblonde at 12:31 AM PST - 166 comments

New technique to block spam in the server -
posted by vvurdsmyth at 12:07 AM PST - 50 comments

If you were a child of the '90's, then Regulate by Warren G and Nate Dogg was probably your jam. Here is a critical analysis of the song by comedian Sean Keane. If only all gangsta rap had such deep meaning.
posted by reenum at 8:10 PM PST - 63 comments

Ukelele Beatles Fun!
posted by Miko at 7:58 PM PST - 51 comments

Late Thursday Flash Fun: Dropsum V2 is like a mix of sudoku and tetris and some other kind of block game. Much mindless fun to be had...
posted by schyler523 at 7:54 PM PST - 11 comments

Michael Savage unplugged. Behind the scenes. "This year, Savage is celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of his radio career. On the air one day, he marked the occasion in typically perverse fashion: by thinking of all the listeners who stuck around, and all the ones who didn’t. “Some were fifteen, they’re now thirty,” he said. “Some were five, they’re now twenty. They grew up on me. Their fathers are dead; the guys who had it playing in the car are gone. They’re still here, they can’t believe it. I’m their voice of freedom. I’m the last hope. I’m the beacon. I’m the Statue of Liberty. I’m Michael Savage. I’ll be back."”
posted by Xurando at 6:08 PM PST - 89 comments

Improving the Density of Jammed Disordered Packings using Ellipsoids "We suggest that the higher density is directly related to the higher number of degrees of free- dom per particle and thus the larger number of particle contacts required to mechanically stabilize the packing... Our results have implications for a broad range of scientific disciplines, ranging from the properties of granular media and ceramics to glass formation and discrete geometry."
posted by ShadePlant at 6:01 PM PST - 17 comments

The Fungus Overlords
posted by Dumsnill at 5:51 PM PST - 30 comments

“With t.o.night, you too can remember the good old days, when Mom, Dad, Junior, Little Suzy, and Skip would all sit around the radio and listen to blogs on the Internet.” The solution to the decline of newspapers? Launch a new one, charge nothing for it, fill it with wire copy and stories from a city blog, publish it weekday afternoons, and hire kids to wear “poor-boy caps” and shout “Extra! Extra!” while handing it out. [more inside]
posted by joeclark at 5:47 PM PST - 8 comments

Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. Michael Pollan discusses the evolution of America's cooking culture, from Julia Child to Top Chef. [via]
posted by nasreddin at 3:41 PM PST - 70 comments

Poet and poetry/film/music/culture critic Joshua Clover has been posting excerpts from his upcoming book 1989: Bob Dylan Didn't Have This to Sing About over at his blog. [more inside]
posted by sleevener at 2:55 PM PST - 8 comments

The Big Bad Wolf won't howl no more. Busch Gardens Williamsburg, the Virginia amusement park with a friendly Western European theme, announced on July 24 that it was officially retiring The Big Bad Wolf, its iconic suspended roller coaster. The Wolf, which opened in 1984, was primarily built by Arrow Dynamics, the firm which also designed the world's first corkscrew inversion and the first coaster to top 200 feet in height. While not the world's first suspended roller coaster, the Big Bad Wolf could proudly lay claim to the fact that it was the first successful suspended coaster. Charmed though it is, the circumstances around its sudden September 7th closure date may make the ride the newest entry in the Williamsburg park's strange history. [more inside]
posted by Spatch at 2:18 PM PST - 48 comments

Under a Nuclear Cloud (Reportage by Gettyimages) The results of using villagers as human guinea pigs in "preparing" for nuclear war.
posted by spock at 2:15 PM PST - 25 comments

A nearly impossible logic puzzle. Other mindtwisting puzzles. More puzzles of varying difficulty (don't scroll down too far!). XKCD's take. (previously epic post Also: 1, 2)
posted by desjardins at 1:39 PM PST - 47 comments

Epic Mickey: a dystopian, steampunk version of the Disney world and characters we all know and love (we love them, right?) from Junction Point Studios. [more inside]
posted by pixlboi at 11:55 AM PST - 51 comments

Hello, New York! New York, wake up you f*ckers! Free Music! Free Love! In 1968, two years before those other guys, Jefferson Airplane played their apocalyptic psychedelia from a NYC rooftop, before police shut them down. Filmed (staged?) by Jean-Luc Godard. [more inside]
posted by msalt at 11:31 AM PST - 33 comments

Sometimes, bathroom graffiti can make you do more than grin/grimace. A short round-up of some of the more moving and/or thought-provoking bits of bathroom graffiti out there.
posted by jasonsmall at 11:15 AM PST - 88 comments

Hipsters (A Brief History)
posted by empath at 10:30 AM PST - 284 comments

Internet Mapping Project l slide-showl more about it here. Please draw a map of the internet, as you see it. Indicate your "home". You can download a blank PDF here and email it to [Kevin Kelly] when done. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 9:55 AM PST - 7 comments

Need fabric? Not sure where to start? MoreCloth will help you out. Each colour bar will link you to swatches, then onto where to purchase on etsy. [more inside]
posted by mippy at 9:24 AM PST - 11 comments

On August 12, President Obama will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- the nation's highest civilian honor -- to the late gay-rights pioneer Harvey Milk. Lesbian tennis star Billy Jean King and Teddy Kennedy will also be honored that day. Previous recipients include Martin Luther King, Aung San Suu Kyi, Colin Powell (twice), Muhammad Ali, Mother Theresa, Elie Wiesel, Vint Cerf, George Tenet (Bush fail), Irving Kristol (WTF?) Dick Cheney, Walter Cronkite, Julia Child, and Lucille Ball. Now about that DOMA thing...
posted by digaman at 9:18 AM PST - 81 comments

Late blight, the fungal disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine may destroy this years tomato crop in the Northeast and Midatlantic United States. [more inside]
posted by electroboy at 8:46 AM PST - 46 comments

Animals With Casts has everything from a wrinkly mutt with his hind legs supported by a homemade PVC pipe wheelchair, to an elephant with an enormous leg cast, to a turtle with two wheels attached to its shell, to a baby kangaroo with its hind legs wrapped up. But please don't go breaking your pet's leg just to get in the lineup.
posted by netbros at 7:53 AM PST - 19 comments

A New York Times article reports that one in three adults takes a nap each day. Perhaps the most utilitarian of the nap types is the power nap. Fortunately, the good folks at Lifehacker have provided tips on how to insure you're living up to your sleeping potential. Sweet dreams!
posted by elder18 at 7:52 AM PST - 59 comments

A recent study, commissioned by the UK Food Standards Agency, has found that there is no evidence that organically produced foods are nutritionally superior to conventionally produced foodstuffs. On the basis of a systematic review of studies of satisfactory quality, there is no evidence of a difference in nutrient quality between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs. The small differences in nutrient content detected are biologically plausible and mostly relate to differences in production methods. Who cares?
posted by Christ, what an asshole at 7:14 AM PST - 123 comments

Standing out in the crowd. Kirrily Robert's keynote from OSCON. She discusses diversity in opensource communities and projects. [more inside]
posted by chunking express at 7:07 AM PST - 20 comments

Arthur C. Clarke presents a documentary on fractals [more inside]
posted by mhjb at 6:56 AM PST - 25 comments

In two days, Forestle, the eco-friendly charity search engine, will celebrate its first birthday. In just one year, it has overcome the wag of the finger from Google only to return from the grave partnering with Yahoo instead, and this month's donation will have preserved just over 1,000,000m² (or 247 acres) of rainforest, all while leaving no carbon footprint. [more inside]
posted by tybeet at 6:34 AM PST - 12 comments

Twilight of the Neandertals - "Some 28,000 years ago in what is now the British territory of Gibraltar, a group of Neandertals eked out a living along the rocky Mediterranean coast. They were quite possibly the last of their kind [meanwhile] around 30,000 years ago, the number of modern humans who lived to be old enough to be grandparents began to skyrocket." (via) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 5:54 AM PST - 44 comments

While many quirky news buffs may be aware of the story of Phineas Gage -- the Vermont railroad foreman who had a three foot iron rod penetrate his skull as the result of an explosion and lived to tell about it -- fewer know that the only known photograph of him was recently discovered. Fewer still know that the identification of that photograph happened via a Flickr comment. (no thanks to you LA Times, previously) [more inside]
posted by jessamyn at 9:43 PM PST - 77 comments

Assistant professor Noah Snavely at Cornell is into making models. Computer models of real scenes are assembled from photographs, and can then be used to create a better image, a better video, or a 3D representation of an entire city. [more inside]
posted by Monochrome at 8:58 PM PST - 17 comments

Over the years I've never really paid attention to the reddit alien. So it's a good thing this guy did! (SLYT)
posted by saturnine at 8:58 PM PST - 20 comments

My Beat Club has a whole ton of classic rock perfomance videos, mostly from old German TV shows Musikladen and Beat Club. Among the videos on offer are Small Faces' Tin Soldier, Chuck Berry's School Days, Ike & Tina Turner's River Deep, Mountain High, The Who's My Generation, Country Joe McDonald's I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag, The Everly Brothers' All I Have to Do is Dream, The Ramones' Sheena is a Punk Rocker, Mungo Jerry's In the Summertime, T. Rex's 20th Century Boy, New York Dolls' Looking for a Kiss, The Byrds' So You Want to Be a Rock n' Roll Star, Thin Lizzy's Whiskey in the Jar, Slade's We'll Bring the House Down, The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Purple Haze and so much, much more!
posted by Kattullus at 8:55 PM PST - 29 comments

Colonel Muammar al-Gadaffi, Leader and Guide of the Revolution, has been consulting with two US-based PR / lobbying companies—The Livingston Group (Sourcewatch) and Monitor (Sourcewatch)—to effect the rebranding of Gadaffi's Libya as a desirable and trustworthy ally of the United States. Confidential documents from these consultations have been obtained and posted online by a Libyan opposition group called NCLO. They include fee quotes, progress reports, and mission plans, as well as a personal tutorial curriculum for Gaddafi's son. Via LRBlog [more inside]
posted by stammer at 7:38 PM PST - 27 comments

The Sculpture of Alex Qurel Phonebooks as art and other re-uses of printed material. [more inside]
posted by readery at 6:54 PM PST - 4 comments

Suppose Ghostbusters had been made 30 years earlier? It all starts on one terrible night... [SLYT]
posted by katillathehun at 6:12 PM PST - 30 comments

Vulcan & Vishnu, a webcomic by Leland Purvis. [more inside]
posted by Rinku at 5:52 PM PST - 12 comments

UC Scientists Determine That Ancient Maya Practiced Forest Conservation — 3,000 Years Ago. "As published in the July issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, paleoethnobotanist David Lentz of the University of Cincinnati has concluded that not only did the Maya people practice forest management, but when they abandoned their forest conservation practices it was to the detriment of the entire Maya culture." [Via] [more inside]
posted by homunculus at 5:42 PM PST - 9 comments

The Niels Bohr Library & Archives has completed a project to transcribe its collection of more than 500 oral histories of physics, including a few audio snippets of the interviews. And, if you'd like to put a face with that voice, check out the Emilio Segrè Visual Archives. [via] [more inside]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:44 PM PST - 9 comments

If you’re into crafting, you’ve probably stumbled upon Craftster, a crafting community web log within which members can post pictures and documentation of their own crafts and processes, share information and tutorials, and get feedback. The crafts tend to be off-beat and original and many involve upcycling – this is not a site where one would proudly post pictures of a completed paint-by-numbers or rug hooking kit project. The Craftster esprit de corps is nicely expressed by its slogans, which include, “No tea cosies without irony”, “Knit fast. Die Warm”, “Measure twice, cut once. Meh. Just start cutting”, and “Cheaper than therapy”. Craftster was launched in 2003, has 700,000 visitors a month, and, besides posting and discussion boards for every possible subset of crafting, its features include a calendar of forthcoming crafting events, member-created city guides to craft resources in your area, and staff-written articles. But I especially wanted to draw your attention to the Craftster Craft Challenges, the first one of which was announced on April 28, 2005. If you’re competitive and crafty, you have just enough time to whip up something for the 41st crafting challenge, which is to create an “edible craft” (the entry posting window is August 1st to August 5th). For inspiration, check out the 40 previous Craft Challenges. [more inside]
posted by orange swan at 2:16 PM PST - 20 comments

Is Barack Obama An American Citizen? "...because Obama’s claim to American citizenship is only supported by evidence and logic, he must not be an American citizen."
posted by anotherpanacea at 1:54 PM PST - 241 comments

Van Morrison loses it on stage. An analysis by Geoffrey K. Pullum [more inside]
posted by Shepherd at 12:40 PM PST - 144 comments

Used as postcards and for advertising, phono postcards were a single-sided phonograph record stuck on a card with a hole punched through. The Weco cards stand out with their use of photography (with the clothes sometimes painted on) and see-through vinyl.
posted by tellurian at 12:23 PM PST - 12 comments

pixel: shoot things with chill out music
posted by leotrotsky at 11:34 AM PST - 18 comments

Bottled Tap Water From New York. Sold to New Yorkers. New York City's tap water has been called among the nation's freshest. It's so good that a young entrepreneur is bottling it and selling it for $1.50. To New Yorkers.
posted by Pragmatica at 11:20 AM PST - 119 comments

Star Wars Uncut is an attempt to recreate Star Wars: A New Hope 15 seconds at a time. [more inside]
posted by logicpunk at 11:04 AM PST - 42 comments

Voicemail-to-text firm Spinvox strenuously denied accusations that they infringed privacy standards by actually having the voicemails transcribed by human operators in low-wage countries. [more inside]
posted by Skeptic at 10:11 AM PST - 49 comments

Paintings of President Obama, Naked with Unicorns (SFW)
posted by empath at 8:28 AM PST - 59 comments

Can I get some sushi with my taco? Until a few years ago, Austin's culinary tradition seemed to be limited to breakfast tacos and BBQ. From these humble beginnings, however, has come an bizarre explosion of food trailers. [more inside]
posted by lunalaguna at 8:22 AM PST - 51 comments

Jyothi Raj [it gets cool at :50], a real life Spiderman.
posted by nickyskye at 7:54 AM PST - 24 comments

Microsoft's Bing now provide Yahoo! seach. Yahoo, a 1994 internet pioneer of search, has now agreed to stop researching search tech and start using Bing. Some say it's a small deal, a Google deal rerun, and one says it's a tar pit. As pointed out, nobody yet knows if Yahoo can choose another provider if it all goes wrong.
posted by jaduncan at 7:18 AM PST - 72 comments

With Chinese buffets - an all-you-can-eat fixed price restaurant - making a killing in Manchester, a new chain of traditional English buffet-style restaurants are seeing a sharp rise in trade during a recession that is seeing 100 restaurants per month go to the wall. [more inside]
posted by mippy at 4:53 AM PST - 67 comments

Sydney radio station 2dayFM earned the ire and backlash of the Australian public - rape counsellors, Australian media, and Community Services ministers - after an on-air stunt by morning crew Kyle and Jackie O went horribly wrong. During their regular "lie detector" segment, a 14-year-old girl was interrogated by the hosts and her mother over her sexual history, against her will, and revealed that she had been raped at 12 on air (warning: possibly triggering audio clip embedded in news article). [more inside]
posted by divabat at 2:54 AM PST - 127 comments

Gary Busey is.. BULLETPROOF. (SLYT) via everything is terrible [more inside]
posted by signalnine at 12:06 AM PST - 59 comments

Whitstable Seagull Kidnaps Cat A story of seagulls, cats and allen keys.
posted by boo_radley at 11:38 PM PST - 20 comments

The Great Red Herring Chase is like TypeRacer, but with a plot. Greg Wohlwend's other games are addictive, destructive/cute (previously), philosophical, and baffling. Next, he's taking on the exciting world of patent illustrations. But if your childhoood was anything like mine, his homepage will be your biggest productivity killer. (via)
posted by roll truck roll at 11:29 PM PST - 5 comments

Little Boy Dancing [SLYT]
posted by humannaire at 10:37 PM PST - 34 comments

Crows can tell people apart. Can you tell crows apart?
posted by Artw at 10:24 PM PST - 70 comments

I know from playing the video games of that era that tiny sprites can be very powerful. Maybe it’s because we can project a lot of emotion onto them, or maybe because they’re small and they have big eyes and big heads like children. I don’t know. The Adventures of Ledo & Ix, along with an interview with the filmmaker. (via)
posted by The Devil Tesla at 9:00 PM PST - 16 comments

Butterfly or bat? Lobster or spider? Cheating or educating?
posted by william_boot at 8:48 PM PST - 48 comments

Emoticons, illustrated.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:53 PM PST - 35 comments

Kropla's World Electric Guide - outlets / power plugs of the world (map), along with an index of international voltages and frequencies for travellers. Plugs in the future: modular, stylish, smart, eco-friendly, rotating, collapsible, or gone entirely.
posted by Paragon at 7:01 PM PST - 12 comments

Albuquerque’s Georgia O’Keeffe Elementary School, opened in 1988, has come under written attack from the Georgia O'Keefe museum in Santa Fe for copyright infringement — even though the museum’s acquisition of the artist’s name came years after the school was named. E-mails from the museum warned of possible trademark infringement and suggested that fees may be required for some uses of the name. Even though the school has never used the artist's work or images, the museum believes that just using the name means that the school should give them a cut of any fund raising done to benefit the kids of the school. This isn't the first academic attack launched by the museum since taking control of the O'Keefe IP.
posted by dejah420 at 5:17 PM PST - 61 comments

The Adventures Of A Would Be Arms Dealer (PDF) is an eight-page comic illustrating how an illegal arms deal works in practice. Via.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:02 PM PST - 16 comments

600 Costumes from the 2009 Comic-Con
posted by ColdChef at 4:55 PM PST - 146 comments

When whales die: Yesterday, a 20-30 foot whale washed up a shore in New Jersey. Officials are going to deal with it by cutting it up into small parts and burying it. In previous incidents, officials tried to explode it into bits that were meant to fall in the ocean and get eaten by seagulls, but that didn't work out [YT] so well, especially for nearby spectators. Even if you want to let it decompose naturally, you have to be careful for spontaneous explosions due to gassy buildup. Especially when transporting it in busy city streets. Oops. When whales die in the ocean, on the other hand, their bodies eventually fall to the sea floor and can start mini ecosystems, where female pink glowstick-like sea worms that harbor the male pink glowstick sea worms inside their bodies live, eat whale bones, and propagate. (Previously on Metafilter: Taiwan explosion)
posted by Salamandrous at 2:56 PM PST - 43 comments

Kōfuku-no-Kagaku (幸福の科学), also called Happy Science, is a relatively new religious and spiritual movement, founded in Japan in October 1986. The organization is gaining ground world-wide, with the international headquarter office in central Tokyo, 6 local temples located in London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seoul and Taiwan, and an additional 37 local offices around the world. The group's leader, Master Ryuho Okawa, has is not limiting the scope of the movement to politics, and in May 2009 the Happiness Realization Party was formed, with over 300 HRP candidates running for the coming general election. To provide background on the religion and political movement, here is a little investigation of Happy Science by MeFi's own shii [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 2:02 PM PST - 32 comments

The internet is atwitter over Apple's decision to block the Google Voice app from their App Store, and remove all existing apps that facilitate its use. Fingers are pointing at AT&T, but the app is blocked globally.
posted by mullingitover at 1:36 PM PST - 112 comments

Tariq Ali writes in the LRB: - This is now Obama’s war. He campaigned to send more troops into Afghanistan and to extend the war, if necessary, into Pakistan. These pledges are now being fulfilled. On the day he publicly expressed his sadness at the death of a young Iranian woman caught up in the repression in Tehran, US drones killed 60 people in Pakistan.
Tariq Ali discusses the views of Graham Fuller an ex CIA Kabul station chief who thinks Obama's Policies are Making the Situation Worse in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The further view from Asia is that Pakistan wields a double-edged sword and that although the Pakistan-US plan are falling into place the militants, too, have their mechanisms in place, and they don't plan to deviate. A mighty collision is inevitable.
Meanwhile Kalashnikov demand soars.
posted by adamvasco at 1:12 PM PST - 91 comments

Researchers have found that beautiful women have more children than their plainer counterparts and that a higher proportion of those children are female. Those daughters, once adult, also tend to be attractive and so repeat the pattern.
posted by monospace at 1:00 PM PST - 111 comments

The artvideos of Pipilotti Rist: You Called Me Jacky::I'm A victim of this song (wicked game)::I'm not the girl who misses much::Sexy Sad I::Lullaby (swan)::Transposicion ::Be Nice To Me (Flatten 04)::Rist discusses Pour Your Body Out at MOMA
posted by vronsky at 12:50 PM PST - 10 comments

Shatner Interprets Palin
posted by CunningLinguist at 12:29 PM PST - 72 comments

WIRED contributing editor Scott Carney interviewed an ocean-going hijacker for his story on the economics of Somali piracy. [more inside]
posted by gman at 11:35 AM PST - 18 comments

Cheeming Boey is an artist. Sharpie on coffee cups are his chosen medium. Boey even outlines his process. The cups, of course, are for sale, and arrive in a tasteful glass case. His other projects are similarly creative.
posted by alzi at 11:33 AM PST - 19 comments

Astronaut Michael Collins – "I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified façade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or Communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied."
posted by miss lynnster at 10:10 AM PST - 57 comments

The "Bonus Beats" tracks on 12" singles were used by DJ's to either extend the mix of the main track, or sometimes played within a dj mix on their own. One DJ mourns their passing. [more inside]
posted by analogue at 9:33 AM PST - 14 comments

"For a lot of comics, it's OK to talk about raping women now. That's the new black on the comedy circuit." "One false move, and I'm Jim Davidson." "Don't go thinking I'm the new Bernard Manning. I'm being postmodern and ironic. I understand that what I'm saying is unacceptable." The new offenders of standup comedy.
posted by permafrost at 9:12 AM PST - 162 comments

Hoteliers reveal some of the most bizarre items that guests have left behind.
posted by nam3d at 9:05 AM PST - 49 comments

Recently, there have been a host of websites that delight in exposing the inanity and stupidity of our society. There is the granddaddy, Overheard in New York, which recounts silly conversations heard in the Big Apple, as well as a host of similar sites. There are now a variety of such websites, dedicated to different aspects of our society. [more inside]
posted by reenum at 6:53 AM PST - 49 comments

"I once proposed a solution somewhat tongue in cheek to the problem of pensions: turn retirement upside down ... people would be supported by society up to the age of 30. During that period they would study, travel, prepare for a profession, reproduce and give full-time care to their young ... After 30, they would work until they dropped dead or became incapacitated." Letter from physicist Cylon Gonçalves da Silva to The Economist in response to this original article on the problems of an ageing global population.
posted by rongorongo at 6:28 AM PST - 32 comments

You Suck at Craigslist [more inside]
posted by splatta at 6:22 AM PST - 50 comments

Best of Wikipedia: A twice-daily updated collection of some of the best reading on Wikipedia. Created and maintained by avinash.vora.
posted by nickyskye at 4:22 AM PST - 15 comments

Pixelvader = minimal vector graphics bullet hell shmup flash game with upgrading system.
posted by juv3nal at 1:28 AM PST - 18 comments

"Slather the holy hell out of the thing with a semi-ironic Beach Boys vocal pad." What if, every time you got stuck writing your next big power-pop hit, you could just call the Fountains of Wayne hotline to get you over the hump? Country singer Robbie Fulks imagines it, and records it, resulting in the best Fountains of Wayne song Fountains of Wayne never wrote. Meanwhile, the original Fountains of Wayne is no more. (No, not the band.)
posted by escabeche at 8:41 PM PST - 46 comments

With the vote on Health Care Reform pushed back to september, Ad campaigns are revving up, both for and against. The DNC has given the 13 million e-mails Obama collected during his campaign to Organizing For America. And our old friends Harry and Louise are back. [more inside]
posted by tylerfulltilt at 7:26 PM PST - 136 comments

Barbecued Ribs, Roast Beef, French Toast, Twice Baked Potatoes, Macaroni and Cheese, French Onion Soup, Rye Bread, Corned Beef, Brownies. [more inside]
posted by Lord_Pall at 7:07 PM PST - 93 comments

RUN! is a single-button flash game. Hold A to run, and let it go to slow down. There are three difficulty settings and five levels. The music, design and sfx are off-putting. You will probably either hate it or play it for about 3 hours, and then hate it. [more inside]
posted by Damn That Television at 6:02 PM PST - 53 comments

That's it. I am moving my all my money to Oakwood! The tiny town north of Houston has just three employees and not a single computer. It has no voice mail and no ATMs. This is the smallest bank in the USA. Still going strong.
posted by shockingbluamp at 4:45 PM PST - 37 comments

Imagine you're living in China, trying to work your way out of the family date farming business (which garners approximately $450 annually). You do all the right things. You apply for (and receive) Communist Party membership. You study literally to the point of collapse, and despite coming from coal-town origins, you score high on your gao kao ("high test," more-or-less the only thing that matters in getting into a Chinese university). Your already-poor family goes deep into debt to send you to college, and you even manage to come out with a degree. Classic rise-up-by-your-own-bootstraps tale, right? However, finally, when you go to apply for a job—your state-sanctioned educational, occupational, and political records are inexplicably, awfully gone. What has happened to that plain manila folder (!) that serves as your only legitimate, official history in Chinese society? Probably stolen and sold so a party official's child can get everything you worked so hard for. And then, of course, your family is detained by party officials when your parents demand to know where the hell your life went. Of course. [more inside]
posted by Keter at 4:12 PM PST - 47 comments

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC) (previously) has just launched SMBC Theater! [more inside]
posted by tybeet at 3:39 PM PST - 18 comments

Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry. A feature-length documentary focusing on Malcolm Lowry, author of the novel Under the Volcano. [more inside]
posted by thescientificmethhead at 3:20 PM PST - 17 comments

Glamour Guts. "A light-hearted lesson about living glamourously with a not-so-glamourous medical condition.". From the Short Film Face Off Awards, 2009.
posted by fcummins at 3:12 PM PST - 5 comments

How the Huffington Post can pay its bloggers, by a Huffington Post blogger.
posted by Stephen Elliott at 2:42 PM PST - 33 comments

Even as Snail Mail fades away, people still collect Stamps. Some are valuable. Others are just **stupid**. (You could say the "inverted jenny" is both.)
**this link is the reason for the post
posted by wendell at 1:58 PM PST - 50 comments

7x20 is a twitter zine, publishing 140-characters-or-fewer short stories and poems. [via mefi projects]
posted by filthy light thief at 1:56 PM PST - 21 comments

CSI Myths: The Shaky Science Behind Forensics Forensic science was not developed by scientists. It was mostly created by cops, who were guided by little more than common sense. And as hundreds of criminal cases begin to unravel, many established forensic practices are coming under fire.
posted by Pragmatica at 11:21 AM PST - 123 comments

Ashoka Tech Blog A blog about women, social entreprenourship and technology (especially in the developing world). Includes such gems as the Peepoo bag.
posted by sandking at 11:18 AM PST - 2 comments

We're familiar with blindsight, and seen a blind man navigate a cluttered hallway (wmv file). A blind man with a loaded rifle seems slightly scarier. But if you see the blind guy driving a 2010 Ford Mustang, it's probably best to yield.
posted by cloudscratcher at 10:49 AM PST - 13 comments

Peak Oil, 1925. In 2000, 20% of new buildings will be solar equipped. By the late 1990s, 90% of the world's energy will be nuclear-generated. These and other erroneous projections are being collected as part of the Forecast Project on the website Inventing Green: The Lost History of Alternative Energy in America.
posted by Miko at 10:05 AM PST - 65 comments

Jackie Shane could rock the Sapphire Club. He was part of the Toronto Sound of the sixties, and made his mark not only for his soulful voice, but also for his flamboyent, gender ambiguous appearance (video). His song Any Other Way went to Number Two on the Canadian Billboard chart in 1963, and was his biggest hit. While his discography was short and he has faded into obscurity, he has been recognized by the queer community and music bloggers as a trail-blazing performer. In My Tenement, Comin Down, You Are My Sunshine, Stand Up Strait and Tall, Don't Play That Song.
posted by kimdog at 9:55 AM PST - 8 comments

Merce Cunningham died yesterday at 90. [more inside]
posted by stresstwig at 9:49 AM PST - 36 comments

The latest craze among yobs in Amsterdam seems to be Smart tossing. Jeremy Clarkson would undoubtedly approve, were he not busy urging Britain to invade France.
posted by acb at 9:30 AM PST - 46 comments

A daily photoblog of the mediterranean island of Mallorca. Checking the tags is a good way to trawl the archive.
food; history; customs and traditions; art
posted by adamvasco at 8:56 AM PST - 10 comments

The foreign exchange student "Some years ago we had a foreign exchange student come to live with us. We found it very difficult to pronounce his name correctly, but he didn’t mind. He told us just to call him 'Eric'." A short story in pictures by Shaun Tan. Previously.
posted by dhruva at 8:26 AM PST - 38 comments

There's a new Tron movie coming out, and it promises to be kind of rad. In other news, the trailer seems to mash-up perfectly with Michael Jackson's Beat It. [more inside]
posted by Afroblanco at 7:06 AM PST - 136 comments

Bradley R. Smith and Mark Weber are at the center of the U.S. Holocaust-revisionism movement. Now they’re feuding with each other. A sensitive and interesting investigative report by Mark Oppenheimer. Via the Daily Dish.
posted by shothotbot at 6:03 AM PST - 38 comments

The Psychology of Overconfidence
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:10 AM PST - 81 comments

Revisiting Dr. Rosenhan. Between 1969 and 1972, seven friends embarked on what became known as the Rosenhan Experiment, posing as patients in a dozen psychiatric hospitals. While the medical staff diagnosed the poseurs as 'schizophrenic', their fellow patients quickly caught on to their ruse. The resulting paper, On Being Sane in Insane Places, became an instant classic.
posted by grounded at 8:59 PM PST - 47 comments

Caijing (财经) is an independent, Beijing-based magazine devoted to reporting on business in China. The publication's title means "Finance and Economics." [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 8:39 PM PST - 6 comments

Accidental Mysteries: Toilet Paper Roll Sculptures by Junior Jacquet l 19th Century Japanese Pregnancy Dolls l Hand soaps l An Obsessed Collector (From the Estate of Charles Martignette) [PDF but worth it and mildly nsfw] and other diversions to explore. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 8:18 PM PST - 9 comments

Cards Against Humanity is a misanthropic version of apples to apples.
posted by boo_radley at 7:57 PM PST - 55 comments

An American Sadhu - A seeking of holiness, resulting in disillusionment and abandonment. A very good read about one man's experience meeting a guru and his disciple, and ultimately coming full circle to "you get the guru you deserve".
posted by Kickstart70 at 5:58 PM PST - 11 comments

AT&T appears (NSFW, may disappear) to be blocking access to 4chan's /b/ board. [more inside]
posted by Skorgu at 5:12 PM PST - 142 comments

Historical postcards from Opava, CZ
posted by yegga at 2:59 PM PST - 6 comments

What was the name of that band that played the school assembly hall in 8th grade? Free Fare. [more inside]
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 1:37 PM PST - 25 comments

One more for the stationery fetishists: Office Supply Geek
posted by tylerfulltilt at 12:27 PM PST - 26 comments

Nine years ago, in the autumn of 2000, Daniel Suelo decided to stop using money. He just quit it, like a bad drug habit. [more inside]
posted by william_boot at 11:46 AM PST - 192 comments

Fly Guy, the fourth installment of the Simon's Cat series. [more inside]
posted by MaryDellamorte at 8:49 AM PST - 19 comments

The bike racing world has a tradition of attention-getting designs, but some spectators at this year's Tours of California or France might have done double-takes at some of the art on Lance Armstrong's rides. As it turns out, Trek and Nike have commissioned custom designs promoting Livestrong, and as I write this Lance is cycling into Paris on a bike covered with butterfly wings, courtesy of Damien Hirst. [more inside]
posted by ardgedee at 8:01 AM PST - 50 comments

Beijing's underground: "Five years ago, none of my students at Tsinghua or Beida had any interest in what we would call countercultural stuff," says Michael Pettis, a finance professor at Beida's -- that is, Peking University's -- Guanghua School of Management who owns D-22 and the Maybe Mars label. Today Mr. Pettis estimates that a quarter of his students have been to rock clubs and maybe 5% to 10% "are really knowledgeable and sophisticated."
posted by kliuless at 7:59 AM PST - 27 comments

Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society’s workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone. From the NYT: Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:46 AM PST - 116 comments

Odosketch - create your own animated sketches (Flash webapp)
posted by mhjb at 3:21 AM PST - 14 comments

There are many galaxies. The Sombrero Galaxy. The Whirlpool Galaxy. Lenticular galaxies. The occasional irregular galaxy. What types of galaxies do we find in the universe?
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:42 PM PST - 25 comments

Bill Moyers' discussion with two expert analysts of health care, Trudy Lieberman, director of the health and medical reporting program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, and Marcia Angell, senior lecturer in social medicine at Harvard Medical School and former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine.
posted by semmi at 11:36 PM PST - 100 comments

Forgotten Bookmarks. "I work at a used and rare bookstore, and I buy books from people every day. These are the personal, funny, heartbreaking and weird things I find in those books. "
posted by milquetoast at 9:33 PM PST - 47 comments

What can you with an anthropology degree? Bust an illegal organ transplant ring, apparently. [more inside]
posted by greatgefilte at 7:18 PM PST - 43 comments

Children Full of Life - grade 4 students in Kanazawa, Japan learn deep life lessons from their incredible teacher and from each other. I strongly recommend this as awesome, but one caveat: keep tissues handy. (5 parts, 40 minutes total, English)
posted by madamjujujive at 5:21 PM PST - 48 comments

Smell the Glove: An Art Show Dedicated to Spınal Tap
posted by ColdChef at 4:32 PM PST - 20 comments

Is it a long trip from your physician to the nearest approved cannabis dispensing station? Here's a solution. Get on your Iphone and download cannabisapps.
posted by Xurando at 2:57 PM PST - 28 comments

Takeshi no Chōsenjō: it came before the endurance test that is Desert Bus, and served as an inspiration for Janey Thompson's Marathon. In English it is known as Takeshi's Challenge. Released in December 1986 for the Famicom system, the game mechanisms include use of the Famicom microphone to sing karaoke for an hour. And that's after you drink to the point of blacking out, divorce your wife, quit your job, and learn to hang glide AND learn the Hintoba language, amongst other things. All of this takes place in lands populated with nothing but people that want to beat you to death. Of course, you can skip that all and complete the game in a mere 4 minutes by simply walking off the edge of existence, and magically ending at the final treasure room. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 2:34 PM PST - 41 comments

A recent survey found that nice people are paid less. But as one Times reporter found, politeness can be its own reward.
posted by nam3d at 1:45 PM PST - 37 comments

Exit wounds: - It is the poet's obligation, wrote Plato, to bear witness. With the official inquiry into Iraq imminent and the war in Afghanistan returning dead teenagers; Carol Duffy, recently elected UK Poet Laureate invited a range of her fellow poets to bear witness, each in their own way, to these matters of war. More about the poets inside: [more inside]
posted by adamvasco at 12:31 PM PST - 13 comments

There's an old saying favoured by combat engineers, motorcyclists and technicians everywhere: If it moves and it shouldn't, gaffer-tape it. If it doesn't move and it should, WD-40 it. This week, John Barry, the guy who invented WD-40 on his 40th try (hence the name; Water Displacement, formula 40) met his demise.
posted by SharQ at 12:12 PM PST - 52 comments

Apes do it. Birds do it. Even educated elephants do it. But can a dog do it? Can a dog make art? Meet Tillamook Cheddar, an adorable Jack Russell Terrier who, after 19 solo shows, has made more than $100,000 in sales of paintings like these. (I believe she did not choose the titles.) Opinions on her work vary. [more inside]
posted by maudlin at 11:37 AM PST - 33 comments

Acclaimed Malaysian film and advertising director Yasmin Ahmad has passed away at 11:52pm Saturday night at the age of 51, after collapsing from a stroke at a media presentation the day before. She leaves behind a legacy of film that captures the modern multicultural spirit of Malaysia, winning international festival awards and local hearts while at the mercy of conservative censors. [more inside]
posted by divabat at 11:22 AM PST - 9 comments

We Love You So is a blog, hosted by filmmaker Spike Jonze (among others) which has been established to help shed some light on many of the small influences that have converged in the soon to be released feature film rendition of Maurice Sendak’s classic story, Where the Wild Things Are. Previously. [more inside]
posted by philip-random at 10:53 AM PST - 16 comments

Mindaugas Piečaitis has performed his "CATcerto," an original score written to accompany Nora The Piano Cat's piano improvisation. Here's the video of kitty with orchestra. [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 9:15 AM PST - 20 comments

Rhonda Forever. A short video of James Paterson using Rhonda, a 3D drawing tool. [more inside]
posted by chunking express at 9:00 AM PST - 21 comments

Scientific calculator. Graphing calculator. Fraction calculator. Unit conversion calculators. Inflation calculator. Fuel cost calculator. WPM calculator. Homework assignment timeline calculator. Stock valuation calculator. Distance calculator. Meteor impact calculator. Currency calculator. BMI calculator. BPM calculator. [more inside]
posted by starman at 8:54 AM PST - 35 comments

"Prisoners of Gravity was the most thoughtful and creative television program ever produced anywhere in the world about the literature of science fiction, and it was a substantial Canadian success story. In first-run, it was one of the most popular series on its originating network, TVOntario, lasting for five seasons and 139 installments." Here are a few of them, with more being added every now and then. [more inside]
posted by aldurtregi at 8:01 AM PST - 31 comments

Nationally famous (in New Zealand) dance troupe the Real Hot Bitches set the world record for synchronised dance. [SLYT]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:30 AM PST - 34 comments

In a new essay entitled Build the Wall, David Simon (who was a Baltimore Sun reporter before he produced The Wire) argues that if the larger newspaper industry is to survive, The New York Times and Washington Post must start charging readers for access to their websites (preferably done as a single action in concert with each other) — John Gruber, Dave Winer, and the folks at Gawker disagree, and Steven Berlin Johnson argues that while the future for newspapers might be quite bleak, the future for journalism and high quality analysis is actually quite bright. Meanwhile, the Times is currently doing market research to see if it's readers would be willing to pay $5 a month for online access, and the Associated Press announced it's intent to build a new news DRM system that will enable users to “consume, mash up and share AP content based on rights”.
posted by dyslexictraveler at 10:35 PM PST - 126 comments

How green was my valley: California's economic meltdown The fields of wheat, cotton and cantaloupe that sustained his family for three generations are gone. The land is a mess of fallow fields, cracked earth and swirling dust. (PDF - By some estimates, 12.8% of the United States' agricultural production (as measured by dollar value) comes from California, and the majority of that is in the Central Valley). However, his particular scene of devastation, Mr. Allen argues, has nothing to do with the credit crisis, the housing crash or the downturn that has California in a vice grip. It has to do with a seven-centimetre-long, semi-translucent, steel blue fish known as the Delta smelt. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 8:51 PM PST - 76 comments

Thanks to a combination of publishers going out of business and rights disputes Miracleman is probably the best superhero comic you never got the chance to read (previously on the blue). That looks set to change as today at SDCC, Marvel comics has announced that they now own the rights to the title.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 4:35 PM PST - 52 comments

Electronic Arts, the video game publisher that is no stranger to either controversy, is sponsoring a contest for its upcoming release of Dante's Inferno (Previously). The contest, taking place at this weekend's Comic-Con, requires entrants to "commit acts of lust" and take a photo of said act with an EA (or other company's) booth babes, post the photos on Twitter or Facebook, and repeat the process as many times as possible for additional chances to win. The prize is listed in part as "Dinner and a sinful night with two hot girls". [more inside]
posted by cmgonzalez at 3:08 PM PST - 134 comments

Linguists and Missionaries often find themselves in similar situations. The Jesus Film Project. [more inside]
posted by fcummins at 2:38 PM PST - 17 comments

Detained in Kenya for not looking enough like her passport photo, Canadian Citizen Suaad Haji Mohamud has been trapped in Kenya for 2 months while trying to return home to her adopted country. [more inside]
posted by jacquilynne at 2:31 PM PST - 29 comments

"‘You have to have at least, like, a BMW or a Mercedes to join. They meet at midnight and they race their cars. The Prime Minister’s office is always calling us to complain.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because the Prime Minister can’t sleep. These engines make so much noise they keep him awake...." (via Ultrabrown)
posted by sk381 at 1:33 PM PST - 23 comments

This Must Be The Place. For fans of The Talking Heads and American Psycho. NSFW.
posted by miss lynnster at 1:21 PM PST - 36 comments

Talking Points Memo has put together an excellent resource for keeping up with happenings in Washington.

Whatever else Twitter might be, we've found it a good way to keep tabs on politicos and reporters, what they're doing, saying and so forth. Pols make unguarded or revealing statements, sometimes just helpful heads-ups on events or statements; reporters give early tips on stories. And just atmospherically you can get a feel for what certain groups of people are thinking and talking about.

With that, enjoy Twitter feeds aggregated at TPM for Elected Democrats on Capitol Hill, Elected Republicans on Capitol Hill, Democratic and liberal insiders, Republican and conservative insiders, and reporters and bloggers.
posted by lazaruslong at 12:15 PM PST - 27 comments

Marcus Aurelius: Was He Quite Ordinary? [Via] [more inside]
posted by homunculus at 12:08 PM PST - 32 comments

Photos of nuclear-explosives production facilities built during the Manhattan Project, by photographer Martin Miller. He also took photos of nuclear missile sites built during the cold war.
posted by of strange foe at 11:54 AM PST - 22 comments

Video footage of death for your amusement. [more inside]
posted by dortmunder at 11:08 AM PST - 42 comments

Adam Curtis's It Felt Like A Kiss. The whole of the experimental film (from the author of The Power of Nightmares and The Trap) which accompanied his recent show at the Manchester Festival. "When a nation is powerful it tells confident stories about the future."
posted by feelinglistless at 10:57 AM PST - 23 comments

Recombinant Records cartoons by Stuart McMillen, e.g. Aldous Huxley vs. George Orwell. (via)
posted by kliuless at 10:40 AM PST - 17 comments

Scramjets are go!
posted by Artw at 10:25 AM PST - 35 comments

Sir Humphry Davy
Was not fond of gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.

This is the first example of the form that came to be known as the clerihew. [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 10:12 AM PST - 66 comments

A new type of newspaper for a new type of world One story from it previously. [more inside]
posted by msalt at 9:38 AM PST - 43 comments

When the 'secret' of the Colonel's blend of herbs and spices was revealed, The Guardian had to test the recipe - and then see if it could be bettered ... (video)
posted by nam3d at 8:50 AM PST - 111 comments

The Wire Illustrations -- Characters from The Wire, illustrated.
posted by OmieWise at 8:40 AM PST - 43 comments

Archaeologists find graveyard of sunken Roman ships. Information on how such a shipwreck is discovered available from the Aurora Trust site.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:32 AM PST - 12 comments

Like Keyboard Cat? Like Three Wolf Moon? Now they are TOGETHER AT LAST. [more inside]
posted by mippy at 8:01 AM PST - 48 comments

Hymn 41 Harmony Grove New Britain Claremont Arlington Amazing Grace. The timeline links to a nice variety of recordings, traditional (1939: Mary Shipp; 1941: Shiloh Baptist Church) and otherwise (1975: The Amazing Rhythm Aces; 1992: The Lemonheads). [more inside]
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:32 AM PST - 27 comments

Summer Mix Series is the soundtrack to your summer. Created by yewknee.com, this collection of user submitted mix CDs encourages submissions to have unique, specific themes, giving many of these mixes a more cohesive edge than "Bill's Favorite Tunes June 2009". Listen to summer, 48 CDs and counting! [more inside]
posted by CharlesV42 at 5:11 AM PST - 17 comments

A (NSFW) infomercial for the 10th annual Gathering of the Juggalos. Juggalos being, of course, fans of The Insane Clown Posse so dedicated to the band that they've formed their own subculture (and slang!). The root of Juggalo fandom is Psychopathic Records, with The Insane Clown Posse and its scads of acolytes (treat all videos all NSFW). But there's also JCW (Juggalo Championship Wrestling), rumors of Juggalo gangs, Juggalo comedy, and (previously) religion.
posted by Bookhouse at 11:25 PM PST - 227 comments

Peripetics is a short video by Zeitguised that "entails six imaginations of disoriented systems that take a catastrophic turn, including the evolution of educational plant-body-machine models and liquid building materials." [more inside]
posted by mhjb at 7:12 PM PST - 15 comments

Suing for libel, UK newspaper proprietor Richard Desmond made a point of denying that he exerts any influence over stories appearing in his papers. He lost his case today, but reading his paper's website, you'd be forgiven for thinking he'd actually won it! [more inside]
posted by salo at 3:27 PM PST - 44 comments

Pitcher Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox has thrown a perfect game. A tremendous sporting achievement; this has happened only 19 times in the history of major league baseball. Buehrle is the 17th pitcher in the modern era (since 1900) and the first since Randy Johnson in 2004.
posted by uaudio at 1:23 PM PST - 175 comments

Relying on depth to avoid detection is a submarine's greatest ability, so the shallow water of our nation's rivers doesn't seem to work within a sub's advantages (just don't tell Kentucky). During WWII, however, the waterways of North America were exactly what U.S. submarines needed in order to avoid detection. The shipyards of Manitowoc, Wisconsin produced submarines for the war effort, but getting them to the sea proved difficult. German U-Boats waited outside the St Lawrence to torpedo any ships leaving the Great Lakes for the Atlantic. The submarines, instead, went cross-country - over two dozen subs were towed through the Heartland during WWII over several years, making their way from the Great Lakes, through Illinois and passing Peoria via the Illinois River, then entering the Mississippi River and past Cape Girardeau, where they entered the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans. Four of the subs were lost in battle, the rest scrapped over the next fifty years, and none ever saw St Louis again.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:57 PM PST - 40 comments

Favorite Worst Movies by the writers and readers of The Morning News. [more inside]
posted by billysumday at 12:49 PM PST - 259 comments

Not For Sale: There are 27 million slaves worldwide right now. Here’s a map of where they are. [more inside]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:45 AM PST - 31 comments

The Neuroscience of McGriddles: Evolutionary biology offers hypotheses about why we enjoy eating. "When you eat at McDonald's, a big part of the pleasure comes from the fact that the food is sustenance, fuel, energy. Even mediocre food is a little rewarding."
posted by silby at 11:35 AM PST - 80 comments

Cat-ladders around the world. 110 towns in 22 different countries. Cat's demands on their owners know no borders.
posted by kimdog at 11:20 AM PST - 44 comments

"Nisan didn’t mean to fall in love with Nemutan. Their first encounter -- at a comic-book convention that Nisan’s gaming friends dragged him to in Tokyo -- was serendipitous. Nisan was wandering aimlessly around the crowded exhibition hall when he suddenly found himself staring into Nemutan’s bright blue eyes... 'I’ve experienced so many amazing things because of her,' Nisan told me, rubbing Nemutan’s leg warmly. 'She has really changed my life.' Nemutan doesn’t really have a leg. She’s a stuffed pillowcase — a 2-D depiction of a character, Nemu, from an X-rated version of a PC video game called Da Capo." The New York Times' Lisa Katayama on "2-D lovers" in Japan, the latest outgrowth of otaku subculture.
posted by digaman at 10:53 AM PST - 162 comments

In 1990, the first BattleTech center opened in Chicago in the US. The centers were based around networked play of the BattleTech (related to the Battletech RPG) and Red Planet combat and racing games via immerse pods. BattleTech enthusiasts have gone so far as to purchase new and decommissioned pods to set up their own centers. Occasionally, pods go on tour.
posted by Imhotep is Invisible at 10:26 AM PST - 71 comments

Spaced - the beloved pop-culture-reference-laden British comedy from Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes - is now on Hulu in its entirety.
posted by pokermonk at 10:15 AM PST - 59 comments

Canadian actor Les Lye, who played many characters on the TV show You Can't Do That on Television, among other roles, has passed away. Perhaps Mr. Lye's most famous character was Barth, the cafeteria chef on the show. Someone pour out a bottle of green slime for the man.
posted by elder18 at 9:00 AM PST - 95 comments

Craig Ferguson explains the Jonas Brothers. [more inside]
posted by everichon at 8:06 AM PST - 113 comments

This summer, do your gaming in the backyard! Kotaku editor Brian Crecente adapts your favorite videogames for play outdoors! Get your friends together for a game of Katamari Stick-With-Me, Super Hopscotch Brothers, Metal Gear Sneak-and-Hide, and more!
posted by EatTheWeek at 7:58 AM PST - 16 comments

This is how to start a wedding. Totally and utterly SYTLy, but still the best thing I've seen this week.
posted by Hartster at 6:38 AM PST - 353 comments

"This day may be celebrated in a variety of ways. Pause and give thought to the role that the number pi has played in your life. Imagine a world without pi. Attempt to memorise pi to as many decimal places as you can. If you're feeling creative, devise alternative values for pi. Go to a party (I will). Or just celebrate in the time-honoured fashion of ignoring Pi Approximation Day altogether."

Happy Pi Approximation Day. [more inside]
posted by swift at 4:08 AM PST - 55 comments

An excellent resource on every aspect of digital photography, from sensor technology to general techniques to Photoshop tweaking. Previously mentioned here, but the site has expanded a lot since 2005.
posted by archagon at 2:38 AM PST - 13 comments

Bob Bogash's diatribe spells out the saga of a corporate trainwreck regarding the Boeing 787 widebody project, his readers responding with a slew of theories. Bob, incidentally, was a manager at Boeing's commercial group. The Boeing 787 rollout was celebrated in 2007 right here on MeFi when the prototype was rolled out. Two years later the plane remains grounded with development costs approaching $10 billion, and Boeing announced further setbacks in a conference call yesterday. The hobbyists and pros and the press weigh in on the news. Bob's site not only addresses the 787 program but raises larger questions about oblique technical and management dichotomies in America's Fortune 500 board rooms.
posted by crapmatic at 1:15 AM PST - 44 comments

A new edition of Hemingway's memoir A Moveable Feast, edited by the author's grandson, purports to complete the book as Hemingway intended it. Reviews are mixed. Now, the man who wrote the book on Hemingway and gave A Moveable Feast its title claims that the new edition is merely an attempt to by the editor to censor the negative portrayal of his grandmother.
posted by chrchr at 11:23 PM PST - 28 comments

8-miles wide: I just saw Storm Large's autobiographical show, "Crazy Enough." It was a great show, and this song concludes a key epiphany she had. [more inside]
posted by dylanjames at 11:03 PM PST - 18 comments

"If you told me we would be going through a book challenge of this nature, I'd think, 'Never in a million years.' " [more inside]
posted by sredefer at 10:32 PM PST - 110 comments

The Carol Syndrome "Carol's perception that she scares men away is not a delusion after all. … It is not a matter of bad luck but a collateral effect of interactive rationality. A paradoxical consequence is that Carol's attractiveness acts as a repellent." Game theory (mis?)applied to dating. [more inside]
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:57 PM PST - 73 comments

Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. and Robotic Technology Inc. have sent out a press release denying that their new robot will feed on the dead. "It's a vegetarian!", they claim. Desecration of the dead is a war crime under Article 15 of the Geneva Conventions, and is certainly not something sanctioned by DARPA, Cyclone or RTI. “We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission,” stated Harry Schoell, Cyclone’s CEO.
posted by dejah420 at 7:28 PM PST - 48 comments

Kuroshio Sea HD Video of the world's second largest aquarium tank at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan (via). [more inside]
posted by jontyjago at 6:53 PM PST - 22 comments

People adore Zappos. Will that continue now that Amazon has bought them for nearly a billion dollars? In a battle of new wave corporate communication, Jeff Bezos announced it on Youtube while the Zappos' CEO posted his letter to the employees on their blog. (Previous Zappos posts: 1, 2)
posted by smackfu at 5:58 PM PST - 80 comments

Durango Bill's Home Page. With topics that include: 3D end-to-end tour of the Grand Canyon, the origin and formation of the Colorado River, and examples of river systems that cut through mountain ranges instead of taking easier routes around them in Ancestral Rivers of the World. [more inside]
posted by netbros at 5:44 PM PST - 5 comments

Back when he was younger, Jay-Z was a merciless, ruthless killer in the "beefs" which define hip hop politics. [...] As Jay-Z got older and more powerful, the marginal benefits of such battles declined and the costs increased even as the number of would-be rivals escalated. Just as the U.S. attracts resentment and rhetorical anti-Americanism simply by virtue of being on top, so did Jay-Z attract a disproportionate number of attackers.

Marc Lynch compares international relations to rap feuds, with Jay-Z as the hegemon and up-and-comer The Game as the "insurgent." [more inside]
posted by aheckler at 5:38 PM PST - 16 comments

The 100 easiest, fastest recipes. Ever.
posted by lalochezia at 5:20 PM PST - 70 comments

100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About a rather comprehensive list, ranging from the gone-and-forgotten (22: Using jumpers to set IRQs) to the not-yet-extinct-but going-there (41: Phone books and Yellow Pages). But missing a few like 101: wired.com not being a nostalgia site and 102: getting punished for calling your dad a geek.
posted by wendell at 4:51 PM PST - 91 comments

The May 2009 issue of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin has a special focus: "Beyond Survival," helping law enforcement officers to do more than survive in their careers. [more inside]
posted by rmd1023 at 4:20 PM PST - 6 comments

Tyler Cowen on why it's OK to pay for sex [more inside]
posted by reenum at 3:18 PM PST - 106 comments

An Outsider's View "Over the past fifty years, factions of biologists have had a complex relationship. Some scientists have continued to carry out relatively traditional natural history work, with little need to delve into molecular (or computational) biology. Others have given little attention to natural history, focusing their efforts instead on deciphering the complexities of a membrane channel, or building new algorithms for identifying open reading frames. In some cases, biologists have bridged this divide, and the result has been a fruitful collaboration. But in other cases—such as the DNA studies on whales and hippos—one group moves into the other's traditional territory, sparking new conflict."[via]
posted by dhruva at 3:18 PM PST - 12 comments

From the successful conversion of a Porsche 914 into a battery electric vehicle (BEV), MIT's Electric Vehicle Team are now working on the conversion of a Mercury Milan Hybrid into a quick-charging BEV. Instead of the typical 10 to 12 hours for a full charge, the MIT team is looking at an 11 minute charge-time for their BEV, dubbed "elEVen," and they're blogging in detail about their progress. (via) [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 2:54 PM PST - 39 comments

Gidget, controversial pop-icon who only wanted some Taco Bell, has died at the age of 15.
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:33 PM PST - 58 comments

German inline skater Dirk Auer rides a roller coaster... [more inside]
posted by mudpuppie at 2:26 PM PST - 18 comments

Jesus Plus Nothing, Minus Somalia: How the Christian fundamentalism of The Family (also known as the C Street Fellowship) turned Somalia into the next staging ground for Islamic radicalism.
posted by jonp72 at 1:42 PM PST - 40 comments

Mark Twain & Mary Baker Eddy, a film by Val Kilmer.
posted by hermitosis at 1:37 PM PST - 14 comments

Trees Never Meet is the thoughtful blog of David, a historian of Africa. Though posting has slowed recently, the archives are fascinating. On fitting in; on killing animals as an ex-vegetarian; on Namibian legal history; on "anti-conquests"; on the types of people who have inhabited Namibia since the conquest; on Namibian politics. David also has a fantastic, well-written dream blog.
posted by nasreddin at 1:35 PM PST - 8 comments

Over two years ago Seung Hui Cho killed 32 people on Virginia Tech's campus, spawning an intensive investigation. Police never found his mental health records from the campus Schiffert health clinic. Today investigations for lawsuits brought by two victim's families that didn't settle earlier, uncovered these "lost" records. In the home of Schiffert's former director. [more inside]
posted by fontophilic at 1:28 PM PST - 31 comments

Drunk Yoga. An age-old practice of healing and mindful positions for the absolutely smashed. (bus stop optional)
posted by oneirodynia at 1:22 PM PST - 15 comments

You've heard of Dark Side of the Rainbow? Now there's Another Brick in the Wall·E. So sorry about the quality of the video.
posted by litterateur at 10:42 AM PST - 70 comments

Final Fantasy IV remix project. This week the videogame music rearrangement site, OCRemix.org, released a new project covering Nobuo Uematsu's soundtrack to FFIV (originally FFII in the US). FFIV's was the first game soundtrack I fell in love with, back in 2nd grade. Maybe you feel the same. [more inside]
posted by grobstein at 10:27 AM PST - 19 comments

It would take over 50 years after the creation of this map before it was confirmed that California is indeed attached to the mainland of America. 20 Fascinating Ancient Maps (via). More zoomable historical maps at the World Digital Library. (previously)
posted by desjardins at 9:20 AM PST - 31 comments

There's no way we get all this stuff and everything is done fair and square and everyone gets treated right. A Chinese employee of Foxconn, entrusted with fourteen (maybe sixteen) prototype iPhones misplaced one before they could be shipped; what followed was his detainment and torture at the hands of company police, and his eventual suicide. Shanghaiist has confirmed the story. Fake Steve weighs in.
posted by littlerobothead at 9:02 AM PST - 120 comments

When it was found in Ancient Egyptian tombs, it looked fresh - so somebody tasted it. Honey can last thousands of years without spoiling, a remarkable feat for a foodstuff. These antibacterial and antioxidant qualities of honey have been applied to food preservation for years, but the medical community is just beginning to look closely at how this can be used to assist in healing. In particular, Honey from Australia and New Zealand seems most successful in helping large wounds heal without infection. This is due to particular plants that the bees frequent, which provide greater antibacterial qualities to the honey. The FDA has even approved honey-infused bandages for use in healing. After the buzz of medicinal leeches and medical maggots, I'm glad there's a natural therapy that doesn't creep people out.
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:01 AM PST - 90 comments

Leszek Kolakowski, a distinguished Polish philosopher who critiqued the Communist system and helped inspire the Solidarity movement, passed away last Friday in Oxford, UK. [more inside]
posted by orrnyereg at 8:52 AM PST - 13 comments

BBC iPlayer: As the American phenomenon of the children's beauty pageant hits the UK, this documentary uncovers a surreal new world where nine-year-olds get fake tans and seven-year-olds wear contact lenses. [more inside]
posted by nam3d at 8:41 AM PST - 40 comments

Man Not Superman based on a story by Jonathan Goldstein about a mortal man dealing with the pressures of dating Lois Lane. Found on Post-it Note Stories: Stories illustrated on little yellow Post-It Notes in beautiful black Sharpie. (via).
posted by ND¢ at 7:49 AM PST - 61 comments

“BRING: staple gun, hammer/driver, screws, dance stuff, advil, hacksaw, cell numbers, MUSIC." Love In Vain is an amazing short film created in only 48 hours as part of the Dance Films Association 48 Hour Challenge. Here's how it was done. Recommended for fans of Robert Johnson. (via Projects.)
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 6:35 AM PST - 4 comments

The Manhattan Airport Foundation. From the About Us: It doesn’t take long to realize Central Park squanders 843 acres of the most valuable real estate in the world. From the FAQ: To date, nearly 100 investors have signed on to provide approximately $130M in equity with another $80M from the bond market making Manhattan Airport the most ambitious privately-funded airport development project in US history. Apparently this is for reals.
posted by allkindsoftime at 6:33 AM PST - 74 comments

According to the Pulitzer Prize winning Politifact.com, change has stalled. Obama has kept 2 of his top 25 campaign promises so far. But he hasn't closed Guantanamo, restored habeus corpus for "enemy combatatnts", attempted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, attempted to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, or cracked down on lobbyists. With promises on healthcare in the works, Obama seems to be at a crucial point in his first term.
posted by Hume at 6:20 AM PST - 167 comments

Legofilter: Introducing the all new 2010 KLR-20 from Regent. The very first luxury combat vehicle. [more inside]
posted by Fleebnork at 6:10 AM PST - 8 comments

"Kill them all. For God knows His own." Today is the 800th anniversary of the massacre of the inhabitants of the town of Beziers in Languedoc, in the south of France, known by the Romans as Gallia Narbonensis. Beziers was the first town to be sacked in the Albigensian Crusades to extirpate the Christian heresy of Catharism, which flourished in Languedoc. The Albigensian Crusades represented the initial application in Europe of religious warfare sanctioned by the resurgent medieval Papacy, and led directly to the institution of the Inquisition and rise of the Dominican Order.
posted by rdone at 5:06 AM PST - 37 comments

SYTL: A Normal Day [more inside]
posted by kolophon at 5:05 AM PST - 16 comments

The author of a new book on how rising oil prices will change America makes the claims that higher gasoline prices will make the country healthier and safer. Christopher Steiner asserts that, for every $1 that gasoline prices rise, obesity rates drop by 10% (as people walk more and eat out less). As for "safer", that comes in when high gasoline prices force police out of their cruisers and onto bicycles and foot patrols, where they can interact more closely with their communities. [more inside]
posted by acb at 3:58 AM PST - 61 comments

Conservatism Is Dead, Reagan Was Wrong [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 3:45 AM PST - 90 comments

Oakland California passes landmark marijuana tax cnn video [more inside]
posted by hortense at 1:29 AM PST - 33 comments

It's important to remember that everybody in our great republic has an equally important voice. [via Reddit]
posted by Netzapper at 12:48 AM PST - 21 comments

Buzz Aldrin, aka Doc Rendezvous, raps about his Rocket Experience. The video even comes with a making-of featuring Snoop Dog and Talib Kweli. Reflections on the video as being more than internet ephemera.
posted by phyrewerx at 12:14 AM PST - 13 comments

This is a firsthand and frantic video of a group of people coming together to rescue a mother and two children who were trapped in an overturned and burning SUV.
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:04 PM PST - 73 comments

High Dynamic Range 'photosketches' of Tokyo from Toshiro, and a site in Japanese containing hundreds more photographs that seem more real than real. [more inside]
posted by kanewai at 8:56 PM PST - 42 comments

Why hip-hop sucks in 2009. by Dr. Lawyer Indian Chief of FreeDarko [more inside]
posted by AceRock at 6:29 PM PST - 107 comments

Murder: New York City. A map pinpointing murders in the five boroughs of NYC from 2003-09. Broken down by time of day, weapon used, age, sex and ethnicity of both victim and perpetrator. Not surprisingly, in the heat of summer the body count rises. [more inside]
posted by crossoverman at 5:40 PM PST - 47 comments

Alice Austen (1866-1952) was a pioneering American female photographer who documented life in turn of the (last) century Staten Island. Her home, Clear Comfort, is a National Historic Landmark where she lived for many years with Gertrude Tate. [more inside]
posted by Morrigan at 5:34 PM PST - 3 comments

Mark Bittman strikes again, with 101 Simple Salads for the Season to go with his three previous lists of 101 recipes.
posted by dersins at 4:00 PM PST - 42 comments

Congress has decided to stop shelling out $137.5 million apiece on the Boeing/Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptor. The F-22 shall be superseded (or "supplemented") by the F-35, at a much more reasonable $83 million a pop. [more inside]
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:18 PM PST - 167 comments

Endangered pangolins (scaly anteaters) have been heavily hunted in China to supply a large demand for food, particularly fetus soup (warning: graphic photos), and Chinese medicine. "Proceedings of the workshop on trade and conservation of pangolins native to South and Southeast Asia" [PDF] a report from TRAFFIC (Wildlife Trade Network) was released yesterday. More on pangolins previously on MetaFilter
posted by booknerd at 3:04 PM PST - 31 comments

YouTube user ChrisDodgen posts videos of covers he's done. What separates him from the rest is how he mixes multiple videos of himself to harmonize on covers (Fleet Foxes' White Winter Hymnal and Ragged Wood, and The Get Up Kids' Holiday).
posted by spiderskull at 3:00 PM PST - 22 comments

"What it feels like to be at the stove creating dishes for some of the most powerful people on earth." Club de Chefs des Chefs is the elite fraternity of chefs to world leaders - including those who head the private kitchens of the United States President, Prince of Monaco, Queen of England, European Commission, the Kremlin, President of France, Chancellor of Germany and Great Hall of Beijing. Barely 30 members strong, the club meets this week in Italy, for the Club's annual gala dinner and food tour. Lisa Mullins of NPR's The World interviewed a few of them by phone from Rome today (Mark Flanagan of Buckingham Palace refused to reveal the Queen's favorite dish... a kitchen policy, lest she be served it at every public event ever after). Past gatherings have happened in France, Greece, Monaco; and the 2010 meeting takes place in Hong Kong. They wouldn't have you as a member... but don't let that stop your culinary envy.
posted by pineapple at 2:05 PM PST - 42 comments

Tomorrow, July 22 2009, we will witness the longest solar eclipse of our century. Instead of the sunrise, people will see a black hole rising in the sky and birds will be unsure if the day is beginning or not. It might become the most viewed eclipse ever. [more inside]
posted by canine epigram at 1:41 PM PST - 82 comments

An albino with a pinkish face and an appearance described as "rabbit-like," Reverend Dr. William Archibald Spooner was an Oxford don and priest of the Church of England. For decades he was a respected member of the faculty at Oxford, lecturing on Christianity, philosophy, and ancient history, but he is mostly remembered for unintentionally transposing letters or syllables as he spoke (e.g., "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride" or "You have hissed all my mystery lectures"). Almost 165 years after his birth (on 22 July 1844), the details of his life are no longer common knowledge, but the nature of his mis-spoken words is remembered. A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched. Such wordplay, intentional or otherwise, has a history beyond the good Reverend Doctor, but he is alone in his fame. Having trouble creating bitty wanter of your own? Fablebish to the rescue.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:05 PM PST - 39 comments

Drop the acid just before the bus leaves the station: In this January 14, 1967 broadsheet, probably distributed along the Haight on telephone polls, walls, and in windows, ComCo passes on some learned tips on good Bay Area headventure trips. ( Via digaman's twitter )
posted by The Whelk at 12:05 PM PST - 31 comments

"She was a rock star," recalls Ira Tucker Jr., who grew up watching Tharpe with his father's gospel group in the 1940s and '50s. "You know, like Beyonce today and people like that. That's what Rosetta was to us." Sister Rosetta Tharpe wasn't the first one to bring black popular music into the church. (Here's the great Arizona Dranes playing barroom honky-tonk piano on the gospel side I Shall Wear a Crown in 1927.) But her fierce stage presence and her original blend of gospel, boogie-woogie, swing and smoking hot blues guitar was a crucial forgotten influence on what we now recognize as rock and roll. (Many more recordings inside. Enjoy!) [more inside]
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:51 AM PST - 18 comments

In 1948, WWII veteran Earl Shaffer decided to "walk the Army out of his system" by hiking the full length of the Appalachian Trail, Georgia to Maine, in one season. At the time, no one had attempted it, and the Appalachian Trail Conference didn't think it could be done. Not only did he complete it, setting the standard for generations of thru-hikers to follow, but he did the walk twice more in his life, the last time at the age of 79.
posted by Miko at 10:28 AM PST - 36 comments

"It takes about seven years," Grim writes, "for folks to realize what's wrong with any given drug. It slips away, only to return again as if it were new."

Why We Say Yes To Drugs -- an interesting review of This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High In America. [more inside]
posted by empath at 9:44 AM PST - 112 comments

Canada's Bill C-61 is being zombified as talks begin this week in Vancouver to attempt a dialogue on public opinion. But it's okay, cause they're using twitter this time. [more inside]
posted by tamarack at 9:44 AM PST - 16 comments

Eat at Doug's. An Orlando Weekly reporter investigates the existence of secret manatee eating clubs in Florida.
posted by Telf at 9:41 AM PST - 79 comments

8-bit Weezer. Video game music netlabel Pterodactyl Squad has released an 8-bit album tribute to Weezer, for free.
posted by Lush at 9:05 AM PST - 36 comments

The Apollo 11 Command Module code (Comanche054) and Lunar Module code (Luminary099) have been open sourced.
posted by chunking express at 8:48 AM PST - 47 comments

The Coming Insurrection (pdf) (in French) by the Invisible Committee. [more inside]
posted by jrb223 at 8:14 AM PST - 28 comments

What if we condensed the UK into a village of 100 people? The Independent experiment with demographics.
posted by mippy at 7:46 AM PST - 110 comments

Fired from The Canon. Classics that maybe aren't so classic. (kottke via secondpass)
posted by littlerobothead at 7:37 AM PST - 209 comments

Allan Milburn MP has just published a report [pdf] on social exclusion from the professions in the UK. Polly Toynbee of The Guardian newspaper opines. The Guardian has a few problems on that score of its own however.
posted by pharm at 6:45 AM PST - 56 comments

Interesting article about the movie Stand and Deliever In 1988, the movie stand and deliver told the story of Jaime Escalante (information about him is here) and what happened in the class of '82 at Garfield high school. Essentially it is movie about a teacher who dares to challenge and believe in students to do what they, and those around them, think is impossible to achieve. [more inside]
posted by Prunedish at 5:13 AM PST - 47 comments

Detexify is a neat little tool that let's you draw a symbol and then finds the corresponding LaTeX notation. The explanation is an interesting read as well.
posted by swordfishtrombones at 4:50 AM PST - 37 comments

Hello its me, this is gonna be hard for you to read but I write this knowing every time you thinks shits got to much for you to handle (so don't cry on it MUM!!) you can read this and hopefully it will help you all get through. For a start SHIT I got hit!! .... As Im writing this letter I can see you all crying and mornin my death but if I could have one wish in an "after life" it would be to stop your crying and continueing your dreams (as I did) because if I were watching only that would brake my heart.

It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that Rifleman Cyrus Thatcher from 2nd Battalion The Rifles was killed in Afghanistan on Tuesday 2 June 2009.
posted by orthogonality at 4:14 AM PST - 50 comments

The Present Sound of London -- "I’ve been lured to London by money at the hottest, stickiest time of year. Every time I visit, I’m struck by the noises—not necessarily their volume, but their strangeness and variety in comparison to the quiet humdrum of the provincial town where I live. So this time I’m equipped with an audio recorder." By Giles Turnbull.
posted by nthdegx at 4:13 AM PST - 8 comments

"Many banks were concerned about business-sensitive information and requested confidentiality of individual survey responses. Accordingly, pursuant to our legal obligations, SIGTARP is unable in this report to attribute any results or comments to a specific institution. However, SIGTARP is in the process of evaluating recipients’ claims of confidentiality and will provide copies of the individual responses that will include information provided by the banks to the maximum permitted by law. SIGTARP plans to post the responses, redacted as necessary, on its website within 30 days." TARP special inspector general Neil Barofsky
posted by RoseyD at 2:25 AM PST - 12 comments

In rather unsettling news, it appears that a chinese corporation bought one of America's most reliable news sources. For now, the editorial line doesn't seem to have changed, but will it last?
posted by vivelame at 1:07 AM PST - 90 comments

How to Get Rid of Things — a do-it-yourself guide dedicated to helping you prevent, eliminate or remove common annoyances from your life. For example: How to Get Rid of Voles. "Once you have the vole in hand, simply squeeze until you hear the pop." [more inside]
posted by netbros at 10:42 PM PST - 33 comments

Forgive and Forget? "Rwanda's warring population has a lot to account for, and a lot to reconcile. Can science point the way to understanding?"
posted by homunculus at 10:39 PM PST - 5 comments

That Lord! He's always coming up with one brilliant idea or another. Godless Comedy from The Beeb's That Mitchell and Webb Look.
posted by captnkurt at 9:15 PM PST - 36 comments

Want to see some fine drama, but can't afford the cost of flying to London? Well, lucky for you, the Royal National Theatre in London has started a new program: NT Live. How it works: they record live performances in HD, then broadcast them via satellite to art house cinemas around the world (UK Venues, International Venues). The first show in the series is Jean Racine's Phedre, starring the great Helen Mirren. [more inside]
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:02 PM PST - 12 comments

The world's next Coca-Cola or Starbucks is more likely to emerge from Asia, the Middle East or South America They comprise Juan Valdez Café, a Colombian coffee chain; Almarai, a Saudi dairy and fruit-juice company based in Riyadh; Patchi, a Lebanese boutique chocolate chain; ChangYu, China's biggest wine producer; and United Spirits, India's largest liquor group, which owns Scotch whisky Whyte and Mackay.
posted by nam3d at 6:09 PM PST - 34 comments

The research, literary, and copy editors of Vanity Fair go to town on Sarah Palin's resignation speech.
seeing as nearly everyone I talked to at the 10th meetup was an editor of some kind, you'll all get a kick out of this
posted by Jon_Evil at 4:57 PM PST - 73 comments

40 years ago today, a man walked on the frickin' Moon. [previously]
posted by designbot at 4:38 PM PST - 77 comments

Is the world ready for a global university? Apply now! (via) [more inside]
posted by oldleada at 3:58 PM PST - 21 comments

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested for "breaking into" his own home.
posted by ocherdraco at 2:19 PM PST - 979 comments

A "Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope" ( BLAST) has made 2 science flights. The documentry Blast! is as much about science as it is about the crazy life of scientists. [more inside]
posted by kudzu at 1:59 PM PST - 5 comments

Jimmy Carter leaves the Southern Baptist Church [M]y decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service. This was in conflict with my belief - confirmed in the holy scriptures - that we are all equal in the eyes of God.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:32 PM PST - 156 comments

21 artists who changed mainstream comics (for better or worse)
posted by Artw at 1:20 PM PST - 53 comments

Gordon Waller of British duo Peter and Gordon had died at 64 Gordon Waller, from the British duo Peter and Gordon has died of cardiac arrest in CT this past weekend. The songs I really like to listen to from them was the one Paul McCartney wrote "A World Without Love" and "True Love Ways". Sad to hear he's passed.
posted by garnetgirl at 1:17 PM PST - 9 comments

Cute aliens invading grandpa's postcards.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:56 PM PST - 9 comments

SkyMall product reviews. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:13 PM PST - 47 comments

American Apparel's Next Top Model (SLYT, mildly NSFW)
posted by pxe2000 at 10:54 AM PST - 55 comments

Louis Crompton, the author of Homosexuality and Civilization and Byron and Greek Love, has died. [more inside]
posted by dickymilk at 10:11 AM PST - 15 comments

Cars + fonts = the iQ font.
posted by billysumday at 9:47 AM PST - 32 comments

The New York Times discusses some of the nation's most atrocious bands in the context of the Vans Warped Tour. We've seen some of these bands on the blue before, but never before has there been this much atrocity in one place. [more inside]
posted by LSK at 8:26 AM PST - 169 comments

You Are Not Going to be Famous. On Metatourism. How NOT to Raise a Chimp in Your Home: the Legacy of W. N. Kellogg. [more inside]
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:25 AM PST - 6 comments

He built an artificial rainbow machine, but had even bigger plans.
posted by chronkite at 7:20 AM PST - 14 comments

"Family Circus" strikes back (sorta) against "Pearls Before Swine"
posted by wendell at 7:04 AM PST - 130 comments

The acquisition of Porsche by Volkswagen, just weeks after a Porsche attempt to take over VW via a series of complex stock options backfired, appears to be the latest salvo in the longstanding feud between cousins Ferdinand Piech and Wolfgang Porsche. [more inside]
posted by JaredSeth at 6:42 AM PST - 30 comments

The Rock Band Network allows any band to make their songs playable in Rock Band, "set their own price (50 cents to $3 per song) and receive 30% of any resulting sales."
posted by minifigs at 1:42 AM PST - 44 comments

Pictures of military subjects , many of them annotated, from all over such as Russia, Malaysia, Japan (Special Police), Ireland, Cyprus, Sri Lanka and Canada. [more inside]
posted by Mitheral at 1:14 AM PST - 14 comments

Sunday morning amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley captured a photo of an apparent asteroid or comet strike on Jupiter. Alerted by the announcement on the ALPO-Jupiter email list, other amateurs soon posted follow-up images. [more inside]
posted by flug at 12:02 AM PST - 39 comments

Nirvana and Rick Astley: Together at Last.
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:58 PM PST - 71 comments

The ultimate exam. 15 questions designed to test your knowledge and abilities in a variety of subjects.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:36 PM PST - 54 comments

Sued by the forest: Should nature be able to take you to court?
posted by homunculus at 10:10 PM PST - 36 comments

I started reading about alternative uses for olive oil. The led me to the kinda-cool AltUse.com, whose only failing is an inability to directly link to cool alternative uses for posts like this one. Luckily, other sites like this one can show you how to shine your shoes or treat minor burns with Cool-Whip or free your tongue from a metal pole with WD-40.
posted by Kickstart70 at 9:50 PM PST - 20 comments

There's just something about being read to out loud, even if it's over the radio. Wisconsin Public Radio presents Chapter a Day, in which listeners are treated to daily doses of literature (both fiction and non-fiction). The program presents one book at a time, giving listeners the chance to follow stories from beginning to end over a period of weeks.
posted by teamparka at 8:05 PM PST - 25 comments

The story of stuff and how it's currently being played out between the political economies of China and the US (G2 'Chimerica') in an illuminating Fallows vs. Ferguson cage match. [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 7:43 PM PST - 5 comments

Saikyo Senritsu Meikyu (literally The Ultimate Horror Labyrinth) is the longest (900m, 60 minutes from start to finish) and "scariest" horror house in the world. ...Or at least it used to be. [more inside]
posted by misozaki at 6:40 PM PST - 69 comments

Obama's Faithful Flock. Sarah Posner reminds us that Obama promised to reverse the most egregious aspects of Bush's faith-based policies and asks why he's extending them.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:58 PM PST - 66 comments

Time Gentlemen, Please! is a point-n-click adventure game with a style that harks back to LucasArts/ScummVM games like Sam and Max and Maniac Mansion. The game follows two guys as they travel through time, making wise-cracks while trying to save the universe and rollback their contribution to Hitler's rise to power (which happened in Ben There, Dan That, a game that was the JayIsGames Best of 2008) by un-inventing the coat hanger. (note: you don't need to have played the first game - I didn't). [more inside]
posted by tybeet at 5:07 PM PST - 21 comments

Author and educator Frank McCourt, dead at 78.
posted by blaneyphoto at 4:41 PM PST - 62 comments

On October 1, 1908, the first Ford Model T rolled out of the factory on Piquette Avenue in Detroit. Many people today wonder why Henry Ford started his nomenclature with the letter "T." Short answer: He didn't. [more inside]
posted by Turkey Glue at 4:23 PM PST - 19 comments

Wow, what a great discovery I made tonight! You may have heard of "Oblique Strategies" (previously mentioned on MeFi). Subtitled "over one hundred worthwhile dilemmas," it is a deck of cards first created in 1975 by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt to help jump start creative thinking by having the users draw, read and react to a card bearing an abstruse aphorism. There are by now plenty of online versions (easily googled!) as well as an iPhone app. (More info available at the Oblique Strategies fan page!) I just discovered today, however, that "Oblique Strategies" was not the first in its genre, but rather was following in the very footsteps of Marshall McLuhan! [more inside]
posted by Misciel at 4:09 PM PST - 16 comments

"Being gay in Jamaica, it's like, don't tell anybody. Just keep it to yourself..." homophobia in jamaica and the culture it's creating.
posted by artof.mulata at 3:43 PM PST - 57 comments

Stalin's Secret Weapon - a Russian hobbyist's terminator-esque diorama painstakingly constructed from military action figures. (Via buzz
posted by madamjujujive at 3:30 PM PST - 22 comments

Si Begg has made a new EP. In the spirit of the age he's experiementing with how to get it out into the world, he's given his samples away before, now he's giving all the songs away free or you can buy a nice box set with an 12" made of oak!
posted by sam and rufus at 1:49 PM PST - 10 comments

'Silent partner' examines what happens when people 'don't tell' "We can really see the destructive effects of 'don't ask, don't tell' . . . when you see the pain that these spouses and partners go through". Lt. Dan Choi introduces a new documentary film about three gay partners of military personnel. [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 12:20 PM PST - 19 comments

Why We Must Ration Health Care by Peter Singer.
posted by grouse at 12:16 PM PST - 93 comments

“We’ve spent billions on air bags, antilock brakes, better steering, safer cars and roads, but the number of fatalities has remained constant,” said David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah and a leading researcher in the field of distracted driving. “Our return on investment for those billions is zero,” he added. “And that’s because we’re using [cellphone and messaging] devices in our cars.” [more inside]
posted by storybored at 10:33 AM PST - 175 comments

Lovelace and Babbage Semi-historical webcomic adventures of mathematicians. Bonus: guest appearanace by Isambard K. Brunel
posted by fixer at 9:30 AM PST - 28 comments

So you say you wish you were doing something different like attending San Diego ComicCon or taking a Coast-to-Coast Train Trip? Well, you can do both vicariously via Webcomics Legend (and MeFi's Own) rstevens who is Tumblogging the whole adventure! Okay, not that big an adventure, but he's one of the few IMO who can balance the snark and the gee-whiz enough to make it entertaining... "So much to review before traveling..." "Albany Station, you're a real charmer!" The "hon" effect.
posted by wendell at 6:01 AM PST - 34 comments

As I sat there, dazed and sweating, I felt hung-over, bordering on ashamed. ”Dear Lord,” I whispered, “what have I done to myself? I still have an entree coming! Will I survive?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:21 AM PST - 110 comments

1 ball, 1 cup aka, the new rules of beer pong.
posted by iamkimiam at 12:19 AM PST - 35 comments

Divers [have been] spooked by tales of assault as swarms of aggressive jumbo flying squid invade the shallows off San Diego. No, not the return of Cthulhu; it's just a swarm of Humboldt squid. Here's a rather long talk with video images by one of the world's experts on these vicious nightmares.
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:08 PM PST - 43 comments

The first human settlements... before the bronze age, before the iron age and even probably before the stone age, didn’t happen because people liked each other’s company. "As the old saying goes, there's safety in numbers... and fortifications. "If you have any doubt about how wood, stone and later even steel walls helped shape human civilization, all you need to do is take a close look at most of our cities, especially the older ones."
posted by Effigy2000 at 10:30 PM PST - 38 comments

Recently, a man's sight was returned to him after losing it for 12 years. How did he do it? Surgeons drilled a hole through one of his canines, put a lens in it, and implanted the construct in his eye. [more inside]
posted by scrutiny at 10:21 PM PST - 65 comments

Kommunalka - communal apartments - were begun by the Bolsheviks in Russia at the end of the Russian Revolution to address overcrowding in cities - and also to punish the bourgeoisie who had previously lived in comfort. Kommunalka were an enduring social experiment, where multiple families were assigned by the state to live together in close quarters with no expectation of privacy. It was not uncommon for tenants to spy on each other. Though communism ended in Russia almost two decades ago, Kommunalka still exist today.
posted by contessa at 9:58 PM PST - 18 comments

Australian town bans bottled water.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:18 PM PST - 55 comments

Arlington National Cemetery has a problem. Covering 624 acres, the final resting place for 320,000 fallen, the Army can't keep track of where soldiers are buried.
posted by Marky at 3:22 PM PST - 21 comments

Fast food fashions of the Eighties.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 1:47 PM PST - 53 comments

Sassy lesbian couple in Florida celebrates 70 years together after having to keep their relationship secret for decades. You go, girls!
posted by digaman at 12:29 PM PST - 76 comments

The simulated brain - "The scientists behind Blue Brain hope to have a virtual human brain functioning in ten years... Dr. Markram began by collecting detailed information about the rat's NCC, down to the level of genes, proteins, molecules and the electrical signals that connect one neuron to another. These complex relationships were then turned into millions of equations, written in software. He then recorded real-world data -- the strength and path of each electrical signal -- directly from rat brains to test the accuracy of the software." Is it possible to digitally simulate a brain accurately? Can it only be analog? And are there quantum effects to be considered? (previously 1 2 3 4) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 12:21 PM PST - 251 comments

Cyriak's Animation Mix is the work of a quite talented yet somewhat twisted mind.
posted by Plutor at 11:09 AM PST - 18 comments

Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man, has died aged 113. [more inside]
posted by idiomatika at 6:26 AM PST - 61 comments

Courtesy of the folks over at It's Only Rock'n Roll - The Rolling Stones Fan Club Since 1980 is a convenient list of pro-shot live performances by Mick and the boys. [more inside]
posted by punkfloyd at 6:25 AM PST - 15 comments

"On the evening of July 5th, several hundred Uighur youths went on a bloody rampage [in Urumqi, Xinjiang] following a peaceful demonstration over a separate incident of ethnic violence at a Guangdong toy factory. . . . In the days that followed, bands of roving Han vigilantes armed with kitchen knives, hammers, metal pipes and other improvised weapons sought to mete out revenge in the Uighur suburbs of the city. . . . Caught in-between these increasingly polarized and agitated ethnic communities is the Chinese state, which, rather than orchestrating the brutal oppression of the non-Han minorities, finds itself increasingly powerless to stop the spiralling circle of ethnic hatred which its policies helped to foster in the first place." [more inside]
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:14 AM PST - 45 comments

"Science Fiction Fandom: your shortlists aren’t very good." Writer, critic and literary academic Adam Roberts has a problem with the shortlists for the 2009 Hugo Awards: in his view, they're unimaginative, conservative and profoundly lazy. Are his concerns valid? And even if they are, should anyone expect more from a popular nominated award voted on by people eligible only through having joined the current or previous World Science Fiction Convention? Given the existence of jury-selected awards such as the Nebula and Clarke, what's wrong with the Hugo letting ordinary readers and fans having the chance to vote for what they liked?
posted by Major Clanger at 2:01 AM PST - 157 comments

Build your own strandbeest (laser-cutter required) [via] [more inside]
posted by mhjb at 9:24 PM PST - 9 comments

Social Skydiving. An introverted programmer and student decides to overcome his social inhibitions by attempting a conversation with a stranger everyday for thirty days and (obligatorily) blogging the results.
posted by norabarnacl3 at 8:43 PM PST - 29 comments

A week ago, when Oscar F. Mayer, retired chairman of the Oscar Mayer meats company and grandson of the Original Oscar, passed away at 95, he left instructions that the Wienermobile NOT appear at his funeral because "it would be too much of a spectacle." Well, today, there was a bit of a spectacle as one of the iconic vehicles crashed into the side of a house in Racine, Wisconsin. There is a Wienermobile Blog written by the team of drivers but they have no statement there on this incident (yet).
Previ-ously
posted by wendell at 8:17 PM PST - 30 comments

Walter Cronkite is dead.
posted by the dief at 5:34 PM PST - 266 comments

Masturbation in the animal kingdom.
posted by gman at 4:49 PM PST - 52 comments

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has returned its first images of the Apollo moon landing sites. The spacecraft’s onboard camera photographed Lunar Module descent stages at five of the six Apollo sites—11, 14, 15, 16, and 17. The Apollo 12 site will be photographed in coming weeks. [more inside]
posted by prinado at 4:16 PM PST - 38 comments

"I don't see where there's a story, I'm not the only one that does it." Such is the excuse of patriotic Atwater City (CA) Councilman (and Mayor Pre Tem) Gary Frago for sending out "at least a half-dozen e-mails to city staff and other prominent community members containing racist jokes aimed at President Barack Obama, his wife and black people in general." Frago received some of the e-mail jokes from ex-city worker Bob Rieger and forwarded them on "to various community leaders, 'including a county supervisor, a former police chief, a city manager, a former city council member, a former president of a veterans group, a former grand knight of the Knights of Columbus, among others.'" Rieger said the jokes he sent had no racial meaning. "As far as I'm concerned the e-mails need no explanation," he said. "I sent them out, I'm not concerned with it," he said. [more inside]
posted by ericb at 4:10 PM PST - 90 comments

"Immediately, Ike's rumor mill went into a frenzy. Wired magazine posted the criminal complaint against Stancl on its Web site, and kids downloaded the document, which identified the victims by their initials and dates of birth. Then the kids went to Facebook and searched the Eisenhower network by plugging in birth dates. Within minutes they had a full list of the names of the alleged victims, which made the story even more incredible. These were not wayward, damaged boys. They were athletes. Leaders. Popular, college-bound, bright-futured kids. Boys so unimpeachably straight that there was no way you could imagine them doing the things they were supposed to have done with Tony Stancl."
posted by Saucy Intruder at 1:15 PM PST - 114 comments

Kindle goes all 1984 on Orwell Unbelievably, amazon.com has deleted all copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from the Kindle and other ebook platforms.. How could they not see the irony?
posted by batboy at 1:02 PM PST - 183 comments

Janey Thomson's Marathon Any longtime fan of 80s arcade game Track & Field and fan of old gaming lore around Desert Bus will no doubt fall in love with this new classic game written in the perfect style of early 80s Konami combined with brutally long punishment games. I gave up after a few minutes but damn did I want to keep going and see the finish. [via mefi projects]
posted by mathowie at 11:33 AM PST - 55 comments

Tetragram for Enlargement is an architectural video installation by Apparati Effimeri that decorates, distorts, and eventually explodes the fortress Rocca Malatestiana. [Italian] [more inside]
posted by carsonb at 11:29 AM PST - 4 comments

Why I won't be at my high school reunion. A math geek reminisces about the joys of high school. As another who has much-less-than-pleasant memories of those years, this struck a nerve.
posted by bitmage at 11:24 AM PST - 237 comments

Dancing with the Star Wars Stars. It's Vadertime.
posted by verb at 11:00 AM PST - 40 comments

The conservative movement continues to suffer problems, within the Republican Party, without, and, well...
posted by StrikeTheViol at 10:55 AM PST - 122 comments

"This is the lock you got from your parents when you were 8." "I could chew through this lock." Hal Grades Your Bike Locking (2003). Hal (and Kerri) Grade Your Bike Locking (2008). Hal Grades Your Bike Locking 3: The Final Warning! (2009) Skip to the last one unless if you're not truly dedicated to locking minutiae. (via)
posted by maudlin at 10:41 AM PST - 51 comments

Want a new guitar, but don't want a boring ole Fender or Gibson? Then Johnson Guitars U.S.A may be the guitar maker for you. Keep your audiences wondering if you're here to rock out or gun them all down, sacrifice them to Apophis, feed them to a shark (or dragon), or simply take off into the stratosphere fueled by the power of your rock.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:15 AM PST - 22 comments

Emily Loizeau's Je Suis Jalouse was for me the kind of song that immediately makes you want more. Emily's debut album L'autre bout du monde (The Other Side of the World) was released in 2006. She began studying piano at the age of 5, and cites Georges Brassens, Bob Dylan, and The Beatles as her primary influences. Listen to more wonderfulness with Sister, Je Ne Sais Pas Choisir, or the title track from her debut album. More listening if you are at last.fm
posted by lazaruslong at 10:06 AM PST - 5 comments

A thought provoking interview on the state of Pakistan in Guernica. [more inside]
posted by Lame_username at 8:56 AM PST - 4 comments

Tom Baker returns to Doctor Who. [more inside]
posted by permafrost at 8:35 AM PST - 74 comments

The story of prisoner F95488.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 7:50 AM PST - 74 comments

PSA's from the Future
posted by Pater Aletheias at 6:02 AM PST - 47 comments

The gaming website Eurogamer posted a scathing review of the MMO Darkfall, yet the developers claim that the reviewer only played the game for two hours. Eurogamer refused to take down the review and became hated by the Darkfall community. This lead to what might be the most sublime nerdrage in the history of mankind. To Eurogamer's credit, they commissioned a second review of the game by Kieron Gillen. [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla at 5:52 AM PST - 86 comments

North American Insects and Spiders - 7000+ close-ups of wolf spiders, black widows, honeybees, a ladybug eating an aphid, gulf fritillary butterflies, praying mantises, and much, much more
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:53 AM PST - 44 comments

The Great Google Doodle Triforce Conspiracy
posted by the_very_hungry_caterpillar at 1:45 AM PST - 29 comments

Crocs face bankruptcy! They sold over 100 million pairs of their practical, stylish yet affordable shoes to George W Bush, Steven Tyler and my overweight aunt amongst others, so where did it all go wrong? One bright note: boxed, early models are already selling on Ebay for big money.
posted by johnny novak at 1:05 AM PST - 223 comments

Meeting Ticker -- if this helps shorten even one meeting by one minute, it'll have been worth it.
posted by nthdegx at 12:34 AM PST - 20 comments

Australian scientists have found the world's oldest penis. Published Monday in the online version of Nature, the discovery of the 400 million-year-old clasper in an ancient fish specimen shows that animals were gettin' it on earlier than previously thought. Says one study author, "We were surprised because it's so big. We were expecting something smaller." SFW
posted by Dilemma at 10:00 PM PST - 34 comments

The NAVIS project is a multilevel international database for ancient ships of Europe. The database has very detailed information and pictures of ships from the 2nd millenium BC to the 12th century AD (found whilst trying to answer this AskMe). [more inside]
posted by tellurian at 9:17 PM PST - 5 comments

David Sedaris delivers a pizza. Pitch-perfect parody at youtube from the comedy group Weak Nights.
posted by mathowie at 8:43 PM PST - 70 comments

Anthrax War - On the 6th Anniversary of the death of Dr. David Kelly, a provocative film (and book) about the 2001 Anthrax Attacks examines Kelly's role in the hidden world of germ weapons research. Youtube parts: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. [more inside]
posted by acro at 8:02 PM PST - 4 comments

Death Race (NYT) - for the third year, Pittsfield Vermont has hosted a 10 mile endurance run. [more inside]
posted by plinth at 6:12 PM PST - 16 comments

"To you, my friends, whose identity in these pages is veiled in fictional disguise, it is but fitting that I dedicate this book." Old school etiquette from the inimitable Emily Post and others. [more inside]
posted by Anonymous at 6:10 PM PST - 11 comments

He lives somewhere in LA, looks like Michael Jackson and Barack Obama, loves rap, chess, nachos, movies and pizza, has some comic books to sell, and wants to meet white, Asian and Latina Ladies with big butts to give him money, be his sex slaves, or just help him with Things. Performance art project or genuine kook?
posted by acb at 5:49 PM PST - 42 comments

The New York Times profiles Jack Vance (but fails to mention Vancian Magic. (Curse you Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition!)
posted by Artw at 5:05 PM PST - 53 comments

DNA Not The Same In Every Cell Of Body. "...calls into question one of the most basic assumptions of human genetics: that when it comes to DNA, every cell in the body is essentially identical to every other cell... if it turns out that blood and tissue cells do not match genetically, these ambitious and expensive genome-wide association studies may prove to have been essentially flawed from the outset"
posted by GuyZero at 4:13 PM PST - 47 comments

Last night at the London o2 arena, Gary Numan joined Trent and the gang on stage for an unexpected double bill rendition of Metal and Cars. The crowd went wild....
posted by Mintyblonde at 3:33 PM PST - 45 comments

Ars Technica reports 12% of e-mail users have actually tried to buy stuff from spam, according to a study by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group. Read the published survey here: part 1 (PDF), part 2(4.6MB zip file) and press release. (via).
posted by slogger at 2:36 PM PST - 45 comments

Bunni is a super adorable harvest moon/animal crossing flash game thing by Andre Spierings and Daniel Cook (the folks behind fishing girl). (via JiG) [more inside]
posted by juv3nal at 2:33 PM PST - 26 comments

Could Jesus Walk on Custard?
posted by grapefruitmoon at 1:57 PM PST - 41 comments

Galactic Arms Race is a new game developed by the Evolutionary Complexity Research Group (EPlex) at the University of Central Florida. The game is a fairly basic 3D space shooter with an interesting angle: all weapons are genetically evolved, not designed by the game's creators. (Windows only, requires XNA installation before play)
posted by mkb at 1:39 PM PST - 13 comments

RIP Julius Shulman, iconic photographer of modernist architecture.
posted by WPW at 12:43 PM PST - 13 comments

The lying down game.
posted by furtive at 12:06 PM PST - 80 comments

Nice hair!
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 11:17 AM PST - 66 comments

How to win in Afghanistan? Peter Bergen looks at the capability of the Taliban insurgents, NATO troops, and the Afghan army and police, compares the current conflict to the Soviet invasion, and weighs the dangers of civilian casualties and popular support. He concludes that renewed American effort in the fight will "produce a relatively stable and prosperous Central Asian state." (via Matthew Yglesias)
posted by Pants! at 11:15 AM PST - 45 comments

Worried about the environmental impact of your book buying habits? The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina suggests you consider how your books are being shipped.(SLYP)
posted by Toekneesan at 11:05 AM PST - 43 comments

Harry Potter, The Musical (SLYTPL (Single Link Youtube Playlist))
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:50 AM PST - 11 comments

Ghost Hunting With Girls Aloud (MLYT) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:28 AM PST - 6 comments

The NHS in the UK has released a pamphlet called Pleasure (pdf) to educate teens on the more enjoyable aspects of carnal relations. Some disagree with this development.
posted by Antidisestablishmentarianist at 10:27 AM PST - 35 comments

Black Lung Rising. "When coal miners suffering from black lung reach the point where they can no longer dig coal and they meet guidelines such as working the required number of years exposed to coal dust, they become eligible to file a black lung claim to obtain monthly benefits to live on ... When the decision is made to award a miner monthly benefits, the coal company has the right to appeal that decision, and often does." [more inside]
posted by grabbingsand at 10:09 AM PST - 16 comments

A mysterious black blob of something is floating along the Alaskan coast... and it's biological. According to the Coast Guard, "It's definitely not an oil product of any kind." The strange goop even has a taste for flesh... "[S]omeone turned in what was left of a dead goose -- just bones and feathers..."
posted by SansPoint at 10:09 AM PST - 110 comments

The Top 200 Brand-Name Drugs in 2008 (via) [more inside]
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 8:02 AM PST - 73 comments

Cheech and Chong discuss the current financial times, but cannot agree on economic forces in regards to the real price of goods, and decide they'll have to "Tron for this." This video is the second of Mean Magazine's videos made in some collaboration with Microsoft, through a series of "Cinemash" shorts. The videos are streaming on MSN, though they're sharing a clip of Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Sid and Nancy. (previous Mean Mag video on the blue)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:24 AM PST - 25 comments

"I'm doing 34 shows every day and every time it's the same..." (SLWAYT) Is this, like, the most serious song Weird Al has ever come up with? NOT to be confused with this (short parody from live show).
posted by wendell at 6:49 AM PST - 114 comments

Do you let your small children run around naked? "The sexual component of nudity — and a fear of pedophiles — is what makes some adults object entirely to letting children be naked. Jenny Louie said her husband is so uncomfortable when their 4-year-old daughter, Rebecca, is naked that, even if she is alone in her bedroom, in Los Angeles, he will immediately close her shutters."
posted by Xurando at 6:13 AM PST - 186 comments

"Its the story of our own village" ~ A journey in Indian street theatre (PDF of article) share's author Joel Lee's experiences wandering around India with three street theatre troupes. Also called the "theater of social change" this grassroots artform has become a powerful means of communication across the barriers of language, literacy and culture in both rural and urban India. [more inside]
posted by infini at 2:39 AM PST - 6 comments

Corpse-eating zombie robots.
posted by sexyrobot at 2:16 AM PST - 50 comments

USA ♥'s Antigua ∴ Zookz
posted by bigmusic at 2:10 AM PST - 10 comments

Animated infographics explain the importance of eating Canadian.
posted by twoleftfeet at 10:51 PM PST - 74 comments

A group of respected British children's authors and illustrators will stop visiting schools from the start of the next academic year, in protest at a new government scheme that requires them to register on a database in case they pose a danger to children.

"In essence, I'm being asked to pay £64 to prove that I am not a paedophile."
posted by orthogonality at 7:44 PM PST - 136 comments

In a possible sign of things to come, a group of Ontario grocery chain franchisees has split off and formed an independent co-op in order to better access locally-sourced food.
posted by parudox at 7:33 PM PST - 21 comments

In 1947, Thomas Ley, a virulently sectarian, pro-hanging Australian politician, died in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, where he had been sent after being sentenced to death for murder. It was probably not his first.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:32 PM PST - 13 comments

NYU recently invited a Law Professor from Singapore, Thio Li-Ann to teach "Human Rights in Asia". Thio, also a former Member of Parliament, is infamous for having strong views against homosexuality. As expected, she is not warmly welcomed by NYU students. [more inside]
posted by merv at 6:50 PM PST - 75 comments

The origin of the word testimony probably has nothing to do with Romans taking oaths while holding their testicles, though interpreting the Bible in a certain way might make you think so.
posted by swift at 6:44 PM PST - 26 comments

Not Ever, No Way: Dan Deacon does NOT do acid.
posted by azarbayejani at 6:06 PM PST - 43 comments

Berlusconi in Tehran by Slavoj Žižek in the London Review of Books
posted by blasdelf at 5:23 PM PST - 25 comments

"Catnip. I wonder what that is." Catnip Capers, a TerryToons animated short from 1940. SLYT.
posted by Mayor Curley at 3:54 PM PST - 23 comments

The publisher of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies announces that book's follow up in the most awesome way possible.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 3:40 PM PST - 110 comments

Tim Kreider muses on being judgmental and angry
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:23 PM PST - 41 comments

TechCrunch claims it has been sent hundreds of internal Twitter documents from passcodes to meeting notes. Today the site released several of the documents, including financial projections. The documents were provided by "Hacker Croll" and were accessed in May. [more inside]
posted by uaudio at 2:43 PM PST - 72 comments

Amusing NPR interview with Ms. Case From the NPR show "Not My Job", a rambling and entertaining interview with alt-country, loud singing, red-haired songstress Neko Case. On an unrelated note, I know she's American, but we Canucks like to claim her as our own, what with her Canadian Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and her collaborations with Canadian bands.
posted by dbarefoot at 2:40 PM PST - 45 comments

Dash Snow, seminal artist, is dead of an overdose. [more inside]
posted by infinitefloatingbrains at 1:44 PM PST - 148 comments

"I can see the audience tonight, so I can see also from the size of it that there must many of you here who are not thoroughly familiar with physics, and also a number that are not too versed in mathematics- and I don't doubt that there are some who know neither physics nor mathematics very well. That puts a considerable challenge on a speaker who is going to speak on the relation of physics and mathematics- a challenge which I, however, will not accept: I published the title of the talk in clear and precise language, and didn't make it sound like it was something it wasn't- it's the relation of physics and mathematics - and if you find that in some spots it assumes some minor knowledge of physics or mathematics, I cannot help it. It was named." The Feynman Messenger series at Cornell has been made available online for the first time thanks to Bill Gates.
posted by hindmost at 1:21 PM PST - 125 comments

Audio archive from Small's Jazz Club, searchable by instrument, then performer, then date, starting with September 27, 2007. Hours and hours and hours and hours of the some of the best jazz from New York's downtown scene. Stream and snap your fingers, man.
posted by klangklangston at 12:48 PM PST - 19 comments

It's RAAAAAAAANDY!!!!!!!! (nsfw) [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:46 AM PST - 82 comments

Muse's international treasure hunt. (Sign up required for complete access to second link) [more inside]
posted by Defenestrator at 11:29 AM PST - 5 comments

Dream World News reports on the current events of the subconscious with the highest of journalistic standards. [more inside]
posted by sleevener at 10:55 AM PST - 13 comments

Today's featured article: Hvuoauuoao roaoa rruaauuvaaoo nuaunuuoau waaoaarrooayu haoaoa nauiouuruua rraaoaa voaouriau wooo vuaaoora.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 10:50 AM PST - 41 comments

Overcharged for cigarettes. A NH man was charged $23,148,855,308,184,500 for a pack of cigarettes-- a "little" over a quadrillion dollars per cigarette. Jokes about tobacco taxes aside, it wasn't an isolated incident. Numerous Visa customers discovered the same charge. [more inside]
posted by justkevin at 10:37 AM PST - 97 comments

Scratch is a programming language designed for kids. Programs are created by hooking together jigsaw-puzzle pieces, which are keyed in such a way that it is impossible to create a syntactically incorrect program. [more inside]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:56 AM PST - 37 comments

Tony Blair wants to be president ...of Europe.
posted by Artw at 9:43 AM PST - 64 comments

Kitten Painting's site has wonderfully evocative descriptions of the front line of the 1980s indie/anorak/C86 scene. (Not sure what 'twee' is? Try here, have a listen to C86, or download from here. )
posted by mippy at 9:32 AM PST - 13 comments

System and method for creating exalted video games and virtual realities. This patent application, describing a new genre of "exalted video games," starts simple -- with a woman quoting Lenin -- and spirals out into a rambling tome on arts and economics over the course of 100 pages, from Aristotle to Clint Eastwood. It's easy to write off physicist/poet/entrepreneur Dr. Elliot McGuckin as a standard Internet crackpot -- except that he's also a professor at Pepperdine University, received a $125,000 grant from the Kaufmann Foundation, and teaches a class that was written up in the NYT. [more inside]
posted by waxpancake at 9:06 AM PST - 68 comments

UAE phone company pushes BlackBerry update with embedded spyware. The United Arab Emirates phone company Etisalat recently sent out a firmware update to its BlackBerry-using customers, billed as a “performance enhancement patch”. After customers reported the patch degrading their handsets' performance and draining their batteries more rapidly, a programmer examined it and found that it contained spyware from a US company, which could be remotely activated to forward all emails and text messages to a third-party server. [more inside]
posted by acb at 7:55 AM PST - 31 comments

The Worst Date Ever is the new book by Jane Bussmann. She starts as a celebrity journalist in LA and ends up breaking a massive story about the political situation in Uganda from a scary bit of Africa. Ms. Bussmann also wrote the first internet sit-com: The Junkies (parts 1, 2, 3) , and had a hand in South Park, Brass Eye and Jam. The wonderful Sally Phillips directed the Edinburgh stage show that became the book and Chris Morris says it's "Genuinely confusing to rapists". [more inside]
posted by sam and rufus at 6:58 AM PST - 9 comments

Everybody knows about the Google Van now, some love it, some hate it, but it has become an assumed condition now that, if you're near a street, Google Maps might have your picture (I'm at work!). Living further off the path might seem like a solution to avoid detection, but Google has stepped off the roadway and into more scenic routes with the Google Tricycle. Being unpowered and smaller allows Google to get their 360° photographs from vantage points other than the curb in front of your house. Google Street Views won't just include streets anymore: they plan to cover national parks, bicycle paths, college campuses, theme parks, any any other public place which isn't exactly van-friendly.
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:17 AM PST - 58 comments

"I'm dressed as a piece of chocolate because you're allergic to chocolate. But I'm a piece of chocolate you can have!" Psychotic Letters from Men.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 4:56 AM PST - 155 comments

"Working in art film or commercial cinema is like dancing through a mine field, and every broadcaster is now racing down market in a desperate attempt to survive. But what is happening at the BBC is the real scandal: it is bigger than all the rest combined, it is free from direct commercial pressure and its public service obligations carry cultural responsibilities. There are no excuses." Veteran producer Tony Garnett, has launched a blistering attack on the current process of drama commissioning at the BBC
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:43 AM PST - 17 comments

Not just a huge conspiracy... a TITANIC CONSPIRACY! "There are a number of good reasons to believe that the vessel which sank on the night of April 14/15 was in fact Titanic's slightly older, and very similar, sister ship Olympic."
posted by GuyZero at 8:52 PM PST - 105 comments

His photographs recorded life along the Scotswood Road, the working class district in the West End of Newcastle made famous in Geordie song. James (Jimmy) Forsyth had come to make his home there having volunteered for war work as a fitter in one of the local factories, moving up to Newcastle from his native South Wales. In 1954, aware that change was coming and no longer working having lost an eye in an industrial accident, Forsyth began to document his community and surroundings. A self-taught photographer, Jimmy "picked up a cheap folding camera in one of the pawn shops. There wasn’t much to adjust, just as well, because I’ve never known what to do...I’m just an amateur...just capturing what I knew was going to disappear." Jimmy died last Saturday, aged 95.
posted by Abiezer at 8:17 PM PST - 11 comments

The Case of the Missing Puppies (SLYT) - possibly only funny if you are familiar with long-running Australian drama Home & Away.
posted by mhjb at 7:16 PM PST - 20 comments

How well do you know your friends from Sesame Street? Scroll over this illustration of 101 Muppets to find out their names, a brief bio, and the season in which they appeared. Slimey is still my favorite.
posted by kimdog at 6:53 PM PST - 49 comments

How to do a Christopher Walken Impression. Also.
posted by stresstwig at 5:04 PM PST - 32 comments

YouTube will drop support for Internet Explorer 6 soon. Hot on the heels of Momentile (and, apparently, Digg), YouTube is pushing visitors using Internet Explorer 6 to more modern browsers. Does this mean IE is on its way out? StatCounter seems to think so.
posted by spitefulcrow at 2:53 PM PST - 107 comments

BostonFilter: The Rock of Boston heads to the Big Mattress in the Sky... WBCN 104.1: 1968 - 2009
posted by not_on_display at 2:11 PM PST - 49 comments

Three committees of the United States House of Representatives have released the House's version of healthcare reform--the America's Affordable Health Choices Act. The bill [1000 page pdf] [summary] introduces a Health Insurance Exchange, minimum standards for benefit packages, protections for consumers, and a "level playing field" public insurance option with the right to use Medicare rates for the first three years. Initial reactions are positive.
posted by nasreddin at 1:51 PM PST - 111 comments

Vimeo just announced they will delete your original source files if you are a basic (=free) user. Only the compressed and encoded versions will remain unless you buy the $60/year "plus" membership. Deletions will begin August 1st. [more inside]
posted by krautland at 1:36 PM PST - 64 comments

Fancy Fast Food. Fast food reconstructed into (something that looks like) fine cuisine. Recipes included, for those who dare.
posted by Silune at 1:30 PM PST - 67 comments

Catscan.com sure is a strange site. But did you know Jennicam (deadlink... previously) is nowadays hailed as one of the greatest now-defunct websites to have ever existed? Operated by Jennifer Ringley and closed in 2003 after seven years of a very popular existence , Jennicam was a guilty pleasure that for the longest time seemed lost to the newest denizens of the intertubes. Thankfully all 43 episodes can be viewed online! Once you've feasted on that digital archive, check out the interview Jenni gave to Webjunk back in 2007, and read some of the sonnets inspired by her work.
posted by Effigy2000 at 1:26 PM PST - 21 comments

Rest in peace, Simon Vinkenoog [Dutch blog w/English option], poet, friend of artists like Karel Appel, translator of Beat Generation figures like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, psychedelic enthusiast and "weed ambassador" of Amsterdam, and author of such guides to hip living as How to Enjoy Reality. One of the European jazz-loving proto-hippies who made the '60s swing and mentored several generations of culture hackers, though he was never widely known in the US.
posted by digaman at 1:07 PM PST - 15 comments

Matthew Robson, aged 15 years & 7 months, was asked to describe how he and his friends consume media by the London research branch of Morgan Stanley, where he is a summer work intern. The teenager spent a day on the briefing note, after polling some friends by text message. His write-up impressed the right people (direct link to pdf report). "Without claiming representation or statistical accuracy, his piece provides one of the clearest and most thought provoking insights we have seen. So we published it." After being published, the note had generated five or six times more feedback than the team's usual reports. Lauded by professionals, his claims were met with disagreement from some peers. (via)
posted by filthy light thief at 1:00 PM PST - 41 comments

Maciej Ceglowski of Idlewords has made a new bookmarking service called pinboard. [more inside]
posted by chunking express at 12:53 PM PST - 40 comments

Anthony Karen has photographed today's Klan for LIFE magazine.
posted by exogenous at 11:19 AM PST - 148 comments

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty has released a list of the 10 meanest cities in relation to criminalizing homeless. Full report (pdf) available here. [more inside]
posted by lunit at 10:58 AM PST - 76 comments

Can You Spot a Lobbyist? Who made up the bulk of the audience when Congress began work on health care reform legislation? Lobbyists, according to this photo ID-crowdsourcing project, part of Dollar Politics, a new NPR investigative series. Bill Moyers shines some sunlight too, with Some Choice Words for 'The Select Few.'
posted by Miko at 10:28 AM PST - 32 comments

4 different kinds of rice planted carefully in deliberate patterns == art. [more inside]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:32 AM PST - 29 comments

A new US study, recently published in Social Science Quarterly, has shown that the more uncommon or feminine a boy's first name is, the greater the likelihood that he will end up in prison. [more inside]
posted by acb at 7:37 AM PST - 100 comments

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:13 AM PST - 559 comments

As Wootton Bassett gathers for a solemn ritual that is all too familiar in a very British way of mourning; the question being asked is: Exactly what are we fighting for?. Afgahnistan is not a popular war in Britain, (as also noted in an editorial in The Nation ).
It is graveyard of good intent; (extract then pdf downloadable)................ The Irresistible Illusion where the infamous General Dostum has now been invited to join the government of Hamid Karzai.
posted by adamvasco at 5:53 AM PST - 24 comments

"The Cap and Tax Dead End", a Washington Post opinion piece written by soon-to-be-former Alaskan governor and frequent media critic Sarah Palin.
posted by zardoz at 5:10 AM PST - 150 comments

Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs
posted by minifigs at 5:06 AM PST - 43 comments

Gros Morne National Park, tucked away on the west coast of Newfoundland, has long been a getaway for both naturalists and hiking buffs.[Warning: resizes browser] A panoramic view of select locations in or near the park. [more inside]
posted by Lemurrhea at 3:43 AM PST - 7 comments

"Algae is the ultimate biological system using sunlight to capture and convert carbon dioxide into fuel... I came up with a notion to trick algae into pumping more [fuel] out." Craig Venter's Synthetic Genomics partners with ExxonMobil in a $600M project to harvest biofuels from genetically engineered algae. "We have modest goals of replacing the whole petrochemical industry." [previously] [more inside]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:33 AM PST - 45 comments

The North American X-15 Rocket Plane, which turns 50 this year, flew faster and higher than any manned rocket powered aircraft in history excepting the space shuttle. [more inside]
posted by iamabot at 2:20 AM PST - 47 comments

The New Kaldor Facts: Ideas, Institutions, Population, and Human Capital [pdf] - "For now, we think that progress is likely to be most rapid if we follow the example of the neoclassical model and treat institutions the way the neoclassical model treated technology... Further out on the horizon, one may hope for a successful conclusion to the ongoing hunt for a simple model [1] of institutional evolution. Combining that with the unified approach to growth outlined here would surely constitute the economics equivalent of a grand unified theory..." [2, viz. previously] This might, as it were, be a subset of collective cognition (or, possibly, autism [3]).
posted by kliuless at 2:00 AM PST - 9 comments

PingWire is an (almost) live feed of images being posted to Twitpic. Clicking on a thumbnail will take you to the full sized photo. As it's a live, unfiltered picture feed, you can expect some inappropriate content will make its way on there as well. Best considered NSFW.
posted by jim.christian at 11:38 PM PST - 36 comments

Awful Library Books Volumes that are so outdated or so outmoded that they no longer belong in a public library. Your grandfather's Computer Science. Your grandfather's Rocket Science. Your grandmother's Feminism. Your great-grandmother's Pre-Feminism. (And your great-grandfather's.) Your grandparents' parents! World Powers that no longer exist! Old predictions that didn't happen! Bios of people when they were famous for something else! Roller Disco! Books considered crackpot when they were new! Stuff even the Politically Incorrect would think are Just Plain Wrong! And more! Are any of these books hiding in YOUR library? (If so, mail them to me.) [more inside]
posted by wendell at 9:41 PM PST - 78 comments

Where have you gone, Delino DeShields? Seven years ago, Delino DeShields was released by the Chicago Cubs, ending a 13-year, 5-team journey through Major League Baseball during which he earned almost $29 million. He's now the hitting coach for the Billings Mustangs in the rookie-level Pioneer League, making as much money for the season as he used to make per game. The Washington Post goes to Montana to find out why. [more inside]
posted by escabeche at 8:37 PM PST - 16 comments

Who asked for Ireland's blasphemy law? Ireland's sweeping new defamation law, passed in the Dáil on the 9th, "introduces a new crime of blasphemous libel." The creators of Father Ted want some clarification. And at their recent AGM, "...Atheist Ireland members voted to test the new law by publishing a blasphemous statement, deliberately designed to cause offence. The statement will be finalised in the coming days." Across the sea, comedian and co-author of Jerry Springer, the Opera Stewart Lee asks: "What's Wrong With Blasphemy?" [40 minute documentary] [more inside]
posted by milquetoast at 8:02 PM PST - 67 comments

Today began Judge Sonia Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearings, with opening remarks from the Senators on the Judiciary Committee, introductions from NY Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, and an opening statement from Judge Sotomayor herself. Among the shouted protests from pro-life advocates in the gallery, highlights included Sen. Lindsay Graham's statement about what he thinks the advise-and-consent function of the senate should entail, and Sen. Al Franken's first real moment in the U.S. Congress.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:40 PM PST - 86 comments

Americans like science. But they think much less highly of American scientists than American scientists themselves do. Most scientists also rate media coverage of science as only fair or poor. Yet public knowledge of some scientific facts is .... not that bad (Section 7). A Pew Research Report reveals all.
posted by binturong at 5:44 PM PST - 38 comments

"She's getting married this fall. It wasn't religion that made her do it. It wasn't fear of being alone. It was simply affection."
posted by Parallax.Error at 5:38 PM PST - 63 comments

Living with First-Person Shooter Disease (SLYT)
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:45 PM PST - 86 comments

From the guys that brought you Hobo With A Shogun comes award-winning short, Treevenge (NSFW)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:33 PM PST - 34 comments

Top 10 comic book cities
posted by Artw at 2:22 PM PST - 45 comments

Monday Flash Fun Puzzle: A Short Walk is a fairly simple flash game where you navigate your character from one point to another. You are a human that has been abducted and a progressively more difficult series of tests are administered.
posted by schyler523 at 1:59 PM PST - 15 comments

Microsoft Office 2010 - for free, on the web. Yeah, you heard me right. [more inside]
posted by Muddler at 1:00 PM PST - 104 comments

Christian metalcore band Confide uses a Postal Service cover as a clever tactic to promote their god-awful music. [more inside]
posted by azarbayejani at 12:37 PM PST - 147 comments

I see what yer doin' there From the "I already knew this but someone did formal research on it" department: Research indicates cats have a "manipulative" purr which differs from normal/pleasure purring. The manipulative purr is specifically used to get food and attention.
posted by ShadePlant at 12:12 PM PST - 84 comments

A zoomable, isometric map of Hong Kong
posted by juv3nal at 11:33 AM PST - 33 comments

A concise article in support of a single-payer health care system written by an East Tennessee family medicine physician. [more inside]
posted by pwedza at 10:50 AM PST - 79 comments

Inspired by the creative re-use of dumpsters in Athens, Georgia by Curtis Crowe of the band Pylon, the Macro|Sea collective have taken the idea further, and have their first dumpster pool space prototype up and active in Brooklyn (via). The group's big idea is to revitalize strip malls across America. On the smaller scale, British artist Oliver Bishop-Young has "turned skips into gold," by refurbishing small skips into little ponds, parks, skate ramps, and micro meeting areas (more details). On the more personal level, Michel de Broin created "Blue Monochrom," a dumpster hot tub.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:35 AM PST - 9 comments

i dream of a world without you: death notices for the nonexistent. [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 10:23 AM PST - 12 comments

Crafters may look like a close-knit group, but the reality is that there are armed camps within crafting. Knitters and crocheters brandish their respective tools and claim their craft is easier to learn or more versatile, while those who are bistitchual remain determinedly on the fence. For the uninitiated/uncrafty, here’s an explanation of the difference between the two. “Wooly Bullies” [sic], a documentary, explores the animus between the Needles and the Hooks. When Sandi Wiseheart of Knitting Daily dares to mention the “c” word, she gets many comments from knitting readers who, while stressing that they have nothing against crochet, just don’t want to see it in their backyard magazine. When Kim Werker, editor of Interweave Crochet, tries to talk to the Knitting Daily crowd about crocheting she gets even more negative feedback. Part of the problem seems to be that while knitters contend with the “old lady’s pastime” stereotype, crocheters are up against the much more negative “granny square and toilet paper cosy” stigma. [shakes head in sorrow] Crafters, can’t we all just get along? and make stuff?
posted by orange swan at 9:26 AM PST - 108 comments

We Chose the Moon: The JFK Library and Museum has just launched this interactive web experience using archival audio, video, photos, and recorded transmissions to re-create, in real time, the July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
posted by Miko at 6:48 AM PST - 43 comments

Whatnot [slyt], a short and strange animated film about dreaming and flying.
posted by mippy at 3:23 AM PST - 6 comments

28 years ago they came to Earth. Explore the world of District 9. Consider a career with Multi-National United. Find out about enhancing your math skills with DNA from outer space. Play the game. And learn the truth behind the lies.
posted by scalefree at 1:08 AM PST - 119 comments

Holdover is a difficult but compelling exploration platform game. Marie must escape from an abandoned scientific research installation, with no assistance other than recordings left by her father decades ago. Makes extensive and very good use of the "hold your breath" mechanics found in many such games. Available both in Japanese and bad English. A more reasonable English translation can be downloaded from the IndieGames weblog and dropped into the game's folder. [more inside]
posted by CrunchyFrog at 11:53 PM PST - 10 comments

From these various anthropological approaches, a basic dichotomy has emerged between two types of societies from very different ecosystems: societies born in rain forests and those that thrive in deserts.... Begin with religious beliefs. A striking proportion of rain forest dwellers are polytheistic, worshipping an array of spirits and gods.... But desert dwellers... are usually monotheistic. Of course, despite allegiances to a single deity, other supernatural beings may be involved, like angels and djinns and Satan. But the hierarchy is notable, with minor deities subservient to the Omnipotent One. This division makes ecological sense.... Desert societies, with their far-flung members tending goats and camels, are classic spawning grounds for warrior classes and the accessories of militarism.... Rain forest cultures also are less likely to harbor beliefs about the inferiority of women; you won’t be likely to find rain forest men giving thanks in prayer that they were not created female, as is the case in at least one notable desert-derived religion.... (Previously, previously, previously)
posted by orthogonality at 10:26 PM PST - 72 comments

What she thought she knew.
posted by alms at 8:28 PM PST - 56 comments

A quiet revolution is taking place in the multiple sclerosis community. Long thought of as purely an autoimmune disease, possibly secondary to Epstein-Barr virus infection or even an STI, MS has never been pinned down to a single cause. Now things are changing, in a big and bloody way: MS appears to be related to abnormalities in veins. [more inside]
posted by greatgefilte at 7:34 PM PST - 48 comments

Ten new wind turbine designs. Curious, grotesque, sculptural, beautiful, utilitarian.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 7:25 PM PST - 52 comments

Caritas in Veritate (summary here), Benedict XVI's third encyclical, hit the presses last week and made it into Obama's hands on Friday. Part of a large body of Catholic social thinking, Benedict called for a United Nations "with teeth" (maybe it could happen) and a focus on authentic human development, grounded on a focus on the whole person and an economics governed by love. [more inside]
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 6:55 PM PST - 44 comments

"Lilly, what did you see on the beach?" John Feher asked his little daughter. “Squid, squid, squid, squid, squid.” she replied. “Why are they here? Why are the squid here? I can’t honestly tell you,” Sgt. Rains said. “I don’t [know] if it’s tied or not to the earthquake.” Giant squid wash ashore in La Jolla.
posted by jokeefe at 6:39 PM PST - 47 comments

British Printed Images to 1700 is a fully searchable (if somewhat buggy at this early stage of release) online library of over 10,000 printed images from early modern Britain. As a taster, here is the naughty Cully Flaug'd [NSFW] of the title.
posted by tellurian at 4:09 PM PST - 17 comments

Rebuilding Something Better by Barack Obama: "this week, I'll be talking about how we give our workers the skills they need to compete... Part of this goal will be met by helping Americans better afford a college education. But part of it will also be strengthening our network of community colleges..." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 3:21 PM PST - 62 comments

[musicnewsfilter]: European copies of Dinosaur Jr.'s new album Farm have been recalled after duplication software "doubled the sound layers, resulting in a 3 dB increase in the overall sound volume." [more inside]
posted by auralcoral at 1:41 PM PST - 61 comments

From 1864 to 1904, the Russian Empire tried to quelch the nationalism of Lithuanians by ordering all Lithuanian texts to be printed with Cyrillic characters instead of in the Latin-derived Lithuanian or Polish alphabets. But they didn't count on the Knygnešiai - the Booksmugglers. [more inside]
posted by mdonley at 12:17 PM PST - 18 comments

Worst Parents Ever
posted by Christ, what an asshole at 11:29 AM PST - 132 comments

Question Boxes "bring information to people who cannot or do not access the Internet directly. Question Boxes leap over illiteracy, computer illiteracy, lack of networks, and language barriers.... Question Box users can use their mobile phones to call our call centers, or they can use the physical Question Box Units to call for free." The program was started by Rose Shuman, a young American entrepreneur. You can see the questions here.
posted by languagehat at 8:59 AM PST - 24 comments

The Art & Life of Annie Truxell [via mefi projects]: Annie Truxell is a well known painter who has lived a long and fascinating life. Her adventures have been legendary, encompassing Greenwich Village in the 50s, London in the 60s and India in the 70s. She was friends with Franz Klein, Bill de Kooning, Truman Capote, Terry Southern, Mati Klarwein & many other wild & woolly people.
posted by The Whelk at 7:38 AM PST - 11 comments

Thirty years ago today was the infamous "Disco Demolition Night" at Chicago's Comiskey Park. It didn't go exactly as planned: "In the warm air that night, baseball’s routine and soothing sounds mixed with the tribal cadence of off-color chanting, the drifting scent of marijuana and the sight of vinyl records descending through the summer dusk like Frisbees." It wasn't the first time a 70s baseball promotion went astray. Considered by some "the worst idea ever," "Ten Cent Beer Night" at Cleveland Municipal Stadium five years earlier ended when "a large number of intoxicated fans – some armed with knives, chains, and portions of stadium seats that they had torn apart – surged onto the field, and others hurled bottles from the stands." (Previously on MeFi)
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 7:19 AM PST - 96 comments

Ever wonder what it would be like if you showed up to your freshman year of college...and your roommate was a 7'2" Division 1 basketball player from Holland? The author of sports blog Basketbawful is currently publishing a series of stories describing that exact experience. These chronicles vacillate between hilarious, shocking, depressing, and disgusting, but all are extremely entertaining. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7.
posted by emd3737 at 6:32 AM PST - 69 comments

Ze Frank on Crop Circles, Bulls, Palin and Progress
posted by jouke at 6:03 AM PST - 75 comments

Comics. Often dirty. [nsfw]
posted by MetaMonkey at 12:32 AM PST - 42 comments

On Tender Hooks: The Art of Isabel Samaras. Often [NSFW] playfully erotic and lightly sly. She does mashups, mischievously marrying classic Old Master paintings and contemporary culture. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 10:25 PM PST - 19 comments

The downward spiral that is Evony, a web based multi-player game, advertising. Also: The Best Worst Ads by 1UP and fake in-game ads by Something Awful.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 9:29 PM PST - 41 comments

Bill Moyers Interviews Former Cigna PR Chief Wendell Potter Cigna's former head of Corporate Communications discusses about how Insurance companies have fought against public health care in the U.S, How wallstreet's demands drive up profits, how they do it, and why he quit. transcript
posted by delmoi at 7:20 PM PST - 128 comments

Let's go back in time, to Wildwood, New Jersey. (SLYT)
posted by davebush at 5:16 PM PST - 55 comments

The 2009 Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod competitions have concluded, with the Pavarotti Trophy for Choir of the World being awarded to The Westminster Chorus. The Eisteddfod includes choral, solo, instrumental, and dance competitions. Video of the competitions can be seen here.
posted by Balonious Assault at 3:50 PM PST - 6 comments

In the wake of Torchwood: Children of the Earth (screening on BBC America on the 20th for those in the US not inclined to muck about with the internets) critic Patrick West declares the British incapable of making decent television science fiction. (via)
posted by Artw at 3:32 PM PST - 172 comments

Newsweek has "four knowledgable sources" who claim attorney general Eric Holder is considering appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Bush administration interrogation practices. (h/t Glenn Greenwald).
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 3:13 PM PST - 133 comments

Tuesday is a so-called psychiatric-service dog, a new generation of animals trained to help people whose suffering is not physical, but emotional. They are, effectively, Seeing Eye dogs for the mind.

Tuesday's master is an Iraq war veteran suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. [more inside]
posted by educatedslacker at 11:32 AM PST - 42 comments

Marwa el-Sherbini testified in court against a neighbor who had called her a "terrorist" because she wore the hijab. As she spoke, the man she had accused walked across the courtroom and stabbed her 18 times. In the Muslim world, she is now being referred to as "the headscarf martyr." [more inside]
posted by melissam at 5:47 AM PST - 141 comments

Plan B, also called the "morning after pill" is an emergency contraceptive. Some pharmacists have refused to stock and fill the prescription, citing ethical reservations, causing the AMA to affirmatively state its support for the contraceptive and urge pharmacists to sell it and for the FDA to allow over-the-counter distribution. A partial victory was achieved in 2006 to allow OTC dispensing without a doctor's note for those over 18 years of age. However, some pharmacists continued to refuse to fill the prescription, including the owners of Ralph's Thriftway pharmacy chain in Washington State in 2006, causing some to boycott the chain. Ralph's was later found by the Washington State Board of Pharmacy to have violated the state pharmacy code in so doing. Ralph's lawsuit to block the ruling reached the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which has now ruled against the pharmacy chain, saying ALL pharmacists must stock and dispense the contraceptive. [more inside]
posted by darkstar at 9:17 PM PST - 449 comments

Have you ever wondered what happens when a freight train drives through a tornado? Let me show you (2:01 SLYT)
posted by P.o.B. at 7:17 PM PST - 121 comments

A small selection of Postsecret's spinoffs, from the blah to the pathetic, plus making fun of some of the dumber ones.
posted by kldickson at 6:53 PM PST - 15 comments

Dr. Tae describes the way the US system of education is failing and how to fix it.
posted by peregrine81 at 5:44 PM PST - 40 comments

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall Released as Freeware . The download (Fileshack) requires DOSBox to run; the linked article includes instructions for running the game under DosBox. Also related are DaggerXL, a game engine being developed to update / enhance Daggerfall for modern systems, and The Daggerfall Workshop.
posted by Dark Messiah at 3:21 PM PST - 32 comments

Professors Ross W. Boulanger and Dr. James Duncan have put together a Geotechnical Engineering Photo Album, with details of the successes and disasters. The album includes compaction techniques for a highway off-ramp, deep excavation methods, an offshore tank structure, and earthquake hazards of many sorts (mountain landslides, liquefaction damage to ports in Kobe, Japan, surface rupture in Taiwan, and problems with shallow foundations and subsidence in Turkey). (via oi9)
posted by filthy light thief at 2:15 PM PST - 12 comments

Champions of Reversible Destiny, architects Arakawa + Gins believe that people die because they're too comfortable. Having lost their life savings through Bernie Madoff, their bewildering East Hampton Bioscleave house - and, presumably, immortality - can now be yours for only $4million. [via the always awesome It's lovely! I'll take it!]
posted by Beautiful Screaming Lady at 1:48 PM PST - 56 comments

“But it was clear to me that any time you deny one group of people the same right that other groups have that is a clear violation of civil rights and I have to speak up on that.” The Southern Christian Leadership Conference — the 50-year-old civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others — is seeking to remove the president of its Los Angeles chapter in response to his support of same-sex marriage in California. [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 1:32 PM PST - 191 comments

Calving mothers are seeking out human contact. (SLNYT) “It’s extraordinary,” she said. “At precisely the time when you’d expect them to be the most defensive, they’re incredibly social." A lengthy article about the state of whale-human relations built around events at Baja.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 1:26 PM PST - 16 comments

Tim Hortons, the perennially popular Canadian donut chain, is coming to New York, taking over 13 Dunkin Donuts locations in what some are calling the Doughnut Wars. There seems to be some controversy over the precise reason for the change. Want to know where to get a Double Double in the Big Apple? There's a Google Map! And, Monday morning, FREE COFFEE.
posted by 235w103 at 1:21 PM PST - 131 comments

Iran: The Rooftop Project. "This is meant to be the most complete possible collection of recordings of nighttime protest in Iran since the beginning of the uprising. Its goal is to locate and profile at least one video for each night primarily focusing on the nightly chanting of Allah-o-Akbar from the rooftops, whenever that footage is available. Some of these videos have not been widely seen until now." [Via]
posted by homunculus at 11:36 AM PST - 22 comments

Flash Friday: Play Moneyseize. [more inside]
posted by boo_radley at 11:19 AM PST - 19 comments

Handcrafted praying mantis sculptures, in brass and silver.
posted by zamboni at 11:15 AM PST - 15 comments

Fried Gibson. I've always thought you were safe in a house from lightning storms as long as you were off the land-line or computer. A Mississippi man's Gibson Les Paul got positively roasted while sitting in his home, in its case, leaning against a wall. That's a powerful bolt. Lots of gory photos here and in the auction linked above including a nice shot of some of the parts that exploded off of the guitar, some shooting like bullets through the case. Awesome! And it still held quite a bit of its value. Via [more inside]
posted by JBennett at 10:16 AM PST - 48 comments

CIA Chief Panette ends "very serious" program hidden during Bush years from Congress CIA Director Leon Panetta has terminated a "very serious" covert program the spy agency kept secret from Congress for eight years, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a House Intelligence subcommittee chairwoman, said Friday. Schakowsky is pressing for an immediate committee investigation of the classified program, which has not been described publicly. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has said he is considering an investigation. "The program is a very, very serious program and certainly deserved a serious debate at the time and through the years," Schakowsky told The Associated Press in an interview. "But now it's over."
posted by pallen123 at 10:15 AM PST - 177 comments

Recently, John Michael Greer has been exploring a little known idea of the deceased economist E.F. Schumacher (a student of the oft-discussed Keynes). "Schumacher drew a hard distinction between primary goods and secondary goods. The latter of these includes everything dealt with by conventional economics: the goods and services produced by human labor and exchanged among human beings. The former includes all those things necessary for human life and economic activity that are produced not by human beings, but by nature. Schumacher pointed out that primary goods, as the phrase implies, need to come first in any economic analysis because they supply the preconditions for the production of secondary goods. Renewable resources, he proposed, form the equivalent of income in the primary economy, while nonrenewable resources are the equivalent of capital; to insist that an economic system is sound when it is burning through nonrenewable resources at a rate that will lead to rapid depletion is thus as silly as claiming that a business is breaking even if it’s covering up huge losses by drawing down its bank accounts." [more inside]
posted by symbollocks at 10:15 AM PST - 14 comments

Flash Friday Funtime: Steamshovel Harry [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:08 AM PST - 92 comments

Is Your Soul Weighing You Down? Store It! Or, if you're tired of your own soul, try a new one on for size! Er... uh oh. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 9:14 AM PST - 37 comments

You may not miss George W. Bush, but these five world leaders probably do.
posted by Afroblanco at 7:45 AM PST - 45 comments

British mentalist Derren Brown has a hobby - painting some rather excellent caricatures.
Derren previously on Metafilter: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
posted by edd at 7:31 AM PST - 40 comments

Kindle is coming soon to a library near you. Amazon is sending mixed messages about the concept. Librarians are having an online conference to the discuss the issues.
posted by Xurando at 5:28 AM PST - 57 comments

When comic book heroes and villains grow old.
posted by jbickers at 4:42 AM PST - 29 comments

Tokyo Undressed - one excellent photo after another, and another, and another. WARNING: nipples! [more inside]
posted by mhjb at 3:37 AM PST - 45 comments

Ernest Hemingway outed as potentially useless KGB spy during the 1940s in a new book, Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America.

Reviews: The New Republic, Telegraph.co.uk
posted by educatedslacker at 3:23 AM PST - 19 comments

1983: The Brink of Apocalypse -- In 1983 the NATO war exercise Able Archer almost started a nuclear war. Unknown to NATO, just a few months earlier a false alarm had already put the Soviet leadership on edge, and the exercise triggered preparations for a counter attack in the Soviet military. Only a few double agents on each side may have saved the world from nuclear armageddon. [more inside]
posted by empath at 1:22 AM PST - 31 comments

Scientists make artificial sperm. British researchers have made human sperm out of stem cells, technically making men unnecessary for the survival of the species. [more inside]
posted by idiopath at 12:40 AM PST - 103 comments

Gary, I dropped off the key with Mike earlier today. Do you have any other reasons for holding on to my security deposit? Let me know, Gabe [more inside]
posted by jabberjaw at 11:16 PM PST - 77 comments

Gaia Photos is "Your global team of local photojournalists," with contributions ranging from Nepal to Canada, and Mongolia to Texas. via The Press Photographer's Year 2009.
posted by Rumple at 9:47 PM PST - 1 comment

Cat vs. helicopter, printer, raccoon, ferret, puppies, watermelon, crawfish, mirror, and squirrel.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 8:53 PM PST - 39 comments

Hedgehog Launch 2 : to the Moon, and beyond! I know it's Thursday, but it's late.
posted by mrstrotsky at 6:59 PM PST - 30 comments

Ron Artest--now wearing #37 for the LA Lakers in honor of Thriller's 37 weeks at #1 on the charts--has dropped what should only be described as the definitive Michael Jackson tribute song. (audio possibly NSFW) [more inside]
posted by pokermonk at 6:49 PM PST - 39 comments

Wednesday Comics, DC's spectacular new oversize anthology featuring characters from Batman to Adam Strange and Kamandi in one page installments of serialized stories, launched yesterday to much acclaim from the internet. USA Today will be reprinting the Superman story for the duration of the comics 12 week run.
posted by Artw at 5:25 PM PST - 29 comments

Does it cause hairy palms? (No, that is a myth.) Will it make you go blind? (No, though zinc deficiency can be detrimental to one's vision, and semen contains a small amount of zinc.) Are you going to hell for it? (Maybe, maybe not.) But what if it helps with conception? (well, the men doing it, anyway)
posted by Navelgazer at 4:54 PM PST - 20 comments

Last week, the Sears Tower opened the "Ledge", where you can be 103 floors above the ground, standing on glass to get a great view of Chicago.
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:18 PM PST - 113 comments

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has found himself in a bit of an imbroglio this week. Having attended the state funeral of former Governor General Romeo LeBlanc, the evangelical Harper has been accused of pocketing a communion wafer, an action considered "seriously offensive" by Catholics [scroll down for explanation]. But as professor of Internet and E-commerce law Michael Geist notes, the confusing thing about the controversy isn't whether the PM did or didn't eat the wafer (or even whether he should have been offered it in the first place), but rather why Societe Radio-Canada (the French name for the government-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has yanked a video of the incident from YouTube. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco at 3:50 PM PST - 63 comments

I Went Left Instead Of Right In Pitfall And Kept On Tickin' And Now I Believe In Miracles: An absurdist play.
posted by NoraReed at 3:26 PM PST - 13 comments

Home Movie Reconstructions 1974 / 2004 MeFi's own dziga takes family movies from 1974, revisits the locations 30 years later with the same people doing the same things. Amazing. [via mefi projects]
posted by mathowie at 3:03 PM PST - 27 comments

Ultra-High Bypass (UHB) or "propfan" jet engines received attention in the late eighties as an economical and greener alternative to currrent GTF and ATF jet technologies. Adoption was partially prevented by industry fears that the external propellers would being seen as a step backwards. Evidently, General Electric and NASA are reinvesting in the technology.
posted by ...possums at 1:18 PM PST - 25 comments

Today's Inspiration is a blog "for those with an interest in illustration from the 40's and 50's to share their knowledge, views and opinions." This week it is featuring a guest blogger analyzing Norman Rockwell's illustrations for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. This blog can always be counted on to inform you about illustrators and cartoonists you've likely never heard of. Also advertising icons and my favorite: Smokes for Mom! It's all on Flickr too. [more inside]
posted by marxchivist at 12:31 PM PST - 12 comments

More than 60 African-American day campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club because -- according to John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club -- "there was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion ... and the atmosphere of the club." Creative Steps Day Camp paid The Valley Swim Club more than $1,900 for one day of swimming a week, but after the first day, the money was quickly refunded and the campers were told not to return. [more inside]
posted by ericb at 12:23 PM PST - 233 comments

A year before his passing at the age of 102, LSD discoverer Albert Hofmann pens a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs (who had remarked publicly about his own use of the hallucinogenic as a creative factor) asking for Jobs' support for further research into the use of LSD in psychotherapy. In the remainder of the article, Ryan Grim touches briefly on the use of LSD by scientists and computer programmers who have transformed the world through novel discoveries and inventions.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:53 AM PST - 64 comments

Warren Buffett says his favorite economic indicator (last 30sec) is the FTSI or Freight Transportation Services Index (blue line). Since 1979, across four recessions, the index "shows a strong leading relationship to the economy", with an acceleration of freight leading the economy "by an average of approximately 4 to 5 months". Explanation of the index (recommend PDF version), most recent analysis (July 2009).
posted by stbalbach at 11:37 AM PST - 30 comments

Michael Lewis going after Joseph Cassano Trying to find out what happened to the AIG guys who crashed the system. [more inside]
posted by manny_calavera at 10:05 AM PST - 35 comments

Kentucky folksinger Paul K. has released his entire catalog online under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. [more inside]
posted by ford and the prefects at 10:02 AM PST - 11 comments

The 10 smartest and stupidest iPhone apps , according to British technology website The Register. The smartest apps include things like personal databases, information tools and music streaming and identification apps. The stupid section is a morass of farts, poop, pickup lines and badly rendered, vaguely creepy pictures of girls. Idiocracy, it seems, has come early to the App Store.
posted by acb at 9:48 AM PST - 54 comments

It's a hip hop guide to neurobiology, so just sit back, relax and go with the flow (of ions as they pass through the cell membrane). (via)
posted by tybeet at 8:41 AM PST - 12 comments

Madness is doing the exact same thing over and over again and expecting different results. (SLBP)
posted by vivelame at 8:36 AM PST - 29 comments

Angry Octopus Comics is a webcomic collaboration between Mikepop and his daughter, updated twice-weekly. Created with mixed media and compiled in Photoshop, the premise is simple: the octopus always ends up angry. [via mefi projects]
posted by filthy light thief at 7:24 AM PST - 29 comments

Soldier's Mail: Letters Home from a New England Soldier, 1916-1919.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 6:59 AM PST - 11 comments

"I like competition in everything ... I have to move whatever is movable in the world." Say hello to Laleh Seddigh, Iran's top rated female race car driver. [more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:28 AM PST - 23 comments

An examination of the Swedish soul must begin, I’m afraid, with sex. (via and related)
posted by anotherpanacea at 4:58 AM PST - 74 comments

An investigation by the Guardian newspaper has uncovered a trail of hacking and other illegal "Dark Arts" at the News of the World. Rupert Murdoch, the paper's owner, is reported to have shelled out over £1m in out of court settlements [more inside]
posted by Acey at 2:20 AM PST - 49 comments

High-priced emergency locksmith services clog up local business listings (and Google Maps), driving all the emergency calls to their numbers. It's happened all over the country. E.g., a 'brash new locksmith company' comes to Madison, WI.
posted by grobstein at 11:53 PM PST - 76 comments

Internet nasties affecting network freshness? Try Censordyne! [more inside]
posted by cheaily at 11:01 PM PST - 16 comments

The Twitter Fail Whale, designed by Yiying Lu, became an internet phenomenon a year ago when Twitter became so unstable that the image popped up to hundreds of thousands of users on an almost daily basis. As a result of this exposure, games were created and many a mashup was made up. Lu has created a site with all of the Fail Whale related images she could find (Google cache). It’s an amazing (and huge) collection containing tributes, to statues, to cakes and beer labels.
posted by Effigy2000 at 9:56 PM PST - 20 comments

Learn to disco dance in under 4 minutes (SLYT).
posted by Dragonness at 9:38 PM PST - 28 comments

WritingFilter: Got the urge to write, but not sure what to write about? Want to practice your freewriting skills? Try these short story idea generators. [more inside]
posted by Ziggy Zaga at 8:49 PM PST - 30 comments

Neurosecurity: security and privacy for neural devices. "An increasing number of neural implantable devices will become available in the near future due to advances in neural engineering. This discipline holds the potential to improve many patients' lives dramatically by offering improved—and in some cases entirely new—forms of rehabilitation for conditions ranging from missing limbs to degenerative cognitive diseases. The use of standard engineering practices, medical trials, and neuroethical evaluations during the design process can create systems that are safe and that follow ethical guidelines; unfortunately, none of these disciplines currently ensure that neural devices are robust against adversarial entities trying to exploit these devices to alter, block, or eavesdrop on neural signals. The authors define 'neurosecurity'—a version of computer science security principles and methods applied to neural engineering—and discuss why neurosecurity should be a critical consideration in the design of future neural devices." [Via Mind Hacks]
posted by homunculus at 8:29 PM PST - 22 comments

John Dowland was a lute player and composer roughly contemporaneous with William Shakespeare. In a recent article Mark Padmore, a frequent performer of Dowland's work, compared Dowland to Morrissey and Bob Dylan. Whether that's accurate or not johndowland.co.uk is a fine website with many recordings available either in mp3 format or as videos. There are essays on the site but it also points towards many other Dowlandian treasures online, including this fine biography and lyrics. Among Dowland's best known works are Flow, My Tears, Stay, Time, Awhile and An Heart Thats Broken and Contrite [mp3 links] but my favorites are In Darknesse Let Mee Dwell and Sorrow Stay [YouTube]
posted by Kattullus at 7:34 PM PST - 20 comments

This site deserves to rank with this site and this one. [more inside]
posted by bad grammar at 7:13 PM PST - 17 comments

Wolfenstein 3D, the animated graphic novel.
posted by Artw at 4:17 PM PST - 42 comments

bonus level is a new flash gaming portal. Games include Captain Dan V Zombie Plan, reminiscent of Berzerk, Push, an unusual platformer that combines level manipulation with quick-reflex timing and jumping, Jump Gear, an acrobatic timed racer and a ton more I haven't even tried yet. What sets bonus level apart from other gaming portals is that it's headed by three great names in game development, Wouter Visser (Wouter), Tõnu Paldra (tonypa) and Jean-Philippe Sarda (JP). Part of their philosophy is allowing anyone who registers to make and share levels for their games, as well as giving budding designers access to the flash APIs used to create all of bonus level's games.
posted by boo_radley at 3:26 PM PST - 7 comments

Welcome to the Universe - III: The Size of Things . . .we take a breif trip through the Solar System and beyond to see the size of the Universe. A youtube video by AndromedasWake about the scale of the Universe.
posted by nola at 3:13 PM PST - 20 comments

Seoul, Portland and San Francisco: 4 cases for destroying highways to save the city.
posted by geoff. at 1:03 PM PST - 77 comments

MMORPG Griefing ... for Science! Twixt fought his fellow players in City Of Heroes to win. But he used methods that, despite being legal within the rules of the game, the rest of the community hated. Then the player behind the hero unmasked as Loyola University media professor David Myers, author of "The Sad & Curious Tale of Twixt" (.doc), a sociological study of the unwritten rules in MMORPG's. Not entirely unlike the epic tale of Fansy The Famous Bard.
posted by waraw at 11:28 AM PST - 204 comments

How I lost my health insurance at the hairstylist's is one story among millions about the insanity of US health care. 59% of the American public and 59% of physicians support single-payer national health insurance, but in a recent prime time town-hall meeting on health reform proposals, ABC did not air a single question about single-payer. HELP is on the way. At a HELP hearing on single-payer, Kucinich pwned a doctor who claimed Canadian health care was worse than the US's.
posted by shetterly at 10:12 AM PST - 561 comments

Real or Fake? From the Life Magazine photographic archives.
posted by netbros at 9:58 AM PST - 34 comments

"You could be a doorstop or paperweight or maybe a national anthem." Beck talks to Tom Waits. Part of Irrelevant Topics: a new section [of Beck's web site] featuring conversations between musicians, artists, writers, etc. on various subjects, without promotional pretext or editorial direction.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 9:54 AM PST - 23 comments

Alien Nation is being revived for the SyFy channel by Tim Minear, whose previous credits include Firefly and Angel. [more inside]
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:08 AM PST - 72 comments

"The Public School is a school with no curriculum. At the moment, it operates as follows: first, classes are proposed by the public (I want to learn this or I want to teach this); then, people have the opportunity to sign up for the classes (I also want to learn that); finally, when enough people have expressed interest, the school finds a teacher and offers the class to those who signed up." A project of Telic Arts Exchange.
posted by Miko at 8:39 AM PST - 21 comments

The 2009 Super Mario Marathon will kick off this Friday as three gamers from Lafayette, Indiana jump their way through 25 years of Mario games to benefit the Child's Play Charity. The marathon will be broadcast live online and you can track their level progress at the site. Viewers of the event will have the opportunity to win some Mario-themed prizes. If old-school RPGs are more your thing, the Final Fantasy Marathon, also live online, also with prizes, will be kicking off July 17 to benefit ACT Today.
posted by Otis at 8:09 AM PST - 12 comments

Canada's Tourism Minister, Diane Ablonczy, was stripped of responsibility for a Marquee Tourism Events Program budget of $100 million, after she gave $397,500 to Toronto's Pride Week festival, which attracts a million tourists to Toronto every June. The story was broken by backbench Conservative MP Brad Trost in the blog LifeSiteNews.com, who stated that most of the Conservative cauacus was shocked at the award, and that Ms. Ablonczy was stripped of the budget as punishment. Pride Toronto's response. The Tories run damage control.
posted by Quiplash at 8:07 AM PST - 71 comments

Pictures from an epic Russian Fallout LARP. English translation via Google.
posted by permafrost at 6:44 AM PST - 73 comments

Fifty-Two Stories - one short story per week, for free. (via)
posted by backseatpilot at 6:24 AM PST - 4 comments

The Quality-Control Quandary "As newspapers shed copy editors and post more and more unedited stories online, what’s the impact on their content?" [via]
posted by dhruva at 6:20 AM PST - 23 comments

Rosalie Kunert, the inspiration behind the iconic Rosie the Riveter, passed away June 28 at the age of 86. Rosie's can-do spirit was captured in an ad campaign by J. Walter Thompson and sponsored by the Office of War Information and War Manpower Commission, designed to inspire other women to join the workforce during WWII. It worked - to the tune of two million new women on the job. [more inside]
posted by tizzie at 6:19 AM PST - 15 comments

You will be Riveted when you read this riveting first page of the new rivetting book Moon People by Dale Courtney! If that doesn't convince you, maybe the overwhelmingly glowing Amazon reviews will. [more inside]
posted by captnkurt at 6:08 AM PST - 83 comments

Project: Rant - "We republish or recreate other people’s anonymous posts and submissions from around the web." (all episodes)
posted by sciurus at 5:46 AM PST - 9 comments

Stelae for 7/7. The London 7/7 Memorial consists of “52 pillars (or ‘stelae’), cast in rough textured stainless steel, each representing one of the victims” of the 2005 terrorist bombing attack. Typographer Phil Baines (profile) explains the development of the rough-hewn yet “British” typeface, based on “the 19th-century, untutored signmakers’ sansserif you see on buildings around the city,” that is moulded into the living steel.
posted by joeclark at 5:23 AM PST - 15 comments

Art house films for £3 a pop. Stream them from here
posted by muggsy1079 at 4:41 AM PST - 17 comments

Even after some deliberation it is difficult to find reasons to support the appointment of women Trade Commissioners. The Virtual Reading Room of the National Archives of Australia is a mine of information about Australia, its relationships and past attitudes.
posted by mattoxic at 4:36 AM PST - 7 comments

Dylan Mashed by French mashup artist ToToM. [more inside]
posted by Nomiconic at 12:12 AM PST - 17 comments

DB Clay, the Portland based artisanal wallet maker, illustrates their financial fall and rebirth in a 20 minute artumentary.
posted by wfrgms at 10:40 PM PST - 16 comments

Google Chrome OS: Google says it will release a new operating system, built around its Chrome browser, which will be open source and will initially be targeted at netbooks. Shipment is expected second half of 2010. No response yet from Microsoft. [more inside]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:10 PM PST - 227 comments

Was Michael Jackson A Pedophile? No! Jackson Was A Homosexual Autohebephile! [more inside]
posted by Sova at 8:37 PM PST - 118 comments

"That Was Way Too Close!" Wonderfully absurd escapes from mortal danger in the original G.I. Joe cartoon.
posted by nooneyouknow at 7:51 PM PST - 36 comments

Every episode of Cowboy Bebop.

The Cowboy Bebop movie: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
posted by educatedslacker at 7:50 PM PST - 58 comments

Comics in the Classroom: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teachers
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:51 PM PST - 26 comments

I understand that MeFites don't really do American Idol, but if you're the rare one who does, then you will probably appreciate the combination of fandom and geekery that produced What Not To Sing. They look at reviews of AI performances from all over the web, and distill them to provide numerical and star ratings for each AI performance. Every one. EVER. They have a listing of the top and bottom 40 performances across all 8 seasons, which makes for interesting YouTube searching. If you're curious about all performances of Michael Jackson songs on the show or just wish to confirm that Sanjaya sucked, they can help with that as well. The feature currently amusing me is this season's Camp Should-A-Been, where they judge contestants solely on performance rating, with the lowest rated performer leaving.
posted by booksherpa at 6:33 PM PST - 23 comments

Amabil amico, Con grand satisfaction mi ha lect tei letter de le mundolingue. Arika Okrent, author of the new book In The Land of Invented Languages, lists 500 constructed languages, from the well-known (Esperanto, Volapuk, Loglan) to the utterly obscure (Neulatein, Rosentalographia, Mundolingue.) MetaFilter's own languagehat reviews the book. Okrent writes about Klingonophones in Slate. Alternatively, you might choose to learn not to speak Esperanto. Previously on MetaFilter, all you wanted to know about Loglan/Lojban but were too syntactically ambiguous to ask.
posted by escabeche at 3:03 PM PST - 30 comments

[NSFW] • Baseball usually provides Americans with their first roundabout ways of talking about "Visiting Busch Stadium"... but what if you prefer golf? Or the Olympics? What if you're Canadian? An academic? Or like plunderphonics? Can any phrase be turned into a euphemism for sex? Maybe; here are the canonical lists. [perviously] [AskMe thread about sex euphemisms 'around the world,' IYKWIM]
posted by not_on_display at 2:37 PM PST - 70 comments

Bleeding billboard. Yeah, that's what I said.
posted by miss lynnster at 2:36 PM PST - 37 comments

38 photos of Obama's first 167 days in office (via.) [more inside]
posted by slogger at 2:29 PM PST - 49 comments

55 years ago, Brown v. Board of Education was decided, which lead to the controversial court-ordered school integrations in the South. Four years later, the prolific Charles Beaumont wrote his only solo novel, The Intruder, based on a true story but set in a fictitious small southern town of Caxton that is riled up by a mysterious man from out-of-town who wants to halt the school integration. The novel was turned into a movie by the same name in 1962, produced, directed and financed by Roger Corman, starring a charismatic William Shatner as the mysterious intruder, some 4 years before the start of his iconic role in Star Trek. Shot on location, using locals who were not fully aware of the plot of the movie, the whole film was made for $80-$90,000, and was Corman's only film to lose money at the box offices. The production was banned in some Missouri cities because the local people objected to the film's portrayal racism and segregation. The film finally saw a profit after its re-release on DVD in recent years. (Previously discussed as part of this 1970s Shatner post; video links inside) [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 1:27 PM PST - 24 comments

Light-paint Piano Player, a short video by Ryan Cashman. (SLVimeo) (Via this small anthology of videos, which would have been the main link if so many of the best ones hadn't already appeared on the blue. Also: previously featured light painting.)
posted by DaDaDaDave at 1:12 PM PST - 1 comment

The Art of Erik Johansson
posted by moonroof at 12:31 PM PST - 9 comments

ScriptShadow reviews the latest screenplays from Hollywood, usually with links to the screenplays themselves.
posted by alby at 12:06 PM PST - 13 comments

How many nuclear warheads are within rainge of YOUR town? Finally, a webgadget to let us know.
via The Ridiculant
posted by wendell at 11:58 AM PST - 165 comments

The Great Rock n Roll Swindler has died. Allen Klein, who once managed both the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, died in New York on Saturday, aged 77, after battling Alzheimer's disease. [more inside]
posted by punkfloyd at 11:14 AM PST - 26 comments

Sometimes music really is a weapon. Big surprise, United Airlines messed up some luggage and refused to do anything about it. But I have to give props to this guy for taking a bad situation and making something positive out of it. Bonus points for the song being pretty catchy. I wonder what would happen if that song was so popular that the record label wanted it on the in flight music station...
posted by theichibun at 10:15 AM PST - 69 comments

Suheir Hammad, a Palestinian-American poet and activist now based in New York, writes about being a Muslim immigrant and also a woman challenging conventions. Spotted by Russell Simmons for Def Poetry Jam, she has performed pieces about love in the time of war, exoticising beauty, and a touching ode to her father, among many others. Suheir has just produced and released her first feature film Salt of This Sea, up for the Cannes Films Festival and possibly an Oscar, and recently performed in Ramallah for the 2009 Palestinian Festival of Literature.
posted by divabat at 9:32 AM PST - 5 comments

Casey Kasem, the voice of Shaggy and Robin, and possibly the most prominent Lebanese American vegan in broadcast history, has called it quits from all manner of countdowns. Keep reaching for the stars, Casey, and we'll try not to piss you off.
posted by ericbop at 9:26 AM PST - 58 comments

Last Words from Death Row Inmates [more inside]
posted by Ljubljana at 9:20 AM PST - 79 comments

If extraterrestrial civilizations are monitoring our TV broadcasts, then this is what they are currently watching.
posted by Artw at 9:19 AM PST - 52 comments

The New York Times commissioned Portuguese photographer Edgar Martins to travel around the United States and take photographs of abandoned construction projects left in the wake of the housing and securities market collapse.
posted by acb at 8:14 AM PST - 254 comments

North Korea's first TV advertisement for beer (BBC article with video).
posted by adamrice at 7:01 AM PST - 35 comments

Some funny drawings. [more inside]
posted by DU at 5:19 AM PST - 31 comments

The Alpha Course has been a widely popular - and controversial - initiative by the Church of England to get people more interested in the Church. In 2000, the Jewish journalist Jon Ronson attended a course to see what was going on.
posted by mippy at 3:07 AM PST - 197 comments

Tom Williams: Hired by Apple at 14. His full story? — not quite… What he doesn't mention in his monologue is that his current project is reminiscent of GiveWell, with similar origins in high finance. He responds. (via)
posted by blasdelf at 12:49 AM PST - 44 comments

Free Solo climbing - climbing without a rope, partner or protection - is clearly the most dangerous form of rock climbing. When practiced at the highest level it demands peerless physical skill and stamina and unshakable nerves. Few climbers have ever taken soloing to the extremes that John Bachar did. [more inside]
posted by tim_in_oz at 12:19 AM PST - 77 comments

Blast into Space, Spectacular Fall to Earth {SYTL}
posted by mattoxic at 12:00 AM PST - 45 comments

By popular demand, your new resident marine biology nerd has compiled some cool information about the Giant Pacific Octopus.The Giant Pacific Octopus (Octopus dofleini) is one of the strangest animals in the sea- and one of the smartest. Though it is commonly believed that vertebrates are always "smarter" than invertebrates, these guys defy that convention. As this video shows, they are able to easily open jars and retrieve food from inside. They are also, as the "Giant" implies, enormous- the biggest one on record was 30 feet across (according to National Geographic) [more inside]
posted by WhySharksMatter at 6:57 PM PST - 138 comments

Researchers have found that it is possible to guess many -- if not all -- of the nine digits in an individual's Social Security number using publicly available information, a finding they say compromises the security of one of the most widely used consumer identifiers in the United States.

Many numbers could be guessed at by simply knowing a person's birth data, the researchers from Carnegie Mellon University said.

Manuscript (PDF)

Study FAQs
posted by educatedslacker at 5:59 PM PST - 59 comments

Black Acid Co-op is a new installation by Justin Lowe and Jonah Freeman at the Deitch Projects annex on Wooster St. in NYC. It just opened and you can check out a video tour here. It is the third collaboration between the two artists on the same theme. The first version, "Hello Meth Lab in the Sun" was in Marfa, TX and the second incarnation, "Hello Meth Lab with a View" was at last year's Art Basel Miami.
posted by rare_g at 5:46 PM PST - 8 comments

Perhaps it was bound to happen eventually, but it seems Michael Jackson's ghost is already haunting the halls of Neverland Ranch. Whether or not the spirt was moonwalking is currently inconclusive. [more inside]
posted by zardoz at 4:43 PM PST - 61 comments

In 1946 legendary surrealist Salvador Dali formed an unlikely friendship with Walt Disney, and they spent some time collaborating on a short film called Destino. Dali and Disney artist John Hench worked on a lot of storyboards, but only 18 seconds of test footage were shot before the project was abandoned. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 4:23 PM PST - 23 comments

Introducing Our New Ant Overlords. Argentine Ants (Linepithema humile) have spread to every continent aside from Antarctica, forming Supercolonies such as stretching 3,700 miles (6,000km) of the Mediterranean. Once thought to be independent of one another, scientists now have cause to believe that the disparate Supercolonies in fact make up one global Mega-Colony. They are highly invasive, attack native animals, thrive in fast-growing, high-density colonies, and have an increased capability for cooperation. "The enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society," the researchers claim...
posted by Navelgazer at 4:04 PM PST - 61 comments

Bicycle Snobbery - whether "mustache handlebars", silly tattoos, "mankinis" or other male cycling fashion statements, brass knuckle bicycle grips or celebrity brokeback pie-plates, NYC's Bike Snob casts judgment on all he surveys from one high gear
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:20 PM PST - 41 comments

Abraham Lincoln: A Life is a 2000 page, two volume, ten pound biography of America's sixteenth president. The original manuscript was edited for length and the only documentation included was for direct quotes (again, due to length considerations). If you still want more after reading it, the full-length manuscript and all the accompanying footnotes for Volume 1 are available online. Volume 2 to follow. The book is a culmination of author Michael Burlingame's career, much of it spent editing volumes of primary documents by Lincoln's contemporaries.
posted by marxchivist at 12:54 PM PST - 17 comments

Babes of the BNP [probably NSFW]
posted by Beautiful Screaming Lady at 12:53 PM PST - 82 comments

Eternal Moonwalk: A Tribute to Michael Jackson
posted by arcticwoman at 12:49 PM PST - 54 comments

Fortean author John Keel passed away last Friday at the age of 79. [more inside]
posted by dbiedny at 12:46 PM PST - 34 comments

"... [M]any of us who were raised in the 1950s, '60s and '70s are survivors. We were tiny daredevils: sun-blasted, pocket-knife-carrying, bottom-spanked, cow eaters. We ran the streets armed with BB guns, boxing gloves and bottle rockets, wholly unprotected by bike helmets, sunscreen or Amber Alerts. Our houses were filled with the blue cigarette smoke of our cocktail-drinking parents and we believed it wasn’t supper without a mountain of red meat." [more inside]
posted by ericb at 12:36 PM PST - 156 comments

The oldest Christian Bible in the world. The various parts of the Codex Sinaiticus have been assembled for the first time since the mid-fourth century (but only online). Among several variations from the King James, its New Testament includes the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas.
posted by msalt at 12:31 PM PST - 49 comments

Jesus and Judas, the latest project by Avery Edison. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:38 AM PST - 36 comments

There's nothing like the husky growl of an automobile engine. Of course to some people its just noise. But what if cars were quiet? That's right .... we'd complain they were too quiet. Then we'd have to fix that.
posted by ElvisJesus at 11:06 AM PST - 62 comments

The current federal and state budget woes have lead many to create their ideal budgets to keep it all in balance, and now you can try your hand at the push and pull of budgets large and larger. You can be a nation-wide budget hero (toggle-able music) at Marketplace for American Media. The LA Times makes the California budget into buttons, where you can add and subtract whole segments of the budget in a quick-and-dirty attempt at making things even out. Next 10 have created a more detailed budgeting system in their California budget simulator and localized Oakland variation. Too much information to handle? Stockton's budget balancing options cover police, fire community service and public works, with sliding scales of money to spend on each.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:32 AM PST - 48 comments

"If you were to describe me without anyone being able to see me, they would think I am a monster (Guardian video + article), that I am not fuckable. But if they see me, that could perhaps change." While French artist ORLAN's work spans decades and mediums (FR, may be NSFW), she is perhaps best known for her 1990s performance series "The Reincarnation of Saint-ORLAN" wherein ORLAN filmed herself receiving seven different plastic surgeries (NSFW) while entirely conscious. [more inside]
posted by nonmerci at 10:14 AM PST - 26 comments

Scenes sculpted with nails by Czech photographer Vlad Artazov. (via)
posted by netbros at 8:53 AM PST - 14 comments

"Understanding that "A" and "M", and perhaps "X", in Marienbad are all holographs would enrich our enjoyment of an otherwise incomprehensible film ... Without Morel, Last Year at Marienbad is mostly an exercise in formalism; however, with the intertextual juxtaposition of the two, it becomes another, different work. It becomes an early false reality film, perhaps the first ... we now have a flood of these ontological vertigo films - Total Recall, Dark City, The Matrix, Existenz, The Thirteenth Floor, The Truman Show." Last Year at Marienbad: An Intertextual Meditation. (Now available on Blu-Ray!)
posted by geoff. at 8:50 AM PST - 25 comments

The Early Days of Blogging - Presented at the 2009 HyperText conference, this paper is an extensively cited and well-researched narrative of the blogosphere's formative period. It delves deep into the involvement of Jorn Barger, Dave Winer, and other A-list luminaries.
posted by SpecialK at 8:29 AM PST - 36 comments

"The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." [more inside]
posted by philip-random at 7:32 AM PST - 74 comments

The Onion is funny because it imitates life. However, life is not as funny when it imitates The Onion.
posted by Premeditated Symmetry Breaking at 7:25 AM PST - 68 comments

Former US Secretary of Defense and 'architect of the Vietnam War' Robert S. McNamara has died at age 93. [more inside]
posted by lullaby at 7:14 AM PST - 76 comments

She did all things enthusiastically, but nothing well. A self-penned obit by someone you may wish you had known. [more inside]
posted by Faze at 7:01 AM PST - 37 comments

Z҉A҉L҉G҉O̚̕̚ [nsfIa!ia!Cthulhufhtagn.n.....nn../ [more inside]
posted by Avenger at 3:37 AM PST - 165 comments

Racism is over!
posted by BitterOldPunk at 8:42 PM PST - 61 comments

Light-Test: a home for all of our light tests. A website dedicated to pictures of photography assistants at work. Sort of.
posted by ColdChef at 7:13 PM PST - 24 comments

Merge Records, the independent record label founded by Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance of Superchunk, turns 20 this year. All Things Considered focuses on how they stand out from other labels by turning profits in these trying economic times. They are throwing a four-day festival this month, XX Merge, in North Carolina where it all began. Stand-out acts for the festival include M. Ward, The Magnetic Fields, The Clientele, Superchunk, and the biggest act promoted by the label, Spoon.
posted by educatedslacker at 5:30 PM PST - 41 comments

Prattville, Alabama, is home to the Cross Garden of W. C. Rice. Pour yourself a cold drink and take a tour through this Flickr gallery. Make that drink ice water, as YOU WILL DIE, YOU DO NOTHING TO GO TO HELL, and TO LATE IN HELL FIRE WATER.
posted by Legomancer at 4:45 PM PST - 60 comments

A thousand echos: Bells on Sunday from BBC Radio 4. Campanology is a dying art, despite having loyal devotees. Evan Davis learns how it's done. Here's a modern introduction to bell ringing; here's something a bit older. [more inside]
posted by Helga-woo at 4:14 PM PST - 8 comments

Why chicks cry. Images of women and girls crying, taken from DC romance comics 1957 to 1968. [more inside]
posted by paduasoy at 3:52 PM PST - 43 comments

Churchyard Entertainment. Mad woman interview. Cave song. Three extracts from Book of Days, a 1988 film by composer, singer and choreographer Meredith Monk. Her work was explored by Peter Greenway in his 1983 documentary Four American Composers. [more inside]
posted by homunculus at 1:46 PM PST - 5 comments