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FBI turns to broad new wiretap method. "The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed." [Via TPMmuckraker]
posted by homunculus at 11:50 PM PST - 25 comments

"A multinational company obviously doesn’t want to be associated with weed. Their instructions made me want to capitalize on it though." Ellen Feiss, formerly the Apple Girl, is now in college and doing just fine, according to this amusing years-later interview on the whole sorta-phenomenon. Previously.
posted by Sticherbeast at 9:29 PM PST - 43 comments

Film and TV composers with online portfolios for your cinematic listening pleasure.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 9:01 PM PST - 3 comments

Predictions of the future have been common throughout history. They have been made by everyone from wackos to geniuses. But none have been as fun to revisit as this little musical look into the future, all the way to the year 2000 (apologies to Conan O'Brien, and YouTube haters). For more goodness by the folks behind "Music 2000", please see the following, as well as this look into the future of computer games.
posted by newfers at 8:53 PM PST - 12 comments

'The Family' Has Reunited. Members of the studio band created in the wake of The Time's disintegration, who never toured and who only released one self-titled album (featuring the beautiful photography of Horst and lavish orchestration by Clare Fischer, like much of Prince's other projects at the time) have reunited. No word yet about any involvement from either Prince (writer of nearly all the band's songs, including their gigantic hit Nothing Compares 2 U - well, at least for Sinead O'Connor) or his Revolution cohorts Wendy (twin sister of Family co-lead vocalist Susannah Melvoin) & Lisa, now a successful scoring team for film and television.
posted by dagarrat at 8:47 PM PST - 7 comments

What is a ZARF? Well, at first it was a Turkish coffee cup holder made of precious or filigreed metal. Then it became the name for the cardboard java jacket that keeps you from burning your delicate little fingers at Coffee Bean. And now? Thanks to the dedicated folks at All My Children, Zarf has become daytime television's favorite overacted transvestite/accused murderer... a character written in a way that even confuses the fans who name their teddy bears after him. Uhh... her.
posted by miss lynnster at 8:15 PM PST - 20 comments

Climate change a 'questionable truth'. Margaret Wente looks beyond the hysteria surrounding the climate change debate. Hysteria her own newspaper has been contributing to.
posted by loquax at 7:55 PM PST - 85 comments

How's the weather? Is it polluted? Do you have plenty of rainforests? Send someone a Geography Information Postcard and tell them about where you live by filling out infographics. (via)
posted by divabat at 7:28 PM PST - 1 comment

Ghost ridin da whip + Society for Creative Anachronism + viral marketing = RAV4 Jousting. Warning: flash, opera
posted by gottabefunky at 6:32 PM PST - 27 comments

Alex Gross
posted by hama7 at 5:23 PM PST - 46 comments

New York Magazine published an article about the hardcore punk scene back in May of 1986, written by future best-selling author Peter Blauner. It was the story of two girls. One, 16-year old Becca, rose from the gutter to be near the stars. The other, Natalie, a grizzled veteran at 20, had to fight to keep her status as punk queen. Like with everything else in those days, it ended up on Donahue (clips from the episode, not the whole show). The band most featured in the article, Murphy's Law, is still a pogoing concern.
posted by Kattullus at 5:00 PM PST - 20 comments

Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins (August 30, 1944 - January 30, 2007) (previously)
posted by mullingitover at 4:45 PM PST - 193 comments

William Pfaff argues against American utopianism in foreign policy--a form of "manifest destiny" not limited to the Bush administration. The Bush administration defends its pursuit of this unlikely goal ["ending tyranny in the world"] by means of internationally illegal, unilateralist, and preemptive attacks on other countries, accompanied by arbitrary imprisonments and the practice of torture, and by making the claim that the United States possesses an exceptional status among nations that confers upon it special international responsibilities, and exceptional privileges in meeting those responsibilities. ... Other American leaders before George Bush have made the same claim in matters of less moment. It is something like a national heresy to suggest that the United States does not have a unique moral status and role to play in the history of nations, and therefore in the affairs of the contemporary world. In fact it does not. Pfaff has been a columnist for the International Herald-Tribune, based in Paris, for the last 25 years. His website includes an archive of past columns. Previously.
posted by russilwvong at 4:41 PM PST - 5 comments

Scene 3: Jizzus in the temple. The world truly needs more faith based porn. What better way to bring the story of jesus to the sinners?
(all links NSFW)
posted by mock at 4:38 PM PST - 31 comments

Les Poppys
posted by bardic at 4:02 PM PST - 11 comments

Kiruna: The Town that Moved
posted by Falconetti at 3:29 PM PST - 12 comments

That Wal-Mart is evil (or even just filthy) has been discussed numerous times on MeFi. How about a "Dark Wal-Mart"? This is the industry term given to a Wal-Mart that has been vacated (pdf deep link), often in favor a Supercenter nearby. Wal-Mart still has a few years left on the lease, so there is an income stream for the landlord for a while. Industry observers note, however, that "having a dark Wal-Mart does not help you valuewise."
posted by Adamchik at 3:25 PM PST - 36 comments

Ghosts of the London Underground - a documentary. More here.
posted by greycap at 3:03 PM PST - 7 comments

Breaking News. Read about what has been called the Kennedy assassination of this generation (includes map).
posted by Krrrlson at 2:56 PM PST - 85 comments

Pro Football Salaries vs Surgeon Salaries Not to be a wet blanket during Super Bowl week, but it strikes me a little odd that surgeons make about 2 percent of what the top football players earn.
posted by CameraObscura at 2:49 PM PST - 85 comments

According to one colleague, Senator Obama is "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." For what it's worth, Senator Biden says that Senator Obama was not insulted by the remark, but no public reaction from his presumably inarticulate or non-bright or unclean counterparts yet. Can we get senators to stop saying stupid things about black people? Can we at least get everyone to stop using "articulate" as the stock compliment for people of color in positions of political power?
posted by Slap Factory at 2:11 PM PST - 167 comments

Autoplaying an Encrypted Thumb drive: Step by step instructions to get a thumb drive encrypted with TrueCrypt to automatically mount on Windows when inserted. Truecrypt requires Administrative Access.
posted by Mitheral at 1:55 PM PST - 14 comments

Some youtube clips of sand animation by Ilana Yahav [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
posted by supercrayon at 1:11 PM PST - 7 comments

Penises visible from space.
posted by empath at 1:06 PM PST - 28 comments

A hefty chunk of Boston was paralyzed today in reaction to the discovery of numerous devices consisting of circuit boards attached to girders. The ones that have been found have been disabled. The subway is crippled; numerous lines have been shut down and been replaced by emergency bus service as authorities root out the remaining instances of what could be bombs! Here is a photo one of these nefarious devices in action.
posted by mkb at 12:41 PM PST - 334 comments

Last Friday a YouTuber by the name of "Mark Erickson" posted a video claiming to reveal an easter egg in Gmail that unlocked an invite to a yet to be announced Google beta service called Google TV. Using some relatively fancy spoofing, he showed a screencast of how logging in and out of Gmail over and over again would eventually unlock the invite. Many greasy Google fanboys (like me) followed his instructions, logging in and out dozens, and dozens and dozens of times. Eventually, we realized it was a hoax. In fact, this is what "Erickson" does, post fake technology demo videos on YouTube which lead you on wild goose chases. Also see his production company and some of their YouTube work (especially the alternative intros to "Designing Women" and "Golden Girls"). Clever little shit.
posted by JPowers at 12:31 PM PST - 28 comments

"Good People": A new short story by David Foster Wallace. New to Wallace? Like "Good People"? Read "Incarnations of Burned Children", a story with a similar sense of tension and dread. Want more? Okay.
posted by HerArchitectLover at 12:21 PM PST - 25 comments

Terrorism finger puppets! Uncanny crocheted likenesses of Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Il, Ahmadinejad and George W. Bush.
posted by R. Mutt at 10:41 AM PST - 21 comments

Flickr pulls the trigger on the Old Skool. The Old Skool takes the bullet badly.
posted by felix betachat at 10:19 AM PST - 146 comments

Positive Psychology: Can psychology break away from its obsessive focus on the negative? Four decades after Abraham Maslow popularized the search for self-actualization, academics are bringing scientific vigor to our search for the fulfilled life. Evolutionary biologist Nancy Etcoff believes that our Hedonic Set Point can be raised. George Vaillant is less concerned with happiness than with the Neurobiology of Spirituality and Joy. Daniel Gilbert studies prospection, our search for happiness, and our ability to recover from tragedy. Meanwhile, Tal Ben-Shahar teaches the most popular class at Harvard, Psychology 1504: Positive Psychology (includes links to syllabus, reading list, powerpoints, and realvideo of full class lectures).
posted by alms at 9:43 AM PST - 21 comments

Today is National Gorilla Suit Day. That is all.
posted by jazon at 7:49 AM PST - 18 comments

28-year-old Tomomi Kunishige has created a new form of Japanese calligraphy, dubbed Eikanji (literally 'english kanji'), which uses the Roman alphabet to represent Japanese characters. Even if you don't study Japanese her calligraphy is still worth admiring, though it must be said that some of the paintings involve a fairly relaxed usage. (taken from Mainichi Daily News)
posted by Talvalin at 5:09 AM PST - 51 comments

What's the best way to pick up girls in Damascus?
posted by three blind mice at 4:13 AM PST - 33 comments

Please now enjoy this ginormous gallery of slow motion videos from a high speed digital camera.
posted by loquacious at 3:52 AM PST - 39 comments

Police Officer Tasers a High School Streaker, twice. This actually looks to be more funny than outraging. It looks like he was actually breaking some sort of outdated law about "public nudity", or something.
posted by tehloki at 1:12 AM PST - 106 comments

The President's call for a troop surge in Iraq will likely be a headache for military recruiters, who have already had to relax standards to (barely) meet their quotas. But just how desperate are they for warm bodies? Radar prank called recruiting stations around the country disguised as a veritable Breakfast Club of misfit would-be soldiers, all dramatically unqualified or unattractive for service in some way. The resulting transcripts are hysterically funny (the writer poses as a flamboyantly gay man, a mama's boy, a martial arts freak, a junkie, an IBS sufferer and a lobotomy patient). The recruiters turn out not to be quite as sleazy as you might imagine, but the conversations are priceless.
posted by P-Soque at 10:19 PM PST - 30 comments

Tanada! Sure, the real shit is in Southeast Asia and China, but Japan's got a few beauties of her own. There's the fields of Yuya, the gentle slopes of Ukiha, and of course The Thousand Paddies of Chiba. It's not just an art--it's science. Want more? Listen to some of the "sounds of Japanese rice paddies, watch a slightly obnoxious slide show, or download some of these gorgeous wallpapers in a bunch of different formats. But best of all: they have calendars!
posted by odasaku at 10:00 PM PST - 8 comments

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q s t u v w x y z
via
posted by jonson at 10:00 PM PST - 28 comments

Spiders [nsfw]. A weird animated short by the Danish artist Christen Bach via aniBOOM.
posted by nickyskye at 8:50 PM PST - 18 comments

Spam University. "Are you tired of your dead-end job? Want to make some big-time cash without actually working? Earn the money you deserve in the exciting and fast-growing spam industry," but only if you meet the rigorous admissions criteria. Check out the lovely campus amenities and meet the alumni. If you're athletically inclined, you might even want to join one of Spam U.'s championship-winning teams!
posted by amyms at 7:45 PM PST - 10 comments

Court Decision, re: Fisher v. Lowe, Feb. 1999. Car ends up in man's yard. Man sues driver. Judge administers poetic justice. [via]
posted by Smart Dalek at 6:45 PM PST - 37 comments

Rumors of The Police reuniting to perform at the 2007 Grammy Awards have been confirmed! I wonder which songs they will play?
posted by augustweed at 5:32 PM PST - 146 comments

It's just a resumé for a 27 year old, who is still working on his Masters degree. He's written a little software. You may have heard of him (but you might have not). He posted the very first (18 sec.) video to YouTube. He makes the Bangladeshi people proud (a comment there provides some backstory). About a week after YouTube's sale to Google, ($1.6B) he provided some insights on how YouTube went from concept to hyper-growth in a presentation to his Alma Mater. His name is Jawed Karim.
posted by spock at 5:25 PM PST - 27 comments

A four-year-old girl (YouTube 1:26) is interviewed about her views of various hypothetical budgetary allocations. It is called "A SOTU Response," but it isn't really directly related to the SOTU. Via Plastic.
posted by textilephile at 5:11 PM PST - 43 comments

"Second Coming" answers the question. (Links to Video).
posted by yupster at 3:13 PM PST - 26 comments

An old dog learns new tricks The venerable Atari 2600 may no longer be at the forefront of high-end gaming, but that won't keep it down for long. Its new career? Drum & Bass synthesizer(warning: ugly, ugly site), complete with MIDI.
posted by lekvar at 2:08 PM PST - 15 comments

Women Jailed and refused contraceptive after reporting rape. A woman visiting the Tampa area for Gasparilla was thrown in jail after being accused of failing to pay restitution for a 2003 theft arrest. The Tampa jail refused to provide the woman with a second dose of the morning after pill because of the religious beliefs of an employee.
posted by hex1848 at 12:29 PM PST - 185 comments

Dopey, Boozy, Smoky—and Stupid - Mark Kleiman of UCLA examines drug policy in general and offers some suggestions [via]
posted by daksya at 11:47 AM PST - 48 comments

This story of Xbox 360 woe isn't unique, but it does come with a great video. (last is a youtube link)
posted by nile_red at 11:14 AM PST - 22 comments

Francis Crick was high as a kite on LSD when he figured out the double helix structure of DNA. Later, his role in the drug legalization movement inspired biochemist Richard Kemp to supply Britain with massive amounts of cheap LSD, until he was stopped in one of the largest drug busts in history. When asked about his drug use, Crick replied, "Print a word of it and I'll sue."
posted by kyrademon at 10:49 AM PST - 78 comments

Sweden sends ambassadors to Second Life, becoming "the first country to establish diplomatic representation in the virtual reality world..."
posted by Milkman Dan at 10:14 AM PST - 49 comments

Jonson takes pictures of The Salton Sea, which is a strange place, like some kind of huge, perpetual, Burning Man, but by a huge, salty, polluted, manmade lake with distant shores, dying fish, has-been resort towns, Salvation Mountain, fundie dinos, fountains of youth, and nice churches. [via mefi projects] [previously] [howdy]
posted by brownpau at 10:13 AM PST - 36 comments

"Everybody underestimates the kick to the groin." The venerable Bas Rutten, three time King of Pancrase, former Ultimate Fighting Championship Heavyweight Champion, and actor teaches you how to survive a bar fight and deal with jerks. Bas does not promote violence, but if anyone touches you or your family, he gives you his blessings to take him out.
posted by reformedjerk at 8:45 AM PST - 122 comments

The SF Dump's Artist in Residence Program currently features Sudhu Tewari and Nome Edonna but will be welcoming Ellen Babcock and Nathaniel Tookey shortly. Its an idea that's been around for a little while. "Many artists find and recycle materials in their art, but no one else has this much material to pick from," says Program Director Paul Fresina. The 2,000-square-foot art studio is located at SF Recycling & Disposal, Inc.'s Solid Waste Transfer and Recycling Center. The 44-acre site is where most of San Francisco's garbage and recyclables are temporarily dumped before going to a landfill or recycling plant. Throughout a residency, each artist talks to young students and adult tour groups about the experience of turning trash into treasures. Previously and via.
posted by fenriq at 7:05 AM PST - 7 comments

Remember Captain EO? Meet Captain Eeyore!
posted by cerebus19 at 6:22 AM PST - 9 comments

The Year of Roosevelt Franklin. High on the list of forgotten Sesame Street characters is one Roosevelt Franklin, a reddish purple muppet with pointed black hair and a distinctly hep style of speech (provided by the late Matt Robinson, the show's original Gordon). Despite Roosevelt's funky musical sensibilities (demonstrated in an album called My Name is Roosevelt Franklin, later released as The Year of Roosevelt Franklin), the character's classroom behavior was, well, quite frankly, poison. His constant misbehavior in school might have been fun to watch, but was seen as representing a negative stereotype and a bad example, and so it was adieu Franklin.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:15 AM PST - 22 comments

Behind on your car payments? Need to pay rent? Digital Charity may be your answer. Digital Charity gives you a list (sorted by category) of people who are looking for donations via PayPal. Each person looking for a donation can create a page with their situation and a PayPal link. Anyone interested in giving them money can then click on that link.
posted by Jenesta at 5:38 AM PST - 45 comments

Yet another year's end best-of list of music videos!? (this one's from Good Weather for Airstrikes, authors of last year's arguably awesomest list... (the torrent's yet to come.)
posted by progosk at 4:46 AM PST - 8 comments

Now spell "angel"! A Texas Instruments "Speak n Spell" simulator.
posted by Jimbob at 3:34 AM PST - 26 comments

Moving an 100 year old church - via the power of rock (YouTube page) Watching a show about buildings being moved by truck, my attention drifted towards the captivating music, from composer Daniel Pemberton. One of the gems on his MySpace page is this clip in which a 40-strong choir leads an 100-year old church as it is moved down a road, to a soundtrack akin to the Beatles or Polyphonic Spree. It's bizarre and certainly not your normal documentary fare.
posted by skylar at 1:52 AM PST - 14 comments

♫ Get Back ♫ - It was 38 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper and the band last played.
[Previously parodied on The Simpsons. Other notable appearances in Springfield.]

Bonus Track - 10mm B&W dailies from the 'Get Back' studio sessions.
posted by pruner at 1:19 AM PST - 55 comments

The Wikipedia List of Unusual Articles. Including popular favorites such as Raining Animals, Penis Panic, The Utah Teapot, The Jesus Nut, The Mexican Perforation, and The Liver-Eating Johnson. But wait, there's more! Sweater Curse! Turtles All The Way Down! Acoustic Kitty! (Seriously, WTF CIA?) The Ding Hai Effect. Blue Peacock, the Chicken Powered Nuclear Bomb. Chess-Related Deaths, ETAOIN SHRDLU, Alien Hand Syndrome, Colors of Noise, Drake's Plate of Brass, and Mole Day. Click now and they'll also include List of Songs in English Labled the Worst Ever and the List of Songs Whose Title Constitutes The Entire Lyrics free of charge!! Had enough? Succumb to the Flynn Effect but watch out for Exploding Head Syndrome!
posted by loquacious at 11:50 PM PST - 49 comments

Dallas is just a little less funky now. warning: Poorly edited YouTube, but pertinent - bear with me. Not a surprise, but one of Dallas's greatest landmarks is no longer. Fortunately, plenty of people have documented the beautiful art that is no longer.
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:46 PM PST - 29 comments

2007 Independent Games Festival Finalists. Most have downloadable demo and full versions (on the PC, anyway). Share and enjoy.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:40 PM PST - 2 comments

On inspiration, and more from Ragged Edge, the disability rights rag. See also: The Bancroft Disability Rights Collection, ADAPT, and Disabled in Action.
posted by serazin at 11:26 PM PST - 4 comments

A short history of Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theatre. // "[Richard Foreman's] 'Strong Medicine' (Quicktime) is the kind of mad, risky venture one hesitates to interrupt." // A recent interview with Richard Foreman. (Youtube) // "This website contains hundreds of pages of unedited text which Richard Foreman is making available freely for use by theatrical authors/directors from which to create plays of their own." (Richard Foreman Previously)
posted by jrb223 at 9:35 PM PST - 7 comments

Reggie Watts ain't much of a dancer, but he's pretty good with his mouth. {vimeo}
posted by dobbs at 9:13 PM PST - 12 comments

Bush has got a brand new bag - In an executive order signed today Bush created a new oversight position at all regulatory agencies. This position, which will be staffed by someone appointed by the White House, will over see regulatory suggestions and reports to congress.
posted by sourbrew at 9:04 PM PST - 63 comments

Hubble's ACS Has Died. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys has apparently gone into safe mode, with little hope of return. The ACS was installed in 2002, and added amazing upgrades to Hubble's imaging capabilities. Though its lifespan was only projected at five years, scientists had hoped it would hold out longer. Though a final shuttle servicing mission is scheduled for 2008, the mission objectives plate is already too full to consider its repair. Alas, more of those beautiful pictures (as well as extended research capabilities) will have to wait until the James Webb Space Telescope is launched in 2013.
posted by Brak at 8:22 PM PST - 22 comments

Barbaro is dead. He was a horse. A horse with fans. Enjoy some fan videos. [mostly via]
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:57 PM PST - 50 comments

MacRobertson's Confectionery were, in the 1930s, trialling new ideas for their children's range. An employee suggested that as "women and children were afraid of mice," rather than a chocolate mouse, a chocolate frog would be more popular with children. Three days later, what would become Australia's most popular children's confectionery, the Freddo Frog, was born. Its supposed creator, Harry Melbourne, died last week, having never received a cent in royalties. However, to this day there remains confusion as to whether he, or rather the inventor of the Cherry Ripe, Lesley Atkison, was in fact responsible. Those that only know him in chocolate form may be surprised to find out that Freddo was also the star of Australia's first cartoon.
posted by Mil at 6:00 PM PST - 19 comments

Instead of reducing emissions, maybe we can block out the sun. This is a proposal offered by the United States in response to a draft of a UN report on climate change, prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. According to the linked article, the U.S. has resisted a treaty that would involve binding targets for emissions reductions, and is instead pushing for the exploration of techniques for blocking out the sun, including (according to the Sydney Morning Herald article) "putting a giant screen into orbit, thousands of tiny, shiny balloons, or microscopic sulfate droplets pumped into the high atmosphere to mimic the cooling effects of a volcanic eruption." This is via Yale Law professor Jack Balkin, who speculates that there is Biblical precedent for this proposal.
posted by jayder at 5:36 PM PST - 92 comments

Braziliian music rediscovers its roots: Early in 1938, Mário de Andrade dispatched a Folklore Research Mission to the northeastern hinterlands of Brazil to record as much music as possible as quickly as possible, before encroaching influences like radio and film began transforming the region's distinctive culture.
posted by dhruva at 5:15 PM PST - 13 comments

"Window in the Sky" is a YouTube style video synch mash-up done on a professional budget with the magic of copyright clearances. "It's a triumph of postmodern reconstruction" says the Washington Post.
posted by stbalbach at 2:20 PM PST - 158 comments

They Don't Know I'm speechless right now.
posted by vronsky at 2:15 PM PST - 110 comments

A "noisy" blogger in Astoria, Queens receives detailed complaint letters from the woman downstairs. High schoolers in Florida respond.
posted by mullacc at 12:31 PM PST - 55 comments

Beijing artist Li Wei switched from oil painting to performance art in 1999; in 2000 he used mirrors to create a ... detached collection. Then he began falling into things.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 11:16 AM PST - 17 comments

Drops of milk splashing into coffee. The beauty of high shutter speed photography.
posted by jonson at 10:28 AM PST - 53 comments

The Independent has some anticipations on the soon to be released first volume of IPCC's 4Th Assesment Report , concerning matters such as climate change and global warming. Quoting the article : It is virtually certain (there is more than a 99 per cent probability) that carbon dioxide levels and global warming is far above the range of natural variability over the past 650,000 years. It is virtually certain that human activity has played the dominant role in causing the increase of greenhouse gases over the past 250 years.
posted by elpapacito at 7:29 AM PST - 74 comments

Rev. Robert F. Drinan, first priest to be a voting member of Congress died Sunday He was 86. In his time, Father Drinan was a priest, law professor and human rights advocate. He was also controversial.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:51 AM PST - 16 comments

Life without memory (multi-part YouTube): the extraordinary case of Clive Wearing.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:51 AM PST - 39 comments

Letchik Leha photography. Letchik Leha is a russian photographer and pilot ("letchik" means "the pilot" in russian, apparently). Two tastes that go great together.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 3:11 AM PST - 13 comments

The Profane Game. Got a pottymouth? Test your curse word vocabulary with this simple game. You have one minute to enter as many naughty words as you can. (via)
posted by zardoz at 2:24 AM PST - 55 comments

"I'm photography's degree zero." Evgen Bavcar takes interesting photos despite being blind. "Naturally there are certain adjustments I have made to the camera" [quicktime]. He's also far from alone. [first link via the Athanasius Kircher Society] [more inside]
posted by mediareport at 10:33 PM PST - 23 comments

The Laughing Club. A practicing doctor at a Bombay hospital, Dr. Kataria, formed the first laughing club in 1994. What started off as a group of 5 people, barely able to break into a chortle, gradually spread the world over. Today, there are 5,000 laughing clubs around the world.
posted by nickyskye at 8:24 PM PST - 13 comments

Pan's Labyrinth the new movie by director Guillermo del Toro (Devil's Backbone) is a fairy tale for grownups. Certainly not a new idea, stories like Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia have elements that appeal to adults, but Pan's Labyrinth is perhaps unique in that it's not at all suitable for children.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 7:13 PM PST - 160 comments

The New York Times on Being Black and Indie You're an African American, but you prefer Bloc Party to 50 Cent. Fear not, young "blipster," you're no longer the only black guy at the indie rock show! [via]
posted by dhammond at 6:44 PM PST - 68 comments

Where, exactly, were commercial vessels in the San Francisco Bay in the past hour? Here, for one. Behold the power of AIS! Previously
posted by Ogre Lawless at 5:17 PM PST - 21 comments

"I didn't know I couldn't speak until I tried to speak out loud. I could still hear in my mind myself saying 'this is Jill, I need help'...so when I tried to speak I went wvur wvur wvur and so I sounded like a golden retriever."

In 1996 neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor had a rare kind of stroke (an AVM) that allowed her to maintain consciousness and analyze the effects of half her brain shutting down over the course of four hours. She was interviewed today (mp3) on Sound Medicine and discussed losing her language abilities and the ability to differentiate between herself and the outside world while gaining control over the rebuilding of her mind.
posted by ztdavis at 5:06 PM PST - 36 comments

Cause This is Thriller, Thriller Night. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" has always been a classic. Everyone's seen the original. MeFites have seen the Lego version, the Bollywood version, and from the streets of Lexington, KY. But you might have missed it at a University of Washington talent show. In a kid's closet. Or performed by a cute 2 year old. Or even from the cast of Final Fantasy. Regardless, you simply can't miss the rendition by some bored workers in an office parking lot and break room. Or my favorite, bride, groom--an entire wedding party--at the reception.
posted by kenneth at 5:02 PM PST - 50 comments

IJN Battleship YAMATO (from 2005 Toei film). NHK IJN feature 1,2,3,4,5,6. Glorious Imperial Japanese Navy, Modern mashup, JSDF fanvid pt 1 & 2. JMSDF Fleet Review rehearsal. JSDF Marching Festival 2006: Opening Ceremony, USAJ Band (sad), 7th Fleet Band (gack), III MEF Band (nice!), J NDA Honor Guard. PLA schools everyone.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 4:22 PM PST - 29 comments

Identicons are small graphic representations of IP address.
posted by delmoi at 3:12 PM PST - 42 comments

We live in an ugly world. War, disease, famine and ugly people seem to rule our daily lives. Darwin Dating is a dating site that cuts through this ugliness and has been created for attractive people only. Darwin Dating has been designed by hot people for hot people. You won't be able to join unless you are objectively beautiful. Our strict rules and natural selection process is the perfect way for attractive people to hook up.
posted by psmealey at 8:59 AM PST - 121 comments

The Advent of a Great Awakening. (video) Mr. Rogers's doppleganger has some good news to share with you. Seven minutes in is a particularly surreal place to start. The 18:45 mark is also notably creepy.See also.
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:48 AM PST - 48 comments

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
posted by jaronson at 7:27 AM PST - 179 comments

Dr. James B. Calvert, professor emeritus of engineering at the University of Denver, has an incredibly rich and deep personal webpage, which includes such gems as Latin for mountain men, the correct corn-hog ratio, travel by brachistochrone, anomalous sound propagation and the guns of Barisal, and about a billion other awesomely nerdy topics.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 6:51 AM PST - 15 comments

Keep Burberry British. The 150 years old very british brand is now under a new management that decided to ...*surprise* move production to China closing Treorchy plant, firing 310 workers , despite a 25% increase in profits ! Celebrities from Prince Charles to Tom Jones are supporting the protest.
posted by elpapacito at 3:34 AM PST - 72 comments

Din Da Da
posted by pwedza at 1:22 AM PST - 61 comments

Tangerine Panic: dodge the inexplicably falling fruit [flash, via digg]
posted by anarcation at 12:17 AM PST - 19 comments

In the county of Maramures in Romania is Sapanta or The Merry Cemetery. From 1935 Ioan Patras, carved oak crosses with a scene from a life or death like the death of a young girl or this questionable bit.
posted by arse_hat at 10:12 PM PST - 12 comments

W. Edwards Deming: Noted consultant, and proponent of total quality management. The prevailing forces of destruction start early in life-grades in school from toddler on up through the university, gold stars for school athletics, merit system or annual appraisal on the job, incentive pay, work standards, MBO (rather, MBIR: Management by Imposition of Results), MBR (Management by Results). These forces of destruction must be replaced by leadership.... The transformation will restore the individual; will abolish grades in school on up through the university; will abolish the annual appraisal of people on the job, MBO, quotas for production, specified requirements that people work 57 minutes out of every hour, incentive pay, monthly or quarterly reports on business targets, competition between people, competition between divisions, and other forms of suboptimisation. Leadership will replace these bad practices, and will restore the individual.
posted by Brian B. at 9:53 PM PST - 51 comments

Pompous Ass Words is a site dedicated to identifying words that shouldn't be used, on the grounds that doing so makes you sound like a pompous ass. With humorous citations and links to examples of pompous word usage by the media.
posted by amyms at 8:09 PM PST - 198 comments

Lobby Card Invasion. A searchable collection of a wide variety of lobby cards for all kinds of interesting films. [via PCL LinkDump]
posted by mediareport at 5:45 PM PST - 10 comments

Bollywood Dreams. Bollywood in a nutshell: Bollywood is the name given to the Bombay (Mumbai)-based Hindi-language film industry in India. Bollywood films are colorful, crammed with singing, dancing, loads of costume changes. In the past there were often absurd and hilarious take-offs on Western films or superstars, such as the Beatles, Michael Jackson , Elvis,70's music and hair styles. Spectacular collection of Bollywood posters and vintage original poster art for sale and t-shirts. Stats and faqs. The history of Bollywood, brief chronology [pdf]. The main actors, images. The main actresses, images. Some of the renowned songs and the singers who sang them. Bollywood song lyrics and audio at the excellent Music India Online. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 1:13 PM PST - 73 comments

Basement Mac collection via Cult of Mac. If you want to check out the tech specs on them Apples, go to The Macintosh Museum or the Low End Mac Museum. For more Mac history visit The Apple Museum or The Apple Museum.
posted by Kattullus at 12:10 PM PST - 34 comments

Can you build an open source car? Or a three-dimensional printer? Or a new kind of handheld computer? Can open source ideas thrive in the physical world? Or is there something fundementally different? Are we seeing a new type of production or just a filip for hobbyists and dreamers?
posted by MrMerlot at 11:52 AM PST - 26 comments

Two new takes on the world of Star Wars: "The public choice economics of Star Wars: A Straussian reading"; and "A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope:Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III." Were the Jedi actually useless and powerhungry? Was R2-D2 the true hero of the rebellion? Most importantly, where do people find the time to come up with this stuff?
posted by nevercalm at 7:18 AM PST - 79 comments

"I've lost my heart."

Peace activist Bassam Aramin reacts to the murder of his daughter, Abir.
posted by felix betachat at 6:29 AM PST - 32 comments

Decades of cartoons and movie previews have desensitized us to the art of the voice-over. For decades, the movies, cartoons, and commercials we watch have been given life by a relatively small group of extremely talented and prolific voices.
posted by potch at 2:49 AM PST - 25 comments

How not to drive a Humvee in traffic in Baghdad.
posted by loquacious at 1:10 AM PST - 159 comments

Time magazine recently launched a new politics blog, Swampland. The blog is, to this point, most interesting for its confrontations between the commenters and the bloggers. [m.i.]
posted by ibmcginty at 11:35 PM PST - 25 comments

Carl Cannon on why Presidents lie, including a lengthy discussion of George W. Bush. Even giving him the benefit of the doubt on honesty, why doesn't the nation's first-ever M.B.A. president demonstrate a better command of the facts?
posted by russilwvong at 10:54 PM PST - 44 comments

If anyone can put together a kick-ass concert DVD, it's Trent Reznor. For your consideration: Nine Inch Nail's upcoming "Beside You In Time," which will be released in HD-DVD, Blu-Ray and some format from the late-90's they are referring to as simply DVD (this is apparently the first music DVD ever to be released on all three formats). View the trailer and some clips here in 1080P (if you're computer and eyes can handle it). Or, if you're lucky enough to live in one of the chosen cities, attend a screening.
posted by JPowers at 9:12 PM PST - 47 comments

As two more villages are relocated to create reserves for Project Tiger in India, each family will be offered two hectares of land, a house and 100,000 rupees or approximately $2200. But is this a sustainable solution for anti poaching measures? At Ranthambhore tiger reserve in the backward district of Sawai Madhopur, poaching has been controlled but pressure on the park remains as long as the seven relocated villages are unable to find alternate sources of long term income and other resources. When seeking food and shelter, saving the tiger is the last thing on their minds. Witness the slaughtering of the rare gorilla in Congo for food recently until the rebels were convinced to stop. Local needs versus long term ecological preservation will continue to be issues unless alternate viable solutions can be found.
posted by infini at 5:49 PM PST - 8 comments

Last year Ricky Gervais hosted a short series of informal interviews with three of his comedy heroes for the UK's Channel 4. His 5-part meeting with Larry David (Part 2 - 3 - 4 - 5) is an amazingly candid and entertaining look at geniuses discussing comedy. Also available: Gervais sitdowns with Christopher Guest and Garry Shandling, equally good (YouTube, natch, via BigScreenLittleScreen)
posted by skammer at 5:26 PM PST - 28 comments

Iannis Xenakis Lives On
posted by hama7 at 5:15 PM PST - 17 comments

The Dervaes Institute is an 'off the grid' homestead in Pasadena, CA and supports 4 adults full time. It also produces 3 tons of produce annually. It's all run from solar panels and biodiesel. Over 350 different plants and a handful of farm animals thrive on a 1/5 acre lot, not too far from the middle of Los Angeles. An 'urban homestead' indeed!
posted by drstein at 4:24 PM PST - 10 comments

Back by unpopular demand Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), the man who brought us the Tubes, now brings us the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, otherwise known as DOPA Jr. Because communicating with the Internets is a dangerous thing indeed.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 4:15 PM PST - 31 comments

Star Wars Death Star attack, acted out with hands (Single link, YouTube)
posted by Bugbread at 11:34 AM PST - 51 comments

How come we can't get these? On Feb 9th there are two sets of Beatles stamps being released in the UK. Jealous? I am.
posted by mannythedog at 11:01 AM PST - 34 comments

So this is the year you are going to write that novel eh? You're going to need some tools, and a lot of help. [mi]
posted by eurasian at 10:05 AM PST - 27 comments

After this there isn't really much else for science to accomplish.
posted by jimmythefish at 9:49 AM PST - 27 comments

Lesbianlands: Where have they gone ?
posted by serazin at 9:40 AM PST - 30 comments

The hounding of Maher Arar
posted by runningdogofcapitalism at 9:35 AM PST - 37 comments

Nazi racecar for sale. One of two surviving 1939 Auto Union Type Ds, commissioned by Hitler and designed by Ferdinand Porshe, is going on the block at Christies on February 17th. It is expected to fetch the largest price for any car ever in auction.
posted by three blind mice at 9:05 AM PST - 20 comments

One day, a vintage motorcycle restorer gets an idea in his head to tackle a new project, restoring an old-timey "board-tracker" bike. In and of itself, that's not such a big deal; over the past century, vehicle restoration has become equal parts hobby, business, and spectator sport. The catch with this particular project, however, is that there are no existing examples of the bike he wants to rebuild, the last known extant part remaining is a corroded engine case, and there are only 5 known photographs - all of which happen to show just the right side of the bike. This is the story (so far) of Paul Brodie's Excelsior OHC. [via]
posted by the painkiller at 8:27 AM PST - 14 comments

The Radical Christian Right Is Built on Suburban Despair by the ubiquitous Chris Hedges. Previously.
posted by HerArchitectLover at 8:05 AM PST - 109 comments

What is a "Crunchy Conservative"? A new political buzzword or a lifestyle manifesto, the Crunchy Con may even be a new political species, unless you're a Contra-Crunchy Con.
posted by stbalbach at 7:50 AM PST - 50 comments

ExtremeInstability.com discovers YouTube A taste of what you'll find on his awesome (one case where awesome is not a hyperbole) DVDs. Living on the Plains is anything but boring "come spring". Other fun tornado videos: Just about as close as you want to get to a tornado touchdown, DEFINITELY as close as you want to get to a tornado touchdown (wmv), and others: 1, 2 (language warning), 3 (language warning). It is funny to hear the calmer voices of the experienced chaser contrasting with the newbies. Even funnier when the calm chaser gets excited. Season begins in a little over 2 months!
posted by spock at 6:54 AM PST - 12 comments

Format, Abdominal - Vicious Battle Raps, Hit Song previously
posted by hypersloth at 4:55 AM PST - 25 comments

Wired: What We Don't Know How did life begin? What's the universe made of? Why do we sleep? Is the universe actually made of information? How does the brain produce consciousness? Why do we still have big questions? 42 of the biggest unanswered questions in science.
posted by loquacious at 1:07 AM PST - 45 comments

It took a long time for many achievements of the ancient world to be duplicated. The first city to reach one million people was Baghdad in 775 CE (or possibly Rome nine hundred years before), a feat that would not be duplicated until London and Beijing grew in the 19th century. The largest building in the world was the Great Pyramid for forty centuries until the 19th, and the world's current longest canal is over two millenia old. Some mysteries still remain, such as the formula of Greek Fire, but it looks like a different ancient weapon's secret has been discovered, that of Damascus steel. The key ingredient -- nanotech!
posted by blahblahblah at 11:12 PM PST - 29 comments

Data analysis, brought to you by Big Blue, is following a trend. Data has never been more social. Geeks and statistics groupies used to be isolated, but the internet is changing that. Ever pine for a pile of Excel spreadsheets? Have you tried running an ANOVA on a year's worth of traffic data? You're not alone. New sites add sociability to cold hard facts; take a look at the "YouTube for data" or IBM's Many Eyes. Both sites induce squeals of delight from anyone who's ever felt Tuftian. What's next? One word: infornography. Please, keep your Standard Deviation jokes to yourself.
posted by Monochrome at 10:43 PM PST - 16 comments

Oddcast's Text To Speech Demos let you type in words in 14 different languages. Hear thick accents if you enter English or learn how to pronounce that word you always say wrong in Spanish.
posted by daninnj at 10:42 PM PST - 21 comments

Sam Harris, an atheist, and Andrew Sullivan, a Catholic, debate whether moderate religion makes any sense. Harris: "Religious moderation is the result of not taking scripture all that seriously." Sullivan: "Blogger, please."
posted by ibmcginty at 10:19 PM PST - 85 comments

The One Million Masterpiece. Be a part of a global collaborative art project and help raise money for international humanitarian and environmental charities.
posted by amyms at 9:08 PM PST - 4 comments

The dirty underbelly -- I'm sick and tired of these hypocritical Hoosier legislators who think that my sex life or relationship status is any of their business. Do I intrude on who they're sleeping with? I didn't, but I'm going to start now. ...Consider this a call to arms gossip. ... -- Bilerico, a GLBT blog in Indiana, fighting their proposed state Constitutional Amendment to ban marriage and all other rights for gay and lesbian couples and families.
posted by amberglow at 8:58 PM PST - 40 comments

The grinning mugs of students at Tarleton State University in Texas and the University of Connecticut School of Law are gracing the pages of The Smoking Gun, where they stand accused of racial insensitivity. Is this passive-aggressive racial stereotyping? Simple stupidity? Or can we call this parody and laugh it off?
posted by krippledkonscious at 6:37 PM PST - 106 comments

Happy St. Dwynwen's Day! (Not to be confused with this guy or Hallmark's go-to fella, both handy for those of us wanting to be in love.)

Go out and smooch someone Welsh today.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies at 5:13 PM PST - 16 comments

Cat Spa [YouTube^*]
^*I surrender
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:30 PM PST - 152 comments

A Day in the Life (nsfw, youtube, two minutes of your life you can't have back)
posted by bardic at 4:07 PM PST - 40 comments

The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt, is available online for all to peruse, and makes sobering reading for anyone who's ever fretted over the United States' $8.7tn national debt. Or if you prefer action to theory, you can always help your fellow citizens out by making a check payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt.
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 3:49 PM PST - 39 comments

Wiimote Controlled Murder Robot At first, I was sure this was fake, and one of these guys was going to die horribly. But now I'm not sure. If this isn't fake, it's coooooool. (via Gizmodo)
posted by gummo at 3:41 PM PST - 27 comments

Are you Smart or Stoopid? A quick, entertaining and (for me) reasonably challenging way to determine your level of intelligence. Be sure to post your score.
posted by JPowers at 3:30 PM PST - 194 comments

Meet the Smithereens. [warning: streaming Flash audio]
Nine years after their last album and 43 years after the original was released, The Smithereens cover the Beatles' Meet the Beatles album [review; this article has more background].
posted by kirkaracha at 2:31 PM PST - 51 comments

HyperBike! Invented by Curtis DeForest, this sci fi-looking gizmo has its rider standing up between a pair of cambered eight-foot wheels and pedaling with both arms and legs. It can "easily" hit 50 mph and it much harder to tip over than a regular bike (and doesn't kill your sperm count, either). NASA is interested in it for low-gravity environments.
posted by gottabefunky at 1:35 PM PST - 51 comments

The Credibility of Power. Daryl Press, author of Calculating Credibility: How Leaders Assess Military Threats, argues that in a crisis, the credibility of threats is primarily determined by the balance of power and the interests of stake; past history is relatively unimportant. As case studies, he examines the decision-making of Hitler and his generals during the crises over Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. "To this day, U.S. leaders ... are loath to reevaluate existing commitments for fear that doing so would signal irresolution. These fears, however, are greatly overblown." An example of US rigidity: Gideon Rose on the end of the Vietnam War.
posted by russilwvong at 1:14 PM PST - 4 comments

How often can a customer walk into a bank and take a whole till full of cash, till and all? Well, that's what Declan Purcell did (okay, actually bailiffs acting on his behalf) after the Royal Bank of Scotland failed to comply with a court order to refund him 3400 pounds in bank fees.
posted by louigi at 12:22 PM PST - 63 comments

If you can stomach (and run) Windows Media Player and are a musician*, perhaps you might find the Muse On Visualizer somewhat interesting. It attempts to extract chord names from the music stream and display them realtime. Then again, maybe you are looking to experiment with chords and music theory or else figure out what you've been banging out. * Yes, I realize +1 of you probably have problems with one or the other of these. Deal. Also, MuseOn is more fun-toy than genius-spot-on-makes-TABs-for-you.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:37 AM PST - 16 comments

iPhoneMania, Catch It When Steve Jobs answered his iPhone at this year's MacWorld, he ignited a frenzy months before the gizmo will even hit stores. Now sneakmove, who first presented the "diy: cut and fold paper iphone" is back with a contest that challenges musicians to make the best song they can using the a sample of the phone's distinctive ring.
posted by PeteNicely at 11:33 AM PST - 24 comments

The Childbirth Centrifuge You must be pregnant to ride this ride. Why push your baby out when you can spin the sucker out? This device probably makes one mean martini, too. Unlike many patent applications, the Apparatus for Facilitating the Birth of a Child by Centrifugal Force is described in great detail, making me wonder whether a prototype actually got constructed. Link goes to a summary. Click through for the completely confusing text of the patent.
posted by fleener at 11:18 AM PST - 38 comments

Why is Genarlow Wilson in Prison? Genarlow Wilson sits in prison despite being a good son, a good athlete and high school student with a 3.2 GPA. He never had any criminal trouble. On the day he was to sit for the SAT, at seventeen years old, his life changed forever. He was arrested. In Douglas County he was accused of inappropriate sexual acts at a New Year’s Eve party. A jury acquitted him of the allegation of Rape but convicted him of Aggravated Child Molestation for a voluntary act of oral sex with another teenager. He was 17, and she was 15.

On July 1st, the new Romeo and Juliet law went into effect in Georgia for any other teen that engages in consensual sexual acts. That change in the law means that no teen prosecuted for consensual oral sex could receive more than a 12 months sentence or be required to register as a sex offender. But since the law was not changed retroactively, Genarlow Wilson must serve his mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison, without parole.
posted by b_thinky at 10:02 AM PST - 178 comments

As MIDEM - arguably the world's most important music conference - gets under way this week in Cannes, an ominous milestone has been reached here in the United States. Last week, the "Dreamgirls" soundtrack registered the lowest record sales for a No. 1 album since Nielsen Soundscan began tracking data. This week, the soundtrack's sales dropped 9%, but it has managed to hold on to the top spot with a paltry 60,000 units sold. (So, What song was No. 1 on Billboard the day you were born?)
posted by phaedon at 9:29 AM PST - 29 comments

An autistic woman "speaks" her language, then ours. (YouTube) "My language is not about designing words or even visual symbols for people to interpret. It is about being in a constant conversation with every aspect of my environment, reacting physically to all parts of my surroundings." [more inside]
posted by maudlin at 9:13 AM PST - 170 comments

BBS Sysop, RIP. In 1987 Don DeLapp Jr died and his family maintained his BBS in his honor. In December, Don Senior died during an operation. Their BBS is immortalized on Don Jr's headstone.
posted by GuyZero at 8:55 AM PST - 14 comments

Helvetica, a documentary film. "Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives."
posted by londontube at 8:16 AM PST - 25 comments

Pocketshot. For when you really need to slug some rum on a long bike ride.
posted by pieoverdone at 7:34 AM PST - 48 comments

Heart attacks, not overdoses, number one cause of musicians' early demise. An almost-thorough list of dead rock stars, but there are some "cause" blanks that need filling in.
posted by usedwigs at 6:49 AM PST - 46 comments

Mozilla Bug 97284: Allow page to make arbitrary elements user-editable in browser (contentEditable attribute) With a wee pinch of javascript that you paste into your address bar, you can edit this -- or any -- page:
javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0

Make the Metafilter you always wanted by flipping your browser into design mode with document.body.contentEditable='true' or document.designMode='on'.
posted by ph00dz at 5:53 AM PST - 29 comments

Wanna get nuked? the Active Denial System [just say no?] was launched yesterday - its a microwave ray gun that makes people feel like they're going to catch fire. Wasn't there a ray gun at a certain point in a book we trashed a while earlier?
posted by infini at 5:21 AM PST - 46 comments

Willard Wigan The smallest sculptures can only be measured in thousandths of an inch which is why they can sit, very delicately, on a human hair three thousandths of an inch thick. When working on this scale [Willard Wigan] slows his heartbeat and his breathing dramatically through meditation and attempts to harmonise his mind, body and soul with the Creator. He then sculpts or paints at the centrepoint between heartbeats for total stillness of hand. He likens this process to "trying to pass a pin through a bubble without bursting it." His concentration is intense when working like this and he feels mentally and physically drained at the end of it. (previously)
posted by pmbuko at 4:42 AM PST - 25 comments

Rush Hour is a sliding block puzzle invented by Nob Yoshigahara and manufactured by ThinkFun. The goal of the game is to get the red car out of a six-by-six gridlock of vehicles by moving the other vehicles out of its way (youtoob). There are several online versions in Java/Flash (bottom of link)- my favorite has the first 2 complete sets from the board game. It's a gentle warm-up for your brain.
posted by MtDewd at 4:40 AM PST - 19 comments

Fox goes after YouTube pirates. Fox takes a new approach to fight copyright infringers who post illegal content on YouTube. Going after the user who uploaded the copyrighted material instead of forcing YouTube to pull it from the web site should prove a more effective deterrent.
posted by jeyoung at 2:36 AM PST - 20 comments

An interview with 'muslix64' , who got fed up when his new television refused to play HDDVDs, because of DRM problems. So he cracked the HDDVD DRM. Then, for good measure, he cracked Blu-Ray too. The first HD movies are already appearing on a Torrent near you.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:53 AM PST - 42 comments

My formula for success:
(PosEn - NegEn)(NT)^i = R
PosEn is your positivity, positive emotions, positive ego
honesty, love, friendship, etc
NegEn is your negative emotions & energy & ego
hate, fear, jealousy, envy N is network (virtual, personal, spiritual)
T is time
i is ideas and indivituality
R is results
the only thing you cant make more of is time
posted by nervousfritz at 11:14 PM PST - 26 comments

Advertising in India (thanks to this post by NickySkye) More ads here and here
posted by hadjiboy at 10:42 PM PST - 12 comments

2000 pigs sacrifice to the deity General Chao of Wudeh temple.
posted by jonson at 10:13 PM PST - 41 comments

On November 22nd 1987, sports anchor Dan Roan of Chicago's WGN-TV News Network was narrating the video of the day's football highlights when something highly unusual happened. The pictures on the station monitors in the studio suddenly began to jitter and twitch. And that was just the beginning. Two hour later, it happened a second time (View clip here) [via KUR]
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 8:14 PM PST - 44 comments

John Foxe's Book of Martyrs offers complete, searchable transcriptions of the 1563, 1570, 1576, and 1583 editions of Foxe's Actes and Monuments... Readers can juxtapose two editions to see Foxe's alterations. The site includes images of the foldout woodcuts, along with the title pages. Other goodies include a raft of introductory essays and detailed commentaries on the illustrations to books 10-12. See also the Foxe Digital Library Project at Ohio State University, which includes woodcuts, images of selected pages, and an exhibition catalog. There are more woodcuts from the 1610 edition at Penn's Center for Electronic Text and Image and from the 1784 edition at Kansas State University.
posted by thomas j wise at 8:11 PM PST - 10 comments

Every Mythbuster myth in nifty graph form on one page. Quick and easy reference to each myth busted, confirmed, or plausible.
posted by GatorDavid at 8:08 PM PST - 38 comments

Alberto Gonzalez says "there is no express grant" of habeas corpus in the Constitution. Previously on MeFi and AskMe.
posted by anarcation at 7:47 PM PST - 72 comments

A virgin birth? No, but a virgin hatch. The process by which this happened is nothing new, but appears to be the first recorded instance in this species. Maybe this phenomenon could also help solve a controversial human problem.
posted by The Deej at 7:39 PM PST - 13 comments

Youtube links to Neil Young busking in Glasgow and some more. Vintage Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
posted by snsranch at 6:56 PM PST - 17 comments

I Go Pogo! I'll let Walt Kelly, the creator of the remarkable comic strip Pogo, introduce himself because he is far more clever than I am.
posted by GalaxieFiveHundred at 6:44 PM PST - 29 comments

Here are three artists who use maps in their art: Mathew Cusick makes collages of old maps, Layla Curtis makes collages of current maps (flash; click on works, collages) and Susan Stockwell makes maps out of, well, just about anything.
posted by dhruva at 6:11 PM PST - 14 comments

The Caretaker
posted by hama7 at 6:01 PM PST - 16 comments

Stalin
posted by tellurian at 5:43 PM PST - 37 comments

Welcome to Steve's World. Steve designs and writes his very own web comic, Internet Earl; he directs, edits, and stars in his own video series, The Portal; he writes South Park fan fiction, and as of January 19th, he completed is 200th and final video blog. He hates Bush, kids and software pirates. He enjoys tater tots and keeping things real.
posted by c:\awesome at 5:19 PM PST - 9 comments

The helicopter that was shot down over Iraq this weekend was carrying, among other high-ranking officers, the US Army's chief medical officer for troops in Iraq.
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 5:03 PM PST - 23 comments

Today, in Japan, divers swam with a live frilled shark. Let the abject terror commence (embedded video). What does it eat? OTHER SHARKS.
posted by nathancaswell at 5:01 PM PST - 39 comments

50 Fun Facts About Credit Cards. Historical tidbits and interesting explanations of the technology behind that plastic in your pocket.
posted by amyms at 4:37 PM PST - 21 comments

The Online Pork Rind Resource. Once a genuine online store, porkrind.com is now your premier source for pork rind in sculpture, music, poetry... and porn (NSFW). Don't miss the reviews! And the tour of Texas! And the insanity!
posted by chrismear at 3:59 PM PST - 15 comments

The Ad Generator is a generative artwork that explores how advertising uses and manipulates language. What it actually does is that it randomizes words and structures from real advertising slogans and pairs them with related images from Flickr, generating fake ads on the fly.
posted by sveskemus at 2:59 PM PST - 53 comments

The modern slave trade is thriving. The Dept of State estimates that 800,000 to 900,000 human beings are trafficked - brought across borders and forced to labor. Among them, DOS estimates, hundreds of thousands are minor children. Some of those children - as young as 5 years old - are being sold as slaves and kept in cages while they are raped and sold for sex, some servicing as many as 30 men a day. They are bought for as little as $10 from desperate parents. But all is not lost: Somaly Mam, a former child prostitute, is the Mother Theresa of Southeast Asian child prostitutes, using AFESIP as her vehicle for saving them. Glamour awarded her their Woman of the Year honor, and she has been lauded in other ways internationally. Cambodian sex traffickers weren't as happy with her, though - her opponents kidnapped her 14-year old daughter, held her hostage for days, and raped her. It's hard to be on the wrong side of this issue, but some advocates raise a few hackles by claiming legalized prostitution and porn contribute to sex trafficking and child prostitution. Sex trafficking, and child prostitution, is a sizeable problem in the US as well. Although trafficking is illegal in the US, combating trafficking is tough in part because victims often fear authorities, personal reprisals, harm to their families at home, or even deportation (although special visas - T visas - are available to them in certain circumstances). In Southeast Asia (and throughout the world), child sex tourism is even harder to stop.
posted by Amizu at 2:51 PM PST - 41 comments

AirTran Airways Removes Family with Unruly Toddler From Plane : AirTran is defending their decision to remove a family of three from a plane after their three-year old daughter refused to take her seat during boarding. The plane, carrying 112 people, was already delayed 15 minutes and the airline felt that the further delay caused by the toddler's behavior was unacceptable.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 1:59 PM PST - 221 comments

Fired for serving her country - while reports about reservists losing their jobs upon returning home are nothing new, the story of one reservist and her fight against her previous employer has caught the attention of the national media (see "Coming Up" teaser), in addition to the local news (video link). Meet Lt. Col. Debra Muhl, a nurse and hospital administrator currently suing Sutter Health, her former employer, which less than three years ago promoted her military service as an asset to the organization (7MB pdf link - see page 5).
posted by dbolll at 1:55 PM PST - 11 comments

Southwest's obesity ticket policy nearly strands man with medical condition that causes obesity. SWA's extra fee for fat travelers has been covered before. But what if your obesity is caused by a medical condition? An indigent man dying of late-stage Hepatitis C and suffering from related abdominal bloating is told by an SWA gate agent he can't board a connecting flight to a hospital willing to take his case unless he coughs up money for another ticket -- despite the family getting reassurances before he departed that he wouldn't have to pay due to his medical state. He only boards after an SWA in Dallas for the ticket herself.
posted by dw at 1:44 PM PST - 54 comments

Electronic Literature Collection, volume 1
posted by signal at 1:00 PM PST - 5 comments

Prince's Hot Chicken. Three words that get Nashvillians (and others) sweating and drooling. Don't believe me? Ask Yo La Tengo.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 12:53 PM PST - 22 comments

Microsoft has been caught paying for Wikipedia edits. But wasn't this inevitable? Now that Wikipedia has become the de facto online reference, wasn't it inevitable that it would attract governments, corporates and other groups to create their own version of events. Is this an inherent and fatal flaw in open source knowledge?
posted by bobbyelliott at 12:42 PM PST - 50 comments

As radicals of the 60s tried to find their place in the aftermath of Vietnam, former members of the Weather Underground, and former Black Panthers who were still dedicated to militant action were, in part due to COINTELPRO, increasingly marginal. Some joined the Black Liberation Army or other radical cells. In New York, a few activists who had recently spearheaded the use of accupuncture to treat drug addiction set out to fund an independent nation of New Afrika (although the money may have been feeding the leaderships' growing drug addictions). The Brinks truck robbery ended terribly. 3 men were killed. A number of the actors are still in prison (including Tupac's step-father). Some are gone. The child of two of the players was left without his parents to raise him. In retrospect, their tactics were questionable at best. But those who are concerned with making real change in the world can at least try to learn from the past.
posted by serazin at 12:40 PM PST - 20 comments

"Best Animated Short" is the Oscar category that (arguably) gets the least love. But why? They're often the most accessible, usually coming in at less than 10 minutes in length. Thus, for you consideration, here are direct links to three of the five 2007 nominees: "Maestro", "No Time For Nuts", and "The Danish Poet" (via).
posted by JPowers at 12:37 PM PST - 14 comments

Stacey Finley convinced 22 friends, neighbors and relatives that she could have satellites scan their bodies for disease, then have CIA agents administer secret medicines to them while they slept. [via]
posted by brundlefly at 12:30 PM PST - 22 comments

Should a Connecticut substitute teacher go to jail for 40 years because a classroom computer was infected with malware that allowed students to see porn?
posted by Sixtieslibber at 12:06 PM PST - 64 comments

Guy love (youtube) One hundred percent non gay, totally hetero, manly Guy Love. More examples here,here,here,and here. (all youtube) Turk and JD, not as gay as Ennis and Jack, but far far funnier.
posted by tylerfulltilt at 11:42 AM PST - 28 comments

Eliminationism in America. A ten-part series by David Neiwert. [More inside.]
posted by homunculus at 11:39 AM PST - 79 comments

Get your international pop tune fix. Slate has an article on the funky pop and rock gems available from the Japanese iTunes Store. From Straightener to NICO Touches the Walls, the Japanglophonic music scene is available to the whole world in the standard 30-second snippets, but the article hints at ways to buy songs for those located in other places. If you just want a crack at the weekly free downloads, you can take a crack at workaround and score yourself an account on any one of the 22 iTunes Stores. (via Macslash)
posted by mariokrat at 10:24 AM PST - 4 comments

"For me, it's a great victory to have a big red box, the first red box in any studio feature." Move over, Todd Solondz, the previously Untitled Dakota Fanning Rape Project is headed for Sundance. This film is not yet rated.
posted by phaedon at 9:05 AM PST - 68 comments

iPod index. Not to be outdone by the Big Mac index, Australian investment bank Commonwealth Securities Ltd. has come up with a new benchmark for assessing the value of global currencies.
posted by Blue Buddha at 8:44 AM PST - 20 comments

In the past, battlefields were loud. Death came in the form of a huge plane roaring overhead, in the boom of a cannon, in the whine of a bullet shooting through the air. In the near future, death might arrive quietly, in the form of an insect buzzing around your head . . .
posted by jason's_planet at 8:29 AM PST - 26 comments

minuscule : a day in the life of a ladybug. [Flash] [via]
posted by Armitage Shanks at 8:09 AM PST - 6 comments

Fora Tv is a good place to watch videos of lectures and discussions on topics ranging from politics and science to religion and the arts. Whether you'd like to see Jim Lehrer talk about politics and prose, or watch Brian Eno and Will Wright discuss the joys and techniques of generative creation, you might find something here to like
posted by localhuman at 8:04 AM PST - 4 comments

Super Deluxe has recently launched. It offers the original comedic content up and coming comedians, animators and actors. Professor Brothers - Bible History by Brad Neely is just plain hilarious.
posted by ssklyar at 8:00 AM PST - 11 comments

The perfect gift for the geek who has it all.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:40 AM PST - 52 comments

Ghost Ride It! I just couldn't deny you the raw, visceral pleasure of watching this. Rather Previously
posted by potch at 12:27 AM PST - 61 comments

Goth Life Now "They won't like me saying it, but their lifestyle, unlike the punk scene, is a middle-class sub culture.' But hasn't it always been this way?
posted by untitledalex at 10:06 PM PST - 124 comments

Can someone wipe my butt? [more inside]
posted by emelenjr at 8:42 PM PST - 50 comments

From Rebetika to Surf Rock: Misirlou is a melody that has spanned genres, from Greek, Turkish and Jewish folk songs to the classic Dick Dale version on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack to the Black-Eyed Peas, to the obligatory Greek folk version/Pump It mash-up.
posted by costas at 8:06 PM PST - 35 comments

The US Figure Skating championships are this week, but though the ice skaters in Spokane and elsewhere get all the press, another group of skaters toil in near-obscurity. Roller figure skaters (also called artistic roller skaters) skate on quad (or sometimes inline) skates, do all the moves that ice skaters do (and even more -- notice the "heel" and "broken ankle" spins in this program, spins that are not possible on ice), and compete, as they have for decades, in local, national, and international events. In 1978, skating was at a peak of popularity and Time magazine wrote "skaters are hoping to be included in the 1988 Olympics"; nearly 30 years later, roller figure skating still hasn't reached the Olympics, some roller skaters like Tara Lipinski have switched to ice to get famous, and the number of clubs and participants in the US have declined precipitously, but dedicated roller figure skaters still spend many hours practicing school figures (on circles painted on the floor), dance, and free skating, for the love of their sport. Want to see more? Skating videos from RollerSportsTV.
posted by litlnemo at 6:17 PM PST - 33 comments

Politico.com has launched. Last year the venture made news due to the high-profile departures of John Harris and Jim VandeHei from the Washington Post. About 20 reporters from major newspapers have left their jobs to work at the new Web site which is devoted solely to politics.^* It’s launched by an established media company that owns several ABC affiliates - Allbritton Communications Company. They also are publishing a dead-tree version.
posted by ericb at 5:40 PM PST - 14 comments

Wow. And I thought California property was expensive. Lordy.
posted by miss lynnster at 5:39 PM PST - 61 comments

Snakes off a pharaoh - possible earliest semitic text seems to involve getting those mummy-loving snakes out of King Unas' mummy-loving tomb.
posted by Flitcraft at 5:34 PM PST - 4 comments

A one-pager light hearted satire of the second life. Get a first life before you get a secondlife.
posted by jacob hauser at 5:31 PM PST - 17 comments

Politics/PlameFilter: In opening arguments today in the Plame investigation perjury case against Vice President Cheney's former Chief of Staff I. Lewis Libby, the prosecutor portrayed Libby as an agent of a Cheney-driven media offensive. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day came from Libby's attorney, who portrayed his client as a White House-chosen scapegoat for Karl Rove's misdeeds. A conservative reporter saw in Libby's emerging defense a "dramatic split inside the Bush White House." An MSNBC host asked whether this hullabaloo could lead to Cheney's resignation. Background on the case. Liveblogging of today's arguments from an anti-administration perspective.
posted by ibmcginty at 5:23 PM PST - 16 comments

Is it a parody? That's the question on some bloggers' minds. Donnie Davies is a pastor for Love God's Way ministries, and he wants to Change Homosexuals into Ordinary People or C.H.O.P.S.
posted by Four-Eyed Girl at 5:12 PM PST - 46 comments

Tracked In America --the stories of 25 individuals who have been targeted by the U.S. government. The stories span from World War I to the post-9/11 world.
posted by amberglow at 5:11 PM PST - 4 comments

Pioneering electronic artist Ben Laposky began creating his “Oscillons” – abstract artworks created by photographing Lissajous figures off a cathode-ray oscilloscope – in the early 1950’s. Some consider him the father of computer art, and the beauty and clarity of his work is astonishing.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 4:49 PM PST - 11 comments

Minimundus is an Austrian theme park with seemingly all the major architectural wonders of the world rendered in miniature; while their primary site is woefully low on imagery, here's three pages worth of photos of their better exhibits.
posted by jonson at 3:40 PM PST - 20 comments

The I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue Info Site. A huge collection of short transcripts and one-liners from the perennial antidote to panel games, organised by game and category -- including some never-before broadcast! Personal favourites are the One Song To The Tune Of Another introductions and the "while Samantha"s.
posted by chrismear at 3:40 PM PST - 24 comments

Chomsky v. Buckley, 1969 (videofilter). The primary subject is Vietnam, but other topics abound.
posted by bardic at 2:53 PM PST - 52 comments

The Challenge of Global Health is an article written in the most recent Foreign Affairs, describing how "stovepiping" health care funding towards only HIV/AIDS, the shortage of health care workers in the West, and a vacuum of international health-care experts are all causing great damage to developing countries. The article was written by Laurie Garrett, author of The Coming Plague, Betrayal of Trust, as well as a Pulitzer Prize winner for her writing on Ebola. Previously on mefi: garrett resigns, comments on world leaders.
posted by thethirdman at 2:20 PM PST - 7 comments

Did Anyone Really Follow the Drinking Gourd? Were you taught that slaves in the antebellum South sang this traditional song to convey coded instructions for escaping Northward? Were you taught that quilt block patterns could be read as a map to freedom, or that quilts were hung outside safe houses as signals to escaping slaves?Though these are among the most often taught stories of the operation of the Underground Railroad, current scholarship indicates that these aren't survivals of pre-Civil War African-American folklore, but legends constructed and popularized within the twentieth century, frequently by white writers and performers. In today's New York Times, these legends battle it out with fact in debate over the proposed design of a new Frederick Douglass memorial [PDF].
posted by Miko at 1:27 PM PST - 42 comments

Andre the Giant, Greatest Drunkard of all Time The key to Andre the Giant is this — even as a youth he knew that his disease would dramatically shorten his life. He knew there was no cure, and lived every day with the understanding that death could shamble around the very next corner. Knowledge of this sort can darken a life. It did not darken Andre’s. He chose instead to pack his days with as much insane, drunken fun as they could hold. Instead of languishing in the darkness, he chose to walk in the sun.
posted by ColdChef at 12:38 PM PST - 95 comments

Tonight, G.W. Bush is expected to announce a major energy proposal, including cutbacks in gas consumption and development of alternative fuels. High on the list is the development and subsidisation of ethanol, primarily as derived from corn. The utility of corn-based ethanol in meeting energy needs is debatable: its probably weakly energy positive, but not very good in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. More immediately, the US drive towards corn based ethanol has had major effects on the price of corn, and has caused the otherwise free market leaning Mexican President Felipe Calderon to introduce price controls on tortillas. Earth Policy Institute's Lester Brown: "The competition for grain between the world’s 800 million motorists who want to maintain their mobility and its 2 billion poorest people who are simply trying to survive is emerging as an epic issue.". (This post based on a column by Barrie McKenna, unfortunately subscriber only.)
posted by bumpkin at 11:48 AM PST - 118 comments

Bill Sullivan calls his strict approach to taking candid shots "situational photography." Each subject in the uniformly composed photos is doing the exact same thing, like going through a turnstile or posing for a street artist. More candid street photograpy: Harry Callahan (1 2 3 4 more), Philip-Lorca diCorcia (1 2 3 4 more) ,and previously. One diCorcia photo led to a recent ruling that non-commercial street photography is protected under the 1st Amendment. 'more' links have NSFW images. The other direct links should be fine.
posted by hydrophonic at 11:37 AM PST - 15 comments

Georgia mayor bans soccer from local park. Georgia mayor bans soccer from local park. “There will be nothing but baseball and football down there as long as I am mayor,”
posted by wavespy at 11:31 AM PST - 161 comments

"Circos is designed for visualizing alignments, conservation and intra- and inter-chromosomal relationships within a genome, between genomes, or between any two or more sets of objects with a corresponding distance scale." Illustrative (via).
posted by stopgap at 11:08 AM PST - 2 comments

Try the pie. Forget that other American ritual today, it's time to enjoy the ultimate patriotic treat. No, not this one, nor this one, but National Pie Day. So join me for a big slice. Hit the road to try one of America's best, or make one of your own. (Earlier.)
posted by twsf at 10:59 AM PST - 14 comments

According to an article in The Guardian about this new scientific report on XDR-TB, a new kind of multiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis, in PLOS Medicine, "More than 300 cases of the highly infectious disease, which is spread by airborne droplets and kills 98% of those infected within about two weeks, have been identified in South Africa."
posted by Quiplash at 10:50 AM PST - 16 comments

How Iraq and climate change threw the right into disarray.
posted by stbalbach at 10:48 AM PST - 41 comments

It's genital evolution day! Penis evolution. For my money, evolution reached it's zenith with the Argentine Lake Duck. Plenty more MeFi penis related shenanigans here , including the penis museum.
posted by lalochezia at 9:13 AM PST - 31 comments

Ros Sereysothea and Sinn Sisamouth were two of the more famous Cambodian musicians creating amazingly inspired music in the 60s and early 70s that fused Khmer with western rock. They were both killed by the Khmer Rouge; but not before leaving a powerful legacy that has inspired a short film about Sereysothea, a documentary and a band. They are still loved in Cambodia.
posted by PHINC at 8:29 AM PST - 7 comments

The origins of the vagina Only mammals have 'em. Why? (via markmaynard).
posted by klangklangston at 7:58 AM PST - 36 comments

RobinHood 2.0. Make a wish - for the greater good or just for yourself. And maybe get $10,000 to make it come true.
posted by GuyZero at 6:59 AM PST - 14 comments

Designing With Microsoft? Evidently this is Microsoft's attempt at competition with 'Macrodobe', the strange, hybrid beast (lumbering?) that is the combined Macromedia/Adobe merger. Microsoft has launched a full suite of products taking aim at Dreamweaver, (is it better?) Illustrator-Photoshop and Flash. For many designers who pretend to be developers (or vica versa) Microsoft's new "Expression" will be 3 or 4 orders of magnitude less relevant than that old Corel Suite. The central issue seems to be one of credibility: Can Microsoft escape the seemingly permanent "FrontPage" stigma, not to mention even more recent design community letdowns?
posted by thisisdrew at 6:39 AM PST - 99 comments

Cool Stuff Being Made: Each week the National Association of Manufacturers posts a new, generally-lengthy video of something being made.
posted by Captaintripps at 5:23 AM PST - 18 comments

We're all familiar with Peruvian ceviche/cebiche (and if you're not, you should be), but what about ají de gallina (shredded chicken in walnut-cream-chile sauce)? There's also papa a la huancaína (potatoes with spicy cheese sauce) and ocopa (the same, but with pecans and huacatay/black mint). Oh, and don't forget anticúchos (marinated beef heart skewers) or causa limeña (hard to explain, but it's like a really amazing potato salad). Peru has a substantial and long-standing Chinese population, which has resulted in Chifa (some debate on whether that's Cantonese or Mandarin), Peru's "indigenous" Chinese culinary tradition. A staple (and my comfort food) of chifa is arroz chaufa (from Cantonese "chow fan," --> "fried rice").

Peruvian cuisine is getting a boost of interest around teh interwebs, thanks in no small part to dedicated blogs in English (1, 2, 3) and Spanish (1, 2). Even Wikipedia has a substantial entry in English and Spanish (and French). And the tourism industry hasn't missed out on this either (warning, food pr0n & YouTube).
posted by LMGM at 5:15 AM PST - 37 comments

How to boil the perfect egg. vs. How to perfectly opposite-boil an egg.
posted by loquacious at 2:27 AM PST - 36 comments

The Number 23 has a movie. It's been associated with everything from conspiracy theory to historical and scientific fact, and now the obsession of thousands of Discordians and worshippers of Eris (not to mention KLF fans) is the specific subject of a movie directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Jim Carrey. It comes out in February. I don't think I need to tell you which day.
posted by deusdiabolus at 11:44 PM PST - 70 comments

“We work, we do not steal” is what the Rickshaw Wallahs have to say about it, whose means of livelihood the Kolkata assembly plans to ban soon, but hasn’t figured out an alternate source of income for yet. Meanwhile, the good old rickshaw has been finding a new home abroad, albeit one of a more novel nature. (More on the state of Transportaion in India, and a World Bank perspective on the facilities provided by the subcontinent. Plus, some more images of the Rickshaw.)
posted by hadjiboy at 10:42 PM PST - 8 comments

From 1977 to 1983, between 16-70 Japanese citizens were abducted in their home country by agents of the North Korean government. 13-year-old Megumi Yokota was the youngest. This is her story.
posted by JPowers at 10:15 PM PST - 48 comments

Girl in Human Slingshot (google video). Looks like fun.
posted by kisch mokusch at 9:07 PM PST - 51 comments

I found this anime clip [youtube] suitably trippy. It was created by the producers of GA-RA-KU-TA and features the 2003 debut song from the j-pop duo HALCALI (proper PV of the song -- "TANDEM" -- is here).
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 8:37 PM PST - 13 comments

Contra Café: Wake Up With Freedom Fighters.
posted by stammer at 8:19 PM PST - 20 comments

333-333-333 YOU WILL SEE SUCH PRETTY THINGS (via) 333-333-333
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 6:36 PM PST - 48 comments

Aniboom bills itself as "the home of animation," a place to discover new up & coming artists online. Towards that end, they've sponsored a $50,000 competition for the best animation across five categories. The field has been narrowed to 25 finalists, and all 25 entries are online for viewing/voting here.
posted by jonson at 3:31 PM PST - 11 comments

Investigation reveals British Police knowingly employed serial killers as informers. Or should that be "knowingly employed informers as serial killers"? Film at 11.
posted by dash_slot- at 3:08 PM PST - 36 comments

Deliberative Polling®, developed by Professor James S. Fishkin, is a technique which combines deliberation in small group discussions with scientific random sampling to provide public consultation for public policy and for electoral issues. Since deliberation is good for civic health, this model has also been floated as a fourth branch of government: Deliberation Day. This proposal has met with some criticism. (Many links are pdf.)
posted by anotherpanacea at 2:57 PM PST - 13 comments

Happy Saddest Day of the Year
posted by tsarfan at 1:38 PM PST - 56 comments

Since Wordplay has come out, crossword puzzles have been on the rise. If you want to join in on the fun, read this primer by Will Shortz to get started, then download Across Lite, head to Cruciverb, and do free puzzles in the right-hand sidebar. Will Johnston's page contains a huge repository of Across Lite puzzles. If you get stuck, can't figure out why an entry is correct, or just want to chat about a grid's brilliant construction, try reading the crossword blogs. The best two are Diary of a Crossword Fiend and Rex Parker Does the New York Times Crossword Puzzle. (Caution! Spoilers abound!) And, if you want to try your hand at constructing some crosswords of your own (submission guidelines for various papers here), Crossword Compiler is an outstanding piece of software. [Via this AskMetafilter question]
posted by painquale at 1:07 PM PST - 26 comments

The Zodiac made me do it.
posted by dov3 at 12:08 PM PST - 47 comments

Time of the Season: Conceptual artist Chris Hardman of Antenna Theater has reimagined the calendar. His ECOcalendar abandons the grid concept, instead unrolling like a scroll to define days vertically. Each day appears in its unique position along the arc of gradual seasonal change, with graphics linking stars to tides to the terrestrial world . Radio interview here.
posted by Miko at 11:32 AM PST - 17 comments

The girls, a probably-nsfw series of near-abstract shapes from Australian illustrator Sarah Bishop. [via Jahsonic]
posted by mediareport at 10:42 AM PST - 37 comments

Heavy Metal (youtube, stupid)
posted by empath at 8:20 AM PST - 71 comments

Rumors were circulating at the hospital that insurgents dosed their homemade bombs with the flesh of dead animals. ---multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter, and how we brought it to Iraq ourselves. "My colleagues and I have been looking for Acinetobacter baumannii in soil samples for years, and we haven't found it," she says. "These organisms are quite rare outside of hospitals." In other news, conditions in Iraqi hospitals are so bad due to lack of even the most basic supplies they're calling it a breach of the Geneva Conventions.
posted by amberglow at 8:04 AM PST - 62 comments

Some Japanimation-y illustrations (Simpsons, Futurama) got spacecoyote a job at Bongo Comics. Nifty.
posted by hjo3 at 6:14 AM PST - 33 comments

Magazine junkies New magazine in beta, looks promising. Nice interface lets you preview the entire issue online. Contains interviews with some of my favorite online personalities. I hope it flies!
posted by sparky at 6:04 AM PST - 16 comments

Makoto Nagano: (YOUTUBE) 33 year-old fisherman from Japan and a Ninja Warrior.
posted by arruns at 5:31 AM PST - 33 comments

Amazon-ian Warrior. An unassuming Canadian chap has been quietly submitting ludicrous reviews of products sold on Amazon.com for nearly 5 years. For example, his detailed commentary on George P Joyce's A Comparative Analysis of Two Alternatives to Chemical Aircraft Paint Stripping:

Joyce is an alchemist, taking the leaden medium of technical report writing, and transmuting it with his warm spirit, pouring his pen over the obscured voices of the chemical aircraft paint strippers like a mellifluous caramel gold; redeeming them in a universal chorus of aircraft paint strippers, their individual spirits vibrating like strings in a cosmic harp.

Part of the fun is seeing how many people rated each review as helpful; for example, he gets 100% approval for his comments on Flautist Angel Statuette (This 'flautist angel' is crude, eschewing classical representation to debase itself in the distortions of folk art. A freak frisson of masochism prompted me to order an item that believes human anatomy is modelled upon slurry running from a faucet. Look at it.) while virtually no-one was impressed by his analysis of How Conservatives Won The Heart Of America (Thought-provoking. I did not know that the "heart of America" is an actual item the Conservatives won in a game of squash in 1972; I assumed it was a metaphor.) Since Amazon started adding RSS feeds and enabling comments on reviews, he finally appears to be starting to reach an audience; those wishing to keep updated with his sporadic but fantastic work may appreciate this handy Feedburner URL.
posted by rhodri at 3:26 AM PST - 56 comments

The Anonymous Message Server - leave a message, get a message. (or a URL, if you want.)
posted by divabat at 3:12 AM PST - 28 comments

Eygption Police officer use a cellphone to film a man being sodomized by police. Egyptian opposition media have claimed that in the police academy, recruits are trained to use torture to extract confessions. (NSFW) video on youtube.
posted by IronWolve at 2:36 AM PST - 50 comments

Load testing a Boeing 777 wing. To failure! Also, engine testing, and maximum rejected takeoff.
posted by loquacious at 2:24 AM PST - 25 comments

(Spoilers for Alpha Dog.) Alpha Dog (trailer), the story of a botched kidnapping set in a Southern California milieu of affluence, bad parenting, rich kids, partying, and marijuana dealing, is based on the case of Nicholas Markowitz. Crime Library. Interview with Nick Cassavetes, the writer and director. Susan Markowitz.
posted by russilwvong at 11:27 PM PST - 14 comments

Amazing Hand Art.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 11:05 PM PST - 19 comments

Camera Obscura : a series of photos by artist Abelardo Morell (previously discussed here and here) in which all light is blocked from a window, save for a small pinprick - the result is that the entering light projects an upside version of the view onto the wall, creating a hauntingly beautiful image.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:27 PM PST - 18 comments

Know thy wine labels. Know where your Clos-de-Bieze is from, and the difference between the Garganega and Grignolino grapes. Do you go with the 2000 or the 2001 d'Yquem? Just remember that brut is drier than dry and trockenbeerenauslese ist nicht trocken.
Buy your wine en primeur or from the Froogle of wines. But beware of the worst website in winedom.
posted by noble_rot at 10:13 PM PST - 15 comments

AT&T Ducks Accountability. Lawsuits, Questions Follow NSA Surveillance Approval.
posted by homunculus at 9:59 PM PST - 14 comments

Who owns your church? A few congregations disagree with the direction their church heirarchy is going. They vote to leave. Who gets the buildings and the church property? If you are politically connected, you might try to change the law in your favor.
posted by humanfont at 9:26 PM PST - 19 comments

What is it with airlines and tee-shirts? Australian carrier Qantas is now getting in on the action with a passenger refused a flight because the airline deemed his shirt to be offensive. This is similar to another case. Previously mentioned.
posted by mattoxic at 8:37 PM PST - 63 comments

101 free games for Windows. Computer Gaming World (now called Games For Windows) lists some excellent downloads. Some standouts: Penumbra, a physics-based horror adventure; now-free classics like Star Control 2, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and Maniac Mansion; remakes of other classics like the Star Wars arcade game; addictive action title Every Extend; Asteroids-meets-RTS Base Invaders, and many, many more. Are they missing anything (besides TrackMania, ADOM, and Cave Story)?
posted by blahblahblah at 7:08 PM PST - 27 comments

Who owns the Burning Man? John Law wrestles Larry Harvey and Michael Mikel to bring the Burning Man name into the public domain.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 3:31 PM PST - 59 comments

www.Wherethehellismatt.com Mostly, he's dancing :)
posted by dash_slot- at 2:56 PM PST - 85 comments

Talking dogs. I love you pug. Smart pooch. [all videos]
posted by nickyskye at 2:16 PM PST - 31 comments

Flash Fun Procrastination Sunday: Top Dog is a quick 5 minute timewaster, reminiscent of the classic Sopwith II of 80s DOS fame. Enjoy.
posted by anthill at 12:27 PM PST - 8 comments

The Accidental Video Game Porn Archive
posted by Tlogmer at 11:58 AM PST - 18 comments

Wal-Mart sells hentai now? (link SFW) Strange activity for a retailer well known to ban men's magazines (of both the pornographic variety and almost-but-not-quite pornographic variety), music with explicit lyrics, or pretty much any book they don't like. One can only assume that they were trying to get into the market for these newfangled Japanese comics that are suddenly all the rage, and didn't pay attention to precisely which ones they were ordering.
posted by Target Practice at 11:22 AM PST - 24 comments

Als die Welt noch echt in Ordnung war... Large and growing collection of photos of German punks, most from the late 70s and early 80s, including pics from the infamously violent Chaos Days, along with the first German punk photo love story. [via Paperholic]
posted by mediareport at 9:41 AM PST - 26 comments

The Tax Man Cometh:

"They believe, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that their citizen's understanding of the written law should, and in some Platonic sense does, trump the realities of dealing with the government. This makes them uniquely American rebels--more true, they maintain, to the nation's core values than those of us who follow the pragmatic advice . . . "You mess with that shit, you are going to jail."

Brian Doherty analyzes the tax resistance movement (from 2004). Meanwhile, another ugly confrontation is brewing in New Hampshire, and violence is in the air. Mr. Brown, of course, has his views.
posted by fourcheesemac at 7:28 AM PST - 112 comments

I know we are all tired of Trump vs. Rosie. But, ashamedly, I got kick out of this. Literally. So if you don't like it, maybe someone can create a MeFi vs. The Deej game. (In case you have been under a rock: context.)
posted by The Deej at 7:11 AM PST - 24 comments

Interview with 36-yo entrepreneur Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla Motors (22min, video or audio, Jan 3 2007).
posted by stbalbach at 7:08 AM PST - 9 comments

It's Flicky - Nice, home-made Run DMC vid. [via]
posted by MrMustard at 6:58 AM PST - 13 comments

The whojackie memorial charity drive. My Name Is Earl* and Television Without Pity bring the meta. *Video available in US only. Sorry.
posted by goo at 4:15 AM PST - 24 comments

"You’re more worried about friction on the 'Desperate Housewives' set than the lack of health coverage at your tedious, soul-destroying job. You have no idea what is going on in the world, and you’re fine with that. You are why democracy doesn’t work." YOU are #16 on The Beast's 50 Most Loathsome People in America list.
posted by Hat Maui at 11:05 PM PST - 75 comments

A Year in Pyongyang.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:01 PM PST - 23 comments

Sheep and Ostriches Closed brothels. Banned books. Closed minds. Internet censorship. Australia, the land of the free.
posted by altman at 9:56 PM PST - 27 comments

Where in the world was your first kiss? Share your memories with the rest of the world at WhereIHadMyFirstKiss, a fun Google Maps mashup site. Visitors can place a marker to indicate where on earth they were when they received their first kiss, and can leave comments to share their good (or bad) recollections of the event.
posted by amyms at 8:30 PM PST - 73 comments

Tripcheck : Is an online service of the Oregon Department of Transportation. Zoom in on the map and click on a camera icon, and you can see a current image taken by a camera at that location.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 4:45 PM PST - 17 comments

Calling all musicians: it's almost February - and you know what that means! The RPM Challenge, or "record an album in 28 days, just because you can." A kind of NaNoWriMo for music, indeed. Miko pulled it off, and so can you!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:02 PM PST - 34 comments

Martin Strel is at it again. Back in '02 he swam the Mississippi River, then went on in '04 to make a world record swim of 930 miles in the Yangtze river. Now he plans to swim the 3,375 mile Amazon "for peace and friendship", starting February 1st.
posted by lisalisa123 at 2:42 PM PST - 27 comments

Atlas Shrugged is again in the pipeline to be made into a movie. BACK in the 1970s Albert S. Ruddy, the producer of “The Godfather,” first approached Ayn Rand to make a movie of her novel “Atlas Shrugged.” But Rand, who had fled the Soviet Union and gone on to inspire capitalists and egoists everywhere, worried aloud, apparently in all seriousness, that the Soviets might try to take over Paramount to block the project.
posted by Brian B. at 1:46 PM PST - 140 comments

Ever wondered what Art Garfunkel does when he's not walking across one continent or another? No? Well he'd like to tell you anyway. He reads. A lot.
posted by Partial Law at 1:44 PM PST - 38 comments

David Gonterman is still alive. Gonterman was last mentioned here five years ago. Gonterman has become a long-time Deviant. Gonterman is accepting comissions via his journal. Gonterman is writing a "part autobiography" about a boy who was teased in school and retreated into a fantasy land. Gonterman has made available the first part of this novel (doc). Gonterman has made available the first part of his new furry PI comic series (pdf). If you don't know Gonterman, you are fortunate: this is Gonterman.
posted by 6am at 1:10 PM PST - 19 comments

Things My Boyfriend Says. Not my boyfriend, mind you. I'm just posting it.
posted by maryh at 12:07 PM PST - 85 comments

Marine funerals and the aftermath of Katrina. Moving sets of photographs that were worthy of this year's Pulitzer Prize for Feature and Break News photography, respectively. Powerful. Frightening. Painful.
posted by PhatLobley at 10:56 AM PST - 19 comments

MeatLifter. Why is meat the most shoplifted item in America? (Previously: MeatFilter.)
posted by loquacious at 7:52 AM PST - 86 comments

A list of sites with public domain images was just posted by a DailyKos user and seems very useful.
posted by brookeb at 5:20 AM PST - 20 comments

The art of Rangoli:
posted by hadjiboy at 3:01 AM PST - 25 comments

Graham Jeffery's coloured smoke photos inspired folks like Myla Kent to form the Flickr artsmoke pool. [via Apothecary's Drawer]
posted by mediareport at 12:30 AM PST - 11 comments

Vegetarian is the New Prius : following a report from the UN indicating that the billions of livestock raised for meat are wreaking more havoc on the environment than fossil fuels, environmental activists are linking vegetarianism with fighting global warming.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:57 PM PST - 101 comments

Who is going to care for your pets after you are raptured into heaven? Many Christians believe that animals do not go to heaven. So when Jesus comes back and you return with him to heaven, will there be somebody to take care of your dog or cat?

That’s what JesusPets is for. We are assembling a community of heathen pet-lovers to care for pets that are “left-behind.” We are coordinating with feed mills and kennels in preparation for your post-apocalyptic pet care needs.
posted by jcterminal at 10:53 PM PST - 40 comments

Romulus and Remus are the most famous, and Rochom P'ngieng is the most recent addition to the roster of children believed to be raised by animals (via, and previously).
posted by Kibbutz at 9:32 PM PST - 14 comments

What's worse? MySpace or American Idol? How about a website that finds all the MySpace pages for those aweful American Idol contestants (you know- the ones we are supposed to laugh at because they suck)?
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 8:16 PM PST - 11 comments

That old mp3 player could be worth something some day.
posted by MajorDilemma at 6:53 PM PST - 22 comments

The Chasers reveal the irrelevant of many surveillance cameras and the ignorance of many Americans by declaring War on Everything.
posted by augustweed at 6:53 PM PST - 32 comments

Should have worked in a sushi bar. Newsoftheweirdfilter : before entering an hospital in order to have corrective surgery on your testicles, make sure your surgeon of choice isn't 1. slightly insane 2. short tempered 3.holding a scalpel (probably SFW, but may elicit a perpetual lack of trust in doctors).
posted by elpapacito at 6:49 PM PST - 39 comments

Marta Becket dances in her opera house, in Death Valley.
posted by owhydididoit at 5:48 PM PST - 15 comments

Better Hair Through Chemistry. Exploratorium magazine tells us how to reduce our number of "bad hair days" with a little scientific know-how and some common sense. Also, how to make your own Hair Hygrometer!
posted by amyms at 5:01 PM PST - 7 comments

Sweep the Leg is a new music video by the band No More Kings. It is a parody of The Karate Kid and it was directed by Johnny himself. There are a couple of other funny cameos in the video as well. This is also related to a cool list of the best villains from 80s movies (Where Johnny is noticeably absent). Oh, and Johnny (William Zabka) was nominated for an Oscar last year. Via.
posted by bove at 3:45 PM PST - 40 comments

Ayiti: the Cost of Life. It's a unicef propaganda flash game, but pretty fun so far as propaganda goes. Reminiscent of Oregon Trail.
(via jayisgames)
That via link has some gameplay tips, so skip it if you want to figure things out yourself.
posted by juv3nal at 2:08 PM PST - 16 comments

My Little Pony Live!
posted by mijuta at 12:17 PM PST - 62 comments

Sony says no to porn on Blu-ray Disc
posted by XMLicious at 11:07 AM PST - 63 comments

Hrant Dink, Armenian Newspaper Editor, Murdered in Istanbul an ethnic Armenian newspaper editor that was sentenced to 6 months in jail for "insulting Turkishness" by discussing the Armenian Genocide in Turkey was shot dead while leaving his newspaper office today.
posted by k8t at 10:29 AM PST - 44 comments

Stephen Colbert on the O'Reilly Factor. Bill O'Reilly on the Colbert Report
posted by kirkaracha at 9:43 AM PST - 105 comments

Combining incredible hubris with deep incompetence, Active Enterprises was probably the worst game company of all time. They released precisely two games in the early 1990s. The first was the insanely horrible Action 52, (retail price: $200), which was designed to take advantage of a "silent wave of anti, far-eastern [sic] made products," and featured an unwinnable contest. More amazing, however, was the sequel to the 52nd game in their Action 52 cartridge, Cheetahmen II. Never quite the breakout hit that Active intended, perhaps because it was crippled with bizarre bugs and middle school art, the world never got to see the second issue of the Cheetahmen comic book, nor the planned set of action figures, nor their Action Gamemaster console.
posted by blahblahblah at 9:36 AM PST - 24 comments

Fields of Logic is a nice little game for Flash Friday that involves... Turning around televisions in a field. According to some obscure logic rules that you've gotta figure out as you go.
posted by Vamier at 8:44 AM PST - 25 comments

How much is too much? Here in Manhattan I can choose from exactly 197 Starbucks locations. Currently Starbucks continues to open 5 new stores a day. Its nice to have choices, but is anything sacred anymore? Hell, even National Slow Down Week (courtesy of Adbusters.org) has coffee in the picture.
posted by allkindsoftime at 8:25 AM PST - 160 comments

"Rival network executives who hoped that Fox's "American Idol" would show signs of age in its sixth season weren't happy after Tuesday's premiere scored the show's second-highest ratings ever." Then there's Paula Abdul.
posted by phaedon at 8:17 AM PST - 59 comments

mtvU and GE are sponsoring a contest among colleges to create sustainable energy projects. The finalists' projects range from campus-wide runoff reduction proposals to a public bicycle-based laptop charger for students. The winner receives a $25,000 grant to implement their project, which is unfortunately small potatoes compared to the millions of dollars required to, for example, convert an entire vehicle fleet to biodiesel. unrelated, previously.
posted by mkb at 7:53 AM PST - 6 comments

Some like him, some don't. Regardless, today marks the 200th birthday of Robert E. Lee. Check out his first home, his most famous home, and not so famous home. Read his letters, including his thoughts on surrender, as well his first major biography, and last, naturally, his obituary from the New York Times. Oh, you can also get married by his entombed remains.
posted by Atreides at 7:52 AM PST - 53 comments

An Impartial Interrogation
One of the things I miss about my eighteen years in the US Senate are the stories of the old Southern Democrats. I didn't always vote with them, but I loved their technique of responding to an opponent's questions with a humorous story. Once when Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina had to handle a tough question from Mike Mansfield, he said, "You know, Mr. Leader, that question reminds me of the old Baptist preacher who was telling a class of Sunday school boys the creation story. 'God created Adam and Eve and from this union came two sons, Cain and Abel and thus the human race developed.' A boy in the class then asked, 'Reverend, where did Cain and Abel get their wives?' After frowning for a moment, the preacher replied, 'Young man--it's impertinent questions like that that's hurtin' religion.'"
posted by nofundy at 7:46 AM PST - 17 comments

Yesterday I discovered that the book Flatland by Edwin Abbot had been made into a movie in 1962. You can see a trailer of it on Google video. A remake of the movie narrated by Martin Sheen is set to be released this year. There also appears to be a rival remake.
posted by tracy_the_astonishing at 6:09 AM PST - 26 comments

St. Patrick's Catholic parish of Iowa City had a lovely old church until last year on Holy Thursday when the building was destroyed by a tornado. The church ruins were demolished yesterday. Here is the heart-wrenching (and related!) saga of Ricky the Flying Raccoon.
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:37 AM PST - 22 comments

Independent Game Demos. Master of Defense. Tribal Trouble. Darwinia. Dofus. Strange Attractors. Bone. Spawns of Deflebub. (via, via)
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:36 AM PST - 10 comments

Can you save the world? This engaging flash game from the BBC lets you try. And it's based on Science! too.
posted by mr. strange at 4:37 AM PST - 25 comments

Banksy is giving away images of his work under the following terms and conditions: Everything in the shop is free. All the images can be downloaded to print or use as a desktop. Serving suggestion: Prints look best when done on gloss paper using the company printer ink when everyone else is at lunch. Please do not use this service to launch your own poster company or t-shirt line.
posted by donovan at 11:55 PM PST - 58 comments

12 months of George Petty pinups. And 16 more. Hell, have 5 pages worth. More about the Petty Girl, an advertising and pop culture icon with an often unfinished look who made her first appearance in Esquire in 1933 and whose elegant line quickly became famous. [via Bibi's Box, which has lots more Petty and pinup links] [warning: busty pinup girls]
posted by mediareport at 10:50 PM PST - 23 comments

There are already some strange Soviet buildings. Gazprom intends to build these unusual skyscrapers in St. Petersburg. Maybe they will include caviar vending machines?
posted by nickyskye at 7:57 PM PST - 25 comments

Mengermania tracks the progress of building a level four Menger sponge out of index cards (related - level three with business cards). [via]
posted by tellurian at 7:54 PM PST - 5 comments

"Why do they hate us?" was a fairly common question asked by Americans in the wake of 9/11. In his new book The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, Dinesh D'souza gives us the answer: "the cultural left and its allies in Congress, the media, Hollywood, the nonprofit sector, and the universities are the primary cause of the volcano of anger toward America that is erupting from the Islamic world." Some reviews: WaPo, The American Conservative, Esquire. D'souza previously on mefi: [1] [2] [3]
posted by bardic at 5:43 PM PST - 138 comments

What American accent do you have?
posted by Methylviolet at 4:11 PM PST - 199 comments

The Pentagon has set down the rules regarding trials of terrorist suspects facing trial in the new military commissions court system. At least one US military attorney, Major Michael Mori, who is defending Australian terror suspect David Hicks, has blasted the new rules saying that the Pentagon still do not include fundamental rights such as habeas corpus.
posted by Second Account For Making Jokey Comments at 3:31 PM PST - 30 comments

Apostrophes, apostrophes, more apostrophes. Yet more apostrophes. They're "everywhere". It's grammar hell - literally!
posted by progosk at 2:51 PM PST - 88 comments

'We don't talk to evil' - in 2003, during the term of former president Khatami, Iran contacted the United States, and offered to end support for Hamas and Hezbollah, and help stabilize Iraq. Cheney said no. Skip forward to the present, and Iran are having tea and crumpets with North Korea.
posted by Jimbob at 2:38 PM PST - 41 comments

Pointless Sites is a repository for all those silly websites and online time-wasters that we've come to know and love (or hate). Sometimes they leave us scratching our heads and sometimes they leave us smiling. Sometimes they're oddly intriguing and even educational. Pointless Sites collects them and categorizes them for our convenience. [Note: some links on the site are flash-based, and some have sound]
posted by amyms at 2:30 PM PST - 7 comments

Doesn't Art Buchwald deserve an ObitFilter thread? Since we discussed his grave condition 11 months ago and the surprising postponement of his date with death... He had actually resumed writing: "Since I hadn't had any practice dying, I had to learn the hard way." His last column featured one of his trademark conversations with a fictitious government source, and before that he commented on some VIP Christmas Cards. (More recent Art here)
posted by wendell at 2:01 PM PST - 27 comments

Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers. That's the good news. The bad news is that because there's no patent and it's so cheap to make, researchers may not be able to get funding from the private sector for further research since the treatment wouldn't make a profit. [Via Hullabaloo.]
posted by homunculus at 12:52 PM PST - 119 comments

The Clock is ticking again.
posted by buzzv at 11:50 AM PST - 37 comments

Architecture in Second Life: Virtual Banality
posted by Falconetti at 11:34 AM PST - 24 comments

A vanishing world... in a bowl of chowder. An extraordinary article by New York Times writer Molly O'Neill about how changes in the recipe for New England's favorite soup reveal sea changes happening at sea. [Images here.]
posted by digaman at 10:51 AM PST - 52 comments

This is one of the most wonderful uses of the web I've seen to help others: Blogger One & friend question the fine print (scroll down) of charity web site. Blogger Two reads Blogger One's post and contacts him. The three people team up and do what most people who don't read fine print assume the charity was doing with their donations and video results. {via Kottke}
posted by dobbs at 8:40 AM PST - 59 comments

The Plantation Mentality
The veteran broadcast journalist Bill Moyers spoke on Friday before 3,500 at the opening of the National Conference on Media Reform in Memphis. He announced his return to the airwaves and outlined his vision of media reform. "As ownership gets more and more concentrated, fewer and fewer independent sources of information have survived in the marketplace; and those few significant alternatives that do survive, such as PBS and NPR, are under growing financial and political pressure to reduce critical news content and to shift their focus in a mainstream direction, which means being more attentive to establishment views than to the bleak realities of powerlessness that shape the lives of ordinary people."
posted by nofundy at 7:37 AM PST - 47 comments

Make a mixtape highlighting a young artist, have that artist proclaim his delight about the project on the CD, reignite that artist's career, repeat, then, the RIAA has you arrested for counterfieting. The RIAA continues its vain struggle to understand the new music economy. In the meantime, at least one company gets it, offering DRM-free CD downloads of obscure titles.
posted by caddis at 7:25 AM PST - 67 comments

Return of the Dodo — Finnish sculptor and photographer Harri Kallio takes a couple of feathered friends back to Mauritius to imagine what might have been.
posted by cenoxo at 11:55 PM PST - 13 comments

In loving mammary - celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the invention of the brassiere. (may be risque for work) [more]
posted by madamjujujive at 10:36 PM PST - 49 comments

The UKs Celebrity Big Brother provokes a diplomatic incident after bullying and alleged racism in the Big Brother house. At the center of the furor are Shilpa Shetty, massive bollywood film star, and Jade Goody, a previous Big Brother content famous for being a previous big brother contestant and her odd views on geography. Both Jade and Shetty are now up for eviction, with the formerly popular Jade being widely expected to be evicted. She could face trouble on the outside, where already an anti-bullying charity she represents has dropped her. Meanwhile Shetty has become favorite to win.
posted by Artw at 9:43 PM PST - 133 comments

StumbleUpon is now bigger than del.icio.us, counting 1.3 million users. Is it just another social booknetworking site, or a way for me to finally "surf" the intertubes? Just ten more Stumbles before bed, and this time I'm serious.
posted by Area Control at 8:44 PM PST - 36 comments

Man has become machine.
posted by bigmusic at 7:25 PM PST - 63 comments

What If...Bob Dylan wrote almost every song of the last 30 years in his heyday, but never got around to recording them properly? New York City's Post Show Ensemble dredges up lost footage for No Direction, Period.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 6:17 PM PST - 37 comments

“Oh, I took the roofs road" --just one of the fascinating things at a new Iraq blog--Inside Iraq-- daily life in a war zone through the words of Iraqi journalists in McClatchy's Baghdad Bureau as they risk so much each day to survive. These are unedited first hand accounts of their experiences. Their complete names have been withheld for security reasons.
posted by amberglow at 6:13 PM PST - 9 comments

"I'm not my characters. I'd have to have killed myself hundreds of times and be perversity incarnate from five in the morning until ten at night." A 1986 interview with the late, great Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, published in German for the first time last year, now in English translation at signandsight.com.
posted by otio at 5:54 PM PST - 18 comments

Illegal wiretaps to end.
posted by EarBucket at 5:19 PM PST - 50 comments

He stands a mere 5'1" but can drive a golf ball over 330 yards, and this past weekend he became the youngest player in 50 years to make the cut and play on a PGA Tour event. The golf media is ready to embrace Tadd Fujikawa as its Next Big(!) Thing. Of course, it was quickly noted that the amateur Tadd outplayed, upstaged, and overshadowed another young Hawaii-bred golfer who did not make the cut at the Sony Open: the 17 year-old Michelle Wie, who turned pro at age 16 and is raking in an estimated $10 million in endorsements from Nike and Sony (but maybe we shouldn't break out the Hater-ade over that...). Michelle is widely known for drawing huge crowds while unapologetically ruffling feathers as she attempts to play in various men's tournaments. Her critics note that she hasn't won against the Ladies yet, let alone the men, and is no longer deserving of the hype. Thus the parade of talented and ambitious youth continues to plunge into the waiting, toothy embrace of marketing execs worldwide, shouldering the dreams of their parents and weathering the barrage of the critics' cynical ink...
posted by krippledkonscious at 5:16 PM PST - 16 comments

Victorian Turkish Baths - "Can the active, fox-hunting, cricketing, boating Englishman bear the same kind of treatment that benefits and gratifies the indolent, languid, luxurious Turk?"
posted by tellurian at 4:10 PM PST - 12 comments

The Bard Prison Initiative is one of a very few programs in the country still supplying post-secondary education to inmates. After the Congress eliminated Pell Grant eligibility for prisoners, these programs must be privately funded. Bard just gives it away. The great thing is, education reduces recidivism.
posted by anotherpanacea at 3:20 PM PST - 33 comments

In the Future, our drinking straws will be made out of celery! Well, it turns out that they aren’t actually genetically engineered after all, and they look nothing like this much-posted picture, but could these eventually replace the Twizzler as the preferred edible drinking straw technology? It only makes sense to use celery as a structural material, as it is, of course, not actually a vegetable, but a member of the plywood family.
posted by kyrademon at 2:38 PM PST - 51 comments

Sabine is an ordinary German woman - except that she grew up among the Fayu tribe of West Papua and only moved to Europe at 17.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:32 PM PST - 43 comments

Tube Wars: A new front opens as the IFPI [think global RIAA] threatens imminent legal war with ISP's.
posted by trinarian at 1:07 PM PST - 30 comments

An Appeal for Redress from the War in Iraq. "As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq . Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home." (via the Seattle Times.)
posted by three blind mice at 11:23 AM PST - 54 comments

Fight like a girl! The Pillow Fight League features pugilists with names like Champain, Eifel Power, Betty Clock'er, and Boozy Suzy. Makes me nostalgic for the good old days of GLOW. (Via)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:46 AM PST - 45 comments

Stephen J. Cannell has created/co-created over 40 TV shows, written over 450 TV scripts for shows like The Rockford Files and The A Team , and 12 mystery novels. What's the catch? He is dyslexic..
posted by CameraObscura at 10:24 AM PST - 40 comments

Mum with no arms changes baby's nappy with her feet. There's something really unnerving about this (rather old) video, but it sure puts Gondry to shame.
posted by tombola at 10:17 AM PST - 14 comments

Templar, Arizona is hands down my favorite webcomic find of 2006. Creator Spike (AKA Charlie Trotman) is one of the growing number of artists eschewing conventional approaches to the (notoriously lagging) alternative print market, but she's more persistent (and consistent) than most. Also worth noting is the experimental, dialogue-free Sparkneedle (recently completed). The self described "wankery" of her Sims-illustrated fiction vehicle Playing With Dolls? Maybe not so much.
posted by nanojath at 9:30 AM PST - 9 comments

Billed as TV's frst video arcade game show, Starcade had its contestants battling each other on video game trivia, as well as actual gameplay. Originally aired in the early 1980's, the show featured games like Zaxxon, Congo Bongo, Star Trek and Journey, to name a few.

Ten full episodes are available online, for those of you who want a bit of video game nostalgia. And, if nothing else, looking at the contestants is pretty entertaining, in and of itself.
posted by avoision at 9:18 AM PST - 27 comments

A television report tracks Muslim extremism in the United Kingdom. See also, part 2 and part 3. (YouTube) (via Digg)
posted by yevge at 9:00 AM PST - 29 comments

Guess who we're having for dinner? Danish shock artist Marco Evaristti lippoed some of his belly fat, fried meatballs in it and served it, partaking himself. He also canned some of the Polpette al grasso di Marco and sold at least two cans for $23,200 each. Cannibalism? Extreme autophagy? Trenchant comment on plastic surgery, taboos and consumerism? Or just really really gross?
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:26 AM PST - 70 comments

No need to panic, but perhaps there's a need to stay on top of the still-evolving H5N1 (bird flu) situation. "Infections in birds and people are increasing, particularly in Asia, where the virus was first identified a decade ago. Viet Nam, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Nigeria reported diseased birds in the past month, while Indonesia, China and Egypt found new human cases." (quote from International Society for Infectious Diseases report, Feb. 16, 2007).

If keeping track via FluWiki or the many discussion groups isn't your thing, you could just check for the the flashing red chickens every so often :-)
posted by Quiplash at 8:17 AM PST - 25 comments

The Ten Word Review Review anything you like, but in ten words or less. For example:
A Scanner Darkly: Rotoscoping gives Keanu a soul. Shame he opens his mouth.
posted by chrismear at 8:01 AM PST - 34 comments

The coverup is always bigger than the crime. No matter what your political leanings, the Scooter Libby obstruction of justice trial has something for everyone, including testimony by memory experts, an all-star witness lineup, including the Vice President of the United States and the Secretary of State, phone calls to the press from the bowels of Air Force Two, the first high-profile Federal court proceeding where bloggers have been given press credentials, some interesting Voir Dire questioning of potential jurors [pdf ] - and the interesting responses thereof, a book largely culled from research done by the Citizen Press, an unpopular war, an unpopular president, and an even more unpopular Vice-President, full-frontal assaults on the credibility of the press, scrubbed newspaper archives, at least one witness (a former White House Official?) who has been granted immunity, an earlier leak of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq regarding WMD, and quite possibly substantial insight into the who, what, when, and where of the selling of the Invasion of Iraq.
posted by rzklkng at 7:08 AM PST - 28 comments

Thirty years ago today, Gary Gilmore was executed at the Utah State Prison, the first prisoner to be put to death since the moratorium on executions was established four years prior, and the first execution in Utah in sixteen years. His refusal to appeal his death sentence confounded his lawyers and attracted the attention of the ACLU, among others, who fought to keep Gilmore alive, against his wishes. His frustrations with the uncertainty of his sentence led him to attempt suicide in prison twice.

His life and death have been recounted in several books, films, inspired a few songs, and even an SNL skit. His final words, “Let’s do it,” led to a major marketing campaign.
posted by Nathanial Hörnblowér at 6:28 AM PST - 24 comments

What I've Learned: Al Green, Alex Trebek, Alyssa Milano, Andy Grove, Arianna Huffington, Arny Freytag, Arthur Miller, Bill O'Reilly, Billy Bob Thornton, Bobby Bowden, Burt Reynolds, Carroll Shelby, Charles Townes, Christie Brinkley, Christopher Reeve, Clive Davis, Conrad Dobler, Curt Gowdy, Dan Rather, David Bowie, David Brown, Don Rickles, Edward Teller, Even Knievel, Faye Dunaway, Forest Whitaker, Garry Shandling, Gene Simmons, Haley Joel Osment, Heather Locklear, Homer Simpson, Hugh Hefner, Hunter Clemons, J. Craig Venter, 1=8991">Jack Bauer, Jaime Pressly, James Caan, James Watson, Jeff Bezos, Jim Willett, Jimmy Dean, Joe Frazier, John Kenneth Galbraith, John McCain, JR Simplot, Julia Child, Katie Couric, Keith Richards, Kirk Douglas, Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams, Mark Burnett, Mia Farrow, Michael Wright, Muhammad Ali, Neil Young, Ozzy Osbourne, Pamela Anderson, Peter O'Toole, Phil Spector, Philip Johnson, Ray Charles, Red Auerbach, Richard Branson, Richard Petty, Rip Torn, Robert Altman, Robert DeNiro, Robert Evans, Rod Steiger, Rodney Dangerfield, Roseanne, Roy Jones Jr., Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel, Siegfried and Roy, Suge Knight, Tom Petty, Tommy Franks, Walter Cronkite. [Slightly More Inside]
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 5:01 AM PST - 59 comments

Now and again one comes across a word in English and has reason to remark “there really was no good reason to come up with that.” Today, this role will be played by pseudomamma, from the same roots as the ‘pseudo–’ of any number of English words and the ‘mamma’ of ‘mammaries.’ Yes, doctors have a word for ‘third nipple’ to use in contexts where people not understanding what they’re saying makes their lives easier. Also starring, as the context for the use of this word, and as it so often does these days, is the internet. Specifically BMEzine, the acme of body-modification exhibition sites; yes, one person in twenty has a third nipple, and yes a goodly number of them has piercings there. For your edification and distraction, its gallery of third nipple piercings. Not safe for work. That was the Coral Cache mirror, original here. Via the comments at Jamie Zawinski’s Livejournal. Warranty void unless customer resides in the European Union. Stocks and shares may fall as well as rise.
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 12:31 AM PST - 37 comments

"Georgia Russell is a Scottish artist who uses a scalpel instead of a brush or a pen. She works with obsessive perserverance to create constructions that transform found ephemera, such as books, music scores, maps, newspapers, currency and photographs." Samples here. {via design dna}
posted by dobbs at 11:02 PM PST - 18 comments

Geni. Family Tree 2.0. [via]
posted by muckster at 11:00 PM PST - 24 comments

Eclectic is a solar, wind, and plug-in electric-powered "vehicle" making it [theoretically] energy autonomous. While solar vehicles are not new, this pioneering consumer production model may find a niche market. June 2007, priced starting at 24,000€. Summary.
posted by stbalbach at 9:05 PM PST - 15 comments

Carol Lam was the first one to receive much publicity. A federal prosecutor fired for not making guns and drugs a top priority. She was also Duke Cunningham's prosecutor. No big deal, she just hadn't prosecuted many cases during her tenure. Except that Lawyers called the firing "virtually unprecedented And FBI people claimed the firing would jeopardize cases. Then there was Daniel Bogden, a federal prosecutor in Nevada was also canned for "fostering low morale". And actually it turns out that as many as many as eight federal prosecutors have been fired in the past two months.
posted by delmoi at 8:20 PM PST - 44 comments

Elephant jokes. (And the reason some of you don't like them. Cretins.)
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies at 7:27 PM PST - 52 comments

There are Klingons in the Whitehouse! Er, make that faux Klingons.
posted by alms at 7:20 PM PST - 26 comments

What does 200 calories look like? (via)
posted by Kwantsar at 6:37 PM PST - 34 comments

Genius at work. Bill Strickland is the visionary creator of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation, a combination craftsmen's guild, training center and (completely amazing) school. The school comes complete with a sound stage and record label that has won numerous grammys for the music recorded there as friendly favors from jazz legends to Bill and his students. He has been profiled in major business magazines for being a master educator with the ambition to become a master franchiser by working with Ebay CEO Jeff Skoll (see, "Applying model worldwide") to go global with his approach to education. He won the Macarthur in 1996. You can also watch his famous slide show, or some live footage of his presentation on youtube.
posted by The Straightener at 6:24 PM PST - 4 comments

Chief Justice John Roberts, decrying “the personalization of judicial politics,” describes his efforts to increase comity on the Supreme Court and to decide more cases unanimously. In Roberts' first term as chief justice, “while a relatively large number of the Court’s decisions” were unanimous, “several important, closely divided cases” were decided by 5-4 votes, with Roberts joining the more conservative justices.
posted by ibmcginty at 6:09 PM PST - 17 comments

Premature , prepared, and alternative obituaries for Cuba's Fidel Castro. Time to get ready for the real thing? Conjecture and hope about Life After Fidel: Time to get to know Fidel's brother Raul.
posted by spock at 6:02 PM PST - 80 comments

Dark Darker Darkest is an essay in this week's New Republic by Christopher Benfey on the newly published Notebooks of Robert Frost (here's a more conventional book review by Mark Ford in The Financial Times). Glyn Maxwell, a couple of years ago in the same publication, wrote a short article, Beautiful as He Did It, about Edward Thomas and his relationship with Frost. Should you want more direct contact with the famous poet, you can read Richard Poirier's 1960 interview with Frost that appeared in The Paris Review (pdf) or listen to him recite a few of his better known poems.
posted by Kattullus at 5:52 PM PST - 6 comments

Ridin' Dirty Face - photos by Mike Brodie in color, black & white and some polaroids.
Also, check out the The Polaroid Photography Collective.
posted by StopMakingSense at 5:50 PM PST - 14 comments

In preparation for today's announcement of the formation of a presidential exploratory committee, Sen. Barack Obama has been giving well publicized speeches on the role of religion in American political life. Though faith remains a deeply divisive force in the American political scene, Obama seems to be positioning himself at the forefront of a major political realignment, one which has his opponents more than a little uneasy.
posted by felix betachat at 3:57 PM PST - 179 comments

Steel Belted Romeos is based on a true story. (NSFW)
posted by airguitar at 3:02 PM PST - 33 comments

Wikiseek. A better way to search Wikipedia.
posted by allkindsoftime at 12:52 PM PST - 38 comments

One of pop music's trailblazers was tone-deaf. Even if you've never heard of Joe Meek (previously), you've probably heard his 1962 single "Telstar" many times. This online compilation offers an exciting glimpse into Meek's unconventional way of composing, as he recorded and rerecorded in an attempt to communicate the music in his mind to musicians. Hear "Telstar" in various levels of completion.
posted by roll truck roll at 12:34 PM PST - 29 comments

The WSJ's Charles Murray on the problem with public education: not inequality, overcrowding or standardized tests, but kids just aren't smart enough. First in a three-part series.
posted by Lisa S at 12:06 PM PST - 202 comments

California = France? Norwegian bløgger Carl Størmer (via THE BIG PICTURE) made a U.S. map substituting the state names for other countries of equivalent GDP. Some of the substitutions are funny: Illinois = Mexico? Texas = Canada? New Jersey = Russia? Hawaii = Nigeria? Oregon = Israel? But your economic mileage will vary: apparently California no longer has the "sixth-largest economy in the world", no matter what The Governator says. Wikipedia chimes in, while some Californians don't want to be bothered with facts.
posted by wendell at 11:59 AM PST - 39 comments

Who'd have guessed? Turns out that Senator Ted Stevens was simply a man ahead of his time. The internet really is a series of tubes.
posted by Tubes at 11:58 AM PST - 30 comments

Global warming skeptic Ronald Bailey--Reason's science correspondent, adjunct scholar at CATO and CEI, and editor of the 2002 book Global Warming and Other Myths: How the Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death--has changed his mind.
posted by russilwvong at 10:41 AM PST - 92 comments

News Scrap (It's On!) The battle between O'Reilly and Olberman, the remix. From the always wonderful On the Media.
posted by timsteil at 10:23 AM PST - 16 comments

Saving the world’s weirdest creatures. The EDGE of Existence programme, a project of the Zoological Society of London, aims to conserve the world's most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species by implementing the research and conservation actions needed to secure their future. [Via MoFi.]
posted by homunculus at 10:14 AM PST - 8 comments

Brief advertisement for France's Canal Plus: 00:01:07 secs.
posted by econous at 10:07 AM PST - 36 comments

Is Airborne science or snake oil ? The official website is flashy, but short on empirical evidence, and even admits that there is "no cure" for the common cold. The first doubts were from ABC News. Then David Cowan blogged about it. Now Michael Shermer from the Scientific American, and publisher of Skeptic weighs in an article called Airborne Baloney
posted by lobstah at 8:43 AM PST - 163 comments

Pickle Surprise! (youtube)
posted by bob sarabia at 7:40 AM PST - 38 comments

Still more Ferrofluid fun The artist who produced 'Protrude Flow' has a new thing: A spiral tower, presumably full of electromagnets, which pulls ferrofluid up and down and all over it in weird black spikes. That's a hopeless description, so watch the (big .wmv) videos: 1 and 2 for full amazingosity.
posted by tombola at 7:10 AM PST - 23 comments

Neanderthals & Modern Humans Interbred. Hybrid Skull Unearthed in Romania ...
... that includes features of both modern humans and Neanderthals, possibly suggesting that the two may have interbred thousands of years ago. Neanderthals were replaced by early modern humans. Researchers have long debated whether the two groups mixed together, though most doubt it. The last evidence for Neanderthals dates from at least 24,000 years ago
posted by Bodyguard at 4:38 AM PST - 62 comments

Adultery could mean life, Michigan's second-highest court reported that anyone involved in an extramarital fling can be prosecuted for first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to life in prison. Michigan's Supreme Court majority has held that it is for the Legislature, not the courts, to decide when the absurdity threshold has been breached.
posted by IronWolve at 2:56 AM PST - 122 comments

Panoramic World. Russian places of interest such as palaces, museums, parks, St. Petersburg and fortresses. You'll need one of these: QT or Java or DevalVR. (previous panorama posts)
posted by sluglicker at 2:19 AM PST - 3 comments

Why Are British Sex Scandals So Much Better Than America's? A recent (Feb. 2007 issue) Vanity Fair article by James Wolcott examines the Profumo Affair , the Major-Currie revelations and the recent shenanigans at the U.K.'s The Spectator magazine, as compared to Mark Foley, Clinton-Lewinsky and much more.
posted by amyms at 10:48 PM PST - 35 comments

How to drive... like a maniac. The affable Tiff Needell illustrates how to get more out of your FWD, RWD, and AWD vehicle. And, of course, how to manage on two out of your four wheels. (youtube)
posted by Eideteker at 8:21 PM PST - 18 comments

Making Fiends Cartoon is an online cartoon, via BoingBoing of course, that features a good little girl named Charlotte from Vermont who tries to make friends and a bad little girl named Vendetta who makes fiends, which result in monsters. Apparently its been picked up by Nickelodeon. Features hilarious kitties and classmates.
posted by k8t at 7:12 PM PST - 19 comments

Le Grand Content (embedded QT) is a short film inspired by the (previously mentioned) awesome charts-as-life-descriptors blog Indexed (and in fact, found via that site). More on the project here.
posted by jonson at 6:15 PM PST - 6 comments

The Seattle Times has a nice multimedia tour of the soon to open Seattle Art Museum sculpture park. It seems to be a beautiful new installation. The park sits on an out of the way parcel North of the downtown core, but is nearby the earthquake-damaged Alaskan Way viaduct. If the viaduct is replaced with a surface boulevard and parkland, the sculpture park could end up more connected to the downtown core. Link to Flickr group with photos of the park.
posted by commonmedia at 4:38 PM PST - 8 comments

Most elusive, these acrostics: fictional, insurrectionary, literary, tragic, even religious.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 3:36 PM PST - 26 comments

One of Geordi's first stops is to visit his good pal Wesley Crusher, who shows off one of his science projects (a mini tractor beam,) and one of his toys, a device that lets Wesley recreate speech from anyone on the ship. Any doubt that Wesley is a complete weenie is removed when we learn that he uses this device to have Captain Picard say things like, "Welcome to the bridge, Wesley," instead of having Counselor Troi say things like, "Smack my ass, Wesley, I'm a naughty, naughty bitch."

Wil Wheaton recaps Star Trek: The Next Generation.
posted by EarBucket at 2:07 PM PST - 51 comments

"Then something went horribly wrong, and I know what happened, but I can't tell you exactly how..."
Newsweek leaks the critical chapter of O.J.'s scrapped "If I Did It" book.
posted by miss lynnster at 12:42 PM PST - 67 comments

gas: tractor pulls and demolition derbies. Music, a bar graph, and a clown [youtube]
posted by nervousfritz at 12:05 PM PST - 14 comments

1956. France is losing Algeria. It’s lost Indochina. Sure, it’s culturally very productive, with Nouvelle Vague cinema at its height and existential philosophy gaining ground in the world at large. But to the nation of Napoléon and to one that preferred to emphasise the Résistance in its more recent history, that wasn't enough. What to do? Why, propose political union with Britain, of course.
posted by Aidan Kehoe at 11:25 AM PST - 53 comments

A year to the day before his death, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered this speech at Riverside Church, New York City. In the last years of his life, King moved beyond anti-segregation activism to a broader indictment of American class structure and foreign policy. This is The Martin Luther King You Don't See on TV.
posted by Mister_A at 10:29 AM PST - 56 comments

International Dim Sum Directory from Journeywoman, the travel website, created by their readershop. My favourite Dim Sum are those steamed meatballs, although it's interesting to note that many popular dishes such as Crispy Aromatic Duck are in fact British inventions (mixing Peking duck with Sichuan style duck).
posted by feelinglistless at 10:00 AM PST - 22 comments

The Morphable Face Model "captures the variations of 3D shape and texture that occur among human faces. It represents each face by a set of model coefficients, and generates new, natural-looking faces from any novel set of coefficients, which is useful in a wide range of applications in computer vision and computer graphics." Amazing/terrifying tech from Herr Prof. Dr. Volker Blanz.
posted by gwint at 9:57 AM PST - 38 comments

Many people want to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana and other drugs, however, few know that many U.S. states are content simply to tax. In fact, even the federal government wants a share (middle of p. 89 of the PDF), and used tax stamps in early prohibition, but only the states have recently issued issued cool stamps (be sure to click "exhibit"). The point, of course, is not to actually tax the drugs, but to penalize the drug dealers for tax evasion as well as drug sales. They have brought in some money, though. A few interesting state government pages: Conecticut, Nebraska, North Carolina and their tax return form, and Kansas.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 8:55 AM PST - 30 comments

For those of us who can't get enough useless (and useful) information, there is Mental Floss. Take the "Color" movies quiz. Find out how Hornando Cortés and his 600 Spaniards subdued 5 million Aztec natives. Remember back to when President Nixon tried to fancy up the outfits worn by White House guards. Had enough? No? OK. Worried about birds exploding from eating wedding rice? Want to know what furfuraceous means? Scroll around this page to find out what Maya Angelou, Marilyn Monroe and Andrew Lloyd Webber were all affected by; what's up with green magazine covers; and why barber shops (as opposed to other places of business) spawned vocal groups? All this and much more! Now, you too can say, "I know more than my friends!"
posted by The Deej at 7:41 AM PST - 32 comments

They shut down part of Austin last week, thousands did it in Esperance, Western Australia, record numbers in England and thousands more along I-84 in Idaho. Conspiracies abound; could it be poison, or testing EM weapons, "some kid with a BB gun" or drunk on hackberries or maybe it is global warming?

Sometimes the explanation is pretty simple but mostly, scientists are scratching their heads and wondering what is causing bird to drop dead out of the skies all over the globe at an alarming rate.
posted by DragonBoy at 6:30 AM PST - 43 comments

Mathematicians in the 1940s became curious about Fair Division, thus birthing an entire branch of mathematics concerned with cutting cakes. Recently, this man came up with a new method, purported to be the most fair yet. Hard to disbelieve, coming from the topologist who has mastered shoelaces, although arguably he's missing the point.
posted by eparchos at 4:09 AM PST - 28 comments

Photography of the unexpected and neglected architecture. Romain Meffre and Yves Marchand travel the world photographing "singular and surprising buildings of all domains," mostly 19th and 20th century urban and industrial architecture. Don't miss the photos of Detroit (under Projects), or more of Marchand's stunning work at his personal site.
posted by melissa may at 2:36 AM PST - 24 comments

Physician uses Google to Save Dying Family - Days from Certain Death . Entire Family had Days to live from an almost 100% fatal poison. Physician finds experimental cure in Google Scholar — but it is not approved in USA. How do you get through theMassive FDA red tape in days, as the family is nearing the end? Compassionate manufacturers and a persistant Doctor all came together to help - with mere days left for family already in the process of dying. Read about the Miracles that finally occurred.
posted by Bodyguard at 2:33 AM PST - 42 comments

Helmut Newton's "Big Nudes"[NSFW] (previously) was the object of my search when I stumbled upon The Amazon Connection, dedicated to Amazon Warrior Women in history, and present-day embodiment of the type. Oh yeah, and Pippy Longstocking kicks ass!
posted by sluglicker at 2:09 AM PST - 21 comments

A look inside the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
posted by delmoi at 11:12 PM PST - 29 comments

The King Dream Chorus and Holiday Crew Twenty years ago various rap artists got together to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (taking some inspiration from Artists Against Apartheid). You'd think Grandmaster Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow, and Run-D.M.C. would be enough. But you'd be wrong. Lisa Lisa, Teena Marie, Fat Boys, and El DeBarge wanted in, too. All kinds of youtubey goodness here, including Ricky Martin as part of Menudo, and several solos by a scrumptious Whitney Houston. Lyrics are here, and you can buy the single here
posted by Kibbutz at 11:01 PM PST - 2 comments

Running From Camera The rules are simple: I put the self-timer on 2 seconds, push the button and try to get as far from the camera as I can. [via]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 10:08 PM PST - 60 comments

Gobler Toys: The Fun We Can't Remember. A fictional toy company with an online collection of toys, dolls and games that only exist in the inventors' imaginations. Don't miss the hilarious Star Wars Toys That Never Were. (flash animation)
posted by amyms at 9:42 PM PST - 9 comments

What disease does your pig have? Mine has Porcine Epidemic Diahorroea!
posted by hermitosis at 7:38 PM PST - 17 comments

Dora McDonald, Martin Luther King's private secretary from 1960 until his death, has died at age 81. While few have heard of Ms. McDonald, she was a very important figure in King's work, and was the one who had to tell Coretta Scott King that her husband had been murdered.
posted by cerebus19 at 6:33 PM PST - 6 comments

Karakuri automata are representative of the highest technology in the Edo period (1603 to 1867). Automata were also crafted hundreds of years ago in Europe: The Dulcimer Player by Pierre Kintzing , made in 1772; The Singing Lesson, created by Robert-Houdin; three androids by Jaquet-Droz; the Pooping Duck by Vaucanson (the first link at the top). Ancient robots. The first automaton was created by Al-Jazari: video of his clock. The history of automata [pdf]. Contemporary toy automata. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 4:51 PM PST - 18 comments

Yarrrr/Banzai! All you "Talk like a pirate day" keyboard swashbucklers take heed: The Sea Shepherd Society's flagship Farley Mowat is now officialy a pirate vessel after Canada, Britain, and Belize revoked their registration. As the Japanese winter Antarctic whale hunting season begins (previously), the M/V Farley Mowat is setting sail to meet them, armed with a hydraulic "can opener" battering ram, a pie cannon, and moral conviction. With the Japanese whaling fleet now majority owned by the Japanese government, a subject of international diplomatic intrigue, and after last year's confrontations, this could get ugly!
posted by anthill at 3:57 PM PST - 54 comments

The "Darwinian paradox" of homosexuality presents the conundrum of how a potential genetic basis for homosexual behavior could provide a survival benefit to offpsring and extend through generations, when sexual reproduction would seem to place strong selection pressure against such a "gene". Recently developed mathematical models (PDF) from researchers Sergey Gavrilets and William Rice not only show how a "gay gene" might proliferate within a population, but also provides testable hypotheses, including predictions of "widespread bisexuality" (subscription req'd).
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:36 PM PST - 67 comments

Passivhaus/Passive house design that saves mucho energy, does not require air conditioning, does not require heating even when outdoors it's 10 below! Since, for example, more than 30% of energy consumed in the UK is for homes and 82 per cent of that is space and water heating, [Monbiot, "Heat,"chapter 5, "Our Leaky Homes,"] changing our standards of home design is important. Diagram shows that basic solar design concepts are well understood and technically easy to implement in new construction. [If only my house could be turned 45 degrees!] Possibly through ignorance, and partly through the desire to cut corners instead of doing things right, we do not make these wise concepts a priority. There are lots of cool alternative building techniques, many of which are traditional and being revived. This leading design standard saves 90% of energy used in the home. Here in Canada it's called the net zero energy home.
posted by Listener at 2:13 PM PST - 16 comments

What's behind Niagara Falls? Some dudes investigate.
posted by davebush at 11:04 AM PST - 67 comments

Wo-wo-wo-windows wo-wo-windows windows/386 will pull these parts together and do it mighty quick. (Google video; start around minute 7) (via)
posted by klausness at 10:54 AM PST - 64 comments

A Photochrom is a color photo lithograph, produced from a black-and-white negative. They were especially popular in the 1890s and were frequently used on postcards. Photochrom.com presents "over 1,300 different images of United States, Canada, Mexico and Cuba." But that's nothing—the Library of Congress presents 5,000 of them, from all over the world. The first page is nature shots from Ireland; I suggest clicking on the page links at the top, finding a region that interests you, and using the PREV PAGE - NEXT PAGE links to find more. Some favorites: a street in Fiume (now Rijeka), the harbor of Algiers, the outskirts of Jerusalem. (LoC link via wood s lot.)
posted by languagehat at 8:49 AM PST - 27 comments

Sam Buxton designs cute sculptures that fold-out from flat pieces of stainless steel.
posted by econous at 8:46 AM PST - 16 comments

Wii = "wee." Water-drinking radio contest ends in tragedy. Water intoxication caused the death of this mother. Radio pranks and contests are nothing new. Some have resulted in lawsuits, but I don't recall any resulting in death before.
posted by The Deej at 7:02 AM PST - 89 comments

Alice Coltrane has passed away at age 69. She'd long been in frail health and died of respiratory failure. (mi)
posted by bluedaniel at 6:44 AM PST - 32 comments

VIRTUAL REALITY Hi-tech Being Embraced by Manufacturers & Therapists
Long a darling of the military, aviation and video-game industries, virtual reality is being embraced by more businesses as the falling cost of computer power makes it more affordable. Manufacturers of farm equipment, car seats, mufflers and other products have joined automakers and aircraft manufacturers in using the technology to speed up and improve product design, train workers and configure factories and stores.
THERAPY: Overcoming trauma through virtual reality
posted by Bodyguard at 1:13 AM PST - 5 comments

Pancakes and sausage...it's fun on a stick! As seen on tv. Parents admit, "I do spoil [my son] and let him have something which others may disapprove of." Serving size: 1 piece. A nutritional part of these school menus.
posted by bomeezy at 11:53 PM PST - 53 comments

Lines from Alanis Morissette's song "Ironic", modified to actually be ironic.
posted by w0mbat at 11:36 PM PST - 83 comments

Do you love learning? I know you do. This might help keep you busy for a while.
posted by loquacious at 10:44 PM PST - 42 comments

Mysterious number 6174. An excellent recreational math article.
posted by fatllama at 10:19 PM PST - 34 comments

How not to rob a liquor store.
posted by Sfving at 9:53 PM PST - 49 comments

GDP per square kilometer (jpg), via.
posted by jonson at 7:33 PM PST - 31 comments

Bullfrog aren't selective eaters . They eat anything that they can swallow (including other bullfrogs). And remember, they are coming for YOU. Scary animals on Metafilter: Giant Amazonian Centipede, Snakehead, horrors from the abyss.
posted by darkripper at 6:45 PM PST - 23 comments

Michael Brecker has passed away Arguably, one of the most influential saxophonists of all time, he has lost his fight against myelodysplastic syndrome. Truly a major loss for the jazz and rock worlds.
posted by milnak at 5:10 PM PST - 30 comments

The top questions people in China want to ask the internet...
posted by miss lynnster at 4:57 PM PST - 47 comments

I did not know this site yesterday.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:48 PM PST - 45 comments

"See his pug-nose face." David Bowie, from Extras second season, which premieres tomorrow in USA. Stephen Merchant (from today's RADAR) and Ricky Gervais have been mentioned here before, but I think the David Bowie clip is worth it.
posted by headless at 3:07 PM PST - 35 comments

Metroid Cubed...Squared! It was linked a couple years ago, but since then the site has undergone a major overhaul and added a bunch of cool stuff. [Flash Warning] In addition to the now classic voxel 2.5D conversion of Metroid (playable and interesting), there is now a robust Metroid world-editor, a Marble Madness-like prototype using the voxel engine, a StarFox level editor and model viewer (Spoiler: gfx not as good as you remember), and numerous others worth checking out: Hyrule Planetoids (comme Le Petit Prince) and a OpenGL Zelda room viewer, a Mario 64 Explorer, and numerous Super Mario Bros demos. It's all quite useless/amazing.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 2:49 PM PST - 8 comments

Permission to Innovate? How the Record Industry Is Like 17th-Century French Buttonmakers A corporate consultant blog makes a weird but compelling argument that the RIAA and MPAA are forcibly imposing a draconian 17th-century business model on the 21st century.
posted by jonp72 at 1:28 PM PST - 45 comments

Dictionary of Disorder - shaping the DSM
posted by Gyan at 11:48 AM PST - 12 comments

Two days ago, the senior Pentagon official in charge of military detainees suspected of terrorism was interviewed (wma file, relevant remarks begin at 3:00) on Federal News Radio, an internet-only all-news radio station aimed at government employees. What has drawn the attention and ire of both the mainstream (liberalish) media, e.g., (1) (2) (3), and intertubers, e.g., (1) (2), is that deputy assistant secretary Stimson (pic) (a lawyer no less) is advocating that businesses boycott prominent law firms representing prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
posted by found missing at 11:26 AM PST - 48 comments

≡{_Θ}≡ (NSFW) Is Kirk Johnson really goatse man? Wikipedia has deleted the name more than once, but there is the mole.
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 10:33 AM PST - 56 comments

2 children that disappeared 4 1/2 years and 40 miles apart have been found, alive and TOGETHER. What makes the story even better is that one of the boys was predicted dead by a television psychic. Whoops.
posted by deusdiabolus at 9:25 AM PST - 112 comments

Metro-land: Railways Around Amersham & The Metropolitan Line. 'The name "Metro-land" was created in 1915 by the publicity department of the Metropolitan Railway. "Metro-Land" became the name of the annual publication of the railway's booklet which described the area the railways served through north west London, into Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The Railway set up a separate company to develop housing and shops along the Metropolitan's line. Much of the area was extensively developed between the World Wars and created a distinctive atmosphere...'

A guide to the Metropolitan Line (prefaced by John Betjeman's poem 'Metro-Land') is here. The London Transport Museum website has an article on London Underground and 'Metro-Land'.
posted by plep at 8:34 AM PST - 4 comments

Why hawks win. How identified predictable errors of judgement favour hawkish policy decisions. Via. Previously.
posted by Abiezer at 6:11 AM PST - 16 comments

Eejanaika the world's tallest, fastest [video] and longest 4th Dimension roller coaster. Google video. Stats.
posted by nickyskye at 1:55 AM PST - 39 comments

Fuck You Baltimore! (NSFW) If you're a jackass in Baltimore who wants to buy a car, then Big Bill Hell is the guy who's gonna screw you.
posted by dhammond at 1:50 AM PST - 33 comments

[HOW IS POOP MAKE?] :: The long way from food to poop is one of many pieces in the gallery of artist Carlo Giovani. A true multi-media artist, his work runs from digital art (like this incredible series of pieces on 70s films done as pinball machines) to infographics (such as the poop one linked above) to stop motion work (like this quicktime commercial for Brazillian potato chips), and even sculptures (from clothing, lego & even food) but the highlights for me are the papercraft figures & dioramas. warning - the site will try to hijack your browser window, albeit mildly; if this is unacceptable, consider yourself warned & skip the link.
posted by jonson at 6:43 PM PST - 29 comments

Nazi Raccoons on the March in Europe.
posted by eriko at 6:29 PM PST - 52 comments

"...People do have an attitude of curiosity toward me. They say, 'This guy looks funny, he looks too young, he looks like a woman, but I can't be sure.'"

Jimmy Scott's unforgettable voice has inspired generations of singers-- both male and female-- from the 1940's to present day (he worked with David Lynch on a song for "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," and is still making recordings). Read his bittersweet story on his official website. Born with Kallman Syndrome [Wikipedia], his voice has remained the undiluted, soaring soprano that he's had since childhood. A couple of mp3's here, as well as the inevitable YouTubery.
posted by hermitosis at 5:56 PM PST - 15 comments

Tired of missing astrological events such as comets, eclipses, or meteor showers? With Spaceweatherphone's service, when auroras appear over your hometown, your phone will ring. When the space station is about to fly over your back yard, your phone will ring. When planets align ... you get the idea.
posted by localhuman at 5:30 PM PST - 16 comments

Getting rich by getting it wrong How the elite pundits who pushed the war profited in money and prominence, despite being completely wrong. Mean while many pundits who opposed the war from the start were sidelined.
posted by delmoi at 5:08 PM PST - 37 comments

The best thing ever posted to the web? The Momus Mixtape of course. This music will do things to your brain. Good things. And bad things. You may cream your jeans. iMomus via Litwack.
posted by vronsky at 4:55 PM PST - 115 comments

Fake Iraqi Towns For Training.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:48 PM PST - 12 comments

"Feelings" - As only the brilliant but... ummm... eccentric (case in point: July/August 1995 in that last link) Dr. Nina Simone could've performed it.
posted by miss lynnster at 2:47 PM PST - 39 comments

Through a Glass, Darkly How the Christian right is reimagining U.S. history--from Harpers. ...producing a flood of educational texts with which to wash away the stains of secular history. ...
posted by amberglow at 2:02 PM PST - 111 comments

Judy Patch's Guide to Computer Hardware
posted by GuyZero at 1:57 PM PST - 36 comments

I know you're all lining up to buy Sealand, but The Pirate Bay wants to beat you to the punch.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:39 PM PST - 30 comments

The Luce Foundation Center in the recently renovated and reopened National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, is more like a smörgåsbord-cum-antique store, packed in an overflowing archive rather than a more traditional museum layout. The collection is comprised of varying American art styles and genres in intimate display cases, with little in the way of context or reference. (Though the same site in this link is available on computers scattered throughout the gallery for further detail.)
posted by Dave Faris at 11:14 AM PST - 12 comments

"We're offering a fan amenity. Fans can elect to choose it or not choose it. We are offering basic ballpark fare that most fans enjoy." An all-you-can eat section at the Dodger stadium for the coming baseball season. Quintessentially American.
posted by jaimev at 11:00 AM PST - 45 comments

Mountaineer, Scientist, Photographer Brad Washburn dies at 96. Across the world of mountaineering, but especially in New England, people are mourning a legend. He discovered the West Buttress Route -- the most popular route -- on Denali. He was director of Boston's Museum of Science for forty years. He took some of the most iconic photos of mountains and mountaineers. He won the National Geographic Society's Centennial Award and the King Albert Medal of Merit. His name may not be familiar, but chances are that you've seen his work.
posted by dseaton at 10:16 AM PST - 11 comments

The Fresh Young Balki B! You just can't be a super cool television character from the late 1980s or early 1990s unless you have your own personalized hip happening dance. Sweet baby!
posted by Servo5678 at 9:59 AM PST - 33 comments

The backlash against design. Are you Anti-fluff or Anti-stuff?
posted by hydrophonic at 9:44 AM PST - 81 comments

If I die, please remember that there was a human being named Jumah at Guantanamo
posted by rxrfrx at 8:44 AM PST - 105 comments

WriteRoom (for OS X) and DarkRoom (for Windows). Simple, full-screen text editors.
posted by empath at 7:37 AM PST - 65 comments

iToilet : It's not a new idea, and it's been discussed before (though that link no longer works). Some guys in France have come up with a new and "improved" use for the Mac Mini. Other variations on the same theme.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 7:05 AM PST - 16 comments

So, you want something like the AppleTv but find the lack of features disturbing? Geexbox is a Linux HTPC distribution. Plays Divx, DVDs and comes with support for the Ati Remote Wonder. You could even add a tv card to the party.
In case you don't have an old pc or mac to use how about an old Xbox?
posted by darkripper at 6:46 AM PST - 50 comments

Dracula's Castle is for sale. The gothic fortress (also known as Bran Castle) was once home to Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula. The local government has the right of first refusal, but if they choose not to make the purchase, the property can be offered to private buyers (as long as any potential new owner agrees to let it remain a state-run museum for at least three years).
posted by amyms at 12:59 AM PST - 62 comments

Morrissey is "in negotiations" to write or perform the UK's next entry in The Eurovision Song Contest (won forty years ago by Morrissey's childhood hero - and later singing partner - Sandie Shaw). The ever-helpful BBC offers tips on how Britain's second greatest living cultural icon can pen a winning song. The "won forty years ago" link is to Google Video, by the way
posted by bunglin jones at 11:45 PM PST - 39 comments

Black Sheep Bloodthirsty, murderous sheep are on the loose in a small farming village. Keep your fingers crossed, this upcoming horror movie from New Zealand just might be Snakes on a Plane 2!
posted by dhammond at 11:43 PM PST - 36 comments

Comic Strip Artist's Kit Carson Van Osten's tips for cartoonists and animators, scanned huge for easy printout.
posted by klangklangston at 10:28 PM PST - 13 comments

Rocket Man. One three-meter wing + four model engines + one crazy Swiss dude = Yves Rossy, the world's first jet-powered flying man.
posted by gottabefunky at 9:47 PM PST - 21 comments

Beachwear and modesty are generally considered mutually exclusive, leaving only the most modern of Muslim women out in the cold, so to speak. However, an Australian company has tackled the issue with their own line of made-for-the-sun attire specifically catering to a Muslim woman's need for propreity in matters of apparel. Even lifeguards are getting in on the act. I must be frank, until I read a couple of news articles, I thought this was a hoax site.
posted by zorro astor at 9:31 PM PST - 60 comments

DMT , or dimethyltryptamine, is a powerful hallucinogenic that can be found in living matter, including the human pineal gland. Small quantities of DMT are released during REM sleep. In 1990, Dr. Rick Strassman received FDA approval for a clinical study, the results of which can be read in Strassman's book "DMT: The Spirit Molecule". Users commonly reported being transported to "another dimension" and had contact with "insect-like alien beings". The late Terence McKenna was particularly interested in the drug, and coined the term "Machine Elves" in reference to these contacts. If reading isn't your thing, listen to comedian Joe Rogan's energized thoughts on the matter. (embedded video).
posted by zardoz at 8:10 PM PST - 102 comments

Happy anniversary, modern art. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon are 100 years old and look as fresh and exciting as ever.
posted by bru at 7:12 PM PST - 41 comments

The San Francisco Armory, was built in 1914 and its 200,000 square feet spans an entire city block. For 30 years empty, abandoned, defunct, its imposing architecture, modeled on a Moorish castle, has long been an unsettling and intriguing curiosity for local residents. But new life will at least be breathed into this historic monument: the Armory has been purchased by Kink.com [nsfw], a fetish porn studio that will soon begin filming within its walls.
posted by bukharin at 7:02 PM PST - 40 comments

Arago: People, Postage & the Post is the online database of the National Postal Museum. It has lots and lots of lovely things. Some examples are a high quality scan of an 18th Century envelope, a sampling of comic strips featuring mail carriers, a collection of stamps on the theme of map projection and a Swedish post horn.
posted by Kattullus at 6:35 PM PST - 10 comments

The MFF vs The Evil Dead is composed of over 200 audio and video samples taken from the following films: The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness. NO OTHER ELEMENTS WERE USED. (youtube filter) hello negatendo!
posted by boo_radley at 5:38 PM PST - 24 comments

Liquid Nitrogen bomb! A ship floating on invisible hexaflourid gas! Smoking can kill you and weld metal! Nuclear Chain reaction... with balls! Detonating gas in a can!! Water flowing uphill! 100,000,000 volts and a Faraday cage! And more from Physikshow at University of Bonn.
posted by loquacious at 4:30 PM PST - 29 comments

The (previously mentioned) excellent webzine Polar Inertia has a great photo essay on Soviet Roadside Bus Stops. The crazy architecture & diversity are really interesting, as is the abject sparseness of territory around the stops. Via.
posted by jonson at 4:04 PM PST - 18 comments

Netflix is dead. ...or so claims Robert Scoble (others disagree). Wal-Mart couldn't do it, Amazon couldn't do it; has Verisign produced a Netflix killer?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:02 PM PST - 80 comments

Richard Horne, better known as Harry Horse, died this weekend. This news is more prominent in the UK than in the US, but Harry Horse (MySpace) was not only a writer and illustrator of children's books, but he also designed video games and drew striking political cartoons. In the 80's he played with a band called Swamptrash (listened to but unavailable on LastFM), whose other members eventually went on to form Shooglenifty. Tragically, Richard's wife Mandy developed Multiple Sclerosis, and eventually became confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak. Rather than live without her, he chose to help her die and then take his own life, possibly reigniting the discussion in the UK about euthanasia.
posted by Medieval Maven at 3:15 PM PST - 11 comments

CitizenRe is a solar power rental company for the home. Free to install (!), a monthly rental fee is equal to what would normally be paid to the power company. Video.
posted by stbalbach at 2:04 PM PST - 62 comments

Canadian spy monies?! The Defense Department has issued a warning to its American contractor employees. Apparently, Canadian coins have been outfitted with embedded RFID transmitters. Not the first instance of RFIDs in monies either. Explosive consequences. Elsewhere, whats the point? RFID previously on Metafilter.
posted by beta male at 1:46 PM PST - 32 comments

Essay by David Denby on the future of our predominant art form: the film. Via Arts & Letters Daily.
posted by russilwvong at 1:39 PM PST - 25 comments

Fabric for Bachelors :: How to Shop for Work Clothes: A Primer for 'Bachelors' of Any Gender
posted by anastasiav at 1:24 PM PST - 9 comments

The sport and hobby of Falconry, or hunting small game with raptors has been around since ~600 bce. What you might not have known is that there is a small industry to provide your hawk or falcon with a jaunty chapeau, often necessary to keep the bird calm. More here, here, and here. And then there's the crazy. All you need... is five-hundred geepee...
posted by exlotuseater at 1:15 PM PST - 12 comments

Water footprint - "of an individual, business or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual, business or nation"
posted by Gyan at 1:09 PM PST - 9 comments

Blue Moon Fiber Arts, an independent Oregon-based online yarn store, has a sock yarn club that knitters can join and receive a bimonthly shipment of sock yarn and other goodies. They have run it before with great success, and it has grown in popularity to the point that they have a waiting list to get in. When they started it up again for the new year, their bank decided they were running some sort of scam because that many people couldn't possibly be interested in sock yarn. Wrong. You don't mess with knitters. This is a group that has raised over $275,000 in the past year for Doctors Without Borders just because a popular knitblogger asked them to. Not surprisingly, the knitbloggers are pissed. There's already a knitalong underway in protest.
posted by booksherpa at 1:05 PM PST - 22 comments

Robert Anton Wilson has died. "Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd."
posted by Sticherbeast at 11:50 AM PST - 190 comments

A major Toronto film studio gets the boot. In December, Cinespace Studios was given two months' notice to leave their facility in order to make way for a long-awaited waterfront revitalization project. Cinespace, where films such as Harold and Kumar, the Saw series and Chicago were shot, has put up an online petition to ask for more time to find a new location. The petition has received nearly 5000 signatures, many from film industry professionals including George A. Romero. The city insists that "Cinespace has been on notice for two years," but the studio disputes this claim. The controversy pits two of the city's priorities against one another - the health of the Canadian film industry versus "transforming the waterfront into beautiful, sustainable new communities, parks and public spaces.".
posted by SassHat at 11:17 AM PST - 25 comments

Comets have long inspired fear and it continues today. Nostradamus "prophesied":

Mabus then will soon die, there will come Of people and beasts a horrible rout: Then suddenly one will see vengeance, Hundred, hand, thirst, hunger when the comet will run.

But who is Mabus (Nostradamus' third antichrist)? Will the idea further inspire Muslim fundamentalists?
posted by spock at 10:49 AM PST - 28 comments

What Did Arthur Know … and When Did He Know it? To all you Vader haters out there . . . we'll blow your planet up! we got Death Star!
posted by augustweed at 10:49 AM PST - 49 comments

Pork flavored stamp. In celebration of the Year of the Pig, China is releasing a stamp that smells (when scratched) and tastes (when licked) of sweet-and-sour pork. I thought this was a pretty innovative idea for a stamp. But it's not new. A few more examples (scroll down to "scratch-and-sniff").
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 10:15 AM PST - 25 comments

David Beckam signs with LA Galaxy; set to make over $1 million per week with the team.
posted by phaedon at 9:23 AM PST - 125 comments

Reputation Defender It was only a matter of time before someone came up with THIS business plan.
posted by konolia at 9:20 AM PST - 62 comments

Creativity, Inc: Dave Eggers of McSweeney's is a proprietor. A shopkeeper. Perhaps even a franchise magnate! It was his keen perception of unmet needs in niche markets that led to the opening of a growing array of supply houses across the country. Among them: The Pirate Store, for the well-outfitted swashbuckler; The Boring Store, a subtle, unassuming purveyor of goods for secret agents; the Superhero Supply Store, in Brooklyn, carrying all the eyewear and accessories today's world-savers require; and Greenwood Space Travel Supply, where customers are reminded of the space-travel axiom "A lack of preparation is a prescription for mishaps." If these sound like curious business ventures for a celebrated author, there's a reason: the storefronts, though real, are just that - fronts. They're the streetside faces (and fundraising arms) of the nonprofit 826National, a family of learning centers for kids ages 6-18. The 826 'stores' provide free field trips, creatively themed writing workshops, publishing, and one-on-one instruction. Supported by an impressive field of cultural types (including Ira Glass, Sarah Vowell, Sherman Alexie, and others), the program is growing. Coming soon: Michigan 826 will open Monster Union Local 826, and 826LA will open the Echo Park Time Travel Mart.
posted by Miko at 7:44 AM PST - 51 comments

The annotated G.W. Bush A little over a week ago, we discussed the Institute for the Future of the Book and their publication of the Iraq Study Group Report in a profoundly innovative new format designed to elicit, y'know, democracy: reasoned deliberation on issues of importance on the part of the governed. At the time, I expressed my opinion that the publication set a new standard for the release of public documents in a democracy. Well, they've done it again, with this rapid-turnaround publication of our preznit's most recent address to the nation, outlining his new strategy for Iraq. Interested members of the public are invited to append their "comments, criticisms and clarifications."
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:33 AM PST - 10 comments

A detailed guide to the antics of that classic screensaver character, Johnny Castaway.
posted by chrismear at 6:41 AM PST - 10 comments

US Storms Iranian Consulate in Iraq.
posted by empath at 6:18 AM PST - 190 comments

Professor Solomon's Japan in a Nutshell By the lost-object-finding author of The Book Of King Solomon, How to Make the Most Of A Flying Saucer Experience, and Coney Island. Share and enjoy!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:00 AM PST - 15 comments

If you thought the video of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon was rather blurry, it might interest you to know that this was never broadcast as well as it could have been. The original video quality was much better. You can't view the original video today, because NASA has lost the bleepin tape. Nobody seems to care, but the guys who once made the transmission possible are looking for it. An Australian minister is on their side. If the tape hasn't been accidentally degaussed, there's only one machine left that is able to read it.
posted by Termite at 4:17 AM PST - 19 comments

Edward Tufte bought an ad (for his wonderful new book) on the front page of NYTimes.com, which ran for 24 hours on 26th November. Imagine how pleased he was when Steve Jobs used that day's paper to demo the iPhone.
posted by tombola at 2:12 AM PST - 44 comments

Jan. 11, 2002, the first 20 detainees, shackled and blindfolded, arrived from Afghanistan .... and since then, nearly 800 prisoners have passed through the detention center in southeastern Cuba. To mark the anniversary, demonstrations are planned Thursday in New York, London, Sydney, Australia, and other cities as well as dozens of small towns in the United States and Britain. Gitmo Detainees Join Hunger Strike .... & .... WikiPeidia History Article
posted by Bodyguard at 1:12 AM PST - 7 comments

The Pan-American Highway: A Photo Voyage Photographer Melissa Fowler documented her journey along a stretch of the Pan-American Highway that flows through Mexico, Peru and Chile, providing detailed captions on ancient sites, local economies, rural life, and much more. Click here (wikipedia link) for more information on the Pan-American Highway and its history.
posted by amyms at 12:26 AM PST - 12 comments

How to make your writing simple, clear, and compelling. (And a little on getting published.)
posted by serazin at 7:43 PM PST - 76 comments

Are you a citizen? Prove it. Stateline.org, a research group funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, takes a look at how some states are moving to comply with the Real ID Act of 2005 (previously discussed here and here) and how Americans will be affected.
posted by homunculus at 7:40 PM PST - 30 comments

William Carlos Williams audio 1 GB / 19 hours of the poet's lectures, interviews, poetry readings (mp3). Quite a resource at Pennsound.
posted by chymes at 7:29 PM PST - 20 comments

You know this is what you always wanted to do with your G.I. Joe and his Mercury Capsule. (And knowing is half the battle!) Oh, and more video rocketry.
posted by kimota at 6:31 PM PST - 24 comments

Jorge Luis Borges "excerpts from two of the six Norton Lectures that Jorge Luis Borges delivered at Harvard University in the fall of 1967 and spring of 1968. The recordings of these six lectures, only lately discovered in the Harvard University Archives, uniquely capture the cadences, candor, wit, and remarkable erudition of one of the most extraordinary and enduring literary voices of our age. Through a twist of fate that the author of Labyrinths himself would have relished, these lost lectures return to us now--in Borges's own voice." In English - mp3
posted by vronsky at 6:11 PM PST - 46 comments

So cute, I could just eat 'em right up! (pdf) Nothing's better for teaching your kids than a good activity book. Perhaps you prefer turkey or fish to veal. Before your delicious meal, practice food safety. And after, remember the importance of dental hygiene.
posted by spiderwire at 5:04 PM PST - 17 comments

Orson Welles may be best known as the director and star of Citizen Kane, but before he made movies he was a star of the radio. Although he gained notoriety by narrating War of the Worlds in 1938, he was also the voice of Lamont Cranston, The Shadow, and had a successful run as the creator and star of the Mercury Theater On The Air, which, after gaining sponsorship, became known as the Campbell Playhouse. Even after the heyday of radio, Welles provided his voice for The Black Museum series (based on real-life cases from the files of Scotland Yard), and The Lives of Harry Lime, a prequel to his role in the film The Third Man.
posted by supercrayon at 4:09 PM PST - 38 comments

Bush jumps the gun ahead of tonight's speech.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 3:19 PM PST - 269 comments

"To me, I've always looked upon the stage as a much-hallowed place, a place of worship for real artists, as I said just before. That doesn't just stem from rock n roll days; to me, Judy Garland was a real artist, Al Jolson was a real artist, people like that gave their all and everything for the stage and most of them finished up dying for it as well. In my view, nobody should be allowed to stand on a stage unless they can present the total professional thing, unless they really can sing and really can play. Punk was a total anti-attitude towards music."NWOBHM: How a now-little-known nostalgic reaction to punk called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal changed the world.[much, much more inside]
posted by koeselitz at 3:09 PM PST - 40 comments

Going out of town & worried about burglars? Fret not my friend, just put on a record. Problem solved.
posted by miss lynnster at 2:42 PM PST - 32 comments

Super Columbine Massacre RPG (previously discussed here) has been dropped from the Slamdance games festival, after being selected as a finalist by the jury. The festival's organizer cites "moral obligations." In response, at least 6 of the 14 other finalists and one of the festival's sponsors have withdrawn in protest. Ongoing coverage can be found at watercoolergames (1 2). Art games and game arts are proliferating in the videogame era. For those with an interest in this subject, the beautiful new Italian volume GameScenes: Art in the Age of Videogames is a must-read.
posted by jcruelty at 2:35 PM PST - 23 comments

Where They Came From A map depicting the point of origin, of solders killed in Iraq.
posted by nola at 2:28 PM PST - 34 comments

Yvonne Decarlo has died. Despite an extensive filmography, she will probably always be remembered as Lily Munster.
posted by geckoinpdx at 1:47 PM PST - 36 comments

Behind-the-scenes at the dinosaur factory. Creations for "Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience," saurian puppetry (and animatronics) on a 1:1 scale. Who needs CGI? Check out Torosaur vs. Utahraptor.
posted by steef at 12:24 PM PST - 16 comments

Some people keep track of their receipts. Others keep track of their goals. And then there's Nicholas, an artist/designer and DJ who chronicled his 26,059 iTunes tracks played, his 859.5 social drinks (including 293 Stella Artois) consumed, his 30,724 airmiles traveled, and, yes, his 49 cat photos in his own personal 2006 Annual Report. (via Coudal)
posted by Alt F4 at 12:13 PM PST - 27 comments

Pho (pronounced fuh), Hanoi's signature beef broth scented with ginger and anise, is one of the world's great culinary glories. Turns out it's not an ancient dish, but a 1950s-era syncretic product of the French occupation of Vietnam, which introduced the notion of boiling beef in a pot au feu (which may be the origin of the name). The heady, fragrant noodle soup is a global hit, prompting an international pho conference, several good blogs, and a sensual national obsession: "When Vietnamese talk of pho they think of sex: 'We say that rice is a spouse, whereas pho is a lover.' " "Pho is life, love and all things that matter." Tips on eating and cooking pho - recipes and more inside.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:42 AM PST - 103 comments

Lance speaks out on cancer: one of cycling's all-time greats and possibly the world's best known cancer survivor, founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation with the goal of inspiring and empowering people with cancer. He now campaigns for more government funds for cancer research and treatment. {commentary on CNN}
posted by fluffycreature at 10:45 AM PST - 19 comments

"Bloggers are nihilists because they are 'good for nothing'. They post into Nirvana and have turned their futility into a productive force." "Blogging, the nihilist impulse," based on a lecture by Geert Lovink.
posted by the_bone at 10:43 AM PST - 66 comments

Tillie Olsen, 1912-2007. "She had forced open the language of the short story, insisting that it include the domestic life of women, the passions and anguishes of maternity, the deep, gnarled roots of a long marriage, the hopes and frustrations of immigration, the shining charge of political commitment. Her voice has both challenged and cleared the way for all those who come after her."
posted by amro at 10:25 AM PST - 15 comments

An' all the hot cats on the block have been doing it too - c'mon now, honey, I wanna do it with you. Anyone hoping to build their own Death Probe without dismantling the vaccum cleaner or floor waxer can rejoice. The creators of Roomba and Scooba have released a barebones version. Add-on software from Microsoft is available, should more ambitious types decide to pair iRobot's tech with LEGO MindStorms pieces.
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:51 AM PST - 17 comments

Arcade '84, from Cinemarcade. (Warning: 32MB MPEG. Low bandwidth short version here). Two liter bottle of Shasta and all Rush mix-tape not included. For more 3d rendered arcade cabinet goodness, see the TimeOut Tunnel movie project. Put together your own arcade and populate it with models and textures from the 3d Arcade at MAMEworld.
posted by cosmicbandito at 8:33 AM PST - 12 comments

High BMI Now Means Cognitive Difficulties Later? A study published in Neurology attempts to discover if there is a link between cognitive function, cognitive decline and BMI (body mass index) over time. Yes, I am aware that BMI is a flawed metric.
Full Text (sub. req'd).
posted by fenriq at 7:46 AM PST - 27 comments

Downtown Lives On Are the New Yorkers who lament the passing of cool, outre downtown (victim of high rents and a safer city) just not looking hard enough? Or are Ryan McGinley, Dan Colen, and Dash Snow just punks making bad art? Threat or menace?
posted by dame at 7:21 AM PST - 82 comments

San Francisco, 1967. CBS news is there: "This is the house of a popular local band that plays hard rock music. They call themselves the Grateful Dead." In between some seriously heavy-handed editorializing from grand old man of the news Harry Reasoner, you can catch an interview with Garcia and company plus footage of a Golden Gate Park concert. Jump ahead 38 years, and another CBS newsman, a rather more respectful Ed Bradley, pays a friendly visit to grand old man of the 60's, Mr. Zimmerman. [links to Google video]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:46 AM PST - 89 comments

"Ben Barres's work is much better than his sister's," one scientist remarked to another. The only problem is that Ben Barres and his “sister” Barbara Barres were the same person. An FTM transsexual offers a unique view of the impact of gender discrimination in science, having seen it from both sides. Despite the fact that recent studies have shown that a woman has to be 2.5 times as productive to be judged as scientifically competant as a man in the sciences, many still argue that there is actually a level playing field, a source of some frustration for many women in the field. (For a somewhat easier to read and referenced response to the Physics Today letters, check out Evalyn Gates’ reply at the end.)
posted by kyrademon at 2:14 AM PST - 86 comments

The Man Who Shook Up Vegas is a fascinating and relatively brief Wall St Journal article about Bob Stoll, a college dropout whose statistical wizardry seems to be forcing the $96 Billion U.S. sports wagering industry to jump through hoops. Even if you don't follow sports gambling at all, the article is a very compelling read. note: since the wsj.com is subscriber only, link goes to a reprint of the article.
posted by jonson at 9:54 PM PST - 29 comments

Want to learn about investing? Morningstar, an independent investment researcher, is offering 172 free online "classes" on stocks, bonds, funds, and portfolio building. And there's nifty quizzes at the end of each lesson where you can earn points that can be used for Morningstar products.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:49 PM PST - 20 comments

Why is the US bombing Somalia? Salim Lone is the former spokesperson for the UN mission in Iraq, and a journalist in Kenya. In an interview he discusses possible reasons for the attacks. The recent history of the country is bloody and the country is beset with poverty, and our own history of involvement there is quite ugly.
posted by serazin at 7:19 PM PST - 70 comments

House of Deception is dedicated to the history of the deceptive arts, including magic, carnival sideshows and pro wrestling.
posted by amyms at 6:21 PM PST - 23 comments

Memoirs of Phillipe de Commynes. A first-hand account of the 15th-century military and diplomatic struggle between Louis XI of France, a master of intrigue, and his most powerful rival, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. "At that time the subjects of the house of Burgundy were very rich because of the long peace which they had enjoyed and the great moderation of the prince under whom they lived, who taxed his subjects little. It seems to me that then his territories could well have been described as the Promised Land, more so than any others on earth. They were overflowing with wealth and they had a peace which they have not since experienced during the last twenty-three years. ... But today I do not know in this world a people so desolate, and I fear that the sins of the time of their prosperity have brought them their present adversity; most of all because they did not recognize that all these favours came from God who distributes them as it pleases him."
posted by russilwvong at 6:17 PM PST - 6 comments

An Inconvenient Truth (full movie, while it lasts)
posted by empath at 3:06 PM PST - 75 comments

Nerdcore Rising! Remember that other nerdcore documentary? Well, this one has a few more stars in it. As they say, the nerdcore could rise up, it could get elevated. Oh, and wouldn't all of those tough rappers hate it?
posted by equipoise at 1:03 PM PST - 65 comments

Historian assaulted then arrested for jaywalking in Atlanta. A historian at the "Historians against the war" conference in Atlanta was stopped for jaywalking. Being from the UK, he thanked the officer, then realized the officer didn’t have any name tag or identification. He asked to see the police officers identification, and the police officer took offense stating "See my Uniform!". The officer kicked the mans leg out, pushed him to the ground and handcuffed him. The police officer had 5 other police officers step on the historian causing bruises on his neck. After being in jail for 8 hours, he arranged 1000 dollar bail. He refused to accept a please bargain that would effect his green card, so the case was dropped.
posted by IronWolve at 12:34 PM PST - 123 comments

Top Ten Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories of 2006 from Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders
posted by kimdog at 12:27 PM PST - 16 comments

Breaking News: Apple Announces Touchscreen iPhone. In this morning's MacWorld keynote, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, a touchscreen smartphone with only one button. Two years in the making, it runs OS X, works as an iPod, displays video on a 3.5" screen, and has the usual bells and whistles (Bluetooth, e-mail, Google Maps, WiFi, etc.), plus some other slick features like: a proximity sensor that turns the screen off when it's near your ear, an accelerometer that detects whether it's in portrait or landscape, and an ambient light sensor to dim the screen accordingly. I'm not usually a gadget person, but this thing seems pretty damn cool. Now let's just see how much it costs...
More live MacWorld coverage available at: Engadget , MacRumors.
posted by EnormousTalkingOnion at 10:35 AM PST - 401 comments

The Ideological Animal. We think our political stance is the product of reason, but we're easily manipulated and surprisingly malleable. Our essential political self is more a stew of childhood temperament, education, and fear of death. Call it the 9/11 effect. Or the Metafilter effect. [ducks]
posted by gottabefunky at 9:55 AM PST - 44 comments

I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
posted by felix betachat at 8:11 AM PST - 43 comments

He would have made it to 82, if not for those meddling kids.
posted by Mur at 7:04 AM PST - 41 comments

Poof and Foop. Can Metafilter tackle yet another horrible physics clusterfuck? Answers go here, or we can just argue it out right here at home.
posted by tehloki at 6:01 AM PST - 136 comments

Beyond Belief. Google Video of the complete proceedings of the conference Beyond Belief: Science, Reason, Religion and Survival, which took place on November 5-7, 2006 at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. (There are ten sessions, which average about two hours each.) Bios of the speakers who attended. A NYT article on the conference: "By the third day, the arguments were so heated that Dr. [Melvin] Konner was reminded of 'a den of vipers.' " Further conversation concerning the conference, in which Scott Atran writes, "I find it fascinating that among the brilliant scientists and philosophers at the conference, there was no convincing evidence presented that they know how to deal with the basic irrationality of human life and society other than to insist against all reason and evidence that things ought to be rational and evidence based. It makes me embarrassed to be a scientist and atheist."
posted by Prospero at 6:00 AM PST - 114 comments

Tower Defence A Macromedia Flash based Tower Defence game inspired by Elemental TD for WarcraftIII.
posted by srboisvert at 5:03 AM PST - 110 comments

Added January 8, 2007: The US Navy has a message for you(Tube) concerning the Navy Seals: "They are warrior diplomats and trusted teammates in the war against terrorism. They understand the political and cultural sensitivities of the countries in which they operate." Added October 22, 2006: This former Marine commander has a message for you(Tube) as well, concerning "cultural sensitivities". Speaking of his part in the assault on Fallujah: "I started to cry... the woman seeing my reaction... put her hand on my cheek and said Insha'Allah... cause these people over there can accept it as God's will... but no, it wasn't God's will, it was my fucking order. I gave the order to fire those rockets into the building, and I killed her family. I have to live with that..."
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:51 AM PST - 29 comments

iphone is this it ?
posted by baker dave at 1:51 AM PST - 132 comments

83 percent of fresh, whole broiler chickens in the U.S. contain campylobacter or salmonella, the leading bacterial causes of foodborne disease. This is a disturbing increase from the 49 percent that tested positive in 2003. What’s more, most of the bacteria showed resistance to one or more antibiotics, and more expensive premium brands were actually more likely to contain salmonella. Is the problem factory farming? Rampant antibiotic use? Or are chickens just really gross?
posted by kyrademon at 1:39 AM PST - 59 comments

Newsfilter: Contractors in war zones lose immunity. American civilian contractors are now subject to military law.
posted by psychoticreaction at 12:11 AM PST - 38 comments

Multilingual Keyboard Emulator.
posted by anticlock at 11:31 PM PST - 14 comments

California's Governor Seeks Universal Care: Under a plan by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California would become the largest state to attempt to provide near universal health coverage.
posted by kliuless at 11:09 PM PST - 50 comments

Cognitive Neuroscience Vs Who wants to be a millionaire? "Researchers in my department, Cognitive and Neural Systems (CNS), seek to understand the brain's mechanisms, including three cognitive systems that happen to be essential for a profitable performance on Millionaire: learning, memory, and decision-making."
posted by dhruva at 10:38 PM PST - 8 comments

Monkey Punch Dinosaur. Q: What's better than a giant monkey punching a dinosaur? A: A giant monkey punching THREE dinosaurs! Shortcut to the delightfulnesss. Via
posted by jonson at 9:36 PM PST - 18 comments

Sneaky Pete Kleinow, [Wikipedia | Allmusic] passed away Saturday, January 6 at the age of 72. In addition to being an incredible pedal steel guitar player, most notably with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, he was also an accomplished visual effects artist who worked on films such as The Empire Strikes Back, Terminator I & II, and Army of Darkness.
posted by keswick at 8:59 PM PST - 17 comments

Born with a rare syndrome that left him profoundly autistic, seven-year-old Luke was trapped in his own body. But then his dad took him surfing. More on Izzy Paskowitz and Elliot Zuckerman
posted by Shanachie at 5:09 PM PST - 47 comments

Please enjoy chainsaw carving, pencil carving, bone carving, turkey carving, ice carving, rice caving, rock carving, metal carving, ancient carving, airplane carving, tooth carving, microscopic carving horray!
posted by joelf at 4:19 PM PST - 11 comments

Al Gore trains 1,000 people from around the world to share the message he presented in "An Inconvenient Truth". "The goal had been to train 1,000 "presenters" to show slides of melting glaciers and charts of climbing temperatures, but many more have wanted in. Those selected to gather at the Hilton Nashville Downtown last week included teachers, doctors, a meteorologist, ministers, Wal-Mart employees, actress Cameron Diaz, architects, retirees, veterans and financiers."
posted by PreteFunkEra at 3:13 PM PST - 63 comments

NOW SHOWING: Nekkid-eye Comet McNaught (via MonkeyFilter)
posted by spock at 2:47 PM PST - 16 comments

Cloth made from tree bark? Photos at the Textile Museum of Canada's Cloth That Grows On Trees exhibition page.
posted by Chuckles at 1:21 PM PST - 11 comments

Rugs of War :: "The traditional knotted rugs made by the semi-nomadic Baluch people of northern Afghanistan are famous for their distinctive designs, their rich yet subdued palette and the quality of their construction and materials, which feature traditional patterns and motifs. The “war rug” is an evolution of these Baluch rugs through the inclusion of militaria and other references to the experience of war and conflict in the region. These significant changes became apparent almost immediately after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, when rug-makers began incorporating complex imagery of war planes, helicopters, machine guns, maps and texts into their designs."
posted by anastasiav at 1:16 PM PST - 8 comments

The right approach in dealing with childhood obesity? Several states in the US are handing out body mass "report cards" to better inform parents on the issue of childhood obeseity. Is this an effective tactic or will it lead to an increase in weight problems in the future?
posted by portisfreak at 12:58 PM PST - 63 comments

The Colemak keyboard layout. Colemak is a new alternative to the QWERTY and Dvorak layouts. Designed for efficient and ergonomic touch typing in English, Colemak places the 10 most frequent letters of English (A,R,S,T,D,H,N,E,I,O) on the home row. Z,X,C are preserved in their QWERTY positions for easy copy and paste operations. It gets rid of the Caps Lock and replaces it with Backspace so you no longer need to move your hand off the home position to correct errors. Available for Windows/Mac/Linux/Unix it works with all standard keyboards, including laptops. [via: Projects], [Previously]
posted by Mitheral at 11:45 AM PST - 91 comments

CarveWright, a 3D wood carving machine made by former NASA robotics engineers. Demo video.
posted by stbalbach at 10:29 AM PST - 26 comments

"He shaves Lady X in swift, efficient strokes, and there is something gentle about this, something almost ancient. Like the ritualistic washing of a body in some cultures. It looks tender, at least until Joe uses a small hose to aim a stream of water down Lady X’s face to remove the cream — that somehow reminds me of the rinse cycle in a carwash."
posted by maudlin at 8:47 AM PST - 54 comments

"I yearn for that kind of a backpacking trip minus the bears." "I was much the happy to know this man was tremendously eaten ferociously by the grizzly bear." "Not bad but not enough black chicks."

The work of these online reviewers may not merit their own special edition, but they're special in their own way. Doc Savage reviews 200+ items on Amazon, most of which he hates, unless they involve black women and/or Carly Simon. At Netflix, HV from Duvall is not nearly as prolific, but gets 5 stars for sublimely anfractuous English. And DJAkin over at IMDB has written nearly 500 reviews, although most of them read like Jackie Harvey's Mad Libs. He (or she) may not be the next A. O. Scott, but if you can find me a critic with a more sincere and unsnarked love of cinema, I'll eat my britches.
posted by sonofslim at 8:20 AM PST - 27 comments

Ferrofluid seems to be endlessly fun. A year after the timeless Prodtrude Flow, comes 2D ferrofluid craziness. The first half is interesting, but the second half is amazing.
posted by tombola at 8:12 AM PST - 22 comments

Did you mean foo? (for any value of mean and foo)
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:58 AM PST - 19 comments

Power, corruption and lies. An article in which one Will Hutton discusses China's weakness.
posted by thirteenkiller at 6:58 AM PST - 32 comments

Guy Kawasaki interviews Aziza Mohmmand. What’s the most inspiring story of entrepreneurship that you’ve heard in 2006? My answer does not involve two guys in a garage who sell their company to Google for $1.6 billion. No way...my answer is a woman who runs a soccer-ball factory in Kabul, Afghanistan.
posted by davar at 4:04 AM PST - 6 comments

Top 'BRANDS' 2006, 2005, 2004 - Current List and Achive Overview on How survey was done.... What BRANDS have the most recognition and are the most popular with Americans? Here are the results of the current annual survey and achives from the past two years "With the multitude of brand choices available to consumers, this survey is an important indicator of consumer activity and its correlation to social behavior .... Companies that can provide a clear and consistent brand to consumers, as well as harmonize with social changes will find themselves in a promising position, as illustrated by top-ranking brands..."
posted by Bodyguard at 2:33 AM PST - 16 comments

Russia's discomfort with its Muslim minority stems from a fear that the higher-than-average fertility of the Muslim population (6-10 children children per woman among Muslims vs 1.5 per woman among non-Muslims) will make the ethnic Russians of eastern-orthodox persuasion a minority within the state. [More Inside]
posted by gregb1007 at 1:17 AM PST - 43 comments

The Surgery of Love. Dr. James C. Burt was an Ohio gynecologist who circumcised over 2000 women without their consent over a period of 22 years. He didn’t operate in secret, and actually published a book about it in 1975, which he called “The Surgery of Love”. He claimed that female genitalia were "structurally inadequate" for intercourse, and that by removing their clitoral hoods and "realigning" the vagina, he could turn women into ”horny little mice” (PDF). His surgeries often left women with sexual dysfunction, infection and the need for corrective surgery. But although other doctors in the area knew about him, they dismissed the problems with a laugh: “Oh, I see Jim Burt got hold of you.” At least 10 women who tried to sue Burt had their cases dismissed when no doctors would testify against him, and when one doctor finally reported Burt to the state medical board after treating one of his victims, he was ostracized by the local medical community for breaking rank. But the lawsuits, and their attendant publicity, finally caused the Ohio State Medical Board to pressure Burt into voluntarily surrendering his license in 1989. Further attempts to sue were dismissed because of statutes of limitation and a 1987 law giving hospitals immunity from certain lawsuits. James Burt retired to a comfortable life in Florida, making no apology.
posted by kyrademon at 12:12 AM PST - 108 comments

Bubbleprice.com is the handy guide for Internet startup entrepreneurs to use to calculate their next investment round. If you've recently raised money for your startup, how do you plan to use it? If you're working for a startup, better hope Matt Marshall doesn't tag you with the dreaded bubble tag.
posted by gen at 11:56 PM PST - 7 comments

Watermelon Carving Creations with some instruction on how to carve your own swan. From whimsical to celebratory to just plain awesome. I bet this one took a really long time to carve while this one was funnier and faster. In the end, if you can think it, it can be carved into a watermelon. Yes, even that (NSFW, sound).Previously
posted by fenriq at 11:03 PM PST - 11 comments

A periodic table of visualization methods.
posted by fatllama at 10:24 PM PST - 13 comments

A Flash Mob met yesterday in San Francisco to form a Giant Impeach Sign on the beach. The project was dreamt & organized by Brad Newsham
posted by growabrain at 10:07 PM PST - 36 comments

"[T]he heart of the Christian religion, all that is good and compassionate within it, has been tossed aside, ruthlessly gouged out and thrown into a heap with all the other inner organs. Only the shell, the form, remains. Christianity is of no use to Parsley, Blackwell and the others. In its name they kill it." From Michelle Goldberg's searing Salon interview with Chris Hedges, whose War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning I admired the hell out of.
posted by adamgreenfield at 9:07 PM PST - 126 comments

Some new gadgets, things and inventions: solar bikini that charges your ipod, paper soft wall, waterproof laptop, million dollar fishing lure, Obvio hybrid micro-car, needle-free injection, hi-tech dummies that can speak, breathe, bleed, react to drugs & die, dragon bag. Interactive sight, sound and physical objects from the student artists of the NYU Interactive telecommunications biannual showcase [video], including Animalia Chordata and Botanicalls, building telecommunications between people and their plants.
posted by nickyskye at 9:06 PM PST - 22 comments

The US ZIPScribble map.
posted by Kwantsar at 8:15 PM PST - 11 comments

The Chevy Volt, GM's new plug-in hybrid electric car. For a customer driving about 40 miles a day or about 15,000 miles a year, compared to a 30 mpg car, the Volt would save about 500 gallons of gasoline per year. If the car is charged every night, the driver should be able to achieve that mileage using virtually no gasoline. That same example would also save 4.4 metric tonnes of CO2 every year from each car. All it needs for mass production is a supplier for its untested lithium ion battery concept.
posted by Brian B. at 7:37 PM PST - 68 comments

Eepmon's portfolio. ^[flash]
posted by delmoi at 6:47 PM PST - 11 comments

Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas in six parts on Youtube. It may be well into January, but let this classic 1970's Muppet Christmas special cheer you. For the cynics who prefer to stay out in the January cold, here's a pretty cutting breakdown of same.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:31 PM PST - 32 comments

The top ten stories you missed in 2006, according to Foreign Policy magazine. Items to concern the reflexive partisan from all parts of the spectrum. Cut 'n paste inside.
posted by wilful at 5:08 PM PST - 32 comments

When you drive on local streets you can be a Wingman for Grandma. Help make Grandma safer when she goes out for a walk. Drive the speed limit on local streets. Help set the pace for your community. Small increases in vehicle speed increase the threat to pedestrians. By helping to calm your local streets you can make it safer and more pleasant for you and your family.
posted by meddeviceengineer at 3:43 PM PST - 65 comments

Iraq: The Lost Generation. This 47 minute long documentary was filmed by an anonymous Iraqi journalist. Broadcast on the UK's Channel 4 in November, it tells the stories of several young Iraqis whose lives have been changed by the invasion and occupation of their country.
posted by washburn at 3:30 PM PST - 11 comments

Trainrider rides on German bullet trains. This video on youtube, about a 21 year old who rode outside on a German bullet train. The rider who filmed himself died of leukemia a year after the videos. Couldn't find much information except for a blurb inwikipedia, trainrider.net and youtube trainsurfing video collection.
posted by IronWolve at 3:30 PM PST - 25 comments

761 Vintage Travel Labels fans of art deco & european pre-war design, look no further.
posted by jonson at 3:29 PM PST - 14 comments

History of the iPod. A documentary from the Discovery Channel.
posted by londontube at 11:46 AM PST - 159 comments

A Revised Environmental Assessment is available from the Department of Energy Environmental Publications website for the DIVINE STRAKE simulation of a tactical nuclear bunker busting bomb. They withdrew the FONSI after a month of controversy this summer.
posted by the Real Dan at 10:54 AM PST - 9 comments

Incandescent metal and heavy machinery: Steelmill photography.
posted by Wolfdog at 8:14 AM PST - 33 comments

In 1933 an unassuming farmer, one Cecil Dill, was thrust into the spotlight for his 15 minutes of fame, on account of his astonishing musical talent. He played his hands. Just his hands. He was a practitioner (actually the first we know of) of the little-known art of manualism. The hands may be the most difficult "instruments" in the world to play, but there are those still putting palms together for the sake of melody. And what better accompanist for a virtuosic pair of hands than a bicycle pump? And though he really should rethink the afro wig, this guy's rendition of Purple Haze really must be heard. [note: most links go to video sites with very flatulent audio]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:40 AM PST - 32 comments

The Red Hill Guide is an amazingly detailed and well-written compendium of desktop hardware old and new, with a focus on PC and x86 compatibles. Look for your first CPU, hard drive or mainboard.
posted by loquacious at 11:01 PM PST - 37 comments

We've discussed guitar wankery here before, but this fellow (Polish virtuoso Adam Fulara) is the first I've seen who actually uses the techniques of tapping to enable the guitarist to perform classical pieces that have previously been unplayable (video: Bach BWV 784). Not good enough? He can also do it on two guitars simultaneously (video: Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag). Watch as his head nearly explodes from the sheer levels of concentration necessary (video: Bach BWV 848). More from his website.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:32 PM PST - 85 comments

Ouch. You know that kid who just won't accept responsibility for his actions? Keeps making excuses, or denying the plain facts, or insists he never said such a thing... Mom, you are soooo unfair!... Some of the Press haven't grown out of it. Glenn Greenwald gives them a spanking.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:18 PM PST - 96 comments

Israel leaks plans for nuclear strike on Iran. The details were leaked (on purpose it appears) from Israeli military personal in order to test the waters, prepare the world, and/or put pressure on others to act first. One source: "As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished." Glad I don't live in the Middle East.
posted by bhouston at 8:25 PM PST - 100 comments

"Please understand that this is an extremely special piece of furniture, of exceptional quality and design – it is not for everyone by a very very long way and can only be afforded by the lucky few of us with exceptional wealth." (Videos [1, 2, 3.])
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:17 PM PST - 57 comments

Classical music into the masses...
posted by hama7 at 5:17 PM PST - 25 comments

The LA Times tagged the Gates Foundation today for harmful investment practices. The Gates Foundation generally gets only positive PR for their great work on global health. But today the LA Times presented startling evidence that the foundation's own investments are actually causing much of the harm in the communities where the foundation is working. As the poster child of the free market capitalist system, is it time for Gates to ask whether globalization is a primary cause of the third world poverty his foundation is trying to fix?
posted by commonmedia at 4:30 PM PST - 56 comments

Little Mosque on the Prairie is a new Canadian sitcom that premiers January 9th at 8:30 PM EST on the CBC. To promote the series, 135 kilograms of shawarma was served up (embedded Flash video) Thursday on a downtown Toronto street, with a flock of camels on hand to spread the halal-arity. Considerable buzz is being generated, with American talking heads discussing the effect this show may have, and why it would never have been created in the US. Says series creator Zarqa Nawaz: "North America should be the first place where a comedy like this would come about, where Muslims can be comfortable in their own skin."
posted by good in a vacuum at 3:17 PM PST - 68 comments

The Re-Animation of Ryan Larkin.
Ryan Larkin, the subject of Chris Landreth's haunting animated short Ryan, has returned to animation after twenty five years of life on the street in Montreal with three station IDs that aired on MTV Canada on Christmas Day. And now he is at work on a new animated short, Spare Change--inspired by his panhandling days outside Schwartz's on The Main--where you can help with the film's funding by contributing via PayPal. (more within)
posted by y2karl at 2:41 PM PST - 10 comments

Animation collective Three Legged Legs' (previously) newest piece, Samurai (embedded quicktime here, High Def direct download here) is a really beautiful looking short cartoon in Japanese. Warning to those fearing advertising, the piece was sponsored by GE, although it shows no branding or GE messaging of any kind.) Via.
posted by jonson at 12:32 PM PST - 5 comments

The horror of Iraq, in poetry. [Via.]
posted by homunculus at 11:27 AM PST - 13 comments

Spots Before Your Eyes, an award-winning series of animated shorts promoting tolerance and human relations, produced in the 1950s by the American Jewish Committee (at AJC Archives)
posted by LinusMines at 11:23 AM PST - 3 comments

Momofuku Ando, inventor of Ramen Instant Noodles, is dead at 96.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 11:13 AM PST - 58 comments

The story began quietly enough on May 18, 2002, when an angler caught an 18 inch fish in a Crofton, Maryland pond. In 2005 a fisherman is reported saying "We would throw one in the cooler, two others would jump out and we'd have to chase them through the woods." Frankenfish, timeline of the snakehead story in the USA. The snakehead is a voracious, predatorial fish, capable of walking, attacking men, living up to 4 days out of water and now spreading from state to state. Video of snakeheads eating (disturbing). Another kind of snakehead, the smuggler of humans. Mentioned previously on MetaFilter. [via]
posted by nickyskye at 10:17 AM PST - 36 comments

Is "Apocalypto" pornography? "I am not a compulsively politically correct type who sees the Maya as the epitome of goodness and light... But in "Apocalypto," no mention is made of the achievements in science and art, the profound spirituality and connection to agricultural cycles, or the engineering feats of Maya cities." Traci Arden
posted by hard rain at 10:08 AM PST - 128 comments

We probably all remember potato printing from grade school. Some of us graduated to linoleum block printing. Others take linoleum block printing to a whole new level. (Direct links to Mary Mark's archives and her article about her technique.)
posted by The Deej at 9:24 AM PST - 6 comments

What's the most difficult piano piece? Opinions vary. Is it La Campanella, written by Liszt to show off what only he could do? (performance, score) Is it Balakirev's Islamey, which even Balakirev struggled to play? (performance, score) Or Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, written to top Islamey? (performance, score) Does Godowsky double his points by reconfiguring the already-difficult Chopin for the left hand? (performance) And if someone plays all four hours of Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum, written across four staves to fit the extra notes, will anyone listen? (perfomance excerpts, score excerpts)
posted by argybarg at 8:54 AM PST - 110 comments