November 2011 Archives

November 30

Tools>Filters>Galactus

Here is a Photoshop filter that can make Kirby dots.
posted by JHarris at 9:24 PM PST - 19 comments

I'm writing this in hopes that the OWS movement can have a better understanding of the hedge fund industry and the financial markets.

I work in Wall Street and work in hedge fund analysis. I'm the only person in my office who supports OWS.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:57 PM PST - 66 comments

Linda Ronstadt to publish memoirs

Linda Ronstadt plans to publish her autobiography (aptly titled “Heart Like a Wheel”). Linda Ronstadt is one of the most versatile and commercially successful female singers in U.S. history, recognized for her many public stages of self-reinvention and incarnations.” [more inside]
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 7:39 PM PST - 39 comments

Blaise Cendrars

Reading Blaise Cendrars is like stepping into another universe. His fiction is unlike anything else I've ever read. His poetry influenced the mighty Guillaume Apollinaire and helped shape the face of modernism. But it is his mockery of biographical detail and the very notion of literature that fascinates me the most. If, like me, you're not a fan of autobiography, then Blaise Cendrars is the memoirist for you.
posted by Trurl at 6:51 PM PST - 10 comments

Planes, trains, and hackers

The world's largest smallest airport has finally joined the world's largest model railway [YouTube, has some discreet miniature people nudity]. As discussed previously, after six years of work Miniatur Wonderland has the airport its 10,000 train cars and 200,000 inhabitants require. Though Miniatur Wonderland has little close competition for size, it is far from the most important model railroad. That honor goes to the ugly tracks of the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT. Rather than focusing on beautiful railroads, the TMRC fixated on building the best control systems for their model trains. As a result of playing with ever more complicated programming challenges, from the TMRC came some of the first important hackers and hacker culture, and the seeds of the modern video game industry.
posted by blahblahblah at 6:03 PM PST - 29 comments

The NYDOT Presents: Curbside Haiku

Safety Warning Signs
Sprout From NYC Street Poles
It's Curbside Haiku!
[more inside]
posted by zarq at 3:42 PM PST - 43 comments

The Emissaries of Cool Japan

The Great Shift in Japanese Pop Culture: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. [more inside]
posted by subdee at 3:12 PM PST - 35 comments

"We, the fans and pros of www.peterdavid.net, in order to form a more perfect union of fan/pro interaction...."

"When I said in the beginning that absolutely everything that’s represented in this document is in response to stuff that has actually occurred at conventions, that is not hyperbole..." Author Peter David has posted his Fan/Pro Bill of Rights for sci-fi conventions and convention-goers. [more inside]
posted by magstheaxe at 3:03 PM PST - 77 comments

Ravel in a train station

Ravel's Bolero in Copenhagan train station. that is all
posted by eggtooth at 2:44 PM PST - 59 comments

World Record Bugs

The University of Florida Book of Insect Records (UFBIR) names insect champions and documents their achievements. [more inside]
posted by zamboni at 2:14 PM PST - 9 comments

Pilots training time cut in half with transcrainial electrical stimulation...

Turns out you can up learning rate with a small current across brain Scientific American: Amping Up Brain Function: Transcranial Stimulation Shows Promise in Speeding Up Learning Electrical stimulation of subjects' brains is found to accelerate learning in military and civilian subjects, although researchers are yet wary of drawing larger conclusions about the mechanism.... I believe I've also seen some posts on external (strong) magnetic fields being able to hinder or help learning as well. Strange times we live in.
posted by aleph at 1:58 PM PST - 37 comments

Poop-throwing by chimpanzees is a sign of intelligence

Studies have shown that chimps are capable of insightful reasoning and nuanced communication. Apparently, the individuals that are the smartest are also the most adept at slinging their own poo.
posted by Laminda at 1:10 PM PST - 33 comments

TAB Wrangler

Mr. Data Converter takes CSV, Excel, or tab-delimited data and coverts it into web-friendly formats, including HTML tables, PHP arrays, JSON properties and MySQL tables. via
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 1:02 PM PST - 28 comments

Every day is like Monday

Morrissey gets a job. [more inside]
posted by EvaDestruction at 1:02 PM PST - 77 comments

The Little Mole Lives On

Zdeněk Miler, the animator of the beloved Krtek ("Little Mole") animations died today. Conceived in 1954 after stumbling on a mole's burrow on his evening walk, Krtek appeared in about fifty films all drawn by Miler. The first Krtek film ("How Krtek Got His Pants"), originally an educational video about the manufacture of linen, won first prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1957. The Krtek films have been aired in about eighty countries. Miler's young daughters did the uber-cute vocalizations for Krtek, and were the films' test audience as Miler tweaked the films per their suggestions. Here are some perennial favorites: Krtek and the Radio, Krtek and the Green Star, Krtek at Christmas, Krtek and the Robot. Miler, like most film buffs, was surprised that Krtek had remained largely unknown in the United States. "Pretty much the whole world knows Krtek," Mr. Miler said. "America, which is usually first in everything, is last in this. I always look at American history," he said, "and it is a very hard one. People came. They conquered a continent. They suffered hardships, and that hardship is reflected in its movies. I look at children there and think what they are watching is a reflection of that hardness. If you look at America, it is epic. Whereas here, it is more poetic. I feel here there is more lyricism."
posted by Atrahasis at 12:04 PM PST - 22 comments

"You will feel like a fool, and that will last for about two weeks."

Daniel Ellsberg on the Limits of Knowledge He recounts a story in which he advised Kissinger about the mental gymnastics involved in having a high security clearance.
posted by Weeping_angel at 11:58 AM PST - 83 comments

Netanyahu Government Suggests Israelis Avoid Marrying American Jews

The Netanyahu government has paid for US TV ads saying US Israelis will never understand what it means to be Israeli, and American Jews will lose their religion
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 10:56 AM PST - 187 comments

ThinkUp: reclaim and analyze social network activities

ThinkUp is a free, open source PHP/MySQL app that you install on your web server to collect and store all of your activity on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google+. It can be used to search and backup your own social nework activities, create a time capsule of online activity, analyze social media discussions, or create a more interactive discussion. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:43 AM PST - 19 comments

Pfizered

Generic sales of Lipitor, the world’s number 1 selling pharmaceutical drug, start today. (via) [more inside]
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 9:56 AM PST - 36 comments

This would make a really good movie.

Locked up in the bowels of the medical faculty building here and accessible to only a handful of scientists lies a man-made flu virus that could change world history if it were ever set free.
posted by pashdown at 9:50 AM PST - 89 comments

Play that same song.

For a band that doesn't exist, Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes's song "Mad About Me" -- more widely known as "Cantina Band" or "Mos Eisley Cantina Theme" -- has received a fair share of interesting covers. Like a ragtime piano duet. Or on harp. Or the Chapman Stick. (The what?)
posted by griphus at 8:26 AM PST - 26 comments

The source of our doom

id Software have released the source code to Doom 3 under the terms of the General Public License. [more inside]
posted by smcg at 8:26 AM PST - 24 comments

WHAT DO WE WANT? STUFF LIKE THIS.

Critics of the Occupy Wall Street movement have complained that the protestors have no clear goals, so WE DON'T MAKE DEMANDS composed a list of 12 concrete, specific suggestions focusing on economic reform, stronger regulation, and closing loopholes.
posted by The Whelk at 8:01 AM PST - 187 comments

Everybody Out!

The UK is experiencing some of its worst disruption to services in decades as more than 2 million public sector workers stage a nationwide strike, closing schools and bringing councils and hospitals to a virtual standstill. [more inside]
posted by Jakey at 6:25 AM PST - 78 comments

Blackboard War

「こくせん ― 黒板戦争」(Blackboard War) is a homemade stop motion video created by some students (out of more than 2500 still photos) for their school's culture festival. There is also a sequel (made from more than 3000 photos this time).
posted by emmling at 5:46 AM PST - 14 comments

Precious Loss

The ruins of Gede are the remains of a mysterious lost city on the Swahili Coast of Kenya, located deep within the Arabuko Sokoke forest. The mystery of Gede (Gedi) is that it does not appear in any Swahili, Portuguese, or Arab written records and present day research has not yet been able to fully account for what actually happened to the city. The inhabitants were of the Swahili, an ancient trading civilization that emerged along the eastern coasts of Africa ranging from Somalia to Mozambique. Archaeological excavations carried out between 1948 and 1958 have uncovered porcelain from China, an Indian lamp, Venetian beads, Spanish scissors, and other artefacts from all over the world, demonstrating the occupants were engaged in extensive and sophisticated international trade. Questions still remain as to what caused the downfall of Gede, but by the 17th century, the city was completely abandoned to the forest and forgotten until the 1920s. Today, a National Museum, Gede's sister cities from the period are part of the ethnography based archeological work of Dr Chapurukha M. Kusimba of Chicago's Field Museum, whose lifework has thrown light on the precolonial heritage of the Swahili peoples.
posted by infini at 5:35 AM PST - 23 comments

Slow Tech

Science writer Angela Saini on the joys of avoiding tech upgrades and being a late adopter. Some of us haven't adopted at all. Perhaps there are some less resistant to peer influence? Or just more into making stuff? Or perhaps it's anotherway to be cool?
posted by mippy at 5:32 AM PST - 42 comments

Romancing pigeons in the park

Otome games - a subgenre of visual novel where a female protagonist romances one of a selection of male characters. (Make your own!)

Hatoful Boyfriend (TV Tropes) - a visual novel (download, English patch), where a female protagonist attends high school with, and romances, one of a selection of giant talking pigeons and one partridge. Also she lives in a cave and forages for food. [more inside]
posted by emmtee at 3:14 AM PST - 24 comments

I just came in for a case of Blood Lite

What if anyone in need of blood could find it anywhere? Based on this question, Hospital Albert Einstein created an innovative way to make people aware of the need for blood donations. They placed blood bags in refrigerators of several convenience stores throughout São Paulo. The customers were amazed to find them beside sodas and sandwiches. Their reactions were filmed.
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:03 AM PST - 47 comments

Other Minds

Music From Other Minds is a radio program of art music by living composers from the folks behind the other minds festival.
posted by idiopath at 1:39 AM PST - 3 comments

November 29

Is Siri, the new iPhone 4s voice recognition software, tone deaf?

Siri Can't or Won't Search for Certain Things Is this on purpose? You decide
posted by Splunge at 11:18 PM PST - 293 comments

"Carrier IQ is used to understand what problems customers are having with our network or devices so we can take action to improve service quality."

CarrierIQ, a data-logging software present on most new Android, Blackberry and Nokia phones, secretly records keystrokes, dialed numbers and text messages. It also can't be turned off. Trevor Eckhart, the Android user who discovered and recorded it, labelled CarrierIQ a rootkit (you can read Eckhart's further analysis here). CarrierIQ sent Eckhart a cease-and-desist letter (PDF here), but has since backed off. Eckhart's findings confirm earlier rumors.
posted by alexoscar at 11:06 PM PST - 95 comments

The Xinjiang Procedure

In 2009, Urumqi, China exploded in riots. The assessment of Western media was on-going ethnic clashes. Behind the scenes, Beijing now stands accused of The Xinjiang Procedure, ground zero for the organ harvesting of political prisoners. [more inside]
posted by nickrussell at 10:22 PM PST - 27 comments

This time, we are not silent, and we will get all our rights.

Protesters vs. Supreme Council of Armed Forces Tahrir Square: "For five straight days, nearly 120 continuous hours, thousands of protesters, most of them young men and women, did battle with security forces. Police used live ammunition, rubber bullets, shotgun cartridges, and an astonishing amount of tear gas. Protesters fought back mostly with rocks and sometimes Molotov cocktails." [more inside]
posted by jcrcarter at 8:35 PM PST - 37 comments

Kiss Your Ass Goodbye

The art form of airline safety cards. [more inside]
posted by gman at 7:29 PM PST - 23 comments

Photo retouching

A recent PNAS paper (Kee and Farid 10.1073/pnas.1110747108) proposes a standardised (1 - 5) metric for photo retouching. The authors suggest that, for the sake of public health and wellbeing, that published retouched photos should disclose the amount of retouching undertaken.
posted by wilful at 4:57 PM PST - 44 comments

And just like that, I can read my copy of The Lusty Argonian Maid on-the-go!

"Skyrim is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to Skyrim. [...] Lately, one of my favorite parts of Skyrim are the in-game books. At any time, you can pull a book off the shelf, and get a nice fresh slice of lore to go along with your hearty adventures. I’ve even gone so far as to break into houses in the middle of the night just to read their books." — So says the blogger who decided to extract all 1000+ pages of text contained in the books of Skyrim and format them for EPUB and Kindle. (Skyrim previously)
posted by 256 at 4:55 PM PST - 94 comments

The John Coltrane Quartet performs "A Love Supreme"

On July 26, 1965, at the Antibes Jazz Festival, the John Coltrane Quartet made its only public performance of A Love Supreme. (previously) [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 4:11 PM PST - 19 comments

Jazz på Svenska

Swedish dreams: Jan Johansson was an amazing Swedish jazz musician and composer, author of the ground-breaking Jazz på Svenska, where Swedish folk music was combined with jazz improvisation. He inspired other European artists, like Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen. But for younger Europeans, his most important achievement is the creation of the Pippi song. If you grew up with this, no wonder you like melancholic jazz.... [more inside]
posted by mumimor at 4:00 PM PST - 4 comments

"Something here isn't right."

Page 23. [SYLT] Apparently, life isn't as perfect as you would assume for the immaculate models living inside the IKEA catalog. With this amusing short, Jeroen Houben, Tim Arts and Stefan van den Boogaard show us the real-life drama that goes on beyond what we can see from the outside. The four minute short won the juryprize and audience award at the 48 Hour Film Project in Utrecht (Netherlands). [Via: Adverblog]
posted by Fizz at 3:46 PM PST - 19 comments

You expected the mothership to pepper spray the students, didn't you?

When you're the 44th largest university in the UK, how do you set yourself apart and gain some attention in the era of viral video? You release a short film showing an alien invasion and your student body's reaction to it. And, yes, that is the voice of Locutus of Borg (he is the University's Chancellor).
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:44 PM PST - 27 comments

Independence

"You can imagine the effect of feeling that if you open your mouth you will sound wrong, that you are somehow thinking wrongly in your own head. Instilling such a feeling is one of the most fundamental ways to control a population. Now imagine what happens when the feeling stops – that miracle." - writer Al Kennedy (Oranges are not the only fruit) in the Guardian talks about Scottish cultural identity, especially relevant in terms of possible Scottish Independence.
posted by sgt.serenity at 2:19 PM PST - 76 comments

Breaking the Coppersmith-Winograd barrier

For twenty years, the fastest known algorithm to multiply two n-by-n matrices, due to Coppersmith and Winograd, took a leisurely O(n^2.376) steps. Last year, though, buried deep in his PhD thesis, Andy Stothers discussed an improvement to O(n^2.374) steps. And today, Virginia Vassilevska Williams of Berkeley and Stanford, released a breakthrough paper [pdf] that improves the matrix-multiplication time to a lightning-fast O(n^2.373) steps. [via] [more inside]
posted by albrecht at 1:48 PM PST - 50 comments

V.I.L.E. henchmen are still nowhere to be seen

MeFi's own Alan Taylor brings us another crop of stunning aerial imagery from Google Earth, inviting you to guess what you're looking at. Now with multiple choice! (previously)
posted by theodolite at 12:45 PM PST - 47 comments

Tintin Titles

Animator James Curran has created an unofficial title sequence for Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin, "featuring elements from each of the 24 books." Evidently Spielberg likes the work and has offered Curran a job on a future film.
posted by brundlefly at 11:51 AM PST - 44 comments

Voynich Manuscript, Online

The Voynich Manuscript (many previously) has been uploaded in its entirety online for your leisurely perusal by Yale's Beinecke Rare Book Library. [via]
posted by SomaSoda at 11:38 AM PST - 19 comments

From the comments: "Someone pass me the crowbar please."

Soft robotics are inspired by animals which don't have hard internal skeletons, like squid, worms, and starfish. Developed at Harvard, with funding from DARPA, this particular soft robot, "not only walks, it knows several different gaits and can deflate to stuff itself through tiny little gaps." Another design here, and another (also), and another. In addition to movement, soft robotics can also be used for grip. More information about the Harvard lab is available here (with a student describing the research here).
posted by codacorolla at 11:20 AM PST - 26 comments

Girl Walk // All Day

Girl Walk // All Day (previously), an epic dance video featuring Girl Talk's album All Day (previously) as the soundtrack, is finally premiering at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple on 12/8. Don't fret if you can't make it to the free dance party though, because the entire film is being released in 12 parts for free over the next six weeks starting today. Here's part one, School's Out.
posted by carsonb at 11:09 AM PST - 13 comments

The Stealthy Wealthy

As the Occupy protests spread, the latest phenomenon to emerge is the Stealthy Wealthy. Sensitive to negative perceptions of extreme wealth inequality in hard times, and concerned about the possibility of history repeating itself, the super-rich have been swapping their limousines for nondescript-looking yet luxuriously outfitted cargo vans.
posted by acb at 11:03 AM PST - 93 comments

RIP Patrice O'Neal

Comedian Patrice O'Neal passed away on Monday evening, following a stroke suffered in October. A few clips. Rest easy, Big Man.
posted by VicNebulous at 10:48 AM PST - 49 comments

I make these things, and I put them out there

Portrait of a Handmade Artisan: Korehira Watanabe The Sword Maker (one of a number of films by Etsy) [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:23 AM PST - 5 comments

Against civilization.

"Primitivism is the pursuit of ways of life running counter to the development of technology, its alienating antecedents, and the ensemble of changes wrought by both. This site is an exploration into primitivist theory, as well as various works that contribute to an understanding of the tendency." [more inside]
posted by edguardo at 9:50 AM PST - 98 comments

Little Printer

Berg London's Little Printer is a small, net-connected printer for your home that will print you a small, daily newspaper with content you add or subscribe to via a phone app.
posted by secretdark at 9:42 AM PST - 68 comments

Eleven Equations True Computer Science Geeks Should (at Least Pretend to) Know

Eleven Equations True Computer Science Geeks Should (at Least Pretend to) Know [more inside]
posted by Deathalicious at 8:40 AM PST - 138 comments

We Need To Talk About Lleyn

November is not just about Movember - we're now firmly into Wovember, the month-long campaign by knitters to celebrate wool fibres and denounce misleading marketing. But what do we mean when we talk about 'wool'?
posted by mippy at 3:45 AM PST - 74 comments

Racist rant on London tram leads to arrest

A woman has been arrested after a swearing, racist rant (YouTube) on a tram in Croydon, London trended on Twitter. Daily Mail reports with comments switched off, far right EDL member declares her a patriot to be proud of. Satire site The Daily Mash weighs in sardonically.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 3:39 AM PST - 199 comments

November 28

A New Perspective on Crime Scenes

A new perspective on crime scenes. (warning: panoramics are of crime scenes, and some include victims of violent crime.) [more inside]
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:28 PM PST - 20 comments

If You Pick Us, Do We Not Bleed?

In a room near Maida Vale, a journalist for The Nation wrote around 1914, an unfortunate creature is strapped to the table of an unlicensed vivisector. When the subject is pinched with a pair of forceps, it winces. It is so strapped that its electric shudder of pain pulls the long arm of a very delicate lever that actuates a tiny mirror. This casts a beam of light on the frieze at the other end of the room, and thus enormously exaggerates the tremor of the creature. A pinch near the right-hand tube sends the beam 7 or 8 feet to the right, and a stab near the other wire sends it as far to the left. "Thus," the journalist concluded, "can science reveal the feelings of even so stolid a vegetable as the carrot."
posted by vidur at 10:26 PM PST - 28 comments

Tebow redeemed

It's Good to be Tim Tebow. "Tim Tebow’s completion percentage is 44.8 percent. Take away his magical fourth quarters and the number is closer to 30 percent. This kind of awful is in the 'Shaq free-throw percentage, Mario Mendoza batting average' sports hall of fame. But he’s not awful in the turgid unwatchable way that, say, a Kate Hudson movie is awful. He’s fascinating/awful."
posted by sweetkid at 9:05 PM PST - 208 comments

Webcam

Webcam is a short film which explores the concept (and apparent reality) of "webcam hacking." Straight link Vimeo. Warning: Vimeo comments contain spoilers.
posted by kkrvgz at 8:19 PM PST - 36 comments

Let's just agree that colledge boyfriend arc made no sense

"Daria" Photoshoot More with Trent
posted by The Whelk at 7:09 PM PST - 71 comments

We are star stuff.

Hi. Here's Stephen Colbert (out of character) and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson having an 85 minute conversation about science, physics, and the universe.
posted by lazaruslong at 7:09 PM PST - 44 comments

Code is Law

YaCy is an open source fully decentralized peer-to-peer search engine designed prevent any single entity from exercising power over search results. [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges at 6:42 PM PST - 25 comments

Beattitudes

The Nation's William Deresiewicz looks at Ann Beattie's evolution as a writer.
posted by reenum at 5:57 PM PST - 5 comments

And Fear & Superstition Would Have Gotten Away With It, If It Wasn't For Those Meddling Kids . . . And Their Dog!

An innocuous question in Comics Alliance's weekly Ask Chris column about whether Chris Sims (previously) prefers the monsters in Scooby Doo to be real or people in costumes results in a stunning defense of secular humanism and the importance of the search for truth in order to expose lies perpetuated by Authority through the use of fear & superstition.
posted by KingEdRa at 5:50 PM PST - 82 comments

Code? What code?

Denver Post cartoonist Mike Keefe took a buyout after 35 years. On the way out the door, he's asked about digital media. He says, "Someone has to crack the code concerning online profits. Till that time, it will be a forum for the dedicated and passionate cartoonist who also works at Starbucks." Which may come as a surprise to an online cartoonist that's been profitable for more than 10 years, and those other profitable guys with the charity that just broke $1 million in donations earlier than ever.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:36 PM PST - 113 comments

Tick, Tick, Boom

The National Ignition Facility (and fusion power) has been in the news lately. (pdf) [more inside]
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 2:31 PM PST - 38 comments

It was baptism by tentacle. Humboldts—mostly five-footers—swarmed around him.

Cassell first heard about the "diablos rojos," or red devils, in 1995, from some Mexican fishermen as he was filming gray whales for German public television in Baja's Laguna San Ignacio. Intrigued, he made his way to La Paz, near the southern tip of Baja, to dive under the squid-fishing fleet. It was baptism by tentacle. Humboldts—mostly five-footers—swarmed around him. [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 2:19 PM PST - 16 comments

"You can’t regret your fate, although I do regret my mother didn’t marry a carpenter."

Growing up, she was a beloved celebrity in her home country. Thousands of girls were named after her. So was a bestselling perfume. But Josef Stalin's "Little Sparrow," his only daughter, (born Svetlana Stalina) defected to the United States in 1967. Upon arriving in New York, she promptly held a press conference that surprised the world, denouncing her father's regime. Svetlana became a naturalized US citizen, moved to Taliesin West, married an American, changed her name to Lana Peters, then returned to the Soviet Union in 1984, declaring that she had not been free "for one single day" in the U.S., only to once again return to America in 1986. She lived out her remaining days in a small town in Wisconsin. Mrs. Peters passed away from colon cancer on November 22nd, at the age of 85. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 2:16 PM PST - 38 comments

Dorkly Bits.

Dorkly Bits is an ongoing collection of short skits based around classic and contemporary videogames. The collection includes: Mistaken Hero Identities, Tails Can't Die, The Diablo Townspeople Should Move, Noob Saibot is a Noob, Yoshi Hates Mario, and many more.
posted by lemuring at 2:13 PM PST - 12 comments

"A simple mantra has guided me through the darkest bouts of autocerebral asphyxiation: You don’t have to believe everything you think."

"Because of our mutant powers of obsession, it’s my guess that a lot of nerds suffer from addiction. Nerds get caught up in minutiae, because there is a tremendous and fulfilling sense of control in understanding every single detail of a thing more than any other living creature. But we also tend to have a very active internal monologue (in some cases, dialog). These are some delightful ingredients—mixed with a bit of genetic predisposition—for overdoing things that make us feel good in the moment." Chris Hardwick offers "self-help for nerds."
posted by jbickers at 1:58 PM PST - 23 comments

MotherBoard TV: The Thorium Dream

MotherBoard TV: The Thorium Dream If, like many of the world's leaders, you are eager for a dependable and cheap energy source that doesn't spew toxins and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere -- and that doesn't result in terrible, billion dollar accidents -- you can end your search now. At least, that's the news from a tight-knit collective of energy blogs, dedicated to a common but relatively unknown metal called thorium. In the right kind of nuclear reactor, they say, thorium could power the world forever -- and without the problems that come with the nuclear energy we use today, from Fukushima-like meltdowns to the difficult by-products of plutonium that leave behind radioactive waste and weapons material. The idea certainly sounds like the stuff of fringe internet conspiracists, but it was actually born in the U.S. government's major atomic lab in the 1960s under the auspices of one of the country's most respected nuclear scientists, and the inventor of today's most common kind of nuclear technology, the light water reactor. - Thorium: World's Greatest Energy Breakthrough? [more inside]
posted by ninjew at 1:08 PM PST - 58 comments

"I would rather be sitting back home at my desk, believe me. But this is too important."

"The political elite have actually no interest in explaining to the people that important decisions are made in Strasbourg; they are only afraid of losing their own power." Jürgen Habermas on the crisis of the European project and how it could be overcome.
posted by daniel_charms at 12:45 PM PST - 29 comments

Iran-Contra 25 years on

Peter Kornbluh, of the National Security Archive, has written an article about Iran-Contra coinciding with the release of the Reagan/Bush 'criminal liability' evaluations(contains video of Reagan's testimony). Confused about what exactly the Iran-Contra affair was? Here you go. [more inside]
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 11:43 AM PST - 42 comments

All your corn are belong to us

Teddy Bear does not believe in caring and sharing when it comes to corn on the cob. Snickers pretty much feels the same way. (Sorry, no dubstep remix -- yet.)
posted by maudlin at 11:36 AM PST - 31 comments

TREAT YO SELF

Do you like men's clothes but don't like sweatshops / department stores / spending too much money? The Internet is here to help! Well Spent categorizes "honestly made" stylish men's clothes of all kinds. Their holiday gift guide might be helpful. Did you want to look at some pretty ties? Check out The Knottery. A belt? Narragansett Leathers makes belts of all sorts. Need some inspiration? My Grandfather's Ties or Evolving Style might help. Alternatively, just dress like Carl Sagan.
posted by Apropos of Something at 11:00 AM PST - 34 comments

"The blonde hadn't showed. She was smarter than I thought. I went outside to poison myself, with cigarettes and whisky."

Reader, I marinated it. [independent.co.uk] What if Virginia Woolf, Geoffrey Chaucer or Raymond Chandler had turned their talents to food writing? Mark Crick imagines the contents of the celebrity cookbooks of yesteryear.
posted by Fizz at 10:10 AM PST - 26 comments

The Burzynski Clinic threatens bloggers

The Burzynski Clinic (selling an unproven cure for cancer) has started to threaten those who talk about them with legal action. Even going as far as trying to intimidate young blogger Rhys Morgan by sending him pictures of his own house (very, 'I know where you live...') and threatening another blogger's family.
posted by Nufkin at 10:10 AM PST - 83 comments

"I believe in the things I make. The fact that God doesn’t want me to make them is beside the point."

"The thing is, some really good scripts come my way, but there’s nothing in them for me to come to grips with, they are complete in themselves ... There’s no uncertainty. I don’t look for answers; I look for questions. I like when people leave the cinema and feel like the world has been altered for them somewhat." Terry Gilliam: The Heir of Fellini and the Enemy of God. (Also, recently on the blue.) [more inside]
posted by codacorolla at 9:41 AM PST - 38 comments

There’s games and then there’s life. They ain’t the same thing.

David Hill is a gambler. Each column will tell the story of a single bet that he made and examine what that bet reveals about life in America. The most recent is $5 Chess Game, Best of 3, Zuccotti Park.
posted by davidjmcgee at 9:15 AM PST - 23 comments

Bangladesh is an elite country in both cricket and kabaddi, but neither of those sports hold Olympic status.

Lots of countries have never won an Olympic medal. And they aren't all micro-states, either. [more inside]
posted by Chrysostom at 8:54 AM PST - 32 comments

PERFECT! NOW...DOUBLE IT!

RIP Ken Russell enfant terrible of British cinema, director of Women in Love, The Devils, Tommy, Altered States and The Lair Of The White Worm. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:53 AM PST - 54 comments

The Erotic Art of Namio Harukawa

Japanese artist Namio Harukawa (NSFW) has a singular vision/obsession: women in charge. In virtually all of his paintings and drawings, women radiate the bemusement of the Mona Lisa as they are sexually serviced by men who appear to be little more than appendages of the women’s sexual organs. Astride the faces of hapless males, the women are magnificent in their utterly cruel detachment.

- The Erotic Art of Namio Harukawa
posted by beshtya at 8:34 AM PST - 50 comments

Aaaand.. pause.

What happens when you stop time in a cartoon universe? You get animation smears. (single-serving Tumblr)
posted by theodolite at 8:31 AM PST - 23 comments

Grumpy Old (Lines)Men

This past weekend was Canadian Football League (CFL)'s title game -- for the Grey Cup. But almost as much as the game itself, a sideshow eruption of an old feud took centre stage this year. 48 years ago, Hamilton Ti-Cats' Angelo Mosca was widely ripped for having levelled BC Lions' running back Willie Fleming with a "questionable" hit in the 1963 title match that took Fleming out of the game. Hamilton went on to win and BC's quarterback at the time, Joe Kapp, has apparently been fuming about the hit ever since. When he and Mosca appeared on stage together at this year's CFL Alumni Luncheon, it was game on all over again. (Some coverage has since suggested it was staged but a viewing of the video, which has since gone viral, leaves that an open question. Mosca, who followed his football career with several years on the pro wrestling circuit, swings a mean cane, while Kapp appears to have kept his right cross in form.)
posted by Mike D at 7:11 AM PST - 36 comments

Never Events

The term never event describes when something happens in a medical setting that should never occur. The list of never events (formally called "Serious Reportable Events) released by the NQF includes mistakes such as performing surgery on the wrong body part (or the wrong patient!), or patient suicide while under care. Despite their moniker, "never" events do happen. [more inside]
posted by Deathalicious at 7:02 AM PST - 53 comments

The Candy Critic

The Candy Critic This candy catalog shows (almost) everything from Ramen candy to Kit Kat apple vinegar, reviewed.
posted by Tarumba at 6:52 AM PST - 24 comments

Magic carpet ride

Video: An Italian pilot flies a glider through the Alps for eleven hours (video highly condensed, obviously) at times coming agonizingly close to the mountains, not because he's reckless, but because that's what's keeping him aloft. Fullscreen viewing recommended.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:35 AM PST - 24 comments

From 'Sage on the Stage' to 'Guide on the Side'

A radical new idea is turning schools upside down. 'Flip the Classroom' is based on a simple concept: kids watch podcast video presentations of lecture material on their own time - at home. They then do the 'homework' at school, in an environment where the teachers can guide and support them, instructing on specific points as required. Colorado teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams have been pioneering the technique, and their Learning4Mastery website is a fount of information on it. [more inside]
posted by woodblock100 at 5:23 AM PST - 65 comments

Phenomenology of Error

It has long been noted that style manuals and other usage advice frequently contain unintended examples of the usage they condemn. (This is sometimes referred to as Hartman's law or Muphry's law - an intentional misspelling of Murphy.) Starting from this observation, Joseph Williams' paper The Phenomenology of Error offers an examination of our selective attention to different types of grammatical and usage errors that goes beyond the descriptivism-prescriptivism debate. (alternate pdf link for "The Phenomenology of Error") [more inside]
posted by nangar at 5:23 AM PST - 16 comments

November 27

The Bedouin

The Bedouin are an ethnic group of tribes that live in the deserts of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Sinai Peninsula, amongst others. The Bedouin have lived a largely nomadic life, developing a menu, style of dance and sport they can call their own. Today they are a culture in transition as "startling changes over the last two decades have irrevocably altered the nature of life for the bedouin and for the land they inhabit." However a glimpse into their past can be seen through this great collection of images taken between 1890 and 1920.
posted by Effigy2000 at 9:58 PM PST - 12 comments

RIM should sponsor a blockbuster-style Nollywood spy movie

BlackBerry Babes: A Nigerian Movie About A Group of Girls Who Love BlackBerry [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 9:54 PM PST - 19 comments

Fast and Furious

The Caravan magazine takes a long, hard look at the Formula 1 inaugural enterprise in India.
posted by vidur at 9:49 PM PST - 33 comments

Howard Stern vs. SiriusXM: An Analysis

The Scary Lawyer Guy blog has a detailed analysis of Howard Stern's lawsuit (or, more specifically, the lawsuit filed by his production company and agent) against his employer, Sirius XM.
posted by The Gooch at 9:26 PM PST - 37 comments

Island exterminators

Islands make up only about 3% of the earth's land area but host about 20% of all species and 50 to 60% of endangered species. The biggest threat to islands are invasive species, mainly rats, but also pigs and cats, who feed on nesting birds and native plants. New Zealand has been the innovator in clearing islands of rats because of its endangered populations of flightless birds which are vulnerable. One species of flightless parrot, known as the kakapo, has only 131 individuals left in the "wild" - they are closely guarded 24x7 on Codfish Island, their nests surrounded by rat traps and cameras vigilantly on the lookout for invaders. [more inside]
posted by stbalbach at 9:02 PM PST - 39 comments

Barbara Stanwyck

Yet by 1944 the IRS named Barbara Stanwyck the highest-paid woman in America. From 1930-57, she did a minimum of two pictures a year, sometimes even four or five. Yet it wasn't workaholism, according to the actress: "I was afraid they'd get somebody better, frankly. I never really thought I had any clout. For a lot of years I was free-lancing, by choice, but I think discipline stays with you. It's this fear that maybe somebody can come in and take over. Maybe a Redford or a Streep can take the luxury of a year off, but I never thought I could. Of course, we were more workable in those days. And they make more money now. Anyway, I never had self-assurance about leaving."
posted by Trurl at 4:19 PM PST - 41 comments

Cars in India: The Middle-Class Dream

"Little is changing modern India more than the spread of cars, a four-wheeled reflection of its economic transformation and a window into the aspirations of the new Indian middle class."
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:55 PM PST - 23 comments

Recipe songs at the Recipe Project

The Recipe Project (as heard recently on a number of food radio programs), by One Ring Zero, takes recipes from famous chefs and sets them to music. The chefs got to choose the style of music, and some even have videos too! Listen to a recipe for "Brains and Eggs" (Chris Cosentino) in the style of the Beastie Boys, or recipes from Mario Batali, David Chang and many more.
posted by AnnaRat at 3:30 PM PST - 2 comments

Are Your Greetings Seasoned?

"I can’t even tell you how excited I was to finally see the cards that “killed my grandfather” and drove my family into extreme poverty. I actually think Haruo did a pretty good job interpreting my grandfather’s original sketch, considering the severely confusing nature of his drawing. It’s anybody’s guess as what my grandfather expected to get back, but needless to say it wasn’t this beautiful card." Bradwick J. McGinty III tells the story of the Japanese cut-away Santa cards from 1955, similar in style to the yōkai and kaiju illustrations seen previously. (via)
posted by filthy light thief at 2:40 PM PST - 74 comments

Eat More... Crow?

The Chick-fil-A corporation doesn't want anybody to ”eat more” anything, unless it comes from them. Not even non-food items — once again they're after the Vermont artist whose t-shirts and stickers have become legendary (in certain crop circles, at least) for extolling the wonders of kale. Kale t-shirts — they taste like chicken, right?
posted by LeLiLo at 1:32 PM PST - 145 comments

The Muppet Post to End All Muppet Posts

Missed "The Muppets" in theaters this weekend?* "How They Felt" is a short film co-starring a Muppet (apparently a Muppet Whatnot with custom wardrobe) that was part of this year's Boston 48 Hour Film Project, where it placed 2nd for Best film, won Best Actress (for the woman behind the Muppet) and also... "Best Sex Scene". Yeah, now you wanna see it. But be warned. Not a happy ending. It will either make you cry or make you want to strangle the filmmakers.
*then it's YOUR fault "Breaking Dawn" was #1 at the box office (does not apply to non-USAians)
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:17 PM PST - 68 comments

How Awful the Waffle

There has been a string of recent crimes and other less positive events at Waffle House restaurants spread across the American south. "Another day, another Waffle House robbery" read a headline in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Waffle house has is its own museum, detractors, and supporters and opinions on all sides. (NYT)
posted by Xurando at 12:06 PM PST - 60 comments

Mordor’s going about it all wrong, incidentally. Harness all that geothermal energy, sell it to the humans, LIVE LIKE KINGS.

SF author and Mefi's Own Jscalzi was alone one night during a LOTR marathon and decided to live-tweet a running commentary.
posted by The Whelk at 11:20 AM PST - 56 comments

The pain is killing me

Even a little too much Tylenol over a few days can cause a liver failure. Paracetamol or acetaminophen, active ingredient of such over-the-counter painkillers as Tylenol, Panadol, Anacin-3 and many, many others, is considered safe - and it is, in prescribed doses. But even a single overdose can lead to liver failure despite treatment, and then only a liver transplant can avert a fatal outcome. [more inside]
posted by hat_eater at 11:19 AM PST - 105 comments

horizontal democracy

David Graeber profile: Meet the anthropologist, activist [1,2], and anarchist who helped transform a hapless rally into a global protest movement... " 'Most people don't think anarchism is a bad idea. They think it's insane,' says Graeber. 'Yeah, sure it would be great not to have prisons and police and hierarchical structures of authority, but everybody would just start killing each other. That wouldn't work, right?' Graeber's father, however, had seen it work."
posted by kliuless at 11:11 AM PST - 70 comments

Audubon - Birds of America

Audubon's "The Birds of America" has been mentioned here before (1 2). The University of Pittsburgh's digital library has now made available zoomable high-resolution scans of each page of the first 'double elephant' folio edition, as well as a scanned copy of his Ornothological Biography, which is an entertaining read in itself. [more inside]
posted by carter at 10:42 AM PST - 18 comments

"Interestingly, she advanced in a male dominated field by co-opting the feminine tradition of miniatures."

"The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death": an exploration of a collection of eighteen miniature crime scene models that were built in the 1940's and 50's by a progressive criminologist Frances Glessner Lee (1878 – 1962). The models, which were based on actual homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths, were created to train detectives to assess visual evidence. This seven-year project culminated in an exhibition and a book The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death (The Monacelli Press, 2004). [Image Gallery]
posted by Fizz at 7:40 AM PST - 29 comments

10 Myths About Introverts.

10 Myths About Introverts: "Myth #2 – Introverts are shy: Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite." [via a comment at this similarly accurate post from Diamond Geezer].
posted by feelinglistless at 4:59 AM PST - 170 comments

More Inside

The world’s most prestigious consultancy prides itself on its intellectual prowess and ethical standards. But this year, an insider trading scandal surrounding former McKinsey luminaries has left staff and alumni reeling
posted by infini at 4:12 AM PST - 39 comments

Free speech is only as strong as the weakest link

"Speech on the Internet requires a series of intermediaries to reach its audience. Each intermediary is vulnerable to some degree to pressure from those who want to silence the speaker. Even though the Internet is decentralized and distributed, "weak links" in this chain can operate as choke points to accomplish widespread censorship." Free speech is only as strong as the weakest link
posted by rjs at 12:44 AM PST - 24 comments

bicycle animation!

"This is a piece created to question whether it was possible to film animation in realtime."
posted by kaibutsu at 12:33 AM PST - 21 comments

November 26

"Suppose there was a place where there wasn't even space... what is that?"

"...I'm here to present to you - not lectures that are part of some curriculum; but in fact, I've combed the universe for my favorite subjects, and I'm going to spend twelve lectures bringing those favorite subjects to you." Renowned astrophysicist and television host Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses the various aspects of our universe in twelve separate half-hour long lectures (MLYT). [more inside]
posted by Evernix at 10:26 PM PST - 40 comments

DSK IMF SETUP?

Was Dominique Strauss Kahn set up? This recent NYRB article suggests that there was some serious skullduggery going on, although that doesn't mean that DSK isn't guilty of something.
posted by cell divide at 8:52 PM PST - 133 comments

Azealia Banks 212

Azealia Banks (a 20-year-old lyricist from Harlem, NYC) 212 Ft. Lazy Jay (NSFW, explicit lyrics ... implicit too) [more inside]
posted by phoque at 8:29 PM PST - 15 comments

Cigarette smoking: an underused tool?

Serum hemoglobin is related to endurance running performance. Smoking is known to enhance serum hemoglobin levels ... alcohol may further enhance this beneficial adaptation.
A recent paper by Kenneth Myers in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reviews the potential benefits of smoking for endurance atheletes. [more inside]
posted by nangar at 5:17 PM PST - 35 comments

That mysterious entity that is evoked so often – this is the people.

Alan Moore discusses current use of the V for Vendetta mask as a symbol of protest. After Frank Miller attacks the Occupy movement (previously), another giant of the comic book world gives his own, rather more nuanced, view of the protests.
posted by howfar at 4:17 PM PST - 119 comments

The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System

Shattered Families, a new report from the Applied Research Center, has found that there are at least 5,100 children currently living in foster care who are prevented from uniting with their detained or deported parents. Executive Summary(PDF) and Full Report(PDF) [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 2:06 PM PST - 19 comments

A soul-sucking demon learns a valuable lesson in friendship.

Japanese Horror Film Ghoul Makes a Friend, [SLYT] all thanks to Winnipeg's Hot Thespian Action. [Earworm-trigger warning: Hall & Oates]
posted by wreckingball at 1:43 PM PST - 11 comments

I don't want to see this show up on one of those stapling fetish websites

Planking with Nick Offerman. (MLYT) [more inside]
posted by yellowbinder at 1:18 PM PST - 24 comments

TIME takes you there... unless you get the American version

TIME magazine really dumbs it down for American subscribers.
posted by Renoroc at 11:46 AM PST - 93 comments

Sketchtravel: 71 artists, 15 countries, 5 years, 1 book

Back in 2006, a red sketch book started a journey around the world, traveling not through the mail, but from artist to artist. The idea came from Dice Tsutsumi and Gérald Guerlais, two animators at Blue Sky Studios. They compiled a list of 71 artists, personal friends and influential people they would like to have involved in their traveling sketch book. Dice and Gérald thought they could get it done in a year, but the book is now full, five years later. Another component of the project was to auction off the completed book and 9 reproductions, which was done in October, 2011, collecting more than 76,000 euros (100,000 US$) for the Room to Read international library-building organization. You can browse through the past travels on the Sketchtravel blog, view the participants by name or location on Sketchtravel.tv, along with video interviews and clips with 15 of the 71 artists. There are even more videos in Curio's Vimeo collection, and two informative interviews with Gérald Guerlais on NoWatch.net. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:02 AM PST - 1 comment

Yesterday's Tomorrow Today!

The BBC broadcasted the science and technology showcase show Tomorrow's World (titles on piano) on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. Unlike the boosterism of US science programs, Tomorrow's World was more famous for it's live stunts and wry outlook ( James Burke experiences the "convenient" office of the future and the future of home gardening and crushing ennui). The BBC has an archive of episodes and clips for UK visitors, everyone else will have to be content with clips concerning Home Computers, New Banking, Nellie The School Computer, The Elliot Light Pen, Mobile Phones, and Moog Synthesizers.
posted by The Whelk at 10:18 AM PST - 17 comments

Mars or bust!

Curiosity launched today and is on its way to Mars!
posted by Tom-B at 10:09 AM PST - 56 comments

Yoshimi Battles the Highly Collectible Uniquely Colored Limited Edition Robots

In summer 2011 The Flaming Lips released collaborative vinyl EPs with Lightning Bolt, Neon Indian and Prefuse 73. The 'starter blob' of vinyl for each disc was assembled by hand using random amounts of different vinyl colors, ensuring that every record would be unique. Here are a couple of Flickr photosets of the finished products (and a bit of the process) as they came off the presses. [more inside]
posted by mintcake! at 9:01 AM PST - 15 comments

Elvis Costello - live and expensive

Steal this record. A 1-CD (with DVD, vinyl EP, book, poster and other collectables) edition of live recordings from Elvis Costello's most recent tour is being released as a limited edition - for around $260, with free Super Saver shipping. Expensive special editions aren't new, but this one seems to have caught even Costello by surprise; his official website is advising fans not to buy it, and to get a box set of Louis Armstrong records instead. [more inside]
posted by running order squabble fest at 8:12 AM PST - 43 comments

Singing the song they always sang when they cleaned the musk ox

The Internet is Made of Cats! Lolcats and kittens chasing string and singing kitties. Sometimes, kitties singing some silly original songs; other times, they cover songs by other people. (Warning: all the work of the idiosyncratic Joel Veitch, he of We Like The Moon and A Frightened Boy and Tales of the Blode infamy.)
posted by Rory Marinich at 7:42 AM PST - 9 comments

"Happy Birthday to you!"

Gaga singing into my vagina: [SLYT] "Ok, it was my sister's and my dad's birthday the day I met Gaga. So I asked her if she could wish them a happy birthday into my crotch, because we couldn't bring phones up and I snuck it into my pants. This is what she said, well sang. Not my vagina. The poster of this video.
posted by Fizz at 7:33 AM PST - 60 comments

The Times, they have a-changed

Tom Wicker, Times Journalist, Dies at 85 (obvious NYT link), best known and most often noted for covering the assassination of President Kennedy, but also a columnist for 25 years and 6 Presidents as contrasted with today's NYT columnists by the always-critical NYTimes eXaminer.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:02 AM PST - 7 comments

Republic, Lost

How Money Corrupts Congress (previously) - John Baez sez: "It's easy to get distracted in a thicket of issues. Thoreau said 'There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.' But what's the root? Watch this video for Lawrence Lessig's answer."
posted by kliuless at 6:09 AM PST - 32 comments

The Master Game

The Master Game was a BBC production of televised chess tournaments that ran for seven series on BBC2 from 1976 to 1982. [more inside]
posted by night_train at 4:47 AM PST - 7 comments

Fabric of the Cosmos

Brian Greene's Fabric of the Cosmos is online in its entirety on NOVA's website, in four one-hour episodes. Time, Space, Quantum Mechanics, Multiverses.
posted by empath at 1:43 AM PST - 32 comments

November 25

Waiting for justice

Today is the third anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. And India, tired of waiting, wants answers. [more inside]
posted by infini at 11:12 PM PST - 7 comments

His name is Paul

A progressive Australian political advocacy group have produced a 2-minute advertisement showing their support of Marriage Equality Down Under. Warning: May pull heartstrings. [more inside]
posted by schmod at 10:44 PM PST - 45 comments

New Blood on Late Night

As part of the "Live On Letterman" webcast series, Peter Gabriel arrived with a full orchestra backup to perform many of his best-known songs in their new settings as found on his recently released New Blood album. You can watch the entire 68 minute performance online.
posted by hippybear at 8:45 PM PST - 37 comments

Papa Jesus is passed out drunk again...

Renaissance Babies in various stages of choking and passing out from noxious fumes: A Study. This is what happens when the Madonna eats way too much turkey, yall. Happy Thanksgiving! (Warning: Tumblr)
posted by Hal Mumkin at 7:11 PM PST - 25 comments

Horowitz in Moscow

In 1986,[Vladimir] Horowitz announced that he would return to the Soviet Union for the first time since 1925 to give recitals in Moscow and Leningrad. In the new atmosphere of communication and understanding between the USSR and the USA, these concerts were seen as events of political, as well as musical, significance. [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 5:14 PM PST - 13 comments

Never believe any copyright over five

Amelia Andersdotter of Sweden's Pirate Party (Piratpariet) will finally become the youngest ever member of the European Parliament this December. [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges at 3:47 PM PST - 19 comments

Lest We Forget

"Almost 1,500 people from Royal Wootton Basset [Wiltshire, England] have taken part in a music video filmed on the same high street that they once lined to pay their respects to Britain's fallen soldiers."* They hope to raise £1 million for military charities with their cover of Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends". [more inside]
posted by ericb at 2:42 PM PST - 27 comments

"..to get a medallion from a sofa where there's a pterodactyl which pushes a shopping trolley..."

World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore can memorize a deck of playing cards in under 30 seconds. Sometimes he imagines elaborate, on-the-fly tales of absurdity to aid his memorization. One such story was brought to life by DJ Shadow (way previously) and a cast of thousands: Scale It Back (bonus, helpful recall of entire story at end of video)
posted by obscurator at 1:39 PM PST - 15 comments

From The Great State of...Cook County?

"Downstate families are tired of Chicago dictating its views to the rest of us." Two Downstate Illinois state legislators, Rep. Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth) and Rep. Adam Brown (R-Decatur), have proposed a bill to make Cook County its own state. Of course, this is a lot easier said than done.
posted by SisterHavana at 1:22 PM PST - 94 comments

Pardoning Thanksgiving Turkeys

Freebirds: A Thanksgiving lesson in forgiveness.
posted by homunculus at 12:24 PM PST - 7 comments

Oh sugar!

It's that time of year again... the contenders for the Literary Review Bad Sex Award have been announced. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:33 AM PST - 41 comments

We're From The Government That Makes It Legal

Federal Prosecutors Are Allowed To Break Laws and Ethical Violations U.S. Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens was charged with and convicted of corruption in 2008. The prosecutors were admonished by the judge for their actions during the trial such as sending home to Alaska, a witness who would have helped Sen Stevens. Furthermore in direct violation of Brady v Maryland, the prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense. The DoJ decided that the DoJ did nothing wrong with such violations because they were not explicitly told not to break the law. Because the judge took the government at their word, that they would obey the law, he did not issue a court order demanding that they do so, therefor allowing the attorneys carte blanche.
posted by 2manyusernames at 11:13 AM PST - 44 comments

Antibiotics

The US Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy runs a non-profit, Extending the Cure, which conducts policy research to extend antibiotic effectiveness, and ResistanceMap, which generates interactive analysis tools and maps regarding antibiotic use in Europe and the US. The most recent ResistanceMap visualizations indicate that the US Southeast overprescribes antibiotics at a high rate compared with the rest of the country. Science journalist / "Superbug" blogger Maryn McKenna speculates (while acknowledging that correlation ≠ causation,) that the map might also indicate a link between overuse of antibiotics, obesity, diabetes and stroke. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 9:33 AM PST - 29 comments

Penderecki + Aphex Twin

Although Aphex Twin has not been releasing much music recently, he still plays frequent live shows. At a recent show in Poland he reworked two pieces by Krzysztof Penderecki, with Penderecki conducting the original versions prior to Aphex's versions. [more inside]
posted by Frobenius Twist at 8:56 AM PST - 36 comments

Flipping the bird.

Jell-O Turkeyfest - the turkey-shaped Jell-O mold annual competition. David Byrne is a returning participant. (Past winners/entries: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, and where it all began: 2005.)
posted by flex at 8:32 AM PST - 18 comments

"I don't like the sound of all those lists he's making - it's like taking too many notes at school; you feel you've achieved something when you haven't." ~ Dodie Smith

New York Times 2011 List of 100 Notable Books.
posted by Fizz at 7:16 AM PST - 36 comments

Arnold commenting on Total Recall

Here's me Arnold Schwarzenegger riding towards the screen... You asked, and now you've got it: dvd commentary on Total Recall - Arnold giving you his insight into everything that you can see happening on the screen in front of you. ("Ow. That hurt.")
posted by HopStopDon'tShop at 5:09 AM PST - 67 comments

The Worst War Movies Ever

Danger Room, the tech magazine Wired's section for covering military and security matters, have compiled The Worst War Movies Ever, From Delta Force to The Empire Strikes Back for your Friday list viewing pleasure.
posted by Harald74 at 4:30 AM PST - 41 comments

GameToilet - a whole bowl full of wonderful game ideas

"One for my Baby and one for my BRAIN" "The Last Flight of Onan V" "And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Bread" - GameToilet collects and illustrates one man's game ideas. It's Friday Flash Fun - in your imagination! (Warning: illustrations, imagination may be NSFW.)
posted by Zarkonnen at 3:52 AM PST - 8 comments

Leaves left

It started with your name' '@byleaveswelive', and became a tree.… This was followed by dragons, coffins, lost sinners and, 10/10, ‘Gloves of bee’s fur, cap of the wren’s wings’ but there were only 8? A dinosaur was found in the museum, but what of the last? [more inside]
posted by BadMiker at 1:23 AM PST - 16 comments

A Month In Music

A Month In Music - "There are 10,513 MP3s on my hard disk. According to iTunes, that’s nearly 30 days worth of music. It has taken half my life – 15 years – to build this collection but I decided to listen to them all in one go. One continuous concert, playing songs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I wanted to revist all the songs I'd once loved, and the memories and places they called up. The only choice I made was the first track. After that, the computer randomly decided what was going to play. No stopping. No skipping. No changing the volume. Music, all the time, for a whole month. The Month In Music blog charts the progress of the playback project, updated once a day with original writing and photography." [via mefi projects]
posted by radioedit at 12:16 AM PST - 70 comments

November 24

November 25: Update Your Parents' Browser Day

Forget shopping, Friday is Update Your Parents' Browser Day!
posted by brenton at 11:42 PM PST - 53 comments

#heblowsalot

High school student Emma Sullivan posted a tweet disparaging Kansas Governor Sam Brownback while on a field trip to the State Capitol. Brownback's staff called Sullivan's principal and complained. This has not resulted in postive PR for Brownback.
posted by reenum at 10:14 PM PST - 126 comments

Bite me.

Oh, hai. You weren't thinking of sleeping tonight, were you? SLYT NSFW inexplicable electronic disturbing/erotic Canadiana.
posted by unSane at 9:04 PM PST - 25 comments

Subtext, meet text.

"Too many people are out of work, struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. Many are lacking health insurance and foregoing staples that in different times were a given. So please, protesting retail workers, stop whining about having to work holiday hours. Be grateful to have a job." [more inside]
posted by mightygodking at 6:43 PM PST - 234 comments

Size Doesn't Matter

Frank Kunert is happy his photographs have an “analog” look about them. After all, he did hand-make the models himself. Before the German photographer even snaps a single shot, he is in his studio, creating 3D model subjects — usually industrial grey constructs in still, almost poetic, settings — out of deco boards, plasticine, and paint. It could take weeks, even months, before Frank is fully satisfied. The result? Models that could could pass for the real thing, and photographs that portray complete worlds of their own.
posted by netbros at 4:15 PM PST - 15 comments

TIGERS AND TURKEYS (also pumpkins)

Tampa's Big Cat Rescue celebrates a Thanksgiving feast (via)
posted by The Whelk at 3:48 PM PST - 35 comments

How is this malarkey supposed to stop the war effort?

The creators of Italian Spiderman were hired by Australia's multicultural TV network, SBS, to produce Danger 5: "Set in a bizarre, 1960s inspired version of World War II, action comedy series DANGER 5 follows a team of five spies on a mission to kill Adolf Hitler." The six-part TV series will air in February 2012, but the trailer and the first instalment of a promotional web-series are now playing.
posted by robcorr at 2:29 PM PST - 29 comments

Bullish

Can the Bulldog Be Saved? (SLNYT)
posted by box at 11:39 AM PST - 65 comments

A Pareto-optimal Thanksgiving

The most economically efficient use of a turkey is to use it for conceptual art while others starve. Generalized equilibrium theory wishes you a happy and Pareto-optimal Thanksgiving, via Cosma Shalizi.
posted by escabeche at 11:27 AM PST - 31 comments

George, Please F*n Stop

The best Thanksgiving song for nerds ever. In which geek comedy songsters Paul and Storm essay the things they are thankful for and ask whatever motivates the universe to take a moment and deliver a special message to your friend and mine, George Lucas. (NSFW language, but if you're in the US, hopefully you're not at work on Thanksgiving.)
posted by jscalzi at 10:47 AM PST - 9 comments

Werner Herzog's "Aguirre, the Wrath of God"

Despite appearing early in his career, Aguirre, the Wrath of God is for me the quintessential Herzog movie. ... It deals with possibly the most obsessed group of people in history, the Spanish conquistadors, and their desperate hunt for the most magic of all Grails, the elusive golden land of El Dorado – leaving destruction and death to millions in their wake. A few lines in an old chronicle is all that remains of the historical facts, thus leaving plenty of room for Herzog to employ his imagination and re-arrange the facts. In short: an ideal topic for a visionary director, tackled with just the right crew, and on a location guaranteed to make the shooting an ordeal in itself.
posted by Trurl at 9:31 AM PST - 40 comments

Car Wars

Nearly a decade of US road accident casualties mapped by location across America from ITO World via the Guardian (they have also done the UK)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:57 AM PST - 31 comments

NeXT

Steve Jobs at NeXT. Videos of Steve Jobs brainstorming with the NeXT team, describing the goals of NeXT and demoing NeXTStep.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:43 AM PST - 62 comments

“Nothing she does is memorable, because she does so much.”

"The rigorous division of websites into narrow interests, the attempts of Amazon and Netflix to steer your next purchase based on what you’ve already bought, the ability of Web users to never encounter anything outside of their established political or cultural preferences, and the way technology enables advertisers to identify each potential market and direct advertising to it, all represent the triumph of cultural segregation that is the negation of democracy. It’s the reassurance of never having to face anyone different from ourselves." – Charles Taylor, The Problem with Film Criticism
posted by Rory Marinich at 6:30 AM PST - 53 comments

The Karate Kid Rehearsal Movie

When they were making The Karate Kid, they decided to shoot each scene's rehearsal with budget cameras so the actors could watch themselves back afterwards. Now it's been edited together so that it forms a version of the movie that looks like it was shot and made by eight graders in their basement, including loads of unseen scenes (SLYT)- The Karate Kid Rehearsal Movie.
posted by rudhraigh at 5:41 AM PST - 27 comments

"What I realize when I’m doing an audiobook is that I actually have a much closer relationship to the text than I do when I’m reading."

Neil Gaiman’s audiobook record label: [Salon.com] The best-selling author talks about introducing his new, hand-picked lineup [Audible.com] of favorite books to American ears. Neil Gaiman Presents is part of a larger enterprise by Audible.com, called ACX (for Audiobook Creation Exchange). It aims to bring new titles to the public by hosting a service through which authors (and other rights holders) can connect with professional narrators.
posted by Fizz at 4:25 AM PST - 20 comments

Putin v Russia

Vladimir Putin booed live on Russian TV. Taking a rare evening off from propping up Bashar Assad and threatening to station missiles on EU borders, past and future President - and current Prime Minister - Vladimir Putin relaxed at a mixed martial arts fight last Sunday night at Moscow's Olimpisky Arena. When he stepped into the ring after the bout to address the crowd however, his reception was as hostile as the fight had been. The muzzled Russian media have either ignored the incident or claimed the booing was directed at Jeff "The Snowman" Monson, but thousands of comments on the American's facebook wall tell a different story. [more inside]
posted by joannemullen at 4:00 AM PST - 28 comments

Google StreetView Landscapes

Google StreetView Art Aaron Hobson creates beautiful landscape photographs out of Google StretView
posted by mitocan at 3:27 AM PST - 11 comments

This was important

As we wind down 2011, we think of the most exciting moments from the last year. We measure these moments by "Tweets per minute". The 10 Most Tweeted Moments Of All Time all happened during the last year. Remember when Osama bin Laden died? (Number 10: 5,106 tweets per second.) There was an earthquake in Japan (Number 7: 5,530 tweets per second.) There were sporting events. But the Number 1 most tweeted event of 2011 was... [more inside]
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:16 AM PST - 53 comments

buzz buzz buzz

In 1978 a tiny English company called Electronic Dream Plant produced their first product, the EDP Wasp synthesizer, the first of a short-lived range of creepy-crawly-named devices. In the golden age of big wooden and metal synths the wasp was made of plastic, battery-powered, with a built-in speaker, a keyboard with no moving parts, and used a brilliantly minimalist CMOS circuit design (in fact, people are still copying the Wasp filter circuit). It was the first analog synth to be truly affordable. The Wasp's accessibility, unique sound and portability saw it quickly used by musicians ranging from buskers to rock stars. [more inside]
posted by w0mbat at 12:11 AM PST - 22 comments

November 23

Earl Campbell Thighs in HD!

Just in time for Turkey Day.
Recently something unique came into my possession: the original 16mm work-print of Manos: The Hands of Fate. (made famous by these guys).
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 10:36 PM PST - 34 comments

A modest proposal

A revolutionary new food supply, announced by author Mykle Hansen. [more inside]
posted by msalt at 10:03 PM PST - 9 comments

#fail #whale #tale

Australia's Qantas Airlines has been left red-faced after an ill-timed public relations campaign and Twitter competition backfired, drawing thousands of angry responses. The contest ran a day after talks with unions broke down, and after Qantas grounded its entire fleet in October. Thousands of passengers were stranded worldwide after the firm halted flights in an attempt to end months of strike action by workers angered by the firm's restructuring plans. The "Qantas Luxury" promotion, launched on 22 November, quickly tapped into customers' ire. ~ BBC
posted by infini at 10:03 PM PST - 20 comments

Cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct.

Elvis Costello :: Watching The Detectives.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:50 PM PST - 27 comments

"Just put it in the oven and go for a walk!"

"Somebody's turkey might come out better and somebody's turkey comes out worse but just remember: it's just a f*cking turkey." Tante Marie offers last-minute, no nonsense advice on how to make a Thanksgiving turkey. [more inside]
posted by Deathalicious at 7:27 PM PST - 77 comments

The multi-talented Hans Reichel, 1949-2011

Hans Reichel, of Wuppertal, Germany, maker of exquisitely beautiful guitars, on which he made exquisitely beautiful and idiosyncratic music, inventor of the delightfully expressive daxophone, on which he made delightfully expressive and often humorous music, creator of elegant fonts and architect of one of the most endearingly creative flash websites you'll ever see, has died at the age of 62. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:57 PM PST - 25 comments

Panama Priti Bikes

Panama Priti Bikes, by José Castrellón.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:44 PM PST - 6 comments

Why this murderous love, world?

Yo boys. I am sing song. Soup song. Flop song. "It's not meant to be anti-anything. Director [Aishwarya Dhanush] said the situation demanded a light-hearted fun song about love failure. I came up with a tune in ten minutes. I don't know what kind of mood Dhanush was in… he started singing in broken English and came up with this in 20 minutes. It just happened". Presenting India's newest music phenomenon, a Tamil-English dada-ist patische eulogizing unrequited love through Madras street-slang, and hypnotic earthy drums. [more inside]
posted by the cydonian at 5:35 PM PST - 26 comments

Ulysses 31 Redux

Ulysses 31 Redux (YT) is a shot-for-shot remake of the opening credits of Ulysses 31, the Franco-Japanese sci-fi retelling of The Odyssey (and perhaps high water mark of 80s children's television). The remake was directed by Dermot Canterbury.
posted by running order squabble fest at 4:10 PM PST - 28 comments

To create is to resist, to resist is to create

In Time for outrage! (Indignez-vous in French, ¡Indignaos! in Spanish), a short pamphlet published at the end of 2010, 93-year old Stéphane Hessel, a former French Resistance fighter and diplomat, called for young people to fight injustice. He struck a nerve, and his little book not only became a surprise best-seller (3.5 million copies worldwide, translated into 10 languages) but gave its name (Indignados) to the Spanish protest movement that started in May 2011 and later inspired other protests in many countries, including France, Greece, Israel, and the USA with Occupy Wall Street. Interview with Hessel about the Occupy movements. First page of the official translation. Unofficial translation (of lesser quality). Bonus: Stéphane Hessel's mother, played by Jeanne Moreau in Truffaut's classic Jules and Jim.
posted by elgilito at 3:03 PM PST - 13 comments

Firewater

There's a fairly old urban legend [Snopes; pop-ups galore] regarding the feasibility and/or incidence of young people getting drunk via the insertion of tampons that had been soaked in vodka into body cavities. Snopes was skeptical of the claim, but apparently no one had gone on record as having tested the method... until Danielle Crittenden stepped into the breach. (HuffPo) [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:58 PM PST - 127 comments

Mahna Mahna

Mahna Mahna -- the signature Muppets tune you all know and love? It came from the soundtrack of an Italian soft porn film about Swedish lesbians.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 2:57 PM PST - 61 comments

Putting a style in your crimp

Le Crimp (mostly en français) is a French collective that explores organic and abstract geometric [ I | II | III ] (PDFs) approaches to the art of origami. Read the white papers, browse the gallery or watch videos of artworks being made or being used in still-motion animations
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:34 PM PST - 6 comments

The Beauty of an Ugly Addiction

Belgian photographer Frieke Janssens snapped controversial (and artistic) portraits of children between the ages of four and nine smoking fake cigarettes. The photo shoot in action was recorded and her portfolio can be seen here. (Previously) [more inside]
posted by gman at 2:24 PM PST - 27 comments

The Sword Maker

Korehira Watanabe, one of Japan's last swordsmiths (SLYT).
posted by mahershalal at 2:09 PM PST - 26 comments

The Open Notebook

The Open Notebook looks at how science writers, and some general nonfiction writers, practice their craft. Their Story-Behind-the-Story interviews are especially interesting, showing how projects like Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and David Dobbs Atavist story "My Mother's Lover" developed from start to finish. For writers, there's also a database of successful story pitches.
posted by gottabefunky at 1:55 PM PST - 3 comments

Is a Law Degree a Good Investment Today?

Professor Herwig Schlunk of Vanderbilt University explores whether a law degree is a good investment today. (SSRN link) [more inside]
posted by reenum at 12:38 PM PST - 49 comments

Opposition MP lets off tear gas in parliament

South Korean MP Kim Sun-dong sets off a tear gas canister in parliament to try to block passage of a free trade agreement with the US. Another video here.
posted by Numenius at 12:35 PM PST - 58 comments

It is a called a cherpumple.

A Cherry Pie, an Apple Pie and a Pumpkin Pie, Each Cooked Inside a Separate Cake, and Then All Cooked Together inside Another Cake.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 11:25 AM PST - 92 comments

Staying Frosty

"Transforming the second chapter of Ellen Ripley's ongoing war with the Xenomorphs into an icecapade is the kind of loony idea that that can only possibly exist after someone has exploded fireworks inside a crowded bar to simulate RoboCop's iconic gas station explosion while the titular cyborg breaks into a musical interlude describing his existential crisis. Anything else would be a step back after that."
The Old Murder House Theater is a comedy troupe in Austin known for doing... shall we say... unusual movie adaptations. Last weekend's show: "Aliens On Ice!" (Scroll down for Youtube footage, or check out a two minute summary of the show, from the troupe.) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 10:56 AM PST - 24 comments

"To say that this hypothesis was controversial was akin to saying that Napoleon had a bit of a thing about the Russians."

American biologist Lynn Margulis has died. Prolific and determined, Margulis was best known for her development of Endosymbiotic Theory, the now widely-accepted idea that complex cells began as a combination of simpler, prokaryotic ones, and the Gaia Hypothesis, which posited the Earth as a type of living organism. Some of her later ideas, including the claim that HIV is not the cause of AIDS or that caterpillers and butterflies were once separate organisms, received less support, but Endosymbiotic Theory, in the words of Richard Dawkins, remains "one of the great achievements of twentieth-century evolutionary biology."
posted by Tubalcain at 10:34 AM PST - 32 comments

Military Crowdsourcing

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is using a challenge program to find out whether it's possible to put shredded documents back together again. "DARPA’s Shredder Challenge calls upon computer scientists, puzzle enthusiasts and anyone else who likes solving complex problems to compete for up to $50,000 by piecing together a series of shredded documents. The goal is to identify and assess potential capabilities that could be used by our warfighters operating in war zones, but might also create vulnerabilities to sensitive information that is protected through our own shredding practices throughout the U.S. national security community." [more inside]
posted by keli at 9:30 AM PST - 54 comments

...Happy with the idea of a Democratic president—indeed, dancing-in-the-streets delirious—but not with the real thing

If we trace liberal disappointment with President Obama to its origins, to try to pinpoint the moment when his crestfallen supporters realized that this was Not Change They Could Believe In, the souring probably began on December 17, 2008, when Obama announced that conservative Evangelical pastor Rick Warren would speak at his inauguration. “Abominable,” fumed John Aravosis on AmericaBlog. “Obama’s ‘inclusiveness’ mantra always seems to head only in one direction—an excuse to scorn progressives and embrace the Right,” seethed Salon’s Glenn Greenwald. On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow rode the story almost nightly: “I think the problem is getting larger for Barack Obama.” Negative 34 days into the start of the Obama presidency, the honeymoon was over.
Jonathan Chait asks in New York magazine, When Did Liberals Become So Unreasonable? [more inside]
posted by 2bucksplus at 9:18 AM PST - 345 comments

Oh deer

Benton! Jesus Christ! [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:36 AM PST - 48 comments

oooo-WHEEEEEEE-oooooooo ...

Forty-eight years ago this evening, BBC viewers were introduced to a cranky old man, his granddaughter Susan, and the singular device they used to travel the universe. Happy birthday, Doctor Who! [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 7:57 AM PST - 118 comments

A stop-motion road trip, in miniature.

Address is Approximate. "A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View."
posted by BoringPostcards at 7:54 AM PST - 12 comments

The name Kevin is now illegal. Why not use Alan instead? It suits you.

"London Bridge is currently closed to the public and a section 60 in place due to the presence of a depressed swan." - The Metropolitan Police Twitter Feed: Giving you the lowdown on all the criminal shit that's going down in London town. [more inside]
posted by The Whelk at 7:49 AM PST - 27 comments

It's not Tarkovsky, but...

For US users, today's Google Doodle is a turkey. For those outside the US, today's Google Doodle commemorates the 60th publication anniversary of Stanisław Lem's first novel, in their most ambitiously interactive doodle yet. [more inside]
posted by McCoy Pauley at 6:47 AM PST - 63 comments

Malls track shoppers' cell phones on Black Friday

Shopper Stalking: Starting on Black Friday and running through New Year's Day, two U.S. malls -- Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. -- will track guests' movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones. "It's just not invasive of privacy," said Stephanie Shriver-Engdahl, vice president of digital strategy for Forest City. "There are no risks to privacy, so I don't see why anyone would opt out." (Consumers can opt out by turning off their phones.)
posted by Blake at 5:14 AM PST - 152 comments

'Brinicle' ice finger of death

"In winter, the air temperature above the sea ice can be below -20C, whereas the sea water is only about -1.9C. Heat flows from the warmer sea up to the very cold air, forming new ice from the bottom. The salt in this newly formed ice is concentrated and pushed into the brine channels. And because it is very cold and salty, it is denser than the water beneath. The result is the brine sinks in a descending plume. But as this extremely cold brine leaves the sea ice, it freezes the relatively fresh seawater it comes in contact with. This forms a fragile tube of ice around the descending plume, which grows into what has been called a brinicle." A BBC film crew has recorded one of these freezing life on the sea floor.
posted by cosmac at 4:08 AM PST - 46 comments

Don't worry about that Richard, ring the newsroom

Television New Zealand have captured some extraordinary, gut wrenching footage of a helicopter getting its rotor blades tangled in cables and crashing on Auckland's waterfront. The pilot has apparently walked away without serious injury.
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 3:02 AM PST - 55 comments

November 22

WHOOOOOOAAAAA!!!!!!

Mieders Alpine Coaster - No Brakes. SLYT. POV ride down a single-pipe alpine coaster in Mieders, Austria. Strap in, headphones on, full screen. That is all.
posted by Skygazer at 10:24 PM PST - 40 comments

"Odd Henderson was the meanest human creature in my experience!"

Truman Capote's, The Thanksgiving Visitor. [more inside]
posted by timsteil at 8:54 PM PST - 3 comments

It was just after dark when the truck started down the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania

You may be familiar with the song, and you may even know that it was based on a true story... But if you're only familiar with the original recording (or even the best-known version from Greatest Stories Live), you may not know that Harry Chapin's epic trucker song 30,000 Pounds Of Bananas actually had not three but FOUR endings. Now you can hear them all.
posted by hippybear at 7:08 PM PST - 30 comments

Zeeky Boogy Doog

Possibly you remember Albino Black Sheep, home to a vast collection of puerile, amusing Flash animations. And if you do, perhaps you remember The Demented Cartoon Movie (warning: flashing, strobing stuff), the longest and the puerilest, or its shorter, less popular sequel, The Greatest Present Ever. [more inside]
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:57 PM PST - 19 comments

"...compromised and inequitable..."

Governor John Kitzhaber halts all executions in Oregon [more inside]
posted by OverlappingElvis at 5:15 PM PST - 49 comments

MIC CHECK!

Scott Walker, Michele Bachmann, Robin Vos, Karl Rove, Joe Moore, Ron Paul, Scott Serota, Newt Gingrich, Rahm Emanuel, Eric Cantor, and, today, Barack Obama
posted by finite at 4:55 PM PST - 188 comments

Pixel art

Graphic designer Susan Kare was responsible for much of the look of the original Mac operating system. Now, you can take a peek inside the notebook where she sketched out on graph paper the icons for cut and paste. (previously)
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:03 PM PST - 38 comments

Name Games

Why leave name choosing to the whim of marketing consultants, grandparents and significant others? Wordoid will name your company or designer drug so as to sound natural in a range of languages. Wordmixer and Company-Name-Generator may help too. Babynamegenie will conjure up a tag for your offspring. This dog name generator accounts for your pet's size and physique. FakenameGenerator (see previously) will surround you with credible sounding friends and colleagues. Thenameinspector blog may be able to help with find something unique.
posted by rongorongo at 3:37 PM PST - 36 comments

Milton Berle vs. Statler and Waldorf.

Milton Berle vs. Statler and Waldorf.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:08 PM PST - 28 comments

Anne McCaffrey, 1926-2011

Anne McCaffrey, author of Dragonriders of Pern, the first woman to win a Hugo award, is reported dead.
posted by Zarkonnen at 2:34 PM PST - 220 comments

Rest in peace, Paul Motian.

Paul Motian (wiki) (myspace) (allaboutjazz), one of the great jazz drummers of our time, is dead at 80. [more inside]
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:17 PM PST - 30 comments

No Alibi

?uestlove is grounded. As the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Roots are known for providing guests of the show with impressive, personalized entrances. Last night, however, in an ill advised attempt at snark that has left some feelings hurt Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann entered the stage to the song "Lyin’ Ass Bitch” by Fishbone. [more inside]
posted by furiousxgeorge at 2:08 PM PST - 223 comments

Women journalists confront harassment, sexism when using social media

Women journalists confront harassment, sexism when using social media You come to expect it, as a woman writer, particularly if you’re political. You come to expect the vitriol, the insults, the death threats. After a while, the emails and tweets and comments containing graphic fantasies of how and where and with what kitchen implements certain pseudonymous people would like to rape you cease to be shocking, and become merely a daily or weekly annoyance, something to phone your girlfriends about, seeking safety in hollow laughter.
posted by modernnomad at 1:58 PM PST - 39 comments

Cooking with vahchef

Chef Sanjay Thumma (vahrehvah.com) wants to teach you how to make pretty much any Indian dish you can think of.
posted by curious nu at 12:50 PM PST - 18 comments

Keeping it light

The world's lightest material -- 100 times lighter than styrofoam -- has been created at UC Irvine & CIT. It's a metal alloy with surprising compression strength.
posted by msalt at 12:44 PM PST - 42 comments

Help me to help me.

Training in 'concrete thinking' can be self-help treatment for depression. 'New research provides the first evidence that depression can be treated by only targeting an individual’s style of thinking through repeated mental exercises in an approach called cognitive bias modification. The study[pdf] suggests an innovative psychological treatment called ‘concreteness training’ can reduce depression in just two months and could work as a self-help therapy for depression in primary care.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 12:10 PM PST - 61 comments

With four and twenty black-and-white birds, here's the history of the pie

NPR's food blog gets wordy: for the origins of "pie," look to the humble magpie. Though the etymology of pie doesn't present one clear path, the possibilities are fascinating. English surnames point to pie and pye as a baked good in the 1300s, with a Peter Piebakere in 1320 and Adam le Piemakere in 1332. Chaucer referred to "pye" as both a baked good and a magpie (Google books). Or perhaps the fillings were like a magpie's collection of bits and bobs, similar to haggis. You know, like the French "agace," or magpie (Gb), and similar to chewets, those baked goods, or another name for jackdaws (Gb), relative of the magpie. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 12:01 PM PST - 21 comments

The sad truth is that we have a govt that seems intent on turning corruption into a national sport...

Today the South African parliament, dominated by the ANC, passed by a large majority a media law which will restrict and constrain independent journalism in that country. Indeed, the law seems designed to squeeze, chill or eliminate independent reporting. The state is going to be accountable to the state. [George Brock]
[more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 11:46 AM PST - 17 comments

Terry Gilliam animation lesson

Monty Python's Terry Gilliam explains his cutout animation technique. The technique itself doesn't really matter -- whatever works is the thing to use. And that's why I use cutout. It's the quickest and easiest form of animation that I know. (SLYT)
posted by swift at 11:42 AM PST - 23 comments

Still Alive on theremin, toy guitar and voice

Relevant to my interests (YT). Sara Quin (of Tegan and Sara) sings "Still Alive", accompanied by Jonathan Coulton and Dorit Chrysler, in what could perhaps be called a tweefecta. [more inside]
posted by running order squabble fest at 11:10 AM PST - 61 comments

Violence and Madness

"During my career, I kept my mouth shut. This now, speaking out, it’s about telling you my life. There’s no agenda, no vendetta. This is what football is really like." Kris Jenkins’s View of Life in the N.F.L. Trenches.
posted by cashman at 11:00 AM PST - 79 comments

Brave enough

Tom Bodett: Inside Passage (mp3). Tom Bodett talks about his father for The Moth. [more inside]
posted by kmz at 10:06 AM PST - 9 comments

What's black and white and red all over(drive)?

Why Might A Publisher Pull Its eBooks From Libraries? PaidContent takes a look at Penguin's recent move to pull all of its titles from Overdrive's public library ebook program, a program that even some librarians are upset about.
posted by Toekneesan at 9:58 AM PST - 33 comments

Life On The Virtual Frontier

Douglas Rushkoff examines how technology is changing us in “Life On The Virtual Frontier”; a fascinating episode of Frontline.
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 9:10 AM PST - 10 comments

Hey Girlfriend

A Girl's Guide to Attending a Gay Bar "If you take away one thing from this article, let it be this: keep your fucking bachelorette party out of our bars. If you treat my safe space like your zoo, I will seduce your fiance while you're out selecting stationary." See also: Queers Read This (1990), "Rules of Conduct for Straight People".
posted by sevenyearlurk at 8:46 AM PST - 257 comments

Nothing but a Movie

"The following HTML 5 movie contains the sort of images that you see every day in the news, and thus might not be suitable for children. Turn your speakers on if you dare." [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 7:55 AM PST - 19 comments

Stanford online courses

Stanford has announced new online courses for January 2012. Like the three courses currently running (1,2,3), these courses are free, open to the general public, and have no required textbook (previously). [more inside]
posted by -jf- at 7:54 AM PST - 28 comments

Facebook as Malware

Facebook has been criticized repeatedly for how it treats its users' privacy (this topic is not a stranger to MeFi), but with the introduction of OpenGraph (previously) earlier this year, some are arguing that Facebook has gone beyond general privacy concerns and has become Malware.

Now, we've shown that Facebook promotes captive content on its network ahead of content on the web, prohibits users from bringing open content into their network, warns users not to visit web content, and places obstacles in front of visits to web sites even if they've embraced Facebook's technologies and registered in Facebook's centralized database of sites on the web. [more inside]
posted by Kimberly at 7:33 AM PST - 75 comments

SciGuy Eric Berger

One of my favorite blogs happens to be local to me. Eric Berger, the Houston Chronicle's "SciGuy" usually reports on the weather. But he also posts entertaining and serious stuff as well. [more inside]
posted by PapaLobo at 6:57 AM PST - 2 comments

The Umbrella Man

On the 48th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, filmmaker Errol Morris examines a particularly intriguing figure of conspiracy speculation - "The Umbrella Man".
posted by Tenacious.Me.Tokyo at 5:30 AM PST - 63 comments

29. Goes without saying, but if it snows, it's a classic.

The 32 Rules of Thanksgiving Touch Football. [WSJ]
posted by Fizz at 5:17 AM PST - 37 comments

"Oh my gosh"

Flour Children (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 5:13 AM PST - 80 comments

Vajazzled into a fancy new foof

Channel 4 in the UK recently began broadcast of their new reality show My Transsexual Summer. The first TV show of its type to have been produced with consultation from Trans Media Watch, MTS follows Channel 4's signing of the Memorandum of Understanding earlier this year. Response has been largely positive, but not everyone was happy. [more inside]
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 2:46 AM PST - 35 comments

Why do we need a financial sector?

Economics blog VoxEU debates Why do we need a financial sector? Serious, important and very dull articles discuss the trade-offs and myths of innovation, and whether the sector is overrated, critical or a contributor to the wider economy.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 1:51 AM PST - 35 comments

November 21

Pike the Peppering Policeman and the Parody Proliferation

Lt John Pike, mustached UC Davis campus police officer, now finds himself the subject of the "Casually Pepper Spraying Cop" meme, where the nonchalant Pike is inserted into famous works of art such as the "The Creation of Adam," "The Scream," and yes, the cover of "Sgt Pepper." [more inside]
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 10:52 PM PST - 199 comments

Time's fun when you're having flies

One of the biggest stars of TV and movies talks about his 30-year career, his relationship with Jim Henson, and his brand new movie. Jian Ghomeshi talks to Kermit the Frog, on the video version of Ghomeshi's radio show, Q. Unfortunately, you have to put up with some ads before and during the interview.
posted by angiep at 10:20 PM PST - 28 comments

Great People Are Overrated

“Someone who is exceptional in their role is not just a little better than someone who is pretty good,” Mark Zuckerberg said recently. “They are 100 times better.” Bull hockey, says Bill Taylor in the Harvard Business Review: great people are overrated. See also Great People are Overrated, II and Malcolm Gladwell's 2002 take on the same theme, The Talent Myth.
posted by escabeche at 8:04 PM PST - 105 comments

Spirit Journey

Mars Rover Spirit's Entire Journey on Mars (A time lapse)
posted by dhruva at 6:59 PM PST - 46 comments

The Rap Board

Signature catchphrases from your favorite rappers!
posted by Tom-B at 6:41 PM PST - 53 comments

Meanwhile in Egypt... "The people want the end of the field marshal!"

Protesters in Cairo have re-occupied Tahrir square. As the military brutally suppresses protests with live ammunition and tear gas that has left at least 33 dead and two thousand injured, Egypt's interim cabinet has offered its resignation a week before elections were due to begin. Telegraph liveblog | Al Jazeera liveblog
posted by dustyasymptotes at 6:06 PM PST - 48 comments

Michael Mann's "Heat"

Although [Michael] Mann has said he was inspired by a true story from Chicago in the late 1960s, the film is no gritty realist number about desperate thievery. Rather, HEAT is a high-gloss creature of its time, utilizing the classic "duel between cop and robber"... to thematize lifestyle issues in the mid-1990s. Specifically I argue that, for all its slickness and emphasis on style and personality, HEAT is a film about work and its increasing personal costs. For the characters in HEAT, work provides excitement* and challenge, but it ultimately excludes any emotional life outside of the demands of the job. *That's the shootout scene
posted by Trurl at 5:18 PM PST - 106 comments

The Only JamPad Band?

As the encore for their 12th annual moe.down Festival in Mohawk, NY, the band members of the festival's namesake, moe., paid tribute to the recently-deceased Steve Jobs by performing their song Crab Eyes ... entirely on iPads. [more inside]
posted by Hey, Zeus! at 3:50 PM PST - 16 comments

Seeing music in colour: Not just for stoners anymore!

Scientists have found that people with synesthesia, a condition wherein people have strong links between sensory experiences (such as hearing music as colours, or recalling a particular taste with a strong visual memory), may be caused by neural overstimulation in the visual cortex. The original paper (abstract and full text in pdf): Enhanced Cortical Excitability in Grapheme-Color Synesthesia and Its Modulation [more inside]
posted by guster4lovers at 2:02 PM PST - 59 comments

Revising Research

Emory University English professor Mark Bauerlein (previously) argues that the majority of research by literary academics has no meaningful value. [more inside]
posted by reenum at 1:32 PM PST - 73 comments

RIP Baron

John Neville, best known for an array of theatre roles, with legions of fans for his portrayal of Baron Munchausen in Terry Gilliam's movie and "the well-manicured man" in the X-Files, has died.
posted by Mike D at 12:57 PM PST - 66 comments

Kampai, you bitches!

Jeremy Thorn is an abusive, hard-drinking gaijin who will teach you Japanese while verbally berating you. He and his friends will also get drunk and teach you how to cook Japanese food in a similarly abusive fashion. Then he'll take you on a tour of weird Japanese signage, sights, and stuff. (note: MLYT; a lot of swearing is involved) [more inside]
posted by sixohsix at 12:02 PM PST - 56 comments

Not actually intended as a guide for Daily Mail editors

A short guide to lazy EU journalism: not sure how the EU works or what institutions are involved? –> Just write “Brussels”. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 11:28 AM PST - 68 comments

Life is fleeting, but a body can be on display forever

Atlas Obscura provides a Guide to Communist Mummies, and there's plenty more online. Visit Lenin's Mausoleum, where he has been kept since 1924, defying his wishes to be buried next to his mother in St. Petersburg. He wasn't alone forever, as Stalin's body was kept in the mausoleum after his death in 1953, until his body was quietly removed in October, 1961. Just under eight years later, Hồ Chí Minh died, and against his wishes to be cremated, a very large state funeral was held and Uncle Ho's embalmed remains were placed in a mausoleum. Chairman Mao Zedong made A Proposal that all Central Leaders be Cremated after Death in 1956, but his wishes were overlooked when he died in 1976, and he joined the growing ranks of the preserved communist leaders in his own crystal casket, housed in a grand mausoleum. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:20 AM PST - 30 comments

Occupy Flash

Occupy Flash - The movement to rid the world of the Flash Player plugin [more inside]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:20 AM PST - 143 comments

No longer by stage coach

Over 40 million Americans move in a year, creating a huge amount of internal migration. In this wonderful interactive map you can see the flows of population by county and year in America. Four experts comment on the map ("The Human Capital Swap-meet," "Vibrant Flux," "Reversing Flows," and "New Patterns?"). In more detail, the Census has a report on the latest geographic flows, and the Migration Policy Institute has terrific data on the population flows of immigrants. And, for a more international view, the map of cities that attract the most outside residents is also really interesting.
posted by blahblahblah at 10:54 AM PST - 23 comments

Dead End Thrills does Skyrim

Dead End Thrills does Skyrim. (Previously.)
posted by Avenger50 at 10:41 AM PST - 228 comments

Lions

Indian talent show Warriors of Goja SLYT
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:13 AM PST - 31 comments

Larry was a Damn Good Dawg.

Larry Munson, the legendary voice of the Georgia Bulldogs, died yesterday at the age of 89. [more inside]
posted by robstercraw at 9:41 AM PST - 15 comments

Architecture of Fear

Trevor Paglen (aka Agent Plorver) has work featured in Belgium's z33 House for Contemporary Art's current exhibit, Architecture of Fear. Paglen's work includes tracking and photographing 189 classified American satellites in orbit around Earth as well as locating and photographing US-run 'black sites' in Afghanistan. We Make Money Not Art (previously w/r/t Architecture of Fear) sits down with Paglen over Skype for an interview.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:36 AM PST - 4 comments

Maria Popova Is Busy

Maria Popova may be the best curator of Awesome on the Internet after the blue's own hivemind. Her site, Brain Pickings, has been mentioned a few times, but no-one appears to have pointed out her Twitter feed or her contributions to TBWA's tumblr, Curiosity Counts. Some recent posts of note: a piece on digital parasitism and the business of culture, Terry Prachett's self-documentary Choosing To Die, her selection of the best children's and picture books of 2011. Also, the best of Brain Pickings from last week and 2010. When not doing all that, she's writing for several magazines, organising the effort to restock the Brookyn OWS library after its destruction by police, and curating physical objects, sent as gifts every quarter.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 9:33 AM PST - 20 comments

Another XKCD infographic

What Randall Munroe did for Radiation, he does again for Money.
posted by Premeditated Symmetry Breaking at 8:46 AM PST - 146 comments

When I'm dancing at a party I don't think about death

El Acordéon del Diablo is a captivating documentary about Francisco "Pacho" Rada Batista, the great Colombian accordionist and singer-songwriter. In this film, Pacho Rada, in his nineties, tells stories and reflects on celebrity, copyright, tradition and the shortcomings of pop music. His stories include a shipwreck that left a boatload of accordions washed up on a Colombian beach and an accordion duel with the devil himself. In ten parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
posted by Jode at 7:42 AM PST - 2 comments

Here are some recent DJ mixes for you to enjoy.

If you're looking for some uplifting dance music to help you get your week going, Goldroom's Otoño Mix 2011 is a very soulful nu-disco collection that pairs nicely with The Magician's Magic Tape Sixteen. Need something with more energy? Edwin van Cleef's November mix is a bit more hands in the air, perfectly suited for the elimination of afternoon doldrums. [more inside]
posted by beaucoupkevin at 4:58 AM PST - 41 comments

Around the world

Around the World in 80 Days is a BBC television travel series first broadcast in 1989. It was presented by comedian and actor Michael Palin.The show was inspired by Jules Verne's classic novel Around the World in Eighty Days, in which a character named Phileas Fogg accepts a wager to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days or less. Palin was given the same deadline... Here's Episode 1 - The Challenge. [more inside]
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:09 AM PST - 34 comments

Got a light?

Australian legislation mandating tobacco products are sold in plain packaging today passed the last hurdle today with plain packaging becoming a reality by December 2012. Some had misgivings, some disagree that plain packaging will be an effective deterrent; while some believe it will be counter-productive, while others take a different view.
posted by the noob at 2:42 AM PST - 150 comments

November 20

Lily shreds tailside.

Dog chasing mountain bike. That is all.
posted by allkindsoftime at 10:23 PM PST - 55 comments

1h

1h by Hans-Christian Schink.
posted by beshtya at 10:03 PM PST - 30 comments

Let's take for granted that they had it to begin with

David Frum asks When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?
posted by garlic at 9:30 PM PST - 181 comments

påske-krim

How do you write crime fiction in the wake of a massacre? The mass slaughter on Utøya in July shook Norway to its core. Now the country's crime writers must come to terms with what happened…
posted by infini at 7:37 PM PST - 16 comments

Your resume was thrown out in the first 10 seconds

Sociologist Lauren Rivera of Northwestern spent two years researching the way elite financial and law firms really select their new hires. The original paper is behind a sciencedirect paywall, but Bryan Caplan has a nice write-up about the results. You're much better off with a degree from a tippy-top school than just any Ivy -- but they don't actually care about what you learned there. Your grades don't matter that much as long as they're not bad. Climbing a famous mountain or making a varsity team, especially if you're nationally competitive, would be wise. And oh yeah -- they do care what you got on your SATs. More reax from the Chronicle of Higher Ed and physicist Steve Hsu.
posted by escabeche at 5:03 PM PST - 151 comments

There's Always Money in Quikster, I mean the Banana Stand

Now the story of a wealthy new media company that nearly lost everything and the one TV series that had no choice but to keep it all together. It's Arrested... Development... on Netflix. [more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:21 PM PST - 70 comments

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Today, November 20, is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to remember all the people who've been killed in the past year out of transphobia. As before, the vast majority are poor trans women of color. Also as before, the true numbers are almost certainly far higher than the reported numbers. Ceremonies are being held around the world; see the website for details.
posted by jiawen at 12:25 PM PST - 81 comments

Harry Sisley, aged 10. Drowned in attempting to save his brother after he himself had just been rescued. May 24th, 1878

Hidden away in central London, The Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice is a small public monument in Postman's Park, commemorating ordinary people who died saving the lives of others and might otherwise have been forgotten. It was unveiled in 1900 with plans for 120 memorial ceramic tiles, but by 1931 only 53 had been laid down. In 2009, the first new tablet in 78 years was added. Individual collection of the tiles. A blog post about the memorial. [more inside]
posted by growabrain at 11:42 AM PST - 15 comments

RIP Gary Garcia

Gary Garcia, half of the musical duo Buckner & Garcia, died on November 17, 2011 at his home in Florida. The duo is best known for their 1982 top ten hit Pac Man Fever. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 10:31 AM PST - 36 comments

"We’re allowing a whole new level of intelligence in the networks...We can take a copy of everything coming through our switch and dump it off to the FBI."

The Surveillance Catalog: Where Governments Get Their Spying Tools The Wall Street Journal has obtained a "trove" of documents from the secretive retail market in surveillance technology sold to world governments, and has created a searchable database for your enjoyment. "Among the most controversial technologies on display at the conference were essentially computer-hacking tools to enable government agents to break into people's computers and cellphones, log their keystrokes and access their data..." E.g., FinFisher installs malware by sending fake software updates for Blackberry and other devices; VUPEN's Exploits for Law Enforcement Agencies "aim to deliver exclusive exploit codes for undisclosed vulnerabilities" in software from Microsoft, Apple and others. [more inside]
posted by mediareport at 9:45 AM PST - 37 comments

On a Throne Made of Vanishing Ink

Makes very little difference what happens, the next ten years, because the main thing in the universe isn’t at all affected by these little shifts of anthills, musics, nations, marriages. Let Allen Ginsberg inform your Sunday afternoon. [more inside]
posted by Obscure Reference at 9:38 AM PST - 20 comments

Basil D'Oliveira

Cricketer Basil D'Oliveira Has Died. "In 1968 he was named in England's squad to tour South Africa which was then cancelled as the ruling National Party refused to accept his presence." [more inside]
posted by marienbad at 7:16 AM PST - 22 comments

"Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

"Of course water hydrates." or does it? EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration. Brussels bureaucrats were ridiculed yesterday after banning drink manufacturers from claiming that water can prevent dehydration. And hysteria over the EU's ruling on water and dehydration ensues. You can read the EU's ruling here (PDF). Highland Spring vows to defy EU rule on water labelling.
posted by Fizz at 4:32 AM PST - 102 comments

November 19

Ghostface Killah On Living

In the tradition of Marcus Aurelius and Montaigne, Ghostface Killah (a.k.a. Pretty Toney) has set down his thoughts on living. (audio nsfw) (previously)
posted by Trurl at 9:22 PM PST - 41 comments

Our glorious new public/private partnership military industrial police complex

Who's coordinating crackdowns on Occupy Wall Street? The San Francisco Bay Guardian reports that, although there was rampant speculation about Homeland Security's role in Occupy Wall Street crackdowns across the nation given multiple police force's paramilitary actions, the Feds are not directly involved. Instead, planning has been facilitated by an affiliated non-profit organization called Police Executive Research Forum, aka PERF.
But what exactly is PERF? [more inside]
posted by stagewhisper at 8:24 PM PST - 268 comments

Drone music, sorta

Throughout time immemorial, songs of patriotism, such as Darryl Worley's "Have You Forgotten?" are a staple of countries at war. Our ballads root for our soldiers to come back safe and sound to families and sweethearts, but who sings the tale about the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, the autonomous drone that pines for the vending machine it left at home? Only the evil ghost of Johnny Cash does. [more inside]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:06 PM PST - 36 comments

Clearly, Utica Club is the Better UC

While the nation's attention has been recently drawn to the student protests at UC-Davis after video showing UCPD pepper-spraying a group of peaceful students went viral, this is merely one incident in a wave of student activism over the last three years with the goal of "reclaiming" the University of California for students. Some place the beginning of this mass student movement around the 2009 decision to implement a 32% tuition hike, which led to protests that drew over 5,000 students and a damning expose and condemnation from the President of the UC Faculty Association. (Budget Cuts Previously) [more inside]
posted by Chipmazing at 1:45 PM PST - 624 comments

Where Did All The Adderall Go?

Where Did All The Adderall Go? A mysterious American adderall shortage has paralyzed the cognition and emptied the pocketbooks of millions of legal tweakers this year. Try to pay attention: it's a fun history of amphetamine, shortages, grotesque corporate greed and the Holy Grail of Big Pharma business models that is the "addiction-proof" addictive drug. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by DarlingBri at 12:29 PM PST - 179 comments

The life and art of Danielle Baquet-Long, 1983-2009

"One of the most moving releases I heard in 2010 was the 90-minute cassette entitled Ornitheology, by a mysterious individual by the name Chubby Wolf. Two long, 40-minute long songs that recalled beautifully the best moments of Brian Eno, yet the two songs struck me as something more…more. In doing research, I discovered two things about this mysterious band: a. that Chubby Wolf was the moniker of Danielle Baquet-Long, who performed in a group entitled Celer with her husband, Will Long, and, b. sadly, that Danielle had passed away suddenly, at the tragically young age of 26." Joseph Kyle of The Big Takeover interviewed Will Long, providing an overview of Danielle's life and art. Much of her music, which was released on limited edition CDrs, cassettes or vinyl is streaming on bandcamp, along with music she created with Will as Celer.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:33 AM PST - 16 comments

Balls

Melvin the Magical Mixed Media Machine.
posted by twoleftfeet at 6:08 AM PST - 20 comments

Paint It Black

The Morgan Library Black Hours, one of the world's most beautiful and striking illuminated manuscripts, has been digitized in its entirety. Richly decorated in blue and gold on black vellum, it is one of a surviving handful of such manuscripts produced in late 15th century Bruges. (Poorer quality, but still interesting, images of another such work, the Black Hours of Charles the Bold, are also online.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:50 AM PST - 21 comments

“All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike,”

Family Dysfunction: Some Tense Literature for Thanksgiving (Plus a Playlist) In honor of the holidays, here’s a dysfunctional family reading list and playlist to celebrate those good people who you just can’t get away from.
posted by Fizz at 4:18 AM PST - 20 comments

Not Your Average Saturday Morning Cartoon

What do you give a spoiled brat who has everything? His own monster, of course. "My Bloody Lad" is two manic minutes of imaginatively morbid mayhem* from a team of four French student animators who call themselves Dead Walter. SLVimeo for now, but we'll be seeing more from these warped toonsmiths for sure.
* probably enough cartoon gore and ghoulish content to earn an NSFW on the weekend
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:45 AM PST - 10 comments

StarCraft changed my life

StarCraft changed my life.
posted by Avenger50 at 12:25 AM PST - 87 comments

Tear of Grief: massive. ignored.

You probably don't know about a giant 10-story tall Russian memorial to war dead on American soil. It's not a trick statement, like on the contested Commander Islands in the Bering Sea. No, real America. New Jersey. It's called To the Struggle Against World Terrorism (or "Tear of Grief") and was installed in 2006 on the end of a working pier, facing the Statue of Liberty, prime real estate. Snopes created a page after incredulous queries. You can see it on Google Maps, Wikipedia. [more inside]
posted by stbalbach at 12:08 AM PST - 65 comments

November 18

Interviews with independent videogame developers

A tumblr blog called Quote Unquote recently presented a series of interviews with indie videogame developers, conducted over the last year, as a collection. The interviews include guys like cactus, Bennett Foddy, Chevy Ray Johnston, Jasper Byrne and Jan Willem Nijman.
posted by pancreas at 9:36 PM PST - 6 comments

Investigation into Natalie Wood's death re-opened

Homicide detectives who have reopened an investigation into the death of Natalie Wood after three decades said on Friday that the film star's husband, actor Robert Wagner, was not considered a suspect. [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 9:17 PM PST - 48 comments

The Most Adorable Chase

A rollover accident during rush hour on an Arizona freeway nearly ended in tragedy after two small dogs jumped from the wrecked vehicle and led police on a desperate chase through the busy traffic before finally being safely captured.
posted by griphus at 7:00 PM PST - 56 comments

Junk/Art

Tom Samui makes art from junk.
posted by tomswift at 6:55 PM PST - 5 comments

Web Symbols typeface

There are those points in every interactive designer’s career when he becomes fed up with producing the same set of graphics all over again for every website he designs. It could be the social network icons or gallery arrows. Similar for interactive developers that have to slice the same GIFs and PNGs each time the art director asks them to. Until now. Just Be Nice Studio came up with a typeface that includes frequently used iconographics and symbols. Although, the idea is not unique — Webdings and Windings have been around for quite some time — all of them have a lot of unnecessary symbols. Web Symbols is a set of vector html-compliant typefaces, so it might be used in any size, color and browser (okay, mostly — but IE7 for sure).
posted by netbros at 4:25 PM PST - 34 comments

With each part I got a small piece of myself back

Guy buys engagement ring. Guy gets dumped. Guy sells engagement ring and buys a fully armored Master Chief suit. [more inside]
posted by desjardins at 3:54 PM PST - 114 comments

Now in pictures!

Latet examples of 3D street art from around the world ~ in pictures More from Artist Joe Hill
posted by mattoxic at 3:29 PM PST - 5 comments

Strangely, there are no remixes with Downfall

Nononono cat is displeased. Nononono cat is autotuned. Nononono cat is in Destiny's Child. Nononono cat brings bass. Nononono cat is stuck in a time warp. Nononono cat goes to rehab. Nononono cat plays Tetris, and Mario Brothers. Is this the Nononono cat? No. [more inside]
posted by codacorolla at 2:08 PM PST - 40 comments

A descent into madness, of a particularly gruesome kind

"But when a saga popular with pre-adolescent girls peaks romantically on a night that leaves the heroine to wake up covered with bruises in the shape of her husband's hands — and when that heroine then spends the morning explaining to her husband that she's incredibly happy even though he injured her, and that it's not his fault because she understands he couldn't help it in light of the depth of his passion — that's profoundly irresponsible." MetaFilter's own Linda Holmes on the "psychosexual horror-show" that is The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1. [more inside]
posted by davidjmcgee at 1:44 PM PST - 271 comments

PLoS Impact Explorer

The PLoS Impact Explorer visualises which papers in the Open Access PLoS family of journals are making an impact online.
posted by alby at 12:02 PM PST - 20 comments

"What makes music boring?" An article from the A.V. Club.

What makes music boring?
posted by seriousmoonlight at 11:27 AM PST - 133 comments

Scientists Discover fMRI Area of the Brain

Are you tired of reading about how neuroscientists have discovered the area of the brain devoted to a single, oddly-specific function, but lack access to the sophisticated neuroimaging technologies needed to refute them? NeuroSynth has you covered. [more inside]
posted by logicpunk at 11:15 AM PST - 12 comments

(Includes your RDA of Haruki Murakami!)

I'm a Runner. Yes, the interview series is best known for the Sarah Palin cover, but Runner's World has managed to snag quite a variety of famous pavement-pounders, including Wait Wait host Peter Sagal, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, singer Shawn Colvin, Al Roker Al Roker, Episcopal bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and another Palin you may know and love.
posted by psoas at 11:01 AM PST - 24 comments

YouTube Teacher

A professor integrates a YouTube video of himself into class at Biola University
posted by MHPlost at 11:00 AM PST - 19 comments

Integrating Chinese Students into American Universities

American colleges find the Chinese-student boom a tricky fit [more inside]
posted by modernnomad at 10:40 AM PST - 56 comments

This game is eight percent worse than Twilight Princess!

Modern Game Journalism: The Movie: The Trailer. (Alternate unofficial Youtube mirror.) For context, there was recently a large backlash by fans against reviewers that gave good but less than perfect scores for Uncharted 3. Or, even worse, a mixed review. Rock, Paper, Shotgun had a concise response. [more inside]
posted by kmz at 9:54 AM PST - 58 comments

This is The Goldman Sachs Project

"By putting an [unelected] senior adviser at Goldman Sachs in charge of a Western nation, it has taken to new heights the political power of an investment bank that you might have thought was prohibitively politically toxic." This is The Goldman Sachs Project [more inside]
posted by rubyrudy at 9:28 AM PST - 67 comments

A living doll

The Decorated Bride - "In Lubinje, a small, picturesque village of 3500 inhabitants, a few hours from Prishtina, the capital of Kosovo, members of the Trebesh community live in colorful houses. They also have a colorful custom - or rite - of beautifying brides on their wedding day."
posted by madamjujujive at 9:26 AM PST - 46 comments

Hyperlight Nutrinos Take 2

Neutrino experiment repeat at Cern finds same result "The team which found that neutrinos may travel faster than light has carried out an improved version of their experiment - and confirmed the result." [more inside]
posted by marienbad at 8:44 AM PST - 105 comments

Weighs as much as the human soul!

The 21 gram keychain computer. "The tiny PC enables what its inventor calls 'Any Screen Computing,' the ability to turn any TV, laptop, phone, tablet, or set-top box into a dumb terminal for its Android operating system." [more inside]
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:35 AM PST - 77 comments

Pop-up fabrication of a flapping-wing robot

Pop-up fabrication of a flapping-wing robot (SLYT)
posted by Behemoth at 7:42 AM PST - 14 comments

"You will walk the earth with eyes turned skyward"

If We Only Had Wings explores the long-held dream of personal flight, from da Vinci's gliders to the Swiss Jetman to the in-development NASA Puffin (man, do I want a Puffin). Since the article is from National Geographic, there is also a great photo gallery.
posted by blahblahblah at 7:21 AM PST - 5 comments

Before you ask, no, it's not eponysterical.

Shakespeare was not a full-time writer without other responsibilities, like O’Neill or Williams. But what might look like a distraction for such authors—acting in his own and other people’s plays, coaching fellow players, helping manage the ownership of the troupe’s resources (including its two theaters, the Globe and Blackfriars)—was a strength for Shakespeare, since it made him a day-by-day observer of what the troupe could accomplish, actor by actor. [...]

'According to Pacini,' Julian Budden writes in The Operas of Verdi, 'it was the custom at the San Carlo theatre, Naples, for the composer to turn the pages for the leading cello and double bass players on opening nights.' The composer had to change his score to fit new voices if there were substitutions caused by illness or some other accident. In subsequent performances, he was expected to take out or put in arias for the different houses, transposing keys, changing orchestration. He was not a man of the study but of the theater.
Shakespeare and Verdi in the Theater.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:12 AM PST - 48 comments

xenology

Xenology may be defined as the scientific study of all aspects of extraterrestrial life, intelligence, and civilization. Dr Robert A Freitas (known mainly for his work in nanotechnology) has placed his comprehensive 1979 work on this subject entirely online. [more inside]
posted by leibniz at 6:38 AM PST - 7 comments

The Mouse Trap

That's the drawback of the modern lab mouse. It's cheap, efficient, and highly standardized—all of which qualities have made it the favorite tool of large-scale biomedical research. But as Mattson points out, there's a danger to taking so much of our knowledge straight from the animal assembly line. The inbred, factory-farmed rodents in use today—raised by the millions in germ-free barrier rooms, overfed and understimulated and in some cases pumped through with antibiotics—may be placing unseen constraints on what we know and learn.
Slate has just finished a three part series on the pitfalls and promises of laboratory animals. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) [more inside]
posted by tocts at 6:21 AM PST - 20 comments

Engage the hyperdrive!

Bert and Ernie recording their voices for TomTom. This is perhaps the funniest viral ad for a product that I've seen. TomTom in-car navigation systems offer custom voices to read out directions, and their latest additions are from Sesame Street. This is the promotional video, showing what the recording session was like... [SLYTPB]
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:19 AM PST - 33 comments

George Daniels World's Best Horologist

"When you make something as small and complex as a watch, you can't do a little and put it down and come back the next day and do a bit more. You work until you are exhausted, then pack it in for the night and start again the next day, always working to maximum capacity, or the watch wouldn't get done." [more inside]
posted by IndigoJones at 6:17 AM PST - 16 comments

Of all the hobbit holes in this broken down Shire she had to walk into this one

An astonishing feat of archival reconstruction has turned up the original 1944 Lord of the Rings motion picture
posted by Sebmojo at 6:08 AM PST - 21 comments

Reformed pizza cook makes good

"As I built what became the nation’s largest individual lobbying practice -- with 40 employees at its peak -- I remained the only lobbyist in the firm who had not previously worked on Capitol Hill. Former Congress members and staff are everywhere on K Street, the lair of the lobbying world. Why? Because they have access." [more inside]
posted by jadayne at 5:42 AM PST - 38 comments

Takes a licking but keeps on ticking

It's easy to see how a watchmaker could take this device as a kind of challenge across the millennia ... and that's how we arrive at this: Hublot's own working replica of the Antikythera mechanism, scaled down from shoebox size to wristwatch size, and with a built in clock circuit so it can tell the time as well as make its astronomical predictions.
posted by veedubya at 5:27 AM PST - 20 comments

Meme Weaver

Meme Weaver In which "the author tries—and fails—to cash in on a big idea". Warning: skippable full-screen ad alert. Behind it is an article in the Atlantic (the magazine, not the ocean). Of possible interest to fans and critics of the popular science genre of books, Wikipedians, and underdog/failure sympathisers.
posted by nthdegx at 5:06 AM PST - 7 comments

WTFinland

Last year Minnesota Wild prospect Mikael Granlund turned heads with his Floorball-style (or 'lacross-style' for the uninitiated) goal during Finland's semifinal game against Russia in the World Championships. Mikael's younger brother Markus notched a similar goal today.
posted by mannequito at 1:27 AM PST - 23 comments

November 17

...so we need to move away from the tonsils paradigm of race discourse towards the dental hygiene paradigm of race discourse...

"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race". Recent talk from Jay Smooth presented at a local TED conference meet up at Hampshire College. Previously.
posted by catchingsignals at 11:06 PM PST - 27 comments

Muffin parade, it's a parade of muffins! Yum yum yum yum!

Good news, muffin fans! Amy Winfrey posted six new Muffin Films last year. They're in the smaller tin on the right. And there's still a few days left to enter her 2011 Muffin Art Contest!
[way previously]
posted by free hugs at 10:25 PM PST - 9 comments

The flattest place on earth

As the salar has no natural outflow, when it does rain the salar floods with an extremely thin layer of water (barely ankle deep even at its most extreme), creating what is essentially the world’s largest mirror.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:42 PM PST - 16 comments

Donald Crowhurst

Donald Crowhurst (1932–1969) was a British businessman and amateur sailor who died while competing in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race. Crowhurst had entered the race in hopes of winning a cash prize from The Sunday Times to aid his failing business. Instead, he encountered difficulty early in the voyage, and secretly abandoned the race while reporting false positions, in an attempt to appear to complete a circumnavigation without actually circling the world. Evidence found after his disappearance indicates that this attempt ended in insanity and suicide. (previously: 1, 2)
posted by Trurl at 9:14 PM PST - 11 comments

But won't you think of the koopas?

PETA's latest public target is Super Mario 3D Land, specifically Mario's use of the tanooki suit, which PETA claim signify the wearing of a tanuki skin. To raise awareness, PETA had a little flash game made: Mario Kills Tanooki (warning: cartoon blood and gore), in which you play a skinless Tanuki trying to get your skin back from Mario (YT, 1:19 - slightly stuttery gameplay video). But as this Kotaku article points out, PETA's outrage is "an epic culture misunderstanding," overlooking the long, cultural history of the shape-shifting trickster. Nintendo's quick response: "Mario often takes the appearance of certain animals and objects in his games," that are "lighthearted and whimsical transformations." PETA clarifies: the graphic little game was just a joke.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:56 PM PST - 65 comments

Womanspace

Nature, one of the most well known (and well cited) scientific journals, recently published a humor piece entitled Womanspace. A senior editor of Nature, Henry Gee, commented last month on the article: "I'm amazed we haven't had any outraged comments about this story." Well, the outraged comments have arrived. [more inside]
posted by demiurge at 7:18 PM PST - 86 comments

Even more recent events in Solar Power

Some interesting things have recently happened in the world of solar power: Evergreen and Solyndra have gone bankrupt, panel cost has gone sub $1.00/watt, and China has vastly increased production capacities. [more inside]
posted by thewalrus at 6:51 PM PST - 101 comments

Are you paying attention, boy?

He does not cook like you do. But I would like an invitation for dinner: Cajun Stuffed Pork Chops with Bacon [more inside]
posted by Toekneesan at 6:35 PM PST - 40 comments

Something best enjoyed while not alone

More than just Hello Kitty on acid (warning: disturbing imagery) [more inside]
posted by dubusadus at 6:22 PM PST - 22 comments

John: Quickly retrieve arms from drawer.

On 11/11/11, Homestuck entered Act 6 (of 7). This follows an explosive 13-minute finale to Act 5, which brought down its host Newgrounds on the day of its unveiling and was released with a fantastic companion soundtrack. In the two and a half years since it was created, Homestuck has become a full-blown epic, approaching the length of War and Peace, but with hours of accompanying animation, several interactive games, a loop machine, and a baffling 19 soundtrack albums, ranging from VG-inspired soundtrack to jazzy mood music to solo piano to parody kids TV show soundtrack. It also has an obsession with Nic Cage and Betty Crocker, and comes with a metawebcomic called Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff which is in and of itself pure gold. Intimidated? You probably should be! But it's hilarious, epic, and surprisingly addictive, so if you've got nothing else on your plate, you can either start from the beginning, or, if it seems too daunting, you can learn... [more inside]
posted by Rory Marinich at 6:11 PM PST - 64 comments

The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right.

“Sarcasm detector? That’s a really useful invention.” How do humans separate sarcasm from sincerity? Research on the subject is leading to insights about how the mind works. Really. previously
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:01 PM PST - 27 comments

Whatcha reading, Muncie?

What Middletown Read.
Robert and Helen Lynd's immersive studies of early 20th century Muncie, Indiana, published as Middletown (1929) and Middletown in Transition (1937), are classics of American sociology. Ball State's Center for Middletown Studies has created a database of the circulation records from the Muncie Public Library from 1891-1902, providing a rare glimpse of the reading habits of turn-of-the-century middle America. Slate examines the project and what it reveals.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:03 PM PST - 7 comments

The amphibian plague

"There is a parallel between what amphibian taxonomists do these days and what homicide detectives do. Both arrive at scenes of mayhem. Maybe they solve the crime, but they are powerless to undo it." A fungal plague is killing the world's amphibians. Hundreds of species are already gone. There is no vaccine and no cure. There is, however, an ark.
posted by escabeche at 4:25 PM PST - 29 comments

James H Kunstler dissects suburbia.

Great TED Talk of Mr. Kunstler's take on suburbia (kinda NSFW).
posted by analogtom at 4:24 PM PST - 50 comments

Sturm und Drang

Google Music v iTunes Match v Amazon Cloud Player. Google has officially launched its (U.S. only) "Google Music" service, which aims to do for the Android market what iTunes and the recently unveiled (U.S. only) iTunes Match service does for Apple. All three services allow you to upload thousands of songs to the "Cloud". This music store showdown could revolutionise the way people collect, store and listen to music - or not.
posted by joannemullen at 3:45 PM PST - 82 comments

ahh that's the spot

Lovely Owls (SLYT)
posted by babbyʼ); Drop table users; -- at 2:50 PM PST - 47 comments

Back To The Future part deux

Irina Werning has once again recreated the scenes from old photographs in a similar fashion as last time. (slightly NSFW)
posted by gman at 2:13 PM PST - 43 comments

An online course in (really) small engine repair

A tiny V-12. This video shows the machining, assembly, and running of a very, very small 12-cylinder engine.
posted by FishBike at 1:39 PM PST - 43 comments

A Very Young Dancer

In 1975, 10-year-old Stephanie was followed by photographer Jill Krementz as the subject of the book A Very Young Dancer (Stephanie was a student at the School of American Ballet, and was chosen by George Balanchine to play Marie in that year's production of the Nutcracker. Now, 34 years later, the New York Times has found her again.
posted by ChuraChura at 12:55 PM PST - 26 comments

Deeply Crazy

One's a spine-tingling howl of alienation gleaned from a spaghetti western. One's a bluesy transatlantic barnstormer that turned a young British singer into an icon of soul. Both feature powerful voices in unconventional styles mulling over intense feeling. And together, thanks to mash-up artist Divide & Kreate, they make for one of the best remixes out there [.mp3]. There's a similar mix with Cee Lo if you're so inclined, or check out the dueling cover by Upstart to hear the vocals beautifully intertwine. Mash-ups previously on MeFi.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:53 PM PST - 10 comments

“What if our kids really believed we wanted them to have great sex?”

Teaching Good Sex -- a profile of Philadelphia's Friends' Central School's Sexuality and Society course and its teacher Al Vernacchio, by Laurie Abraham, author of the book "The Husbands and Wives Club." (Descriptions in the first link may be NSFW.) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 12:26 PM PST - 38 comments

CA Supreme Court: Proponents have standing to defend Prop 8

This morning , the California Supreme Court announced that the proponents of Prop 8 have standing to defend it. The full decision is here (.pdf). [more inside]
posted by insectosaurus at 10:48 AM PST - 100 comments

Giving thanks with pumpkin juice and butterbeer.

Great food ideas for a fantasy and sci-fi themed Thanksgiving features recipes from Inn at the Crossroads (medieval recipes/Game of Thrones), Harry Potter Recipes, and The Geeky Chef ("a collection of recipes inspired by books, movies, and video games").
posted by flex at 10:35 AM PST - 33 comments

Leaping sundogs

Leaping Sundogs "...that little wisp suddenly snaps into a new shape, as if someone had stopped the video, waited for the cloud to change, then started up the video again." More here.
posted by dhruva at 9:54 AM PST - 11 comments

"Needs more cowbell!"

When the cows go marching in. [Part 1] [Part 2]
posted by Fizz at 7:52 AM PST - 27 comments

We hold these vegetables to be self-evident

Tomato: fruit or vegetable? In 1893, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Nix v. Hedden that the tomato is legally a vegetable and not a fruit, botanical definitions be damned. In 2001, the European Union disagreed, saying that "tomatoes, the edible parts of rhubarb stalks, carrots, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, melons and water-melons are considered to be fruit". [more inside]
posted by davidjmcgee at 7:51 AM PST - 91 comments

Supreme court opinions successfully modeled as Facebook like button

Roger Guimera Manrique and Marta Sales-Pardo have shown that "U.S. Supreme Court justice votes are more predictable than one would expect from an ideal court composed of perfectly independent justices." [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges at 7:35 AM PST - 45 comments

RIP Ilya Zhitomirskiy

Ilya Zhitomirskiy, co-founder of Diaspora* died at 22 on Saturday. [more inside]
posted by facehugger at 7:23 AM PST - 31 comments

World Prematurity Day

A typical full term pregnancy is 40 weeks. Premature babies are those born before 37 weeks. Worldwide, 13 million babies are born premature. In the United States, 1 in 8 babies are born prematurely. Prematurity can lead to a host of lifelong cognitive, respiratory, vision, and digestive problems. November 17 is World Prematurity Day, devoted to raising awareness of the problems of as well as prevention of pre-term births. [more inside]
posted by jasonhong at 6:59 AM PST - 33 comments

The Longship

In Tonsberg, Norway, they are building a Viking Ship. By hand, using the same tools and processes the vikings used. [more inside]
posted by Chrischris at 6:34 AM PST - 49 comments

face to face

The UnFacebook World via
posted by infini at 6:26 AM PST - 57 comments

Mapping with time rather than distance.

Time Maps maps the Netherlands based on how long it takes to reach a given destination rather than how far away it is.
We can reach almost any destination by train easily and relatively quick. In our busy lives we now think in time rather than distance[...]From the perspective of Eindhoven, for instance, the Netherlands is relatively small because of the quick and easy connections to other cities. At the same time, seen from a more remote and small village such as Stavoren the Netherlands is much bigger[...]At night the map will expand because there are no night trains and in the morning it will shrink once trains will commence their schedules. Here is a video demonstration.
posted by OmieWise at 5:50 AM PST - 28 comments

Gabrielle Giffords, Broca's area and song therapy

"I miss Tucson. The Mountains. Blue Skies. Even the heat." ABC News has documented the recovery of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords from a gunshot wound sustained in January, in conjunction with the release of "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope", written by Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly. [more inside]
posted by running order squabble fest at 4:21 AM PST - 15 comments

Seven Misunderstandings About Classical Architecture

Seven Misunderstandings About Classical Architecture
posted by nthdegx at 3:48 AM PST - 85 comments

A Brief History of Onanism

Me, Myself, and I: "Coprophagia wouldn’t have fazed them at all, sodomy wouldn’t have slowed them down, incest would have actively interested them—but masturbation: please, anything but that. " A review of Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation, giving a short history of masturbation throgh moral, religious and cultural lenses. [more inside]
posted by marienbad at 3:20 AM PST - 27 comments

Being as complicated as the system you are pranking

Johannes Grenzfurthner on subverting subversion and on how subverting the system has become more difficult over the years as society has changed. Features imaginary artists saving Taiwan, Jackass and the far too banal blood sausage made from your own blood.
posted by DRMacIver at 3:13 AM PST - 5 comments

Occupy England

"Asked if he thought he should have been paid, he said: 'I reckon they should have paid me … I was basically doing what a normal member of staff does for Tesco. I had the uniform and I was in the staff canteen. I obviously got access to the food and drinks in the staff canteen … that's what they let you do … but I got nothing else apart from that.'" -- The Guardian on Britain's "Work Experience Programme," which provides thousands of free man-hours to some of the country's largest and most profitable private companies
posted by bardic at 1:44 AM PST - 69 comments

November 16

“It would be much wiser for Germany to sponsor a military coup and solve the problem that way.”

Mark Ames explains how EU financiers and defense contractors purchased a bloodless coup in Greece, and installed a club-carrying fascist to head its new austerity regime.
posted by clarknova at 11:21 PM PST - 33 comments

D'awwww!

Depressed? Has all the negativity in the media got you down? Can't take one more awful news story? Me too. Maybe what you need is a new #1 news source for breaking news and investigative journalism fluffy animals! [more inside]
posted by Space Kitty at 10:11 PM PST - 26 comments

Obama in Australia

US President Barack Obama is in Australia today. The main policy announcement is a new, permanent US Marine Corps presence on Australian soil. This is interpreted unambiguously as a 'containment strategy' for China and other Asian nations, with Australia playing the loyal deputy Sheriff. Most Australians don't think we should be forced to choose.
posted by wilful at 7:21 PM PST - 127 comments

Bank of America is a shitty neighbor

"I live next door to a house owned by Bank of America, and they are the worst neighbors I’ve ever had. The previous owner, Mike, was a good guy; he occasionally had loud parties, but we were always invited and the food was great. Then he was killed on the job. He had been single and had no will, so his house swiftly defaulted to the lender. More than three years later, that house is still empty." An essay on trying to fight off suburban decay, and the changing face of the margins of American society.
posted by ardgedee at 6:56 PM PST - 62 comments

John D. Rockefeller

Mr. Rockefeller has not squandered his income. He has applied it for thirty-five years to accumulating not only oil property but real estate — railroad stock, iron mines, copper mines, anything and everything which could be bought cheap by temporary depressing and made to yield rich by his able management. For thirty-five years he has worked for special privileges giving him advantages over competitors, for thirty-five years he has patiently laid net-works around property he wanted, until he had it surely corralled and could seize it; for thirty-five years he has depreciated values when necessary to get his prey. And to-day he still is busy. In almost every great financial manoeuvre [sic] in the country is felt his supple, smooth hand with its grip of steel, and while he directs that which is big, nothing is too small for him to grasp. [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 6:09 PM PST - 7 comments

Give me something to listen to

The goal of the new site Audiofiles is to be the Longreads of public radio, providing an easy-to-use, well-cataloged guide to the best radio stories ever told. Some background.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:54 PM PST - 19 comments

Marlin jumps shark something something

The Miami Marlins have a new logo. Reaction is less than favorable. But the new identity pales in comparison to the homerun feature that will play in the stadium. Reaction.
posted by brappi at 3:35 PM PST - 103 comments

written? kitten!

Afflicted with writer's block? Need an extra dose of motivation? Written? Kitten! rewards you with a brand new kitty for every hundred words you write.
posted by changeling at 3:15 PM PST - 51 comments

The De-Industrial Revolution

Why doesn't Britain make things any more?
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:48 PM PST - 105 comments

Conqueror Worm

In 1887, a glacial geologist named George Frederick Wright was hiking across the Muir Glacier in southeast Alaska when something strange caught his eye. Just as the daylight began to fade, the previously uninterrupted expanse of white snow around him began to develop what appeared to be a five o’clock shadow....
posted by Chrysostom at 2:48 PM PST - 28 comments

Mark Zuckerberg only eats what he kills.

Mark Zuckerberg only eats what he kills.
posted by delmoi at 2:37 PM PST - 101 comments

Pioneers are just faceless figurines in museums

For the last two years Scott Toepfer have been taking still photographs for a personal project entitled ‘It’s Better In The Wind,’ all the while collecting video footage from each ride as friends traveled around the Western United States together. Toepfer has been slowly editing the footage into a visual scrapbook of sorts for those who partook, and those who followed them via the web. No preaching the triumphs and failures of the motorcycle industry, no divisive commentary between manufacturers and styles…just a collection of imagery that will hopefully inspire more people to take to the road and discover what there is outside of our respective communities. [via]
posted by netbros at 1:51 PM PST - 4 comments

Turning the 4th wall in to guar-steaks

The Metaphysics of Morrowind: an essay series that looks at the deceptively deep lore that surrounds one of the best-loved open world games ever made, and incorporates not only the plot elements of the game world, and the supplementary books scattered for the player to find, but also the meta-narrative of the gameplay itself, including the player character and the construction kit. Parts 1, 2, 3, 4.
posted by codacorolla at 12:07 PM PST - 92 comments

Ga. Tech cites FERPA, removes all instructional wikis

Despite pioneering the use of wikis in instruction back in 1997, this week Georgia Tech deleted all course wikis, out of concern that they were in violation of FERPA. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act was enacted in 1974 and prohibited federal funding of educational institutions that denied the rights of students and parents to review "educational records" or that did not protect the privacy of "educational records." A lot of people are rightfully concerned about the negative educational effects of "schools interpreting these pieces of legislation to restrict students’ communication and access online, right at the time when the Web has such great potential for teaching and learning." The thing is, what if Georgia Tech is right? [more inside]
posted by fogovonslack at 11:56 AM PST - 38 comments

Blind Photography

Blind Photography "Taking a picture is so easy, you just need a camera, decide at which moment to shoot, press the button and you have your picture. Why can't the blind do this?" (Previously 1, 2)
posted by spock at 11:37 AM PST - 12 comments

Everything you ever wanted to know about attending 12 hours of a child beauty pageant

"If you have never been stared down by eight expectant, spray-tanned children in liquid eyeliner and ornate hairpieces, you have not seen what I have seen."

Rich Juzwiak judges a beauty pageant. [more inside]
posted by saturnine at 11:23 AM PST - 51 comments

Official

Atheists in U.S. military seek official recognition. A small but growing movement complains of religious bias and seeks the same status as Christians, Jews and Muslims. 'Religion — specifically Christianity — is embedded in military culture. The Chaplain Corps traces its origins to the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Until the 1970s, the service academies required cadets to attend chapel services. Nightly prayers still are broadcast throughout Navy ships at sea. Fewer than 10,000 of the 1.4 million active-duty members of the armed forces identify themselves as atheists or agnostics. Atheists say many more are hidden among the 285,000 who say they have no religious preference.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 10:51 AM PST - 104 comments

A Timelapse Project

Portland Nights is a series of structured motion controlled time-lapse clips taken in and around downtown Portland, Oregon at night over the course of several months.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 10:16 AM PST - 13 comments

"With your teeth, but like you don't have teeth."

Nathan, Jordan, and Bobby are Uncastable. (via)
posted by Iridic at 9:49 AM PST - 27 comments

dit dit dit dit dah, purl one

Kristen Haring knits Morse Code (SLYT) (via)
posted by scruss at 9:17 AM PST - 12 comments

...meth is apparently a hell of a drug...

Caution: Disturbing, potentially triggering and possibly NSFW content: The Meth Project, known for their gritty, confrontational and disturbing online and print ads, which graphically depict the effects of methamphetamine drug use, launched a new, interactive website last week. The revamped site gives visitors an opportunity to share their own stories. They've also premiered four new 30-second television PSA's by the director of Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky: E.R., Deep End, Losing Control and Desperate. (Via) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 8:51 AM PST - 90 comments

Subway Surprise, Tehran

"Things didn’t happen as I imagined. On the one hand, with the situation in Tehran, I expected the police to arrest me. I also thought that the resulting dress wouldn’t be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. But it turned out to be more homogenous than I envisaged. Most of the passengers wanted to communicate with me and participate in the project. And I enjoyed this attention and collaboration. The point wasn’t their understanding of the project. I didn’t want anything to be imposed on the audience or participants. I wanted ordinary people to encounter their own personalities without any preconceptions about contemporary art. More than anything, I wanted something to emerge that is shared — between me and everyday metro passengers." The story of fashion student Shirin Abedinirad who conceived and carried out an unusual (and unusually bold) performance art experiment by asking Tehran metro passengers to donate their rubbish to pin on her dress. [more inside]
posted by taz at 8:42 AM PST - 10 comments

Turtles that look like Mitch McConnell

Turtles that look like Mitch McConnell
posted by garlic at 8:17 AM PST - 30 comments

Trickle up economics? Or soak the rich?

Standing up for the little guy. Robert Reich spoke last night on the steps of Sproul Hall at UC Berkeley -- the epicenter of recent violence -- as the speaker for the Mario Savio memorial lecture. Reich has been making the rounds, both within corporations, in the media, and at Occupy events, has been lecturing on the dangers of inequality well before the current income/opportunity disparity crisis. "There is going to come a time when the (inequality) trends we are seeing are going to cause something to snap... There are two kinds of snaps... one is the snap back... and the other is the snap break."
posted by markkraft at 8:09 AM PST - 67 comments

This is my finest film yet

"Tarantino is on record as saying that this movie is his “bunch-of- guys-on-a-mission film”—which would mean that it’s a version of the Dirty Dozen or The Guns of Navaron'e. Like almost everything else that Tarantino says in interviews, I think that sentence is a lie." -- The film within the film that is Inglorious Basterds. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:12 AM PST - 181 comments

November 15

Teeth, Interrupted

A child's skull in London's Hunterian Museum shows what your head is really up to when new teeth are coming in.
posted by hereticfig at 10:53 PM PST - 84 comments

Ahmed Salman Rushdie

How Salman Rushdie Used Twitter to Defeat Facebook On Monday, world-famous author Salman Rushdie, who won the “Booker of Booker” prize for his novel Midnight’s Children, revealed that Facebook had deleted his account at the weekend — and then, when he sent the company a copy of his passport to prove who he said he was, denied him the right to use “Salman” as his first name. (The author’s full given name, which he never uses, is Ahmed Salman Rushdie.)
posted by sweetkid at 9:52 PM PST - 63 comments

I believe we have time to take a closer look, Number One

The crew of ST:TNG watches A New Hope.
posted by hippybear at 8:42 PM PST - 53 comments

Happy Birthday, Xbox

Today marks the 10th birthday of the Xbox. VentureBeat takes an in-depth look back at its history, from its rocky inception to the Kinect. Part 2. [more inside]
posted by kyp at 6:17 PM PST - 24 comments

Frequent travel may be required

NASA is hiring new astronaut candidates. Positions are open for all qualified U.S. citizens. [more inside]
posted by twoleftfeet at 6:02 PM PST - 122 comments

Library Science - Exhibition at New Haven Libraries

Library Science is an exhibition at New Haven (Connecticut) libraries that contemplates our personal, intellectual and physical relationship to the library as this venerable institution—and the information it contains—is being radically transformed by the digital era. Some examples: Untitled (Suburban Homes) by Erica Baum, Hurricanes by Chris Coffin, and Chinese Library No. 46 by Xiaoze Xie.
posted by carter at 4:53 PM PST - 2 comments

a beautiful moment in time

From Colossal:It never ceases to amaze me: just when I think I’ve seen every possible permutation of an artform or technique—be it figurative sculpture, stop motion animation, or in this case, high speed photography—somebody comes along and manages to do something radically different. His photostream. His set up. (flickr)
posted by elemenopee at 4:33 PM PST - 10 comments

May the odds be EVER in your favor...

The first Hunger Games trailer has been released. (SLYT) Previously and more previously
posted by revikim at 3:22 PM PST - 161 comments

Computers should work, people should think.

Google Verbatim Search. Last week Google disabled the '+' operator. In response to feedback, they have now created a search mode that doesn't try to out-think you.
posted by bitmage at 2:19 PM PST - 115 comments

The Future of Energy, according to Daniel Yergin

Daniel Yergin was recently interviewed on NPR's always informative Planet Money podcast. Yergin—most famous for his 1992 Pulitzer-winning opus on 20th century petroleum development, The Prize—has penned a sequel, of sorts, examining the modern quest for sustainable energy amidst the looming threat of climate change. If The Prize was an epic glorification of the quest for money, oil and power, The Quest is a look at those who might have to clean up the whole mess. "The heroes are the engineers and scientists of the energy world — the geeks, in other words." [more inside]
posted by hamandcheese at 1:45 PM PST - 11 comments

Thai Flood Hacks

The Thais, resourceful as ever, have come up with numerous ways to overcome the recent flood waters that have killed over 500 people.
posted by gman at 12:55 PM PST - 27 comments

Low Risk Venture Capital Investing

Solyndra used to make thin-film solar cells, but they could not make any money. The Department of Energy tried to help with a $535 million “Green” loan guarantee but the DOE missed the memo that says EBITDA needs to be in the black if they expect to keep taxpayers out of the red. Private investors kicked in another $70 million eventually but only after the DOE primed itself. As White House economic advisor Larry Summers noted, “…[government] is a crappy vc [venture capitalist]…" Thanks to the DOE though, 40 employees and 150 contractors got to keep their jobs for an extra week last year according to the WaPo.
posted by otto42 at 12:47 PM PST - 45 comments

49ers-least talked about comeback story?

The 49ers are back, but who's paying attention? Sitting on top of a weak NFC West, is the Niner's impressive rise going overlooked? [more inside]
posted by Carillon at 12:24 PM PST - 77 comments

Love Your Garlic

Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers (SLYT)
posted by leigh1 at 12:18 PM PST - 34 comments

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of vial of arsenic, must be in want of a wife."

Jane Austen 'died from arsenic poisoning'. [The Guardian] Crime writer Lindsay Ashford bases claim on reading of author's letters and claims murder cannot be ruled out. Almost 200 years after she died, Jane Austen's early death at the age of just 41 has been attributed to many things, from cancer to Addison's disease. Now sleuthing from a crime novelist has uncovered a new possibility: arsenic poisoning.
posted by Fizz at 12:18 PM PST - 36 comments

Supreme Court grants cert to Affordable Care Act

Yesterday, the Supreme court granted certiorari to several of the challenges to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Here's a great roundup of several news stories. I like the NPR story for a quick summary of the issues. The Court will hear a total of 5.5 hours of oral argument, and a decision is expected by the end of the current term, in June.
posted by insectosaurus at 12:05 PM PST - 77 comments

Frozen Planet decides not to air episode in U.S.

BBC's "Frozen Planet" series will not be airing an episode about climate change in the United States.
posted by deathpanels at 11:36 AM PST - 71 comments

Great Zimbabwe: An African empire

Built by the Shona (1100-1500 AD), the empire of Great Zimbabwe, one of Africa’s greatest civilizations like Egypt and Meroe, stood between present-day Zimbabwe, eastern Botswana and south-east Mozambique. The empire’s highly developed architecture overwhelmed discoverers. And much in the same manner as German anthropologist Doctor Frobenius ignorantly mistook the Kingdom of Ife in Nigeria for the lost kingdom of Atlantis in 1911, some Europeans blatantly refused to believe that Great Zimbabwe was built by Africans. Dawson Munjeri, former director of Great Zimbabwe, a World Heritage site, discusses the history of the exceptional Zimbabwe empire. [more inside]
posted by infini at 11:31 AM PST - 19 comments

"Back in June, the Guardian gave it a go and in our opinion missed much of the point..."

DJHistory.com's list of 100 Greatest Dance Records may not be definitive or feature your favorite record, but it's hard to say that each and every record on there hasn't earned its place, from the Northern Soul swing of "The Clapping Song" to the post-ironic dancehall of "Pon De Floor." [more inside]
posted by beaucoupkevin at 11:30 AM PST - 37 comments

How music travels: charting the evolution of western dance music

Interactive info graphic: 100 years1 of western2 dance3 music, as it has grown and migrated around the world. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:58 AM PST - 24 comments

No one can resist its inexorable pull...

The Lick (slyt).
posted by googly at 10:39 AM PST - 19 comments

scarf ties video done Brady-Bunch style

A hypnotic little tutorial on 25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how it was made (filmed in her bedroom). (via Already Pretty)
posted by flex at 10:31 AM PST - 30 comments

Art of Science

Princeton's 5th annual Art of Science Competition "The Art of Science exhibition explores the interplay between science and art. These practices both involve the pursuit of those moments of discovery when what you perceive suddenly becomes more than the sum of its parts. Each piece in this exhibition is, in its own way, a record of such a moment."
posted by dhruva at 10:15 AM PST - 8 comments

"Fencing Accident"

Bruce Wayne's medical history, from Gotham City General Hospital. "These recent maladies appear to be in keeping with the pattern that has emerged over the past several years, in which significant medical problems are associated with odd or incongruous explanations." ... "By far the greatest contributor to patient’s ongoing morbidity are his multiple and seemingly ceaseless musculoskeletal injuries."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:59 AM PST - 58 comments

Ashta

Gullah—the African-influenced dialect of Georgia’s Sea Islands—has undergone few changes since the first slave ships landed 300 years ago, and provides a clear window into the shaping of African-American English. This classic PBS program traces that story from the west coast of Africa through the American South, then to large northern cities in the 1920s. Studying the origins of West African pidgin English and creole speech—along with the tendency of 19th-century white Southerners to pick up speech habits from their black nursemaids—the program highlights the impact of WWI-era industrialization and the migration of jazz musicians to New York and Chicago.
posted by cthuljew at 7:42 AM PST - 12 comments

How to Build a Computer Model of God

My assumption has always been: If something like a soul exists, and it affects our consciousness in any manner, then it must be detectable by some scientific device. I find it difficult to imagine that something can interact with my physical body without leaving any physical trace. But though I find it hard to imagine, is it possible for something like a soul to interact with me without leaving any physical trace?
posted by veedubya at 7:25 AM PST - 139 comments

Ozark Giraffes

Ozark Giraffe Rock architectural exteriors are a common sight along Route 66 in the Ozarks region of the United States, as they were a popular building choice between 1910 - 1940. The construction materials for giraffe rock exteriors were inexpensive and produced locally from materials found in plentiful supply in the Ozark Mountains, and the style was most predominant on small houses, usually bungalows. [more inside]
posted by aabbbiee at 6:59 AM PST - 30 comments

Guernica 3D

Check this out really quick, it's basically one of the most famous paintings of the 20th century presented in 3D, and you don't even have to wear glasses!

Guernica 3D: In 1937, during the Spanish civil war, the fascists devastated the town of Guernica with aerial bombings executed by the Nazi Luftwaffe. [more inside]
posted by malapropist at 3:31 AM PST - 75 comments

November 14

Hey, hey, hey.. Gooood-bye!

Occupy Wall Street is building the barricades at this very moment. NYPD has begun clearing Zuccotti Park.
posted by ReeMonster at 10:52 PM PST - 2786 comments

From The Muddy Banks Of The Ottawa

It's smooth, it's stretchy, it's waterproof - Canada's new currency feels a lot like the celluloid film you used to load into your old-fashioned camera. [more inside]
posted by mannequito at 10:11 PM PST - 66 comments

Android 4.0 Source.

The source code to Android 4.0 has been released. The new OS, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich will be coming out on phones soon, but you can download the code today (using git). The popular cyanogen mod distribution should be updated to ICS in a couple months
posted by delmoi at 10:01 PM PST - 47 comments

Mayor of the Sunset Strip, Rodney Bingenheimer documentary

In Southern California in the 1980s, KROQ had this weird un-DJ-like guy named (seriously) Rodney Bingenheimer, who came on late at night on Sundays and played punk records and new bands like Blondie, The Ramones, X, Joan Jett, Devo and Cheap Trick. Did this weirdo really have some influence? A 90-minute 2004 documentary now on YouTube, Mayor of the Sunset Strip (Part 1) tells his story, and it's weirder than you may have imagined. [more inside]
posted by planetkyoto at 9:25 PM PST - 24 comments

Like to get to know you well

Howard Jones has posted scans of the music books for his first 4 albums (Human's Lib, Dream Into Action, One To One and Cross That Line) and two early EPs (Action Replay and Like To Get To Know You Well) for free .pdf format download. He asks that a donation be made to the Red Cross if you do decide to download. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 8:36 PM PST - 27 comments

See you at the corner of West 15,903rd and South 14,437th St.

Harold Cooper’s Extend New York takes New York City to extremes, by extrapolating every street and avenue of the Manhattan grid to whole planet. What subway line stops at your front door, wherever you are? Why do all Avenues terminate in Shaytankuduk?
posted by migurski at 8:22 PM PST - 19 comments

Britta'd it

NBC's Community is being put on hiatus. Twitter is pissed. [more inside]
posted by NoraReed at 6:58 PM PST - 373 comments

The Xanadu Story

Regardless of the outcomes and foreshadowing, the lethal combination of the sudden musical revival and the roller disco fad that was freshly in the cultural air in the late 70’s was still too good to pass up. It was only inevitable that someone somewhere would make the explosive connection….and at this intersection, Xanadu would happen... [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 5:56 PM PST - 55 comments

The Fourth Truning, the fourth generation of the current saeculum is taking over...

The Fourth Turning is a book written by Williams Strauss & Neil Howe and published in 1997. Watch this 1997 C-SPAN interview of the two authors describing their theory. It is pretty shocking looking back 14 years, the turning is happening, but will the results be like Strauss and Howe predict it? You owe it to your self to check it out. [more inside]
posted by analogtom at 5:56 PM PST - 32 comments

If you thought ska kids pulled funny moves, watch this emu move...

Kangaroo vs. Emu. SLYT
posted by Bukvoed at 5:12 PM PST - 47 comments

PhDs and GEDs

"Mama Economy" is the new Tay Zonday song. [more inside]
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:55 PM PST - 30 comments

This post contains Seasonal CBC awesome - Happy [safe] (upcoming) Holidays - Just Saying

This year the CBC Massey Lectures celebrates fifty years with bestselling author, essayist, cultural observer, and famed New Yorker contributor Adam Gopnik. His subject is winter - the season, the space, the cycle. Gopnik takes us on an intimate tour of the artists, poets, composers, writers, explorers, scientists, and thinkers, who helped shape a new and modern idea of winter. Listen to Winter: Five Windows on the Season Streaming files for this years lecture will be available until Friday, November 18. [more inside]
posted by infinite intimation at 4:53 PM PST - 11 comments

Strong social safety nets encourage entrepeneurship

Safety nets: hammocks or trampolines? Academic James Wimberley argues that the supposedly entrepreneurial USA fares poorly on business startups, and attributes this to the relative absence of a comprehensive social safety net.(via)
posted by wilful at 4:25 PM PST - 43 comments

And the florist says, "White lily."

This one time in Edo Japan, Bashō got together with a bunch of his rich friends from Nagoya to make up a set of interlocking poems (renku) — 36 of them, to be exact (a format called kasen). Then, 320 years later, the complete cycle was animated by a diverse international team of artists. [more inside]
posted by Nomyte at 3:22 PM PST - 26 comments

♫...Bus...Desert Bus!...♫

In 1995, Penn and Teller were the creative forces behind the-ultimately-unreleased Sega CD game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors, which contained several minigames designed to prank or torture your friends...or yourself. The most notorious of these mini-games is Desert Bus, a game vicious in its intentional monotony. [more inside]
posted by mreleganza at 2:40 PM PST - 33 comments

[insert wampa sound effect here]

What do you get when you cross a pug with the Wampa from The Empire Strikes Back? Behold The Wampug. (SLYT 36 seconds of cute)
posted by quin at 2:32 PM PST - 21 comments

Spare the rod.

In Sweden, a generation of kids who've never been spanked. 'Numerous studies have been conducted in recent years to support the theory that physical forms of discipline do more harm than good' and the effects of physical discipline linger for adults. Most parents in the U.S. and many other countries firmly believe that physical punishment is an important tool in controlling their children. But in Sweden, there's now a whole generation that doesn't believe corporal punishment has any place in disciplining any child. In 1979 Sweden became the first country to ban physical punishment of children. [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 2:22 PM PST - 159 comments

What Are These Mysterious Lines In China's Desert?

Some Google Earth enthusiasts have found a strange and unexplainable grid pattern in the middle of China's Gobi Desert.
posted by reenum at 2:20 PM PST - 69 comments

This is delicious made with squirrels when camping out on a hunting trip

JFK's Waffles, Adlai's Pie, Humphrey's Soup and 13 More Political Recipes. Political Pot Luck: A Collection of Recipes from Men Only, published in 1959 by the Peninsular Publishing Company in Tallahassee. It was edited by Meg Madigan, whose father was a Florida state comptroller and lobbyist. And she went all out for the cookbook, from governors to senators to media barons. Some of them can cook
posted by sweetkid at 2:12 PM PST - 10 comments

John Ruskin's Elements of Drawing

The Elements of Drawing: John Ruskin's Teaching Collection at Oxford digitizes the drawings, engravings, and paintings that John Ruskin collected (and created) for use in teaching drawing. The objects can be viewed separately or in their teaching order and context, with Ruskin's own catalog annotations. The site also suggests how modern art students can put the collection to use, with instructional video and a variety of drawing exercises. Ruskin also assembled another fine art collection for working-class viewers in Sheffield; you can see that collection at the Museum of Sheffield, which also helps sponsor a digital reconstruction of the original museum building, the St. George's Museum.
posted by thomas j wise at 1:20 PM PST - 5 comments

Yellow Magic Orchestra on Soul Train, 1980

Let the robot dancing begin! Yellow Magic Orchestra performs the oft-sampled "Firecracker" on Soul Train, 1980. YMO --". . . presently the most popular band in all of Japan"-- also perform "Tighten Up".
posted by February28 at 1:18 PM PST - 6 comments

She sells seashells etc.

Do you like bivalves? Do you like Britain? Then Marine Bivalve Shells of the British Isles is the site for you! [more inside]
posted by Dim Siawns at 1:18 PM PST - 11 comments

Don't mention the f-word

Grandville and the anthropomorphic tradition by Bryan Talbot, a 59min youtube lecture and slideshow on the history of anthropomorphism in comics and the creation of his own graphic novel in the tradition, Grandville
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:13 PM PST - 16 comments

Pass the Pimento Cheese, Please.

Pimento cheese, largely unknown outside of the Southern US, is an important player in the rich culinary tradition of the South. This short (15 min) documentary explores the history of the dish and gives a glimpse at just how passionate some folks are about their pimento cheese. [more inside]
posted by robstercraw at 12:54 PM PST - 81 comments

EXTERMINATE

Russell T. Davies and then Steven Moffat have done their own transformations, which were fantastic, but we have to put that aside and start from scratch. Variety reports Harry Potter director David Yates wants to reboot Doctor Who. Topless Robot reacts.
posted by gerryblog at 12:38 PM PST - 150 comments

Booksleuth provides further help finding "lost" books.

I have just discovered ABE books "Booksleuth" forum, where people help each other remember that "lost" story or book.
posted by uans at 12:36 PM PST - 12 comments

From IDEA to SOCIAL MEDIA.

Life Cycle of a Book: Writer. Editorial. Agent. Production. Design. Marketing. Publicity. Sales. Book Buyer. Distribution. Author Publicity. Full Life Cycle [PDF]
posted by Fizz at 12:15 PM PST - 9 comments

Is it time to lose faith in the Boomers?

I have decided to continue to respect my elders, but to politely tell them, “Out of my way.” Thomas Day, a 31-year-old Iraq War vet, Penn State alum, and product of Jerry Sandusky's Second Mile Foundation, reflects on what he calls the "failure" of the Baby Boomer generation to protect the world they inherited.
posted by downing street memo at 11:36 AM PST - 108 comments

Studio 4°C: anime that is dense with substance

Studio 4°C is a Japanese animation studio, named for the temperature at which water is most dense, which they convey in their creative manifesto: "create only works that are dense with substance and extreme quality." The studio has produced a range of works, from commercials (Honda Edix | Nike iD REALCITY) and music videos (Ken Ishii - 'Extra' [prev] | Utada Hikaru - 'Fluximation'), to animated series (The Adventures of Tweeny Witches | Thundercats reboot [prev]) and feature-length films (Memories [1995] | Mind Game [2004]). More on their movies inside. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:44 AM PST - 19 comments

The characteristic art form of our age may be the business plan

Previous youth cultures — beatniks, hippies, punks, slackers — could be characterized by two related things: the emotion or affect they valorized and the social form they envisioned. [more inside]
posted by AlsoMike at 10:20 AM PST - 28 comments

Something Tells Me To Stop With the Al-Qaeda. I Ignore It

Frank Miller is a giant among comic book creators. He gave us The Dark Knight Returns, which rewrote the book on Batman and comics in general. He also gave us seminal versions of Daredevil, Batman, and Wolverine. His Sin City and 300 books are a triumph of design, if not subtlety. Lately, though, he's taken a different path. He recently released Holy Terror, which in 2005 was to have featured Batman, but now features a renamed stand-in fighting Al-Qaeda. It has been nearly universally panned as a piece of ugly, anti-Muslim propaganda. Last week, Miller blasted the "Occupy" movement on his blog, describing the participants as, "louts, thieves, and rapists," who, "can do nothing but harm America" and pointing to the looming threat of Al-Qaeda.
posted by Legomancer at 9:51 AM PST - 227 comments

"What if you could take children's dreams and insert them into the bowling ball?"

"Imagine a world where casual and hardcore gamers can enjoy games together? So instead of hardcore gamers pretending to like wii sports just so they can spend xmas with their family they actually prefer it as opposed to just going off and playing the best hardcore games such as Skyrim or Fable3." From the often hilarious fake Twitter account for "Peter Molyneux 2" comes cascore. Finally, bowling and survival horror come together. [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 9:41 AM PST - 13 comments

Amazing sixth grader gives TEDx talk

Sixth grader codes iOS apps, gives TED talks, and - generally - makes me feel like I've been lazy my entire life.
posted by PapaLobo at 9:31 AM PST - 30 comments

"Say hello to my little friend" AL PACINO in the new movie "Jack and Jill." :)

"On Friday, a group of comedians took to Twitter, creating a faux-official account for Jack and Jill under the name @JackNJillMovie, firing off a series of digs at the film disguised as a misguided and desperate promotional campaign."
The Twitter account is suspended, but you can't take pee out of a swimming pool.
posted by griphus at 9:18 AM PST - 65 comments

It's contemprary and it's good and it's in Barcelona

The Museo Europeu de Art Modern in Barcelona presently has an exhibition of contemporary art featuring many catalan and spanish painters and sculpters and is housed in a restaured palacio (click through the "plantas"). MEAM is associated with figurativas en red.
As this is contemporary art, nudes abound and this post is unfortunately NSFW in many places.
posted by adamvasco at 9:06 AM PST - 1 comment

In for a penny, in for Santana's Abraxas

On June 29, 2011, the last remnant of what was once Columbia House — the mightiest mail-order record club company that ever existed — quietly shuttered for good. Other defunct facets of the 20th-century music business have been properly eulogized, but it seems that nary a tear was shed for the record club. Perhaps ... a new generation of music fans who had never known a world without the Internet couldn't grasp the marvel that was the record club in its heyday. From roughly 1955 until 2000, getting music for free meant taping a penny to a paper card and mailing it off for 12 free records — along with membership and the promise of future purchasing.

The rise and fall of the Columbia Record House club--and how we learned to steal music.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:47 AM PST - 97 comments

butterfly in the sky, I can fly twice as high

Jimmy Fallon, as Jim Morrison, sings the "Reading Rainbow" theme.
posted by flex at 6:46 AM PST - 62 comments

The Mystery of the Sherlock Holmes Stamps

In the cufflink of Sherlock Holmes, as depicted in this stamp, you will find the first clue. (It's the letter O.) In the remaining stamps in this collection you will find the remaining clues, which spell a five-letter word. [more inside]
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:23 AM PST - 28 comments

The Legend of Doom House

Malpertuis (Belgium, 1971, aka ‘The Legend of Doom House’) is a movie that has been described as ‘bizarre, lurid and baffling;’ ‘a mysterious curiosity;’ and ‘exquisitely bonkers.’ An international cast led by Mathieu Carrière and Susan Hampshire (playing five rôles) also included Orson Welles. Its director, Harry Kümel, is otherwise best known for his stylish lesbian vampire flick Les Lèvres Rouges (aka ‘Daughters of Darkness’). The movie was adapted from an unusual gothic novel, first published in wartime Brussels—the work of Jean Ray (aka Raymond Jean-Marie de Kremer): a convicted embezzler & prolific hack, who was, nevertheless, one of the foremost exponents of the fantastique in French-language fiction. Please note that some of the links above are NSFW (some nudity) & several contain SPOILERS. [more inside]
posted by misteraitch at 1:37 AM PST - 7 comments

"To elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness"

lululemon athletica, the "yoga-inspired athletic apparel company", has rapidly become a brand fixture in the Pacific Northwest since its founding by Chip Wilson in 1998. Recently, a strange ode to Ayn Rand appeared on their website, and a "Who Is John Galt?" advertising campaign has adorned company packaging this November. Meanwhile, one of their employees has been convicted in the bizarre murder of a co-worker, in which the employees of a neighbouring Apple Store ignored the victim's cries for help.
posted by mek at 1:19 AM PST - 107 comments

Going out to battle for freedom and truth

Look at my fucking red trousers! "A collection of photographs in celebration of the vibrant and burgeoning red-trousered communities of London and elsewhere."
posted by Abiezer at 12:41 AM PST - 89 comments

On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.

American Censorship Day is an internet protest against the oft-renamed Stop Online Piracy Act. [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges at 12:00 AM PST - 39 comments

November 13

Laptop Dogs

The Fall have a new record out, Ersatz GB. It's their 29th studio album. An excellent interview with Mark E Smith from The Independent. [more inside]
posted by kittensofthenight at 10:17 PM PST - 25 comments

Eyes without a face.

Exposing our skin to the sun's ultraviolet rays unfortunately can give rise to a multitude of adverse health effects. Our skin's ability to produce melanin serves as buffer by absorbing those nasty UV rays. But how exactly does our skin know when it's being exposed to UV light? Well, apparently it can see it. [more inside]
posted by Isosceles at 8:16 PM PST - 21 comments

A Map Of The Floating City

Thomas Dolby's first album of original material in nearly 20 years is not only a CD and an online MMO game, but it's also an opportunity to look inside the creative process of one of the more respected artists of our time. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 4:54 PM PST - 61 comments

What and how should you teach your kid(s) about sex?

A woman wonders how she will teach her daughter about sex in an essay titled How I Learned About Sex.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:26 PM PST - 91 comments

Persuasive, Unignorable, Relevant, Rememberable (P.U.R.R.)

Ask yourself, what can cat videos do for your business? [SLYT].
posted by sharpener at 2:57 PM PST - 26 comments

What Games Are...

What Games Are is the name of a blog and book by game designer and deep thinker Tadhg Kelly (G+ profile). While the book is planned for release next year, Kelly has been posting in his blog and getting feedback from notables such as MeFi fav Raph Koster. [more inside]
posted by victors at 2:40 PM PST - 13 comments

Call Your Girlfriend

Erato Covers Robyn -- Cottage Cheese Percussion Version (slyt)
posted by jtajta at 2:05 PM PST - 19 comments

Brian Eno - Composers as Gardeners

Brian Eno - Composers as Gardeners "My topic is the shift from 'architect' to 'gardener', where 'architect' stands for 'someone who carries a full picture of the work before it is made', to 'gardener' standing for 'someone who plants seeds and waits to see exactly what will come up'. I will argue that today's composer are more frequently 'gardeners' than 'architects' and, further, that the 'composer as architect' metaphor was a transitory historical blip."

Brian Eno quoted from Edge.org issue 11.10.11
posted by ThenCameNow at 1:45 PM PST - 39 comments

"In almost all cases it is not possible to bring a civil action against" a website that hosts your nude images posted without your consent.

This past July, Forbes blogger Kashmir Hill posted a three-part series about "online defamation and involuntary nudity." The first entry focused on an offender: Hunter Moore, owner of IsAnyoneUp.com (Link is NSFW.) The second entry focused on a victim: Paul Syiek, whose company was defamed by a disgruntled ex-employee on the consumer website Rip-off Report. The third profiled a Senior Copyright attorney at Microsoft, Colette Vogele, who co-founded a side project this year to help victims: WithoutMyConsent.org. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 1:22 PM PST - 53 comments

How I stopped worrying and learned to love the OWS protests

How I stopped worrying and learned to love the OWS protests
posted by garlic at 11:01 AM PST - 147 comments

"...all I could think was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful and yet again, wonderful"

Between August and October this year the crew of the ISS used a special low-light HD camera to visually capture the earth as it passed beneath them. The result, edited together by Michael König and set to music, is jaw-droppingly spectacular.

It may be redundant to tell you to set Vimeo to full-screen mode before playing, but do so - you won't regret it. Post intended as something of a sequel to this. Some related channels on Vimeo: The World In HD, HDTime, Slow Motion & Timelapse Theatre.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 10:41 AM PST - 74 comments

Damien Walters.

Awwwwww yeah, it's that time again! Damien Walters' Showreel 2011 has been released, and while it is slightly shorter than previous years, he sure has some great new tricks up his sleeve. [more inside]
posted by lazaruslong at 10:36 AM PST - 14 comments

Edward Sorel: Nice Work If You Can Get It

Edward Sorel: Nice Work If You Can Get It a 20-minute overview of his career as a cartoonist and illustrator, in which the artist goes through a lot of paper in the search for immediacy. Filmed by his son, with commentary by contemporaries Milton Glaser and Jules Feiffer.
posted by TimTypeZed at 10:27 AM PST - 4 comments

Leg hair font

A lot of us are interested in fonts. A lot of us are interested in, or have, leg hair. And now, finally, there's a story for both those groups.
posted by anothermug at 8:56 AM PST - 29 comments

Carl Ruggles

In 95 years of life, Carl Ruggles composed only 84 minutes of music - including his masterpiece for orchestra, "Sun-Treader". Charles Seeger called it "dissonant counterpoint". Charles Ives called it simply "strong, masculine music". In 1980, Michael Tilson Thomas recorded all of it for a long-out-of-print 2 LP set that has never been reissued on CD. Today, with almost none of the music from this significant American composer commercially available in any form, the Internet Archive has performed a valuable cultural service by hosting a 24-bit lossless rip of the Tilson Thomas set. It is powerful stuff.
posted by Trurl at 8:29 AM PST - 32 comments

You can't tell the players without a scorecard

Signs & Symbols: Decoding Mediaeval & Renaissance Iconography. An online exhibition from the Dunedin Public Library. Does what is implied on the tin, if you have a grounding in the history of tin-decoration.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 7:36 AM PST - 10 comments

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Tai Star spent seven hours balancing 600 quarters, 501 dimes, 313 nickels, 1699 pennies and five foreign coins (3,118 coins in total) on a single dime. It's not his first attempt to break a record.
Star explained: 'It is on the very corner for a few reasons: to make it easy to see that it is on one dime and I think the structure of the table is most sturdy there - plus I just like precarious balance.'
posted by gman at 6:51 AM PST - 47 comments

"And it's pretty clear the idea behind this choice is to stress how distant Kay is from the dark universe of the Corleones."

The Clothes of Kay Corleone.
posted by Fizz at 5:56 AM PST - 51 comments

Fall Mode on

The Peel Player... every track of every John Peel Festive Fifty ever
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:22 AM PST - 18 comments

November 12

Faster, ping pong balls! Ping! Ping!

So maybe you've caught some recent iPhone commercials and wondered, "Is that Philip Glass? Surely Glass wouldn't do an Apple commercial, would he?" Well, not yet (although he did appear at the Manhattan Apple Store a while back). That piece you hear in the commercials, which sounds a lot like Truman Sleeps, but faster and tinklier, is by Keith Keniff. But if you want to hear Truman Sleeps covered a little faster and and a lot tinklier, you have to go to Carlo Castellano, a guy with a studio, a glockenspiel, and lots and lots of ping pong balls.
posted by maudlin at 10:15 PM PST - 34 comments

Ah, the 70's...

R2-D2 thinks he has whooping cough, a cantina alien gets too drunk to drive, and C3-P0 explains why smoking is bad for you.
posted by GavinR at 6:15 PM PST - 35 comments

The Black Damp

On the morning of November 13, 1909 there were around 500 men and boys working in the St. Paul mine in Cherry, IL. It would be more than six months before the last body was recovered. [more inside]
posted by timsteil at 4:47 PM PST - 21 comments

Broken windows and empty hallways

Leonard Nimoy covers Randy Newman's I Think It's Gonna Rain Today
posted by boygeorge at 4:12 PM PST - 30 comments

50 Words For Snow

After exploring the rapture of a summer's night on 2005's Aerial, Kate Bush will be releasing a new album of original winter-themed material on November 21st. (Her previous album from earlier this year, Director's Cut, was revamped versions of older material. Previously) The new album, 50 Words For Snow, has been getting glowing advance reviews. While we await its release, we can content ourselves with the first single from the album, Wild Man. Or if you prefer, the shorter radio edit version (with lyrics). Also, The Quietus interviewed her about the new album.
posted by hippybear at 3:46 PM PST - 17 comments

My worst one was right on the money.

Chapter One. He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion - er, no, make that: he - he romanticized it all out of proportion. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin ... New York was his town, and it always would be.
posted by Apropos of Something at 3:38 PM PST - 20 comments

"The Fat Just Walks Away"

Obese monkeys lose weight by new drug that kills off fat cells. Adipotide is the newest weapon in the war on obesity. Unlike other weight-loss drugs that try to suppress appetite, boost one's metabolism, or block the absorption of fat, Adipotide blocks the blood supply that feeds fatty tissue. Studies show monkeys lost 11% of their body weight after 4 weeks of treatment.
posted by 2manyusernames at 3:10 PM PST - 102 comments

The whole matter began, so far as I am concerned, with the historic and unprecedented Vermont floods...

Whisperer in darkness ...in miniature! - Props from the movie in their new Vermont home from website of Stephen R. Bissette, which also features a gallery of his Swamp Thing art and posts on the Main Street Museum "Floodraiser" including pictures of some auctioned props (1, 2). Previous Whisperings.
posted by Artw at 1:51 PM PST - 4 comments

Daft Punk manqué + DeLorean

With only about as much effort as manufacturing one’s own Great Pyramid of Giza, Atlanta prop-builder Harrison Krix designs and constructs his own Daft Punk–style helmet, complete with 320 red LEDs along the visor and twin cooling fans. (Delightful time-lapse making-of video [YouTube]. Design process: Part 1Part 2Part 3.) Now, what are you supposed to do with a prop like that? Pop it on and pose next to a DeLorean, obviously.
posted by joeclark at 1:16 PM PST - 17 comments

Outsource yourself!

Looking for work? Come to India!
posted by Tom-B at 11:32 AM PST - 25 comments

Auerbach! Lacan! Jameson! Fish!

I don’t believe in dissing books I used to love, and I always suspect the moral judgment of people who sneer at the taste of the reader they used to be: “I know thee not, old book.” Six writers talk what's on their shelves.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 11:23 AM PST - 71 comments

Troy

Sinéad O'Connor performing "Troy" at the Dominion Theatre, London, June 3, 1988
posted by xod at 10:54 AM PST - 46 comments

Washington's Blog on Unemployment

Today I am sharing with you an article arguing that unemployment rates during the Great Depression were overstated, that current unemployment rates are understated and that the two sets of data considered in combination indicate that we are are firmly in Depression-era levels of unemployment.
posted by jason's_planet at 8:30 AM PST - 78 comments

Dawn Powell

For decades Dawn Powell was always just on the verge of ceasing to be a cult and becoming a major religion. But despite the work of such dedicated cultists as Edmund Wilson and Matthew Josephson, John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway, Dawn Powell never became the popular writer that she ought to have been. In those days, with a bit of luck, a good writer eventually attracted voluntary readers and became popular. Today, of course, "popular" means bad writing that is widely read while good writing is that which is taught to involuntary readers. Powell failed on both counts. She needs no interpretation and in her lifetime she should have been as widely read as, say, Hemingway or the early Fitzgerald or the mid O'Hara or even the late, far too late, Katherine Anne Porter. But Powell was that unthinkable monster, a witty woman who felt no obligation to make a single, much less a final, down payment on Love or The Family; she saw life with a bright Petronian neutrality, and every host at life's feast was a potential Trimalchio to be sent up. - Gore Vidal
posted by Trurl at 7:52 AM PST - 38 comments

Marathon Boy

Running a marathon is a particularly arduous task, even for the most able-bodied athlete. But for a four-year old to run a marathon is extraordinary. Especially a four-year old Indian boy who, at the age of two, was sold by his mother to a street peddler for 800 rupees. Meet Budhia, a prodigious runner and product of the slums, who is taken in and raised by a relentless trainer named Biranchi Das. After Das pushes Budhia to run a 42-mile race (which he completes), governmental agencies intervene and attempt to remove the boy from the custody of Das. Local protests erupt, a man is murdered, and Budhia returns to the care of his mother. This is the story told by the documentary Marathon Boy. // trailer // review // interview with filmmaker
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 7:12 AM PST - 18 comments

Judy. It’s Judy Garland. Judy.

The Boy Who Became Judy Garland. [NYTimes]
posted by Fizz at 5:37 AM PST - 17 comments

The talking pedal steel of Pete Drake

Years before Peter Frampton stuck a tube in his mouth and asked the world, through his guitar, "do you, YOU, feel like I do?" there was a fellow who wanted to make his pedal steel guitar talk. And talk it did. Welcome to the wondrously weird musical universe of Pete Drake: Welcome To My World, Blue Velvet, Am I That Easy To Forget, Only You, Roses Are Red... and here you can see Pete in action, with his whole crew of slightly scary looking players and singers, performing Forever. And, hey, just for good measure, let's check ol' Pete's sound without that crazy tube in his mouth, shall we? A snazzy little number called Panhandle Rag, or this (partial) driving waltz, The Spook. But wait! There's more! It's entirely likely that you've heard Pete already! You just didn't know it was he providing that gorgeous, slippery accompaniment for Bob Dylan on Lay Lady Lay. Thank you, Pete!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:30 AM PST - 35 comments

Gnarls Barkley, Live

Gnarls Barkley live, Basement Studio: Crazy. Gnarls live, Abbey Road: Who's Gonna Save My Soul, Smiley Faces, Gone Daddy Gone, Surprise.
posted by maxwelton at 4:23 AM PST - 21 comments

Sound In A Vacuum

Christine Sun Kim is a performance artist working in the realm of sound. She makes beautiful messes. She's also deaf. Todd Selby is a photographer. He's made a film about her. [more inside]
posted by artof.mulata at 3:51 AM PST - 8 comments

November 11

You Are Not Watching PBS

Omar Little meets Craig Ferguson and Skeleton Robot Larry King. (With a cameo by Secretariat.) [more inside]
posted by kmz at 10:57 PM PST - 21 comments

Ohm on the Range

Do you remember that silly 'Ohm on the Range' joke from electronics class? Well, OhmArt will satisfy your wildest dreams for this sort of joke.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 9:19 PM PST - 15 comments

Wonder Girls Are Back!

Wonder Girls are back in Korea with a 2nd album, after a foray into the U.S. including touring with the Jonas Brothers in 2009, and an upcoming movie for Teen Nick, "Wonder Girls at the Apollo." The first single, "Be My Baby" will also be featured in the movie soundtrack. The album also includes their re-interpretation of Korean rock legend Shin Jung-hyeon's "The Beauty" - "Me, In" (link is to trailer for the song). If Wonder Girls are not your cup of tea, some other Korean girl groups: [more inside]
posted by needled at 8:19 PM PST - 27 comments

Department of DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE!

The U.S.S. Carl Vinson, which has provided relief in Haiti after an earthquake, launched air strikes in the Middle East after 9/11 and, most recently, dumped Osama bin Laden’s body out at sea hosted an uncharacteristically maritime event this evening: a basketball game on the flight deck. [more inside]
posted by obscurator at 7:44 PM PST - 33 comments

They used to just be "The Pack"

Bluesy Canadian garage duo The Pack A.D. has put out four albums in like five years, the most recent in September of this year. [more inside]
posted by Mister Moofoo at 6:25 PM PST - 13 comments

Make your own money, kid

My dad taught me cashflow with a soda machine After a brief, failed experiment paying me to do chores, my dad tried something really neat. It clearly took a bit of legwork, but maybe there are some transferrable lessons for parents who want to lay an entrepreneurial foundation. He gave me a vending machine.
posted by elemenopee at 6:21 PM PST - 99 comments

Why Americans won't do dirty jobs?

Why Americans Won't Do Dirty Jobs? “Look, you got immigrants doing more than what blacks or whites will. Look at them, they just work and work all day. They don’t look at it like it’s a hard job. They don’t take breaks!” Businessweek takes a look at the labor supply situation in Alabama, after state legislation sent illegal immigrants packing to other states.
posted by falameufilho at 6:06 PM PST - 221 comments

Lost at Sea

When Rebecca Coriam vanished from the Disney Wonder in March, hers became one of the 171 mysterious cruise ship disappearances in the past decade. So what happened? Jon Ronson booked himself a cabin to find out…
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:05 PM PST - 85 comments

Don't presume; that's a backstory we didn't agree on before.

Liam Neeson Wants to Branch Out. [SLYT]
posted by eugenen at 3:22 PM PST - 31 comments

Never mess with a ninja librarian -- they'll correct you within an inch of your life

After an AP exclusive report on how the CIA is using "ninja librarians" to comb through internet postings and social media, NPR's Robert Siegel interviewed reporter Kimberly Dozier about her research for the article. This prompted enough listener response that All Things Considered had to revisit the phrase in their Letters segment today, with clarification about what kind of degree a ninja librarian may have earned.
posted by hippybear at 3:20 PM PST - 37 comments

Pythagasaurus

Pythagasaurus is the fabled Tyrannosaurus practiced in the skills of trigonometry and long division. Apparently he knows all eight numbers. [Via]
posted by homunculus at 3:18 PM PST - 9 comments

The durable Mike Malloy

In 1933, Anthony Marino, Joe Murphy, Frank Pasqua and Dan Kriesberg decided to make money by taking out life insurance on drunks and then letting the victims drink themselves to death. Then they encountered Mike Malloy...
posted by reenum at 2:46 PM PST - 17 comments

Jailbreak the Matriarchy

Jailbreak the Patriarchy genderswaps the world for you. A new Chrome extension by Danielle Sucher swaps pronouns and other gendered words on most sites. [more inside]
posted by tarheelcoxn at 2:46 PM PST - 46 comments

Shapecatcher: draw to explore Unicode characters

Shapecatcher let's you draw a picture to find the matching Unicode characters. via
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:42 PM PST - 33 comments

Koko and Friends

Koko, the Western Lowland Gorilla who is able to understand more than 1,000 signs based on American Sign Language and 2,000 words of spoken English, has met some celebrities over the years. In 1988, William Shatner had a memorable visit with Koko, as seen in part in this edited clip, and re-told on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in 2009. Mister Rogers visited in 1998 (YouTube clip), as part of series of shows addressing children's fears of meeting someone new or unusual. In 2004, Koko met Betty White and Robin Williams. (Koko and other non-human primates using and learning sign language previously)
posted by filthy light thief at 2:19 PM PST - 12 comments

11/11/11 helicopter crash

A helicopter crashed this morning near Mexico City, killing all eight aboard, including Mexican Secretary of the Interior, Francisco Blake Mora. This has happened almost exactly three years to the day a plane crashed in Mexico City, killing a previous mexican Secretary of the Interior, Juan Camilo Mouriño (Blake Mora even tweeted about remembering Mouriño last week, in his last tweet [link in Spanish]). [more inside]
posted by omegar at 1:12 PM PST - 23 comments

Press X to not die

Zero Punctuation reviews Battlefield 3 (video), possibly the most reviled game ever to earn itself 93% on Metacritic. Remember to press X to not die (TV tropes).
posted by Artw at 12:59 PM PST - 85 comments

Music notation as art.

Music is art for the ears. But what about music notation as art?
posted by SpacemanStix at 11:37 AM PST - 61 comments

Crosswalk to Nowhere.

What do you mean the building codes require us to install handicapped-accessible crosswalk? Fine. Here's your fucking crosswalk. [more inside]
posted by schmod at 11:14 AM PST - 113 comments

ROSA

ROSA (vimeo) A sci-fi short animated film created by a new Spanish artist, Jesús Orellana. This was a year-long, solo project created without a budget. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 10:57 AM PST - 8 comments

Blow dry or hand towel?

The Great Debate: What's the most environmentally-friendly way to dry your hands in a public bathroom? Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have completed what is believed to be the first major study to assess the greenest way of drying your hands.
posted by modernnomad at 10:43 AM PST - 85 comments

Come ye cool, cool conservative men

If mainstream conservatism is a “philosophically flabby movement,” and I won’t argue that it isn’t, this is not evidence of its success but simply of its exhaustion and lack of imagination. Perhaps conservatism should thrive on loss and defeat, but I see little evidence that the conservative movement in America understands that it has already lost on many fronts. There is an illusion of success that the most recent election has kept alive, but it is a temporary one.
As the campaign for the Republican nomination for president gets weirder by the minute, what does it mean to be an American conservative? Daniel Larison and Corey Robin debate the changing nature of conservatism.

Bonus: A Liberal Reads the Great Conservative Works
posted by villanelles at dawn at 10:16 AM PST - 109 comments

Punctiliousness at Poynter?

Journalist/blogger Jim Romenesko resigns from Poynter after questions of "incomplete attribution" in his stories. [more inside]
posted by Dalton at 9:56 AM PST - 41 comments

Climate Change Denialists Take Heed!

Climate Variability and Climate Change: The New Climate Dice An excerpt from what should be a very incendiary academic paper by Hansen, J, et al: Thus there is no need to equivocate about the summer heat waves in Texas in 2011 and Moscow in 2010, which exceeded 3σ – it is nearly certain that they would not have occurred in the absence of global warming. If global warming is not slowed from its current pace, by midcentury 3σ events will be the new norm and 5σ events will be common.
posted by Renoroc at 9:23 AM PST - 38 comments

"We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are." - Anaïs Nin

The IAEA report on Iran has been leaked to the public. But are the new allegations "a game changer"... or, even new, for that matter?
posted by markkraft at 9:21 AM PST - 38 comments

Barbara Grier, pioneering lesbian publisher, has died

Barbara Grier,founder of the lesbian publishing company Naiad Press, has died at age 78. [more inside]
posted by rmd1023 at 9:11 AM PST - 29 comments

R. Crumb Withdraws from New Yorker

Cartoonist Robert Crumb's drawing for the New Yorker was turned down by editor David Remmick in 2009. Crumb didn't take the rejection well. [more inside]
posted by Ideefixe at 8:52 AM PST - 110 comments

Ijna / Anji

Ijna is backwards for Anji. Anji is a guitar tune known as the most famous piece written and performed by Davy Graham. Inja (on the album cover the track is titled Ijna (Davy Ji) is an homage dedicated to Graham's Anji, written and performed by Steve Tilston in his new album "The Reckoning". [more inside]
posted by lipsum at 6:46 AM PST - 4 comments

Ne touchez pas my tuition.

Meanwhile, in Montreal, tens of thousands of students take to the streets to protest...tuition increases. [more inside]
posted by googly at 5:42 AM PST - 86 comments

What? Nothing for Ocean's Eleven?

With all due respect, today (11/11/11) is not just for Veterans or those remembering the end of World War I. It is also...
Nigel Tufnel Day (facebook group) (RL event) "It goes to eleven." Whatever you do loud, today do it one louder.
Eleventh Doctor Day "GERONIMO!!!" Wear a bow tie, fez and/or stetson because they're cool.
Pocky Day for the snacks shaped like, well, 1's.
Corduroy Appreciation Day for the material that... oh, if you don't know, don't bother. BTW, what are Christopher Guest's and Matt Smith's pants made of?
But the less said about the movie the better. 11+11+11=33%? Close.
Also, it's 1 year 1 month and 11 days until the end of the Aztec Calendar. Which makes a few too many 1's, so sit back and watch this clock turn to 11:11:11.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:59 AM PST - 116 comments

November 10

Simply Beautiful

Simply Beautiful (slv)
posted by astapasta24 at 9:53 PM PST - 41 comments

Parachuting with Hawks

Parachuting with hawks (slyt)
posted by Pants! at 8:25 PM PST - 31 comments

Why the Female Sexual Submissive Scares Us

"As someone who [...] advocates against violence against women and for rape survivors' rights, I never really felt I was allowed to participate in the fantasy of my own violation."
posted by zeek321 at 7:47 PM PST - 93 comments

Brothers of chimpanzees, cousins of rats

You have certainly seen a Tree of Life at some point (not the movie; the diagram of the evolution of species). Originally conceived of by Lamarck (though there is some interesting debate on this), it was Darwin himself who popularized the concept, first in his notebook, and next as the only image in The Origin of the Species. Though they have inspired beautiful illustrations, and a large and fascinating web project to map the tree, trees of life remain problematic since taxonomy can be complicated. One truly stunning way of redrawing the tree is the Hillis Plot, which maps 3,000 species by genetic similarity. You can print out the amazing illustration here, but, even though the Plot only contains 0.18% of named species, it needs to be 1.5 meters square to be legible. The Hillis Plot has been appearing in art, notably (and meta-rifficly) this one carved into an English oak, and, of course, tattoos.
posted by blahblahblah at 7:44 PM PST - 19 comments

Hell, Grover can't kill ya. He can't burn down your house.

In November 2002, at a meeting in the White House, the president and his top economic advisers packed tightly around a mahogany table in the Roosevelt Room. With the administration's own forecasts showing that the economy had already regained its footing, one after another of Bush's deputies sounded the alarm about the dangers of a new tax cut. "This burns a big hole in the budget," deputy chief of staff Josh Bolten told the president. "The budget hole is getting deeper," added Daniels, "and we are projecting deficits all the way to the end of your second term." O'Neill warned the president that a "tax cut that benefits mostly wealthy investors" could imperil the budding prosperity. "With the economy already improving, this could cause an unnecessary boost," he said. "That's how you get a bubble." Entertaining the chorus of doubters, Bush himself voiced qualms about more cuts for the rich. "Won't the top-rate people benefit the most?" he asked. "Didn't we already give them a break at the top?" But Cheney was having none of it. When O'Neill warned Bush that America was headed for a "fiscal crisis," the vice president, sitting at the Treasury secretary's right elbow, dismissed him midsentence by citing the ultimate champion of Republican tax cuts: "Ronald Reagan proved that deficits don't matter, Paul." Rolling Stone's Tom Dickinson on how the GOP became the party of the rich.
posted by therewolf at 6:20 PM PST - 66 comments

Lydia Nibley's "Two Spirits"

Fred Martinez was nádleehí, a male-bodied person with a feminine nature, a special gift according to his ancient Navajo culture. He was one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at 16. Two Spirits explores the life and death of this boy who was also a girl, and the essentially spiritual nature of gender. (previously)
posted by Trurl at 5:25 PM PST - 14 comments

Purity tests - just how pure are you?

Purity tests! From the olden days of Usenet: A purity test attempts to gauge how "pure" you are within some realm of experience by having you answer a list of questions regarding which acts, etc. associated with the subject you have engaged in. Generally, for each "yes" answer you lose a purity point. The result is scaled to tell you what percentage of purity you still retain. [more inside]
posted by marble at 5:24 PM PST - 74 comments

Stress free thanksgiving

Food Lab Filter: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt presents the "Complete Guide to a Stress-Free Thanksgiving"
posted by AceRock at 5:15 PM PST - 29 comments

Confidence Game

The Future of journalsim.
posted by sf9719 at 5:02 PM PST - 18 comments

The Great War

It's the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month where I am right now, so I present to you Europeana, a project collecting memorabilia and stories from the period of the Great War (1914-1918).
posted by unliteral at 4:00 PM PST - 29 comments

Space Station Reboost

Physics! (SLYT via)
posted by curious nu at 3:40 PM PST - 34 comments

Words of the last 100 years

Dave Wilton of wordorigins.org (prev) has been compiling etymological snapshots for each year of the past 100 years, based on words that first appeared in English that year. As of now, he is up to 1941. The 1911 entry gives a good overview of his goals and parameters. (via) [more inside]
posted by kmz at 3:23 PM PST - 8 comments

Who's a Pretty Bird?

This parrot enjoys dressing up. His owner reviews these fashion choices in adorably broken English. Sorry, ladies, he's taken.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 2:03 PM PST - 33 comments

Is the 2011-2012 Sitcom Schedule the Worst in a Decade?

Splitsider asks "Is the 2011-2012 Sitcom Schedule the Worst in a Decade?"
posted by reenum at 1:55 PM PST - 163 comments

Watch the closing doors!

NYC Subway skating.
posted by Obscure Reference at 1:51 PM PST - 64 comments

Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors

Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors. "Lower Manhattan’s 60 Hudson Street is one of the world’s most concentrated hubs of Internet connectivity. This short documentary peeks inside, offering a glimpse of the massive material infrastructure that makes the Internet possible."
posted by twirlip at 1:41 PM PST - 17 comments

Shape Type

Shape Type is a letter shaping game, created by the same people that made Kern Type (previously).
posted by Memo at 1:39 PM PST - 14 comments

Color in motion: spray payin artwork made in minutes

If you think that airbrushed sci-fi landscapes like like this have been rendered obsolete by time-saving computer graphics, let Brandon McConnell prove otherwise. You can watch him make similar art in five minutes with a few cans of spray paint, magazines and the lid for a pot. Don't have enough time for that? How about a one minute sci-fi landscape? OK, let's go faster: here's a 45 second painting, and faster yet: a 39 second painting. But it's not all pyramids and planets, there are also quickly created nature scenes, and tutorial clips, within the collection of 184 videos uploaded to YouTube.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:33 PM PST - 26 comments

R-via-REST

OpenCPU provides a RESTful interface to the popular open-source statistical package R, enabling the user to perform calculations and create publication-quality or web-embeddable visualizations via standard web requests.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:09 PM PST - 17 comments

Science!

An illustration of two dimensional vibration. A really cool illustration of two dimensional vibration.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:57 AM PST - 21 comments

Have you seen this Gordon?

In 1969, Sesame Street put together an unaired pilot to test in front of children. The pilot contained the appearance of an actor playing Gordon different from the other three actors who subsequently played that character. Sesame Workshop has no idea who this actor was and has exhausted all leads. Do you know who the mystery Gordon is?
posted by mightygodking at 11:46 AM PST - 89 comments

Local NPR Reporter Eats Guatemalan Insanity Pepper

Marshall Terry, a reporter for WFAE in Charlotte, NC eats a pepper that is being submitted to Guiness as the world's hottest. Caution: there is hurling and hallucinating.
posted by zzazazz at 11:05 AM PST - 154 comments

Before the Occupy movement, there were tent cities.

"Imagine if you had never been homeless before and you'd just lost your job and you lost your home. What would you do? Would you immediately go begging or knocking on a door? No, you would downsize, move into cheaper accommodations, if that did not work you'd move in with friends or relatives and then you'd move into a cheap motel and then ... where would you want to go before winding up at a shelter door? You would much prefer to live at a park with your family and your dog." ... "In just about every major city, there are tent cities. Unfortunately, we're in a growth industry and the numbers are going to continue." -- Michael Stoop, a community organizer for the National Coalition for the Homeless, explaining that the surge in American tent city shantytowns, first highlighted on MeFi in 2008/09: 1, 2, 3, has not slowed. The Great Recession: Life in Tent City, Lakewood NJ / Photo Gallery / Video. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 10:23 AM PST - 40 comments

Stories made from: microspores, fog maps, infected bass samples, mathematics, patterns of decay, broken machines, blood, code bugs…

Sparkletown, the twitter stories of Jeff Noon.
posted by Artw at 10:14 AM PST - 19 comments

Corporate Espionage

One month ago, Électricité de France S.A. (EDF), one Europe's biggest power producers, went on trial for allegedly hiring a security firm to hack into Greenpeace's computers. Today, the sentence has come down and the security firm, EDF, and its executives (and in a separate sentence of the broader hacking trial, disgraced bicyclist Floyd Landis), will be seeing fines and jail time. Greenpeace responds.
posted by griphus at 10:06 AM PST - 19 comments

“If I have a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes.”

Books seen in new ways: the Book Drum World Map (popular books mapped to their locations, and more). The Infinite Helical Bookcase. CodexCloud (store, search and share your eBooks online). Also: galleries and blogs of unique bookshelves, Bookshelf Porn and BookPorn. [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 8:28 AM PST - 5 comments

...and I endorse this message.

Honestly, Abe? (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by caution live frogs at 8:14 AM PST - 15 comments

very tough love

Many listeners have written to us since our episode about Georgia Judge Amanda Williams, asking what ever happened to her. Did she face any consequences for the things we documented on our program? Yesterday, Georgia’s Judicial Qualifications Commission filed formal charges [PDF] against her. The twelve counts include a number of things reported in our episode: sending away inmates for indefinite detention, jailing Charlie McCullough for 14 days for exercising his right to contest a drug screen, and using “rude, abusive, or insulting language” with individuals appearing before her. Local reporting from the Altanta Journal-Constitution. Previously.
posted by gerryblog at 8:09 AM PST - 41 comments

and battery

The assault on Los Alamos National Laboratory: A drama in three acts
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 7:53 AM PST - 28 comments

It's called 'A Salute to All Nations, But Mostly America'

Why the Muppets Need to Host the Oscars.
posted by veedubya at 7:36 AM PST - 69 comments

Jefferson County goes to war

Larry Langford was sentenced to 15 years in a federal prison in 2010 for his role in it. "It’s unclear how much Langford actually understood. Later he told the Securities and Exchange Commission that he wouldn’t know a swap advisor from a rubber band."

Yesterday, Jefferson County in Alabama declared bankruptcy, the largest municipality to do so. "The filing means the county has declared war on its creditors. " [more inside]
posted by dig_duggler at 6:47 AM PST - 47 comments

Joe Paterno, Graham Spanier fired

Joe Paterno, Head Coach of the Penn State football team, and Graham Spanier, Penn State President, have been fired by the Penn State Board of Trustees amid allegations that they did little to address the (alleged) sexual molestation of children at the hands of Jerry Sandusky, the ex-defensive coach of the team. And as day follows night, Penn State students rioted, overturning a news van, shattering car windows, and tearing down street signs. Previously
posted by sutt at 5:15 AM PST - 790 comments

"We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil." ~C.A.R. Hoare, quoted by Donald Knuth

Save the Scrollbar! [slate.com] Why are Apple, Google, and Facebook eradicating a linchpin of user interface design?
posted by Fizz at 5:09 AM PST - 82 comments

How Toronto Lost its Groove

An analysis of urban planning and investment, or lack thereof, with Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area as examples A to Zed.
posted by jb at 5:02 AM PST - 27 comments

Crashed Spitfire machine guns fired after 70 years buried in Ireland

Machine guns still firing, 70 years later. The BBC's Dan Snow joins in an dig in Ireland to uncover a Spitfire mk2, hoping to find one o the machine guns in reasonable conditions. They find six, and then it's time to see if they still work. Okay so they stripped the six to rebuild just one good one, and used modern .303 calibre ammo as opposed to the ammo in the ground, but hey. 70 years and still spitting fire. Of course the WWII in me will point out that the mk V's Hispano cannons were far more effective, but hey, that's not romantic enough for a modern news bulletin.
posted by ewan at 2:27 AM PST - 18 comments

Surf's Way Up

Garrett McNamara surfs a 90-foot wave in Nazare, Portugal -- a world record.
posted by chavenet at 2:21 AM PST - 11 comments

Scoops, Swoops, and Perry's "Oops."

Texas Governor and GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry is booked on all the major morning shows tomorrow, and with good reason. After two months of gaffes, impolitic stands, and bizarre speeches that quickly waned his once-strong odds of winning the Republican nomination, Perry went into Wednesday's CNBC debate sorely needing a win... only to deliver a tortuous, cringingly forgetful attempt [video] to recall just which three cabinet departments he'd vowed to abolish, a stunning failure political scientist Larry Sabato deemed "the most devastating moment of any modern primary debate" in his memory. While Perry's slow-motion flameout has boosted the fortunes of dark horse candidate Herman Cain, the unlikely challenger is facing troubles of his own in a volley of sexual harassment claims -- an oddly ineffective scandal Cain is doing his best to (somewhat dubiously) disavow. If Cain collapses, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich may reap the benefits, but his moribund campaign has issues of its own. Pawlenty, Bachmann, Perry, Christie, Cain, Gingrich... the base is loathe to rally round him, but after so many failed, flawed, or forfeited challenges, can anyone topple Mitt Romney?
posted by Rhaomi at 12:54 AM PST - 207 comments

November 9

Canopy Roads

Canopy roads are awesome, iconic features of rural Florida, beautiful, red, bright, green, yellow, normal.
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:24 PM PST - 29 comments

Pete Standing Alone

Pete Standing Alone has come full-circle in his dedication to preserving the traditional ways of his people on the Blood reserve in Southern Alberta. His 50 year journey from cultural alienation to pride and belonging has been uniquely captured by the NFB in the Pete Standing Alone Trilogy. [more inside]
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:56 PM PST - 10 comments

To The Moon

To The Moon is a stunningly good game about death, love and memories. If you love games and you enjoy love stories, I highly urge you to download it and play it immediately. Here's a review, but you shouldn't read it. You should just play it. Warning: Have kleenex handy.
posted by empath at 7:58 PM PST - 25 comments

Chinese heavy metals

About one tenth of China's farmland is polluted with heavy metals, with whole villages being poisoned. All too frequently, local governments have reacted by ignoring the problems and even denying treatment (HRW report).
posted by jeffburdges at 7:01 PM PST - 37 comments

GPS Artwork in Southeast Baltimore

GPX riding is a general term for using a GPS device to track and record location while riding a bicycle [previously on MetaFilter]. Combining this technology with a planned effort to create art is the premise behind Wallygpx. Think of the images as being akin to a giant etch-a-sketch.
posted by netbros at 6:12 PM PST - 8 comments

I said I'd never post a SLYT...

Right in Two - Tool ft. Carl Sagan (SLYT/NSFW) Warning: there is some footage of dead bodies. [more inside]
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 6:08 PM PST - 29 comments

"...That we are the Hitlers of comedy/and everyone else is the Jew."

For safety's sake, please consider all links herein either nsfw or potentially offensive* Let's Have a Shambles! with the Country Teasers! Formed somewhere in Scotland in 1993 around one Ben Wallers, the Country Teasers forged an unusual contrast between acerbic lyrics, trash punk twang, and honest affect(at)ion of country-western tropes and sounds. They were also equal opportunity offenders, their songs frequently featuring seemingly misanthropic, misogynistic, and even racist lyrics. But despite their affrontive controversy, perhaps they aren't quite so easy to dismiss. Though rarely does he give in-person interviews, Mr. Wallers will, when confronted, defend his "schlock tease," though not without characteristic aplomb. Although the Country Teasers are pretty much dead, their extensive discography has plenty of noteworthy diversions. Some albums to start with are 1996's Satan Is Real Again or Feeling Good About Bad Thoughts, 1999's Destroy All Human Life, and 2006's Back to the Future. Mr. Wallers continues to release new records under the moniker The Rebel. A number of Teaser records were released on In The Red records. *Although if you do find it offensive, I'd simply request considering if that is perhaps the point.
posted by SomaSoda at 5:50 PM PST - 4 comments

This Moment in Movember History Brought to you by the Letter J

In 1941, the Special Operations Executive forged documents, including passports, in order to help the resistance. Here's the one they made for Adolf Hitler, with a better view of the photos available on this site.
posted by gman at 5:42 PM PST - 16 comments

Taking peer review to the Internet

Something that allows you to easily slice through misinformation online online could make misleading the public a lot tougher. The concept isn't new (previously & many others) but unlike those efforts, Hypothes.is is open, standards-based, and backed by some web heavy-weights.
posted by ATXile at 5:16 PM PST - 59 comments

3. Respond Immediately and Escape

Three Principles of Self-Defense, by Sam Harris
posted by rollick at 3:45 PM PST - 149 comments

All your Music Memes Are Belong To These Guyz

Le Internet Medley, a shockingly well-produced (audio AND video) LinkBait YouTube featuring The GAG Quartet (yes, there are only 3 of them, THAT'S THE GAG).
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:11 PM PST - 16 comments

Jim Fields and Michael Gramaglia's "End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones"

The most vivid figure in Michael Gramaglia and Jim Fields's End of the Century was the least articulate and most archetypal of the Ramones: Johnny, the right-wing prole whose hard-ass sense of style the others nutballed and softened and accelerated and above all imitated. ... Exciting and absolutely right though their '70s sets always were, the film establishes that they kept the faith live till the end, lifted by Joey's goofy dedication and powered by the chords Johnny thrashed out like they were why he was alive. As unyielding in his aesthetic principles as he was in everything else, this reactionary was an avant-gardist in spite of himself. - Robert Christgau
posted by Trurl at 2:01 PM PST - 17 comments

Pictures Under Glass

A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design - "The next time you make a sandwich, pay attention to your hands. Seriously! Notice the myriad little tricks your fingers have for manipulating the ingredients and the utensils and all the other objects involved in this enterprise. Then compare your experience to sliding around Pictures Under Glass. Are we really going to accept an Interface Of The Future that is less expressive than a sandwich?"
posted by Defenestrator at 1:53 PM PST - 96 comments

Space fail?

Yesterday, Russia's first interplanetary mission in 15 years launched sucessfully from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It ran into serious problems almost immediately. In jeopardy are a sample return mission from the Martian satellite Phobos, The Planetary Society's Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment (LIFE), and China's Yinghuo-1 Mars orbiter.
posted by IvoShandor at 1:20 PM PST - 40 comments

Light-Activated Yeast creates Proteins on Demand

You could call it "computer-controlled cyborg yeast," but in reality, scientists have figured out an aspect of cell signaling in the yeast species Saccharomyces cerevisiae, allowing computer-controlled lights to initiate protein creation feedback loops (abstract).
posted by filthy light thief at 1:07 PM PST - 14 comments

Making A Cat Cry: The Adventure

With Skyrim coming out soon, why not re-enter the world of the Elder Scrolls through the interactive webcomic Prequel? [more inside]
posted by dragoon at 12:57 PM PST - 50 comments

Bucket list.

Elderly men accused of US ricin plot. 'Four elderly men from the US state of Georgia have appeared in court charged with plotting to murder officials using explosives and the lethal toxin ricin. Court documents say the group scoped out federal buildings and asked a contact to produce ricin. The FBI used a confidential informant to record the group's meetings. The men were arrested on Tuesday days after a laboratory test found trace amounts of ricin in their possession, the authorities said.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 12:16 PM PST - 90 comments

Massive rare blizzicane strikes Alaska

A massive rare 'superstorm' is currently bearing down on Alaska, with hurricane force winds (100+mph gusts), blizzard, sea-surge flooding. "This is going to be one of the worst storms on record over the Bering Sea". The storm passed through an area of unusually high sea surface temperatures. "This may help explain why the storm is turning from an ordinary Bering Sea disturbance into a ‘superstorm’." [more inside]
posted by stbalbach at 11:49 AM PST - 65 comments

Not Me implicated.

Bil Keane, creator of famous (and often mocked) newspaper comic The Family Circus, has died at 89.
posted by mightygodking at 11:24 AM PST - 78 comments

"It’s going to end up like Memorial Day or the Fourth of July or Labor Day, where it’s all about the sales"

“I feel terrible,” [Best Buy chief executive Brian] Dunn told attendees at a conference in San Francisco. “It will change some Thanksgiving plans for our employees. It certainly changes mine...We were going to be open at much more civilized hour, like 3 or 4 [AM].”
Feeling pressure from a weak economy and escalating competition from rival retailers, stores like Best Buy are somewhat reluctantly planning to open stores at midnight on Thanksgiving evening. Traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year, Black Friday has become Black Midnight. [more inside]
posted by 2bucksplus at 10:42 AM PST - 185 comments

Rise and Fall of a Condom Empire

Julius Fromm, a “quintessential ‘entrepreneurial proletariat’”, and a modest man with minimal education, sought a career alternative to making cigarettes and began taking evening classes in rubber chemistry around 1912. Julius Fromm then hit upon the idea of making condoms. The early condoms from the eighteenth century were generally made of animal intestines, and were used primarily by wealthy men – like Giacomo Casanova, who referred to them as “English riding coats” . . .
The Great Rubber Robbery: How Julius Fromm’s Condom Empire Fell to the Nazis. via 3 quarks daily
posted by Rumple at 10:33 AM PST - 2 comments

Meow Meow Meow

Japan's cat cafes, where you can have tea with cats.
posted by Artw at 10:13 AM PST - 81 comments

Presidential Candidates Explained Through Dungeons and Dragons Character Sheets

Presidential Candidates Explained Through Dungeons and Dragons Character Sheets. That is all.
posted by LarryC at 10:02 AM PST - 38 comments

MOUSTAIR

MOUSTAIR
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 8:27 AM PST - 45 comments

Occupy Samsara

"As teachers and leaders of communities that promote the development of compassion and mindfulness, we are writing to express our solidarity with the Occupy movement now active in over 1,900 cities worldwide....

"The structural greed, anger and delusion that characterize our current system are incompatible with our obligations to future generations and our most cherished values of interdependence, creativity, and compassion. We call on teachers and practitioners from all traditions of mind/body awakening to join in actively transforming these structures."
Occupy Samsara. [more inside]
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 7:42 AM PST - 51 comments

On the Expression of Emotion

One of Charles Darwin's lesser-known experiments, on the expression of emotion, is being re-run as an exercise in online crowdsourcing - and anyone can take part. The BBC reports.
posted by beshtya at 7:09 AM PST - 16 comments

...the product being sold.

The social graph is neither. Maciej Cegłowski, owner/founder/operator/sole employee of Pinboard (recently), blogger of idle words, lays down some science and thoughts about the charting of your personal connections, and why it's doomed.
posted by ardgedee at 6:54 AM PST - 75 comments

Yes Dad.

“I remember so much of your childhood," he says. "I remember running you around the leaves in the wheelbarrow. Or the time you were so sick we took you to the hospital. I remember walking in the fields.” I nod, because the moment’s not about me. “Yes Dad,” I say. “There were a lot of good times.” No, there weren't. Which is why we both escaped: He into the bottle; I into the nerd.
posted by jbickers at 6:40 AM PST - 63 comments

Science, Skin & Ink

Science, Skin & Ink A slideshow of science tattoos from Carl Zimmer's new book Science Ink at the New York Times. See more at Zimmer's tattoo emporium. Carl Zimmer’s tattoo emporium previously.
posted by OmieWise at 5:58 AM PST - 17 comments

Everybody's Got The Shining

Arthur recreates scenes from classic movies.
posted by mippy at 4:44 AM PST - 25 comments

Humans make for lame Rube Goldberg machines

Like a children's book for adults. Blok [slyt] a 1982 short by Polish Director Hieronim Neumann.
posted by quoquo at 4:28 AM PST - 10 comments

Adobe kills mobile Flash

18 months after Steve Jobs wrote Thoughts on Flash, and despite their protests that "Flash Player performs as well as, if not better than, comparable multimedia technologies", Adobe today announced they are stopping development on Flash for mobile. [more inside]
posted by fightorflight at 12:36 AM PST - 169 comments

November 8

Winner of the 2011 Giller Prize

Esi Edugyan wins the Giller Prize, the richest prize for English fiction in Canada ($50,000 to the winner). Those on the shortlist get $5,000 each.
posted by anothermug at 8:35 PM PST - 15 comments

Early and Unreleased Iron & Wine songs

For those who wish Iron & Wine was still releasing music in the same vein as The Creek Drank the Cradle, youtube user modestaretaloger has uploaded a treasure trove of early and unreleased recordings. There is aNick Drake cover, an early version of Faded From the Winter, songs that feature drums, harmonica and mandolin, as well as just plenty of songs that would have fit right into Creek Drank the Cradle or The Sea & the Rhythm.
posted by Corduroy at 5:48 PM PST - 18 comments

Pole Riders

Pole Riders. A pole vaulting game from the maker of QWOP and GIRP.
posted by loquacious at 5:34 PM PST - 53 comments

Career assassination

Q.R. Markham's just-published Assassin of Secrets, hailed as an "instant classic" by at least one blurber, has been withdrawn by its publisher. Why? Extensive plagiarism. The author who blurbed the book explains how he was duped.
posted by mothershock at 5:29 PM PST - 85 comments

Sucks To Be A Straight Guy

Sucks To Be A Straight Guy. Stepping away from the microphone, Jesse Thorn interviews Dan Savage, advice columnist of Savage Love.
posted by Green With You at 4:57 PM PST - 116 comments

Consider the human judgment

The King of Human Error: Michael Lewis profiles Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman [more inside]
posted by vidur at 4:07 PM PST - 61 comments

Be One With The Wild

The new Boy Scouts Of America recruitment campaign is... well... a bit hairy.
posted by hippybear at 3:57 PM PST - 83 comments

Toronto

Vintage photographs of Toronto at night is brought to you by the same people who put out Toronto in photos from the 1850s to the 1990s, and several other sets linked within.
posted by gman at 3:38 PM PST - 7 comments

A sense of the Renaissance, when things were more simplified and perhaps more noble

Sylvester Stallone has designed a pen. It's called Chaos. It's by Montegrappa (auto-play music... and oh what music)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:08 PM PST - 111 comments

Over 100 Birds!

Nigel loves birds.
posted by straight_razor at 2:58 PM PST - 4 comments

Heavy D dead at 44.

Dwight Arrington Myers, also know as Heavy D passed away today. Hip hop is far less fun today after the passing of the overweight lover. He was instrumental in launching Puff Daddy's career as well. Some of his most popular singles include Somebody for Me, Now That We Found Love and Mr. Big Stuff.
posted by Silo004 at 2:57 PM PST - 74 comments

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Teachings on Right Practice by Shunryu Suzuki, as compiled in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, read by Peter Coyote: "Posture", "Breathing", "Control", "Mind Weeds", "The Marrow of Zen", "Bowing", "Nothing Special"
posted by Trurl at 1:58 PM PST - 15 comments

Assessing the monumental architecture of Neolithic Britain

What's the meaning of Stonehenge? [SLYT]
posted by hydatius at 1:53 PM PST - 38 comments

But I disagree about "niggardly"

Yo, Is This Racist? (sltp) [more inside]
posted by peachfuzz at 1:34 PM PST - 74 comments

I don't speak Xiang, but I can if you like.

A group of retired Chinese senior citizens singing and dancing to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance on live TV. [SLYT]
posted by schmod at 1:31 PM PST - 18 comments

From ridicule to Nobel: The quasi-crystals of Daniel Shechtman

In 1982, Daniel Shechtman was on sabbatical at Johns Hopkins University studying aluminum-manganese alloys, and discovered that the resulting crystalline patterns of the alloy resulted in five-way symmetry, much like the famed Penrose Tiles. The resulting publication of these "quasicrystals" resulted in scathing ridicule from most of the scientific community, including Linus Pauling saying "There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists.", and his research director claiming he had "Brought disgrace" upon their program. However, by 1987 he had managed to grow large enough crystals to be imaged with electron microscopy, verifying his results. His subsequent studies of quasicrystals eventually earned him the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
posted by kaszeta at 1:00 PM PST - 44 comments

The spiritual successor to 24 is a much calmer affair.

At first glance, the new inside-the-CIA Showtime series Homeland looks like a cynical socio-political potboiler -- an attempt to exploit fears of a terrorist attack on American soil by Muslim extremists. In reality, the critically acclaimed show, about an anti-terrorism agent (Claire Danes) tracking a U.S. Marine war hero (Damian Lewis) who may now be working for what's left of Al Qaeda, is thoughtful and emotionally complex despite its airplane-thriller trappings. That's why showrunners Howard Gordon and his buddy Alex Gansa gave an interview to Mother Jones, a self-described "news organization that specializes in investigative, political, and social justice reporting." Reflecting on lessons they learned in the trenches of 24, they talk about Homeland's self-aware approach to paranoia as entertainment, and how "dangerous and politically incendiary" a TV show can be .
posted by Joey Bagels at 1:00 PM PST - 67 comments

The Big Lie goes viral

What caused the financial crisis? The Big Lie goes viral. Barry Ritholz writes in the Washington Post about the story (the "Big Lie") that it wasn't irresponsibility on the part of the banks that caused the crash--it was really misguided government policies! [more inside]
posted by russilwvong at 12:34 PM PST - 81 comments

Don't Worry. We're From The Internet.

On October 18, Wired embedded a reporter with both Anonymous and the #Occupy movement, calling both "a new kind of hybrid entity, one that breaks the boundaries between “real life” and the internet, creatures of the network embodied as citizens in the real world." The first entries in Quinn Norton's ongoing special report: Anonymous 101: Behind the Lulz were posted today. Coverage from Wired's other special report, Occupy: Dispatches from the Occupation are already online. NPR: Members Of Anonymous Share Values, Aesthetics [more inside]
posted by zarq at 12:24 PM PST - 42 comments

Sculpture, Light and Projection

Dev Harlan describes himself as a multidisciplinary artist whose hybrid practice combines the physical and the virtual with the use of sculpture, light and projection. In practice, it looks like this: Suffolk Deluxe Electric Bicycle (2:02), Any Colour You Like (Pyramid III) (1:38), Pyramid IV (3:25), Untitled (Pyramid V) (2:20), and Parmenides I (2:41). See also: Nawer and Temporary Space Design, and Amon Tobin live (previously). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 12:20 PM PST - 2 comments

But this could be almost anywhere.

Highrise: One Millionth Tower is an interactive documentary, architectural visualization, and virtual transformation featuring a highrise development in Toronto. Presented by the National Film Board of Canada. (via Chrome Experiments)
posted by OverlappingElvis at 12:18 PM PST - 3 comments

"Uh, I'll have a whiskey for main course, and I'll follow that with a whiskey for pudding."

"Using the power of light, we have adapted our technology to address a problem related to an industry which is a crucial part of Scottish culture and economy." St Andrews University researchers have claimed they can work out a whisky's brand, age and cask by using a ray of light the size of a human hair.
posted by Fizz at 11:50 AM PST - 21 comments

FC Barcelona: Highlight Clips Worth Watching

Allas creates surprisingly novel highlight clips of FC Barcelona, perhaps the most talented football/soccer team of the moment. This fifteen minute video illustrates Barcelona’s tactics, and serves as an introduction to aspects of the beautiful game that were previously invisible to novices like me. [more inside]
posted by ferdydurke at 11:08 AM PST - 35 comments

Ashes to Ashes

"See, lots of people love comics. Lots of people make comics. Most of us aren’t included in the mainstream. Now with our own books, we can reach a far broader audience than capes comics or art/autobiographical comics can." Comics creator Alex de Campi talks about digital comics, the realities of funding indie comics, and bypassing the mainstream - finding the Self-Publishing Holy Grail. De Campi is not new to digital comics, and has written at length about the nuts and bolts of publishing a story in a dizzying array of languages and formats. She is now using crowdfunding to publish Ashes, the follow-up to her Eisner nominated graphic novel Smoke.
posted by Artw at 10:10 AM PST - 9 comments

The McRib needs only hogs, pickles, onions and a vocal enough minority

What makes the McRib different from this everyday horror is that a) McDonald’s is huge to the point that it’s more useful to think of it as a company trading in commodities than it is to think of it as a chain of restaurants b) it is made of pork, which makes it a unique product in the QSR world and c) it is only available sometimes, but refuses to go away entirely.
A Conspiracy of Hogs: The McRib as Arbitrage
posted by griphus at 9:57 AM PST - 171 comments

But can it play angry birds?

Honda demonstrates the newest version of their Asimo robot. "With a further advance in autonomy, the all-new ASIMO can now continue moving without being controlled by an operator. Moreover, with significantly improved intelligence and the physical ability to adapt to situations, ASIMO took another step closer to practical use in an office or a public space where many people come and go."
posted by empath at 9:38 AM PST - 33 comments

America's First Suburb Turns 60

America's First Suburb Turns 60 Almost 60 years ago, a planned community embodied the hopes and prosperity of America. Now, it represents a more realistic picture of the American experience. The BBC investigates Levittown, Pennsylvania, as part of a year-long series. [more inside]
posted by modernnomad at 8:56 AM PST - 81 comments

Oops!

Carbon dioxide emissions increased by the largest amount on record in 2010, exceeding the worst case scenario outlined by the IPCC four years ago.
posted by jeffburdges at 8:54 AM PST - 92 comments

Rhino Airlift

The beautiful sight of a black rhinoceros being airlifted to a new home
posted by boygeorge at 8:08 AM PST - 52 comments

Magic Johnson remains a living symbol of hope

Magic Johnson still beating HIV 20 years later 2 decades after being diagnosed with HIV - the virus that causes AIDS, Magic Johnson is still going strong. His foundation is helping others, giving them hope while educating people about the disease.
posted by 2manyusernames at 7:46 AM PST - 37 comments

An MBTA Business Day

What does a day's worth of activity look like for Boston's transportation system? Via bostonography, which has been featured previously.
posted by Eideteker at 7:27 AM PST - 26 comments

Check it out!

Kindle Lending Library is now live. (discussed previously). The good news is there are lots of titles and no due dates. The bad news is that there is a one-per-month limit. Oh, and you have to be an Amazon Prime! member. Not everyone is thrilled.
posted by TwoToneRow at 6:59 AM PST - 88 comments

RIP Joe Frazier

We Love You Joe. Smokin' Joe Frazier has lost his last fight, against liver cancer, at the age of 67. He was the first man to beat Muhammad Ali, in 1971, and held the World Heavyweight Title between 1970 and 1973. He won 32 of his 37 professional fights, his only defeats coming against Ali and Foreman. He was one of the greats.
posted by joannemullen at 5:52 AM PST - 75 comments

Love is stronger than hate

After an Islamist party won * the first post-revolutionary election in Tunisia, the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo* ran a 'Sharia Hebdo' issue lampooning the result. The prophet Mohammed was named 'guest editor' of the issue and put on the cover proclaiming '100 lashes if you're not dying of laughter'. In response, their offices were promptly firebombed, destroying all their equipment. A week later, from its temporary home in the offices of the daily newspaper Libération, what is Charlie Hebdo's message? Love is stronger than hate. (Guardian story)
posted by Anything at 5:33 AM PST - 361 comments

"Hopes and dreams... will end up killing you."

Daniel Knox prophecies calamity and doom on piano and kazoo. A Chicago musician and songwriter with the voice of a 1920s troubadour, Knox composes tragicomic ballads reminiscent of Will Oldham or Tom Waits. Listen to Evryman for Himself, the harrowing Ghostsong, the poignant You Win Some, You Tie Some, and Disaster. [more inside]
posted by oulipian at 5:33 AM PST - 7 comments

Is This The End of UNASOG?

The death of Ghaddafi may also herald the end of the battle for the Aouzou Strip." You could call this 44,000 square-mile piece of desert the world’s largest sandbox. Its most remarkable feature is that it was deemed worthy to be fought over at all." (NYT)
posted by Xurando at 1:47 AM PST - 18 comments

November 7

Worldwide Feast

Saveur Magazine picks 55 great global food blogs.
posted by carrienation at 11:47 PM PST - 27 comments

One of his Minor Works

The original recordings of Ray Ellis' background music for Filmation Studios were recently destroyed, but enthusiasts carefully isolate and preserve the scores from broadcast cartoons. These archetypal cues were originally composed for Star Trek: The Animated Series, and used in subsequent series for over a decade: "Tension Mounts", "Danger Approaching (Variation)", "Action Cue 03".
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 10:22 PM PST - 18 comments

Detecting alien life by looking for cities at night

Detecting alien life by looking for cities at night (a world tour). [via]
posted by stbalbach at 10:00 PM PST - 23 comments

Poe Raven Bowie Mashed

If Edgar Allan Poe's, 'The Raven', was interpreted by David Bowie, as imagined sounding by Ralph Garman. [more inside]
posted by phoque at 9:38 PM PST - 12 comments

From the Fandango Ballroom

The Rhythm of Life is one of those songs that sort of embeds itself in your brain. Originally from Sweet Charity, it's a powerful beat that is able to transcend meaning, transformed by the medium... The original intent was a bit of a bohemian/hippie chant. The song sometimes was voiced by a congregation that appeared somewhat more innocent. Yin and yang, backwards.... it's meaning became something different altogether. Or, there's this...
posted by HuronBob at 8:31 PM PST - 18 comments

It's All Games Now

It's All Games Now: The Convergence of Games and Social Media (video, 61 minutes), is a talk given by Raph Koster, one of the lead designers of the MMO Ultima Online, at the 2011 Game Developers Conference Online in Austin Texas. In it he looks at how digital games have changed as a social experience from MUDs to World of Warcraft, where they are going in the future, and the bleed between games and the real world. Koster has posted a summary here on his site. [more inside]
posted by codacorolla at 6:47 PM PST - 15 comments

Gay helpline pioneer Rose Robertson has passed.

Before the Second World War, Rose Robertson did secretarial work. During the war, as part of her work for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the UK, Robertson parachuted into occupied France to spy on German troop deployments and act as a courier. Her acquaintance there with a gay couple in the French Resistance, and, after the war, friendship with gay lodgers, led her to found Parents Enquiry, Britain's first helpline to support parents and their lesbian, gay and bisexual children, an organization which she operated for many years. [more inside]
posted by Morrigan at 4:42 PM PST - 36 comments

Beyond "Total Noise"

The New Classics: The most enduring books, shows, movies, and ideas since 2000. [more inside]
posted by vidur at 3:56 PM PST - 130 comments

Technology is the name we give to things that don’t work yet

Brian Eno on technology and music.
posted by Sebmojo at 3:20 PM PST - 31 comments

Six New Libraries Opened Daily

After visiting Nepal in 1998, John Wood left Microsoft to try something different. His organization Room to Read now has created 12,000+ libraries around the world, and given away 10 million books.
posted by LeLiLo at 3:19 PM PST - 10 comments

Yelping with Cormac

How would Cormac McCarthy review products and services for Yelp? Yelping with Cormac, a Tumblr blog, rises to the challenge and shows us how. [more inside]
posted by killdevil at 3:00 PM PST - 17 comments

Yom HaShoah, in history and current day Israel

Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, is Israel's day of memorial for those killed during the Holocaust and those who were part of the resistance.

At 10:00 am on Yom HaShoah, sirens are sounded throughout Israel for two minutes. During this time, people cease from action and stand at attention; cars stop, even on the highways; and the whole country comes to a standstill as people pay silent tribute to the dead.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:39 PM PST - 68 comments

On The Set

Hervé Attia has made dozens of videos showing movie locations as they look in the present day juxtaposed with clips of the actual film. He also puts himself into the film sometimes. [more inside]
posted by gman at 2:35 PM PST - 8 comments

Forbidden Love

A famous gay couple has decided to separate, citing irreconcilable differences force by zookeepers.
posted by hermitosis at 2:34 PM PST - 35 comments

You probably know what Snoop Dogg gets you

What should you drink? Take your cues from the tunes. That's the premise behind Drinkify, a scrappy little webapp that recommends drinks based on what you're listening to. Their motto? "Never listen to music alone again." [more inside]
posted by Diagonalize at 2:22 PM PST - 108 comments

Visiting Deep Space...in Queens

Visiting Deep Space...in Queens This incredible room at the Hall of Science in Queens was originally built for the 1964 World's Fair to give visitors the feeling of being in deep space. Really beautiful, unearthly design. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by bru at 1:56 PM PST - 19 comments

Bring Me The Head Of Franz Joseph Haydn

Perhaps you're wondering why Haydn's grave contains two heads... [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 1:56 PM PST - 17 comments

When I'm gone, my mind remains a planet

Hip hop’s last enigma. 90 minutes of music and interviewing one of the best lyricists there is, via the Red Bull Academy Lecture series. [more inside]
posted by cashman at 1:46 PM PST - 28 comments

Google keyword: Pepsi

Two weeks ago, Google disabled the + operator for searches, requiring quotation marks to force inclusion of a word.
Today, Google Plus rolled out a new feature - Pages for companies and brands, so you can "build relationships with all the things you care about". Included is Direct Connect - go straight to Pepsi's Google+ page by searching for +Pepsi.
posted by dragoon at 1:29 PM PST - 204 comments

Stealth Bastard, a game

Stealth Bastard: Technical Espionage Asshole is a sidescrolling stealth game for Windows that is part puzzle platformer and part Super Meat Boy. It also has a level editor and is inexplicably free. Go play! [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla at 1:13 PM PST - 13 comments

Graphic Violence, or the Evening Redness in the West

'He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.' Artist Shawn Cheng and associates draw Cormac McCarthy's visceral masterpiece Blood Meridian page by brutal page. [more inside]
posted by tigrefacile at 12:17 PM PST - 31 comments

The how and why of leaking your own album, in two forms: Ben Folds Five and Wiley

In July 2008, there was a suspicious leak of new Ben Folds Five material, two months in advance of the (then) forthcoming album, Way to Normal. One month later, Ben Folds confessed that he and his touring band made the 6 fake songs in 8 hours (plus three tunes actually from the album), and he compared the fake tracks to the real album. Two years later, Wiley tweeted that he sacked his manager, and in a form of retaliation, shared 11 seemingly random collections of tracks in various forms of completion. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 12:01 PM PST - 48 comments

Chicken Pox, Lollipops?

A Facebook post reads, "I got a Pox Package in mail just moments ago. I have two lollipops and a wet rag and spit." Pox parties not in your town? "non-vaccinating parents who despair of finding a way to infect their children with chicken pox (intended to create natural immunity) are joining Facebook groups to acquire the virus through the mail." The science based community reacts.
posted by pianomover at 11:12 AM PST - 316 comments

New York as you know it.

A Year of New York in 5 minutes. Cameraman Andrew Clancy lives in New York City, and was in the habit of shooting footage of what was going on around him whenever he was out. This is a compilation of life in the city, from the point of view of a New Yorker.
posted by Phire at 10:47 AM PST - 21 comments

A sticky situation

Testing by Food Safety News has shown that more than 75% of the honey being sold in the United States does not qualify to be labeled for sale as "honey". [more inside]
posted by tocts at 8:25 AM PST - 144 comments

"There's nothing you can't do on a prosthetic leg."

"Every day in the U.S., about 500 people lose a limb. About 1,800 amputation surgeries are performed each year in Oklahoma. More than 1,600 of those — about 90 percent — are lower body amputations. So every day in Oklahoma, four people lose part or all of a leg." (Nationally, the most common procedure is toe amputation.) "These are the stories of four people living in Oklahoma — a mother, a senior, a Marine and a student — all living life on at least one prosthetic leg": Standing Tall [more inside]
posted by zarq at 8:13 AM PST - 21 comments

Department of Terror and Graft

"Without knowing what they ought to fear, US citizens might otherwise fail to support profitable national security initiatives." - Malcolm P. Stag III, Secretary of Fear [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges at 8:12 AM PST - 38 comments

The Codex Seraphinianus

The Codex Seraphinianus. This rare art book with text written in a still-unbroken code has been out of print for years. Now the whole thing is now available to read online.
posted by empath at 6:23 AM PST - 63 comments

Bully as Victim

A Michigander questions why an anti-bullying legislation became instead a bully protection tool. "On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled state senate passed an anti-bullying bill that manages to protect school bullies instead of those they victimize. It accomplishes this impressive feat by allowing students, teachers, and other school employees to claim that 'a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction' justifies their harassment." [more inside]
posted by TheGoodBlood at 6:21 AM PST - 137 comments

A Diamond is Forever, but stock ownership is whole different ballgame

"A momentous and difficult decision for the family which has been in the diamond industry for more than 100 years and part of De Beers for over 80 years" ~ Nicky Oppenheimer, Chairman of De Beers on the recent announcement of selling the family's interest in De Beers to Anglo American and pulling out of the diamond business.

The Oppenheimers may have ruled the roost for decades, but the company began with Cecil Rhodes, the English-born politician and entrepreneur who went on to found Rhodesia, which was renamed Zimbabwe in 1979 and the Rhodes scholarship scheme to Oxford University.
posted by infini at 3:57 AM PST - 45 comments

Daft beat poems

Four heroically daft beat poems. Part II. (Via Brian Eno's latest interview.Direct 10:25 )
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:09 AM PST - 5 comments

An immortal soul, he was Autoluminescent.

When we first heard it, it sounded like it came from outer space… Douglas Hart
There are just, every few years, the sound from a guitar, from someone who is channeling something that is so bone chilling, so blood healing, something that twists your molecular structure… Lydia Lunch
It was extraordinary really. As soon as he played two notes you knew it was Rowland Howard… Nick Cave
Autoluminescent, a documentary about the late great guitarist, has been released (along with the bats). [more inside]
posted by Kerasia at 1:58 AM PST - 12 comments

November 6

When Bots Socialize for Fame and Money

The Socialbot Network - A UBC study suggests that many Facebook users will friend total strangers. Researchers said they collected 250 gigabytes of information from Facebook users by using socialbots — fake Facebook profiles created and controlled by computer code (sic). The researchers said they got the approval of UBC’s behavioural research ethics board. The data they collected was encrypted and anonymized and deleted after they completed their data analysis. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 8:39 PM PST - 64 comments

"For truth! For beauty! For art!"

In 1992, influential game designer Chris Crawford left the game industry to further pursue his vision of interactive story telling. But not before giving a little speech at that year's CGDC. Topics include the future of game design, the genesis of art, and slaying dragons. [more inside]
posted by hellojed at 3:09 PM PST - 18 comments

That which does not kill us makes us stronger

> comp.basilisk - Frequently Asked Questions :: Is it just an urban legend that the first basilisk destroyed its creator?
Almost everything about the incident at the Cambridge IV supercomputer facility where Berryman conducted his last experiments has been suppressed and classified as highly undesirable knowledge. It's generally believed that Berryman and most of the facility staff died. Subsequently, copies of basilisk B-1 leaked out. This image is famously known as the Parrot for its shape when blurred enough to allow safe viewing. B-1 remains the favorite choice of urban terrorists who use aerosols and stencils to spray basilisk images on walls by night. But others were at work on Berryman's speculations...
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 3:07 PM PST - 88 comments

Knotty Problems

Science through yarn: Wooly Thoughts. The Home of Mathematical Knitting, including knitted klein bottles and hyperbolic planes. The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art (previously). Much, much, more on knitting, crochet and quilting used to visualize complex theories in topology, probability, chaos and fractals. [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 3:01 PM PST - 8 comments

"I always call you Jesus, you always call me Sonny. This Sonny talking."

"Thirty minutes into the screening, studio executives began leaving the theater to wheel and deal outside."

In the early 1980's, Robert Duvall wrote a movie script about a subject he loved dearly. It languished for 15 years. Then he put five million dollars of his own money down to make it. It was called, The Apostle. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,12, 13.)
posted by timsteil at 2:40 PM PST - 35 comments

Pakistan: The Ally From Hell

The Ally From Hell. "Pakistan lies. It hosted Osama bin Laden (knowingly or not). Its government is barely functional. It hates the democracy next door. It is home to both radical jihadists and a large and growing nuclear arsenal (which it fears the U.S. will seize). Its intelligence service sponsors terrorists who attack American troops. With a friend like this, who needs enemies?" [Via]
posted by homunculus at 2:30 PM PST - 53 comments

Celebs With No Eyebrows

Celebs With No Eyebrows [more inside]
posted by cosmic osmo at 2:06 PM PST - 61 comments

Gageteer.

This video introduces the concepts behind Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer, a new open-source toolkit for building small electronic devices using the .NET Micro Framework. [more inside]
posted by Ad hominem at 1:58 PM PST - 28 comments

Fog of War

Multiple missteps led to drone killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The Pentagon investigation into the friendly fire deaths of U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, looked into the first U.S. casualties caused by a drone attack. 'The incident raised a series of broad questions: How did the battalion's new rules for handling Predator strikes affect the decision to strike? Was the missile fired too quickly? Did the system built to help commanders make better decisions break down again?' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 12:42 PM PST - 97 comments

Typographic Inspiration

Beautiful Type is a patchwork of photos and illustrations having a relationship with typography. AisleOne is focused on graphic design, typography, grid systems, minimalism and modernism. iABC is a collection of beautiful letters. Inspiration Bit has a nice archive of articles about web typography. Nicetype is about fonts, logos, posters and software. Twenty-Six Types celebrates the beautiful letters. Typenuts is type-themed iPhone and desktop wallpapers. Typoretum is about typography, letterpress and printing history. Enjoy.
posted by netbros at 11:36 AM PST - 5 comments

"If you can't keep it zipped, keep it covered."

University of Rochester's libraries curate a vast collection of AIDS education posters from around the world, with almost 1500 available to view online. (via)
posted by ChuraChura at 9:58 AM PST - 14 comments

Why can't I find Amanda Hugginkiss?

A GRAVE JOKE ON UNDERTAKERS — Some malicious wag at Providence, R.I. has been playing a grave practical joke on the undertakers there, by summoning them over the telephone to bring freezers, candlesticks and coffin for persons alleged to be dead. In each case the denouement was highly farcical, and the reputed corpses are now hunting in a lively manner for that telephonist.
Paul Collins uncovers the birth of the prank call. [more inside]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:37 AM PST - 28 comments

Louis C. K. Plans Online Broadcast of Comedy Concert

Louis C. K. Plans Online Broadcast of Comedy Concert Stand up comedian Louis C.K. announced on the Conan show (forward to about 9'10" into the video for the discussion) that he is taping a comedy special that will be broadcast only on the Internet. [more inside]
posted by NoMich at 9:30 AM PST - 38 comments

The WH Auden of ultraviolence

So it was with uncontainable excitement one Saturday afternoon that I went round to Alan Walters's house to watch something with the promising title of Predator. I knew only three things about it: it was certified 18, it starred the great Arnold Schwarzenegger – the WH Auden of ultraviolence – and it reputedly featured a scene in which someone's eviscerated chest cavity was on full display. My favourite film: Predator The rest of the series.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:43 AM PST - 43 comments

There's No Such Thing As Aliens

You asked, The White House answered: "The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race"
posted by The Whelk at 8:29 AM PST - 104 comments

I'M GOBBLIN' HERE! IIIIII'M GOBBLIN' HERE!

Wild Turkeys Running Amok On The Streets Of Gotham
posted by jason's_planet at 7:53 AM PST - 54 comments

Music Ngram Viewer

The Music Ngram Viewer from Peachnote tracks appearances of any given note or chord sequence in a corpus of 60,000 optically scanned public-domain classical scores, ranging from the 17th century to the present -- a la what Google Ngram Viewer does for words and phrases. A fuller description with examples. And if you don't like the Google-esque GUI, you can download the raw data and mess with it yourself. (Via Music Hack Day Boston.)
posted by escabeche at 5:34 AM PST - 10 comments

Sandusky Charged

After three years of investigation, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office has charged former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky with 40 counts related to sexual abuse of young boys. The disturbing grand jury report can be read here. Two top school officials have been charged with perjury and failure to report in connection with the case, and University President Graham Spanier offers unequivocal support of his colleagues. More recommended reading: Putting loyalty to the many, the program, in front of the victimization of even the one, a child.
posted by acyeager at 5:05 AM PST - 194 comments

Minority report

Pain of being a Kenyan Somali Young medical student living in Nairobi talks about being from a minority under suspicion during a time of war. [more inside]
posted by infini at 1:29 AM PST - 14 comments

November 5

That's showbiz!

Cowboys Vs Aliens and Wolfman stank, Scott Pilgrim deserved better, 3D is a gimmick, awards are not a priority, and theme parks may be - Universal Chief Ron Meyer gives his unusually frank opinons while at the Savannah Film Festival.
posted by Artw at 9:39 PM PST - 179 comments

Ornette Coleman's "The Shape of Jazz to Come"

"Ornette in '59" - a BBC documentary segment about Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come. [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 8:31 PM PST - 17 comments

Dali at the World's Fair: "It is man's right to love women with ecstatic fish heads"

Salvador Dali's Dream of Venus, one of the earliest full-scale art installation pieces, raised some eyebrows at the 1939 World's Fair. Visitors entered beneath the spread legs of a woman in high heels to find a grotto featuing Venus, a topless sleeping actress on a red satin bed surrounded by lobsters and champagne bottles. Her dream, visible through the nearby window, included cavorting (again topless) mermaids flapping their rubber fins and playing a woman-shaped piano. Murry Korman took many iconic photos of the spectacle. What few knew was that Dali was engaged in a battle of creative crontol with his sponsor, a rubber tycoon and creator of rubber mermaid tails among other things. Dali would appear on site while the exhibition was being created and snip the tails off of the mermaids (pdf). While he was not around for the opening of his creation, he purportedly hired a plane to drop printed leaflets over New York: "The Declaration of the Independence of the Imagination and the Rights of Man to his Own Madness," a protest against efforts to interfere with his vision. [some links NSFW, via]
posted by jessamyn at 6:59 PM PST - 26 comments

Eat The Strawberry

How Much Does The Internet Weigh? (SLYT)
posted by shoesfullofdust at 6:16 PM PST - 40 comments

James Fallows on what it's like to have your webmail hacked

Hacked! James Fallows writes in the Atlantic Monthly on how his wife's Gmail account was hacked, and years of email were deleted. Summary: if you have Gmail, you should be using its new 2-step verification; use strong passwords; don't re-use passwords. [more inside]
posted by russilwvong at 5:45 PM PST - 85 comments

Asymptote Journal

"Asymptote is an exciting new international journal dedicated to literary translation and bringing together in one place the best in contemporary writing. We are interested in encounters between languages and the consequences of these encounters. Though a translation may never fully replicate the original in effect (thus our name, 'asymptote': the dotted line on a graph that a mathematical function may tend towards but never reach), it is in itself an act of creation."
posted by beshtya at 4:03 PM PST - 12 comments

Peek-a-boo!

Seth Rogan's furry self and demeanor makes him prime gazing material for the bear community. He recently talked about this (and a resulting portfolio of fantasy nude drawings of himself) with Conan O'Brian. More samples and ordering information for that publication (as well as uncensored images) can be found here. (NSFW) [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 3:53 PM PST - 74 comments

I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into cats cats cats cats cats

Welcome to Kitty City. A new animation from Cyriak. Previously.
posted by loquacious at 3:46 PM PST - 51 comments

KEYBOARD DRUMSET FUCKING WEREWOLF

cactus (aka Jonatan Söderström) is a prolific independent videogame developer. His games are known for playing against genre expectations and their surreal storytelling qualities (as in David Lynch surreal). His latest effort (a collaboration with his brother and FUCKING WEREWOLF ASSO) is called KEYBOARD DRUMSET FUCKING WEREWOLF. It's about an eskimo that that turns into a werewolf and the events that follow. Sound weird? It is. Available in pc and mac flavours.
posted by pancreas at 2:59 PM PST - 22 comments

Nov 5 is Daft Punk Mashup Day

Intergalactic Beastie Rock, Deadmau5, Depache Mode, Bruno Mars, Ke$ha, The Beatles, Queen, Stardust, Radiohead, Madonna, Chemical Brothers
posted by rebent at 1:21 PM PST - 32 comments

Sorry, I don't see Eric in your contacts.

Siri meets Furby. (SLYT)
posted by sweetkid at 1:18 PM PST - 25 comments

“Why do we eat shrimp and crawfish but not their brethren on land?”

The San Francisco Street Food Festival is an annual Summer event in the Mission District that features around 60 different Bay Area vendors and is attended by tens of thousands of foodies. This year the usual mainstays were joined by Don Bugito, which served up insect-based dishes and billed itself as the first "PreHispanic Snackeria." When the food truck commences permanent operations this month, it may be the first eatery in the country devoted exclusively to preparations involving insects. But they're not the only entomophagy pioneers in San Francisco, where Bug Cuisine is Booming. So just how tasty are insects? (Via) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 1:05 PM PST - 30 comments

Crazy (quilt) to the max!

Pin Tangle is the blog of Australian quilter Sharon Boggon, whose style is decidedly maximalist. Her crazy quilt projects include a lace quilt (current a work in progress) and a "I drop the button box" quilt made with 2001 different elements and hand embroidered seams. Some of the blocks I like best: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 789.
posted by of strange foe at 12:03 PM PST - 5 comments

Brother, can you spare a masterpiece?

Paintings by Leonardo da Vinci are among the rarest and most coveted treasures in the museum world. So how did the National Gallery manage to assemble two thirds of the world's supply for its new show Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:27 AM PST - 25 comments

Video of Afghanistan

"As each of us has his own impression of Afghanistan that is predominantly marked with pictures of foreign forces, explosions and terror, we were privileged to have access to capture daily life and portrait some people of Afghanistan." Afghanistan-Touchdown in Flight (5m39s, full-screen).
posted by stbalbach at 8:49 AM PST - 13 comments

Computers should sound like they're doing something

Relays are simple electrical components that turn on an electromagnet with a small current to trigger a switch for a circuit usually capable of handling a larger current. For example, a relay can be used by a 5 volt DC microcontroller to turn on a 120 volt AC heating element in a rice cooker. Since relays can be used for logic, they can also be the primary components of gloriously clicky computers(see this for details on the last one). [more inside]
posted by mccarty.tim at 8:45 AM PST - 33 comments

Fit 2 Fat 2 Fit

Fit 2 Fat 2 Fit "My goal is to inspire people to get fit, teach them how to do it and give them hope that it IS possible to get fit and stay fit. " [more inside]
posted by Sassyfras at 8:22 AM PST - 168 comments

Andy Rooney passed away at the age of 92

Andy Rooney passed away last night at the age of 92. [more inside]
posted by SpacemanStix at 6:21 AM PST - 146 comments

Drops

Markus Reugels takes amazing pictures of drops of water. For example, Dancing Colors or Cherry on Top or Into the Coffee. Check out the whole photostream. [more inside]
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:04 AM PST - 18 comments

If you thought just the movies these days were unoriginal...

Thirteen movie poster trends and...what they say about their movies. Included are the Sexy Back, the Text In Your Face, and the Legs Wide Spread. [more inside]
posted by zardoz at 2:23 AM PST - 61 comments

November 4

You've been Warnered

French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius wrote and "directed" the film La Classe Americaine (YT clip/full) in 1993, comprised entirely of scenes from Warner Brothers movies. Warner agreed to let the French TV channel Canal+ use its 4000-movie catalog free of charge and rights for a month, resulting in a pastiche parody of Citizen Kane, in which two journalists investigate the cryptic meaning Orson Welles' last words.

After La Classe, Hazanavicius directed two films lampooning the James Bond ouevre : OSS 117 - Nest of Spies and 0SS 117 - Lost in Rio, both starring actor Jean Dujardin. Which brings us to 2011 - Hazanavicius and Dujardin have just released a new film (via Warner Brothers in America) entitled The Artist, a heartfelt, old-school romance without the aid of spoken dialogue or sound, [p]rojected in black-and-white in the classic 4:3 aspect ratio... [more inside]
posted by obscurator at 10:55 PM PST - 14 comments

Partners in Crime

Professor James Moriarty is a mathematician and criminal mastermind, who appears in The Final Problem, the story in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes. Colonel Sebastian Moran is a colonial cad, who appears in the Adventure of the Empty House, the story in which Holmes returned. Together the commit crime. Kim Newman talks about Professor Moriarty: Hound of the D’Ubervilles, his novel in which they star as a reverse Holmes and Watson (review here), and lists his 10 best villains in literature. Previous team ups of the diabolical duo include the movie Silver Blaze / Murder at the Baskervilles (youtube), which features Ian Fleming as Dr. Watson, (not THE Ian Fleming), and Neil Gaiman's A study in Emerald (pdf) (Previously), as well as a brief appearance together in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
posted by Artw at 8:28 PM PST - 46 comments

William Friedkin's "To Live and Die in L.A."

After 25 years I revisited To Live and Die In L.A. (1985), William Friedkin's cynical, fatalistic, hardboiled and high-energy crime noir about corruption and survival in the city of no angels. The script is literate, the characters are believable, the performances are brutally honest, the unpredictable twists keep coming, the action never stops, and the car chase is shot for real without any fake process. (spoilers)
posted by Trurl at 8:26 PM PST - 60 comments

Guy Fawkes Day comes to America

U.S. Credit Unions report that over 650,000 consumers have joined during October, representing more than a year's worth of members in a single month, as Britain's Guy Fawkes Day (Nov. 5th) becomes Bank Transfer Day (tips). [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges at 6:24 PM PST - 142 comments

Science Fiction / Double Feature

Science Fiction / Double Feature performed by Amanda Palmer, Moby, Stephin Merritt, and Neil Gaiman, on the The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. [more inside]
posted by finite at 6:11 PM PST - 65 comments

24 Hours at Fukushima

As part of their special report Fukushima and the Future of Nuclear Power, the IEEE has published 24 Hours at Fukushima, chronicling the events that turned a disaster into a catastrophe, and detailing what might have been done to prevent them.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:37 PM PST - 20 comments

True Love

Archeologists in Italy have found a pair of skeletons, who were buried holding hands. [more inside]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:21 PM PST - 38 comments

What is this tyranny of head that stifles / The eyes, the senses, / All play on the strings of the heart.

Did you know the recently elected president of Ireland is actually a noted poet? [The Guardian] Here is another of his works. The Guardian's own Carol Rumens is not a fan.
posted by Fizz at 3:36 PM PST - 15 comments

Somewhere in San Francisco

Meanwhile, 6th and Mission St is in the center of city. If you've ever walked it, it's like stepping into the another world, not a pleasant one either. On a rainy night, wandering into Tu Lan, it's famed Vietnamese restaurant, is the closest experience I can recommend to feeling like you're in Blade Runner in America. I work between 5th and 6th on Mission and have wondered and despised how such a place like this came to be. Here's an answer from someone that lives there, which really has me thinking.
posted by straight_razor at 3:23 PM PST - 104 comments

Focusing on the past.

Mr. Remis’s wedding took place in 2003 and he waited six years to sue. And not only has he demanded to be repaid the $4,100 cost of the photography, he also wants $48,000 to recreate the entire wedding and fly the principals to New York so the celebration can be re-shot by another photographer. Among the many hurdles: He no longer knows where his now-ex-wife lives.
posted by dmd at 2:49 PM PST - 58 comments

Bennett + Gaga

What do you get when an 85-year-old jazz singer teams up with a 25-year-old pop star? The Lady is a Tramp.
posted by specialagentwebb at 1:17 PM PST - 61 comments

Freeze your beans and save your wooden cutting board

In two parts, Lifehacker takes on popular food myths with some of the latest research: Wood cutting boards are no less safe than plastic; frozen coffee beans can taste great; the evidence of the health effects of artificial sweeteners remains somewhat unsettled; and alcohol doesn't really burn away in cooking.
posted by blahblahblah at 1:08 PM PST - 69 comments

Dam!

On October 26th, a hole was blasted in the base of 125' tall Condit Dam on the White Salmon River in Washington. In less than 2 hours, the reservoir behind the dam drained completely and the White Salmon flowed unimpeded by a dam for the first time in 100 years. [more inside]
posted by unSane at 12:30 PM PST - 70 comments

Lets have a clever caption contest instead

The sods must be crazy: OLPC to drop tablets from helicopters to isolated villages (Previously)
posted by infini at 12:22 PM PST - 69 comments

Garfield's Royal Rescue, Part 2

The latest entry in ToplessRobot's ongoing Fan Fiction Friday series, will probably be the greatest thing you read all month. Ladies and gentlemen, Garfield's Royal Rescue, Part 2 [more inside]
posted by JoeGoblin at 12:20 PM PST - 22 comments

"Dropping out may not always be the worst fate: sometimes staying in proves costlier."

Our Universities: Why Are They Failing? The New York Review of Books has a lengthy review of several books about problems in higher education, pulling together the various causes that ultimately lead to universities failing to educate students. [more inside]
posted by missix at 12:17 PM PST - 80 comments

Black Money

The United States Secret Service is warning about an old scam that's recently popped up again in New England: black money. [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:18 AM PST - 87 comments

"I felt like I'd been catapulted from one end of the universe to the other"

This weekend marks the time of the Hajj, a core pillar of Islam in which great tides of humanity venture to the ancient city of Mecca to honor God. Predating Mohammed's birth by centuries, the pilgrimage comprises several days of rites, from congregation like snow on Mount Arafat and the ritual stoning of Shaitan to the circling of the sacred Kaaba (the shrouded cubical monolith Muslims pray toward daily) and kissing the Black Stone (colored by the absorption of myriad sins, and believed by some to be a fallen meteorite). While the city has modernized to handle this largest of annual gatherings -- building highway-scale ramps, gaudy skyscrapers for the ultra-rich, and tent cities the size of Seattle -- it remains mysterious, as unbelievers are forbidden from entering its borders. Richard Francis Burton became famous for touring the city in disguise to write a rare travelogue, but contemporary viewers have a more immediate guide: Vice Magazine journalist Suroosh Alvi, who smuggled a minicam into the city to record The Mecca Diaries [alt], a 14-minute documentary of his own Hajj journey. Browse the manual to see what goes into a Hajj trip, or watch the YouTube livestream to see the Grand Mosque crowds in real time.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:17 AM PST - 30 comments

Kevin Smith's Army

Kevin Smith's Army How His Loyal Fans Prop Up A Stunningly Mediocre Career [Slate] [more inside]
posted by modernnomad at 11:09 AM PST - 119 comments

What's new pussycat?

Cat, meet CAT! Photos of a mountain lion meeting Zeus, an 11 year old Maine Coon cat, only separated by a sliding glass door. Mountain lions are fairly common in Colorado, and as people develop in their territory, we'll see more and more encounters. A list of fatal cougar attacks in North America. Some facts about Puma concolor.
posted by Eekacat at 10:47 AM PST - 60 comments

Eulogy for a video game fan

Eulogy for a video game fan
posted by Cosine at 10:47 AM PST - 8 comments

No comic sans...

The 8 Worst Fonts In The World
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:43 AM PST - 95 comments

"While we still live in a sexist society, any woman who sticks her head above the parapet will encounter misogynistic abuse."

"You should have your tongue ripped out." Female bloggers speak out about misogynist comments, rape threats and death threats. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 9:25 AM PST - 102 comments

Good Touch, Bad Touch

What touchscreens lack is something called affordance. It’s a lofty term for an object’s built-in ability to tell you how it works. A doorknob affords turning. The button on a car stereo affords pushing. A touchscreen affords nothing. It relies on software for any affordance, which in turn relies on total immersion for the user.... The days of analog affordance are gone. What we want, apparently, is to surround ourselves with touchscreens of varying size—tiny ones in our pockets, medium-size models for our laps and dashboards, and massive versions for our walls. We want tomorrow’s vintage shops to be lined with identical, blank, anonymous slabs. We want things to be vessels for software, and nothing more. - A Slate piece asks if touchscreens are becoming too ubiquitous
posted by beisny at 9:19 AM PST - 97 comments

Dead as the Dodo

Ghost of Gone Birds. Over 100 artists were invited to choose an extinct bird and produce a piece of art inspired by that particular bird and celebrating its glory days. Birds celebrated in the show include the Dodo, the Matinique Amazon Parrot, the Black Mamo and the Great Auk.
posted by sweetkid at 8:42 AM PST - 5 comments

A Living Bridge

In northeast India, a giant cliff leads up into a hidden world: Lothlórien Meghalaya. Nearly two kilometers high and buffeted by monsoon storm clouds, this is possibly the wettest place on earth. Once, twenty-five meters of rain fell here in a year, the world record. Living here poses an unusual problem, and it's not just keeping dry. Nearly all the rain falls during the summer monsoon. Rivers switch from gentle streams to raging torrents. They become wild and unpredictable, and almost impossible to cross. Harley and his niece, Juliana, are busy cultivating a cunning solution. [more inside]
posted by troll at 8:25 AM PST - 30 comments

Friday Focus Fun

It's Friday which means it's time to focus. (On flash fun of course)
posted by aspo at 8:02 AM PST - 15 comments

In Your Eyes. No really, YOURS.

Want a role in the new Joss Whedon movie? How much are you willing to pay for it? The director is auctioning a walk-on role in his new film In Your Eyes, to benefit the Adrienne Shelly Foundation.
posted by hermitosis at 7:25 AM PST - 14 comments

Carving Mount Rushmore

"I want to create a monument so inspiring that people from all over America will be drawn to come and look and go home better citizens," said Borglum, in 1927. The Making Of Mount Rushmore.
posted by veedubya at 6:10 AM PST - 52 comments

Oh Good for you! Now, you'll probably get a belly ache.

Sorry, kids I ate all the candy!
posted by empath at 5:54 AM PST - 151 comments

First Chinese space docking

The Divine Craft docked with the Space Palace on Wednesday, and no one said anything! Cmon space fans, this is the first Chinese space kiss!
posted by Tom-B at 5:18 AM PST - 53 comments

Bach is easy. If she brings him up, you just smile and you say: “Ahh, Bach.”

Bach as graph. -- An interactive visualization of the Cello Suite No. 1, Prelude.
posted by crunchland at 5:01 AM PST - 51 comments

Gwar Guitarist Cory Smoot has died.

Guitarist with cult metal band Gwar, Cory Smoot – otherwise known as Flattus Maximus – has been found dead.
posted by 4ster at 4:25 AM PST - 38 comments

Not a second more

Should we abolish the leap second? [more inside]
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:51 AM PST - 39 comments

Journey ends

Mars-500, a simulated 520-day mission to Mars (previously and previously), will be completed today at 11:00 CET. Watch live
posted by baueri at 12:46 AM PST - 23 comments

November 3

Battle of the cameras

With digital cinema on the rise, and DSLR video shooting becoming increasingly popular for low-budget and independent film making, expectations were high for Canon's big announcement at Paramount Studios today. And Canon delivered, the C300 is a DSLR-like camera that uses Canon or PL mount lenses (two different models), with no autofocus, S35mm sensor size, full HD to a 50Mbps 10-bit 4:2:2 stream, shipping in January 2012 for $20,000. They also announced a new range of high-resolution affordable zoom and prime lenses for cinema use, and, as an extra bonus, they announced they were developing a similar camera that could record 4k video for release at some time in the future. It all looked like a big win for Canon... But, a few hours later, the always controversial and disruptive Red Digital Cinema, makers of the ubiquitous Red One and the relatively new 5K, 120fps EPIC, announced the EPIC's little sister, based on the same sensor, the Scarlet, a camera that also uses Canon or PL mount lenses, with an interchangeable lens mount, autofocus on Canon lenses, S35mm sensor size, 4k video (with HDR option) and 5k stills to a 400Mbps 16-bit compressed raw stream, shipping December 1st for $9,750 for the body (under $14,000 for a full, ready to shoot kit with media, card reader and 5" touchscreen, minus the lenses).
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:59 PM PST - 58 comments

Occupy, eh?

While Occupy Wall Street has captured the attention of major American politicians, its counterpart in Canada has been mainly a municipal headache. Despite inequality north of the border rising at a comparable rate, and similar political sentiments, most Canadians also believe the movement is ineffective, though their hearts are in the right place. As the movement slows as winter weather sets in, cities are taking various measures to discourage the protests, hoping a combination of inconvenience and weather will disperse the encampments. [more inside]
posted by mek at 9:43 PM PST - 83 comments

Hu leads China's Fox News

China’s Fox News: Meet "Global Times", the angry Chinese government mouthpiece that makes Bill O'Reilly seem fair and balanced.
posted by vidur at 9:06 PM PST - 14 comments

Damn it, all over myself again!

Women Struggling to Drink Water is the new Women Laughing Alone With Salad. (Previously. Frequently updated salad tumblr.)
posted by yellowbinder at 8:47 PM PST - 69 comments

The Big Girl

3 part series (some subtitles): rad mashup between stop motion and drawn animation in an awesome wrap of cute fun. Ep 1, Ep 2, Ep 3 .
posted by armisme at 8:33 PM PST - 2 comments

A.J. Liebling

[A.J.] Liebling didn’t invent The New Yorker’s fascination with work, with letting its interview subjects explain what they did for a living. But he did it very well, and his pudgy hand sits comfortably on the shoulders of the next generation, writers like Roger Angell or John McPhee. They are all of them purveyors of non-essential information, and the enormous pleasure we take in them is in inverse proportion to any actual need we have to know.
posted by Trurl at 8:13 PM PST - 10 comments

"When you think about the way he parked that boat, it was unbelievable, I mean, especially for somebody with no depth perception as we know it."

Captain Ron is on Hulu. [more inside]
posted by valkane at 7:23 PM PST - 20 comments

Tales of the Dark Knight

The 10 Best Episodes of 'Batman: The Animated Series'
posted by Artw at 5:35 PM PST - 97 comments

The Kitten Covers

Classic album covers, now with kittens!
posted by reenum at 4:42 PM PST - 34 comments

Do+A+Barrel+Roll

Do you use Chrome*? Click the links to make Google Do a Barrel Roll, Tilt or change the logo to Ascii Art.

* May work in other browsers too, YMMV [more inside]
posted by Ad hominem at 3:45 PM PST - 51 comments

Televisual journalists report forthcoming same-sex nuptuals on Conan

Conan O'Brien may be about to push the envelope on late-night television
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:23 PM PST - 158 comments

How many words are 288,000 jelly beans worth?

That's a lot of jelly beans
posted by notbuddha at 1:51 PM PST - 35 comments

SuperTwins - Super Charge!

SuperTwins , starring Natalie Kim and Trevor Zhou, is a new webseries about a couple ordinary, mid-level superhero fraternal twins, Karin and Kai, who are always at odds with each other. When we meet this brother/sister duo, it seems they've fallen on not-so-super times. Can they become awesome again? Here's episode 1, SuperTwins Super Losers?
posted by KokuRyu at 1:41 PM PST - 4 comments

Feel like a phony? Just fake it till you make it.

"I first heard the phrase 'impostor syndrome' from a telephone psychic."
posted by emilycardigan at 1:00 PM PST - 69 comments

Rick. Rick. Rick.

Rick taught his cat, Lou, how to use instant messaging. Their chat logs can be read at Lou vs. Rick. (SLTP)
posted by shiu mai baby at 11:52 AM PST - 104 comments

"the abyss where the eternally-formless state of the universe hides"

METACHAOS, a short film by Alessandro Bavari [previously]. Via MONSTER BRAINS.
posted by brundlefly at 10:58 AM PST - 9 comments

Losing track of words

Can vocabulary analysis detect the onset of Alzheimers Disease in writers? In 2004, a team at UCL demonstrated that Iris Murdoch's last novel had simpler sentence structure and a smaller vocabulary than her earlier books. Now a team at the University of Toronto has corroborated that research, and suggests that Agatha Christie too suffered from the disease at the end of her career.
posted by Sonny Jim at 10:51 AM PST - 37 comments

Gimme the phone

Global British Columbia Sports Anchor Barry Deley wins lotto home draw, live on his own TV channel. But it turns out he's got an even more personal connection to the lottery.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:40 AM PST - 68 comments

Satisfyingly difficult versus satisfyingly long

In 1987 the first Castlevania was released. It was followed by Simon's Quest in 1988. The difference between the two games is stark. Although they both have the same basic plot lines (kill Dracula) and setting, Simon's Quest introduced an open world and RPG elements, giving eventual rise to the genre known as "Metroidvania". Sequelitis looks at the difference between these design decisions and shows that maybe Metroidvanias aren't quite as much fun as you might remember.
posted by codacorolla at 9:17 AM PST - 66 comments

Of Course, of Course

Jasha Lottin says she can't understand why people are so interested in why she bought a horse, killed it, gutted it, then posed naked for photos inside the carcass and posted them on the Internet. (NSFW) [more inside]
posted by modernserf at 8:51 AM PST - 247 comments

Drop-matrix printing

Osaka Station City has a digital clock (yt) which is made of water droplets (yt).
posted by marginaliana at 8:27 AM PST - 37 comments

Too Close for Comfort, Indeed

Previously, we discussed the strangely serious 1985 Too Close For Comfort episode titled: For Every Man, There's Two Women - a show of note in that one of its main characters, Monroe Ficus (Jm J. Bullock), is kidnapped and raped by two obese women with a jello fetish. At the time of the previous post, no footage of the episode could be found online. Recently, however, the entire episode [part 1] [part 2] was uploaded to YouTube. Trigger warning: the episode, though it deals with a serious subject, often plays the abduction/assault for laughs. [via]
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 8:03 AM PST - 70 comments

Button mashing doesn't work with either title, nor does standing still and holding the block button down.

Starting the game at a higher than normal difficulty introduces the concept of "Darwinian Difficulty", which can be summarized by the motto "adapt or die."
Exploring the lack of a difficulty curve via diamond-hard games Ninja Gaiden Black and Demon's Souls.
posted by griphus at 7:22 AM PST - 63 comments

"The next time you hear a bird chirping outside your window, you might think twice about what’s going on inside his little birdbrain."

Are birds’ tweets grammatical? [Scientific American] But are the rules of grammar unique to human language? Perhaps not, according to a recent study, which showed that songbirds may also communicate using a sophisticated grammar—a feature absent in even our closest relatives, the nonhuman primates. Kentaro Abe and Dai Watanabe of Kyoto University performed a series of experiments to determine whether Bengalese finches expect the notes of their tunes to follow a certain order.
posted by Fizz at 6:18 AM PST - 31 comments

An unexpected murmuration.

An unexpected murmuration.
posted by Jofus at 5:03 AM PST - 79 comments

The other two, sure. But Amir? As if

Unlike other forms of match fixing, spot fixing does not affect the final result, only specific events within a game. Last year, in a cricket match at Lord's between England and Pakistan, three Pakistani cricketers and one agent 'conspired to cheat'. Following the decision [PDF] at Southwark Crown Court today, all four men will face prison time ranging from six to 32 months. It is the first time this charge, brought in under the Gambling Act 2005, has led to a sportsperson's conviction. [more inside]
posted by smcg at 4:21 AM PST - 25 comments

November 2

Skinemax

Skinemax is Koyaanisqatsi for a generation raised on late night television and B-movie VHS tapes. It's long form entertainment for short attention spans. An hour long VJ odyssey, it will move your body and warp your mind. A nostalgic look back at a half remembered childhood growing up in the 80s and early 90s, Skinemax takes a close look at the culture of that era. The images that motivated, delighted, and terrified us on the silver screen, set to propulsive modern music that pines for a simpler time.
posted by naju at 10:52 PM PST - 76 comments

The Shadow Superpower

The Shadow Superpower: a survey of globalized black market trade, and the size of the informal economy. [more inside]
posted by StrikeTheViol at 10:28 PM PST - 25 comments

A prehistoric monster which has mysteriously survived into the modern world

The City of London Corporation has been in the news lately related to Occupy London. But the deeper story of how this medieval remnant functions in 21st century England is far stranger... and more sinister.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 9:23 PM PST - 50 comments

A message from your king.

What would happen if a monarchy ruled in part of America? With a monarch divinely crowned? And then a soldier, fighting in the trenches against your hated enemy, saves the king's son and is thrust into court politics? If you flimed it all in New York City, you'd get Kings, a short-lived (March 2009 - July 2009) television series that aired on NBC. It starred Ian McShane as King Silas and you can watch all 13 episodes of it on Hulu or NBC's website. [more inside]
posted by curious nu at 8:42 PM PST - 71 comments

Port of Oakland "effectively shut down"

At least 4,000 are at the gates to the Port of Oakland - San Jose Mercury News. More links inside. [more inside]
posted by clorox at 8:13 PM PST - 384 comments

Steinway & Sons

Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037, a documentary by Ben Niles. "Invention for 900 Hands", a nine-part series in The New York Times. "K 2571: The Making of a Steinway Grand", an article in The Atlantic Monthly. [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 7:38 PM PST - 9 comments

They Went For Broke

On Wednesday, the United States Congress awarded its highest civilian honor to a group that had waited more than 60 years to be recognized for its service. [more inside]
posted by Rangeboy at 7:36 PM PST - 23 comments

17 Hours of Russian Animation

MISSING: One elephant. Striped. Big. Polite and good-natured. Loves cod liver oil. [more inside]
posted by Nomyte at 5:40 PM PST - 29 comments

No one rivals Doom! NO ONE! Doom is supreme! There is no power on earth, no intellect in all creation to equal Mine!

The Many Moods of Doctor Doom.
posted by Artw at 4:57 PM PST - 31 comments

The ecstasy of the feet.

Christopher McDougall, barefoot running advocate and author of Born to Run (2009), pens a multipage article on shoeless running for the New York Times.
posted by Gordion Knott at 3:29 PM PST - 56 comments

What ever happend to predictability? The milk man, the paper boy, evening TV...

Every episode of Full House hilariously reviewed in chronological order.
posted by SkylitDrawl at 3:28 PM PST - 61 comments

World's first manned flight with an electric multicopter

World's first manned flight with an electric multicopter.
posted by atomicmedia at 3:02 PM PST - 52 comments

Throw your hands in the air

We're Going To Be Friends by the White Stripes, in American Sign Language.
posted by bjrn at 2:54 PM PST - 19 comments

They should put wheels on those!

Boeing 767 lands in Warsaw, sans landing gear. Passengers, you may unclinch now.
posted by HuronBob at 2:04 PM PST - 71 comments

The Girl Who Couldn't Come

The Girl Who Couldn't Come - This is a book of dirty stories. It is a book where sex is fun and good and people are kind to each other. Also there are ghosts and there is math and there are obsessive compulsive disorders. (Direct link to eponymous story - NSFW text) [more inside]
posted by slimepuppy at 12:47 PM PST - 29 comments

Anonymous vs Los Zetas Cartel

On October 6th, a video claiming to be by Anonymous Veracruz was posted on YouTube, requesting the release of one of their members. A member of Anonymous was kidnapped during a public demonstration, by Los Zetas Cartel (or simply Zetas) of Mexico. The video included threats of exposing those who collaborate with Zeta, from corrupt police to taxi drivers and journalists. This, in light of internet snitches hung from an overpass (warning: graphic image) and a beheaded blogger from Laredo. On Sunday, one arm of Anonymous called off their threat to Zeta via a series of Twitter posts, citing concern for those not involved. Several Twitter accounts went silent, showing signs that Operation Cartel, or #OpCartel, was over. But there are still members involved, posting on their Facebook page that those not directly involved with the efforts should not try to participate, even going as far as to recommend people do not buy or wear Guy Fawkes masks, or use such images in their online.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:43 PM PST - 74 comments

I call him Nev-Bard

Neville Bardos is a very cool horse. Actually, he was a pretty terrible racehorse. Australian Three-day Event rider Boyd Martin bought him off the truck to the glue factory for $850. Originally developed as horse trials for the military, three-day eventing combines dressage, cross-country and showjumping to test horses' obedience, fitness and stamina. It's the triathlon of Olympic equestrian sport. By 2009, glue factory reject Neville Bardos was a good enough event horse to win the Fair Hill CCI***, a United States Equestrian Federation championship event; in 2010 he placed fourth at Rolex Kentucky, the pinnacle of the sport. Then came the fire. [more inside]
posted by rdc at 12:28 PM PST - 11 comments

Judge William Adams beat his 16-year old daughter with a belt for downloading music and computer games

In 2004, Texas Judge William Adams beat his 16-year old daughter with a belt for downloading music and computer games. Unbeknownst to him, she filmed the whole thing. Seven years later, fed up with the continued harassment and abuse from her father, she uploaded it to YouTube (warning: graphic language and violence, NSFW). Less than 24 hours after hitting Reddit, the video is all over the news. Hillary Adams says on Twitter that she hopes her father will receive help, not condemnation.
posted by miskatonic at 10:52 AM PST - 642 comments

Noodlin'

Portrait with Catfish. Pictures of people and their large catfish. [more inside]
posted by OmieWise at 10:25 AM PST - 22 comments

Turn It To The Left! Now Turn it To The right!

Brown Owls Display Remarkable Head Stability (via)
posted by The Whelk at 10:24 AM PST - 44 comments

I, _____________ ,am not gay; I never have been gay.

Late last month, the Board of Trustees at Shorter University, a Christian school in northwest Georgia, instituted a "personal lifestyle statement", asking all employees to, among other things, "reject as acceptable" homosexuality. The University president has stated flatly that anyone who "adheres to a lifestyle outside of what the bibical mandate is" will not be allowed to continue at Shorter.

Reaction from a gay employee. [more inside]
posted by pjenks at 9:21 AM PST - 155 comments

Back to San Andreas

The Grand Theft Auto V trailer is out. This time, in sunny California.
posted by empath at 9:06 AM PST - 197 comments

"How long before ... Greece, in its desperation, turns once again to the colonels?"

Mired deep in financial crisis, the Greek government of George Papandreou has sacked the country's military leadership:
In a surprise development, Panos Beglitis, Defence Minister, a close confidante of Mr Papandreou, summoned the chiefs of the army, navy and air-force and announced that they were being replaced by other senior officers. Neither the minister nor any government spokesman offered an explanation for the sudden, sweeping changes, which were scheduled to be considered on November 7 as part of a regular annual review of military leadership retirements and promotions. Usually the annual changes do not affect the entire leadership.
[more inside]
posted by Jahaza at 8:41 AM PST - 151 comments

"By any definition, these orcas are slaves."

PETA is suing SeaWorld for violating the Constitutional rights of orcas.
posted by xowie at 8:23 AM PST - 116 comments

"I'm on the Conan show / show / show / show."

In part five of Jon Ronson's Escape and Control, he talks to Patrice Wilson, the man behind Rebecca Black's "Friday" (YT) and finds himself part of the Ark Music Factory assembly line. [more inside]
posted by beaucoupkevin at 7:23 AM PST - 22 comments

Fantastisk Mediemanipulation

SYGNOK and The War For Radical Computer Music. -- "We join Gæoudjiparl van den Dobbelsteen (aka Goodiepal), internationally acclaimed 'Danish Techno Prophet' and creator of Radical Computer Music (RCM), in the aftermath of his war against the Danish Royal Academy of Music. Now operating under the moniker 'SYGNOK' after teaming up with DJ HVAD and VJ Cancer, the film traces how Gæoudjiparl's RCM goals of creating music for 'artificial and alternative intelligences' has now diverged into a tangled web of race wars, theft, forgery and death threats."
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:12 AM PST - 9 comments

LET'S BLOW SOME SHIT UP

The Formula for Complete and Utter BAYHEM or, How Michael Bay has Made Billions in Box Offices Worldwide. SLInfographic (the last graph is particularly depressing)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:41 AM PST - 107 comments

November 1

Espionage

There is a growing realization that U.S. cyberwar efforts resemble all its other 'war' rhetoric in being a boondogle aimed primarily at limiting its own citizens civil rights. China's breathlessly vaunted capsbilities are "fairly rudimentary" in particular (pdf, campus, previously).
posted by jeffburdges at 11:34 PM PST - 108 comments

Devotional snail mail in the PRC

China's post office is not normally a place you would associate with love. However, Beijing authorities, alarmed at the skyrocketing divorce rate, are promoting a new service in which the post office will send a love letter to your partner – after a delay of seven year [sic]. [more inside]
posted by obscurator at 11:24 PM PST - 16 comments

Hard candy is a type of glass

Did you know that hard candy is actually a glass? Neither did I! Learn the science with this detailed protocol for making your own that helps explain what is going on. (PDF) Bored with the protocol and need a recipe instead? Let these two hardcore hammer wielding home candy-making women show you the ropes. All using common or easily acquirable equipment.
posted by Blasdelb at 10:35 PM PST - 47 comments

68th National Congress of American Indians

The National Congress of American Indians is holding its 68th annual conference in Portland, Oregon this week. Oregon Public Broadcasting's Think Out Loud program talked today with Jefferson Keel, president of the NCAI and with others about food sovereignty on tribal lands. [more inside]
posted by curious nu at 7:50 PM PST - 17 comments

Ray Kroc

This had to be the most amazing merchandising operation I had ever seen! I don't remember whether I ate a hamburger for lunch that day or not. I went back to my car and waited around until about 2:30 in the afternoon, when the crowd dwindled down to just an occasional customer. Then I went over to the building and introduced myself to Mac and Dick McDonald. (very previously) [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 7:12 PM PST - 45 comments

The story of one woman's quest to photograph spider genitalia.

The story of one woman's quest to photograph spider genitalia. By day, Nina is online operations manager for American Medical News, a newspaper published by the American Medical Association. But for 13 years, she’s devoted one day a week to behind-the-scenes work at the Field Museum in Chicago: sorting, identifying, and organizing spiders in the museum’s collections, and in the process turning an enthusiast’s knowledge about arachnids into a slightly demented personal project. [more inside]
posted by srboisvert at 4:02 PM PST - 42 comments

The Long Road to Flex Mentallo

In February, DC Comics imprint Vertigo will finally reprint Flex Mentallo by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Vertigo unveiled a new piece of artwork by Quitely that will serve as the cover to the new deluxe edition. Long regarded as one of the finest superhero comics ever published, heavily annotated online, and subject of much study, the work has been out of print since its initial publication in 1996 due to a lawsuit with bodybuilder Charles Atlas's company. Atlas claimed that the title character infringed on his image, but DC successfully argued that Flex Mentallo's origin was a parody of Atlas's famous print ad, "The Insult That Made a Man Out of Mac". Despite its victory, DC had decided not to reprint the book and original issues of it often go for $30 or more each on eBay, though most who've read it at this point have done so via scanned copies from BitTorrent. When the new deluxe edition is finally published in February, it will leave Alan Moore's Marvelman/Miracleman as one of the last great superhero stories still waiting to be reprinted (though Marvel is clearly working on that, too).
posted by davextreme at 2:59 PM PST - 108 comments

Gustav Hoegen's animatronic effects

Dancing babies and robot squirrrels (YT) Gustav Hoegen is an animatronics and prosthetics technician - perhaps his most immediately recognisable work to a MetaFilter audience being the spider-centaur (and quite possibly queen of Mars) Rachnos from Doctor Who's The Runaway Bride, along with the clockwork robots which menaced Madame de Pompadour in The Girl in the Fireplace. He has also contributed to Hellboy and Clash of the Titans. [more inside]
posted by running order squabble fest at 1:12 PM PST - 13 comments

Workin' for the Yankee dollah...

'Rum and Coca Cola' is a 1942 calypso song by Lord Invader about women on Trinidad prostituting themselves to American soldiers. In 1944, the song was performed in the US by the Andrews Sisters, with the verses altered but the underlying meaning of the song still intact; the song was banned from radio play, however, because of the reference to alcohol. Both versions of the song were enormously popular, and the ensuing plagiarism suits ran until 1950. The copious Rum and Coca Cola Reader has the full story, and over twenty versions of the song. [more inside]
posted by kaibutsu at 12:18 PM PST - 45 comments

How the Courier folded

The inside story of how Microsoft killed its Courier tablet
posted by Artw at 11:40 AM PST - 150 comments

Borders. Security. Refugees. Jerusalem.

The Atlantic is in the middle of a four-part special report on the Israel / Palestinian peace process, called "Is Peace Possible?" which features multimedia presentations on and analyses of what they believe are the four core issues of the conflict: Borders, Security, Refugees, and Jerusalem. (The latter two will be released on Monday, November 7 and 14th, respectively) The report was put together in collaboration with the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 10:37 AM PST - 21 comments

I Can't Remember What I Did That Day

Life in a Day, Youtube's first feature length film, is now available in its entirety. Director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) and producer Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator) team up to offer this candid snapshot of a single day on planet Earth. Previously (SLYT)
posted by Xurando at 10:30 AM PST - 12 comments

Mama Lisa's World: Children's Songs from Many Countries and Cultures

Mama Lisa's World of International Music & Culture is a collection of songs and rhymes from around the world, in their original languages and with English translations, which you can browse by continent or country. Additionally, you can find a collection of English nursery rhymes, with a selection of period illustrations, with sources cited. And if you don't know the tunes, many of these songs and rhymes have links to MP3s, MIDI files, and videos. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:49 AM PST - 3 comments

Better late than never

After 44 years, The Beach Boys' SMiLE, the most famous unreleased album of all time, has finally been released.
Even at its most remorselessly upbeat, the Beach Boys' music was marked by an ineffable sadness – you can hear it in the cascading tune played by the woodwind during Good Vibrations's verses – but on Smile, the sadness turned into something far weirder. All the talk of Wilson writing teenage symphonies to God – and indeed the sheer sumptuousness of the end results – tends to obscure what a thoroughly eerie album Smile is. Until LSD's psychological wreckage began washing up in rock via Skip Spence's Oar and Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs, artists tactfully ignored the dark side of the psychedelic experience. But it's there on Smile...
The first of a ten-part web series on the making of the album and the new reissue has been posted on youtube, featuring new interviews and rare archival footage. The full-length 2-CD version is streaming at AOL.
posted by anazgnos at 9:37 AM PST - 157 comments

World War II in Photos

World War II in Photos "A retrospective of World War II in large-size photo stories. 900 photos in all, over 20 chapters, telling many of the countless millions of stories from the biggest conflict and biggest story of the 20th century." [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by bru at 9:03 AM PST - 34 comments

The (Scientific) Moth

If you like The Moth and you like science, then you might also like Story Collider. Podcast RSS. [more inside]
posted by kmz at 8:42 AM PST - 12 comments

“We shall have a man in the White House who will feel as responsible for American civilization as he does for American power and prosperity.”

"It was no accident that arts funding was once again brought to national attention with the exhibit Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture. Since the 80s, the enemies of the NEA have not been those with differences of opinion about what art should be supported or how. Instead they oppose any support at all for art of any kind." Hide/Seek, Culture Wars and the History of the NEA (NSFW, art)
posted by The Whelk at 8:23 AM PST - 115 comments

Domestic unrest can be heard, addressed

In this nation, capitalism helped but a small group and corporations. A more equitable distribution was demanded by the majority . Their demands are being met. In Israel, there had been a growing disconnect between the few who had so much and the many who were unable to pay rents, live decently, buy food. This led to occupying central spots and setting up tent cities to protest, similar to what is taking place in the United States. The government got the message. Improvements are planned to correct social disparities. Note that like our nation, they too spend a huge amount for defense. Yet there is a recognition that domestic needs are central or there is nothing worthwhile to defend except those at the very top.
posted by Postroad at 8:09 AM PST - 18 comments

The continuing gamification of life

Fitocracy is a social game that harnesses the power of feedback loops to promote fitness. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:03 AM PST - 41 comments

LTCM Shall Have Its Revenge

MF Global - once mostly a Futures Broker and more recently a budding full-service Investment Bank run by ex-Governor/ex-Senator Jon Corzine has collapsed following ratings downgrades on the back of large losses on Eurozone Sovereign Debt. Trades that Corzine himself oversaw. It will be the 8th largest Bankruptcy in US History. Much of the blame is being placed on Corzine's efforts to recreate his old firm, Goldman Sachs. He was forced out as Goldman CEO post IPO by none other than Hank Paulson - the Secretary of Treasury who oversaw the creation of TARP. [more inside]
posted by JPD at 7:27 AM PST - 41 comments

"Who are you?" the minstrel asked. "I am the Golux," said the Golux, proudly, "the only Golux in the world, and not a mere Device."

James Thurber meets Neil Gaiman: The Thirteen Clocks. James Thurber's classic work of dark whimsy, wit and fantasy The Thirteen Clocks [Wiki], narrated by award-winning author Neil Gaiman in this magically animated excerpt.
posted by Fizz at 6:14 AM PST - 21 comments

A Popular Guide to Unpopular Music

A Popular Guide to Unpopular Music by Kenneth Goldsmith, founder of Ubu. Here is an interview with Goldmith in The Believer.
posted by beshtya at 4:32 AM PST - 19 comments

a very clever response to nothing

A vigil was held today. Some clever social commenters posted an advertisement on Craigslist today. Mourning the end of an enduring and important love story between two much beloved characters. [more inside]
posted by taff at 4:26 AM PST - 90 comments

Cabaret Voltaire

Cabaret Voltaire: Trust in the Lord. This is Entertainment. Don't argue. No Escape. Just Fascination. Hallucination sequence.
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:00 AM PST - 21 comments

Your future soldier is almost ready

Boston Dynamics, home of the amazing bigdog robot (previously, SLYT), has released an impressive video of their new bipedal robot PETMAN walking, squatting and doing pushups.
posted by FrereKhan at 2:27 AM PST - 30 comments

so bad it's good, for sure

Folks, tunes like Scotch Tape (by Lana Johnidas with the Swinging Strings) and Portland Rose Song (by Bert Lowry with Orchestra and Chorus) could only have come from a "vanity" record label like Film City, who provided us and future generations with a plethora of endearingly awful little masterpieces.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:43 AM PST - 7 comments