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Sid Laverents has been making witty and humorous films since 1966. In 2000, Multiple Sidosity was the first, amateur-made film selected to be placed in The Library of Congress's National Film Registry. His latest, The Sid Saga, is also his autobiography and at the age of 95 remains busy, self-distributing his work. (via Low Culture)
posted by the biscuit man at 10:45 PM PST - 4 comments

In case you've been wondering about Europe's nascent GPS system, the Economist has an update.
posted by kliuless at 9:11 PM PST - 2 comments

Pixar Dumps Disney: "It is impossible to know how bad this is for Disney." On the other hand: Disney can begin creating sequels to all of Pixar's films, something it could not do under its current arrangement and is almost certain to exploit. On the third hand: One film executive suggested that Mr. Jobs could now be considered a candidate to run Disney if indeed Mr. Eisner ever left.
posted by alms at 8:42 PM PST - 26 comments

Strange performances, communication, odd colors and hooligan monkeys. It is the year of the monkey
posted by hypnorich at 8:06 PM PST - 6 comments

Hasta Mudra: a research project in movement and myth. "The content within this website is derived of excerpts from an ongoing research project on hasta mudra as they are utilized in Bharata Natyam classical dance of India. The literal translation of the Sanskrit hasta mudra is hand (hasta) symbol (mudra), though hasta mudra can be interpreted in English as hand gestures or sign language." [Flash.]
posted by homunculus at 4:06 PM PST - 2 comments

Old Time Candy - ready to say goodbye to your New Year's Resolution diet? Old time candy will sell you gift boxes based on decade! We looked for the nostalgic sweet stuff before, but here is another good collection.
posted by plinth at 4:05 PM PST - 4 comments

A.J. Liebling; H.L.Mencken; E.B.White: Are The Great American Prose Stylists Long Dead And Gone? Perhaps it helps to have two initials. In any case, Gore Vidal apart, I'm afraid sheer opinionated and passionate prose, backed up by knowledge of the world, unorthodox views and uplifting prose that is simultaneously workmanlike and deliciously readable is a thing of the past in American journalism. Sameness; political correctness and sensitivity have all had their deleterious, neutering effect. Are there any exceptions?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:20 PM PST - 36 comments

Single life is fine till about 30, then normal people marry. Neil Steinberg fires a trollish, yet illuminating salvo across the marriage gap.
posted by 4easypayments at 2:46 PM PST - 77 comments

Hama-Net: Plentiful Electronic Photo Library on Odagahama Japan, and Neighbouring Seashores.
posted by hama7 at 2:23 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Whale explodes in Taiwan city "A 60-ton sperm whale exploded on a busy street, showering nearby cars and shops with blood and organs and stopping traffic for hours." More Pictures linked here. More exploding whales - 1, 2, 3.
posted by y6y6y6 at 1:44 PM PST - 29 comments

Pakistan Bans Anti-al-Qaida Operations. Where does the United States go from here?
posted by the fire you left me at 12:55 PM PST - 16 comments

Adult search engine, Booble.com has received a cease and desist order from Google on the grounds of trademark infringement. Read Google's letter and Booble's response. all links are work safe.
posted by paulrockNJ at 12:06 PM PST - 22 comments

Janet Frame, New Zealand writer, is dead at 79. More information about her life, here, and obituary notice here. Nominated for the Nobel Prize for Fiction last year, I had hoped she might yet win. RIP.
posted by jokeefe at 11:46 AM PST - 5 comments

Punk rock is dead.
posted by cachilders at 11:13 AM PST - 38 comments

License plates of the world. Because you never know when your familiarity with Mongolian tags may come in handy. (via the ultimate insult)
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:49 AM PST - 11 comments

The Beneficiaries of Saddam's Oil Vouchers: The List of 270 (This is the first xlation I could find). The following report from MEMRI's Baghdad office is a translation of an article which appeared in the Iraqi daily Al-Mada, which obtained lists of 270 companies, organizations, and individuals awarded allocations (vouchers) of crude oil by Saddam Hussein's regime. The beneficiaries reside in 50 countries: 16 Arab, 17 European, 9 Asian, and the rest from sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Only a portion of the 270 recipients are listed and identified.
posted by kablam at 10:01 AM PST - 17 comments

Business Card Menger Sponge Project
The primary goal of the Business Card Menger Sponge Project is to build a depth 3 approximation to Menger's Sponge ... out of 66,048 business cards . This can be done by building 8000 business card cubes out of 6 cards each, linking them together and using the additional cards to panel the 18,048 exterior faces of the sponge.

With all the troubles in our world today, the confusion of the Presidential primaries, terrorism, you name it, it is good someone can find a project that gets people involved and serves, after its completion, as a greatly beneficial offering for mankind.
posted by RubberHen at 9:52 AM PST - 4 comments

Visible Traces: Rare Books and Special Collections from the National Library of China. Rare books, maps and other texts, viewable online in this exhibition at askasia.org.
posted by plep at 9:51 AM PST - 5 comments

Reference nuts, here's a great product for you. Good stuff for the wall of your study.
posted by tetsuo at 9:41 AM PST - 8 comments

The Matrix is REAL
posted by Plunge at 9:20 AM PST - 21 comments

Michael, aged 25, was abducted by Lord's Resistance Army rebels in northern Uganda. His captors beat him on the head with rifle-butts when he was no longer able to carry their loot and left him for dead. Government soldiers found him a week later. "Termites had started eating me alive," he recalls. Michael's is one of many personal testimonies published in When the sun sets, we start to worry..., a book launched Thursday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in conjunction with its Integrated Regional Information Networks. Using personal accounts and powerful black-and-white photographs, When the sun sets, we start to worry... aims to draw attention to the plight of more than a million Ugandan men, women and children whose present existence encompasses a degree of misery and horror seldom seen elsewhere.
posted by mookieproof at 9:17 AM PST - 2 comments

Richard Perle...terrorist supporter or clueless dupe?
posted by soyjoy at 8:55 AM PST - 8 comments

Save the Hubble! I know, I know, it's an internet petition... but it's to save the Hubble Telescope! That's worth a minute out of your day.
posted by Hugh2d2 at 6:00 AM PST - 10 comments

xplanet is a powerful and free app that lets you display an earth view on your desktop, with highly configurable degrees of realism. available for multple os's, you can even configure it to periodically download recent (within 3 hours) cloud cover maps, as well as your local weather forecast, satellite paths, recent earthquake or volcanic activity. be sure to check out the gallery.
posted by crunchland at 3:09 AM PST - 27 comments