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Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu.
Rolled Palm Leaf Manuscripts in Nepal.
Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture.
Lots of beautiful images and fascinating information, courtesy of the wonderful plep.
posted by mediareport at 9:29 PM PST - 12 comments

The Cute Factor: "Cute cues are those that indicate extreme youth, vulnerability, harmlessness and need, scientists say..." (NY Times registration req'd)
posted by shivohum at 9:03 PM PST - 28 comments

The American Dialect Society has announced the 2005 word of the year. Sadly, muffin top, crotchfruit, Cruizasy (PDF file), and the obviously wonderful popesquatting were big old losers.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies at 8:38 PM PST - 36 comments

cool, but slow loading particle physics trick using interaction between your mouse & the Google logo. Software is in Java, page isn't related to Google in any specific way other than that the logo was chosen for its recognizability.
posted by jonson at 7:14 PM PST - 37 comments

What is it, Mulder? This website claims to feature many of the best UFO photographs ever taken. They are dated as far back as 1870 to present day. ET phone home!
posted by sjvilla79 at 6:09 PM PST - 73 comments

Lifeboat ethics. "Terror had assumed the throne of reason, and passion had become judgment." After the ship William Brown sank on a voyage from England to America in 1841, its longboat with 41 passengers and crew aboard leaked badly and began sinking. To stay afloat, the first mate ordered sailors to throw men and women overboard: those remaining were saved and eventually rescued. One sailor who followed orders, Alexander Holmes, was convicted of manslaughter after he returned to Philadelphia in 1842. This true story inspired a famous fictional case, many legal opinions, two movies, and a recent book. What would you have done in the same life-or-death situation?
posted by cenoxo at 5:09 PM PST - 57 comments

Quake done Chopped. Courtesy of Speed Demos Archive. From those obsessive FPSers at Quake done Quick, this is a complete runthrough of the original Quake 7 years in the making, dispatching all enemies but zombies with only the axe. If you have Quake you can get the demo files here, otherwise you'll have to download the huge .avi from archive.org (main link). If you're interested in other QdQ movies - or simply shorter ones, may I recommend QdQ With a Vengeance (12:23 on Nightmare, avi here) as a fantastic introduction, Scourge Done Slick (an expansion, considered the best - avi here) or find others at Machinima.com.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:58 PM PST - 13 comments

A brief look into the making of a Simpsons episode. (Newsfilter)
posted by HiveMind at 4:58 PM PST - 37 comments

A canonical list of Monopoly house rules.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 2:50 PM PST - 36 comments

The Celestron SkyScout (Flash page) is an amazingly cool portable device combining an celestial object database with GPS abilities. It's not quite the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but it's definitely one of the most compelling applications I've yet to see of GPS - it takes note of your viewing location, and uses text and audio to guide you around the night sky. Announced at the CES show, there's no pricing info yet, but dang, I want this badly.
posted by dbiedny at 12:44 PM PST - 17 comments

Aargh!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:45 AM PST - 37 comments

The evolution of handhelds, the evolution of the game controller, the many stages of Shenmue; hell, even the evolution of Mario.
It would seem everyone but the far-right is evolving these days.
posted by Lockeownzj00 at 10:21 AM PST - 31 comments

Fsaturday Flash Fun: CryptoQuote. Other word games featured at East of the Web are the Tetris-like PopWord (and its multiplayer companion [beginner and advanced, respectively]), the MasterMind-like CodeWord, and the vaguely Scrabble-ish 8 Letters in Search of a Word.
posted by Gator at 10:09 AM PST - 6 comments

The Year in Culture: a different kind of 2005 roundup—influentials are asked to mention significant cultural points of the year. Hitchens on intelligent design ruling: "Just for once…one can hear the lucid tones of reason, detachment, culture, and irony"; Gladwell on the Streets: "the British take an African-American musical form and wonderfully reinvent it" (again); others muse about rare high points in South Park, or of Brokeback Mountain and the future of movies, or the Rove-esqueness of Cindy Sheehan, et cetera.
posted by Firas at 10:05 AM PST - 17 comments

Cooking Behind Bars. In 1986, upon my arrival at the county jail, my cooking lessons began. There, I witnessed men using empty toothpaste tubes as spoons, and burning toilet paper to heat up coffee or reheat the food served. Complete with recipes.
posted by gottabefunky at 10:04 AM PST - 34 comments

Psst... I know you called your girlfriend last night. No, not the one you live with. The naughty hottie that she doesn't know about. I know this because I paid a website $110 to buy your cell-phone records, which they delivered in two hours. Did you know that your private phone records are for sale?
posted by digaman at 9:58 AM PST - 50 comments

Prone to Violence FROM THE French Revolution to contemporary Iraq, the beginning phase of democratization in unsettled circumstances has often spurred a rise in militant nationalism. Democracy means rule by the people, but when territorial control and popular loyalties are in flux, a prior question has to be settled: Which people will form the nation? Nationalist politicians vie for popular support to answer that question in a way that suits their purposes. When groups are at loggerheads and the rules guiding domestic politics are unclear, the answer is more often based on a test of force and political manipulation than on democratic procedures.
posted by Postroad at 4:38 AM PST - 17 comments