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The Best Stuff in the World -- "an open, organic, polymorphous site which, depending on the user, could take on diverse forms and meanings. The site simply asks you to input your best stuff, whether that be a song that inspires you, your favourite little Indian restaurant, or the best explication of Kantian aesthetics ... it's up to you!" {via mefi projects}
posted by dobbs at 11:19 PM PST - 19 comments

Bowling+Rollercoaster=Fun (Youtube. No actual rollercoasters were harmed in making this film.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:16 PM PST - 22 comments

Archaeological treasures found on Google Earth. In 25 years on the ground, "I've found a handful of archaeological sites. I found more in the first five, six, seven hours [on Google Earth] than I've found in years of traditional field surveys and aerial archaeology,"
posted by stbalbach at 8:07 PM PST - 20 comments

Project Witness provides training and video cameras for local groups to use in their human rights advocacy campaigns. They have recently begun releasing these videos online. Check out US films like Outlawed, Rights on the Line, or The Day After Diallo, or focus your attention on the international scene: Between Two Fires dwells on Northern Uganda's civil war crimes, torture, and refugee camps, Season of Fear deals with Burma's internally displaced, and Witness to Truth addresses Sierra Leone's attempt to replicate the South African Truth and Reconciliation model. Best of all, this simple strategy actually works.
posted by anotherpanacea at 6:51 PM PST - 3 comments

**Gon-Puti** for dog.
posted by hama7 at 6:19 PM PST - 19 comments

First, interrobang got the ball rolling with his cool illustrations that can be shuffled in any order to create a new continuous panorama. Cortex added some coded widgetry to automate the process, creating a neat little toy. Then taz and iconomy joined in with their own creative spin. It's nice to see a contemporary techno version of the polyrama, a fine creative tradition dating back to the mid 1800s.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:09 PM PST - 39 comments

Small Number of Video iPods Shipped With Windows Virus. As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it. Oops!
posted by defenestration at 2:31 PM PST - 98 comments

Newsfilter: North Korea's response to a toothless UN resolution may be a second nuclear test. With military solutions pretty much off the table, it may be up to rival factions within the DPRK to topple the regime. NK coups have been discussed here before, and the end result may not be as pretty as one would hope, but maybe this time the Chinese have had enough.
posted by ernie at 2:08 PM PST - 57 comments

A great Stephen Colbert profile. "It’s been a very good year for Stephen Colbert because it’s witnessed the birth of the Colbertocracy. We’re just voting in it."
posted by js003 at 1:52 PM PST - 69 comments

Kira Salak is a writer who embodies an old-fashioned spirit of adventure. She has kayaked the Niger River solo; during her time in Africa, she freed a slave. On another trip, she sampled Ayahuasca in the Peruvian jungle. At the age of 24, she trekked alone through the tribal violence of Papua New Guinea. Her work is a wonderful alternative to the blandness and narrowness of contemporary consumer society, in which there is nothing new to be discovered and everything can be reduced to lucre.
posted by jason's_planet at 1:03 PM PST - 21 comments

Please enjoy this remarkable rendition of a classic Disney tune from Britain's fabulous Jordan(mildly nsfw).
posted by thirteenkiller at 12:44 PM PST - 63 comments

When He Said "Jump..." Photographer Philippe Halsman starting asking his subjects to jump at the end of photo shoots in 1952. This Smithsonian article features some of the photos. [via; more inside]
posted by kirkaracha at 12:00 PM PST - 24 comments

N E W - M U S I C
posted by a_green_man at 11:54 AM PST - 8 comments

Still looking for a Halloween costume idea? How about Flaming Carrot?
posted by UKnowForKids at 11:43 AM PST - 21 comments

I see dead people — Victorian post-mortem photographs. (via boingboing)
posted by spock at 11:28 AM PST - 41 comments

It was originally meant to look futuristic, but now it's considered kitsch. Even the most mundane food tasted good if the restaurant featured Googie-style archetecture and signage. I wish more buildings today looked like these. Previously discussed here.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:10 AM PST - 34 comments

Madonna and Child by Duccio di Buoninsegna (ca 1300) “is widely considered a key forerunner of the Italian Renaissance style and a landmark in Western European painting”. The painting “resides in a Plexiglas case in the middle of a room of medieval Italian paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art” and was purchased in 2004 for about $50million, the most expensive acquisition in the Met’s history. However James Beck, Columbia professor, founder of ArtWatch “established for the dignity of the art” (previously mentioned in this forum), is emphatic: “It’s a poor painting and it is a fake.” In a recent interview to Paul Hond in the Columbia Magazine Fall 2006 issue he admitted that such a bold and counter-mainstream proposition is “…calling attention to the mistakes of our favorite institutions of great power would not have been readily available if I didn’t have tenure.”
posted by carmina at 9:55 AM PST - 18 comments

Why I Gave Up On Hip-Hop "Hip-hop was still largely about the break-beat and dance moves and brothers who battled solely on wax. It was Whodini, Eric B. & Rakim, Dana Dane, EPMD, A Tribe Called Quest. And always and forever, Lonnae Loves Cool James. I knew all LL Cool J's b-sides and used to sleep under a poster of him that hung on my wall. I still have a picture of the two of us that was taken one Howard homecoming weekend.

And if, gradually, we noticed a trend, more violence, more misogyny, more materialism, more hostile sexual stereotyping, a general constricting of subject matter, for a very long time we let it slide (.pdf)"
posted by four panels at 8:40 AM PST - 118 comments

Straight Dope on the birth of the iPod from the sharp pen of WIRED's Mac maven Leander Kahney. Quoth Steve Jobs: "Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
posted by rdone at 8:02 AM PST - 35 comments

Wanna blow up a tower block? We all do. But some people wanna do it differently.
posted by dash_slot- at 7:27 AM PST - 24 comments

Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite? Should the FBI's counter-terrorism chief know the difference? How about the head of the FBI national security branch? How about a vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence?
posted by caddis at 7:06 AM PST - 125 comments

"This may very well be the single greatest biological discovery of our age" - rods, or skyfish, are the subject of a documentary by Jose Escamilla. While some are skeptical, Jose and others aren't dissuaded and Kozo Ichikawa claims to catch them bare-handed. Japanese TV reports, and USA's unit 13 investigates. Heres a guide to photographing them or filming, or buy an instructional video and rod-rod, known as a spoodle and try to catch some yourself.
posted by MetaMonkey at 5:58 AM PST - 43 comments

Evolutionary theorist Dr Curry predicts humanity will "split in two". At the very least this should provide material for playground insults. At the top end, as Dr Curry says, we could be living in Wells' The Time Machine. Only without the time machine, sadly.
posted by imperium at 5:46 AM PST - 70 comments

Bob "Mad Dog" Lassiter, dead at 61. Bob was one of the most notorious and entertaining "confrontational radio" hosts to ever sit behind a microphone. WFMU's The Professor wrote , "every other talk host I’ve ever heard usually gets off on like-minded callers, but not Bob. In fact, he was often quite impatient with callers who agreed with him." Bob was an absolute master of baiting the listening audience, ensnaring many callers who thought that they were clever enough to outwit him. Of course, none of them were. He once played "dead air chicken" with a belligerent caller for 11 minutes straight, saying absolutely nothing until the caller finally gave up and hung up his phone. Tapes of these broadcasts have been prized by aircheck collectors for years, many of which are now available as mp3 downloads at BobLassiterAirchecks.com. Bob knew he was dying, yet he actively resisted any measures that would improve his health. He blogged nearly every moment of his last days, often in graphic detail. His last written words were posted yesterday.
posted by melorama at 5:42 AM PST - 24 comments

WOXY is Dead. Long Live WOXY. One of the best modern music stations, WOXY (previously discussed here), closed up shop in September 15, 2006 after running out of money. Their subscription-based model failed to generate sufficient revenue to keep the station on-line. Amazingly, their plea for "white knight" funding was answered 5 days later. Their savior was Bill Nguyen of lala.com. Within 4 weeks WOXY was up and running again - no fees, same format and same staff.
posted by scblackman at 5:00 AM PST - 8 comments

One Day in History is a national blogging event organised by the History Matters campaign in the UK. They want UK citizens (or anyone with UK ties) to blog a diary entry about their day today (17 October). The entries will be archived at the British Library, creating a snapshot of everyday life in 2006 for the bemusement of future generations.
posted by chrismear at 1:33 AM PST - 7 comments

Cover Browser. A wonderous comic book cover gallery made possible by various open APIs. [via mefi projects]
posted by panoptican at 1:20 AM PST - 8 comments