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Henri Giraud was the first to land a plane on Mont Aiguille [41.4 MB mpg], on August 27th 1957 and on Mont Blanc [32.2 MB mpg] on June 23rd 1960. [more inside]
posted by tellurian at 11:05 PM PST - 6 comments

Forget the Career. My Parents Need Me at Home.
posted by homunculus at 9:23 PM PST - 45 comments

ArtFilter: Treat yourself to the photomontages of Winston Smith. [MI]
posted by sjvilla79 at 9:14 PM PST - 10 comments

A good film to watch BEFORE you bust out that turkey deep fryer for Thanksgiving tomorrow [12.7MB mpg file]. I've never eaten this delicacy nor seen one of these things used but after a moment's thought, it's not surprising just how dangerous they are. Be safe tomorrow, ye deep-fry eaters. [via Bifurcated Rivets]
posted by scarabic at 8:49 PM PST - 85 comments

Short film of climber Dan Osman scaling Lover's Leap in California without ropes, racing over 400 vertical feet in just under four & a half minutes. Link goes to direct wmv download. Having never heard of Osman before, I was shocked to find out that his daredevil ways led to an early death when a rope snapped while Osman was performing a modfied form of bungie jumping in Yosemite back in 1999.
posted by jonson at 7:16 PM PST - 79 comments

Typophile speculates. We have several symbols in english that stand for words commonly used enough that simplifying their written forms (@, &, %) became common. What would have happened if chat-speak had become common before computers, people started writing them in shorthand, and type foundries realized that we needed a Helvitica Medium Bold version of the WTF ligature?
posted by eriko at 6:26 PM PST - 41 comments

China isn't known for being open about most things, including the spread of deadly diseases. (Many will remember China's original attempt to cover up SARS. As the International Society for Infectious Diseases reports, a prominent WHO virologist has made a claim that China has now experienced at least 300 human avian flu deaths and is actively attempting to cover this information up. "We are systematically deceived," he is reported to have said. "At least 5 medical co-workers who should be reporting on the situation in the provinces were arrested, and [other] publication-willing researchers were threatened with punishments."
posted by chakalakasp at 5:56 PM PST - 27 comments

The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara is a digital collection of over 5000 digitized cylinder recordings from the turn of the 20th century. Cylinders were the first commercially-produced sound recordings. The UCSB collection is quite large and can be streamed or downloaded. The tracks range from instrumental and vocal music to "old-timey music" to vaudeville routine (including some which are quite offensive by modern standards- see this disclaimer at the bottom of this page). For the casual listener, try Cylinder radio, which is a stream of some highlights of the collection.
posted by JMOZ at 4:35 PM PST - 18 comments

"Tell me more of Elemenstoring, Dogus." From the tiny seed of a news post, a new world has taken form. Too bad it never existed.
posted by Loser at 4:07 PM PST - 12 comments

Some of you might remember Bill Harris, who credited his "miracle kitty" named, well, Miss Kitty, for saving his life during Hurricane Katrina. He died today at age 63. Video of their reunion here. (imbedded .asf)
posted by Cyrano at 3:56 PM PST - 9 comments

Woven interiors. More about the artist here [flash].
posted by Armitage Shanks at 1:09 PM PST - 8 comments

32 Hours 7 Minutes is all it took to drive from New York to LA. via Gizmodo
posted by blue_beetle at 1:01 PM PST - 43 comments

Canada boots out its government: the Non-confidence Vote. A binding, non-confidence vote is being tabled and the minority parties -- which collectively hold a majority of seats -- agree to support it. It's also a bit historical: it has been more than a century since a general, binding non-confidence vote has been tabled all by itself, unattached to a big-issue item like the budget.
posted by five fresh fish at 12:42 PM PST - 134 comments

EastSouthWestNorth is a breath of fresh air. Looking for Chinese news in English is pretty frustrating. There is Xinhua, the CPC mouthpiece, and it's outlets like the China Daily. The fluffy Beijing Today isn't much better, geared more towards vapid expats. For an interesting take on China from a Chinese perspective, EastSouthNorthWest translates news from independent Chinese sources to give a picture of China inaccessible to the foreign ear. Everything from religious and press freedom to magical man tubers is covered. EastSouthWestNorth previously discussed here, as a much different site.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 12:41 PM PST - 6 comments

SHMUPS! aka 2D Scrolling Shoot-em-ups. Shmups.com is dedicated to this classic genre, from ancient history (Space Invaders, Tempest) to grandfather games (R-Type II, 1941) to golden age shmups (Tyrian, Blazing Star) to modern classics (Radiant Silvergun, Mars Matrix, Ikaruga). Most aren't for the PC, unfortunately, but that's what Mame and other emulators (mac too) are for. As for roms, can't help you there. For PC enthusiasts, Shoot the Core's PC Shmup listing is the most complete I've ever seen, with many links to download as well. This Thanksgiving weekend, what better to do in your food coma than sit back and blast through a few games in the most enduring video game genre of all time? *CAUTION! These sites took up five hours of my time last night and I downloaded 42 games.*
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 12:08 PM PST - 33 comments

GiftBox is a new web application that allows you to keep track of gifts you've given to others, plan to give to others, or that people have given to you. It lets you create wishlists and send thank-you e-cards. All info is password-protected, and their privacy policy seems better than most. Free for up to three holidays, or $19/year for unlimited holidays. (I am not affiliated with the site in any way; I just admire it and thought that, with the holiday season upon us, others might like it, too.)
posted by cerebus19 at 11:44 AM PST - 14 comments

The treadmill bike. "Take your favorite gym workout outside! Be sure to watch the video.
posted by fixedgear at 11:29 AM PST - 31 comments

Glossophobia aka Lalophobia or, more commonly, stage fright is allegedly the biggest fear for Americans. If you experience it, you are hardly alone. Many well known performers, including Sir Laurence Olivier, Barbara Streisand, Donnie Osmond, Dusty Springfield and Andy Partridge of XTC, share your fear. Indeed, all kinds of performers suffer from it, including musicians, jugglers, and public speakers. Many people have (sometimes contradictory) advice about overcoming your fear of speaking in public. However, in a pinch, one can always use a Beta Blocker. Drinking booze, however, is not frequently recomended.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:13 AM PST - 17 comments

Does your Web 2.0 service check out? First Create Your Own Web 2.0 company, making sure to leverage all key items on the Web 2.0 Checklist. Then add a Goopy Logo. After you've gone to Perpetual Betacast, Validate, Validate, Validate, lest other blogospherizens play Bingo on you.
posted by brownpau at 9:29 AM PST - 16 comments

Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2005. In a speech given on November 10th, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales introduced proposed legislation [pdf] that would go one step further in criminalizing copyright infringement. The RIAA thinks its a good idea.
posted by ND¢ at 8:47 AM PST - 35 comments

We love you best when you're snarky, Roger. Perhaps the best reviews from the venerable Roger Ebert are when he gives 1 or fewer stars to a movie (a good example being his review of Just Friends, which comes out this weekend). He has more to say about the industry, the process of film making, and the way people think when they pay to see these things. Now, we've discussed Ebert before, but it's worth a read of his reviews by searching for movies rated from Zero to One star.
posted by thanotopsis at 7:50 AM PST - 82 comments

Happy Thanksgiving 2005 -scientifically speaking, also the last Day of the Oil Age...according to Kenneth Deffeyes, geologist and Emeritus Professor at Princeton University. .."I wind up saying that world oil is going to peak in production on Thanksgiving Day, 2005." Drink a toast to some of the other of Earth's horn O' plenty resources as we herald in the Green Age. ...sure, this is sensational, but perhaps blog worthy...
posted by celerystick at 7:41 AM PST - 40 comments

Mating Leopard Slugs entwine - one of the untold wonders of the animal kingdom captured on video.... The BBC gets up close and personal with Life in the Undergrowth in their new wildlife documentary. A must see for any animal, insect or David Attenborough fan... (If the main vid link doesn't work for you try it from here - realplayer needed)
posted by 0bvious at 7:22 AM PST - 32 comments

What is it? A collection of mystery photos where you try to figure out what these strange objects are. via Grow-a-Brain
posted by caddis at 7:07 AM PST - 13 comments

NewsCloud. A new way to read the Washington Post.
posted by srboisvert at 6:36 AM PST - 17 comments

Dreamlines
posted by Tlogmer at 5:28 AM PST - 26 comments