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Welcome to ArtServe: Art & Architecture mainly from the Mediterranean Basin and Japan.
posted by hama7 at 8:42 PM PST - 7 comments

Sure, you all know Barberella from the campy 60's cult film, and our own vacapinta turned us on to the classic French anti-hero, Fantomas. Yet there are even more sleazy, Eurotrash cartoon characters to adore at Cool French Comics: the diabolical Satanik, the [ahem] big-top avenger Felina, and in a shocking twist, my childhood idol TinTin going main a la main with the Dark Knight.
posted by MrBaliHai at 2:16 PM PST - 11 comments

So we put a number of differently colored letters on the tray that we use, put the tray in front of Alex, and asked, ''Alex, what sound is blue?'' He answers, ''Ssss.'' It was an ''s'', so we say ''Good birdie'' and he replies, ''Want a nut.'' Well, I don't want him sitting there using our limited amount of time to eat a nut, so I tell him to wait, and I ask, ''What sound is green?'' Alex answers, ''Ssshh.'' He's right, it's ''sh,'' and we go through the routine again: ''Good parrot.'' ''Want a nut.'' ''Alex, wait. What sound is orange?'' ''ch.'' ''Good bird!'' ''Want a nut.'' We're going on and on and Alex is clearly getting more and more frustrated. He finally gets very slitty-eyed and he looks at me and states, ''Want a nut. Nnn, uh, tuh.'' - That Damn Bird - A Talk with Irene Pepperberg. Referential Communication with an African Gray Parrot. Irene Pepperberg says that Arthur, an African Gray parrot, is so smart that she and a group of students at the Media Lab are teaching him to go online. A more subjective take on some more African Grey parrots here. The Alex Homepage. Alex interviewed. languagehat on talking parrots.
posted by y2karl at 12:13 PM PST - 34 comments

The FDA has put the brakes on clinical trials of a promising form of stem cell therapy which uses the body's own stem cells to heal dammage. The procedure was used earlier this year to heal the heart of a teenager who was shot in the heart by a nail gun. Other research is being done with the body's own stem cells on the heart and the spinal cord, and new ways to produce large numbers of adult stem cells have been discovered by MIT and the British company TriStem. With the controversy over embryonic stem cells, I'm glad that adult stem cell therapy is showing promise. [Some links via FuturePundit, who is rather annoyed with the FDA.]
posted by homunculus at 11:34 AM PST - 11 comments

One Saturday Night in Furbank is an entertaining diary entry wherein diarist, Kitty Bukkake, crashes a furry shindig, The 14th Annual International Anthropomorphic Convention and Exhibition, ConFurence 2002 at the Burbank Airport Hilton.

"Problem: we don't want them to know we are impostors or they might kick us out. We'd brought some plush toys along: Steven had a bunny, and I had a whale, a bee, and a dragonfly, plus a panda keychain. But we weren't fooling anyone with our old toys, our short hairdos and stylish, non-pleated jeans. We didn't fit the profile."

Ms. Kitty B has turned those exciting field notes and photos of the Furry gathering into a book.
posted by antifreez_ at 11:11 AM PST - 24 comments

Xtreme martial arts video gallery - a gallery of clips of traditional martial arts fighting styles and weapons, as well as some rather cool "in-the-body" animations. The site is a preview for a show on martial arts that will launch this week on the Discovery Channel. (via Buzz).
posted by madamjujujive at 11:00 AM PST - 10 comments

This is how they treat a man
This man has been arrested yet again for his ongoing attempt to walk the length of Britain naked. Is he right to be arrested, or should he be allowed to continue?
posted by johnny novak at 10:11 AM PST - 16 comments

Woman trampled in mammonmas sales I knew those Americans loved to shop, but wow. Appalling though, is Wal-Mart's behaviour. No free DVD for her ... but, hey, they'll put one on hold. You see, they want to "keep her as a shopper". Harsh.
posted by bonaldi at 9:40 AM PST - 55 comments

Michael Musto on Michael Jackson ("We couldn't get Rosie or Martha to melt—and we can't even find bin Laden or Hussein—but if Jacko would just agree to be a pedophile, we could have our kook and eat him too.") Sarah Hepola on Michael Jackson ("In my life, I have spent many years wishing I were someone else, but I have never wanted to be anyone – ever – more than I wanted to be Michael Jackson. Do you remember? Help me sing it.") Michael Jackson on Michael Jackson ("You are right to be skeptical of some of the individuals who are being identified in the mass media as my friends, spokespeople, and attorneys. With few exceptions, most of them are simply filling a desperate void in our culture that equates visibility with insight.")
posted by adrober at 8:42 AM PST - 6 comments

"The newspapers of the twenty-first century will give a mere "stick" in the back pages to accounts of crime or political controversies, but will headline on the front pages the proclamation of a new scientific hypothesis."

From an interview with Nikolai Tesla in 1937 about the now near future...
posted by Aleph Yin at 8:22 AM PST - 12 comments