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"I have realized that the traditional omelet form (eggs and cheese) is bourgeois. Today I tried making one out of a cigarette, some coffee, and four tiny stones."
posted by scrim at 11:24 PM PST - 31 comments

GuitarBot
"In designing GuitarBot, our goal was to create an electrified slide guitar that was versatile, responsive, capable of fast and slow playing, easy to control, with high-quality sound, modular and portable. We also wanted to extend, not simply duplicate, the capabilities of a human guitarist."

Don't miss the video [16 meg Quicktime]. Brought to you by the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots.
posted by quonsar at 10:31 PM PST - 34 comments

I never realized how great Wikipedia was for quick-and-dirty guides to languages. For example, did you know that Esperanto uses affixes to cut the number of adjectives one must learn in half? Or that Finnish has fifteen noun cases, including six locative declensions? Or that Vedic Sanskrit was tonal? How about that Cherokee verbs each have 21,262 inflected forms? I could play with this forever.
posted by borkingchikapa at 9:05 PM PST - 36 comments

Everybody loves to hate the Arby's oven mitt. A slightly crazed version of mitt-hate. An editorial on how the commercials could have been amusing, but instead fell flat. Finally, scary stuff you can buy from Arby's (link on the left nav, can't link directly).
posted by tb0n3 at 7:41 PM PST - 43 comments

Freeze is dead. Approach the wall in your B-boy stance, meaning gorilla steez for all you new-school punks: knees bent, arms forward, like you’re going to hit a mogul kicker. Freeze, arguably Transworld's hippest volume, will cease publication in January after 8 years covering new-school skiing, leaving a gaping void. Where will you turn for step-by-step instructions if you're trying to go Wallride To Fakie Rock. Worse: where will you turn for Liftie of the Month?
posted by RockyChrysler at 7:37 PM PST - 12 comments

The Atari Games That Never Were -- and then some. A community dedicated to rooting out prototype or unreleased titles such as Alligator People,Monstercise and -- hey cool -- a genre-busting color-field. While all this may seem a tad on the esoteric side, the glimpses into the the art is cool, hey?
posted by undule at 6:42 PM PST - 15 comments

Q: What could be more incomprehensible and poorly drawn than "Pokey the Penguin"?

A: The self-proclaimed worst website ever.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 6:40 PM PST - 23 comments

Twenty Years Without Justice (34.6 MB Quicktime). The Bhopal chemical disaster 20 years on. (Via MoFi)
posted by homunculus at 5:42 PM PST - 15 comments

While I'm certainly not a fan of the methods used to get us into Iraq and keep us there, I do feel for the troops on the ground and hope they return safe. Any Soldier is a site that aims to let you contact any random US Soldier in a pen-pal email or postcard kind of style, which is kind of cool if you don't know anyone over there. Recently they've gone and added Treat Any Soldier, a way to send a care package to any random US Soldier serving in Iraq. I didn't vote for Bush and I think the war is a growing mistake, but I'm sending a package over this holiday season. Seems like a great way to actually do some good for someone in the real world than putting a picture of a ribbon on your car will ever do.
posted by mathowie at 5:26 PM PST - 85 comments

Reprecussion is a nifty flash-based music generator. Info about the project.
posted by shotsy at 5:14 PM PST - 3 comments

What "No Child Left Behind" Really Means
"There, buried deep within the law's 670 pages, is a provision requiring public secondary schools to provide military recruiters not only with access to facilities, but also with contact information for every student -- or face a cutoff of all federal aid."

Read that again slowly, No Child Left Behind is actually a military recruitment program. Backed up with an inverse extortion threat.
via.
posted by fenriq at 4:53 PM PST - 72 comments

My prayers have been answered. Finally.
posted by adampsyche at 4:44 PM PST - 57 comments

Jean-Paul Sartre - A Tribute to Camus A eulogy for a man we all knew well...
posted by insomnia_lj at 4:16 PM PST - 16 comments

Found objects as art. This French singer/songwriter collects items from the mundane to the sublime and arranges them in boxes - be sure to visit the gallery and see some of these most unusual creations.
posted by livingsanctuary at 2:59 PM PST - 8 comments

You got your Outkast in my Sun Tzu Weaponry, military, and war footage set to music. Although the author believes Enya did the song Adiemus, the target practice video is kind of interesting. I couldn't find any videos set to Peace Train, however.
posted by joaquim at 2:34 PM PST - 13 comments

"The Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee is a [computer] keyboard MIDI controller of my own invention based on changes of pitch, rather than fixed pitches. This scheme gives the performer the ability to perform extremely quick, rhapsodical lines." Perfect for the music nerd on your Christmas list. Complete with "instructional" video (53MB .mov) and mp3s. I'm on a Mac so I can't try out the freeware version.
posted by Cryptical Envelopment at 1:26 PM PST - 17 comments

Tired of the same old boring stars? ("Thursday is a good day to plan something; an unexpected financial bonus may occur late in the week"). Then take a look at Free Will Astrology, quirky snippets of crazy wisdom drawn from all manner of sources, from Persian poets to Frank Zappa.
Quick links: aries taurus gemini cancer leo virgo libra scorpio sagittarius capricorn aquarius pisces
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:25 PM PST - 11 comments

I’ll trade you my Ebola for your Hantavirus! This Christmas give the little scientist in the family infectious diseases trading cards!
posted by arse_hat at 1:16 PM PST - 11 comments

Today is world AIDS day, and two days ago a joint French/Brazilian project has had some starling success in creating a vaccine that shows promise in stemming the epidemic which has killed 20 million since 1981. Whether you realize it or not, chances are you know somebody who is HIV+, so please take some time today to remember the suffering and fallen...and remember to practice safe sex. Also: AIDS blogs. (Second link via POE News)
posted by baphomet at 1:01 PM PST - 11 comments

If we were having this conversation in 1985, and I had said to you, “Four years from now the Soviet Union will collapse and in six years it will disappear,” you would have thought, “This is not a reliable observer.” But the U.S.S.R. is gone -- disappeared -- and we didn’t predict it. Russia today is a much smaller country than the former Soviet Union. The CIA had all the wrong data. We also made a mistake when we concluded that we had won the Cold War. We had almost nothing to do with what happened in the Soviet Union: there were internal issues and it certainly wasn’t Star Wars. We now know in detail how Gorbachev brought Sakharov out of exile in Gorky to address the Politburo on, “What would you do about a ballistic missile defense?” Sakharov said, “It’s easy to overwhelm it with missiles. I wouldn’t spend a ruble on it.” And they didn’t. But in mistakenly thinking that we won the Cold War, we strongly imply that we did something to cause that. Instead, the Soviet Union collapsed because of overstretch, a case of imperial overstretch.   An Empire of More Than 725 Military Bases
An interview with Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback and The Sorrows Of Empire (More Inside)
posted by y2karl at 11:38 AM PST - 33 comments

Squeal Like a Pig dot com - Online home of actor Bill McKinney, best known as the villain from Deliverance. There's not much on the site but there is Real versions of three tracks from Bill's album, Love Songs From Antri.
posted by dobbs at 11:22 AM PST - 9 comments

Screenshots from the new Netscape release. (via waxy)
posted by bluno at 11:00 AM PST - 34 comments

Rockin' Rollen Stewart, aka the clown wig wearing - John 3:16 sign sporting wingnut that is currently serving a prison sentence for holding a maid hostage at a Los Angeles hotel proclaiming that rapture was six days away, now has his own weblog via sending letters to his friend George. (via crabwalk - previous MeFi thread on Stewart here)
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:50 AM PST - 15 comments

You'll put your eye out! My childhood was fraught with peril. I rode bikes without a helmet. My friends made flashpowder bombs. I brought knives and lasers to school. I survived. Blogger Tim Blair did too, and asks "What insane risks did you take as kids that would now induce rage and fear if repeated by your children?"
posted by bitmage at 10:42 AM PST - 147 comments

UNPO: All the flavor of regular UN without all the fat. UNPO is a democratic alternative to regular UN. Its members are indigenous peoples, occupied nations, minorities and independent states or territories who have joined together to protect their human and cultural rights, preserve their environments and to find non-violent solutions to conflicts which affect them, with half the sugar and no fat. List of members.
posted by Captaintripps at 10:32 AM PST - 11 comments

Free Annual Credit Reports
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 goes in to effect today. One of the major provisions of the bill, is that consumers now have the right to one free report from each of the three major credit bureaus every 12 months. [more inside]
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 9:44 AM PST - 37 comments

A moment-by-moment account of the Bush visit to Halifax via cameraphone.
posted by boost ventilator at 9:41 AM PST - 15 comments

U2 vs. Negativland IPod "special edition". Totally Unauthorized, but your purchase will help Downhill Battle , and thus, will end the major label monopoly and build a better, fairer music industry. If you are not the high-bidder, you can always make your own by stopping here and here .
posted by JBennett at 9:36 AM PST - 25 comments

Modular Origami is a very cool thing. Make a Buckyball with some PHiZZ units or make some polyhedra with the penultimate modules.
posted by dwordle at 9:23 AM PST - 8 comments

A Singular Christmas. You know how you're so busy during the holidays that you don't have time to listen to all that Christmas music you love some much? Brian Whitman and his Eigenradio have taken all the hassle out of holiday music-listening for you by "play[ing] only the most important frequencies."
posted by soplerfo at 7:35 AM PST - 6 comments

Eulogy of George W. Bush A comic of a far-right debate show hosted by Jerry Falwell and Pat Buchanan looks back on the presidency of George W. Bush in 2024. See them also debate Gay, Marriage, The Pledge, and Private Security in Iraq. Also, you might want to see as special guest Donal Rumsfeld Discovers Catch-22!
posted by flarbuse at 7:34 AM PST - 13 comments

Art.com's Art Pad is a fun little flash app that lets you paint a masterpiece, frame it, then hang it. Check out my handiwork. I'll start the opening bids at $50,000 for the piece. [via redferret]
posted by mathowie at 7:32 AM PST - 44 comments

The power of the Pitchfork.
Rating: 7.8
posted by Quartermass at 7:14 AM PST - 96 comments

Haggis Hunt 2004/2005. Well, now, lads and lassies! 'Tis time to seek out that "Great Chieftan o the Puddin-race!"
Look for them. Learn about them. Or just smack them silly.
posted by grabbingsand at 7:05 AM PST - 3 comments

LAWs instructions for starting criminal procedures against Bush Today in Vancouver, Lawyers Against the War filed torture charges against George W. Bush under the Canadian Criminal Code. The charges were laid by Gail Davidson, co-chair of Lawyers against the War--LAW, under provisions enacted pursuant to the U.N. Torture Convention, ratified by both Canada and the United States. The charges concern the well known abuses of prisoners held by US Armed Forces in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. The charges were accepted by the Justice of the Peace and referred for a hearing to decide whether Bush should be required to appear for trial. The Attorney General of Canada's consent is required within eight days for proceedings to continue, and the question of Bush's diplomatic immunity will have to be resolved by the court.
posted by sunexplodes at 6:45 AM PST - 66 comments

Up to 100 million dead within weeks. A pandemic of biblical proportions according to the latest World Health Organization warning about the bird flu virus H5N1. It is so lethal that it kills most people it infects. Some experts are even warning that the WHO are being too conservative and that a death toll of 1 billion could be expected.
posted by Meridian at 4:00 AM PST - 87 comments

Today is World AIDS Day. Take some time today to learn something new, or maybe get tested. Smart is sexy.
posted by Psionic_Tim at 2:40 AM PST - 10 comments

Traditional annual advent calendar post: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9, and 10.
posted by nthdegx at 2:20 AM PST - 4 comments

"Facettes de la petit mort" Yes, it's erotic but it doesn't feel like porn. Or does it? (NSFW)
posted by hjarten at 1:54 AM PST - 19 comments

The United Church of Christ seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation. But that message, when shown in a TV advertisement is apparently too controversial for CBS and NBC.
posted by bashos_frog at 1:43 AM PST - 136 comments

Arghhhhh!!! Aghhhhhhhh! Arghhhhhhh!!!

Cheats for PuzzleDonkey4 Available here
posted by willnot at 12:11 AM PST - 55 comments