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Please, allow me to introduce you to Detroit Techno. Artist Derrick May once described it as "George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator." Despite being virtually unknown in the United States, this genre has achieved global popularity. Noteworthy artists include Carl Craig, Sean Deason, Stacey Pullen, Jeff Mills, Underground Resistance, DJ Assault, Moodymann, and Kevin Saunderson (among others). From May 27th-29th the city of Detroit will launch a huge electronic music festival . It isn't something you see everyday in the U.S., so check it out. Here are some o t h e r links.
posted by j-urb at 11:52 PM PST - 45 comments

A televised snooker 147 is the big deal for snooker professionals. The first was by Canadian Cliff Thorburn. The fastest was by Ronnie O'Sullivan. The luckiest goes to John Higgins. Also by Kirk Stevens, Mark Williams, Stephen Hendry, and Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie.
posted by parki at 9:24 PM PST - 49 comments

The Comic Book Bondage Cover of the Day - Massive archive of... well, it's pretty self-explanatory.
posted by dobbs at 8:24 PM PST - 22 comments

The final chromosome in the human genome has been sequenced. The Human Genome Project has completed sequencing Chromosome 1 and has published its work in Nature here. If you're impatient, here's a sneak preview..
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 7:45 PM PST - 32 comments

The Australian cigarette health warnings have pretty much filtered down to every retail packet that's bought now. They're pretty gruesome and some smoking acquaintances cover them up with stickers. I thought I'd have a look around and see what other countries warnings were like. None of them were pulling any punches except for Uruguay.
posted by tellurian at 7:21 PM PST - 118 comments

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1861-1960. Foreign Relations volumes contain documents from Presidential libraries, Departments of State and Defense, National Security Council, Central Intelligence Agency, Agency for International Development, and other foreign affairs agencies as well as the private papers of individuals involved in formulating U.S. foreign policy. In general, the editors choose documentation that illuminates policy formulation and major aspects and repercussions of its execution. This enormous collection of documents is now available online at the University of Wisconsin. Example: Kennan's Long Telegram, February 22, 1946. Some additional volumes are also available online from the State Department. Via Curt Cardwell, on H-DIPLO.
posted by russilwvong at 6:34 PM PST - 8 comments

Big, big list of links to YouTube's treasure chest of 80's music videos. Of course, there's good stuff, bad stuff, rare stuff and funny stuff.
posted by davebush at 6:08 PM PST - 77 comments

"many far-left thinkers believe the white power structure that controls America is bad, so a drastic change is needed." O'Reilly continued: "According to the lefty zealots, the white Christians who hold power must be swept out by a new multicultural tide, a rainbow coalition, if you will."
_{Then there's John Gibson's call for more white babies}
posted by delmoi at 5:50 PM PST - 115 comments

Northwestern University has suspended its girl's soccer team indefinitely, stemming from hazing photos surfacing online. The photos seem tame when compared with some other disgusting incidents. Does the punishment fit the crime?
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:29 PM PST - 68 comments

How to copy records.
posted by 31d1 at 3:23 PM PST - 25 comments

Bonofilter: Yesterday, May 16, U2 front-man Bono was a guest "editor" for the UK newspaper The Independent. Called the "RED Edition," half of this issue's proceeds went "to help fight HIV and AIDS among women and children in Africa." Highlights included US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice offering her take on "The Ten Best Musical Works" and an interview with Eddie Izzard on immigration in Europe. Is there a downside to celebrity editing, or is it a win-win-win for Bono, The Independent, and some people in need?
posted by bardic at 3:06 PM PST - 33 comments

Loving v. Missouri: In February, Olivia Shelltrack and Fondrey Loving were denied an occupancy permit because they have three children and are not married. "This ordinance is outdated. We are a family," says Shelltrack, 31. "There's a mom, there's a dad, there's three children. We are a family." Whether Shelltrack, a stay-at-home mom, and Loving, 33, who works for a payroll-administration company, are married "should not be anybody's business, if I pay my taxes, if I'm able to buy the house," she says.
posted by dash_slot- at 2:36 PM PST - 50 comments

The days of needing to remember several telephone numbers, numerous VOIP or instant message identities and other points of contact for our social and professional networks are over.
posted by airguitar at 2:26 PM PST - 20 comments

What happens when an ignoramus reads the Good Book? Slate's David Plotz reads the Bible for the first time as an adult. "My goal is pretty simple. I want to find out what happens when an ignorant person actually reads the book on which his religion is based." The first two installments.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:20 PM PST - 48 comments

The Great Flydini. Old, brilliant Steve Martin bit from the tonight show. [prev]
posted by sluglicker at 12:19 PM PST - 29 comments

Find your celebrity dopelganger. MyHeritage is another site that uses face recognition on photos you upload, but the slick interface in this demo matches you up with one of 3,200 celebrities from the past two centuries which you (supposedly) resemble. You can upload photos with multiple people in them as well, and it will identify all the faces in the shot. I can't vouch for accuracy, but it is entertaining. [Registration required. Try username: metafilter@metafilter.com; pass: metafilter. The site does not appear to save photos that you have uploaded as part of the demo.]
posted by blahblahblah at 11:02 AM PST - 109 comments

Researchers discover that lactic acid is more than just a byproduct. According to George A. Brooks, "lactate is the link between oxidative and glycolytic, or anaerobic, metabolism." You can read the abstract of the paper at the American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:40 AM PST - 19 comments

Wired article about the hardware/technology the NSA is allegedly using at AT&T's San Franscisco switching office to eavesdrop on our internet communications. The Electronic Freedom Foundation is suing AT&T over it. The administration doesn't want that to happen. Previous MeFi|Related ACLU case
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 10:02 AM PST - 35 comments

Save the 76 Ball. "ConocoPhillips is removing the iconic 76 Balls and replacing them with boring rectangular signs that aren't even orange!" Related story in the Los Angeles Times. Will you help rescue the balls from their sad fate?
posted by Lillitatiana at 9:56 AM PST - 39 comments

Relevant after all? Daft Punk are experiencing a renaissance of sorts. Whereas it seemed only a few months ago they were washed up and out of ideas, in danger having run their persona into the ground, they can now claim to have been the undisputed highlight of the Coachella Festival, responsible for one of the most memorable rap hooks of recent years and are on their way to Cannes to attend the premiere of their first self-directed film, 'Electroma'. At the same time, their influence is the driving force behind the new wave of French electronic music. People are even starting to come around to their previously unloved third album. hint: listen to it loud.
posted by setanor at 9:53 AM PST - 24 comments

Freetar Hero - Create and play any song on your PC. In development.
posted by mrgrimm at 8:45 AM PST - 30 comments

He's so penetrating that even I sometimes can't look, because it's so painful. He brings tremendous pain into his vision, and he makes you very aware of what you're looking at.
Don McCullin thinks that Eugene Richards is "possibly the best walking, living photographer in the world". Richards, who has recently been working on the War Is Personal project for The Nation Institute, has just joined Alexandra Boulat, Ron Haviv, Gary Knight, Antonin Kratochvil, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey, John Stanmeyer, Lauren Greenfield and Joachim Ladefoged (their portraits are here) in the VII collective. More inside.
posted by matteo at 8:33 AM PST - 18 comments

Ecuador takes over operations of Occidental Petroleum Ecuador began on Tuesday to take over operations of U.S. oil giant Occidental Petroleum Corp, the latest move in Latin America against foreign energy producers after nationalization in Bolivia and growing state intervention in Venezuela.
posted by mountainmambo at 8:18 AM PST - 51 comments

If Banks were Bands, which would they be? A Bloomberg columnist writes about the 'personalities' of the world's big investment banks, and compares them to well-known bands. Some amusing, and insightful, descriptions
posted by darsh at 6:34 AM PST - 58 comments

The World in Contemporary Islamic Art (via bbc) 18 May – 2 Sept; at the British Museum in London. Among the exhibitors are The Iraqi calligrapher Hassan Massoudy Iranian photographers: Shadi Ghadirian and Malekeh Nayini and artists Farhad Moshiri and Khosrow Hassanzadeh The Egyptian artist Sabah Naim The Palestinian artist Laila Shawa and the Saudi Arabian X-ray artist Fahad Mater-al-Ziad (pdf) If, like me you can’t get to see the real thing maybe these will help. Enjoy.
posted by adamvasco at 5:49 AM PST - 11 comments

FRANK R. PAUL: At a time when most Americans didn't even have a telephone, he was painting space stations, robots and aliens from other planets... he was the guest of honor at the first world science fiction convention, and he was the first person to ever make a living drawing spaceships. What could be cooler than that? via the one and only BLDBLOG, with an interesting take on the subject.
posted by signal at 5:12 AM PST - 19 comments

A Story of Survival. The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous was established to fulfill the traditional Jewish commitment to hakarat hatov, the searching out and recognition of goodness .
posted by hortense at 12:25 AM PST - 3 comments

Injunctions in patent cases not automatic. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision (16 page pdf) on Monday in the dispute between eBay and MercExchange. The Court ruled in favor of eBay finding that the lower Appeals Court erred as a matter of law in creating a general rule that “courts will issue permanent injunctions against patent infringement absent exceptional circumstances.” In the concurring opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Scalia and Ginsberg, Roberts citing Court precedent noted that: “[d]iscretion is not whim, and limiting discretion according to legal standards helps promote the basic principle of justice that like cases should be decided alike.”
posted by three blind mice at 12:01 AM PST - 25 comments