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The Dot and the Line. (by Norman Juster) Read the book. Watch the movie.
posted by jrb223 at 11:58 PM PST - 20 comments

Beer Caps. With 12,568 scans available to peruse, Uncle Corkie is the winner in my books. Franco Ferretti may have the largest collection of bottle caps but it's not online. Collecting, a postmodern pastime?
posted by tellurian at 10:48 PM PST - 11 comments

BabyFirst TV is a 24 hour satellite channel designed to entertain babies so you don't have to. Don't expect this American idea to catch on in Britain anytime soon. Even television-wondering Americans are wondering, what was wrong with Big Bird? [NYT] The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that children of this age group shouldn't be watching television at all. On the other side of the argument, some parents believe that if they're watching anyway, it's better to watch something educational.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:06 PM PST - 39 comments

loituma! Dit deedle dit boom bam! (flash)
posted by boo_radley at 9:46 PM PST - 45 comments

Ray Nagin has been reelected as the mayor of New Orleans.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 8:08 PM PST - 82 comments

Is this America's new meme? Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), May 18, 2006: "I am a strong supporter of the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment and civil liberties. But you have no civil liberties if you are dead." (via) Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), December 19, 2005: "None of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead." Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), responded to Cornyn: "Give me liberty or give me death." Good on that. First Amendment, Fourth Amendment (General Hayden's version), civil liberties.
posted by taosbat at 7:02 PM PST - 89 comments

Eurovision winner declared: Finland's Lordi, (previously mentioned here, wins with the highest Eurovision score of all time, 292 points, breaking Finland's 40 year long bewitchment of the Eurovision Curse. [Euro♥isionFilter]
posted by taursir at 3:38 PM PST - 104 comments

"The sound was not of this world, it hovered in space like some celestial blessing".
He could play the piano ”before he had learned to smile”, his mother said, and he gave his first concert at the age of six. He studied under Alfred Cortot, Charles Munch, Paul Dukas, and Nadia Boulanger. He was an esteemed teacher and critic at 19, an international phenomenon at 24. He escaped from his native Rumania to Switzerland in 1943 with his fiancée, a joint capital of five Swiss francs in their pockets. After the war, just as he had arrived in the pantheon of great performing artists, Dinu Lipatti was diagnosed with leukemia. In September 1950, near death, despite the urgings of his doctors Lipatti insisted upon one last recital at Besançon. As his wife recalled, this was the only way Lipatti could bear to take his leave of the world. Lipatti was so weak he could barely walk to the piano. But once he began playing, he became transformed. After performing 13 waltzes, he could no longer muster the strength necessary to perform the final selection. So he substituted Myra Hess's piano arrangement of Bach's 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring".(page with sound). Three months later, Lipatti died at the age of 33. After Lipatti's funeral, his old mentor Cortot wrote: "There was nothing to teach you. One could, in fact, only learn from you."
posted by matteo at 11:14 AM PST - 15 comments

Schaffer Library of Drug Policy - read the transcripts of hearings held on the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act, or the text of court decisions regarding drug policy, or the well-researched Consumer Unions report on licit and illicit drugs, or the differences between beer and drugs, according to Anheuser-Busch. A huge archive of materials, admittedly compiled from a pro-reform perspective.
posted by daksya at 10:06 AM PST - 27 comments

"Every war becomes a proving ground for new tactics and new technologies."... "...The Pentagon began this war believing its new, networked technologies would help make U.S. ground forces practically unstoppable in Iraq. ... But now, more than three years into sectarian conflict and a violent insurgency that has cost nearly 2,400 American lives, an investigation of the current state of network-centric warfare reveals that frontline troops have a critical need for networked gear—gear that hasn’t come yet. " [more inside]
posted by paulsc at 3:18 AM PST - 26 comments

the origin of fun bags. The age old question of where breasts came from may have finally been answered!

[boobs] first evolved as an immunoprotective gland that produced bacteriocidal secretions to protect the skin and secondarily eggs and infants, and that lactation is a highly derived kind of inflammation response. [...] Milk is actually a kind of anti-microbial snot mixed in with a lot of fat and sugar.

All vertebrates have an innate immune system consisting of molecules which are hostile to microbes. It appears that the nutritional content of the milk is a product of mutation and repurposing of these immunological molecules! Xanthine oxidoreductase, which produces natural preservatives and disinfectants is also responsible for the essential role of encapsulating fat droplets which promotes suspension in water. Lactose (sugar) "requires a specific synthetic complex consisting of β-1,4 galactosyltransferase and α-lactalbumin for its production." As it turns out, α-lactalbumin is a modified (mutated) version of an awesome little molecule that literally skins bacteria alive - lysozyme!
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 2:49 AM PST - 127 comments

Los Angeles artist Luke Chueh paints cute, anthropomorphic animals going through rough patches in life.
posted by jonson at 12:46 AM PST - 26 comments

MacSaber! Turn Your Mac Into a Jedi Weapon. I cannot explain how much fun I had slashing co-workers with a laptop today. Be careful not too get too excited. You don't want to lose your grasp on the MacBook or shake so hard you damage the hard drive. Great to try once. Or in my case, 20 minutes straight.
posted by jragon at 12:37 AM PST - 30 comments