June 28, 2009
Cartoon Crud On Ice
Hanna Barbera's All-Star Comedy Ice Revue: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 [via WFMU] Oh, the 70's...man how I miss you.
Is this proof enough?
The NYTimes prevents leaks of its reporter's kidnapping from circulating on Wikipedia. [more inside]
The way you make me feel.
A journalist is filing charges against Big Pharma, the WHO, UN officials and Barack Obama, among others. For attempted mass genocide. Michael Jackson's death plays a part in this. [more inside]
Time Wastes Too Fast
Maira Kalman does it again, with a beautifully illustrated blog post about her visit to Mr. Jefferson's Monticello. [more inside]
I will choose free will
The Free Will Theorem - "If there exist experimenters with (some) free will, then elementary particles also have (some) free will." (previously)
Children of the Atomic Bomb
Ground Zero 1945: Pictures by Atomic Bomb Survivors. Astonishing works created more than 25 years after the event, many accompanied by artist's comments. [disturbing, possibly NSWF artworks] [more inside]
Army overthrows Honduras president
Army overthrows Honduras president in what some fear may be Obama's First Coup d'Etat. A troublesome circumstance: Key leaders of Honduras military coup trained in U.S. But condemning the coup with many others, Hillary Clinton says, "The action taken against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya violates the precepts of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and thus should be condemned by all." [more inside]
Thermodynamics FAIL
Claiming to have invented a perpetual motion machine in 2006, Steorn Inc. (previously on Metafilter here and here) challenged a team of 22 international scientists and engineers to "verify" their apparently impossible device. Last week the scientific jury announced their results: “The unanimous verdict of the jury is that Steorn’s attempts to demonstrate the claim have not shown the production of energy,” it stated. “The jury is therefore ceasing work.” [more inside]
The Beast of the Long-Neck Banjo
Billy Faier got tired of burning copies of his long-out-of-print albums, and is giving them away: The Art of the Five String Banjo (1957), Travelin' Man (1958), The Beast of Billy Faier (1964), Banjo (1973) and Banjoes, Birdsong and Mother Earth (1987). [more inside]
um miss may i have a dance with you please?
Good Lord! Look at the Pieces!
Shogi (将棋), or "Japanese chess," has been described here before, but it's such a fascinating game that a little more exposure can't hurt. Specifically, shogi has spawned a lot of variants, many of them astonishingly large. [more inside]
WTF? Trippy music video from the USSR.
I'm not a fan of front-page posts that don't describe their link, but I seriously have no idea what this is. It's Russian. It's from the '60s. Now that I've watched it, I feel my life is complete, yet I somehow simultaneously want my eight minutes back (you've been warned). SLYT.
another riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
Iran's debate over theocracy took an interesting turn when Ayatollah Sistani the preeminent Shi'a cleric in Iraq made a recent visit. Sistani has stated that in order to be legitimate a ruler should win acceptance from a majority of believers.
Threats Watch has analysis on this as the so called Battle for Iran shifts from the streets to the heart of power.
How Iran is ruled is both different and complicated. The crisis is far from over; we are now probably at the end of the beginning. Here is a round up of analysis from
dianaswednesday. [more inside]
... I go out at night and paint the stars.
Preserved in the cave excavations of Mogao and listing 1,339 stars the Dunhuang Star Chart is the oldest graphical star atlas known to exist. Dated to between 649 and 684 AD, it features two sections. The first consists of 26 diagrams of asterisms (including a recognizable Big Dipper and Orion) and the second contains 12 star maps each showing a 30 degree east-west section of sky in cylindrical projection plus an azimuthal projection circumpolar map. Star positions are accurate to within 1.5 degrees and it includes some stars in the southern sky. [more inside]
This is metal.
Billy Mays dead at 50
Jennifer stood there, quietly ovulating.
The results of the 2009 Lyttle Lytton Contest are in. The Contest rewards unintentionally funny lines in writing. [more inside]
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