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Scotlands diet was healthier in 1405 (within a lifetime of the Black Death) than today, according to archaeologists. Might we see the "Medieval diet" replace the "Mediterranean diet"? Some traditional food practitioners think so.
posted by stbalbach at 10:28 PM PST - 40 comments

Surfrider is a nonprofit environmental organization that produces a annual "State of the Beach" (explanation here) report with information about US beach access (public access and private ownership issues), water quality, beach erosion, surfing, links and more. Reports are available for Hawaii, West Coast, Gulf States, Southeast, Mid Atlantic, Puerto Rico, Northeast and Great Lakes. In-depth Water Quality reports for beaches in CA, HI, TX, AL, and parts of FL, as well as results of beach water testing conducted by (or sanctioned by) Surfrider Chapters are also available. There are also Surfrider chapters in: Australia, Brazil, Canada (no website), Europe and Japan. EPA: Beaches is also an excellent resource for information about the condition of US beaches. [via LII New This Week]
posted by mlis at 8:05 PM PST - 7 comments

Well, it's an old rumor, but many sources (including the NYT, WSJ, Wired, and many rumor sites) are reporting that Steve Jobs will be announcing a switch to Intel at the WWDC tomorrow. The WSJ claims Apple will be switching to x86 processors, while others speculate Intel will simply be manufacturing PPC chips, or only processors for a tablet PC. If the rumors are true, and it seems like they are, what of the Intel DRM recently announced? Are we destined to have DRM hardwired into our computers no matter where we turn? Curiously, the major rumor site has remained mum on the matter. Your best bet to follow the drama will probably be MacRumors, who will be providing live updates from Steve-o's keynote tomorrow.
posted by keswick at 8:01 PM PST - 111 comments

Monkey Business Something else happened during that chaotic scene, something that convinced Chen of the monkeys' true grasp of money. Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of money, after all, is its fungibility, the fact that it can be used to buy not just food but anything. During the chaos in the monkey cage, Chen saw something out of the corner of his eye that he would later try to play down but in his heart of hearts he knew to be true. What he witnessed was probably the first observed exchange of money for sex in the history of monkeykind. (Further proof that the monkeys truly understood money: the monkey who was paid for sex immediately traded the token in for a grape.)
posted by raaka at 5:07 PM PST - 34 comments

For superstitious Zanzibaris, a visit from the sodomizing gremlin is no joke.
posted by Simon! at 4:43 PM PST - 16 comments

rand()% is an automated net radio station streaming real-time generative music. All audio is generated by algorithmic software applications and programs written by sound artists and programmers.
posted by signal at 4:24 PM PST - 18 comments

Chines government loves Flickr interface! So, Chinese government copies Flickr interface? So similar that Flickr users have no problem joining and creating accounts. Quickly, they have the most popular photo: The kitchen sink. As one Chinese user writes "evrything is free in china , you know ,4 example the software that microsoft made"
posted by vacapinta at 1:25 PM PST - 27 comments

"A number of people I talked to there felt like the Red Rocks show was a religious experience. Nobody was prepared for what the band did. It stunned everybody." 22 years ago today, U2 filmed their "Under a Blood Red Sky" concert at Red Rocks amphitheatre outside Denver, Colorado.
posted by scody at 1:17 PM PST - 47 comments

The Beast Blender. The Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists invites you to create a being that has never existed.
posted by greasy_skillet at 12:34 PM PST - 7 comments

The International Criminal Court will soon formally investigate war crimes in Darfur, Sudan. In two years the ethnic Arab militia janjaweed—many who received military training from Gaddafi hoping to set up an "Islamic Legion" of mercenaries—have slaughtered up to 180,000 non-Arabs and raped untold thousands. Nicholas Kristof's piece in the NYT reports on the rape crisis, and features a Flash piece with interviews. Zogby/ICG studies show 80% of Americans support a tougher international response to the situation in Darfur, yet it also revealed a strange datapoint: "African-Americans are among the U.S. sub-groups least aware of the situation in Darfur and least likely to feel that the international community has a responsibility to intervene." A few weeks ago, writer Jeremy Levitt (Chicago Sun-Times) addressed this.
posted by dhoyt at 11:12 AM PST - 11 comments

Switzerland Votes for Closer EU Integration What with all the play that the narrow French rejection of the proposed EU Constitution enjoyed, I doubt that Switzerland's successful referendum accepting endorsement of closer EU integration (specifically, enacting the Dublin Convention on shared security and policing) and gay marriage recognition will get much coverage. It just doesn't easily fit into the narrative of an unravelling Europe, one which Swiss voters seem to have rejected despite strong internal debate.
posted by meehawl at 10:46 AM PST - 13 comments

Bird Watchers Guide on Flickr. "Linked list of species submitted; find all photos of a species here".
posted by nthdegx at 10:14 AM PST - 11 comments

A recent study of 60 people with anorexia suggests that a biological mechanism may be a causative factor. It was found that there was a reduction in blood flow to a specific area in one of the temporal lobes in those with the eating disorder. The author of the study believes that sociocultural factors have been over emphasized. Not all agree. By way of contrast, another research group has just published findings which purport to show that "even small amounts of exposure to thin bodies can have a short-term negative effect on body image." And adult anorexia rates are said to be rising.
There's associated debate too, regarding the contributing role played by therapy that seeks to personify eating disorders. Flourishing underground online communities derive some thinspiration by referring to their 'lifestyle choices' as 'Ana' (for anorexia) and 'Mia' (for bulimia). Argentina is responding to the body image controversy by enacting a size law. previous mefi threads [via + via ]
posted by peacay at 9:52 AM PST - 44 comments

Art of Science Competition 2005 - A gallery of images celebrating the aesthetics of research at Princeton University. (via Amygdala)
posted by madamjujujive at 6:40 AM PST - 11 comments

Maxthon website Internet Explorer has not been updated for some time and competing browsers have improved on its ageing feature-set. But there's no need to ditch IE. Maxthon provides tabbed functionality and a lots more besides to give you a taste of what is likely to be included in IE7.
posted by bobbyelliott at 4:43 AM PST - 60 comments

Over the past month, people in Qinghai province, China have been reporting that migratory birds in the mostly-rural region were dropping dead of an unknown disease, later diagnosed as a few hundred cases of "an isolated case" [sic] of influenza strain H5N1, a.k.a. bird flu. Three weeks later, the Chinese government admitted that actually about a thousand birds had died of bird flu in the province. Now there are reports saying that at least 8,000 animals--not just birds--have died from the flu, including not only breeds of fowl not previously known to be affected by the virus, but non-avian species, too.

Every national park and bird sanctuary in China has been closed for weeks, since the first reports surfaced of an outbreak. But today, disturbing photos started appearing on Chinese language news websites, supposedly taken at the closed Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve. They appear to show thousands of dead birds (warning, disturbing images - Engrish version via Babelfish here) on the island in the middle of Qinghai Lake, China's largest saltwater lake and a rest-stop for migratory birds from all across southeast Asia. Nervous pandemic-watchers are debating whether the photos are real or doctored, but compared to previous photos of the once-lively birding spot, something definitely seems to be wrong.
[ much more inside >> ]
posted by Asparagirl at 2:19 AM PST - 42 comments

Sick of all those fad diets? The No S Diet consists of fourteen words: No snacks, no sweets, no seconds except (sometimes) on days that start with 's'. It's sound advice and fairly easy to stick to. And what would a diet be without some exercise?
posted by bbrown at 12:02 AM PST - 38 comments