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A self-portrait every day: Sven and Tobias Staude, Ahree Lee, Noah Kalina.
posted by MetaMonkey at 9:09 PM PST - 16 comments

"Skeet Spirit: A Crunk Tribute to Radiohead" by DJ Gyngyvytus. And it's free!
posted by JPowers at 8:03 PM PST - 57 comments

Becoming Mary Poppins - A look at the original author P. L. Travers, Walt Disney, and the differences therein. Via the New Yorker.
posted by loquacious at 6:22 PM PST - 27 comments

digit.exp: snapshots of Hokkaido, occasionally elsewhere
posted by hama7 at 5:02 PM PST - 13 comments

The Ten Stupidest Utopias. The Ten Best Dystopias. The Most Appealing Utopias and the Most Unpleasant Dystopias.
posted by Falconetti at 3:02 PM PST - 82 comments

Donald Rumsfeld's recent speech at the American Legion Convention has revived interest in the 1938 Munich pact between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler and its use as an analogy in foreign policy debates. Military historian Jeffrey Record weighs in with Appeasement Reconsidered: Investigating the Mythology of the 1930s. Michael Cairo examines how analogical reasoning based on "the lesson of Munich" influenced the first Gulf War and Clinton's intervention in Kosovo. Juan Cole argues against "the crock of appeasement" as applied to the Middle East, whereas MacGregor Duncan claims that the Munich analogy has caused us to underestimate the diplomatic value of appeasement. Finally, Pat Buchanan claims the Islamo-fascist label is historically inaccurate (or is he worried that non-Islamic fascists get a bad rap?).
posted by jonp72 at 2:07 PM PST - 40 comments

X-ray records are records etched into discarded x-ray film. State censorship and lack of resources were the mothers of invention in the USSR and Eastern Europe, and apparently millions of these records were made. Without this crucial conduit of illicit western music, perhaps there would have been no Plastic People of the Universe and no Velvet (Underground) Revolution in Czechoslovakia. Mostly, though, these are just the coolest picture discs ever.
posted by snofoam at 1:09 PM PST - 10 comments

Johnny Red was a story appearing in Battle and Battle Action magazine back in the late 70's and early 80's. Telling the story of a young British fighter pilot serving with the Falcons; a Russian squadron in World War II; Johnny Red was remarkable for it's time (in the midst of the Cold War) giving a positive image of Soviet Russian heroism in the fight against Nazi Germany. Scans of almost every issue are contained within - enjoy!
posted by longbaugh at 11:45 AM PST - 12 comments

Here are four stories by the great Ted Chiang.
posted by Iridic at 11:26 AM PST - 15 comments

Introducing Pollster.com. PoliticalArithmetik and the Mystery Pollster combine to form Pollster.com (about; FAQ; guide to charts and data). The site features nifty charts and graphs of state-by-state senatorial and gubernatorial races. [more inside; via]
posted by kirkaracha at 10:19 AM PST - 5 comments

On September 2nd at 10:41 p.m. PDT the ESA's Smart-1 will crash into the moon. While no one is certain how bright the impact will be, some believe it may be visible to amateur astronomers. We've discussed this before, but tonight's the night!
posted by quin at 9:45 AM PST - 17 comments

He is the world's tallest cast iron statue. He has a long and sometimes troubled history. His enormous bare buttocks have offended local prudes and religious leaders for decades. He was disassembled in 1999 for refurbishing, but now once again, from atop his lofty mountain perch, this pagan colossus reigns over Birmingham, Alabama, the virtual buckle of the Bible Belt. Behold, Vulcan!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:45 AM PST - 27 comments

Fair Price Energy. One persons idea for a free market solution to the fossil fuel problem.
posted by stbalbach at 8:42 AM PST - 46 comments

Warbears might be the perfect game. Once you are suitably addicted, feel free to be impatient here.
posted by timory at 8:26 AM PST - 16 comments

Rudy Giuliani's Grand Illusion (Village Voice) -- In which we learn the difference between what happened and how it got narrated. What we have left is this: At a moment when the public needed a hero, Rudy Giuliani stepped forward. When he assured New York that things would come out all right, he was blessedly believable. It was a fine thing. But it was not nearly as much as we, at the time, imagined.
posted by fourcheesemac at 8:13 AM PST - 41 comments

Wikipedia: Featured pictures (plus candidates) Fellow arachnophobes beware!
posted by nthdegx at 2:57 AM PST - 12 comments