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Just how credible is Wikipedia? While some have tested this empirically, others have chosen more dubious methodology. For a site that gives no credit to its post authors, one wonders, why even bother?
posted by iamkimiam at 11:11 PM PST - 94 comments

JERICHO, Ark. — It was just too much, having to return to court twice on the same day to contest yet another traffic ticket, and Fire Chief Don Payne didn't hesitate to tell the judge what he thought of the police and their speed traps. The response from cops? They shot him. Right there in court.
posted by finite at 10:41 PM PST - 152 comments

The Gonzales Cantata — A cantata based on the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. "I Don't Recall."
posted by netbros at 9:20 PM PST - 19 comments

The San Francisco Bay Bridge has been shut down for the weekend to allow workers to roll a section of the old bridge away, and roll in a temporary section, while they build the new permanent bridge. Download the video here showing how they'll do it. [more inside]
posted by gingerbeer at 8:51 PM PST - 61 comments

Author James Lord, who knew everyone, has died. He wrote about sitting for Alberto Giacometti, before he wrote Giacommeti’s biography. He spent some time with Dora Maar, a photographer and muse who died in 1997, and wrote a book about her entitled “Dora and Picasso” (ISBN 0880641622). [Dora Maar previously on metafilter.] Lord helped set up the Cezanne atelier in Aix en Provence. He knew many people - Arletty, Balthus, Cocteau, Maugham, Marie-Laure de Noailles, Ned Rorem, Leger, Misia Sert - and wrote about all of them in his books, including "Six exceptional women" [ISBN 0374265534] and "Some remarkable men." [ISBN-10: 0374266557].
posted by goofyfoot at 8:13 PM PST - 3 comments

The live performance shows for Superstar K (warning: audio autoplay) will start beginning this Friday, September 4, 11 pm, Seoul time. The South Korean version of shows such as American Idol and Britain's Got Talent, 713,503 hopefuls in 8 Korean cities were winnowed down to 10 contestants, all vying for the 100 million Won (approximately USD 80,400) prize and recording contract reserved for the winner. The show has been a massive hit for Korean cable music channel Mnet, garnering viewership above 6%, or 1 in 10 televisions on at the time, where 2% or higher is considered a hit on Korean cable TV. [more inside]
posted by needled at 8:05 PM PST - 4 comments

How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? - The Great Recession was the result not only of lax regulation in Washington and reckless risk-taking on Wall Street but also of faulty theorizing in academia. Can economists learn from their mistakes? (via mr & ev) [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 8:00 PM PST - 51 comments

Junk Food in Real Life
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:53 PM PST - 39 comments

In praise of the sci-fi corridor -- a geeky look at that staple of sci-fi movie sets - the corridor.
posted by empath at 5:01 PM PST - 71 comments

On bicycle parking.
posted by aniola at 4:58 PM PST - 77 comments

Glass Microbiology "These transparent glass sculptures were created to contemplate the global impact of each disease and to consider how the doctoring of scientific imagery affects our visualization of phenomena."
posted by dhruva at 4:21 PM PST - 9 comments

Brazil-based agency DDB BRASIL, contracted by the WWF to make an ad which would drive a "Respect the Planet" theme home, thought that making a 9/11 themed ad would be a good idea. After the video somehow makes it to the internet (some say it was leaked by the agency itself to win an award at Cannes), outrage predictably ensues. DDB Brasil insists the commercial was nothing but a rough draft and the WWF has not endorsed the ad made in their name, although evidence exists suggesting WWF Brazil endorsed a similar print ad a while back. Stupid, bad ad and a comedy of errors? Or the latest viral ad strategy?
posted by Effigy2000 at 4:20 PM PST - 55 comments

Jan Chipchase is employeed by Nokia in the "corporate anthropology" field, but he considers it "design research," as he's not an anthropologist by training. His work covers researching how people modify their phones in China, India, Ghana, and elsewhere, adding features or extending battery life. He also tracks how cellphones are associated with personal identity and how they are playing roles far from urban and suburban centers. In some locations, cell phone numbers are written above doorways for identification, when there is no official map or organization for streets. He also blogs about his experiences, and his most recent post, he covers the rise of "Super Fakes." [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 2:35 PM PST - 16 comments

Moon Music: moonbell generates sounds based on lunar topography. (via) [more inside]
posted by Korou at 1:28 PM PST - 13 comments

The New Yorker has published "Max at Sea", an excerpt from Dave Egger's novelization of his screenplay for Where the Wild Things Are. The book ships on the October first in hardback and creepy hardback. (via Jesse Thorn's Maximum Fun) [more inside]
posted by shadytrees at 1:24 PM PST - 70 comments

31 seconds to steal 14 iPhones, 23 MacBook Pro laptops and 9 iPod touch devices. SLYT
posted by R. Mutt at 12:39 PM PST - 107 comments

Despite a reputation as an effective multi-cultural city, Toronto continues to have difficulties successfully integrating its communities of African heritage. In response to significantly higher than average high school drop-out rates in those communities, some academics suggested the creation of "black-focused public schools" [PDF] as means of re-engaging black youth with education. Needless to say, this caused debate, controversy, and even anger, but the first afro-centric public elementary school will open this month.
posted by modernnomad at 11:10 AM PST - 43 comments

Neuroscientist Lise Eliot finds that claims of sex differences fall apart. In one study, scientists dressed newborns in gender-neutral clothes and misled adults about their sex. The adults described the "boys" (actually girls) as angry or distressed more often than did adults who thought they were observing girls, and described the "girls" (actually boys) as happy and socially engaged more than adults who knew the babies were boys. Dozens of such disguised-gender experiments have shown that adults perceive baby boys and girls differently, seeing identical behavior through a gender-tinted lens. [more inside]
posted by cashman at 10:30 AM PST - 107 comments

International Bacon Day!
"Bacon Day is held on the Saturday before Labor Day US ... This year that is the 5th of September. Last year Bacon Day was celebrated in the US, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Switzerland, and the UK ... Bacon Day is a day of Bacon ... think Iron Chef but all day and the secret ingredient is Bacon."
via Bacon Today [previously], your go-to guide for all things bacon and bacon-related , up to but not including the artery-unclogging services you will need afterward.) [more inside]
posted by not_on_display at 9:30 AM PST - 43 comments

What the Internet knows about you. "This project was started by a small group of Web developers and security researchers in order to highlight the problem of Web browser history detection -- a problem which can dramatically affect the Web and hurt many people, if not solved quickly. Our direct goal is to educate the mainstream public and show them the direct consequences of allowing this aspect of Web browser behavior, as well as provide some solutions which mitigate the problem. However, since there are no existing satisfactory solutions, our other objective is to point the attention of browser developers to this issue and strongly encourage them to implement the necessary and long-overdue fixes." [Via]
posted by homunculus at 9:06 AM PST - 45 comments

Douglas Coupland wants you to design your own cover for his new book, Generation A.
posted by The Whelk at 8:28 AM PST - 41 comments

The Deal with Disability "Hey, I’m Eva. I’m 26 and a recent college graduate. I like to write, to take digital photographs, and just chill. But this blog is not about what I like. This blog is about how people treat me. You see, I am physically disabled. Actually “severely” physically disabled. I have Cerebral Palsy, which for me means I can’t walk, speak, or use muscles in traditional ways. I use a power wheelchair to get around and spell out what I want to say on a letterboard. This blog will be videos of people treating me bizarrely." [more inside]
posted by heatherann at 8:17 AM PST - 107 comments

First, there was the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. Now, everyone's favorite super-premium conglomerate-owned sticking-to-its-righteous-roots ice cream company has transformed "Chubby Hubby" into Hubby Hubby (only in VT, only for September), in support of same sex marriage, which is legal in Vermont as of this month. No word yet whether Iowa-based Winnebago will follow suit with a specially-named RV.
posted by ericbop at 7:52 AM PST - 46 comments

In light of the recent tragic death of a cyclist in Toronto, even normally well-balanced MeFites have polarized in the bikes vs. cars “war”. But according to Guillermo Penalosa, the fight is really about better urban design. He helped to radically reinvent the transit and parks infrastructure of Bogata, making it of the best cycling cities in the world. The recent changes to Broadway in New York were influenced by Bogota's success. Gil now advises the Project for Public Spaces and is Executive Director of Walk & Bike for Life. Their solution to the pedestrians vs. cars vs. bikes battle is simple: better urban planning (previously on MeFi) that gives everyone their own safe space. Not sure if your city's infrastructure is up-to-snuff? Apply the 8/80 rule. In the meantime, keep safe out there.
posted by nometa at 6:39 AM PST - 175 comments

How to Publish a Scientific Comment in 1 2 3 Easy Steps or not. Prof. Rick Trebino of the Georgia Institute of Physics vents about the Kafka-esque editorial guidelines of an unnamed academic journal's comments feature.
posted by munchbunch at 3:14 AM PST - 64 comments

The New Liberal Arts book is out. 47 pages of free pdf about things the various authors think will help prepare you for modern life. Earlier discussion about the planning phase of the book.
posted by srboisvert at 2:27 AM PST - 37 comments