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Tofu is to gays as fluoridated water is to Communists? No, but tofu is as protein-rich as this article by James Rutz, chairman of Megashift Ministries, is delightfully rich in crazy. (previously on MeFi: Is soy safe?, Tofu Eaters v. Hummers). The comments thread about this article on Pandagon is priceless.
comment posted at 1:51 PM on Dec-12-06

Russell W. Porter was an amateur astronomer who helped design the 200 inch telescope for Mount Palomar observatory. His pencil sketches of the finished mechanism are remarkably beautiful.
comment posted at 10:27 AM on Dec-12-06

Handling Hecklers (youtube filter - NSFW language) In the wake of the Michael Richards fiasco, many lessons have been learned. Is there a better way to handle the onslaught of loudmouths? Some do it with finesse. Others struggle. What if they actually get up on stage and try to fight you? Can they be overpowered simply by being louder and obnoxious? Sometimes they set themselves up too easily. Comedy legends sure can have their own distinctive approach. Even Clinton knew how to handle the pressure. Musicians themselves are no strangers to poor decisons. What's to say about comics who go after their own? There's also the benevolent way. Can you even blame this guy? You can always try to stay classy, but that just seems to exacerbate things. It's definitely topical enough to make skits out of. Here are a few more thrown in for good measure.
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Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bolden has died at the age of 116. I can only imagine the things that she must have lived & experienced first hand.
comment posted at 9:40 AM on Dec-12-06

Her Secret Past is a Flickr group of retro (1950's - give or take a decade) advertisements targeted at women's fears, both the common ones (hairiness/lack of tiny monkey, wrinkles) and the lesser known ones (vagina so dirty it causes you to repeatedly leave parties early). Along the same lines, but for men is His Secret Past - although if you really want to see retro advertisements targeted at men, this set of ads from May 1963's Playboy would be the perfect source.
comment posted at 10:33 AM on Dec-11-06

The La Contessa, the Spanish galleon that roamed Lake Lahontan, is gone.
comment posted at 12:52 PM on Dec-11-06

How can a credit card company fool you? Let me count the ways. When Brad Kehn received his first credit card from Capital One Financial in 2004, it took him only three months to exceed its $300 credit limit and get socked with a $35 over-limit fee. But what surprised the Plankinton, S.D., resident more was that Cap One then offered him another card, even though he was over the limit -- and then another and another.
comment posted at 11:06 AM on Dec-11-06

The Hero of Burbank, The Man They Call Jayne. Just a day before it starts, the Firefly-focused "Flanvention" convention was canceled by Booster Entertainment (who took down their entire site in the process), leaving about 500 "flans" who had paid $225 for a weekend pass (some math) (and some who paid $5000 for lifetime passes to all Booster cons — although that may not have been as foolish as it might appear) and who had made nonrefundable flights and nonrefundable hotel reservations with nothing for the money they had spent on con(vention) passes or their accommodations. Now, that, in and of itself, is quite unpleasant but perhaps not MeFi-worthy — but what pushes this over the edge to being a cool story is when the Firefly actors decided to come out anyway — evidently unpaid — for their "flans." [more inside]
comment posted at 7:22 PM on Dec-8-06

Long before 2006 you could probably make a convincing argument that the music video has outlived its purpose; however, musicblogger docopenhagen's list of the top 50 music videos of 2006 has some excellent inclusions, and hopefully something for even the most jaded viewer. My threefavorites.
comment posted at 9:08 AM on Dec-8-06

50 works of art you should see before you die, according to Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones and his readers--"probably the most learned cyber-community on the web." (Jones' personal top 20) [via; more inside]
comment posted at 1:40 PM on Dec-7-06

Making an emergency car kit for road trips, especially in winter conditions.

How to travel safely in winter.

What to do if you're lost.

How to survive in the wilderness, according to the US Army. How to build an igloo. How to make emergency snowshoes.

equipped.org reviews personal survival kits, provides the story of five people stranded within sight of one of the US's largest cities, and blogs on the topic of emergency survival. And, last but not least, the equipped.org forums weigh in on the Kim emergency.

Requiescat in pace, James Kim.
comment posted at 12:31 PM on Dec-7-06

The body of James Kim has been found. RIP
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Swedish cops kept record of beautiful women. Swedish border control agents at the ferry terminal on Kapellskär kept a binder, according to reports in the Swedish media, of "exceptionally beautiful women" that passed through the checkpoint.
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The story, set in the distant future, involves a group of immortal intellectuals who lives isolated from an outside reality of unbridled savagery and brutality. No, I'm not talking about Metafilter, but Zardoz. The Penis is Bad, the Gun is Good. In the future the real threat isn’t Islamofascism or rogue Kryptonians, but bored immortals who dress like Belgians and can’t get it up. Did I mention Sean Connery in red S/M short shorts? You just can't make movies this wonderfully terrible anymore. (previously on MetaFilter, in the pre YouTube era, here)
comment posted at 8:32 AM on Dec-5-06

If you like this book, you will not like this book. UnSuggester suggests books that you will not like. [via /.]
comment posted at 2:17 PM on Dec-4-06

Octopus escaping through one inch hole. Octopus eats shark. Camouflaged octopus. Octopus attacks mini-sub. (Google videos)
comment posted at 8:53 AM on Dec-4-06

Came across a sweet, sweet vlog all about vodka my favorite elixir in the world it's all about making martinis and vodka, sweet, sweet mother of all drinks.
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comment posted at 9:03 PM on Nov-30-06

Jewcy asks The Big Question-- Why Are Atheists So Angry? with Sam Harris and Dennis Prager. Email exchanges on the topic--and if you can get past the incredibly loaded and one-sided question, really interesting.
comment posted at 3:53 PM on Nov-29-06

The comic "Preacher" is finally being adapted for TV. Rumors have circulated about a possible adaptation for some time, but they have now been verified by HBO. The bad news is that the director/writer behind "Daredevil" and "Ghost Rider" is writing the pilot.
comment posted at 1:20 PM on Nov-29-06

At the beginning was the noosphere. The existence of a "sphere of ideas", beyond the "sphere of life" (biosphere) and the "sphere of matter" (geosphere) was apparently first postulated by the pioneering Russian-Ukrainian geochemist V.I. Vernadsky. Vernadsky thought not only that the biosphere had entirely reshaped the geosphere, but that the burgeoning noosphere of interconnected thought would ultimately change the biosphere just as much. French jesuit and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin took the concept and ran with it...(more inside)
comment posted at 1:01 PM on Nov-28-06

Cthulhufilter: "Amid the sagging gables of old New England, evil lurks ... and squirms, and scuttles, and purrs." Welcome to the scary world of Pokethulhu, the free RPG where unspeakable horror meets japanese insanity. You can download it here (bonus: art by John Kovalic on the inside). More Cthulhu Cuteness.
comment posted at 3:51 PM on Nov-28-06

The Night Andy Kaufman Sabotaged After Michael Richards flipped out at the Laugh Factory, some speculated that Kramer had an "Andy Kaufman moment" gone horribly wrong, but did you know that Richards was once a target of Kaufman's humor himself? On February 20, 1981, Andy Kaufman hosted ABC's late night comedy show, Fridays , but refused to stay on script during the live Broadcast. After deliberately blowing lines in several sketches, Kaufman instigated a fight during one sketch, by pouring water on Fridays cast member, Michael Richards. The next year, ratings for Fridays were so low that they asked Kaufman to host a second time to boost ratings. (More inside.)
comment posted at 6:14 AM on Nov-24-06

Talking Turkey Thanksgiving for those in the $1.5 billion turkey business is as insane as Black Friday for retailers and Christmas for ministers. Ever wonder what a day in the life of getting your favorite bird is like? By the way, your average run-of-the-mill Butterball ain't the only game in town anymore. Do you prefer free-range or antibiotic-free turkey? Fine. How about the Heritage Turkey: a behemoth that boasts the ability to actually fly, looks like a B-1 Bomber on the wing, and has darker, more succulent gourmet meat. It never hurts to have any pictures, either. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Do not cuddle with the Giant Amazonian Centipede, no matter how strong the temptation may be. Fully grown they are as long as an adult human's forearm, and gleefully feed on small critters (youtube), going so far as to snag bats out of the air (google video) & devour them on the spot.
comment posted at 3:19 PM on Nov-21-06

Humans are hard-wired to obsess over beauty. Being nice is, biologically, not enough.
comment posted at 4:10 PM on Nov-14-06

Kant. Modern thought begins with Kant yet his work is dense and hard to understand. Perhaps this set of lectures, some 12 hours in total from the University of Glasgow will help. Titled 'Kant's Epistemology' they cover most of the subject matter of the Critique of Pure Reason - an extremely ambitious task. They are free and appear to be available only for a limited period. Perhaps worth downloading now - to savour when you have an few idle years.
comment posted at 11:16 AM on Nov-14-06

"When you walk into a house that was sealed in the last couple of years of the plague, you can crack the door or window and it pops like a vacuum seal, and you walk in and there's surprisingly little dust..."

Among the quotes from "Ever Since the World Ended," a fake documentary about the 186 survivors left in SF following a slate-wiping pandemic. No idea if it's any good, but the documentary approach makes it creepy, because it doesn't feel far from home.
comment posted at 4:22 PM on Nov-15-06

How to regain control of a spooked camel. There really is a guide to everything on the internet, and it doesn't have to be computer-related either. How to get out of work. How to be a girl (for boys), and of course how to be a boy (for girls). How to disassemble a toilet. How to install a new toilet. How to display civic pride without sounding lame. How to set up a threesome (good luck with that one). How to kill your friend and steal his girlfriend. How to survive a long fall (presumably in case one of your friends throws you out of the window so he can get it on with your woman).
comment posted at 8:41 AM on Nov-14-06
comment posted at 9:59 AM on Nov-14-06

Do you hate David Blaine as much as I do? (~NSFW, auto-start, loud Flash video).
comment posted at 3:48 PM on Nov-13-06

RIP, Jack.
comment posted at 3:48 PM on Nov-10-06