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Great photos from the Paping Soapbox Derby held earlier this month. [via MAKE]
posted on Jul-30-06 at 5:04 PM

787 pieces of clip art, in a loop -- mesmerizing, haunting, and amusing. I can't stop watching. [via coudal]
posted on Jul-28-06 at 8:19 AM

You might have caught the first Click Survey on mefi projects, but there's a new and much more interesting series of 8 images in Click Survey 2. Click where you feel like and watch the results in real time.
posted on Jul-24-06 at 11:39 AM

OpenDNS is an interesting idea -- take the basics of DNS, add a bunch of features like caching servers, a phishing blacklist, and search engine fired off for misspelled domain names. Pretty handy and nice to see a service pop up where I thought browsers would someday fix (like typos). No software to install, just point your DNS at their IPs.
posted on Jul-19-06 at 10:08 AM

BOARDPUSHER is basically Cafepress, but for skateboard decks. If you've always wanted to design your own deck, now is your chance.
posted on Jul-14-06 at 11:53 AM

Burned: a photoset on Flickr "In 2001 I met a burn survivor who allowed me to photograph her. She told me that she wanted to be photographed so that people could stare at her without feeling embarrassed. It was such an extraordinary experience that a few months later I flew to a burn conference and set up a makeshift studio in a hotel room, and asked people to let me know if they would like their portraits made. I was astonished at how many people did. What I learned from this extraordinary experience was that every burn survivor has a tale of courage to tell, and that the burns have their own eerie beauty." Amazing, unsettling, inspiring.
posted on Jun-30-06 at 6:39 PM

The Dewey Donation System is site that helps re-stock libraries devastated by Katrina, by posting wishlists of Louisiana and Mississippi libraries and letting anyone buy books for them. Cool looking site, to boot. [via mefi projects]
posted on Jun-27-06 at 11:42 AM

This video shows how to navigate Google maps by simply tilting your thinkpad. The code is here, a blog post about it is here. I knew the first wave of goofy accelerometer hacks would be followed with better stuff and I can't wait to see what else people do with the sensors. Hopefully someone ports this to the newer macs as well. [via dj]
posted on Jun-14-06 at 8:45 PM

The CIA is publishing their top 25 searched-for phrases on the CIA's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) site. Looks like people are still spooked by UFOs, the Soviet Menace, and JFK. I guess some people think that it could still happen here.
posted on Jun-7-06 at 4:07 PM

June 6, 2006 (6/6/06) is the National Day of Slayer and the rules are simple: Listen to Slayer at full blast in your car. Listen to Slayer at full blast in your home. Listen to Slayer at full blast at your place of employment. Listen to Slayer at full blast in any public place you prefer. DO NOT use headphones! The objective of this day is for everyone within earshot to understand that it is the National Day of Slayer. National holidays in America aren't just about celebrating; they're about forcing it upon non-participants.
posted on May-28-06 at 8:42 PM

I'm a huge fan of clever unintended uses for things, and loloroy's favorites reuses a page/interface I've seen hundreds of times before in a cute way. It may take a second to figure out, but should be worth it [via tmn].
posted on May-24-06 at 2:44 PM

The Kingston Bridge, a neglected urban bridge in Glasgow was recently resurrected as a public work of art by Leni Schwendinger. Lighting was added under the bridge to highlight the architecture but it also reacted to use. The more traffic flowing on the roads above, the more red is displayed, as the tide rises, blues dominate, resulting in some pretty cool, ever-changing public art on a grand scale.
posted on May-23-06 at 1:47 PM

New York City has been trying to revamp its street furniture for nearly a decade and last Fall, deals were struck between a British architecture firm and a Spanish outdoor firm in a 1 billion dollar deal. Recently the designs for public toilets, bus stop shelters, and (my favorite) a modernized clean newsstand were released.
posted on May-18-06 at 3:09 PM

While the main Day Without An Immigrant site is down at the moment (cached), the protests have begun and they are everywhere (LA, Arizona, Pennsylvania/NJ). In SF they look quite large. More on flickr and google news.
posted on May-1-06 at 1:45 PM

In Praise of Loopholes, simply put, is a great story and an example of fine writing you can only find online. (From our own shadowkeeper).
posted on Apr-25-06 at 10:34 AM

When artist Matthew Moore found out part of the family farm was to become a suburban subdivision, he did what any farmer/artist would do, and recreated the subdivision in crops to show what it would look like in the surrounding landscape.
posted on Apr-24-06 at 8:38 AM

Depression + Meth + Construction Equipment = The new record holder for most nails shot into a brain with the man surviving. Guy tries to kill himself with a nailgun, fails, later goes to the hospital complaining of a headache. The previous record was a guy in Japan that shot 9 nails into his own skull. USA! USA! USA! We're number #1! Also: A picture is worth a thousand words.
posted on Apr-21-06 at 7:48 PM

Some badass eggs for this easter done in the Ukranian style called pysanky. More from last year and the year before. [via mefi projects]
posted on Apr-16-06 at 11:09 AM

One piece of paper. "It was an experiment to see how long it could last. Draw a comic, rub it off, and draw another over the top. Once it had finished, a second experiment was started on another piece of paper. Current data - one piece of paper can survive an average of 65 cartoons being drawn on it" [via mefi projects]
posted on Apr-14-06 at 12:23 PM

Faces of the Fallen is a browsable database of U.S. service members who've died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Created by Adrian Holovaty (chicagocrime.org, django), the site lets you browse by age, death date, home state and city, military branch or multiple search criteria. Each soldier gets his or her own page, as does each date, American city, age, military branch, etc. There's an RSS feed for recent casualties, a feed for each state and a feed for each military branch (also features Google Maps on several pages to highlight service members' hometowns). An amazing project that puts faces and stories behind the statistics we hear every day. [via mefi projects]
posted on Apr-13-06 at 6:07 PM

There are lots of doctors who blog. Among them, two recent entries were particularly notable: a heavy one about a grieving 15 year old father and a light one about child cancer survivors.
posted on Apr-10-06 at 1:46 PM

Pink Expenses is a fun little hack. Select from a list of racy services, get presented with a plausable looking receipt, then cut it out and submit it with your next corporate expense report. Hilarity ensues (or you get fired, which is still kind of funny).
posted on Apr-6-06 at 8:34 AM

Montreal Expo 1967, through the eyes of Lillian Seymour is a giant pile of found photos scanned in by our very own clockwork. There is much to see in this time capsule of 1967 taken by this person. The women of Poland, interesting architecture, and quite possibly the scariest clown ever (I bet that kid required years of therapy). [via mefi projects]
posted on Apr-3-06 at 8:03 PM

Playboy in Braille. Yep, since 1970, the Library of Congress has offered Playboy among their Braille conversion services. Of course, none of the images are converted, it's just for the articles. [via coolhunting]
posted on Apr-3-06 at 11:00 AM

If you're like me, sometimes you wish you had a fully customizable, living, breathing, sexual aid. I'm here to tell you that your prayers have been answered: introducing the Gimpling™
posted on Apr-1-06 at 8:20 PM

I guess it had to happen eventually, but an iPod Film Festival has launched. You can watch them online (sans iPod) or offline (mit iPod!), and they've got indie and student films as well as music videos, all formated for the new players. The music videos are surprisingly good.
posted on Mar-14-06 at 2:15 PM

Ever since someone wrote software to teach geeks to dance, the DDR craze has enjoyed quite a number of spin-offs. Karaoke Revolution got people singing. Donkey Konga is the same thing but for bongo drums. Guitar Hero for the PS2 has gotten rave reviews and while letting you rip some guitar solos. Christian game makers are even cashing in with Dance Praise. But nothing comes close to the coolness of Accordion Hero. Squeeze hard, die young.
posted on Mar-4-06 at 7:21 PM

Newsvine launches to the public. It's sort of digg (there is voting) meets metafilter (there are comments) meets the news. It could be really cool, but my first impression is that it takes a lot of work.
posted on Mar-2-06 at 10:25 AM

Firefox really is amazingly extendable, but perhaps too much so.
posted on Feb-27-06 at 9:39 AM

The story of an autistic basketball player in his first game (youtube video) is an amazing story. It's worth the three minutes and you might even shed a tear of joy by the end.
posted on Feb-24-06 at 10:44 AM

Google Pages is basically Geocities 2.0. You get a wysiwyg editing interface, a bunch of templates to pick from, and the ability to make as many pages as you need. Time will tell if this revolutionizes the web the way Geocities did (aside from all the obvious crappy pages from Geocities, it did give thousands of new writers and designers a place to start), but it's certainly a cool set of tools to do something mundane like start a website. [via waxy]
posted on Feb-23-06 at 12:31 AM

Of course, you've seen Get Your War On the comic strip, but have you seen Get Your War On, the Musical? It's playing in Austin, apparently to rave reviews and sold out shows. They even have photos of a performance.
posted on Feb-9-06 at 10:54 PM

Marshall Oak, Starfleet Captain is a photo gallery of 184 shots of Star Trek with Marshal Oak photoshopped in. Obsessive fan? Visual Slash Fiction? SciFi Where's Waldo? All of the above.
posted on Feb-7-06 at 7:57 PM

An awesome short commercial (quicktime) that's a sort of visual music mashup from a DJ equipment company. [via tween, a cool video effects blog]
posted on Jan-29-06 at 8:27 PM

c64s is a pretty amazing site. Much of the popularity of the old c64 was in its wide array of games and this site offers a way to play most of the popular ones all in your browser (in java). Waste time today by reliving those old early 80s memories.
posted on Jan-23-06 at 10:02 AM

The Bancroft Library unveils a new 1906 San Francisco Earthquake site featuring a really cool clickable map that features photos from each section of town. Haight Street didn't look too bad, but just down the road, City Hall was leveled. The exhibit offers a guide to the event that look place nearly 100 years ago.
posted on Jan-14-06 at 7:14 PM

Bored dork with truck, goofing around. Hilarity ensues. I know I shouldn't laugh, but after watching this over and over again, I still can't stop snickering. [jackass-style google video called "redneck surfing", 16 seconds long via Jalopnik]
posted on Dec-27-05 at 7:44 PM

The idea behind the Parking art project is pretty simple: once you throw some coins in the meter, you can do pretty much anything with a parking space, right? Rebar decided to try converting some vehicle space into a community space, by laying sod, adding benches and a tree, then letting people enjoy the space for a few hours. [via treehugger]
posted on Dec-17-05 at 8:45 AM

Smokers Brokers is brilliantly simple: take the cash you'd waste on cigarettes and invest it instead. Perhaps this could help coax economists into quitting smoking, for everyone else, it might be better to have some savings and your health than burning up a few more expensive coffin nails. [this site from mefi projects also won the contest for banished]
posted on Dec-14-05 at 7:39 PM

Refuge of Last Resort is a documentary shot in the wake of Katrina. They've got a trailer up showing a quick overview of the project and they're even offering raw footage shot in hi-def. [via mefi projects]
posted on Dec-13-05 at 2:31 PM

Celebrity Maps is a google maps/stargazing mashup that makes stalking your favorite star so much easier. And it doesn't even cost you $5 on Sunset.
posted on Nov-15-05 at 8:32 PM

After the first time I flew on an upgraded ticket, I wondered why some airline didn't just make slightly more expensive tickets on a plane filled with fewer, roomier seats for those that crave comfort (basically, all business class). Well, it looks like someone has at Eos Airlines. The seating arrangements look fantastic, going from roomy seat area to flat bed to double table with two seats (for a coworker), with privacy and aisle access for all. Unfortunately "slightly more expensive" is pretty high at $5k for NYC to London, though that's cheaper than major airlines. Business Week has the full story on this new venture.
posted on Nov-12-05 at 7:08 PM

It's Friday. It's early. You beat your coworkers into the office. Now for some fun go load up the Office Poltergeist server onto their machines, note their IP address, and wait a few hours. Later today you can send text to their screen, send sounds, move their windows slightly, and open their CD tray. If you're careful, you can probably keep pranking someone for hours using this. [via MeFi Projects]
posted on Nov-11-05 at 5:43 AM

For the last six months or so, it's been a war between Yahoo and Google to see who can outdo each other. They're often releasing competing products at nearly the same time, but Google Maps has held the lead on coolest map for a while now. Yahoo finally countered today, releasing their beta maps, which work much like Google's, though it uses flash instead of javascript. I kind of like the little video game-style radar map in the upper right to show where you are in the bigger picture and the directions feature closeups on the left pane when expanded. Apparently all the cool API stuff works in it already, and they've released an events browser to show that off as well.
posted on Nov-3-05 at 9:49 AM

Azerbaijan is a secular former Soviet state with a rocky past, but this week they are moving towards democracy in an election on November 6th. Bloggers headed to the area are covering the upcoming election and documenting it all.
posted on Nov-3-05 at 3:08 AM

Nova Science Now recently ran a segment on lightning (quicktime, real, and windows video here). I figured that subject was over and done with shortly after Franklin flew a kite, but it turns out we don't really know exactly what causes a bolt to start. The coolest part of the segment was these researchers in Florida. Scientists know how hard it was to observe, monitor, and even find lightning bolts, so these guys built their own rig. High-powered model rockets attached to a couple thousand feet of wire, which is grounded to larger metal structures on the ground. The result? Shoot a rocket into a storm cloud and you get instant lightning you can count on, measure, and control.
posted on Oct-22-05 at 8:22 PM

If you liked the Kleptones and other posts about mashups, you might have caught "raiding the 20th century" in early 2004. Well, DJ Food has completely updated it for 2005 and now clocks in at a full 59 minutes of monster mashup mix madness. Download the mp3 here and enjoy the eclectic sonic landscape.
posted on Oct-19-05 at 9:43 AM

The Solar Decathlon 2005 winners announced. The Solar Decathlon brings together 18 teams of college and university students from around the globe to participate in an unparalleled solar competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home.
posted on Oct-17-05 at 10:39 PM

Fisher College sophmore Cameron Walker apparently didn't like a campus cop and posted about it on a forum at Facebook, a college networking site. He talked about watching the cop closely and trying to set the cop up which is admittedly some dodgy stuff, but is it worthy of expulsion from the university for his off-site comments?
posted on Oct-6-05 at 8:03 PM

Even though I've been using Google as a start page for the past five years, this exhaustive list of Google search tips still had loads of stuff I didn't know about.
posted on Sep-29-05 at 3:38 PM