Among the many quarterbacks taken in the fabled 1983 NFL draft was the first Division I-A quarterback to rush for more than 1,000 yards and pass for more than 1,000 years in a single season. He was Reggie Collier, the player who could have--should have--revolutionized the NFL three decades ago. But he wasn't one of the six QBs drafted in the first round. He wasn't white, either. His name wasn't called until pick 162, when the Dallas Cowboys took a flyer on him as a wide receiver. See, this was 1983, and the NFL wasn't going to change right away for Reggie Collier. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb at 8:56 PM - 2 comments

Wonderful Life With The Elements, in PDF form too. Via WIRED: Call Me Lithium: "The posters dance with humor and so does his version of the Period Table in which every element becomes a character, and a hard-working character at that." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:50 PM - 1 comment

Tonging doesn't hurt the cat, but it definitely annoys them.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:20 PM - 12 comments

Rusty the kitten likes kicking! With commentary. (SLYT | kitten) From the same treasury of cute that brought you Captain Pugwash the broccoli kitten.
posted by nicebookrack at 7:53 PM - 11 comments

Where are you from? Or, how I became a Pakistani? [more inside]
posted by threeants at 6:27 PM - 30 comments

You may remember the 7.5 hour documentary released in 2009 which allowed you to travel the journey between Bergen to Oslo from the comfort of your home. If your wanderlust was fired up watching that video, then you may enjoy some of the other trips you can take. Switzerland:

• Zermatt to Gornergrat in Summer (50m)
• Zermatt to Gornergrat in Winter Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 (30m)
• Le Train de Vignes (11m)

[more inside]
posted by jontyjago at 5:39 PM - 11 comments

Get yourself to the thrift store and channel Andie.
posted by HuronBob at 5:31 PM - 12 comments

Billy Joel on Not Working and Not Giving Up Drinking
posted by MattMangels at 4:35 PM - 42 comments

Third-grader Asean Johnson schools Rahm Emmanuel on the mayor's plan for Chicago's public schools. (YT) [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 3:50 PM - 28 comments

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah gave a major speech today to a large gathering of party leaders where he confirmed that Hezbollah militia members have been sent to fight in Syria. Watch him explain in his own words his reasons behind this decision (English Subtitles). (via LiveLeak) Hezbollah soldiers are said to be playing a key role in the battle for Qusayr a strategic rebel held town situated on the road between Lebanon and Homs. More background on the battle of Quasyr is available at Syria Deeply a site featuring the works of independent journalists covering the Syrian civil war. [Previously]
posted by humanfont at 3:10 PM - 18 comments

When We Held Kings: The oral history of the 2003 World Series of Poker, in which an amateur named Moneymaker turned $39 into $2.5 million and the poker boom was born.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:09 PM - 13 comments

Advice for college grads from two sociologists From the writers of the always-amazing Sociological Images, it is directed towards college graduates, but useful for everyone.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:08 PM - 104 comments

Universal Studios has revealed their concept art for a real life Simpson's theme park. Io9 asks how many references you can spot.
posted by The Whelk at 11:21 AM - 56 comments

Every Indianapolis 500 Pace Car and its driver, in reverse chronological order.
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:47 AM - 36 comments

Craig Ferguson seems to have a special liking for conversation with Stephen Fry. Previously. On Wednesday night, Stephen was back on the Late Late Show as the only guest. The naturally wide-ranging discussion includes Arthur Conan Doyle, America, mortality, religion, philosophy, science, homosexuality, Wagner, and more. Enjoy. [more inside]
posted by lazaruslong at 8:05 AM - 67 comments

La Petite Mélancolie (NSFW)
Is mainly a French photo blog which has plenty of excellent timesink in it. From Hannah Hoch to Romy Schneider and from Edward Steichen to Jorge Caceres
It is difficult to describe this site which sometimes verges on the pornographic but also has many pages on surrealists such as Paul Eluard and Jacques Prevert,
as well as other avant garde people such as the Czechs Karel Tiege and Milan Kundra.
posted by adamvasco at 4:20 AM - 7 comments

Pictures from South Sudan by a UNHCR aid worker (MeFi's Own™ tarvuz)
posted by elgilito at 3:04 AM - 10 comments

Whether you love him for his role as the Sweet Transvestite in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Lord of Darkness in Ridley Scott's Legend, Pennywise the clown in the TV adaptation of Stephen King's It, Wadsworth the butler in Clue, Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island, his voice work for scads of cartoons, his countless theater performances, his many unforgettable, wonderfully strange guest spots on various TV shows, his absolutely amazing voice, or for (quite possibly) all of these things at once, the fact is, you love Tim Curry. Spare a thought tonight for this acclaimed, ubiquitous character actor, singer, dancer, and odd-looking, sexy little man. Tim Curry, 67, has had a major stroke at his home in Los Angeles. Early reports said that he was left unable to speak, but his agent now tells the Daily Mail that he's "doing great (...) He absolutely can speak and is recovering at this time and in great humor."
posted by Ursula Hitler at 11:05 PM - 79 comments

SLYT: "Earlier this evening [...], Will Smith and Alfonso Ribeiro (AKA Carlton) reunited on-air and took us on a stroll down memory lane. With DJ Jazzy Jeff behind the deck, watch as Smith raps The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song before he and Ribeiro dance along to 'It’s Not Unusual' and 'Jump On It'." [more inside]
posted by raihan_ at 9:57 PM - 31 comments

Call it municipal disobedience: communities like Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, are defying laws they deem illegitimate.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:46 PM - 81 comments

Although ranked tenth in "America's Favorite Architecture," compiled by the American Institute of Architects, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - sometimes referred to as simply 'The Wall' - was the at the center of political and artistic controversy and opposition from the time of its announcement in 1981. The Wall, situated in Constitution Gardens adjacent to the National Mall, is "...often referred to as the veterans 3rd battle. The 1st being survival in Vietnam. The 2nd, was dealing with the rejection experienced upon returning home from war. And, the 3rd, building the Wall." [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 8:18 PM - 54 comments

Catbeards is a Tumblr of beards made from cats, not cats with beards. It's new, and it's convenient, but it doesn't capture the best of catbeards. Cat-Beard.com is similar: good but not great. Mashable collected some of the best, and Buzzfeed is in on the trend, and of course, there are also dog beards. Know Your Meme covers its history.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:43 PM - 30 comments

This Roller is a chariot for the glittering Eloi, and if we’re not exactly Morlocks yet, that does seem to be the way things are going. [more inside]
posted by lalochezia at 7:09 PM - 68 comments

Welcome to Daily Star Wars
"2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars daily strip that was published in newspapers by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. In honor of that I've decided to start this blog where I'll be posting a new strip everyday to recreate the series original run. These strips were some of the only Star Wars stories going on at the time and generally had a more serious tone than their Marvel cousin. They're also officially recognized as part of the EU and fill in the gaps between films." [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 7:01 PM - 13 comments

Where have you been? We've been waiting for you! He helped you sweat to the oldies, sweat and shout, and boogie down the pounds, even if you, too, were an oldie. And we know he isn't dead. But where is he? [more inside]
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 6:18 PM - 41 comments

James McDonald of Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, collects bikes--at least one from every era of bikemaking. "If there were 200 bicycles here," he explains, "they would have been culled down out of probably two to three thousand bicycles that I've brought home over the last two years, and those two thousand would have been culled down from maybe tens of thousands of bicycles that I've gone to look at and left behind." Check out this 3 minute video for more!
posted by MoonOrb at 5:15 PM - 17 comments

In 1942 a British forest guard in Roopkund, India made an alarming discovery. Some 16,000 feet above sea level, at the bottom of a small valley, was a frozen lake absolutely full of skeletons.
posted by Renoroc at 4:52 PM - 59 comments

Augusten Burroughs got married.
posted by barnoley at 4:39 PM - 29 comments

The Final Days of 'Macho Man' Randy Savage [more inside]
posted by zarq at 2:08 PM - 28 comments

Eric Weinstein has a PhD in mathematical physics from Harvard, but has spent most of the last 10 years outside academia working as an economic consultant for a New York hedge fund. Now he apparently has a new theory of everything that claims to be able to explain quantum gravity, dark matter and dark energy. Actual details have not yet been provided and some physicists are dismissive. But his work has received enthusiastic endorsement from Oxford's Simonyi Professor of Public Understanding Marcus du Sautoy, with whom he has been discussing the theory over the last two years. [more inside]
posted by leibniz at 1:51 PM - 86 comments

Giant Ants is a wall-to-wall Facebook graffiti made by two giant ants as they plan for summer, have NSFW encounters, and even answer some fan inquiries! [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:18 PM - 7 comments

Only a lucky few MeFites have the ability to view vaudevillian, commercial actor, inventor, and photographer George Mann's gorgeous vintage Kodachrome survey of Los Angeles coffee shops in 3-D as he intended.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 11:29 AM - 21 comments

Make way for the $21 Long Island Ice Tea: The trshy summer cocktail goes upscale (The Awl)
posted by The Whelk at 11:13 AM - 94 comments

Where did the formula that a dog ages 7 years for every 1 human year come from? No one knows for sure, but the BBC, using data from the UK Kennel Club and US Veterinary Medical Database, have come up with a more accurate online dog years calculator. The truth about how dogs age is more fascinating, and less straightforward, than we thought. [more inside]
posted by 2bucksplus at 10:18 AM - 58 comments

“We did our first show in a bar...all of a sudden, the whole room was quiet. And then we got everyone to sit on the floor cross-legged to watch our crankies.” [more inside]
posted by Miko at 10:06 AM - 10 comments

Daft Train That Friday happy place where Daft Punk overlaps the Soul Train cakewalk. SLYT.
posted by perhapsolutely at 9:57 AM - 58 comments

Khaki Dance by The NSJ Crew. SLYT
posted by catch as catch can at 9:49 AM - 12 comments

Actual conversations with my 2 year old daughter, as re-enacted by me and another full grown man - Episode 1.
posted by quin at 9:23 AM - 72 comments

Detroit Institute of Arts collection could face sell-off to satisfy Detroit's creditors Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is considering whether the multibillion-dollar collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts should be considered city assets that potentially could be sold to cover about $15 billion in debt.
posted by R. Mutt at 9:13 AM - 81 comments

In 1997, Last Unicorn gave Zug the chance at recreating Frank Herbert's 'Dune' through a new trading card series. He was originally told to base his work off of David Lynch's film, but after complications with licensing, "they told me to avoid similarity to Lynch's visuals" says Mark Zug. Mark Zug's Dune trading cards.
posted by Artw at 9:12 AM - 49 comments

Nowadays, fortified wines are the butt of jokes. (previously) However, there was a time when they were considered mainstream and there were even a few commercials made. Of course, we can't leave out the best commercial for fortified wine ever made.
posted by josher71 at 9:06 AM - 69 comments

Eine murul / Breakfast on the Grass is a stop-motion animation answering one of Art's most enduring mysteries: why are those people sitting like that? (SLVimeo, 4:30)
posted by theodolite at 8:57 AM - 6 comments

Skeleton of teenage girl confirms cannibalism at Jamestown colony. [more inside]
posted by elizardbits at 8:41 AM - 61 comments

In April, French cartoonist Boulet (previous, more previous) was invited to go on tour in the US, courtesy of the French embassy in New York. As a good 'webcomic', he kept a diary of his impressions of New York, the language barrier and going to the MoCCaFest, and also had a book to sell, a reworked edition of his 2012 24-hours comic Darkness (previous).
posted by MartinWisse at 8:32 AM - 22 comments

A rare disease is defined as any condition affecting fewer than 200,000 patients in the United States. More than 7,000 such diseases exist, afflicting a total of 25 million to 30 million Americans.. One of them, fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), might be approaching a cure. [more inside]
posted by dmd at 7:01 AM - 21 comments

You might have heard at one time or another a 60s band called Canned Heat, who made a wee bit of a splash way back when with a little number called Going Up the Country. The song featured a simple but very catchy little flute riff between verses. If you ever wondered where that riff came from (not to mention the melodic contour of the tune itself) you need look no further than a 1928 recording by Henry Thomas, who played the flute melody on his quills, or, panpipes. The song was called Bull Doze Blues. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:14 AM - 37 comments

Tech writers and their secret shame - outdated gear.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:11 AM - 120 comments

Corporate Spirit uses stock photography to tell a deranged tale about living the corporate life.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 5:41 AM - 36 comments

Railroad bridge domino collapse in Lampasas County, Texas. (SLYT) No reported injuries, and the bridge dates from 1910, according to the AP. The Infrastructure Report Card, released this week (in which America received a D-), may need a small update to "8,680 of the 52,260 bridges in Texas (16.6%) are considered functionally obsolete."
posted by Erasmouse at 5:16 AM - 78 comments

Bernie "Whistling" Smith, a legendary, no-nonsense Vancouver cop was the subject of this 1975. Oscar nominated documentary. [more inside]
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 3:52 AM - 2 comments