May 29
It's unusual for a woman to be a leader in Afghanistan but Zarifa Qazizadah has become the country's only female village chief through force of personality and determination to get things done - even if that means cross-dressing, wearing a false moustache and driving around on a motorbike at night. "I tell the men of the village, all I want is your prayers," she says. "When you have a problem, I'll speak to the government on your behalf and whenever there is any disturbance at night-time, I'll pick up my gun and come to your house to see what's going on."
posted by barnacles at 8:14 PM - 4 comments
Matt Might, computer science professor, has a son with a new genetic condition. This is the story of how they figured this out. Matt Might, perhaps best known for the
illustrated guide to a PhD, tells the wrenching tale of their son's terrible medical condition and how they've worked to figure out what is going on with him.
posted by k8t at 7:52 PM - 16 comments
Iconic bluegrass guitarist Doc Watson has died in a Winston-Salem, NC hospital. Arthel "Doc" Watson, 89 years old at the time of his death, was one of the greatest traditional, folk and bluegrass guitarists in history. He is credited with popularizing the flatpicking style of guitar, and his involvement with the concerts in New York City, Boston and Newport helped popularize traditional mountain music and bluegrass during the 1960s.
[more inside]
posted by Shotgun Shakespeare at 6:37 PM - 74 comments
As a tribute to Frédéric Chopin, we take you to the home of Arthur Rubinstein - one of the most distinguished interpreters of his works. [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 6:18 PM - 11 comments
Merge your body with the powers of a Kinect controller to
become Ultra Seven!
posted by ardgedee at 6:16 PM - 13 comments In 2010, Rep. D.J. Bettencourt became the youngest majority leader in the history of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, as well as the youngest House majority leader of any state legislature in the U.S. On May 25, 2012,
Bettencourt announced his resignation from the House, citing his upcoming wedding and his new job as executive director of the
New Hampshire Legal Rights Foundation. Three days after his resignation,
Bettencourt resigned again – this time with an apology for “misrepresenting [his] work.”
[more inside]
posted by bakerina at 4:28 PM - 41 comments "
This gallery contains time lapse movies of fungi, molds, bacteria, slime molds and insects of interest to plant pathologists." Be sure and check out
the peach and plum,
Homer Simpson growing "hair",
a rotting book and
mushrooms growing and dying.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:16 PM - 17 comments What kind of an Eeget are ya? Not sure what MeFi will make of this wry little monologue, or indeed what the World-Wide World will make of the chap's accent, but it has humour, and truth, and I know plenty of people who 'spake' just like that...
posted by ironjelly at 3:30 PM - 23 comments
Guidelines [
pdf] recently published by a coalition of religious liberty and free speech organizations caution educators against violating student rights when trying to enforce anti-bullying policies. Other groups, however, worry that concern for free speech rights may keep educators from effectively addressing bullying.
[more inside]
posted by audi alteram partem at 2:18 PM - 49 comments The upcoming
Worldwide Short Film Fest in Toronto has taken a few of the web's most viral videos and re-imagined them:
Leeroy Jenkins,
David After Dentist and
Charlie Bit My Finger have all been updated for the big screen. (Some videos not for the faint of heart)
posted by krunk at 1:42 PM - 19 comments Set on the stage of current book buying and reading habits, where
bookbuyers browse local shops then buy online and
universities move the books out of their libraries (
prev), Tony Sanfilippo (MetaFilter's
Toekneesan) imagines
book stores of a different sort, part bookstore with new and used books, part lending library, part something more. (
via)
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 1:00 PM - 23 comments Here he comes...
Super Shark! (SLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:58 PM - 20 comments To Profile or Not to Profile? A Debate between Sam Harris and Bruce Schneier.
posted by brundlefly at 12:56 PM - 83 comments
Hack The Cover "This is an essay for book lovers and designers curious about where the cover has been, where it's going, and what the ethos of covers means for digital book design."
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 12:08 PM - 11 comments
"when i went into cyberspace i went into it thinking that it was a place like any other place and that it would be a human interaction like any other human interaction. i was wrong when i thought that. it was a terrible mistake."
Pandora's Vox: On Community in Cyberspace [more inside]
posted by codacorolla at 11:40 AM - 22 comments Linda Holmes, NPR: "It probably speaks to the complexity of Mad Men that the same episode can be a highlight of the series for some and a lowlight for others.
Sunday night's episode, "The Other Woman," instantly became a favorite of a lot of observers and writers, but for me, it was a rarity on Mad Men: a serious and profound misstep."
(spoilers in links) [more inside]
posted by flex at 11:33 AM - 186 comments You may have seen
Replacements, Ltd.'s print ads in the back of PARADE magazine (of
Howard Huge fame). Replacements, both a seller and a
resource for china and glassware owners, was one of the few North Carolina businesses to
publicly take a stand [NYT] against the state's vote to ban gay marriage.
As an employer, Replacements is one of only nine companies in the country to receive a
perfect score for ten years straight in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index. But the company is also known for another surprisingly liberal policy: encouraging its 450 employees to bring their pets to work amidst millions of pieces of china and glassware. How many?
A whole lot. [more inside]
posted by Madamina at 11:29 AM - 26 comments David Letterman, Indianapolis native, racing fan and Indy Car team
co-owner, sat down for an interview about the history of the Indianapolis 500, and its effect on him since childhood. No jokes, no snark, just a knowledgeable and passionate discussion about something he cares for tremendously. Parts
one, two, three, and
four.
posted by MarvinTheCat at 11:22 AM - 15 comments Late last year Congress passed, and the President signed, the
NDAA FY 2012. Many people and
organizations protested claiming that some provisions in the NDAA could be interpreted in such a way as to allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens by the military. On January 13th a
complaint was filed contesting the provisions. Now, Judge Katherine B. Forest has
blocked enforcement of the
controversial provisions. The government has
filed a
motion for reconsideration.
[more inside]
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 10:39 AM - 60 comments Jamie Summerlin is running across America. He started in Sunset Bay, OR on March 26th. He'll finish on July 4th in Annapolis, MD. Right now, he's
somewhere in Missouri. If you're doing the math, it will take him 100 days to go from coast to coast. If you're still doing the math, you'll realize the former Marine is running
more than a marathon a day for 100 straight days for Wounded Warriors. News coverage
here,
here and
here.
posted by tallthinone at 10:26 AM - 23 comments
NASA's Image of the Day: Dragon on approach to the ISS (SIL) "This image of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft as it approached the space station was taken NASA astronaut Don Pettit. The SpaceX Falcon 9 and its Dragon spacecraft launched on Tuesday, May 22, at 3:44 a.m. EDT."
posted by jquinby at 9:12 AM - 42 comments
The Opposite of Loneliness Graduating Yale senior Marina Keegan wrote a column for the commencement edition of the paper celebrating "tiny groups that make us feel loved and safe and part of something even on our loneliest nights when we stumble home to our computers — partner-less, tired, awake." She
died in a car crash on Saturday. The column she wrote is a poignant eulogy.
posted by fedward at 8:52 AM - 48 comments
BeamNG, the team responsible for
Rigs of Rods, show off their
soft-body physics innovations in
CryENGINE 3. The
[via] [more inside]
posted by griphus at 7:37 AM - 45 comments
This article explores the history, from the lawyers' perspective [PDF; 41 pages], of a high-profile litigation of sixty years ago, the whirlwind of state and federal litigation that attended the 1948 runoff election battle between Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson and former Texas governor Coke Stevenson for the Texas Democratic Party nomination for the office of United States Senator. Johnson famously won this election by 87 votes [...] [more inside]
posted by smcg at 7:34 AM - 7 comments
Do SLR cameras confuse you? Then try the
SLR Camera Simulator.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:33 AM - 45 comments Drawing on money can elevate a humble bill to
something a bit more entertaining.
[via]
posted by quin at 6:59 AM - 23 comments On Monday, the U.S.-based law firm
Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP filed for
dissolution. While Dewey is not the
first law firm to declare bankruptcy, it is the largest and is likely to be
the most contentious.
[more inside]
posted by hawkeye at 3:03 AM - 49 comments May 28
Dumb, Drunk and Racist - Joe Hildebrand,
writer for the Daily Telegraph in Sydney, has a new TV show coming up on Australian TV, called "Dumb, Drunk and Racist", which was the phrase
famously used during a training session in an Indian call centre about Australians. The show features four Indians from varying backgrounds visiting Australia - looks like very uncomfortable viewing (if you're Australian). (Slightly NSFW because of drunken boob-showing).
posted by awfurby at 9:28 PM - 128 comments
Unglue.It (v. t.) 4. For an author or publisher to accept a one-time fixed amount of money, raised by the public, for the perpetual release of an ebook under a Creative Commons license. A crowd-funded project created by
Eric Hellman and friends at
Gluejar.
[more inside]
posted by stbalbach at 7:43 PM - 10 comments
"The fertile Wadi Hanifah valley running through part of Riyadh was for years a rubbish dump and a public health hazard, but now
it's been transformed into a vast park, with lakes that attract cool breezes. It's an oasis so large it's hard to police - making it a place for Saudi citizens to relax, in more senses than one."
[more inside]
posted by vidur at 7:14 PM - 12 comments Living The Dream ... at AOL . For two months last fall, Eric Simons secretly took up residence inside the Internet giant's Palo Alto, Calif., campus, eating free food, enjoying gym access, and building a startup in the process.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 6:36 PM - 64 comments
Free online graph paper generators: variations of
squares,
triangle, rhombus, and hexagonal,
circular and polar, for drawing, gaming,
writing, note-taking and
much more.
Blank Sheet Music (Flash) for all
arrangements (PDF). Create and edit your own
grids,
probability and
logarithmic graphs,
petri-dish inserts and
storyboards. Also, multilingual
monthly and
yearly calendars. Plus, more than you ever wanted to know about
ISO paper dimensions and
printable paper models of polyhedra.
Prev-
ious-
ly.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 3:50 PM - 35 comments Slo’ugh froze suddenly, gazing at his three new sets of gloves with an unblinking intensity. All that moved, for three long, silent minutes, was his eyes. They stared at first one pair of gloves, then the other pair, then the third, and then back to the first and then to second and then to the third and then to the first again and then to the second again and then to the third, and so it repeated. After a time, Slo’ugh shook himself out of his mysterious reverie and pulled the first pair of gloves onto his huge, meaty hands. He scowled, and immediately removed then. The second pair saw the honour of being donned by his heroic hands, but were similarly dispatched. On went the third, and then Slo’ugh froze again. Stared again. He grunted, and decided ultimately on the first pair.
--
The Saga of Slo'ugh - An Unofficial Diablo III novelization.
posted by empath at 3:21 PM - 55 comments "The
Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President in the name of Congress, and is conferred only upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through 'conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States.'"
The U.S. Army Center of Military History lists every citation for a Medal of Honor award since they were first issued. Most are awarded posthumously, to those who "gave the last full measure of devotion", as Lincoln called it. It's Memorial Day in the U.S., and reflecting upon these is perhaps a reasonable way to spend a bit of it.
[more inside]
posted by disillusioned at 2:15 PM - 57 comments The Hemingway Papers: The legendary writer’s reporting from the Toronto Star archives, featuring historical annotations by William McGeary, a former editor who researched Hemingway’s columns extensively for the newspaper, along with new insight and analysis from the Star’s team of Hemingway experts.
posted by Fizz at 1:33 PM - 13 comments
KLF and K-Foundation Bill Drummond has stopped doing interviews and will only now answer 100 questions.
Here are four of them.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:50 PM - 90 comments Anno NTK: Every Edition of NTK, 15 Years Late.
Were you subscribed to
NTK, but always felt that they were a bit too cutting-edge, too advanced, too futuristic for you? Never got their references? If you sign up for Anno NTK, you'll be able to relive those days, with each newsletter from #1 appearing smartly in your inbox 15 years late. Maybe
this time around you'll get it!
posted by subbes at 12:31 PM - 53 comments
Disintermediation -- the movement of power out of the middle of the net -- is a crucial fact about 21st century political economy, says
Eben Moglen in a passionate keynote address at the
Freedom to Connect conference yesterday. The ability to hack software and hardware ensures that we retain our civil liberties and ability to innovate.
posted by xenophile at 12:14 PM - 37 comments
China's has just released its report,
"Human Rights Record of United States in 2011". This annual report covers gun crimes, OWS, freedom of the press, unemployment, and more.
via
posted by rebent at 11:28 AM - 133 comments Build a Hovercraft With Your Kids — When Jamie Hyneman and MeFi's Own™
Adam Savage built hovercrafts for Mythbusters, he realized that these floating-on-air vehicles were easy to make, not too expensive, and fun. So he built one with his kids.
More diy hovercraft fun.
posted by netbros at 10:34 AM - 44 comments
Take a holiday in Somaliland: journey to the state that isn’t. "
Positioned on the upper haunch of the Somali dog-leg the Republic of Somaliland looks initially unpromising. It is mainly dry and rocky, there are few paved roads, and the population is small and generally dispersed. ... Whilst the economy may be on the up, Somaliland still feels extremely isolated. An employee of a big international NGO who I met in the lobby of my hotel, The Mansoor, looked at me with astonishment when I said I’d come to Hargeisa for fun. 'The biggest danger here,' he said 'is dying of boredom.'"
posted by mykescipark at 10:19 AM - 10 comments
"Usavich" (Season One video) is a series of 90-second CGI cartoons made for MTV Japan about two Russian rabbits. It begins in a Soviet-era prison where Kirenenko*, a mob boss sentenced to death is sharing a cell with Putin (yes, that's his name), a common worker imprisoned on a trumped-up charge and counting the days until his release. And then it gets weird.
(contains extreme cartoon violence, scatological gags, Russian stereotypes, transvestite chickens and shoe fetishes) [more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:08 AM - 10 comments
« Older posts
