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June 2007 Archives
June 30
Of the many Halls of Fame, try these:
Beyond Zamfir, People who
blow Giant Bubble Gum, Highest honor awarded to
individuals in the insurance industry, Antique
Whiskey Bottles,
Fruit jars, and other
antique bottles Hall of Fame, The
Cheap-Ass Cereal Hall of Fame, Heroes of the
American YO-YO Association, the 2007
Ukulele Hall of Fame Inductees, Interviews from the
Official Jewish Mothers' Hall of Fame, "
Bagism" Hall of Fame (people who have achieved eternal fame by answering at least 300 quiz questions about Lennon correctly), National
Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum,
Fostering the inventive spirit in all of us,
Toy Halls,
Bookstores, Etc. The
Hall of Fame Hall of Fame & the
traditional list from wikipedia
posted by growabrain at 9:11 PM PST - 8 comments
In the early seventies,
Northern Soul was divided between two great cathedrals.
Wigan Casino got most of the attention, but the
Blackpool Mecca attracted the purists, due to DJ
Ian Levine's enormous collection of rare records.
During the 80's, Levine went on to DJ at some of the major
gay venues and became a notable
Hi-Energy producer, but he always maintained his first love. Over the years, he has recorded and filmed many of the Northern icons, people who were ignored in their home country, but deeply loved in soul circles. These included
Bob Brady,
Frank Wilson,
Tobi Lark,
Bobby Paris,
Lou Johnston,
Tobi Legend and
many,
many more.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:43 PM PST - 12 comments
World Clock
SWF application showing the time of day expressed in actual time, the number of species passed into extinction, barrels of oil produced, the temperature of the earth, prison population, world population, and deaths by various causes. Because, y'know, you weren't depressed enough already. Site also offers
a number of free games, calculators and applications for your own site.
posted by psmealey at 4:33 AM PST - 36 comments
"We think what happened is that cats sort of
domesticated themselves." A Washington Post article about new research into why our cats want to hang around with us. Also, a
transcript of an online chat with research scientist Carlos A. Driscoll and an
additional article about the ancient roots of domestic cats.
posted by amyms at 12:07 AM PST - 48 comments
June 29
For four months, the Kuykendalls, the Prices and the McKays say they’ve been harassed and threatened by mysterious cell phone stalkers who track their every move and occasionally lurk by their homes late at night, screaming and banging on walls.
Police can’t seem to stop them. The late-night visitors vanish before officers arrive. The families say investigators have a hard time believing the stalkers can control cell phones without touching them and suspect an elaborate hoax. Complaints to their phone companies do no good – the families say they’ve been told what the stalkers are doing
is impossible.
posted by daninnj at 7:06 PM PST - 99 comments
The Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour, is
forty years old this year. Some of its
Members,
Officers, and
Companions include people like John Kenneth Galbraith, Dan Aykroyd, Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, Jean Chrétien, Northrop Frye, Pierre Trudeau, Bryan Adams, Roberta Bondar, Bruce Cockburn, Wayne Gretzky, Mary Pratt, David Cronenberg, and current Governor General Michaëlle Jean, who is not only haute, but
hawt.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:04 PM PST - 33 comments
The Database of Mid-Victorian Wood-engraved Illustration
(Centre for Editorial and Intertextual Research, Cardiff University) hosts well over eight hundred images from Victorian texts; you can browse the site by iconographic themes and features (tools, religion, etc.) or conduct more specific searches by author, publisher, and the like. For more overviews of Victorian book illustration, visit Bob Speel's
nineteenth-century art website, which features a number of pages devoted to various topics in book illustration, and the
Victorian Web.
Illuminated Books features a small collection of digitized illustrated works, many of them Victorian; there's a larger collection at
Children's Books Online. The Victorian novelist we most closely associate with book illustration is Charles Dickens, and
David Perdue has brief biographical sketches of his various illustrators, with examples of their work. Famous illustrators with their own websites include
Sir John Tenniel,
Arthur Rackham, and
Randolph Caldecott. (Main link via VICTORIA.)
posted by thomas j wise at 4:51 PM PST - 14 comments
Totally rad
Frontline video about
Hero Rats who sniff out unexploded land mines in rural Tanzania. Not only a great idea, but this story had me on the edge of my seat: are the rats on a suicide mission or not?
posted by dydecker at 4:15 PM PST - 17 comments
Here is Uncle John Scruggs singing and playing
Little Log Cabin Round the Lane in RealAudio
Dial Up and
DSL format. The dancing is great and I do like the walk-on kitten part, myself.
That's from the
Center For Southern African-American Music Video Link Page. Their
audio link page is a wonder, too with individual artists galore. But, for the real deal, check out the
Various Artist compilation album pages. Those may be 20 second of so mp3 clips but, still, those Yazoo, Document and Folkways albums are the bomb and there you get a taste of what they offer. And anywhere you can hear, for example, even a few bars of Blind Alfred Reed's
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live ? or Estil C. Ball and Lacey Richardson's
Trials, Troubles, Tribulations rules in my world.
posted by y2karl at 2:13 PM PST - 9 comments
There's been much talk about the Supreme's decisions on
desegregation and
free speech, but another ruling with broad consumer impact has gone relatively unnoticed. In a
5-4 decision [PDF], the U.S. Supreme Court
struck down a 96-year-old ban on minimum pricing agreements between manufacturers and retailers. Dissenting opinion believes that this ruling will hurt consumers, raise prices and keep new retailers out of the marketplace. The 1911 ruling that was overturned was
Dr. Miles Medical Co. vs. John D. Park & Sons which decided that it is always illegal for a supplier to dictate minimum prices to a retailer.
posted by dejah420 at 12:13 PM PST - 47 comments
MusicMoose
wants "to provide the world with free, useful music lessons, and a community based site to help back it all up." The
site contains hundreds of free video music
lessons (often containing notation and/or tablature) with a distinct focus on acoustic and bluegrass music, all taught by some pretty
badass pickers (including the astonishingly good mandolin shredder Anthony Hannigan). There are also obligatory but very useful
forums.
Takeaway: the whole thing is free and you don't have to register to watch the lessons.
posted by kosem at 9:51 AM PST - 15 comments
Crayon Physics,
the delightful latest game from independent game developer Petri Purho at
Kloonigames, a sort of finnish
Ferry Halim. Draw objects with your crayon to get the ball to the star. The site is also home to other made-in-a-week games such as
Cacodemon, which is as frustrating as it is addictive. If Crayon Physics seems too short, check out the small
level pack or hack the xml to make your own.
Windows only, works in Wine too
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:14 AM PST - 20 comments
FFF via
Phit.
Yeah, it's stolen from Digg, but that's a good thing. I read Digg so you don't have to.
posted by humblepigeon at 6:49 AM PST - 28 comments
Planet Earth,
the new Prince album, to be given away for free as a newspaper insert. Music industry bigwigs splutter, fume.
posted by hermitosis at 6:46 AM PST - 82 comments
Whole Foods takes London.
This South Kensington flagship store is the "quasi-messianic" company's biggest ever, comprising 80,000 square feet spread out over three floors offering 10,000 grocery items.
In true American style, shoppers can choose from 1,000 different wines, 425 cheeses, 40 types of sausage, 55 in-store chefs, a pub called The Bramley, a sushi bar, a champagne and oyster bar and a DJ-booth to play music for late-night shoppers.
The locals seem overwhelmed by it all.
posted by chuckdarwin at 3:06 AM PST - 86 comments
June 28
In late March the body of
Lindsay Ann Hawker was
found in a bathtub on the balcony of a Chiba apartment. This week, with the
help of UK officers, the Hawker family has
returned to Tokyo, to seek help to find the main suspect Tatsuya Ichihashi, who has been missing since the discovery of the body.
posted by gomichild at 9:49 AM PST - 48 comments
German Geek website reports that the The
Iphone-Killer (the Iphone for geeks),
OpenMoko, starts shipphing July. Unlike Apples Iphone, OpenMoke is not closed platform. The German Website reports further that OpenMokos 2nd hardware revision will provide WiFi, 3D acceleration and 256 MB Flash (shipping starts October 2007).
Forgive me, if the post is better suited for
/.
posted by yoyo_nyc at 7:31 AM PST - 76 comments
On June 13th Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich.,
issued subpoenas to two former White House officials compelling them to provide testimony and related information as part of ongoing congressional investigations into the mass firings of well-performing federal prosecutors and the politicization of hiring and firing within the Department of Justice. Today is the deadline for handing over the requested information and the Whitehouse has stated that
it will not be complying with the request.
posted by Mr_Zero at 7:18 AM PST - 105 comments
June 27
Broadway's original
Effie White, Jennifer Holliday, has been very open about how
haunted and
snubbed she felt during the production of the Dreamgirls movie. In particular she was hurt when, without permission, her own singing voice was used in a theatrical trailer to promote the production that had completely shut her out. Yesterday at the BET Awards she was finally given some overdue recognition and invited to join Jennifer Hudson onstage for a duet of
the song she made famous. You may have heard the song a hundred times, but try to make it 101. 'Cuz seriously, the girls can sing.
Previously.
posted by miss lynnster at 1:00 PM PST - 46 comments
Busted!
In one of the biggest counterfeit busts in years, a 19-month investigation reached its climax on Tuesday as federal officials conducted early-morning raids throughout the NY
metropolitan area, arresting 29 people, seizing more than $230 million in merchandise and ultimately dismantling three operations believed to have imported more than $700 million in fake products over the last 24 months.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:47 AM PST - 147 comments
..."imagine a painter who could, like Vermeer, capture the quality of light that a camera can, but with the color of paints...scanned with an ordinary office scanner"....Katinka Matson is cofounder of the brilliant and very readable ezine,
Edge. Her
digital art is featured there. Thumbnails of her 40
flowers. 12
flowers. Five
flowers. Red
anemone.
posted by nickyskye at 7:30 AM PST - 44 comments
Comic Wonder
is a new joke telling and rating site. With jokes as audio, would-be comics are able to capture the timing and tone that make many jokes funny.
posted by scottreynen at 6:59 AM PST - 8 comments
The 10 Strangest Weapons Through History.
Be amazed by the antics of the Goliath! Marvel at the small size (and poor firing ability) of the General Motors FP-45! Be shredded to tiny tiny bits by the Urumi! (And wonder why the Trebuchet made the list!)
posted by 40 Watt at 6:45 AM PST - 68 comments
Life at Google - The Microsoftie Perspective
Microsoft Employee writes: "The following has been making the rounds on just about every internal email list I belong to in Microsoft. Here it is to share a little insight with the rest of the world. Microsoft is an amazingly transparent company. Google is not. Any peek is a good peek." Let the
metavalanche begin.
posted by psmealey at 5:45 AM PST - 66 comments
June 26
Bugaboo Daytrips
is a gorgeous site featuring 22 strollable daytrips in major cities worldwide (not just US Only), all laid out on beautiful artistic (yet still helpful) maps with downloadable PDFs for taking with you on your wanderings.
For those terrified of being marketed to, it should be noted that Bugaboo is a baby stroller company, although the site is by no means of restricted interest to parents only, and bugbaoo's presence on the site seems confined to the URL. Also note that unfortunately for those alergic to it, the site is designed entirely in Flash. On the other hand, the maps & art are really awesome, so you should do yourself a favor & get over it this time.
Via.
posted by jonson at 10:55 PM PST - 16 comments
Ana Voog is spending the week nude online (NSFW, duh).
Former leader of the long-standing Minneapolis Pop-Rock band
The Blue Up? Rachel Olson reinvented herself as Ana Voog and became one of the first to put herself under near constant home surveillance online with her
Anacam (wacky flash, NSFW). This August will mark her tenth anniversary online, making hers (by her own reckoning) the longest running home cam on the internet. To celebrate she's spending the week naked. Did I mention she's 35 weeks pregnant and planning to give birth online?
posted by nanojath at 10:15 PM PST - 59 comments
Anyone who has spent time browsing through
Deviant Art has almost certainly run into the cartoons of a young Australian woman named
Gemma Wilson. She is fond of Harry Potter, snakepeople and (occasionally) torture and hermaprodites. She has a
fan club. And
she has detractors. Make of this what you will.
posted by metasonix at 9:57 PM PST - 29 comments
MIT researchers can reverse some symptoms of autism and mental retardation in mice by suppressing a specific enzyme. The research, conducted at the
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, is due to be posted on
PNAS Online some time this week.
Here is the MIT article. The specific symptoms reversed included hyperactivity, purposeless/repetitive movements, attention deficits and learning/memory challenges. The research was funded by the
FRAXA Foundation,
the Simons Foundation,
the Wellcome Trust, and
the National Institutes of Health. According to the CDC, the genetic causes treated by this particular technique (called
FXS) affects one in 4,000 males and one in 6,000 females of all races and ethnic groups. I would be interested in hearing about reactions that might be taking place in the various autism-related communities.
posted by christopherious at 5:03 PM PST - 25 comments
Puzzability is a puzzle writing company created by three former editors of
Games Magazine. Start with their
puzzle sampler and come back for a set of
regularly updated games. Puzzability is also responsible for creating the New York Times' intricately crafted Op-Ed Puzzles. Unlike the Times' daily crosswords, these wonderfully elaborate puzzles are available in a
free archive.
posted by lalex at 2:22 PM PST - 8 comments
Fifty years ago, I suspect that along with Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Sandy Koufax, most Americans could have named, at the very least, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Arthur Miller, Thornton Wilder, Georgia O'Keeffe, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Not to mention scientists and thinkers like Linus Pauling, Jonas Salk, Rachel Carson, Margaret Mead, and especially Dr. Alfred Kinsey.
The prepared text of the speech delivered by Dana Gioia at Stanford University Commencement on June 17, 2007.
posted by cgc373 at 10:38 AM PST - 153 comments
In 1973 CIA director James Schlesinger asked "employees to report activities they thought might be inconsistent with the Agency’s charter." You know, illegal stuff, black ops, the works. The resulting top secret documents are called the
"Family Jewels." Today they were released.
Press release with link to documents.
posted by MarshallPoe at 10:20 AM PST - 34 comments
"In this
film, director Shanker wanted to change
Rajini's wheatish complexion to a white European complexion. It has taken 25 dedicated CG technicians almost a year to
achieve this
6 ½ min.
feat."
posted by tighttrousers at 10:06 AM PST - 42 comments
The Record Industry's Decline.
"The record companies have created this situation themselves," says Simon Wright, CEO of Virgin Entertainment Group, which operates Virgin Megastores. Rosen and others see that 2001-03 period as disastrous for the business. "That's when we lost the users," Rosen says. "Peer-to-peer took hold. That's when we went from music having real value in people's minds to music having no economic value, just emotional value."
posted by geoff. at 6:47 AM PST - 279 comments
Bored of her (
award-nominated) years as the
glamourpuss of "
Family Affairs", thanks to a chance encounter with
Rat Scabies, Ebony's found her new calling as the Grace Jones of
nu clash, a
figurehead for
blavers,
M.I.A.-meets-Lil Kim-meets-Peaches,
"Harry Potter with a vagina".
For all those reared on Esg, Bow Wow Wow, Nina Hagen and
Delta 5 who weren't able to catch her headlining the
Flaming Love Palace at Glastonbury this past weekend: have
a read, a
look and a
listen to the as-yet unsigned Ebony Bones (no, not
these).
Personal favorites:
Don't Fart On My Heart (video) -
I'm Ur Future X Wife remix -
No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs at 3:08 of Don't Dance So Fast.
posted by progosk at 6:45 AM PST - 31 comments
Sellaband launched in August of 2006. You get the chance to buy $10 shares in a band and when they reach $50,000 they get to record an album - it was met with
cynicism in some quarters. Ten months later six bands have reached the $50,000 mark and the
first two albums are available [Dutch nu-metallers
Nemesea & Hawaiian singer-songwriter
Cubworld] with
four other artists about to enter the studio -
Second Person from the UK,
Clemence from France,
Lily from the US and
Maitreya from New Zealand.
posted by meech at 3:24 AM PST - 10 comments
June 25
Essentalist explanations.
Maintained by
John Cowan, this list boils down dozens of languages, real, invented, and imaginary, to their pithy essences. "Japanese is essentially 16th-century Chinese, 17th-century Portuguese, 18th-century Dutch, 19th-century French and 20th-century English with an abhorrence of consonant clusters."
"Esperanto is essentially Spanish with extra 'x's and 'k's." "Klingon is essentially Arabic spoken through a set of bulky false teeth." "English is essentially a half dozen other languages locked in a small room. They fight."
posted by escabeche at 5:43 PM PST - 37 comments
When people think of Old Time Radio, they usually think of the standards: Amos 'n Andy, Burns and Allen, Dragnet, etc. etc. I won't link to them because they are all over the 'net, and you can find them easily. But you almost certainly don't know about
Vic and Sade ... and you should.
Read the good
Wikipedia article first, to whet your appetite even more, then
go listen!
[more inside]
posted by woodblock100 at 4:15 PM PST - 25 comments
The Private Life of a Cat, 1944, (GoogleVideo, 22 minutes), is a gem of a silent film by Alexander Hammid, about a mother cat giving birth, her relationship with her kittens and mate.
posted by nickyskye at 10:51 AM PST - 29 comments
A very big day for the Supreme Court. In
Morse v. Fredrick, the Court ruled that a school could suspend a child for holding up a "Bong HiTs for Jesus" banner. (Previous post
here). In
Hein v. Freedom from Religion, the Court held that taxpayers lacked standing to challenged Faith Based Initiatives (
previous discussions). In
Wilke v. Robbins, the Court held that land owners do not have Bivens claims if the federal government harasses landowners for easements. In
FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, the Court held that the portion of the campaign finance law which had blackout periods before elections on issue advocacy advertising was an unconstitutional restriction of speech (
other). This Thursday, the Justices will deliver their last opinions of the term, including
a death penalty case and the
school assignment cases. (Opinions are .pdfs)
posted by dios at 10:15 AM PST - 224 comments
BYT: A lot of our readers at Brightest Young Things are young women. Is there a main thrust of Vagina Power that you want to communicate directly to them? It was just this morning, on the prompting of a friend, that I found myself examining
Alexyss Tylor's Vagina Power again, including
our home grown transcript of her vagina power philosophy. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but when I tuned into my favorite
website about the D.C. social scene this morning,
I fell off my chair.
[nsfw]
posted by awesomebrad at 9:29 AM PST - 40 comments
Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace:
"Hegemonic American teens (i.e. middle/upper class, college bound teens from upwards mobile or well off families) are all on or switching to
Facebook. Marginalized teens, teens from poorer or less educated backgrounds, subculturally-identified teens, and other non-hegemonic teens continue to be drawn to
MySpace. A class division has emerged and it is playing out in the aesthetics, the kinds of advertising, and the policy decisions being made." (
Related blog post)
posted by heatherann at 5:19 AM PST - 143 comments
SciTalks
- from the press release
[19 June]: "The site launches today with over 1,000 lectures
online, and more are being added daily. Segments range from a series of
hour-long lectures by the late Richard Feynman, to a short, hilarious Ali G
interview with Noam Chomsky, and a fascinating talk on designing a
semiconductor-based brain, by up-and-coming Stanford researcher Kwabena
Boahen."
[via]
posted by peacay at 1:06 AM PST - 7 comments
June 24
Judge bans the word "rape" from a rape trial.
Jeffre Cheuvront, a Nebraska judge, "granted a motion by defense attorneys barring the use of the words rape, sexual assault, victim, assailant, and sexual assault kit from the trial of Pamir Safi—accused of raping Tory Bowen in October 2004." This move follows some tightening of language during trials meant to avoid unnecessarily swaying jury members. But has it gone too far this time?
posted by cmgonzalez at 7:11 PM PST - 112 comments
Nearly all movie trailers shown in theaters, and on the web, come with a so-called green tag, saying they are approved for all audiences, or a red tag, saying they are approved for only restricted audiences. Since 2000, many theaters will not run red tag trailers; Warner Brothers will not make red tag trailers, and Universal Pictures has not ran one in theaters since "American Pie" in 1999. Wishing to show audiences more "edgy" previews, the producers are looking to the internet.
Rob Zombie’s
“Halloween” remake became the first to display a new yellow tag, signaling that the movie was rated PG-13 or above, and the preview was “approved only for age-appropriate Internet users” — mandatd by the
MPAA as visitors to sites either frequented mainly by grown-ups (as determined by
Nielsen's Web Demographic reports) or accessible only between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m.
This August’s
“Superbad” (autoplay music...) has an R-rated, red tag internet trailer, which MPAA regulations require a viewer to pass an age-verification test, in which the viewer 17 and older has to match their name, birthday and ZIP code against public government records on file." [
via nytimes.com]
posted by pwb503 at 2:07 PM PST - 67 comments
Boy's Hug Lands Him in Trouble At School With "No Touching" Policy.
7th grader Hal Beaulieu "hopped up from his lunch table one day a few months ago, sat next to his girlfriend and slipped his arm around her shoulder. That landed him a trip to the school office." Handshakes could be gang signs, and officials note, "in a culturally diverse school...families might have different views of what is appropriate." The PTA President remarks: ""Even high-fives can get out of hand ... someone can get bonked in the head." (
CNN News Video)
posted by shivohum at 12:02 PM PST - 108 comments
The Etruscan civilization flourished in central Italy around the 6th century BC before the rise of the Roman Empire. Known for high art and high living, some say the Etruscans were influential in molding Roman and western civilization, however it has always been an enigma on where the Etruscans originally came from.
DNA evidence has probably
solved the mystery, confirming what Greek historian Herodotus first said over 2,500 years ago.
posted by stbalbach at 10:53 AM PST - 33 comments
Danger in Tow - Driving with rented risks.
U-Haul International is the nation's largest provider of rental trailers. A Los Angeles Times investigation finds the company's practices raise the risk of accidents on the road.
This in-depth article is the first in a 3 part series. "Times reporters Alan C. Miller and Myron Levin reviewed thousands of pages of court records, police reports and other documents on U-Haul operations and accidents. They interviewed more than 200 people, including about 60 current and former U-Haul employees and dealers. They spoke at length with senior U-Haul executives and toured company facilities in Phoenix."
(About this series.)
posted by The Deej at 9:30 AM PST - 49 comments
The folks from Japanese public TV's excellent children's show "Pythagora Switch" have for several years been creating some of the most delightful and inventive Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions you're likely to ever see.
Here's a 9 minute clip featuring lots of these little kinetic masterpieces, guaranteed to entertain.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:20 AM PST - 43 comments
June 23
Philosophy of History
is what the page is called; it's by a philosophy professor,
Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D., who's a libertarian and obsessed with Leonard Nelson and the Friesian School, whatever the hell that is. Never mind all that. If you scroll down past the essays and the Military History section and the calendars and the book reviews, you get to the Reference Resources. As he says, "Not all of history may be covered here, but a very extensive fragment of it certainly is." Take, as one tiny example,
Margraves & Counts of Flanders. There's a longish introduction and a colored map, then there are lists of rulers and detailed genealogies accompanied by more text, then similarly for the Counts of Artois, the Kings & Dukes of Brittany, the Counts of Anjou, the Dukes of Normandy, the Counts of Blois & Champagne, the Counts of Toulouse, the Dukes of Aquitaine and Dukes of Gascony, the Lords & Counts of Foix, the Kings and Lords of Man, the Dukes of Marlborough and Earls of Spencer (including a detailed list of the Vanderbilts), the Dukes of Buccleuch, Grafton, & St. Albans, and the Dukes of Berwick & Fitzjames. That's one page. There are dozens and dozens of them. The Prime Ministers of the Dominions, the Kings of Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, the Islâmic Rulers of North Africa, the Emperors of India, China, & Japan, all the way down to the Mangïts of Bukhara, 1747-1920. If you have any interest in history, This Site's For You.
posted by languagehat at 3:31 PM PST - 48 comments
Boulder High School involved in a controversy. Here's some
background.
And here's the
smackdown. Here's what some other students
think. My favorite moment isn't even anything that's said - it's about 2:46 into the smackdown video when the other student on the panel, Andrew, realizes things are getting ready to kick-off. These are all YouTube links BTW.
posted by philad at 2:06 PM PST - 68 comments
"
Silobreaker is a groundbreaking, web-based current awareness service designed for executives, desktop researchers, and other light information professionals who are seeking contextual insights and actionable answers."
Sounds interesting enough. How about taking the system for a
test drive?
(Open-Source Intelligence resource courtesy of
InteLink)
posted by mystyk at 11:11 AM PST - 23 comments
12 of the Best Music Social Networks
Internet radio may be facing
uncertain times, but many musical social networks continue to thrive. This article surveys
Flotones,
Mercora Radio 2.0,
Mog, the popular
Last fm,
iLike,
JamNow,
Haystack, five others as well as some additional sites, like
Kompoz, mentioned in the comments.
posted by psmealey at 5:49 AM PST - 17 comments
In 1997, the ABC gave
John Safran, "Australia's most exciting guerilla filmmaker", his big break on
Race Around The World. Although he came last in the competition, it's not too hard to fathom why he won the popular vote, with these submissions:
Don't screw with the rules in Japan,
The ambulance chaser (Mumbai),
Anarchy in the Renault family hatchback (Bristol),
The right to bare grudges (Cote d'Ivoire),
Mum I'm not Jewish any more (Cote d'Ivoire),
Father Pino vs the Devil (Sicily),
Mohammad's guide to busting a move (Lebanon),
Football's my religion (Jerusalem),
The series of unfortunate events and
The happiest place on earth, my butt (Disneyland). youtube; each ~6 minutes
posted by goo at 2:53 AM PST - 16 comments
June 22
There are a lot of special people out there making special music videos for their favorite songs.
This tribute to
Don't Fear the Reaper is particularly... moving.
Marvel at the mid-90's VCR-edited version of Toto's
Africa.
There are some great
Star Trek slash music videos out there. (1st link possibly NSFW).
Then you have
these guys, breathing new life into
classics with some serious
lip-synching skills.
posted by TheGoldenOne at 7:40 PM PST - 22 comments
Mefites love cover versions. But are we ready for
The Legion of Rockstars? To wit: "1) A bunch of people put on noise-canceling headphones. 2) They all listen to the same song and play along. 3)The results are recorded and set to the original music video. 4) Hilarity ensues" (
myspace,
via).
posted by bardic at 4:56 PM PST - 22 comments
Rudy Autio, the Matisse of the ceramics world, has
passed away at age 70. Born in 1926 to a Finnish family in ethnically diverse and bustling
Butte, Montana, Rudy went on to study ceramics with
Frances Senska at MSU. There he met future ceramics titan,
Peter Voulkos, and became founding residents of the
Archie Bray Foundation. Because of their revolutionary work, the 2 of them helped bring recognition to a field that had previously only been considered craft. Autio's giant torso-shaped vessels are often decorated with post-impressionistic
horses and dancing
women, but he also ventured into
printmaking,
tapestry design and
murals. According to Ken Little, "If the ceramics world had a Mount Rushmore, it would be
Peter Voulkos,
Rudy,
Paul Soldner and
Don Reitz."
posted by ikahime at 12:29 PM PST - 8 comments
Lawrence Lessig moves on
Lessig has spent the last 10 years fighting for IP reform and open culture, He's decided to focus on fighting what he calls "corruption" (with quotes)... the pernicious effect that moneyed interests have in crafting and controlling public policy.
Finally, I am not (as one friend wrote) "leaving the movement." "The movement" has my loyalty as much today as ever. But I have come to believe that until a more fundamental problem is fixed, "the movement" can't succeed either. Compare: Imagine someone devoted to free culture coming to believe that until free software supports free culture, free culture can't succeed. So he devotes himself to building software. I am someone who believes that a free society -- free of the "corruption" that defines our current society -- is necessary for free culture, and much more. For that reason, I turn my energy elsewhere for now.
posted by delmoi at 8:23 AM PST - 61 comments
June 21
The American Film Institute decided the need for
more money an update to their
1998 list of the 100 Greatest Movies was so pressing that they
made a new list. Ebert (and friends) ask
where's Fargo?. The IHT wonders why the past decade has only spawned
four new, worthy movies. And, generally, no one seems super excited about it.
(some links go to wikipedia to avoid registration on AFI's site).
posted by ztdavis at 9:30 PM PST - 88 comments
Spoiling Harry Potter:
Hacker claims to have spoiled the last Harry Potter book with a technique called
spear phishing.
"We make this spoiler to make reading of the upcoming book useless and boring ... It's amazing to see how much people inside the company have copies and drafts of this book." Let's see if we can discuss spoilers and spear phishing without actually spoiling anything here. Warning: The Wired link is safe, but it contains a link to the purported spoiler.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:55 PM PST - 82 comments
"His dream is to produce a full-length gay, disco tribute to Canadian Rock legends, Rush."
It certainly wouldn't be the first question-mark-in-the-air-above-the-head-inducing tribute album - that's a pretty long list, and includes
the hip-hop tribute to Phil Collins,
the bluegrass take on Metallica (so good they had to make two of them),
the lounge tribute to Eminem,
the hillbilly tribute to AC/DC, a
hairmetal tribute to the Beatles,
a goth tribute to David Bowie, um,
a string quartet tribute to Clay Aiken, and more
Dylan cover albums than you can shake a rolling stone at.
posted by jbickers at 11:34 AM PST - 46 comments
Applications for UK visas are
being denied for ridiculous reasons, says an independent monitor report. Among the reasons: never having been on holiday before, "failing to complete pivotal areas of Section 6", and "plan[ning] a holiday for no particular purpose other than sightseeing.
BBC readers contribute their stories - from potential bridesmaids being told that they were only going to marry English men like their sister was doing, to not having good enough German.
posted by divabat at 1:11 AM PST - 61 comments
June 20
The Flow, by Paul Myerscough
That image gives way, quickly and successively, to a series of others: a young black woman smoking, smiling at the camera through a reinforced glass window; three teenage girls in a car, laughing, filmed through the windscreen; a whip-pan to the American flag, pierced by sunlight, drifting in the breeze; a DIY programme on a pixellated TV screen; a ride-along shot of a family in an oversized golf buggy; two different angles of a man alone in a lecture theatre; two more of traffic at night; a woman, suspicious of the camera, wearing a polka-dot dress and partly obscured by glassy reflections; a blurry shot of a long windowless corridor; a man wearing shades in a crowded street; a woman pursued down the cosmetics aisle of a supermarket; and, as Curtis comes to the end of his three short sentences, a woman seen jogging in the wing-mirror of a moving car.
The entire sequence takes 26 seconds. There’s too much to take in. Or, you don’t know what you’ve taken in, and how deep the impression has been.
posted by acro at 3:18 PM PST - 18 comments
Garbage + illumination = art?
Various artists carefully pile rubbish on a gallery floor, or meticulously assemble a collection of ordinary items, plug in a light source, and create incredibly detailed and surprising shadows on the wall. Meanwhile, blog commenters cry "Fake!" and "Photoshop!". I guess they didn't see any of the Quicktime movies of Shigeo Fukuda linked
here.
posted by maudlin at 1:41 PM PST - 14 comments
The Library Of Unified Information Sources (LOUIS)
is a beta-release project of the
previously mentioned Sunlight Foundation, the goal of which is "to create a comprehensive, completely indexed and cross-referenced depository of federal documents from the executive and legislative branches of government." LOUIS currently contains searchable full text documents of Congressional Reports, the Congressional Record, Congressional Hearings, Presidential Documents, the Federal Register, GAO Reports and Bills & Resolutions, going back to 2001. Other interesting Sunlight Foundation projects include
Visualizing Earmarks,
3 (non-satirical) Modest Proposals,
The Congressional Family Business Project, and
Congresspedia.
posted by cog_nate at 12:01 PM PST - 2 comments
Return to Crothersville:
Aaron Hall probably wasn't gay, but
his murder in April has become an argument for passage of the
Matthew Shepard Act, which would add attacks based on a victim's perceived sexual orientation to the list of federal hate crimes. The men accused of Aaron's murder are invoking the
"gay panic" defense. A citizen journalist at the Bloomington Alternative has published
a
fascinating article on her investigation of the circumstances of the crime and of Aaron's life, and why uncovering the truth in a place like Crothersville, where the social network is so tight-knit and there's
no local hate crimes law, requires an outside (federal) investigation.
posted by thirteenkiller at 10:45 AM PST - 168 comments
The Science of Gaydar.
"That’s what we mean by gaydar—not the skill of the viewer so much as the telltale signs most gay people project, the set of traits that make us unmistakably one....A small constellation of researchers is specifically analyzing the traits and characteristics that, though more pronounced in some than in others, not only make us gay but also make us appear gay."
posted by jtajta at 10:27 AM PST - 133 comments
“What is fitness?”(large PDF) is an essay by the leaders of the
CrossFit movement. The ideal they propose is an athlete who is “equal parts gymnast, Olympic weightlifter, and multi-modal sprinter or ‘sprintathlete.’ Develop the capacity of a novice 800-meter track athlete, gymnast, and weightlifter and you’ll be fitter than any world-class runner, gymnast, or weightlifter.”
posted by jason's_planet at 8:46 AM PST - 51 comments
"A smart story often does contain new facts,"
Bennett explains. "But just as often it takes facts that are lying in plain sight and synthesizes them, or arranges them in a way — sometimes in a narrative — that really exposes some new meaning on an important subject. And I think that's a conceptual scoop." (via
ATC)
posted by photoslob at 8:29 AM PST - 14 comments
Humraz is an auction site with a twist. Pay to bid, then once enough fees have been received, the lowest unmatched bid wins. Shall we play for
£500? Or a
house?
posted by imperium at 3:53 AM PST - 21 comments
June 19
Parting the Veil of Faery:
The Colmore Fatagravures, said to date from the 1890s. "A Scottish adventurer, inventor, and photographer named
Neville Colmore claimed to have constructed a device capable of '...parting the veil of Faery...' The device, which he called the Spectobarathrum, along with all of the images he claimed to have made were believed destroyed in a fire. I believe some of these images and related artefacts may have survived."
[via Apothecary's Drawer]
posted by mediareport at 9:43 PM PST - 16 comments
Bane of My Existence
is a very observant and well done record of idiocy for future historians by illustrator Rod Filbrandt. You of course, are nothing like these drawings. The rest of his blog is pretty good to poke around too. (via
Drawn)
posted by Stan Chin at 8:06 PM PST - 48 comments
Captain Beefheart's 10 rules for guitarists
are also useful life rules for anyone: "
Never Point Your Guitar At Anyone: Your instrument has more power than lightning. Just hit a big chord, then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.."
posted by tombola at 4:50 PM PST - 34 comments
Positive self-deception is a normal
In 1988, psychologists Shelly Taylor and Jonathon Brown published an article making the somewhat disturbing claim that positive self-deception is a normal and beneficial part of most people’s everyday outlook.
posted by punkfloyd at 1:02 PM PST - 71 comments
The city of Sao Paulo
passed an ordinance last year banning outdoor advertising; photographer Tony de Marco has been
documenting the skeletal remains of the advertising infrastructure throughout the city; the impact looks like the aftermath of a new type of atomic weapon that targets marketing but leaves buildings & people unscathed.
posted by jonson at 10:11 AM PST - 84 comments
“Thirty-six characters from different stages of life - representations of different times - interact in one room, moving in loops, observed by a static camera. I had to draw and paint about 16.000 cell-mattes, and make several hundred thousand exposures on an optical printer. It took a full seven months, sixteen hours per day, to make the piece”[ source]:
Zbig Rybczynski on the making of his award winning (
and much imitated) animation "
Tango "
(YT, mildly NSFW).
posted by rongorongo at 6:10 AM PST - 27 comments
June 18
The story of the strange language of the Pirahã
is just as much a story about the state of the field of linguistics. Professor
Dan Everett of Illinois State University, who lived for decades with the Pirahã, first as a missionary, then as a linguist, believes Pirahã casts serious doubt upon Chomsky's
theory of universal grammar. Chomskyites have started to fight back
with a reassessment of Everett's
famous paper on the Pirahã, where he claimed that the Pirahã "have no numbers, no fixed color terms, no perfect tense, no deep memory, no tradition of art or drawing, and no words for “all,” “each,” “every,” “most,” or “few”—terms of quantification believed by some linguists to be among the common building blocks of human cognition." He also claims that it doesn't have recursion, a feature of language Chomsky recently claimed was
the defining feature of human speech. Dan Everett has
rebutted the Chomskyite reassessment of his work.
Video interview with Professor Everett.
[Pirahã previously covered on MetaFilter in 2004 and 2006]
posted by Kattullus at 9:10 PM PST - 60 comments
In the Fall of 1991, MTV's 120 Minutes released two compilations (Amazon:
one,
two) of songs from the show. (Youtube:
one,
two)
posted by nervousfritz at 6:05 PM PST - 45 comments
Grass rings,
lace rings,
rock rings,
bunny rings...
The Carrotbox has
month after
month of posts about
odd and unusual rings. Alice is
allergic to metal so focuses in her
own collection on "glass, lucite, resin, plastic, jade, wood, bakelite and even stone — anything, as long as it's not metal!" She even provides a
timeline of
plastic history.
[via FunForever]
posted by mediareport at 5:54 PM PST - 19 comments
Ashley Revell bet his life's savings on one spin of roulette. Watch the
video to find out what happened. The young Englishman sold everything he owned -- including rights to his name -- and put the entire proceeds on red (which he decided at the last minute, originally having fixed on black). After you've watched the video, read
an interview about the aftermath and about how Vegas
almost didn't take the bet. His wager topped Inside Poker magazine's list of "
Top 25 Most Outrageous Gambles."
posted by jeffmshaw at 4:49 PM PST - 39 comments
Gun crime on the streets of London? It's not new. Here's a tale of robbery, murder, revolution, and
Churchill in a topper. First, the
Tottenham Outrage, a factory robbery resulting in two murders, 27 injuries, and a bizarre chase. The villains are Latvian anarchists, a group who are trying to finance their revolutionary aims through crime. The next year, a plan to
tunnel into a jewelers is botched, and attempted burglary becomes the
Houndsditch Murders . The police investigate, and on locating the gang,
The Siege of Sidney Street begins. The army is called in, and the
Home Secretary pops by and assumes control.
After much shooting, a fire breaks out, and two men burn to death. But neither of them is the mysterious gang leader, Peter the Painter, and the five later tried are all acquitted. Churchill, however, is guilty of
showing off a bit.
posted by liquidindian at 4:25 PM PST - 19 comments
Lawyer rating site Avvo is
getting sued by - well, lawyers. Hopefully nobody at Avvo is surprised by this! The lawsuit alleges that Avvo's rating system is unfair and results in bad ratings for some lawyers.
posted by etoile at 8:13 AM PST - 23 comments
The hypnotic beauty of the average face.
When you average out peoples facial features, the result is strangely beautiful. Which is odd. This captivating website lets you play with
facial averaging and design your own people. You can upload your own face and nudge it towards the dark-eyed loveliness that we seem programmed to desire. There are also links to theories suggesting why average people, instead of being bland, are hot. Facial averaging has been discussed
before. More on facial beauty from
Germany and
St Andrews.
posted by grahamwell at 5:04 AM PST - 43 comments
June 17
Not a Journey fan?
This tool over at Stereogum allows you to re-score the final scene of The Sopranos with any MP3 you can either
find online or host online yourself.
posted by jonson at 10:59 PM PST - 45 comments
"In January 2005, Mark E. Smith and The Fall (described as 'one of the most enigmatic, idiosyncratic and chaotic garage bands of the last 30 years') were the subject of a BBC 4 TV documentary,
The Fall: The Wonderful and
Frightening World of Mark E. Smith."
parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
posted by item at 10:32 PM PST - 22 comments
ComicsFilter: I really wanted to make this post just about
Anders Nilsen (Please at least just look at his
catalogue and click a preview or two, read
this and think about
this), the egregiously underappreciated comicker (much like
Gipi). But then I found
The Holy Consumption, which takes his power and multiplies it by four times through the collaboration of Jeffery Brown, John Hankiewicz and Paul Hornschmemeier and culminates in the
Sunday Services. Don’t miss the
blog either.
posted by OrangeDrink at 3:17 PM PST - 12 comments
In an attempt to curb the production of crystal meth, more than 30 states have now outlawed or require registration for common lab equipment. In Texas, you need to register the purchase of Erlenmeyer flasks or three-necked beakers. The same state where I do not have to register a handgun, forces me to register a glass beaker.
America's War on Science: Chemistry sets and
model rockets, the staples of any geeky childhood, have essentially become a thing of the past.
Wired has more on how a security obsessed society is robbing both children and adults of the opportunity to discover science for themelves.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 1:53 PM PST - 68 comments
Find an old bottle?
I've found them at garage sales, buried in the garden, in basements and attics. I always thought it would be cool to know what they contained and how old they were. Now I can.
posted by Tablecrumbs at 12:12 PM PST - 14 comments
Confessions of A Long Distance Sailor
- I had been sitting in dark rooms, punching computer keys, for years. I had always wanted to learn SCUBA diving, hike around in the tropics, so I booked a flight to Hawaii. But a month later I was in — are you ready? — a traffic jam on Maui.
I understand now, from the moment I touched that sailboat's dock lines, I was doomed to sail.
posted by phrontist at 12:11 PM PST - 12 comments
Fingerjig
is a six minute typing game that pulls random words from a large dictionary (and during one section, random letters). I like it because it plays cool percussion hits when you make a mistake, and because sections of it test your left hand and right hand separately.
(via)
posted by Kwine at 11:02 AM PST - 50 comments
Jónas Hallgrímsson
(1807-45) was an Icelandic Romantic poet and natural scientist. Dick Ringler, a professor at The University of Wisconsin, has a site that contains
50 poems and prose texts by Jónas in parallel English/Icelandic versions. Also on the site,
a guide to traditional Icelandic verse,
a biographical sketch of the poet and a
map of Iceland with places Jónas wrote about marked. Here's his short
Above the Ford:
The cliffs on life's swift current/are cleft by shallow valleys./Masses have queued to cross there ---/crowds of billy-goat milkers./We'll go upstream, God willing,/to walk the hawk-high ridges/and pitch ourselves --- impetuous ---/plumb in the roaring torrent! [Today is Iceland's Independence Day]
posted by Kattullus at 9:13 AM PST - 13 comments
You're never too old to rock 'n' roll
The classic American midlife crisis has found a new outlet: garage-band rock ’n’ roll. Baby boomers across the country — mostly middle-aged dads who never quite outgrew an obsession with the music of their youth — are cranking up their amps and living their rock ’n’ roll fantasies.
posted by Flem Snopes at 6:36 AM PST - 119 comments
June 16
Before
Woodstock, there was the
Monterey International Pop Festival, the world's first major rock festival. It took place from June 16 to June 18, 1967, and it featured performances by, among others,
Eric Burdon and The Animals,
Simon and Garfunkel,
Canned Heat,
Al Kooper,
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band,
Quicksilver Messenger Service,
The Electric Flag,
The Byrds (
more),
Jefferson Airplane,
Otis Redding,
Ravi Shankar,
Big Brother and The Holding Company,
Buffalo Springfield (minus Neil Young),
The Who (
3 4 5),
Grateful Dead,
The Jimi Hendrix Experience,
Scott McKenzie, and
The Mamas and The Papas
posted by Silune at 11:47 PM PST - 35 comments
Ratmaze 2
is a flash game by
PixelJam. You are a RAT. Start ACTING LIKE ONE. You noble mission: to EAT ALL CHEESE. Your universe consists of an ATARI MAZE. Your soundtrack is COOL PCM MUSIC. Eating cheese awards MORE TIME.
DON'T FORGET THE CRUMBS! Eating FRUIT speeds you up. Eat LETTERS for SECRET BONUS. Some walls are FAKE.
Get ALL THE CHEESE for AWESOME BONUS ROUND. Solve bonus round for
COSMIC CHEESE BONUS.
PixelJam also made Gamma Bros., previously seen. This post brought to you by the Committee for the Preservation of Williams-style Arcade Instruction Screens.
posted by JHarris at 3:27 PM PST - 35 comments
How General Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties.
Whether the President was told about Abu Ghraib in January (when e-mails informed the Pentagon of the seriousness of the abuses and of the existence of photographs) or in March (when Taguba filed his report), Bush made no known effort to forcefully address the treatment of prisoners before the scandal became public, or to reëvaluate the training of military police and interrogators, or the practices of the task forces that he had authorized. Instead, Bush acquiesced in the prosecution of a few lower-level soldiers. The President’s failure to act decisively resonated through the military chain of command: aggressive prosecution of crimes against detainees was not conducive to a successful career.
In January of 2006, Taguba received a telephone call from General Richard Cody, the Army’s Vice-Chief of Staff. “This is your Vice,” he told Taguba. “I need you to retire by January of 2007.” No pleasantries were exchanged, although the two generals had known each other for years, and, Taguba said, “He offered no reason.” (A spokesperson for Cody said, “Conversations regarding general officer management are considered private personnel discussions. General Cody has great respect for Major General Taguba as an officer, leader, and American patriot.”)
“They always shoot the messenger,” Taguba told me. “To be accused of being overzealous and disloyal—that cuts deep into me. I was being ostracized for doing what I was asked to do.”
posted by caddis at 3:01 PM PST - 44 comments
"The time is right, and the time is now! The Lord has spoken to you. He has commanded you to create the New Jerusalem, to prepare for His arrival, to gather the flock, bring together the faithful, spread the Word. Blinded like Paul on his way to Damascus, you are now set to follow His Way. But how do you start such an ambitious project?"
Dr. Emeril Lazarus has
all the answers.
posted by Kattullus at 2:19 AM PST - 16 comments
June 15
1, 2, 3,4, 5,6,7, 8, 9,10, 11,12!
Classic Sesame Street taught us
Counting
and other
important stuff.
posted by louche mustachio at 11:17 PM PST - 50 comments
When Karen Lodrick turned away from ordering her latte at the Starbucks at Church and Market streets, there it was, slung over the arm of the woman behind her... a "beaucoup expensive" light-brown suede coat with faux fur trim at the collar, cuffs and down the middle. The only other time Lodrick had seen that particular coat was on a security camera photo that her bank, Wells Fargo, showed her of the woman who had stolen her identity. The photo was taken as the thief was looting Lodrick's checking account. And thus a
foot chase towards justice began.
(via the Consumerist)
posted by daninnj at 7:32 PM PST - 56 comments
JP Nicholas Reilly is a theatre (that's "
thee-AY-ter") artist who takes himself very,
very seriously. Most of his knowledge of the world comes from Hollywood blockbusters. Although his previous plays have sucked big fat hairy sweaty donkey balls, his latest production - about Hitler in college - promises to be his magnum opus.
And if that doesn't convince you, there's the wikification of the world, a phone call from Ira Glass, a Wii swapped for a Super Nintendo, and the Holy Fucking Grail.
Watch.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:26 PM PST - 12 comments
'Sup y'all! This week, we gonna peep inside the dope pad of your favorite French experimental filmmaker,
Michel Gondry!
(one-link super-deluxe flash video post. pardonnez-moi.)
posted by progosk at 2:07 PM PST - 21 comments
On the cusp of DEVO's first tour of Europe since 1990
, it's become clear that, though largely cast aside after their 1980 hit "Whip It", DEVO's influence is finally being felt on modern audiences, around the world. DEVO has inspired tribute bands,
some traditional,
some not. They've also spawned new bands,
domestic [MySpace link], and Foreign like
Japan's POLYSICS [YouTube], and Germany's
Mutate Now [YouTube]. With musical inspiration like this, can't we forgive such missteps as
Devo 2.0?
posted by SansPoint at 1:13 PM PST - 55 comments
Bruce Springsteen, 1973.
Stevie Ray Vaughan, 1984.
Jimi Hendrix, 1968.
King Crimson, 1969.
Warren Zevon, 1982.
Dio, 1984.
The Band, 1974.
Santana, 1975.
Elton John, 1970.
The Rolling Stones, 1978. For classic rock fans it's a drink from the firehose at
Wolfgang's Concert Vault, the web archive of rock promoter Wolfgang Grajonca, better known as
Bill Graham. If you want to download any of these shows it'll cost you ("
Based upon all the information that is available to us, we believe that performers can earn between four and six times more from Wolfgang's Vault per download than they currently receive from their record companies"), but you can stream all of them at no charge. (
Previously)
posted by jbickers at 11:25 AM PST - 60 comments
Do you want to fly? Really fly? Not at the controls of a cockpit simulation, but just you ... flying ... your motion through space controlled by the gentlest of nudges of your mouse.
Tranquility.
Not a game; but an environment in which to 'travel'. View a
short QT video clip of a typical Tranquility level. Download the 'game browser' (versions for all common computers) in which the game operates, work through the short training levels, and prepare to lose yourself in flight.
(Don't be put off by the 'Buy the Game' links on the website; Tranquility is perfectly functional in demo mode, with the demo landscape changing daily. I've been playing it that way for more than five years.)
posted by woodblock100 at 9:16 AM PST - 29 comments
The great-grandfather could walk six miles to go fishing; the grandfather could walk a mile to go to the woods; the son can't go more than 300 yards from his house.
How children lost the right to roam, including a map illustrating the point.
posted by JDHarper at 6:28 AM PST - 95 comments
The Third View project
is a fascinating presentation of "rephotographs" of over 100 historic landscape sites in the American West that presents original 19th-century survey photographs, photographed again in the 1970s, then once again in the '90s - from the original vantage points, under similar lighting conditions, at (roughly) the same time of day and year.
[Flash, and you'll probably need to allow pop-ups; a little more info inside...]
posted by taz at 6:15 AM PST - 13 comments
June 14
In 1965, Peter Watkins produced a fictional documentary called
The War Game in which the aftermath of thermo-nuclear attacks in Britain was depicted. The BBC declared that it was
"too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting" and was not aired until 1985.
Watch it here (warning: graphic depictions of effects of radiation).
Related,
When the Wind Blows (parts
1 ,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6, 7,
8), a sober animated tale of a British couple who try and survive nuclear holocaust based on the civil defense manual "Protect and Survive." (
Previously).
posted by champthom at 10:32 PM PST - 74 comments
vivoleum
ExxonMobil has hit upon a novel and renewable source of fuel "Attendees paid 50 dollars a head to hear a speech from the National Petroleum Council, a group that also advises the White House on oil and gas matters
.
It was rumoured a new joint energy policy from the Canadian and American governments was coming
."
posted by nihlton at 9:53 PM PST - 27 comments
Many Mefi members have wondered about how they should get from their private island to friends' private islands. Finally,
SeaFalcon provides an answer. They have a built a wonderful vehicle that exploits
ground effects to provide a rapid, efficient way to island hop.
via
posted by sien at 4:44 PM PST - 39 comments
Relive the glory days of being the only male flutist in the middle school band.
Fløjte Hero.
[warning: danish flash sound]
posted by Stynxno at 12:51 PM PST - 10 comments
The
Wang Freestyle (warning: Google Video;
part one of video). A
curious footnote in the history of computing that took the desktop metaphor to new levels back in 1988. Featured sampled sound, high-res graphics, and the ability to stack documents on top of each other, the last of which is
due in a certain big cat operating system later this year.
Watch for how slow the system is, and the subsequent magician-like distraction techniques used by the presenter to avoid people noticing.
posted by humblepigeon at 12:30 PM PST - 26 comments
HBO: Flight of the Conchords
follows the trials and tribulations of a two man, digi-folk band from New Zealand as they try to make a name for themselves in their adopted home of New York City. The band is made up of Bret McKenzie on guitar and vocals, and Jemaine Clement on guitar and vocals. Episode 1 is available free online. [flash video]
posted by srboisvert at 10:37 AM PST - 27 comments
Decorate a bus
with paint, stencils, and other graffiti.
(Click the big red button, and then the paint bucket to get started. You'll figure out the drawing controls. Click the "All-around view" icon in the upper right to return from drawing and OK! to save it, if you like - give it a name, and you'll get a linkable URL.) Here's a gallery of designs.
posted by Wolfdog at 9:38 AM PST - 7 comments
The Easy-Glider
is everything the Segway is, but cheaper. Electric engine, 16-25 kilometers (10-15 miles) on a charge.
Looks like fun [8mb qt] for only less than EU1000 ($1300 US). (Currently not available in the US.)
posted by Dave Faris at 9:17 AM PST - 42 comments
June 13
I have been called a voluptuary, a sybarite, a hedonist, a creep. ..
George Meyer's silly rhapsody on conferences, symposia, seminars, etc.: "The OFF-SITE is a born provocateur. She blends the dirty fun of a PowerPoint presentation with the raw danger of a Kaffeeklatsch. One minute she’s showing you charts and graphs, then up pops a “Far Side” cartoon. It’s high-stakes poker, and everything’s wild."
from the New Yorker , May 2007.
posted by celerystick at 9:28 PM PST - 10 comments
Previously on MetaFilter, you remember the
Plymouth Belvedere that was buried in a downtown Tulsa time capsule 50 years ago? The
Tulsarama! folks were going to unveil it on Friday, but on opening the vault today they discovered it's
full of standing water. Someone (or his/her descendant) will win this
fine car impending environmental disaster if they correctly guessed Tulsa's 2007 population in 1957.
posted by dw at 9:20 PM PST - 28 comments
“There has never been a massively successful consumer device based solely on a touch screen”
...designers and marketers of electronic devices centers are having a spirited debate about whether consumers will have the patience to overcome the hurdle that will be required to type without the familiar tactile feedback offered by conventional keyboards.
Any significant number of returns of the iPhone could conceivably undermine what until now has been a remarkable promotional blitzkrieg that culminates in the phone’s release June 29.
posted by wfc123 at 7:02 PM PST - 52 comments
"The Blessings-of-Civilization Trust,
wisely and cautiously administered,
is a Daisy. There is more
money in it, more
territory, more
sovereignty, and other kinds of emolument, than there is in any other game that is played. But Christendom has been playing it badly of late years, and must certainly suffer by it, in my opinion. She has been so eager to get every stake that appeared on the green cloth, that the
People who Sit in Darkness have noticed it –
they have noticed it, and have begun to show alarm. They have become suspicious of the
Blessings of Civilization."
posted by homunculus at 3:15 PM PST - 13 comments
In 2008 Elect “Independent” Don Cordell For President, of the “United States of America”
our, “America the Beautiful” OR, You “
will be” “Citizens” of The: UNITED NATION’S, “NEW WORLD ORDER”
posted by brett at 1:44 PM PST - 57 comments
Charles Evans (1850-1935) created his
American Bibliography as a labor of love. Evans, an orphan whose education ended at age fifteen, was fifty-one and unemployed when he began singlehandedly cataloging every printed document published in America between 1639 and 1820. At the time of his death thirty-four years later, he had set down 35,854 entries through 1799, twelve volumes totaling over 5,500 pages.
It took two decades (1950-1968) for a team of bibliographers to transfer the pamphlets he cited onto microfilm, and three more years (2002-2005) to digitize them. The result,
Evans Digital Edition, is a full-text searchable collection of 2.3 million pages of pamphlets. Some see it as
a revolutionary innovation that will democratize the historical profession, but others are
not so sure--the original cost $25 a volume, but Evans Digital Edition costs $20,000-$100,000 to subscribe.
posted by nasreddin at 8:14 AM PST - 11 comments
Red State Update
with Jackie and Dunlap. Comic good ol' boys shooting the sh*t and having a few hundred beers, while using satire and dead pan humor on the politics of the day.
posted by nola at 8:01 AM PST - 14 comments
Can you name all the books of the bible? How about all fifty U.S. states? Every U.S. president? All the Academy Awards Best Picture winners since 1927? And can you do it in
under two minutes?
embedded Google video
posted by zardoz at 4:04 AM PST - 25 comments
June 12
Antioch College announces that it is suspending operations, effective July 1, 2008.
Founded in 1852, enrollment at the school had been declining for the past several years. Loren Pope included it in a list of
life-changing schools. The school was notable for its strong tradition of student governance, advocacy of
co-education, the integration of co-op work experience with the academic curriculum, narrative evaluations in place of letter grades, and the
sexual offense prevention policy. Coretta Scott King, Stephen Jay Gould, Rod Serling, and Eleanor Holmes Norton graduated from Antioch, among other
noteworthy alumni. Four satellite campuses will remain open.
posted by metabrilliant at 9:16 PM PST - 98 comments
Jim Davis' other strip
was
U.S. Acres, with Orson the Pig, Roy the Rooster, chick and egg Booker and Sheldon, sheep Bo and Lanolyn, and...
a dog named Cody and a cat named Blue? Everyone who grew up from that time remembers the long-running Saturday morning show, but no one remembers the strip, which ended a couple of years before the cartoon did and evolved on a different track. Platypus Comix brings us highlights from the strip's
surprisingly good, yet neglected, newspaper run.
posted by JHarris at 7:06 PM PST - 29 comments
On June 4th, 2007, New Haven became the first city to pass a law offering
Municipal IDs for all citizens of the city, including illegal immigrants giving them better access to city services and making it possible for them to obtain a library card or open a bank account.
Some people think it's a good idea.
Some people don't, saying, among other things, that the program will cause illegal immigrants from other cities to rush to New Haven. The federal government may have made their opinion known on June 6th, when
31 illegal immigrants were arrested in what officials say was a routine raid, not in any way influenced by what had occurred two days previous. However, the mayor of New Haven, John DeStefano Jr has called it
"an act of intimidation." Yesterday, in nearby North Haven,
3 more illegal immigrants were arrested.
posted by eunoia at 4:17 PM PST - 75 comments
RIP Don Herbert
Better known as Mr. Wizard, you taught several generations basic science and a love of experimentation. You will be missed.
Sorry for the one-link ObitFilter
posted by JMOZ at 4:16 PM PST - 103 comments
How is a filmmaker to fund, market, and distribute his or her project in the digital age?
Well, the duo behind a new film called
Four Eyed Monsters posted the
entire 71 minute film on youtube. In conjuction,
Spout.com, a social networking/film discussion website,
will donate one dollar to the filmmakers' debt fund for every new person that registers with the site. The film was posted on Friday, and as of this posting, the filmmakers have raised $16,378.
The film is also for
sale courtesy of
B-side a pretty cool site itself that
non-exclusively distributes indpenedent films by
DRM-free download, or with an
"uprade", by DVD.
posted by ChestnutMonkey at 3:26 PM PST - 10 comments
"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix." Thankfully, the
Supreme Court disagreed, on June 12, 1967.
Happy Loving Day.
posted by caddis at 3:08 PM PST - 68 comments
Automotive journalist,
cartoonist and architect Earl Ma
passed away this week after a three year battle with cancer. But you would never have known it from how he lived his life. Last month, he refused to let his partial paralysis keep him away from the Indianapolis 500 (though fellow Hawaiian
Jim Nabors was too ill to attend), and with the help of friends
covered the race from his wheelchair. His boundless energy, generosity and wide range of talents earned him many friends and admirers, and he is already greatly missed.
posted by Scram at 11:43 AM PST - 2 comments
Has some strange man been having orgasms inside your wife or daughter? Sure, you may think not, but can you be sure?? You can now, thanks to the revolutionary new
CheckMate (get it) Semen Detection Kit that is not, in fact, a joke despite how absolutely creepy it seems.
posted by jonson at 9:16 AM PST - 66 comments
"You are the first person to sit right next to me."
What does that tell you? "That you're smart."
Marilyn Manson isn't doing industrial howls anymore, but still has all the melancholy you could ask for. Fun interview by Polly Vernon.
posted by Firas at 8:30 AM PST - 69 comments
GMod meets Jackass, meets MTV, meets Nintendo, meets celebrity gossip, meets LOTR.
(single-link, youtube, loud music, flashing graphics, 8minutes 30, epic awesomeness), [via b3ta]
posted by NinjaTadpole at 3:52 AM PST - 37 comments
June 11
Bag Ladies and Gentlemen....
Yes, you conscientiously refuse plastic shopping bags and use enviro bags as often as you can, but still the plastic bags manage to breed like roaches. How many plastic bags do you have stuffed in (naturally!) a large plastic bag somewhere in your home? And do you despair of ever using them up? Fear not! If you have more bags than home furnishings and décor items, you could make a
chair, a
few throw rugs,
cushions, a
chandelier, or a
Christmas wreath. If you’d like a stylish yet waterproof wardrobe, you could make a
cape, a
raincoat, or a
bra. It would be less utilitarian but equally cool to make your own menagerie:
chickens, a
zebra,
more chickens,
sea creatures, and
still more chickens.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan at 8:47 PM PST - 35 comments
Sub $1000 UAV.
Wired editor, author and blogger Chris Anderson
[wiki] built a sub $1000 UAV from a model airplane and a Lego mindstorms robotics kit. The drone
flies itself, all you do is punch in a direction (and eventually, GPS coordinates). I don't know if it's technically Open Source, but you can definitely
download instructions and code.
posted by delmoi at 6:59 PM PST - 14 comments
Papiroflexia (Spanish for “Origami”) is the animated tale of Fred, a skillful paper folder who could shape the world with his hands. The creator gives his methods
here (third post). His website
Pixel Nitrate has several other animations.
posted by frobozz at 2:15 PM PST - 5 comments
Genarlow Wilson,
now 19, had his sentence reversed today and is expected to leave prison shortly. He served two years of his ten-year-sentence for engaging in consensual sex acts with a fellow teenager. Previously discussed
here.
posted by macrowave at 1:52 PM PST - 52 comments
Weird Tales: The Strange Life of HP Lovecraft
is a 45-minute BBC radio documentary: "Geoff Ward examines the strange life and terrifying world of the man hailed as America's greatest horror writer since Poe. During his life, Lovecraft's work was confined to lurid pulp magazines and he died in penury in 1937. Today, however, his writings are considered modern classics and published in prestigious editions. How did such a weird, wild and ungodly writer get canonised? Among the writers considering his legacy are Neil Gaiman, ST Joshi, Kelly Link, Peter Straub and China Mieville." ST Joshi, a biographer of Lovecraft, has an
essay up on The Scriptorium. Wikisource has an extensive
collection of his writings, including not only his most famous novels and short stories, but also essays, letters, poetry and legal documents. He is buried in the city of his birth, Providence, Rhode Island, where
he does eternal lie, even though someone made an unsuccessful attempt to exhume him in 1997.
posted by Kattullus at 12:33 PM PST - 43 comments
Death to IE?
If Firefox wasn't enough to ween you off Internet Explorer on Windows, perhaps Safari for Windows will be.
posted by aletheia at 12:01 PM PST - 172 comments
James Burke does Youtube.
A very conscientious fan has begun creating a wonderful collection of two of James Burke's shows on youtube. There are many
episodes up and more to come of both
Connections and
The Day The Universe Changed. Catch them while you can.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 12:29 AM PST - 45 comments
June 10
Mars and Beyond - 50 years ago, this animated episode of Tomorrowland aired on Disneyland a few months after the launch of Sputnik - an entertaining melange of astronomy, sci-fi, pop culture, science, speculation, and surreality. Walt himself and Wernher von Braun make guest appearances and clip 5 is particularly trippy. (Parts
2,
3,
4,
5,
6)
posted by madamjujujive at 10:22 PM PST - 9 comments
The
Prelinger Library is a small privately owned "public library" in San Francisco with the
unique philosophy that browsing library stacks can reveal new knowledge, if the books are arranged for browsing. This is counter to most public libraries who rely on computer terminal searching, databases and the Dewey Decimal system to atomize books and subjects, with stack browsing a sort of random after effect, and in some places--like the Library of Congress--normally not even allowed. Now a (real) public library in Arizona has
joined the revolution and claims to be the first public library in the nation to drop the Dewey Decimal system. Instead, books will be shelved by topic, similar to the way bookstores arrange books. The demise of the century-old Dewey Decimal system is overdue, county librarians say: "People think of books by subject. Very few people say, 'Oh, I know Dewey by heart.' "
posted by stbalbach at 8:13 PM PST - 84 comments
Between the resounding reception of
Knocked Up and the anticipation of
Superbad (NSFW), this is looking to be the summer of Judd Apatow. So in celebration, I present to you
Ms. Allison Jones, the casting genius behind not just those two movies, but
Arrested Development,
Freaks and Geeks, and
The Office as well. (Also, Family Ties, the Golden Girls...) We thank you, Allison, for
Pam-and-Jim (Spoiler alert), for
George-Michael Bluth, and for
Bill Haverchuck. Oh yeah, and she cast
Borat, too.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:53 AM PST - 37 comments
June 9
The Cagliari Contemporary Arts Centre
is a work in progress:
"The vital metaphor governing the museum becomes clear within the phasing plans: as with living organisms, the growth of the museum will be self-regulated. It will happen naturally when the conditions of a mature balance between the economic atmosphere and philanthropic and cultural environment are reached."
More from architect
Zaha Hadid.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:02 PM PST - 10 comments
Torrent Raiders
is a dynamic network visualization realized through the idioms and aesthetics of arcade-style video games. Driven in real-time by the activity of bit torrent swarms, Torrent Raiders takes place on the ad-hoc networks created by bit torrent users.
posted by Dave Faris at 3:18 PM PST - 13 comments
This morning in Vancouver, volunteers handed out hundreds of disposable cameras, available free to any low-income resident of the city's Downtown Eastside (
DTES) neighbourhood. Pictures in the returned cameras will be entered in this year's "
Hope in Shadows" competition, with winners getting prizes and one of 12 spots in next year's calendar. (It will be sold by specially-trained low-income folks, who keep half their profits.) Run by
Pivot, a local legal activism group, "Hope in Shadows" is a
succesful and "
innovative empowerment through art" project and a chance for the residents of the DTES to define their community -- one most often defined by its
poverty,
addictions,
violence and
disease.
Previous winners: 2004, 2005 [1] [2], 2006
posted by docgonzo at 12:28 PM PST - 13 comments
Back To The Future, Hill Valley is a "from the ground up" conversion of the videogame Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, with the goal being to re-set the game in the world of Doc Brown, Marty McFly & Biff Tannen. Sample
videos of the
progress so
far. Please note that Hoverboards don't work on water.
Via.
posted by jonson at 11:56 AM PST - 25 comments
On December 18, 2004, Ascension Alverez-Tejeda
and his girlfriend were stopped at a traffic light near La Pine Oregon, and when the light turned green, the car in front of them stalled. Alverez-Tejeda stopped in time but a pickup truck behind him rear-ended him. When he got out to look at his bumper, the police showed up and arrested the truck driver for drinking and driving. The cops then convinced Alverez-Tejeda and his girlfriend to go to a nearby parking lot, ordered them out of their car and into in the back of the cop car for 'processing.' While they were in the cruiser, a person jumped in their car and took off. The cops ordered the pair out and set off in full pursuit up the road.
But it was all a set up worthy of David Mamet. DEA agents were tracking a drug gang and. . .decided to stage something, perhaps even a carjacking, in order to seize the drugs without tipping off the conspirators. They never consulted a judge, but every person in the story, other than Alverez-Tejeda and his girlfriend, was a cop of some sort.
posted by EarBucket at 10:53 AM PST - 71 comments
Regina Spektor is a Russian-born American singer-songwriter and pianist associated with the
anti-folk scene centered on New York City's East Village. Incorporating "piano riffs and integrating moans, nonsense words, groans, gurglings, or warblings," Spektor has a pretty unique voice (Seattle
P-I: "an instrument with the agility of an athlete and the flexibility of a yogi") and style which incorporates "beatbox-style flourishes in the middle of ballads, or the use of a drum stick to tap rhythms on the body of the piano or chair" (
wiki). She's got a pretty unique voice and "
Fidelity" is a very unusual and rather enjoyable music video. Someone to keep an eye on
(although Mefites already had been doing so).
posted by WCityMike at 10:00 AM PST - 68 comments
Stunning morph sequence
from the PBS documentary The Face: Jesus in Art. "Perhaps no religious figure has been more often depicted in art than Jesus. But Gospel accounts of Jesus' life give no clues about his actual physical appearance. THE FACE: JESUS IN ART, a new PBS documentary, examines the ways that artists over the centuries have imagined the man Christians call "the Son of God."
Beginning with Roman mosaics from the third century and moving on to masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance and modern paintings from Europe and the Americas, THE FACE looks at 17 centuries of artistic renderings of Jesus from around the world -- including unfamiliar depictions such as a Japanese Christ and a three-headed Trinity from India." Also
Program Open and
Behind the Scenes.
posted by vronsky at 9:43 AM PST - 24 comments
FBI 101 --
"Essentials for Writers," an "exciting and informative" interactive workshop for writers being offered to members of my union -- the Writers Guild of America, East - by the FBI Office of Public Affairs and FBI New York. ... -- Very interesting account of a workshop the FBI puts on for writers in NY.
What's in it for the FBI?
...The only question we have for you is 'Will it show us in a good light?'" ...
posted by amberglow at 9:15 AM PST - 13 comments
Lately I've been grooving to Hmong karaoke videos.
Maybe it's the lovely, understated singing style, or those charming young ladies doing backup dance, smiling so beatifically as they do their minimal, bouncy step.
Maybe it's the slinky pentatonic sax riffs, or those percussive, insistent strings plucking away over the hypnotically loping beats.
Maybe it's the hats.
Maybe it's the way some of them incorporate traditional instruments and costumes. Or
maybe it's the sheer unlikeliness of lyrics like "
tuaj nriav tus neeg zoo nraug" or "
yuav mus nrog koj nyob." Everybody,
sing along!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:57 AM PST - 40 comments
June 8
Drew Marshall [
previously] is
paying 2 people to go to church. The participants have already been to their first church and blog about their experiences
here and
here.
posted by xmattxfx at 11:15 AM PST - 19 comments
MySpaceMP3.org
allows anyone to download any MP3 on MySpace for free. In many cases, these are the same MP3s bands are trying to sell via MySpace's relatively new
Snocap service. Trouble for MySpace?
posted by scottreynen at 8:37 AM PST - 28 comments
June 7
The wild risks, unexpected niches, and day-in-day-out grind behind making a dollar in New York...for everyone from a drug dealer to Goldman Sachs.
The Profit Calculator, New York Magazine article.
posted by nickyskye at 9:09 PM PST - 14 comments
A nice
set of photographic glass-plate transparencies depicting life in Japan ca. 1910. These "Yokohama photographs" were sold to foreign tourists between about 1868 and 1912. I found the
Crafts and Trades section most interesting.
posted by Rumple at 2:43 PM PST - 18 comments
Tactics 100 Live
A flash game similar to Final Fantasy Tactics or Ogre Tactics. Spend 100 points to create an 8 unit army and battle it out on a 7x7 grid. Practice against an AI opponent, or face off in multiplayer combat.
posted by boo_radley at 9:53 AM PST - 21 comments
I thought I'd seen pretty much every bit of performance footage (whether live or lip-synched) featuring the Beatles, but lately I discovered some clips on YouKnowWhere that I hadn't seen before, and I'd wager there's more than a few folks out in MefiLand who've also missed these: a proto-psychedelic promo clip for
Rain, and another promo clip for
Hey Bulldog, and finally, this rarity, an alternate take of the promo clip for
Hello Goodbye. Just for good measure, here's the more familiar (but still
somewhat obscure)
version.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:27 AM PST - 43 comments
June 6
If you could kiss yourself, would you?
These photos make it happen, and the results are ... disturbing.
Site is in French.
posted by bwg at 9:02 PM PST - 82 comments
63 years ago today, 20-year old German lance-corporal Hein Severloh was armed with a rifle, a machine gun and 16,000 rounds of ammo when American forces landed in the early morning hours off Omaha Beach on D-Day. During the next nine-hour "Longest Day", Severloh gunned down up to 3,000 Americans before running out of ammo, making him personally responsible for about three-quarters of all casualties at Omaha Beach, comparable in scale to 9/11 or the Iraq War. Nicknamed
The Beast of Omaha, today he says "I never wanted to be in the war. I never wanted to be in France. I never wanted to be in that bunker firing a machine gun. Thinking about it makes me want to throw up."
posted by stbalbach at 6:54 PM PST - 127 comments
There are many picture blogs, but there is only one
SidewaysPony.
As one regular user so aptly
put it, this ingeneously simple site is "the most repulsively, exquisitely, disastrously, wonderfully addictive little corner of the internet." [poss. nsfw]
posted by castironskillet at 2:16 PM PST - 24 comments
David Oluwale arrived in Britain in 1949, one of many African immigrants. By the close of 1969,
he was dead. Two years later, two police officers were charged with his murder, although they got away almost scot-free despite a massive amount of evidence against them. Although it caused a national scandal at the time, more because of police malpractice than racism, Oluwale's sad story has been forgotten since (apart from a play, written by
Jeremy Sandford, a few years later). However, it deserves to be remembered not just because of a tragic and unnecessary death, but because it was
the first recorded death of a British black person as a result of police racism. A new book,
Nationality: Wog, The Hounding of David Oluwale is helping bring Oluwale's plight back into public consciousness.
Via the BBC's Thinking Allowed.
posted by humblepigeon at 12:26 PM PST - 8 comments
Anything you do as many times as a successful actor, you can't have one set of theories, you know. You can go for years saying “I'm gonna get this thing real”, because they really haven't seen it real, do you know? They just keep seeing one fashion of unreal after the other that passes as real and you, you know, you go mad with realism and then you come up against someone like Stanley who says, “Yeah, it’s real
but it’s not interesting.”
posted by acro at 9:10 AM PST - 21 comments
June 5
Better than blood?
A man-made, pure-white compound called Oxycyte carries oxygen 50 times as effectively as our own blood.
An interesting development for brain trauma patients, HIV in blood transfusions, and the artificial human.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 7:48 PM PST - 38 comments
Useless body parts.
Nearly a century and a quarter after Darwin’s death, science still can’t offer a full explanation for why one outdated anatomic trait lingers in the gene pool and another goes. Modern genomics research has revealed that our DNA carries broken genes for things that seem as though they might be useful, like odor receptors for a bloodhound’s sense of smell or enzymes that once enabled us to make our own vitamin C. In a few million years, humans may very well have shed a few more odd features. So look now before they’re gone.
posted by psmealey at 2:35 PM PST - 113 comments
"I wasn't worried about freedom, I was worried about people turning into morons by TV."
Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, recently
interviewed by LA Weekly , says that the famed story of Guy Montag is not a forewarning of government
censorship, but rather it is an inditement of television which is creating a society that focuses on
memorizing facts and dates rather than studying literature
.
In interviews at his home (grainy quicktime video goodness)
,
especially (1), and
(2)
, Mr. Bradbury discusses his intentions, amongst other things, of Fahrenheit 451 and "laments the moronic influence of popular culture through local TV news."
All Of
Our
teachers
Were
Wrong .
posted by fizzix at 1:03 PM PST - 117 comments
What the World Eats
A photo slide show of images taken of families around the world, and the food they consume in one week. The commentary also provides the amount of money they have to spend, and what their favorite meals are.
posted by Dave Faris at 11:03 AM PST - 117 comments
Arriving in London this past week was something of a shock to the system, a jolt of reality that was both delightful and disarming. The town seems to have gone carbon crazy, offering up a display of initiatives from both the public and private sectors that highlighted how far behind the U.S. has fallen. The consciousness about carbon here seems to be sky-high.
..by
Joel Makower, producer of the mockumentary
Climate Counts.
posted by stbalbach at 10:58 AM PST - 23 comments
The Harveyville Project,
located in Harveyville, Kansas, is a small town and getting smaller: There are only about 250 residents, and most are elderly. But after an artist bought an abandoned school to live in two years ago, there are some colorful new faces in town.
Conveniently located at the corner of No and Where. Nary a McDonalds nor Starbucks as far as the eye can see, but still a comfy drive from civilization.
Housed in two mid-century school buildings on nine acres on the edge of a tiny rural town, the Harveyville Project offers a quiet, secluded, distraction-free environment to jumpstart your creative work.
Such a cool idea. If I was still single I'd move there in a second to soak up the creative vibe.
posted by Hugh2d2 at 6:18 AM PST - 71 comments
Two divas with tall, I mean
tall platinum blond
hair wigs at the height of their fame and vocal prowess sing the songs that made them legends. Ladies and gentlemen, blue-eyed soul queen
Dusty Springfield, and the pride of Nashville,
Tammy Wynette. And honorable mention to another top-heavy musical blond, purveyor of perky pedal-steel perfection
Barbara Mandrell.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:24 AM PST - 32 comments
June 4
"Oh, someday, when I am Miss America, I'll tell the world to make things start when you're young. And what fun, it's gonna be, when Regis sings his song to me." In 2001, the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary
Living Dolls captured
child beauty pageants of the South in a
post-Jon Benet world. Parts
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 [Update inside.]
posted by miss lynnster at 9:42 PM PST - 66 comments
Binlang Xi Shi
have become a part of Taiwan culture. From roadside booths they sell betelnut, cigarettes, and drinks to passing drivers. Competition between the booths drove the girls to wear skimpier outfits to attract more customers. A crackdown saw the introduction of a 3B's policy: no buttocks, no breasts and no belly-buttons.
[the 'Binlang Box' page is NSFW] [more inside]
posted by tellurian at 8:33 PM PST - 25 comments
NewsFilter:
Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY) has died. He had been receiving chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia. Wyoming's Democratic Governor will appoint a successor from one of three finalists chosen by the state Republican party.
posted by pruner at 8:03 PM PST - 55 comments
La-Mulana
is a Japanese homebrew game, with English translation available, for Windows that exhaustively replicates the experience of playing on an
MSX home computer, a machine not sold in the U.S. but was contemporary with the likes of the Commodore 64 and Amiga in other markets. (Fun fact: the "MS" in MSX stands for Microsoft!) Although it looks very much like retro warez, La-Mulana is freeware. It is also notoriously long and difficult, with a character who controls like old-school Castlevania, enemies that will frequently knock you around like a rag doll, puzzles of amazing deviousness, and traps that think nothing of walling up a player without escape, or forever restricting access to certain powerups.
That said, the game does have charm, and is basically a love letter to the MSX hardware. Those who want to see it without beating their hands bloody against the keyboard can watch
a guy play through the whole game in 85 installments, cursing at it all along the way.
posted by JHarris at 1:05 PM PST - 14 comments
Hundreds of 'new' words in the new edition of the Collins English Dictionary
(Reuters story), also via
BBC,
AP and
the Fox Television Stations (headline with no story, surprising since its publisher is another Rupert Murdoch subsidiary... but I digress). Some are obvious: hoodie, wiki, POTUS, plasma screen; some reflect our times: Gitmo, Londonistan, extraordinary rendition, carbon footprint; some are absolutely slangy: celebutante, McMansion, muffin top, man bag, disemvowel, barbecue stopper, girlfriend experience... Also in the book: ho. And not the version Santa Claus says. The new dictionary is available
"online, on mobiles, as a desktop application or integrated with Microsoft Word" - when you buy the deadtree edition.
posted by wendell at 1:04 PM PST - 22 comments
"Future House Now
is dedicated to exploring ideas about better living in family homes that are affordable, modern, efficient, healthy, environmentally responsible and available today."
posted by dobbs at 10:56 AM PST - 8 comments
Emile Hirsch plays the title character. Christina Ricci is Trixie. John Goodman is Pops, Susan Sarandon is Mom. And
Matthew Fox plays Racer X. The Wachowski brothers are directing. Hollywood
screws with yet another happy childhood memory.
posted by metasonix at 10:50 AM PST - 60 comments
June 3
Sheets of kombu (kelp) covered with herring roe; big white sacs of octopus roe. Among a biochromatic wealth of mysterious mollusks and other sea invertebrates of unknown nature, I see the weirdest creature I've ever seen. Now, that's a fucking organism. Tom Asakawa looks at it awhile, too. Hoya, or sea pineapple. "Sea pineapple," he says. "Attaches to rocks in the ocean. Tastes something like iodine. Sendai people like it." It looks nothing like a pineapple. It looks like something that could exist only in a purely hallucinatory eco-system. It looks like, I don't know, maybe an otherworldly marital aid of inscrutable purpose for the brides of Satan. "I need to eat that," I say. "I'll see what I can do," Tom says.
Nick Tosches
visits Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market for Vanity Fair. [
previously on
mefi]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:16 PM PST - 36 comments
The Top 10 Geekiest Yarn Creations
If you've ever felt knitting was in danger of getting
too sexy these days, the people at
Threadbanger have provided an antidote. They've compiled a list of the ten geekiest projects on the net, which include an Atari 2600 system
(on which you will never max your Pac-Man score), a knitted Hogwarts
(though it appears to actually be crocheted and needlepointed), and a scrollbar scarf. And if anyone wants a crocheted yoda hat and matching light sabre, I am not taking orders.
posted by orange swan at 5:29 PM PST - 41 comments
If you ever wanted to have an actual working M41-A Pulse Rifle (the preferred weapon of the Colonial Marines in the 1986 Documentary
Aliens), then
today is your lucky day. Many more sci-fi prop replica guides can be found
here.
posted by jonson at 2:07 PM PST - 33 comments
Viva Voodoo
"Too Dumb to Die." [note: Flash, Scenes of Graphic Cartoon Violence, Suicide, and Sophomoric Humor]
posted by Dave Faris at 10:10 AM PST - 6 comments
basik.ru
(seen
previously) is a vast photo- and art-blog - so vast it can be a little overwhelming, so here are some places to dive in:
3D baked goods,
food sculptures,
sprouting keyboards and
books,
bookish figures, more
wire warriors,
surreal prints and
photoshoppery,
miniature architecture,
wall-painting architecture,
facial archetypes from the Soviet Union, a
grotesque alphabet book and other
freakish critters, old
bicycle cards, a
porcelain zodiac set, a
bridge to nowhere,
???,
???,
???...
posted by Wolfdog at 9:59 AM PST - 6 comments
MeFi Trainspotting Dept.: While most music consumers long ago traded up their sonically dodgy, graphically threadbare, non-bonus-enhanced early CD pressings of their favorite albums, a subculture has naturally arisen to absorb their discarded digital detritus. Witness
"Target CDs", a family which encompasses certain early West German and Japanese pressings on the Warner/Elektra/Atlantic (
WEA) labels.
So named for their
distinctive label design, Target CDs - unlike, say,
MFSL Gold CDs - make no particular claim to superior fidelity or longevity; in fact, due to their notorious "flat transfer" process from whatever version of the album happened to be lying around, it seems
quite the opposite. (Further evidence for the purely nostalgic and/or aesthetic value of these discs can be seen in the
"hypothetical Target CDs" threads.) Even so, as within any oddball subculture of collectordom, one can now expect to lay out
serious bucks for certain of these shiny little period pieces.
posted by mykescipark at 9:45 AM PST - 6 comments
The Happy Planet Index
presents an alternative to GDP for measuring standard of living. It ranks countries by measuring life expectancy and self-reported life satisfaction against an "ecological footprint" needed to support that country's lifestyle. The
press release claims that well-being is not based on high levels of consumption, but
many don't agree.
Full report in PDF here. Vanuatu tops the charts, while Zimbabwe and Swaziland lie at bottom. Critiques
here,
here,
here, and
here. A critique of happiness indices generally
here.
posted by shivohum at 9:00 AM PST - 19 comments
Ready or Not.
"South Africa is a great place to have a party, and people are incredibly generous of spirit. What we should be doing is trying to make the World Cup experience uniquely African: where the bus comes 10 minutes late but nobody gives a toss because they are having such a good time. Instead, the organisers seem to want to try to run the World Cup as efficiently as the Germans did. What a load of bull. The Germans could invade Poland in three days. We could not invade Swaziland in three months." Article in today's Observer about preparations in South Africa for the
soccer World Cup in 2010.
posted by hydatius at 5:09 AM PST - 17 comments
The Bang on a Can Marathon
is currently in progress at the
World Financial Center in Manhattan. This annual Marathon has taken various forms over the years, with a range of lengths, locations and admission prices; this year's features 26 straight hours of music from around the world, with free admission. Bang on a Can is the
20-year-old new music presenting, producing and recording group co-founded by composers Julia Wolfe, David Lang and Michael Gordon.
posted by allterrainbrain at 3:49 AM PST - 12 comments
June 2
In the emergency room at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, Edith Isabel Rodriguez was seen as a
complainer.
posted by bigmusic at 10:32 PM PST - 114 comments
The first 17 minute 'webisode' of the new science-fiction web-series
Sanctuary, starring
Stargate SG-1's Amanda Tapping (
along with several other Stargate actors) can now be
viewed online, for free, at Youtube. And although you can buy them
here for US $1.99, uploading the video to Youtube or sharing it with your friends is all completely legit, as the producers have taken a very liberal approach to DRM; specifically, there is none. To
quote creator Damian Kindler "
These files are YOURS. You can do with them what you want. Drop them into iTunes. Convert them to DVD formats. Burn, rip, whatever. You bought 'em, you decide how to enjoy 'em." Nice.
posted by Effigy2000 at 9:19 PM PST - 29 comments
Swim At Your Own Risk is "your daily dose of all things sharky" and other aquatic-creature-related news and pictures. [Note: some pics not safe for the squeamish]
posted by amyms at 8:42 PM PST - 11 comments
65-year-old Jan Grzebski, hit by a train in 1988,
awoke recently from a 19 year coma to find that communism is no longer the order of the day in his native Poland. Oh, and he also found that during his little nap, his 4 children had given him 11 grandchildren. Now, Jan's wasn't the
world's longest coma (apparently 37 years is the record) although that person, er, never woke up. Canadian
Anne Shapiro, on the other hand, woke up after 30 years to find, well, a few things changed.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:41 PM PST - 20 comments
Renegade physicists! have published the book
Endless Universe and
talked to NPR's Tom Ashbrook about their alternative theories of the beginning of the universe: 'The Big Bang' is an
unfortunate misnomer and was not the beginning of time, but rather the
formation of a singularity in the universe. "And what we're seeing is that the Big Bang doesn't have to be the beginning of time. It's perfectly possible that the Big Bang was just a violent event in a pre-existing universe..."
posted by frobozz at 2:41 PM PST - 18 comments
La Cumparsita
Reputedly the most famous
tango in existence,
La Cumparista isn't just elegant, exquisite and sublime, it also once raised significant copyright concerns, a debate to which
this collection doesn't add anything at all. Been
ninety years (Spanish) since the tango was written.
posted by the cydonian at 11:00 AM PST - 9 comments
Some might find it difficult to believe that
this was the video to a 1984 number one hit, although it's not surprising to learn that the video was banned (as was the song, leaving the BBC in the uncomfortable position of being unable to broadcast their country's biggest hit on any of its radio or television programs). The
G rated version was directed by
Brian De Palma and, oddly, appeared (in slightly altered form) in
Body Double as a porno film within the movie.
Although
the band had other hits, notably
Two Tribes which was rivaled only by
Land of Confusion for most over-the-top Reagan representation in a music video, they have been beset with problems, primarily relating to
who owns their
name, but rest assured that lead singer
Holly Johnson is doing well in his new calling as a painter.
This astrological chart nicely (?) sums up his entire career.
Incidentally,
Katherine Hamnett, who designed the hugely popular
Frankie Say Relax t-shirts (along with Wham's
Choose Life tees which, ironically, birthed an anti-abortion moto) is still a successful designer, who continues to be active in environmental, HIV eradication, and anti-war efforts.
Anyhow, check out the wacky Relax video. But beware of naked, shaving Roman Emperors.
posted by serazin at 1:29 AM PST - 91 comments
Fascinating feature on Blair's farewell tour by Martin Amis.
Accompanying video essays. Highlights include a visit to the Green Zone in Baghdad (which "resembles the embassy district of a minor South American capital after a period of immiseration and collapse"), a comparison of Presidential vs. Prime Ministerial motorcades, and a few candid reflections from Blair.
posted by grubby at 1:20 AM PST - 15 comments
June 1
Meet ??? (Zhèng Xi?oyú)
[WIKI]
Former head of the State Food and Drug Administration of China. Recently the quality of Chinese food and drugs has come under fire. You may have
heard of
tainted pet food from china killing cats and dogs. You might also have
read about antifreeze in cough syrup made with impure Chinese glycerin killing people in other countries. Apparently someone in China cares about government accountability, because on May 29th
Zheng Xiaoyu sentenced to death.
posted by delmoi at 9:11 PM PST - 24 comments
People of the Web
--very well done short video profiles of interesting people online. Mike Rogers of
blogactive is on the front page now. Links to previous profiles are on the right, including Kirk Cameron, Caleb Shikles, Sherman Austin, and Josh Wolf.
posted by amberglow at 5:55 PM PST - 3 comments
"OMON knows no mercy and forgives none. This is the way it is, was, and always will be."
The Russian OMON (Otryad Militsii Osobovo Naznacheniya), or Special Purpose Police Squad, is one of
the most elite police units in the world. Formed in the mid-1980s to combat urban riots, the 20,000-strong OMON now tackles terrorists, protesters, and
soccer fans. What drives former soldiers to join the beefy brigade? "Risk,"
says Major Viktor Kommissarov, "Working in the OMON always involves the risk of death."
(in Russian)
posted by nasreddin at 12:53 PM PST - 22 comments
Think those salads at McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and Taco Bell are a good idea if you want something lighter? Turns out you're actually
better off getting a double cheeseburger instead. For more info on nutritional facts about fast food,
CalorieKing has a good database.
posted by cerebus19 at 11:38 AM PST - 67 comments
Virginia Tech: A "Cho"ose Your Own Adventure.
It's early on a Monday morning. You wake up and find you have your dorm room to yourself. The night before, your roommates had been talking about "hooking up" with some girls they met on Facebook while you were busy ignoring them and putting the finishing touches on your three page manifesto explaining why you decided to go on a shooting spree today...
posted by reklaw at 4:45 AM PST - 44 comments
The fourth part of a trilogy
of interviews with Douglas Adams before he got all famous. "I find the difference, for me, between having no money and having quite a bit is that the bills get bigger. And that's it. The lifestyle doesn't change." Well, he certainly didn't. And for that, much thanks.
posted by humuhumu at 1:33 AM PST - 11 comments
