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July 2008 Archives
July 31
Breaking anthrax attacks update: A new suspect, a US goverment expert on anthrax, kills himself as he's about to be arrested. Bruce Ivins
helped analyze the killer powder sent by mail in 2001 that killed five people and freaked out the US right after 9/11. The govt paid out $5.82 million just last month to former govt scientist
Steven Hatfill for wrongly targeting him in the investigation.
posted by CunningLinguist at 10:22 PM PST - 166 comments
Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border.
The policies cover "any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form," including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover "all papers and other written documentation," including books, pamphlets and "written materials commonly referred to as 'pocket trash' or 'pocket litter.' "
posted by punkbitch at 9:49 PM PST - 132 comments
Zeno of Elea, Socrates and Jesus, Weev said, are his all-time favorite trolls. He also identifies with Coyote and Loki, the trickster gods, and especially with Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction. “Loki was a hacker. The other gods feared him, but they needed his tools.” The New York Times investigates the ever-evolving, LOL-corrupting, epileptic-seizuring, iPod-leaving-on-gravestone-ing phenomenon of major Internet trolling, featuring interviews with Jason Fortuny, Weev, and a gentleman named Christopher Poole (
prev).
posted by Sticherbeast at 9:44 PM PST - 91 comments
Ford Model T owners "
transformed the
cars into tractors, pickup trucks, paddy wagons, mobile lumber mills and power plants for milling grain."
posted by Knappster at 7:50 PM PST - 8 comments
62 year old emergency physician John Hall and his wife Jane took off on a
Bike Ride Around America to promote cancer awareness. They started on
April Fool's Day, and completed their 12,000 mile journey around the perimeter of the country just
today. Along the way they encountered hundreds of towns and thousands of
friendly people, and a few
not so nice. All in all, a pretty amazing accomplishment in my book.
posted by netbros at 2:07 PM PST - 21 comments
Food Fight! For reasons unknown to mankind the people of Kreuzberg fight the people of Friedrichshain (two Berlin precincts) on the Brigde that connects them. Their ammunition is rotten vegetables, diapers, rotten fruit and everything else you'd find in your bio-trashcan.
More (sorry only a Trailer),
more and still
more (in german only).
posted by namagomi at 10:39 AM PST - 24 comments
Fast Food Apartheid: The Los Angeles City Council has placed a one-year moratorium on the opening of fast-food restaurants in sections of the city with low-income residents. The council says it's meant to encourage healthy fare in locations that lack ready access to supermarkets and healthy restaurant. This columnist calls it
"fast food apartheid." We're not talking anymore about preaching diet and exercise, disclosing calorie counts, or restricting sodas in schools. We're talking about banning the sale of food to adults. Treating French fries like cigarettes or liquor.posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:18 AM PST - 282 comments
July 30
Sysco : whether it's Wendy's, Applebee's, the local diner, a fancy restaurant, the cafeteria, or Guantanamo Bay,
it's what you eat. Serving over
400,000 businesses, the
"Wal-Mart of Food Service" has all the bases covered, from
"Unique 3-D technology gives you the look and texture of a solid muscle chicken breast, at a fraction of the cost" to
more gourmet offerings.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 5:12 PM PST - 135 comments
You're planning on baking a cake, but you're bored of your plain old square pan, round pan, or bundt pan? If you live in the US Midwest, it's very possible that your nearby library allows you to
check out cake pans.
posted by Deathalicious at 3:05 PM PST - 52 comments
Are
you looking for a nice, big kitty to let into your heart?
Princess Chunk, at 44 pounds, might fit the bill nicely. Just
two pounds shy of the world's record, the pudgy kitty was roaming sans collar in Voorhees, NJ and is now in good hands at the
Camden County Animal Shelter. Chunker's owners have until Saturday to claim their big pal - after that, this big quarterback of a kitty is ready for a loving home.
posted by porn in the woods at 2:31 PM PST - 61 comments
Andrija Ilic is a photographer from Belgrade, Serbia. He uses photography to document social change to his environment and events in his homeland. He has covered some of the most important events in the region: war in Kosovo in 1998, NATO maneuvers in Italy in 1998 and intervention in 1999, numerous anti-regime protests 1996-2000, events surrounding the fall of government in Belgrade in October 2000, the crisis in southern Serbia. More recently, he has published new photos from the conflict in Israel and Palestine, every day life in Gaza,
and reportage from the Faroe Islands.
[some images NSFW - war violence and gore] posted by netbros at 1:49 PM PST - 6 comments
The Antikythera Mechanism has been decoded. Two years ago, it was confirmed that the machine was capable of astronomical calculations. Now it appears there's just one more thing: 3D imaging of the machine made it possible to reconstruct the complete workings, and it turns out it was also capable of tracking the timing of the Olympic games. The findings were reported today in
Nature. Previous Apple joke here, an incredibly deep post about it here, and a longer report from the New Yorker.posted by one_bean at 1:29 PM PST - 40 comments
There's something about Mary. Sarasota, Florida, resident Mary McFate was a prominent gun control activist, active in anti-gun groups around the country. Mary Lou Sapone was a freelance spy with an NRA connection. They are the same person.
posted by parmanparman at 11:10 AM PST - 59 comments
Transcendence, the outer space exploration/trading/shoot 'em up, has hit
version .99. I cannot begin to tell you how much time I sunk into previous releases -- the Nethackish randomness, both in the layout of the systems to explore, and the mysterious devices and substances to apply to your ship in hope of an extra edge, makes the replay value immense.
RGCD has a glowing review and an interview with the developer. (
Mentioned but not actually linked to earlier.)
posted by CrunchyFrog at 9:45 AM PST - 46 comments
Von Wernich signed the baptism certificate of a girl born in a clandestine prison, whose mother was murdered at his orders. He encouraged torture victims to "testify, for the sake of god and country," perverting the confession into an interrogation tactic. Under a Nazi flag, he witnessed the torture of Jewish journalist Jacobo Timerman [...] Von Wernich was convicted on nearly all counts "under the mark of genocide." The crowds inside and outside the courthouse broke into celebration, singing, lighting firecrackers, some burning effigies of the priest. After thirty years, the saga to bring Von Wernich to justice was over.
The Unending War — Argentina's quest for justice by Sam Ferguson is about how Argentine society is dealing with the legacy of the junta's Dirty War of 1976-83.
posted by Kattullus at 8:12 AM PST - 7 comments
Australian short film -
I Love Sarah Jane 'Jimbo is 13. All he can think about is one girl, Sarah Jane. And no matter what stands in his way - bullies, violence, chaos, zombies - nothing is going to stop him from finding a way into her world.' NSFW - swearing and gore. SLYT.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:14 AM PST - 16 comments
On 30th July 1908, after 169 days of competition, the 4-cylinder, 60-horsepower
Thomas Flyer, driven by George Schuster from America, crossed the finish line to win the
Great 1908 New York-to-
Paris Automobile Race. After
driving to the West Coast, the vehicles were shipped to Vladivostok from where only three teams managed to continue with the race across Asia and Europe.
posted by peacay at 12:32 AM PST - 5 comments
July 29
Igor Kenk was arrested for bicycle theft in Toronto on July 17. Here's an audio documentary that includes an interview with the man himself:
Steal This Bike (be warned, a lot of profanity, and a little pretentious).
posted by Chuckles at 4:28 PM PST - 46 comments
Anything but clear.
It is well known that panes of stained glass in old European churches are thicker at the bottom because glass is a slow-moving liquid that flows downward over centuries. Well known, yes, but long known to be
wrong. Scientists still disagree about the nature of glass, and researchers continue to try to understand its
dual personality .
posted by amyms at 3:57 PM PST - 15 comments
What's
Folk-Punk? Although celtic-punk groups like the Pogues, Flogging Molly, and the Dropkick Murphys may have been the first bands to combine punk rock with folk music, other groups have been crossing over folk music and punk rock for some time now.
posted by dunkadunc at 2:13 PM PST - 55 comments
Battlemind: Armor for Your Mind is a U.S. Army website designed to help, in part, families deal with deployment, including a series of cartoons and videos intended for children whose parents may be sent to or be returning from warzones. Part of the Army's
Behavioral Health program, these give intriguing insight into military culture.
posted by Rumple at 1:28 PM PST - 6 comments
When I stepped out the door of the caucus room, I saw a large crowd—members of the press, photographers, and bystanders. I realized that there was no way to avoid repeating my testimony. I was, I said, “foolish, naïve, prideful, and avaricious,” and added, “I have deceived my friends, and I had millions of them.”
Charles Van Doren
breaks his silence on the cheating scandal that inspired the movie
Quiz Show.
posted by Knappster at 12:22 PM PST - 38 comments
In late 2006, Santhi Soundarajan took the Silver Medal in the Women's 800m at the Asian Games in Qatar. Less than a week later, she was
stripped of her medal by the Olympic Council of Asia after a chromosomal test.
According to the Times of India, "the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) said the 25-year-old had failed a sex test, implying she had deceived the sporting world by competing as a woman when she was actually a man." The disqualification ended her athletic career, and several months after returning to her rural village in Tamil Nadu, India, she
attempted suicide.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:22 AM PST - 25 comments
Thomas A. Edison did not simply invent; he created the invention industry. He not only inspired the American Industrial Revolution, he provided the model for modern R&D concepts. Perhaps his greatest success beyond his legacy of innovation and invention is the introduction of team-based research. The
Edison Innovation Foundation is using
Edison's Invention Factory to educate the next generation of inventors.
posted by netbros at 9:59 AM PST - 23 comments
So lemony and wonderful. Of course I searched the Metafilter Archives. I wanted to be sure I was not reposting a link. But I did find one reference to moist towelettes from
machaus
"Many individuals have asked me in past months, Why moist towelette collecting? Why not stamp collecting, or numismatics? To be different, perhaps? "
posted by machaus (12 comments total) back in 2001.
Well -- Machaus -- now you know where you can leave your collection when preparing your will.
posted by RubberHen at 5:59 AM PST - 27 comments
So Open it Hurts. Web 2.0 visionaries Tara Hunt and Chris Messina blogged and twittered about their romance to all of geekdom as if it were one of their utopian open-source projects. Sharing their breakup has been a lot harder.
posted by chunking express at 5:06 AM PST - 53 comments
"What kind of lawbreaking has happened on President Bush's watch, among his top and mid-level advisers? What hasn't? Who is implicated and who is not? Despite the lack of oral sex with an intern, the past seven years have yielded an embarrassment of riches when it comes to potentially prosecutable crimes. We have tried to
sketch out a map of who did what and when, with links to the evidence that is public and notes about what we may learn from investigations that are still pending." Via
Slateposted by infini at 1:53 AM PST - 40 comments
Eighty one years ago to the day, barber, banjoist and balladeer
B.F. Shelton travelled from his home in Kentucky to take part in a recording session in Bristol Tennessee. Now referred to as the "
Bristol Sessions", these recordings are widely viewed as some of the most important and influential in American music history. The four songs Shelton recorded that day, stark, simple and immensely powerful in their unadorned honesty, can all be heard
here. After Bristol, Shelton never recorded again.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:25 AM PST - 16 comments
July 28
In Memoriam -- Ed Foster, Infoworld Ed Foster, the Infoworld columnist who often went to bat for consumers screwed by tech companies that misrepresented their products and services, died on Saturday. He was 59. :-(
posted by tcv at 6:36 PM PST - 13 comments
Can you copyright a tattoo? Yes, you can. But there's more to it. The idea raises a lot of questions and concerns—for the artists, the inked-skin owners, and certain parties seeking to represent or showcase the work. Shortly after Marisa Kakoulas wrote
The Tattoo Copyright Controversy guest article, featured at BMEZINE.com, she encountered a small legal battle of her own.
posted by iamkimiam at 6:26 PM PST - 32 comments
Legendary post-bop jazz tenor saxophonist, renowned for his speed and tone,
Johnny Griffin (wiki) has
died at the age of 80 at his home in France, where he had lived for 24 years. Originally from Chicago, at the age of 18,
three days after his high school graduation, Mr. Griffin left Chicago to join Lionel Hampton’s big band, where he switched from alto to tenor (see preceding link). He played with, among others, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Clark Terry, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, and many more. From the wiki link:
his first Blue Note album "Introducing Johnny Griffin" in 1956, [which featured] Wynton Kelly on piano, Curly Russell on bass and Max Roach on drums, brought him critical acclaim...A 1957 Blue Note album "A Blowing Session" featured him with fellow tenor players John Coltrane and Hank Mobley. Here he is
playing the Village Vanguard.posted by ornate insect at 3:35 PM PST - 16 comments
How can bands claiming to want to make a difference write a song about, say, ending the war and then hold on to it to make a perfectly polished recording of it for their album which will come out in a year...? We don’t have any interest in that. We write songs about things that are happening now, record them, and release them with the hopes that they can be a small part of a big conversation that leads to real progress.
Max and The Marginalized are a
band and a
blog. Mastermind Max Bernstein writes and records a new song every week (
available to download),
punk political broadsides aimed at
anything and
everything wrong with the world today.
posted by saguaro at 12:28 PM PST - 19 comments
Cuil is a new search engine developed by former Google employees, and claims to index 3x more pages than Google.
CNN Money story has the basics. My attempts were met with timeouts.
posted by Ynoxas at 8:24 AM PST - 189 comments
Who are Muslims? Gallup has conducted a poll "in 40 predominantly Muslim nations and among significant Muslim populations in the West. It is the first set of unified and scientifically representative views from 1.3 billion Muslims globally." They'll be parsing and interpreting this data for years, but for the time being, they've offered some of their key results
online and
in print. See also, the
Muslim-West Facts Initiative. (
via)
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:12 AM PST - 37 comments
The Victorian Web is your one-stop resource for England in the Victorian era (1837-1901). The site is much too extensive to give but a flavor. It is divided into 20 categories, including
Technology,
Gender Matters,
Economic Contexts,
Authors,
Political History,
Theater and Popular Entertainment,
Science and
Genre and Technique. Here are a few examples of the articles inside:
Inventions in Alice in Wonderland,
The Role of the Victorian Army,
Earth Yenneps: Victorian Back Slang (and a
glossary of same),
Algernon Charles Swinburne and the Philosophy of Androgyny, Hermaphrodeity, and Victorian Sexual Mores,
Evolution, progress and natural laws and, of course,
Queen Victoria.
posted by Kattullus at 7:00 AM PST - 10 comments
July 27
In the years after leaving MST, Joel Hodgson of Mystery Science Theater, and his "smarter brother" Jim Hodgson, worked on a new movie-repurposing concept for USA Networks. The introduction for the test clip read:
"
The Jolly Filter segment is a proof of concept test for a new film process. You will first view 2 minutes of the original film 'Rollercoaster' and then the same 2 minutes utilizing the JollyFilter technique.
"Note: If you find yourself getting bored during the original 'Rollercoaster' footage, don't worry, this is normal."
(SLYT, but an awesome one.)posted by JHarris at 7:17 PM PST - 50 comments
Have you tried
MUni yet? It's the latest rage in adventure sports.
posted by Xurando at 1:45 PM PST - 39 comments
'Llectuals. The fresh new PBS show about honor students learning love at Heidegger High School.
posted by plexi at 10:17 AM PST - 48 comments
NPR's On The Media presents a short set of pieces about comments on news websites and the challenges of "digital democracy," with
discussion from Ira Glass about responses to a show about teenage runaways, and New Republic editor and critic
Lee Siegel, who posted anonymously to respond insultingly to comments on his own blog. And a
Roanoke newspaper editor discusses how one paper sees the integration of comments into online news sites and whether it's a valuable reader service.
posted by Miko at 7:58 AM PST - 67 comments
The Clown Walk (also known as the C-Walk) refers to a modern dance style, usually done to hip hop music. It is a variation of the
Crip walk, a gang related dance. Clown Walking, however, was created to distance the relationship between the dance style and the Crips gang.
PimpMyWalk.com is a site where you can learn how to C-Walk.
(language and lyrics NSFW). Step-by-step video instructions teach you how to do
the V, the
shuffle, and when you're really gangsta, the
wiggle walk. More than a dozen tutorial videos plus expert samples.
posted by netbros at 6:34 AM PST - 43 comments
Israeli paper publishes Obama's stolen Western Wall prayer New York, July 26 : Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama wrote a prayer in Jerusalem this week - and left it at Judaism's holiest of sites, the Western Wall. As Barack placed his prayer in the cracks of the Western Wall, someone came from behind and stole it.
That pilfered prayer has now been published in an Israeli newspaper, exposing to the world a personal plea for God to help him "guard against pride and despair."
posted by Postroad at 5:13 AM PST - 237 comments
July 26
As the Tour de France concludes, let's spend a moment commemorating the
derrière garde of world-class cycling, those bad enough to come in last but never bad enough to fail, les
Lanternes Rouge. If Wim Vansevenant can retain his tenacious hold on 145th place in Sunday's stage he will be
the worst cyclist to complete the Tour de France for three consecutive years and set a Tour record. You can, indeed, win by losing.
posted by ardgedee at 1:32 PM PST - 53 comments
John Henry Wilbrandt Stuckenberg emigrated from Germany to the United States, where he was eventually a Chaplain in the American Civil War. He also really liked maps; in the course of traveling over his lifetime, he collected
hundreds of maps, some dating back to the 16th century.
[Most maps in Latin]posted by Rykey at 1:15 PM PST - 6 comments
Japanese-style popping is dope - check out
u-min and dancers on the Polysics
I My Me Mine. The girl,
Strong Machine 2, was only 11 years old at filming. And let's not forget the classic display of popping in
Late at Night. But beyond these dancers who've achieved some commercial prominence, check out a few
fun and
stylized Japanese popping
clips from lesser known but great dancers.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:51 AM PST - 29 comments
July 25
The first legally transgendered man to become pregnant has
given birth. Thomas Beatie and his wife Nancy have welcomed a daughter into the world.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:31 PM PST - 150 comments
Police set up a sting in a park and men are arrested for lewd behavior. The mens behavior is illegal but should their lives be ruined?
He says he was told to plead guilty and did so to avoid a harsher punishment that would have come had Giles pled innocent and then been found guilty. Afterward, his employer fired him.
"When I lost my job over it my wife was so upset and distraught and distressed that she had a major heart attack," said Giles, whose wife died shortly after ABC News interviewed him. John Stossel does his report.posted by halekon at 3:11 PM PST - 118 comments
"Looking for all the world like an engine abandoned in the Amazon jungle, M2 class 4-8-0 number 1118 lies forlorn and forgotten at the Virginia Scrap Iron and Metal yard in Roanoke, VA."
The Lost Engines of Roanoke website chronicles the
history of four steam locomotives that were sold in the 50's to a scrapyard in Roanoke, Virginia. There are plenty of
photos of the engines and other train equipment and information on
two other lost engines. The
news section has been busy of late since one of the engines has been sold to a railroad themed restaurant in Bellville, Ohio. The move was
photodocumented.
posted by Kattullus at 12:18 PM PST - 10 comments
Medpedia is
coming. "In association with Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School and other leading global health organizations, the Medpedia community
seeks to create the most comprehensive and collaborative medical resource in the world."
Apply to contribute content.
posted by cashman at 11:03 AM PST - 25 comments
Fantasy cartography collects scans of maps and charts from video games, comics, and novels. Take a look at the doll-house like maps of the
Fantastic Four's Baxter Building from various comics (a Trophy Room and a "TV Sending Room"!), the Legend of Zelda's
Hyrule, Asimov's
Foundation galaxy, lots of
Lovecraft locations, the lands of the
Princess Bride, the
Discworld, and lots of
Star Trek maps and ship schematics. Also,
some thoughts on how "serious fiction" writers often start with maps, from Joyce's use of the ordinance maps of Dublin to Pychon's use of aerial photographs. More fantasy maps (many in German) are available from the
Fantasy Atlas. Also, from my
previous post on the subject of maps of fantasy worlds, see the extensive listings in the
Dictionary of Imaginary Places.
posted by blahblahblah at 10:13 AM PST - 20 comments
A
jury in Georgia this week awarded a woman $150,000 after she sued her fiancé for breaking off their engagement three days before the wedding....Adding insult to injury, the groom-to-be, Wayne Gibbs, informed his intended, RoseMary Shell, of his decision by leaving her a note in the bathroom." Shell
sued for breach of contract ..."[She] said she has suffered emotionally since their breakup." "Gibbs testified that
he paid $30,000 of Shell's debt while they were engaged" and "argues he got cold feet after he found out Shell hid [other] debts from him." [
video | 0:50] She refutes Gibbs's claim that she was swimming in debt. [
video | 03:33].
posted by ericb at 8:23 AM PST - 72 comments
What Bush and Batman have in common. "A cry for help goes out from a city beleaguered by violence and fear: A beam of light flashed into the night sky, the dark symbol of a bat projected onto the surface of the racing clouds . . .Oh, wait a minute. That's not a bat, actually. In fact, when you trace the outline with your finger, it looks kind of like . . . a "W."
posted by you just lost the game at 6:41 AM PST - 82 comments
July 24
Brewster Khale over at Internet Archive just
announced they are working with NASA to make available the most comprehensive compilation ever of NASA's vast collection of photographs, historic film and video at
nasaimages.org. It combines for the first time 21 major NASA imagery collections into a single, searchable online resource.
posted by stbalbach at 6:58 PM PST - 20 comments
On a sunny May morning, six plainclothes police officers, two uniformed policemen and a trio of functionaries from the state prosecutor's office closed in on a small apartment in Amsterdam. Their quarry: a skinny Dutch cartoonist with a rude sense of humor. Informed that he was suspected of sketching offensive drawings of Muslims and other minorities, the Dutchman surrendered without a struggle.
"
I never expected the Spanish Inquisition," recalls
Gregorius Nekschot, the cartoonist.
posted by plexi at 12:31 PM PST - 111 comments
July 23
A linguist and a sociologist at Hebrew Union College have teamed up to
track the inroads made into American English by words and idioms from traditionally Jewish languages, including Yiddish, Judeo-Arabic, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), and Hebrew.
They've created an online survey and are looking for people from all religious and ethnic backgrounds to answer a few questions about their word choices, phrasing, and pronunciation. They're also trying to determine whether certain linguistic quirks usually attributed to Yiddish's influence are actually carried over from Jewish ancestors' speech patterns and accents, or whether they're merely an artifact from growing up in or near New York City. [
via]
posted by Asparagirl at 8:21 PM PST - 65 comments
Artweaver is a freeware "natural media" paint program, of the same type as Corel Painter. Natural media means it uses tools that are intended to simulate actual art tools, like oils, pastels, pencils and so forth. It's not as feature-rich as Painter, but it's getting better.
posted by JHarris at 4:17 PM PST - 22 comments
The Devastation of Iraq's Past. "Since the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad in April 2003, the international press has accorded considerable space to the country's imperiled ancient heritage. Much of this coverage, however, has been devoted to the museum, the impressive campaign to recover its stolen works, and the continued struggle to reopen its galleries. Only occasional, anecdotal reports—mostly from the first year of the conflict—have borne witness to
large-scale plunder of archaeological sites, to which the damage is irreversible."
posted by homunculus at 1:10 PM PST - 9 comments
We all nurse private ambitions. Essam Ahmed Eid, a 53-year-old Egyptian man living in Vegas and dealing poker at the Bellagio, dreamed of becoming a hit man. He longed to take off the casino clown suit, the Nehru shirt and simpering smile — and replace them with a gun and a grimace. So Eid did what any enterprising 21st century contract killer would: He created a Web site — www.hitmanforhire.net —
and waited for the clients to come.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:38 PM PST - 30 comments
"I haven’t figured out whether cracking open your computer, attaching it to an Underwood typewriter, then inserting it into a combination Victorian mantel clock/desk and calling it “The Nagy Magical-Movable-Type Pixello-Dynamotronic Computational Engine” is some sort of daft wit or evidence of a pedantry bordering on the pathological. " -
Steampunk'd, Or Humbug by Design, design writer Randy Nakamura takes a look at the Steampunk phenomenon.
posted by Artw at 11:09 AM PST - 115 comments
The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History has an extensive,
searchable online collection. It focuse on material art and household items and has objects from all over the world. The website can be browsed either by geographic orgin:
Africa,
Asia,
North and Central America,
Pacific,
South America, or through its two exhibits,
Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives and
Fowler in Focus. Some of my favorite objects (but really, everything is entrancing) are
The Blind Scholar (
a Taiwanese handpuppet),
Chikunga (
a Zambian mask) and a
stirrup spout bottle which looks like a puma eating a piglet (
Peruvian). All items have accompanying descriptions and some have short texts or audioguides with further information.
posted by Kattullus at 9:36 AM PST - 3 comments
Google is testing a Digg-like social interface to Google Search results, Techcrunch has an early
preview video. This is bad news for Jimy Wales's
Wikia since this is what they have been trying to build. Perhaps related it looks like
Google is buying Digg.
posted by stbalbach at 6:31 AM PST - 59 comments
July 22
Butch Cassidy wanted to call his gang The Train Robber's Syndicate, but the name never stuck. The gang's core members - most notable among them
The Sundance Kid - and a revolving cast of supporting outlaws were most commonly called The
Hole-in-the-Wall Gang and
The Wild Bunch, and their goal was to be the most successful train robbers in history. The
Butch and Sundance site is a comprehensive collection of "the hundreds, if not thousands, of theories, legends and folk tales" surrounding the gang, including an exhaustive
list of biographies of the members, their associates, the lawmen who pursued them and the women who loved them, an
archive of transcribed news articles dating from the 1880s (including a
letter to the editor from Sundance himself), a
picture gallery and more.
posted by amyms at 11:39 PM PST - 26 comments
In January of 2004, Disney
shut down their Florida animation studio, part of their decision to
move away from 2D, or cell-shaded, animation
for good. Two years later, as part of the new deal with Pixar, John Lasseter and Ed Catmull were brought in as heads of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, and promptly declared that 2-D Animation would thrive again on their watch. For their first new project, the team wanted to show support for the still-struggling New Orleans, and simultaneously introduce
Disney's first Black Princess in
"The Frog Princess" (Or
The Princess and the Frog, as it is now known), a fairy tale set in 1920's Jazz-era Louisiana, with Randy Newman providing a
period-specific score.
Much response to the project has been
quite positive, but as with all things,
the devil is in the details.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:46 PM PST - 111 comments
For years,
Wired magazine has tapped a bevy of designers and artists in the tech field to craft detailed visions of futuristic objects for a monthly showcase at the close of each issue. Now, after
hinting as much in the July edition, it is clear that that the tradition of FOUND
has been brought to an end. What better way to say goodbye to this whimsical feature than by taking a look back at the full archived run of the series?
posted by Rhaomi at 5:42 PM PST - 29 comments
Now Viacom will STEAL your movie Viacom has claimed ownership of an independent filmmaker's film and now she has to fight them for it. They allow her to leave it on YouTube but they claim ownership and they get to collect data on who's watching.
posted by njohnson23 at 2:30 PM PST - 47 comments
What's the second most popular sport in the world after soccer?
Badminton. (According to
some sources - volleyball and cricket are also contenders.) When played competitively, badminton looks more like
this and less like
this. The
Chinese are poised to win Gold in Beijing, while the American team, featuring star player
Howard Bach gets
no love.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 1:16 PM PST - 31 comments
In the summer of 1897, the Devil transported a
minor Decadent poet named Enoch Soames one hundred years into the future to see what posterity would make of
his work. The only witness to the affair was the parodist
Max Beerbohm, whose
account of Soames and his journey ensured that at 2:10 P.M. on June 7, 1997, some dozen pilgrims waited in the Round Reading Room of the British Museum
to see the poet appear...
posted by Iridic at 10:58 AM PST - 26 comments
The latest issue of
Yellowstone Science quarterly is devoted to 5 articles chronicling the history of the management of grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park, from the 1950s era "garbage dump bears," to listing as an endangered species, to de-listing as endangered, to current management. Many excellent photos, maps, charts and graphs make this a great resource for people interested in the fate of grizzlies in the lower 48 states.
Part 1 of the issue.
Part 2. [links to PDF files] (
via)
posted by paulsc at 6:33 AM PST - 5 comments
July 21
Home Movies. A 1975 documentary by a young academic folklorist, exploring what it was that people were doing when they made home movies: remembering selectively, creating a "golden age."
posted by Miko at 8:52 PM PST - 20 comments
Correlative Analytics -- or as O'Reilly might term the
Social Graph -- sort of mirrors the debate on 'brute force'
algorithmic proofs (that are "
true for no reason,"
cf.) in which "computers can extract patterns in this ocean of data that no human could ever possibly detect. These patterns are correlations. They may or may not be
causative, but we can learn new things. Therefore they accomplish what science does, although not in the traditional manner... In this part of science, we may get answers that work, but which we don't understand. Is this partial understanding? Or
a different kind of
understanding?" Of course, say some in the scientific community:
hogwash; it's just a fabrication of scientifically/statistically illiterate pundits, like whilst new techniques in
data analysis are being developed to help keep ahead of the deluge...
posted by kliuless at 5:58 PM PST - 40 comments
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 came out in 2004, and was received with mixed reviews. Four years later, hobbyists of the game continue to take it to a whole other level. You may have already seen links to the
creative ways to devastate in RCT3. A whole other group of fans, however, have gone on to create highly detailed parks and ride recreations. They use customized textures and mods to create
massive architectural works that require hundreds--sometimes over thousands--of hours of work.
posted by The ____ of Justice at 3:29 PM PST - 41 comments
Slides used to be dangerous..... After climbing up those sandy, metal crosstrax steps you got to the top and stared down at that steep ride below. The slide was burning hot to the touch, a stovetop set to high all day under the summer sun, just waiting to greet the underside of your legs with first-degree burns as you enjoyed the rideposted by bluesky43 at 1:09 PM PST - 170 comments
Kristin's List. There are plenty of events guides in Los Angeles, but none has as personal a voice, as finely honed an aesthetic (the
Neutra font is an inspired touch) or as discerning an eye as Kristin's. Her weekly emails and web listings are one woman's recommended sampling of the most interesting music, film, architecture, food, fashion, literary and unquantifiable events across the megalopolis. And so far, it's completely ad-free.
posted by Scram at 1:07 PM PST - 30 comments
July 20
Not much is know about Bobby Gaylor, aside from what can be gleaned from his "songs," actually spoken word pieces set to music worlds apart from either Henry Rollins or King Missile. His
official webpage now redirects to Google, and he has no
wikipedia entry. His sole album,
Fuzzatonic Scream (2000), was a buried treasure for anyone who could find it, with good music backing a born storytelling everyman from Massachusetts giving sometimes gentle, sometimes harsh, insights into life through the details of his own. Now, the only songs you may find video for are "
One Moment," which discusses his first kiss, and "
Suicide," the closest thing he had to a "hit," but his full (sadly bleeped) work may be found
here. Personally, I recommend "Smelt," "I Hit a Guy With My Car," "Masturbation," and "Business End of a Gun."
posted by Navelgazer at 8:24 PM PST - 13 comments
A slightly drunken
Momus sings us a song from his living room, then gives us
5000 years of chairs in 5 mimutes.
posted by vronsky at 11:33 AM PST - 37 comments
Flash Sunday: Customize your disease and wipe out the population,
Pandemic II. Get to Madagascar before they close their shipyard!
posted by sebas at 4:40 AM PST - 68 comments
July 19
The Mehterhane or
Mehter, as they are often known, are thought to be the oldest military marching band in the world. Starting around the 13th century, the
band accompanied the Ottoman empire troops (
Janissaries, or
yeniçeri, roughly meaning "new troops" and were comprised mostly of young men from the Balkans) into battle, spreading their music along the way and influencing western classical composers like
Mozart and
Beethoven.
posted by sleepy pete at 10:44 AM PST - 14 comments
The žižkov television tower in Prague
was pretty weird looking to begin with, since 2000 it's gotten
much stranger...
posted by Artw at 8:20 AM PST - 42 comments
July 18
Totem Destroyer ... a puzzle game where you strategically remove blocks in order to lower a golden idol closer to the ground. Get it within 3 squares from the bottom, but not touching it, and you move on to the next level. (
via)
posted by Dave Faris at 11:37 PM PST - 29 comments
In a time before the Prius, the custom conversion van ruled the roadways. Pushing the
boundaries of the airbrush form, testing the limits of
mobile interior design, featuring the latest in
automatic pink leather bed,
compact toaster, 8-track, and
love machine technology, the 70s van was celebrated in
song and
cinema. You started with
a factory model, new or used, and ended at a place limited onlyby your creativity, your budget, and your
old lady's patience (NSFW). Ford could
make you a man.If push came to shove, you could even
live in your van. It was fantasy on wheels:
van-tastic, man.
posted by Miko at 9:14 PM PST - 43 comments
Br. Cesare Bonizzi, "the
heavy metal friar"(watch out for the volume on that last link), says he was inspired by the energy of Metallica and that he is not trying to convert anyone to Christianity, but rather to "convert [listeners] to life" and get them to live their lives "full stop."
posted by homelystar at 9:12 PM PST - 15 comments
This scale was first brought to my attention by the blog
"The Unwound Road". It appears someone took the original 1930s rating scale and posted it to Flickr. From there it was a natural progression to Internet quiz. So, how would you rate as a husband or wife in the 1930s? Answer 100 true or false type questions and find out!
posted by polysigma at 6:45 PM PST - 27 comments
Listen, can you
hear them talk? They might be soft spoken, and not easy to get along with, but they can still
command (previously) our respect.
Read how they are looked after around the world, and the
stories which affect their daily lives. Also,
here (pdf) is a comprehensive study of their living conditions in different kinds of societies across the globe.
posted by hadjiboy at 9:39 AM PST - 9 comments
Hellenica is an encyclopedia of Greek culture, from classical Hellas, through the Byzantine Empire until the modern day, though its focus is on antiquity and especially the
science and technology of Ancient Greece. Featuring technical diagrams and explications, there's no better site if you seek information on
gigantic galleys,
now obscure great Greek mathematicians,
the last still working Ancient lighthouse and
gears and how they were used by Archimedes and other ancients. This is not to denigrate other sections of the site, such as the page on the
Olympics (including a
Google Map of the site of the games), biographies of
ancient,
Byzantine and
modern Greeks, the
warring and
healing of the Byzantines or the overview of Greek literature, taking in
antiquity,
the medieval era and
modern times. That said, Hellenica is at its finest when treating science and technology.
posted by Kattullus at 6:21 AM PST - 8 comments
Winding their way down from California, they lost a few agents. Two were arrested in Albuquerque after they allegedly forced their way into the home of an elderly couple and beat them to death, raping the wife first.... Then, in West Texas, a van flipped, killing one agent and injuring three others. That's seven agents out of commission. That's about a $2,800 loss per day. After they turn in their cash and receipts, two agents, a pudgy girl and a lanky guy, hit the parking lot for a smoke.... It's a blast, they say. You lie all day to sell subscriptions, and you unwind afterward with some smoke. You tell the customers that you live a few streets over, that you go to the local school and play on the soccer team, that you just sold subscriptions to their neighbor, and the idiots buy it because by now you've got it down to a science.
And on to the next town. And the next.posted by orthogonality at 5:12 AM PST - 68 comments
Something awful in a new CBC anthem. The CBC's Hockey Night in Canada is one of the highest-rated programs on Canadian television. It's something of a national shrine to our beloved sport. For the past 40-odd years, it's had a distinctive theme which most Canadians could hum. After
something of a fiasco, the CBC lost the rights to the theme. They're running a contest to replace the venerated theme.
A Something Awful forum user composed
a truly dreadful entry ("mostly comprised of cat and sheep sounds, baby cries, and gunshots/explosions"), and got the community to 'vote it up' on the Anthem contest site. You really need to hear the awfulness to truly appreciate it.
posted by dbarefoot at 12:30 AM PST - 69 comments
July 17
Surtsey was first observed on November 14, 1963, as
a pillar of smoke on the water some ways south of Iceland. The very next day lava and tephra broke the surface of the Atlantic and by May, 1964 the formation had grown to 2.4 km². Over the next three years lava eruptions continued, coating the loose debris in a hard shell and protecting it from erosion.
An island born. Naturally, Surtsey has been under close scientific observation since its emergence, and courtesy
The Surtsey Research Society you can read published reports on the
geology and
biological colonization of this new earth.
posted by carsonb at 8:41 PM PST - 9 comments
The Wu-Tang Clan ain't nuthin to
PLAY CHESS wit.
WuChess.com is the worlds first online chess and Hip-Hop community. You can create and share profiles with your friends and triumph over enemies on the 64 squares. Not just against people in your neighborhood but from all over the world. Play live chess with people from all over the world and get your learn on. Blog.
posted by ColdChef at 5:24 PM PST - 30 comments
It looks like a cigarette. It smokes like a cigarette. But it's actually the
e-cigarette, and it might be the future of smoking.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:18 PM PST - 80 comments
Retronomatopeya - cute collection of comic book images and language conveying sound and motion. Also see anastasiav's prior post:
Ka-BOOM, the Dictionary of Comic Book Words on Historical Principles.
(via oink!)posted by madamjujujive at 10:08 AM PST - 11 comments
This is a collection of the National Archives stored in the
Digital Vaults. You can browse through hundreds of photographs, documents, and film clips and discover the connection between some of the National Archives' most treasured records. With the
Pathways tool you can see the unique and surprising connections between events and people and test your knowledge of history. As you travel through the site and collect documents, images and films, you can then merge the objects to
create your own poster or movie from your collection.
posted by netbros at 4:46 AM PST - 16 comments
July 16
Like penguins? Hey, who doesn't, right? So, head over to
PenguinScience for all your penguin needs. Recommended: their "Webisode" documentary on
Blondie, the rare "blonde" penguin, which also features footage of another thoroughly adorable genetic mutation: an
all black penguin.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:42 PM PST - 21 comments
Along the lines of
celebrity/muppet vein, I give you
Totally Looks Like: Famous People and Celebs that Totally Look Like Animals and Other Things.
Some are weak, but others are surprisingly close. Mefites will especially enjoy the Nick Nolte and Cthulu comparison.
posted by bwg at 11:28 PM PST - 18 comments
Now,
here's something you don't see every day.
I found it unlikely, but perhaps he was a
copycat suicide.
posted by an egg at 8:06 PM PST - 80 comments
Next-Door Neighbor, from
SMITH Magazine, takes a bunch of renowned artists and writers from the world of Indie Comics and asks them to tell stories about, well, memorable Next-Door Neighbor experiences. "
The Next-Door Neighbor I Don't Know," by
Harvey Pekar and
Rick Veitch is worth a look, of course, but personal favorites for me include "
Halloweens Ago," and "
Hank & Barbara." And after reading, "
Dream Train," be sure to check out the
video link of the subject playing an old cowboy song.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:40 PM PST - 5 comments
P.F.1 (Public Farm One) is a project designed by WORK Architecture Company for MoMA and P.S.1's Young Architects Program. P.F.1’s intent is to "educate thousands of visitors on sustainable urban farming through the unique medium of contemporary architecture." An artist in Providence, RI developed a similar installation called
Green Zone, "an organic vegetable, herb, and flower garden planted in the detritus of wartime consumption: used tires, shopping bags, shoes, and other repurposed containers" at local venue
Firehouse 13.
posted by lunit at 10:47 AM PST - 5 comments
"Don’t stop. Keep right on going.... Go someplace you’ve heard about, where you can fish or hunt or collect rocks or just look up at the sky. Find out what’s at the end of some country road. Go see what’s over the next hill, and the one after that, and the one after that." In 1959 Airstream founder
Wally Byam - taking his own advice to heart - led a convoy of 36 of his company's trailers - together with over 100 American adults, children and pets - on a journey from Cape town to Cairo. They stayed in
remote villages, negotiated
rough roads, saw
upteen tribal dancers, met up with
Haile Selassie and finally ended up at the
pyramids of Cairo.
Here is the original film account of the expedition (complete with its own theme song). Next year, on the 50th anniversary, there is a plan to do the trip again - this time there and back again.
Wanna go?
posted by rongorongo at 9:42 AM PST - 12 comments
Is Batman Possible? "There's a quote from Neal Adams, the great Batman illustrator, who said Batman would win, place or show in every event in the Olympics."
posted by gwong at 8:42 AM PST - 130 comments
"I hadn’t gotten beaten by my mom that day, and we hadn’t had any significant arguments over anything. I thought that if I died, I wanted to die without being mad at my mom. So I thought, I might as well take the opportunity to do so before I got back to the house—at which point who knows whether there would be another fight or a beating."
Escaping the Amish.
posted by jbickers at 4:46 AM PST - 98 comments
The ancient web is an online resource for students, teachers, and anyone interested in the cultures of the ancient world. With the Olympics fast approaching, here is an opportunity to learn more about the past 4500 years of
Chinese civilization. Or how the
Celtiberians would get drunk and eat raw meat before going to war. 24 ancient civilizations in all.
posted by netbros at 4:25 AM PST - 9 comments
Freakonomics coauthor/blogger
writes about a "spelling mistake" the Economist made in a recent issue.
He is
corrected within 5 minutes.
The Economist
responds to his "correction".
posted by jourman2 at 3:37 AM PST - 84 comments
Dispatches from Polar Scientists -- A compilation of blogs "in celebration of the International Polar Year (2007-08), [giving] you an up-close-and-personal look at research in extreme environments through the thoughts and experiences of the scientists working there. We’ll post their photos, videos, and blogs on this site."
posted by fourcheesemac at 2:33 AM PST - 10 comments
July 15
"'I am not a defendant,' Mitchell declared. 'I do not have attorneys.' The court 'lacks territorial jurisdiction over me,' he argued, to the amazement of his lawyers. To support these contentions, he cited decades-old acts of Congress involving the abandonment of the gold standard and the creation of the Federal Reserve ... Judge Davis ordered the three defendants to be removed from the court, and turned to Gardner, who had, until then, remained quiet. But Gardner, too, intoned the same strange speech. 'I am Shawn Earl Gardner, live man, flesh and blood,' he proclaimed."
Too Weird for the Wire: How black Baltimore drug dealers are using white supremacist legal theories to confound the Feds. [via]posted by nasreddin at 11:13 PM PST - 75 comments
Regardless of whether or not the photos of recent Iranian missile tests were
faked (
previously), and regardless of whether Bush (and/or Israel) is planning to
strike Iran (
previously)--or is simply sabre-rattling--it certainly seems something's heating up: first, the BBC alerts the world that Canadian and other international troops stationed in Afghanistan
may be targeted by Iranian missiles, and now the Bush administration claims Iran has the ability
to strike Europe with its missiles. Note how both these claims involve allies who would likely have to consent to a US-led strike against Iran.
posted by ornate insect at 10:30 PM PST - 24 comments
If the Tiber rises so high it floods the walls, or the Nile so low it doesn't flood the fields, if the earth opens, or the heavens don't, if there is famine, if there is plague, instantly the howl goes up, "The Christians to the lion!" What, all of them? To a single lion? So wrote
Tertullian. In the huge intellectual project that was the foundation of the Christian Church he was the great wit, most powerful rhetor and finest writer. Starting out as a pagan delighting in adultery and gladiator combat he became a great champion of martyrdom, defender of Christianity against its malefactors and heretics. His most famous contribution to our culture is undoubtedly the doctrine of the trinity. Towards the end of his life he threw his lot with a small group of hardcore ascetics called
Montanists and was denounced as a heretic. Ending his life among the defeated of ecclesiastical history he was forgotten for a millennium until
rediscovered during the Renaissance.
The Tertullian Project collects all his extant writing and information about his lost texts as well as biographical information,
selected quotations and much more.
posted by Kattullus at 9:58 PM PST - 14 comments
myopenbar.com (Chicago link) is a dandy little site that lets you know where to score free and/or cheap eats and/or drinks on any given night in your area (assuming 'your area' =
NYC,
SF,
LA,
Honolulu,
Miami, or the aforementioned
Chi-town). The places are rated, and visited personally by the website's
bloggers, but who cares? It's free booze.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:20 PM PST - 6 comments
Best Rapper Alive? No Krs-1, no Rakim, but Scarface is there. No MF Doom, no Pharoahe Monche, but
Lil Mama is there. [
via] Voting starts July 21st.
posted by cashman at 8:57 PM PST - 72 comments
Kajima's floor-by-floor slow demolition is one of those rare things in life that leaves you truly speechless....After all, seeing the video of a 20-floor building submerging into the asphalt as if it was liquid is something that belongs to a sci-fi movie.posted by Pater Aletheias at 12:49 PM PST - 30 comments
What's the name of that peak over there? Can my HDTV antenna see the broadcast tower?
Can I see
that fixed wireless base station?
See viewsheds and labelled horizons from where you're at, with a list of what other people are looking at,
and all done with someone else's computers.
posted by the Real Dan at 11:03 AM PST - 21 comments
"Dear Mr Clarke... I had been a great admirer of your books for quite a time and had always wanted to discuss with you the possibility of doing the proverbial really good science-fiction movie." Excerpts from the letters of Stanley Kubrick.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:57 AM PST - 19 comments
WFMU's Free Music Archive, "an online digital library of music that will allow music fans, webcasters and podcasters to listen, download, and stream for free, with no restrictions, registration or fees. And it will all be legal." Still pre-launch, but there's already
quite a bit of music available on the site, including a
sampler CD.
posted by cog_nate at 6:56 AM PST - 18 comments
I didn't think
this would be cool but after seeing the video I am converted. Experience the original Super Mario in 3d... with a shotgun?
posted by ignorantguru at 5:43 AM PST - 35 comments
I had sex with my brother but I don't feel guilty. An interesting article in The Times written by a woman who'd had a sexual relationship with her brother that started during their teenage years and continued through to their twenties. Many societies have an
incest taboo, but anthropologists have differing views as to how the taboo arose.
Claude Lévi-Strauss believed it to have arisen as a method to encourage the practice of marriage outside of one's immediate social group, so that unrelated households or lineages would form relationships through marriage, thus strengthening social solidarity.
posted by electricinca at 5:43 AM PST - 131 comments
In the little town of Enterprise, Alabama, there stands a
bizarre statue that would make any card-carrying surrealist proud: an archetypical
Greek goddess raises her arms toward heaven and holds high above her head... an enormous
insect. Of course, it's the
boll weevil. That cotton-eatin' critter inspired not only the world's only monument to an agricultural pest, but
some great tunes as well, from a
wide range of artists.
[note: see hoverovers for link descriptions] posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:49 AM PST - 35 comments
July 14
Khaufpur is a city of approaching a million souls situated at the absolute centre of India. The lakes around which our city is built were made a thousand years ago. Since that time the city was lost in jungles, rediscovered and
rebuilt. Again in the lifetime of those living, a terrible
calamity came upon this city, but again it has risen and continues toward a future filled with promise.
posted by dhruva at 11:28 PM PST - 13 comments
Point Niner -
"Satisfying an unnatural infatuation with airplanes and rockets." A regularly updated blog with nice bits of aviation goodness.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:52 PM PST - 5 comments
Happy Birthday, MeFi, here's a fun free* game!
Ikariam is sort of like a Skyrates version of Civ, with the real-time MMO combat and diplomacy that might bring to mind. Also, it's set in Olympian Greece, but only kind-of. Enjoy!
*Batteries not included. Some registration required. Suggested age: 8-and-up. Some implied violence and consumption of alcohol (wine). Expansion materials may be purchased but are not necessary to enjoy the game and are, by the judgment of this MFGA (MetaFilter Gaming Authority) member: "some kind of bullshit."
posted by Navelgazer at 6:41 PM PST - 20 comments
Making It, in which a young, black, upstart politician rises through the Chicago political scene by having his opposition stricken from the ballot, turning against his endorser, and redistricting himself into a fundraising monster.
posted by Weebot at 5:03 PM PST - 32 comments
Мотылёк -
Butterfly - is just a sweet little Russian cartoon (with subtitles) (and foxes). I seem to get a little speck of something in my eyes when I watch it for some reason.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:43 AM PST - 30 comments
(
Follow-upFilter) It's rare that jazz videos venture beyond filming live performances. This makes the exceptions all the more notable.
Animation seems the medium of choice: from George Griffin's 1988 paper collage for Charlie Parker's "
Ko Ko" to Len Lye's swinging
The Lambeth Walk (1939), or (stretching musical definitions just a bit) his 1958 masterpiece "
Free Radicals". More recent jazz seems to fit just as well: witness Lung's psychotic piece for Ladyscraper's "
Thou Art Fucking Dead".
posted by progosk at 6:32 AM PST - 11 comments
Join the
Apathy Party 08 campaign and make sure that nobody decides or makes a difference, because we couldn't care less. Americans everywhere will make their voices heard and their voices will say, "Whatever."
posted by netbros at 4:47 AM PST - 76 comments
Land of the Free, home of the geek. Steven Schofield takes photos of british sci-fi fans, dressed in character in their homes. He treats it as 'found' photography, which seems to illustrate the subjects vulnerability. The title of the work is Land of the Free - and illustrates how American culture infiltrates, with the ironic edge of questioning the idea of the freedom of choosing to copy the look of these fictional characters.
via kottkeposted by filmgeek at 4:07 AM PST - 36 comments
50 years ago Johnny O'Keefe released
"Wild One" and Australia had its first homegrown rock'n'roll star. To commemorate the 50th year of Australian rock'n'roll The Age newspaper has asked various Australian music industry figures to pick the
top 50 Australian albums (scroll down for the Top 50 - or check the (more inside)).
posted by awfurby at 2:20 AM PST - 51 comments
Cat-scan.com Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted by jokeefe at 12:41 AM PST - 186 comments
July 13
Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933. Stumbled upon whilst looking for historical info on 1933, this Library of Congress-hosted site provides access to "over 55,000 images of urban life captured on glass plate negatives" by the photographers of the Daily News. memory.loc.gov simply never disappoints.
posted by mwhybark at 11:00 PM PST - 5 comments
Hello Hello Finally a myspace blog post worth seeing: funny window messages about neighbors with trash disposal concerns, vaguely reminiscent of the window messages in "You and Me and Everyone Else We Know"
posted by srs at 9:22 PM PST - 15 comments
The Worlds Best Books (1909),
One Hundred Best Books (1916),
One Thousand Books for a Village Library (1895),
The Book Lover, a Guide to the Best Reading (1889),
The Choice of Books (1905),
A Thousand of the Best Novels (1919),
Comfort Found in Good Old Books (1911),
A Guide to the Best Historical Novels (1911),
A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914), and
lots more..posted by stbalbach at 7:12 PM PST - 15 comments
"In one booklet, I come across the rather fabulous student error that the protesters at Kent State in 1970 were shot by 'the Federal Reserve.'" In his essay "
AP Diary," Christopher Phelps shares the true story of what it's like to spend a week grading Advanced Placement exams.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 6:01 PM PST - 20 comments
The Greatest Sideshow Video Ever Made. "The Greatest Sideshow Video Ever Made was shot at the Moore theater in Seattle in 1992. The oddball cousin of Seattle's grunge music scene, the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow mixed vintage sideshow acts with novel stunts never before seen. Previously available only on VHS tape or DVD, this mind-blowing collection of feats of human daring is now available online in six parts for your viewing pleasure:
1 2 3 4 5 6 As an added bonus, watch as
Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam participates." [via
mefi projects]
posted by stet at 5:39 PM PST - 21 comments
"In humans, the categories of gay and straight are socially constructed.” Researchers are now revealing that animals may engage in same-sex couplings to diffuse social tensions, to better protect their young or to maintain fecundity when opposite-sex partners are unavailable—or simply because it is fun. These observations suggest to some that bisexuality is a natural state among animals, perhaps Homo sapiens included, despite the sexual-orientation boundaries most people take for granted
posted by plexi at 4:13 PM PST - 85 comments
Want to know what actions can have the biggest impact on your carbon emissions?
Bloom helps you choose actions tailored to your home and lifestyle, then lets you compare them by how much CO2 they save and how cheap they are. With
background guides for recycling, organic foods, energy ratings, and emissions. From the BBC.
posted by netbros at 4:19 AM PST - 15 comments
Strip searching 13 year old girls is bad mmmkay. Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in a 6-5 decision that students cannot be strip-searched based on the uncorroborated word of another student who is facing disciplinary punishment. In an even bigger twist, the court has found that the school official who ordered the strip search, Vice Principal Kerry Wilson, is financially liable in the case and cannot claim qualified immunity.
posted by Talez at 4:12 AM PST - 98 comments
July 12
Multicolr Search Lab With the Multicolr Search Lab, you can browse through 3 million of Flickr’s most interesting images images, and find ones that share the same colours. Choose up to 10 colours from our palette of 120 different shades.
posted by puke & cry at 9:21 PM PST - 8 comments
The Art Institute of Chicago's website has been revamped.
[T]he goal of this project was to integrate the site with their backend asset management system to allow users to browse the Museum's entire collection online. The changes are pleasing and highly functional.
viaposted by sluglicker at 5:38 PM PST - 17 comments
The Department of Homeland Security has
expressed interest [PDFs] in forcing all commercial airline passengers to wear a taser bracelet that can be used to incapacitate anyone on an airline. This
video, from the company that will produce the bracelets, explains how the bracelet would be put on the passenger at the point that they clear security, and would not be removed until they leave secure areas. It would take the place of boarding passes, carry personal and biometric information about the passengers, track and monitor every passenger via GPS and shock the wearer on command, immobilizing him or her for several minutes. DHS official, Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development is also excited about the possiblility of using it as an interrogation tool at airports. Ah freedom, who knew it smelled like burning flesh?
posted by dejah420 at 10:35 AM PST - 146 comments
Former White House spokesman
Tony Snow developed
colon cancer in February 2005 thanks to having suffered from
ulcerative colitis for much of his life; he died today from that ailment. Snow was a "Fox News Sunday" anchor, a Fox News Channel political analyst, a guest host for Rush Limbaugh's radio program, the host of Fox News Radio's "The Tony Snow Show", and a NPR commentator. Chief of Staff Josh Bolten told staffers that unless they could commit to staying the full remainder of Bush's term, they should leave by Labor Day 2007, prompting Snow's resignation (due to what he said were financial reasons), where he was succeeded by
Dana Perino. He played the guitar, saxophone and
flute and was in a band called Beats Workin'. "Bush's wavering conservatism has become an active concern among Republicans, who wish he would stop cowering under the bed and start fighting back against the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Wilson," said Snow in a column. "The newly passive George Bush has become something of an embarrassment."
posted by WCityMike at 8:06 AM PST - 125 comments
It was called the
Great Hurricane of
1938. The tradition of
naming Cyclones had yet not begun, and not since
1869 had a storm of such ferocity hit the US mainland. What had made it unusally unique was the
speed with which it had hit landfall, and the
damage that it caused in its wake. (
60 years on, and people can still recall the
frightening grip that it had on their lives for those few days.)
posted by hadjiboy at 3:31 AM PST - 20 comments
July 11
An Interactive Space Simulator "Smash planets together, introduce rogue stars, and build new worlds from spinning discs of debris. Fire a moon into a planet or destroy everything you've created with a super massive black hole. You can simulate and interact with our solar system: the 8 planets,160+ moons, and hundereds of asteroids, the nearest 1000 stars to our Sun, and our local group of galaxies."
[31Mb, Windows only, sorry, but see inside for similar Mac and Linux apps]posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:44 PM PST - 27 comments
An Interpreter Speaking Up for Migrants: Erik Camayd-Freixas is a professor and a legal translator who assisted in the fast-track trial and sentencing of the over 400 illegal immigrant workers in Postville, Iowa, who were arrested on criminal charges involving identity theft rather than the usual deportation proceedings. Unusually for a court interpreter, who maintain a strict code of impartiality and neutrality, Camayd-Freixas spoke out, writing "that the immigrant defendants whose words he translated, most of them villagers from Guatemala, did not fully understand the criminal charges they were facing or the rights most of them had waived."
posted by Forktine at 8:30 AM PST - 46 comments
Quebec Margarine War Ends! For 21 years Quebec has regulated the colour of margarine, insisting it be distinctly lighter or distinctly darker than butter... The stated reason has been to protect consumers from unscrupulous restaurateurs selling margarine as butter. The real reason was to protect the province's politically influential dairy industry.posted by KokuRyu at 1:05 AM PST - 59 comments
Slovenian compositions, mainly performed by solo singers (with piano or orchestra accompaniment) and by different orchestras and smaller vocal groups. The tracks are listed
here. Might I suggest you start with
Vinko Vodopivec and see if this the sort of thing you like?
posted by tellurian at 12:34 AM PST - 6 comments
July 10
"It's not just the American dollar that's losing value. The Environmental Protection Agency has decided that an American life isn't worth what it used to be. The
value of a statistical life is $6.9 million in today's dollars, the [EPA] reckoned in May -- a drop of nearly $1 million from just five years ago."
posted by ericb at 10:48 PM PST - 31 comments
Salman Rushdie is now
officially the Booker Prize's best-author. Rushdie's 1981 novel
Midnight's Children was
named Thursday as the greatest-ever winner of Britain's most prestigious literary award, in celebration of the prizes 40th anniversary. The only other time this award was given, on the 25th anniversary in 1993,
Midnight's Children also won.
posted by stbalbach at 12:29 PM PST - 33 comments
In Parentheses is a collection of many ancient, medieval and classic texts from all over the world, many of whom are hard to find anywhere, let alone on the internet. There are translations from
Greek,
Old Norse,
Medieval Irish,
Japanese,
Incan,
Old French,
Medieval Latin and many more! As well as all that they have
papers in medieval studies and
vaguely decadent and
orientalism series. Adding to that there's a
linguistics section with wordlists and language flash cards in languages such as
Icelandic,
Quechua,
Basque,
Classical Armenian and a whole bunch more.
[flashcard links go to pdf files]posted by Kattullus at 12:19 PM PST - 18 comments
In November 1943, the
village of Tyneham in Dorset, England, received an
unexpected letter from the War Department, informing residents that the area would soon be "cleared of all civilians" to make way for Army weapons training. A month later, the displaced villagers left a note on their church door:
Please treat the church and houses with care; we have given up our homes where many of us lived for generations to help win the war to keep men free. We shall return one day and thank you for treating the village kindly. Residents were told they would be allowed to reclaim their homes after the war, but that didn't happen, and Tyneham became a
ghost village. Though most of the cottages have been damaged or fallen into disrepair, the church and school have been preserved and restored. Photo galleries
1,
2,
3,
4. Panoramic
tour [Java required]. Video:
Death of a Village [YouTube, 9 mins.]posted by amyms at 11:11 AM PST - 20 comments
Pickens Plan -- oilman T. Boone Pickens has a plan to reduce America's oil dependency problem: exploit the country's massive windpower potential for domestic energy, replacing natural gas, and then use natural gas to power cars instead of foreign oil. Some
problems with the plan.
posted by Laugh_track at 10:59 AM PST - 41 comments
Enterprising kids in Connecticut spend a few weeks clearing weeds out of an empty lot, planning a halcyon summer of
wiffleball. They scavenge some plywood out of a dumpster, buy some paint, dig some holes, pour concrete, and next thing you know, they have their own custom built playing field. As one kid put it, "if we build it, they will come." But the outcome was
not what they expected.
posted by tractorfeed at 7:01 AM PST - 128 comments
July 9
Have Food Will Travel: Pearl River Delta is a travelogue teaser video from
Leonard Shek, a second generation Chinese American from San Francisco. Shek traveled to the Guangdong Province as part of the SF Chinese Culture Center's
In Search of Roots program. While the main purpose of the trips is for Chinese Americans to explore where their parents or grandparents came from, Shek wanted to explore the origins of the food he grew up with.
posted by spec80 at 10:09 AM PST - 2 comments
Blood on the Mountain; part 2. In 1981 Randall Smith killed two hikers along the
Appalachian Trail and served 15 years for second-degree murder. Two months ago Scott Johnston and Sean Farmer were camping along the trail when a man walked into their campsite. It was Randall Smith. And he was carrying a .22.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:34 AM PST - 76 comments
Inspired by such diverse influences as Pee-Wee's Playhouse to Frank Gehry and Warner Brothers Cartoons to Philippe Starck, Vancouver, BC based woodworker
Judson Beaumont's furniture is
whimsical yet fully functional and is suited for
children and
adults alike.
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:54 AM PST - 15 comments
The simple phrase
"it's different this time" are the four most expensive words in the English language.
Sir John Templeton,
1912-2008, we thank you for this lesson and countless others.
posted by Mutant at 3:48 AM PST - 67 comments
July 8
"Type designers know well that context, culture, and history shape the connotations of letterforms. . . . In fact, type plays a
starring role in the making of nations." A short but interesting look at typography and political identity from
Print magazine.
posted by camcgee at 4:03 PM PST - 9 comments
According to Ilechukwu, an epidemic of penis theft swept Nigeria between 1975 and 1977. Then there seemed to be a lull until 1990, when the stealing resurged. “Men could be seen in the streets of Lagos holding on to their genitalia either openly or discreetly with their hand in their pockets,” Ilechukwu wrote. “Women were also seen holding on to their breasts directly or discreetly, by crossing the hands across the chest. . . . Vigilance and anticipatory aggression were thought to be good prophylaxes. This led to further breakdown of law and order.” In a typical incident, someone would suddenly yell: Thief! My genitals are gone! Then a culprit would be identified, apprehended, and, often, killed.
posted by chunking express at 3:46 PM PST - 71 comments
Tod Browning's 1932 cinematic masterpiece
Freaks tells the story of a close-knit group of circus sideshow workers who are wronged and take revenge. The film's use of
real-life freaks so disturbed audiences that some ran screaming from theaters, distributors refused to handle the film, and it was banned in Britain for over 30 years.
posted by flug at 2:30 PM PST - 22 comments
Melting Greenland glacier water forms a "slow wave" that stays in the Atlantic for at least 50 years before reaching the Pacific, according to a new study. The water piles up in the Atlantic. "It is often assumed that sea levels will rise instantaneously, but that is unlikely, given what we know about ocean dynamics." Fifty years after the meltwater is released from Greenland, sea-level rise could be 30 times greater around Greenland and down the eastern side of North America, including the Gulf of Mexico, than in the Pacific Ocean. Sea-level rises in Europe are around six times that of the Pacific, but only a fifth as great as on the opposite shore of the Atlantic.
posted by stbalbach at 10:28 AM PST - 43 comments
"What we've invented is a way to induce charges on the wall using a power supply located on the robot....The robot carries with it positive and negative charges, and when the walls sees these charges it automatically generates the opposite charge. The robot can then clamp onto those charges." Scientists have
robots climbing the walls.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 4:43 AM PST - 29 comments
July 7
"...aside from the Devil, you have no enemy more venomous, more desperate, more bitter, than a true Jew... What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming.... First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians.... Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.... Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.... Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb." -- From
On the Jews and Their Lies, authored by the man
voted by his countrymen the second greatest German of all time, the theologian whose break with Rome began the Protestant Reformation,
Martin Luther.
posted by orthogonality at 9:54 PM PST - 87 comments
Hans Reiser leads police to the body of his wife. Software engineer Hans Reiser, who was convicted in the murder of his wife, Nina, long denied he killed her. His defense was based on the theory that she was hiding out in her native Russia and her body could not be found. Today, in a possible exchange for a shorter sentence he led police to the shallow grave of Nina Reiser, just a moment's drive from the house he lived in with his mother and two children.
Previously,
previously.
posted by parmanparman at 9:19 PM PST - 131 comments
"Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was in Denver, CO, today for a town hall meeting. The event, at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, was billed as '
open to the public.' Yet Carole Kreck, a 61-year-old librarian carrying a 'McCain=Bush' sign,
was taken away by police [on orders from McCain's security detail] for trespassing. A police officer told Kreck:
'You have two choices. You can keep your sign here and receive a ticket for trespassing, or you can remove the sign and stay in line and attend this town hall meeting.'
Kreck received a ticket for trespassing and her court date is July 23."
*.
Video of Kreck's encounter with the police.
posted by ericb at 5:24 PM PST - 171 comments
"Nobody in the antipoverty community and nobody in city leadership was going to welcome the news that the noble experiment that they’d been engaged in for the past decade had been bringing the city down, in ways they’d never expected. But the connection was too obvious to ignore, and Betts and Janikowski figured that the same thing must be happening all around the country."
American Murder Mystery.
Page 2.
Page 3.
Page 4.
posted by wittgenstein at 1:37 PM PST - 57 comments
Free Government is a directly-controlled, open-source, entirely transparent political "meta-party" in the United States that intends to field candidates guided exclusively by online polling and user-drafted bills.
Recruiting of candidates has already begun.
posted by setanor at 1:24 PM PST - 23 comments
In a 2001 University of Houston study of 153 survivors of nearly lethal attempts between the ages of 13 and 34, only 13 percent reported having contemplated their act for eight hours or longer. To the contrary, 70 percent set the interval between deciding to kill themselves and acting at less than an hour, including an astonishing 24 percent who pegged the interval at less than five minutes.
A surprising
article about the nature, methods, and deterrence of suicide.
posted by Who_Am_I at 11:41 AM PST - 68 comments
Dirk Valentine and the Fortress of Steam ...
The year is 1897. For five long years Europe has been ravaged by Baron Battenberg's Steam powered war machines. Led by Great Britain, a handful of defiant countries remain free of the Baron's tyrannical rule. But time is running out for them as his forces grow stronger every day. As dawn breaks high above the Atlantic, a tiny airship arrives at its secret destination. Onboard, Britain's greatest explorer, spy, and master of esoteric fighting arts readies to strike at the heart of the Baron's empire!posted by Dave Faris at 10:39 AM PST - 53 comments
I first encountered the concept of
forest gardening in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's
Herland (1915)
[relevant part pages 79-80]; the fictional race of women in her book have completely remade the forests to contain only beneficial and food-bearing plants, which live harmoniously together and replenish the soil naturally. This is
actually being done, less than a hundred years later.
More;
similar,
similar.
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:32 AM PST - 25 comments
For the first time in nearly a decade China is issuing new banknotes
without the image of Chairman Mao. Instead there's a picture of, you guessed it, their shiny new Olympic stadium. And a discus thrower
on the back.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:19 AM PST - 46 comments
The Weird-Ass Picture Book Awards, WAPB, are given to the books that make you go “Huhhh?” Awards are given for story, illustration, and cover art. The highest award goes to the picture book achieving outstanding weirdness in both illustration and text. The 2007 WAPBA went to The Fuchsia Is Now, by J. Otto Seibold, for its strange story and artwork. The interesting use of condoms as hats was clearly a deciding factor in this book’s selection. Dear Fish, by Chris Gall, won for both illustration and cover art. For storyline, My Father the Dog, by Elizabeth Bluemle, took the prize.
posted by Fizz at 7:14 AM PST - 18 comments
July 6
Poolga:
iPhone and iPod Touch wallpapers from a selection of designers and illustrators from around the world.
posted by defenestration at 8:35 PM PST - 26 comments
"The drug's effectiveness inspired an elegant theory, known as the chemical
hypothesis: Sadness is simply a lack of chemical happiness. The little blue pills cheer us
up because they give the brain what it has been missing.
There's only one problem with this theory of depression: it's almost certainly wrong, or at
the very least woefully incomplete."
How Prozac sent the science of depression in the wrong direction, from the Boston Globe.
posted by zardoz at 7:53 PM PST - 56 comments
September 14, 1998 "the Tan Canary" passes away. He started out as a gospel singer but went on to perform blues, soul, county, and jazz. In 1968 he covered the country standard
"Release Me" and it became a hit. His audience grew, but stardom outside of his home in New Orleans was not to be his.
posted by nola at 6:36 PM PST - 4 comments
The draft Garnaut Climate Change Review was released last Friday. This is the most comprehensive look so far at the economic implications of climate change and emissions trading for a developed country (Australia). Essential (but weighty) reading for those interested in the economics of the issue, a useful localisation of
Stern (2006).
posted by wilful at 5:16 PM PST - 18 comments
I Met the Walrus In 1969, 14-year-old Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. This is the whimsically animated film that Jerry has produced about the interview.
posted by milestogo at 2:31 PM PST - 26 comments
Jezebel.com editor on
why she hasn't been raped: "I think it has to do with the fact that I'm like smart. I don't hang around with frat guys" -- a quote from
Jezebelism: Lizz Winstead's interview with
Moe Tkacik and
Tracie Egan (aka
Slut Machine). Winstead's intent was "to have a conversation about Hillary and sexism, women’s magazines and if they feel any obligation to write about responsibility and safety when they write graphically about their sex lives." After the interview Winstead stated: "I don’t know if they came to the show drunk, or just ended up drunk by the time they hit the stage, but what I do know is that the discussion that ensued was deeply disturbing to me..."
posted by ericb at 1:56 PM PST - 181 comments
In the latter years of the second world war, the economist RA Radford was a prisoner of war. After the war ended, he wrote
this now well known (if you're an economist) article on the economic structures that emerged in the POW camps. (
JSTOR link)
posted by pharm at 7:37 AM PST - 20 comments
Remember
John Burstein? Since 1975, he has been educating children (including many of us!) about the human body and the importance of health and nutrition in a rather unique way. Like many superheroes before him, he dons a form-fitting suit and transforms into a shocking alter ego... the living anatomical reference,
Slim Goodbody!
posted by Mael Oui at 1:48 AM PST - 30 comments
July 5
Kids at school in nappies. Another report claims the average age of toilet-training is now 3 or 4, compared to the former norm of 18 months. Teachers don't want to change diapers; parents say they don't have time to toilet-train. Is our future a continuum of diapers to Depends?
posted by grounded at 8:57 PM PST - 70 comments
Living on the Edge Welcome to Ronda, a beautiful city in southern Spain which is split in two by el Tajo gorge. As a result, certain buildings have been perched on the edge of the gorge’s vertical walls, enormous cliffs bridged by the 200 year old Peunte Neuvo.posted by bwg at 5:21 PM PST - 12 comments
July 4
These are the documents that started it all.
The Charters of Freedom. As the USA celebrates another Independence Day, the National Archives presents the historical development of the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, and their impact upon the nation and the world.
posted by netbros at 5:38 AM PST - 56 comments
July 3
Twenty years ago this week,
the biggest escape ever over the Berlin Wall took place, but the
event went nearly unreported outside of the two Germanies. The 182 persons who jumped over the Wall in the early morning hours of 1 July 1988, instead of leaving East Germany,
fled in the opposite direction (
scroll down to "Wolfgang Ritter") to escape the West Berlin police. East German border guards waited with trucks on the other side of the Wall in the middle of the death strip to pick up the wall-hopping protesters; they were driven to another location, served breakfast, and then taken to the Friedrichsstrasse crossing to West Berlin with the admonition to "use the usual border crossing next time."
posted by sister nunchaku of love and mercy at 10:01 PM PST - 16 comments
The Book of Accidents: Designed for Young Children (1831). "In presenting to his little readers
The Book of Accidents, the Author conceives he cannot render a more important service to the rising generation and to parents, than by furnishing them with an account of the accidents to which Children, from their inexperience or carelessness, are liable. If generally studied it will save the lives of thousands, and relieve many families from the long and unavailing misery attendant on such occurrences."
[Via]posted by homunculus at 6:37 PM PST - 34 comments
The Travels of Franz Kafka , a website that chronicles the many places and social interactions of Franz. A photographic journal collection of his life as he traveled. For your enjoyment, today being the 125th Anniversary of Franz Kafka's birthday. Cheers.
posted by Fizz at 6:17 PM PST - 10 comments
Montreal Graffiti/Street artist
Roadsworth, who
was arrested in 2005 and faced up to 250 000$ in fines, is
back on the streets,
this time with a permit and a commission. Interestingly, the title of the new piece (which stretches across multiple intersections on downtown Sainte-Catherine street) is "Défense d'Afficher", which means "No Postering". It seems as though he's commenting on the role of art and advertisement in public space, but maybe that's just my take. Thoughts? For a more in-depth discussion, read
the Torontoist's article on graffiti), and for more examples, check out
Vandalist, the same blog's photostream of T.O. street art,
Streetsy, a great photoblog showing off various street art from around the world, and, of course, Flickr's
STREETART pool.
posted by rssaddict at 12:34 PM PST - 20 comments
Who? Only one of the supreme
German graphic artists of his time, that's all. Long an acknowledged influence among illustrators, animators and cartoonists, he is probably known primarily for a couple of
Dover Books collection of his sketchbook art that were published back in the 60s and are now hard to find.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 11:21 AM PST - 13 comments
Internet in Africa is more than just Nigerian spam. There are honest
African bloggers who fight corrupt government and police to go where mainstream journalists dare not. Compare their blogging experience with your own. Imagine the government calling you over the phone at night and questioning about a particular post you just wrote.
posted by Surfin' Bird at 11:13 AM PST - 13 comments
Prospect/Foreign Policy release their list of
the world's top public intellectuals(
full list). Number 1? The Islamic scholar
Fethullah Gulen.The rest of the top 10? The microfinancier Muhammad Yunus, the cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the writer Orhan Pamuk, the politician Aitzaz Ahsan, the evangelist Amr Khaled, the philosopher Abdolkarim Soroush, the philosopher Tariq Ramadan, the cultural theorist Mahmood Mamdani and activist Shirin Ebadi. Sense a theme? Yes, all Muslims.
This is a striking turnabout from
the 2005 poll topped by Chomsky, Eco and Dawkins.
What happened? Prospect Magazine
explains. The Turkish newspaper Zaman
weighs in. The UK's Independent
is outraged. Fethulah Gulen
defends himself.posted by vacapinta at 10:17 AM PST - 51 comments
This is utterly delightful: Tara Busch sings the first line from "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
backwards. Of course, you'll wanna check out how well she did it by watching it, um,
forwards. Yep, she nailed it. I think I'm in love.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:01 AM PST - 107 comments
'Bad is good as a mating strategy' (
NewScientist PDF |
plain text). "Nice guys knew it, now two studies have confirmed it: bad boys get the most girls." Being slightly evil ensures a prolific sex life according to a survey of more than 35,000 people in 57 countries. (
ABC News: Why Nice Guys Finish Last).
posted by stbalbach at 7:27 AM PST - 121 comments
Google has been ordered to turn over all of its electronic records of the videos watched by users on YouTube to Viacom. The 12 terabytes of data include records of every video watched by every user, including the user's login name (if any) and IP address. Google had complained that the disclosure would invade user's privacy, but this argument was blunted somewhat by Google's
earlier statement that IP Addresses are not, in and of themselves, personally identifying information. Google was also ordered to turn over certain other information, including its video classification database schema, but was not ordered to turn over information regarding videos marked as private, its source code, or its advertising database schema.
posted by The Bellman at 6:59 AM PST - 267 comments
July 2
‘Even to this day the diary has a slight aroma of cocoa,’ says Steve Dickinson about a
diary kept by his uncle Robert Dickinson while a prisoner at
Servigliano, an Italian war camp, in the 1940s. The diary has a cover made of old cocoa tins (hence the smell) with a broadcast aerial design incorporating the title 'Servigliano Calling.' It begins with his capture by the Germans in November 1941, and finishes, about six months before his death, in September 1944. Via
The Diary Junction blog.
posted by amyms at 8:54 PM PST - 14 comments
"He grew up in a ruthlessly discriminatory world -- a world in which segregation of the races was pervasive and taken for granted, where lynching was common, where the black man's inherent inferiority was proclaimed widely and wantonly.
Thurgood Marshall had the capacity to imagine a radically different world, the imaginative capacity to believe that such a world was possible, the strength to sustain that image in the mind's eye and the heart's longing, and the courage and ability to make that imagined world real."
Born July 2, 1908,
died January 25, 1993. Had he lived, he would have been
100 years old today.
posted by alms at 8:52 PM PST - 16 comments
Two years since Massachusetts instituted major statewide
healthcare reform, the
statistics are coming in.
340,000 residents, roughly half the state's previously uninsured, are now insured. The state says that
95% of its population is now covered, based on Department of Revenue estimates. However, a large portion of them are enrolled through state-subsidized insurance programs, and those program's rate of enrollment have far
outpaced estimates. This has led lawmakers to forsee a budget
shortfall. Premiums and co-pays are going
up, cigarette taxes have
increased, and a
cost control proposal is making its way through the legislature. Assessments
have been all over the map.
posted by Weebot at 3:28 PM PST - 79 comments
You may have read by now the official lie about this treatment, which is that it “simulates” the feeling of drowning. This is not the case. You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning—or, rather, being drowned, albeit slowly and under controlled conditions and at the mercy (or otherwise) of those who are applying the pressure.
Christopher Hitchens, Iraq War supporter, militant atheist, and now
volunteer subject of waterboarding. With
video.posted by orthogonality at 8:54 AM PST - 133 comments
Loading.Ready.Run is a group of people who make funny videos on the Internet. They're also giant geeks, which makes their material more obscure to most people, but more hilarious to me.
posted by aftermarketradio at 8:03 AM PST - 9 comments
2 July 1863, second day of
Gettysburg. Sickles has pulled his III Corps -- without orders -- off of Cemetery Ridge and positioned it a half mile in front of the rest of the Union lines. Longstreet smashes the hapless III Corps and its men are in full flight. Hancock rides back and forth inside the gaping hole left by Sickles. Below him, almost 2000 men of Wilcox's brigade are charging up the slope. They will gain a foothold on the ridge and be reinforced by Lee. As Longstreet pins down the Union left, Lee will roll up the center and right of the Northern army and chase them from the field. He will then march on and take Washington before turning north along the eastern seaboard. Lee will capture and burn Philadelphia and Boston in his March Along the Sea, chasing the Northern government from city to city until Lincoln finally sues for peace and the union is no more.
Suddenly, a line of blue-coated soldiers comes into Hancock's view. "My God, is this all the men here? Who are you?" "
1st Minnesota, sir." "See those colors?", says Hancock, pointing at the flags of the oncoming Confederates, "Take them."
posted by forrest at 5:45 AM PST - 82 comments
The
Green Dragon, a roller coaster at Greenwood Forest Park, a family 'attraction' in Wales, generates more power than it uses. How is this possible? It's all those stairs ...
posted by woodblock100 at 3:40 AM PST - 19 comments
Viewzi is a kind of metasearch tool built around 'views'. It's kind of the antiGoogle in that it's not so much for quick answers as for idle looking around, and it's all about the UI, but it's interesting and pretty and kind of fun. Beta, naturally, and fully buzzword compliant.
Flash haters will probably hate it. Usability people may have an aneurism. That's OK. [
via]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:20 AM PST - 9 comments
July 1
Character actor
Don S. Davis,
known for his portrayal of Dana Scully's father Captain Scully on
The X Files, Major Garland Briggs on
Twin Peaks, and Colonel George Hammond on
Stargate,
passed away Sunday at the age of 65. Even if you don't remember him from those roles, if you
take a look at his IMDB page, you will probably recognize him from something. He had a gift for taking stereotypical military roles and bringing a warmth and gentleness to them. One of his final roles was in the
Stargate movie
Continuum, which will premiere on DVD this month.
posted by rednikki at 9:38 PM PST - 68 comments
For over a thousand years, fishermen all over the world have been using
cormorants to help them fish in lakes and rivers. In Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan,
cormorant fishing on the
Nagara river has continued uninterrupted for the past 1,300 years. In
Guilin and
Yangshuo, China, cormorant birds are famous for fishing on the shallow
Lijiang River.
The islands of the Beaver Island archipelago in Northern Lake Michigan host what may be the densest concentration of the big, black diving birds on the continent, an estimated 50,000 that eat about 9 million pounds of fish from the surrounding waters from spring through fall. Fishermen and tourism interests want the state and federal governments to
cut the number of double-crested cormorants around the Beaver Island group by half, raising the ire of bird lovers and animal-rights activists who say the cormorants aren't at the root of the problem.
posted by mrducts at 9:11 PM PST - 13 comments
Early in July of 1895, a grand jury convened and returned an indictment against Michael Cleary of Ballyvadlea, Co. Tipperary, for the murder of his wife, Bridget.
Bridget Cleary had been set on fire and burned to death in the hearth of the Cleary house, in front of family and friends, because Michael Cleary said she was a
fairy changeling, and not his wife at all. That night, he sat for hours near a Kylenagranagh cairn with a silver knife, insisting the true Bridget would soon ride past on a white horse, and he could cut her bonds and set her free.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:34 PM PST - 22 comments
Happy 100th Birthday to SOS. “Send SOS,” one of the Titanic’s radio operators supposedly said to another after the famous ship struck that infamous iceberg. “It’s the new call and besides this may be your last chance to send it.”
That “new call” is 100 years old today... (via the J-Walk blog)posted by caddis at 12:10 PM PST - 27 comments
"Food Party is a (would-be) TV cooking show with a spicy saigon kitchen-witch as your hostess, a cast of unruly puppets as culinary advisors, and a cavalcade of hip-hop/sports world celebrities as surprise dinner guests. Shot on location in a technicolor cardboard kitchen, each episode will instruct you on how to prepare wild gourmet multi-course meals with ingredients you probably have on hand in your kitchen already, such as pretzel rods, cheese puffs, eggs, sugar, secret ingredients, and pizza. After all, you never know who might show up for dinner."
posted by cog_nate at 6:21 AM PST - 14 comments
Bicycle Lock / Planter This is a very simple invention. It is a big planter that you put in the waste of space at the front of your house and lock your bike to it. I had seen them popping up here and there in London but only found out today where they came from. Great video of the strength test - esp the freeze and then hit with a big hammer.
posted by priorpark17 at 2:32 AM PST - 44 comments
Mexican Aerophones are wind musical instruments or artifacts that can generate sounds or noise with air jets and one or several resonator chambers of globular, tubular and other shapes. Roberto Velasquez, a mechanical engineer, has
recreated some of these aerophones. Example sounds:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5 (.wav files)
posted by dhruva at 1:28 AM PST - 6 comments
