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Executive Excess 2006: Defense and Oil Executives Cash in on Conflict (PDF). A new study from United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies looks at who is making a killing from the war on terror (or whatever they're calling it this week.) Looking ahead, I better review my portfolio. [Via C&L.]
posted by homunculus at 11:11 PM PST - 23 comments

Ever wonder if that DVD commentary might put you to sleep? Well, wonder no more. Learn about the first, the worst, and find out what other people think are the best. Vote for your favorites, and add your own reviews. "The definitive commentary track database" is at your service. Link courtesy of Whedonesque.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:48 PM PST - 57 comments

The Internet and our social and psychological well-being : This older study correlates Internet use with declining social relationships and isolation. A more recent study (PDF) shows that the Internet has changed and positively affects social relationships.
posted by lpctstr; at 7:40 PM PST - 5 comments

Still in the uncanny valley? - a great attempt at photorealism.
posted by Gyan at 6:21 PM PST - 45 comments

Chaos Theory is a simple but highly addictive Japanese flash game where 50 blue orbs get launched into the air, and you have a single explosion you can trigger by clicking anywhere on the screen. Each orb caught in the blast explodes itself, creating a chain reaction. The goal is to catch as many of the blue orbs before gravity pulls them back to the ground. Each game lasts 3 rounds, with a maximum score of 150 total points. Click the dark blue Kanji script to begin the first round.This game is old, but I've not seen it posted here before
posted by jonson at 3:53 PM PST - 58 comments

The Deadly Deseret Chemical Depot is one of the scariest places on Earth, if you believe Alien Dave, which most people probably don't. Seen anomalous wildlife in Utah? Alien Dave wants to know about it. Need deprogramming? Dave's got you covered. But as for the chemical depot, its days as one of the biggest concentrations of chemical WMDs on the planet are numbered.
posted by owhydididoit at 3:50 PM PST - 21 comments

After the Romans left Britain was divided into a number of Celtic kingdoms that fought with each other and, increasingly, with the Germanic invaders we know as "Anglo-Saxons." The most famous alleged defender of Celtic Britain, of course, is King Arthur, but he's more myth than history. What catches my imagination is The Gododdin (Welsh original, by Aneurin), an epic lament for the band of men who gathered at Eiddyn (Edinburgh, main town of Gododdin) around the year 600 and headed south for a last-ditch battle against the Saxons at Catraeth (probably Catterick in northern Yorkshire), where they were wiped out. One contingent was from Elmet (Elfed in the poem), a kingdom that had been holding the line against the invaders in what's now Yorkshire; once Elmet was conquered, there was no stopping them. And all of this history was basic to the poetry of David Jones, one of the best unknown poets of the previous century, and important to one of the best known, Ted Hughes (book with photos). "Men went to Catraeth, familiar with laughter. The old, the young, the strong, the weak."
posted by languagehat at 3:28 PM PST - 31 comments

Online videos of philosophical lectures. Chomsky, Pinker, Dennet, Hofstadter, Searle, the Churchlands...
posted by Wolfdog at 3:07 PM PST - 7 comments

Frank Lloyd Wright in Half Life 2 a machima walkthrough of the Falling Water / Kaufmann House. (youtube) (higher res version - 57mb) (slightly more information)
posted by crunchland at 2:55 PM PST - 37 comments

Can you patent learning? Blackboard Inc. is granted a wide-ranging patent for its learning management system and immediately sues their rival, Desire2Learn. Opponents and documentarians have taken to creating this Wikipedia entry on the history of virtual learning environments.
posted by mattbucher at 2:00 PM PST - 28 comments

A slush fund for Bush, courtesy of Canada? The proposed softwood lumber deal, which would end the longstanding dispute over Canadian exports to the US, is being criticised for giving the White House $450 million, to be spent without congressional oversight.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 1:38 PM PST - 36 comments

You Asked For It. So you want to learn to fight? Train wisely. Here is how you do it. And here is how you do not. (Some video footage may be NSFW due violent fight footage. No fatalities.)
posted by tkchrist at 1:04 PM PST - 71 comments

I don't want to get all fanboy about the upcoming Transformers movie. Even if they did get Peter Cullen to reprise his role as the vox of semi-truck-autobot-leader Optimus Prime. I mean Michael Bay is directing it, people. However, perhaps it's possible Stan Bush could revamp his famous 'You Got the Touch' anthem. Couldn't be as bad as Mark Wahlberg's version (or John C. Reilly's dancing).
posted by bivouac at 12:40 PM PST - 76 comments

Wired thinks it’s time to talk about how media consolidation affects freedom of the press in America. Al Gore seems to think it's a problem almost as serious as Global Warming (and in some ways, a closely related one). So just who does own the media these days? Maybe it’s time for a return to the days when we expected a little more fairness in our news coverage.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:29 PM PST - 73 comments

Right up there with the Darrin Syndrome, the Cousin Oliver Effect is one of the most ridiculed devices in Sitcom-land. Until today, though, I didn’t know that Robbie Rist is still going strong.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:02 PM PST - 38 comments

The Nedelin disaster remains the most fatal catastrophe in the history of rocketry. On October 26, 1960 an R-16 ICBM designed by Mikhail Yangel accidentally ignited killing over 100 within moments. The incident remained in strict secrecy for thirty years until it was unearthed by James Oberg. The true casualty rate remains a mystery and Kazakhstan still sees more than its fair share of rocket mishaps.
posted by Alison at 10:53 AM PST - 16 comments

GRACE is fine-tuning our understanding of Earth's gravity. It also shows that Greenland's ice is melting, how the recent Sumatra earthquake changed the earth, and provides information on the world's oceans and climate.
posted by evening at 10:16 AM PST - 7 comments

Tom Cruise's baby just took a healthy crap. Now you can buy a unique bronze cast of it. (One assumes the family kept the original.) Has celebrity worship finally gone too far? I say, "no!"
posted by StrasbourgSecaucus at 9:30 AM PST - 57 comments

Kids, was your Mom or Dad sent to Iraq? Need some help coping with the separation anxiety? Never fear, it's the Maine National Guard to the rescue!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:22 AM PST - 52 comments

On Aug 15 a three year old Cincinnati-area boy Marcus Fiesel, was reported missing. The truth has finally come out. On August 4th Marcus's arms were tied behind his back, wrapped in a blanket and bound with packing tape, and was locked into a closet by his foster parents. The boy was dead when they returned from thier two day long trip on August 6th. The foster dad then took the boys body to a rural location and burned it, several times, and reported him missing, over a week later. They claimed innoence even while they moved to a new house just days after he went missing. Then the until the police found the body, not far from a remote house of one foster mother's family members. no national outlet has reported it, it's largely been ignored due to the renewed media obsession with JonBenet Ramsey. Was it that Marcus was a boy? That he was dark haired? Or that he was poor and in foster care?
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 7:46 AM PST - 90 comments

Remember this picture? Arguably the most famous flag raised since this one was, and apparently its now gone missing. And now the three firefighters who didn't know they were being photographed won't talk to the press about a flag appraised to be worth over $500K.
posted by allkindsoftime at 7:12 AM PST - 49 comments

All those things I can do. All those powers. And I couldn't even save him.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 6:28 AM PST - 26 comments

Once there was a redheaded man without eyes and without ears. He had no hair either, so that he was a redhead was just something they said. He could not speak, for he had no mouth. He had no nose either. He didn't even have arms or legs. He had no stomach either, and he had no back, and he had no spine, and no intestines of any kind. He didn't have anything at all. So it is hard to understand whom we are really talking about. So it is probably best not to talk about him any more. Note that the last two links are in Russian. [This is a copy of a post by Daniel Charms, at MetaChat.]
posted by misteraitch at 2:40 AM PST - 9 comments

He is the longest-serving Defense Secretary since Robert McNamara. He is a profound anti-nazi, anti-deadender, and anti-appeaser. He bends reality itself to his will. But do you know the secret Rumsfeld, poet, SCA laurel, and namesake of beetles?
posted by CCBC at 1:03 AM PST - 35 comments

Micorsoft has now opened up the xbox 360 to homebrew development via the XNA compatibility framework. Read the XNA "Team blog" for more.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 12:21 AM PST - 23 comments

Historical anatomy models were a marriage of art and science. From about the 13th to the 19th centuries, exquisite wax models were the state of the art. Florence's La Specola anatomical wax museum houses the works of master artists, such as Ercole Lelli, Anna Morandi, and Clemente Susini. The later years of wax models tended towards the grotesque: moulage and depictions of pathological conditions and physical anomalies. Due to the labor required and delicacy of wax models, papier-mâché became the favored production method in the 19th century, partly due to the ability to dissect the models. Over time, models became more stylized to protect the delicate sensibilities of the public. Today, models are again shocking the public with extreme realism.
posted by madamjujujive at 11:56 PM PST - 18 comments

Riding the rails in Russia And I thought my guitar took up some space on the bus...
posted by persona non grata at 11:01 PM PST - 17 comments

Is Canada ready for a gay prime minister? How about a hockey player? Or a former Harvard professor? After Paul Martin flamed out and took the Liberal Party with him, the Liberals have to choose a new party leader in December from a rather eccentric list of candidates. Place your bets, eh?
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:35 PM PST - 47 comments

Cathrine Chalmers creates photographs that explore our uneasy relationship with nature. Caterpillars devour a tomato. A praying mantis snacks upon one of those juicy worms, and then becomes a meal for a self-contented frog. Of course, praying mantises have their own curious cycle of life. Cockroaches masquerade as their more aesthetically pleasing cousins, or are sent to their deaths in grim mockeries of criminal executions. Short interview here. Not for the squeamish.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:30 PM PST - 8 comments

An open letter to John Warnock. "Please consider releasing eight to twelve core fonts into the public domain. The amount of revenue lost from a small core set of fonts surely can’t have a significant impact on Adobe’s bottom line."
posted by DrJohnEvans at 10:11 PM PST - 53 comments

Katrina: Money for Nothing? The United States received hundreds of millions in foreign aid last year, after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. But what happened to the money?
posted by js003 at 9:38 PM PST - 28 comments

Some kids under the "protection" of DSHS in Washington state have been murdered. Others have been sexually abused. DSHS doesn't want you to know this, and if you do, they want you to know that it's not their fault.
posted by leftcoastbob at 7:38 PM PST - 23 comments

Musicast turns your iTunes (mac only) into a music sharing server that conveniently spits out a podcast feed for your friends to subscribe and download all your mp3s from. Download this quick before the RIAA kills the server something might happen to this wonderful app.
posted by mathowie at 6:23 PM PST - 37 comments

Mandership is mostly concerned with graphic and industrial design, interface engineering, typography, semiotics, and visualization, but it's more. Learn about how the Declaration of Independence wound up in the Ukraine (did it?) a short history of telephone numbers, book spines, and of course simplicity of design. From the same folks who brought you the Optimus keyboard. (previously)
posted by jessamyn at 5:35 PM PST - 7 comments

I know who brought Leonardo's greatest drawings to Britain. I may not be a Harvard professor of religious symbology or know much about the bloodline of the Magdalene, but I do enjoy a mystery and so I set out to solve this one. And I succeeded. Final proof is elusive, always, but in this case the circumstantial evidence is so overwhelming, I think I've got my man."
posted by Len at 3:59 PM PST - 6 comments

Look Around You is an insanely funny BBC parody of 1970's educational programs filled with pure nonsensical lies clothed as facts & pitch perfect mimicry of the style of governmental approved childrens education television. Each of the entire first season's worth of 8 10-minute episodes can be viewed here and is highly recommended.
posted by jonson at 3:48 PM PST - 65 comments

Meet The Bloggers. New BBC Radio Four series begins this week which interviews prominant bloggers about their craft. First up Anna of little.red.boat and Annie of Going Underground. Full first programme and unedited interviews here. I think this is the first time a major network has dedicated a whole series to the topic and treated it with such seriousness and intelligence -- I particularly like the moments in which the prose is sonically illustrated.
posted by feelinglistless at 2:49 PM PST - 12 comments

That's Punksploitation!! Can punk rock episodes of old TV shows kill? Check out punk episodes from Quincy, CHiPs (Part 1 and Part 2), 21 Jump Street (Part 1 and Part 2), as well as the appearance of the Dickies on the Don Rickles sitcom, CPO Sharkey. Other prime vintage examples of media cluelessness on punk rock include a fashion show and a scaremongering Time magazine article, although a recent cookie commercial may revive the punksploitation genre.
posted by jonp72 at 1:35 PM PST - 55 comments

"Life is wise to deceive us," he once wrote, "for had it told us from the start what it had in store for us, we would refuse to be born." --Naguib Mahfouz, RIP --and more from when he won the Nobel in 1988
posted by amberglow at 1:15 PM PST - 20 comments

My Boy Jack. A heart wrenching story: "For Rudyard Kipling, the most famous author of the age, the carnage at Loos on the Western Front in September 1915 plunged him into inner darkness. His only son, John, for whom he had written his best-loved poem, If, had been killed in the action just six weeks after his 18th birthday." [more inside]
posted by marxchivist at 1:14 PM PST - 18 comments

The new GOP buzzword: Fascism. President Bush in recent days has recast the global war on terror into a "war against Islamic fascism." Fascism, in fact, seems to be the new buzz word for Republicans in an election season dominated by an unpopular war in Iraq. Donald H. Rumsfeld in a speech to an American Legion convention in Salt Lake City said [of his critics, they are] trying to appease "a new type of fascism."

Before it was "cut and run", which was tested using a focus group. On the Senate floor, Sen Hagel earlier decried the tactic: "Focus Group-Tested Buzz Words…Like ‘Cut and Run’…Debase the Seriousness of War." What will they come up with next?
posted by ArunK at 1:00 PM PST - 137 comments

Lie by Lie. The first installment in Mother Jones' timeline of the Iraq War (Warning: big Flash file, with instructions).
posted by kirkaracha at 11:47 AM PST - 35 comments

Sunrise, sunset. A recent Political ad for Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman (CT-CTFL) includes a few stock video clips featuring a sunset. After it receives a fairly negative response, however, his campaign manager seeks to define the ad differently. "It's actually a sunrise," Gerstein said. "It's very much a sunrise."
posted by mr.curmudgeon at 11:43 AM PST - 49 comments

Chris Creamer's sportslogos.net is a vast archive of current and historical sports logos from leagues large and small, brand new or defunct. Some of my favorite retro logos involve mascots (often anthropomorphized) performing sports-related activities. Of course, some were retired for good reasons.
posted by kyleg at 11:37 AM PST - 14 comments

Weirdest Instructional Music Video Ever. He is the chicken-picking, pop-locking, nunchuking avant-garde guitarist that is part giant robot and part Michael Myers. In his 15-year recording career, he has released over forty albums with the likes of Bootsy Collins, Bill Laswell, Iggy Pop, and Viggo Mortensen. His work under a pseudonym inspired William Gibson. He toured with Guns 'n' Roses and was offered a job by Ozzy but refused to perform without the bucket. His best conventional work may have been with Praxis, but his solo work is not to be ignored. His real name is Brian, but you can call him Buckethead. For your consideration 1 2 3 4.
posted by Pastabagel at 11:35 AM PST - 28 comments

Seventy-one-year-old enemy combatant released.
posted by EarBucket at 9:13 AM PST - 147 comments

Two Formula One builders are teaming up to build what will no doubt be the fastest hybrid on the planet. I was saving for a Prius, but I think I'll hold out for this one!
posted by jacob hauser at 8:59 AM PST - 29 comments

Winky-Dink and You is considered to be the world's first interactive television show. Originally broadcast from 1953 to 1957, show watchers drew items directly on the TV screen to help Winky-Dink out of jams. The show also introduced us to Mr. Bungle (but not this Mr. Bungle, who gave us this Mr. Bungle).
posted by Otis at 8:51 AM PST - 9 comments

Heck of a Job, Tommy! State Department investigators have found that Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, chairman of the State Department office that oversees foreign broadcasts misused his office for personal and political gain. Mr. Tomlinson’s position at the broadcasting board makes him one of the administration’s top officials overseeing public diplomacy and puts him in charge of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
posted by dejah420 at 8:24 AM PST - 21 comments

"'It's metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up.'" Louis Menand on the mercurial nature of Bob Dylan's interviews.
"Dylan's sound [is] 'very much like a dog with his leg caught in barbed wire.'" Nat Hentoff's profile of Dylan for the New Yorker from 1964.
posted by OmieWise at 7:27 AM PST - 32 comments

Forgotten vocabulary. Words and phrases from an earlier era, the early Nineteenth century. Some slang too. (via the Presurfer)
posted by caddis at 7:16 AM PST - 41 comments

There's a big storm in the pacific. They're calling it a Super Typhoon. It has winds of 160-185 miles per hour, and it's expected to completely submerge Wake Island. Happy Katrinaversary.
posted by 1-2punch at 7:15 AM PST - 38 comments

Now we're faced with a supposedly democratic Russia where the opposition parties are established, crushed, united, their leadership changed, all at the behest of the president. China, now clearly a capitalist state, albeit one without the democratic trimmings, still calls itself communist. Vietnam has gone much the same way.

Some things remain the same, though. America's still meddling in Latin America, just like it did during the Cold War. The US Army is also fighting a guerilla resistance in Iraq, its leaders apparently ignorant of the lessons of history, yet accusing others of exactly that. It's just like the 60s, when it was just as obvious who had learnt lessons and who hadn't.
posted by imperium at 2:00 AM PST - 47 comments

The Sole Survivor — Allen Boyd [Real Player interview] is the sixth and last surviving member of his family: the other five committed suicide. Is suicide genetic?
posted by cenoxo at 1:00 AM PST - 30 comments

Some folks really like it sweet. Some will start a six-year campaign to get it. Some blame Canada and France for not getting it, when it was perhaps better to blame the Swiss. Some want it healthy while others want the romance back. Some make it part of higher education, while others just want to get higher. Even vegans want in on the gooey action.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:49 AM PST - 20 comments

Doctor Larry Brilliant (mentioned before) spoke at TED this year, calling himself the "luckiest man in the world." He played witness to the last case of Smallpox, and played a significant role in making it the last case. Inspiring/terrifying video here, long, with some graphic images of smallpox.

Back in 1974, Brilliant's technique for early detection in India was to take graphic photos door to door, asking if anyone inside looks like this. Now, as head of Google's philanthropic efforts, he's advocating systems for "early detection, early response." Unsurprisingly, Google, etc, are an important piece of that system: can we detect what's happening before it can spread?

One of the first responses to Brilliant is up already, a means for doctors to immediately text epidemiological information straight into a global spatial database. It's a rough and promising start, and its fascinating that it's coming from the bottom up, instead of NGOs like the Red Cross.
posted by cloudscratcher at 12:24 AM PST - 17 comments

Humans are educated stupid because they are really dumb and cannot even comprehend the Gamecube programming code when our god Miyamoto explains it to them. $1,000.00 to one disproving the Gamecube. $100.00 for 1 MIT student found not playing Gamecube Cube. $500.00 for 1 MIT professor eating Gamecube. To be awarded after dessert.
posted by Effigy2000 at 12:07 AM PST - 34 comments

Newsfilter? [via] Former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage admits to spilling the Plame beans. This comes on the heels of an article in Newsweek outing Armitage as Novak's primary source. Wind up the echo chamber.... [more inside]
posted by Mr Stickfigure at 11:48 PM PST - 28 comments

“Of course brothers hafta be, you know, protective. [ZIP] Except for mine. I gotta be protective of him. Ugh, yeah. He’s married, three kids, but his wife is just a control freak.”
posted by delmoi at 10:46 PM PST - 26 comments

Write your name in Tengwar, the Elvish language/alphabet created by JRR Tolkien. You can work with Tengwar fonts based on Middle Earth languages and runes and see many examples of the script via a Google Image search. According to Tolkien, "there is quite a bit of linguistic wisdom in it." There are certainly websites devoted to his languages and thier history. And It took some thought and work to make the speech sound right in the movies.
posted by persona non grata at 10:18 PM PST - 27 comments

Inspired by a convention in 1999, First Day covers, and his grandfather's autograph collection, Jeremy Adolphson sends off 4x6 index cards to various artists with return postage, hoping for a doodle. 5 years on, he has sixty-five galleries (some NSFW) worth of art to share.
posted by divabat at 10:10 PM PST - 9 comments

Colour Player: at last, you can organize your music by its color.
posted by signal at 9:43 PM PST - 12 comments

Starship Dimensions: A Museum of Speculative Fiction inspired Spaceships - Click in the different zoom levels to compare starships.
posted by bob sarabia at 9:42 PM PST - 30 comments

Google is now offering PDFs of public domain books. Okay, this is a direct lift from Boing Boing but I figured it was too juicy for Metafilter to miss. On my first search I found An Historical Account of the Discovery and Education of a Savage Man, E. M. Itard's account (translated) of his experiences with Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron. What else is there, MeFiers?
posted by unSane at 9:40 PM PST - 55 comments

We've all got one... Almost everyone's got a song with a story - a song that's been ruined by something awful associated with it. This site is the place to share your story...
posted by blaneyphoto at 9:12 PM PST - 42 comments

"A Hydrogen Atom is only about a ten millionth of a millimeter in diameter, but the proton in the middle is a hundred thousand times smaller, and the electron whizzing around the outside is a thousand times smaller than THAT. The rest of the atom is empty. I tried to picture it, and I couldn't. So I put together this page - and I still can't picture it." Awesome illustration on perspective and particles - *warning* very wide page, may be dangerous to your browser. Also, the relative size of planets (via the always interesting 37signals blog.)
posted by rsanheim at 8:52 PM PST - 26 comments

Grigory Perelman, awarded the Fields Medal for his work on the Poincare Conjecture, talks to the New Yorker.
posted by Gyan at 8:36 PM PST - 17 comments

Ancient walls built as a defence against marauders provide a rich source of pickings for relic hunters (a photo essay).
posted by tellurian at 6:19 PM PST - 11 comments

Youtubefilter: William Shatner gets roasted by the likes of Betty White, George "Sulu" Takei, Jeffrey Ross, and Lisa Lampanelli. Not to be outdone, Kirk responds.
posted by bardic at 6:12 PM PST - 37 comments

Most wanted polygamist captured. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints^ split from the mainstream Mormon church when the latter banned polygamy early last century. Their leader has been on the FBI top ten most wanted list for alleged sexual conduct with a minor, and has been captured outside of Sin City. On Meta previously the whole thing never the less makes for some interesting reading.
posted by bystander at 5:53 PM PST - 57 comments

JuggleThis.net. Soooo many video clips of people juggling. My favorite so far: lots and lots of footage of casual backstage juggling from some convention (45Mb .mpg file).
posted by staggernation at 5:25 PM PST - 8 comments

If you love gourds but can't stand their gourdly shapes, then Dan Ladd is the artist for you. By snatching young gourds from their parents & stuffing them into unyielding molds, Dan ends up with remarkable natural shapes, organically grown sculptures that bear amazing details.
posted by jonson at 3:44 PM PST - 27 comments

What Would Jerry Do? German neighborhood evicts family for praying too loud. The U.S. State Department is critical of the level of religious freedom in Germany. But would a land nearly free of Scientologists and intolerant of overt displays really be so bad?
posted by Mayor Curley at 2:02 PM PST - 40 comments

The New York Times doesn't want people in Britain to read this article (try to access it from a British IP address and you'll get an error message). Of course, this is the web, stupid (scroll down to read it).
posted by reklaw at 2:02 PM PST - 42 comments

In less than a month the cabaret, which at first had welcomed all modern tendencies in the arts and hoped to entertain and educate the customer, had turned into a theater of the absurd. That was the intention. "What we are celebrating," Ball wrote in his diary, "is both buffoonery and a requiem mass."The scandal spread. Lenin, who played chess with Tzara, wanted to know what Dada was all about. (Previously 1, 2, 3)
posted by anotherpanacea at 1:05 PM PST - 10 comments

Leonard Nimoy ...photographer. (Many images may not be safe for work.)
posted by loquacious at 12:48 PM PST - 42 comments

1,100 Apple II games you can play online. If you are too overwhelmed by your memories to know what to play, some playable classics: Oregon Trail*, Ultima IV*, Archon*, Captain Goodnight and the Islands of Fear*, Drol*, Wings of Fury*, Choplifter *, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?* and Taipan*. Or you can play the first game mod in history: Castle Smurfenstein, a modification of the 1983 original Castle Wolfenstein. What did I miss? [Young whippersnappers can click the asterisks to find out why the game was important. Use the left and right alt keys for joystick buttons, the other instructions are on the site. Emulator only works with IE, sorry. See also this.]
posted by blahblahblah at 12:17 PM PST - 98 comments

Keep your distance. Avoid eye contact. And even if it looks cute, never hug a Swiss cow. With helpful warning poster (PDF).
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:47 AM PST - 41 comments

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL has completed their 1000th radio show. Part 1. Part 2. Some of the early 80s shows.
posted by sohcahtoa at 11:45 AM PST - 6 comments

Don Nelson, the second-winningest coach in NBA history, is back to coach the Golden State Warriors again. Excecutive VP, Chris Mullen who played under Nelson at Golden State re-hired him after parting ways with former Stanford coach, Mike Montgomery who was their ninth coach in the past 12 seasons since Nelson's departure.
posted by pwb503 at 11:43 AM PST - 15 comments

How Much is a Seat on the Security Council Worth? Foreign Aid and Bribery at the United Nations. A paper from a doctoral student at the Harvard Business School, and an employee of the National Bureau of Economic Research has found a correlation between serving on the United Nations Security Council, and the amount of aid received from the United States and the UN. The paper will be printed in an upcoming edition of the Journal of Political Economy. From the abstract: "Ten of the fifteen seats on the U.N. Security Council are held by rotating members serving two-year terms. We find that a country’s U.S. aid increases by 59 percent and its U.N. aid by 8 percent when it rotates onto the council. This effect increases during years in which key diplomatic events take place (when members’ votes should be especially valuable) and the timing of the effect closely tracks a country’s election to, and exit from, the council. Finally, the U.N. results appear to be driven by UNICEF, an organization over which the United States has historically exerted great control." The Harvard Business School working paper can be found here. Commentary from Steven Levitt (the co-author of Freakonomics) can be found here.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 10:24 AM PST - 17 comments

Did he laugh?
posted by dov3 at 10:08 AM PST - 56 comments

The Ecology of Magic is the abbreviated first chapter of David Abram's Spell of the Sensuous. Abram explores the intersection of phenomenology, synesthesia and linguistics to discover the magic of the alphabet, the sacred winds, and ultimately, the root of animism. Abram finds the locus of these superstitions not in an imagined metaphysical sphere, but rooted in our sensuous experience of the world around us. He attributes much of our cavalier attitude towards our environment to our separation from our own experience, and ultimately, our loss of magic. "The fate of the earth depends on a return to our senses."
posted by jefgodesky at 9:44 AM PST - 21 comments

Oh God, please never let the NYT review of my latest novel never start like this: Every few years, as a reviewer, one encounters a novel whose ineptitudes are so many in number, and so thoroughgoing, that to explain them fully would produce a text that exceeded the novel itself in both length and interest. Lately it seems the book reviewers at the NYT--including Michiko Kakutani, on Jonathan Franzen's latest ("Just why anyone would be interested in pages and pages about this unhappy relationship or the self-important and self-promoting contents of Mr. Franzen’s mind remains something of a mystery")--have been pulling out all the stops. Poor Irvine Welsh (?).
posted by gottabefunky at 9:21 AM PST - 60 comments

However interesting your life is, it probably pales in comparison to Moondog. A homeless, blind composer who transcribed in braille, he went from a career as a street corner musician in New York, to sitting in Carnegie Hall for rehersals at the invitation of Artur Rodzinski, he was invited to Germany and wrote a symphony for four conductors: "The Overtone Tree", he was covered by Janis Joplin and worked with Julie Andrews. (mi)
posted by 1f2frfbf at 9:14 AM PST - 13 comments

Warren Ellis quoting someone else's blog: "What with the Washington State Supreme Court handing down its anti-gay-marriage decision several weeks ago and the ever-hearing more about attacks on reproductive rights down south, I’m feeling that the States is tripping a bit too merrily down the Handmaid’s path. This week, I found a way to strike back".
posted by Shanachie at 8:08 AM PST - 131 comments

Whistleblower uses YouTube to out key coup co-conspirator, Lockheed Martin, contracted to prepare coast a guard fleet to be easily compromised by...who knows? Terrorists? Is this glaring, bumbling private-sector incompetance, or very competant, efficient planning for a fall back to such an explanation should something occur? Either way, pretty clear who's in cahoots and not a ringing endorsement for the virtues of the private sector. Let's see if some government oversight can do something about it (not holding my breath) now that the whistleblower's statement is on you tube. Washington Post:On YouTube, Charges of Security Flaws
posted by Unregistered User at 7:36 AM PST - 58 comments

Design Times Square: The Urban Forest Project "brings 185 banners created by the world’s most celebrated designers, artists, photographers and illustrators to New York’s Times Square. Each banner uses the form of the tree, or a metaphor for the tree, to make a powerful visual statement. Together they create a forest of thought-provoking images at one of the world’s busiest, most energetic, and emphatically urban intersections." Including work by Milton Glaser, the Walker Art Center, and many, many others. Via Speak Up.
posted by tpl1212 at 5:58 AM PST - 9 comments

Scientology nearly ready to unveil "super power."
posted by tranquileye at 5:31 AM PST - 95 comments

Hey, Chinabounder ... There's 14,608,512 guys outside wanna have a chat with you! A self-described Western scoundrel in Shanghai [racey text] seems to be creating the biggest backlash against foreign devils since the Boxer Rebellion. Said to be an expat English tutor, he's been seducing women and writing up lurid accounts on his blog and shocking the indignant and conservative populace. Now there's a growing effort to track him down as the drama unfolds.
posted by RavinDave at 5:04 AM PST - 51 comments

Oops: Impostor scams Louisiana officials Burned by the yes men. A prankster poses as a HUD honcho and promises NOT to destroy perfectly good housing projects slated for demolition. later, the prankster explained: The New Orleans projects are sturdily constructed brick buildings that, nevertheless, are slated for demolition, he said. "Basically, the real reason, of course, is they want to develop New Orleans into something pleasing to tourists -- even more pleasing." Video here. Wikipedia has info on more of their exploits. My favorite was the bhopal fiasco.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 4:39 AM PST - 19 comments

The Skeptiseum displays nine exhibits featuring over a hundred specimens. It is supported by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, the group responsible for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. The John Zaffis Museum of the Paranormal, on the other hand, is a creepy little collection with plenty of provocative pieces. John Zaffis, the curator, also runs the Paranormal Research Society of New England, where he offers his services as a ghostbuster, as well as handy tips for the DIY crowd. So, who's got more cred?
posted by owhydididoit at 11:02 PM PST - 9 comments

HornMassive.
posted by bigmusic at 8:38 PM PST - 26 comments

My Secret Elephant is my favourite work by Japanese-Canadian artist Yuka Yamaguchi. She has a way of making flayed flesh disturbingly cute. [mildly nsfw]
posted by Dag Maggot at 6:22 PM PST - 35 comments

Young Folks in the city playing kids' games with expensive toys. Or you can get budget version, for those who just prefer to whack each other. Who exactly does this sort of thing? It's getting more popular.
posted by ®@ at 6:08 PM PST - 13 comments

Wizbang sez that the levy in New Orleans that broke during Katrina was going to break even without a hurricane, and that the Corps of Engineers knew it and suppressed evidence of it until just recently.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 4:56 PM PST - 70 comments

Amazing photoseries of 70 foot storm waves crushing the surface of a large tanker in the North Pacific. More on the post-storm damage here.
posted by jonson at 3:40 PM PST - 35 comments

Half of IT managers admit to hating their users... a lot. - But it's ok, because the users hate IT too. No, they really hate IT. Perhaps IT isn't meeting customer demands. And it isn't like either side's attitudes have changed much over time (July 2001).
In the long term, it simply may never work out between IT and the users. After all, IT support is just like any other customer service job. And we all know customers suck enough for people to start web pages about it... again and again.
posted by smallerdemon at 3:33 PM PST - 60 comments

Archy and mehitabel. Written by Don Marquis, illustrated by George Herriman. Aside from being a cockroach, Archy was also the reincarnation of a vers libre (free verse) poet. He made himself known to Marquis by jumping up and down on the keyboard all night, so the columnist would find his work the following morning. Once portrayed by Carol Channing. Recently annotated.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:32 PM PST - 22 comments

United States authorities have dropped all charges against the man accused of murdering child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey after a DNA test showed his DNA does not match that found on JonBenet's body.
posted by Second Account For Making Jokey Comments at 3:14 PM PST - 89 comments

Please pick a random number between 1 and 100 (Explanation follows after filling out a short form.)
posted by kika at 3:08 PM PST - 146 comments

Your daily dose of perception-bending. Stare at the center of this video (wmv or flash) for a minute or two then look away from the screen at your surroundings. You'll experience an interesting and somewhat disconcerting effect. Not appropriate for anyone prone to headaches or seizures.
posted by brain_drain at 1:31 PM PST - 51 comments

Software Pop Idol If you're a software developer, what happens when you run out of ideas? You ask the community of course! Then you sort, rate and have the ideas voted on. Make it a contest and give away prizes. And that's exactly what the Mac Programmers behind My Dream App have done. Entries are due by Sept 1st. Rules here. Idea Submission form here.
posted by filmgeek at 12:52 PM PST - 19 comments

Calvin and Hobbes rarities, including some comic panels Watterson drew of himself with Calvin. From Platypus Comix which also has a nice Bloom County lost strips page. Perhaps the most thorough Calvin museum comes from our own ktoad. Find speeches and articles and a root source for most of Watterson's rare art.
posted by caddis at 12:03 PM PST - 48 comments

It's the Privacy International Stupid Security Competition 2006. Human rights group Privacy International (who also hand out annual Big Brother awards have launched the 2006 Stupid Security Competition. Following on from 2003's awards (also here) where everyone from T Mobile UK, the Australian Government to Philadelphia International Airport won with displays of idiocy, what will the results of the past three years of press and government hyperbole and lies, amongst many other things bring?
posted by TheDonF at 11:34 AM PST - 7 comments

The Philosophy of Liberty. Briefly cited here, this simple yet powerful Flash animation is one of the most elegant, expressive, and dramatic political statements I have ever seen.
posted by By The Grace of God at 11:33 AM PST - 87 comments

Benjamin B. Ferencz, a chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg war crimes trials, believes that President Bush should be put on trial. Mr. Ferencz previously discussed the War On Terror shortly after 9/11.
posted by EarBucket at 11:32 AM PST - 20 comments

Ever worry you're not having enough surreal experiences every day? Don't fret, today's Mascot Monday!
posted by kyleg at 11:26 AM PST - 13 comments

The Wizard of Oil Some well-done Photoshop fun to start the week - "Somewhere under the radar, way down low. There's a land that I heard of once, where the oil still flows. Somewhere under the radar, folks are screwed. And the schemes that you dare to scheme really do come through. One day I wrecked the family car, and daddy and my mummy Bar remind me, Of my troubles taking acid drops, the night they had to call the cops, And then they fined me. Somewhere under the radar, I'll get high. Drink Rye under the radar, Try, oh yes I'll still try Why, why must I be dry?
posted by jackspace at 10:36 AM PST - 12 comments

Anyone interested in climate change or is still wondering about it's potential effects and possible solutions should check out this must-read Special Issue of Scientific American. Here is a freebie article they have posted online called A Climate Repair Manual.
posted by jacob hauser at 10:33 AM PST - 11 comments

Gay Gamers! A videogame site for the rest of us. Don't miss the top 20 gayest videogame characters of all time. (Though cross-dressing, hot tubbing-with-all-the-boys Cloud from FF7 should be in there somewhere, I'm thinking).Possibly NSFW in a pixel-y sort of way.
posted by WolfDaddy at 10:14 AM PST - 37 comments

“Snow-bo:” The heartwarming story of a young child and his wintry friend. One of its creators, Vera Brosgol, also authored a brilliant--but, sadly, incomplete--webcomic called Return To Sender.
posted by Iridic at 10:10 AM PST - 4 comments

Two U.S. (not dual) citizens refused entry into their own country. Backhanded attempt at removing citizenship, or just another foolish way to remove oversight from potential terrorists?
posted by Kickstart70 at 9:58 AM PST - 46 comments

From the guy who brought you the Whitewater scandal and the impeachment of President Clinton for lying about oval antics in the Oral Office, a legal push to make the Supreme Court just say no to "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." Ken Starr's petition to the Court [PDF] makes clear that Starr believes this is no laughing matter, but a chance for the Court to make a landmark ruling that will give school adminstrators the power to limit student speech: "This case presents the Court with a much-needed opportunity to resolve a sharp conflict among federal courts (and to eliminate confusion on the part of school boards, administrators, teachers, and students) over whether the First Amendment permits regulation of student speech when such speech is advocating or making light of illegal substances."
posted by digaman at 9:46 AM PST - 131 comments

There's a new site, just up and running, that aims to be the YouTube of How-To. Not exactly overflowing with clips just yet, but it could perhaps become a handy web resource, if people really start uploading stuff, and if the folks running it keep pumping out the in-house productions that so far comprise the majority of the site's content. Anyway, it's already the place to go if you want a tutorial on how to make a California roll, or how to hang a door. And if nothing else, some of these clips are just screaming for a mashup treatment. They're calling it VideoJug.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:12 AM PST - 51 comments

Transcriptions of every opening credit sequence answering machine message from all six seasons of the Rockford Files.
posted by sourwookie at 7:08 AM PST - 23 comments

Loathe as I am to add to the centennial ubiquity of the late laureate, I can't help but wonder: who is the Betjemaniac prankster Mme de Harben? And why does she think that biographer AN Wilson is a shit?
posted by jack_mo at 7:06 AM PST - 10 comments

Sewers of Canada Many pictures of Great Canadian Drains.
posted by GuyZero at 6:29 AM PST - 13 comments

"It’s a cliché among hikers that there are as many ways to hike the trail as there are people who hike it. Most start at Springer Mountain in Georgia and end at Katahdin in Maine; a few start in Maine and head south. Purists walk every 2,167.1 miles of the trail marked by white rectangular blazes painted on the trees. Blue blazers take short cuts on side trails marked with blue. Yellow blazers hitchhike ahead along roads. And then there are the pink blazers. Pink blazers pursue women."
posted by jessamyn at 6:14 AM PST - 155 comments

Little Citadels. "Dine, shop, live, work, and be entertained in a unique and alluring environment," says the Time Warner Center website - all without ever stepping outside your gleaming Manhattan skyscraper. San Jose's Santana Row, which at first glance seemed no more than a Beverly Center you can live in, is now being compared favorably to urban European living. And MGM-Mirage's new, mysterious and costly ($7 billion!) Project CityCenter brings the trend to Las Vegas - with gambling, of course. They're not Arcosantis - and they don't, as yet, require an Oath of Fealty - but by all accounts they're thriving. What do they have in common? Wealthy tenants, megacorporate sponsors, and a shared desire to integrate efficient, conspicuous consumption into every aspect of civic life. Paolo Soleri may have been right after all - maybe he just forgot to account for the effects of capitalism.
posted by ikkyu2 at 5:43 AM PST - 24 comments

Eject! Eject! Eject! Whether used in the air, on land, at sea (and under it), or on the way to the Moon, ejection seats and capsules have saved thousands of aviators worldwide. The basic concept was first tested in 1912, developed by the Germans in WWII, and became standard safety equipment in high-speed, high-altitude jet and rocket aircraft. (Although ejection seats were in Gemini spacecraft, they were only in early Space Shuttle flights.) Much happens very quickly during ejection, and harrowing accidents and pilot deaths still occur. The decision not to eject right away may be heroic, but even pilots who wait may live while innocent bystanders^{^} die. However, the efforts of dedicated researchers and rocket sled testing by seat manufacturers keep adding new members to the unique club of men and women who survive to fly again.
posted by cenoxo at 12:45 AM PST - 21 comments

Canon Short Courses: Learn how to wave goodbye, chew gum, pickup a hammer, and perhaps most challenging, use a doorbell. Because Canon cares.
posted by oxford blue at 12:01 AM PST - 18 comments

The number of communicating alien civilizations = R^* x f_p x n_e x f_l x f_i x f_c x L. The formula is the Drake Equation, and modern estimates range from several thousand to none but us. You can solve it yourself. What is your estimate of the number of alien civilizations out there?
posted by blahblahblah at 10:11 PM PST - 88 comments

"Over the years, I've tried various sorts of infusions, with vodka and other liquors. Fruit and herb-infused are the best known, and are often wonderful. But what I like is meat. Where's the infusion for people like me? I felt disenfranchised, and alone, especially after some research on the interwebs revealed a real lack of meat-based liqueurs. It would be up to me to blaze the trail."
posted by the duck by the oboe at 9:50 PM PST - 44 comments

Medical maggots are available only by prescription in the US and the UK. Eclipsed by the discovery of penicillin, maggots now may turn out to be effective when anitbiotics stop working. Although the FDA hasn't yet decided exactly how to classify maggots, they are generally considered to be medical devices. The BTER Foundation (BioTherapeutics Education and Research) offers maggot therapy workshops, but no special certification is currently required to use them. As beneficial as they are, their use is not always indicated. And when they showed up on their own in a subacute care facility in Chicago, the patient sued for "at least $50,000".
posted by owhydididoit at 9:30 PM PST - 10 comments

The dangers of Jiffy Lube in which the average customer pays for services never rendered. (.asx video)
posted by The Jesse Helms at 9:22 PM PST - 43 comments

One of the most famous characters on youtube is lonelygirl15 (this link being the most comprehensive summary of her story I've seen). Virginia Hefferton of the NY Times is one of the countless people trying to unravel the mystery of whether her video blogs are the ramblings of a cute homeschooled girl and her nerdy crush, or part of a larger marketing campaign.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:20 PM PST - 90 comments

Ayten Ahmet is a 16 year old girl who wants to win the Miss Teen Australia Beauty pageant [some links here possibly NSFW]. The problem is some of Australia's Muslim leaders, such as Melbourne cleric Sheik Mohammed Omran, have branded her entry into the competition as a "slur on Islam". Ayten doesn't know what all the fuss is about, saying "As long as you present yourself well, respect yourself and respect others, that's what's important. Religion's not an issue." [more inside]
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:22 PM PST - 39 comments

From this collection of framed art made only from the wings of African butterflies to Jan Fabre's beetle shell encrusted sculptures, the centuries-long war between artists their tiny insect enemies continues unabated. But never have I seen a more massive salvo for the artist community than "Terrible Beauty", an installation by Jennifer Angus. Featuring over fifteen thousand insects from the artist's personal collection (!), the exhibit features a series of rooms with textile geometric patterns on the wall created entirely by pinned insects of various forms, hues & sizes. All info on the amazing war between artists & insects found via the amazing Museum of Dust
posted by jonson at 2:49 PM PST - 7 comments

"Ever since I got certified to perform euthanasias I have been having crazy dreams where basically I'm just killing everything. I don't really know how to deal with it." Tales of your Local Animal Shelter. Of particular interest is the four phases of rescue.
posted by hindmost at 1:26 PM PST - 14 comments

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980)
posted by StopMakingSense at 11:29 AM PST - 28 comments

That's the Sound of the Man Working on the Chain Gang Among all genres of American folk music, prison songs may be the most viscerally compelling. They evolved from plantation songs and field hollers of slaves in the American South before the civil war (whose origins can in turn be traced to patterns found in the music of West Africa) but their tone and content is quite different. Limitless in length, bitter and pained, offering little hope of freedom or redemption, these songs were first heard during Reconstruction. Harsh and unevenly enforced laws incarcerated legions of black American men, consigning them to long sentences of labor for minor offenses like insult, fistfighting, and shoplifting. To shore up a tanking Southern economy, prisons leased convict labor to plantation owners as a low-cost replacement for slave labor. When reform efforts brought that to an end, state governments became the contractors. Sweetheart deals awarded lucrative contracts to prisons to provide labor for rebuilding the railroads and highways of the war-destroyed South. Slavery in all but name, these work conditions gave rise to a body of music that is one of the most significant antecedents of the blues. In hundreds of variants, cadenced to axe-fall, hoe stroke, or the drop of a maul, the songs set a working pace a man could sustain from dawn to dusk, while remaining fast enough to satisfy an armed 'Captain' on horseback.
posted by Miko at 11:21 AM PST - 33 comments

Enzyme reactions use quantum tunneling. British scientists have apparently solved the question of how enzymes speed up atomic reactions -- through a quantum tunneling effect at the reaction site. Just when you thought biology couldn't get any cooler. [via]
posted by spiderwire at 10:12 AM PST - 22 comments

Raves not dead! The British subculture the government tried so hard to kill is alive and well in Cornwall and Essex.
posted by Artw at 7:29 AM PST - 74 comments

Dub Selector - a flash based dub...sampler toy thingie. 9 tracks to play with.
posted by Bugbread at 5:44 AM PST - 19 comments

Randi Rhodes is the MC at the mainstage at 4:20 Seattle Hemp Fest 2006 I knew you were cool Randi! Also, Dr.Bob Melameda explains why humans need marijuana to fuction properly.
posted by augustweed at 11:15 PM PST - 74 comments

Jesus would run Ubuntu So all I have to do is take a copy of Ubuntu, add in a couple apps, and I too can start peddling mugs, tshirts, ballcaps, etc. using their trademarks? I guess so. I must be getting too used to Apple putting the smack-down on everyone lately, or something...
posted by jimjam at 10:54 PM PST - 30 comments

YaleShmale "Graduating from an Ivy League university doesn't necessarily mean you're smart." The pitch certainly proves the point.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 10:33 PM PST - 29 comments

Some online journals, such as Ecology and Society, operate independently. Others are hosted collectively by interests like Copernicus Publications. Online peer review is becoming popular.
posted by owhydididoit at 9:16 PM PST - 7 comments

The Bushi-Nenge of French Guiana and Surinam (Bush Negroes or Maroons) are a unique, and little-known group of peoples (Boni or Aluku, Saramaca, Ndyuka) who escaped from Dutch plantations in the early 1700's, who battled for independence which was recognized through various treaties -- notably by the Treaty of Albina which France and the Netherlands signed in 1860 (I can't find any info on the net), and who still live an African-type life largely based around the Maroni River between French Guiana and Suriname, as citizens of either one country or the other. Their language is Sranan Tongo (a mixture of African Languages, English, Dutch, Portuguese and Hebrew -- also known as Taki-Taki -- click for a listen). Historical and scholarly works are scarce, but they exist (In English but mostly in Dutch or French). Some pictures of typical houses. Symbolic Woodwork. More art. Images of the people of French Guyana. Images of various canoes in French Guiana. More photos of the Maroni River. Amazonie Francaise.
posted by pwedza at 9:16 PM PST - 11 comments

Psychiatry by Prescription - Do psychotropic drugs blur the boundaries between illness and health?
posted by Gyan at 7:54 PM PST - 39 comments

American Coup D'Etat. Will the most powerful and well-funded institution on the planet remain under civilian command indefinitely? As the domestic spying saga unfolds and militarism rises, Harper's brought four experts - both academics and brass - to discuss the possibilities.

"To subdue America entirely, the only route remaining would be to seize the machinery of state itself, to steer it toward malign ends—to carry out, that is, a coup d'état."

(See also The Origins of the Military Coup of 2012 [previous])
posted by trinarian at 7:37 PM PST - 29 comments

We shall not be trilled , "The voice of the unusual bird is heard, In the pipe of the breathing floor:" , did you know victor the budgie (previous meta thread) has started his own church ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:57 PM PST - 15 comments

Liberals 'Crush Dissent' because they are sinful, and shouldn't be elected because they would legislate sin. Is this type of insanity due to the ever more depressing polls for the Republicans, or are we at the start of a larger, longer cultural war in this country?
posted by UseyurBrain at 5:56 PM PST - 69 comments

We Shall Not Be Moved: Some joined the US military as a patriotic duty, some to better themselves, but the horrors of serving in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib, changed everything. Deserters tell Gary Younge why they had to quit.
posted by jack_mo at 4:25 PM PST - 31 comments

Sherri Finkbine --as reported by BBC News, on this day in 1962 (video clip too)--her travails and travels, the law, publicity, and what happened afterwards. (more here from American Prospect in 05: ...A Gallup Poll taken that year showed that the majority of Americans supported Finkbine, and her case was a turning point ...)
posted by amberglow at 2:46 PM PST - 16 comments

Cane Hill^ is an abandoned state run lunatic asylum (link contains tons of photographs) in South London. Built in 1882, the hospital for years housed Charlie Chaplin's mother (before he became wealthy enough to rescue her). Shuttered since 1990, the locations' inherent creepiness continues to fascinate urban explorers. Inside Out has a series of interesting pieces on the location, including music & paintings inspired by Cane Hill, an essay on the location, detailed floorplans and further photographs.
posted by jonson at 2:44 PM PST - 18 comments

Muse + 120% pitch shift = Gwen Stefani
posted by mr.marx at 11:34 AM PST - 75 comments

Scientists in Mongolia have found the mummy of a Scythian warrior. This article about the find contains an excellent photo gallery of what exactly they dug up. Other things people have dug up in the past include the famous Mr. Ötzi (only twice as old as the others) and Ms. Altai Princess, who has lately been causing some trouble.
posted by thirteenkiller at 10:58 AM PST - 13 comments

"Treasuremytext allows you to store SMS Messages (text messages) from your mobile phone online [...] generates a realtime RSS stream of saved messages for viewing by others.: "You gotta realise what u want from me, i ain't here for you to walk on, i'm happy the way things r goin but don't really know where i stand." [Incidentally much of the text here is NSFW.]
posted by feelinglistless at 10:01 AM PST - 13 comments

Flight Patterns (watch the overview video) is a cool visualization based on FAA flight records for one day. You can see the overnight lull, then the morning sweep across the country in a series of short videos. It's like cabspotting, but on a much larger scale. This is from the same guy behind The Sheep Market.
posted by mathowie at 9:08 AM PST - 23 comments

Are you a recently deceased motorcycle enthusiast desiring of a dignified final ride? You can have it! Want to be carted off to your final resting place in rugged style, in a 4x4 Land Rover like the one you used to tear around in when you were among the living? No problem! But if you've just kicked the bucket in China's Jiangsu Province and you'd been hoping to wow the mourners at your big send-off with some strippers, sorry, but you can't do that. Just want to learn a little more about funeral practices around the world? You can go here.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:39 AM PST - 11 comments

Umpire offers to quit for cash payment. Cricket has been gripped by a scandal that started at The Oval cricket ground last Sunday. It started with an accusation of ball tampering by one of the match umpires, Darryl Hair, during a match between Pakistan and England. Hair awarded England 5 runs and changed the ball, which is the sanction in the laws. Pakistan then refused to play, forfeiting the match. Ball tampering is an emotive issue for Pakistan, as is Darryl Hair who has previously been accused of bias against teams from the Indian subcontinent (i.e. racism). In a bizarre twist, Hair has now offered to resign as an umpire, in return for a massive cash payment. It shows the regard in which he is held, that his bosses decided to publicise this. It seems unlikely he will ever stand in a test match again.
posted by winjer at 11:04 PM PST - 20 comments

Photographing Squirrels with Cameras No really, taking pictures of real wild squirrels next to real vintage cameras. No computer editing, he swears. Some are completely odd and others entirely cute as hell. Hours of time well spent!
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 7:14 PM PST - 23 comments

" We are the Mods, We are the Mods , We are , We are , We are the Mods."
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:08 PM PST - 26 comments

Paula Hitler: "He was still my brother."
posted by Second Account For Making Jokey Comments at 4:03 PM PST - 52 comments

On Sept. 11, CNN will replay its coverage from 2001 in real time, online. They will make their little-noticed Pipeline service free for the day.
posted by CunningLinguist at 3:32 PM PST - 124 comments

For murder ballads, here's your Mississippi John Hurt's Louis Collins and your Grayson & Whitter's Ommie Wise. Then, for some early white blues bottleneck guitar, here's your Frank Hutchison's K. C. Blues. Not to mention Charley Patton's Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues. All courtesy the Internet Archives 78 RPM tag. where there is way more--like Bix Beiderbecke's first record, Davenport Blues, Louis Armstrong's Ain't Misbehavin' and Geeshie Wiley's Last Kind Words, among many others. Then, for more, Nugrape Records has an mp3 page. The standout there, at least for me, is Gus Cannon's Poor Boy Long Ways From Home. As for their namesake, the Nugrape Twins, well, the Archive has the mp3 of I've Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape. And don't let me omit mentioning PublicDomain4U. They have Mississippi John Hurt's Frankie, for one. Tyrone's Record and Phonograph Links will lead you to more 78 RPM goodness. And don't forget the inestimable and erudite vacapinta first directed us to Dismuke's Virtual Talking Machine.
posted by y2karl at 2:20 PM PST - 48 comments

Beautiful Subways --worldwide--from palatial to postmodern, folksy to brutalist (pee smells not included--and don't miss Tehran's)
posted by amberglow at 2:19 PM PST - 48 comments

Troitsky Church in St.Petersburg is on fire. Terrible pictures
posted by growabrain at 2:01 PM PST - 34 comments

Martha C. Nussbaum reviews Harvey C. Mansfield's book Manliness for The New Republic, and she hands him his own ass.
posted by cgc373 at 1:27 PM PST - 40 comments

Blemph-O! Gymnasium - tHE oFFICIAL pAUL nw pROCH wEBSITE?! More on pAUL pROCH, here, here and here. Warning: this site is so not web 2.0...
posted by mds35 at 12:20 PM PST - 7 comments

Friday Flash Fun Chill out with lasers and mirrors this afternoon. (Apparently similar to this one.)
posted by knave at 11:43 AM PST - 16 comments

Just Imagine Stan Lee's Watchmen! Back in 2002, DC Comics extended an olive branch of comics industry peace to Stan "Excelsior!" Lee, the founder of rival Marvel Comics. The result was the Just Imagine line, wherein we find several DCU heroes reimagined in one-shot comics as only Stan Lee could. Some titles were good. Some were okay. Most were just so. But never in a million issues would DC have let him take on Watchmen -- perhaps the most critically-acclaimed and analyzed series this side of Maus. So since Stan couldn't or wouldn't, Kevin Church has.
posted by grabbingsand at 11:40 AM PST - 40 comments

Santorum on Gorilla Action Friday Fun - A giant gorilla is chasing around Rick Santorum
posted by cjoh at 11:39 AM PST - 11 comments

The downside of being a nerd with your desktop set to a super-hi resolution is that you can rarely find cool wallpapers to use. This massive collection (in a wide variety of resolutions) should help.
posted by jonson at 11:26 AM PST - 26 comments

"I would have your wife right in front of you. I would smoke the last of your glaucoma medication. Then I will surely drink your liquor cabinet dry. However, know this my friend. I will never break an oath to uphold the public trust. My affidavit will be signed in my own blood. A Pirates crimson mark, with real binding effects into my after life. Laugh if you will then ask yourself if you could do it." James Hill is running for congress in Iowa's first district. He accepts no money from anybody.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:01 AM PST - 54 comments

Patricia Todd won a tight Democratic party runoff in District 54 in Alabama. Patricia Todd is also gay and would be the first gay representative in Alabama's history. Gaynell Hendricks doesn't understand why she lost, but maybe it has to do with the race baiting . Hendricks' mother-in-law contests the election for numerous reasons including "illegal votes were given to Todd" and said that "I want this controversy settled.This is happening like when Bush and Gore were running for president. I don't like it." Unsurprisingly, "Hendricks said she is pleased that someone challenged the results. " Weeks go by and the results don't get certified. A five member committee is appointed and bickers. Eventually the committee refrerences an old by law that has apparently not been enforced since 1988 to disqualify Todd. Although it does not seem quite over, it should be by tommorrow. Interestingly enough, Todd said she believes the challenge has nothing to do with the fact she is gay, but is about the fact that she is white and won in a majority black district.
posted by dig_duggler at 10:46 AM PST - 38 comments

What the world creates by hand. The sons of a Peace Corps member, Roberto and Andy Milk had a lifelong interest in artisans in developing countries. They teamed up with Armenia Nercessian, a UN human-rights officer, to create Novica.com, an online marketplace that sells the work of more than 10,000 craftspeople. While Novica operates chiefly in association with National Geographic, NPR also helps to promote them.
posted by owhydididoit at 10:23 AM PST - 14 comments

The Trailer Mash is the spot for movie trailer recuts and mashups. We've done the subject before, but now the subject has its own blog. Current new favorites: Garden State as a murder thriller and School of Rock as a kidnap film. [via mefi projects]
posted by mathowie at 9:56 AM PST - 12 comments

Porn Up, Rape Down
posted by caddis at 9:44 AM PST - 54 comments

wealthymen.com Not covered in previous "dating sites" thread. I just heard the ad on the radio. Wish I could post that, too. It's even better than the site.
posted by wfc123 at 9:43 AM PST - 20 comments

When cloning goes wrong Some funny photoshop creations. Nothing more, nothing less.
posted by namagomi at 9:37 AM PST - 21 comments

Some vintage photographs of ladies trying out for dancing jobs at a South California club. They were taken from the late 1960s through to the early 1970s, and are part of a larger set of 400 or so Polaroids. There are some cool photos here. (No nudity, but it's probably not safe for work.)
posted by chunking express at 9:26 AM PST - 24 comments

I promise to try not to smoke, or drink too much, or eat too much, or be lazy. If I fail, you can cut my benefits. Sign here please. West Virginia recently approved a controversial change to its Medicaid program: a Member Agreement [NB: links to .pdf] that adds several "personal responsibilities" including attempting to avoid smoking, (illegal) drugs, heavy drinking and sloth (not sloths). It also includes clauses on compliance with doctors recommendations, keeping appointments, reading the written materials that doctors provide, and minimizing emergency department visits. Patients who don't uphold their end of the bargain will have some benefits reduced or eliminated (that'll learn them). Lube up the slippery slope arguments. Will it work? Is it fair? Want to hear more? And more (from NPR)?.
(Article .pdfs archived here and here. Interview .mp3 archived here if you can't access them through above links).
posted by scblackman at 8:41 AM PST - 87 comments

Charlie the Pug dressed as famous people.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:28 AM PST - 17 comments

Helen Kane. (Wikipedia bio.) They based Betty Boop on her. MP3 files. WAV files. Podcast.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:55 AM PST - 11 comments

Feds Bust Guy Pitching Hezbollah TV. Censorship, or reasonable use of the Patriot Act?
posted by MarshallPoe at 7:28 AM PST - 51 comments

Elijah Page to be executed in South Dakota. On March 12, 2000, Page and two other brutally tortured and killed Chester Poage near Spearfish, SD.(very graphic description of events). It took Page, Briley Piper, and Darrell Hoadley nearly 3 hours to finally kill Poage. This will be the first execution in South Dakota in 59 years. (more inside)
posted by killThisKid at 7:14 AM PST - 77 comments

Babe-a-lizer! Friday Flash Fun - hotties galore (including pics of the Mercury Girl and the Queen of All Media (warning: music autostart, provocative photos, possibly NSFW) - gotta love the panic button!
posted by GoshND at 6:12 AM PST - 22 comments

SAVE PLUTO
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:24 AM PST - 91 comments

We're Schleswig-Holsteins, darling. (Ah, from the Low Countries.) Cows have accents. Some other animals with accents: birds, otters, frogs, monkeys.
posted by pracowity at 5:19 AM PST - 13 comments

Some tributes to Syd Barrett are good, some bad. But man, what a trip. Still, there was no reason to stalk him.
posted by punkfloyd at 4:56 AM PST - 11 comments

If you're sick of random, crude, sloppy , incredibly NSFW cartoons featuring juvenile humor, you'll love Sick Animation!
posted by Citizen Premier at 1:38 AM PST - 10 comments

Strange Bedfellows: Radical Leftists for Bush Among the German far-left, one subgroup called the anti-Germans holds some contradictory views. Most call themselves communists, yet loudly proclaim their support for Israel and George W. Bush.
posted by telstar at 12:20 AM PST - 29 comments

Here's a dot ^. an octave and a half above high C for the legendary jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, who has passed away at 78. Building on the experimental wanderings of Miles Davis, Ferguson fused jazz and rock in creating what is quite probably the signature big band sound of the psychadelic and disco eras. (See, e.g., "Rocky" (.wav).) He was well-known for astounding technical proficiency and his tight-lipped embochure created one of the largest ranges of any trumpeter. (Here's Ferguson playing and conducting "Round Midnight" in a very early clip [youtube]). But legions of former high school trumpet geeks full disclosure: I am one will remember him best for his commitment to signing promising young players for his tours and his reaching out, with tireless touring at tiny venues, to high school and college bandies and drum corps-types who at one time or another came across his repertoire.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 11:00 PM PST - 31 comments

Not Fooling Anybody. You know that new Chinese Restaurant that still looks like the Pizza Hut that shut down last year? How about that sandwich shop that still has a Taco Bell-shaped sign in front of it? Ever feel like a family-sized bucket of back repair? Find all of these, plus a guide to identifying them in your own home town.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 9:15 PM PST - 43 comments

Neutral Moresnet - a wedged-shaped, almost Esperanto speaking, janiformed currency using, one-step anthem playing, created because of a zinc mine, mini-state, that is now nothing more than some border markers. [more inside]
posted by tellurian at 9:00 PM PST - 25 comments

In a small-town jail in the upper Midwest sits a once highly-paid informant the U.S. government would probably rather you not know about. Guillermo Ramirez-Peyro, AKA Lalo, sits in prison without being charged. He's a former Mexican Highway Police Officer that found himself incahoots with the drug trade on the Juarez-El Paso border, but then received more than $200K from the U.S. Federal Government for information. The same U.S. agency that paid him, however, now wants to deport him back to Mexico and an almost certain death.
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:38 PM PST - 8 comments

Book. For thirty-six weeks, a sketchbook was sent in random order between four artists: two in Brooklyn, two in Belfast. Every Wednesday, one participant would receive book. In order to maintain schedule, it was sent out the following Monday, giving each artist five days to complete a spread in response to the one that preceded it. A small portion of each entry extends on to the following page. Beyond this, there was no communication between the artists concerning the content of book during its making. Book's first trip across the Atlantic was on 2 June, 2003. Its final trip was on 2 February, 2004. By the time it was completed, book had travelled over sixty thousand miles.
posted by amro at 8:12 PM PST - 12 comments

Shortly before his cancer diagnosis, Peter Jennings started work on a one-hour documentary devoted solely to the issue of AIDS in Black America. ABC News has now finished his work in a one-hour Special Edition of "Primetime," reported by Terry Moran. "In America today, AIDS is virtually a black disease, by any measure," says Phill Wilson, executive director of The Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles. Black Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for over 50 percent of all new cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That infection rate is eight times the rate of whites. Among women, the numbers are even more shocking—- almost 70 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV-positive women in the United States are black women. Black women are 23 times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than white women, with heterosexual contact being the overwhelming method of infection in black America.
posted by jennababy at 7:49 PM PST - 50 comments

Hydrogen fuel has been discussed many times on MeFi, but I wasn't able to find a previous link to this video clip (Google Video warning) showing Jack Nicholson, circa 1978, showing off his hydrogen powered car. The accents of the broadcasters, in case you're wondering, are east coast Canadian, possibly Newfoundland.
posted by Zinger at 7:21 PM PST - 21 comments

Will Vinyl Survive? Is vinyl on its last legs? Or like Gloria Gaynor, will it survive? Most home listeners chucked out their turntables years ago, but are DJs finally giving in and following suit? DJs face off in a pair of articles discussing the merits of vinyl vs. digital...
posted by bunglin jones at 6:00 PM PST - 68 comments

Roof Sex (amazing stop-motion animation: NSFW??? - sound warning: definitely NSFW!) Also a must-see: The Making of Roof Sex.
posted by spock at 5:00 PM PST - 31 comments

Every issue of the New Yorker on a portable hard drive. For $299 you get an 80GB hard drive loaded with every article, poem, short story, advertisement and lame cartoon that has appeared in the over 4,000 issues of The New Yorker Magazine since February, 1925. The vintage ads alone MIGHT be worth it (depending on res/format) but does anyone really WANT every one of those unfunny cartoons? Does anyone outside NYC even care that this magazine is still being published?
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 3:34 PM PST - 108 comments

C86: Side A and Side B.
posted by jack_mo at 3:06 PM PST - 29 comments

Long .pdf paper on the state of mainstream "analytic" philosophy. In a recent thread, we discussed the current state of philosophy departments in English-speaking countries. Philosophers are often asked why we don't take Ayn Rand seriously as a philosopher, or why we aren't up on literary Theory or deconstruction, etc. The short answer is that most academic philosophers in universities in the English-speaking world are engaged in a broad consensus (about how to do philosophy, what counts as a good question, etc) that's called "analytic philosophy" for short. Here is a long, informative encyclopedia entry by Scott Soames describing the history and current state of play in analytic philosophy. If you want to understand the background of the currently dominant school of philosophy in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, this will explain it. Link goes directly to a 44-page .pdf file.

Here are a few bonus bits: Jerry Fodor on Why no one reads analytic philosophy. One of the Philosophy talk podcasts from the Stanford philosophy department, on The Future of Philosophy. Some answers at askphilosophers.org -- a site where you can ask questions directly of professional philosophers -- that say the distinction between analytic and continental philosophy should be retired. (In a way, I agree, but the terms are used so widely that it's useful to get a sense of what they're meant to describe.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on what different philosophers have meant by "analysis".
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:33 PM PST - 56 comments

Anti-terror. A great little common sense article from Bruce Schneier. via
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 2:01 PM PST - 45 comments

Pull My Finger
posted by y2karl at 1:41 PM PST - 34 comments

News of stupidity in the fight against terrorism: Up to three years in jail for not loudly enunciating, in front of his mom, that he had a penis pump. If you do not know that you are an American citizen, it's your fault and you may be deported as an illegal alien. Manhattan train stopped because of some woman's bottle of iced tea? BC Ferry delayed 3 hours because of a forgotten briefcase (my coworker lives next to the terminal and has learned that this was an RCMP officer's briefcase, though that detail has not made the media). There are so many of these stories...we really need one place to group them all together.
posted by Kickstart70 at 12:04 PM PST - 85 comments

Salon Convention is not geared towards any one particular subset of people, but anyone who is interested in pursuing salons and leisure activities typically associated with the Victorian time period.
posted by Squid Voltaire at 11:22 AM PST - 7 comments

Reposted to Forbes.com after a massive backlash from bloggers and writers, this article by executive editor Michael Noer has now been given a counterpoint article by one of the sites' women writers. In the original article, Noer urged men not to marry "career girls," lest they leave you for greener pastures, and other misogynistic nonsense. Slate chimes in with a painfully adolescent rebuttal while Salon lets him have it with juicy quotes from women execs and more.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 10:33 AM PST - 95 comments

Craig Mullins is a commercial photoshop artist & videogame fan. In the mid 90s, after a couple amateur pieces of fan art he created for the game Marathon made their way to the folks at Bungie, he was hired to create a series of Halo themed art for the company. His full portfolio of commercial & personal work is interesting.
posted by jonson at 10:30 AM PST - 14 comments

A previously unheard of group, The Sufi Muslim Council, claims to speak for the silent majority of Muslims. Others see it as an attempt to co-opt Sufi-ism to push neoconservative ideals. One of the main authors, Zeyno Baran has even authored a report for the conservative think tank, The Nixon Center, suggesting just that. Other think tanks have also made similar suggestions [pdf] in their publications. ( via Craig Murray )
posted by mulligan at 9:55 AM PST - 19 comments

2006-2007 Doomsday Calendar. Plenty of Neocons went to bed on the 21st, anxiously awoke on the 22nd, and stayed awake through the 23rd, disappointed that their ongoing vision of the New American Century had been spoiled - Iran had not triggered the Apocalypse as some had hinted, breaking the sixth seal, making the 12th Iman ride across the skies, testing their first nukular weapon, etc. No, they wanted to talk. Fortunately, others are picking up the slack, since the prophesies for 5/25/06, 6/6/06, and 8/22/06 have not been fulfilled. Next date up to the plate for a vengeful God? BoingBoing reports that Yisrayl Hawkings says 9/12/2006 (youtube). The Doomsday Google Calendar is available here (XML/iCAL/HTML).
posted by rzklkng at 9:13 AM PST - 27 comments

Make me one with everything One man and his attempt to eat a GINORMOUS FULLY LOADED 5 pound burger with 54 toppings......in under 30 minutes.
posted by ColdChef at 8:59 AM PST - 58 comments

Slo-Mo Home Depot. Improv Everywhere got 250 people to wander around a Home Depot in slow motion. [via]
posted by chunking express at 8:44 AM PST - 75 comments

[NewsFilter] A partial victory for public health over politics. Amazingly, the FDA has finally, after 3 years of wrangling, approved over-the-counter sale of Plan B, an emergency contraceptive pill. The victory is partial because you need to be 18 or older to purchase it without a doctor's note. If you're under 18, you need to still have documentation from your physician (or nurse practitioner). The politics behind the approval process were laid bare in this (sincerely) fascinating GAO report [note: links to .pdf file]. I also hope that OTC approval will avoid this.

Plan B previously discussed on MeFi here.
posted by scblackman at 7:49 AM PST - 64 comments

Taking a cue from the most famous example of (accidental) movie/album synchronization, Dark Side of the Cop is the first in a planned three-disc series of an (intentional) alternate soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop.
posted by Dr-Baa at 7:35 AM PST - 6 comments

Modern times... suck? Bob Dylan has heavily criticised the sound of modern music recordings, claiming that, There’s no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like — static, and that, CDs are small.

Not to exclude himself, he's included his own new album in this criticism, saying that, Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded ‘em. Maybe he's just being a curmudgeon, or maybe he actually has a point about modern music production. It's not like he's opposed to all things modern: after all, he seems OK with file-sharing and iTunes. And, umm, Alicia Keys...
posted by chorltonmeateater at 7:34 AM PST - 68 comments

We recently saw people playing at being zombies, which is fun and all, but wouldn't you rather kill zombies than be one? I sure as hell would, so there's [more inside]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:54 AM PST - 27 comments

My very elegant mother just sat upon ninjas ... the textbooks, mnemonic devices and more will have to be changed today. Pluto has been demoted from its status as planet to a dwarf planet. We now have 8 in our solar system. The debate is not at all new, and its apparent resolution may not matter to our everyday lives, but it's just a little weird to think of all of the things that will have to be retroactively edited or amended as a result.
posted by twiggy at 6:47 AM PST - 94 comments

Frank Collin. Just your average everyday half-Jewish Neo-Nazi pederast occult author. Former leader of the Neo-Nazi group that marched through the predominantly Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie in 1977, triggering protests and court battles. Collin himself was half-Jewish, strangely. He later went to jail for child molestation and seems to have turned to writing books about witchcraft since his release. A truly strange story.
posted by jonmc at 6:26 AM PST - 14 comments

There goes the afternoon... Board Dots is an annoyingly simple flash game. Just cover each space on the board with your dot. It's not as easy as it looks.
posted by salmacis at 5:58 AM PST - 17 comments

Gigantic yellow jacket nests perplex experts
posted by madamjujujive at 5:15 AM PST - 71 comments

Multiple orgasms trap benefit cheat is one Times headline that I wish I had written myself. The story is so far as I can tell quite true; The Daily Mail has it too, under a much duller headline. On the other hand, it does have readers grumbling at the end: "The more benefit cheats they find - the better. I have two slipped discs, have to sleep sitting up and am entitled to, yes, you've guessed - nothing." writes one, as if Ms Byron were being subsidised for her orgasms.
posted by alloneword at 4:35 AM PST - 16 comments

Playing cards and tarot cards. An amazing resource about cards with hundreds of scanned decks, and an illustrated timeline of cards through the ages. Cards started in China, but the link to the West was the gorgeous decks of the Marmeluks [Coral cache],which used 52 cards (though the suites were polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups), from there, they spread to Europe and evolved into the tarot and playing cards. Through their history, cards remained art there are many beautiful decks in the past, and 20th century artists like Dali and Hockney created their own decks [coral cache].
posted by blahblahblah at 12:31 AM PST - 14 comments

Have fun with your food! You may never look at fair foods the same way again thanks to this year's ad campaign for the Utah State Fair. (Warning: videos auto-start)
posted by Orb at 12:31 AM PST - 5 comments

Rockabye Baby "transforms timeless rock songs into beautiful instrumental lullabies." It's never too early to introduce your little one to the angsty minor chords of Radiohead, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Metallica, or Nirvana, among others. Reminiscent of the previously posted Nippaz with Attitude, but with less piano and more glockenspiel. The Coldplay songs seem especially well done. via dooce
posted by onlyconnect at 10:52 PM PST - 32 comments

Most 18-year-old students entering the class of 2010 this fall were born in 1988. For them: Billy Carter, Lucille Ball, Gilda Radner, Billy Martin, Andy Gibb, and Secretariat have always been dead. They have known only two presidents. Ringo Starr has always been clean and sober. Paul Newman has always made salad dressing. Gas has always been unleaded and Don Imus has always been offending someone in his national audience. Wisconsin's Beloit College has published its sixth annual Mindset List. [2003 list previously discussed]
posted by ericb at 9:07 PM PST - 79 comments

Flurb - issue #1, from Rudy Rucker.
posted by tellurian at 7:35 PM PST - 10 comments

Ask Dominique - an advice column for gang members. (via Salon Broadsheet)
posted by Melinika at 7:34 PM PST - 15 comments

Free Your Imagination : from the furry "Yeti crab" to the almiqui, animals discovered and rediscovered this millenium.
posted by anjamu at 7:30 PM PST - 17 comments

Friz-Freleng-For-All About thirty blogs paid tribute this past Monday to the renowned animator, keeper of pigs, tweety-bird-hungry cats and panthers, and model for the roughest, toughest hombre that ever locked horns with a rabbit. Happy 100th birthday, Friz!
posted by LinusMines at 7:27 PM PST - 5 comments

Say what you will. The new Land Rover Defender is rad.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 6:42 PM PST - 66 comments

"Psycho killer raccoons terrorize Olympia." What else is there to say, really.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 6:20 PM PST - 55 comments

Survivor: Cook Islands' 20 castaways will be grouped by race, with competitors divided into four tribes consisting of whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics. If your reaction is "oof," you are not alone. But host Jeff Probst says, "I found it to be one of the freshest ideas we’ve had going back to the beginning of this show."
posted by amro at 4:33 PM PST - 102 comments

Fetus in fetu is a very rare condition, but it happens. It's when you have a parasitic twin inside you.
posted by snofoam at 2:57 PM PST - 47 comments

New Orleans City Ordinance #26031 --...those who have not been able to make the necessary repairs to their battered homes by August 29th risk having their property seized and bulldozed by the city.... Bush says today: Katrina Repair Will Take Time, but time's up for many New Orleans residents. (more here from ACORN, who has been trying to help save homes there)
posted by amberglow at 2:48 PM PST - 62 comments

Calling it quits. Just two weeks after posting his first video (viewed over 1.7 million times since), Peter, the surprise star of YouTube, has posted his "Reluctant Farewell". [previously]
posted by Silky Slim at 2:27 PM PST - 21 comments

Pregnant Pause
posted by kirkaracha at 2:21 PM PST - 51 comments

Back in the dark days of World War II, the man who would become Dr. Seuss was in the business of military propaganda . One of the characters he created was Private Snafu. Private Snafu was an animated depiction of a bumbling soldier in military training films, whose voice sounded suspiciously close to Bugs Bunny's. Warner Bros. animation studios produced the cartoons with the talents of Mel Blanc, Chuck Jones, and Bob Clampett. Private Snafu has been discussed here previously but now you can watch some of the original cartoons on youtube and download them here! (unfortunately, I am still unable to locate the awesomely-titled "Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike")
posted by elr at 2:07 PM PST - 9 comments

Wally Wood's 22 Comics Panels That Always Work.
posted by empath at 12:53 PM PST - 34 comments

Buchanan Argues For Immigration Moratorium To Preserve White Dominance His new book also explains that western civilization is dependant on white people's "genetic endowments". Could explain why John Gibson famously called for "more white babies" a couple months ago. Is blatant racism becoming less taboo?
posted by delmoi at 12:50 PM PST - 156 comments

Snap Shirts will create a word cloud from the most-frequently-used words on a web page and then you can order it printed on a t-shirt. (via iwilldare)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:26 PM PST - 22 comments

Iran's influence in Iraq has superseded that of the US, and it is increasingly rivalling the US as the main actor at the crossroads between the Middle East and Asia... As a result, the US-driven agenda for confronting Iran is severely compromised by the confident ease with which Iran sits in its region... The report also looks into the ideology of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and unpicks Iran’s complicated power structure. It claims that despite his popularity, Ahmadinejad neither holds an insurmountable position within Iran nor commands universal support for his outspoken foreign policy positions... On hostility with the US, the report argues that while the US may have the upper hand in ‘hard’ power projection, Iran has proved far more effective through its use of ‘soft' power. The report also holds a cautious view of the Iran-Israel relationship. It outlines four future scenarios for the relationship between the two states, one of which is the creation of a ‘cold-war’ style nuclear stand-off should Iran achieve nuclear capability.

Iran, its Neighbours and the Regional Crises
(full report in pdf)
See also Iran now the key power in Iraq, says UK think-tank
See also Iran 'boosted by war on terror'
posted by y2karl at 11:31 AM PST - 21 comments

10 greatest beat-making videos ever* "*Or, you know, today." A Music thing thing.
posted by nthdegx at 11:09 AM PST - 14 comments

I know it's YouTube. But Spike Jones^ must be seen as well as heard.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:51 AM PST - 42 comments

Oakland has hyphie, Atlanta has crunk. Detroit has The Jit (more, more). Beginning in Detroit as the Jitterbug back in the '20s, the dance grew up through Detroit's Black Bottom, and was adopted by gangs like the Erroll Flynns into a battle dance with the rise of hip hop (similar to pop-locking or breaking). Similar dances have sprung up elsewhere (Chicken Noodle Soup in Harlem, B-More Club in Baltimore, Toe Wop in NY, Footwork in Chicago), but Detroit is still the best. There's even a movie in the works.
posted by klangklangston at 10:33 AM PST - 15 comments

It’s not too hard to create an eye-explodingly ugly site on MySpace. It’s rather more difficult to elicit beauty (or at least good taste) from the MySpace beast. But coder Mike Davidson has succeeded. You can find out he did it--and how to do it yourself--here.
posted by Iridic at 10:09 AM PST - 67 comments

PepsiBlue! PerpetualKid! Get your consumer on! Linked to by some guys, I started digging around the treasure trove that is PerpetualKid. Sure, they've got a lot of that Spencer's Gifts type crap but its more fun than that. Trebuchet? Meat pencil toppers? Chew by numbers? I'm sure you'll have seen some of these products before but others, maybe not so much. Bonus links: gummy steak, strawberry-flavored "bacon" (also gummy), and ring⁸ bananaphone.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 10:09 AM PST - 7 comments

When your horoscope isn't enough.
Ever wonder how sophisticated New Yorkers can afford to live well in such an expensive city?
They have a system.
posted by hexatron at 10:00 AM PST - 29 comments

It's on the Internet, so it must be true. Are hundreds of Muslims in the East Village infuriated by a topless poster of Kate Moss across the street? See what happens when one blog says so, and various media around the world (1, 2, 3... you get the idea) take the meme and run with it. Trouble is, it didn't really happen.
posted by laz-e-boy at 9:34 AM PST - 24 comments

Doctor's slang that might be on your chart.
posted by dios at 9:32 AM PST - 59 comments

I'm Coming Home (video/sound warning)
posted by spock at 9:01 AM PST - 27 comments

Would you love to own that house down the block, but are inconvenienced by the fact that it's not for sale? Don't fret. "Every Home in America is Up for Sale!" Of course, one should always be wary of unsolicited offers.
posted by Blue Buddha at 8:55 AM PST - 14 comments

"I ask, what is his real agenda? What is he trying to do? Is this how you treat artists? If I were another actor or filmmaker, would I work at a studio that takes one of their greatest assets and publicly does this?"
posted by wfc123 at 8:22 AM PST - 39 comments

In Soviet Russia, Flag Flies You! [Google Cache] Just as in election years past, the American flag has once again become a political football. Apparently, flying the flag upside down, a traditional indication of "distress" - (Section 8a. "The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property") - has displeased some patriots as well. Fortunately, the Marines are there [Google cache]... [via digg][Original digg-effected link here].
posted by rzklkng at 6:59 AM PST - 146 comments

DAMMIT, DOSED AGAIN! Well, once again I got a cup of full-strength this morning which she swore was decaf, and I'm jittery as a chimp on crack. But soon I won't have to worry; chemists at Washington University School of Medicine are working on a caffeine test strip.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:51 AM PST - 28 comments

HumanCar (note: 6.7mb WMV) row, row, row your car... but it's telling that they show it going downhill, but not up. And will you need 3 friends whenever you need to run to the store? More videos, and information here.
posted by crunchland at 3:05 AM PST - 12 comments

The makers of N (previously here, here and here) have been working on a new game - known thus far as TNG (that would be 'the new game'). They've been rather tight lipped about details - untill last month when they revealed a few juicy bits of what we can expect.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 2:56 AM PST - 13 comments

Mexico City post-election protests, which began on July 30th at the instigation of López Obrador, former mayor and alleged "loser" of the July 2 federal election, now cover a 12-kilometer (7.5 - mile) stretch of Paseo de la Reforma, one of the main arteries of one of the world's largest cities. Some see it as a party, others see it as ridiculous. In any case, a crisis of legitimacy is at hand, as all eyes await the announcement, due by Sept. 6 from "Trife", the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary, which will either decide the winner, or annul the result and call for new elections. With partisans of Obrador already claiming that the results of the recent partial recount suggest systematic fraud, it's unlikely that a smooth resolution is going to come any time soon.
posted by dinsdale at 1:15 AM PST - 22 comments

How can I use a Barney Fife Impersonator at my next event? Do vasectomies prevent abductions? Where is the least painful spot? All these (and many more) questions answered at UsedFaqs, a round-up of the more bizarre frequently asked questions from all around the series of tubes.
posted by jonson at 12:20 AM PST - 12 comments

Some call FEMA's administration of federal flood insurance and disaster relief illogical and illegal, although you won't find that in FEMA's recent summary of Katrina, which reveals that $15.3 billion dollars in federal flood insurance claims have been paid. That's quite a bit more than the National Flood Insurance Fund's budget, and you may recall that payouts didn't go smoothly. Still, having federal flood insurance, as opposed to relying on disaster relief, has proven its worth during the rebuilding process. Certainly Katrina was an extraordinary phenomenon, unlikely to be repeated any time soon. Perhaps that's why the annual disaster relief budget is smaller this year.
posted by owhydididoit at 10:52 PM PST - 11 comments

Pablo Lobato is an Argentinian graphic artist who uses color and geometric shape to create witty portraits and caricatures. More works are available at his website (sound & flash alert). His site's select links to other caricaturists are great, including David Cowles who he names as an influence and the brilliant Hannoch Piven.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:41 PM PST - 15 comments

Keep driving your Hummer guilt free, thanks to BP BP announced today a new program that will allow drivers to maintain carbon-neutral without changing their driving habits or make of car. The program, called "Target Neutral" is a web-initiative that allows drivers to cancel out their carbon emissions by funding renewable energy and green technology ventures out of their own pockets -- carbon credit offsets in their simplest form. Interesting to note that BP's big announcement is on the heels of news reports out of Washington yesterday that the Environmental Protection Agency along with two other federal departments will be involved in an investigation into BP's Alaskan operations and it's Aug.9th oil pipe leak.
posted by jacob hauser at 9:12 PM PST - 34 comments

Cardoso? Cardoso?
Loronix: Ultimate Bossanova Blog.
posted by hama7 at 6:58 PM PST - 12 comments

Being a little overweight can kill you.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 3:28 PM PST - 84 comments

Nancy , the best comic strip ever? Close but no cigar. Pogo? Peanuts? Calvin? Good choices all, but still wrong. Krazy Kat you say? Again I shake my head sadly, friend. For Mr. Dave Astor has finally stepped forward to settle this debate once and for all. The greatest comic strip ever appearing on newsprint? Why, it's For Better or For Worse of course. Let the debate begin.
posted by ktoad at 3:02 PM PST - 198 comments

Toribash is a turn-based fighting game where, during a turn, you set-up, articulate, and execute fighting moves with rag-doll characters. Looks like a pretty cool idea. Windows based executable, Linux based server software. I've been doing this for hours, and hours now. I... I... can't stop. Via (and description courtesy of )Negatendo
posted by boo_radley at 2:49 PM PST - 9 comments

This was bound to happen.
posted by allkindsoftime at 2:28 PM PST - 38 comments

We've discussed the omnipresent nature of Hello Kitty before. She has aliens for allies, her own MMORPG, and even a banking empire. But what about the havoc that can be wreaked when fandoms collide? If Sanrio-meets-Star-Wars doesn't make your brain hurt, how about the thought of packing some Hello Kitty heat? Or maybe...maybe you're a fan. Maybe visiting Puroland--Hello Kitty's theme park--appeals to you. Oh, it does? Then you'll be happy to hear that Puroland does weddings, too[Youtube].
posted by Vervain at 1:44 PM PST - 31 comments

Silly name, but fun all the same ... Free web (2.0, natch) chat site that allows users to search for chat rooms based on tags or to set up their own room(s) that are either public or private.
posted by terrapin at 1:32 PM PST - 21 comments

Confronting the New Misanthropy. "The big question is not whether humans will survive this century, but whether our faith in humanity will survive it"
posted by stbalbach at 1:03 PM PST - 51 comments

Ten thousand reasons the world is doomed.
posted by keswick at 12:33 PM PST - 51 comments

The International Networks Archive is an effort by a group of sociologists to understand 2,000 years of globalization through mapping the network of transactions that link the world, rather than geography. The project is still ongoing, but you can see some of the results: an interactive map that uses travel time to visualize the world; a graphic of the growth of Starbucks and McDonalds; the distribution of government jobs (apparently the 3,412 postal inspectors can carry firearms); the cashflows of movies and tobacco; and, of course, the world at night. There is also access to a lot of detailed data, as well as more maps and information at the Mapping Globalization wiki.
posted by blahblahblah at 12:12 PM PST - 5 comments

Dirty Car Art
posted by mattbucher at 11:57 AM PST - 27 comments

La Compania Rebelde: Understanding American Apparel A long and detailed look at American Apparel. [via mefi projects]
posted by chunking express at 11:45 AM PST - 24 comments

Homestar Runner is 10 years old. (flash)
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:37 AM PST - 28 comments

2 heads are better than 1 Ever heard of diphallus? Well, now you have. See here as well
posted by bmpetow at 11:14 AM PST - 31 comments

New airline security regulations in the UK have taken their toll on the touring musicians who used to be able to take their delicate and/or rare instruments as carry-on luggage. Many are forced to either take their chances in the cargo hold or take ferries to countries with less restrictive security guidelines. Others contemplate staying home from touring completely. (via BBC)
posted by dr_dank at 11:12 AM PST - 40 comments

Color of My Sound. Choose a color of a sound or song and see how others have voted with their comments. Add your own audio files. (more)
posted by nickyskye at 10:33 AM PST - 7 comments

Keep Bush away from the press. Joe Scarborough (in the news lately for asking rude questions about the President's intelligence) opines that "If George Bush has lost his ability to give a commanding presser, then stage manage him differently. Play to his strengths... Show him only in settings where he is in control." Curiously, while Bush's press conferences have become unsetllingly less coherent in recent days -- even for him -- the so-called liberal media and even the blogosphere have barely mentioned it (perhaps in the spirit of preserving the dignity of the office, like FDR's wheelchair?) Example: watch this video -- what happens at 1:34 or so, right before the President abruptly terminates the questioning? Will Bush in his twilight years, as Foxborough advises, become like Ronald Reagan, protected from public humiliation by his faithful staff?
posted by digaman at 10:10 AM PST - 155 comments

17 year old kid gets 2 years for selling 20 dollars of pot, enough for 1 joint. The entire town is basically a "No Drug Zone" so they used federal law to give the kid the mandatory 2 years. The Drug Policy Alliance has put together a video that really hits home on the war against the American people.
posted by IronWolve at 9:05 AM PST - 233 comments

The life and times of the British seaside holiday. The BBC explore the Victorian beginings of this British cultural export, its history and heyday, and the slow decline into genteel decay - and not so genteel - decay.Perhaps buoyed by nostalgia for childhood memories of lemonade ice lollies, sticky gobs of tar underfoot, and sand sandwiches, there's a move to promote regeneration and reinvention. Especially now that the beaches are cleaner than ever, although some still occasionally subject to unpleasant bobbing objects.

Although any regeneration might play on icons like the piers, beach huts, grand hotels, architecture, and classic cafes, it's perhaps less likely to feature traditional and dubious delights like Punch and Judy, end of the pier shows, fearsome landladies and holiday camps. The builders of new sandcastles have grander plans, whether that be the Las Vegas of the northwest, the artist's paradise of St Ives, the surfer's paradise of Newquay, or Hove's multi-coloured pleasure dome. Anyway, would you like this open or wrapped?
posted by reynir at 8:57 AM PST - 6 comments

One small german army and a train. (large pageload of photographs). Also: a flash slideshow of the same army (parent site) [via]
posted by peacay at 8:52 AM PST - 18 comments

Federal Court to FBI: Learn To Use Google A federal court ordered the FBI to use Google. Apparently they didn't already know about it.
posted by expriest at 8:26 AM PST - 24 comments

Red-Hot and Filthy Library Smut. Scanned photos of the insides of some of the world's hottest, youngest and dirtiest libraries. Some of the best from the book by Candida Hofer.
posted by geoff. at 7:50 AM PST - 40 comments

4-Block World: simple diagrams about life, &c. The full list. via information aesthetics
posted by signal at 6:19 AM PST - 16 comments

Turner Broadcasting to cut smoking scenes out of 'Tom & Jerry.'
posted by MarshallPoe at 6:14 AM PST - 66 comments

Grigory Perelman becomes first to reject Fields Medal: "I do not think anything that I say can be of the slightest public interest. I have published all my calculations. This is what I can offer the public." Perelman was to be awarded the medal due to his solution of the Poincaré Conjecture. More on the other winners. Via.
posted by Captaintripps at 5:13 AM PST - 31 comments

Observed Trials is arguably the most skilful and spectacular of all motorcycle sports, but party due to the outdoor, occasionally remote locations of most competitions, remains very much out of the public eye. Historically it has been dominated by European riders and although the US had a world champion in 1979, international success has eluded American riders in recent years.Recently, trials has become somewhat fragmented with indoor events becoming increasingly popular with non-afficionado spectators and extreme (NSFW soundtrack) freeriding taking off, particuarly in France although to purists real trials only take place "in the wild".
posted by NeonSurge at 4:52 AM PST - 13 comments

Okay, here it is in all it's glory: googlyeyesoncock.com is once again filled with googly-eyed cock. (seriously NSFW!)
posted by TheCoug at 1:58 AM PST - 55 comments

If you've ever felt that yet another vacation in other beachfront paradise would be a waste of your precious leisure time, the Unusual Hotels of the World website is for you. From Treehouse Hotels to mountain Inns carved directly into (out of?) the rock face to Ice Hotels to Undersea lodgings, there's no shortage of vacation spots worldwide that you'll remember far longer than the traditional spa/swim up bar combo.
posted by jonson at 12:19 AM PST - 12 comments

Second of two pieces. Scary. For real? Do pedophiles really wear special jewelry?
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 12:06 AM PST - 47 comments

Fred Astaire said this five-minute sequence from Stormy Weather was the finest piece of tap dancing ever filmed. via
posted by cgc373 at 10:09 PM PST - 75 comments

Summer seems the perfect time for eating weeds and wildfoods. Granted, no one wants to grow their own, but is it better to forage or to buy them?
posted by owhydididoit at 9:51 PM PST - 9 comments

George Orwell né Eric Arthur Blair is probably best known to readers for his eerily prescient novels 1984 and Animal Farm. This comprehensive Orwell site betrays an erudite, complex, fascinating personality who wrote about a variety of subjects, from an exposition on British class relations affecting the art and practice of murder, to the complex moral compromises of Gandhi's practice of non-violent resistance, to the doublespeak-laden corruption of the English language as a telling reflection of a corrupt, brutal, post-WWII culture — and much, much more. This site also includes Russian translations of much of Orwell's work.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:52 PM PST - 21 comments

What’s the best way to dispose of an accumulated fortune? Conventional wisdom tells us that you can’t take it with you. The inevitability of death has inspired otherwise ruthless men to contribute to the larger community with the goal of establishing a posthumous legacy. Carnegie built libraries. Bill Gates is working on global health initiatives. But the conventional wisdom on this matter could be wrong. And with that in mind, some wealthy men are choosing to turn themselves into cryonic popsicles and put their wealth in trust funds in the hope that at some point in the future, Science will be able to revive them.
posted by jason's_planet at 7:33 PM PST - 52 comments

The design challenge. After some work on genetic algorithms was accused of having 'frontloaded' solutions, Dave Thomas issued the challenge - human design vs his mutating code to find Steiner Trees^. If the answer is frontloaded, it should be derivable. And now the results are in.
posted by Sparx at 6:39 PM PST - 7 comments

Wrestling for Jesus. Not entirely without precedent, I guess.
posted by Urban Hermit at 5:07 PM PST - 19 comments

If... Drugs Were Legal [1 hr Google video]. Last January, BBC Two produced a drama-documentary showing a future where drugs have been legalised. I missed the whole series, but if they're as good as this, they're worth watching out for.
posted by iffley at 4:32 PM PST - 64 comments

5ives : merlinmann's Lists of Five Things.
posted by kaytwo at 4:26 PM PST - 11 comments

Under appreciated, once almost-famous comedian Chris Elliot is, in a word, odd. His start as a runner/page on the early days of Late Night with David Letterman led to his recurring roles as "the guy under the stairs" and "Marlon Brando". Soon after he landed a sit-com called "Get a Life" on a fledgling Fox network, which can only be described as surreal. From there he created his first (and last) feature length star vehicle "Cabin Boy" (which features a hilarious cameo with Letterman in his only movie role). These days he is more known as a character actor in comedic roles. But a few books and a look back at his work makes you wonder why he might be the only celebrity on the internet with no apparent fan site.
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 3:56 PM PST - 60 comments

The Afghan Elvis (with YouTube clip), the Soviet Elvis (played by Tom Hanks), the French Elvis (now seeking Belgian citizenship), the Mexican Elvis, the Swedish Elvis, the Filipino Elvis, the Chinese Elvis, the Sikh Elvis, the Japanese Elvis who became a Prime Minister, and other foreign Elvii.
posted by jonp72 at 3:24 PM PST - 20 comments

The poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins set to music. Demo list here. It's a pity they haven't adapted my favourite poem, Spring and Fall, although it's pretty exciting to hear Hopkins's poetry which I studied at school, presented in this format, especially since he was already trying to create a kind of music using the rhythms of the words. On a random note, featuring the vocal talents of Belinda Evans who was recently voted off the BBC's Saturday night tv extravaganza, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?. Her blog is here. [via]
posted by feelinglistless at 2:37 PM PST - 17 comments

White House · International aid · USDA · Department of Commerce · Department of Education · Department of Health and Human Services · Department of Homeland Security · Department of Housing and Urban Development · Department of Justice · Department of Labor · Small Business Administration · Veterans Affairs and even Grant Opportunities for those religious folks who would like to get financially connected to the government.
posted by Kickstart70 at 2:20 PM PST - 46 comments

This iGallop, it vibrates? While at National Airport this weekend, I noticed several women enjoying an odd-looking exercise device at Brookstone. Apparently, I'm not the first to imagine what else it could be used for (Google search).
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:17 PM PST - 25 comments

Skatefall. It's what happens when you jam a copy of Thrasher Magazine into an Atari 2600. via
posted by Smart Dalek at 1:36 PM PST - 12 comments

You may have your own set of acquired tastes, but what of acquired F.E.A.R.? The multiplayer component of Monolith's latest LithTek powered franchise has been overhauled and released into the wild - without a price tag in sight. If you've been known to enjoy a bit of the old simulated ultra violence you'll feel right at home among the frenetic emergence of automatic weapon fire and the spectre of the unarmed takedown.
posted by prostyle at 1:20 PM PST - 14 comments

"If this program is unlawful, federal law expressly makes the ordering of surveillance under the program a federal felony. That would mean that the president could be guilty of no fewer than 30 felonies in office." George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley on what's missing in the latest debate over the NSA program. [Bugmenot, Via Glenn Greenwald.]
posted by homunculus at 1:14 PM PST - 33 comments

People don't write manifestos like they used to... Whatever happened to the Surrealist Manifesto? How about the the Italian Futurist Manifesto (and its many spinoffs)? There's also First and Second OuLiPo Manifestos, Humanist (I, II, & III) as well as Post-Humanist Manifestos, not to mention Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto: "...an ironic political myth faithful to feminism, socialism, and materialism...."
posted by anotherpanacea at 1:10 PM PST - 43 comments

Why did I annoy that black squirrel in Council Bluffs? I hope they don't put me in their special haunted jail.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:49 PM PST - 15 comments

Human Rights Watch, Watched "Who will guard the guardians?" asked Roman satirist Juvenal. Now we must ask, who is watching Human Rights Watch, one of the world's best-financed and most influential human rights organizations? It turns out that they cook the books about facts, cheat on interviews, and put out pre-determined conclusions that are driven more by their ideology than by evidence. These are serious accusations, and they are demonstrably true.
posted by Postroad at 12:00 PM PST - 62 comments

The debate is over: By any definition, Iraq is in a state of civil war. Indeed, the only thing standing between Iraq and a descent into total Bosnia-like devastation is 135,000 U.S. troops -- and even they are merely slowing the fall... The consequences of an all-out civil war in Iraq could be dire. Considering the experiences of recent such conflicts, hundreds of thousands of people may die. Refugees and displaced people could number in the millions. And with Iraqi insurgents, militias and organized crime rings wreaking havoc on Iraq's oil infrastructure, a full-scale civil war could send global oil prices soaring even higher... Welcome to the new "new Middle East" -- a region where civil wars could follow one after another, like so many Cold War dominoes. And unlike communism, these dominoes may actually fall.

What Next?
See also Mindless in Iraq
And note that, as of tomorrow, Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006, the war in Iraq will have lasted one full week longer than US involvement in World War II.
posted by y2karl at 11:49 AM PST - 49 comments

Saudi Aramco is the state-owned oil production company in Saudi Arabia. It's also the largest oil company in the world. Its headquarters are in Dhahran (wiki), a city owned by Saudi Aramco (other cities being Abqaiq, Ras Tanura, and Udailiyah), which houses numerous expats and native Saudis. You might have heard about Dhahran recently as they just fielded a Little League World Series team (featuring a 6'8", 256 lb. first baseman...
posted by mckenney at 11:34 AM PST - 22 comments

Remember the comic book version of the 9/11 Commission Report mentioned earlier this month? Slate have put it online.
posted by cillit bang at 10:50 AM PST - 50 comments

Google's word processor (re)launches. Formerly known as Writely, the online application, with all kinds of nifty collaborative features, joins a wide range of free online word processors, including the decent Zoho (you can see reviews of many online word processors here). Want to do presentations instead? Check out Thumbstacks or ThinkFree (with 1 GB of storage). If drawing is your thing, try Litha-Paint, or use SnipShot to crop pictures and save them to Flickr or your computer. Even GE's gotten into the free web application act with their no-registration-required collaborative whiteboard. And the number of free web applications just keeps growing...
posted by blahblahblah at 9:54 AM PST - 52 comments

Buying a plane ticket? Farecast, which went nationwide today, can help (even though it's still in beta). Just tell it where and when you want to go and it'll try to predict the cheapest time to buy. "When looking across all airfare predictions in all markets, Farecast has on average around a 75% accuracy level. And, yes, the percentage of the time we are right continues to improve."
posted by camcgee at 9:30 AM PST - 22 comments

Furor over Fuhrer Food But it's not the only Hitler-themed restaurant. Taipei had the Prison restaurant with Concentration Camp murals, and Korea had the infamous 1939 Hitler Bar.

Not that the U.S. was spared. Colorado had a Mao-themed eatery.
posted by FeldBum at 8:38 AM PST - 68 comments

Echolocation : bats use it. So do whales and dolphins. And humans? The 14-year-old profiled here and here is using it. Learn more about how blind people are employing perception and processing of the auditory environment: where words like flash and tags have an altogether different meaning.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:25 AM PST - 28 comments

Book22 is named after the 22nd book of the Bible, Song of Solomon. Apparently, it's also a great place for married couples to pick up their intimate items. And, also an opportunity to share the gospel. Note that these are links to an online sex toy shop, NSFW, though safer than most online sex toy shops.
posted by Roger Dodger at 8:23 AM PST - 22 comments

Joe Rosenthal, 1911-2006. He once took a photo that may seem familiar to you. That image is so iconic that it lent itself to a later memorial and was echoed in the aftermath of another famous incident.
posted by pax digita at 8:13 AM PST - 29 comments

Trying to forget the past? Not digging the bad sequels and schlock-horror spinoffs? The house that Freddy built's first commercial success is now back in theatres, but only for a limited time. Get your funny glove love on, order tickets, and see A Nightmare on Elm Street on the big screen once again.
posted by onedarkride at 8:12 AM PST - 4 comments

Would YOU lie to save your life? The Doctor said that I needed a keyhole operation called a coronary angioplasty to clear the blockages, but the waiting list on the NHS was nine months. I couldn’t believe my ears. I knew that I would struggle to survive the next nine days, so nine months seemed an impossibility. What the doctor had just handed me was a virtual death sentence. He must have seen the look of horror. He said that if I paid for the operation, he could fit me in for the angioplasty within the week. The cost privately, he told me, would be around £8,500. I looked at him, my head a whirl as I tried to make sense of what he was telling me. As far as I could see, the choice was clear — if I paid I would live, if I didn’t I would probably die. I’m a pensioner living on £150 a week. And no bank would have given me a loan. But in that split second my survival instinct kicked in and I realised I had to convince the doctor that I had the money. ‘Well, you can’t take it with you,’ I said cheerily. ‘I’ll go private.’ The following morning, I gave the administrator the cheque before I was discharged from the hospital. Some people would say this was fraud, because I knew it would bounce. But there was nothing else I could do — I wanted to live.
posted by Izzmeister at 5:44 AM PST - 162 comments

In the 1930's, Henry Ford transplanted a tiny piece of America—complete with picket fences, fire hydrants, poetry readings, square-dancing, and English-language sing-alongs—into the Amazon rain forest. Fordlândia was to be the largest rubber tree plantation on the planet (over 70 million rubber tree seedlings) providing material for the millions of tires Ford Motor Company needed. It flopped. So he tried again, downriver a bit, with Belterra. It flopped, too. By 1945, Ford threw in the towel having lost over $20 million, or roughly $200 million in modern dollars.
posted by CodeBaloo at 5:38 AM PST - 10 comments

Residents try to ban child abuse victims from their neighborhood. A bunch of Taichung residents decide that their community is too nice for a home for victims of child abuse. From the article: "a committee formed by residents of the community passed a 'resolution' in June to prohibit the teenagers from moving in under the pretext of maintaining the "high quality" of the neighborhood."
posted by Poagao at 3:04 AM PST - 99 comments

The Match World Virtual Museum is dedicated to showcasing the best artwork from the ~25,000 matchbooks in the collection of the Japanese Match Manufacturers Association, including Foreign Matchbooks, Advertising on Matchbooks and various matchbook companies, all with decent, sized images available if you click on the thumbnail versions. Some really attractive stuff in here. Previously on Metafilter
posted by jonson at 12:14 AM PST - 8 comments

Asian Beat.An introduction to the music scene which flourished in Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore in 1964-1969. From Tofu Magazine.
posted by onkelchrispy at 11:54 PM PST - 8 comments

The Smithsonian Photography Initiative provides access to "1,800 digital images, the work of 100 photographers, who used 50 different processes." It's the first online batch of the Smithsonian's 13 million photographs. (More info here and here). The Enter the Frame feature lets you save your own photo sequences.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:40 PM PST - 4 comments

Federal Appeals Court opinion "We respectfully disagree and reach a different conclusion... Possession of a large sum of cash is 'strong evidence' of a connection to drug activity." Even if no evidence of a drug related crime is provided, you are guilty until proven innocent. BTW, they wont return the money.
posted by IronWolve at 10:37 PM PST - 103 comments

Scott Petersen, aka "reptileman", opens his Serpentarium to visitors 365 days a year. Have a look at some of his snakes, lizards, invertebrates, crocodilians, and turtles, and kids blythely handling them. reptileman recommends that you also visit Zach's Lizard Land, where you can meet Jerky, Buddy, and Cola, all of whom are lizards.
posted by owhydididoit at 9:49 PM PST - 8 comments

Is Dr. Gregory House, a gleefully misanthropic diagnostician of infectious diseases (played by the endlessly brilliant Hugh Laurie), the modern-day counterpart of Sherlock Holmes? There's plenty of connections* to read into, starting most obviously with the play on words: Holmes is a homonym of "homes", which is a plural synonym of "house".
posted by Lush at 9:36 PM PST - 45 comments

Next step: English Video helping kids learn roman script
posted by kozad at 8:43 PM PST - 5 comments

Heard of Girls Gone Wild? Of course you have, but what about Girls Gone Wild - Baghdad? or Black Girls Gone Wild? How about Golden Girls Gone Wild (contains partial blurred puppet nudity)? Into fetishes? what about Blind Chicks Gone Wild? Of course no GGW link compendium would be complete without the GGW segment from The Daily Show which aired a while back. (yes, it's YouTube. They all are.)
posted by clevershark at 8:19 PM PST - 9 comments

Type, handwriting, and lettering
posted by persona non grata at 7:50 PM PST - 17 comments

Deadwood: Ok, ok it's a youtube link, but it's funny and it's Deadwood for chrissakes!
posted by Neiltupper at 7:27 PM PST - 44 comments

Pope Benedict XVI makes his usual Sunday address during Italy's National August Holiday and about two-thirds in points out that "excessive activity" can lead to "hardness of heart", specifically recommending taking time out for prayer. It becomes the highlight of the speech, gets picked up all over, by Reuters and AP, and suddenly he's the Patron Saint of Slackers. Huh? Maybe that's why it's called The Protestant Work Ethic. Meanwhile, Americans are 'giving up' on vacations (voluntarily?) and in parts of Turkey a Muslim Protestant Work Ethic is emerging. And whatever happened to the Hacker Ethic?
posted by wendell at 7:14 PM PST - 22 comments

What's your water situation, America? Real-time and historical ground and surface water data.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:32 PM PST - 18 comments

Crummy Church Signs
posted by konolia at 4:10 PM PST - 59 comments

Google mislays Tibet. Tech news site The Register uses Google Earth to do a virtual flyover of Tibet Tibet Autonomous Region. They see lots of neat stuff, including railways, bridges, and the (former) Northwest Nuclear Weapons Research & Design Academy. Among other things.
posted by Drunken_munky at 12:56 PM PST - 23 comments

Proofs and Pictures: The Role of Visualization in Mathematical and Scientific Reasoning [video] "The picture is a telescope for looking into Plato's heaven." -- James Brown [cached]
posted by Chuckles at 12:08 PM PST - 27 comments

Mobile saunas from around the world (that is, "Finland and a few other places".) I was particularly taken with the Saab conversion.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:18 AM PST - 12 comments

Federer as Religious Experience by David Foster Wallace.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 11:01 AM PST - 92 comments

Maybe you heard the song Living Next Door to Alice long ago and never gave it another thought. But crappy glam rock band Smokie is still making the world rock, they have been milking that song ever since, and are quite popular in a lot of non-English speaking parts of the world - "We said Smokie first, puppet show second."
posted by Meatbomb at 10:24 AM PST - 16 comments

The Fart Heard Round the World. An extraordinary performer, who farted for his living for 20 years, Le Pétomane (YouTube) was the highest paid stage artist of his time in 1897 France. He farted songs, impressions of people, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and farm animals, among other things. The management of Moulin Rouge had to hire nurses to help members of the audience who passed out laughing so hard. He was pusued for many years by an obsessed doctor. Two movies were made about his life in English, the 1979 short film (33 minutes) of Le Pétomane (Google video) and in 2005 Parti Avec Le Vent, which translates as Gone With the Wind. [more]
posted by nickyskye at 9:00 AM PST - 39 comments

Dan Glickman, president of the MPAA, and John Perry Barlow, Greatful Dead lyricist and co-founder of the EFF, debate movie piracy in this interview (RealVideo) on the BBC's "Click".
posted by Mwongozi at 8:59 AM PST - 17 comments

Mandolux - photographic desktop wallpapers. Just keep hittin' previous.
posted by nthdegx at 3:04 AM PST - 22 comments

"The Lutherans had Davey & Goliath and I wondered what we Baptists could do for children's television," remembers Dr Paul M. Stevens. Stevens, then president of the Southern Baptist Radio & Television Commission contracted Byers and Perry to develop JOT THE DOT into a children's television show with the purpose to reach children with moral messages on their level." What they created are also a series of modernist gems. via
posted by maryh at 3:03 AM PST - 19 comments

Lonely? Online? Unwilling to fuck people that aren't exactly like you? Good news! The PeopleMeet Empire has a dating website custom designed specifically to fit your needs, whether you're Italian, Jewish, Divorced, Marriage Minded, Asian (nonspecific), Asian (specific), Old, Really Old, Christian (Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentacostal, Born Again, Mormon or Other), Republican, Democrat, Midget, Fit, Fat, the Outdoor type, the Indoor type, a Pet lover, Professional, some kooky Black variation of the earlier types, or even (gasp!) Californian.
posted by jonson at 12:12 AM PST - 64 comments

A Message from Iran was distributed on August 6 by the editors of MAHA, the clandestine gay ‘zine in Iran. MAHA means “we” or “us” in Persian. Originally begun in 2004 as a newspaper after a crackdown on Iranian gay Web sites by the Tehran regime, MAHA is now distributed in PDF format to its subscribers. Iran has been censoring the Internet in earnest since 2003, and homosexuals are only a small part of that story. Likewise, Internet censorship is merely an element of the systematic persecution of gay men and boys in Iran. [more inside]
posted by owhydididoit at 9:37 PM PST - 17 comments

Last call for Mr Al Kyder and Mr Terry Wrist...
posted by marvin at 8:23 PM PST - 17 comments

It's that time of year again. Zombies. San Francisco. Vancouver. And in case you missed the big one last year, Vancouver 2005.
All this right on the heels of another, and bigger, Skytrain Party, celebrating robots and the new station.
When you live in No-Fun City, you gotta make your own.
posted by Extopalopaketle at 8:05 PM PST - 21 comments

Lightweight data exploration: simple, sparkline-esque graphs in Excel.via infosthetics.
posted by signal at 6:58 PM PST - 13 comments

Urinal Sculpture - beautiful targets. (I think this site stands on its own. However, if you are in dire need and one of these lovelies is just too fare to run, here is a guide to your local loo, or even better yet your loo on the run. For the true loooligist this compendium is sure to satisfy.)
posted by caddis at 6:28 PM PST - 30 comments

In the early 1900's, Sicilian immigrant Baldasare Forestiere moved from New York the San Joaquin valley, California. Working alone during his spare time and using only hand tools, he spent 40 years sculpting an underground home and garden [Real] that's a work of art and architectural engineering known today as the Forestiere Underground Gardens. [Gimages]
posted by CodeBaloo at 5:36 PM PST - 11 comments

The cruiser Emden was launched in 1910. When World War One broke out, she was under the command of Korvettenkapitän Karl Friedrich Max von Müller, with Kapitänleutnant Hellmuth von Mücke as executive officer, who "was as extroverted as his commander was modest." When Graf von Spee, commander of the East Asiatic Squadron, decided to keep it united and head for Chile to coal up, Müller said he'd rather go off on his own and harass British shipping. Spee agreed, and the Emden embarked on a spree of destruction that made him a hero not only to the Germans but even to the British; when it was over, the Telegraph said: "It is almost in our hearts to regret that the Emden has been captured and destroyed.... There is not a survivor who does not speak well of this young German, the officers under him and the crew obedient to his orders. The war on the sea will lose some of its piquancy, its humour and its interest now that the Emden has gone."
posted by languagehat at 4:05 PM PST - 35 comments

Unicorns, unicorns, unicorns, unicorns, unicorns, unicorns, unicorns (last three NSFW)
posted by fatbobsmith at 3:11 PM PST - 23 comments

Free Energy? Family Guy viewers already know that Ireland's top scientists once discovered how to turn their population into pure energy, but have they now discovered the key to perpetual motion? The Law of Conservation of Energy would seem to suggest otherwise, but these fellas (Google video) would seem to claim otherwise. Steorn, an Irish "technology development" company, claims that they have discovered a means to free energy, and have issued a challenge to the scientific community.
posted by chudmonkey at 2:00 PM PST - 69 comments

In a small town in Central Serbia called Guca, the "Festival of Brass Music" takes place since 1961. The main event is an epic trumpet competition which Boban Markovic has won 5 times. (You might have heard his playing in several films by Emir Kusturica, most notably The Underground.) Now there is also a film about the festival , which begins this year on the 30th of August.

The festival is an insane mixture of Oktoberfest, Carnival of Rio and folklore show with a Serbian twist.

Some examples of the music to be heard on the festival. And if you like those, you'd better check out Fanfare Ciocarlia and Taraf de Haidouks too.
posted by hoskala at 9:39 AM PST - 15 comments

Serious Horsepower. Some beautiful machines pulling more than just dead weight .
posted by rmmcclay at 9:20 AM PST - 33 comments

"Inthewrongplaceness" is a live art installation whereupon a naked woman cradles a dead pig.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 9:06 AM PST - 49 comments

From Abadan to Zurvanism, The Encyclopaedia of the Orient is your one-stop shopping mecca for bite-sized info-bits on North Africa and the Middle East.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:59 AM PST - 8 comments

Iraqi peacekeepers sent to the Scottish border... 1600 years ago. The Notitia Dignitatum, the Roman equivalent of an organisation chart for the imperial bureaucracy in the fifth century, contains a reference to soldiers from the Tigris stationed at Hadrian's Wall. More on the Notitia here; more on Hadrian's Wall here, including a 3D tour of a fort near the Wall, and tablets discovered at another fort (including a request by a commanding officer for "more beer").
posted by greycap at 6:05 AM PST - 8 comments

Roman Numerals and Arithmetic
posted by jack_mo at 4:30 AM PST - 19 comments

I'm just so sleepy... why do you insist on filming?
posted by jonson at 12:11 AM PST - 47 comments

Acoustic OutKast cover by a Tempe, AZ musician named Mat Weedle from local band Obadiah Parker.
posted by cgc373 at 10:14 PM PST - 78 comments

Green by Necessity : Armenia is blazing a trail in the move to cleaner fuels -- but not by choice.
posted by Afroblanco at 9:55 PM PST - 11 comments

The Berlutis have been making shoes for four generations. Often at Maison Berluti relationships are formed around the language of shoes. Men gather for shoe-polishing sessions, where champagne flows.
posted by owhydididoit at 9:30 PM PST - 11 comments

Suicide Bombing: Just Say No. Hollywood-style anti-suicide bombing PSA now in heavy rotation on Iraqi TV. Previously discussed here before the spot was finished.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:09 PM PST - 56 comments

Is this the most valuable PEZ dispenser in the world? Collectors know of only two examples of this 1982 World’s Fair astronaut design PEZ dispenser - each in a different color scheme. Between 06:29:59 PDT and 06:30:12 PDT, the eBay bid for the green stem example from the Headley-Du Vall PEZ Collection exceeded the current world record of $6,000 for a single dispenser. (More inside).
posted by nanojath at 8:37 PM PST - 30 comments

The strange saga of Harvey Matusow, "most hated man in America". Said to be the most notorious of the paid perjurious snitches for the Communist witch-hunters, married 12 times, gave LSD to Robert F. Kennedy, tangled with Roy Cohn, was prison buddies with Wilhelm Reich, recorded a psychedelic Jews Harp record, started the rumor that smoking dried banana peels gets you high (as an act of revenge against Chiquita Banana), wrote one of the first how-to books on computer hacking. [via]
posted by nickyskye at 7:32 PM PST - 20 comments

Proverbs which also work the other way around.
posted by signal at 6:43 PM PST - 31 comments

Street Cents, a staple on The CBC for 17 years, has been canceled. The Emmy award-winning show focused on consumer and media awareness for teens and pre-teens.

Street Cents is filmed in Halifax, NS and airs without commercial interruption in order to avoid potential conflict with advertisers who were regularly taken to task on the show. The last episode will air on October 1st, 2006.
posted by purephase at 6:26 PM PST - 33 comments

Twice the budget, more stars vs. an Oscar-winning film a year old. The release of the Infamous trailer begs the question: is there really that big a market for Truman Capote-inspired films? Especially since both revolve round In Cold Blood? On the other hand, Infamous might at least still make a profit.
posted by starman at 6:13 PM PST - 14 comments

From WalMart's latest PR campaign: "I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs..." The author? Former MLK lieut, Andrew Young.
posted by mischief at 6:02 PM PST - 46 comments

Confused by "The Case of the Speluncean Explorers"? Here's a timeline. Perhaps you need a different perspective? How about a real-life analogy?
posted by anotherpanacea at 3:24 PM PST - 4 comments

Japanese leftists seize plane with samurai swords. AWOL Marine sets record by hijacking plane from Fresno to Rome. Female Palestinian hijacker becomes radical chic pin-up. D.B. Cooper parachutes from 727 with $200,000 in unmarked bills. Have airplane bombings made us nostalgic for old-school skyjackers who just wanted money or a trip to Cuba? Academic papers analyze skyjacking in the 60s & 70s according to contagion and rational choice models. Check out a prescient pre-9/11 documentary on the subject with great archival clips.
posted by jonp72 at 2:39 PM PST - 21 comments

Donk, box, or bubble?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:19 PM PST - 13 comments

This is the Fish calling from Microsoft Support Santro. No, not that fish.
posted by GernBlandston at 1:00 PM PST - 28 comments

How a Right-Winger Sees the New York Times.
posted by brain_drain at 12:50 PM PST - 78 comments

HI Ladies, It’s your Knight in Shining Armor! The interweb has revolutionized the time-honored tradition of prison pen-pals. Meet a soulmate. A lover. A fighter. An artist. OMG a girl!!! Be still my heart -- someone to spoon with. Really, there's someone for everyone.
posted by turducken at 12:43 PM PST - 36 comments

After breakfast we elected a man by the name of Walker, from Detroit, for supper. "Cannibalism in the Cars," by Mark Twain.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:29 PM PST - 15 comments

Worker falls into chocolate vat. His quick-thinking co-workers understand the chemistry of of confection.
posted by Kibbutz at 12:18 PM PST - 39 comments

Beauty in bitmaps- Some artists work in watercolors, some oils, and some with clay. The 'artists' at tacoholic express themselves in the universally accessible medium of really bad MS Paint drawings. Its public so you can submit your own masterworks.
posted by AVandalay at 11:33 AM PST - 6 comments

FFF: Pac Xon is like Qix, only with graphics from Pac Man, and the red ghosts eat your territory, and the popsicles freeze the ghosts. So maybe it's not so much like Qix, but it's similarly addictive. [via]
posted by scottreynen at 10:52 AM PST - 17 comments

The active component of marijuana, 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), competitively inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) as well as prevents AChE-induced amyloid -peptide (A) aggregation, the key pathological marker of Alzheimer's disease.
posted by Mr_Zero at 10:49 AM PST - 49 comments

Tehching Hsieh – Life Performance Never one to back down from performance art, Tehching Hsieh, a Chinese emigre to the US, has done some pretty impressive things: - A year in a cage in his loft without talking; -Punching a time clock every hour of every day for a year (and missing tons of REM sleep and making a film in the process;) -Spending a year outside, never entering a single building or roofed structure until he was arrested in a scuffle; Tied together with artist Linda Montano with a 8-foot piece of rope. Does Tehching Hsieh deserve to be called America's Greatest Performance Artist?
posted by parmanparman at 10:29 AM PST - 27 comments

McKinley Assassination Ink: "The goal [...]: to gather the largest possible selection of full-text primary source documents relating to the assassination of William McKinley and the immediate aftermath of that event, including the succession of Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency and the incarceration, trial, and execution of [anarchist] assassin Leon Czolgosz."
posted by OmieWise at 10:11 AM PST - 9 comments

200 liters of condensed liquid nitrogen (LN₂) were delivered to Berkeley’s Condensed Matter Lab this past Monday. Sent to retrieve the 400lb dewar from the loading dock but faced with a non-working elevator, an enterprising young lab student decided to carry it down the stairs. Gravity is a harsh mistress.

If things had turned out differently, they could have been scraping his remains off the walls with a spatula. At Texas A&M in January a lab was badly damaged when someone ignored the Ideal Gas Law, removed the pressure valve and rupture disk off an old (LN₂) tank and filled the remaining holes with metal plugs. "How to Tell a True Lab Story" talks about a similar incident. LN₂ is good for more than just blowing up a school (or, um a watermelon), though: Spanish Chef Ferran Adrià uses it to create dishes at his restaurant. Previously on MeFI: How to make LN₂ ice cream (careful!) and unwise science experiments.
posted by zarq at 9:20 AM PST - 27 comments

First they came for the atheists - Arkansas state constitution says: "Atheists disqualified from holding office or testifying as witness:- No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any Court" Link to pdf, pg 74 in pdf(via reddit).
posted by forwebsites at 9:04 AM PST - 99 comments

Esposing Earmarks: networked journalism's first assignment. Today marks a key moment in the evolution of the Web as a reporting medium. The first left-right-center coalition of bloggers, activists, non-profits, citizens and journalists to investigate a story of national import: Congressional earmarks and those who sponsor and benefit from them. Join the hunt!
posted by scalefree at 8:50 AM PST - 9 comments

"Sometimes our stomachs would hurt, because we would go up to 15 days without eating." Three Mexican fisherman were found alive after drifting in the Pacific for nearly a year. They were found in their 27-foot boat, 5500 miles from where they started.
posted by cerebus19 at 8:42 AM PST - 56 comments

Whether or not you generally enjoy testosterone-ridden activities, watching Greg Gasson jump from one plane to another is pretty cool. Also: a longer video of a second such jump, plus lots of annoying commentary. Registration required.
posted by louigi at 7:31 AM PST - 21 comments

Collection of Divine Messages, vol. 1. In 1926, Vietnamese intellectuals tried to unify the religions of the world. After a year of intensive seance, here's what they came up with: Spiritist mediumship, Taoist cosmology, Christian rhetoric, Catholic structure, Buddhist/Confucian morality, .....Masonic imagery? Their take on vegetarianism: "An impure physical body will create an impure spiritual body, which cannot conduct electricity well. As a result, it will then be struck by lightning and be destroyed in the atmosphere. Even if the impure spiritual body is wise and remains on the earth to avoid the lightning, it will remain an Immortal and never proceed to Buddhahood. This is why I recommend the practice of complete vegetarianism before attempting meditation." More via Sydney Centre for Studies in Caodaism.
posted by Laugh_track at 6:33 AM PST - 9 comments

Ronald McHummer. "This month McDonald's is giving away toy Hummers — 42 million of them, in eight models and colors — with every Happy Meal or Mighty Kids Meal. That's right: The fast-food chain that helped make our kids the fattest on Earth is now selling future car buyers on the fun of driving a supersized, smog-spewing, gas-guzzling SUV.."
posted by stbalbach at 5:19 AM PST - 117 comments

Anna and Laura Tirocchi ran a dressmaking shop for the elite of Providence, Rhode Island between 1915 and 1947. In 1989 the building, which had been shut for 42 years, was found to contain a time capsule of the development of early 20th century fashion - from fabric and dresses to photographs and sewing machines and associated ephemera. The A&L Tirocchi Dressmakers Project website showcases the collection (after 12 years of research by RISD) through: the 514 project (with an image archive), essays, databases and exhibition sections. [via Intute]
posted by peacay at 4:04 AM PST - 12 comments

CensusScope. US Census 2000 data displayed through maps, rankings, and charts. [more inside] Warning: some pages render funny, but usable, under Firefox 1.5.0.4.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 4:01 AM PST - 7 comments

Google Video + Google Maps + Rendezvous = Awesome Its been posted previously, but now with a map illustrating the route taken in real-time.
posted by lemonfridge at 1:43 AM PST - 26 comments

Friday Flash Fun: Dolphin Edition. It takes a little practice, and you probably should read the directions first.
WARNING: May lead to a drop in productivity, sensation of lost time, or feelings of isolation.
posted by kyleg at 1:03 AM PST - 16 comments

Gir, it's time for PANCAKES! youtube
posted by jonson at 12:08 AM PST - 63 comments

Phisick - Beautifully presented historical medical instruments. Check out the French Nasal Rectificateur. Take a look these ear trumpets too: 1, 2, 3, 4. [Click on the images in the top strip for alternate views and close-ups]
posted by tellurian at 12:08 AM PST - 19 comments

Ilha Das Flores video "A tomato is planted, harvested and sold at a supermarket, but it rots and ends up in the trash. The end? No. ISLAND OF FLOWERS follows it up until its real end, among animals, trash, women and children. And then the difference between tomatoes, pigs and human beings becomes clear." A remarkable and devastating 12 minute film from director Jorge Furtado.
posted by maryh at 12:06 AM PST - 15 comments

Strangers - a visual record of one-night stands that never actually happened. Futoshi Miyagi in a series of photos of himself in the homes of other men. "To be naked with someone without having intercourse is weird." [Flash, nsfw]
posted by mediareport at 11:16 PM PST - 14 comments

Google Web Toolkit + Texas Holdem Poker = gpokr.com. I should probably be embarrassed about how much time I've spent in the last few weeks playing poker online for pretend money. As the site operator mentions in his development blog, it seems to be the small things that make the site so sticky: elegant ajax design, players' rankings displayed and updated right next to their names at the table, a slew of player statistics presented on the main ranking page, even more statistics and graphs on each user page. (Oh, and out of 5000 or so current players, I seem to be #1).
posted by nobody at 9:57 PM PST - 34 comments

Advance Australia Fair, written by a Scotsman and performed at the inauguration of the Commonwealth, has never been a hugely popular anthem. The ARU have been boosting Waltzing Matilda (a paean to a thief who got caught, which was considered as an anthem in the 70s but rejected) as a national song for Rugby internationals, while Men At Work's backpacker anthem Land Down Under can be heard almost constantly in bars from Ko Pha Ngan to Earl's Court, and the Chisels' song Khe Sahn gets a better pagerank than the battle it is named for.

But I think Adam Hills may have returned the anthem to relevance with this rendition.
posted by pompomtom at 9:37 PM PST - 30 comments

DHS's CyberStorm-- --Recognizing the imminent threat hippies and assorted leftists obviously pose to us all, a massive cyber terror simulation (international and involving 115 organizations) recently came to light: ...The attack scenario detailed in the presentation is a meticulously plotted parade of cyber horribles led by a "well financed" band of leftist radicals who object to U.S. imperialism, aided by sympathetic independent actors. At the top of the pyramid is the Worldwide Anti-Globalization Alliance, which sets things off by calling for cyber sit-ins and denial-of-service attacks against U.S. interests. WAGA's radical arm, the villainous Black Hood Society, ratchets up the tension on day one by probing SCADA computerized control systems and military networks ...
posted by amberglow at 9:20 PM PST - 28 comments

Wish you could have bought shares of Pearl Jam before they were famous? Fans sponsor bands in $10 'parts'. Once 5000 parts have been pledged, the band gets a proper studio recording. Tracks are made available free. CD's are sold. Money goes to the band and to the 'believers' who sponsored them. Might work. Probably better than this model.
posted by gregor-e at 8:57 PM PST - 30 comments

Bacteria Roll Out Carpet Of Goo That Converts Deadly Heavy Metal Into Less Threatening Nano-spheres. This microbe joins another reported not too long ago. We certainly could use their help.
posted by owhydididoit at 8:52 PM PST - 9 comments

The internet nerdocracy has inadvertently spawned a DDoS attack against a Hungarian government website set up to name a new bridge. Why? Because Stephen Colbert asked "the heroes" to march, and they obeyed. (We've heard from this guy before.) Next on their sights: The Saginaw Spirit team mascot. [more inside]
posted by absalom at 8:30 PM PST - 23 comments

Mah num ah num (Google Video) - The Muppets debut their first music video in 1976.
posted by persona non grata at 7:33 PM PST - 70 comments

Motion Mountain - "The project aims to produce a simple, vivid and up-to-date introduction to modern physics, with emphasis on the fundamental ideas of motion. 'Simple' means that concepts are stressed more than formalism; 'vivid' means that the reader is continuously challenged; 'up-to-date' means that modern research and ideas about unification are included."
posted by Gyan at 7:26 PM PST - 4 comments

An inquiry into living while walking the roads of America, Mexico, and beyond
posted by MetaMonkey at 6:55 PM PST - 16 comments

Jason Toney at Negro Please says, "This is officially the whitest thing I have ever posted." I didn't know what Metal School was, and I still don't know.
posted by cgc373 at 5:19 PM PST - 54 comments

Diigo (Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff) is a new "social annotation" bookmarking site with the standard save-and-share, tags, etc., and also sharable Web page annotations.
posted by davcoo at 5:00 PM PST - 6 comments

web2.0 logo creatr for yr web ideaz Beta
posted by boo_radley at 4:50 PM PST - 53 comments

Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown "Charlie Brown is on the run from the Peanuts Gang after the Great Pumpkin puts a bounty on his head." (Google Video)
posted by kirkaracha at 4:41 PM PST - 19 comments

In the Hollywood version of the Kwame James story, he becomes an NBA All-Star, helps achieve world peace and, of course, lives blissfully ever after. While the real-life plot hasn't followed quite that arc, perhaps it's headed toward a happy ending. (via SpoFi)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:54 PM PST - 7 comments

Holy Madness! (Flash interface.) The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City has launched a website that allows you to pore over and compare Tibetan Buddhist artwork from their exhibits. Use the "Decode" feature to pick paintings apart and learn about their intricate components.

See also: their ambitious calendar of events.
posted by hermitosis at 12:12 PM PST - 18 comments

Indexed: life lessons in chart and graph form.
posted by hydrophonic at 12:03 PM PST - 21 comments

The Great War on Terror shall be won with Powerpoint.

[Army Lt. General David] McKiernan had another, smaller but nagging issue: He couldn't get Franks to issue clear orders that stated explicitly what he wanted done, how he wanted to do it, and why. Rather, Franks passed along PowerPoint briefing slides that he had shown to Rumsfeld: "It's quite frustrating the way this works, but the way we do things nowadays is combatant commanders brief their products in PowerPoint up in Washington to OSD and Secretary of Defense…In lieu of an order, or a frag [fragmentary order], or plan, you get a bunch of PowerPoint slides…[T]hat is frustrating, because nobody wants to plan [img] against PowerPoint slides."

(Here's briefing standards *.ppt, clipart, and some earlier governmental [pdf] uses of PowerPoint [Cryptome], FAS, along with one from ABCNEWS making the case against Iran.) Also, here are previously related MeFi PowerPoint threads on the Downing Street Memos and the Columbia disaster.
posted by rzklkng at 11:32 AM PST - 97 comments

Nintendo music. Download some of their music. Go see them touring now. Enjoy the 8-bit goodness. Previously discussed nintendo music.
posted by ninjew at 11:03 AM PST - 17 comments

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor has ruled that warrantless wiretapping by the Bush Administration's National Security Agency is unconstitutional, saying it violates rights to free speech and privacy. Judge Taylor, a veteran of the civil rights movement and the first black female federal district judge in the U.S. 6th Circuit, was appointed to the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan by President Carter. Legal experts expect the decision to be overturned by the 6th Circuit sitting en banc. Background on the case by Glenn Greenwald: "The theory of the lawsuit -- [is that warrantless wiretapping's] mere existence deters citizens from freely exercising their free speech rights".
posted by orthogonality at 9:48 AM PST - 91 comments

[ConspiracyFilter] Was the alleged "binary liquid explosives" plot actually plausible, in the sense of being capable of producing "mass murder on an unimaginable scale?"
posted by ijoshua at 8:32 AM PST - 138 comments

"I choose to hang on to the anorexia" (requires Flash, disturbing images)
posted by matteo at 8:24 AM PST - 43 comments

genggong, khomus, guimbarde, trumpi... Not ringing a bell? How about Jew's Harp? Though neither a harp nor associated with Jewish tradition, that's the name that stuck in the New World. Call it what you will, this ingenious little instrument is played all over the planet. It's the focus of at least one yearly festival, and there's no shortage of great players out there twanging and boinging away. The instrument has a looong history stretching from antiquity to house music. In certain parts of the world its playing is the province of women only, and yes, they've been known to make the camels cry. Unsurprisingly, they've found their way onto the beloved YouTube in extreme close-up glory. BOINNNNGGG!! (Note: some links go direct to bwaaaang-y audio or video)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:16 AM PST - 21 comments

"Photojojo scours the internets, rips pages out of magazines, ransacks their friends' closets, and goes through dumpsters to find the very best Photo tips, DIY projects, and Gear." Subscribe and get it by email or RSS. Some archives here.
posted by dobbs at 8:12 AM PST - 10 comments

Bending a soccer ball - mathematically. Found via Ivars Peterson's short exposition on Braungardt and Kotschick's The Classification of Football Patterns [pdf, technical].
posted by Wolfdog at 7:31 AM PST - 18 comments

The University of Washington CSE Colloquium features accessible talks by leading computer scientists and computer engineers from the University of Washington, the region, the nation, and the world, most of which are available as MP3 audio and/or Real/Windows Media video online for free. Personal favorites include talks on quantum computing, de novo protein design, and in silico biology as a smarter way to learn how our genes work.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:57 AM PST - 7 comments

The Domesday Book is online. This book is "a great land survey from 1086, commissioned by William the Conqueror to assess the extent of the land and resources being owned in England at the time, and the extent of the taxes he could raise. The information collected was recorded by hand in two huge books, in the space of around a year." You can browse it here. The site also has some background info both on England at the time and the book itself.
posted by marxchivist at 6:02 AM PST - 20 comments

In Wales, signs are bilingual. Sometimes, they get it very wrong
posted by handee at 5:36 AM PST - 50 comments

FSI Language Courses
posted by anjamu at 1:35 AM PST - 36 comments

If you ride a subway in North America, you've probably seen the pictures: standing before that always red background, stylish urbanites look over their shoulders, giving each other flirtatious looks. And even if you're not in the dating market, you may have taken interest in the posters' energetic style, in the way their intricate linework confidently mixes caricature and fashion illustration influences, and wondered what the artist gets up to when he's not tempting singles towards Lavalife. The artist is Marcos Chin.
posted by TimTypeZed at 12:48 AM PST - 37 comments

For nearly two years now, Ben T Steckler has been reviewing, posting album covers, and making full albums available for download from his seemingly inexhaustible collection of out-of-print, spoken word, sound effect, educational & other kooky recorded ephemera. If you're a fan of album titles like How To Buy Meat, What Smoking Has Done For Me, or The Catholic Marriage Manual, this site will provide you with endless hours of reading/downloading/listening pleasure.
posted by jonson at 12:08 AM PST - 15 comments

Casper the Friendly Ghost video One of the oddest animated characters still popular since the 1940's, Casper the Emotionally Needy Dead Boy continues to elicit uneasiness and distress in viewers. On the other hand, his catchy theme song* has inspired some*. *warning: sound
posted by maryh at 12:01 AM PST - 37 comments

Zap Reader. Browser-based reader that takes selected text and flashes them one (or two, or three) at a time on the screen for super-fast speed reading. Scroll down for the tutorial video. Convenient or headache-inducing? You be the judge.
posted by zardoz at 12:00 AM PST - 23 comments

Dancing droplets begets Water figures. The full set.
posted by tellurian at 10:16 PM PST - 8 comments

Spelling with zombies.
posted by EarBucket at 8:14 PM PST - 35 comments

Good evidence that dark matter is for real.
posted by kliuless at 7:46 PM PST - 57 comments

A coyote raised on Moxie and Allen's. Maine's chupacabra dead at 25. Finally done in by a bondo covered El Camino SS (poster speculation on car type and quality).
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:45 PM PST - 24 comments

The artwork of Hanamaro Chaki.
posted by delmoi at 7:38 PM PST - 6 comments

Why are political extremists so interested in UFOs? The Nation of Islam has its “Great Mother Wheels.” Their melanin-challenged brethren in the Neo-Nazi movement have the myth of Neu Schwabenland, an Antarctic redoubt where the remnants of the Third Reich fled after the war, with the U.S. military in hot pursuit. There, hidden among the ice and the Emperor Penguins, the frostbitten Aryans plotted to reconquer the world. To that end, they created a fleet of UFOs, using top-secret Nazi technology that They don’t want you to know about. Nizkor has recreated pamphlets published by the Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel on this topic, one of which includes a helpful list of German phrases to be used during an encounter of the Third Kind. (This myth is also covered in the eighth chapter of this book.)
posted by jason's_planet at 6:30 PM PST - 21 comments

Extremists are trying to kill our beloved Caps Lock! Mefites unite! CAPS LOCK DAY IS UNDER ATTACK! (via)
posted by spiderwire at 4:55 PM PST - 73 comments

Wind moments: Devils. Power. Freaking out. Trivial. Arty. Blowing. Pulling. Animals. Unstoppable. Uplifting. Speeding. Riding. Foreplay. Musical. Zen. Nationalism. Canvas. Desert. Dumbness. Angst. Gadget. Street games. Emily & Poetry. [many video moments - all SFW]
posted by homodigitalis at 4:35 PM PST - 12 comments

Bees on a Plane! It's the Killer Bees again. No, not that one.
posted by owhydididoit at 2:31 PM PST - 18 comments

Newsfilter: Arrest Made In JonBenét Ramsey Case:
With the arrest today of a suspect in the 1996 murder case of JonBenét Ramsey (previously discussed), we should expect the resurrection of discussions and reporting related to early suspicions of the involvement of a family member (father: John; mother: Patsy; brother: Burke), as well as to childhood beauty pageants.
posted by ericb at 2:07 PM PST - 215 comments

Magician David Copperfield has succeeded where Alexander the Great and Ponce De Leon failed--he's discovered the fabled Fountain of Youth. As it turns out, it's conveniently located on his posh resort in the Exuma Chain, Bahama Islands.
posted by Iridic at 1:38 PM PST - 34 comments

For those days when you need to be reminded just how wonderful you are. Sit back and enjoy the positive affirmations and heroic music of You Are Mighty.
posted by Orb at 12:47 PM PST - 23 comments

Artist trading cards (ATC's) have three rules they shouldn't be sold, they are to measure exactly 2.5" by 3.5", and on the back they must have the artist's name, contact information, title of the ATC and it's number in the series. Since M. Vanci Stirnemann started this hobby in 1997 it has spread the world over. [previously on metafilter]
posted by bigmusic at 11:12 AM PST - 13 comments

"Most people use passwords. Some people use passphrases. Bruce Schneier uses an epic passpoem, detailing the life and works of seven mythical Norse heroes."
posted by chunking express at 10:59 AM PST - 46 comments

Rainbow in the dark: Gays in Metal From the best metal magazine around, Decibel.
posted by klangklangston at 10:30 AM PST - 52 comments

Jessica Simpson's latest single (YouTube link) came on as I was flicking around the teevee, and I was immediately struck by how much it sounded like 'Holiday' by Madonna. Stealing from yourself is one thing, but admitting to stealing from someone else is quite another. Isn't it?
posted by jimmythefish at 10:28 AM PST - 99 comments

Dude, like, what did you do during the war? Young Israeli activists fight the war on terra in their own little way. Similar criticisms have been used before, usually to political advantages. Others call it yet another hysterical conflation.
posted by yonation at 10:16 AM PST - 9 comments

Media That Matters Film Festival. Short indie films on important social topics. One of this year's entries is A Girl Like Me by Kiri Davis. It recreates the doll experiment from the 1950's in which African American girls found white dolls prettier than black dolls. Also, Asparagus! (A Stalk-umentary).
posted by caddis at 10:01 AM PST - 8 comments

Whales are ridiculous, thanks to their evolutionary origins as coyote-like mammals moved into the water about 45 million years ago and became more and more adapted to the marine life.
posted by chorltonmeateater at 9:54 AM PST - 32 comments

Macon, Georgia, the 1840's. African-American Alabama Vest brings his design for a musical instrument to German clockmaker Thaddeus von Clegg. The modern KAZOO is born. It sees its golden age during the Jug Band era. Later it rears its buzzy head on songs by Hendrix, Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers and many others. Originally made of metal, these days they're mostly plastic. And I, for one, agree that the humble kazoo is the ideal choice for designation as The National Instrument.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:57 AM PST - 23 comments

Ceres, Charon, and 2003 UB313 (a.k.a. Xena) may join the 9 planets we already know (and strive to remember) if a resolution by the International Astronomical Union is passed next week. So what makes a planet, according to the IAU? Having sufficient mass to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium (i.e. be round enough...welcome former asteroid Ceres) and being in orbit around a star without being a star itself or a satellite of another planet (apparently Charon and Pluto are actually a double planet.) Mike Brown, discoverer of "10th planet" Sedna and alleged "Pluto-hater", doesn't really like the idea.
posted by nekton at 6:58 AM PST - 74 comments

Piddle Around Slovenia. The country's tourist board has released this online game, allowing players to virtually wander around the tiny Alpine country, visiting popular sites while chatting with others.
posted by Ljubljana at 12:51 AM PST - 25 comments

In the South of France you'll find the fortified city of Carcassonne, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and a classic example of the medieval fortified city. Built upon the ruins of forts that predate Christianity, Carcassonne is one of the most photogenic places I've ever seen, never more so than on Bastille Day, when the city sets the night sky ablaze. A full gallery of Carcassonne fireworks can be found here.
posted by jonson at 12:07 AM PST - 35 comments

Do you feel that science has gone mad? Do you yearn for a time when adventurers were unfailingly courteous and infallibly polite? Well look no further than the adventures of Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer--now available weekly on the radio! Episodes [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]. In case this makes little sense, some background is available here.
posted by vernondalhart at 11:49 PM PST - 5 comments

Multiphonic chanting of the Gyuto Tantric University monks. [more]
posted by nickyskye at 11:30 PM PST - 22 comments

Sprinkle Brigade is brilliant, gross, and kinda NSFW. A comparable project was previously mentioned on MeFi. It would be too funny if certain comments had spurred this new development.
posted by mano at 10:00 PM PST - 31 comments

An experiment recently performed by the AET RaDAL group shows that the gravitomagnetic field produced by a rapidly-spinning superconductor can cause a 1.117 times increase over the Earth's gravity. Gravitomagnetism, a phenomenon predicted by General Relativity, is a poorly understood but promising topic in modern physics. Speculation about harnessing the bizarre, space-warping and gravity-altering effects of gravitomagnetism has already begun. Reactionless space propulsion [PDF] is the most apparent use (previously discussed), with the potential applications far-reaching and nearly inconcievable. The earlier experiment by the European Space Agency involving another rapidly-spinning superconductor earlier this year found a massive increase in strength over the predicted values, but still miniscule by our standards. Things could become very interesting if the results from this latest experiment pan out.
posted by nervestaple at 9:20 PM PST - 47 comments

Obscene anti-Bush folk song. Direct link to very NSFW mp3. Funny? Probably depends on your politics. Another song from Eric Schwartz, discussed previously. This isn't Erik Schwartz the suburbanhomeboy, matzah! rap guy, by the way.
posted by tula at 8:59 PM PST - 27 comments

Bruno Kirby, 57, dies of leukemia.
posted by zardoz at 8:50 PM PST - 48 comments

Tensor, said the Tensor asks and answers the question: "Who's Steven?"
posted by cgc373 at 8:00 PM PST - 7 comments

Thailand video blogs
posted by konolia at 6:58 PM PST - 7 comments

Auroras have had many explanations throughout history. Now, science has answered many questions, thanks to spending a lot of time in Antarctica taking time-lapse films.
posted by MetaMonkey at 6:57 PM PST - 14 comments

Grisha Perelman, where are you? Perelman has quite possibly solved one of mathematics biggest mysteries, Poincaré’s conjecture, but has since disappeared.
posted by kliuless at 6:54 PM PST - 31 comments

Hummer Ad strikes all the wrong notes. Tofu-eater feels insecure upon seeing an unrepentant meat-muncher, goes buys a Hummer to 'Restore the balance' (previous tagline: 'Restore your manhood'.) Somehow the ad agency forgot that you're supposed to get the message of "Feeling Down on Yourself? Buy Our Product, Show it Off, You'll Feel Better!" across subtly, not explicitly.
posted by Firas at 3:13 PM PST - 107 comments

Alt Anti- Bizarro NoNewsFilter
posted by wendell at 3:04 PM PST - 39 comments

Who needs boots when you can have steel-toed tabi? An overview of Japanese worker clothing.
posted by oneirodynia at 2:58 PM PST - 29 comments

Say Goodbye to Carrying Around 8+ Different Discount Cards - Put Them All Onto One Card [via mefi projects]
posted by boo_radley at 1:56 PM PST - 43 comments

When Library and Archives Canada placed online images of the 1901, 1906 and 1911 census, Automated Genealogy provided opportunity for volunteers to transcribe names into a database. Now the two early documents (1901, 1906) and most of the 1911 are fully indexed and searchable with links to the original image pages. Further projects are underway to link names between the documents and to other online sources, such as The Halifax Explosion Book of Remembrance and the British Home Children.
posted by TimTypeZed at 1:22 PM PST - 8 comments

An online version of The Chicago Manual of Style is scheduled for release in September 2006. A test drive will be available next month; there's a Quick Tour [PDF] with screenshots and more info.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:09 PM PST - 48 comments

Bored with that same old business meeting? Why not try a dinner in the sky? But if it's a view you're after, you could probably take a few of your clients here for the same price. (flash & sound alert; film clip on main site is slow to load)
posted by madamjujujive at 11:51 AM PST - 14 comments

Spider web construction gallery is a collection of diagrams of the path a spider takes when constructing it's web. The diagrams are colour coded by construction phase. [VIA MoFi's very first post.]
posted by Mitheral at 11:10 AM PST - 24 comments

Hopefully this will put an end to the interminable AskMe questions: Adam Cadre has written a complete retrospective and review of William Sleator’s young adult science fiction.
posted by Iridic at 10:56 AM PST - 16 comments

Are you a Winning Writer? Although the site is largely geared toward entering writing contests, there's quite a bit of po ems and short stories that have won various contests. You can also have your poetry critiqued or visit one of the websites for poets and writers. Some services, such as the poetry critique, are only available if you subscribe to their free newsletter.
posted by owhydididoit at 10:35 AM PST - 43 comments

Due to recent fires, Dell is recalling over four million laptop batteries manufactured by Sony and sold worldwide in the past two years. Pictures of computers on fire (as well as their charred remains) circulated widely online, not allowing the company to easily dismiss the problem as an isolated incident. Other companies claim their products aren't affected by the same issues, but the nightmare might not be limited to Dell. The future of laptops on airplanes is not looking so good.
posted by kyleg at 10:30 AM PST - 49 comments

Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism. An essay by Jaron Lanier.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:55 AM PST - 70 comments

The Toronto Globe and Mail on climate-change denial in Canada. Includes a description of how donations from oil companies to anti-Kyoto groups like Friends of Science are laundered through the Calgary Foundation and the University of Calgary's Science Education Fund. Previously.
posted by russilwvong at 7:52 AM PST - 66 comments

Ernest and Bertram --short film, formerly one of the best films you can't see after debuting at Sundance in 2002, with Sesame's lawyers then cracking down and forcing it to be pulled--now on youtube.
posted by amberglow at 6:49 AM PST - 27 comments

What If ... 9/11 Never Happened? "The broader culture would have gone its own way, 9/11 or no 9/11—progressing effortlessly from the obsessions of Gary Condit and Survivor in summer ’01 to Brangelina and American Idol in ’06. The Oliver Stone project of August ’06, however, would not be World Trade Center, but, with exquisite timing, Fidel."

One possibility from many in a collection of "could've-beens" compiled by New York Magazine. Other contributions of note: Tom Wolfe, Fareed Zakaria, an alternate-future blog by Andrew Sullivan, and perhaps best of all, a simple sketch from Ex Machina's Brian K. Vaughan.
posted by grabbingsand at 4:59 AM PST - 115 comments

Lists of the best places in the United States assume their expert can choose the absolute best place to live, or to work, or to raise a family—for everyone. Wouldn't a better way to find great places to live in America be based on your unique priorities and preferences?
posted by CodeBaloo at 3:51 AM PST - 42 comments

Congratulations! Pepsi-Cola's first woman CEO is anointed on the eve of her country of birth's Independence Day. As the US warns India not to ban Pepsi-Cola implying it may impede future economic progress, and India celebrates Independence from the British under heightened security alerts, one wonders how Indra Nooyi will navigate this press relations nightmare?
posted by infini at 1:52 AM PST - 36 comments

Romance 2.0 : Jan-M. Studt's writing/directing debut. "Businesswoman Sarah Townsend looked back on a successful day when a promising, unknown man called on her 3D-holophone. Too bad the holophone technique isn't very advanced yet. And men are not what they used to be..." (German with English subtitles.)
posted by Orb at 1:13 AM PST - 14 comments

The INA is a project out of Princeton's Sociology dept, focused in part on gathering data sets regarding globalization & making the information more publically digestable. Towards that end, these seven amazing infographics are provided covering the following topics: the Global Arms Trade, the US goverment as Employer, Transportation, The Coming Water Wars, The International Tobacco Industry, The Movie Business, and the prevalance & impact of McDonalds & Starbucks.
posted by lilbrudder at 12:11 AM PST - 19 comments

Hey, that drum set looks like it's melting! Acid starting to kick in? No! It's a TRIXON drum set! Trixon is exciting! Incontrovertible evidence that when it came to funny looking drum kits, the Germans had it down. Well, maybe with the exception of these.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:42 PM PST - 14 comments

Mona Lisa and other classics in clay animation. Joan C. Gratz is the talented artist behind this and other projects. This particular short film won an academy award for best animated short film in 1992. I am surprised to have never viewed it before today. Wikipedia has next to nothing on Gratz or her works.
posted by jkafka at 11:31 PM PST - 6 comments

Matsushita Shuji writes about the latest effort to prop up the Hanko system in Japan.
posted by tellurian at 11:06 PM PST - 23 comments

Nimian Hunter ~ Ride your horse, lasso the creatures, and feed your demon. (note: flash)
posted by crunchland at 9:58 PM PST - 17 comments

Redbone manager says Butte fair-goers saw ‘blatant’ imposters. Of course this sort of thing has been going for a long time (Imposter Zombies), but has gotten so bad that several states have passed laws requiring at least one original member to be present. "... a fan went to see The Drifters and realized none of the singers was authentic. Later, the fan went to another show and found the same charlatans on stage, this time posing as The Coasters..."
posted by 445supermag at 9:57 PM PST - 28 comments

The sketchbooks of Edward Burne-Jones, Benjamin Champney, Henri-Edmond Cross, Jacques-Louis David, Paul Feeley, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Sanford Gifford, George Grosz, Frederic Leighton, and John Singer Sargent. UnderCover, Artists' Sketchbooks exhibition by the Harvard Art museums [via woolgathering]
posted by bigmusic at 7:15 PM PST - 9 comments

Sock Wars: Assassination by sock - a much more productive way to find out who is really the world's fastest knitter.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:46 PM PST - 18 comments

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi defies opposition, makes annual controversial trip to Yasukuni Shrine. Naturally, China and Korea are not amused. Adding to the drama and sparking debate amongst the Japanese is a recently discovered private journal of former Emperor Hirohito that reveals Hirohito stopped visiting the shrine in the 1970's when he learned that 14 class A war criminals had been secretly interred. Those 14 Class A war criminals are the focus of the controversy, and many Japanese are discussing having the remains of those men removed from Yasukuni.
posted by zardoz at 5:15 PM PST - 45 comments

Can you see me now? is a chase game played online and on the streets. Players are dropped at random locations into a virtual map of the Banff Centre. Tracked by satellites, Blast Theory's runners appear online next to your player. The runners use handheld computers showing the positions of online players to guide them in the chase. From the good folks at Blast Theory and the Mixed Reality Lab.
posted by greatgefilte at 4:11 PM PST - 8 comments

Where do you find the U.S. in this 2006 CIA World Factbook list? Yep. It's ok... things are cool because of all those lucrative foreign investments like T-bills. Trouble is, oil and euros are looking a lot better. Is this a recipe for a collapse?
posted by chef_boyardee at 3:12 PM PST - 42 comments

Temari have been a hand-crafted tradition for centuries in China and Japan. Also known as kishu-temari, edo-temari, etc., these intricate woven balls were originally toys for children and later became gifts symbolizing friendship and loyalty. Though they used to be constructed from scraps of old kimonos, over the years they have evolved into elaborate geometric designs using silk as well as other, less expensive materials. People outside Japan have been making their own recently and a homemade temari makes a beautiful gift indeed.
posted by ktoad at 3:02 PM PST - 11 comments

Alan Abel is a self-described "professional hoaxer" active since 1959. His classic hoaxes include the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, the 1964 presidential campaign of Jewish housewife Yetta Bronstein, a topless string quartet (slightly NSFW), and the wedding of Idi Amin. He also released two mockumentaries long before Spinal Tap was a gleam in Christopher Guest's eye. Now Abel's daughter Jenny has released a documentary tribute to her father, Abel Raises Cain, which has some great You Tube clips, including 1970s talk show staple, Omar's School for Beggars. (some clips may be NSFW)
posted by jonp72 at 2:30 PM PST - 15 comments

"Let's give a welcome to Macaca here."
posted by EarBucket at 2:16 PM PST - 72 comments

Bicycle Coffee Systems reviews products essential to the "joys of bicycling and drinking good coffee, at the same time" and is written by "The Earth's Leading Authority on Conveying Coffee by Bicycle".
posted by turbodog at 1:50 PM PST - 8 comments

Dynamic 3D with CSS and the DOM Brothercake describes how to generate 3D mazes using nothing but CSS, the DOM and cunning. If you're not interested in the explanation, jump right to the example.
posted by boo_radley at 1:01 PM PST - 20 comments

The decade between 1922 & 1932 was not a good one for Frank Lloyd Wright; his star had faded in the US upon his return from Japan, and even though his most prolific years were still ahead of him, he had trouble finding work, and was evicited, his fabled home siezed by creditors. The Library of Congress hosts a fantastic collection of 5 projects he undertook during this era, none of which ever came to fruition. All that's left are his extensive blueprints, perspective drawings, and scale models carved specifically for the exhibit.
posted by jonson at 12:58 PM PST - 15 comments

I've long felt that the U.S. of A. "jumped the shark" as a country when we rejected the Metric System. The price of gasoline would still be under a dollar (per liter). Yet, we'd drive less because a short 20 mile trip would become a long 32 km trip. Then there's the most important measurement of all [maybe NSFW animated graph], providing us with the joy of 12.9(!) while we try to ignore that Japan is .1 ahead of us and France is .1 more than South Africa. (And is that Korean average North or South?)
posted by wendell at 11:43 AM PST - 64 comments

NPAA Best of 2006 Photojournalism from around the world: Escuintla Guatemala, Tahrir Baghdad, Odobesti, Naples Fla, New Orleans, Kashmir, Odessa, Immokalee Fla, Utica, Detroit
A project of the National Press Photographers Association.
posted by Lanark at 11:27 AM PST - 14 comments

Tonight is the world premiere, at the Edinburgh film festival, of "The Flying Scotsman", a biopic of Graeme Obree, the Scottish cyclist who broke the world hour record on a bike famously made from washing machine parts. Obree has faced many problems in his life, and the film has too, many of the participants haven't been paid yet. Of course, you could just buy the book.
posted by aisforal at 11:14 AM PST - 3 comments

Piet is a programming language in which programs look like abstract paintings. You can view some sample programs, or if you just like Mondrian, why not make your own with the Mondrian Machine? Or maybe you don't like Mondrian but you do like programming, in which case you can check out other strange languages, such as Petrovich, where you can punish or reward your PC. Finally, if you don't like programming OR Mondrian, have a look at a silly gif of a kitten.
posted by Orange Goblin at 10:55 AM PST - 11 comments

IBM raises lowers the bar. Apparently 1.5 nanometers is all that is needed for a 0 or a 1. This advance in data storage technology is a ways off from making an impact in chip construction, but allows for storage that is 1/8 the size of CMOS's wildest dreams. Neat. via ZDNet
posted by Addiction at 10:47 AM PST - 14 comments

Sex in prehispanic times. Cuba Chronicles. The arrow of time. Brazilian homosexual culture. The sword and the cross. Very similar. Bestiarium. Mini-descriptions of the many varied exhibits. Essays in English and Spanish by the artists with their images from ZoneZero.
posted by nickyskye at 10:42 AM PST - 7 comments

Nutpicking : It's a new and long overdue slur to describe the increasingly common practice on the right (and yes, on the left, too) of cherry-picking random comments or hate emails to smear your entire opposition as raving nuts. The worst so far: this execrable WSJ op-ed by Lieberman adviser Lanny Davis. Can the new term (which is modeled on the success of Godwin's Law) succeed in shaming the nutpickers? Either way, the practice is likely to become more common, especially if the "netroots" actually win some races this November.
posted by TheWash at 9:58 AM PST - 61 comments

So we all have our favourite question site. And we all know the big-brand takes on the space. But now there's the Web 2.0 Q&A sites: Wondir (Wondr?), Oyogi (in beta, of course) and the latest, Yedda. [via TechCrunch]
posted by GuyZero at 9:40 AM PST - 30 comments

Learn how to floss on Dental Movies dot com! Or learn more about what could go wrong with your teeth if you don't. Lots of fine dental info, with amusing animated gifs. Do you have bad breath? It's too bad they've had to temporarily shut down their offer for free simulated dental makeovers.
posted by owhydididoit at 9:17 AM PST - 6 comments

Al Jazeera have the scoop on the new name for OLPC's $100 $140 dollar laptop.<via olpcnews.com>
posted by davehat at 8:32 AM PST - 32 comments

NewsFilter: Castro Alive and kickin' it old school. The Cuban media has released some pictures of Castro alive and well. This is actually the first time I've ever seen him not wearing military garb.
posted by delmoi at 8:16 AM PST - 31 comments

We’ve detected background radiation from the Big Bang. We’ve sent explorers to the bottom of the ocean and the moon above us. We have images of the individual atoms of which our world is made. But we cannot have direct access to the sensory experiences of another human being. Language can help to bridge the gap but it is an imperfect tool. The closest we have come is Brain Fingerprinting and even that only indicates recognition of a scene or object; it does not capture the actual visual memory of the scene or object. This may soon change. Several years ago, researchers at Berkeley wired a cat’s neurons to a computer and were able to obtain videos of what the cat was seeing.
posted by jason's_planet at 7:51 AM PST - 50 comments

Chicken Noodle Soup! It's a dance. Some people wonder, "Is the Chicken Noodle Soup dance racist?"
posted by chunking express at 7:11 AM PST - 53 comments

Too Wong Foo: There's Mixed-Up Surf Nazis Invading A Plane! In honor of Snakes On A Plane slithering into theaters this coming weekend, Boston.com offers eleven perfectly descriptive, or overly cryptic, but all memorable movie titles. How would you retitle your favorite movie to be as descriptive as Snakes On A Plane? For example, The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down?
posted by Lord Kinbote at 7:10 AM PST - 119 comments

Hostage: The Jill Carroll Story. Jill Carroll, a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, was ambushed along with her Iraqi translator, Alan Enwiyah, on January 7, 2006. He was shot and killed, but she was held captive until her release on March 30, 2006. She tells her story in an ongoing 11-part series.
posted by initapplette at 6:49 AM PST - 9 comments

OTR Network.. Free archives of over 11,000 old radio shows, get your Jack Benny fix here ! Yeah, they use RealPlayer, but it's still pretty cool.
posted by lobstah at 6:09 AM PST - 12 comments

The 50 coolest websites : according to Time Magazine, at least. Who cares if they changed the world or not: as long as they're cool, that's all that really matters! Unsurprisingly, Digg's in there, as is MySpace (!), but they somehow seem to have neglected Metafilter, deciding that Cute Overload is way more hip instead. And no, Flickr's not in this one either.
posted by chorltonmeateater at 5:40 AM PST - 40 comments

OutsideIn Korea - brought to the world by our own stavrosthewonderchicken. He asked what you would like to see on the site here. Now sit back while he brings it to you. Or not. Probably not, now I think about it. In any case, the man writes like a demon on crack (except twice as interesting) and, whether or not you have the slightest interest in Korea, you will be entertained by the stories. If you follow his personal site, you know what to expect. If you have never read his writings before, strap in, you're in for a bumpy ride.
posted by dg at 4:38 AM PST - 19 comments

Beethoven stretches out and relaxes. Gorillas belch to let others know where they are. Fish sing the body electric (.mov, 12 MB) for food and safety. How has your own perception shaped your worldview?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:18 AM PST - 4 comments

60 Minutes interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Some have described Iran's president as just another middle eastern wacko along the lines of Saddam and Bin Laden. After viewing the 60 Minutes interview, what is your take on things?
posted by mk1gti at 10:45 PM PST - 117 comments

CBC Blogging Manifesto Tired of waiting for CBC, Canada’s national public broadcaster, to come up with a blogging policy, CBC bloggers – including the infamous pseudonymous blogger A. Ouimet – charge ahead and write one themselves.
posted by joeclark at 10:18 PM PST - 12 comments

Every year the The Burryman makes his appearance at the Ferry Fair Festival. It has now been revealed how he copes with all that whisky.
posted by tellurian at 10:00 PM PST - 13 comments

Crossover comics create some bizarre, BIZARRE, teamups; not at all separating reality and fiction. It's been happening for a long time and continues to this day.
posted by Kickstart70 at 7:59 PM PST - 31 comments

Your band name sucks: 50 of the Inexcusably Worst. (via Fark)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:40 PM PST - 96 comments

The Evolution of the Desktop 1984-2007
My oh my, how far we've come.
posted by fenriq at 7:01 PM PST - 60 comments

In the days after Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israel, on July 12th, to kidnap two soldiers, triggering an Israeli air attack on Lebanon and a full-scale war, the Bush Administration seemed strangely passive... The Bush Administration, however, was closely involved in the planning of Israel’s retaliatory attacks. President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were convinced, current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials told me, that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollah’s heavily fortified underground-missile and command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel’s security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preëmptive attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations, some of which are also buried deep underground.

Test Case
posted by y2karl at 6:06 PM PST - 78 comments

Autism is growing, especially in the Silicon Valley. We’ve talked of this twice before, but what are we missing about the connection between autism, geekhood, and the Silicon Valley? Let’s talk about this more [inside].
posted by Milkman Dan at 5:09 PM PST - 80 comments

Free piano, slight fire damage.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:02 PM PST - 53 comments

Arthur Grace has a distinguished career as a photojournalist who works in black and white. Although not limited to U.S. work, he excels in Americana. His portfolios are fun to surf - here's a sampling that I liked: window washer, the Hatt family of Maine, Cheer Squad, and Prisoner, Adelaide Jail. Oh, and whatever you do - don't miss the Show Dogs, heh. [more]
posted by madamjujujive at 3:58 PM PST - 9 comments

There's no need for you to record short videos (youtube) of yourself singing impossibly cheesy songs about astological signs whilst a woman does interpretive dance in the background, because Harvey Sid Fisher has already done it for you.
Thanks to Ryan at FFFF for bringing this to my attention
posted by Afroblanco at 3:55 PM PST - 16 comments

TERRA! Men With 1,000 Prepaid Cellphones Planned To Attack Mackinac Bridge. Or sell them in Texas. Or, you know, something.
posted by quonsar at 3:26 PM PST - 123 comments

Can microbes make us fat? Of the trillions and trillions of cells in a typical human body — at least 10 times as many cells in a single individual as there are stars in the Milky Way — only about 1 in 10 is human. The other 90 percent are microbial. These microbes — a term that encompasses all forms of microscopic organisms, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa and a form of life called archaea — exist everywhere. New evidence suggests microbes in our bodies can determine how efficiently we process food and affect our hunger centers.
posted by caddis at 2:35 PM PST - 29 comments

"I actually felt sick, just sick, about wasting so much studio money and being such a stinky, stinky junket whore." Freelance writer Eric D. Snider took up an offer to attend Paramount Studios' World Trade Center press junket, "being a whore just once to see what it was like." After he spoke unkindly of the practice—taking issue with how studios trade luxurious treatment for positive media coverage—the studio had him blacklisted from all further Paramount screenings, and those of a few other studios.
posted by Zozo at 2:22 PM PST - 47 comments

Websites that changed the world? Bestest best of the web? What have you done for me today, sugar? Aug 13, 2006 — TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] has launched a Web log, using his first entry to recount his poor upbringing and ask visitors to the site if they think the United States and Israel want to start a new world war. "Do you think that the US and Israeli intention and goal by attacking Lebanon is pulling the trigger for another word war" ...word war?
posted by taosbat at 12:18 PM PST - 39 comments

3000 feet up in the mountains of Eastern Myanmar (Burma) lies Inle Lake^, a giant freshwater lake that is populated by 70,000 people living in four separate cities on top of the lake. They dwell, fish, farm, worship and celebrate upon the surface of Lake Inle, living a unique lifestyle that seems wholly unto itself, untouched by the world outside. All pictures found using the amazing FlickrStorm tool.
posted by jonson at 12:07 PM PST - 25 comments

Yury Gitman and his students make electronic toys: Pululus; Mr. Spoon Man; even a Katamari! Learn how they make them, inside and out. More about Yury at we make money not art and his own website.
posted by jessamyn at 10:40 AM PST - 3 comments

Websites that changed the world? This Observer piece lists fifteen websites that aught to be considered the best of the web. It's a bold claim and although the potted histories are excellent, I'm wondering the extent to which it mostly includes website that have broken the public recognition barrier in the uk rather than changing the world. How many are simply pioneers in their field? Where for example is flickr?
posted by feelinglistless at 9:07 AM PST - 69 comments

Moomins! The Moomins, created in 1945 by artist and writer Tove Jansson in this story, went on to become a series of books beloved by children in the 60s and 70s and then a British TV show in the early 80s. The Moomins’ fame is so all pervading in Finland that they have their own amusement park and museum but they somehow have never gained as much of a foothold in the US. Why are the Moomins so popular? Some of the books are surprisingly philosophical and even dark and some of the characters are downright seditious; the Moomins, for all their humor and love, are often a little bleak. Tove Jansson, who modeled many of her characters on people in her life, was as talented an artist as she was a writer; here, for your delectation, are her illustrations for The Hobbit. Previously on Metafilter.
posted by mygothlaundry at 7:58 AM PST - 36 comments

Pictures from the Hubble telescope
posted by Orange Goblin at 7:05 AM PST - 22 comments

Clell Tickle: Indie Marketing Guru (YouTube)
posted by runkelfinker at 3:20 AM PST - 22 comments

Panel Suggests Using Inmates in Drug Trials PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 7 An influential federal panel of medical advisers has recommended that the government loosen regulations that severely limit the testing of pharmaceuticals on prison inmates, a practice that was all but stopped three decades ago after revelations of abuse. Cruel and unusual punishment?
posted by Unregistered User at 2:46 AM PST - 41 comments

Nauru was once a lovely place. Despite its small size and isolation, Nauru's story is one of monumental dimensions. Things have gotten pretty grim. But it looks like Naurans may get a reprieve of sorts. Will it be pretty?
posted by owhydididoit at 12:27 AM PST - 17 comments

"... Everyone needs an escape. It just amazes me that for 1,200 people this involves sitting in darkened rooms listening to presentations on Harry Potter and the Sanctity of Everyday Life: JK Rowling's Complex Treatment of the Trope of Normalcy." Carole Cadwalladr covers Lumos 2006 for the Guardian. [via]
posted by anjamu at 10:24 PM PST - 27 comments

POD-dy Mouth - a blog reviewing the best of print-on-demand (self-published) books: "finding needles, discarding hay". Also with commentary on the industry itself, and great snark (1, 2). Take her quiz: can you spot the POD excerpts from the traditionally published? (Answers here.)
posted by Melinika at 8:56 PM PST - 9 comments

Are smart people grumpier?
posted by footnote at 8:54 PM PST - 48 comments

Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
posted by anotherpanacea at 8:50 PM PST - 35 comments

Homophobia, bad 'fan' art and childish humor abound at Craig Not Bond, which is campaigning for a boycott of the new Bond film Casino Royale. Why? Because Bond is clearly not a sissy blonde fag who can't drive a stick. A painful excursion down to the innermost (and utterly painful) depths of pissed off fandom.
posted by Effigy2000 at 8:46 PM PST - 79 comments

I found a site with hundreds of old TV theme songs. It’s not much to look at, and the audio ain’t the best, but it’s free (and apparently maintained by a patriotic american, thank you, sir). Spending some hours there reminded me that composers and musicians used to take the craft seriously. You can find just about anything. Good? The Avengers, Barney Miller, Green Hornet, Hawaii Five-O, Rockford Files, Room 222. Feelgood? The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. Cheese? Dynasty, Three’s Company, Flo. 80s schlock? Hardcastle & McCormick, Hunter. Check out the mess that is the theme for The Bionic Woman. Did you remember that Jose Feliciano did Chico and the Man? I bet you didn't know...well...WTF: The Associates. I wondered where the tradition went, but, then, after MTV, I guess all the media became one and ‘TV’ ‘Theme’ ‘Music’ became something like this. My favorite theme? I had to go elsewhere to find it: it’s my own.
posted by toma at 8:37 PM PST - 58 comments

This is what we all hoped the internet would be about. When we discovered the internet, most of us saw it as a way to connect to other people. Peter has only been on youtube for a week. His first video has been viewed nearly 300,000 times, and there isn't a single idiot teenager within range of the camera. Do you have a few minutes to spare? Spend them with Peter. Six videos, and hopefully, more to come.
posted by HuronBob at 6:13 PM PST - 85 comments

Moldovan wine was famous throughout the former Soviet Union. The centerpiece of its industry was (and is) a huge network of caverns known as Cricova where Stalin supposedly stored the remnants of Goering’s wine collection. The collapse of the Soviet Union brought extreme economic hardship to Moldova. In the midst of this hardship, the Russian Government imposed a ban on Moldovan (and Georgian) wines and cut off access to their largest export market. You might want to consider their plight if you visit the liquor store this weekend.
posted by jason's_planet at 5:39 PM PST - 11 comments

Fascination with ground and figure carries on in various fields after The Rubin vase / face Illusion, M.C. Escher, and Marshall McLuhan. Besides being extremely important in the fields of photography and poetry, the figure/ground relationship is important to physicist Paul Davies, who says "the true miracle of nature is to be found in the ingenious and unswerving lawfulness of the cosmos, a lawfulness that permits complex order to emerge from chaos, life to emerge from inanimate matter, and consciousness to emerge from life." Also, Peter Grundy and Yiang Yan discuss how contextual ground relates to linguistic figure in Bill Clinton's famous apology, Andrew Graydon plays with the distinction between sound as environment and sound as music, and W.C. Richardson creates paintings in which "positive and negative spaces seem unstable; figure becomes ground, ground becomes figure."
posted by Aghast. at 5:33 PM PST - 3 comments

Darth Vader Owns his Wife (You Tube)
posted by Turtles all the way down at 3:39 PM PST - 64 comments

He describes how the birds’ wings flutter, the small black eyes blink, and the head pops off in your palm... A riveting inside look at the Exotic Animal Training program at Moorpark College, which offers America's only college degree in animal training.
posted by By The Grace of God at 3:29 PM PST - 15 comments

Media-opoly from Saturday Night Live's TV Funhouse skit created by Robert Smigel broadcast in 1998 on NBC, a subsidiary of GE. Not broadcast since, apparently.
posted by riotgrrl69 at 2:35 PM PST - 25 comments

Eat your vegetables, they are good for you. the goal ... it seemed so ambitious at the time! ... was to cook a vegetable, with new recipes and new vegetables, every single day for an entire month. (Why? Because our diets need more vegetables. Because vegetables are too often an after-thought. And because it's easy to get stuck in a veggie rut.) But after a month, it felt like I was just getting started ... and the asparagus was calling. And then ... 365 days of new vegetables and new recipes.
posted by caddis at 1:49 PM PST - 13 comments

To work around the proprietary whims of digital audio software developers and laptop processor limitations during the mid- and late-1990s, a small band of technically-minded people, including the electronic musician Blitter, pulled together in the late 1990s to engineer the open-source OPEN DSP EZ-Kit platform, a 16-bit computer designed entirely with a focus on low cost and extensible control and DSP arithmetic capabilities. While this project and similar commercial offerings never seemed to gain the critical mass needed to sustain long-term interest, perhaps the new Arduino hardware project from MIT's Processing hardware group may gain a foothold with Processing and Pure Data audio software hobbyists and artists alike, allowing the creative community to extend, enhance and share inventive uses of new technology. Arduino's use has already begun in fascinating museum installations around the world, and has become a part of this year's SONAR and Ars Electronica festivals.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:06 PM PST - 8 comments

The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak in intensity tonight. The product of Earth intersecting with the debris trail from Comet Swift-Tuttle, the shower should be most dramatic shortly before dawn. More information on the shower can be found in various places.

Those living far away from cities will have the best view, but there are lots of good photos from past showers online for those immersed in city light, or blanketed under cloud.
posted by sindark at 12:59 PM PST - 18 comments

American Journal of Cardiology reports that extensive use of marijuana doesn't hurt your cardiovascular system. Remember it also doesn't increase your risk of lung cancer. Previous MeFi
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 12:18 PM PST - 69 comments

The tabla is the most popular and widely used drum of North India. Origins (embedded sound and mp3) of the tabla and tabla bols, the fascinating spoken sounds of the percussive beat. [more]
posted by nickyskye at 11:55 AM PST - 19 comments

Truth In Advertising - Hilarious video.
posted by forwebsites at 10:52 AM PST - 29 comments

Fred the Undercover Cat dead at 15 months.
posted by rxrfrx at 10:07 AM PST - 31 comments

Journal of Mythic Arts - an online journal for the exploration of myth, folklore, and fairy tales, and their use in contemporary art. A smattering from the archives: Shape-Shifters; Old Wives' Tales; Wolf's Heart.
posted by Wolfdog at 8:05 AM PST - 10 comments

Medical Illustrations.
posted by econous at 7:05 AM PST - 15 comments

Friday flash fun, a day late. The National Gallery of Art has some awesome Flash apps intended for kids, but lots of fun for adults. My favorites: Flow, PixelFace, Mobile.
posted by cerebus19 at 6:19 AM PST - 8 comments

Winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize for Literature, a peace activist who opposed reunification for fear Germany might once again war against its neighbors, ghost-writer of Willy Brandt's speeches, author of the great fabulist history of World War II and postwar Germany, The Tin Drum, and of My Century, a novel of one hundred chapters, one for each year of the last century, a man considered part of the artistic movement known in German as "Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung" or "coming to terms with the past", Günter Grass belatedly admits the history he expunged from his personal narrative: his service as a member of the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg of the Waffen-SS. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Grass explained his service would stain him forever, but that only after the war did he feel ashamed of having been in the Waffen-SS:

for me, because I am sure of my recollection, the Waffen SS was nothing frightful, but rather an elite unit that they sent where things were hot, and which, as people said about it, had the heaviest losses.

posted by orthogonality at 5:46 AM PST - 46 comments

Abdul Mati Klarwein is the the thoughtful guy who painted the wonderous gatefold sleeves of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, and Santana's Santana's Abraxas. It's all the more inspiring to be listening to either musician's music of the period while viewing. Just don't stare too long. [ last two YouTube]
posted by eegphalanges at 5:10 AM PST - 12 comments

You are the stock of the corporation known as the U.S.A. Following the recent discussion of a Jordan Maxwell video, colourfully dismissed as "new age sewage", I thought Mefites would like (and/or rather, I would like Mefites) to apply their knowledge and insight to a far more topical example of Mr. Maxwell's work. A jumping off point: The law administered in the courts is maritime law. (Google video @ 1 Hr)
posted by Tarn at 3:10 AM PST - 15 comments

Richard Holbrooke delivers an analysis and forecast of how the current situation could trigger a chain reaction that would lead to world war. He refers to Barbara Tuchmans Guns of August, apparently a political science classic, that has been mentioned here on mefi. Here's the article in dutch with an appropriate picture of the murder of archduke Franz Ferdinand.
posted by jouke at 2:39 AM PST - 22 comments

John Murtari hunger strike protest. John Murtari has been on a hunger strike after being jailed without a jury trail. A PHD in aeronautics, Murtari lost his job and took a lower paying job at an ISP. Unable to pay the extremely high child support payment, he asked the courts to re-adjust his payment. The court denied him. The judge offered him probation or 6 months jail time. Murtari chose jail time with protest. Murtari stated Even Terrorists get a trail by jury. He is finally on a feeding tube, forced down his nose, after loosing 28 lbs. Update with protest photos and his comments on the protest.
posted by IronWolve at 12:46 AM PST - 59 comments

Fans of the BBC version of The Office take note: in 2006, Microsoft hired Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant to make a pair of faux training videos for the UK Microsoft headquarters, with Gervais reprising his David Brent role. Both videos are now up on iFilm, and are pretty damn funny (if you're amused by the Brent schtick, which I am).
posted by lilbrudder at 12:12 AM PST - 15 comments

What is a hobo? Hoboes is a name coined for men and women, but almost exclusive men that travel as migrant workers or left their friends and family in the depression or after wars when there was no work for them in their home cities. What do hoboes do nowadays? Apparently, they travel. And blog about it.
posted by owhydididoit at 11:31 PM PST - 16 comments

True stories, told in one sentence [via Projects]. More single sentence stories (and such) at Scrine [truthiness not guaranteed]. They have a kind of lame contest on right now, but check out some of the older entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
posted by Urban Hermit at 8:43 PM PST - 10 comments

For most musicians, it's difficult to pinpoint a particular event that forever sullied their image and destroyed their popularity. For 80's rocker Billy Squier, however, the reason is clear. [YouTube]
posted by starkeffect at 8:41 PM PST - 79 comments

Not just another news blip; UN Security Council passes Lebanon cease-fire resolution. The resolution calls for a "full cessation of hostilities" and tells Hezbollah to stop all attacks immediately and Israel to end "all offensive operations". Let's hope this brings about an end to all the madness.
posted by Second Account For Making Jokey Comments at 6:06 PM PST - 77 comments

icdiss.org looks, at first glance, like your run-of-the-mill think tank website. Two recent articles, one in The Economist and another on economist.com, say that the International Council for Democratic Institutions and State Sovereignty is, in reality, geopolitical astroturf for the Kremlin and the rulers of Transdniestria. Both of these articles are by journalist Edward Lucas (his blog).

The organization even has a wikipedia entry. The entry has a fascinating talk page, with Edward Lucas contributing additional research he's done since the articles were published.

So... want to become a member? Before deciding, maybe you want to read an interview with the program director. It's in the Transdniestrian English-language publication The Tiraspol Times & Weekly Review (slogans: "daily news, independent and objective" and "Get the Facts!").
posted by Kattullus at 5:06 PM PST - 10 comments

The Interweb Medley!! What happens when you mix up some of the more well-known Internet memes around? Madness.
posted by divabat at 4:33 PM PST - 24 comments

2 years ago I FPP'd FlavorPill, a company that sends out permission-based emails for books (Boldtype), music (Earplug), and fashion (the JC Report). They've since added ArtKrush (it's art, stupid! - nsfw) and Activate (world events) to their aresenal. In addition to the topic-specific mailing lists, they offer city-specific lists for London, New York, SF, LA, and Chicago. Sample issues are archived on the site.
posted by dobbs at 4:21 PM PST - 6 comments

Why I helped my wife kill herself. When Michael Graham's wife Elizabeth was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, she made up her mind to die before she became completely immobile. Michael knew he would have to help her - even though it could land him in jail. (note: unless you're unlucky, this is quite likely the saddest story you'll read today)
posted by jonson at 4:09 PM PST - 32 comments

Artist Dan Bergeron likes to muck around with billboard adverts. His recent doctoring of a billboard featuring Bush in Toronto has earned him some press in the Globe and Mail.
posted by chunking express at 1:55 PM PST - 43 comments

Government Releases Detailed Information on 9/11 Crashes Complete Air-Ground Transcripts of Hijacked 9/11 Flight Recordings Declassified Washington, DC - August 11, 2006 - The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) this week released full transcripts of the air traffic control recordings from the four flights hijacked on September 11, 2001, and meticulous Flight Path Studies for three of the flights, in response to a Freedom of Information request by the National Security Archive. The studies provide the most detailed technical information available to date related to the hijackings, and the transcripts of the aircraft-to-ground communications are the first complete government disclosure of each flight's air traffic control recordings.
posted by Unregistered User at 1:51 PM PST - 58 comments

"Animals are on the run. Plants are migrating too. The Earth's creatures, save for one species, do not have thermostats in their living rooms that they can adjust for an optimum environment. Animals and plants are adapted to specific climate zones, and they can survive only when they are in those zones...Gardeners and bird watchers are well aware of this, and their handbooks contain maps of the zones in which a tree or flower can survive and the range of each bird species. Those maps will have to be redrawn." Jim Hansen on the global impact of global warming. Meanwhile, the National Association of manufacturers is happy to tell you everything you really need to know on the subject. (More from NAM here.)
posted by alms at 1:47 PM PST - 12 comments

Blue Pill Red Pill This site just launched recently, by the looks of it. It bills itself as a "national database of all news critical, independent, and investigative this side of the galaxy." Seems to be a way of introducing people to verified and rated independent media sources, rather than aggregating content or providing articles itself. I haven't seen much like it out there.
posted by tb0n3 at 12:39 PM PST - 26 comments

Mike Douglas dead.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:31 PM PST - 42 comments

Here's a cute dress that doesn't need a pattern, has only one seam, can be worn in about a bzillion different ways, looks great on various body types, and takes only an hour to make.
posted by ottereroticist at 11:47 AM PST - 37 comments

"I heard the hammer cock," John said. Let's say somebody breaks into your apartment at gunpoint. Let's say that they seem likely to kill you or your roommate. Let's say you happen to have a samurai sword on hand. Here's what it looks like when you're done. (Caution: Blood pretty much everywhere.)
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:28 AM PST - 70 comments

Lifestraw: From surface water to drinking water.
posted by davehat at 9:53 AM PST - 24 comments

The art film at the bike shop: praise is building for Roam, a 16mm film shot by Vancouver area filmmakers, the Collective. Roam and the Collective's eponymous first film are credited for taking bike films to a wider more mature audience. Sophisticated camera work, a compelling narrative and an appropriate soundtrack take the place of the gnar factor and loud hip-hop/metal soundtrack that are the defining factors of most bike films. Comparisons are already being made to the 1966 surf film Endless Summer.
Google Video clip of ROAM
posted by [expletive deleted] at 9:39 AM PST - 38 comments

BULLSHIT! Penn & Teller present their rational, libertarian bent views on diverse subjects, now available for free download on Google Video ::: profanity; creationism; alien abductions; conspiracy theories; recycling; gun control; endangered species; religion; the bible; family values; the apocalypse; signs from heaven; the occult; 12-step recovery programs; exercise v. genetics; environmentalism; hypnosis; ghosts; the war on drugs; feng shui / bottled water; college; PETA; and abstinence.
posted by crunchland at 9:22 AM PST - 114 comments

Need to know the future? Try a little haruspicy. Full details, including a script in Greek, here (don't worry, they use an egg). For the animal rights activist, there's a cruelty-free method.
posted by JanetLand at 8:17 AM PST - 16 comments

Thanks to Peace Moonbeam's weblog, I now truly understand my liberal friends. And for those willing to reciprocate, Shelley the Republican is a similar blog from the opposite end of the spectrum.
posted by CodeBaloo at 4:52 AM PST - 76 comments

Wikiwords is a collaborative project to create a dictionary of all terms in all languages.
posted by anjamu at 1:18 AM PST - 18 comments

I've always lumped musician Eugene Chadbourne in with the likes of Wesley Willis and Daniel Johnston, but I may have been mistaken. While his songs are often absurd, experimental, and silly, he's much less eccentric than I'd always thought. In addition to having an incredible output (full discography with notes here and in-depth review here), he has worked with everyone from John Zorn to Jello Biafra, even fronting the band Camper Van Beethoven as Camper Van Chadbourne. He has also been a writer for MaximumRocknRoll and AMG and is the inventor of the electric rake (a musical instrument that would certainly annoy your neighbors). YouTube has two awesome Chadbourne finds: THIS is a 19-minute documentary about him and THIS is a cable access show he appeared on called I'm Going to Make a Drug with My Mind (if you like cable access television, this is awesome, but please note that this video is 31-minutes long, including 60 seconds of color bars. Eugene comes on a little after the 17-minute mark). [WARNING: YouTube. A lot of YouTube in this post]
posted by elr at 12:28 AM PST - 34 comments

A virtual tour of Alcazaba, Nasrid Palaces and Generalife. [flash]
posted by tellurian at 12:23 AM PST - 10 comments

Openly Gay Soulforce Activists in Minnesota, U.S., attempt to enlist in the Minnesota National Guard because they wish to serve, but are rejected or have their applications put on hold. Here are some local news reports (beware possible sound-enabled ads). Should the U.S. policy change?
posted by taursir at 11:25 PM PST - 42 comments

Falling Man: the many faces of a 9/11 riddle chronicles the attempts of Tom Junod to identify the "falling man" photographed by Richard Drew on September 11, 2001. Junod wrote an Esquire article about the Falling Man in September 2003 (August 2003 NPR interview) that inspired a documentary. The Falling Man may have been Jonathan Briley.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:56 PM PST - 58 comments

More gloomy news on the whole climate change thing. It seems that Greenland's ice caps are melting three times as fast as previously measured (ultimately, in a thousand years or so, leading to a 6.5m sea level rise). While at the other end of the planet, it's not snowing as much as we hoped to limit sea level rises. But hey, we can still laugh about it, right?
posted by wilful at 9:43 PM PST - 29 comments

"It is not easy to pass the test that qualifies a girl for membership in a Ziegfeld production..." Hundreds of photos of Zeigfeld Girls (including many large and high-resolution scans), collected and displayed for your viewing pleasure. Sumptuous . Sensual. Dazzling. [The last three links are work safe. The first two and the site itself are not. Some background on Ziegfeld and his Follies here for those not familiar.]
posted by LeeJay at 9:19 PM PST - 38 comments

Bottom half of the final inning, Red Sox batting, Yankees ahead by a run. Runner on third and 2 outs. Up at bat is the Red Sox's star hitter, followed by the weakest hitter in the lineup. Do you pitch to the star, or intentionally walk him? The choice is obvious in the majors, but not so much in the PONY leagues. Or is it? Complicating matters - the weak hitter is a cancer survivor with ongoing health issues. Not surprisingly, there's been a story in the local weekly. Then it got picked up by a major local paper, a radio station, and now Sports Illustrated. A lot of attention for a kid who was last in the paper 6 months ago when he got his Make-A-Wish granted.
posted by booksherpa at 9:00 PM PST - 53 comments

Stress building in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina anniversary could spark more problems Like many other New Orleanians nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina, John McCusker was experiencing the overwhelming stress of rebuilding his life. McCusker, a photographer who was part of The Times-Picayune's 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning staff(reg. required, but worth it. Trust me.), was seen driving wildly through the city Tuesday, attracting the attention of police. He eventually was arrested, but not before he was subdued with a Taser and an officer fired twice at his vehicle. During the melee, he begged police to kill him. For some, it's still Katrina every day.
posted by ColdChef at 4:46 PM PST - 141 comments

This Saturday, an aid convoy of internationals and civilians plans to make a political statement by risking their own lives to deliver desperately needed aid from Beirut to the south of Lebanon in defiance of the Israeli military. Israeli threats to bomb any moving traffic have put a halt to aid convoys through traditional channels and curtailed the ability of journalists to cover the conflict. But the activists are hoping extensive media coverage of their "non-violent direct action" generates political pressure to protect them as they head for the "no-drive" zone without any guarantee of safety from the Israeli government.
posted by mano at 4:44 PM PST - 54 comments

From organically-farming Zen centers to celebrity-cultivating Scientology centres^TM, California is a seedbed of the most earnest (and most frivolous or worse) branches of spiritual inquiry. What's in the water in the Golden State that has made it The Visionary State? In an interview with editor Geoff Manaugh of the excellent BLDGBLOG, author Erik Davis -- whose published passions have ranged from an analysis of Philip K. Dick's "divine invasions" to erudite musings on Led Zeppelin's fourth album to an ode to the joys of being a teenage bongeur -- talks about the formerly chic devil-worshipper Anton LaVey, Beat Zen, Aldous Huxley, the Watts Towers, and beyond, with great photos by Michael Rauner, who collaborated with Davis on the new book.
posted by digaman at 2:14 PM PST - 30 comments

They'll never piggyback on your wireless again Your router makes the computer look funny. (via MeTa)
posted by klangklangston at 2:09 PM PST - 62 comments

Tiny animals look especially tiny when perched on fingers. From mefi's own specklet.
posted by dersins at 11:19 AM PST - 35 comments

Recipients of "Leaks" May Be Prosecuted, Court Rules In a momentous expansion of the government's authority to regulate public disclosure of national security information, a federal court ruled that even private citizens who do not hold security clearances can be prosecuted for unauthorized receipt and disclosure of classified information. The ruling by Judge T.S. Ellis, III, denied a motion to dismiss the case of two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) who were charged under the Espionage Act with illegally receiving and transmitting classified information. The decision is a major interpretation of the Espionage Act with implications that extend far beyond this particular case. The Judge ruled that any First Amendment concerns regarding freedom of speech involving national defense information can be superseded by national security considerations.
posted by Unregistered User at 11:11 AM PST - 27 comments

For those who worry that the concrete pillars around U.S. Federal buildings aren't strong enough to stop a motivated car bomber in an 18 wheeler, this video should comfort you. Similarly, for those of you who are worried that the concrete shielding around our weapons bunkers is not thick enough, this video should put you at ease. And finally, for those of you that worry that dogs & monkeys are putting aside their differences to team up against mankind, this video should lay that myth to rest.
posted by jonson at 11:10 AM PST - 38 comments

Roboclaw - Flash game in which you try to pick up and move a blue ball to a target using a robotic claw. Starts easy enough...
posted by shawnj at 9:33 AM PST - 26 comments

Global warming, hooray!
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:45 AM PST - 98 comments

Esfahan is home to the Blue Mosque and other buildings with their unique blue tiles which are beautifully shown in photographs by flickr's horizon. Esfahan is a world heritage site and is home to many examples of traditional Persian Architecture which is made up of eight traditional forms which taken together form the foundation on which it was based in the same way that music was once based on a finite number of notes.
posted by adamvasco at 7:15 AM PST - 19 comments

Photo-like X-ray backscattters (even from mobile units), explosive trace portals, CT scanning, and real-time discrimination software clearly reveal such threats as radioactive materials, explosives and key bomb ingredients, chemical weapons, human cargo, weapons and drugs. Even "single molecule biology" analyzers are being developed to detect biological weapons.
posted by CodeBaloo at 3:17 AM PST - 12 comments

[Newsfilter] Terror plot disrupted. Scotland Yard has arrested about 18 potential terrorists who were planning to blow up UK to USA flights mid-air. The UK threat level is now critical - "an attack is expected imminently". And there's chaos at the airports where hand luggage has been banned from all flights.
posted by featherboa at 12:03 AM PST - 504 comments

Large scans of plates, largely for Robert Plot’s Natural History of Staffordshire (1686). You can view more of Burghers work here.
posted by tellurian at 11:49 PM PST - 6 comments

Six places to nuke when you're serious
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 11:27 PM PST - 75 comments

ShakeMovie The Near Real Time Simulation of Southern California Seismic Events Portal. Earthquake animations from Caltech.
"These movies are the results of simulations carried out on a large computer cluster. Earthquake movies will be available for download approximately 45 mins after the occurrence of a quake of magnitude 3.5 or greater."
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:50 PM PST - 2 comments

John Powers: Analog recursion. via dataisnature.
posted by signal at 10:19 PM PST - 13 comments

David Rice Atchison is claimed by some to have been President for one day, Sunday, March 4, 1849, since the incoming president, Zachary Taylor, was a religious man who refused to take the Oath of Office on the Sabbath. Even the inscribers of his gravestone thought so. The truth, however, is somewhat more subtle.
posted by starkeffect at 10:06 PM PST - 11 comments