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Time machine.
posted by Mblue at 11:40 PM PST - 38 comments

1945. As the new year breaks in Auschwitz-Birkenau, the months-long SS torture of four women -- Ala Gertner, Roza Robota, Regina Safirzstain and Ester Wajcblum -- draws to an end. The women were being interrogated about their role in the Sonderkommando revolt of October, 1944. [more inside]
posted by forrest at 10:11 PM PST - 24 comments

Monkey Portraits: Allegories of Brand Loyalty, by Laurie Hogin. [Via Right Some Good.] [more inside]
posted by homunculus at 10:11 PM PST - 10 comments

John Adams. NIXON IN CHINA. Excerpts: News has a kind of mystery. Act 1 Scene 3. Act 2 Scene 2a. I am the wife of Mao Tse Tung. Chairman Dances.
posted by wittgenstein at 8:01 PM PST - 16 comments

VADS is a resource for visual art, a huge range of things from students' work to collections of historical art and design. [more inside]
posted by paduasoy at 7:56 PM PST - 6 comments

The scholarly literature forms a vast network of academic papers connected to one another by citations in bibliographies and footnotes. The structure of this network reflects millions of decisions by individual scholars about which papers are important and relevant to their own work. Therefore within the structure of this network is a wealth of information about the relative influence of individual journals, and also about the patterns of relations among academic disciplines. Our aim at eigenfactor.org is develop ways of extracting this information. [more inside]
posted by zennie at 7:25 PM PST - 22 comments

Into the Night Films through the ages. "What’s an into-the-night movie? It’s essentially about one anxious character (or group of characters) embarking on an illicit adventure and emerging transformed. Most often, the stories take place at night, but not always. Sometimes they happen over a whole summer, in the blazing light of day. Sometimes they’re comedies, and sometimes mysteries. But what they have in common is an acknowledgment that somewhere, lurking in the shadows of polite society, there are people getting ridiculously freaky." With much... [more inside]
posted by Navelgazer at 5:59 PM PST - 44 comments

Dying Speeches & Bloody Murders digitizes over five hundred broadsides owned by the Harvard Law Library, all of them devoted to "last dying speeches"--that is, sensational accounts of crime, punishment, and (fictional) confession, intended to be sold at public executions. The New York State Historical Association has an online exhibition devoted to nineteenth-century American murder pamphlets. You can find a couple of seventeenth-century examples at the Early Modern Web and the Folger Library. Old Bailey Online briefly puts this literature into context. (Main link via C18-L.)
posted by thomas j wise at 5:20 PM PST - 11 comments

Yes, the Subprime Mortgage Crisis was 2007's top national business news story for the second year in a row (and odds on favorite to Threepeat), #2 news story overall (TIME put Pakistan at #1, for AP, it was the Virginia State Massacre). But then I saw that it was the #1 local news story in my town. [more inside]
posted by wendell at 4:53 PM PST - 14 comments

Some say volcanoes killed them. Some people say an impact. Some say both. Coulda been bugs, actually. Lots of theories, some better than others. Not like it's that uncommon in the grand scheme of things.
posted by absalom at 2:32 PM PST - 17 comments

Everyone makes New Year's resolutions. Even celebrities. And pets.
posted by miss lynnster at 2:31 PM PST - 8 comments

ಯಕ್ಷಗಾನ is folk theater from the Malabar.
lanabhat collects snippets at Youtube: 1 2 3 4 and more.
Manohara Upadhya's photos include Ardhanaariswara (recalling the emotive Sandhya), Kaarakotaka, Mahiravana, Sisupala, Angaraparna and other minor characters from those two Aryan poems.
Yakshaganapriya has a little more description. Behold the mighty Buffalo-Demon, Mahisasura.
The Hindu tries explaining it all: 1 2 3. [more inside]
posted by sushiwiththejury at 1:49 PM PST - 3 comments

Spider-Man and Mary Jane are no more. But what broke up their 20 year long marriage? The stress of being a superhero? An illicit tryst with Ben Riley coming to light? Nope. The Devil made them do it in order to save Aunt May's life. Comic Book Resources has been running a series of interviews with Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada (1, 2, 3, 4, 5pending) who wrote and penned the issue as its normal writer, J. Michael Straczynski (his take here) refused to do so. So that distant howl you've been hearing all week is actually the sound of a thousand comic fans gnashing their teeth and rending their Spidey Underoos. [more inside]
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:50 AM PST - 136 comments

If you like HDR pictures, you might like these of New York City.
posted by plexi at 11:49 AM PST - 37 comments

"I'm dead. That sucks, at least for me and my family and friends. But all the tears in the world aren't going to bring me back, so I would prefer that people remember the good things about me rather than mourning my loss. (If it turns out a specific number of tears will, in fact, bring me back to life, then by all means, break out the onions.)" Blogger Andrew Olmsted was killed in Iraq yesterday. He had been guest-posting at Obsidian Wings as G'Kar. hilzoy of ObWi has cross-posted his final message there as well. [more inside]
posted by maudlin at 11:15 AM PST - 58 comments

Making your own transistor is probably beyond the abilities of a dedicated hobbyist. However, making simple triode vacuum tubes is practical. Many hobbyists have done so over the years. In this video, French ham-radio operator Claude Paillard shows you how. HIs model is the WWI-era type TM of 1915. (and btw, 2007 was the 100th anniversary of electronics, since de Forest made his first vacuum tube in 1907.)
posted by metasonix at 11:11 AM PST - 22 comments

Voice of the Hive is a collection of informative and well-written stories about honeybees. Half of the tales are told from a human beekeeper's perspective, and are filled with valuable knowledge for potential hobbyists. The other half are compelling vignettes of a single bee's life -- widely diverse and compelling, told from each individual bee's perspective. The two elements come together to paint a fascinating picture of this noble insect's existence.
posted by illuminatus at 11:09 AM PST - 17 comments

Keys to the Kingdom. Vanity Fair profiles George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and previews Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [minor spoiler on page 5]; Q&A with Spielberg and Lucas. [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha at 10:01 AM PST - 51 comments

The National Academies release their new book Science, Evolution, and Creationism, targeted at the public, which summarizes the "scientific understanding of evolution and its importance in the science classroom." Download the 89-page book free in PDF format (you will be asked for your e-mail address, location, and employment sector first). Other resources on evolution from the National Academies, including other free online books (previously on MetaFilter). There's a brief NYT story about it as well.
posted by grouse at 9:24 AM PST - 66 comments

Zed Shaw freaks out on the Ruby/Rails community. It's an enjoyable rant even if you don't know much at all about Ruby and/or Rails. [more inside]
posted by chunking express at 9:06 AM PST - 147 comments

No to the skinny platform!
posted by Armitage Shanks at 9:01 AM PST - 128 comments

"In June of 1977, Jim, John, and Gary saw Star Wars at White City Cinema in Worcester, Massachusetts. They were impressed. In the months after seeing the movie, so many costumes and models were made that they decided to remake a few scenes on super 8 film. The project grew into a fifty minute film." (Text from the Google Video description of the 15 minute version.) The remake's website includes stills, a downloadable "bloopers reel", an extensive "making of" photoessay and a brief photoessay on the construction of the R2 unit used in the remake.
posted by cog_nate at 8:43 AM PST - 19 comments

Castles of the World. British castles. Scottish castles. Castle floor plans. Castles on the web (no, not virtual castles). [more inside]
posted by Godbert at 8:43 AM PST - 5 comments

Dutch nurse Lucia De Berk has had her case reopened 5 years after her conviction for multiple counts of murdering her patients. [more inside]
posted by Jakey at 7:57 AM PST - 7 comments

James Randi to end the Million Dollar Challenge in 2010. Nobody's won it in 10 years, and the money would work better if it wasn't tied up waiting for the impossible. Many have tried, none have succeeded.... and just so this isn't a single link, here's Randi owning Uri Geller, and Randi owning James Hydrick (using only styrofoam!) [YouTube links].
posted by SansPoint at 7:06 AM PST - 116 comments

FillCell is a sort of graffiti wall of mini-posters drawn with very simple tools (to impressive effect, in some cases). Flash - drag the background to see more of the wall.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:05 AM PST - 1 comments

Chicago's Maxwell Street Market wasn't just a market: it was a stage that played host to many an exuberantly ragged, hard grinding blues performance. It was lively, eccentric, ecstatic. You could get there on The Happy Bus. And of course, one of the greatest musicals in the history of American cinema paid homage to the street, as the setting for a fabulous performance by John Lee Hooker of his iconic "Boom Boom". (Note: See mouseovers for link descriptions.) [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:43 AM PST - 19 comments

Many freeware games were released in 2007. How to seperate the crap from the good stuff? It can be a little hard admittedly but this thread on the Tigsource forums might help you. With around 30 categories (and a winner announced for each) ranging from 'Best Shooter' to 'Best Bosses,' there's probably something there to please just about anyone.
posted by pancreas at 4:43 AM PST - 20 comments

Team India to lodge protest against umpiring Gone are the days when the words(actions and decisions) of the umpire were taken as final. Even the RULE BOOK states that the word of the umpire is final. Would Team India still complain if the bad umpiring decision had gone in their favor ?
posted by chrisranjana.com at 1:39 AM PST - 33 comments