Out of Control is a 45 minute documentary that was recently broadcast on The Fifth Estate program on Canadian TV. It is the story of "Ashley Smith . . . a troubled 19-year-old [who] choked herself to death with a strip of cloth at Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, Ontario." The documentary features video shot inside Ashley Smith’s cell. It is a sad and at times disturbing look at the difficulties of dealing with a prisoner with mental illness. [Language and some images are NSFW].
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear at 11:59 PM PST - 5 comments

Questionable Content's Jeph Jacques presents Bands as Metaphors for Folks You've Dated.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 10:32 PM PST - 97 comments

New Symphony of Science song!!!!!! SYLT (Previously and previously).
posted by Lobster Garden at 10:03 PM PST - 16 comments

Researchers at UCSC have collected and analyzed over 20,000 dreams. Their database includes dreams of people from all walks of life and is available online. Meanwhile, Sawlogs.net offers some easy-to-grasp statistics of its user-generated dream database. Previously.
posted by wet-raspberry at 7:26 PM PST - 16 comments

In my struggle to walk the straight ‘n narrow everyday, it doesn’t help things any that the salty, taunting voice of Tom Waits is in my head saying, “Hey kid…. over here.” A couple of photographic retrospectives. “The Piano Has Been Drinking…” – Tom Waits, Your Inner Drunkard | and | 1950s-1960s Icons of Entertainment.
posted by netbros at 7:04 PM PST - 19 comments

Jan 7: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by Timothy Geithner, told American International Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer’s payments to banks during the depths of the financial crisis, e-mails between the company and its regulator show.
posted by moorooka at 5:12 PM PST - 34 comments

Just in time for the season premiere of Big Love... Banished: The Lost Boys Of Polygamy is a 20 minute documentary exploring the plight of young men who grow up in communities where plural marriage is commonplace.
posted by hippybear at 4:42 PM PST - 31 comments

Queer female webzine Autostraddle, who interviewed media celebrity Tila Tequila shortly before the death of her fiancée, socialite Casey Johnson, uses the aftermath to discuss the complications of not having legal rights as a gay couple when the relationship becomes dysfunctional:

We don’t look at those crazy-ass toxic relationships that were so intense they carved a hole in your heart and you knew, no matter how deep the emotional connection, that at any minute your loved one could get up, walk out the door, and never speak to you again, and that it wouldn’t matter if you’d paid their bills or built a life around their demands. There is nothing tying you together besides your feelings. And that’s really frightening.

posted by divabat at 4:03 PM PST - 51 comments

Flash Friday Saturday Fun: Paradox Embrace is a platform puzzler similar to the Shift trilogy (2 & 3) but in COLOR! You shift between three space-times to negotiate the levels collecting keys and such. In game tutorial makes learning the game pretty quick. Deceptively simple at first but gets quite difficult.
posted by schyler523 at 2:59 PM PST - 6 comments

New York Magazine has posted an excerpt about John Edwards' ill-fated campaign from John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's book about the 2008 presidential election Game Change. [more inside]
posted by MegoSteve at 2:58 PM PST - 84 comments

What do you get when you combine math with painting? Lun-Yi Tsai.
posted by wittgenstein at 2:28 PM PST - 13 comments

Cabinda is an exclave of Angola with extensive oil fields and a troubled history. Left out of the negotiations that granted Angola independence from the Portuguese, separatist movements in Cabinda have a history nearly as long as that of modern Angola itself. These movements are in the news again, thanks to an attack on the Togolese national football team ahead of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations that has other clubs calling their players back, Cabinda losing the right to host matches, and South Africa reassuring the world that security there will be adequate ahead of this summer's World Cup.
posted by jackflaps at 2:07 PM PST - 11 comments

Saturday night, kids, and time for another Monster Chiller Horror Theatre! Hosted by Count Floyd, SCTV's late night horror film show somehow never quite managed to get a scary film...but it did have the classic Dr. Tongue 3D films! Don't forget to send away to Count Floyd for your special 3-D glasses! [more inside]
posted by never used baby shoes at 12:11 PM PST - 39 comments

RNC Chairman Michael Steele has been an interesting character in the Republican party. His attempts at rebranding the GOP and their online presence has been mocked on the Blue and the web at large. He now has a new book out to his own party's surprise, and has made statements on the RNC's financial outlook and electoral future. Many conservatives are now looking down on Steele, which begs the question: Has Steele gone rogue?
posted by mccarty.tim at 12:01 PM PST - 58 comments

Top 10 Places You Can't Go. The world is full of secret and exclusive places that we either don’t know about, or simply couldn’t visit if we wanted to. This list takes a look at ten of the most significant places around the world that are closed to the general public or are virtually impossible for the general public to visit.
posted by jjray at 11:53 AM PST - 56 comments

Nobuyuki Tsujii is a 21 year old blind Japanese pianist. Van Cliburn has this to say about Nobuyuki "Miracle is the only word to describe him. This is truly an act of God." [more inside]
posted by pwally at 11:39 AM PST - 36 comments

"On [Monday] January 11th, a remarkable legal case opens in a San Francisco courtroom—on its way, it seems almost certain, to the Supreme Court. Perry v. Schwarzenegger challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California referendum that, in November, 2008, overturned a state Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex couples to marry. Its lead lawyers are unlikely allies: Theodore B. Olson, the former solicitor general under President George W. Bush, and a prominent conservative; and David Boies, the Democratic trial lawyer who was his opposing counsel in Bush v. Gore." "Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker approved court-operated cameras in his courtroom for delayed release on YouTube, but rejected a bid by media organizations to televise the proceedings themselves for live broadcast." [more inside]
posted by ericb at 11:35 AM PST - 128 comments

A peek into Netflix queues. From the New York Times.
posted by jefficator at 10:28 AM PST - 48 comments

From bikinis to burkas: a Yemeni memoir. Toronto theater critic Kamal Al-Solaylee (more articles) describes how his family went from cosmopolitan secularism to defeatism and traditionalism. From the Toronto Globe and Mail.
posted by russilwvong at 10:18 AM PST - 17 comments

2 Minute Ad for MS office after the travesty of the windows 7 launch party ads, MS gets it right. SLYT
posted by marienbad at 9:31 AM PST - 70 comments

The Simpsons At Twenty. By Metafilter's Own gompa.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 9:22 AM PST - 33 comments

Top Imams affiliated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada have issued a fatwa calling those terrorists who attack the United States and Canada “evil.” ... Extremists have been told that any attack on the U.S. or on Canada will be construed as an attack on 10 million Muslims who live in these two countries. (via) [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese at 9:19 AM PST - 59 comments

Despondent at having to lay off staff, Stephen Huneck took his own life Friday. Perhaps not well-known outside of Vermont, Stephen Huneck dedicated his life to celebrating the bonds between people and dogs. He credited his dogs with helping him survive and recover from a serious illness. Half of the proceeds from his art sales go to the Chittenden County Humane Society. His Dog Studio and Dog Chapel are open to dogs (as well as humans), and they are free to roam the buildings and land. Treats are always available for the dogs. [more inside]
posted by paddbear at 8:51 AM PST - 32 comments

Photographs of Korea: October 1945 to January 1946. [more inside]
posted by chunking express at 8:45 AM PST - 8 comments

Monogamouse
Prairie voles have many vasopressin receptors in the reward centres of their brains. It seems as though these are wired up in a way that causes the animal to take pleasure from monogamy. (previously 1|2)
posted by kliuless at 8:42 AM PST - 20 comments

Paprika Mars and other Strange Worlds by Matthew Albanese.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:33 AM PST - 18 comments

French Star Wars (SLYT), takes a different approach than the turkish adaption. (via cynical-c)
posted by ts;dr at 4:54 AM PST - 42 comments

Lady Gaga Barbies. What it says on the label. (Single-link Flickr post.) [more inside]
posted by DecemberBoy at 4:37 AM PST - 38 comments

Mohandas K. Gandhi’s critique of the modern identification of society with the state was devastating. He believed that it disabled citizens, subjecting mind and body to the control of professional experts when the purpose of a civilization should be to enhance its members’ sense of their own self-reliance. He proposed instead that every human being is a unique personality and participates with the rest of humanity in an encompassing whole. Between these extremes lie proliferating associations of great variety. [...] But what is most relevant to us is his existentialist project. If the world of society and nature is devoid of meaning, each of us is left feeling small, isolated and vulnerable. How do we bridge the gap between a puny self and a vast, unknowable world? The answer is to scale down the world, to scale up the self or a combination of both, so that a meaningful relationship might be established between the two. Gandhi devoted a large part of his philosophy to building up the personal resources of individuals. Our task is to bring this project up to date. ~ From The Digital Revolution and me by John Keith Hart
posted by infini at 4:34 AM PST - 15 comments

Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don't understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it's profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us. — Mike Prysner (YT) [more inside]
posted by knz at 3:59 AM PST - 53 comments

Art Clokey, the creator of Gumby, died Friday January 8 at the age of 88. Gumby has always been one of my favorite shows, and the episode Of Clay and Critters is one of the weirdest things that has ever appeared on television. [more inside]
posted by foonly at 2:50 AM PST - 59 comments