January 21, 2009

I'm President Barack Obama, and today is the longest day of my life.

Barack Obama: President, CTU Member, Jedi Knight, Samurai. [more inside]
posted by armage at 11:12 PM PST - 43 comments

Untitled

Accompanied by Aphex Twin's classic Selected Ambient Works II, we have the rarely-seen experimental video Stakker (Westworld) in nine parts: Z Twig / Radiator | Rhubarb | Hankie | Grass | White Blur | Parallel Stripes | Z Twig / Lichen | Blur | Match Sticks [more inside]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:09 PM PST - 38 comments

The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises

The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises. PolitiFact has compiled about 500 promises that Barack Obama made during the campaign and is tracking their progress on their Obameter.
posted by Ljubljana at 11:04 PM PST - 66 comments

1500

15 Photographs by 100 Photographers. A collective photo gallery and news.
posted by netbros at 8:03 PM PST - 5 comments

Parallel Coordinates ... Serious and Humor : Homepage Alfred Inselberg

Parallel Coordinates ... Serious and Humor : Homepage Alfred Inselberg
posted by pita at 7:56 PM PST - 10 comments

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday.
posted by needled at 6:54 PM PST - 32 comments

Pakistan's Jihadi Problem Worsens

Pakistan in Peril. "The relative calm in Iraq in recent months, combined with the drama of the US elections, has managed to distract attention from the catastrophe that is rapidly overwhelming Western interests in the part of the world that always should have been the focus of America's response to September 11: the al-Qaeda and Taliban heartlands on either side of the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan." [Via]
posted by homunculus at 5:30 PM PST - 30 comments

Interviews with Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand and Phil Donahue. [more inside]
posted by absalom at 5:05 PM PST - 150 comments

RaDaK

The manuscripts of David Kaufmann, Jewish scholar extraordinaire. Wonderful illuminations, inventive typography and even a little bit of naughtiness.
posted by tellurian at 4:27 PM PST - 8 comments

Structures Sonores

In 1952, Bernard and François BASCHET reveal a new acoustic principle. They manage to amplify the internal vibration of metal, thus founding a new acoustic instrumental family : The Sound Structures [more inside]
posted by Grangousier at 4:24 PM PST - 4 comments

there's simply not enough cyanide

Easy access to the internet and simplified technology for recording songs and videos might do great things for the future of pop music. Or it might be like this. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:23 PM PST - 109 comments

Obamas crack problem

Obama may just be able to keep that precious Blackberry after all for personal use. Although anything business related will be housed by this potential giant brick phone. The question is how secure and private will his emails be? How private should they be? Has Dick set a precedent that personal records stay personal?
posted by brinkzilla at 3:18 PM PST - 27 comments

Life's for Sharing.

The 'T-Mobile Dance' at London's Liverpool Street Station (January 15, 2009). [more inside]
posted by ericb at 3:10 PM PST - 39 comments

Black and White Indie Filth

“It is going to be rough for us Top 20 publishers. It will be epic for anyone smaller. Lots of folks will vanish due to this, even some bigger guys.” - Hard times ahead for indie comics: Diamond Distribution, which has an effective monopoly on American comics distribution, will be raising it’s wholesale benchmark, meaning many of the comiocs currently available in comics stores will soon be dropped. In a further blow to the adult comics market Diamond will be dropping that section from the print version of Previews, in favour of a PDF only available to retailers. Comics are about to get a whole lot blander.
posted by Artw at 2:37 PM PST - 76 comments

Blandings: The Wonderful World of Wodehouse

Blandings is "a guide and companion to the books, stories, plays and musicals of P. G. Wodehouse, probably the finest craftsman of the English language in the 20th Century." It has lists of his works (and advice on collecting them), a miscellany (old English counties, money and words, JPs, younger sons, sport, public schools and much more), a gazetteer (with notes on real places and maps), and other amenities, but what really put a jaunty spring in my step was the detailed notes for the works. If you go, say, to the Something Fresh page and click on the Notes & Quotes tab, you will find, well, Notes and Quotes. The first thing your bright, expectant orb will encounter: "Arundell Street - no longer exists but it was close to Leicester Square and held both the Hotels Mathis and Previtali (also gone). See West End for a sketch map showing its location." It's a blooming marvel! (Via Wordorigins.org; Wodehouse previously on MetaFilter.)
posted by languagehat at 1:59 PM PST - 32 comments

Ghostbusters, what do you want?

Protoncharging.com is here to meet all of your Ghostbusters-related needs.
posted by piratebowling at 12:05 PM PST - 43 comments

Queens of InfoVis

Ever see an awesome graphic or visualization in the New York Times and wonder who did it? Chances are it's either Amanda Cox or Megan Jaegerman. [more inside]
posted by AceRock at 11:02 AM PST - 15 comments

School of Hard Knocks.

"This is the safest place these kids have," Mr. McMonigle explains. "No matter how crazy it gets here, no matter how bad the school is, it’s still better than what’s waiting for them out there when they leave. The irony is that after all the bitching and the moaning about how they don’t want to be here, at the end of the day you can’t get them to go home!" School of Hard Knocks is a heartbreaking 7-part series of articles about kids with behavioral problems in a Philadelpha high school. [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] [via mefi projects]
posted by dersins at 10:59 AM PST - 33 comments

Shoot Different

Shoot Different. Or, if you prefer, iSnipe.
posted by geos at 10:30 AM PST - 23 comments

Professor Layton and the DS Adventure Game Revival

Despite the oft-declared death of the Adventure Game, Nintendo's success has raised the genre's mainstream profile and quality to a level unseen since the 90s. The DS in particular has been an ideal platform for AGs, leading to the release of a number of popular Japanese titles in the American market. Professor Layton and the Curious Village is only the most recent to receive praise from western game rags - but it is the most consistently well-reviewed - making many short-lists of the best DS games of 2008. Featuring beautiful illustration, engrossing puzzles, and a charming story, Professor Layton topped Japanese software charts on its release (as did its sequel, Professor Layton and the Devil's Box, still unreleased in the US), though all indications are that its American sales have been underwhelming. [more inside]
posted by macross city flaneur at 9:17 AM PST - 62 comments

Klezmer and selling out

David Goo and the Variety Band have been gigging in London for a few years, but a recent appearance as a soundtrack to an advert could be what propels them to the big time. Merging ska, punk, indie and klezmer influences, read an interview with them here as they speculate on the concept of 'selling out'
posted by muggsy1079 at 9:03 AM PST - 9 comments

Top 10 Star Wars Sports Crossovers

Top 10 Star Wars Sports Crossovers. Chewbacca throwing out the first pitch at Fenway is priceless.
posted by jon_hansen at 8:30 AM PST - 25 comments

Urban Legends In War

Now that the fighting in Gaza is over for the time being, it's time for urban legends to arise out of the morass. One story now making the rounds on the Israeli side involves soldiers claiming the Biblical matriarch Rachel warned them of Hamas ambushes and guided them away from booby-trapped homes. Strangely, Rachel supposedly appeared as an Arabic-speaking older woman. Meanwhile, American soldiers during the second Iraq war spawned their own urban legends. But these stories are just the latest entries in a long tradition. [more inside]
posted by huskerdont at 7:16 AM PST - 27 comments

The Brotherhood of the Very Expensive Pants

"It's like I used to enjoy firecrackers, but now it takes dynamite to get me high." Brit Eaton takes Outside magazine on a safari for vintage clothing in the wild west. (via)
posted by 1f2frfbf at 6:02 AM PST - 20 comments

Movies from India:

Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Naa (You don't know, and neither do I) = A guy who's in love with a girl falls in love with someone who he thinks is right for him, but he realizes his mistake, only after the girl has decided to marry her perfect match [or so she thinks]. Taree Zameen Par (Stars On The Ground) = A boy who has difficulty with school work gets put into a Hostel for boys where he discovers a teacher who understands him and is willing to fight for him. And Jab We Met (When we met) = A story about a guy and a girl, who meet on a train and get hitched to each other; the guy finds himself by the end of their travel but has to leave the girl because she's run away from home to marry a guy, only to find out that he doesn't want to marry her... three Hindi movies which I would suggest that everyone watch!
posted by hadjiboy at 5:07 AM PST - 13 comments

Selling snake oil

An unexpected corollary of the modern marketing-and-distribution model is that films no longer have time to find their audience; that audience has to be identified and solicited well in advance. The Cobra - The New Yorker on the art and science of movie marketing.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:44 AM PST - 36 comments

Now What?

Right before the trials at Guantanamo were ordered to be halted, a military court was told that Maher Arar was in North America during the time he was supposedly in Afghanistan.
posted by gman at 4:33 AM PST - 92 comments

Illegal Download =/= Lost Sale

"[A]lthough it is true that someone who copies a digital version of a sound recording has little incentive to purchase the recording through legitimate means, it does not necessarily follow that the downloader would have made a legitimate purchase if the recording had not been available for free," said US District court Judge James P. Jones, in response to the RIAA's request for restitution against the former admin of Elite Torrents, Daniel Dove, who has already been found guilty of conspiracy and felony copyright infringement. [more inside]
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:01 AM PST - 110 comments

A little piece of Middle England

More than 20 years ago, Matt Pritchett, the son of a newspaper columnist, began his daily cartoon in the Daily Telegraph. Generally accepted as the best daily cartoonist working today on these shores, he actually wanted to become a cameraman originally but failed to find the work. Always wry, understated and pithy, Matt's cartoons typically summarise the absurd and the humdrum in modern day Britain, often at the same time. Here's his effort for today. Some of his classics here, here and here.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:04 AM PST - 19 comments

What would Simpsons characters look like in Real Life? Something like this.

A filmmaker, [SPOILER], records his young son, [SPOILER], telling an imaginative story to his two younger sisters, [SPOILER] and [SPOILER].
from the A/V Geeks of Archive.org, whose diverse menu of nostalgia include Psychedelic Schoolhouse Rock, a delightful VD PSA and a whole lotta falling down.
posted by wendell at 1:12 AM PST - 13 comments

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