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We've talked about Deconversion 2.0: The God Concept on the blue. The creator of this well-produced, content-heavy mini-series has began Deconversion 3.0: A New Way of Seeing God, which details his life as a new atheist searching for truth. Whatever position you take, we can all appreciate the crisp style of his videos.
posted by Taft at 10:26 PM PST - 29 comments

What if other planets in the Solar System orbited Earth at the same distance as the Moon? (SLVimeo) Full screen highly recommended.
posted by grapesaresour at 9:50 PM PST - 120 comments

Paradichlorobenzene. Antichlorobenzene. Paradichlorobenzene x Antichlorobenzene.* [more inside]
posted by anthy at 9:00 PM PST - 23 comments

The Exotica Project. One Hundred 45s, presented here to say simply that "Les Baxter, Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman and Yma Sumac are only the tip of exotica." Organized helpfully into several categories, including Polynesian/Pacific Theme and Maritime/Castaway Theme and even Wordless Vocals. Compiled by the keeper of Office Naps.
posted by grabbingsand at 7:44 PM PST - 16 comments

Green Bay Packers Yearbooks from the (Vince) Lombardi Era (1960-1967). The yearbooks here are from the team's return to glory under Lombardi. Arriving in 1959, Lombardi led the Packers to their first winning season in eleven years in his first year as coach. From that auspicious start, Lombardi's Packers had nine winning seasons and claimed five NFL championships in the 1960s. Each yearbook contains roughly 80 pages of text and photos.
posted by cashman at 6:36 PM PST - 8 comments

I don't watch American Idol. I'm not even remotely interested. But I did happen across this clip of barista Chris Medina, who impressed me less with his singing during his audition (which is great) than with his heart (SLYT; 4.55). Excuse me, but I've got something in my eye.
posted by bwg at 3:29 PM PST - 86 comments

Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel, in the distant era of 1994, try to puzzle out what "internet" is. They should have asked Peter Mansbridge and Bill Cameron at the CBC, who had reported a year earlier about this revolution in which fifteen million people were taking part. [more inside]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:49 PM PST - 90 comments

Amateur radio gets stick for being home to a lot of reactionary weird old buffers. How true. Many are put off by this. And that's a crying shame... [more inside]
posted by Devonian at 2:08 PM PST - 61 comments

Wampa at the gas station
posted by puny human at 12:54 PM PST - 24 comments

Sasquatch Birth Journal 2, "an unprecedented peek at the mysteries of nature." Perhaps NSFW.
posted by theperfectcrime at 12:23 PM PST - 20 comments

Jacques Rivette, who emerged in the 1950s... as one of the primary filmmakers of the French New Wave, is the most underappreciated (and under-screened) of this legendary group. Rivette’s deliberately challenging, super-size films defy easy assimilation, and demand a level of attention unusual even to his compatriots’ works. In addition to being considered difficult, however, Rivette’s body of work is also, arguably, the richest of the New Wave era, possessing an intellectual inquiry and humanity unmatched in the French cinema of his time. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese at 11:42 AM PST - 11 comments

Jimmy Page, age 14, plays skiffle on BBC TV in 1957.
posted by Crane Shot at 11:38 AM PST - 45 comments

For the kid who has everything else -- a battery-powered full sized Dalek.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:55 AM PST - 30 comments

How to deal with a loudmouth, 5 time world kickboxing champion style. Via reddit.
posted by stringbean at 10:13 AM PST - 50 comments

Map of scientific collaboration between researchers. [ High Res] , [ zoomable version]
Related: Facebook map.
posted by special-k at 10:08 AM PST - 17 comments

By helping other people look happy, Facebook is making us sad. The human habit of overestimating other people's happiness is nothing new, of course. Jordan points to a quote by Montesquieu: "If we only wanted to be happy it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are." But social networking may be making this tendency worse. Jordan's research doesn't look at Facebook explicitly, but if his conclusions are correct, it follows that the site would have a special power to make us sadder and lonelier. By showcasing the most witty, joyful, bullet-pointed versions of people's lives, and inviting constant comparisons in which we tend to see ourselves as the losers, Facebook appears to exploit an Achilles' heel of human nature. And women—an especially unhappy bunch of late—may be especially vulnerable to keeping up with what they imagine is the happiness of the Joneses.
posted by jason's_planet at 7:59 AM PST - 106 comments

With kettling becoming a commonly deployed tactic by the London Met, students from the University College London are fighting back with Sukey, launched this morning. [more inside]
posted by asymptotic at 7:58 AM PST - 58 comments

Electronics companies all over the world are increasingly reliant on certain rare metals, most of which are mined in China, which controls 97 per cent of the global supply. The Chinese government has promised to slash export quotas to ensure future sustainability of the world's supply of rare metals. China will drop its quota by 35 per cent in the first half of this year as compared with the same time last year. But despite its escalating consumption of rare metals and the need for future sustainability, the West's electronics industry is mistrustful of China's motives and claims that the move has more to do with the mainland's desire to dominate electronics manufacturing than ensuring the future sustainability of the world's supply of rare metals. ~ Greening conscience or resource checkmate? The rare earth trilogy covers eWaste harvesting, restarting interest in mines and dithering around trade regulations, all in one neat package. [more inside]
posted by infini at 7:15 AM PST - 18 comments

The final tranches of the net addresses used by most people are about to be allocated, raising the prospect of a web that isn't world wide. In the next few days the last big blocks of the net's dwindling stock of addresses are about to be handed out. These are the days when IPv4 dies and is replaced by IPv6. The deadline arrived a little earlier than expected (previously).
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:51 AM PST - 79 comments

China is planning to merge the nine cities around the Pearl River Delta, producing the worlds largest city.
posted by Artw at 12:08 AM PST - 52 comments