The day in posts: 02/04/2009

Concept art for the Alien 3 that never was - Before the Walter Hill version was shot, entirely in brown, by David Fincher there were many iterations of the Alien 3 script. One of the more exotic ones was the Vincent Ward & John Fasano "monks in space" script, illustrated here. [via io9]
posted by Artw at 11:30 PM PST - 46 comments

How to properly wash metal shirts, what to do with bar soap, stitching etiquette and care, and other tips from the Black Metal Atmospheric Kitchen.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:11 PM PST - 25 comments

"The avionics system in the F-22 Raptor, the current U.S. Air Force frontline jet fighter, consists of about 1.7 million lines of software code. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter...about 5.7 million lines of code...Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner...about 6.5 million lines of software code. These are impressive amounts of software, yet if you bought a premium-class automobile recently, it probably contains close to 100 million lines of software code."
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 9:11 PM PST - 64 comments

Near-psychedelic mandalas made of lace - the newest exhibit at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles. Previous exhibits include an impressive variety of styles of lace, historical fashions and related equipment.
posted by mediareport at 8:43 PM PST - 14 comments

Modern video game covers reimagined as Classic Books.
posted by ColdChef at 6:13 PM PST - 30 comments

Lux Interior, lead singer of The Cramps, dead at 52.
posted by you just lost the game at 4:57 PM PST - 149 comments

"The safest most dangerous taste of physical and mental endurance pain in the world"
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:56 PM PST - 51 comments

Police do it to the British public 24/7/365. It has become pervasive in the UK and shows little sign of changing. Apparently, however, Joe Blogs may find that his rights may be greatly compromised when photographing Police or even criminals. [more inside]
posted by Don't_deceive_with_belief at 4:44 PM PST - 50 comments

Forbes magazine runs an article promoting Crowdspring, the "design crowdsourcing" website, and calls professional design "snooty". Professional designers go absolutely crazy.
posted by WPW at 4:16 PM PST - 109 comments

Digital Research Tools (DiRT) is a wiki created by Lisa Spiro, director of Rice University's Digital Media Center. Tons of "snapshot reviews of software that can help researchers" are categorized by what you're trying to accomplish ("Analyze Statistics," "Network With Other Researchers," "Search Visually"), as well as by general topic ("Authoring," "Linguistic Tools," "Text Analysis"). Via
posted by Rykey at 3:45 PM PST - 6 comments

"What are the new liberal arts?", asks SnarkMarket, inspired by Jason Kottke's tagline and Edge. The blog post has turned into a pitch for a new collaborative book, with spirited discussions and over 100 suggestions including photography, design, relationships, mythology, intuitive thinking, synthesis, knowledge mastery, search, archiving, play, and home economics.
posted by divabat at 3:44 PM PST - 44 comments

Here is an interesting critique of evolutionary psychology by philosopher of science David Buller. Clark Barrett and Edouard Machery published a critique of Buller's book (pdf). Anthropologist James Holland Jones has been following the debate and is compelled by arguments on both sides. [more inside]
posted by AceRock at 3:21 PM PST - 43 comments

Academic Earth collects lectures on a wide variety of subjects from UC Berkely, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Yale that the universities have released under Creative Commons. The site is still in beta so it doesn't quite have the thousands of lectures its frontpage promises. It has many full courses, for example Benjamin Polak teaching game theory, Amy Hungerford on the American novel since 1945, Charles Bailyn's introduction to astrophysics, John Merriman on the history of France since 1871, Shelly Kagan on death and Oussama Khatib's introduction to robotics.
posted by Kattullus at 2:59 PM PST - 10 comments

Iraq: "A woman suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers has confessed to organising their rapes so she could later convince them that martyrdom was the only way to escape the shame."
Algeria: "Evil al-Qaeda chiefs are raping young male converts to shame them into becoming suicide bombers, it emerged yesterday. "
posted by davidstandaford at 1:49 PM PST - 140 comments

Objective measurements of RAW images are an essential basis for any analysis of digital cameras, but such measurements were neither possible nor available until now. DxO Labs has developed a new scale for digital camera image quality performance, called DxOMark Sensor, to serve as an additional tool to help photographers rank and compare digital cameras. This scale is based on three underlying metrics, Color Depth, Dynamic Range and Low-Light ISO, each one tied to a real-life photographic scenario: landscape, studio & portrait, and photojournalism & sport. (This application requires Flash™ as it uses FusionCharts.) Hours of fun sorting the data by the various metrics, including $$$. [more inside]
posted by spock at 12:07 PM PST - 39 comments

Chuck Schumer. Barney Frank. A closer look at two of Washington's most powerful men.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 11:55 AM PST - 22 comments

A History of the Bench Press, by Sean Katterle (includes a list of 600+ pound classic bench presses)
All three variations of the press on back – prone floor press, belly toss and bench press – persisted relatively unchanged through the 1940s, but a hierarchy among them quickly developed. For bodybuilders the bench version gained dominance, and by the 1950s it was the king of upper-body movements
posted by jason's_planet at 10:37 AM PST - 44 comments

For that headbangin' couple, the ones you owe a wedding gift... [more inside]
posted by lapolla at 10:37 AM PST - 24 comments

Kyrgyzstan is to close a key US military airbase which is a key staging post for coalition troops into Afghanistan. This is probably a question of money, as Kyrgyzstan is facing a looming energy crisis.
As predicted the "great game" continues, with Russia playing a tricky game.
First soften up your 'mark' with a cyber attack.
As a result Afghan supply routes now face setbacks.
posted by adamvasco at 10:17 AM PST - 18 comments

Is it Friday yet? "Tag: The Power of Paint is a free, first-person puzzle platformer which focuses on the players’ ability to modify their environment as they see fit, simply by painting it." (Windows)
posted by jbickers at 10:11 AM PST - 20 comments

uniCornify the Web! That's right. Unicorns and rainbows when you feel the web is icky or frustrating. Here's what Metafilter could look like. If you want you can add their java snippet to your browser bar and cornify anything!
posted by filmgeek at 10:02 AM PST - 23 comments

I'll have a crocodile sandwich please, and make it snappy.
posted by cranberrymonger at 9:50 AM PST - 54 comments

"Arguably...given their limited obligation and inclination to report to external audiences about operational or performance matters, foundations are the least accountable institutions in our society."

Some are pointing to the rise of a non-profit industrial complex (echoing Eisenhower's famous warning of a military industrial complex and the phrase's later application to the prison industry). What does it mean for the left if the revolution will not be funded?
posted by lunit at 9:29 AM PST - 27 comments

How Old Are You? Guess people's ages based on submitted photos. (via)
posted by The Whelk at 9:15 AM PST - 57 comments

A potential implication of J-. B. Pontalis's thought is that integrating with another linguistic and cultural tradition means having to lose one's language. A person with a few years of marriage behind them might like to add: integrating with the other sex means discovering one never had any language at all! ["What?" - "What?"]
[alternate YT link]
posted by rudster at 7:25 AM PST - 16 comments

The Tax Gap - "The Guardian will examine the extent of tax avoidance by big business, day-by-day over two weeks. We are naming more than 20 major British companies, and analysing their secretive tax strategies to ask: are they paying their fair share?".
posted by Gyan at 7:23 AM PST - 34 comments

It is the Mountain that Eats Men, and it killed millions of people, and is still killing them today. It built and then destroyed the Spanish Empire, brought low the Ottomans, and helped lead to Dutch power. Its mint-mark may be the source of the dollar sign (the mint mark is by the date). It is the highest city in the world, and it holds on to its traditions, like ritual fighting and respect for El Tio, the Lord of the Underworld. It is Potosi, the Silver Mountain.
posted by blahblahblah at 7:23 AM PST - 17 comments

FreelanceSwitch covers many of the topics freelancers need to know about with their daily articles and tips. They run a freelance job board and have regular podcasts so you can learn a little something while you work or commute. Check out the FreelanceSwitch forums for support and advice from other freelancers, or check out their resources section. [more inside]
posted by netbros at 7:19 AM PST - 4 comments