Somewhere between 538 and xkcd, Ask Doctor Math is an advice column for practical math questions. [more inside]
posted by piers at 9:22 PM PST - 25 comments

What Invasive Species Are Trying to Tell Us. "Walking snakeheads, carnivorous snails, and the superpredator from the reef: The invasion has begun." [Via]
posted by homunculus at 9:05 PM PST - 46 comments

The Skycycle (google translated) at Washuzan Highland Park (warning: noisy) in Okayama, Japan is (not) a pedal-powered roller coaster. Video, photos. Other things called a skybike: skybike, sky-bike, skybike, skybike, skybike.
posted by jessamyn at 9:01 PM PST - 18 comments

Who's best at voice-actived gaming? That's right, parrots!
posted by slater at 8:22 PM PST - 10 comments

After 20 years and 429 episodes, The Simpsons has updated its opening title sequence. Here it is. [more inside]
posted by Effigy2000 at 7:33 PM PST - 216 comments

The male psyche's unspoken telepathy in practice in Osaka, Japan. (though it works on some women, too)
posted by spec80 at 6:50 PM PST - 28 comments

In which Georgia gives you the McNuggetini.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 3:32 PM PST - 88 comments

kittens inspired by kittens [Warning: SLYT, high-pitched child, potentially scripted non sequiturs]
posted by defenestration at 2:38 PM PST - 40 comments

Lull : music video for Andrew Bird by Lisa Barcy. Featuring giant squid. [SLYT]
posted by grapefruitmoon at 2:32 PM PST - 15 comments

In the background behind attention-grabbing headlines about famous (and wannabe-famous) cancer patients, a quiet revolution may be on the brink of changing oncology. [more inside]
posted by bunnycup at 2:27 PM PST - 42 comments

The Socially Conscious Gamer is just the most recent example of growing discussions about how gamer culture and problems with silencing and pushing women out, wallowing in racist stereotypes, self-fulfilling cycles of exclusion, and why these conversations are hard, if not impossible to have. Still, if rational discussions can be had about games dealing with slavery, perhaps there is still hope. Personally, I can't wait for escapism to be for all of us, and not about escaping FROM us.
posted by yeloson at 1:46 PM PST - 159 comments

Among the body of conspirators in the July 20th plot to assassinate Hitler and seize the German government, few were as ambivalent as Count Wolf Heinrich von Helldorf, head of the Berlin police. Although sympathetically (if briefly) portrayed in a recent film about the plot, von Helldorf was a definitely more enigmatic figure. [more inside]
posted by Skeptic at 12:35 PM PST - 13 comments

Classic Poetry Aloud: free recordings of 427 public domain poems.
posted by Iridic at 10:39 AM PST - 8 comments

"It did feel a little isolating at the time, having atheist parents who thought skiing was a pretentious extravagance, believed America should stay out of Vietnam and regarded Valentine's Day and Mother's Day as 'meretricious, capitalist flim-flam.' " Daniel Grafton Hill IV (better known as this guy) remembers growing up with Daniel Grafton Hill III in a progressive, over-achieving, mixed-raced family. Meanwhile, the Hill father-son saga takes an ominous turn in the next generation.
posted by grounded at 10:22 AM PST - 30 comments

Today was Day 1 of The Pirate Bay trial.
posted by tybeet at 9:21 AM PST - 182 comments

The Folkways Collection is a downloadable, 24-part podcast series that "explores the remarkable collection of music, spoken word, and sound recordings that make up Folkways Records (now at the Smithsonian as Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)."
posted by Miko at 9:06 AM PST - 27 comments

The Space Game -- Friday U.S. Federal Holiday Flash Fun. This Flash game combines the resource gathering and management of a standard strategy game with the tower-defendiness of a tower defense game. Build a network of mining stations and solar collectors, and protect them from pirate raiders with repair stations and missile and laser turrets.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 9:06 AM PST - 22 comments

Top Gear Challenges: Some highlights include Bugatti Veyron vs. Eurofighter, Range Rover vs Challenger 2, and Nissan GTR vs. Bullet train (part 2) [more inside]
posted by jourman2 at 8:26 AM PST - 41 comments

Danish photographer Simon Høgsberg has made several updates since we last visited, including Faces of New York and The Low Fat Diaries. Digital Photography School interviews Høgsberg about his latest project We're All Gonna Die - 100 Meters of Existence.
posted by netbros at 8:24 AM PST - 6 comments

The NY Times Article Skimmer. A little more information. (still a prototype, but very nice way to browse)
posted by device55 at 8:24 AM PST - 12 comments

In an attempt (flash) to provide Muslim and Arab youth with homegrown heroes, The 99 puts out comics and builds theme parks with a twist. [more inside]
posted by gman at 7:27 AM PST - 12 comments

One year ago this week Lawrence King an openly gay middle-schooler in Oxnard, CA was murdered by a fellow student. In the midst of discussion of the legacy of this tragedy and remembrances of Larry his parents have filed a wrongful death suit. The lawsuit names several defendants including, Casa Pacifica, a youth shelter Larry where lived at the time of his death, the Ventura Rainbow Coalition, and the school in which the shooting occurred. The lawsuit's main contention is that each of these groups are responsible for Larry's death because they "failed to urge the effeminate teen to tone down flamboyant behavior."
posted by Bango Skank at 3:21 AM PST - 105 comments

Sounds of American English details each of the consonants and vowels of American English with a real-time Flash animated articulatory diagram of each sound; video and audio of the sound spoken in context and an interactive diagram of the articulatory anatomy.
posted by Lezzles at 3:10 AM PST - 15 comments

That was too close. RAF Tornado comes within 30ft of mid-air collision.
posted by nthdegx at 2:54 AM PST - 50 comments

"Ransom kidnapping is a rare crime in America. Most cops go their entire careers without handling one. These days, most kidnappings involve a husband taking a child from an estranged wife. That's how things were in Phoenix until a few years ago." via 2blowhards.com
posted by cgc373 at 12:48 AM PST - 26 comments

Scintillation
a short film by Xavier Chassaing.
posted by carsonb at 12:00 AM PST - 8 comments