February 16, 2011

Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there.

Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that." I put down my notebook. "Just that?" "That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
posted by vidur at 11:11 PM PST - 126 comments

Does it make me more money now?

Why Gawker Nick Denton is a genius - he can smell the page views!. The redesign he's championed (previously) is a convoluted nightmare which breaks the web and left blog posts unindexed Google. Page views are in the toilet. He may loose that bet. It doesn't matter, Nick Denton is a genius. Look, pictures of a naked man!
posted by Artw at 11:04 PM PST - 151 comments

"Ten years too late, or five years ahead of their time?"

Fusing the energy of hardcore with the wall of sound of Detroit hard rock, Denver's The Fluid was the first non-Seattle band signed to Sub Pop Records. Particularly acclaimed for their live shows, Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks compared a performance of the five-piece to seeing the Stooges in their heyday. After breaking up in 1993, they reunited in 2008. Fluid guitarist Rick Kulwicki (who was also a founding member of Denver’s groundbreaking hardcore band the Frantix) died this week at 49. [more inside]
posted by scody at 11:02 PM PST - 20 comments

Caspar Babypants is Chris Ballew

Caspar Babypants is Chris Ballew. Described by Weird Al Yankovic as "one of the few children's recording artists I can listen to without wanting to stab myself in the eyes," you don't have to have kids to appreciate the silly subject matter and exquisitely crafted pop sensibility, but it probably helps. It should come as no surprise that, as front man for The Presidents of the United States, the man who wrote songs like Kitty, Boll Weevil, and Dune Buggy grew up to write offbeat children's music. I would especially like to call your attention to these wonderful and clever low tech videos, including several worthy fan videos. [more inside]
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:46 PM PST - 87 comments

Given the weather that night, a jacket was required.

As a follow-up to a recent post regarding the majesty that was Face Value on its 30th anniversary, a parade celebrating Phil Collins occurred yesterday in Brooklyn, featuring a marching band playing--yep, you guessed it.
posted by stannate at 7:45 PM PST - 53 comments

Everything you do when you're not on the job or in school is essentially self-medicating.

Emily Short is an interactive fiction writer and general cool customer who has been featured numerous times before on the blue. She also writes the biweekly Homer in Silicon column at GameSetWatch, where she examines games as stories, looking at what they say as much as how they play. She is particularly fascinated by life simulation games and the often bizarre models of human experience that underly them. To date she has delved into the disturbing worlds of Kudos, Life Quest, and My Life Story.
posted by theodolite at 7:11 PM PST - 15 comments

Captain Planet would be proud.

Japan has suspended its whale hunt after pressure from world governments and harassment by eco-vigilante group Sea Shepherd. Previously.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 6:55 PM PST - 135 comments

Chris Casady's work on Tron 1982

Chris Casady's work on Tron 1982
posted by namagomi at 5:46 PM PST - 5 comments

Short-fingered vulgarians

Google Books has digitized all issues of SPY, the 80s New York satirical magazine that combined humor with investigative reporting. Half the issues are now available; the other half will be released soon.
posted by catlet at 5:35 PM PST - 106 comments

3rd Highest Waterfall in the World

Gocta Falls, Peru In 2005 Stefan Ziemendorff came across a waterfall in Northern Peru that didn't appear on any map, despite a village of 200 people being at its base. He returned the following year to measure its height. At 2,350 feet tall, Gocta Falls are now known to be the 3rd highest in the world. [more inside]
posted by jontyjago at 4:45 PM PST - 17 comments

Itty Bitty Pixel Committee

Pixelfari - 8-bit browsing for the aliased among us [via] [more inside]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:20 PM PST - 21 comments

Baby Trashes Bar...

Baby Trashes Bar in Las Palmas (SLYT)
posted by melissam at 3:20 PM PST - 65 comments

The shower head looks kinda cheap

Locked in a Vegas hotel room with a Phantom Flex high speed cinema camera (1080p, 2564fps). Tom Guilmette had some fun.
posted by yiftach at 3:15 PM PST - 49 comments

50 Years Sideways

The Evolution of the Drift angle: A 90 minute film on the history of the rallying motorsport for your enjoyment. (SYLT)
posted by HLD at 2:59 PM PST - 19 comments

Back to the earth, I mean trademark office.

The Urban Homestead®: Where sustainable urban living and intellectual property collide. Previously on mefi we learned about some urban homesteaders in Pasadena, CA calling themselves the Dervaes Institute. According to the OC Weekly Blog Stick a Fork in It: "In October of last year, the Dervaeses successfully registered the terms "Urban Homestead" and "Urban Homesteading" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. But only in the past couple of weeks have they been sending cease-and-desist letters to organizations and blogs using the terms without their permission, successfully asking Facebook to shut down groups using those terms as their name." [more inside]
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 2:52 PM PST - 54 comments

Dead Island

"First-person zombie-slasher/action-RPG" Dead Island gets a trailer.
posted by Avenger50 at 2:20 PM PST - 89 comments

Tongue Blue

Blue-Tongue Films are an Australian collective of film makers. They’ve produced a couple of features including Animal Kingdom, for which Jacki Weaver has been nominated for this year's Best Supporting Actress Oscar. You can find a number of their shorts and other works on their Youtube Channel. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:19 PM PST - 5 comments

Amazing Dogs from the Westminster Dog Show

The NYT coverage of the Westminster Dog Show. [more inside]
posted by anya32 at 1:04 PM PST - 109 comments

No, it's not a boutique.

The Bollards of London (Hat tip to @UnlikelyWorlds and @greatdismal)
posted by boo_radley at 12:54 PM PST - 30 comments

I looked over my shoulder and saw her sitting on the floor of the aircraft and she was just devastated. It was heartbreaking.

Mark Kempton s a chopper pilot. On Monday January 10, 2011 while flood waters rose in Grantham, Queensland, Mark and his Emergency Management Queensland helicopter crew from Archerfield winched 28 people to safety over a period of 2 1/2 hours. [more inside]
posted by gomichild at 12:43 PM PST - 13 comments

What you don't see

Ogling. What really happens when your back is turned.
posted by Carillon at 12:32 PM PST - 166 comments

A world turning rightside up

As Political Protests spread across the Arab world the BBC has a quick go to page for some facts.
The Guardian and BBC among others have live updates. Al Jazeera Bahrein - live and Eye on Algeria
Demographics of Arab Protests and further background from CFR.
posted by adamvasco at 11:27 AM PST - 33 comments

ex-Marine and gay grieving mother expose corruption in abandoned chocolate factory

"An optimistic history professor and a Jewish organic farmer form a punk rock band in a UN refugee camp." -- "Three starry-eyed karaoke performers and a gay warlord start a girl's school in a Baltic village." -- "A starry-eyed high school journalism teacher and a mustachioed HAM radio operator follow their dreams on a leaky cabin cruiser." All this and more at the FALSE/FALSE FILM FEST. [more inside]
posted by philip-random at 10:41 AM PST - 30 comments

Fiddling On The Edge Of The Grave

Progressive bluegrass takes the original “melting pot of American music” and infuses it with strains of punk and rock, often giving rise to performances of intense musicianship. Some of the tunes might be familiar to you, such as Crooked Still’s cover of Johnny Cash’s Ain’t No Grave, featured on the True Blood soundtrack, or their aching, gender-twisting rendition of Robert Johnson’s Come On In My Kitchen. Some might be entirely new, such as Seven Story Mountain, by Railroad Earth, or Codeine, from Trampled By Turtles. [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 9:52 AM PST - 29 comments

Anthrax evidence not conclusive says NAS

The National Academy of Sciences report on the FBI anthrax investigation. NAS briefing (video). Opening Statement with key points. [more inside]
posted by warbaby at 9:27 AM PST - 49 comments

The Inside Story of the HBGary Hack

Anonymous speaks: the inside story of the HBGary hack (via). More HBGary coverage: Glenn Greenwald. Salon. NYT. (previously, previously)
posted by nasreddin at 9:24 AM PST - 140 comments

That's a titanic amount of isk!!!!oneeleven!!!

According to my calculations the equivalent of at least $50,000.00 USD was obliterated in a single fleet engagement on February 14. The location was the Uemon system, which is located in everyone's favorite space sandbox - Eve Online. This fleet engagement has been dubbed the Valentine's Day Massacre by EveNews 24. Here(NSFW) is a typical Eve Online propaganda video, which also contains an example of endgame fleet warfare. (note: the fraps capture is sped up) If you want to skip the propaganda go to the 8:00 mark. Here is another example of fleet warfare. [more inside]
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 9:09 AM PST - 164 comments

Borders bankrupt

Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this morning, announcing it would close about 200 of its 650 or so remaining stores.
posted by stbalbach at 8:49 AM PST - 212 comments

Fileteado Porteño, graphics from Argentina

Fileteado Porteño: whimsical, colorful, vernacular decorative graphics from Buenos Aires, Argentina. [more inside]
posted by Tom-B at 8:37 AM PST - 4 comments

The Bankrupt Nihilism of Our Fallen Fantasists

"I don’t particularly care for fantasy per se. What I actually cherish is something far more rare: the elevated prose poetry, mythopoeic subcreation, and thematic richness that only the best fantasy achieves, and that echoes in important particulars the myths and fables of old. This realization eliminates, at a stroke, virtually everything written under the banner of fantasy today."
posted by never used baby shoes at 8:19 AM PST - 203 comments

They have a dream too.

In 2009, the question was asked: Can a comic book change the Middle East? [more inside]
posted by cereselle at 8:02 AM PST - 5 comments

52 Cups of Coffee

52 Cups of Coffee: one girl's year-long experiment with caffeine and conversation. "Each week for a year, I’m having coffee with someone I don’t know and writing about what I learn along the way."
posted by chunking express at 7:12 AM PST - 94 comments

The Search for the Securitas Millions

In February 2006, a group of criminals pulled off the biggest cash heist in the history of the UK, making off with £53 million pounds. To date, only £23 million of the money has been recovered. Police are understandably upset about the dead ends in the case.
posted by reenum at 6:53 AM PST - 12 comments

Round and round

A perpetual motion machine based on the improbable physics of Escher's Waterfall.
posted by logicpunk at 5:25 AM PST - 72 comments

VROOOOOMMMMMMM!

Jet Sprint: Jetsprint racing is a small V8-powered jet boat with a crew of two (a driver and a navigator) who must negotiate a set course through slough channels 12-15 feet wide and 3 feet deep at speeds up to 80 mph. The winners are those with the fastest times; the losers often don't even finish. [more inside]
posted by bwg at 5:04 AM PST - 8 comments

Fancy rafting across the Atlantic? Must be OAP.

To be on a raft at sea is to be on a snooker table whose frame rests on a bouncy castle. Anthony Smith, age 84, is crossing the Atlantic on his raft, the An-Tiki.
posted by grounded at 12:06 AM PST - 18 comments

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