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Lenny Bruce -Swear to Tell the Truth 1995 documentary of the rise and fall of the patron saint of samizdat 1:40 nsfw language nudity via
posted by hortense at 11:58 PM PST - 15 comments

The Karbis of Assam, and their sprightly dance.
posted by hadjiboy at 11:42 PM PST - 6 comments

A dozen of Putin's critics have been assassinated and Russia's vast natural resources are in the pockets of a chosen few. A 2 part article in The Guardian.
posted by jouke at 11:30 PM PST - 33 comments

Gems of Penmanship, Penman's Leisure Hour, Ninety-five Lessons in Ornamental Penmanship, The Champion Method of Practical Business Writing and other Rare Books on Calligraphy and Penmanship from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Lots of neat tidbits. [via mlarson.org]
posted by mediareport at 9:40 PM PST - 12 comments

The Stupid Ring is 'Earth's largest Tolkien parody.' Given a taste of The Lord of the Rings on the big screen [warning: sound], some wacky Tolkien fans craved more. So they rewrote the entire book as a movie script. All sixty-plus chapters. Every scene, every song. And then some. Possibly while drunk.
posted by zennie at 8:41 PM PST - 14 comments

The World Lecture Hall is a compedium of links to open university materials. Some include lecture notes, text books and even video. The OCW at MIT is probably the most well known but there are many universities that provide online access to course materials. Want to learn about medicine? John Hopkin's kindly provides some popular courses (Cadaver not included). Notre Dame provides a number of courses focused on the liberal arts. The University of Washington provides Computer Science and Engineering courses. Tufts provides a potpourri of courses, including dentistry.
posted by substrate at 4:39 PM PST - 13 comments

"In a new documentary, Producer Cameron and his director, Simcha Jacobovici, make the starting claim that Jesus wasn't resurrected --the cornerstone of Christian faith-- and that his burial cave was discovered near Jerusalem. And, get this, Jesus sired a son with Mary Magdelene."
posted by exlotuseater at 3:37 PM PST - 169 comments

The Ecstasy of Influence, A Plagiarism
posted by Captaintripps at 3:19 PM PST - 20 comments

Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias

"Delta Zeta’s national officers....judged 23 of the [DePauw University] women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house. The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit."

Many at the university are not happy.
posted by ericb at 2:59 PM PST - 119 comments

So, what do you &heart;? Shoes? Languages? Coffee? Sandwiches? America? Purple? Asta? Israel? Librarians? Vodka? Spam? Philosophy? Peanut Butter? Karl Rove? Rock & Roll? God? To love? Gardens? Egg? My way? Your mac? Calculus? Trista? Mullets? Porgy? Jet noise? LA? Drums? Pickles? Little girls? Being loved by black people? Monkeys? Speech? A good mystery? Lemon tea? Celebrity-owned restaurants? Crossdressing? Alpacas? The Pixies? Belly buttons? Your homies? Latin ladies? Santa? Marmite? Kenisha? Gay? Tehran? Lamp? Fonts? The ol' ball & chain? Zombies? Binary, Primes & Factors? Boys? Jazz? Diet soda? Zoos? A clean San Diego? Pez? Satisfied women? Hondas? Dixie? The Devil? Neil Diamond? Please, do tell!
posted by miss lynnster at 1:19 PM PST - 52 comments

While the world debates the use of cluster bombs due to their impact on civilians in post conflict areas, today is also Landmine Awareness Day in Cambodia. Some ignore the warnings and seek out the landmines to defuse and sell... while others seek a much larger quarry (Youtube)
posted by james_cpi at 12:12 PM PST - 16 comments

Bombing Iran - motive, opportunity, means (and thuggish accomplice).
posted by RichLyon at 11:27 AM PST - 56 comments

A View In Your Mirror: Painter Jan Verhulst compiles self portraits made by artists in their preferred medium.
posted by fair_game at 11:10 AM PST - 8 comments

The major label machine sucks in and churns out young bands all the time, leaving plenty of good music unheard by the public. Boston's trip-hoppy Splashdown were one of the acts brought low by this process, disbanding two years after Capitol decided not to release their major label debut LP. The late 90's were a commercially bad time for female-fronted electro-pop, of course, but the band found an outlet for their material by releasing it for free online -- their whole catalog, including three LP's, two EP's and some double-secret-unreleased tracks, is available with the band's blessing. Members have since joined other bands -- Freezepop, Universal Hall Pass -- which hopefully will avoid the trouble Splashdown had.
posted by aaronetc at 10:30 AM PST - 37 comments

"When you squeeze it, its golden brown crust should crackle and even sing. Its aroma should be a little bit sweet, a little bit toasty. There should be a good marriage between its crust and its interior crumb. When the crumb is pressed, it should spring back rapidly. Its color should be off-white and its cavities widely distributed and uneven in size. Its nutty, buttery taste should be both sweet and savory - like a good chardonnay.” Bread expert and Cornell prof Steven Kaplan talks with Conan, to pretty hilarious effect, about his latest book. You may have to snoop around the NBC site - I couldn't find a direct link. The man is really into baguettes. He's given a few entertaining radio interviews as well, and a New York magazine profile of him features a list of his six favorite NYC baguettes. If you don't have a great bakery nearby, you can try your hand at home. Bonus Game: Balance the Baguette! (from a previous post)
posted by jtajta at 9:09 AM PST - 22 comments

Speedcluster, a frentic combination of Speed, Solitaire, and Tapper, is an extremely compelling virtual card game which is sucking up a lot of my casual time, so I might as well pass along the obsession.
posted by Durhey at 1:30 AM PST - 24 comments

The truth is rarely pure and never simple starts the website of Magic Pencil award winning illustrator Sara Fanelli
posted by grapefruitmoon at 1:03 AM PST - 4 comments

Robert "Bobe" Cannon's 1951 Oscar-winning animated short "Gerald McBoing Boing" (u2b), is an early example of a modernist animation style (previously) experimented by UPA studios in an attempt to counteract the mounting realism of Disney cartoons. (The 2005 series it inspired is currently re-running on Boomerang.)

On another note entirely, Theodor "Seuss" Geisel's character Gerald is considered one of a number of celebrities with autism.
posted by progosk at 12:40 AM PST - 43 comments