MetaFilter

It's like Google Maps...for space. Wikisky is a draggable, zoomable, web-based star map. And if you click on a star or other object, it brings up a page with all the information you could want on it, including recent articles and astrophotos that contain that object. And it does lots more. Go explore.
posted by Jimbob at 11:30 PM PST - 25 comments

Like most boys, I grew up dreaming of a life filled with action and adventure. Unlike most men, I was able to live out those boyhood dreams during my five years in the French Foreign Legion. Previously.
posted by Sticherbeast at 11:16 PM PST - 11 comments

Actor Woody Harrelson's father just died of a heart attack at age 69. Don't care? Well, let's add a few fun facts into the story to make it more interesting & newsworthy for you. Charles Harrelson died in prison, where he was serving two life sentences for murdering Judge John Wood, Jr. (the first federal judge to be murdered in the 20th century) for a payment of $250,000. Oh, and also? Many conspiracy theorists feel that he was also deeply involved in the murder of JFK.

It's no wonder Woody smokes pot and feels like an alien creature. Can anyone blame him?
posted by miss lynnster at 11:08 PM PST - 26 comments

Timbaland accused of plagiarism Mega-popular music producer Timbaland has been accused of lifting the heart and soul of Nelly Furtado's "Do It" from a C64 SID chiptune arrangement by GRG of a MOD file, "AcidJazzed Evening," originally composed by Finnish music tracker Janne Suni. Or maybe he was just repurposing his own "original" ringtone from MSN. Nerds get angry and are dismissed as haters. The original tune is catchy, even as an MP3. It reminded me of the MOD collection I amassed in 1993, when I could fit hours of music on a floppy disk. My reminiscences took me to Amiga Music Preservation to try to reconstruct my old MOD collection from memory, but I failed. Maybe MP3 and AAC have made tracked music formats obsolete for most.
posted by bugmuncher at 9:54 PM PST - 34 comments

"A bad way to make a living." A series on the history and ecological impact of strip mining in southeast Kansas during the early 20th century that includes articles, photo galleries with sound files, and video slideshows about the region. The area, known as the "Little Balkans," because of the large Eastern European population that worked the mines, was a large mining community that has given the US the second largest electric shovel in the country, a home to one of the largest socialist newspapers in the country (called Appeal to Reason and founded by Julius Wayland) as well as the Little Blue Books series started by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius in 1919. Oh yeah, it was also --second paragraph-- the place that most of the bootleg alcohol that fueled the Kansas City Jazz Scene of that time was from as well. Of course, if you should ever find yourself in SEKS, and you eat meat, go to either Chicken Annie's or Chicken Mary's [transcript] since they're only a few miles apart in their modern incarnation. The legends you hear growing up there aren't always true, but it doesn't matter because the onion rings are fantastic. And yes, in some ways all Kansas has left is history.
posted by sleepy pete at 9:36 PM PST - 9 comments

Eric Volz, an American, is serving 30 years for a murder he did not commit. His DNA didn't match any of the evidence found at the crime scene, and there's plenty of very serious evidence showing that he didn't commit it (such as the fact that he was in a town two hours away while the murder was being done.) This needs as much media attention as possible. (First link is a Youtube video)
posted by premiumpolar at 6:53 PM PST - 63 comments

The Toilet Paper Encyclopedia from toiletpaperworld. Filled with fun facts about the history of toilet paper, including the results of various toilet paper surveys (more people chose toilet paper over food as a necessity if stranded on a deserted island), toilet paper stories, statistics about which kinds of toilet paper are most popular worldwide, and zingers (toilet paper jokes and observations). Previously on Metafilter, The Whole World Toilet Paper Museum.
posted by amyms at 6:45 PM PST - 9 comments

Murder at the Cricket World Cup. The world's most civilised game just took a turn for the sinister. Less than 24 hours after Pakistan (rated fourth in the world) was roundly trounced by Ireland (first appearance at the Cricket World Cup), the almost universally-liked Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was found unconscious in his hotel room and died in hospital. Jamaican police have just announced that based on the autopsy results they're treating the death as murder by manual asphyxiation.

This isn't the first time in recent history that Pakistan has been embroiled in scandal, nor the first time that Metafilter has discussed it, but this is in a whole new league. Is it a match-fixing scandal connected to far-Eastern betting syndicates, or something else?
posted by Hogshead at 5:26 PM PST - 40 comments

Question Time Iraq Special (Skip to 04:45 to begin). Question Time is a British TV institution, where five prominent politicians debate current affairs while being questioned by a studio audience. The Iraq edition, available online, features the British Secretary of State for Defence, a popular, anti-war former party leader, the aristocratic old socialist leading the Stop-the-War coalition, the first female leader of a Muslim state … and John Bolton.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 4:58 PM PST - 34 comments

Ohio Valley Creative Energy Ohio Valley Creative Energy was founded to provide a heat intensive multi-arts facility for glass, clay, and metal artists that will be powered by methane, AKA landfill gas.
posted by pt68 at 3:56 PM PST - 3 comments

Think this year's Super Bowl commercials sucked? MyBowlAd.com thinks so too. Three guys set up the website to raise $3 million for a 30 second Super Bowl 2008 commercial spot featuring the companies who purchase air time (in seconds). Oh yeah, it'll star "Internet celebrities," with the One Red Paperclip guy and Scotty and Fiddy on board. Could we have another Million Dollar Homepage on our hands?
posted by c:\awesome at 3:42 PM PST - 18 comments

The Einstein Puzzle by Flowix Games is based on an old DOS game called Sherlock, which, in turn, was based on Einstein's (Supposed) Puzzle (Previously). No, it's not Friday yet, and no, it's not Flash. It's a really logical game, and it's really damn hard. I've only won once, and that was within the first few times of playing. If you find it hard to figure out what's going on, read THIS... It helped me to figure out EXACTLY what the hell was going on. The authors are Russian, and the help in the game may only serve to confuse you. ;) It's free, and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. I'm hooked on it, Dammit. :D
posted by Vamier at 2:38 PM PST - 32 comments

The Wii Loop Machine. Via.
posted by solistrato at 1:25 PM PST - 28 comments

Uyghur goes pop! Fully downloadable album (with samples to try before you don't have to buy) of pop music from Xinjiang, aka East Turkestan, home to the Uyghur.
posted by Abiezer at 1:07 PM PST - 15 comments

Starbucking, the true story of one man's highly caffeinated journey. Starbucking is a documentary film that follows Winter, a man who has dedicated his life to visiting every Starbucks in the world. He's been to 6,000 Starbucks (and counting) since 1997, and is trying to break his record of visiting 28 Starbucks in a day. So, "sit back, have a cup of joe, and watch as one man defies society's norms in a never ending search for the lady in green."
posted by londontube at 10:05 AM PST - 241 comments

No Impact Man - "For one year, my wife, my 2-year-old daughter, my dog and I, while living in the middle of New York City, are attempting to live without making any net impact on the environment. In other words, no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…"
posted by dobbs at 9:33 AM PST - 103 comments

Shout, shout, while the dirt continues leaving… Main Page: English | Español
posted by sluglicker at 8:31 AM PST - 10 comments

Revisiting Imperial Russia A Century Later MeFi veterans will undoubtedly remember how amazed we all were in 2001 by the color photographs of rural Imperial Russia by Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii. Or maybe some of you newer members remember when we revisited that site in 2004. Last year, photographers returned to a number of the original locations photographed by Prokudin-Gorkii to re-photograph the same locations as they are now. For the most part, little has changed.
posted by briank at 8:01 AM PST - 20 comments

Gitmo in Black and White. Some great photography with narration and chilling stories from the Gulag at Guantanamo Bay. (Has sound. Maybe NSFW, if your workplace is squeamish about our foreign policy)
posted by nevercalm at 7:44 AM PST - 15 comments

Rrraahhr! I'm a monkfish!
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:38 AM PST - 63 comments

New study reveals prejudices amongst disabled. A research paper by Mark Deal, a PhD student and researcher at UK disability charity Enham reveals the news that disabled people have the same prejudices about disability as non-disabled people: the research points to a hierarchy of impairment, ranking Deaf as the most ‘desirable’ impairment followed by Arthritis, Epilepsy, Cerebral Palsy, HIV/ Aids, Down’s syndrome and Schizophrenia amongst disabled people. These prejudices are almost identical to those held by the non-disabled sample, with the only difference being that Cerebral Palsy and HIV/Aids were placed in reverse order.
posted by patricio at 7:26 AM PST - 48 comments

It's spring, and that means its convention time! In Las Vegas, tomorrow, don't miss the Virtual Air Traffic Convention in Las Vegas! Dusseldorf on Saturday? There's Top Hair 2007 wow! But wait there's more--- Perhaps you'd like to polish your skills in treating the multiple-disordered suicidal client! I know I would! Functional Foods? Learn why seawater has a salty taste at the Bagkok International Book Fair! Hot! Find your own convention.
posted by parmanparman at 6:51 AM PST - 11 comments

The folks at DownsizeDC have this crazy idea that the members of Congress should have to read the bills that they vote on. Here is their plan to make it happen.
posted by Who_Am_I at 5:56 AM PST - 48 comments

On-board Safety Cards Collection...and don't miss The international women of aircraft safety cards. [via Travelers Diagram]
posted by soundofsuburbia at 4:57 AM PST - 11 comments