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World Under Siege: A teenager's video blog . . . a diary under siege.
posted by augustweed at 11:56 PM PST - 39 comments

Home-Ec 101 is a sweet blog about all things domestic. Let Ivy help out with those stank shoes. Ph33r Heather's mad dishwasher repair skillz. Get some quick tips, or even ask a stupid question. Of course, no home-econ blog would be complete without recipes.
posted by owhydididoit at 10:41 PM PST - 7 comments

Once you go barefoot, you won't go back For many serious runners, the best running shoe is no shoe at all. Barefoot runners find themselves less prone to injuries such as plantar fascitis and ankle sprains, possibly because their feet get such a good workout. For those who would like to experience the benefits of barefoot running without the worry of road hazards like broken glass and cooties, Vibram Fivefingers are the next best thing.
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 10:36 PM PST - 36 comments

Stikkit tries to be smart without being clever.
posted by signal at 9:30 PM PST - 26 comments

Pie chart of who owns the US debt.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:51 PM PST - 46 comments

Stories from Inside: Prisoner Rape and the War on Drugs (PDF). A new report by the human rights group Stop Prisoner Rape. [Via Drug WarRant.]
posted by homunculus at 8:23 PM PST - 61 comments

Man suffers from 33 pound neck tumor
posted by puke & cry at 8:10 PM PST - 42 comments

France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales has unleashed its UFO archives on the internet. (And the internet has been unleashed on CNES' UFO archives). The CNES version of the now trendy UFO-archive-release stunt is a little flashier and a little more romantic than its brethren with a host of pictures, drawings, video and audio and a guaranteed 28% unexplained content. Even the explained phenomenon are interesting in their own way. The AP write-up cites a report where "Experts initially concluded that [a burning object dropping into a field] was part of the propulsion device of a recently launched satellite. Eventually they realized it was a piece of German World War II ordnance that spontaneously exploded four decades after the war." As the archives become more explorable, they promise to reveal strange things that may have visited us, or in the very least, the strange things we and our own habitat are capable of creating.
posted by pokermonk at 7:44 PM PST - 4 comments

A contrarian documentary on climate change produced by UK Channel 4 called "The Great Global Warming Swindle (Google Video) has been making the rounds in the internets. Prominent among the scientists featured in the documentary is one of the most highly regarded physical oceanographers active today, Carl Wunsch (MIT). Unlike his colleague Richard Lindzen, though, it seems that Prof. Wunsch is not exactly pleased with being cast as a global warming skeptic. It turns out that selective editing made him seem to be saying exactly the opposite of what he was hoping to convey. Wunch is pissed.. Also, reviews of the documentary: Real Climate, The Guardian (Monbiot).
posted by bumpkin at 4:53 PM PST - 37 comments

The most expensive things at Amazon, by category.
$255,000 for a House Number? How about a million dollar space suit from Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin? Or maybe you just need a $40,000 Super Bowl XL coffee table book (Free shipping, of course) Don't miss the reviews...
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 4:19 PM PST - 32 comments

One man's pocket change is another man's $3 million dollar home. Today, 3 previously homeless families were handed the keys to homes located on one of Hawai'i's priciest streets: Kahala Avenue. Japanese billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto has so far chosen 4 native Hawaiian families to live rent free for up to 10 years, making good on a promise made back in November 2006. Obviously, Kawamoto's motives are suspect, as his record as a landlord has been rather tainted. And his approach to alleviating 4 family's homeless situation doesn't solve any systemic problems or go very far in providing long term solutions to homelessness. But for now, it's a feel-good story, and the start of an interesting sociological experiment...
posted by krippledkonscious at 4:12 PM PST - 22 comments

Backrub was Google's predecessor. Ealier versions of Google. The original hardware, featuring the disk cabinet built of lego, now on display in the Gates building at Stanford University.
posted by PercussivePaul at 3:02 PM PST - 18 comments

Happy Birthday Ric Richard Otcasek turned 58 today. It's All Mixed Up, I had no idea he was so old. Well, no matter how old you are, you still need to let the Good Times Roll, so Let's Go wish him our very best, since it's pretty much Touch and Go for any rock star approaching age 60. Though many of the Cars hits where sung by the late, great Ben Orr, Ocasek was one of the more recognizable front men of the 1980s. So distinctive that, on April 18, 2006, he was ranked number 50 in The Boston Phoenix list of "The 100 unsexiest men in the world." Ocasek has had a low-key, but reasonably successful career as a solo artist, written a book of poetry and had a cameo role in the John Waters feature film Hairspray. He also appeared on the Colbert Report where he volunteered to lead a commando mission to "rescue" Stephen Jr., the baby eagle at the San Francisco Zoo. Ric also is notable as a producer, though he is probably best known (or infamous in indie circles) for producing Guided by Voices' much maligned Do the Collapse. As for my own personal connection, the first time I saw him was in 1984, when the Cars played a show with Wang Chung and the last time was when I stood next to Ric at Luna's Farewell show at the Bowery Ballroom, a well known Nightspot. Nice guy, he let me buy him a beer. It was, he said, Just what he Needed.
posted by psmealey at 1:46 PM PST - 61 comments

My National Security Letter Gag Order "Under the threat of criminal prosecution, I must hide all aspects of my involvement in the case -- including the mere fact that I received an NSL -- from my colleagues, my family and my friends. When I meet with my attorneys I cannot tell my girlfriend where I am going or where I have been. I hide any papers related to the case in a place where she will not look. When clients and friends ask me whether I am the one challenging the constitutionality of the NSL statute, I have no choice but to look them in the eye and lie."
posted by grouse at 1:37 PM PST - 61 comments

Reviews of this Book
posted by juv3nal at 1:09 PM PST - 20 comments

Soulforce Equality Ride! Soulforce, a nationwide organization working to end religious discrimination of gays and lesbians are in the middle of their second annual Equality Ride to raise awareness of Christian colleges and universities that discriminate against queer students. GLBTQ students are discriminated against everywhere. The Riders have been met with both open arms and anger. The Reverend Mel White, who runs Soul Force, ghost wrote Billy Graham's and Jerry Falwell's autobiographies and worships at Falwell's church in Lynchburg, VA in silent protest. Previously.
posted by parmanparman at 12:17 PM PST - 51 comments

To Write Love On Her Arms is a story and the response to a story. I first saw the shirt on Switchfoot's Jon Foreman and thought "Hey that's a cool shirt." Months later I saw an ad and went to look them up. That's when I found the story. As their MySpace page points out, they are not a 24-hour helpline, nor are they trained professionals, but they do "hope to serve as a bridge to help." Its a small organization right now, using a unique method of achieving recognition and exposure, but it is an important "movement of love, a commitment to begin answering these needs and offering hope to the many who struggle with depression, addiction, suicide, self injury." (from the FAQ)
posted by allkindsoftime at 11:09 AM PST - 14 comments

i haven not slept in 126 hrs. my mental aptitude is completely shot. words that come out of my mout are completely random ; nonsensicle...dropping into bed will be GOOD FEELNGI.. How long can you stay awake? This guy made it just over 5 days, and kept a journal. Randy Gardner holds the world record of 11 days, which he set as a high school student in 1964. On the fourth day he had a delusion that he was Paul Lowe winning the Rose Bowl, and that a street sign was a person. Previously: [1], [2]
posted by gottabefunky at 11:04 AM PST - 115 comments

Keepon and Roillo are two robots designed for non-verbal interaction with children. Keepon is shaped approximately like a snowman, with two cameras for eyes and a microphone for a nose. After one bar of music, he starts getting down in his robotic-type fashion. (two videos that need flash are the attraction here)
posted by mkb at 10:05 AM PST - 13 comments

Holy fucking shit. I mean, I've heard of people eating people before, but this is pretty gruesome. recipe
posted by baphomet at 9:59 AM PST - 57 comments

Nude Marathon! Psychotherapy traveled down a lot of strange paths in the 60s and early 70s, but perhaps none stranger than the naked group therapy sessions, some up to 48 hours long, supervised by Paul Bindrim. Bindrim's sessions were the subject of a documentary film and an unflattering, thinly fictionalized novel by Gwen Davis Mitchell. Bindrim sued Mitchell for libel. Can descriptions of a fictional character be libelous of a real person? Yes.
posted by escabeche at 9:27 AM PST - 13 comments

Cockeyed Absurdist - jonmc's 300 most favorite songs and why, including Iron Maiden, The Exciters, Neil Young (as a greaser), Captain Beefheart, Hanson, and of course, The Dictators.
posted by hellbient at 8:47 AM PST - 134 comments

"Welcome to the free episode-distribution portal for The Happiness Show; the world's first, and only, television program entirely about happiness." Why? We just might need a happiness pill.
posted by sluglicker at 8:46 AM PST - 1 comments

How about some Dhansak? Or maybe some Patra-ni-Machi? Is anyone in the mood for Chicken Farcha?? And to wash it down, how about a cool glass of Falooda with cream? Day before yesterday, was Navroze (Jamshed-e-Navroze), and the Zoroastrian community of Iran, along with the Parsis of India, gathered together at their Fire Temples to ring in the new year, with prayers and good wishes.
posted by hadjiboy at 8:42 AM PST - 10 comments

So everyone's already seen regrettable food over and over, but this chick makes, eats, and reviews it according to the original documentation.
posted by pieoverdone at 8:36 AM PST - 28 comments

The Bear's Pages - the 'Bear' being the legendary Augustus Owsley Stanley III, the 60s acid cook.
posted by daksya at 8:13 AM PST - 8 comments

Max Q, named after the aeronautical engineering term, is the only astronaut rock band (but not the only musical astronauts). Not to be confused with the barbershop quartet.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 8:11 AM PST - 7 comments

Punk Love “If you weren’t up for being a quarterback or going to a Fleetwood Mac concert, then this was your alternative." A collection of images from the D.C. punk scene of the early '80s, captured by Susie J. Horgans, with commentary from Fugazi's Ian MacKaye and (former Häagen-Dazs manager) Henry Rollins.
posted by grabbingsand at 8:07 AM PST - 27 comments

CBC documentary about the gay rights movement within Iran: Part One, Two, Three.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 7:10 AM PST - 4 comments

Twin Peaks season 2 DVD is almost here ... finally! That leaves precious few days to get prepared: bone up on cast and crew details, argue about theories, click your way through the townsfolk, obsess over every itty bitty blessed detail, buy a "best friends" necklace, keep the faith about the deleted scenes, see whether it makes any more sense in German than English, put a poster on your wall that will give you nightmares, explore the Lodges, watch very bad things happen to Jenna Elfman, walk with Coop through the Black Lodge (part 2), blow the rest of the day reading stuff. For the truly ambitious, book a room in scenic Snoqualmie and watch the entire series there.
posted by jbickers at 7:07 AM PST - 43 comments

Heaven's Gate Cult pre-Suicide Videos (via, wiki)
posted by bardic at 6:39 AM PST - 38 comments

You really shouldn't miss the snazzy ukulele stylings of the great Roy Smeck, strummer and showman extraordinaire, who was not only fast as greased lightning, but for whom the ukulele also occasionally functioned as a wind or percussion instrument. The man was indeed a wizard of the strings: just give him a slide and watch him lay down that Hawaiian sound. And as you'll see here, he was still going strong in his later years. [most links to YouTube]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:30 AM PST - 15 comments

Whether accidentally showboating, or by putting like-minded people in touch, the web is no stranger to online death. But now someone's taken it one tragic step further. The internet being what it is, I have no doubt this will end up on rotten.com or similar.
posted by essexjan at 5:28 AM PST - 30 comments

thank you mask man - lenny bruce 1971, animated, language nsfw, may offend the easily offended
posted by vronsky at 5:22 AM PST - 13 comments

"I thought, 'Why don't we just raid the place?' " --the newest and only currently viable way to check up on how the billions and billions we're spending on reconstruction in Iraq is being spent--fake raids by the US military, making it seem like the recipients aren't receiving aid from us, and in fact are being targeted by us.
posted by amberglow at 4:02 AM PST - 35 comments