March 27, 2011

Picking up condiments, how does it work?

Have you ever looked at a goopy mess of ketchup and mustard and though, "I wish I could somehow pick this up with perfect precision and transfer it to some other surface?" Well, now you can*! [more inside]
posted by kmz at 11:18 PM PST - 76 comments

A difficult business

Just before intermission, Cowie took the stage and began juggling a ball with her feet until suddenly she popped it in the air, swished her right foot around the ball twice, kicked it up again, then rotated her left foot around once without letting the ball touch the floor. She bent her right foot back behind her body and caught the ball on the sole of her shoe. “I could feel the excitement building in the auditorium,” she recalled. “I could hear the oohs and the aahs. I could sense the shock.” ¶ For her finale, Cowie lay on her back and juggled the ball over her head with her feet. As they applauded, Green Hope students turned to their friends with the same question: Who is she?
The New York Times Magazine profiles soccer freestyling star Indi Cowie. Photos of a few tricks. Video includes demonstrations.
posted by grouse at 9:47 PM PST - 20 comments

Burgers. Juicy, Juicy Burgers.

Linda's dad is not an adventurous eater. Linda's dad likes hamburgers. All-American juicy hamburgers. Linda doesn't want to cook the same thing for her dad every night. So, Linda decides to introduce her dad to new foods through inventing a NEW hamburger recipe for every country in the world. 192 United Nations recognized countries. Using ingredients inspired by the cuisine of each country but relatively available in most U.S. grocery stores. Enter...the hearty Australian. The piquant Azerbaijan. The sweet and spicy Afghanistan. Each recipe invented for and tested out on Linda's dad. [more inside]
posted by jeanmari at 9:14 PM PST - 153 comments

Cole to Left: "Learn to walk & chew gum at the same time."

"The United Nations-authorized intervention in Libya has pitched ethical issues of the highest importance, and has split progressives in unfortunate ways. I hope we can have a calm and civilized discussion of the rights and wrongs here." Professor Juan Cole of the University of Michigan writes An Open Letter to the Left on Libya.
posted by dvorak_beats_qwerty at 8:01 PM PST - 255 comments

Fuck This, I'm Selling The Annandale

Sydney's live music scene faces another crisis with the announcement that the iconic Annandale Hotel will be sold. The pub is one of the centres of Sydney live music and has played host to everyone from small local bands to Joan Jett. The selling follows the closure of the Hopetoun Hotel in 2009 and the recent loss of Raval and the Excelsior Surry Hills. In Melbourne last year the closure of the Tote Hotel lead to the 20,000 strong Slam Rally and an overhaul of planning laws. Nothing similar is planned for Sydney yet. In the meantime, you can realize your Australian live music memories with the videos at Moschcam.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 7:50 PM PST - 37 comments

Lois Lane, Girl Reporter

Lois Lane, Girl Reporter - an awesome proposal for a series of YA books that didn't happen.
posted by Artw at 6:34 PM PST - 46 comments

Simulacra

bloom.io develops "pop-cultural instruments for data expression": Fizz takes your Facebook or Twitter connections and shows growth and changes to your social ecosystem. Cartagram places geo-located photos from Instagram on the surface of the planet. Newsmap (Flash required) draws Google News sources from different countries and visually treemaps them. The developer of Newsmap, Marcos Weskamp, also wrote the Etsy geolocator and Flipboard, a personalised social magazine for iPad. [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 5:15 PM PST - 9 comments

"having the knowledge will help them, if at some point they have to use the moving ice."

"A group of Inuit experts, community researchers, and university researchers, have worked together over the past several years to document specialized Inuit knowledge about sea ice." [more inside]
posted by jessamyn at 3:04 PM PST - 29 comments

Being bi, I personally don't see what the problem is, but you know, different strokes and all that, eh?

How To Make Love To A Trans Person by Gabe Moses
posted by Ardiril at 11:18 AM PST - 127 comments

Roly-Poly Rabbits

Biggest Rabbit was "Roly-Poly." The remains of a 26 pound prehistoric rabbit were found on an island believed to have been without predators, accounting for their size. "He was probably on an evolutionary vacation," said Brian Kraatz, an expert in rabbit evolution, like an "islander beach bum."
posted by zizzle at 11:17 AM PST - 33 comments

Anthony Jeselnik

Dane Cook Impression by Anthony Jeselnik
posted by puny human at 10:04 AM PST - 67 comments

"We believe as much in the purity of races as we think they do."

"Among the Hagiographers": The Wall Street Journal's review of a new biography questions our supposed deification of Mohandas Gandhi.
posted by beisny at 9:42 AM PST - 94 comments

Reaching for the stars

The Women@NASA website was developed to encourage more young women to pursue careers in math, science, and technology. Through a collection of videos and articles, the Women@NASA project shares the stories of 32 women across the agency who contribute to NASA’s mission in many ways.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:30 AM PST - 31 comments

Games and resources from museums for children

Show Me is a site collecting games and resources for children from UK museums. [more inside]
posted by paduasoy at 8:33 AM PST - 6 comments

The first thing I see in a man is the woman by his side

Natalie Barney was a muse for her age. A chance encounter with Oscar Wilde when only six years old ( she would later have an affair with his niece Dolly) helped change her outlook on life.
She moved to Paris and in 1909 started her famed salon at Rue 20 Jacob, with its Temple de l'Amitié (Fr.) sometimes called the Sapphic centre of the Western World and which ran for 60 years.
This was where Ezra Pound met Olga Rudge. Although polyamorous Natalie had a 50 year relationship with Romaine Brooks.
In 1927 she started an Académie des Femmes (Women's Academy) to honor women writers. The cast of females involved in Natalie Barney’s Fridays is vast and includes: Sylvia Beach, Djuna Barnes, Mina Loy, Colette, Nancy Cunard, Janet Flanner, Radclyff Hall, Hadine Hwang, Zita Jungman, Marie Laurencin, Toupie Lowther, Liane de Pougy, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Renee Vivien, and Virginia Wolff.
Here are a couple of brief interviews with her biographer; and some photos.
In 2009 Dayton got around to honoring her but by July 2010 the marker had been vandalized.
posted by adamvasco at 8:05 AM PST - 13 comments

(;,;)

6 ways to turn Cthulhu into an emoticon. How to pronounce "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" via The Lovecraftsman A contemporary blog about HP Lovecraft, Cthulhu, the Necronomicon, Miskatonic University, Arkham, R'lyeh, The Book of Eibon, Yog-Sothoth, De Vermis Mysteriis, & other unspeakable things...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:30 AM PST - 105 comments

Mo Ibrahim: Entrepreneur, Visionary, Philanthropist

Mo Ibrahim (wikipedia) is a Sudanese-born billionaire with opinions and goals for modern Africa. A recent New Yorker article profiled him. Earning his Ph.D. in electrical engineering and subsequent employment in telecom led him to found Celtel, the wildly successful(LGT PPT file) corporation that brought the mobile telephone revolution to Africa, despite a corporation-wide refusal to participate in the rampant corruption and bribery seemingly required at the time (~9:30 in this interview). He eventually sold Celtel to MTC Kuwait, which allowed him to focus on other pursuits, namely further development and investment within Africa. [more inside]
posted by knile at 6:24 AM PST - 15 comments

yes, RLY!!! (a 28LYT)

"The Life of Reilly" the film of Charles Nelson Reilly's autobiographical one-man show (no Match Game stories) is on Youtube in its entirety, in 28 bite-sized (approx. 3 min. each) pieces.
Opening, "I Thought You Were Dead", The Bronx, mom and dad, Puppets and Stickball, "Save It For The Stage", "You can't be in the play!", An actor was born, Dad and Disney, The State of Regret, aunt and uncle, an Ingmar Bergman adolescence, What Mrs. Treski told him, "I hope it burns to the ground!", from usher to actor, "Do you remember...", Uta Hagen's Class (and his classmates), the Hal Holbrook story, "they don't let queers on television", Off Broadway, Kate Treski and Molly Picon, a family Christmas tradition, dad and mom and Miss Marion, 56 times on TV this week, Shakespeare with Johnny, Burt Reynolds' father, "thank my mother", on teaching Acting, Epilogue: A Pelican. You will laugh, you will cry, you will [BLANK], you will see he really was as awesome as Weird Al says. (via)
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:06 AM PST - 36 comments

Gonzovision

Fear and Loathing on the Road to Hollywood is a largely forgotten documentary about Hunter S. Thompson (previously).
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:07 AM PST - 28 comments

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