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The Angora rabbit project was an SS-administered program to breed rabbits for their soft, warm fur, one use of which was to line the jackets of Luftwaffe pilots. The rabbits were raised in luxury not far from the maltreated prisoners in 31 Nazi concentration camps in Germany, including Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau. Here is a photograph of the hutches taken by Lee Miller.
posted by tellurian at 11:31 PM PST - 31 comments

In 1977 Chris Haynes, a set decorator for The Six Million Dollar Man was setting up a scene to be filmed on location in the spookhouse ride of a Long Beach, CA amusement park called The Pike. While moving the various interior props around, Haynes discovered that the paper mache "mummy" hanging in the corner of the ride was in fact a homicide victim, a fact that had gone unnoticed by years of amusement park visitors. The story of how Elmer McCurdy's body was shot to death in 1911, only to be re-discovered & buried over six decades later, makes for an interesting read.
posted by jonson at 10:41 PM PST - 26 comments

Houston man kills, then cooks ex-girlfriend on his patio barbecue. Neighbors called authorities when they realized Timothy Wayne Shepard had been acting strange and had spent 48 hours straight barbecuing on two separate grills. Also starring one of Houston's most colorful characters, Quanell X.
posted by Brittanie at 9:45 PM PST - 54 comments

Muckraking just ain't what it used to be. The term was first coined by T. Roosevelt in 1906. The practice has gained and lost favor over the ensuing decades. Corporations have been fighting back, suing investigative reporters (or their "producers") and winning damages. Now "Prime time exposes" are mostly about citizen on citizen crime and entrapping catching pedophiles on the prowl. This only comes to mind because I'm currently reading Theodore Rex and following the ebb and flow of his fight with combinations and trusts, and because a local reporter was arrested while 'investigating security' at area maternity wards, presumably for her signature segment of investigative journalism, "Does It Work?"
posted by lysdexic at 8:20 PM PST - 13 comments

"Guantanamo Unclassified." Adel Hamad, a 48-year-old Sudanese elementary-school teacher, has been held at Guantanamo for five years without charge or evidence of a crime. His lawyers have been unable to convince a federal court to review his case, so they started started Project Hamad and posted a short movie about him online. This is an example of how human rights activists can use YouTube to bring their cases to the public.
posted by homunculus at 7:26 PM PST - 40 comments

What makes a great photo ? - fascinating discussion from the conscientious fine art photography blog - Digg doesn't.
posted by sgt.serenity at 6:30 PM PST - 25 comments

“The thing about the Kraut and me is that we have been in love since 1934, when we first met on the Île de France, but we’ve never been to bed. Amazing but true. Victims of unsynchronized passion.” Author Ernest Hemingway and actress Marlene Dietrich met while traveling across the Atlantic. Their friendship lasted until the Nobel Prize-winning author's death in 1961. In 2003, the JFK library received a donation from Marlene Dietrich's daughter of 30 letters, cards, and other documents that had been written to her mother by the author. Hemingway's estate had already donated 31 letters from Dietrich. These letters have now been unsealed and are set to go on view.
posted by miss lynnster at 4:45 PM PST - 24 comments

Super Amigos is a new documentary about five masked wrestlers from Mexico City who fight for social justice. Featuring Fray Tormenta, the luchador/priest who was the inspiration for Nacho Libre; indefatigable community organizer Super Barrio; environmental activist Ecologista Universal; homophobia smasher Super Gay; and the matador's arch-nemesis, Super Animal. And they aren't the only ones--El Hijo de Santo is fighting for the sea turtles.
posted by hydrophonic at 4:37 PM PST - 14 comments

Hometown Baghdad Web documentary series about the life of 20 somethings living in Baghdad - an interesting addition to the list of more famous web threads on life in Baghdad.
posted by specialk420 at 3:19 PM PST - 4 comments

Timeshapes: The wooden clocks of Jim Borden. Suspended clocks. Table clocks. Wall clocks. His 30-foot clock. The clock making process. He's even listed in the Online Movement Catalog.
posted by OmieWise at 12:25 PM PST - 11 comments

Here is a nice site about dinosaurs and biscuits. Don't miss their answer to the age-old Jaffa cake controversy!
posted by thirteenkiller at 11:49 AM PST - 26 comments

The Karuna Group and the LTTE Continue Abducting and Recruiting Children. "When government troops at a military base look across the street at children standing guard at a Karuna office and do nothing, it’s hard to believe the government is taking any meaningful steps to end this abuse."
posted by chunking express at 11:13 AM PST - 7 comments

Council of Elrond You have stumbled upon one of the largest resource sites on the web offering a variety of unique features based on the creative works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
posted by konolia at 11:12 AM PST - 11 comments

IPR: Irrational Public Radio "We love NPR, PRI, & MPR. We are fans of All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Car Talk, This American Life, Fresh Air, and Prarie Home Companion. We like the commentaries, the features, the independent member station programs. We love them all dearly. But we also think they're begging to be made fun of. So here we are."
posted by jdroth at 11:06 AM PST - 31 comments

Punitive shoes, chopines, namakshin and kabkabs, sabots, lotus shoes, all over the world, weird and strange contemporary styles. [previously]
posted by nickyskye at 10:14 AM PST - 19 comments

Comedy duo, Ramenz (ラーメンズ), aka Kobayashi Kentaro and Katagiri Jin, also known as the Japanese versions of Mac and PC, have recently done a number of shorts collectively called "The Japanese Tradition." Apparently, these tongue-in-cheek pseudo-instructional vids about famous aspects of Japanese culture (Tea, Chopsticks, Sushi, Origami, Apology, Onigiri, and Relationships) have been fooling a lot of non-natives into thinking they are actual guides. (YouTube, each approx 4-6 min).
posted by ikahime at 9:30 AM PST - 35 comments

INTERVOICE (International Network for Training, Education and Research into Hearing Voices) "offers information, publications, research, and good practice on hearing voices and other key issues." Voice hearing is surprisingly common, even normal. Many people find it a pleasurable and positive experience. Find everything from stencil graffiti to a recent New York Times magazine article on the work of the Hearing Voices Movement. (w i k i s)
posted by srs at 8:33 AM PST - 20 comments

"A year ago my approval rating was in the 30s, my nominee for the Supreme Court had just withdrawn, and my vice-president had shot someone. Ah, those were the good ol' days." Attendees at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner had some special entertainment, courtesy the President and MC Rove (YouTube, 4 minutes).
posted by textilephile at 8:13 AM PST - 136 comments

For the first time, researchers have used adult bone marrow stem cells to regenerate healthy human liver tissue, according to a study published in the April issue of the journal Radiology.
posted by jason's_planet at 7:58 AM PST - 20 comments

Long Wharf in Boston and European route E5 are now stops on convenient routes for anyone looking to save a little money on airfare. Whether you're heading from Newfoundland to England or Moscow to Alaska, Google Maps recommends these places as (literal) jumping-off points. Just remember to pack your goggles.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 7:51 AM PST - 13 comments

We lived a secret life, imagining a world where strange bands would give Canada the bold, expressive sound that it deserved. On the eve of the Rheostatics' final concert in Toronto, Dave Bidini pens a great essay, about where the band came from and how it all went so wrong.
posted by Flashman at 7:37 AM PST - 30 comments

Charles Peterson Photography [Flash site]. You might recognize Charles's work from the grunge era. His photos of Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Nirvana and were an essential visual accompaniment to the noisy, grinding soundtrack of that era. Charles has moved well past the energetic black and white photos of that earlier period [previously] onto something much different.
posted by psmealey at 5:08 AM PST - 13 comments

Each week, David Warsh publishes a new essay about the principals of economics. Previous topics have included rock 'n' roll economics, print journalism, and game theory. He sets his task and carries it out, and he's been at it for more than five years now.
posted by cgc373 at 1:15 AM PST - 9 comments