Paper Cuts tracks U.S. newspaper layoffs and buyouts. Roughly 24,000 jobs lost in 2008-09. It includes all newspaper jobs, from editor to ad rep, reporter to marketing, copy editor to pressman, design to carrier, and anyone else who works for a newspaper. Mapped papers that have closed or stopped publishing a print edition.
posted by netbros at 10:19 PM PST - 30 comments

The Singing Nerd is a guy who likes to write, play, and record songs about the things that he likes and then post music videos on Youtube. Most of these songs are about nerdy things, such as The Ballad of Catan, a song simply entitled Chess! and a song about Role Playing. But there's also songs about things we can all relate to, like Fast Food Commercials, A Trip To Las Vegas and... um... Pirates?. Hmmm. Anyway, check out the rest of his songs here.
posted by Effigy2000 at 9:35 PM PST - 7 comments

Voting for the Time 100, Time Magazine's list of the world's most influential people in government, science, technology and the arts, has taken a bizarre turn. Rather than the expected dance-off between Stephen Colbert and Korean pop star Rain, the top spot is currently occupied by moot, the owner and operator of 4chan. Hear Time's own take on it, and then, learn who hacked the vote.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 8:37 PM PST - 43 comments

Exploding Squirrels (but in a humane way), using the Rodenator Pro. In a related story, Rush Limbaugh learns a new word. Video.
posted by LeLiLo at 8:29 PM PST - 38 comments

Mere days after asserting his state's "sovereignty" from an "oppressive" Federal government, Governor Rick Perry stands before an angry crowd at Austin City Hall and announces that Texas may once again secede from the Union. "There's a lot of different scenarios," Perry said. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot." [more inside]
posted by Avenger at 7:05 PM PST - 321 comments

1) American Apparel uses stills from Annie Hall in an ad campaign. 2) Woody Allen sues American Apparel for $10M+. 3) American Apparel stays classy.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:14 PM PST - 118 comments

BigBrotherFilter: Estimates place the number of CCTV cameras in the UK at 4.2 million, but how can these images all possibly be watched? Researches in Turkey have an answer: an eye-gaze tracking system placed on the CCTV operators themselves which can "then automatically produces a summary of the CCTV video sequences they have missed during their shift". [more inside]
posted by tybeet at 4:14 PM PST - 32 comments

WE WANT OUR MONEY BACK BRITNEY SPEARS [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 4:08 PM PST - 69 comments

Daaaamn.
posted by xmutex at 2:14 PM PST - 83 comments

The spoken-word poetry (and music) of Sarah Kay: "B". "Hand Me Downs". "Not Just Another Math Problem". "Scaffolding". [more inside]
posted by dolca at 12:51 PM PST - 26 comments

Given recent economic woes, in conjunction with ecological, national security, and community issues regarding food production, does Japan have an interesting idea? [more inside]
posted by barrett caulk at 12:16 PM PST - 25 comments

Real-Life Mirror's Edge. (SLYT)
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:02 PM PST - 41 comments

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, one of the founders of queer theory, died on April 12th, 2009. Sedgwick was known not only for her groundbreaking academic publications, but also for her candid humanism. And surprisingly to some, she was married for 40 years to Hal Sedgwick, but they only saw each other on weekends.
posted by hpliferaft at 11:19 AM PST - 37 comments

Meet financial advisor Mike Morgan. He started an anti-Goldman Sachs website to examine "what part Goldman Sachs and their executives played in the current Global Economic Crisis." The investment bank and its lawyers told him to cease and desist. So Morgan sued Goldman (pdf). The response has been overwhelming. Morgan is now organizing volunteers to go after the other banksters. Want to help? There's a webinar scheduled tonight.
posted by up in the old hotel at 9:59 AM PST - 41 comments

A public television program about finding jobs. This isn't the expected roundtable of flabby retraining advice from consultants pimping their own firms. It's 30-second elevator pitches and happy landings. Read a news article about it. (via The Mediavore.)
posted by Mo Nickels at 9:59 AM PST - 3 comments

What's your NPR name? [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:52 AM PST - 280 comments

"Cochon 555 is a culinary event featuring 5 chefs, 5 pigs, and 5 winemakers in a friendly competition for a cause. Each chef will prepare a 70 pound heritage pig from head to toe for 200 enthusiasts." (flash site) [more inside]
posted by mkb at 9:11 AM PST - 18 comments

Kari Ferrell is on Salt Lake City's Most Wanted List. Apparently Ms. Ferrell has moved from Utah to New York and has been hanging out with the hipsters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Within the space of a half-hour, Ms. Ferrell was peppering him with questions about his sexual history—how many women he’d slept with and so on. “She was coming on to me, and I was super into it for the first part of it,” he said. “I realized I could have fun after work—but then I was like, ‘Let me check this girl out.’”
posted by R. Mutt at 8:56 AM PST - 147 comments

Child labor in Bangladesh
posted by Joe Beese at 8:51 AM PST - 28 comments

If the 8-bit Tarot isn't low-tech enough for you, the Aecletic Mini Tarot Deck makes it look downright HD in comparison! May induce flashbacks of Taboo: The Sixth Sense, the NES' infamous Tarot simulator.
posted by hermitosis at 7:55 AM PST - 19 comments

Theodore Gray, author of the new book Theo Gray's Mad Science, has a personal collection of thousands of samples of elements [previously on MetaFilter]. In his Popular Science column, he has smelted his own titanium and dissolved aluminum. Now, he cuts through steel with bacon.
posted by Eater at 6:48 AM PST - 31 comments

The Atlantic takes a look at the American Class System: a look at Paul Fussell's Class 25 years later. Of particular interest is the movement of Class 'X' from outside the system to the core of the status-obsessed center. [more inside]
posted by leotrotsky at 6:16 AM PST - 157 comments

20 years ago today, a crush of fans at the Leppings Lane entrance of Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough Stadium killed 96 people, among them the cousin of current Liverpool player Steven Gerrard (who has the dubious honour of being the youngest victim). Coming just 4 years after the Heysel stadium disaster, which killed 39 people and was officially blamed on Liverpool fans, and almost two decades of hooligan violence, the most obvious or convenient conclusion was that history had repeated itself. [more inside]
posted by MuffinMan at 5:25 AM PST - 66 comments

Dig out your old Singer sewing machines from the attic and sell them to somebody in Saudi Arabia for a fortune on account of the red mercury they contain. Red mercury allows nuclear bombs to be constructed without the need for plutonium [previously]. Red mercury came originally from Russia. Or from the Nazis. Red mercury was invented to lure terrorists in sting operations. It is a medicine for treating impotency. Red mercury will bring long life. It is cinnabar. It is mercury iodide. It is Lithium 6. It is a Bose Einstein Condensate. It is a ballotechnic mercury compound. It is a codeword. It's a game. It costs $300,000 per kilo.
posted by rongorongo at 3:48 AM PST - 46 comments

"What" ain't no rendering engine I ever heard of! They support CSS3 in "What"?!
posted by slater at 12:58 AM PST - 37 comments