The Ifth of Oofth [PDF, 8 pages]
posted by JeffL at 10:08 PM PST - 37 comments

Chai Why? The Triumph of Tea in India : "But whereas I initially supposed tea-drinking to be as Indian, and perhaps as old, as the Vedas, I have come to know that it is, in the longue durée of Indian history, a very recent development; one that (in many parts of the country) did not much precede my first visit, or that even followed it."
posted by dhruva at 8:42 PM PST - 21 comments

Life as a Comic is series of short videos by Rob Paravonian (famous for The Pachelbel Rant) about what it's like to be a working stand-up comic. It has recently started up again after a long break. Here's the first episode which is about doing gigs at venues which aren't full-time comedy clubs. Direct links to the rest of the episodes, all of which are in quicktime-format, below the cut. [more inside]
posted by Kattullus at 8:27 PM PST - 14 comments

In 2007, Macleans reported that the oversupply of education graduates was contributing to the teaching job shortage in Ontario. What has been to rectify the situation? Not much, according to new reports that "Retired teachers working in 10 [Ontario] school boards [...] collected $108.3-million in the 2008-09 school year from taxpayers on top of their government-subsidized pensions, taking advantage of a system rife with loopholes that leaves new teachers scrambling for crumbs." [more inside]
posted by gursky at 7:31 PM PST - 35 comments

When Raymond Dunn, Jr. was born in 1975, he had a fractured skull, an undersized brain, and severe developmental disabilities due to a lack of oxygen. He was not expected to survive his first year. [more inside]
posted by toodleydoodley at 6:45 PM PST - 63 comments

Ron Turner (1922 to December 1998) was an artist and author from the UK, with a extensive list of credits. He script, letter and created the artwork for a number of series, though that proved to be too much for the quick turn-around time required for publishing. He excelled when he could focus on the artwork, as seen with Rick Random, who first appeared as part of Super Detective Library in the 1950s. "The first detective of the space age" returned in the late 70s with 2000 AD. Ten story arcs from the 1950s and 60s were collected in quite a tome, featuring new cover art. Though Turner was well known for his pulp Sci-Fi artwork that graced comic and book covers, he only produced two covers for Super Detective Library, and neither were suitable for a Rick Random compendium.
posted by filthy light thief at 5:12 PM PST - 4 comments

A 1989 NYU student film (shot by Judah Friedlander) asks "Who is Chris Rock?" (via)
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:10 PM PST - 17 comments

Bad credit or no credit? No Problem! Are you on welfare? Social Security? No Problem! You have to see the Special Man!
posted by grapefoot at 5:09 PM PST - 23 comments

Flickr user CaseFace123 asked people to make a sign expressing their thoughts feminism and then pose with it. Some are inspired, some are upset, some are confused, and others run the gamut. (via feministing)
posted by revmitcz at 4:56 PM PST - 56 comments

"All the greatest hits from the past 40 years use the same four chords." From Australian comedy group Axis Of Awesome. [more inside]
posted by Rory Marinich at 4:11 PM PST - 91 comments

Jason Rohrer's Sleep is Death (discussed previously) has been awake since Friday, and one thing is certain: This is not a game. It's improv theatre. And though it costs $14 to participate, sitting in the audience is free.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 3:37 PM PST - 12 comments

Pedal Pumping Porno (Both sort of / not really / but kind of NSFW)
posted by zarq at 1:51 PM PST - 40 comments

There are mysterious noises in the sea. NOAA has six unidentified underwater sounds (and their kinda creepy spectrographs) on their website, recorded by the sonar arrays that used to hunt submarines, but which are now are used for research. The most famous of these is The Bloop, a sound of seemingly biological origin, yet many times louder than the loudest biolocial noise. With an origin in an empty stretch of the the Pacific Ocean, it gives Cthulhu watchers something to think about. Another once-mysterious sound, The Boing has been identified as coming from minke whales. Yet the sounds known as Slow Down, Julia, Train, and others remain intriguing mysteries. [prev.]
posted by blahblahblah at 1:51 PM PST - 40 comments

"I found a small print of Whistler's painting, Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother, at a neighborhood garage sale. The same weekend, I found a leopard coat and hat, a 1950s cat painting, and what looked like the exact chair from Whistler's painting." Photographer Aline Smithson's series of portraits of her 85-year-old mother.
posted by doift at 1:21 PM PST - 9 comments

Wildlife photographer mauled by African lion, with pictures recovered from the body. Of course, this is not exactly what it seems, and there are other pictures as well.
posted by davejay at 1:06 PM PST - 21 comments

The Cooperative Correspondence Club started in the 1920s as a postal version of an internet forum - members, all mothers from across the UK, wrote articles about their life - motherhood, husbands, the war and health - until the 1990s. Contributing under pseudonyms, they felt able to discuss topics that were then taboo, and recruited Jewish and working-class members in order to better understand the experiences of women from all walks of life. [more inside]
posted by mippy at 12:08 PM PST - 10 comments

Dede Allen, editor of such films as Bonnie and Clyde, Dog Day Afternoon and Night Moves has died at the age of 86.
posted by brundlefly at 11:41 AM PST - 22 comments

They Fled from Our War. "Among the many consequences of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the plight of millions of Iraqi refugees is seldom mentioned. The stories of such people as Burhan Abdulnour, whom we met in Sweden in 2008, have hardly been told."
posted by homunculus at 11:11 AM PST - 11 comments

So You Need a Typeface? [more inside]
posted by cowbellemoo at 10:20 AM PST - 37 comments

Sure, guys, that’s totally based on an elephant’s trunk, and not from an overwhelming desire to have the greatest Comicon outfit ever.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:00 AM PST - 20 comments

Carl Macek, who created Robotech, brought Akira to America and was a co-founder of Spumco, passed away this Saturday.
posted by Artw at 9:51 AM PST - 53 comments

What appears to be a next generation iPhone was found in a Redwood City, CA bar. Gizmodo get their hands on it. Oh my.
posted by hollisimo at 9:35 AM PST - 353 comments

Atomic Test Archive. Histories of atomic testing by country, with video and photographic archives. The Information Films page is interesting: One can envision 50's dad smugly admiring his tidy yard through freshly vapourised retinas. Also: the one-hour declassified Ivy Mike film at the internet archive.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:20 AM PST - 8 comments

An archive of (nearly) every 120 Minutes (and its successor Subterranean) playlist. The 120 Minutes archive includes playlists for 585 episodes of MTV's seminal alternative rock show and its successor, Subterranean, spanning 1986-2007. The archive includes links to video search for each track played, interviews with those behind the program, a history of its development and demise, and the full video of the series finale. Looking at some of the early episodes, should be enough to crush you under a wave of nostalgia and longing for the days when MTV was what it says on the tin.
posted by CharlesV42 at 6:56 AM PST - 50 comments

Hey Guys! A collection of greetings from Youtube "beauty gurus".
posted by fpatrick at 6:00 AM PST - 69 comments

In 1966, Motown songwriters Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield wrote a song about Strong's relationship troubles, and Smokey Robinson & The Miracles recorded it. Motown CEO Berry Gordy thought the song was "horrible" and shelved it. The song was "I Heard it Through The Grapevine." [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha at 5:56 AM PST - 41 comments

"Make no mistake, if the Liberal Democrats actually won the election – or held the balance of power – it would be the first time in decades that Murdoch was locked out of British politics." - David Yelland, former editor of Rupert Murdoch's The Sun, writes in The Guardian. [more inside]
posted by memebake at 5:46 AM PST - 63 comments

The Victorian Dictionary: A motley collection of primary source documents and reference materials about Victorian London by historical thriller author Lee Jackson. Read the 1841 Census, browse peroid advertisements, zoom in on the 1881 Pocket Guide to London or just learn some dirty words.
posted by The Whelk at 5:35 AM PST - 17 comments

The professor, his wife, and the secret, savage book reviews on Amazon 'An extraordinary literary "whodunnit" over the identity of a mystery reviewer who savaged works by some of Britain's leading academics on the Amazon website has culminated in a top historian admitting that the culprit was, in fact, his wife.'
posted by Abiezer at 5:05 AM PST - 52 comments

The 50 best author vs. author put-downs of all time.
posted by The Mouthchew at 4:35 AM PST - 89 comments

Wacky Races ran on CBS from September 14, 1968 to January 4, 1969 The cartoon was unusual in the large number of regular characters, twenty-four in total: the twenty-three people and animals spread among the 11 race cars, plus the unseen (and never identified) race announcer. Another unusual feature of the series is that the stars of the show are the villains as opposed to the heroes. Whizzin' To Washington (Pt. 1, Pt. 2), Real Gone Ape (Pt. 1, Pt. 2), Idaho a Go Go (Pt. 1, Pt. 2).
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:54 AM PST - 37 comments