Craig ("Who?") Ferguson at the White House Correspondents Dinner: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. (it's a Three-Link YouTube Post!) Not as pointed as Colbert but lots of funny and acouple moments of OMG. SOME JOKE SPOILERS WITHIN... [more inside]
posted by wendell at 10:47 PM PST - 33 comments

The real secret to producing superheroes (bollywood or otherwise) is to start them young, really YOUNG. (Link to single video)
posted by sk381 at 8:33 PM PST - 48 comments

Matt Taibbi goes undercover in one of pastor John Hagee's "Encounter" weekends. Yes, the Hagee who recently endorsed John McCain. Published in Rolling Stone, and a part of Taibbi's forthcoming book The Great Derangement.
posted by JHarris at 6:52 PM PST - 133 comments

Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni - Colossal Squid (caught here in MetaFilter most recently....). Another one, caught about a year ago off Antarctica, was put on ice.... It is being thawed and scheduled to be examined along with a Squidcam! [more inside]
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 6:43 PM PST - 37 comments

Two reporters, Stephen Bevan of The Sunday Telegraph and Barry Bearak of the New York Times, tell of their ordeal in Zimbabwe. They were arrested for the crime of “committing journalism,” imprisoned, and subsequently released.
posted by found missing at 5:28 PM PST - 20 comments

New Jersey high school student Matthew LaClair has been at the center of controversy before, challenging his U.S. History teacher for proselytizing in class. He's in the news again, bringing attention to conservative bias in his American history textbook. [more inside]
posted by LooseFilter at 2:51 PM PST - 123 comments

"Carrier is not the story of a ship, it’s the story of shipmates." The 10-part documentary series, filmed by 17 filmmakers, focuses on eighteen people during a six-month deployment overseas on the aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz. The series premieres tonight on PBS. Opening of Episode One [6:02] || Preview of The Series [26:47]. Crew interviews and other clips. [more inside]
posted by ericb at 11:47 AM PST - 62 comments

Many European cities have instituted bicycle sharing programs, with mixed success (Amsterdam, Lyon, Cambridge, Paris). Now that many of them have worked out the kinks (including vandalism and outright theft), cities in the US are taking notice. San Francisco (previously on MeFi), Portland, and New York are among the cities with plans in the works, but it looks like Washington D.C. will be the first when 120 red three-speed bicycles become available next month for members who pay an annual fee.
posted by tractorfeed at 11:30 AM PST - 76 comments

"Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation" (PDF). A recent article in Trends in Cognitive Sciences on the neuroscience of meditation, focusing on how meditation alters and sharpens the brain's attention systems. The research is being done at the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior (previously), who have also recently published research on the "Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation" (PDF), which describes how meditation can cultivate compassion by physically affecting brain regions that play a role in empathy. They shared this research with the Dalai Lama at the recent Seeds of Compassion forum.
posted by homunculus at 10:12 AM PST - 13 comments

The Sunday Times have published the 2008 edition of their annual Rich List. The full list of the 1000 wealthiest people in Britain is not online yet but they have published a list of the top 150 (pdf). So now you're richer than Croesus what do you spend your wealth on? [more inside]
posted by electricinca at 9:48 AM PST - 28 comments

Two visions of the ideal city rise in the Persian Gulf: "Waterfront City will probably be where a lot of Middle Eastern investors will put their money—and where international architectural stars will build their putative landmarks—but if little Masdar develops successfully, it may hold much more important lessons for us all."
posted by Non Prosequitur at 9:16 AM PST - 23 comments

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey has been posted (and double-posted) here before, but it's just been given a major upgrade that effectively turns it into a new site, with the addition of 100,000 new trial reports covering the period 1834 to 1913, and the full text of the Newgate Ordinary's Accounts reporting the confessions and last dying speeches of criminals sentenced to death. The thousands of human tragedies recorded in the trial reports (some famous, others forgotten) are fascinating and often deeply moving.
posted by verstegan at 6:06 AM PST - 9 comments

The Saluda Grade is the steepest standard-gauge mainline railway grade in the United States. Built by the Southern Railway, the Saluda Grade consists of a three-mile section of track that rises over 600 feet in elevation with a grade of 4.7% between the towns of Melrose and Saluda, North Carolina. Take a virtual flyover of the terrain with Google Earth, then ride along on the adjacent Hwy 176 in an Audi A3. When you get to the top, don't miss Coon Dog Day.
posted by netbros at 6:00 AM PST - 9 comments

Indian Superman sings and dances with Indian Spider-Woman. (SLYT) (Previously)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:51 AM PST - 24 comments

Awaydays Kevin Sampson is the manager of the band the Farm his first novel described as 'Catcher In The Rye' with Stanley knives is finally being transferred to celluloid sneek +
posted by motownoni at 3:19 AM PST - 10 comments

To Catch A Thief. How a Civil War buff's chance discovery led to a sting, a raid and a victory against traffickers in stolen historical documents. Related article: Pay Dirt in Montana. And photo gallery.
posted by amyms at 12:27 AM PST - 20 comments

Traditional pyrographic, or “woodburning” tools use electricity to heat a stylus or wire. Solar pyrography uses sunlight focused through a magnifying glass to burn an image on wood. Artists who have mastered this technique include Bud Hnetka and Jonathan Beartusk. Videos demonstrating the process include the creation of an Art Blakey image, and the unusual “Durfsun”.
posted by Tube at 12:18 AM PST - 16 comments