May 3, 2013

Dan Bull captures what many autistics feel in lyrical form

Many autistics have trouble putting what they feel into words: Not Dan Bull. He puts it into words, sets it to music and raps it. [more inside]
posted by Canageek at 10:12 PM PST - 25 comments

"All of them Frank. "

An underappreciated gem, from a Hollywood icon. and a very sweet Britcom from 1936, when he was still Archie.
posted by timsteil at 8:59 PM PST - 9 comments

"a watchful eye on technology and marketing"

Back in the day, Ken Segall helped create Apple's Think Different campaign and helped name the iMac. More recently he worked on JC Penney's Yours Truly, commercial, before JCP ousted Ron Johnson as its CEO. He writes a sharp, entertaining blog called Ken Segall's Observatory, where he offers opinions on advertising and design geekery. His take on Ron Johnson's failure is interesting, as is this post on what it takes for an advertisement to stand out in a crowd. He calls attention to surprisingly decent ads from Microsoft and Dell, critiques terrible ads (from Microsoft and JC Penney and even Apple, and comments on whether skeuomorphism has its advantages. He's also fond of discussing product names. Give this one a skip if advertising gives you hives, but for those of you who're interested in things like this Segall's blog is especially choice stuff.
posted by Rory Marinich at 8:01 PM PST - 26 comments

Deep Inside the Biggest Little Dildo Factory in America

"While most of the industry’s manufacturing takes place in China, Doc Johnson is doing its patriotic duty, one giant rubber penis at a time." [NSFW because dildos.]
posted by ocherdraco at 6:38 PM PST - 143 comments

Saving the planet, one bag of Doritos at a time.

Getting your groceries delivered might be greener than driving to the store. In a University of Washington study, delivery vs. driving reduced CO2 emissions by half. Where's Webvan when you need it?
posted by overleaf at 5:40 PM PST - 83 comments

What determines which New York Times headlines are italicized?

"There isn’t a style book for this stuff," Tom Bodkin, design director of the Times explains. "There’s no consistency."
posted by larrybob at 5:28 PM PST - 9 comments

George Gershwin meets Freddie Mercury and Co.

Bohemian Rhapsody/Rhapsody in Blue mash-up done by a pretty good piano player.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 5:03 PM PST - 12 comments

“Our food is only as brown as we want it to be.”

Filipino food writer Clinton Palanca on the least celebrated Asian culinary tradition, the glory of gloop, and the sadness of being so neglected that there aren't any "bastardized versions of adobo and sinigang" in cookbooks. "The Philippines may have never had, or will never have, a national cuisine, but it has always been an international cuisine. We’ve always looked outwards; what we’re upset about is that the outside isn’t looking back at us."
posted by spamandkimchi at 4:06 PM PST - 57 comments

Not your usual school rocket project

In April 1961, the Haigazian College Rocket Society, a group of students at the Lebanese-Armenian Haigazian University in Beirut, led by 25-year old math teacher Manoug Manougian (interview [Part 1][Part 2][Part 3]), built and launched the first rocket made in the Middle East, a few months before Israel. From 1961 to 1966, the group, now called the Lebanese Rocket Society and assisted by the Lebanese military, launched several multi-stage solid fuel rockets named Cedar 1 to Cedar 8 (Reuters). Lebanon's contribution to the Space Race (or surface-to-surface missile development) ended in 1966, seemingly for political reasons. This story is the subject of a documentary + installation by Lebanese artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige.
posted by elgilito at 2:49 PM PST - 1 comments

Next Gen Cat Poop

"Remember kids, whenever you get frustrated at the state of the art, or you find yourself struggling to express yourself, just repeat after me: FUCK. VIDEOGAMES." Darius Kazemi (previously,previously and previously) writes about the use and abuse of video games as a means of expression.
posted by codacorolla at 2:48 PM PST - 25 comments

Why I Study Duck Genitalia

In the past few days, the Internet has been filled with commentary on whether the National Science Foundation should have paid for my study on duck genitalia, and 88.7 percent of respondents to a Fox news online poll agreed that studying duck genitalia is wasteful government spending. The commentary supporting and decrying the study continues to grow. As the lead investigator in this research, I would like to weigh in on the controversy and offer some insights into the process of research funding by the NSF.
Come for the passionate defense of basic science, stay for the explosive eversion of a duck penis.
[more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 2:28 PM PST - 33 comments

The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment

The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, an outgrowth of Oregon's 2008 lottery to allocate Medicaid slots to eligible residents, has released their second year of results (Previous discussions on the lottery and the experiment). The gist of the results are that they found statisitically significant reductions in catastrophic health care expenditures, improvements in the incidences of depression, and increased use of health care services. They found minimal (and not statistically significant) improvements in the rates of physical health indicators (diabetes and hypertension) they tracked. Because of ethical concerns, there are no other randomized controlled tests on this scale that study the effects of Medicaid and few on the effects of health insurance in general (the only significant one being a RAND study released 30 years ago). Because of the small amount of information available on the topic and the impending Medicaid expansion offered by Affordable Care Act, this study has drawn a lot of attention from political commentators. This will presumably be the last year these results will be published, as the state of Oregon was able to find extra money in 2010 in order cover the rest of its Medicaid-eligible population. [more inside]
posted by Weebot at 1:49 PM PST - 20 comments

a kind of vortex or portal through which I could actually show this

Wildcat, a collaboration between filmmaker Kahlil Joseph and prolific musician Flying Lotus, explores the "little-known African-American rodeo subculture," in Grayson, Oklahoma. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:43 AM PST - 6 comments

Death from above

Watch Dora the falcon take out a duck- in midair.
posted by pjern at 11:37 AM PST - 59 comments

UK Shires only Local Election Results

Local Elections in the Shires of England took place yesterday. With the results now counted, the gruaniad's panel of Simon Jenkins, Jonathan Freedland, Polly Toynbee and John Harris review the results.
David Cameron : "pledges 'to work hard to win back' voters", and (on UKIP) : 'No good insulting party people have chosen'.
Nigel Farage (UKIP): "a 'game changer'".
David Milliband : "pleased with local election results."
Prior to the election :The gruaniad speculated.
posted by marienbad at 11:22 AM PST - 54 comments

Red Rover, Red Rover, Please Send the Red Wolf on Over

The Red Wolf Recovery Program is the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's attempt to save the Red Wolf from extinction. Once the apex hunter of most of the Southeastern United States, now only 100 to 120 red wolves remain in the wild, and as of March 14, 4 wolves are known to have been killed(PDF) so far this year. [more inside]
posted by Atreides at 11:19 AM PST - 6 comments

The other side of Russian dashcams

Russian dashcam videos tend to focus on the violent and bizarre. Here's a compilation that highlights more of a sense of community.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 11:11 AM PST - 67 comments

"Violence gives weight to the meaningless."

Falling Men: On Don DeLillo And Terror
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:51 AM PST - 10 comments

Back to the source

Many of you are perhaps familiar with the berimbau, a musical bow with a calabash resonator, best known as an instrument for accompanying the Brazilian dance/martial art known as capoeira. But the roots of the instrument lie, as you might guess, in Africa. Still, it's not often we get a chance to hear the original African version of the instrument being played. This video, though, in which one Chris Haambwiila of Zambia conjures up an intricate, bewitching groove, is one that will be of interest to those who enjoy elemental and unadulterated human rhythmic expression. And the two little boys getting down to the sound will win your heart, for sure.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:45 AM PST - 24 comments

Blelvis

Let Blelvis, the Black Elvis, tell you what he is not doing. He is not begging, and he is not homeless. But Blelvis would never dream of denying you the opportunity to donate to his favorite charity, which, incidentally, is named Blelvis. So he'll just turn around, nice and discreet, while you see what you can spare. The best nation in the world is a do nation, and that's the truth.
posted by josher71 at 9:36 AM PST - 18 comments

'It started with hair.'

Artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg uses the DNA found on things like discarded chewing gum and cigarette butts to recreate the faces of the people who left them behind.
posted by Chutzler at 9:00 AM PST - 59 comments

Can you brown this up for me?

Josh Way's MST3k/Rifftracks-esque series FUN WITH SHORTS (previously) returns after a long haitus with the businessman filmstrip PROMOTION BY-PASS and the utterly bizarre stop-motion cartoon MUNCHERS
posted by The Whelk at 8:43 AM PST - 6 comments

How Censorship in China Silences Collective Action

How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression Researchers at Harvard University (Gary King, Jennifer Pan, and Margaret Roberts) have conducted the first large scale analysis of internet censorship in China. Their findings? Criticism of the state is not censored. What is censored, however, are any comments that support collective action or social mobilization. [more inside]
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 8:38 AM PST - 24 comments

Rocket to Venus (because Mars was too far, and the Moon was burnt out)

In 1928, the Ohio-born inventor Robert Condit wanted to make a pioneering flight like Charles Lindberg the year before. But instead of traveling around a portion of the earth, he wanted to leave it entirely. Destination: Venus. Condit had built a rocket of sorts, and planned to launch from Florida in March, but postponed due to imperfect atmospheric conditions. Between then and August, he made his way to Baltmore, where he worked with the brothers Sterling and Harry B. Uhler to make or modify his space craft. Harry remembered their efforts well, recounting the events leading up to an actual attempt to launch the craft (PDF with photos), made of varnished sailcloth, wrapped around a structure of angle iron ribs, bolted into shape. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:31 AM PST - 26 comments

We will create and destroy ten art movements in ten years

Groundbreaking vocalist and producer Janelle Monae pays tribute to Qui Etes-Vous Polly Maggoo? in her latest video, "Q.U.E.E.N."
posted by pxe2000 at 7:45 AM PST - 104 comments

Basically, treat it like you just caught a zombie.

New York City officials are asking visitors to Central Park's Harlem Meer to beware of the northern snakehead fish, a predator common in the rivers and lakes of Asia but considered an invasive species in American waters, which had been spotted. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:39 AM PST - 45 comments

Two Chips. Based on a true story.

Adam Patch recorded his tipsy wife telling a joke then created a charming animation.
posted by I'm Doing the Dishes at 6:42 AM PST - 27 comments

Harry, my cat died

So many Directioners - the fans of non-threatening boyband One Direction - liked to tell their idols about the deaths of grandparents, pets or dreams that it spawned a Twitter account dedicated to cataloguing the strange things fans say. It's a far cry from the communications between star and fan twenty years before.
posted by mippy at 6:21 AM PST - 15 comments

Escherian Stairwell

Take a tour of RIT's Escherian Stairwell, an architectural puzzle that has confounded students and visitors for years. [more inside]
posted by fontophilic at 5:44 AM PST - 22 comments

Persuading the inner schweinhund to take a couple days off from the war

One of the stranger methods used in World War II to undermine nazi morale was to get enemy workers and soldiers to pull a sickie. One way to do this was to simulate tuberculosis, which had its challenges. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 4:03 AM PST - 13 comments

This actually happened.

Brief disturbance earlier at 5th and Jackson between superheroes and clowns. Everything's under control.
posted by empath at 3:47 AM PST - 35 comments

And so the World New Chess Championship begins.

How to play chess properly, as explained by the BBC. Written and performed by John Luke Roberts. Directed by Steve Dawson.
posted by Wonton Cruelty at 3:34 AM PST - 15 comments

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