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Blowdry hairstyles! Sequins! Self-effacing humor without irony! Amazing melodies and lyrics! It's The Barry Manilow Special [52m] shown on ABC in 1977, winner of the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Special. Featuring Penny Marshall! Guaranteed Copacabana-free! But this wouldn't be the only time Barry Manilow appeared in a television special... [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 10:31 PM PST - 42 comments

Fire Retardant Lobby Caught with Pants on Fire. "As evidence of health risks piled up, makers of flame retardants created a phony consumer watchdog that misled lawmakers and the public by stoking the fear of fire." Part one of a Chicago Tribune investigation has just been published, featuring a brilliant use of diff.
posted by honest knave at 9:22 PM PST - 48 comments

Pascal Ken, after taking several trips to Japan between 2007 and 2011, took some beautiful, dreamlike infrared photos of Tokyo.
posted by reenum at 7:44 PM PST - 14 comments

"Hi. Russia may well be associated with hard liquor like Водка, but in this video I will be talking about our traditional soft drinks and non-alcoholic beverages." Part 1 [mostly juices] and Part 2 [fizzy drinks]. [more inside]
posted by Deathalicious at 7:25 PM PST - 32 comments

NASA: The Pursuit of Light [more inside]
posted by blue_beetle at 7:15 PM PST - 21 comments

The Seebühne of the Bregenz Festival In Austria. The stage sets are pretty amazing.
posted by HuronBob at 6:11 PM PST - 9 comments

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the German zeppelin Hindenburg bursting into flames as it attempted to dock at a US Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, NJ. The Hindenburg was inflated with hydrogen, due to the United States' practical monopoly on helium, and its fabric skin was coated with a mixture of iron oxide and aluminium--both elements have been linked to the rapid fire, but the ratio of responsibility continues to be debated to this day. The explosion of the zeppelin was documented by a film crew, and more famously, by WLS radio reporter Herb Morrison. Such documentation has allowed for the Hindenburg disaster to be a well-known event that has been referenced in popular culture over the years, from such disparate means as the famous "Turkeys Away" episode of WKRP In Cincinnati...to MeFi's own Spatch having a fever dream approximately 15 years ago that led to, well, just watch it for yourself.
posted by stannate at 5:54 PM PST - 64 comments

Brain Storm - "The smartest mouse in the world", runs through an intricate home-made agility course.
posted by The Whelk at 5:20 PM PST - 56 comments

Ernest Callenbach, author of the classic environmental novel Ecotopia among other works, died of cancer at 83 on April 16th, leaving behind this document on his computer.
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:07 PM PST - 37 comments

Arizona leads with another ground-breaking move after their immigration bill. A bill that prevents "abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving public funds" has passed into law, says CNN. (Planned Parenthood lists 14 health centers in Arizona.) [more inside]
posted by fragmede at 3:53 PM PST - 75 comments

France has a new president. With 51.9% of the second-round vote, François Hollande has beaten Nicolas Sarkozy to become the first Socialist president of France since 1995. In his victory speech, Hollande declared that "austerity is not inevitable," but international business interests have already started rumbling about Hollande's plans for higher taxes on the rich and large-scale public sector investment. The change in power is to be effected in next ten days, with Hollande scheduled to appear at the G8 and NATO summits on May 19 and 20.
posted by theodolite at 1:45 PM PST - 196 comments

Wanna go for a run? "The Trans-Zion is a 48-mile route across Zion National Park that wanders from the East Entrance to Lee Pass in the Kolob Canyons section of the park. The route links together many of Zion's most scenic trails and amasses more than 10,000 feet of total climbing."
posted by Xurando at 1:15 PM PST - 15 comments

"A maverick theater and industrial designer, Norman Bel Geddes is best remembered for creating the undisputed hit of the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Mounted in the midst of the Great Depression, the Fair focused on America’s promise of a utopian tomorrow. Geddes’s Futurama, a piece of “immersion theater,” took six hundred visitors at a time on a swooping, simulated airplane ride across America circa 1960." "The City of Tomorrow, a model of Manhattan that Geddes created, in 1937, to promote Shell Oil Company’s new “motor-digestible” gasoline, is often cited as [Futurama's inspiration.] But Futurama’s beginnings actually harken back much further, to the meticulous, insanely detailed private games he created in the 1920s and early ’30s for the amusement of his friends." [more inside]
posted by zamboni at 12:52 PM PST - 15 comments

Is liking a post on Facebook protected by the First Amendment? A US District Court says no. [more inside]
posted by notme at 12:28 PM PST - 61 comments

The frequent fliers who flew too much. American Airlines said that for a single payment of $350,000, you could fly with them anywhere, first class, for the rest of your life. Why were they so surprised when a few people... well... did?
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:13 PM PST - 103 comments

Little League is a Peanuts-esque webcomic about the Justice League (via Comics Worth Reading). The tone is alternately sweet, funny, and poignant. Because it's hosted on Tumblr it's a little awkward to work through the strips in chronological order. Start here.
posted by jedicus at 11:56 AM PST - 24 comments

Founder of est, Werner Erhard has a new project [more inside]
posted by Ideefixe at 11:20 AM PST - 85 comments

25 Greatest Matches in Wrestlemania History [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 10:23 AM PST - 21 comments

Stefan Krappitz recently published the book Troll Culture: A Comprehensive Guide. The work positions internet provocateurs as contemporary satirists who may have sophisticated political and social critique informing their pranks. Discussion is centered on the lulz culture of 4chan but includes ill-mannered charmers like Ralph Pootawn (Second Life), bloodninja (AIM / IRC), Diogenes and Tracky Birthday. [more inside]
posted by mr.ersatz at 9:45 AM PST - 41 comments

Six years after the initial release of that tiny, hackable, beanbag-esque touchscreen piece of hardware, the doors are closing on the chumby. [more inside]
posted by subbes at 9:22 AM PST - 35 comments

Ben Zimmer, the alternate-weeks author of the Boston Globe's language column, The Word, has a column today ("Dude, this headline is so meta") about the drift in the meaning of the prefix "meta" over the past few decades, from “above or beyond” (the metaphysical realm is beyond the physical one) or “at a higher level of abstraction” (metalanguage is language used to describe other language) to “consciously self-referential” ... a perfect meta-commentary on the consciously self-referential age we live in. [more inside]
posted by beagle at 8:55 AM PST - 25 comments

There’s no nice way to say this, but it needs to be said: video games, with very few exceptions, are dumb. And they’re not just dumb in the gleeful, winking way that a big Hollywood movie is dumb; they’re dumb in the puerile, excruciatingly serious way that a grown man in latex elf ears reciting an epic poem about Gandalf is dumb. Aside from a handful of truly smart games, tentpole titles like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Call of Duty: Black Ops tend to be so silly and so poorly written that they make Michael Bay movies look like the Godfather series. Taylor Clark's Atlantic profile of Braid creator Jonathan Blow has prompted some strong reactions. Are videogames dumb? Is hard to make them not dumb? Are most things dumb anyway?
posted by Artw at 8:23 AM PST - 179 comments

Toronto FC has set a new record in Major League Soccer by opening the season with eight consecutive losses. This despite having earlier in the year gone all the way to the semifinals in the CONCACAF Champions League with the same lineup (the CONCACAF Champions League is the international championship for all North American, Central American, and Caribbean clubs).

The most recent loss came at the hands of a DC United side including Toronto native and former TFC captain Dwayne De Rosario. When asked to comment on TFC's dire predicament and the coaching of Aron Winter (who was responsible for trading De Rosario away from Toronto), the MLS MVP made an oblique reference to Psalm 118.
posted by 256 at 7:05 AM PST - 25 comments

There are comics, print and online, and then there are comics reporters and comics critics finding obscure yet remarkable manga and strips. High-Low offers reviews of comics from a Comics Journal critic. The Comics Reporter recently published a list of upcoming comics events. Comics212 founded the Toronto Comic Arts Festival which is going on today. Comics Worth Reading weeds out the chaff so you don't have to. Comic Book Resources is a news source with columns and reviews. The Beat take a look at comics culture. [more inside]
posted by netbros at 5:22 AM PST - 8 comments

Minecraft. In Minecraft.
posted by loquacious at 12:05 AM PST - 38 comments