PBS's excellent weekly news magazine, Need to Know, explains why European broadband speeds are racing ahead of the USA. Britain now has 400 broadband suppliers with service available for as little as $6/month. Bonus: Harvard's Berkman Center reports on broadband supply trends around the world.
posted by anigbrowl at 11:08 PM PST - 53 comments

Original designs for the Thoth Tarot deck, painted by Lady Frieda Harris for Aleister Crowley, are are now for sale. [more inside]
posted by hermitosis at 9:31 PM PST - 59 comments

12 maps of the recent federal election in Canada. See also this large PDF map posted by Elections Canada.
posted by stp123 at 7:44 PM PST - 47 comments

The most famous Steinberger design is the L-series instrument... made entirely of the Steinberger Blend, a proprietary graphite and carbon fiber mix in two pieces: the main body and a faceplate. It had no headstock for tuning, tuning instead at a redesigned tailpiece using micrometer-style tuners and special strings with a ball at both ends.
posted by Trurl at 7:29 PM PST - 43 comments

Kiss me you fool!
posted by puny human at 7:19 PM PST - 14 comments

If you have had sex in Florida in the last week, technically, you broke the law. Due to some unfortunate wording, Florida's new bestiality law technically outlawed sex between two animals.

"An act relating to sexual activities involving animals; creating s. 828.126, F.S.; providing definitions; prohibiting knowing sexual conduct or sexual contact with an animal; prohibiting specified related activities; providing penalties; providing that the act does not apply to certain husbandry, conformation judging, and veterinary practices; providing an effective date."
posted by Leisure_Muffin at 6:00 PM PST - 88 comments

It is 2007, and R.P. Salazar is living in Waco, Texas. His email username is rpsalazar. One day an email arrives addressed to another rpsalazar, meant for someone with the same initials and surname but a slightly different email address. He sends it along to the right person, an R.P. Salazar living in Bangkok. Before clicking Send he adds a p.s.: "How's the weather in Bangkok?" Before the end of 2007, Ruben Salazar and Rachel Salazar are married. Storycorps and NPR report the whole story. (The text is good, but the audio is even better. Click "Listen to the Story.")
posted by mark7570 at 5:55 PM PST - 21 comments

Reality 86'd. A documentary by David Markey of the last Black Flag tour in 1986. Besides the Flag (Greg Ginn, Henry Rollins, Cel Revulta, and Anthony Martinez), the tour lineup also included Painted Willie and Gone, which featured two future members of the Rollins Band. Rollins mentioned the documentary on Twitter--actually, his second-ever tweet.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:49 PM PST - 5 comments

Why do hippies still exist in America? ChristWire investigates.
(Previously: Hipsters!)
posted by dunkadunc at 4:47 PM PST - 137 comments

“Happy” was the theme we were given by the organizers for this year's F5 Re:Play Fest, held in April in NYC, to create this edition's pieces, probably the hardest thing to convey in any artistic expression. After a good deal of introspection, and teaming up with awesome motion graphics artist Gerardo del Hierro, we decided that happy wasn't happy for Physalia unless pliers, microchips and a bit of soldering were involved, and with this idea we resolved to create the happiest machine Physalia has built to date. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 4:38 PM PST - 7 comments

The Sheriff of Wall Street (and more)
posted by vidur at 4:27 PM PST - 3 comments

Christopher Soghoian, who exposed the latest Facebook PR move, is now filing an FTC complaint (pdf) against Dropbox on the grounds that they gained unfair competitive advantage by lying about how files are encrypted and who has access to them. Dropbox explains how safe your files are.
posted by swift at 4:19 PM PST - 44 comments

10 short, experimental, animated films by Osamu Tezuka, godfather of anime: Jumping, Memory, Push, Broken Down Film, Mermaid, Drop, Story of a Street Corner, Genesis, Muramasa, Self Portrait. Tezuka is best known in the West for creating Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and the mangas Buddha, Phoenix and Black Jack. Here is an interview where Tezuka talks about his shorter, experimental films.
posted by Kattullus at 3:32 PM PST - 11 comments

"I realized that I was one of those extremely rare individuals who was a former POW of the drug war, and who got out and had the opportunity to share his story with the world." "It kind of makes an activist out of you when 3 helicopters land in your backyard and guys jump out with guns and destroy your place before your very eyes." Exile Nation is a documentary [complete film] [trailer] and an ongoing memoir, a work of “spiritual journalism”, and eventually "a documentary archive of interviews and testimonies […] revealing the far-ranging consequences of the War on Drugs to the American Criminal Justice System." [more inside]
posted by nTeleKy at 2:57 PM PST - 11 comments

Top 50 Worst Video Game Voices brought to life by some guy's face. Collected by Audio Atrocities. Previously 1 2.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:47 PM PST - 75 comments

In a recent paper published in Nature Hansen et al. show the efficacy of their unusual vaccine strategy against SIV_MAC239 in rhesus macaques. While the goal is not necessarily to produce a human vaccine against HIV using this exact strategy, this paper is now reigniting the debate over the progression of HIV infections and the mechanism(s) by which the virus skirts the human immune system.
posted by Blasdelb at 2:05 PM PST - 6 comments

It's been a long week, so how about some videos of sea lions being lazy?
posted by quin at 1:37 PM PST - 16 comments

Exquisitely Corrupt Charles Hugh Smith's predictions on the housing bubble, from almost five years ago, are proving accurate. Previously.
posted by mmrtnt at 12:12 PM PST - 61 comments

Big Becky has broken through. [more inside]
posted by sardonyx at 11:54 AM PST - 64 comments

"A few years from now, an hour with a good plumber- if you can find one- is going to cost more than an hour with a good psychiatrist. At which point we'll all be in need of both." Mike Rowe addresses the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation about the rapid decline in the trade labor force.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 11:50 AM PST - 94 comments

Dressage by Clémence Faivre
posted by Lanark at 11:19 AM PST - 35 comments

"It's...it's across the entire horizon." Inside a sandstorm in the Sahara. "It seems like they've been transported to Mars."
posted by cashman at 10:30 AM PST - 23 comments

On May 7th, Robert Krulwich (of WNYC's RadioLab and accompanying NPR blog Krulwich Wonders) gave the commencement speech to Berkeley Journalism School’s Class of 2011 on the future of journalism. (Via) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 10:03 AM PST - 23 comments

Construction paper artist Jen Stark and composer/party starter Dan Deacon have combined their disciplines to make a video for you. They call it Surprise Believer. [more inside]
posted by Homeskillet Freshy Fresh at 9:58 AM PST - 14 comments

"Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, a professor at the U of A Department of Medicine, has shown that dichloroacetate (DCA) causes regression in several cancers, including lung, breast, and brain tumors. " Between rumors that pharmaceutical companies have no interest in this discovery because it can't be patented and quacks jumping on the bandwagon to sell home made DCA to hopeful cancer patients for self medication, things are not exactly going the way Dr. Michelakis would have probably hoped.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 9:57 AM PST - 33 comments

For only the second time since their breakup in 1985, the three surviving members of Pink Floyd shared a stage last night in London. Video, with the amazing reveal around 0:52. [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 9:15 AM PST - 117 comments

Sean Power had his laptop stolen five days ago. Last night, while in Canada, preyproject tracking software alerted him to his laptop's location and he put out a call on Twitter for help in getting it back. Twitter user @neilreese and a Girl in a Purple Sarong jumped into action. Here's the chronological summary of Tweets and events, as well as Nick Reese's account of a wild night in which justice was served.
posted by donovan at 9:11 AM PST - 75 comments

The TSA has performed a "modified pat-down" of an 8 month old baby. [more inside]
posted by notion at 8:51 AM PST - 109 comments

Some Final Thoughts on the Death of Osama bin Laden Although not typically a fan of a lot of Michael Moore's work, I think he has some cogent thoughts concerning recent world events and the U.S. in particular. [more inside]
posted by PepperMax at 8:37 AM PST - 184 comments

Do doctors violate the 2nd Amendment when they ask their patients if they own guns? May the government force doctors to stop asking that without violating the 1st Amendment?
posted by steambadger at 8:25 AM PST - 151 comments

"God is totally down with sexpionage, at least according to the Zomet Institute, an organization dedicated to interpreting Jewish law for modern living" -- on the Mossad's precursor to Russia’s femme fatale spy Anna Chapman.
posted by maud at 7:03 AM PST - 26 comments

Here's to the crazy ones - a decade of Mac OS X reviews.
posted by veedubya at 6:55 AM PST - 21 comments

Is Sappho's so called "Ode to Anactoria" the first literary reference to limerence? Coined in a book by psychology professor Dorothy Tennov in 1979 and soon covered by Time Magazine, limerence involves "intrusive thinking about the object of your passionate desire". Is it just a fancy term for callow infatuation or the unrequited love behind many great novels and young suicides? Whatever its reality, or corrosive effect, Tennov believed that central to limerence is "the desire for limerence itself".
posted by joannemullen at 6:07 AM PST - 34 comments

What really ails Italy?
posted by beisny at 5:05 AM PST - 31 comments

British "super-injunctions" goes one step further: "A High Court judge has issued an injunction which bans publication of information on Twitter and Facebook." [more inside]
posted by iviken at 4:51 AM PST - 29 comments

Dozens of concerned citizens will march on London this weekend to protest high taxation and government debt. Sound familiar? The rally is the first sign of what The Guardian terms "a radical Tea Party-style mass movement" in the UK. Organisers The Taxpayers' Alliance have previously been linked to the US-based Freedom Works.
posted by londonmark at 4:41 AM PST - 49 comments

Holy mama, a new clade. (via)
posted by Meatbomb at 3:57 AM PST - 25 comments

This is the tale of Captain Jack Sparrow (SLYT) Featuring Michael Bolton and The Lonely Island
posted by seanyboy at 2:54 AM PST - 45 comments

"This is the retaliation for the killing of Osama bin Laden" - At least 70 Killed at military training centre in North-West Pakistan. Pakistan Taliban claim responsibility.
posted by numberstation at 2:04 AM PST - 26 comments

This recording (mp3 excerpt) is an "unauthorized experiment" that was made in the year 2058 C.D.S. (Carbon Dating System), a "blue verbal data feed" sent backwards in time to "retro A.D." by Decker, T. L. (pdf transcript) (via @GreatDismal) [more inside]
posted by juv3nal at 12:31 AM PST - 36 comments

WoW... For the rest of us... WTF?! A flash side scroller featuring Freud, Marx and more, done beautifully in the style of World of Warcraft. [more inside]
posted by Samizdata at 12:21 AM PST - 8 comments