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Project Nekton — Take Mt. Everest, add a mile to the top, and turn it upside down. That's how far oceanic explorers Jacques Piccard and USN Lt. Donald Walsh descended on January 23, 1960 into the Pacific's Challenger Deep, the lowest spot in Earth's oceans. Their submersible, the second-generation bathyscape Trieste, was designed by Swiss balloonist Auguste Piccard (Jacques' father) and built in Italy. This underwater balloon was buoyed by 70 tons of gasoline, ballasted by nine tons of steel shot, and dangled a cramped, six-foot diameter, 14 ton observation gondola underneath it [more Trieste photos here]. It took Piccard and Walsh nearly five hours to touch bottom 35,800 feet down in the Mariana Trench. Their unique voyage still stands 46 years later: no one has gone back—except by ROV—and more people have landed on the Moon.
posted by cenoxo at 11:06 PM PST - 28 comments

June 6, 2006 (6/6/06) is the National Day of Slayer and the rules are simple: Listen to Slayer at full blast in your car. Listen to Slayer at full blast in your home. Listen to Slayer at full blast at your place of employment. Listen to Slayer at full blast in any public place you prefer. DO NOT use headphones! The objective of this day is for everyone within earshot to understand that it is the National Day of Slayer. National holidays in America aren't just about celebrating; they're about forcing it upon non-participants.
posted by mathowie at 8:42 PM PST - 95 comments

Union Boycotts Israel. Delegates to the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario convention voted overwhelmingly to support a boycott of Israel products, part of the The Wall Must Fall campaign. (TWMF Pamphlet in PDF form.)
posted by five fresh fish at 7:16 PM PST - 80 comments

Sternest Meanings: A fancy schmancy bot that takes what you say and returns a darn good anagram. "Shaky catacombs enchant fatty. Anyway thunderous star. Roman and ga-ga road." My conversations with bots always end up with me cussing and/or crying.
posted by bjork24 at 6:57 PM PST - 15 comments

What happens when you build your biceps up to 28 inches? Greg Valentino, the "most hated man in bodybuilding" could curl 300 pounds. Then his biceps popped (youtube). Another interview with the good Mr. Valentino.
posted by Rumple at 6:33 PM PST - 78 comments

A few years ago, this seemingly shy kid sat in his bedroom and recorded Pachelbel's Canon in D major. Recently, he recorded a different rendition. He's more confident and learning how to become a performer. Lest you think it's simply mimic, here's Beto (no offence dude...keep on practicing), a bit better by Indrek (notice no chords...is that Bill Gates?). Want a lesson? Here's one on a sweeping technique. JerryC's "official site" and "unofficial site". So who is JerryC? Someone to keep our eye on, eh?
posted by sluglicker at 5:18 PM PST - 104 comments

"CarLoft works like this: you drive the car into a modified industrial elevator, the CarLift. (Nearly all German luxury vehicles fit; only the massive Mercedes Maybach, priced at half a million euros, is too much car to lift.) A computer-controlled transponder recognizes the car and knows to which floor it should be delivered automatically." -- Metropolis Magazine has more. I don't drive but if I did and I lived in an apartment, I'd want a CarLoft -- being able to drive you car to your front door, five stories up. That's classy.
posted by feelinglistless at 4:21 PM PST - 30 comments

It is important to take the current political situation [NYT] in Iran in context. Shirin Ebadi and Azar Nafisi are two women who have written memoirs (Iran Awakening and Reading Lolita in Tehran, respectively) dealing with being a woman in the world's only theocracy. (bugmenot) Individual Iranians both commend and disagree with their portrayal of Iran to Western audiences.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 3:56 PM PST - 12 comments

Sous La Mer. Underwater nudes by Alberich Mathews. Webs of light. [via]
posted by nickyskye at 12:58 PM PST - 18 comments

This is not resolved! When a young man on a double decker bus in Hong Kong asked an older man to lower his voice whilst talking on the phone, the young man invariably became the receiving end of a torrent of half coherent phrase and insults about his mother. Naturally, you can watch it unfolding here since the entire event was captured by another passenger with his cell phone.

This video has become one of the most viewed clips on youtube, spawning remixes, rap, reenactments, new school yard sayings, and yes, t-shirts. And they say youtube is just a site for narcissistic kids and tv show clips. NSFW if you have co-workers who can understand Cantonese. And it's not the subtitle's fault, this guy really does rant off for a bit.
posted by phyrewerx at 12:18 PM PST - 96 comments

Irrepressible.info is a new campaign by Amnesty International and The Observer to fight internet censorship. One way to help is by publishing censored material from other websites onto your own.
posted by homunculus at 10:20 AM PST - 15 comments

Newsfilter: the Children of Guantanamo The 'IoS' reveals today that more than 60 of the detainees of the US camp were under 18 at the time of their capture, some as young as 14
posted by j.p. Hung at 6:36 AM PST - 38 comments

Baking tutorials are fun. Would you prefer a wood-fired bread baking course? This set has recipes to go along with the delicious looking pictures, and here is a virtual tour through a chocolate factory. Poetry your fancy? Here is a set of haikus soley dedicated to Spam™, and other cooking poems here. Want to make your own sausages? (NSFW, or dog lovers) How about Sushi? Make your own flowers out of vegetables. But don't forget to have fun.
posted by a. at 2:31 AM PST - 9 comments

Newsfilter: Members of Iraq's tennis team shot "for wearing shorts." Being an Iraqi athlete is no easier than before. Just ask members of the Iraqi Taekwondo squad. More.
posted by bardic at 1:24 AM PST - 48 comments