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A Funeral Home With Gory Problems. "A Harlem funeral home has been sued for losing bodies and filching corpses from nearby hospitals. Now it must answer charges that a dead man's body was chewed up by rats." [from the Village Voice]
posted by davy at 10:05 PM PST - 49 comments

Ryan Lobo is a photographer and writer who's work shows you an unique glimpse of India and other places.
posted by dhruva at 9:02 PM PST - 12 comments

A new series called The Seven Ages of Rock has spilling out of idiot boxes all over the UK recently. Get your overseas fix with some YT clips of episode two (Art Rock): 1 2 3
posted by chuckdarwin at 6:51 PM PST - 48 comments

The War Prayer -- Mark Twain's post-humously published anti-war classic, brought to life.
posted by empath at 4:37 PM PST - 19 comments

Are these people qualitatively different from us? "I would think yes," says Hare. "Do they form a discrete taxon or category? I would say probably -- the evidence is suggesting that.

Psychopaths. They form about 1% of the population. They enjoy the excitement of power. Some choice bits from Hare's book. The obligatory Bush link, but, hey, it's got the test sections and the sad truth is that we do have some psychopaths in positions of power, though probably not the Presidency. [Gosh this is getting long] It turns out there's a biological basis for it. Here's the DSM description and some detailed analysis/description (gosh, I identify with some of those traits!) And here's some AskMe fodder, "Are You Involved With A Psychopath?" And because of that lust for power... well, it could well be your boss.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:07 PM PST - 112 comments

A year after a false accusation of rape against 3 members of the Duke Lacrosse team led to their season being canceled, this year's team made it into the NCAA Lacrosse championship game today -- and lost it, 12-11, to Johns Hopkins. Oh, well... it was almost a Cinderella story.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:58 PM PST - 154 comments

Pie charts that represent the proportional amount of color in each country's national flag. Similar to this (previously), only not as pointed.
posted by tepidmonkey at 2:51 PM PST - 33 comments

I've heard a lot of bizarre music over the years, but Eurobeat has to take the cake for sheer W-T-F insanity. Virtually all the artists and producers are Italian, and the only place where their recordings sell in any quantity is, oddly enough, Japan. That's right, Eurobeat doesn't sell to Europeans. In most dance-music styles, 135 beats per minute would be considered rather fast; in Eurobeat, 155 BPM is considered slow. The lyrics are nearly always in English, with occasional Japanese--despite the fact that very few English-speaking people buy the stuff. And the artists tend to record under an assortment of pseudonyms, maintaining some degree of anonymity. Eurobeat had a major influence on the parapara dance scene. Which led directly to this. Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music called Eurobeat "sped-up, spastic Euro Disney cheese". And that fits perfectly, because the only places Americans are likely to hear Eurobeat are in a DDR game---or on a Radio Disney station. Eurobeat is (apparently) only available on costly Japanese imports, most released by Avex Trax.

Despite the anonymity of Eurobeat singers, at least one--Alessandra Mirka Gatti, aka Domino--has managed to become famous enough to have a fansite. In English, no less. Go there and examine her discography. That obscure, helium-voiced singer has been putting out records for twenty years. Someone is buying them.
posted by metasonix at 12:35 PM PST - 56 comments

"It's a gathering of tribes. Strange, nerdy tribes." The only guide to San Diego's Comic-Con 2007 you'll need, courtesy of The Comics Reporter (And former Suck.com contributor) Tom Spurgeon.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:15 PM PST - 15 comments

Kids Rock! Reaching puberty is not a prerequisite to rocking out. Check out Gary and the Hornets, Tony and the Tigers (featuring two sons of Soupy Sales), The Collins Kids (with more clips here and here), a 10-year-old Fergie singing the Pretenders' "The Middle of the Road," mini-skatepunks Old Skull, the Minibeats, Miss Abrams and the Strawberry Point 3rd Grade Class, the Electric Company's Short Circus (featuring a pre-teen Irene Cara and intros from Morgan Freeman as DJ Mel Mounds), the Double Deckers, Smoosh on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Les Poppys, the Bantams, and Mulligan's Stew getting down with the four food groups. (YouTube-a-palooza!)
posted by jonp72 at 12:11 PM PST - 37 comments

Shoefiti: Shoes on powerlines. Shoefiti Phenomenology. Not to be confused with shoe trees.
posted by Rumple at 11:38 AM PST - 28 comments

Dr. Grordborts Infallible Aether Oscillators is "a line of immensely dangerous yet simple to operate wave oscillation weapons" - rayguns - that includes the Manmelter 3600ZX, the Goliathon 83, and the F.M.O.M. Industries Wave Disrupter Gun. Designed by Greg Broadmore to evoke the old-school Flash Gordon serials, they bring a fun steampunk aesthetic to Weta's Collectibles' traditional movie tie-in fare.
posted by gemmy at 7:50 AM PST - 12 comments

Memorial Day orators will say that a G.I.'s life is priceless. Don't believe it. I know what value the U.S. government assigns to a soldier's life: I've been handed the check. It's roughly what the Yankees will pay Roger Clemens per inning once he starts pitching next month.
posted by geos at 7:14 AM PST - 126 comments

The War against the libr'l media ? The Governmnt of Venezuela (read Hugh Chavez and his supporters) decided not to renew the broadcasting licence of RCTV station. RCTV issued this statement and consequently stopped transmissions. Some welcome the move, others observe the many facets of this event, many sustain it's outright government censorship and protest. [Previous] post and documentary on distortions by and in media.
posted by elpapacito at 4:25 AM PST - 114 comments

Fans of the late & much missed comic Mitch Hedberg might enjoy the stand up routine of Daily Show correspondent Demetri Martin: Some Jokes, Some More Jokes, Other Jokes & These Jokes.
posted by jonson at 12:41 AM PST - 45 comments

Phone Sex Pranks — "Below are prank calls I've made- to phone sex girls. Only thing is, I tell them I'm into some "weird" stuff. They're all 100% real and 100% expensive." He's Gil Ozeri of Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. The weird stuff he's into? Clowns, Jewish mother stereotypes, old-timey barbers and Clippy. Yes, Clippy of MS Word infamy. [nsfw, natch]
posted by Kattullus at 12:39 AM PST - 57 comments

Anime Music Videos. Yet another remixing web subculture, they're usually a source of amateurishly produced angst. From the competitive perfectionists, though, come well lipsynched, action packed, meta-mashuped, and occasionally just filthy stuff for cartoon nerds. Besides the usual metal, ballads, and pop rock, there's some Daft Punk, club, and downtempo accompaniment. Or you can just go to hell. Wear headphones and no-one will know.
posted by anthill at 12:32 AM PST - 22 comments

What is the square of 85? In an instant, a 17-year-old boy said without blinking, "7,225." Kamlesh Shetty had used a trick from a quaint concept called Vedic math, a compilation of arithmetic shortcuts believed to have been written by ancient Indians who lived centuries before Christ, during a glorious period in Indian history called the Vedic Age. More on Vedic math. Still more. And there's a similar system called the Trachtenberg system, invented in a Nazi concentration camp. Where were these guys when I was in the third grade struggling with my times tables?
posted by frogan at 12:12 AM PST - 29 comments