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Alexander Calder's Circus. A movie by Carlos Vilardebo, in four parts: one two, three, four, [YouTube]. Calder developed his own one-man circus, with tiny performers made of "cork, wire, wood, yarn, paper, string, and cloth," carefully engineered to walk tightropes, dance, tame lions, lift weights, and engage in gymnastics and acrobatics in and above the ring. Acting as omniscient ringmaster, Calder would manipulate the wire performers while his wife wound circus music on the gramophone in the background. via [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 9:09 PM PST - 17 comments

Texas Riparian Law I found this intriguing because I 1) live in Texas, 2) have walked many Texas creekbottoms, 3) have a lot of lawyer friends, and 4) as an English major, find the language somehow beautiful.
posted by rleamon at 8:10 PM PST - 25 comments

An interesting chain of events culminated today in the resignation of the Dutch cabinet: Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali^{^} embarks on a career in the Netherlands' political fast lane, in her spare time writing the screenplay to the film^{^} that got Theo van Gogh^{^} killed^{1, 2, 3, 4}, plans to leave parliament for a job in the US¹, meanwhile sees the legality of her citizenship called into question by an overeager minister of Immigration^{^1}, causing her to step down early. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:54 PM PST - 36 comments

"When humans were busy fighting each other, the Ants had begun their preparations to take over the planet. Six feet tall, they had emerged from their hideouts in the Andes Mountain and had begun their assault in the year 7757." - Science Fiction in Bengal from 1882-1961 [via]
posted by brundlefly at 4:54 PM PST - 9 comments

Design. Architecture. Football. The awe-inspiring sight of the entire Argentina team moving fluidly as if to some pre-ordained ballet was simply Liquid Football. 24 passes throughout 8 of the 10 outfield Argentines, ... was largely improvised in real-time, entirely determined by the context of the opposing team - which cannot be accurately predicted at all.
posted by signal at 3:59 PM PST - 68 comments

Mac users have the excellent Omnigraffle, Windows users the ubiquitous Visio. Now there's an AJAX diagramming tool called Gliffy. What's next in the Office suite for AJAXification?
posted by dmd at 2:15 PM PST - 34 comments

Hans Rosling is on a mission (flash video). The founder of Gapminder (previously discussed here) gives an inspired talk about the third world, while turning statistics into beautiful graphics. Of course, the folks at Google are already all over this.
posted by neurodoc at 1:10 PM PST - 15 comments

Stanley Kubrick's "lost" first movie, Day of The Fight, has apparently been found. Assuming it's real, this 16-minute 1951 reel is the director's debut. Sadly, unless you're a fight fan, that's about all it has to recommend it.
posted by The Bellman at 12:52 PM PST - 16 comments

Jennifer Holliday's seismic performance of "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" from the 1982 Tony Awards (YouTube link) brought Broadway to its knees. Holliday not only captured the Tony, her recording of the song became a Billboard Top 30 hit. The new Dreamgirls film, cast with a who's who of modern music stars, will open this winter. "American Idol" contestant Jennifer Hudson will attempt to fill Holliday's formidable shoes.
posted by hermitosis at 12:02 PM PST - 33 comments

". . . after 3 minutes of reading your new site my eyes started hurting and my stomach tied up in knots." "I am in misery." Slate redesigns its website once again (previous designs here and here), loyal readership freaks out. The interweb responds here and here (note the presence of at least two positive reviews; not all is lost dear Slate!)
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 11:48 AM PST - 70 comments

Trailers of Historically Significant Films Digital History has trailers (Windows Media) for a ton of movies from 1919 to 2004 (sorted by year of release) using a very loose definition of "historically significant." [via MonkeyFilter]
posted by kirkaracha at 11:43 AM PST - 13 comments

Living with half a brain - hemispherectomy, probably the most radical procedure in neurosurgery
posted by Gyan at 9:15 AM PST - 50 comments

Upon First Meeting : RISD MFA student Jeff Barnett-Winsby takes photos of strangers who answered an ad on Craigslist.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:13 AM PST - 46 comments

BBC News: UK Iconic cinema music gets a makeover (real video) A 30-piece orchestra has recorded a new version of the Pearl and Dean's iconic cinema music (aka Asteroid) at Abbey Road Studios in London. The tune, famous for its "pa pa pa pas", has been made more than a minute and a half longer. David Sillito reports for BBC News.
posted by badlydubbedboy at 8:51 AM PST - 23 comments

Ava Lowery is a 15 year old master of flash-based propaganda, and burgeoning media sensation. Lowery's clips (especially this one but also ones like this and this (more here)), have been described as mere facile emotionalism. Others however regard her work as courageous and truthful. She was enlisted to express the soul of the movement for the recent Yearly Kos convention in Las Vegas. One thing's for sure: Lowery's method of story telling leaves traditional media confused and bewildered.
posted by washburn at 8:22 AM PST - 113 comments

Meet Florrie Fisher, the real life Jerri Blank.
posted by jrossi4r at 8:07 AM PST - 24 comments

Spider-Man 3 Teaser Trailer Available Just in case discussion of the elements in a trailer for a movie that will be marketed upon you relentlessly constitutes spoilers ... [more inside]
posted by clearlynuts at 8:07 AM PST - 69 comments

Sphere and circle arrangements, the Droste effect, and more: mathematical imagery by Jos Leys. The Droste effect article is informative, too.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:50 AM PST - 8 comments

The RSOE Global Disasters Service tracks seismic activity, bird flu, chemical spills and even vehicle accidents by monitoring and processing data of approximately 600-700 news sources, many researching institutes and realtime data of forecasting services. I've subscribed to the RSS feed and you should too . . . you've been getting too much sleep anyway. [via]
posted by If I Had An Anus at 7:41 AM PST - 8 comments

The Chinese Embassy announced today that the world's highest railroad is to go into operation on July 1st. By the way, here's some striking pictures of it all. It also comes with its own Great Green Wall and some problems. Shanghai to Lhasa? Yep.
posted by Atreides at 7:27 AM PST - 31 comments

Bush and Koizumi: Roadtrip to Graceland - NYT link
posted by lilboo at 7:22 AM PST - 10 comments

The Eraser, Thom Yorke's solo album is being played in it's entirety on Australian radio station JJJ this sunday, July 2nd, at 6PM (AEST). Triple J generally have podcasts available (other good shows to listen to include Sunday Night Safran), and The Eraser has also been mentioned here.
posted by jonathanstrange at 6:42 AM PST - 25 comments

Google Checkout is officially unveiled today; the latest service to join the Google arsenal in their race to control the entire www. It has been suggested in the news that the Google payment service was also a big factor in the recent Yahoo and eBay partnership, since eBay's Paypal service might finally have some real competition. More info on the service here.
posted by p3t3 at 6:29 AM PST - 32 comments

Will acts like Gnarls Barkley, promoted by smaller indies with major distribution, signal the end of the music industry as we know it? With stadium rock acts becoming a thing of the past and greater diversity available to the average music fan at a click of a mouse, will the music industry of the future be shaped more and more by online based tastemakers such as Soul Sides or community based sites like Myspace.
posted by triv at 5:19 AM PST - 37 comments

FlexGo™. Microsoft targets emerging markets with pay as you go and subscription models.
posted by davehat at 4:50 AM PST - 13 comments

Transvestite Gang Pesters Magazine Street. "A house fell on my sister..." "That weeping sound of despair? That's just some chick trapped in an elevator." A Baptist Church burned, then destroyed. Mail delivered. Life in New Orleans nine months after Katrina.
posted by bukharin at 1:35 AM PST - 16 comments

Green Parrots: I just finished reading this book by Dr. Gino Strada, a war surgeon and founder of Emergency, an Italian NGO, whose mission is to provide medical treatment to civilian victims of war. A series of essays on his experiences in far away places like Peru, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Sudan and Cambodia where 90% of the casualties he treats are better known as collateral damage. One third are children under 14. He ends with a heartfelt essay that asks, "Is it legitimate to accept war as an inevitable prospect for current and future generations?"
posted by infini at 1:27 AM PST - 6 comments

Newsfilter: "Awkward Moments Abound in Penis Pump Trial."
posted by bardic at 12:33 AM PST - 46 comments