July 7, 2011

Edith Head's "How to Dress for Success"

Winner of more Academy Awards than any other woman in history, costume designer Edith Head authored a 1967 bestseller titled How to Dress for Success which featured her own illustrations. [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 11:24 PM PST - 34 comments

classic photos

Photos by Irving Penn [nsfw] | Photos by Linda McCartney | Photos by Yul Brynner [nsfw] | photos by Henri Dauman | Photos by Phil Stern | A Woman We Love: Ava Gardner | Paintings by Michael Carson | Photos by Ken Schles [nsfw] | Photos by Lillian Bassman| "classic Hollywood" and more | LiveJournal collections by everyday i show.
posted by nickyskye at 8:12 PM PST - 30 comments

Fool me once...

Penn & Teller are fooled not by the performance of Ali Cook, but by mistaking his trick for being original.
posted by MrChowWow at 7:24 PM PST - 70 comments

Is South Park done?

Is South Park done? "Trey Parker and Matt Stone are still under contract through 2013—so no, probably not." but the last episode of the first half of the current season, "You're Getting Old" which is available for streaming tomorrow had "a definite note of weariness and finality" [more inside]
posted by morganw at 5:13 PM PST - 157 comments

Well, Maron, I'll tell you why

Marc Maron interviews Todd Hanson, 20-year veteran writer of The Onion. If you love The Onion, listen to the interview. If you can relate with depression, listen to this interview.
posted by Taft at 4:42 PM PST - 39 comments

Gotta blast them all!

Friday Downloadable Fun: Pixelships is a freeware combination of Pokemon and Defender. Destroy, collect, and upgrade 160 pixelized spaceships in a series of randomly generated levels. The sequel, Pixelships Retro, is now out and is available as shareware.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:33 PM PST - 10 comments

"We've built inactivity into our lifestyles. We've designed communities around cars,"

Obesity Epidemic Grows: [CNN.com] "Two-thirds of all adults and about a third of all children and teenagers in the United States are overweight or obese according to a report release Thursday by the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). According to "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2011,"[PDF] adult obesity increased in 16 states during the past year and rates soared to 30% or more in these 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. Four years ago, only one state - Mississippi - had an adult obesity rate of more than 30%. No state showed a decrease in it obesity rate in Thursday's report."
posted by Fizz at 3:50 PM PST - 231 comments

"Lower than the regurgitated filth of vultures"

Threats, blackmail, bribery and illegal bugging all in the name of journalism? Jack Anderson, the bombastic muckraker who broke some of the biggest political stories of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, would have felt right at home at the News of the World. A devout Mormon, Anderson was "part circus huckster, part guerrilla fighter, part righteous rogue," a crusading journalist who believed that God was behind his work, no matter how he went about it. [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 1:54 PM PST - 16 comments

Born and Bred in a... snap bean farm

The Wren's Nest, so named for the birds that took up residence in the mailbox, is the former home of author Joel Chandler Harris, the man behind the Uncle Remus tales. Located on the west side of Atlanta, the house--now a museum--was neglected, in disrepair and in debt until 2006, when Harris' great-great-great-grandson Lain Shakespeare took over as executive director. [more inside]
posted by Maaik at 1:50 PM PST - 19 comments

Another Gladiator Gone

American football player John Mackey has died at 69. Mackey, who scored a 75-yard touchdown for the Baltimore Colts in their victory in 1971's Super Bowl V, suffered from dementia. His wife Sylvia petitioned the NFL to create the 88 Plan, a program that pays for health care for NFL veterans with dementia. By 2007, Mackey, then 65, could not recognize former teammate Ralph Wenzel or distinguish coffee from soup. When the 88 Plan (so-named after Mackey's jersey number) was implemented in 2006, the NFL maintained that the plan, and the 97 players who then qualified for its assistance, "doesn't imply any link between football and brain damage". [more inside]
posted by Snarl Furillo at 1:28 PM PST - 46 comments

"Neither political party offered genuine solutions."

What History Teaches Us About the Welfare State. 'In the wake of the economic crash, which has led to soaring budget deficits, Democrats and Republicans are negotiating “to move forward to trillions of spending cuts,” as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said recently. A report from House Speaker John Boehner’s office called for “eliminating government agencies and programs” and “reducing transfer payments to households.” These changes would result in unprecedented reductions in the size of the welfare state and the American social compact as it developed over the last century.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 1:06 PM PST - 142 comments

The cellphone goes really retro

The Portable Rotary Phone is an original black rotary-dial phone that has been modified to be a cellular phone.
posted by storybored at 11:54 AM PST - 51 comments

The Boy Who Lived Forever - Fanfiction According to Time

Time Magazine's Arts section features a nuanced look at fanfiction this week: Fan fiction is what literature might look like if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. [more inside]
posted by grey_sw at 11:37 AM PST - 75 comments

Six Strikes

Major US Internet providers—including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Cablevision, and Time Warner Cable—have just signed on to a voluntary agreement with the movie and music businesses to crack down on online copyright infringers. The policy features a graduated series of responses to infringing activity, ranging from "educational" warnings to throttling of connection speeds.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 10:46 AM PST - 96 comments

In Defense of Prudes

So, I have come to take back the knife on behalf of us prudes, who quite often are only reserved, shy, terribly square people whose native restraint and weak knees are, in fact, generally accompanied by a deep love of personal freedom and diversity of opinion. Prudery comes in for a lot of flak because people imagine that the prudes want to impose limitations on the behavior of others, but they particularly, especially do not. The wimpy and yikes-prone, far from wishing to restrict or even to express an opinion regarding anyone else's private practices, are in reality possessed of a fervent, if doomed, desire to know as little about them as possible.
In Defense of Prudes, an essay by Maria Bustillos, from the Awl.
posted by sweetkid at 10:45 AM PST - 150 comments

You have to click on the text box?

Using a computer for the first time. A Firefox UXer has an interesting encounter with someone who has never used a computer before and we all learn something. (Also, Jessamyn has a nice comment.)
posted by dame at 10:45 AM PST - 133 comments

Bill Gates on the future of energy

Bill Gates on energy Nuclear is needed, home solar is cute, the rich are useful, and big batteries are very hard to do, among other things. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 10:06 AM PST - 95 comments

Science & technology might be exempt from E.U. austerity measures

There is an European Commission budgetary proposal to boost E.U. funding for science and technology by 45% from €55B to €80B by trimming some fat form the controversial Common Agricultural Policy. [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges at 10:00 AM PST - 8 comments

NOTW: 0 - Guardian: 1

After spending years and millions of pounds settling civil lawsuits, seeing their royal editor and an investigator jailed, and insisting that only a few rotten apples knew about the phone hacking, the 168 year old News of the World is to publish its last issue and close this Sunday. [more inside]
posted by MattWPBS at 9:39 AM PST - 1127 comments

Polargraph

A polargraph is a drawing machine that uses a dual-polar coordinates system. It was created by programmer, designer, and maker Sandy Noble. See the webcame here. More pictures on Computerlove.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:35 AM PST - 2 comments

Obama goes to China

Obama proposes Social Security cuts. Amid ongoing debt talks wherein the Democrats are seeking to raise the debt ceiling to prevent the default of Federal debt, "entitlement reform" has been a hot topic. This morning, Obama has taken the unusual step of proposing even larger spending cuts than Republicans have asked for, mystifying many. Has the Grand Bargain arrived?
posted by mek at 9:30 AM PST - 364 comments

Africa: History, Cartography and Exploration

Evolution of the Map of Africa [more inside]
posted by zarq at 9:00 AM PST - 15 comments

Viva San Fermin! Viva San Fermin!

Yesterday, July 6th, was the first day of San Fermín or Sanfermines in Pamplona, in celebration of Saint Fermín. As is tradition, it starts with a rocket, and turns into a giant, joyous, drunken party in the streets. The events to follow have changed over the centuries, with the addition of Riau Riau in 1914 (actual singing, words and lyrics, Spanish Wiki page with lyrics) in 1914, and most recently, leaving of candles and red bandanas at the Church of San Lorenzo, following the singing of Pobre de Mi. Oh, and there's the running of the bulls (route, photos from yesterday's run, previously). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:48 AM PST - 9 comments

You're Gonna Miss Me

You're Gonna Miss Me (YT) [more inside]
posted by swift at 8:30 AM PST - 22 comments

Open source PCR machine

OpenPCR now has a kit available to build a thermal cycler for $512. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is one of molecular biology's most common and often indispensable techniques, used for wide ranging purposes including testing (e.g., uncovering sushi fish fraud) and genetic engineering. OpenPCR puts the technology within better reach of educators and amateurs: commercial thermal cyclers normally cost thousands of dollars. via.
posted by exogenous at 8:11 AM PST - 40 comments

IRA Vs Al Qaeda

Gary Brecher (the "War Nerd") examines the track records of the IRA vs. Al Qaeda "It’s hard for an American to get your head around any of this, but the point, and it’s very 'counter-intuitive' as they say, is that Al Qaeda did everything wrong, spending all their assets and going for maximum kill, and the IRA, the poster-boy for long, slow, crock-pot guerrilla warfare, did it exactly right." (via) [more inside]
posted by jenkinsEar at 7:51 AM PST - 62 comments

Why Facebook can't match Ravelry, the social network for knitters.

The best social network you've (probably) never heard of is one-five-hundredth the size of Facebook. It has no video chat feature, it doesn't let you check in to your favorite restaurant, and there are no games. The company that runs it has just four employees, one of whom is responsible for programming the entire operation. It has never taken any venture capital money and has no plans to go public. Despite these apparent shortcomings, the site's members absolutely adore it. They consider it a key part of their social lives, and they use it to forge deeper connections with strangers—and share more about themselves—than you're likely to see elsewhere online.
Why Ravelry is such a great community and social network. Prev
posted by Foci for Analysis at 5:14 AM PST - 111 comments

Mao's Great Famine

The £20,000 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction has been won by Mao’s Great Famine by Frank Dikötter. Mao's quest to transform China through rapid industrialisation and the collectivisation of agriculture in the "Great Leap Forward" left up to 45 million people dead.
posted by joannemullen at 4:56 AM PST - 34 comments

I like to think of us as artists

When Smith writes long soliloquies, he doesn't do so from an attempt to ironically portray how Holden conceives relationships with juvenile sentimentality, but because he lacks the ability to give you insight into each character without having them wrenchingly declare themselves and their universe to you. A better writer gives you the details and lets you discover a human being from them, but here, each word is very important, and each one has meaning, because this is communication through vivisection. You open up the animal, and every working part matters. -- Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy, Criterion Collection, reviewed
posted by crayz at 1:35 AM PST - 88 comments

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