July 11, 2011

Monster A Go Go!

Monster Shack is a b-movie review site that also contains an extensive collection of classic movie posters, old news reel reviews and an Atari shrine.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 10:29 PM PST - 15 comments

It's not boxing

Fives is a handball sport of British origin. One of the major types, Eton fives, is played in an area which is a replica of one of the bays of Eton College Chapel. Eton fives is exclusively a doubles game, but other versions, such as Rugby fives, can be played as singles. Eton fives is commonly played by public school boys in Britain, but is very popular with ordinary people in Nigeria.
posted by winna at 10:13 PM PST - 25 comments

"...nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself..."

Public interests will be harmed absent requiring defendants to make available unencrypted contents in circumstances like these. Failing to compel Ms. Fricosu amounts to a concession to her and potential criminals (be it in child exploitation, national security, terrorism, financial crimes or drug trafficking cases) that encrypting all inculpatory digital evidence will serve to defeat the efforts of law enforcement officers to obtain such evidence through judicially authorized search warrants, and thus make their prosecution impossible.

The "if you were innocent, you'd have nothing to hide" argument rears its head, in a big way. [more inside]
posted by fifthrider at 9:24 PM PST - 215 comments

Carbon trading for Australia

Clean Energy Future. Australia has embarked on a tradeable carbon permit system, covering about 60% of emissions, beginning on 1 July 2012, and mixing in substantial progressive tax reform, putting a line under a very long debate on this matter indeed.
posted by wilful at 9:05 PM PST - 112 comments

Edward Tufte's Slopegraphs

What’s interesting is that over 20 years before sparklines came on the scene, Tufte developed a different type of data visualization that didn’t fare nearly as well. To date, in fact, I’ve only been able to find three examples of it, and even they aren’t completely in line with his vision.
Edward Tufte's slopegraphs.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 8:51 PM PST - 16 comments

Michelangelo Antonioni's "Chung Kuo"

[Michelangelo Antonioni's Chung Kuo] as a documentary film was one which was draped with fascination for both filmmakers as well as an audience, rather than championing anti-whatever sentiments from either side of the world. Not having seen many movies, either features, shorts or documentaries made during the Cultural Revolution era or about that era in question (propaganda included), I think this Antonioni film has more than made its mark as a definitive documentary that anyone curious about the life of the time, would find it a gem to sit through.
posted by Trurl at 7:53 PM PST - 3 comments

Have you had your daily recommended dosage of cute today?

Kid's reaction to meeting a gay couple for the first time. (slyt)
posted by phunniemee at 7:22 PM PST - 103 comments

Sublime Freeclimb

"The man in the saffron robe accompanying Catherine to her starting point is a witch doctor who's modernized. Under his robe he's got a jazz trumpet. He's going to blow a magic cadenza or two to bless her on her way"

...one of the ancient burial chambers of the Tellen Pygmies; although some of the skeletons she notes are more recent than that, the sort of place for a failed freestyle climber, perhaps."


Catherine Destivelle's gravity-defying freeclimb of Mali's Bandyagara (SLYT)
posted by obscurator at 7:15 PM PST - 39 comments

Must Tell Metafilter

Gospel singer Herman Cain's album "Sunday Morning" is now available online. In the fifteen years since the album was originally released the singer and baptist preacher has also found success in the business world, broadcasting, and politics.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 5:33 PM PST - 13 comments

Stux to be you

In-depth pieces in Vanity Fair and Wired detail the structure and impact of the Stuxnet worm, and what it means for the future of cybersecurity. (Previously)
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:15 PM PST - 43 comments

Here, kitty, kitty. Or maybe not.

Cats are apparently the culprits behind several avian extinctions worldwide. So, are cats bad for the environment?
posted by peripathetic at 5:00 PM PST - 144 comments

Debate in Toronto over presence of religion (and sexism?) in public schools

Debate in Toronto over presence of religion (and sexism?) in public schools Toronto's Valley Park Middle School exposes flaws of religious accommodation? A photo from the Toronto Star of Muslim Middle school student's praying during school sets off Canadian news journalists and religous groups. [more inside]
posted by devonia at 3:43 PM PST - 121 comments

"Don't steal from *this* show! That's like taking pants from a hobo!"

After Kad & Olivier sign off and the Satisfaction production logo fades, viewing audiences are oftentimes treated to a cold open of an empty talk show set... one that quickly becomes the impromptu dance floor for a shameless Frenchman making an absolute giddy fool of himself while lip-syncing pop songs alongside a menagerie of... wait, *what*?! That's right. The Late Late Show's Craig Ferguson appears to have a not-so-secret French admirer -- one who's not above ripping off both his opening titles and his signature dance sequences (including the iconic animal puppets): "ABC" by The Jackson 5, "Flashdance" by Irene Cara, "On the Floor" by Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull, "Waka Waka" by Shakira, "Men in Black" by Will Smith, "Let's All Chant" by the Michael Zager Band, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham!, "It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls, and "Vive Le Vent (Jingle Bells)" by Tino Rossi. Luckily, Ferguson's sense of showmanship is more prodigious than litigious -- he responded to Arthur's "homáge" by booking a pair of translatlantic crossover shows, with Arthur visiting LA that week and Ferguson flying out to Paris just last month. Video of both shows (plus lots more) inside! [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 3:42 PM PST - 12 comments

Jazz Age Chicago

Scott Newman's Jazz Age Chicago is a guide to every major movie theater, department store, sporting arena, amusement park, grand hotel and dance hall that operated in the Windy City during the 1920s.
posted by Iridic at 2:54 PM PST - 13 comments

Epic Photography

The last Space Shuttle launch, as seen from a students' Space Balloon with the help of Quest For Stars (caution: auto playing YouTube video) and NASA. That is all.
posted by dry white toast at 1:31 PM PST - 24 comments

Golf on Saturn's moons

How about a game of golf on Saturn's moons?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 1:27 PM PST - 13 comments

The Menace Within

The participants in the Stanford Prison Experiment are revisited 40 years after their experience.
posted by reenum at 1:05 PM PST - 57 comments

"A censor pronouncing a ban, whether on an obscene spectacle or a derisive imitation, is like a man trying to stop his penis from standing up." - J. M. Coetzee

If we have, at the back of our minds, a stereotype of the censor or the censor type, it is probably of some nondescript male bureaucrat who comes to work punctually at 8:30 in the morning, locks his office door behind him, and spends the day going through piles of books, underlining dirty passages in red ink and stamping pass or fail on the cover, or else pouring over strips of film with scissors at the ready, ready to snip out images of breasts and bums, who, when the clock at last strikes 5:00, emerges into the daylight, catches the bus home to some anonymous suburb and spends the evening watching reruns of sitcoms on television before donning his pajamas and falling into a dreamless sleep. Or if we're thinking not of full time censors, people who dedicate their professional lives to the business of censoring, but of part time censors, people who like to do a bit of censoring on the side, then we might imagine that retired teachers, clergymen and moral busybodies in general would be attracted to the craft. But the records of the South African system don't quite fit the stereotype.
- J. M. Coetzee, Nobel laureate author, speaks at his alma mater University of Texas Austin about his experiences with censorship in his native South Africa during apartheid. Coetzee mentions this essay he wrote about his time at UT Austin and a book he wrote on censorship, here's the preface to it.
posted by Kattullus at 10:59 AM PST - 12 comments

Sluggish growth is no mystery: No one has any money

The housing bubble was the last chance most middle-class families saw for grasping the brass ring. Working hard didn’t pay off. Investing in the stock market was a sucker’s bet. But the housing bubble allowed middle-class families to dream again and more importantly to keep spending as if they were getting a big fat raise every year. - How the Bubble Destroyed the Middle Class
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:21 AM PST - 207 comments

DOOMSTARKS

"FINALLY, we get some evidence that the Ghost x DOOM project actually exists." [more inside]
posted by functionequalsform at 10:17 AM PST - 17 comments

The Age of Mechanical Reproduction

The Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Paul Ford. When it comes to IVF, in-vitro fertilization, nothing is normal. Your world is upside-down. Your doctor compliments your wife on her monkeys. Then, when every dollar and exertion has gone toward a single hour of hope, it begins to snow.
posted by foggy out there now at 9:57 AM PST - 99 comments

Some say I'm suicidal with a sense of humor.

"I've had enough; maybe I'll be seeing you around. Make it a great party." Ten years ago today, Dutch rock'n'roll junkie Herman Brood stepped out of this world. Brood was The Netherlands' only legitimate rock and roll icon, as well as an accomplished visual artist, and the country's most famous hard drug user -- which may have sabotaged his American breakthrough. Black Francis made an album (turned into a musical) in his honor. You can study to be a rock star at the Herman Brood Academie. His bronze bust in his (and mine) hometown Zwolle has been moved to keep it safe from copper thieves.
posted by monospace at 9:38 AM PST - 15 comments

Tragedy on Volga

100 Dead, Many Children, in Boat Sinking in Russia [more inside]
posted by mooselini at 9:34 AM PST - 21 comments

Video of how ships are launched into the ocean

Hell yeah, let's launch some ships. SLYT.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:11 AM PST - 25 comments

Is Sex Passe?

"Just as the watchword of my generation was freedom, that of my daughter’s generation seems to be control." Erica Jong finds a lack of passion in the longings of 20- and 30-somethings. Her claim is that internet porn and motherhood have replaced the quest for free love initiated by Boomer feminists. Sex educator Violet Blue (both links potentially NSFW) disagrees. Rosie Grey concurs in the Village Voice.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 8:19 AM PST - 136 comments

In 55 Fiction, the Titles are Freebies

55 Fiction is a form of microfiction with a few rules, including a limitation to 55 words. Started as contest in a local San Luis Obispo, California alt-weekly paper in 1987, the contest has since been replicated elsewhere, including two related books (Google books previews) and two unrelated websites. The latest contest is now done. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:14 AM PST - 33 comments

Opposites attract?

Unlikely encounters between famous people is the subject of this tumblr. E.g. Samuel Beckett drives Andre the Giant to school, Janis Joplin has a blind date with future drug czar William Bennett,, or the previously noted meeting between Rosalynn Carter and John Wayne Gacy.
posted by Obscure Reference at 8:10 AM PST - 26 comments

He answers without a second of hesitation or a hint of insincerity. "My name is Jerry."

Odessa, Texas, may be best known for its Permian Panthers high school football team. Their 1988 season was chronicled H. G. Bissinger's non-fiction book Friday Night Lights, which in turn inspired a movie and a tv show. But in 2010, it was another Permian Panthers -- the school's lesser-known basketball team -- that received media attention when it came to light that their star point guard, 16-year-old Jerry Joseph, was in fact a twentytwo-year-old man named Guerdwich Montimere. Now Montimere is facing up to twenty years in jail, but not for lying about his age on the basketball court. During his time at Permian High, he had sex with a fifteen-year-old girl.
posted by Georgina at 7:57 AM PST - 42 comments

WARNING: Please check in with a heterosexual “accountability buddy” before reading this article

How I Went Undercover at Bachmann's Clinic: Truth Wins Out (or TWO) activist John Becker took a hidden camera with him to five therapy sessions at a Christian counseling center run by Marcus Bachmann. Meanwhile, QUEERTY debates whether making fun of Mr. Bachmann's own decidedly "gay-sounding" voice (and theoretical repressed-gay tendencies) is fair game, or whether it counts as homophobic bullying.
posted by hermitosis at 7:35 AM PST - 137 comments

Logic. Do you speak it?

Impasse is a simple flash-based puzzle game that involves getting your object from point A to B.
Notes:
  • Levels you complete can be scrolled through using "x" to move to the next level and "d" to return the level select button to the first level.
  • The browser saves your progress, so you can close your tab/browser and return to it later.

  • posted by lemuring at 7:30 AM PST - 19 comments

    What happens when you give poor people health insurance?

    The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: Evidence from the First Year (or, What Happens When You Give Poor People Health Insurance?) "We find that in this first year, the treatment group had substantively and statistically significantly higher health care utilization (including primary and preventive care as well as hospitalizations), lower out-of-pocket medical expenditures and medical debt (including fewer bills sent to collection), and better self-reported physical and mental health than the control group." [more inside]
    posted by OmieWise at 6:50 AM PST - 65 comments

    More Like: IcePuncher

    Icebreaker: one mouse click at the right moment makes the guy in the suit punch the ice wall and break through. Punching at the wrong moment? Not so good. But funny.
    posted by bwg at 4:44 AM PST - 33 comments

    "The critically acclaimed, best-selling documentary series that lays the axe to the root of the idol of popular culture"

    In 1989, Eric Holmberg and The Apologetics Group/Reel to Real Ministries released "Hell's Bells: The Dangers of Rock and Roll" [more inside]
    posted by dubold at 4:36 AM PST - 59 comments

    Simon Singh will mess with your head

    A dramatic and shocking demonstration of how your brain gets fooled to see something that is not there because of your biases, prejudices and expectations.
    posted by pharm at 3:11 AM PST - 65 comments

    Iter pro peregrinis ad Compo-stolen!

    Spanish police are investigating the disappearance of the Codex Calixtinus, a valuable 12th century manuscript [PDFs], from the Santiago de Compostela cathedral in Galicia. The manuscript is a collection of sermons and liturgical texts and served as a guide for the historical Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, which dates back to the Middle Ages. More images of the book here [Spanish].
    posted by chavenet at 2:39 AM PST - 23 comments

    RoboCupSoccer 2011

    Team RoMeLa (Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory) of Virginia Tech has won first place in the KidSize and AdultSize divisions of the humanoid league of the RoboCup 2011 robotic soccer competition. RoMeLa’s team of DARwIn (Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence) humanoids defeated last year’s champs, the Darmstadt Dribblers, in the semi-finals on the way to victory in the finals of the KidSize division. Meanwhile, RoMeLa’s CHARLI took first place in the riveting Dribble & Kick AdultSize Final (slyt). [more inside]
    posted by troll at 1:16 AM PST - 4 comments

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