Were you psychologically damaged at a petting zoo?. The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation was created in 1982 by a small group that originally came together as an informal support group for problems that were the result of traumatic experiences at petting zoos as children. This group realized that there were many others out there who were afraid to come forward with their horrific stories and wanted to find some way to help as many people as they could. The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation is the result of their dream.
posted by amyms at 11:58 PM PST - 130 comments

Nanoreisen. "A virtual discovery journey into the worlds of micro- and nano-cosmos." [flash] A kind of thematic followup to this.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:43 PM PST - 6 comments

We've discussed scarification previously, but as it's been a couple years, and you can never have too much modern primitivism, here's a new collection of the cutting edge in inkless tattoos, courtesy of the folks at BME. Warning: not for the squeamish.
posted by jonson at 10:35 PM PST - 51 comments

What happens when you put marshmallows, footballs, eggs, gum, Christmas lights, or ketchup packets in the microwave? The results of 21 products cooked to a soggy mess. (Flash, music, Kraft Blue)
posted by daninnj at 9:28 PM PST - 30 comments

Plotbot is a web-based collaborative screenwriting application where you can write a screenplay with as many or as few people as you like. Adopting the wiki approach to screenwriting, each element is editable by any member of a project. You can also comment on, delete or restore any element. For all of the "filmic storytellers" on MeFi.
posted by ColdChef at 8:11 PM PST - 18 comments

After so many obituary threads, you will be happy to know that Yma Sumac, your favorite four-octave-ranged Peruvian diva (YouTube links) is alive and well and supporting universal healthcare at 85 years of age. Photos then and now. Yma is still communicating with fans and making appearances. Long live the Incan Queen!
posted by hermitosis at 8:03 PM PST - 29 comments

Grange Halls are common landmarks in America's rural communities. But what is a "Grange"? The Order of Patrons of Husbandry is a fraternal agricultural organization, but it's not just a social group for farmers; Grange lobbying fought railroad monopolies and led to Rural Free Delivery, the Farm Credit System, and other "progressive legislation that will benefit U.S. agriculture, rural America, and the nation in general". But after 140 years, the Grange is fading away.
posted by litlnemo at 5:45 PM PST - 30 comments

If abortion is outlawed, what should be the penalty for mothers who get abortions? Let's ask some anti-abortion protestors.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:30 PM PST - 363 comments

B I G C O U N T R Y
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:18 PM PST - 50 comments

Looking for a gift for that hard-to-please environmentalist on your Xmas list? How about poop? Not just any poop, panda poop! Interestingly enough despite the relatively low number of, er, available sources this is not the first time that panda manure is being considered for commercial purposes... not even close.
posted by clevershark at 5:06 PM PST - 5 comments

The lengths some people will go to get high. Jenkem or jekem is a drug made from raw human sewage, apparently most prevalent in Africa. (Mildly NSFW.)
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 4:49 PM PST - 54 comments

Else Marie Pade (b. 1924) is a phenomenon in the history of Danish music. As a child she was often ill and bedridden. She would listen to the sounds around her... on the stairs, from the yard and the room next to hers. This is where her audio universe began. During the Second World War, she was arrested by the Gestapo and placed in solitary confinement. Rather than despair, she began composing music on the bare prison walls, where she scratched the notes with the fasteners on her garters. After the war and her discovery of the concrete music of Pierre Schaeffer and the French avant-garde, she realized that the sounds resembled those she had heard in childhood, and that this was the music she really wanted to compose. Read a long interview with Else Marie Pade here and listen to her collected works here. (Last link in Danish. Left column is production year, middle column is title. Click the bit rates on the right to listen to each work.)
posted by sveskemus at 3:59 PM PST - 8 comments

How to make a secret hollow book.
posted by Sully at 3:35 PM PST - 37 comments

The Internet is for porn. Never before in the history of humanity have men (let's be honest - it's mainly men) had such open access to depictions of attractive body parts in intimate physical interactions. Every taste, every fetish and every perversion is catered to. Some people think there's too much.. Some people think there's still not enough. Others wonder why all this pornography can't be a bit... sexier? And in a few small corners of the Internet, there are communities of people who still remember what the word "erotic" used to mean, before it became a synonym for tasteless trashy rutting and spyware infested digital prostitution. [Almost all links are NSFW. None are pornographic. And I like good porn.]
posted by thparkth at 2:41 PM PST - 222 comments

Comixfilter: Todd Klein discusses lettering choices for Sandman Comics writers and artist get a fair amount of press. But the letterer can make a huge amount of difference to a piece of comic art. Here's a recollection from the (almost) continous letterer of one of comics' major works.
posted by Sparx at 2:22 PM PST - 33 comments

N.C. A&T food scientist develops process for allergen-free peanuts. An agricultural researcher at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has developed a simple process to make allergen-free peanuts. The new process – believed to be a first for food science – could provide relief to millions of peanut allergy sufferers, and be an enormous boon to the entire peanut industry.The inventor, Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna, is optimizing the process further to remove allergens from other foods.
posted by billysumday at 1:29 PM PST - 35 comments

De Düva: The Dove (1968)
posted by homunculus at 12:45 PM PST - 19 comments

HONK! is a showcase and annual festival for a "new kind of street band": motley, theatrical, activist protest groups working within the marching band tradition. From this central site, link to video and audio from twenty bands currently playing in the "honk" genre, from New York's Rude Mechanical Orchestra to to Atlanta's Seed and Feed Marching Abominables to Portsmouth, NH's Leftist Marching Band. Heavy on the brass and percussion, rousing, raucous, and fun, these bands form part of a worldwide musical phenomenon.
posted by Miko at 12:00 PM PST - 19 comments

Pilot tells of hairy near miss at Las Vegas airport A post on Airliners.net telling, in some detail, of a near miss between an America West Airbus A320 (piloted by the author) and an Air Canada plane at Las Vegas airport. And if that puts you off flying, to calm down, another pilot's account, of a less hair-raising flight.
posted by jontyjago at 11:58 AM PST - 55 comments

Signs in Shinjuku station made with coloured sticky tape.
posted by WPW at 11:42 AM PST - 17 comments

How Ohio lost 800,000 Social Security numbers. The Inspector General identified Jared Ilovar as "a 22-year-old, $10.50-an-hour employee" hired just three months earlier, who received his assignment from…another intern. The intern reported to a $125-an-hour consultant, who reported to another $200-an-hour consultant… too bad for Ohio that Jared decided to speak out.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:34 AM PST - 40 comments

Aneta Florczyk is an extraordinarily strong woman. Here is a video of her twisting a frying pan into a cylinder. She has deadlifted over 500 pounds. And pressed more than 250 pounds overhead.
posted by jason's_planet at 9:46 AM PST - 34 comments

Cracked Pepper by ccc and ill chemist is a mash-up of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and an amazing array of songs you know. While not quite on par with the focus and sheer audacity of DangerMouse's Grey Album, Cracked Pepper is a smart, rich, and rewarding listen. Available track by track or as a torrent. See inside for tracks sampled.
posted by saguaro at 9:24 AM PST - 35 comments

Conversation with Kip Hawley, TSA Administrator (Part 1) Part one of five, Bruce Schneier chats it up with Kip, TSA Administrator. The TSA and airport security have long been hot topics on Metafilter; here is a chance to read some hard questions put to the man himself and his answers.
posted by Bovine Love at 9:04 AM PST - 31 comments

Tom Snyder, host of the Tomorrow Show and the Late Late Show, is dead at 71.
posted by doctor_negative at 9:01 AM PST - 64 comments

The Algorithm March: with Ninja and Everyone Together
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 8:58 AM PST - 13 comments

You should read these three stories by Amy Hempel. (Oh, and maybe listen to her read, here.) While you're at it, read some of these idiosyncratic but beautifully-written stories by grammarian Gary Lutz.
posted by dersins at 8:44 AM PST - 20 comments

Bringing sexy back...to NASA? Sci-fi fans have witnessed many imaginings of the space suit. The skintight BioSuit is based on the concept of providing a "second skin" to astronauts.
posted by Blue Buddha at 8:43 AM PST - 29 comments

We've previously agreed that Dr. Nina Simone created some amazing music. As a person, she was openly angry and, yes, a smidgen nuts. Big surprise... she was also not the easiest interview. (Big understatement.)
posted by miss lynnster at 8:19 AM PST - 50 comments

An Unsolved Killing. Tom Wales, a 49-year-old Assistant US Attorney, was murdered in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood on October 11, 2001, and the case is getting cold. Former U.S. attorney John McKay was fired in March 2005 in part for pressing for a more active investigation.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:13 AM PST - 11 comments

I love giraffes. Sure, some people think they're evil (previously on MeFi), but did you know that they have black tongues? Or that their scientific name hints that early viewers thought they resembled a camel/leopard mashup? That their closest living relative is the okapi? Did you know that they come with a special structure to prevent too much blood flow to the brain while drinking, and built-in pressure hose to protect the capillaries in their legs from their massive height and resulting blood pressure? This here giraffe is an amazing critter.
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:21 AM PST - 34 comments

Science and Pseudoscience - a 1973 lecture from Imre Lakatos.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:20 AM PST - 16 comments

Bonalu (or Bonam in short, which means Meal in Telegu, the official language of Andhra Pradesh), is the festival celebrated in honour of the Goddess Mahankali, in the month of July/August, by women who carry a series of pots on their heads, filled with offerings of rice and milk, led by the Potharaju (image).
posted by hadjiboy at 3:54 AM PST - 11 comments

Who are you? I am Death. You have come for me? I have been for a long time at your side. I know.
Ingmar Bergman, 1918-2007.
posted by mr.marx at 2:24 AM PST - 121 comments