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Jumpy knows a lot of cool tricks! (SLYT)
posted by disillusioned at 10:59 PM PST - 29 comments

Louie Louie is a song with a curious history. Inspired by (and/or partially copied from) El Loco Cha Cha by Rene Touzet and Havana Moon by Chuck Berry (YouTube), the original song by Richard Berry and The Pharaohs (YT) is a mix of calypso, cha-cha, and rhythm & blues. The next version was by Rockin' Robin Roberts & The Wailers (YT), which added a certain rock and roll swagger that will sound more familiar to most folks. But the vocals are all wrong, as they're too sharp, too easy to understand. The Kingsmen made the version everyone was talking about, with concerns of obscene lyrics getting the FBI involved (choice excerpts on The Smoking Gun). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 9:24 PM PST - 50 comments

Nellie Lutcher - Blue Skies, It Had to Be You & Let's Fall In Love
Martha Davis & Spouse - That's Life
Dinah Washington with Louis Jordan - What A Difference A Day Made & Makin' Whoopee
Ella Fitzgerald -- It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing
Count Basie & Helen Humes - I Cried for You
Sarah Vaughn -- The Nearness of You
Billie Holiday -- Fine and Mellow
posted by y2karl at 8:46 PM PST - 13 comments

Bradley Manning cleared of 'aiding the enemy' but guilty of most other charges. "Manning, the source of the massive WikiLeaks trove of secret disclosures, faces a possible maximum sentence of more than 130 years in military jail after he was convicted of most charges on which he stood trial." Transcripts from Bradley Manning's Trial. [more inside]
posted by homunculus at 8:16 PM PST - 227 comments

The local school district in Clarksville, Arkansas will be arming 20 school employees. [more inside]
posted by HuronBob at 7:57 PM PST - 130 comments

Jay Porter had two restaurants: one used the normal restaurant business model and one banned tipping servers, which gained national notoriety for a practice that is all but unheard of in the US. Now that the gratuity-free restaurant, The Linkery, is closed, he is writing about the ultimate experience and the reasons for doing it. [more inside]
posted by Kaiverus at 7:15 PM PST - 54 comments

In a remote psychiatric hospital in Sweden, there is a man known as Thomas Quick who has been convicted of unspeakable crimes. Over the course of multiple trials, he would tell his brutal stories—of stabbings, stranglings, rape, incest, cannibalism—to almost anyone who would listen. Then, after his eighth and final murder conviction, he went silent for nearly a decade. In the last few years, though, he has been thinking about all he has said and done, and now he has something new to confess: He left out the worst part of all.
posted by porn in the woods at 7:04 PM PST - 34 comments

Running with the big boys is not as easy as it looks! (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by elizardbits at 6:23 PM PST - 26 comments

Crystal Castles' "Untrust Us"... masterfully covered by the Capital Children's Choir. (original, for reference) (the oeuvre Capital Children's Choir has been referenced previously, but their Crystal Castles cover is new and it's awesome.)
posted by sigma7 at 5:10 PM PST - 20 comments

Xtranormal (previously on Metafilter) is the animation website that launched with the slogan, "If you can type, you can make movies." Millions of cartoons were produced, and a few of them were very popular. The software was even used to create animation for TV shows (such as a recurring segment on Fox's Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld) and commercials. But in recent months, the company made a series of controversial decisions and began showing clear signs of trouble. They stopped allowing users to monetize their videos on Youtube. They stopped posting new assets, shut down their user forum and blog, and frustrated users by becoming increasingly non-communicative. The site was hit with serious technical problems that made publishing movies almost impossible, and these issues went unfixed for months. Finally, on June 28th, the company announced that it was shutting down the site. "As of July 31, 2013," reads an announcement on the company's Facebook page, "Xtranormal will be discontinuing current subscriptions, points plans and existing services. Please use your existing XP points and publish and download your movies before that date." Strangely, there has been very little coverage of the site's imminent demise. [more inside]
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:04 PM PST - 54 comments

The Ethics of Saving Lives With Autonomous Cars Are Far Murkier Than You Think
posted by spiderskull at 5:01 PM PST - 58 comments

Rubix by University of Greenwich student Chris Kelly -  an Escher-like surrealist film which mixes and rotates urban landscapes like a Rubik's Cube, created for his thesis "Time and Relative Dimensions in Space: The Possibilities of Utilising Virtual[ly Impossible] Environments in Architecture." (via)
posted by Artw at 4:34 PM PST - 7 comments

Professor Matthew Kirschenbaum, as part of his larger interest in the problem of software preservation, asks the provocative question What are the 10 most influential software programs of all time?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:30 PM PST - 93 comments

President Obama visited an Amazon facility in Tennessee today giving a speech proposing a "grand bargain for middle-class jobs" that would cut the U.S. corporate tax rate and use billions of dollars in revenues generated by a business tax overhaul to fund projects aimed at creating jobs. The American Booksellers Association is not happy about the visit and called him out on it.
posted by dukes909 at 12:22 PM PST - 234 comments

"I sent this paper to JK Rowling explaining how the wizarding gene could be singular, autosomal, and dominant despite the protests of a bunch of fans who stopped learning genetics after Punnett squares." See also: Wizarding Genetics: More Complicated Than Mendel! and Purple Orchids and Muggleborn Wizards: A Theory of Wizard Genetics
posted by Memo at 11:26 AM PST - 57 comments

How the Robots lost - The Fall of High-Frequency Trading. For the past few years High-Frequency Trading was where the money was but now it looks like the worm is turning. The scale of HFT is stunning - see, for instance, what happens in a half second of trading in Johnson & Johnson.. While profits are evaporating, serious concerns remain about systemic risk.
posted by storybored at 10:47 AM PST - 50 comments

"At this point, I feel like I need to warn women who are considering starting a blog that this is the stuff they will probably have to deal with" (SLxojane)
posted by box at 10:37 AM PST - 242 comments

A hillbilly and his zaftig racoon friend dance on the porch. [SLYT]
posted by sparklemotion at 10:37 AM PST - 45 comments

There is only one color of dress for romantic comedies
posted by morganannie at 10:25 AM PST - 63 comments

"Don't forget the cream" a video by the LA comedy troupe (and twitter masterclass) Women. Warning: many Women sketches are NSFW and almost none include actual women, or anyone else.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:46 AM PST - 13 comments

Released in 1978, Buffalo Rider(Trailer) was a "feature-length exercise in padding out a movie’s running time as much as possible". But in another way, it was also about a guy on a buffalo(Full Movie, If You Dare). Decades later, Austin's The Possum Posse would retell the epic saga of the guy on a buffalo with the series, Guy On a Buffalo:
Episode 1 (Bears, Indians & Such)
Episode 2 (Orphans, Cougars & What Not)
Episode 3 Finale Part 1 (Origins, Villains & The Like)
Episode 4 Finale Part 2 (Rehab, Vengeance & What Have You)
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:22 AM PST - 22 comments

Advertising about menstruation has often emphasized the down side - the inconveniences that "feminine products" can save women from. They have also often focused on body-shaming - suggesting that ideally, no one should know you're even using them. Until now - a menstruation-related ad for HelloFlo, a company that sends tampons delivered to your door, regularly, when you need them. It is voiced and acted by a spunky young girl, who is not embarrassed but flamboyantly and splendidly proud of having her period.
posted by corb at 9:19 AM PST - 117 comments

As much as Metafilter loves Jim Henson's Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, neither of those films would be half as powerful without the work of Brian and Wendy Froud. [more inside]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 9:06 AM PST - 18 comments

Spain Secretary of State for Energy, Alberto Nadal has signed a draft royal decree that levies a consumption taxes on solar power (El Pais translation, lol version)
posted by jeffburdges at 8:43 AM PST - 40 comments

Bubblewrap bike (SLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:40 AM PST - 18 comments

A frightening and violent mob swept through the normally quiet seaside community of Huntington Beach last night following a surfing competition in the area. Businesses were vandalized and looted, portable toilets overturned, and brutal fistfights waged right out in the open. It was an ugly display and a sad day for California. But more than that, it was a reminder that we must begin to seriously consider the values of our thuggish white youth.

(Oddly enough, do make sure to read the comments, they're amazing.)

posted by Blasdelb at 8:32 AM PST - 164 comments

Report to the President L. Rafael Reif releases the Aaron Swartz report to allmit. [more inside]
posted by condesita at 8:28 AM PST - 65 comments

Kubb is a lawn game that was (maybe) invented by Vikings, and is often described as a combination of bowling, horseshoes, and chess. This adorably-accented video explains the rules, as does the helpful infographic here. It's easy to make your own kubb set- and once you have, you can ask all about the finer points at Planet Kubb, read Kubbnation Magazine, and sign up for the National Kubb Championship.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:56 AM PST - 19 comments

'Bro-Care' instead of Bum-Fights? A homeless person is offered retail therapy, a haircut, a hotel room, a ride in a car with a white leather interior and a substantial meal (oh, and a blindfolding) in exchange for being videotaped to encourage YouTube subscriptions for a channel. Apparently it hits many users of reddit "right in the feels" (a euphemism for feeling emotional/empathetic about something that you're exposed to)
posted by panaceanot at 7:30 AM PST - 41 comments

There's no where to hide anymore. The United States Air Force has a Brony squadron! Here's the squadron patch.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:28 AM PST - 39 comments

Hey, remember when archaeologists discovered the remains of Richard III under a car park in Leicester? Well, apparently they also unearthed a stone coffin dated to at least a century before Richard. When it was opened, it was revealed to contain... another coffin, sealed and made of lead. None of us in the team have ever seen a lead coffin within a stone coffin before, says one of the archaeologists. Oh sure, it's probably just the remains of one of the founders of the monastery that used to be there, but if the movies have taught us anything, it's that if something is mysterious, it must also be evil, right?
posted by Cash4Lead at 7:14 AM PST - 46 comments

A Brief History of Sour Beer
posted by exogenous at 7:04 AM PST - 38 comments

Do Communists Have Better Sex? [SLYT]
posted by whimsicalnymph at 6:46 AM PST - 14 comments

Not this guy. Not this guy, either. It's this little fella. [more inside]
posted by pjern at 6:31 AM PST - 21 comments

After a series of death threats led her to quit blogging in 2007 (previously), the brilliant writer/UX designer Kathy Sierra is back with a new blog, and an excellent new post: "Your app makes me fat." In typical Sierra fashion, it's personal, entertaining, research-derived, and provocative. (An archive of old Sierra posts can be found either on her old blog, Creating Passionate Users, or in this 400-page-long fan-made PDF.)
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:50 AM PST - 44 comments

Cat tries to eat octopus; octopus has other ideas. Perhaps not safe for cephalofiles. (slyt)
posted by MartinWisse at 5:24 AM PST - 33 comments

Alexander Trocchi—A Life in Pieces is a short biographical film about the once notorious Scottish writer, provocateur and ‘ungentlemanly junkie,’ including reminiscences from William S. Burroughs and Leonard Cohen. [more inside]
posted by misteraitch at 4:13 AM PST - 3 comments

The time I saw my balls on a giant television
posted by mippy at 2:46 AM PST - 43 comments

The ultimate celebrity interview! McFarlane writes the archetype.
posted by jaduncan at 12:54 AM PST - 25 comments