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"It would have been the Queen’s Speech to end them all. At midday on Friday 4 March 1983, the monarch was due to address the nation to announce that Britain was at war and – due to the “deadly power of abused technology” – a nuclear conflict was at hand." But it was only part of Wintex-Cimex 83, a large-scale annual NATO war game. This is just one example of speeches that were written in case of the worst, but never given. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:42 PM PST - 31 comments

This is where you go when you just can't stop looking at pictures on Facebook
posted by latkes at 8:59 PM PST - 36 comments

The 60 foot long jet powered animal you’ve probably never heard of. Behold the pyrosome.
posted by homunculus at 8:48 PM PST - 36 comments

Russia grants Snowden asylum ; US government goes apeshit. [more inside]
posted by allkindsoftime at 8:36 PM PST - 298 comments

The 50 greatest X-Men stories of all time, as picked by CBR readers. Direct links to the Top 10: 10-7, 6-4, 3-1. Fans of number 2 on the list may be excited to see what Trask Industries is up to. Bonus Link: Chris Claremont critiques The Wolverine.
posted by Artw at 7:57 PM PST - 89 comments

Looking around the room, the producers were thinking the same thing. Belolo grabbed a napkin and jotted down: “Indian, Construction Worker, Leatherman, Cowboy, Cop, Sailor.” Morali walked over to the Indian (Rose was, in fact, Lakota) who’d enticed them into the bar. He wasn’t shy. “Hey you, Indian—you want to be in a group?” (SLTheBeliever)

[more inside]
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:49 PM PST - 32 comments

Mr. Graves died on Wednesday at his home, Hard Scrabble, outside Glen Rose, Tex. He was 92. Most autumns, the water is low from the long dry summer, and you have to get out from time to time and wade, leading or dragging your boat through trickling shallows from one pool to the long channel-twisted pool below, hanging up occasionally on shuddering bars of quicksand, making six or eight miles in a day’s work, but if you go to the river at all, you tend not to mind. You are not in a hurry there; you learned long since not to be. [more inside]
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:13 PM PST - 4 comments

Anita Sarkeesian has released the 3rd video in her Tropes vs Women in Games series, focusing on gender-reversals on the Damsel in Distress formula.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 5:58 PM PST - 121 comments

A Glossary of Gestures for Critical Discussion
posted by Dragonness at 4:54 PM PST - 23 comments

Rolling Stone's 50 Greatest Live Acts Right Now as voted by 'a panel of writers, industry figures and artists'. [more inside]
posted by mannequito at 4:48 PM PST - 154 comments

The Awkward Years is a Tumblr that features adults sharing a photo of their most awkward moments of childhood, complete with 80s hair, braces, and big glasses. "I want to show everyone, especially kids, how great people turn out & that they're swans in the making."
posted by bfranklin at 4:45 PM PST - 49 comments

NY Magazine picks the 22 Ingenious Ways to Improve the Subway from this tumblr list (some more practical than others).
posted by beisny at 3:07 PM PST - 105 comments

After much speculation and teasing, at midnight on Sunday, August 4th, in a live broadcast hosted by Zoe Ball, the BBC will reveal the actor who will play the Twelfth Doctor on Doctor Who. (Mysteriously, in the past week Peter Capaldi has suddenly surged in the bookmakers' odds as a favourite.) Meanwhile, rumours persist that some of the programme's fabled "lost" episodes have been recovered. (previously)
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:42 PM PST - 647 comments

Prefab Sprout is releasing a new album, Crimson / Red, on October 7. [more inside]
posted by bassomatic at 2:36 PM PST - 17 comments

Two searches meant a surprise visit. Local police visited a Long Island family allegedly because of their recent Google searches.
First discussions from the Atlantic, the Guardian, and Hacker News. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 1:49 PM PST - 130 comments

Using "under-the-radar" auctions, the Petersen Museum in L.A. is selling much of its classic car collection to finance an exterior renovation.
posted by xowie at 1:39 PM PST - 20 comments

GearSketch is a cool and simple gear-making game. Click on the "?" for a quick demo.
posted by xingcat at 1:31 PM PST - 11 comments

In the pre-podcast days of 1999, the then Sci-Fi Channel website worked with the Seeing Ear Theater and Bablyon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski to produce a series of Twilight Zone-inspired radio stories called "City Of Dreams" along with a cast that included Steve Buscemi, Tim Curry, Kevin Conway, and John Turturro. 13 episodes were planned, but only 8 got produced, and with the decline of Real Player and the Seeing Ear Theater, the episodes were thought to be lost to the mists of internet history. Until someone uploaded all of them to Youtube. (each episode about 30 min, link goes to the first video for the episode) The Damned Are Playing At Godzilla's Tonight!. Rolling Thunder .The Friends Of Jackie Clay . The Tolling Of The Hour. Night Calls. Samuel Becket, Your Ride Is Here. The Alpha And Omega Of David Wells . MSCD 00121J [more inside]
posted by The Whelk at 1:13 PM PST - 16 comments

Hugo Schwyzer announces his retirement from feminist punditry. Schwyzer cites his declining mental health and a recent extramarital affair that tarnished his "brand," as reasons for his retirement. [more inside]
posted by Unified Theory at 1:09 PM PST - 150 comments

MeFi's own not that girl writes about Raising a Transgender Child. [via mefi projects]
posted by Anonymous at 12:56 PM PST - 82 comments

Into Brazilian hip-hop? Then check out Fantástico Mundo Popular, MC Sombra's new album — available for free download. (preview tracks Rap do Brasil, O Homem sem Face). From the same guys that brought you Criolo.
posted by Tom-B at 12:42 PM PST - 5 comments

Matthowie hates him! Mefite's shocking discovery of how to get 100 favorites in 10 minutes. Up your favorite ratio in 10 days with one weird trick, take your mefi performance to the next level. Click here [more inside]
posted by Carillon at 12:09 PM PST - 104 comments

Typographic Insanity. You can still read the text of James Joyce's Ulysses even if all 265,222 words are printed on a 33 x 47 inch poster. It's a little harder when you cram the 820,000 words of the King James Bible. "Warner says theoretically they could print letterforms that are just seven printing dots high, meaning a type size of 0.3pt, where the capital letters would be .0002 inches tall. “That would be a poster with way over 1 million words,” he says. “And as of yet, we’ve not found a famous work in the public domain that long.” Also available, Das Kapital, Faust, Moby Dick, Origin of Species, MacBeth, Pride and Prejudice, Kama Sutra, Don Quixote, Tristram Shandy with more to come.
posted by storybored at 12:02 PM PST - 31 comments

Seventy years ago today, in the midst of World War II, St. Louis citizens and dignitaries gathered at Lambert Airport to watch a VIP demonstration flight of the CG-4A glider, which had recently entered service. Aboard the glider were William Becker, the Mayor of St. Louis, several other high-ranking city officials, the founder and the vice-president of Robertson Aircraft (a St. Louis company producing the glider for the war effort), as well as two pilots. Immediately after being released by the tow aircraft, the right wing of the glider sheared off, sending the glider plummeting to the ground and killing all ten aboard. [more inside]
posted by Chanther at 11:15 AM PST - 26 comments

On July 30th, the Oakland City Council unanimously voted to accept $2 million in federal funds to create a 24/7 "Domain Awareness Center" that would "link surveillance cameras, license-plate readers, gunshot detectors, Twitter feeds, alarm notifications and other data into a unified 'situational awareness' tool for law enforcement." [more inside]
posted by brundlefly at 10:55 AM PST - 53 comments

It is doubtless tempting to exclaim against the ignorant bourgeois; yet it should not be forgotten, it is he who is to pay us, and that (surely on the face of it) for services that he shall desire to have performed. Here also, if properly considered, there is a question of transcendental honesty. To give the public what they do not want, and yet expect to be supported: we have there a strange pretension, and yet not uncommon, above all with painters. The first duty in this world is for a man to pay his way; when that is quite accomplished, he may plunge into what eccentricity he likes; but emphatically not till then. Till then, he must pay assiduous court to the bourgeois who carries the purse. Robert Louis Stevenson on art as a career.
posted by shivohum at 10:37 AM PST - 20 comments

Some fans said the show “cracked [them] up.” One wrote, “I knew Ben Gibbard had to have some humor in there somewhere.” But what exactly was funny? Freedia’s act isn’t tongue-in-cheek. The implication was that Postal Service frontman Gibbard had offered a spectacle—something ridiculous. In fact he had offered a legitimate performer of another genre. What would be funny is Miley Cyrus twerking, if she didn’t look vaguely like Hitler Youth doing it.
posted by josher71 at 10:21 AM PST - 216 comments

Looking for a great read by a UK / Commonwealth writer? A slate of 13 novels were just announced for this year's Man Booker Prize longlist. [more inside]
posted by aught at 9:35 AM PST - 16 comments

Maalin told The Boston Globe in 2006 that he had several opportunities to receive the smallpox vaccine, but initially avoided it because he was afraid the shot would hurt. "Now when I meet parents who refuse to give their children the polio vaccine," he told the Globe, "I tell them my story. I tell them how important these [polio] vaccines are. I tell them not to do something foolish like me." -- Ali Maow Maalin was the last person in the world ever to get smallpox and dedicated his life to help eradicate another disease, polio, in his home country of Somalia. Sadly he passed away two weeks ago.
posted by MartinWisse at 9:35 AM PST - 25 comments

Legalize it.
Uruguay votes to create world's first national legal marijuana market. Proposals likely to become law, leading to innovative policies at odds with the 'war on drugs' philosophy.
The legalization of pot in Uruguay might embolden other Latin American governments to consider similar measures. Under Mr. Mujica, 78, an outspoken former guerrilla, Uruguay has emerged as a laboratory for socially liberal policies. A small nation of 3.3 million people, the country has also enacted a groundbreaking abortion rights law, moved to legalize same-sex marriage and is seeking to become a center for renewable energy ventures.
posted by adamvasco at 9:26 AM PST - 24 comments

The story behind the classic game, Oregon Trail.
posted by agregoli at 9:02 AM PST - 42 comments

In 1968, well loved cartoon character Donald Duck continued his educational film career by appearing in a Disney-produced short for the Population Council, called Family Planning. [more inside]
posted by 2N2222 at 7:33 AM PST - 17 comments

George Saunders’s Advice to Graduates [slnyt] [more inside]
posted by nowhere man at 7:11 AM PST - 43 comments

Bob Burnquist does amazing things on a backyard megaramp. Starts slow, ends, um, big. Via.
posted by unSane at 6:15 AM PST - 66 comments

Ever Upward isn't just a blog about space but a love letter to the wonder and beauty lurking in the science of space. It is written, and occasionally drawn, by MeFite Narrative Priorities [more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:14 AM PST - 4 comments

A café worker in Osaka produces detailed coffee cup sculptures using milk and a toothpick at Twitter. Some more images, and a video.
posted by Schroder at 5:05 AM PST - 24 comments

The difference between porn sex and real sex.. explained with food
posted by MuffinMan at 4:36 AM PST - 37 comments