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Diebold Election Systems is no more (at least in name). Taking a page from the cigarette companies, Diebold is changing their name and hoping to reverse the downward spiral after their recent news.
posted by mathowie at 11:57 PM PST - 46 comments

"Al Qaeda" A lecture by Lawrence wright, author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. An interesting look at the "root causes" of terrorism
posted by delmoi at 9:20 PM PST - 17 comments

WebUrbanist: Collective Bloggings about Urban Cultures and Alternative Arts
posted by bijou at 9:09 PM PST - 8 comments

The YouTubes have the African balafon you need. Alya Dioubate. Coulibaly Samadou. Kanazoé. Epizo Bangoura. Koeta Hakiri. Bala. Man and child. Danse Moderne Balafon!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:06 PM PST - 14 comments

Even experts don't know what (3 and 3/16ths) times 20 is. But it has something to do with square roots and kinetic energy. [single link to excellent youtube deposition]
posted by orthogonality at 5:25 PM PST - 83 comments

Reversible flow! In the 1960s, the National Committee for Fluid Mechanics Films produced a series of films for education in fluid mechanics. This clip is part of "Low Reynolds Number Flow"; you can find the entire collection streamed here. Interesting demonstrations abound. (1st link is QT; rest are RealPlayer.)
posted by Upton O'Good at 4:32 PM PST - 19 comments

"Mem, mem, mem." A fascinating memoir of global aphasia -- total language loss -- following a stroke, by British poet and novelist Paul West.
posted by digaman at 3:47 PM PST - 40 comments

Who Needs Government? Over at Cato Unbound, Peter Leeson gives a spirited defense of self-government, which is followed by a number of responses from scholars, including a rebuttal by Leeson. Check the sidebar on this issue's front page for more discussion.
posted by Falconetti at 3:04 PM PST - 65 comments

A fairly lucid description of recent actions of the Federal Reserve.
posted by landis at 2:01 PM PST - 93 comments

Church chandeliers made from bullet casings and cannon parts Until today I'd never heard of trench art. From the second link: Pieces described as ‘trench art’ have the following distinctly different origins: 1. War souvenirs collected by soldiers or non-combatants during the war and during the demobilization period and modified in some way to serve as a remembrance of the war. 2. Souvenirs crafted by soldiers during the war. 3. Souvenirs made for sale to soldiers by other soldiers or civilians during the war. 4. Souvenirs made by prisoners of war in exchange for food, cigarettes or money. 5. Mementoes of the war made by convalescent soldiers. 6. Post-war souvenirs made for tourists visiting the battlefields. 7. Post-war souvenirs made by commercial firms in ‘trench-art style’.
posted by SassHat at 12:51 PM PST - 12 comments

The Century of Speed [Google Video] by Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame. Usually he reviews cars, writes nasty columns or does something stupid with vehicles, but this documentary is not just about cars ... it's about the speed of our modern lifes and his wife.
posted by homodigitalis at 12:43 PM PST - 17 comments

An excellent video collection of live performances of jazz and Brazilian music from Youtube user Pedro Mendes. Including such artists as Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Derek Bailey, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Sun Ra, Miles Davis and many, many more. Plus a host of Brazilian musicians I had never heard of before, but are quite excellent, such as Édison Machado, Dom Um Romão, Hermeto Pascoal, Elis Regina and Maria Bethania.
posted by Kattullus at 12:17 PM PST - 7 comments

Watching this years television coverage of the TdF there seemed to be a void in the absence of Viatcheslav Ekimov. During the Tour de France he was busy being team director for the non-TdF Team Discovery Channel cyclists who were competing in the Tour de Qinhai Lake bike race in China. Beautiful scenery, exotic peoples, described with interesting Chinese to English translations. Altogether a great preview for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
posted by X4ster at 11:42 AM PST - 10 comments

Would you like to buy an island? Some are small and affordable. Others, not so much.
posted by dersins at 10:37 AM PST - 49 comments

The on-stage rantings of various famous musicians.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 10:13 AM PST - 68 comments

Aerial Archaeology in Northern France
posted by anastasiav at 9:53 AM PST - 13 comments

The New Yorker now has animated cartoons. Animating by Ring Tales.
posted by nickyskye at 9:39 AM PST - 31 comments

Since the US economy will soon explode and eat all our monies, I give you this: 100 Things You Can Make Yourself!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:23 AM PST - 48 comments

Asian Giant Hornets in action. Asian Giant Hornets on the palm of your hand. Asian Giant Hornet vs Mantis. Asian Giant Hornet vs Asian Giant Hornet.
posted by voltairemodern at 8:37 AM PST - 56 comments

The software awards scam. I put out a new product a couple of weeks ago. This new product has so far won 16 different awards and recommendations from software download sites. Download it now from PC World!
posted by Armitage Shanks at 8:36 AM PST - 20 comments

Toronto: 1977 vs 2007. Shige Sakamoto spent a week in Toronto back in 1977, and took several photographs. Damon Schreiber is retracing Sakamoto's steps, taking photos of the same locations today. He's presenting the photos on his photoblog.
posted by chunking express at 8:04 AM PST - 44 comments

A society without power relations can only be an abstraction. Which, be it said in passing, makes all the more politically necessary the analysis of power relations in a given society, their historical formation, the source of their strength or fragility, the conditions which are necessary to transform some or to abolish others. For to say that there cannot be a society without power relations is not to say either that those which are established are necessary or, in any case, that power constitutes a fatality at the heart of societies, such that it cannot be undermined. Instead, I would say that the analysis, elaboration, and bringing into question of power relations and the "agonism" between power relations and the intransitivity of freedom is a permanent political task inherent in all social existence.

"Saint" Michel Foucault (1926-1984) transformed Western thought. Institutions -- prisons, asylums, clinics -- define the rhythm of our daily existence; Foucault found that they also determine the way we think. The search for the political and philosophical implications of this insight led him to biology and economics, linguistics and the study of sexuality. In Foucault's eyes, intellectual activity, however radical, could never be divorced from the techniques of power. This is why some have accused him of political quietism. Other critics say he was simply a bad scholar. Who was the real Foucault? "Anarchist, leftist, ostentatious or disguised Marxist, nihilist, explicit or secret anti-Marxist, technocrat in the service of Gaullism, new liberal," gay saint, charlatan, or something else entirely? Perhaps we have posed the question incorrectly...
posted by nasreddin at 8:01 AM PST - 93 comments

How to Market a Deadly Disease: Ten provocative examples of AIDS awareness campaigns from around the world. Here are some more [YouTube]. NSFW. Via. [Previously/related: 1, 2]
posted by veronica sawyer at 7:39 AM PST - 5 comments

Mmmm, beeeer: ratebeer.com The World's Worst Beers, Best Beers - 2007, find the top beers by category or region. Emphasis on craft brews. (See also the previously mentioned BeerAdvocate.com) Happy Friday, everyone!
posted by spock at 7:29 AM PST - 91 comments

Giuliani promises a bigger longer war than we got right now with W. This from a guy that used his command center in NYC as a love nest. Of course, the Onion sums it up best.
posted by zzazazz at 7:03 AM PST - 81 comments

Clinton White House Spokesman Joe Lockhart does stand-up. Text, or if you prefer there is some audio at the 51min mark from This American Life.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 5:52 AM PST - 7 comments

Happy birthday dear CD! Today marks 25 years since the first CD rolled off the production line. Love it, lump it or just use this occasion as an excuse to eat cake.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 3:16 AM PST - 55 comments

National Center for Health Statistics says the median for heterosexual men is seven partners and for heterosexual women it’s four, and isn't that just plain BS? The New York Times has looked at the NCHS study and found The Myth, the Math, the Sex while Salon explained that Chaste women + promiscuous men = impossible. Now Janet W. Hardy, the author of The Ethical Slut, reminds us either men are rounding up or women are rounding down. Then she does something radical by admitting that she has honestly, depending on your definition, perhaps hundreds of lovers. Is either gender ready to be honest about sex? For instance, do hookers or blackout sex even count?
posted by PeteNicely at 12:03 AM PST - 88 comments