The day in posts: 08/19/2006

A Message from Iran was distributed on August 6 by the editors of MAHA, the clandestine gay ‘zine in Iran. MAHA means “we” or “us” in Persian. Originally begun in 2004 as a newspaper after a crackdown on Iranian gay Web sites by the Tehran regime, MAHA is now distributed in PDF format to its subscribers. Iran has been censoring the Internet in earnest since 2003, and homosexuals are only a small part of that story. Likewise, Internet censorship is merely an element of the systematic persecution of gay men and boys in Iran. [more inside]
posted by owhydididoit at 9:37 PM PST - 17 comments

Last call for Mr Al Kyder and Mr Terry Wrist...
posted by marvin at 8:23 PM PST - 18 comments

It's that time of year again. Zombies. San Francisco. Vancouver. And in case you missed the big one last year, Vancouver 2005.
All this right on the heels of another, and bigger, Skytrain Party, celebrating robots and the new station.
When you live in No-Fun City, you gotta make your own.
posted by Extopalopaketle at 8:05 PM PST - 21 comments

Lightweight data exploration: simple, sparkline-esque graphs in Excel.via infosthetics.
posted by signal at 6:58 PM PST - 15 comments

Urinal Sculpture - beautiful targets. (I think this site stands on its own. However, if you are in dire need and one of these lovelies is just too fare to run, here is a guide to your local loo, or even better yet your loo on the run. For the true loooligist this compendium is sure to satisfy.)
posted by caddis at 6:28 PM PST - 30 comments

In the early 1900's, Sicilian immigrant Baldasare Forestiere moved from New York the San Joaquin valley, California. Working alone during his spare time and using only hand tools, he spent 40 years sculpting an underground home and garden [Real] that's a work of art and architectural engineering known today as the Forestiere Underground Gardens. [Gimages]
posted by CodeBaloo at 5:36 PM PST - 11 comments

The cruiser Emden was launched in 1910. When World War One broke out, she was under the command of Korvettenkapitän Karl Friedrich Max von Müller, with Kapitänleutnant Hellmuth von Mücke as executive officer, who "was as extroverted as his commander was modest." When Graf von Spee, commander of the East Asiatic Squadron, decided to keep it united and head for Chile to coal up, Müller said he'd rather go off on his own and harass British shipping. Spee agreed, and the Emden embarked on a spree of destruction that made him a hero not only to the Germans but even to the British; when it was over, the Telegraph said: "It is almost in our hearts to regret that the Emden has been captured and destroyed.... There is not a survivor who does not speak well of this young German, the officers under him and the crew obedient to his orders. The war on the sea will lose some of its piquancy, its humour and its interest now that the Emden has gone."
posted by languagehat at 4:05 PM PST - 35 comments

Unicorns, unicorns, unicorns, unicorns, unicorns, unicorns, unicorns (last three NSFW)
posted by fatbobsmith at 3:11 PM PST - 23 comments

Free Energy? Family Guy viewers already know that Ireland's top scientists once discovered how to turn their population into pure energy, but have they now discovered the key to perpetual motion? The Law of Conservation of Energy would seem to suggest otherwise, but these fellas (Google video) would seem to claim otherwise. Steorn, an Irish "technology development" company, claims that they have discovered a means to free energy, and have issued a challenge to the scientific community.
posted by chudmonkey at 2:00 PM PST - 70 comments

In a small town in Central Serbia called Guca, the "Festival of Brass Music" takes place since 1961. The main event is an epic trumpet competition which Boban Markovic has won 5 times. (You might have heard his playing in several films by Emir Kusturica, most notably The Underground.) Now there is also a film about the festival , which begins this year on the 30th of August.

The festival is an insane mixture of Oktoberfest, Carnival of Rio and folklore show with a Serbian twist.

Some examples of the music to be heard on the festival. And if you like those, you'd better check out Fanfare Ciocarlia and Taraf de Haidouks too.
posted by hoskala at 9:39 AM PST - 16 comments

Serious Horsepower. Some beautiful machines pulling more than just dead weight .
posted by rmmcclay at 9:20 AM PST - 33 comments

"Inthewrongplaceness" is a live art installation whereupon a naked woman cradles a dead pig.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 9:06 AM PST - 49 comments

From Abadan to Zurvanism, The Encyclopaedia of the Orient is your one-stop shopping mecca for bite-sized info-bits on North Africa and the Middle East.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:59 AM PST - 8 comments

Iraqi peacekeepers sent to the Scottish border... 1600 years ago. The Notitia Dignitatum, the Roman equivalent of an organisation chart for the imperial bureaucracy in the fifth century, contains a reference to soldiers from the Tigris stationed at Hadrian's Wall. More on the Notitia here; more on Hadrian's Wall here, including a 3D tour of a fort near the Wall, and tablets discovered at another fort (including a request by a commanding officer for "more beer").
posted by greycap at 6:05 AM PST - 8 comments