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The Skeptiseum displays nine exhibits featuring over a hundred specimens. It is supported by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, the group responsible for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. The John Zaffis Museum of the Paranormal, on the other hand, is a creepy little collection with plenty of provocative pieces. John Zaffis, the curator, also runs the Paranormal Research Society of New England, where he offers his services as a ghostbuster, as well as handy tips for the DIY crowd. So, who's got more cred?
posted by owhydididoit at 11:02 PM PST - 9 comments

HornMassive.
posted by bigmusic at 8:38 PM PST - 26 comments

My Secret Elephant is my favourite work by Japanese-Canadian artist Yuka Yamaguchi. She has a way of making flayed flesh disturbingly cute. [mildly nsfw]
posted by Dag Maggot at 6:22 PM PST - 36 comments

Young Folks in the city playing kids' games with expensive toys. Or you can get budget version, for those who just prefer to whack each other. Who exactly does this sort of thing? It's getting more popular.
posted by ®@ at 6:08 PM PST - 13 comments

Wizbang sez that the levy in New Orleans that broke during Katrina was going to break even without a hurricane, and that the Corps of Engineers knew it and suppressed evidence of it until just recently.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 4:56 PM PST - 72 comments

Amazing photoseries of 70 foot storm waves crushing the surface of a large tanker in the North Pacific. More on the post-storm damage here.
posted by jonson at 3:40 PM PST - 36 comments

Half of IT managers admit to hating their users... a lot. - But it's ok, because the users hate IT too. No, they really hate IT. Perhaps IT isn't meeting customer demands. And it isn't like either side's attitudes have changed much over time (July 2001).
In the long term, it simply may never work out between IT and the users. After all, IT support is just like any other customer service job. And we all know customers suck enough for people to start web pages about it... again and again.
posted by smallerdemon at 3:33 PM PST - 60 comments

Archy and mehitabel. Written by Don Marquis, illustrated by George Herriman. Aside from being a cockroach, Archy was also the reincarnation of a vers libre (free verse) poet. He made himself known to Marquis by jumping up and down on the keyboard all night, so the columnist would find his work the following morning. Once portrayed by Carol Channing. Recently annotated.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:32 PM PST - 22 comments

United States authorities have dropped all charges against the man accused of murdering child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey after a DNA test showed his DNA does not match that found on JonBenet's body.
posted by Second Account For Making Jokey Comments at 3:14 PM PST - 90 comments

Please pick a random number between 1 and 100 (Explanation follows after filling out a short form.)
posted by kika at 3:08 PM PST - 146 comments

Your daily dose of perception-bending. Stare at the center of this video (wmv or flash) for a minute or two then look away from the screen at your surroundings. You'll experience an interesting and somewhat disconcerting effect. Not appropriate for anyone prone to headaches or seizures.
posted by brain_drain at 1:31 PM PST - 51 comments

Software Pop Idol If you're a software developer, what happens when you run out of ideas? You ask the community of course! Then you sort, rate and have the ideas voted on. Make it a contest and give away prizes. And that's exactly what the Mac Programmers behind My Dream App have done. Entries are due by Sept 1st. Rules here. Idea Submission form here.
posted by filmgeek at 12:52 PM PST - 19 comments

Calvin and Hobbes rarities, including some comic panels Watterson drew of himself with Calvin. From Platypus Comix which also has a nice Bloom County lost strips page. Perhaps the most thorough Calvin museum comes from our own ktoad. Find speeches and articles and a root source for most of Watterson's rare art.
posted by caddis at 12:03 PM PST - 50 comments

It's the Privacy International Stupid Security Competition 2006. Human rights group Privacy International (who also hand out annual Big Brother awards have launched the 2006 Stupid Security Competition. Following on from 2003's awards (also here) where everyone from T Mobile UK, the Australian Government to Philadelphia International Airport won with displays of idiocy, what will the results of the past three years of press and government hyperbole and lies, amongst many other things bring?
posted by TheDonF at 11:34 AM PST - 7 comments

The Philosophy of Liberty. Briefly cited here, this simple yet powerful Flash animation is one of the most elegant, expressive, and dramatic political statements I have ever seen.
posted by By The Grace of God at 11:33 AM PST - 87 comments

Benjamin B. Ferencz, a chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg war crimes trials, believes that President Bush should be put on trial. Mr. Ferencz previously discussed the War On Terror shortly after 9/11.
posted by EarBucket at 11:32 AM PST - 20 comments

Ever worry you're not having enough surreal experiences every day? Don't fret, today's Mascot Monday!
posted by kyleg at 11:26 AM PST - 13 comments

The Wizard of Oil Some well-done Photoshop fun to start the week - "Somewhere under the radar, way down low. There's a land that I heard of once, where the oil still flows. Somewhere under the radar, folks are screwed. And the schemes that you dare to scheme really do come through. One day I wrecked the family car, and daddy and my mummy Bar remind me, Of my troubles taking acid drops, the night they had to call the cops, And then they fined me. Somewhere under the radar, I'll get high. Drink Rye under the radar, Try, oh yes I'll still try Why, why must I be dry?
posted by jackspace at 10:36 AM PST - 12 comments

Anyone interested in climate change or is still wondering about it's potential effects and possible solutions should check out this must-read Special Issue of Scientific American. Here is a freebie article they have posted online called A Climate Repair Manual.
posted by jacob hauser at 10:33 AM PST - 17 comments

Gay Gamers! A videogame site for the rest of us. Don't miss the top 20 gayest videogame characters of all time. (Though cross-dressing, hot tubbing-with-all-the-boys Cloud from FF7 should be in there somewhere, I'm thinking).Possibly NSFW in a pixel-y sort of way.
posted by WolfDaddy at 10:14 AM PST - 37 comments

“Snow-bo:” The heartwarming story of a young child and his wintry friend. One of its creators, Vera Brosgol, also authored a brilliant--but, sadly, incomplete--webcomic called Return To Sender.
posted by Iridic at 10:10 AM PST - 5 comments

Two U.S. (not dual) citizens refused entry into their own country. Backhanded attempt at removing citizenship, or just another foolish way to remove oversight from potential terrorists?
posted by Kickstart70 at 9:58 AM PST - 46 comments

From the guy who brought you the Whitewater scandal and the impeachment of President Clinton for lying about oval antics in the Oral Office, a legal push to make the Supreme Court just say no to "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." Ken Starr's petition to the Court [PDF] makes clear that Starr believes this is no laughing matter, but a chance for the Court to make a landmark ruling that will give school adminstrators the power to limit student speech: "This case presents the Court with a much-needed opportunity to resolve a sharp conflict among federal courts (and to eliminate confusion on the part of school boards, administrators, teachers, and students) over whether the First Amendment permits regulation of student speech when such speech is advocating or making light of illegal substances."
posted by digaman at 9:46 AM PST - 131 comments

There's a new site, just up and running, that aims to be the YouTube of How-To. Not exactly overflowing with clips just yet, but it could perhaps become a handy web resource, if people really start uploading stuff, and if the folks running it keep pumping out the in-house productions that so far comprise the majority of the site's content. Anyway, it's already the place to go if you want a tutorial on how to make a California roll, or how to hang a door. And if nothing else, some of these clips are just screaming for a mashup treatment. They're calling it VideoJug.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:12 AM PST - 52 comments

Transcriptions of every opening credit sequence answering machine message from all six seasons of the Rockford Files.
posted by sourwookie at 7:08 AM PST - 23 comments

Loathe as I am to add to the centennial ubiquity of the late laureate, I can't help but wonder: who is the Betjemaniac prankster Mme de Harben? And why does she think that biographer AN Wilson is a shit?
posted by jack_mo at 7:06 AM PST - 10 comments

Sewers of Canada Many pictures of Great Canadian Drains.
posted by GuyZero at 6:29 AM PST - 13 comments

"It’s a cliché among hikers that there are as many ways to hike the trail as there are people who hike it. Most start at Springer Mountain in Georgia and end at Katahdin in Maine; a few start in Maine and head south. Purists walk every 2,167.1 miles of the trail marked by white rectangular blazes painted on the trees. Blue blazers take short cuts on side trails marked with blue. Yellow blazers hitchhike ahead along roads. And then there are the pink blazers. Pink blazers pursue women."
posted by jessamyn at 6:14 AM PST - 157 comments

Little Citadels. "Dine, shop, live, work, and be entertained in a unique and alluring environment," says the Time Warner Center website - all without ever stepping outside your gleaming Manhattan skyscraper. San Jose's Santana Row, which at first glance seemed no more than a Beverly Center you can live in, is now being compared favorably to urban European living. And MGM-Mirage's new, mysterious and costly ($7 billion!) Project CityCenter brings the trend to Las Vegas - with gambling, of course. They're not Arcosantis - and they don't, as yet, require an Oath of Fealty - but by all accounts they're thriving. What do they have in common? Wealthy tenants, megacorporate sponsors, and a shared desire to integrate efficient, conspicuous consumption into every aspect of civic life. Paolo Soleri may have been right after all - maybe he just forgot to account for the effects of capitalism.
posted by ikkyu2 at 5:43 AM PST - 24 comments

Eject! Eject! Eject! Whether used in the air, on land, at sea (and under it), or on the way to the Moon, ejection seats and capsules have saved thousands of aviators worldwide. The basic concept was first tested in 1912, developed by the Germans in WWII, and became standard safety equipment in high-speed, high-altitude jet and rocket aircraft. (Although ejection seats were in Gemini spacecraft, they were only in early Space Shuttle flights.) Much happens very quickly during ejection, and harrowing accidents and pilot deaths still occur. The decision not to eject right away may be heroic, but even pilots who wait may live while innocent bystanders^{^} die. However, the efforts of dedicated researchers and rocket sled testing by seat manufacturers keep adding new members to the unique club of men and women who survive to fly again.
posted by cenoxo at 12:45 AM PST - 21 comments

Canon Short Courses: Learn how to wave goodbye, chew gum, pickup a hammer, and perhaps most challenging, use a doorbell. Because Canon cares.
posted by oxford blue at 12:01 AM PST - 19 comments