September 24, 2002

Corbita Shipwreck

In 1900 a sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered the wreck of an ancient merchant ship off the tiny island of Antikythera near Crete. The corbita, dating from the first century B.C., was heavily laden with treasure of all kinds, original bronze life-size statues, marble reproductions of older works, jewelry, wine, fine furniture and one immensely complicated scientific instrument. The Antikythera mechanism was originally housed in a wooden box about the size of a shoebox with dials on the outside and a complex clockwork assembly of gears inscribed and configured to produce solar and lunar positions in synchronization with the calendar year. By rotating a handle on its side, its owner could read on its front and back dials the progressions of the lunar and synodic months over four-year cycles. The device has been estimated to be accurate to 1 part in 40,000. (more inside...)
posted by lagado at 11:06 PM PST - 15 comments

August Strindberg & Helium.

August Strindberg & Helium. In 1978, the artist and writer Edward Gorey met the members of Monty Python at a fort in Tunisia. The group was in the process of filming The Life of Brian. Although Gorey contributed little to the finished product, the British troupe's impact on him was sizable. In the twenty years that followed, Gorey slowly retired from civilization. Since 1996, he has been studying Macromedia Flash. Strindberg & Helium is the result.
posted by Marquis at 9:58 PM PST - 36 comments

Spike Jonez's hilarious new IKEA ad (click the TV to watch it, you'll need Quicktime)...

Spike Jonez's hilarious new IKEA ad (click the TV to watch it, you'll need Quicktime)......and here's the Slate.com article that led me to it.
posted by adrober at 9:52 PM PST - 45 comments

The Timecube guy has gone even more insane than ever before. Some quotes on his site right now.

"Tis Time to kill any educator who does not teach Cubicism above cubelessness."

"Time Cube debate denial is educator evil. It is not immoral for students to kill all educators who ignore Nature's Harmonic Time Cube or suppress free speech rights to debate Time Cube Creation Principle. Ignorance of Time Cube is Greatest Evil."

Will the Time Cube guy soon meet up with the FBI? I'm sure endorsing murdering of teachers isn't legal.
posted by RobbieFal at 8:49 PM PST - 32 comments

"Friend, was you up all night long getting in trouble? Did you happen to rob the grocery store? Did you kill somebody last night?" I grew up listening to Pearlee Toliver, also known as the Jewel of the Dial, voicing radio ads and spinning gospel as only she could. "Why not check it out and lock it in?" [More inside.]
posted by littlegreenlights at 8:24 PM PST - 1 comments

Gore: Saddam must go

Gore: Saddam must go Al Gore has told Iraqi opposition politicians that the United States remains committed to the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein. "There can be no peace for the Middle East so long as Saddam is in a position to brutalise his people and threaten his neighbours" - Al Gore [more inside]
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 7:47 PM PST - 47 comments

Farkers requested that this be spread to all communities on the web. It is absolutely Snopes approved.
posted by oflinkey at 4:35 PM PST - 64 comments

Keanu = Krypotonite?

Keanu = Krypotonite? The only thing he has in common with the Man Of Steel is his last name!
posted by peachwood at 2:01 PM PST - 52 comments

Ayatollah

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, revolutionary and founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, would be 100 years old today.
posted by Silune at 12:07 PM PST - 30 comments

U.S. forces head to Ivory Coast

U.S. forces head to Ivory Coast - with all the debate for/against military action in the middle-east, I'm pleased to see US forces being deployed to protect innocent people. "Their first task may be to retrieve about 100 American children who have been trapped at a school in the city of Bouake for five days and to protect Americans in three or four Ivory Coast towns held by rebels. "
posted by Stuart_R at 10:23 AM PST - 28 comments

Here They Are, Science's 10 Most Beautiful Experiments.

Here They Are, Science's 10 Most Beautiful Experiments. My fave? Foucault's pendulum. The one in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry always fascinated me (NYTimes link).
posted by o2b at 10:20 AM PST - 11 comments

23 dead, numerous injured

23 dead, numerous injured in a temple in Gujarat, India. About 3 - 5 terrorists carrying AK-47s entered the temple complex and started shooting indiscriminately, a couple of grenades were detonated too. Indian special forces are currently engaged in a shoot-out, as Gujarat is placed on red alert. Some claim this act was done to disrupt the elections in the state of Jammu & Kashmir.
posted by riffola at 10:07 AM PST - 20 comments

Want your independent coffeehouse to be a success? Pray for a Starbucks to open next door.
posted by NortonDC at 9:28 AM PST - 54 comments

Michigan: Land of Alternative energy?

Michigan: Land of Alternative energy? "DTE Energy [Detroit Edison] said Monday it has a deal to build and test a hydrogen system capable of generating more than 15,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The $3-million test project, funded by DTE and the U.S. Department of Energy, is to be operational in 2005. " Wayne State University is also jumping on the bandwagon. What, if anything, is your town doing (or claiming it will do)?
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 7:39 AM PST - 15 comments

Is Jesse ever happy?

Is Jesse ever happy? You'd think he'd be happy with the #1 movie in the country for 2 weeks straight being a movie that is cast totally with black people. But nope, he's not. He's upset because there was a goof on Rosa Parks and MLK Jr. Wasn't this just a movie?
posted by the_0ne at 7:31 AM PST - 83 comments

Who'll Be The First To Have Sex In The Museum Of Sex?

Who'll Be The First To Have Sex In The Museum Of Sex? New York's new museum opens Saturday. As an online aphrodisiac, it's offering a titillating map of sexual congress in Manhattan, [Click on 1001 Nights In Manhattan and be prepared for a full-screen invasion] as well as an interesting exhibition of photographs by Paul Duda called The Pubic Parade and librarian Ralph Whittington's extensive collection of significative pornography, recently acquired and welcomed by the art community. All of this obviously points to an important, earth-shattering question: where exactly is the funniest place you've ever had sex?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:26 AM PST - 66 comments

Ex-dot-commers are considering other careers. In this case, a potentially lucrative, more recession-proof trade: Bartending ("When times are good, people drink. When times are bad, people drink.") Not a terribly enlightening article in itself, but tell me: Have you or a friend abandoned a tech field? What's your new job?
posted by Shane at 6:47 AM PST - 27 comments

Don't forget to meet some old friends tonight.

Don't forget to meet some old friends tonight. Warning the official link is a spoiler, so you've been warned.
posted by Beholder at 5:31 AM PST - 52 comments

"I asked who was playing. A Moroccan group, said the cabbie. He told me its name. Did I want to know what it was singing? Certainly. It was a plea to Israel from the Arab people. The chorus was, 'We have the same father. Why do you treat us this way?' Who might the father be? I asked. 'Ibrahim,' he said. 'The song is called Ismail and Isaac,' after his sons."
posted by artifex at 3:58 AM PST - 8 comments

Is Libya next?

Is Libya next? This story in Israel's Ha'aretz has a very very interesting lead: "The U.S. agrees with Israeli assessments that Libya has renewed its efforts to acquire a nuclear bomb, and that those efforts have been stepped up since 1999, when the UN sanctions on the country were removed." Not only that, Ariel Sharon says that he believes the Iraqis might be helping build said nuclear bomb, and that Libya might attain nuclear capability before Iraq does. And not only that, the always-exciting "unnamed experts" suggest that Pakistan and North Korea might have a hand in this as well. Libya is still on the State Department list of nations that support terror, so why hasn't this story been getting any play stateside? Is it really overstating the case to suggest that Bush's new doctrine of preemptive strikes without hard evidence, if applied across the board, could very well lead to world war?
posted by textureslut at 2:43 AM PST - 76 comments

Finally released, The British Government's Dossier On Iraq appears, after two hours of reading, to be quite remarkable in it's - well - unremarkableness.(.pdf link from mainpage)
posted by Doozer at 2:14 AM PST - 28 comments

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal El Saadawi seems to think that for any type of fundamentalist religion women are like canaries in the coal mine for the dangers to follow. Female genital mutilation would certainly seem to be a pretty good pointer to get out of the mine, if you ask me. She points out the hypocrisy of the "post-modern veil" and politicians who criticize the Moslem notion of propiety without acknowledging the West's notions of female attire is similarly veiled. I'll grant her that. But, I'd rather wear some smart eyeliner than a head full of burka. I wonder if the propensity of Western couples to have the man drive is anything like the Saudi propensity to disallow women from driving, only with a Western middle class less restrictive enforcement policy? Do the spinsters in Saudi Arabia have sex? And how? And with whom? Why are sexual minorities in 26 Middle Eastern Countries outlawed? What are the reproductive & sensual habits of the Islamist Fundamentalist?
posted by filchyboy at 1:33 AM PST - 51 comments

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