September 27, 2013

Cluck on the link

Gateway livestock The hazard of backyard chickens. The interweb loves its chickens: They're pets in the backyard, with their own magazines. Even the New Yorker says they're the "It" bird. But can you really handle chickens? Before you get overwhelmed and dump your new pets in the shelter, you might try renting. [more inside]
posted by BlueHorse at 8:35 PM PST - 57 comments

What could possibly go wrong?

The Stanley Hotel, inspiration for the haunted Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's 1977 novel The Shining, has announced plans to dig up the pet cemetery on its grounds. [more inside]
posted by Lou Stuells at 8:32 PM PST - 45 comments

Radio, Radio

SNL 1977 - Lorne Michaels "raised his middle finger at [Elvis] Costello and kept it up until the unapproved song was over."
From wikipedia: Costello wanted to play "Radio Radio" on SNL. Columbia Records, however, was interested in having an already-established song performed on SNL, to increase interest in the band before the American release of My Aim Is True and This Year's Model. In the event, Costello began the SNL performance by playing "Less than Zero." However, after a few bars, he turned to the Attractions, waving his hand and yelling "Stop! Stop!," then said to the audience, "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there's no reason to do this song here," possibly referring to the fact "Less than Zero" was written as a reply to British fascist politician Oswald Mosley. However, SNL music director Howard Shore attributes the move to Costello's bucking pressure by his music company to play "Less than Zero" on the show.[1] He then led the band in a performance of "Radio Radio." Obligatory Weird Al cover. ViaBoingBoing
posted by FiveNines at 8:07 PM PST - 62 comments

Back in the day, man, people edited their sites by hand.

Jason Kottke turned 40 today. Some of his friends threw a party on his blog. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 6:53 PM PST - 27 comments

Scholarly debate about the significance of snail combat

"As anyone who is familiar with 13th and 14th century illuminated manuscripts can attest, images of armed knights fighting snails are common, especially in marginalia. But the ubiquity of these depictions doesn’t make them any less strange, and we had a long discussion about what such pictures might mean."
posted by exogenous at 6:18 PM PST - 91 comments

Sleeping with the enemy

When German soldiers arrived in Paris in the summer of 1940, there were so few of them that they had to win hearts and minds. The untold story of one young couple.
posted by gaspode at 6:18 PM PST - 7 comments

100% ANON, NO SIZE SHAMING

"this is not a bad dick pic, but it suffers from some classic mistakes. the first is that you’ve gone for basically a full-tilt bird’s eye view, which makes me feel like i’m you and i’m looking down on my own dick. the second is that the lighting/flash is highlighting the head of your dick in a slightly alarming, “whoah there” way, and your dick pic, like most dick pics, would benefit from some softer lighting." [NSFW]
Critiquing your dick pics with love, where "the size of your dick is not determinative of your ability to take a good dick pic, and i will never grade you down on the basis of your size."
posted by youarenothere at 6:13 PM PST - 103 comments

Mabel Pakenham-Walsh, a woodcarver, has died aged 75.

"Her wood carvings were made from ironing boards, breadboards, old ships' timbers and in one case an old wooden toilet seat. Her jewellery was made from a cut-up caravan." (Obituary.) There's not much on the web about this woman, but what there is, is gold. [more inside]
posted by glasseyes at 3:51 PM PST - 7 comments

"It’s almost like history is a kind of snake swallowing its tail."

"In trying to understand conspiracy theorists, I used to think that what conspiracy theorists were really doing on some level was grieving, their fantasies a form of displaced love for JFK, but I’ve come to think the love involved is mostly self-love, their self-congratulatory assertion of superiority over mere facts."

What Does the Zapruder Film Really Tell Us?
Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris deconstructs the most famous 26 seconds in film history.
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:10 PM PST - 152 comments

Drive To Perfection

General Motors is literally tearing its competition to bits ...so its 3D scanning can reverse-engineer others' vehicles, increasing speed to market. 'All this technical innovation makes it easier for GM to react to competition faster and push innovations out rapidly. Still, it doesn't guarantee that GM will execute in a way that makes people want to buy the company's vehicles.' 'The capabilities that come from GM's benchmarking efforts bring another sort of risk with them—GM could learn from its competitors too well and become indistinguishable from them. It's a problem that plagues today's auto industry, where you often can't tell vehicles from different manufacturers apart in a parking lot without looking at the name plate.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 2:35 PM PST - 31 comments

Turing it off

So Breaking Bad isn't the only series having it's final episode this weekend. The IT Crowd hits end of program with a one off special.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:38 PM PST - 121 comments

Hab SoSlI' Quch! (Your mother has a smooth forehead!)

Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na'vi real languages?

Dictionaries: Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki [pdf] and Na'vi
Phrases: Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na'vi
posted by desjardins at 12:30 PM PST - 41 comments

Klubok

Klubok, or Ball of Yarn, made in 1968, is a short animated film based on a Russian folk tale about a poor old woman and what happens after she finds a magic ball of yarn one cold winter's night. The movie was directed by Nikolai Serebryakov and the music was created by Eduard Artemiev.
posted by orange swan at 12:25 PM PST - 7 comments

Bobby Beausoleil

Truman Capote Interviews Manson Family Member Bobby Beausoleil, via Dangerous Minds.
posted by latkes at 12:16 PM PST - 8 comments

I think the 0.7 mm provides the best of everything this pen has to offer

The first time I tried a Jetstream, it was one of a friend’s pens, and I completely derailed all conversation around me to drool wide-eyed at the writing experience and reverently whisper ‘WHERE DID YOU GET THIS PEN? - The web's leading pen bloggers on what is the best pen.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:04 PM PST - 204 comments

Shutdown showdown

If the Federal Government shuts down on October 1st, the DC city government is supposed to shut down as well. In a bid to keep the city functioning, Mayor Vince Gray has declared all city employees "essential." Non-voting Rep Eleanor Holmes Norton and the DC GOP are also petitioning Congress to keep the city open. The District's budget comes from local taxes, but needs Congressional approval to spend it's own money.
posted by troika at 11:31 AM PST - 378 comments

Piano And Rain

At the end of a long work week, maybe you could use a bit of relaxation. Pleasantly soothing, delightfully literal, PianoAndRain.com does what it says on the tin. [autoplay sounds, in case it wasn't obvious]
posted by vytae at 10:43 AM PST - 29 comments

Weather is fine in Fargo

"On September 19th, the Census Bureau released the American Community Survey (ACS) estimates of poverty and income. Based on a much larger survey sample than the older Current Population Survey, the ACS affords a closer look at state, regional, and local income patterns (like health and education spending). It is not a pretty picture." --Neat Data visualizations of the survey info from Dissent Magazine.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:27 AM PST - 8 comments

Aus dem Befreiungsschlag der Rockfans wurde eine Institution.

The Rockpalast archive. Some 670 concerts.
posted by muckster at 10:14 AM PST - 14 comments

“I have to go,” he said. “I have to go do crimes.”

A Day In the Life of a Troubled Male Antihero
posted by overeducated_alligator at 8:25 AM PST - 99 comments

Ripe For The Picking

Ask A Native New Yorker: How Guilty Should I Feel About Being A Horrible Gentrifier? Passionate response from a Bushwick native.
posted by The Whelk at 8:18 AM PST - 209 comments

You will never (again) find a more wretched hive of SCUMM and villainy

"[Lucas] understood the nature of play—and games—but we didn't have the time with him that we needed," said one person familiar with high-level meetings at LucasArts. “It never felt like people at the top cared about making great games,” said another person connected to LucasArts. “A lot of awesome projects never went anywhere because, ‘it’s not gonna make enough money.’”
How LucasArts Fell Apart (SLKotaku article) [more inside]
posted by zombieflanders at 8:10 AM PST - 53 comments

Black Managers in English Football

Why are there so few black managers in English football? Sol Campbell thinks he'll have to leave England and go abroad to find his opportunities.
posted by josher71 at 8:07 AM PST - 6 comments

Tamara was in attendance and also ended up enjoying herself

40 days before her wedding, an Atlanta woman named Tamara Fowler cancelled the event. Since her parents, Carol and Willie Fowler had already paid for the 200-person reception, the family decided to host 200 of Atlanta's homeless population for a four-course meal.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:59 AM PST - 23 comments

It Was Either That Or "I Will Remember You" by Sarah MacLachlan

Steve Ballmer bid farewell to Microsoft employees today after nearly 14 years as CEO, and he did it in his usual understated fashion. [more inside]
posted by entropicamericana at 7:00 AM PST - 50 comments

There is to "top" to the World Wide Web

Line Mode Browser 2013: An emulator of the first cross-platform web browser. (Previously)
posted by Cash4Lead at 6:37 AM PST - 22 comments

$11,500 FOR THE EMPORER

Got $11,500 to throw away, a lot of free time, and an unbearable urge to burn all the heretics? Games Workshop is selling the Ultramarines chapter. All of them. Almost 1200 miniatures, unpainted, unassembled, just in time for your three year retreat from all human contact. That's okay, the people you would have hung out with are probably cultists anyway. via i09
posted by Ghidorah at 6:08 AM PST - 47 comments

IPCC posts fifth update on climate change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released its latest update. [more inside]
posted by smoke at 2:13 AM PST - 163 comments

Action-Adventure Space Opera Manners Romances and Coming-of-Age Stories

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Agent of Change and Fledgling are now available as free downloads. Starting points in the Liaden Universe, a space opera series notable for its romance elements and convoluted publication history, their particular sequences (among others) in the same setting take noticeably different approaches to common themes such as complicated manners, familial obligations, and meeting a soulmate. Not to mention humanoid turtles. And occasional cats. [more inside]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 1:56 AM PST - 14 comments

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