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The One Second Film. Your name could be listed above Christina Ricci for only $5.51.
posted by fungible at 11:13 PM PST - 8 comments

Misty Keasler's photographic essays range from quirky views of her east Texas extended family and Japanese love hotels to unsettling essays on orphanages and the Guatemala City dump. flash. via gordon.coale.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:06 PM PST - 12 comments

Just in time for Valentine's Day, it's Trailer Trash Turleen, now with trash-talkin' action!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:59 PM PST - 6 comments

Etiquette Hell For those who throw good manners, common decency, and proper etiquette to the wind, here is a website collecting stories about social gaffes that are often hilarious.
posted by livingsanctuary at 8:18 PM PST - 14 comments

Faces of Meth : a visual study of the physical effects of drug abuse.
posted by crunchland at 8:09 PM PST - 64 comments

Blogs are a phenomenon. Technorati, a blog search engine, tracks 6,406,667 blogs. Two years ago, it tracked 100,000. About 27% of adults now read blogs, up from 2% in 2003. But really they're nothing new, says Kevin Maney in USA Today.
posted by rushmc at 7:01 PM PST - 35 comments

Kevin Sites takes a break from Iraq.
posted by srboisvert at 6:47 PM PST - 12 comments

Unexplained death in a nutshell. In the 1930’s International Harvester heiress Frances Glessner Lee built one-inch-to-one foot scale models of violent crimes.
posted by arse_hat at 6:37 PM PST - 15 comments

While Abu Musab al-Zarqawi declares a "bitter war" against democracy, Josh Muravchik suggests that Realists—"those who are skeptical of injecting issues of freedom, democracy and human rights into the conduct of foreign policy"—have historically been less in-step than pro-democracy Idealists. Responding to Bush's Inauguration Day comments about confronting tyranny in the coming years, many Iranians cheered.
posted by jenleigh at 5:11 PM PST - 56 comments

Eyes on the Screen : As was noted here previously, due to issues over clearance rights, 1987's ground-breaking Civil Rights Movement documentary Eyes on the Prize hasn't been available for ten years. Downhill Battle is doing something about it: "On February 8th help us bring this film back to a nationwide audience. Download the film today and organize a screening in your city or town."
posted by webmutant at 4:59 PM PST - 19 comments

climateprediction.net is the largest experiment ever to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century. it's a collaborative project a la seti@home, and they have come up with some interesting results. we've heard about climate change before, but this study indicates that things might be significantly worse than initially thought (double the temperature increase as previously predicted). maybe this is all okay though, even good for you. if you'd like to see that idea nicely debunked, i suggest you check out trust us, we're experts. a lovely little book about how much we can trust all of these studies. makes you wonder if we should have signed this.
posted by christy at 4:33 PM PST - 21 comments

September 11, 2001 is an online documentary from the Library of Congress with "nearly 170 audio and video interviews, totaling 40 hours, with photos, drawings, written narratives and poems." (About the collection.) [via Salon]
posted by kirkaracha at 4:01 PM PST - 16 comments

Long ago, in 1998, the EU looked at the future "... The implications of vertical and horizontal proliferation of this technology and the need for an adequate political response by the EU, to ensure it neither threatens civil liberties in Europe, nor reaches the hands of tyrants."
posted by hank at 3:41 PM PST - 8 comments

"To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about..." - John Waters

Gotta give him credit... he never loses the ability to shake people up, this time on NPR.
Listen for yourself to the "offending" piece here. (Safe bet he's giggling about it all...)
posted by miss lynnster at 2:25 PM PST - 21 comments

Man dances his way around the world [wmv - 36MB] getting jiggy on a mountaintop, busting moves in an impenetrable forest, dodging Hanoi motorcyclists with his finely tuned moves, and, well, I wouldn't want to give anymore away. It's the feel good movie of the season.
posted by donovan at 2:23 PM PST - 33 comments

Jó szórakozást! A collection of 101 of the strangest commercials I've ever seen. Blame it on 1980's Hungary. Or just the 80's. Or Hungary. [via memepool]
posted by Igor XA at 1:43 PM PST - 14 comments

Who thinks this stuff up? Further to concerns discussed here regarding the torture of Guantanamo detainees, some interesting stories are emerging from those released about the creativity of gonzo military interrogation. Eww.
posted by cosmonik at 1:34 PM PST - 38 comments

Budweiser is pulling their "wardrobe malfunction" ad from the Super Bowl because they think someone might be offended by it. But, you can see the ad here: -- after going through their tough "age filter" and then clicking to the commercial. When you can't even make fun of stuff begging to made fun of anymore, that will be a sad day.
posted by narebuc at 1:23 PM PST - 40 comments

How do you donate to charity, play videogames and prove just how freakin' money you are in one fell swoop? If you're Jay Mohr, this is how.
posted by riffraff at 1:11 PM PST - 17 comments

Coulrophobia (fear of clowns) has been around for eons, but there are also people who just plain hate clowns. Perhaps the hatred is a reaction against the rise of clowns in popular culture. Not only have the clowns branched out from their comedy roots, but they have helped to inspire music styles as well as dance movements. Or perhaps this hatred is just an extension of the phobia and a means of coping. Many clowns have embraced their negative image, which has led to a relatively new species of clown - the Evil Clown. Not to be confused with actual clown criminals or the whole clown pr0n phenomena (SFW except text), but rather the clowns who entertain as villains, monsters, and of course the evil clown musicians. Where did the love go?
posted by p3t3 at 12:54 PM PST - 36 comments

This year has been declared the World Year of Physics. Why 2005? To celebrate 100 years since Einstein published three papers that revolutionized physics. In the U.K. and Ireland it is being called Einstein Year, but there are many events planned around the globe.
posted by achmorrison at 12:51 PM PST - 5 comments

Lithium Picnic is one of the multitude of fetish/goth photography sites, but with a low key, only slightly snobbish attitude and many great photos. Apnea, Anyssa, Domiana. (Main link is possibly NSFW, all the photos I linked to are SFW, but others on-site probably are not.)
posted by Captaintripps at 12:38 PM PST - 10 comments

Bossa Nova, Balanco and Samba of the 1960s Get past the Girl from Ipanema and cocktail clichés and check out the music, musicians and cover art of classic Brazilian records. There are hundreds here for looking and listening.
posted by The Salaryman at 12:31 PM PST - 14 comments

Architect Philip Johnson -- first winner of the first Pritzker Prize, and builder of glass houses, is dead at 98. He outlived his rival Frank Lloyd Wright by 47 years. He helped bring modernism to America but would later leave it behind.
posted by gwint at 12:10 PM PST - 31 comments

Is it gone now? The Suck archive seems to have disappeared. For me Suck.com was and still is best of the web, nothing else comes close. Co-founder Carl Steadman’s site, with depressed, cryptic, brilliant and Plastic-hating notes, seems to be fading away as well (Google cache). Well, at least we’ve still got his suicide note.
posted by Termite at 12:02 PM PST - 30 comments

Cancer, Chemicals and History. Some of the biggest chemical companies in the US have launched a campaign to discredit two historians who have written a book about the industry's efforts to conceal links between their products and cancer. Some of the internal documents referenced in the book can be found at the Chemical Industry Archives, a site dedicated to exposing the industry's attempts to conceal the dangers of their products. [Via Disinformation.]
posted by homunculus at 10:28 AM PST - 12 comments

As Iraqis go to the polls on Jan. 30, it will be a daunting first exercise in democracy.
posted by furtive at 10:13 AM PST - 31 comments

"The nation's new education secretary denounced PBS on Tuesday for spending public money on a cartoon with lesbian [BUNNY] characters, saying many parents would not want children exposed to such lifestyles." The "Postcards from Buster" series features a peripatetic bunny, Buster, who travels the country learning about diversity. The new head of the Department of Ed has requested that PBS return the money it used to develop the show featuring the sapphic rabbits. PBS has decided not to distribute the episode to its affiliates, but WGBH has promised to make the show available to stations who want to air it.
posted by mudpuppie at 10:04 AM PST - 56 comments

In vogue during the Middle Ages, chastity belts are making a come back in Pennsylvania. Get yours today from the Pennsylvania State Legislature in time to celebrate their annual Chastity Awareness Week. But of course, what's good for the goose is good for the gander (NSFW) so I expect all (unmarried) Pennsylvanian legislators to be similarly outfitted. Your tax dollars at work to the tune of a quarter billion dollars.
posted by trii at 9:38 AM PST - 25 comments

Let us re-introduce you to Henry Bekkering. "...Most have seen the original...but if you don't know, now you know." (video with sound. sound not necessary to appreciate 40 inch vertical leaps and a two-footed leap from the foul line) [first post]
posted by Al_Truist at 9:38 AM PST - 10 comments

"If a scholar or expert gets paid to do some work for the government, should he or she disclose that if he writes a paper, essay or op-ed on the same or similar subject? If this is the ethical standard, it is an entirely new standard." So says syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher, defending against revelations and accusations by Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post (warning: reg required) that she neglected to disclose that she was paid by the Administration for Children and Families Home Page (part of the Department of Health and Human Services) for consulting work inteded to promote the Administration's "pro-marriage" policies in 2002. Gallagher took a pro-Administration stance repeatedly in her column that same year. Gallagher ultimately cops out with, "I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it." After Armstrong Willaims got caught with his pants down, is "honesty" old and busted, and "I don't remember" the new hotness? (via tp)
posted by mkultra at 7:34 AM PST - 40 comments

Green Neocons
posted by Bag Man at 7:29 AM PST - 33 comments

Dream Job. "It's Linklater's faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel A Scanner Darkly, which is being brought to full paranoid life via Bob Sabiston's gloriously surreal software abilities, which, as in the team's previous Waking Life, utilizes hi-def filmmaking overlayed with a rich, rotoscope-inspired animation. Thirty-plus animators, and, here's the catch, so pay attention: They need more." [via]
posted by gsb at 7:11 AM PST - 43 comments

InspEARations - As part of their 75th anniversary celebration of Mickey Mouse in 2003, Disney collaborated with celebrities and designers to create new takes on the classic pose. The statues include work by Dick Vitale, Jerry Bruckheimer, and James Gandolfini, among others. In case you missed it the first time, they're bringing these statues on tour to parks around the country this spring and summer.
posted by shawnj at 6:09 AM PST - 18 comments

Have you heard of Will Christopher Baer? He writes twisty, noir fiction. His trilogy of Phineas Poe books (Kiss Me, Judas, Penny Dreadful, and Hell's Half Acre) have just been re-released, and Kiss Me, Judas was optioned for a movie. (more inside)
posted by braun_richard at 6:03 AM PST - 7 comments

False Advertising -- A gallery of parody. [via Life in the Present]
posted by Ljubljana at 4:57 AM PST - 13 comments

Boozer vs. monk: the epic. Graphic Forums' Battle Grid is a showcase of "Photoshop tennis"-style showdowns wherein the first player presents an image, and the second player posts a response that incorporates at least some portion of the previous image... and so on. This particular battle began began July 26, 2003 and the latest entry was mid-December, 2004; presumably the battle will continue. This post from September shows a thumbnail synopsis of the action after 26 rounds. A nice (though time-consuming!) thread to follow if you are a fan of collaborative improvisation.
posted by taz at 4:50 AM PST - 7 comments

And then there was one. Following the death of his neighbour Ishaq Levin, Zebulon Simentov has become the last Jew in Afghanistan. There have been Jews here since at least the eighth century, but now Simentov is on his own.

But the saddest fact of all is the fact that up until his death the two men hated each other.
posted by ciderwoman at 4:27 AM PST - 20 comments

US ISP Verizon decided late last year to block any email sent from outside the US. I thought the bounces I was getting from my Verizon contacts were glitches until I googled and found this.

The arrogance of Verizon is astonishing: "If it's really important you might want to make a phone call".
posted by essexjan at 2:35 AM PST - 44 comments