January 29, 2009

200 Centimeters under the Sea

"To pedal the 3700 kilometres of open water from Cape Verde off the west coast of Africa to Barbados in the Caribbean should take around 50 days..." Engineer and machinist Ted Ciamillo has built a human powered mini-submarine, designed around a larger version of his Lunocet carbon-fibre "tail" for divers, for an Atlantic Ocean crossing.... The "SubHuman project".
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 10:35 PM PST - 23 comments

A sweet little video for an Oren Lavie song

A sweet little stop-motion SLYT, found on Lauging Squid.
posted by serazin at 9:48 PM PST - 22 comments

Yes yes! Pick me!

Save the Words. Do lost words still have meaning? Just because society has neglected them doesn't make them any less of a word. How do you get lost words back in the dictionary? With lexicographers scanning publications and other communication for words not currently housed in the dictionary, all you need do is use your adopted words as often as possible. Go, Adopt a Word. Like graocracy.* * - government by an old woman or women. [more inside]
posted by Tufa at 9:44 PM PST - 39 comments

to take brass and fire into his mouth

Army reports highest rate of soldier suicides for three decades in 2008. [more inside]
posted by batmonkey at 9:21 PM PST - 20 comments

The Music Text Composition Generator

The P22 Music Text Composition Generator allows any text to be converted into a musical composition. This composition is displayed in musical notation and simultaneously generated as a midi file. The P22 Music Composition Font was proposed in 1997 to the John Cage Trust as an accompaniment to the John Cage text font based on the handwriting of the composer. The idea was basic and simple-every letter of the alphabet was assigned to a note on a scale. This would allow for any text to be converted into musical notation.
posted by Sailormom at 7:52 PM PST - 17 comments

Your Cheatin' Car....

Do you cheat? Do you have a car? Sorry.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 6:41 PM PST - 89 comments

If A Tree Falls in the Forest, The Man is Still Wrong

Most wives are Mad at Dad. "We're mad that having children has turned our lives upside down much more than theirs. We're mad that these guys, who can manage businesses or keep track of thousands of pieces of sports trivia, can be clueless when it comes to what our kids are eating and what supplies they need for school. And more than anything else, we're mad that they get more time to themselves than we do."
posted by Xurando at 5:45 PM PST - 203 comments

Somebody alert Jeff Goldblum

Scientists from the University of Michigan and the University of Maryland have managed to teleport information from one isolated atom to another over a distance of one meter, without it ever crossing space. Here's how they did it. [more inside]
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:11 PM PST - 44 comments

Douchecastle stumbled to my apartment in the wee hours all lathered up and nostalgic.

I bang the worst dudes (Sorry Mom)
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 4:16 PM PST - 87 comments

Dear Deer

Dear Deer by Kate Micucci [more inside]
posted by Del Far at 3:47 PM PST - 12 comments

Your morning coffee in a cup this big.

If I made a commercial for Trader Joe's. [more inside]
posted by miss lynnster at 3:40 PM PST - 65 comments

Nuclear Proliferation Has A Home on the Interwebs

One of the kings of nuclear proliferation has his own website. No mention of house arrest though.
posted by brookeb at 3:02 PM PST - 11 comments

One man's extreme...

Extreme pornography illegal in Britain since Monday, 26 January, thanks to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. Aside from changes to custodial sentencing guidelines (and early release guidelines to ease overcrowding), the most controversial aspect of the law relates to the legal definition of extreme pornography. An image is deemed to be extreme if it "is grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character" and "it portrays in an explicit and realistic way, any of the following (a) an act which threatens a person’s life, (b) an act which results, or is likely to result, in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals (c) an act which involves sexual interference with a human corpse (d) a person performing an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal (whether dead or alive) BDSM groups, among others, have campaigned and protested against the law. Aside from concerns about the legality of kink, some have pointed out that some comics and graphic novels would also fall afoul of the new law.
posted by Grrlscout at 2:37 PM PST - 87 comments

Knighthood For A Deserving Capuchin

While some may think him a sellout, others see folk hero. The good people of St. Paul, Minnesota? They're gonna knight him tonight. [more inside]
posted by GamblingBlues at 2:22 PM PST - 13 comments

The Red Belt Moves On

Jiu-Jitsu legend Helio Gracie has died. From sickly child of a poor Brazilian family to a fighting legend, Helio Gracie (nicknamed Caxinguele or Squirrel by his family), inspired a paradigm shift in Martial Arts. He will be Missed.
posted by tkchrist at 1:38 PM PST - 46 comments

No Panic in Detroit

Man found dead [warning, graphic] in the former Detroit Public Schools Book Depository. [more inside]
posted by cjorgensen at 12:49 PM PST - 86 comments

No Jesus for you!

The Jesus Project, established by The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, is "the first methodologically agnostic examination of the question of Jesus’ historical existence." The Project recently held its first conference, which included presentations from several individuals who argue against the historical existence of Jesus. R. Joseph Hoffmann, Chair of the CSER, writes, "I do not think we are dealing with a man who became god, but a god who was made man."
posted by No Robots at 12:47 PM PST - 63 comments

Phony Guantanamo Recidivism Numbers?

"The Department of Defense claimed in a dramatic press briefing on January 13 that “61 in all former Guantanamo detainees are confirmed or suspected of returning to the fight” of terrorism." ...troubling is the Defense Department’s listing of the released Uighurs, who were completely exonerated by an internal military hearing. They’ve done nothing wrong. However, one of them wrote an op-ed column for the New York Times proclaiming that “I was locked up and mistreated for being in the wrong place at the wrong time during America's war in Afghanistan.” He also said in the same editorial: “The United States [is] a country I deeply admire.” That’s “suspected of going back into the battlefield”? Only if you are delusional. [more inside]
posted by 445supermag at 12:45 PM PST - 33 comments

65 years ago, was to lift the blockade of Leningrad

Every day we go on to the streets, dying at his defenders who thought about us. About us, that they were not destined to see. But we can remember!

And imagine that the horror that the people was to survive.

WWII era Photographs, I assume, of Leningrad combined with current photographs. This era has also recently been portrayed effectively by David Benioff in his novel City of Thieves. Found the pictures via Warren Ellis who thinks the photographer may be Sergei Larenkov.
posted by zzazazz at 12:42 PM PST - 16 comments

"Luckiest fan in America"

Lionel Rodia: Superfan
posted by JVA at 12:08 PM PST - 32 comments

Deadly Symbiosis

Deadly Symbiosis: Rethinking race and imprisonment in twenty-first-century America.
posted by lunit at 11:59 AM PST - 16 comments

ZOMBIES AHEAD!

CAUTION! ZOMBIES! AHEAD!!! [more inside]
posted by butterstick at 11:50 AM PST - 53 comments

Xstream(ing) videos . . .

Enjoy a wide selection of free extreme sports shorts [flash] in the "Sweetspots" section of the Nike ACG website. Includes further ridiculousness shot in the same location as this previous post
posted by protorp at 11:23 AM PST - 4 comments

It is pronounced "uh-GRIK-oh-lah."

Vegetable farming! Boar breeding! All the maniac thrills of 17th century agriculture -- on your tabletop! Since its introduction two years ago, Agricola has grown from being a German hit to a runaway success worldwide -- at least among the niche market of serious board game fans. [more inside]
posted by Shepherd at 11:18 AM PST - 34 comments

Best two out of three! Thousand.

RPS-101. All 5,050 gestures and outcomes; the interactive chart. [previously]
Direct descendant of RPS-25 [Flash Game] [previously]; RPS-15, -11, -9, and -7; evolved from RPSSL.
All of these are more complex forms of Rock, Paper, Scissors [previously]
What would the World RPS Society [previously 1 2 3 | documentary] think of this inflation?
(International versions also available via AskMetaFilter: Japanese, Korean)
posted by not_on_display at 11:16 AM PST - 16 comments

World Building

Interview with Jon Schindehette, senior art director at Wizards of the Coast for Dungeons and Dragons. See more fantasy art at his blog, ArtOrder.
posted by Artw at 10:26 AM PST - 24 comments

Some articles about Blade Runner

Some articles about Blade Runner
posted by nthdegx at 10:17 AM PST - 59 comments

Flying Jetpack

"OK, it's the 21st Century," you say. "Where's my jetpack?" Here you go!
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:16 AM PST - 48 comments

Bomb, Blitz, Fumble, or Pass - Super Bowl Ads Go Long

It's time to get ready for the Super Bowl... Ads! Adland has freely available archives of 37 years of commercials from the big game, over 2,800 ads - from 1969, when Winston, Salem, Camel, Tareyton, Pall Mall, and Silva Thins smoked up the Bowl *cough-cough*, all the way to 2008, when the best-liked ad was Bud's dalmation inspiration (how do we know it was best liked? SCIENCE!). Some highlights of the collection include: [more inside]
posted by taz at 10:11 AM PST - 40 comments

Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East.

Work by more than 20 contemporary artists from the Middle East is being showcased at the Saatchi Gallery.

"Their art isn't (like so much western art) about consumerism or celebrity or art itself; it's about suicide bombers, religious police, unending war, and the denigration of women in Islamic societies."
posted by gman at 10:05 AM PST - 5 comments

The Motorots are attacking Zantoo!

Invasion of the Big Robots! Say what you will about the decline of Garfield, but he had his brighter moments, like the time he woke up in the wrong cartoon and had to fight the big robots. Garfield and Friends writer Mark Evanier tells the story behind this budget-busting episode. [Previously] [more inside]
posted by Servo5678 at 9:57 AM PST - 3 comments

So here is our most important piece of advice: remember who your dad really is.

Sasha and Malia, here is some advice to you from two sisters who have stood where you will stand and who have lived where you will live:The Bush girls friend Sasha and Malia [more inside]
posted by pianomover at 9:51 AM PST - 66 comments

May you never lay your head down without a hand to hold.

John Martyn: 11th September 1948 - 29th January 2009
posted by Kiwi at 8:22 AM PST - 36 comments

Nicotiana alata, up close and personal

Three scanning electron microscope images of the plant Nicotiana alata.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:47 AM PST - 47 comments

Your ISP: "Sunlight is the best disinfectant"

Wanna test if your ISP (or company or university) is blocking or throttling BitTorrent traffic? Want some tools to diagnose network problems in your "last mile" connection? Google to the rescue: M-Lab! Predictably, with the recent announcement and publicity, the servers are now getting hammered. So post this? You can help: Host a Glasnost server (tests for BitTorrent). *Results so far. Coming soon are apps to "Determine whether an ISP is giving some traffic a lower priority than other traffic" and "Determine whether an ISP is degrading the performance of a certain subset of users, applications, or destinations". Power to the People, bay-bee!
posted by spock at 7:10 AM PST - 58 comments

Can the BBC survive?

A biased shadow of its former self, a waste of money dominated by champagne socialists, a victim of media fragmentation, a political pawn or still the trusted heart of the UK's (and, arguably, the world's) broadcasting world? As scandal after scandal threatens to undermine confidence in the BBC and the voices calling for the dissolution of the licence fee gain a more cohesive platform, can the BBC survive, - is it the solution or the problem, and can the British public really afford to let it die the death of a thousand cuts? On the day after the BBC announces it will put every UK publically owned oil painting online and the Director General talks about the BBC's "special responsibility" to culture in the UK, what should the role of the BBC be and, perhaps more importantly, what should it cost?
posted by MuffinMan at 6:27 AM PST - 50 comments

Physio-logical

Perfect Balance If this is Flash Fun, then today must be Friday. [more inside]
posted by DU at 6:06 AM PST - 46 comments

The high cost of Lisa's tiger-repellant rock

Leaving office, President Bush claimed "that he took 'a deliberate and comprehensive approach' to preventing terrorism that combined military action overseas with strong defensive measures at home."
[As early as 2002] "We knew that the mortgage-brokerage industry was corrupt... Where we would have gotten a sense of what was really going on was the point where the mortgage was sold knowing that it was a piece of dung and it would be turned into a security. But the agents with the expertise had been diverted to counterterrorism."
[. . . . FBI Director Robert] "Mueller actually circumvented the Justice Department and the OMB to get resources. But he was shut down" by the [Bush A]dministration. [. . . . Testifying in October 2004, ] Chris Swecker, then assistant director of the criminal investigation division said ... "The potential impact of mortgage fraud on financial institutions in the stock market is clear. If fraudulent practices become systemic within the mortgage industry and mortgage fraud is allowed to become unrestrained, it will ultimately place financial institutions at risk and have adverse effects on the stock market."
posted by orthogonality at 4:09 AM PST - 71 comments

When Karaoke Attacks

The video for Metronomy's A Thing For Me features a psychotic karaoke ball. Single Link Music Video.
posted by minifigs at 2:58 AM PST - 20 comments

TripAdvisor's Dirtiest Hotels 2009: Don't Let The Bedbugs Bite

TripAdvisor's 2009 Top Ten Dirtiest Hotels in the USA, Asia Pacific, UK, and elsewhere. Topping the list: the Hotel Carter, Times Square. [The Carter recently mentioned here.]
posted by milquetoast at 1:14 AM PST - 57 comments

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