October 7, 2008

Son of Citation Machine!!!

"Holy easy citation Batman!" [more inside]
posted by auralcoral at 11:36 PM PST - 27 comments

Reality sucks. Let's escape for a little while.

Here there be dragons. On 8 October 2008, the #1 book on Amazon.com was Christopher Paolini’s Brisingr, the third book of the Inheritance quartet. The books recount the adventures of Eragon and Saphira, the last Free Dragon, but they are hardly free from past influences. In medieval lore, dragons are man’s great foe, a monstrous version of the serpent from the garden of Eden. Raphael’s painting (c. 1506) of St. George and the Dragon evokes this idea, but dragons and their heraldic relatives, the wyverns, gained a more positive reputation over time. Look to Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle for the inspiration behind Paolini's dragons, or try Dealing with Dragons, geared towards younger readers. There be dragons on bookshelves everywhere.
posted by woodway at 11:03 PM PST - 45 comments

Mad tooth bar chin-up

Someone finally figured out the lyrics to the WKRP in Cincinnati closing theme song. (SLYT)
posted by evilcolonel at 10:49 PM PST - 34 comments

Space Tarzan

Aether: lonely boy befriends a mysterious monster, leaves Earth to explore the galaxy. A quick, relaxing, hypnotic, motion-aftereffect-inducing flash game. Programming/music/design by Tyler Glaiel with further art/design by Edmund McMillen. [more inside]
posted by Korou at 10:03 PM PST - 14 comments

Like nailing Jello to the wall.

"Nailing down Senator Obama's various tax proposals is like nailing Jello to the wall." Well, how hard is it, really? Initial attempts are not too promising. Some creative engineering fares better, but not a whole lot. Of course, Jesus can help. Oh well -- at least you can set it on fire. [more inside]
posted by limon at 9:28 PM PST - 33 comments

The wrong fonts in ‘Mad Men’ (and sometimes the right ones)

Definitive guide to fonts on Mad Men. Mostly the fonts that didn’t exist during the time of the show. Not every single thing is “historically accurate,” apparently. [more inside]
posted by joeclark at 9:18 PM PST - 23 comments

One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

A massive global study concludes a quarter of the 5,487 wild mammal species on the planet are threatened with extinction, according to a report released Monday at a World Conservation Congress in Spain. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 9:01 PM PST - 7 comments

Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
posted by phrontist at 8:34 PM PST - 28 comments

Well there goes Reykjavik

More subprime collateral damage. Iceland's now getting a $5B bailout from Russia. What does Russia want in return? Access to shipping lanes? The old US base? via
posted by blahblah at 8:29 PM PST - 48 comments

Free video game music - whoo-hoo!

CNet's Music site is one of my favorite sources of often surprisingly good independent music. As I write this, I'm listening to Zo Wanti Music's Lost Ship, a mellow New Age environmental piece that is very nice and relaxing. They have an enormous selection of music here, but one of the oddest and sometimes most rewarding to pick through is the game soundtracks/musical scores section. The artists listed here all compose music for video games (or have in the past). It's strangely fun to listen to some of their pieces and wonder what game that could belong to.
posted by Reverend Robbie at 7:20 PM PST - 1 comments

Write In My Journal

Write In My Journal "I simply ask people to write in my journal. What they write is up to them...." Such a simple, elegantly beautiful idea.
posted by azul at 5:59 PM PST - 11 comments

Zeitgeist: Addendum

We already talked (self-link, sorta) about Zeitgeist: The Movie. Its author, Peter Joseph, recently released Zeitgeist: Addendum. (beware: last two links are two hour movies) This time, it’s about money and debt, scarcity and resources. The first, financial part may look like an extended Ron Paul ad, but then there’s a sudden turn towards resource-based utopian techno-communalism, and an endorsement for The Venus project. It seems to me like "Kropotkinian anarchism meets The Matrix". In these rough times, is it time for a big leap? [Also announced: The Zeitgeist Movement, still not active]
posted by Baldons at 4:40 PM PST - 21 comments

A More Palatable Proposal

Yes We Can (eat babies)!
posted by youarenothere at 4:21 PM PST - 41 comments

Screw Disneyland. We're Going to the St. Regis Resort Monarch Beach!

Last month (Sept. 16, 2008) the American taxpayers bailed out insurance giant American International Group (AIG) to the tune of $85 billion dollars. So, asked "what ya' goin' do now after the bailout?" top executives said "party it up at the St. Regis Resort Monarch Beach (Dana Point, CA) for a week (September 22 - 30, 2008). Total costs? Invoice: $443,343.71. "$200,000 dollars for hotel rooms. Almost $150,000 for catered banquets. AIG spent $23,000 at the hotel spa and another $1,400 at the salon." Said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD): "They were getting manicures, facials, pedicures and massages while American people were footing the bill. And they spent another $10,000 dollars for I don’t know what this is, leisure dining. Bars?"
posted by ericb at 4:00 PM PST - 148 comments

Ray and Roast Beef get physical

Chris Onstad's online comic Achewood has recently gotten some semi-mainstream media attention: A Salon piece and an NPR interview with the author related to the publication of a print version of the ultra-violent epic The Great Outdoor Fight of 2006. The online version in its entirety begins innocently enough here. previously.
posted by longsleeves at 2:33 PM PST - 74 comments

Waiting on you hand and foot

A restaurant in Japan employs Monkey Waiters. They're not the worst waiters in the world and you only have to tip them with edamame.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 12:12 PM PST - 60 comments

"We had hoped to finish last, but Portugal decided otherwise."

Marc Moulin, Belgian pop culture polymath and electropop pioneer, has died. Moulin was probably best known outside of Belgium for the electronic group Telex, founded in 1978 with Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers. Telex scored an international hit with Moskow Diskow, made a great video for their version of Twist a Saint-Tropez, did anything but Rock Around the Clock and, most famously, entered the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest with a cheerfully mocking song titled Euro-Vision. [more inside]
posted by grounded at 12:09 PM PST - 8 comments

video art 1984 1- 4

Video Art 1984
posted by vronsky at 11:19 AM PST - 13 comments

Kilmer House

Kilmer House, the most engrossing corporate-based blog I've ever experienced, tells "The Story Behind Johnson & Johnson and Its People", from the days of the company's inception. Posts include strange products like silk and velvet Beauty Spots, a sherry-based cola drink, pain relievers laced with belladonna and kidney plasters; the difficulty marketing early feminine products to a prudish society; Doctor Dan the Bandage Man; why J & J is allowed to use the Red Cross on its packaging; and the iconic artistry behind the company's early ad campaigns.
posted by misha at 11:17 AM PST - 9 comments

Now we need to implement this for Metafilter comments.

Google rolls out Mail Goggles, designed to prevent drunk or otherwise impaired emailing by forcing you to answer basic math questions. And no, it's not April 1st.
posted by mattholomew at 11:11 AM PST - 67 comments

Sweden - a safe haven for... innovation?

Talking about Sweden and music has up until now either dealt with The Swedish Music Export Phenomenon or how Sweden is a safe haven for pirates. That might change now. Today Spotify launched (that is, for people in Sweden, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland or Norway). A streaming music application that provides full on demand playing. Available in ad-supported (30s twice per hour) free mode or premium mode (~$15 per month). [more inside]
posted by mnsc at 10:47 AM PST - 7 comments

Translated for Courage

“I have seen many Anne Franks in Cambodia....Under Pol Pot, many children were separated from their families. They faced starvation and were sent to the front to fight and die,” she explains. “Like Anna, they never knew peace and the warmth of a home.” Translated by Sayana Ser with help from the Dutch embassy in Cambodia (Kampuchea, Khmer), The Diary of Anne Frank has now become one of the most popular and discussed books in this war-torn country.
posted by parmanparman at 10:23 AM PST - 7 comments

Take THAT, Louis Phillipe!

Thomas Nast, Honoré Daumier, Bill Mauldin, David Low, Theodor Geisel, Herblock, and good grief, more Herblock! In honor of some sort of election that's apparently coming up, Comics Should Be Good! will be featuring one ink-stained satirist every day this October! Visit the Stars of Political Cartooning Month Archive for daily updates.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:12 AM PST - 12 comments

Metafilter -> MeFi -> Mefi

Evolution of Corporate Logos
posted by gwint at 8:50 AM PST - 76 comments

The women of Bamian.

"Far away from the Taliban insurgency, in this most peaceful corner of Afghanistan, a quiet revolution is gaining pace. Women are driving cars — a rarity in Afghanistan — working in public offices and police stations, and sitting on local councils. There is even a female governor, the first and only one in Afghanistan." Carlotta Gall writes about promising developments in Bamian. (NY Times; print version.)
posted by languagehat at 8:22 AM PST - 19 comments

Don Helms, steel guitar master, passes on.

Don Helms, the steel guitarist in Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys band, died on August 11. He was 81. Don provided the smooth-as-silk string stylings for over 100 of Hank's tunes, including Hey Good Lookin' and I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. See Don demonstrate some of that steel guitar goodness in a snazzy version of Blues Stay Away From Me, or this instrumental rendition of Hank's Cold Cold Heart, or this sprightly little number, Fireball Mail. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:56 AM PST - 9 comments

Talking Points Memo: How it began

…if you are the single newspaper in San Francisco or Kansas City or St. Louis, you are just highly constrained about how rigorous you can be in the accuracy of your reporting. Because the whole model is: You are appealing to everybody. Because the whole model is: You are appealing to everybody. … That's why the existence of an independent media sector is so important.
Talking Points Memo is one of the more notable successes in independent journalism and using blogs as a format for journalism. It has broken at least a couple of stories that got picked up by the mainstream press: The Duke Cunningham bribery scandal, and the U.S. Attorneys firing scandal. It's grown from being a one-man shop in 2000 to a staff of ten today. Josh Marshall talks about how it came to be.
posted by adamrice at 7:13 AM PST - 51 comments

Town Meeting! Town Meeting!

Ah, the town-hall debate. Where Joe Sixpack and Jane Chardonnay can have their chance to ask a presidential candidate just about anything. Of course, such an open format can sometimes lead to uncomfortable moments for a candidate (although tonight might not have such fireworks). [more inside]
posted by shiu mai baby at 7:10 AM PST - 888 comments

Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants

Oasis have been accused of plagiarizing Cliff Richard. Does 'The Turning' have a certain resemblance to 'Devil Woman'? If so, it would not the first time... [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:41 AM PST - 65 comments

2008 Nobel Prize for Physics

Nobels for Physics announced. The prize will be shared between three individuals, including one American teaching at the University of Chicago. The other two winners are from Japan, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa .
posted by leybman at 5:38 AM PST - 19 comments

TIGsource Demakes competition results

Nearly a month ago jbickers made a post that mentioned the TIGsource Demakes competition. The competition is over, and the winners have been announced. All of these are playable. Most are for Windows, except for those that are Flash or something else:
1. Soundless Mountain II (Atari 2600 Silent Hill) (from previous post)
2. Gang Garrison II (Kyntt Stories-like Team Fortress 2, complete with multiplayer)
3. Aquarium (NES-ish Aquaria)
4. Little Girl in Underland (Soviet McGee's Alice)
5. House Globe (Homeworld)
6. S.T.A.C.K.E.R. (Nuclear Tetris)
7. Squish
(Crush is a PSP game where the player can switch the world between a 2D and 3D representation. Squish is a game in which the player switches between a 2D and a 1D representation. See for yourself.) 8. (tie) Fillauth and Advanced Set The Rope On Fire Cartridge (an Intellivision-like remake of this, previously mentioned)
9. Sexy Seaside Vollyball (NSFW, pixelated breasts) (Sinclair Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Vollyball)
10. Macarena of the Missing (A thematically-appropriate demake of Limbo of the Lost)

Lots more after the jump! [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 3:19 AM PST - 29 comments

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