October 21, 2011
High Five
(Every single link: NSFW!) Today was International Fisting Day. "For as long as I’ve done porn, distribution companies and retailers have banned the act of fisting in the films I’ve been in. It feels like it’s always been this way, but that’s not true. It’s only been a little over a decade." Queer porn icon Jiz Lee and auteur Courtney Trouble cant show real sex in mainstream porn. Why? [more inside]
Nadim Damluji, Tintinologist
Hello! My name is Nadim Damluji and I am an aspiring Tintinologist. Nadim Damluji received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, and just finished a year of blogging and retracing Tintin's steps in Belgium, France, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan and China to study Hergé's famous series as a form of Orientalism. [more inside]
"IT TOOK 'EM A YEAR TO CHEW THE GUM ! !"
9 Ideas From Around the World to Fix the American Economy
9 Ideas From Around the World to Fix the American Economy. "People in the U.S. confuse big government and small government as the only two models. What we need is smart government". Selected economic and social policies that actually work - from Germany, Brazil, Israel, Canada, Australia, China, Thailand and Singapore.
Are you Fond of Cycling? Why Not Cycle for the King?
Welcome to the Birmingham Small Arms & Military Bicycle Museum. Always wanted to bicycle with your rifle? Observe the 1942 BSA military Mk. V Roadster. Also featuring the "Airborne", the Airborne folding Paratrooper, the Peugeot Captain Gerard folding bicycle, the Lady Back tandem model T64 with Watsonian sidecar and, many more. See the many vintage posters and learn the exciting history of the soldier-cyclist.
GEGS (9, 4)
Derek Crozier was an idiosyncratic crossword setter who, under the pseudonym Crosaire, ran the Irish Times cryptic crossword singlehandedly for almost 70 years. He died in April 2010 at the age of 92, having compiled over 14000 daily crosswords. The last puzzle completed before his death, number 14605, runs in today's Irish Times. [more inside]
Here, use cream
Rick Genest covers his full body tattoo.
Twenty-six-year-old fashion model Rick Genest, who starred in Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" video and walked Thierry Mugler Men's Fall 2011 runway, puts Dermablend's concealers to the test in the brand's "Go Beyond The Cover" campaign.
A team of three makeup artists worked in just one day using about 4 tubes of Dermablend Professional Leg and Body Tattoo Primer and Leg and Body Cover to conceal Genest's skeletal tattoos from the waist up. In the jaw-dropping, three-minute clip, we see the final result.
E-Sword: The sword of the lord with an electronic edge
For more than a decade E-Sword: The sword of the lord with an electronic edge has been the standard electronic bible available as freeware to anyone with a computer. E-sword is a fantastic resource for anyone wanting to get to know the bible better, whether you are reading from a devotional, historical, critical, or literary standpoint; or just have a habit of getting into arguments with street pastors, doorknockers, or religious relatives and like to win. [more inside]
10 Years since Grand Theft Auto III
10 years since GTA 3 Grand Theft Auto 3 was released on 22nd October 2001 and everything we ever thought we understood about videogames changed. [more inside]
He Inspired Duff Beer
20 Years Later: Duff McKagan [of Neurotic Outsiders / Velvet Revolver / GunsNRoses] and Adam Curry recently sat down and had an interesting conversation in app format
Anything You Can do I Can do Better
In honor of William Shatner's latest album (Previously here and here): here are a few surprising and cross genre covers. Some work well, others are Tiny Tim. Track info and links to the originals inside. [more inside]
The NoDeficits club
How the Austerity Class Rules Washington. Tracing the origin of a political meme. (Via Paul Krugman.)
Microlawns
Microlawns. Very small patches of grass.
You nincompoop.
YouTube Insult Generator. Enter a keyword or phrase, and the Insult Generator will trawl YouTube for relevant videos, and pull insults from those videos. Wired write-up. [via]
It takes some Sachs to raise a villiage
The Millennium Villages, launched in association with the Millennium Development Goals (wiki) adopted by the UN in 2000, recently received a grant of $72 million to continue its work. In a post on the always interesting Guardian Poverty Matters blog, a group of poverty researchers has recently summarized their findings that the project did not plan for a rigorous evaluation, and thus we will not know if they worked. Jeff Sachs, the scholar most strongly associated with the MDVs, disagrees. The blog Development Impact (which, in fairness, is basically all about randomized controlled trials in development) weighs in here and here.
The Human Slingshot
This is THE original human slingshot developed by the Pope family in Hobble Creek Canyon, UT. Just a couple posts and some bungee cords. Filmed with Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 7D.
Bathos
Bathos. A simple puzzle game. Avoid reading spoilers! Players may want to avoid this thread until finished with the game.
Dear Herman, Choose it! Choose to be gay yourself
Dan Savage tells Herman Cain to prove that being gay is a choice. (Not really safe for work.) Dan Savage Previously on Metafilter.
Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?
Why are computer voices mostly female? Apple's 1987 vision of a computerized personal assistant was originally male. Siri's voice is female in the US and Australia, but male in the UK and France. [more inside]
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
The Solitary Walker - a blog (mostly) about walking.
They know they're not viewers.
Week after relentless week, Mike and Tom Eat Snacks continues to push the boundaries of snack-driven podcasting. Their full archives are available on iTunes, or on SoundCloud. [more inside]
The global reach of social networks
Social network popularity around the world in 2011 as determined by Google search statistics. [more inside]
(I'm Sorry Momma) I'm A Wild One.
Live From The House Of Blue Leaves, It's The 5. 6. 7. 8.'s! This all-girl Japanese punk/surf rock trio is best known in the west for performing "Woo Hoo" in Kill Bill Volume One, but two other performances were filmed during shooting, "I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield " and "I'm Blue" (Music starts at 3:01)
Bonus Material:
(I'm Sorry Momma) I'm A Wild One.
Teenage Celopatra
Hanky Panky
Bomb The Twist
Roadrunner
Interviewed on Chic-A-Go-Go
Science is trippy
Try the honey badger!
48 hours. 120 developers. One winning game. Take a peek inside the madness of a 48-hour game development contest, where ramen and caffeine rule the day.
An End to Endless War in Sight?
Obama Announces Full Troop Withdrawal from Iraq by Year's End. Confirming reports that emerged last week that the US does not plan to maintain a residual troop presence in Iraq, the US will pull out of Iraq completely by the end of 2011, bringing to a close a bloody chapter in international history that first began in March 20, 2003. With other recent reports that the administration is considering a faster withdrawal from Afghanistan in the aftermath of Osama Bin Laden's death at the hands of US special forces in May of this year, an end to America's longest running military conflict also seems likely to come soon.
Hollywood occupied with financial crisis
"Attack me in the comments section -- GO."
Jane Pratt (formerly of Sassy Magazine and her eponymous Jane,) launched a website for women: xojane, earlier this year. Last week the site's Health and Beauty Director wrote a blog post explaining that she never uses condoms, birth control pills, or other contraception (for fear of becoming fat) and instead relies on the emergency contraceptive Plan B to prevent pregnancy. And a segment of the internet exploded. (Her responses to some of the comments seem a bit clueless for someone with her title.) Critics have noted that the post was filled with "ignorant" "inaccuracies and misconceptions" about womens' health, sex, Plan B and other forms of birth control. [more inside]
MafiAA cronyism & harassment
A FOIA request by Christopher Soghoian revealed that Obama administration officials, including Copyright Czar Victoria Espinel, Biden’s deputy chief of staff Alan Hoffman, and criminal prosecutor Lanny Breuer, negotiated the deal between ISPs and copyright holders to punish subscribers whose IP addresses participated in copyright infringement. [more inside]
"Nothing prepares you for this. Nothing is rehearsed or written down."
How a Man Can Grieve for a Deceased Friend -- from The Art of Manliness; an ongoing chronicle of masculinity in the 21st Century.
Phibers from the Philippines
Manila folders (the common paper good, not the Filipino contortionists) are made from the fiber of the abacá plant. Sometimes called "Manila hemp" due to its origin in the Philippines, it is not a true hemp because the fibers come from the leaf petiole, not the bast fibers (sourced from the phloem or inner bark) of the plant. The petiole layers, called "tuxies", are stripped off using a tuxying knife and separated either by hand or mechanically. Abacá (Musa textilis) is a relative of bananas and plaintains (both also Musa species). Other than its utility for making the aforementioned common cream-colored office product (also available in non-folder form as "oak tag" or "tag board"), abacá is resistant to salt water and therefore valued for cordage (especially hawsers) and nets. It is also used to make a fabric called Sinamay (often used to make hats) and other common products like rugs and twine (with the coarser outer fibers) and tea bags, filter paper, vacuum cleaner bags, and other papers (with the finer inner fibers.)
Tulip market sees uptick.
"But still, polycythaemia vera – what was that? A disease that sounded like a Greek goddess spliced with an East End pub-landlady..."
Will Self: The trouble with my blood. [The Guardian] Diagnosed with a rare blood disease, author Will Self has to endure weekly 'venesections' in hospital. He reflects on illness, addiction and mortality. [Will Self - Previously].
Thanksgiving Timelapse
First they came for the hippies
Protesters in the Occupy Melbourne camp have been physically removed by riot police ahead of the Queen's visit to the city next week. The violence has prompted the small sit-in to escalate into a march of thousands through the city's central business district. [more inside]
Old(est?) working seismograph in the U.S.
Inside the Favelas
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