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Can mandatory social media service save America? Edward Boches is Chief Innovation Officer (formerly Chief Creative Officer and Chief Social Media Officer) at Mullen, a full service modern advertising agency. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 10:34 PM PST - 39 comments

"Portland, Ore-gone. A city where everyone knows things before you do." Featuring Rainn Wilson, Mayor Sam Adams and those Portlandia folks. Either shilling for the new Colin Meloy book, or just referencing it. IT'S SO IRONIC, WHO CAN TELL?!?! Ahem. YouTube link. Enjoy.
posted by thomsplace at 9:37 PM PST - 36 comments

"Because you know most babies don't cry ..." "In South Dakota, Native American children make up only 15 percent of the child population, yet they make up more than half the children in foster care. An NPR News investigation has found that the state is removing 700 native children every year, sometimes in questionable circumstances. "
posted by HuronBob at 8:03 PM PST - 96 comments

An unusual new Pakistani band's first single courts controversy, and provides a window into a side of Pakistan rarely seen in Western news. The Beyghairat Brigade musically satirizes the politics of Pakistan, and goes viral. [more inside]
posted by StrikeTheViol at 7:34 PM PST - 29 comments

Bangkok is facing the worst floods it has seen in over 50 years. This nice little animated video helps you make sense of the overall situation and the possible impact (Thai audio, English subtitles)
posted by awfurby at 7:31 PM PST - 22 comments

Best Grammar Blog of 2011 has been announced - A Clil To Climb. The competition was intense.
posted by unliteral at 5:55 PM PST - 23 comments

experienceproject and Is It Normal? invite and share people's stories of literally any life experience, from trivial to all-important, from people missing their dogs to procrastination, from experiences with LSD to stories of having given birth, and from being the other woman to belly button phobias, walking in circles while listening to music, and much more.
posted by shivohum at 5:54 PM PST - 21 comments

Gen Xers Lead Happy, Balanced Lives - the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research publishes a 'surprisingly positive portrait' of GenX. Here is the full report on the cohort study (PDF).
posted by Argyle at 4:59 PM PST - 72 comments

The San Francisco Symphony’s radio project, The Keeping Score Series: 13 Days When Music Changed Forever, is about musical revolutions—about the composers, compositions, and musical movements that changed the way people heard, or thought about, music. Each program explores the historical backdrop and the musical precursors to the revolutionary change, as well as the lasting influence of that moment in music history. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 4:08 PM PST - 35 comments

News up on the Archimedes Palimpsest, now being exhibited at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. [website] [previously]
posted by Twang at 3:30 PM PST - 9 comments

Today, an eight foot tall Lego man washed up ashore in Siesta Key Village, Florida. This is not the first time this has happened. The figures are the creation of Ego Leonard, an enigmatic figure in his own right.
posted by theartandsound at 3:23 PM PST - 37 comments

The B53 wasn’t just any old megabomb. It was the first bunker buster. U.S. nuclear doctrine called for it to be delivered over suspected underground Soviet command-and-control facilities. The dumb bomb wouldn’t destroy them so much as it would destroy everything remotely near it, leaving — literally — a smoldering crater. That was the U.S. plan for “victory” in a nuclear war right up until the implosion of the Soviet Empire. (related) [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 2:59 PM PST - 79 comments

"Before you make a complete fool of yourself when you send a link to your friends, colleagues or twitter followers (or post it to Metafilter) use ISITOLD.COM to make sure it's fresh enough." May not work on some long urls.
=== That's "IS IT OLD", not "IS I TOLD". ===
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:24 PM PST - 50 comments

"Art Tatum was [one of the two] dominant piano players of the 1930s, astounding everyone with his technique, most especially other piano players, who were convinced he was playing the impossible" -- Chick Corea, hosting a segment on the largely overlooked Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. If that display of skill and improvisation has you interested, here are a few documentaries about the mostly blind piano man who made other pianists question their instrument choice, yet often left the public at large overwhelmed (or unimpressed): Toledo Stories: The Tatum Legacy (YouTube, 28 minutes) :: Art Tatum - The Art Of Jazz Piano (YT, 52 min.) :: Art Tatum: A Talent Never to Be Duplicated (NPR, audio only, 11 min.) :: Art Tatum, 'The Musician's Musician' (NPR audio, 54 min.) [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 2:20 PM PST - 33 comments

"The perishing of fabrics and the rotting of early rubber, due to chemical instabilities and damp conditions, create new and sinister, puzzling abnormalities. Time and repeated wear have caused a beautiful metamorphosis, never intended or imagined by the maker." Haunted Air: "A glimpse of how the old, weird America celebrated All-Hallows Eve."
posted by billypilgrim at 2:06 PM PST - 24 comments

Poignant 7-minute tale of, well, the title says it all (SLYT). Fantastic quality for a short film.
posted by ironjelly at 2:02 PM PST - 25 comments

Alyssa Rosenberg of Think Progress on why CBS's new show 2 Broke Girls is the closest thing we have to a 99% Movement Comedy.
posted by reenum at 1:53 PM PST - 69 comments

Nest is a "brave new thermostat" from one of the creators of the iPod. It learns from your temperature adjustments.
posted by Avenger50 at 1:38 PM PST - 78 comments

CHARGEMAN KEN episode 35: DYNAMITE IN THE BRAIN (Youtube, 5:19)
...in which our poorly-animated, generic 70s anime boy superhero finds a unique way to thwart the villains' plans. (Via the excellent let's anime.) [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 1:32 PM PST - 15 comments

Inside the Mind of the Octopus:

"The heavy lid covering her tank separated our two worlds. One world was mine and yours, the reality of air and land, where we lumber through life governed by a backbone and constrained by jointed limbs and gravity. The other world was hers, the reality of a nearly gelatinous being breathing water and moving weightlessly through it."

In exploring the world and personality of the octopus, a journalist relates his interactions with a Giant Pacific Octopus and provides a look at the remarkable intelligence of the short lived cephalopods. [via]
posted by quin at 1:16 PM PST - 66 comments

MapCrunch, which transports you to a random location in Google Street View, has been featured on the blue before, but now it sports a selection of geographically refining tools and almost two thousand strange, lovely, and occasionally moving views submitted by users and curated by the shadowy "Nick." [more inside]
posted by theodolite at 1:13 PM PST - 15 comments

The Golden Age of Music Video blog, chock full of "amazing true tales from Music Video's greatest era (1976-1993), is written by Stephen Pitalo, a music video historian currently writing a book with interviews of more than fifty music video directors who shot iconic clips during the genre's heyday."
posted by not_on_display at 12:48 PM PST - 13 comments

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Cigarette is back! [more inside]
posted by atomicmedia at 12:47 PM PST - 57 comments

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Moustache is back!
posted by cashman at 12:11 PM PST - 21 comments

Dan Meth tells the tale of "five final warlocks; exiled to a barren hellscape and plotting their vengeance against Kralox".. using the classic storytelling technique of editing/overdubbing the Backstreet Boys. Original music video. Warning: stoner weirdness.
posted by thedaniel at 11:53 AM PST - 9 comments

Who is the Picasso of Picasso cliches? [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:39 AM PST - 19 comments

If these cagey tunesmiths had consciously tried to make a record this simultaneously dull and comedic, they'd never have succeeded; the closest artistic equivalent would be what might have happened if Vincent Gallo had been a script consultant for The Room.

Chuck Klosterman is not fond of the new Lou Reed/Metallica album.
posted by griphus at 11:02 AM PST - 134 comments

"Big Bad Wolf" - Duck Sauce. NSFW. Possibly not safe for life. Also on Youtube but I've seen versions disappear.
posted by kmz at 10:59 AM PST - 40 comments

from above.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:54 AM PST - 25 comments

Population to Reach 7 Billion This Week. As experts wait for the human population to reach 7 billion this week, some estimates claim even larger growth by the end of the century. One forthcoming United Nations report estimates that the number of humans on the planet may reach 15 billion -- more than double current levels, according to The Observer.
posted by Fizz at 10:30 AM PST - 140 comments

Threadless has created a t-shirt line for UNICEF in which the shirts cost the same as what's depicted on them. So this one, of a cargo flight, costs $300,000. This one, for insecticide-treated mosquito nets, might be more in your price range.
posted by me3dia at 9:31 AM PST - 43 comments

Do you like listening to DJ mixes? The Mixes DB has tens of thousands of them, going back 30 years, broken down by genre, radio show, club, artist. Most pages have the mix embedded. Here are the most popular. [more inside]
posted by empath at 9:23 AM PST - 25 comments

Rethink Breast Cancer has released Your Man Reminder, a smartphone app that reminds the user to give her breasts some TLC. And that reminder is brought by hot, shirtless man-candy.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 8:32 AM PST - 49 comments

Why Companies Can't Find the Employees They Need
posted by Anima Mundi at 8:05 AM PST - 139 comments

On the Trail of Addiction (Baltimore)
posted by josher71 at 8:03 AM PST - 20 comments

A fore-edge painting (previously, but it's been a while) is a painting on the edges of the pages of a book that can only be seen when the pages are fanned out. Marist College has a nice history and introduction and the Boston Public Library has an impressive gallery.
posted by Vibrissa at 7:54 AM PST - 8 comments

Chernobyl's Radioactive Wolves
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:49 AM PST - 34 comments

Time-lapse video of Tokyo set to the Blade Runner soundtrack. That is all. (SLVimeo)
posted by spitefulcrow at 7:31 AM PST - 20 comments

Why has crime in the US fallen, despite rising unemployment? [more inside]
posted by BobbyVan at 7:09 AM PST - 74 comments

A year and a half ago we discussed Daniel Dennett's study of clergy who had lost their faith. In the meantime, he and Richard Dawkins have teamed up to start "The Clergy Project," an online community for clergy who are considering leaving the ministry because of their loss of faith, and former clergy who have already made the transition out. [more inside]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 6:55 AM PST - 66 comments

How our 'divided brain' shapes our behaviour, culture and society. Iain McGilchrist explains, in a new animation from the RSA. Previously and previously.
posted by Elizabeth the Thirteenth at 6:02 AM PST - 18 comments

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting starts in Perth, Australia on the 28th October. CHOGM Action Network have planned a peaceful protest. Police have been granted special powers. Protest organisers have been put under surveillance and their homes raided. Twelve have been issued with orders excluding them from designated Security Areas. One has already been arrested and charged because his job happened to be in the area. Prisons have been advised to prepare for a large spike of inmates. Still, police are confident they are ready for a Chaser (previously) style stunt.
posted by bigZLiLk at 5:03 AM PST - 27 comments

There are few better ways to understand political candidates than their campaign buses. [more inside]
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:57 AM PST - 49 comments