October 3, 2011

...a fundamental element of human nature LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Chomsky-Foucault Debate in 5 seconds (SLYT)
posted by cthuljew at 10:50 PM PST - 74 comments

Hey, leave my father out of this!

On May 25, Betty L. Prentis passed away in West Palm Beach, FL at the age of 89. Mrs. Prentis was preceded in death by her husband of 41 years, Edmund "Ned" Prentis, in 1997. Prior to her marriage, Betty Luster had enjoyed a long career as an actress and dancer on stage in London (where her career got started in 1938), Broadway, Miami, and Philadelphia. In her last acting role before marrying Ned, Betty performed in a promotional film sponsored by C.G. Conn, makers of brass band instruments. The 1956 (or 1957) film, "Mr. B Natural," is undoubtedly the most infamous of the shorts to ever air on Mystery Science Theater 3000, so as a final tribute to Betty, it's time to snap on those tights and torment young Buzz for one last time.
posted by stannate at 9:16 PM PST - 68 comments

Turns out balloon hats connect us all

Universality "Laughter sounds the same in every language" [more inside]
posted by mathowie at 8:47 PM PST - 30 comments

Nice shades, Doofus.

Hank Williams Jr. was removed from Monday Night Football on ESPN after a bizarre and rambling appearance on Fox & Friends this morning. The noted political analyst and future senator compared the President to Hitler, and later referred to the President and Vice President as enemies. [more inside]
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 6:46 PM PST - 239 comments

Dissolve my Nobel Prize! Fast!

Dissolve my Nobel Prize! Fast! It's 1940. The Nazis have taken Copenhagen. They are literally marching through the streets, and physicist Niels Bohr has just hours, maybe minutes, to make two Nobel Prize medals disappear.
posted by sweetkid at 6:16 PM PST - 70 comments

scary bikers like beer

This ad from a beer company raises interesting questions about acceptance and prejudice. What would you do?
posted by wilful at 5:59 PM PST - 101 comments

Jacuzzis everywhere.

These guys will put a jacuzzi anywhere. Like, suspended from a bridge 187m above the ground. (prev)
posted by GuyZero at 5:24 PM PST - 18 comments

But yeah seriously, what about teh menz

“What About The Men” is a term of occasional derision and dismissal in feminist circles, used by those who either don’t want conversations about women’s issues constantly derailed, or perhaps sometimes don’t want to provide space for men’s issues. They’re hijacking and reclaiming the phrase with a little tongue-in-cheek mockery at those who use it, since they think that men and men’s issues should have a bigger role in feminism, and that, additionally, men need spaces dedicated to their issues as well. So it’s not “What About The Men” to chase the guys out; it’s “No, Seriously, ‘What About Teh Menz?’” to bring them back in to the feminist fold. (FAQ) For a 10 second minute introduction to what inspired this blog’s creation, read our seminal piece, Who Cares About Men’s Rights?. [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 4:19 PM PST - 114 comments

Amanda Knox convictions overturned, to be freed immediately

Amanda Knox freed by Italian appeals court An Italian appeals court has thrown out the 2009 convictions of herself and her co-defendent, and has ordered Amanda Knox to be freed immediately.
posted by hincandenza at 1:45 PM PST - 439 comments

This time with little elephant-looking things.

At long last, Factory Balls 4 is complete. Go forth and create, my friends. (One, two, three, xmas.)
posted by phunniemee at 1:44 PM PST - 11 comments

"The easiest way to use Real Fonts on your website"

Typekit, the subscription based Web Font service founded by Jeffery Veen, has been aquired by Adobe.
posted by Artw at 12:42 PM PST - 44 comments

California Busted?

Michael Lewis' newest piece of financial disaster tourism came out a few days ago, relating his take on California's Bond problems. Some think that he didn't interview the right experts in the field and that the lesson of the city of Vallejo have already been internalized by city managers. Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy code, governing municipal bankruptcies has been used less than 600 times since 1937. This means that the case law is still relatively undeveloped. Only in 2009 did it become clear that municipalities could void union contracts for public workers. [more inside]
posted by bswinburn at 12:22 PM PST - 17 comments

Henry + Glenn = 4ever

Four friends who collectively call themselves Igloo Tornado wrote a series of fictional tales of the love between Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig, plus some jokes from their Satan worshiping neighbors, Daryl Hall and John Oates. This land of make-believe is contained in Glenn & Henry Forever. There isn't a preview in one handy location, but various interviews, reviews, and blogs have posted some of the comics (more: Henry has no shoes, Hall & Oats play D&D, a postcard from Henry to Glenn, and a page from Danzig's diary). Danzig, often the butt of internet jokes, was not thrilled. His thoughts were made into a final comic. Oh, and there's an anti-Christmas animation special/advert. And a gallery show with more artists joining the fun.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:17 PM PST - 18 comments

Poor Folk Bows

Concerned about getting reasonably priced free-range grass-fed protein? Why don't you make your own archery bow, atlatl, slingshot or sling?
posted by leotrotsky at 12:14 PM PST - 33 comments

CROSS DRESSING FOR SIX YEAR OLDS!

With the Ontario provincial election campaign still extremely close (warning: PDF link) in its last days, the Conservative party sends out a gay-baiting and trans-baiting direct-mail ad. [more inside]
posted by mightygodking at 11:28 AM PST - 70 comments

"I hear that guy's ass has it's own congressman!" - Jimbo Jones - The Simpsons

Chris Christie Is Fat. Who Cares? "What is it about fat that turns otherwise smart people into complacent fools? No, this isn’t a new discovery about the supposed health risks of obesity: it’s an observation about how the sight of a fat body can transform people like Michael Kinsley and Eugene Robinson—writers whose work I usually admire—into bigoted know-nothings, spouting absurd prejudices they would mock if they were aimed at almost any group other than fat people."
posted by Fizz at 11:04 AM PST - 318 comments

I leave all that I own to my cat Guppy.

The Binding of Isaac is a roguelike (or possibly a roguelike-like) that pits a naked crying boy whose only initial weapon is his tears, but can be upgraded with loads of self-mutilating items, against random rooms of disturbingly mutated creatures (may be nsfw) in a quest to kill his mother before she kills him. [more inside]
posted by eyeballkid at 10:54 AM PST - 51 comments

Tax incentive.

Denmark introduces world's first food fat tax. 'Denmark has introduced what is believed to be the world's first fat tax - a surcharge on foods that are high in saturated fat. Butter, milk, cheese, pizza, meat, oil and processed food are now subject to the tax if they contain more than 2.3% saturated fat.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 10:36 AM PST - 111 comments

"You...are my number one...GUY."

Chris Sims is a former comic book store employee. David Uzumeri is a computer scientist. Together, they fight crime review the shit out of Batman film canon in an 18-part series they call Cinematic Batmanology, covering all the major theatrical releases from Tim Burton's franchise-reviving 1989 film (start there) up through Christopher Nolan's recent The Dark Knight, with a couple of odd tangents along the way. [more inside]
posted by cortex at 10:26 AM PST - 34 comments

I’ve swung far from the straight and narrow path of straight photography

(NSFW) In all of my years of work with the lens (since 1906) I've dreamed of and loved to work with the human figure - to embody it in rocks and trees, to make it part of the elements.
The Glory of the Open - Camera Craft - April 1926.
At a time when decent Christian women in the U.S. were expected to be modest and to achieve fulfillment in motherhood, Anne Brigman was trekking up into the mountains in trousers…a scandal in itself…carrying a heavy pack of camera equipment. There she shucked off her pants and societal expectations, and she entered into a pagan world inhabited by dryads and nixies...and there she made art. Anne photographed herself, her sister, and friends using California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains to backdrop a liberated woman decades ahead of her time.
YouTube slideshow. She was championed into the Photo Secession movement by Alfred Stiglietz, and she was the only woman member from west of the Missouri.
posted by adamvasco at 9:50 AM PST - 20 comments

The answer, my friend, is blowing in Wyoming

The best wind in America is in Wyoming. It is a door-snapping, heart-pounding wind that barrels in from the west, chasing the truckers along Interstate 80 as they race to make Omaha by nightfall. It is sometimes described with words ordinarily associated with dark chocolate or exceptional pinot noir. It has been called dense, world-class, consistently extraordinary, special, and fabulous.. Advocates of wind power though are faced with a conundrum. [more inside]
posted by storybored at 8:59 AM PST - 29 comments

Remember when music television actually played music videos?

It has been nearly a decade since VH1 cancelled "Pop Up Video," but at noon ET today the show returns with 60 new episodes. Their first video: Britney Spears' Til the World Ends. The program's new incarnation will also allow viewers to DIY their own "pop up" videos and share them on Facebook and Twitter." [more inside]
posted by zarq at 8:58 AM PST - 42 comments

Eye robot

Plaid (previously) has unveiled Scintilli, their new album . The compact disc-format includes a listener-assembled CD "masoleum." Dreambox, an illustrator, muralholic, and Toyota Camry Time Machine operator, collaborated on Plaid's new video: "At Last" (YT).
posted by obscurator at 8:43 AM PST - 17 comments

In competition with reality

Disney Agonistes: Night on Bald Mountain. [more inside]
posted by shakespeherian at 7:34 AM PST - 27 comments

This must be the place.

There's no place like home. It's where we live, work and dream. It's our sanctuary and our refuge. We can love them or hate them. It can be just for the night or for the rest of our lives. But whoever we may be, we all have a place we call home. THIS MUST BE THE PLACE is a series of short films that explore the idea of home; what makes them, how they represent us, why we need them. [more inside]
posted by Ahab at 7:22 AM PST - 3 comments

I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

A series of emails released through a Freedom of Information Act request shine light on collusion between the United States government and TransCanada, a corporation building a controversial pipeline from the Canadian Athabasca oil sands into its southern neighbor. The controversy extends beyond the currently poor safety record for delivering oil between the two countries, and beyond the environmental and health consequences of the oil extraction process for locals and the cost of climate changes it will contribute to, all the way to legal wrangling between Canadian media and Saudi Arabia over the "death panels"-like term "ethical oil", based upon a conservative group's advertising that argues that the purchase of Canadian-sourced oil is a morally superior act, because of oppression of women and human rights violations by the Saudi kingdom.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:01 AM PST - 73 comments

Alain Resnais' "Night and Fog"

Alain Resnais' Night and Fog (1, 2, 3) [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 5:40 AM PST - 12 comments

A manuscript deciphered

The “Copiale Cipher” is a 105 pages manuscript containing all in all around 75 000 characters. Beautifully bound in green and gold brocade paper, written on high quality paper with two different watermarks, the manuscript can be dated back to 1760-1780. [...] the manuscript is completely encoded.
[more inside]
posted by tykky at 4:11 AM PST - 15 comments

« Previous day | Next day »