October 8, 2012

The Ballad of Davy and Nicole

Davy Rothbart, perhaps best known for the Found magazine and series of books, got a random drunken phone call in a motel room from a breathy woman wanting phone sex. He somewhat cheekily "obliged," and continued to take her calls, less cheekily. It turned out to be quite a journey, and a destination. What Are You Wearing? [more inside]
posted by mreleganza at 10:42 PM PST - 49 comments

My Father, The Parasite

Generational Warfare: The Case Against Baby Boomers [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:37 PM PST - 70 comments

Minimal Android

Minimal Android minimal homescreen, minimal icons, themes, wallpapers or other minimalistic android things - as long as it is minimal and meant for android.
posted by Artw at 10:32 PM PST - 36 comments

I HAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE FUTURE

The mash-up clip music group Electic Method re-mix and paste together sounds from Sci-Fi movies to create THE FUTURE
posted by The Whelk at 9:23 PM PST - 5 comments

Time-lapse video of magnetic putty engulfing various rare-earth magnets

Time-lapse video of magnetic putty engulfing various rare-earth magnets
posted by not_on_display at 9:00 PM PST - 33 comments

The Maker

The Maker. A gorgeous short stop-motion animation about a creature who has only one important mission (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by Queen of Spreadable Fats at 8:53 PM PST - 19 comments

It was hell down there!

A visit to the underworld: the unsolved mystery of the tunnels at Baiae "In 1932, the entrance to a hitherto unknown tunnel was discovered in the ruins of the old Roman resort of Baiae, on the Bay of Naples. Packed with rubble, wreathed in choking gases, and heated to more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit by nearby magma chambers, it was difficult and dangerous to excavate. But when, after 10 long years of work, the amateur team exploring it finally broke through to lower levels, they uncovered something truly remarkable: a complex, pre-dating the Romans, built around a boiling underwater stream that seemed to have been designed to ape a visit to the Greeks’ mythical underworld." (A Blast from the Past)
posted by moonmilk at 8:13 PM PST - 30 comments

""It was sad to see the fans cheer for somebody getting hurt"

NFL Chiefs player Eric Winston rants (audio) against stadium fans who cheered when Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassell was knocked out during game play. "We are not gladiators and this is not the Roman Colosseum. This is a game."
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:54 PM PST - 58 comments

The iEconomy

The iEconomy: Apple and Technology Manufacturing. Since January, the New York Times has been running a series of articles "examining the challenges posed by increasingly globalized high-tech industries," with a focus on Apple's business practices. The seventh article in the series was published today: In Technology Wars, Using the Patent as a Sword. Related: For Software, Cracks in the Patent System and Fighters in the Patent War. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 7:52 PM PST - 16 comments

Keeping in-depth reporting alive

Narratively is "devoted exclusively to sharing New York’s untold stories—the rich, intricate narratives that get at the heart of what this city’s all about." The site, launched in September, presents one long-form piece of journalism, sometimes text, sometimes video, sometimes a photo essay, sometimes audio.
posted by beagle at 5:20 PM PST - 10 comments

on Huawei from non-Chinese in China

In light of the US House Intelligence Committee recommendation that American companies should be blocked from carrying out mergers and acquisitions involving two Chinese telecommunications firms, ZTE and Huawei, how do people in the telecommunications industry think about Huawei? And what is really going on with the Shenzhen-based ICT conglomerate? Hosts Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn of the Sinica Podcast (recorded in Beijing) cover Huawei in depth in August at The Huawei Enigma with guests David Wolf and Will Moss.
posted by gen at 4:57 PM PST - 39 comments

You are not Gary Busey or Son of Sam, but your mugshot is still on the internet.

How people profit from your online mugshot and ruin your life forever. A Gizmodo article, and a recent piece in Wired magazine, on how mugshots-as-entertainment have turned minor incidents into persistent embarrassments, and the cottage (extortion) industry that has sprung up in response.
posted by availablelight at 4:38 PM PST - 122 comments

Microbial Bebop

When looking for inspiration, most songwriters to go well-used emotional wells – triumph or loss, love or heartbreak. But Peter Larsen, a biologist at Argonne National Laboratory, looked to the microbes of the English Channel. He used seven years’ worth of genetic and environmental data, converting geochemical and microbial abundance measurements into notes, beats, and chords.
posted by Egg Shen at 3:51 PM PST - 13 comments

Art.sy

Art.sy recommends art based on the art work and artists you like.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:14 PM PST - 17 comments

Drink your juice, Shelby

Sally Field was honored this weekend as the Human Rights Campaign's Ally for Equality at the 16th Annual National Dinner. She was introduced by her youngest son, Sam Greisman, and gave this speech.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:28 PM PST - 6 comments

"A conclusion is not the point at which you find the truth, it’s only the point at which the exploring stops. We do it quickly and unconsciously and the effects are long-lasting."

The person you used to be still tells you what to do: "We work from conclusions made years ago, usually with no idea of when we made them, or why. Most of our standing impressions are probably based on a single experience — one instance of unpleasantness or disappointment that turned you off of entire categories of recreational activities, lifestyles and creative pursuits, forever." (via notnamed)
posted by flex at 12:09 PM PST - 113 comments

Your Mother Should Know

Rock guys cover showtunes: You probably know (if you're old enough) The Beatles' version of Til There Was You from The Music Man, Bobby Darin's somewhat-canonical Mack the Knife, originally from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera, and The Marcel's cover of Rodgers and Hart's Blue Moon. But you might be less familiar with ... [more inside]
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 11:40 AM PST - 78 comments

OED appeals to professors and madmen

Has anyone seen a blue-arsed fly? Someone must have cooties. This is no FAQ, can you make a make a defining contribution to the OED?
posted by stbalbach at 11:01 AM PST - 5 comments

Tell Yassar I'm on My Way

On October 19, 1995 Chuck Phillips interviewed Tupac Shakur at Can Am Studios Tarzana, California for an article published in the LA Times. The recordings were previously unreleased. Tupac talks about how the United States is full of gangs (the FBI/ATF/Democrats/Republicans), disparate media treatment of artists, how Tony Danza wrote him in prison, how Shakespeare's stories are the same things rappers talk about in their music, and the worth of black people's lives.
posted by cashman at 10:45 AM PST - 20 comments

"I guess if you were to approach me in the street and ask me how to play QWOP, I'd tell you to take a more experimental attitude in your life, and not to rely so much on the hard work of others."

An interview with Bennett Foddy, the creator of QWOP, in which, to the surprise of no one, he states, "I don't feel any sympathy for people who find a video game hard. At all. It never occurred to me to try to modify QWOP so that it was easier to play." [more inside]
posted by Copronymus at 10:22 AM PST - 44 comments

A Bend in the River

Explore the subtext of the London Skyline through a journey down the Thames with Caryl Phillips and an exquisite photographer.
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 10:07 AM PST - 2 comments

...exchange some of their UK employment rights...

"New Owner-employees will exchange some of their UK employment rights for rights of ownership in the form of shares in the business they work for, any gains on which will be exempt from capital gains tax." [more inside]
posted by marienbad at 9:47 AM PST - 59 comments

Just how gay is Seattle?

Just how gay is Seattle? Pretty gay.
posted by modernist1 at 9:47 AM PST - 35 comments

Eating the plate instead of the food

With the possible exception of the Nobel awards, physicists seem to get all the press these days, whether they're doing quantum level work at the LHC, or cosmology via the latest satellite data. Biologists, not so much. It's too bad, because Richard Lenski is running one of the great evolutionary experiments of our time, and it's producing interesting results. [more inside]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 9:25 AM PST - 34 comments

The Moving Finger types; and, having typed, Moves on

Perhaps that is the way to get handwriting back into our lives – as something which is a pleasure, which is good for us, and which is human in ways not all communication systems manage to be. It will never again have the place in people's lives that it had in 1850. But it should, like good food or the capacity to take a walk, have some place in our lives from which it is not going to be dislodged. Extracted from The Missing Ink: The lost art of handwriting (and why it still matters) by Philip Hensher.
posted by ersatz at 9:16 AM PST - 133 comments

Rummy Couples

"Two people. I call them "Rummy Couples", dressed allmost alike. The last 5 years I managed to photograph 56 of them."
posted by like_neon at 6:14 AM PST - 157 comments

Brewing Up a Storm in Raidió Teilifís Éireann!

In celebration of the upcoming RTÉ (Raidió Teilifís Éireann) Big Music Week almost every notable public service broadcaster in Ireland (and many hundreds of others!) assembled in RTÉ headquarters in Dublin to sing along to The Stunning's “Brewing Up a Storm”: shot in one continuous take the result is pretty spectacular!
posted by nfg at 1:42 AM PST - 25 comments

Emptiness

Australian national identity. "Liam Pieper reflects on the shielding that has led to Australian peoples' perpetual ignorance of our true history." [more inside]
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 12:57 AM PST - 99 comments

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