"The watch shown could not exist." Would Neiman Marcus spend $200,000 to advertise an expensive watch that doesn't, and couldnt, exist? Magician James Randi thinks so. I am skeptical.
posted by The Deej at 9:00 PM PST - 133 comments

The Alaska Pacific River Forecast Center provides massive amounts of NWS remote weather station data on precipitation statewide. With avalanche season about to begin, these data are extremely useful to both amateur recreationists and snow professionals.
posted by mistermoore at 6:18 PM PST - 9 comments

"I" is for "Infidel" "Associated Press and New Yorker [Q&A] writer Kathy Gannon delivers an intimately observed history of Afghanistan from 1986 to the present. The longest-serving Western journalist in the region, Gannon overturns simplistic understanding of the country's politics in this eye-opening talk." [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha at 5:04 PM PST - 17 comments

Ready for '08? Survey USA is. They've done polls in all 50 states, with sixty different match ups. You can only view one paring for free, mine showed Condi Rice beating Barak Obama with something like 462 to 76. However, a large community site wouldn't have too much trouble iterating through all the options, at least that's what they figured at myDD. Of course, most of this is just name-ID at this point.
posted by delmoi at 4:26 PM PST - 53 comments

Humans are hard-wired to obsess over beauty. Being nice is, biologically, not enough.
posted by four panels at 3:27 PM PST - 60 comments

The Graphic Art of Si Scott.
posted by fandango_matt at 3:01 PM PST - 29 comments

Good news for the world's forests. "...the researchers, using new analytical techniques, calculated that in the last 15 years forests had actually expanded in 22 of the 50 countries with the most forest, and that many others were poised to make the transition from deforestation to reforestation in the coming decades." Unfortunately, countries like Brazil and Indonesia aren't doing so well.....
posted by storybored at 2:42 PM PST - 31 comments

The Portraits of 42 American Presidents from Washington to Bush on a half inch strand of Black human hair is merely one of the World Art Miracles you'll find at worldartmiracle.com, the homepage of one Jin Y.H., micro artist. The site is also noticeable for some delicious Engrish phrases, such as "The length does not arrive the half-inch" and "The microscope descends to take the work."
posted by jonson at 1:56 PM PST - 20 comments

Youse is getting to old to cath mouse (disclaimer: loud southern ebonics). I love this woman - queen of the partially seen characters. Bring her back.
posted by Bravocharlie at 1:44 PM PST - 10 comments

Fly on the Wall is a collective of young creative filmmakers in Cape Town South Africa.
posted by engling at 1:34 PM PST - 3 comments

The latest on the so-called "Red Rain of Kerala." The authors of this study suggest the mysterious red biological material provides evidence of Panspermia. The BBC offers this updated look at the topic. (Previously discussed here on MeFi.)
posted by saulgoodman at 1:20 PM PST - 15 comments

A Timeline of Timelines
posted by jack_mo at 1:13 PM PST - 8 comments

Compassionate Slavery. A representative of the World Trade Organization proposes foreign corporate "stewardship" of workers in Africa from the moment they are hired until they die, describing it as "the best available solution to African poverty, and the inevitable result of free-market theory".
posted by Pastabagel at 12:30 PM PST - 24 comments

Tim Tagaris, a "netroots blogger", and David Sirota, a DC policy wonk turned blogger, both went to work for the Ned Lamont for Senate campign. Now they give their explanations for why Lamont lost. Regardless of your feelings about Lamont and Joementum, these fascinating inside stories provide insight into the internecine struggle for the future of the Democratic Party.
posted by orthogonality at 11:16 AM PST - 45 comments

Kant. Modern thought begins with Kant yet his work is dense and hard to understand. Perhaps this set of lectures, some 12 hours in total from the University of Glasgow will help. Titled 'Kant's Epistemology' they cover most of the subject matter of the Critique of Pure Reason - an extremely ambitious task. They are free and appear to be available only for a limited period. Perhaps worth downloading now - to savour when you have an few idle years.
posted by grahamwell at 10:13 AM PST - 91 comments

Eric Gill was a print-maker, sculptor, typographer and thinker [pdf]. An artist whose life has had quite a bit of drama associated with it. There is even a new society dedicated to parsing the impacts of his legacy.
posted by sciurus at 9:51 AM PST - 18 comments

Remember Third Voice, the controversial browser plug-in that let you add public notes to any website? Enough webmasters complained and it was shut down in 2001, after only two years in operation. Maybe attitudes have changed, because the folks at Trailfire are trying this idea again. Available for Firefox or IE.
posted by Who_Am_I at 8:25 AM PST - 43 comments

The rise and fall of the bus plunge story. [via slate] Bus plunge from Wikipedia. Bus Plunge the web site.
posted by fixedgear at 8:09 AM PST - 50 comments

From Broadband to Broadway Video bloggers are the newest phenomenon to go from online to the mainstream. For example, Amanda Congdon, former host of Rocketboom, has a new gig as an ABC contributor. In fact, major movie and TV studios are increasingly looking to the Web for new talent for both on and off-line projects. Here's a list (with pictures) of the up and comers.
posted by PreacherTom at 5:03 AM PST - 19 comments