It was a long day. You deserve a break and so does your kitty. So take a breather with the purrings of a virtual cat.
posted by dhammond at 11:59 PM PST - 30 comments

Here is Naomia Wise from The Max Hunter Folksong Collection. Folk songs, more or less, sung by real folks, collected in Arkansas by Max Hunter between 1956 and 1976. On a related tip, here is Historic Music--recorded popular music from the 1920s, with a large selection devoted to music from the First World War. And here, from Manufacturing Memory: American Popular Music in the 1930's, are the Popular Music Jukebox 1930-1934 and the Popular Music Jukebox 1935-1939 to complete this day's vintage musical Americana experience.
The Max Hunter songs are in RealAudio. Realplayer haters can use Real Alternative aka Media Player Classic.
posted by y2karl at 11:49 PM PST - 9 comments

NOTICE OF ARBITRATION AGREEMENT: [more inside]
posted by bigmusic at 11:49 PM PST - 101 comments

Need some help with holiday shopping? Me too. Here's a gift guide roundup: NY Mag * TimeOutNY * Wired * Engadget * CNET * Salon * Time * Newsweek * WaPo * Cool Hunting * DesignSponge under $25 and affordable art guide * Etsy * NOTCOT * Lucky * In Style * Style.com * Travel & Leisure * Treehugger * BoardGameGeek * Babes in Toyland (NSFW) * Babble
posted by lalex at 9:57 PM PST - 23 comments

Carrie Brownstein's new band, a. [more inside]
posted by Weebot at 8:16 PM PST - 38 comments

A recent post on Russian animation reminded me of the "Lift" series of short animations, created by the Pilot studio [link in Russian]. There are, count 'em, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 installments. Knowledge of Russian not required to watch.
posted by Krrrlson at 7:34 PM PST - 4 comments

If even most African-Americans believe the black poor are primarily responsible for their own plight, does that make it true?
posted by shotgunbooty at 7:31 PM PST - 79 comments

Chocolate Bunny. From artist Sander Plug.
posted by GuyZero at 7:12 PM PST - 23 comments

Over the past eight years, photographer Jus­tin Guariglia has slowly but surely won the trust of the notoriously secretive warrior monks of the Shaolin Temple. Shamelessly taken from kottke.org, because this is some amazing photography and video. [more inside]
posted by lazaruslong at 6:22 PM PST - 34 comments

BikeIcons isn't the best site, but it has the best bikes! [more inside]
posted by snsranch at 5:41 PM PST - 17 comments

"The Toyota Prius is much too powerful and luxurious a road car," thought Walter Mitty. "What I desire is a Zest Roadster. Pocketa-pocketa-pocketa."
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:14 PM PST - 33 comments

The Peace Drug The Washington Post Magazine takes a look at MDMA as a cure for PTSD.
posted by empath at 4:53 PM PST - 76 comments

He was called "the Telemaster", "the Humbler", and " the greatest unknown guitarist in the world". Danny Gatton, revered by guitarists great and small, never achieved popular acclaim. His refusal to stick to any particular genre of music, and his reluctance to travel had much to do with that. But to those of us lucky enough to enjoy the Washington, DC music scene of the eighties and nineties got to see arguably the most talented electric guitar player this country has produced.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 4:26 PM PST - 26 comments

The times, they are a-changing? [pdf]: A Survey of Iowa State University Students' preferences in the presidential primaries. [spoilers inside] [more inside]
posted by orthogonality at 4:09 PM PST - 48 comments

IS IT CHRISTMAS?
posted by boo_radley at 3:27 PM PST - 125 comments

NYC's Museum of Modern Art hosts a Georges Seurat exhibition that focuses on sketchbooks kept by the master of pointillisme. Page through each sketchbook, which is not possible to do at the actual exhibition. Also featured are photos of conservation efforts, including microscopic views of Seurat's technique, and a discussion of his subject matter. Requires Flash, pages may load slowly. Different sections of site not directly linkable because of Flash format-- sorry!
posted by Rykey at 3:19 PM PST - 9 comments

Disappearing Car Door: Damn, this is cool. Everyone will want one. Until the inevitable car accident which renders it unopenable.
posted by bwg at 3:13 PM PST - 60 comments

Landsat Image Mosaic Of Antarctica UK and US researchers peice together the most detailed map of Antarctica yet, searching through years of data to find cloud free images.
posted by Artw at 2:13 PM PST - 17 comments

The official mascots of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics were unveiled today. There are three: a sasquatch, a mythical sea-bear, and a thunderbird-bear spirit, all first-nations inspired. Here's the design firm's website. Previous olympic mascots: Beijing 2008, others.
posted by PercussivePaul at 1:48 PM PST - 86 comments

Sucker Punch: The art, the poetry, the idiocy of YouTube street fights.
posted by chunking express at 1:16 PM PST - 57 comments

Mouneer Al-Shaarani's beautiful Syrian calligraphy. [more inside]
posted by klangklangston at 1:12 PM PST - 24 comments

Norman Mailer has posthumously won this year's Literary Review Bad Sex Award for his novel on the early life of Hitler, The Castle in the Forest. He was up against some stiff competition but Norman managed to rise to the occasion (sorry). Safe for work, but you might feel a bit dirty in the morning.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:04 PM PST - 24 comments

Darwin's Surprise. "There may be no biological process more complicated than the relationships that viruses have with their hosts. Could it be that their persistence made it possible for humans to thrive?" [Via Disinformation.]
posted by homunculus at 11:22 AM PST - 63 comments

"I want to hang you because you're gay." [nsfw audio]
"That's not very nice." But that is what player xxx GayBoy xxx heard on while playing Halo 3 on Xbox Live. Gaygamer.net explains that other than his provoking name, he did nothing to call for the prejudice attacks. As most gamers will tell you, this sort of language is common in game. [more nsfw audio] Thank god for the mute button. It's nice to know there are still heroes. [Previously: 1, 2, 3]
posted by patr1ck at 9:41 AM PST - 144 comments

A two-ton 21-mpg 8-passenger V8 Chevy Tahoe? America, meet your 2008 Green Car of the Year!
posted by dead_ at 9:25 AM PST - 96 comments

Professional Pilots Rumor Network is not recommended reading if you care to fly again. For example, you will discover that what was was initially described by the FAA as a "vibration in the No. 2 engine" was actually uncontained engine failure. Passengers who were on the flight could have told you that. Am I editorializing to say that I'm amazed that this forum is public?
posted by spock at 8:49 AM PST - 45 comments

Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives: Maybe you know e from eels. Most people (other than Sticherbeast) probably did not know his father was once a rock star physicist who first conceived of parallel universes (not that Neils Bohr was impressed). Last night, BBC4 aired a documentary on the trails both men followed.
posted by yerfatma at 8:48 AM PST - 26 comments

Either yesterday was April 1 in Sweden, or northern officials have just given the go ahead to build a 6.5 million dollar, handicapped accessible moose. There's even a walkthrough video. [more inside]
posted by tkolar at 8:43 AM PST - 27 comments

Odd creativity with sex toys - sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes pretty far-out, and sometimes just unbelievable (all links probably NSFW to varying degrees)
posted by janetplanet at 8:21 AM PST - 30 comments

Cerra Perdida (Lost Wax): What's better than free sculpture in the street? In Barcelona an artist is "losing" sculptures around town for every month of the year.
posted by jxn at 7:53 AM PST - 7 comments

How rich is rich? [more inside]
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:25 AM PST - 53 comments

Astronomers find a giant hole a billion light years across & located 8 billion light years away from us. They believe it could be evidence of another Universe at the edge of ours.
posted by scalefree at 7:16 AM PST - 53 comments

Penn econ professor pleads guilty to killing wife. With last year's child porn and now murder, it looks like the Wharton professor felony hat trick is two-thirds complete. (It's there if we expand it to the whole University.)
posted by supercres at 7:13 AM PST - 27 comments

End of Empire : A collaboration of all areas of geopolitics affecting countries of the world in relation to the 'Empire' of the United States of America, and the 'sub-Empires', such as the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and any other country which seeks to exploit poorer nations and their people in the quest for domination.
posted by adamvasco at 6:15 AM PST - 11 comments

Kohei Nishiyama is the co-founder of a company and a website: Elephant Design and Cuusso.com. They solicit product ideas from individuals (like these modular electrical plug in stacks), realize the feasibility and desirability of those products (There are currently 28 votes for a bag that apparently sticks together without tape), and then manufacture and sell those things (Hey! A Portable Night Light!). It's a process called Design to Order.
posted by sleslie at 4:43 AM PST - 7 comments

Untergunther, a chapter of the Parisian cultural guerilla organisation UX (most memorably responsible for setting up a secret theatre in the catacombs under the Seine in 2004), unveil their latest project - a clock-restoration workshop hidden in the Pantheon dome! The group's own report and pictures here.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 3:27 AM PST - 25 comments