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My Secret Life in Los Santos : "On October 1, Rockstar released the online version of Grand Theft Auto V, the most popular video game in history. Unlike the “story mode” of the video game where players test their skills against computer generated cops and gangsters, in the online version of fictional Los Angeles we also get to kill and rob each other."
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:50 PM PST - 46 comments

Magic: The Musical: A Magic: The Gathering Puppet Musical [more inside]
posted by yellowbinder at 6:19 PM PST - 7 comments

The Poor Batman
posted by Tom-B at 4:04 PM PST - 17 comments

NSA SEXINT is the Abuse You’ve All Been Waiting For. According to documents revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the NSA has been gathering records of online sexual activity and logging visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to blackmail and silence those advocating "radical" beliefs.
posted by anemone of the state at 2:08 PM PST - 159 comments

Jennifer Grout, an American singer and oud player, has made it into the finals of Arabs Got Talent. She has no Arab ancestry and a background in European classical music. [more inside]
posted by nangar at 1:28 PM PST - 58 comments

In 1979, a 14-year-old called Andy Popplewell started building his own six track mixer from a blueprint in an electronics hobbyist magazine. After it was finished he graduated to constructing his own synth before he turned 17 and then wrote a synth pop album in his mum’s garage and recorded it himself between 1981 and 1983; making one single cassette copy. Then due to a chance meeting with Andy Votel 30 years later in 2012, that cassette - not even a demo really as it never got sent to anyone - has now been released as an album.
posted by ignignokt at 12:46 PM PST - 18 comments

Every good Polka band* needs horns, right? Well, the fun-loving German** quartet Hoch Tirol has Konis Hupen (Koni's Honking)
(Short version for those of you who cannot handle more than 40 seconds of Polka.) (Live performance for those of you who think the video was all fancy editing and fakery) (Seven hour version because there are people on YouTube who do things like this) (Leek Spin Polka Previous)
*NOT an oxymoron
**also NOT an oxymoron
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:00 PM PST - 31 comments

Jmtb02 (John), creator of the fun, meta and little blue elephant-filled games This Is The Only Level, OBEY, and Achievement Unlocked returns with This Is The Only Level 3 and Achievement Unlocked 3 and an homage to SimTower-like games of yore: Corporation Inc
posted by The Whelk at 11:58 AM PST - 10 comments

"While DC continues to race through San Francisco power lines at nearly the speed of light, it does so anonymously. You’ll find no reference to DC power distribution in PG&E’s annual reports or on its websites. Even some utility engineers are unaware of its existence, which raises a curious question: Why is the inheritor of this legacy, the mighty and sophisticated PG&E, still bothering with DC distribution 133 years later?" [more inside]
posted by gingerbeer at 11:36 AM PST - 44 comments

Curse your loved ones in Old Irish.
posted by rtha at 10:20 AM PST - 26 comments

"This is a game in which a sentient closet-based AI locks four girls in a room (with giant metal barriers) because one of them smudged her make-up, and forces them to repeatedly apply lipstick and eyeliner to freakishly giant doll heads until he is satisfied. That’s not my arch interpretation of events. That’s what actually happens."
posted by griphus at 8:30 AM PST - 100 comments

The Panamanian golden frog that lives near loud waterfalls and the people of both Kuşköy (a small village in Turkey) and La Gomera (an island off the coast of Morocco) have something in common: creative communication in challenging situations. Where the golden frogs communicate by waving, the people of Kuşköy and La Gomera overcome difficult terrain by whistling. The Turkish people call their language "kuș dili" or "bird langage," as it originated in Kuşköy, which itself means "bird village," and the Silbo Gomero language is so organized and thorough that every vowel and consonant can be replaced with a whistle. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 7:44 AM PST - 15 comments

The Charles Mingus Sextet featuring Eric Dolphy perform
Take the "A" Train
Live in Norway, April 12, 1964 [more inside]
posted by timshel at 6:51 AM PST - 23 comments

Operation Migration has helped endangered bird species migrate by leading the way with ultralight aircraft. At the moment you can see a live video of them in flight.
posted by exogenous at 6:26 AM PST - 6 comments

Exclaim!'s Top 10 Freeleases of 2013 [more inside]
posted by mannequito at 3:25 AM PST - 19 comments

"He logged onto the central network using his personal computer, and waited while the system verified his identity. With a few keystrokes he entered an electronic ticketing system, and entered the codes for his point of departure and his destination. In moments the computer displayed a list of possible flights, and he picked the earliest one. Dollars were automatically deducted from his personal account to pay for the transaction." -- If all stories were written like science fiction stories, by Mark Rosenfelder.
posted by MartinWisse at 2:44 AM PST - 116 comments