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Not being blackmailed enough? Fucking so many people you can't keep track? Need worldwide access to your list of conquests? The solution you've been waiting for is at hand! My Black Book is a "secure" online service that allows you to post as many entries ("people you banged") and sessions ("ways in which you did it") as you need, and best of all, it's 100% free. unless you count the money you'll spend in blackmail fees.
posted by jonson at 11:50 PM PST - 61 comments

Sabbath plays the Folsom Street Parade along with members of San Francisco's Gay Imperial Court. I'm confused though – what was the the Folsom Street Parade? Folsom Street Fairs didn't start until the 80's and the city's first large Gay Pride march wasn't until '72. (homophobes, leatherophobes, wikipediaphobes, and youtubeophobes probably shouldn't click the links. And ya, Folsom Street is not super work safe. Unless you work in a dungeon.)
posted by serazin at 11:38 PM PST - 3 comments

Vertical gardening in architecture. Gorgeous walls and other vertical architectural features covered in lush, growing greenery.
posted by loquacious at 10:44 PM PST - 12 comments

Castrati were the superstars of centuries gone by! (bonus link: Countertenor jokes)
posted by furtive at 9:21 PM PST - 13 comments

If you've grown up in the states, odds are you've seen/watched the highly rated Christmas special, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Trailer here

When the production was over, the animation company put the puppets in a closet. When they were due to be thrown away, a secretary got permission and took them home. Her children played with the puppets for years...nobody thought they'd be of value. Some of them broke, and last year they were found. (not all were intact.)

Photos of the Restoration. Close up of the restored Rudolph. There were a number of films after (over 10+ years after the first,) Rudolph's Shiny New Year, Frosty Christmas in July and Island of Misfit Toys. These (and many other films) are Rankin/Bass productions. Some people also know Rankin Bass for their animated version of the Hobbit and the Last Unicorn. Rankin/Bass previously mentioned on Mefi
posted by filmgeek at 9:05 PM PST - 40 comments

Clearification Microsoft is launching a viral marketing campaign for Vista. It's only half done - it wraps up in January. Demetri Martin stars in a series of webisodes about his "rare condition". The best part of the campaign are the idle ramblings of Demetri on the main page. The campaign consists of an rss feed, a podcast, and the webisodes.
posted by disclaimer at 8:48 PM PST - 41 comments

Harry Everett Smith was a, "20th-century Renaissance man, working as an abstract film-maker, painter, musicologist, anthropologist, theoretician, self-mythologizer and connoisseur of arcana". His Anthology of American Folk Music was hugely influential on American music, while his alchemical, synæsthetic films were to have a similar impact on experimental film and animation. Enjoy his mesmerising and astonishing "Early Abstractions" on Youtube [part 1 or 4], hear Harry lecture, or listen to some tracks from The Anthology.
posted by MetaMonkey at 8:42 PM PST - 9 comments

"Claude Degler attended the Chicon in 1940, and at Denver in 1941 delivered a speech purporting to have been written by Martians." So begins the Fancyclopedia I entry on Degler's Cosmic Circle. Claude Degler believed that science fiction fans were destined to evolve into a new species superior to homo sapiens, "cosmen." In 2001 (the year) David B. Williams went in search of Degler, who had disappeard from fandom in 1951. Teresa Nielsen Hayden wrote in 1986 a story/essay about the inner Degler called Hell, 12 Feet. He was as infamous as fans got, though some remember him sort of fondly. Degler crops up regularly in the "All Our Yesterdays" columns written by fandom historian, Harry Warner Jr. The ones with most information are the columns H.C. Koenig. Claude Degler, O Pioneers and The Cosmic Circle. Here's a Degler quote from the last link: We have created a fannationalism, a United World Fandom. Someday soon we will have our own apartment building, then our own land, our own city of Cosmen, schools, teachers, radio programme — later; our own laws, country perhaps! Our children shall inherit not only this earth — but this universe! Today we carry 22 states, tomorrow, nine planets!
posted by Kattullus at 8:22 PM PST - 3 comments

...For a week after I arrived at the ORS, the attacks on Hamburg continued. The second, on July 27, raised a firestorm that devastated the central part of the city and killed about 40,000 people. We succeeded in raising firestorms only twice, once in Hamburg and once more in Dresden in 1945, where between 25,000 and 60,000 people perished (the numbers are still debated)... Every time Bomber Command attacked a city, we were trying to raise a firestorm, but we never learnt why we so seldom succeeded.

Part I: A Failure of Intelligence  &  Part II: A Failure of Intelligence
Prominent physicist Freeman Dyson recalls the time he spent developing analytical methods to help the British Royal Air Force bomb German targets during World War II.    FYI: It's about more than just the firestorms...
posted by y2karl at 8:21 PM PST - 24 comments

Rules for Musicians. Posted on the wall of the always glorious Elbow Room in the equally glorious downtown of Ypsilanti, Michigan, here are some rules to follow should you wish to avoid the enmity of the sound guy and patrons.
posted by John of Michigan at 6:01 PM PST - 48 comments

Remember when folks were "up-in-arms" after learning that the Bush administration paid prominent political commentator Armstrong Williams $240,000 to promote 'No Child Left Behind' legislation? It turns out that a handful of liberal bloggers pulled in some decent cash this past year from various political campaigns as consultants, while maintaining their "independent" blogs. Case in point: Jerome Armstrong (MyDD) made $115,000+ from Sherrod Brown (over 15 months) and $65,000 from Mark Warner (over 12 months). Turns out Armstrong admitted this week that he has been writing on his blog under various aliases -- including 'Scott Shields.' 'Shields' received payments from the Robert Menendez campaign.
posted by ericb at 5:39 PM PST - 58 comments

Suddenly, you feel like you've been dipped in molten lava. According to Wired, the Active Denial System has been certified for use in Iraq.
posted by alms at 5:20 PM PST - 100 comments

It’s not the big fat radio collar around your neck that’s so bad. It’s not even being painted bright colors. It’s that every time you make a new bunch of friends, they all tend to die (146k PDF). Welcome to the life of a Judas goat (89k PDF), one of the worst jobs in the animal kingdom. Your naturally sociable nature make you ideal for leading sheep to slaughter or helping animal-control specialists find groups of your compatriots in rugged environments, where they proceed to shoot them—everyone but you—from helicopters. Of course, you then get lonely, so you go off and find another bunch and the process begins again.
posted by gottabefunky at 3:30 PM PST - 16 comments

It's Flash Friday, but surprisingly no one's mentioned this yet. Since you seem to be fans of Orisinal's work, I thought it prudent to point out that he's put up a new game just in time for the holidays. So, let's go play some Winterbells, shall we?
posted by revmitcz at 2:44 PM PST - 21 comments

BarneyCam! A holiday video about the nation's First Dog, hosted on the official White House web site!
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:19 PM PST - 29 comments

Where once geeks' biggest worry was orphaned technology, now it's technology orphans.
posted by GuyZero at 1:59 PM PST - 10 comments

Kevin Kelly on the latest in personal book publishing advice.
posted by stbalbach at 7:06 AM PST - 63 comments

This handy comparison guide can help you prepare for our turbulent future with lessons from other people's turbulent recent past.
posted by hexatron at 6:23 AM PST - 48 comments

"Bathed in fire, flood, love and turmoil And While London Burns is a compelling collision of thriller, opera and guided walk."
posted by headlessness at 5:38 AM PST - 9 comments

Taking Open Source to the Next Level Linux? Firefox? Bah! German Markus Merz scoffs at these posers. Instead, he steps up to offer the OScar project, whose goal is to develop and build an open source *car*. While not in the same class as a Range Rover or Hummer, they hope to make something more simple and functional. This isn't the only example of hardware-based open source projects. Others include Zero Prestige, which designs kites and kite-powered vehicles, and Open Prosthetics, which offers free exchange of designs for prosthetic devices.
posted by PreacherTom at 5:26 AM PST - 20 comments

Albemarle County, Virginia: Pagans have been granted permission to advertise religious events in public schools... thanks to Jerry Falwell!
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:50 AM PST - 52 comments

Lost Rhapsody 2, Electric Boogaloo The unavoidable sequel to this, ^{previously on MeFi} with rotoscope effects and 90s Alt Rock Polka. Mashed up by this guy.
Joining the ranks of Weird Al toonage from Bill Plympton ^{previously on MeFi}, John Kricfalusi, Jim Blashfield, David Lovelace, Thomas Lee, JibJab, Robot Chicken, Will Vinton's Claymation, Albino Blacksheep and some WoW troll. Plus: Weird Anime and a cartoon interview.
posted by wendell at 4:49 AM PST - 17 comments

Play history: Noughts and Crosses (EDSAC, 1952) begat Tennis for Two (Donner & oscilliscope, 1958) begat Spacewars (PDP, 1962) begat Star Trek (SDS Sigma, 1971) begat Hunt the Wumpus (Mainframe, 1972) begat Maze War (Xerox Atlos, 1974) begat DECWAR [warning:telnet(!)] (DEC-10, 1978) begat Zork (PDP-10, 1979) begat World of Warcraft... with a few steps in between. All names (but Maze Wars) go to playable versions. Dates have information on the game itself
posted by blahblahblah at 12:22 AM PST - 13 comments