December 10, 2011

More Zatoichi

Zatoichi (previously) is the story of a blind Japanese masseur; drifter (he also sometimes thinks of himself as a gangster, in a self-effacing way); uncanny gambler; and, master swordsman. The series is some 25 films long (not including the TV series), not including the 2003 American release with Takeshi Kitano playing the lead role, instead of Shintaro Katsu. [more inside]
posted by Vibrissae at 10:38 PM PST - 17 comments

Slugs: not as delicious as they seem!

NYTimes warns: Do not eat slugs! A 21-year old Australian man is seriously ill after ingesting two garden slugs on a dare. The causative organism is Angiostrongylus cantonensis which leads to eosinophilic meningitis. [more inside]
posted by genmonster at 8:27 PM PST - 65 comments

“I‘m not lying!”

This past August a murder charge was dismissed against Nga Truong, a young mother who had confessed to Worcester, MA Police interrogators in 2008 that she had smothered and killed her 13 month-old baby, Khyle. A judge later concluded that confession was coerced -- extracted in part by police "deception," "trickery and implied promises" -- and the case was dropped. (pdf). Her case raises questions: What coercive power do detectives have who are driven to extract confessions? Under what circumstances might someone admit to a crime they have not committed? WBUR (Boston's NPR station) investigated Truong's case and has an extensive report, Anatomy of a Bad Confession: Part One and Two [more inside]
posted by zarq at 8:25 PM PST - 28 comments

No, no, no

The European Union said Friday that 26 of its 27 member countries are open to joining a new treaty tying their finances together to solve the euro crisis. Only Britain remains opposed, creating a deep rift in the union. In all, just 23 of the 27 EU countries signed on outright to draft a new treaty binding them to a uniform regime of deficit controls and budget regulation. Only one country said no: Britain. Three more say they are open to the idea. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 8:05 PM PST - 99 comments

Wim Wenders' "Until The End Of The World"

Until the End of the World was conceived over most of the ’80s, filmed on four continents (including video smuggled out of China), and foresaw a future abetted by such diversions as mobile viewing devices, proto-GPS and a highly sought-after contraption that records images for the blind. Starring William Hurt, Sam Neill, Solveig Dommartin, Jeanne Moreau and Max von Sydow among an international ensemble of actors, the film also skyrocketed to a $23 million budget and found its distributors — including Warner Bros. in the United States — requiring cuts that reduced it to barely a quarter of Wenders’s original vision. Later locked in at just under five hours, it’s the type of material that today would be a shoo-in for a cable miniseries that could probably win Emmys for everyone involved. Twenty years on, however, it’s relatively lost to the mainstream, with Wenders’s directors cut as yet unreleased outside two territories in Europe.
posted by Trurl at 7:27 PM PST - 50 comments

VIEW, DEDUCE AND IMAGINE. CREATE YOUR OWN TRUTH.

Wonderful Ambiguity. (some later images NSFW; or are they? [but seriously, some possibly even more nsfw than this]) "Sculptors" "today", what with their "plank piece I & II", "planking" back when it was "cool", before it was hip; there are at least 47 pages of wonderful, mercifully, none relating to "planking". [more inside]
posted by infinite intimation at 6:41 PM PST - 6 comments

Yuoo hefe-a nutheeng tu luse-a boot yuoor cheeens

Ereese-a yuoo preesuners ooff sterfeshun. Ereese-a yuoo vretched ooff zee iert. Fur joosteece-a thoonders cundemneshun. A better vurld's in burt. It is zee feenel cunffleect. Let iech stund in hees plece-a. Zee Interneshunele-a shell be-a zee hoomun rece-a.

BORK BORK BORK!

posted by jason's_planet at 6:34 PM PST - 25 comments

Will Wright's Next Game: Hivemind

Will Wright, of Sims and Simcity fame, now wants to have users use their personal data to shape the game playing experience in his new game, Hivemind.
posted by reenum at 6:25 PM PST - 29 comments

The Bourne Ultimatum with Unicorns

Carl Erik Rinsch‘s futuristic action thriller short The Gift. Other movies by Big Lazy Robot Studio. The Commercials of Carl Erik Rinsch. Also: The Hunt of the Unicorn.
posted by growabrain at 5:23 PM PST - 7 comments

He is almost your audience

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there [more inside]
posted by Apropos of Something at 5:15 PM PST - 30 comments

Getting a job in software development: A Reddit discussion round-up

Getting a job in software development: A Reddit discussion round-up A great round up of CS articles about getting a job in CS, then also links to info about CS concepts. [more inside]
posted by snow_mac at 4:53 PM PST - 62 comments

Blood Cards

Bloody hockey cards celebrate NHL enforcers
posted by MechEng at 3:18 PM PST - 10 comments

The 25 Funniest 'Damn You Autocorrect!' Entries of the Website's First Year

The 25 Funniest Autocorrects of the 'Damn You Autocorrect!' website's First Year anniversary. [Previously]
posted by ericb at 3:00 PM PST - 92 comments

Apparently so.

Are sex offenders and lads’ mags using the same language? [more inside]
posted by cmoj at 2:53 PM PST - 37 comments

Ubuntu jumps the shark?

Mint is a Debian-based Linux distro that is now the fourth most popular Operating System after Windows, Mac and Ubuntu, focusing on usability for those without previous GNU/Linux experience. With Ubuntu declining in popularity since the introduction of the tablet-oriented Unity desktop interface, Mint may be taking its old place.
posted by moorooka at 2:49 PM PST - 68 comments

BUY MORE STUFF. CONSUME. OBEY.

The Light Bulb Conspiracy is a documentary about disposable printers, light bulbs and everything else, investigating the implications of the business model and industrial design philosophy of Planned Obsolescence that drives and shapes our economy.
posted by loquacious at 2:24 PM PST - 43 comments

Playing with both cats and language

I can has language play: Construction of Language and Identity in LOLspeak. A presentation by Jill Vaughan and Lauren Gawne of the University of Melbourne at the Australian Linguistics Society annual conference 2011.
posted by bjrn at 11:48 AM PST - 29 comments

Ark of the Covenant: 2½-1½-1½ Cubits

Maps of Biblical Prophecy and History. Also Protestant distribution, oil pipelines, Mars, and more.
posted by Winnemac at 10:57 AM PST - 14 comments

Santa's got backup

A sub-directorate of the Bureau of Special Christmas Operations (BOSCO), Santa's Little Secret Service is an Elvish security agency with the primary mission of ensuring the safety of Santa, Mrs. Claus and other high-value Christmas persons. The Service is separated into divisions focusing on personal protection, diplomatic protection, intelligence, and Christmas certainty operations.

When not protecting Santa, LSS can found assisting in protection of other high-value, Holiday persons, such as the Easter Bunny and Jesus with the help of their unique Candy Cane weapons.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:07 AM PST - 16 comments

Dance of the Glass Plum Fairy

Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy played on a glass harp. [SLYT]
posted by shiu mai baby at 9:14 AM PST - 19 comments

Creature unFeature

Meet Creature: the biggest box-office flop of all time It had everything: nudity, gore and the most superfluous lesbian sex scene in the history of film. How could it possibly fail? Stuart Heritage goes behind the scenes of a real Hollywood disaster movie
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:14 AM PST - 76 comments

National Theatre actors read King James Bible - free podcasts

King James Bible readings by top UK actors - free podcasts London's National Theatre recently staged a series of live readings to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible and the glorious language that book contains. The actors taking part included Lindsay Duncan (Genesis), Patricia Routledge (Psalms), Maureen Lipman (Isaiah), Mark Gatiss (Luke) and Simon Russell Beale (Revelation). There's 12 readings in all, each of about 80 minutes, and the National has three available as free podcasts already, with the rest to follow soon. As a bonus, it's also offering Melvyn Bragg's talk on how the King James version was constructed and the main sources it drew on. I saw Bragg delivering this talk at the Cheltenham Literary Festival earlier this year, and it's well worth hearing.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:48 AM PST - 8 comments

Flattire, or Whamsy

In 2007, an Israeli cable station produced a show that parodied kid's educational tv with over-the-top racism, sexism, you-name-it-ism--kind of what South Park would be like if it were less restrained and tasteful. Toffee and the Gorilla was, apparently, unsuccessful and short-lived. YOUTUBE. NSFW. NSFHome either. Here's a non-youtube article about the show. [more inside]
posted by hexatron at 8:41 AM PST - 13 comments

Quivera, a fairly complete Unicode font

𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝑸𝒖𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝓪, 𝓪 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝑻𝒓𝒖𝒆𝑻𝒚𝒑𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝓪𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝓪𝒊𝒏𝒔 10,000 𝒄𝒉𝓪𝒓𝓪𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔. 𝓘𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓲𝓽 𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓭, 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓬𝓪𝓷 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓶𝓮𝓼𝓼𝓪𝓰𝓮 (𝔲𝔫𝔩𝔢𝔰𝔰 𝔶𝔬𝔲'𝔯𝔢 𝔲𝔰𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝕮𝔥𝔯𝔬𝔪𝔢).
"Here is Quivira, a free TrueType font that contains 10,000 characters. If you have it installed, you can read this message (unless you're using Chrome)." [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 7:45 AM PST - 111 comments

Learning Space at Open University

Try one of over 600 courses available through the Open University's Learning Space. Get to know the meaning behind the making of kente cloth of Ghana or learn the mathematical modelling involved in analysing skid marks. Lose yourself in art and design or simply learn a new old language. All you need is a device with a browser and internet access. Bonus: OU on the BBC's Frozen Planet series
posted by infini at 7:34 AM PST - 8 comments

Very last year

Last Year Next Year This Year New Year [co-starring Debbie Harry] is a follow up to the classic 2006 John Roberts video The Christmas Tree [previously] both starring your Mom. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:57 AM PST - 10 comments

Reader, have you ever seen a fight?

On 10 December 1821 the radical essayist and journalist William Hazlitt set out on a journey from London to Hungerford where, the next day, he witnessed a bare-knuckle boxing match between Bill Neate, a butcher from Bristol, and Tom 'The Gas-man' Hickman. Hazlitt's account of the event – 'The Fight' – was published in 1822, and is regarded as a pioneering work of sports journalism and an insightful study of popular culture.
posted by mattn at 5:16 AM PST - 6 comments

You must be yolking...

"So, if the probability of finding an egg with two yolks is 1/1000 - then to find the likelihood of discovering four in a row you simply multiply the probabilities together four times. One thousand to the power of four brings us to the grand total of one trillion...

If true that would mean the event that occurred in Jen's kitchen was a trillion-to-one event. But is it true? No is the short answer."

posted by Petrot at 4:15 AM PST - 39 comments

I put in a quadratic and all I got was this dumb parabola

Google will now graph! Google Post description. Now... examples! sin(x), exp(x), x^2+2x+1. We're not nearly done... [more inside]
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:12 AM PST - 36 comments

BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin on her breast cancer diagnosis

I live online as much as I live offline. Often, I move around in the world staring into a device as I walk, sharing bits of one realm with the other. The morning I went in for my first mammogram, I felt nervous. I would tweet this new thing, like I do with lots of new things, and make the unknown and new feel less so. Maybe by doing so, I thought while I was driving, other women like me who'd never done this would also feel like it was less weird, less scary, more normal and worth doing without hesitation. I'd crack some 140-character jokes. I'd make fun of myself and others. I would Instagram my mammogram.
posted by cgc373 at 2:41 AM PST - 18 comments

In Plutocratic Russia, Kremlin Tweets You

There were thousands of Russians protesting the widespread ballot stuffing discovered during the elections last sunday. Russian police arrested hundreds of protesters who had gathered in Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square, including Alexei Navalny. Protestors raised awareness using Twitter hashtags like #триумфальная (Triumfalnaya), but pro-Kremlin spammers were prepared to drown them out using 2000 automated twitterbots they'd created earlier this year. (related, recently)
posted by jeffburdges at 12:16 AM PST - 27 comments

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