December 4, 2011

Blood, sweat and tears

Nobody was surprised when Italy Prime Minister Mario Monti presented a draconian "save Italy" emergency Budget decree on Sunday - that's what he had been nominated to do. But the full impact of the measures, especially hitting pensioners, became stunningly clear when Welfare Minister Elsa Fornero, invited by Monti to present her ministry's section of the decree to the press and TV, broke down (SLYT) and was unable to bring out the word "sacrifice".
posted by aqsakal at 11:37 PM PST - 74 comments

Ying tong ying tong ying tong ying tong ying tong iddle-i po.

Here is, um, something. Something silly, from the Goons. Here it is again. And here it is from the Muppets. And here it is in a bookstore at a signing by one of the Goons. More nonsense. And more. (← my favorite) And yet more. Okay, just one more. [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 10:54 PM PST - 18 comments

Eight Ferraris and one Lamborghini ... in a $4 million pileup

"Flashy sports cars valued at as much as $4 million became a mangled mess in a matter of minutes on Sunday when a Ferrari leading a pack of exotic sports cars on a trip from Japan’s southern island of Kyushu to Hiroshima skidded as it tried to change lanes."
posted by woodblock100 at 10:04 PM PST - 82 comments

You can't stop Katy Perry

Penn Jillette: An Atheist's Guide to the 2012 Election. [SLYT] Via BigThink, "A knowledge forum featuring the ideas, lessons, stories and advice of leading experts from around the world."
posted by furiousxgeorge at 9:55 PM PST - 103 comments

Peter Greenaway's "Prospero's Books"

Peter Greenaway's "Prospero's Books" (NSFW) is not a movie in the sense that we usually employ the word. It's an experiment in form and content. ... The books, their typography, calligraphy and illustrations, are photographed in voluptuous detail. ... "Prospero's Books" really exists outside criticism. ... It is simply a work of original art, which Greenaway asks us to accept or reject on his own terms. - Roger Ebert
posted by Trurl at 8:47 PM PST - 32 comments

Fuckaround-itis

How to waste time in the gym, or not
posted by Listener at 8:02 PM PST - 275 comments

Last dictator standing

South African fast food chain Nando's ran an amusing ad featuring Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe enjoying himself with a range of deceased despots, to the tune "Those were the days". The Zimbabwean "government" was not amused.
posted by wilful at 7:27 PM PST - 47 comments

The Toughest On Immigration

Many here are familiar with Joe Arpaio who wrote a book called "Joe's Law: America's Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs and Everything Else That Threatens America". He recently endorsed Ricky Perry for President.

Since 2007 he has also had 400 sex-crime cases "that were inadequately investigated and in some instances were not worked at all, according to current and former police officers familiar with the cases.

In El Mirage alone, where Arpaio's office was providing contract police services, officials discovered at least 32 reported child molestations — with victims as young as 2 years old — where the sheriff's office failed to follow through, even though suspects were known in all but six cases. Many of the victims, said a retired El Mirage police official who reviewed the files, were children of illegal immigrants." [more inside]
posted by dig_duggler at 5:28 PM PST - 51 comments

Before their time

200+ Famous Musicians Who Died Too Young. Ordered by age, from 17 to 54, with brief descriptions and links to their last.fm pages.
posted by madamjujujive at 5:19 PM PST - 71 comments

The deathstar trench run minecraft style

Minecraft - Star Wars - Death Star Run, and the making of.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 3:38 PM PST - 22 comments

Kitty Lit 101

Comediva is having a Cat Week, and one of the features is "Kitty Lit 101".
posted by reenum at 2:30 PM PST - 9 comments

We need some angry nerds.

"The PC is dead. Rising numbers of mobile, lightweight, cloud-centric devices [represent] an unprecedented shift of power from end users and software developers on the one hand, to operating system vendors on the other ... This is a little for the better, and much for the worse." - Jonathan Zittrain, Harvard Law Professor (via battellemedia.com) [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges at 2:10 PM PST - 153 comments

A game about crime.

Taco Fiction is the winner of 2011's Interactive Fiction Competition (previously). According to Emily Short, "Taco Fiction has been the most purely enjoyable experience of the comp so far, full of entertaining twists and surprises, fair puzzles, and a forgiving design that lets you go back for objects left behind or tasks not completed." [more inside]
posted by mokin at 1:31 PM PST - 8 comments

Urban [all] bicyclists have an image problem

"Urban bicyclist have an image problem...." "They’ve become stereotyped as pretentious, aloof jackasses, and a lot of this has to do with the changes taking place in cities right now."
posted by jeffmac at 12:53 PM PST - 208 comments

Dealing with comments about Attawapiskat

The Canadian government has put a negative spin on the state of emergency and situation at Attawapiskat, in northern Ontario. A Plains Cree speaking Metis woman in Montreal has prepared an excellent series of responses to the major comments being generated by the crisis at Attawapiskat. (Via:âpihtawikosisân)
posted by JL Sadstone at 12:50 PM PST - 60 comments

"Whats goin on..."

Jonah Mowry, Bullied Gay Teen: "IM NOT GOING TO KILL MYSELF. I JUST NEED TO GET THIS OUT HERE." [more inside]
posted by ericb at 12:24 PM PST - 71 comments

Hard Time Killin Floor

Hubert Sumlin, the legendary guitarist for Howlin Wolf, and many others, has passed away. An appreciation.
posted by timsteil at 12:21 PM PST - 20 comments

The Secret Parisian Painter

Influenced by Bosch, Cranach, Goya and the Surrealists Claude Verlinde who was born in 1927 is a very private magic realist about whose life little seems known. Here is his web presence.
If you understand French, the press pages are interesting. Bonus SLYT slideshow. (NSFW) .
posted by adamvasco at 10:26 AM PST - 11 comments

Funk Styles: The Electric Boogaloo

It's not breakdancing. Not really, although it's associated with breakdancing nowadays; breakin' was originally seen as being very east coast, while these dances originated on the west coast. What was this dancing?Well, many of the most famous 70s-80s street moves are actually called funk styles, which were performed, at first, to funk and disco, and later to early electronic and industrial dance music. And the big daddy of them all was a dance called the Electric Boogaloo, and demonstrated by the Electric Boogaloos.Here they are in their zoot-suited glory, showing off their signature moves. [more inside]
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 10:08 AM PST - 7 comments

School Portrait

"We're going to try something different today. It's called a reality check." A short film by director Nick Scott and producer Michael Berliner. [more inside]
posted by drlith at 9:55 AM PST - 9 comments

What's the word? Techno-bird?

Techno is the word! generates a little techno loop based on a word. (requires Chrome) [more inside]
posted by mkb at 7:49 AM PST - 30 comments

Piss off.

Toilet gaming. [bbc.co.uk] When men use a public urinal they are cruelly left in full view, with nothing to do as they answer nature's call. Until now. British company Captive Media thinks it has developed a product that fills a gap in the market - a urinal mounted, urine-controlled games console for men.
posted by Fizz at 6:27 AM PST - 87 comments

Brain doctors, doing their thing

Brain Tumors: symptoms, types, a man who hunts them (and what drives him) and a vivid video of the removal of one.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:20 AM PST - 23 comments

The Lost Sketches of Monty Python

A few sketches aired during the original run of Monty Python were subsequently lost. Half an episode, the tenth of the third series, was censored by the BBC. All that survives is the script. Also, never shot, but written, was the King Brian the Wild scene from Holy Grail. Additionally, a few sketches were either slightly censored post-broadcast or erased for other reasons. A couple of those sketches have have been found on tape [Warning: Autoplaying video]. The two sketches are Political Choreographer (here with a short bit exhorting you to support Channel 11 in Chicago), and an interstitial animation by Terry Gilliam. Also, the uncensored Summarize Proust sketch.
posted by Kattullus at 5:20 AM PST - 11 comments

Christopher Logue, 1926-2011

"Almost everything I do is based on other texts anyway. Without plagiarism, there would be no literature. I'm a rewrite man." The poet Christoper Logue has died, aged 85. Logue had a varied career, at various points serving in the British Army (and being arrested for espionage after a drunken threat to sell secrets), writing pornography under the nom de plume Count Palmiro de Vicarion, recording George Martin-produced, "heroically daft" jazz recitals of the poems of Pablo Neruda (YT) and regularly contributing to the British satirical magazine Private Eye, where he edited Pseuds' Corner, while finding the time to be arrested again, for civil disobedience as part of Bertrand Russell's Committee of 100. [more inside]
posted by running order squabble fest at 4:47 AM PST - 14 comments

Slices, dices

20 Cool and Useful Kitchen Tools. Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:24 AM PST - 92 comments

PENDULUM MUSIC FOR MICROPHONES, AMPLIFIERS, SPEAKERS AND PERFORMERS

"2,3,4 or more microphones are suspended from the ceiling by their cables so that they all hang the same distance from the floor and are all free to swing with a pendular motion. Each microphone’s cable is plugged into an amplifier which is connected to a speaker. Each microphone hangs a few inches directly above or next to its speaker. [more inside]
posted by misteraitch at 3:39 AM PST - 16 comments

Howard Tate, soul man, 1939-2011

The man who lent his wonderfully warm and soaring voice to the rolling soul ballad Get It While You Can, the limber southern funk of Eight Days on the Road, the coolly driving How Come My Bulldog Don't Bark, the mellow soul lilt (with breathtaking falsetto interjections!) of I Learned It All the Hard Way and so many other delightful soul numbers has died. Farewell Howard Tate. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:33 AM PST - 17 comments

Buzzing about network graphs

A hive plot (slides) is a beautiful and compelling way to visualize multiple, complex networks, without resorting to "hairball" graphs that are often difficult to qualitatively compare and contrast. [more inside]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:07 AM PST - 15 comments

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