December 9, 2008

Creepy Christmas carols

An antidote to the holly jolly malaise: Few Christmas carols contain as much blood and suffering as "Down in yon forest." It was first documented in England by Ralph Vaughan Williams, but John Jacob Niles found an even gorier version in North Carolina (Alfred Deller's rendition). [more inside]
posted by imposster at 11:25 PM PST - 30 comments

You would always be viewed by many Americans as a poseur - a usurper.

An Open Letter to Barack Obama [PDF]. The hard right are starting to play hardball now in their accusations of Obama of being ineligible to hold office with conservative blog WorldNetDaily leading the charge in recent months. Now the fight has been taken to the Supreme Court and has been rejected already but that's not stopping some people from trying.
posted by Talez at 11:08 PM PST - 142 comments

Critter Christmas! Forget Lipstick on a Pig!

Move over Alvin & the Chipmunks. The BBC has "been out talking to animals all over the UK to discover exactly what they'd like for Christmas...find out what they had to say here!" [more inside]
posted by ericb at 9:46 PM PST - 10 comments

Hot fudge love / cherry ripple kisses!

Ishtar (The Web Site) - Un/official site for the Elaine May film that everyone but me (and presumably the person who made this web site) hates. The site is missing a petition to get the film released on Blu-Ray but does have the songs converted to mp3.
posted by Manhasset at 9:42 PM PST - 35 comments

Magazines + Google = Neato

New York Magazine? Popular Science? The Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists? Ebony? Every issue, every page, back into the mists of history. [more inside]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:15 PM PST - 46 comments

Gregory Brotherton—metal sculpture

Gregory Brotherton. Figurative metal sculpture. Often shiny. Some using discarded machine parts.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:58 PM PST - 9 comments

Counting Calories

Two social justice teachers decide to start eating on one dollar a day. [more inside]
posted by puckish at 8:14 PM PST - 42 comments

Lunches of endless novelty and imagination

Obento wonderland. A site in Japanese which (appears to) chronicle one bento-crazed artisan's daily lunch-making ritual. Let no lunch be without novelty! You don't need to be able to read the text to get a perverse kick out of the images. [more inside]
posted by lottie at 7:54 PM PST - 12 comments

Ladyboys.

Miss Tiffany's Universe is the first and largest Kathoey cabaret show in SE Asia. The Third gender is not unique to Thailand. The Hijras of India have an 18-day festival. North American Natives have the Two-Spirit Gathering. And Australia is now contemplating third sex designation. [more inside]
posted by gman at 7:47 PM PST - 26 comments

NY Subway 1905

Interior New York Subway, 14th St. to 42nd St. (1905) (sound added). In June, 1905, G.W. "Billy" Bitzer, D.W. Griffith's cinematographer, mounted a camera at the front of a train and shot 6 1/2 minutes of footage from 14th Street (Union Square) to the old Grand Central Depot, built by Cornelius Vanderbilt and architect John Snook in 1871. At the time of filming, the subway was only seven months old, having opened in October 1904. Two weeks after completing "Interior New York Subway," Bitzer shot "2 AM in the Subway," a comic short about late-night cavorting in an underground station. In March, 1905, Ray Stannard Baker (author of "What is a Lynching") called New York's new subway "a confusion of wonders" -- "the next step in the evolution of a Modern City." It would have its challenges.
posted by terranova at 6:29 PM PST - 17 comments

Down, down, down.

By one measure, this stock market is as bad as any in the last 180 years.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:28 PM PST - 21 comments

Caga Tio: The World's Misunderstood Yule Log

Caga Tio: The World's Misunderstood Yule Log (NSFW) El Tío de Nadal, better known as Caga Tío, is a Catalan Christmas tradition. [more inside]
posted by Stewriffic at 5:49 PM PST - 11 comments

Yeah, it's been awhile.

"I didn't intend to go without sex for a decade and a half. But celibacy isn't something you necessarily plan."
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:42 PM PST - 161 comments

The unfortunate burden of genius

Medical studies have indicated that high intelligence is often synonymous with the likelihood of alcoholism and suicidal tendencies. Animal studies have suggested that being smarter can actually be bad for animals...and it's not always an advantage for humans either. There should be a point here, but I'm a little fuzzy on what it is.
posted by deusdiabolus at 4:36 PM PST - 85 comments

Fingerstyle guitar to put a smile on your face

Fun, funky fingerstyle arrangements from Adam Rafferty: Superstition, I Wish, Billie Jean, The Chameleon. He's clearly having a great time and I think you will too.
posted by tomcooke at 4:20 PM PST - 19 comments

Science-y License Plates

Symmetry, (previously) a magazine on particle physics, recently put out a list of particle-physics related license plates. Of course there are other lists of geeky plates. Some even appear to be MeFi related. You could always just AskMefi to come up with your own geeky plate. But some tags, geeky and otherwise, aren't allowed (previously 1 2).
posted by nat at 4:04 PM PST - 12 comments

Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60th Anniversary

Sixty years ago on December 10, fifty eight nations created the UN Declaration of Human Rights. [more inside]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 3:44 PM PST - 20 comments

Jane Austen. Facebook. What else can I say?

Austenbook. It's trivial. It's silly. I grinned.
posted by mojohand at 3:16 PM PST - 32 comments

It is important to know that a blob of taffy flying through the air goes "fweeee!"

Jane Espenson is a tv writer you might have heard of if you've been watching few science fiction and related genre shows in recent years. For awhile now she's been answering questions about script writing from readers of her blog and gracing the blogosphere with her insights into the craft of writing a good story for tv and movies. Today she announced that she's taking a break from advice blogging because she's running out of new ideas for topics to cover.
posted by Tehanu at 3:04 PM PST - 9 comments

Daily Routines of Notable Persons

Daily Routines features how writers, artists, statesmen, and others go about their day. [more inside]
posted by Korou at 2:41 PM PST - 12 comments

Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

Norman Thomas di Giovanni, translator for the 20th century Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges's has recently posted on his web-site, his translation of Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, one of his most well known and greatest short stories.
posted by Fizz at 1:07 PM PST - 14 comments

Late Night with The Roots

So when Jimmy Fallon takes over for Conan O'Brien, guess who will be his house band?
posted by xmattxfx at 12:30 PM PST - 182 comments

Swimming pools, movie stars. Cha-ching!

"The multi-million dollar casino will feature unique applications of The Beverly Hillbillies theme. Granny’s Shot Gun Weddin’ Chapel, Jethro’s All-You-Ken-Et Buffet, the Cement Pond, Granny’s White Lightnin’ Bar complete with rain & lightning ["The waitresses are dressed like Elly May but padded like Dolly Parton"], Elly May’s Buns (Bakery) [Link possibly NSFW], gourmet meals from Drysdales’ Fancy Eatin’ Fo Da Richins, Granny’s Vittles & Hog Jowls Coffee Shop, and an oil derrick are just a few of the many attractions … a project of Las Vegas standards will be created!" [more inside]
posted by mudpuppie at 11:57 AM PST - 61 comments

Pandaemonium

Milton turns 400 today. The Morgan Library celebrates by exhibiting the last surviving pages of Paradise Lost manuscript. Just you wait for the movie! [more inside]
posted by spamguy at 11:03 AM PST - 23 comments

Two Huxleys, two Burroughs, two Plaths

Fine edition used book blog Bookride has a list of Literary Rock Band Names which make a pleasant diversion. A list which just may be expanded in the comments.
posted by shothotbot at 11:02 AM PST - 32 comments

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year ...for Mashups

Why give someone the gift of song when you can give them multiple songs... all at once! Metafilter originally introduced me to mashups with the Santastic collection of holiday mashups and Bootie's annual 'Best of' compilation. Now it just doesn't feel like the holidays without songs like "You Shook Me All Noel" blasting from my car stereo.
posted by BartFargo at 10:49 AM PST - 11 comments

Terence McKenna's Butterflies

The Butterfly Hunter. Klea McKenna's photographs of her father's butterfly collection. [Via]
posted by homunculus at 9:52 AM PST - 6 comments

This is the end.

"I just began photographing desperately. I really overshot because I was so desperate to always keep the camera going; every moment I stopped photographing I really felt like I might faint, or burst into tears, or come apart, or something like that." [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese at 9:45 AM PST - 23 comments

UCLA's Phonetics Lab Archive

"For over half a century, the UCLA Phonetics Laboratory has collected recordings of hundreds of languages from around the world, providing source materials for phonetic and phonological research, of value to scholars, speakers of the languages, and language learners alike. The materials on this site comprise audio recordings illustrating phonetic structures from over 200 languages with phonetic transcriptions, plus scans of original field notes where relevant." (Description from website.) Many more recordings -- indexed by language, sound, and geographic location -- are available here.
posted by cog_nate at 9:25 AM PST - 12 comments

They are fighting for a new world of freedom and peace.

Toons at War [more inside]
posted by anastasiav at 9:05 AM PST - 5 comments

Watch What You Eat!

Poisonous and Hallucinogenic Mushrooms, including Alice's [Amanita muscaria].
posted by Miko at 8:17 AM PST - 51 comments

Senate seat for sale...

The governor of Illinois, the guy who gets to pick who gets Obama's senate seat, gets arrested for corruption. [more inside]
posted by jpburns at 8:08 AM PST - 214 comments

Events That Touched Our Ancestors' Lives

GenDisasters is a genealogy site, compiling information on the historic disasters, events, and tragic accidents of Canada and the U.S. that our ancestors endured, as well as, information about their life and death. [more inside]
posted by netbros at 7:36 AM PST - 12 comments

The Great Sheffield Flood of 1864

Gunson looked up to see a breach appearing in the top of the dam. Feeling a sudden, violent, vibrating of the ground beneath his feet, he quickly scampered up the side of the embankment, luckily just in time, as a few seconds later there was a total collapse of a large section of the dam, unleashing a colossal mountain of water which thundered down the valley and on to the unsuspecting population below. For two hundred and fifty people who lived in Sheffield and the hamlets in the valley below the dam, this was to be their last night on Earth. Six hundred and fifty million gallons of water roared down the Loxley valley and into Sheffield, wreaking death and destruction on a horrific scale. [more inside]
posted by xchmp at 5:46 AM PST - 6 comments

What Good Is Half A Machine?

One of the classic arguments against evolution by natural selection is "what good is half an X?" where X is an eye, a wing or some other complex body part or system. Directly responding to the implicit challenge some researchers have been not just figuring out how X could have evolved, but actually evolving new complex machines (previously). The basic ideas are so simple that web versions (explanation and discussion) have been popping up.
posted by DU at 5:24 AM PST - 67 comments

Who is burning Athens?

"Night of terror - Madness and lunacy in Athens" reads the headline of one Greek newspaper this morning; "Night of agony and terror - Athens, Pireaus and Thessaloniki at the mercy of hooded individuals" reads another, and the rest follow suite. Three days of mass protests, demonstrations... and finally rioting, rampage and looting across Greece have followed Saturday's fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy by police in Athens' bohemian/anarchist neighborhood of Exarchia. [more inside]
posted by taz at 4:27 AM PST - 66 comments

Is it because I'm an auto-pirate?

In the 1980s, songwriter, artist and cultural critic Momus recorded a number of albums for the legendary indie label Creation Records, combining influences as diverse as Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, Pet Shop Boys-style synthpop and Balearic acid-house. These have largely languished in Sony Music's vaults over the past few years, occasionally fetching hefty prices on eBay. Now, Momus has taken the step to commit auto-piracy and release his Creation albums online, for free; over December, he will post MP3s of all six albums to his LiveJournal blog, each with freshly written liner notes. The first one, 1987's The Poison Boyfriend, is here. [more inside]
posted by acb at 3:26 AM PST - 15 comments

Emily loved him...

Oliver Postgate has died. The voice of millions of British childhoods, creator of Bagpuss, The Clangers and Noggin the Nog passed away yesterday after a long illness. I always kind of hoped that God spoke in that voice.
posted by Grangousier at 12:14 AM PST - 48 comments

« Previous day | Next day »