December 9, 2011

New Evangelicals

New Evangelicals "Though public support for both major political parties is very low, one group of voters is usually exempted from this malaise: evangelicals. It’s assumed that at least these “values voters” are getting what they want. But we should look more carefully."
posted by tomswift at 10:02 PM PST - 60 comments

23 1/2 hours

23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health?
posted by garlic at 8:36 PM PST - 55 comments

Please don't use them for more than 18 things...

Dr. Bronner's 18-in-1 Chicken Wings (SLYT)
posted by Godwin Interjection at 8:06 PM PST - 30 comments

Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas

Combining the architectural grace of Bach with the sprightly melodicism of Mozart, the 555 keyboard sonatas (3 MB PDF) of Domenico Scarlatti are a cornucopia of exquisite music*. The first musician to record all of them was the colorful Scott Ross - who died of AIDS-related pneumonia at the age of 38. Here he performs one of the masterpieces, K.209, in Le Château de Maisons-Laffitte on a harpsichord built by David Ley. [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 7:21 PM PST - 29 comments

Skip breakfast and have a real meal later - intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting can affect insulin sensitivity. And a new eating style has developed around this idea. Skip breakfast and enjoy big meals late in the day instead of what Martin Berkhan (fitness trainer with attitude bigger than his muscles - be warned) called kindergarten meals 6 times a day. [more inside]
posted by Listener at 4:44 PM PST - 89 comments

Set Phasers to VALUE!

Dodd’s Furniture and Mattress of Victoria, Canada sells you mattresses via star trek (and superman and batman and...)
posted by The Whelk at 4:26 PM PST - 20 comments

Nothing says Christmas like dancing to Mariah Carey half-naked wearing cardboard presents as pants.

The Royal Navy's HMS Ocean is coming home for Christmas. [SLYT]
posted by zennish at 3:58 PM PST - 26 comments

A Wizard's Staff Has A Knob On The End

The Rules of Magic. Every fantasy saga has its own rules for magic, and its own explanations for how the magical arts work. Where does magic come from? Who can use magic, and how? io9 has compiled a list of the rules of magic in 50 fantasy sagas. (jpg)
posted by zarq at 3:10 PM PST - 63 comments

Things go BOOM!

Devastating Explosions, at the Touch of a Button
posted by EvaDestruction at 1:33 PM PST - 73 comments

Mega audacious

MegaUpload is currently being portrayed by the MPAA and RIAA as one of the world’s leading rogue sites. But top music stars including P Diddy, Will.i.am, Alicia Keys, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West disagree and are giving the site their full support in a brand new song. TorrentFreak caught up with the elusive founder of MegaUpload, Kim Dotcom, who shrugged off “this rogue nonsense” and told us he wants content owners to get paid. “It works like an ad blocker but instead of blocking ads we show ads coming from Megaclick, our ad network,” says Kim. “This way we will generate enough ad revenue to provide free premium services and licensed content so that our users can have it for free.
posted by finite at 1:29 PM PST - 73 comments

Sixteen Rabbits and Three Tabby Cat Legs

Possibly NSFW. The case of the Rabbet Woman (also known as Mary Toft) is a particularly interesting one. Toft, on the advice of an unnamed accomplice, decided to engage in a scam which would enter her into the annals of history: she pretended to give birth to a series of seventeen baby rabbits and three tabby-cat legs, apparently by pushing their dead corpses up her vagina when no one was looking. Over the course of her fraud, she managed to convince many of the leading scientific and medical lights of the day that she was, in fact, giving birth to these rabbits (and three tabby-cat legs), including John Howard (pdf) (and more, also pdf), Cyriacus Ahlers (one of the King's surgeons), Nathaniel St. Andre (Anatomist to the King), Samuel Molyneux, and Sir Richard Manningham, male midwife to the Queen. Sir Richard Manninghan (Man Midwife!), although originally taken in by the fraud, eventually discovers the truth when a porter admits that he had been going to the market to buy baby rabbits for Toft. His Diary provides a pretty good summary of the case. When the fraud was discovered, Toft was charged, although the charges were eventually dropped; more lasting were the effects on some of the medical professionals, whose reputations were permanently ruined. You can read a nice summary in A Cabinet of Curiosities (google books). The case of the Rabbet Woman took the English world by storm. Scores of pamphlets--in this case the 18th century equivalent to tabloids--circulated, as the public devoured case depositions, scientific publications, satirical doggerel, and semi-erotic prints of rabbits bursting forth from Toft's nether regions (sanitized prints here)*. (previously (pay special attention to the comments), previously) [more inside]
posted by kittenmarlowe at 12:48 PM PST - 91 comments

Shut up, legs!

Every year, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, cyclists in Pittsburgh gather to ride the city's most difficult hills in The Dirty Dozen. [more inside]
posted by god hates math at 12:14 PM PST - 43 comments

Ye Olde Moneyball

"The time has passed when the public will any longer swallow the palpable falsehood that a home run is no better than a scratch single." (PDF) Before Brad Pitt; before Michael Lewis, before Billy Beane; before Bill James; and long, long, before the Society for American Baseball Research, there was F.C. Lane. [more inside]
posted by mrgrimm at 11:38 AM PST - 6 comments

Federal Reserve unable to account for 1 to 8 TRILLION dollars.

In August Bloomberg News Reported Secret 1.2 Trillion Dollar Loan To Banks. How much "secret" money was printed and given to the banks? Congressman Dennis Kucinich accuses the Federal Reserve of secretly giving domestic and international banks nearly 8 trillion dollars. Ben Bernanke denies. John Stewart educates and satirizes in the first segment of his show. Congressman Alan Grayson grills the (apparently clueless) Federal Reserve Inspector General regarding their accounting.
posted by noaccident at 10:49 AM PST - 112 comments

the five best toys of all time

"Here at GeekDad we review a lot of products — books, toys, gadgets, software — and I know it’s impossible for most parents to actually afford all of the cool stuff that gets written up... [W]hile we love telling you about all the cool stuff that’s out there, I understand that as parents we all have limited budgets and we sometimes need help narrowing down our wishlists. So to help you out, I’ve worked really hard to narrow down this list to five items that no kid should be without. All five should fit easily within any budget, and are appropriate for a wide age range so you get the most play out of each one. These are time-tested and kid-approved!"
posted by flex at 10:03 AM PST - 123 comments

Nerd like me

Coming Out of the Black Nerd Closet: A Meditation
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:01 AM PST - 45 comments

Overthinkin' it ...

Baked Beanz [SLVimeo] [via]
posted by scruss at 9:23 AM PST - 10 comments

From A Watch to Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead.

Pulp Fiction in Chronological Order (SLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:11 AM PST - 127 comments

"The bride and groom seal the deal as the crowd goes wild."

Bastion (previously) is an indie action/RPG game that has been called one of the best games of 2011. One of the things that makes it distinctive is the pervasive narrative, delivered by Logan Cunningham (bottom of page). When one fan of the game was recently planning his nuptials, he reached out to the game's developer ... and that resulted in a one-of-a-kind ceremony.
posted by jbickers at 8:41 AM PST - 17 comments

Deviation String Quartet

On 13 October, Red Bull Music Academy went to London for Revolutions in Sound, filling each pod of the London Eye with a different musical act. One of them was Benji B with special guests The Deviation String Quartet and MC Judah. Here's a video of an hour of mixing UK garage and hip hop with live strings.
posted by sveskemus at 7:26 AM PST - 12 comments

#Mockupy

On the heels of Occupy Wall Street's "Law-And-Order Problem", last night #OWS protestors occupied the set of Law & Order. [more inside]
posted by mhoye at 6:55 AM PST - 115 comments

"For you see Rubin, I am not furshlugginer ordinary Batboy!..."

Here is the classic story "Batboy and Rubin" from Mad Magazine #8. (Another source.) And here is the story adapted to animation 57 years later on Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
posted by JHarris at 6:54 AM PST - 28 comments

Friday Fun: Theme Hotel

Theme Hotel If you build it, they will stay the night. But you may want to turn off the music. Fun, addicting little "Sim Hotel" game, reminiscent of SimTower.
posted by PapaLobo at 6:43 AM PST - 23 comments

Can you give us a hand with a little research?

Amazon has recently declared that tomorrow is Price Check day. If you go into a brick and mortar retail store with Amazon’s new Price Check App on your smart phone, and scan a barcode with the location settings active, and then report back to Amazon on the price of that product, Amazon will deduct $5 from your online purchase of that product. Amazon claims it’s trying to keep prices low for consumers, but others attribute the move to a less innocuous agenda. [more inside]
posted by Toekneesan at 6:36 AM PST - 147 comments

"The medium shouldn’t define who is media"

An Oregon judge has ruled that a Montana blogger is not eligible for the legal protections afforded to journalists, letting stand a $2.5 million defamation verdict. At the end of the Ars Technica article there's a link to a Forbes article that contains some more details and the text of an email that didn't help the blogger's case.
posted by veedubya at 4:23 AM PST - 54 comments

Cottage of the weird sisters

With the death of the childless Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, the son of Mary Queen of Scots and the reigning King of Scotland became next in line for succession to the English throne. On 11 July of that year the crowns of Scotland and England were united as King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. The Union of the Crowns was made possible by the the fact that the James VI was protestant, married and had healthy children – heirs to the throne. The English were also comforted by the fact that the Scottish King was a scholar. Among other literary accomplishments, he had authored a number of books on witchcraft. Written in the Socratic form of a dialogue, Dæmonologie presented a wide-ranging discussion of witchcraft, necromancy, possession, demons, were-wolves, fairies and ghosts. [more inside]
posted by three blind mice at 4:09 AM PST - 42 comments

Bright Lights for Christmas

Holiday Shopping Guide: All Gizmo Everything
posted by rollick at 3:33 AM PST - 11 comments

The stench of lobbying and corruption

Britain’s secretive lobbying system - one company, Bell Pottinger which has had several more than slightly controversial clients has been exposed boasting that they can influence the British Prime Minister.
Among other briefs they have been advising the despotic Uzbekistan Government - reforms need not be fast. They have also been found to have been editing wiikipedia using up to 20 different accounts.
More on lobbying and a list of relevant related links
posted by adamvasco at 2:09 AM PST - 14 comments

Nipplepotamus, and other Cultural Signposts

The A.V. Club's Annual Band Name Retrospective.
posted by Navelgazer at 12:59 AM PST - 27 comments

Is it organic?

Have a cup of coffee with David Lynch.
posted by vrakatar at 12:37 AM PST - 30 comments

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