February 15, 2012

"I’m curious about what will happen next."

"I always knew that Sugar was Cheryl, and that the anonymity was just a temporary experience, and it wasn’t going to be really who Sugar was in the end. I revealed myself to you. I only withheld one piece of pretty meaningless information: my name. But I showed myself to you." Dear Sugar of The Rumpus is revealed to be author Cheryl Strayed. [more inside]
posted by mokin at 11:38 PM PST - 20 comments

Hu's on First

Hu's on First - an update of the classic Abbott and Costello routine, using names of (real) modern baseball players. [more inside]
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:51 PM PST - 24 comments

Tetris wasn't hard enough on its own

Tetris plus Minesweeper = Tetrisweeper. A moves left, D moves right, W and E rotate, S drops. Click to uncover, shift-click to flag. (SLFlash)
posted by spitefulcrow at 9:58 PM PST - 39 comments

Janet Flanner

Janet Flanner began her career at The New Yorker composing evocative and cogent dispatches from Europe, writing nearly seven hundred Letters from Paris under the nom de plume Genêt, from 1925 to 1975. In between these, she contributed Profiles, Reporter at Large dispatches, and other Letters from around the globe. In a Postscript published after she died, in 1978, editor-in-chief William Shawn wrote of his prolific correspondent: "Her eye never became jaded, her ardor for what was new and alive never diminished, and her language remained restless. She was a stylist who devoted her style, bedazzling and heady in itself, to the subtle task of conveying the spirit of a subtle people." [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 8:31 PM PST - 7 comments

Weekender

Towards the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s the Madchester sound swept the UK. Spearheaded by The Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays Manchester became the dominant force in English music. One notable exception to this Northern domination were the boys from London's Camden Town known as Flowered Up. [more inside]
posted by jontyjago at 6:34 PM PST - 25 comments

your whole life is a race between a pillow and a pretty soft place

Between April 16th, 2006 and April 15th, 2007, Paleo, also known as David Strackany, wrote a song every day for a year and posted them on his website. These include a weekly 'Sunday Prayer,' featuring new lyrics sung to the same tune on the day of relative rest. At the end of the year, he received a letter of congratulations from Vice President Dick Cheney, who was in the midst of a (failed) campaign to convince the American people that he was not a robot alien overlord. Paleo kept up the site, with all the song-diary entries, and still posts occasional lyrics and a weekly Sunday Prayer. Here's a song I particularly like: The World's Tiniest Violin.
posted by kaibutsu at 5:59 PM PST - 19 comments

Twenty Cats, as Fonts

Do you like cats? Do you like fonts? Do you like cats... and fonts?
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:29 PM PST - 50 comments

You've been living in a dream world, Ginger.

"As long as their brain stem is intact, the homeostatic functions of the chicken will continue to operate." It's the Matrix. For chickens.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:34 PM PST - 89 comments

...alone and besieged by powerful regret for undefined mistakes and losses...

Dear Esther was (re)released today. An 'interactive ghost story', Dear Esther began as a Source engine mod for Half-Life 2. (previously) It was given a wide-ranging graphical upgrade and commercially released today on Steam. PC game blog Rockpapershotgun has opinions here and here.
posted by Sebmojo at 3:34 PM PST - 17 comments

I can or can not get no satisfaction.

How to Feed and Grow Your Health Care System. A landmark study has established that patient satisfaction is correlated with mortality - in the wrong way. The more satisfied, the greater mortality. What accounts for this dynamic? And what are the implications for healthcare costs and available political options? 'One of the primary findings itself raises concern—a 26% mortality excess among the most satisfied patients, an effect size that far exceeds that for all other, more immediate, study outcomes (eg, a 12% excess in hospitalizations).' Brenda E. Sirovich, MD, MS wrote a response to the study. [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 2:02 PM PST - 20 comments

Not immune to criticism

Vaccinate, or begone. Some pediatricians are refusing to see children whose parents refuse to allow vaccination.
posted by bitmage at 1:53 PM PST - 344 comments

"I don't have any prizes to give out, I'm just going to tell you how to live your life."

Bret Victor (previously, previouslier) shows off some mindblowing tools he's created to demonstrate not only great insights in user experience, but also his philosophy: "Inventing on Principle"
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 1:43 PM PST - 15 comments

Still waiting for a minimal score run on Mario Golf

Super Mario World Minimal Score Run (half-hour SLYT, NES version previously) [more inside]
posted by radwolf76 at 1:32 PM PST - 26 comments

"If I had died, there would have been an investigation."

Here's why drivers get away with murder in NYC.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:31 PM PST - 144 comments

More entertaining that Planet of the Apes?

It turns out that apes really enjoy looking in a mirror. Combine this with an iphone and you get a pretty entertaining video [more inside]
posted by Lame_username at 12:47 PM PST - 26 comments

Can you hear me now?

The number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the number of people on Earth by the end of 2012. (Never mind the phone chargers.) By 2016, there will be 1.4 mobile devices per capita.
posted by wensink at 12:45 PM PST - 26 comments

Confessions of a middle-aged Ecstasy eater

Confessions of a middle-aged Ecstasy eater. I believe that my coming to Ecstasy goes further than mere thrill-seeking. I believe it goes to the centre of my life at the time. It was a period of personal devastation. It began with my only child, a son - he was then my best friend, from time to time still is - and I did not see it coming and it culminated in Ecstasy, and to that I see no end. He was beautiful and sensitive and extraordinarily talented, talented enough that at 13 his poetry had won the notice of university professors and New York book editors alike. So when he undertook to destroy himself, he took his mother and father with him. That was not, nor is it, his fault.
posted by gottabefunky at 12:37 PM PST - 60 comments

Spotted Lake

About 13 km (8 miles) north of the US/Canada border is Spotted Lake (Google Maps/streetview), a endorheic basin, or terminal lake. In wetter times, the lake is full, but spots are visible. During the summer months, the water level drops, leaving spots of mineral-rich water. The waters have long been considered therapeutic, and one story cites a truce in a battle to allow both warring tribes to tend to their wounded in the lake. Though a sacred medicine lake of the Okanagan People, the lake and the land around it were privately owned for 40 years. Mineral-rich salts were harvested during World War I for munitions, and decades later, the land owners were looking to mine the mud to sell for use in therapeutic spas. In 2001, the land was finally purchased by the The Indian Affairs Department and the Okanagan Nation Alliance. kłlil'xw is property of the Okanagan Nation once more. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 12:31 PM PST - 8 comments

Go North

Playfic is a community for writing, sharing, and playing interactive fiction games (aka “text adventures”) entirely from your browser. [more inside]
posted by muckster at 12:31 PM PST - 15 comments

Are Cities a Political Liability?

Obama to Cities: Drop Dead—the Life and Death of a Great American Urban Policy
posted by beisny at 12:24 PM PST - 69 comments

Nobody is that bad of a person

A tragic fire in Honduras has claimed the lives of hundreds of inmates as a "hellish scene" unfolded as hundreds of inmates were caught up in a prison fire in Comayagua. [more inside]
posted by RolandOfEld at 12:08 PM PST - 12 comments

@Vikileaks30

Canada's attempts to alter its Copyright bills over the past 7 years have all failed, often dying when an election is called. Attempts at implementing so called "Lawful Access" legislation have also previously died in the House of Commons. Yesterday, Bill c-30, "the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act" was introduced by Vic Toews, Minster of Public Safety, accompanied by one of the harbringer states of the "Four Horsemen of the Infopocolypse", "[one] can either stand with us or with the child pornographers.". The interent has a history of responding poorly to politicians trying to limit online freedoms and didn't respond to nicely to Vic Toews wanting to know more about your life. Meet @Vikileaks30, a twitter account exposing portions of Vic Toews acrimonious divorce proceedings, adultery, and public accounts bills. [more inside]
posted by aidanwhiteley at 11:13 AM PST - 124 comments

"The Legacy Of Wes Leonard"

You may have heard about the Michigan high schooler who made a game-winning basket and then died. Here's the rest of the story. [Alternative link]
posted by mudpuppie at 11:09 AM PST - 27 comments

Hillary can be President after all!

Who Will Run the Frog Hospital World Bank? Robert Zoellick has announced that he will step down from his role as World Bank President on June 30, at the end of his five-year term. Though the president has traditionally been selected by the President of the United States through an informal agreement with European powers, emerging powers including Brazil and India have argued for a change in policy. [more inside]
posted by psoas at 11:07 AM PST - 18 comments

The Browser Wars never ended

Is Webkit, the web browser engine used by Safari and Chrome, turning into IE6? Concern is growing that reliance on proprietry CSS features marked by vendor prefixes could be breaking the web.
posted by Artw at 11:01 AM PST - 57 comments

What's Your Ludic Goal?

Errant Signal is one man's blog about games, wherein he plumbs the nuances of game mechanics, bemoans the state of game journalism, and also offers incredibly insightful reviews of games. He tackles the intrinsic flaws of Deus Ex: Invisible War, broaches heresy by critiquing the Half-Life series, and combats cynicism by gushing about Bastion.
posted by Panjandrum at 10:57 AM PST - 54 comments

'The album was created with no talking. It's telepathy – Wobble and me just have that'

How we made: Jah Wobble and Keith Levene on Public Image Ltd's Metal Box. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:35 AM PST - 11 comments

ANIMALS DOING PEOPLE THINGS

Animals Doing People Things
posted by griphus at 10:32 AM PST - 39 comments

That just means he likes you!

Look, if you want to tell your child that being verbally and/or physically abused is an acceptable sign of affection, i urge you to rethink your parenting strategy.
posted by Dojie at 9:50 AM PST - 182 comments

ESPN Ocho Classico

Blimp waterskiing! Ice tennis! Blindfolded boxing! Baby boxing! Extreme sports of the mid-20th century, from the vaults of British Pathé (previously).
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:24 AM PST - 11 comments

Tom Edison's Diner

Suzanne Vega Steps Back In Time
posted by bardophile at 9:11 AM PST - 32 comments

one guitar, plenty of pedals

Carrying you blissfully through hump day, here's Dustin Wong, formerly of Ecstatic Sunshine and Ponytail, serving up two live hour-long assaults of unrestrained guitar-pedal rapture that loops, and loops, and loops...
posted by theodolite at 8:35 AM PST - 6 comments

A perfect 10 - but she wears a 12

Women have known for years that the dress size on the label doesn't necessarily mean that the garment will be the same size as another shop's size X , nor that your modern size 14 will be the same as the size 14 you bought there in the past (Some blame vanity sizing.) What Size Am I allows you to input your measurements and see how you measure up to high-street stores' individual sizing charts. [more inside]
posted by mippy at 8:33 AM PST - 64 comments

Vinod Thakur's Got Talent

Born without legs, Vinod Thakur has excelled at breakdance and performed on India's Got Talent. [more inside]
posted by gman at 8:28 AM PST - 3 comments

What it's like contributing to open source

Open Source for You, or "Your Day Job Sucks, Make Programming Fun Again". Stephen McDonald, creator of Mezzanine, shares his experience of "what it's like contributing to open source".
posted by philipy at 8:26 AM PST - 18 comments

A new kind of game

Golden Goal is a Norwegian sports talkshow, and in one of their segments, they play football in unusual ways. With three teams. On a hill. On the beach. Blindfolded. Not difficult enough for you? How about three-legged soccer? On hoppy balls? With binoculars? Inside plastic bubbles? Electroshock style?
posted by specialagentwebb at 8:04 AM PST - 17 comments

A look behind the curtain of the Heartland Institute’s climate change spin

Reported in Discover Magazine online, The Heartland Institute — a self-described "think tank" that actually serves in part as a way for climate change denialism to get funded — has a potentially embarrassing situation on their hands. Someone going by the handle "Heartland Insider" has anonymously released quite a few of what are claimed to be internal documents from Heartland, revealing the Institute’s strategies, funds, and much more. [more inside]
posted by Man with Lantern at 7:56 AM PST - 87 comments

A 10 Minute Shoot

Outtakes from the Beatles' Abbey Road photo shoot
posted by msalt at 7:46 AM PST - 35 comments

"The strange thing is, I’m frightfully keen on her too"

Peter Sellers enjoyed doing spoken word covers of songs by The Beatles as performed by different characters. These included “A Hard Day’s Night” done as Laurence Olivier’s Richard III, and “She Loves You” as an Irishman (mildly NSFW), a cockney, an upper class British twit, a possibly particular German, and most wonderfully; Dr Strangelove. [via]
posted by quin at 7:39 AM PST - 22 comments

"Tweet-sized" JavaScript code

140byt.es JavaScript games and programs, all written in 140 bytes (characters) or less. Example games include Snake, Tetris (very basic), Minesweeper (again, very basic). Note that the license for most of these is NSFW.
posted by Deathalicious at 7:34 AM PST - 10 comments

The allegedly amputated arm of the law

MI6 intends to use the 1994 Intelligence Services Act to deny all application of UK law to extraordinary rendition. The case in question revolves around the forcible extradition of several Libyan dissidents back to Gaddafi's Libya and entirely predictable torture, including a pregnant woman. s.7 of the Act states that any intelligence agency action authorised on foreign soil by a Secretary of State is automatically exempt from legal action in any UK court. This could be said to conflict in some ways with the Human Rights Act 1998 and international law, especially since the HRA may be held to have implicitly repealed s.7 of the 1994 Act. [more inside]
posted by jaduncan at 6:45 AM PST - 26 comments

A Sandwich Board Man Seen From the Rear View Mirror, Waving

The Death of the Cyberflâneur "While not deliberately concealing his identity, the flâneur preferred to stroll incognito. “The art that the flâneur masters is that of seeing without being caught looking,” the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman once remarked. The flâneur was not asocial — he needed the crowds to thrive — but he did not blend in, preferring to savor his solitude. And he had all the time in the world: there were reports of flâneurs taking turtles for a walk." [more inside]
posted by byanyothername at 5:17 AM PST - 50 comments

22 Ways of Looking At James Bond

The first minute of all the James Bond films at once. [SLYT]
posted by chavenet at 4:19 AM PST - 42 comments

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