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The Library of Congress has digitized thousands of items from Rosa Parks's personal papers collection. The collection includes materials ranging from handwritten reflections on her arrest to books she owned to family photographs and even birthday cards.
posted by HonoriaGlossop at 8:37 PM PST - 8 comments

Irshad Karim, creator of /r/ArtFundamentals on Reddit, has compiled a series of drawing lessons for free for all beginners and anyone looking to refresh their artistic skills. [more inside]
posted by chrono_rabbit at 7:43 PM PST - 13 comments

What started as an April Fool's joke on the Ju-On website is now becoming an actual movie. Two of the biggest Japanese horror franchises (リング / Ringu and じゅおん / Ju-On) are combining forces to make Sadako vs Kayako. [more inside]
posted by thefoxgod at 5:15 PM PST - 33 comments

A four part documentary, each of 15 mins, about Jan Švankmajer probably the greatest living surrealist. Pt. I. | Pt. II. | Pt. III | Pt. IV.
An interview from 2012 - Freedom is becoming the only theme, and a previous incredibly thorough post.
posted by adamvasco at 4:04 PM PST - 7 comments

Iran goes to the polls on Friday to elect members to two bodies: Parliament and the Assembly of Experts. Moderate President Hassan Rouhani is not facing a ballot test directly, but his agenda - in particular, last summer's landmark nuclear deal, and the economic benefits that were supposed to follow - will be. Moderates face an uphill battle, however, since the Guardian Council disqualified almost half of the more than 12,000 candidates who signed up to participate in these elections, many — if not most — of them reformists. The Assembly of Experts chooses the next Supreme Leader, and considering the age of the current supreme leader, this contest may determine the fate of the country for the foreseeable future. [more inside]
posted by clawsoon at 3:57 PM PST - 25 comments

Last month NPR reported a story about Bob Ebeling, one of the NASA engineers who tried, and failed, to stop the Challenger launch thirty years ago. His guilt and depression touched the hearts of many listeners, who wrote Mr. Ebeling, telling him he did all he could and wasn't to blame. Those letters have finally helped him move past the guilt.
posted by blurker at 3:47 PM PST - 37 comments

The USA Yoga National Championship is coming up in a few months. Competitors will execute six poses (four mandatory, two of their own choice) for points based on asana (physical movement), balance, stillness, breathing, and concentration. Before you roll your eyes at America making an ancient form of spiritual exercise into a competition, there have been such competitions in India for at least the last two centuries, and possibly thousands of years. Chavie Lieber takes a look at "Champions of Zen".
posted by Etrigan at 3:44 PM PST - 31 comments

Behold the Candela Vibrophase, the world's first candle powered guitar effect. More details here. Brought to you by Metafilter's own (well, sort of) Zachary Vex.
posted by gamera at 3:10 PM PST - 35 comments

It started with Snapchat videos that got reposted to twitter 10 days ago. And then it went viral. Of course Daniel and Josh went on Ellen. But when you finally make it to the New York Times ("We Should Probably Have a Conversation About ‘Damn, Daniel’") the meme has probably run its course.
posted by GuyZero at 2:50 PM PST - 46 comments

How do you make a secure record of a debt or exchange if you can't read or write? Cut a number of notches across a stick to symbolize the assets involved, then split the wood lengthwise: you now have two tamper-proof receipts, one for each party to the transaction. The split tally method formed the basis for much of European bookkeeping between medieval times and the modern era. [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 2:12 PM PST - 20 comments

You’re George Lucas In 1975. Can You Create ‘Star Wars’?
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:09 PM PST - 25 comments

Randy is 27, one of 3.5 million Americans on the autism spectrum. He suffers from what is officially called PDD, or pervasive developmental disorder. "My brother has always wanted what most of us do: love. Someone to care about. Someone who will care in return. Someone other than our mother." A loving sister chronicles her brother's search for a lasting relationship.
posted by narancia at 1:42 PM PST - 14 comments

MeFi fave Tony Zhou (now with co-writer Taylor Ramos) examines how the Coen Brothers use Shot / Reverse Shot.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 1:13 PM PST - 14 comments

Newspaper Snippets from August 28 - September 2, 1859 This is a series of excerpts from newspapers describing the largest solar storm on record in essentially real time for the era. The Aurora Borealis it caused was visible in the Carribean, and it shorted out telegraph lines across Europe. [more inside]
posted by Michele in California at 12:33 PM PST - 6 comments

Bon Appétit looks for Brooklyn in the Midwest. The Midwest is not impressed. In his survey of restaurants and chefs in Indianapolis with hipster credentials, John Birdsall looks for evidence of cultural Brooklynization of the Midwest, and he finds it. Eater contributing editor Sarah Freeman would beg to differ, or at least demand some more analysis, and certain chefs take her side. All of which raises some interesting questions about cultural migration and appropriation and "authenticity" that can't be answered in a pair of articles (the first of which is really more of a travelogue than a fleshed-out thesis), but the questions they raise are FUN.
posted by JimInLoganSquare at 12:15 PM PST - 120 comments

"Hermann Göring’s personal art log is a twisted treasure map, a guide to looting and pillaging and gift-giving among the Nazi brass, and a tracking mechanism for the Nazi occupation of Europe."
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:12 PM PST - 2 comments

"Coming from a background in Political Science, I find the rapid changes in social structure unique to this country an abundant source for creating pictures that stand as visually and historically interesting." [more inside]
posted by entropone at 10:43 AM PST - 4 comments

The Eddie (Quicksilver Big Wave Invitational) is a GO. The competition, held in honor of Eddie Aikau, is held only when open-ocean swells at Waimea Bay, HI reach a minimum height of 20 feet between December and February -- conditions that have occurred only 8 other times since the competition began in 1984. Eddie's brother, and past competition winner, Clyde Aikau called today's conditions "one of the best days I've seen in 40 years." You can watch live here or follow #EddieWouldGo on Twitter. The Eddie, previously.
posted by melissasaurus at 10:41 AM PST - 31 comments

The rats who sniff out tuberculosis. by Emma Young [The Guardian] The African giant pouched rat can be trained to sniff out tuberculosis more accurately than most lab tests. So why is the medical profession still sceptical? [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 10:03 AM PST - 25 comments

"If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. The magazine was moderately successful, though it was never regarded as one of the first rank of science fiction magazines. It achieved its greatest success under editor Frederik Pohl, winning the Hugo Award for best professional magazine three years running from 1966 to 1968." The Internet Archive hosts 176 issues of If, as part of its pulp magazine archive. [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes at 10:02 AM PST - 12 comments

Season 2 of Marvel's "Daredevil" is nearly upon us. Here's are two glimpses of what's in store, one featuring the Punisher, and the other spotlighting Elektra.
posted by Ipsifendus at 9:39 AM PST - 77 comments

He built Marvel Comics and laid the foundation for today’s blockbuster superhero movies. So why, at 93, is his legacy in question?
posted by Artw at 9:16 AM PST - 65 comments

The other KKK: how the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift tried to craft a new world. They were hippies from 1920's Britain started by a pacifist who liked the outdoors activities of the Boy Scouts, John Hargrave. Designing Utopia: John Hargrave and the Kibbo Kift was published in November 2015. If you ever wondered about where Ramsey Dukes (Sex Secrets of the Black Magicians) came from, his parents met in the Kibbo Kift. He talks about that and other things in a new hour 42 minute interview with Gordon White on the Rune Soup podcast.
posted by bukvich at 8:39 AM PST - 9 comments

Southern correspondent Matthew Teague and photographer David Levene profile six US states – Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia – in the run-up to the vital Super Tuesday primary elections. A series of long-ish reads and photos from The Guardian.
posted by Kitteh at 8:06 AM PST - 12 comments

Let’s not kid ourselves, we ain’t young. We have pretty big ideas garnered from many years of listening to shitty records, splendid records, and albums that are supposed to be influential. Each time we notice our name getting mentioned on certain genre specific internet forums we get the fear. Who in their right minds wants to get stuck playing one sort of thing for seven years and beyond?

London/Somerset/Watford band Hey Colossus, "the most exciting guitar band on the planet" according to Artrocker Magazine, have spent 12 years producing noisy/doom/stoner-influenced/experimental/riff-rock. Near the end of 2015, however, they declared that "it is more subversive for us to compose songs with rigid song structures than it is to absentmindedly clang off another riff-athon." The result, the Radio Static High LP, can now be streamed at The Guardian or via Spotify. [more inside]
posted by Sonny Jim at 6:13 AM PST - 21 comments

Is Miller Wilson the next Steve Irwin? Watch him dive off his kayak, wrestle stingrays and help a pregnant stingray give birth. All while maintaining a Wildlife Documentary commentary.
posted by greenhornet at 1:23 AM PST - 14 comments