February 27, 2009

Squeeze in, get online for a better life

Newly jobless and homeless former members of the Japanese upper or upper-middle class are turning to a distinctly 21st century version of the flophouse, the net room: a tiny cubicle, rented by the day, with that all-important feature... an internet connection and a computer. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:54 PM PST - 41 comments

". . . I'm Jim the Realtor"

Jim the Realtor makes sardonic videos documenting his work . . . [more inside]
posted by troy at 10:40 PM PST - 47 comments

Wiring the Castle

Circuits are flipping on in the nation's attic. A couple of weeks ago, 31 "digerati" -- like Clay Shirky, Chris Anderson, and George Oates -- dropped in to the Smithsonian Institution for the invitation-only conference "Smithsonian 2.0: A Gathering to Re-imagine the Smithsonian in the Digital Age". Dan Cohen of the Center for History and New Media provides a great summary (and continues to pose provocative questions) on his own blog. Those whose invitations were somehow lost in the mail can play fly-on-the-wall by watching the keynotes, paging through the Flickr pool of envymaking glimpses of their behind-the-scenes lab and collections tours, reading the blog (where Bruce Wyman of the Denver Art Museum lays out a succinct road map for museums using social media), and poking around in the SI's website gallery. Want to cheer on the USA's favorite 163-year-old "Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge" without taking the trip to DC? Thanks to their recent efforts, you can now follow the SI on Twitter, listen to its podcasts, watch its YouTube channel, visit the Latino Virtual Museum in Second Life, or use the FaceBook gifts page to send your best friends their very own pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers, Hope diamond, Negro Leagues baseball, or coelocanth.
posted by Miko at 9:09 PM PST - 13 comments

Social Neuroscience

That Voodoo That Scientists Do. "When findings are debated online, as with a yet to be released paper (PDF) that calls out the field of social neuroscience, who wins?"
posted by homunculus at 8:31 PM PST - 53 comments

Sparkline Information Graphics

Speaking of Edward Tufte (see below), sparklines are a type of information graphics characterized by their small size and data density named by Tufte. Sparklines were used by sites reporting the 2008 election and were first introduced on MeFi in 2005. There are now several ways to put sparklines on your own web site including: a simple jQuery plugin, a downloadable PHP library, a dynamic generator using a Python CGI program, and even a library for Ruby on Rails.
posted by netbros at 8:25 PM PST - 8 comments

Type Writin' Beats

QWERTY rock. [more inside]
posted by dhammond at 6:58 PM PST - 25 comments

When ask metafilter just wont do

You used to be able to ask Edward Tufte questions on his website. He disabled the new questions part a few years ago so only a topic or two a month comes out now. But the old topics form years long conversations running to tens of thousands of words, generally polite and insightful. Here are some excellent threads: recommendations for graphing software, Book design: advice and examples, Medical information exchange: The patient, doctor, computer triangle, Evidence and assumptions in tree diagrams, Airport maps, Lists, Advice for effective analytical reasoning, a celebration of Megan Jaegerman's news graphics, Design of causal diagrams, the merits of ISO paper sizes.
posted by shothotbot at 6:34 PM PST - 10 comments

Donovan

Paul McCartney and Donovan - 1968, 1969 + Donovan talks with David Lynch & sings "The Hurdy Gurdy Man" for Maharishi + David Lynch Sings + Medley Beatles di Donovan
posted by vronsky at 5:30 PM PST - 34 comments

There ain't nothin' finer than an ice-cold LONE STAR

Lone Star Beer. Immortalized in song, it bills itself as the National Beer of Texas. Once brewed in what is now known as the historic San Antonio Pearl Brewery, it's still brewed in Texas, though Texas anti-hipsters will be chagrined to know that Lone Star's latest owner (since 1999) is Milwaukee-based Pabst. Still, it's the cheapest beer in Texas, and the bottles have an extra perk: a rebusnot this guy on the inside of the cap. (A good bartender or waitperson'll bring you that with yer longnecknot this one.) This guy has collected nearly all (he's missing TWO!) of the 400+ puzzles and their answers. Metafilter, it's beer-fifteen.
posted by fiercecupcake at 4:17 PM PST - 62 comments

Reinventing the wheel: a brief survey of erotic literature

Erotic expression in printed form is an art that has been around since the days of Christ but surprisingly has never seemed to go away. This post aims to take a cursory survey of some of the more important works of erotic literature that have been published over the last few hundred years, and to examine the current state of erotic writing. [more inside]
posted by Ziggy Zaga at 3:52 PM PST - 33 comments

We have books.

Weee! Book scramble! (Single link Daily Mail article.)
posted by serazin at 3:37 PM PST - 14 comments

Not singing the blues anymore.

Nina Paley's animated film, Sita Sings the Blues, has been mentioned here several times before. It's a retelling of the classic Indian epic Ramayana, featuring the 1920s jazz recordings of singer Annette Hanshaw, interspersed with the story of Nina's own troubled marriage-- and despite critical accolades, it's been languishing due to copyright issues surrounding the 80-year-old Hanshaw songs. But things seem to be finally looking up for Ms. Paley: she has worked out a distribution plan, the movie will be broadcast on New York PBS station WNET on March 7, and the whole thing is finally available online, at thirteen.org. [more inside]
posted by bookish at 1:49 PM PST - 30 comments

2!?! Why did you drop there 2?

Linez! Friday Flash Fun presents this stupidly addicting and wonderfully frustrating puzzle game.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 1:48 PM PST - 12 comments

"Senior management was probably unaware ..."

"It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won't be happening again. Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel."
posted by jbickers at 1:24 PM PST - 65 comments

Unpack your knives and throw

On Wednesday night, the chef at Jax Fish House in Boulder, Colorado became the most disliked culinary professional in the United States. (read the comments) [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese at 12:00 PM PST - 123 comments

Geeks Galore.

The Secret Lives of Comic Store Employees presented by Wired. [more inside]
posted by gman at 11:36 AM PST - 77 comments

Final Edition

Newspaper says goodbye via Vimeo. The Rocky Mountain News published its final edition today, after 149 years, 311 days in circulation.
posted by yiftach at 10:49 AM PST - 82 comments

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Also sprach Zarathustra [more inside]
posted by popcassady at 10:29 AM PST - 7 comments

Hotels in the 80s were so much more fun.

Another relic of the cheesy, horny, big-haired 1980s (well, besides your yearbook picture)... Chippendales guys were more than just photographs! If you only click one link though, it really should be this one. (NSFW - butts, crotches, and Judy Landers in lingerie for the dudes) [more inside]
posted by miss lynnster at 10:28 AM PST - 30 comments

What will become of the Baron? Surely this time he will not escape.

A man whose bravery and fame is matched only by his commitment to truth, the great Baron Münchhausen has permeated all artistic mediums of any worth: books (on-line and off), films (old and new), cartoons (french, english), an animated short film, an online graphic novel, even a game of role-playing -- if you are so despicable a person as to, for no other reason than the amusement of yourself and your fellows, slander the Baron's name with lies of your own invention. Though a similarly-named syndrome would falsely imply otherwise, he is an entirely honest man who exaggerates as little as he boasts, and as to the latter I have assurances from no less a personage than the Baron himself that his humility is without equal in the 7 earth continents, and 2 out of 3 of the moon's.
posted by TimeTravelSpeed at 10:22 AM PST - 22 comments

Green Grow the Rushes Go

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is signalling that marijuana policy will now be considered a matter of state jurisdiction. For obvious reasons, medical marijuana champions are celebrating the administration's committment to depart from the Bush and Clinton eras' previous policies of conducting frequent DEA Raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in California. But with recent signs of a U.S. economy in even more rapid decline than anyone anticipated, and with California being particularly hard hit, some California politicians are suggesting the time has finally arrived to end the prohibition and put full legalization of marijuana on the table, pointing to potential windfalls in the range of a billion dollars in new tax revenue annually. [more inside]
posted by saulgoodman at 10:16 AM PST - 125 comments

The Job

The Job.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 9:56 AM PST - 32 comments

where we're going we don't NEED beans

The Science Of Back to The Future [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:49 AM PST - 35 comments

Wikileaks cracks password on NATO Afghanistan document

Wikileaks cracks NATO's Master Narrative for Afghanistan
Wikileaks has cracked the encryption to a key document relating to the war in Afghanistan. The document, titled "NATO in Afghanistan: Master Narrative", details the "story" NATO representatives are to give to, and to avoid giving to, journalists. [more inside]
posted by Mwongozi at 9:14 AM PST - 36 comments

where few men have gone before

Adventuring by Wes Modes. Be sure to make it to the Infiltration Timeline and North Bank Fred's Trainhopping page. [more inside]
posted by sidr at 8:24 AM PST - 6 comments

"Will you still need me? / Will you still feed me?"

"What were arcades like?"
posted by bardic at 6:10 AM PST - 167 comments

Romanian tango !

Tango în limba româna. Treat your ears to the lost art of the Romanian tango, refurbished well by Oana Cătălina Chiţu.
posted by kldickson at 4:44 AM PST - 10 comments

A vote for "The Indefatigable Frog" is a vote for posterity.

"Do you like fiction and mathematics? Are you interested in what our society thinks about mathematicians?" [more inside]
posted by Minus215Cee at 3:07 AM PST - 15 comments

« Previous day | Next day »