February 7, 2008

How to grow a glacier

Villagers in the mountains of northern India and Pakistan have been growing their own glaciers for centuries. They're small domesticated glaciers, cultivated by hand, and they provide a reliable source of water for agriculture. Legend has it that they made glaciers to block mountain passes and keep the Mongol Hordes out! More detail in New Scientist - subscription required, but you can probably see this instruction sheet.
posted by moonmilk at 10:55 PM PST - 28 comments

Brodner's Take on the Primaries

Cartoonist Steve Brodner sketches the American candidates for president as Odd Couples in a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Best. McCain. Evah.
posted by maryh at 10:28 PM PST - 9 comments

Labyrinth 2.0 in flash

Labyrinth 2.0 AKA Spin the Blac[sic] Circle flash
posted by BrotherCaine at 9:23 PM PST - 29 comments

Hide an image in html

Hide an image in html... a neat CSS trick. Highlight the block of text at the bottom of the page as if you were going to cut & paste it. [more inside]
posted by Dave Faris at 8:55 PM PST - 35 comments

All the better to see you with

As a photographer, you need to get close to your subject. But sometimes things get between you and your subject. Things such as state lines, restraining orders, and guard patrols that can keep you miles away from the people you want to shoot. What do you do at times like this? Get a bigger lens. [more inside]
posted by ardgedee at 7:20 PM PST - 58 comments

"Are you there God? It's me Kibbutz"

Got a question for God? Tough. But godsbot the Christian Robot might be the next best thing. A $10 donation (minimum) will get you one year of access--or at least click the Google ads. More in the press release. Oh, and via.
posted by Kibbutz at 7:05 PM PST - 38 comments

Happy lunar new year!

Celebrate by wearing your best hanbok! Like Paris Hilton. Or Venus Williams. Or random Korean celebs. Don't forget to dress the dog! Koreans wear traditional dress, hanbok, during the holidays and for major events such as weddings or funerals. Designers continue to reinterpret it, while colorful variations on styles of centuries past make their way to films and TV. The movie is Untold Scandal, the TV drama is Hwang Jin Yi.
posted by needled at 6:58 PM PST - 19 comments

(My)Folia

Gardeners unite! Folia is a new website for gardeners to organize, document and share their adventures. And now you too can obsess about your seed saving and hardiness zones. [more inside]
posted by Stewriffic at 6:18 PM PST - 7 comments

the other Public Enemy + Anthrax collaboration

The Joseph Curseen, Jr., and Thomas Morris, Jr., Processing and Distribution Center opened in December 2003 with little fanfare. Formerly the Brentwood (D.C.) Post Office, it was renamed by House Resolution 3287 in honor of the two postal workers killed after two letters containing anthrax passed through on their way to Capitol Hill. [more inside]
posted by Challahtronix at 6:04 PM PST - 7 comments

Trebek: the glue that holds television together.

Having hosted over 5,000 episodes of Jeopardy, it would be impossible for Alex Trebek not to spaz out once in a while. Here are some of those magical times (this ones got swearing...). Trust me, nobody else in the world swears with as much raw talent.
posted by pwally at 5:31 PM PST - 39 comments

Slow Flash interface that's actually worth it.

Very cool demos in Flash (can be very slow loading).
posted by IronLizard at 5:19 PM PST - 11 comments

What are you looking at?

What makes a great portrait?
posted by klangklangston at 5:16 PM PST - 20 comments

CringeFilter

Across the nation, not long ago, millions cringed watched enrapt as a collection of earnest young celebrities musically celebrated Barack Obama with the "Yes, We Can" video. Not to be outdone, most of Pearl Jam (mysteriously, bellower Eddie Vedder abstained) united to record a...a...a cover of Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock." Retitled...oh, I think you can guess.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:25 PM PST - 49 comments

Your tax dollars at work.

Interested on how the gummint is using Spectral Sensing Technology do defend us from attacks? You'll feel much safer after viewing the Futuristic Sensor System Dramatic Research Presentation of the 2008 International Symposium on Spectral Sensing Research (ISSSR-2008). (The tour of the Conference Site is in the same vein, with different music.)
posted by Wet Spot at 1:52 PM PST - 25 comments

Exploration Baltimore

The yearly Best of Baltimore awards released by Baltimore City Paper have been providing a guide to Charm City for over a decade. You can find the best independent bookstores, theater, nachos, and plumbers. Or perhaps your tastes run more exotic--do you need the best constant reminder that Peter Angelos is the anti-Christ? The best place to get run over by bicyclists while hiking? Or the best place to make fun of stressed-out PreMeds? And there are always surprising picks; for example, check out the 2006 winner for best cheap entertainment. So when you're planning your next Baltimore visit browse the archives and find somewhere to enjoy yourself.
posted by Anonymous at 1:15 PM PST - 23 comments

This Dying City

Cleveland is dying, and it is beautiful. A collection of stark photographs of Cleveland as it is dying before our very eyes.
posted by Jazznoisehere at 12:52 PM PST - 117 comments

Political Emotions

The Feel Tank. "We are a feel tank, but this does not mean that we do not think. We are governed by outrage that the desires and demands for a less bad life and a better good life continue to go unrecognized."
posted by papakwanz at 12:32 PM PST - 25 comments

Secret Military Patches

I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me is a new book by author and interesting person Trevor Paglen. He collects patches designed by military personnel to commemorate secret "black-ops" projects.
posted by Miko at 12:30 PM PST - 34 comments

Let me through, I'm a nosy person

Curious why the power is out at your office or the fire engines are rushing past your home? If you live in Seattle, public911 might be able to tell you.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:26 PM PST - 16 comments

Mixing Oil, Water, and Little Falling People

The Falling Sand Game is an engrossing but hard-to-describe online toy/game that lets you create environments using falling streams of sand, water, oil, and salt by adding fire, plants, clay, and other substances. Inspired by The Falling Sand Game are a number of variations, such as PyroSand, featuring many kinds of explosives, and Hell of Sand, with little people who you can torture. One of the most interesting versions is The Powder Game, which lets you paint with superballs, adjust air pressure, and build very satisfying volcanoes and gardens. For even more, WxSand [downloadable .exe] is a Windows version with lots more options and many interesting mods. [Games are Java applets and are incredibly addictive, especially The Powder Game]
posted by blahblahblah at 11:38 AM PST - 26 comments

"You just heard the drums. It seemed like he kept them going forever."

Mixed With Love: The Musical World Of Walter Gibbons: "This tale begins with a skinny white DJ mixing between the breaks of obscure Motown records with the ambidextrous intensity of an octopus on speed. It closes with the same man, sick with Aids and all but blind, fumbling for gospel records as he spins up eternal hope in a fading dusk. In between, Walter Gibbons transformed the art of DJing and marked out the future co-ordinates of remixology." [more inside]
posted by Len at 10:38 AM PST - 6 comments

Nothing's gonna change my world?

Fears that malevolent aliens will tune into this week's broadcast of The Beatles' song "Across the Universe" have been voiced by scientists.
posted by monospace at 10:05 AM PST - 68 comments

It takes a woman.....

The First Women Barefoot Solar Engineers Of The World ( youtube ) trained at the Barefoot College in Rajasthan. Using traditional puppetry as an educational medium, Sanjit Bunker Roy's school has been causing a quiet but sure revolution in sustainable development for over 30 years. ( previously )
posted by adamvasco at 9:54 AM PST - 12 comments

Fat Ass

Skinny is in for male models. Ever since Hedi Slimane joined Dior Homme, male models are becoming skinnier and skinnier. The reduction in male silhouette means that the male supermodels of the early naughts (such as Tyson Ballou and Tyson Beckford) have stopped heading to Europe for casting calls. With the Council of Fashion Designers of America releasing health guides for female models just last year, it seems that the fashion industry wants their men 6 feet tall and with a 28 inch waist. The good news? I finally will be able to find pants that fit me.
posted by Stynxno at 8:09 AM PST - 137 comments

The Cult of Wikipedia

The Cult of Wikipedia - An expose by The Register on conflict of interest at Wikipedia.
posted by loquacious at 6:50 AM PST - 126 comments

Times ain't Like They Used To Be: Richard "Rabbit" Brown, New Orleans Songster

In 1900 they were everywhere. Singing on street corners, in front of circus entrances, or just moving down the dusty roads of the South, playing anywhere a crowd might be cajoled into donating a dime to the cause. To survive they played any request--ballads, popular tunes, white hillbilly music, hymns, and the newly emerged blues. Songsters were the first folk musicians to be "professional" ...Most songsters faded into the past. A few waxed recordings, leaving a tempting glance into their world--and many questions. Such is the case with Richard "Rabbit" Brown, one of the most celebrated songsters and the only one from New Orleans to record.
Times ain't Like They Used To Be: Richard "Rabbit" Brown, New Orleans Songster--so, James Alley Blues is the song most everyone names as Brown's greatest and, now, you can play it online here. [more inside]
posted by y2karl at 5:30 AM PST - 17 comments

The Many Worlds of Artist Suzanne Treister

The website of artist Suzanne Treister holds many treasures, such as watercolors based on NATO's item codification system, reimaginings of the front pages of various newspapers as alchemical drawings, invented Amiga videogame stills and, my favorite, the huge images from Hexen2039 - new military-occult technologies for psychological warfare. She's also the director of the International Corporation of Lost Structures and the Institute of Militronics and Advanced Time Interventionality, an organization committed to time travel based research since 2005. Rumor has it that Treister and IMATI star researcher Rosalind Brodsky are one and the same person. The Rosalind Brodsky page has a ton of stuff on it. Here's a small sample: Time Travel Equipment Designs, Brodsky's Delusional Watercolours, Biography of Rosalind Brodsky and Time Traveling Costumes.
posted by Kattullus at 1:12 AM PST - 19 comments

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