March 16, 2012

speaking, without

In Way, two strangers learn to speak. A game (download/installation required) in which you are one of those strangers.
posted by arsey at 10:04 PM PST - 21 comments

You know what every kitchen needs? A Bloonderbooss or a Boomashootn, and Swedish Chef shows us why.

The Swedish Chef (Muppet Wiki) is the incomprehensible preparer of foodstuffs for The Muppet Show. A rather literal variation of the Live-Hand Muppet concept, the Swedish Chef is a humanoid character, with human hands rather than gloves. An annotated list of every televised appearance of the Swedish Chef is after the fold... Børk! Børk! Børk! [Click here to view the thread translated fully into Mock Swedish] [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 9:30 PM PST - 45 comments

Back to the Present

"I am Darth Vader, an Extraterrestrial from the Planet Vulcan!" - The 80's attack in an amazingly detailed and frenetic video for The Death Set's "They Come to Get Us." [SLYT]
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:51 PM PST - 29 comments

Here. I. Go.

A fourth-grader's first ski jump (SLYT). [more inside]
posted by Ritchie at 6:20 PM PST - 65 comments

After much stalling, he sent the writer a link to the Wikipedia page for “chicken.”

I Was a Cookbook Ghostwriter [SLNYT]
posted by furtive at 5:59 PM PST - 22 comments

It Was Unthinkable

"Sure, he's noble and regal and dangerous and deadly. But sometimes Darkseid does some dumb stuff."
posted by griphus at 5:15 PM PST - 76 comments

The attack of the dot-clones

How Three Germans Are Cloning the Web
"Launched out of a loft in New York City’s Garment District last June, Fab had sales of $20 million in its first six months and is on track to earn $100 million in 2012....Six months after Fab launched, it was knocked off. An e-commerce design site called Bamarang opened for business in Germany, the U.K., France, Australia, and Brazil...
Bamarang is the creation of Oliver, Marc, and Alexander Samwer, a trio of German brothers who have a wildly successful business model: Find a promising Internet business, in the U.S., and clone it internationally. Since starting their first dot-clone in 1999, a German version of EBay, they’ve duplicated Airbnb, eHarmony, Pinterest, and other high-profile businesses. In total, they’ve launched more than 100 companies."
[SLYBloombergBusinessweek]
posted by FirstMateKate at 3:21 PM PST - 52 comments

"Vulnerability is not weakness.... Vulnerability is our most accurate measurement of courage.”

Brené Brown: Listening to shame. Filmed this month at TED in Long Beach, CA. (YouTube) Also see: The Power of Vulnerability (yt, previously on MeFi), and The Price of Invulnerability. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 2:09 PM PST - 16 comments

The wizard under the hill

Alan Garner's Weirdstone of Brisingamen trilogy is to be concluded with Boneland, over 50 years after it started.
posted by Artw at 1:49 PM PST - 30 comments

Tall Tale Images from the Golden Age of Postcards

Several factors came together to bring about a Golden Age of postcards (Google books), including the introduction of inexpensive cameras and film development from Eastman Kodak. From around 1906 to 1915, the publishing of printed postcards doubled every six months. Along with pictures of real people and places, tall tale postcards were also made in increasing quantities. William H. "Dad" Martin was the first to make and sell outlandish postcards (previously), making collages of real images and photographing the result, dodging and burning the new image to make the composite images blend into something vaguely believable. Alfred Stanley Johnson, Jr. followed Martin's success, but they weren't the only ones to make tall tale postcards.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:29 PM PST - 12 comments

RUIN

RUIN: a post-apocalyptic animated short. [via]
posted by brundlefly at 12:53 PM PST - 57 comments

Dharun Ravi Found Guilty

A jury found a former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi guilty of 15 charges of invasion of privacy and bias intimidation (under a relatively new New Jersey hate-crime statute) for secretly recording his roommate Tyler Clementi, who later committed suicide.
posted by to sir with millipedes at 12:20 PM PST - 194 comments

Inside the Matrix

In Inside The Matrix James Bamford, author of The Puzzle Palace and The Shadow Factory, reports about the NSA's new US$ 2 billion data center being built in a remote corner of Utah. A follow up of sorts to last year's Post-9/11, NSA 'Enemies' Include Us, Inside the Matrix marks the first time a former NSA official has gone on the record to reveal details of the scope and scale of the NSA's domestic intercept program, codenamed Stellar Wind.
posted by ob1quixote at 11:49 AM PST - 71 comments

Ring Ring

The story of the ABBA sound. 8 minute Swedish documentary. Click the "CC" button for subtitles.
posted by rollick at 11:36 AM PST - 59 comments

Introducing Dotsies: The Space-Saving Font

Introducing Dotsies: The Space-Saving Font
posted by Confess, Fletch at 11:26 AM PST - 69 comments

A treasure trove of Disney animation artifacts.

A treasure trove of Disney animation artifacts. Things like Scar Pencil Tests, a Bambi wire model, and character doodles from the Aristocats.
posted by DbanksDog27 at 10:57 AM PST - 11 comments

"I have difficult news."

Ira Glass retracts the This American Life episode "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory". Mike Daisey responds. [more inside]
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 10:42 AM PST - 550 comments

Daily Life in the Holy Land

Gil Cohen-Magen takes pictures of daily life among Hassidic and Holy Land communities.
posted by thirteenkiller at 10:23 AM PST - 3 comments

and that's how science gets done

Today the Icarus Experiment released their measurement on the speed of neutrinos from CERN. Within small errors, they find them to be traveling at the speed of light, in accordance with the theory of relativity. [more inside]
posted by physicsmatt at 9:23 AM PST - 45 comments

From the Abyssal zone to the Wizard Of...

The Sci-Fi Film Alphabet. [more inside]
posted by quin at 8:42 AM PST - 34 comments

Science. Fun. Community.

Water your brain so you can grow stuff in there.
posted by iamkimiam at 8:25 AM PST - 45 comments

An Oral History of The Sopranos

The Family Hour: An Oral History of The Sopranos
[single-page print version]
EDIE FALCO (Carmela Soprano): After we shot the pilot, David said, “Well, that was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, no one will ever watch this show, but you guys have been great.” And that was the end. Or so we thought.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:17 AM PST - 61 comments

Fashion for Friday

Remarked by her contemporary Coco Chanel as "That Italian artist who makes clothes" Elsa Schiaparelli (New Yorker - Janet Flanner) bought Surrealism to fashion. She was one of the most influential creators of Parisian haute couture in the era between the two World Wars. [more inside]
posted by adamvasco at 6:18 AM PST - 12 comments

Good for one fare

Twelve bus tickets from the 1930s
posted by mippy at 5:02 AM PST - 33 comments

"How important can this speech be if we're giving it at noon?"

Bruce Springsteen's SXSW 2012 Keynote Address
posted by Optamystic at 2:16 AM PST - 42 comments

"Oooh, you son of a bitch."

Classic Hollywood Guide on how to react when you screw up a scene. Movie bloopers with Bogie, Bette Davis, Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Errol Flynn, Claude Rains, Kay Francis, Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, George Brent, Merle Oberon, Patricia Neal, Mickey Rooney and more.
posted by Wonton Cruelty at 1:45 AM PST - 26 comments

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