MetaFilter

Green electricity from the artificial, tethered ray (the fish, not the beam). Video here.
posted by megob at 11:55 PM PST - 21 comments

Facts on cats (and some tips) [slyt]
posted by silby at 9:55 PM PST - 22 comments

Watambi is a simple but heartfelt little animated film. Sarod music never hurts.
posted by Jibuzaemon at 9:17 PM PST - 1 comments

The Valparaiso Cerro Abajo is an increasingly popular urban downhill bike race. This is what it's like to ride it. [via]
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 7:32 PM PST - 49 comments

Simon's Cat SLYT of one of your favorite cats!
posted by tomswift at 6:17 PM PST - 29 comments

Puella Magi Madoka★Magica (unofficial trailer) is an animated show about a pink-haired girl and her buddies who fight against cursed witches (video example). Boasting buildings based on well-known architecture, a slowly shifting opening sequence and dark ending sequence, Faustian graffiti and ciphered German runes, this currently-airing show has been called a deconstruction of the magical girl genre. [more inside]
posted by anthy at 5:45 PM PST - 23 comments

Peter Watts presents: Flesh-Eating Fest '11 (NSF the squeamish pictures several clicks further into this link). SF writer Peter Watts (aka The Plastinated Man) has survived a near-lethal bout with necrotising fasciitis (Wiki link with disturbing image at the top). Part 0 (Mildly icky picture of a small sore on his leg.): "Anybody know what this thing is?" Part 1 (no images): "Some of you may have heard by now that I got hit with a serious case of necrotising fasciitis (more luridly known as “flesh-eating disease”) late last week. I’m told I was a few hours away from being dead." Part 2 (no images): "Let us start with the fact that I contracted flesh-eating disease during the course of getting a skin biopsy — that it was being all precautionary and taking proper medical care of myself that nearly got me killed." Part 3 (ohgodohgodohgod - very graphic photos): Recovery at home shown in words and pictures. Some of the photos show cute cats and a smiling, competent home nurse. Most do not. You have been warned.
posted by maudlin at 5:19 PM PST - 106 comments

Songwriters on Process interviews songwriters in depth about their writing process. They've talked to everyone from Brian Fallon (The Gaslight Anthem) to J.D. Cronise from The Sword. Where else can you find both Patrick Stickles from Titus Andronicus talking about Faulkner and Eric from Foxy Shazam admitting he's never read a book in his life?
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:18 PM PST - 8 comments

The Tron Lebowski: that motherboard really tied the room together, man. [more inside]
posted by bwg at 5:11 PM PST - 37 comments

Anjelo Baligad aka Lil' Demon is an 8 year old breakdancing prodigy who appeared on So You Think You Can Dance at six years of age. He recently battled Joshua Lee 'Milky' Ayers at Bboy City, Hawaii. {MLYT}
posted by gman at 4:15 PM PST - 14 comments

How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam. There aren’t nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of America’s police. So we got these guys instead.
posted by lullaby at 3:41 PM PST - 69 comments

Man upgrades to Windows 7, from Windows 1.0. One...version...at...a...time. [SLYT]
posted by schmod at 2:40 PM PST - 182 comments

Can you get hooked on diet soda? 'Government surveys have found that people who drink diet beverages average more than 26 ounces per day (some drink far more) and that 3% of diet-soda drinkers have at least four daily. Are these diet-soda fiends true addicts? And if so, what are they addicted to? The most obvious answer is caffeine -- but that doesn't explain the many die-hard diet drinkers who prefer caffeine-free varieties.' But at least it's not sweetened soda with all attendant problems, such as high blood pressure, so what about artificial sweeteners? [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 2:16 PM PST - 180 comments

"A ball-throwing robot with visual feedback" sounds dull, so let's hide the robot arm in a plush seal suit! Now that ball-throwing robot with stereo vision looks like a seal playing basketball! Just ignore the robotic hand coming out of it's mouth, and the un-seal-like movements. (via)
posted by filthy light thief at 1:59 PM PST - 32 comments

God's Angry Man - a documentary portrait of Dr. Gene Scott by Werner Herzog.
posted by Joe Beese at 1:15 PM PST - 41 comments

"Like most committed crystal meth smokers, when he wants to share his pipe Duze does not take no for an answer." Clancy Martin, the author of How to Sell and a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine, is hitchhiking from Kansas City, Missouri, to New York City in order to catch the last day of Christian Marclay's The Clock at the Paula Cooper Gallery. Part I, Part II [more inside]
posted by not_the_water at 1:13 PM PST - 12 comments

In strange reversal of conventional wisdom, four fifths of enrolled undergrads skip out on optional Fucksaw presentation. [more inside]
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:38 PM PST - 240 comments

Candy Chang is a public installation artist, designer, urban planner and 2011 TED Senior Fellow based in New Orleans. Her Civic Center creates projects that try to "make cities more comfortable", and encourage residents to envision alternate urban realities: "I Wish This Was...." (site) / The NYC Street Vendor Guide / "Before I Die... In NOLA" / The Restroom Map Notepad / The Sexy Trees of the Marigny 2011 Calendar / The Neighbor Doorknob-Hanger / A Nice Place for a Tree and Post-It Notes for Neighbors. (Via). [more inside]
posted by zarq at 11:47 AM PST - 7 comments

The Modern Art Iraq Archive (MAIA) is a resource to trace, share, and enable community enrichment of the modern art heritage of Iraq. Explore the works by artist, browse through related textual materials, or add your own images or stories to the archive.
posted by sciurus at 11:45 AM PST - 2 comments

Cozy Powell plays 400 drums in one minute (via WFMU Blog) [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:28 AM PST - 29 comments

There once was a man from Nantucket, who sold whale teeth by the bucket. His lucrative plan was found out by the Man. He'll get 33 months in prison. [more inside]
posted by kuujjuarapik at 11:22 AM PST - 28 comments

Barbecue (or barbeque) Porn. (SFW) And on flickr. (Sorry about that: Myself, I’m been a vegetarian for over 41 years, so this is not for me)
posted by growabrain at 11:17 AM PST - 30 comments

Live stream of the Apple iPad 2 event
posted by nam3d at 10:59 AM PST - 386 comments

Powerful Panels. Kirby Panels. 50 Monday Panels. Art of Archie Panels. Panels Repaneled. [more inside]
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:37 AM PST - 9 comments

Amazing, fun and interesting kinetic paper creations:Gear's heart [action starts at 0:49]. Paper Engineering by Kamikara. Some of his other creations in action: The Egg of the Dinosaur | Surprised Zombie | Globe Puzzle| Penguin Bomb | Mr. Grieve | His YouTube channel, girigiriou. Previously.
posted by nickyskye at 10:25 AM PST - 5 comments

On February 27th, Paula Deen hitched a ride on Food Network host Robert Irvine. Overnight, a meme surfaces. Today, Rolling Stone re-imagines their March cover.
posted by hermitosis at 9:48 AM PST - 71 comments

Barely two months since the assassination of Salman Taseer, the former governor of Punjab, another of Pakistan's politicians noted for their stance on the blasphemy laws has also been gunned down. Shahbaz Bhatti, himself a Catholic, was the Federal Minister for Minorities. Now that two of the original three individuals involved in the calls to amend the blasphemy laws are dead, fears arise for the safety of Sherry Rehman, the female MP who went so far as to table a motion specifically requesting they be amended. That motion was ruled out by Pakistani President Yousuf Gilani. More on the blasphemy laws Previously
posted by dougrayrankin at 9:46 AM PST - 17 comments

In his Oscar acceptance speech, documentary filmmaker Charles Ferguson reminded viewers worldwide that "not a single financial executive has gone to jail" for the fraud that created the 2008 financial meltdown. His film Inside Job (on Netflix DVD) explains, among other things, that the crisis was avoidable. See also the Inside Job trailer and a subsequent followup video in which Ferguson says that many sources "mysteriously backed out" before being filmed. He also spoke at MIT in January.
posted by mark7570 at 9:38 AM PST - 56 comments

"The day with its cares and perplexities is ended and the night is now upon us. The night should be a time of peace and tranquility; a time to relax and be calm. We have need of a soothing story to banish the disturbing thoughts of the day, to set at rest our troubled minds, and put at ease our ruffled spirits. And what sort of story shall we hear? Ah, it will be a familiar story. A story that is so very, very old, and yet it is so new. It is the old, old story of …" the 2012/13 touring production of Einstein on the Beach. [more inside]
posted by williampratt at 9:32 AM PST - 21 comments

so the moral of the story is
always wear a condom
because otherwise
you are going to have to resort to an impromptu skull c-section
with a shovel

Myths Retold. [more inside]
posted by KathrynT at 9:32 AM PST - 51 comments

The Supreme Court has ruled 8-1 in favor of categorizing Westboro Baptist Church's funeral protests as protected speech under the First Amendment. [more inside]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:27 AM PST - 181 comments

Minecraft mastermind Markus "Notch" Persson has officially announced his company's next project: a hybrid online board game/trading card system called Scrolls. Spearheaded by Mojang co-founder Jakob Porser (interview) and with backstory penned by Penny Arcade wordsmith Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, the game will consist of turn-based battles between collectible "scrolls," illustrated character cards strategically deployed on an abstract gaming grid. In an interesting inversion of the Minecraft model, the game itself will be free, while updates in the form of additional scroll packs will cost a nominal fee -- a business model gaming analyst Sean Maelstrom decries as "snake oil." Mojang, for their part, is unafraid and even eager to target an untested slice of the gaming market, and is angling to get their playable prototype of Scrolls ready for a possible Alpha release this summer.
posted by Rhaomi at 8:50 AM PST - 129 comments

What's the deal with restaurant websites? Devra First, the Boston Globe's restaurant critic, wonders too. Previous discussion on the blue (tangential to discussion of OpenTable).
posted by catlet at 8:42 AM PST - 52 comments

Etsuko Uno and metafilter's own Drew Berry have released three new animations illustrating breast stem cell differentiation, a control mechanism for the process, and how this relates to carcinogenesis. [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 8:21 AM PST - 6 comments

The Elder Scrolls VI: Equestria. [more inside]
posted by kmz at 8:08 AM PST - 20 comments

I never knew that renowned neurologist & author Oliver Sacks, who has written about prosopagnosia, suffers from it himself! Most notably, he addressed prosopagnosia in his 1985 publication, The Man who Mistook his Wife for A Hat. These video clips are from a discussion at last year's World Science Festival in New York about this very topic & how I came to learn of Dr. Sacks' first-hand experience. [more inside]
posted by PepperMax at 7:30 AM PST - 37 comments

bites "is a unique comprehensive resource for all those with a personal or professional interest in food safety. Dr. [Doug] Powell of Kansas State University, and associates, search out credible, current, evidence-based information on food safety and make it accessible to domestic and international audiences through multiple media. Sources of food safety information include government regulatory agencies, international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), peer-reviewed scientific publications, academia, recognized experts in the field and other sources as appropriate." (Description from website.) The folks responsible for bites also run the more entertainingly named barfblog.
posted by cog_nate at 7:06 AM PST - 10 comments

The science behind crazy cat ladies. TIME Magazine breaks it down.
posted by xbonesgt at 6:51 AM PST - 60 comments

Talk Radio's Alex Jones, the Most Paranoid Man in America. Charlie Sheen's interviewer opens up.
posted by fixedgear at 6:47 AM PST - 89 comments

Bruno Mars covers "California Girls"... on BBC 1's Live Lounge. Live Lounge generally features two acoustic performances, one of which is a contemporary cover song. Interpretations are often passionate and reverent. Here, Bruno Mars covers a pure pop song, Kate Perry's California Girls, without any irony.
posted by beisny at 5:59 AM PST - 26 comments

Annie & Mac are a talented, independent duo from Virginia that have created one of the largest repositories of Old-Time music on their Youtube channel. Songs include The Falls of Richmond, Sandy Boys, Arkansas Traveler, the Crawdad Song, and The Eighth of January.
posted by lemuring at 5:58 AM PST - 4 comments

The Japanese word kōgei (also as kougei) [工芸], basically translates as 'crafts', or even 'handicrafts'. In many places in the world, such products are generally considered as something lesser than 'arts'. In Japan however ...     Please meet Mr. Lionel Dersot, Tokyo resident for 25+ years, who is ready to take you on a (bilingual) survey of some wonderful work in the field, both old and new, at his blog 'The Daily Kogei' - Un petit détour bilingue dans l'artisanat japonais et bien plus, diffusé de Tokyo.
posted by woodblock100 at 5:55 AM PST - 9 comments

The Hoxton Window Project: “I had no plan, I had no thought, I had a pen and decided to take it for a walk. My brain is a mess, my mind a ball of spaghetti charged with tiny electrical pulses being generated by a team of termites on a treadmill. I put it all up against the glass, I hope it will delight and intrigue and not leave anyone aghast” says window artist Jon Burgerman. Frame features the work of digital creative company Unit 9 at a square in central London.
posted by honey-barbara at 5:22 AM PST - 4 comments

March: when the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano, the NCAA Basketball Tournament begins and March MODOK Madness returns! Everyone's favorite Mobile Organism Designed Only for Killing gets his yearly tribute of new fan submitted artwork throughout the month, and this year, you can EVEN GET A T-SHIRT! [more inside]
posted by KingEdRa at 12:13 AM PST - 22 comments