April 15, 2011

Oh, pretty old thing.

Not just the young: Photographer Isa Leshko shows us elderly animals (and a few more on her own site).
posted by nobody at 9:25 PM PST - 25 comments

I vote... DIE!

The mustache is back. (SLFODVRSVPLMNOP)
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:02 PM PST - 26 comments

Hang the bankers

"Let's start hanging bankers, I think that could be a solution" (slyt)
posted by 445supermag at 7:41 PM PST - 76 comments

Wonder where your taxes went? Well, here you go.

Your 2010 Federal Taxpayer Receipt. "In his State of the Union Address, President Obama promised that this year, for the first time ever, American taxpayers would be able to go online and see exactly how their federal tax dollars are spent. Just enter a few pieces of information about your taxes, and the taxpayer receipt will give you a breakdown of how your tax dollars are spent on priorities like education, veterans benefits, or health care." [more inside]
posted by saulgoodman at 7:20 PM PST - 76 comments

How Ayn Rand Ruined My Childhood

"We were wondering if you would petition to be emancipated," he said in his lawyer voice. "What does that mean?" I asked, picking at the mauve paint on my hands. I later discovered that for most kids, declaring emancipation is an extreme measure -- something you do if your parents are crack addicts or deadbeats. "You would need to become financially independent," he said. "You could work for me at my law firm and pay rent to live here." This was my moment of truth as an objectivist. If I believed in the glory of the individual, I would've signed the petition papers then and there. But as much as Rand's novels had taught me to believe in meritocracy, they had not prepared me to go it alone financially and emotionally. I began to cry and refused.
posted by fernabelle at 6:10 PM PST - 102 comments

James Merrill

On living in the James Merrill House by Ivy Pochoda from Writers' Houses. Poems referenced: Willoware Cup :: The Victor Dog :: Mirabell: Books of Number :: Lost in Translation :: Another April :: The Book of Ephraim :: The Mad Scene
posted by puny human at 5:29 PM PST - 6 comments

Why I'm a Good Christian by Ricky Gervais

On the cusp of Holy Week, Ricky Gervais enlightens with an essay outlining why he is a good Christian. [more inside]
posted by hugandpint at 4:37 PM PST - 69 comments

"And ... this little pinky went to ... "

"J. Crew's president and creative director Jenna Lyons painting the toenails of her son Beckett in an ad was sent to customers last week in a feature, 'Saturday with Jenna.'* "'Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink,' says the caption. 'Toenail painting is way more fun in neon.'" Result: social conservatives go nuts. [more inside]
posted by ericb at 4:15 PM PST - 108 comments

Vampire hunter B

Bela Kovacs and the Trail of Blood is an involving little flash mystery puzzler, mostly finding items and clues, but with more variety than the general escape-the-room game and nice atmospherics.
posted by klangklangston at 3:47 PM PST - 9 comments

And nothing of value was lost

Founded in 2004 as a place to catalog LiveJournal drama rejected from Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Dramatica rapidly became the premier site on the web for all manner of lulz. Intended "in the spirit of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary," ED grew into a sprawling crowdsourced compendium of memes, subcultures, communities, personalities, and the endless feuds and controversies spawned by 4chan and other anonymous imageboards. While comprehensive, the site developed a reputation for nastiness -- full of "ironic" (?) racism, gratuitous porn, organized attacks on other sites, and disturbingly thorough dossiers on perceived enemies, all dripping with vicious snark (just check out their entry on MetaFilter). But now, after more than six years, it appears the troll has become the trolled. Founder Sherrod "Girlvinyl" DeGrippo, allegedly disillusioned by the site's legal woes and nihilistic trajectory, has permanently shuttered the site and replaced it with OhInternet, a slicker, cleaner, Web 2.0 effort modeled after more respectable internet guides like Know Your Meme (which recently sold to Cheezburger Networks for a cool $N million, discussed here). Backups and mirrors abound, but as for the source? Pool's closed... forever.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:27 PM PST - 85 comments

maps of famous journeys in history and fiction

Wanderlust: GOOD Magazine, in collaboration with Graham Roberts, maps the most famous journeys in history - some fiction, some non-fiction. Wanderlust includes trips like Around the World in 80 Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth to the voyages of Marco Polo and Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight. However, it's not just a map with journey lines on it; Wanderlust is a history lesson. Select a trip for a summary and explore highlights of the journey.
posted by nickyskye at 2:34 PM PST - 3 comments

No Press Pass

At least nine foreign and six Libyan jouranlists are missing in Libya. Three of the Western journalists were spotted in a detention camp in Tripoli.Two others are still missing and unaccounted for, South African Anton Lazarus Hammerl and American freelancer Matthew VanDyke. The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented over 80 attacks on the press in the last month. With Qaddafi forces firing cluster bombs in civilian areas, one wonders how we can expect these journalists to be returned safely home. Perhaps Turkey can intercede? There is a facebook campaign for at least one of the journalists. Of course, this problem is worldwide.
posted by cal71 at 1:59 PM PST - 10 comments

FBI Goes 'All In'

Online Poker Doomsday. Feds indicted eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. They face charges of bank fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors also want $3 billion in civil money laundering penalties. Poker players panic. [more inside]
posted by Yakuman at 1:24 PM PST - 123 comments

Management Lessons from The Prince of Pranks

"In the sweet leisure of his retirement — if you don’t count the chemotherapy — former Poynter president Jim Naughton" (and the only member of the White House Press Corps to ever question a US President while wearing a chicken head,) has written a memoir: "46 Frogs: Tales of a Serial Prankster." Poynter Online has posted four excerpts as part of their ongoing Best Practices: Leadership & Management series:
* Turning the boss’s office into a fun & inviting place
* How bringing 46 live frogs into the newsroom fosters a philosophy of fun
* How newsroom humor can create a sense of togetherness
* Interviewing the U.S. president while wearing a chicken head

posted by zarq at 1:15 PM PST - 4 comments

Carolyn Wonderland's vows. Monkee included!

Why did Carolyn Wonderland sing her wedding vows to her husband A. Whitney Brown? Because she can. The Story [NYT link]. Also, a pic of the happy couple with Michael Nesmith presiding. [more inside]
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:44 PM PST - 20 comments

Norman Mailer's Apt

Norman Mailer's apartment. Available now.
posted by littlemanclan at 12:08 PM PST - 19 comments

At the intesection of physics simulators, games, and awesomeness

Somewhere between the ultimate physics simulator and a freeform 2-D version of Minecraft lies The Powder Toy, a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux. With over 150 elements available to build from (and a full implementation of the game of life), users have built "working" electricity-generating reactors, rockets, and destructible city models. The Powder Toy is a variant on the venerable Falling Sand Game, the most impressive version of which is the Powder Game, now up to version 8, and playable online as a Java applet. [more inside]
posted by blahblahblah at 11:37 AM PST - 22 comments

Because sometimes a hostel just doesn't cut it.

Rent Liechtenstein. Last Summer, Snoop Dogg tried to rent Liechtenstein for a music video shoot. Now, thanks to Airbnb, you can actually rent the entire country for $70k a night, with a two-night minimum. [more inside]
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:35 AM PST - 59 comments

Walk The Dinosaur

Life Size Dinosaur Puppet Scares Children at Elementary School.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 9:41 AM PST - 99 comments

Everything you would only do in the privacy of your own home, Jon Kyl prefers to do on a subway car. #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement

Last week during the Senate budget negotiations, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), gave a speech that included the following statement: "If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does." That statement is drastically different from the statistics reported by Planned Parenthood, which list 90 percent of its services as preventive in nature, compared with 3 percent that are abortion-related. When asked about this apparent discrepancy, Jon Kyl's office replied that "his remark was not intended to be a factual statement." And that is when things got noisy. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:59 AM PST - 136 comments

Caution: Do NOT Lick!

I Heart Banana Slugs, or Is That Piece of Poop Moving?! Daniel Williford, a District Interpretive Specialist working in the Bay Area's Santa Cruz Mountains, gives an enthusiastic overview of the beloved banana slug. [more inside]
posted by PepperMax at 7:29 AM PST - 50 comments

I Really Like Focusing on the Tiny Details

Kiva Ford is an incredibly talented glassblower. By day, he creates custom scientific glassware for research and discovery chemistry. In his off hours, he creates artistic glass pieces that are both lovely and impossibly small. [more inside]
posted by avoision at 7:16 AM PST - 32 comments

Everywhere There's Lots of Piggies

Friday Flash Fun! In Pigs Can Fly, navigate a cute little piggy to the magic potion to help him grow wings and fly away.
posted by phunniemee at 7:13 AM PST - 9 comments

Mench kissing in the UK

"I'm not the kind of person to do that kind of thing in public," says Jonathan Williams, one of two men on a first date asked to leave the John Snow pub for "obscene" behavior on Wednesday. [more inside]
posted by running order squabble fest at 6:28 AM PST - 91 comments

A taste of fructose is worse than none at all?

Is Sugar Toxic? 9 pages, plus 90 minutes of extra science. [Previously]
posted by rusty at 5:49 AM PST - 95 comments

Song of Songs

Tablet Magazine has published a list of The 100 Greatest Jewish Songs [more inside]
posted by beisny at 12:29 AM PST - 64 comments

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