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Super Mario Bros. in 5'32'
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:36 PM PST - 44 comments

This life-like movie sequence captures Saturn's rings during a ring plane crossing--which Cassini makes twice per orbit--from the spacecraft's point of view. The movie begins with a view of the sunlit side of the rings. As the spacecraft speeds from south to north, the rings appear to tilt downward and collapse to a thin plane, and then open again to reveal the un-illuminated side of the ring plane, where sunlight filters through only dimly.

The Great Crossing -- The Movie (7 MB)
posted by y2karl at 10:35 PM PST - 13 comments

Samples of the Javanese gamelan The Museum Nusantara Delft in the Netherlands recorded its century-old gamelan, Kyahi Paridjata, note by note. Most of the instruments in the orchestra are included. Samples are available as MP3, but the museum also includes the original files and some variants.
posted by NemesisVex at 9:04 PM PST - 21 comments

Claude Bell's giant Cabazon Dinosaurs sculptures have been bought by a Christian developer, Answers in Genesis. The LA Times (archived copy) discusses.
posted by lilithim at 8:38 PM PST - 33 comments

Carlos Latuff is a political cartoonist from Brazil whose work can be described as pro-Palestine , anti-America and uh, anti-McDonalds?. He has given his side of the story, but his latest images on DeviantArt take a different direction in his anti-American artwork.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:15 PM PST - 54 comments

The Jewish Boy Band - Chai 5. Yes they're serious. And there are only four of them.
posted by brookeb at 6:30 PM PST - 23 comments

Common chimps like early humans
posted by Listener at 6:23 PM PST - 18 comments

SHOOT THINGS - a retro-arcade-style shooter for Mac OS X. The author's page describes how it was written in 3 weeks for a contest - it's entertained me for considerably longer than that.
posted by ikkyu2 at 5:10 PM PST - 31 comments

It's been covered elsewhere in the media (and on MetaFilter) before, but Jason DeParle's feature in the NY Times Magazine this weekend is a well-researched, clearly written, and evocative piece on the phenomenon of the Filipino overseas contract worker. Just don't get him confused with a balikbayan (who has a cultural spot all his own, with boxes named in his honor).
posted by sappidus at 4:53 PM PST - 6 comments

Nerds, Nine Inch Nails, and numbskulls. It's also an ARG.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 4:49 PM PST - 14 comments

Flickr user gandibacardi really likes women's cardigans. So much that he takes pictures of himself wearing cardigans and puts heads of models over his own face. He then writes (presumably) fictional mini-stories in the captions. He also likes to talk about cardigans. Sometimes he posts links to his pictures asking people what they think of his pictures. Sometimes he gets answers, but most often not.
posted by Kattullus at 4:15 PM PST - 45 comments

Good news if you want another source of antioxidants in your diet.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 3:26 PM PST - 29 comments

"Hey, do any of you people who are leaving want to stay and talk about this or do you want to run out like cowards?" [YouTube] Over 80 people simultaneously walked out of Mike Daisey's recent performance of Invincible Summer. One of the people came onstage and poured water over his only copy of the show's outline. "And it wounded me in my heart, because I trusted these people."
posted by kirkaracha at 3:14 PM PST - 140 comments

An average of 81 people die of gunshot wounds in the US each day. Most of them aren't who you'd expect.
posted by alms at 2:05 PM PST - 149 comments

The first was found just fifteen years ago, after centuries of speculation. As of today, we're up to 227 and counting. Most are just wobbles in data, but we have pictures and exotica too. And we are looking for more (although some think we shouldn't look very hard and others are drawing some surprising conclusions). The science and technology of finding the most fascinating and elusive types demands some of the cleverest engineering, yet you can even have a go for yourself. Previously on Metafilter
posted by Devonian at 12:46 PM PST - 23 comments

No fairytales allowed; Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith has 36 clients in Guantanamo and has visited many times. This is an extract from a new book where he argues that secrecy is a disease. A further extract explors the surreal world of the prison's media relations, where the only journalist with real access is one of the inmates. Stafford Smith was one of the narrators is this excellent recent FPP. Here is the site of his UK organisation.
posted by adamvasco at 12:43 PM PST - 6 comments

Recent MeFi threads have suggested how easy it is (or not) to build a gun. The comparison to dynamite or ANFO is made, frequently, in these sorts of discussions, supposedly to illustrate another "weapon" which is in the public corpus but largely outlawed. [more inside]
posted by avriette at 12:29 PM PST - 34 comments

Reid Stowe and Soanya Ahmad have embarked on a 1000 day journey aboard a 60 foot schooner named Anne which Reid built. They will remain beyond sight of land and will not be resupplied during the voyage. Reid has considerable experience as a sailor, having first sailed at 20 to Tahiti from Hawaii...and later building a a catamaran which he sailed across the Atlantic.
posted by rmmcclay at 12:26 PM PST - 11 comments

Super(-expensive) Playgrounds are nice to look at, but what makes a playground fun? Experiments in play: Snug & Outdoor (1, 2, 3) Mcdonald's (1, 2, 3) KaBOOM! (1, 2, 3) Boundless Play (1, 2, 3)
posted by anotherpanacea at 11:20 AM PST - 34 comments

Australian inventor Chris Bosua, frustrated by the inefficiency of his air compressor, devised a method of recycling the exhaust air from air tools. His Exhausted Air Recycling System (E.A.R.S.) improves efficiency by eighty percent. It runs cooler, almost halves the power consumption, extends the life of the compressor, provides a cleaner working environment, and reduces the noise of an air tool to that of a sewing machine. Happy Earth Day, everyone!
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:05 AM PST - 31 comments

Powerful photo ads for the Cape Times.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:57 AM PST - 65 comments

Went to a dance, looking for a man, found John McCain, he was singing Bomb Iran. (Warnings: Single link YouTube Newsfilter)
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:33 AM PST - 44 comments

Recent scientific evidence suggests the Minoa civilization on Crete was wiped out by a massive tidal wave around 1,500 BC, the same time the Santorini volcano erupted, 70 km north of Crete, up to ten times more powerful than the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. "Perhaps we now have an explanation of [the Atlantis myth] - a folk memory of a real ancient civilisation swallowed by the sea."
posted by stbalbach at 9:15 AM PST - 22 comments

Orpheus and Eurydice, the acid-tinged, animated music video version.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:48 AM PST - 8 comments

Goodbye Jacques! Today french voters will get rid of Chirac - charmingly called "The Bulldozer". Although he was not as bad as Silvio, France is in dire need of economic reform - something Frau Merkel has already started in Germany. So who will win this important election? Meet the candidates: Royal, Sarkozy and Bayrou.
posted by homodigitalis at 2:58 AM PST - 53 comments