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Deepleap is a word game. Make words and fight against the clock. (via). There's another hit from 2000 about deepleap.org, but it has nothing to do with the word game.
posted by boo_radley at 11:15 PM PST - 70 comments

"Soon were the lofty peaks of Corcyra lost to view;
We coasted along Epirus, and coming to the Chaonian
Harbour, we drew near Buthrotum, that hill city."
- The Aenid - Book III, Virgil (trans. Cecil Day Lewis)

Founded by Trojans, populated by Chaonians, a sanctuary dedicated to Asclepius, colonized by the Greeks and Romans, sacked by the Goths, ruled by the Slavs, the Byzantine Empire and the Turks, taken by Manfred of Hohenstaufen, purchased by the Most Serene Republic of Venice, invaded by Ali Pasha and Suleiman the Magnificent, eventually becoming a place of refuge for the likes of Casanova and for hunters and painters, the ancient city of Butrint, a microcosm of Mediterranean history, is a World Heritage Site within a National Park which includes a Wetland of International Importance all of which is being kept alive by a partnership of local, national and international organizations . Come and explore Butrint. [more inside]
posted by shoesfullofdust at 10:52 PM PST - 12 comments

Dynamic Duo do an attendance check, DJ Doc run to you with Epik High and Younha's help, Epik High and Younha love love love, Buga Kingz hear a siren, Drunken Tiger has a good life with T (윤미래) and bizzy, and Dynamic Duo check whether you're solo and still here!
posted by needled at 10:47 PM PST - 23 comments

How to Kick a Person in the Teeth | How to Contemplate the Back of Your Pate | How to Eat Beans Without Soiling Your Jeans | How to Get Your Beard Sheared | How to Sharpen Your Wits | How to Block a BackSlapper's Sock | How to Grope for Bathtub Soap | How to Eat Crackers in Bed | How to See TV | How to Keep a Cool Conk | How to Double Your Bubble Gum Bubble | How (Not) to Reel on a Banana Peel | How to Tweak a Beak | How to Fall on Your Face | How to Laugh at a Bum Joke
...and many more hilarious how-tos from Basil Wolverton's Culture Corner. [more inside]
posted by carsonb at 8:24 PM PST - 12 comments

Things iPhoto thinks are faces.
posted by serazin at 8:03 PM PST - 20 comments

"Early morning April 4..." Memphis. 1968. Life reveals the aftermath of the assassination Of Dr. Martin Luther King in photos never before revealed and not an easy click. MLK May your dreams be realized. [more inside]
posted by will wait 4 tanjents at 7:06 PM PST - 68 comments

New Scientist looks at what it would be like to actually fall into a black hole.
posted by panboi at 5:55 PM PST - 31 comments

Deformed skull of prehistoric child suggests that early humans cared for disabled children.
posted by homunculus at 2:38 PM PST - 54 comments

"My boss told me not to work on it, because it was impossible to do on the Atari 2600 console, which had only 1/8 K of RAM and 4K of ROM." But creating the world's first video game easter egg might not even be Warren Robinett's most remarkable achievement. [more inside]
posted by jbickers at 2:25 PM PST - 37 comments

The push for Chicago as the 2016 Olympic-host city is gearing up, and even the usually reclusive Michael Jordan has publicly declared his support. Jordan also appears in this recently released ad that features testimonials from other former Chicago Olympians such as Jackie-Joyner Kersee, Greg Louganis, and many more.
posted by jon_hansen at 12:49 PM PST - 48 comments

100 Abandoned Houses. A photo essay from Detroit-based photographer Kevin Bauman.
posted by dersins at 12:33 PM PST - 71 comments

Jorge Colombo is among the artists using the Brushes application on the iPhone as a digital palette and canvas to create iSketches. He has worked as an illustrator, as a photographer, and as a graphic designer. He also creates digital QT videos, initially restricting himself to one-minute movies, and lately moving into longer projects.[prev. some nsfw]
posted by netbros at 12:19 PM PST - 11 comments

"The editor's guidelines are as follows: First, remember the reader, and respect demands that we should not casually use words that are likely to offend. Second, use such words only when absolutely necessary to the facts of a piece, or to portray a character in an article; there is almost never a case in which we need to use a swearword outside direct quotes. Third, the stronger the swearword, the harder we ought to think about using it.Finally, never use asterisks, which are just a cop-out." - Swearing in The Guardian: A chart
posted by Artw at 11:18 AM PST - 31 comments

Dominated by the Villain, […] Fleming’s woman has already been previously conditioned to domination, life for her having assumed the role of the villain. The general scheme is (1) the girl is beautiful and good; (2) has been made frigid and unhappy by severe trials suffered in adolescence; (3) this has conditioned her to the service of the Villain; (4) through meeting Bond she appreciates human nature in all its richness; (5) Bond possesses her but in the end loses her. A fantastically in-depth analysis of the sexual politics of James Bond. With charts!
posted by HumanComplex at 11:04 AM PST - 61 comments

...[Change of scene. We are looking out of a car window; it is raining, or has recently rained. Shops go by.] I treated myself to a taxi. I rode home through the city streets! There wasn't a street--there wasn't a building--that wasn't connected to some memory in my mind. There I was buying a suit with my father. There I was having an ice-cream soda after school. When I finally came in, Debby was home from work. And I told her everything about my dinner with André

And here is Sergio Leone and the Inside Fly Rule's meditation on the only possible other candidate for Best.Movie.Ever. [more inside]
posted by y2karl at 9:25 AM PST - 52 comments

"What you're looking for as a retoucher is a broom, something that covers your tracks, some way of obscuring where you've been. The first thing [most] people take out is bloodshot eyes. That's the last thing I take out—the last thing I'd, like, just wipe, because that just makes it look retouched." -- from Jesse Epstein's video op-ed for the NY Times, based on her film Wet Dreams and False Images ("I know that's not airbrushed. I could put a million dollars that's not airbrushed."), one of three related short documentaries on physical perfection. "Each head has to be identical to the other head, so we don't want anybody putting sandpaper to the head." -- from 34 x 25 x 36. Via the latest installment of Shakesville's Impossibly Beautiful series. (Previous posts on retouching.)
posted by maudlin at 9:02 AM PST - 51 comments

The Tauntaun sleeping bag. Adorable April Fool's joke from ThinkGeek triggers flood of demand. "We have decided to TRY and bring this to life. We have no clue if the suits at Lucasfilms will grant little ThinkGeek a license."
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:54 AM PST - 48 comments

What is a lipogram? It's a book or short work of fiction that omits a particular scriptural symbol, commonly a vocalic sign, as a stylistic ploy to amplify a motif, or simply as a stimulating bit of wordplay. Skilful application of this form is shown in US and Gallic publications such as Gadsby: Champion of Youth and La Disparition (also known, in an award-winning translation, as A Void). [more inside]
posted by permafrost at 8:26 AM PST - 31 comments

Between 16 April - 13 May the worlds largest democracy will go into action. Being India the logistics are mind boggling. Over 700 million eligible voters who will vote in over 700,000 polling stations for 1,055 political parties. The BBC goes on to explain what makes Indian elections special. University of Maryland has Forecasts and Analysis and Trends in Indian Election Politics has both insight and an interesting blog roll. As Indian Politics are more than usually corrupt and thuggish there is website dedicated to information about candidates with a criminal history. Sadly in spite of this great democratic exercise, repression of speech and miscarriage of justice will probably still be around for a while.
posted by adamvasco at 7:39 AM PST - 6 comments

This is a laughing baby. Babies laugh with abandon. They think everything is very funny. Hooray for laughter!
posted by h00py at 6:49 AM PST - 57 comments

Following Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's expenses claim for pornographic films watched by her husband, which came hot on the heels of an investigation into expenses claims for MPs' second homes, the Guardian has published data on each MPs' claims. Now, it's been combined with data from They Work For You to create a map showing MPs' expenses claims, revealing interesting anomalies.
An investigation into MPs' expenses is forthcoming. [Previously]
posted by djgh at 6:20 AM PST - 25 comments

Commando is the best film ever Director Mark Lester walks us through his Opus over at Screen Junkies.
posted by maltorrance at 5:28 AM PST - 76 comments

Richard Dawkins was recently invited to speak at the University of Oklahoma’s Darwin 2009 series of lectures on March 6th, 2009. The speech to be entitled "The Purpose of Purpose" quickly grew in popularity and even had to be moved to a larger venue to accommodate the quickly increasing crowd. Of course, word eventually reached Todd Thompson. Friction ensues. [more inside]
posted by 5imian at 4:52 AM PST - 103 comments

Four Dead in High School Massacre "Mentor high school officials confirmed that a girl and two other boys" in addition to Eric Mohat, died. "'We don't believe it's a problem,'" Justin Maynor, communications director for the Mentor Public School District, told ABCNews.com. [more inside]
posted by orthogonality at 4:44 AM PST - 139 comments