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As a result of the Dutch film Fitna, Indonesia has blocked several websites including MySpace and YouTube. This follows hot on the heels of a new bill which could see people face six years of jail time or a 1 billion rupiah fine for being caught sending out porn, “false news” or racial or religious slurs on the Web. The Indonesian government will start censoring the Internet next month with specialised software. Very disappointing for a country which had a reasonably free press.
posted by BobsterLobster at 9:39 PM PST - 43 comments

The Opening Shots Project on Jim Emerson's scanners blog is a collection of reader-contributed dissections of, you guessed it, opening shots of movies.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 9:39 PM PST - 11 comments

Having trouble connecting to a site? It may be you and many others got too close to a network event horizon and the packets ...disappeared.... The internets has black holes, too. via
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 8:46 PM PST - 13 comments

Video on Flickr! Paying members of the popular community photo sharing website are now able to upload videos up to 90 seconds in length or 150MB in size. At first critical of the length limitation, some think it's a good decision. Check out the FAQ for details on what is/isn't accepted and why, and watch some videos in the first video group pool.
posted by patr1ck at 8:00 PM PST - 67 comments

22 years after letting a ball roll through his legs in extra innings to lose game six of the 1986 World Series, Bill Buckner returned to Fenway Park to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day. Here's a post on the Curse of the Bambino and the 2004 World Series [more inside]
posted by Corduroy at 7:44 PM PST - 39 comments

The dangers of being a TV news reporter. A guaranteed context-free three-minute montage of television field reports gone awry.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:31 PM PST - 70 comments

Will the end of the marathon inquest into the death of Princess Diana leave you bereft, with no further purpose in life? Me neither. But if you still need some of the Lady Di magic in your life, perhaps you need the Lady Diana talking action figure! It "...captures all of the exquisiteness and beauty of Diana - only $129.95".
posted by idiomatika at 7:27 PM PST - 15 comments

Helen Keller speaks. As an elementary school student of the 60's, I was schooled in Helen Keller's amazing accomplishments. I had no idea that there were video records and great stills. I am humbled. At least for today. Anne Sullivan rocks, she should have been the first woman president.
posted by Rafaelloello at 6:27 PM PST - 37 comments

The Monty Hall Problem has struck again, and this time it’s not merely embarrassing mathematicians. If the calculations of a Yale economist are correct, there’s a sneaky logical fallacy in some of the most famous experiments in psychology." The NY Times' John Tierney reports on new research into cognitive dissonance as examined through the famous Monty Hall Problem. [A previous MetaFilter thread about the Monty Hall Problem: Let's Make A Deal!]
posted by amyms at 6:10 PM PST - 119 comments

Max Koch is a writer/actor who does a few impressions, the most notable being an uncanny Tony Soprano. Also worth seeing: Gary Busey, Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino. Audio NSFW.
posted by davebush at 4:52 PM PST - 33 comments

Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On ---- Tutti Frutti ---- Hound Dog ---- Long Tall Sally ---- Good Golly Miss Molly ---- Great Balls of Fire ---- Good Lovin'.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:13 PM PST - 36 comments

Cities at Night, an Orbital Tour Around the World was made when astronauts added stabilizers to the cameras on the orbital space station, allowing them to get sharp, crisp nighttime images.
posted by Dave Faris at 3:55 PM PST - 39 comments

Illustrated Quixote is a Brown University Library digital project--one of many inspired by the 400th anniversary of Don Quixote in 2005--that allows you to search/browse and view illustrations of Don Q produced between 1725 and 1884. There are a number of other excellent sites devoted to illustrations and paintings of the novels, as well as to the publishing history of the novel itself, notably The Cervantes Project, OSU's Digitized Historical Editions of Don Quixote, Georgetown U's Tilting at Windmills, and the Don Quixote de la Mancha digital exhibit.
posted by thomas j wise at 3:51 PM PST - 8 comments

It's a little heavy on the movie Easter Eggs but if you ever wanted to find some interesting stuff in your favorite software -- this is a good place to start.
posted by socalsamba at 3:49 PM PST - 15 comments

n+1: Is this your actual office? It’s so small.
HFM: Yes. I don’t actually spend much time in here, I have a desk out on the trading floor so this is just for, you know, meetings or phone calls I can’t take out of the desk, or interviews with literary magazines that I do every Wednesday at 4pm. [more inside]
posted by 235w103 at 3:19 PM PST - 19 comments

What are those circular disc things that you rotate to look up information? Volvelles. [more inside]
posted by aeschenkarnos at 3:15 PM PST - 12 comments

What the IFPI tries to conceal about its origins in fascist Italy IFPI is the global version of the RIAA
posted by mr.marx at 2:47 PM PST - 7 comments

At TED this past March, Al Gore once again presented the Mother of all Power Point Shows. This time around, there is a renewed sense of urgency, with updated slides about Arctic sea ice loss, among other things. More so than in the past, Gore specifically focuses on the necessity for laws to change, and how before that can happen, politics, especially American politics, must change as well. Another theme of Gore's latest TED appearance is how climate change is also a tremendous opportunity for a new heroic generation, to be remembered as the ones who solved the greatest crisis of human civilization.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 2:43 PM PST - 30 comments

Frank Newsome leads the congregation at the Little David Church in Hayside, Va. Old Regular Baptists, they sing the way people sang when they first came to the American colonies: without instruments or notation, and following their leader line by line. It's called lined-out hymnody, and people outside the southern Appalachian Mountains rarely hear it. One of the songs Newsome sings at services is a hymn about longing for heaven, called "Beulah Land."
posted by The Jesse Helms at 2:04 PM PST - 30 comments

Paul Theroux reviews Patrick French's frank, full, authorized (!) biography of Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul. Sir Vidiadhar is not, in Theroux's estimation, a very nice man. He tortures his wife emotionally, his mistress physically, and he treats people of all races with narcissistic condescension. But can he write? [more inside]
posted by sy at 1:41 PM PST - 18 comments

Knuckle tattoos
posted by phoque at 12:56 PM PST - 68 comments

The One Man Band has evolved. No longer will the one man band be burdened by the weight and bulk of backpack drum kits, guitars, or accordions - or knowing what notes to play. Behold! Beamz by The Sharper Image. Give your nearest buddy a high-five and catch a glimpse into the future of music performance and one of the most hilarious promotional videos you might ever see.
posted by hellslinger at 12:40 PM PST - 60 comments

Sacred Steel is a pedal-steel guitar style that evolved in the African-American Pentecostal denomination The House of God, Which Is the Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth. Brothers and lap steel players Willie and Truman Eason, inspired by the electric blues and Hawaiian steel guitar of the 1920s and 30s, brought the sound to two branches of the church, the Keith and Jewell dominions. Its hallmark: "talking guitar," in which the sliding steel emphasizes and mimics the words of preachers and singers. In the 1970s, a new "Motor City" tradition began, featuring the more complicated pedal steel guitar. This body of music was known mainly in church circles until two things happened: first, folklorist Robert Stone became interested in the music and relased several CD collections. And then, church player Robert Randolph (and his Family Band) began taking Sunday morning's music out onSaturday night. [more inside]
posted by Miko at 12:10 PM PST - 19 comments

Procrastination is... [QT, via]
posted by Armitage Shanks at 11:19 AM PST - 28 comments

Chemical Salvation? The history of LSD as a Chick tract. [Via]
posted by homunculus at 10:55 AM PST - 41 comments

Wired, which famously included the Tesla Roadster in its annual roundup of vaporware, takes on another electric car firm. Over the years, ZAP has taken millions from investors and dealers eager to see the company's line of green cars hit the road. But that line has never materialized. Of nearly a dozen groundbreaking eco-vehicles ZAP has promised in public announcements and on its Web site, only the Xebra and its sibling, a truck version, have ever made it to market. [more inside]
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 10:34 AM PST - 27 comments

Music is good. Free is good. So free music must be double good. With over 1000 albums listed from netlabels and other sources, Free Albums Galore (mentioned a while ago) is a well-curated collection of links to some of the best free full-length releases on the 'net. Of course, there are a lot more netlabel resources out there. [more inside]
posted by Shepherd at 9:35 AM PST - 9 comments

Multiple SIDosis is nine minutes and seven seconds of pure joy. [more inside]
posted by UKnowForKids at 9:34 AM PST - 29 comments

The Maria Theresa Thaler (or MTT), a coin first minted in 1741 and continuously to this day, remained legal tender in parts of the Arabian peninsula as late as 1970, where it was much prized both as a coin and for jewelry [magazine article] Incredibly important for trade between Europe and the Middle East, the MTT had a great impact on history. For more information turn to Maria Theresa's Thaler: A case of international money an indepth article about the MTT by Adrian Tschoegl.
posted by Kattullus at 9:05 AM PST - 11 comments

110 Best Books. 'The perfect library' - According to the Torygraph... at least there's a 'Sci-fi' section among the usual suspects (And one or two bizarre choices - Pelzer! What the heck!)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:09 AM PST - 78 comments

Nothing but short Flash animations, all with the most awesome or annoying techno/8bit soundtracks ever. Crazy techno monster , fingers from craters , sometimes it doesn't pay to get up , not quite an oomp lompaa , furies need exercise too , happy at my day job, all downhill from here, lunch with my little brother , looking for tps reports , cardboardobots transform!, more fingers in crators , dive into happy hell , mario, wtf?!, hey kitty , dance with me you big bear and finally, something to calm you down Found via this AskMe question.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:13 AM PST - 18 comments

Carl Zimmer's Science Tattoo Emporium - "Underneath their sober lab coats and flannel shirts, scientists hide images of their scientific passions. Here they are revealed to all." From the science journalist and writer responsible for The Loom and numerous other published works.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:06 AM PST - 33 comments

The Museum of Broken Relationships. We've all been there. What else are you supposed to do with the garden gnome you lobbed at his car, or the axe you used to chop her furniture into tiny bits. Or the box, made of matches, that somehow helped to make it all alright?
posted by From Bklyn at 2:05 AM PST - 15 comments

World's worst tattoo? World's worst tattoo.
posted by jonson at 1:32 AM PST - 120 comments