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Apocalypse Soon: Has Civilization Passed the Environmental Point of No Return? Four decades ago, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer model called World3 warned of such a possible course for human civilization in the 21st century. In Limits to Growth, a bitterly disputed 1972 book that explicated these findings, researchers argued that the global industrial system has so much inertia that it cannot readily correct course in response to signals of planetary stress. But unless economic growth skidded to a halt before reaching the edge, they warned, society was headed for overshoot—and a splat that could kill billions.
posted by j03 at 11:38 PM PST - 130 comments

Fans of the Nashville Predators Hockey team threw a live catfish onto the ice during Friday’s game. Since 1996, fans of Florida Panthers have been throwing fake rats onto the ice, after player Scott Mellanby discovered a huge rat circulating in his dressing room, split it open with his stick and then scored a couple decisive goals, inspiring the 'Rat Trick' tradition. And supporters of the Stockholm-based AIK ice hockey team threw rubber dildos, and waved giant inflatable penis, to remind player Jan Huokko, (‘Dildo-Jan’) of a leaked sex video of him with his girlfriend. Turns out this kind of thing is fairly common in the world of hockey fandom. (Via Everlasting Blort)
posted by growabrain at 10:46 PM PST - 55 comments

"I'm just looking for a second chance. Other people get second chances. Alcoholics. Drug addicts. Spousal beaters. Not gamblers, though. But, if you want to put something on my tombstone that was very important to me, it’s 1,972. That’s how many winning games I’ve played in. So that makes me the biggest winner in the history of sports. No one else can say that." Here, Now is a short documentary that looks at baseball legend Pete Rose, as he lives his life today. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 10:09 PM PST - 45 comments

Spider Women. The animal illustration of Eileen Mayo. Book Week. Animals on Bikes. Alphabet Soup 1, Alphabet Soup 2. Steinlen's Cats. Let's Dance. Cats in Advertisements. Art Deco Animals. Jacques Hnizdovsky's prints. Emmanuelle Houdart's creatures. Turn of the century bird illustrations. [more inside]
posted by Lou Stuells at 9:44 PM PST - 4 comments

Vintage meezers. NSFW.
posted by jjray at 8:14 PM PST - 32 comments

Architecture of Open Source Programs The Architecture of Open Source Programs is a guide into the functional implemenation of major opensource code bases. Notable Open Source Projects that are included: BASH, CMAKE, LLVM,GDB,Puppet and PyPy among others
posted by Rubbstone at 8:06 PM PST - 12 comments

America's Test Kitchen Super Quick Video Tips: "Test Kitchen wisdom distilled into eminently watchable video clips" of no more than a minute or two long, including tips for meat (how to make the most perfect bacon ever - how to quickly defrost meat - how to dry-age steak at home) to coffee (how to make pour-over coffee - how to fake a latte at home) and wine (the fastest way to chill wine) to pizza (flattening dough and baking a perfect thin-crust pizza ) and general kitchen tips (is your knife sharp enough? - do you really need to buy regular olive oil? - how to quickly soften butter and soft cheese). And there's Ask the Test Kitchen quick video tips as well (what's the best way to peel eggs? - how do I store brown sugar?).
posted by flex at 7:57 PM PST - 72 comments

Ektoplazm is now the world’s largest distributor of free (and legal) psytrance music specializing in high-quality Creative Commons-licensed content from netlabels and independent artists, all released in MP3 and lossless CD-quality FLAC and WAV formats.
posted by Trurl at 7:30 PM PST - 47 comments

^(SLYT)An unusual substitution is made in Russian footballer Vadim Evseev's last game before retirement. [more inside]
posted by domnit at 7:23 PM PST - 17 comments

The Last Word on Snake Oil.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:11 PM PST - 19 comments

Paul Fussell, author of The Great War and Modern Memory and winner of the first National Critics Award for Criticism, but who is probably best known for writing Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, is dead. [more inside]
posted by postcommunism at 6:24 PM PST - 48 comments

What’s a Readlist? A group of web pages—articles, recipes, course materials, anything—bundled into an e-book you can send to your Kindle, iPad, or iPhone.
posted by netbros at 5:57 PM PST - 43 comments

Worlds was a 3D Internet chat program that was introduced in 1995. Seventeen years later, YouTube user and game streamer Vinesauce returns to find a small collection of users who take him on a tour of the deserted halls of their virtual land. NSFW due to confused swearing. [more inside]
posted by codacorolla at 5:48 PM PST - 22 comments

Scrabble, as played by Eddie Guerrero's rules
posted by frimble at 5:34 PM PST - 20 comments

A 73 year old returned, making it seem easy, yet increased traffic left four people dead this weekend. Traffic jams at Mount Everest. [more inside]
posted by bquarters at 5:27 PM PST - 94 comments

"Siri, how expensive would it be to replace all the lights in my house with fireflies?" (cf. "Is that rain?")
posted by griphus at 5:04 PM PST - 57 comments

"I don't like to have a situation placed over my head." [more inside]
posted by glaucon at 4:58 PM PST - 11 comments

Color pictures of Seoul, 1949.
posted by needled at 4:12 PM PST - 11 comments

Frenchman Xavier Chevrin is driving an electric car 3,000 miles through Africa, from Nairobi to Johannesburg. Finding outlets is a challenge, about 65 percent of Africans do not have access to electricity. The daily video logs are a joy not only for the beautiful scenery along a contemporary African road trip, but the excitement of many Africans who have never seen an electric vehicle. The vehicle is a souped-up version of cars used by the French postal service, a Citroen Berlingo powered by Venturi. This is Xavier's 2nd long distance electric car expedition, previously he did Shanghai to Paris, it set the record for the longest distance traveled in an electric vehicle.
posted by stbalbach at 4:03 PM PST - 9 comments

The Spear, a painting by South African artist Brett Murray is causing quite a stir. The painting is the subject of an attempted ban by the South African president, Jacob Zuma, according to the article and a general accusation of racism by the ANC leadership which has led at least one interesting response in the blogosphere.
posted by HopStopDon'tShop at 3:32 PM PST - 21 comments

You've probably already seen some impressive bicycle trials showmanship. Now it's time to see the cutest. [more inside]
posted by ardgedee at 3:31 PM PST - 8 comments

"TV is where writers get to tell interesting stories right now, because writers, for the most part, run television." Matthew Weiner of Mad Men, Vince Gilligan of Breaking Bad and David Milch of Deadwood talk to GQ about writing for television. Also: The New Rules of TV everything you need to know about the Golden Age of Television. Want to hear even more about the world of writing rooms, showrunners and screenwriting? Check out the Nerdist Writer's Panel Podcast.
posted by Artw at 2:59 PM PST - 10 comments

So The Avengers is a very successful movie. This has lead many comics fans to express their concern over the treatment of original creators in the industry, specifically of Jack Kirby. Creators' Rights controversy is nothing new, and there remains to this day ample reason to question the business dealings of The Big Two when it comes to how they compensate the men and women who work for/with them. Alan Moore has been and continues to be the victim of numerous shady deals at the hands of DC comics. But no one, with the possible exception of Seigel and Shuster, has suffered more than Jack "King" Kirby. [more inside]
posted by shmegegge at 2:33 PM PST - 109 comments

An Audience With Neil Armstrong is an hour long interview with Neil Armstrong about the moon landings from 2011, including a comparative view of footage from the Eagle's landing alongside Google Moon maps. [more inside]
posted by dng at 2:28 PM PST - 14 comments

Epic - Slinky on a Treadmill
posted by davidjmcgee at 2:16 PM PST - 63 comments

I used to be a lifehacking addict [...] But sometime over the last couple years (around the time I turned 30, not coincidentally), it has begun to dawn on me: Maybe all the time I spend looking for better ways to do things is keeping me from, well, doing things.

Confessions of a recovering lifehacker
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:18 PM PST - 64 comments

Sci-Fi-London put on another 48 hour film challenge this year, challenging film teams to make a short based around a given title, a snippet of dialogue, a short list of props, and an optional "scientific" theme. After two days in April, over 380 shorts had been made, and the winners have now been announced and and their short films posted on Sci-Fi-London's Vimeo account. 17 more shorts below the break. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 1:09 PM PST - 7 comments

The Eephus League presents: a web magazine about baseball.
posted by zamboni at 12:39 PM PST - 15 comments

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning — So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:33 PM PST - 186 comments

Chromeography is a tumblr devoted to images of chrome: the lettering, logos, and ornaments adorning old automobiles (and bicycles and cameras and appliances).
posted by gamera at 11:52 AM PST - 9 comments

Prince v. Cariou, Round 2: Money Talks Prince v. Cariou oral arguments were heard today by a three Judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. In many ways, the future of appropriation art (and Google’s image search, possibly) rests on the outcome of this case. And if today’s arguments are any indication, neither side is going to go down without a fight. [more inside]
posted by snaparapans at 10:43 AM PST - 95 comments

Drawings of the elements of CMS detector, in the style of Leonardo da Vinci "Sergio Cittolin is first and foremost a physicist in search of answers to the mysteries of the universe. Yet he also has an artistic bent, and his talent for drawing has woven itself nicely into his 30 years of work at CERN. The result is a collection of Leonardo da Vinci-style illustrations that brighten CERN hallways, a book, and the covers of a number of technical documents." (via)
posted by dhruva at 10:27 AM PST - 10 comments

Dave Gardner scored his first Top 20 hit in 1957 with White Silver Sands, and while a fine singer (and drummer), it was the stories he told between songs that transformed him into "Brother" Dave Gardner.
posted by timsteil at 10:21 AM PST - 10 comments

Nine year old's lunch blog shames school into making changes. Here's the blog.
posted by latkes at 10:17 AM PST - 93 comments

SF author and Mefi's Own Charles Stross talks about the future of "big idea" Science Fiction: If SF's core message (to the extent that it ever had one) is obsolete, what do we do next?
posted by The Whelk at 10:01 AM PST - 71 comments

First (successful) Wingsuit Landing without a parachute. Stuntman Gary Connery lands his Wingsuit into a pile of cardboard boxes without deploying a parachute -- and walks away unharmed! (All of the boxes didn't fare quite as well). Him! Him! .........
posted by Dean358 at 10:00 AM PST - 59 comments

The Books were a two-piece band consisting of Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong. Their albums (Thought For Food (2002), The Lemon of Pink (2003), Lost and Safe (2005), and The Way Out (2010)) consisted of a mixture of found audio, constructed sounds, languid vocals, and traditional instruments, but with a warm, solid feel to the proceedings despite the amount of audio manipulation. The band broke up earlier this year, but Nick Zammuto has released a new album from his new band, the self-titled Zammuto. (The music here definitely shares DNA with The Books, but there's a more electronic feel to them.) When The Books' final album, The Way Out, debuted, the band discussed the genesis of each track on their blog (discussed on MeFi), which was a fascinating look into the creative process. This look continues as, over on a new Tumblr blog, Nick Zammuto has begun telling the story of The Books from the beginning (part two, part three). If you're a fan of The Books, of music creation, or of just how art is inspired, the three parts to date are great reading, and promise more to come.
posted by Legomancer at 10:00 AM PST - 14 comments

Should more British people commentate on basketball? Yes. [SLYT] [more inside]
posted by MuffinMan at 9:02 AM PST - 53 comments

Gestus is a moving image processing framework that uses computer vision techniques to explore the artistic possibilities of the vector as a symbolic form.
posted by Dr. Fetish at 8:34 AM PST - 15 comments

Life in Life: Using something called an OTCA metapixel (Outer Totalistic Cellular Automata Meta-Pixel), which is a pattern in Conway’s Game of Life, someone has implemented the Game of Life inside of another Game of Life.
posted by Freen at 7:49 AM PST - 37 comments

Why Is Yawning Contagious? [SLYT] [more inside]
posted by quin at 7:11 AM PST - 22 comments

"If anyone describes this as a death-defying stunt comparable to the amazing feats of Blondin, Farini or even Jay Cochrane, they’ll be lying. It’s not even close now." [NFReview] Nik Wallenda 'King of the High Wire', the seventh generation of the legendary Great Wallendas will walk across Niagara Falls, unfortunately it won't be the "thrill" that most people were expecting and wanting. "Apparently, ABC is new to this whole ‘daredevil’ thing." Nik Wallenda knows this better than anyone – his great-grandfather died after falling off a tightrope in San Juan, Puerto Rico 34 years ago. The YouTube clip is horrifying to watch [NSFW], but Wallenda has never denied this is part of the family business. He knows the deal. [more inside]
posted by Fizz at 6:37 AM PST - 60 comments

Didier Drogba seems set to follow in the footsteps of his mate Nicolas Anelka and head to China when his contract at Chelsea ends at the end of the month, but how much do you know about grassroots Chinese football culture? [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 5:03 AM PST - 9 comments