May 30, 2014

How well can you spell?

How well can you spell? is a spelling challenge from the Washington Post. Just click on the misspelled words. [more inside]
posted by zardoz at 9:49 PM PST - 112 comments

Shorthand for a long-gone era, groovy religion and journeys into space

Norman Greenbaum discusses the creation and ongoing popularity of 'Spirit in the Sky'
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 9:47 PM PST - 50 comments

The Lord loves a working man

The old Country store on dirt road, on 75 Wheelers Church Rd Hurdle Mills, NC 27541.
Here is what it looked like on Sunday afternoon in July 1939, (A 4x5 nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration.)
Current and recent visits.
Models from the American Adventure attraction in Epcot at Disney World (scroll ½ way down).
And colorized.
(Shorpy, previously.)
posted by growabrain at 9:08 PM PST - 22 comments

Bah-beee!

"The Demo" [SLYT] is the original pilot episode of the animated tv show, Bob's Burger's (previously).The theme remains the same, although the art style is a bit rough. The plot is exactly the same as the first episode, "Human Flesh", with minor differences in animation and timing. Oh, and Tina was originally a Daniel! [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 9:07 PM PST - 23 comments

Grinders

Grinders: Tomorrow’s Cyberpunks are Here Today [NSFW]. "Installing magnets, microchips and sensors in their own bodies — this is how cyberpunk biohackers went from fiction to reality." [Previously, Via]
posted by homunculus at 8:42 PM PST - 52 comments

"We Get Through It Together"

Twenty-Eight Feet: Life On A Little Wooden Boat [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:55 PM PST - 17 comments

Music to Make You Move: Syncopation, Body-Movement and Pleasure

What is it about "Happy" by Pharrell Williams that makes you want to move? Why can't we sit still when we hear Ray Charles perform "I've Got a Woman"? Michael Jackson had it, and so did Stevie Wonder. "It," in this case, is syncopation, the gaps in the rhythm that your brain wants to fill in, as reported in the article Syncopation, Body-Movement and Pleasure in Groove Music (full article online).
posted by filthy light thief at 4:58 PM PST - 70 comments

RIP Saturday morning cartoons

Vortexx, the last non-E/I children's Saturday morning programming block on broadcast television, is ending this fall.
posted by Small Dollar at 3:47 PM PST - 67 comments

Without your space helmet, Dave?

Comedian and voice actor H. Jon Benjamin redubs the voice of HAL 9000 during a guest appearance on the Late Night Basement live show in Brooklyn.
posted by figurant at 3:37 PM PST - 32 comments

The complexities of US tipping culture

A completely unscientific survey on tipping in the US service industry.
posted by chainsofreedom at 2:30 PM PST - 183 comments

Ursula Explains It All

"No, I took her voice for two simple reasons—she was a twit and she was in love. I took one look at her and knew that she’d spill everything she knew in the pretty human boy’s ear, and then where would we be?" - The Sea Witch Sets The Record Straight by Ursula Vernon.
posted by The Whelk at 2:16 PM PST - 25 comments

Advice about how to spend your summer vacation

You could call summers like this a colossal waste of time. But that’s what feels immortal about them—wasting time, colossally, as the gods must do. Taisia Kitaiskaia writes an ode to summer on the Hairpin. The author, a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers, also channels Baba Yaga in a regular advice column for the same website. [more inside]
posted by pretentious illiterate at 1:28 PM PST - 17 comments

Analysis of extracted coffee by gas chromatography

Schrödinger’s water for the perfect cup of coffee
posted by pjern at 12:48 PM PST - 26 comments

Confronting racism face-to-face

Mo Asumang, daughter of a black Ghanaian father and a white German mother, talks to BBC News about her experiences making her new documentary, The Aryans, in which she confronts racists, both in Germany and among the Ku Klux Klan in America. (4:31) [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 11:52 AM PST - 12 comments

" V.A. has a systemic, totally unacceptable lack of integrity"

This morning, the Veterans Affairs Chief Eric Shinseki tendered his resignation, following the release of an independent review detailing corruption in the reporting of wait times and scheduling practices, along with alleged patient deaths in the Phoenix Health Care system. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:02 AM PST - 117 comments

Lost Douglas Adams draft found...

Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide drafts to be published Writing that Douglas Adams cut from his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novels is to be published for the first time after being found in his archive.
posted by dfm500 at 10:13 AM PST - 58 comments

Einstein reportedly bitter about not getting spooky action at a distance

Researchers at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have developed a technique for quantum data teleportation that uses deterministic methods to offer one hundred percent accuracy. Previous methods only worked reliably one in every 100 million attempts. [more inside]
posted by saulgoodman at 9:26 AM PST - 87 comments

A story of miniature cryptography and a password protected home

Genius in a tiny mother bird, who learned to give her babies a password so they wouldn't die. A musical password. The Superb Fairy Wren sings to her eggs. The unborn baby birds, still in the egg, learn that musical password and sing it on being hatched.
posted by nickyskye at 9:03 AM PST - 37 comments

Of Course

What song do you play when you have a crow sitting on your guitar? Blackbird, of course. (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by tommasz at 8:35 AM PST - 36 comments

Inside the Shadowy World of High-Speed Tennis Betting

Getting relevant data first is a gambling advantage. Thus the controversial practice of courtsiding.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:36 AM PST - 28 comments

Racism Award: $2B

The Los Angeles Clippers will be sold to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. The sale -- forced by the NBA's kicking out current owner (and racist slumlord) Donald Sterling -- will be formally conducted by the Sterling Family Trust, which technically owns the team. The Trust is currently controlled solely by Sterling's wife Shelly, who had her husband declared mentally incompetent after a month of him declaring that he would never sell and that Magic Johnson is a bad role model. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan at 6:28 AM PST - 181 comments

Just put 'em in the freezer...

In 2013, NZ researchers looking at conserving evidence from the Shackleton Expedition (1914-17) found 22 unprocessed negatives stored in a box at a hut where a group of stranded explorers had sheltered. "Though slightly damaged, the incredible images give us a rare glimpse of adventurers from the past."
posted by sneebler at 5:57 AM PST - 46 comments

Blooooop bleeee blooop blop! These are the sounds of enrichment.

A bunch of otters jam on a Casio. An orangutan plays a xylophone with a banana. A sloth bear toots some harmonica. These are all a part of the National Zoo's environmental enrichment efforts, not unlike getting your cat some food balls and cat shelves. [more inside]
posted by ignignokt at 5:31 AM PST - 31 comments

“The City is the equivalent of Venice in the middle ages,”

An outsiders guide to the City of London.
Also of interest from the Guardian is the Joris Luyendijk banking blog which includes a ten best quotes from financial insiders and a helpful guide for novices.
posted by adamvasco at 4:50 AM PST - 5 comments

i'm transgender. i'm very sure of this and not at all sure what it means

Are you a boy or a girl?”: Our trans-bisexual love story
posted by and they trembled before her fury at 3:40 AM PST - 14 comments

Arnie Roth

Remember when Captain America had a gay best friend?
posted by MartinWisse at 3:16 AM PST - 74 comments

It's like Christmas morning!

Team Service Announcements is a series of short skits demonstrating basic principles of Team Fortress 2 tactics and strategy.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:44 AM PST - 20 comments

Mass Bolero.

Mass Bolero. "This short film, Mass Bolero, is a mass participation project made in the spring of 2014 by the people of Nottingham in tribute to Torvill and Dean." [via]
posted by feelinglistless at 1:26 AM PST - 16 comments

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