May 6, 2010

Ocean

The John Butler Trio's Ocean is an incredible thing to hear and to see (SLYT)
posted by Flashman at 8:32 PM PST - 39 comments

"Wha Wha What Did You Say?" added Justice Gaga

NPR Personalities Spoof Lady Gaga (SLYT)
posted by gordie at 8:05 PM PST - 120 comments

Adverputt!

Adverputt! So fun that you won't realize you're being advertised to!
posted by fizzzzzzzzzzzy at 7:54 PM PST - 36 comments

Moms in Babeland

Perhaps it's not surprising, given their intrinsic connection: sex and parenthood come together in Moms in Babeland, a blog run by the eponymous sex toy boutique (NSFW, obvs). [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco at 7:14 PM PST - 17 comments

Self funded, no budget, infinite mind

Wonderful 16mm short films by Australian stop motion animator Gregory Godhard: Collide-a-scope(2009) - Lovesong (2007) - Museum of Dreams (2003) - A Room With Askew(2006) - And last but absolutely not least, Mind's Eye(1998) a terrific ride composed of "1200 photographs shot in sequence."
posted by louche mustachio at 7:03 PM PST - 6 comments

New Math

A family in Atlanta sold their house and donated half the proceeds to villagers in Ghana.
posted by reenum at 4:50 PM PST - 72 comments

Automated Trading Suspected in Stock Market Crash

Major market indices fell almost 10% this afternoon before recovering half of that value. Some blame the failing Greek economy and the related loss of confidence in the Eurozone. But a lot of attention is being paid to the role of automated trading systems. Accenture's stock, for example, dropped from $41 to one penny in two minutes and then recovered just as quickly. Will this trigger a loss of confidence in automated trading?
posted by spitefulcrow at 3:35 PM PST - 162 comments

Tune In, Turn On, Get Cancelled

In 1969, George Schlatter was riding high as the producer of the high ratings blockbuster, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. So when Schlatter pitched a show to ABC that was like Laugh In only more so (with faster jokes, faster editing, and even more outrageous topical humor), ABC was willing to let Schlatter have free rein. The result was Turn-On, a show that bombed so badly it was cancelled the very night it aired. [more inside]
posted by jonp72 at 3:26 PM PST - 43 comments

Computer, load up Celery Man, please.

Computer, load up Celery Man, please. Paul Rudd and his computer on Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! [more inside]
posted by pollex at 2:57 PM PST - 93 comments

Sally don't you go, go downtown.

"What happened was that Abner Spector was an electronics nut. He took the girls in the studio on a Friday, and they didn't get out of there until everybody was on the track. Anybody that came in the studio that week, he would put them on. Originally, I think he had about 20 voices on 'Sally.'" The cost of the project alone, Richardson figured was over $60,000..." - Sally, Go Round The Roses (alt) was the first (and only) hit for the Jaynettes in 1963 and a unique and hypnotic studio creation. It's been called "a subtle and transcendental epic in 45rpm form" and there is much speculation on its mysterious lyrics. It has been covered by Donna Summer. Great Society (with Grace Slick) . Fanny. Pentangle. ? And The Mysterians and others.
posted by The Whelk at 1:41 PM PST - 16 comments

Sequencing of the Neandertal genome completed

Neandertals are the closest ancestral relatives to modern humans. Today, Nature published a special report on the Neandertal genome, for which a draft sequencing of three billion nucleotides has been completed. This high-throughput sequencing project shows how the genetic relationship between Neandertals and modern Europeans and Asians suggests localized interbreeding between the two species roughly 40-80,000 years ago, complicating the common "out-of-Africa" story of how modern humans originated. Additional research extends this low-coverage, first-pass sequencing with a microarray approach that uncovers specific differences between the human and Neandertal genomes.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:40 PM PST - 75 comments

I Could Have Used You That Night

Oklahoma poet Lauren Zuniga responds to Oklahoma SB 1878 (which requires women to view a ultrasound image of the fetus an hour before receiving an abortion & allows doctors to refuse to provide contraceptive care) with a poem.
posted by eustacescrubb at 12:34 PM PST - 63 comments

Two great tastes that go great together

Two MeFi faves end up crossing over: Muppets invade the writers' room at LOST.
posted by hippybear at 12:04 PM PST - 32 comments

danger + opportunity ≠ crisis

How a misunderstanding about Chinese characters has led many astray. The explication of the Chinese word for crisis as made up of two components signifying danger and opportunity is due partly to wishful thinking, but mainly to a fundamental misunderstanding about how terms are formed in Mandarin and other Sinitic languages... Among the most egregious of the radical errors in this statement is the use of the exotic term “Ideogram” to refer to Chinese characters. Linguists and writing theorists avoid “ideogram” as a descriptive referent for hanzi (Mandarin) / kanji (Japanese) / hanja (Korean) because only an exceedingly small proportion of them actually convey ideas directly through their shapes... [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 11:23 AM PST - 83 comments

Faster than sound. Faster than lightning. Faster, even, than taters.

Our fastest beta to date... On Tuesday, Google released Chrome 5.0.375.29 beta for Windows, Mac, and Linux, promising enormous speed gains for its popular browser. Just how fast is it? Let's watch at 2,700 frames per second. [more inside]
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:51 AM PST - 80 comments

Calculator? No thanks...

The Soroban is recognisable to most in the West as an Abacus. Despite the prevalence of electronic calculators, the Soroban is still incredibly popular in Japan, with parents oft paying for private tutors to teach their children. The remarkable phenomenon of Flash Anzan is observed after a few years of practice, when users no longer need a real Soroban and can work off an imaginary one.
posted by Biru at 9:23 AM PST - 38 comments

Your Loyalty Demands.......

This excellent article concerning Cardiacs and the heart attack of stalwart frontman Tim Smith, prompted me to write this post. They've been on the go since the late 70's and as one would expect, they have attracted a number of fanatics who catalogue everything. They've even been featured in the Sunday Sport! Personally, I find it hard to describe their style. [more inside]
posted by Homemade Interossiter at 9:05 AM PST - 13 comments

Incendiary and offensive clothing

Five Californian high school students were sent home on cinco de Mayo for the clothes they were wearing. A vice-principal demanded they turn their shirts inside out so as to not offend other students, calling their clothing incendiary. They refused and, threatened with suspension, left campus. Their offense? Wearing American flag designs on American soil. At least one student believes the five owe everyone an apology for their disrespect.
posted by codswallop at 8:58 AM PST - 262 comments

The slippery slope of banana farming.

A little background about that oddly shaped yellow fruit and the potential for bananageddon.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:37 AM PST - 47 comments

Gathering Paradise

Bill Murray Reads Poetry to Construction Workers at Poets House
posted by xod at 8:18 AM PST - 21 comments

Someone should give him a gas mask

Proposed austerity measures in response to Greece's economic crisis have led to riots and three deaths . However, this isn't the first time that riots have shaken Greece in response to the economic turmoil. One dog has seen them all.
posted by emilyd22222 at 7:34 AM PST - 64 comments

Daniel Okrent's Last Call

"Women and men drink together in a bar? Well, then, you have to have bathrooms for the women. That's the invention of the powder room. That's a phrase that actually comes from Prohibition. They could tuck a tiny little room with a toilet and a sink underneath a stairwell or in a corner. Table service in bars can also be traced to Prohibition, because men and women together, they're not bellying up the bar, but sitting at a table. And the dance band: if you have only men in a bar, you're never going to have a five-piece jazz band there; but you are going to if you have men and women who might dance together." Daniel Okrent and the history of Prohibition. [more inside]
posted by geoff. at 7:30 AM PST - 30 comments

Terribly Cute

Smories are free original stories for kids, read by kids.
posted by DU at 7:28 AM PST - 5 comments

Hue Shift

Thursday flash fun: Hue Shift - an addictive endless action platformer. You are controlling a pixel that can shift its color to red, green and blue. Climb as high as you can by matching your hue to the color of the platforms. Beware, only platforms with your color are solid! (via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
posted by slimepuppy at 7:20 AM PST - 17 comments

How to Win Votes and Manipulate People

"Watch out! The Big Banks Support the Financial Reform in Congress, So It Must Be Stopped!" This public service message brought to you by... the Big Banks? Robert Reich elaborates.
posted by saulgoodman at 7:06 AM PST - 13 comments

"Darn! One of our editors is dead."

Diseased Pariah News started in 1990 as "a patently offensive publication of, by, and for people with HIV disease (and their friends and loved ones). We are a forum for infected people to share their thoughts, feelings, art, writing and brownie recipes in an atmosphere free of teddy bears, magic rocks, and seronegative guilt." It ran for 11 issues over the next 9 years, 8 of which can be found here. (NSFW, irritating interface) [more inside]
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:07 AM PST - 4 comments

If the wrong person sees this stuff coming in here, then IAB is going to be all over this place, all right?

Two years ago, Police Officer Adrian Schoolcraft, an officer in Brooklyn's 81st Precinct, became gravely concerned about how the public was being served. To document his concerns, he began carrying around a digital sound recorder, secretly recording his colleagues and superiors. Initially he carried the recorder to protect himself from the civilian complaints that can result from street encounters. But then he began to document things happening in the precinct that bothered him. After he ran afoul of precinct politics, he recorded what he viewed as retaliation by his bosses. The Village Voice is releasing portions of the tapes in batches and is also publishing several stories to deal with the issues that the recordings present.

In this week's installment, the Voice looks at the roll calls at the Bed-Stuy precinct and the conflicting instructions given to street cops, who must look busy at all times, while actually suppressing crime reports.
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:45 AM PST - 95 comments

Babies. Babies. Babies.

A new documentary, Babies, is reviewed by Village Voice.
posted by zardoz at 5:25 AM PST - 69 comments

The Humble Indie Bundle [Pay What You Want]

World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru and Penumbra Overture are all included in this package. The best thing about the bundle? You can pay whatever you want (above 0 ofcourse), which you can choose to split between the developers and charity at any percentage you'd like. The bundle lasts for another five days and seven hours. All of the games work on Mac, Windows, and Linux so this is a great way to check out any of these popular indie titles if you haven't had a chance to play them yet.
posted by pancreas at 5:06 AM PST - 40 comments

site:google.مصر?

Today the first three production non-Latin top-level domains were placed in the DNS root zone. This means they are live! Here is one newly enabled domain with a functional website that works right now: وزارة-الأتصالات.مصر [more inside]
posted by aqsakal at 4:57 AM PST - 71 comments

Erik Prince off the record

Eric Prince (Wiki), the controversial and secretive founder and owner of Xe, formerly known as Blackwater International, rarely gives public speeches. When he does he attempts to ban journalists from attending, and forbids recording or videotaping of his remarks. The Nation magazine has obtained an audio recording from May 5th in which Prince speaks to a select gathering in his hometown of Holland, Michigan. [more inside]
posted by Harald74 at 1:14 AM PST - 43 comments

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