June 11, 2011

Letters to Hoder

Letters to Hoder [via mefi projects]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:16 PM PST - 35 comments

Taxes today are lower than they were under President Reagan.

Ten Charts that Prove the United States Is a Low-Tax Country from the Center for American Progress.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:01 PM PST - 70 comments

Ranch or Cool Ranch?

In a style reminiscent of Bart the General, these Dilbert cartoons will DEHUMANIZE YOURSELF AND FACE TO BLOODSHED. (NSFW) [more inside]
posted by griphus at 8:24 PM PST - 40 comments

More Than Meets the Eye

A Glitch in the Allspark? Transformers-obsessed comic artist David Willis reports on an unfortunate quip about sexual orientation at Botcon 2011 through the eyes of his gay character Ethan of Shortpacked!.
posted by emjaybee at 7:00 PM PST - 59 comments

The Children of Castor

Leicester, 1982. A school rock band enters an underground studio. Washington. A computer error detonates America's nuclear arsenal [YT]. Cruise of the Gods was made and released as a British TV movie in 2002. It traces the different fortunes of two child actors - played by regular collaborators Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon - who meet after decades of estrangement on a fan cruise for the fictitious 80s TV series "Children of Castor". [more inside]
posted by running order squabble fest at 5:38 PM PST - 12 comments

See Different

The world is not as you think it is. While every map system has its faults, the Mercator we all know was designed for ship navigation five centuries ago, and introduces significant geographical distortion. Alternative projection systems, including perspective-cylindrical, pseudo-cylindrical and conic, attempt to portray correct relative size, accuracy of features, and position. Inverted maps diminish natural tendencies to see countries at the top as "superior". [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 4:10 PM PST - 61 comments

A man's got to have a code

Attorney General Holder mandates, at a minimum, another season of the Dickensian TV serial, The Wire. David Simon and Ed Burns agree that they "are prepared to go to work on season six of The Wire", with one small catch: "if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanising drug prohibition". Simon, Burns, et al previously on the futility of the war on drugs.
posted by autopilot at 3:52 PM PST - 88 comments

NSFW

Slate: The Longform.org Guide to the Porn Industry "From the inspiration for Boogie Nights to the twisted psyche of a professional porn reviewer, five great reads about the business of smut." [more inside]
posted by zarq at 2:13 PM PST - 22 comments

Britney Spears meets The Hunger Games

Britney Spears meets The Hunger Games
posted by litnerd at 1:55 PM PST - 19 comments

Nuclear-Blast Resistant, and Also Hard to Negotiate Over.

Starlite: Ineffective for Car Bonnets, Great Against Nuclear Blasts. In the late 1980s, an English amateur inventor and hair-dresser released a plastic which, he claimed, had unusual heat-resistant properties. BBC Television demonstrated the material, dubbed Starlite, keeping an egg cool despite a five-minute onslaught from a blowtorch; here the inventor provides links to the footage. After initial skepticism, the reception from industrial and military players was rapturous. But while Starlite apparently stood up to the heat of 10000 Celsius lasers, its inventor, wary of being cheated, proved equally stubborn in negotiation, and Starlite seems never have been brought to market or mass production. [more inside]
posted by darth_tedious at 1:31 PM PST - 62 comments

"If I'm not Jesus Batman, I'm nothing"

No time to read a babillion nineties Batman comics in the run-up to the Dark Knight Rises? Cooking With Comics will explain Knightfall for you in less than nine minutes! (SLYT) (via)
posted by EatTheWeek at 12:35 PM PST - 24 comments

Coming soon to dealerships across the Forest Moon

The future has officially arrived. Would you believe a hoverbike? OK, if that one didn't impress you maybe this one will.
posted by scalefree at 12:34 PM PST - 46 comments

Color Rabbit

Color Rabbit: A Magic World, Drift To Magnetic Pole Shift, Flute Loopin'.[mlyt] [more inside]
posted by ennui.bz at 11:45 AM PST - 9 comments

Now Hear the Word of the Jobs!

Dem Phones, Dem Phones, Dem iPhones! The Delta Rhythm Boys' most iconic song brought up to date (well, as of 2007). An unadulterated original for comparison. (via every link blog I follow, traced back to everlasting blort; previous bones)
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:54 AM PST - 8 comments

On John Ross (1938–2011)

Before John Ross died this January, he asked his family and friends to do the following with his ashes: 1) Scatter them along the #14 bus route in San Francisco’s Mission District, where Ross lived on and off for much of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. 2) Sprinkle them in the ashtrays in front of the Hotel Isabel in downtown Mexico City, Ross’s home base from 1985 to 2010. 3) Mix them with marijuana and have them rolled into a spliff to be smoked at his funeral. A certain half-baked logic ran through much of Ross’s life and writing. For a few years during the Carter era, as he recounts in his (mostly true) memoir Murdered by Capitalism, he spent his afternoons drinking Gallo wine and smoking pot and PCP in the Trinidad cemetery in Humboldt County, California. It was there that he met the ghost of Edward B. Schnaubelt...
posted by jim in austin at 9:17 AM PST - 17 comments

Street Anatomy

"Street Anatomy obsessively covers the use of human anatomy in medicine, art, and design."
posted by OmieWise at 8:45 AM PST - 5 comments

"an important tool for spider hygiene"

They’re not aggressive, they’re just defensive, they only ever rear up if they feel threatened, they don’t go looking for trouble,” said Brett. grooming a funnel-web spider (via)
posted by bleary at 7:38 AM PST - 81 comments

Street View New York 1982

Street View New York 1982. Black and white photographs of New York City streets [ a work in progress] | Street View 1982 Storefronts NYC. Created by Dan Weeks.
posted by nickyskye at 6:48 AM PST - 27 comments

Mother West Wind and her Merry Little Breezes

Discover the charming children's literature of Thornton W. Burgess, author and naturalist, whose books embodied the Naturalist / Conservationist movement of the first half of the 20th century. His works are available through Project Gutenberg, The Literature Network (excellent biography on main page, navigate to books on the left sidebar (and within books also on the left sidebar)), and even several free audio book downloads through LibriVox. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 6:45 AM PST - 6 comments

ZombieMidlands

Dear Leicester City Council, Can you please let us know what provisions you have in place in the event of a zombie invasion?
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:35 AM PST - 28 comments

True love will get you laid for a couple of years and all of a sudden you're looking at someone and thinking, "What do I see in this person?"

Tamora Pierce is a writer of YA fantasy whose novels primarily feature female protagonists. Among other things, her novels explore privilege and prejudice within her fantastic cultures. In a recent interview for The Atlantic, she talks about why we need more girl heroes, the use of birth control for her teenage characters, and the myth of “sappy, sugary, true love”.
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:50 AM PST - 57 comments

Originally invented by Ben Franklin to mess with Thomas Jefferson on his birthday ...

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns takes on the untold story of The Vowels. Part 2.
posted by clerestory at 4:24 AM PST - 21 comments

Massachusetts or Arizona?

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick recently decided that the state would not participate in a federal program to deport illegal immigrants accused of crimes. Several Republican state Representatives have been very vocal about opposing Patrick's decision. One is Ryan Fattman (really), who says that all illegal immigrants should be deported. When asked if a woman who was raped and beaten on the street should fear deportation, Fattman replied, "“My thought is that if someone is here illegally, they should be afraid to come forward." [more inside]
posted by waitingtoderail at 3:18 AM PST - 48 comments

Taiwan expects that every man will do his duty

Some sixty-five countries have some form of compulsory military service - the Republic of China (Taiwan) is one of them. Haitien, an American-born, college-educated person of Taiwanese decent who recently returned to Taiwan, is writing about his experience fufilling his service on his blog Bala daily 巴樂日報. [more inside]
posted by sudasana at 1:52 AM PST - 37 comments

"India's Picasso"

M.F. Husain, Indian painter, passed away at age 95 in England, on the 9th of June 2011. [more inside]
posted by bardophile at 1:20 AM PST - 7 comments

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