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Meet Dmitri. He's a complete catch. Women approach him 6-7 times a day.
posted by miss lynnster at 11:58 PM PST - 178 comments

Plate tectonics early in its history have been suggested as an explanation of Mars' unsymmetrical shape. Multiple impacts [pdf] have been proposed. Or possibly, it's the result of a single, highly energetic impact....
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 11:21 PM PST - 7 comments

The popular online trading site eBay is one of the many companies that wants to have its own domain name. [more inside]
posted by finite at 10:21 PM PST - 70 comments

728 ton pendulum in action: Taipei 101's tuned mass damper during the Sichuan earthquake. [Via The Long Now Blog]
posted by homunculus at 8:58 PM PST - 51 comments

Welcome To The Future Where we drive around in things like this and get 230 miles to the gallon, all for under 30k.
posted by socalsamba at 8:11 PM PST - 69 comments

Beyond Life with Timothy Leary
Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out (OMPS)
Space Ghost interview
           More Audio
Timothy Leary's Last Trip
Getting High - The History of LSD
LSD - The Beyond Within part 1 part 2
           More Video
...As well as letters, a ridiculous amount of photos, and more at The Leary Project. [more inside]
posted by carsonb at 5:56 PM PST - 27 comments

Vacations in Alberta's Oil Sands. Courtesy of Greenpeace.
posted by gman at 4:53 PM PST - 55 comments

One Post Wonder. A collection of amazing blogs that only lasted one post. (Via.)
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:47 PM PST - 38 comments

Many people are up in arms (heh) over the Supreme Court's decision regarding gun control, but rather less press is being given to another opinion handed down today: Davis v. FEC. The issue was the constitutionality of the "Millionaire's Amendment", which allowed for political candidates facing self-funding challengers who intended to spend more than $350,000 to raise more money from individual donors than they would otherwise be allowed to do. In a 5-4 decision, the court found the law unconstitutional. [more inside]
posted by Bromius at 3:55 PM PST - 16 comments

"I’m Charlie Cappa floating through his nightclub in a sharp Italian suit in MEAN STREETS, Henry Hill being lead through the back door of the Copacabana to a table right in front of the stage in GOODFELLAS, or Ace Rothstein at the dead center of the frame as he walks through the Tangiers in CASINO. I’m also Michael Barnes and I am walking through Atlanta Game Factory on a summer day three years ago. Imagine the Ronettes or the Rolling Stones on the soundtrack and you’ve got a pretty good picture of what it felt like to walk into AGF at the peak of its powers. All my life I wanted to be a game store owner." Gameshark has just posted the tenth and final installment of the strange saga of the rise and fall of the Atlanta Game Factory.
posted by arcanecrowbar at 3:50 PM PST - 13 comments

Flash friday late night thursday fun: Hedgehog Launch [more inside]
posted by roofus at 3:39 PM PST - 27 comments

Birthright Israel, funded by the Israeli government and Jewish philanthropists, provides free all-inclusive 10-day trips to Israel for Jewish young adults. The program's goal is to promote Israel along with general Jewish unity and engagement. The blog Jewlicious has a category about these trips. (Scroll down past many promotional entries for the interesting stuff.) Some question its efficacy and results, while some Jews subvert the program. The trips end with a "Mega Rally" featuring entertainment, giant inflatable Stars of David, and speeches by dignitaries including PM Ehud Olmert. Here is video coverage (FLV) of the most recent rally. There is also a satirical Something Awful report.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 3:10 PM PST - 43 comments

Bill Gates files a bug report: "There's not a day that I don't send a piece of e-mail ... like that piece of e-mail. That's my job."
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:06 PM PST - 66 comments

My Bloody Valentine recently completed a staggering series of concerts at London's legendary Roundhouse venue in Camden. [more inside]
posted by Mintyblonde at 2:53 PM PST - 28 comments

Picturing the Museum: The American Museum of Natural History Photo Collection.
posted by peacay at 1:39 PM PST - 13 comments

Real Military Flix. Documentaries, combat clips, full-length movies. For all your warporn needs. Iraq/Afghanistan firefights. The Great War etc..
posted by stbalbach at 1:15 PM PST - 6 comments

"If I make enough money now, I can quit and do what I really love later." "If I just think hard enough, I'll finally figure out what I want to do with my life." "I know people in this career path lose their souls, but I'll be different." "What if I try a new career, and it turns out I don't like it?" Po Bronson tackles some of the thoughts that keep people from pursuing a career they would really love. The article (one-page version) is based on his New York Times bestseller, What Should I Do With My Life? The writing is several years old, but the question seems to spring eternal.
posted by vytae at 9:45 AM PST - 195 comments

The video for Naive New Beaters' song "Live Good" has a mind-blowing amount of green-screen going on, to good effect.
posted by mathowie at 9:26 AM PST - 31 comments

Claiming "complete rip-off" of their iconic image and sound, Devo are suing McDonald's over the "New Wave Nigel" included with the American Idol Happy Meal. See the video of Nigel in action. "They didn't ask us anything," Gerard Casale told Australian Associated Press. "Plus, we don't like McDonald's, and we don't like American Idol, so we're doubly offended."
posted by porn in the woods at 9:08 AM PST - 105 comments

Beastie Boy Adam Yauch (that's MCA to you) says you got to fight for your right... to make movies? [more inside]
posted by Cochise at 8:54 AM PST - 15 comments

Two takes on the immediate future of the electric car: we are either "Going Nowhere Fast" (if you ask a petrolhead from Top Gear magazine) or we are witnessing "The End of the Petrolhead" (if you ask The Economist). A bestiary of current and planned models includes TeslaMotors (now in production), Fisker Automotive (who are being sued by Teslamotors), the GM Volt (due 2010), The Lighting Car Company, the plug in Prius, the GWiz (now slightly less squishy apparently), the Corbin Sparrow, a few (vapory?) models from Zap! and the wondrous Sinclair C5.
posted by rongorongo at 8:43 AM PST - 67 comments

Two Current correspondents are the first American journalists to venture into Mogadishu, Somalia after the infamous 1993 incident when two U.S. military Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by Somali militia. They film one of city street gun markets to show how easy it is to buy an AK-47, a machine gun or even RPG launcher. Their full-length video report Mogadishu Madness reveals the country under the self-proclaimed government of the Islamic Court Union, which was later overthrown with the help of the United Sates.
posted by Surfin' Bird at 8:18 AM PST - 33 comments

Branded in the 80's: Peel Here From the obvious to the obscure to the downright frightening, Peel Here documents the collectible stickers of the 80's and related ephemera.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 7:55 AM PST - 42 comments

Heller v. District of Columbia, the U.S. Supreme Court's first actual interpretation of the Second Amendment, has just come down. In a 5-4 decision, the Justices ruled D.C.'s comprehensive handgun ban to be unconstitutional. Antonin Scalia writes for the majority.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:46 AM PST - 378 comments

ASIMO Conducts The Detroit Symphony Orchestra
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:37 AM PST - 26 comments

In an intriguing blog entry the mysterious jasminembla muses about the man in the moon, and his relationship with thorns, linking finally to a most remarkable collection of sourced and footnoted Victorian Moon Lore authored by a Rev. Timothy Harley, 1885. In the "Man in the Moon" section, we learn that, indeed, the man in the moon has been traditionally linked with thorns, variously being exiled to the moon for stealing a bundle of brambles, strewing brambles on the path to church to hinder the pious, or cutting wood on the Sabbath, among other infractions - and that this folktale has existed since at least 1157, when an English abbot asks, in Latin, "Do you not know what the people call the rustic in the moon who carries the thorns? Whence one vulgarly speaking says, "The Rustic in the moon / Whose burden weighs him down / This changeless truth reveals / He profits not who steals." Furthermore, no less a personage than Shakespeare has mentioned the thorny situation of the poor man in the moon... and most interesting, perhaps, the rather convincing theory that the bramble-burdened man in the moon may very well be an older "Jack" of Jack and Jill fame, who did not steal, but was stolen by the moon, along with his sister. [more inside]
posted by taz at 5:46 AM PST - 19 comments

According to a new report, children in Sweden are becoming increasingly concerned by their parents' internet habits. "This summer she has been sitting up all day and all night and she forgets what's important to me. And when she's not at the computer she's like a lost soul. She just looks straight ahead and says nothing. I'm not doing so well." Dr Jerald Block from Oregon Health and Science University in Portland is pushing for internet addiction (and its three subtypes: excessive gaming, sexual preoccupations and e-mail/text messaging) to be included as a common disorder in the next update of the DSM (DSM-V). "The relationship is with the computer. It becomes a significant other to them. They exhaust emotions that they could experience in the real world on the computer... It's much more acceptable for kids to talk about game use, whereas adults keep it a secret. Rather than having sex, or arguing with their wife or husband, or feeding their children, these adults are playing games..."
posted by chuckdarwin at 2:24 AM PST - 66 comments

toneshared is a library of free mobile phone ringtones made by electronica/alternative musicians. From the subtle to the mashed to the downright annoying.
posted by nthdegx at 2:08 AM PST - 18 comments