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"Our lazy embrace of Stewart and Colbert is a testament to our own impoverished comic standards. We have come to accept coy mockery as genuine subversion and snarky mimesis as originality. It would be more accurate to describe our golden age of political comedy as the peak output of a lucrative corporate plantation whose chief export is a cheap and powerful opiate for progressive angst and rage." -- Steve Almond, in The Baffler
posted by Miss T.Horn at 9:34 PM PST - 219 comments

This Toon Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us SLYToon) officially authorized by the original artists, those wacky guys.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:42 PM PST - 16 comments

"Explosive sex with Mr Rochester," anyone? A publisher decides to add more sex to Jane Eyre and other classics.
posted by anothermug at 7:40 PM PST - 83 comments

When Cullen Jones competes in London at the end of this month, he'll be only the third African-American to represent the US on an Olympic swimming team- and he'll continue to challenge the stereotype that black people don't swim. [more inside]
posted by Snarl Furillo at 7:07 PM PST - 25 comments

In an interview published yesterday, Dan Cathy, president of Chick-Fil-A, tells the Baptist Press that Chick-Fil-A is "very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit." Also this week, Cathy told radio host Ken Coleman "I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say 'we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage." This is a change in Chick-Fil-A's corporate position; in 2011, responding to criticism that the company and its charitable arm, the WinShape Foundation, support organizations that work against LGBT rights and marriage equality, Cathy stated that the company "will not champion any political agendas on marriage and family." Chick-Fil-A is a fast food chain of franchises that operates in 39 US states; in 2011, annual sales exceeded $4 billion USD. The company is privately held.
posted by catlet at 6:48 PM PST - 218 comments

Change what you do for fun, build your physical strength, become a better person. Alanna Shaikh's TEDtalk on how to prepare yourself for Alzheimer's.
posted by katinka-katinka at 6:46 PM PST - 20 comments

Listen up! We are a special police detail. Our task is Avon Blocksdale, drug kingpin.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:03 PM PST - 29 comments

What "Real Life" Means On Wikipedia.
posted by homunculus at 5:45 PM PST - 21 comments

Ray Wylie Hubbard hosts Roots and Branches weekly live from Tavern In The Gruene for New Braunfels, Texas radio station KNBT 92.1 FM. Two hours of music and interviews with established and up and coming Americana artists.
posted by Catch at 4:38 PM PST - 18 comments

The Dark Knight Rises trailers, Batman The Animated Series style: Teaser, Trailer 2, Trailer 3, Trailer 4. Side by side of Trailer 3.
posted by Artw at 3:44 PM PST - 62 comments

My name is Paul Drye and False Steps is my project blog for a history book of the same name which looks at the Space Race as it might have been. Beginning with what I think to be the very prehistoric beginning of manned space travel (the so-called Magdeburg rocket of 1932) I aim to trace the ways in which people tried to travel to space and came close to accomplishing, all the way through Nazi German rocketry, the post-WWII fallow period, the crazy times of Sputnik through Apollo, the second down time of the 1970s, and the gradual revival of human space programs from then into the present day.

Paul Drye of Passing Strangeness has a new blog about the roads not taken in the space race.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:31 PM PST - 3 comments

However, I do have a major criticism of her work, and fans be forewarned, it makes Agatha Christie sound like a cheap, opportunistic, exploitative monster that would have made Harvey Levin proud. Agatha Christie's book The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side, later made into a movie starring Elizabeth Taylor, turns out to have been very loosely based on the tragic case of Gene Tierney's daughter, born deaf and severely mentally disabled after a fan snuck out of quarantine for Rubella to get an autograph from the actress. Drew Mackie explains.
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 3:08 PM PST - 35 comments

How To Read A Book takes us through the trials and tribulations of finding reading-time comfort. (SLYT)
posted by vorfeed at 2:14 PM PST - 27 comments

"This technology cannot simply substitute for the great libraries of the present. After all, libraries are not just repositories of books. They are communities, sources of expertise, and homes to lovingly compiled collections that amount to far more than the sum of their individual printed parts. Their physical spaces, especially in grand temples of learning like the NYPL, subtly influence the way that reading and writing takes place in them. And yet it is foolish to think that libraries can remain the same with the new technology on the scene. The Bookless Library, by David Bell (print ready version). [more inside]
posted by codacorolla at 2:07 PM PST - 13 comments

Quite Likely The Worst Job Ever: 'The men who made it their living by forcing entry into London’s sewers at low tide and wandering through them, sometimes for miles, searching out and collecting the miscellaneous scraps washed down from the streets above' [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:28 PM PST - 26 comments

WesterosCraft is an attempt to recreate the main continent from George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire in Minecraft. Completed builds include Winterfell, Castle Black and the Wall, Harrenhal, among others. [more inside]
posted by m@f at 1:25 PM PST - 17 comments

Amazon Yesterday Shipping
posted by jacquilynne at 1:13 PM PST - 28 comments

JP Morgan's manipulation of California energy market is a massive, illegitimate tax on the entire state. 'The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the regulator of the ISO and its trading markets, has started a formal investigation into Morgan's allegedly manipulative energy deals in California and with the Midwest ISO, which covers 11 states from Michigan to Montana.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 12:08 PM PST - 69 comments

Optimal siege tactics for taking Cinderella Castle (via)
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:51 AM PST - 56 comments

Everyone talks about the cost of living, but how does your city or town stack up? EarDex is a crowdsourced database that offers an unofficial guide to the cost of living in cities and towns and even includes estimated daily budgets for tourists and backpackers. [more inside]
posted by Deathalicious at 11:23 AM PST - 39 comments

AV Club Interview with Nick Offerman Articulate and often profound, this excellent AV Club interview with MeFi favorite Nick Offerman (previously 1, 2, 3) discusses his role as Parks and Recreation's Ron Swanson, the modern concept of masculinity portrayed by Hollywood, the importance of being yourself, and prosthetic penises. Second page of interview NSFW. [more inside]
posted by dobie at 11:21 AM PST - 14 comments

"The amorphous concept of ‘creativity’ has become the unquestioned MacGuffin of our times, and anyone who doesn’t demonstrate it – or at least a willingness to cultivate it – is in danger of being labeled a conservative desk-monkey unfit for the creative rigours of our fecund social media world."

Molly Flatt on the cult of creativity.
posted by ClanvidHorse at 11:01 AM PST - 57 comments

Cartoonist Justin Hall is about to release No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, a book celebrating and showcasing the work of queer cartoonists, including Trina Robbins, Alison Bechdel, and Joey Alison Sayers. A 36-page excerpt can be downloaded here (pdf, 3.6 mb). [more inside]
posted by ChuraChura at 10:58 AM PST - 8 comments

BBC: Three men at the heart of President Assad's defence team have died in a suicide bombing, Syrian state TV says. NYT: Blast Kills Core Syrian Security Officials. Articles mention the attacker being rumored to be a bodyguard for the top security officials. [more inside]
posted by Anything at 10:37 AM PST - 65 comments

This is what happens when a boy who loves Beyoncé sheds his inhibitions...and puts on his Snuggie. SLYT.
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:22 AM PST - 45 comments

Cpl. Catherine Galliford of Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police first spoke out against sustained and widespread sexual harrassment by her superior officers in November of last year and launched a lawsuit in May 2012. Yesterday, the federal government of Canada and the provincial government of British Columbia issued a categorical denial of Galliford's charges. [more inside]
posted by Catchfire at 10:04 AM PST - 39 comments

The most recent issue of Businessweek contains an article about How The Mormon Church Makes Its Billions. There has been a backlash, mostly over the cover.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 9:34 AM PST - 307 comments

Louis Armstrong & Oscar Peterson - You Go To My Head

Louis Armstrong & Oscar Peterson - How Long Has This Been Going On ?

Louis Armstrong & Oscar Peterson - I Get A Kick Out of You

Three songs from one of the most sublime sessions ever recorded... [more inside]
posted by y2karl at 9:16 AM PST - 14 comments

Public Service Broadcasting are a British banjo and synth duo who construct music based on samples from public information and propaganda films. Their objective is to 'teach the lessons of the past through the music of the future'. Darlings of BBC Radio's 6Music they have just released their War Room EP constructed around archive wartime material from the BFI. Each track has an accompanying, excellently edited film on the Youtube [more inside]
posted by brilliantmistake at 9:01 AM PST - 9 comments

Rich Kids Of Instagram
posted by gwint at 8:07 AM PST - 137 comments

Sub-Cultural Darwinism: Some Thoughts on the Rise and Fall of Fandoms
posted by subdee at 7:54 AM PST - 76 comments

Choreography for Plastic Army Men [via]
posted by quin at 7:20 AM PST - 7 comments

On this day in 1988, just three months shy of what would have been her 50th birthday, Christa Päffgen, better known as Nico, died. Her stark, no-frills delivery conveyed a kind of guilelessness and honesty that many listeners continue to find refreshing. These Days. I'll Keep It With Mine. Chelsea Girls. Femme Fatale. All Tomorrow's Parties. My Funny Valentine. The Fairest of the Seasons.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:54 AM PST - 33 comments

Solaris, a new opera by German composer Detlev Glanert, to a libretto by Reinhard Palm based on the novel (previously) by Stanislaw Lem (previously), has its world premiere today at the Festspielhaus, Bregenz. [More inside] [more inside]
posted by Eyebeams at 5:41 AM PST - 8 comments

Warning Signs: A Flickr set of real and imagined warning signs.
posted by OmieWise at 5:41 AM PST - 17 comments

Inside the secret LEGO vault containing every set ever made.
posted by T.D. Strange at 4:09 AM PST - 47 comments

AmoeBAND has become a 2012 International Design Excellence Award finalist by innovating the hell out of the lowly plaster.
posted by catch as catch can at 3:05 AM PST - 18 comments

Aquarius, the NOAA Underwater Laboratory, could close after having their funding eliminated. previously
posted by I am the Walrus at 3:01 AM PST - 31 comments

Mr. Wizard's a Dick. [SLYT]
posted by mikesch at 12:23 AM PST - 60 comments

Billy Joel has now officially endorsed - The Longest Time (Coral Triangle Edition), by the Barber Lab Quartet [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 12:14 AM PST - 17 comments