August 17, 2011

Before they are gone

Richard Fischer's floral sculptures are photos of extraordinary detail and beauty. Experts believe many of the flowers he has photographed will become extinct within our lifetime.
(warning: opens with sound) [more inside]
posted by adamvasco at 11:48 PM PST - 12 comments

Just like Mom used to make.

Aspic and other delights showcases the absolute horrors of good, old-fashioned home cooking. Or, at least the advertisements for it. Aspic, in case you were wondering, is food, often meat or seafood encased in gelatin or cooled meat stock.
posted by converge at 8:35 PM PST - 84 comments

Trailers

The Thief of Baghdad as re-imagined by Shadoe Stevens and the Electric Light Orchestra :: Fairy tales for Grownups :: Superhero Marathon :: Werner Herzog's Bokassa Coronation :: Peer Raben tribute :: Alakazam The Great and much much more at Cinefamily's vimeo page.
posted by puny human at 8:34 PM PST - 8 comments

Timelapse - The City Limits

Timelapse - The City Limits. A time lapse video montage with the aim of showing "the duality between city and nature." Try fullscreen HD.
posted by exogenous at 8:24 PM PST - 14 comments

Sciweavers' online productivity tools

Sciweavers' free online productivity tools include an international virtual keyboard, OCR, image format conversion, and just about every manner of PDF manipulation imaginable.
posted by Trurl at 7:40 PM PST - 17 comments

Hiram Powers' Greek Slave

Although the sculptor Hiram Powers (1805-73) enjoyed considerable success with his portraits and more allegorical works, he is now almost entirely remembered for one of nineteenth-century America's most hotly-debated sculptures: The Greek Slave. Powers was a little vague about the inspiration for the statue--longstanding dream, or response to the Greek War of Independence (see previously)? Understood at the time as a major leap forward in establishing America as a serious force in the art world, the statue was an international hit (appearing at the Great Exhibition of 1851), and was endlessly copied and daguerrotyped. (Some of the copies turn the statue into a much more ambiguous bust, or hark back to one of its major influences, the Venus de Milo.) However, some observers, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning and, much more pointedly, the illustrator and caricaturist John Tenniel, suggested that an American sculptor might wish to think about other slaves.
posted by thomas j wise at 7:33 PM PST - 9 comments

The people of India love you deeply!

"Certainly, Uncle Sam, disowned by Pakistanis, has found innumerable devoted nephews in India. Indian and Pakistani perceptions of America now wildly diverge: A 2005 Pew poll conducted in 16 countries found the United States in the highest regard among Indians (71 percent having a favorable opinion) and nearly the lowest among Pakistanis (23 percent)." Why do India and Pakistan see America in such opposite ways?
posted by vidur at 6:28 PM PST - 45 comments

This Is Pretty Much The Worst Video Ever Made

Movie Line Rhymes by Jordan Laws (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by ShutterBun at 5:39 PM PST - 9 comments

"Many of the papers are still taboo to this day"

Secret Papers Reveal Truth Behind Soviet Collapse - the Gorbachev files. 'During a research visit to the Gorbachev Foundation, the young Russian historian Pavel Stroilov, who lives in London today, secretly copied about 30,000 pages of the material archived there and made them available to SPIEGEL.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 3:55 PM PST - 69 comments

"The only merit I have is to have painted directly from nature with the aim of conveying my impressions in front of the most fugitive effects."

Monet - the web experience.
posted by Miko at 3:41 PM PST - 21 comments

The Episode

The Episode - "the complete, annotated, unabridged story of I how I went bat fucking crazy for three months"
posted by MetaMonkey at 3:17 PM PST - 106 comments

Why David Starkey is a racist

Why David Starkey is a racist
posted by nam3d at 2:24 PM PST - 158 comments

Miami knows how to party.

Yahoo! sports strikes again. Charles Robinson (@charlesrobinson on twitter) , just revealed a nuclear bombshell of a scandal in the football program at the University of Miami, featuring drinks, cash, gambling, yachts, bounties on players, prostitutes, and an abortion. [more inside]
posted by norm at 1:24 PM PST - 83 comments

Amanda Fucking Palmer

Amanda Fucking Palmer on Twitter and the new biz.
posted by Ardiril at 1:03 PM PST - 63 comments

Genetic portraits

Split Family Faces. "How much do you and members of your family really look alike? Quebec, Canada-based graphic designer and photographer Ulric Collette has created a shockingly cool project where he's exploring the genetic similarities between different members of the same family. By splitting their faces in half and then melding them together, he creates interesting new people that are sometimes quite normal looking and other times far from it. He calls this series Genetic Portraits."
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 12:05 PM PST - 43 comments

"A face... a face... holy frig."

Stratocumulus Pareidolus (SLYT)
posted by griphus at 10:59 AM PST - 29 comments

CookieWaits: Does that it says, etc

CookieWaits is a Tom Waits/Cookie Monster mashup that is so obvious you'll wonder why you never thought of it before. Not the best Sesame Street lip-sync I've seen but still satisfyingly amusing.
posted by mathowie at 10:58 AM PST - 59 comments

Continuing evidence of love and support for the ICP lifestyle.

Juggalo Like Me: Dropping In on the Demented Utopia of the Gathering of the Juggaloes. A young woman's firsthand experience of trying to fit in with the Insane Clown Posse enthusiasts annual meetup.
posted by rodmandirect at 10:38 AM PST - 100 comments

"It was very straight-laced..."

Yonge Street: Toronto Rock & Roll Stories. This documentary series by Bravo tells the story of Toronto's early rock scene, when "the Devil's music" stormed Toronto and Yonge Street became an essential destination for musicians, singers and music fans not only in Toronto but across Canada and beyond. [more inside]
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:00 AM PST - 14 comments

The Dream Of Flight

Breathtaking first-person-view wingsuit flights in the Swiss Alps and around Europe. Jetman (with a turbine-powered strap-on wing) flies the Grand Canyon. Meanwhile, NASA continues work on the Puffin: an electric VTOL "personal air vehicle". [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 9:41 AM PST - 17 comments

Trial by Deathmatch

A week ago, Markus "Notch" Persson (creator of Minecraft) received a letter from Bethesda (makers of the Elder Scrolls games) warning him that Scrolls (prev) was infringing on their trademark. Today, in a new twist on an old idea, Notch has challenged Bethesda to settle matters without lawyers: Quake 3 Team Deathmatch.
posted by kmz at 9:36 AM PST - 70 comments

Hugo, I go, We All Go to WorldCon !

The 69th Worldcon (world science fiction convention) starts today ! Worldcon is the yearly convention at which the Hugo awards are voted upon by the membership. [more inside]
posted by Poet_Lariat at 9:07 AM PST - 39 comments

Glimpses of Australia and New Zealand, set to music

Four songs shot (and three directed by) Dylan Wiehahn, featuring Australian and New Zealand scenery, and (mostly) music from Australia: Jordie Lane - 'Not From Round Here' | Seagull - 'Company' and 'Tea' | Bon Iver - 'Holocene' (abridged) || Scenery from Tea Tree Lakes, Great Ocean Road (AUS), Queenstown (NZ)
posted by filthy light thief at 8:25 AM PST - 2 comments

Andy Denzler

Andy Denzler is an artist some of whose paintings resemble paused VHS tapes.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:59 AM PST - 56 comments

The Body on Somerton Beach

The coldest of cases . . . though not yet dead. New theories about Australia's case of "The Unknown Man" (previous and previouser).
posted by yerfatma at 7:53 AM PST - 29 comments

"Totally unacceptable in our world."

Diner for Schmucks. GQ's restaurant reviewer Alan Richman had heard "nothing but great things about M. Wells, one of New York City's hottest restaurants—the food was amazing, the setting sublime, the ambience charming. And, in fact, everything was going quite well. Until..." More at Eater. (Via) [more inside]
posted by zarq at 6:36 AM PST - 239 comments

Silence of Love

Silence of Love from Thai Life Insurance. An advertisement designed to break your heart. And it does. (Possible triggers, via The Browser) [more inside]
posted by Ahab at 5:26 AM PST - 65 comments

An Honest Magician

The Magic of Truth and Lies - SLYT TED by Marco Tempest [more inside]
posted by hypersloth at 3:15 AM PST - 17 comments

Rope-a-dope.

Suck on it Applesoft. "Everyone was baffled when Google made those crazy bids for the Nortel patents last month. Remember? They bid things like the distance from the earth to the sun, the number pi, and some other wacky numbers from mathematics." [more inside]
posted by three blind mice at 2:56 AM PST - 212 comments

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