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South African runner Caster Semenya wins a gold in the 800 meter amid controversy and accusations about her sex. Analysis of Semenya's situation and more information on sex verification in sport.
posted by serazin at 9:23 PM PST - 174 comments

Alan Turing, one of the men responsible for computers as we know them today, was persecuted by the British government for being a homosexual. [more inside]
posted by idiopath at 8:36 PM PST - 211 comments

the worlds longest poem... I have a twitter account, I hate twitter... but this, somehow, this might define.... well...something..
posted by HuronBob at 7:36 PM PST - 45 comments

Can game theory predict when Iran will get the bomb? Bruce Bueno de Mesquita thinks yes. (Previously)
posted by djgh at 6:57 PM PST - 33 comments

Primiti Too Taa is an animated excerpt from Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate. You can see the whole text, and hear the whole thing as voiced by Schwitters or many others, including a text-to-speech program and the author of Eunoia. [more inside]
posted by kenko at 5:45 PM PST - 11 comments

Alan! Alan! Alan! Alan! Alan!
posted by Christ, what an asshole at 4:41 PM PST - 49 comments

In programming, as in life, you find those who's turn a mundane task and turns it into art. In the Ruby world one of those people goes by the psuedonym of why the lucky stiff or simply _why. _why's Poignant Guide To Ruby [PDF - large, and still worth a look] is an almost transcendent look at what a programming book can be, full of cartoon foxes and wizards and even a soundtrack. _why didn't really care about making a mint off of his work instead deciding he wanted to get kids excited about programming, in a way that they could understand, teaching them by "fated appointment only" [Vid Link, 30 mins and fun]. He created a whole framework designed to make it easy for kids to get into programming called Hackety Hack. Today for some reason _why's online presence, sites and code have disappeared from the inter tubes and nobody knows _why. Though some believe its because someone pierced the veil and found his real name but many wonder if he didn't get hacked
posted by bitdamaged at 4:30 PM PST - 85 comments

Sweet! The Crookedest Street in the World was turned into a giant Candy Land game today, to celebrate the board game's 60th anniversary. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4 [more inside]
posted by zarq at 4:18 PM PST - 26 comments

Movie Award Leftovers (SLYT) from FatalFarm
posted by blue_beetle at 3:20 PM PST - 15 comments

The Women’s Crusade: Why Women's Rights Are the Cause of Our Time.
posted by homunculus at 3:10 PM PST - 45 comments

Last Exit to Nowhere [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 2:35 PM PST - 34 comments

A High Tech Building for New Orleans: ‘New Orleans Arcology Habitat’ or NOAH by E. Kevin Schopfer [more inside]
posted by SamsFoster at 2:23 PM PST - 56 comments

A piano has 88 keys; Ohio has 88 counties. Cartographer Andy Woodruff noticed this fact while driving through Ohio to complete his Counties Visited Map, and decided, despite knowing nothing about music, to make a map based on this coincidence.
posted by yiftach at 2:01 PM PST - 29 comments

Let's Panic About Babies! "Fortunately for everyone in the whole wide world, Alice Bradley and Eden M. Kennedy have created the only website that accurately explains the journey from morning sickness to third-degree tears to keeping that baby alive for a year–or more! LET’S PANIC ABOUT BABIES will serve as a salve to the mystery and degradation of this most female of challenges. Its authors may not have 'science' on their side, but what they do have is far more valuable: a heady mélange of female intuition, sentence-forming know-how, and the achingly vivid memories of their own gestational journeys and unending motherhoods. So join Alice and Eden as they tell you exactly what to think and feel and do on every one of your 2,681 days* of pregnancy. They know everything! * 'Science' would tell you that human gestation is actually, on average, 266 days. This is one of many ways in which science is terribly wrong." [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco at 1:27 PM PST - 63 comments

A superhero in a fez (video link) gets an organic artificial hand and fights a pinball sarcophagus in a world reminiscent of Heavy Metal and La Planète sauvage. Music by Birdy Nam Nam. Video animation directed by Steve Scott.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 12:18 PM PST - 11 comments

Nerd Boyfriend
posted by vronsky at 11:27 AM PST - 79 comments

How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz? "This" being broke-ass-broke. More or less.
posted by chunking express at 11:03 AM PST - 112 comments

Creative beggars
posted by CunningLinguist at 10:35 AM PST - 35 comments

Nouvelle Vague covers New Wave and Punk (MLYT) Nouvelle Vague (no, not this one) does Bossa Nova covers of New Wave and Punk songs, including: Dance with me (Lords of the New Church), Master and Servant (Depeche Mode), Love will tear us apart (Joy Division), Making plans for Nigel (XTC), Blue Monday (New Order), This is not a love song (PiL), The guns of Brixton (The Clash), and one NSFW title [more inside]
posted by zippy at 10:31 AM PST - 25 comments

Kiss shreds, as do The Stones. [more inside]
posted by hellbient at 10:08 AM PST - 19 comments

You'll have to pry this mailbox from our cold, dead hands. At a time when a disgruntled few are turning up at town hall meetings around the country with assault rifles to defend America from the potential threat of health care reform bringing "socialism" to our doorstep, at least one small town in Maine seems to be saying, "Free markets be damned! We want access to our favorite government service whether it makes economic sense or not."
posted by saulgoodman at 9:57 AM PST - 48 comments

Don Hewitt has passed away
posted by jsavimbi at 9:15 AM PST - 35 comments

I heard you like lobsters. (via)
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 7:41 AM PST - 86 comments

"It turned out 30 employees were let go that day. The Dirty Thirty. Back in March, 30 others were let go. And before that, 25 were shown the door. ‘All difficult but necessary actions’ we were told in a group staff meeting following the first cuts. Then the company stopped convening staff meetings to talk about its problems ... Kevin, my manager for five years and editorial director at the organization, never said a word to me. No goodbye. No handshake. No apology. No compassion. Nothing." Matthew Newton on job loss. (Part I, Part II)
posted by geoff. at 7:30 AM PST - 77 comments

Many TV-savvy Canadians will be familiar with the distinctive painted exclamation mark of the Concerned Children's Advertisers. For nearly 20 years, the CCA has partnered with broadcasters across the country in order to produce and air PSAs aimed at kids. This has resulted in some classic spots on such topics as drug use prevention, media literacy, and more recently a series on the importance of fitness. A personal favorite: the alternately endearing and terribly creepy Don't You Put It In Your Mouth (feat. Scary, Anemic Lion). [more inside]
posted by Monster_Zero at 6:51 AM PST - 13 comments

Theodore Olson was the 42nd United States Solicitor General, serving from June 2001 to July 2004. He also was attorney general during the Ronald Reagan administration, where he defended Reagan during the Iran-Contra affair. He appeared before the Supreme Court fifty-five times as solicitor general, most recently arguing Bush's side in the case Bush V. Gore which decided the outcome of the 2000 election. He is a member of the Federalist Society, which seeks to reform constitutional law to bring it more in line with an originalist interpretation of the constitution, and was on the board of The American Spectator magazine. But his current case, which he says could be the most important case of his career, has many fellow conservatives scratching their heads. Because Theodore Olson is going to argue before the Supreme Court in favor of overturning California's Proposition 8 and thus legalizing same-sex marriage.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:37 AM PST - 58 comments

Mother Nature vs. Cars A local newspaper's dream come true. Cars in the aftermath of weather events.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:30 AM PST - 11 comments

After ending the 2007 season for Green Bay with pretty much every passing record in the NFL and a Super Bowl win under his belt, Brett Favre announced his retirement in a tearful press conference. He later rescinded his retirement to play for the Jets in 2008. Citing an aging body unable to stand up to the rigors of another season, he retired again after last season. Despite rumors of moving to the Minnesota, he was still officially retired as late as July. Well, not anymore. He’s back, and playing for the rival Vikings. Needless to say, the move has made him an arch- villain in the town that built him into a legend. [more inside]
posted by jadayne at 6:10 AM PST - 51 comments

Concept Art World - For example: Michael Kutsche, Marek Okoń, 25 Inspiring Examples of Spaceships and Aircraft, Star Trek XI Concept Art by Ryan Church plus lots more.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:36 AM PST - 9 comments

Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table - I have no interest in doing it! Congressman Barney Frank confronts a woman at a town hall meeting who compared Obama to Hitler.
posted by crossoverman at 5:03 AM PST - 367 comments

It's always a hoot to look through old issues of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science, and with Google Books you can now do just that! But what do you get if you mix an eternally medieval city with eternally hopeful futurists? You get these mags' interesting take on Venice, Italy! Through their pages, you see the 20th century slowly but surely arrive to the canal city (or not, as sometimes the case may be...) [more inside]
posted by Misciel at 3:14 AM PST - 3 comments

Grab your John Deere hat and your Asian girlfriend! Metafilter's most hated music website is telling you what the 500 best songs of the 21st century are! [more inside]
posted by bardic at 12:22 AM PST - 147 comments