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Murphy's Original Stupid Creatures are more than just sock monkeys. Browse stupid creature history, or make your own.
posted by drezdn at 11:11 PM PST - 10 comments

This is what you get when you cross an award winning actor, an award winning perfumer, and an award winning creative director (Jason Schell). May be NSFW in some offices, adjust volume where necessary.
posted by FlamingBore at 9:34 PM PST - 37 comments

Famous moustaches
posted by rocketman at 8:42 PM PST - 27 comments

Jackie Brenston, Ike Turner, Joe Hill Louis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and of course Elvis all passed thur Sun Records in the 1950's. PBS American Masters Good Rockin' Tonight The Legacy of Sun Records has good music and history of the blues and rock and roll. Paul McCarty, Live and other preform the old tunes.
posted by bjgeiger at 7:37 PM PST - 24 comments

Michaëlle Jean to be appointed Canada's new governor-general on October 1, following the retirement of Adrienne Clarkson. With the Queen's formal approval, she will become the first black person to take the office, and the third woman.
posted by Count Ziggurat at 7:15 PM PST - 36 comments

One man's crop blight is another man's delight. Also called corn smut, Ustilago maydis is a fungus that infects corn plants and is typically destroyed in the US. However, in some parts of the world, Cuitlacoche or huitlacoche is considered a fine delicacy. For over 100 years it has been used in science as a model for pathogenic development, but it is only recently that it has been deliberately cultivated for food in the US. Are you brave enough to eat it? Here are some recipes for you to try.
posted by hindmost at 6:14 PM PST - 32 comments

Fear up, pride and ego down... It was inside the sleeping bag that the 56-year-old detainee took his last breath through broken ribs, lying on the floor beneath a U.S. soldier in Interrogation Room 6 in the western Iraqi desert. Two days before, a secret CIA-sponsored group of Iraqi paramilitaries, working with Army interrogators, had beaten Mowhoush nearly senseless, using fists, a club and a rubber hose, according to classified documents.
posted by Shanachie at 3:29 PM PST - 121 comments

When the beats are outlawed -- take away the beats. (related)
posted by Rothko at 3:15 PM PST - 45 comments

Have you ever thought your boss might be a sociopath? According to some, you just might be right. A recent film called The Corporation actually goes so far as to argue that American-style free markets select for sociopathic tendencies. While some on the left seem all too eager to chime in with their self-righteous “I told you sos,” others on the right dismiss all such notions to defend free markets with open contempt… Which is strange when you consider that free market theory owes its existence to Darwin’s theories of natural selection, which many on the right don't accept. Seriously--help me sort this out, or else I'm going to have to conclude we've all gone crazy.
posted by all-seeing eye dog at 2:41 PM PST - 86 comments

In the Czech Republic over the weekend a free and legal techno party was stormed by heavily-armed riot police. One person died and dozens of participants were injured. The unprecedented attack has been heavily condemned by the League of Human Rights and the Czech Shadow Minister claiming it was politically motivated. See also 1 and 2. Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek (Social Democrats, CSSD) defended the action stating: The core of the techno enthusiasts is made up of "obsessed people with anarchist proclivities and international links," who "provoke massive violent demonstrations, fuelled by alcohol and drugs, against the peaceful society".

Videos: 1 2 3 4 and 5

Photos: 1.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 2:09 PM PST - 30 comments

The Internationale, written in 1871 by Eugene Pottier (lyrics) and P. Degeyter (music), has been (and will be) the theme of a variety of Marxist and non-Marxist socialist groups around the world. This Norwegian site catalogues a healthy sampling of MP3 versions of this stirring ballad; my personal favorite is Billy Bragg's [MP3, 8.9 MB]. But for the chuckles, nothing beats this [.wav] rousing folk version, complete with cartoonish accent.
posted by ford and the prefects at 1:52 PM PST - 25 comments

Scavengeroogle - a scavenger hunt using google maps. Theres even geography themed prizes.
posted by Suparnova at 1:22 PM PST - 4 comments

Work Well With Others or, how to power a matchstick plane with houseflies. Reports of success or failure are welcome.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 1:13 PM PST - 20 comments

A Brief History of Slime, or How The Current Wave Of Global Islamic Terrorism Was Precipitated By A B-Movie Actor.
posted by 31d1 at 12:54 PM PST - 56 comments

"People were tripping over each other, climbing over the seats to get to the exit." Warbaby posted a link on July 7 to an article by Lee Clark that said people don't panic in disasters. Survivors from Tuesday's Toronto plane crash give a different story. Here's one account: Ho said people at first were calm and lining up, but once fire from the back of the plane, "people were tripping over each other, climbing over the seats to get to the exit." He said a flight attendant told him to jump out the front door with no chute, but it was about a 12-fioot drop. He ran to a second door. It had a damaged chute, but he took it. "I jumped and fell onto some people," Ho said. "Some people broke their arms or legs."
posted by stevefromsparks at 12:26 PM PST - 42 comments

In the August edition of Outside Magazine, Tim Zimmerman chronicles the story of divers Deon Dreyer and Dave Shaw. Dreyer, a 20-year-old experienced diver, died in 1994 while exploring Bushman's Cave in Boesmansgat, South Africa, the third deepest cave in the world. In October 2004, Dave Shaw, while diving to the bottom of Bushman's Cave, discovered the body of Deon Dreyer and, tying a line to him, promised to recover the body for Dreyer's family. A few months later, in January 2005, Shaw died in the attempt, unintentionally filming his own death. Both bodies have since been recovered.
posted by Moral Animal at 12:21 PM PST - 20 comments

Do restaurant reviews leave out too many details for you to get a feel for a place? For the last year, a chowhound with the handle perceptor has been sharing beautiful pictorial restaurants reviews (mainly in L.A.), to the delight of many. Here they are: (* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *) [MI]
posted by 김치 at 11:19 AM PST - 41 comments

Kung Fu Science: The BBC News article claims that the site "is primarily aimed at 11 to 16-year-olds," but I refuse to let temporal adolescents have a corner on 25-year-old female PhD students doing physics and then breaking wood planks with their hands. [Flash; both the site and the videos take a while to load.]
posted by gramschmidt at 11:07 AM PST - 18 comments

Patent Room is a collection of early 20th Century industrial design culled from the archives of the U.S. Patent Office, featuring architecture, automobiles, toys, and trains.
posted by crunchland at 10:36 AM PST - 11 comments

I've Got Cats - (In the tradition of MeFi cat links since Day One) - Can his server withstand the attack?  
posted by spock at 10:18 AM PST - 5 comments

Jihad, terrorism and asylum - in rhyme and iambic pentameter (small QT movie, some profanity) A Middle-Eastern chef and a xenophobic Northern English cook argue about war, bombs and asylum seekers - in the kind of flowing verse one might expect from Shakespeare. It's from British indie director Sally Potter and quite apposite, representing the kind of debates which are going on following the London bombings.
posted by tobyslater at 10:17 AM PST - 6 comments

Cliptrip is a music video blog that has some great, mostly non-mainstream video's. Favourite videos include (Warning! Direct quicktime linkage!) Brother by the Organ (hooray for bands that sound like the Smiths!), Only from Nine Inch Nails, Tito's Way by The Juan Mclean and Tropical Ice-Land from the Fiery Furnaces. (via Chromewaves)
posted by Quartermass at 9:53 AM PST - 10 comments

Retarded people love Huey Lewis & the News.
posted by keswick at 9:50 AM PST - 80 comments

Free the Weather? On Slate, Timothy Noah explains how Santorum's National Weather Services Duties Act effectively gags NWS in private weather's favor. [more inside]
posted by brownpau at 9:45 AM PST - 17 comments

9 Anti-Porn Myths Debunked, a July entry on the porn-industry blog SugarBank, generated some pretty good debate on the subject of degradation. Comments have been closed, so now I'd like to read what you people think (yes, I'm a selfish, greedy prick). Yesterday, I was firmly in SugarBank's camp, but after reading this today, I'm not so sure. It's about porn, so maybe NSFW, but there's no dirty pictures or anything.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 9:42 AM PST - 103 comments

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the Nickelodeon hotel. I don't know whether or not to lament the state of affairs, or be happy that my kid gets to interact with the characters she has in her imagination. Not that this is anything new in Orlando, or anything....but I'm just astounded by the wholesale manipulation of children and their parental-annoyance-fueled buying power.
posted by taumeson at 9:03 AM PST - 18 comments

It's not enough that Bad Poetry exists. The internet is full of some of the Worst Verse you'll ever read. There are even sites dedicated to reviewing Really Bad poetry. Enjoy.
posted by seanyboy at 8:42 AM PST - 29 comments

Do you have a small one, a really mini organ? Attempts to make it bigger won't work, and could damage it. You aren't alone. Here is a collection of mini organ photos. Some people have some pretty bizarre obsessions.
posted by caddis at 7:54 AM PST - 27 comments

The Douglas David Duncan Archives at the University of Texas. Duncan took pictures all over the world, in several different genres. The main gallery is here. Some selections include: portraits of Picasso; War photographs from WWII, Korea and Vietnam; and the World of Islam.
posted by OmieWise at 6:02 AM PST - 8 comments

As of today, the German language has changed, ending a 10 year state of flux which has seen new spelling rules mixed with the old ones. Under the new system, "extremely long compound words have been broken up, comma rules have been simplified, and in many cases a double-S replaces the old letter sign for the sound, which resembles a capital B." But given the strong resistance to the new rules from some in the German community, it may be a little premature to add the old German language to to the list of lost languages (previously discußed here) just yet. Anyway, for Mefite linguaphiles interested in this significant and now seemingly permanent change to the German language, check out the German spelling reform timeline.
posted by Effigy2000 at 1:58 AM PST - 54 comments

The Mara Salvatrucha gang or MS-13 is an international street gang. Operation Community Shield spearheaded by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Dept. of Homeland Security has been arresting street gang members from gangs such as " Sure Inos (which seems to be spelled wrong and even Wiki knows it USA Today & Detroit Free Press); the 18th Street Gang; Latin Kings; the Mexican Mafia; Border Brothers; Brown Pride, Azian Pride;" etc. etc. (all you wanna know about gangs here or going way back - here) over the past few months and recently arrested 582 members of MS-13. So far, ICE has made 1,057 arrests as part of the sting. Rumor has it MS-13 linked with Al-Quedia to smuggle nukes into the US. C'mon, world net daily? The Dept. of Homeland Security (thru ICE) is using federal immigration databases coupled with the names of thousands of suspected gang members from state and local police departments to - at the very least - deport them. Is that ok? Under the new laws it seems legal. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called the gangs "a threat to our homeland security and ... a very urgent law enforcement priority." Yet non-Hispanic whites apparently commit more than half of all violent crimes, but make up only one-quarter of the prison population. I see the need to stop MS-13 and other gangs with international ties as much as the El Rukins were, but they were stopped by the state and local police and the FBI. So is it smarter policing or does the new law enforcement model target 'foreigners' and have the laws been tailor-made to target ghetto and barrio youth? I don't know, but why when I read ICE investigations cheif Marcy Forman say: "We're just getting started" do I get an Einsatzgruppen chill?
posted by Smedleyman at 1:01 AM PST - 33 comments

Temptation Blocker So, have a major deadline looming or ripe opportunity closing and just don’t have time to waste playing Half Life 2 or checking Bloglines one last time? Well then, add Half Life 2 and Firefox to the list of programs you want to block in Temptation Blocker, set the timer for how long you want to block them and then hit the “Get Work Done!” button. [Windows freeware]
posted by srboisvert at 12:28 AM PST - 25 comments

It turns out that those boys who were hanged in Iran may not have been quite so innocent after all. [original post]
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 12:23 AM PST - 44 comments

W. M. D.'s? There's been a lot of talk going on about bacteria infections in Iraq. Is it just common bacteria, or is the ground spoiled?
posted by Balisong at 12:21 AM PST - 12 comments

Ry Cooder's Ry Cooder's new album Chávez Ravine captures the world of the vibrant Chicano community that was bulldozed in the 1950's to build Dodger Stadium. Don Normark's book Chavez Ravine: 1949 provides more background on the place that was once a "poor man’s Shangri-la." of "wild roses, tin roofs, and wandering goats" where life "was lived fully, openly, and joyfully" before it was destroyed.
posted by robliberal at 12:08 AM PST - 19 comments