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Phos Pictures makes beautifully candid documentaries that are simultaneously heart-wrenching, haunting, and raw: The Last Minutes with ODEN^[previously], Pennies Heart, 5 Hours with Woody, My YiaYia, and more (or, click here if you prefer Vimeo). [warning: good chance of rain on face]
posted by spiderskull at 11:54 PM PST - 5 comments

I totally overlooked The American Astronaut (2001) and perhaps others did too? Musician and indie filmmaker Cory McAbee has a history as a huge misshapen head, has been to Reno, been a lounge act for the seedier offworld colonies, been smuggling illegal female embryos for the Jovian mining concerns, & been a father. [more inside]
posted by billb at 10:28 PM PST - 28 comments

95 snakes found in bag at Malaysia airport. That's 95 live boa constrictors. Keng Liang "Anson" Wong, 52, was previously convicted of wildlife trafficking in the United States. It is unclear whether he served the full term. (previously)
posted by vidur at 10:02 PM PST - 17 comments

“If the male partner withdraws before ejaculation every time a couple has vaginal intercourse, about 4 percent of couples will become pregnant over the course of a year" Which birth-control method is more effective: condoms or withdrawal?
posted by badego at 9:28 PM PST - 104 comments

Q: Does stretching before running prevent injury? A: No.
posted by storybored at 8:56 PM PST - 30 comments

Eric Archer has created some really great electronic devices, using primarily 1970's technology. His audio work includes a sort of retro synth studio in a box, a generative sequencer based on LFSRs (more commonly used in cryptography), and and several infrared synced devices like this analog drum machine. He's also made an analog computer and oscillography art generators.
posted by phrontist at 8:28 PM PST - 9 comments

So where would you go looking if you wanted to find the deepest and sickest cold wave synth-beats of all? Then I think we would have to look all the way back to John Bender, avant-garde synth pioneer, who released three seminal albums in the early '80s and then just disappeared, forever. What else sounds this fantastic, and has that addictive, computerized, lo-fi ice beat? Maybe Ultravox, and the frosty, hollow majesty of Hiroshima Mon Amour. Or Soviet with Candy Girl, or Lori and the Chameleons and Touch
posted by puny human at 7:59 PM PST - 12 comments

Chilean graphic designer Juan Pablo Bravo (Flickr profile, blogspot blog) makes some pretty awesome character infographics. (Warning: the following links go to large sized flickr photos) 70 Disney Villains : 250 Disney Characters : 100 200 Pixar Characters (sorta previously) : 50 Movie Cars : and his most recent (and my personal favorite) 600 Hanna-Barbara Characters (via). [more inside]
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:37 PM PST - 13 comments

"Earlier this week, Tribune's KTXL Sacramento aired what it says is the first-ever TV station ad for marijuana. The Fox affiliate aired a 30-second spot, paid for by Sacramento-based medicinal marijuana advocacy group CannaCare and produced by KTXL, advertising a medical marijuana dispensary." CannaCare Commercial.
posted by hippybear at 7:14 PM PST - 20 comments

Ugly Vegas Carpets Want You to Keep Playing. "Mathematician-philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once said, “It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.” This certainly rings true with Chris Maluszynski’s Las Vegas Carpets series, whose name explains it all. The photos draw out the psychology of Las Vegas through the simple observation of carpet."
posted by Fizz at 5:12 PM PST - 51 comments

To promote his newest film, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, director Werner Herzog is interviewed by twitter. (MLYT) (Via the AV Club.) (Previously on Herzog.)
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:03 PM PST - 7 comments

A new cheat code for the GameCube's (internally developed) launch title Wave Race: Blue Storm has been discovered. What does it do? Make the race commentator a complete bastard.
posted by griphus at 3:12 PM PST - 49 comments

NASA once sent a robot in - and nobody ever saw the machine again or collected any scientific data from it... [more inside]
posted by rtha at 2:45 PM PST - 70 comments

The elegant, understated Clothes On Film features interviews with film costume designers (most recently, an insightful series with the designer for Inception), and fashion analysis of films as diverse as The Big Lebowski and Top Hat. Neatly accessorised with The Costumer’s Guide.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 2:32 PM PST - 10 comments

Arizona Republicans accused of fielding phony Green candidates in this week's primary. Arizona Dems react. The Greens' response.
posted by Rykey at 1:58 PM PST - 130 comments

Go Where? Sex, Gender, and Toilets.
posted by hermitosis at 1:03 PM PST - 160 comments

"The ultimate movie scene of India,or the world may be" (SLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:36 PM PST - 84 comments

An idle brain may be the self's workshop. 'Recent research suggests that mind-wandering may be important and that knowledge of how it works might help treat such conditions as Alzheimer's disease, autism, depression and schizophrenia.' Once upon a time, scientists didn't regard idle musings of the wandering mind as very important. 'But in the span of a few short years, they have instead come to view mental leisure as important, purposeful work — work that relies on a powerful and far-flung network of brain cells firing in unison. Neuroscientists call it the "default mode network."''Understanding that setting may do more than lend respectability to the universal practice of zoning out: It may one day help diagnose and treat psychiatric conditions as diverse as Alzheimer's disease, autism, depression and schizophrenia — all of which disrupt operations in the default mode network. Beyond that lies an even loftier promise. As neuroscientists study the idle brain, some believe they are exploring a central mystery in human psychology: where and how our concept of "self" is created, maintained, altered and renewed.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 12:12 PM PST - 20 comments

Nanotech researchers have developed, quite by accident, the first all-natural metal organic framework (MOF) made from renewable sources. And it turns out, you can eat them too. “They taste kind of bitter, like a Saltine cracker, starchy and bland” Doesn't sound very promising as a snack food, but it is very interesting to those looking to use MOF to store gases, say hydrogen, in a more renwable manner. You can actually make these for yourself, you just y-cyclodextrin, potassium benzoate, water, and, well, Everclear. Yum?
posted by cross_impact at 11:45 AM PST - 47 comments

Desert Gazette, "Mojave Desert, True Facts Legends and Lies". With links to other sites about the Mojave, including the excellent Digital Desert. Stories of life and death in the desert. The blogger, Walter Feller's photographs. About the Mojave Desert.
posted by nickyskye at 11:35 AM PST - 11 comments

Crusty Punks in Tompkins Square Park, tell stories of their sometimes dangerous lives on the highways and trains, in rehabs and unconventional families of America.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:18 AM PST - 81 comments

"DateHarvard_SQ is a unique online dating platform matching discerning women with Harvard University educated men determined to make a difference in the world as foremost doctors, lawyers, businessmen, academics and professionals. DateHarvard_SQ is owned and operated by a dedicated team of Harvard University graduates, whose goal is to help their community of peers find meaningful relationships across the globe." Ladies, be sure to check out to Preview the Harvard Men waiting for your Smile.
posted by grouse at 11:05 AM PST - 97 comments

I’d like to see at least one firm get blown out of business as a consequence of financially supporting the network that is telling America that its black president wants to kill white babies. Matt Taibbi takes on the Fox Network's systematic racial demonization and the Tea Party phenomenon.
posted by fantodstic at 10:44 AM PST - 76 comments

Ah, digital comics. Originally viewed with a wary eye by the American comics industry, the rise of mobile devices has started to turn a few publisher's heads. We may look back and see 2010 as the year digital comics reached the tipping point.
posted by nomadicink at 10:41 AM PST - 69 comments

Victor Borge (previously, gtwo but not fivegoteleven) was well known five his "inflationary language" routine. The fivemula: number sounds in ordinary language are "inflnined" to the next-highest numbers -- "twoderful" becomes "threederful," "threelips" become "fourlips," "fivefathers" become "sixfathers," and so on. Here is a twoderful web toy that will inflnine arbitrary text, or inflnine the language of any website. An example, using a story Borge crenined five this purpose. [more inside]
posted by grobstein at 9:56 AM PST - 24 comments

Thomas Lessman presents a selection of political maps of Europe, Asia and Africa throughout ancient and mediaeval history. Watch the changes on the map through the fall of Rome, peruse the patchwork of kingdoms in Southeast Asia at the heyday of the Srivijaya Empire, or check out just how much land Attila ruled at the height of his power. Some of his references have some good stuff as well, including more detailed maps of Europe for the last two millennia, as well as the staggeringly comprehensive Friesian history website previously linked on the blue.
posted by Dim Siawns at 9:51 AM PST - 14 comments

Another oil rig has reportedly just exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Though coverage is scanty now as this is a breaking story, there is updated coverage here. This news comes just as a new study by officials from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources working with local oyster men finds that roughly 90% of oysters in the areas they sampled were dead.
posted by saulgoodman at 9:03 AM PST - 126 comments

In honor of 9/02/10, 90210Locations
posted by Joe Beese at 8:57 AM PST - 37 comments

"Sure, Bono and Richard Branson can change the world. But there are millions of individuals making a difference who are not rich or famous." The Christian Science Monitor's ongoing Making a Difference section focuses on "that unheralded community – 'to honor the decency and courage and selflessness that surround us.'” [more inside]
posted by zarq at 8:51 AM PST - 4 comments

Would you buy a pepsi blue pantyliner from this man? How about if he takes off his shirt? [more inside]
posted by Forktine at 6:26 AM PST - 172 comments

A Widow's Journey [MP3]. "In 1989, Appapillai Amirthalingam - the most prominent political figure of the Tamil community - was assassinated at his home in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. Twenty years on, the Tamil Tigers have been defeated by the military. Appapillai's wife and son travel back to their homeland in search of his legacy in an attempt to understand what the future holds for Sri Lanka's Tamil people."
posted by chunking express at 6:06 AM PST - 9 comments

World's first 'tree cathedral' takes root in Italy The remarkable work designed by Italian environment artist Giuliano Mauri [Italian Wikipedia link], who died last year, has been completed after months of work and presented as one of the initiatives marking the International Year of Biodiversity.
posted by aqsakal at 4:01 AM PST - 27 comments

Charles Darwin, famous for his work On The Origin of Species, was also a secret terraformer.

More here.
posted by Biru at 3:09 AM PST - 26 comments

Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck gave an interview today describing the complexities of DNA evidence and why it is so pivotal in many appeals. What we hear referred to as "DNA evidence" can really mean any number of things: a restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis that focuses on enzyme restriction sites; using a polymerase chain reaction to amplify a segment of DNA; or a short tandem repeat analysis, looking at small segments of repeated DNA in an individual's genome. These tests, he believes, must be done whenever possible-- because more and more, they are proving people innocent. [more inside]
posted by karminai at 12:31 AM PST - 14 comments

According to this paper, researchers build mysterious "Quantum Cats" from light.
posted by twoleftfeet at 12:23 AM PST - 23 comments

Best of You Tube.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:22 AM PST - 24 comments