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She won the World Championship less than a year after turning professional. She is undefeated in her event. She has repeatedly broken her own world record. Sports Illustrated calls her the world's greatest female athlete. [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 9:38 PM PST - 45 comments

Everyone knows how to draw a stickman. This cool game brings your stickman to life!
posted by rozomon at 6:21 PM PST - 56 comments

Imagine a remote, forested island in the largest body of freshwater in the world. Now imagine living on that island and being a part of one of the most unique and challenging artist residencies in the world. Rabbit Island is that island, and with your help, Rabbit Island will become that residency.

The 90 acre Rabbit Island, initially a Kickstarter project, has become a reality. Follow the blog or Flickr feed from this uninhabited island-turned-artist-collective.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 6:13 PM PST - 45 comments

The Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society (NSFW) is exactly what it says on the tin. They'll have more reading material now that modern day pulp imprint Hard Case Crime has has returned.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:35 PM PST - 110 comments

A giant equation is taking form over the course of a few days, on a 46-ft tall "chalkboard" at the corner of Crosby and Broome in NYC. Sponsored by Dow Chemical, it's a mathematical brain teaser with the significance of each term left for the solver to discern. In the first term, for example, the '755' is the length in feet of each side of the great pyramid. Solutions to pieces of the puzzle can be submitted via twitter to @GiantChalkboard. I'm not clear about the commercial aspect of this, or even what exactly "solutionism" is. But if you're a math/puzzle nerd, you'll likely waste lots of time on enjoy it.
posted by ancillary at 4:07 PM PST - 48 comments

Simply the Worst. Film blog Reverse Shot is looking this month at the worst (by various criteria) films of some major directors, including the Coen Brothers' The Ladykillers, Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Woody Allen's Anything Else, and more.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:18 PM PST - 252 comments

"In a dramatic move, Canongate has defied Assange's wishes and secretly printed thousands of copies of The Unauthorised Autobiography, by Julian Assange, copies of which have been shipped amid strict security to booksellers in preparation for imminent release." [more inside]
posted by memebake at 1:18 PM PST - 131 comments

We've seen some gorgeous images (and some videos) of aurora borealis on the blue, but have you seen aurora borealis with a full moon? "The aurora has to be bright and strong to be visible on the blue sky created by the moon. This does not happen so very often, which makes pictures like these extremely rare." [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:57 AM PST - 14 comments

Stackoverflow grapples with the many spellings of "Gaddafi." Thank God programmers are on the case, because everyone else is confused by the 112 possibilities (even with this chart)! Even Dr. Demento weighed in.
posted by grumblebee at 11:22 AM PST - 54 comments

R.E.M. call it a day. "... as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band."
posted by danwalker at 10:57 AM PST - 340 comments

Stocklogos has a very brief look at the development of some famous logos, and makes some rather tongue-in-cheek suggestions as to their possible futures.
posted by Dim Siawns at 10:55 AM PST - 30 comments

"A lawless drug nightmare erupted on my street after Saturday night's OSA concert featuring the band called Widespread Panic."
posted by griphus at 10:20 AM PST - 111 comments

Counting is one of the first and simplest concepts most people are taught. But when you get beyond simple 123s, counting can become an advanced subject all its own. Essentially the science of counting, combinatorics is a key component of everything from abstract algebra to probability (PDF). [more inside]
posted by kmz at 10:16 AM PST - 38 comments

"What Every Woman Should Know" by Susie Cagle on Cartoon Movement provides an illustrated investigation of "crisis pregnancy centers" like First Resort. (via)
posted by mrgrimm at 10:07 AM PST - 41 comments

That Used to Be Us Tom Friedman has long beaten the English Language like a mule. His new book, "That Used to Be Us" is no exception. [more inside]
posted by Ironmouth at 9:53 AM PST - 58 comments

Photofly is a cloud based service that will construct 3D models of objects based off of a handful of digital photographs. The NYT ran this story in June providing a bit more detail. Photofly can be used to capture People (more, more, and more), Places (so on, and so forth), and Things (etc., etc., etc). It's also been used to create unreal effects in this music video. Shaan Hurley, of autodesk, explains the technology in this video.
posted by codacorolla at 9:45 AM PST - 15 comments

"it's a hard sell to executives to suggest an FPS with no shooting, but this is definitely the sort of game we should be making, as an industry." Warco: an FPS where you hold a camera instead of a gun. Ars Technica has a writeup.
posted by rebent at 9:42 AM PST - 41 comments

"This system could produce hydrogen anyplace that there is wastewater near sea water," said Bruce E. Logan, Kappe Professor of Environmental Engineering. "It uses no grid electricity and is completely carbon neutral. It is an inexhaustible source of energy." [more inside]
posted by Chrysostom at 9:11 AM PST - 83 comments

Subterra is a 34 acre estate surrounded by pastoral Kansas hills located 25 miles west of Topeka. The site holds a powerful and ominous past now transformed to an uplifting vision of our potential future. Once, an Atlas E intercontinental ballistic missile with a 4 megaton warhead was housed in the protective underground cavern. Now the missile is gone and the launch control structure is converted into spacious living space with an eclectic spirit of peace.
posted by Gator at 8:52 AM PST - 18 comments

Oz and Ends is a blog about fantasy literature for kids. My favourite part of the site is the "Weekly Robin" feature, which muses on the well-known kid sidekick(s), from storytelling props and costume design to origins and possible futures.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:24 AM PST - 3 comments

How many arms have held you, and hated to let you go, how many, how many, I wonder, but I really don't want to know.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:05 AM PST - 10 comments

Realtime face substitution SLVimeo
posted by Tom-B at 6:58 AM PST - 37 comments

How many people flew on the Space Shuttle?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:37 AM PST - 35 comments

How many photographs are there?
posted by seanyboy at 6:10 AM PST - 29 comments

What's that you say? Kpop? Don't you have to be on a permanent sugar buzz to listen to that stuff? Correct connaisseur. But if you don't have pigtails and think you might enjoy some crisp beats along with the happy happy sounds, check out Areia Creations and its remixes of Korean hits. Reliably better than the originals, and a nice introduction into what is and has been hot on the Korean charts. Very addictive. [more inside]
posted by litleozy at 5:50 AM PST - 3 comments

How many continents are there?
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:34 AM PST - 49 comments

Due to being sanctioned for unruly fan behaviour, the football match between Turkish teams Fenerbahce and Manisaspor was due to be played in an empty stadium. Until someone in the Turkish Football Federation had the idea to only allow women and children under 12 to attend. [more inside]
posted by PenDevil at 3:35 AM PST - 106 comments

Oil prices remain stubbornly high. Daniel Yergin from CERA has an opinion piece published in the WSJ: There Will Be Oil. The Peak Oil community react in depth. Bonus : Robert McFarlane in the NYT on flex-fuel for energy security.
posted by bystander at 3:29 AM PST - 85 comments

At the vanguard of the neo-classical metal genre in the 1980's was the singular Jason Becker, a young guitarist who was known for his progressive compositions (slyt) and technical prowess (slyt; yes, that's a yo-yo; yes, he's yo-yoing and playing guitar at the same time). Following a stint in Cacophony with Marty Friedman and the release of his solo album Perpetual Burn, Becker was recruited by David Lee Roth to replace the departing Steve Vai on the upcoming album A Little Ain't Enough. Just one week after joining the band, Becker's meteoric trajectory was reversed in dramatic fashion with the diagnosis and sudden onset of Lou Gehrig's Disease. [more inside]
posted by troll at 3:24 AM PST - 9 comments

Living in a post-modern, information-rich world should lead us to more civility rather than less – thought this might be interesting to readers - Both Nietzsche and Brecht understood the temptations of arguing in rage, but did not follow their own prescriptions; we should learn from their example.
posted by hopefulmidlifer at 12:11 AM PST - 30 comments