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Legend has it that the world's biggest bible is the work of the Devil. The Codex Gigas (Giant Book), also known as the Devil's Bible, is the largest medieval manuscript in the world. Housed at the Swedish National Library since the 17th century, it recently returned to the Czech Republic (it originated in a monastery in Bohemia) for display. The book contains an entire pre-Vulgate version of the Latin bible, as well as various other texts and illustrations, including calendars, medical formulas and local records. You can browse the complete Codex Gigas in high resolution here.
posted by amyms at 11:53 PM PST - 32 comments

A chimpanzee plays Ms. Pac Man (WMV, some Japanese)
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:43 PM PST - 29 comments

"While we live, let us LIVE." A History of Social Dance in America, complete with vintage cheat sheets, a look at the perils of crinoline and lots of other period detail. Naturally, there were those who objected to this scandalous practice. See also the Library of Congress' An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals 1490-1920, especially here and here. [via BibliOdyssey]
posted by mediareport at 11:03 PM PST - 6 comments

Nova eikaiwa is the biggest foreign language school in Japan, teaching predominantly English through a network of over 600 branches across the county and employing over 7,000 foreign nationals. After adverse rulings to a number of complaints regarding Nova's refund policy, the Japanese Government imposed a 6 month ban from July to prevent the company from selling large lesson packages to students. The company has experienced a severe downturn in cashflow as a result and there are reports of late payment to Japanese staff and suppliers in the last two months. Foreign teachers were unaffected until salary payments for the 15th September were paid late, and more senior teachers have not yet been paid. Despite not being paid, many staff face a tough decision: quit, or continue to show up to work in the knowledge that if the company goes bankrupt they are eligible for unemployment benefits. Despite this, CEO Nozomu Sahashi declared last Friday "The dark clouds that have been hanging heavily over us will be cast aside... I said previously 'the darkest time is before the dawn,' and finally the first light of dawn can be seen". Five days later and some teachers are still waiting to be paid.
posted by cwhitfcd at 10:05 PM PST - 20 comments

Through a Lens Darkly - on September 4, 1957, when 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford tried to enter Little Rock Central High, she was blocked by the National Guard and surrounded by a screaming mob of 250: "Lynch her! Lynch her!" "No nigger bitch is going to get in our school! Get out of here!" "Go back to where you came from!" Looking for a friendly face, she turned to an old woman, who spat on her. Photos. Dramatic news footage. Ernest Green, another of the Little Rock 9 recalls the first day of school. [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive at 10:03 PM PST - 49 comments

Canada at scale: Exploration, colonization and development. And a pop-up menu. Go, eh!
posted by St Urbain's Horseman at 9:22 PM PST - 30 comments

The Magna Carta is up for sale. The document that established many of the rights we now take for granted (and had a secret history discussed earlier on MeFi) is slated to sell for 20-30 million. Interestingly enough, while it has been on display in the US national archives, it was actually owned by Ross Perot.
posted by TNLNYC at 8:34 PM PST - 49 comments

Bush and Aznar pre-Iraq Invasion-- Transcript of their private conversations in Crawford, Feb 22, 2003: "Quedan dos semanas. En dos semanas estaremos militarmente listos. Estaremos en Bagdad a finales de marzo", le dijo a Aznar. ("2 weeks. In 2 weeks we will be ready militarily. We'll be in Baghdad by the end of March", he told Aznar.) Consider this historical documentation. Full transcript here, and audio clips in first link. [more inside]
posted by amberglow at 7:50 PM PST - 46 comments

"What is so striking about the work is that EVERYONE is crossing a line: The couples who are engaged in sex in public, the Peeping Toms who trespass on that intimacy, the photographer who has betrayed his acquaintance's trust, and of course US -- so willing to look at what was not meant for us to see." See also: NYTimes slideshow Layers of Voyeurism (Via boingboing) SFW, IMHO
posted by spock at 6:45 PM PST - 20 comments

This anonymous rightie could be the nastiest wiffle ball pitcher you'll ever see. His buddy is not half bad either.
posted by edverb at 6:36 PM PST - 21 comments

"And I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between [Harlem's famous] Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship....It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun...And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all." 1968? Nope. Bill O'Reilly in 2007. [more inside]
posted by ericb at 6:20 PM PST - 95 comments

National Library Of New Zealand.
posted by hama7 at 5:57 PM PST - 8 comments

Zahra al-Azzo was murdered by her brother last January in a horrible, but all-too-common Syrian honor killing. Public outcry at her murder is growing.
posted by felix betachat at 5:06 PM PST - 22 comments

If these walls could speak
posted by rottytooth at 5:03 PM PST - 16 comments

Thule Trail is a cute modern remake of The Oregon Trail.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:40 PM PST - 17 comments

Real live ghost busters? Penn State's Paranormal Research Society supplies crucial ghost busting services to students and local law enforcement, including a paranormal counselor and assistance in searching for the missing Cindy Song. They also host the only academic conference on paranormal activity in the country.
posted by anotherpanacea at 4:23 PM PST - 12 comments

Superfund365 is an online data visualization application by Brooke Singer. Each day for the next year, Superfund365 will visit one of the EPA’s Superfund sites and collect data on contaminants, corporate responsibility, photos of the sites, and stats on local inhabitants. In the end, it will have 365 visualizations of some of the worst toxic sites in the U.S. [Via The Underwire.]
posted by homunculus at 3:05 PM PST - 12 comments

Increase your pronunciation skills and your vocabulary by checking out 6000 English words recorded by a native speaker. Not enough for you? Then would you believe 20,000 English words recorded by a native speaker?
posted by Effigy2000 at 2:07 PM PST - 55 comments

The Benders were a family of German immigrants who opened a store and restaurant in the newly formed state of Kansas in the late 19th century. Led by the spiritualist Kate, they also were some of the United States first serial killers. [more inside]
posted by sleepy pete at 1:43 PM PST - 37 comments

Indiana's Sardina. The New Pornographers of the '90s, the Sardinas released two fantastic albums full of mixtape fodder. Now everything they've got, including some live gems, is up online.
posted by klangklangston at 1:43 PM PST - 21 comments

Berkshire Publishing has made available the full-text of some quality but little known reference works: Berkshire Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction (1-vol), Global Perspectives on the United States (1-vol), Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport (4-vol), Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History (5-vol), Berkshire Encyclopedia of Extreme Sports.
posted by stbalbach at 1:36 PM PST - 10 comments

Manifold is an amusing Flash game with a deceptively simple goal; get your character to the exit. There are obstacles, and there's a tool of sorts to help you surmount those obstacles. The tool is a gravity sphere that can be used to slow your character's descent off a steep drop, or propel you in the air over a chasm, etc.
posted by jonson at 1:01 PM PST - 28 comments

Right-Wing Rot: A Village In the Hands of Neo-Nazis Houses torched, pets killed and outsiders chased away: Such is life in the Eastern German town of Jamel. For years, it has been controlled by the neo-Nazis who live there. Even the mayor says he has given up. [more inside]
posted by jason's_planet at 12:55 PM PST - 47 comments

In 2006 scientists sent a container of salmonella to space and kept an identical container on Earth under similar temperature conditions. Bacteria from both strains were fed to mice, and the "space germs", having undergone 167 gene changes, were 3 times more likely to make the mice sick.
posted by reformedjerk at 11:43 AM PST - 48 comments

Greg Nog was a Host at the Olive Garden. He has also drawn several other cartoons, and made some other stuff which you may like as well. [more inside]
posted by yhbc at 10:10 AM PST - 99 comments

10 books every chef, home cook or gastrophile should have on their shelf. [more inside]
posted by geoff. at 10:06 AM PST - 49 comments

Why most of us believe that exercise makes us thinner—and why we're wrong.
posted by miss lynnster at 9:11 AM PST - 126 comments

From Lorrie & Larry Collins - Mercy (1958)
HERSTORY is a YouTube playlist that details the history of women in Rock and Soul music over the course of 50 songs from 1958 to 1981.
To LiLiPUT - Eisiger (1981) [more inside]
posted by carsonb at 8:38 AM PST - 16 comments

Lepus Animatus, Canis Latrans Animatus. More pictures of cartoon skeleton sculptures at Hyungkoo Lee's site. The drawings. An essay about the pieces at Lee's site. Previous cartoon skeleton thread with a busted link.(working link)
posted by OmieWise at 8:36 AM PST - 6 comments

Maybe you saw Minesweeper: The Movie. It's typical of Elephant Larry' s sweet, savvy sketch comedy. If you like the parody preview genre, don't miss out on Gummi Bears: The Movie. If you don't, try the short film "Baby, Fix That Fusebox!" or perhaps Tall Cop, Short Cop, which is directed by none other than John Landis. My personal favorites are WHIT Radio and the audio (and stage) sketch Francophone. And guess what? If you live in LA, you can see them for free tonight at the Comedy Central Stage.
posted by YoungAmerican at 8:05 AM PST - 11 comments

The Octopus in the Cathedral of Salt is an investigative essay by Phillip Robertson with pictures by photojournalist Carlos Villalon on the link between the Chiquita banana company and Colombian paramilitary organization AUC. Excerpt: We were drinking Aguilas and the night was winding down and I was half-listening to the conversation. Everyone else had gone downstairs. Carlos turned to me and said, “Is there anything you want to ask him before he goes home?” “I want to know if he heard anything about a shipment of guns that arrived at the Chiquita docks.” Years had passed, but it was worth a shot. “Sure,” Lorenzo said, “I was there. I supervised the unloading of the rifles.” [more inside]
posted by Kattullus at 8:02 AM PST - 8 comments

Amsterdam: a deal has been made that will shut down a third of the prostitute windows in the city's famed red light district [nsfw] and turn the buildings into shops or housing. Advocacy group De Rode Draad (The Red Thread) worries that a shortage of windows will push prostitutes away from the safe, monitored areas. [via QI] [more inside]
posted by chuckdarwin at 7:07 AM PST - 45 comments

High Voltage Cable Inspection
posted by gwint at 6:39 AM PST - 56 comments

Sky Sails has a new take on an old idea to save on fuel for marine shipping: kite sails. The twist? No new ships required. [more inside]
posted by bonehead at 6:23 AM PST - 14 comments

Photography of Carlos and Jason Sanchez
posted by milestogo at 12:44 AM PST - 6 comments

Faces in Places : A photographic collection of faces found in everyday places. You can see more at the Faces in Places group photo pool at Flickr.
posted by Orb at 12:34 AM PST - 15 comments