The very first major science fiction series for adults on radio was Mutual Broadcasting System's 2000 Plus (1950-1952). An anthology program, 2000 Plus used all new material rather than adapting published stories. Just one month after its premiere, NBC Radio began airing Dimension X (1950-1951), which dramatized the written work of such young writers as Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Kurt Vonnegut. In 1955, NBC relaunched Dimension X as X Minus One (1955-1958), drawing from stories that had been published in the two most popular science fiction magazines at the time: Astounding and Galaxy. 17 of 30 episodes of 2000 Plus, all 50 episodes of Dimension X, and all 125 episodes of X Minus One are available for free download as individual mp3s from the Internet Archive. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 1:16 PM Jun 12 2013 - 23 comments [104 favorites]

As an investigation is launched into men in the Australian Army circulating explicit and derogatory material about their female colleagues, Lieutenant General David Morrison, Chief of Army, delivers a searing rebuke to those who perpetuate or condone the harassment of women in the military.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 5:38 PM Jun 13 2013 - 80 comments [93 favorites]

Internet slideshows got you down? Deslide!* [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:27 AM Jun 15 2013 - 34 comments [85 favorites]

'Loss is difficult at any time of life. It can be particularly difficult for teenagers, who are still navigating their way, sometimes clumsily, toward adulthood. They know they need help, but are sometimes reluctant to ask for it. And often, because of their youth, their loss may be the first death they have ever known.' For a year, a reporter from the Cincinnati Enquirer sat in on meetings of a grief group at Archbishop Moeller high school, for boys who had lost a parent... and learned The Rules of Grieving.
posted by zarq at 8:52 PM Jun 15 2013 - 27 comments [81 favorites]

Why I Am No Longer A Skeptic

That's right: the nerds won, decades ago, and they're now as thoroughly established as any other part of the establishment. And while nerds a relatively new elite, they're overwhelmingly the same as the old: rich, white, male, and desperate to hang onto what they've got. And I have come to realise that skepticism, in their hands, is just another tool to secure and advance their privileged position, and beat down their inferiors. As a skeptic, I was not shoring up the revolutionary barricades: instead, I was cheering on the Tsar's cavalry.

Referenced in The Cult Of Bayes' Theorem [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 4:41 PM Jun 16 2013 - 205 comments [78 favorites]

MOOOOOOOM, I'M BOOOOOOORED Really? Didn't I just give you and your sister that thing that adds like 180 tracks to Mario Kart Wii? YEAH BUT SHE'S NOT AROUND AND MARIO KART REALLY BENEFITS FROM ANOTHER PLAYER Well, maybe I could play with you? COME ON MOM YOU'RE, LIKE, OLD OR SOMETHING So? What's your point? I WANT SOMETHING THAT'S JUST AS MUCH FUN BY MYSELF, BUT ALSO FOR WII, AND IDEALLY IT SHOULD ALSO HAVE OVER A HUNDRED LEVELS BECAUSE THAT PART IS ALWAYS IMPORTANT [more inside]
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:24 AM Jun 15 2013 - 59 comments [72 favorites]

The Troy McClure Credits Supercut (SLYTPHT*)
*Single Link You Tube Phil Hartman Tribute [more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:47 AM Jun 17 2013 - 44 comments [71 favorites]

...James is, of course, overshadowed by the most famous bluesman of them all: Robert Johnson... Few can resist the legend that he sold his soul to the devil, was poisoned by a jealous lover, and died a young genius's death... Skip James' mythos is less compact than Johnson's. James survived his misspent youth, and the story of his later years provides plenty more of the kind of misery that fueled his music. Where Johnson supposedly cut a single, grand deal with the devil—trading his soul for mastery of his form—Skip James seems to have struck deal after deal and never come out ahead. In a way, James' story is the truest story of the blues: He led an open wound of a life, and all he got for it was minor-league, post-mortem stardom.

Skip James' Hard Time Killing Floor Blues

See also Mississippi John Hurt & Skip James on WTBS-FM 1964 [more inside]
posted by y2karl at 8:32 PM Jun 15 2013 - 16 comments [62 favorites]

James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem talks about failure and about trying not to stifled by fear of it. (Referenced frequently in the interview: Losing My Edge)
posted by ardgedee at 6:54 PM Jun 13 2013 - 29 comments [61 favorites]

The first thing I did after I heard about the highly classified NSA PRISM program two years ago was set up a proxy server in Peshawar to email me passages from Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:16 PM Jun 16 2013 - 49 comments [60 favorites]

Click the button to get a virtual private server. [more inside]
posted by jenkinsEar at 4:47 PM Jun 15 2013 - 63 comments [58 favorites]

Russell Brand ends up surrounded by idiots on Morning Joe. Destroys them and they hardly know it. Pictures at 11.
posted by anothermug at 8:15 PM Jun 18 2013 - 117 comments [56 favorites]

Brutal police crackdown on protesters against a bus fare rise in São Paulo and Rio, as well as other cities. [more inside]
posted by Tom-B at 7:30 PM Jun 14 2013 - 56 comments [54 favorites]

You may know him as simply Paul F. Tompkins from Mr. Show with Bob and David or Best Week Ever but fans of now-defunct Comedy Death Ray Radio, Comedy Bang Bang: The Podcast, and the Comedy Bang! Bang! TV series know that there is more to him than meets the eye. Much, much more. [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 10:20 AM Jun 15 2013 - 35 comments [49 favorites]

In the mid-1920s, Claude Friese-Greene filmed The Open Road, a record of his journey through Britain, using the 'Biocolour' technique first developed by his father William. Eighty years later, the BFI produced a digital version of the preserved and restored film. We've seen London in 1926 previously on MeFi, but there's plenty more of The Open Road to see, including weavers in Kilbarchan (1:16), farmers harvesting with oxen in Cirencester (0:52), Glamorgan coal-miners (0:46), and more. [more inside]
posted by Catseye at 2:46 AM Jun 17 2013 - 7 comments [47 favorites]

A Closed Letter To Myself About Thievery, Heckling and Rape Jokes - Patton Oswalt
posted by nadawi at 1:01 PM Jun 14 2013 - 101 comments [46 favorites]

Getty Critics is a blog that pokes fun at Getty stock images.
posted by zardoz at 5:55 PM Jun 13 2013 - 31 comments [44 favorites]

"Bored of being in a dark room, she flips on the light, opens the door and bails. This particular episode takes place at 1am. This is why we keep doors locked with her around. We don't need her harassing the neighbors..." Julius Escaping.
posted by codacorolla at 6:48 PM Jun 17 2013 - 115 comments [43 favorites]

"Every week, Richard Cobbett rolls the dice to bring you an obscure slice of gaming history, from lost gems to weapons grade atrocities." -- PC Gamer's Crap Shoot looks at (semi-)obscure pc games, featuring big budget failures, extinct for a reason subgenres and godawful erotic games (movies) but also lost classics and beloved eighties masterpieces.
posted by MartinWisse at 2:32 PM Jun 17 2013 - 33 comments [42 favorites]

My dentist was made to believe I was dead "Having no idea how or why I got there, I found myself in the embrace of a near-stranger who was overwhelmed with joy just because inconsequential, strange, and silly little me had lived to see another day"
posted by Bluecoat93 at 3:23 PM Jun 18 2013 - 55 comments [42 favorites]