Ten years ago today, Mark Sandman died on stage during a Morphine concert at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Italy. His music and its impact has not always received the type of attention normally given to rock stars tragically struck down in their prime, let alone one this brilliant.
posted by allen.spaulding at 6:35 AM Jul 3 2009 - 44 comments [39 favorites]

Sarah Palin will resign from her position as Alaska Governor. ;-)
posted by Stewriffic at 12:58 PM Jul 3 2009 - 631 comments [30 favorites]

Drawing and storytelling in sand.
posted by dmd at 8:02 AM Jul 3 2009 - 25 comments [23 favorites]

There is a subgenre of single-themed tumblelogs that aim for hagiography—they want to celebrate rather than tear down the subject at hand. These often go by the prefix "Fuck Yeah"—as in, among others, Fuck Yeah Rachel Maddow,Fuck Yeah Skinny Bitch, Fuck Yeah Puppies.

Slate article on single-theme blogs. Some of the better ones: look at this fucking hipster, it's lovely i'll take it, Owl Tattoos, fuck you penguin, happiest people ever, stfu marrieds.
posted by Lutoslawski at 3:18 PM Jul 2 2009 - 44 comments [46 favorites (22 in the last 24 hours)]

"Suddenly there was this amazing silence. The plane was gone. I must have been unconscious and then came to in midair. I was flying, spinning through the air... Over 37 years ago Juliane Koepcke survived a two mile free fall, landing virtually unscathed in the middle of the rainforest. But that wasn't the end of her ordeal. She spent ten days in the juggle before finding rescue.
posted by Autarky at 6:58 PM Jul 2 2009 - 43 comments [31 favorites (15 in the last 24 hours)]

Hibi no Neiro by Sour
posted by Dr-Baa at 7:23 AM Jul 3 2009 - 15 comments [15 favorites]

In February of 2009, a Canadian teen cut a scathing diss track from the depths of his Batman-and-South-Park bedecked crib calling out 50 Cent for his lack of streed cred. Not one to take a callout lightly, Fiddy has responded. (via gawker)
posted by skammer at 12:57 AM Jul 3 2009 - 50 comments [14 favorites]

Rest Stops, R.I.P.
posted by JeffL at 8:13 AM Jul 3 2009 - 66 comments [11 favorites]

HOOPESTON is documentary in four acts by synedyne, the people who did the This Is My Milwaukee ARG (MeFi post). It's about the decline of tiny town in Illinois and the strange religion that moved in and called it home.
posted by arcolz at 3:32 PM Jul 3 2009 - 12 comments [9 favorites]

The Art of Kevin Van Aelst
posted by hypersloth at 4:06 PM Jul 3 2009 - 9 comments [8 favorites]

Freeware Genius is a large review site for various freeware apps, from desktop organizing tools to philosophical flash games . There are literally hundreds of applications reviewed, as well as a few compilations to get you started.
posted by scrutiny at 10:36 AM Jul 2 2009 - 10 comments [40 favorites (7 in the last 24 hours)]

Geisha is robot.
posted by youarenothere at 8:39 PM Jul 2 2009 - 60 comments [11 favorites (7 in the last 24 hours)]

Paul Romer: A Theory of History, with an Application - "His economic theory of history explains phenomena such as the constant improvement of the human standard of living by looking primarily at just two forms of innovative ideas: technology and rules." (previously, via)
posted by kliuless at 1:11 PM Jul 3 2009 - 9 comments [7 favorites]

Vanity Fair recently published "It Came From Wasilla", Todd Purdum's lengthy profile piece about Sarah Palin, her involvement with and the inside workings of the McCain campaign, and her political future.
posted by Weebot at 5:07 PM Jun 30 2009 - 230 comments [24 favorites (6 in the last 24 hours)]

When Money Buys Happiness. List the ten most expensive things (products, services or experiences) that you have ever paid for (including houses, cars, university degrees, marriage ceremonies, divorce settlements and taxes). Then, list the ten items that you have ever bought that gave you the most happiness. Count how many items appear on both lists.
posted by zinfandel at 3:32 PM Jul 2 2009 - 81 comments [10 favorites (6 in the last 24 hours)]

On 200 mg a day of baclofen, in an important meeting with several associate deans of my college and three new department chairs (I was made chair of my philosophy department just a few weeks before I tried to commit suicide), I fell asleep with my head on the conference room table and, for 40 minutes, everyone was too embarrassed to wake me. Somnolence is the most obvious and inconvenient side effect of baclofen. I reduced my dosage to 100 mg a day, and started taking it only at bedtime. A few days later, a colleague asked if I had changed my medicine. ‘Yes,’ I told her. ‘Why do you ask?’ She is German, an analytic philosopher, and therefore very direct: ‘You are drooling less than you were.’

My Life as a Drunk is a searingly honest essay by novelist and philosophy professor Clancy Martin about his experiences with alcoholism, AA, valium and baclofen.
posted by Kattullus at 11:33 AM Jul 1 2009 - 44 comments [47 favorites (5 in the last 24 hours)]

San Francisco's largest residential landlord is refusing to give back security deposits. CitiApartments is possibly going broke and, according to the head of the San Francisco Tenants Union, refusing to refund many tenants security deposits (he says they're getting three to four complaints a week). CitiApartments' buildings are filled with vacancies because their business model is purchasing buildings and then harassing and intimidating tenants into moving out so they can raise the rent.
posted by Stephen Elliott at 5:42 PM Jul 2 2009 - 79 comments [9 favorites (5 in the last 24 hours)]

"We call it cyber-bullying and we don't have a law to address it." In the matter of the United States v. Drew (pdf), the misdemeanor charges against Lori Drew have been overturned. Judge George Wu noted that violations of the Terms and Services of a website cannot be considered a crime. A Congresswoman has drafted a bill (pdf) to fill in the gaps, allowing for future cyber-bullying convictions. Previously: (1, 2, 3, 4)
posted by jabberjaw at 9:02 AM Jul 3 2009 - 52 comments [5 favorites]

It's Seurat by me. Iconic album covers by the Beatles and the Clash. Mixed media (a metric buttload of Rubik's cubes shown in Dailymotion video). (via)
posted by maudlin at 2:54 PM Jul 3 2009 - 8 comments [5 favorites]

Sptnk.org : The Observatory for the Study of Contemporary Culture. Sputnik is an NY organization that seeks to document, promote, and foster discussion around current trends in culture (I think Sptnk is more a "loose confederation" than an organization, but I can't seem to find much more about them. Here's one of the founder's tongue-in-cheek Linked In page). They just launched a new website which ties together sets of interviews from thinkers and doers in lots of fields. They are organized nicely into "paths", "conversations", and transmissions (presentations). Jonathan Harris (he blogs at number27.org) did the design of the site, which is top notch. The production values are not up to ted.com levels, but the weaving of stories and conversations that is emerging may prove useful. Happy culture hunting!
posted by zpousman at 11:16 AM Jul 2 2009 - 18 comments [11 favorites (4 in the last 24 hours)]