Daniel Handler, best known for A Series of Unfortunate Events and his accordion work with Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields, reads a chapter from his novel Adverbs, which made Dave Eggers describe Handler as "something like an American Nabakov". An excerpt from another chapter, Immediately, is available courtesy of the New York Times. Handler's first adult novel, the nightmarishly satirical The Basic Eight (think the movie Heathers with a less reliable a narrator), is also well worth a read (excerpt from Google Books).
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:47 PM - 15 comments

First editions, second thoughts. [The Guardian] "Interactive: From Amsterdam to Wolf Hall, Booker winners and bestsellers – authors annotate their own first editions.
posted by Fizz at 12:44 PM - 2 comments

The panda gangbang took place deep in the basement of the Kink armory, where rivulets of the long-suffocated Mission Creek still trace a path between moisture-eaten columns, and the air hangs heavy with a stony dampness. Emily Witt explores the experiences and motivations of participants in acts of extreme pornography. Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic considers "Is some sex wrong even among consenting adults?" [Language NSFW, possible trigger warnings, as descriptions and language are graphic]
posted by MoonOrb at 11:58 AM - 177 comments

Widespread fraud has been discovered in the case of an Indian generic drug manufacturer that makes generic Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) and many other drugs. Ranbaxy has "pleaded guilty to seven federal criminal counts of selling adulterated drugs with intent to defraud." [more inside]
posted by fiercecupcake at 11:32 AM - 28 comments

The horrifying, little-known story of how hundreds of thousands of blacks worked in brutal bondage right up to the middle of the 20th century. It was a crime for for a black man to lack employment and a crime to change jobs without his previous employer's permission. It was a crime to sell the proceeds of his farm to anyone other than the man from whom he rented land. A crime for a black man to speak loudly in the company of a white woman, to walk beside a railroad line, to fail to yield a sidewalk to white people, to sit among whites on a train and, in practice, generally a crime for blacks to be accused of any crime by a white person.
posted by blankdawn at 11:27 AM - 58 comments

"What was most perplexing of all to me was that, although I was certain that the ads contained Chinese phrases and sentences, every Chinese person to whom I showed them emphatically maintained that they could not understand a single word."
posted by roll truck roll at 10:48 AM - 52 comments

PITCHF/x and SportVU data analysis shows... [more inside]
posted by Groundhog Week at 10:27 AM - 7 comments

On the 15 May, Max Fisher of the Washington Post penned an article titled A fascinating map of the world’s most and least racially tolerant countries. Fisher surmised that Anglo and Latin American countries are the most tolerant, linking racism to economic freedom based off of a study by two Swedish economists. Siddhartha Mitter responds, who, in The Cartography of Bullshit writes, "Although the results don’t pass the sniff test in the first place, I took a look at the data as well, in an effort to identify the exact problems at play..." [more inside]
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 9:12 AM - 32 comments

Bootstrapping the Industrial Age So you survived the apocalypse. Here’s what would it take to rebuild the world.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:38 AM - 21 comments

We've read about Florentijn Hofman's giant rubber duck before (previously), and it made it's way earlier this week to Hong Kong to spread joy :D

Well, unfortunately, the duck was also viciously murdered (warning: may be graphic to younger viewers), and many already blame chinese mainlanders for it. [more inside]
posted by yeoz at 8:16 AM - 20 comments

A large portion of scientific research is publicly funded. So why do only the richest consumers have access to it?
posted by reenum at 8:01 AM - 61 comments

The Myth of Nazi Efficiency
posted by Miko at 7:21 AM - 84 comments

Running in the The Times Educational Supplement (¹), between 1971 and 1972 the comic strip Wokker featured a strange wooden bird who commentates sarcastically on the world, and who can talk to animals, inanimate objects and readers alike.
Here are some galleries and a short history by the co-creator Tony Earnshaw, also a painter and maker of boxes.
His funeral in 2001 was slightly unconventional.
posted by adamvasco at 6:36 AM - 4 comments

The project centers on nine women in the feminist lesbian porn industry who are recorded for a 24-hour period, with 10-second blips of their everyday lives playing out in five-minute intervals. What’s revealed is an intimate portrait of a marginalized community opening up about sex, gender politics, depression, and their daily grind in a way that’s downright real.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:20 AM - 4 comments

Guest Photographers or: Why You Should Have an Unplugged Wedding

Pro photographer Corey Ann explains, with examples, what causes her so many problems in getting the wedding photographs her clients have paid her for: their guests.

Pushing in front of her, standing in the frame of posed photos, flooding pictures with flash, and above all assuming that their invitation entitles them to take precedence over a photographer who is being expected to get a perfect record of the couple's perfect day.

Her proposal: politely, but firmly, ask your guests to enjoy the highlights of the wedding themselves, and leave taking photographs of those parts to the photographer.
posted by Major Clanger at 4:33 AM - 96 comments

Street Children - Can you look them in the eye?
posted by Gyan at 1:03 AM - 7 comments

How syphilis took Europe by storm during the 1490s, and the far reaching effects it's had ever since
posted by Mister Bijou at 12:46 AM - 25 comments

On March 26th, 1827 Ludwig Van Beethoven died in Vienna. The day after, a twelve year old boy took a lock of his hair as a souvenir. 167 years later the hair was sold at an auction in London. Its new owners were two Americans, Ira Brilliant and Che Guevera. Between those dates the lock of hair undertook an extraordinary historical odyssey. From hand to hand, from country to country, and from century to century. This is the story of that journey. [more inside]
posted by 23 at 12:34 AM - 15 comments

Mooseheart Orphanage, 1948 A haunting image of children's faces from the Mooseheart Orphanage, 1948. The photo was taken by Stanley Kubrick for the June 8th, 1948 edition of Look.
posted by HuronBob at 9:43 PM - 19 comments

John Merritt, Wood Carver. SLYT
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:21 PM - 7 comments

A New Theory of PTSD and Veterans: Moral Injury

But as clergy and good clinicians have listened to more stories like these, they have heard a new narrative, one that signals changes to the brain along with what in less spiritually challenged times might be called a shadow on the soul. It is the tale of disintegrating vets, but also of seemingly squared-away former soldiers and spit-shined generals shuttling between two worlds: ours, where thou shalt not kill is chiseled into everyday life, and another, where thou better kill, be killed, or suffer the shame of not trying. There is no more hellish commute.

[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:43 PM - 18 comments

It Takes Two + I'm Your Pusher + Some Nights = Some Nights I'm Your Pusher (Lloyd).
posted by WCityMike at 7:31 PM - 10 comments

Nicholas J. Johnson is a no good dirty rotten cheat. So when he invites you to play an incredible new game that he’s invented, you probably shouldn’t come…
posted by filthy light thief at 7:18 PM - 18 comments

The sweetest chopper on the planet is the "Red Baron", a custom-built motorcycle powered by a 9-cylinder radial aircraft engine.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:07 PM - 34 comments

Little pug puppy dries off after a bath! (slyt) [more inside]
posted by elizardbits at 5:39 PM - 67 comments

Nicolas Guéguen is a researcher in human behaviour who runs curious and somehow whimsical experiments. With the help of a small army of "confederates", he studies the effects of various stimuli, including dogs, smiles, fireman uniforms, bust size (inflatable), hair color, music, flowers, figurines, touching, mirrors, names etc. on the courtship, sexual, helping, chivalrous, tipping, buying, hiring, compliance or eating behaviour of unsuspecting victims. Because not all experiments are successful, he has also published one failure in the Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis. Selected papers are listed below the fold. [more inside]
posted by elgilito at 4:42 PM - 6 comments

ADA is a kinetic sculpture by Karina Smigla-Bobinski. Video of ADA in action. [via]
posted by shakespeherian at 3:06 PM - 9 comments

What was the hottest New York Fashion Week party? Why the first annual NYC Doggies & Tiaras Pageant of course. (NYmag.com/Slideshow)
posted by The Whelk at 2:29 PM - 20 comments

A Burlingame, California restaurant, Monkutanya, that serves grilled exotic meats has announced on its facebook page that it has added lion to the menu, stirring up some controversy and publicity.
posted by agatha_magatha at 2:16 PM - 79 comments

"This is What Winning Looks Like is a disturbing new documentary about the ineptitude, drug abuse, sexual misconduct, and corruption of the Afghan security forces as well as the reduced role of US Marines due to the troop withdrawal." [via vice] [more inside]
posted by Drexen at 1:13 PM - 43 comments

Street Fighter II: Hula Hoop Style International hula hoop star Marawa the Amazing always wanted to be in Street Fighter II and now she's gotten her wish.
posted by philohagen at 12:54 PM - 19 comments

Flash Friday: Gods Will Be Watching
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 12:20 PM - 23 comments

Here's what it's like to be chewed on by a grizzly bear. (Video footage, SFW, no gore.)
posted by mudpuppie at 11:40 AM - 40 comments

Photographer Arne Svenson has sparked a bit of controversy with his recent show "The Neighbors," about which he says, "I turned to the residents of a glass-walled apartment building across the street from my NYC studio. The Neighbors don’t know they are being photographed; I carefully shoot from the shadows of my home into theirs. I am not unlike the birder, quietly waiting for hours, watching for the flutter of a hand or the movement of a curtain as an indication that there is life within." [more inside]
posted by taz at 10:42 AM - 323 comments

The Stephen King Universe [Infographic] Via: coolinfographics.com
posted by Fizz at 10:08 AM - 38 comments

Why Australia hates thinkers, an essay on anti-intellectualism in today's Australia and the populist hostility to “intellectual elites”, by Alecia Simmonds.
posted by acb at 10:05 AM - 60 comments

Released in 1971 at the height of the Brazilian dictatorship, dedicated to the bittersweet struggle of those exiled to freedom, Construção was Chico Buarque's most stylistically adventurous studio record, and by many accounts, his masterpiece. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:22 AM - 12 comments

"Oh, the indignities of pregnancy! They told me it would be beautiful and glowing. They did not tell me about farting loudly at bus stops." -- Sophia Collins writes about the horrible truth of being pregnant and why consent matters.
Rachel Coleman Finch concurs and explains why it made her more pro-choice: One of my mantras for getting through the hideousness that was my last pregnancy was "I consented to this".
posted by MartinWisse at 8:48 AM - 64 comments

Kitten Eats Ice Cream. [slyt | cute]
posted by quin at 7:35 AM - 76 comments

Clinical psychologist Meg Jay has a bold message for twentysomethings: Contrary to popular belief, your 20s are not a throwaway decade. In this provocative talk, Jay says that just because marriage, work and kids are happening later in life, doesn’t mean you can’t start planning now. She gives 3 pieces of advice for how twentysomethings can re-claim adulthood in the defining decade of their lives. (copied from description on TED website). [more inside]
posted by myriad gantry at 7:32 AM - 124 comments

Milada Horáková, a member of a Czech resistance movement, was arrested by the Gestapo in 1940 and imprisoned until the U.S. Army liberated her in May of 1945. Elected as a member of the Czechoslovak postwar parliament, she resigned after the communist coup in 1948. She remained politically active with groups opposed to the communist regime and was arrested again, this time by the communists, on September 27, 1949. After a televised show trial (she was tried with 12 others), she was executed on June 27, 1950. Translations of Horáková's poignant final letters to her mother-in-law, husband, and daughter are available here. A brief excerpt from her show trial, with english subtitles that can be turned on, is available here. The prosecutor's closing argument is here. Pages from an english-language comic book released in 1950 in the United States about Horáková can be seen here. In addition to being an opponent of both the Nazi and Communist regimes, Horáková was a feminist involved in the Czechoslovakian and International womens' movement. Biographical information is available here and here.
posted by Area Man at 7:21 AM - 9 comments

I turned around to face an approaching figure. It was Larry Page, naked, save for a pair of eyeglasses. “Welcome to Google Island. I hope my nudity doesn’t bother you. We’re completely committed to openness here. Search history. Health data. Your genetic blueprint. One way to express this is by removing clothes to foster experimentation. It’s something I learned at Burning Man,” he said.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:49 AM - 30 comments

Two days ago M15 the original Spanish "occupy" movement celebrated its second birthday. Earlier this year it publicised a campaign of civil disobediance. Now Catalunya has Teresa Forcades, a nun on a mission who opposes the excesses of capitalism. Here is a recent interview.
posted by adamvasco at 6:06 AM - 38 comments

What won the war? The weather helped. For while the Allies had access to all the Atlantic meteorology, the Axis couldn't easily predict what systems were rolling in from the West - and with the Battle of the Atlantic the one thing that Churchill said kept him awake at night, knowing which way the wind blew certainly needed a weatherman. Or Britain would never be starved into submission. The Weather War was complex and engaging, [more inside]
posted by Devonian at 5:46 AM - 16 comments

A contestant on a Spanish talent show builds a mobile using natural materials. It's worth watching to the very end.
posted by carmicha at 5:42 AM - 32 comments

A couple of discussions of recent Google design trends, one in The New Yorker (via Bruce Sterling), and one from Fast Company (via waxy).
posted by cgc373 at 1:50 AM - 33 comments

116 years ago, bicycle superhighways were the future of California transit. The notion that anyone could profit from charging tolls on such a system seems insane now, but a wealthy businessman and an ex-governor conceived of elevated wooden platforms for bikers that would connect LA to the surrounding suburbs, and they even cleared and built the first section. [more inside]
posted by blankdawn at 11:44 PM - 34 comments

Faith the Dog has only her hind legs, so she does what any other biped would do and walks upright! She was until very recently involved in morale work with returning soldiers and would travel by air sometimes, and it's just fun to watch her go. Bonus: watch Oprah's heart just melt in real-time! [more inside]
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:01 PM - 26 comments

Behavioral Economics for Kids [pdf] is a free ebook from the Ivey School of Business that illustrates (to adults, really) the basic principles of behavioral economics, including the Endowment Effect (we value what we have more than what it is worth), Hyperbolic Discounting (the time we wait for rewards influences value in non-linear ways), the dishonesty of honest people, and Base Rate Neglect (why we make bad assumptions based on inherent biases). Though the findings are well-established, the labeling is subject to change, as many social psychologists argue, this is not behavioral economics, it is well-established psychology.
posted by blahblahblah at 9:13 PM - 30 comments

Electronic band Pigeon perform a medley of DAFT PUNK tunes live in the studio using a microKORG, NORD lead 2x, KORG microsampler, Roland SPD-SX, T.C HELICON Voice Live Touch, Rocktron Banshee Talkbox, Bass, Gibson SG Guitar, Tambourine and a 3 piece horn section.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:38 PM - 23 comments