December 3

Box 5-1438: Report of a structure fire at 266 Franklin St. 10 years ago this evening in Worcester, MA, the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Fire started when two people living in the abandoned building, Julie Barnes and Thomas Levesque, knocked over a candle during an argument and then fled. Upon arrival at the quickly growing fire, reports were received about two people living in the building, and firefighters entered the building to rescue them. During the primary search, Rescue 1 firefighters Paul Brotherton and Jeremiah Lucey were the first to report trouble. They were lost on the 4th floor and running out of air. Soon after, a four man rescue crew of Lt. Thomas Spencer (Ladder 2), firefighter Timothy Jackson (Ladder 2), Lt. James Lyons (Engine 3), and firefighter Joseph McGuirk (Engine 3) reports that they have also become disoriented while searching the 5th floor. All six men died that night, they are known as the Worcester Six or W6. [more inside]
posted by rollbiz at 6:37 AM - 2 comments

"In just a few days, a verdict is expected in the trial of Amanda Knox, the 22-year-old Seattle exchange student on trial in Italy for the throat-slashing murder of her British roommate two years ago. ... The trial in the Umbrian college town of Perugia has dragged on just short of a year. As this week’s closing arguments showed once again, the case has very little to do with actual evidence and much to do with the ancient Italian code of saving face. ... What century is this? Didn’t Joan of Arc, the Inquisition and our own American Salem witch trials teach civilized nations a thing or two about contrived sexual hysteria with a devil twist?" - Timothy Egan, New York Times. [previously] [more inside]
posted by billysumday at 6:31 AM - 4 comments

Will the Tar Barons get their way?
posted by batboy at 6:25 AM - 5 comments

Jesus is a raisin. Fuck a hologram. Happy in Paraguay. [SLYT]
posted by slater at 6:01 AM - 11 comments

25 years on, the industrial disaster at Bhopal's Union Carbide insecticide plant is still poisoning, maiming and killing people [YT]. [more inside]
posted by vivelame at 3:11 AM - 8 comments

Gmail wants you to send a holiday postcard for free. [more inside]
posted by Vectorcon Systems at 2:58 AM - 24 comments

Oh, so that's how that works. I never got the whole 'Mars in Retrograde' thing. This really helped. More than this description by Dr.Feynman of the elliptical orbit of the planets, and definitely more than this song-and-dance description of, well, the Universe.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:11 AM - 6 comments

Some 10,000 people descended on the Knock Shrine a few months ago to see a Marian Apparition, promised by "clairvoyant" Joe Coleman to appear in the sun. Mary Kenny of the Irish Independent asks "What harm if people derive comfort from what they believe to be a spiritual experience?" while an Irish opthalmic surgeon now reports that he has treated no fewer than five people already, claiming it "monstrous" to mislead people into thinking that altered vision and effects, such as seeing the sun dance, were a religious apparition when they were classic symptoms of solar retinopathy. [more inside]
posted by disillusioned at 1:40 AM - 25 comments

HDR photography seems to be polarizing. People either love it, or hate it, including here on MeFi. For those who enjoy exploring the possibilities HDR presents, a good place to start is Stuck In Customs. Trey Ratcliff has the first HDR photo ever to hang in the Smithsonian. He offers a comprehensive, six-step HDR tutorial if you want to try it yourself. A sampling of his HDR travel photography is here, and throughout the site, and he is also experimenting with HDR video technology. [more inside]
posted by netbros at 12:59 AM - 25 comments

A&E presents the next incarnation of reality TV: Steven Seagal Lawman. No, seriously. [more inside]
posted by bwg at 12:13 AM - 43 comments

December 2


The Smithsonian Libraries hark back to the ideas of Mr. James Smithson, the benefactor after whom the Smithsonian is named. Mr. Smithson, an English scientist, never set foot in this country, but was enamored of our nation’s independence and the way science and discovery were becoming part of our national ethic, particularly through the work of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. During his lifetime, Mr. Smithson built up a large collection of books and documents and obviously appreciated the value of libraries. He left his fortune and his book and document collection to our nation to create an institution for the “diffusion and increase of learning” in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian was authorized by Congress in 1846 and from its outset it made provisions for a library to hold its growing collection of documents and books.
- From the Keynote Remarks: 
An Age of Discovery: Distinctive Collections in the Digital Age 
G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
recently the ARL (Association of Research Libraries) and the CNI (Coalition for Networked Information) had their fall forum. [more inside]
posted by infinite intimation at 9:32 PM - 6 comments

Amorphous blob robot takes first steps (SLYT)
posted by mhjb at 7:57 PM - 40 comments

After more than 25 years, Clash of the Titans has been remade. Here is the original 1981 Clash of the Titans trailer. [more inside]
posted by MaryDellamorte at 7:12 PM - 93 comments

The Book of Faces
posted by vronsky at 4:49 PM - 25 comments

Possibly the biggest company you've never heard of. [more inside]
posted by Kerasia at 2:58 PM - 60 comments

"Just when we thought we had done it all, along comes an awesome video game, where millions of people around the world can interact with us, and our music. How cool is that?" says Kevin Cronin, lead singer of REO Speedwagon. (via)
posted by Joe Beese at 1:47 PM - 46 comments

Digitalfilms, a blog by video/film editor Oliver Peters, serves primarily as a repository for his product reviews pertaining to nonlinear editing systems - including, but not limited to, Avid Media Composer and Apple Final Cut Pro... [more inside]
posted by Neilopolis at 1:46 PM - 22 comments

Retro Renovation celebrates an era of post-war American housing that's being slowly eroded by the likes of HGTV. [more inside]
posted by saturnine at 1:00 PM - 43 comments

In order to promote their upcoming remake of The Wolf Man, Universal has launched Universal Monster Legacy (Flash with auto-playing audio), featuring music, posters, video clips and still galleries from the classic Universal Monster films. (via)
posted by brundlefly at 12:48 PM - 18 comments

HM was the subject of many landmark studies in neuroscience. After his hippocampus was removed to control epileptic seizures, he was unable to form long-term memories. University of California - San Diego's Brain Observatory is shaving his brain now, sliver after sliver, and posting the live camera feed on the web. [more inside]
posted by Vhanudux at 12:19 PM - 84 comments

Cheng Chui Ping came to the US like many others from the Fujian province in China. Through hard work and determination, she rose in the ranks of New York City's Chinatown business community. But, "Sister Ping" was not one to follow laws if it didn't suit her. Among the snakeheads who engaged in human trafficking, none were better than her. [more inside]
posted by reenum at 11:11 AM - 14 comments

Metafilter knows that texting can be problematic (previously: "Sexting", texting while driving). The New York Times is worried about it, too. No fear! James Lipton (and his beard) are out there with this message for teenagers: Before you text, give it a ponder.
posted by peachfuzz at 10:42 AM - 44 comments

News is breaking that the New York Senate will pass marriage equality legislation today, despite media reports that the legislative push was "stalled" from as late as last week. (The State Assembly repassed the same bill shortly after midnight last night to facilitate the Senate's vote today.) This has all happened largely under the radar—though Markos "Daily Kos" Moulitsas was apparently in the know, hinting at this "big news" in his Twitter feed on Monday night. Today he writes: "So by the end of the week, gay marriage should be legal in New York. And there are no citizen initiatives in NY to overturn it."
posted by gerryblog at 9:14 AM - 733 comments

Izza Kizza - I'm The Izza Kizza (lyrics nsfw) by Yoram Benz of Decon Media (YouTube channel). [more inside]
posted by battlebison at 9:07 AM - 17 comments

VECTORTRONIC An abstract long-exposure animation drawn and photographed by a Lego robot set to music by Gil Trythall [via mefi projects]
posted by The Whelk at 7:56 AM - 8 comments

Todd Fisher's Kissing Series. Photographs of people kissing. His other photographs are quite good as well. [more inside]
posted by chunking express at 7:37 AM - 70 comments

Tim Quirk of Too Much Joy blogs about the royalty statement he received from Warner Bros. detailing their income from online sales, totalling $62.47. Via.
posted by waraw at 6:27 AM - 61 comments

"1,000,000 to join, my dad john mellencamp will quit smoking" Of course, country rock crooner John Mellencamp isn't MY dad. Rather, John's youngest son Speck (geez) has issued a challenge to facebook -- if 1M people join this facebook group, John Mellencamp will quit smoking. It's legit, unlike that time when you forwarded an email to all of your friends wanting Bill Gates to give you money.
posted by taumeson at 5:50 AM - 113 comments

The Ugandan government is considering a law that would criminalize homosexuality, advocacy for gay rights, or even failing to report homosexuals to the govenment. And death for HIV+ gays. And who is behind this? An American group with purported ties to the administration called the Family. [more inside]
posted by idiopath at 1:33 AM - 108 comments

December 1

Kathryn Bigelow's 2009 feature film The Hurt Locker, tells the story of a U.S. military bomb squad in Iraq. Hurt Locker has been critically praised as "the best American feature made yet about the war in Iraq." But historian Marilyn Young, who's written and spoken widely on the Vietnam War(s) and their similarities to the current conflict in Iraq, argues in a blistering review that the film is "a video game of a movie, or war as a video game." [more inside]
posted by liketitanic at 8:39 PM - 96 comments

Neutra Face A SLYT for the font-geeks out there (and I suppose there are some Gaga geeks around as well).
posted by captain cosine at 8:22 PM - 41 comments

Pee-wee Herman is back. On Twitter. On stage. And for a limited time, you can watch the full Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special on his website.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:19 PM - 35 comments

Continuity, a tiled platform game. Flash required. [more inside]
posted by alligatorman at 8:01 PM - 48 comments

The Pink Lady of Malibu "One Saturday morning, on October 29, 1966, a massive 60-foot-tall painting of a nude pink lady holding flowers suddenly appeared as you headed into the tunnel on Malibu Canyon Road." Yep, that could be a bit distracting.. [more inside]
posted by HuronBob at 7:47 PM - 16 comments

It's more of a "how are you paying?" than "what are you doing?" kind of business. Square Inc. is a new startup cofounded by Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Jim McKelvey which will allow businesses and individuals to take credit card payments from customers anywhere. Receipts and confirmations are paperless and get sent to buyers via text message or email. While the media believes it is set to shake up the credit card processing industry, it has also committed to donate a penny on every transaction a merchant takes to a cause of their choice. Square is starting business with $10 million in venture capital funding and is of course tweeting the process; you can see it in action here or try it at Sightglass Coffee in San Francisco.
posted by cgomez at 5:49 PM - 65 comments

Timelapse of swarming monster worms and sea stars (via)
posted by vronsky at 4:46 PM - 59 comments

JAWS - The Manga! part 1 - part 2
posted by Artw at 4:41 PM - 19 comments

Advance reports indicate 30,000 are headed to Afghanistan. In addition, President Obama is seeking a commitment of more troops from allies. The apparent broad plan is to make a short and intense deployment of some 40,000 troops against the Taliban, with pullout beginning in 2011. The most intense troop engagements are expected next year.
posted by bearwife at 3:29 PM - 230 comments

Animated Advent Calendar [via mefi projects] Want a way to count down the days till the Santa (with or without companion(s)) comes to town, but you don't want to go out and spend money on a disposable bit of proto-landfill with daily entries that don't dance? The Online Advent Calendar is your answer. The '08 version is also available for viewing.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 3:02 PM - 8 comments

Bad Menu: providing 100% of your recommended daily allowance for restaurant-themed printed goofs. [more inside]
posted by not_on_display at 2:40 PM - 31 comments

The Bohr-Einstein Debates, With Puppets
posted by lenny70 at 12:49 PM - 7 comments

No mere transcription can give the true flavor of the original printing of The Eye of Argon. It was mimeographed with stencils cut on an elite manual typewriter. Many letters were so faint as to be barely readable, others were overstruck, and some that were to be removed never got painted out with correction fluid. Usually, only one space separated sentences, while paragraphs were separated by a blank line and were indented ten spaces. Many words were grotesquely hyphenated. And there were illustrations - I cannot do them justice in mere words, but they were a match for the text.
The Eye of Argon (prev.), long hailed as the worst sci-fi story ever written, is at last available online in all its original glory.
posted by Paragon at 12:15 PM - 64 comments

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol has been reprinted, abridged, disected, redrawn and re-told on film numerous times, but the original 66 page manuscript has rarely been seen by the public. The manuscript was obtained by The Morgan Library & Museum during the 1890s, where it is currently on display. If you can't make it to New York this time of year, you can take a close look at 4 heavily edited pages and attempt to decipher Dickens' original writing, thanks to The New York Times.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:19 AM - 14 comments

Harvard Study: Computers don't save hospitals money. An article from Computerworld cites a clinical research study in the American Journal of Medicine. Four years of research finds that "the immense cost of installing and running hospital IT systems is greater than any expected cost savings." (Also on Wired and Slashdot.) [more inside]
posted by eleyna at 9:40 AM - 89 comments

Charles Johnson, post-9/11 reactionary firebrand, debunker of the Killian documents and spearhead of the American "anti-jihadist" movement via his Little Green Footballs blog, officially parts ways with the right. [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 9:29 AM - 147 comments

The Lost World of Old Europe: the Danube Valley, 5000-3500 B.C.
posted by homunculus at 9:14 AM - 21 comments

Alt-Printscreen, load photo software, paste, crop, navigate browser to image host, browse for file, upload. Yeesh, so much work. Want free and "seriously instant" screen-grabbing or screen-casting? Then you'll be glad to know two pieces of software have recently cropped up to streamline the whole process: (open-sourced) Gyazo for instantly hosted screen-grabs, or (free) Jing, likewise, for screen-grabs and screen-casts. [more inside]
posted by tybeet at 8:45 AM - 17 comments

I WILL NOT WASTE CHALK
posted by Pants! at 8:38 AM - 40 comments

Who sings the "Since I left you" bit on the Avalanches song? Where does the piano on that Alicia Keys record come from? And how did that Boney M song get stuck in my head? All is revealed at Who Sampled.
posted by creeky at 8:06 AM - 40 comments

The Via Francigena (fran-chee-jena) (also here) was the pilgrim road leading from Canterbury to Rome and one of the most important routes of communication in the Middle Ages. The Italian government has this week launched a project to recover the Italian leg of it. [more inside]
posted by aqsakal at 7:30 AM - 6 comments

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