Cat-scan.com Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted on Jul 14, 2008 - View this thread

The Travels of Franz Kafka , a website that chronicles the many places and social interactions of Franz. A photographic journal collection of his life as he traveled. For your enjoyment, today being the 125th Anniversary of Franz Kafka's birthday. Cheers.
posted on Jul 3, 2008 - View this thread

"Happy Birthday to You" is the best-known and most frequently sung song in the world. Many - including Justice Breyer in his dissent in Eldred v. Ashcroft - have portrayed it as an unoriginal work that is hardly worthy of copyright protection, but nonetheless remains under copyright. Yet close historical scrutiny reveals both of those assumptions to be false. [Full pdf here.] [via]
posted on Jun 19, 2008 - View this thread

Birthday Girl is a catchy song/video from The Roots and Patrick Stump which stars Sasha Grey, an adult film star. It is an amusing literal portrayal of the relationship between internet pervs and weirdos everywhere and the online personalities that humor them.
posted on Apr 15, 2008 - View this thread

Ever wondered what the number one song was on your birthday? Anniversary? the day John Lennon was shot?, the attack on Pearl Harbor? (last two links can open iTunes directly).

Well, wonder no more. (via reddit)
posted on Apr 12, 2008 - View this thread

As part of Won't You Be My Neighbor? Days in Pittsburgh, and in honor of what would've been Fred Rogers' 80th birthday, Mr. McFeely is requesting that you wear your favorite sweater on March 20. "It doesn't have to be like the one Mr. Rogers wore, it just has to be special to you."
posted on Mar 19, 2008 - View this thread

It has now been several years since Jacquie Lawson, an English artist living in the picturesque village of Lurgashall in Southern England, created an animated Christmas card in 2000. The e-card, featuring her dog, Chudleigh, her cats, and her 15th-century cottage, was sent to a few friends for their amusement. Those friends sent the e-card to others, and within weeks Jacquie was inundated with requests from all over the world to design more e-cards.
posted on Dec 20, 2007 - View this thread

#!/usr/bin/perl
@d = localtime(time);
if ($d[4] == 11 && $d[3] == 18 ) {
 print "Happy ".($d[5]-87)."th Birthday, Perl!\n";
}
if( $ARGV[0] eq "love" || $ARGV[0] eq "hate" ) {
 print "$you can't deny its contribution to our culture\n"; 
} 

posted on Dec 18, 2007 - View this thread

Find that going to work is a drag, and nothing seems to make you want to go? Well how about being deciding to refuse to sit around at home and keeping working just because you're 'bored'. I reckon that is an unusual reason to work your life away. Especially if it happens to be your birthday. Oh, and even more so if you just happen to be 100 years old.
posted on Nov 10, 2007 - View this thread

Happy 40th Birthday Rolling Stone. On this day in 1967, the first issue of Rolling Stone Magazine was published, and it came with a roach clip. It was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason It embraced and reported on the hippy counterculture during the late 1960s and 1970s, and its rise to fame was synchronous with such bands and artists as the Grateful Dead, Beatles, Doors, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. It is the magazine that trashed Eric Clapton, broke up Cream and ripped every album Led Zeppelin ever made!"
posted on Nov 9, 2007 - View this thread

Birthdays Without Pressure If you think children’s birthday parties are getting out of control, you’ve come to the right place.
posted on Aug 13, 2007 - View this thread

You're the star today! In 1976, ABC's Record and Tape Division came up with the Captain Zoom Personalized Birthday Record. A two-minute song with 8 instances of the birthday boy or girl's name was recorded and mastered for a paper-thin flexible 7" record. It was sent in an envelope along with the lyrics to the song, a mini-coloring book, and an order form. In 1978, the Record and Tape Division was disbanded. Robert Stiller, a sales consultant who was involved with the project at ABC, bought the rights to the project and began distributing the record with his own company. Captain Zoom left a lasting impact on those who heard his little jingle.
And there's a wedding version too. How sweet.
posted on Jul 28, 2007 - View this thread

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted on Jul 14, 2007 - View this thread

What should we get Erich for his birthday? How about a desk set with a radio, a thermometer disguised as a TV mast, a clock topped with a tank, a calendar, and four ballpoint pens disguised as missiles. Iconographia socialistica from the GDR.
posted on Feb 21, 2007 - View this thread

Think you get a lot done? Isaac Asimov (pronounced like "has, him, of" without the h's) , who would have turned 87 today, wrote or edited over 500 books, including science-fiction novels, introductions to organic chemistry (a field in which he held a professorship at B.U.) , indispensable anthologies of early science fiction, jokebooks, guides to Shakespeare, and collections of lively essays on science that have introduced thousands of people to the pleasures of thinking hard about the universe. He also found the time to write a few essays and write postcards to his fans. His story "Runaround" , from his 1950 collection I, Robot, is the only piece of fiction I know centered on the properties of a differential equation. His Foundation Trilogy was given a special Hugo award in 1966 as the best science fiction series of all time; a movie version, to be written by Jeff Vintar and directed by Shekhar Kapur, is currently in development. Previous AsimovFilter: here, here, here. Feel like a slacker yet? Stop reading MetaFilter and get to work!
posted on Jan 2, 2007 - View this thread

Thelonious Sphere Monk's birthday is today and WKCR will not stop playing his music untill after midnight
posted on Oct 10, 2006 - View this thread

Happy 15th birthday, WorldWideWeb.
posted on Aug 6, 2006 - View this thread

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted on Jul 14, 2006 - View this thread

For his 60th birthday, Nintendo of America sends President Bush a present: a DS Lite and a copy of the smash-hit game Brain Age: Train Your Brain In Minutes A Day along with a great covering letter. An astute piece of marketing? An honest gift? Or just a nice bit of guerrilla humour?
posted on Jul 6, 2006 - View this thread

So Paul McCartney is 64, Now What? [NYT] Sir James Paul McCartney turns sixty-four today. Will we still need him? Will we still feed him? Probably not, given his recent divorce. Happy Birthday anyway!
posted on Jun 18, 2006 - View this thread

Long live our noble queen.
posted on Apr 21, 2006 - View this thread

What song was #1 (in the U.S.) on the day you were born? On my b'day, it was "Stuck on You" by Elvis the Pelvis
posted on Feb 20, 2006 - View this thread

"Who's the only one who's always been there?" Ham asked. "God!" the boys and girls shouted.
"Who's the only one who knows everything?" "God!"
"So who should you always trust, God or the scientists?" The children answered with a thundering: "God!"

Today, on the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin whose discovery of natural selection is the fundamental tenet of modern biology, fundamentalist American Christians work to indoctrinate in children a superstitious disdain for science. Meanwhile, liberal American Christians churches celebrate Darwin and evolution's compatibility with their faith.

But is "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" too corrosive to mysticism to coexist with Christianity?
posted on Feb 12, 2006 - View this thread

So, most people know that Friday was the 250th birthday of some musical dude you might've heard of. But! Did you realise that this year also marks the 100th birthday of Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich? Debate over whether Shostakovich was a tortured artist, rebelling against Stalinist Russia, or a Soviet Sympathiser continues, but the fact remains he was a brilliant composer who left a lasting impression on film music, and composed complex works from 2 cello concertos, 15 string quartets, 15 symphonies Warning!: Last four links are direct to the BBC "Discovering Music" Real player streams.
posted on Feb 1, 2006 - View this thread

Ten years ago today, Microsoft released a massive overhaul of their flagship product — Windows 95. It added support for 256-character mixed-case long filenames, pre-emptive multitasking, and protected-mode 32-bit applications. Detractors noted that its updated interface owed a number of debts to Apple's MacOS and IBM's OS/2. Most importantly, however, Windows 95 included built-in support for dial-up networking and a TCP/IP stack. Once this technology was widely-available, it was only a matter of time until the Internet became a household word.
posted on Aug 24, 2005 - View this thread

Still going: jazz pianist Oscar Peterson celebrated his 80th birthday on Monday, with a rare treat. The veteran jazz musician is the first living Canadian to be honored with a commemorative postage stamp.
posted on Aug 17, 2005 - View this thread

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted on Jul 13, 2005 - View this thread

Happy birthday Canada!
posted on Jul 1, 2005 - View this thread

"Our demands most moderate are , we only want the earth". Today is the birthday of James Connolly.
posted on Jun 4, 2005 - View this thread

Happy Birthday Steve McQueen! He would have been 75 today. Sadly, his particular brand of cool died in 1980. He created some of the most memorable screen characters of all time. His breakthrough role was in the TV series Wanted: Dead or Alive, which will be released on DVD this summer. Want a poster? He was a man of action, a troublemaker, a race car driver, and, most importantly, a paragon of cool. He's been immortalized in dozens of songs and at least one album. And even though he's dead, he's still driving that Mustang.
posted on Mar 24, 2005 - View this thread

Yahoo! retrospective inspired by 10x10, an online artwork by Jonathan Harris. We thought Yahoo! Inc.'s 10th birthday would be a great excuse to take a look back and think about how the Internet has developed over the last ten years, becoming an essential part of all of our daily lives. We've created a special site, Yahoo! Netrospective: 10 years, which celebrates the web's history over the last decade. We hope the Yahoo! Netrospective will take you on a trip down memory lane, in a format we think is really cool.--Jerry & David
posted on Mar 3, 2005 - View this thread

The Dickens Project. Today is also the birthday of Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870), English novelist, who in his American Notes of 1842 made numerous scathing observations about speech patterns he had noted during his five-month visit to the United States that year. He wrote, for example, that once he had left the more cosmopolitan areas of New York and Boston, nasal drawls were the rule, the grammar was "more than doubtful," and the "oddest vulgarisms" were "received idioms." he was so caustic that the normally mild and diplomatic Ralph Waldo Emerson was moved to defend his countrymen from Dickens's characterizations: "No such conversations ever occur in this country, in real life, as he relates. He has picked up and noted with eagerness each odd local phase that he met with, and when he had a story to relate, has joined them together, so that the result is the broadest caricature."

YEAH Ralph! Back in the day, that was what we would now call a "Verbal Beatdown" (Nas lyrics, probably NSFW)
posted on Feb 7, 2005 - View this thread

Today is Charles Augustus Lindbergh's (1902 - 1974) birthday. A pioneering American aviator, who was dubbed the Lone Eagle. In May 1927 he became the first person to fly nonstop and solo from New York to Paris, making the trip in 33½ hours in his specially built monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis. During the flight he battled extreme drowsiness, a malfunctioning compass, and wing icing. He was well aware that six others had died trying to accomplish this feat. After receiving a tumultuous hero's welcome in Paris, Lindbergh visited several countries on his way home, the last being England. He stopped at Buckingham Palace at the invitation of George V. As they conversed, the king posed numerous questions about the long flight, including one he felt could be asked only in private: "Sir, how did you pee?"
posted on Feb 4, 2005 - View this thread

As I'm sure you all know, today would've been the 74th birthday of actor Vic Tayback, best known as everybody's favorite hairy, sweaty, ill-tempered (yet almost cuddly) diner chef on that wacky piece of 70's tv Americana Alice (Remember when Mel called Vera "dingy"? Sitcom gold!). Kept busy for years as a character actor with constant tv guest spots on everything from "I Dream of Jeannie" to "Gunsmoke," Vic embraced job security when given an opportunity to expand one character in particular, Mel Sharples from Martin Scorcese's drama "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (starring Ellen Burstyn [she won an Oscar], Kris Kristofferson, Diane Ladd, Harvey Keitel and Jodie Foster). Thanks to Vic, the character of Mel smoothly adapted from his dramatic origins into his new home of sit-com hi-larity... one of the rare attempts of that kind to succeed.

RIP Vic. Oh, and kiss my grits.
posted on Jan 6, 2005 - View this thread

Former rebel turned pillar of society Sir Peter Maxwell Davies turned 70 today. For those unfamiliar, his website has audio samples of his published works.
posted on Sep 8, 2004 - View this thread

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted on Jul 14, 2003 - View this thread

You say this coming, I'm sure. It's Canada's 136th birthday. Come up to Ottawa for the biggest, and I mean BIGGEST party of the year. Enjoy free live shows from The Guess Who, Leahy, Daniel Lanois or La Bottine Souriante, to name a few. Watch the parade. Oh, and fireworks. Be proud of the Maple Leaf!
posted on Jul 1, 2003 - View this thread

My Contemporaries Are Cooler Than Yours: Actually, it can become quite depressing to find out exactly who belongs to your generation. I mean, Howie Mandell, Bill Gates, Sandra Bernhard, Margot Hemingway, Kevin Costner and Joe Jackson? Give me a break. Which, thankfully, WhoWhatWhen, an interactive timeline generator, does quite nicely. Perfect for paranoids who like beginning sentences with "Surely it's no coincidence that in that very same year..." [Via LinkFilter.]
posted on Jun 15, 2003 - View this thread

Ralph Waldo Emerson turns 200 today.
posted on May 25, 2003 - View this thread

Library of Congress celebrates its 202nd birthday . Today, the Library of Congress celebrates its 202nd birthday. On April 24, 1800, President John Adams approved the appropriation of $5,000 for the purchase of "such books as may be necessary for the use of congress."
The books, the first purchased for the Library of Congress, were ordered from London and arrived in 1801. The collection of 740 volumes and three maps was stored in the U.S. Capitol, the Library's first home. President Thomas Jefferson approved the first legislation defining the role and functions of the new institution on January 26, 1802.
Check out, Jefferson's Legacy: A Brief History of the Library of Congress and a Concordance of Images for more.
posted on Apr 24, 2003 - View this thread

Happy Birthday Albert Einstein
posted on Mar 14, 2003 - View this thread

Happy Darwin Day! Darwin Day is February 12th, the date of birth of Charles Darwin in the year 1809, at Shrewsbury, England. On this date, and throughout the month, people from all over the world are honoring the life, work and influence of Charles Darwin with events and activities which celebrate humanity and the science in our lives. While you're celebrating you may want to see who has won awards in his name or perhaps buy a sticker or see if there's a darwinday event near you
posted on Feb 12, 2003 - View this thread

Happy 20th Anniversary, Internet!

We ought not to let pass unnoticed the... 20th anniversary of the Internet. The most logical date of origin of the Internet is January 1, 1983, when the ARPANET officially switched from the NCP protocol to TCP/IP.

Where were you two decades ago on this date? And does anyone actually have a "I Survived the TCP/IP Transition" t-shirt?

Also being discussed on /.
posted on Jan 1, 2003 - View this thread

"Picasso of keyboard funk" - Professor Longhair would be 84 today if he were still alive. His distinctive meld of boogie woogie, blues, funk and Latin makes for piano that is quintessentially New Orleans...Tipitinas, one of the more famous local music bars, took its name from his signature song. "Fess" was a seminal influence on such musical greats as James Booker, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, Art Neville, Doctor John and Marcia Ball, one of my current favorites. You can hear a few Fess samples from Crawfish Fiesta, arguably his best recording, issued just after he died in 1980. He was inducted in the R&R Hall of Fame as an early influencer in 1993. Happy birthday, Professor!
posted on Dec 19, 2002 - View this thread

Happy birthday, Julia!! American cooking diva Julia Child turns 90 years of age today. She might be slowing, but she hasn't stopped ... and she certainly hasn't stopped eating butter and cream.

Her contributions to American culinary arts, particularly in the area of home cooking, are nearly immeasurable. When you have a look at the way we were cooking before "The French Chef" came along, you'll be doubly grateful for what she's taught us.

She's left her longtime home in Cambridge, Massachusetts for much smaller digs in Santa Barbara, California ... and subsequently donated her legendary kitchen and over 1,200 items from it to the Smithsonian Institution, who disassembled it and painstakingly rebuilt it inside the museum. Julia's Kitchen at the Smithsonian opens to the public on Monday.
posted on Aug 15, 2002 - View this thread

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted on Jul 14, 2002 - View this thread

Tomorrow, March 2, is the 98th birthday of Dr. Suess, and Kristian (the author of the link) suggested to me that we through him a party on the web. If you have a website or blog please dedicate your posts today or tomorrow to honor this most remarkable man, his legacy of stories and what impact they have had on your life. Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!
posted on Mar 1, 2002 - View this thread

Happy Birthday to Elvis Presley! Dead (?) 25 years now and he's still everywhere you look . I used to have a theory that, if you paid close attention, you would see at least one pop culture reference to Elvis every day. Whether it's a tongue in cheek mockery of him or a serious tribute, Elvis is still around. Hell, we talk about him all the time...
posted on Jan 8, 2002 - View this thread

Today in History What happened on your Birthday? Mine: July 8 Ferdinand Graf Von Zeppelin born in 1838 Wall Street Journal begins publishing 1889 Liberty Bell Cracks (again) 1835 Monty Irvin and Hank Thompson, first blacks to play for NY Giants (baseball)
posted on Sep 10, 2001 - View this thread

This is not the proper way to say happy birthday Man has his package stolen on his birthday. Can anyone think of a worse birthday present?
posted on Aug 29, 2001 - View this thread