When art imitates life. The Onion once again.....
posted by djseafood on Aug 20, 2008 - 45 comments

You'd be forgiven for thinking that the iconic American folk song The Wabash Cannonball was written as a tribute to an actual train, but in fact, in an interesting case of life-imitates-art, the actual train name was inspired by the song. The Lake Erie, Wabash, and St. Louis Railroad Company was formed in 1852, but there was no train called the “Cannonball” when the song was first sung late in the 19th century. There have been many, many, many wonderful versions through the years, but I think Roy Acuff pretty much owns it, wouldn't you say? [NOTE: See hoverovers for link descriptions] [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on Jun 7, 2008 - 20 comments

NEC plans to market a system later this year that can derive someone's gender and age from images captured with a camera "The system compares the photo against a database of several thousand faces to figure gender and age based on such factors as facial shape and wrinkles. " According to Nikkei Weekly 01/28/2008 Edition. Link goes to Ubergizmo. "It's called FieldAnalyst and it's from NEC. The system homes in on faces of people who pass by the video camera. It then rapidly compares the image against samples in a database. It then spits out what it believes is your approximate age is and your gender." .."NEC scientists may next try to add clothing as a characteristic and classify people by whether they wear a suit or a T-shirt." more here
posted by celerystick on Mar 23, 2008 - 9 comments

Marx Brothers Filter:
Animal Crackers (1930), Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932) and Duck Soup (1933). [more inside]
posted by miss lynnster on Nov 2, 2007 - 37 comments

Brotherly Love. "When a young Fort Lewis soldier returned from Iraq paralyzed from the upper chest down, it was his teenage brother who assumed the role of roommate and primary caretaker." The Seattle Times tells the story of Brandon and Blaine Powell. Be sure to check out the audio slideshow, which features Brandon speaking over photographer Alan Berner's images.
posted by jeffmshaw on Mar 27, 2006 - 13 comments

"This is my brother Larry and this is his face. It has served him well for many years. UNTIL NOW."
posted by mr_crash_davis on Oct 2, 2003 - 19 comments

Ignore the fact we fired the last guy who spoke up. Anyone else want to say anything? Aquila head asks for comments, and fires the guy who points out that the $7.6 million severance package given to his brother would have kept 152 employees on the payroll at $50,000 each. (He also copied 1 or 2 thousand of his closest friends.) Who's right here? Would you express yourself freely?
posted by kcmoryan on Oct 10, 2002 - 37 comments

The diary of Iseema bin Laden, the secret account of Osama's half brother. This link via muslimpundit, which along with the occasional hilarity, includes excellent critiques of Islamism, including one about the fundamentalist disdain for democracy.
posted by insomnyuk on Mar 7, 2002 - 2 comments

"Interests - Own navel." (aka "When Web Templates Go Live"> Looks like one of the original participants for Big Brother 2 pulled out at short notice.... (oops, slapped hands, web designers.)
posted by holgate on May 29, 2001 - 5 comments