A modern eyewitness account of secretive ritualized duelling known as "academic fencing". Its stylized format has changed little since Mark Twain observed it. Despite dubious legality it is alive and well in German universities. The raison d'être of this swordplay is the creation of a schmiss or duelling scar. These scars are considered by the bearers as a mark of courage and nobility, and by outsiders as an indication of semi-latent Nazi tendencies. In March a medical conference is beng held for the first time in Freiburg, for doctors who tend to duelling injuries.
posted by roofus on Feb 22, 2007 - 73 comments

Have your war and heat it too? As the war approaches the $350 billion mark, Cass Sunstein notes: "For the United States, the economic burden of the Iraq war is on the verge of exceeding the total anticipated burden of the Kyoto Protocol." Costs may rise as high as $10 trillion. At least we know it wasn't about oil: in a good year, Iraq makes about $14 billion on fossil fuels. (via)
posted by anotherpanacea on May 10, 2006 - 28 comments

The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara is a digital collection of over 5000 digitized cylinder recordings from the turn of the 20th century. Cylinders were the first commercially-produced sound recordings. The UCSB collection is quite large and can be streamed or downloaded. The tracks range from instrumental and vocal music to "old-timey music" to vaudeville routine (including some which are quite offensive by modern standards- see this disclaimer at the bottom of this page). For the casual listener, try Cylinder radio, which is a stream of some highlights of the collection.
posted by JMOZ on Nov 23, 2005 - 18 comments

Malls of America - Gone (some of them) but not forgotten (well, maybe). Vintage photographs and postcards of malls of the 1960s and '70s. For more personal stories, check out Deadmalls.com.
posted by deborah on Aug 7, 2005 - 19 comments

"A shocking discovery has been made deep within the text of Moby Dick. The great codes researcher Michael Drosnin, who pioneered the art of predicting assassinations using Equidistant Letter Sequences, is himself encoded in a famous book. And directly across his name appears the text 'Him to have been killed'! Yes, folks, using the method that Drosnin himself uses, and the text that he himself chose as a challenge to his critics, we find that Drosnin himself will be murdered in a grotesque manner."
posted by brundlefly on Jun 20, 2005 - 23 comments

Incredible feat of engineering or environmental disaster in the making? Despite continued protests, the Karahnjukar project rumbles onwards. Some people are desperate to see it stopped, although the Icelandic public aren’t so sure. In fact, Alcoa - the US company driving the project – is proud of its environmental achievements. Whatever the truth, there’s no denying that the area under threat contains some stunning scenery. Take a look while you still can.
posted by MrMustard on Jun 16, 2005 - 15 comments

Becoming a '??' (tradesman) in Japan. A 'gaijin' entrepreneur has been detailing his woodblock printing craft and business in a self-published quarterly journal over the past 15+ years. I found his series of autobiographical essays to be a very worthwhile read, reminiscent of Pirsig's first novel for some reason.
posted by Heywood Mogroot on Apr 8, 2005 - 13 comments

Two months before that fatal May 6th I asked on this site why Pim [Fortuyn] so far hadn’t been shot. Readers were perplexed and asked if I had lost my mind, because something like that "would never happen in Holland". Right.

In an update to their van Gogh file, Peaktalk offers translations [via Zacht Ei] of some excerpts of the writings of murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh, which previously appeared (in Dutch) on The Healthy Smoker, van Gogh's web site, which now lives on as The Quit Smoker.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Dec 23, 2004 - 18 comments

HBO's Deadwood is quite possibly the best television show ever produced. Not only is it amazingly gripping stuff, it's also meticulously researched. (Pretty easy to do when the entire city is a registered historic landmark.)
Sure, we all know that Wild Bill and Calamity Jane were real people. As it turns out, though, almost every main character in the show (and many minor ones) had a real life counterpart, as did many of the events.
Deadwood notables EB Farnum, Reverend H W Smith, Seth Bullock and his partner Sol Star, Colorado Charlie Utter, Al Swerengen with his Gem Saloon, and the crosseyed gambler Jack McCall all lived and breathed in one of America's most storied cities.
posted by absalom on Dec 10, 2004 - 82 comments

Santas Gone Wild Imagine a flashmob. Now imagine a flashmob that is nothing but Santas. Once a year, for 10 years now, a bunch of crazies dress up like Santa Claus, frolic around major cities (like NYC, good text summary of what SantaCon is all about to be found here) and cause merry mischief.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Dec 7, 2004 - 20 comments

"I'm having a little get together with some of my friends...." I found this bizarre and disturbing little flash-movie a few months ago. The first link is actually the second installment in what is now five episodes. There's more (including the first through the fifth) on his site. The music is phenomenal- bits of spookiness from sigur ros and aphex twin. When you're all done, there's an interview with the author regarding Salad Fingers here. People are still trying to figure out exactly who the character is and where he's from. If you look and listen carefully, there are literary references, anagrammed names, etc. If you liked Salad, you might also like "Hell"(non-flash)
posted by exlotuseater on Nov 27, 2004 - 21 comments

In the vein of bejeweled, tetris, and various other incredibly addictive games, comes Collapse. Mmmm, Friday flash.
posted by monju_bosatsu on May 3, 2002 - 21 comments

Iceland moves to become the first country to replace fossil fuels with hydrogen for all its energy needs. I find it fitting that a society descended from Vikings will become the world's first hydrogen society.
posted by homunculus on Dec 27, 2001 - 32 comments