January 14, 2014

This post blows

Feeling horny? Here's a visual and audio guide to diesel locomotive horns. A definitive resource. For example, most Amtrak locomotives have a Nathan Airchime KL5A installed. Ever hear a sick-sounding horn on a train? Don't miss the sections on When bad things happen to good horns (Scroll down on the KL5A page for one such section). Turn your speakers up and enjoy!
posted by pjern at 11:06 PM PST - 16 comments

Leap Dog

Bryan and Kaia rip up the rainforest. What it says on the tin.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 10:57 PM PST - 20 comments

Edge.org Annual Question 2014

"Ideas change, and the times we live in change. Perhaps the biggest change today is the rate of change. What established scientific idea is ready to be moved aside so that science can advance?" WHAT SCIENTIFIC IDEA IS READY FOR RETIREMENT? (171 essays; 125,000 words) [more inside]
posted by dgaicun at 10:47 PM PST - 41 comments

A story 10 years in the making

Measuring societal zeitgeist by counting mood words across millions of books correlates with the economic misery index shifted forward a decade. "When are we most miserable, according to literature? Ten to eleven years after an economic downturn." Paper: Books Average Previous Decade of Economic Misery.
posted by stbalbach at 10:19 PM PST - 10 comments

It's like Airbnb for tents

"Camp In My Garden is the only online garden camping community in the world. It was launched in April 2011 with an open invitation to all. As a member of this community you can advertise your own garden as a campsite and/or book accommodation in other community members' gardens."
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 9:29 PM PST - 17 comments

Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital

Then and now. "...although many photographs feature patients simply sitting still and doing nothing, an inert pastime that increased greatly with the discovery of Thorazine...."
posted by HuronBob at 8:53 PM PST - 6 comments

Run Around Heaven Way Out West

2009 International Barbershop Champions the Crossroads Quartet sings Little Patch of Heaven for the Dapper Dans at Disney world while on vacation.
posted by Lutoslawski at 7:52 PM PST - 11 comments

Pure, uncut animal photos (and stories)

The Dodo is a new website by Kerry Lauerman (former Salon editor-in-chief) and Izzie Lerer (of the Lerer family) about animals, and particularly about humanity's relationship with animals: We think of them less as objects at our disposal, as science increasingly reveals them to be intelligent, emotional, social beings that are not as different from us as we used to think they were. Its lead article today is an essay by Glenn Greenwald (previously) on the dogs he and his partner David Miranda have fostered at their home in Brazil. And, as you might expect, there are also heartwarming posts such as this one about elephants being reunited after 20 years apart.
posted by Cash4Lead at 6:00 PM PST - 10 comments

The science-fiction part of the show is that the Machine is accurate

“Person Of Interest”: The TV Show That Predicted Edward Snowden
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 5:33 PM PST - 59 comments

Toy anatomy

Ever wonder what was inside the Pillsbury Dough Boy? Well, now you can find out!
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:40 PM PST - 30 comments

Model View Culture

Model View Culture is a new online publication that concerns itself with technology, culture and diversity. [more inside]
posted by tempythethird at 4:23 PM PST - 2 comments

Biblical Balaam's Historical Existence Proven, Covered Up

So as not to bury the lede, Dutch archaeologists Found a 2,800 year old document that corroborates the Old Testament story of Balaam. Some background: Balaam was a guy in the bible. He had a talking donkey and, according to some, was constipated. [more inside]
posted by bluejayway at 4:00 PM PST - 68 comments

Wilderness Women

Every year, women come from all over North America to prove themselves in Alaska's wildest competition [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:39 PM PST - 4 comments

"Even to observe neutrality, you must have a strong government."

Court strikes down FCC's net neutrality rules
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:20 PM PST - 141 comments

Could it get some wind for the sailboat?

Five kneeplays, four acts, no intermission. Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach, courtesy of Culturebox on FranceTV. This is from the 2012 Pomegranate Arts production. For more, there's Great Performances at the Met's production of Satyagraha. Previously.
posted by a person of few words at 3:17 PM PST - 43 comments

A Dingo Ate Australia

Australia’s prowling predator is either a vicious wild dog that attacks children and devours farm animals, or a loving and devoted pet as cuddly as a kitten. It just depends on whom you ask.
posted by Chutzler at 2:51 PM PST - 16 comments

Get familiar with our phylogeny

Organisms Do Evolve. An evolution-themed parody of "Wrecking Ball" (possibly nsfw) by Carin Bondar.
posted by homunculus at 2:20 PM PST - 12 comments

Ice flow nowhere to go

Stuck in the Antarctic ice we set out to study - Erik van Sebille of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013 describes his fieldwork in Antarctica. The Guardian has extensive coverage of the expedition, including visiting the remains of a previous expedition, how they became icebound, and their rescue.
posted by Artw at 2:00 PM PST - 17 comments

Philosophy For A Happy Life

Inspirational Sam Berns, who suffered from the premature ageing disease progeria, has passed away at the age of 17.
posted by gman at 1:51 PM PST - 20 comments

The Politics of the Superhero

"This symposium explores the relationship of superheroes to questions of power, ideology, social relations, and political culture. It represents the first time that a political science journal has devoted sustained attention to the superhero genre as it is reflected in the pages of comic books and graphic novels, and on the big screen." -- PS: Political Science & Politics holds a symposium on The Politics of the Superhero. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 1:36 PM PST - 43 comments

You are the one that decides what defines you

When I was in high school I found a video that somebody posted of me labeling me the world's ugliest woman. There were over 4 million views of this video. [more inside]
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 1:34 PM PST - 22 comments

Jupiter in motion, as photographed and drawn from Earth

Redditor bubbleweed took a five and half hour time-lapse of Jupiter, and made this gif to show Jupiter from Io's frame of reference [WARNING: 4.6mb GIF | alternate: 60kb HTML5 video]. But why simply photograph Jupiter, when you can take the time to really know the planet and draw it, repeatedly, as Frédéric Burgeot has done. His work included a flat texture map* which Pascal Chauvet turned into an animated version of Jupiter (Vimeo). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:49 AM PST - 21 comments

Double Deuce | April 1917| Woodhouse discharged | That's a lot of scalps

Operation War Diary is the newest crowdsourced science effort from Zooniverse, cataloging WWI British soldiers' war diaries from the Western Front. Participants can help tag dates, locations, people, and events from 1.5 million pages of war diaries from the Western Front. Entries range from the uneventful (October 24 | PONT DU HEM | 5:30 am | Occupied same position. Did not fire all day) to the eventful (A & B cleared the village and the regiment eventually captured the convoy in the wood about a mile on after it had been headed back by a returning movement of 12th Lancers. In all 200 prisoners). [more inside]
posted by univac at 11:05 AM PST - 11 comments

exploded kernel-shrapnel that gets stuck in your teeth

The Five Varieties of Internet Contrarians.
posted by griphus at 10:52 AM PST - 85 comments

Be A Part of His-Story

On January 25th, San Francisco will host its first ever Mr. Transman competition, following the success of the third annual NYC Mr. Transman event.
Contestants include James Darling, founder of this very NSFW site for transmasculine porn; Lynne Breedlove, founder of the punk band Tribe 8; Mason J, gender diversity speaker and activist; and Loren, the photographer behind the book Body Alchemy
Judges include author Michelle Tea, who has been writing a series on getting pregnant as a queer over forty; Brontez Purnell of the punk band The Younger Lovers (video); singer/songwriter Shawna Virago; and genderqueer porn performer and model Jiz Lee (NSFW). [more inside]
posted by Juliet Banana at 10:49 AM PST - 15 comments

"Disaster! I mean... Fail-iest pass of all time!"

John Green of Mental Floss presents: 30 Life Hacks Debunked [more inside]
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:16 AM PST - 126 comments

Earworms the likes of which even God has never heard

Jeff Atwood presents Music to (Not) Code By [more inside]
posted by Iridic at 9:59 AM PST - 57 comments

“If the state is neutral, its agents must be neutral.”

Public hearings of Quebec's controversial Charter of Values is set to begin today. The proposal of Charter of Values seems to be a divisive issue in the province for native Francophones, Anglophones, and allophones. It has led to a rise of ugly incidents. Previously.
posted by Kitteh at 9:36 AM PST - 45 comments

A Vimeo short about love and loss

I went through a pretty rough break up this year and it was not great. I wrote and made this in the midst of all that. It's a tombstone and love letter and I hope you enjoy it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:27 AM PST - 16 comments

Snow is truly a sign of mourning

Melting glaciers in northern Italy reveal corpses of WW1 soldiers In the decades that followed the armistice, the world warmed up and the glaciers began to retreat, revealing the debris of the White War. The material that, beginning in the 1990s, began to flood out of the mountains was remarkably well preserved.
posted by MrVisible at 9:06 AM PST - 12 comments

You'll just get another ship anyway

Make it so!
posted by Chrysostom at 8:41 AM PST - 7 comments

Making Your Own Fun

A tumblr collecting unusual ways to play videogames.
posted by zamboni at 8:19 AM PST - 22 comments

I Was Told There Would Be No Math

M.I.T. professor Max Tegmark explores the possibility that math does not just describe the universe, but makes the universe.
posted by COD at 8:06 AM PST - 113 comments

The Winter [Olympics] is Coming

Tywin Lannister Narrates an Epic Winter Olympics Promo
posted by meowzilla at 7:42 AM PST - 48 comments

Stinkor. The He-Man Canonical villan who still stinks

Almost 30 years after original sale, some 80's toys are sought after for their less than pleasant odour. If you can get hold of one today, you'll discover that the He-Man villains Stinkor and Moss Man still cling to their particular [pungent] aroma. [more inside]
posted by Faintdreams at 7:38 AM PST - 68 comments

Poe, Doré, their Raven and Paris.

If you're planning to visit Paris, le Musée d'Orsay, after the polemic Masculin/Masculin, will open next month a new exhibition: Gustave Doré (1832-1883): The Power of the Imagination, and it’s likely there will be a renewed focus on the dark romanticism of the 19th-century French artist. Some of Gustave Doré’s most haunting engravings were for Edgar Allan Poe. And about Poe's Raven that inspired Doré, you can see more at Hyperallergic. Now you know: From February 18 to May 11. Musée d'Orsay, Paris
posted by gbenard at 7:12 AM PST - 13 comments

The United States versus The Spirit of '76

Inspired by Griffith's Birth of a Nation, costume company owner Robert Goldstein decided to make an inspirational, patriotic movie about the Revolutionary War. May 1917 proved to be wrong time to debut his film. [more inside]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:10 AM PST - 20 comments

#Tweets

Minnesota Birdsong: An interactive poster Cute interface with birdsong content provided by the always amazing Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
posted by Miko at 6:55 AM PST - 12 comments

We had some good years

Over his long career, the renowned photojournalist Art Shay, 91, has taken thousands of photographs of kings, presidents, Hollywood celebs, and sports stars—chronicling people’s lives and news stories all over the world for such magazines as Time, Life, and Chicago. But his favorite subject of all was his wife of 67 years, Florence. Sometimes Florence would be the focal point of his photos—front and center, smiling, dancing, or reading. Life Through a Leica
posted by timshel at 6:46 AM PST - 7 comments

Toast is therapeutic

How did toast become the latest artisanal food craze? Comfort, coffee, coconuts and grapefruit.
posted by hawthorne at 6:39 AM PST - 155 comments

Doing the locomotion

John Goatstream has posted a video titled Flexible Muscle-Based Locomotion for Bipedal Creatures on Vimeo, showing the results from a self-learning program that explores different gaits for bipedal creatures. In addition to showing the fruits of serious research for the good people at the Siggraph Asia 2013 conference, it has some hilarious walking creatures.
posted by Harald74 at 12:25 AM PST - 48 comments

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