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When Barack Obama is sworn in to office for a second term today, he will use two bibles: One owned by Abraham Lincoln, and second bible, used by Martin Luther King Jr.
Cornel West explains why Obama taking the oath with Martin Luther King Jr's Bible bothers him.
posted by dunkadunc at 9:37 PM PST - 229 comments

The Cypherpunk Revolutionary: Julian Assange is a long essay that connects Julian Assange to the pro-cryptography activist cypherpunks and quotes extensively from his old online posts. Further reading: The Cyphernomicon and Assange's MARUTUKKU cryptographic mythology.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:21 PM PST - 28 comments

17 Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes You Never Hear
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:43 PM PST - 32 comments

Perhaps you've seen this youtube video of Hunter Davis's Sir Ian McKellen imitation (if Sir Ian were to perform Baby Got Back). Hunter Davis came to a radio station to do an interview, and then the real Sir Ian called in - but turned out to be fake. And then the real Sir Ian actually called in - or was he a fake too? [more inside]
posted by insectosaurus at 7:43 PM PST - 10 comments

Love the United States? Want to share? Hate the United States? Want to share? Here's your two for one website! [more inside]
posted by Atreides at 5:14 PM PST - 36 comments

Malaria, a short "motion comic" that bends the boundaries of what that means. "Malaria" is a short film/motion comic by Edson Oda. It's unlike any motion comic you've ever seen, and you need to watch it without knowing what's coming.
posted by HostBryan at 4:37 PM PST - 27 comments

Homelessness activist Diane Nilan and progressive activist and former Green Party candidate Pat LaMarche are embarking on a tour around the southwestern US to call attention to homeless children and youth in crisis. [more inside]
posted by eviemath at 2:05 PM PST - 10 comments

"The Reconstructionists, a collaboration between illustrator Lisa Congdon and writer Maria Popova, is a yearlong celebration of remarkable women — beloved artists, writers, and scientists, as well as notable unsung heroes — who have changed the way we define ourselves as a culture and live our lives as individuals of any gender. Every Monday in 2013, we'll be publishing an illustrated portrait of one such trailblazing woman, along with a hand-lettered quote that captures her spirit and a short micro-essay about her life and legacy."
posted by cheerwine at 2:00 PM PST - 8 comments

Visual artist Nick Cave (not of The Bad Seeds) worked together for months with students across various departments of the University of North Texas to present Heard, a visual and musical burst of vibrancy based on Cave's childhood experiences of colouring in horses and being told by his mother: "It doesn’t matter if it’s pink. If he wants it to be pink, it can be pink.". And not just pink, even.
posted by divabat at 1:29 PM PST - 16 comments

"I certainly believe that the White House would like nothing more than to see an end to mass gun murders in America's elementary schools. But the fact remains that gun violence takes place every day, all across this country, at a rate of dozens of deaths a day, and as the leading cause of death among African-American youth. But when the vice president establishes a task force on gun control and violence that includes the media industries that the NRA has once again chosen as their patsies after a particularly heinous and public example of gun violence, all it can do is shift attention away from guns." -- How the video game industry has lost out in the gun control debate.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:54 PM PST - 258 comments

North Korea has been called the world's most repressive state [previously], but every year, two to three thousand North Koreans manage to escape to South Korea. Recognizing the potential for disorientation among the refugees and disruption for South Korean society, in 1999 the government's Unification Ministry set up a mandatory resettlement program called Hanawon--"one people". (It also screens the newcomers carefully for spies.) Last year, due to growing need, the government opened another Hanawon centre. [more inside]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:28 PM PST - 17 comments

The ballad of Red Buckets. "Richard Mason was a high school kid in Boston when he formed his band Insteps and recorded his first songs sounding much like the early Cure. ... Red Buckets began at University of Pennsylvania around 1982, and eventually brought Richard and the band into the context of Crazy Rhythms-era Feelies, the Hoboken music scene at Maxwell’s, Dream Syndicate passing through, and the proto-Yo La Tengo record machine."
posted by mykescipark at 11:50 AM PST - 2 comments

The Bronx Zoo is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society, which boasts of running more than 500 projects in sixty-five countries through global field offices whose employees work to advance sustainable development; address issues of global climate change, health and well-being, and natural-resource use; and pursue other noble-sounding objectives that attest to the totality of man’s dominion over the lesser beasts. [more inside]
posted by latkes at 11:05 AM PST - 30 comments

Take a copy of Monopoly, cover it in lye for a few days, boil from off the bones whatever flesh remains, and give the clean white skeleton a tasteful, minimalist paintjob, and you end up with ONOPO, an extreme reduction of the original boardgame by Metafilter's own Matthew Hollett, aka oulipian. Via mefi projects, hat tip to fastcodesign c/o Rock Paper Shotgun's always-lovely Sunday Papers feature.
posted by cortex at 10:40 AM PST - 56 comments

"A nanoscale coating that's at least 95 percent air repels the broadest range of liquids of any material in its class, causing them to bounce off the treated surface...". Video of the coating in action.
posted by Evernix at 10:27 AM PST - 47 comments

A Cat’s 200-Mile Trek Home Leaves Scientists Guessing [NYTimes.com] "Nobody knows how it happened: an indoor housecat who got lost on a family excursion managing, after two months and about 200 miles, to return to her hometown."
posted by Fizz at 9:28 AM PST - 104 comments

The Texas Freedom Network reports [pdf] on some of the repercussions of the Texas state legislature's House Bill 1287, which allows for an expansion of the role of religion in the Texas public school curriculum.
posted by Rykey at 9:21 AM PST - 38 comments

For a stamp celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, designer Gail Anderson turned to a printing technique of the period, the classic wood types of Hatch Show Print (previously).
posted by Horace Rumpole at 7:42 AM PST - 7 comments

Why Everybody Films at the Same Damn NY Chinese Restaurant. You know, the one that doesn't actually exist.
posted by Mchelly at 7:25 AM PST - 93 comments

Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights slowed down to 36 minutes long.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 7:04 AM PST - 27 comments

Arya, Sansa and Bran Stark rap and beatbox to the opening credits of Game of Thrones.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:13 AM PST - 19 comments

Mundo Melhor contains a wealth of video, photos etc related to the contemporary practice of Brazilian music. Site is in Portuguese. Annoying auto-play widget needs to be turned off manually on every page
posted by stonepharisee at 5:07 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

If you've never done the Wingate-cycle test, let me try to explain what it feels like: It feels like your legs are giving birth. It feels like you've got an eight-martini hangover in your calves. Your face contorts like a porn star in an AVN-award-winning threesome scene. You emit noises that resemble feedback at a thrash-metal concert. Maybe your eyes are closed and you're rocking your head back and forth. The upside: It's over in 30 seconds. ... I rode the Wingate cycle as part of my research on a surprising and potentially life-altering theory called high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Think of it as the Evelyn Wood of exercise. The idea is that lightning-quick intense workouts might be as good for you as — if not better than — longer medium-intensity workouts.

[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:42 AM PST - 79 comments

"Escape From Tomorrow" is playing at the Sundance 2013 Film Festival. The black and white movie describes one family man's mental disintegration over a day at Disney's Orlando park. Randy Moore directed the film on-site without the knowledge of Disney. Reviews are generally good, with comparisons to The Truman Show and Eraserhead, though people who have seen it wonder how this will play out legally. [more inside]
posted by Wordshore at 2:10 AM PST - 33 comments