January 22, 2013

I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture.

In Golden Waters, Fatlantis and Libertopia are Something Awful goon-written short story collections (and a short story) about the predicted failure of libertarian separatist colonies. They're inspired by the Seasteading Institute, a group that wants to build a floating libertarian island (and yes, they did inspire China Mieville's 'The Scar'). They should serve as a warning to Glenn Beck, who intends to create a self-sustaining community called Independence Park. The Goon fiction has already started, but its more likely to succeed than The Citadel, a proposed survivalist gun fortress in Idaho. Bonus SA short story collection: Aluminum Sky, a series about the Malatorans, a group who wanted to build an island where they could put their brains into robot cyborg dragon bodies.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 10:50 PM PST - 75 comments

Ecce homo

"Footage of Pope John Paul at an indoor batting cage during his 1987 visit to California"
posted by growabrain at 10:29 PM PST - 38 comments

where MAKING THIS HAPPEN

The legendarily shitty webcomic Sweet Bro and Helpful Hella Jeff is now available as a LAVISHLY HEDONISTIC HARDCOVER BOOK that comes with insiteful author notes, fake Subway coubons, and both a 3-foot ribbone bookmark and a lenticular bookmark. The press release goes into more detail about the book's horrendously shitty excesses, including the four separate webcomic legends who were involved in its makings. And there's a preview trailer which is probably unnecessary but still worth it.
posted by Rory Marinich at 10:01 PM PST - 36 comments

The Balancing Act of Being Female; Or,

Why We Have So Many Clothes
posted by eviemath at 8:21 PM PST - 188 comments

Goodnight Sweetheart Goodnight

Puppies fall asleep with a little help.
posted by nadawi at 8:21 PM PST - 35 comments

"Islamic men interested in men who live in Tehran"

Actual Facebook Graph Searches.
posted by spitefulcrow at 8:11 PM PST - 70 comments

"The teacher, the hitman, and the questions that remain..."

Nicole Ryan, a Nova Scotia teacher, offered a hit man $25,000 to bump off her husband because the police would not protect her from his abuse (longer, audio only). In her first 2010 trial, where she raised the defense of duress, she was aquitted; the Crown's 2011 appeal of that acquittal was dismissed, and her third 2013 trial resulted in a stay. But the victim didn't go on the stand to tell his side of the story. [more inside]
posted by saucysault at 6:14 PM PST - 77 comments

Why I Love Saturn

Comics visionary Kyle Baker has just put all his creator-owned properties online, to be read for free.
posted by Shepherd at 5:21 PM PST - 42 comments

Like Lazarus with a triple bypass

Amazing Stories, "the World's First Science Fiction Magazine", founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1926 and cancelled in 1995, and resurrected in 1998 and again in 2004 before being cancelled again by Paizo Publishing in 2006, is back -- again. Amazing is now a website, claiming to have "more than 50 bloggers covering the field from more than 50 different perspectives". The idea is to develop an online following and release a print version. Bonus cover galleries from the Golden Age
posted by Mezentian at 5:08 PM PST - 13 comments

Nuclear War: A Guide To Armageddon

Nuclear War: A Guide To Armageddon This 1982 documentary looks at the effects of a 1 MT nuke detonating a mile above London's St Paul's Cathedral. Written and produced by "Threads" director Mick Jackson. Ludovic Kennedy narrates. Previously. Meta.
posted by KokuRyu at 4:05 PM PST - 46 comments

Dark sarcasm

[soundcloud] Classical piano take on Pink Floyd by The Royal Academy of Music Master’s Degree Graduate Aysedeniz Gokcin. -via-
posted by maggieb at 2:57 PM PST - 23 comments

Roll for Initiative!

Dungeons and Dragons Classics -- First Edition. Second Edition. Third and Fourth Editions. Even Basic and Expert sets. Psionics, Magics, Ninja and Samurai, Are you looking for modules? Come on down to DnD Classics! Wizards of the Coast has decided to release D&D sourcebooks as PDFs for your enjoyment and reminiscence.
posted by boo_radley at 2:42 PM PST - 118 comments

momentary unguarded reflection

New Yorkers Caught Checking Themselves Out. Photographer Brad Farwell hid behind a two-way mirror at four different Manhattan locations: the Bowery, Midtown, NoLIta, and the Lower East Side. About 1 in 20, he says, paused to gaze. [more inside]
posted by farishta at 2:42 PM PST - 128 comments

"inventing new characters the way Doritos invents extreme flavors"

Has Slate's well known, some would say even cliched, contrarism jumped the shark, now they've gone so far as to defend Rob Liefeld? [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 2:21 PM PST - 52 comments

When admission of liability is a risk.

Credit Rating Agencies and their role after the Crisis
It was the rating agencies that assigned super safe ("triple A") ratings to complex financial instruments. When these blew up, the agencies accepted no responsibility, claiming they had merely been expressing "opinions".
William J Harrington, who was a senior analyst says he has asked people at Moody's why those responsible weren't fired.
"That would be an admission of liability, I was told.
The Wall Street Journal talks about downgrading the agencies.
posted by adamvasco at 12:44 PM PST - 42 comments

"We want you to take a picture."

This iconic photo of the first Aboriginal woman to enlist in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps was used as a recruitment tool, and "appeared all over the British Empire [in 1942] to show the power of the colonies fighting for King and country." Its original caption in the Canadian War Museum read, "Unidentified Indian princess getting blessing from her chief and father to go fight in the war." Its current caption in The Library and Archives of Canada reads: "Mary Greyeyes being blessed by her native Chief prior to leaving for service in the CWAC, 1942." But as it turns out, the two people in the photo had never met before that day. They weren't from the same tribe or even related and Private Mary Greyeyes was not an "Indian Princess." 70 years after the photo was taken, her daughter-in-law Melanie made sure the official record was corrected. Via [more inside]
posted by zarq at 12:00 PM PST - 13 comments

Don't try to fight it

Dutch TV presenters volunteer to experience the pain of labour at a birthing center. [more inside]
posted by Iteki at 11:10 AM PST - 181 comments

the impossible vocabulary of sorrow

Richard Blanco, a poet, teacher, and engineer, was chosen to be the nation's fifth inaugural poet. He is the author of the collections of poetry "City of a Hundred Fires," "Directions to the Beach of the Dead," "Place of Mind," and "Looking for the Gulf Motel." He is the first immigrant, first Latino, the first openly gay person and the youngest to be the U.S. inaugural poet. The poem he read was "One Today" (full text/analysis)
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:07 AM PST - 28 comments

Spoiler: Everyone Dies

The Timeline of the Far Future is a Wikipedia article which serves as a gateway to a ton of fascinating scientific topics on the far edge of human understanding: ~50,000 years from now the Earth will enter a new Glacial period; ~100,000 years from now the Earth will likely have experienced a supervolcanic eruption; ~10,000,000 years from now the East African Rift divides the continent of Africa in to two land masses; ~20,000,000,000 years from now the Universe effectively dies due to The Big Rip.
posted by codacorolla at 10:42 AM PST - 93 comments

We've got it simple, 'cause we've got a band

Trey Anastasio's guitar rig: Part one, part two. Mike Gordon's bass rig: Part one, part two. Page McConnell's keyboard rig: Part one, part two. Jon Fishman's drum kit: Part one, part two. Phish all together: You Enjoy Myself - Madison Square Garden 2012-12-31. Part improvised prog-rock, part classically structured composition, "You Enjoy Myself" is far and away the boys' most played song, clocking in at 557 plays so far. After their 2004 breakup, Trey is apocryphally quoted as saying that he didn't want to go around playing YEM for the rest of his life; in a Rolling Stone interview on the eve of their reunion he reversed on this, saying "I would give my left nut to play that song five times in a row every day until I die." [more inside]
posted by Lorin at 10:38 AM PST - 49 comments

Risk

Two weeks ago, Lee Thompson ("Uncle Poodle" of Honey Boo Boo fame) gave an interview stating that he had successfully prosecuted his ex-boyfriend for transmitting HIV to him. Now, one blogger has come out saying that Uncle Poodle might actually be lying. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:12 AM PST - 38 comments

Journalist and artists labeled as terrorists for creating comic book

In 2010, journalist David Axe spent a month in the Congo reporting on the Lord's Resistance Army. When he returned, he wrote a book titled "Army of God: Joseph Kony's War in Central Africa", illustrated by Tim Hamilton and edited by Matt Bors. The book first appeared online, but the paperback rights were acquired by publisher Public Affairs, with plans to publish an expanded edition in 2013. The deal included an advance, which was wired to Hamilton's account. That's where the U.S. Treasury department comes in. Specifically, The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). [more inside]
posted by dejah420 at 8:22 AM PST - 45 comments

PICK UP THE SOCK, THEN THROW THE SOCK, I'LL CATCH THE SOCK, AND BRING BA

Dogs Like Socks [slyt]
posted by quin at 5:42 AM PST - 35 comments

What, Me Worry?

Every year, Edge.org asks a question. This year's is:"What *Should* We Be Worried About?" The responses are things like "Chinese Eugenics," "We Are In Denial About Catastrophic Risks," "Worry About Internet Drivel," "The Patience Deficit," "The Power Of Bad Incentives," "The Complex, Consequential, Not-So-Easy Decisions About Our Water Resources," and "The Cultural And Cognitive Consequences Of Electronics." They are from people like Nassim Nicholas Taleb, David Rowan, Evgeny Morozov, Kate Jeffery, Vernor Vinge, Bruce Schneier, Alison Gopnik, Steven Pinker, Virginia Heffernan and Simon Baron-Cohen. There are 154 answers. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:13 AM PST - 97 comments

Métafiltre, DemanderMéta and ParlerMéta

For non-anglophones, the English names of worldwide brands, music bands and other cultural items are both ubiquitous and slightly mysterious. Here what the English (plus some German, Spanish and Japanese) names of 52 brands/logotypes and 30 musicians/records look like when very loosely and somewhat lazily translated in French. Some extras can be found in the comments (note: annoying pop-up at the start).
posted by elgilito at 1:04 AM PST - 72 comments

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