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The legendary Dick Dale covers Amazing Grace, 12/09 in a Studio Session on NPR's KEXP. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 9:50 PM PST - 22 comments

Why being sleepy and drunk are great for creativity.
posted by latkes at 9:04 PM PST - 37 comments

"I can tell you that the days of of white, wealthy, upper-class [Smith] students from prep schools in cashmere coats and pearls who marry Amherst men are over. This is unfortunate because it is this demographic that puts their name on buildings, donates great art and subsidizes scholarships." Anne Spurzem, Smith College '84, reacts to news about the increase in diversity at her alma mater during President Carol Christ's tenure while Christ prepares to step down in 2013. Unsurprisingly, Spurzem's comments have caused an uproar among students and alumnae, leading to the creation of the Pearls and Cashmere Tumblr, which celebrates the diversity feared by Spurzem. Meanwhile, President Christ has responded to Spurzem's allegations in an open letter to to the Smith community.
posted by peripathetic at 7:17 PM PST - 148 comments

1. Find 5 very cute children.
2. Teach them how to play the guitar, and play it well.
3. Find a catchy little song for them to play.
5. Profit Nightmare.
posted by HuronBob at 6:44 PM PST - 66 comments

African-American fiddler Joe Thompson, probably the last living link to the black string band tradition of the 19th century, has died at the grand old age of 93. Hear Joe and his cousin, banjoist Odell (who passed on back in 1994) offer some reminiscences on the origins of their music, and a spirited rendition of Cindy Gal. Here's the short but sweet and deliciously ragged Old Corn Liquor. Hear Joe and Odell in concert in 1988, part one and part two, and this little ditty from a living room in 1987. And there's... [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:33 PM PST - 9 comments

"So why do all the girls have to buy pink stuff and all the boys have to buy different color stuff?"
Little Girl Getting Pissed Off At Gender-Specific Toy Colors (via)
posted by dunkadunc at 6:06 PM PST - 79 comments

Jenny Johnson, of Twitter fame, now writes a column for Grantland.com. In it, she pontificates on weighty issues, such as gingers, Derek Jeter's dating life, and the reason why she hates Valentine's Day flower deliveries at the office.
posted by reenum at 5:26 PM PST - 54 comments

Man Walks All Day to Create Spectacular Snow Patterns
posted by signal at 4:57 PM PST - 22 comments

Photographs of Paperclips
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:36 PM PST - 19 comments

The local rate of self-defense killings now stands 2,200 percent above the national average in Detroit.
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 4:00 PM PST - 62 comments

KLM introduces Meet & Seat. Choose your seat-mate with Facebook!
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 4:00 PM PST - 37 comments

150 things to read, watch and listen to, so you don’t die of boredom this summer... according to Sassy Magazine, July 1990.
posted by mippy at 3:50 PM PST - 89 comments

"Elections Canada has traced fraudulent phone calls made during the federal election to an Edmonton voice-broadcast company that worked for the Conservative Party across the country." --National Post
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:55 PM PST - 68 comments

The nutrition puzzle Why do so many people in poor countries eat so badly—and what can be done about it?
posted by storybored at 2:26 PM PST - 10 comments

David Pogue weighed in yesterday about the Nightline piece on the terrible working conditions in Apple's subcontractor factories in China. Mike Daisey has been trying to engage with Mr. Pogue, but it hasn't gone well. Here's his final response to Mr. Pogue's story.
posted by garlic at 1:33 PM PST - 152 comments

Rap legend Too Short has made a career in rap documenting the business of prostitution. In the wake of criticism over a video interview on XXL in which he gave advice on committing sexual assault, he sat down with critic Dream Hampton for a frank discussion that he calls "a wake up call" (possible triggers).
posted by chrchr at 1:31 PM PST - 79 comments

Train announcements can be boring and routine. A couple of NY Times bloggers decided to let their readers suggest some alternatives and then had the voice of NY's subway system, Bernie Wagenblast, record several. (I read Bernie's Transportation Communications Newsletter, but don't know him personally).
posted by agatha_magatha at 1:18 PM PST - 17 comments

A full-length feature film has been made based on the infamous "WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me." meme. The film, Safety Not Guaranteed [IMDB], will screen at SXSW. (Previously.)
posted by patr1ck at 1:06 PM PST - 20 comments

"Over eighty percent of silent films are lost. I’ve always considered a lost film as a narrative with no known final resting place... It’s eventually occurred to me that the best way to see them would to make contact with their miserable spirits and invite them to possess me." Filmmaker Guy Maddin is summoning the ghosts of lost silents at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, with a cast including Udo Kier and Charlotte Rampling -- and streaming the results live on the web. [more inside]
posted by muckster at 12:34 PM PST - 6 comments

The International Atomic Energy Agency says that Iran has tripled its production of >20% enriched uranium in the past three months, while adding 2,600 new uranium centrifuges to its main enrichment facility in Natanz. The agency has not received a "satisfactory explanation" of how 20kg of uranium metal went missing from an Iranian research laboratory. Iran has been blocking IAEA inspections, and the agency "is unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities". In recent years, Russia and China have chosen to limit UN sanctions against Iran, whose government denies it aims to make atomic weapons.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:54 AM PST - 220 comments

Paul McGann reads the first 30 minutes of VURT by Jeff Noon
posted by Artw at 11:06 AM PST - 34 comments

Transparency Life Sciences is a startup drug development company trying to design clinical trials via an open source approach. [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges at 11:04 AM PST - 11 comments

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax [previously] has been licensed to advertise an SUV.
posted by finite at 11:02 AM PST - 139 comments

Starring the Computer is a website dedicated to the use of computers in film and television. Each appearance is catalogued and rated on its importance (ie. how important it is to the plot), realism (how close its appearance and capabilities are to the real thing) and visibility (how good a look does one get of it). Fictional computers don't count (unless they are built out of bits of real computer), so no HAL9000 - sorry. (See also: computers in fiction)
posted by filthy light thief at 10:54 AM PST - 22 comments

This is What a Librarian Looks Like (SLT)
posted by mrgrimm at 10:41 AM PST - 37 comments

The BBC has produced a fabulous infographic showing the ocean zones: Sunlight, Twilight, Midnight, Lower Midnight, and The Trenches. The page also includes videos showing: what happens to material at 100, 1000, and 10,000 meters down; the animals living in the Abyssal Plains (described in a lovely Scottish accent); and the story of Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh going down to the Mariana Trench in 1960. No one has been back there since, but director James Cameron and Richard Branson are among the contenders who are going to make a go of it. (Rumour has it that Cameron intends to be the sole person in the sub, while Branson is just financing a team.) Meanwhile, the Doer team (backed by Eric Schmidt of Google), says it's all about the science and not just being first in this century's race. And there's even a yellow submarine for the rest of us, if by "rest of us" one means "has $250,000 to spare for a single trip". Don't forget to click the links at the top of the infographic page to see everything.
posted by maudlin at 10:35 AM PST - 17 comments

Happy birthday to Nancy Bea Hefley, the LA Dodgers stadium organist since 1988!
posted by hermitosis at 10:17 AM PST - 5 comments

IKEA US' first official assembly video (SLYT)
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:17 AM PST - 48 comments

Planning of Municipal Bus Line 11A Three Weeks Into the First Ron Paul Administration. "Stop 3: Union Street to Walk Hill Street – It depends on your definition of “impassible.” Since the Postal Service was disbanded and PCP was legalized on the same day, roving bands of rival mail carriers seem to behead each other a lot in this area. I guess I’m saying it depends on any given driver’s tolerance for driving around severed heads." [more inside]
posted by mreleganza at 10:13 AM PST - 17 comments

Last week, Kraftwerk announced eight concerts of eight full albums in eight days at the Museum of Modern Art. Each individual would be allotted a maximum of two tickets for one night. On Wednesday, tickets went on Sale at noon and due to the incredible demand, things went downhill immediately. ShowClix, the ticket retailer attributed it to server stress and at 1:21 PM announced that all eight shows had sold out. Many unhappy customers vented on ShowClix Facebook page. Today, Showclix CEO Joshua Dziabiak issued an apology for the "hours [you spent] in front of your computer watching a spinning wheel." Meanwhile, scalpers are peddling tickets for up to over $42,000, although some less expensive tickets may be available.
posted by griphus at 10:03 AM PST - 32 comments

Not Guilty! Not exactly innocent... Ryan Braun, the left fielder for the Milwaukee Brewers, won the Most Valuable Player award in 2011. Through a test report that was leaked to the New York Times, it was learned that Braun had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. He has repeated that he is innocent and rumors have swirled around what supplement he was taking that could have lead to a false positive. His suspension was overturned today because of a technicality. "There was improper protocol followed in the collection of Braun's urine, the persons said, noting the collection was stored and refrigerated at the home of one of the drug administers, but not sent immediately to the drug testing lab." The reaction to this is mixed.
posted by zerobyproxy at 9:51 AM PST - 88 comments

The Public Domain Review is one year old as of Jan 1, 2012. It's like a mashup of New York/London Review of Books, Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive. Contributors. Previously.
posted by stbalbach at 9:43 AM PST - 10 comments

You have woken up in a dark room.
posted by flex at 9:01 AM PST - 34 comments

At Ross Nanotechnology, we have developed a super hydrophobic coating that completely repels water and heavy oils. Any object coated with our NeverWet™ coating literally cannot be touched by liquid. Any liquid placed on this coating is repelled and simply rolls off without touching the underlying surface. Not only is this amazing to see, but it solves a myriad of problems.
posted by leigh1 at 8:51 AM PST - 85 comments

During Bob Dylan’s tour for his third LP, The Times They Are a-Changin’, released in January 1964, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation offered him a half-hour special in which to promote the album. More info.
posted by timshel at 8:27 AM PST - 20 comments

If you use Americanisms just to show you know them, people may find you a tad tiresome, so be discriminating.
You may have to think harder if you are not to use jargon, but you can still be precise.
Use all metaphors, dead or alive, sparingly, otherwise you will make trouble for yourself.
Some words add nothing but length to your prose.

(Notes from The Economist's style guide.)
posted by Joey Bagels at 7:47 AM PST - 126 comments

This is a collection of the smaller details of art works. Imagine using macro lenses on a Van der Weyden or Van Gogh. It's another way of looking at (of seeing) well-known pieces: hemlines, hands, veins, the curve of a shoulder. Also: texture and facial expressions. [more inside]
posted by pleasebekind at 7:40 AM PST - 4 comments

Google glasses coming soon.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:30 AM PST - 109 comments

The 41 most common cooking/baking mistakes
posted by Renoroc at 7:26 AM PST - 117 comments

8-Bit Daft Punk
posted by empath at 6:45 AM PST - 31 comments

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled yesterday [.pdf] that a citizen's refusal to decrypt encrypted drives is protected by the Fifth Amendment, at least under some circumstances. In doing so it reversed the district court's contempt order entered against a John Doe defendant after he refused to decrypt his laptop hard drive and five external hard drives in response to a subpoena. This decision arguably conflicts with an earlier decision in which a district court in Vermont required a defendant to provide the password to his encrypted drives. The Eleventh Circuit distinguishes the earlier case on the basis that the government in that case knew of the existence of the files and simply couldn't access them, while in the recent case the government did not know the names of files or even whether or not files actually existed on the encrypted drives.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:20 AM PST - 89 comments

An interactive map of the celebrity recolonization of Africa. (via)
posted by infini at 5:52 AM PST - 30 comments

Z: I have a house in Farnborough
Z: help me get home
Z: help me escape
Z: help me escape
Z: help me escape
Z: help me escape

YOU EVIL DEMON! OPEN THIS TANK! GIVE ME MY LIFE BACK! I NEVER SHOULD HAVE AGREED TO HELP YOU; I NEVER SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN INTO THIS DAMN TANK. YOU TOLD ME YOU’D LET ME OUT!!! [more inside]
posted by Foci for Analysis at 5:41 AM PST - 54 comments

Axel Braun has released Star Wars XXX. [more inside]
posted by chavenet at 2:31 AM PST - 110 comments

Between Roses in Mumbai. [more inside]
posted by tavegyl at 2:01 AM PST - 9 comments

The Great Singapore Penis Panic has been short-listed.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:44 AM PST - 14 comments