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The 21 Steps is a spy thriller short story that is told using Google Maps. [via mefi projects]
posted by brain_drain at 10:34 PM PST - 20 comments

Charlie Rose Suffers Black Eye to save Mac Book Air Charlie Rose fell while walking on a NYC street the other day. He tripped in a pot hole. Rose happened to be holding his new Mac Book Air. On the way to the ground he chose to protect the laptop, rather than his million dollar face. Picture on Salon link. {via salon.com}
posted by doug3505 at 10:24 PM PST - 44 comments

Controlled Safety Test Fireworks Videos : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
posted by Dave Faris at 8:11 PM PST - 35 comments

Top Ten Fan-Made "Sweded" Films Featuring: Predator, Star Wars, Blade Runner, Die Hard, Back to the Future, Goldfinger, Total Recall, Jurassic Park, Armageddon, Lord of the Rings and Terminator 2.
posted by miss lynnster at 8:03 PM PST - 24 comments

Dave Grohl for President!
posted by loquacious at 7:39 PM PST - 36 comments

If burying Old Blue or Fluffy in the backyard just doesn't seem good enough, don't worry, for anywhere between $6,000 and $128,000, you can have them mummified old school style. Or if having to leave them on display in the living room while you leave the house seems just too hard, you could always wear them. Or of course you could always just have them turned into diamonds.
posted by Lutoslawski at 5:26 PM PST - 32 comments

The Woman Behind the Camera. Film maker Errol Morris, and the New Yorker's Philip Gourevitch look at Sabrina Harman, photographer, and Army MP in Iraq. [more inside]
posted by timsteil at 5:10 PM PST - 19 comments

Any admixture would have to be driven by male Neanderthals. Two years ago we discussed morphological evidence of nontrivial interbreeding. Since then Neanderthal DNA has been examined for genetic support for this model of human evolution, largely contradicting the belief in Neanderthal contribution to modern humanity. Indeed any contribution from the Neanderthal gene pool to the evolution of modern humans might be very rare and indeed it appears that the best candidate gene thus (MC1R) far likely was a result of convergent evolution. [more inside]
posted by wantwit at 4:24 PM PST - 23 comments

As is the custom these days, GMAC Bank is suing mortgage broker HTFC for selling them improperly secured loans. The deposition of HTFC's CEO Aron Wider reads like a Joe Pesci role with 73 creative uses of the f-word over twelve hours of testimony. A federal judge fined Mr. Wider and his attorney $29K for Mr. Wider's constant use of bad language, insults, refusals to answer questions, and his lawyer's failure to control his client.
posted by uaudio at 4:02 PM PST - 53 comments

Great Scenes from TV and Film, Told Using Only Typography (and Sound)
posted by spec80 at 3:14 PM PST - 20 comments

60 Brilliant Typefaces (for corporate design) plus 40 free ones. From Smashing Magazine (prev), which last year presented 80 Beautiful Typefaces for Professional Design [more inside]
posted by criticalbill at 3:05 PM PST - 34 comments

Dual cassette deck DJ. DJ Ramsey of Scottsdale, Arizona does with cassettes what DJ's have done for decades with vinyl records, CDs and mp3s.
posted by basicchannel at 2:08 PM PST - 19 comments

"Now when I screw up, people from all over Charlotte mindlessly come to Belk looking for Magic Johnson." Thee entertaining screw-ups from author and sports columnist Joe Posnanski. [more inside]
posted by whir at 1:23 PM PST - 14 comments

The 400 Million 四萬萬人民 - China, 1938 (53 minutes / sound / black&white / 35mm) Directed: Joris Ivens. Camera: ROBERT CAPA. Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Japanese aggression against China in 1937 forced the Chinese communists and Chiang Kai-shek's Kwomintang to take up the joint battle against their common enemy. With modern weapons the Chinese are pursuing their struggle behind enemy lines. This film shows all aspects of a war: the battle, the preparations, refugees, casualties and victims, the fear and distress, the human misery and the courage, and the land under fire."
posted by vronsky at 1:13 PM PST - 8 comments

Star Wars according to a 3 year old.
posted by dersins at 11:06 AM PST - 100 comments

ElfQuest for free...gradually. The complete ElfQuest comic oeuvre (about 6000 pages) is being released online in batches every friday. The first five issues (a complete 150 page arc in itself), along with some other EQ series's first issues, are already up.
posted by Sparx at 10:11 AM PST - 54 comments

Leroy Shield was a composer from the Hal Roach era of comedies who composed soundtracks for Laurel and Hardy and the Little Rascals, he has one cover, er, orchestra, the Beau Hunks and no less of a fan than Robert Crumb. Check the main website for more sounds and movies.
via WFMU, bonus YouTubery inside [more inside]
posted by 1f2frfbf at 8:17 AM PST - 12 comments

What do we call the period of cleaning that we carry out in the spring? That's right, Discardia! This five-year-old holiday started yesterday and lasts till April 5th. Via Lifehacker, who open the festivities with 10 ways to declutter your digital life.
posted by tomcooke at 7:21 AM PST - 36 comments

Polyglot Michel Thomas came to prominence through his work for the French resistance and the successful interrogation of Nazis (who had formerly imprisoned him). After the war he started to develop (and eventually patent) a method for teaching languages that eschewed notes, books, writing, memorisation and homework. Instead, words and phrases would be built up in lego-like constructions to provide “confidence in hours not years”. He gave private lessons to a long list of A-list celebrities including Woody Allen, Natasha Kinsky, Tony Curtis and Grace Kelly. A BBC documentary from 1997 told his story and tested him out with the less exalted audience of 16 year old London school kids pre-selected to be “incapable of learning a foreign language” by their teachers [YT pt 1, 2, 3, 4]. He was secretive about how his methods worked until the end of his life when he finally made his courses available as audiobooks. [more inside]
posted by rongorongo at 7:00 AM PST - 24 comments

I'm not sure what the exact definition of geek is, but I think "enjoys recharging batteries" has to be very high on that list.
posted by grumblebee at 6:58 AM PST - 55 comments

I didn't know until this morning that icebergs could be striped. However, apparently that's just one of many variations. Here's where to find some and learn more. [More beneath the surface.]
posted by Zinger at 6:38 AM PST - 17 comments

First, a bit of an introduction to the game of Cricket (youtube) for those of us who may not be familiar with the sport. Next, a few clips (1, 2, 3, 4) on how awesome the Gentleman's Game can be (and you thought we didn't do anything but roam around in our white pants and cotton shirts...). But, if that wasn't enough for you, then here's a taste of Twenty20 Cricket (the fast, fast paced version of the game), and the new DLF Indian (pdf) Premier League. (This is in addition to the One Day Matches, which were instituted to bring in a bit more excitement into the game during the 1970's, prior to which the match only consisted of Tests. However, some purists still maintain that the game would've been better served had it not been commercalized to the extent that it has, and still prefer the leisurely pace of the original format to its current incarnation.) [more inside]
posted by hadjiboy at 6:22 AM PST - 56 comments

Labor of Love : when a married couple wanted to start a family and the wife was unable to conceive or carry because of previous surgeries, her husband, who is transgendered and legally male, stopped taking his testosterone and was inseminated.
posted by FunkyHelix at 6:21 AM PST - 118 comments

First, and foremost, here is La Caíta - El Pájaro Negro. Could there be singing anymore heartfelt than this ? I wonder. And here she is, in an ancillary role, with the Amaya family. Also, from Spain, here is Tchavolo Schmitt, Dorado Schmitt & Hono Winterstein - Kali Sara & Tchavolo swing. From Romania, here are Taraf de Haïdouks and, from them, here is Taraf de Haïdouks and of them, here is Balada Conducatorolui - Nicolae Neacsu. From the Thar of Rajasthan, here is the very charismatic Talab Khan Barna, and here, from Egypt, is Bambi Saidi. And let the etymological connection between Egypt and gypsy be noted here and now, by the way.

All of these are. of course, excerpts from Latcho Drom. [more inside]
posted by y2karl at 6:10 AM PST - 7 comments

"Speak English" sign at cheesesteak shop not discriminatory. A split three-member panel of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations ruled that a sign in Genos Steaks the South Philadelphia cheesesteak shop did not convey a message that service would be refused to non-English speakers. [more inside]
posted by three blind mice at 5:43 AM PST - 195 comments

One of my favorite albums of recent years is now available for the first time. And, it's free. You Are Not Dead: A Guide to Modern Living by MeFi's own Fake. {embedded Flash player and link to zipped mp3s} {torrent of better quality mp3s} {via mefi projects}
posted by dobbs at 5:23 AM PST - 38 comments

What'll you find at rum.com, van.com, war.com or cat.com? A more-fun-than-most web quiz from the Mental Flossers about some of the best domain names and who owns them. [more inside]
posted by wendell at 4:29 AM PST - 15 comments

Birds start singing in the spring because of a biological response to longer days.
posted by chuckdarwin at 4:06 AM PST - 26 comments