April 25, 2013

Just a plant?

Kyle put out a video on 4/20/2013. And 4/20/2011. And 4/20/2008. Here's a bonus Thanksgiving video. [more inside]
posted by azarbayejani at 11:13 PM PST - 9 comments

No longer Valentine's Day, but...

Remember when Isaac proposed to Amy? (previously on MeFi.) Here's what they've been up to since.
posted by estlin at 11:10 PM PST - 20 comments

BeerMapper

A heat map of your preferences over the beer space. Developer Kevin Jamieson writes, "Beer Mapper is a practical implementation of my Active Ranking work on an Apple iPad. The application presents a pair of beers, one pair at a time, from a list of beers that you have indicated you know or have access to and then asks you to select which one you prefer. After you have provided a number of answers, the application shows you a heat map of your preferences over the 'beer space.'" [more inside]
posted by clavicle at 7:28 PM PST - 58 comments

"Never, ever let anybody use your gender as an excuse."

"Women get flustered under fire. They're too fragile, too emotional. They lack the ferocity required to take a life. They can't handle pain. They're a distraction, a threat to cohesion, a provocative tease to close-quartered men. These are the sort of myths you hear from people who oppose the U.S. military's evolving new rules about women in combat. But for women who have already been in combat, who have earned medals fighting alongside men, the war stories they tell don't sound a thing like myths" [more inside]
posted by zarq at 6:55 PM PST - 49 comments

CO2 to hit 400 parts per million next month, highest since the Pliocene

Scripps Institute of Oceanography projects that next month its monitoring station will for the first time measure CO2 at 400 parts per million. Atmospheric CO2 has risen from 280 parts per million before the Industrial Revolution. 400 ppm is an arbitrary milestone that we'll blow right past on our way to 450 ppm within a few decades. This is an unprecedentedly fast rate of increase and it's getting faster. Not all measuring stations are exactly the same: A NOAA station in the Arctic measured CO2 at 400 ppm last year. [more inside]
posted by Sleeper at 5:01 PM PST - 128 comments

Transcript of secret meeting between Julian Assange and Eric Schmidt

On the 23 of June, 2011 a secret five hour meeting took place between WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who was under house arrest in rural UK at the time and Google CEO Eric Schmidt. We provide here a verbatim transcript of the majority of the meeting; a close reading, particularly of the latter half, is revealing.
[more inside]
posted by palbo at 4:38 PM PST - 40 comments

Dzhokhar does the robot

Up until last week, "One Direction Infection," a Tumblr blog created and maintained by an eighth grader we'll call Claire, looked like any other 14-year-old's Tumblr. But over the weekend Claire's subject matter took a sharp turn. In place of candid shots of Harry Styles and Zayn Malik, there are now photos of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; instead of inspirational image macros, there are annotated crime scene photos. Gawker's Max Read on where social media fandoms meet conspiracy theories.
posted by Rory Marinich at 4:07 PM PST - 102 comments

I love [my mom] so much it kills me, and I’d sooner die than tell her.

My Foreign Mom. "Every morning when the bus would come to pick us up while it was still dark out, I could see her slight backlit frame outlined in our blinds as she watched us drive away. A senior on the bus once asked if my mom knew that we could all totally see her. I told that kid to go fuck himself and to quit looking at my mom. To this day, I still can’t watch her watch us leave."
posted by Phire at 3:40 PM PST - 25 comments

You said we were going to try new food! An umbrella isn't food!

A four year old reviews Mission Chinese Food (with his face)
posted by desjardins at 3:04 PM PST - 22 comments

All those verbal gaffes were just strategery.

Keith Hennessey is a former economic aide to George W. Bush. And he wants you to know that George W. Bush is smarter than you.
posted by zardoz at 2:30 PM PST - 196 comments

Bolaño Dia 2013

Sunday, April 28, would have been Roberto Bolaño's 60th birthday. The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona is holding an event that day, in conjunction with their recent exhibit of Bolaño's archive, to celebrate the life and work of the writer. Or if you're not in Barcelona, the celebration is #DiaBolaño on twitter. [more inside]
posted by mattbucher at 1:50 PM PST - 10 comments

Richard Prince Wins on Appeal (mostly)

Today the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court decision (Cariou v Prince) determining that 25 of the 30 Richard Prince Canal Zone paintings using appropriated images from Patrick Cariou's Yes Rasta book fall under Fair Use. The remaining 5 paintings were remanded back to the District Court to determine if they also fall under the Fair Use Doctrine with the now clarified proper standard. previously.
posted by snaparapans at 1:18 PM PST - 4 comments

"Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

A giant foam head was found floating in the Hudson River by a Marist rowing crew team early Tuesday. [more inside]
posted by dirtdirt at 1:00 PM PST - 64 comments

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've already kept Jesus waiting five minutes.

"Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice — pull down your pants, and slide on the ice." - Dr. Sidney Freedman, M*A*S*H. Allan Arbus, actor, photographer, and amateur clarinetist, passed away last Friday. He was 95. [more inside]
posted by heyho at 12:44 PM PST - 47 comments

Sundoggin' it

In a rather daring (or foolhardy) effort to sell 300 season's tickets the owner, General Manager, captain and marketing director for the Central Hockey League's Arizona Sundogs hoisted themselves into the Arizona sky in a scissor lift and announced they weren't going to come down until they met their goal. It has taken rather longer than they expected. The Twitter feed for the event has taken on a rather urgent tone. Oh, and the GM is afraid of heights.
posted by dry white toast at 11:28 AM PST - 61 comments

I have a crazy friend who says we dont need zipcodes...is he CRAZY?

On July 1, 1963, The US Post Office introduced the five-digit ZIP Code with a series of PSAs broadcast on national TV. The Atlantic looks at a new report [PDF] that details the history of the now $9.5 billion a year product and its current state of affairs.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:15 AM PST - 64 comments

Coming home

After 63 years, Lt. Col. Don Carlos Faith, Jr. has come home. [more inside]
posted by Rangeboy at 11:04 AM PST - 10 comments

DAMN HENNESSY, WHERE YOU FIND THIS TRACK?

COMMERCE, MY FACELESS INTERNET FRIENDS, IS BEAUTIFUL. CVS Bangers is a parody mixtape from Hennessy Youngman.
posted by mkb at 10:54 AM PST - 45 comments

OK, maybe I just have a thing for talking dogs.

"...forcing its cast to act around a Jack Russel terrier decked out in full period costume." Blogger Josh Marsfelder of Soda Pop Art explores the legacy of Wishbone.
posted by emjaybee at 10:45 AM PST - 29 comments

Grand complications indeed

The cool features on mechanical watches have the wonderful name of complications, of which the most common are the chronograph, perpetual calender, and tourbillon (originally used to improve accuracy, now it just looks very cool); but many others have been developed in the past centuries, and some are rather absurd. For a watch to be a grand complication, it must have at least three complications for timing, astronomical measurement, and striking. The world's current most complicated watch is the Franck Muller Aeternitas 4, which is just one of several "uber complicated" watches, like the iPhone-sized Zeit Device.
posted by blahblahblah at 10:40 AM PST - 13 comments

Iranian Men Dress In Drag For Gender Equality

Kurdish men are dressing in women's clothing in response to the punishment given to a convicted man earlier this month. He was paraded down the streets of Marivan in a woman’s dress in order to humiliate him. [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 9:59 AM PST - 15 comments

Grand Theft Austerity

Jello Biafra: 'Obama owes Occupy big time' The former Dead Kennedy talks to us about the state of modern punk – and modern American politics
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:53 AM PST - 41 comments

DNA Lab Party at 4 PM: Staph only!

Celebrate the 60th anniversary of the discovery of DNA's structure with a pictorial story behind DNA's double helix and the Rosalind Franklin papers, including correspondences and lab notes that detail some of her crystallography research, findings that laid the groundwork for Watson and Crick's later publication.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:38 AM PST - 6 comments

China robot noodles

"It is the trend that robots will replace men in factories, it is certainly going to happen in sliced-noodle restaurants." [more inside]
posted by stbalbach at 9:34 AM PST - 37 comments

Yglesias Destruction

Matthew Yglesias wrote a blog post for Slate the other day titled "Different Places Have Different Safety Rules and That's OK" concerning the Bangladesh building collapse and worldwide safety standards. Mr. Destructo was not pleased.
posted by josher71 at 9:27 AM PST - 171 comments

Just how do you move a secret aircraft overland to a secret base?

How did Lockheed move the A-12 from the Skunk Works to Area 51 for flight testing without the vehicle being seen? Here's how.
posted by Rob Rockets at 8:52 AM PST - 61 comments

One book review ah ah ah two book reviews ah ah ah three book reviews

As you know Bob, the gender inbalance within science fiction and fantasy has been a hot button item for a while now. As the just released Strange Horizons count of books reviewed and reviewers writing in sf publications in 2012 shows, this gender inbalance shows no tendency to decline just yet, with some notable exceptions. However it might just be that this gender imbalance is exacerbated in the count by the omission of RT Bookreviews? [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 8:17 AM PST - 36 comments

The CLUB HANGOVER Archive, 1954-58

In the 1950s, Club Hangover was the place to go in San Francisco to hear Dixieland and New Orleans jazz. Thanks to tapes from KCBS being preserved and passed on, you can now listen to 25 complete and unedited half-hour broadcasts from Club Hangover, with recordings of Louis Armstrong, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Kid Ory, Muggsy Spanier, Ralph Sutton, and Jack Teagarden, all from 1954-58.
posted by fings at 8:09 AM PST - 6 comments

A Step Beyond Product Placement

Branded Superheroes: sponsorships and marketing deals.
posted by OmieWise at 7:38 AM PST - 32 comments

Peeps Show VII

Peeps Mourn Their Peeps is the winner of the 2013 Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest. [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A at 7:32 AM PST - 20 comments

"The Logic Of Violence In Criminal War"

Criminal Cartels And The Rule Of Law In Mexico: Summary, PDF
The cartels have thousands of gunmen and have morphed into diversified crime groups that not only traffic drugs, but also conduct mass kidnappings, oversee extortion rackets and steal from the state oil industry. The military still fights them in much of the country on controversial missions too often ending in shooting rather than prosecutions. If Peña Nieto does not build an effective police and justice system, the violence may continue or worsen. But major institutional improvements and more efficient, comprehensive social programs could mean real hope for sustainable peace and justice.
[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:41 AM PST - 20 comments

Insolence raised to the status of a fine art

Despite her varied accomplishments, it seems Nelly Kaplan remains largely unknown outside of France.
The only female filmaker linked with surrealism; she is known for films that utilize her unique combination of gentleness, grotesquerie, vulgarity, boldness, and contradiction.
La Fiancee du Pirate (1969) is online (Also known as "A Very Curious Girl" and "Dirty Mary") .
It was praised by one of greatest fans Pablo Picasso as insolence raised to the status of a fine art.
(Her 1967 documentary Le Regard Picasso won a Golden Lion at Venice but seems to have practically disappeared).
posted by adamvasco at 6:12 AM PST - 1 comments

Is this a new conjunction slash what is its function?

Slash: Not Just a Punctuation Mark Anymore - Anne Curzan writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education about a new slang word that she learned from her undergraduate students in a History of English course slash analyzes how it fits with traditional parts of speech.
posted by codacorolla at 6:08 AM PST - 79 comments

"...wearing various smiles on their faces."

The 2013 Lyttle Lytton Contest winners are here. [more inside]
posted by Navelgazer at 6:08 AM PST - 23 comments

We're all done, **** off.

YouTube user wheezywaiter makes what he calls "The Least Stressful Video Ever Made" (SLYT)
posted by Evernix at 6:01 AM PST - 18 comments

Women of the Algerian War Unveiled

In 1960, the French military required identification photographs of the people of remote mountain villages. The women were forced to unveil. “I would come within three feet of them,” Garanger remembers. “They would be unveiled. In a period of ten days, I made two thousand portraits, two hundred a day. The women had no choice in the matter. Their only way of protesting was through their look.” [more inside]
posted by Erasmouse at 4:39 AM PST - 38 comments

Photos of large and non fatal mine collapse

Inside a mile-deep open-pit copper mine after a landslide. Flickr set and other links in the article.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:57 AM PST - 27 comments

Free Culture Foundation explore arguments for and against DRM in HTML5

The three most pervasive arguments for DRM in HTML debunked by Freeculture.org " A handful of myths have become common defenses of the W3C’s plan for “Encrypted Media Extensions” (EME), a Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) scheme for HTML5, the next version of the markup language upon which the Web is built." The entire article is quite short, and worth a read but see the extended description for a TL:DR summary - [more inside]
posted by Faintdreams at 3:39 AM PST - 48 comments

"Oh my God, it's orcas attacking sperm whales."

On April 18, a half-dozen orcas battled a pod of sperm whales off the southern coast of Sri Lanka. The unusual encounter is one of fewer than a dozen such recorded conflicts — and the first observed. “We saw the water churning on the horizon,” said Heinrichs, a photographer and filmmaker who was in the area looking for blue whales. He and his colleagues steered their boat toward the patch of white water. As they got closer, they saw an enormous dorsal fin slicing through the water — a killer whale trademark — and then noticed the group of sperm whales, clustered together in a defensive stance. At that point, Heinrichs did what many of us would not do: He jumped in.
posted by DiesIrae at 2:26 AM PST - 52 comments

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