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The opening of the Morganza spillway on May 14 by the U.S. Corps of Engineers is not only a tacit admission of the severity of the river control problems the spring 2011 flood of the Mississippi River is creating, but also one of the last remaining measures the Corps has for protecting the Old River Control Structure, which has prevented the Mississippi from naturally diverting its main channel through the shorter, steeper Atchafalaya River channel, since construction of the control structure in the late 1960's. If the Old River Control Structure fails (as it nearly did in the 1973 floods), or the river overwhelms other nearby levees north or south of the Morganza spillway/ORCS, the main channel of the Mississippi could suddenly shift westward by about 100 miles, bypassing New Orleans and the current lower delta, with severe long term effects for the U.S. economy. [more inside]
posted by paulsc at 11:35 PM PST - 148 comments

"I Am Your Grandma." (Time-capsule SLYT)
posted by hermitosis at 9:41 PM PST - 57 comments

Uncontrolled laughter: 20 best 'corpsing' videos | Corpsing is a British theatrical slang term used to describe when an actor breaks character during a scene by laughing or by causing another cast member to laugh. | The Art Of Corpsing 1 and 2. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 9:27 PM PST - 47 comments

Who is Reflex Responses Management Consultancy LLC? Only "the Premier Security Consultant and Training supplier for the United Arab Emirates," of course. Frequently referred to as R2, the company specializes in nuclear facility security, special-forces operations, revolt quelling, cybersecurity, and (somehow) protecting the U.A.E from Iran with one battalion of foreign mercenaries. Oh, and it's led by Erik Prince, formerly of Blackwater (now Xe). [more inside]
posted by postel's law at 8:54 PM PST - 19 comments

Music artists have long talked about trying to get into the game, getting pestered by those trying to get into the game, and unceremoniously falling out of the game. Want to get your music heard by the industry? Violator's Chris Lighty has an answer. Pleaselistentomydemo.com.
posted by cashman at 8:14 PM PST - 16 comments

I’m sitting aboard Caesar’s Chariot, Led Zeppelin’s customized Boeing 707 jet. Appropriately named after the conquering emperor who was ultimately doomed by an addiction to his own glory, this flying fortress now carries onboard an invading modern-day musical force. Steven Rosen's account of the 1977 North American tour.
posted by Trurl at 7:35 PM PST - 22 comments

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the IMF and likely French Presidential Candidate, was arrested in New York for sexual assualt today. The Port Authority of New York removed Strauss-Kahn from the first class cabin of an Air France flight ten minutes before it departed for Paris and handed him over to the NYPD, whose Special Victims Unit is handling the case, for questioning. He is expected to be arraigned later tonight. [more inside]
posted by strangely stunted trees at 7:19 PM PST - 150 comments

A discussion on BBC Radio 4 of Robert Burton's 17th-century compendium The Anatomy Of Melancholy. Examining the medical, literary, political, and religious influences of this enormous work, as well as how it contributed to those same fields over its many years of revisions and continuing popularity. Not exactly thorough (how could it be?) but an interesting listen.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 2:47 PM PST - 26 comments

As reported by Dan Carden - Court: No right to resist illegal cop entry into home In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer's entry. David said a person arrested following an unlawful entry by police still can be released on bail and has plenty of opportunities to protest the illegal entry through the court system. [more inside]
posted by rough ashlar at 2:41 PM PST - 113 comments

The Surprisingly Undetestable Birth of TGI Friday's In 1965, a young Manhattanite just “looking to meet girls” added some sawdust, fake Tiffany lamps and a coat of blue blue paint to the $5000 bar that became, nearly immediately, NY's first and most popular singles bar, and eventually, the progenitor of one of the US's most popular restaurants.
posted by Plemer at 1:57 PM PST - 59 comments

The Lazarus File. "In 1986, a young nurse named Sherri Rasmussen was murdered in Los Angeles. Police pinned down no suspects, and the case gradually went cold. It took 23 years—and revolutionary breakthroughs in forensic science­—before LAPD detectives could finally assemble the pieces of the puzzle. When they did, they found themselves facing one of the unlikeliest murder suspects in the city’s history." [more inside]
posted by zarq at 12:03 PM PST - 60 comments

Canadian Independent Radio. CBC Radio 3 has over 25,000 uploaded artists, broadcasting on satellite and streaming on the web. The programming mix is "100 per cent Canadian music on both platforms" with exceptions for collaborations. Previously here and here.
posted by Brian B. at 12:01 PM PST - 12 comments

"I, Amy Myers, do hereby challenge Representative Michele Bachmann to a Public Forum Debate and/or Fact Test on The Constitution of the United States, United States History and United States Civics."
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:08 AM PST - 42 comments

Reconsidering Fukuyama - "In 2004 he became the first of the card-carrying neocons to break ranks and oppose the Iraq War; in 2006 he published a comprehensive history and critique of the neoconservative movement; in 2009 he skewered the economics profession at length in his journal The American Interest; earlier this year, he dedicated an issue to a series of essays exploring the emerging American plutocracy... that through their greed they somehow benefit society... He was not being glib: Much of his new book, The Origins of Political Order, is devoted to documenting the struggles of premodern states to draw up sustainable tax codes. Long before modernity and the spread of democracy, societies that failed to effectively tax their citizenry were the first to shrivel... [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 8:32 AM PST - 33 comments

Cat and Owl are Friends ( SLYT )
posted by The Owls at 8:21 AM PST - 46 comments

Cats in Tanks. [SLVimeo] Watch what happens when cats commandeer tanks.
posted by Fizz at 5:26 AM PST - 29 comments

Jimmy Fallon commemorates Bob Marley Week on his show by welcoming six artists to perform their favorite Marley song. Performances include Lauryn Hill singing the lovely, lesser-known "Chances Are" and a slightly manic "Could You Be Loved". Via
posted by beisny at 5:12 AM PST - 22 comments

You can learn a fair bit about a person by asking them what they'd attempt to save if their house was on fire. [more inside]
posted by gman at 5:09 AM PST - 179 comments

Today's Guardian Review is a science fiction special [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:01 AM PST - 89 comments

As governor, Palin demonstrated many of the qualities we expect in our best leaders. She set aside private concerns for the greater good, forgoing a focus on social issues to confront the great problem plaguing Alaska, its corrupt oil-and-gas politics. She did this in a way that seems wildly out of character today—by cooperating with Democrats and moderate Republicans to raise taxes on Big Business. And she succeeded to a remarkable extent in settling, at least for a time, what had seemed insoluble problems, in the process putting Alaska on a trajectory to financial well-being. Since 2008, Sarah Palin has influenced her party, and the tenor of its politics, perhaps more than any other Republican, but in a way that is almost the antithesis of what she did in Alaska. Had she stayed true to her record, she might have pointed her party in a very different direction.
posted by -->NMN.80.418 at 1:27 AM PST - 79 comments

Northern Fur Seal release (slyt thatisall)
posted by allkindsoftime at 1:07 AM PST - 12 comments