May 14, 2012

A Tale of Two Carlos

Los Tocayos Carlos - a comprehensive investigation by Columbia Law School Professor James Liebman and a team of students which uncovers evidence that Carlos DeLuna, a poor Hispanic man with childlike intelligence who was executed in Texas in 1989, was innocent. The issue of The Columbia Human Rights Law Review, entirely dedicated to this investigation, is available at this website.
posted by Gyan at 10:58 PM PST - 43 comments

This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike’ by Augusten Burroughs

This is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike. is Augusten Burroughs' new self-help book (reviews here, here, and here), one which scorns the genre cliches of goal-setting and affirmations in favor of a hard-nosed philosophy of self-honesty based on lessons learned from his own background of abuse, neglect, and rape. In an interview with CNN, he gives snippets of his views on subjects like the harm of people "clinging to a dream which maybe they don't actually have the talent to do", suicide ("it doesn't release you, it adds a new layer of horror") and the quest for thinness ("the brain is magnificent and to focus on your gastrointestinal track is a complete waste"). (previously)
posted by shivohum at 10:57 PM PST - 42 comments

Please party, test me.

As young as 18, I'd already written the application to join the party, but I was too embarrassed to turn it in to the party branch. I've studiously read the party constitution countless times - always felt I wasn't worthy of the party's requirements. Applying to Join the Chinese Communist Party : a music video (w/ English subtitles)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:55 PM PST - 21 comments

Time-lapse map of Europe

Europe, 1000-2005, in 3 and a half minutes. [more inside]
posted by John Cohen at 9:47 PM PST - 62 comments

In Canada, Alternate Currency Keeps Traction With Fans

Canadian Tire Company coupons, thought of by some as an alternative Canadian currency, may be on the way out. [more inside]
posted by reenum at 6:53 PM PST - 63 comments

Alive?

She connected the discarded organ replacement machines together and had them 'breathe' in closed circuits. The machines of The Immortal keep each other alive through circulation of electrical impulses, oxygen and artificial blood.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:22 PM PST - 28 comments

Bort's Sploopers by Arv Malbert

Always backed by the 12th Street Rag, Marv Albert has brought us "wild and wacky moments in the world of sports (compiled by his crack staff and producer Dave Katz)" for just under thirty years. [Caveats: Some dates are approximate. Some of the more famous clips appear multiple times. Hockey violence, boxing referees getting hit, borked slides into third, etc.] And we start with the early 80's — 1984: a b1985 — 1985-86: a b c1986 (in review) — 1987: a b c d1988 (in review) — 1989: a bReview of the 80'sEarly 1990's1997 — 1999's Wild and Wacky Millenium2008200920102011first half of the 2011 NFL seasona 30-minute compilationanother compilationbaseball compilation
posted by not_on_display at 5:46 PM PST - 22 comments

Camels

Galleries of old photographs of camels in America, Australia, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, China, Mongolia and India, in war | camel breeds | How the Camel Got His Hump from Camel Tales, Folklore & Legends| baby camels and lots more at this one stop site all about Camels. Previously.
posted by nickyskye at 5:27 PM PST - 17 comments

Evil is Back

You may have heard that evil is returning to Sanctuary tonight. Your Diablo 3 launch day preparation guide includes opening cinematics, a cartoon, the story so far, a primer on the new Auction House (now with real money), and build guides for the Demon Hunter, Barbarian, Monk, and Witch Doctor. Since no one at Blizzard beat Diablo 3's Inferno difficulty, death is guaranteed.
posted by Avenger50 at 3:00 PM PST - 311 comments

The Great Wine Caper

Rare-wine collectors are savvy, competitive guys with a taste for impossible finds. The biggest hoax in history took place right under their noses. [more inside]
posted by mreleganza at 2:13 PM PST - 76 comments

They built an ankle joint out of a car engine.

10 years ago it was considered impossible to build a prosthetic for an elephant.
What do you do when an endangered elephant steps on a land mine? If you’re the Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital, you make a prosthetic leg that can support 2000 pounds of moving pachyderm. [more inside]
posted by endless_forms at 1:26 PM PST - 25 comments

Don't you know what table tennis is? Come on. I'll teach you.

Taiyo Matsumoto's original five volume manga Ping Pong was one of the most surprising and gripping experiences I've had this year. But a huge reason for that is the artwork: he packs more kinetic energy into a single drawing of a shoe skidding across a floor than any real shoe has ever had. So it was with some trepidation that I saw posters for this adaptation going up in stores around Japan. Fumihiko Masuri is a first time director (not that you'd know it), with a background in computer effects. He seems to have directed this mainly because he's a really big fan of the manga too. On the film's website, they've placed images from the manga next to photographs of the actors in the film, so you can see how obsessive compulsive they were in matching faces. Not only faces, but movements, playing styles, and shot composition is all straight from the book, as if they'd used the manga in lieu of storyboards. Even the occasional surreal touch; a boy growing butterfly wings, a dragonfly landing on the net, is right out of the page onto the screen. -- Midnight Eye review; subtitled movie in 12 parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
posted by filthy light thief at 12:36 PM PST - 22 comments

If you've got them by the bits, their hearts and minds will follow.

The Dictator's practical internet guide to power retention. The Internet can be a real pain for a comfortable dictator. Here's how to turn it to your nefarious advantage.
posted by bitmage at 12:19 PM PST - 6 comments

Your best friend is suing you for $600 million, and will soon go into tax exile in Singapore.

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has renounced his U.S. citizenship ahead of the company's IPO so as to avoid paying capital gains taxes on his shares, which could be worth as much as $3.84 billion. [more inside]
posted by Cash4Lead at 12:17 PM PST - 301 comments

Thank you for joining us.

Mike Birbiglia's Fresh Air interview gets awkward. From last week's This American Life live episode.
posted by roll truck roll at 12:09 PM PST - 31 comments

Spray that again....

I first came across Miss.Tic in Arles,
Since the 1980's Miss.Tic has located her art mainly in the streets of Paris. You can follow her work since 1985 through to 2011.(NSFW)
Not much is available in English but here is an Interview with subtitles, and a video Ethics of Love.
One of my favorites: - Poetry is an Extreme Sport which is part of a Flickr set.
posted by adamvasco at 11:46 AM PST - 3 comments

I cant promise you that I won’t be a dick.

Patrice O’Neal (RIP previously) didn’t just want to be famous, he wanted to be as good as Richard Pryor. To hear his fellow comics tell it, he was—a brutal truth-teller who spared no one, starting with those closest to him. (Print friendly version)
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:17 AM PST - 62 comments

Big (and small) Numbers

FatFonts creates numerical fonts where the amount of ink/pixels for each number is in direct proportion to its value.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:09 AM PST - 23 comments

I'm king of the world!

The Triumph of the Passenger Ship is an online exhibition of highlights from the Norman H. Morse Ocean Liner Collection at the University of Southern Maine. (The cutaway illustrations are fascinating.)
posted by Horace Rumpole at 10:37 AM PST - 3 comments

George Lucas' Jedi Land Tricks

"It is with great sadness that Skywalker Properties has decided to pull its application to build a studio facility on the old Grady Ranch." (PDF) George Lucas' neighbors don't want him building a movie studio on his Marin property; after fighting for years, he's working with the Marin Community Foundation to develop low-income housing.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:29 AM PST - 100 comments

Cool Math Conundrums

In Russian roulette, is it best to go first? | The Mathematics of Tetris | What is the result of infinity minus infinity? [more inside]
posted by Foci for Analysis at 9:27 AM PST - 32 comments

The M in MTV Should Stand for Mulcahy

Russell Mulcahy is best known for directing Highlander (as well as its...less-popular...sequel) and is currently doing a Teen Wolf series for MTV. But speaking of MTV, he got his start doing music videos. A lot of music videos. In fact, if you remember a video from the early days of MTV, it's probably one of Mulcahy's. [more inside]
posted by Legomancer at 9:02 AM PST - 33 comments

Meditation At Gunpoint

Cartoonist and Essayist Tim Kreider on the soothing effect of dangerous situations. (NYT)
posted by The Whelk at 8:46 AM PST - 15 comments

"To get quality you need to give photographers time to explore their craft."

"Rouleur is to bike magazines what National Geographic is to nature photography." Wired takes a look at a British cycling publication that puts an emphasis on quality photojournalism.
posted by quin at 8:45 AM PST - 12 comments

There is more than one of everything

Finland has always looked both west and east, notably the Loviisa nuclear power plant used Westinghouse instrumentation married to a Soviet design, earning the nickname 'Eastinghouse'. They hedged their bets on rather less safety-critical issues as well. Having little success in the Eurovision Song Contest (until they changed tack relatively recently), they also entered (and won) its Soviet counterpart: Intervision. [more inside]
posted by Talkie Toaster at 8:44 AM PST - 9 comments

Build the Enterprise

One week ago, anonymous engineer "BTE Dan" put up a website called Build the Enterprise. He envisions a $1 trillion spaceship modeled on the USS Enterprise. There are highly detailed plans for constructing and funding it. It quickly spread all over the news to GizMag, DailyMail and other places. The BTE website is slow to load, while waiting why not Build the Starship Enterprise from useless office supplies.
posted by stbalbach at 8:39 AM PST - 35 comments

Shake & Fold

Here's a 4-minute TEDx talk that demonstrates the correct method for drying your hands with a single paper towel.
posted by schmod at 8:20 AM PST - 63 comments

How many ways to get what you want

Anarchy is Boring
posted by Artw at 7:37 AM PST - 120 comments

What Grandma Did In The War

During WWII, nearly 6 million women joined the workforce. Metafilter's talked about "Rosie the Riveters" previously, but we've never heard from these women in their own words.
posted by ChuraChura at 7:28 AM PST - 9 comments

I THRU SUM MONEY ON DA GROUND AND GREW CASH TOMATOES

A wonderful, highly NSFW song about being Charls Barkly. From the incoherent, offensive, and brilliant gmcfosho, whose works include the classic Rifle Burs, Snacks, and IMDABES (previously), which is probably the best reason for the Internet's existing.
posted by Rory Marinich at 6:47 AM PST - 24 comments

The Irish in Latin America

The website of the Society for Irish Latin American Studies is full of information about Irish migration to Latin America. It's divided into four sections: The Homeland, about the origins of the settlers; The Journey, about how the Irish settlers traveled to Latin America, including the infamous Dresden affair; The Settlement, about the lives of the Irish in Latin America; Faces and Places, which has biographies of a wide variety of people, Mateo Banks, family murderer, Camila O'Gorman, executed lover of a priest, William Lamport, 17th Century revolutionary and Bernardo O'Higgins, Chilean independence leader, who gets a whole subsection to himself. There is also a list of Irish placenames and much else of interest to history nerds.
posted by Kattullus at 6:42 AM PST - 13 comments

The Second Android Coming of Philip K. Dick

To understand the reasoning behind the android and why this particular science fiction author, above others, was chosen... [more inside]
posted by dubold at 6:39 AM PST - 11 comments

The Singularity, ruined by lawyers

Welcome To Life is a (very) short film by Tom Scott.
posted by motty at 6:38 AM PST - 12 comments

Human Nature

A cover of Michael Jackson's 'Human Nature' by Vindicatrix. [more inside]
posted by ennui.bz at 6:21 AM PST - 7 comments

These Things Happened

"In the space of My Darkest Year, in no particular order, these things happened. My younger son died. My marriage ended. A rabbi and renowned jazz musician whom I’d only met once performed my son’s funeral. People applauded. I fell in love with a blond poet suffering from PTSD. It didn’t work out. My divorce was granted. The only Jewish funeral director in town admitted to me, unbidden, that her life’s passion is improv comedy. My ex-husband threatened my boyfriend’s balls via Facebook. I fled—and sold—my dream house. My older son lost his first tooth and entered kindergarten. I performed stand-up comedy. People applauded. I fell in love again. I realized I’m not afraid of anything." Michelle Mirsky's column No Fear of Flying: Kamikaze Missions in Sex, Death, and Comedy won the 2011 McSweeney's Column Contest. It's funny, aching, gutsy, and heartwrenching.
posted by sixswitch at 6:02 AM PST - 10 comments

Day of the Locust

A grasshopper weathervane has sat atop Boston's Faneuil Hall since 1742. The grasshopper through its glass doorknob eyes (scroll down), witnessed the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party and the siege of Boston. On January 4th, 1974, the grasshopper was stolen but returned and repaired.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:14 AM PST - 42 comments

The Angel of The Gap

The Angel of The Gap. For almost half a century, Don Ritchie would approach people contemplating suicide at the edge of The Gap, just 50 metres from his home in Watsons Bay, his palms facing up [...] he would smile and say: "Is there something I could do to help you?". RIP Don Ritchie, Australian Local Hero of the Year for 2011, and saviour of at least 160 would-be suicides at Sydney scenic cliff & suicide spot, The Gap.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:14 AM PST - 46 comments

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