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A scale parade of robots, star ships, space stations and pan-universal super beings.
posted by tarpin at 10:31 PM PST - 56 comments

Montaous Walton just wanted to play ball, so he made up a fake online persona, fooled the media, signed with an agent and ended up in handcuffs.
posted by MoonOrb at 10:17 PM PST - 25 comments

LESBIAN LIGHTNING ROUND-Do you agree with these lesbians? Here! Have a dollar. (slyt)
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:01 PM PST - 63 comments

The Adjustable Cosmos. "In the fifteenth century, three worthies come together to tackle the Emperor's disastrous horoscope. They lift themselves to space in their medieval vessel, braving the terrors and wonders of the of the Ptolemaic universe, to reach for the stars..." [Via]
posted by homunculus at 7:21 PM PST - 12 comments

Kabang the hero returns home to the Phillipines to a parade! Kabang, previously mentioned here on the MeFi, returns home after surgery in the States. But the story might be a little deeper than just that, with some hints of patriotism and, while we're at it might as well segue into racism! But no really, this is just a story about one really awesome dog.
posted by eparchos at 7:05 PM PST - 4 comments

"Lobster is fancy. If you imagine a lobster talking, it probably has a British accent. Draw an animated lobster and I bet you’ll include a top hat, a monocle, and an opera cape. But it wasn’t always like this. If today’s lobster wears a top hat and an opera cape, 80 years ago he was wearing overalls and picking up your garbage. Lobster is a self-made creature, and quite the social climber." How Lobster Got Fancy.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 6:19 PM PST - 62 comments

Let Us Dot the ‘i’ and Cross the ‘t’: Insurgence and the End of ‘Tough Love’ Politics in Turkey: As I type out these words, it is the tenth day of the anti-government protests in Turkey. Beginning at that rather inconspicuous and under-visited park, protests have gone viral and spread to more than twenty provinces. For now, activists occupy the park and most of Taksim Square. Despite relentless police brutality aiming to subdue the blessedly unruly crowds, thousands of citizens remain in the streets. Activist youth have already come up with a whole new series of tear gas-related jokes. Abdullah Cömert, a young activist in Hatay,,was killed when shot by a tear gas canister in the head. Another young worker from Ankara, Ethem Sarısülük, is in a coma from a riot police officer that shot a bullet which ricocheted and hit Sarısülük in the head. There were protesters who lost their eyes to tear gas or to canisters shot in their face. In general, riot police deliberately targeted individuals by means of gas grenade launchers. Whatever the political prospects of Turkey’s “Occupy moment” will be, the Ministry of the Interior has a lot to answer for. [more inside]
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 4:01 PM PST - 70 comments

Truck carrying fireworks hits moose on Trans-Canada Highway, shuts down road for 5.5 hours and lights up the sky. (pictures and video, driver and passenger unharmed.)
posted by The Whelk at 3:53 PM PST - 62 comments

Toute la mémoire du monde (1956: 21 minutes) is a remarkably lovely documentary short by Alain Resnais about the Bibliothèque nationale de France in the age of print. Via The Funambulist. [more inside]
posted by theodolite at 3:19 PM PST - 5 comments

Art toast. Artist's website.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 3:00 PM PST - 6 comments

During a speech at a $10,000 per plate DNC fundraiser on June 4, Michelle Obama was heckled by gay rights advocate and GetEQUAL member Ellen Sturtz, calling on President Obama to sign an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from LGBT workplace discrimination. The first lady responded by telling Sturtz and the 200 attendees, "[L]isten to me or you can take the mic, but I'm leaving. You all decide. You have one choice." [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:00 PM PST - 188 comments

"Green party politician Malte Spitz sued to have German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom hand over six months of his phone data that he then made available to ZEIT ONLINE. We combined this geolocation data with information relating to his life as a politician, such as Twitter feeds, blog entries and websites, all of which is all freely available on the internet." -- The end result is an interactive map of Malte Spitz's movements over six months from 31st August 2009 to 27th February 2010 as an example of what you can do with telephone meta data.
posted by MartinWisse at 2:37 PM PST - 10 comments

On the relationship between energy companies and the Amish

[E]xtraction companies are buying up the rights to drill on private property with unprecedented speed. At stake are geysers of money. And in the thousands of cases in which the landowner is of the Amish faith, their business partner would never dream of taking them to court should things go awry. This, obviously, has enticed some companies to take advantage of Amish farmers—who are finally figuring out how to fight back.

posted by frimble at 1:38 PM PST - 10 comments

"There is no real independent self, aloof from other human beings, inspecting the world, inspecting other people. You are, in fact, connected not just via Facebook and internet, you’re actually quite literally connected by your neurons." — V S Ramachandran
posted by nickyskye at 1:03 PM PST - 19 comments

High prices are driving more motorists to rent tires. 'Chains such as Rent-a-Wheel and Rimco are seeing business boom. Many consumers pay double or triple the cost of buying and face aggressive repossession policies.' 'Customers pay huge premiums for their tires, sometimes four times above retail. Those who miss payments may find their car on cinder blocks, stripped of their tires by dealers who aggressively repossess. Tire rental contracts are so ironclad that even a bankruptcy filing can't make them go away.' [LA Times link; use privacy setting in browser]. [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 11:22 AM PST - 129 comments

"In 1961, Phyllis Richman applied to graduate school at Harvard. She received a letter asking how she would balance a career in city planning with her 'responsibilities' to her husband and possible future family. Fifty-two years later, she responds." [more inside]
posted by DarlingBri at 10:35 AM PST - 54 comments

The Love Life of the Spumifers. (NSFW)
A series of hand-painted photographic postcards produced by surrealist artist Georges Hugnet master of collage between 1947 and 1948.
posted by adamvasco at 9:12 AM PST - 3 comments

"Canes were the 22-inch rims of 19th century cruising culture." [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:38 AM PST - 59 comments

Short documentary film (SLNYT) about 91 year old George Weedon, former Olympic gymnast. Free posture advice included.
posted by neilb449 at 7:58 AM PST - 5 comments

In the deep sea, low oxygen levels, scarce sunlight, and freezing water limit the rate at which items decompose: Something that might survive a few years on land could exist for decades underwater. - ROVs photograph trash on the ocean floor.
posted by Artw at 6:58 AM PST - 37 comments

They told you not to enter.
You, an explorer didn't listen
"I will find out the mystery of snakes."

ROOM OF 1000 SNAKES
(A game, uses FPS controls, make sure to have sound on, requires Unity, probably a decent graphics card, and some appreciation for silliness.)
posted by JHarris at 4:51 AM PST - 22 comments

Mechanical Marvels: Clockwork Dreams Detailed and thoughtful exploration of clockwork and automata as a phenomenon in the 17th Century and their development into machines that could imitate human activity - eventually leading to the famous Mechanical Turk (eventually exposed as fake) and the truly astounding "Silver Swan" built by John Joseph Merlin. (Definitely not a fake) [more inside]
posted by JohnnyForeign at 4:01 AM PST - 10 comments

Avogadro Project - The International Avogadro project relates the kilogram to the mass of a fixed number of atoms by measuring the number of atoms in a sphere of silicon. I'll leave this here.
posted by hypersloth at 2:52 AM PST - 26 comments