July 14, 2010
The Devil's Pool
The Babinda Boulders is a beautiful and exciting place in far-northern Queensland, Australia. It also conceals the Devil's Pool, which is traditionally believed to be haunted by a young Aboriginal girl calling for her lost lover. At least sixteen young men have drowned there since 1959. [more inside]
You are part of the Rebel Alliance, and a traitor.
Constantly productive and frequently amusing theater group Improv Everywhere takes on an iconic Star Wars scene in a New York subway car. [more inside]
FX
Santa Claus [1898] /
Le Voyage dans la Lune [1903] /
A Royal Wedding [1951] /
2001 : A Space Odyssey [1968] /
Stargate Films Demo Reel [2009] / 100 Years of Visual Effects
iBOL iWish there were an app for that already
Undercover Karaoke
Singer/Songwriter Jewel, disguised as a mild-mannered businesswoman, goes undercover as a karaoke singer.
Although of course, this had to be posted
NPR's national morning show "The Takeaway" has posted audio of some of the original source audio of David Foster Wallace being interviewed by David Lipsky for his book "Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace."
Making web apps for the Iphone
Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Jonathan Stark's book is online in its entirety, with a Creative Commons license. Kind of cool.
Jonathan Stark's book is online in its entirety, with a Creative Commons license. Kind of cool.
Metafilter is dis many years old: !!!!!!!!!!!
Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
Iceland financial woes, continued.
Magma Energy Corp. sets to acquire HS Orka (shareholders) for about 40 canadian millions. HS Okra owns the rights to most of Iceland's natural ressources for the next 65 years. Renewable. Some MP's consider suing the Icelandic government. Björk asks some questions(PDF).
PAW PAW?
Worlds collide on reddit! A redditor boasts about a party he once threw at his grandparent's house years ago, only to be busted in the same thread by his own grandfather. Watch his jaw drop in this thread as he slowly discovers that his grandfather is a beloved member of the community and even has his own Facebook group with more than 500 fans. And go read Grandpa Wiggly's website, it's great!
Dylanology
The Lizard, The Catacombs, and the Clock
The Lizard, The Catacombs, and the Clock Metafilter's own™ Marquis did some investigating of a Parisian secret society, known variously as UX, Untergunther or la Mexicaine de la Perforation (previously 1,2) The resulting article has been picked up by the Literary Journal BRICK and is available in full on their website. [via mefi projects]
Was this movie made just to piss me off?
Possibly having tired of reviewing blockbusters such as Avatar, Phantom Menace, and Attack of the Clones (previously: 1, 2, 3, respectively), RedLetterMedia has taken a different approach and posted a video review of John Hughes' 1994 family comedy, Baby's Day Out.
Then, in a visual you might find more creepy than anything you've seen in The Shining, the baby's little hand reaches down and starts grabbing at his cock. He actually squeezes his dick over and over again with the creepy little baby hand.
Not to be missed are Plinkett's other reviews, including several Star Trek films. RedLetterMedia also dabbles in comedic shorts.
Then, in a visual you might find more creepy than anything you've seen in The Shining, the baby's little hand reaches down and starts grabbing at his cock. He actually squeezes his dick over and over again with the creepy little baby hand.
Not to be missed are Plinkett's other reviews, including several Star Trek films. RedLetterMedia also dabbles in comedic shorts.
Robyn
So it's the middle of July and you say you haven't found your perfect summer jam yet? Does Ga Ga make you gag? Are you maxed-out on MIA? Then what you need is the petite princess of Swedish electra-pop, Robyn, doing Fembot. So hot. Still need convincing? Then would you believe Robyn with Staygold, and a live version of Backseat.
Paddle from Alcatraz
The Alcatraz Swim-o-Meter calculates the time and path of your watery escape from Alcatraz, designed and built by San Francisco Dolphin Club member Kent Myers.
A busy year for Kristin Hersh
Kristin Hersh is well-known to many as a founder of legendary 80s indy/alt band Throwing Muses, as well as for her own successful solo albums and alt-punk 3-piece band 50 Foot Wave, is having a good 2010. A new solo album, Crooked, is due out later this year -- a follow-up to the collection Speedbath, which was released on the web under a Creative Commons license, and demos for a forthcoming new Throwing Muses collection have been appearing on the band's CASH page (previously); Crooked has also appeared in the UK in book format through HarperCollins' Friday Project imprint. A nice additional tidbit for fans is the just-released live collection, Cats and Mice. As if all that wasn't enough, stories that Kristin came up with for her sons while they accompanied her on tour over the years inspired a children's book, Toby Snax, published in 2007, and Hersh will be publishing a memoir, Rat Girl (Paradoxical Undressing, in the UK edition) detailing her early days with Throwing Muses -- a time in which she struggled with mental illness and figured out what it meant to front a touring rock band while pregnant (excerpts of Rat Girl arrived in periodic email installments to Hersh's subscription supporters, whose support has enabled much of Hersh's current productivity). Hersh has been taking advantage of various social media as well: you can follow her doing in the Throwingmusic fan forums, Facebook, or via her often-curious Twitter feed.
Cosmology
The ancient Hebrew Conception of the Universe. Mayan Interdimensional Star Map. A scale model of the orbits of the planets in our solar system. More by Michael Paukner (via).
Choice of Broads, Choice of Dudes.
Choice of Broadsides is a choose-your-own-adventure game set in an alternate 19th Century world that is much like our own, where Albion and Gaul fight for naval supremacy. You can choose to be a gentleman in a standard patriarchal society, or a gentlewoman in a matriarchal one. Later on in the game you can choose your sexual orientation. Originally there were no options for a same-sex relationship, but after demands from players, it was added in. Spoilers below the cut. [more inside]
Step 1: Take a Shower Because You're Probably Dirty
What, if Anything, Is Big Bird?
Paedomorphic flightlessness and taxonomic affinities of an enormous Recent bird is a talk on the anatomy and evolutionary history of a certain flightless bird indigenous to New York City.
Offshore Oil Strike!
The thrills of drilling, the hazards and rewards as you bring in your own . . . Offshore Oil Strike. "An exciting board game for all the family." Lovingly brought to you by BP. //BLDGBLOG
Come to where the barf is. Come to Barfboro Country
In 1984 Philip Morris created the Marlboro Adventure team to promote their flagship cigarette. DOC (Doctors Ought to Car), an international organization of health professionals, was founded to counteract the promotion of tobacco advertising. In 1993 as an effort to undermine the Marlboro Adventure Team US debut the DOC repainted a VW van as the Barfmobile, hired a handsome comedian [pdf] as Barf Man, printed thousands of Barfboro Barf Bags (imprinted with the words "DOES CIGARETTE ADVERTISING MAKE YOU SICK? US TOO!"), and created the Barfboro Barfing Team. [more inside]
Bugs!
Last week, Gizmodo asked their readers to submit wallpaper-sized pictures of bugs. Today, 294 colorful images of creepy crawlies were posted to galleries on their site: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (bandwidth alert: those pages are very picture-heavy) and also to Flickr, where high-resolution versions can be downloaded. This project is part of their weekly "Shooting Challenge". Each week's results can be seen in individual sets on their Flickr account.
Visionary of the British Empire
Yesterday was the birthday of Dr. John Dee (1527-1609) (wiki). This extraordinary and brilliant man was a mathematician, astrologer, astronomer, navigator, map maker, alchemist, hermetic philosopher, and adviser in matters practical and arcane to Queen Elizabeth 1st. History has sometimes been unkind to him because he embraced science and mysticism together (previously), believing both to be facets of the same universal thing. His unfortunate experiments in conjuring angels with the alchemist Edward Kelley are probably to blame. Kelley asserted that the angel Uriel had instructed him to swap or share wives with Dr. Dee. This, unsurprisingly, led to the end of their association. 16th century celestial wife-swapping was going too far. However, Dr. Dee was a true Renaissance man and a gifted scholar. You can visit his black obsidian magic Aztec mirror at the British Museum.
Lois, you're a tease. And you stink.
During the past 4 days, the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science has stayed open 24 hours to accommodate the record crowds filing into the museum at all hours. Why? A rare Amorphophallus titanium, aka “Corpse Flower,” named Lois is finally about to bloom. Now, Lois is not your average, run-of-the-mill stinky plant. Only 28 Corpse Flowers have bloomed in the US, so Lois has become a local celebrity with her own blog, Flickr feed, live webcam and cupcakes. She even has her own playlist, with songs such as “That Smell” by Lynyrd Skynrd, “I’m Comin’ Out” by Diana Ross and the classic “Smelly Cat” by Phoebe from Friends. And like any trendy Corpse Flower, Lois also has her own Twitter account. She's also a bit of a diva. Yet despite predictions, Lois still hasn't bloomed as of Wednesday morning. In response, Lois makes excuses, bad jokes, complaints and snarky comments.
The national spirit had turned mistrustful
I Write Like
I Write Like... Check what famous writer you write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them to those of famous writers.
No way to run a candy store
The RIAA paid Holmes Roberts & Owen $9,364,901 in 2008, Jenner & Block more than $7,000,000, and Cravath Swain & Moore $1.25 million, to pursue its "copyright infringement" claims, in order to recover a mere $391,000. ... for a 3 year period, they spent around $64,000,000 in legal and investigative expenses to recover around $1,361,000. (via Slashdot)
Retro Recipe Attempts
Retro Recipe Attempts : Sit back with your Hot Dr. Pepper, munch on a bit of Pie Plate Salad, and start cooking! Brought to you by the fine folks at Mental Hygiene.
Don't Forget Your Medical Feather
A stroke happens when blood flow is blocked to a part of the brain. The effects can be devastating. It turns out we might be able to prevent the damage with a simple tickle of the whiskers. [more inside]
A literary roundup of football/soccer keepers.
Saint Taffarel who is in goal
Like a guardian angel
Sweet like honey
Defending our goal, our hope, our happiness. - Carlos Drummond
A literary roundup of the mysterious keeper, from Nabokov to Camus to Dante. A little more football for those of us getting the twitches.
Like a guardian angel
Sweet like honey
Defending our goal, our hope, our happiness. - Carlos Drummond
A literary roundup of the mysterious keeper, from Nabokov to Camus to Dante. A little more football for those of us getting the twitches.
Marchons, marchons!
Happy Bastille Day y'all! (previously) Why not celebrate with a few stirring renditions of France's first national anthem? You can get your La Marseillaise traditional, By Edith Piaf, by Django Reinheart and Stephane Grappelli, in a classic movie, in 1907, by a F1 Renault, all punked out, or as a Reggae (a performance of which lead to bomb threats, causing Serge to take the stage and sing it alone.)
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