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Today is Coming of Age Day in Japan, when everyone who has turned twenty in the past year simultaneously gains the right to smoke, drink, and vote. Wherever you are, why not celebrate with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's (previously) latest video, furisodeshon?
posted by 23 at 8:31 PM PST - 47 comments

The Disney classic paired with Phillip Glass' classic theme. Oddly unsettling on a number of levels.
posted by baconaut at 8:06 PM PST - 36 comments

Criminal Investigation, a Practical Handbook for Magistrates, Police Officers and Lawyers (1906)

This volume is designed to be a working hand-book for all engaged or interested in Criminal Investigation. It has, by special permission, been translated and adapted from the well-known work of Dr. Hans Gross, Professor of Criminology in the University of Prâg and special lecturer on that subject in the University of Vienna.... Few men are so well fitted, by training and experience, as Dr. Gross to compile a work like the present.... As M. Gardeil, Professor of Criminal Law at Nancy, says, in introducing the French Translation to French Criminalists, Dr. Gross is "an indefatigable observer; a far-seeing psychologist; a magistrate full of ardour to unearth the truth, whether in favour of the accused or against him; a clever craftsman; in turn, draughtsman, photographer, modeller, armourer; having acquired by long experience a profound knowledge of the practices of criminals, robbers, tramps, gipsies, cheats, he opens to us the researches and experiences of many years. His work is no dry or purely technical treatise; it is a living book, because it has been lived."

See also: Slang Expressions Commonly Used By Thieves, from Chapter 8 of the 5th ed. (1962) of Gross's Criminal Investigation.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:00 PM PST - 13 comments

Courtesy of that saint of old school gaming and dark god of the underworld Jason Sholtis, who runs the awesome, previously-posted blog The Dungeon Dozen, it's a new adventure to run using the game system of your choice: THE SECRET PARTY-HOUSE OF THE HILL GIANT PLAYBOY (PDF viewer w/ available download). Looting, slaying, and party crashing beckon to the bold!
Also from Sholtis: the one-page dungeon FLESH FOR THE WITCH QUEEN. (PDF viewer with download) [more inside]
posted by JHarris at 5:45 PM PST - 12 comments

If 2013's Oscar-nominated movie posters told the truth.
posted by mkultra at 5:28 PM PST - 51 comments

Contemporary Art: love it or hate it, this list by Hana Cohn of The 50 Most Iconic Artworks of the Past Five Years is worth a look through the slideshow. Recent Art-Star news-makers are here, along with other interesting works…
posted by ovvl at 4:50 PM PST - 94 comments

"THE CLOUDS stretched across the Texas sky like a highway. And soaring along those lanes, lofted nearly 8,000 feet by the hot air rising from the earth, two hang gliders raced in tight pursuit of the most prized feat in this high adrenaline niche sport: farthest ever flown." The NY Times on breaking the hang gliding long distance record.
posted by Long Way To Go at 3:46 PM PST - 13 comments

Q: "I was trying various methods to implement a program that gives the digits of pi sequentially. So, while writing the program I got stuck on a problem, as with all algorithms: How do I know that the n digits that I've calculated are accurate?" [more inside]
posted by SpacemanStix at 2:37 PM PST - 75 comments

Ashes and Snow [more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:53 PM PST - 7 comments

I grew up in Minnesota, home of a particular passive-aggressive communication style which is summed up nicely by this chart and subsequent comments. Of particular import is the difference between "that's different" and "that's sure different" (though there isn't mention of "that's real different," which I think means just about the same thing) and examples of Minnesota Enthusiastic Neutral. Also worth noting is the classic book by sometime A Prairie Home Companion regular Howard Mohr, How to Talk Minnesotan. [more inside]
posted by larrybob at 1:24 PM PST - 171 comments

Yonkers, as sung by Tyler the Creator; Call Me Maybe, as sung by Carly Rae Jepsen; Rack city, as sung by Tyga; Pony, as sung by Ginuwine; U Can't Touch This, as sung by M.C. Hammer; Ignition (Remix), as sung by R. Kelly. HelenRuth31 sings it all.
posted by codacorolla at 1:22 PM PST - 12 comments

Bird sings dubstep [slyt]
posted by special-k at 1:18 PM PST - 29 comments

Alex Kajitani, aka the Rappin' Mathematician is determined to increase students' understanding of math concepts by "rapping" about them. [more inside]
posted by obscurator at 12:09 PM PST - 6 comments

Today is, of course, December 31st, the new year's eve. And tomorrow will be December 32nd, the day after — December 33rd, and so on, until someone brings me a basket of blooming snowdrops. [more inside]
posted by Nomyte at 11:25 AM PST - 11 comments

"9 Anheuser-Busch Budweiser Come on – of course it was hugely influential. It pioneered national beer distribution around the US, and it set the standard for what American beer was expected to be." Martyn Cornell lists the twenty most influential beers of all time.
posted by MartinWisse at 8:49 AM PST - 83 comments

...and the news ain't good: "Evidence for climate change abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans. This evidence has been compiled by scientists and engineers from around the world, using satellites, weather balloons, thermometers, buoys, and other observing systems. The sum total of this evidence tells an unambiguous story: the planet is warming." Overview letter is here, Executive Summary is here, and the full download is here. [WARNING: Full download runs to 147MB).
posted by BillW at 7:44 AM PST - 200 comments

Anatomy is a respected medical science, aims at a better knowledgement of human body structures. there were two books in Anatomy that made a lot of controversy, the first one is Atlas of Topographical and Applied Human Anatomy by Eduard Pernkopf, and the second one is The Anatomical Basis of Medical Practice by by Professors R. Frederick Becker, James S. W. Wilson, and John A. Gehweiler. [more inside]
posted by Ahmed_Nabil at 7:39 AM PST - 20 comments

High maintenance: a nameless cannabis delivery guy delivers his much-needed medication to stressed-out New Yorkers in this character-driven web series.
posted by matthewr at 6:46 AM PST - 46 comments

Hand-Annotated Photos of the Beat Generation. Twenty Five photos from Allen Ginsberg [more inside]
posted by Sailormom at 5:31 AM PST - 19 comments

You may remember an animated film from the early '90s. Set somewhere in 'Arabia,' a land of bazaars and minarets, the story featured a bored, harem-panted princess, an orphan boy, a treacherous vizier with bird sidekick, a rotund and oblivious sultan, a blue-skinned magic user, et al. But it wasn't Aladdin - and the movie had started production in 1964 ... [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:37 AM PST - 24 comments

Jeff Wik irreverently recaps Le Morte Da Arthur
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 1:23 AM PST - 13 comments