January 20, 2012

Adorable

Ball girl saves Cedrik-Marcel Stebe from gigantic bug at the Australian Open (SLYT). [more inside]
posted by Ritchie at 11:53 PM PST - 93 comments

Extinct Monkey Lives!

SFU graduate students captures photos of the "critically endangered Miller’s Grizzled Langur, which had never been documented in the 38,000-hectare Wehea rainforest and was thought to be possibly extinct."
posted by chapps at 8:57 PM PST - 8 comments

YouTube is full of videos that could be used for 418 error pages

This might be the most amazing 404 error page ever.
posted by grouse at 8:02 PM PST - 61 comments

How many Presidential candidates can you name?

There are over 400 2012 Presidential candidates not named Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, or Ron Paul. Mental Floss lists 11 of them.
posted by SisterHavana at 7:47 PM PST - 36 comments

I was a fan way before I knew it was underground.

Until 2009, the human clitoris was an absolute mystery: Get ready, everybody — it's time you were brought up to speed on some important features of the female anatomy. (possibly NSFW: some diagrams of internal anatomy) [more inside]
posted by coolxcool=rad at 6:37 PM PST - 97 comments

rat haus reality

As we near completion of the current Year of the Rat, it feels appropriate to tell a story about how rat appreciation started, how the ratitor came to be, and how the organic unfolding of rat haus reality awareness manifested, first in the building of the balsa wood house itself (preceded by the rat cabin and ancestral rat hans), then in its image scribing, next as a gift-in-photo series, and now as this virtual gathering place for consciousness to further explore, expand, and extend itself.
posted by deanklear at 5:47 PM PST - 6 comments

The Waffle House Terrorists

This past November, news broke of a rather odd domestic terror plot that had been broken up by the FBI. Four senior citizens in northern Georgia who met regularly at a local Waffle House, were allegedly planning to spread ricin and botulinum toxin in Atlanta and Washington, DC, in order to kill millions of people and "save the Constitution." But was there ever really a conspiracy?
posted by zarq at 5:34 PM PST - 87 comments

STOP BEING SKINNY AND TIRED!

Ask for Amazing WATE-ON. Retronaut's collection of dietary supplement ads offers some historical perspective on the obesity epidemic. [more inside]
posted by nangar at 4:37 PM PST - 17 comments

Top Ten books of famous authors

Top Ten Favorite Books from authors: Stephen King's 10 favorite books. David Foster Wallace's 10 favorite books. Sue Monk Kidd's 10 favorite books via the CS Monitor.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 3:42 PM PST - 53 comments

Elephant (innards) on parade.

Inside Nature's Giants is a ridiculously educational British science documentary series featuring dissections of very big animals, including a giant squid, a sperm whale, a giraffe, and many, many more. [more inside]
posted by sawdustbear at 3:26 PM PST - 19 comments

"Let's open up this pit!"

"My First Hardcore Song," by Juliet, age 8.
posted by koeselitz at 2:31 PM PST - 51 comments

The ability to recreate an entire movie is insignificant next to the potential of the Force.

Back in 09', Star Wars Uncut (previously) asked people to recreate 15 second chunks of Star Wars: A New Hope however they wanted, using live action, animation, text adventure screens, SCUMM interfaces, costumed pets, and more. Now they've been edited together to recreate the entire movie as a homemade, constantly shifting media experiment. (Vimeo link)
posted by The Whelk at 2:08 PM PST - 133 comments

The sound of the ages

Years by Bartholomäus Traubek: a record player that plays slices of wood.
posted by functionequalsform at 1:50 PM PST - 18 comments

Beneath the molecular diagram was the simple caption “MAKE ME!”

SiHKAL: Shulgins I Have Known and Loved: After spending days, weeks, months poring over the work [PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story; TiHKAL: The Continuation; lab books] of psychonaut-in-chief, Alexander Shulgin, Hamilton Morris mustered up the chutzpah to give him a call and request an interview. The result is this: an epic love-fest on the man who birthed Ecstasy in a test-tube. Hamilton visits the Shulgin residence (in San Francisco, naturally) and tempers his fanboy freakout with a rare and intensive look at the home and laboratory that caused the balls of millions to trip. For those who prefer text, here is the video in article form. [Shulgin previously: 1; 2]
posted by troll at 1:48 PM PST - 15 comments

Chicago Gang Cards

In the 1970s and 1980s, Chicago gangs distributed gang cards to stake their neighbourhood claim. Full gallery available here.
posted by gman at 1:27 PM PST - 49 comments

West Memphis 3 Continued

New witnesses surface on the infamous West Memphis 3 case based on Peter Jackson's upcoming documentary which will premiere as one piece at the 2012 Sundance. Here's the trailer. [more inside]
posted by straight_razor at 1:15 PM PST - 40 comments

That's not just a kid's instrument

People can't decide if he looks more like Tom Cruise or Keanu Reeves. But whoever he looks like, it's the way he sounds and what he can play that make Benoît Sauvé unique. [more inside]
posted by circular at 1:11 PM PST - 11 comments

Internet wins: SOPA and PIPA both shelved

SOPA and PIPA dropped by Congress. The ideas present in both SOPA and PIPA may return, but both bills in their present form—and with their present names—are probably done for good.
posted by asnider at 12:58 PM PST - 99 comments

"And you could darn our clothes, and make pockets for us. None of us has any pockets.’ " ~ J.M. Barrie

Where the Peter Pan Collar Came From—and Why It’s Back. [slate.com]
posted by Fizz at 12:46 PM PST - 16 comments

Not as good as Beetlejuice, but still pretty good

Alec Baldwin has a podcast on WNYC, Here's the Thing, in which he has ~20 minute interviews with pretty much anyone he's interested in talking to. [more inside]
posted by neuromodulator at 12:26 PM PST - 16 comments

Life is a dream.

Hollywood dream of filmmaker Nicholas McCarthy is stop and go. 'His 11-minute thriller had just played Sundance. He had hoped the premiere would launch — after many failed attempts — his dream of making it. He was offered one meeting on which all his hopes rested.' 'This might be his last chance. He was 40, with a wife and baby. Like countless dreamers, he'd existed on the outskirts of Hollywood, fending off debt and doubt, staying afloat with low-wage jobs, diligently writing screenplays and making short films, hoping to hold on long enough to catch a break.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 12:18 PM PST - 7 comments

Playing for the other Team(sters): Project 59

Today on Rewind a remarkable historical piece that features two American icons who clashed over issues of corruption and misappropriation of funds in the 1950s and 60s. They are Robert Kennedy- former Attorney General of the United States, but at the time Chief Investigator of the Rackets Committee for the United States Senate, and James Hoffa- head of the Teamsters Union. (MP3) [more inside]
posted by infinite intimation at 12:01 PM PST - 1 comments

But there's no sex-fueled crime spree

Confessions of a Binge Drinker : "If, as the CDC suggests in a new report, binge drinking leads to violence, spread of sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancy, and risky behavior, then why am I doing just fine?" [more inside]
posted by modernnomad at 11:57 AM PST - 100 comments

Joe Pass plays a Fender Jaguar

Joe Pass plays a Fender Jaguar
posted by Ardiril at 11:56 AM PST - 17 comments

WE SELL ALUMINUM SIDING (AND JOKES)

The Schleppers.
A history of the New York comedy underworld in the 1950s, from WFMU's Beware of the Blog. Featuring Joe Ancis, Jack Roy (aka Rodney Dangerfield), and Lenny Bruce.
posted by anazgnos at 11:42 AM PST - 8 comments

Korean Popular Songwriting

A short list of Kpop songs with double word titles from the last 3-4 years: Cry Cry High High Mirror Mirror Spark Spark Cooking Cooking Push Push Sorry Sorry Haru Haru [more inside]
posted by subdee at 11:37 AM PST - 13 comments

National Aerobics Championships

The 1988 Crystal Light National Aerobics Championships, hosted by Alan Thicke. This is still a thing.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 11:16 AM PST - 34 comments

Underwater Experiments

Underwater Experiments. Beautiful underwater photography by Alexander Semenov. [Via]
posted by homunculus at 10:46 AM PST - 5 comments

"Live sex shows, it ain't."

Think Downton Abbey is good? The New York Times' national desk, and over 30,000 others, can't get enough of the live webcam for Wisconsin's recall (previously). Broadcasting from an undisclosed location, the characters -- including "Sideburns" and "Flirty von Flirtenheimer" -- put the "men" into "Government Accountability Board." Background.
posted by Madamina at 10:45 AM PST - 66 comments

Forget about the election, I'm waiting on the recording contract.

I, I'm so in love with you. The soulful side of President Obama. (slyt)
posted by Hoenikker at 10:29 AM PST - 51 comments

Ugandan Little League woes and a win: “If we can beat Canada, we can beat anyone”

In July 2011, Uganda's Little League baseball team became the first African team to qualify for the Little League World Series, which was held in Williamsport, Pa., in August 2011. After beating the the 22-time World League qualifying Arabian American Little League squad from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the Ugandan team couldn't take part in the world series after their visas were denied (NYT; alt: HuffPo), due to concerns about birth certificate validity, but that's not the end of their story. The Canadian team from Langley raised funds to travel to Uganda, giving the Ugandan team the match they were denied. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:23 AM PST - 19 comments

Javascript

What's a JavaScript Closure? Ever wonder about some of JavaScript's more advanced and esoteric features? Nathan Whitehead's interactive tutorial explains and walks through each of these concepts one step at a time. At the end of each lesson, you are encouraged to write short snippets of code demonstrating the concepts that you just learned, which are then automatically checked for errors and verified.

Perhaps you're new to JavaScript, or programming in general; CodeAcademy offers similar interactive tutorials that will teach you the basics, and hold your hand along the way. Perhaps you'd rather learn at a more even pace; CodeAcademy's CodeYear will introduce you to one new concept every week throughout 2012. [more inside]
posted by schmod at 9:43 AM PST - 42 comments

Freud: the last great Enlightenment thinker

Freud: the last great Enlightenment thinker. Freud never held out the hope of tranquillity. Rather, he aimed to reconcile those who entered psychoanalysis to a state of perpetual unrest...psychoanalysis does not so much promise inner peace as open up a possibility of release from the fantasy that inner conflict will end.
posted by shivohum at 9:23 AM PST - 71 comments

When a benefit is suggested for men, the question asked is: "Will it benefit men?" When a benefit is suggested for women, the question is: "Will it benefit men?"

Are Women People? A writer for The Hairpin discovers the satirical poetry of Alice Duer Miller.
posted by flex at 9:22 AM PST - 44 comments

Goodbye to a legend

Etta James, jazz legend best known for "At Last," died today after a bout with leukemia and dementia, while her husband and sons were battling over her savings.
posted by tr33hggr at 8:47 AM PST - 144 comments

Might As Well Jump

This might be the happiest dog you'll see today. [slyt]
posted by quin at 8:38 AM PST - 44 comments

Turn that phone over

You order your food, everyone places their phone on the table face down. The first one to flip over their phone loses the game and pays for everyone's meal, otherwise everyone pays for themselves. Don't be a dick when you're out with friends at a restaurant.
posted by cashman at 8:28 AM PST - 170 comments

You call those fist names?! Say hello to Bono and Sandra Day O'Connor!

Are you at a pugilistic disadvantage because your fist names are substandard or uninspired? Problem solved.
posted by acanthous at 6:38 AM PST - 44 comments

The Legend of Ungrashzon

Not sure what this Dwarf Fortress thing is all about? The Legend of Ungrashzon (German SLYT, English subtitles available) illustrates.
posted by Zarkonnen at 5:18 AM PST - 33 comments

you gotta keep the devil way down in the hole

Fukushima: Inside the Reactor 2 Containment Vessel, 1/19/2012. Here are Mainichi Daily News and Japan Times reports.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:57 AM PST - 69 comments

Drunk Ron Swanson

Drunk Ron Swanson That is all.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:14 AM PST - 79 comments

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