January 8, 2010

Zombie Bite Calculator

How long would it take you to become a zombie after you were bitten? The Zombie Bite Calculator can tell you!
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:59 PM PST - 18 comments

yabbadabbadoo, thankyouverymuch

For the 75th birthday of Elvis Presley (yesterday in most time zones), here is an Elvis Impersonator doing famous TV theme songs: The Flintstones, The Partridge Family, Rawhide, WKRP (opening theme, wish he'd try the end theme), Danger Man (Secret Agent Man, the full-length Johnnie Rivers version), The Brady Bunch, The Love Boat and Cheers (maybe next time Frasier's 'scrambled eggs song'?).

Other wacky musical repurposing from the same silly singer includes David Bowie (celebrating his 62nd birthday on the 8th) doing Elvis' Viva Las Vegas.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:27 PM PST - 13 comments

The Legend of Koizumi

You’ve read about the best friggin’ manga ever on Mutantfrog and Wikipedia. Now watch it in Anime form (via Japan Probe) [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 9:08 PM PST - 13 comments

Welcome to the Desert of the Real

The Third & The Seventh (a gorgeous, entirely 3D short film) [more inside]
posted by empath at 8:54 PM PST - 32 comments

Fridays Music

The late night comedy show Fridays only lasted from 1980 to 1982. The show provided many bands with their first wide exposure to U.S. audiences with some of them making their television debuts. Here's some of the up and comers (and a few established acts) from Fridays: The Clash, King Crimson, The Jam, Rockpile, The Boomtown Rats, The Pretenders, Devo, The Cars, The Plasmatics, Graham Parker and the Rumour, and The Stray Cats. [more inside]
posted by marxchivist at 8:35 PM PST - 46 comments

Executing Justice

A new study of death penalty deterrence by researchers from Sam Houston State University and Duke University suggests that there is a decline in murders in the month of or after executions. Meanwhile, Kenneth Mosley became the 448th inmate executed in Texas since 1982 on January 7th, 2010. (Last link: previously, previously and previously)
posted by mrducts at 8:04 PM PST - 50 comments

Won't Get Fooled Again

Won't Get Fooled Again
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:35 PM PST - 89 comments

Songs your grandmother danced to...

Mult-link Youtube: victrolaman
posted by grumblebee at 7:28 PM PST - 8 comments

The Real Good Chair Experiment

The Real Good Chair Experiment - What happens if you leave 25 chairs around New York and watch to see where they go? The short film then continues with an interview with a few of the people who brought them home.
posted by flatluigi at 6:08 PM PST - 27 comments

What Calvin's snowmen would look like in real life.

38 Snowman nightmares If Calvin were a real kid and made his snowmen on a real lawn, it would look something like this.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:22 PM PST - 38 comments

How the Scientist Got His Ideas

In defense of Just So Stories
posted by AceRock at 4:21 PM PST - 27 comments

Elephant Parts

Lucy and Ramona, cruisin' through the jungles of L.A. • How to achieve Neighborhood Nuclear SuperiorityName That Drug!Joanne RodanneMarketing Strategies of Detroit Car Makers • In 1981, Michael Nesmith (well-known for being the heir to the Liquid Paper empire, inventing MTV, and other things) released Elephant Parts, which went on to win the first Grammy Award for Video of the Year. Here's more from Elephant Parts.
posted by not_on_display at 2:34 PM PST - 29 comments

A year with a lovable robot.

Wall-E 365. In case you were wondering what Wall-E's been up to lately. (single link flickr set)
posted by Caduceus at 2:11 PM PST - 17 comments

Dr. Mayme A. Clayton: a Champion of Black History

Dr. Mayme Agnew Clayton was a librarian and collector in Los Angeles who left behind a collection of remarkable value. Over the course of more than 40 years, she had collected the largest privately held collection of African-American materials, with over 30,000 rare and out-of-print books, 1,700 films dating back to 1916, as well as more than 75,000 photographs and scores of movie posters, playbills, programs, documents and manuscripts. Her collection, which has been compared to the Schomburg Collection in the New York City Public Library, was opened to the public in 2007. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 1:13 PM PST - 7 comments

Whence Nutrition

Where does the food in your bodega — or the corner grocer, the local minimart — come from? [...] How come it's easier to find fresh fruits and vegetables in Brooklyn Heights than in the South Bronx? What's the connection between the incidence of diabetes and the food market supply chain?
The Center for Urban Pedagogy and Designer Observer's 30-minute video Bodega Down Bronx looks into the urban grocery gap, and is freely available to stream. [more inside]
posted by spiderskull at 1:09 PM PST - 17 comments

A Lesson

"If my incident shows anything it's that confrontation leads to an escalation of hostilities"

On July 4, 2008, Dr. Christopher Thompson slammed the brakes on his red Infiniti, injuring two cyclists in the process. Today he was sentenced to five years in jail. [more inside]
posted by PBR at 12:47 PM PST - 215 comments

Animated Parkour

parkour motion reel — illustrated with technical pen, frame by frame. [slv]
posted by netbros at 12:10 PM PST - 15 comments

The Politics of Disease

In the name of awareness (via)
[more inside]
posted by anotherpanacea at 11:41 AM PST - 90 comments

All of these could be included on a list of things that don't exist.

A complete list of fictional restaurants. Though as with any "complete list" on the blue, I have complete faith that MeFites can think of some that were neglectfully omitted.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 11:37 AM PST - 110 comments

What if the green revolution stopped?

China produces 95% of the rare earth minerals needed for modern high-tech devices. "What would happen if the production of laptops, cellphones, and MP3 players suddenly halted? Oh, and no more hybrid electric vehicles and MRI machines?" Because China may soon stop exporting these minerals. [more inside]
posted by GuyZero at 10:36 AM PST - 115 comments

Notown

China is the new Detroit. New car sales in the United States plunged more than 20 percent in 2009 to a 27-year low 10 million vehicles, less than the 12.23 million sold in China during January-November, making the Asian giant the world's largest car market for the first time. That marked a turning point in the global auto industry, which had been led by the Big Three Detroit companies since Ford Motor Co. began mass production in 1913, introducing the world's first conveyor belt system.
posted by four panels at 10:23 AM PST - 21 comments

Led Zeppelin

So Mote It Be: excerpt from the new Led Zeppelin biography When Giants Walked The Earth by Mick Wall
posted by vronsky at 9:59 AM PST - 45 comments

go fall in love with something new

The 50 Most Blogged About [musical] Artists of 2009, with awesome accompanying original artwork. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:50 AM PST - 21 comments

There's a BigApp for that

Voting has now closed in the NYC BigApps Challenge, a $20,000 contest to produce amusing, interesting, or even useful apps using the information in the NYC DataMine. Browse the eligible submissions here. Some highlights: Taxihack: collects e-mailed and tweeted comments on NYC cabs, by medallion or license number. Clean.ly: Did the restaurant across the street pass its last health inspection? Walkshed: You tell Walkshed what kind of amenities you'd like to be within walking distance of, and the app makes you a heat map showing your most walkable neighborhoods. SmartPark: Locates nearby garages and collects social information about available street parking. Buzzes you when it's time to move your car. Trees Near You: Does what it says on the box. (via Indirect Collaboration.)
posted by escabeche at 9:32 AM PST - 13 comments

Fuck This Weather

Fuck This Weather via projects
posted by serazin at 9:27 AM PST - 49 comments

More fun than you can shake a robotic pack animal at.

We've talked about M.U.L.E before, but playing options were limited. Not anymore. Now available for Windows, Mac and Linux, Planet M.U.L.E. [more inside]
posted by eriko at 8:32 AM PST - 24 comments

Somniloquy is hilarious.

Somniloquy is hilarious
posted by lemonfridge at 8:24 AM PST - 34 comments

The Tonight Show with?

The Late Shift was a 1996 HBO movie exploring the highly political world of how Jay Leno and secures the Tonight Show hosting job over David Letterman (played by a young John Michael Higgens) after Johnny Carson retires. Jay Leno stepped down for Conan O'Brian in 2009, for a new business model of a 10 pm talk show five times a week for NBC which some called the future of television. Leno's ratings have been abysmal, leading to major concerns among affiliates. It now seems the man who managed to beat out David Letterman may have done it yet again, as it is being rumored that Leno will get his old timeslot back after the Winter Olympics, leaving Conan's future uncertain.
posted by dig_duggler at 8:14 AM PST - 211 comments

Once-lost Hubbard writings now available for purchase

More than 1,000 unreleased recordings of lectures by L. Ron Hubbard and reams of corresponding writings have been unveiled in the culmination of a 25-year project to locate, restore and transcribe lost pieces of the Scientology founder's work. ... "It would be like discovering that Buddha, unbeknownst to anybody, had sat down and wrote down the entirety of his discoveries and it could be verified that he wrote it," said Tommy Davis, the church's top spokesman. ... They're also available for sale to members for about $7,500...
posted by Joe Beese at 7:21 AM PST - 85 comments

Calculus of Averages

Calculus of Averages - Newton and Archimedes did not possess this knowledge. No mathematics professor today can provide this knowledge and depth of understanding. Author John Gabriel maintains a blog, Friend of Wisdom, and contributes articles such as Are real numbers uncountable? to Google's Knol project.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:52 AM PST - 79 comments

A website devoted to jazz and American civilization

Jerry Jazz Musician is "a website devoted to jazz and American civilization." Individual pages have been linked a few times on MeFi, but it's high time this terrific site got its own post. Anyone interested in jazz (or blues, or any of the related topics they frequently cover, like Ralph Ellison or Romare Bearden) should bookmark it pronto. A sample, more or less at random: the life and photography of Milt Hinton. (Via The Daily Growler, itself an excellent source for informed and passionate discussion of music, NYC, and life in general; the linked post finishes with a tribute to that fine pianist Terry Pollard.)
posted by languagehat at 6:40 AM PST - 5 comments

No Longer Sexiled: Universities Grapple with Sex in Dorms

Tufts University officially banned students from having sex in residence hall room when a roommate is present.
posted by RussHy at 6:37 AM PST - 89 comments

Disgusting/Beautiful

Disgusting/Beautiful [more inside]
posted by OmieWise at 5:28 AM PST - 41 comments

John Storm Roberts, 1936-2009

John Storm Roberts, 1936-2009. A magnificent scholar and record producer, and the author of great classics including The Latin Tinge and Black Music of Two Worlds,, and the founder of Original Music, John Storm Roberts passed away at the age of 73 back on Nov. 29. Few figures have had such a profoundly intertwined influence on both musical scholarship and popular musical culture. [more inside]
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:23 AM PST - 4 comments

The Caravanserai of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm

The Seljuk Han in Anatolia has tons of information about and pictures of the caravanserai, inns for caravans, built by the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm in what is now Turkey. The Seljuk caravanserai, called hans, were a vital resource for trade from the middle ages to recent times. The website, by Katherine Branning, explains what a han is, their origins, their function in trade, what life there was like and much more. The site also features 39 individual hans, such as the Kadin Han, now a furniture store, Dibi Delik Han, which is undergoing restoration, Zazadin Han, which has been restored already, and the spectacular Sultan Han Kayseri. For an academic survey of Seljuk hans, here's Ayşıl Tükel Yavuz' The concepts that shape Anatolian Seljuq caravanserais [pdf, automatic download].
posted by Kattullus at 4:04 AM PST - 13 comments

Finger Lickin' Awkward

KFC are in trouble after an Australian ad hit YouTube. Some say it's racist. KFC themselves say it was a light-hearted look at cricket rivalry intended to play on stereotypes. (Previously)
posted by mippy at 2:47 AM PST - 168 comments

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