October 9, 2011

"Cute 'n cuddly, boys, cute 'n cuddly."

The Penguins of Madagascar is a funny, fast-paced, and family-friendly cartoon series that you may not be watching... yet. [more inside]
posted by flex at 11:07 PM PST - 34 comments

"Speak In Tongues"

100 common English phrases from Tyndale's King James Bible (SLYT)
posted by bardic at 9:01 PM PST - 30 comments

OWL FOND OF EVERYONE

Rescued Owl returns to care for other injured birds (ands one cat)
posted by The Whelk at 7:56 PM PST - 93 comments

All I want is to be left alone in my average home... But why do I always feel I'm in the twilight zone?

In August 2011, 35 ACLU affiliates filed 381 requests in 32 states with local law enforcement agencies seeking to uncover when, why and how they are using cell phone location data to track Americans. So how long do American cell phone carriers retain information about your calls, text messages, and data use? According to data gathered by the US Department of Justice, it can be as little as a few days or up to seven years, depending on your provider. (Via / More)
posted by zarq at 6:55 PM PST - 27 comments

Horton Fails His Sanity Roll

DeviantArt artist DrFaustusAU has been hard at work on a Dr. Seuss-inspired adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Call Of Cthulhu. It's not finished, but you can see what he's done so far: Cover, Page 1, Pages 2-3, Pages 4-5, Pages 6-7, Pages 8-9, Pages 10-11.
posted by hippybear at 6:49 PM PST - 28 comments

Crops still don't pick themselves

We discussed the impact of Georgia's immigration law previously. Apparently their neighboring state Alabama decided they needed one even tougher. The impact on businesses mirrored what happened in Georgia. Meanwhile, the US Department of Justice is challenging the law. Some estimates on the economic impact.
posted by Runes at 6:40 PM PST - 32 comments

Dreams of a Life

Joyce Carol Vincent, 38, died in her North London flat in 2003; her skeleton was found three years later, on the sofa; the television was still on, and a pile of unopened Christmas presents lay on the floor. The story was mentioned briefly in the press, but then forgotten. Now, filmmaker Carol Morley has tracked down and interviewed people who knew her before she retreated and reconstructed her story, all the more tragic because of the deceptively promising life it showed. [more inside]
posted by acb at 6:12 PM PST - 64 comments

Erosion footage

A rock face may have stood in a place for a very long time but that does not mean it will stay there forever. It may crumble and fall and there may be people with cameras around. SLYT.
posted by Anything at 5:29 PM PST - 52 comments

Affordable Furniture For Your Five-Dimensional Home

M.C. Escher Meets IKEA for some impossible items you WISH you could buy. Of course, this isn't a totally new idea, in fact, even an IKEA fansite has played with the concept. (Dedicated to anyone who ever suspected the assembly instructions were written in an alternate reality) But sometimes, even without intending, a do-it-yourselfer can achieve something pretty close. And now, IKEA itself has embraced the Escher influence in one ad. [more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:09 PM PST - 28 comments

Aggressively ironic and ostentatiously sloppy

An Indian-American rapper and his crew are making serious waves in the hip hop world. A profile of Himanshu Suri (Heems) and his group - Das Racist.
posted by vidur at 5:01 PM PST - 44 comments

Hoover Hush-Up

Though the posters and trailers promise quality performances, Clint Eastwood's biopic J. Edgar seems intent on skirting certain issues in the former FBI director's personal life. The JEH Foundation is already denying the "rumors" louder than ever, but so far there's little indication that they've got anything to fear beyond a little hand-holding. QUEERTY asks: if Clint Eastwood is cool with homos, why is he freaking out about J. Edgar not being a gay movie? Despite the tame promos, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black insists that the gay subplot makes up "about a third" of the story. Meanwhile, an upcoming memoir by former Hollywood pimpster Scotty Bowers is rumored to contain a firsthand account of a gay weekend getaway with Hoover and company.
posted by hermitosis at 4:27 PM PST - 89 comments

wear dogwood like it’s yo’ bling

Fuck Yeah Chinese Myths is a more sober, Chinese-centric version of Myths RETOLD (previously).
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:26 PM PST - 14 comments

Astronauts who got creative about their experiences

Over 500 people have traveled into outer space. While many have written books about the experience, only a few have used more creative means to express what they saw and felt. Here are a few: [more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:50 PM PST - 13 comments

Somewhere

As he sings, the walls of the apartment begin to move off, and the city walls surrounding them begin to close in on them. Then the apartment it self goes, and the two lovers begin to run, battering against the walls of the city, beginning to break through as chaotic figures of the gangs, of violence, fail around them. But they do break through, and suddenly-they are in a world of space and air and sun. They stop, looking at it, pleased, startled, as boys and girls both sides come on. And they, too, stop and stare, happy, pleased. Their clothes are soft and pastel versions of what they have worn before. They begin to dance, to play: no sides, no hostility now; join, making a world that Tony and Maria want to be in, belong to, share their love with. As they go into the steps of a gentle love dance, a voice is heard singing. [more inside]
posted by silby at 2:24 PM PST - 11 comments

The H2O Gate Blues

In 1973 a struggling America was still dealing with the watergate scandal. The than 24 year old Gill Scott-Heron wrote a topical song that still applies today. It is called H20 Gate Blues.
posted by dreyfusfinucane at 2:03 PM PST - 7 comments

What if Tim Berners-Lee Had patented HTML?

Francis Gurry, the Director of the UN's WIPO, claims the web would have been better if Tim Berners-Lee had patented HTML and licensed it. He does so on camera and in front of shocked members of the Internet Society and CERN. Ironically, exactly this thought experiment came up for the web's 20th birthday on this August 6th.

For a more rigorous perspective, three Boston University School of Law faculty have shown that lawsuits by non-practicing entities, aka patent trolls, have cost technology companies half a trillion dollars of lost wealth over the past two decades, with little benefit to small inventors, instead reducing the incentive to innovate. [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges at 11:58 AM PST - 80 comments

The Map, the Territory and Google Street View

The Grand Map, an essay by Avi Steinberg.
posted by xod at 11:56 AM PST - 13 comments

Welcome to Darklands

In 1992, MicroProse published their first and only CRPG: Darklands. Set in medieval Germany, the game gives a lot of immersion, from its innovative lifepath system for character generation, to its use of period music, to the importance of knowing your saints, to tatzelwurms, quite fearsome dragons and raubritters. The game play is good, with lots of different ways of handling any conflict and a semi-realtime combat system. The game is also fundamentally open-ended; while there is a main plot (spoilers), it's possible to ignore that thread and keep playing for years. [more inside]
posted by jiawen at 9:58 AM PST - 35 comments

Law Schools Found Misrepresenting Jobs Data

Over the past couple of months, there have been a series of scandals that have rocked the legal education community. First, there were tandem lawsuits against Thomas M. Cooley School of Law and New York Law School for misrepresenting jobs data. Then, Villanova University and the University of Illinois were found to be fudging their employment numbers. A legal team is now preparing to sue 15 different law schools because of misrepresentations made to students regarding job and salary data.
posted by reenum at 9:27 AM PST - 43 comments

Sympathetic Voices Addressing Concerns about the Occupy Everywhere Protests

As the protests begun by Occupy Wall Street begin to spread and gain a foothold in the public consciousness, many question the movement's apparent unwillingness to focus its outrage into a coherent platform of demands. Meanwhile, others question whether the demographics of the protesters themselves are truly representative of the so-called 99 percent (previously). Why the lack of focus, and what is to be done to keep the movement growing and moving forward? [more inside]
posted by Scientist at 8:54 AM PST - 548 comments

Dinner Fights Back

I am NOT gettting out of this car because I am SCARED of that TURKEY!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:51 AM PST - 57 comments

Showcase of Beautiful Fashion Illustrations

Showcase of Beautiful Fashion Illustrations [more inside]
posted by Trurl at 8:18 AM PST - 8 comments

Final report of the commercial starship Nostromo, third officer reporting.

The Nostromo model from the first Alien movie sat outside in the rain for over two decades before it was bought by The Prop Store in 2007. They sent it to Grant McCune Design to restore it to its previous glory. Part one of the video detailing the restorations and then part 2, part 3 and part 4. Note that the embedded video in the main link is a shortened ten minute version of the twenty minute four part series.
posted by octothorpe at 7:04 AM PST - 37 comments

Applesource?

Did Dropping Acid Make Steve Jobs More Creative? Awkwardly omitted from his many obituaries, Steve Jobs said that "doing LSD was one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life." Was his experience (portrayed in this reenactment) the source of his creativity?
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:53 AM PST - 121 comments

Multiplayer HTML5 audio game goodness

Plink! A multiplayer music experience by DinahMoe. Like ToneMatrix, but with friends (or complete Internet strangers!).
posted by spitefulcrow at 12:08 AM PST - 16 comments

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