October 21, 2014

Cøme play with üs

Rëdrüm (some assembly required)
posted by a lungful of dragon at 10:15 PM PST - 18 comments

Rob Cantor has been having a very good year

You may know Rob Cantor for his work with Tally Hall (previously), or for his hit meme-song Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf (also previously), for which a new, amazing video was released today, or for the time he faked a bunch of celebrity impressions (previously again!). But wait - there's more! [more inside]
posted by Itaxpica at 9:31 PM PST - 13 comments

"I’m actually kind of surprised that no one has made one by now."

I tend to spend months on a piece here and there, but once this one got in my blood, I couldn’t stop. It all started with the Cyberdemon by Reaper Miniatures my friend Chris Fields gave be back in 2004. After doing a paint job on it back then I wanted to build an environment for the little evil cyborg.
-Icons of Doom
posted by griphus at 9:28 PM PST - 17 comments

And yet, I still haven't discovered what the heck "Snarf Farms" are.

Figuring out some of the more obscure references in an episode of MST3k is a labor of love for some devoted fans. The folks over at The Annotated MST3k (previously) have been at it for eleven years now and have 113 episodes completely annotated. But for those who prefer their annotations in real time, you're in luck. The official YouTube channel for the show has posted two completely annotated episodes (Mitchell and Manos - The Hands of Fate) for your viewing pleasure.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 8:48 PM PST - 39 comments

Marriage Equality in the Equality State

At 10AM Mountain Time on Tuesday, October 21, Wyoming began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The U.S. Supreme Court had announced its decision to "let stand appeals court rulings allowing same-sex marriage in five states," including Wyoming, on October 6—16 years since gay college student Matthew Shepard was abducted, tortured, and left to die outside Laramie, WY, in a homophobic attack that galvanized LGBT activism across the country. The Matthew Shepard Foundation posted today: "Congratulations, Wyoming. Thirty-two down, 18 to go." [Previously: The 10-year anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death.]
posted by nicebookrack at 8:27 PM PST - 19 comments

music video: The Tropics, "Fireproof"

"Fireproof" is the new music video from San Francisco pop group The Tropics. It features an enjoyable, upbeat, punchy song with a vibrant vocal from lead vocalist Claire George. Lighthearted, smile-inducing bonus: The video is also a spirited, shot-by-shot homage to the video for Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's 1991 hit "Good Vibrations".
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 6:38 PM PST - 9 comments

We have no sense of scale for this...is it some kind of pipe?

Mystery photos from CERN's history
posted by Confess, Fletch at 6:14 PM PST - 20 comments

...and then Druids for some reason!

The entire 10 movie 'Halloween' series in two minutes.
posted by The Whelk at 3:24 PM PST - 46 comments

Keene, NH Pumpkin fest: come for the jack-o'-lanterns, stay for the riot

Keene, New Hampshire tried to set a new world record for most pumpkins carved at their 2014 Pumpkin Festival, but failed to reach their goal. Instead, the news coverage of the Pumpkin Festival is for the vaguely related mayhem that erupted in neighborhoods near Keene State campus. It has been reported that the chaos was due to an influx of young people, up to 2,000 congregated in some areas, who threw billiard balls, rocks, debris and bottles full of liquor, and overturned at least one car. Police used tear gas and pepper balls to quell the crowds, and arrested 84 individuals. There were dozens of injuries, but no fatalities. In the larger discussion of various group gatherings and actions and the police response to such events, comparisons have been made between the Keene "pumpkin riot" and Ferguson. To which Luke O’Neil wrote Keene Is Not Ferguson—Despite the Police, Fires, and Tear Gas. Jordan Lebeau responded with a piece titled Actually, Comparing Keene to Ferguson Is Precisely What You Should Do (last two articles on Boston.com). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 3:02 PM PST - 84 comments

JUST HOOK IT TO MY VEINS

Following a record-breaking $750 million syndication deal with parent company Fox, the FXX network most recently made headlines back in August with its twelve-day marathon of Every. Simpsons. Ever. But that was just the prelude to the real deal launching today: Simpsons World, a staggeringly comprehensive multiplatform video database including clips, news, featurettes, curated playlists, a heartbeat tracker of each season's popularity, and (for the intrigued who'd like to subscribe to their newsletter network) on-demand streaming of all 552 episodes and counting. Coming early next year is an even greater expansion of features, bringing full-series dialogue search, real-time script tracking, and "geolocation" of all scenes throughout Springfield -- something very close to Myles McNutt's vision for a shareable Simpsons clip database (previously). I, for one, welcome our new Simpsons-quoting overlords. [more inside]
posted by Rhaomi at 2:29 PM PST - 81 comments

HAL Remastered

For the upcoming digitally restored theatrical re-release of Kubrick's classic Sci-Fi film, 2001: A Space Odyssey (previously, and previously) a beautiful new trailer for the movie has been put together by the British Film Institute. Via Polygon.
posted by codacorolla at 2:10 PM PST - 71 comments

"How are things in the Land of Youth?" Ursula Le Guin blogs from 85

Legendary science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin blogs about her 85th birthday. For those who don't already know about her, here's a Wikipedia selected bibiography. For those who do, here's an Appreciation of Le Guin following her receiving the National Book Award Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters last month.
posted by aught at 1:53 PM PST - 23 comments

"Would the cook were of my mind!" ~ William Shakespeare

Cooking the Books
"Cooking the Books is an internet cooking show hosted by Emily Gould in which she invites famous authors into her kitchen to make food inspired by their books."
[more inside]
posted by Fizz at 1:40 PM PST - 8 comments

Do you think I should confess? To what? Committing masterpieces?

Ladies and gentleman, by way of introduction, this is a film about trickery, fraud, about lies. Tell it by the fireside or in a marketplace or in a movie, almost any story is almost certainly some kind of lie. But not this time. This is a promise. For the next hour, everything you hear from us is really true and based on solid fact.
Orson Welles' cinematic confidence scam, F for Fake, gets a new two disc Blu-Ray Criterion Collection release this year. Ben Sampson offers a visual analysis in two parts, breaking down the film's layers of paradoxes. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:17 PM PST - 25 comments

Smells like....cold fusion?

A man who was completely paralysed from the waist down can walk again after a British-funded surgical breakthrough which offers hope to millions of people who are disabled by spinal cord injuries. Polish surgeons used nerve-supporting cells from the nose of Darek Fidyka, a Bulgarian man who was injured four years ago, to provide pathways along which the broken tissue was able to grow (Guardian report). [more inside]
posted by Jakey at 12:10 PM PST - 15 comments

Artists Report Back

What is a work of art in the age of $120,000 art degrees? A new report (PDF) by activist collective BFAMFAPhD laments the shrinking job prospects and growing debt burden for art school graduates. [more inside]
posted by overeducated_alligator at 10:22 AM PST - 60 comments

Bill Cosby/Hannibal Buress

Hannibal Buress called out Bill Cosby for the sexual abuse charges against him onstage in Philly recently: "Thirteen? And it’s even worse because Bill Cosby has the fucking smuggest old black man public persona that I hate. Pull your pants up, black people. I was on TV in the ’80s. I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom. Yeah, but you raped women, Bill Cosby. So, brings you down a couple notches. I don’t curse on stage. Well, yeah, you’re a rapist, so, I’ll take you sayin’ lots of motherfuckers on Bill Cosby: Himself if you weren’t a rapist. …I want to just at least make it weird for you to watch Cosby Show reruns. …I’ve done this bit on stage, and people don’t believe. People think I’m making it up. …That shit is upsetting. If you didn’t know about it, trust me. You leave here and Google ‘Bill Cosby rape.’ It’s not funny. That shit has more results than Hannibal Buress." Timeline of Abuse Charges. (TW: Sexual Abuse)
posted by josher71 at 9:27 AM PST - 404 comments

Nothing has ever been this Internet before.

Bijin&Co. are a modeling agency with a unique solution to the two-pronged need of attracting new models and figuring out which ones are the most popular with the public: put a pretty lady clock on the Internet. [more inside]
posted by Poppa Bear at 8:14 AM PST - 15 comments

Get paid for busy work, get the real work done while fooling around

"Probably more inhibiting than anything else is a feeling of responsibility. The great ideas of the ages have come from people who weren’t paid to have great ideas, but were paid to be teachers or patent clerks or petty officials, or were not paid at all. The great ideas came as side issues." Isaac Asimov Mulls “How Do People Get New Ideas?” [more inside]
posted by Perko at 8:10 AM PST - 4 comments

“Can I do anything to help?” - “Trade kids with me.”

By Noon They’d Both Be In Heaven By Hanna Rosin
KELLI STAPLETON, whose teenage daughter was autistic and prone to violent rages, had come to fear for her life. So she made a decision that perhaps only she could justify.
posted by davidstandaford at 8:08 AM PST - 122 comments

O bravenew.world, that has such gTLDs in't!

thislandisyour.land
thatsnumber.wang [more inside]
posted by zamboni at 8:00 AM PST - 34 comments

Do you fold it or wad it?

Buzzfeed conducted a(n unscientific) poll of over 300,000 readers on their bathroom habits. Some startling findings: most people pee in the shower, some people take their pants and/or their shirt off to poop, and 21% of respondents have their toilet paper facing the wrong way. The gulf between sitters and standers is widening, and the sitters contingent is winning. (Previously on sitters vs. standers.) [more inside]
posted by desjardins at 7:57 AM PST - 219 comments

'write it on a piece of paper and stick it through a letterbox’

Central to this inheritance for the Liberal Democrats was the role of leaflets. If one image can sum up the approach to campaigning taken by the Liberal Democrats across twenty-five years, it would be a piece of paper on a doormat emblazoned with a bar chart and a headline screaming that ‘Only the local Liberal Democrat can beat Party X round here’.
Mark Pack takes a long, indepth look at Liberal Democrat electoral campaigning and its history. Surprisingly interesting even for non-wonks.
posted by MartinWisse at 4:28 AM PST - 13 comments

Unique taste — and the capacity to avoid the basic — is a privilege.

'She (and it is always a she) cherishes uninspired brands — a mix of Target products, Ugg boots over leggings, and Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes (the ultimate signifier of basicness) — and lives a banal existence, obsessed with Instagramming photos of things that themselves betray their basicness (other basic friends, pumpkin patches, falling leaves), tagging them #blessed and #thankful, and then reposting them to the basic breeding grounds of Facebook and Pinterest.' Anne Helen Petersen on why 'basic' is just another word for class anxiety. [Single link Buzzfeed] [more inside]
posted by Ziggy500 at 3:56 AM PST - 202 comments

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