November 24, 2010

Alice's Restaurant

This song is called Alice's Restaurant, and it's about Alice, and the restaurant, but Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant; that's just the name of the song, and that's why I call the song Alice's Restaurant. [more inside]
posted by Miko at 10:32 PM PST - 164 comments

The Lucky Few

In 1975, desperate to escape Vietnam following the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, twenty thousand refugees boarded the few remaining ships of the South Vietnamese army and fishing boats. They were escorted by the USS Kirk, a Knox-class destroyer escort, which led them to the Philippines. This mission, Operation New Life lives on as one of the largest humanitarian missions in the history of the United States military, but has been largely forgotten by history. [more inside]
posted by honeybee413 at 8:54 PM PST - 15 comments

Act 1: Dinner. Act 2: Pie. Act 3: Grousing.

Since the very beginning, PRI's This American Life has (every few years) commemorated Thanksgiving in the US with episodes about the exotic mysteries of turkeys, chicken and other fowl. They call it Poultry Slam and episodes from 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2008 are all available for your turkey day and I-refuse-to-even-look-at-a-Walmart day enjoyment.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 8:23 PM PST - 6 comments

Nikos Kazantzakis

They think of me as a scholar, an intellectual, a pen-pusher. And I am none of them. When I write, my fingers get covered not in ink but in blood. I think I am nothing more than this: an undaunted soul. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese at 7:58 PM PST - 9 comments

I assure you, the snakes are very real.

Most graduate students are surely aware of the many rigors and regulation of thesis preparation. For example, here is a FAQ on preparing for the "snake fight" portion of your thesis defense.
posted by jjray at 7:58 PM PST - 28 comments

I [heart] Librarians

Libraries are, for many of us, the public places where we bring our most private selves, our fears and our dreams, so long buried and so studiously unspoken. The librarian checking out a stack of books may be for many of us, the equivalent of the first person we’ve told a secret to. Which brings me to the real reason I chose the profession that I did for my narrator: Even more than libraries, I love librarians.
As Others See Us: An Author On Why She Loves Librarians
posted by carsonb at 7:17 PM PST - 30 comments

More Than A Cookie Enthusiast

Cookie Monster makes an appeal to host Saturday Night Live. [more inside]
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 6:45 PM PST - 43 comments

(D-TX)

Tom Delay has been found guilty of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces five years to life in prison on the former, and 2 to 20 on the latter.
posted by p3on at 6:32 PM PST - 102 comments

"Sorry for perving on your Thanksgiving preparations for three years..."

For the past three years, 28-year-old Sydney man James West has been receiving personal emails about the Thanksgiving dinner of the Tran family of Somewhere, USA. This year, he decided he wanted an invite to dinner and started a YouTube channel about his quest to track down the Trans and obtain an invite to dinner. Fortunately, his mission has been successful, and West will be attending Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow with the Trans in Florida.
posted by SkylitDrawl at 6:12 PM PST - 42 comments

New Music for the New Year

Fifty+ Music Blogs. If you on occasion like wfmu's Beware of the Blog, you'll like these on occasion as well. Mostly strange, exotica, hip hop, noise, electronic, experimental, punk, industrial. No single-artist blogs. Updated seldom to constantly, all field tested at time of this post. Arranged alphabetically. All have free downloads. Some include videos, some contain images and sounds not appropriate to all ages or workplaces. Some have appeared at metafilter before, others have not, this list generated specifically for this post. You’ll find something new to listen to here, I assure you. [more inside]
posted by eccnineten at 4:54 PM PST - 32 comments

Let's Talk Turkey...

What really happens to the turkey that the president pardons at Thanksgiving?
posted by veedubya at 4:29 PM PST - 56 comments

Surely the most extreme example is the existence of a force of gravity.

The flat earth and geocentric world are examples of wrong scientific beliefs that were held for long periods. Can you name your favorite example and for extra credit why it was believed to be true?
posted by griphus at 3:19 PM PST - 85 comments

Polyrhythms Inside of Polyrhythms

Steve Vai explains his notation for "The Frank Zappa Guitar Song Book".
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 1:39 PM PST - 50 comments

Women Prevent Women Prettier Than Themselves From Getting Jobs

From the NYT Economix blog: Are good-looking people more likely to get jobs? That depends whether you’re talking about men or women, according to a new working paper.

Job applicants in Europe and in Israel increasingly imbed a headshot of themselves in the top corner of their CVs. We sent 5,312 CVs in pairs to 2,656 advertised job openings. In each pair, one CV was without a picture while the second, otherwise almost identical CV contained a picture of either an attractive male/female or a plain-looking male/female. Employer callbacks to attractive men are significantly higher than to men with no picture and to plain-looking men, nearly doubling the latter group. Strikingly, attractive women do not enjoy the same beauty premium. In fact, women with no picture have a significantly higher rate of callbacks than attractive or plain-looking women. We explore a number of explanations and provide evidence that female jealousy of attractive women in the workplace is a primary reason for the punishment of attractive women.
posted by krautland at 1:20 PM PST - 76 comments

banelings banelings banelings, oooohhh...

When Starcraft and Justin Beiber collide. [more inside]
posted by kaibutsu at 1:02 PM PST - 18 comments

"...we will continue to oppose any policy or action that would celebrate or affirm homosexual conduct."

"Yeah," she told me. "What we're saying is these [anti-gay] groups perpetrate hate—just like those [racist] organizations do." [more inside]
posted by kipmanley at 12:27 PM PST - 168 comments

"I wanna hold her hand and show her some beauty before this damage is done"

Arcade Fire: The Suburbs. Youtube. A video by Spike Jonze. Background: 1, 2, 3. Previously
posted by zarq at 11:59 AM PST - 30 comments

Why Do We Talk

Watch a language evolve in a single afternoon in part 6 of BBC Horizon's fascinating documentary, "Why Do We Talk." (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5)
posted by Avenger50 at 10:44 AM PST - 11 comments

Experiments in Philosophy

Philosophy Experiments
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 10:18 AM PST - 123 comments

Your Mother Whips Hair In Hell, Karras

Hair whip dance-off: Linda Blair versus Frostie the cockatoo. Related, previously.
posted by hermitosis at 9:39 AM PST - 19 comments

Begun the currency wars have.

China, Russia Quit the Dollar on bilateral trade. Are India and Brazil next? BRIC leaders aim for 'multipolar' world order.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 9:14 AM PST - 49 comments

Teuthidodrilus samae

Introducing the 'Squid worm' - a new species in a new genus discovered 3,000 metres down off the Indonesian coast.
posted by Artw at 8:48 AM PST - 41 comments

Thanks for your service, killer.

War veteran barred from college campus for frank words on killing. After publishing essay on addiction to war, Charles Whittington must obtain psychological evaluation before returning to classes
posted by fixedgear at 8:34 AM PST - 115 comments

A bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig.

Epic Meal - It's a quail inside a Cornish Hen inside a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey inside a pig. Garnished with Baconators. It's a paean to excess. 79,046 calories and 6,892 grams of fat.
posted by Happy Dave at 6:22 AM PST - 171 comments

Angry Birds, the SLYT.

Angry Birds, the Peace Treaty
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:11 AM PST - 59 comments

Up, Up and Away! (Auf, Auf und Weg?)

Luftfahrtsieb: Das Luftfahrtarchiv ist eine interessante Website, die handelt sich um die frühe Geschichte des Luftwesen in Deutschland und anderswo. Es botet Artikeln, die diskutieren die frühste Fliegversuche des Mensch, berühmte Fliegstaten wie die erste Flüge über den Ärmelkanal oder den Atlantik usw., aber vielleicht interessanter sind jene, die sich mit anderer Fächer befassen. Es gibt zum Beispiel Geschichten der Bemühungen des Graf von Zeppelin, einen erfolgreichen Luftschiff in seiner schwimmenden Halle auf dem Bodensee zu bauen und des Flugplatz in Johannisthal, wo findet deutsches Luftwesen seines Anfangrichtige. Man kann auch lernen, wie Kunstflugmanöver zu erbingen sind, oder die richtige Methode, sein Luftschiff zu starten oder landen. [more inside]
posted by Dim Siawns at 3:47 AM PST - 50 comments

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