November 6, 2007

falafelfilter: FBI data mining bad ideas

The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area. I've read this article twice now because I was laughing too hard the first time. If I were more paranoid I might actually seriously ask what sort of data mining the FBI is doing, but... falafel sales! via. [more inside]
posted by tarheelcoxn at 10:35 PM PST - 75 comments

Kitten Cannon

Kitten Cannon (flash). Exactly what it says.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:42 PM PST - 38 comments

Elpenor - Home of the Greek Word

Elpenor - Home of the Greek Word is a site built around a bilingual anthology of all periods of Greek literature, but there's more, including ancient greek lessons, a collection of texts by non-Greeks about Greece, a gallery of Orthodox Christ icons and an online resource-guide on Byzantium. [more inside]
posted by Kattullus at 8:40 PM PST - 5 comments

Let those who dare, come battle with me.

Dambe is a form of boxing associated with the Hausa people of the Saharan regions of West Africa. It is essentially a striking art. The primary weapon is the strong-side fist. Known as the spear, it is wrapped in a piece of cloth covered by tightly knotted cord. The lead hand, called the shield, is held with the open palm facing toward the opponent. The lead hand can be used to grab or hold as required. Officials generally discourage the use of magical protection on the grounds of fairness.
posted by hob at 7:10 PM PST - 7 comments

Those mud pies were actually good for you.

Have You Eaten Your Dirt Today, Honey? A New Approach To The Hygiene Hypothesis. The hypothesis argues: The reason why there is so much asthma, eczema, allergies and maybe even childhood diabetes in the modern world is because we — well infants really — live in too clean a universe. What our baby immune systems need is a kickstart by exposure to viruses, bacteria, worms, pollutants and so on. If you don’t get an infant hit from these icons of uncleanliness, the immune system goes haywire and your body over-reacts to all sorts of invasive things that normally could be ignored. Via. [more inside]
posted by amyms at 6:11 PM PST - 97 comments

Bigfoot's New Name

Bigfoot has a new name; Anthropoidipes ameriborealis (pdf). Coined by Jeff Meldrum, a professor of anatomy at Idaho State University, the term is derived from footprints, not a body. Meldrum’s outspoken Bigfoot advocacy has gotten him into hot water with his university colleagues. Previously anthropologist Grover Krantz proposed that Bigfoot was Gigantopithecus blacki.
posted by Tube at 6:09 PM PST - 23 comments

Meanwhile, Vishnu's in the kitchen making pizza...

Today's Indian Pizza Hut Special:  
Buy one large tikka masala pizza, get one Bollywood-style dance routine free. Yay! [more inside]
posted by miss lynnster at 6:08 PM PST - 43 comments

LSD Psychotherapy Artwork

Visions From LSD Psychotherapy. Artwork created by patients undergoing LSD psychotherapy, from the book by Stanislav Grof. There are more resources on psychedelics at the Bibliographia Studiorum Psychedelicorum. [Via Mind Hacks.]
posted by homunculus at 5:00 PM PST - 27 comments

Foxy Knoxy

Myspace vs Facebook Amanda Knox (AKA "Foxy Knoxy"). Knox has allegedly confessed to helping to rape and kill her flatmate, Facebook aficionada Meredith Kercher, when she refused to join in with Knox in an orgy along with a Knox's Italian boyfriend and a Congolese musician. Knox's blog makes interesting reading.
posted by meehawl at 4:22 PM PST - 69 comments

Pleeeezeee Vote For Deennnisss Kooosiiiiiniiiichhh

Proposed Candidate Ringtones. Taking a cue from the Obama campaign, Billion Dollar President (a new public radio show) whips up some possible ringtones for the other candidates. Be sure to check out Kucinich and Huckabee. There's also a contest to design your own.
posted by jtajta at 4:15 PM PST - 7 comments

This is a post, not a board of directors meeting.

Keep calm and lie down on the floor The John Dillinger Died for You Society has been commemorating the death of Public Enemy #1 every July 22 (last July Pope Michael Flores spoke) Their major spiritual teaching comes from the eminently quotable St. John Dillinger the Martyr who said: “Lie down on the floor and keep calm” during his bank robberies. (Considering his other quotes, it’s ironic that he was canonized) You can join just for the hell of it. Maybe check out a scrapbook of his greatest (ahem) hits. If you’re in Indiana some time you can check out his grave . And of course there’s Dillinger’s women (and everyone’s got a myspace page) But was he a hero for burning mortgages or a villian for robbing banks? Really, does it matter?
posted by Smedleyman at 1:33 PM PST - 14 comments

Take my money, please!

Cannabis distributors plead: "Let us pay taxes!"
posted by telstar at 12:52 PM PST - 39 comments

Gehry/MIT Throwdown

The Stata Center for Computer, Information and Intelligence Sciences, a provocatively designed building on the campus of MIT by "starchitect" Frank Gehry, is falling apart. MIT is suing for negligence.
posted by billysumday at 12:30 PM PST - 60 comments

This was a triumph.

Portal's "Still Alive." The man who wrote it. The woman who sang it. The official skinny, with lyrics and chords. A music video parody. On piano, guitar, and Garry's Mod. Its place in video game history. And finally, one or two ways to get it. (Spoilers all.)
posted by Soup at 12:09 PM PST - 121 comments

Top 101 Cities Lists

Top 101 Cities Lists (in the US)
posted by graventy at 11:56 AM PST - 50 comments

City 7

City 7 is a Half-Life 2 mod of Toronto. [more inside]
posted by chunking express at 11:55 AM PST - 28 comments

Photos of the secret interiors of buildings.

One Wall Away: Hidden Spaces. Jan Theun van Rees photographs secret spaces in Chicago landmarks to allow us to access to what we normally never get to see. My favorites: the old heating ducts for Unity Temple, and inside the Bean. He other series explore Amsterdam's disused theaters, galleries and museums and various personal looks at public spaces.
posted by hydrophonic at 11:54 AM PST - 7 comments

南巡

Recording the grandeur of the Qing [Flash; browser re-sizing; Flash-free topic index] Gorgeous and rich resource introducing multiple facets of Qing history via a study of the spectacular painted scrolls that recorded Kangxi and Qianlong's inspection tours through the south of their Empire.
posted by Abiezer at 10:46 AM PST - 18 comments

There goes the week...

Play 666 Nintendo games in your browser with Virtual NES. (some suggestions of the best games) It joins the extensive EveryVideoGame , the slow GameBoy Online, and the beloved Virtual Apple. [prev. and prev.]
posted by blahblahblah at 10:33 AM PST - 37 comments

Great new way to prevent liability or hurdle to fair use?

Google has announced plans to implement a filter for copyrighted works on youTube. They have been receiving criticism from all sides. [more inside]
posted by Arbac at 9:32 AM PST - 51 comments

Ruinous America

American Ruins: a gallery of photgraphs by Chuck Hutchinson. "a gallery of houses, barns, automobiles and businesses that have become the ruins on the landscape of America."
posted by dersins at 9:13 AM PST - 20 comments

Name your own Paste price.

Name your own Paste price. Paste Magazine, arguably one of the best music magazines available today, is taking a page from the Radiohead playbook by letting subscribers pay whatever they want for a 12-issue/12-CD subscription (minimum $1).
posted by jbickers at 8:58 AM PST - 22 comments

Black poverty in Omaha, Nebraska.

The Omaha World Herald is currently doing a special report on the plight of blacks in Omaha, Nebraska.---Omaha in Black and White: Poverty amid prosperity ---Omaha in Black and White: Losses shrink black middle class---Omaha in Black and White: Self-sufficiency still eludes the state's poor---Omaha in Black and White: Barriers to jobs are many--- Omaha in Black and White: Decline in industrial jobs hurts blacks---Omaha in Black and White: Few well-paid black workers [more inside]
posted by j-urb at 8:41 AM PST - 31 comments

Let's Get Ready to Rubble...

Flint My Ride. Giant ribs not included.
posted by ericbop at 8:02 AM PST - 8 comments

turning of an atheist

The Turning of An Atheist. "The British philosopher Antony Flew was one of the West’s most influential nonbelievers. Then came news — from conservative Christians — that he had recanted. But his change of heart may not be what it seems."
posted by shotgunbooty at 8:00 AM PST - 60 comments

W... T... F???

A top immigration official has apologized after awarding 'most original costume' to a Homeland Security Department employee who dressed in prison stripes, dreadlocks and dark makeup for a Halloween gathering at the agency. [more inside]
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 7:50 AM PST - 50 comments

100 architecture blogs

100 architecture blogs
posted by nthdegx at 7:26 AM PST - 7 comments

Fiber in your diet

Up here in the Northern Hemisphere, it's time to break out the sweaters. Wool too itchy for you? (It is for poor Simon Cowell.) Cashmere and alpaca are easier to wear; a surface comparison shows why. But you can also steer clear of animal fibers altogether and opt for fabric made from wheat. For that matter, while you're at the greengrocer, also pick up some bamboo (1, 2), soy (1, 2), bananas, corn (1, 2), pineapple, milk (1, 2, 3) and rice. (Vegan yarns previously in AskMe.)
posted by GrammarMoses at 6:33 AM PST - 13 comments

The Black Mass

A history of the Black Mass in pictures (NSFW)
posted by jackdirt at 6:12 AM PST - 21 comments

goddess gracious.

lakshmi meet lakshmi.
posted by gman at 5:04 AM PST - 16 comments

Enzo Biagi, R.I.P.

Enzo Biagi (August 9, 1920 - November 6, 2007) was one of the few left on italian public tv. If there's an afterlife they may be writing a two hands article with Indro on how eulogies and their writers kind of suck.
posted by elpapacito at 5:04 AM PST - 5 comments

The Legacy of Lynching

African American Holocaust [Warning: contains graphic material] Nearly 5,000 black Americans were lynched between 1890 and 1960. In her new book, On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-First Century, University of Maryland School of Law Associate Professor Sherrilyn Ifill traces the ongoing impact of these crimes. While the lynchings were devastating, Professor Ifill argues that the little-known contemporary consequences, such as the marginalization of political and economic development for blacks, are equally pernicious, and that there's still a great deal of education and reconciliation that still needs to happen. [Previous Links]
posted by psmealey at 3:59 AM PST - 70 comments

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