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Reinhold Weege, creator of Night Court has passed away at 63. Weege got his start writing for sitcoms like Barney Miller, its spinoff Fish and M*A*S*H, but was most famous for Night Court the long-running Harry Anderson vehicle for NBC. (Night Court was not the only legal-related show he created, though - he also had the short-lived Park Place, set in a legal-aid clinic.) Due to the success with Night Court he was able to go into semi-retirement, but he was reported to be recently working on a new play. [more inside]
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 11:05 PM PST - 55 comments

A new DOE-funded study has concluded liquified natural gas exports will help the US economy. (PDF) In this report, the word "environment" occurs four times -- none of them with respect to impact on, or cost to the environment of either extraction or transportation. [more inside]
posted by dylanjames at 9:49 PM PST - 64 comments

Breaking The Taboo, an ambitious and star-studded critique of the War on Drugs, saw its public premier today via YouTube.
posted by troll at 8:20 PM PST - 24 comments

Audio only, Newport 1966: Joan Baez - Farewell Angelina
Recorded Jan. 13, 1965, released 1991: Bob Dylan - Farewell Angelina
B/W Video 1966 Joan Baez - Farewell Angelina
Tablature and lyrics following those of the Dylan recording: dylanchords: Farewell Angelina
French TV 1967: Nana Mouskouri - Adieu Angélina
Bratislava 1989, avant de la Révolution de velours: Joan Baez - Farewell Angelina
From the 90s, or so I believe: Nickle Creek - Farewell Angelina
June 19, 2010 at Kidzstock: Joan Baez and Jasmine Harris - Farewell Angelina [more inside]
posted by y2karl at 8:15 PM PST - 33 comments

BANE OUTTAKES. Contains TDKR spoilers, but also fiber.
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:36 PM PST - 58 comments

“The technique to this painting is to incorporate the sound of screams into the brush strokes.”
Kim Beom’s Yellow Scream (2012).
posted by enfa at 7:29 PM PST - 12 comments

The Hairpin's Jia Tolentino holds three interviews with virgins. (Trigger warnings on the second and third stories.)
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 6:37 PM PST - 13 comments

The great Russian animator Fyodor Khitruk passed away on December 3rd at the age of 95. You might know him as the director of the delightful Vinni Puh. (Parts one and two can be seen here with subtitles, for part three see this previous post.) [more inside]
posted by louche mustachio at 6:33 PM PST - 15 comments

Sir Thomas Urquhart was a Scottish writer most well known for translating Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel from its original French. He borrowed or invented a number of words in order to capture Rabelais' inventiveness, and his own writing.
In Six Degrees of Sir Thomas Urquhart we learn the delights of such words as biblotaph or Quomodocunquizing or Hypotyposis among many others.
Sir Thomas was also a veritable hero of slang.
posted by adamvasco at 4:01 PM PST - 16 comments

Ultima Ratio Regum is a middle-ground between roguelikes, RPGs and strategy games. It has no fantasy elements and seeks instead to be closer to a realistic history simulator, and a strategy/4x game which just happens to be in ASCII. Combat is rare and deadly – whilst these mechanics are modeled in detail, exploration, trade and diplomacy factors will have just as much effort put into them.
posted by boo_radley at 3:21 PM PST - 23 comments

On November 30, the Tampa Bay Times published a sympathetic profile of Spring Hill, FL resident Gretchen Molannen: "Persistent genital arousal disorder brings woman agony, not ecstasy." Her condition, also known as PGAD, is a rare sexual disorder (not recognized by the DSM,) 'characterized by spontaneous, persistent, unwanted sexual arousal unrelated to feelings of sexual desire.' The Times reported that Ms. Molannen's condition had virtually destroyed her personal and professional life and led to several suicide attempts. One day after the article was published, she successfully committed suicide. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 3:13 PM PST - 42 comments

The Best WWII Movies You [Probably] Haven't Seen: Page 1, Page 2
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:44 PM PST - 47 comments

Google+ has been derided as a “virtual ghost town” and a “complete failure” unpopular even with Google employees. All of which has heightened the resentment shared by Reader fanatics. Today, they are a population dispossessed. Many have disappeared off the grid, while others struggle to rebuild communities that were, with a few keystrokes, deleted. All of them — the dental student in San Antonio, the academic librarian in Boston, the game developer in San Francisco — yearn for the scroll-tracked Shangri-La that was. They wonder why Google deep-sixed superlative features, years in the making, for an upstart social network, a Facebook clone. In the year past, the same question has been framed and phrased in a thousand different ways — why force an unproven social network on users at the expense of an organic one? [SLBF]
posted by chavenet at 2:18 PM PST - 115 comments

Elves are infesting our shelves! Originally a self-published labor of love, The Elf on the Shelf rose to fame after being photographed in the arms of actress Jennifer Garner. Five years later, it has spawned a movie, a float in the Macy's parade and a bit of a backlash.
posted by jrossi4r at 1:48 PM PST - 65 comments

The competition's website lists several ways to kill a python...It suggests shooting the snake in the head with a firearm or decapitating it with a machete. Wildlife officials say the 2013 Python Challenge is not only about killing snakes. "One of things that is very important to us is to educate the public about the Burmese python and how this species is impacting the state of Florida," Segelson said.
posted by 445supermag at 12:59 PM PST - 56 comments

He is not the only one. Computer rankings are proliferating, said Kenneth Massey, a professor of math at Carson-Newman in Jefferson City, Tenn., who has been ranking teams since 1995. “When I started, there were six or seven,” he said. “But every year, it gets bigger and bigger.” Massey currently tracks more than 100 college football rankings.

With so many competitors, what is the appeal of creating one’s own rankings?

“It’s kind of a nerdy hobby,” Massey said. “It combines sports with math and computers, three things that don’t ordinarily go together.” [more inside]
posted by DynamiteToast at 12:13 PM PST - 20 comments

On December 7, 1941 Elizabeth McIntosh was a reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. A week after the bombing of Pearl Harbor she wrote a first-person account of the attack and its aftermath. Her editors thought the graphic content would be too upsetting, especially as it was directed at the women of Hawaii, and never published it. Now, 71 years later, her article appears for the first time.
posted by 2bucksplus at 11:49 AM PST - 20 comments

Back in July, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings posted on his Facebook page that users of the service had enjoyed over 1 billion hours of viewing in the month of June. The post was (and is) public, and subscribed to by over 200,000 users (some of whom were journalists). Netflix stock jumped for the day on the news. But the SEC was apparently less impressed. [more inside]
posted by sparklemotion at 11:13 AM PST - 43 comments

MONSTRUM believes that playground design should be a reflection of the world surrounding us. We see the world as a place full of colour. We meet boys that like pink and girls that likes climbing trees. Why only play on a monky frame and a sandbox, when you can play in a moon crater or a submarine or a giant spider or an enormous snail or a Trojans horse or a rocket or an ant or a princess castle. The fantasy is infinite.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 11:05 AM PST - 38 comments

In defense of Superman's underpants
posted by Artw at 10:45 AM PST - 115 comments

Teachers: The Webseries, starring the Katydids, is an independent youtube project of eminently flavourful vignettes centered on a cluster of elementary school teachers. It is at times absurd, charming, glorious, and maybe just a bit close to home- all while absolutely nailing its comedic timing.
posted by Algebra at 10:27 AM PST - 5 comments

Last year, The Cooper Union For The Advancement Of Science And Art publicly admitted it was in dire financial straits and raised the idea of charging tuition for the first time in 110 years. The students responded in an appropriate manner. But now as the specter of tuition becomes closer to reality the students took a more drastic option: Since Monday, eleven undergraduate students have expertly barricaded themselves inside the top floor of the New York college. They talk about what they want. They even get pizza. [more inside]
posted by The Whelk at 9:28 AM PST - 70 comments

"The experience of same-sex attraction is a complex reality for many people. The attraction itself is not a sin, but acting on it is. Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them. With love and understanding, the Church reaches out to all God’s children, including our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters."

The Mormon Church has launched a new initiative that encourages compassion towards the LGBT community.
posted by dephlogisticated at 9:20 AM PST - 171 comments

What started as a glorious powder day ended in a desperate fight for survival after three skiers were buried by a killer avalanche in the backcountry of Stevens Pass, in Washington's Cascades. Megan Michelson lived to tell about it, but she can't shake off a haunting question: How did a group of expert skiers make such a deadly mistake?
posted by Chrysostom at 9:10 AM PST - 16 comments

2Day FM's DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian phoned the King Edward VII Hospital from Australia on Wednesday morning pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles asking for an update on the condition of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. The call was described as a prank by the DJs who made it and foolish by the hospital. The nurse who answered the call, Jacintha Saldanha, was convinced by the impersonation and relayed confidential medical details. Today Ms Saldanha was found dead, early reports indicate the death is not suspicious and is suspected to be suicide. [more inside]
posted by samworm at 8:57 AM PST - 245 comments

Iranian Human Rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, currently serving a 6 year term in Tehran’s Evin prison, for ‘violating the Islamic dress code’ and ‘for acting against national security’ as ended her second hunger strike, when travel restrictions against her family were rescinded. [more inside]
posted by what's her name at 8:55 AM PST - 3 comments

Making things with Maths (sic)
posted by Evernix at 7:37 AM PST - 34 comments

Chaos the dog has a wonderful way of keeping herself entertained: Stairs. [more inside]
posted by quin at 7:03 AM PST - 34 comments

The Golden Spike Company plans to offer moon flights for around $750 million.
posted by xowie at 6:39 AM PST - 49 comments

"For the seventh time in less than 70 years, a report has been commissioned by the Government which has dealt with concerns about the press. It was sparked by public revulsion about a single action – the hacking of the mobile phone of a murdered teenager. From that beginning, the scope of the Inquiry was expanded to cover the culture, practices and ethics of the press in its relations with the public, with the police, with politicians and, as to the police and politicians, the conduct of each."

The report, in four volumes of around 500 pages each, is available for download.
posted by rjs at 5:44 AM PST - 38 comments

If you are in the 7 foot tall club in the US there is a 16% you play in NBA. Which is a good thing, as getting all your clothes custom made isn't cheap. Sports Illustrated takes a look at what life is like when you live in a world that was not designed for the very tall.
posted by COD at 5:22 AM PST - 88 comments

What's life like aboard a nuclear submarine? For starters, here's over eight hours of C-SPAN 2, as they took their cameras aboard the USS Wyoming SSBN back in 2000, co-hosted by Rear Admiral Malcolm Fages and writer Robert Holzer. [more inside]
posted by cthuljew at 5:04 AM PST - 24 comments

Thanks, Textbooks. A Collection Of The World's Finest Academic Writing. (Updated Every Monday). *or not
posted by Toekneesan at 4:45 AM PST - 26 comments

MissRepresentation calls out advertisers for their portrayal of women in their 2012 roundup video. Also under scrutiny this gift giving season: 20 Examples That Spencer's Gifts Hates Women.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:21 AM PST - 110 comments

Disruptive Pattern Material: Blechman on Camouflage The Maharishi designer traces the pattern from natural science, via red coats fighting the Boer wars, to modern day battlefields Via.
posted by infini at 1:35 AM PST - 25 comments