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Greg Wilson talks about What We Actually Know About Software Development, and Why We Believe It's True (slides for one iteration of this talk) [more inside]
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 10:40 PM PST - 51 comments

International Children's Digital Library Treasure trove of children's books that can be read online in many languages from Amharic to Vietnamese.
posted by Listener at 10:21 PM PST - 6 comments

In real (or at least our preferred) life, we do have other, better things to do. We have books to read, children to raise, friends to meet, loved ones to care for, amusements to enjoy, drinks to drink, walks to take, webs to surf, couches to lie on, games to play, movies to see, protests to make, movements to build, marches to march, and more. Most days, we don’t have time to do any of that. We’re working way too many hours for too little pay, and in the remaining few hours (minutes) we have, after the kids are asleep, the dishes are washed, and the laundry is done, we have to haggle with insurance companies about doctor’s bills, deal with school officials needing forms signed, and more.
posted by latkes at 8:26 PM PST - 138 comments

Utah3D. Highlights include the Bonneville Salt Flats, Goblin Valley and Cedar Breaks National Monument.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 8:00 PM PST - 11 comments

Japan and other Asian countries have moved from SMS to smart phone messaging apps, with great success for all.
posted by reenum at 6:27 PM PST - 91 comments

If You Didn't Know Already Morgan was killed in the early hours of February 19, 1972, at Slug's Saloon, a jazz club in New York City's East Village where his band was performing. Following an altercation between sets, Morgan's common-law wife Helen More (a.k.a. Morgan), shot him. The injuries were not immediately fatal, but the ambulance service was reluctant to go into the neighborhood where the club was located. They took so long to get there that Morgan bled to death. He was 33 years old. According to an eyewitness, Miss More (13 years his senior) walked out of the club just before the last set. She returned and the band was already on stage. Lee was trying to get up there, but was talking with some people. He just started to get up the stage, when she entered and called his name. He turned around and she shot him. She then turned the gun on the club's doorman Ernie Holman, who grabbed her wrist and took the gun away from her. She started to scream, "Baby, what have I done?" and ran to him. She was later committed to a mental institution for some time. Soon after, Helen Morgan returned to her native North Carolina. Reportedly she never spoke publicly of the incident, until she granted an interview a month before her death. She died in Wilmington, NC, from a heart condition, in March 1996. [more inside]
posted by metagnathous at 5:31 PM PST - 22 comments

Examine.com is "an independent organization that presents un-biased research on supplements and nutrition," and aggregates and analyzes studies on various supplements.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 4:44 PM PST - 36 comments

"Ad agencies go to disturbing lengths to create the perfect image. Guess we're no different." Victors&Spoils takes the "regular woman to ad-agency image" video (info) a (seasonal) step further.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:38 PM PST - 6 comments

In the wake of a questionable article about feminist programming languages, a group of trolls leapt on the idea to create a parodic implementation. GitHub promptly removed the code repository, as did BitBucket, but the latter restored it amid the controversy. More commentary from Slashdot and Twitter.
posted by vira at 4:30 PM PST - 140 comments

Mike Duffy has unique, personalized greetings for the Gregg, Greg, Elisabeth, and Elizabeth (among many others) in your life
posted by Copronymus at 4:19 PM PST - 54 comments

Is Saving Mr. Banks, Disney's retelling of the events surrounding the adaptation of Mary Poppins a corporate, borderline-sexist spoonful of lies which throws author P. L. Travers under the bus?
posted by Artw at 4:18 PM PST - 69 comments

Science fiction themed stamps from around the world.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:07 PM PST - 8 comments

If the drive for Scottish independence succeeds, what should be done about the Union Jack?
posted by Chrysostom at 3:49 PM PST - 44 comments

After a species goes extinct, in some cases its "ghost" may linger in the ecosystem it leaves behind in the form of evolutionary anachronisms. [more inside]
posted by brundlefly at 3:49 PM PST - 11 comments

"Noclip" is a fake trailer, for a movie that, for now, is not going to be made, about the incredible power of its characters to defy the physics of the world they live in, almost as if they were cheating a videogame.
posted by Lorc at 2:10 PM PST - 30 comments

Of course matte art has for a long time played a major part in Hollywood's recreation of the old west, with effects shots ranging from simple top ups of mood enhancing skies right through to entire recreations of frontier settings to often wonderful effect. Todays blog will take a look at some of those marvellous visions - the product of the many often uncredited artists who worked tirelessly in the various studio matte departments.

Mattes Ride The Range: The art of the matte shot in Westerns
posted by timshel at 1:55 PM PST - 8 comments

If you've ever dreamed of making out with one of the villainous cats from Mappy or getting into a love triangle with the spaceship from Galaga and a talking Taiko drum, enrolment at Namco High is now open. [more inside]
posted by emmtee at 1:07 PM PST - 50 comments

7 New Yorkers About to Lose Their Unemployment Benefits Tell Their Stories
posted by The Whelk at 1:05 PM PST - 143 comments

Conan O'Brien once again catches local news media recycling the same joke, over and over, this time for christmas. [more inside]
posted by anazgnos at 11:22 AM PST - 122 comments

January 1, 2000 was the day that our computers were meant to fail us and change our lives forever. It was also the day that 44 year old Norman Feller headed into his underground bunker over fears of the fallout from the Y2K virus. Remarkably Mr. Feller spent the next 14 years in isolation only to emerge this past September. [more inside]
posted by Telf at 10:29 AM PST - 90 comments

Regret the Error: The best and worst media errors and corrections in 2013 [more inside]
posted by zarq at 10:18 AM PST - 41 comments

Like sending out Christmas cards but prefer something light on the Santas and Jesuses? The Hubble Telescope is here to help you out with a whole line of free-to-download-and-print holiday-themed greeting cards!
posted by phunniemee at 9:27 AM PST - 7 comments

"Impossible to Tell," by Robert Pinsky (via)
posted by anotherpanacea at 9:04 AM PST - 8 comments

The Coming ‘Instant Planetary Emergency’ [more inside]
posted by eviemath at 8:13 AM PST - 254 comments

While traditional music venues offer their usual Best Albums (or whatever) of the Year round-ups, Spotify confers with a different set of experts of find out what songs and musicians were most important to 2013: You.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:05 AM PST - 58 comments

FLOWBEE OFFICIAL HOW TO
HOW NOT TO
HOW TO WITH A PARROT
HOW TO ON LIVE TV
HOW HOW?
DELUX EDITION
SHAVE YOUR OWN HEAD BY ACCIDENT
MISHAP FLIGHT

(Who orchistrated this downfall?)
(Battle of the Titans: FlowBee vs. RoboCut) [more inside]
posted by grobstein at 7:43 AM PST - 42 comments

"Simply changing the skin color of the mutants obviously doesn’t address all of the issues around privilege in the Marvel Universe. The visual and narrative sexism that permeates superhero comics remains intact. Some characteristics of white characters also become negative stereotypes when applied to non-white characters. Wolverine is a symbol of wild, untamed, white male power, but when I recolor his skin to imagine him as a person of color, his snarling, predatory aggression reads as a stereotype of wild black men." -- Orion Martin reimagines the X-Men as mutants of colour to make clear why the idea of mutant discrimination as standin for real world issues is problematic. He does so by recolouring some famous X-men images. [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 7:18 AM PST - 104 comments

Designer/Artist Phil Jones decided to do something to both honor and play with those ubiquitous real estate ads on bus benches seen in cities by recreating every photo of a realtor with a picture of himself, then pasting it over the originals. It's odd, amazing and Buzzfeed of all people has some followup with the artist.
posted by mathowie at 7:15 AM PST - 39 comments

Quick: What does this book mean to you? Does that image make you crave Snickerdoodles? Or Hermits? Chocolate Crinkles? SO MANY COOKIES. [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:54 AM PST - 46 comments

20 years ago, Sweden passed a series of reforms that encouraged privatization of its schools. In addition to making it easier to create new schools, the new laws made it legal for private, profit-seeking companies to open schools. For over a decade, these reforms were hailed as a market-driven success story, as market share private schools grew. Earlier this year, the bankruptcy of Sweden's largest private school operator and questions about school quality has some in Sweden rethinking its privatization experiment.
posted by snickerdoodle at 6:49 AM PST - 27 comments

San Diego Study #3: Midday Traffic Time Collapsed and Reorganized by Car Color
posted by ardgedee at 2:54 AM PST - 106 comments

Great Train Robbery brazen villain, rock star, former fugitive and former prisoner, and cultural icon, the always colourful Ronnie Biggs, has died. [more inside]
posted by Mezentian at 2:07 AM PST - 48 comments