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Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, according to a University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll. Meet the Flinstones.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:30 PM PST - 179 comments

ZDNet(!) reports on a strange case of technology journalism malfeasance. It turns out that journalist Randall C. Kennedy has been posing as the CTO of Devil Mountain Software, purveyor of Windows performance data.
posted by whir at 9:12 PM PST - 45 comments

Andrew Koenig is missing. Koening is best known for his role as Boner on the 80s sitcom Growing Pains. He is the son of Star Trek actor Walter Koenig. He was last seen in Vancouver at the Winter Olympics but his family hasn't heard from him since Valentines Day. [more inside]
posted by Bonzai at 8:35 PM PST - 120 comments

Been on the internet a while? Think you've seen it all? Time to make sure:

You Should Have Seen This.com and You Should Have Also Seen This.com
posted by flatluigi at 7:34 PM PST - 61 comments

Heroin can now be delivered to your house like a pizza. [more inside]
posted by reenum at 6:36 PM PST - 81 comments

Teresa Nielsen Hayden dismantles the latest claims of plagarism leveled at JK Rowling's Harry Potter series.
posted by Artw at 6:26 PM PST - 114 comments

One of the longest-running and most-revered Samurai series of Japan, Zatoichi, The Blind Swordsman, played by actor Shintaro Katsu, produced 25 films and 112 episodes of a popular television series. It was a popular favorite, and concerned the titular character Zatoichi, a poor blind mendicant masseur who carried with him a deadly secret: a hidden cane sword and complete mastery of swordsmanship, despite his blindness. Zatoichi was by far the great antihero of classic samurai cinema. Often low-budget, sometimes schlocky, always thrilling, the Zatoichi series has slowly become more well-known outside Japan in later years. Criterion has just debuted a Hulu channel offering six of the greatest feature-length Zatoichi classics – the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh – completely free of charge: The Tale Of Zatoichi Continues [1962]; New Tale of Zatoichi [1963]; The Fugitive [1963]; On the Road [1963]; and Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold [1964].
posted by koeselitz at 5:56 PM PST - 40 comments

In the beginning of 1995 before the release of the first graphic browser, Clifford Stoll Of Newsweek said "After two decades online, I'm perplexed. It's not that I haven't had a gas of a good time on the Internet. I've met great people and even caught a hacker or two. But today, I'm uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community." Via Metachat.
posted by The Whelk at 5:32 PM PST - 70 comments

In the US, for the past thirty years, new laws have been stripping judges of any discretion whatsoever in ensuring sentencing and other consequences of criminal activity are fair. Enter Qing Wong Hu, a Chinese immigrant who arrived in the US when he was 5, and now faces deportation for a string of muggings he committed in New York City in 1996, when he was still a juvenile. This, despite his successfully turning his life around and becoming a hard working, productive member of society.
posted by wierdo at 5:08 PM PST - 19 comments

Vancouver has long struggled with a reputation as a "No Fun City", largely due to draconian BC liquor laws. Many prohibition-era laws were not repealed until 1999 or later. The struggle to bring fun to the city culminated in the 2010 Olympics; but on Saturday, the fun proved too much for city officials, and police ordered all downtown liquor stores to close at 7pm. [more inside]
posted by mek at 5:05 PM PST - 69 comments

Scott Salyer transformed the family business into one of the largest providers of processed tomatoes in the US. Apparent business success descended into family infighting, scandal, and bankruptcy. Earlier this month he was arrested and charged after a federal investigation charged him with orchestrating a massive price fixing conspiracy as CEO of SK Foods [more inside]
posted by humanfont at 4:44 PM PST - 7 comments

Breastfeeding has a variety of health benefits for both the mother and the infant. The World Heath Organization has a global strategy to encourage it, and Salma Hayek famously breastfed a baby in Africa. When mothers New York City have trouble with this sometimes difficult task, they bring in Frenda Rosenfeld, a certified lactation consultant.
posted by elder18 at 3:49 PM PST - 86 comments

New York Public Library is crowdsourcing the rectification of maps in their digital gallery. Help match rare maps of NYC to more precise current maps, browse rectified maps, or lend a hand rectifying maps of Haiti to help relief efforts.
posted by exesforeyes at 3:42 PM PST - 9 comments

Folk America: Excellent BBC 3-part documentary tracing folk music from the '20s to the folk revival of the '60s, encompassing the depression and the civil rights era. part 1: Birth of a Nation (59.21) part 2: This Land is Your Land (59:30) part 3: Blowin' in the Wind (58:49) [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive at 10:42 AM PST - 13 comments

"Since their birth early in the century, comic books had been regarded as a kind of junior magazine and allowed to occupy space on the shelves or spinner racks of newsstands, grocery stores, drugstores, dime stores, and sometimes even bookstores. They caught on quickly and, initially, more than earned their place in those venues, but after the 1940s, the comics industry experienced more downs than ups. The Marvel-led resurgence of the 1960s had foundered by the 1970s to the point where extinction seemed like a real possibility. Comics retailer (and former distributor) Steve Schanes put it succinctly: 'Comics were on their last breath. They couldn’t have lasted another four years.'"

Part One: Fine Young Cannibals: How Phil Seuling and a Generation of Teenage Entrepreneurs Created the Direct Market and Changed the Face of Comics [more inside]
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:03 AM PST - 51 comments

65_RedRoses is Eva Markvoort’s online handle—chosen because red is her favourite colour, and because when she was little, 65 Roses was how she said Cystic Fibrosis, the genetic disease she’s battled her whole life. Her wait for a double lung transplant, and her online friendship with two other young women battling CF are documented in the award-winning film 65_RedRoses.

After receiving her lung transplant two years, Eva has since had to battle with chronic rejection. Eva made an video on Feb 11th, announcing that things have taken a turn for the worse. As friends and family wait with her, every extra day becomes a gift and brings new hope.
posted by stray at 9:56 AM PST - 14 comments

"Modes and Motors was a publication produced by General Motors Styling Section in 1938. It is reproduced here in its entirety because its message of what automobile and product design is supposed to represent is lost on today’s world. Modes and Motors is a snapshot into the way designers used to think about their profession."
So then Dean's Garage would be the fat album of classic automobile styling and design from which it came, documenting a long, beautifully chromed age of optimism.
posted by carsonb at 9:00 AM PST - 7 comments

When Yitta Schwartz died last month at 93, she left behind 15 children, more than 200 grandchildren and so many great- and great-great-grandchildren that, by her family’s count, she could claim perhaps 2,000 living descendants.
posted by R. Mutt at 6:52 AM PST - 131 comments