MetaFilter

Was the Wealth of Nations Determined in 1000 B.C.? (pdf) We assemble a dataset on technology adoption in 1000 BC, 0 AD, and 1500 AD for the predecessors to today’s nation states. We find that this very old history of technology adoption is surprisingly significant for today’s national development outcomes. Although our strongest results are for 1500 A.D., we find that even technology as old as 1000 BC matters in some plausible specifications. (via)
posted by Kwantsar at 10:57 PM PST - 53 comments

The Money Maker :"On the 1000 guilder note, it became a “sport” for me to put things in the notes that nobody wanted there! I was very proud to have my fingerprint in this note – and it’s my middle finger!"
posted by dhruva at 10:38 PM PST - 33 comments

Vox Imperium A pretty deep web based civilization game.
posted by boo_radley at 9:17 PM PST - 20 comments

Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.3, in D minor, with Martha Argerich on piano. Many know the Rach 3 from the movie Shine. [Via C&L.]
posted by homunculus at 8:38 PM PST - 27 comments

You missed Caturday! but you'll be prepared for the next one. "It's lolcats pix with tags! Does also peoples call it cat macros? You may also find non-lolcat pictures -- this is a treasure for you." This makes some happy. This makes others cross. Not a cat person? How about a dog person? Me either. Yes I searcheds b4 I posteds. =P
posted by ZachsMind at 7:46 PM PST - 44 comments

US TaxFilter: Your real tax rate: 40%.
"In a study for the National Bureau of Economic Research, Boston University economists Laurence J. Kotlikoff and David Rapson have found that our all-in marginal tax rate is 40%, give or take a bit. Yes, you read that right: 40%." The table at the end is telling.
posted by knave at 5:41 PM PST - 88 comments

"Cohen on the Telephone" (real audio) is "not politically correct by modern standards, due to its Yiddish stereotyping, but certainly popular in its time and rumored to be the first comedy record to sell a million copies. This bit primarily made fun of the crude telephone system in use during 1913, when Joe Hayman recorded it in London in July of that year for Regal/Zonophone (it was issued on Columbia here in the States the following year). Several other labels hastily released versions by other artists, and a series of sequels followed right up into the mid-20's." Such as "Cohen Exceeds the Speed Limit", "Cohen at the Pay-station", "Cohen Phones His Tailor", "Cohen Telephones the Health Department" and "Cohen's Recruiting Speech" (all mp3s from The Virtual Gramaphone). There was even a movie.
posted by grumblebee at 5:25 PM PST - 10 comments

"In 1964, a computer - the IBM 1401 Data Processing System - arrived in Iceland, one of the very first computers to be imported into the country… The chief maintenance engineer for this machine was Jóhann Gunnarsson, my father. A keen musician, he learned of an obscure method of making music on this computer - a purpose for which this business machine was not at all designed… When the IBM 1401 was taken out of service in 1971, it wasn't simply thrown away like an old refrigerator, but was given a little farewell ceremony, almost a funeral, when its melodies were played for one last time. This "performance" was documented on tape along with recordings of the sound of the machine in operation." The whole story with samples, pictures and video at Jóhann Jóhannsson's site. [via]
posted by tellurian at 5:21 PM PST - 15 comments

Awesome: Gore "emphasizing the nonpartisan nature of the climate change threat," and his movie, An Inconvenient Truth netting a Best Documentary Oscar. Not so awesome.
posted by allkindsoftime at 4:47 PM PST - 154 comments

Abashiri prison of the present which became famous completely by the movie "Abashiri extra area" is in the modern building rebuilt in the 59th year of Showa. The old building which has been used since Meiji is preserved as a "museum Abashiri prison" at the foot of the Mt tentozan .
posted by breezeway at 4:01 PM PST - 5 comments

Female koalas indulge in lesbian "sex sessions", rejecting male suitors and attempting to mate with each other, sometimes up to five at a time, according to researchers.
posted by ibmcginty at 2:10 PM PST - 63 comments

Teddy Babes love dolls are available in a number of sexy characters. (NSFW)
posted by bigmusic at 2:10 PM PST - 58 comments

Rebecca Riley died of a drug overdose in December. The police charged her parents with murder, alleging that they poisoned her with an overdose of clonidine. What's clonidine? A drug used to treat hyperactivity. You see, Rebecca was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and was prescribed clonidine. She was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder and put on valproic acid and Seroquel. Rebecca was diagnosed with both disorders by a psychiatrist when she was 2 1/2 years old. She died when she was 4 years old. Some in the psychiatric community are outraged.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:51 PM PST - 84 comments

After two big Antarctic ice shelves broke off several years ago, a world of new species was found underneath. Pictures and a press release came out yesterday, showing spindly orange starfish among other interesting creatures. Here is some more information on the expedition. The fact that the shelves melted when they did is most likely a result of global warming, but having them out of the way gave researchers a golden opportunity to study what lives beneath the ice. Other occassions where a disaster has simultaneously been a great research opportunity include radioactive fallouts: at Chernobyl the evacuated area has been monitored for the past decades to see which species move in and how they thrive (previously on Metafilter)
posted by easternblot at 1:29 PM PST - 22 comments

David Copperfield is stealing my godly powers. Chris Roller believes himself to have godly powers and is suing Copperfield, and also David Blaine, for using them. What better way to protect godly powers than by filing a patent application? Oh, he's suing the Bush administration too.
posted by caddis at 1:28 PM PST - 22 comments

Steve Canyon. Starting last month, the comic-strip site Humorous Maximus has been re-running (with his estate's permission) Milton Caniff's classic daily strip.
posted by staggernation at 1:05 PM PST - 4 comments

Packet Garden observes how you use the internet, then takes that info and generates a 3d world based on it. [via]
posted by brundlefly at 12:41 PM PST - 13 comments

Lost Cities.
posted by Wolfdog at 12:20 PM PST - 27 comments

Turkey Cinemascope is a series of dramatic photographs from director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Shot all across Turkey, he used them to record locations he was scouting for his films. Many are panoramic, some are epic, others intimate, and all are beautiful. (via and via)
posted by ztdavis at 12:12 PM PST - 11 comments

Regularly marred by casualties, the two-day Basant festival in Pakistan leaves 11 dead and more than 100 injured. Kite flyers often use strings made of wire or coated with ground glass to try to cross and cut a rival's string or damage the other kite, often after betting on the outcome. Previously mentioned on mefi, the practice was banned in 2005 because the sport has become increasingly deadly. The ban on kite running was temporarily lifted for this year's festival. In an obvious flip-side, the ban proved to be a huge loss to the kite-twine manufacturers.
posted by beta male at 11:46 AM PST - 11 comments

Would you like to listen to some bad music? You know, just in case your good music gets boring. Opinions will vary of course. I kind of like the Temple City Kazoostra's version of Also sprach Zarathustra. The Museum of Bad Album Covers on the same site was discussed previously.
posted by chillmost at 10:57 AM PST - 21 comments

Twelve Moons on Gichigami: (YT) ~1500 frames from a web camera in Canal Park Duluth Mn, A year's worth of time in just under 7 Mins, by Mark Ryan. (via)
posted by edgeways at 10:10 AM PST - 26 comments

30 years of thrillpower! British weekly comic 2000ad celebrates it's 30th aniversary. Previously discussed here, current Tharg Matt Smith interviewed, special birthday Prog. Splundig vur thrigg!
posted by Artw at 9:55 AM PST - 20 comments

Registerfly falls apart as ICANN watches As the registerfly fiasco continues, ICANN seems feckless and befuddled. Some people's anger seems to have spiraled out of control. Others take this opportunity to hone their movie making skills.
posted by a_day_late at 9:02 AM PST - 54 comments

A glossary of famous brands
posted by deern the headlice at 8:29 AM PST - 24 comments

The Beer Launcher. From the starry eyed minds of the students of Duke University comes the next great innovation in humankind's continued struggle to stay sedentary.
posted by parmanparman at 7:03 AM PST - 69 comments

Belief and knowledge - a primer on science communication
posted by Gyan at 6:51 AM PST - 43 comments

Good artists copy. Great artists steal. -- Pablo Picasso
posted by borkencode at 6:33 AM PST - 39 comments

60 years ago today, an incident took place in Taipei, which led to the massive slaughter of thousands of Taiwanese at the hands of Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese troops. Many were imprisoned for torture and execution on Green Island off Taiwan's eastern coast. More on Green Island here, and an interesting-ish flickr photo set here
posted by mattoxic at 6:12 AM PST - 8 comments

Shrooming in Late Capitalism: The Way of the Truffle.
posted by peacay at 5:21 AM PST - 29 comments

Use this guide to help you become familar with the many complex, sometimes strange customs of the British People.
posted by sluglicker at 2:26 AM PST - 80 comments