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Sandals, socks, and dudes
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:31 PM PST - 164 comments

Save Polaroid The Polaroid company announced last month that it will stop making instant film next year. Save Polaroid is lobbing Fuji Film and Illford to license the instant film technology and save the product. For a good link about the history and current state of Polarod watch this video by Michael Blanchard.
posted by doug3505 at 10:18 PM PST - 62 comments

"How many brain scientists have the chance to study a stroke from the inside?" In 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor did (previously), and she recently gave a moving TED talk on her experience. If that merely whetted your appetite for more brainy videos, check out the complete archive of UCSD TV's Grey Matters, a series of lectures on the brain. And for dessert, The Parts of the Brain, as performed by Pinky and The Brain. [via Neurophilosophy]
posted by natabat at 9:44 PM PST - 14 comments

An anti-gay rant for the ages. By an American state rep. In 2008. Oklahoma state representative Sally Kern told fellow republicans at a private audience that the homosexual agenda is destroying the nation and that gay people are a bigger threat to our national than terrorism. And that no society that has embraced gay culture has survived. And much more. Well, doggone if these things don't get leaked and find themselves online. Have a few links to the videos and coverage. There are some rumors that Kern has a gay son, but who knows? For her part, Kern says that her remarks were misconstrued and that she is "not going to apologize for standing up for God's word."
posted by sneakin at 9:17 PM PST - 213 comments

Here Come the Fleas by White Noise (myspace), a.k.a. David Vorhaus, from Electric Storm. From same, My Game of Loving and The Visitations (spooky).
posted by mrgrimm at 7:53 PM PST - 8 comments

"By their drugs shall ye know them." I always thought that nootropics would change the face of the academy, but it turns out scholars are getting high on Adderall. Is that so bad? Well, it's an addictive amphetamine, and it's supposedly cheating when students to take advantage of chemical assistance. Plus, boredom is good for you. [more inside]
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:42 PM PST - 76 comments

The Amen Break and the Golden Ratio by mathematics educator and author, Michael S. Schneider. Schneider, having already researched and written about the golden ratio extensively, noticed it right away when hearing the the amen break for the first time (amen break previously on the blue). While some composers have been known to intentionally incorporate fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio into their works, perhaps this is just another one of the many instances of the ratio showing up in nature.
posted by p3t3 at 7:09 PM PST - 27 comments

Live right now NPR is broadcasting REM from SXSW along with sets from Summerbirds in the Cellar, Johnathan Rice, Papercranes and Dead Confederate.
posted by plexi at 6:08 PM PST - 53 comments

A Day in the Death of Donny B is a 1969 short film/docudrama following the life of a junky.
posted by snsranch at 4:56 PM PST - 6 comments

Baarle-Hertog/Baarle-Nassau has been previously mentioned in MeFi. A historical quirk and geographical jigsaw, these days the complicated border criscrossing this Belgo-Dutch town had become little more than a tourist attraction. What happens, however, when a dead body is found, and nobody knows in which country it lies?
posted by Skeptic at 3:16 PM PST - 13 comments

The world's 50 most powerful blogs [more inside]
posted by Flashman at 2:33 PM PST - 73 comments

The press want something that'll sell copy. They pick up on the mental hospital, family stuff, try to invent some category of rock that I belong to, or perhaps they pick up on my drug problem. But it gets to the point sooner or later when you start to think about your kids: "What does your daddy do for a living?" "He plays the guitar and he talks about his drug problems." It's embarrassing to read the drivel that comes out of your mouth sometimes. So I guess maybe the question is, why am I doing this in the first place? And honestly, I suppose I'm doing it because I'd like to promote my record. -1979 . James Taylor is sixty today.
posted by Navelgazer at 2:15 PM PST - 55 comments

Bantha slippers. Han Solo in Carbonite Mini-Fridge. And the Death Star Grill. ("Use the awesome power of the galaxy's most fearsome battlestation to send burning fear into rebel scum burgers and franks!") Just a few rejected designs for Star Wars merchandise. [Via].
posted by gottabefunky at 2:10 PM PST - 36 comments

You stay classy, San Diego. A television reporter and an anchorman engage in an embarrassing on-air pissing contest in the middle of a newscast.
posted by psmealey at 1:58 PM PST - 65 comments

According to the breathless headline in the New York Times, it was "THE WORST STORM THE CITY HAS EVER KNOWN. BUSINESS AND TRAVEL COMPLETELY SUSPENDED. NEW-YORK HELPLESS IN A TORNADO OF WIND AND SNOW WHICH PARALYZED ALL INDUSTRY, ISOLATED THE CITY FROM THE REST OF THE COUNTRY, CAUSED MANY ACCIDENTS AND GREAT DISCOMFORT, AND EXPOSED IT TO MANY DANGERS." It became known as The Great Blizzard of 1888, and it occurred on this date, March 12, 1888. [more inside]
posted by mosk at 10:42 AM PST - 38 comments

The Sound Of Clothes features the precise sound of fashion materials such as feathers, sequins, glass crystals and beads, nylon, taffeta, leather, velvet, jacquard, zips and metallic chains, recorded in an anechoic chamber. Videos linked from the page might be NSFW.
posted by jack_mo at 9:58 AM PST - 26 comments

It's 3 a.m., on some date in 1975, the white line is wavering in front of your amphetamine bleached eyes, your rig is barreling through the high plains north of nowhere and you won't see your woman for three more days, what 8-track do you need to get you through the night? Why, Country Porn, of course.
Linked page is mostly safe for work, but NSFW audio files, and some text [more inside]
posted by 1f2frfbf at 8:33 AM PST - 27 comments

Gus Giordano, founder of the renowned dance company and school, died on Sunday.
posted by nax at 7:45 AM PST - 2 comments

I'm not the world's biggest ballet fan, but there's just something about seeing Chinese ladies doing their plié and their relevé and their pirouettes while pointing rifles that speaks to something deep and primal within me. It's The Red Detachment of Women, of course. And comrades, you are urged to view it in its entirety. [note: see hoverovers for link descriptions] [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:41 AM PST - 34 comments

The Gallery of Graphic Design has a huge collection of magazine print adverts from the 30s to the late 60s. The images are fairly large and organised/searchable by year, product, magazine and advertiser. [via]
posted by peacay at 7:37 AM PST - 21 comments

Ashley Maher is a Canadian singer living in Santa Monica, but her music comes straight from Senegal. She also dances a mean sabar (YouTube link).
posted by mike3k at 7:35 AM PST - 8 comments

Who needs a movie? (SLYTP) [more inside]
posted by allkindsoftime at 3:43 AM PST - 83 comments

Israeli-French singer Yael Naim, recently featured in this Macbook Air commercial, might just be the Next Big Thing. A little bit of soul and a little bit of folk have snagged her Album of the Year in World Music at the annual Les Victoires de la Musique French music awards this year. She currently only has two English songs released - one of them an absolutely lovely song entitled New Soul with an equally charming music video, and the other a slow and jazzy rendition of Britney Spears' Toxic, finally somewhat redeeming that song. Official Site.
posted by Phire at 3:37 AM PST - 45 comments

What that advert needs is a good moustaching. And what this site offers is inexpensive stick-on 'staches to do it with. Sadly, only for use on ads, not real faces.
posted by wendell at 2:21 AM PST - 15 comments

Good Girl Art is defined as "A cover illustration depicting an attractive young woman, usually in skimpy or form-fitting clothing, and designed for (mild erotic interest)[sic]. There have been several prior posts on pulp fiction cover art (1, 2, 3); this site focuses on the "good girls" usefully organized into categories such as "Swamp Babes", Ringside Jezebels, Crazy!, Vietnam Vixens, and Peeping Toms. via
posted by Rumple at 12:52 AM PST - 29 comments

David Mamet: Why I am no longer a 'Brain Dead Liberal'. "The right is mooing about faith, the left is mooing about change, and many are incensed about the fools on the other side—but, at the end of the day, they are the same folks we meet at the water cooler. Happy election season."
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:19 AM PST - 110 comments