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Dutch officials have rejected the retired US Supreme Allied Commander's claim that its forces failed at Srebrenica because of poor morale over openly gay soldiers. In 2010 General John J. "Jack" Sheehan (born 1940) - a retired United States Marine Corps general - testified to the US Congress that the Dutch told him that the fall of Sebrenica was related to the Dutch allowing openly gay men to serve in the military together with unionization and a decision to take a peace dividend because the Soviet threat was gone. During the same testimony, Sheehan claimed that sexual attraction between servicemembers of the same sex would have a negative impact on readiness, while attraction between men and women in gender-integrated units would not. His final active duty commands, culminating 35 years of service in the Marine Corps, were as the Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT) for NATO and as Commander-in-Chief for the U.S. Atlantic Command (CINCUSACOM) (1994–1997). [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 11:27 PM PST - 75 comments

From TED 2010, Jane McGonigal asks if gaming can help create a better world. Previously.
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:32 PM PST - 73 comments

Move over Jedward. Ireland's most watched YouTube video is of family trio Crystal Swing - the wonderful Mary, Dervela and Derek. You may have seen them on Ellen's Paddy's Day show or RTE's The Late Late Show.
posted by honey-barbara at 5:15 PM PST - 44 comments

The Tale of JavaScript. I Mean ECMAScript. (MP4 version, slides) Yahoo! JavaScript architect Douglas Crockford, the creator of the JSLint JavaScript quality tool and the JSON data-interchange format, talks about what he says is simultaneously the worlds most popular and unpopular programming language. Previous JavaScript (sadly video linked by the FPP is down, try here). Previous Maniac Mansion. More video from MIX Online. A similar, more in depth talk at Google.
posted by Artw at 4:50 PM PST - 48 comments

Honk if you've missed a payment A disgruntled former car dealership employee was arrested in Austin for bricking 100+ cars using a dealer-installed debt collection black box. Made by Pay Technologies, the system allows the dealer to disable a car’s ignition system, or trigger the horn to begin honking, as a reminder that a payment is due.
posted by letitrain at 4:01 PM PST - 64 comments

Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka brings together ten other people also named Hirokazu Tanaka, and they all sing a song about being named Hirokazu Tanaka.
You may know Hip Tanaka's other work already--he's one of the original chiptuners, having written the score for many popular Nintendo video games throughout the 1980's: [ Earthbound • 2 • 3 | Mother | Metroid (live) • 2 • 3 | Super Mario Land • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 | Tetris (arr.) | Balloon Fight | Fire Emblem | Kid Icarus ]
10-min Youtube (in French) which features his more famous works with accompanying gameplay • Interview • Interview • Bio
posted by not_on_display at 2:56 PM PST - 19 comments

UC Irvine neuroscientist James Fallon gives talks about the biological traits of psychopathic killers using brain scans and genetics. When his mother suggested he should look into his own biological traits, Dr. Fallon discovered that he has an inactive orbital cortex -- a common trait for psychopaths (pdf). He also found that he has all five gene variants linked to aggression, and is related to two infamous murderers. So, why isn't he a killer? He attributes it to nuture.
posted by jabberjaw at 2:49 PM PST - 52 comments

Scientists supersize quantum mechanics. "A team of scientists has succeeded in putting an object large enough to be visible to the naked eye into a mixed quantum state of moving and not moving."
posted by homunculus at 2:25 PM PST - 73 comments

David Byrne on Collaborations: "A writer at Pitchfork critically said I’d collaborate for a bag of Doritos. I do love it, and the results are sometimes surprising, sometimes creatively successful and sometimes even popular (“Lazy” was a huge hit everywhere except the US)." On song writing, "After the initial transcription of verbal sounds into nonsense sentences made of real words, a long, tedious process begins. I then begin to write out every phrase I can think of that matches that sonic/syllabic flow — no phrase is too mundane or stupid. I try not to pre-judge anything that occurs to me at this point — one never knows if something that sounded stupid at first will, in a new context, make the whole thing shine."
posted by geoff. at 2:06 PM PST - 41 comments

40 years ago, a small crew of filmmakers set out to document some of the more pressing issues involving wildlife in America. They made eight half-hour films around the country and in doing so made what is believed to be the first environmental TV series in the US. Entitled Our Vanishing Wilderness, all eight episodes are now online and free to view here.
posted by Effigy2000 at 1:22 PM PST - 4 comments

Mobutu Sese Seko of Et tu, Mr. Destructo? has written an excellent deconstruction of sitcom laugh tracks at Something Awful. (last embedded video is probably NSFW) [more inside]
posted by threetoed at 12:48 PM PST - 42 comments

Potency: a photo series of a baby dressed up as evil historical dictators by Nina Maria Kleivan.
posted by gman at 12:44 PM PST - 67 comments

Google Alleges That Viacom ‘Secretly Uploaded Its Content to YouTube, Even While Publicly Complaining About Its Presence There’ Zahavah Levine, chief counsel for YouTube in its litigation with Viacom, explains:

For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. […] Viacom’s efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.

[via DF]
posted by ocherdraco at 12:23 PM PST - 49 comments

A new report from the Climate Action Network Canada- Réseau action climat Canada details a “troubling catalogue of actions” by the federal government to muzzle its own climate scientists and weaken the research capacity of Canada’s climate science community.
posted by dogbusonline at 12:19 PM PST - 17 comments

Joseph Casias recently decided, after 10 years, to alleviate the pain of his sinus cancer with medical marijuana--which is legal with a doctor's recommendation in Michigan. A commended Wal-Mart employee for five years, Casias was promptly fired by the company after failing a drug test. Now, Wal-Mart is working to deny Casias unemployment benefits.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:56 AM PST - 84 comments

On February 3, 2010, Autechre celebrated the month-early release of their new album Oversteps with a 12-hour netradio broadcast. [more inside]
posted by mkb at 11:47 AM PST - 42 comments

After decades of selling tampons and "sanitary products" with ads containing nebulous, euphemistic images and language, Kotex launched a new product line, 'U by Kotex' and a 'Declaration of Real Talk Campaign' to encourage girls and women to speak about menstruation without embarrassment. Ironically, their ad was rejected by the major US television networks for mentioning the word 'vagina'. Here's the 'safe for the viewing public' version. / YT channel. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 11:31 AM PST - 193 comments

First Lieutenant Dan Choi has been arrested after chaining himself to the White House fence. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese at 11:11 AM PST - 159 comments

To promote mission awareness, NASA authorizes the creation of posters. Some may look familiar. Via Gizmodo.
posted by Atreides at 10:48 AM PST - 24 comments

The Pop Culture Translator
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 10:31 AM PST - 15 comments

Significantly what?...Or how our most common statistical methods really weren't meant to be used that way and why that study result is likely spurious. Since mefites like to argue about stats, here's some background for us all (and I'm not talking correlation vs causation)!
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 10:20 AM PST - 51 comments

Click here? Was structuralism, the big idea of Claude Lévi-Strauss, more cult than science? Apostolos Doxiadis, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna – the team behind the bestselling graphic novel Logicomix – investigate.
posted by infini at 9:13 AM PST - 31 comments

Lessons learned from 2009’s high-profile rape cases.
posted by Neekee at 8:17 AM PST - 135 comments

The Daily Dish (no not that one): This is artist Klari Reis painting on petri dishes, creating surprisingly organic works of art.
posted by gwint at 7:38 AM PST - 9 comments

"When you see a wildlife photo or film that looks too good to be true, it probably is." Audubon Magazine's Ted Williams investigates game farms and the widespread use of captive animals in wildlife photography. (via) [more inside]
posted by The Mouthchew at 7:01 AM PST - 45 comments

That's What Bea Said
posted by sciurus at 6:07 AM PST - 24 comments

One World Technologies, manufacturer of Ryobi tools, has been ordered to pay damages of US$1.5 million to Carlos Osorio who injured his fingers while using a Ryobi table saw. The case hinged on the Ryobi's lack of "flesh sensing technology" which is found only SawStop's [previously] saws. [more inside]
posted by Mitheral at 12:27 AM PST - 225 comments