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Neil Gaiman writes a poem about nudity (in collaboration with Olivia De Berandinis). Katie West responds. Neil approves. [consider the entire post NSFW] [more inside]
posted by nadawi at 10:35 PM PST - 89 comments

Several tablet and smartphone LEDs, at 80x magnification, including the new iPad (3), the Galaxy Nexus, and the Nintendo 3DS.
posted by ignignokt at 8:34 PM PST - 39 comments

Turkish football fans have probably kept many flare companies in business over the years, but when the Turkish FA banned flares from stadiums, their brand of pyromaniac fun seemed to be over. The fans of Super Lig club Eskisehirspor had other ideas, though. [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb at 6:58 PM PST - 39 comments

In Mexico, extortion is a booming offshoot of drug war. 'From mom-and-pop businesses to mid-size construction projects to some of Mexico's wealthiest citizens, almost every segment of the economy and society has been subjected to extortion schemes, authorities and records indicate. Even priests aren't safe. Extortionists have shut entire school systems, crippled real estate developments, driven legions of entrepreneurs into hiding or out of the country.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 6:32 PM PST - 39 comments

From Japan, a way to rapidly cool down your car on a hot day. (SLYT)
posted by reenum at 3:55 PM PST - 111 comments

'These plants, native only to Sumatra, bloom very infrequently (only 140 times in cultivation since 1889) and then only for one or two nights before collapsing. Until it opens, there’s no noticeable odor. After that there’s little doubt where the name “Corpse Flower” comes from.'
Tonight, Cornell University's Titan Arum is expected to bloom. Live feed here.
(previous blooms on the blue)
posted by womprat78 at 2:54 PM PST - 52 comments

On June 3, 1961, a poor drifter named Clarence Gideon was seen getting into a cab with a bottle of wine, some smokes, and some cash in his pockets as he left the Bay Harbor Pool Room. Police had been called to investigate a broken cigarette machine and promptly found and arrested Gideon. Unable to afford an attorney and forced by the trial judge to represent himself, he was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. After having his petition for a writ of Habeus Corpus denied by the Florida Supreme Court, he petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court. 49 years ago today, the court ruled unanimously in his favor, setting a lasting, fundamental precedent. His case was sent back down to Florida, and with proper representation, he was acquitted.
posted by disillusioned at 2:39 PM PST - 54 comments

Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride is a 75 minute film documenting Hunter S. Thompson's life and death, focussing mainly on his relationships with Hollywood celebrities and other public figures. In 8 parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
posted by hippybear at 1:18 PM PST - 20 comments

Blogger-writer Andrew Sullivan proudly attended Obama's latest state dinner for Cameron with his husband, in an open display of growing acceptance of same-sex marriage possibly by the powers-to-be. Michael Shaw's always-insightful BagNews (but not MS himself in this post) notes that there were 3 bearded men in the photograph.
posted by growabrain at 12:17 PM PST - 62 comments

Build Your Own Little Free Library. Check out some others. These too. The scoop and the FAQ. "Question #1: Won't People steal the books? No. You can't steal a free book. And if you have a good steward and lots of active users, eventually someone who tries to "steal" books will realize that it's not a good thing to do."
posted by storybored at 11:36 AM PST - 54 comments

Amazing macro photos of ants "at work" and "at play." There are many, many more photos here. My favorite is the weightlifting ant. Ants are incredibly strong for their size, as this amazing picture of an ant holding a snail shows.
posted by desjardins at 11:09 AM PST - 31 comments

Record Shops is a new web site that's attempting to list all record shops world wide. Allows you to rate/review shops you're familiar with and scope out the scene in places you're travelling to.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 10:36 AM PST - 36 comments

W. C. Fields appeared in the Earl Carroll Vanities in 1928. George Mann, part of the dance team of Barto & Mann, was on the same bill, and captured Fields in The Mormon's Prayers.
posted by Ideefixe at 10:22 AM PST - 13 comments

Surfing at Byron Bay: Jorgelina "Lina" Reyero shows off the beauty of Wategos Beach at Byron Bay, Australia with a camera mounted to her surfboard.
posted by quin at 9:31 AM PST - 39 comments

In June 1979, I left Paris, returning home to San Francisco without saying farewell to Barthes. Why advertise my failure? I left Paris without fulfilling my reason for coming. His letter arrived in October. Barthes explained that he was retiring from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes at the end of the year. If I wished to complete my thesis under his direction, then I would have to have it written and in his hands by the 15th of December. No extension was possible. The date was a deadline. "A vous de jouer," he wrote. "Your move."

- Deadline [pdf] by Stewart Lindh, Roland Barthes' last doctoral student, is an account of how he wrote his Ph.D. thesis.
posted by Kattullus at 9:31 AM PST - 28 comments

Included in this month's Patch Tuesday was MS12-020, which is a remote exploit in Microsoft's widely deployed Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Microsoft projected an exploit would be out 'within a month', but a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) appeared on a Chinese website within a few days. Professionals are concerned. The discoverer of the vulnerability noted that the PoC included the exact packet he had crafted to help Microsoft understand he issue; this points to a leak in the MAPP early vulnerability sharing program. A full remote exploit isn't out yet, but is expected soon.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 9:20 AM PST - 37 comments

Honeybees are responsible for pollinating 1/3 of all our food crops, and represent 80% of all insect pollination. But honeybees have been dying off in huge numbers in the last few years. We've discussed Colony Collapse Disorder here before, but now scientists may have found the cause.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 7:45 AM PST - 94 comments

Punks Not Dead.... but it can get you killed. Punk rock in oppresive regimes.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:28 AM PST - 8 comments

Welcome to the world of Britain's working poor. The Rowleys belong to a section of society not much mentioned in ministerial and media dispatches. They are neither the very wealthy affected by the 50p tax nor the "squeezed middle" expressing anxiety about child benefit and this week's budget; nor are the Rowleys representative of the long-term unemployed or one of the 120,000 "troubled families" in which the government is investing £448m over the next three years. [more inside]
posted by modernnomad at 5:34 AM PST - 106 comments

Alex Chilton (of the band Big Star) died two years ago today. Here's a choir singing Big Star's song "Thirteen."
posted by BoringPostcards at 12:07 AM PST - 26 comments