March 23, 2010

Backpack + Couch

Furniture designers, quinze & milan, team up with eastpak This mutant couch sort of looks like a life preserver jacket.
posted by la_scribbler at 11:29 PM PST - 15 comments

Gaza's tragically peculiar economy

Gaza's tragically peculiar economy - Last week Palestinians marked the 1,000th day of the "siege" of the Gaza Strip. The continuing economic embargo, with its attendant social and economic effects on the more than 1.5 million Gazans, makes for a depressing story. Equally depressing is the extent to which this situation has somehow become accepted as normal and acceptable by much of the international community. [more inside]
posted by nevercalm at 10:41 PM PST - 66 comments

The MP3 blog for busy people

Not enough time to dig up the most interesting new music yourself? The MP3 blog for busy people is here to help, with once to twice weekly compilations of the best new tracks in a variety of genres, downloadable in .zip format. [via mefi projects]
posted by Rinku at 10:39 PM PST - 20 comments

We all like to play in the dirt

Straight Acting [57m] is a first-person documentary about one man's journey from Mormon missionary to comfortably gay rugby player. [more inside]
posted by hippybear at 9:57 PM PST - 21 comments

Maybe Next Year

Every year for the past 26 years, the United States has faced off against New Zealand in rugby ... on the ice sheets of McMurdo Sound. [Pages 2, 3, 4] [more inside]
posted by SpringAquifer at 9:15 PM PST - 25 comments

What's a little identity theft between friends?!

"To go to bed a citizen and wake up as a wanted terrorist is shocking." The British Government has strongly denounced the Israeli government's use of 12 forged British passports linked to the recent assassination in Dubai as a "hazard for the safety of British nationals in the region". The government has announced that they are expelling an Israeli diplomat -- the first such expulsion in twenty years. New biometric passports will be issued, and the government has issued a travel advisory for Israel, warning citizens "We recommend that you only hand your passport over to third parties including Israeli officials when absolutely necessary." Possibly forged Irish, French, Australian, and a German passport were also used for the assassination, according to investigators.
posted by markkraft at 8:37 PM PST - 83 comments

Kurosawa, 100

On March 23, 1910, Akira Kurosawa was born. Questionable as lists may be, some great trailers and snippets are here. At least in the UK, he even got a Google doodle.
posted by ambient2 at 8:16 PM PST - 27 comments

Kind of like Gundam, but tiny, unarmed, and with coffee

A small robot makes coffee.
posted by ardgedee at 7:33 PM PST - 34 comments

Keep Canada beautiful. Swallow your beer cans.

Ann Coulter to tour Canada! University to Ann Coulter: Please watch your mouth. I'm the victim of a hate crime, Ann Coulter tells Canadian audience. Security concerns cancel Ann Coulter's speech in Ottawa. [more inside]
posted by KokuRyu at 7:29 PM PST - 194 comments

"Toffs" and "Toughs"

In 1937, the London News Chronicle published a photograph of five boys at the gates of Lord's cricket ground; two stood aloof in top hats and tails, with their backs to a group of three working-class lads. The resulting photograph became famous as a metaphor for the class divide in Britain, appearing in newspaper stories about school reform, inequality and bourgeois guilt and on the covers of books. The photograph appeared in the Getty Images archive as "Toffs and Toughs", and even was printed on a jigsaw puzzle in 2004. The identities of the three working-class boys were unknown until a journalist tracked them down in 1998; here is an article on the history of the photograph and the lives of the five boys in it.
posted by acb at 6:59 PM PST - 36 comments

A to Z of Awesomeness

A to Z of Awesomeness. Every entry fully and lovingly illustrated by Neill Cameron.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 6:27 PM PST - 25 comments

Nature by Numbers

Nature by Numbers is a new animated short film by Cristóbal Vila (previously) inspired by some mathematical constructs found in nature. (via)
posted by gruchall at 6:19 PM PST - 7 comments

The Borg, and health care reform

In honor of the Health Care Reform bill that passed on Sunday, here is a 1992 episode of Star Trek: "I, Borg" (2, 3, 4, 5). It is one of the unsung heroes of healthcare reform. [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla at 6:17 PM PST - 79 comments

Shook up by Handshake

Reviewer leaves during intermission of Wilco's first North American concert on their new tour, writes review anyway. [more inside]
posted by bonefish at 5:28 PM PST - 59 comments

The Divine Comedy (Milla Jovovich, Austin, Texas 1994)

The Alien Song (for those who listen) Austin, Texas 1994 [more inside]
posted by xod at 5:16 PM PST - 16 comments

Plastic Bag

Plastic Bag - Struggling with its immortality, a discarded plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) ventures through the environmentally barren remains of America as it searches for its maker. A short film by Ramin Bahrani.
posted by HuronBob at 3:54 PM PST - 32 comments

Zipping to School

German explorer Alexander von Humboldt was the first Westerner to observe the unusual rope system in 1804. Back then the ropes were made from hemp, which has a propensity for breaking due to rot. The hemp ropes have since been replaced by steel cables. What hasn't changed is that they are 1,300 ft above the river, people zip down them using only a small stick to control their speed and if you are too small, you have to ride in a burlap sack (video).
posted by Mr_Zero at 3:44 PM PST - 45 comments

Destination Subconscious: Cary Grant and LSD

Cary Grant was the first mainstream celebrity to espouse the virtues of psychedelic drugs. (previously)
posted by gman at 2:43 PM PST - 49 comments

"Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking."

The world's only immortal animal
The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth. (via rw)
posted by kliuless at 1:49 PM PST - 56 comments

The Ballad of Johnny D

I have never seen a man fail so thoroughly and just keep taking this kind of abuse.” (cache)
posted by jtron at 1:44 PM PST - 63 comments

Abandon all hope, ye who add to queue...

The official Church of Satan Video List. The official Church of Satan Fiction Reading List. The official Church of Satan Non-Fiction Reading List.
posted by hermitosis at 12:45 PM PST - 82 comments

The Periodic Table of Periodic Tables

The Periodic Table of Periodic Tables
posted by shoesfullofdust at 12:13 PM PST - 25 comments

All The World's An MP3

The American Theatre Wing hosts MP3 interviews with actors, directors, playwrights and other artists. e.g. Stephen Sondheim and Anna Deavere Smith and F. Murray Abraham and Eric Bogosian and John Patrick Shanley and Edward Albee and Venessa Redgrave and Alan Ayckbourn and...
posted by grumblebee at 11:52 AM PST - 8 comments

Good-night, Crown Vic; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Ford motor company has announced that they are ceasing production on the Crown Victoria - the most widely used police car model in the United States of the last thirty years. [more inside]
posted by dirtdirt at 11:50 AM PST - 110 comments

On Karma and building web reputation systems

On Karma: Top-line Lessons on User Reputation Design is an excellent overview of reputation system design concepts from the excellent-in-general blog of Randy Farmer and Bryce Glass, authors of the recently-released O'Reilly book Building Web Reputation Systems.
posted by cortex at 11:47 AM PST - 17 comments

"50 jobs (and 500,000 watts) in 50 years"

Meet Powell Crosley Jr., lifelong American inventor and entrepreneur. After making a mint in auto parts, Crosley started in on phonographs and radios. Like many radio manufacturers of the time, Crosley stepped up demand by building a radio station; a BIG radio station. At 500,000 watts it was both the largest-ever commercial radio station with potential coverage of most of the country. With that much throw, it seemed a natural fit for the fantastical: radio facsimile machines. Crosley would later get into appliances, sports, and eventually back into his first love, automobiles.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:38 AM PST - 17 comments

The notebook of cartographer Zachary Forest Johnson.

The notebook of cartographer Zachary Forest Johnson. There is lots of good stuff here. For example, political cartography: voting with our pocketbooks, or this biography of Wild Bill Bunge.
posted by chunking express at 11:27 AM PST - 1 comments

Oh The Inhumanity

Andrew Levy reviews a lot of food in a little time. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Inhuman Eating Machine!
posted by Mountain Goatse at 10:51 AM PST - 18 comments

Out of many, one.

185 singers, 12 countries, one conductor -- all online. Grammy-nominated composer and conductor Eric Whitacre put out a call for singers on his blog in July of 2009. He then posted the conductor track for his piece "Lux Aurumque" and gave instructions, including how to audition for the brief soprano solo. Recordings trickled in on YouTube over the next few months until the January 1 deadline; the results were posted on March 22. [more inside]
posted by Madamina at 9:58 AM PST - 26 comments

Global Oil Reserves 'Exaggerated by a Third'

Global Oil Reserves 'Exaggerated by a Third:' The world's oil reserves have been exaggerated by up to a third, leading UK scientist Sir David King claimed today, warning of oil shortages and price spikes within years.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:49 AM PST - 112 comments

rip pip proud

Absurd And Beautiful: A Tribute To Pip Proud you can find music from pip proud here. Listen to 'crystal night'(ode to the 20th century)
posted by frequently at 9:44 AM PST - 2 comments

Shave every day and you'll always look keen

I have a sad story to tell you
It may hurt your feelings a bit
Last night when I walked into my bathroom
I stepped in a big pile of ______
[more inside]
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 9:05 AM PST - 32 comments

Brad Story: Aerodreams Sculpture

"I'm trying, of course, to give a sense of objects moving through and being supported by or buffeted by, the wind or water" - sculptor Brad Story [via MeFi Projects]
posted by mediareport at 6:27 AM PST - 21 comments

The Banshee Lives in the Handball Alley

The Banshee Lives in the Handball Alley is a "compilation derived from a collection of folkloric stories recorded with children from the Moyross and St. Marys Park areas of Limerick City between 2004 and 2005. The work serves to highlight how folklore is constantly added to, and how it is linked to memory and occasion, fiction and interpretation."
posted by minifigs at 4:25 AM PST - 12 comments

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