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A result of three years of cooperation between I.B.M. and Egypt's government and major museums, the country's considerable museum collections were digitized and loaded onto www.eternalegypt.org - Thousands more artifacts are to be added over time. I.B.M. expects the concept and the scanning and database technologies developed for the project to be applied at other museums and cultural collections worldwide.
posted by stbalbach at 8:29 PM PST - 6 comments

Planning to blackmail a government and ask for the ransom in unmarked bills? Make sure you don't get the new US $20 bills.
posted by spazzm at 8:01 PM PST - 30 comments

Bomb plot threatens rail system in France Give us money ($5M) or we blow up your tracks! And the threat contained hints on where authorities could find samples. Is this the start of a new trend, will the French Gov pay, and why France?
posted by billsaysthis at 7:02 PM PST - 22 comments

You may remember Eric Fensler from his audio overdubs of old G.I. Joe PSAs. Now he and Doug Lussenhop, hired by a band to shoot some DVD extras, apply the same approach to raw video footage of slackers hanging out backstage, cops breaking up a post-gig crowd, etc.
posted by staggernation at 5:56 PM PST - 3 comments

Could former President Clinton become vice president? After all it is the next best thing to being President.
posted by h00dini at 5:39 PM PST - 57 comments

Haze Gray is a sort of "all things naval", or at least comes pretty close to it. Browse through the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, check out the status of the Russian Navy (or perhaps you're more interested in Myanmar's), have a look at the photo gallery or read the log of the USS Denver, a World War II cruiser. And that's not even the half of it.
posted by Zonker at 5:29 PM PST - 3 comments

Yet another extremist environmental group blows hot air on "global warming" (PDF).
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 3:53 PM PST - 37 comments

The Jay-Z Construction Set : Make your own Black Album remix.
posted by me3dia at 2:29 PM PST - 19 comments

Wanted: New New York Street Lights. NYC organizes an international competition for new streetlight designs. (Those of you wishing to skip the Flash title and the framed navigation, go straight to the meat.) I have a request: lights that help minimize light pollution. (NYC Competition link via Veer Ideas.)
posted by brownpau at 2:06 PM PST - 7 comments

The Movie Alphabet Game is harder than it looks. I'm stuck on C, O, U, and X. When you're through with that, try the second one.
posted by Robot Johnny at 1:57 PM PST - 23 comments

The Workhouse 'is an institution that often evokes the harsh and squalid world of Oliver Twist, but its story is also a fascinating mixture of social history, politics, economics and architecture.'
posted by plep at 1:14 PM PST - 3 comments

Free stem cells! A Harvard scientist using private money has developed 17 new batches of human embryonic stem cells, which he's offering to any researcher who needs them for the cost of shipping. Perhaps this will help American scientists from losing the edge (unless, as some speculate, Bush is preparing to outlaw it.) Harvard is also developing a multimillion-dollar center to grow and study stem cells.
posted by homunculus at 1:11 PM PST - 18 comments

The Charles "Pete" Conrad Astronomy Awards Act, passed by the House today, authorizes NASA to award $3,000 to amateur astronomers who locate asteroids that may possibly crash into the Earth and destroy life as we know it. Good to know that $3,000 is the going rate for saving the planet.
posted by taragl at 12:31 PM PST - 14 comments

Portland joins other cities in offering gay marriages. Multnomah County didn't consult the state Attorney General before they started issuing licenses, though, which is a bit unusual. Forgiveness easier than permission? There's also a Unitarian Church in downtown Portland that is performing same-sex marriage ceremonies, if you're interested in a church wedding.
posted by SpecialK at 12:18 PM PST - 73 comments

You can start a Synergistic Stress-Reduction/Transformation group : "participants arrange their chairs in a circle once a week in a group setting to perform a self-assessment of their biosystemic stress and do a routine of nonaerobic exercise, stretching, breathing and mental conditioning. In addition, participants will do one-minute relaxing, refreshing stretches and mental exercises several times daily at their desks or work stations".
posted by samelborp at 11:49 AM PST - 1 comments

Separate the red from the blue
posted by Orange Goblin at 11:40 AM PST - 24 comments

Been sharing username/passwords lately?
posted by anathema at 11:12 AM PST - 17 comments

Ping Pong Pang Pong ... (MIDI file). Archives of public transport departure chimes and announcements. From Japan, MIDI files [+] [+] (via Boingboing) and live recordings [+] [+] of various elaborate tunes (no I don't speak Japanese, just keep clicking the blue links until you hit an MP3!). European recordings [+]. The very excellent Shonen Knife used a sample of the Osaka subway chimes in their rockin' cover version of the Carpenter's 'Top of the World.' (WFMU archive here, click "Hear the show", song starts with Osaka chimes at approximately 15:23)
posted by carter at 11:01 AM PST - 7 comments

The Early Office Museum :: check out communications technologies used by our Grandparents, as well as Punched Card Tabulating Machines and much, much more!
posted by anastasiav at 10:50 AM PST - 10 comments

GamesBids.com - City Versus City. With the Athens Olympic Games less than six months away, the competition is heating up...to host the 2012 Summer Games. Follow the political jockeying here. Will it be one of the powerhouses (New York, Paris, London), or does anyone think that Moscow or Havana have any chance at all? Also nice to look at are each city's "bid books" which are available in PDF format.
posted by jmcnally at 9:58 AM PST - 10 comments

Forget The Simpons - Meet The Singhsons 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and begin rants.
posted by turbanhead at 8:55 AM PST - 27 comments

Sorry, you've flunked. This gave me the best laugh I've had all week. I love the way you can tell the teacher marking the paper is getting more and more pissed off by the increasing ferocity of the red pen strokes. Heheheh. Give the kid an A.
posted by essexjan at 8:49 AM PST - 31 comments

Vermont Town votes to join New Hampshire. [link via pissresort]
posted by Stynxno at 8:42 AM PST - 18 comments

10 Books to Feed the Imagination. Just in time for World Book Day, Lady Georgia Byng offers her favorite tomes for sparking a child's fancy. The usual suspects are here (Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling, Philip Pullman) with a couple of welcome surprises (Yann Martel and Jostein Gaarder). But tell me, MeFites ... which others did she miss?
posted by grabbingsand at 7:39 AM PST - 47 comments

Harry Potter: RIP Private Harry Potter from the Worcestershire Regiment was killed in action at Hebron on 22/7/1939 aged 19 years, 10 months old. This is a genuine photo of the grave of a British soldier that died during the time of the “Arab Rebellion” and is buried in the British military cemetery in Ramla Israel.
posted by Postroad at 7:25 AM PST - 17 comments

New validation of desktop fusion claims - far from hating the small crustaceans, God has a plan for shrimp : to point scientists towards the secret - tiny bubbles! God also has a pan for shrimp, and some cajun blackening spices too...
posted by troutfishing at 7:01 AM PST - 32 comments

Engadget. A new gadgets/technology weblog by the former editor of Gizmodo.
posted by Quinn at 6:20 AM PST - 12 comments

How I Lost the Big One Lawrence Lessig on losing Eldred v. Ashcroft: "We had in our Constitution a commitment to free culture. In the case that I fathered, the Supreme Court effectively renounced that commitment. A better lawyer would have made them see differently."
posted by ericost at 12:53 AM PST - 40 comments