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Last week was International Trombone Week. But what is a trombone? Can you recognize the many types of trombone? [more inside]
posted by winna at 8:36 PM PST - 66 comments

Sorting Algorithm Animations.
posted by signal at 8:35 PM PST - 52 comments

Happy birthday, Mr. Jefferson! Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd US president, was born on this day in 1743 (actually, April 2nd, but then the calendar changed in 1752). Certainly celebrations and examinations of his leadership and politics and philosophy and inventions are warranted, but-damn, that man was amazing with a drafting compass. TJ's greatest hits: Monticello, Poplar Forest, The University
posted by njbradburn at 7:08 PM PST - 23 comments

Gorgeous pictures of snow rollers. [more inside]
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:47 PM PST - 36 comments

Artist Stephen R. Bissette dissects the making of Saga of the Swamp Thing #20, the first American comics appearance of writer Alan Moore (um...previously), in a series of blog posts that feature much original artwork (by Bissette and others), as well as a sampling of Moore's apparently absolutely ginormous script for the issue. (Warning: Parts of Bissette's site are NSFW.) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:16 PM PST - 14 comments

In the event that you have accidentally swallowed the Higgs boson...
posted by Zero Gravitas at 4:49 PM PST - 50 comments

My date with Willy Pickton. Robert Pickton that is, Canada's most prolific serial killer.
posted by GuyZero at 4:19 PM PST - 30 comments

Mark "The Bird" Fidrych RIP. They really do come in threes. In '76, Bird was the word. Fidrych captivated baseball fans with his antics, talking to the ball, patting the mound, running off to talk to everyone. The Bird 1954-2009.
posted by caddis at 3:56 PM PST - 39 comments

Sunday, February 28, 1993. A new word -- Internet -- makes its first appearance in The New York Times.
posted by william_boot at 3:38 PM PST - 44 comments

Bad Crazy in Internet Space

There is a jagged fissure of insanity which runs through the heart of the EVE playerbase, a kind of feverish bad crazy that you simply don't find in other online games. Oh, sure, everyone knows a tale or two about the Starcraft player who stayed awake for 50 hours and died from exhaustion because he wouldn't stop gaming, or the legions of relatively mundane overweight basement-dwelling nerds that populate the other MMOs that have a lack of perspective that comes from playing in virtual worlds too much. Some people like to point to South Korea's Starcraft tournaments as a sign of abnormality, but sporting leagues are a 'healthy' expression of hobby activity by most standards. No, if you want utter madness, you have to look to EVE.

The Mitanni, head of the Goonswarm Intelligence Agency, tells some tales from the dark underbelly of Eve Online. (previously)
posted by empath at 3:17 PM PST - 110 comments

Mike Tyson's Intergalactic Power Punch ROM (for NES) released. (Via.)
posted by Prospero at 2:25 PM PST - 30 comments

RIP: Marilyn Chambers, star of the first widely distributed hard core porn film, "Behind the Green Door. NSFW
posted by Xurando at 2:22 PM PST - 54 comments

Neil Young has a new album out. Ever innovative, Neil has written his new album about his electric car. [via]
posted by peewinkle at 1:13 PM PST - 43 comments

Wynton Marsalis waxes poetic (and music) at the Kennedy Center about art, freedom, jazz, the minstrel shows of yesterday and today, Walt Whitman, American history, the similarities between the Battle Hymn of the Republic and the Mickey Mouse Club March, rock and roll, and how it all ties together. [more inside]
posted by Ndwright at 12:59 PM PST - 30 comments

Hall of Fame member, Phillies broadcaster, and NFL Films announcer Harry Kalas passed away today. At least he got to make his World Series victory call.
posted by SansPoint at 12:20 PM PST - 26 comments

How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke [more inside]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:42 AM PST - 130 comments

Richard Renaldi is doing some pretty wonderful photography. For several years, he’s been using a large format 8x10 camera (with the hood and everything), profiling people in ways that feel both intimate and authentic. His first book, “Figure and Ground,” is a collection of portraits and landscapes that capture, with a quiet intensity, a diverse cross-section of the country. His newest book, “Fall River Boys,” is a sort of chronicle of a decaying American town, and the (mostly) young inhabitants who are either unable or unwilling to leave. (He and his partner even launched their own press to get it published.) [more inside]
posted by mapalm at 9:36 AM PST - 8 comments

Name Your Tale. Submit a title, and and one of the authors of Name Your Tale will write a 100-word short story based on the submitted title. For example, "Andrew Received Cancer."[via mefi projects]
posted by dersins at 9:02 AM PST - 22 comments

Dork Yearbook - vintage tech pr0n, now with thicker glasses and footsier pajamas!
posted by carsonb at 8:42 AM PST - 16 comments

Criterion Collection box art for video games.
posted by geoff. at 8:31 AM PST - 25 comments

Here's a wonderful and visually creative document (complete with a curious and elaborate musical soundtrack and voices of actual barkers) of one full day in the life of Coney Island USA 1952. A fascinating glimpse of a bygone era! See also: Coney Island of the 1940s, and this color amateur film (with some surprisingly arty shots), Springtime at Coney Island 1944.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:47 AM PST - 12 comments

Stop motion with wolf and pig. [SLYT]
posted by defenestration at 6:23 AM PST - 39 comments

The separation of the ownership of a business from its management is one of the defining characteristics of the modern capitalist system. But ongoing failures of corporate governance, particularly in banking, have called into question these structures. Is there a better way? Secretive UK private bank C. Hoare & Co. has a solution that works for those customers it chooses to accept. [more inside]
posted by Mutant at 5:22 AM PST - 51 comments

In 1975, Greek film executive Daniel Bourla completed work on his sole directorial effort, The Noah. Inspiration for the film stemmed from a meeting Bourla had with scenarist Carl Foreman, in which Bourla observed that “if one really had something to say in a film, he could do it with one man and a fly in a room”. Bourla wrote a postapocalyptic script about the last man to survive a nuclear war. [more inside]
posted by pxe2000 at 5:06 AM PST - 5 comments

Kinda sutra - a charmingly animated short in which people talk about childhood misconceptions about sex and childbirth. More on childhood sex misconceptions from Dan Savage 1, 2, 3. (pretty tame clip, but possibly NSFW) [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive at 4:14 AM PST - 55 comments

"What began as a defensive movement by local fishermen has evolved into a complex amalgamation of banditry, organized crime, freebooting, and insurgency targeting all types of vessels from fishing trawlers to oil tankers." Somali pirates holding an American captain hostage were killed during a rescue yesterday. The lack of effective governance in Somalia allows massive vessels from Europe and Asia to decimate the local fish population, which may have forced Somali fisherman into piracy. Other ships use the Somali coast as a toxic waste dump. [previously]
posted by benzenedream at 2:56 AM PST - 189 comments

The Guardian has taken the unusual step of publishing the same article in English & in Italian because the Italian media will not tell the truth about Berlusconi. The tainted clown that heads Italy has accused newspapers and television stations of slandering him and damaging the country’s reputation by highlighting his alleged faux pas.
Silvio's Shadow an interesting article from the Colombia Journal of Review cached archives shows how Berlusconi uses Journalism as a political weapon. [more inside]
posted by adamvasco at 2:40 AM PST - 48 comments