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Weddings are inherently a form of performance art, and various artists have explored weddings as an artistic form. For example, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens held a wedding every year for 7 years to various parts of the environment and Maria Yoon held weddings in every US state to explore marriage as an Asian-American woman. Second Life also hosted a performance art wedding while Gavin Turk and Deborah Curtis incorporated their House of Fairytales project into their own wedding. Kathryn Cornelius married and divorced seven suitors every hour on the hour while Chen Wei-yih opted to marry herself.
posted by divabat at 9:12 PM PST - 25 comments

FanBased: Inside Lil B's Ecstatic Cult A look at hip-hop oddball Lil B's sprawling BasedWorld community, home to some of contemporary music's most fiercely loyal, spirited, interconnected fans.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:29 PM PST - 37 comments

Ship My Pants (SLYT, PepsiBlue)
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:56 PM PST - 72 comments

Popular Science explores the psychology behind anti-drug PSA's and whether they help keep kids off drugs... [more inside]
posted by ApathyGirl at 6:15 PM PST - 89 comments

"There have appeared in history certain extraordinary men whose thinking was infused with passion, whose philosophies have changed the world. Alexander Zuckerkandl, MD, PhD, was perhaps the greatest philosopher of our twentieth century. As Aristotle was to antiquity, as Aquinas was to the Middle Ages, so Zuckerkandl is to modern times. The influence of Zuckerkandl has been such that we are all his followers whether we know it or not. Of these followers none is more ardent than our distinguished guest speaker, Dr. Robert M. Hutchins."
posted by seemoreglass at 5:17 PM PST - 9 comments

Blood, Sweat, and Steel: My Afternoon with the Ace of Swords. “When I got this sword, it was completely covered in blood rust.” Sword maker Francis Boyd is showing me yet another weapon pulled from yet another safe in the heavily fortified workshop behind his northern California home. “You can tell it’s blood,” he says matter-of-factly, “because ordinary rust turns the grinding water brown. If it’s blood rust it bleeds, it looks like blood in the water. Even 2,000 years old, it bleeds. And it smells like a steak cooking, like cooked meat. I’ve encountered this before with Japanese swords from World War II. If there’s blood on the sword and you start polishing it, the sword bleeds. It comes with the territory.” [Via]
posted by homunculus at 5:10 PM PST - 13 comments

"Orphan theology" in the evangelical Christian movement in the United States. One mother described herself as "a dumpster diving orphan lunatic" who was still "afflicted with my Orphan Obsession" after bearing two kids and adopting four more.
posted by spamandkimchi at 4:47 PM PST - 32 comments

Youtube user Seth Cutler lovingly crafts powerpoint presentations of various Christine Lavin songs, including this test for psychic powers. [more inside]
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:22 PM PST - 11 comments

Caroline Shaw is a 30 year old composer, violinist, and singer. Yesterday, she also became the youngest person ever, and one of the few women, to receive the Pulitzer Prize for music for her composition Partita for 8 Voices. The work features four baroque inspired movements that were influenced by the violin music of Bach, and yet despite the baroque title, Partita is still thoroughly modern. The Pulitzer jury described it as a "highly polished and inventive a cappella work uniquely embracing speech, whispers, sighs, murmurs, wordless melodies and novel vocal effects." [more inside]
posted by fremen at 2:27 PM PST - 46 comments

In Iceland, with a population of around a third of a million, the danger exists of that heady one-night stand ending up as an intimate encounter between near-relatives, as nearly happened to the friend of Elin Edda. No longer, due to the launch of an android app ("Bump the app before you bump in bed") which easily tells a budding couple how related they are. [more inside]
posted by Wordshore at 2:00 PM PST - 67 comments

Inequality and the New York subway. An infographic from the New Yorker: The United States has a problem with income inequality. And it’s particularly bad in New York City—according to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, if the borough of Manhattan were a country, the income gap between the richest twenty per cent and the poorest twenty per cent would be on par with countries like Sierra Leone, Namibia, and Lesotho.
posted by nickyskye at 1:41 PM PST - 71 comments

Short little film (SLYT) produced by the people at Dove that packs a lot of punch about how we see ourselves compared to how we see others.
posted by mister nice at 1:03 PM PST - 53 comments

"[a]ll I can hope is that future historians note that one of the core empirical points providing the intellectual foundation for the global move to austerity in the early 2010s was based on someone accidentally not updating a row formula in Excel." [more inside]
posted by T.D. Strange at 12:50 PM PST - 166 comments

In August 2013 a Minotaur V rocket (Lunar!) is being launched from Wallops Flight Facility, to deliver a Lunar Orbiter. [more inside]
posted by joecacti at 12:00 PM PST - 10 comments

Does the shutdown of Google Reader make you feel like it has become just another Evil Empire (DeathStar+)? Then plug a feed address into StarRSS, and enjoy your favorite information sources displayed Star Wars style. (thank you, Laughing Squid)
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:39 AM PST - 12 comments

For WIRED magazine's 20th anniversary, they've "gathered stories for, by, and about the people who have shaped the planet's past 20 years—and will continue driving the next."
posted by zarq at 10:28 AM PST - 37 comments

Do you need some gaskets, but aren't sure where to get the kind you need? Industrial Gasket Resource can help. And it's just one part of The Industrial Resource Network. [more inside]
posted by jedicus at 10:06 AM PST - 25 comments

On Sunday, reddit user TeaGuru enlisted the help of r/nyc and dozen of strangers to propose to his girlfriend, Laura, in Central Park.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:55 AM PST - 50 comments

What makes a sweet street treat even better? Awesome artists. From Southern China, Sugar Painting makes elaborate, edible toffee masterpieces by carefully draping hot sugar onto cool marble. In Chongqing they make super floral sugar floss in a rainbow of colours. This artist from Xian blows hot sugar as if it were glass. From Istanbul, Tarihi Osmanlı Macunu (aka Traditional Ottoman Candy) is made with five different flavors of thick taffy spiraled deftly around a stick, creating a delicious lollipop. Dragon Beard Candy from Thailand is not only tasty but a great way to learn about geometric progression. And while a Thai banana pancake may seem pretty straightforward, there are always ways to jazz it up. [more inside]
posted by Jilder at 9:06 AM PST - 13 comments

Coffee Power To The People - "There are three young men in the Netherlands who want to take the barista, whom they see as a part-TEDx presenter, part-birthday magician, out of the equation. They want people to make their own coffee, and to make coffee they can be proud of."
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:03 AM PST - 63 comments

While a bit parochial, this post reveals some things worth pondering if you are considering relocating to Texas...

The Texas Legislative Study Group released its 2013 “Texas on the Brink” report at the end of last week. The report is an annual study to determine Texas’ rankings among the 50 states and the District of Columbia on health care, education, and the environment. How’s Texas doing? Not so great: The state ranks 50th in high school graduation rate, first in amount of carbon emissions, first in hazardous waste produced, last in voter turnout, first in percentage of people without health insurance, and second in percentage of uninsured kids... - via The Texas Observer
posted by jim in austin at 9:00 AM PST - 71 comments

Fist of Jesus: [SLYT]
posted by Fizz at 8:12 AM PST - 17 comments

Years after the first hints of "harsh interrogation practices" in the US war on terror, years after Obama's decision to "look forward, not back" and not investigate or pursue official torture by the CIA and other agencies, the 577-page Report of the Task Force on Detainee Treatment that was released today is, "[i]n many respects, . . . the examination of the treatment of suspected terrorists that official Washington has been reluctant to conduct." The New York Times' Scott Shane reports. [more inside]
posted by grobstein at 8:11 AM PST - 51 comments

So, what's the problem with champagne socialism? Are well-off advocates of left-wing positions hypocrites? How does one square egalitarian convictions with personal affluence?
posted by acb at 7:36 AM PST - 80 comments

"The Yellow Album isn’t an album so much as the most dramatic test of a true believer’s faith since God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. The album dares Simpsons diehards like myself to make it through a harrowing 48-minute gauntlet of ill-considered covers, train-wreck collaborations (Lisa and P-Funk All Stars: oh, it happened), generic synth-pop grooves, and jokes that would be killed in Jay Leno’s writers’ room for being insufficiently edgy. " - My World OF Flops on the bizarre, unloved Simpsons cash-in, "The Yellow Album. " complete with sample tracks.
posted by The Whelk at 7:30 AM PST - 48 comments

The Real Catbuses of Japan
posted by Artw at 7:23 AM PST - 44 comments

Hawaii, 1997 A comic by Sam Alden. Previously.
posted by zabuni at 7:10 AM PST - 5 comments

"I am writing to you with a simple request, Beatrice Ask. I want us to trade our skins and our experiences. Come on. Let's just do it. You've never been averse to slightly wacky ideas (I still remember your controversial suggestion that anyone who buys sex ought to be sent a notice in a lavender envelope.) For twenty-four hours we'll borrow each other's bodies. First I'll be in your body to understand what it's like to be a woman in the patriarchal world of politics. Then you can borrow my skin to understand that when you go out into the street, down into the subway, into the shopping center, and see the policeman standing there, with the Law on his side, with the right to approach you and ask you to prove your innocence, it brings back memories. Other abuses, other uniforms, other looks. And no, we don't need to go as far back as World War II Germany or South Africa in the eighties. Our recent Swedish history is enough, a series of random experiences that our mutual body suddenly recalls." -- Jonas Hassen Khemiri: An Open Letter to Beatrice Ask (Swedish original). [more inside]
posted by MartinWisse at 6:27 AM PST - 10 comments

Dawn reports that the largest earthquake to hit Iran in 40 years struck the Balochistan region along the Iran-Pakistan border. At least 45 people are dead, but that figure is expected to rise. Earthquaketrack says it was 7.8 on the Richter scale. At emptywheel, Jim White notes that two smaller Iranian earthquakes last year killed over 300 people.
posted by Area Man at 6:13 AM PST - 30 comments

Kitten rescued from Citylink tunnel. (The Age, with embedded video). That is all.
posted by michswiss at 4:50 AM PST - 20 comments

Performance of part of Swan Lake Ballet by Chinese State Circus [SYTL] 4min 29 seconds The full video is here, but for those of you who want to get to the jaw dropping / extreme balance stuff immediately, here is a link which starts at the 1min 40 (ish) mark. Enjoy.
posted by Faintdreams at 4:28 AM PST - 9 comments

Does it two ways. One: Reflects sunlight like a mirror to keep from heating up structure. Two: Uses a nano-patterned material that radiates infra-red heat (which it gets from being part of the building) at the wavelengths that penetrate the atmosphere without being absorbed. The reverse is what powers the well know greenhouse effect. They are claiming a net cooling of 100 watts per square meter with the panel. All without using power.
posted by aleph at 1:44 AM PST - 57 comments