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I know a man who once went to Sioux City, not one of the world’s leading destinations, precisely because he had never been there before. More than a decade later he still talks about the experience, from the Sergeant Floyd obelisk to the dog track of North Sioux and the meat packing plant converted to a shopping mall. The same impulse explains a non-specialist’s reading a history of Byzantine iconography or a survey of Australian wildlife. Both offer a break in daily life and an enlargement of our sense of wonder and possibility. That awareness can provide a sense of transcendence, and connection, or even the spark of divine discontent that leads people to change their lives.

Reading as Vacation, an essay by J. D. Smith and Subway Reader, pictures of people who read while using public transportation.
posted by Kattullus at 10:44 PM PST - 18 comments

Blogging May Cost You Your Life NY Times discusses the possible "death by blogging" of two prominent Tech Bloggers, Russell Shaw and Marc Orchant, Blognation. A third, Om Malik of gigaom.com, 41, survived a heart attack in December. I am thinking twice about my late night posts.
posted by doug3505 at 10:03 PM PST - 56 comments

274 Atolls. [more inside]
posted by bigmusic at 9:47 PM PST - 20 comments

The most dangerous path in the world. NSFA (acrophobics)
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:06 PM PST - 172 comments

Online Crayon Physics Flash version of stuff from here and here. No download needed (vs. prior posts) and totally addicting.
posted by filmgeek at 7:41 PM PST - 38 comments

Many planets have been found circling other stars, but the prevailing search techniques turn up results encouraging but bizarre. (encouraging, previously) Gravitational micro-lensing has made it possible to OGLE a solar system much like our own.... You're not alone.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 6:39 PM PST - 9 comments

The Big Bang in musical form.
posted by dhruva at 6:20 PM PST - 5 comments

Located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, tiny Sable Island has a population of about 15 humans, assorted marine birds and seals, and more than 300 wild horses. The island is a bastion of purity, wildness and beauty unmatched in the world. [more inside]
posted by loiseau at 6:19 PM PST - 27 comments

Australian dock workers will stop work for a minute today to remember the Patrick stevedores dispute, an industrial dispute that involved the stevedoring corporation Patricks, the Howard government and the Maritime Union of Australia. A landmark event in Australian political and legal history, the dispute saw dock workers stand "in the first line against the Howard government and the Patrick corporation that was seeking to remove their legal rights, their right to go to work [and] the right to collective bargaining." In its wake, the event generated debate about the role of unions in Australia, an alleged conspiracy between Patricks and the former Howard Government and even spawned a controversial TV mini-series, Bastard Boys. For more history and analysis of the dispute, you can read about it from the view of the MUA or this account but for the definitive analysis see here.
posted by Effigy2000 at 4:56 PM PST - 12 comments

"Principals make hundreds of decisions everyday based on our best judgment. And in that time, smelling that marker, I felt like, 'Wow, that's a very serious marker,'" Benisch said. Despite the medical evidence, Benisch promised to draw an even clearer line on markers. "We've purged every permanent marker there is in this building," he said.
posted by tehloki at 3:53 PM PST - 71 comments

"If feminism is about social change, white feminism -- a feminism of assimilation, of gentle reform and/or strengthening of institutions that are instrumental to economic exploitation and white supremacy, of ignorance and/or appropriation of the work of feminists of color -- is an oxymoron. And it is not a thing of some bygone era before everyone read bell hooks in college. It is happening now; you might be part of it."
posted by nasreddin at 3:52 PM PST - 187 comments

"The sweet aroma of sap permeating the air, still harkens the arrival of Spring"^* in New England, Canada and other U.S. states. The Eastern Woodland Indians discovered that maple sap cooked over an open fire produces a sweet sugar [video], resulting in maple syrup. Many associate the syrup with Quebec (which produces most of the world's supply) and Vermont where about "one of every four trees...is a maple."^* Vermont even has a "maple cop." He enforces "Vermont's maple regulations for the state Agency of Agriculture, which strictly regulates how Vermont's most famous export is made, marketed and sold."^* [more inside]
posted by ericb at 3:50 PM PST - 36 comments

New York City is the greenest city in America. Eighty-two per cent of Manhattan residents travel to work by public transit, by bicycle, or on foot. That's ten times the rate for Americans in general, and eight times the rate for residents of Los Angeles County. New York City is more populous than all but eleven states; if it were granted statehood, it would rank 51st in per-capita energy use.... But this is not necessarily something people want to hear: In a conversation with a Sierra Club representative involved in Challenge to Sprawl, I said that the organization's anti-sprawl suggestions and the modified streetscapes in the slide show shared many significant features with Manhattan-whose most salient characteristics include wide sidewalks, narrow streets, mixed uses, densely packed buildings, and an extensive network of subways and buses. The representative hesitated, then said that I was essentially correct, although he would prefer that the program not be described in such terms, since emulating New York City would not be considered an appealing goal by most of the people whom the Sierra Club is trying to persuade
posted by storybored at 2:56 PM PST - 62 comments

Henry Miller Bathroom Monologues, part 2, part 3, and follow on - Miller takes us on a tour of the art in his bathroom. And a few years later, we have Dinner with Henry, 1979 . [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive at 12:24 PM PST - 13 comments

I don't know about you, but I've always thought West Side Story needed a little extra something. Like Cher doing all the parts. (Part two).
posted by adrober at 11:57 AM PST - 9 comments

Whip it out and dance don't be afraid (NSFW?). Yes! It is that time of the year again : today Japanese people celebrate Kanamara Matsuri (金まら祭り), the annual Kawasaki Fertility Festival (previously on Hōnen Matsuri (豊年祭)
posted by elpapacito at 11:17 AM PST - 14 comments

Compulse - Drop the different blocks on the stage to affect the direction of the ball. Try to use as few as possible, but you may use as many as you want.
posted by sveskemus at 5:20 AM PST - 32 comments

I'm baffled why these science fiction tv pilots never made it to series... especially Leonard Nimoy's Baffled!.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:56 AM PST - 30 comments

D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation [previously] is now viewable in its entirety at YouTube. Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Or at Internet Archive, if you prefer.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:53 AM PST - 25 comments