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David Goode bronze sculpture
posted by various at 11:22 PM PST - 11 comments

Following the 5 April parliamentary election results in the Republic of Moldova, in which the Partidul Comuniștilor din Republica Moldova won nearly 50% of the vote, thousands of young people began a series of protests largely organized through Twitter, text messaging, and FaceBook. The protests quickly reached a boiling point early today, when Parliament was stormed. Much of the coverage in the European press is limited to Romanian-language reporting. Some of the most compelling imagery and video clips, however, speak for themselves. [more inside]
posted by vkxmai at 9:24 PM PST - 44 comments

Photographs of lost luggage.

IT’S A LITTLE ODD BUT NOT AS ODD AS STAMP COLLECTING
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:37 PM PST - 13 comments

The PhilSci Archive is an electronic archive for preprints in the philosophy of science. The goal of the Archive is to promote communication in the field by the rapid dissemination of new work.
posted by aniola at 8:15 PM PST - 4 comments

Tree of Bees? Hills that move? A reflective humorous post about living in Southern California via mockable.org
posted by will wait 4 tanjents at 7:55 PM PST - 65 comments

General Motors Corp. and Segway announced a new vehicle prototype today "that could change the way we move around in cities." Project P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) is an electrically powered, two-seat vehicle with two wheels. Photo gallery. Video 1, Video 2, Video 3.
posted by stbalbach at 6:24 PM PST - 110 comments

Looping, live: David Ford, Imogen Heap, KT Tunstall x2, Dub FX, Ed Alleyne-Johnson
posted by flatluigi at 6:14 PM PST - 50 comments

On April Fools Day 2009, the James Randi Educational Foundation announced the Pigasus Awards for 2008 for the worst in pseudoscientific irrationality. The Scientist award was given to Dr. Colin A. Ross for his claims that he can shoot electromagnetic energy beams from his eyes. The Funding Organization award went to Walt Ruloff and his co-producers for bankrolling the Intelligent Design documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The Media award went to cable channels such as Comedy Central that still run ads for Enzyte even though the company's owner is now serving a 25-year sentence for fraud. The Perfomer award was typically awarded in the past to cheesy psychics such as Uri Geller or Sylvia Browne, but this year the (dis)honor goes to actress/spokesmodel Jenny McCarthy for her antivaccination activism, a stance that inspired the Jenny McCarthy Body Count. Finally, a new award for "most persistent refusal to face reality" was presented to infomercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau, who continues selling his books on "natural cures" despite a judge slapping him with a $37 million fine for false claims.
posted by jonp72 at 5:54 PM PST - 78 comments

'Either way, he doesn't have authority over this child anymore. She sued him because she doesn't respect his rules. It's very hard to raise a child who is the boss.' A Quebec father who was taken to court by his 12-year-old daughter after he grounded her in June 2008 has lost his appeal. _via
posted by bitteroldman at 4:42 PM PST - 61 comments

One man died on the day of the G20 protests in London. He wasn't a protester, wasn't a police officer. Ian Tomlinson was a 47 year old newspaper seller trying to get home, who collapsed and died of heart failure. Three minutes before he collapsed and died, this happened. [more inside]
posted by reynir at 1:50 PM PST - 171 comments

I, for one, welcome our new sigle link youtube post overlords!
posted by joelf at 1:46 PM PST - 67 comments

Today has turned into a real-life nightmare. I wish I could wake up. This nightmare started 9 months ago and has been recurring ever since.

Designer Jon Engle is being billed $18,000 by stockart.com. Some people are trying to save Jon. [more inside]
posted by wundermint at 1:14 PM PST - 218 comments

Happy 40th birthday, RFC 1!
posted by loquacious at 12:59 PM PST - 17 comments

Beyond even the outrageously broad "state secrets" privilege invented by the Bush administration and now embraced fully by the Obama administration, the Obama DOJ has now invented a brand new claim of government immunity, one which literally asserts that the U.S. Government is free to intercept all of your communications (calls, emails and the like) and -- even if what they're doing is blatantly illegal and they know it's illegal -- you are barred from suing them unless they "willfully disclose" to the public what they have learned. - Glenn Greenwald. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese at 12:18 PM PST - 104 comments

8 Bit Waterslide -- In Real Life! [slyt]
posted by empath at 12:12 PM PST - 21 comments

Year of the Chicken Pot Pie, anyone? We're getting closer to David Foster Wallace's Year of the Whopper.
posted by jwakawaka at 11:08 AM PST - 27 comments

Sheepherders in Northern Nevada came largely from Basque country back in the day. They brought with them a tradition of making arborglyphs, carving text and images into living trees. You can see pictures of 175 Nevada arborglyphs here, 73 of which have companion videos showing a bit more of the surrounding. The unquestioned expert on Nevadan arborglyphs, Professor Joxe Mallea-Olaetxe, has written a great deal on the subject and in 2001 he wrote a good overview article in Forest History Today called Carving Out History: The Basque Aspens. Another good introductory article by journalist Emma Nichols in the Sacramento News & Review, Mystery of the Arborglyphs, with a focus on the more salacious arborglyphs. Basque Tree Carving: Legend in Nevada is an 18 minute documentary. Here is a video of Professor Mallea speaking about the arborglyphs and here is an interview with him. [all videos asx format]
posted by Kattullus at 9:42 AM PST - 14 comments

Today, the Vermont Legislature voted to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill allowing same sex marriage, making Vermont the 4th state in the nation (and the second state this week) to legalize same sex marriage. Vermont is the first state to do it legislatively; it happened in the other three states via court ruling.
posted by booksherpa at 9:18 AM PST - 252 comments

The House passed H.R. 1256, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act a few days ago. The bill would put regulation of tobacco under the jurisdiction of the F.D.A. Some are critical of this bill, pointing out that Philip Morris is behind it. But the bill does contain many positive elements. Manufacturers would be required to disclose product ingredients to the F.D.A. and marketing to children would be further restricted. [more inside]
posted by formless at 9:00 AM PST - 35 comments

The universe is unfolding as it should: from White Castle to House to ...the White House. Actor Kal Penn dramatically left his medical show last night (spoilers everywhere) to take a job in the Obama administration. He credits his interest in politics to his grandparents, who marched with Gandhi.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:52 AM PST - 72 comments

SpaceCollective. Where forward thinking terrestrials exchange ideas and information about the state of the species, their planet and the universe, living the lives of science fiction today. A growing number of universities, architecture and design schools are conducting projects on this site. Hundreds of art treasures, educational videos and narratives are found in their galleries. Every SpaceCollective member is provided with a personal time capsule, preserving their contributions for the edification of each other as well as future times and beings.
posted by netbros at 8:49 AM PST - 5 comments

Voices and Visions explores -- through interviews, archival footage, and readings -- the lives and works of some of America’s greatest poets. Newsweek called the series "the most ambitious, most expensive and most accomplished series of films ever made about American poetry." Elizabeth Bishop 1::2::3 l T.S. Eliot 1::2::3::4 l Robert Frost 1::2::3 l Wallace Stevens 1::2 l William Carlos Williams 1::2 l Ezra Pound 1 l Langston Hughes 1::2 l Marianne Moore 1::2 l home
posted by vronsky at 8:48 AM PST - 8 comments

One for the fans. [A]t the Fantastic Fest Star Trek event at the Alamo Draughthouse Theater in Austin, Texas on Monday night. Star Trek filmmakers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof kicked things off by telling the crowd of around 200, that they would be seeing the Star Trek preview after Wrath of Khan. Two minutes in to the showing of TWOK, the film appeared to have ‘melted’ and the guys came back out on the stage and appeared to be stalling for time while the film was fixed…and then, wearing a ball cap, Leonard Nimoy came out in front of the audience holding a film can. Nimoy noted to the crowd that it just didn’t seem fair that people in Australia were the fist to see the film and asked them "wouldn’t you rather see the new movie?"
posted by caddis at 7:46 AM PST - 111 comments

Indeed, all three of Hitler’s prized leather whips were presents from high society ladies. : Christopher Clark reviews High Society in the Third Reich by Fabrice d’Almeida in the London Review Of Books.
posted by The Whelk at 7:33 AM PST - 24 comments

The Dark Side of Dubai. "Do-buy" was meant to be a Middle-Eastern Shangri-La, a glittering monument to Arab enterprise and western capitalism. But as hard times arrive in the city state that rose from the desert sands, an uglier story is emerging. [more inside]
posted by Rufus T. Firefly at 6:23 AM PST - 64 comments

The creators of the subservient chicken look back on how it all came to be. As seen on MetaFilter 5 years ago today.
posted by billyfleetwood at 1:54 AM PST - 33 comments