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Huge gently floating bombs made their way across the pacific below balloons using the high altitude jet streams floated to the Americas during WWII. Kept secret for most of the war, you can read about their amazing history here.
posted by lee at 11:36 PM PST - 37 comments

Moneygami is origami made from U.S. currency; the subtle genius lies in the way the artist incorporates the prints on the dollar bills into the facial characteristics of the finished figures. More moneygami here. Via.
posted by jonson at 10:44 PM PST - 14 comments

Under alien skies: Start with the simply stunning Exosolar, a flash-based interface for navigating through 2,000 nearer stars in 3-D, including all discovered planets outside our solar system. See what the skies would look like from other planets and suns. Explore star maps from many science fiction universes, from Star Trek to Dune. Watch the Big Dipper change its shape over a hundred thousand years. Zoom into a face-on map of the Milky Way that would cover 16 square meters if printed, and see the Atlas of the Universe. [prev. on extrasolar planets, prev. on star maps]
posted by blahblahblah at 10:34 PM PST - 9 comments

Clever Ravens: "They have a long evolutionary process of espionage and counter-espionage to build on, in the course of which they became masters of deceit and problem-solving. They got better and better at guessing the intentions of others and concealing their own."
posted by dhruva at 8:54 PM PST - 37 comments

Moving up the cultural cred ladder (first the Science Fiction crowd, then Hollywood) the late Philip K. Dick is recognized by his own Library of America volume. NYT noticed too. Perhaps this is karmic compensation for the recently released, but poorly reviewed "Next".
posted by hwestiii at 6:14 PM PST - 48 comments

Time travel exists. It's called old pictures.
posted by Mblue at 4:56 PM PST - 40 comments

Another World In the New Mexico desert sits an unremarkable sinkhole. At the bottom of the 90-foot pit, a piece of stainless steel culvert juts up, sealed by an airlock. If you can get the National Park Service to unlock the door, you've reached the Holy Grail of American caving, Lechuguilla Cave.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:20 PM PST - 40 comments

The Antikamnia Calendar for 1900 shows a policeman, a clown, and a newspaper editor (among others), with one slight but notable difference. The 1899 one is pretty neat, too, but not as useful (because 1900 matches 2007 day-for-day). More info and related pics here. via.
posted by cerebus19 at 4:10 PM PST - 10 comments

There is apparently such a thing as a chicken eating spider. Take heart that you're probably not a chicken.
posted by moonbird at 3:42 PM PST - 102 comments

Skidboot is no longer with us. Part Austalian blue heeler, part Australian Kelpie, the legendary performing dog cattledog Skidboot was often thought of as one of the smartest dogs in the world (in the company of Carolyn Scott's Rookie and this dog on Ellen DeGeneres show). Not only did he and his trainer/proprietor David Hartwig take home a $25, 000 prize for his performance on season 1 of Animal Channel's Pet Star, not only was he on Letterman and Leno, he was on Oprah! Here's the whole story.
posted by humannaire at 3:32 PM PST - 24 comments

newsfilter!! more inside Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy wins France's presidential election.
posted by acro at 12:51 PM PST - 154 comments

Poor, poor Wiley the dog. One Spring day, she got out of her yard and wandered aimlessly for a while. Wanting to help the lost animal find some direction, some vandals thoughtfully spray-painted her. Tragically, poor Wiley has since had to admit her painful secret to the world. She isn't literate. Forced to admit her shameful problem, hopefully she'll get some help.
posted by miss lynnster at 11:51 AM PST - 92 comments

Separation of church and state? Not among America's holiest congressmen. Some surprising candidates inside. Extra bonus. (Via)
posted by growabrain at 11:14 AM PST - 90 comments

You've probably seen the video of Kirk and Spock set to "Closer." You might not be familiar with the wider world of fanvids, however. It might be "Lost" set to Warren Zevon or "Heroes" set to Jonathan Coulton. Some are slashy, others are just hilarious. And some are really awesome.
posted by EarBucket at 10:43 AM PST - 48 comments

Assaf Seewi has rhythm.
posted by phrontist at 8:43 AM PST - 39 comments

East Germany suffers from a posthumous image problem. People think that life in the former GDR was a dreary round of dodging the secret police and mandatory attendance at Boy-Loves-Tractor films. Nothing could be further from the truth. Life in the GDR was fun. You could take pictures with ORWO Film (mildly NSFW. Five seconds of toplessness at 1:15). You could zip through the countryside in your MZ. You could fit every soccer ball in the neighborhood in your Wartburg. And for the ultimate in class-conscious, revolutionary mackitude, there was the Trabant. If these little clips aren’t enough, if you want a whole bunch of East German commercials, here’s a long video called Flotter Osten (Again, mildly NSFW: Same topless shot for about five seconds at 8:07).
posted by jason's_planet at 8:05 AM PST - 42 comments

Finding it hard to get out of bed this morning? You might consider building your own Rube Goldberg Alarm Clock. (3:17 video)
posted by ColdChef at 7:54 AM PST - 26 comments

The World's Greatest Live Music Show is back on the air [warning: YT-heavy first sentence]. Friday's season premiere featured inspired performances by Arctic Monkeys, CSS and The Hold Steady. Next week: Joanna Newsom, Grinderman, Travis, and more.
posted by chuckdarwin at 7:43 AM PST - 33 comments

Mathematics in Movies.
posted by nthdegx at 6:59 AM PST - 28 comments

Africa. Some women drumming. Some women dancing. [courtesy of the YouTubes]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:22 AM PST - 21 comments

Nineteen Eighty-Four (YouTube) Nigel Kneale's BBC adaptation of the Orwell classic; made in 1954, with Peter Cushing as Winston Smith.
posted by Abiezer at 6:03 AM PST - 18 comments

How to make a Ninja mask with a shirt.
posted by psmealey at 6:02 AM PST - 22 comments