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eMusic lands Sony! Growing up or selling out?
posted by mazola at 10:51 PM PST - 46 comments

Drive a race car, beat someone up, and try on a dress - all from your living room and without any controllers. Microsoft's new "Natal". [video] [more inside]
posted by Defenestrator at 10:09 PM PST - 84 comments

Canadian DJ bloke Tiga has a new album called Ciao. He's made a spoof documentary to promote it. It's really funny, even if you don't know about dance music - A bit like Nathan Barley by the ever wonderful Chris Morris. Part 1 Part 2
posted by debord at 9:11 PM PST - 20 comments

How to keep the cat off of the kitchen counter.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 8:54 PM PST - 90 comments

You probably knew him as the evil drug kingpin, Mr. Han in Enter the Dragon. In Hong Kong he was an action movie legend. Sadly, the amazing Shek Kin, a true martial artist, is dead at 96.
posted by bwg at 8:38 PM PST - 17 comments

Cogitate - Manipulate LEGO TECHNIC gears, beams, conveyor belts and motors to complete the ten pre-built puzzles or create your own levels. [In my case - Then watch them crash in a heap when you test them.]
posted by tellurian at 7:47 PM PST - 15 comments

Passion Pictures has just released Pete Candeland’s gorgeous cinematic for the forthcoming game The Beatles: Rock Band. [more inside]
posted by Toekneesan at 7:47 PM PST - 62 comments

She won't make him a grilled cheese sandwich. The comments are what make this post. No un-sfw words in the post, just G-rated euphemisms instead. Mefites, do not disappoint with your own contributions.
posted by Melismata at 5:29 PM PST - 167 comments

June 4, 1974. Rangers at Indians. Ten Cent Beers.
posted by wayofthedodo at 4:48 PM PST - 27 comments

Lullatone are a half-Japanese, half-American duo based in Japan who make music that can probably best be described as twee folktronica; a recent EP of theirs is titled "Little Songs About Raindrops". And now, you can make your own with their Raindrop Melody Maker Flash web toy, which looks a bit like a pastel-coloured Tenori-On:
posted by acb at 4:35 PM PST - 9 comments

Google Introduces Google Showcase. "Discover new and interesting gadgets and themes as you browse iGoogle homepages created by world-renowned celebrities and thought leaders. Like what you see? Add stuff to your own homepage with just a click." Deepak Chopra. Ashton Kutcher. The Donald.
posted by LarryC at 3:26 PM PST - 47 comments

40 million Iranians watched a "remarkable, no-holds-barred" and nationally televised debate between President Ahmadinejad (blog) and his rival, former Prime Minister Mousavi (Facebook). [more inside]
posted by msalt at 2:53 PM PST - 48 comments

Today marks the 5th anniversary of Marvin Heemeyer's killdozer rampage in Granby, Colorado. This resulted in the destruction of 13 buildings and an estimated $7 million in damage, a surreal heavy equipment duel with the police, and Heemeyer himself the sole casualty. Watch a fan-assembled montage of footage from the event.
posted by 7segment at 2:49 PM PST - 55 comments

Have you ever wondered what New York was like before it was a city? Find out at The Mannahatta Project, by navigating through the map to discover Manhattan Island and its native wildlife in 1609. [more inside]
posted by netbros at 2:35 PM PST - 16 comments

The first ever Penal Tour De France
posted by Confess, Fletch at 2:08 PM PST - 30 comments

The "Skin Rash Hall of Fame" at poison-ivy.org forecasts what can happen if you're human, allergic to urushiol, and can't recognize poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac. Behold the delights of urushiol-induced contact dermititis. Just one hazard of plants you really, really don't want to touch.
posted by zennie at 1:17 PM PST - 53 comments

Inspired by its 10th anniversary, the Earth Observatory has pulled together a special series of NASA satellite images documenting how the world has changed. From these images, Wired Science has made 5 videos, presenting convenient time-lapse views of the world changing (mainly) because of human actions. Watch the urbanization of Dubai, specifically the growth of Palm Jumeirah. See the Aral Sea dry up - once the fourth largest lake, down to 10 percent of its original size (marked by the thin black line in the video) by 2007. View the clearing the Amazon, as observed from above the state of Rondônia in western Brazil. Behold the return of Mesopotamia's Wetlands, now in the process of being restored from near total destruction under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Witness the impact of drought on Southern Utah's Lake Powell, where water level dropped from 20 million to 8 million acre-feet from 2000 to 2005.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:08 PM PST - 12 comments

The Haynes Workshop Manuals are a series of practical instructional repair manuals aimed at both the DIY enthusiast or shade-tree mechanic and the professional garage repairman. In that spirit, they offer the following guides to repair and service the following: The Spitfire Fighter (no, not that one), The Lancaster Bomber and the Apollo modules.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 12:12 PM PST - 30 comments

At Psychoanalyst TV, we aggregate psychology and neuroscience videos, and put them on our own TV channels. Its companion site, Neurological Correlates, A Neuroscience Tabloid of Dysfunctional Behavior - Mostly Psychopaths, Narcissists, Obesity and Addiction. Includes such gems as Visualizing Desire and Sadobabies - Runaways in San Francisco.
posted by nickyskye at 11:39 AM PST - 10 comments

Susan is currently looking for work. But in this case, instead of asking someone to hire her, Susan is looking to hire a boss. If you're a boss interested in this opportunity, you can apply here.
posted by ShawnStruck at 11:30 AM PST - 196 comments

The University of Edinburgh, at the request of Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, used computer modeling to redesign the lituus. The horn, made of pinewood with a cow horn mouth piece, was called for by Bach's ‘O Jesu Christ, meins lebens licht.’
posted by Pants! at 11:06 AM PST - 6 comments

How Music Works - UK Channel 4 documentary (~180 mins.)
Why do some rhythms get our toes tapping, while others make us feel mellow? How does a love song bring tears to our eyes? What links African drumming to J S Bach?
Part 1 - Melody (alt)
Part 2 - Rhythm (alt)
Part 3 - Harmony (alt)
Part 4 - Bass (alt)
Then: Music producer and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, author of This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of Human Obsession and The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature, shares some of his thoughts at Google Talk.
posted by Christ, what an asshole at 11:01 AM PST - 31 comments

Have you ever wondered how to explain protein synthesis to your non-scientifically-inclined friends? Have you considered using interpretive dance? Thanks to the efforts of the Stanford University of 35 years ago, you can! Warning! May be too 70s for work...
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:45 AM PST - 23 comments

Java Demo: "four-letter words have a special status in the english language and culture. counting in at over 1650 words,...this small project is an attempt to give a spacial overview of the entirety of this part of english language heritage, as well as to explore and visualize relations between all those words."
posted by hortense at 9:17 AM PST - 18 comments

June 4, 2009 marks 20 years since Poland's first semi-free election under Communism. The election marked the beginning of the end for Polish Communism with its overwhelming mandate for the pro-democracy movement, Solidarity. Today, the world recognizes Poland's accomplishment.
posted by orrnyereg at 9:12 AM PST - 15 comments

Top 60 Ghetto Black Names (MLYT) [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:48 AM PST - 292 comments

Obama speaks in Cairo: "I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world." Text is here. He quoted the Koran and highlighted a subject he avoided during his campaign - his own family's ties to Islam, his youth in Muslim Indonesia and even Chicago's Nation of Islam. An early roundup of US right wing reaction, and US left wing reaction, and the Middle East.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:41 AM PST - 135 comments

The portable urinating device for women (via)
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:32 AM PST - 94 comments

Kwai Chang Caine, aka Grasshopper, aka David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room. Bummer.
posted by Shike at 7:29 AM PST - 189 comments

We previously lamented the lack of a real writer in space. Well, at least now we will have a poetic and social fire-eater.
posted by bru at 7:24 AM PST - 15 comments

Casetteboy vs The Bloody Apprentice Like The Apprentice? Don't like the Apprentice? Either way, you'll probably like this. [more inside]
posted by The Ultimate Olympian at 7:16 AM PST - 6 comments

Do you have any idea what day tomorrow is? Oh sure you could celebrate by going to: Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme. But why not try someplace a little less mainstream?
posted by Mastercheddaar at 7:11 AM PST - 46 comments

In 1839, soon after Queen Victoria's accession, the Earl of Eglinton staged a re-enactment of a medieval tournament to mark the beginning of what he hoped would be a new age of chivalry. Despite torrential rain, the Eglinton Tournament was attended by 100,000 people and sparked off a popular craze for all things medieval. A new website tells the story of the tournament and reproduces, for the first time, twenty original watercolours recording the event in all its romantic splendour and absurdity.
posted by verstegan at 7:06 AM PST - 6 comments

Louis Menand in The New Yorker surveys American creative writing education, past and present, and asks whether it should still be taught. (via) [more inside]
posted by shadytrees at 6:57 AM PST - 17 comments

Pinhole Photography by Incarcerated Girls at Remann Hall, Washington State. Prison Baseball. Guantanamo: Directory of Photographic and Visual Resources. Painted photographs of forgotten incarcerated Russian youth. 19th century prison ships. Pete Brook's Prison Photography blog links to lots of great stuff.
posted by mediareport at 6:31 AM PST - 8 comments