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iPhone 4's reception woes, wherein bridging the area where the metal bands meet (affectionately dubbed "the spot") results in a dramatic loss in signal strength, have been widely covered in the media over the past few weeks. Apple acknowledged the concerns publicly with a letter to customers where they concluded that the issue was not with the phone, but rather that they were being too generous in the way the software communicated signal quality as bars. After an update to iOS, the bars are in fact different but the problems persist. Most recently, Consumer Reports stated it was unable to recommend iPhone 4 because of the significant design flaw, despite listing it as the highest rated overall smartphone they've tested to date. The latest wrinkle in the story has been an open letter to Steve Jobs from Chuck Schumer, yes -- United States Senator from New York Chuck Schumer, in which he questions the adequacy and transparency of Apple's response to customer concerns. Apple will be holding a press conference at 10AM tomorrow in San Francisco to address the matter. [more inside]
posted by cgomez at 11:45 PM PST - 465 comments

The writer has—has been stricken with the—the passion and beauty of life, the world, and a—a demon-driven need to—to express that, to put it down on paper or cut it into marble or into music, and with that foreknowledge that he has only a limited time to do it, he may be dead tomorrow—he's got to do it all while he can still breathe, and it's a—a desire, a need, to put the whole history of the human heart into any and every word, every paragraph that he writes, and the obscurity comes from a belief which I hold, that—that there is no such thing as "was."

In the late 1950s William Faulkner was writer-in-residence at the University of Virginia. Extensive recordings of readings, reflections, and classes are now online. NPR summarizes. [more inside]
posted by jjray at 9:34 PM PST - 15 comments

(Previously) Feel like running away? Do you like museums? Are you interested in science and writing? The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is interested in you. As a roommate. For a month. 24/7. Sleep in the Silver Streak! Get your geek on in the Smart Home! Watch movies in your Omnimax theater! Surf the web in Networld! Oh, yeah. And earn $10,000 for your time. So you can blow it all in the gift shop :)
posted by jeanmari at 8:02 PM PST - 63 comments

ExtensionFM is a Chrome extension that picks up links to mp3s as you browse the web and adds them to a media library.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 7:34 PM PST - 14 comments

Aphex Twin covered...on steel drums (SLYT).
posted by davebush at 7:22 PM PST - 49 comments

Forget the Ewings, the Carringtons, or the Channings and Giobertis, France is in the grip of the real-life soap opera of the Bettencourts, heiresses to the L'Oréal cosmetics empire, featuring a suave gigolo, a scheming wealth manager, a paradise island, feuding lawyers, embarrassed politicians, squabbling magistrates, New Media, another major multinational, and even a butler with a tape recorder... [more inside]
posted by Skeptic at 4:34 PM PST - 25 comments

Mortal Kombat vs. Donkey Kong, Mortal Kombat vs. Oregon Trail, Grand Theft Auto vs. Frogger, Contra vs. Duck Hunt, Sonic vs. Pac Man, and R-Type vs. Space Invaders.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 3:41 PM PST - 30 comments

His terrors are eternal, he's a master of cosmic horror, and now he can also liven up a dull trip to the North East: 6 Boring New England Destinations Made Awesome by H.P. Lovecraft
posted by Artw at 3:05 PM PST - 60 comments

Britain Investigates Torture: Classified documents reveal UK's role in abuse of its own citizens.
So as bad as this makes the Brits look, it implicates the US far more : Torture and Truth “Did the UK order up torture?” or “Did the UK knowingly use information gathered using torture?”
Will the Bush-Cheney Check Ever Be Paid? Maybe.
posted by adamvasco at 2:34 PM PST - 29 comments

Workers have discovered the hull of an 18th century ship beneath the rubble of ground zero.
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:15 PM PST - 105 comments

Good news, everyone! Billy West on Fresh Air discussing the various voices he has created for Futurama, Ren & Stimpy, and many others.
posted by waraw at 2:07 PM PST - 35 comments

As of about an hour and a half ago, oil has stopped flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's broken well for the first time in 87 days. See for yourself. Previously.
posted by ND¢ at 2:02 PM PST - 170 comments

The Compendium of Physical Activities (PDF) estimates your energy expenditure during common activities. [more inside]
posted by domnit at 12:56 PM PST - 37 comments

The Revolving Internet (music autoplays)
posted by andoatnp at 12:13 PM PST - 26 comments

The Korean DMZ (pdf) / PLZ has been a hot tourist attraction for years, featuring must-see sites like the Third Infiltration Tunnel, Dora Observatory, the Dora Mountain Train Station, the Freedom Bridge and the Imjingak Tourist Site, complete with its statue of Harry Truman. And now, South Korea's border with North Korea -- the most heavily militarized border on Earth, -- will be patrolled by killer robots. [more inside]
posted by zarq at 11:25 AM PST - 50 comments

The New Abortion Providers: an in-depth look at the re-institutionalization of abortion training in U.S. teaching hospitals, from the New York Times Magazine.
posted by killdevil at 11:14 AM PST - 28 comments

Torosaurus Ain't. [more inside]
posted by Wulfgar! at 10:37 AM PST - 33 comments

Girl on the Wall : A very short comedy about a bored man and a graffiti. (SLYT) Via BB
posted by manny_calavera at 9:53 AM PST - 8 comments

Want to fire a teacher in the LA Unified School District? Be prepared to spend several years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so. [more inside]
posted by reenum at 9:30 AM PST - 139 comments

Next weekend, thousands of runners will take to the streets of San Francisco to run the SF Marathon, on a course with hills that skate a 300 ft. elevation about six times over 26.2 miles. However, the non-corporately sponsored marathon attracts few than a third of the runners who tackle New York City and Chicago. While the organizers are trying to re-brand the race, offering two different half marathon courses, they have shied away from making the course any easier.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:06 AM PST - 26 comments

For the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining. What went wrong? Can we fix it? 'Nobody would argue that Torrance’s tasks, which have become the gold standard in creativity assessment, measure creativity perfectly. What’s shocking is how incredibly well Torrance’s creativity index predicted those kids’ creative accomplishments as adults. Those who came up with more good ideas on Torrance’s tasks grew up to be entrepreneurs, inventors, college presidents, authors, doctors, diplomats, and software developers. Jonathan Plucker of Indiana University recently reanalyzed Torrance’s data. The correlation to lifetime creative accomplishment was more than three times stronger for childhood creativity than childhood IQ.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 9:02 AM PST - 88 comments

Argentina Approves Gay Marriage. With a 33-27 vote in the Senate, Argentina has become the first Latin American country to legalize gay marriage. (Mexico City legalized it in 2009.) Reactions: 1 2 3 [more inside]
posted by kmz at 8:34 AM PST - 43 comments

New Episodes of Beavis and Butt-head confirmed. That is all.
posted by Eideteker at 8:29 AM PST - 92 comments

Alarming digital drugs get Oklahoma teens high! "I heard it was like some weird demons and stuff through an iPod and he was like freaking out," said Mustang High School student Meghan Edwards. Psychology Today examines the analog origins, "In 1839, Heinrich Wilhelm Dove discovered that two constant tones, played at slightly different frequencies in each ear, cause the listener to perceive the sound of a fast-paced beat. Calling this phenomenon "binaural beats," Dove helped launch two centuries of legitimate research and, as is almost always followed by exciting empirical study, money-grabbing pseudoscience." Parent Kelly Johnson does not approve, "Well it's just scary, definitely scary. Just one more thing to look out for."
posted by geoff. at 8:08 AM PST - 100 comments

Music video for Tim Halperin's song "She Runs" - one continuous shot. Cute with a homemade feel. I can't believe people have the energy to make things like this in the Texas heat!
posted by sparky at 7:19 AM PST - 14 comments

Ferris Club (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by ShawnString at 7:12 AM PST - 85 comments

The photo agency VII has started an online magazine to distribute their work themselves. Stephen Mayes, of VII, discusses this new venture, and the state of the photojournalism and its future. [more inside]
posted by chunking express at 6:47 AM PST - 2 comments

"These are sample layouts from a fullsize reproduction of the entire 2007 IKEA catalogue, leaving only color and structure. With an estimated 175 million copies distributed in 2006, the IKEA catalogue is thought to have surpassed the Bible as the most published print-work in the world." [more inside]
posted by Miko at 6:22 AM PST - 62 comments

Moai silhouetted by a solar eclipse. That is all.
posted by cog_nate at 6:16 AM PST - 31 comments

40 Things You Need to Know About the Next 40 Years For it's 40th anniversary issue, Smithsonian magazine asks experts in various fields for insights into our future and compiles a list of 40 predictions about the future of science, nature, the arts and technology. The feature essay is by President Obama, in which he explains why he's optimistic about America's future. (VIA) [more inside]
posted by mondaygreens at 6:01 AM PST - 50 comments

Lake Kaindy is a lake in Kazakhstan that was created after a huge landslide. A portion of the surrounding forest was submerged, and has since become regionally famous for its underwater trees. The coolest pictures, by far, are from the guys who went ice diving in the middle of winter.
posted by shiu mai baby at 4:12 AM PST - 18 comments