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For 133 years, over half its citizens remained disenfranchised, merely because of an accident of their birth. The Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause did not grant them rights. But ninety years ago yesterday -- within living memory --, a minority majority finally gained its rights.
posted by orthogonality at 11:48 PM PST - 52 comments

Le blog de VelosVintage is a gorgeous French blog chock full of detailed photographs and history of beautiful vintage racing bicycles from older to newer.
posted by loquacious at 11:30 PM PST - 10 comments

Let's take a walk through the Google graveyard.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:58 PM PST - 45 comments

Japanese Ice Cream Robot (Warning: opera music in videos done circus style.)
posted by LeLiLo at 9:47 PM PST - 11 comments

How to avoid visiting any Stephens Group publications even by accident, if you use FireFox. The Stephens Group (AKA Righthaven) has been suing bloggers who link to and quote any of their publications' web sites. (Such as.) So now there's a FireFox plugin you can use to make sure you don't visit any of them. Use it in good health.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:54 PM PST - 32 comments

After nearly a decade in dark blue, the entertainment review aggregator site Metacritic.com launched its first major redesign last week, abandoning its old data- and list-heavy format for graphics, features and a more professional white background. The site invited users to comment on the changes on its blog, where they are being almost universally panned. [more inside]
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 7:56 PM PST - 66 comments

This is CTRL+W33D it is a gay weirdness tumblr blog. It is NSFW.
posted by The Whelk at 7:34 PM PST - 40 comments

Scottish researchers have developed what they call a “super” biofuel using by-products of whiskey production. Given the enormity of Scotland’s £4 billion ($6 billion) whiskey industry, scientists say there is the potential for whiskey biofuel to emerge as a significant source of fuel for cars and even airplanes.
posted by stbalbach at 6:36 PM PST - 40 comments

Road to the Stars (Doroga k Zvezdam, 1958) was a remarkable Soviet documentary about the future of space exploration, directed by the "Godfather of Star Wars" and still admired for its impressive miniature effects. Watch the entire film.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 5:30 PM PST - 7 comments

Marcel is a friendly young shell with pink sneakers A very cute stop-motion short by filmmaker Dean Fleischer-Camp. Via The Daily Wh.at
posted by Morrigan at 5:14 PM PST - 8 comments

the unsettling truth about life (slyt), via trey parker and matt stone
posted by Avenger50 at 4:58 PM PST - 34 comments

Today, Mexico announced new, tighter tariffs on American goods, including restrictions on U.S. chewing gum. Some say it's because of Teamsters, but the hatred of American chewing gum may harken back to a 19th century military coup. Exiled after numerous attempts to rule Mexico as a military dictator, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (yes, that General Santa Anna) spent part of his time in exile in -- of all places -- Staten Island. Santa Anna planned to fund his new army with a secret asset: he intended to sell chicle to the Americans. Although the General thought it had more uses, inventor Thomas Adams found the stuff fun to chew on. A few years later, Adams flavored his gum, inventing Black Jack Gum, the oldest continually-made chewing gum in the United States. Sadly, due to recent tariffs, General Santa Anna's army-building Black Jack chewing gum will now cost 20% more to export to Mexico.
posted by AzraelBrown at 4:53 PM PST - 16 comments

Joseph Gordon-Levitt covers an iconic song that does not belong to him. [via Katie West's NSFW tumblr]
posted by cgc373 at 4:02 PM PST - 70 comments

"This is a blog documenting a project that will span exactly one year, from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. On each of those 365 days, I will photograph or draw (and occasionally paint) one collection. Most of the collections are real and exist in my home or studio; those I will photograph. Some are imagined; those I will draw or (occasionally) paint."
posted by gman at 3:33 PM PST - 11 comments

As the "ground zero mosque" story approaches bipartisan consensus, thanks to unexpected statements by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (joining a growing opposition), several journalists trace the origins of how the Park 51 community center became(warning: CNN) a toxic subject. What they found was Pamela Geller, a blogger at Atlas Shrugs, who has some very interesting vlogs. You may previously know her from this cozy 2006 interview with Bush's infamous anti-UN UN ambassador John Bolton.
posted by mek at 2:27 PM PST - 444 comments

Twenty-somethings today don't quite fit the definition of adolescence or adulthood. This has thrown the human development gurus for a loop. [more inside]
posted by reenum at 1:51 PM PST - 136 comments

2010 Miss Universe national costumes. "Because there is nothing more cracktastic than the national costumes portion of the Miss Universe Pageant. It makes competitive figure skating costumes look understated and minimalist."
posted by arielmeadow at 1:46 PM PST - 102 comments

You know what's great about Hawaii? Its isolation can produce interesting forms of life, such as Eupethecia staurophragma i.e. carnivorous caterpillars! Don't believe it? Watch the video or view the photos (via boingboing).

Aww, are you giant carnivorous centipede lovers feeling neglected? No, problem Mefi has covered that.
posted by nomadicink at 1:35 PM PST - 21 comments

The Web is dead. Or maybe it isn't.
posted by Artw at 11:59 AM PST - 73 comments

"You know that moment when you are at your favourite restaurant and you bite into a juicy steak? Well, we create those steaks by sharing the wine with the cattle." So says the mission statement for Sezmu Meats. You've probably heard of Kobe beef which according to popular belief is fed one beer per day, massaged with sake daily, brushed to set their fur, and fed on grain fodder. "The cattle at Semu Meats are raised in the beautiful Okanagan Valley located in British Columbia, Canada. They enjoy a diet of grass until they reach a desirable size at which point their diet matures. Then they are fed a proprietary blend of grains with a cow sized glass of red BC wine every day until production. A cow sized glass is well over a bottle of wine! Then the beef is dry aged for 21 days to achieve maximum flavour." Check out their blog: Okanagan Daily Special to view some pictures that compare beef fed without wine and those with.
posted by Fizz at 11:50 AM PST - 47 comments

A Complete History of the Soviet Union through the eyes of a humble worker, arranged to the melody of Tetris by Pig With The Face Of A Boy. (previously)
posted by HumanComplex at 11:33 AM PST - 12 comments

Once as a youngin, I got mad lost trying to drive home in Philadelphia and thought I saw a horse looking at me from a knocked out window of what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. I wasn't hallucinating. [more inside]
posted by WeekendJen at 11:17 AM PST - 29 comments

'In 1951, there wasn't a more passionate rivalry in sports than the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. Giants fans hated Dodger fans. Dodger fans hated Giants fans. Fathers passed it on to sons. In August, the Giants were thirteen and a half games out of first place. That's insurmountable. Your season's over. But mnh-mnh. Giants come back from thirteen and a half games, fall into a first-place tie with, guess who -- the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now, they play a playoff game to see who gets to go to the World Series and the Dodgers have it won, right? Until a guy named Bobby Thomson hit what they called "the shot heard 'round the world."' -- Sports Night. Bobby Thomson, who hit the possibly the most famous home run in baseball history, has died at age 86. [more inside]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:24 AM PST - 43 comments

Tao Lin will have the scallops.
posted by TheWash at 10:19 AM PST - 40 comments

"For friends and fans of John Lurie, there’s a disturbing article in the current issue of The New Yorker. The title of the piece is Sleeping With Weapons (sadly, abstract only for non-subscribers) and it's a strange and sad tale. John has been in hiding for the past 18 months to avoid a former friend who is supposedly stalking him. In addition, he has a mysterious illness that kept him a virtual prisoner in his apartment for six years." [more inside]
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 10:02 AM PST - 61 comments

Fraktur mon amour: Ruud Linssen’s Book of War, Mortification and Love is a collection of “essays on voluntary suffering” that works as a specimen of the Fakir blackletter typeface issued by merry pranksters Underware. Bored already? Well, try this on for size: It’s “printed in the author’s blood.”
posted by joeclark at 9:59 AM PST - 12 comments

As weird themed tumblrs go, this one is a weird, themed tumblr. (Some images NSFW, all images Not Safe for Your Sanity)
posted by jacquilynne at 9:37 AM PST - 40 comments

One psychology professor, looking at the oversupply of PhDs for a very limited number of academic jobs, thinks that programs should simply stop admitting PhD students, and has decided not to add any others to her own lab.
posted by grouse at 8:09 AM PST - 120 comments

The surreal art of Alex Andreyev. The Invincible - Eden - Metronomicon - Kin-Dza-Dza [more inside]
posted by BeerFilter at 7:26 AM PST - 8 comments

Did you ever wonder how they come up with new Jelly Belly™ flavors? Me neither, but this article's actually kind of interesting. Did you know that Blueberry was invented for the 1981 Presidential Inauguration? Some people review the flavors (even the awful ones). Of course, you can mix the flavors (previously) - but some people take it so much further than others. And the inventor's story has been made into a film! [more inside]
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:42 AM PST - 35 comments

Who Killed Captain Alex - Uganda first action movie (Possible NSFW if offended by the most unrealistic cgi blood in the history of cinema)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:17 AM PST - 28 comments

After making his 1967 gangster film Branded to Kill, director Seijun Suzuki was fired from the Nikattsu studio and didn't find work again for ten years. He sued for wrongful termination, but was still blacklisted. Still, he has managed to amass an impressive body of work. [more inside]
posted by dortmunder at 4:00 AM PST - 12 comments

In a series of two essays, author Tim Wise (previously) discusses similarities and differences between how the American political right and left manifest racism. [more inside]
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 1:24 AM PST - 59 comments

Ray Kurzweil: Reverse-Engineering of Human Brain Likely by 2030. PZ Myers: Ray Kurzweil does not understand the brain.
posted by homunculus at 1:11 AM PST - 195 comments