August 21, 2009

One Man (not) Banned

Jazz phenom/guitarist Pat Metheny is re-inventing the Orchestrion, using a team of engineers and all the gizmos they can hook together, to create the ultimate one-man-live-performance-band. [more inside]
posted by paulsc at 10:49 PM PST - 16 comments

A conspiracy of theorists

Several Twitter-based games were launched during the world's first Literary Twestival: Flash Fiction, Collective Nouns, Pass the Plot, and Project Twutenberg (via).
posted by Mr. Palomar at 8:51 PM PST - 20 comments

Detonography

Detonography is a technique created by Evelyn Rosenberg for making metal sculpture. Detonographs are created by detonating a sheet of plastic explosive over a sandwich of a carved image and a metal plate, forcing the metal plate onto the carved image. [Via]
posted by homunculus at 8:31 PM PST - 30 comments

Go topless... and let me tell you about some UFOs

The second annual National Go Topless Protest Day will be held this Sunday, August 23, in various American cities. It happens to be run by Raelians, members of a UFO religion founded by Rael, a former French sports-car journalist and test driver born Claude Vorilhon. (Coverage of last year's protest in New York City, which is, as one might suspect, NSFW.) Though the current "Go Topless!" site talks more about women's rights than Raelism, in 2004, Raelian women were marching topless not for the legalization of bare breastedness, but against "the repressive Myth of God." Don't remember the Raelians? This is just the most recent stunt by the publicity-hungry group that capitalizes on media-friendly controversy: in 2002, during the slow news week between Christmas and New Year's Day, they announced the creation of the first human clone, gaining what Rael estimated at over $500 million of free media coverage. In an interview, Rael unabashedly discusses his passion for publicity. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco at 5:21 PM PST - 63 comments

...stay tuned for "Amok Time".

Star Trek... the first 29 episodes. These are the findings of the website tor.com. Its several week mission: to watch every episode; to summarize, rate and analyze; to watch with fresh eyes what many geeks have watched before.
posted by Artw at 4:57 PM PST - 73 comments

This Hieronymous Bosch is heavy.

The Seven Deadly Sins by Dan Lydersen (on sale here [scroll down] with details and IDs of all references) is a modern homage to this work by Bosch. Bonus points if you identify the source of this post's title.
posted by yiftach at 4:54 PM PST - 15 comments

I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their fax machines, or why.

Cats for Clunkers? It had to be Michigan where the Humane Society is promoting its free cat adoptions like used car sales... That's right folks, Certified Pre-Owned Cats! Standard 4-paw Drive! 100,000 Purr Warranty! Made in Michigan and Better than New! But before you take that cat home, check out Catfax.org because nobody wants a lemonpuss. lol.
Found at Consumerist so it must be legit [more inside]
posted by wendell at 4:31 PM PST - 20 comments

Let me dust off my little grey cells!

Decades after it was written on the eve of World War II, a lost Poirot story by Agatha Christie has been found. Today it is published in the Daily Mail for the first time: The Capture Of Cerberus (scroll half way down the page). [more inside]
posted by lioness at 3:59 PM PST - 19 comments

Max Damage. Knockin' sh*t over and blowin' it up.

Celebrate your Friday with Max Damage, the little scamp.
posted by nevercalm at 3:39 PM PST - 8 comments

Prayer, deliberation, time, and more prayer. This was a long time coming.

Do you know what the Lutherans are doing this week? The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is talking about sex at their bi-annual assembly and they decided that blessings on gay marriage and the rosterering of leaders in same-gender relationships are A OK. [more inside]
posted by Stynxno at 3:24 PM PST - 111 comments

Trompe L'Oeil for Your Castle

While there are many ways to spruce up your home, I'm not sure making it look like you've got millions of dollars worth of gold in your garage is the best idea. A guarded portcullis would be more formidable, or maybe a jet.
posted by bbrown at 2:54 PM PST - 13 comments

Opera in the fifth dimension

In Hypermusic Prologue, physicist Lisa Randall re-imagines her extradimensional theories of the universe as opera, with a score by Hèctor Parra. Some more about this on YouTube (the last three are in french, but you can hear some of the music): Episode 1 (Randall speaks), Episode 2 (scenery), Episode 3 (the music), and Episode 4 (more scenery).
posted by twoleftfeet at 1:10 PM PST - 20 comments

Stormtroopers: might as well walk around naked, save for blinders and flip-flops

John Scalzi's Guide to the Most Epic FAILs in Star Wars Design.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:38 PM PST - 166 comments

Mustache Love

Cute Girls With Mustaches
posted by vronsky at 12:20 PM PST - 86 comments

Ink Links

Two tattoo artists who go far beyond butterflies and tribal arm bands. Ryan Mason crafts lush pieces ranging from the sacrilegious to the hilarious to the literary. Amanda Wachoub has expanded fine art to the tattoo realm with her delicate watercolor-like works and conceptual bloodlines. [more inside]
posted by Juliet Banana at 12:09 PM PST - 35 comments

Superstrong Baby Samurai Friday Flash Fun

Kinpira is a shockwave-game where you play a baby samurai out to rescue his mother. You run around a 3d landscape, all of which you can pick up and throw, once you grow strong enough to lift it. To start with you're picking up vases and other light items but soon enough you're lobbing houses around and eventually entire mountains. It's vaguely reminiscent of Mario 64 and Katamary Damacy.
posted by Kattullus at 12:06 PM PST - 26 comments

AVATAR we have a problem

Meanwhile in Hollywoodland, the trailer for James Cameron's much anticipated AVATAR debuted online yesterday and ... ooops! [more inside]
posted by philip-random at 9:53 AM PST - 190 comments

West Hollywood Side Story

The quintessential gangfight of the 80s. Vintage afterschool specials, like wine, only get better with age.
On the day he enters Kennedy High in Manhattan wearing a patch over one eye, sixteen-year-old Horace Hobart is urged to join what he believes is the toughest gang at school.
Now you can enjoy the entire run of the 1985 CBS Schoolbreak Special, Ace Hits the Big Time. (1 2 3 4 5)
It's very likely the same minds were responsible for this scene.
posted by Christ, what an asshole at 9:31 AM PST - 38 comments

Undersea bomber

You Dropped A Bomb On Me, Wormy
posted by tr33hggr at 8:50 AM PST - 22 comments

Medieval Gastronomy

Medieval Gastronomy. Food, cooking and meals in the Middle Ages. [more inside]
posted by Ljubljana at 7:04 AM PST - 44 comments

Perfect is the enemy of good

Take three kids and a flute. Anne says the flute should be given to her because she is the only one who knows how to play it. Bob says the flute should be handed to him as he is so poor he has no toys to play with. Carla says the flute is hers because it is the fruit of her own labour. How do we decide between these three legitimate claims? [more inside]
posted by lucia__is__dada at 6:56 AM PST - 194 comments

Fashion backward

You'll have all eyes on you with Winkers! (SLYT)
posted by ssmith at 6:33 AM PST - 51 comments

Musical sorting algorithms

Musical sorting algorithms. [via]
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 6:17 AM PST - 23 comments

Science Fiction VS Scifi

Harlan Ellison tears up the debate and J. Michael Straczynski speaks up on the topic. Oh, yeah there is also Herb Solow as well and his wife Yvonne (WTF) speaking on the subject "Science Fiction" over "SciFi". None of them saw SyFy coming back in 1997, that's for sure! (SLYT) [more inside]
posted by GavinR at 3:34 AM PST - 136 comments

New Zealanders Vote for More Smacking

New Zealand voters want to smack their children. 1.4 million New Zealanders (87.6% of votes cast) have voted "No" to the question "Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?". Regardless of opinion, this seemingly innocent question has been steeped in controversy. Voters have been confused, ambivalent, and perhaps misunderstood the law. The Prime Minister indicated he would ignore the result, and even the referendum initiators (intent on legalising smacking for corrective purposes) are divided on what the result means, some wanting explicit rights to use wooden spoons. [more inside]
posted by pivotal at 2:52 AM PST - 97 comments

"Perhaps their criticism is that we dare to do math?" (Podcast)

Glenn Greenwald / Neil Barofsky

Hey! Can you tell us what they did with the money?

"Many banks were concerned about business-sensitive information and requested confidentiality of individual survey responses. Accordingly, pursuant to our legal obligations, SIGTARP is unable in this report to attribute any results or comments to a specific institution. However, SIGTARP is in the process of evaluating recipients’ claims of confidentiality and will provide copies of the individual responses that will include information provided by the banks to the maximum permitted by law. SIGTARP plans to post the responses, redacted as necessary, on its website within 30 days." [more inside]
posted by RoseyD at 2:48 AM PST - 21 comments

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