September 13, 2014

Kutiman Returns

Hear "Give It Up", a beautiful new track from Kutiman's followup to "Thru You". Five years after the original Thru You project, Israeli producer Kutiman is teasing the release of a new collection of original tracks, painstakingly stitched together from unrelated YouTube videos. [more inside]
posted by Silky Slim at 11:31 PM PST - 59 comments

Standing around, chewing mouthfuls of cud, gazing at nothing.

Physically, intellectually and emotionally, cows are far more complex than we give them credit for.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 11:15 PM PST - 43 comments

Stable pluripotent stem cell production

"Scientists reset human stem cells to earliest developmental state" The paper, published in Cell, is available under a CC-3.0 license. [See: earlier Mefi post] [more inside]
posted by peacay at 7:05 PM PST - 18 comments

Poor Dan.

Ultra Street Fighter IV ultra combos without the cinematic camera (cf. with the cinematic camera).
posted by griphus at 3:49 PM PST - 21 comments

"'The family division is rooted in the same ground as fiction..."

Ian McEwan: the law versus religious belief. [The Guardian]
The conjoined twins who would die without medical intervention, a boy who refused blood transfusions on religious grounds…Ian McEwan on the stories from the family courts that inspired his latest novel.
[more inside]
posted by Fizz at 3:49 PM PST - 11 comments

Flying through an aurora, like going through a giant neon sign

European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst captured this photograph from the International Space Station and tweeted "Words can't describe how it feels flying through an #aurora. I wouldn't even know where to begin..." Not many can share his experience, but photographer Paul Williams captured an aurora while on a flight from London to New York (stills on Flickr). NASA's Science News has an article on Flying Through a Geomagnetic Storm, with information on how auroras are formed, and a bit more on what it's like to fly through them, with an accompanying video (previously).
posted by filthy light thief at 3:33 PM PST - 17 comments

"How to Keep Your Cat, c. 1470"

If you have a good cat and you don't want to lose it, you must rub its nose and four legs with butter for three days, and it will never leave the house. [more inside]
posted by Quietgal at 1:10 PM PST - 63 comments

"You realize that's illegal to say in a business meeting?"

According to Kathy Griffin, when she expressed interest in hosting The Late Late Show, she was told they were "not considering females at this time." This is especially ironic considering that the current Late Late Show host, Craig Ferguson, stated that he thought the next host should "unquestionably be a female." Even worse, there was some talk about David Letterman's Late Show hosting spot going to a woman after he stepped down, but no dice. [more inside]
posted by Sara C. at 1:03 PM PST - 112 comments

"This reduces the likelihood for irreparable injury...."

An appeals panel of the Seventh Circuit ruled yesterday (pdf) that Wisconsin may immediately implement a photo ID law, for the November 4th election. [more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:52 AM PST - 67 comments

It's more than burning coal.

1944 Locomotive firing course. Traffic demands during World War II taxed American railroads to their capacity. Orders for new steam locomotives kept the builders busy. Along with the need for more locomotives came the need for men trained to operate them. Responding to this situation, the Education Department of the State of New York, through its State University system and the Bureau of Industrial and Technical Education, published a Suggested Unit Course in Locomotive Firing. The course was prepared by curriculum writers at Seneca Vocational High School in Buffalo, and was issued from Albany in 1944.
posted by pjern at 11:36 AM PST - 7 comments

Grease me up, woman!

In the somewhat tumultuous debate over the Scottish independence (previously), and with less than a week before the historic vote, a new voice has risen out of the fray.
posted by Evilspork at 10:15 AM PST - 146 comments

Michael Winslow is Led Zeppelin

Michael Winslow does Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." The original here for comparison. Bonus behind the scenes footage. [more inside]
posted by SpacemanStix at 9:23 AM PST - 17 comments

Of certain people, by certain people, for certain people

The class war in American politics is over. The rich won. [more inside]
posted by GrammarMoses at 7:58 AM PST - 129 comments

If I were king for a day, I would ban open-plan offices

"There is nowhere to have a quiet chat – if a channel controller wants to discuss a commission, they must first book time in a glass-walled meeting room named after some long-gone BBC character – the Del Boy or Wilfred Pickles suite or something. The Mr Pastry Suite or the Basil Fawlty Snack Bar would have been no more likely to produce creative ideas, but at least it might have been fun getting the summons." (SLGuardian)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:32 AM PST - 62 comments

Radical Linguistics in an Age of Extinction

Modern linguistics is founded on a radical premise: the equality of all languages. “All languages have equal expressive power as communication systems,” writes Steven Pinker. “Every grammar is equally complex and logical and capable of producing an infinite set of sentences to express any thought one might wish to express,” says a recent textbook. … Where native speakers are concerned, no language, dialect, or accent can meaningfully be described as primitive, broken, or inferior.
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:29 AM PST - 24 comments

Ghostbusting Lovecraft

Ghostbusters is the best comedy ever made about the limits of the Lovecraftian worldview. By Max Gladstone.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:41 AM PST - 98 comments

If you can dream it, you can do it. But you have to be able to dream it.

81 year-old Charlie goes to Burning Man. (NSFW)
posted by loquacious at 1:18 AM PST - 15 comments

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