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Lemurama - chances are you didn't know much about lemurs. I know certainly didn't. Learn lemur lore and more in this fascinating look into the secret lives of these winsome critters. (flash alert! ~ via pya)
posted by madamjujujive at 9:20 PM PST - 14 comments

Are Omega-3 oils an effective treatment for Clinical Depression and Bipolar Disorder? This doctor thinks so and the data seems to support his theory. Several studies are going at this time. So why isn't it used more widely in treatment for mood disorders? Do doctors see it as junk science? Or is there another reason?
posted by echolalia67 at 6:02 PM PST - 26 comments

Avast there, me hearties, and listen to some tales of Pirate Utopias! Ar-Harr!!!
posted by carter at 5:19 PM PST - 2 comments

Gene Stories. "If your parents kept on having children, they’d have to visit the maternity hospital another million billion times to stand a chance of producing another child with your genes" (unless you're an identical twin of course).
posted by lola at 4:58 PM PST - 5 comments

So what's more scary than pirates? How about Mimes? Or '60s San Francisco Rock Bands? How about some guys that were BOTH? Ladies and gentlemen, a band that couldn't get a hit no matter how much Todd Rundgren tried to help... THE HELLO PEOPLE!!!
posted by wendell at 4:56 PM PST - 12 comments

How bananas grow. And other photography from Hong Kong.
posted by yoga at 4:22 PM PST - 7 comments

Everything you'd need to know about American Television (almost), including why certain episodes in a season suddenly feature a really exciting plotline, a crossover with another show or a movie star and why that period is called sweeps. Comforting to know that it isn't just in the UK that no one is watching TV on a Saturday night. [via tvtattle]
posted by feelinglistless at 4:07 PM PST - 6 comments

Tell me, maties... Who was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe? Who stole more treasure than he could carry from the Spanish pig-dogs? Aye, the most famous pirate of all, Sir Francis Drake! Some say he even invaded British Colombia with the world's first steam-powered ship...
posted by kaibutsu at 3:03 PM PST - 6 comments

The Late Graham Chapman and the curse of Yellowbeard. Yar, don't be making fun of a pirate captain, even a fictional one. The curse of the film eventually claimed the lives of actors Graham Chapman, Madeline Kahn, Peter Cook, James Mason, Spike Milligan and Marty Feldman - the only one of them who died while filming the actual movie. Harry Nilsson wrote an unused ditty for the flick and soon visited Davy Jones' locker. It didn't exactly do wonders for the careers of Cheech and Chong or Martin Hewitt, who played Yellowbeard's son. Watch it and feel like you too have been cursed. (More Inside, Yar!)
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:41 PM PST - 22 comments

Human chess on a city-block scale. Giant chess games, played by international masters, using humans as pieces and city blocks as the board squares. Another game is in the works for New York next year, and the organizer is preparing to hold a similar game in San Francisco next month. Plus, bonus stories from the front line: "Black Queen's Bishop gets call on cell phone, ordering him to move South. We note that the Black Queen has apparently moved from her position at c7. We appear to be on the attack! I eagerly await my own orders to move."
posted by majcher at 2:36 PM PST - 14 comments

In a British Parliamentary by-election yesterday, there was a surprise upset. It had little to do with the candidacy, however, of Alan Howling Lord Hope (59 crucial votes), current leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party. The Party was founded by the very late Lord Sutch, whose current political activity is unknown. Besides the current California circus, we yanks haven't had a good "hampaign" since this man (we're overdue).
posted by moonbird at 1:59 PM PST - 4 comments

Just think of it as the world's biggest colonic. Hurricanes: Death, destruction and good for the environment? From the WaPo. "A hurricane can dump five to 15 inches of fresh water on a place that desperately needs it, replenishing the aquifer, Marks says. It can also clean out clogged-up and polluted bodies of water. "It flushes out all the garbage," he says. "It cleans out the plumbing, so to speak."
posted by beatnik808 at 1:57 PM PST - 5 comments

Sail ho! "In the spring of 1788, the original Lady Washington sailed into the northwest waters, becoming the first American vessel to make landfall on the west coast of what would one day become the United States...Launched in 1989, the Lady Washington is a full-scale replica of the first American vessel to explore the Pacific Northwest Coast." Any tall ships in your local area? Now I'm in the mood for some Barrett's Privateers or Canadee-I-O .
posted by OneSmartMonkey at 1:50 PM PST - 2 comments

"Never mind manoeuvres, always go straight at 'em!" Such was the Advice of Lord Nelson to Jack Aubrey. Today seems a good day to suggest the works of Patrick O'Brian before the Russell Crowe film potentially soils his good name. Aubrey is a captain of the Royal Navy and "the particular friend" of Stephen Maturin, naturalist, surgeon, spy. Those starting the 20 volume series may need a dictionary. Given the day, I should mention the duo did sail under a Letter of Marque when times were tough. More Inside
posted by yerfatma at 1:25 PM PST - 11 comments

My vote for best sentence of the year: "I did not have financial relations with Halliburton." Though I would have preferred the wording "that company" to Halliburton.
posted by coolgeek at 1:12 PM PST - 26 comments

Avast ye scurvy dogs! Perhaps ye'll be needing a glossary to get you by on this fine Day o' the talkin' o pirates. Perhaps you'll be wanting to know about Wee Jim Hawkins. Mayhap you're looking for something to fly up the mizzenmast or else something to hang on that lanky plank of yours. Or perhaps you'd like something saltier, by way of bad anime. [Arr, Safe for the poop deck]
posted by Ogre Lawless at 1:06 PM PST - 1 comments

Avast matey, turn ye old computer into a Pirate Radio Station. And if you're looking for pirate radio, don't forget to check the Pirate Radio Logs DataBase
posted by Outlawyr at 12:47 PM PST - 1 comments

Eyes Hurt? Wavy,Strained.Stressed get some Sun!
posted by Niahmas at 12:24 PM PST - 5 comments

Treasure hoarding bastards to the starboard bow, Mr. Christian! While they laid off millions and millions of workers, and starting moving jobs to offshore providers, the rich got richer. According to the new The Forbes 400, the aggregate net worth of the nation's wealthiest 400 citizens leapt 10% in the past year, to $955 billion. Meanwhile, minimum wage hasn't been raised since 1997.
posted by dejah420 at 12:15 PM PST - 72 comments

The Gooberstory... an award-winning Flash mini-epic, cute/gorgeous/moving in a Lion King sorta way. Free up a few quiet minutes to enjoy the whole thing, both sight and sound. Also mirrored here. (Found at The Presurfer.)
posted by Tubes at 11:40 AM PST - 7 comments

"The first time I met June was backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, and I got on my knees and told her that I was going to marry her some day. We were both married to someone else at the time. Ring of Fire - June wrote that song for me, because that's the way our love affair was. We fell madly in love and worked together all the time." The Guardian's got Johnny Cash's final interview.
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:02 AM PST - 10 comments

Spasmodica There have been some unusual homemade characters popping up, but I thought the names and descriptions for these were unusually clever. For example: Chestaire, who "secretly wishes he had more hair (on his head)." Or Jacques Heepoe ("the 's' is silent") the hippo who is "an avid tonette player".

Hey, Kelly Osborne owns one. And if you're out of work like me, the creator is open to swaps. Sweet.
posted by sparky at 9:09 AM PST - 9 comments

Arrr, snuggled contraband! What truth be there in these pirate legends? They be misheard, says I.
posted by arto at 8:58 AM PST - 5 comments

E.T. and God. Physicist Paul Davies explores the question of what impact the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe would have on religion on Earth.
posted by homunculus at 8:52 AM PST - 37 comments

Mitsi Kato's fifth-grade class at Roosevelt Elementary in San Leandro listened to Radiohead and drew pictures of what the music suggested to them.
posted by Atom12 at 7:53 AM PST - 30 comments

A memorial service was held today for Anna Lindh, the Swedish foreign minister that was murdered last week. The swedish police have arrested a suspect. The man, a neo-nazi, was filmed on video, moments before the murder.

The service was broadcast live on television in Denmark Finland, Norway and Sweden.

An odd twist in the story is that the man had met crown princess Madeleine in a bar and that they hang out in the same social circles in Stockholm (last link in swedish).
posted by hoskala at 7:47 AM PST - 17 comments

Slim Dusty - Australian country music icon - passes on. You know him - "There's nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear, than to stand in the bar of the pub with no beer."
posted by GrahamVM at 6:30 AM PST - 4 comments

Monopoly Stats. Now you can play the odds [via boingboing.net]
posted by srboisvert at 6:02 AM PST - 11 comments

Avast, ye scurvy dogs, wi' a good wind, we'll have naught to do but sing 'til we strike land again!
posted by headspace at 5:59 AM PST - 4 comments

Hey man to you too. I am not the Tony Howks that skates. In fact I am not even Tony Howks. Such is the extent of your error.
posted by Aaorn at 5:23 AM PST - 44 comments

Today is the 30th anniversary of the death of Gram Parsons (famous, of course, for the corpse's subsequent adventures). Read a long bio starting here, a small interview, or page through one of his notebooks and the guestbook that sits in his last hotel room.
posted by transient at 4:55 AM PST - 17 comments

Purple carrots are to be sold by a UK supermarket. But it's orange carrots that are the gimmick. Most wild carrots are purple or white. Orange carrots were created by patriotic 16th Century Dutch farmers from a mutant variety, to match their national colour.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 4:39 AM PST - 17 comments

Arr: Swashbuckler's Cove! What truth be there in pirate legends, me hearties? Ha-Harr! Know ye of pirate lassies? Recall ye the bygone days of offshore pirate radio? Should we be a-thanking the Vikings? Arr!
posted by nthdegx at 1:35 AM PST - 14 comments

It's talk like a pirate day all the world over, even for kids.
posted by mathowie at 12:03 AM PST - 71 comments