Let's take a moment to consider that humblest of American musical instruments, the cigar box guitar. Many of the most important names in American guitar artistry got their start on the unprepossessing little instrument. And let's not forget its cousin, the cookie tin banjo. By the time you've heard some of those boxy tones you might just want to join the growing legions of players and make one of your own. Not the DIY type? There are lots of folks out there who'll make one for you. And friends, don't forget to pay a visit to the National Cigar Box Guitar Museum, and tell 'em flapjax sent'cha! In closing, if you've got a big stack of cigar boxes but none of this guitar stuff piques your interest, you can always try this.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 1:05 AM on April 30, 2007 (30 comments)

Is it a wok?! An UFO?! No, it's The Hang Drum! With its distinct serene sound, Hang, as it's also called ("Hand" in Swiss German), was created in 2000 in Switzerland by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer after years of research. It's a versatile instrument that can be customized to produce many different musical scales. Want one yourself? Unfortunately, only a few are custom-made each year by Rohner and Schärer. More Hang music? Listen to the Hang radio station. More: videos | music | known artists | a beautiful Hang used by musician Alan Tower
posted to MetaFilter by Foci for Analysis at 5:01 PM on April 29, 2007 (28 comments)

Orion Magazine hosts a two-part essay on the environmentalism movement's attempts to fit within free market capitalism, and the problems therein. Part one, The Idols of Environmentalism, focuses on the cross purposes of capitalism and environmentalism, and the apparent impossibility of the two working together. In part two, The Ecology of Work, the focus is on the human impact of the work and consumption culture.
posted to MetaFilter by knave at 12:48 PM on April 29, 2007 (27 comments)

Being the adventures and observations of a field naturalist and an animal photographer - An utterly charming picture of life in Scotland's Outer Hebrides in 1896.

St Kilda - "Many theories have been advanced as to the origin of the inhabitants of this lonely rock, and a curious tradition exists as to its acquisition by members of the outside world. The inhabitants of Harris and Uist agreed to make it the prize for a boat race, and accordingly set out to row across the intervening waste of waters. So equally matched were the crews in regard to pluck and endurance that they arrived at St Kilda almost at the same moment. The Uist men, however, led by a few strokes, and hopes of winning ran high amongst them when Colla MacLeod, the chief of the Harris gang, chopped his left hand off and flung it ashore over the heads of his competitors, and secured St Kilda and its satellites to himself and his descendants for all time."

posted to MetaFilter by tellurian at 11:02 PM on April 29, 2007 (7 comments)

Milestones in graphics, maps, and visualizations. An incredible site for anyone interested in the history of visualization of data. See the first town map from 6200 BCE. Take a look at some of the most important graphics through history, including the London cholera map and the diagrams that made Florence Nightingale's case, as well as recent examples of some of the worst. Also check out the fascinating history of timelines, or Cabinet magazine's beautifully illustrated Timeline of Timelines.
posted to MetaFilter by blahblahblah at 10:20 PM on April 24, 2007 (13 comments)

shortwavemusic An audio blog of music and noise (and musical noise) found on the shortwave band.
posted to MetaFilter by carter at 12:47 PM on April 25, 2007 (22 comments)

The Tanner Lectures on Human Values are all online for you to peruse. The library consists of around 180 full text PDFs by a wide variety of authors -- Christine Korsgaard, Antonin Scalia, Jared Diamond, John Rawls, Richard Dawkins, Frans de Waal E.O. Wilson, Francis Fukuyama and the previously mentioned Elaine Scarry among them. Lots of interesting reading to be... read. Navigation is to the left. The collection is sorted alphabetically by author.
posted to MetaFilter by cog_nate at 2:57 PM on April 25, 2007 (12 comments)

Back in the mid-nineties, before broadband took hold, the CD ROM was drawing considerable interest from publishers, musicians and other artists. Notable (for contrasting reasons): Laurie Anderson's Puppet Motel, The Residents' Freak Show, Peter Gabriel's Xplora, The Voyager Company. Launch, Media Band, Headcandy.
posted to MetaFilter by davebush at 6:19 PM on April 25, 2007 (22 comments)

The new 'Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean' site incorporates material from 14 countries through 18 exhibition sites that explore the the cultural and artistic heritage of Islamic dynasties spanning 1200 years. [via].
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 11:27 PM on April 25, 2007 (14 comments)

MBAs Without Borders - the Médecins Sans Frontières of the business world. [via the slightly alarming Springwise]
posted to MetaFilter by patricio at 2:13 AM on April 26, 2007 (17 comments)

For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Justice Department political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates, according to former department lawyers and a review of written records.
posted to MetaFilter by Pope Guilty at 6:58 AM on April 26, 2007 (153 comments)

I stumbled across this incredible photograph and discovered Dar Robinson. One of his first professional stunts was jumping 100 feet into the ocean for Papillon. He jumped from one plane and into another in free fall over the Mojave desert. He jumped 1200 feet attached to only an 1/8-inch cable from Toronto's CN Tower. He set the world record (one of the 20+ he ultimately held) for free fall from a helicopter (music warning) in 1979. His unique falling stunts (1:56 & 2:36 in, Charles Durning in a wig & Hawaiian shirt warning) used a decelerator instead of air bags which allowed for camera angles that showed the ground, unique for pre-cgi days. He never broke a bone in his body during his 19-year career, making his untimely death from a non-stunt motorcyle accident on location all the more ironic, although lack of adequate medical services contributed (scroll down to filming hazards). Commemorated with a tv documentary and given an honorary Oscar in 1995, there is surprisingly little on the internet about him or his work.
posted to MetaFilter by ambulance blues at 9:13 AM on April 26, 2007 (16 comments)

"The story of how high officials misled the country has been told. But they couldn't have done it on their own; they needed a compliant press, to pass on their propaganda as news and cheer them on." Bill Moyers returned to PBS last night with this documentary (transcript) examining the mainstream media's role in the run-up to the US-led invasion of Iraq.
posted to MetaFilter by ibmcginty at 9:50 AM on April 26, 2007 (56 comments)

Getting around underground in NYC is no longer only for people who already know how to get around underground in NYC. Graphic Designer Eric Jabbour has been spending his free time obsessively redesigning MTA transit maps. And the results are striking. Non-New Yorkers will undoubtedly be able to figure out what's what. Cleaner lines and neighborhood boundaries are just a few features. Also, one can clearly see and understand transfer points and more street names.
posted to MetaFilter by sneakin at 2:07 PM on April 26, 2007 (90 comments)

Classic Short Stories — "Fewer and fewer people these days read short stories. This is unfortunate—so few will ever experience the joy that reading such fine work can give. The goal of this site is to give a nice cross section of short stories in the hope that these short stories will excite these people into rediscovering this excellent source of entertainment." Authors represented include Saki, Edith Wharton, O. Henry, Guy de Maupassant, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, Gabriel García Marquez, H. G. Wells, Roald Dahl, Anton Chekhov, Charles Dickens, William Carlos Williams and Katherine Mansfield.
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 5:10 PM on April 26, 2007 (26 comments)

The stupa (aka the chorten or the pagoda) is Buddhism's universal piece of symbolic architecture. Borobodur in Java is probably the most famous, while Burma's Shwedagon Pagoda is the largest, and the Kyaik-htiyo Pagoda on the Golden Rock may be the most precarious. They're common across the Himalayas, and sometimes hidden in caves.
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 11:15 PM on April 26, 2007 (19 comments)

Floyd Collins was a caver who became trapped in Sand Cave on January 30th, 1925 50m from the entrance by a 26 1/2 pound rock. He was found and provided with food and media attention until February 4 when a further collapse cut him off, leading to frantic tunneling attempts, but he was found dead on the 17th of February.
His body was recovered some time later, and displayed in a pay per view coffin. After his leg was stolen his coffin was removed from public display and in 1989 he received another burial under a tombstone reading "Greatest Cave Explorer Ever Known"
posted to MetaFilter by scodger at 2:55 AM on April 27, 2007 (28 comments)

"Of 10 governments worldwide implicated in the recruitment or use of children as soldiers, nine receive US military assistance."
posted to MetaFilter by chunking express at 11:22 AM on April 27, 2007 (23 comments)

"I felt Islam was so black and white and there were no grey areas. These Muslim kids, who are punks, they are in these grey areas." ~ Michael Muhammed Knight.

Behold Taqwacore: a new movement of Islam-influenced punk rock which has its origins in the pages of a controversial novel.
posted to MetaFilter by moonbird at 9:26 AM on April 28, 2007 (28 comments)

Paleo-Future: A look into the future that never was. More recent predictions include the future according to AT&T, Apple's Knowledge Navigator and Bill Gates on the Future of Police Work.
posted to MetaFilter by phaedon at 11:24 AM on April 28, 2007 (22 comments)

"Someone in a Tree" -- an incedibly rare video from the original, 1976 production of "Pacific Overtures." I grew up listening to an L.P. of these same people perform this same song, but I've never before seen them perform it. I grew up in Southern Indiana, so actually seeing a Broadway show was out of the question. But I loved this song, and -- years later -- I read that it was Stephen Sondheim's favorite of all the songs he ever wrote. Today, I found this video on YouTube and it was like finally seeing someone after being blind for years. I still have chills running up and down my spine. Also: Sondheim forum, online journal, and various gems (and bombs) on youtube -- including the man himself teaching a master class and this 12-year-old's spirited performance!
posted to MetaFilter by grumblebee at 1:33 PM on April 28, 2007 (14 comments)