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Two weeks after Alain Bashung's final live performance at the Victoires de la Musique awards, France mourns the passing of the renowned poet-rocker who died on 14 March of lung cancer. The rest of the world says 'Who?' (wiki). An appreciation from the Times correspondent Charles Bremner. Some clips from Bashung's career: Madame rêve, Gaby Oh! Gaby, Osez Josephine, Volontaire (with Noir Desir), Sur un trapeze, La nuit je mens, the epic Comme un lego.
posted by grounded at 12:39 PM - 6 comments

In the mood for a light realtime strategy game? Try Breaking the Tower. It's quite a bit like Settlers, but it's more streamlined.
Runs in the browser, requires java
posted by boo_radley at 12:28 PM - 27 comments

Remember that time you were asked about the coolest thing you ever saw on the internet and all that came to mind was (previously mentioned) The Website is Down? Well it appears there was a part2 released. I cannot be the only one happy to see this. [more inside]
posted by will wait 4 tanjents at 12:01 PM - 31 comments

Host Master and the Conquest of Humor. A point and click adventure about Tim Schafer gathering jokes for the GDC. Pixel hunting on a level not for the faint of heart.
posted by juv3nal at 11:32 AM - 30 comments

No Nonsense Self Defense is a website that features many great essays about violence and self-defense, including “High Risk Behavior And Knowing Where You Are,”“Are Martial Arts Self-Defense?,”“The Best Way to Get Attacked,”“The Economy And Stress Violence,”and “Who's Going To Rob You?." But my absolute favorite section is "Psychology and Survival." If I can convince you to read only one of these links, please let it be that last one.
posted by jason's_planet at 11:31 AM - 70 comments

A Quiet Revolution Grows in the Muslim World "In many of the scores of countries that are predominantly Muslim, the latest generation of activists is redefining society in novel ways. This new soft revolution is distinct from three earlier waves of change--the Islamic revival of the 1970s, the rise of extremism in the 1980s and the growth of Muslim political parties in the 1990s. Today's revolution is more vibrantly Islamic than ever. Yet it is also decidedly antijihadist and ambivalent about Islamist political parties. Culturally, it is deeply conservative, but its goal is to adapt to the 21st century. Politically, it rejects secularism and Westernization but craves changes compatible with modern global trends. The soft revolution is more about groping for identity and direction than expressing piety. The new revolutionaries are synthesizing Koranic values with the ways of life spawned by the Internet, satellite television and Facebook. For them, Islam, you might say, is the path to change rather than the goal itself."
posted by nooneyouknow at 11:15 AM - 24 comments

Over twelve years in the making, filmed on five continents, with a running time of over nine hours, easily the most terrifying flatware horror movie released this year. A Richard Gale film. [via]
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 10:22 AM - 38 comments

In the 1860’s, while the US was busy crushing its agrarian revolution, the Russians were busy expanding their empire towards Afghanistan and cleansing the Caucuses of those pesky Circassians, Chechens, and Tartars (to name a few) in a little known places like Abkhazia, the British were busy expanding their empire towards Afghanistan and extinguishing the last outposts of “mutineers,” and the Qing Dynasty of China was losing its grip on its Empire due to a cult of longhaired Christians lead by Jesus’s Chinese little brother. Alimkul, the de facto Khan of Khotan took advantage of the chaos by sending his greatest general, Yakub Beg, to Kashgar... [more inside]
posted by Pollomacho at 9:50 AM - 31 comments

Bad luck: some people seem to treat the subject rather lightly and consider themselves the unluckiest person ever if they lose a long game of Pokemon, or because of some rather benign school occurrences. Sometimes people fall victim to such unlikely and improbable events that they may be tempted to declare themselves cursed. But it would be hard to beat the hard-luck of a Japanese man named Tsutomu Yamaguchi. On August 6th, 1945, he was in Hiroshima on a business trip when the first A-bomb dropped on Japan exploded. He suffered some burns, but was considered well enough that he could leave Hiroshima the next day and go home. To Nagasaki.
posted by clevershark at 9:12 AM - 63 comments

Orton and Halliwell first came to the public attention not as writers but through an elaborate and extended prank played out at their local library, altering book covers and adding new blurbs to dust jackets. Incensed at the poor choice of books at Essex Road, their local library, they began stealing books. These were smuggled out, dust jackets altered, new blurbs written on inside flaps and then surreptitiously returned. [more inside]
posted by lucia__is__dada at 8:45 AM - 31 comments

After months of pre-eruptive activity, Alaska's Mount Redoubt has erupted 6 times since Sunday night. Telegraphing its eruption with massive shallow earthquake activity in the range of 26 earthquakes every 10 minutes, the volcano, located around 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, spewed an ash column 10km high, and is expected to continue erupting for weeks or months. The last time this massive volcano erupted in 1989 a commercial airliner was caught in the ash column, causing the engines to seize and the plane to lose two miles of altitude before the engines were restarted. That eruption, which lasted for 5 months, produced this spectacular photo. Follow this amazing event at the Alaska Volcano Observatory. [more inside]
posted by baphomet at 8:29 AM - 35 comments

What happens when payments to a surrogate mother from an infertile couple suddenly stop, through no fault of either party? [via]
posted by jaimev at 8:07 AM - 33 comments

Thor Steinar, a German fashion brand, has run into heavy criticism recently due to the fact that their clothing was adopted by a number of far-right Neo-Nazi types. Much of the debate revolves around the question of whether or not founder Axel Kopelke intentionally designed the company's original logo to attract this particular demographic, leading to protests and vandalism at retail stores selling the brand. But will skinheads feel the need to change brands now that the company has been bought out by a Dubai-based Arab investor?
posted by mannequito at 8:05 AM - 47 comments

From the very familiar to the "exotic", from Art Deco design to jazzy and snazzy mid-century graphics, from touting booze to touting tobacco, from "Vargas girl"-esque teasers to presidents of the United States, from 24-hour waffle restaurants to diaper services, from celebrations of the iconic cocktail to the... um, McDonald's Party House, the Matchbooks & Collectable Matchbooks Flickr group has it all.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:50 AM - 9 comments

The Highlights is an online arts journal. It consists of web-based projects and essays by artists. An example from the current issue, Master of None, where the author posits that a new model of work for artists can exist, one where the artist retains agency while also getting paid to do complementary work which is informed by the subtlety, strangeness, and sure-footed temperament of the artist’s persona. Two years of journals in the archives. [more inside]
posted by netbros at 7:03 AM - 9 comments

You've read the book, attended the seminars and pondered the accumulation of surplus value – now see the musical.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:29 AM - 11 comments

Election Fraud in Kentucky. "I think this is the first documented case of election fraud in the U.S. using electronic voting machines (there have been lots of documented cases of errors and voting problems, but this one involves actual maliciousness)."
posted by chunking express at 6:20 AM - 35 comments

The e-cigarette may be soon be outlawed with an imminent crackdown looming. But are e-cigs really that dangerous?
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:02 AM - 65 comments

Vintage Supermarket Photos
posted by srboisvert at 2:58 AM - 42 comments

EEEEeyyyyyaaaaahhahahahahaaaaaa!!!!!
posted by 5imian at 9:45 PM - 61 comments

Antarctica travel blog, done Big Picture style. Kevin Fox, formerly a designer at Yahoo and Google (who wrote a great response to Doug Bowman's design-by-metrics post) took a trip to Antarctica a couple months back and has been slowly updating a mini-site, exhaustively describing and showing photos from each part of each day he was down there. There are icebergs. There are penguins. There is swimming. There is drinking. It's all done in a wonderful large image Big Picture style that makes me drop everything whenever the feed updates. Start at the top and read the whole way through.
posted by mathowie at 8:47 PM - 23 comments

Under The Volcano, a Hypertextual & Illustrated Companion to the 1947 semi-autobiographical novel by English writer Malcolm Lowry.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:01 PM - 16 comments

Dead.AtYourAge.Com is a handy website that tells you about noteworthy people who died at exactly your age (or thereabouts). Like, in my case, Dimebag Darrell.
posted by jonmc at 7:56 PM - 91 comments

"The war has uprooted 4.7 million people from their homes. So where are they?" With the election of Obama and the economic crisis, the topic of Iraq has fallen by the wayside. As hard as things may be right now, Iraqis have been going through far worse for years now. If you're curious about what they have to say, hear them tell it in their own words. Iraqi Refugee Stories. [more inside]
posted by wander at 6:49 PM - 16 comments

March 19, 1979 - The United States House of Representatives goes live on television for the first time in history. Footage from the House floor aired on a network created by a consortium of American cable companies. The first member of Congress to speak? Al Gore (Sorry, only seems to be available on Real Player. Embedded video, in case weird link fails). [more inside]
posted by IvoShandor at 6:42 PM - 17 comments

In the summer of 2007, artist and medical student Satre Stuelke started the Radiology Art project. Dedicated to the deeper visualization of various objects that hold unique cultural importance in modern society, this project intends to plant a seed of scientific creativity in the minds of all those inclined to participate.
posted by Rinku at 6:01 PM - 8 comments

China proposes replacing the dollar as the world's standard currency. [more inside]
posted by ornate insect at 6:01 PM - 63 comments

Writing, seemingly, a book a day since his birth in 1946, Alan Dean Foster, 2008 Grand Master of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, still finds a great deal of time for travel. Come and share his journeying. [more inside]
posted by turgid dahlia at 4:37 PM - 55 comments

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage premiered on PBS on September 28, 1980. (Previously). With Carl Sagan as guide, on a "cosmic journey across space and time," on a "spaceship of the imagination," few shows inspired as many people to investigate science, many of whom went on to be scientists. [more inside]
posted by waitingtoderail at 3:53 PM - 38 comments

Clark Little takes amazing photos of waves. See more at his website.
posted by various at 1:58 PM - 42 comments

"Ready, aim ... fail, why setting goals can backfire."
posted by doobiedoo at 12:41 PM - 56 comments

Today marks the launch of the Tata Nano. Some see this car as the next Ipod. Some have grave environmental concerns. (previously)
posted by Xurando at 11:18 AM - 60 comments

1980s pop music hasbeen + swing big band = OMIGOD NO MAKE IT STOP.
posted by miss lynnster at 11:15 AM - 102 comments

Who will be our era's Duncan Fletcher? Fed up with widespread financial sector double-dealing, profiteering and opportunism in the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression, a soft-spoken, conservative Democrat senator from Jacksonville, Florida stepped up to play an instrumental role in shaping post-Depression era financial policies. [more inside]
posted by saulgoodman at 10:56 AM - 31 comments

Author Dennis Cooper discusses the secret passage in practical terms. With practical examples for the handyman and notable buildings featuring secret passages in the United States, such as Doug Carlston's Broderbund Manor.
posted by boo_radley at 10:51 AM - 25 comments

Everything you ever wanted to read about left-wing political theory but were afraid to look up. [more inside]
posted by cthuljew at 8:55 AM - 67 comments

"Infandous street corner Cromwell" George Galloway MP banned from entering Canada. Justified on 'National Security' grounds, specifically Section 34(1) of the Immigration Act. George Galloway reacts to Canadian Immigraton Spokesman Alykhan Velshi on Channel 4. Velshi suggests this is 'not a freedom of speech issue' but in this day and age of technology is the notion of banning individuals crossing geographical borders due to opinions held absurd. It would seem the Canadian Government think not. Intellectual Protectionism rears its head and the marmite of international politics basks in the publicity. Domestic navel gazing ensues.
posted by numberstation at 6:41 AM - 96 comments

The US Attorney's office has submitted email correspondence between Bernie Madoff and his victims, some of whom are more deserving than others. Via
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 6:07 AM - 60 comments

Stories that Fly is a citizen media project that features a growing collection of digital stories about general aviation. The stories are contributed by student journalists, aviators, and interested community members and cover regional airports, events, and people in the Ohio aviation community.
posted by netbros at 4:40 AM - 3 comments

Rethink Afghanistan: Robert Greenwald is releasing his latest documentary online. Parts one and two are already available.
posted by anotherpanacea at 4:16 AM - 8 comments

Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Rouen in France and gave a speech in which he describes, as an aspiring young writer in Turkey in the 70's, the comfort and guidance he got from a certain letter written from Istanbul by Flaubert. [more inside]
posted by lucia__is__dada at 2:40 AM - 5 comments

Despite The Republican Talking Points, There's A Difference Between Obama And Marx: One Of Them's Not A Socialist. [Via]
posted by homunculus at 9:12 PM - 154 comments

You know that guitar sound at the start of "Touch Me I'm Sick"? Or when Keith plays the big riff in "Satisfaction"? That's fuzz. I love fuzz, and I was very happy to stumble across this fine documentary about fuzz pedals and their makers. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 7, Part 8 Should be enough there to sustain your interest for a while... (Previously...)
posted by awfurby at 8:38 PM - 28 comments

David Cronenburg's Alien: novelisation by JG Ballard. Starsky and Hutch: novelisation by JG Ballard.
posted by WPW at 8:10 PM - 23 comments

Nicholas Hughes has taken his own life. A marine biologist specializing in Alaskan stream fish, he has been preceded in death by his mother, Sylvia and his father, Ted.
posted by felix betachat at 7:07 PM - 49 comments

First Person Shooters don't always have to cost you money. Free Doom and Starsiege: Tribes are two of the most well known free FPS around, but inside this post is a list of 32 more for you to checkout, download legally for free and enjoy. [more inside]
posted by Effigy2000 at 6:53 PM - 51 comments

Chartres: Cathedral of Notre-Dame offers photographs, diagrams, antique prints, and maps of Chartres Cathedral. And that's not the only virtual Chartres site: there's a tour courtesy of San Jose SU and a more elaborate tour (requires Quicktime) offered by the Art History department at Ithaca College. Among other things, Great Buildings features some 3D models (additional, albeit free, software required to view). Speaking of virtual experiences, you can walk the Chartres labyrinth (see here for a more technical description). And don't forget video, including this National Geographic short on the cathedral's architecture; you can also listen to the bells.
posted by thomas j wise at 4:59 PM - 9 comments

"The general public is not aware of how doomed black dogs are when they are brought to a pound.” Does Does black dog bias influence rescuers when it comes to adoption? Empirical evidence doesn't exist, but rescue groups insist that it's a real concern. Now some groups, including Black Pearl Dogs and Start Seeing Black Dogs are raising awareness and providing free PR and Marketing materials to rescue organizations in an attempt to decrease time spent in shelters and euthanasia rates for black dogs.
posted by Ufez Jones at 4:14 PM - 60 comments

According to Senior Harvard AIDS Prevention Researcher Dr. Edward Green, condoms not only are not helping to prevent the AIDS crisis, but are actually making the problem worse.
posted by Roach at 3:32 PM - 47 comments

Short recipe segments from Gordon Ramsay's "The F Word." Seabass with sorrel sauce::Black Bream on a bed of petite pois with baby onions and pancetta::Escalope of chicken with sautéed potatoes and red chard::Duck breast in gooseberry sauce::Lemon Sole en papillote::Seabass and pepper sauce:: Turkey with truffle butter::Monkfish with a mussels broth::Poached chicken in morel sauce::Pheasant with a smooth bread sauce::Stuffed saddle of lamb with apricot and cumin::Dover sole with shrimp butter::Smoked paprika chicken stroganoff::Brocolli Soup::Brill with a red wine sauce::Tagliatelle with rabbit fricassee::Eggs on Toast::Rib Eye Steak ::Pan Glazed Fillet of Beef::Rack of lamb:: Stuffed chicken legs with sausage meat and marsala sauce::Beef Wellington
posted by vronsky at 3:21 PM - 74 comments