With a big red shoe, Bozo has kicked the bucket. Larry Harmon, AKA Bozo the clown, gone to heavenly syndication.
posted by longsleeves at 3:15 PM - 25 comments

In honor of the Fourth, I give you the 50 States and their Capitals, the U.S. Presidents, and in hopes for a better future, what the hell, all the Nations of the World. [more inside]
posted by Navelgazer at 3:03 PM - 10 comments

Montreal Graffiti/Street artist Roadsworth, who was arrested in 2005 and faced up to 250 000$ in fines, is back on the streets, this time with a permit and a commission. Interestingly, the title of the new piece (which stretches across multiple intersections on downtown Sainte-Catherine street) is "Défense d'Afficher", which means "No Postering". It seems as though he's commenting on the role of art and advertisement in public space, but maybe that's just my take. Thoughts? For a more in-depth discussion, read the Torontoist's article on graffiti), and for more examples, check out Vandalist, the same blog's photostream of T.O. street art, Streetsy, a great photoblog showing off various street art from around the world, and, of course, Flickr's STREETART pool.
posted by rssaddict at 12:34 PM - 9 comments

Seventy years ago today a world land speed record was set that has never been broken... on July 3, 1938 LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard reached the giddy speed of 126mph. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:04 PM - 9 comments

Putin on the Ritz [more inside]
posted by revmitcz at 11:40 AM - 25 comments

Who? Only one of the supreme German graphic artists of his time, that's all. Long an acknowledged influence among illustrators, animators and cartoonists, he is probably known primarily for a couple of Dover Books collection of his sketchbook art that were published back in the 60s and are now hard to find. [more inside]
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 11:21 AM - 9 comments

Internet in Africa is more than just Nigerian spam. There are honest African bloggers who fight corrupt government and police to go where mainstream journalists dare not. Compare their blogging experience with your own. Imagine the government calling you over the phone at night and questioning about a particular post you just wrote.
posted by Surfin' Bird at 11:13 AM - 12 comments

Some of us are into body art. Some are into customizing our laptops. This crazy bastich laser-etches his own skin. Yowza.
posted by adamms222 at 10:42 AM - 33 comments

Prospect/Foreign Policy release their list of the world's top public intellectuals(full list). Number 1? The Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen.

The rest of the top 10? The microfinancier Muhammad Yunus, the cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the writer Orhan Pamuk, the politician Aitzaz Ahsan, the evangelist Amr Khaled, the philosopher Abdolkarim Soroush, the philosopher Tariq Ramadan, the cultural theorist Mahmood Mamdani and activist Shirin Ebadi. Sense a theme? Yes, all Muslims.
This is a striking turnabout from the 2005 poll topped by Chomsky, Eco and Dawkins.
What happened? Prospect Magazine explains. The Turkish newspaper Zaman weighs in. The UK's Independent is outraged. Fethulah Gulen defends himself.
posted by vacapinta at 10:17 AM - 41 comments

Mexican and Latin Immmigrants as Superheroes [ via guanabee ]
posted by Stynxno at 9:17 AM - 33 comments

Bush Stimulates The Porn Industry With His Economic Package When President Bush announced his economic stimulus in January, he bragged that his package was “large enough to have an impact" and would “boost” the economy. It sure has led to “higher consumer spending”, but not where Bush had probably hoped. The adult pornography industry reports that has seen a huge uptick in business thanks to Bush’s package. According to a press release from the Adult Internet Market Research Company. A case of tax relief translating into a venti latte with full release?
posted by psmealey at 8:58 AM - 49 comments

This is utterly delightful: Tara Busch sings the first line from "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" backwards. Of course, you'll wanna check out how well she did it by watching it, um, forwards. Yep, she nailed it. I think I'm in love. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:01 AM - 87 comments

FOX News gets a little goofy with their copy of Photoshop and caricatures two columnists. Will the NYT respond? No, Times Culture Editor Sam Sifton says, "it is fighting with a pig, everyone gets dirty and the pig likes it." (Which is actually a response in and of itself, so I presume the pig-fighting's begun.)
posted by WCityMike at 7:58 AM - 76 comments

'Bad is good as a mating strategy' (NewScientist PDF | plain text). "Nice guys knew it, now two studies have confirmed it: bad boys get the most girls." Being slightly evil ensures a prolific sex life according to a survey of more than 35,000 people in 57 countries. (ABC News: Why Nice Guys Finish Last).
posted by stbalbach at 7:27 AM - 94 comments

Google has been ordered to turn over all of its electronic records of the videos watched by users on YouTube to Viacom. The 12 terabytes of data include records of every video watched by every user, including the user's login name (if any) and IP address. Google had complained that the disclosure would invade user's privacy, but this argument was blunted somewhat by Google's earlier statement that IP Addresses are not, in and of themselves, personally identifying information. Google was also ordered to turn over certain other information, including its video classification database schema, but was not ordered to turn over information regarding videos marked as private, its source code, or its advertising database schema.
posted by The Bellman at 6:59 AM - 126 comments

Web Designer Wall is the personal weblog of Nick La who is N.Design Studio. He talks about design ideas he has, design tutorials from Photoshop to CSS, etc., and trends in modern web design. (see previous)
posted by netbros at 4:29 AM - 6 comments

People have made some awesome animated videos for Ramones songs, and have uploaded them to Youtube for our viewing pleasure. I Don't Wanna Go To The Basement is probably my favorite. Commando comes in close second. Ramones as legos playing Spiderman wins on sheer novelty. The papercut animation in this video for Blitzkreig Bop is definitely worth a look. Finally, this snippet of the claymation Ramones playing Judy is a Punk is awesome, if painfully short. [more inside]
posted by Afroblanco at 9:36 PM - 13 comments

Phyta. Downloadable (windows, linux) interactive thing. (via PlayThisThing) [more inside]
posted by juv3nal at 9:19 PM - 10 comments

‘Even to this day the diary has a slight aroma of cocoa,’ says Steve Dickinson about a diary kept by his uncle Robert Dickinson while a prisoner at Servigliano, an Italian war camp, in the 1940s. The diary has a cover made of old cocoa tins (hence the smell) with a broadcast aerial design incorporating the title 'Servigliano Calling.' It begins with his capture by the Germans in November 1941, and finishes, about six months before his death, in September 1944. Via The Diary Junction blog.
posted by amyms at 8:54 PM - 13 comments

"He grew up in a ruthlessly discriminatory world -- a world in which segregation of the races was pervasive and taken for granted, where lynching was common, where the black man's inherent inferiority was proclaimed widely and wantonly. Thurgood Marshall had the capacity to imagine a radically different world, the imaginative capacity to believe that such a world was possible, the strength to sustain that image in the mind's eye and the heart's longing, and the courage and ability to make that imagined world real." Born July 2, 1908, died January 25, 1993. Had he lived, he would have been 100 years old today.
posted by alms at 8:52 PM - 15 comments

A website that updates on every 'Supermodels' current work (via joseph likes)
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:22 PM - 49 comments

Canada allows for legal abortions, thanks to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who yesterday received the Order of Canada. He was instrumental in the fight against the abortion provision in the Criminal Code of Canada; the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that said provision was unconstitutional, as it violated a woman's right under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to "security of person." Morgantaler served time in prison for his trouble but was eventually acquitted. That he received the Order of Canada has of course enraged anti-abortion groups, and has deeply annoyed some pundits.
posted by illiad at 4:16 PM - 110 comments

Two years since Massachusetts instituted major statewide healthcare reform, the statistics are coming in. 340,000 residents, roughly half the state's previously uninsured, are now insured. The state says that 95% of its population is now covered, based on Department of Revenue estimates. However, a large portion of them are enrolled through state-subsidized insurance programs, and those program's rate of enrollment have far outpaced estimates. This has led lawmakers to forsee a budget shortfall. Premiums and co-pays are going up, cigarette taxes have increased, and a cost control proposal is making its way through the legislature. Assessments have been all over the map.
posted by Weebot at 3:28 PM - 76 comments

A Philippe Starck designed Wind Turbine?
posted by Artw at 3:22 PM - 28 comments

Europa Film Treasures is a new window onto the film archivers of Europe, and "All genres are on the playbill! From comedy to science fiction, from westerns to animation, from erotic to ethnological movies..." take some time to explore the European side of carefully preserved film history.
posted by carsonb at 3:19 PM - 8 comments

After 80 years, a complete version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis has been discovered in Buenos Aires. [more inside]
posted by Nathaniel W at 2:27 PM - 77 comments

RoboMemo is a video game that can train the distraction out of children. [more inside]
posted by anotherpanacea at 2:13 PM - 22 comments

The Solar Bra really doesn't make sense if your undergarments are going to stay under. Adrienne So examines the kinetic angle. Or, maybe this is as simple as breathing.
posted by weston at 2:00 PM - 9 comments

Ingrid Betancourt has reportedly been rescued by the Colombian Army. The former presidential candidate had been held hostage since 2002 by the FARC. Ever since, an intense campaign for her release had mobilised, among others, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (not always very wisely). Recent pictures of her weren't particularly reassuring. Ultimately, it apppears that the repeated raids of the Colombian armed forces have been more successful in securing her release. Now, let's hope the other 700 hostages follow.
posted by Skeptic at 1:49 PM - 31 comments

This post about TV "firsts" got me to thinking about other first-time events not mentioned in the article. What was the first closed-captioned show? What was the first Pay-TV station? When did television sets start including a standard UHF dial?
posted by Oriole Adams at 11:14 AM - 14 comments

Mysterious faceless people have been attending prominent London events. Everyone seems to agree that this must be some viral marketing scheme, the most likely culprit being Group Lotus cars who have the facelesspeople.com url. The 'Faceless Ones' were also on Doctor Who forty years ago.
posted by Hollow at 11:03 AM - 73 comments

The Boys and the Subway A father's artistic account of his sons' love of the NYC subway system.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:52 AM - 34 comments

101 20-Minute Dishes for Inspired Picnics (NY Times link irritatingly spread across multiple pages) from Mark Bittman, who also gave us 101 20-minute appetizers and 101 10-minute meals.
posted by dersins at 9:42 AM - 11 comments

Owney the Postal Dog was the unofficial mascot of the U.S. postal service in the 1890s, riding the rails with the mails and accumulating an impressive collection of dog tags on a specially designed vest. He even made it as far as Japan, being issued a special postal class (Registered Dog Package) and an official Japanese passport. After an illustrious career, however, Owney met a sticky end -- shot by the police under dubious circumstances in Toledo in 1897. [more inside]
posted by Shepherd at 9:23 AM - 17 comments

You may have read by now the official lie about this treatment, which is that it “simulates” the feeling of drowning. This is not the case. You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning—or, rather, being drowned, albeit slowly and under controlled conditions and at the mercy (or otherwise) of those who are applying the pressure.

Christopher Hitchens, Iraq War supporter, militant atheist, and now volunteer subject of waterboarding. With video.
posted by orthogonality at 8:54 AM - 130 comments

Every culture has its own way of expressing its masculinity. It so happens that in Turkey this involves a lot of oil, bare chests, physical contact, and putting your hands down your opponents kisbet. [more inside]
posted by hadjiboy at 8:52 AM - 18 comments

Loading.Ready.Run is a group of people who make funny videos on the Internet. They're also giant geeks, which makes their material more obscure to most people, but more hilarious to me. [more inside]
posted by aftermarketradio at 8:03 AM - 9 comments

Earth is not a quiet planet. It transmits a rather hideous sound [flash] into space that is 10,000 times greater in strength than any man-made radio transmission. The Earth also quietly hums with seismic Love Waves (hear them), while the Magnetosphere is alive will all sorts of sounds (check out the creepy-sounding Chorus Emissions). Also, stars sing out in middle C before they explode as supernovae, and the Perseus Cluster black hole has droned a B-flat for the past 2.5 billion years.
posted by blahblahblah at 7:51 AM - 36 comments

In Lester R. Brown's new book Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (2008, full-text)) - an update to Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble (2006, full-text) - he calls for a war-time mobilization (ch.13) to save global civilization (already showing Early Signs of Decline (ch.6)) from Deteriorating Oil and Food Security (ch.2), Rising Temperatures and Rising Seas (ch.3), Emerging Water Shortages (ch.4), and Natural Systems Under Stress (ch.5)
posted by stbalbach at 6:43 AM - 15 comments

Now that's what I call diplomacy! The US ambassador to Paraguay has become a music sensation in the country after recording an album of folk songs in the indigenous Guarani language. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:29 AM - 12 comments

2 July 1863, second day of Gettysburg. Sickles has pulled his III Corps -- without orders -- off of Cemetery Ridge and positioned it a half mile in front of the rest of the Union lines. Longstreet smashes the hapless III Corps and its men are in full flight. Hancock rides back and forth inside the gaping hole left by Sickles. Below him, almost 2000 men of Wilcox's brigade are charging up the slope. They will gain a foothold on the ridge and be reinforced by Lee. As Longstreet pins down the Union left, Lee will roll up the center and right of the Northern army and chase them from the field. He will then march on and take Washington before turning north along the eastern seaboard. Lee will capture and burn Philadelphia and Boston in his March Along the Sea, chasing the Northern government from city to city until Lincoln finally sues for peace and the union is no more. Suddenly, a line of blue-coated soldiers comes into Hancock's view. "My God, is this all the men here? Who are you?" "1st Minnesota, sir." "See those colors?", says Hancock, pointing at the flags of the oncoming Confederates, "Take them." [more inside]
posted by forrest at 5:45 AM - 78 comments

The Green Dragon, a roller coaster at Greenwood Forest Park, a family 'attraction' in Wales, generates more power than it uses. How is this possible? It's all those stairs ... [more inside]
posted by woodblock100 at 3:40 AM - 19 comments

Batman and Robin De-Assified. So, some anonymous gentleman has apparently tried to make a Joel Schumacher motion picture watchable. Gotta love comic geeks. [more inside]
posted by converge at 3:34 AM - 33 comments

This Spring Swedish super-blogger Blondinbella aka Isabella Löwengrip is causing a huge controversy in Sweden. 17 year old Isabella Löwengrip writes Sweden's most read and most discussed blog, Blondinbella. (Here is number two FWIW.) Löwengrip started blogging to recruit members to the political party Moderaterna (what passes for right wing in Sweden) but she discovered readers were far more interested in reading about what she was wearing. [more inside]
posted by three blind mice at 2:42 AM - 25 comments

Viewzi is a kind of metasearch tool built around 'views'. It's kind of the antiGoogle in that it's not so much for quick answers as for idle looking around, and it's all about the UI, but it's interesting and pretty and kind of fun. Beta, naturally, and fully buzzword compliant. Flash haters will probably hate it. Usability people may have an aneurism. That's OK. [via] [more inside]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:20 AM - 9 comments

Bad allergies? Take 10 Hookworm Larvae and Call Me in the Morning .
posted by spock at 11:19 PM - 27 comments

Saying His Peace: Rare Recording of Speech by Gandhi Landed in Safe, if Unknowing, Hands. [Via Linkfilter]
posted by homunculus at 10:40 PM - 5 comments

Character actor Don S. Davis, known for his portrayal of Dana Scully's father Captain Scully on The X Files, Major Garland Briggs on Twin Peaks, and Colonel George Hammond on Stargate, passed away Sunday at the age of 65. Even if you don't remember him from those roles, if you take a look at his IMDB page, you will probably recognize him from something. He had a gift for taking stereotypical military roles and bringing a warmth and gentleness to them. One of his final roles was in the Stargate movie Continuum, which will premiere on DVD this month.
posted by rednikki at 9:38 PM - 67 comments

For over a thousand years, fishermen all over the world have been using cormorants to help them fish in lakes and rivers. In Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, cormorant fishing on the Nagara river has continued uninterrupted for the past 1,300 years. In Guilin and Yangshuo, China, cormorant birds are famous for fishing on the shallow Lijiang River. The islands of the Beaver Island archipelago in Northern Lake Michigan host what may be the densest concentration of the big, black diving birds on the continent, an estimated 50,000 that eat about 9 million pounds of fish from the surrounding waters from spring through fall. Fishermen and tourism interests want the state and federal governments to cut the number of double-crested cormorants around the Beaver Island group by half, raising the ire of bird lovers and animal-rights activists who say the cormorants aren't at the root of the problem.
posted by mrducts at 9:11 PM - 13 comments

Apparently, no clothing is more exciting or controversial than an ankle-length skirt and puffed sleeves. The FLDS has launched an online store where members of the general public can purchase the dresses, long underwear, and other ranch-wear "as seen on TV." [more inside]
posted by cereselle at 7:51 PM - 72 comments