November 18

Art as Visual Research: Art and neuroscience combine in creating fascinating examples of illusory motion.
posted by homunculus at 11:45 PM - 2 comments

It's not even Thanksgiving yet and already the 2008 "best of" lists have begun. Here's a list of the Top 60 popular Japanese words/phrases of 2008. "Morning banana" doesn't mean what you think it does. Is Sarah Palin an obaka-aidoru - おバカアイドル ? (via)
posted by tractorfeed at 10:18 PM - 5 comments

Fraction is a bi-monthly online photo magazine that promotes work from established artists and emerging artists side by side. In the current issue, I particularly like the work of David Eisenlord and Suzanne Revy. It also features the recently posted Richard Rinaldi piece, Touching Strangers. There are also three archived issues. [A few images nsfw] [more inside]
posted by netbros at 9:25 PM - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Despite the much-maligned economy, people are seemingly starting the holiday season early this year in Loveland, Colorado by "paying it forward" for strangers' coffee at a Starbucks drive-through. This has happened in 2006 and similar events were debated last year on the blue, which led me to believe it was not a real phenomenon. CNN has the video version of the first link with interviews of those involved. Maybe it's not a PR stunt after all.
posted by knile at 9:05 PM - 37 comments

Neil Gaiman helps Jonathan Coulton perform the song "Creepy Doll." [slyt] [more inside]
posted by Caduceus at 8:50 PM - 5 comments

30 seconds over Tokyo is a song that is both unpretentious and epic at the same time. Anticipation mixed up with fear, flying, crashing, burning. Nevermind just give it a listen 30 seconds over Tokyo. Rocket from the Tombs, a nasty bit of rock history. Get out a shovel and exhume it's remains. [more inside]
posted by nola at 8:22 PM - 13 comments

What's wrong with primary care in the US? With a new survey suggesting that nearly half of all primary care physicians would leave medicine if they had a viable alternative, and with American medical schools not generating nearly enough new doctors going into primary care, in this, their first issue to hit doctors' desks since the election, the New England Journal of Medicine has devoted their entire editorial section to exploring yet another challenge that threatens the stability of the US health care system. Video of the roundtable discussion. Individual essays, at times touching, at times hopeful, from various primary care perspectives in the US and Britain. [more inside]
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:01 PM - 33 comments

At a cost of $20,000 a pound (google search prices vary). You have to wonder how much this cost. Poor Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper dropped her tool bag But don't worry, NASA tracks NEOs. And then there is the missing spider. Lastly, throwing in a gratuitous link to APOD (because it's cool and I can't wait to see the tool bag show up).
posted by cjorgensen at 5:57 PM - 32 comments

BIKE HERO (slyt)
posted by boo_radley at 4:28 PM - 46 comments

California Guitar Trio plays a quiet version of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in Dm. Here is another solo electric version by Sean Conklin. Finally here is a passionate acoustic electric treatment by Michael Fix.
posted by RussHy at 4:11 PM - 11 comments

You should contact me if you are a skinny woman. If your words are a meaningful progression of concepts rather than a series of vocalizations induced by your spinal cord for the purpose of complementing my tone of voice.... Are you Libertarian? And Lonely? Is the Atlas in your pants "Shrugging"?
posted by orthogonality at 3:15 PM - 117 comments

An election of a new President brings forth new ideas on the Vision for Space Exploration. The Planetary Society is lobbying to remove the Moon from the equation, which prompted Apollo astronaut, ex-senator, and geologist Harrison Schmitt to resign from the board in protest. Meanwhile moon-free plans proliferate. What will Obama do? Interesting hints are given in a position paper written by people associated with his transition team. [more inside]
posted by spaceviking at 3:01 PM - 53 comments

A Matter of Loaf and Death is the new BBC Christmas short from Nick Park and Aardman. In the mock murder mystery, Wallace and Gromit start a new bakery business, Top Bun. The short, Park's first since 1995, will introduce a new love interest for Wallace, Piella Bakewell, a bread enthusiast.
posted by chuckdarwin at 2:44 PM - 24 comments

Super Powers, winner of the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short (possibly NSFW - a couple of swear words and adult theme)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:12 PM - 11 comments

The End.
posted by william_boot at 1:40 PM - 28 comments

Bunny show jumping, or kaninhoppning, started in Sweden and has spread to Finland, Denmark, Norway and other countries. The rabbit who completes the course with the fewest mistakes or fastest time wins. (previously, mostly YT)
posted by joannemerriam at 1:03 PM - 30 comments

Sam Calagione, founder and president of Dogfish Head, spent some time talking to the New Yorker about his experiments in brewing, many of which are considered to be "extreme beers." The article (very briefly) portrays Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery, as waving a dismissive hand at such brews, but Oliver steps in to say that his opinion was misrepresented. [more inside]
posted by uncleozzy at 11:47 AM - 83 comments

Children's Letters to God? Check. [more inside]
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 11:03 AM - 54 comments

Inspired by the 88-artist exhibition Africa Remix, Juxtapoz magazine's most recent issue is almost entirely dedicated to contemporary African artists. Highlights include Pieter Hugo's Nollywood photo series, Diane Victor's Smoke Portraits, Abu Bakarr Mansarray's crazy machine sketches, Ransome Stanley's oil paintings, Mikhael Subotzky's prison photography, Wangechi Mutu's collages, Cheri Cherin's large-scale political canvases, and Jane Alexander's human/animal sculptures. [more inside]
posted by pinothefrog at 10:46 AM - 7 comments

#$^$ the heck? Fire Joe Morgan, one of the interwebs' most beloved baseball geekery/Sabermetrics/media-criticism blogs, calls it quits (for now). [more inside]
posted by googly at 10:45 AM - 17 comments

LIFE photo archive hosted by Google. Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Go.
posted by chunking express at 10:30 AM - 26 comments

This is a really creepy mash up of the Rejuvenique infomercial and Joe Cocker's "You are so Beautiful to Me".
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 10:12 AM - 30 comments

Andrew Ross Sorkin takes apart GM piece by piece. [more inside]
posted by jourman2 at 9:21 AM - 124 comments

Annotated playthrough of Torin's Passage. There are 12 videos so far. See also: Ways to die in the game, including the easter egg message you got if you made a hilarious but stupid choice at the end.
posted by Tehanu at 9:15 AM - 10 comments

Georgia and Russia: This is the most balanced and informative discussion I've seen since the invasion over three months ago (MeFi thread). If you've been wanting to catch up, this essay and its many useful links are the way to go. The author, Donald Rayfield, is professor of Russian and Georgian and knows both countries well. (Via wood s lot.)
posted by languagehat at 9:01 AM - 11 comments

Thomas Kinkade's 16 Guidelines for Making Stuff Suck [more inside]
posted by Afroblanco at 7:52 AM - 172 comments

Composer Max Richter's newest work, 24 Postcards in Full Colour, is a series of ringtones.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 7:47 AM - 6 comments

The Kobe 9 Cruise, a Japanese professional baseball team, has drafted Eri Yoshida as a pitcher. She's sixteen years old, a high school student, and will be the first female professional player. [more inside]
posted by rmd1023 at 7:21 AM - 37 comments

"Yeah, I did." On November 15, Scott McClellan, former white house press secretary to President George W. Bush revealed to an audience at the Miami Book Fair that President Bush had confided in him that he had personally authorized Scooter Libby to leak the classified information in the Plame affair.
posted by acro at 6:57 AM - 98 comments

You may have heard by now about World of Goo, an independent game which can best be described as a "physics/construction puzzle game" that touches on everything from beauty to consumerism to internet privacy. The developer, 2DBoy who had originally released the game under a "no-DRM, don't screw us" policy now estimates a piracy rate of 82%. [more inside]
posted by tybeet at 6:50 AM - 42 comments

Jerry Yang, founder and CEO of Yahoo, has stepped down. He recently turned down a $31 a share offer from Microsoft, and with Yahoo shares hovering around $10, some say he was forced out.
posted by plexi at 6:48 AM - 27 comments

Ginger Anyhow (blog) has embroidered a series of romantic text messages, capturing the 21st century record of the waxing and waning of a relationship in a pre-industrial era form. (via notcot)
posted by mojohand at 6:42 AM - 12 comments

November 17

BUNNY CONCERT. 5 bunny in concert. [SLYT, Via]
posted by homunculus at 11:20 PM - 28 comments

In 1984, the Cable Franchise Policy and Communications Act (along with legislation dating back to the 70s) forced cable companies to create public access television. Thanks to this foresighted policy, we can all now enjoy programming that might never have existed otherwise. Case in point: Los Angeles's Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show. Many more examples inside (some videos NSFW). [more inside]
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:08 PM - 22 comments

Kay S. Hymowitz strikes again. Previously, she wrote an article positing that "that too many single young males (SYMs) were lingering in a hormonal limbo between adolescence and adulthood, shunning marriage and children, and whiling away their leisure hours with South Park reruns, marathon sessions of World of Warcraft, and Maxim lists of the ten best movie fart scenes."
Now she has a new thesis: That angry, disenfranchised single young men use "Darwinist" philosophy to justify "resistance to settling down" and "unsentimental promiscuity". [via]
posted by shotgunbooty at 10:55 PM - 145 comments

David Fishman, 12-year-old food critic, takes himself out to dinner.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:14 PM - 89 comments

On The Hour - available for download now The radio precursor to TV's The Day Today - both brainchildren of Comedy's 11th funniest man (ahead of Peter Sellers and Bill Hicks), Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci - is now available for download via iTunes and Warp Records (via DRM-free Bleep). On The Hour also saw the first appearance of Steve Coogan as the hapless sports reporter, Alan Partridge who made regular appearances in "On the Hour" and "The Day Today" before being spun off into the TV shows: "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "I'm Alan Partridge" [more inside]
posted by JustAsItSounds at 7:46 PM - 19 comments

Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration, the Guardian has learned.
posted by defenestration at 6:50 PM - 166 comments

Monday Evening Flash Fun: Fold. Run. Jump. Bend gravity at your will. Looks easier than it really is.
posted by schyler523 at 6:12 PM - 16 comments

Ever wanted to play a white radish like a flute? Or maybe a carrot clarinet? Or perhaps a cucumber trumpet?
posted by scarello at 5:53 PM - 21 comments

RjDj "is a music application for the iPhone. It uses sensory input to generate and control the music you are listening to. RjDj is mainly listened to with headphones. Think of it as the next generation of walkman or mp3 player." l Michael Breidenbruecker initiated the project, now joined by a team of musical and technological thinkers and coders l "What it’s really about is a new approach to how to listen to music, how to develop musical tools, and how communities own and share that work." [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 5:45 PM - 20 comments

Want to be a good neighbor but don't know how? Now there are checklists! (Chicago and SF focus) [more inside]
posted by puckish at 5:09 PM - 17 comments

Héroes del Silencio. Miguel Mateos. Caifanes. Soda Stereo. Miguel Bosé. [more inside]
posted by needled at 4:21 PM - 14 comments

Make this Christmas special. Spend it in Ralphie's house! Bunny suit and Lifebuoy soap included. For an extra fee, the owner will convince you to lick a metal pole and then shoot your eye out. [more inside]
posted by miss lynnster at 2:40 PM - 41 comments

Meh. (Previously).
posted by swift at 2:32 PM - 61 comments

Super Obama World
posted by KokuRyu at 2:27 PM - 30 comments

John Wyndham: The Invisible Man of Science Fiction (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) - documentary about the British science fiction writer best known for The Day Of The Triffids
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:02 PM - 25 comments

Luxo Jr. goes blind. (SLYT). [more inside]
posted by cjorgensen at 1:35 PM - 18 comments

Piracy may be on the rise, but it's never really gone away. [more inside]
posted by gman at 1:02 PM - 51 comments

Pollan for Agriculture Secretary? It has been suggested (and previously) that Michael Pollan, author of Second Nature, The Omnivore's Dilemma, might make a good Secretary of Agriculture. This would be a dramatic departure for an office that has a decades-long history of steering US agriculture policy to the advantage of the largest agribusiness corporations. Especially given Obama's potential connections to Big Corn, how silly would we be to anticipate real change in US ag policy, relevant as it may be to the economic, energy, climate, and national security issues he campaigned on? Via the Brian Lehrer Show.
posted by maniabug at 11:56 AM - 61 comments

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