July 20
A slightly drunken
Momus sings us a song from his living room, then gives us
5000 years of chairs in 5 mimutes.
posted by vronsky at 11:33 AM -
32 comments
Flash Sunday: Customize your disease and wipe out the population,
Pandemic II. Get to Madagascar before they close their shipyard!
posted by sebas at 4:40 AM -
48 comments
July 19
The Mehterhane or
Mehter, as they are often known, are thought to be the oldest military marching band in the world. Starting around the 13th century, the
band accompanied the Ottoman empire troops (
Janissaries, or
yeniçeri, roughly meaning "new troops" and were comprised mostly of young men from the Balkans) into battle, spreading their music along the way and influencing western classical composers like
Mozart and
Beethoven.
[more inside]
posted by sleepy pete at 10:44 AM -
13 comments
The žižkov television tower in Prague
was pretty weird looking to begin with, since 2000 it's gotten
much stranger...
posted by Artw at 8:20 AM -
38 comments
July 18
Totem Destroyer ... a puzzle game where you strategically remove blocks in order to lower a golden idol closer to the ground. Get it within 3 squares from the bottom, but not touching it, and you move on to the next level. (
via)
posted by Dave Faris at 11:37 PM -
28 comments
In a time before the Prius, the custom conversion van ruled the roadways. Pushing the
boundaries of the airbrush form, testing the limits of
mobile interior design, featuring the latest in
automatic pink leather bed,
compact toaster, 8-track, and
love machine technology, the 70s van was celebrated in
song and
cinema. You started with
a factory model, new or used, and ended at a place limited onlyby your creativity, your budget, and your
old lady's patience (NSFW). Ford could
make you a man.If push came to shove, you could even
live in your van. It was fantasy on wheels:
van-tastic, man.
[more inside]
posted by Miko at 9:14 PM -
41 comments
Br. Cesare Bonizzi, "the
heavy metal friar"(watch out for the volume on that last link), says he was inspired by the energy of Metallica and that he is not trying to convert anyone to Christianity, but rather to "convert [listeners] to life" and get them to live their lives "full stop."
posted by homelystar at 9:12 PM -
15 comments
This scale was first brought to my attention by the blog
"The Unwound Road". It appears someone took the original 1930s rating scale and posted it to Flickr. From there it was a natural progression to Internet quiz. So, how would you rate as a husband or wife in the 1930s? Answer 100 true or false type questions and find out!
posted by polysigma at 6:45 PM -
26 comments
Listen, can you
hear them talk? They might be soft spoken, and not easy to get along with, but they can still
command (previously) our respect.
Read how they are looked after around the world, and the
stories which affect their daily lives. Also,
here (pdf) is a comprehensive study of their living conditions in different kinds of societies across the globe.
posted by hadjiboy at 9:39 AM -
8 comments
Hellenica is an encyclopedia of Greek culture, from classical Hellas, through the Byzantine Empire until the modern day, though its focus is on antiquity and especially the
science and technology of Ancient Greece. Featuring technical diagrams and explications, there's no better site if you seek information on
gigantic galleys,
now obscure great Greek mathematicians,
the last still working Ancient lighthouse and
gears and how they were used by Archimedes and other ancients. This is not to denigrate other sections of the site, such as the page on the
Olympics (including a
Google Map of the site of the games), biographies of
ancient,
Byzantine and
modern Greeks, the
warring and
healing of the Byzantines or the overview of Greek literature, taking in
antiquity,
the medieval era and
modern times. That said, Hellenica is at its finest when treating science and technology.
posted by Kattullus at 6:21 AM -
8 comments
Winding their way down from California, they lost a few agents. Two were arrested in Albuquerque after they allegedly forced their way into the home of an elderly couple and beat them to death, raping the wife first.... Then, in West Texas, a van flipped, killing one agent and injuring three others. That's seven agents out of commission. That's about a $2,800 loss per day. After they turn in their cash and receipts, two agents, a pudgy girl and a lanky guy, hit the parking lot for a smoke.... It's a blast, they say. You lie all day to sell subscriptions, and you unwind afterward with some smoke. You tell the customers that you live a few streets over, that you go to the local school and play on the soccer team, that you just sold subscriptions to their neighbor, and the idiots buy it because by now you've got it down to a science.
And on to the next town. And the next.
posted by orthogonality at 5:12 AM -
67 comments
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