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That's What Bea Said
posted by sciurus at Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:07:31 -0800


One World Technologies, manufacturer of Ryobi tools, has been ordered to pay damages of US$1.5 million to Carlos Osorio who injured his fingers while using a Ryobi table saw. The case hinged on the Ryobi's lack of "flesh sensing technology" which is found only SawStop's [previously] saws.
SawStop garnered extensive bad press in hobbyist circles by attempting to make their patented technology mandatory on all table saws after they failed to find a market for their blade stopping technology with other manufacturers.

If the judgment is not overturned it will usher in sweeping changes to stationary woodworking tools of every description as SawStop's technology could be adapted to anything with a blade or electric motor.
posted by Mitheral at Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:27:45 -0800


Open Library has a new collaborative open source website that aims to catalog every book ever published. About the project. The vision is one Wiki page for every edition of every work with description details.
posted by stbalbach at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:24:32 -0800


Scans of all three issues of Army Man Magazine, the legendary late 80s humor zine put together by future Simpsons' writer George Meyer (an excellent New Yorker profile of Meyer) which also included material from Jack Handey, John Swartzwelder, Bob Odenkirk, among many others. Another contributor, Ian Frazier, talks about Army Man in a Believer Interview. Sadly the scans are small (but the jokes are still big) and of poor quality. For a non-eyestraining introduction, Maud Newton transcribed a good bit of material and posted it at the end of an appreciation of Army Man on her blog.
posted by Kattullus at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:19:41 -0800


Twenty years ago tonight, thieves posing as Boston police talked their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and left with thirteen works of art now valued at half a billion dollars, including a Vermeer and three Rembrandts. Neither those responsible for history's greatest art theft, nor the missing works of art, have ever been located. (Previously, including a comment from a MeFite who had been working security at the musuem, but not that night.)
posted by Horace Rumpole at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:28:48 -0800


A French, state-run TV channel appears to be stirring controversy by airing a documentary about a fake game show in which contestants torture eachother, called "Game of Death." Based on the well-known Stanley Milgram experiments of the 1960's that, in the wake of Nazi Germany, sought out to measure man's willingness to obey orders.
"In Game of Death, 81% of contestants went all the way by administering more than 20 shocks up to a maximum of 460 volts. Only 16 of the 80 subjects recruited for the fake game show refused the verbal prodding from the host — and pressure from the audience to keep dishing out the torture like a good sport — though most expressed misgivings or tried to pull out before being convinced otherwise."

Just to be clear, the pain inflicted is not real. But the contestants are made to think that it is. Clips: one, two, three. Filmmaker Christophe Nick suggests that "[Future] television can — without possible opposition — organize the death of a person as entertainment, and eight out of 10 people will submit to that."

Related: "The Perils of Obedience" by Stanley Milgram. And for a closer look at human beings committing unethical acts under particular social conditions, check out "The Human Behavior Experiments" (Part 1, Part 2) by Alex Gibney.
posted by phaedon at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:27:48 -0800


Memphis music legend Alex Chilton dead at 59 Deep-voiced 60s boy singer and leader of "one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock and roll." Alex Chilton died today at age 59. Cause of death believed to be a heart attack.
posted by mediareport at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:46:54 -0800


A large gallery of contributed images from Spain including what looks to be an entertainer with a prosthetic nose and ear; a hand tinted baby in a bow and school photo; young tough guys and not so tough guys; plus old Semana Santa scenes, as posted previously.
What makes this more interesting than just a found photos site is the history behind the pictures, so you might want to use the Babel Fish translator (quite why it translates it as 'Virtual museum of old woman photos', I'm not sure).
posted by tellurian at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:45:00 -0800


The original version of Alice in Wonderland, handwritten and hand-drawn by Lewis Carroll, has been posted online. The illustrations are a treat in themselves.
"[Carroll] was fond of children and became friends with Lorina, Alice and Edith Liddell, the young daughters of the Dean of his college, Christ Church. One summer's day in 1862 he entertained them on a boat trip with a story of Alice's adventures in a magical world entered through a rabbit-hole. The ten-year-old Alice was so entranced that she begged him to write it down for her. It took him some time to write out the tale - in a tiny, neat hand - and complete the 37 illustrations. Alice finally received the 90-page book, dedicated to 'a dear child, in memory of a summer day', in November 1864."
posted by emilyd22222 at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:08:46 -0800


The Day My Arse Died Two men against the hottest curry known.
posted by cjorgensen at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:47:24 -0800


Hot Chip - I Feel Better
posted by stresstwig at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:44:20 -0800


Strippers and pr0n stars (and others) play D&D in web series I Hit It With My Axe at The Escapist. Interview with participant Satine Phoenix. Surprisingly pretty much SFW so far (no nudity but, as they say, salty language)
posted by fearfulsymmetry at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:15:47 -0800


Stuart Rojstaczer wrote an article in the Washington Post in 2003 detailing his experience as a professor with grade inflation at Duke. He has set up a website where he has aggregated data from the grades of two million undergraduates tracking the phenomenon.
An excellent post previously,
Another one previouslier,
And recently

A Rebuttal of its importance in Slate by our very own escabeche
posted by Blasdelb at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:45:18 -0800


Eating healthy on a budget isn't just for hipsters on food stamps. While some have called Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman's ideas about cooking and eating "elitist," there are many cooks who are smart enough to know that cooking at home is the only way to eat healthy on a budget. While Jamie Oliver pledges to give all school children "10 recipes that will save their lives," almost anyone on any budget can change the way they shop for, prepare, and think about food.
Blogs that focus on budget & healthy eating:
Budget Bytes - easy recipes, cost breakdown, some veg-friendly dishes.
Thirty Bucks a Week - vegetarian, weekly receipt breakdown.
Eating Organic on a Food Stamp Budget
Cheap, Healthy, Good - nutrition and cost breakdown, weekly vegetarian focus.
Not Eating Out in NY - cost and health breakdown.
And many, many more in this list of 100 frugal cooking blogs. (Although not all of them with a healthy focus)


Budget challenges:
Savory Sweet Life - United Way Hunger Challenge
Cheap, Healthy, Good - One Week, $25 Challenge - super interesting, provides calorie/fat/cost/time breakdown, also recipes & tips.
Eating healthy on a fast-food budget

General tips and advice for cooking on a budget:
Get Rich Slowly - Healthy cooking on a student budget
Ask Metafilter - Budget ethical gourmet - Best cuisines for a tight budget - Spaghetti twice a day gets old fast - Quick food that isn't fast food

(And of course, you could always grow and preserve your own food, but that is a whole 'nother can of beans.)
posted by sararah at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:35:50 -0800


Depression's upside. Could depression be an evolutionary gift? Could kindness? Charles Darwin himself had a history of ailments that may help to illustrate the idea.
posted by stinkycheese at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:24:17 -0800


Culture Jam: Hijacking Corporate Culture [39m CBC Short Cuts version on Google Video] is an overview of "culture jamming".
Perhaps better known through the actions of Adbusters, The Yes Men, and Improv Everwhere, culture jamming actually finds its roots in 1950s Europe via Guy Debord and The Situationists. [YouTube documentary "On The Passage of a few People through a Rather Brief Moment In Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972, Parts 2, 3]. 1993's Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs is considered a manifesto and concise summary of the philosophy behind culture jamming. Many cities have their anonymous culture jammers. Still, some remain entirely tone-deaf to the concept.

Bonus reading and links: Center for Communication & Civic Engagement's Culture Jamming page, sniggle.net: The Culture Jammers Encyclopedia
posted by hippybear at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:40:00 -0800


"In May, 2002, Jerome Mitchell, a 17-year old college freshman from rural South Carolina, learned he had contracted HIV. The news, of course, was devastating, but Mitchell believed that he had one thing going for him: On his own initiative, in anticipation of his first year in college, he had purchased his own health insurance. Shortly after his diagnosis, however, his insurance company, Fortis [now Assurant Health], revoked his policy. Mitchell was told that without further treatment his HIV would become full-blown AIDS within a year or two and he would most likely die within two years after that."
"Previously undisclosed records from Mitchell's case reveal that Fortis had a company policy of targeting policyholders with HIV. A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke their policy. As was the case with Mitchell, their insurance policies often were canceled on erroneous information, the flimsiest of evidence, or for no good reason at all, according to the court documents and interviews with state and federal investigators."
"And as the story points out, the evidence is that the overwhelming majority of rescissions, not just at Assurant but across the board, are, in fact, without justification."*
posted by ericb at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:03:20 -0800


Kim Jong-il, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, has a $4 billion (£2.6 billion) "emergency fund" hidden in secret accounts in European banks that he will use to continue his lavish way of life if he is forced to flee the country.
posted by Tlery at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:59:00 -0800


Live online broadcast of the 2010 Paralympic Games (Silverlight required). The Paralympics are back, this time in Vancouver. Sledge hockey, alpine & cross-country skiing, biathalon and curling. You can watch every event live or recorded on ParalympicSport.tv or see some photos at The Big Picture.
posted by GuyZero at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:31:44 -0800


The FDA has yet to approve stem cell therapies for general use in medicine, but that hasn't stopped doctors in Colorado from providing them anyway.
Background
In 2007, Colorado-based Regenerative Sciences Inc., (RSI) began offering "Regenexx", to the public: an adult stem cell transplant that uses injected autologous mesenchymal stem cells to treat joint injuries and bone damage, as an alternative to traditional surgical techniques. Since then, they claim to have treated 348+ patients with 800+ injections and are reporting high success rates: 89% of their knee patients and 75% of their hip patients showed marked improvement. (Scroll to: "What is the success rate? How many people respond? What is the cure rate?")

Drug, or Surgical Procedure?
In 2008, the FDA sent RSI an untitled warning letter, which said the company could not use mesenchymal stem cells as an injectible on humans without a biologics license (BLA) or an investigational new drug application (IND). (See: "Will the FDA kill adult stem cell medicine?") More here (followup in first graph of this post) and here. The company responded, claiming Regenexx is a surgical procedure, (even though the cells are lab-cultured and used to treat disease conditions,) and thus not subject to FDA regulation. A response from the FDA is still pending.
posted by zarq at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:25:56 -0800


If you'd like something to work on today other than your pint of Guinness, why not take a crack at "one of Australia's most profound mysteries," a sixty-two-year-old unsolved murder known as the Taman Shud case?
The Taman Shud Case, also known as the "Mystery of the Somerton Man," is an unsolved case revolving around an unidentified man found dead at 6.30am, December 1, 1948 on Somerton beach in Adelaide, Australia. Considered "one of Australia's most profound mysteries," the case has been the subject of intense speculation over the years regarding the identity of the victim, the events leading up to his death and the cause of death.

The University of Adelaide has further information: review of the case, lists of facts and misreported facts, timeline of events, and final report.

First sighted on Metafilter in this FPP
Punny title pilfered from turgid dahlia's comment.
posted by sallybrown at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:45:32 -0800


I like bagpipes. And I'm not afraid to admit it. They can be traditional, rock, or cross-cultural. They may have been around since ancient Rome. It's the instrument everyone claims to hate, but who can really hate a good drone?
posted by rusty at Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:40:43 -0800