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This is the story of Brian Banks

lalex — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:18:40 GMT

In 2002, Brian Banks was a sought-after high school football phenom until he was accused of kidnapping and raping a female student. On the advice of his lawyers, he pleaded no contest and served 6 years in prison. Then his accuser recanted. That's when the Innocence Project stepped in to help exonerate Brian Banks. CA Innocence Project filing here; informative if you skip right to the "Statement of Facts" part.

On lunge feeding

latkes — Fri, 25 May 2012 05:21:13 GMT

Whales have a sensory organ unlike anything we've ever seen, reported originally in today's issue of Nature.

450 Billion Oreos later

HuronBob — Fri, 25 May 2012 05:18:06 GMT

No matter how you ate them... Sam J. Porcello, the originator of the creamy filling in the Oreo cookie has died.

Star Wars 35th Anniversary -- the music edition

hippybear — Fri, 25 May 2012 05:10:34 GMT

May 25, 1977 - 2012. Celebrate 35 years of Star Wars by getting your groove on with Meco's classic Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk.

Other tributes to Star Wars:

I Wanna Be A Stormtrooper -- Anarchy Steering Committee
Shredisode IV (Live) -- Anchorhead Darth Metal
Star Wars Cantina -- Mark Jonathan Davis
Theme from Star Wars -- Montefiori Cocktail

Happy 35 Years, and may the Force be with you!

star wars as you've never heard it before

flex — Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:27 GMT

Star Wars: The Radio Play - Seven top voice actors table read Star Wars (YouTube) at Emerald City Comicon. "Join voice actors Billy West, Tara Strong, Maurice LaMarche, John DiMaggio, Kevin Conroy, Jess Harnell, and Rob Paulsen as they re-create the magic of the Star Wars films, albeit in their own special way!" Characters include: Fry, Bender, Batman, Yakko, Wakko, Pinky, The Brain, Morbo, Bubbles, IronHide, Dr. Zoidberg, Jake the Dog, and many impressive celebrity impressions: Shatner as C3PO, Walken as R2D2, Tony Soprano as Greedo, Twilight Sparkle as Han Solo... (via reddit)

Wireless Emergency Alerts debut

LobsterMitten — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:33:08 GMT

Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are a new service from U.S. weather service and FEMA. Starting in June, they will send a text message with a strange tone to your mobile device if you are in range of a Tornado Warning, Tsunami Warning or other major event (in the U.S. only). Major events include "Presidential Alerts." You do not need to sign up. Washington Post Capital Weather Gang has a few more details.

Match fixing in Soccer

vidur — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:15:13 GMT

"The World's most popular game is also its most corrupt, with investigations into match fixing ongoing in more than 25 countries. Here's a mere sampling of events since the beginning of last year: Operation Last Bet rocked the Italian Football Federation, with 22 clubs and 52 players awaiting trial for fixing matches; the Zimbabwe Football Association banned 80 players from its national-team selection due to similar accusations; Lu Jun, the first Chinese referee of a World Cup match, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for taking more than $128,000 in bribes to fix outcomes in the Chinese Super League; prosecutors charged 57 people with match fixing in the South Korean K-League, four of whom later died in suspected suicides; the team director of second-division Hungarian club REAC Budapest jumped off a building after six of his players were arrested for fixing games; and in an under-21 friendly, Turkmenistan reportedly beat Maldives 3-2 in a "ghost match" -- neither country knew about the contest because it never actually happened, yet bookmakers still took action and fixers still profited." [All the world is staged: Bribed players, fake games. Criminal syndicates can fix any match, anywhere.]

Nuclear aftermath

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 25 May 2012 03:05:43 GMT

"A day after the 44th nuclear test explosion in the U.S. rent the still Nevada air, observers cautiously inspected department store mannequins which were poised disheveled but still haughty on the sand in the homes of Yucca Flat."

From Love to Bingo

ephemerista — Fri, 25 May 2012 02:37:22 GMT

"Patient research work involving more than 5 thousand photographs resulted in a 1 minute film that AlmapBBDO created to advertise Getty Images, the world leading image database for creating and distributing visual contents. " [SLYT]

Beautiful abandoned train stations

Trurl — Fri, 25 May 2012 02:34:54 GMT

Beautiful abandoned train stations

Channel your inner three-year old.

1f2frfbf — Fri, 25 May 2012 01:17:37 GMT

A short wordless documentary on Chris Burden's (previously, previousylier) 2008 installation Beam Drop

The guide to implementing 2d platformers

Artw — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:20:19 GMT

Having previously been disappointed by the information available on the topic, this is my attempt at categorizing different ways to implement 2D platform games, list their strengths and weaknesses, and discuss some implementation details.

The Orgins of the Melungeon

edgeways — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:12:47 GMT

A relatively small group of people from Appalachian, the dark-skinned Melungeons (previously) have been a source for speculation and conjecture for many years. Exactly who where their ancestors? Portuguese? Turks? Roma? Cherokee? A recent DNA study (108 page pdf) posted in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy (site link) says otherwise (WaPo article).

A Case for Reincarnation

filthy light thief — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:47:17 GMT

Robert Snow, now retired, was Captain of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, who in his career was in charge of the department of the Homicide and Robbery and the department of Organized Crime. He has written numerous articles and books on police work, and considered himself a skeptic of supposedly supernatural occurrences. But on a dare, he visited a past life regression therapist, and what he experiences made him doubt his beliefs. In an hour-long session, he seemed to recall memories of a cave dweller, an altar girl in Greece, but it was his views of the life of a 19th century painter were the most vivid. In that experience, Snow recalled a number of specific memories or events, but was certain they were fabricated memories from things he had seen or heard in his life in the 20th century. In an attempt to debunk his experiences, he ended up validating his past life memories of being James Carroll Beckwith, a painter most commonly remembered not for his art, but his friendship to more renown painters like John Singer Sargent.

Robert Snow is now a board member of the Institute for the Integration of Science, Intuition and Spirit. Though Snow considers himself not to be a "new-agey" type, his story was part of a Coast to Coast AM show (episode on YouTube in 4 parts: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Bain Capital Explained By Tony Soprano

ericb — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:29:02 GMT

"The national debate over private equity so far has hinged on the question of whether experience in the field qualifies Mitt Romney, the former Bain Capital executive, for the presidency. But a more vexing, and largely unanswered, question lies just beneath the surface: How is it, exactly, that an investment company can make millions even as the company it's ostensibly trying to turn around goes bust? For that answer, we turned to what may seem like a less-than-reliable source: Tony Soprano [NSFW: language]."

Cognitive Democracy

daniel_charms — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:39:43 GMT

"Here's a paper we're working on, which argues that we should (for some purposes at least), think of markets, hierarchy and democracy in terms of their capacity to solve complex collective problems [and] makes the case that democracy will on average do the job a lot better than the other two ways..." Henry Farrell and Cosma Shalizi on a cognitive approach to democracy (pdf). [via]

Sit. Down. Stay. Think. Good Dog!

Panjandrum — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:36:52 GMT

"When your dog gazes up at you adoringly, what does it see? A best friend? A pack leader? A can opener?" Gregory Berns of Emory University decided to put a couple canines in an MRI scanner to try and find out what goes on inside their heads (adorable news footage here). The results have recently been published in PLoS ONE.

He felt like a man who, chasing rainbows, has had one of them suddenly turn and bite him in the leg.

unSane — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:45:16 GMT

He uttered a sound much like a bull dog swallowing a pork chop whose dimensions it has underestimated. Random P G Wodehouse quote generator. That is all.

And the rest is silence

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:44:08 GMT

K h a n

The quizzical smell... once described as a "fecund overload of fish heads and wet mops," permeates the air.

amelioration — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:40:57 GMT

Your Dekalb Farmer's Market is a favorite MeFi recommendation to Atlanta tourists. If you've ever been curious about the backstory to this local institution, Creative Loafing recently published a fascinating history of the store, with a photo slideshow covering 24 hours in the life of the market. This comes as a new phase of expansion is proposed.

Marvel Comics creates superhero in honor of hearing-impaired boy

Four-Eyed Girl — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:54:16 GMT

Marvel Comics created a hearing-impaired superhero in honor of a hearing-impaired boy. Anthony Smith, a 4-year-old boy, told his mother he did not want to wear his hearing aid anymore because superheroes don't wear hearing aids. His mother e-mailed Marvel Comics and described her son's situation and hoped for help.

33 years later

komara — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:53:57 GMT

Though the recent excavation of a basement in SoHo did not turn up his remains [previously], today there may finally be some resolution. Pedro Hernandez confesses to having strangled Etan Patz.

Any fool can think of words that rhyme, many others do, why can't you?

Hartster — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:49:53 GMT

30 beautiful song lyrics

The Story of Jay Fucking Over Brian and Travis

mrgrimm — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:00:18 GMT

Dear Jay Leno ... "First off, my intention is not to fight you on this. You have more cars than I have dollars, and so I know I don't stand a chance legally ..." - "An Open Letter to Jay Leno About Stealing My Video and Then Getting It Removed From YouTube"

* YouTube: The Big Copyright Lie
* Who Owns Your YouTube video?
* YouTube appeals German copyright ruling
* Untangling Cover Song Licensing on YouTube
* YouTube user receives copyright takedown for video with birds singing in background
* Original "rickroll" video removed from YouTube due to copyright claim by ... AVG?!

Can You Jam With The Console Cowboys In Cyberspace?

The Whelk — Thu, 24 May 2012 17:38:50 GMT

Around 1992 Mondo 2000 magazine asked: "R.U A Cyperpunk?"