Link Banana

Some harmless fun. (via MeFi)

Perhaps the fact that I discovered this on Metafilter is a commentary on the nature of news-flow or my inattentiveness, but it seems that Raphael Correa got a new constitution of the term-extending type that Hugo Chavez recently failed to secure.

Perhaps more interesting, the document gives inalienable rights to nature, like:

Art. 1. Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.

Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public organisms. The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution.

I’m a sucker for things like this. A small film crew took to the street of New Orleans and asked 50 people: “If you could wish for one thing to happen by the end of the day, what would it be?”.

(via Metafilter)

There are no doubt hundreds of posts like this one floating around the internet, chronicalling all the small houses one can find within a few Google searchs. None the less, I really liked browsing through this one.

(via MeFi)

Metafilter user WCityMike put together an exhaustive list of all that is available on the internet related to the “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog” project I mentioned a few weeks ago. Be warned, the list is daunting.

And if you liked Dr. Horrible, haven’t seen it yet, and have at least a vague understanding MMO games like World of Warcraft, you’ll probably like The Guild.

(via MeFi, where the early comments are uniformly bitter)

PBS is planning to drop Mr. Roger’ Neighborhood from the list of programs it regularly beams to member stations (who themselves decide when and if to air it). This fact yielded a good bit of nostalgia among those over 20, and a petition based primarily on that nostalgia.

(via Metafilter)

Speaking of removing the heads of dead dictators… the Hilter featured in the recently-opened Berlin branch of Madame Tussauds was decapitated recently. As a MetaFilter commenter points out, Hong Kong’s Hitler was similarly decapitated in 2004.

For the first time in years, China has taken Mao off a denomination of currency (and — it being a commemorative Olympics bill — replaced him with the “birds nest” stadium). Despite relevant historical and cultural issues, my only comment is that it just looks wrong to me.

(via MeFi)

A MetaFilter post — I don’t care about your “not credible source” nonsense — raises the interesting spector of Hawaii ceasing to be a member of the United States. The comments are also typically good.

This recent Metafilter post was a great collection of eagle awesomeness (YT are YouTube videos):

Bald Eagle Attacks Swan | Eagle vs Goat [YT] | Eagle vs Fox | Eagle vs Sandhill Crane | Golden Eagle vs Deer [YT] | Eagle vs. Eagle [YT] | Hawk vs Pet Mouse [YT] | Eagles vs Human Children | Eagles vs Our Primitive Ancestors

The Morning News has some great photos by Phillip Toledano of those people you always wondered about. The captions are also fascinating.

(via MeFi)

Because sometimes the gentle therapy of turning virtual pages of solid color is all you want to do.

(via MetaFilter)

The Washington Post has an interesting story about the black experience in Utah. I thought this quote were rather humorous and illustrative:

“I’ve had so many weird experiences like that,” said Griffin. “I went to San Francisco, and people didn’t stare at me. And it made me very uncomfortable, because everyone always stares at me.”

Arriving in the same city, Doriena Lee, 59, phoned her mother. “Guess what,” she said, “there are lots of us here!” Raised in Salt Lake, a city with so few, “I didn’t think there were very many black people in the world.”

(via MeFi)

Metafilter user Artw explains it better than I can:

Jake and Dinos Chapman have bought a stack of Adolf Hitlers paintings for £115,000 and defaced them with rainbows and butterflies for their new show, “If Hitler Had Been a Hippy, How Happy Would We Be”. The show also recreates “Fucking Hell”, a huge swastika shaped diorama of tiny plastic nazis torturing and killing each other, which had been destroyed in a fire.

An example of their modifications to the painting. I’m honestly unsure if this is an act of historic vandalism or legitmate art.

Yves Rossy flew like an aiplane today and landed successfully. Sadly — as MetaFilter commenters pointed out — he didn’t take off from the ground. It’s still cool in my book.

UPDATE (5/27/2008): Via 3qd, video of the flight.

I’ve spent too much time playing roller coaster games over the last week. These two are the main culprits:

• Rollercoaster Creator, which is mostly for fun. (via Neatorama)
• And Roller-Coaster Designer, which is supposed to teach you about G-forces. (via MetaFilter)

As someone with an incredibly common name, this project looks really interesting. I am rather surprised that every “Grace Lee” she found seems to be Asian…

(via Metafilter)