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From Boing Boing:

The original version of Fritz Lang's fantastic science fiction film Metropolis was first seen in Berlin in 1927. Shortly after, Paramount recut the film to (over)simplify the plot. From then on, it was thought that at least 1/4 of the whole film ended up on the editing room floor where it was swept into the dustbin of history. Recently though, much of the lost footage was rediscovered. According to ZEITmagazin, several of the rediscovered scenes are essential to the film's plot. The magazine has the story about how the missing reels ended up in the private collection of a film critic in the late 1920s or so, and eventually came to light again.

Read the rest...

So Walmart & Sam's Club have been selling their square milk gallon jugs for a few years. Many people have been complaining that it spills to much. Ecologists are praising the fact that it saves on shipping costs (more ship per palette than the traditional jugs and needs less packaging material). What do you think?

For the full article, check out the SustainableIsGood.com's article.

– In July 1776, the estimated number of people living in the newly independent nation was 2.5 million.

– On July 4, 2008, the nation's population will be 304 million.

– The value of fireworks imported from China in 2007 amounts to $207 million, representing the bulk of all U.S. fireworks imported ($217 million). U.S. exports of fireworks, by comparison, came to just $14.9 million in 2007, with Japan purchasing more than any other country ($3.8 million).

– The U.S. manufacturers' shipments of fireworks in 2002 values up to $17.3 million.

– The dollar value of trade last year between the United States and the United Kingdom was $107.2 billion, making the British, our adversary in 1776, our sixth-leading trading partner today.

– Potato salad and potato chips are popular food items at Fourth of July barbecues. More than half (52 percent) of the nation's spuds were produced in Idaho or Washington state in 2007.

Find more at http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=mini_home&mini_id=1075

In inspired-by version of the Official Shoes of Wired's Gadget Lab, the Nike McFly 2015's, will be made available by the end of July and will be renamed as the Nike Hyperdunks. I know what you're thinking (Chicken, McFly!), but get a hold of yourself. They won't include the awesome air-pressurized auto-lacing mechanism from Back to the Future II. (read more...)

George Carlin, the dean of counterculture comedians whose biting insights on life and language were immortalized in his “Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV” routine, died of heart failure Sunday. He was 71.

Carlin went into a Santa Monica hospital Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. It was announced Tuesday that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. (Read more...)

Olive oil infused with fragrant herbs has been identified in an ancient Greek ceramic transport jar known as an amphora, along with another container of what could be the world's oldest retsina-type wine, according to a recent Journal of Archaeological Science paper.

It is the first time DNA has been extracted from shipwrecked artifacts -- the two large jars were recovered from a 2,400-year-old wrecked vessel off the Greek island of Chios. If the second jar indeed contained a retsina-like wine, which is preserved and flavored with a tree resin known as mastic, then the find would push back the known origins of mastic cultivation by 200 years.

"This (study) opens new possibilities for archaeologists -- now perhaps we can figure out what was carried in almost every 'empty' jar we find in land excavations or shipwrecks," researcher Brendan Foley of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution told Discovery News.

"Maybe we can even go back to the amphorae, jars and cooking pots previously excavated and now sitting in museum storerooms around the world and ask new questions of each artifact," he added.

The discoveries resulted from an international collaboration involving Foley, Swedish scientist Maria Hansson, and Greek archaeologists Dimitris Kourkoumelis and Theotokis Theodoulou of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, overseen by Calliopi Preka-Alexandri and Vivi Vassilopoulou.

For the study, Hansson and Foley swabbed the jars with a chemical that allowed them to collect any genetic material inside. They then amplified and sequenced the DNA, comparing it to known DNA "signatures" from a database.

Since these signatures are unique for all plants and animals, they let researchers identify the source of the material in question. (Read more...)

Source: Discovery Channel

Associated Press/AP Online
June 17, 2008

SAO PAULO, Brazil – Three armed robbers stole two Pablo Picasso prints from a Sao Paulo art museum on Thursday in a rapid strike in which the thieves bypassed more valuable works to grab the stolen pieces, police said.

The bandits also took two oil paintings by well-known Brazilian artists Emiliano Di Cavalcanti and Lasar Segall, said Carla Regina, a spokeswoman for the Pinacoteca do Estado museum. It was the Brazilian city’s second high-profile art theft in less than a year.

The Picasso prints stolen were “The Painter and the Model” from 1963 and “Minotaur, Drinker and Women” from 1933, according to a statement from the Sao Paulo Secretary of State for Culture, which oversees the museum.

The prints and paintings have a combined value of 1 million Brazilian reals ($612,000), the statement and a museum official said.

About noon, three armed men paid the 4 Brazilian real entrance fee ($2.45) and immediately went to the second-floor gallery where the works were being exhibited, bypassing more valuable pieces, authorities said.

Source: Art Bistro

Firefox 3, the long-awaited update of Mozilla's open source web browser was released earlier today. The download counter, which is projected on a large display screen here at Mozilla headquarters in Mountain View, CA, has been churning numbers at a rapid pace all morning. The display shows that Firefox has now exceeded 1 million downloads, with between 5,000 and 14,000 downloads per minute.

The rapid pace at which the downloads are occurring makes it difficult to compute an exact total. The counter appears to be lagging behind the actual count, and Mozilla's statisticians say that the number could be as high as 3 million just four hours after Firefox's official launch. Users can follow along at home by watching the counter at the official site.

Firefox 3 downloads have already exceeded the total number of downloads that took place in the first 24 hours after the Firefox 2 release. This is a significant milestone for Mozilla, which hopes that Firefox 3 will set the world record for the most software downloaded in a 24-hour period.

The display shows a breakdown by country, which indicates that the highest number of downloads is coming from the United States, followed by Germany and Spain. The US alone has reached over half a million downloads. (Read more...)

Source: Ars Technica

I recently discovered Good Magazine and was touched by their message. Since today is Father's Day, I decided it was apt to remember what makes a father -- kids. This short documentary shows the life of one kid in an impoverished area and his aims to document what he sees. If you like this video, then check out this 5-part series from Good Magazine on YouTube.

I found this a very interesting site. Someone (a comic book geek!) organized some of the most well known comic book super heroes and organized them based on their religious background. Superman a Medothist? The Hulk is a Catholic? Robin is Jewish? Batman is a Episcopalian?

Discover the faith behind the masks. Interesting stuff. Check it out at http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/comic_collage.html