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mefi
Happy 100th Birthday to SOS.
“Send SOS,” one of the Titanic’s radio operators supposedly said to another after the famous ship struck that infamous iceberg. “It’s the new call and besides this may be your last chance to send it.”
That “new call” is 100 years old today... (via the J-Walk blog)
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 12:10 PM on July 1, 2008
(27 comments)
Farming with Dynamite
Do stumps, clay or tired old soil have you down? Let "Red Cross" dynamite come to your rescue.
(A blast from the past via )
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 9:04 AM on June 16, 2008
(34 comments)
Goodbye alt.*
Andrew Cuomo claimed that his office found child porn on 88 newsgroups--out of roughly 100,000 newsgroups that exist. In a press release, he took credit for [Verizon's] blunderbuss-style newsgroup removal by saying: "We are attacking this problem by working with Internet service providers...I commend the companies that have stepped up today to embrace a new standard of responsibility, which should serve as a model for the entire industry." Verizon eliminates the entire alt. subset of usenet.
Today, the alt.* hierarchy is by far the most populous on Usenet.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 7:07 PM on June 12, 2008
(146 comments)
In the Matter of Daniel Smoote v. Frank & Jesse James
As bank robberies go, the 1869 heist pulled off by legendary outlaws Jesse and Frank James in Daviess County, Mo., wasn’t much of a success: They may have left with no money, they probably shot the wrong man, and Jesse James lost his horse.
Perhaps even more frustrating for the outlaw duo, they ended up getting sued by a local farmer and his ambitious young lawyer—the first and only successful civil action against the former Confederate guerrillas-turned-outlaws.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 8:44 AM on April 28, 2008
(8 comments)
Pond scum saves the planet?
In the beginning, there were algae, but there was no oil. Then, from algae came oil. Now, the algae are still there, but oil is fast depleting. In future, there will be no oil, but there will still be algae. ^ Power your ride with pond scum. In some
iterations you don't even need l
ight. (we have talked about this
before and the fact that CO2 powers the algae production is not insignificant) More
details here.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 8:04 PM on April 17, 2008
(28 comments)
Toys
- 59,237 of them.
This group is about collecting photographic evidence that toys get up to things when people are not around. Well, not just that - It is also simply a space to collect good images of toys for everyone to enjoy. (via dorian)
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 7:09 AM on April 2, 2008
(4 comments)
40 Years in the Future
-
Another "what will life look like in the future" article. This one from Mechanix Illustrated, 1968.
(via Boing Boing)
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 9:57 AM on March 24, 2008
(50 comments)
With Comcast, your TV watches you.
Comcast is developing cable boxes with cameras to watch the room. They will know who is there to provide shows in your profile, engage parental controls, and of course, deliver targeted advertising.
Ceiling Cat Comcast is watching you....
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 5:59 AM on March 23, 2008
(44 comments)
Brilliant Women:
The Blue Stocking Circle was a group of intellectuals with a strong desire to discuss, analyze, and examine the social, political, and educational problems of the day Mostly female intellectuals, but they included many prominent men as well.
They assembled in the London homes of literary hostesses such as Elizabeth Montagu, Frances Boscawen and Elizabeth Vesey in the 1750s form the nucleus of the exhibition. .... At first, all the party-goers were nicknamed blues, but from the 1770s, the "bluestocking" tag was applied to the women members in particular. By the time of Montagu's death in 1800, any female intellectual might be labelled a bluestocking, whether or not she could claim a link to the original circle.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 8:25 PM on March 21, 2008
(10 comments)
Obama's Gettysburg Address.
Today we saw and heard a preview of our brightest possible American future in Senator Barack Obama's glorious speech. This, then, is what it means to be presidential. To be moral. To have a real center. To speak honestly, from the heart, for the benefit of all. If there was any doubt about what we have missed in the anti-intellectual, ruthlessly incurious Bush years, and even the slippery Clinton ones (the years of "what is is"), those doubts were laid to rest by Barack Obama's magisterial speech today. A speech in which he distanced himself from a flawed father figure, Reverend Wright, and did so with almost Shakespearian dignity and honor. One of the most important speeches on race in decades if not longer. (
text)
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 9:31 PM on March 18, 2008
(1141 comments)
When the wire won't carry your subversive tract, distribute your digital screed via flash drive.
Last month, students at a prestigious computer science university videotaped an ugly confrontation they had with Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the National Assembly. Mr. Alarcón seemed flummoxed when students grilled him on why they could not travel abroad, stay at hotels, earn better wages or use search engines like Google. The video spread like wildfire ...[passed via flash drives]... and seriously damaged Mr. Alarcón’s reputation in some circles.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 3:54 PM on March 6, 2008
(19 comments)
Derrick Ashong
A camera-wielding interviewer collars Mr Ashong in the street and starts to pepper him with questions. The interviewer assumes that his victim's casual appearance—he is wearing a baseball hat, a shell necklace and is chewing gum—betokens an equally casual approach to politics. “Do you have any specifics?” he demands aggressively. “What are their policies?” Mr Ashong delivers a series of carefully argued replies that could form the basis of an editorial in a serious newspaper. Emotional
responses count too.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 6:18 PM on March 4, 2008
(26 comments)
Is John McCain eligible to become president of the U.S.?
He was born on a military base in the Panama Canal zone, which was not sovereign US territory. The
Constitution provides:
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. Is McCain a natural born citizen?
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 8:00 AM on February 28, 2008
(227 comments)
Frozen Grand Central.
A little bit of Saturday fun. The folks at Improv Everywhere are at it again. This time they freeze over two hundred people in Grand Central station.
(via GoodSh** NSFW)
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 7:56 AM on February 16, 2008
(22 comments)
Mach 7 Origami Plane -
Designs for
origami planes abound. How many of them reach Mach? How many get launched from the International Space Station? A team from the University of Tokyo is planning just such a launch.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 8:26 AM on January 16, 2008
(19 comments)
Ulysses -
An
Irish guy (in West Virginia) reads
Ulysses and posts it to the web in 20 parts. It's a work best appreciated when read aloud and here is someone who has read it aloud just for you. (ultra-condensed version
here )
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 7:44 PM on November 25, 2007
(21 comments)
The American military finds new allies, but at what cost?
One afternoon, sitting with Captain Brooks in Thrasher’s rooftop gym, I asked if he felt that what he was doing in Iraq was appreciated by the people back home. “Oh, yeah,” he said. Turning to one of his N.C.O.s, who was seated nearby, smoking a cigar, he asked, “What do you think, Sergeant Cochran?”
Lowering his voice, Cochran replied, “When that bullet goes by my head, all the politics goes right out the window. My only thought is to get my men out of there alive.”
“Thanks for quoting ‘Black Hawk Down,’ Sergeant Cochran,” Brooks drawled. Turning back to me, he said, “When I went home the last time, we went skiing in Colorado. Everywhere we went, people thanked me. One man said, ‘I don’t support the war but I support the soldiers.’ I can accept that. We have a system that allows freedom of speech. Hell, I put on the uniform to defend that.”
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 5:57 PM on November 17, 2007
(34 comments)
The Moby Quotient
[I]n the late 1990s, the techno artist Moby, as hip as they come, openly boasted of having sold every track of his breakthrough album "Play" to an advertiser, or to a film or TV soundtrack. The album should perhaps have been called "Pay." In homage Bill Wyman of
Hitsville has dubbed his formula for determining the offensiveness of a rock-based advertisement. (
accompanying article)
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 9:14 AM on October 16, 2007
(139 comments)
"Sleeper":
Dr. Melik: This morning for breakfast he requested something called "wheat germ, organic honey and tiger's milk."
Dr. Aragon: [chuckling] Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties.
Dr. Melik: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or... hot fudge?
Dr. Aragon: Those were thought to be unhealthy... precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true.
Dr. Melik: Incredible.
Has anything changed?
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 6:58 PM on September 19, 2007
(11 comments)
Jammin' with Buddy Guy
You are a good guitar player, you are a really good guitar player, but you are eight years old, but whoa, here you are on the stage with one of the greatest bluesmen ever, Buddy Guy, and he is digging your sh**.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 12:50 AM on August 25, 2007
(68 comments)
Phrogging -
To sneak into a house and live among its occupants without their knowledge. ^ (via the Presurfer)
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 2:50 PM on August 15, 2007
(70 comments)
A State Street Family Album -
State Street in Madison, Wisconsin is a half mile link between the Capitol dome and the campus of the University of Wisconsin. Tree lined, traffic restricted, shops of all manner, State Street represents an almost picture postcard ideal. It is also home to the Family. In the 30's they might have
ridden the rails, now they are hanging out in the Peace Park. Glenn Austin has documented their community.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 7:27 AM on August 13, 2007
(72 comments)
The elixer of youth.
Serge Voronoff's
early experiments involved transplanting thyroid tissue into humans with a thyroid deficiency. He also began transplanting the testicles of executed criminals into rich old guys (as a treatment for senility and schizophrenia), but had to stop when the demand for the procedure far exceeding the supply of criminal testicles. At this point, Voronoff began using monkey testicles instead, and his first "monkey gland" to human transplant took place in June of 1920. (via another filter)
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 8:59 AM on July 3, 2007
(30 comments)
How General Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties.
Whether the President was told about Abu Ghraib in January (when e-mails informed the Pentagon of the seriousness of the abuses and of the existence of photographs) or in March (when Taguba filed his report), Bush made no known effort to forcefully address the treatment of prisoners before the scandal became public, or to reëvaluate the training of military police and interrogators, or the practices of the task forces that he had authorized. Instead, Bush acquiesced in the prosecution of a few lower-level soldiers. The President’s failure to act decisively resonated through the military chain of command: aggressive prosecution of crimes against detainees was not conducive to a successful career.
In January of 2006, Taguba received a telephone call from General Richard Cody, the Army’s Vice-Chief of Staff. “This is your Vice,” he told Taguba. “I need you to retire by January of 2007.” No pleasantries were exchanged, although the two generals had known each other for years, and, Taguba said, “He offered no reason.” (A spokesperson for Cody said, “Conversations regarding general officer management are considered private personnel discussions. General Cody has great respect for Major General Taguba as an officer, leader, and American patriot.”)
“They always shoot the messenger,” Taguba told me. “To be accused of being overzealous and disloyal—that cuts deep into me. I was being ostracized for doing what I was asked to do.”
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 3:01 PM on June 16, 2007
(44 comments)
"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix." Thankfully, the
Supreme Court disagreed, on June 12, 1967.
Happy Loving Day.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 3:08 PM on June 12, 2007
(73 comments)
You,
wife,
your husband, minister, of the strict Calvinist stripe. You're well educated and deign to have your own ideas which challenge your husband's beliefs. For your own protection, to keep you from infecting the children with your heretical ideas, and just basically to control you, your husband has you committed to an
insane asylum. A doctor at the hospital agrees and you are imprisoned, most likely for life. If you sign a paper agreeing to never challenge your husband's beliefs again, you can be free. Too proud, you refuse and remain confined. You do
write a book though.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 7:37 AM on May 25, 2007
(94 comments)
Happy Law Day
Law Day is an opportunity to celebrate the Constitution and the laws that protect our rights and liberties and to recognize our responsibility as citizens to uphold the values of a free and just society. (
Law Day 2007)
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 7:28 AM on May 1, 2007
(53 comments)
The ShelBroCo Bicycle Chain Cleaning System
It is well-known that proper chain cleaning is the most vital and important aspect of cycling. There are zillions of doo-dads and gimmicks out there intended to make this task easier for spoiled, lazy cyclists.
Unfortunately, there's no "free lunch" in bicycle maintenance, and all of these existing systems are fundamentally mono-buttocked kluges.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 9:34 AM on April 1, 2007
(30 comments)
Vote different.
Unauthorized Internet ad for Obama converts Apple Computer's '84 Super Bowl spot into a generational howl against Clinton's presidential bid. more
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 4:53 PM on March 18, 2007
(98 comments)
Nerve pulses are sound pulses.
The membrane of the nerve is composed of lipids, a material that is similar to olive oil. This material can change its state from liquid to solid with temperature. Molecules that dissolve in membranes can lower the freezing point of membranes. The scientists found that the nerve membrane has a freezing point, which is precisely suited to the propagation of these concentrated sound pulses. Their theoretical calculations lead them to the same conclusion: Nerve pulses are sound pulses. This comes from their work on the
Thermodynamics of General Anesthesia (pdf).
(via Stereophile?)
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 7:10 AM on March 12, 2007
(45 comments)
Make a mixtape highlighting a young artist, have that artist proclaim his delight about the project on the CD, reignite that artist's career, repeat, then,
the RIAA has you arrested for counterfieting. The RIAA continues its vain struggle to understand the new music economy. In the meantime,
at least one company gets it, offering DRM-free CD downloads of obscure titles.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 7:25 AM on January 18, 2007
(67 comments)
Fairfax County Public Library system ditches the classics.
If titles remain untouched for two years, they may be discarded--permanently. "We're being very ruthless," boasts library director Sam Clay.... Books by Charlotte Brontë, William Faulkner, Thomas Hardy, Marcel Proust and Alexander Solzhenitsyn have recently been pulled.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 11:07 AM on January 4, 2007
(99 comments)
The Society for the Protection and Preservation of Fruitcake
-
Fruitcake, much maligned, the butt of many jokes and practical jokes - and yet much esteemed by many, and an important part of many folks' holiday tradition and ritual.
Thought we could explore some links on the subject. I think we could all learn to love this wonderful cake and appreciate its fine fruity nature.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 7:01 AM on December 20, 2006
(42 comments)
These
are not your father's fly tying
handiwork. Anglers have been fooling fish with feathers for generations. Graham Owen takes fly tying to the next level with
flies that catch
fish, and some that even
catch more flies.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 9:18 PM on December 18, 2006
(24 comments)
I want my MTV.
MTV is now mostly reality, titillation TV, rarely showing music videos anymore. YouTube fills the void somewhat, but sometimes you want to just sit back and let someone else take care of the programming. MusicPlusTV is sort of like the old MTV, but they stream to your computer instead of to your TV.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 8:18 AM on December 15, 2006
(23 comments)
Raging Rudolph,
a Martin Scorsese, Bankin/Rass Production.
Does my nose amuse you, is it funny like a clown, does it make you laugh?
No, no, no, great nose.
OK, I'm the Capo now.
posted to MetaFilter by caddis
at 10:04 PM on December 10, 2006
(9 comments)
