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mefi
From the Improv Everywhere people comes the
Urban Prankster blog to keep track of delightful shenanigans around the world.
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 10:46 AM on June 11, 2008
(21 comments)
Bush interview with Politico: "For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families:
He has given up golf."
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 4:13 PM on May 13, 2008
(121 comments)
Make your own attack ad.
The Democratic party is uploading all its "tracker" videos of the top Republican candidates out on the campaign trail, for use by anyone for anything. "The party hopes that thousands of eyes might find something the mainstream media has missed, or that a new way of juxtaposing the video with something else will be revealing about the candidates," says
the NYT. Gimmick or political sea change?
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 7:46 AM on November 28, 2007
(61 comments)
"It seems like a really original and interesting read."
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the first line of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" is one of literature's most famous, wittily kicking off one of the most beloved of all classics. And yet, 17 British publishers failed to recognize it and rejected the manuscript when Jane's name and the title were changed. What happens when the gatekeepers of literature are illiterate?
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 10:35 AM on July 19, 2007
(124 comments)
Guess who we're having for dinner? Danish shock artist Marco Evaristti lippoed some of his belly fat,
fried meatballs in it and
served it, partaking himself. He also canned some of the
Polpette al grasso di Marco and sold at least two cans for
$23,200 each. Cannibalism? Extreme autophagy? Trenchant comment on plastic surgery, taboos and consumerism? Or just really really gross?
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 8:26 AM on January 17, 2007
(70 comments)
Pho
(pronounced fuh), Hanoi's signature beef broth scented with ginger and anise, is one of the world's great culinary glories. Turns out it's not an ancient dish, but a 1950s-era syncretic product of the French occupation of Vietnam, which introduced the notion of boiling beef in a
pot au feu (which may be the origin of the name). The heady, fragrant noodle soup is a global
hit, prompting an
international pho conference,
several good blogs, and a sensual national obsession: "
When Vietnamese talk of pho they think of sex: 'We say that rice is a spouse, whereas pho is a lover.' " "
Pho is life, love and all things that matter." Tips on
eating and
cooking pho - recipes and more inside.
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 11:42 AM on January 10, 2007
(105 comments)
Bought from a slave trader and put on display at the Bronx zoo:
the strange, sad story of Ota Benga, a Pygmy with filed teeth brought from the Congo to America in 1906.
Here are a couple of contemporary news accounts of the controversial exhibit. After the zoo, Benga tried to make a life in America, studying to be a missionary.
"But what he really wanted to do was to tell everyone in this country that his people were dying, and why. I think he thought that eventually they'd listen. But they never did. That, to me, is the real tragedy."
In 1916, at the age of 32, he built a ceremonial fire, chipped off the caps on his teeth, performed a final tribal dance, and
shot himself with a stolen pistol.
Creationists say the story illustrates "the racism of evolutionary theory" and "the horrors that evolutionary theory has brought to society."
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 6:16 AM on August 7, 2006
(35 comments)
That thing called love.
"National Geographic Photographer Jodi Cobb scoured the globe to document how people define love and how it fits into their lives." Some great photos and interesting commentary.
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 10:12 AM on February 17, 2006
(17 comments)
Nazi swing music from the 30s.
FMU's terrific blog presents mp3s of songs by Charlie and His Orchestra, a big band assembled by Hitler's minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, to spread the Nazi message abroad even while trying to stamp out jazz and swing domestically.
"Leave it to Goebbels to take the music of The Andrews Sisters, Paul Whiteman and Irving Berlin and fill it with venomous rants against Jews, America and the British."
Vol. 1 is here. Some
history. And now I want to see
this movie about the band.
via BB
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 7:06 AM on December 10, 2005
(20 comments)
Dictionaraoke.
Your favorite songs, as performed by the audio pronunciation samples from online dictionaries.
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 5:37 AM on September 8, 2005
(48 comments)
AskGod.com
Forget Jeeves. For $25 a month, you can soon call a googling "angel" from your mobile phone with
questions. According to the
press release (pdf): "Soon, with the coming of Ask God, the prayers of all the data-starved will be answered
and the prophecy of information on-demand will be fulfilled." In a country caught in the grips of religious mania, is this smart marketing or tone deaf? And with the web increasingly on our phones already, who's going to pay for this?
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 4:45 AM on May 27, 2005
(87 comments)
Celebrity Mefi?
Arianna Huffington is starting a "celebrity group blog." Contributors will include Walter Cronkite, David Mamet, Albert Brooks, Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon Jordan, Rob Reiner, Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer, Bobby Kennedy, Tina Brown, John Cusack, Gary Hart, Mike Nichols...etc. According to a
leaked email, Arianna is pitching the "Huffington Post" (ugh) to contributors as "a collective endeavor that can enliven — and possibly even shift — the national conversation."
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 7:22 AM on April 25, 2005
(104 comments)
The Coming Crackdown on Political Blogging.
"In just a few months... bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press release to a mailing list...could be punished by fines." CNet's engrossing interview with an FEC commissioner who predicts major turmoil ahead as the government tries to decide if a blog link is a donation. A
Brookings paper (pdf) suggest "Radical changes in modes of communication and forms of political campaigning lie not too distant on the horizon."
This guy says it's all an attempt to undermine campaign finance laws by freaking out bloggers.
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 8:12 PM on March 3, 2005
(20 comments)
Coming soon, the Creation Museum.
Tired of those pesky evolutionists getting all the natural history museums? Want to see dinosaurs
threatening Adam or
entering the ark? Then hie yourself to Petersburg, Kentucky, where what is billing itself as "the world's most unusual museum" will soon be opening its doors.
"Uneasy answering questions about radiocarbon dating? Rock layers? Natural selection? Do you want to believe in six literal days, but you’re still confused about the big bang or Grand Canyon? You’ll find answers here!"
Some
background on founder Ken Ham and his theory that dinosaurs are "missionary lizards" who draw young minds to evolution and must be reclaimed.
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 5:02 PM on December 6, 2004
(60 comments)
Al Gore on tomorrow's Bush-Kerry duel:
The debate tomorrow should not seek to discover which candidate would be more fun to have a beer with. As Jon Stewart of the "The Daily Show'' nicely put in 2000, "I want my president to be the designated driver.''
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 5:36 AM on September 29, 2004
(37 comments)
Introducing: Metal Rubber.
"Twist it, stretch it double, fry it to 200°C, douse it with jet fuel—the stuff survives. After the torment, it snaps like rubber back to its original shape, all the while conducting electricity like solid metal." Sounds
familiar, no?
Here's the son of the Roswell air field's intel officer, describing the debris he says he saw in 1947: "It was possible to flex this stuff back and forth, even to wrinkle it, but you could not put a crease in it that would stay, nor could you dent it at all. I would almost have to describe it as a metal with plastic properties."
The UFO freaks are already
all over the "back engineering" of Roswell crash debris.
Meanwhile,
there's something unusual in the sky over Minnesota right now.
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 5:14 AM on August 20, 2004
(49 comments)
TinyPic.com
- "is a very simple, fast, reliable free image host. It is perfect for linking to auctions, message boards, journals, and other websites. There is no registration or login, all you have to do is submit your picture." This looks very useful. I find the
most popular pictures on the site curious though.
posted to MetaFilter by CunningLinguist
at 3:23 PM on June 21, 2004
(31 comments)
