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mefi
"He grew up in a ruthlessly discriminatory world -- a world in which segregation of the races was pervasive and taken for granted, where lynching was common, where the black man's inherent inferiority was proclaimed widely and wantonly.
Thurgood Marshall had the capacity to imagine a radically different world, the imaginative capacity to believe that such a world was possible, the strength to sustain that image in the mind's eye and the heart's longing, and the courage and ability to make that imagined world real."
Born July 2, 1908,
died January 25, 1993. Had he lived, he would have been
100 years old today.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 8:52 PM on July 2, 2008
(16 comments)
Amazing Birth (NSFW).
One link youtube post, requires login for age verification, but it's worth it.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 8:50 PM on January 20, 2008
(136 comments)
Catalog Choice:
one-stop shop for opting out of catalogs you don't want to receive.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 8:06 PM on December 29, 2007
(9 comments)
In the wake of Rupert Murdoch's takeover of the Wall Street Journal, several of the paper's top reporters have left for safer ground. Among them is Tara Parker-Pope, who joined the New York Times on
October 3rd. Her blog,
Well, currently accounts for three of the paper's top ten e-mailed stories: in addition to number 1, Five Easy Ways to Go Organic, she has number 5,
Shhh...My Child Is Sleeping (in My Bed, Um, With Me), and number 8,
Drug-Resistant Staph: What You Need to Know. Touché Rupert.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 9:15 PM on October 25, 2007
(23 comments)
American Sign Language Flash Video Dictionary
is a high quality, free dictionary with a huge number of signs. It includes specialized dictionaries of religious signs, conversational phrases, and ASL for babies. Unfortunately it's not possible to link to specific signs, but if you look inside you'll find words from "Abbreviate" to "Zoom" and phrases such as "I cannot fasten my belt," "has he been neutered?" "I already took a bath," "are you married?" and "I need a better firewall."
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 7:11 PM on July 25, 2007
(17 comments)
WiserEarth is a user-editable relational database that aspires to list, categorize, and describe every non profit and civil society organization on Earth. It currently includes
104,
304 organizations which can be viewed by
name,
location, or
areas of focus. You can perform
complex searches. You can post (or search)
jobs,
events, and
resources. You can discuss areas of focus, such as
Urban Forestry,
Evolutionary Ecology, or
government oversight and reform. You can also
visualize the networks connecting these areas of focus and
the various organizations.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 7:28 PM on May 9, 2007
(6 comments)
A Call to Free the Cell Phones.
Law professor and Net Neutrality activist
Tim Wu throws down the gauntlet to wireless industry. Building on the
Carterphone ruling, he makes the argument for
Wireless Net Neutrality: that consumers, not wireless carriers, should choose how they connect to the wireless networks, what devices they use, and what they do with the bandwidth.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 9:25 PM on February 11, 2007
(37 comments)
Maybe it's not really news because no one was killed, but you'd think that more people would notice when a
massive explosion in suburban Boston
totals 60 buildings, knocks out windows for a half mile around, knocks people out of bed in the middle of the night, and
registers on the Richter scale 30 miles away.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 7:41 PM on November 22, 2006
(46 comments)
"Animals are on the run. Plants are migrating too. The Earth's creatures, save for one species, do not have thermostats in their living rooms that they can adjust for an optimum environment. Animals and plants are adapted to specific climate zones, and they can survive only when they are in those zones...Gardeners and bird watchers are well aware of this, and their handbooks contain maps of the zones in which a tree or flower can survive and the range of each bird species. Those maps will have to be redrawn."
Jim Hansen on the global impact of global warming. Meanwhile, the National Association of manufacturers is happy to tell you
everything you really need to know on the subject. (More from NAM
here.)
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 1:47 PM on August 11, 2006
(12 comments)
'Torture is prohibited by law throughout the United States.
It is categorically denounced as a matter of policy and as a tool of state authority. Every act constituting torture under the Convention constitutes a criminal offense under the law of the United States. No official of the government, federal, state or local, civilian or military, is authorized to commit or to instruct anyone else to commit torture. Nor may any official condone or tolerate torture in any form. No exceptional circumstances may be invoked as a justification of torture. US law contains no provision permitting otherwise prohibited acts of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to be employed on grounds of exigent circumstances (for example, during a ‘state of public emergency’) or on orders from a superior officer or public authority, and the protective mechanisms of an independent judiciary are not subject to suspension.’ (Report of the United States to the UN Committee against Torture, October 15, 1999, UN Doc. CAT/C/28/Add.5, February 9, 2000, para. 6.)
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 8:57 PM on November 9, 2005
(59 comments)
Vote for Your Ruler:
"Instead of hidden agendas and waffling policies, I offer you direct candor and brutal certainty."
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 11:38 AM on October 7, 2005
(27 comments)
Eprida:
using biomass to produce hydrogen, reduce the emissions of coal-fired power plants, and suck CO2 out of the atmosphere, all while improving agricultural productivity. A new
virtuous cycle (flash)?
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 11:18 AM on June 24, 2005
(9 comments)
Is he or isn't he?
Slashdot member claims to be an Apple employee and posts detailed commentary on Apple's strategy and product plans, including information about unreleased products. He speaks with authority and seems to know what he's talking about. Apple does not sue Slashdot or fire any of its employees. Slashdot members debate the implications.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 5:18 PM on May 17, 2005
(29 comments)
Thanks to our
new service you too can spend quality time with Kato Kaelin. Unfortunately, Leon Spinks is currently unavailable. And if you think you might want to sleep or use your phone during the next week, make sure to read the
faq.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 6:48 PM on December 14, 2004
(20 comments)
Will Currency Wars Effect You?
Oldman gives a quick run-through of the geopolitics of America's budget deficit, with some likely scenarios for the next 2-5 years.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 12:32 PM on November 18, 2004
(26 comments)
This has a value in our profession, and it doesn't have to do with scale at all. It has to do with
the actual meaning of a house.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 9:18 PM on September 9, 2004
(8 comments)
The Freeloader Registry.
When an employer pays low wages and doesn't provide health care benefits, its employees often end up getting free care through state and federal programs. How much does this cost you, and which companies benefit from the practice? A new Massachusetts state law will provide detailed information about top corporate welchers. (This follows recent discussion of the topic in the context of
Wal-Mart.)
Via
Good Jobs First.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 2:52 PM on August 6, 2004
(21 comments)
Visualizing power plant impact.
A nice use of flash to show the impact of electricity generation around the USA. You can zoom in on individual states and then individual power plants. Or you can view the national impact of several regulatory regimes.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 11:37 AM on June 10, 2004
(6 comments)
Richard Clarke asks MoveOn to remove his name and recordings of his voice from their
new advert.
MoveOn refuses.
posted to MetaFilter by alms
at 1:35 PM on March 31, 2004
(25 comments)
