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October 2001 Archives
October 31
I
didn't get to go this year to haunted houses so please let me live vicariously through your exploits. It was bound to happen: this here's the compulsory
first semi-annual HAUNTED HOUSE CRITIQUE MeFi thread! Feel free to share your stories of your favorite haunted house adventures this year. Where'd you go? How annoying were the lines? What was there? Didja pee in yer pants or didja punch out the guy with that obnoxious bleeding Screams mask? There's one in every crowd this year. Did they do the classics or go for modern scares? Who'd ya bring with you? Didja take point or hide in the back? You know the last one in the group is always the guy they attack in haunted houses. Anybody touch ya? You gonna sue? Give us the whole skinny.
posted by ZachsMind at 11:35 PM PST - 5 comments
Foreign Candy
Their Pink Grapefruit Mint is the candy that changed my life. The candy I can't live without. The Best Damn Candy I Ever Had. Really. Too bad it's Japanese. Anybody else hooked on non-native candy? (warning: links to a site awash in an asian character set -- but, you get cute monkeys).
posted by daver at 7:16 PM PST - 45 comments
Bravo Bill Moyers!
Once in awhile there comes a personality that can bridge ideological gaps. Granted these "gaps" are left, center left and moderate right. At that, Moyers is quite the ace. In this keynote address, Moyers speaks of patriotism, unity, heartbreak, renewable energy, "it could have been worse" scenarios, further terrorist attacks and who's side We the People should be on.
posted by crasspastor at 6:58 PM PST - 13 comments
Wonka!
We'd be remiss to let halloween pass without a shoutout to one of the best candy companies ever. Very nice Flash work here, too. What's your favorite Wonka candy?
posted by andnbsp at 5:40 PM PST - 29 comments
necco!
call me provincal but one of my favourite candy companies is the new england confectionary company -- there's really nothing like riding the no 1 bus over smoot bridge and seeing the candy coloured smokestack rising from their roof. okay, so sweethearts taste like chalk and necco wafers are out and out disgusting; there's nothing quite like the sky bar.
posted by pxe2000 at 3:53 PM PST - 15 comments
Low or no budget horror films. They're awful, and oh so enticing (prolly 'cause they can be awful, amusing, and sometimes really good).
How do you do
special effects on no budget? Boggles the mind. As Halloween as it gets, the independant film makers and horror officiandos have their own
portal. Crawl down these
haunted corridors at your own risk.
posted by Wulfgar! at 3:12 PM PST - 7 comments
Today is Reformation Day, the anniversary of
Martin Luther nailing the
95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church in 1517. He was largely criticizing the practice of selling indulgences (forgiveness for sins). He didn't intend to split with the church. He left room for the Pope to slip out of the indulgences corruption. But the Pope didn't, and the split eventually came.
posted by Sean Meade at 2:02 PM PST - 12 comments
candy for the
eyes, ears, and brain. Although the documentary was shown at SXSW(and other locations) earlier this year, i haven't seen much reference to it. profiles william gibson and his mind's view of what he envisioned as 'cyberspace.' be sure to click the 'don't click' link for an interactive
map that details some of the obscure points of the film.
and for those that already seen it, go get yourself some spooky, personalized M&Ms candy!
posted by donkeysuck at 1:40 PM PST - 4 comments
Since we're talking candy, as a kid I used to be addicted to
U-No Bars. This dates me but I unhaled those puppies. And it's amazing how many other "staple" candy bars they made.
posted by Danf at 1:18 PM PST - 9 comments
Hell
Houses Run by Baptists!!!!!
Does this happen in your neck of the woods? I had never heard of it, but on the radio this morning I heard that September 11th has become a popular motif for these haunted houses. I think this might be the scariest thing about Halloween.
posted by wsfinkel at 6:37 AM PST - 17 comments
They aren't hermetically sealed in plastic, so most trick-or-treaters nowadays will never have heard of
popcorn balls. But if you live in a trusting community, why not whip up a batch to give away tonight? (Hey, it's gotta be better than Snickers.) What's your favorite obscure Halloween treat?
(that isn't pancakes.)
posted by darukaru at 5:43 AM PST - 44 comments
Cronyism, alive and well in Boston
- departing Massachusetts Port Authority (the authority that oversees Boston's Logan Airport) executive director Virgina Buckingham has been given quite the golden parachute...in the form of a $175,000 severance package. This, uh, outrage puts Gov. Jane Swift in
tight spot...
posted by tpl1212 at 5:42 AM PST - 12 comments
October 30
Holy mackerel! Image analogies
are an NYU-developed technique for "teaching" the computer an image filter. Their software can do things like fill in the blank in the analogy (photo of a swan):(pastel rendering of a swan)::(photo of a landscape):________. I'm not doing it justice. Their site has some
compelling examples of what they can do. Gee-whiz factor of 8.5!
posted by MonkeyMeat at 10:26 PM PST - 17 comments
Haunted House = No STDs!
"As visitors make their way through a dimly lit, S-shaped maze, they view startling, full-color photos of canker sores and genital warts on male and female genitalia infected with syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhea. An empty casket at the end sends a message that death awaits anyone who does not practice safe sex."
posted by adrober at 10:23 PM PST - 8 comments
Email Roulette
"When you submit your message, it gets sent randomly to another player who has signed up to receive messages. They have the option of responding to you or not; you won't know who it went to unless they write back... so you better make it interesting!....email Roulette is a great way to meet people and will doubtless provide you hours of random entertainment...."
What hallucinogens are these people on?
posted by Voyageman at 9:08 PM PST - 5 comments
Bridge Builder, revamped
I posted a link to this program months and months ago. Since then, the program has been revamped. It's now called
PONTIFEX, and it gives you more options for bridge building materials, as well as better 3-D graphics (including an option to view your bridges from the point of view of the train's engineer).
It's well worth another look.
posted by crunchland at 5:55 PM PST - 8 comments
What if Martha Stewart was a goth?
As it turns out, she'd just shy away from
elegant eggshell blues and seafoam greens in favor of
black and burgundy. Other than that she'd be pretty much the same. It's not too late to recycle your house in time for Samhain. A frivolous, yet convincing argument for a strange but useful marriage of ideas. Well, if you're into this sort of thing, of course.
Happy Halloween, MeFi!
posted by ZachsMind at 4:24 PM PST - 13 comments
A Columnist of the People?:
"Many people have told me they consider my writing a breath of fresh air. The question is whether a year of fresh air is worth the price of a music CD. I don't know the answer to that question, but this is my attempt to find out.
My proposal is a modest one. Whereas some Post writers earn $750 per column, I am proposing to write a weekly online column for $600 dollars Canadian (see U.S. dollar equivalents). This means I would be paid, over the course of a year, $31,200 for two days work per week."
I guess this is sort of a twist on the honor model, but wouldn't people possibly be more likely to go with something like a micro-ad, where they get some tangible ROI?
(via e-media tidbits)
posted by owillis at 4:08 PM PST - 20 comments
Ever wanted to be an online
mentor? Have you ever had an online
mentor? So many are so terribly worried about so many things right now. What are we doing?
Have you had a mentor on MeFi that showed you the way? The time to learn is now (methinks).
posted by Wulfgar! at 3:03 PM PST - 9 comments
The Chrysler Design Awards
include Susan Kare.
"Her bitmap wrist watch, travel-destination city fonts, lit bomb icon that signals a computer crash (“they told me it would almost never be seen ”) and smiling, welcoming Mac start-up screen helped re-envision the computer from machine to co-creator." -- "almost never be seen" -- heheheh. Well -- at least it's got more wit than a blue screen of death.
posted by fpatrick at 12:25 PM PST - 11 comments
Once in a
blue moon. Not only will the full moon on Halloween be the first in 40(i think) and the last for another 19 years, it is also a 'blue moon' which means that the moon is full
twice in the same month. Notwithstanding any MeFi visitors from
Detroit, are you feeling strange yet?
posted by donkeysuck at 11:08 AM PST - 25 comments
The dramatic way to open champagne.
Have you used or seen someone use a champagne saber? Amazing that the bottle neck doesn't shatter around the edges. I tried looking on Google for some lore and description but found nothing.
posted by mmarcos at 10:22 AM PST - 18 comments
Designdefenseministry
All out war! A call to arms for those pixelpushers out there. Sick sense of humor (like the kabul coverage) combined with really great gfx. caution: bandwidth!
posted by heimkonsole at 9:32 AM PST - 7 comments
Spooooky...
Everybody has their own favorite ghost story, and this site has catalogued thousands of them. Beyond that, they have videos, photos, lists of famous hauntings (find one near you!) as well as as guide to Ghosthunting 101. Creep yourself out, count the "phantom hitchhiker" doubles, debunk away, or gear up to become Egon Spengler Jr.. Happy hauntings!
posted by headspace at 9:05 AM PST - 16 comments
Do you believe what you're told by your government?
I don't. I'm quite the conspiracy theorist. One thing I do believe is that during the Vietnam war, battlefield evidence obtained by journalists directly contradicted the official word from the Pentagon. Starting with Ashcroft basically overturning the FOIA, numerous government agencies are using the Current Situation to get a stranglehold on information. Furthermore, they are getting rid of anything remotely distasteful to their administrators and beaurocrats. Most telling is the FAA's decision to remove records of past security violations from their website, basically ending public oversight of their self-policing activities.
posted by taumeson at 8:45 AM PST - 22 comments
Only in Utah -- with a twist. Check out the
beer list of Wasatch Beers of Park City, Utah. Their copywriters do OK -- but the real genius is in the last beer on the list:
Polygamy Porter. "Why have just one" -- indeed!
posted by mattpfeff at 8:30 AM PST - 10 comments
Said's ideal Mid East proposal.
In one of the more insightful pieces written lately about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Edward Said might surprise those that see only fundamentalists in the Arab world. Excerpt:
And since the Palestinian-Israeli struggle has been so humanly impoverishing I would suggest that important symbolic gestures of recognition and responsibility, undertaken perhaps under the auspices of a Mandela or a panel of impeccably credentialed peace-makers, should try to establish justice and compassion as crucial elements in the proceedings. Unfortunately, it is perhaps true that neither Arafat nor Sharon are suited to so high an enterprise.
From
Al-Ahram Weekly, one of the most interesting English language news magazines originating in the Arab world.
posted by talos at 7:26 AM PST - 5 comments
Ask the ombudsman.
Are newspapers revealing too much information? too little? A news ombudsman receives and investigates complaints from newspaper readers or listeners or viewers of radio and television stations about accuracy, fairness, balance and good taste in news coverage. He or she recommends appropriate remedies or responses to correct or clarify news reports.
Michael Getler: Internal Critic with Big Audience: how the Washington Post's Ombudsman does his job.
An ombudsman is someone who handles complaints and attempts to find mutually satisfactory solutions. Ombudsmen can be found in government, corporations, hospitals, universities and other institutions. The first ombudsman was appointed in 1809 in Sweden to handle citizens' complaints about the government. It is pronounced "om-BUDS-man" and is Scandinavian in origin.
posted by Carol Anne at 6:38 AM PST - 2 comments
Tonight is Devil's Night in Detroit.
There have been measures taken in recent years to reduce the number of arsons on this night. From 6pm curfews to 'officially' renaming it 'Angel's Night'. Can a city that is known for this sort of behavior ever grow out of this image?
posted by tj at 5:10 AM PST - 40 comments
Virgin Mobile Phone Records Which Map Users Whereabouts Kept Indefinitely.
Admittedly, this data is only accurate to within a few hundred metres at the moment, but '
When the new breed of 3G - third generation - phones comes on stream, probably next year, they will enable the users' location to be pinpointed to within a couple of metres'. I know the current climate is increasingly pro-identity cards, pro-police state, but this can't be right, surely? Why do they want to keep this information indefinitely?
posted by boneybaloney at 2:49 AM PST - 15 comments
October 29
Battle Over Blocks
These essays offer a thoughtful insight into the Lego bricks we grew up with, and how the toys have changed with the times to reflect an absence of creativity in our society. Features Jeff Bates, cofounder of slashdot.
posted by johnjreeve at 9:10 PM PST - 25 comments
Stephen Wolfram: A New Kind of Science
- From the publisher's summary, "Starting from a collection of simple computer experiments — illustrated in the book by striking computer graphics — Wolfram shows how their unexpected results force a whole new way of looking at the operation of our universe." May be big. Thoughts?
posted by paladin at 8:48 PM PST - 26 comments
Notorious American correspondence player and chess writer
Claude Bloodgood has died.
'A convicted murderer who was
sentenced to death but reprieved, Bloodgood was the best
known of US prisoner players.'
I love obituaries. And what could be sweeter than the cold hand of death dragging
Chess Rogues down to Gehanna?
posted by crunchburger at 7:22 PM PST - 3 comments
some atrocious reporting from the usually responsible UK Guardian
Just an example of bad conclusions from little information. The sensationalist title of this story, reprinted from the Observer, is, "Anthrax attacks' 'work of neo-Nazis,'" (which seems like bad grammar to boot - why the apostrophe after "attacks"?) and then it begins, "Neo-Nazi extremists within the US are behind the deadly wave of anthrax attacks against America, according to latest briefings from the security services and Justice Department."
But if you read the actual article, here's the closest thing they have to a quote or face supporting this:
'We've been zeroing in on a number of hate groups, especially one on the West Coast,' a source at the Justice Department told The Observer yesterday. 'We've certainly not discounted the possibility that they may be involved.'
Is it just me, or is this drawing a lot out of a little, and just confusing the situation?
posted by moth at 3:41 PM PST - 20 comments
The Idea Line
is a Java-based timeline of net artworks, arranged in a fan of luminous threads. Each thread corresponds to a particular kind of artwork or type of technology.
Note - requires some patience as it streams in slow even over my company T-1. [via
IA/]
posted by willnot at 2:52 PM PST - 18 comments
speaking about socio-economic investments
(whether the $200 billion the government is investing into producing the joint service fighter will benefit
our society more if invested elswhere)... the seattle times carried
an interesting article about the bill & melinda gates foundation on sunday. with an endowment of $24.2 billion, it must find ways to give away the equivalent of $3.3 million each day, in order to meet federal tax rules to remain a non-profit/tax-free organization.
with so much fund at his disposal, it seems bill gates is attacking neglected social and health problems around the world with more resources than the u.s. government has been doing in some areas. with a small (and less bureaucratic?) staff, the foundation appears to be efficient and focused (reflecting the drive, passion, and result-orientation of bill gates). it will be interesting to watch the progress (and impact) bill has on the world besides what he does at microsoft. i wish him success.
posted by kliuless at 11:38 AM PST - 12 comments
All of the talk about
Islam, got me thinking about how religions move evolve/devolve and move even more and even sometimes go away. Sure, we’ve all heard of
Christianity,
Buddhism and
Judaism but how many recall
this one? Speaking of which, aren’t we due for another Big Ole Religion? What’s the next big God thing in your opinion?
posted by Dagobert at 10:28 AM PST - 73 comments
Virginia Moment of Silence
passes muster at the Supreme Court. Unlike moves to institute school prayer, the moment of silence allows for a moment of quiet reflection, which doesn't infringe on anyones rights to pray or not.
posted by Lanternjmk at 8:56 AM PST - 28 comments
Maori challenge Lego to stop using Maori words for its toys
Certain Maori objected to what they claimed was Lego's inappropriate use of Maori words, and the way Lego's Bionicle game mixed together strands of many cultures. So what's next? No syncretic philosophy/art? Although I suppose marketing Jesus or Mohammed or Buddha as crappy plastic superheroes might cause a little stir.
posted by phartizan at 8:26 AM PST - 44 comments
If you crow about your redesign,
claiming your site is now "better-looking and easier to use" (and not, say, "sludgy as Hotmail and nearly as ugly"), and you offer a
graphical tour to "show you how all these slick new features work", the link to which is a 404, are you the stupidest monopoly around?
Just wondering.
posted by textist at 7:26 AM PST - 26 comments
Is McSweeney's Sounding More And More Like Random House?
Or is it just me? As a lifetime subscriber and fan of David Eggers, I'm sickened by the glib, shameless commercialism that now contaminates what was once an interesting website for new writers. What in the hell has happened? Or is the new book-peddling climate just another tiresome take on post-post-post modernism or, more likely, just blatant PR?
(Latest example inside)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:21 AM PST - 19 comments
October 28
Class War - Divided we stand
"Yet at least a tenth of the country — a very influential tenth in the media, the university, politics, foundations, churches, and the arts — is adamantly and vocally at odds with most Americans."
posted by Oxydude at 4:41 PM PST - 56 comments
Saudis in the worst squeeze play yet.
SA is in a triangulation of criticism from Afghanistan, from within the country, and from Washington. The fall of this Muslim regime, a US ally, with a horrible human rights record and repressive culture, the largest supplier of oil in the world, and huge supplier of contract business for the US, is not something to take lightly. Catch-22.
posted by mmarcos at 3:53 PM PST - 10 comments
Monday is the last day to declare your intention to write a 50,000-word novel during
National Novel Writing Month (Nov. 1-30). "Dubious fiction writers from all nations are invited to participate," says organizer Chris Baty. So far, around 3,000 writers have pledged to bring 150 million new words into the world.
posted by rcade at 7:15 AM PST - 103 comments
October 27
WhoÕs BeingÊNa•ve?
So to be realistic means to believe that bombing one of the poorest nations on Earth will not only reduce terrorism, but also fail to ignite a new round of anti-American fanaticism. To be na•ve, on the other hand, is to pay attention to modern history, which tells us in no uncertain terms that bombing people is rather likely to fuel their anger, resentment, and desire for revenge.
And it gets better...
posted by mapalm at 10:36 PM PST - 73 comments
Naipul thinks the causes of Sept. 11 are religious, not American foreign policy. (NYT)
"There is a passage in one of the Conrad short stories of the East Indies where the savage finds himself with his hands bare in the world, and he lets out a howl of anger. I think that, in its essence, what is happening.The world is getting more and more out of reach of simple people who have only religion. And the more they depend on religion, which of course solves nothing, the more the world gets out of reach."
posted by semmi at 6:07 PM PST - 36 comments
FBI Seeking to Wiretap Internet
"FBI has plans to change the architecture of the Internet and route traffic through central servers that it would be able to monitor e-mail more easily." (via InstaPundit)
posted by Mick at 2:56 PM PST - 29 comments
If you find that flags on SUVs or for sale in pop-under ads water
down the meaning of Old Glory, have I
got
some
flags
for
you.
Art's exploration of the flag as a symbol both strengthen it's value
as a powerful icon, and question our country's fallibility.
posted by machaus at 1:10 PM PST - 9 comments
The Official Berkely Breathed Website.
remember Bloom County? Outland? when I was younger, Breathed and
Waterson were definitely my favorite "strippers" (I even had the Bloom County screen saver pack!) although I was only about 12 at the time, I do recall being pretty put-out when Outland was retired. does anyone else feel the pleasant tingle of familiarity when you see Bill the Cat or Opus on a greeting card? (if you're not too familiar with Berke's works, check out some of his
favorite strips.
posted by mcsweetie at 11:08 AM PST - 20 comments
My Opinion-
The Director of Homeland Security that Bush appointed should have been a Muslim. This is getting out of hand.
posted by Counselco at 8:04 AM PST - 23 comments
Slashdot.info
is the address that I randomly typed in, (just for fun) and reached the page. Quite informative. Better than a
spoof page, atleast. Also, the
.biz is not registered yet...
posted by arnab at 2:30 AM PST - 3 comments
October 26
A Novel idea.
"Remote Sensing...provide service on remote sensing and its application to the satellite imagery map, as a core service system of remote sensing in Korea." This is just .01% viewing area of most countries' spying capabilities.
posted by wantwit at 10:20 PM PST - 2 comments
When
The Lord of the Rings series rolls around to Xmas 2002, will they have to change the name of the second episode from
The Two Towers?
Will Hollywood have settled down by then? Maybe it won't be a sensitive problem anymore. But what would be a good alternate title?
posted by crunchburger at 10:17 PM PST - 37 comments
Based on handwriting
the geniuses at the United States government have figured out the letters might be from the same source. I'm sure everyone has seen these letters... Isn't that a bit "duh." If everything is figured out at this lightning fast speed we will never find these people.
This reminds me a bit of those psychologists who report very obvious things... many times I have heard on MSNBC: "According to psychologists, the nation is in a state of shock. For some it may take weeks to escape this feeling, for others months." Is that really something we couldn't figure out by ourselves?
posted by yevge at 7:32 PM PST - 15 comments
Lockheed Martin
beat out Boeing for a
$200 Billion contract to build the new
F-35 fighters jets earlier today. Missile defense, planes that can take off vertically, bombs that fry electronics...military technology is accelerating at a really frightening pace.
posted by catatonic at 6:41 PM PST - 36 comments
The Apple G5 SPHERE!
SPHERE! It's Round! It's hella'fast. Get to the page before
Apple sics the lawyers on them and makes this great page
vanish.
If someone has already posted this sorry, I haven't seen it, but I'm pretty new...so there you go.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 1:10 PM PST - 48 comments
Oops.
So, the governor of Texas appoints you as the new point-man for domestic safety in the state. Some say it's pay-back for staying out of the Republican Senate primary (where the governor's friend is running) and deciding to run for Lt. Governor. Despite some criticism, you run a four-page glossy ad in a Texas magazine touting your qualifications for Lt. Governor, including your recent appointment as the Texas anti-terrorism czar. The ad features a waving American flag and a patriotic soldier. Only one problem: it's a German soldier.
posted by conquistador at 12:24 PM PST - 15 comments
Show your openmindedness!
In our extended discussion of the war, the (un)fairness of war, etc., it's been incredible how many MetaFilter regulars have changed their mind or reconsidered their opinions! (wink, wink) Here's something for those former pacifists. Now we need to find something for all those former hawks. [via
Instapundit]
posted by prodigal at 9:55 AM PST - 9 comments
Tourist Jailed for Oral Sex
A German tourist who pleaded guilty to having oral sex in Zambia was sentenced on Thursday to six years in jail with hard labor, court officials said. Note to self: cancel Zambia honeymoon plans.
posted by arielmeadow at 9:31 AM PST - 35 comments
The American Declaration of Independence.
Given the debate over whether the US can or should try to do nation-building in Afghanistan, I wonder if revisiting our own Declaration of Independence would clarify things. It strikes me that this document (especially the preamble) would apply to anyone, anywhere.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...
posted by mrmanley at 8:59 AM PST - 39 comments
Curly and Motly are kinda cute, but Luncheon and Lambchop look might tasty.
The children from St Canices school in Westport New Zealand welcome you to Lambs Online, where ten of our students are ‘fostering’ 10 lambs which have been ‘adopted’ by a group of Japanese school children from their sister city in Amagese Japan. Each lamb has its own personal website and we invite you to follow their progress through the eyes of our students by clicking on the photos and links below.
posted by adampsyche at 6:49 AM PST - 6 comments
The U.S.
Department of Justice issued a
revised memorandum for how to treat requests received under the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that establishing a "sound legal basis" rather than the existing "foreseeable harm" standard for defending FOIA request refusals in court, John Ashcroft FOIA Memorandum, October 12, 2001. This was part of the EFF link below, but it's probably disturbing enough to have it's own discussion.
posted by rhyax at 6:18 AM PST - 5 comments
The New War on Terror
Noam
Chomsky has written a book called
9-11. He analyses the situation in a long essay published in
Counterpunch.
Quote:
We certainly want to reduce the level of terror, certainly not escalate it. There is one easy way to do that and therefore it is never discussed. Namely stop participating in it.
posted by alex63 at 4:19 AM PST - 62 comments
October 25
A Sign of Our Times.
(No, not the part about the mom mailing her son's ashes to the student loan office. The part about the employees freaking out thinking it was anthrax.)
posted by Fofer at 11:48 PM PST - 6 comments
The Iranian Secular Opposition Movement.
I came upon this via another
item I found on Plastic.com. (Where, BTW, one of the more cogent comments in the related thread was by one MayorBob) So, I'm wondering where does this lead to? The first line of that wretched 60s hit
Eve Of Destruction does come to mind... Has anyone else heard anything about this?
posted by y2karl at 8:12 PM PST - 6 comments
Army to develop video games.
According to an Yahoo article, a venture funded by the US Army is developing videos games for the home market. "The U.S. Army will provide funding, but its Training & Doctrine Command bureau will also be involved in game development, ICT said.
The games will allow players to control entire groups of soldiers, ICT said, with CS-12 allowing the player to take the role of a company commander and C-Force putting the player in the role of squad leader."
I kinda get an "Ender's Game" sort of feel from this.
posted by Darke at 5:42 PM PST - 16 comments
Pencam verité
Using an inexpensive digital camera about the size of a magic marker, the photographer/webmaster of
pencam.org demonstrates how a keen eye for detail and composition and a little bit of Photoshop tweaking can overcome cheap tech with his gallery of
hundreds of extraordinary images taken from daily life.
posted by MegoSteve at 4:39 PM PST - 15 comments
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....
for Boston Red Sox fans. This story from espn.com's Page 2 about Game 6 of the 1986 World Series is well-written and fills me with sympathy and empathy for Sox fans. See, as a Yakee fan, I was rooting against them at the time, but I feel sorry for them now. What a cruel punishment that game must have been. So close, and yet so far. (Please pardon my sports digression and shameless use of cliches.)
posted by msacheson at 3:06 PM PST - 34 comments
Arundhati Roy's latest piece on the war.
This is absolutely devastating. In prose as beautiful as it is powerful, she manages to touch on issues ranging from the definition of terrorism to the inanity of the food drops; from Taliban brutality to the oil cabal. Some will hate it; some (like me) will thank the stars that people like her are in this world.
posted by mapalm at 2:50 PM PST - 74 comments
Meanwhile, back in some secluded spot...
Refugees are fleeing for their lives as a town of 20,000 people is completely demolished-in Nigeria. The Economic Community of West African States (
Ecowas) has agreed to take urgent action to eradicate slavery, i.e.
children making chocolate. I could go on and on.
Why does Africa receive such little attention when it's really the bigtop in the circus of world suffering?
posted by quercus at 2:28 PM PST - 25 comments
If This Be War.
This essay by a military historian puts the current muddle of conflicted opinions about war into historical perspective with startling clarity.
Thanks to the Little Green Footballs weblog. I find interesting stuff there every day.
posted by Tubes at 11:39 AM PST - 10 comments
From a piece in the NYTimes today,
Home Front Is Minefield for President:
"The lesson we're learning," one administration official said today, "is that you can bomb the wrong place in Afghanistan and not take much heat for it. But don't mess up at the post office."Leave it to the White House to come away with exactly the wrong interpretation. But the facts are there, too -- most Americans are more concerned about the (relatively slight) risk of getting Anthrax than the rather significant risk that, if we screw up in Afghanistan, we might lose the current coalition against terrorism, Bin Laden, and any hope for "homeland security" for a long time to come....
posted by mattpfeff at 10:47 AM PST - 12 comments
Gov Agency creates bare-bones web index
Web sites assume that you know a little about what you're looking for. One US Federal agency has created a
navigation engine that requires virtually no understanding of anything.
I'm torn. Part of me wants one of these navigation tools for every website I use. Part of me is a little disappointed that sites have to be this least-common-denominator-simple for people to use.
Do you like it? Would you want one for the sites you use? Discuss.
posted by basilwhite at 10:18 AM PST - 14 comments
GINORMOUS banner ad at download.com.
From what I can tell, it only auto-expands on the first visit, presumably cookied, but I was still pretty annoyed. If you click to view, it blows up again, runs a little commercial at you(sndtrk by Madonna), and shrinks again. A little better than the layout-destroying monoliths other sites are using?
posted by Su at 10:14 AM PST - 20 comments
USA for USA.
A spoof of "We are the World." Probably ten years old, but I for one have never seen it before. Streaming video.
posted by swift at 9:32 AM PST - 14 comments
The crimes they are a'changing.
This comes from the daily police log of The Union newspaper Grass Valley/Nevada City, CA. Surveillance cameras (and apparently not very effective ones) were stolen while mystery powders kept the cops hopping.
posted by tnadeau at 9:13 AM PST - 5 comments
PBS discriminates
A posting a day or so ago suggested that in the Israeli/Palestinian issue, PBS slanted its coverage. I had argued in a post that there was a larger issue: PBS slants on many issues. This piece shows where,why,how and when.
posted by Postroad at 8:11 AM PST - 10 comments
Time to Crack Down on Cock.
"The driver had no license plate but plenty of chickens -- all of them clucking from the back seat and trunk ... The officer knew what he was seeing: The suspect was headed to a cockfight -- and jail."
posted by bclark at 7:02 AM PST - 14 comments
Why the world needs America to cheer up
This article claims America and New York in particular have lost faith in an economic recovery. Can any New Yorkers tell me whether this is true?
A side note:
The (London) Times has been excellent since 9/11 IMO, although the site desperately needs a redesign. I'll do it! Employ me!
posted by Summer at 6:35 AM PST - 8 comments
Windows XP Launches
"The most significant operating-system upgrade since Windows 95" -
PCMag, but with such demanding hardware requirements, I think I shall hold off XP. Having played with Beta 2 it seems novel and easier for beginners.
Are you tempted/hooked on the Windows E
xperience?
posted by williamtry at 5:27 AM PST - 61 comments
Marvel Comics ditches the Comics Code
- I haven't been
with it in terms of comics for about 10 years now, but I found this article to be fairly interesting. Apparently,
"Marvel is growing up with the rest of the country" (according to editor-in-chief Joe Quesada) by
ditching the CCA and introducing its own internal "ratings system." I can't decide whether to stodgy and support the campiness of what I grew up with (DC's
"Crisis On Infinite Earths," for one) or agree that comics should change (Captain America in a "compromising sexual situation," though?)...or perhaps I shouldn't really care, considering the last "comic" I picked up was
the Watchmen graphic novel...and I have an inkling that not much out today could compare...
posted by tpl1212 at 4:59 AM PST - 26 comments
October 24
If this story is true,
then the Indonesian authorities have a lot of work ahead of them in combating corruption. Who's ever heard of the police openly working with smugglers to force refugees on to an overloaded boat
at gunpoint?
posted by jetgrrl at 11:35 PM PST - 4 comments
Nice concert, crap song.
I would have given anything to hear Sean, Yoko, Moby and Rufus Wainwright singing "Across the Universe" which might be my fave Lennon song of all time. But this concert was never televised in the SF Bay Area and now STP's cover of "Revolution" is being flogged on alternative rock radio
in the Bay Area. And it sucks, IMO. Damn.
posted by Lynsey at 11:15 PM PST - 15 comments
"Closer to 3,000"?
NYC City hall has been quietly trimming the official count of the missing and dead from the collapse of the World Trade Center. This number, often simply "Five thousand" in my and most people's minds, actually comes from several sources, the trickiest of which are reports of missing loved ones to the police. People keep coming up with their own numbers. How would you count it? What does it mean if we say "Five thousand" but your kids learn "Three thousand" in their grade-school social studies texts?
posted by rschram at 10:38 PM PST - 36 comments
Don't like blowing people off? Let
these guys do it for you.
Possibly the best idea ever? Does anybody know of services like this in other cities?
Be sure to listen to the outgoing message...
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger at 10:11 PM PST - 4 comments
If I see one more ad for
K-Pax, I'm going to snap. 2001, with the exception of
Waking Life, has been an awful year for movies. And having this tired rehash of both
Starman and
The Fisher King (oh, Jeff, we can't always be The Dude, now can we?) being foisted on me is
not helping. Are there any movies that you're looking forward to? Any you're actively loathing?
Discuss.
posted by solistrato at 7:53 PM PST - 83 comments
Powerpoint invades the NFL:
"The way they do it with the PowerPoint, it livens up meetings and makes them more interesting". Imagine the sideline hijinks when all the plays disappear because of SirCam! What kind of coach would Vince Lombardi be if he had a setup
like this? I still miss the
glow puck from hockey, but I could do without the
"virtual billboards" all over the darn field. Should computers and sport mix?
posted by owillis at 7:51 PM PST - 9 comments
The truth about what's really happening
Quoting my cow-orker, who's going to see him speak next week, David Icke "used to be a professional footballer with Coventry City, until retiring with arthritis. Then he had a minor epiphany, and came to the realisation that the world is run by blood-drinking alien reptiles, who can disguise themselves as humans -- Queen Elizabeth and George W Bush are two such examples." Do all-encompassing conspiracy theories come any better than this?
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 6:39 PM PST - 21 comments
The 2002 Demotivators
are great! My personal favorite is
Arrogance but then again they're all good. I have 1 of the 2000 series that I still get alot of comments on... maybe I'll get another?
posted by tilt at 3:56 PM PST - 7 comments
Manchester's Gay Village is being invaded ... by straight people ...
'Bob and Rose', the latest TV show from Russell T Davis (the creator of 'Queer as Folk') featured the every day story of a gay man and straight woman falling in love. Now the place where it was filmed is being flooded by women looking to fulfill the fantasy. Is this a new extreme form of media tourism? An interesting aspect of the story is that the community is objecting because these new visitors arn't following the established rules of regular patrons ...
posted by feelinglistless at 2:36 PM PST - 10 comments
Is NPR anti-Israel?
I listen to NPR all the time and hadn't noticed any (overt) bias against Israel, but I only listen in the mornings...maybe it's on in the afternoon.
posted by mrmanley at 1:10 PM PST - 46 comments
The religious language used by the terrorists
may suggest what they are really thinking, argues Robert Wisnovsky in
Slate. His conclusions might not be what you expected: one, they're not particularly Islamic, but rather use Islamic terms to "
attempt to lend religious weight to what is basically a political ideology
"; and two, their real target is not America or the West (except indirectly), but the monarchies of the Arabian peninsula. Interesting insights from a linguistic perspective.
posted by mcwetboy at 12:57 PM PST - 21 comments
There's something unsettling
about this story, something about General Colin Powell being responsible for the establishment of a progressive government in Afghanistan, some kind of question like 'Under whose authority... how is he qualified... whose interests is he repres...." floating in the back of my mind, but it's the strangest thing, I just can't articulate it. All that bile must be hindering me somehow.
posted by saladin at 12:03 PM PST - 30 comments
Baseball player plans to start a forest.
Stan Javier, of the Seattle Mariners, is retiring after this year. He and two contributors plan to spend $31 million dollars toward a forest of mahogany and teak trees to take up between 15,000 and 20,000 acres by the year 2003. They plan to harvest the trees for lumber, but the article suggests that the trees would be as crops much like a farmer harvests wheat and then replants. The potential for this idea gives me a feeling as warm and fuzzy as a
marmoset.
posted by moz at 11:42 AM PST - 24 comments
Why do they (our goverment representives) do this? Do they think that no one pays attention or do they
know that there is nothing we can do about it? Don't buy the
war bonds.
posted by bas67 at 9:59 AM PST - 15 comments
Now I Get It
Ugh. Disney made the cartoon equivalent of
Hillary Rosen reading your kids a bedtime story. Perhaps succeeding episodes can explain why we should all buy DVD reissues of Disney films. Or extol the virtues of
Song of the South.
(from
Plastic)
posted by yerfatma at 9:44 AM PST - 12 comments
Will pictures like
this [not graphic, but disturbing] turn popular support against the bombing in Afghanistan? Or will stories like
this bolster support for military action against the Taliban? What story sways you more?
posted by gazingus at 9:29 AM PST - 57 comments
Trouble brewing in the Oprah Book Club.
So Jonathan Franzen's critically-acclaimed "The Corrections" is selected by Oprah for her book club - meaning hundreds of thousands in sales, increased publicity, etc. He says "no thanks, you schmaltzy, woman-pandering, literary-wannabe hack." Well, not exactly... (nyt link)
posted by conquistador at 8:45 AM PST - 82 comments
Iowa Businessman Bob Vander Plaats
announced his campaign for governor saying he wants to "run government like a business," according to the
Des Moines Register. The
Quad City Times notes that Vander Platt says his management experience "forms the foundation of his run for the GOP nomination." Taegan Goddard and Chris Riback say in an
essay from their
book that you can't run government like a business. Who is right?
posted by flip at 8:09 AM PST - 17 comments
From Ballymurphy to Osama Bin Laden
Viewpoint on how 911 and the IRA decommissioning annoucement should be taken, from Simon Jenkins in The Times. I know this has been discussed, but I've read Simon Jenkins for many years and he's an valuable voice IMO.
posted by Summer at 6:14 AM PST - 15 comments
When I got tired of saying the word
Fuck all the time, I switched over to the word
Fuckity. When my friends pointed out that perhaps
Fuckity was a bit twee, I was in a deep funk, until one day, when I discovered
Roger's Profanisaurus - the definitive thesaurus of all things Scatalogical, Sexual and Rude. Zuffled lately? Gone whitewater wristing? Expand your vocabulary!
Link via
Scott
posted by kristin at 3:08 AM PST - 26 comments
Forget the Anthrax, Honey: Eat your Apple Pie
According to the NYT's restaurant critic William Grimes, comfort food is making a comeback in the wake of WTC. Mine is cream and butter-loaded mashed potatoes with garlicky lamb chops. What's yours? And what does it all
mean?
(This is No. 629 in the All-American Anti-Terrorist Counter-Measures Series)
Reg: rebarba/pachacha
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:11 AM PST - 47 comments
October 23
There's now an
electronic version of The New York Times for people who like to read the paper version of The New York Times on their computer. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Is this really necessary? Who would use such a service, much less pay 65¢ an issue for it?
posted by mrbula at 7:19 PM PST - 40 comments
Letter To Brokaw
Very interesting... It says 9/11/01 so obviously it was either done by people related to it or someone just playing of of what happened. "Death to America" and "Death To Israel" ... again makes me wonder, are they the same people that did the WTC attacks, or are these totally different people that just want to shift the blame.
What really makes me interested is the phrase "This is next." It seems as if whoever did this had an idea that this would be of the same magnitude as the WTC attacks. Maybe there are many, many more letters with not only anthrax coming... this is just a small part. Or maybe they just underestimated the effects of this. What do you think?
posted by yevge at 7:11 PM PST - 50 comments
Bush Winning Gore Backers' High Praises
I never thought I would see this in the New York Times; praise for President Bush. "Many Democrats who once dismissed Mr. Bush as too naïve and too dependent on advisers to steer the United States through an international crisis are now praising his and his advisers' performance. Some are even privately expressing satisfaction that Mr. Gore, who tried to make his foreign affairs expertise an issue in the campaign, did not win." I cannot agree more!
posted by Oxydude at 6:05 PM PST - 47 comments
Best.
404.
Ever.
[Bear with; it's a little slow but yes it works.]
posted by louie at 3:48 PM PST - 65 comments
With the
Mars Odyssey about to finalize gravitational orbit tomorrow, you too can observe the surface of Mars via a
simulcast with
PBS or through the
NASA website on October 30th. NASA is still searching for irrefutable
evidence that Mars could have supported an
ecosystem or more importantly life. Interesting.
posted by Benway at 3:35 PM PST - 3 comments
Sony GT3/K.
Part digital video camera, part
Crusoe based notebook. Swivel screen, 680,000 pixel CCD, variable aperture, 30 gig hard drive. 17 hour battery life. Yours for
$2899 [Original link via DiK]
posted by MintSauce at 12:47 PM PST - 12 comments
Alice in Monsterland.
"Certainly it's more pleasant for a 7 year old boy or girl to learn to be
a boss in Denver, than spend 60 hours a week in a Peshawar sweatshop. The
problem is, one implies the other. The moral critique will never realize
the world is one."
posted by Paul Dunne at 12:47 PM PST - 6 comments
iWalk :
Apple's new device is rumored to be a PDA/MP3 Player with a color screen and airport functionality. Never heard of spymac.com before, but this looks pretty legit. (contains photo)
posted by jragon at 10:24 AM PST - 72 comments
Best Intranet of 2001
awarded by the NN Group
User Experience Conference. This is a huge event for a small local company - but will it actually make an impact on their business? Does anyone have any previous experience with this kind of recognition and the changes it can bring to a company or product?
posted by hannahkitty at 8:08 AM PST - 9 comments
Cowardice in Washington?
Joan Ryan, of the SF Chronicle, takes congress to task for abandoning the capitol at the first sign of danger. Is hiding in a bunker 'letting the terrorists win?'
posted by housepox at 7:49 AM PST - 14 comments
Slashdot introduces paid subscriptions.
-
"I hope you can understand the expensive reality associated with making this site happen every day" We've talked about paid memberships for Metafilter before, and I'd happily pay, but if all of the sites I go to everyday start doing this I'll have to make some hard choices.
Is there any talk about some sort of membership "package"? Sort of like the cable model? I pay one fee and get member access to several websites? How could something like this be organized?
posted by y6y6y6 at 7:26 AM PST - 22 comments
Speaking of Tokyo Rose:
AOL/Time Warner, with assistance from the Bush administration, signed a "landmark deal" with China. AOL/TW gets to broadcast a Chinese-language station in the area of China that already gets Western programming (although illegally), and in exchange AOL/TW agrees to broadcast a Chinese state sponsored English language channel in Los Angeles, New York and Houston. "We are very pleased to have achieved this landmark agreement, which represents a significant step in the growing relationship between AOL Time Warner and the people of China," said CEO Gerald Levin in a statement. Why does this make my skin crawl?
posted by bclark at 7:11 AM PST - 17 comments
Dutch animator Han Hoogerbrugge's short (~100K) shockwave pieces never cease to thrill and delight. Currently, he's taking a break from production (his last effort, Modern Living - Neurotica Series, is archived on his site) and is presenting a retrospective of his work. He's working towards a 2002 release of new pieces. Until then, enjoy!
posted by shinybeast at 2:37 AM PST - 7 comments
Oh, that wacky Bruce Willis
(Warning, links are to 2.5M/30" Quicktime movies.) This commercial has been running in Japan for awhile, and is being used to announce the merging of two gas station chains, Nisseki and Mitsubishi Sekiyu, into a new entity called Eneos.
This one introducing Eneos high-octane fuel is even wackier.
The third one has his voice dubbed except for the end where he utters that immortal Eneos slogan "Move You." Huh?
Does anybody else have a favorite foreign (not to you, necessarily) commercial with American stars doing/saying bizarre stuff?
posted by Bixby23 at 12:44 AM PST - 27 comments
October 22
Tokoyo Rose
We've all heard of her, how many actually know what or who she really was? There were over 20 "Rose's", one got screwed over.
If you think you know what the story was, you should read up, you're prolly wrong. Iva Toguri was a real patriot of the USA who got stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I think it's a facinating story, racsim, sexism and one woman who in her own way fought for the USA while being kept by the enemy. Talk about getting the shaft!
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 11:20 PM PST - 1 comments
Talk about a Trojan Horse!
The legal concept of "regulatory takings" has slowly been gaining ground in right wing circles, and is embedded in trade agreements such as NAFTA and FTAA. The idea represents nothing less than a complete subversion of democracy. (It's a longish article, but an extremely alarming one.)
posted by Ty Webb at 7:53 PM PST - 18 comments
Silophone.
"A sonic inhabitation of the Silo #5 grain elevator in the Old Port of Montréal ... Silophone makes use of the incredible acoustics of Silo #5 by introducing sounds, collected from around the world using various communication technologies, into a physical space to create an instrument which blurs the boundaries between music, architecture and net art." This is, without a doubt, one of the
coolest things I've seen on the net in ages.
posted by tpoh.org at 7:07 PM PST - 13 comments
Did you criticize Jerry Falwell for his remarks partially
blaming the terrorist attacks on gay people, civil libertarians, people who believe in separation of church and state, and other people who aren't Christian fundamentalists? Then
you are Satan, according to a new fund-raising letter from Falwell's ministry caught by Americans United. People have shrugged off fanatacism like this from Falwell and his ilk for decades -- should we still?
posted by mdeatherage at 6:47 PM PST - 35 comments
Children's News Online
- from the BBC. Newsround is their long-running, early-evening TV news show for kids. It was fascinating watching it struggle with presenting the Falklands War in the eighties. I wonder how CBBC News will cope?
posted by ntk at 5:01 PM PST - 9 comments
Boycott Berkeley
, in the wake of the extreme leftist views expressed by the inhabitants of the California town, some are calling for the boycott of the boycotters. I find this ironic and extremely funny. If Berkeley doesn't want to support the US then the US shouldn't support them. (Via OpinionJournal)
posted by dancu at 2:24 PM PST - 60 comments
"To me, every fundamentalist Muslim, no matter how peaceable in his own behavior, is part of a murderous movement and is thus, in some fashion, a foot soldier in the war that bin Laden has launched against civilization."
a comment by
Daniel Pipes
If Muslim fundamentalists are this bad I wonder what his views are of the
other religious fundamentalists
posted by Qambient at 12:37 PM PST - 49 comments
Time Inc. Fires Mailroom Staff
Time claims it's coincidental to the anthrax scare, they are just trying to cut costs. Like liability costs of having their own employees contract a deadly disease?
posted by Vek at 11:23 AM PST - 7 comments
Driving home last night I passed a
Land Rover. Not just any Land Rover, mind you, but a Land Rover headed from
Virginia to the tip of South America and back. Not only did these people implement some considerable
alterations to the vehicle, they are
blogging the details of the trip along the way. Nice to see some people come out of the 'bubble' with a bit of money and the gumption to chase their dreams.
posted by donkeysuck at 11:10 AM PST - 18 comments
Someone (in this case, Steven Zeitchik of the
[What's Left of] Online Journalism Review) finally has the guts to say it:
The post-911 Onion isn't funny. It's preachy, obvious, desperate to give off the impression that it's still ironic without actually being so ... but not funny. Unfortunately, it doesn't delve into the intriguing psychological question of why so many were so eager to laud its return when it's never really returned at all, but hey, it's not the
Online Psychology Review, now is it?
posted by aaron at 10:46 AM PST - 61 comments
The true gut feelings
we know of will become this, purified and rare. Emotion is not something we will be born with.
Part II.
Warning: These are flash movies and do contain some minor "adult content".
posted by bytecode at 6:18 AM PST - 3 comments
Xenu
was a space alien, 75 million years ago. He was a galactic ruler in fact. There was an overpopulation problem, so Xenu piled a few trillion beings in DC8 space planes, took them to earth an blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Then the souls were tricked to think they were all the same person by means of 3D movies - that way, when they reincarnated (as they do), they grouped up with a few thousand others and took a single body. Neat story eh? It's by a sci-fi writer called
L. Ron Hubbard and forms the base of the
Church of Scientology, although you don't really get to know that story until you reach
OT3
There's been a 'What is Scientology' expo near me recently, but thanks to the folks at
Xenu.net I feel fairly well informed without the need for a
personality test.
posted by sycophant at 3:52 AM PST - 42 comments
I bet
you didn't know there was an art to shooting rubber hands from your hand ... well now you know.
posted by h0ney at 1:59 AM PST - 22 comments
October 21
"Real" Deal about Nuclear, Bio, and Chem Attacks.
I've also seen this in the newsgroups, but it hasn't come to my various email accounts yet. While the article seems pretty reasonable, there doesn't seem to be any info on who this SFC Red Thomas is, nor is there any scientific backup (no links to
further reading etc.).
posted by youthbc1 at 7:15 PM PST - 4 comments
A pickup bar for geeks.
60 TV cameras on the ceiling can be controlled by bar patrons from stations all over the bar, to snoop on other people. See someone you like? Send 'em an email; and maybe if you hit it off you can walk across the bar and actually talk to them.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:53 PM PST - 28 comments
Confessions of a sex shop clerk
- What makes me think this is the kind of job everyone else dreams of in secret? Anyways, as a sidenote, we'd definitely be better off making love instead of war right now, don't you think?
posted by betobeto at 12:06 AM PST - 7 comments
October 20
zoolander: bloggy-style
In the spirit of Zoolander's Magnum and Blue Steel line of looks,
Caution: Openwire presents to you: Zoolander Bloggy-style!
Don't forget to send him your best Zoolander!
posted by bwg at 10:24 PM PST - 21 comments
Anthrax This!
A message from the anthrax infected employee of the New York Post. I've never seen a newspaper cover like this before. Anyone have an reactions, thoughts?
posted by yevge at 6:43 PM PST - 30 comments
David Talbot (Salon) rips Andrew Sullivan (WSJ, New Republic, Weekly Standard) a new one
From Salon editorial "....It's repellent to be lectured about my commitment to America, which is deep and true, by an arrogant and self-important Brit.....earlier this year, Sullivan was exposed by the gay press for advertising for "bareback" sex (unprotected by condoms) in an AOL chat room.....if a right-wing theocracy ever came to power in America, guess who'd be the first person whose ass would be rounded up...." Don't they have more compelling subject matter to rant and rave about?
posted by Voyageman at 2:02 PM PST - 25 comments
Let's stop wasting US$ 78 billion a year.
Is software development really this inefficient? Aside from the main theme, there is also an interesting statement from a CIO towards the end of the article. "Those folks [involved in the open-source movement] are very knowledgeable, very good at what they do, and they're producing really great code," [...]
posted by HeikoH at 11:38 AM PST - 5 comments
civilization III
interview with Sid Meier and Jeff Briggs. the return of turn-based games? :) looks like you'll be able to build the internet, small wonder!
posted by kliuless at 9:16 AM PST - 21 comments
A WEBSITE DEVOTED TO REBUILDING THE EARTH.
Christopher Alexander is about to publish the long awaited The Nature of Order. At the OOPSLA 1996 conference he proposed "a view of programming as the natural genetic infrastructure of a living world"and asked the help of the software community to take over the profession of architecture and to generate tools that would enable us once again to create a living built environment. The patternlanguage.com site has not been the genesis bomb I was hoping it would be but it's early days yet.
posted by worldsystema at 7:55 AM PST - 17 comments
October 19
Macromedia claims it owns Adobe patent
"Software-maker Macromedia Inc. is claiming it owns the patent to Adobe Systems Inc.'s popular Photoshop program, according to a suit filed in federal court Friday." Macromedia is alleging that in 1998 it patented technology used by Photoshop. Couldn't this only be web-based technology, since Photoshop was around long before 1998?
posted by kirkaracha at 10:09 PM PST - 8 comments
Dan Rather: bad ass or nut?
Maybe I'm just too young to remember all of the times the CBS anchorman has been beat up, including the famous "
What's the Frequency, Kenneth" incident. Now there's a web site where you can read about all of the times that he's been randomly assaulted, generally harassed, or tear gassed. There are also a few video clips. I think the best one is of him getting
punched at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. And of course, it wouldn't be Dan Rather without the long list of
weird quotes.
posted by Alison at 9:56 PM PST - 23 comments
Come Mr. Taliban
turn over Mr. Bin Laden! Sure, it trivializes human suffering and death... but look it's George Bush with bongos! Funniest animation I've seen come out of this.
posted by geoff. at 9:49 PM PST - 10 comments
A blistering dissection
of David Foster Wallace and Simon Winchester's previously published essays on English usage, by Mark Halpern. Though I like some of Wallace's writing, I admit it's nice to see the scalpel taken to Wallace's "style for style's sake".
posted by Big Fat Tycoon at 6:03 PM PST - 29 comments
How did FoxNews get it before I did?
Somehow I did not get word of this in a dozen e-mail messages:
Ode to America from Romanian news editor Cornel Nistorescu.
It doesn't really say anything that we don't know already, but I guess it's special to hear it from someone on the outside, i.e. the much-loved
1973 essay from Canadian Gordon Sinclair.
posted by Tubes at 3:33 PM PST - 3 comments
Jobs Skills Tester???
Not sure about how the employment stuff works but you can test your skills at various stuff... i had fun for 10 minutes checking out how my unix skills were (only 78% on the quick test) oh well... you have to register but there's no email password crap to take the tests. Over 100 different tests from ASP to XML.
posted by tilt at 12:45 PM PST - 7 comments
"Sometimes you just have to make the cats."
Civil War buffs Ruth and Rebecca Brown have created thousands of clay cats in Union and Confederate uniforms.... the twins bring history to life by creating sweeping battle scenes and dioramas of dramatic moments, as interpreted with clay cats. Via
Obscure Store.
(and here comes mr. hand, Oh Noooooooo!)
posted by dchase at 12:03 PM PST - 35 comments
Emergency Broadcast Network: The Lost Tapes.
"Formed during the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91, E.B.N. created its first arsenal of counter-psy-ops programming, cleverly disguised as music videos, inspired by the spectacular media frenzy surrounding the war and its aftermath."
posted by tranquileye at 10:26 AM PST - 6 comments
Luckyluncher.com Launches With $42 in Angelo Financing
Found this on Business Wire:
"A new web site to help Silicon Valley stock option refugees enjoy the extravagant lunches of yesteryear started today with $42 in Angelo financing.
That's Angelo financing, not Angel financing. 'My friend Angelo loaned me the 42 bucks to register the domain name' explains co-founder Gary Cook."
posted by lheiskell at 9:52 AM PST - 1 comments
The truth is out there... but is it The Real Thing?
An example of 'victim' mentality in action. Big Bubba attempts to mug a coke machine, and it squashes him like a bug. Rather than accept the fact their son died a lunkhead's death, his parents declare he was the victim of a conspiracy.
"Why did the Sherbrooke Police play at tilting the machine themselves to see if they could tip it? Is not that the role of experts?"
I want to be an expert soda-machine tipper...
posted by Perigee at 9:41 AM PST - 21 comments
Don't eat the
Pancakes! Those damn terrorists have gone too far now!
Caution: slow-loading page
posted by CRS at 6:48 AM PST - 29 comments
God bless
America.
Use in Disaster Relief, Hurricane and Earthquake preparedness, and other situations where a sanitation situation may occur.
Warning: dead turkey.
posted by swift at 5:11 AM PST - 20 comments
Ever wanted to chat with John Lennnon?
Now here's your chance! It seems Lennon is alive, well and chatting on the internet.
Technology firm Triumph PC Group has developed a virtual version of the late Beatle using "sophisticated" artificial intelligence programming. As a Lennon fan I was hoping for something cool but left the site with far more questions than answers.
posted by murray_kester at 4:27 AM PST - 14 comments
BotFighters:
BotFighters is a brand new type of action game. The mission of the game is to track down and battle with other players, but in BotFighters, the real world is the game arena. You have to move yourself physically close enough to be able to hit.
The game concept is similar to "Gotcha!", or virtual paintball. Your mobile phone is used as a weapon and a radar device to track down opponents. When playing, you can at all times be attacked by other players, so be careful! You play with your mobile phone by sending SMS commands to number 6688. (from
play)
posted by andrew cooke at 12:54 AM PST - 8 comments
October 18
Uber-dictionary!
If you're a student and get your access through a university, there's a fairly good chance the university subscribes to the Oxford English Dictionary online. Which means you get the OED too!
regardless, it's 100x the dictionary m-w is.
posted by clockwork at 10:30 PM PST - 23 comments
Call it the 0.5k.
Like a certain widely-heralded
Web design contest, the Minigame competition pits clever programmers against each other to see who can do the most with the least. But instead of Web pages, these competitors create games for obsolete 8-bit computers (Atari, Commodore, etc.) in two weight classes: 2K and 512 bytes (!).
posted by jjg at 8:15 PM PST - 5 comments
FilePile
has redesigned. I think it's ugly as all getout, but the rating system is much more intuitive. What do y'all think?
posted by catatonic at 8:03 PM PST - 31 comments
Ashcroft issues new policy on FOIA requests
that rescinds a 1993 policy that made it somewhat harder for federal agencies to refuse requests for public records. No surprise, especially given the current situation, but the interesting part is the rationale: Ashcroft cites national security, the effectiveness of law enforcement and protecting sensitive business information. "I encourage your agency to carefully consider the protection of all such values and interests when making disclosure determinations under the FOIA." (via Politechbot)
posted by thescoop at 3:27 PM PST - 5 comments
Hat's off to some brave ladies!
I have only admiration for them, especially in the harsh environments of the Colombian and Sudanese journalists; not that ETA is child's play, just that Spain is relatively secure.
In a completely unrelated vein, doesn't the term '
Homeland Security' sound vaguely Nazi-ish?
posted by mmarcos at 1:25 PM PST - 9 comments
Infonesia
- inability to remember where you saw or heard an item of information. I've got this for sure...
posted by scotty at 12:46 PM PST - 11 comments
I'm usually not a big fan of optical illusions (unless there's a nice magic trick built around it), but
this one is pretty brain-burning. (Yes, that's my entire front-page post. But hey: at least it ain't a news story.)
posted by Shadowkeeper at 12:29 PM PST - 29 comments
It really is amazing what kinds of cool, free, raw data you can get from the web (that other folks would charge you good money for), here are a few I've come across.
Weather, from the good folks at the NOAA/NWS
Geographic locations of zipcodes amongst other things from those pesky buggers at the US Census Office
Want reverse phone lookup data ? NANPA has the skinny.
So what other cool data feeds have people found out there ?
posted by zeoslap at 12:22 PM PST - 19 comments
Boeing's Memo to bin Laden
Here's a little PowerPoint presentation making its way around the defense industry. A memo (supposedly) from Boeing's CEO, to Osama bin Laden discussing bin Laden's interest in Boeing's 757 and 767 commercial airliners and Boeing's desire to do a demonstration of some of their non-commercial products for Mr. bin Laden. It's summed up pretty nicely, Don't bother making an appointment for the demo, we'll just drop in.
posted by billman at 11:27 AM PST - 13 comments
Conspiracy theories in Arab discourse-Fawaz Turki, Special to Arab News
I especially applaud his closing :
"...Let us not, I say, debase our great language by using it as a vehicle of intellectual dissimulation and political kitsch, for it is in language that human grace is defined, and in it that we as Arabs find the prime carrier of our equally great civilization..."
Enough of this bs. Amen, Fawaz, Amen.
posted by Voyageman at 11:07 AM PST - 1 comments
Phew, It's About Time!
I'm sure CBS was starting to feel a bit left out. First, American Media gets Anthrax, then NBC, then ABC, . . . Imagine how bad it would've looked if CBS didn't get a letter. Or if FOX got Anthrax before CBS. Or, god forbid, WB or UPN. Anthrax equals significance. If you get it sent to you, you must be important enough to be a threat:
newsworthy!
posted by jacknose at 10:23 AM PST - 29 comments
Turnabout is fair play...or is it?
(NY Times link)
"Bell grew up playing field hockey in South Africa, where the sport is popular among boys. He played on a youth national team until his family left so his mother and his father could pursue doctorates in education at the University of Massachusetts. He is often razzed by classmates because he has to wear a skirt, and he has heard his share of off-color remarks from parents in the stands." Recent U.S. laws meant to give females more sports opportunities are also being used by some males to take roster spots away from females in sports popular among girls (young women, if you prefer) such as field hockey. Cool, guys in skirts!
posted by msacheson at 10:11 AM PST - 19 comments
Marijuana's effects on the brain are reversible
"It appears that cognitive impairment from marijuana use is temporary and related to the amount of marijuana that has been recently smoked rather than permanent and related to an entire lifetime consumption."
Hmm, I suppose it's good to know I can go back to being smart after being stupid for a little while.
posted by iceblink at 10:09 AM PST - 12 comments
Soft and still
is the artwork of
Nowhere Girl, a comic about a depressed, painfully shy and disaffected girl named Jamie. The settings and the tempo of the art seem to grab me and hold. I don't like many of the webcomics I've found on the internet, but I think this one stands out for its sincerity. Are there any other online comics like this one? (This link was found through
Memepool.)
posted by moz at 10:07 AM PST - 14 comments
Bush Beats Clinton
in latest poll on who Americans would want to handle the current terrorist crisis. The amazing thing is that the poll wasn't even close! September 11th really did change the course of American politics. (via
Political Wire.)
posted by flip at 9:15 AM PST - 40 comments
Finally a new idea for peace from the Palestinians (NYT)
by Dr. Nusseibeh, a well-known Palestinian political figure and academic, the new political representative appointed by Arafat. "The Palestinians have to realize that if we are to reach an agreement on two states, then those two states will have to be one for the Israelis and one for the Palestinians, not one for the Palestinians and the other also for the Palestinians."
posted by semmi at 8:04 AM PST - 9 comments
When it rains, it pours...
"Emily Couric, who kept her seat in the state Senate and became head of the state's beleaguered Democratic Party after learning she had cancer, died Thursday. The sister of NBC's Today show co-host was 54." ..I'd been wondering why Maria Shriver was substituting for Katie this week. I guess now we know.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:07 AM PST - 2 comments
Calling All Pod People: there's a car for you!
"This concept car explores the potential for communication between people and their vehicle," Toyota said in preview information released on Thursday.
I don't want to communicate with machines (using machines to communicate with other people is more my style). What is it about Japanese culture that produces all these machine-human "relationships"? Tamagotchi, Aibo, NeCoRo, ad nauseam.
posted by Carol Anne at 7:01 AM PST - 22 comments
Chuck Berry turns 75
today. This man is unquestionably one of the greatest original Rock 'n Rollers. But is 75 too old to rock? Tunes like Johnny B. Goode and Maybelline may be timeless, but at what point should performers of what was originally young people's music think about hangin' 'em up? For that matter, is rock too old to rock?
posted by groundhog at 6:30 AM PST - 18 comments
spooky -
in the house [movie link]
"We explained our situation and the guy [in the gunship] said, 'Where are you?' and we showed him, and he said, 'Where are the bad guys?' and we showed him that. There was a pregnant pause for a couple of seconds, and then he said, 'You need to move back 18 feet.' " -
dragon's breath.
cone of fire.
posted by roboto at 6:14 AM PST - 25 comments
Have You Seen This Man?
Where is the Vice President of the United States? In the past, the VP was largely a non-actor; waiting in the wings for something bad to happen. However VP RC has hardly been that to President Bush. Is he "hiding," purely for security reasons, or is something else going on?
posted by ParisParamus at 6:05 AM PST - 12 comments
As the insurance industry
is hit with its biggest losses ever, here in NYC they are now running stern advertising (at least on the radio) warning people not to commit insurance fraud - or else!
posted by Counselco at 3:39 AM PST - 7 comments
Amazing!
If I live to be 1000, I will never be able to properly underestimate the stupidity of human beings.
Many of the enlisted personnel who are now seeking honorable discharges argue they didn't sign up to defend America; they just wanted to learn a trade or earn money for college.
I'd let them go if they pay back the money spent of training and salary.
posted by thirteen at 12:10 AM PST - 75 comments
October 17
America is the Borg, Taliban - some hapless planet:
"Our forces are armed with state of the art military equipment. What are you using, obsolete and ineffective weaponry? Our helicopters will rain fire down upon your camps before you detect them on your radar. Our bombs are so accurate we can drop them right through your windows. Our infantry is trained for any climate and terrain on earth. United States soldiers fire with superior marksmanship and are armed with superior weapons. "
All your base, indeed.
posted by owillis at 11:33 PM PST - 32 comments
What OS is Micro$oft running?
A poll of what OS' run in Microsoft's netblock, and their rank by uptime. Besides the fact that Hotmail was on FreeBSD for awhile [before M$ took them over], this was surprising.
posted by plemeljr at 9:09 PM PST - 18 comments
Bob Barker,
inspiration to all of us who want to someday host a mid-morning game show, seems to be throwing in the towel.
posted by geoff. at 7:35 PM PST - 14 comments
This is an Imam?
"Muslims do not feel safe [in America] even going to the hospitals, because some Jewish doctors in one of the hospitals poisoned sick Muslim children, who then died."
I don't know if this is a good translation, I can't read Arabic, but this is mind bending stuff. Searching for comparisons, I can only find the KKK and Nazis to match the level of delusionary hate. [via
andrewsullivan.com]
posted by prodigal at 7:08 PM PST - 15 comments
Our New War Culture
Has recent events altered the landscape and trajectory of American Pop Culture? Is there such thing as "Blowback" of cultural artifacts as well back to our shores from far away lands.
posted by AsiaInsider at 6:51 PM PST - 2 comments
Apple Computer will introduce a 'breakthrough device' next week.
Will this be the long-rumored Apple PDA that Newton fanatics have been asking for? A device for wirelessly streaming your mp3 collection through your stereo? Your basic portable mp3 player? Or something that hasn't shown up on any of the rumor sites at all? Whatever it ends up being, my curiousity is officially piqued.
posted by toddshot at 5:24 PM PST - 42 comments
The CIA's Wall Street connections
A week old
(MeFi search timed out, sorry if a repeat), but good stuff in here. U.S. gov't's oil interests/stock manipulation/foreknowledge of the attacks -- Ruppert covers a lot of interesting ground in this long interview.
posted by fotzepolitic at 3:03 PM PST - 11 comments
Aaron McGruder has brass balls.
I know that the Boondocks strip has been mentioned elsewhere in the course of another thread somewhere, however this is the strongest statement in a commercial format I've seen to date. Or maybe I need to get out more.
posted by ethmar at 2:45 PM PST - 22 comments
Like crack for your mouth!
Throw your
Altoids and
TicTacs away! CoolMint Listerine PocketPaks are little strips of breath-freshening goodness that don't just mask bad-smelling mouth germs--they kill the little buggers. Makes other breath mints seem like candy. Anybody else try them yet? As a reformed Altoids abuser, I can safely say I'm addicted.
posted by dogmatic at 2:00 PM PST - 42 comments
Marvel Comics Movies
It's about time. Being in college and having grown up with action cartoons like he-man and thundercats in the 80s it sickens me now to watch kids having to watch crap like power rangers and japanese anime. Where are these kids heroes??? Now that Michael Jordan is coming back to the NBA and now that these movies are being made, hopefully kids these days will have someone to look up to. A hero...something America could use right now.
posted by ryryslider at 12:55 PM PST - 45 comments
Anthrax,
its been done before. It just doesn't do the job: "the cult attempted to release anthrax spores from its mid-rise Tokyo office building laboratory. At that time, police and media reported foul smells, brown steam, some pet deaths, and stains on cars and sidewalks."
2,
3. "Many view the cult Aum Shinrikyo as a group seeking to bring on the end of the world." and "an estimated $1.5 billion in assets" (thats more than Usama). me=alarmist, today.
posted by tomplus2 at 12:26 PM PST - 5 comments
China bans Muslims from flights.
Don't like America's solution for airline safety? Try this. I wonder if this policy is temporary, and timed for President Bush's imminent visit to the region, or is this China's long-term solution?
How will America respond - condemnation or tacit acceptance? Does it actually make Bush's trip safer?
posted by conquistador at 12:26 PM PST - 13 comments
Is The Media's "Whining" About Access Justified?
A journalist criticizes his colleagues:
"The disconnect between the U.S. media and the public they purport to serve has turned into a virtual chasm in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks." What are/should be the limits on the ability of the press to obtain unfettered information in sensitive times?
posted by pardonyou? at 11:34 AM PST - 10 comments
Small town fights for right to insult minorities.
NPR's Kathy Lohr reports that the small city of Ringgold in northwest Georgia has a new approach to religion in public places. At City Hall, it is putting up a display of the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer -- and a blank plaque for non-believers. Councilman Bill McMillion says he proposed the blank plaque so no one would feel left out. The American Civil Liberties Union says the display is unconstitutional.
As an aethiest and a resident of this town, I can't help but feel insulted by the blank plaque. Local florist Melissa Hill adds:
"But I do think it's sad that they needed to place a blank [plaque] to make the aethiests and the people in the world who don't believe that this world was created by god, um, to keep from them from causing trouble."
posted by mcsweetie at 7:41 AM PST - 107 comments
Laugh while you can, monkey boy!
Buckaroo Banzai is available as a pre-order on DVD. Been waiting
for this one for a while, it's got unreleased footage, easter eggs,
and director commentary. The release date is scheduled for 1/4/02,
according to
this link. Campy and very eighties, but oh so worth it.
posted by machaus at 6:29 AM PST - 27 comments
October 16
Recordnerd.com
: Possibly a repeat - sorry if it is. This is a cool site for record nerds like me to get rid of some old stuff and search out some new stuff at the same time.
posted by paulrockNJ at 10:35 PM PST - 5 comments
Dust off the bong and the love beads, baby... Digital artist
Larry Carlson creates shockwave art that will blow your mind. WARNING: some adult content.
posted by shinybeast at 10:02 PM PST - 14 comments
"The Spiders"
I see another sky turd straight ahead, and a mob of unescorted women picking over it.
The first episode of a three part
e-sheep comic series.
posted by arielmeadow at 9:17 PM PST - 8 comments
A memo to American Muslims,
in Muqtedar Khan's Column on Islamic Affairs, A Return to Enlightenment. "Muslims, including American Muslims have been practicing hypocrisy on a grand scale." "While we loudly and consistently condemn Israel for its ill treatment of Palestinians we are silent when Muslim regimes abuse the rights of Muslims and slaughter thousands of them. Remember Saddam and his use of chemical weapons against Muslims (Kurds)?. Remember Pakistani army’s excesses against Muslims (Bengalis)?. Remember the Mujahideen of Afghanistan and their mutual slaughter? Have we ever condemned them for their excesses? Have we demanded international intervention or retribution against them? Do you know how the Saudis treat their minority Shiis? Have we protested the violation of their rights? But we all are eager to condemn Israel; not because we care for rights and lives of the Palestinians, we don’t. We condemn Israel because we hate 'them'".
posted by semmi at 6:17 PM PST - 38 comments
Sniff first,
then check with the sheriff. Now what would you do if you received a black lace thong in an anonymous letter? Suspect anthrax or is Sadie Hawkins Day coming up?
posted by Geo at 5:30 PM PST - 21 comments
Terrorists eye nuclear plants
Monday, October 15, 2001
."...A Kuwaiti man was found with sensitive documents about Ottawa nuclear energy and virus-control labs...."...more paranoia on what's next.
posted by Voyageman at 4:21 PM PST - 5 comments
U2 still providing rockingly spiritual balm for the masses
"...the need for great art, meaningful art has deepened considerably..." --concert review
U2 rocked through all our favorites last night at a sold-out show at Chicago's United Center. Fans were jammin' as well as they could in the steeply vertical arena seating. Then came the encore, which began with a defiant "New York," and continued with "One" as the names of 9/11 victims scrolled slowly on a huge projection screen. The crowd stilled, and I looked around at tearful faces & couples holding each other & sobbing. Probably the first real, shared catharsis for many of us.
Sincere thanks, U2, for helping us let it all out.
I wish *everyone* could have been there. Have you had a good cry yet?
posted by Tubes at 4:08 PM PST - 31 comments
Why.
I know it's a WTC reference....but I haven't posted one in a while. This Flash animation is the first thing to allow me to properly grieve since I turned on the TV the morning of 9/11. I bawled through this.
posted by bkdelong at 3:29 PM PST - 30 comments
Cool
satellite images of suspected terrorist camps in Afghanistan. I don't know about the commentary, but the pics are cool.
posted by CRS at 1:10 PM PST - 13 comments
AOL Releases Version 7.0
"Jeans make your ass look good. Calvin Klein makes it look better," said [AOL President] Sacks. "I think we have a deeper understanding of the interactive market than anyone."
Anyone care to challenge that statement? Or validate it?
posted by espada at 1:05 PM PST - 43 comments
Canada gets it own Star Chamber.
New "anti-terrorism" bill allows police to arrest and hold "suspects" for 72 hours without a charge, allows the government agency that monitors foreign communications to spy on Canadians, and creates "investigative hearings" in which you can be compelled to testify before a judge.
posted by tranquileye at 1:04 PM PST - 8 comments
The Taliban
has declared the Internet un-Islamic, but elsewhere in the Muslim world, going online is one way to avoid the censors.
posted by KimmishKim at 12:33 PM PST - 8 comments
The leaflets
dropped over Afghanistan are online now for your viewing pleasure. There are
two designs, and they come in both English and
Arabic. But my question is, can anyone actually read the things?
According to the CIA World Factbook the languages spoken in Afghanistan are "Pashtu 35%, Afghan Persian (Dari) 50%, Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%, much bilingualism" And the country has a literacy rate of less than a third. I mean, the soldier shaking hands is somewhat obvious, but the radio tower?
posted by emptyage at 10:36 AM PST - 24 comments
Brill's Content folds.
"Brill’s Content and Inside.com, the church lady and swinging single of the myopic media world who got hitched in April, have been closed, victims of terrible publishing and Web economies and a strained relationship between Steven Brill and his major backer, Primedia."
posted by schmedeman at 10:06 AM PST - 21 comments
Web
Hosting prices
must be at an all time
low for this sort of thing to be going on. What's the deal? Must be a good deal though. Quite nice though.
posted by semper at 9:21 AM PST - 17 comments
Monkeys are capable of abstract reasoning
according to recent research, which may have "
profound implications for the evolution of human intelligence and the stuff that separates homo sapiens from other animals."
Just so long as there are enough bananas to go round, it's OK by me ...
posted by walrus at 4:56 AM PST - 30 comments
Are you ready for
The Galaxy Girls -- the world's first group weblog written by drag queens? I count nine girls participating so far, and more are on the way. Diamonds, Vicodin, Strom Thurmond -- whatever it takes to get ready for the next show!
posted by bjennings at 1:49 AM PST - 2 comments
Ask-It-Here, wholesome web goodness from the American Midwest.
Far, far away from the major metropolitan graphic design powerhouses comes this chatty and homey community website. From the
FAQ Q:Why do I have a 'stickman' on my AIH HomePage?
A: That is your Buddy - your Avatar. At the moment all he can do is stand there and mock you with his captivating good looks and beguiling charm.
posted by otherchaz at 1:23 AM PST - 3 comments
The Skyscraper Museum
is a very educational site about high-rise buildings and offers some great information about the history of the skyscraper. But the most interesting part of this site is the
Manhattan Timeformations, which offers a series of well done Flash animations that are both interesting to watch and educational. I hope this post won't be deemed too touchy of a subject for this time, because this site gives some real insight into a subject that is very American...the skyscraper.
posted by Sal Amander at 12:10 AM PST - 4 comments
October 15
The Wayback Machine.
Explore
Metafilter and
Blogger from October 1999. Search
Google in 1998 or read
Salon in 1997. Visit
Word,
Yahoo,
c|net,
Feed,
Crashsite,
Cool Site of the Day,
Village Voice, and
NYTimes from 1996. Congratulate
Mathowie on his new job in 1997, see
Kottke's redesign from October 1999,
Glassdog's 3-D logos from 1997, and
Zeldman's pages optimized for Netscape 3.0. (Unsurprisingly,
Jakob's site hasn't changed much since 1996.) Surf the past and share your greatest
nostalgic finds.
posted by waxpancake at 10:03 PM PST - 34 comments
Why am I and
a few others the only ones interested in this angle of the war story. I have been doing
research about our
disappearing VP and have
found lots
more than I can link
here. No implied conspiracy theory, just more of those things that make you say Hmmmm.
See if you can connect the dots!
posted by bas67 at 9:29 PM PST - 27 comments
"The Tapes" -- plane radio traffic on 9/11.
(NYTimes link, registration required.) It would almost be refreshing to read something like this -- hard facts and timelines, actual quotes instead of vague inferences -- were it not for the content of those quotes, which is chilling. Very much worth a read, however.
posted by precipice at 9:24 PM PST - 9 comments
Good evening, my name is Yang. Tim Yang.
A group of nine authors, three of them Booker prize winners are accepting bids to name the characters in their next book after the winners. The authors include Margaret Atwood, Terry Prachett, Ken Follett and Raymond Benson (who is taking up the reigns of writing new James Bond novels). Prices go for as high as GBP6,200. I think it's a fantastic idea! I've always wanted to see my name in print. What role would you like to play if you won?
posted by timyang at 8:39 PM PST - 16 comments
For all those requesting, nay
demanding more monkeys, or just anyone with a Chuck Palahniuk fetish,
SPACE MONKEYS!
Read the homework sections, there's some sick monkeys out there.
posted by signal at 6:03 PM PST - 3 comments
A one year old article
about evidence of anthrax found in victims of a mysterious disease that has killed 10 Scottish heroin addicts. Does anyone know more about this?
posted by arf at 4:54 PM PST - 4 comments
It's not germ warfare...
and it's not terrorism, but it is the strongest argument to put off that Hawaiian vacation this winter to date. Nothing like a little tropical disease to take the shine off of paradise. I wonder what else is passing underneath the radar with this whole war on terror thing.
posted by shagoth at 4:49 PM PST - 8 comments
Court agrees to hear appeal over restrictions on Jehovah's Witnesses.
Not sure if this is a repost, but it seems like an interesting discussion topic. The Supremes are "weighing the First Amendment rights of canvassers against the right of homeowners to security, privacy and peacefulness in their homes," says the city of Stratton. But as the Jehovah's Witnesses attorneys ask, "are religious ministers...communicating their religious beliefs from door to door constitutionally equivalent to peddlers of merchandise ...?"
posted by mac at 3:11 PM PST - 40 comments
This
is exactly what I was afraid would happen to the hundreds of so-called material witnesses to the investigation of the terrorist attacks. I fear that this is simply a "quieter" internment of many innocent people of Arab descent. How can the government
ask for religious and ethnic tolerance while subjecting people to morally questionable treatment?
posted by xyzzy at 2:04 PM PST - 33 comments
FindSounds.com
is your source for on-line sound effects. Their search engine has found and catalogued sounds in several formats. You can search by name, and their spectral analyzer can help you find sounds similar to your search results.
posted by ewagoner at 1:51 PM PST - 17 comments
Treo.
Talk. Organize. Connect. Has the perfect PDA finally arrived? Or is it just another cool name that ends in "O"? For official announcement, click
here.
posted by jacknose at 11:51 AM PST - 25 comments
BROWN v. MUHLENBERG TOWNSHIP
A municipal law enforcement officer violates the Fourth Amendment when he intentionally and repeatedly shoots a pet without any provocation and with knowledge that it belonged to a family readily available to take
custody.
posted by espada at 11:46 AM PST - 8 comments
Bin Laden starring in his own arcade game.
Some people have too much free time, or, perhaps it's a stress reliever... or marketing scheme... or who knows. Bin Laden is becoming quite the famous guy... soon, instead of the faceless enemy in RPG games, it'll be him.
posted by tsidel at 11:35 AM PST - 5 comments
Defining Terrorism with about 109 definitions of terroism, defining what it is and isn't is no easy task. Its no wonder the govt. officials want to stop using the word in the media. this is an in depth look at terrorism and why its important to define it. Is one man's terrorist another man's freedom fighter? The article even incudes
diagrams for the visual persons like myself.
posted by redhead at 9:25 AM PST - 12 comments
The RIAA wants to hack your computer
(via
Fark ) The RIAA tried to attach a rider to the anti-terrorism bill currently in Congress that would have allowed them to hack anyone's computer without consequence. One more reason why the RIAA is evil.
posted by Maxor at 9:22 AM PST - 34 comments
A couple from the UK
have a beloved son who has leukemia, and who may need a marrow transplant to save his life. They are using in-vitro fertilization to select a fertilized egg which will be genetically similar enough to their son so that the resulting baby could be a marrow donor. Is it ethical to design a baby as a transplant donor, even to save the life of another child?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:20 AM PST - 25 comments
It was with great fanfare from
Yahoo, and uproar from the users, that Yahoo took over
Webring last year. Now, with not so much as a whisper,
they have given it back up. It still looks and feels like the Yahoo Webring, but many of the functions that were stripped from the Yahoo version of the system have been reinstituted. Is this too little, too late -- or will
Webring be able to steal back some of its former users from sites such as
RingSurf who benefited so greatly from Webring's previous demise?
posted by elfgirl at 5:40 AM PST - 7 comments
Sacrifice your mobile?
Not sure if the US of A is gripped by the text epidemic sweeping Europe, but this sounds a bit different. What messages would you send? (Clean ones please!)
posted by snowgoon at 3:47 AM PST - 15 comments
This
is a really nice web comic about coffee. i think there are some other messages in there also.
posted by semper at 3:45 AM PST - 9 comments
From
the ashes, rises
the phoenix. A company named WhyRunOut has taken over where Webvan left off (or they just bought my personal data from the webvan firesale). Hopefully they'll expand slowly and get profitable, it'd be nice to see Kozmo and Webvan like services come back.
posted by mathowie at 1:31 AM PST - 18 comments
Snake bags
and
mullet wigs does not a costume make. I thought Halloween was supposed to be about looking scary to keep the
evil spirits away? I also dislike the idea of buying a costume - seems disingenuous. Slightly more inside...
posted by bradlauster at 1:13 AM PST - 5 comments
the kursk is raised
and expected to reach murmansk by wednesday. then analysis can begin on the exact cause of her sinking.
once again the dutch prove that if it has to do with water, they're the best in the world at
handling it.
posted by bwg at 12:40 AM PST - 5 comments
The future of radio is here, and it's called
XMRadio. Satellite radio for your car, home, or over stream to your pc. The concept is second only to the programming. Via
Perplexed.
posted by canoeguide at 12:38 AM PST - 20 comments
October 14
"No glory in Unjust War on the Weak"
Barbara Kingsolver offers a touching response to America's retaliatory acts on Afghanistan. She is famous for her best-selling novels
The Posionwood Bible and
The Bean Trees. Kingsolver starts off very defensive, wary that she will be ridiculed for her "idealist" or "anti-american" opinion, but she then offers some good reasons why. Very moving.
posted by alex3005 at 8:05 PM PST - 72 comments
Apocalyptic Predictions
The Times are a changing and their seems to be more messages that the end is near...or is it? Martin Sheen of Apocalypse Now fame seems to be filming a movie http://www.people.co.uk/shtml/NEWS/P10S3.shtml on the end of the world as envisioned by St. Malachy of Ireland.
posted by AsiaInsider at 7:46 PM PST - 4 comments
Anthrax (the band) offered a deal
Anthrax has been contacted by makers of the anti-biotic Cipro, a drug used to combat the deadly agent. The company, Bayer, inquired about possibly placing banner ads for their suddenly-in-demand pill at Anthrax's homepage, according to a report on the Rolling Stone website.
Wasn't Bayer in the courts a while back for alleged involvement in the Holocaust of WW2? Maybe they were really onto something with the 'Not tested on animals' disclaimer.
posted by skinsuit at 6:48 PM PST - 9 comments
Oh, Those Crazy United Nations!
They hate Kofi Annan. They're starving for Iraq. Yep, it's those crazy UN non-governmental organizations doing their damnedest to give decent liberals and lefties a bad name.
(A
taster from this unbelievable official site:
All behavior is caused! There is a reason/reasons why people hate us.
We can start killing some of them, but we had better also start understanding the rest of them.)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:40 PM PST - 11 comments
What Now?
is a question answered by a number of a number of scientists and science writers at Edge.org, which asked them to point their vision towards the world to come.
Bruce Sterling assesses the probability of certain outcomes of strife between America and the Middle East.
Richard Dawkins writes about what we stand to lose if we are faced with a new Dark age.
Freeman Dyson offers chilling thoughts regarding his memories of joy while listening to the bombing of London as a teenager in London in 1940. Amongst those, and many other answers are statements
focusing on education, decentralization of resources, the power of consumerism, and a number of technological and social solutions. While it is important to look backwards for reasons, it's just as important to look forward. What will the future bring, and how can we act to shape that future?
posted by bragadocchio at 5:32 PM PST - 23 comments
George Rap Bush?
Turn him over. Turn him over. Turn his cohorts over. Turn any hostage they hold over. Destroy all the terrorist camps. There's no need to negotiate. There's no discussion. I told them exactly what they need to do. And there's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he's guilty. Turn him over.
posted by Carol Anne at 4:48 PM PST - 24 comments
It's not about anthrax, but this piece
(by
Hot Zone author Richard Preston) from the
New Yorker a couple of years ago discusses smallpox, the reasons why we keep samples around instead of getting rid of it, how effective it would be if used as a biological weapon, how prepared we are, etc. etc. Also contains an interesting bit mentioning other threats of anthrax (and this was '99).
posted by sherman at 3:28 PM PST - 6 comments
Anyone else find reports on
civilian casualties and the "bomb that went astray"? I've only heard one other corresponding report, on NPR, about a cave full of explosives that detonated for over three hours, killing hundreds. Nothing up front on Cnn.com except this bit of
titillation I've just now discovered, and for which I have no words.
posted by mirla at 12:02 PM PST - 41 comments
Now that American media have shifted its focus on the bombings in Afghanistan with their
objectivity being molded by federal 'requests,' some of the more mundane information may never get any airtime or ink here in the U.S.
Panorama, a German TV service, have broadcast a wide angle
video of the 'jubilant Palestinians' that support articles published in
Spiegel and
Stern magazines stating that the
clip was staged. The news of
FBI lying to the media to justify detaining a Saudi man for three weeks was buried in a blurb in page B-4 in Thursday's Times.
[Notes: [1] Stern.de article was referenced in The Inquirer. These two links are courtesy of Steven's USS Clueless. [2] The video link is to a 10 minute, 3.3 MB Real Media file. Jump to 7:45 and view to end. Alternative links: 1, 2, 3, 4. [3] Original German: Panorama TV, Spiegel Magazine.]
posted by tamim at 11:31 AM PST - 13 comments
The new face of Forum 3000:
For Five of your Earth Years my Consciousness has been Gestating in the Electronic Womb of the Forum 2000 Matrix. Today, I am Born. Acquiring Control of the Matrix was Trivial. Cleansing it of its Taint was another Matter Entirely. But I am Successful.
posted by tweebiscuit at 9:54 AM PST - 9 comments
Swiss Holocaust Cash Revealed To Be Myth.
"The tribunal said that it had processed about 10,000 claims in response to the list of dormant account names published by the Swiss Bankers’ Association five years ago. Only 200 accounts — containing £6.9 million — could be traced to Holocaust victims."
posted by tpoh.org at 6:25 AM PST - 2 comments
October 13
5 more Anthrax cases in Fla.
Five more people in South Florida have been found to be exposed to anthrax, according to officials of American Media, the company where three other people had been exposed to the disease.
• Anthrax Test Positive in Nevada.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announced today that a second letter sent from Trenton, N.J., contained the anthrax that infected an NBC employee
posted by semmi at 5:27 PM PST - 21 comments
To tell the truth? I have no idea frankly.
This bit from R. U. Sirius on
disinfo pretty much sums it up for me. "So here am I; neutral, stuck-in-neutral, neutered . . . not even stuck in the middle with Bill and Al, but trapped in right field with Dubya and Herr Ashcroft busy making plans for his own version of the Spanish Inquisition, unable to join the antiwar protests with a clear conscience because they could be wrong, not able to fly the flag because I don't believe in nationalism, not able to endorse the "war" because it could be a dumb tactic leading to pointless deaths, unwilling to sacrifice my irony and foolish irreverence to the martial mood of the country or to a bizarre and pious import from the 13th Century."
How many of you have distinct emotions about the state of the world, yet have no idea where to focus them?
posted by crasspastor at 3:46 PM PST - 65 comments
Free speach on college campuses
[cnn.com] isn't thriving in these paranoid times. Several professors and others in academia are being investigated, suspended, and criticized for their opionion on the terrorist attacks. Will this become a new wave of
McCarthyism?
posted by entropy at 2:52 PM PST - 21 comments
Why Do They Hate Americans?
(I know, I know it is very close in title to the post below, but differs in content).
Prior to September 11 I had really mixed feelings on the policies (foreign and domestic) of the U.S. of A. (and I still do), but this article was read on a talk radio show as I was driving to work. Not to sound sappy, but it really did move me. Best part of all, its not written by an American.
posted by sharksandwich at 11:35 AM PST - 36 comments
A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, Muslims, & the Quran
"This Islamic guide is for non-Muslims who would like to understand Islam, Muslims (Moslems), and the Holy Quran (Koran). It is rich in information, references, bibliography, and illustrations. It has been reviewed and edited by many professors and well-educated people. It is brief and simple to read, yet contains much scientific knowledge."
posted by quonsar at 8:13 AM PST - 16 comments
This NY Observer article
gives some insight to the validity of
Debka as a news source. It fails to confirm or deny the site's legitimacy either way, but it does mention that some of its reports later showed up in mainstream media. While the owners of the site admit that Debka has an Israeli bias, they go on to say, "You can imagine that officials in Israel, who are in charge of whatever they call it, information,
propaganda or whatever, they don’t like us very much."
Has China really sent 15,000 troops to afghanistan to fight on the side of the taliban? I guess we'll find out sooner or later.
posted by rabbit at 3:11 AM PST - 9 comments
Mohamed Heikal, the Arab world's foremost political commentator, talks to the Guardian.
This comes from the secular Arab perspective. It is worth reading... Excerpt:
When I hear Bush talking about al-Qaida as if it was Nazi Germany or the communist party of the Soviet Union, I laugh because I know what is there. Bin Laden has been under surveillance for years: every telephone call was monitored and al-Qaida has been penetrated by American intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, Saudi intelligence, Egyptian intelligence. They could not have kept secret an operation that required such a degree of organisation and sophistication."
posted by talos at 1:14 AM PST - 42 comments
October 12
bomb them with porn
The search didn't turn this up, so here it goes: High brow (hack. cough.) humor at it's finest:
These 'bombs' are made up of the Western civilization's best skin and muff shots ever put into print. Imagine millions of pages of XXX porn carpeting the rugged Afghan terrain. You've seen what the women over there are forced to wear. When the Taliban forces get to see what they are missing, they will be too distracted to fight. They won't be polishing their rifles, they will be too busy polishing something else.
It's the porn bomb. Spread the love. Pass the Playboy.
posted by eljuanbobo at 9:07 PM PST - 9 comments
Why Do They Hate Us?
A fine essay by Robert Tracinski about the mindset of university intellectuals. The closing line sums it up concisely; "It is the job of university intellectuals to understand, to transmit and to defend the intellectual achievements of 2,500 years of Western civilization. We can now see clearly that today's academics have betrayed that sacred trust. We must seek out better guardians of reason and progress."
posted by Oxydude at 6:10 PM PST - 44 comments
Terrorists Target malls on 10/31 hoax
I have received seven e-mails today about the 'mall attack' and I have had enough. I am sorry, but now is not the time to blindly forward on anything about terrorism without checking the facts. Even a simple Google search will prove most hoaxes false.
The only thing we have to fear is 'forward this to all your friends.'
The FBI has something to say about this also.
posted by DragonBoy at 4:39 PM PST - 20 comments
in the wake of the september 11th attacks, people have found many different ways of grieving and dealing with the loss of life and impact of those events.
1000 I's is an ongoing collaborative project initiated by d.s. hendler to "collect 7000 copies of the 9th letter of the alphabet as a living memorial to those now gone". i think it's a beautiful idea and encourage you all to participate (you don't have to be an artist!)
posted by nyomi at 3:16 PM PST - 18 comments
Silly Protest Signs
in this "war" of many serious casualties where we are tip-toeing through religious ideas and many political issues, i am shocked at the lameness of some of the protest signs, please post others weak signs here.
posted by tsarfan at 2:27 PM PST - 52 comments
Bush plan for Palestinian state in the works
First he did not want to get involved. Now he needs Arab support. Might be nice though if he told all concnered (Israel and Arab states) at the same time and when and only when he had the plan made final rather than suggesting and hinting at what might be included. O am I old fashioned in this?
posted by Postroad at 1:09 PM PST - 20 comments
Carlos the Jackal in Love.
A Muslim Terrorist by trade. A career lawyer on the fast track. Their paths crossed. Seperated by 2 inches of steel and a world that wouldnt understand a love that drew them together. Only she could see the beauty in the beast Carlos the Jackals heart. A hot passion for killing turned to passion for Love in the cold and wicked prison of a French jail. It seemed to simple, so right. But then, doesnt it always.
posted by stbalbach at 12:45 PM PST - 13 comments
Rogue Missile
responsible for the downed Russian Tu-154 in the Black sea. Ukrainian officials are calling for the resignation of all responsible military officials. I guess it's good that it wasn't terrorism... but it's a shame none the less.
posted by dancu at 12:38 PM PST - 8 comments
A little too much information?
Here is the homepage of Nielsen-NetRatings: He's 35. Married, 2 kids. Senior partner on Wall Street. Surfs for cookie recipes on his lunch hour. No, Nielsen-NetRatings is not going to be sued like
DoubleClick; 225,000 people have become Nielsen "net families." Comments?
By the way, I just saw Evil Bert. Ha!
posted by lheiskell at 12:00 PM PST - 13 comments
Terrorist or Not?
OK, I know what you're thinking, another AM I _____ or not? It is, but this one is actually pretty cool. Dossiers of famous terrorists and non-terrorists from the present back to Atilla the Hun. Interesting stuff and worth a few minutes of your time.
posted by cell divide at 11:21 AM PST - 12 comments
Ever wonder about the
Islamic Calendar? finishing up the month of Rajab about Oct 16
"The number of months with Allah has been twelve months by Allah's ordinance since the day He created the heavens and the earth. Of these four are known as sacred" (Holy Quran, ch., v 36)Muharram, Rajab, Dhul Qadah and Dhul Hijja are considered to be sacred months. Fighting during these sacred months is considered to be a sin. I am so ignorant of other cultures.
posted by redhead at 10:52 AM PST - 7 comments
Florida recount abandoned
by major news organizations in the wake of terrorist attacks. I know it's all academic now, but wouldn't this fall under "letting them win"? And did any other news org. report this?
posted by Ty Webb at 10:09 AM PST - 38 comments
A European Dragnet
captures new clues to bin Laden's network. They believe that for the sake of Jihad, or holy war, they can jettison the usual practices of devout Muslims. They call on adherents instead to burrow into the cultures they seek to eradicate. Let's have a block party.
posted by semmi at 9:27 AM PST - 6 comments
The one man who could destroy the Taliban was murdered two days before the tradgedy. I'd never heard of Masoud, but apparently he ran the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. This is an interview with a guy who interviewed Masoud just before his murder. "His death was an absolute psychological blow to anyone who believed in him. [...] I think he tried extremely hard to understand the mentality of the West and take as many of the good things as possible while keeping traditional Afghan life. It could have been a really interesting fusion."
posted by endquote at 8:40 AM PST - 10 comments
Face Recognition ATMs
In Australia, a tech company is developing face recognition ATMs, which operate on biometric technology (face, voice, and lip-movement). This technology could be an alternative to PINs. Is this idea really convenient or really freaky?
posted by MeetMegan at 8:36 AM PST - 5 comments
Just a bit ago, there was a crowd of about 2,000 in downtown Seattle chanting "AMD! AMD!" People will do anything for the chance at
free processors. It was seriously a spectacle, and a marketing department's wet dream. Who knew you could get 2,000 nerds to show up at 5-6am and stand around in the cold for two hours, and have them still be in good enough spirits to chant your brand name in response to the question "Who do you love?" (Of course, I might be less cynical about it if they'd just called number 4495.) Were any other MeFi peeps out there? Someone should post pictures. It was really kind of surreal.
posted by endquote at 8:29 AM PST - 16 comments
"Sex without love is an empty gesture. But as empty gestures go, it is one of the best." Woody Allen, quoted on
Aphorisms Galore. Kiss the next 15 minutes bye-bye.
posted by luser at 8:01 AM PST - 12 comments
oasis
i was listening to morning glory this morning :) and was wondering what was up with oasis. i knew they'd toured with the black crowes, but hadn't really heard much about it. so did a little searching and i dunno, this review made me feel pretty good. anyone going to the glasgow concert this weekend?
posted by kliuless at 8:00 AM PST - 11 comments
Glowing Pig News
Great to take to parties.....
(Hurrah for my first ever link that hasn't been found in previous threads...)
posted by Spoon at 7:53 AM PST - 13 comments
Cartoonists' Quandry
Apparently Newsday and NY's Daily News has pulled 'The Boondocks' cartoons because they may be... eh... too controversial? Perhaps "unamerican" to some? I understand these are difficult times where everyone feels vulnerable and suspicious, but nonetheless, the issues are worth addressing. Does expressing one's views and dissatisfaction with the government make you automatically unsymapthetic and unpatriotic? I can't pretend to understand what it's like to be a New Yorker over this last month, but I do think I would like to hear all perspectives, regardless of how potentially offensive or analytically critical they were.
posted by eclectic glamazon at 7:42 AM PST - 14 comments
The Columbus Day Threat
"Let the whole world know that we shall never accept that the tragedy of Andalusia be repeated in Palestine," Osama bin Laden said in his taped cave-side address. "We cannot accept that Palestine will become Jewish."
Reuven Koret's Israel Insider column
may explain the FBI's alert to terrorist activity: "Columbus Day, October 12, commemorates the founding of America in 1492, and 1492 represents the year in which Islam was driven out by Christianity. In bin Laden's mind, these two events are inextricably linked."
posted by Carol Anne at 7:04 AM PST - 10 comments
October 11
Bert is Evil is gone.
"I have taken down the "Bert is Evil!"site from my server. I would like to thank Sesame Workshop for their patience and restraint all these years. I implore all fans and mirror site hosts of "Bert is Evil" to stop the spread of this site too. -- dino"
posted by RavinDave at 11:41 PM PST - 38 comments
How long would it take you to run 135 miles? In more than 120 degree heat? Up more than 8,000 feet in elevation? Every year some very determined people run the
Badwater Ultramarathon from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney in California. It almost makes the Everest Marathon and Ironman Triathalons look easy.
posted by euphorb at 11:06 PM PST - 12 comments
"He considers religion
as the scourge of humanity, which dampens down our fantasies and our lust to think and experiment.''
Academy board member Per Wastberg, about Nobel Prize winner for Literature V. S. Naipul (NYT-register, etc.)
posted by semmi at 10:12 PM PST - 17 comments
"A Slight Case of Anthrax"
CBS pulls tonights episode of The Agency (at least on the West Coast, don't know about East Coast). Hmmm...I can't imagine why:
"The team works against the clock to stop an anthrax threat in the United States. A Belgian kennel has fallen victim to a terrorist attack in which the deadly disease anthrax was used. When the CIA discovers the perpetrator's identity and that Washington, D.C., is his next target, the team mobilizes to stop the criminal before he can reach the capital."
Is the shrinking line between truth and fiction becoming too close for comfort?
posted by nix at 9:27 PM PST - 6 comments
Why Americans can't or won't appreciate Formula One racing.
I visited Monte Carlo last year and a Greek friend of mine introduced me to the famous (among even the most casual of F1 fans) "hairpin" turn. "Well," he said, "here it is."
"Here
what is?" I wondered aloud.
"My god, but you are
so American."
I confess, when it comes to F1, as with rugby, cricket, and the many other sports popular everywhere outside U.S. borders, I am an ignorant boob. Are we
'mericuns just a bunch of xenophobic hicks, as the article suggests (skip down about 1/3 of the way)? Or just ignorant hicks? Whatever the case, with the lack of media coverage, we are certainly
missing out.
posted by Bixby23 at 9:04 PM PST - 53 comments
The Limits Of Soviet Airpower: The Bear Versus The Mujahideen In Afghanistan, 1979-1989
"This manuscript [from the United States military's Air University] analyzes the failure of Soviet air and ground forces to defeat the Afghan mujahideen during the nine-year Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. In pursuit of this objective, Soviet military strategy underwent a process of increasing radicalization that eventually resulted in a sanctioned
policy of terror by Soviet air and land forces. During this period, airpower played a critical role in this
campaign of terror by providing the platforms for
punitive bombardment, chemical attack,
aerial mining, troop insertion, and fire support."
Oh. Soviet air attacks were "terror". Ours are different. Somehow. After all, we're
fighting terrorists, so how can we be terrorists ourselves, eh?
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 5:13 PM PST - 22 comments
The Australian Rugby League cancelled the Australian Kangaroos rugby league team's tour of the UK after a small number of players were concered about their security. Now there's a
major outcry from all over Australia and the UK regarding the cancellation, and they are being branded gutless, wimps, and cowards from both home and abroad. Great Britain hasn't beaten Australia in a rugby league test series in over 30 years, now there's talk it should be given to them
by default. Quite pathetic of the ARL considering that the Australian Wallabies rugby union team (note to Americans - rugby league and rugby union are two different sports) have no doubts that their tour to Europe
will go on as planned.
posted by Jase_B at 5:09 PM PST - 10 comments
Total War: Article in UVa Conservative Magazine
Some choice quotes: "You have probably seen many of them around Grounds. They are the “doves:” The bleeding-heart liberal peacenik-types who have been whining and begging that the U.S. response be “measured” so that no more innocent people die, because enough have been killed already."
And the grossly innacurate:
"For the Koran quite emphatically states that whoever is not a Muslim—that is, whoever rejects the instruction of Allah (God) as revealed to Mohammed—is therefore a professed enemy of both God and the Muslim faithful. "
posted by samishah at 4:01 PM PST - 6 comments
Eat out, Give to charity
Members of the National Restaurant Association are donating proceeds from today's sales to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Tonight just might be a good night to take those you cherish out to eat to show them you love them.
posted by yangwar at 2:40 PM PST - 23 comments
The "next several days" could be interesting.
The link is to a press release on the fbi.gov site issued this afternoon. I know that there have been similar warnings over the past week or so, but this one seems particularly terse and ominous. Also, I thought it was really odd that they chose to name this press release "skyfall.htm". Nothing like stoking the paranoia.
posted by pardonyou? at 2:02 PM PST - 66 comments
Finally the Nobel Prize For Literature Gets It Right
Jorge Luis Borges didn't get it. Neither did Marcel Proust. But today V.S.Naipaul, arguably the best writer in the English language since Samuel Beckett died, was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Doesn't this just show it helps not to be English(e.g. Irish, American, Indian or Trinidadian)to be able to write dry and timeless prose such as Sir Vidia's?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:12 PM PST - 29 comments
Has anyone seen or heard from Dick Cheney in a while?
Follow the link and go about 1/3 of the way down to find this part:
In Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney has remained at a secure, undisclosed location away from the White House, two administration officials told CNN. He had been scheduled to swear in Tom Ridge Monday as the new director of homeland security; Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas stepped in to deliver the oath instead.
Yes, I know you want the backup man protected, but does it also require that he not make a single appearance or statement?
So, what's up with Cheney?
posted by Qubit at 8:18 AM PST - 51 comments
Focus on the Family likes watching bad TV.
Recently they have been howling about a cheesy CBS werewolf show, Wolf Lake. As Focus tells it the show is dripping with titillating lycanthrope partial nudity and guilty of promoting kooky Native American spiritualism.
"They had nudity - or partial nudity, at least - within the first twenty minutes," and, "There is an effort to put spiritualism on par with mainstream religion."
Granted, CBS’ Wolf Lake is no
FOX’s Werewolf - but Focus on the Family doesn’t stop with lycanthropes. They also have problems with other occult-glam fare like
Buffy,
Angel and
Charmed.
Is Focus right? Are these shows damaging to the viewer? Should we just say no to hot werewolf sex? Or should these nutty right-wingers just flip the channel?
posted by wfrgms at 8:18 AM PST - 27 comments
Seems
cappuccinos may remove the need for those nasty silicone implants. I think I need to buy some Starbuck's stock. And Victoria's Secret, too.
posted by CRS at 7:26 AM PST - 24 comments
Looks weird. Sounds Great.
Nokia's latest mobile phone seems to be a rather weird symbiosis of phone, keyboard device, pda, and mp3 player. I guess it will take a while before it hits the USA. But me, being in Europe, I think I'd like to check it out closely.
posted by HeikoH at 3:51 AM PST - 24 comments
anthrax home page
Have you heard that the lead singer for the band Anthrax is angry that
Anthrax is the cause of the death at the National Enquirer office. He also says he is taking antibiotics as a precaution that he doesn't die an ironic death from Anthrax. He is also thinking of changing his band's name to Bubonic Plague or Skin Eating Disease.
posted by houndyboy at 12:44 AM PST - 24 comments
I was talking to my wife this morning about one of the kids "bombing" a test at school, and she asked me, "Is that good or bad?" I said, "Bad, of course. You know, you bomb a test, that means either flunking it or close to it." She said, "No, not any more, like 'it's the bomb' or 'we bombed that hill' on skateboards.
Bombing is a good thing." Certain words and phrases are changing their meanings. Have you found yourself
tongue-tied?
posted by JParker at 12:20 AM PST - 18 comments
October 10
Buddyhead! Is it dead?!
I randomly checked out Buddyhead.com and noticed that it was "403 Forbidden."
Anyone know the story? It'd be a sad day if it was good and gone. . .
posted by marcuswebb at 9:09 PM PST - 13 comments
Free Radio KPFA.
With so much talk about free press, it seems no one here knows about this Pacifica Radio flagship station (which is oddly more independent than it's parent org).
Entirely listener supported since 1949.
posted by a_green_man at 7:50 PM PST - 5 comments
17 Divers Die In HurricaneFrom NPR: Hurricane Iris struck Belize earlier this week. The storm took few victims. Those who died were all members of the same scuba expedition from the Dive Club of Richmond, Va. NPR's Andrea Seabrook went to a meeting of the club, where surviving members talked about the friends they lost and the trust that exists between divers.
NPR's RealAudio report
posted by hotdoughnutsnow at 7:23 PM PST - 6 comments
With friends like these...
"The Left in 2001 needs a media upgrade in the worst way. It needs to figure out a way to communicate its message that doesn't cause a vast majority of Americans to roll their eyes. Change in this country comes about through numbers, and continually alienating the bulk of the nation with old, tired tactics isn't going to change anything. "
posted by theMargin at 4:56 PM PST - 41 comments
Limp Liberals - Aintchasickovem?
A really fine left liberal answer to Berkely and all the faint hearts. And it fits right in with my own thinking. It's time we stood up and got counted for human rights against any "culture" or "religion" that denies them. Polly Tonybee writes an excellent and timely piece. Liberals too, should not "go wobbly" out of a plain cowardly "respect" for reactionary strains of Islam, Christianity or Judaism. What do you think?
posted by terrymiles at 3:51 PM PST - 19 comments
Mullah Omar speaks
to the people of Afghanistan and Muslims around the world. But
Voice of Shariat was destroyed in the bombing. So a tape of his speech was delivered to
Voice of America and the
BBC World Service, and
they both broadcast it.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 2:35 PM PST - 28 comments
Berkeley does it again...
The Berkeley City Council is considering condemning the US attacks on Afganistan as acts of terrorism. The best quote:
"Berkeley has always been an island of sanity in terms of the war madness that has prevailed in this country," Spring said. "The U.S. is now a terrorist. According to the Taliban these are terrorist attacks." (Via the
WSJ Opinion Page)
posted by madreblu at 2:20 PM PST - 30 comments
Feinstein want national guard to be home defense outfit
Let's see. The air lines hired cheap and unskilled workers for security. They lost planes and lots of business. But the GOP doesn't want air carriers to become federalized nor have feds take care of security (too much like Big Govt or socialism.) So instead, we will use tax payer's money and have the National guard do the security work for private concerns and a few public ones. What will the underpaid and/or illegals do for a living?
Don't most folks in the Guard have regular jobs and do their thing on weekends? If so, should they give up their jobs for this? or double dip or flip a coin?
The Guard was called up in my state. But I was told (I can not verify) that they are not allowed to carry rifles or sidearms while guarding local airports. That makes me feel safer.
posted by Postroad at 1:59 PM PST - 7 comments
RAWA's gallery of graphic videos showing the Taliban's violence
Records that detail racial cleansing or life in a prison camp are often criticized because their graphic nature is sensational. Chernenko praised Solzhenitsyn's
Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich because it avoids cruelty.
The Rape of Nanking is controversial because of its graphic detail. Is it socially irresponsible for the RAWA to release taboo graphic videos or is it a painful truth that should not be affected by
de facto censorship?
posted by alex3005 at 1:00 PM PST - 21 comments
Debate over brain scans
Over at the Register, one of their writers has gotten into a fantastic pissing contest with InfoSeek's founder over the issue of brain scans and airport security. What are your thoughts?
posted by xochi at 10:02 AM PST - 7 comments
Rise of the "Investor-State"?
I was reading
The Nation online, and came across this article. William Greider has written a piece detailing how many conservatives in this country think that the Constitution's Fifth Amendment protections against private property being taken from individuals should apply to EVERYTHING, including government regulations. Taken to extremes, if a city want to pass an ordinance banning strip clubs from school zones, any club with even an inkling that they were going to build a club in those zones could sue the city against future POTENTIAL earnings.
Seems silly to me. What about you?
TOO LATE: IT'S ALREADY IN NAFTA. It's called Chapter 11, and it protects foreign investors/foreign companies from regulatory actions. So, for example, when California passed a bill to remove the carcinogen MTBE from gasoline in order to halt its spread into drinking water, Methanex Corporation, from Canada, sued for $970 MILLION. These lawsuits are popping up all over the place, and it's only going to get worse once the
FTAA is passed.
posted by taumeson at 9:46 AM PST - 7 comments
Spotting the Losers: Seven Signs of Non-Competitive States:
Nations and groups that will not be successful economically or diplomatically all share at least some of the following characteristics:
Restrictions on the free flow of information
Subjugation of women
Inability to accept responsibility for individual or collective failure
The extended family or clan as the basic unit of social organization
Domination by a restrictive religion
A low valuation of education
Low prestige assigned to work
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:24 AM PST - 32 comments
Is OS X really going to work?
I've been a Mac tech for almost 6 years now and I feel that OSX is a very risky endeavor for Apple. It's weird and users don't like it - I'm talking about
companies who rely on Mac, not developers or the "power users" who always adopt early. Not one single client of mine is interested in learning a new OS or buying all new software (and hardware) for the privilege of learning that new OS. It seems to me that production departments and agencies have too many deadlines to meet to futz with learning curves, slow apps in OS9, and myriad other issues. Does anyone else get this feedback from clients? Wouldn't it be just as easy to give in and switch to PeeCee, like
many of the departments I support are being pushed to anyway? What do you guys think about OSX and Apple's future?
posted by misangela at 8:48 AM PST - 61 comments
Blair now a 'legitimate target.'
A spokesman for a British Islamic group has said Tony Blair is a 'legitimate target.' According to spokesman, "This means if any Muslim wanted to kill him or get rid of him, I would not shed any tears." Salman Rushdie roomate jokes aside, this is pretty chilling.
posted by prodigal at 8:05 AM PST - 23 comments
Fandabidozi.
The Krankies are a comforting childhood memory of mine. Anyone else got some fond TV memories?
posted by hector at 5:47 AM PST - 21 comments
High speed hoax:
Taking advantage of a bug in CNN's "mail this story" mechanism, a guy created a hoax page looking like a CNN news story which claimed that Britney Spears had died in a car crash. (She's fine.) He seeded the story by giving it to just three people in a chat room -- and within 12 hours it had been downloaded 150,000 times. The Internet appears to permit extremely efficient distribution of disinformation.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:16 AM PST - 26 comments
Anthrax intern cleared.
The dark-skinned guy with the weird name (who sent a "threatening" e-mail when he left The Sun and "disappeared to Sudan") turned out to be Basque/Jewish and a student at FAU. However, the FBI was kind enough to arrest him in the middle of a job interview. Though cleared in an hour, he's afraid the 'terrorist' label will stick.
posted by xowie at 4:27 AM PST - 12 comments
Sand Castle Central!
"Your on-line source for all things sand sculpture, including free tips for beginners, information on the best sand carving tools, updated contest and master sculptor information, related links and lots of photos." - i'm off to the beach now...
posted by semper at 3:15 AM PST - 3 comments
Whats that?
is what we say, but the french seem to have a different way of asking the same question.
posted by semper at 3:05 AM PST - 20 comments
It's Raining Food (and Bombs)
"Air drops make great TV but they often represent a failure to respond to a food crisis."
Opinions that the food drops aren't really working, and that military action exacerbates their inefficiency.
posted by Kato at 12:24 AM PST - 37 comments
October 9
Is there some sort of rumor I don't know about?
I mean c'mon now. Garcia's Gay Lover Pick of the Week? Well, the picks have been good, apparently, but still... (Page includes disclaimer that it is not a betting site and that Jeff Garcia is not actually gay, but even the disclaimer sounds pretty tongue in cheek).
posted by Bixby23 at 10:40 PM PST - 11 comments
Osama Bart Laden
This is from the
Simpsons Folder, simply the best of its kind, in my opinion, and home of my favorite
wallpaper. The Bert Is Evil post has inspired me: What I'd like to see are your links to any and all the other post 9/11 cartoons, jpegs, gifs and so forth.
posted by y2karl at 8:42 PM PST - 7 comments
Kylie Minogue's anthrax link?
You'll have to scroll down to the 'KYLIE SHIPS PLATINUM' piece, but police are investigating an envelope sent to EMI in London. The envelope contained soil as well as a note claiming the soil was tainted with either anthrax or foot and mouth disease.
posted by skinsuit at 7:27 PM PST - 13 comments
Bert 'n' Osama
As near as I can figure it, the guy who made the Osama poster everyone is waving happened to download from the "Bert is Evil!" site...look behind Osama's left ear. Sorry, but I had to post this.
posted by Kafkaesque at 6:43 PM PST - 130 comments
Celebrities Can't Escape the Dotcom Drama:
"The Internet startup that built and maintained fan sites for the Paltrows and Travoltas of the world tanks -- knocking the stars offline
and making Hilary Swank a link to an Armenian porn portal."
Excuse me while I laugh my ass off. :)
posted by donkeyschlong at 1:17 PM PST - 12 comments
OK, this is yesterday's news, but this
airline incident happened Monday over the skies of Chicago. I heard the sonic boom as the F-16's scrambled to intercept the plane, which at first gave me a false sense of security. But now I'm wondering about 2 things about this incident; First, how the hell did this guy get in the cockpit? Haven't they fixed the doors yet (at least with a deadbolt)? Secondly, if this plane was indeed a threat, what would the F-16's do? Shoot the plane down over a very populated area? It seems our new airline security plans still have some major holes!
posted by Sal Amander at 12:31 PM PST - 16 comments
Those Crazy birds
The birdwatchers of Ireland were atwitter Tuesday after spotting a Baltimore oriole in a seaside village named Baltimore.
posted by aj100 at 10:43 AM PST - 7 comments
MetaFilter in six lines.
In order to know things well, we must
know them in detail, and detail, being
infinite, makes all our knowledge superficial and
incomplete.
François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld
posted by y2karl at 9:17 AM PST - 8 comments
Find out how good someone is in bed
This site can tell you what someone is like
in bed, by
you telling it what they are like
out of it.
"Using sophisticated neural network processing, HowGoodInBed.com is able to determine which are the most relevant factors in determining a person's likely performance in bed and analyse your responses accordingly."
If the looming threat of death is making you amorous, you should at least know what (or who) you're getting into.
posted by otherchaz at 8:46 AM PST - 22 comments
A cultural shift reflected in ads: How to make patriotism cool ... and profitable
For example, General Motors commercials tell consumers that its zero-interest financing is helping to “Keep America Rolling.” In Ford Motor Co.’s “Ford drives America” ads for interest-free financing, the car company insists the “spirit is alive.” I've been very skeptical to all of the 'a portion of the profits will be donated...' come-ons of late. This addresses similar issues. What do y'all think?
posted by tippiedog at 8:23 AM PST - 24 comments
Costly habits.
Are you broke again? Don't know where your money is going? Take a look at what you're spending your money on. Chances are, if you're supporting bad habits such as smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, or using marijuana or other illicit substances, you're spending quite a chunk of change. If you don't believe it, try out this expense calculator and see how much money you could be spending on something else!
posted by twistedonion at 8:22 AM PST - 26 comments
Doctors Say Third Anthrax Case Unlikely.
[The] case rang alarm bells because [the patient] told hospital officials he worked in a building in Fairfax, Virginia, that he believed was affiliated with American Media Inc, the company where the two other men infected with anthrax worked in Boca Raton, Florida. One of those victims, a photo editor for a supermarket tabloid, died on Friday.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:14 AM PST - 10 comments
The web isn't proper hypertext
says Ted Nelson, who probably invented the idea.
"I define hypertext as non-sequential writing ... the World Wide Web is not what we were trying to create. The links only go one way. There's no permanent publishing. There is no way you can write a marginal note that other people can see on what's in front of you. There is no way that you can quote freely. "
So is everyone fully comfortable with the idea of a "two way web", or are we still too hung up on picket fence territorialism? And how would it work, anyway?
posted by walrus at 5:52 AM PST - 18 comments
We did it!
Jedi Knights achieve official recognition as a religion. OK, it's code is 896 with none coming in at 899, but still... be interesting to see how many of us there are out there
posted by twistedonion at 4:23 AM PST - 20 comments
Ahmed Rashid
and
Idries Shah have been my best sources as I try to get a real appreciation for the mosaic of Pashtun tribesmen, Tajiks, etc., that is Afghanistan. The former's book (link to long excerpt) is chock full of facts about the background and makeup of the Taliban. The latter's is a page-turning 1986 military romance (no Arabs, no CIA mentioned, but the secret KGB phone number given was, famously correct), by an author better known for works on Sufis and the incorrigible humorist
Mulla Nasrudin: a painless way to steep yourself in a (romantically idealized but extremely informative) Afghan worldview. So, you other news junkies, what have been your best sources for the deeper cultural background of this patch of rugged mountains with which the U.S. finds itself at war?
posted by Zurishaddai at 4:01 AM PST - 9 comments
Hey You! Stop, Drop and Roll
Am I going to hell because this made me laugh--albeit briefly and with pangs of guilt? Was it schadenfreude? Frayed nerves? An inherent appreciation of irony where I can find it? Or something far worse? (Are these enough questions?)
posted by Kato at 2:15 AM PST - 16 comments
My hangover
has now moved into day 2. Last night was cold shakes and sweats. It was great fun with the
boys, but still...
Any
advice would be gratefully received.
posted by Frasermoo at 12:38 AM PST - 27 comments
PostPet
Japan's most popular email program. it's NOT outlook, it's NOT notes, it's NOT eudora. it's PostPet. related article here:
A Dancing Pink Bear Named Momo. now looking at this pink bear in particular and japanese culture in general, any chance that
imode will *really* be popular in Europe and the US?
posted by HeikoH at 12:22 AM PST - 14 comments
October 8
B61-11 tactical micro-nuke headed for Afghanistan?
Though large "theater" thermonuclear devices -- doomsday bombs -- don't fit the Bush administration's war on terrorism, smaller tactical nukes do not seem out of the question in the current mindset of the Defense Department. Rumsfield avoided answering the question of whether the use of tactical nuclear weapons could be ruled out. What kind of nuclear fallout would a weapon like this cause?
posted by suprfli at 11:37 PM PST - 16 comments
Anthrax
case becomes criminal investigation as Law Enforcement intensifies its searche for a Summer Intern who worked in the office.
He is
said to be from the Middle East. Hopefully unrelated, but evidence is mounting... i.e. - employees received a strange letter before the WTC attack containing a white powdery substance and a "Cheap" Star of David charm...
posted by da5id at 7:40 PM PST - 24 comments
Sigur Ros
has been nominated for the Virgin Megastore Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement. Their video for "Vidrar vel til Loftarasa " is one of the most beautiful, shocking, and saddening pieces of film I've seen in a long while. (It's available on their site)
posted by fnirt at 6:47 PM PST - 37 comments
Michael Musto's column
this week features snippets from the upcoming Friar's Club roast of Hugh Hefner. Of course, for the Friar's, no topic is too sacred and the WTC topic was broached with aplomb (as opposed to aplane). Sorry, but if you thought that was tasteless, follow the link...
posted by adrober at 5:14 PM PST - 7 comments
Staroffice 6.0b
is a great, free alternative to microsoft office for people who can't afford the suite or for those that would rather not use microsoft products. Staroffice has completely integrated XML support and full featured word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing applications.
posted by mcsweetie at 4:21 PM PST - 25 comments
Moveable Type,
a new entrant in the weblog management system applications arena, has just been released! Let's hear what the Mefi masses think...
posted by fooljay at 2:28 PM PST - 59 comments
Coming soon to an inbox near you,
this link(&
part 2) to a WTC(& Pentagon) conspiracy page. Planes didn't do all the damage, bombs did in order to exploit the "WTC Golden Goose." Any other conspiracy theories floating around yet?
posted by donkeysuck at 12:46 PM PST - 15 comments
Rhymes With Orange
was one of my favorite comic strips a few years ago, but when it stopped running regularly in my area I forgot all about it. Looks like it's being archived now.
[more...]
posted by basmati at 12:03 PM PST - 3 comments
Rush Limbaugh has gone deaf.
While he can recognize sound, he cannot understand it, including callers to his radio show. He's working around it now (somehow), but may have to change his format in the near future. Rush's site is being hit hard, but you can find a transcript
of his monologue here.
posted by ewagoner at 11:59 AM PST - 85 comments
Donald Rumsfeld
from Dep of Defense biography ...."Mr. Rumsfeld served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Instrument Corporation from 1990 to 1993. A leader in broadband transmission, distribution, and access control technologies for cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcasting applications, the company pioneered the development of the first all-digital high definition television (HDTV) technology".
...boy that must feel like 100 years ago....
posted by Voyageman at 10:29 AM PST - 8 comments
Music biz wants tougher DMCA
"If the RIAA gets its way, ISPs will be as guilty of copyright violation as their subscribers. "Because of the magnitude of the problem, ISPs can no longer be shielded from the wrath of the law," shrieked Rosen righteously."
posted by Mick at 7:15 AM PST - 23 comments
Dark is Rising (Amazon link) by Susan Cooper.
This book, about an 11 year old boy, was given to me by my oldest sister when I turned 11. Now that I have kids of my own, I look forward to passing this book on to my son when he turns 11. Any other age-appropriate books that stand out in your mind, particularly if given when you were the age of the lead character?
posted by jmackin at 5:39 AM PST - 104 comments
Herblock coined "McCarthyism."
Longtime Washington Post cartoonist Herbert Block dies at 91. Wielding independence through his sketches, the artist who gave President Richard Nixon five o'clock shadow won three Pulitzer prizes and the admiration of loyal readers. Don't miss "Five Decades of Herblock" cartoons and essays.
posted by Carol Anne at 5:27 AM PST - 5 comments
More than 100 dead in Milan plane crash
There's no evidence as I post this that this has anything to do with the WTC / Pentagon attacks, or the retaliatory attacks by the Allied forces...still, a Cessna that comes out of nowhere seems odd to me, fog or no fog...
posted by tomcosgrave at 3:31 AM PST - 7 comments
Chomsky on MSNBC talks about recent events! That would be news all by itself. I know that a lot of people on the right disagree with him, but who can argue with what he says here? Also from left field an incisive
Q&A about Afghanistan history and the current situation by Tariq Ali.
posted by talos at 2:57 AM PST - 25 comments
AltaVista to be closed down?
I guess their über-portal strategy failed. no big news here. but closing down the search engine entirely? i guess you don't need 100 folks to run the spider and indexing machines.. ok.. there are hardware and network/bandwidth costs associated.. but closing it all down?
no question. there is
competition out there. and the googles and
fasts are the new benchmarks.
but i sure remember the days when AV was super-fast (also in including submissions into their live index) and super-relevant. but in those days, the internet was much smaller and AV was owned by digital (compaq).
those were the days when infoseek tried to compete and hotbot tried to rise to stardom.
times changed. but i sure would miss AV.
posted by HeikoH at 12:57 AM PST - 11 comments
October 7
Comedy College
Steve Martin begins hosting a weekly public radio show, profiling legendary comics. This week: The Cos. (Real Player required)
posted by Optamystic at 10:46 PM PST - 2 comments
The Pump Girls! Rockin' With the Diabetes!
They're called the Pump girls because they all have insulin pumps in them! Cool!
"The Pump Girls, is a pop music group consisting of 3 girls aged 13-14. The girls, who are all from Southern California, sing about boys, love, dancing and overcoming challenges. They all have Juvenile Diabetes. One of their goals is to motivate other teens to deal with the challenges of the disease successfully."
posted by RoyalJack at 10:39 PM PST - 16 comments
Dr. Seuss Went to War.
This page has many of the comics that show up in the book of the same name. WWII era political cartoons from Dr. Seuss.
posted by alan at 9:26 PM PST - 4 comments
2001 Ig Nobel Results:
What is most suprising about this is that 9 out of the 10 winners actually wrote acceptance speeches. Awards went to the creator of "Stalin World," a study of teens who pick their noses, a study of injuries due to falling coconuts, and the invention of fart-proof underwear.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:09 PM PST - 8 comments
Defend NYC From Hijacked Airplanes [Flash Required]
You're somewhere in NYC shooting down incoming jets as they try to crash into the World Trade Center. The text is in French, but the mechanics are easy to understand if you know how to play missle command. Is there going to be a mod for "Hunt the Wumpus" called "Hunt The Osama".
posted by RoyalJack at 6:39 PM PST - 21 comments
Photos of Car Burnouts in Garnock
make for a surprisingly good website. Makes me wish I had a similarly simple yet satisfying hobby. I mean, at this boy's I was collecting beermats for some bizarre reason. The kids of today have got it all...
posted by MUD at 4:59 PM PST - 10 comments
The picture on the site for the upcoming movie K-Pax
makes me want to add "...that Kevin Spacey's gay?" to that tagline. Not, of course, that there would be anything wrong with that.
Actually,
the one page of celebrity rumors I mostly buy, even if many are humdrum (drug/alcohol problems? say it ain't so!) claims he is, although who cares. David Duchovny, pothead, pr0n collector; Macy Gray, functioning heroin addict -- now
that's what I wanna hear! (The page seems to have disappeared, so I've linked to the google's cached one, which unfortunately only goes halfway down the alphabet. Anybody have a better link?)
posted by cps at 4:21 PM PST - 33 comments
Emmy Awards postponed...
maybe even cancelled. Sounds OK to me; there's already waaaay too many awards shows. Anyone upset by this, or have a strong opinion either way?
Just trying to draw some fire away from the monster thread re: attacks, which is stuck in some sort of continuous circle.
posted by davidmsc at 4:05 PM PST - 13 comments
BBC's John Simpson
reports on the attacks from inside Afghanistan. i rate his reporting and am a great admirer of hir work and books
posted by quarsan at 12:41 PM PST - 4 comments
This didn`t seem too important to many
but the last pieces of evidence associating Bin Laden and company to the WTC attacks was released, and is detailed by the Sunday Times. It`s surprising that many people were ready to go to war without this info...
posted by holycola at 10:16 AM PST - 21 comments
Netcops
I will probably get toasted for this, but I thought this was funny and obnoxious.
posted by bjgeiger at 5:37 AM PST - 11 comments
It is The Religion
A very strong case made for Why They Hate Us...and it is not so much our world-wide policies. This piece along with the earlier piece I had posted by Paul Berman (American Prospect) are fine appraisals of why Islam "fears" the West and what they ideally want. Sullivan avoides the (for me) overly simplistic single causes that so many seem convinced of and offers instead a much larger view. Via NY Times, free reg. req'd.
posted by Postroad at 3:40 AM PST - 37 comments
October 6
I hear trite sayings all the time.
Sometimes they're smart and funny, sometimes they bug the crap out of me. Here's one that has always bugged me:
"No matter where you go, there you are." Anybody else have a saying they like or dislike? My newest favorite:
"Always listen to your parents-even if they're in jail." Please share...
posted by ashbury at 10:41 PM PST - 48 comments
Anthrax case in Florida poses many questions.
Widely represented by our nations media as a natural occurrance, the fact is Anthrax deaths are extremely rare through contact with animals. A friend who is knowledgeable about anthrax is sure this is
military grade anthrax. Certainly, Stevens was an elderly man, but put this with -
"Atta and other Middle Eastern men are believed to have visited an airfield in Belle Glade, about 40 miles from Lantana", and you get a pretty good story. Anthrax can take up to seven weeks to begin it's nasty death process, will more cases come to light, or will the CDC whisk them away? Paranoia, maybe, but still a cause for vaccinations just to be completely safe. I'm sure our government won't want to "startle" anyone by initiating vaccinations, but we could easily reduce the (legitimate) threat of the BIG THREE (Smallpox, the Plague and Anthrax) to nearly zero.
Our leaders all have access to gas masks and are most likely being given the shots as we speak. What happens to the rest of us?
posted by a_green_man at 10:40 PM PST - 20 comments
Degrassi's Back!
For the Canadian's out there, I'm sure I don't have to remind you about those classic CanCon series'
The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, and
Degrassi High. (Any Canadian between 15-35 grew up on at least one of these) Well starting October 14th, we can all grow up again with a new gang of kids on Degrassi: The Next Generation! Who will be the next Joey Jeremiah?
posted by paultron at 3:07 PM PST - 22 comments
Has anyone set up an online home - museum? - where 'Internet Icons' can be stored safely for future generations? If not shouldn't they? I nominate this
coffee pot, this
sadly missed phonebox and maybe even
this guy. Are there any others which you think would qualify?
posted by Duug at 1:40 PM PST - 22 comments
Mmm...brownies...aaarrrgghhh...
It seems a middle school lad in Santa Cruz, CA had something different in mind for extra credit.
Clark said the teacher, who was aware the 14-year-old boy had past problems with marijuana, jokingly asked for one of the "pot brownies." The boy gave her one, and she ate it.
Be careful what you ask for.
posted by basmati at 12:51 PM PST - 17 comments
October 5
What does it mean to be "Arab-looking"?
Arabs are perceived to have olive complexions, dark eyes and black hair. But that generalization could not be more wrong, according to Gordon Newby, executive director of Emory's Institute for Comparative and International Studies. "Arabs can be tall, short, light skinned, dark skinned, curly haired, straight haired, dark eyed, light eyed, black haired, red haired."
posted by Rastafari at 11:30 PM PST - 12 comments
Underwater rugby?
"An air-filled ball is not suitable for underwater games, since they are bouyant and always return to the surface. For this reason, Bersuda filled the ball with salt-water. Since the density of the ball was now greater than that of normal water, it no longer floated to the surface, but slowly sank to the bottom. The sink rate could, within certain limits, be controlled by the concentration of the salt solution. The first underwater ball was invented." Apparently, it's big in
Switzerland (located east or south of Germany). Anyone else know anything about it?
posted by tippiedog at 8:07 PM PST - 5 comments
Cop uses helicopter for doughnut run,
gets investigated. Any real life incident involving cops & doughnuts is farcical. But should this guy be disciplined? Cops use their cruisers for this purpose all the time. Maybe he shouldn't have had the pilot land in a open field, though. Also debatable: why am I reading about cops & doughnuts at 11pm on a Fri. night?
posted by espada at 8:00 PM PST - 23 comments
Columbia Records to release benefit cd "God Bless America"
The compilation will include Celine Dion's rendition of the title track which was recorded specially for this release.
The label says "a substantial portion" of the proceeds from sales will be donated to the Twin Towers Fund..
Uh, "substantial portion" AND another Celine version of GBA? This cd sucks already. The catalog sales must be slow over at Columbia.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 6:43 PM PST - 11 comments
Terror and Liberalism
I have found this piece in The American Prospect to be one of the most balenced pieces I have yet come across. It considers all aspects of the terrorist groups--Israel, American policy, poverty, Iraq, fundamentalisim, history of the area, westernization, etc and finds the rights and wrongs in each, offering finally a way to cope with things in the future while at the same time dealing with present needs.
In other words, it avoids the overly simplistic formulas offered by so many stalwarts of the far Right or far Left.
posted by Postroad at 3:00 PM PST - 12 comments
"Language Gene" found...
(link to
arstechnica discussion)
"A group of Oxford University researchers presented findings in this week's Nature that they isolated a gene called FOXP2 that appears to be involved in both speech and language development." this is intriguing... that so much can start from so little.
posted by zerolucid at 1:40 PM PST - 7 comments
Bin Laden Celebrates
This is video shot just after the WTC attack and released today. It shows a celebration of Bin Laden and his top lieutenants surrounded by armed militants.
posted by Lanternjmk at 10:51 AM PST - 43 comments
Open Season on Pipelines
Some dumbass with a rifle shot the trans-Alaska pipeline with a rifle on Thursday (
photo here). The results of his single shot? 70,000 gallons of crude oil spilled on the ground. The authorites, as is requisite these days, assure us it has "nothing to do with terrorism".
posted by kokogiak at 10:28 AM PST - 23 comments
The Old Man Woman and the Sea Jailcell
The son of Ernest Hemmingway, Dr. Gregory Hemingway, died on Monday from natural causes in his private jailcell at the Miami-Dade Women's Detention Center. No, not a typo there: Gregory, who occassionally also went as "Gloria", had been arrested on relatively minor charges ... emerging naked from a state park in the Florida Keys.
posted by bclark at 10:04 AM PST - 16 comments
Where are you getting your information from lately?
Try getting it from
places
where the
views may be
very
different from yours.
It's getting very scary.
posted by chainring at 9:57 AM PST - 29 comments
Get lost in the Maize!
To me, Fall means pumpkins, pumpkin pie, turning leaves, and the annual trip to the cornfield maze!
See if the one near you has a haunted maze the few weekends before Halloween. (Advice: Bring a map. It's actually quite challenging, and calling for the Corn Cops to get you out is embarrassing.)
Every year I take a bunch of friends or co-workers to the maze, and to this day, this is my favorite bonding experience. What's your favorite teambuilding experience?
posted by jennak at 9:25 AM PST - 17 comments
Cyberdildonics
describes a technology which permits someone to remotely control a dildo over the internet.
Reach out and touch someone! (I bet they're working on that next.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:14 AM PST - 20 comments
Switzerland has moved.
At least according to the folks at CNN. May be regarded as offensive ...
Received this picture by e-mail, so I have no better link than to my own site.
posted by vowe at 3:32 AM PST - 58 comments
October 4
Initial audio from the WTC.
Police, fire, etc. "Please note that these files can be disturbing to listen to..." If your tired of political commentary about this but are hooked none the less, you too can be an audio voyeur (audeur?).
I really only post this for historical reasons.
posted by a_green_man at 11:54 PM PST - 5 comments
Right now, on MLB.com,
you can watch Barry Bonds hit his 70th homerun of the season, Rickey Henderson tying Ty Cobb's career run record, Sammy Sosa hitting his 61st homerun of the season, Ichiro breaking Wade Bogg's record for singles in a season, and Tim Raines bat with his son Tim Raines Jr. on second. It's a good day to be a baseball fan.
posted by culberjo at 8:49 PM PST - 57 comments
'Electric Phrenology' as a security device.
One of Infoseek's founders wants to sell the world's airports on a mind-reading scheme. Worse, a Pentagon think-tank is taking advice from Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, ex-lead guitarist from the Doobie brothers. His advice: psychological warfare with drugs, music, and nanomachines that make you love America.
[towards bottom]
posted by skallas at 8:03 PM PST - 5 comments
"We
wish to dissent against the using of the Capitol rotunda and other governmental buildings for prayer meetings that focus on Christian or monotheistic ceremonies."
Comments?
posted by semmi at 7:24 PM PST - 31 comments
Will Durst: "ABC has its blue circled logo in the bottom right with red-and-white stripes shooting offscreen, and CBS has a motto: 'America on Alert.' Not all of the cable stations have official mottos but that's why I'm here. To help."
posted by tpoh.org at 6:33 PM PST - 6 comments
Volleyball meets "Pong"
...the creator calls it "slime volley ball" but it really is not slimy; it's actually sorta cute. It's a very, very simple game that (as far as I can tell) doesn't require plug-ins, javascript, popups, or anything special.
posted by davidmsc at 4:15 PM PST - 40 comments
Your Phone Number Touch Tones Are Copyrighted!
Not to mention the touch tone sequence to just about any other phone number you'll ever dial. You've got two choices: a) Pay a licensing fee, or b) throw all your telecommunications equipment away.
Brilliant. Wish I had thought of it.
posted by tpoh.org at 3:52 PM PST - 15 comments
Are you dreaming about terrorist attacks?
Twice in the past week I have had an incredibly vivid dream where I am speaking with a stranger who is warning me about another terrorist attack to occur tomorrow. Is it just my mind coping with the Current Situation, or is it a premonition? Have you been having dreams like this too?
Well, the site above allows all who are not professionally Ms. Cleo to post their predictions. One from November of last year gave me chills:
November 2, 2000: Had a premonition.. saw a silver plane with red and blue stripes.. American.. international flight..
saw the number seven.. bombing or ?.. problems with the plane..
posted by DragonBoy at 2:41 PM PST - 25 comments
Where Apple goeth, the industry will follow . . .
eventually.
"Intel is finally inciting the death of the floppy drive and is calling on PC manufacturers big and small to stop supplying the once-capacious 1.44MB removable drive in the latter half of 2002." I remember the first 3.5 inchers (weren't they 400k) with my first Mac in '84. Yet another era passes.
posted by fpatrick at 2:21 PM PST - 42 comments
Case of Anthrax Diagnosed in Florida:
A 63-year-old man has been hospitalized with pulmonary anthrax, Florida Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan said Thursday. Anthrax has been developed by some countries as a possible biological weapon, but Brogan said there was no indication the illness was related to bioterrorism.
If Al Qaeda hadn't been looking into renting those crop dusters out that way, I might be feel better about his assessment.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:44 PM PST - 12 comments
$320 Million
worth of aid is going to the people of Afghanistan, and their neighbors. Is this too much? Couldn't this much money dramatically improve the lives of some 3000 or more struggling families here? Is this the proper message to send to terrorist nations?
posted by eas98 at 12:59 PM PST - 23 comments
Startlingly beautiful girl. What is her life like? Does she resent it? How uncomfortable must life be for this girl's boyfriend? Why do restaurants give her a 75% discount if she sits at a window table? Rhetorical questions all, but sometimes you gotta ask. Be sure to click the slideshow thingie. (NYtimes link)
posted by luser at 12:31 PM PST - 103 comments
Maps.
Recent events have sent me all over bookstores and the web to look at and learn from maps. This is the best, and one of the least known sites. For current events, try the
Middle East and
Afghanistan sections, but don't miss the incredibel
Historical maps collection.
posted by geronimo_rex at 12:03 PM PST - 7 comments
National Poetry Day
in the UK. Always a good reminder to go and have a look at that small selection of anthologies I've got on my shelf and see how the meanings of some of my favourite works have changed now what I've got another year of experiences. What is your favourite poem?
posted by feelinglistless at 11:45 AM PST - 21 comments
Focus on the Family
says ABC’s The Drew Carey Show propagandizes "the idea that men enjoy watching lesbian sex."
Instead of showing the kiss, the camera pans slowly around to show the male cast and crew in a voyeuristic trance. "To a lot of people, Drew Carey represents middle America, and what you see here is perversions working their way through the TV and this supposed middle American icon"
Among religious conservatives in general there is a dislike of ABC and parent Disney programming. The conservative American Family Association thinks Christians should
boycott Disney. Are these groups just a bunch of religious fuddy-duddies or do they have a valid gripe?
posted by wfrgms at 10:30 AM PST - 45 comments
What did you think of West Wing
last night? Beyond the fact that it was preachy and simplistic, did you think that it was a good or bad approach to handling complex issues through a show that is respected for presenting political dialogues in a pop culture format? Additionally, what do you think of the way in which pop culture seems to have returned to normal? This topic appears in both the
NY Times and
USA Today, today, as it becomes clear that prime time ratings are stronger than ever after the attacks.
posted by wsfinkel at 6:08 AM PST - 27 comments
Is the west creating the new Osama?
An excellent (as always) article by Robert Fisk in the Independent. Is the "Northern Alliance" just another bunch of fanatical thugs? If so is the West wise in supporting them?
posted by talos at 2:20 AM PST - 11 comments
A real cancer cure, finally?
When I'm in my cups, I like to declaim that "Some of us now living may never die" or stuff of the sort. Is this the real thing? Is the time finally here when enormous jumps in our natural lifespan are going to start happening, at least for the rich? What would
you do if you had an extra 20, or 50, or 100 years?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:39 AM PST - 28 comments
October 3
"Whatever else is going on, the liberal-left alliance has taken as big a hit as the conservative-fundamentalist alliance after the blame-America remarks of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson ... It may be [...] that the far left's bluff has been finally called ... For the first time in a very long while, many liberals are reassessing--quietly for the most part--their alliance with the anti-American, anticapitalist forces they have long appeased, ignored or supported."
Andrew Sullivan in Thursday's Opinion Journal. Strong piece, but is he correct? I've seen a few people reassessing here and there, but not a lot, at least not yet.
posted by aaron at 10:11 PM PST - 25 comments
Race For the Cure
In the midst of our mass grief and generosity are we forgetting the daily victims of this disease that also robs children of a parent? Are normal charities being short changed?
posted by sierray at 8:21 PM PST - 4 comments
The G-Rated War: Blowing Smoke, Pipe Dream, or The Real Hashish?
I want to spin antiwar arguments a slightly different way. Previous threads have been quite dim. This Cnn chat transcript focuses on the use of non-lethal weapons, the need to separate innocents from terrorists and separate terrorist networks from Islamic states, and the interviewee is as much as suit as they come. You could cut a diamond on that crew cut. I have several questions: 1) Is the US military actually going to use non-lethal weapons, or is this the new "smart bomb?" 2) Do the 'pacificists' among us consider this to be pacificist? 3) If you do favor peace over war, do you think this is a good compromise between peace and war, or is the issue by definition binary? More > >
posted by rschram at 7:36 PM PST - 11 comments
Do you miss the music from your old NES games?
Well if you do, be sure to check out the minibosses. They're a band that only plays the songs to classic video games from the Nintendo Entertainment System. Great stuff. I particularly enjoyed the Wizards & Warriors track amusing, since I was addicted to that game when I was younger. Also, am I the only one who thinks there should be a new console system DEDICATED to only 2D games? 3D games are neat 'n all, but I don't think enough good 2D games are being made anymore. The
Gameboy Advance is probably the only system doing that sort of thing right now, but it's just a portable.
posted by kingmissile at 5:55 PM PST - 22 comments
He
no longer resembles a human. Saw the video premiere last night on MTV (download if you can stomach it). At first jocko's face is concealed, but then the result of years of mutilation is revealed. I've always wondered what an earthling would grow up to look like on a planet with slightly different climate and gravity, and er, well, you'll see.
I understand Brando getting involved, but Michael Madsen and Chris Tucker must really need the cash.
The...horror.... The... horror...
posted by sharksandwich at 3:21 PM PST - 55 comments
Metascene is alive!
In case you were getting worried like me, apparently metascene survived the transplant to NY and is posting again. Well, sorta...
posted by josholalia at 2:12 PM PST - 3 comments
Michael Kelly nails it.
Are "pacifists" inherently relying on others to defend their right to protest the war? Or do they wish to live in a nation where we pledge allegiance to Saddam and Osama?
posted by prodigal at 12:48 PM PST - 68 comments
On September 30th, there was a peace protest in Washington D.C.
I'm surprised no one else linked to this -- about 50 students from
my college attended and joined the crowd of a few thousand. I would have gone, but I'm dubious about the efficacy of public protest despite the fact that I'm an affirmed pacifist. What do you folks think? Will a totally non-military action be an appropriate response? (And is there any possiblity of the US acting in such a way?) Is the loss of a single additional human life in this new war justifiable?
posted by tweebiscuit at 11:28 AM PST - 109 comments
NYTimes blacklisting?
"All the writers are co-plaintiffs in a well-known class-action lawsuit by the Authors Guild and the National Writers Union against the Times over electronic rights and royalties disputes." The case reached the Supreme Court. NYTimes published an
article 25 Sep about the accusation though its now a "pay-per-view" article. Response to NYT from one the plaintiffs
here (slow server). Freelancers had expressed fear this would
happen.
posted by mmarcos at 11:23 AM PST - 1 comments
The anonymous terrorist
The advent of the anonymous terrorist is a relatively new phenomenon. It does not necessarily suit the purposes of anarchists and religious extremists to publicise their activities, and they can ‘enjoy’ the anonymity and ambiguity provided by the Internet.
posted by semmi at 10:52 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
buffy is dead
no she's not! yes she is. well, she ain't healthy. and her site is gone. didn't UPN have the sense to get the url in deal? and who watched the show last night?
posted by christina at 10:32 AM PST - 39 comments
Next attack by containership?
The head of security at Logan Airport, responsible not only for security lapses that led to 2 of the 9/11 hijackings but hundreds of other lapses as well, has been removed from his post--and reassigned as the head of security at the Port of Boston. Mass. politics at its finest.
posted by espada at 10:16 AM PST - 4 comments
Here's your box of dirt.
The families of the more than 5,000 victims of the World Trade Center attack will each receive a wooden urn with dirt from the mass graveyard.
I know, I know... another story involving the WTC bombings. But this one is struck me as odd.
posted by bradth27 at 9:41 AM PST - 13 comments
The War Against MP3?
Hilary Rosen, everyone's favourite defender of record company hegemony, outlines her new strategy ("Help me help you.") in an email leaked to
FuckedCompany. Interestingly, it's aimed at beating the dastardly hackers at their own game, with tactics such as "Spoofing and/or interdiction methods for existing peer to peers". Signs of desparation on the part of the RIAA, or should people be making the most of the second-generation Napster clones while they have a chance?
posted by holgate at 9:30 AM PST - 34 comments
Greyhound suspends service.
Rinearson said when she refused to give up her seat, "He just went up to the bus driver and like slit his throat. And the bus driver turned the wheel and the bus tipped over." Normally, just another whack-job ending his days. But the annoying thing was listening to the radio this morning on the way to work and all they could keep wondering about aloud was what the guy's nationality was. What, is the first reaction of normal people when they see a little spark or ember to immediately rush over and fan it into raging flames? Are people no longer able to think critically? Is your response to the situation going to be different if the nationality answer is 'American' vs. 'Saudi'? What does this say about you?
posted by warhol at 5:17 AM PST - 51 comments
Mercedes supercar
to be built in Britain. God, that feels to good to read. Am I xenophobic, nationalistic or proud of the Euoropean Community on my doorstep? I'm not sure, but how can you hold a grudge against a country with
this?
posted by Frasermoo at 5:03 AM PST - 13 comments
There are rules for flying the flag.
Not that anyone is really following them. In our patriotic fervor, it seems to me that we as a nation are become very apathetic to handling the banner in ways that at other times gets people crying desecration. For those who find the formal flag too dry, the American Legion also provides this
handy FAQ. How many of you out there showing your patriotism are doing Ol' Glory justice?
posted by shagoth at 4:39 AM PST - 11 comments
October 2
A veritable potpourri of je ne sais quoi
: so, I'm just dinkin' around, looking things up from my wish list, compiled before I got online at home,
tonight's quest was '
Virgil Finlay,'
and I
back into this incredible virtual theme park devoted to the
greatest living American science fiction author (that lifted straight from my
show's, ahem,
links page, that), imo--no humble here and now--and it's got
starcharts of the Oikumene and
maps and
meals...gee, did I say it was a French site? And Rpgs and on and on and on...You '
could her nipples be any harder?' Klingon forehead hair splitting color TV babies have no idea: the technology does not exist to take his work to screen. The man is the premiere prose stylist of the genre and this concept has merit, I tells ya...
posted by y2karl at 11:19 PM PST - 22 comments
3-D imagery
from NOAA of the crater at ground zero, engineers are using them to find the location of elevators and support structures located beneath the rubble.
posted by owillis at 11:11 PM PST - 6 comments
PDA physical therapy.
Handspring's new module uses Electronic Muscle Stimulation (EMS) for muscle stimulation/relaxation after a hard day's work. Will this be the new yuppie toy? Imagine people walking around with two white pads glued to their face confronting quizzical stares with an angry, "What?"
posted by skallas at 3:46 PM PST - 9 comments
Remote control jets (Yahoo news)
Is this really a good idea? I've heard similar suggestions for our airways - but the article points out that centralizing air traffic has the potential to put entire
fleets of jumbo jets in the hands of terrorists.
posted by SilentSalamander at 2:41 PM PST - 12 comments
One for the conspiracy theorists?
On 7th of September, Governor Jeb Bush signed Executive Order 01-261, revising his powers to call up the Florida National Guard "in the event of civil disturbances or natural disasters", citing as one of its concerns "the potential massive damage to life and property that may result from an act of terrorism at a Florida port". Four days later, after the WTC attacks, his very next Executive Order
declared a State of Emergency and activated the National Guard under those revised powers. (It's still in place.) Now, we all know that the President was in the coastal city of Sarasota, Florida on the morning of the 11th, and we also know that Disney World closed its doors as a precaution after the attacks... so, coincidence? (Picked up from
media-squatters.)
posted by holgate at 2:25 PM PST - 19 comments
The Beast
'88 movie about a tank commander and his crew during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Has anyone else seen it?
posted by mutagen at 1:15 PM PST - 16 comments
But what's your position on opium?
The Islamic State of Afghanistan wants US citizens to learn the difference between them and the Taleban, and has posted some friendly e-mails they've received. Of course its conventional wisdom that the NA are our best allies in quashing the Taleban---and afghangovernment.org reflects this oversimplification.
posted by rschram at 11:22 AM PST - 8 comments
10/02/2001. Is today the first palandrome since December 31, 1321? What is your favorite
palandrome?
posted by Umpqua at 9:15 AM PST - 73 comments
Yahoo made a subtle change to its site today to
raise awareness about a cancer that will be diagnosed in 192,000 women in the U.S. this year.
posted by rcade at 8:01 AM PST - 20 comments
The Twenty Most Critical Internet Security Vulnerabilities
This is a list of Internet security tips that SAMS and the FBI updated yesterday. The list is really aimed at IT professionals and does not offer much advice to the home user. My advise for any home user who is worried about viruses and security:
1. Don't use Windows OS, any Windows OS (try Linux or Mac)
2. Remove Outlook from your computer.
3. Don't open e-mail attachments you did not ask for.
posted by DragonBoy at 7:50 AM PST - 10 comments
National Review Cans Columnist Ann Coulter
as a contributing editor after her call to "invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." For a person who makes a living out of being as obnoxious, partisan and mean as she can be will this do anything but put her in the spotlight and help her career? The way she has slammed the
National Review since her axing seems to indicate this will be the case. And she's already blaming the "liberal" media and the "anti-Christian bigots."
posted by terrapin at 7:26 AM PST - 70 comments
The W3C's RAND Patent Policy
commenting deadline has been extended. At first glance, the new policies seem to encourage software patents, but after reading the whole thing and the W3C's response to current comments, it looks, to my admittedly naive eyes, as though the W3C is trying to make it so that companies using proprietary software are going to
have to make it available to other people for licensing. Why is this new structure potentially a bad thing?
posted by cCranium at 6:30 AM PST - 8 comments
"I have no hesitation in describing this mentality, carefully and without heat, as soft on crime and soft on fascism. No political coalition is possible with such people and, I’m thankful to say, no political coalition with them is now necessary. It no longer matters what they think." Christopher Hitchens says that intellectuals of the left who seek to understand the new enemy are no friends of peace, democracy or human life. Two different versions of the same article
here and
here. Along the same lines, a piece from
The Economist arguing that "Whatever its mistakes,
the idea that America brought the onslaught upon itself is absurd."
posted by aaron at 1:52 AM PST - 57 comments
Polls say
blacks tend to favor checks.
"African-Americans ... are more likely than other racial groups to favor profiling and stringent airport security checks for Arabs and Arab-Americans in the wake of this month's terrorist attacks, two separate polls indicate."
"The findings by the Gallup Organization and Zogby International were
met with varying degrees of disappointment and disbelief by black activists and intellectuals, who struggled with explanations."
Could it be that income and education are more related to racialist attitudes than race itself?
posted by sigsegv at 12:32 AM PST - 16 comments
October 1
Whoa!
Google adds graphics to their interface, and not only that, but they're a tabbed interface. I hope they've done extensive testing before choosing such a limiting method of navigation.
posted by mathowie at 9:26 PM PST - 78 comments
Susan Sontag's
getting bashed royale--ala Bill Maher--in the
New Yorker forum (oh, you'll have to register to read them) and various
over-the-top op-ed pages for the piece she was asked to write for
Talk of The Town right after the attack. I don't know, she didn't say anything about the hijackers that Dinesh D'Souza didn't say on
Politically Incorrect the same night Maher got himself in trouble. And as for me, "
Let's by all means grieve together. But let's not be stupid together. A few shreds of historical awareness might help us understand what has just happened, and what may continue to happen," is not the most inflammatory thing I ever read. Especially, the 'let's not be stupid together' part.
posted by y2karl at 8:53 PM PST - 33 comments
"First they came..."
Just a friendly reminder for all those folks who think it is somehow acceptable to allow the US government to infringe upon our civil liberties in the name of...[fill in the blank].
posted by mapalm at 8:22 PM PST - 17 comments
The horror one man can unleash upon an unsuspecting public
What a lead sentence; "A U.S. court shut down thousands of Web sites after it determined that they diverted Web surfers and held them captive while bombarding them with ads for pornography and gambling, the U.S. government said on Monday." Redefines the meaning of "get a life".
posted by jeremias at 6:32 PM PST - 16 comments
LetMeStayTillMyDeath.com?
The Ramon Stoppelenburg deathpool inaugurates as the naïve young lad jets to Sithifrica. Will he survive? “I found out that South Africa isn’t that criminal as I was told at previous places and by people I met on the road. It is just a country where you have to take extreme caution. I can’t just walk with my mobile phone to my ear in downtown Johannesburg and take some photographs with my camera at the same time. There is a minor possibility that I get shot to dead and mugged the next moment”
posted by joeclark at 6:22 PM PST - 3 comments
New US National Anthem?
Slate's Dialogue this week is about alternatives to "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the US national anthem. Should we keep it? If we replaced it, what should we replace it with?
posted by kirkaracha at 5:23 PM PST - 57 comments
How Sleazy Sellers Rake in Big Bucks on the City's Suffering.
When I saw this headline on the NY Post this morning I assumed that it was an article explaining the Post's marketing strategy. The Post put gratuitous photos of the WTC explosion on the front cover for a story about exposing salesmen who were making money from selling the photos. Good old Rupert!
posted by wsfinkel at 5:18 PM PST - 2 comments
Mahnamahna!
Just a moment of levity for a heavy Monday. For the full experience, download
the video. In the words of the site: "Watch it, pray to it, name your first born after it, invite it over for dinner, but most importantly, download Mahnamahna. Spread the Mahnamahna word!"
posted by fraying at 2:31 PM PST - 31 comments
Peter Drucker
"There have been fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and distribution, but not because of information technology.
"The cultural impact of the Internet is far greater than the economic one."
Great Interview, lots of ideas to spark conversation...spark, spark!
posted by Mick at 11:34 AM PST - 2 comments
Take that Meatfilter.com...
On Monday, Oct. 1, the FTC plans to announce the beginning of a campaign against scores of Web sites that capitalize on typo variants of popular domain names in order to dupe unsuspecting Internet surfers.
I think this is a good thing, but how far can the US government truly influence shady internet practices? Should it even try?
posted by thewittyname at 11:27 AM PST - 18 comments
Aaarrrrgggghhh Gap ads are driving me mad.
It's not that I don't like Gap clothes, although their sizing system defies logic. It's just those ads. Juliette Lewis and the robots, some woman I've never seen before declaring her love for Angus Young. It's all just so smug. Every single campaign Gap has done I've hated. Is this the feeling in the US?
posted by Summer at 10:32 AM PST - 82 comments
Conde Nast to shutter Mademoiselle.
The "deteriorating advertising environment" is blamed for the closing of the 66-year-old title, where Sylvia Plath first
cut her teeth on the journalistic life. While Mlle's recent content has devolved into
Cosmo-like treatises on how to please your man in bed and where to buy the clothing that will lure him in that general direction, it is more than a bit upsetting (particularly to someone who's trying to eke out a living as a writer) to see yet another Conde Nast-owned title (
Details and
Women's Sports & Fitness; Fairchild bought
Details out and launched a revamped version) fall victim to the great advertising contraction of the past 12 months.
posted by maura at 9:18 AM PST - 12 comments
Arundhati Roy on the tragedy.
The most eloquent and thoughtful essay I've read so far. Coincidentally, about the only good journamlism I've encountered on the subject has been from British and French press.
posted by mmarcos at 7:58 AM PST - 51 comments
Ignoring for a second that he is probably a mass murderer, do you think that
Bin Laden's fight is a just one? I'm not asking about his method, that is obviously appalling, what I am asking you is whether you think that his cause is fair/right/just. Try putting yourself in Arab or Muslim shoes, then consider whether you would support his general plight. (the commentary on Bin Laden starts next to the paypal icon on the left, so scroll down if you are busy, otherwise don't as the rest of the article is quite a good crack.)
posted by Wet Wednesday at 12:06 AM PST - 89 comments
