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October 31
How to think about prescription drugs.
Malcolm Gladwell's latest piece in
The New Yorker
The emphasis of the prescription-drug debate is all wrong. We've been focussed on the drug manufacturers. But decisions about prevalence, therapeutic mix, and intensity aren't made by the producers of drugs. Theyre made by the consumers of drugs.
posted by trharlan at 9:03 PM PST - 20 comments
"Sam Loyd's 'Trick Donkeys'
is one of the most elegant puzzles ever invented... print out the page and cut the figure into three parts along the solid lines. Now, position the strip onto the other two pieces so that it looks like each jockey is riding a donkey. Folding is not allowed.
Don't give up -- the solution is really quite simple!"
posted by limitedpie at 12:13 PM PST - 47 comments
Get Ready For WW4 : FOIA document details SSS preparations for a widespread draft to start with a callup of 36,000 doctors and nurses
: an in depth analysis with a detailed
timeline :
"...the SSS is in fact preparing for the real possibility of a Skills, Medical and Combat Draft for 2005. Congress of course must still pass a 1-page trigger resolution reauthorizing current conscription law, but the Selective Service will by early 2005 have geared up the entire draft system and be prepared to register more than 40 million Americans for a new Skills Draft and the Medical Draft....The NY Times on Oct. 19 published a long article on a subcontractor, Widemeyer Communications, that over the summer consulted the SSS on how a Medical Draft could be started up with minimal attention. The SSS said 36,000 doctors and nurses would be taken in the first batch of draftees. Why would Bush need so many? 36,000 is a huge number....Wesley Clark charges in his book Winning Modern Wars, that a senior Pentagon official told him in 2001 that there was a 5-year plan to topple 7 countries" Here's the Seattle PI's take :
"Administration's own actions fuel rumors of draft" Here's a
Feb. 2003 document (~500k pdf) obtained under the FOIA, on the SSS plans for a widespread draft. (more inside)
posted by troutfishing at 11:20 AM PST - 63 comments
The United States has lost Iraq.
"Even Secretary of State Colin Powell, a former general who stays in touch with the Joint Chiefs, has acknowledged [the insurgents winning] privately to friends in recent weeks. The insurgents have effectively created a reign of terror throughout the country, killing thousands, driving Iraqi elites and technocrats into exile and scaring foreigners out."
posted by four panels at 10:44 AM PST - 29 comments
Viewropa
- OK, maybe there's some agreement not to post this here, but I wasn't part of the development, and it's already got some good links (especially the evolution of writing one). So here's
Viewropa -
a community site started by members of MetaFilter who are attempting an experiment in multi-lingual, collaborative and Euro-focussed blogging. All are welcome here, no matter where you're from [...] (beware the impossible Portuguese kill-the-snowman game) (and I get the impression a non-English link would be more than welcome).
posted by andrew cooke at 10:18 AM PST - 17 comments
So the banner ad turned 10 a few days ago,
according to
dabitch, but what I find more fascinating is that its first use was in connection with all those AT&T "
You Will" television commercials from the early '90s. Here, collected on one page, for your consideration, are those ads. As
Frau Farbissina would screech: "Lies.
ALL LIES!" Well, perhaps AT&T didn't lie to us about
all their predictions, but I'm still waiting for my "intelligent assistant" who'll work on those playoff tickets for me. How many predictions did they make that came true can
you find here?
posted by WolfDaddy at 5:20 AM PST - 21 comments
More on arithmetic in the Amazon
The 10/15 issue of Science has the official publication of Peter Gordon's work on numerical cognition among the Pirahã, and a companion article by Pierre Pica et al. on similar research among another Amazonian tribe, the Mundurukú. What with the U.S. election and the discovery of H. Floresiensis, this is not getting nearly as a much play as the pre-publication back in August of Peter Gordon's work.
Brian Butterworth has an
piece in the Guardian about both articles, and I've put some links, quotes and diagrams
here.
Compared to the reports on the Pirahã, the Mundurukú people, language, and experiments are all somewhat different, although the conclusions are broadly similar.
posted by myl at 3:37 AM PST - 19 comments
October 30
We've all recieved one of those Nigerian Email Scams, but now we have it in a
video format (qt format) I almost wanted to help him out, but then he never did leave any contact info.
posted by thebwit at 2:11 PM PST - 6 comments
My countrymen called me a prostitute
Fourteen months ago, Hamida Ghafour went to Afghanistan to cover her native country's postwar reconstruction for this newspaper. But, as a westernised Afghan, her homecoming wasn't as welcoming as she had hoped
posted by Postroad at 1:16 PM PST - 5 comments
NYC Critical Mass ride dampened by heavy police presence
Critical Mass, A peaceful demonstration that takes place on the last friday of the month at hundreds of cities around the world. The gathering of hundreds to thousands of cyclists to stress the importance of nonpolluting transportation alternatives and promote the cycling community.
Last night's
critical mass was faced with a very heavy police presence (including 3 helicopters that followed the cyclists on the route). I was there and the police were peaceful, but perhaps necessary and the helicopters were just intimidating. The whole aura assumed there was going to be some type of crime. There type of people that take part in Critical Mass are generally the opposite of violent. It felt violating to be followed around, by not one, but three helicopters and hundreds of officers on scooters. The Critical Mass was being treated as if we just shot up a building or robbed a bank. The whole thing was stupid, and people got arrested for stupid reasons.
Thanks NYPD the Judge said we could be there.
33, 47, whatever, it was too many.
posted by Glibaudio at 11:15 AM PST - 108 comments
"There there, little voters, Papa Ashcroft and Daddy Bush will sort out those nasty little vote fraud disputes."
- Bush Adm. sues to give Ashcroft authority over voting disputes under the HAVA Act.
"...Bush administration lawyers argued....that only the Justice Department, and not voters themselves, may sue to enforce the voting rights set out in the Help America Vote Act.....would reverse decades of precedent..... Since the civil rights era of the 1960s, individuals have gone to federal court to enforce their right to vote.....in legal briefs filed in connection with cases in Ohio, Michigan and Florida, the administration's lawyers argue that the new law gives Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft the exclusive power to bring lawsuits to enforce its provisions." I'm reminded of Andrew Card's September 1, 2004 comment
"that President Bush views America as a ''10-year-old child" in need of the sort of protection provided by a parent."
posted by troutfishing at 10:30 AM PST - 29 comments
All watched over by machines of loving grace
is Adam Greenfield's take on the consequences for designers of ubicomp. Setting moral guidelines seems critical in these early days of technological encroachment-- but how long can decency hold out against the promise of profit? I was forwarded a recent email from the CEO a major bookseller that made it clear that it's possible for them to track everything I do in their stores and online, and thank goodness they choose not to take advantage. But how long will that last? And with homeland security crumbling our civil liberties, article's like Adam's that remind us about our responsibility are even more important than ever.
posted by christina at 10:06 AM PST - 7 comments
The Dionaea House.
Just in time for Halloween, a pleasingly creepy piece of fiction. (
Or is it??) An epistolary horror story, for the e-mail/phone text messaging/LiveJournal age. (Be sure to check out the Update section; the LJ is linked from there.) And I'm assuming further updates will continue to appear ...
posted by Kat Allison at 8:40 AM PST - 7 comments
Revolutionary Minds.
"A selection of icons and iconoclasts whose radical ideas are inspiring a vivid dialogue that is deepening our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Meet the 2004 Third Culture."
[Via WorldChanging.]
posted by homunculus at 12:18 AM PST - 2 comments
October 29
The British Library has an unmatched collection of fine and historic bookbindings. Hundreds of western European bindings have been digitized and made available to the public.
The Database of Bookbindings is a searchable, high resolution collection. Search by binder, ownership mark, country,
material, and more. If you have the whole weekend free, you may find this
glossary of binding terms a useful resource on your journey of discovery. If your interest is seriously peaked check out these
bookbinding models used to exemplify and demonstrate the various mechanisms of books. For a more American experience of bookbindings, the Redwood Library has created this
exhibit.
Tomorrow our journey continues inside the books
posted by Grod at 11:49 PM PST - 4 comments
GMail not-so-safe Mail.
So apparentley GMail has a major exploit that's been discovered by an Israeli hacker.
"Using a hex-encoded XSS link, the victim's cookie file can be stolen by a hacker, who can later use it to identify himself to Gmail as the original owner of an email account, regardless of whether or not the password is subsequently changed." And so the fun with GMail begins..
posted by mrplab at 4:37 PM PST - 9 comments
"I want you to stand, raise your right hands," and recite
"the Bush Pledge," said Florida state Sen. Ken Pruitt. The assembled mass of about 2,000 in this Treasure Coast town about an hour north of West Palm Beach dutifully rose, arms aloft, and repeated after Pruitt: "I care about freedom and liberty. I care about my family. I care about my country. Because I care, I promise to work hard to re-elect, re-elect George W. Bush as president of the United States."
Sooooo...Can I invoke Godwin's Law on reality?
posted by solistrato at 2:09 PM PST - 40 comments
He's back:
Bin Laden has released a new tape, where he attacks Bush, claims responsibility for 9/11, backhandledly backs Kerry and warns Americans to take responsibility for safety to themselves. But is it all an elaborate double bluff to make sure Bush gets in (and OBL stays as safe as he is now)?
posted by bonaldi at 1:44 PM PST - 123 comments
What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?Q: What is conservatism?
A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.
Q: What is wrong with conservatism?
A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world.via
Three Toed Sloth..
posted by y2karl at 12:36 PM PST - 29 comments
Going for broke.
With four days to go before the election, Bush-Cheney '04 finally pulled the last stop and started sending out anti-Kerry mailings using images of the burning World Trade Center. The ads are paid for and officially endorsed by Bush's campaign.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 9:00 AM PST - 87 comments
Download Fahrenheit 9/11 Here
This guy wants you to see the Moore film and is willing to suffer a possible lawsuit in order to get it to you. Free.
"I'll see how my bandwidth holds up. Here is the initial release of my posting of Fahrenheit 9/11. It's big. Its 650 megs. So - if you are on a slow connection - don't even bother. Go rent the DVD. But if you have DSL or better - here it is."
posted by Postroad at 6:33 AM PST - 24 comments
A series of books published in the early 1900s in the United States dictated several topics that children should be able to recognize and provide discourse. Among those available for reading online are
Birds Every Child Should Know (
"Two close relatives there are which, like the poor, are always with us-the crow and the blue jay."),
Heroes Every Child Should Know (
"To be some kind
of a hero has been the ambition of spirited boys from the beginning
of history; and if you want to know what the men and women of a
country care for most, you must study their heroes."), and
Pictures Every Child Should Know (
"The true art-lover has a catholic taste, is interested in all forms of art; but he finds beauty where it truly exists and does not allow the nightmare of imagination to mislead him.").
posted by keli at 6:15 AM PST - 16 comments
An highly quantitative approach to state by state poll analysis.
This is a meta-analysis directed at the question of who would win the Electoral College if the election were held today. Meta-analysis provides more objectivity and precision than looking at one or a few polls, and in the case of election prediction gives a more accurate current snapshot. Backup site
here.
These calculations are based on all available state polls, with an emphasis on likely voter data that include Nader where he is on the ballot. Three or more recent polls (up to seven days old) for each state are averaged and the standard error of the mean is used to calculate the probability of every combination of possible state results. The map is not identical to the median. Results are defined as not statistically significant (n.s.) if the probability is less than between 5% and 95%. The effects of turnout are not included, but can be calculated using the bias analysis.
posted by psmealey at 3:49 AM PST - 28 comments
October 28
The Rumors On the Internets Are True!
"Our goal is to present you with these clips to help you make an informed choice next Tuesday." Your one-stop-shop for documentary clips related to Kerry and Bush, presented by the Internets Vets for Truth.
posted by mathowie at 11:13 PM PST - 13 comments
My son, Peter
has always loved to play hide and seek. In fact, he loves it so much that he will wake me up in the middle of the night to play. The only problem is that Peter has been dead for eight years. This website documents the hell I've lived and continue to live every night.
posted by FunkyHelix at 6:59 PM PST - 29 comments
Highway Route Markers
collects highway signs from around the world.
The Upstate New York Roads Site lists (and reproduces) every exit sign for many of the state's freeways. Let me reiterate: Every. Exit. Sign. The net has something for everyone, even those of us with an unhealthy obsession with road signs.
posted by mcwetboy at 1:34 PM PST - 7 comments
Meet the WallBuilders
--
an organization that promotes the return of American public life to its religious-based heritage, according to USA Today. And the
Congressional Pastor's Briefings may be of interest too:
WallBuilders has been privileged to bring ministers from across the nation to Washington, DC, for an intimate briefing session with some of the top Christian Senators and Representatives now serving in Congress. The Members brief pastors on a variety of issues related to Biblical values as well as share their hearts regarding their own faith and its application to public office. ...
Wallbuilders or Mythbuilders provides a debunking of 8 historical fallacies of the group, concluding that:
...In that sense, then, the name Wallbuilders is correct: the organization is building unnecessary walls of prejudice in an onlooking world, a word desperately needing to hear about the One who has broken down the middle wall of division...
posted by amberglow at 12:40 PM PST - 24 comments
2004's Scariest Halloween Costumes.
A do-it-yourself guide to this season's quickest, least expensive, and spooky-ookiest halloween costumes. My personal favorites are: Florida's Electronic Touch-Screen Voting Machines, The Littlest Prisoner at Abu Ghraib and Jenna Bush's Liver.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 12:28 PM PST - 24 comments
Princess Maker 2
- Stressed out from current events? I doubt the game is as much fun to play as it is to be bewildered by, but either might help.
"...is basically a perverse sports management simulation where your entire team consists of a single ten year old girl that you have to raise to adulthood. Much like any decent sports manager game you have to keep track of a nearly overwhelming number of statistics that fluctuate based on training. In Princess Maker 2 these run the gamut from the mundane like "strength" and "charisma", to the droll like "cooking" and "conversation", to the bizarre like "sin" and "temper". "
posted by soulhuntre at 10:12 AM PST - 13 comments
The Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas,
edited by Philip P. Wiener, was published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, in 1973-74. The Dictionary of the History of Ideas also appeared in Chinese- and Japanese-language editions. However, the DHI has been out of print for many years. Aware of the new potential offered by electronic access to texts, the Directors and Board of Editors of the Journal of the History of Ideas authorized a grant to support digitization of the DHI. Substantial support has also been provided by the University of Virginia Library through its Electronic Text Center. Came across this at
Three Toed Sloth, the weblog of the inestimable Cosma Shalizi, subject of a
previous post by yours truly, which I found at this
Social History of Friday Cat Blogging in the New York Times, which also mentions a
Carnival of the Cats, which is evidently a weekly omnibus of Friday cat blogging posted on the following Sunday. Well, there's a bookmark in here for almost everyone, or so I aim to please.
posted by y2karl at 10:11 AM PST - 12 comments
"I have become more and more aware of the Stalinist tactics and mentality of much of the American Right.....
Relentless insistence on unity, on the existence of an unprecedented and overwhelming external threat, and on the total moral depravity of political opposition were all integral to Stalinist propaganda, and they are a growing part of conservative rhetoric in the United States today.....[Hateful] rhetoric was the prelude to a terrific acceleration of state murder in the Soviet Union....when I read posts on right-wing websites and blogs such as Free Republic or Little Green Footballs, I am reminded strongly of the rage and rhetoric of the young Communist Party activists in the late 1920s....The drive to sustain the administration's alternative world, and the blind hatred and rage of many of President Bush's supporters, may well have disastrous consequences for America." [ Matthew Lenoe, author of
Closer To The Masses. Stalinist Culture,Social Revolution, And Soviet Newpapers. Harvard University Press, 2004 ] An op-ed, by someone who knows a bit about totalitarianism, it reminds me of Metafilters
36201,
32747 24363....
posted by troutfishing at 8:48 AM PST - 9 comments
"The president was cautious the president was prudent the president did what a commander in chief should do. No matter how you try to blame it on the president the actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Did they search carefully enough? Didn't they search carefully enough?" Rudy Giuliani
blames the troops for the current missing explosives scandal. (
340K wmv file). Can we finally stop talking about this hack as a viable candidate for national office?
posted by jpoulos at 8:44 AM PST - 31 comments
Who is Laszlo Pastor ?
An in-depth and on-going study into just one of the players in the political underpinnings of America today. You may be shocked how much influence this person has and the history and background that inform his positions. Worth the time it takes to read and extensively sourced.
posted by nofundy at 7:44 AM PST - 7 comments
Former Bush ghostwriter confirms Bush had plans for Iraq in 1999.
Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his fathers shadow. The moment, Herskowitz said, came in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Suddenly, hes at 91 percent in the polls, and hed barely crawled out of the bunker.
posted by RavinDave at 4:26 AM PST - 37 comments
1837! Victorian England is being terrorised by a bouncing marauder! Who could this
masked pervert be? Was he a Lord? Was he a
striped stuffed animal? Was he the 19th Century Batman?
A Ska band? Why no! It's
Spring Heeled Jack, scourge of the rooftops of London, Engerland...(A little pre-Halloween scare for you and a break from Election tedium for those of you requiring one)
posted by longbaugh at 3:21 AM PST - 12 comments
Postal Ballots
go missing in Florida. "Some 60,000 absentee ballots were despatched by authorities in Broward County, north of Miami, this month. However, only 2,000 of them have been delivered. "
posted by viama at 12:42 AM PST - 24 comments
October 27
Meet
Connor Kirby-Long, the 17 year old wonder
kid of indie electronica. From his home in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont, Connor has gained attention releasing a string of internet-only EPs under the names
Grandma (
1,
2,
3),
I, Cactus, (
1) and his current moniker
Khonnor (
1,
2). This month Khonnor released his first full length cd,
Handwriting, a stunningly beautiful album made with inspiration from artists such as Jim O'Rourke, Fennesz, Sonic Youth, The Smiths and David Sylvian.
Khonnor's official website has a cute flash game. Bonus: He used to blog. Is he hot or not?
posted by mr.marx at 8:07 PM PST - 11 comments
Goths for Bush:
We began with a short reading from Poe and discussed the true horrors of life under George Bush. It was agreed that there is no hope, only pain and sadness and that he would continue to provide us with the same. (via
WOW)
posted by pandaharma at 3:31 PM PST - 9 comments
Hey, no crying in baseball! Who would you like the Red Sox to win it for?
A Sox fanboard thread dedicates the hoped-for, possibly imminent World Series championship to loved ones living and dead. NSFW, if your employer frowns on tears streaming down your cheeks.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:16 PM PST - 28 comments
Find out about political donors in your neighborhood
Fundrace Block Party searches political donor databases and, with the input of your address and zip code, will give you a map (and spreadsheet if you like) which tells you the names and addresses of your neighbors who have supported national political candidates, and how much they contributed. You can use this information to have a block party!
Although I think this is way cool (I'm surrounded by 51 contributors to
democrats and only 11 to republicans), this also struck me as a bit scary from the privacy perspective (I now know who is giving money to the whom, and where they live). Who's in *your* neighborhood? (via
kottke)
posted by jasper411 at 11:34 AM PST - 28 comments
Girl Power
or:
Partnership status and the human sex ratio at birth: a paper by Karen Norberg
Could the sex of a child be influenced by the status of the parents' relationship at the time of conception? In a sample of 86,436 births in the United States, we find a small excess of sons among births to parents who were married or living with an opposite sex partner before the child's conception, compared to births to parents who were not. This is the first evidence that household arrangements can affect the human sex ratio at birth, and could explain the fall in the proportion of male births in some developed countries over the past thirty years. (Data published on
FirstCite registration required)
via
The Economist
(special note for mathowie: No word yet as to whether or not those single moms can also reliably produce offspring with an astigmatism.)
posted by lilboo at 9:34 AM PST - 12 comments
The Road To Abu Ghraib A generation from now, historians may look back to April 28, 2004, as the day the United States lost the war in Iraq... It was a directand predictableconsequence of a policy, hatched at the highest levels of the administration, by senior White House officials and lawyers, in the weeks and months after 9/11. Yet the administration has largely managed to escape responsibility for those decisions; a month from election day, almost no one in the press or the political class is talking about what is, without question, the worst scandal to emerge from President Bush's nearly four years in office... Given the particular conditions faced by the president and his deputies after 9/11a war against terrorists, in which the need to extract intelligence via interrogations was intensely pressing, but the limits placed by international law on interrogation techniques were very constrictingdid those leaders have better alternatives than the one they chose? The answer is that they did. And we will be living with the consequences of the choices they made for years to come.
posted by y2karl at 9:03 AM PST - 33 comments
In search of lost time
It was
Jack Kerouac who first defined
Robert Frank's
genius, who found in it some echo of
his own vision of a vast,
broken-down, but
still epic,
America,
peopled with
restless and lonely dreamers. 'Robert Frank, Swiss,
unobtrusive, nice,' wrote Kerouac in his now famous introduction to Frank's collection
The Americans , 'with that
little camera that
he raises and snaps
with one hand he sucked
a sad poem right
out of America on to
film, taking rank among the
tragic poets of the
world'.
Frank's exhibition,
Storylines, opens this week at the
Tate Modern in London.
posted by matteo at 6:44 AM PST - 6 comments
The Law of Jante
(
Janteloven) was codified by the Danish-born novelist
Aksel Sandemose while he was living in Norway. The
Law comprises ten 'commandments', and describes an unspoken
code of conformity that Sandemose felt as a stifling inhibitive influence in the town where he grew up. Later commentators have used the term more generally to refer to the anti-individualist tendencies that have traditionally pervaded Scandinavian culture, and to denote 'the dark side of egalitarianism'. Of course, the Law needn't be
interpreted in such a negative light, and egalitarianism has its good side too, the difficult question being: do the benefits of equality make it worthwhile
suffering the strictures of
Janteloven?
posted by misteraitch at 3:59 AM PST - 31 comments
October 26
The Unsettling Origins of the "Curse of the Bambino."
As of this writing, the Boston Red Sox seem to have a good chance of breaking their 86-year championship drought, popularly attributed to a
curse brought upon the Sox in 1920 when then-owner
Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. But
as Glenn Stout writes, popular wisdom (as usual) has it wrong. A fascinating article on how misplaced anti-Semitism, Henry Ford, and an influential sportswriter in thrall to baseball's controlling interests gave birth to one of the best-known pieces of baseball mythology.
[via the SDMB]
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:13 PM PST - 45 comments
I was wandering around the internets looking for early twentieth century ephemera and look what I found.
Digital Dada Library
“This page provides links to some of the major Dada-era publications in the International Dada Archive. These books, pamphlets, and periodicals are housed in the Special Collections Department of the University of Iowa Libraries. …Each document has been scanned in its entirety.”
EphemeraNow “is a family-friendly Web site dedicated to the commercial art of mid-century America.”
The Ephemera Society “is a non-profit body concerned with the collection, preservation, study and educational uses of printed and handwritten ephemera.”
and more!
For those of you who have complained that this place is getting too “US politics-filter” I give you
Glasgow Digital Library Collections which has all sorts of stuff including a great
history of the labour movement in Glasgow 1910-1932
posted by Grod at 6:58 PM PST - 10 comments
Howard Stern faces off against Michael Powell.
Earlier today, Howard Stern finally got to confront his nemesis, FCC chair Michael Powell. This occurred, naturally, on the radio, when Howard called in to another talk show. Powell was a guest of KGO's Ronn Owens and Howard called in, asking Powell, "Does it make you nervous to talk to me?" He accuses Powell of getting his position due to nepotism; Stern also asks about
Oprah's indecency, and Powell says Stern "personalizes" the debate and says "I don't think we have made any particular crusade of the Howard Stern Show or you." Howard disagrees, saying, "I hope there's no sort of retribution as a result of my phone call which I believe Michael's capable of." After Howard hangs up, Michael admits, sort of, that "Howard has an argument." KGO has audio of the show for
Windows Media or
RealPlayer (skip ahead to 32:05 to hear Howard's call).
posted by realityblurred at 5:24 PM PST - 21 comments
French TV Gets Gay Channel (Guardian link, reg. req.)
From the story, "Pink TV, which launched last night, promises viewers a mixture of Wonder Woman repeats, prime-time opera and gay and lesbian porn. A daily cultural review will look at issues like tourism, health, poetry and clubbing from a gay perspective, in a style which aims to be 'more cosy than cheeky'."
So does it mean I'm gay if I watch Wonder Woman repeats?
posted by fenriq at 2:52 PM PST - 21 comments
Democracy
Republican style.
Greg Palast's film will be broadcast by Newsnight on Tuesday, 26 October, 2004 by the BBC. You can also watch the show from the BBC website, either live or on demand for 24 hours after originally broadcast, by clicking on the latest programme button.
posted by DrDoberman at 12:01 PM PST - 8 comments
Your Check Won't Float
As of Thursday, October 28, "floating" checks will become a thing of the past. Be forewarned or stand by for major insufficient funds fees on your accounts. More info inside.
posted by Pressed Rat at 8:27 AM PST - 71 comments
BitTorrent of Excel Saga episode 1.
It is funny. I urge you to watch it.
Preferably drunk.
There is a
DVD you can buy.
The guy with the afro is the animator.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 7:09 AM PST - 29 comments
October 25
Wikinews:
"Wikinews is a proposed project with the goal to collaboratively report and summarize news on all subjects from a neutral point of view." It looks like
MoJo lives, kind of, but we weren't the ones who ended up building it. Bummer.
[via]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:47 PM PST - 4 comments
"Al Pieda" Targets Ann Coulter
Members of the notorious culinary terrorist group "Al Pieda" launched an attack on Ann Coulter while she was speaking at the University of Arizona. The report says some pie got on her face but attendants were able to wipe it off before she received any nutrional value from the pie.
Not to be confused with the notorious math group
"Al Gebra", who would have probably thrown a slide rule at her.
posted by fenriq at 12:06 PM PST - 26 comments
October 24
PIPA : who's your daddy ?
"
"The roots of the Bush supporters' resistance to information....very likely lie in the traumatic experience of 9/11 and equally in the near pitch-perfect leadership that President Bush showed in its immediate wake. This appears to have created a powerful bond between Bush and his supporters"
posted by troutfishing at 8:58 PM PST - 6 comments
Endorsement: Kerry for President
Ok. The NY Times endorsed Kerry. And now the Washington Post. But now the Orlando-Sentinel, a paper that has not endorsed a Demcorat in the past 40 years!
"Four years ago, the Orlando Sentinel endorsed Republican George W. Bush for president based on our trust in him to unite America. We expected him to forge bipartisan solutions to problems while keeping this nation secure and fiscally sound.
This president has utterly failed to fulfill our expectations. We turn now to his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, with the belief that he is more likely to meet the hopes we once held for Mr. Bush.
Our choice was not dictated by partisanship. Already this election season, the Sentinel has endorsed Republican Mel Martinez for the U.S. Senate and four U.S. House Republicans. In 2002, we backed Republican Gov. Jeb Bush for re-election, repeating our endorsement of four years earlier. Indeed, it has been 40 years since the Sentinel endorsed a Democrat -- Lyndon Johnson -- for president...."
posted by Postroad at 12:23 PM PST - 35 comments
Devil and the deep blue sea.
A devil-worshipping non-commissioned officer in the Royal Navy has become the first registered Satanist in the British Armed Forces.
Chris Cranmer, a naval technician serving on the
Type 22 frigate Cumberland, has been officially recognised as a Satanist by the ship's captain. That allows him to perform Satanic rituals aboard and permits him to have a funeral carried out by the Church of Satan should he be killed in action.
A spokesman for the Royal Navy insisted that Mr Cranmer's unconventional beliefs would not cause problems on board ship. "We are an equal opportunities employer and we don't stop anybody from h
