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October 2005 Archives
October 31
If you were to make a
huge database of skyscrapers where users could submit their own
isometric drawings, I'd tell you that you'd done a wonderful thing.
If you compiled these isometric drawings in to neat collections (see:
World's Tallest,
New York 1935, and
Evolution of World's Tallest) I would then acknowledge that you had made something of substantive import and value, and extend my sincere thanks.
But it is when you provide a robust and responsive search functionality that allows me to include
any type of structure, and sort by
city, by project status, (eg. "
Built", "
Under Construction", "
proposed", "
destroyed") that I drop to my knees and reverently fellate you while holding back tears.
posted by cadastral at 10:56 PM PST - 40 comments
Do you play Sony DRM-protected CD's on your computer?
If so, you might be wide open in terms of security. It seems that
Sony is installing an almost-impossible to find rootkit on the computers of purchasers of their music. Their
EULA doesn't mention the fact that their "small, proprietary" program goes much too far, managing to bypass security software, firewalls, etc. You might want to do
this, anyway.
posted by solopsist at 5:01 PM PST - 60 comments
Armagetron Advanced
is a free network enabled Tron lightcycle racer for windows, OSX & linux. Attractive graphics and interesting camera controls make up for a fairly difficult opponent skill level. Screenshots
here, download link
here.
posted by jonson at 1:25 PM PST - 11 comments
Anocht Oidhche Shamhna!
(Happy New Year!) Samhain (pronounced Sow-en) or Samhuinn (also pronounced Sow-en I guess) "
was (and is) considered a very magical time, when the dead walk among the living and the veils between past, present and future may be lifted in prophecy and divination." It's also a good candidate for the most important historical holiday in the European pagan calendar.
Isaac Bonewitz's Neopagan.net has a few pages about the
history and
misconceptions & lies about All Hallows Eve from the
neo-pagan perspective . Concerned that he's trying to get you join some loony cult of tree huggers? While you're there, run Mr. Bonewitz through his own
Cult Danger Evaluation Frame and see if you're still scared.
posted by illovich at 9:59 AM PST - 94 comments
Get in the mood for Halloween. To begin, you can
carve a virtual pumpkin . Then, over at
PingRay, "a free, weekly eguide to the Net's best entertainment," there's a scary short film, a voodoo boss doll and talking monster cards to round things out.
posted by WildThang at 9:37 AM PST - 2 comments
Illegal immigration into the United States from Mexico is, for the people coming across, a
dangerous and
not always successful method of trying to live and work here. The Mexican government has published a
booklet (english version) which is distributed with some popular comic books and is designed to both discourage citizens from crossing over and offer advice on the dos and don'ts of safe crossing.
Reactions north of the border to this are
predictably mixed.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies at 8:42 AM PST - 11 comments
October 30
Death as we know it will die.
If you wish to be a prophet, first you must dress the part. No more silk ties or tasseled loafers. Instead, throw on a wrinkled T-shirt, frayed jeans, and dirty sneakers. You should appear somewhat unkempt, as if combs and showers were only for the unenlightened. When you encounter critics, as all prophets do, dismiss them as idiots. Make sure to pepper your conversation with grandiose predictions and remind others of your genius often, lest they forget. Oh, and if possible, grow a very long beard.
By these measures, Aubrey de Grey is indeed a prophet. The 42-year-old English biogerontologist has made his name by claiming that some people alive right now could live for 1,000 years or longer. Maybe much longer. Growing old is not, in his view, an inevitable consequence of the human condition; rather, it is the result of accumulated damage at the cellular and molecular levels that medical advances will soon be able to prevent — or even reverse — allowing people to go on living pretty much indefinitely.
posted by sharksandwich at 3:58 PM PST - 43 comments
On this day in 1974
in
Kinshasa, Zaire, 32 year old Muhammad Ali knocked out 25 yead old George Forman and regained the World Heavyweight Title. "
The Rumble in the Jungle was a fight that made the whole country more conscious," Ali wrote at the time. "The fight was about racial problems, Vietnam. All of that." Above all the fight was a demonstration of
Ali's inventiveness in the ring. After dazing Foreman with his trademark quickness in the first rounds, Ali fell back against the ropes, and waved Foreman to come get him. Protecting his head,
Ali let Foreman pound away at his ribs and his gut. "At about the seventh round, I had him beaten, I knew I had him," Foreman recounted after the fight. "He fell on my side and whispered, ‘Is that all you got George?’ I knew something strange was happening in my life especially because that was all I had." In the eight round Ali came off the ropes and unleashed
a fury of punches against his exhausted opponent.
The dope went down. "I did it," Ali boasted after the fight. "I told you he was nothing but did you listen? I told you I was going to jab him in the corners, I told you I was going to take all his shots. I told you he had no skill. I told you he didn't like to be punched."
posted by three blind mice at 7:57 AM PST - 58 comments
October 29
Global Voices Online.
I was a bit surprised to find that this hasn't been posted. Global Voices aims to foster a more diverse online conversation primarily through spot-lighting blogs written by people all over the world. It started last October and has really picked up steam these last few months.
posted by panoptican at 4:25 PM PST - 9 comments
October 28
Rusty's family tried to accept his kinkier interests. "Father, will you buy me that leash for my birthday?"
"But Patches already has a leash," said Father.
"I didn't want it for Patches," said Rusty.
Father chuckled uncomfortably.
posted by jonson at 8:55 PM PST - 36 comments
Go Rangers
This is the tale of a young man who lost an eye to a suicide bomber in Iraq and THEN joined the U.S. Army Rangers. I don't think that he was busy calling his Mom.
posted by snsranch at 5:56 PM PST - 51 comments
WoWFilter: It's official.
The Burning Crusade debuts today in Los Angeles at
BlizzCon, a company-sponsored event that is also showing off
Starcraft: Ghost. The convention has been sold out for nearly 3 months now. Surprisingly, even after selling out all the tickets, Blizzard went on to announce that
The Offspring will perform (with an opener from
Christian Finnegan), there will be a fully equipped exhibit hall, and the event will take place right next to
Disney Land. The convention opened its doors this morning, and Blizzard promptly put up the official site for the expansion. The only question that remains is: What is the new mystery playable race for the Alliance? My vote is for drunk Panda Ninjas.
posted by thanotopsis at 12:58 PM PST - 43 comments
"Hey Mom it’s me."
Something my son always said every time he called, but this time his voice sounded unusual. He had a really serious tone in his voice and the automatic gunfire in the background was loud and more constant than usual. My heart began to race and I took a deep breath.
"Hey, I'm trapped on a rooftop and I don't think we are going to make it out of here, so I just called to tell you that I loved you and that I am thinking of all of you."
posted by caddis at 10:47 AM PST - 114 comments
Heiterkeit
(12 meg quicktime movie) is an utterly charming German music video about all the
other fun things you can do lying down. (Yes, it's entirely safe for work, unless your workplace forbids quirky charm.) If you enjoy it, check out
Transsylvanische Verwandte(12 meg quicktime movie), another work by
the same director. For a look behind the scenes of both films, there's this
making-of video. (The making of video is a realplayer file, and it's in German--but I don't speak German, and I got the general idea.) Via
Antville.
posted by yankeefog at 10:03 AM PST - 12 comments
Its official.
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby indicted on two counts of Perjury, two counts of Making False statements and one count of Obstruction of Justice. All of which are felonies. It is expected Libby will tender his resignation today.
posted by SirOmega at 9:48 AM PST - 320 comments
Is the US broken beyond repair?
Columnist Peggy Noonan asks some disturbing questions about the US and its future. Have the wheels come off the trolley and are we headed off the tracks. Can anyone put us back on the tracks or is it too late? A very thought provoking article.
posted by waltb555 at 9:28 AM PST - 117 comments
Death in Sakkara: An Egyptian Adventure
(flash).
An Indiana Jones style web-based game from the BBC's Ancient History department.
Egypt, 1929. Journalist Charles Fox plunges into a darkly sinister world of intrigue, murder and mysticism in the hunt for a missing archaeologist.
Oh yes, it's
really hard.
via Wonderland
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:19 AM PST - 17 comments
October 27
It's Comcastic!
Manipulate and record messages with digital flash-based puppets. All the fun of real marionettes, but without the pesky strings. (The site also features some dexterity tests/games for your mad mousing skillz)
posted by Robot Johnny at 9:56 PM PST - 22 comments
I love to guita-r.
(QT required, but the downloads were pretty fast.) Wha-wha without the paddles. These are videos of past winners and hall-of-famers of US Air Guitar Championships. Makes for a laugh.
posted by countzen at 3:27 PM PST - 12 comments
Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything.
Suggesting specific podcasts might be a little iffy but if you haven't heard Benjamin Walker, you're really missing out. A self-described "radio artist," Walker's delivery immediately jumps out. And once you start to listen to whatever it is he's saying, you'll find yourself angry, fascinated, entertained and/or perhaps enlightened.
posted by panoptican at 1:58 PM PST - 15 comments
Retrieved photos:
This fellow develops film that has been locked away in cameras, often for a long time. Some interesting photos. The commentary under the photos is a bit ... lackluster.
A nice little site to waste a little time with.
posted by edgeways at 12:32 PM PST - 49 comments
GrooOOoovy Halloween Sharity
Tiki-Tim's Exotica Lounge has been posting a fab collection of 60s Halloween novelty records, including Frankie Stein and His Ghouls, Gene Moss and His Monsters, a Munsters album, and other gems. Just the thing to get the party going!
posted by carter at 11:37 AM PST - 7 comments
Newsfilter:
If
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the destruction of Israel, would anybody listen? Apparently this time they are. While vague threats from Iran are a dime a dozen, "Since 1945, the establishment of the United Nations, no head of state which is a member of the United Nations ever called for the destruction of another member of the United Nations, publicly and clearly, as the president of Iran did." according to Shimon Peres, in
demanding that Iran be expelled from the UN for the statement.
Much of the world seems
pretty upset (including the US, who's destruction was also called for on this merry "
World without Zionism" conference), but will it lead to anything, or is it just a ratcheting up of the hyperbole between Iran and the IAEA?
posted by loquax at 10:53 AM PST - 111 comments
You park, they pay
NYC Port Authority found negligent by having parking under WTC. Jury finds terrorists 32% responsible for exploding van there in 1993. 400 plaintiffs seek $1.8 billion, NYCPA will have to pay 100% of the damages that might be awarded.
posted by dand at 10:11 AM PST - 45 comments
RFID+US Passport?
By October 2006, the U.S. government will require nearly all of the passports it issues to include a computer chip containing the passport holder's personal information...
posted by yoga at 8:43 AM PST - 41 comments
Iraqi insurgents are rejecting al-Qaida
in favour of the political process. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad spent 5 days with an Iraqi resistance group during the constitutional vote, and found that al-Qaida involvement in the insurgency-particularly their tactic of targetting Iraqi police and soldiers-is both unwelcome and unwanted. Instead many Sunni are looking toward using the democratic process to achieve their ends.
posted by MadOwl at 6:59 AM PST - 42 comments
October 26
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!
Step right up and see the
Sideshow. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we have something here for everyone. See the
freaks of nature, the
mutants, the
human oddities, the
sword swallowers, the
dime museum, a special exhibit of
sideshow banners from the past, and yes, we even have, live before your very eyes, direct from the 21st century, special acts from the
Coney Island Sideshow. And for a small extra charge, a
special section of premier performers including
exhibitions of pugilism, as well as an exhibit of posters from Tod Browning's movie,
Freaks. The circus starts in a little over an hour and a half, so you have plenty of time to see these astounding wonders of the world.
posted by mischief at 7:19 PM PST - 22 comments
Filmgeeks -- and I know there are many on MeFi -- may wish to check out
smallformat, the magazine for Super8, Single8, and 16/9.5/8mm enthusiasts. It's mother is the long-established German magazine of the same name. First issues went out the door only a few days/weeks ago.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:18 PM PST - 14 comments
The American Civil Liberties Union today made public an analysis of new and previously released autopsy and death reports of detainees held in U.S. facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom died while being interrogated. The documents show that detainees were hooded, gagged, strangled, beaten with blunt objects, subjected to sleep deprivation and to hot and cold environmental conditions. The documents released today are available online...U.S. Operatives Killed Detainees During Interrogations in Afghanistan and IraqThe Bush administration has proposed exempting employees of the Central Intelligence Agency from a legislative measure endorsed earlier this month by 90 members of the Senate that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoners in U.S. custody... "This is the first time they've said explicitly that the intelligence community should be allowed to treat prisoners inhumanely," said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "In the past, they've only said that the law does not forbid inhumane treatment." Now, he said, the administration is saying more concretely that it cannot be forbidden.Cheney Plan Exempts CIA From Bill Barring Abuse of Detainees
posted by y2karl at 1:51 PM PST - 69 comments
LA-DEEEES AND GENTLEMEN!
STEP RIGHT UP! THE SHOW IS ABOUT TO BEGIN! The Strange and Unusual, the Freaks of Nature, the Shocking and the Bizarre! YOU won't BELiEVE your EYES!
posted by crunchland at 11:15 AM PST - 7 comments
"
R2 that seg fault is popping up again, see if you can lock
it down!"
posted by Witty at 8:40 AM PST - 20 comments
October 25
The Acoustics of Gases.
The high-pitched version of your voice that you hear when you inhale helium represents a cool principle. Unlike the speed of light, the speed of sound is quite sensitive to the composition of the medium that it travels through. A gas such as helium that is much less dense than the air we normally breathe and hear in will actually cause the speed of sound to increase, a phenomenon that we perceive as a
Chipmunks-like change in pitch. A couple of scientists have used this relationship between sound frequency and gas composition to
invent an acoustic device for monitoring the gas composition of air. Of course , if you're a canary this is nothing new.
posted by derangedlarid at 8:58 PM PST - 23 comments
Last Post.
Evan 'Darby' Allan, the last of Australia's 330,770 World War 1 veterans, was
buried with full state honours yesterday, closing one of the most dismal chapters in our history. Joining the navy at 14, Darby avoided the bloody horrors of the
Somme and
Gallipoli, which contributed heavily to the over
60 000 Australian war dead and 200 000 total casualties (from a population of only about 5 000 000), but he still played his part in what many historians suggest was the prime cause of 20th century totalitarianism, the second world war and the cold war. And it was all
so pointless. He seemed like a nice bloke, and the reportage has thankfully avoided most of the 'hero' bullshit (I don't think he would have approved).
posted by wilful at 5:34 PM PST - 40 comments
Bad Design Kills
The world is steeped in bad design. As designers we see something every day that makes us cringe or shake our head in disgust. But bad design does more than offend the eye of the designer. It facilitates a poor public perception for what our industry does and at the same time it lowers the perceived value of our services.
posted by ColdChef at 5:13 PM PST - 65 comments
Octacube Sculpture
The stainless-steel Octacube is a striking object of visual art and also a mental portal to the
fourth dimension, a teaching tool, and a research object bringing together many branches of mathematics and physics connected to the structure of symmetry.
posted by thecollegefear at 4:29 PM PST - 27 comments
Do you mix your own?
Welcome to the website dedicated to making mixed tapes and cds. i like to use this site along with
AMG (as a reference tool) to come up with much needed new ideas , and share them with people of similar tastes. just copy the names you find in AOTM (the ones you have no idea who they are) paste in the search engine at AMG and then listen to a sample of music from said group , to see if its your thing or not. here is a
group i was introduced to a few years ago . found them ( you guessed it) on AOTM . when you find a mix you like offer to trade one of your own for it and use
this site or some thing like it to share with your new friend.
posted by nola at 5:35 AM PST - 22 comments
October 24
So long, and thanks for all the thrills.
This weekend, Astroworld (I refuse to prepend "Six Flags") will close its doors. Envisioned in 1968 by
Judge Roy Hofheinz (who also brought us Houstonians a
major league baseball team, and a
stadium in which they could play), the amusement park was where I spent a lot of my childhood in the 70s.
Grass roots movements to save the park have
failed, and thus it's time to say goodbye to the place that played host to one of the
best rollercoasters in the world, a ride that
scared the crap out of me, a
double ferris wheel with a twist, as well as the
Boogie Fog Disco, where I learned how to do The Hustle. All's not lost, as at least I can download the
Texas Cyclone, but I still feel a little misty-eyed for the boy who spent most of his weekends in this magical and wondrous place. Farewell.
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:56 PM PST - 58 comments
British public information films.
A couple of months back, there was a
post about an online exhibition of British propaganda films from WWII. Now, the UK National Archives, who appear to be slowly working their way through the decades, have posted some public information films from the 40s and 50s. BBC News
discusses the history of public information films, particularly the famous "Coughs and sneezes spread diseases" (available in Windows Media (sigh)
here).
My favourite is
this optimistic look at how the new towns developed after the war were going to be just *great*. I grew up in a new town -
Hemel Hempstead. Let's just say it
didn't quite work out that way.
posted by athenian at 3:04 PM PST - 2 comments
FBI Papers Indicate Intelligence Violations
...Records turned over as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit also indicate that the FBI has investigated hundreds of potential violations related to its use of secret surveillance operations, which have been stepped up dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but are largely hidden from public view...
posted by Postroad at 11:43 AM PST - 14 comments
The White House nominates
Ben Bernanke to replace Alan Greenspan. Works at Princenton, got his doctorate at MIT, currently has several economic related
papers out. Apparently actually has a job relating to economics, and wants to drop dollar bills out of a
helicopter Well, cut taxes if we enter a deflationary period -- which is just as sexy.
posted by geoff. at 10:14 AM PST - 58 comments
October 23
If You're a Christian, Muslim or Jew - You are Wrong
- A rant over at the
Huffington Post.
And let's be clear about this, it IS a rant, and a beaut at that. But it's a sentiment that's run through the head of everyone who isn't a member of the three mentioned groups. No one in the mainstream media says things like this, I wonder why?
The post is made. Let the emphatic agreements, and the vicious denials... begin!
posted by JHarris at 4:30 PM PST - 259 comments
Double Plus Ungood
--so there's this soldier in Iraq with a blog,
All The King's Horses. He usually complains a little, tells readers about what he does, talks about the stop-loss thing that's keeping him in Iraq, etc. So, the
Operation Truth site posts something by him, and the next thing you know, the blog is dead, and an unwilling public apology and retraction and statement of support for Bush and his leadership is posted.
... it breaks my heart to say that this will be my last post on this blog. I wish I could just stop there, but I can not. The following also needs to be said:
For the record, I am officially a supporter of the administration and of her policies. ...
posted by amberglow at 3:29 PM PST - 77 comments
Where'd the remaining 27% go.
Researchers in Germany have finished a survey that tells them how people spend their time. With an average life-span of 78 years most time is spent
sleeping with the least time spent
making new people. Number crunching this
research [direct image link] reveals:
5.12% 4 years housework | 0.96% 9 months washing and ironing |
1.71% 16 months cleaning |
2.78% 26 months cooking |
6.41% 5 years eating and drinking |
7.05% 66 months watching television |
0.53% 5 months diy |
8.97% 7 years at work |
0.96% 9 months commuting, plus |
0.64% 6 months traffic jams |
2.14% 20 months in school |
1.71% 16 hours orgasms |
0.05% 2 weeks kissing |
32.20% 24 years 4 months sleeping |
0.64% 6 months sitting on the lavatory |
0.05% 2 weeks praying |
1.92% 18 months shopping
So where does the rest of the time go.
posted by Schroder at 11:43 AM PST - 23 comments
Erection Photographs.
What it says. "This site contains research information on penile erections. It also contains photos of erect penises. The text information is not sensational and the pictures are not pornographic. They are provided to allow anyone who feels they need this information (or is just curious) to see the natural variation that exists in male erections." Of particular (or prurient) interest is the
Hard-Soft Gallery. Big-time NSFW (or rather: smallish, average and very occasionally big).
posted by jokeefe at 11:37 AM PST - 68 comments
Why Your Wife Won't Have Sex with You.
That quack Dr. Phil says that while sex is only 10% of a marriage, it's 90% when you're not getting it. Or words to that effect. There's some truth to that.
This site discusses, from woman's point of view, why a wife might not feel like sex--often for years at a time. She also goes into greater detail (with insights taken from her own life and experience) such issues as
some causes and what a
man can do.
posted by John of Michigan at 8:09 AM PST - 55 comments
The Use of Computers in Movies.
High-tech computers, such as those used by NASA, the CIA, or some such governmental institution, will have easy to understand graphical interfaces. Those that don't, have incredibly powerful text-based command shells that can correctly understand and execute commands typed in plain English.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 1:25 AM PST - 61 comments
October 22
The Sunday Telegraph
reports that a secret survey commissioned by the British Ministry of Defence shows that up to 65 per cent of Iraqi citizens support attacks and fewer than one per cent think Allied military involvement is helping to improve security in their country.
posted by saketini99 at 6:57 PM PST - 37 comments
It's almost time for the annual
"Christmas Is Under Attack" declaration spewed by Fox News. This is the 10th anniversary of my favorite strawman argument. John Gibson delivers the
first shot in this phony culture-war battle with an action packed
new book to defeat the anonymous liberal secularists out to destroy Santa.
From Amazon: John Gibson, a popular anchor for the Fox News Channel, has been digging up evidence about the liberal activists, lawyers, politicians, educators, and media people who are leading the war on Christmas. And he reveals that the situation is worse than you can imagine.
posted by DougieZero1982 at 3:15 PM PST - 72 comments
Etsy.com
A
colorful new way to shop. For those of you who don't know
what you want, but know exactly what color you want it in.
posted by kindle at 3:04 PM PST - 14 comments
Kansas Supreme Court ruled on Friday that homosexuals cannot be treated differently.
In what conservative homophobes decry as another instance of judicual activism, the Kansas Supreme Court
unanimously struck down a state law that punished underage sex more severely if it involved homosexual acts, saying "moral disapproval" of such conduct is not enough to justify the different treatment. In
the decision the court ruled: 1. K.S.A. 2004 Supp. 21-3522 violates the equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and § 1 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights. 2. The equal protection violation inherent in K.S.A. 2004 Supp. 21-3522 is cured by the severance of the words "and are members of the opposite sex" from the statute.
posted by three blind mice at 8:52 AM PST - 66 comments
October 21
A Picture is Worth 1000 Brains.
Tonight, an event took place on one of the new Role Playing Player Versus Player servers for
World Of Warcraft. One of the more
eccentric guilds on the server decided to hold an event in honor of the game's official seasonal holiday "Hallow's Eve." Trading in their regular characters for level 1 zombies, they named themselves unpronounceable names (seeing as zombies lack proper tongue and jaw), gathered by the hundreds, and descended on the human fortress of Stormwind. More pics can be found
in the official WoW forums. Happy Hallow's Eve, everyone! Brains!
posted by thanotopsis at 9:24 PM PST - 21 comments
First hand report and photos
as Hurricane Wilma smacks the holy bejesus out of the Cancun/Cozumel area.
"The Mexican government did a great job in evacuating thousands of tourists in a small span of 10 to 12 hours. For tourists the evacuations were mandatory. Though the shelters may be uncomfortable, they are safe. I wouldn't worry to much if you have friends or relatives here, they may not be able to communicate for the next few days, but they are safe.
The winds are now EXTREMELY powerful, the noise is loud, the building is shaking, and the storm seems to be very angry.
This building is built to code, and is probably one of the safest in the hotel zone, so we are not to worried, but small family homes must be in shambles.
I will try and keep these updates coming as long as I can."
posted by jcterminal at 9:07 PM PST - 16 comments
Okie Noodling...
why not take it straight to the fishies! Noodling, aka tribbling, hogging, or hand fishing is the art of catching catfish using your hand as bait (or your arm for the big ones). These guys root around river banks like muskrats in search of their quarry, but sometimes encounter snakes, snapping turtles, or beavers. Imagine having a 30 to 60 pound catfish chomp on your arm! If you are ever inclined to get in touch with your animal side, this is a pretty good place to start.
posted by philmas at 4:53 PM PST - 17 comments
"This is
a game of skill, designed not only to challenge one's hand-eye coordination, but to stimulate strategic thinking as well."
posted by sciurus at 9:55 AM PST - 23 comments
Why do we always seem to expect the worst from some people?
By now, it's common knowledge that media reports of widespread looting, violence and sexual assault in the wake of Katrina's strike on New Orleans were grossly exaggerated, but why? Some might attribute such distortions to
unconscious bias, offering up some hope of alleviating racial tension by bringing unexamined racial biases to light; still others see the problem of racial tension as an intractable one, leading inevitably to an all-out clash of cultures--even finding "evidence" of the inevitably of such a conflict in the
unlikeliest of places. Still
others seem especially eager to bring all these tensions to a head. What's really going on these days? Is racial tension ultimately a political problem or, as some suggest, a
psychological one?
posted by all-seeing eye dog at 9:46 AM PST - 35 comments
The Wire
This award winning CBC radio series incorporates interviews, music and sound to explore the impact of electricity on music, from Edison to Caruso to Les Paul to Bjork. Exhaustively researched and beautifully produced, it's somewhere between a documentary, a remix and a music show. The home site has excerpts, playlists, and the remix from each show, but you can
listen to all eight episodes in their entirely at PRX (you'll need to
login first).
posted by Turtles all the way down at 6:26 AM PST - 16 comments
Lenin Statues around the World.
Reason 1: It is a tribute to cool propaganda statues and the work of the sculptors. Reason 2: Very likely the typical tourist picture taken by a westerner visiting mother Russia would be: To make that touristic one standing beneath Lenin and imitating him pointing out the way to the perfect society with his giant hand while the other hand is holding his ridicolous but cute cap. When shooting your picture the locals laugh and laugh and some drunkards might even yell at you for taking this, in their mind, very stupid picture. (sic)
posted by three blind mice at 1:37 AM PST - 30 comments
October 20
Halloween Webcam - kill Frankenstein
View over 7,000 Halloween Lights and a giant inflateable Frankenstein. Turn the lights on and off - or better yet, decide if Frankenstein lives (inflate him) or dies. What do the neighbors think of this?
posted by RonZ at 6:34 PM PST - 13 comments
World's 2nd Conference on Dominionism
"Dominionism is an influential form of fundamentalist religion that believes that in order to fulfill biblical prophecy, "godly Christians" must take control of the levers of political and judicial power in America in the near future....The goal of this seminar is to examine the power and influence of a religious and political movement that questions the separation of church and state, and that aims to establish a biblical society governed by biblical laws."
NYC's CUNY Open Center holds the 2nd ever conference of Domionism this weekend, Friday Oct. 21 through Saturday Oct. 22. Be there or be, well, dominated !
posted by troutfishing at 3:29 PM PST - 49 comments
rectuMTV
Fairly twisted music video (Qtime) from the Taiwanese group Loh Tsui Kweh Commune. Definitely NSFW. Starts off innocently enough but goes downhill pretty quick.
It's official people, MTV is so last millennium!
posted by Mr Bluesky at 3:26 PM PST - 27 comments
The 2004 International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources'
Red List of Threatened Species.
posted by Gyan at 1:35 PM PST - 6 comments
Ted Allen interview!
The food and wine expert on
Queer Eye has a new cookbook out, and he talks to Slashfood about...well, everything: favorite foods, music, books, beer, birds, and other things.
posted by braun_richard at 11:17 AM PST - 15 comments
U.S. soldiers videotaped desecrating Taliban corpses.
The bodies were positioned to face Mecca and burned -- an act of desecration that violates Islamic burial rites and the Geneva Conventions. A U.S. PsyOps specialist
broadcast an inflammatory message to the nearby town in order to incite an attack.
"Attention, Taliban, you are all cowardly dogs. You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. You are too scared to come down and retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be."
The video
aired last night in Australia, but hasn't surfaced yet in the U.S.
It won't be long, though..
"Wow, look at the blood coming out of the mouth on that one, fucking straight death metal."
posted by insomnia_lj at 3:18 AM PST - 237 comments
October 19
It just keeps unravelling
...
Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: “What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made". I suppose now we have extra proof of the bumbling and fumbling of GWB, but now it's almost overkill.
posted by Kickstart70 at 9:24 PM PST - 56 comments
Tracks of Swimming Dinosaur found in Wyoming
The tracks of a previously unknown, two-legged swimming dinosaur have been identified along the shoreline of an ancient inland sea that covered Wyoming 165 million years ago, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder graduate student.
posted by hostile7 at 9:22 PM PST - 15 comments
The Parents Television Council has released their list of the top 10 worst shows for family viewing.
The Fox network led the way with six of the ten shows, Family Guy, American Dad, The War at Home, The O.C., That 70s Show and Arrested Devlopment. The PTC also released a top-nine list of shows that are family friendly (they claim they couldn't find a 10th show to complete the list), leading the way is Three Wishes and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. They also accuse Fox of being deceptive with their marketing of their Sunday night lineup, and using cartoons to pedal the "filth" to children.
posted by SirOmega at 8:22 PM PST - 56 comments
"But nine seasons on, South Park is a bona fide cultural phenomenon that has risen above its own raunch to become an up-to-the-minute social commentary on some of the most controversial issues of the day." A
NY Times piece on SP as a significant cultural signpost.
posted by JPowers at 6:38 PM PST - 60 comments
Those crazy
Scientologists are at it again. This time, a New Zealand website owner has been
ordered to relinquish his clever domain name,
scienTOMogy.info under threat of legal action. The site, an ugly-looking collection of
links to
other Scientology-debunking websites, serves as a clearinghouse for information about one of the church's most notorious members, Tom Cruise. CoS claims the domain is similar enough to their
official website address to be
confusing to Internet users.
posted by wakko at 4:23 PM PST - 42 comments
Transparent Billboards
Kasia Kesicka, at the Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in Poznan, creates a commentary on public space in various cities in Poland for his MFA final project in Photography. The result, mirroring the
transparent laptop trick, is stunning and poignant {flash}
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 1:55 PM PST - 36 comments
Apple announces Aperture:
their answer to the professional photograph editing market. I wonder what the folks at Adobe think about this? I know I'm just aching for something, _anything_ to compete with Adobe — as its customer service went down the tubes a few years back.
posted by silusGROK at 11:05 AM PST - 86 comments
Whistle-Blower or Troublemaker, Bunny Greenhouse Isn't Backing Down
Another trouble maker can't keep her mouth shut !Bunny Greenhouse was once the perfect bureaucrat, an insider, the top procurement official at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Then the 61-year-old Greenhouse lost her $137,000-a-year post after questioning the plump contracts awarded to Halliburton in the run-up to the war in Iraq. It has made her easy to love for some, easy to loathe for others, but it has not made her easy to know.
posted by Postroad at 10:31 AM PST - 23 comments
Creationist author Michael Behe: "Astrology is a scientific theory".
If, that is, you use his definition of theory. Behe, you may recall, is the grand high poobah of "intelligent design", the theory that states that somebody (who
totally doesn't have to be God)
created designed all life on Earth. It seems the latest iteration of the Scopes Monkey Trial isn't going so well for Mr. Behe. Even the courtroom audience is laughing at him.
posted by darukaru at 10:09 AM PST - 62 comments
Madison Man
is
no longer John Doe. If you read the article noting every occurrence of the word "Madison" and how each differs from the others you'll see why I find this nifty. (I think they'll eventually decide it was suicide.)
posted by davy at 9:49 AM PST - 17 comments
Remember our good pal from
NowThatsFuckedUp.com,
the one who was trading war photos from soldiers for access to his amateur porn site? Well, looks like he's traded the whole shebang for a
stint in the Polk County Jail for some 300+ counts of obscenity charges. Held on $151,000 bail, he (or his hood friends outside da joint) have set up a new site -
http://www.freechris.org - with significantly less homegrown
pr0n and
corpse shots, and significantly more whining for donations to dude's legal defense fund, starting at $2.
Personally, and in pure technical terminology, I find the whole thing to be really "icky," yet, maybe it's a good thing that people can see the reality of war SOMEWHERE, since the
fine folks of the
fourth estate don't seem too interested in the word "reality", unless it's followed by the word "television."
Either way, there are free speech issues at play here as well it seems. As
Voltaire so wiselely stated: "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to be a
douchebag."
posted by stenseng at 8:43 AM PST - 38 comments
Werner Von Wallenrod's Fun Page of Novelty Rap Records
[Warning: animated jellybeans & embedded audio] • Includes reviews of albums by: Joe Piscopo, Rich Little, Rappin' Granny, Rappin' Principal, Rappin' Rambo, Joe Pesci, 2 Live Jews, Rodney Dangerfield, Arsenio Hall aka 'Chunky A', The '85 Chicago Bears, Mel Brooks, Elvira & more.
posted by hall of robots at 7:57 AM PST - 18 comments
Grandmas protest the war in Iraq and get the cuffs
Funny, great story.
We tried to ring the bell at the booth, but no one answered," Wile said. "I saw a head poke up from behind the counter every once in a while and then duck back down. I don't know what they were afraid of. Maybe they don't know how to deal with a bunch of grannies."
posted by mountainmambo at 5:36 AM PST - 84 comments
October 18
What do you pay for dsl/broadband? (salon.com article)
Next time you sit down to pay your cable-modem or DSL bill, consider this: Most Japanese consumers can get an Internet connection that’s 16 times faster than the typical American DSL line for a mere $22 per month.
Across the globe, it’s the same story. In France, DSL service that is 10 times faster than the typical United States connection; 100 TV channels and unlimited telephone service cost only $38 per month. In South Korea, super-fast connections are common for less than $30 per month. Nations as diverse as Finland, Canada, and Hong Kong all have much faster Internet connections at a lower cost than what is available here. In fact, since 2001, the U.S. has slipped from fourth to 16th in the world in broadband use per capita. While other countries are taking advantage of the technological, business and education opportunities of the broadband era, America remains lost in transition.
How did this happen? Why has the U.S. fallen so far behind the rest of its economic peers?
posted by halekon at 5:45 PM PST - 115 comments
Why outing Plame mattered.
If you wonder what's really at stake behind all the media buzz around the Fitzgerald indictments, read this lengthy and cogent analysis by
Stratfor's no-nonsense George Friedman. "Rove and Libby had top security clearances and were senior White House officials. It was their sworn duty, undertaken when they accepted their security clearance, to build a 'bodyguard of lies' -- in Churchill's phrase -- around the truth concerning U.S. intelligence capabilities... The minimal story -- that they talked about Plame with a reporter -- is the end of the matter."
posted by digaman at 4:23 PM PST - 89 comments
Flash Tuesday(?)
Lasers, mirrors, splitters, refractors, bulbs and bombs. All you need is a little geometry to light the bulbs.
posted by caddis at 9:25 AM PST - 21 comments
The Torture Question tonight on PBS
by far, television's most in-depth look at how the controversial interrogation policy evolved after a major power struggle within the Bush administration. (via Rocky Mountain News)
The problem, of course, is that it's often the things we'd rather not think about that we most need to hear, especially when those things are actions taken in all of our names with an eye toward making us safer. Ellen Gray
Watch a preview
here.
posted by tvgurl at 8:54 AM PST - 41 comments
Many San Franciscans, when returning to the city after a trip, will tell you the first thing they want after they get back is a burrito. With features like
reviews,
playoffs, and a monthly
newsletter,
burritoeater.com is your resource for finding your slab in The City. What? Oh, I guess they have burritos in
other cities, too, huh.
posted by greasepig at 8:51 AM PST - 34 comments
Words invented by the Simpsons
, as found on Wikipedia. Some soul with too much time on their hands has taken up the task of listing all the nonsense words invented on the Simpsons. The number of words from this list that I use on a daily basis is ASTOUNDING.
posted by antifuse at 2:00 AM PST - 86 comments
October 17
The Solar Decathlon 2005 winners announced.
The Solar Decathlon brings together 18 teams of college and university students from around the globe to participate in an unparalleled solar competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home.
posted by mathowie at 10:39 PM PST - 9 comments
The CommonCensus Map Project is redrawing the map of the United States based on your voting, to show how the country is organized culturally, as opposed to traditional political boundaries. It shows how the country is divided into 'spheres of influence' between different cities at the national, regional, and local levels.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 8:59 PM PST - 11 comments
The Online Archive of California
brings together historical materials from a variety of
state institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives. These materials include letters, legal documents, manuscripts, works of art, diaries, and historical photographs. Thousands of
photographs.
From
just the
Bancroft Library at Berkeley:
Artistic homes, 1887-1890,
agricultural laborers, 1906-1911,
the San Francisco earthquake and fire,
construction of the Golden Gate Bridge,
San Quentin Prison, and
war relocation camps. And that's barely scratching the surface.
posted by Gamblor at 8:09 PM PST - 5 comments
Last Best Chance
is a
docudrama that shows the threat posed by vulnerable nuclear weapons and materials around the world and underscores what the stakes are. The plot: al Qaeda terrorists steal nuclear material to make bombs, and then sneak them into the US. The 47 minute film airs
tonight on HBO, and is also
available as a free DVD. More interesting are the powerful
figures behind the film. It was produced by
The Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to reduce the global threats from WMDs. NTI's board is co-chaired by
Ted Turner and
Sam Nunn (D-GA). The hope is that appealing directly to the public will force politicians to act. The film and its creators were profiled yesterday on
CBS News Sunday Morning.
(And to help our discussion here, they've even provided a
discussion guide.)
posted by clgregor at 11:55 AM PST - 22 comments
Gulu Walk.
Every night, up to 40,000 Ugandan children
"commute" by foot into city-centres so that they may sleep
on the street, or in hospitals, churches and aid centres. They are sent by their parents in an attempt to escape the
Lord’s Resistance Army, the armed militia in a civil war that has for years been stealing kids from their homes, turning them into soldiers, servants and sex-slaves. On
October 22nd, raise awareness by
marching in a Gulu Walk, in 41 cities from Halifax to San Diego to Serbia to Gulu itself. Learn more via photo essays [
BBC/
LA Times/
indie], a
radio documentary, and
videos. [
previously on MeFi] Please spread the word.
posted by Marquis at 7:19 AM PST - 13 comments
Explorion
is a goldmine of travel accounts, from Hakluyt's
Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation and Bartram's
Travels Through North &South Carolina, Georgia, East &West Florida,the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws to the
Journals of Lewis and Clark and Washinton Irving's
Astoria; Or, Anecdotes Of An Enterprise Beyond The Rocky Mountains and Dickens's
Pictures from Italy and Lafcadio Hearn's
Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan (from which I took the post title) to... well, find your own favorites. There's an astonishing amount of stuff there. "Of course you will act according to your own plans, and do what you think best—but
FIND LIVINGSTONE!"
posted by languagehat at 6:46 AM PST - 13 comments
October 16
His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel.
He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities
...
But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a $6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers scrambled to help. This spring, a collection agency started calling. He owed another $646 for military housing.
...
posted by zouhair at 2:58 PM PST - 68 comments
One of the most fascinating
species in Bangkok are surely the ex-pat Teaching English as A Foreign Language (TEFL) teachers, as this diary will attest.
Englishdroid is a similarly bleak look at TEFL dealing with those everyday aspects aspects of teaching like
shagging students, and the cringe inducing
The Satanic Units - The Course Book From Hell.
If blogs are more your bag, just check out the
Tefl Daily Grind, with gloomy reports inside the frontlines of hopeless Thai school beaurocracy.
If you still fancy trying your hand at teaching in Thailand, why not check the place that offered you 300 dollars a month isn't on
THIS list.
Could it be unscrupulous agencies are raking in millions of baht sending fly-by-night foreigners to teach English at public schools, or the certificate forger shops setup next to police stations.
...and if Bangkok's not your bag there's always the restive South,
where teachers are in great demand.
posted by ldma at 10:10 AM PST - 30 comments
The end of all other anonymous proxies?
The only disadvantage I found - it's one-time login, if you disconnect, next time you'll have to get another user/pass pair. But vpnsecurity.org is charging $40 monthly...
P.S. Correct link is https://vpn.google.com/getpass/ but I couldn't use https in URL field.
posted by snark9 at 9:50 AM PST - 29 comments
Meet 42 casualties of the current Administration
--they didn't die in Iraq, or New Orleans, but were
beleaguered administrators, managers, and career civil servants who quit their posts in protest or were defamed, threatened, fired, forced out, demoted, or driven to retire by Bush administration strong-arming. From Bunny Greenhouse to Richard Clarke to General Zinni to lesser-known folks like James Zahn, who
was prohibited on no fewer than 11 occasions from publicizing his research on the potential hazards to human health posed by airborne bacteria resulting from farm wastes. A very wide-ranging list, covering everything from Public Health to War to Terror and Torture to Education to...
posted by amberglow at 8:35 AM PST - 28 comments
Is the modern GOP a repackaging of the old Whig party?
(archive link) The blend of businessmen's aversion to government regulation, down-home cultural populism and Christian moralism that sustains today's Republican Party is a venerable if loosely knit philosophy of government dating back to long before the right-wing upsurge that prepared the way for Reagan's presidency. A few pundits and political insiders have likened the current Republicans to the formidable, corporate-financed political machine behind President William McKinley at the end of the 19th century. The admiration Karl Rove has expressed for the machine strengthens the historical connection. Of course, the Whigs couldn't hold their disparate coalition together in the face of the slavery issue. What might undo the current disparate coalition in the GOP?
posted by caddis at 3:16 AM PST - 29 comments
October 15
Hey, kids, let's watch a cartoon! May I present
The Ship That Never Came In by Kim Deitch, comix genius. It's a piece with his magnum opus
Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Both, as Time magazine's comix critic
Andrew Arnold notes,
focuses on Ted Mishkin, a talented animator whose gifts can never quite overcome his curse. His curse is Waldo, a mischievous cat who walks on his hind legs. Waldo may be a delusion or he may be real, but only Ted can see him. Wotta concept!
More inside ? Fuckin' A !
posted by y2karl at 9:16 PM PST - 15 comments
MIT Media Lab's Counter Intelligence Group,
which develops innovative kitchen designs, has created a machine that makes dishes on demand and recycles them after diners have finished a meal. The dishes are made from food-grade, nontoxic acrylic wafers, which are shaped into cups, bowls and plates when heated, then resume their original wafer shape when they are reheated and pressed.
posted by Shanachie at 6:48 PM PST - 14 comments
"
Too much information running through my brain. Too much information driving me insane!" ~
Too Much Information:
The Police I was fanatical about the band as a teenager. One common piece of trivia about the band and its members was -- the band's founder and drummer,
Stewart Copeland, is the son of a former CIA agent (now deceased). I never did give much thought to what his father,
Miles Copeland Jr., actually did for the CIA until tonight. This spook was spooky.
He quite the CIA in 1953 to work for
Booz-Allen Hamilton then rejoined the CIA in 1955. Now THAT'S interesting. He strongly supported George Bush Sr., who was CIA director in 1976, and disdained Carter. Copeland had knowledge of (and possibly involvement with)
the delay in the release of the U.S. hostages in iran. He even founded the political support group called, 'spooks for Bush.' Oh . . . another Bush connection: Copeland was also involved in the oil industry after leaving the CIA (again) in 1957. More Copeland/CIA knowledge or involvement:
manipulating Syrian Elections /
participated in coup in which Syrian colonel Husni Za'im seized power /
WATERGATE! /
MK-Ultra /
Church of Scientology /
The Baath Party in Iraq /
Thatcher's election. It's interesting what he had to say about
The Sabotage of the Presidential Campaign of Senator Edmund Muskie
1971-1972
Was there any spook(y) business behind the scenes during
the band's tour of third-world countries in the early 1980s.
Who else was embedded with the band's tour crew? What about Ian,
Miles III (the band's manager), or
Stewart?
At least
Sting pulled the plug on "Brand New Day" from the Bush campaign. How much did Sting's knowledge of Copeland influence the tongue-in-cheek song,
"Murder by Numbers?"
posted by augustweed at 3:17 PM PST - 59 comments
Music photography goodness - some UK-based photographers with plenty of image galleries of rock and pop bands:
Peter Hill (also see his
livejournal for more pics),
Ami Barwell,
Michael Williams,
Scarlet Page,
Graham Smith (on
livejournal too),
Emma Porter, and the
already mentioned Andrew Kendall (
lj).
Also
UrbanImage which licenses the work of several photographers and has sections on
jazz,
hip hop,
grime,
reggae,
punk, etc. as well as
travel photography and other
cool stuff (free registration required to access single galleries and images).
posted by funambulist at 11:54 AM PST - 5 comments
"Tim Kaine says
Adolf Hitler
doesn't qualify for the death penalty." Or so say Republican campaign ads supporting
Jerry Kilgore, Virginia's attorney general, in his bid to become that state's new governor.
Tim Kaine, the Democratic lieutenant governor, says his moral objections to capital punishment are rooted in his Roman Catholic faith.
"Solidly pro-life" Jim Kilgore, endorsed by the
Virginia Society for Human Life and
National Right to Life political action committees, accuses Kaine of being an "
anti-death penalty activist who cannot be trusted to oversee the death penalty in Virginia." This is important to Virginians. Based on the number of executions carried out under the post Furman laws,
Virginians are second only to Texans in their
fondness for execution. As attorney general, Kilgore tried to
expand the kinds of crimes that would be eligible for the death penalty. Tim Kaine
reassured voters, "That's why I personally oppose the death penalty. But I take my oath of office seriously, and I'll enforce the death penalty . . . because it's the law."
posted by three blind mice at 2:59 AM PST - 42 comments
October 14
Biopresence creates
human DNA trees by transcoding the DNA of a human within the DNA of a tree in order to create "Living Memorials" or "Transgenic Tombstones".
posted by stbalbach at 6:36 PM PST - 20 comments
These days you can get your self-published book printed on-demand, anything you want on a single t-shirt or mug, and a CD pressed of the indie band that only three people have heard of. Seems like the only medium that's missing is movies, but oops, now we've got that too.
IndieFlix accepts masters from independent filmmakers, puts the title up for rating and discussion, and lets people order DVDs full of movie that would be hard to come by otherwise. Filmmakers get a third of each sale to put towards their next work of genius.
posted by endquote at 4:42 PM PST - 13 comments
What of Iran's nuclear program? That was not a pressing concern for the young people I met. None of them raised the issue in conversation with me. When I asked them about it, they fell into two groups... Yet both insisted with equal vehemence that an American or Israeli bombing of nuclear installations, let alone an Iraq-style invasion, would be a wholly unacceptable response to Iran's nuclear ambitions... A perceptive local analyst reinforced the point. Who or what, he asked, could give this regime renewed popular support, especially among the young? "Only the United States!" If... whatever we do to slow down the nuclearization of Iran does not end up merely slowing down the democratization of Iran; and if, at the same time, we can find policies that help the gradual social emancipation and eventual self-liberation of Young Persia, then the long-term prospects are good. The Islamic revolution, like the French and Russian revolutions before it, has been busy devouring its own children. One day, its grandchildren will devour the revolutionSoldiers of the Hidden Imam
posted by y2karl at 4:34 PM PST - 32 comments
Our Australian cousins do make jokes about us Kiwis having sex with sheep - so even we can see the humour in this
story.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 12:24 PM PST - 70 comments
War Photographer
is an awesome, viking-filled flash animated music video directed by Joel Trussell for musician Jason Forrest. (quicktime)
via
posted by maryh at 10:28 AM PST - 22 comments
Music is nothing.
Sound could become music.
The end must be in the beginning,
and the beginning in the end.
I am here because I am not here.
Music lives in the eternal now.
Music is the now becoming now.
What I learned from
Sergiu Celibidache, by
Markand Thakar. More inside.
posted by matteo at 9:31 AM PST - 6 comments
No... F---- you.
Over the course of several months a Florida librarian received unsolicited facsimile transmissions from one particular fax blaster. The number for removal and the number to fax back the advertisements for health insurance, mortgages, hot leads, selling my business and so on just happened to be in his local zrea code. Using super librarian skills and secret librarian tools he sought (legal) revenge, and won.
Moral of this story:
1) Don't screw with the librarian
2) Libraries- take action on your unsolicited faxes- they are illegal.
3) Reference tools are your friends!
posted by Blake at 9:30 AM PST - 72 comments
thepartyparty.com
hosts a set of mindblowingly amazing mixes using the recorded speech of American political figures -- mostly President Bush, but others, like Hilary Clinton and Gov. Schwarzenegger, both make appearances. It's a brilliant exercise in free speech, using the words of the administration against them, especially in the middle and later parts of
Who's The Nigga? (
Streaming m3u and
downloadable mp3.) And did I mention it rocks? Because it rocks- after it breaks your head completely. You must listen to this.
posted by blacklite at 7:02 AM PST - 28 comments
October 13
Bush teleconference with troops staged.
Nothing in the article says
who is responsible for organizing the staged question and answer session, The White House, military officials, or others in the defense department. Just that it infact was staged, and that the troops were coached for 45 minutes prior to the actual teleconference. When Bush, in an unscripted move, asked an officer if he had anything to say, he stammered through a sentence, in stark contrast to the well put together responses to all the other questions, thanking the President and saying, "I like you." More PR from the Bush administration.
posted by SirOmega at 10:40 PM PST - 173 comments
Seen something like this on one of your credit or debit cards recently?
09/25 DIGITAL AGE 888-529-98 CYPRUS, SE $24.99
Join the crowd. You might remember something from earlier in the summer, when
CardSystems Solutions reported a security breach that had gone on for months. Or maybe you remember a bit of
more recent news, when "a California judge ruled Friday that Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard International Inc. don't have to send individual warnings to thousands of consumers whose personal account information was stolen during a high-tech heist uncovered earlier this year."
My family was hit on three different cards from three different banks in less than a week. Doesn't seem to matter if you ever used the card online
or not. Any guesses where "Digital Age" is getting all these valid credit and debit card numbers? Anyone? So, please, check your statements and be prepared to cancel your card immediately if you've been hit, too. Nothing good will come of these criminals being able to make additional charges against your accounts, using different shell companies to hide themselves,
continuing to do this sort of thing for years
posted by RKB at 8:04 PM PST - 29 comments
Bush Ignores Generals and Admirals, Again
Once again, President Bush is ignoring the good advice of the most experienced military officers, and endangering our troops in the process. A host of retired flag officers are asking the Supreme Court to stop Bush's military tribunals because it destroys our moral credibility abroad.
posted by expriest at 7:20 PM PST - 16 comments
"
Cheap, paper-thin TV screens that can be used in newspapers and magazines have been
unveiled by German electronics giant Siemens. The firm says the low production costs could see the magazine shelves in newsagents come alive with moving images vying for the customers' attention as they move along the aisle. The new technology caused a sensation when it was first made public this week at the
Plastics Electronics trade fair in Frankfurt....the new screens, which are literally paper thin, can do everything a regular TV screen or computer monitor can do, but cost a fraction of the price....one square metre of the material costs around £30 [US$53], and scientists working on the screens said they should be available by 2007." --
more...
posted by ericb at 7:17 PM PST - 53 comments
Gone by 2040:
Religious Hierarchy, Japan's Passivity, The Chinese Communist Party, Auto Emissions, Monogamy, The Euro, The War on Drugs, Sovereignty... To mark their 35th year in publication Foreign Policy magazine asks 16 influential thinkers which ideas, values, or institutions will be gone by the year 2040. Also discussed on
NPR radio today.
posted by StarForce5 at 3:23 PM PST - 50 comments
You know that ranger job in the National Park Service that you're gonna apply for as soon as you get through school or quit waiting tables?
Fuhgeddaboutit, unless you've pledged your loyalty to the
Ba'ath party President's Management Agenda and its roster of "faith-based and community initiatives," "competitive sourcing," etcetera, and Interior Secretary Gale Norton's "4C's," which seem to have to do with communication, consultation, cooperation, conservation, and Clinton-bashing.
(Oh, sorry, that's 5 C's. It's just that Norton can't seem to stop denigrating "the previous administration" -- while advocating drilling in ANWR -- for such absurd ideas as banning snowmobiles from Yellowstone.)
posted by digaman at 3:18 PM PST - 18 comments
lacitedesmortes - documentary on women murdered in ciudad juarez
-- lacitedesmontes.net is not in English, but through its flash presentation and navigation, it should explain enough about the brutality of the unfortunate events that took place in Ciudad Juarez. Since 1993,
almost 400 women and girls have been murdered and more than 70 remain missing in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico.
While the region's law enforcement as well as state's attorney general were either incompetent or corrupt, more than a dozen
women's rights groups were created to solve the murder as well as to stop the violence in the region. Thanks to international organizations such as
Amnesty,
UNIFEM, and
IACHR, the number of violent murder on women in the region has degreased for a while, however,
the battle still continues.
More resources
here.
posted by grafholic at 2:34 PM PST - 11 comments
NSA gets patent on locating the physical location of web surfers
"There are still many advantages to knowing the physical location of a party one is dealing with across electronically switched networks. For example, in the realm of advertising, knowing the geographic distribution of sales or inquires can be used to measure the effectiveness of advertising across geographic regions." Advertising, mmm hmmm.
posted by jeremias at 2:30 PM PST - 25 comments
POP goes the weasel?
"A number of Iraqis apprehended two Americans disguised in Arab dress as they tried to blow up a booby-trapped car in the middle of a residential area in western Baghdad on Tuesday.
Residents of western Baghdad’s al-Ghazaliyah district told
Quds Press that the people had apprehended the Americans as they left their
Caprice car near a residential neighborhood in al-Ghazaliyah on Tuesday afternoon (11 October 2005). Local people found they looked suspicious so they detained the men before they could get away. That was when they discovered that they were Americans and called the Iraqi puppet police.
Five minutes after the arrival of the Iraqi puppet police on the scene a large force of US troops showed up and surrounded the area. They put the two Americans in one of their Humvees and drove away at high speed to the astonishment of the residents of the area.
Quds Press spoke by telephone with a member of the al-Ghazaliyah puppet police who confirmed the incident, saying that the two men were non-Arab foreigners but declined to be more precise about their nationality.
posted by rough ashlar at 10:16 AM PST - 120 comments
WXPN listeners have picked the 885 best albums of all time.
In a follow-up to last year's list of the 885 best songs of all time (commented on
here), Philadelphia's
WXPN has polled its listeners to come up with the top 885 albums and is playing three tracks from each. The countdown is continuing as I type this. I have no doubt the entire Metafilter community will agree on the selections. Here's my prediction for
#1.
posted by Man-Thing at 9:58 AM PST - 125 comments
After nearly being wiped out by a fungus
(
Cryphonectria parasitica), that was first identified in 1904, the American chestnut is attempting to make a comeback with a little help from its fungus-resistent Chinese cousin ... and maybe you. [more inside]
posted by terrapin at 8:31 AM PST - 18 comments
"Killer in Our Midst : Methane Catastrophes in Earth's Past and Near Future" (a free net book)
- During the greatest extinction pulse known to have happened in the history of life on Earth - the Permian catastrophe - 90% of then existing species perished. This astonishingly well written, authoritative, free book may be the most important thing you will ever read on the net or off of it : it explains in great detail an inevitable Methane catastrophe, if humans do not stop adding CO2 to the Earth's atmosphere, during which "not only would a considerable percentage of existing plants and animals be killed off, but a large percentage of the human population as well" (or the whole species). In the worst scenarios the atmosphere itself could become poisonous to Oxygen breathing life. Mundane laws of physics, expressed in impending Methane Hydrate release, dictate to humanity : cut CO2 release or perish. Simple.
posted by troutfishing at 8:22 AM PST - 38 comments
It's Pinter. The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to the English writer Harold Pinter, “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms”.
posted by Termite at 4:12 AM PST - 34 comments
Could this be the first ever blogging drama?
The World of Margaret has been running all week on Radio 4's Woman's Hour. An extremely funny play about a retired couple who take up blogging in their retirement, it is serialized and will be online until the end of the week.
Each day's episode is listed at the right hand side of the page.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 3:08 AM PST - 15 comments
Concrete Ships
Toward the end of the First World War, and during the Second World War, the United States commisioned the construction of experimental concrete ships.
posted by dhruva at 1:49 AM PST - 25 comments
October 12
Sine Wave Music
A group of internet musicians have taken up the challenge of creating complete musical compositions derived from a single one second 440 hz sinewave tone. This tone (often called a test tone) is simplest musical unit.
The musicians had to manipulate the sinewave into new tones by changing the pitch and harmonics of the noise and passing the tone through effects to create new sounds. These were then used to create complete pieces of music.
Three volumes of sinewave music are found in Audiobulb Records 'project' page under the title Root of Sine. The label has posted a 'Prime Numbers' compilation on their front page
.
posted by room at 11:28 PM PST - 22 comments
What you watch
Tucked deep inside a massive bill designed to track sex offenders and prevent children from being victimized by sex crimes is language that could put many Hollywood movies in the same category as hardcore, X-rated films. The provision added to the Children's Safety Act of 2005 would require any film, TV show or digital image that contains a sex scene to come under the same government filing requirements that adult films must meet.
posted by halekon at 7:53 PM PST - 41 comments
What would it take to revolt?
There has been lots of debate, lots of outrage - both false and real, justified and not, over the various foibles of the current administration and President Bush (too numerous to list here). There has also been talk about revolution, uprising, impeachment, etc, and I wonder - theoretically - just would it take for a modern individual to engage in active revolution?
This for me might be it. Fortunately
at least one republican representative and perhaps 69% of U.S. households are
with me.
posted by Smedleyman at 5:09 PM PST - 126 comments
"The year is 2010
and the European Union has rejected Turkey. Fascist governments have come to power in Germany, Austria and France and are inciting violence against resident Turks and Muslims. A vengeful Turkey joins forces with Russia and declares war against the EU. Turkish commandos besiege Berlin, obliterate Europe and take control of the Continent.
"Some critics will be quick to dismiss 'The Third World War,' a new futuristic novel by a 30-year-old Turkish writer,
Burak Turna, as the wild imaginings of a conspiracy theorist and literary shock jock - and in many ways it is."
Turna is also the author of
Metal Storm, which revolves around a US invasion of Turkey. Both books have been runaway best-sellers.
posted by brundlefly at 4:28 PM PST - 52 comments
Infinite Crisis begins today.
In 1985,
DC Comics released
Crisis On Infinite Earths -- arguably the biggest
retcon engine in comicbook history. The
goal of the
Crisis maxi-series was the unification of
disparate DC timelines and dimensions (designated as numbered or lettered Earths) into a single universe.
Beloved heroes died and
new heroes emerged.
Twenty years later, DC is putting all of its heroes and villains back in harm's way with
Infinite Crisis. Building steam from plot elements in last year's
critically-acclaimed Identity Crisis (written by NYT Bestselling Author
Brad Meltzer) and a quartet (
1,
2,
3,
4) of related mini-series published over the last six months,
Infinite Crisis (penned by
Geoff Johns) promises to be just as jarring as the original
Crisis. So jarring, in fact, that flagship characters of the DC Universe
will be pitched forward in time, a year into the future. To account for the lost time, a
weekly series called
52* will start in May of 2006.
And when the dust settles, DC will start progressing all of its characters and stories
in real time.
posted by grabbingsand at 6:29 AM PST - 53 comments
A new television series ["Beautiful Maidens"] being broadcast around the Middle East tells the story of Arabs living in residential compounds in Saudi Arabia and the militant Islamists who want to blow them up so they can collect their rewards in heaven - 72 beautiful virgins. One of the show's writers, Abdullah Bjad, is a Saudi and self-described former militant who was consulted on religious aspects of the script. He said that just before one of the 2003 attacks on a residential compound in Saudi Arabia, an attacker who was in contact with his superiors was "heard on the mobile phone counting down the seconds to the 'beautiful maidens.' His last words were: 'One second to the 'beautiful maidens.' He then blew himself up."
New Syrian TV show angers some Arabs
• But
what will a woman have when she enters paradise?
posted by jenleigh at 6:14 AM PST - 83 comments
I/O Brush is a new drawing tool to explore colors, textures, and movements found in everyday materials by "picking up" and drawing with them. Video
here.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 6:09 AM PST - 6 comments
An essential upgrade
for iPod nano owners. Note that
the 200gb capacity enables you to store about 50 000 pieces of music. If this capacity is filled with illegal mp3s, you can be fined up to 75 Million USD. That aside, the upgraded nano is
a thing of beauty.
posted by grahamwell at 4:39 AM PST - 23 comments
October 11
Archimedes Death Ray: Idea Feasibility Testing.
Ancient Greek and Roman historians recorded that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes (a notably smart person) constructed a burning glass to set the Roman warships, anchored within bow and arrow range, afire. The story has been much
debated and oft dismissed as myth. TV's
MythBusters were not able to replicate the feat and “busted” the myth.
MIT students rock!
posted by mrkredo at 5:35 PM PST - 52 comments
Classic Aardman (of Wallace and Gromit fame) animation stuff up in
flames
posted by magullo at 12:35 PM PST - 21 comments
Last week, a woman was forced off a Southwest Airlines flight for wearing a t-shirt.
The shirt in question bore the phrase "Meet the F*ckers" and an image of US President Bush, VP Cheney and Condoleezza Rice. The passenger, Lorrie Heasley, refused to remove it after other passengers complained. Apparently "Southwest rules filed with the FAA say they can remove a passenger that is offensive, abusive, disorderly or violent or for clothing that is "lewd, obscene, or patently offensive," but the airline says the curse (not the political message) led to her being asked to leave. Ms. Heasley is now speaking with the ACLU to see if she can initiate a lawsuit, but the NYTimes checked with experts in constitutional law and they
don't think she has a case.
Well, the makers of the t-shirt have responded:
"If any T-Shirt Hell customer is kicked off of any commercial airline flight simply for wearing one of our shirts, we will provide you with alternate transportation to get you to your original destination. This transportation includes, but is not limited to, the T-Shirt Hell corporate jet."
posted by zarq at 12:26 PM PST - 221 comments
Fun & Joy
is a addictiing little mindless game. Don't let the fact that it was probably written for younger ones stop you from zoning out.
See also.
[note: flash]
posted by crunchland at 9:39 AM PST - 24 comments
Hundertwasserhaus.
Designed by Austrian architect and artist
Friedensreich Hundertwasser for free because "it was worth it" and owned by the city of Vienna, the Hundertwasser House is a tourist site, social and political gathering place, and a piece of
art. With no straight lines or flat surfaces, bright colors, and organic low rent apartments, the Hundertwasserhaus is a truly unique version of public housing.
posted by dios at 8:25 AM PST - 21 comments
Sketchplanet.com
"is a new web service based around sketches. Taking some obvious cues from Flickr (e.g. tags, ability to comment etc.) Sketchplanet is an online sketching network where people can draw whatever they like, add titles, comments, tags, save favourites and more."
posted by gen at 6:54 AM PST - 17 comments
October 10
CronyJobs.com
"Apply" now to secure a lucrative career both decrying and luxuriating in the spoils of Big Government! No experience necessary! Don't miss your chance to suckle greedily at America's soon-to-be-bankrupt bureaucracy teat!
posted by fenriq at 4:26 PM PST - 38 comments
Does dark matter exist?
Dark matter has been suggested as a solution to the
galaxy rotation problem where individual stars don't seem to rotate the way Newton's laws would predict. Now, some scientists are saying that observations fit with Einstein's general relativity, without any dark matter needed. I just find it amazing that no one has tried this yet.
posted by delmoi at 1:48 PM PST - 45 comments
The most interesting pieces of pop music trivia
(that you know are 100% false.) For example,
With the exception of 1990's Fourth of July, every Galaxie 500 song released has the exact same opening five seconds.
"American Pie" songster Don McLean is ironically both Canadian, and allergic to pastry.Rapper 50 Cent Blasts Colonel Oliver North for role in Iran Contra Affair
posted by The Jesse Helms at 11:27 AM PST - 68 comments
Fred and Ethel resurrected as corporate shills
"Through the magic of Hollywood, famously tightfisted Fred (William Frawley) and his irascible wife, Ethel (Vivian Vance), are brought back to life in a series of entertaining vignettes," California-based PacifiCare said in a release about its new television advertising campaign.
Using body doubles, voice impersonators and computer-generated imagery, the national TV ads that will premiere in mid October will enable the two long-dead actors to "speak" once more. And, oddly enough, they'll be talking about PacifiCare's new drug plan.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 9:54 AM PST - 40 comments
Global warming -- the upside:
the entrepreneurs poised to make millions from new ports and shipping lanes in the formerly ice-bound Arctic circle. A fascinating New York Times article on the international land-grab following the news (reported
here, discussed
here, whitewashed
here,
et. al.) that the polar ice caps and Siberian permafrost are melting. Goodbye Gulf Stream, hello Club Med Santa-style -- first SUV to the North Pole wins!
posted by digaman at 9:24 AM PST - 53 comments
Warning: Geek Hype Alert!
Artima.com has just launched a new on-line magazine,
Ruby Code & Style. They already host Web `zines for two long-time, corporate powerhouse languages,
C++ and
Java. For their next subject one might have expected them to go with
Python or perhaps
Perl, but instead they picked
Ruby.
Need more proof Ruby's time has come? The Fifth International
Ruby Conference, to be held this week in San Diego, CA, is sold out. The attendance is triple what is was last year. Any readers of Slashdot here likely do not need yet another mention of
Ruby on Rails, which has spread like wildfire. But
Agile Web Development with Rails is currently in the top 500 over-all sales rank on Amazon, and currently #2 in the
Computers and Internet Programming section.
While MeFi tends to focus on more socially-broad topics, I know there is a cadre of geeks here. So, tell me: Is this it for Perl, Python, and PHP? Are the P* languages to be sent packing? Or is this swell of Rubymania just a passing fad, the results of overblown blog hype? And what other programming languuages might be lurking to become The Next Big Geek Thing? (I'm still waiting for Lisp to assume return triumphant.)
posted by Ayn Marx at 6:36 AM PST - 87 comments
October 9
UNICEF bombs the Smurfs.
UNICEF recently launched a campaign to teach schoolchildren about the horrors of war. Among the efforts are a mini-cartoon, where, yes,
the Smurfs are bombed (Warning: Video file, strong images, Smurfs don't kick in for 40 seconds, most of which are dedicated to limbless children. NSFW or small children). I couldn't understand the language the movie is in (Dutch?), but the Smurfs say it all.
posted by huskerdont at 10:56 AM PST - 35 comments
My cell was 8 ft by 6 ft, the same size as the detainees’ cages at Guantanamo. It was my turn to be humiliated every time I was taken to have a shower. Naked, I had to run my hands through my hair to show that I was not concealing a weapon in it. Then mouth open, tongue up, down, nothing inside. Right arm up, nothing in my armpit. Left arm up. Lift the right testicle, nothing hidden. Lift the left. Turn around, bend over, spread your buttocks, knowing a camera was displaying my naked image as male and female guards watched. It didn’t matter that I was an army captain, a graduate of West Point, the elite US military academy. It didn’t matter that my religious beliefs prohibited me from being fully naked in front of strangers. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t been charged with a crime. It didn’t matter that my wife and daughter had no idea where I was. And it certainly didn’t matter that I was a loyal American citizen and, above all, innocent... I knew why I had been arrested: it was because I am a Muslim.James Yee: An American in chains It's OK to demonize the 'Other' if the Other is a Muslim.
posted by y2karl at 9:46 AM PST - 163 comments
"I haven't been in a concert hall in 4 billion years".
Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, 54, had been excited about an invitation to see the
Los Angeles Philharmonic in action at
Disney Hall. "The anticipation is horrible". He'd started showering daily at a shelter, to gussy himself up as much as possible. Nathaniel was a music student more than 30 years ago at the
Juilliard School when he suffered a breakdown. Today, as he continues to battle the schizophrenia that landed him on skid row, he plays violin and cello for hours each day in downtown Los Angeles, lifting his instruments out of an orange shopping cart on which he has written: "Little Walt Disney Concert Hall — Beethoven." After the Philharmonic's rehearsal, Ayers has played Disney Hall -- the real one, this time. Without the bow at first, picking the strings with his right hand, Bach's Cello Suite No. 1: Prelude. Several Philharmonic staffers heard the music and wandered over, peering in to see a man of the streets, tattered and elegant, close his eyes and drift into ecstasy.
posted by PenguinBukkake at 9:13 AM PST - 14 comments
You can't POSSIBLY be serious.
The fact that modern breakfast foods (or at least, foods normally associated with breakfast) have expanded to include items such as cereals whose
marshmallow content threatens to outweigh the actual nutritious content, slightly more nutritious items
covered in frosting, and of course, the wide variety of chocolate flavored items, cereals, milk, muffins, and so on. But that's just breakfast. Now, however,
we're getting into personal hygiene. And that may just be
Snakes On A Plane dangerous.
posted by deusdiabolus at 1:33 AM PST - 33 comments
October 8
Pixel Fest
- "Here's the game: can a group of random people, each contributing a teensy weensy bit, make a coherent piece of art/design/garbage purely through the influence of the work itself?"
A time-lapse video of the project so far can be seen
here (heavy load time)
posted by hypersloth at 7:48 PM PST - 20 comments
White House Tapes
has audio files and transcripts of presidental conversations between 1940 and 1973, including FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:06 PM PST - 16 comments
A Happy Ending
-- Days after Katrina struck and the levees broke an AP photographer took a
photograph depicting a frail, elderly woman in a wheelchair -- her withered white hand clasping [a little girl's] tiny black hand," as they were being rescued from the New Orlean's convention center. The photo was "published on front pages around the nation, and the pair became a symbol of the disaster." The two are fine and living together -- along with the girl's grandmother -- as a new family in Houston.
posted by ericb at 12:38 PM PST - 22 comments
Dobson vs. the miniature Dachshund : the musical
( subtitle : "The Will To Whip" ) OK, it's not really a musical. But it
should be : in a slice 'o life piece of high camp from "Focus on the Family" head and author of numerous books on parenting, including "Dare to Discipline" and "
The New Dare To Discipline", Dr. James Dobson recounts an epic battle, belt in hand, to dislodge his 12 lb Dachshund from atop a fuzzy toilet seat cover. Dobson also advocates the disciplinary beating of chidren, but not those younger than 15 months. The Dachshund has sinced passed away,
ending "a fifteen-year-love affair between man and dog".
posted by troutfishing at 10:29 AM PST - 82 comments
Wrestling with Diane Arbus
"She set up no lights, just pulled out her Rolleiflex, which was half as big as she was, checked the aperture and the exposure, and tested the flash. Then she asked me to lie on the bed, flat on my back on the shabby counterpane.
I did as I was told. Clutching the camera she climbed on to the bed and straddled me, moving up until she was kneeling with a knee on both sides of my chest. She held the Rolleiflex at waist height with the lens right in my face. She bent her head to look through the viewfinder on top of the camera, and waited".
posted by matteo at 9:11 AM PST - 25 comments
Godey's Lady's Book.
A 19th century American ladies' magazine, which contained poetry, engravings and articles. "It was a novel enterprise at the time, and few thought it would outlive the first year of its nativity. It soon became apparent, however, that its management was in the hands of one who knew the want of the time, and had the tact and taste required for its supply."
More
here.
Sarah Josepha Hale, the author of 'Mary had a little lamb', who petitioned President Lincoln for a national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day, was an
editor of the magazine.
posted by plep at 7:06 AM PST - 14 comments
The Human Flower Project
"From the mourners of a Neanderthal man buried with flowers in 60,000 B.C.. to today’s megawatt floral designers on HGTV, people have turned to flowers out of anxiety, necessity and joy."
posted by dhruva at 12:07 AM PST - 2 comments
October 7
Flickr Memry
blends the classic memory game with Flickr images. Enter a subject tag, play memory (4x4 or 6x6), and then view or mail the originals if you like. (flash)
posted by hypersloth at 7:38 PM PST - 14 comments
Interesting "New Yorker" article
about online extortion via DDoS attacks. Call me naive and underinformed, but I had little understanding of how this works.
"In the most common scenario, the bots surreptitiously connect hundreds, or thousands, of zombies to a channel in a chat room. The process is called “herding,” and a herd of zombies is called a botnet."
posted by dersins at 11:03 AM PST - 34 comments
Harold Pinter at 75.
In
One for the Road, the protagonist is Nicolas,
a whisky-sodden interrogator who has brought in a family for questioning (and, it is implied, raping and torturing). In the short, sharp shock of
The New World Order, we eavesdrop on a conversation between two torturers, held over the top of their mute, blindfolded victim's head ("We haven't even finished with him. We haven't begun."). In
Ashes to Ashes, the interrogation of Rebecca by Devlin takes a sinister turn as we learn that her ex-lover participated in state-sponsored violence. In
Mountain Language, a sadistic guard plays power games with a group of mountain dwellers, who are forbidden from speaking in anything but the language of the state. In
Party Time, Pinter lampoons the smug security of the middle classes, portraying an insufferably élite party which carries on regardless of the violence and terror on the streets outside.
Now, for Pinter's 75th birthday,
some of the tormentors and the tormented so potently etched in his later plays are assembled together in a new dramatic work with a musical setting by the composer James Clarke.
posted by matteo at 9:03 AM PST - 12 comments
Networking on the Network
Started over 10 years ago, long before social web apps became ubiquitous, Phil Agre's
Networking on the Network was an introduction to professional networking, using the internet, for graduate students.
The document has grown and evolved to encompass 90 pages of widely applicable advice on building professional relationships and helping others do the same. Much of what he writes is applicable to surviving in
any institution.
Reading it feels like being taken aside by an expert practitioner who tells you, "Pssst....hey buddy, here's how things
really work."
posted by mecran01 at 8:47 AM PST - 12 comments
An early VoIP casualty.
Think VoIP is a new phenomenon, and talking to people with
Skype or
Free World Dialup is incredible? Ten years ago, Onlive! put the
Onlive! Traveler -- a collaborative VoIP product that's amazing even today -- into beta. With Traveler, a Windows95 (!) PC, a decent graphics card, a SoundBlaster and a dial-up Internet connection, you could not only chat with a friend, but participate in collaborative chats with the avatars of multiple friends in
various 3-D rendered worlds. The
avatars' lips even moved with your voice (.mpg movie). You could talk worldwide, for free. But even though Onlive! was around well before the boom, they were an unfortunate dot-com casualty, as Traveler never quite took off.
Perhaps Traveler was doomed by the limited connectivity available in the mid 90's, or perhaps it was doomed by its
occasionally creepy, fantastic 3-D designs -- but due to a number of
collaborators, the Traveler still lives on today on a
series of servers, and the (free)
software still works on modern Windows PCs.
posted by eschatfische at 8:38 AM PST - 13 comments
Llareggub!
Dylan Thomas reading Dylan Thomas and host of others (Shakespeare, Milton, Yeats, Auden, Hardy, and more). 11 volumes of mp3s on Salon, reached after watching a Salon premium ad.
[via boingboing]
posted by carter at 8:17 AM PST - 12 comments
30,000 photos in the online archive of the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library,
a
non-profit initiative from the University of Virginia, offering a large database of texts, audio, video, images, maps, bibliographies, journals, links and other resources for Himalayan studies.
posted by funambulist at 5:13 AM PST - 7 comments
October 6
America the Free
You poor people don't need a dictatorship for a government, you keep yourselves in line very well.
How many other examples are there of this? Dixie Chicks CD burning...Others??
posted by SSinVan at 3:16 PM PST - 71 comments
NYC Subway Warning
The New York Police Department is investigating what it deems a credible tip that 19 operatives have been deployed to the city to place bombs in the subway, and security in the subways will be increased, sources told ABC News. Also
here.
posted by R. Mutt at 3:01 PM PST - 112 comments
So, the US Army is having trouble meeting it's recruitment goals, and is
lowering the bar for admission to try and make up the shortfall. Another tactic they are apparently trying is sweetening the deal with
3 free (FREE!!!) iTunes downloads if you agree to talk to a recruiter. It'd be foolish NOT to sign up, frankly!
posted by jonson at 12:37 PM PST - 56 comments
A surprise from Al Gore:
I came here today because I believe that American democracy is in grave danger. It is no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse . I know that I am not the only one who feels that something has gone basically and badly wrong in the way America's fabled "marketplace of ideas" now functions.
How many of you, I wonder, have heard a friend or a family member in the last few years remark that it's almost as if America has entered "an alternate universe"?
I thought maybe it was an aberration when three-quarters of Americans said they believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on September 11, 2001. But more than four years later, between a third and a half still believe Saddam was personally responsible for planning and supporting the attack.
posted by Shanachie at 12:37 PM PST - 80 comments
On July 13, 1865, one of the most celebrated institutions in the United States, the American Museum, burned to the ground. But thanks to the wonders of technology, it has been rebuilt—sort of—on a Website called The Lost Museum...
As it was managed by Phineas T. Barnum, the original American Museum was located in lower Manhattan and presented an ever-growing collection of wonders across five floors, ranging from "cosmoramas" and wax figures, to aquariums and live-animal specimens, to "moral representations" in the Lecture Room.
Via the incomparable
Common-place's
Finding Barnum on the Internet.
posted by y2karl at 10:31 AM PST - 8 comments
Downhill Battle Labs: One "poorly paid" coder vs. the powers that be.
previously mentioned, nonprofit
Downhill Battle, having spun off the Participatory Culture Foundation/
DTV TV Project ( "DTV is a new, free and open-source platform for internet television and video." ) has many other open source projects underway. DownHill Battle Labs projects include
"Local Ink": "Enter your zip code, write a letter, and send it to the op-ed pages of newspapers in your area, and/or your representatives in Congress.",
"Battle Cart": "...shopping cart for small operations. The catalog and the cart sit on the same screen....With a PayPal account, you can start selling things on a website in just a few minutes."
Blog Torrent ( see: Metafilter
37204) a
P2P Legal Defense Fund, and a
Local Wi-Fi filesharing package. And more.
posted by troutfishing at 8:14 AM PST - 7 comments
"Mom, you're not going to like this."
A mother of a U.S. soldier tells her son about
the latest Iraq torture admissions, only to be told that his unit routinely beat and abused Iraqis.
"...suppose you visit an Imam and you want him to call off IED attacks in his neighborhood. If you just go in and ask him politely, he'll tell you he'll try to help; but, he won't . . . But, if you go to that same guy and beat him up thoroughly, then ask him to knock off the attacks, he'll respect you and he'll try to help. . . ."
The mother reports that her son was "under the impression that the conduct was in line with military policy."
posted by insomnia_lj at 7:40 AM PST - 172 comments
October 5
"Virtual Virus Sheds Light on Real-Life Behavior."
A researcher at Tufts University's Center for the Modelling of Infectious Diseases,
Dr. Nina Fefferman, is studying the behavior of World Of Warcraft players during the recent plague that broke out in Ironforge (discussed on Metafilter
here.)
But Dr. Fefferman is not the first academic to study MMORPGs seriously.
Edward Castronova, an economist, arguably pioneered the field with his 2001 paper
Virtual Worlds, in which he argues that the economy in Everquest produced a GNP per capita somewhere between that of Russia and Bulgaria. (He has followed up that paper with
many more on similar subjects.)
posted by dersins at 6:29 PM PST - 9 comments
"If Harvard had too many Asians, it wouldn’t be Harvard, just as Harvard wouldn’t be Harvard with too many Jews or pansies or parlor pinks or shy types or short people with big ears."
Malcolm Gladwell on the
Ivy League business.
posted by semmi at 2:13 PM PST - 48 comments
Studs Terkel, lengendary historian and radio host pays a visit to
Democracy Now! today. Audio and Video, as well as the transcript of this historic interview are
here. Also, the
WBAI pledge drive is this week too, please give what you can.
posted by wheelieman at 1:57 PM PST - 16 comments
The 1918 strain of flu lives again.
Newsfilter or not, according to a paper published in
Science, a team of U.S. researchers has managed to recreate the Spanish flu. Bits of the original virus were taken from the remains of victims from that outbreak and reconstructed in mice. To the surprise of probably no one, the 1918 flu has several elements common with bird flus and was probably originally avian in origin.
posted by staresbynight at 12:01 PM PST - 45 comments
HDTV broadcasts contain an extra couple of inches of screen real estate on either side of the picture that are cropped out of the standard defintion broadcast of the same show. Most shows don't do anything special with that space, since the vast majority of viewers don't receive it, but NBC's My Name Is Earl
did last night.
posted by jonson at 11:42 AM PST - 39 comments
Are computers counterproductive to a child's development?
Wittenberg University education professor and former computer teacher
Lowell Monke thinks so, and has written a provocative essay arguing that, among other things, computers render children "less animated and less capable of appreciating what it means to be alive, what it means to belong in the world as a biological, social being," and "teach children a manipulative way of engaging the world.” His polemic is partially supported by
evidence (.pdf academic paper; BBC gloss
here) indicating that, above a certain threshold, computer use is correlated with lower test scores. The latest salvo in the continuing debate over education and
the culture of simulation.
posted by googly at 11:25 AM PST - 46 comments
" Jim's ghost was in my ear, and I felt terrible".
Like all top classic-rock franchises, The Doors can exploit a lucrative afterlife in television commercials. Offers keep coming in, such as the $15 million dangled by Cadillac last year to lease the song "Break On Through (to the Other Side)" to hawk its luxury SUVs. To the surprise of the corporation and the chagrin of his former bandmates, drummer John Densmore vetoed the idea. He said he did the same when Apple Computer called with a $4-million offer, and every time "some deodorant company wants to use 'Light My Fire.' "
posted by PenguinBukkake at 10:35 AM PST - 119 comments
If you are going to Fall, well this is the place...
I started visiting the orchards and farms of northern Utah a few years ago, to take my Dad out for drives, and to take pictures. I met many farmers up there, and came to love the front of Willard Peak, and the amazing canyons, water drainage, warm western rocky slopes; that make the best peaches anywhere. Perry, Utah has a
mountain behind it, that is a sight to behold, and to the West is the National Migratory
Bird Refuge. Shane Whitlock has covered this area pretty well, he is an enthusiastic photographer and chronicles the small town of Perry,
the rodeos, the birds, the animals and the great fortune of small town existence.
Here is my Dad's best friend's, barn. Mantua, Utah.
Usually, the Utah "outsiders" see, is the red rock canyons of the southern part of the state. Northern Utah with the Great Salt Lake, and the Wasatch and Uinta mountain ranges is continuously elegant season to season, and peopled with all kinds of wonderful, tame and
wild life.
posted by Oyéah at 9:08 AM PST - 20 comments
The end of church AND state..from now on just church. [click the listen button]
The Salvation Army has just won a court case that says they can hire and fire people based on their religion. Even though the Salvation Army gets a large amount of money from the government. Your tax payers dollars being used to discriminate. Of course this is not the
first time the Salvation Army has shown its true colors. Maybe this is a
trend. This marks a victory for Bush, if they had lost this rulling his entire faith based program would have fallen apart.
posted by stilgar at 4:42 AM PST - 88 comments
October 4
Welcome to Indiana: married straight parents only.
The Indiana state legislature is considering a bill that would make it illegal for anyone other than a married couple to become pregnant by artificial means such as artificial insemination or egg/embryo donation. In addition, couples wishing to have their inseminations approved will have to apply and provide information including criminal history checks and "description of the family lifestyle of the intended parents, including participation in faith-based or church activities."
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 8:17 PM PST - 78 comments
The RESCU Foundation
is a non-profit organization established to promote financial relief and comfort to renaissance festival participants and their families who have experienced medical disruptions and subsequent extreme difficulties.
Renaissance festivals have existed for over 30 years. Helping people has been around longer. The thousands of participants who have worked shows know that the value of a community is dependent upon its level of caring. The few that have finally brought RESCU into existence have done so because so many have voiced the need for such an organization.
posted by jcterminal at 7:44 PM PST - 54 comments
Evidence of the "Milky Sea" --
The mysterious ocean glow described by Jules Verne in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and observed by sailors has been confirmed by
recent satellite photos.
On many occasions over the centuries, mariners have reported witnessing surreal nocturnal displays where the surface of the sea produces an intense, uniform, and sustained glow that extends to the horizon in all directions. Although such emissions cannot be fully reconciled with the known features of any light-emitting organism, these so-called "milky seas" are hypothesized to be manifestations of unusually strong bioluminescence produced by colonies of bacteria in association with a microalgal bloom in the surface waters. Because of their ephemeral nature and the paucity of scientific observations, an explanation of milky seas has remained elusive. Here, we report the first satellite observations of the phenomenon.
posted by billysumday at 5:28 PM PST - 38 comments
Mary was just an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life - the type of life just about any girl of that time would lead. She had a normal family, and was engaged to be married to a humble carpenter named Joseph. And then she got a visit from the angel Gabriel and was transformed into
a scripture-quoting action figure.
(Don't forget to learn how to use).
posted by nobody at 3:04 PM PST - 37 comments
Paul Pena has died.
Recognizable mostly as the subject of
Genghis Blues, his incredible success teaching himself
Tuvan throat singing will hopefully not be completely overshadowed by having written Steve Miller's hit "Big Old Jet Airliner." His early recordings, which never caught on (or necessarily came out), earned him favorable comparisons to Hendrix, and are available at
his website.
posted by Eothele at 1:35 PM PST - 34 comments
“
The real world is simply too terrible to admit; it tells man that he is a small, trembling animal who will decay and die." “The defenses that form a person’s character support a grand illusion, and when we grasp this we can understand the full drivenness of man. He is driven away from himself, from self-knowledge, self-reflection. He is driven toward things that support the lie of his character.” Words of
Ernest Becker, here summarizing Gestalt therapy and his own existential perspectives in
Growing Up Rugged.
posted by semmi at 12:52 PM PST - 26 comments
Bush Considers Military Role in Flu Fight
If the flu (say) breaks out in New Jersey, why not use the New Jersey National Guard. Just what is the guard for? Simply to be sent overseas for our bringing freedom to nations not having what we believe we have?
posted by Postroad at 12:18 PM PST - 61 comments
As old man winter approaches once again, and some of our minds turn to thoughts of flying through the air and sailing down mountains atop our trusted skis, what is there to do for the next month or so before most of our favorite resorts actually open for business? I present to you
an assortment of new ski movie trailers, enjoy. [all sorts of Quicktime]
posted by garethspor at 10:43 AM PST - 11 comments
"The line of men, women and children included no whites or African-Americans, he said."
Mr. Rivera said he had been sleeping in a tent outside the large shelter building since Hurricane Katrina struck just over a month ago, flooding his second-story apartment in nearby Pass Christian and destroying all his belongings, including a pickup truck. "I lost everything I own in the storm. But they said they didn't care. They told us that if we didn't leave they would return on Friday with buses to take us away," he said.
posted by delmoi at 8:45 AM PST - 88 comments
How happy are you?
Today's NYT has a great article on alternate methods of analyzing the overall well-being of a country, focusing on Bhutan, the largely Buddhist country whose king put forth an alternative to the capitalist-centric Gross Domestic Product: Gross National Happiness. Not only does it fit in with Buddhist ideals, but organizations like the
World Values Survey have come to
some (not-so) surprising findings regarding the correlation between wealth and happiness. There are similar movements cropping up around the world, such as Australia's
Genuine Progress Indicator, which attempts to quantify non-material progress rather than rely on subjective interpretations of happiness. How do you measure your own happiness?
posted by mkultra at 8:21 AM PST - 49 comments
NASCAR? F1? Pah! Now we're talking
Rocket Racing!! Apparently not content to sit idle, the founder of the
Ansari Space X-prize , Peter Diamandis, has launched a rocket racing league. While this sounds pretty amazing in itself, here's the real clincher: it's scheduled to start its first race in
September 2006.
According to the press release: the RRL will see Grand Prix-style races between rocket planes, flown by top pilots through a "3D trackway" just 5,000ft (1,500m) above the ground.
Pictures here (make sure to click the concept links on the same page).
BBC Story here.
posted by Mave_80 at 6:37 AM PST - 22 comments
Running on Fumes
-- a fascinating essay by
the Nation's Sasha Abramsky on what rising gas prices will do to poor exurban communities.
posted by digaman at 4:34 AM PST - 165 comments
Americans, German win nobel prize for physics.
They won for for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique, which among other thing allows them to measure the speed of light to such accuracy that it is now used as the definition for the
meter, see if the laws of physics were the same at the beginning of time, and make
gps satellites work much better.
posted by stilgar at 4:01 AM PST - 5 comments
Microsoft retools processes
in order to become more agile in their development processes. Yeah, it's probably just a big PR blowjob for Vista, but I was fascinated about the process they undertook to make their development work a more smoothly (and the amount of code that got thrown out). Like Microsoft or hate 'em, it's quite an interesting (though repetitive in parts) article.
posted by antifuse at 2:09 AM PST - 35 comments
Time machine for sale.
Not too novel, no, but the answers to the questions are great. "Its reassuring to me to know that it all works and i was on the right track. i alot of people thought i was dreamin, and said I was crazy and a dick head. the spatial retemporalizer was added after I sold it so can't help there."
posted by Wataki at 1:39 AM PST - 14 comments
October 3
Plancher de Jeannot:
Jeannot moved his bed to the dining room, next to the stairs, and began carving the oak floor: 'Religion has invented machines for commanding the brain of people and animals and with an invention for seeing our vision through the retina uses us to do ill...
posted by R. Mutt at 6:59 PM PST - 12 comments
Revisiting Spore
(audio interview with Will Wright) - also
video of Will Wright talking at GDC on content creation issues (Scroll down,
and registration required for the video).
posted by ginbiafra at 5:55 PM PST - 9 comments
Enluminures
is a French archive of images from illuminated manuscripts. It has
digital galleries covering
war,
eating in the Middle Ages, and
the hunt, as well as several other subjects.
(Note the tiny page indicators at the top of the galleries.) Most of the images are available through the
search page, however, which includes not only
subject,
title,
creator and
type of decoration indexes, but also the ability to look only at one library's contributions. Other threads about illuminated manuscripts
here.
[Unfortunately, this French site uses Javascript to link to images and I couldn't figure out a way to present examples here.]
posted by OmieWise at 1:10 PM PST - 8 comments
Another
year, another list of
top 100 intellectuals of our time from Prospect Magazine and with
Foreign Policy. Self-confessedly anglocentric, but with an effort "to include thinkers from outside the west", it raises the perennial 'where are the women' question (now in good company with 'where are the scientists') and sanctions the decline of: the left, France, Europe, psychology, psychiatry and philosophy. The ever present Germaine Greer says "
these lists are always so right-wing" and her inclusion is "absurd and completely unjustifiable". You can
vote your 5 favourites and suggest other names.
posted by funambulist at 7:03 AM PST - 37 comments
Conversation between two mothers in a Saudi supermarket: "Oh hello, haven't seen you for ages, how's little Abdullah?" "Little Abdullah? He's really big now. He went off to Iraq to be a suicide bomber. And little Mohammad?" "Same thing. No longer little either. He also went off to be a suicide bomber in Iraq." "There you go. Don't children blow up quickly these days?" After a spooky year-long hiatus,
The Religious Policeman blog is back, now sticking it to the Saudi Arabian authorities from the safety of England.
posted by dydecker at 1:25 AM PST - 13 comments
Why Skype-eBay was the Worst Kept Secret On Wall Street.
The traders on Wall Street knew way before the “tech crowd” that the acquisition was a foregone conclusion by Thursday closing. The leak might have come from a cabbie in New York who overheard the eBay Executives. And you thought they didn’t understand english….
posted by snark9 at 1:20 AM PST - 14 comments
October 2
"Without any particular training or background, this patient, just prior to his enlistment, enthusiastically embarked upon the writing of novels.
He sees nothing unusual in this activity." Who was the patient? A 21-year-old seaman named
Jack Kerouac, who would become the author of
On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Dr. Sax, Visions of Cody and many other great novels that you should be reading instead of these gaddam websites. (The diagnosis from the Navy doctors, "schizoid personality," earned Kerouac a discharge.) A hilarious and poignant find from
The Smoking Gun.
posted by digaman at 8:53 PM PST - 19 comments
Mystery respiratory outbreak in Toronto: 73 sick, 4 dead.
Yesterday the media quickly snapped up
assurances [video] that ruled out influenza or SARS. Said officials,
"We can certainly reassure people that this is not SARS, um, there is no SARS in the world ... Can I give you a guarantee that it's not influenza, at this time not, in a few hours, probably ... as the day goes on the public health lab has more and more results." A day has passed with no word on these tests. Affected areas are reportedly
quarantined, and some Internet communities are growing
alarmed over the contradictions at yesterday's press conference.
posted by rolypolyman at 11:23 AM PST - 24 comments
Charming and unexpected vocabulary from many languages.
Why did Persians need a word,
alghunjar, to express 'the feigned anger of a mistress'? Could there really have been that many insincere mistresses in Persia? Why does Russia need a word meaning, 'dealer in stolen cats'? Or 'someone with six fingers'? And who can resist the Chinese
xiaoxiao, meaning, 'the whistling and pattering of rain or wind'? "These are more than funny foreign vocabularies; they are tiny windows into the way other people live, and the obsessions that drive them."
[via]
posted by Slithy_Tove at 4:14 AM PST - 90 comments
A new, controversial law
making its way through the Finnish parliament is
confusing, but its implementation may infringe on already existing Finnish laws of free speech. With decisions set to be made later this week, a
demonstration has already been planned for Tuesday. On the other hand, some sources seem to be saying that this new law should
present no major issue. Thus, it seems like there's a small amount of confusing legal voodoo going on: while the law wouldn't make it illegal to copy music to MP3 players, it would mean that "the breaking of copy protection for the copying of the content of a sound or video recording for personal use would be prohibited." It looks like no one knows exactly what they want out of this law, or how to interpret it.
DMCA, anyone?
posted by taursir at 1:13 AM PST - 6 comments
October 1
During his early years, eminent civil engineer
Octave Chanute invented the process of preserving railroad ties and telephone poles with
creosote in the 1860s. But more importantly, he was instrumental to the invention of the
aeroplane. Working with an improved
Otto Lilienthal glider, a German who died from spinal injuries sustained on a test flight, Chanute’s team
experimented extensively with a seven-wing glider dubbed the
Katydid, the famous
Aerocurve, and the disastrous
Albatross on the shores of Lake Michigan (
described by a Chicago Times-Herald reporter). But most importantly, his book,
Progress in Flying Machines, inspired the
Wright Brothers, with whom he frequently visited. Sadly, Chanute never flew, citing his advanced age as reason enough to stay
grounded.
posted by luckypozzo at 6:50 PM PST - 7 comments
The Million Dollar Homepage.
Sure, you could buy gigabytes of online storage for a year with $100, but wouldn't you much rather have 10x10 pixels here? Is it stupid? Yes, but havn't you always wanted to make hundreds of thousands of dolars without doing anything?
posted by delmoi at 3:58 PM PST - 73 comments
October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month
- at a time when
eugenics was socially sanctioned,
John Langdon Down pioneered many of the techniques that are considered best practice today for encouraging the development of children with Down syndrome. Not long ago, standard practice in the United States was institutionlization from birth, which led to short, unhappy lives. Only in the past generation, have we rediscovered that with care and medical treatment, people with Trisomy 21
can and do
flourish.
Find a
local Buddy Walk near you and get educated.
posted by plinth at 8:53 AM PST - 27 comments
"If you must see this movie, do yourself a favor and wait until it's in the bargain bin at the video store. If there's any justice in the film industry, one of the main actors will be there to rent it to you." A quote from a
review of Alone in the Dark. Dr. Uwe Boll is developing quite a
reputation as a
terrible film director; and ruiner of valuable intellectual property with his videogame adaptations.
Something Awful's look behind the scenes of Alone in the Dark makes for grim reading: "
I know English is not his first language, but Jesus Christ, I'm not even sure this man has a first language", but for many the
trailer was enough to put people off.
According to Wikipedia, "he is currently in a bidding war for rights to Half-Life and Metal Gear Solid, and ... may be after the rights to Fallout and Castlevania as well". Before legions of gamers collapse under the strain, you should know it isn't all bad news. He isn't without
fans; and
Boll is apparently an
active member of online discussion forums including imdb and
IGN; so it is possible to tell him that he sucks directly; not that doing so has had any effect thus far.
posted by nthdegx at 3:08 AM PST - 55 comments
