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November 30
the chemical home
"babies are born with toxic chemicals already contaminating their bodies" - we know we are exposed to these dangerous chemicals everyday, greenpeace puts together a nice site describing what the dangerous ones are how to avoid them. Isn't this the kind of thing our tax dollars going to the
EPA
are supposed to provide? [
via computerlove.net ]
posted by specialk420 at 6:00 PM PST - 33 comments
The Ovid Collection
Outstanding site devoted to the
Metamorphoses, featuring the original Latin, five different English translations, and some foreign-language translations as well. Be sure to look at the page devoted to illustrations. Speaking of illustrations,
The Ovid Project reproduces the plates from one seventeenth-century and one early eighteenth-century edition. For much more Ovid, see this German
metapage.
posted by thomas j wise at 2:46 PM PST - 4 comments
The Soldiers At My Front Door.
"I looked out the front window of the house where I live, next door to the church, and there they were--all 75 of them, standing yards away from my front door, in the street right in front of my house and our church, shouting and screaming to the top of their lungs, 'Kill! Kill! Kill!' Their commanders had planted them there and were egging them on."
Rev. John Dear, a Jesuit priest and peace activist, describes an encounter with his local National Guard unit.
posted by homunculus at 2:29 PM PST - 50 comments
the working poor
A new book by Beth Shulman called The Betrayal of Work argues that hard work is just not cutting it in America anymore. According to Shulman, even in the go-go 90s one out of every four American workers made less than $8.70 an hour, an income equal to the governments poverty level for a family of four. Many, if not most, of these workers have no health care, sick pay or retirement provisions.
more inside.....
posted by jbou at 1:27 PM PST - 52 comments
Leisuretown's "A Comedy Crisis"
Dear Members of Metafilter: Unless one of us posts our Leisuretown archive up for all to see, this might be your last chance to see the amazing work of Tristan Farnon. This link wil only be up for a few days.
posted by Keyser Soze at 1:04 PM PST - 26 comments
November 29
The Girl Who Played Dead
"Her name, like most of her life, is forgotten, but her one defining moment is carved into memory: She is the girl who played dead. That moment came in a South Dallas crack house, where she'd been hanging out with four other teen-agers 'in the game,' dabbling in the margins of the drug trade. Her survival was the closest thing to a miracle at a time when it seemed like we were witnessing a final surge into apocalyptic violence on the streets of Dallas."
posted by item at 2:52 PM PST - 23 comments
Sure, you all know Barberella from the campy 60's
cult film, and our own
vacapinta turned us on to the classic French anti-hero,
Fantomas. Yet there are even more sleazy, Eurotrash cartoon characters to adore at
Cool French Comics: the diabolical
Satanik, the [ahem]
big-top avenger
Felina, and in a shocking twist, my childhood idol
TinTin going
main a la main with the Dark Knight.
posted by MrBaliHai at 2:16 PM PST - 11 comments
So we put a number of differently colored letters on the tray that we use, put the tray in front of Alex, and asked, ''Alex, what sound is blue?'' He answers, ''Ssss.'' It was an ''s'', so we say ''Good birdie'' and he replies, ''Want a nut.'' Well, I don't want him sitting there using our limited amount of time to eat a nut, so I tell him to wait, and I ask, ''What sound is green?'' Alex answers, ''Ssshh.'' He's right, it's ''sh,'' and we go through the routine again: ''Good parrot.'' ''Want a nut.'' ''Alex, wait. What sound is orange?'' ''ch.'' ''Good bird!'' ''Want a nut.'' We're going on and on and Alex is clearly getting more and more frustrated. He finally gets very slitty-eyed and he looks at me and states, ''Want a nut. Nnn, uh, tuh.'' - That Damn Bird - A Talk with Irene Pepperberg.
Referential Communication with an African Gray Parrot. Irene Pepperberg says that Arthur, an African Gray parrot, is so smart that she and a group of students at the Media Lab are teaching him to go
online. A more subjective take on some more African Grey parrots
here.
The Alex Homepage.
Alex interviewed.
languagehat on talking parrots.
posted by y2karl at 12:13 PM PST - 34 comments
One Saturday Night in Furbank
is an entertaining diary entry wherein diarist, Kitty Bukkake, crashes a furry shindig, The 14th Annual International Anthropomorphic Convention and Exhibition, ConFurence 2002 at the Burbank Airport Hilton.
"Problem: we don't want them to know we are impostors or they might kick us out. We'd brought some plush toys along: Steven had a bunny, and I had a whale, a bee, and a dragonfly, plus a panda keychain. But we weren't fooling anyone with our old toys, our short hairdos and stylish, non-pleated jeans. We didn't fit the profile."
Ms. Kitty B has turned those exciting field notes and photos of the Furry gathering into a
book.
posted by antifreez_ at 11:11 AM PST - 24 comments
Xtreme martial arts video gallery
- a gallery of clips of traditional martial arts fighting styles and weapons, as well as some rather cool "in-the-body" animations. The site is a preview for a
show on martial arts that will launch this week on the Discovery Channel.
(via Buzz).
posted by madamjujujive at 11:00 AM PST - 10 comments
Woman trampled in mammonmas sales
I knew those Americans loved to shop, but wow. Appalling though, is Wal-Mart's behaviour. No free DVD for her ... but, hey, they'll put one on hold. You see, they want to "keep her as a shopper". Harsh.
posted by bonaldi at 9:40 AM PST - 55 comments
Michael Musto on Michael Jackson
("We couldn't get Rosie or Martha to meltand we can't even find bin Laden or Husseinbut if Jacko would just agree to be a pedophile, we could have our kook and eat him too.")
Sarah Hepola on Michael Jackson ("In my life, I have spent many years wishing I were someone else, but I have never wanted to be anyone ever more than I wanted to be Michael Jackson. Do you remember? Help me sing it.")
Michael Jackson on Michael Jackson ("You are right to be skeptical of some of the individuals who are being identified in the mass media as my friends, spokespeople, and attorneys. With few exceptions, most of them are simply filling a desperate void in our culture that equates visibility with insight.")
posted by adrober at 8:42 AM PST - 6 comments
"The newspapers of the twenty-first century will give a mere "stick" in the back pages to accounts of crime or political controversies, but will headline on the front pages the proclamation of a new scientific hypothesis."
From an
interview with Nikolai Tesla in 1937 about the now near future...
posted by Aleph Yin at 8:22 AM PST - 12 comments
November 28
Why Isn't
Ted Gärdestad's Beautiful Music More Well Known? Everyone has a favourite musician who, for some reason, remains unknown and unfairly overlooked. At least for some swedes it might be this musical giant who worked alongside with the well known Benny & Björn of
ABBA fame.
warning: first link a 2.7 meg mp3
posted by lazy-ville at 4:00 PM PST - 8 comments
"The turkey is stuffed with raped women, dead babies, warriors who were stripped of their ability to fight and could no longer protect their families - which to warriors - is a fate worse than death."
Comedian Margaret Cho
weighs in on turkey day.
posted by emelenjr at 8:40 AM PST - 94 comments
November 27
Bush in Baghdad, Behind the Scenes.
Drudge has posted Washington Post reporter Mike Allen's raw notes from the 2-day secret whirlwind trip to Iraq. It reads like a script from "The West Wing." (The stripped-down finished article
appears in Friday's
Post.) Meanwhile, some in the journalism field are
pissed, says Howard Kurtz. Says one: "Reporters are in the business of telling the truth. They can't decide it's okay to lie sometimes because it serves a larger truth or good cause."
posted by PrinceValium at 8:56 PM PST - 59 comments
Here are some ideas for Thanksgiving dinner, though not a circumstance I'd like to participate in.
If ever there was a time to say Grace before dining, this certainly is one of those times.
Pumpkin pie anyone?
posted by bluedaniel at 1:08 PM PST - 10 comments
My very own parasite
"I swear it had two beady eyes on it. And it came out two or three inches, looked around and then retracted. I thought it was a dream, a vision of some sort." The yuck factor of our 'little friends' vs. the yuck factor of
Flushing PCB's into your nursing infant through breast feeding (
"Study finds a cocktail of potentially harmful man-made chemicals in every person tested in UK...") On our day of public gnawing on bird chunks, I ask : which of the above is yuckier? And does anyone out there have a juicy parasite tale to share?
posted by troutfishing at 5:56 AM PST - 45 comments
No volunteers for orgasm implant. A scientist
claiming to have invented a device which produces orgasms at the touch of a button can't find women to help him conduct trials into it.
posted by MintSauce at 5:26 AM PST - 27 comments
November 26
The War on Drugs
hasn't been working at all well. So let's make it even less sensible: harsher penalties, invasion of privacy, all that jazz. The proposal is surreal, but fits in with the rest of US Drug Policy: rapists aren't denied federal funds for post-secondary schooling, but pot-heads are; you can spend more time in jail for dealing weed than for murder; gonna deal pot, ya might as well deal speed, it's the same jailtime. And now... let's encourage dealers to sell pot with more carcinogenic tars!
[link goes to NORML, possibly NSFW, danger: encourages political activism]
posted by five fresh fish at 10:34 PM PST - 16 comments
Maintaining contact info.
I suck at it, but this new automation service may be the best I've ever come across, of any kind, on the net. No, seriously. Some have justifiably expressed concerns about what could possibly be the email-harvester to end all email-harvesters, but their
privacy policy looks sound, and so far, after a week, I am astounded at how well it works.
[Outlook/OE on Windows only, and this post smacks of bit of refreshing Pepsi Blue, I know, but I reckon it's the best of a very small breed, and free, so worth the link. Plaxo rocks.]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:56 PM PST - 19 comments
The value of disobedience.
[note: nytimes] "Ignoring the reactionary policies of the Vatican, some local priests and nuns quietly do what they can to save parishioners from AIDS." So: when and why do people choose to quietly disobey, rather than leave and promote change from outside their social institutions...or vice versa? Should dissenters just leave, or stay and fight? Anecdotes from Republicans and NRA members are especially welcome ;-)
posted by stonerose at 5:52 PM PST - 15 comments
What's really undermining the sanctity of marriage?
Dahlia Lithwick has an interesting piece in Slate commenting on the real threats to marriage in light of Massachusetts Supreme Court's declaration that gay marriage is protected by the Constitution. Lithwick lists:
1. Divorce (~43-50% of all US marriages end in divorce)
2. Frivolous marriages (i.e. it is easier to get married than it is to drive a car, buy a gun, buy alcohol, etc.)
3. Birth control (is marriage "only for procreation"?)
4. The various challenges to our time and attention that take away from quality time with our spouses
Can MeFiers please share with those of us yet to be betrothed your secrets in keeping a marriage successful?
posted by gen at 5:41 PM PST - 55 comments
Mr. and Mr. Claus
-- Harvey Fierstein, fabulous star of Hairspray and three-time Tony winner, is planning an homage to that happy couple--the Clauses--in tomorrow's Thanksgiving Parade. His NYT
op-ed (reg.reqd) today says it all:
In the end all I can say is this: If I really was Santa's life partner, you can believe that he would ask and I would tell about who has been naughty or nice on this issue. Still, as we approach the holiday season I'd like to imagine that fear and bigotry will not prevail in this land. Maybe this holiday season we can toss out some of the intolerance that nests in our hearts and make room for more love and acceptance.
posted by amberglow at 3:22 PM PST - 34 comments
We fear the government using the current climate of fear and uncertainty about the future as a means to allow itself sweeping powers without an appropriate consideration of proportionality"
......no-go zones ........ power to ban peaceful protest ...... destroy private property without compensation ........prepare for the introduction of compulsory identity cards .... The climate seems to be changing.
posted by JohnR at 2:38 PM PST - 3 comments
Jon Johansen of DeCSS fame has made a program that
strips iTunes ACC files of DRM.
Here is what he has to say about it. Maybe I will give iTunes a try after all.
posted by epimorph at 2:38 PM PST - 16 comments
Putzmeister!
Saw it on a truck on the street; thought I was hallucinating; Googled it, and yes, they're into concrete pumping, and it's a German company, too. One for the
"Bad Business Name Hall of Shame" that I started with my
Blonder Tongue thread a year-and-a-half ago. Got any more? Think of it as a MetaTurkeyShoot for the day before Thanksgiving...
posted by wendell at 2:31 PM PST - 27 comments
Make this year's xmas a special one by buying the
Flavor Flav Talking Alarm Clock with five alarm phrases "Bass In Your Face, Get Up Get Down, Yo G Yo, Yeaa Boy." Have you seen any other similarly bizarre gifts on sale this holiday season?
posted by mathowie at 10:37 AM PST - 27 comments
Framed for defending herself.
On August 28th, 2002 in Las Vegas, Nevada a woman named
Kirstin Lobato was sentenced to life in prison. She was the victim of an attempted rape in May 2001, and had defended herself against her rapist. prosecutors used this "confession" of self defense to convict her of a murder that happened months later and in a town where
she didn't even live. How "innocent until proven guilty" can you be if prosecutors are willing to use known perjurers and refuse to allow expert testimony?
posted by dejah420 at 10:35 AM PST - 17 comments
Why Books Will Always Be With Us...
along with almost everything else.
Umberto Eco goes all encyclopedic on us (but in a nice way!) summing up (and reopening) the themes of a lifetime of reading, writing and watching. Though I'm sure what he says about the Web and electronic media will be picked to bits here, I'd say that would be a perfect vindication of this extraordinary exercise in common sense. [
Via Arts & Letters Daily.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:39 AM PST - 14 comments
Thrift store record collectors' treasure trove.
I know that we talked about the supposed worst record album covers of all time
here, but some of
these were too priceless not to share, and some have MP3s of the actual recordings to boot!!!
Here's just a small taste of what to expect:
"...There's no photos or credits anywhere on this album. Just the sickly drawing on the cover and a list of song titles. I bought it for 50 cents on a hunch after noticing the title: "Diary of an Unborn Child".
As far as bizarre Christian LPs, I gotta say, this is this most extreme thing I've ever heard. It's some full grown man with a munchkin voice, singing terrifying songs about drug use, abortion and being a fat kid and each fill me with a profound sense of dread, horror, and disgust."
posted by psmealey at 5:55 AM PST - 20 comments
Feeling Guilty?
A proposition has been announced recently to help reduce the deficit and to "Take A Bite Out Of Crime."
posted by konolia at 4:34 AM PST - 8 comments
Lala Deen Dayal: Photo Glimpses of 19th Century India.
Lala Raja Deen Dayal, pioneer Indian 19th century photographer(1844-1905). has left for us an exquisite photographic record of British India, of a bygone Colonial era influenced by Native Princely India- its picturesque opulence, rich costumes, whiskered nobility, hookah bearers, royal palaces, hunts, and parades, elephant carriages, historic events - golden moments captured on "silver" plates for posterity.'
Gallery here.
posted by plep at 4:02 AM PST - 5 comments
November 25
Inaugural Speeches from Our Action Heroes:
"As the first robot/semitruck to be elected to these hallowed halls, I pledge to rebuild America. To repair our crumbling roads and bridges, to lower gas prices, and to increase the speed limit. Things that all Americans need." [via
queso]
posted by mathowie at 11:52 PM PST - 5 comments
Positively the last Concorde flight ever in less than twelve hours time.
Here are the Avon police plans for Wed 26 November, when the last Concorde flight ever departs London Heathrow, goes Mach 2 just for the hell of it over the Bay of Biscay, and touches down at Filton, Bristol, where much of the original development took place.
I'll try to get to the Clifton Bridge, to celebrate Brunel at the same time.
posted by gdav at 4:32 PM PST - 11 comments
Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations and Logistics in the Reagan administration
Lawrence J. Korb is visiting Iraq on a trip that is a part of the Bush administrations effort to inform the American people of the progress the U.S. is making in Iraq since the end of major combat and is reporting back every day with his findings on the ground.
His interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, November 12, 2003 -
Did you have a chance to walk the streets in Baghdad? No. They wouldn't let us do that. I guess they worried about our security. It was interesting. You couldn't walk anyplace. When we flew into Baghdad the first day, we landed at the airport and were going over to the palace where Bremer has his headquarters. They put us on an Apache helicopter from Baghdad International Airport and flew us to within 100 yards of Bremer's headquarters, and made us get on a bus. Even when we were in safe areas and were driving to see a Shiite cleric, they made us wear flak jackets, and they had Humvees and armored personnel carriers escorting us with guns pointed at the population. This is in the so-called safe Shiite area. Here is his
Day Three In Iraq from November 7th.
posted by y2karl at 3:52 PM PST - 29 comments
Ouch!
In honor of swordsman, litterateur, scenarist, bodybuilding enthusiast, homosexualist, fascist, and all-around nutball
Mishima Yukio, who
did the deed 23 years ago today, here's Wikipedia's intruiging list of
famous suicides.
Now, the West used to have its own tradition of suicide on the part of those who
preferred death to dishonor. Apart from various Koreshian poseurs,
the demonstrably insane, and those vainglorious fellows who arrange suicide-by-cop, whatever happened to this tradition?
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:33 AM PST - 47 comments
More problems with credit cards...after you canceled one
Apparently some credit card company may not take you seriously when you say "I want to cancel this credit card".
If the account of the credit card is not "terminated" you may still be charged, even after receiving a letter from cc company confirming you its cancellation. You may also receive "accidental charges" of stuff you never ordered. One more link inside.
posted by elpapacito at 10:25 AM PST - 26 comments
A Critic's Coda.
William Grimes, departing NYT food critic, gives an interview to Newsweek. "Its like 'Groundhog Day.' You wake up the next day having eaten a four-star meal, you must go out and eat another four-star meal. And you get up the next day and you have to go out and eat another four-star meal." I think we've all been there before.
posted by adrober at 9:43 AM PST - 17 comments
Word Oddities
- did you know Honorificabilitudinitatibus, 27 letters long, is the longest English word consisting strictly of alternating consonants and vowels? You do now. Click the link for more fun facts about words.
posted by Orange Goblin at 9:34 AM PST - 17 comments
An Educational Exploration of Nunavut.
"Setting out to document arctic climate change we will dogsled the territory of Nunavut, meeting Inuit Elders and students, to explore traditional ecological knowledge in the remote communities visited along the trail while gathering scientific data daily from the field for NASA and Environment Canada." - a cool expedition to bring some attention to what many are describing as the
greatest threat to mankind today.
posted by specialk420 at 9:13 AM PST - 8 comments
LA County, leading the charge:
Equipment vendors who do business with Los Angeles County received a message in November 2003 from the county's Internal Services Department (ISD) informing them that "based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles County," labeling or describing equipment with the term 'master/slave' is no longer acceptable. (via snopes.com)
the
slashdot comments on this...
posted by sixtwenty3dc at 6:25 AM PST - 145 comments
November 24
Why Isn't Judee Sill's Beautiful Music More Well Known?
Everyone has a favourite musician who, for some reason, remains unknown and unfairly overlooked. My choice for a much-deserved and long overdue revival is the silky-voiced, eccentric, tragic, ethereal and ultimately mysterious
Judee Sill, one of the great Seventies singer-songwriters. Who would you nominate? (
Here are a few mp3s of demos and unreleased recordings which will give you an idea of her beautiful voice and highly-strung delivery and, hopefully, lead you to explore her two main albums.)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:14 PM PST - 50 comments
Cow-Girl Morph Tutorial:
"A lot of people ask me how I do what I do at the Transforming Love Ring Fleshsculpting Page. I use a lot of different techniques for what I do, but they are applicable in a lot of different situations. Most of the following techniques are generally 'fleshsculpting' techniques, meaning they change the shape of the flesh and skin without changing the texture much." NSFW.
posted by cedar at 7:10 PM PST - 15 comments
1.26 million people killed every year on the road or from subsequent injuries...
..
Four Qld road deaths in 5 hours. 42,815 people died in 2002 in automobile crashes in the United States. Shouldn't these facts give us the resolve to explore a better solution to our transportation needs? I do not see the national debate that these deaths would evoke if the cause was different. Why are we numb to this?
posted by JohnR at 4:00 PM PST - 76 comments
More children now than ever are being born from
cesarean sections. It's known that giving birth this way can leave psychological damage to the mother, but what effect is it having on
the children?
posted by atom128 at 3:36 PM PST - 39 comments
The 1911 Encyclopedia,
or the LoveToKnow Free Online Encyclopedia, is advertised as "what many consider to be the best encyclopedia ever written. As a research tool, this 1911 encyclopedia edition is unparalleled - even today." But what about the definition for
Negro? It reads in part: "A dark skin, varying from dark brown, reddish-brown, or chocolate to nearly black; dark tightly curled hair, flat in transverse section,1 of the 'woolly' or the 'frizzly' type; a greater or less tendency to prognathism; eyes dark brown with yellowish cornea; nose more or less broad and flat; and large teeth." Can an encyclopedia with definitions like these be considered useful at all?
posted by josephtate at 1:36 PM PST - 40 comments
Alhamdullah.
"I do say that freedom is the Almighty's gift to every person," the president replied. "I also condition it by saying freedom is not America's gift to the world. It's much greater than that, of course. And I believe we worship the same god." Apparently, this is causing no small amount of controversy in the Christian God-believing circles. I was always under the impression that it was commonly accepted that
Jews,
Christians, and
Muslims were all working for the same
Guy. So, Bush finally says something that's not completely stupid, and he gets all kind of
hell for it. Great.
posted by majcher at 1:26 PM PST - 55 comments
Lost Lives
"A generation of Japanese youngsters has dropped out of society entirely, unable to cope, it seems, with the rapid syncopation of life in Asia's most developed nation. The phenomenon has been dubbed hikikomori, or social withdrawal, by psychiatrist Tamaki Saito, who estimates that one in every 40 Japanese households has such a loner. That's an astounding 1 million social dropouts".
Great article on Asia and how its countries deal/don't deal with mental illness.
posted by SpaceCadet at 1:17 PM PST - 15 comments
ET Could Hack SETI.
SETI, which uses down time on the computers of thousands of volunteers to search for intelligent signals from space, has a potential problembesides information, a broadcast to us from an alien intelligence could also carry a computer virus.
Leonard David writes in the main link's space.com article that physicist Richard Carrigan (who works
here) takes it seriously. He thinks SETI should figure out how to decontaminate any signals it receives.
posted by jasonspaceman at 9:43 AM PST - 35 comments
Copito de Nieve, a.k.a.
Floquet de Neu, the only known white gorilla
dies at age 37. It was one of the symbols of my hometown Barcelona. Snowflake was the star of the Barcelona Zoo, he always surrounded by female gorillas (not surprisingly he produced 22 offspring but none of them albino) and was famous because of his bad mood and tendency to throw things around. He was finally put down today as his skin cancer condition was aggravating. There it goes a no small part of my childhood (although I preferred the dolphins, always so cheerful)...
Snowflake no longer lives with Virunga and Coco... (sigh!)
posted by samelborp at 8:17 AM PST - 9 comments
Computer generated singer, $200.
Vocaloid software, which is due to be released to consumers in January, allows users to cast their own (or anyone else's) songs in a disembodied but exceedingly life-like concert-quality voice.
Vocaloid will be able to "sing" whatever combination of notes and words a user feeds it. The first generation of the software will be available for $200. [NYTimes link]
posted by Outlawyr at 3:54 AM PST - 23 comments
November 23
Trashtalking - German Style.
Forget talking dolls, Berlin's speechifying its trash cans to thank pedestrians after they dump their litter. But is it appropriate to have immaterial things tell you how to use them? [More Inside]
posted by gregb1007 at 10:07 PM PST - 15 comments
delenda mp3.com est
"Vivendi Universal recently sold the MP3.com domain to CNet. However, they're not selling the approximately one million songs on the archive. (recorded by over 250,000 artists) Instead, they're simply destroying it as of December 3. MP3.com's founder and former CEO, Michael Robertson, is pleading with Vivendi to allow the Internet
Archive to preserve the songs." (via
Slashdot)
posted by kablam at 4:26 PM PST - 16 comments
The Protean Enemy by
Jessica Stern, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2003
What accounts for al Qaeda's ongoing effectiveness in the face of an unprecedented onslaught? The answer lies in the organization's remarkably protean nature. Over its life span, al Qaeda has constantly evolved and shown a surprising willingness to adapt its mission. This capacity for change has consistently made the group more appealing to recruits, attracted surprising new allies, and -- most worrisome from a Western perspective -- made it harder to detect and destroy. Unless Washington and its allies show a similar adaptability, the war on terrorism won't be won anytime soon, and the death toll is likely to mount. Other texts by Jessica Stern:
How America Created a Terrorist Haven,
Pakistan's Jihad Culture,
Talking With Terrorists. Classical Reference:
Proteus.
posted by y2karl at 4:02 PM PST - 31 comments
"Dear [katemonkey], I just wanted to drop you a note as to what's happening here in America. The Matrix Trilogy is the latest GROSS thievery by the Hollywood/government in regards to the website
www.hammerstrikes.com.
The blatant outright and undeniable thievery is ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS! Surely the truth is getting out and suing for millions and millions is the only appropriate and proper course of action.
Sincerely,
Joe Messineo"
posted by Katemonkey at 3:59 PM PST - 19 comments
There was no conspiracy in the assassination of JFK,
according to a new BBC documentary broadcast tonight. Offering a CG reconstruction of the plaza based on the Zapruder film and interviews with people who knew people, convincing evidence was offered that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone gunman acting on his own.
Essentially that all these people are misguided. It also carefully worked through some of the other theories, Cuban and Mob and had very few nice things to say about Oliver Stone. For example, there wasn't a magic bullet because the diagram in the film is wrong -- Texas Governor John Connally wasn't sitting directly in front of the president, but below and just off the side, so the round just went in a straight line. This was tragedy effecting millions perpetrated by one man. How often have we heard that story?
posted by feelinglistless at 2:53 PM PST - 59 comments
If you've participated in an anti-war rally, or helped organize a demonstration, the
FBI may have a file on you. The FBI claims that they are only weeding out anarchists and other "extremists." But the ACLU and some legal scholars are warning of a return of
Hooverism. Attention pinkos: You can run, but you can't hide, because you're probably on the
no-fly list.
posted by PrinceValium at 8:58 AM PST - 39 comments
What is this?
I really don't know how to make heads or tails on this one. I was listening to last.fm and some of the strangest ambient noise started playing. I ran a google search on the artist and was led
here.
One of the most unique pages I've ever seen. There seems to be a lot going on with this page. (Notice the poetry that appears on the index page for 1/3 second before refreshing to the main index map). In addition to having copies of the I Ching and the Kama Sutra (no pics) there is poetry and literature spanning back 2000 years, yet nothing I could find about the
the original artist I was looking for.
Has anyone run into this before or know what it's all about? And what are your thoughts?
posted by daHIFI at 8:53 AM PST - 9 comments
Walmart Nation
Wal-Mart's decisions influence wages and working conditions across a wide swath of the world economy, from the shopping centers of Las Vegas to the factories of Honduras and South Asia. Its business is so vital to developing countries that some send emissaries to the corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., almost as if Wal-Mart were a sovereign nation. [First of a three part series in the LATimes. free reg. req.]
posted by srboisvert at 5:59 AM PST - 89 comments
November 22
Seppuku - A Practical Guide.
The rules for seppuku are as complex as for the tea ceremony, and the result roughly the same; if pushed we would have to recommend self-disembowelment over a slow death from lethal boredom, arthritis and bitter tea.
posted by srboisvert at 5:42 AM PST - 6 comments
The May 1970 Tragedy at Jackson State University: "Lest We Forget..."
'In the Spring of 1970, campus communities across this country were characterized by a chorus of protests and demonstrations. The issues were the escalation of the war in Vietnam and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia; the ecology; racism and repression; and the inclusion of the experiences of women and minorities in the educational system. No institution of higher education was left untouched by confrontations and continuous calls for change. '
'At Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi, there was the added issue of historical racial intimidation and harassment by white motorists traveling Lynch Street, a major thoroughfare that divided the campus and linked west Jackson to downtown ... '
posted by plep at 4:55 AM PST - 16 comments
November 21
Leisuretown
has disappeared. Except for the
about, contact, navigation, and most important, the
donation page, there are no Christmas suicide balloons or Winter solstice parties. I just found out via this Comics Journal
thread and I wonder if there any other favorite web cartoons of mine that are about to bite the dust.
posted by jabo at 10:44 PM PST - 13 comments
The absence of sexual desire.
We often discuss the frustrations of excessive sexual desire but rarely touch upon its absence. A woman who was a virgin before her marriage discusses the adjustments she had to make before she started desiring or even feeling comfortable about having sex with her husband.
posted by gregb1007 at 9:53 PM PST - 61 comments
The Dr. Seuss Parody Page
: Offered to help wash the image of the Cat in the Hat movie out of your minds... If you've been on the net for more than 3 days, you've seen at least some of these:
For
Techies
And
Trekkies
And
Biblical Scholars,
Biologists,
Psychologists
And
Vikings who holler.
Political Seuss
Starring
Bush,
Gore and
Newt.
From
E-Mail to
ER
And
B5, that's cute.
From
Purity Tests
To
Deconstruction-ests.
From
Shakespeare to
Dante,
Who knows what's the best?
I'd list every one, I am so unabashed,
But do so, my rhymes would become
Ogden Nash.
So click and enjoy
Some of
this,
Some of
that,
And avoid Mr. Myers in 'Cat in the Hat'.
posted by wendell at 7:51 PM PST - 25 comments
Penis Enlargement Web Ads Prompt Calif. Spam Rage
The guy lost his cool because the pop up spammers basically unleashed all their tricks on him and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
So he threatened to unleash anthrax on them, to use a power drill and an ice pick and to shoot them.
He doesn't own any guns nor did he have access to anthrax and yet he now faces up to 5 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
Does this set a bad precedent for fighting back against spammers? Or did he get what he deserved for threatening them like this? The case raises some interesting issues about how hard you can fight back against spammers and pop up 'noids.
posted by fenriq at 3:00 PM PST - 22 comments
The Opus Interview
MSNBC: One more personal question: have you ever gotten back together with your mother?
Opus: Yes, we had a big reunion five years ago, and Ive set her up in a nice place in Florida.
MSNBC: A condo?
Opus: Sea World.and to think we knew him when...
posted by quonsar at 10:32 AM PST - 18 comments
Someone is watching what you post.
Today I received a note from a site called InternetSeer that told me some of my posts on The
{Fray} were temporarily unavailable. Too bad I never asked them to keep an eye on things for me. Who are these people are what are they doing?
posted by tommasz at 10:06 AM PST - 29 comments
Matt Savage
is a promising young jazz pianist whose trio recently performed at the Blue Note in New York City. He's also
autistic. He's also
12.
(Challenges of raising an autistic child previously discussed
here.)
posted by emelenjr at 9:23 AM PST - 16 comments
Johnny Hart at it again?
"B.C." creator Johnny Hart is getting some negative publicity (again) for a comic that some say is anti-Islam. See the comic
here. An outspoken Christian, Hart has had brushes with religious controversy in the past. Are people reading too much into this, or does it look like bigotry to you? (via
Atrios)
posted by Gilbert at 7:44 AM PST - 115 comments
Collage Machine
from the National Gallery of Art. Click images to add; drag into place; click the green tab to bring an element forward, click red to send it backward; use the controls at the bottom to resize, flip, rotate and fade elements; see if you can ever, ever stop.
posted by taz at 5:30 AM PST - 7 comments
