December 2000 Archives

"Mr Bush, the World Doesn't Want to Be American"

"... it is time for America's electorate to be told the blunt truth: that the present situation of the United States, with a part of its population able to enjoy a life of extraordinary comfort and privilege, is not tenable as long as an enormous portion of the world lives in abject poverty, degradation and backwardness."
posted by lia at 11:35 PM PST - 13 comments

Britain's Millennium Dome didn't even stay open for a full year. The $1.2 billion Dome was shut down today at 6:00 PM GMT. An Irish company plans to provide luxury housing on the site, and make the building into a high tech buisness center.
posted by riffola at 11:11 PM PST - 4 comments

Random Cheer Bombing II: Happy (Gregorian) New Year!

(Yes, I'm early; but I have a ways to drive to get kissed, so y'all can just deal. :-)
posted by baylink at 8:05 PM PST - 5 comments

Tubbing a Vette: This guy's nuts! He spends $39,000 to purchase a used Corvette through the web and then proceeds to start doing mods to it. This mod permitted him to use 12" wheels. Then he did a whole lot of other things to it. Ye Gods!
posted by Steven Den Beste at 8:02 PM PST - 12 comments

1970: The UK negotiates with terrorists and capitulates. Apparently in the UK there's a 30-year rule where certain documents are revealed after said delay. They've just released documents about the "Black September" hijackings in 1970.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:53 PM PST - 2 comments

Ian Clarke responds to criticisms about Freenet (gracias: Slashdot)
posted by ookamaka at 11:05 AM PST - 8 comments

2000 Moron Awards.
posted by tamim at 9:53 AM PST - 6 comments

Cassini makes Jupiter flyby on way to Saturn. They successfully made their pass, picking up considerable velocity necessary to make it out to Saturn. [More inside]
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:52 PM PST - 16 comments

Archaeologists wonder where Afghanistan's antiquities have wound up, if they still exist. There is not much left to see inside Kabul Museum these days. Once a priceless repository of ancient Buddhist, Persian and Greek artifacts, during the civil war the museum changed hands several times and in the process was looted of nearly everything in the collection. Not only did Afghanistan's war claim 1.5 million lives, it also swallowed up the country's history.
posted by lagado at 9:49 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Media recount boosts Gore in Hillsborough County, FL I wish they would have recounted the whole state. Including the "undervotes."
posted by Dean_Paxton at 7:31 PM PST - 57 comments

Stupid google tricks: I was looking for links on Chris Ware, author of "Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth" and "The Acme Novelty Library." See how I've cleverly included links to material on both those works? I found those links via Google, and they both include the words "Chris Ware" any number of times. But when I search for "Chris Ware" per se on Google, I only get 11 links. . . and all of them are in German! Anyone got any explanation for this oddity?
posted by rodii at 6:48 PM PST - 22 comments

Government gives money only to Sex Ed programs that teach not to have sex at all. Very disturbing article. Basically the teachers teach abstinence. No words about STDs or even contraception; or they'll lose their money.
posted by christian at 11:20 AM PST - 48 comments

Is Bush REALLY an animatronic robot? Or are these photos implying something else? Like maybe a few journalists/photographers took a few shortcuts? In any case, the article gave me a good laugh.
posted by thunder at 9:38 AM PST - 9 comments

Bush nominates 'James Watt protege' for Secretary of the Interior.

For those of you who don't remember, Watt was Ronald "trees cause air pollution" Reagan's Secretary of the Interior. He was best known for the following statements: "My responsibility is to follow the Scriptures which call upon us to occupy the land until Jesus returns" and "We don't have to protect the environment, the Second Coming is at hand".

Redwoods, prepare to be chopped! Wildlands, prepare to get drilled!
posted by Mr. skullhead at 7:53 AM PST - 14 comments

V.funny tvgohome comment on Bush which contains sexual swearwords words and statements which some republicans may find offensive [slight troll for those of the starboard persuasion]
posted by fullerine at 3:17 AM PST - 3 comments

In 1545 and 1576, plagues swept across the Yucatan peninsual in Mexico and killed 17 million people, including 80 percent of the native Indians. The traditional view is that American Indians succumbed to European diseases to which they had no natural resistance. A new and subtle theory says that the plagues were not imported but were in fact of local origin. It doesn't let the Europeans off the hook though.
posted by lagado at 10:43 PM PST - 2 comments

Michael McDermott's wish list.
posted by luke at 5:59 PM PST - 24 comments

Big Networks get a slap on the wrist for letting the White House pay for anti-drug scripts.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 3:16 PM PST - 16 comments

Judge oks McVeigh execution request
I understand the ACLU is fighting to keep him alive, but I cannot find a link.
posted by thirteen at 12:51 PM PST - 22 comments

Bow down to Frosty! Frosty commands you! Snowmen as symbols of patriarchic oppression. Some people really just look for things to get snitty about.
posted by Skot at 10:30 AM PST - 12 comments

Mario's back! I'm a couple days late on this, but I just want to say that as a sports fan, I'm glad to see Pittsburgh Penguins owner Mario Lemiuex has returned to the ice in style. He's a class act and a great player.
posted by snarkout at 6:55 AM PST - 14 comments

One of the most creative and technically solid Flash sites around, Yugop has some new goodies to explore. I love the industorious clock...so good.
posted by jkottke at 6:52 AM PST - 6 comments

"I've been declared dead by better coroners than you!" Just when I'm about to once again lose faith, this happens. Jay Sherman is back. Jon Lovitz's lovingly annoying show The Critic has been canned by three (count'em) THREE major networks. Now, it's the Internet's turn! May the fourth time be the charm for this guy. All balding, fat men with big mouths and ex-wives rejoice! We've got a reprieve!
Warning: above links require shockwave but you already knew that. Gee, I hope the link works. If it doesn't, try this one then look around for a bald guy with a big nose. No celebrities were harmed in the making of this MeFi post.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:53 PM PST - 8 comments

Dotcom Yuppies Gone Home. As dotcoms crash and burn, real estate prices start to drop.

Who can say that's a bad thing?
posted by Mr. skullhead at 7:34 PM PST - 7 comments

Neo-paganism is an invented tradition? A fairly persuasive Atlantic Monthly article argues that the dogma behind neopaganism is, well, made up. I swear I'm not just posting this to disprove Sean's gripe about which religions are ok to criticize on Mefi.
posted by norm at 4:32 PM PST - 33 comments

Happy New Year! It's not too early to think about your safety and well-being at the New Year's bash you're planning on attending (or hosting).
posted by ethmar at 2:35 PM PST - 7 comments

Montgomery Ward to Shut Down Stores. It's sad to lose another retailer that you can count on for quality merchandise. It seems that the day on the department store is almost over.
posted by Sal Amander at 12:11 PM PST - 29 comments

U.S. population up 13% from 1990 to 281 million. Power shifts South in the House. Yikes!
posted by quirked at 10:02 AM PST - 15 comments

Do NOT buy a Pentium-4. Wait until the second version (different pinout) next summer, or buy an Athlon or a P3.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:51 AM PST - 9 comments

I think they got a bargain. A company which was in financial trouble let a kid come in for two weeks as an intern. He took a look at their business, immediately set up a web site for them to sell their product, and they promptly received an order for 70,000 pounds through that web site. It appears it will save their company.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:48 AM PST - 5 comments

Suburban planning. The Baltimore Sun has a series of articles that explore the possible failure of Columbia, MD to live up to expectations after 30 years.
posted by rorschach at 9:05 AM PST - 20 comments

$50 charge to link to a story? it just makes me want to spend some money.
posted by cheesebot at 8:51 AM PST - 11 comments

blah blah blah new york times "Web logs" blah blah williams blah hourihan blah blah blood blah this is news.
posted by peterme at 8:16 AM PST - 57 comments

The SUV Ticket Campaign ...for those that aren't keen on vandalism.
posted by Veruca at 8:14 AM PST - 12 comments

Flash 6 Screen Shots, for those who, unlike me, are already looking beyond Flash 5.
posted by tamim at 7:30 AM PST - 14 comments

Merry Christmas; you're fired. K-Mart thanks a bunch of the people who helped it stay open 24/3 by canning them. I thought only the military and CIA called it a RIF...
posted by baylink at 7:21 AM PST - 6 comments

Fucked Company is raising money for the victims at Edgewater Technology, "our fellow Internet workers [who] went to work and were murdered." Seems a tad insincere, given that his original reaction to the incident was "Booyah." Then again, there's now a menorah in the FC logo. Perhaps Pud has found God.
posted by luke at 10:35 PM PST - 23 comments

Yahoo appeals to U.S. District Court to avoid being regulated by the French government. This is one of the first important cases testing jurisdiction on ecommerce sites, and neither side appears to be backing down.
posted by jed at 8:53 PM PST - 5 comments

A graphic electro-politico-religious statement about Apple. (It came from this article which is equally irreverent about a lot of other thngs.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 8:45 PM PST - 4 comments

Vaporware 2000: Wired's results of its poll for products promised for this year but not delivered.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:58 PM PST - 12 comments

So we've got opinions about Bill Gates. But what about billionaire George Soros? He funds, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, various causes in the US, in Europe, and elsewhere. He's a critic of what he sees as the excesses of late capitalism. But does Soros represent a good thing? (More inside...)
posted by snarkout at 12:47 PM PST - 9 comments

What do you do with your Xmas Cards, after the holiday is over? St. Jude's Ranch, a nonsectarian, not for profit haven for abused children, collects used holiday cards to recycle into new ones. This program raises money for these children is divided between a college fund, and a little spending money. Send them your cards - make this your last act of deliberate kindness for the year.
posted by kristin at 11:57 AM PST - 19 comments

Eid Mubarak to all. Eid-ul-Fitr is the day of celebration marking the end of the Holy month of Ramadan, a month during which Muslims refrain from 'rather Earthly activities' from dawn till dusk.
posted by tamim at 11:47 AM PST - 4 comments

McDermott owed back taxes Mix one unstable man with a love of ammo. Add in government intervention (which means loss of control). Pile on some kids from HR and you've got a massacre.
posted by amanda at 10:38 AM PST - 74 comments

Jorn Barger seems to be declaring holy war on Robot Wisdom today, using the following jaw-dropping headlines on stories: "Is Judaism simply a religion of lawless racists?" and "Are Jews incapable of polite discourse?"
posted by rcade at 9:58 AM PST - 40 comments

As one whose gaming never advanced beyond PONG, I know this must mean something. What that something is, I'm not sure.
posted by red cell at 7:39 AM PST - 3 comments

Changing the Climate offers a new sport - Tagging SUV's Not as destructive as Phonebashing, but it's still vandalism.
posted by plinth at 6:36 AM PST - 61 comments

The Human Genome in Human Context: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Genome.
posted by tallman at 5:45 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Think your life sucks? This moron has spent his entire adult life growing his fingernails. It has cost him dearly. The hand is question is a misshapen claw. He has permanent nerve damage from the weight, resulting in permanent deafness in his right ear. But at least he's famous. (via joerogan.net)
posted by Optamystic at 1:08 AM PST - 12 comments

The Pornography of Racist Violence: NYT Columnist Margo Jefferson reviews "Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America", and says the book is a "record of what we can call civil war crimes." She goes on to say:

"The images are also what the historian Leon F. Litwack calls, in his introduction, race pornography: they were often made into picture postcards that were mailed, with curt, gleeful or venomous messages to friends and foes with nary a peep from the United States postal authorities."

posted by likorish at 11:40 PM PST - 35 comments

How's this for viral marketing? In order to promote their weblog feature, Xanga.com created a weblogger. Last week, many Geocities users received the same message (included inside) from "Bianca Broussard", in which she says, "I was noticing your writing style, and I think the weblog format might really work well for you." They actually created a fictional person and gave her a blog with over a month of entries. Pretty sneaky...
posted by Aaaugh! at 10:28 PM PST - 17 comments

Jason Robards passes away today - and seems to solidify the pop theory that famous people die in threes (or not.)

Jason joins recent departures Victor Borge - died 12/23, and Billy Barty - died 12/23.
posted by kokogiak at 9:02 PM PST - 12 comments

Other not-so-free-anymore things Apropos of the NetZero not-so-zero-anymore change, PayPal has essentially made its system unusable for the purpose that first sucked us in -- a fast, convenient way for friends to share rent, settle up bills for dinners and weekend getaways (more inside).
posted by MattD at 6:55 PM PST - 16 comments

So have you heard the one about the Golden Persian Princess Mummy? Discovered in October by Pakistani police during a murder investigation of an antiquities smuggler, this story has only gotten weirder. Said to be 2,600-years-old, the body of a young woman has been preserved using the Egyptian mummification process but bears cuneiform inscriptions in Old Persian: "I, daughter of Xerxes, the great king, I am Ruduamna". Since its discovery, the governments of Iran and Afghanistan have each claimed ownership of the mummy and all three countries are now engaged in a bitter war of claim and counter-claim. Now some experts are starting to say that the whole thing looks like it's just an elaborate hoax.
posted by lagado at 5:53 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

"I'll tell you the greatest regret of my life: I let my love go." - Earl Partridge, Magnolia
posted by gluechunk at 5:41 PM PST - 1 comments

NetZero NotZero? The "Free ISP" as a business model is now virtually extinct, with NetZero's announcement that, as of Jan. 1st, it'll charge $9.95 to "professional users" who are online more than 40 hours a month. Does anybody here care? (Probably not, but it's been such a bad day for new posts on MeFi, I had to do something.)
posted by wendell at 2:59 PM PST - 11 comments

Gunman Madness
Unfortunately the the end of year madness is upon us again. This is really sad. Just the fact that I had to work on the day after christmas was bad enough. The suspects motive is "it was work related". Unfortunately the real sad thing is I can almost guarantee a copycat incident or two within the next week.
posted by neo452 at 2:34 PM PST - 15 comments

The Next Great Bad Idea: Why the 'celestial jukebox' won't work. Courtesy of 37Signals Signal vs. Noise, this inside.com piece discusses just how big the obstacles are that the labels have to climb over to do it themselves.
posted by baylink at 8:46 AM PST - 15 comments

Russia to Mir....come in Mir... Russia's been recently unable to sustain radio contact with Mir. The station itself is empty, but radio communication is necessary in order to control the autopilot. They are supposed to try again in about an hour, but if they are unable to do so within that hour, they'll have to send someone up. I think they're more afraid that it might fall out of orbit before it's planned sinking into the Pacific this coming February.
posted by Cavatica at 5:18 AM PST - 8 comments

This confirms suspicions I've had about "Mr. America Inc." The line between government and the corporate/entertainment-whatever blurs further. Is this a new kind of coup? What lines are being drawn (or erased) here?
posted by aflakete at 2:09 AM PST - 10 comments

Lucifer's Hammer... misses. Well, ok, maybe it was only his tack-hammer, but the people in London would have hated it... [scroll down to second story]
posted by baylink at 6:50 PM PST - 2 comments

AdCritic has finally posted my favorite commercials: a series of ads for the Fox Regional Sports Report. They present intriguing new sports from around the world. Areas covered include China, India, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey.
posted by Aaaugh! at 4:12 PM PST - 11 comments

Is Bill Really that bad? Giving away money steadily, tens of millions of dollars at a time, Mr Bill Gates has become the single most influential force trying to reverse the growing health crisis afflicting the world's poor. With his wife, Melinda, he outspent the United States Government last year by nearly $US300 million ($538 million), to fight global health threats such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
posted by murray_kester at 4:09 PM PST - 52 comments

And allow me to offer another gift for all : Castlemouse, which is the art of puzzle games at its best. I'm hooked there for more than an hour.
posted by kchristidis at 3:27 PM PST - 9 comments

Here's a gift for all. Someone got a deceptively simple card game as a stocking stuffer. Three shapes. Three colors. Three shades. Three different numbers of objects. Put 3 things together that are completely similar or completely different, for all four variables. It's a card game that instantly sucked several of us in and felt like playing Tetris the first time. Go ahead and give it a try (note, I've been playing this for a couple hours today and I could only find 4 of the 6 possible sets).
posted by mathowie at 1:26 PM PST - 32 comments

Merry Christmas! (please note: this is not a link. It's just a random cheerbombing.)
posted by Succa at 10:09 PM PST - 22 comments

what WE do on christmas--- my latest favorite xmas song this is as close as i could get, but look up atom & his package on the first christmas sampler. this time of year brings out my inner jew (oy, i got pain)
posted by ethylene at 5:44 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

please lord, make it stop--- just a little quote from red meat. i was looking up the times for the last eclipse of the millenium and thot i'd share. view at your own risk (%*)
posted by ethylene at 5:26 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Italy pirates stole Santa's bones but now Turkey wants them back!
posted by lagado at 3:43 PM PST - 2 comments

"the new director of the Environment Protection Agency, Christine Todd Whitman, has proposed that the Florida ballots be sealed for 10 years. " Fuck the Christmas ceasefire. While the Anglo-Saxon world stuffs itself comatose, the forces of conservatism are busy mobilising. Yum.
posted by holgate at 2:24 PM PST - 15 comments

Another Christmas-oriented post (well, sort of): The World Wide Web fight presents: Scrooge versus the Grinch
Who will win this terrible battle?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:33 PM PST - 4 comments

How the Grinch stole the flag.
"Every Blue Down in Blue-ville Liked CTF a lot.. But the Grinch, Who lived just North of Blue-ville, Did NOT!" (CTF == Capture The Flag)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:36 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Enjoy what may be your last royalty-free Christmas dinner... Opinion solicitation: is either extreme right here? Is there a compromise solution that will satisfy both sides? Where do the rest of us (i.e., the food consumers) fit in to this?
posted by rushmc at 11:23 AM PST - 5 comments

Tired of Christmas music? I reckon so. I sure understand. Still, trust me on this. You're in for a treat. We're Just Three Kings gives me goose pimples on the back of my neck every time I hear it. Most know about mp3c, but few wanna dig around in there. It's like falling into a record bin big as Cleveland. Here let me help you. I'm recommending only sure-things here - Tamashiro's What Child Is This is straight-forward, no-nonsense, feelgood Christmas fare. Liona Boyd's instrumental guitar is heavenly background music that would warm the heart of the coldest Grinch. If you find yourself surprised with a need to have free Xmas music real fast, it's just a pooter away, Santa Baby.
posted by ZachsMind at 1:24 AM PST - 9 comments

Make your mouse glow... With a lil' help from Radio Shack you too can create a glowing blue mouse.
posted by ellis at 9:58 PM PST - 1 comments

At 21,000 gigabytes of HTML, the web isn't all that large. (?) Is there anything which you can't find somewhere on the web? An entire Yahoo category for Potato cannons?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:27 PM PST - 4 comments

Victor Borge dies. The number of comedic musicians who make fun of the form has always been extremely small; I can only think of three. The Big Band era had Spike Jones and his City Slickers. Modern rock has Weird Al. But Classical music had its own, and it was Victor Borge. Like the City Slickers and like Weird Al, in order to do a good job of making fun of something you must be technically excellent at it, and he was a superb pianist, and did do some serious performances. But his main stock in trade was comedy. I remember seeing him perform on TV when I was a kid, which would have been near the end of his career. I don't include Tom Lehrer among their number; he wasn't making fun of music, he was using music as a medium to deliver jokes. The Smothers Brothers perhaps qualify, making fun of folk music, and they too were superb technically when they wanted to be serious. Any others?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:46 PM PST - 14 comments

Good Greed? If any of you hypocritical snobs think the Christmas season has been ruined by consumerism, University of Florida Prof James Twitchell is here to set you straight - A century ago, Twitchell says, people relied on family ties, professional status or religion to provide them with...a sense of meaning in life... Today...an expensive handbag can mean as much as a college degree or membership in a church...And that, Twitchell says, is a good thing.
posted by twitch at 2:32 PM PST - 15 comments

Everybody knew it was about to happen. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a fact that George W. Busch blogs.
posted by kchristidis at 2:18 PM PST - 11 comments

Thomas Yohe, Reqiescat in Pace. Yohe was the creative force behind Interplanet Janet, "Bill" the bill, and all the other denizens of Conjunction Junction. [ Thanks to Cam, via the Girlhacker ]
posted by baylink at 12:22 PM PST - 3 comments

Well, we talked about NORAD a few posts back, I guess now it's time for everyone's *other* favorite agency: the NSA has a logo. That's funny. No, really, the topic of this posting is their release of Security-Enhanced Linux, including Mandatory Access Control and other cool B-1'ish stuff. Ted T'so has some interesting observations in this Slashdot thread on the topic as well.
posted by baylink at 11:09 AM PST - 5 comments

Waah! I want my Barbie PC! (I don't quite understand this; can't someone just put their own decals on their computer? What, exactly was the market here? This one seems to go into the "unbelievably stupid product concept" file.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:59 AM PST - 3 comments

Mattl.com (links to dubious content) Is it an error/javascript on my client software, or does Mattl.com look like it's been hacked by linking to dubious content ?
posted by williamtry at 9:58 AM PST - 11 comments

XHTML is in the spotlight. The specs were announced months ago, and on December 19th the w3 reccommended it as the new web language.
posted by tomorama at 8:50 AM PST - 5 comments

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU TOO! It's getting increasingly more and more difficult to find decent Bloom County and Outland fan links. Like the rest of the 'Net, they're being replaced with ebay clones and page cannot be found errors instead of actual content oriented sites paying homage and tribute to... I know. Berke Breathed quit several years go. I should be able to just let it go. So I'm nostalgic, so sue me. I started looking for links that weren't broken, and came across... Who the heck is Lee Vasche ???

"Excuse him.. he's had too many Shirley Temple Cocktails." --Portnoy.
posted by ZachsMind at 11:23 PM PST - 6 comments

Do you own a Renoir?
posted by tiaka at 7:28 PM PST - 6 comments

Adopt a color let's you name a colour for $25. Would be great to have MeFi Blue, Zeldman Orange, Kottke Yellow as standard colour names. Would make a good last minute christmas gift for a friend who's got a site. [via Fairvue]
posted by riffola at 5:08 PM PST - 13 comments

So tell me: Am I Stoned or Not?
posted by snakey at 2:58 PM PST - 8 comments

Gadzooks!! What in the name of H-E-double-hockey-sticks is going on here? Check on the products and then visit this site. Then do a little WHOIS sniffing and try to wrap your mind around the fact that they are both registered to
Registrant: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
(E-COM-CON-DOM)
10201 W. Pico Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90035 US
sort of via memepool.
posted by donkeysuck at 2:36 PM PST - 16 comments

Pixel People - Minimalist Story Telling at Its Best I was surprised to find this wasn't covered on MetaFilter since the creator seems to have gotten some press. Couldn't find anything via search though, so enjoy. (requires flash)
posted by willnot at 2:07 PM PST - 3 comments

Clemency time for Clinton. Now that he's got just a few weeks left, President Clinton has the opportunity to let a few people go. While he may be pardoning corporate criminals like Tyson food executives and a couple drug offenders, I prefer this coalition's call for freeing all non-violent drug offenders and Leonard Peltier's request.
posted by mathowie at 1:02 PM PST - 6 comments

Let Jesus bring light into your life. No, I mean, literally. Mary, too.

Or just get a tree and be done with it.
posted by jason at 12:32 PM PST - 2 comments

"Brad the Cad" is disciplined, but not fired. This is the man who forwarded an email, describing his sexual prowess to four people, thus starting a world wide fury. Speculation on exactly how he was disciplined includes losing out on his annual bonus.
posted by karenh at 11:23 AM PST - 12 comments

Egghead cracked by credit-card hack. Up to 3.7 million credit cards are believed to be stolen from the online retailer's servers.
posted by Hankins at 9:44 AM PST - 1 comments

"Welcome to the United Police State Of America." Number two Linux spokesman Alan Cox may have been a bit over the top in his reaction, but industry plans to integrate copy protection and rights management into future hard drives could cause all kinds of legal and technical nightmares.
posted by harmful at 9:35 AM PST - 6 comments

Kansas City's Secret Santa has been handing out cash in hundred-dollar bills to needy individuals and random people during the Christmas season for the past twenty-one years. He's completely anonymous, preferring to give joy without getting any credit. He tries to find people with specific needs and surprises them in their homes or at their jobs with the cash they need. He gives out well over ten thousand dollars every year.
posted by daveadams at 8:13 AM PST - 11 comments

Yes, Virginia, there really is a Grinch. (This guy's choice of recipients for his charitable giving is lawyers. You'd think he could find someone more needy.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:19 AM PST - 7 comments

Warning signs on the horizon... WARNING Political: Democrats and Repubs point fingers over who's to blame about current and future economic problems. Ok, who forgot that 5 weeks of political indecision has had a big, bad toll on the economy? Also, another in a long series of funny dubya pictures. Check the large hands. How'd they get so big?
posted by evad at 6:48 PM PST - 17 comments

In a long essay-review of the report of the official inquiry into mad cow disease, the London Review of Books also points (but without helpful html coding) to the government site where the full text of the BSE Inquiry and the supporting evidence can be found. You can download it as a PDF file if you like, for light reading with your next carrot juice and stir-fried tofu.
posted by jhiggy at 6:31 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Janna Bush's homework is funny on so many levels:

1. This is college-level work in Texas?
2. People in Texas think that people in Harlem attend dances at the VFW?
3. Dubya's daughter, having been sent to a state school to bolster dad's political image as a down-home Texan even though she could surely have legacy'd at Yale as he did (and Skull & Bones admits women now!), is getting just the sort of politically correct education that her father's cohort reviles.

posted by nicwolff at 4:47 PM PST - 38 comments

http://www.otnemem.com is the first movie Web site that ever made me eager to see a movie I haven't heard a thing about. It won't open in the US till March, but it looks awfully clever, and I'm always up for a good short-term-memory-loss revenge thriller. And it's a site whose all-Flash version is better than the HTML version - another rarity. Also, the domain name is pretty clever - the movie's name spelled backwards, which turns out to be thematically and structurally appropriate to the movie.
posted by nicwolff at 3:58 PM PST - 10 comments

1,300 tonnes of condemned meat sold as fit for human consumption. I think I fancy a veggie burger...
posted by astro38 at 3:15 PM PST - 6 comments

Deep Springs College is a small cult of undergraduate males in Nevada. They claim to be smart, but I know better.
They sell eggs, milk, and T-shirts, and attend seminars. Showing their sensitive side, some of the students have posted thoughts on changing the "historically male" institution to permit women. (via a little bird.)
posted by rschram at 2:57 PM PST - 2 comments

Bonsai Kitten - I've already started mine. Should have a nice cubed tabby in about a month.
(via memepool)
posted by Starchile at 2:24 PM PST - 12 comments

The DEA has proposed rules that would make many hemp-based products, including hemp foods and hemp personal-care products, illegal. But you can help protect the future of hemp as a renewable resource. This site makes it easy to send a letter, fax or email to your local representatives protecting industrial hemp.
posted by snakey at 1:37 PM PST - 8 comments

10,000 Maniacs guitarist and founder Robert Buck died of liver failure last Tuesday.
posted by scottandrew at 12:53 PM PST - 9 comments

Traffic Waves [via /usr/bin/girl] I've always had a suspicion that traffic was a wave phenomenon. This is interesting theory. [more inside...]
posted by plinth at 12:10 PM PST - 15 comments

Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and the US Military is watching him. It's NORAD's annual "Santa Tracking" PR campaign, reporting that Father Xmas appears to be flight testing his reindeer earlier this year (a prudent move, if you've seen "Olive, the Other Reindeer", my new favorite Holiday TV trifle). No Grinch sightings, however (he's gotten enough publicity, thank you). Now, the only unanswered question is: Will W.'s proposed Missile Defense System (TM) pose a risk to the Clausman? (And are Rogue Countries (TM) making missiles shaped like sleighs?)
posted by wendell at 12:09 PM PST - 2 comments

Trafficmovie.com has piqued my interest in a film more than any other celluloid trailer has in recent memory. Unlike the "Cast Away" previews that seem to give away the whole plot before the film even opens, this site is teasing, ambiguous, and enigmatic, giving away nothing...except for an uber-atmospheric mood. No wonder the movie is leading the Golden Globe pack of nominees.

Warning: uses Flash (albeit tastefully).
posted by NickBarat at 12:05 PM PST - 6 comments

Buy Jesus at Wallyworld! [via /usr/bin/girl]
posted by plinth at 11:58 AM PST - 1 comments

Plopp - It's a candy bar, you see. No, really. See Plopp and some other interesting products (most in the vein of Engrish). Via Mr. Pants.
posted by plinth at 11:53 AM PST - 2 comments

Mayan Suburbia
Did the Mayans follow modern city development patterns 1500 years ago? Maybe, say some archaeologists who recently uncovered ancient suburbs, complete with subdivisions on artificial lakes, big private lawns, and strip malls.
[ from Rebecca's Pocket ]
posted by daveadams at 11:27 AM PST - 7 comments

Has anyone tried and tested Safe Web? Seems a lot simpler and easier (not to mention cheaper) than Anonymizer. Though you have to enter each address, so it's not for people wanting anonymity all the time. . .
posted by aflakete at 11:33 PM PST - 6 comments

The stars in the core of our galaxy are moving damned fast. [more]
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:21 PM PST - 20 comments

To much acclaim and publicity, a town in Illinois organized a program where people could bring in their violent video games, and trade them for other merchandise at local retailers. The program ran for 6 days.

Not a single person took advantage of it.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:20 PM PST - 7 comments

Can you say fraud? Can you say it twice? As strange as it seems, these two are related. After Kurzweil's fraud was finally revealed, the top two execs went to jail, but there was some question about what was going to happen to the company. Well, what goes around comes around. Lernout and Hauspie bought out Kurzweil Artificial Intelligence. It seems like they picked up the corporate culture, too.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:18 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Gates worried about AOL's dominance of IM market. So what does he do, he gets on the phone to the FCC. That's right, Bill wants the governement to intervene to prevent a company from dominating a market. Umm... Bill what the Freedom to innovate which you are so worried about.
posted by jay at 9:57 PM PST - 4 comments

Hey, stop pointing that laser at my eye! Wait, nevermind.
posted by gluechunk at 9:36 PM PST - 8 comments

"We are going to be the Blade Runner of venue advertising"
posted by gluechunk at 9:29 PM PST - 4 comments

Apple's Internet Devlopers site. Too little, too late? Or a new resource which will prove to be helpful?
posted by riffola at 9:11 PM PST - 5 comments

Metafilter taken offline for two and a half days by a Bay Area network outage, along with Blog*Spot, Evhead, and Megnut. Fortunately, everything appears to be back to normal. Good, because I think the DTs were starting to kick in.
posted by waxpancake at 7:51 PM PST - 33 comments

"And damn he looks funny with them big glasses," says G.W. Bush after naming the new Secretary of Defense.
posted by Hankins at 10:20 AM PST - 1 comments

Finally, toll-free numbers put to a good use. Jim over at Bondcliff posted a ureach number on a comedy b-board with no explanation. Hilarity ensued.
posted by frykitty at 10:12 AM PST - 2 comments

GWB sure seems happy. Wonder what Greenspan is thinking. Warning: not suitable for under 18.
posted by stbalbach at 8:51 AM PST - 8 comments

Everybody loves Jelly Beans! Especially the Horseradish, Grass, Black Pepper, Sardine....and yes, Booger. Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans are now a reality. (From The Leaky Cauldron)
posted by bkdelong at 8:30 AM PST - 11 comments

Is this really "The Cutest Dog in the Universe" as the site proclaims? I dunno, looks to me like someone genetically animated a stuffed animal.
posted by Sal Amander at 8:15 AM PST - 8 comments

Justice O'Connor said ''this is terrible,'' when it looked like Gore had won the election But of course, politics played no role in her decision to hand the election to Bush. Right? right? ?
posted by Outlawyr at 7:18 AM PST - 1 comments

Eminem dead. Or not, as they case may be...
posted by Cobbler at 2:40 AM PST - 13 comments

98lite IV is a cool tool that lets you strip most of bloat from Windows 9x (Me) installations. While trying to find the correct website, 98lite.net, I stumbled into 98lite.com, which is trying to sell pirated software for $25.00. The fine people at 98lite.net also offers a freeware IEradicator, which will cleanly uninstall any versions of IE from your Windows machine.
posted by tamim at 11:58 PM PST - 2 comments

The report regarding the Company's demise is wrong
Looks like I bought all those extra Chuck Taylors for nothing. Winter holiday gifts for 10 people who wear size 11's.
posted by thirteen at 10:37 PM PST - 4 comments

I've had mornings like this except substitute "girlfriend" for "wife". (Via Q Daily News)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:13 PM PST - 4 comments

Rush Limbaugh Love him or hate em, he's right on about this one.
posted by argus at 9:06 PM PST - 17 comments

Happy Saturnalia, everyone. (See also "The Saturnalia: its Legacies")
posted by D.C. at 8:38 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Dennis Ritchie's Home Page (If you have to ask who he is...)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:42 PM PST - 4 comments

Buy 1777.58 acres of the Moon "Probably the most romantic and original present you could ever give to a loved one." My ass!! You too can claim ownership to planets/stars throughout the universe and sell them over eBay....
posted by grank at 6:32 PM PST - 8 comments

FBI agents march on White House to oppose clemency for political prisoner Leonard Peltier
Now the freaking FBI are protesting, see what you people started. No confirmation of any street blocking. I have been hoping Clinton would pony up and free the man, but with this I imagine he will make the gutless cowardly choice once again.
posted by thirteen at 6:16 PM PST - 18 comments

"Model tax legislation under study" Another strange headline. Let's see; there's Elle, and Claudia, and... yep, they can sure afford to pay higher taxes with all they make.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:09 PM PST - 1 comments

Council bans anyone recording school children ...due to possible paedophilia. AHAHAHAaaa hahahahaahaaa haa. Oh where was I? Oh that's right [more inside]
posted by holloway at 5:25 PM PST - 13 comments

George W. Bush named Time Magazine Person of the Year Agree? Disagree? Due to the unique circumstances, it seems appropriate.
posted by gyc at 2:33 PM PST - 18 comments

Water found on Jupiter moon "After months and months of wrestling with the data ... we believe there is very strong evidence of a layer of melted water beneath Ganymede's icy surface," said Margaret Kivelson, a space physicist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
posted by owillis at 12:05 PM PST - 9 comments

James Baldwin once wrote, "So long as you think you are white, there is no hope for you." What could he possibly have meant?
posted by sudama at 10:17 AM PST - 21 comments

Here's a Bush link that everyone can enjoy. The pro-Bush camp can crow over how great the country will be after all of these promises are put into place. The anti-Bush camp can rant about how the country will go to the dogs if any of these see the light of day. Or you could complain that the "liberal media" didn't run a list of Clinton's campaign promises. I'm just irked that there is a duplicate entry, making the actual total 178. Can you find it?
posted by JDC8 at 8:05 AM PST - 11 comments

Now this could possibly be Schadenfreude at it's best!! "eToys Expects Lower Than Estimated Fiscal Third Quarter Operating Results" Net sales are expected to be between $120 million and $130 million, rather than the $210 million to $240 million previously estimated. How could they be off their estimate by HALF? Oh yeah, maybe if they hadn't spent so much time (and money) pursuing ETOY? Who's got the last laugh now?.....
posted by 120degrees at 10:19 PM PST - 13 comments

The Missyplicity Project seeks to clone a dog for the first time in history - a specific dog named Missy. Missy is a beloved pet, getting on in years, whose wealthy owners wish to reproduce her. See also Genetic Savings and Clone
posted by riley370 at 6:14 PM PST - 1 comments

In the latest Cryptogram newsletter, security expert Bruce Schneier makes some interesting points about voting, voting machines and computers. The web version of this article won't be up for a few weeks so I have reproduced it here. Read more...
posted by lagado at 5:46 PM PST - 2 comments

ConceptPC @ Intel - pretty much interesting...response from PCs to iMac-mania?....gimme a MagicBean!! (flash required)
posted by candida at 3:24 PM PST - 7 comments

Did you read 'One-Half of a Manifesto' by Jaron Lanier in the December Wired? (The original post is better because of the Reality Club.) I thought he was dead-on in his assessment of 'cybernetic totalism'. His argument takes some of the boogey (as in man) out of Bill Joy's neoapocalytic treatise. (Incidentally, this article also turned me onto EDGE.) (more inside)
posted by Sean Meade at 1:37 PM PST - 11 comments

Colin Powell to become the secretary of state, which seems ok on the surface, but after looking at the functions of the position, wouldn't he make a better secretary of defense instead? I can't say I'm comfortable with the thought of the leading US diplomat and negotiator being someone so closely tied with military force (side question: would a war man negotiate peace treaties or get us into more bombing missions?). I also find it odd that in the acceptance speech, he can speak of the horrors of Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction" and in the same breath talk about how the US should build up a missile defense system (our missiles aren't capable of mass destruction?). What do you think about the appointment?
posted by mathowie at 10:20 AM PST - 35 comments

BT sues Prodigy over hyperlink patent another glorious example of "we have nothing better to offer than a really big lawsuit"
posted by bliss322 at 8:43 AM PST - 5 comments

The Pictures of 2000. Some of these are simply amazing. The Reader's Choice ones are my fav.
posted by grank at 3:08 AM PST - 14 comments

"No Sir, I Am Not A Monkey" (But I play one on TV.)
posted by holgate at 10:32 PM PST - 5 comments

See this movie. Cirque Du Soleil's Journey of Man in 3D IMAX. See this movie. Do whatever it takes. The most beautiful, jaw-dropping thing I've ever seen is the underwater segment. Simply amazing. See this movie.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:04 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Are the VC's to blame? Or did dot coms play a part in their own demise? Every good drama has a villain (or Villain Capitalist, as the evidence suggests), and when good people are getting caught in the crossfire it's highly tempting to typecast the role.
posted by webchick at 4:57 PM PST - 28 comments

I'm not Brad F'n Pitt. Everyone's favorite fake celebrity diary has cleared house today, leaving one of the most contrite apologies I've ever seen. Methinks one of the real Pitt's handlers caught an eyeful of the fictionalized accounts of constant drug use, the assorted sex with various celebrities (including Willard Scott), and Jen Aniston's shower habit and slapped a cease and desist on "Pitt." Although the main link's been deactivated, the entries are still there.
posted by solistrato at 4:54 PM PST - 9 comments

Video Games 'Unhealthy' for Girls, Study Says Anyone else think this is a bit overblown?
posted by SilentSalamander at 4:32 PM PST - 16 comments

NVidia just bought all the intellectual properties of 3DFX. [more]
posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:18 PM PST - 8 comments

"There is no Father Christmas." What?!
posted by 120degrees at 3:41 PM PST - 8 comments

When It Won't Run Anymore. I'm a fan of recycling auto parts, but this is a bit over the top -- Even for a Yugo.
posted by salsamander at 1:49 PM PST - 4 comments

"Chin up, greedhead" A discussion of the recent outbreak of affluenza, from the perspective of someone playing "My Heart Bleeds for You" on the world's smallest violin.
posted by frykitty at 1:00 PM PST - 8 comments

Not the first time a soldier has come out of the closet, but nonetheless remarkable. Do you suppose the girl is grounded? What is the proper parental punishment for this? (Warning: Salon link)
posted by Niccola Six at 12:26 PM PST - 3 comments

The current RISKS Digest carries a manifesto of sorts from Peter Neumann (of RISKS), Lauren Weinstein (of PRIVACY DIGEST) and Rebecca Mercuri (one of the AT&T voting wonks, if memory serves) on the dangers of electronic and Internet voting in the current technological milieu. Let's fix the problems, yes, but let's not create worse ones in the process.
posted by baylink at 12:03 PM PST - 2 comments

OK, poor Ms. Swires has gone global. The story was on the front page of the Times this morning; all the other papers have their own versions; and it’s getting third billing on the main BBC news website as I write. The country is on its knees... For anyone lucky enough not to have received the email in question, I’ll post the salient bits in the comments.
posted by Mocata at 9:57 AM PST - 8 comments

HP employee sucked out of plane when door opens during flight. In the great Metafilter tradition of schädenfreude.
posted by dhartung at 9:31 AM PST - 37 comments

ELECTION: Ethel, on Big Tony and the Supremes. If you're Republican, skip this link; I wouldn't want to be responsible for giving anyone apoplexy or popping anyone's anuerysm... :-)
posted by baylink at 9:28 AM PST - 14 comments

Even when it looks like it's over, it's not. Thanks to the electoral college system, we still won't know for sure until next week. The funny thing about this group who's trying to get Bush electors to switch their votes is that they don't even like or support Gore. They're just against the electoral system.
posted by karmasalad at 8:16 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Check out the Milko Music Machine. It was chosen as the Macromedia Site of the Day and is hysterical! You can select video clips, vocals and music for a bovine music video. Moo, moo, moo.
posted by ljc at 7:24 AM PST - 3 comments

Eating food on the D.C. metro, revisited. I think it's funny that the girl is being represented by the Rutherford Institute.
posted by rorschach at 5:58 AM PST - 12 comments

Gore parties the night away... even though he lost. According to the article, Jon Bon Jovi was so upset at the boring party they originally had that he called up some friends and announced there was a "Party at Gore's House!!" The cover photo and interior shots from the Daily News have Gore looking as if he had one hell of a time.
posted by Cavatica at 4:29 AM PST - 23 comments

The International Space Station is becoming one of the brightest, fastest moving objects in the night sky. This photo is a 5 minute time exposure taken from the ground which shows the station clearly as an arc across the sky. If you look closer you can actually see two arcs, the other being that of the space shuttle Endeavour which had just undocked and was pulling away. If you would like to know when you can see it for yourself, try using this handy calculator. via APOD
posted by lagado at 3:16 AM PST - 3 comments

The Virgin Mary in uh... well, a format you've probably never her seen her in. If that's not blasphemous enough for you, there's also jesus, satan, and buddha models [warning: sexual content. thanks for the link swifty].
posted by mathowie at 12:42 AM PST - 7 comments

Ooooh, those trendy young Brits and their funny new words. What I can't help wondering is how many people have been sending in made up slang. (via clog).
posted by davidgentle at 6:50 PM PST - 22 comments

Britain welcomes the 43rd President. (Cheers to Matt for scanner duties.)
posted by holgate at 5:20 PM PST - 23 comments

Be careful whom you share your email correspondence with. It just might be seen by millions of people within hours.
posted by murray_kester at 5:04 PM PST - 14 comments

Codeweavers, Windows software on Linux. I think the average consumer might be very interested in Linux, if they could run their current Windows programs on it. Another step closer to the end of Bill Gates' evil rule.
posted by Zool at 3:20 PM PST - 19 comments

CueCats Held Hostage! A motley mix of left-wingers and computer geeks plans to march on the offices of the Dallas Morning News this weekend, armed with pet carriers filled with CueCats, in order to protest what they see as pro-GOP slants in the paper's reporting. If the paper doesn't agree to their demands for more left-favorable reporting, the CueCats will be executed! Why CueCats? Because the company that owns the News has been plugging CueCats like crazy. (second item on the page)
posted by aaron at 3:20 PM PST - 3 comments

FTC unanimously approves AOL/Time Warner merger. With a couple of restraint-avoidance conditions. Wonder who's gonna enforce those... Aw, crap.
posted by baylink at 2:43 PM PST - 9 comments

Evolt relaunches a redesigned site that has been months in the making. Now with article ratings to go along with the existing categorization and commenting abilities. Interface customization is coming soon, but my hat's off to the great collaborative programming and writing on evolt.
posted by mathowie at 2:25 PM PST - 23 comments

For Comment: "Does personality override politics in the Rehnquist Supreme Court?"
File under: "What is the rhetorical and effective nature of constitutional interpretation and judicial review?" I have always been intrigued by the ways in which the justices of the Supreme Court selectively reveal tidbits about their personality and the nature of their interactions. "Scalia and Ginsburg are polar opposites, but are secretly best friends!" "O'Connor likes Georgia O'Keefe, and has several originals in her office!"

While much of this can be explained by the media creating a story where there is none, the above comments by Thomas lead me to wonder that, if 'opinion' is the form by which laws are reviewed, then perhaps 'individuality,' 'style,' or 'personality' have an impact on how the concept of justice and constitutionality are applied.
posted by rschram at 1:56 PM PST - 8 comments

S2K: So the election is over and you're sad. Right? Right? Er, well, anyway, check out this hilarious (and as-yet-unfinished) online comic featuring the guy we all secretly wanted to vote for. If we didn't already. (Features naughty words at times.)
posted by Skot at 1:51 PM PST - 4 comments

Reminder: don't forget to buy a wooden stylus to go along with your wood-covered phone, pda, laptop and your wooden monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
posted by gluechunk at 1:44 PM PST - 9 comments

"We've now reached the point where Hollywood is writing our dialogue."

"No way," you say?

"WAY!"
posted by grumblebee at 1:03 PM PST - 17 comments

Window or Aisle? Obese or Non-obese? Geez. It's not like airline seats can fit regular size customers as it is.
posted by terrapin at 11:46 AM PST - 34 comments

Clarence Baxter, musical revolutionary found this pretty funny-- kind of a Maoist music purist with a giant boom box. The back episodes are atually better, especially the pictures of his 'comrades'. Sounds like some good music on there as well.
posted by cell divide at 11:42 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Election Phone Calls Sorry if this has been posted before, but I just found out today.
posted by dilok at 10:42 AM PST - 1 comments

Presidency Resolved: 'El Presidente' Appoints Self to Settle Dispute. Full transcript available. Nota Bene: This ain't no ordinary can o' beans. It's the Real McCoy. Read... and remember to vote.
posted by josholalia at 10:05 AM PST - 2 comments

It's dangerous to be a kid these days.
But then, it's dangerous to be old, too.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 8:19 AM PST - 4 comments

Eminem's mom just wants a relationship with her son... you know, so that she can sell more CD's. "An Open Letter To My Son" retails for about $6.95. Maybe she, and Nancy Aniston can start a little club - "Riding On The Coattails Of My Child's Fame."
posted by kristin at 8:01 AM PST - 25 comments

"Guess what, folks: We're taking back San Francisco." -- Woo Hoo! Forget BushGore; on Tuesday progressives won big time in San Francisco. Chris Daly seriously kicked ass in my district, while progressives Matt Gonzalez (yes!), Aaron Peskin, Jake McGoldrick, Sophenia Maxwell and Gerardo Sandoval, will all join our hero Tom Ammiano on the board of supervisors. Take that, Willy Brown.
posted by johnb at 7:50 AM PST - 10 comments

The story of the hippy babysitter is an old one i've been hearing since i was a kid. turns out, if it was real she might only have gottenfive years.
posted by Niccola Six at 7:25 AM PST - 14 comments

I got in!!! Remember that link to Quintessentially a few weeks back? Well, after countless hours of anxious waiting, I finally received my acceptance letter (the complete text of which is inside). At last, I can enjoy the finer things in life - it'll only cost me $600 a year .
posted by aladfar at 7:15 AM PST - 9 comments

A sort of involuntary blogging. Does anyone else have similar stories?
posted by tranquileye at 5:45 AM PST - 15 comments

Water Pistol Semen-Squirter Faces Jail. "Nichols stole water guns from department stores, filled them with his semen and then squirted girls. He sometimes took their pictures." Excuse me, but how long would it take to fill a water gun with.......you know.
posted by pnevares at 4:16 AM PST - 16 comments

"Ferociously proud and somewhat vain, you like to be impressive and seen as Somebody Special." It's George W. Bush's natal horoscope, interpreted by some anonymous folks at Astrozine/iVillage. The many screenfuls include this statement: "An innate clairvoyant tendency could also be developed quite easily by you." Via the frequently wonderful Guardian Weblog.
posted by jhiggy at 12:43 AM PST - 2 comments

Is it me, or does MacOS Rumors really really suck nowadays? I used to read it religiously, but it rarely even posts rumors, assuming it posts at all. As an alternative, I've been reading As the Apple Turns lately, and at the very least it's funny and pretty tongue-in-cheek. Thank god.
posted by ookamaka at 10:42 PM PST - 3 comments

am I a GOOD PARODY OF “AM I HOT OR NOT” or NOT?
posted by palegirl at 10:32 PM PST - 15 comments

If you squint, Laura has a hairy chest.
posted by jragon at 9:42 PM PST - 12 comments

I guess it's their choice. Because, "they" are forcing you to watch Queer as Folk. It's kinda funny reading stuff like "I wish I had Showtime so I could cancel it." or "I dumped the Disney Channel a few years ago, over their "Gay and Lesbian" week at their park", maybe, it's just sad. [note, free-republic link]
posted by tiaka at 8:42 PM PST - 20 comments

Bush and Gore’s last speeches of the 2000 campaign are great signposts to how the next administration will run.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 7:37 PM PST - 24 comments

Weblogs going corporate: Is it any surprise that something initially popularized on the wild and wooly grassroots nature of the Net be turned into a profit-machine?
posted by karmasalad at 6:33 PM PST - 11 comments

FLASH: Gore Concedes. Ok, I guess *now* it's over. Bye, Alec...
posted by baylink at 6:17 PM PST - 35 comments

Register.com to Auction Web Addresses ``My shoes are not for sale, but if someone on the street offers me enough money for them, I'll walk home barefoot. It's the same with domain names,'' Is it really? I would think an identity, as many would argue domain names can become, is a bit more irreplaceable than a pair of shoes.
posted by jmackin at 4:42 PM PST - 7 comments

DirectTV with built-in TiVO rocks. (Note to self: buy flowers for wife on day that credit card bill for this set-up and $199 lifetime TiVo service arrives.)
posted by MattD at 3:32 PM PST - 18 comments

Last words? What do you guys seriously think Clinton's last words in office will be?
(I realize that this is slow-pitch for humorous comments and that's acceptable as well.)
posted by ooklah at 3:25 PM PST - 6 comments

Amputation by choice people who want to have one or more limb cut off (and in some cases achieve their desire, by self-help or medical intervention) explored in The Atlantic (more inside).
posted by MattD at 3:12 PM PST - 10 comments

Is Metallica really concerned that a perfume will harm their bottom line and so they must sue? My question is why would Guerlain name a perfume after a heavy metal band unless it smelled like stale cigarettes and beer?
posted by thc at 1:49 PM PST - 7 comments

Very soon,Etch-A-Sketch will just be made in China and not in the States.
posted by gluechunk at 1:30 PM PST - 3 comments

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! deep breath... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
posted by thirteen at 1:26 PM PST - 35 comments

Crap -- Gore's speech is set for 9:00 PM est. That might interfere with keeping up with what's going on with my president.
posted by fpatrick at 12:43 PM PST - 11 comments

This in from the Yes, we have too much time on our hands department: James Bond is a Time Lord!
(via The Useless Pages)
posted by Aaaugh! at 11:45 AM PST - 2 comments

Fear the Bible Noshers! Students flee school in fear after Marilyn Manson fans eat and deface a bible.
posted by chartres at 11:02 AM PST - 15 comments

MP3: it's not just for music anymore! [See inside]
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:45 AM PST - 9 comments

Remember the MetaFilter election contest? Well, it seems we finally have a winner. Thanks rcade for the great contest!
posted by mathowie at 9:54 AM PST - 24 comments

The gender gap : do women make less wages due to discrimination, or is it their own choice? Or a combination?
posted by owillis at 9:40 AM PST - 3 comments

Bush apparently wins... and the New York Times is apparently speechless. 54k
(The original page has already changed; please forgive the link to the image on my site.)
posted by Mo Nickels at 9:17 AM PST - 15 comments

A student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign wrote a paper on Weblogs and Journals, dissceting the thoughts and blogs of a few people. Very interesting paper, in my opinion (not because I am mentioned very briefly :) and worthy of some discussion and dissection.
posted by Arvid at 9:10 AM PST - 14 comments

Oh, yeah. Reboot!, truly one of the geek shows of all time, is returning Fall 2001. Two made-for-television moives have been in production forever. But, now this: not movies, but a freaking full 13 episode season! With talk of another 13 after that! And a season-ending musical number! Fall 2001 can't come soon enough. Reboot! is a Canadian production; anyone know about US release dates and network? (more inside)
posted by mrmorgan at 8:50 AM PST - 29 comments

Ahhh...From the rediculous (my last post) to the sublime.
posted by fpatrick at 7:52 AM PST - 7 comments

I've been thinking about a good visible mission for Al Gore over the next four years, and took a look at this Google search. After all, he is not only a government wonk, but also a technology wonk with an reasonably expected level of passion on the topic. Imagine my surprise when only one of the top hits today was about the US, while the UK, New Zealand, Canada, and Bosnia were highlighted.
posted by fpatrick at 7:25 AM PST - 8 comments

Ok, let's take it from the top again. Fat Lady, you're on in......three......two......
posted by 120degrees at 7:17 AM PST - 3 comments

Chromeless windows: Spawn new IE windows without any GUI borders.
posted by riffola at 6:18 AM PST - 36 comments

Joe Rogan's site Comic, actor, smart and funny guy. Carrying a bit of the torch left by Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, et al...(careful, may be some nudity on the site).
posted by Optamystic at 1:52 AM PST - 12 comments

One lone nut, one vote. It's nice to see someone who feels like he can really make a difference in politics. It's even nicer to see them sent to jail.
posted by daedsiluap at 1:38 AM PST - 6 comments

Al Gore Hijacks Ryder Truck full of Ballots heh heh heh.
posted by sugarfish at 12:42 AM PST - 14 comments

My Fake Life -- a parody of you know what by you know who on their "newyorkermag.com" parody site. i feel dizzy...
posted by palegirl at 12:05 AM PST - 2 comments

As you've probably heard, The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to reverse the Fla. high court's decision to allow manual recounts on disputed ballots. This essentially closes off Gore's last challenges. Now why can't I find a non-PDF format copy of the decision on the Web????
posted by rschram at 11:36 PM PST - 10 comments

The "original" Cool Site of the Day has been offering a monthly contest, with a grand prize of $10,000 worth of spam courtesy of PostmasterDirect. This goes beyond pathetic; it's just plain evil. It was bad enough when CSOTD started accepting payola for their awards after Glenn Davis left to helm Project Cool. It was even worse when they started charging a $14.95 fee to submit your site for review. But encouraging "direct marketing" is inexcusable. (While you're there, look at the nominees for this month's award. The first is Comet Cursor, the silently-tracking-your-every-move browser plugin and an active sponsor of CSOTD, as featured on their front page.)
posted by waxpancake at 9:32 PM PST - 14 comments

When archaeology goes bad "For a nation that has always reveled in its cultural uniqueness, the discoveries were more than heartening; they were almost too good to be true. "
posted by lagado at 9:02 PM PST - 7 comments

The end of Edison's greatest invention. All good things must come to an end, I suppose. This one lasted longer than most of the 19th century's great inventions -- like the steam locomotive.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:48 PM PST - 10 comments

Bush, by a technicality. They've run out the clock. Oh dear. This could be messy.
posted by holgate at 7:45 PM PST - 33 comments

PlayStation 2 not quite what it was promised to be. "Japanese have purchased about 3.5 million PlayStation 2s, but there are signs that sales have leveled off."

"Analysts had predicted a runaway success, but now they are forecasting Sony losses of more than $200 million on its game business in the year ending next March—its first such loss in years."
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:21 PM PST - 20 comments

Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood It is clear to our group of modern neurodevelopmentalists that these are in fact stories of Seriously Troubled Individuals.
posted by riley370 at 6:50 PM PST - 1 comments

What The Onion doesn't tell you… is that his atttempt to cash in his punchcard was invalidated when the counter clerk noticed that the 7th punch had left a hanging chad. Now you know… the REST of the story.
posted by wendell at 5:30 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Did you know that Mickey Mouse was kept out of the public domain by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act? [via librarian.net]
posted by gluechunk at 5:13 PM PST - 11 comments

Simpsons Monopoly One wonders why they don't include a pewter figure of Mr. Burns to encourage future capitalists.
posted by ed at 3:21 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Deja.com sells "Precision Buying Service." So all they've got now, on the hompage at least, are the USENET archives. And I don't think the older ones were added back either. I'm at a loss -- what's their biz plan now? Will they sell the archives as well and have . . . nothing?
posted by jwells at 2:42 PM PST - 3 comments

The ethical problems of biotech patents have been noted here before. Now the New Scientist reports that those patent applications are on the brink of crippling the world wide patent system to the detriment of real inventions and to the disadvantage of poorer countries (and what is the PC term for those now that 'third world' and even 'less developed countries' have fallen out of favor?)
posted by norm at 2:30 PM PST - 6 comments

A good Flash intro? Other than what the company is about, i was impressed with the Flash intro, especially the music which goes with it.
posted by Zool at 2:09 PM PST - 23 comments

How the hell did we miss this?

AmIKottkeOrNot?
posted by baylink at 1:45 PM PST - 20 comments

Bird On A Wire's 2nd Annual National Film Registry Contest is on! Predict which films you think will be added to the National Film Registry this year, and you could win prizes! "The National Film Registry is a collection of American movies which, because of their artistic, historical, or cutural significance, have been deemed worthy of preservation." Eligible movies are American-made, over 10 years old, and not already on the list (the criteria for the list itself).

In the event of a tie, Bird on a Wire will pick a winner by whim, so as long as you choose eligible films, you have a good chance of winning. Pick up to 25 films; deadline for submissions is December 25. The NFR announces its selections on December 27.

Post and discuss your entries here!
posted by dan_of_brainlog at 1:28 PM PST - 1 comments

Not current news, but still an interesting read: Ocean Current Modelling Via Hockey Gloves and Legos.
posted by plinth at 1:09 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Reno blocks release of Palestinian man held without charges. Janet is gonna get a nasty reputation for locking up people "for national security reasons" without charging them with anything.
posted by Optamystic at 1:00 PM PST - 2 comments

Read the truth behind what actually happened the day the Bill Gates was assasinated. (via memepool)
posted by o2b at 12:04 PM PST - 11 comments

Banned Artists Move Online Local artists in Singapore who have had their artworks banned are putting their work on the Web.
posted by 120degrees at 10:53 AM PST - 1 comments

Oldsmobile succumbs. Another auto nameplate goes the way of the dodo... and Plymouth... ending up nowhere but in memories. While corporations seem to want brand above everything else, doesn't reducing the number of brands equal a contradiction?
posted by hijinx at 10:38 AM PST - 20 comments

Spammimic : The novelty wears off quickly, but it's an amusing diversion for a minute or two.
posted by champignon at 9:53 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Japanese Insurance Firm to Cover Victims of Stalking
A major Japanese insurance company will offer a product to help cover women who find themselves victims of stalking. The new law specifies crimes such as repeated anonymous telephone calls, sending pornographic videos or pictures or staking out the home of a victim.
posted by 120degrees at 9:39 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

IBM to spend $1 billion on Linux in 2001 Look for OS/3 to hit store shelves by 4Q 2001...
posted by Brilliantcrank at 8:10 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

6 year-old boy in foster care because his mother insists on breastfeeding him. "It's an offense to me that my child has been in foster care for over 120 days because [the state] decided it didn't believe in my parenting philosophy," said the unidentified mother.
posted by ethmar at 6:20 AM PST - 26 comments

 ISAWYOU.COM SETS STAGE FOR RADICAL, NEW MESSAGING MEDIUM --Zonagraphic Messaging connects people, communities worldwide. So not only can you get in touch with that cutey you saw in the mall last week and didn't get a chance to talk to, but you can also report crimes & rat on bad drivers. I wonder what other uses could there be for this service?
posted by black8 at 6:13 AM PST - 9 comments

It's not After Dark or "starfield simulation." Not by a long shot. Refresh has comprised a set of rather artistic and inspired screen savers.
posted by tatochip at 5:50 AM PST - 3 comments

Rangers, Saints, Hubbard, Comcast, AOL, Verizon, Marcus, Microsoft. Good god. The evil really does support Bush. But, I can't really say that Jane Fonda or Infoseek is any better.
posted by tiaka at 5:37 AM PST - 2 comments

Tex. Rangers buy shortstop Rodriguez for $252 million... yikes!! That's way too much money for baseball franchises to be spending, or is it? [via usr/bin/girl]
posted by Cavatica at 5:34 AM PST - 10 comments

she would do it all over again, "only better and sooner." but, the last time she checked, she was out of any do-overs.
posted by tiaka at 5:25 AM PST - 1 comments

The Kensington Runestone. In 1898 a farmer in Minnesota named Olaf Ohmann, dug up from his property a stone covered in runes (viking enscriptions). When it was deciphered it read:

8 Goths (Swedes) and 22 Norwegians on a voyage of discovery from Vinland (of) the West...

Read more inside.
posted by lagado at 3:31 AM PST - 22 comments

Seven of every ten women appearing as centrefold models in Playboy magazine during the past 20 years are clinically underweight "Given the perception of Playboy centrefolds as culturally ideal women, the notion that 70% of them are underweight highlights the social pressure on women to be thin and helps to explain the high levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating," "It's not just a case of models getting skinnier, but also that the numbers of overweight and obese people have gone through the roof in recent years."
posted by lagado at 9:27 PM PST - 21 comments

Feed redesigns. I can imagine the design review: “Easy on the bandwidth!”
posted by capt.crackpipe at 5:08 PM PST - 39 comments

Just let Canadians decide and there won't be a tie.
posted by tranquileye at 2:09 PM PST - 21 comments

Google Toolbar -- anyone try this yet?
posted by johnb at 1:06 PM PST - 20 comments

"If they are, I am..." Bush in an extraordinary display of independant thought.
posted by jyoung at 11:08 AM PST - 14 comments

Behold, the Arnocorps! "ArnoCorps is never at a loss for inspiration when it comes to lyrical content. Based on international lore and mythology, their songs shed light on both the particular and universal themes of human existence. Offering gripping stories about engaging characters which raise the sorts of questions contained in great philosophical works-- such as why are we here, what is the meaning of our lives and what happens after we die? "
The original Arnold Schwarzenegger tribute band. Enjoy.
posted by Hackworth at 10:57 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Send a Telegram to the Supreme Court Michael Moore has come up with another good idea. let the Supreme Court know your opinion through a hand delivered telegram. For only $31.90 your message will arrive hand-delivered by Western Union. Stop stopping the count. Mike suggests you call, but Western Union lets you do it online.
posted by DragonBoy at 8:30 AM PST - 19 comments

Business as usual. "Children, the weakest link in our society, are raped, battered, shot, tortured and murdered, while their tormentors go unpunished. Pedophiles roam the globe in search of countries where their offense is viewed as tourist entertainment. Women are beaten and abused without recourse on a daily basis; the cruelty of parents and employers is often dismissed as disciplinary measures necessary in the home or the work place; wars are waged in which women and children are the main victims. We look the other way, or, at best, applaud the launching of well-meaning organisations expected somehow to ease our feelings of guilt at the havoc wrought on innocent and helpless people's lives."

While I find this author quite provocative, I see that later in the article she mentions an alleged lynching that may or may not have taken place. Is this Cassie Bernall revisited?
posted by ethmar at 6:48 AM PST - 20 comments

Bet he can't pull any, either.
posted by holloway at 6:33 AM PST - 10 comments

Ever wondered where Lorem ipsum... came from?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ulliam corper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem veleum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel willum lunombro dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.
posted by Foaf at 5:53 AM PST - 12 comments

"Hey there, sport! What's all the racket?" "It's The Stupid SIMulated Human Pet Tricks, Daddy!" No really this is good. Stupid. But good. If anyone's ever wondered what some of the characters from The Sims would look like in hokey live-action Not Ready For Television commercials, now's your chance!
This site requires the Quicktime and Flash Player plug-ins. Be careful. This site crashed my computer once.
posted by ZachsMind at 4:24 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

It was twenty years ago today Sergeant - er, President Carter signed into law the EPA's Superfund Program for the cleanup of toxic waste sites. Today, after the program has cleaned hundreds of sites, General Electric is suing to have the law overturned.
posted by Aaaugh! at 12:17 AM PST - 14 comments

The Opera Browser is now ad-supported freeware. What does this mean for Internet Explorer and Netscape?
posted by milnak at 10:57 PM PST - 23 comments

Supreme Court II: Election Boogaloo. Programs, getcher programs here! Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can get your grubby hands on the Bush and Gore briefs right now. Fascinating reading. PDF files, of course.
posted by aaron at 9:26 PM PST - 2 comments

Birds are not descended from Dinosaurs. The latest in the ongoing debate about the origin of birds and whether they evolved from dinosaurs or from a earlier common ancestor. Chinese scientists report the discovery of a 120 million year old bird fossil that had feathers and could clearly fly.
posted by lagado at 8:47 PM PST - 3 comments

I was doing some research for a (since abandoned) project, and came across a freeware version of logo for windows. After a little more digging I came up with a palm version. So, how many of you hip web kids started out with the tiny triangular turtle?
posted by alan at 5:56 PM PST - 22 comments

Blast from the past
Oh, those halcyon days of text-based real-time chat, before there was a Web. (I'm catching up on my link quotient....)
posted by rschram at 4:09 PM PST - 11 comments

Is Anthropology Evil?
Surprised to not have seen this posted sooner.
posted by rschram at 4:07 PM PST - 3 comments

Since 1977, the Billboard Liberation Front has been creatively altering the billboards of San Francisco. Highlights of their site include photos of their accomplishments and archived news stories from pre-web times.
posted by Aaaugh! at 2:33 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Lynn Conway is one of the major talents in the history of the development of computers, responsible for major advances without which computers we buy now would be much different. She's also a transsexual, born physically male. While working for IBM she had her sex-change operation, and IBM immediately fired her for it.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:11 AM PST - 7 comments

ELECTION: "I'm with the Bush-Cheney Team: I'm here to stop the vote!" That pretty much says it all for me...
posted by baylink at 8:48 AM PST - 58 comments

Crunch all you want! We'll give you food poisoning!
"The corn has not been approved for human consumption..!" Run for your lives! The nation and the world faces a crisis today as Cheetos and Funyuns supplies drop to critical lows, and the competition among snack foods is fierce! The nation is suffering a Cheetos crunch! This has got to be one of the funniest melodramatic pieces ever to come out of the DeMoN. Just pretend Dan Rather is reading the copy to you. Or better yet, Walter Cronkite.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:13 PM PST - 5 comments

George Bush the Elder finally got hip!
posted by rushmc at 7:26 PM PST - 5 comments

Ray Bradbury to weigh in at a symposium on regional transit problems. Flying cars! Flying cars!
posted by heather at 6:53 PM PST - 4 comments

Cruelty or reality? A San Fran ballet school rejects an eight-year-old would-be ballerina deemed too large to dance.
posted by bilco at 5:29 PM PST - 32 comments

Ain't gonna be no link here, but just a comment. Other deadlines may slip, but Florida has to settle things by Monday, December 18, or they don't get to participate in this election. Inside is an analysis of what happens then.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 3:37 PM PST - 11 comments

NYtimes cover story this week: Gay, 15, and Out [in cyberspace] Lonely Gay Teen Seeking Same The Internet was supposed to change everything. For gay kids, it really has.

"for homosexual teenagers with computer access, the Internet has, quite simply, revolutionized the experience of growing up gay. Isolation and shame persist among gay teenagers, of course, but now, along with the inhospitable families and towns in which many find themselves marooned, there exists a parallel online community -- real people like them in cyberspace with whom they can chat, exchange messages and even engage in (online) sex."

also: Online Panel: Author Jennifer Egan and Web Experts Discuss What It Takes to Create a Space for Gay Teens
posted by palegirl at 12:29 PM PST - 9 comments

Anarchist Rhetoric Gone Mainstream -- Democrats and Republicans have appropriated anarchist rhetoric while -- perversely -- strengthening state power at the same time. "...So it is that anarchists ultimately agree with the classical liberal thinker Adam Smith - ironically held to be a great classical exponent of laissez faire capitalism - when he wrote in 1776 that 'Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.' The right-wing 'anti-statists' who might otherwise venerate Smith cannot bring themselves to admit this fact. While seeking to enable private power to run government institutions more openly, they do not undermine the State's power but merely make sure it fulfills its classical role. "
posted by johnb at 11:25 AM PST - 9 comments

5k site debuts ...and it's awesome. Stewart, Eric and Matt have obviously collaborated well on this project.
It really whets my appetite for the TicketStubs site, which I'm really looking forward to, aren't you?
posted by williamtry at 9:43 AM PST - 7 comments

Choose your own election. Worth reading, just for a bit of 80s nostalgia.
posted by holgate at 7:04 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Angela Gunn's take on the Planet Project website!
posted by black8 at 5:00 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

HEADLINE: Metafilter so jaded by the U.S. election that this post will draw zero comments.
posted by lagado at 2:53 AM PST - 30 comments

Wasted time: noticing at 1am that Homestead.com's waving house looks like a member of The Residents.
posted by gluechunk at 1:04 AM PST - 1 comments

Another one bites the dust.. - Riffage is dead. Long live Riffage. Just as well. I never liked their webdesign anyway, but that's a matter of personal taste. I hate to see another soldier for "uncharted territories" fall prey to reality.
posted by ZachsMind at 10:00 PM PST - 1 comments

"As of November 2000, I will no longer respond to questions concerning this subject." So says frustrated inventor of the UPC barcode George J. Laurer. You know, the question about barcodes, 666 and the Mark of the Beast. "It is simply a coincidence like the fact that my first, middle, and last name all have 6 letters. " Sure thing, George, we really believe you...
posted by lagado at 8:59 PM PST - 8 comments

"Shinty Squad Probed!" Just found this headline amusing....
posted by grank at 8:05 PM PST - 2 comments

Now for something a lot different, and for geeks only: Bose-Einstein Condensation. More inside
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:23 PM PST - 3 comments

Reach out and touch someone unless they live in Cuba, where almost all direct phone service with the US is about to be cut. Where's Elian when you need him? Riding a scooter?
posted by NickBarat at 6:53 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

If there's ever been a weirder contest prize than this one, I've never heard of it. Or a more offensive one, actually. I wonder how many women will enter without realizing they've done so?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:06 PM PST - 15 comments

E! Online presents the top devils (take that literally) in the movies. It's from November, but I spotted it just now via the Guardian Weblog
posted by jhiggy at 2:51 PM PST - 4 comments

A review of the Legend Bagger Vance written in the Mad Ape Den dialect. What is Mad Ape Den, you ask? It is a dialect which spurns all words with more than three letters. After all, "If you can not say it in one or in two (or in one and two) why say it at all?"
posted by pixelpony at 1:56 PM PST - 6 comments

It's about time someone designed a mother board for grrls. (You probably can't read the text, but the pictures are enough. Via Insane Hardware)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 1:28 PM PST - 5 comments

The six million pound man? Is he visionary or just stupid? More important, is this really something we want, even if he can make it work?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 1:21 PM PST - 6 comments

Yahoo-ification of the Web. Yahoo buys E-Groups. They bought Webring.org a few months back. What is next? Will my Yahoo screen name become my legal name? And don't even talk to me about the spam issue, because I might start to cry.
posted by kristin at 1:18 PM PST - 11 comments

Histories for eveything!
posted by grumblebee at 1:01 PM PST - 2 comments

The Grinch who stole eBay? Here's a weird one; help cheerfully accepted. The link is to a search on eBay for Novatel Minstrel's; I decided I wanted to buy one. Everywhere I run the search from, I get substantially different results. Like, 2 answers vs 12. I'd be interested to know if other people who hit the link see similar behavior... This smells weird... kinda like the Amazon differential pricing think, but I can't see a reason why...
posted by baylink at 12:51 PM PST - 8 comments

Warner Brothers is going after Harry Potter fan sites. This isn't the first time. It should be interesting to see if they come after The Leaky Cauldron Weblog. It seems they're going after sites with "Harry Potter" as part of the domain name. However they do have a trademark for "Leaky Cauldron".
posted by bkdelong at 12:18 PM PST - 4 comments

The 13th Story fiction site is running "an interactive experiment in collaborative fiction" and looking for the "best online fiction" of 2000.
posted by jhiggy at 11:15 AM PST - 1 comments

Apple Cubebook?! Sounds like Apple is working their ass off to get new products out to show in January. The Cubebook sounds cool and I am sure there would be pictures if MacOS Rumors wasn't in Apple's back pocket.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 9:42 AM PST - 9 comments

Where were you when you heard that John Lennon had died, 20 years ago today? I was seven, getting ready for school when the news came over on our old radiogram, and I can remember my mother's white-faced shock: one of those moments that emblazoned itself upon my memory.
posted by holgate at 7:56 AM PST - 59 comments

Only 24 more days til the Ice Hotel Quebec opens! You may have heard of the Swedish Ice Hotel, well now they are building one in Canada. A hotel built from ice and snow, and rebuilt every year. It looks beautiful, but I have to wonder, do they bother putting ice machines out in the hall next to the soda machine? Are hair dryers and irons banned? Would you spend a night at an ice hotel? Just remember to pack your fur lined footie pyjamas!
posted by ljc at 7:31 AM PST - 7 comments

WAP usability report - Cheap! only 18 bucks, Jakob cares about you, otherwise he would have charged you 80k.
Quick run-down : 70% of the users answered no when asked whether they would like to have a WAP phone within one year; even the simplest tasks take much too much time to provide any satisfaction to users; even after spending a week using a WAP phone, user performance remained appallingly low;
posted by tiaka at 7:01 AM PST - 6 comments

The Tomb Raider Teaser... premieres today. I received an email about it, and it seems Paramount's pushing it really hard. Perhaps it's just me, but I've noticed that since Episode I, Teasers are becoming just as popular as the full blown trailer. Anyway, here's to hoping Paramount has a well thought out story and good acting to boot.
posted by Cavatica at 5:32 AM PST - 21 comments

The Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer), first published in 1486, is arguably one of the most infamous books ever written, due primarily to its position and regard during the Middle Ages. It served as a guidebook for Inquisitors during the Inquisition, and was designed to aid them in the identification, prosecution, and dispatching of Witches. "Therefore, let us now chiefly consider women; and first, why this kind of perfidy is found more in so fragile a sex than in men. And our inquiry will first be general, as to the general conditions of women; secondly, particular, as to which sort of women are found to be given to superstition and witchcraft; and thirdly, specifically with regard to midwives, who surpass all others in wickedness." link via the always excellent larkfarm
posted by lagado at 5:28 AM PST - 4 comments

Priceless quotes from web design clients. "I think this should always be spinning." "I don't think people will be able to focus on the words..." "Make it spin DAMMIT!!" Some of these are downright hilarious.
posted by tomorama at 10:38 PM PST - 22 comments

Curiouser and curiouser... They are talking of making a movie based on the new game, of which some of us enjoyed the recently released demo. Since I thought the mood of the game was better than its playability (granted, I have yet to find a game whose playability satifies me), this could be pretty cool.
posted by rushmc at 6:19 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Flip a coin! Sometimes two heads are NOT better than one...
posted by rushmc at 5:58 PM PST - 12 comments

Irish peace process and America Bill Clinton is heading to Ireland to sort out the Irish peace process.Over the past four years he has made consistent efforts to resolve a conlfict that has lasted for the past 30 years.

Now, however, as the Ameerican voting spectacle continues and public trust in the American political system is being gradually eroded, it seems likely that the ability of the White House to help resolve regional disputes will disappear completely. Lets face, who's going to trust two adults that seem intent on behaving like spoilt children
posted by druadh at 5:56 PM PST - 13 comments

In the late 1940s, a builder named William Levitt started a revolution in a Long Island potato field. Levitt built 2,000 simple, identical houses for returning GIs in the midst of a nationwide housing crisis. Levittown, as the development became known, was the first emblem of a new American lifestyle -- suburbanism. "I think the reality of the situation is that the suburbs are going to become the slums of tomorrow ... Some of them will be the ruins of tomorrow." link via thewebtoday.
posted by lagado at 4:55 PM PST - 8 comments

Hey gamers! Do you still harbor a fondness for the '80s cult classic Discs of Tron, but you're unwilling to give up your favorite first-person shooter? Welcome to Discs of Quake.
posted by jjg at 3:17 PM PST - 3 comments

About 250 million years ago all of the continents were joined in a single land mass called Pangea. Then they broke up and drifted apart to their present positions. Plate tectonic projections forecast that 250 million years from now, the continents will once again join up into a single land mass now dubbed Pangea Ultima. JRR Tolkien couldn't have dreamt up a better Middle Earth.
posted by lagado at 3:13 PM PST - 16 comments

When headlines go bad part infinity. I know it's a crude crude joke to be making, but after all the election crap, I just can't help but laughing at the title "climax in court" coupled with the picture of that judge in his formal robe...
posted by almostcool at 2:57 PM PST - 7 comments

Gotta drop the kids off at the pool... Now my palm pilot knows where to go when I gotta go. What's next?
posted by daver at 2:44 PM PST - 1 comments

Which would you rather be, a space shuttle astronaut or a technician on board the International Space Station? I know my answer.
posted by grumblebee at 1:23 PM PST - 8 comments

Clinton: Pot Smokers Shouldn't Go to Prison Whoa -- now he tells us.
posted by snakey at 11:17 AM PST - 16 comments

FLASH: Iridium Saved. I don't get to write too many two word flashes... The DoD, specifically DISA, signed an 11th inning 2 year $72 million contract with Iridium LLC, saving them from splashing the constellation. [more...]
posted by baylink at 10:41 AM PST - 21 comments

The Male Minority The percentage of men enrolled in higher education has dropped below that of women. Are men not encouraged as much as women to go to college?
posted by amanda at 10:39 AM PST - 15 comments

Clinton tells Rolling Stone: 'I probably would have run again'

Excerpt: "Does he think he'd have been a three-time winner? "Yes. I do. But it's hard to say, because it's entirely academic," Clinton said."
posted by owillis at 10:22 AM PST - 14 comments

Own a piece of History! At least it is for a good cause. Though, I don't know who would want to buy it. I am sure there are a few people out there who will.
posted by da5id at 10:00 AM PST - 4 comments

No surprises here. Or are there? And just when the networks are separating the subjective wheat from the more obvious chaff, look what's waiting in the wings. Can't wait.
posted by ethmar at 9:43 AM PST - 6 comments

Mom, can I get a scooter?
posted by tiaka at 7:07 AM PST - 21 comments

I know it's all about anti-tobacco, but I still don't get their television commercials. Their website is hella phat, though.
posted by SilentSalamander at 5:40 PM PST - 43 comments

USA Network complies with Tylenol's request to halt production of a drug-tampering movie.
posted by gluechunk at 4:35 PM PST - 11 comments

Who loves ya baby AmIHotOrNot with a twist, humiliated by receiving a paltry 2.3 ? Could it be that ninety nine percent of the votes came from vegetarian midgets that smoke ? Wouldn't it be nice to know you are a solid 9.4 amongst the one percent of blonde Amazonian godess' ? Get detailed demographic info on the types of people voting for you :)
posted by zeoslap at 4:12 PM PST - 7 comments

Think you should be King or Queen of England? Apply here.
posted by trox at 3:02 PM PST - 8 comments

What a delicious fedora you're wearing! I guess I'm adding to my growing body of stupid, inconsequential links, but hey, everyone needs a niche.
posted by Skot at 12:41 PM PST - 3 comments

Only nine days left to enter your website in the competition for SXSW 2001. All categories but one are for websites that are newly created in 2000 (the other category is for redesigned/relaunched websites).
posted by beth at 10:30 AM PST - 7 comments

This would be funnier if it wasn't so close to the truth. And I thought the Onion made up their fake news.
posted by norm at 10:24 AM PST - 15 comments

And this month's award for the most useless application of modern technology goes to.......Alison's PantsCam! Give a couple of college students a digital camera, a wireless network, and some free time, and they'll provide streaming data of the insides of their pants. Once again, I go to the wrong University.
posted by Arvid at 8:41 AM PST - 19 comments

Monsanto's "New Agent Orange" used in Columbia "The herbicide glyphosate has been blamed for destroying acres of trees and contaminating wells, streams and ponds. . . long term ecological effects could be severe."
posted by snakey at 8:40 AM PST - 12 comments

when headlines go bad, yet again. this will be rotated off the site soon, i'm sure, but it was good for a chuckle:

American guilty of spying in Russia: Pope sentenced to 20 years in prison
posted by o2b at 8:32 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Curious George W.
posted by Veruca at 7:53 AM PST - 49 comments

Time Digital 2026: Normally I wouldn't get too excited about Time Digital, but this issue was edited by SF writer Bruce Sterling and features such future niceties as sewerbots and organically grown homes. Now if we could only get him to guest-edit Family PC...
posted by mecran01 at 6:16 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

India discovers weblogs It doesn't say much, but it's a start. Print alert: There's also an article in Speak magazines about online journals and weblogs.
posted by debrahyde at 5:07 AM PST - 3 comments

It feels like 1997 all over again. I guess Uncle Steve's Reality Distortion Field has a limited radius after all. How's everyone's favorite fruit company going to pull out of this one? I don't think OS X is going to be the new iMac. (Although the Cube looks like it's on track to become the next 20th Anniversary Mac...)
posted by darukaru at 4:15 AM PST - 23 comments

Eight Sword Myths by Glenn Pettit is a relaxing unobtrustive and straight-forward read for those who like to collect, brandish, or just stare in awe at c-c-c-cutlery. And who doesn't? This document dispells certain modern misunderstandings but also tips a hat to timeless legend itself.
posted by ZachsMind at 12:53 AM PST - 2 comments

Can we say "Most misleading headline"? "Cybersex News Report Sparks Outcry" sure doesn't imply to me the same thing as the body of the story. I thought there might actually be something more interesting inside.
posted by ookamaka at 11:42 PM PST - 5 comments

"Dolly team creates designer chicks" Another headline gone bad. Did the designers of Barbie start working on their own line of fashion clothes for young women?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:37 PM PST - 3 comments

Actor killed by L.A. police shot in the back & the back of the head -- the wounds appeared to contradict police accounts that Anthony Dwain Lee, who carried a fake .357 Magnum gun as an apparent part of his Halloween costume, pointed the gun at Officer Tarriel Hopper, causing the patrolman to fear for his life and shoot in response.
posted by palegirl at 7:42 PM PST - 2 comments

Inside the world of Alcoholics Anonymous: John Sutherland has a long piece in the London Review of Books on how AA operates and why it works well for some. The article purports to be a review of a biography of Bill W., one of AA's co-founders, but there is very little review in it; it's mainly a discussion of what AA is all about for a British readership. I am not an AA member, but have attended open AA meetings, have AA friends and belong to a different 12-step group so I can say it's a fairly accurate piece, though colored with some quirky opinions and a few opinions I think are wrong. An occasional line is humorous: "If you accept the modest estimate that 10 per cent of the adult population of this country are problem drinkers then you will conclude that the LRB readership will contain some 10,000 of them. And that 1.5 contributors per issue might have to be so classified." Yes. I'd be willing to wager a few quid that 1.5 contributors to almost any periodical have an alcohol problem! Sutherland correctly observes that the anonymous nature of AA means no one will ever be able to track how many people the program has truly "reformed" (an old-school AAer would say no one is ever reformed, they're only recovering a day at a time). The main beef I have with his piece is his statement about other organizations: Weight Watchers is NOT based on AA, though Overeaters Anonymous is; also, I don't think it is fair to say Al-Anon, OA and Narcotics Anonymous are weak imitations of AA.
posted by jhiggy at 6:08 PM PST - 22 comments

Carnivore sucks. You think so, but did you know that Steve Bellovin, Matt Blaze, Peter G Neumann and Gene Spafford agree with you? Along with David Farber from UPenn, they were asked to identify specific areas of concern by the Chief Scientist at Justice for review by a team from the Illinois Institute or Technology's Research Insititute. They weren't real impressed with the quality of the report that team returned.
posted by baylink at 4:51 PM PST - 2 comments

Sony's latest ad campaign has been pulled from the networks for being too edgy. It's certainly got an edge that I doubt children would understand, but they're still pretty funny (part 2 and part 3). Is this what happens when we have to protect everyone from anything remotely racy? Do you agree with the decision to pull them off the air?
posted by mathowie at 4:13 PM PST - 35 comments

University "journalist" threatens the President's life. How stupid do you have to be??? Don't they know that threatening the President's life, even in a joking manner is a Felony Offense?
posted by da5id at 3:30 PM PST - 25 comments

Is V2_OS the next Linux?
No. But it is small, fast and GPL'd. And, unfortunately, monotasking.
posted by davidgentle at 3:23 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Glass Redux. I don't know what is going on with reporters lately. Did Stephen Glass start a trend?
posted by bkdelong at 12:46 PM PST - 11 comments

Mini-MOMA is all the wonder of a large US city Museum of Modern Art, crammed into tiny pixelated goodness. Mouseover the pieces to see titles and artist names. [via archinect]
posted by mathowie at 12:44 PM PST - 1 comments

If you tried to switch hosting services only to have your domain held hostage, and if no one else can help, maybe you can hire DomainRescue.
posted by jjg at 11:51 AM PST - 8 comments

A Very Wookie Christmas. I'm speechless in horror. This actually happened? This actually made it to the airwaves? Thank heavens Lucas is keeping it deeply, deeply hidden forever.
posted by dnash at 10:54 AM PST - 26 comments

Net faces 10-year Olympic shutout. Chairman of the IOC Internet working group says, "Unless and until you can guarantee your internet signal is only available within your territory, you cannot put video on your website. We're going to go forward with that and we're going to see how it evolves." Anyone have some portable transmission walls they can erect on international boundaries every two years?
posted by netbros at 10:05 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Why not to shop at Cub foods.
posted by tiaka at 10:05 AM PST - 9 comments

USA May Expand Columbian War I know, let's drag the rest of Latin America into this stupid war! Sure sounds good to me. . .
posted by snakey at 9:49 AM PST - 3 comments

Screen Wars, a decent stab by Stephen Levy from Newsweek/MSNBC at summarizing the changes afoot in desktop OS GUIs. Credit where credit is due for some notable Apple alums; more faith than is justified in .NET.
posted by m.polo at 9:45 AM PST - 14 comments

The inevitable Fried Chicken Head Dance has been perpetrated by a wacky cow orker of mine, who confesses that he has way too much time on his hands.
posted by beth at 9:41 AM PST - 6 comments

Cell Phone Guns Discovered. “We find it very, very alarming,” says Wolfgang Dicke of the German Police union. “It means police will have to draw their weapons whenever a person being checked reaches for their mobile phone.”
posted by pnevares at 8:45 AM PST - 70 comments

The Dutch foreign ministry tells you all about Sinterklaas, the Dutch predecessor of Santa Claus (see also Tsja).
posted by tsja at 8:36 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

"I got to do nearly everything I wanted, up to the very end." Today, the Florida Times-Union published the last entry in the cancer journal of Tara McParland, a news photographer who died Nov. 21 at age 33.
posted by rcade at 7:06 AM PST - 4 comments

A.I. script reviewed.
posted by tiaka at 6:31 AM PST - 10 comments

YASL: Yet another Salon link. This could be the smoking gun. Or just smoke. Judgement?
posted by ethmar at 6:31 AM PST - 6 comments

Is FOJM a reflective version of Lomography not tied to a specific camera?
posted by plinth at 6:23 AM PST - 9 comments

Supreme Court hears the D.C. Metro fries case. While all the reporters were out filing misleading dispatches on the decision in the Florida case, Justices Scalia and Souter started bantering with one of the attorneys (in the "Texas seat belt case" being argued today) about the girl arrested for eating fries in the Metro.
posted by grimmelm at 8:26 PM PST - 5 comments

Wired wants your nomination for worst Vaporware of the year 2000. (Hardware included.) Read the 1999 article here.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:13 PM PST - 29 comments

A little too much Aural Sex, Mr. Wilde?
posted by plinth at 5:13 PM PST - 4 comments

ELECTION: Supremes remand decision to SCOFL. He may have balls, but his *luck* is running low.
posted by baylink at 1:36 PM PST - 13 comments

Bush attempts to move on and creates a Web site to help facilitate the process. My, he does have bal^H^H^Hguts doesn't he? I think at this point Gore doesn't expect to win and is continuing with his pursuits to make sure the laws get changed for the next election. What do you think?
posted by bkdelong at 1:18 PM PST - 29 comments

Slash swears on UK kiddie show - do they need any more reason to bring him back into GnR?? Duff too, while you're at it.
posted by NickBarat at 11:24 AM PST - 12 comments

Since 1965, the Pioneer 6 space probe has quietly maintained its orbit around the sun between Earth and Venus. This week, in commemoration of the anniversary of its launch, NASA will attempt to re-establish contact with the oldest surviving spacecraft.
posted by jjg at 10:49 AM PST - 1 comments

The Apache Software Foundation XML Project releases a new SVG toy.
posted by bkdelong at 9:26 AM PST - 4 comments

I wonder what the criteria are for screening clients for this type of data? "The Ikonos high-resolution satellite technology is ideally suited to meet the current and future high-resolution needs of the Turkish Government," said Ed Irvin, director of commercial remote sensing programs for Lockheed Martin.
posted by rushmc at 9:17 AM PST - 2 comments

THIS is a light saber?!? "There really isn't anything out there, other than a baton and pepper spray, that can halt a dangerous suspect without doing him or anyone else harm," Herr said.

Ouch.
posted by rushmc at 9:08 AM PST - 28 comments

Isn't it ironic: Imagine Media, publishers of Business 2.0 and other mags, have laid off 21 of the 26 people in thier online operations. Incredible quote: "...the layoffs stem from Imagine's failure to realize what was happening in the Internet space."
posted by Calebos at 7:57 AM PST - 5 comments

Filipinos, in their fight against Philippine President Joseph Estrada, have turned to their cell phones. (Real Audio from NPR) Activists are using the technology to organize rallies with thousands of people in days or hours instead of weeks. They are sending 30 million cell phone text messages a day, more than all of Europe combined. Cheap and difficult to censor. I wonder if this will catch on in China?
posted by quirked at 6:50 AM PST - 1 comments

Quintessentially.com is the most horrifying thing I have seen for a long time. It’s a members-only club for the Tatler-reading classes – people for whom the Sunday Times is a serious newspaper. Dare you delve into the invidious ‘benefits’ conferred by membership of this club (‘Quintessentially members will have very special treatment’!), or gaze upon the faces of the well-heeled sloanes and berties behind it?
posted by Mocata at 4:47 AM PST - 35 comments

2,000 year old Roman "Titanic" found in the sands 10 yards from the Sicilian shore. The vessel - up to 150ft long and equipped with ancient luxuries including candelabras, a hot tub and religious shrine - is thought to have ferried the Roman super-rich along the Mediterranean coast to various ports en route.
posted by lagado at 3:06 AM PST - 1 comments

Gwendolyn Brooks, poet, died Sunday.
posted by sugarfish at 1:10 AM PST - 5 comments

Metafilter pornolized. (via FARK)
posted by tamim at 11:45 PM PST - 4 comments

This is a really neat-o Advent/Christmas site. Click on each calendar day to see the author's collection of antique Christmas ornaments and what she does with them! Pleasant use of Flash and topical humor. This is its 3rd year.
posted by Lynsey at 11:24 PM PST - 1 comments

Giant German Swastika to Be Removed From Forest.
Slow Link Day. Every autumn, in a forest plantation 110 km north of Berlin, a giant 60-by-60 meter, golden swastika appears amongst the green pine trees. The symbol, which is only viewable from the air, is made up of deciduous larch trees and was planted in 1937 by a local merchant. It's illegal to display the swastika in Germany.
posted by lagado at 11:10 PM PST - 3 comments

As if things weren't tense enough between Taiwan and China. By the way, the standards for ship designations have inflated over the years. These "destroyers" would have been considered light cruisers in WWII.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:36 PM PST - 2 comments

"That wasn't me, that was the guy before me!" This is like "A bear walked in the door and ate it" from a little kid... What scares me is that people are stupid enough to fax him pictures of their credit cards. Wait until they see their next bills!
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:32 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

More Pseudo-Amazon Layout Fun It used to amaze me that people have entire careers based on ripping off others. Now it's just standard (I apologize for the thousandth post of an amazon.com tabs comment). The site actually looks like the old Amazon interface hooked up with the current Altavista site, and created some bizarre, overly-influenced mélange.
posted by Hankins at 2:57 PM PST - 12 comments

Columbian baldness cure involves getting your head licked by a cow. "I tried many different cows. The baby cows had no concentration."
posted by thc at 6:51 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Chancellor Clinton? Will Bill become Chancellor of Oxford University? Everyone at Oxford seems to think it is a good idea so, will Bill accept? Is this just an attempt by Oxford to compete with American Universities? (via drudge)
posted by jay at 4:04 AM PST - 18 comments