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February 2005 Archives
February 28
A Confessional for Pilots
- To improve aviation safety in America, NASA runs the
ASRS, a service that collects voluntary, anonymous reports on aviation-related goofs in exchange for certain
immunities and suggestions of clemency. Every month selected reports are published in the
Callback newsletter, showcasing the full spectrum of factors that lead flyers to bad decisions: distraction, bad habits, overconfidence, poor planning, "get-home-itis", and on and on...
posted by tss at 11:55 PM PST - 9 comments
Typing...on a screen!
Text (and cover image) of a 1973 issue of Radio-Electronics mag, showing a new fangled way of typing with a TV screen. I like how the mag is billed as "for MEN with ideas in electronics." Heh...
posted by braun_richard at 7:45 PM PST - 8 comments
So I finally got around to watching
24, Fox's Golden Globe winning prime-time show. I normally don't go for shows like that, but I'd heard about
the controversy surrounding this season's story line. I was pretty damned shocked when the hero decided to spark up some electrodes and torture one of the terrorists to get information out of him. Apparently,
this is
nothing new for the show.
Can anyone think of a precedent for this type of heroic depiction of torture? On a network tv show?
posted by es_de_bah at 6:27 PM PST - 100 comments
Constant Trek
is the Australian husband and wife team of Gary and Paula Constant. On the 1st of August, 2004, they left London from Trafalgar square to walk to Cape Town in South Africa. It is a distance of over 10,500 miles, and has been four years in the planning.
posted by thebwit at 5:00 PM PST - 5 comments
"... Giordano Bruno might have been a pantheist.
A pantheist believes that God is everywhere, even in that speck of a fly you see there. You can imagine how satisfying that is—being everywhere is like being nowhere. Well, for Hegel it wasn’t God but the State that had to be everywhere; therefore, he was a Fascist.”
“But didn’t he live more than a hundred years ago?”
“So? Joan of Arc, also a Fascist of the highest order. Fascists have always existed. Since the age of . . . since the age of God. Take God—a Fascist.”
Umberto Eco in the
New Yorker
posted by matteo at 11:06 AM PST - 36 comments
Optimus Prime Dies of Prostate Cancer
"When it comes to prostate cancer, there's more than meets the eye," National Prostate Cancer Coalition CEO Richard N. Atkins, M.D. said. "Often times when one has symptoms for prostate cancer it's already in its late stages, that’s why early detection is so important."
posted by oissubke at 10:18 AM PST - 29 comments
"In politics, the impossible is the immoral."
A surprisingly thoughtful essay on the "uniqueness of Palestinian terror" from, of all places, Tech Central Station. I found much with which to both agree and disagree in this article - and on such contentious issues, that's no doubt the case for all readers - but, I found that, in reading this piece, my neurons never stopped firing, which is a rare and unusual sensation these days. 'Tis interesting.
Also attempting to deal across boundaries in the Mideast conflict:
Bitter Lemons, which features two themed columns apiece by Palestinian and Israeli writers each day.
posted by Sticherbeast at 9:48 AM PST - 8 comments
Our
old friend and sparring partner
Laurie Garrett has
resigned from Newsday, citing the dismal state of contemporary journalism: "When I think back to the old fellows who were retiring when I first arrived at Newsday – guys (almost all of them were guys) who had cop brothers and fathers working union jobs – I suspect most of them would be disgusted by what passes today for journalism."
posted by IshmaelGraves at 9:35 AM PST - 10 comments
Pupna
is "the search engine puppy that retrieves EXACTLY what you are searching for (and absolutely nothing else!)" ;-)
This is a simple yet rather humorous search engine parody - are there any other good ones out there?
posted by Metauser at 2:40 AM PST - 20 comments
What's Going On In Balochistan?
(
part 2)
Deception and treachery. Live and let die. The ultimate zero sum game. Repetition of bloody history: Call it what you may, something is happening in the Pakistani province of Balochistan that defies comprehension on any conventional scale. From a posting at
The Agonist. According to the article
Balochistan may be the key to future developments in Central Asia. Two former KGB agents report that Russian, Indian, Iranian and American agents are all supporting a resurgent insurrection which is
becoming increasingly active. Why would these countries do this? Two easy answers:
Oil pipelines and
China's Gwadar Port.
posted by afu at 12:53 AM PST - 9 comments
February 27
The main business of Napanoch, N.Y., is a maximum-security prison, Eastern New York Correctional Facility, also known as Happy Nap... There is, however, a reason that inmates call the prison Happy Nap. Eastern is more relaxed than other maximum-security prisons, or 'maxes,' in upstate New York, with less hostility between staff and prisoners, and as a result fewer U.I.'s, or 'unusual incidents' -- stabbings and the like. It is said that the farther upstate you go, the harsher the prison conditions can be. Among New York's maxes, Eastern has one of the best reputations. It is one of only three maximum-security prisons in the state where you can still get an education -- not just in manual skills, but a proper college education with a degree at the end, thanks to privately financed initiatives.
Uncaptive Minds
posted by y2karl at 9:40 PM PST - 14 comments
Eastwood wins.
Clint Eastwood got the double dipper tonight with Best Pic and Director. Not that Scorsese isn't badly due one, but the fact is, The Aviator is not one of Marty's top five films, while Million Dollar Babies is top five among Eastwood's pics. It's that simple.
My thought: I think this film and Mystic River proves, once and for all and without argument, that Eastwood is among the top American directors ever, up there with Scorsese, Sidney Lumet, Woody Allen, and the others. (He's actually better than Allen). I think all of the critics like Pauline Kael who dissed Clint without thinking over the years have to eat it and eat it hard.
posted by Leege at 9:14 PM PST - 115 comments
Is your favorite
swear word losing its
potency? Stock up on some new ones with the
Swearsaurus, a "
vast array of swearing, profanity, obscenity, blasphemy, cursing, cussing, and insulting in a massive 165 languages"
posted by Quartermass at 2:11 PM PST - 21 comments
funky do morro
From the ghettos of brazil comes this funky and fun music that recalls the energy and optimism of early 80's hip hop. Think Afrika Bambaataa and Malcolm McLaren. Before rap crossed over to the dark side.
posted by vronsky at 1:15 PM PST - 13 comments
Kids with Cameras
(warning, embedded QT video in link)
With an
Oscar Nominated documentary,
Born into
Brothels, under her belt,
Zana Briski's spinoff project,
Kids with Cameras, teaches children growing up in difficult circumstances the art and skills of photography to empower them to appreciate the beauty and dignity of their own expression.
With projects in
Calcutta,
Haiti,
Jerusalem and
Cairo, they send great photographers to lead workshops, the children are given inexpensive 35mm cameras to capture
whatever they choose and then the children's
pictures are shown (and
sold) around the world through exhibits, books and film.
posted by fenriq at 12:14 PM PST - 7 comments
World Jump Day.
Help fix global warming the easy way: get 600 million people to jump at the same time, and shift the earth's orbit. [Warning: somewhat irritating Flash interface.]
posted by DrJohnEvans at 10:07 AM PST - 30 comments
Governors Work to Improve H.S. Education
The nation's governors offered an alarming account of the American high school Saturday, saying only drastic change will keep millions of students from falling short.
"We can't keep explaining to our nation's parents or business leaders or college faculties why these kids can't do the work," said Virginia Democratic Gov. Mark Warner, as the state leaders convened for the first National Education Summit aimed at rallying governors around high school reform.
posted by Postroad at 9:02 AM PST - 44 comments
February 26
From the Top
is a weekly radio show broadcast
throughout the USA. It originates from Boston's New England Conservatory, but travels all over showcasing young classical musicians. The show can be heard (RealAudio) from the website, and there is an extensive
library as well an
archive of past shows (
photos too)... the kids are very talented, and the show's
hosts are great at bringing out their personalities.
posted by indices at 6:25 PM PST - 2 comments
Big Fun in the Big Town
Incredible German-produced documentary on hip hop and NY street culture from 1986. Features interviews and performances from Grandmaster Flash, Doug E Fresh, Run DMC, Roxanne Shante & Biz Markie, Schoolly D, and more.
posted by svidrigailov23 at 10:44 AM PST - 18 comments
Another reason to practice safe sex?
Man meets woman. Man has oral sex with woman. Woman keeps the sperm, uses it to impregnate herself, then sues for child support. Man counter-sues for emotional distress and "sperm theft". Although the emotional distress claim is still active, the "sperm theft" claim was dismissed. On that point, the court decided:
When plaintiff "delivered" his sperm, it was a gift -- an absolute and irrevocable transfer of title to property from a donor to a donee... There was no agreement that the original deposit would be returned upon request.
posted by halekon at 10:30 AM PST - 87 comments
Meet Mark.
I am a 49 year old truck driver. Divorced, one daughter, 18, looking for a LADY, 45 to 55 years old, no tatoos, no body piercings except ears, but most importantly NOT LIBERAL (lady and not liberal kind of go hand in hand, don't they?).
Mark is just one of the many available lovebirds waiting for you at
Hannidate --
Sean Hannity's very own Internet personals.
posted by grabbingsand at 10:19 AM PST - 87 comments
In
Education of Children from Birth to Puberty, Jesuit priest
Frank Nimrod shares his wisdom about the human body: "The cannibals can tell us that the fresh and warm brain, just taken out of the cranium is very sweet," and "Our nose does not only serve the purpose of respiration, but the purpose of smelling also." Meanwhile, retired Bell Telephone Laboratories engineer
I.W. Whiteside writes an entire volume decoding the strange light patterns on his bookcase. His conclusion? Aliens! "After much thought, I concluded that these people have computer brains and laser-beam eyes." These are just two of many
odd books.
posted by hyperizer at 9:34 AM PST - 10 comments
Republican Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney - a likely contender for the Presidential Race in 2008 - pulls out the "
gay marriage" card in two recent speeches: one in
South Carolina; the other in
Utah. Forget the fact that Romney seems to be spending most of his tenure as governor traveling outside the state, campaigning and not dealing with the affairs of the State, but he has now
flip-flopped on his stance...and now continues the use of "gay marriage" and "civil unions" as a divisive political ploy on a national stage.
posted by ericb at 7:56 AM PST - 26 comments
February 25
Sequoiadendron giganteum,
the giant sequoia, is arguably the largest living thing on earth. The second largest specimen, the Washington Tree, has recently been
getting shorter. It's top was discovered to be hollow in 1999--a researcher rappeled over 100 feet into the trunk--which is why its been vulnerable to fire and storms in recent years. The
before and after pictures show its transformation from a tree into, well, a
great big stump. But don't count it out just yet. Scientists think this old bugger
may bounce back. Still, it's probably time for a
visit, don't you think?
posted by donovan at 5:25 PM PST - 8 comments
Biojewelry
: Now you and your betrothed can exhange ring made of bone.
Your own bone. I, for one, welcome the day when consumer biotech makes our lives.....weirder. (Some pics not safe for the squeamish.)
posted by gnutron at 2:13 PM PST - 15 comments
With a Hush and a Whisper, Bush Drops Town Hall Meeting with Germans
During his trip to Germany on Wednesday, the main highlight of George W. Bush's trip was meant to be a "town hall"-style meeting with average Germans. But with the German government unwilling to permit a scripted event with questions approved in advance, the White House has quietly put the event on ice. Was Bush afraid the event might focus on prickly questions about Iraq and Iran rather than the rosy future he's been touting in Europe this week?
posted by Postroad at 2:13 PM PST - 53 comments
Condoleeza Rice's Hot Dominatrix Outfit
"Rice looked as though she was prepared to talk tough, knock heads and do a freeze-frame 'Matrix' jump kick if necessary. Who wouldn't give her ensemble a double take -- all the while hoping not to rub her the wrong way?"
"Rice's coat and boots speak of sex and power -- such a volatile combination, and one that in political circles rarely leads to anything but scandal. When looking at the image of Rice in Wiesbaden, the mind searches for ways to put it all into context. It turns to fiction, to caricature. To shadowy daydreams. Dominatrix! It is as though sex and power can only co-exist in a fantasy."
(Washington Post)
posted by punkbitch at 1:52 PM PST - 62 comments
Sunset Story.
High-spirited old leftists who refuse to go gently. A documentary about a pair of extraordinary women who live in a "nonprofit retirement home for free-thinking elders."
posted by semmi at 8:11 AM PST - 5 comments
Blogs suck
according to Michael Gorman, incoming president of the American Library Association.
posted by gimonca at 7:39 AM PST - 70 comments
February 24
Desperate Houseflies
: "In the backdrop of a picture-perfect neighborhood called Diphtheria Lane live six suburban houseflies whose lives are anything but perfect."
posted by dhruva at 10:37 PM PST - 9 comments
The Demoscene
is still going strong. It's been awhile since we last
discussed the scene, and it's still cranking out tons of great stuff. The new home of the scene has categories and ratings, which sure beats the
old standard. There's a bit of everything, from
legos to
disco, from
256 bytes to
64k to
fairly large, and from
Amiga to
Mac to
C64. All of the videos that require weird or new hardware have videos on the site, so everyone can enjoy the incredible programming, art, and
kinda cheesy music.
posted by JZig at 10:32 PM PST - 18 comments
I have been thinking about
masks lately.
Masks are
ancient and
universal, our ancestors put on masks to become an other, to become a god, even unto
this day.
Greek tragedy and
comedy began in the worship of
Dionysos, the
god of wine, intoxication, and creative ecstasy, in
rituals where worshipers often wore or worshipped masks. Indeed, the word for mask in Greek drama was persona, now commonly used to describe
constructed online identities. And so
we understand ourselves as wearing masks, whole series of masks--behind which we find only emptiness, for we can never see ourselves truly.
posted by y2karl at 9:03 PM PST - 30 comments
Ten best film list a critique of the U.S? The venerable [some say notorious] French film magazine
Cahiers du Cinema unveiled their
ten best films of 2004 list recently.
Other than their list typically leaning toward films by
auteurs - such as
Ingmar Bergman and
Hou Hsiao-hsien [and
Tarantino] - they also included
The Village by M. Night Shyamalan. With that choice are they rewarding the artistic merits of the film [which
most critics view as minimal] or are they making a statement about The United States? In short do they view the U.S. like the characters in the film - an isolated bunch of paranoid [Puritan] villagers living and acting off of their fears? Or is there some other reason they would choose the film as one of the year's best?
posted by Rashomon at 6:43 PM PST - 38 comments
When Multimedia Was Black and White
is a wonderful trip down memory lane, back when posters, music, games, and print layouts were done in crude black and white. Be sure to click on the little disk icons to see all the screenshots from old 80s apps.
posted by mathowie at 5:44 PM PST - 14 comments
Biggest Hair in Sports. Ever.
Australia and New Zealand recently played a
Twenty20 cricket match in Auckland - the first time this shortened version of the game (it
only take four hours to play) has been played in New Zealand.
To celebrate the occasion, the New Zealand team (for some unknown reason) spent the weeks before the game going retro: growing 70s style moustaches and sideburns, and wore their much-maligned beige uniforms that the one day team used to wear in the 80s. When the
team took to the pitch in front of a capacity stadium, the crowd was suitably rapturous in their appreciation of the
efforts made.
Has
a bigger mop of hair ever taken to a field or court in a professional sport, anywhere, ever?
posted by noizyboy at 5:00 PM PST - 55 comments
The 0xdeadbeef mailing list
, an early Metafilter, predates most of the Interweb and continues to this day. Run by
nerd kernel hacker Glen McCready, it chronicles such gems as the
Windows 95 RTM Baby Benchmark,
Steve Job's Theory of Life,
how to use sendmail.cf to play Towers of Hanoi,
the eskimo's (purported) 100 words for snow,
our terrible historical beer shortage,
the Shift Key FAQ,
the one click guide to becoming an international arms trafficker,
the Rockwell corporation's theory of near space defense,
the world record for an encased pork product,
Abbott and Costello Speak Unix,
the deer paving incident,
the Etch-A-Sketch Support FAQ,
the debunking of the don't run in the rain study,
entertaining error messages from Netscape beta releases,
the world's worst PDA-related simile,
the coolest smooth move ever,
suggestions for improvements to the Matrix, and
the secret habits of VPs. Among about
20,000 jokes, news items and random bits. A mother lode of archaeological timewasting goodness.
posted by felix at 3:50 PM PST - 14 comments
Tank-FX
Back in the day reverbs were created using speakers set up in a
chamber to make a studio recording sound like it was in a bigger space. Then
springs and plates were used to record the reverberations from electricity bouncing around metal. Eventually these were modelled in
electronics with varying degrees of success.
But now, as we see, the more things change the more they stay the same and you can participate in the world's first
truly global reverb.
posted by klik99 at 2:56 PM PST - 14 comments
The European Union
abandoned a plan to ban Nazi symbols throughout it's member nations. The ban was strongly supported by German
Ministers of Parliament after British Prince Harry wore Nazi insignia to a costume party. Among those opposed to the ban was the
Hindu Forum of Britain (press release) who launched a campaign to reclaim the Swastika. The symbol its self was in
Frequent popular use before WWII. Anti-Communists in former Soviet Block countries sought to
expand the ban to communist emblems. Searching for different points of views on this came up with an
earlier story of interfaith conflict over meaning, and a parallel to the European debate going on in
New Zealand.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 1:09 PM PST - 39 comments
Discover The Network.
I thought it was a joke, but it's not. I really enjoyed the intermingling of politicians/celebrities/academics with "known terrorists", "despots" and "bad people." And they use
Touchgraphs in their network analysis, good web apps at work! [
via]
posted by gsb at 11:00 AM PST - 27 comments
CiteULike
is a site for tagging online academic articles. It lies somewhere in the intersection of del.icio.us, CiteSeer, and EndNote. When you
tag an online article, you can add your own metadata, develop your own collection, and share other people's collections. You can also export your collection to BibTex or EndNote. While you can't access articles that you or your institution do not subscribe too, there seems to be a fair amount of CiteSeer stuff in there, for instance in relation to
collaborative filtering. There are also some
groups, such as
The Philosophy of Information.
posted by carter at 8:02 AM PST - 12 comments
Dave Winer slams the new Google Toolbar Autolink feature
as "poorly thought out" adware that unilaterally raises "serious integrity issues" for the Web.
Southern Rants adds this pointed critique: "The most important point Winer makes is that it's not about technology. It's about making a HUGE change on the Web, our new social nexus, without discussion. See, he and I are old enough to remember when no one would do such a thing without taking it to ISOC or some such org. It needs discussion. It needs consideration. That's what Google doesn't understand."
[via Ed Cone]
posted by mediareport at 7:48 AM PST - 96 comments
Bill Moyers: Theocrats and ideologues in charge of US government.
Moyers: For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a worldview despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad, but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.
posted by skallas at 2:01 AM PST - 100 comments
February 23
Shoui Hara can't stop drinking.
It's part of his job. A job where charm is a necessity, good looks a qualification, and unabashed flattering is all in a night's work. Shoui Hara is a host, a male
geisha working beneath the neon lights of Tokyo's Kabukicho, and in his line of work the
men entertain the women in a way you might not expect. A look at the complex relationships of the sometimes
very dangerous (NSFW) Japanese host clubs.
posted by dead_ at 10:10 PM PST - 13 comments
Insect sounds
: "but have you heard a rice weevil larva eating inside a wheat kernel, a termite cutting a piece of wood, or a grub chewing on a root?"
posted by dhruva at 9:39 PM PST - 10 comments
Randy vs. Shark
The ongoing saga of Randy and his archnemesis Shark. The creation of demented humor, MSN messenger, and two bored co-workers.
posted by BradNelson at 9:07 PM PST - 9 comments
Pam Bricker Passes -
Just as
Thievery Corporation's The Cosmic Game hits shelves, it's announced that acclaimed jazz vocalist
Pam Bricker, long-time Thievery conspirator--and probably the best guest vocalist the D.C. duo has ever had--has
passed.
Chung's blog post mentions, "it was most likely suicide." Are there any MeFi'ers out there who can provide more information? Confirm? Disconfirm?
posted by Mikey-San at 8:35 PM PST - 18 comments
The 10 unwritten rules of Oscar
"For the Academy, whatever stands out the most is best – even though, in terms of quality of work, it’s usually exactly the opposite: the less you notice something, the more accomplished it actaully is. But when it comes to second-guessing Oscar voters, it never hurts to ask yourself: Who did the “most” acting? Most editing? Most noticeable cinematography or music? Most conspicuous costumes or makeup or production design or screenwriting or directing?"
posted by Turtles all the way down at 7:13 PM PST - 16 comments
A
Vancouver couple were only recently identified as victims of the Asian Tsunami. While they didn't survive, their
photos of the approaching wave did. (First link includes info on how to donate to family's memorial fund.)
posted by mudpuppie at 4:03 PM PST - 47 comments
Deep inside the poetic stylings of John Bon Jovi.
To begin, I'd like to look at the opening verses of "Bed of Roses". You may think you understand the meaning behind this poem - that John Bon Jovi likes a lady, and is upset about it. This is just a sign of the brilliant, interweaving complexity of Bon Jovi. You can love the poem at that level, and many have, but let's go... inside.[
Coral Link - In case the other doesn't work]
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 9:14 AM PST - 23 comments
Lifehacker
is a fairly new addition to the
Gawker Media family of blogs, publishers of another personal favorite in the
Gizmodo gadget blog.
Lifehacker posts articles on how to do all sorts of things better/quicker/cooler/cheaper:
In its three short weeks of life, Lifehacker has given me good tips at a shockingly high frequency. Of course, the whole thing comes full circle with their frequent
Ask Metafilter Roundup posts.
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:56 AM PST - 65 comments
"So...we set everything up. We planned it out. Turned my house into a ... bank actually and acted it out for like weeks," the caller said, adding he and others were "buyin' Louis Vuitton this, Blass that, everything man." If you robbed a bank five months ago and did such a good job that you didn't get caught and the police have no leads, would you keep quiet? Not if you're
this guy, who was caught when he called into the Confessions segment of the
Drex Morning Show to brag about it five months later.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:01 AM PST - 15 comments
István Orosz
(note: annoying Flash, popup window) is a Hungarian graphic
artist. His
work includes numerous illusionistic engravings which conjure visual paradoxes using tricks with perspective in a manner strongly reminiscent of M. C.
Escher's. He has employed the technique of
anamorphosis to striking effect.
posted by misteraitch at 1:36 AM PST - 9 comments
February 22
Otis Granville Clark is a wonder. At 102, the former butler of Joan Crawford - who served Clark Gable and Charlie Chaplin - still drives, lives on his own and twice a week attends church in his home city of Tulsa, Oklahoma... Today his blue eyes have gone milky but they still sparkle, his wiry frame remains agile, and his most painful memories are still fresh - even after 83 years. Coiled on the edge of an understuffed sofa, Clark leans back and screws his eyes tight to summon up "that day". It remains the most vivid of his life... Historians call the firestorm that convulsed Tulsa from the evening of May 31 into the afternoon of June 1 the single worst event in the history of American race relations. To most Tulsans it is simply "the riot". But the carnage had nothing in common with the mass protests of Chicago, Detroit and Newark in the 1960s or the urban violence that laid siege to Los Angeles in 1992 after the white police officers who assaulted Rodney King were acquitted. The 1921 Tulsa race riot owes its name to an older American tradition, to the days when white mobs, with the consent of local authorities, dared to rid themselves of their black neighbours. The endeavour was an opportunity "to run the Negro out of Tulsa". Burnt Offerings .See also The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 or the tale of the lost city or another The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. See also Frequently Asked Questions from the Tulsa Reparations Coalition. Previous post by
allaboutgeorge re: Tulsa Race Riot Reparations on March 1, 2001 .
posted by y2karl at 5:47 PM PST - 172 comments
Return of Bee.
After several years Jason Little has started posting
weekly Bee Comix again. If you missed the original, make sure to check out the first 13 episodes.
There is something very
Tintin-ish about the animation that I find attractive.
posted by edgeways at 5:43 PM PST - 17 comments
Is a political solution on the horizon in Iraq?
Time Magazine reports that US military commanders are negotiating with Sunni nationalist insurgents or the first time.
"There are some hints of compromise: insurgent negotiators have told their U.S. counterparts they would accept a U.N. peacekeeping force as the U.S. troop presence recedes. Insurgent representative Abu Mohammed says the nationalists would even tolerate U.S. bases on Iraqi soil. 'We don't mind if the invader becomes a guest,' he says, suggesting a situation akin to the U.S. military presence in Germany and Japan."
posted by trinarian at 1:12 PM PST - 165 comments
The world currently has over fifty million Mobile Indigenous Peoples (MIPs), known more popularly as "Nomads" (not including modern or industrialized Nomads). In 2003 representatives from twenty-six MIPs from four continents convened for the first time to form the
World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples in which was chartered the
Dana Declaration which calls for a new approach to conservation, including land and animals, and Nomads. More reading
here.
posted by stbalbach at 12:52 PM PST - 8 comments
The Grammarian.
Miss Gould, as she was known to everyone at the New Yorker, died last week, at the age of eighty-seven. She worked at the magazine for fifty-four years, most of them as its Grammarian (a title invented for her). A typical “Gould proof” was filled with the lightly pencilled tracery of her objections, suggestions, and abbreviated queries: “emph?” “ind.,” “mean this?”. Writes David Remnick: "She confronted the galley proofs of writers as various as Joseph Mitchell, J. D. Salinger, Janet Flanner--well, everyone, really.". More inside.
posted by matteo at 11:15 AM PST - 77 comments
Some
good news! The greatest problem Africa faces is bad government. When the President of Togo died earlier this month, the constitution dictated that power should go to the head of Parliament, until democratic elections could take place. The army expressed their regret that this couldn't happen, since the head of Parliament was out of the country. This was due to the army closing all the borders. They instead gave power to the ex-President's son, and altered the constitution to remove any reference to presidential elections. Now, it looks like progress is being made through protest and peer-pressure.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 10:19 AM PST - 9 comments
Wedded by the revolution...
"Dare to struggle, dare to win ... as married gays. After raiding a few Army camps, two communist guerrillas hid in a forest gorge and fell in love.
Deeply.
That was three years ago. On Friday, under a romantic drizzle in a muddy clearing in Compostela Valley province in Mindanao, Ka Andres and Ka Jose exchanged vows in a heavily guarded ceremony before local villagers, friends from the city and their comrades in arms.
They are considered the first homosexual couple in the New People's Army (NPA) who were wed by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)."
Some reactions. A
wedding picture.
posted by talos at 9:42 AM PST - 30 comments
TMN's Tournament of Books Too often are literary awards arbitrary, dull, or meaningless. Too rarely are they determined by an NCAA-style Battle Royale of bloodthirsty competition. It’s time for a change. Round 2 is going now.
posted by dame at 9:19 AM PST - 9 comments
50 tracks from Osysmo in 50 weeks.
Cheeky DJ Osysmo has decided to release his first proper full length album in little free bits over a period of 50 weeks. Osysmo has gained earlier notoriety for his Intro-Inspection mix [
yank it off the main page], which ingeniously compiled the intros of tens of songs, as well as his fun mixes of Chris Morris' material.
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:27 AM PST - 10 comments
Kottke.org!
Time
was that you could get the crap kicked out of you for posting kottke.org to MeFi. Three and a quarter years later, what's changed? Jason's decided to make a living off this blog ... but without running advertising. Good luck, says I.
posted by sylloge at 6:37 AM PST - 364 comments
Right Wing Front Group Attacks AARP
Amazingly the right wingers are going after the American Association of Retired People for being an anti-military, pro-gay liberal front group. Really. Web ads placed on American Spectator mag from USANext have a caption, "The Real AARP Agenda" and a big red checkmark on an American soldier and a green "X" on a picture of two men in tuxedos kissing. The implicit message is that the AARP hates the military and loves gays. Even better, USA Next has hired the
media geniuses behind the Swift Boat Veterans to attack the AARP and work for the phase-out of Social Security bia private accounts.
posted by nathanrudy at 4:45 AM PST - 122 comments
the Guillotine Headquarters
Everything you ever wanted to know about this machine. From
its evolution in the mist of history, to 1977, when it was last used in france.
many photos some
flash some 3d
posted by hortense at 2:13 AM PST - 6 comments
February 21
The radio revolution is the single greatest communications policy issue of the coming decade, and perhaps the coming century.
The economics of entire industries could be transformed. Every significant public policy challenge could be implicated: competition; innovation; investment; diversity of programming; job creation; equality of access; coverage for rural and underserved areas; and promotion of education, health care, local communities, public safety, and national security. Yet the benefits of the paradigm shift are not guaranteed. Exploiting the radio revolution will require creativity and risk-taking by both the private and public sectors. At every step, there will be choices between preserving the status quo and unleashing the forces of change. The right answers will seem obvious only in hindsight.
posted by halekon at 9:26 PM PST - 4 comments
Come Together,
right now, over me. A Ukranian inventor has created a musical condom. Golly, think of the possibilities!
posted by ashbury at 8:57 PM PST - 13 comments
Ever wonder what happens when you cross Livejournal and Lichtenstein
?
posted by scrim at 7:41 PM PST - 10 comments
Moral Politics - A Morality-Based Political Test
- "This test is (or at least tries to be) a different political test. Most tests assess your opinion by questioning your stance on political issues. This test explains why you think what you think by mapping your personal moral system." 16 questions.
posted by blacklite at 6:14 PM PST - 74 comments
In the left channel... "The Scientist" by Coldplay. In the right channel... "Pieces" by Sum41.
Fight!
posted by Mwongozi at 4:34 PM PST - 72 comments
The argument I make in my book is that what I describe as the new American militarism arises as an unintended consequence of the reaction to the Vietnam War and more broadly, to the sixties... If some people think that the sixties constituted a revolution, that revolution produced a counterrevolution, launched by a variety of groups that had one thing in common: they saw revival of American military power, institutions, and values as the antidote to everything that in their minds had gone wrong. None of these groups — the neoconservatives, large numbers of Protestant evangelicals, politicians like Ronald Reagan, the so-called defense intellectuals, and the officer corps — set out saying, “Militarism is a good idea.” But I argue that this is what we’ve ended up with: a sense of what military power can do, a sort of deference to the military, and an attribution of virtue to the men and women who serve in uniform. Together this constitutes such a pernicious and distorted attitude toward military affairs that it qualifies as militarism. An interview with Andrew Bacevich, international relations professor and former Army colonel, and author of
The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War--and here is a
review. Recently by Bacevich:
We Aren't Fighting to Win Anymore - U.S. troops in Iraq are only trying to buy time.
posted by y2karl at 3:05 PM PST - 37 comments
Kirk von Ackermann mysteriously dissappears
on October 9, 2003. He was working for a contracting company in iraq and had called for assistance after getting a flat tire. When help arrived, he was gone without a trace leaving behind a laptop, his satellite phone and a briefcase with $40,000 destined for Iraqi subcontractors in the back seat of his truck.
Rick Manelick, a colleague of his, had told army investigators investigating the appearance that large sums of money were being paid to an army officer in exchange for granting contracts to Ultra Services, the company they both worked for. Two months after the disappearance he was killed in a drive-by shooting a day after telling a SF Chronicle reporter "I'm in fear of my life, you know. It's not Iraqis I'm worried about, either, it's people from my own country." (Found via
SojoMail, see also
Topeka DIY and
Time.
posted by nTeleKy at 11:21 AM PST - 13 comments
February 20
CBS is reporting
that George W. Bush acknowledged using
marijuana during a recorded phone conversation. The conversations were recorded by Doug Wead, a former aide to George W. Bush's father, beginning in 1998, when Mr. Bush was weighing a presidential bid, until just before the Republican National Convention in 2000.
posted by lobstah at 3:44 PM PST - 91 comments
Canadian involvement in torture research
Britain, the US and Canada had begun talking about psychological warfare together at least as early as June 1951, when Sir Henry Tizard, the Ministry of Defence's senior scientist, met Canadian scientists and Cyril Haskins, the senior CIA researcher, in Montreal. Among the Canadians was Donald Hebb of McGill University, who was looking for funds to research "
sensory deprivation" - blocking out sight, sound and touch to affect people's personality and sense of identity. Early photographs show volunteers, goggled and muffled, looking eerily similar to prisoners arriving at Guantánamo.
posted by sunexplodes at 9:09 AM PST - 22 comments
February 19
Be careful what you wish for, the cliché goes. Having aspired from early youth to become stars, people who achieve that status suddenly find themselves imprisoned, unable to walk down the street without being importuned by strangers. The higher their name floats, the greater the levy imposed, the less of ordinary life they can enjoy. In his memoir, Bob Dylan never precisely articulates the ambition that brought him to New York City from northern Minnesota in 1961, maybe because it felt improbable even to him at the time. Nominally, he was angling for Leading Young Folksinger, which was a plausible goal then, when every college town had three or four coffeehouses and each one had its Hootenanny night, and when performers who wowed the crowds on that circuit went on to make records that sometimes sold in the thousands. But from the beginning Dylan had his sights set much higher: the world, glory, eternity—ambitions laughably incommensurate with the modest confines of American folk music. He got his wish, in spades... 'I Is Someone Else'
posted by y2karl at 4:22 PM PST - 34 comments
Pico's Brain.
The "
Discourse on the
Dignity of Man" (1486) by
Pico della
Mirandola (1463-1494) is considered the "
Manifesto of the
Renaissance" and a key text of
Renaissance Humanism. The Discourse merits attention today precisely on account of its affirmation that human nature, which is in itself indeterminate and weak, comes alive and obtains its identity through the plurality of human cultures, each representing customs that, though distinct, are essentially identical. Hence the possibility of harmony and grounds
for "peace" among cultures.
The
Pico Project makes accessible a complete resource for the reading and interpretation of the Discourse within its own context, from an initial encounter through direct contact with the original text, presented here in its first printed edition (Bologna 1496) of which there exist no extant manuscripts.
Of course, Pico was also a
Kabbalistic scholar (Umberto Eco
is not a fan of Pico's kabbalistic work
.pdf file). More inside.
posted by matteo at 11:02 AM PST - 8 comments
Bancroft and Arnesen are in Russia ready to start their newest adventure:
starting Monday, as polar explorers in their own right, they'll try to become the first women in history to ski across the top of the world - two women pulling two sleds across 1,000 miles of frozen ocean. No dogs, no men and one .44 Magnum revolver.
They may not be taking men, but they are taking a laptop so you can
track their progress.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:40 AM PST - 13 comments
Colleges: An Endangered Species?
A well-written review that refers to a number of recent books on the subject of college education:"Every middle-class American family with a college-age child knows how it goes: the meetings at which the high school counselor draws up a list of "reaches" and "safeties," the bills for SAT prep courses ("But, Dad, everyone takes one; if you don't let me, I'm screwed"), the drafts of the personal essay in which your child tries to strike just the right note between humility and self-promotion—and finally, on the day of decision, the search through the mail in dread of the thin envelope that would mean it's all over and that, as a family, you have collectively failed. ...
posted by Postroad at 7:58 AM PST - 33 comments
The Game
is a harsh mistress. I really suck at
The Game. It never leaves my mind. So I've decided to share
our little game with all of you. You now have a half hour to try to forget about
The Game. If it crosses your mind outside of the thirty minute grace period,
you lose the game.
It is important to note that is impossible to win the game
posted by blasdelf at 4:55 AM PST - 62 comments
February 18
World Wind
is a global information system that pulls together a high resolution map of the entire world and layers into it satellite information from a variety of sources. The program lets you zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth, leveraging high resolution LandSat imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) elevation data to experience Earth terrain (or any planet with the data) in visually rich 3D, just as if you were really there. Virtually visit any place in the world. Look across the Andes, into the Grand Canyon, over the Alps or along the African Sahara. Check out the
screenshots. (Windows only, 169mb download,
torrent available.)
While you're there, check out Virtual Lab, a virtual scanning electron microscope (screenshots), available for Mac OSX, Linux, and Windows.
posted by crunchland at 11:44 PM PST - 14 comments
Treason: Hurting America's Feelings
--from fafblog:
Now you may think "oh well Fafnir America's a big country it can take care a itself" but in fact it is very sensitive. When you say its mom's ugly or criticize its foreign policy or kick sand on its face at the beach it is just as hurt as if you'd sold its state secrets.
posted by amberglow at 7:51 PM PST - 45 comments
The Night Land,
William H Hodgson's surreal fantasy,
inspired largely by H G Wells'
The Time Machine, (do you really need
an amazon link?) but not resembling it all that much, is called by Gardner Dozois (editor of
Asimov's Science Fiction since 1985) "one of the flat out
strangest novels ever written" in the 21st annual
Year's Best Science Fiction anthology. The novel, written at the turn of the century, was also
described by H P Lovecraft in the following way: "Allowing for all its faults, it is yet one of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written."
How many novels have you read that have
an entire web site dedicated to simultaneously exalting it and apologizing for it? Andy Robertson's web site is a companion to
the book he edited collecting stories from modern sci-fi writers attempting to pay homage to the under-appreciated novel.
(note: The above-mentioned anthology contains a story,
also published on Robertson's web site by John C Wright, entitled "Awake In The Night," which is fantastic in its own right, as well.) (Did I mention that Hodgson
"brutally treated" Harry Houdini? Scroll To Middle Of Page.)
posted by shmegegge at 6:41 PM PST - 9 comments
We all seem to know
about
Gary Panter: set designer
for
Pee-Wee's
play house and author of the
JIMBO
comics. His site archives an increasing radius: see his
comics, for instance,
some Jimbo covers:
1,
2, 3.
Or his
custom
drawings, which are done based on one to three words you supply. The ink drawings:
1,
2, 3
and the
sketchbooks
are nice, too:
1,
2, 3,
4.
Seems like he's everywhere: writing on his
blog
or that oft remembered
manifesto,
sometimes
being
taught or
written
about. And, as connective tissue, his
Screamers
design is one of the more well regarded punk images out there. When I think
of Panter, I also think of
Raymond
Pettibon, brother
of
Greg
Ginn (Black Flag/SST). Featured in
PBS
ART 21 (check out the multi-media), his work graced numerous
Black Flag and
Minutemen
album covers and
flyers.
Zines
also played an early role in his development.
Mike
Watt's own
Hootpage documents some of
Ray's
art from the summer of 2003. Known for his
interplay
of
image
and
word,
some
pieces
seem to be in
process,
but
all
are
still
striking.
More
pieces can
be seen
at tractor.com. When I think of Pettibon, I sometimes think of
Art
Chantry. His
posters
(
1, 2,
3, 4,
5, 6,
7) are
inspirational
and his
logos
ain't too shabby either. Mr. Chantry has been known to
debate
the rise and fall
of rock and roll graphic design,
speak
up on issues of the state of
graphic
design today (as well as
Seattle).
Some people can't
surf, indeed.
posted by safetyfork at 3:09 PM PST - 30 comments
Court orders $5.6 billion per year increase in NYC schools funding.
The order, being appealed by Gov. Pataki, compels a 35% increase in operating funds for NYC public schools, and an additional $9 billion for school construction, but doesn't say which taxes ought to be raised to pay for it.
Supporters and
opponents both agree that, if implemented, the order would have a dramatic effect. Supporters think poor black and hispanic students will get a better education; opponents are dubious about the educational benefits and certain of the disastrous effects of a massive tax increase. A second arguments concerns whether the city ought to bear some of the costs, or the state should have to bear them all.
posted by MattD at 11:56 AM PST - 40 comments
The strongest evidence yet that global warming has been triggered by human activity has emerged from a major study of rising temperatures in the world’s oceans. The present trend of warmer sea temperatures, which have risen by an average of half a degree Celsius (0.9F) over the past 40 years, can be explained only if greenhouse gas emissions are responsible, new research has revealed. The results are so compelling that they should end controversy about the causes of climate change, one of the scientists who led the study said yesterday. "The debate about whether there is a global warming signal now is over, at least for rational people," said Tim Barnett, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. "The models got it right. If a politician stands up and says the uncertainty is too great to believe these models, that is no longer tenable."Studies confirm global warming underway
posted by y2karl at 10:27 AM PST - 80 comments
Feedpalooza. This gentleman offers to scrape any website (at his discretion) to provide you the custom feed you want. For instance, I wanted a simple black box on my site with the real-time number of coalition casualties in Iraq. I pointed him to
this site. He scraped the one number and provided
this feed. Brilliant.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 10:26 AM PST - 15 comments
February 17
The notorious
Laura (Riding) Jackson, mistress and muse to Robert Graves, among others, is back with a new
poem in the New Republic last week. There's a new biography and a new anthology coming out too, but the best things to read are her tirades to the New York Review of Books in response to critiques of her work by
Paul Auster and
Harry Matthews.
posted by oldleada at 6:28 PM PST - 17 comments
Address by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin on Gay Marriage.
Taking the bull by the horns, Mr. Martin speaks to the House of Commons regarding
Bill C-38, The Civil Marriage Act:
"This question does not demand rhetoric. It demands clarity. There are only two legitimate answers – yes or no. Not the demagoguery we have heard, not the dodging, the flawed reasoning, the false options. Just yes or no."
One of the finest speeches from a Canadian politician in memory, and an important read for Canadians and Americans alike.
posted by Jairus at 3:05 PM PST - 168 comments
Save the Bunnies!
Every year, thousands of "pet" rabbits are purchased as Easter gifts, usually for kids, without much thought to the years of care which the animals will need. Within months, humane societies and pet shelters are flooded with the animals, many of which must be euthanized, as there simply aren't enough adopters to give them new homes. In response, the Columbus House Rabbit Society encourages everyone to eschew pet rabbit gifts and say
Make Mine Chocolate!TM instead. And since no campaign is worthwhile these days without a symbolic lapel pin, you can
wear a chocolate bunny to spread the message.
posted by Dreama at 2:04 PM PST - 30 comments
Lejo
is perhaps the greatest actor I've ever seen perform, and he does it all without dialogue. Click on "videos" (or
"filmpjes"). Jim Henson would be proud.
posted by Robot Johnny at 12:50 PM PST - 14 comments
Its real simple - break the rules with no consequences. Usually the crimes you commit are small - but the trick is that they can add up. I hate it when I am the victim of these little trangressions a lot. There must be a way to punish these mini-evil-doers. After playing with this idea for a long time I've come up with a name for it -- the "
Squirt-gun offense".
posted by Mwongozi at 12:32 PM PST - 27 comments
"The lawyers tell me there are no prohibitions against robots making life-or-death decisions,"
(NYT link) The Pentagon is spending $127 billion on a new project called Future Combat Systems, and armed, decision-making robots represent a significant part of that project (though such a drone may not be available until 2035). They're also looking at the possibility of nanotechnological "smart dust." Though the concept of
grey goo has been
all but debunked by the
man who coined the phrase, the more immediate future may hold robots who, according to the
Times article, are faced with choices like whether to destroy a tank or a school bus (One of the main contractors involved, the somewhat ominously named
iRobot, is best known for making vacuum-cleaner-bots). Is the general movement toward a fleshless army a good idea?
posted by hifiparasol at 11:03 AM PST - 82 comments
An online psycho
(or entrepreneurial genius?) says he's holding a bunny, named Toby, hostage unless charitable animal lovers donate $50,000 to his paypal account. Otherwise, he'll butcher it. So far, he's got $14,000.
posted by nospecialfx at 10:53 AM PST - 59 comments
A Tale of Two Chinas,
by photographer
James Whitlow Delano.
Whole
swaths of cities have vanished, to be transformed with developments that have quickly made them look more like Houston, Qatar, or Singapore than
the ancient China of our mind's eye. The old hutong, or alleyways, of Beijing that once formed a mosaic of passageways and the siheyuan, or walled courtyard houses,
have been largely razed. The old brick rowhouses of Shanghai, are now being leveled and replaced by modern high-rises.
Traditional marketplaces, residential neighborhoods, streets where medicine shops or bookstores bunched together,
are now either gone or have been rouged up as tourist destinations, part of a new synthetic, virtual version of China's incredible past.
The energy fueling this transformation bespeaks a powerful but often
blind, unquestioning faith in an inchoate idea of progress that
takes one's breath away, often literally. (Unrestrained growth has left China with the dubious honor of having 9 of the 10 most polluted cities in the world).
Delano's new book
is "
Empire: Impressions from China". More inside.
posted by matteo at 10:02 AM PST - 23 comments
ChoicePoint warning people that they're possible targets of fraud.
ChoicePoint, Inc. the company that provided the list to help
purge Florida voter records of "felons" in the 2000 election, electronically delivered thousands of sensitive financial data reports to possible identity thieves in LA. The reports contained names, addresses, SS numbers, and financial information. They're sending letters to 110,000 people across the country warning them they may be possible victims. ChoicePoint, a subsidiary of Equifax, has been
discussed here before.
Interestingly: "ChoicePoint, as a matter of policy, does not verify the accuracy of its data and argues that it is the user's responsibility to verify accuracy."
posted by kat at 9:10 AM PST - 22 comments
Peugeot's Fuel Cell ATV
Popular Mechanics examines Peugeot's concept ATV, the Quark, that runs on hydrogen
fuel cell technology.
Some neat features (aside from zero emissions):
* A PDA style "key" interface that authenticates the rider and serves as an instrument panel.
* Its an air cooled fuel cell so its reduced in size and won't freeze in cold weather.
* The 9 liter hydrogen tank gives an 80 mile range and is designed to pop out so a refill can be plugged in almost instantly.
* Each 17" wheel has its own electric motor to produce 74 lb.-ft of torque and also employ regenerative braking technology.
More pictures
here and lots of
interest from many quarters.
posted by fenriq at 8:50 AM PST - 30 comments
The Vagina Monologues
is, to the outrage of many, being staged at a cultural center in Kampala, Uganda, East Africa. For the past few weeks, the play has been a
key topic of debate, with many radio stations even refusing to utter the name of the play out loud, and shaming call-in listeners that do. Today, the local media council announced that “
to the extent that the play promotes illegal, unnatural sexual acts, homosexuality and prostitution, it should be and is hereby banned, citing the play as "a smokescreen for graphic lesbian pornography" and that the play's "graphic descriptions of masturbation, rape, and genital mutilation in a manner that is “abhorrent, outrageous and disgusting."
Local NGOs are even refusing to accept funds generated by the sale of tickets.
posted by Kololo at 5:13 AM PST - 32 comments
The Logical Song.
Supertramp. From the trademark album "Breakfast in America": the saxophone was recorded with a STC 4038 in the bell and a U87 a couple of feet away for an overall sound. Here are the
lyrics. Use this to sing along with
(Midi File). Download the tune onto your cellphone here
(Mp3).The famous Wurlitzer Piano opener
(Mp3). My earworm work for the day is done, muahahahah
posted by jeremias at 4:49 AM PST - 29 comments
February 16
Flying Cars and Roadable Aircraft
• "Because flying cars and roadable aircraft seem to be more of a dream than a reality, many people believe that these things do not exist. The truth is that almost from the moment the Wright Brothers learned to fly, there has been a history of attempts to build such vehicles. Some of them have had a fair degree of success." The
paracycle is dorky, but the
winged MafiaMobile ain't half bad.
posted by dhoyt at 10:36 PM PST - 6 comments
CIA Says War Helps Recruit Terrorists (Washington Post). . .The insurgency in Iraq continues to baffle the U.S. military and intelligence communities, and the U.S. occupation has become a potent recruiting tool for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, top U.S. national security officials told Congress yesterday.
"Islamic extremists are exploiting the Iraqi conflict to recruit new anti-U.S. jihadists," CIA Director Porter J. Goss told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
...
And Rumsfeld, ever Rumsfeld replies "I see these reports. Frankly, I don't have a lot of confidence in any of them."
posted by punkbitch at 7:45 PM PST - 17 comments
The Washington
Bullets Wizards haven't been to the NBA playoffs since
1997, haven't
won a playoff series since
1982, and last captured the NBA championship all the way back in
1977. Some of these dubious streaks may end soon, as the team currently sports
a winning record and is sending
two players to this weekend's NBA All-Star game, a feat
they haven't accomplished since
Crocodile Dundee was in theatres.
What kind of fans follow such a historically inept franchise? While
other fan blogs earnestly recount league happenings or their teams' wins and losses, the
WIZZNUTZZ have fondly embraced their team's parade of NBA losers and outcasts, building an online shrine to such former players such as
7'7" center Manute Bol,
perennial felon Rod Strickland,
unskilled backup center Jahidi White (
"Who he play for???"), and
assorted petty criminals. During the season they offer "incites" into the play of
their lord and savior the reverend Kwame Brown, the
failed comeback of Michael
"Salieri" Jordan, the NBA Championship of the
Detroit Wizards, and other
edutaining commentary on the league (for additional league commentary see:
ChaunceyBillups).
The Wizznutzz are currently beside themselves with their team's success, but they know that
the Wizznutzz story is a story about overcoming odds, but mostly not overcoming odds!!!!
Don't forget to buy a
Jahidi thong when you're done reading.
posted by casu marzu at 6:02 PM PST - 27 comments
What is SENS?
It stands for Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence.
Confused? Aubrey de Grey believes that it is possible. His research has been in the
news
recently.
De Grey is the co-founder of the
The Methuselah Foundation, and they are offering a
prize to anyone who can demonstrate
healthy life extension in mice. More information at
The Longevity Meme and
Better Humans, among
others.
He recently spoke in
Edmonton. Is it just me, or does he remind anyone else of a cult leader? There is something that strikes me about the way his writing sounds.
The idea of anti-ageing treatment was convincingly suggested by Kim Stanley Robinson in his
Mars Trilogy, which also addressed its potential social consequences, such as overpopulation and longevity as an option exclusively for the wealthy elite.
posted by dazedandconfused at 3:28 PM PST - 12 comments
QEMU
lets you run the OS of your choice inside your current OS. It really has to be
seen to be believed. The
FreeOSZoo provides a good introduction to QEMU.
posted by xowie at 3:27 PM PST - 18 comments
A pair of NASA scientists
told a group of space officials at a private meeting here that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars.
Spirit has also recently taken a very intriguing
photo. Of course this is just making things official, since we've
known the truth for years.
posted by jikel_morten at 2:21 PM PST - 85 comments
'Yep, life'll burst that self-esteem bubble' says USA Today
This article can't seem to decide whether it wants to discuss Gen Xers or Millenials. And it quotes Neil Howe (Of The Fourth Turning) toward the end, about the characteristics of Millenials (people born after 1982).
What may be the most interesting aspect of this article is that the author seems uncomfortable speaking negatively about the millenials. The writer is hesitant to criticize the Millenials, and so she initially suggests that the cry babies finishing college who are now entering the workforce were born in the 70s and early 80s. Of course, if that were true, those recent college grads would be in their late twenties to mid-thirties.
And I particularly like that improved self esteem is bad because it leads to "enhanced initiative, which boosts confidence, and increased happiness."
posted by schambers at 1:35 PM PST - 57 comments
NASA takes ultrasound to space
No astronaut is pregnant, but NASA is using ultrasound as a portable diagnostic tool in space. If the NHL ever settles its labor dispute, the Red Wings' trainer may use it too.
posted by Cranberry at 1:27 PM PST - 3 comments
Shotgun Golf.
Hunter S. Thompson has an idea for Bill Murray. I'm not sure it would check out with the NRA's
Gun Safety Rules, though.
Other people have been
creative when it comes to shooting things with shotguns. The combination of
shotguns and
golf has even been done before, although in a very different way.
Fire at will!
posted by PhatLobley at 12:51 PM PST - 16 comments
How To Hack the New Napster.
Back in the day Shawn Fannings little dealie brought the world of free file sharing to the mainstream, now with the aid of Winamp and a few clever configurations, one can relive the past.
via stereogum
posted by tsarfan at 11:46 AM PST - 60 comments
Ted Rall's posted
his 1991 thesis on the allied occupation of France during and after WWII. A nice jumping off point for the historically minded.
posted by alan at 11:34 AM PST - 27 comments
Nature Publishing Group's Connotea
is an experimental bookmarking service for scientists. Created by
Nature Publishing Group it lets you keep links to articles and websites you use and helps you find them again. It is also a place where you can discover new articles and websites through sharing links with other users. By saving your links and references to Connotea they are instantly on the web.
posted by tidecat at 11:13 AM PST - 3 comments
J-Track 3D
is an interesting JAVA web-app offered by NASA which gives a 3D interactive display of over 500 satellites currently orbiting the Earth.
posted by numlok at 10:37 AM PST - 8 comments
My lost city:
Low Life author Luc Sante reminisces about a youth spent in the ruins of 1970s New York:
"... when I was a student at Columbia, my windows gave out onto the plaza of the School of International Affairs, where on winter nights troops of feral dogs would arrive to bed down on the heating grates. Since then the city had lapsed even further ... if you walked east on Houston Street from the Bowery on a summer night, the jungle growth of vacant blocks gave a foretaste of the impending wilderness, when lianas would engird the skyscrapers and mushrooms would cover Times Square."
Sante talked about the period a bit more in a 2004
interview with
The Believer.
posted by ryanshepard at 9:59 AM PST - 6 comments
Watch out for the giant robot ball.
While
Rover, the autonomous rolling sentry on the
Prisoner was really just a weather balloon, University of Uppsala researchers have developed a real
robotic ball that chases burglars. “Once alerted, it can summon help, sound an alarm or pursue the intruders, taking pictures ... While the current version can only raise the alarm, it could be adapted to corner an intruder if the customer wanted”.
NASA/JPL has also developed a similar
Tumbleweed Polar Rover, which has been tested in Greenland and Antarctica.
How many does
Homeland Security have on order?
posted by Geo at 8:51 AM PST - 26 comments
The Numeric Diaries...
So cool. After entering, use the side arrows to navigate back and forth, choose from the drop-down menu, or use the
thumbnails to view images going back to
October 1, 2003. Some images mouse over or click through for further treats or links. And when you're done, you can visit the main site at
Trezart for a lot more art and fun. (French language, via the archives of the great
gmtPlus9)
posted by taz at 6:50 AM PST - 4 comments
In Japan
it's a
sport. In
Canada, it's
tradition. In
Mexico, it's
religion. In the
US - it's a
joke (NSFW language).
Perhaps rightly so.
In step with it’s
history, American professional wrestling has a
sordid, carnival-like
backstage atmosphere, replete with
insider slang. Extensive travel schedules and
backstage politicking (QT movie, NSFW language) take their toll in the form of
drug abuse and an
unusually high mortality rate. While a
few transition into
mainstream careers,
most don’t.
A
billion-dollar industry , it has seen a fair share of
success (NSFW image) over the years:
Books,
movies,
video games,
cartoons,
records (not to mention an
ECW nod in the lyrics to
El Scorcho) and even punching
John Stossel in the head. But it’s
inconsistent and never seems to meet the level of popular acceptance as in other countries. It is, by and
large, dismissed as a novelty for the
NASCAR crowd, barely respected enough to be
kitsch.
In truth, it’s a
back-breaking,
death-defying, colorful
soap opera of questionable taste that is
anything but
fake
posted by StopMakingSense at 3:05 AM PST - 30 comments
comprehensive electronic music guide
[flash required] Lists the major electronic music genres with a large number of sub genres and each sub genre has about three to five samples from different artists. Maybe this will get you guys to stop calling paul oakenfold's music 'trance'.
posted by EvilKenji at 1:28 AM PST - 46 comments
All The President's Hair
- Think you might know a thing or three about US Presidents? (Alternately, have five minutes to kill?) Then try identifying some of them by their hair! Be sure to give it a few tries as there are more presidents than hairdos-to-guess per game.
posted by DyRE at 12:02 AM PST - 15 comments
February 15
Canada,
a 13+ link whistlestop glance at something from all the provinces and territories...
Alberta,
British Columbia,
Manitoba,
New Brunswick,
Newfoundland,
NWT,
Nova Scotia,
Nunavut,
Ontario,
PEI,
Quebec,
Saskatewan,
Yukon. Not to mention the talk about
Turks and
Caicos?
posted by edgeways at 10:46 PM PST - 28 comments
The
“Stop Motion Studies” are a series of experimental documentaries that chronicle my interaction with subway passengers in cities around the world. Begun in the fall of 2002, the project currently includes 13 installments from countries including Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, the United States, and Japan.
posted by onkelchrispy at 7:49 PM PST - 29 comments
How Kids (Like Yours) Get Trapped on the Streets
Bob Parsons gives a chilling summary of how the vortex of homelessness can suck young people into a world of drugs and prostitution even faster than you might realize. (Makes you wonder how many MeFi users might be in this exact situation.)
posted by oissubke at 6:54 PM PST - 43 comments
The operators of
FleetCenter in Boston decided it'd be a good idea to auction off single-day rights to rename the stadium and give the proceeds
to charity. Honorable idea. Unfortunately for them,
the winner of Monday, February 28, was the infamously crude news site
Fark. They held
a competition this afternoon to decide what the name should be. The winning entry: "Fark.com
UFIA Arena".
posted by Plutor at 5:08 PM PST - 49 comments
Olympic gold medal skier Bill Johnson
was released from jail late Monday after a traffic stop resulted in charges of assaulting police officers, driving under the influence of intoxicants and resisting arrest.
Johnson allegedly punched the deputy repeatedly and kicked the officer in the groin after taunting them with his gold medal from the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, where Johnson became the first U.S. skier to win the downhill.
posted by Gankmore at 2:15 PM PST - 17 comments
Nepal has been in the news lately (
1,
2,
3), as the king ousted the prime minister and replaced the cabinet under protests and a mounting civil war. Airports are closing, newspapers are shutting down, and radio stations are going silent. How'd I find this all out?
By reading a blog from someone in Nepal, posting updates of what day-to-day life is like amid the strife.
posted by mathowie at 9:55 AM PST - 8 comments
Big Hairy Audacious Goal
or
BHAG is
Coaltion For Christian Outreach's newest evangelical ministry. It is an outreach program to make 750
commitment calls per year which will include spending five hours a week building one-on-one relationships with non-Christians, leading a small-group evangelistic Bible study each year, Training in relational evangelism for every leader, and staff teams spending time together each week in prayer for the lost.
In the 40's, A young man named
Billy Graham started empowered the evangelical movement holding tent revivals and encouraging people to be missionaries. Born out of that was a more charged
fundamentalist movement that we are famliar with today. Going from Billy to BHAG's begs the question, have
Evangelicals evolved?
posted by Hands of Manos at 8:35 AM PST - 28 comments
You may have heard of the "
McLibel Two", the pair of Brits who, as part of a group called London Greenpeace (not affiliated with Greenpeace International, by the by), published a
flier decrying the nutritional and corporate values of McDonalds, and who subsequently lost a libel action brought against them by the corporation. It took a few years, but The European Court of Human Rights has
overturned the decision, based on the fact that the two did not receive legal aid assistance during the trial (where they represented themselves).
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:25 AM PST - 23 comments
Tax by the mile ?
California lawmakers are considering this to make up for the loss of gas sales tax... due to the efficiency of hybrid automobiles.
posted by lobstah at 5:29 AM PST - 34 comments
February 14
watching america
reflects global opinion about the United States, helping Americans and non-Americans alike understand what the world thinks of current issues that involve the U.S.. This is done by providing [translated]
news and views about the United States published in other countries.
posted by crunchland at 9:52 PM PST - 10 comments
horns a plenty
Haven't seen this here recently, so here's a link to a guy who performs some classics with nothing but horns strapped to his jumpsuit.
posted by miscdebris at 8:15 PM PST - 8 comments
For more than two centuries, nationalism in all its various forms—from the high-minded chauvinism of the British Empire to the virulent poison of Nazism—has been a familiar, and often negative, phenomenon. Emerging first in Europe, which it nearly destroyed and which has now apparently learned to control it, extreme nationalism still erupts from time to time in other parts of the world. The word "nationalism" never quite seemed to fit the United States, where continental vastness and enormous power have hitherto been tempered by an often-expressed distaste for empire and by the notion of world leadership by example. In the first years of the twenty-first century, however, in a dramatic departure from traditional policy, the spirit of unilateralism and militant nationalism began to dominate Washington's policies and attitudes toward the outside world.Extreme Makeover - Brian Urquhart reviews
America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism. And
here is Gerald Rellick's take on the book. From Asia Source, a long and informative interview with
Anatol Lievin. From the Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley's Conversations with History,
A Conversation With Anatol Lieven. Also by Anatol Lieven,
A Trap Of Their Own Making.
posted by y2karl at 7:55 PM PST - 10 comments
Roman Emperors
, there sure were a
lot of them. This online encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on the autocratic rulers of Rome I have come across. It ranges from
Augustus to Constantine Dragases, the last emperor in Constantinople. It doesn't include them all, but has most, including my two favorites,
Basil II, the Bulgarslayer and
Antonius Pius. You can also find the one
least deserving of fame, the one with the
silliest name and, of course, the
completely batshit ones.
Also on the site,
maps,
battles,
coins and everybody's favorite subject,
genealogy.
posted by Kattullus at 6:15 PM PST - 21 comments
Mario sex scoop.
(NSFW)
Nintendo are the finest games designers the world has ever produced. Their Mario character is an icon, possibly more photographed than Princess Diana. It was inevitable that his sordid playboy lifestyle would leak to the baying dogs of the tabloid press. via
b3ta.
posted by mule at 5:36 PM PST - 28 comments
Libertines
(NSFW) would frown on the idea of Valentine's Day and devoting yourself to your one true love; they were all about fun, all the time. Think
free love (or
polyamorism as current practitioners would call it) is a product of the swingin' 70s? No way. The
libertine philosophy has been around since at least the 17th century. Notable practitioners include
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, who wrote some juicy
poetry on the topic;
Choderlos de Laclos of
Les Liaisons dangereuses fame; the
Marquis de Sade; the fictional
Don Juan; and the poster boy for libertinism,
Charles II of England. In fact Rochester once had to flee court for
making fun of Charles's appetites (though Rochester was no angel himself).
Fast forward to the current day, when Johnny Depp is starring in a new movie, "
The Libertine," in which he portrays Rochester to some critical acclaim. Is Rochester simply a sad, sorry sort who justified a lifestyle that some see as immoral, and got his just deserts when he died of syphilis? Or was he caught up in a way of life that he alternately enjoyed and despised,
finding that "Old age and Experience, hand in hand / Lead him to Death, and make him understand, / After a Search so painful and so long, / That all his Life he has been in the wrong."
Maybe there's something to be said for
abstinence, after all.
posted by MiHail at 2:54 PM PST - 18 comments
Gay outrage over penguin sex test
BBC News is reporting that gay rights activists are protesting the plans of a zoo in northern Germany to test the sexual orientation of "six male penguins which have displayed homosexual traits". Omitted from the BBC article is a summary of what the protesters are actually concerned about, but
The Scotsman is there.
posted by kcds at 9:14 AM PST - 48 comments
Iraq Winners Allied With Iran Are the Opposite of U.S. Vision
[access:sexy247@mailinator.com/
biteme]
You can't always get what you ask for:: ...Yet the top two winning parties -- which together won more than 70 percent of the vote and are expected to name Iraq's new prime minister and president -- are Iran's closest allies in Iraq.
Thousands of members of the United Iraqi Alliance, a Shiite-dominated slate that won almost half of the 8.5 million votes and will name the prime minister, spent decades in exile in Iran. Most of the militia members in its largest faction were trained in Shiite-dominated Iran...
posted by Postroad at 8:47 AM PST - 59 comments
CNN's Nuke Plant Photos Identical for Both Iran and N. Korea!
"Two stories posted in the last week on the CNN website, one on nukes in Iran last Wednesday, and another on nukes in North Korea on Saturday, both use the same aerial photograph of the same purported nuclear power plant!
But one is supposed to be in Iran and the other is supposed to be in North Korea!"
posted by bas67 at 8:23 AM PST - 85 comments
SpongeBob Goes to Church
With the recent kafuffle over SpongeBob's perceived sexual orientation, the United Church of Christ felt it was only fitting to extend to him an invitation to attend their inclusive services. Apparently, he accepted the invitation.
posted by livingsanctuary at 7:39 AM PST - 11 comments
Taking the "idiot" out of "savant"
For many of us, the word "savant" conjures up images of Dustin Hoffman's character in "Rainman", or,more recently, Mike Haddon's wonderful hero of "The curious incident of the dog in the night". Now let Daniel Tammet take you inside the autistic mind. (link via Boingboing)
posted by MadOwl at 2:31 AM PST - 18 comments
Genes and Jews.
And you thought
Spock came up with that part of the shtick. It turns out that despite the racial and ethnic diversity of the Tribe, there are genetic markers that identify Cohanim, or the priestly descendants of Aaron (know any Cohens?). These markers help identify jewish identity
in the most distant reaches of the diaspora. The fascinating intersection of anthropology, genetics, and religion.
(btw first fpp)
posted by Kifer85 at 12:44 AM PST - 26 comments
February 13
This is a great tool
to mix mp3s with, especially if you don't have $400-600 for
final scratch pro. It was designed specifically for DJing live and works like a virtual turntable. Besides being free, it's far better than most of the other toy-ish mixing programs available. Having two soundcards makes things easier, but it can even run on a system with one soundcard (although you still need a real mixer). We've come a long way since
this.
posted by EvilKenji at 11:14 PM PST - 21 comments
Classic Cat
describes itself as "the free classical music directory," and offers links to 3rd-party-hosted downloadable recordings, sliced and diced by
hits,
composer,
performer, and
more. There are active
fora. Given the old-school look of the site, I was surprised not to find it in my repost search.
posted by mwhybark at 3:58 PM PST - 13 comments
A group of psychics led by colourful '
SilverJade', based in Johannesburg South Africa, have
predicted that a series of earthquakes and other natural disasters will strike the western coast of the United States on or around the 23rd of February 2005. The prediction is based on the interpretation of a series of dreams by SilverJade, and the technical analysis of earthquake patterns occuring worldwide throughout the month of January 2005. As of 11th of February 2005, they have successfully predicted a significant event, a 5.5 magnitude earthquake in south eastern Alaska, as being a first step in a
series of smaller events leading up to the big bang. The next step of the prediction is set to occur at some time on or around the 13th and 15th of the month.
posted by stbalbach at 9:50 AM PST - 43 comments
Net label
postmoderncore is based in and documents the fringe music scene of Wellington, New Zealand. It celebrates it's fifth birthday this year as a netlabel. Good noise.
posted by onkelchrispy at 8:07 AM PST - 3 comments
brickwallers and douchebags.
It's incredibly cruel but oh so clever. Exposing the band promo photo. You might think you look good but this guy will identify your weak point and skewer you with a bon mot - which is a hell of a lot more painful than anything else you can be skewered with. Even sharp things. A couple of favourites are
this one and
this one, which almost killed me. If you get it you'll know what I mean.
posted by milkwood at 1:53 AM PST - 43 comments
February 12
I love rugby
I love
playing, I love
talking about it, I love the
video game,,
fans on the other hand....
Why is it Americans tend to be lower key about sports (as fanatic as we are) than the British or other folks who riot, blow stuff up, behead each other, etc.?
I mean, I've slid naked on tile floor through puddles of beer, but cutting off your nuts, that's crazy!
posted by Smedleyman at 5:59 PM PST - 44 comments
Chicago's current archetectual and artistic showcase,
Millenium Park seems to be causing some problems. The
pedestrian bridge was closed because the hardwood used to build it can not take the salt used to remove ice from pedestrian walkways. But it also seems that the massive sculpture
Cloud Gate aka "The Bean" is a copyright elephant in public space. Park security are
shaking down photographers for permits. As is typical, the copyright shakedown appears to be less about protecting the rights of the original artists, and more about the rights of
the distributor (in this case, the city's desired monopoly on postcards and prints). See
boing boing for editorializing and
Slashdot for the typical herd reaction.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 4:34 PM PST - 22 comments
musicplasma evolves into liveplasma (movies and music)
musicplasma (last discussed
here and mentioned
here), has become
liveplasma and added a movie database to its excellent graphical display system. Type in an actor, director or movie and explore an entire range of movies easily.
It's not fast but it is a great way to find new movies or music. One favorite thing is that there are no ads on the site (though clicking on an album cover or movie cover will take you to an Amazon page). Other new features: free registration to save searches and email them to your friends.
posted by fenriq at 12:20 PM PST - 4 comments
flickrgraph
Dynamic visualization of flickr contact networks [java, flash, assorted technical jiggery-pokery]
posted by carter at 12:19 PM PST - 8 comments
'01 Memo to Rice Warned of Qaeda and Offered Plan
The Right and the Left are busy (see link beneath) attacking or defending Eason Jordan or Jeff Gannon, and meanwhile we learn that our clever, learned, trustworthy new Sec. of State had been given warnings about what might well take place and did nothing, allowing 9/11 to occur.
A strategy document outlining proposals for eliminating the threat from Al Qaeda, given to Condoleezza Rice as she assumed the post of national security adviser in January 2001, warned that the terror network had cells in the United States and 40 other countries and sought unconventional weapons, according to a declassified version of the document"
"
posted by Postroad at 11:08 AM PST - 34 comments
CNN Executive Eason Jordan has resigned.
He says he is leaving the news network before his comments at the
World Economic Forum in Davos "unfairly tarnish" CNN.
Sources allege he said at a panel on "Will Democracy Survive the Media?" that American servicemen are intentionally targeting and killing journalists in Iraq.
Congressman Barney Frank, who was also on the panel at Davos, was one of the first to criticizes Jordan. Oddly Jordan, who claims his comments are being misunderstood, has resigned before a transcript or video of the event has even surfaced.
While there has been very little coverage of this in the "traditional media,"
motivated people mobilized quickly across the Internet(s). All of this very similar to the recent controversies with
Dan Rather, and
"Jeff Gannon."
Both Left & Right, has there been a power-shift in the media to the general citizens of this country? What does this say about the accountability of the media in the future?
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 9:49 AM PST - 82 comments
February 11
So, ya got
bears. And you've got
bears,
BEARS,
Bears!, and
guys who love Bears. (From here, probably NSFW) But
bears? I had no idea. I guess they're everywhere. We know
they're in Chicago, but they also inhabit
northern woody areas,
southern coastal habitats, and from June 10-12 they will
ravage the countryside (can't deeplink, check "events"). These bears have their own
spam portals,
non-spam resource guides,
personals,
merchandise,
graphic novels,
newsfeeds,
rules and regulations, and of course lots and lots of
pr0n (that's not too graphic, but they're not called "bears" for no reason). I knew one of these guys my freshman year. I'm straighter than Peter North but he and his friends were some of the coolest people I've ever known. What are your favorite sex subcultures?
posted by saysthis at 7:30 PM PST - 26 comments
Every audience seems to be niche audience these days but
this guy (not forgetting
this guy) were the goods.
I was reminded of them when a friends sent me
this link from Germany. Made my day, it should at least raise a smile. (Guitar players may want to weep)
And there seems to be a lot more of it out there than I had suspected, predictably in
France and
Holland, but even places like
Argentina,
Finland, and
Japan .
America does her part, and count on
Britain to be encyclopaedic on the subject
Okay, some are better than others, but they all have heart. Just now I could almost wish to live in Southern California just for
this
posted by IndigoJones at 7:14 PM PST - 16 comments
Piano Chords
One would think that searching for such a pedantic string via Google would not net much in this post-adwords age, however
Chord House's (apparently HTML-based) Chord Generator app is suprisingly nifty, with visualizations and audio samples of both each of the notes and and chord itself.
Now don't go hogging all the bandwidth -- I aim to plunk down "People Just Ain't No Good" from available chord tablature for the next half hour or so...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 5:01 PM PST - 8 comments
Radioactive Material Lost By Halliburton Found In Boston
Shit hapens:: "Halliburton Co. (HAL), an oil services company and major military contractor in Iraq and elsewhere, lost track of a shipment of radioactive material in October
but didn't alert the government until this week.
Federal authorities mounted an intensive search and found the material Wednesday in Massachusetts.
posted by Postroad at 10:17 AM PST - 30 comments
rainwater harvesting
As posted on
metaefficient Aaron up in the northeast has his own home based business producing
rain harvesting barrels
It seems like an idea we all should consider doing.
A rain barrel is a rainwater harvesting system that is connected to a down spout tube from a house or building. We make quality rain barrels that collect, store and divert rooftop runoff during a rain shower.
posted by halekon at 9:59 AM PST - 22 comments
Teach Evolution: Leave No Child Behind.
Teaching the age and history of our planet takes us back about 4.6 billion years; it is included in only 55% of our 50 State’s science education standards. Human evolution is included in only 8% of the state science standards, and is therefore not required in almost all American elementary, middle or high school science courses. (Don't forget
Darwin Day is tomorrow, kids!)
posted by travis vocino at 9:53 AM PST - 10 comments
Nexus Productions
showcases the animation work of various designers and directors. Even if you haven't seen the movie, be sure to check out the opening intro and credits to
Catch Me If You Can by Kuntzel & Deygas. (Flash 6)
posted by fandango_matt at 9:50 AM PST - 5 comments
After the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor
presents approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States. On December 8, 1941..., Alan Lomax... sent a telegram to fieldworkers in ten different localities across the United States, asking them to collect "man-on-the-street" reactions of ordinary Americans to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war by the United States. A second series of interviews, called "Dear Mr. President," was recorded in January and February 1942. Both collections are included in this presentation. They feature a wide diversity of opinion concerning the war and other social and political issues of the day, such as racial prejudice and labor disputes. The result is a portrait of everyday life in America as the United States entered World War II.
Try the
Subject index as a point of entry; there are transcripts as well as audio. (Via
Plep.)
posted by languagehat at 9:43 AM PST - 10 comments
A flashy website ...
but the photos are beautiful, especially the portraits. Some look as if they could have come straight from the pages of 'Life' magazine c.1935.
Note: A couple of pics are NSFW
posted by essexjan at 3:33 AM PST - 31 comments
February 10
Covert Call
allows you to alter the caller id that is sent to the phone you are calling. It can operate just like a calling card, all for the price of a normal long distance call. Caller-ID spoofing for 5¢ a minute, for all your prankster/paranoid/social engineering needs.
posted by crunchland at 10:17 PM PST - 12 comments
LokiTorrent was a popular spot to get movies
and they even
put up a fight against the recent crackdown, raising thousands in a legal defense fund. Today, it seems the MPAA won, forcing the owner to shut down. That's understandable and I'm not surprised, but they've gone a bit further than I expected, turning the site into a big scary ad against filesharing and warning that you're next. Even worse, the old owner is
turning the logs over to the MPAA, for them to go after folks.
posted by mathowie at 7:34 PM PST - 110 comments
The Washington Times--not just for moonies anymore. Racists love it too!
White men should "run, not walk" to wed "racially conscious" white women and avoid being out-bred by non-whites. Latinos are "rising to take this country away from those who made it," the "Euroamericans." Muslims are "human hyenas" who "smell blood" and are "closing in" on their "weakened prey," meaning "the white race." Blacks, Coombs sneers, are "saintly victims who can do no wrong." Black solidarity and non-white immigration are imposing "racial revolution and decomposition" in America.--the writings of Marian Kester Coombs (in the Wash. Times and out of it), her husband (the managing editor of the Times), and Regnery Publishing.
posted by amberglow at 5:22 PM PST - 38 comments
How do we see?
This site by Dr. Dale Purves makes it obvious we don't see things like a camera in any way. Check out the interactive demos, test your perceptual abilities, and read the research explaining why this happens. Number 12: Color Contrast Cube is particularly startling. Warning: Totally Flash interface, but appropriate for subject matter. More experiments at a less Flash-y
associate's site.
posted by JZig at 3:57 PM PST - 19 comments
What Comes Next?
Big scientists answer some big questions: apparently Elvis may still be alive in a parallel universe.
posted by Holly at 2:46 PM PST - 29 comments
Safe Drunken Dialing:
Its a fairly new and growing issue and we here at
slackertown are tackling it head on with booze in hand. We've taken the liberty of setting up a number (321) 600-1200 for whenever the drunken dialing urge takes a hold of you. Whatever message you leave will be added to the slackertown web site so when you sober up you can check back see just how drunk you were.
posted by page404 at 12:28 PM PST - 17 comments
To live in a pristine land ... to roam the wilderness ... to choose a site, cut trees, and build a home ... Thousands have had such dreams, but Richard Proenneke lived them.
In 1968, at 51 years of age,
Richard Proenneke retired to Upper Twin Lakes, Alaska and using nothing but hand tools,
built a cabin where he lived for the next 30 or so years. He
filmed the cabin's construction (as well as much of nature's wonder) and kept meticulous notes on the back of wall calendars. In 1973,
Sam_Keith produced a book
(One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey) based on Proenneke's journal entries and photography. In 1999, at the age of 82, Proenneke could no longer endure the harsh winters of Alaska and moved to California to be with his family. He
died there on Easter Sunday, 2003.
posted by a_day_late at 10:05 AM PST - 16 comments
We've Got 'Em
The North Korean goverment has threatened to "bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal." It is a well known secret that as a charter member of the
axis-of-evil, North Korea has an active program to enrich nuclear fuel.
And this is not the first time North Korea has made such an annoucement. But why are they are trying to take pressure off Iran?
posted by three blind mice at 9:13 AM PST - 22 comments
9/11 Report Cites Many Warnings About Hijackings
Rice claimed we were totally surprised by 9/11...not so!
"In the months before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal aviation officials reviewed dozens of intelligence reports that warned about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, some of which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations, according to a previously undisclosed report from the 9/11 commission....
posted by Postroad at 7:41 AM PST - 57 comments
Yesterday President Bush said,
"Some in our country think that Social Security is a trust fund -- in other words, there's a pile of money being accumulated. That's just simply not true. The money -- payroll taxes going into the Social Security are spent." Is he advocating that the US default on its Treasury bonds?
posted by Sixtieslibber at 7:30 AM PST - 115 comments
Flash Fiction
is a site which publishes short stories (under 1000 words). While the format (3 columns, not evenly filled) is a little annoying, the concept is interesting. My favorite story so far is 'A leaf falls', in the first column scroll halfway down the page. The site is maintained by a writer/ artist/musician, whose eventual aim is to print the stories on coffee mugs. Morning reading anyone?
posted by darsh at 5:43 AM PST - 6 comments
At Nine Past Nine
everyday, he takes a selfpicture and posts it.
He's been doing this since October of 2002. Twenty eight months of selfpictures at 9:09 am with whoever he happens to be with or whatever he happens to be doing.
posted by fenriq at 12:51 AM PST - 19 comments
February 9
Want to know where David Bowie was on a given day between 1974 and 1980? Now you can
find out.
posted by cedar at 5:16 PM PST - 34 comments
Frick'n Lasers!
When an UT Austin student finds a stash of graded freshman physics
homework, he decides to pitch in and add his own comments to those of the TA. Our children is might not be learning, but at least they're getting to play with lasers!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 12:43 PM PST - 79 comments
Single-Sex Education When WNYC's
Leonard Lopate Show decided to
discuss (audio) the Summer's gender brouhaha, an interesting thing happened. The guest expected to support gender difference interpretations, Dr. Sax, and the guest expected to discuss structural challenges to women in the sciences, Dr. Bell, agreed on one solution: single-sex education. As the AP noted last summer,
single-sex public education is up. Though some
object on the basis that
separate is never equal, Dr. Sax's organization claims both
boys and
girls see definite results. And even if you don't agree with Dr. Sax's reasoning, he says
the studies are on his side. After all, girls schools have given us awesome ladies like Rosa Parks, Sally Ride, and me.
posted by dame at 10:03 AM PST - 115 comments
Is the aroma of burning flesh putting you off your lunch? An Israeli company called Patus is marketing a new product called
Odor Screen to EMTs, soldiers, cops, and medical staff who work at the sites of suicide bombings, combat zones, and other modern catastrophes. The
Proustian link between smell and vivid memories is
well established, and by displacing traumatic odors with a "calming vanilla aroma," the company hopes to lessen PTSD in first responders, and
that's no laughing matter. [
via medgadget]
posted by digaman at 9:25 AM PST - 26 comments
Sketch-A-Move
Draw a straight line on top of the car, lift the pen and the car shoots off in a straight line. Draw a circle on the car and the car starts wildly spinning around. Draw a complicated squiggle and the car spirals in and out. Quicktime Video
Link#1 and
Link#2
posted by Hands of Manos at 9:17 AM PST - 35 comments
orz.
Picture a guy facing left and kneeling on the ground. The "o" is the head, the "r" symbolises the hands and body whilst the "z" is the legs. Because Hao-Ren finish last.
posted by seanyboy at 6:06 AM PST - 40 comments
Alabama lawmaker to introduce a
novel new way to keep people from catching "the gay". I can hear the ACLU drooling from here. Does the state have any power to limit the books available in a public library?
posted by ozomatli at 6:05 AM PST - 53 comments
They haven't gotten around to 2004 yet.
But they perfectly sum up the state of hollywood by presenting...The Three Least Shitty Movies Of 2003. Plus the Least Shitty Actors, etc. SFW except for some language. Handy if you are looking for bittorrent inspiration. Also see THE TOP 100 MOVIES OF OUR TIME on the front page. You can argue your case streuously but no fighting. Though how anyone can take it seriously when Withnail & I does not appear on it is beyond me.
posted by milkwood at 2:32 AM PST - 25 comments
Scams.
There's always someone trying to get what's yours. They take advantage of the
misery of others, and if you're labeled a
sucker, then you could end up being deluged. Can you
tell what is
real?
posted by viama at 12:03 AM PST - 19 comments
February 8
'Falling in love with the truth'.
On Dec. 10, 1956, exactly one month after
Soviet troops crushed the last hopes of the Hungarian Revolution, 13-year-old
Sylvia Plachy lay hidden in a farm cart that was carrying her toward the Austrian border. That night, Plachy and her parents escaped, finally making their way to the United States. The family settled in Queens, New York, where the teenager grew up to
become one of the
most incisive photographers of her
generation.
Many of the
photographs will be displayed this spring at the
Rose Gallery in Los Angeles, and are on view now at New York's
Hunter Fox Gallery, where
Plachy (scroll down) recently talked about the book and her career.
Her pictures "have to do with what memory looks like,' she explains. "How you remember things. Not so much how they are, but how they get translated." Oh,
she's Adrien Brody's mom and she
uses a
Holga.
posted by matteo at 1:39 PM PST - 15 comments
SPOILER ALERT:
There's a movie out now that, like
The Crying Game, depends for much of its impact on a plot twist. Are critics honor-bound not to blab that development to readers?
(More Inside, including, duh, spoilers)
posted by soyjoy at 10:41 AM PST - 65 comments
The Brain on the Big Screen: films of patients in a neurology ward of a Romanian hospital circa 1899.
Between 1899 and 1902, Gheoghe Marinescu perfected the use of cinematography as a research method in neurosciences and published five articles based on cinematographic documents. He focused his studies particularly on organic gait disorders, locomotor ataxia, and hysteria. He adapted Charcot's method of lining up several patients with the same disorder and showing them together to permit appreciation of archetypes and formes frustes. He decomposed the moving pictures into sequential tracings for publication. He documented treatment results with cases filmed before and after therapy.
Films 1-4 and
films 5-8
posted by derangedlarid at 10:26 AM PST - 9 comments
Endangered Gizmos
via the
EFF (warning, they do want your money to continue fighting "
to defend our rights to think, speak, and share our ideas, thoughts, and needs using new technologies, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web.")
Lawsuits have driven some excellent consumer products into extinction, like the
ReplayTV 4000,
DVD X Copy and the lamented wild and crazy
Napster 1.0 including what drove them into extinction. They also list endangered gizmos like the
HD TV PCI Card,
Morpheus and
Generic FireWire,
open Wifi hot spots and CD burners.
Among the "saved" gizmos is the
Skylink garage door opener which had been
attacked under the DMCA.
posted by fenriq at 10:11 AM PST - 5 comments
Mental Health & Behavior
(NYT). The work (and controversy) among psychiatrists and forensic scientists to classify extreme, psychopatic, anti-social, "evil" behavior. The items to rate the peacetime offender includes a 20-item personality test qualifying glibness and superficial charm, grandiose self-worth, pathological lying, proneness to boredom and emotional vacuity.
posted by semmi at 9:55 AM PST - 14 comments
