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March 2003 Archives
March 31
As a brief distraction
from all the death and destruction, let's head over to the museum of hoaxes, where we'll find the top 100 April Fool's day pranks of all time.
Good luck with your own respective hoaxing.
posted by jonz at 10:25 PM PST - 5 comments
Tired of WarBlogs? (NSFW)
Most blogs are people whining about their life, computers or the war. Not sexblogs. I'm not involved with this site, but I noticed them when they linked to me.
posted by nyxxxx at 10:08 PM PST - 10 comments
Perhaps This Public Image/Persona Thing Has Gone Just A Little Too Far:
Luís Campos Lopes, the manager of the Portuguese football team
Vitoria de Setúbal has just been
sacked for "projecting a negative image of the club". [
Link in Portuguese, but please read on.] The reason? Just watch the photo-sequence in the main link. Luís Lopes had trouble putting on his Setúbal vest during a crucial game with Benfica! I.e. the powerful sports media in Portugal and Brazil have had a riot with the photographs and the poor widdle proprietors were embarrassed. So? He may not be a brilliant manager - but isn't this blatant
lookism? Isn't "image" becoming much too big for its boots, as it were, in professional sports? [
Here is the only English language reference I could find. Please scroll down to "Luís Campos".]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:20 PM PST - 26 comments
Mr. Noodle's Brother Mr. Noodle
a.k.a.
Michael Jeter passed away over the weekend. Those of us with young children glued to Elmo's World will know him on sight. With everything going on in Iraq, we don't need any more bad news, but the loss of this actor has really effected me.
Silly Noodle...you'll be missed.
posted by lasthrsman at 9:17 PM PST - 10 comments
Save the Pacific Tree Octopus!
There have been many debates about loss of habitat for localized species, but a little known fight is underway to help save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. "An intelligent and inquisitive being...the tree octopus explores its arboreal world by both touch and sight." Won't you help?!
posted by Salmonberry at 8:16 PM PST - 19 comments
Remember everyone tomorrow, April 1st, is Make Fun of Dick and Lynne Cheney day, (because
Neal Pollack said so). If you run any kind of website or publication and have the power to mock, belittle or poke fun at the second family, it's your patriotic duty to do so.
posted by alan at 8:15 PM PST - 18 comments
Milk is bad for you?
Is nothing sacred? When I was growing up, milk was about the purest, cleanest and healthiest thing you could drink (except maybe for the warm carton that we were give at school every day). Now, it seems, we have been killing ourselves slowly by drinking the wrong
kind of milk. The
authorities and some
vested interests are not convinced, but there certainly seems to be quite a bit of evidence to support the theories.
posted by dg at 7:19 PM PST - 25 comments
Lord, Bless This Defender of Freedom.
"No matter where his mission takes him, he'll never be beyond the reach of God's protection. As the brave members of the U.S. military head out to defend our freedom, it's comforting to know that each one is sheltered in the loving hands of God." Order
your Defender of Freedom, complete with hands of God, for only $19.95 plus shipping. Assault rifle included.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 3:42 PM PST - 44 comments
...implants a device in his body that delivers agonizing pain at the push of a button, and over the course of many days attempts to wear him down through a disturbingly simple process of psychological warfare. He is seated in a chair with four bright lights shining in his face, and the captor attempts through painful coercion to make him say that there are, in fact, five lights. Every time he refuses to say there are five lights, he is drilled with pain. In essence, he is expected to deny the reality described by his own eyes, and surrender the will of his mind to the definition of reality offered by his captor.
Four Lights, a thesis [
2]
posted by holloway at 2:35 PM PST - 39 comments
Happy birthday, Kasimir Malevich!
The Guggenheim has curated an exhibition (currently in
Berlin and coming to New York in May) to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of this Russian avant-garde painter who, among other things, was a major influence on El Lissitzky and worked alongside
Liubov Popova. The story of how the show itself came to be -- featuring many works never before seen in the West -- makes for rather
dramatic reading, to boot.
(NYTimes link; reg. req.) [more inside]
posted by scody at 1:20 PM PST - 8 comments
World War 1 Memoirs and Diaries
, by soldiers, nurses and chaplains. 'With the advent of the world wide web, an opportunity arose for the descendants of many survivors to publish fragments of diary entries for the education and interest of others. '
The diary of Edwin Jones, who fought in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Via the
firstworldwar.com website,
which also features
poetry and prose (including an overview of British World War 1
satire and
how it reflected the class system at the time);
propaganda posters;
and miscellaneous
features on everything from
the
Christmas truce to
the
disputed sexuality of T.E. Lawrence.
Related :- an
interview with one of
the last British WW1 survivors, aged 107 ('I survived the trenches - and would
never go back'), and the BBC's
80th anniversary site, which includes five poignant, sometimes tragic, letters from soldiers to family and friends.
posted by plep at 1:14 PM PST - 8 comments
An exhibit of the art of Radebaugh
and what the future looked like from the 50's.
"The post-World War II optimism that pervaded the nation extended to the not-too-distant future, with its promise of spaceship-traveled skyways whirring in a utopia of streamlined cityscapes.
Now, the works of A.C. Radebaugh -- a top illustrator of the day whose works helped define that future-vision -- are being shown in a retrospective at a quirky art gallery obsessed with Americana of the mid-20th century."
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:42 PM PST - 1 comments
Need a diversion from you-know-what? Make something out of paper. When you get tired of
origami,
paper airplanes, and
paper balloons, try paper craft.
Yamaha has a great site with downloadable papercraft templates, including not only their great motorcycles, but many animals as well.
Canon also has a great selection, including a spectacular architecture selection. Not geeky enough? Try these
Star Wars templates. Not difficult enough? Try this
Mistubishi FTO. Not cute enough? Try
these. For those of you that need some connection to the war,
here you go. Last but not least, this
index contains links to all kinds of great paper projects.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 11:38 AM PST - 8 comments
Celebrity TV journalist Geraldo Rivera kicked out of Iraq: Pentagon
I had seen Geraldo drawing the map referred to. Geraldo was not "embedded" and therefore acting as a real reporter. Did he give away key info? My suspicion is No. I had earlier seen retired officers (they all retire and then go on TV) make similar marking to show where our forces were on the way toward Baghdad. I knew in advance where Geraldo would conclude his map in the sand because I had seen it on the "embedded" reports on various cable stations.
posted by Postroad at 11:34 AM PST - 29 comments
Operation: Cover George's butt?
As the backpeddling and
fingerpointing over "cakewalk" predictions continues, Talking Points Memo notes a recent
article in the Charlotte Observer that quotes "senior administration officials" in saying that "dissenting views [about the war plan]' were not fully or energetically communicated to the president.'" Sounds like someones taking out an insurance policy, don't it?
posted by Gilbert at 11:31 AM PST - 15 comments
Cesar Chavez Day
With our focus on the war lets not forget what DOES make this country great, its people! I have to confess ignorance of this mans accomplishments until I turned my calendar today. Read,enjoy, learn something about a man who fought injustice with the most powerful weapon...his mind!
posted by hoopyfrood at 10:46 AM PST - 10 comments
A journalist with principles
When Katy Weitz, an anti-war feature writer for UK paper 'The Sun' picked up Thursday's edition and saw the headline, it was a step too far. She went in the following day and without another job to go to, handed in her resignation. It was no longer possible for her to write for a paper whose views she didn't agree with. I once gave up a marketing job because it ran against my principles as well. How far can we stretch ourselves before we have to shrug our shoulders and say ... it's only a job?
posted by feelinglistless at 9:21 AM PST - 16 comments
A Pyrrhic victory in a catastrophic "March of Folly"?
- historian Barbara Tuchman asked:
why do leaders persist in pursuing catastrophic policies? Regardless of
Baath regime executions of Iraqis, the Islamic world will witness mainly "American Atrocities" - and
be outraged by gruesome images, on Al Jazeera and elsewhere, of every single child killed by American bombs. Iraqi tactics - of
suicide bombing, ambushes, and faked surrenders - will erase the civilian/combatant distinction, leading to more and
more incidents like this (to be televised to an appalled Islamic world): and all this merely a
foreshadow of what may be
urban
warfare on a scale seldom seen in the 20th century.
Grozny comes to mind. Mainstream US media asserts that the solution for the whole
"miscalculation" is
just more US troops
But the war is tailor made to provoke tribalistic, Pan-Islamic fury (and corresponding, furiously tribalistic US patriotic support for war). Escalation is in the air: statements by
Rumsfeld,
Powell, and
the US State Dept. indicate an awareness that the current war could spread,
drawing
in Syria and Iran. Consequences also could include the
destabilization or the
takeover,
of nuclear armed Pakistan, by Islamic militants, and a
Nuclear
miltarization across a wide region, from Iraq to Japan.
If only this were
"South Park: The Movie", where the onset of Armaggeddon can be stopped by an heroic act of sacrifice by Kenny.
posted by troutfishing at 9:19 AM PST - 27 comments
The Code of Hammurabi is generally recognized as the first laws ever written. Hammurabi was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon (present day Iraq), the world's first metropolis.
posted by stbalbach at 8:33 AM PST - 14 comments
How on Earth was this image made?
Here is an opportunity for you to play image detective. How on Earth was this image made? Is it a painting, or a map? Is it a photograph? If so, was it taken from a high-flying aircraft, or from outer space? Is it a satellite image, or possibly even something else? Click to read the
feature article when you’re ready to check your answer. (cheers,
lagado)
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:25 AM PST - 16 comments
"Now America is reappraising the battlefield, delaying the war, maybe a week and rewriting the war plan. The first plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another plan." Seems patently obvious, no? But tell Iraqi state television that and suddenly you're speaking from "a position of complete ignorance," according to the White House.
Peter Arnett,
highly respected, Pulitzer Prize winner and the first journalist to
interview Osama Bin Laden on film, wouldn't back down the
last time a network caved into craven submission at hands of the American military, and
he's been sacked by NBC/MSNBC for again refusing to do so. There's no First Amendment case, obviously, and no real surprise that the military would be exerting pressure to maintain control over information, but does the firing of high-profile Arnett for the repeating the obvious increase
anybody's confidence that we're hearing anything resembling the truth?
posted by JollyWanker at 7:42 AM PST - 30 comments
Washington Post gives a warblog round up.
The timing of the blogging going mainstream vs. Iraq war couldn't be more ironic and oddly appropriate. Washington Post provides an interesting war blog roundup that includes the usual suspects: Vodka Pundit, Instapundit, Kuro5hin and others. Are there some notable blogs they overlooked?
posted by cpfeifer at 7:36 AM PST - 7 comments
Michael Moore is making a deal with Mel Gibson's Icon Prods. to finance
"Fahrenheit 911," a documentary that will trace why the U.S. has become a target for hatred and terrorism. It will also depict alleged dealings between two generations of the Bush and bin Laden clans that led to George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden becoming mortal enemies.
posted by archimago at 7:07 AM PST - 37 comments
Children's Books Online: The Rosetta Project
is an
incredible online resource for 19th century children's books. From the site: "The Rosetta Project's collections currently contain about 2,000 antique children's books which were published in the 19th and early 20th century. We shall be putting these combined collections on line as funding permits. Our current goal of putting 2,000 volumes on line will create an online library of aproximately 65,000 html pages. However, as we are still collecting books from around the world, we expect the Rosetta Project online library to eventually reach millions of html pages." (via
coudal.)
posted by Pinwheel at 7:01 AM PST - 7 comments
March 30
U.S. loses faith in Canada
"We would be there for Canada, part of our family. And that is why so many in the United States are disappointed and upset that Canada is not fully supporting us now," says Paul Cellucci, U.S. ambassador to Canada. As pro-US sentiments from prominent Canadian figures are harshly criticized while blatant (and rather tasteless) anti-US remarks go more or less ignored by the government, has the relationship with our longtime friends up north been irreversibly soured?
posted by swank6 at 11:41 PM PST - 35 comments
Language Bullies!
An interesting somewhat compelling article asking us to forgive Bush's "nuccular." But will you forgive these needless exclamation marks?!!!!!
posted by adrober at 8:42 PM PST - 25 comments
Last Call
to fire up a smoke in NYC has now chimed. As of today, it is now illegal to smoke in any public indoor space, including bars. The
New York City Indoor Smoke-Free Air Act of 2002 gives further detail as to what defines a public indoor space. That, not including your residential lease that may prohibit as well. As Andrew Jacobs writes,
Walk a Mile for a Camel? Not Far Enough Anymore.
posted by bluedaniel at 3:57 PM PST - 162 comments
Sheela Na Gigs
are stone grotesques found decorating old churches in Europe. They are characterized by "[a] huge head, staring eyes and hands reaching down between [her] wide open legs to spread [her] swollen and oversized womanhood." While the posture implies prostitution, the
Sheelas are said to be representations of the
Great Mother, and they are said to keep
evil away. There are even some male Sheelas, like
this one at Lower Swell.
posted by jessamyn at 1:45 PM PST - 24 comments
A Celebration of Women Writers.
'Women have written almost every imaginable type of work: novels, poems, letters, biographies, travel books, religious commentaries, histories, economic and scientific works... '
'All too often, works by women, and resources about women writers, are hard to find. We attempt to provide easy access to available on-line information. '
Categorised by country, century and ethnicity; with
links to some interesting specialty collections :-
19th century African-American writers (including
slave narratives);
school stories (covers and links);
children's book illustrators;
travel writers;
early Japanese poets and poet-painters;
sci fi, and more.
posted by plep at 1:07 PM PST - 9 comments
The vegan diet can be a killer,
at least that's what the State of New York thinks. Was a "strict vegan diet" the cause of a 15-month-old's demise or did New York health officials have a hand in the death?
posted by Bag Man at 12:46 PM PST - 51 comments
Plans Under Way for Christianizing the Enemy.
"Two leading evangelical Christian missionary organizations said Tuesday that they have teams of workers poised to enter Iraq to address the physical and spiritual needs of a large Muslim population."
(from Buzzflash)
God please save me from your followers!
posted by thedailygrowl at 11:25 AM PST - 47 comments
The Information War:
"Every few minutes, another burst of satellite imagery and Internet information impacts among an interactive global audience. Ambushed by info, U.S. military commanders confident in their overwhelming firepower are increasingly expressing concern that the 'velocity of information' is spinning out of their control." [more inside]
posted by poopy at 10:24 AM PST - 20 comments
March 29
An American Myth Rides Into the SunsetOne cannot imagine F.D.R., before declaring war on Japan, or even Ronald Reagan before Grenada, pumping a fist and saying of himself, "Feel good" — as President Bush did before he announced the beginning of the Iraq war. Indeed, the doctrine of pre-emptive warfare flies in the face of the humble, reluctant cowboy myth Mr. Bush holds so dear.
posted by y2karl at 10:24 PM PST - 9 comments
The Virtual MetaBanquet: Eat, Drink And Be Merry!
Any class which includes A.M.Bowie's stimulating "Thinking With Drinking" paper in the bibliography, has to be worth taking but John Porter's
The Ancient Symposium/Convivium course description is full of wonderful links to all that is classical wining, dining, conviviality, friendship and other forms of philosophical and physical cheer. Brush up on your Plato and Xenophon!
...Which, together with the
Cooks' Thesaurus linked yesterday by
plep led me to imagine a glorious
Sunday MetaFilter Banquet...[
More inside.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:02 PM PST - 11 comments
The war is now a stalemate.
From Reuters: Much of the supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles has been expended, aircraft carriers are going to run out of precision guided bombs, and there are serious maintenance problems with tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment. "The only hope is that they can hold out until reinforcements arrive," a former US intelligence official said. "This is the mess [Rumsfeld] put himself in because he didn't want a heavy footprint on the ground."
posted by johnnydark at 9:05 PM PST - 84 comments
ZoomView is a satellite image of Baghdad from March 27th that allows zooming to the level of cars and individual trees and panning around the city. Data loads realtime called "sharpening". Other cool ZoomViews of Basra, Tikrit, North Korea nuclear reactor site, Qualcomm Stadium San Diego.
posted by stbalbach at 6:31 PM PST - 11 comments
“Takoma,
the Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphin, had been in Iraq for 48 hours when he went missing on his first operation to snoop out mines… Takoma has now been missing for 48 hours and the solitary figure of Petty Officer Whitaker could be seen yesterday patting the water, calling his name and offering his favourite fish, but there was no response.”
posted by raaka at 6:16 PM PST - 21 comments
For his kindness, Saddam was once given a key to the city of Detroit.
Apparently Saddam Hussein once donated money to Chaldean churches all over the world, including Chaldean Sacred Heart, in the motor city.
"He was very kind person, very generous, very cooperative with the West. Lately, what's happened, I don't know," (Rev. Jacob) Yasso, 70, said Wednesday. "Money and power changed the person."
Yasso was later invited to Iraq, where he presented Saddam Hussein with a key to the city, courtesy of then-Detroit mayor, Coleman Young.
posted by wondergirl at 3:50 PM PST - 12 comments
US soldiers beat, inhumanely detain, expel independent journalists.
One of the dirty secrets of this war is
Kuwaiti anti-semitism against journalists. Boaz Bizmuth and Dan Scemama are two such Israelis
who faced that discrimination. When the war started, they took off in a jeep with Luis Castro and Victor Silva,
two Portuguese journalists, following US troops. Somewhere around An Najaf, they were told that at least one of the Israeli journalists had problems with their papers and needed to be accredited by the Kuwaitis. They slept for the night, only to be woken at gunpoint by US military police. They were accused of being spies and detained for 12 hours without food. When one of the Portuguese journalists asked to use the phone,
both were beaten, and one was knocked to the ground and kicked, breaking several ribs. They were detained without contact for another 36 hours, before being flown back to Kuwait.
CNN Germany is covering this story ... so why isn't CNN?
posted by insomnia_lj at 2:28 PM PST - 27 comments
"Build frame-lattice lancework set-pieces on the roofs of insurance buildings or schools--a kundalini-snake or Chaos- dragon coiled barium-green against a background of sodium- oxalate yellow--Don't Tread On Me--or copulating monsters shooting wads of jizm-fire at a Baptists old folks home. "
I really have
no idea, but it's awesome anyways.
posted by kavasa at 2:08 PM PST - 17 comments
Operation Teenage Angst Fest.
Is all the war talk getting you down? Make like your younger self and wallow in some self-obsessed teen angst. You might even want to dig our your old journals and
submit. Keep in mind the cardinal
rule, though: it has to suck.
posted by maud at 12:02 PM PST - 7 comments
Qatar
Home of Central Command and Al Jazzera television, it's a small oil-rich country we've all heard of, and that's the problem: I hear Qatar called
Cutter, Gutter, Katar, and Kwatar. How do the Qataris' pronounce it; is it possible to accurately pronounce foreign words in English? Who decides? More inside...
posted by Mack Twain at 10:01 AM PST - 32 comments
The Bartender
gives tips for those of you who are worried that the war will hinder your ability to "hook up with foreign hotties."
posted by Juicylicious at 9:16 AM PST - 10 comments
Fox News "revises" its own news scroll during New York war protest.
"The news ticker rimming Fox's headquarters on Sixth Avenue wasn't carrying war updates as the protest began. Instead, it poked fun at the demonstrators, chiding them.
'War protester auditions here today ... thanks for coming!' read one message. 'Who won your right to show up here today?' another questioned. 'Protesters or soldiers?' Said a third: 'How do you keep a war protester in suspense? Ignore them....' Still another read: 'Attention protesters: the Michael Moore Fan Club meets Thursday at a phone booth at Sixth Avenue and 50th Street.'" Fox claims the network "didn't mean to insult anyone."
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 8:17 AM PST - 95 comments
March 28
Be a one heart- It is a time to celebrate and not allow yourself to get sucked into fear.
"A lot is up in the world today the War in Iraq changes everywhere on the planet. Now we have the 911 attack and the male ego is out in full force. Kill the evil-doers is the chant and the march to war is upon us. No doubt there is much happening in all parts of the world in this transition period, but in the end what is important is how we as individuals and as a collective conscience react or proact to these changes. As individuals, as nations, as humanity we will set the tone for what kind of a world we will begin the next epoch with. What humanity does now will flavor the world in which we live for a very long time. My life will be spent proacting the ways of peace and stability, what will you spend your life doing? "
"Message from the Hopi - People of Peace
August 2002
You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour,
now you must go back and tell them that this is the Hour.
And there are things to be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and so swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold onto the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The Elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our heads above water.
See who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally,
least of all, ourselves.
For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey,
comes to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
The Elders
Oraibi, Arizona
Hopi Nation "
TOP
posted by thedailygrowl at 10:11 PM PST - 27 comments
"Journalists" vs. The White House
- MSNBC's Tom Curry reports on the Bush administration's frustration with the war coverage. Rumsfeld: “Fortunately... the American people have a very good center of gravity and can absorb and balance what they see and hear.”
posted by cinematique at 8:23 PM PST - 9 comments
Songfight
is a site where users compose songs based weekly titles. Then the public votes and a winner is decided. While necessarily indie, there is a wide variety of styles present and
many great songs (mp3 links) have come out of this site. (Check the
archives).
posted by ODiV at 5:59 PM PST - 7 comments
Halliburton out of the running for the $600 billion contract to rebuild Iraqs infrastructure. Andrew Natsios, director of the USAID, which is handing out most of the postwar contracts, is keen to counter any allegations of favoritism or political influence. "If I got a phone call from anybody putting any political pressure on me, I would report it immediately". Halliburton is the company formerly run by Dick Cheney, VP of the United States.
posted by stbalbach at 3:55 PM PST - 19 comments
Google.ac
is some kind of fake Google site that seems to return nothing but sponsored results. Is it supposed to fool somebody?
posted by hammurderer at 12:41 PM PST - 14 comments
This whole damn battlefield is entirely screwed up.
Journalists are informants are medics are soldiers are noncombatants are enemies are friends are puppets are war criminals are spies are civilians are terrorists are injured are paramilitary are POWs are freedom fighters are MIA are bloggers are bystanders are children are involved. Will there ever again be an American war where it's clear who's who? And who's on which side?
posted by jengod at 11:39 AM PST - 15 comments
Embedding? Rumsfeld et al Tried to Embed Bechtel and Themselves with Saddam as Iraq Gassed Iranians.
"Our examination [issued by the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network and the Institute for Policy Studies with
recently released supporting documents] shines a new spotlight on the revolving door between Bechtel and the Reagan Administration that drove U.S.-Iraq interactions between 1983 and 1985. The men who courted Saddam while he gassed Iranians are now waging war against him, ostensibly because he holds weapons of mass destruction. To a man, they now deny that oil has anything to do with the conflict. Yet during the Reagan Administration, and in the years leading up to the present conflict, these men shaped and implemented a strategy that has everything to do with securing Iraqi oil exports....[This paper] notes that the break in US-Iraq relations occurred not after Iraq used chemical weapons on the Iranians, nor after Iraq gassed its own Kurdish people, nor even after Iraq invaded Kuwait, but rather, followed Saddam's rejection of the Aqaba pipeline deal. Finally, this paper shows that the main actors in the 1980s drama are now back on center stage, this time justifying military action against Iraq in terms of national security....The Bush/Cheney administration now eyes Bechtel as a primary contractor for the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure." (via
Progressive Review.)
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 10:43 AM PST - 9 comments
Space-time continuum abused for financial gain
Federal investigators have arrested a Wall Street whizz who made $350 million from an initial investment of just $800 in two weeks. The man has confessed to insider dealing, explaining that he travelled back from the year 2256 in his 'time craft' specifically to make a killing on recorded past stock plunges. The kicker? There's no record of the man's existence prior to December 2002.
posted by skylar at 9:08 AM PST - 41 comments
Amy Goodman AMERICAN HERO but not on WAMC?
Democracy now an informitive and hard hitting program produced by Pacifica Radio was asked for many,many times during WAMC's recent fund drive prompting WAMC's dictator in charge alan chartock to state "its on a lot of stations but not
WAMC" Why is that? Afraid of rousing the ire of AG ashcroft?I think we should see if old alan is up to giving a good reason why!
posted by hoopyfrood at 8:48 AM PST - 9 comments
Free songs
from a free record label, Protest-Records.com. Punk, folk, rock, rap. Thurston Moore and NY designer Chris Habib curate. State smashin' stencils for download too.
posted by damehex at 8:40 AM PST - 10 comments
Windows RG (Really Good) - a new build for the demanding windows user, and an early christmas present for all mac users.
posted by gravelshoes at 7:50 AM PST - 12 comments
Chuckie Egg
It’s not quite a Friday Flash Game, and it’s not quite a discussion of the great 8-bit games we played when we were young, but it seems to fall neatly between the two camps, so I thought I’d post it. For those of you on the other side of the pond, Chuckie Egg was one of the biggest selling games here in the U.K. For those of you who hanker for the old days of your BBC Micro, here’s a little bit of ‘80s magic. PC only, but it’s less than 200K of download, and as an extra bonus, it allows you to create your own levels.
posted by seanyboy at 7:06 AM PST - 9 comments
The Stone Pages.
'Over the last 14 years we have personally visited and photographed all 529 archæological sites you will find in these pages (117 in the six national sections and 412 in our Tours section), creating the first Web guide to European megaliths and other prehistoric sites, online since February 1996.'
Related :-
Ancient Stones, a personal photographic guide
to the stone circles of Britain;
Megalithic Walks, diaries of days out visiting some of these places;
the
Prehistoric Monuments of Wales;
the interactive
Megalith Map. These sites also have great links pages to more megalithic resources.
posted by plep at 6:35 AM PST - 13 comments
Gary Hart launched a weblog.
"From time to time, I'll post my thoughts on current policy matters, as well as share some stories about where I'm traveling and the people I'm meeting. I'll also ask some of my friends to share their thoughts as well. I cannot promise to be as skillful at this as many of those who have made the blogger universe such an important part of the internet. However, I'm committed to using the Internet as a vital tool to engage people on critical policy matters and the future of our country."
Hart joins Howard Dean as the only other 2004 presidential hopeful with a
weblog.
posted by PoliticalJunkie at 6:14 AM PST - 19 comments
The Historian of Things That Never Were: Edgar Governo collects timelines, chronologies, and histories of events that never happened, to people and things that never existed. Like who? Like Dr. Who, and Final Fantasy VII, Gargoyles, Buckaroo Bonzai, Gulliver's Travels, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and many more.
posted by iconomy at 5:28 AM PST - 13 comments
VandalSquad
Always fancied yourself as a "Writer" but don't want to get covered in paint or arrested? This download allows you to deface a train wagon to your hearts content and then upload it to a gallery. Not the
real thing but as close as most of us will ever get...
posted by jontyjago at 1:54 AM PST - 1 comments
The Chant of the Weed.
"Think of the received image of the jazz musician, the young man with a horn or the tortured singer with the gardenia in her hair. And think what baggage they carry, along with the reeds and the valve oil and the spare mouthpieces. Somewhere in the flight case or purse, tucked away out of sight but still seemingly essential to the image, a little something for after the gig, maybe weed, maybe white powder, maybe a discrete bottle of pills. Like it or not, drugs are very much part of the history and still more of the mythology or jazz." And you gotta hear the clip of
Cocaine Habit Blues.
posted by theplayethic at 1:01 AM PST - 12 comments
It's Always Some Poor Writer's Birthday:
So thank you, I guess, good old Uncle Garrison, for remembering them on good old
Minnesota Public Radio. A rather good bunch was born today, too: Nelson Algren [
Party in Chicago on Saturday!], Gorky, Vargas Llosa, Russell Banks and Frederic "A Fan's Notes" Exley. [
Literary types will inevitably want to play the good old "What do this motley crew have in common?" game. Cheating and false analogies actively encouraged, of course.] In fact, it's been
a good week altogether. Be sure to go back to
2001 and
2002 for extra snippets. The notes, written by Keillor, are unassuming, interesting and admirably synthetic. There's also an excellent daily reading of a poem [
Real Audio req.] and a running celebration of the calendar's most significant dates. I defy those who are put off by Keillor's sock-knitting, eggnog-sipping, home-on-the-range style not to grudgingly feel, amid the grrrr, an unwelcome twinge of gratitude.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:13 AM PST - 14 comments
"These Enemies of Humanity would like to claim the world for themselves."
No, this is not about either side in the Iraq War, it's part of the opening of Act I of "Ghosts of Albion", a serialized Friday Flash thingy from BBC-interactive, animated by the people who brought us "Dangermouse", and co-written by the actress behind a dead "Buffy" character
(I admit it: I got the link from BuffyFilter). The site's got everything from
a profile of Lord Byron's Ghost, to (dare I say it?)
a Weblog.
But is the "dramatisation" dramatic or scary or funny or worth going back to every week? IMGUO*, it doesn't get off to as good a start as Ep.1 of
"Tales of the Blode", but consider the pedigree... Then again, the BBC did bring us both "Monty Python" AND "What Not to Wear"...
* IMGUO: In My Generally Unpopular Opinion
posted by wendell at 12:03 AM PST - 4 comments
March 27
A patriotic potpourri.
Say what you want about the war. It certainly has helped some people find their special purpose.
Terrorists beware! You have gone to far this time & WE will DESTROY YOU. Also Current World News, War Infofmation, Kill Osama Pics, Games, Laughs & More..... (warning: crammed full of multimedia files, including (but not limited to) Bon Jovi cover songs interspersed with screeching eagles.)
posted by Ljubljana at 11:13 PM PST - 10 comments
House Resolution 153
recognizes the need for the American public to pray and fast in order to secure the blessings of "Providence" (read: Jesus) for our Armed Forces. Seriously. "Resolved that the President should issue a proclamation designating a day for prayer & fasting for all people of the United States". I take back the thing I said earlier about the Freedom Fries being the stupidest Congressional legislation I'd ever seen.
posted by jonson at 10:16 PM PST - 75 comments
Ground Laid for Historic Presidential Powers Push
But as recently as March 4, Attorney General John Ashcroft was being coy about it, refusing to discuss any of the 86-page draft at a Senate hearing. Among the more extreme powers Patriot Act II would grant the executive branch: The ability to strip citizenship from an American who supports a group the feds label as terrorist. Secret arrests—the government could avoid revealing the location of, charges against, and evidence on someone it was holding. Far looser checks on search-and-seizure activities of law enforcement. And a DNA database for people deemed to be terrorist suspects. But with this "really cool war to watch on TV", who will even notice before it's too late?
posted by bas67 at 8:45 PM PST - 29 comments
According to UPI, the United States has been offered by coalition partner Morocco its
tide-turning force of 2,000 monkeys trained to detonate land mines. It wouldn't be so unbelievable if the U.S. wasn't already
training dolphins and sea lions to do the same. Considering the carnage already happening to humans in Iraq, this news doesn't inspire thoughts of
happy endings for our animal friends.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:55 PM PST - 28 comments
Al-Qaeda fighting with Iraqis, British claim
So say interrogated Iraqi POWs. But wait. Al Qaeda the group that killed 3 thousand Americans and now they are inside Iraq helping Saddam? Were they there when Blix lads inspecting? Do the French know about this? If so, do they think we should give Al Qaeda a chance to reform?
posted by Postroad at 3:36 PM PST - 29 comments
Kim Jong Il (the illmatic)'s LiveJournal
3:39 am Dear diary. Bush still doesn’t ‘get it.’ I tried making my feelings clear but he’s too busy ignoring me, he is such a jerk. Everything in his life is just Saddam, Saddam, Saddam and I am sick of it.
On the plus side, I think my hair looked pretty good today. Also I went frolicking at Paektu Mountain and the rainbow came out again. After dinner some of my subjects sang me a song because I invented Outer Space.
posted by woj at 2:18 PM PST - 20 comments
Friday Thursday Flash Fun Art. Suspended Gardens 2 allows you to plant virtual flowers in Iraq. You can customize your flower and include a message. As Metafilterarians like to state their opinions, do not miss this opportunity. [more inside]
posted by MzB at 11:06 AM PST - 3 comments
Blair, the war criminal
Tom Dalyell, a Labour MP with over 41 years of service in the House of Commons has voted with his Labour Party constitutency to call for Blair to reconsider his postion as party leader. He further states that he believes "[Blair] should be branded as a war criminal and sent to the Hague".
posted by lometogo at 10:25 AM PST - 22 comments
The Iraq-September 11th smoking gun?
Finally, near proof that Iraq was involved in the September 11th attacks on America: a mural in the Iraqi military headquarters in Nasiriya depicts a plane crashing into a building complex similar to New York's twin towers! (Okay, seriously, are some folks so desperate to make the connection that this might become an actual story?)
posted by johnnydark at 7:15 AM PST - 50 comments
The Supreme Court
is currently hearing arguments about the constitutionality of homosexual sex. While this may not be news, just listening to some of the comments by the conservatives on the court can be a chilling experience, whether you are straight or gay.
Is it possible that there can be supreme court justices, supposedly the best of the best, who are
really this ignorant?
posted by eas98 at 6:59 AM PST - 68 comments
gigposters
-- a collection of posters created by artists and musicians to advertise their shows and events.
posted by lilboo at 6:53 AM PST - 4 comments
The G.I. Jones Photographic Archive of Southeastern Nigerian Art and Culture.
'This is an archive of digitized photographs depicting the arts and cultures of southeastern Nigeria. The collection includes examples from Ibibio, Igbo, Ijo and Ogoni speaking peoples. All of the photographs were taken in the 1930s by the late G.I. Jones, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge. The majority of the images are from the Igbo speaking regions where Jones conducted most of his research. The materials included here represent only a sample of the complete Jones collection. The photographs are unique for the creative brilliance of the art represented, the quality of the photography itself, and the cultural and historical significance of photographic records from this time period in Nigeria.'
Some related links :-
American Museum Congo Expedition 1909-1915. A truly interesting site, which includes field notes, photographs, watercolours, historical maps, anthropoligical objects, and so forth.
A Clickable Map of the Art of the African Continent, via
Africa: The Art of a Continent.
The Woods Collection of African Art, with another clickable map.
Nigerian Stories.
posted by plep at 6:30 AM PST - 11 comments
Robert Fisk in the Independent
Today's front page of the UK broadsheet comprises solely of a text-only report of yesterday's bombing of a Baghdad marketplace, beginning: "It was an outrage, an obscenity. The severed hand on the metal door, the swamp of blood and mud across the road, the human brains inside a garage, the incinerated, skeletal remains of an Iraqi mother and her three small children in their still-smouldering car..."
This is how war reporting should be.
posted by garyh at 2:07 AM PST - 110 comments
March 26
A study posted at Adobe's website
describes how traditionally Mac-centric tasks (rendering using After Effects, Illustrator & Photoshop) are all faster on a PC. These kinds of studies are a dime a dozen; what's interesting isn't which platform is faster, but that Adobe would host a page proclaiming the PC is the "preferred" platform for such tasks. Given the notoriously fickle folks at Quark, I would have pegged Adobe as the biggest Mac boosters in the third party software market. Are times changing?
posted by jonson at 9:40 PM PST - 49 comments
In anti-war protests in
Australia yesterday,
children as young as 12 were shown on TV coverage participating not only in protests, but in the violence that followed when the protesters attacked police. There has, in the past, been condemnation of those who bring their children along to protests, but this is the first time I have seen large numbers of children protesting on their own behalf - most of whom would have been truant from school and, judging by the way many hid from cameras, without the permission of their parents. Should we take them seriously, or are they too young to really understand what it is they are protesting against? [more inside]
posted by dg at 5:30 PM PST - 28 comments
Where did those chemical and biological weapons come from?
”According to the December declaration, treated with much derision from the Bush administration, U.S. and Western companies played a key role in building Hussein's war machine. The 1,200-page document contains a list of Western corporations and countries -- as well as individuals -- that exported chemical and biological materials to Iraq in the past two decades.”
I’ve always been surprised that this type of report doesn’t get more attention. During the UN hearings I half expected the Administration to level with the world and simply say: ”We know they have the stuff because we sold it to them.”
posted by peebo at 3:13 PM PST - 32 comments
U.S.-German Rift Reaches Schoolyard Level
"A Tennessee high school has called off an exchange with German students...The cancelation was another indication that the disagreement over Schroeder's anti-war stand is beginning to strain German-American friendship at its heart." [more inside]
posted by tippiedog at 11:24 AM PST - 23 comments
Adam Osborne
could arguably be called one of the fathers of the laptop, having introduced the first commercially successful portable computer, the
Osborne 1. Sadly, he passed away late yesterday. It's interesting to consider that those of us who use laptops day-to-day in our jobs owe a gratitude to one of the less-well-known pioneers of the tech industry.
posted by PeteyStock at 10:57 AM PST - 5 comments
War as Crime
is a radio drama by Jugen Hesse, from
Virtually American [via
AudioTheater.com].
Avatar is the nom de guerre of an intellectual in a breakaway republic of the former Yugoslavia. His best friend, Radek, is a career soldier. Both belong to opposing ethnic groups, formerly living in peace, now at war, civil war. Radek is involved in ethnic cleansing operations against Avatar's ethnic group. ...
posted by hairyeyeball at 10:20 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
The Triumph of Fear-
" just as every moment that we choose despair we deepen the likelihood of a world of war, so every moment where we choose to affirm love and generosity and our mutual interconnectedness we increase the likelihood of a world of peace and justice." ....
posted by thedailygrowl at 12:48 AM PST - 5 comments
March 25
Halliburton Handed No-Bid Iraqi Oil Firefighting Contract
You still believe this war is about nothing more then WMD's? I wonder how many other of Bush and Cheney's friends are benefiting from this war? The US government didn't even bother to give other companies a chance to bid for this contract. While on the topic of WMD's you might want to check out
this, about the lack of skepticism when it comes to the media making claims for weapons in Iraq. Remember Fox and their claim of a "HUGE" chemical weapons stash? How are we to get accurate news on this war if the journalist's we rely on are nothing more then puppets for this administration?
posted by tljenson at 10:55 PM PST - 40 comments
8-bit gaming forever!
I've been thinking about the old days lately; back to when I was a young lad sitting in front of our families
huge 19 inch TV and spending a good 10 hours or more with my trusty Atari 2600 playing Pong, Combat, Pac Man, and whatnot. I'd say I had a good 50 or more games for my 2600, and I played that thing until it just fried to death, begging for mercy as I whipped the joystick to and fro trying to find the chalice in Adventure.
So imagine my surprise when I head over to
ThinkGeek and see a swanky little controller with
10 Atari games harcoded into it. Just, um, "Plug and Play". Heh heh... anyhow, they also have an
Activision version as well. I love the idea of one of these. I think it'd be great if it could be upgraded to handle more games as well. I wouldn't mind playing some "
E.T., the Extraterrestrial" right about now.
posted by crankydoodle at 10:44 PM PST - 18 comments
March 24
How to make a protest sign
This past weekend thousands of Americans took to the street to protest or support the war - many with protest posters. Making a protest poster isn't that difficult but the web makes it even easier with sites on the web that offer protest posters for every angle on the issue.
Another Poster for Peace has a collection of posters from some of the top names in graphic design available royality free.
Insta-protest offers a collection of 80 posters printable on your laser or inkjet printer from their Flash interface.
Mike Flugennock has cartoon posters critical of the war and a number of other topics.
The Propaganda Remix Project has been mentioned here before for their WWII remixed posters. Finally
Anti-War offers a gallery of posters in color and black and white.
For those of us who are supporting the President in this war you might want to
print out one of these. There's got to be others in support of the war - but where are they?
Designing protest posters can also be part of your high school history class with this
Art as Political Protest lesson plan. So, what sign are you?
posted by DragonBoy at 8:40 AM PST - 10 comments
"Uri Geller
[warning: pop ups] became well known for a few scientifically unexplained phenomena. They are Telepathy... Dowsing... Bending, breaking and softening metal and other solids with the power of the mind, e.g. spoons, keys etc, more rarely plastic and glass; Fixing broken watches and appliances, and using collective power, influencing the Big Ben to stop; Moving compasses with the power of thought; Erasing computer tapes and disks; and Sprouting, causing tiny seeds (mainly red radish) to grow a few centimeters in seconds." Why not thrill to a
biography of this favorite pseudo psychic of the 70s? To be frank, until just now, I wasn't even aware that
he was back!
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:53 AM PST - 11 comments
SonicBlue, the folks who bought out ReplayTV (previously discussed
here) announced that they are going
bankrupt.
What does this mean for the DVR "revolution?" What happens with your $250 box and your $250 lifetime subscription fee when you can't get their content any more? SonicBlue tries to allay fears by saying that they are innovating and will continue to work on the project, but I don't see how that can be guaranteed with a buyout or bankruptcy.
Does this mean that TiVo is it? Would you still purchase a ReplayTV today? (Apologies for the popup on the last link.)
posted by ajpresto at 3:49 AM PST - 12 comments
March 23
First Casualties? NATO, the U.N.
A 3 day old article, but it gave me a much better understanding of the workings of the U.N. and NATO and what the strengths and weaknesses are of each.
"
What is surprising, however, is the trouble the U.N. has had acting effectively even after the U.S.-Soviet rivalry ended. Again and again during the 1990s, the U.N. appeared helpless to meet “unsanctioned” aggressions in places like Rwanda, Liberia, the Horn of Africa and, especially, in the Balkans. "
posted by Ron at 10:06 PM PST - 4 comments
GW Bush's exploding frogs, a 50" plasma TV, and a "Bend Me Over Baby" DVD
- Shoving firecrackers into the mouths of frogs, then tossing them into the air to
watch them explode and, later, mocking Death-Row inmates. ...OK,
little boys and frogs; nothing unusual here. I used to burn ants with a magnifying glass. And I've tossed off some off color jokes. But then there's this
this: according to Amazon.UK.com,
shoppers who liked the "Panasonic TH-50PHW3B 50" Plasma Display" also purchased "The Leadership Genius of George W. Bush: 10 Common Sense Lessons from the Commander-in-chief"
", Bend Me Over Baby" ( DVD ), and "Spread Them Wide" (DVD). What does it mean? [via meehawl.com]
posted by troutfishing at 8:48 PM PST - 15 comments
English-friendly Arab web portal:
For those who want to better understand what Arab news agencies are printing/broadcasting or if you want to be able to read any web site published in Arabic, the Ajeeb portal has a
free translation service. It translated Arabic to English more clearly than how I've seen babblefish handle other languages. However, one should approach any translation with circumspection, especially in light of current events.
posted by Modem Ovary at 5:56 PM PST - 5 comments
The Iraq debate - from Red Pepper.
"...The writers of these articles are some of the many people who have struggled against Saddam Hussein, who have been driven into exile by his brutal regime, who keep their links with dissidents in Iraq, who do not believe that the US military can liberate them, and who are arguing for diplomatic and humanitarian support..."
posted by talos at 4:27 PM PST - 1 comments
The New York Times Magazine (yes, I know the link disappears in a week or two, sorry) published a fascinating article about ,
"The Philosopher of Islamic Terror." An Egyptian born in 1906, he veered toward radical Islamic fundamentalism by the 1950's, but had much company in Egypt in this endeavor. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood, a precursor to Al Qaeda, and became the editor of their journal. Nasser imprisoned him and eventually executed him. In prison he wrote powerful works which described in his view a diversion in society between human nature and human reason, with human reason having so overwhelmed human nature as to lead to mankind's potential downfall.
The answer was a return to human nature through a ritualistic adherence to the teachings of God, as described by Muhammad. Rather than separate science and reason from religion, he sought to combine them as taught in the Koran, thus providing real freedom for mankind. For a liberal Episcopalian (me) these are difficult ideas, but they are nevertheless compelling not only to the poor and uneducated Muslims but more importantly to the intelligentsia. They explain the pain of modern existence, especially to those raised on the Koran. The author describes Qutb as the Islamist's Marx. Scary - religion and philosophy carry much greater power than Marx's mere economics and philosophy. Western media portray Islam as mostly a fringe group drawing power from economic poverty and the power imbalance between the West and most Muslim countries. This article shows that, at least at its heart, the movement draws upon a powerful philosophy which for many answers their agony of modern existence, regardless of their economic status.
posted by caddis at 3:21 PM PST - 10 comments
"My country, right or wrong. If right, to be kept right, if wrong,
to be put right."
--
Carl Schurz
Those of us opposed to this war have made our positions known, and when the dust of bombs and combat has settled, we can be mildly cheered in knowing that although we could not stop the march to war, our vigilance has not gone entirely unheeded and has perhaps averted more harm than would otherwise have come. Now that the war is upon us, all of us, especially we who have identified ourselves as anti-war, run the risk of
truly failing in our efforts if we cannot harness our energies to make certain that those embroiled in this conflict do not suffer in vain. However unjust the means of this invasion have been, it is now our responsibility to attempt to ensure that the ends uphold the ideals we have been trying to safeguard.
It's time to check our fears about what has been done and look ahead to
what must be done.
posted by grrarrgh00 at 1:13 PM PST - 15 comments
Iraq breaks the Geneva Convention by showing POWs on TV.
To me, this is the first concrete evidence that Iraq is (potentially) breaking the Geneva Convention. I say potentially because, if we're an interloper, then I don't believe the Geneva Convention applies...we're basically just murderers and invaders, though I might be wrong. If this IS a "legal war", then the Convention should apply and there should be questions afterwards; one of the scariest I've been asking myself is "If the ICC or the UN decline to prosecute any Iraqis for Geneva Convention violations, will the US just kidnap whomever they want to prosecute?"
posted by taumeson at 11:34 AM PST - 96 comments
Let's open our eyes.
The brands are our friends, our references. They fill our imagination, bring self-fulfilment and relief, promise well-being, efficiency, success and happiness. Beyond the myth, what is the reality?
posted by the fire you left me at 11:11 AM PST - 5 comments
Root Blog
appears to a blog aggregator that appears to do auto-extraction of blog posts in one coloumn, and lists recently updated blogs in the other.
[via random($foo)]
posted by riffola at 10:05 AM PST - 2 comments
Have I ever told you what the river is like on a hot summer night? At dusk the mist hangs in long white bands over the water; the twilight fades and the lights of the town shine out on either bank, with the river, dark and smooth and full of mysterious reflections, like a road of triumph through the midst. - Gertrude Bell writing of the Euphrates near Baghdad. Gertrude Bell -
daughter of the desert,
Uncrowned Queen of Iraq, Advisor to kings and Ally of Lawrence of Arabia.
Gertrude Bell was a
traveller and mountaineer, recruited by British Intelligence to work in the Middle East during the First World War and, who later worked for the British Government in Baghdad.
Bell's influence on Middle Eastern politics made her the
most powerful woman in the British Empire in the years after World War I. She was a archeologist, writer, translated the poetry of
Hafiz and a
photographer as well. 1909: Letters from Gertrude Bell, dated
May 14 and
May 20. She died early in the morning of July 12th, 1926, 58 years old, from an overdose of sleeping pills--whether accidental or not is not known. She is buried in Baghdad, where her grave is still visited and her memory revered.
Cherchez La Femme
posted by y2karl at 7:38 AM PST - 12 comments
US Patriot hits British plane.
I guess someone left friendly fire on.
In an exchange between tables at a Baghdad restaurant, the Director General of the Information Ministry, Uday Altaiee, said: "We have them in Baghdad. They thought it would be a picnic - cream cakes and crates of Pepsi. But you will see that they will be slaughtered." How is this war really going?
posted by letterneversent at 7:01 AM PST - 47 comments
I had a really cool site on Wednesday to post, but stopped myself due the (prime time) start of the War, out of respect for MeFi users that have loved ones on either side of the line. It wasn't apprpriate. One of the things I have noticed on this site since last Wednesday is a very strong bifurcation of posts - those who are staunchly anti IraqFilter - who post as if nothing is going on, and those who can't seem to focus on anything else.
This seems to be a struggle going on in other circles as well, as seen in this column by
Roger Ebert, who discusses the appropriateness of tonights Oscars.
The show must go on,
right?
posted by Quartermass at 6:34 AM PST - 21 comments
March 22
Not All Iraqis Dancing in the Streets.
To watch the
neutered embedded reporters, you would think that every Iraqi is overjoyed to see America in his or her country. But the reality seems to be quite different: "Why are you here in this country? Are you trying to take over? Are you going to take our country forever? Are the Israelis coming next? Are you here to steal our oil? When are you going to get out?"
posted by owillis at 10:50 PM PST - 35 comments
Operation Pretentious Platitude
One of the awful aspects of
"Operation Iraqi Freedom" is having to listen to this name used without irony.
"It all comes down to branding" ...
"Don't waste a public relations opportunity -- remember that the operation name is the first bullet in the war of images."
"Churchill ... warned specifically against using words that imply an "overconfident sentiment." He knew as well as anyone how history delights in throwing unforeseen ironies our way."
Here's a list of mostly recent real names.
But how about "Operation Rouge-wearing Caliph"?
"Operation Evangelical Fatwa"?
"Operation Expect No Mercy From Our Privet Bush"?
"Operation Overpriced Cannon"? "Operation Irate Economy"?
"Operation International-law-ignoring Manticore"?.
Try for yourself.
(Here's
how it's done).
posted by lathrop at 5:50 PM PST - 34 comments
Orbiter - A Free Space Flight Simulator
Starving for a high realism space simulator ever since Microsoft's Space Simulator was discontinued? Look no further than Orbiter, a free realistic space simulator written and maintained by Dr. Martin Schweiger. How realistic? You might want to start off by consulting NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's
Basics Of Space Flight to get you grounded so to speak. This is a free, non-commercial simulator that uses accurate math and orbital physics (more or less) to try to model space flight. However hard it may appear, after orbiting Earth with the high-res (8192x4096) mod-pack installed, or sitting on the launch pad with the seamless
OrbiterSound 2.1b sound environment installed, you will be well rewarded for reading the manual and participating in the dance of the heavens. (Even if all you want to do is fly around the solar system!)
posted by Tystnaden at 1:48 PM PST - 10 comments
Embedded? Or In Bed With The Military Spin Doctors?
Quite apart from the significant sexual and conspiratorial overtones of the word and concept themselves (when applied to people), there's something more than a little disquieting about the
participant observation aspect of the large-scale practice of
embedded reporting in the current invasion of Iraq - as opposed to the journalistic tradition of direct observation. Altogether too gung-ho - and inevitably so - I'd say. Me no like. And don't really trust myself to be able to epistemologically introduce, in my understanding of what I see, the (already minimal) distance that I'd previously taken for granted in standard reportage. What can be done to offset this bias? [
Here is a very recent, detailed Department of Defense guide to what a media embed consists of [pdf format] and the release journalists must sign in order to be embedded.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:46 PM PST - 23 comments
A WebCam in Baghdad
The BBC are streaming live pictures from an unmanned camera in the centre of Baghdad, complete with sound. (RealPlayer required.)
posted by Mwongozi at 12:28 PM PST - 12 comments
Something nice.
In a refreshingly simple and visually appealing presentation, "Places" explores the synergy between artists and the locations that inspire them. From a virtual landscape created from the surface of an agate, to a 1787 map of Mecca included in the Dala'il al-Khayrat ("Guides to Good Things"), to an 1885 photograph of a single moment captured in the reflection of a gazing ball, these eight fascinating examples seem to suggest that places are nothing so much as what our own observation reveals of them at any given time.
posted by taz at 11:28 AM PST - 4 comments
The Ngadjonji.
The history and culture of a Queensland rainforest tribe.
"Theirs was a culture with no chiefs or kings. If the senior men and women of each clan had implied status, it was because of their wisdom and the highest attributes a (Ngadjonji) could possess was a keen memory
and great skill in hunting, gathering and bushcraft ... "
Of related interest :-
the Aboriginal Memorial, in Canberra, created by 43 artists of the Ramingining community in Arnhem Land.
posted by plep at 11:16 AM PST - 4 comments
NaturArt
- fed up with man's ugliness to man? Escape to this Budapest gallery's oasis of nature photography. Don't be off-put by the Hungarian text, hit start and wait for the main menu, then go to
portfolios to access the works of about 30 photographers,
Tagok for mini galleries, or
diaporama for a lovely film. Flash & sound alert, but very well worth it if you have the time to explore.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:07 AM PST - 12 comments
As one, the students shouted, "Strength through discipline!"
- "The Third Wave",
A Dangerous Experiment. More disturbing even than the
"Milgram Experiment": "When Ron Jones started teaching at Cubberley High School in the fall of 1968, it was considered the most innovative of Palo Alto's high schools. ....His methods were experimental and his goal was to bring social studies to life.....Jones turned his class into an efficient youth organization, which he called the Third Wave. Some students were informers, and some were told they couldn't go certain places on campus. He insisted on rigid posture and that questions be answered formally and quickly....."It was strange how quickly the students took to a uniform code of behavior. I began to wonder just how far they cold be pushed," Jones wrote....But soon the experiment began spinning out of control.... five days into the experiment, Jones announced, "We can bring (the nation) a new sense of order, community, pride, and action. Everything rests on you and your willingness to take a stand." As one, the students shouted, "Strength through discipline!" ". Ron Jones wrote about it in
No substitute for Madness, which is out of print in English but required reading in German public schools. As Umberto Eco notes in
"Eternal Fascism", this is a timeless tale of human nature.
posted by troutfishing at 8:28 AM PST - 40 comments
Wakey wakey Mr Blair
There's been a lot of media comment recently concerning Tony Blair's visible signs of exhaustion. This piece illustrates just how quickly he needs to wake up to what's going on if he's ever to sleep soundly again.
Clare Short should show him the way and save her credibility at the same time
posted by skellum at 5:09 AM PST - 13 comments
March 21
Civil Disobedience-Henry David Thoreau
Nothing in here about blocking traffic but a very important historical document for our time.
"The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure."..................
............
"A democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. Even the Chinese philosopher was wise enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire. Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. "
posted by thedailygrowl at 9:54 PM PST - 10 comments
And then the fallen.
"I want President Bush to get a good look at this, really good look here," his father, Michael, said, holding up a picture of the dead marine. "This is the only son I had, only son."
More.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 8:11 PM PST - 114 comments
Manipulating Minds: The Psychological War on Iraq.
Battles are won on different fronts, but influencing an opposition is a critical part of any campaign. By manipulating an enemy's fears and desires, victory can be achieved. The "weapons of mass persuasion" are the tools of a different kind of warfare: psychological operations. (Full screen presentation in Flash) From CBC Radio One.
posted by tranquileye at 7:38 PM PST - 4 comments
Light of reason
is an effort to peacefully demonstrate your dissent with the current war on Iraq. I fully expect the more conservative elements to say that peace is anti-patriotic but let's face, we can support the troops and still hate the war.
posted by TNLNYC at 7:22 PM PST - 35 comments
British band
The The is alive, well, and pissed off. The March 21st "issue" of their website
This is The The Day is a brash, one-stop-shopping WarLinkapalooza to (among other things) Micah Wright and his war poster satires, Tom Tomorrow, Get Your War On, Robert Fisk's Baghdad dispatches and . . . Alan Watts? (Oh, yeah--Pt 6 of the Johnny Marr/Matt Johnson
interview is there too.)
Are
other bands taking a stand against (or for) the war? Googling
this results in only a certain spyplane, while Bono has
no comment (for a change).
Please do not turn this into a pro/anti-war flamefest. We're flamefested out by now : ) Peace.
posted by Shane at 6:59 PM PST - 12 comments
Irwin Norling
of Bloomington, Minnesota was a more modest version of Man Ray – with his family in tow, he documented crime and accident scenes for the local police. (The photo gallery is probably
NSFW and not safe for delicate stomachs.) He also prolifically documented everyday Bloomington life from the 1940s through the 1980s.
City Pages writer Brad Zellar (
weblog) stumbled across Norling's photographic archives while visiting the historical society, tracked down the man himself, and wrote
this terrific article ... unfortunately Norling passed away a month before its publication.
posted by kmel at 6:26 PM PST - 5 comments
Decoding Visual Language Elements in News Content
is an MFA thesis examining how layout, cropping, image selection et al. influence the way the content is perceived. The
interactive demo is especially interesting; you can take some TV and magazine layouts and switch out pictures and other elements. It's fascinating to see how different cropping and tints affect your impressions of the content. Media literacy -- especially right now -- is a good thing.
(Link via Stan Chin.)
posted by Vidiot at 5:48 PM PST - 12 comments
I'd like to thank the Academy. And the French.
Film critic Michael Sragow, late of
Salon and currently of
The Baltimore Sun, ruminates on the upcoming Oscar telecast and wonders why such a "lib-rad industry" would sit-out the night and pass on the opportunity to bang us all over the head with soporific political messages. In actual movie talk, he sez of LOTR: "I don't think there has been a fantasy film IN MOVIE HISTORY as faultlessly acted, as magnificent in its scope and invention, and as enthralling in its narrative drive as I'm sure the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy will turn out to be. "
posted by baltimore at 2:53 PM PST - 2 comments
We Begin Combing in Five Minutes!
The White House is vowing a strong retaliatory response after the BBC aired live video of President Bush getting his hair coiffed in the Oval Office as he squirmed in his chair and practiced on the teleprompter minutes before Wednesday night's speech announcing the launch of military operations against Saddam Hussein.
It's America's Funniest Outtakes (squirm). But where can we view it?!
posted by sparky at 1:55 PM PST - 33 comments
Books For Soldiers
If you don't know what to do with your old Clan of the Cave Bear paperbacks or want to take the boredom out of post-war deployment for those in uniform, send the soldiers a book! Soldiers can request a book or you can post the military address of a loved one and people send them their requests. I wonder if
my selection would be well received?
posted by StormBear at 12:24 PM PST - 8 comments
Among
Hayao Miyazaki's masterpieces are
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind,
Princess Mononoke, and, most recently,
Spirited Away. With the April 15 US release of
Spirited Away,
Kiki's Delivery Service, and
Laputa: Castle in the Sky, an
Academy nomination for Spirited Away, and
Disney's commitment to release re-dubbed, re-mastered versions of Miyazaki's films in the US and worldwide, the American public is getting more acquainted with this legend of animation. Miyazaki's films are not your regular anime [more inside...]
posted by azazello at 11:58 AM PST - 55 comments
Sweet Old Song.
'91-year-old Howard 'Louie Bluie' Armstrong has two
great loves: his music and artist Barbara Ward. Their artistic and musical collaboration brings to life nearly a century of African-American experience.'
View a gallery of Howard and Barbara Ward Armstrong's art, and read a bit about their personal histories
here. Take a look at the illustrated children's book they have collaborated on
here.
posted by plep at 11:12 AM PST - 4 comments
Wanna bet we'll win the war?
No, seriously:
you can. Check it out yourself:
Go here and click on "World Events" to see the odds for "The US Embassy in Pakistan Being Blown Up By A Nuclear Weapon" or "Date Line In Which Osama Bin Laden Will Be Consigned (Dead or Alive) To US Authorities." Ah, America.
posted by adrober at 10:35 AM PST - 4 comments
Apple to switch to Intel processors,
at least according to John Dvorak in a brief article over at PC Magazine. No mention in the article of the massive amount of effort required to re-write every piece of mac-compatible software for x86 architecture, or the unlikeliness of developers to be willing to do so having just optimized for OSX, but then, this piece seems to be mostly just bold, unsupported predictions.
posted by jonson at 9:58 AM PST - 33 comments
Let's talk about childhood toys.
A wander down memory lane, past care-bears and etch-a-sketches and barrel-o-monkeys. Warning: this site resulted in the bidding up of auctions for
Weebles "Tree House" action sets. I'd forgotten how marvelously upright they remained until I whipped their little egg-like bodies out of a second-story window onto concrete. What was your favorite childhood toy? Do you still have it, or do you have the sudden need to re-acquire it?
posted by answergrape at 8:46 AM PST - 47 comments
The Bacteria Whisperer
“Bonnie Bassler discovered a secret about microbes that the science world has missed for centuries. The bugs are talking to each other. And plotting against us.”
posted by o2b at 8:44 AM PST - 13 comments
The other war.
Dispatches from the trenches, in the middle of the Hong Kong SARS outbreak. [may be annoying popups] [more inside]
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:20 AM PST - 9 comments
Military use of Gas
Top US military planners are preparing for the US to use incapacitating biochemical weapons in an invasion of Iraq. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed the plans in February 5th testimony before the US House Armed Services Committee. This is the first official US acknowledgement that it may use (bio)chemical weapons in its crusade to rid other countries of such weapons.
Would someone explain to me again why we're attacking Iraq? Was it something about use and/or possession of chemical weapons?
posted by nofundy at 7:21 AM PST - 60 comments
As everyone knows, the Bush and Windsor families are linked by (reptilian) blood. Could it be that George Bush
fils has engineered this war to distract the world’s media from the shitstorm which could be about to engulf his distant cousin,
Prince Charles? A man, we’re told, who requires the services of a valet even when providing a urine sample…
posted by Mocata at 6:32 AM PST - 20 comments
Russia Makes It Funny:
Communist Party organ
Pravda ["Truth"] updates its play for the
weird news niche with a skewed take on the blogging aesthetic, with links to Romanesko
New World Disorder.
A lot of people like going to saunas. A sauna used to be associated with cold beer and a company of friends. Now the situation has changed a bit: going to a sauna implies some sort of sexual activities and even perversion sometimes. Steam, beer and friends have been pushed into the background. Since people love mixing business with pleasure, let us try to find out, to which extent the sauna entertainment is good, and to which extent it is bad.
posted by hairyeyeball at 6:07 AM PST - 5 comments
Richard Perle in Guardian Shock!
Op-ed piece brought to us from the ever-balanced Guardian, bound to whip up a whirlwind of protest in the paper’s letters page tomorrow.
Perhaps you might care to pre-empt Saturday morning’s correspondence.
posted by skellum at 2:46 AM PST - 64 comments
Truly that is a miracle of wonder surpassing the tongues of the eloquent, and far beyond the most cunning speech to describe: the mind reels before it, and the intellect stands abashed
Ibn Hazm
The Dove's Necklace
Cosma Rohilla Shalizi, who contains universes:
Notebooks,
Pieces for the SFI Bulletin,
The Bactra Review,
Books and Other Texts I've Put on the Web,
Poetry and not the worst
links page I've ever seen.
This is the worst home page ever, according to yankthechain. I'm very proud. He likes, among many others,
Avram Davidson,
Sappho,
Jack Vance,
Edna St. Vincent Millay and
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.
Courage, garrulousness and the mob are on our side. What more do we want? Now, is that a tagline or what?
posted by y2karl at 12:09 AM PST - 15 comments
March 20
The Los Angeles Times goes multimedia.
For the past few weeks, the LA Times has begun a significant push into offering video, audio, and interactive Flash on their website. One of the most interesting aspects is that the paper has moved one step beyond simply replaying AP Television clips as many sites have done; the LA Times writers are stand before the cameras and microphones themselves and report stories in a stuttering, non-hairsprayed, introverted demeanor that I find very refreshing, though so far I have gleaned very little additional information from it. When does (or can) this mode of journalism on the web rise above gimmickry or 'just because we can' and add value to a written article? Can video/tv news rise above mere spectacle?
posted by 4easypayments at 8:46 PM PST - 3 comments
- "But will people be killed, Daddy?"
- "Nobody you know, darling. Just foreign people."
This hypothetical dialogue created by
british writer John Le Carré in an article for the Times Online makes me wonder if there are people who really think of this world with that distance of the reality. By the way, the whole Carré's article has interesting insights about the ongoing war (although it was written two months before its beginning).
posted by nandop at 5:32 PM PST - 19 comments
GI Easter Bunny Baskets
"The biggest oxymoron going on now is war toys," folksinger Utah Philipps said. "What is war? War is sticking a bayonet into people, we've been through all of this. It's the most awful thing that can happen. And what is a toy? A toy is to have fun with, to amuse yourself. Why are we telling our children that you can have fun with war?. . ."
posted by jeremias at 2:47 PM PST - 9 comments
Wild West Yorkshire Nature Diary.
'My diary describes a year in the life of woodland, field, marsh, river, canal . . . and a fairly wild back garden . . . in the Calder valley in coal measures country near Wakefield.'
Richard Bell's nature diary has been online since 1998.
The site's
links
page leads to more nature diaries and related resources :
Ackworth School's natural history diary,
Roseberry Topping,
an environmentally friendly slug trap,
Yorkshire dialect verse,
wildscapes
from Texas,
Notes from Pure Land Mountain (a journal from countryside
Japan), and more.
Although it's not linked,
An English Country Garden, chronicling a garden in a small village in Dorset, would not be out of place here; neither would
Blackberry Creek Journal, 'a country newsletter about the seasons, animals, gardens and people of a small Michigan farm'. There is a huge collection of gardening journals and homepages
here. [more inside]
posted by plep at 11:03 AM PST - 8 comments
Hey! This Is Where They Filmed That Scene Where...
It's childish, I know, but I always get a buzz when I come across a place I've seen in a movie. Just as it never feels right when the city I live in turns up in one.
Famous Locations is an unpretentious, modestly designed little website which is full of such thrills. For example, I've often stayed at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan - who would have thought it was where Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger hammed it up shamelessly in
9 1/2 Weeks? [
More inside.Via LinkFilter.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:49 AM PST - 35 comments
The idea of weblogs has defenitely inspired BBC Online news for making the following pages:
posted by hoder at 10:44 AM PST - 4 comments
Bush and Chirac debate Iraq
"I will bomb him in his car;
I will bomb him from afar.
I will bomb him in his house;
I do not like him, he’s a louse.
I’m going to bomb him here and there.
I’m going to bomb him everywhere."
posted by Perigee at 10:03 AM PST - 12 comments
The Agonist
If you are caught up in minute by minute reports on what is taking place in the Iraq war, this is the site to visit.
posted by Postroad at 8:02 AM PST - 10 comments
March 19
Conservatives and Liberals obviously think differently.
Here's how.
George Lakoff, a
highly respected linguist and author of
Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know and Liberals Don't is tipping. Why? Part of it is that while Lakoff is obviously a Liberal, he's one of the few around to have taken the time to understand that Conservatives, too, have a coherent worldview. He's then added to that, er, insight his neuroscientific understanding of the power of metaphor in human communication. He's getting mad buzz right now, I just heard him lecture, and folks, Conservative or Liberal, this guy's ideas are worth exploring.
posted by AlexSteffen at 9:51 PM PST - 20 comments
Yaddo: The Artist's Retreat.
"Collectively, artists who have worked at Yaddo have won 55 Pulitzer Prizes, 55 National Book Awards, a Nobel Prize, and countless other honors. Visitors from [John] Cheever's day include Milton Avery, James Baldwin, Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, Aaron Copland, Philip Guston, Patricia Highsmith, Langston Hughes, Ted Hughes, Alfred Kazin, Ulysses Kay, Jacob Lawrence, Sylvia Plath, Katherine Anne Porter, Mario Puzo, Clyfford Still, and Virgil Thomson." A place to go to get your mind off war.
posted by adrober at 9:22 PM PST - 4 comments
A new Pew Research poll
confirms the obvious. In 2002 world opinion of the US
was slipping but still fairly high (as discussed in
this thread). Pew now reports that favorable opinion of the US abroad has taken a nose dive. Of course, correllation does not indicate causation, but certainly this is driven by current events. It remains to be seen if this is indicative of a long-term trend.
posted by moonbiter at 9:11 PM PST - 9 comments
Protester dies senseless death.
In a demonstration of the inefficacy of the recent protests, a protester falls to his death while apparently trying to hang an anti-war banner from the Golden Gate Bridge, barely a few hours before hostilities begin in Iraq.
posted by twsf at 8:13 PM PST - 39 comments
Serviceton
is a small railway town on the border of South Australia and Victoria, and was once a means for traders to escape taxes when travelling between the colonies, due to errors made when surveying the state borders. No train has stopped here since 1986, and now only a handful of people remain in the town, a sad downfall that
Tom Waits has immortalized in song. But abandoned railway stations, closed as populations decline or trade routes change, exist the
world over,
in the city and
in the country, and yes,
even in France. They look like great places to explore.
posted by Jimbob at 7:53 PM PST - 2 comments
On the day after
war begins, global protests will shock and awe. I'm often reminded that it took years for Vietnam protests to reach the levels we've already seen -- of course, after 3-4 hours, it may hardly matter. *cries*
posted by sudama at 7:53 PM PST - 22 comments
Muslim men have been asked to undergo "Special Registration", a Department of Homeland Security program in its early stages. Men who hail from 25 targeted countries are required to be fingerprinted, photographed, give up credit card and bank account numbers, and are then given a registration number. So far, 46 people have been arrested, but none for terrorist-related activities. Is this an acceptable security precaution or the first sign of
history repeating itself?
posted by ed at 4:15 PM PST - 51 comments
The War is about to Start and for those of us without a TV we are part of a grand experiment to see if we can be as well informed. According to
this Reuters article, Radio had World War II, Television had Vietnam, Cable TV had the Gulf War and now, the Internet may have the U.S. war with Iraq...reporters and producers with wireless laptops and handheld digital cameras will
file reports from battlefields and military installations. Cameras are at key locations for live feeds 24 hours a day. Interactive, 3-D maps will update troop movements, casualties and weapons used. ''You're combining the speed of television with the depth of print,'' says Mitch Gelman, executive producer of CNN.com. ''This could define how future wars are covered.'' (more inside)
posted by stbalbach at 11:22 AM PST - 19 comments
Just Nuisance, Able Seaman.
The only canine enlisted in the Royal Navy, Just Nuisance served from 1939 to 1944 in Simon's Town, South Africa (on his papers his occupation was listed as '
Bone Crusher' and his religion '
Canine Divinity League [Anti-Vivisection]'). Providing a great source of morale to sailors stationed there he would escort them on train trips and make sure they made it back to base after a night on the town. Of course being a sailor himself he was privy to a few brushes with the law as well by traveling on the railways without a pass (punishment: Confined to the banks of Froggy Pond, Lily Pool, with all lamp posts removed) or sleeping on an Officer's bed (punishment: Deprived of bones for seven days.). Married, and survived by five children, on his death he was afforded a funeral with full military colours. You can read his
biography (which spawned a television series), or merely pay respects at his
statue next time you're in Simon's Town.
posted by PenDevil at 9:18 AM PST - 3 comments
Cellular politics.
It seems that merely "reacting" is always a step behind of a fast evolving hostile force, and some pre-emptive strategy is a must.
posted by semmi at 8:23 AM PST - 2 comments
Oops! IMF Admits Failed Policies
International financial integration should also help countries to reduce economic volatility, the study said, but in reality this has not happened.
"Indeed, the process of capital account liberalization appears to have been accompanied in some cases by increased vulnerability to crises," the report said.
"Globalization has heightened these risks since cross-country financial linkages amplify the effects of various shocks and transmit them more quickly across national borders."
In the last 10 years, developing countries from Thailand and Russia to Argentina, have seen their economies collapse, even though many of them were trying to follow IMF-prescribed open market policies.
So does this mean corporate facism harms the world's poor?
posted by nofundy at 6:59 AM PST - 25 comments
Amazon UK
was taken down for over an hour today after a rush of orders caused by apparently mis-pricing Compaq HP iPAQ H5450 Pocket PCs and HP iPAQ H1910 Pocket PCs at £23 GBP and
£7 GBP respectively (normally priced at over £200 GBP each)!! I know a few people who have ordered one or two ;) - Amazon is back up and running now but we're all a bit in the dark as to whether we'll get our cut-price goods or not. Logic and fair-play (and the Trades Description Act) dicatates that we should get our goods - but I wonder....
(see also
here at
The Register)
posted by andyHollister at 5:25 AM PST - 37 comments
Bug Bug Buggy
- Electronic bugging devices have been found at offices used by French and German delegations at European Union headquarters in Brussels.
I think I can guess where fingers will get pointed....
posted by tomcosgrave at 4:38 AM PST - 11 comments
Salon interviews John Brady Kiesling.
JBK: "The talking points were pretty pathetic. They may work at home, but they do not work with an audience of sophisticated people who have some experience with the world, who are profoundly nervous about the Middle East and terrorism, and would like to see some signs of intelligent life in American foreign policy."
Are Americans too isolationist for their own good?
posted by skallas at 2:06 AM PST - 23 comments
Here are two thoughtful pieces on the North Korean Crisis.
From Foreign Affairs comes
How to Deal With North Korea.
From the New York Times comes
Q&A: Should U.S. Launch Direct Talks with North Korea?Here, by the way, is the fourth footnote from
How to Deal With North Korea :
Had the Agreed Framework not been signed in 1994, the North's plutonium-based program would by today have produced enough plutonium for up to 30 nuclear weapons. Critics of the accord should not ignore this fact.
posted by y2karl at 1:26 AM PST - 17 comments
March 18
Cynthia Says™
is a web content accessibility validation solution, it is designed to identify errors in design related to Section 508 standards and the
WCAG guidelines. The main purpose of this portal is to educate web site developers in the development Web Based content that is accessible to all. Cynthia runs more tests than
Bobby and is free. I think the site itself fails the accessiblity test, 'cause it doesn't have "
WCAG" in an
<abbr> tag, nonetheless it's a good tool.
[via zeldman].
posted by riffola at 11:17 PM PST - 2 comments
I-Hate-the-French Vanilla
-- at last, Star-Spangled Ice Cream offers a conservative alternative to Ben & Jerry's. Other flavors are Smaller Governmint, Iraqi Road and Nutty Environmentalist. And 10% of the profits go to charities that support the U.S. Armed Forces! (
via)
posted by Zed_Lopez at 9:45 PM PST - 41 comments
Iraq Body Count
is a web "button" that can be cut and pasted to a website showing an updated tally of civilian casualties in the upcoming Iraqi war. Their
methodology is to survey a broad swath of news sites and come up with a "high" and "low" number. They're probably more credible than Saddam's government or the Pentagon. (via
TalkLeft)
posted by owillis at 7:44 PM PST - 20 comments
The 101 dumbest moments in business for 2002
are in, and there are some real doozies. I really enjoyed numbers
48 through 51, regarding Microsoft's
.NET:
"One question might be, and I'll be as direct as I can be about this, what is .Net? Unlike Windows, where you could say it's a product, it sits in one place, it's got a nice little box. In some senses, it's a very good question." --Steve Ballmer
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:40 PM PST - 16 comments
Yesterday, forest activists Remedy and Wren (among others) were
arrested and
hauled away in handcuffs. Remedy had spent nearly a year in a redwood tree named
"Jerry". She was just four days from her one-year anniversary in that
tree. Today, the activists have
replaced the
tree-sitters with others. Also,
Julia Butterfly Hill has written a
letter
in support of Remedy and her effort.
posted by TreeHugger at 2:24 PM PST - 23 comments
Man drives tractor into a ditch on the Mall.
And the tractor stand off continues...
I find it amusing how most DCers are concerned more about the ensuing traffic havoc rather than the startling fact that there's a man with (possibly) explosives camped out on the Mall.
posted by gwong at 12:55 PM PST - 41 comments
Moscow Life.
49 stories with images of life in and around Moscow, posted between 1995 and 2002. There's an introduction
here.
posted by plep at 10:45 AM PST - 6 comments
What I Have Read
well not me personally, but some guy has a bunch of stats/info on every book he has read since 1974, all 2031 of em..
posted by zeoslap at 9:54 AM PST - 18 comments
Nearly 4 years ago, Seti@Home project
started.Today, thanks to millions of CPU and loyal users, after picking 200 interesting signals out of a few billions, they have started rescanning the most interesting ones at Araceibo. One step closer to ET.
posted by elpapacito at 9:53 AM PST - 7 comments
War May Postpone NCAA Tourney.
Yes, it's true. College basketball's most anticipated event may be delayed, due to the impending war. Maybe that's a good thing. I would be absolutely screaming at the television if with 30 seconds left in regulation, a "breaking news" story overtook the screen.
posted by wondergirl at 9:07 AM PST - 26 comments
At what point does a government have to stop and wonder if it's judged the mood correctly?
The UK government manages to
bribe a rebel with a cushy job, but not
one, not
two, but
three other MPs walk away from the government in one day.
Are things going wrong in the UK?
posted by twine42 at 4:41 AM PST - 63 comments
Crackerpacks is a library of over 400 (excellently named) firecracker labels available
for you to enjoy.
posted by hama7 at 2:54 AM PST - 13 comments
Human beings, according to French thinker
René Girard, are fundamentally imitative creatures. We copy each other's desires, and are in perpetual conflict with one another over the objects of our desire. In early human communities, this conflict created a permanent threat of violence, and forced our ancestors to find a way to unify themselves. They chose a victim, a scapegoat, an evil one against whom the community could unite.
Scapegoat Theory 101
?
posted by y2karl at 12:54 AM PST - 14 comments
March 17
Stan Goff puts it best in his anti-war article entitled "
The Idiot Prince will have his war", outlining many of the logistical issues involved with waging war in Iraq, pointing a finger at a problem facing the United States that runs far deeper than the need for oil or the opposition of the United Nations.
A fascinating and very chilling read.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 11:31 PM PST - 102 comments
Bush sets in motion 48-hour timeline for Saddam
and sons to flee the country. Then,
Saddam Defies Bush Deadline
and suggests that Bush himself resign.
Wait a minute, I think I see a diplomatic solution here that is in the best interests of BOTH nations. Seriously - I think that, when Mr. Bush makes such an ultimatum, he himself should also be prepared to resign his post, especially when lives of - at best - thousands of people are at stake. Assuming that Saddam Hussein were willing to resign if Bush also agreed to do so (and I'm not saying that he necessarily is), would Americans (Iraqis) be willing to make the "sacrifice"?
posted by SilentSalamander at 11:02 PM PST - 53 comments
mustard
with your
pork sir? as we head to war, here's some alarming data on america's own stash of undestroyed chemical weapons as well as the phenomenal return on investment for deep-pocket GOP campaign contributors.
posted by subpixel at 4:38 PM PST - 4 comments
St Patrick - The Game ...
Try to drive the snakes out of Ireland using a 357 Magnum instead of a staff.
And have a great St Patrick's Day. Who knows, it may be our last ...
posted by essexjan at 1:45 PM PST - 8 comments
"
This vellum-bound curiosity is one of the rarest and most mysterious etching suites of the late Renaissance." Braccelli's fantastic drawings are excellent examples of early (early, early) surrealism. For higher quality images, try
this link instead.
posted by Pinwheel at 1:07 PM PST - 14 comments
Don't like Bush? Send him a pretzel!
A French website is urging people unhappy with the Bush Administration to buy a pretzel ("bretzel" in French), which will then be sent to the White House. Part of the pretzel's cost also goes to charity.
posted by Vidiot at 12:36 PM PST - 30 comments
The War Times Journal
is an on-line magazine which covers all periods of military history and military science. Within you'll find content ranging from illustrated articles to dispatch and memoir reprints to interactive maps and timelines, all well presented and totally free.
posted by ewagoner at 10:43 AM PST - 1 comments
A Love of Monsters: Gargoyles & Architectural Details in NYC.
'They crouch in the corners and lurk under windows. They curl around drainpipes and blend into doorways. They're so clever at hiding most folks won't see them at all. '
'But I know where the monsters live. I see them all the time. If your heart is understanding and your eyes remember wonder, then take a quiet stroll with me and see what you can find.'
Self-guided walks, too.
posted by plep at 10:39 AM PST - 17 comments
Highway Ulysses
is a new play premiering at Boston's
American Repertory Theatre. Playwright/composer
Rinde Eckert and ART artistic director/Sam Shepherd's regular director
Robert Woodruff have collaborated on an envigorating new play with music about a Vietnam vet on a road trip to find his son that parallels Homer's
Odyssey. The ART's website is similarly informative and engaging as it points out the frightening timeliness of
The Odyssey in the current world. (more inside)
posted by pxe2000 at 10:13 AM PST - 8 comments
Democracy
There's no escape.
The big pricks are out.
They'll fuck everything in sight.
Watch your back.
Harold Pinter[
More inside]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:28 AM PST - 24 comments
Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing
: "To offer a psychological explanation for the atrocities committed by perpetrators is not to forgive, justify or condone their behavior. Instead, the explanation simply allows us to understand the conditions under which many of us could be transformed into killing machines." (James Waller)
In a Salon interview about his widely acclaimed, pathbreaking book Waller states, "Most people don't understand how easy it is to develop us-them [mindsets]......In our climate of fear in response to terrorism, I think we could pretty easily turn on people who have been our neighbors."
posted by troutfishing at 9:19 AM PST - 37 comments
French Connection UK
: what is the rag seller's corporate identity a "dyslexic" acronym for? The sober Boston Globe gets it, and takes the opportunity to consult ethicists on whether we should allow words in print just because people use them in real life.
Some readers objected to the ad's center spread, which featured FCUK in large letters, with the 'C' formed by an ocean wave. At least as many, maybe more, objected to a full-page photo of a young model in very short shorts, her legs apart, and ''Welcome to Fcukiki Beach'' written across her left thigh.
The real point is, who can afford to be choosy these days, with advertising still slumping?
E&P's take from last summer still seems relevant.
posted by hairyeyeball at 9:04 AM PST - 14 comments
Collecting "art films" as a film critic might throw you in jail in Iran.
Famous Iranian film critic,
Kambiz Kahe, is arrested along with a few colleagues. Hard-liner Iranian police says they were "importing and distributing pornographic material", which according to them, could vary from French art films to something like American Beauty. Chicago-based film critic,
Jonathan Rosenbaum, along with
FIPRESCI (the international federation of film critics) has protested to these arrests in separate letters. Kahe and friends needs more international support to be able to sit next to their families on
Persian new year’s day which is only days away (March 21st).
posted by hoder at 9:00 AM PST - 4 comments
Over the last few years,
Tony Judt has been writing some brilliant commentary on the world political situation in the NYRB. His
latest is one of the best pieces I’ve read for ages. Sanity, reason, non-shrillness, etc – and it’s only the first of three articles.
posted by Mocata at 7:38 AM PST - 8 comments
Dungeons and Dragons, bigorexia, arse-licker, bass-ackward...
The online OED (Oxford English Dictionary) quarterly adds a host of new words to the canon of what has become the standard dictionary of the english language(s). Some of the new and spicey words are: arsehole, arseholed, arse-lick,arse-licker, ass-backward,
ass-backwards, bass-ackward, bass-ackwards, dragon lady,
Dungeons and Dragons, telenovela, and transgenderist!!
Thank the gods of language for these new words! So what is you favorite new word and why?
posted by mfoight at 5:39 AM PST - 26 comments
Is the looming war with Iraq the first Water War?
Should the signs really be saying No Blood for Water?
From -Water Wars: a lecture by (Adel Darwish)
"Oil has always been thought of as the traditional cause of conflict in the Middle East past and present. Since the first Gulf oil well gushed in Bahrain in 1932, countries have squabbled over borders in the hope that ownership of a patch of desert or a sand bank might give them access to new riches. No longer. Now, most borders have been set, oil fields mapped and reserves accurately estimated - unlike the water resources, which are still often unknown. WATER is taking over from oil as the likeliest cause of conflict in the Middle East."
posted by thedailygrowl at 1:03 AM PST - 25 comments
March 16
Israeli army bulldozes, kills American protester.
Rachel Corrie, 23, of Olympia, Washington was killed in the Gaza Strip on Sunday when an Israeli Army bulldozer ran her over while trying to destroy a house in the Palestinian settlement of Rafah. Rachel was one of eight
Palestinian Solidarity volunteers from the US and Great Britain at the scene, who were gathered in front of the house of Dr. Samir Masri, which was slated for demolition. Rachel Corrie was a leading organizer of the
Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace, and was a senior at Evergreen State College, majoring in International Studies. She was also a
talented writer, documenting her experiences in Palestine and Gaza.
posted by insomnia_lj at 6:44 PM PST - 189 comments
Waging Peace:
Dr. Robert Muller, former assistant secretary general of the United Nations, and one of the people who witnessed the founding of the U.N., says the global body is fulfilling its ultimate purpose:
"Never before in the history of the world has there been a global, visible, public, viable, open dialogue and conversation about the very legitimacy of war".
posted by alms at 5:50 PM PST - 19 comments
Smurfs Gone Wild
Not Safe For Work, and it's just another dumb flash cartoon, but there haven't been any unprecendented attacks on Smurf village as far as I know. I think it's all a part of the vast
Smurf Conspiracy. Let's all forget about that Iraq thing and discuss the dubious moral character of Smurfette.
posted by Stan Chin at 5:23 PM PST - 21 comments
Sticking to the gay stuff:
The ACLU is threatening legal action against a middle school in Arkansas whose administrators have gone to extraordinary lengths to punish a student for being gay, including outing him to his parents, forcing him to read passages of the Bible, calling him "abnormal" and "unnatural," and disciplining him for mentioning between classes to a female friend that he thought another boy was cute.
(via CalPundit) [more inside]
posted by grrarrgh00 at 8:07 AM PST - 29 comments
"Weapons of Mass Destruction", you say?
Question: If Iraq is the vicious rat and North Korea the
furious pygmy of WMD threats, where is the 800 pound gorilla? Answer -
"...law enforcement officials worldwide have seized 40 kilograms of Russian-origin uranium
and plutonium since 1991. Stanford researchers have also estimated that only 30 to 40 percent of
the nuclear material stolen from facilities in Russia and other territories in the former Soviet
Union are ever recovered by authorities." the collapse of the Soviet Union left vast stores
of Nuclear weapons and weapons grade plutonium and uranium, and stocks of chemical and
biological warfare agents lying about at dangerously underfunded facillities scattered through
the vast expanse of the ex-Soviet realm.
"Russian stockpiles of weapons and materials are
the most likely source for terrorists attempting to acquire weapons of mass destruction",
said US Senator Richard Lugar, Republican chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.
An international effort to destroy these stores of ex-Soviet WMD's is currently funded at a tiny fraction of the estimated cost of a possible US invasion and occupation of Iraq. (more inside)
posted by troutfishing at 6:52 AM PST - 10 comments
"There is making of
silver sex".
Taking bodypainting/messy obsessions to the very
edge, Manon Production from Japan sells a
wide selection of fetish
videos (sample mpeg 1.69MB).
All feature illustrative pictures and detailed, eerie Engrish descriptions (
"we feel admirable and poor at her black smile";
"Midori's body is changing colourfull";
"a little golden powder enters into her eyes"). Results can also evoke a
sculpture, the
theater or
abstract art. Considering the evident misogyny of the whole effort, is it all the more unsettling because the images are sometimes
beautiful (
1,
2)? Is it an attempt to somehow bring
Sorayama's creatures to life? Could the models be
actually enjoying it?
NOT SAFE FOR WORK.
posted by 111 at 2:45 AM PST - 16 comments
March 15
Welcome To Lajes Field,
located on the island of Terceira in the stunningly beautiful and unspoilt
Azores,
home to the U.S. Air Force's 65th Air Base wing and U.S. Forces Azores. A curious little website, with its own
particular micro-culture and
quite a
few interesting
historical tidbits. [
Not to mention two lousy jobs going.] Or, as they themselves put it: "multimedia products to help you better understand and appreciate the noble mission of the military men and women assigned to this outpost in the Atlantic." [
In case you were wondering, it's here, later today, that Bush, Blair and Aznar, hosted by Durão Barroso, will hold their little war summit.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:55 PM PST - 7 comments
Barbie and her friends now have blogs.
Seeing this seriously made me consider hanging my hat and going home. They even have webcams, to do lists, and little photo galleries. The corporate giants are working hard to pull girls in to technology - which is a really good thing. Too bad the latest posts are about buying mini-skirts and things like that.
posted by christine_bpc at 10:36 PM PST - 14 comments
Area residents speak of hearing their cries
late in the night, a hellish screeching and squealing. Some even have seen them personally, appearing from nowhere in the dark hours... then scattering...
Police came through, but now they're gone /
In other words, the sideshow's on. A peek into the infamous Oakland sideshow.
(Quicktime videos
1,
2,
3)
posted by eddydamascene at 7:32 PM PST - 25 comments
Diane Stuemer
, an Ottawa area entrepreneur, and her husband reevaluated their priorities in the early 90's after Diane was diagnosed with malignant melanoma and her husband had a work related accident. After her cancer went into remission, and fearful that her 3 children would grow up without remembering her, the family took the bold decision to pack up everything and circumnavigate the world. Despite having less than 4 days of sailing experience, the family took to the seas with great enthusiasm.
The Northern Magic became the Steumer's home for 4 years as they travelled around the world. During that time Diane wrote a series of weekly
dispatches to the readers of her hometown's newspaper. It became a tradition in many Ottawa households to read Diane's column in the saturday paper while dreaming of the exotic locals she was writing about (a sharp contrast from Ottawa's winters).
In those 4 years, readers got to experience Herbert (the husband) become a master mechanic, Diane adapt to life afloat, and the 3 sons grow up. When the Stuemers finally arrived home in Ottawa in August of 2001 they where greeted by
thousands of well-wishers.
Sadly, Ottawa residents learned early in February that Diane had been readmitted to hospital where she was fighting a very aggressive melanoma battle. Today,
Diane succumbed to her illness and passed away.
During their voyage, the entire family took on
several projects in the countries they visited which are still active today. What amazes me about Diane is the experiences she lived through with her children, the memories they will cherish and the lasting effect their travels will have on the people they met.
posted by smcniven at 6:42 PM PST - 19 comments
The Leonardo DiCaprio Poetry Site
This is a poetry site totally dedicated to the talented actor Leonardo DiCaprio / Without whom / Our lives would be empty of all inspiration. There would be no work of art for us to gaze at / No timeless melody to listen to.
Some of it's quite sincere: Must. Not. Heh.
Snicker. . .
posted by spslsausse at 2:03 PM PST - 10 comments
Today is the
Ides of March. What is the
Ides of March? It is March 15th in the ancient Roman calender, the first day of the Roman New Year and the first day of spring. The
Roman calender refered to days by names not numbers, thus each month has an Ide day, although not always on the 15th. The Ides of March is best known as the day Julius Caesar was assasinated in the Senate (44 BC) and made famous by the
Shakespeare line "Beware the Ides of March". It modern times it has come to symbolize
foreboding and bad luck. Iggy Pop
sang about it prophetically with todays current events, and in Rome where it all started it's a good day to
Toga Party.
posted by stbalbach at 1:59 PM PST - 7 comments
Colin Powell and the Marketing of Uncle Sam
is an idiosyncratic rant by Afnan Fatani, professor of stylistics at King Abdul Aziz University, in the English-language Saudi journal
Arab News, arguing the sinister implications of Colin Powell's employment of advertising experts to put the American message to the world. Starting with Nelson Mandela's
recent comments, among them that the U.S. is disregarding the U.N. because its leader, Kofi Annan, is black, Prof. Fatani achieves some rhetorical fireworks from the observation that "Uncle Ben is not Uncle Sam."
During the days of slavery in America, white men discovered the powerful singing voices of their black slaves. Today, judging from the sleek performance of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, American leaders have apparently discovered and successfully utilized the articulate skills of their black citizens. Too bad the message these black politicians are promoting is Zionist war and destruction, and not Christian peace and goodwill. Too bad that Powell and the Bush administration have between them tainted the white wholesome goodness of Uncle Ben’s Rice.
According to a December 2002 story in
Salon, Powell had
said, upon hiring ad mogul Charlotte Beers at State, "Hey, she got
me to buy Uncle Ben's rice."
Interestingly,
Richard Lyons posted an op-ed based on a very similar conceit in February 2002 — though without the bizarre racial overtones. Didn't German soldiers taunt black GIs with the fact of their second-class citizenship during WWII?
Stylistic it is, a mishmash of apocalyptic scriptural interpretation and Internet antiwar rhetoric. Fellow Netizens, I give you our Saudi allies on this, 12 Muharram 1424, the eve of war.
posted by hairyeyeball at 1:59 PM PST - 14 comments
http://www.Breadhours.org
A group of over 300 residents and merchants in California’s Bay Area has established a local currency called BREAD (a rough acronym for Bay Area Regional Exchange and Development), based on hours of work valued at $12 an hour. Through the BREAD network, which now has over $20,000 worth of currency in circulation, members can pay for dinner, carpentry, childcare, tutoring, clerical assistance or organic produce. Tired of traditional activism, founder Miyoko Sakashita wanted to create a positive local economy and “stop our resources from supporting global corporations that are not accountable to people and the environment.” Check it out at Breadhours.org
posted by bureaustyle at 1:14 PM PST - 28 comments
The dark side of being a sports mascot.
Assault and battery by opposing coaches and fans. Having to do acrobatics in foul-smelling costumes in 80-degree heat. Lawsuits. Injuries. "I've got really good accidental death and dismemberment insurance," [NBA mascot Kirk] Johnson said with a laugh. "You never know what's going to happen." Behind that frolicsome giant stuffed animal lies a bleak world of terror and pain. [no more inside, wasn't that enough?]
posted by Slithy_Tove at 7:52 AM PST - 10 comments
Stuttering
In 1937, Professor Wendell Johnson, a stutterer, designed an experiment to induce stuttering in a group of normal youngsters. Things didn't quite work out as planned. An interesting longish read from the NY Times magazine.
posted by dydecker at 6:20 AM PST - 15 comments
March 14
Dixie Chicks Pulled from Air After Bashing Bush
Dude, these Texas people didn't find criticism of the president unpatriotic when Bill Clinton was president. They thought it was a sacred duty...Apparently country stations in Texas and elsewhere are pulling Dixie Chicks albums because their lead singer, while on an overseas tour, criticized Bush, saying she was ashamed to be from the state as him.
People who want to criticize the critics of the critical comments are supporting the Chicks by buying their albums and requesting their songs.
I never thought I'd buy a
Dixie Chicks album, but that's what I'm going to do tonight, and I'm paying full price!
posted by jengod at 4:45 PM PST - 82 comments
Man accused of spiking child's juice
This cracks me up. Apparently a child wouldn't stop crying on an international flight. So a flight attendant took it upon himself to drug the child to get it to be quite. I can certainly sympathize with him. Yes I know it's serious, but it still cracks me up.
posted by tljenson at 1:47 PM PST - 85 comments
No Whammies!
In 1984, Michael Larson turned an ample memory and an abundance of free time into $100,000. How? By appearing on "Press Your Luck." And while the producers refused to rerun his episode, you can watch parts of it
here in anticipation of the coming
documentary and possible
Bill Murray movie.
posted by herc at 1:02 PM PST - 28 comments
English Sans without French.
Imagine Think of a world of English without any French
influence impact, including linguistic. Some beautiful folks at the Christian
Science Studies Monitor have done just that.
posted by kokogiak at 12:55 PM PST - 36 comments
Christopher Andrew Phillips
, the University of Texas at Austin student accused of "hacking" the school's computer system, has turned himself in. But reading about
his method makes me wonder if this really is hacking and/or illegal...
posted by Big_B at 12:53 PM PST - 13 comments
The United States Is In Deep Doo doo!
In the end, there is no such thing as a free lunch. You cannot make money grow in value by shaking it back and forth from one bank to another. You cannot prosper a nation by doing each other's laundry, or filling out their government mandated and greatly obfuscated paperwork, or flinging stock certificates around which may have as little real worth as Federal Reserve Notes. To make money, to show a profit, you must make products that somebody else wants to buy, and sadly, that is a capability the United States has allowed to slip away in great measure.
posted by stazen at 12:51 PM PST - 21 comments
Just how crazy is Kim Jong-Il?
The North Korean dictator is also an uncompromising movie producer whose casting tactics make
Bowfinger look tame. In
In 1978, the North Korean dictator kidnapped his favorite director from South Korea, and forced him to make a terrible, Communist-themed monster movie called
"Pulgasari." Keep in mind, the Bush administration considers this guy saner and more level-headed than Saddam Hussein.
(registration req'd)
posted by inksyndicate at 10:40 AM PST - 31 comments
Bowling to Vegas!
Four drunk bowling fanatics from Chicago are bowling their way across country....apparently for lack of anything better to do(looks like a couple of them are unemployed). Also, they're trying to restore dignity to the good old-fashioned Road Trip(and, of course, bowling). Why bowl to Vegas instead of fly? As
Mike says: "It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. Nobody has respect for the road trip anymore. Haven't you people seen
Fandango?" Follow their progress across country, and
buy 'em a round.
posted by 40 Watt at 8:14 AM PST - 7 comments
The Puma "French Pleasure" Campaign: Hoax
From
felixsalmon.com. via the
AdCritic daily newsletter [
Gawker AdRants got there first, however, on a tip from
MemeFirst], comes a meme-hacking story straight from the Anarchist's Cookbook chapter on propaganda of the semiotic deed:
the infamous Puma viral-marketing scam. It was Tim who got the official statement from the marketing geeks:
It has been brought to our attention that several unauthorized, sexually suggestive advertisements portraying the PUMA brand have been released over the Internet. We are appalled that images like these would be created and distributed under the PUMA name. As a brand, we seek to take a unique perspective toward our advertising in an effort to challenge the boundaries of our industry; however we would never consider using these tactics. We are in the process of researching the circumstances and reserve any legal steps available.
posted by hairyeyeball at 7:57 AM PST - 70 comments
Furniture Of Mass Construction.
“We found the warehouse in question contained no weapons of mass destruction, just a load of cheap flat-pack pine furniture from Sweden. Who would have thought that the instructions to build a coffee table would be that complicated.”
posted by MintSauce at 7:52 AM PST - 1 comments
UN resolution 377,
This makes for fascinating reading as this arcane resolution provides for collective action by the general assembly 'if the security council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security'. Hardly applicable.
posted by johnnyboy at 7:01 AM PST - 13 comments
Advice for Conscientious Objectors in the Armed Forces
(
html version). "A comprehensive, step-by-step guide to applying for conscientious objector status. This edition....builds upon a tradition which began in 1970 with the First Edition.
Advice has since reached over 40,000 military men and women who had decided that they could no longer in good conscience remain in the military. The 1970
Advice spoke to a generation troubled by the war in Vietnam. This generation of conscientious objectors, too, has seen war--most recently in the Persian Gulf, and before that in Panama. It has experienced the end of the Cold War and the flowering of hopes for peace; and it has watched as those hopes turned to disappointment in the chaotic, dangerous post-Cold War world." The
G.I. Rights Hotline has recently
reported they "fielded a record number of calls, mostly from military personnel and families seeking advice on conscientious-objector and other discharges."
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 6:44 AM PST - 7 comments
Has PayPal's acceptable use policy
become much broader recently? I just received notice of changes to PayPal's acceptable use policy. I was surprised at the number of things that they have restrictions on. One in particular seemed like the kiss of death:
No porn for you unless it's from eBay's Mature section. Won't somebody think of the cam girls? With many banks now offering some sort of internet check-writing facility is PayPal really even a valid business model anymore outside of eBay?
posted by substrate at 4:33 AM PST - 10 comments
Wow.
Spartacus Educational is a masterwork of hyperlinked history with a rather eclectic list of focus topics that can suck you in and never let go. Start anywhere, and then just click, and click, and click...
In light of recent events, you might begin, if you wish, with a brush-up on the 1914
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, and from there go on to find out more about the
Black Hand secret society responsible for the killing. You may attempt to sidestep politics by going to
cartoonists, or
U.S. novelists and poets, but you will find that the site is organized against a backdrop of world politics (viewed chiefly from a British perspective), a point of view that weaves its own endlessly looping and mesmerizing mesh.
posted by taz at 3:55 AM PST - 9 comments
March 13
'Vice or Price'?
Don Johnson as Sonny Crockett in
Miami Vice drove a fancy car while fighting the drug world.
Now Don is suspected of trying laundering $8 billion in bonds, stocks and credit notes in Germany.
He said he was there to buy a car. Some car!
posted by hockeyman at 6:01 PM PST - 7 comments
The funniest Thing
I have seen on the net in a long time. Is it real? Does anyone here have the sense of humor, and adventure, to actually order one? I know I am going to stock up for April 1st.
posted by BlueScreen at 6:01 PM PST - 14 comments
Are you paid what you're worth?
This little IQ test, asks your salary (in pounds) and calculates whether you are overpaid or underpaid with respect to your intelligence. It's obviously not scientific (the test is not timed), and you can argue about how the ability to do IQ tests correlates with your ability to do a job. I predict that the vast majority here will have a coefficient well over 0. [From the Guardian]
posted by salmacis at 11:50 AM PST - 60 comments
American cultural hegemony strikes again.
(NYT reg. req.) Asian children exposed to an American-made high-sugar, high-fat, pre-processed, fast-food diet now seem to be coming up with American diseases: obesity, diabetes, things like that. My fascination with the article is caused not so much by its content as it is by its tone, though:
Known in Chinese as "xiao pangzi," or "little fatties," these roly-poly children seem to be everywhere, the pampered victims of cultures that prize them as emblems of affluence and well-being.
Do I sense a certain smugness in this article? Is the author sarcastically reading this as a triumph of American values?
posted by Prospero at 11:47 AM PST - 18 comments
They're dogs... and they're playing POKER!!
They've been hailed as some of the most important works of American art ever painted, they've been featured on television from The Simpsons to ESPN commercials to Cheers, but how much do we really know about the works of
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge? For everyone that ever looked at the dogs playing poker and wanted to know more, here is the ultimate resource, including, of course, a
gallery.
Please excuse the cornea damagingly horrific site design.
posted by jonson at 9:26 AM PST - 9 comments
“Class warfare turns out to be alive,”
Center director Robert Greenstein commented. “It is a centerpiece of the Nussle budget, with deep budget cuts that could harshly affect the poor, the vulnerable, and many middle-class Americans, alongside lavish tax cuts for the nation’s richest individuals. With this budget, we would be marching down the path toward a new Gilded Age.”
“The Nussle budget serves one very useful purpose.” Greenstein added. “It shows that these large tax cuts aren’t free, and that at bottom, the issue is one of national priorities. This ought to trigger a national debate. Are tax cuts averaging $90,000 a year for millionaires so high a priority that we should cut health care programs, increase the ranks of the uninsured, reduce the cost or limit the availability of student loans, and increase hardship among the disabled, poor children, and others to free up room for massive tax cuts?”
Possible Other Titles
Why is this rain yellow? or Hey, GWBush, self-appointed one of God, WWJD?
posted by nofundy at 9:22 AM PST - 34 comments
Turncoats in Bermuda shorts. Arianna Huffington continues to skewer offshore tax shelters in her latest Salon opinion piece. Despite her patriot-speak denouncing these corporations for avoiding taxes while our young men are getting ready to die for their country, she does shine the light on a growing problem – “basic fairness and economic justice” – or, the lack of it. How can the average American not be outraged at this, when so many of us are expected to be able to account for even the smallest charitable donation we would dare to use as a tax write-off?
posted by archimago at 9:15 AM PST - 11 comments
The return of the Movietone?
"We fell on this idea of recreating films that looked like and were the length of the old Movietone forms of the 1940s," said Marine Lt. Col. Jim Kuhn, military producer for the undertaking called the Movietone Newsreel Project. Kuhn says the objective is to put together a short film that combines the commentary of real-life soldiers with the kind of footage civilian journalists would be unable to get. (more inside)
posted by damn yankee at 8:30 AM PST - 6 comments
Those pinko scum cheese-munching surrender monkeys over at the ever-excellent
adbusters.org have started a 'Boycott Brand America' pledge. Against global arrogance? Against 'marketing'? Against war? Want to see public protest? Want to see action against oil, fast food, sweatshop labour, the media and more?
Sign it.
Tell your friends. One question, though: how do Americans themselves boycott America?
posted by tapeguy at 5:38 AM PST - 60 comments
Determined viewers try to save another TV show
(Salon). In this case, its Farscape, which shows its last episode on Friday in the States, and has already aired here in the UK. (no spoliers). Farscape fans are trying just about everything - from picking up 6 families in the Nielsens to fundraising to produce a last episode. Interested? Read on...
posted by rshah21 at 5:25 AM PST - 17 comments
Chalmers Johnson is an provocative proponent of the
American Empire theory, indeed. Here are excerpts from his
Blow Back: The Cost And Consequences of American EmpireI heard Johnson interviewed on Episode II,
War And Conflict In The Post-Cold War, Post-9/11 Era of
The Whole Wide World
The Cold War and its central conflict - the physical and ideological battles between the United States, the Soviet Union and their proxy states - imposed a certain logic and consistency on the world. Take that away and add the bloody wars in the Balkans, Africa and the Middle East in the ‘90s as well as the terror attacks and warnings of more recent times and you get a very confused picture of a world at war. Is this breaking storm in Iraq about oil, democracy, freedom, empire, culture, water, diamonds, modernizing Islam or nation building in the Middle East? Some, one or all of these things?It was an excellent program and well worth your listen, either by RA now or mp3 later.
(From listening to the radio)
posted by y2karl at 1:43 AM PST - 15 comments
World's first brain prosthesis revealed.
Well, first hippocampus replacement at least. If this is not a dead end for science (which I doubt), I am gonna get my soul fully digitalized in 2020, then spreading it on the whole net with some new version of a code-red virus. :-)
posted by zerofoks at 1:05 AM PST - 14 comments
Remember that whole drone "cover-up"? Here's the plane.
The prototype of Iraq's smoking gun WMD threat. Constructed of balsa wood and duct tape, it says Allahu Akbar (God is great) on the side. And, well, they were probably half right. While it's not really a gun, it probably does smoke -- it uses lawn-mower-style two-stroke engines. Washington Post story
here.
posted by condour75 at 12:02 AM PST - 38 comments
March 12
Hey, It's Not Enough We Die Of Obesity
without having to go to Hell too? Some enlightened Frenchmen are bending the Pope's ear, trying to spring Gluttony from the
Deadly Sins blacklist. Well, even clever old
Thomas Aquinas did his damnedest to narrow the seven buggers down. So: which sins would
you excuse today's poor sufferers from and which ones would you
insist on keeping, if any? [
Something tells me MetaFilter is ideally suited to put in a good word for Sloth. I wonder why? Speaking of which, NYT reg. is required but you can read about it here instead. Via Arts and Letters Daily.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:31 PM PST - 19 comments
The Dancing Plant
-- Darwin was obsessed by it, although even he never trained his weedy Asian shrub to twitch its leaves to the sound of music. But in a small town in northern Thailand ...
[Some people may experience a time-delay ad]
posted by titboy at 6:38 PM PST - 13 comments
While the site most regrettably hasn't been updated for quite some time,
Space Battles is still the only site I've found where you can download some very good (and some very bad) fan-made movies of ... space battles! Hey, where else are you gonna see the
Dominion and the
Shadows taking on the Federation and the Rebel Alliance on the same screen? Fanboys set phasers and blasters to fun!
posted by WolfDaddy at 4:55 PM PST - 4 comments
Pentagon threatens to target journalists in Iraq.
(RealAudio, 49 minutes into the broadcast.)
In an interview with Radio One Ireland,
Kate Adie, former chief news correspondent for the BBC, drops a bombshell.
If satellite uplinks from the press are detected in Baghdad, they would be "targeted down", said a senior US military official. "They know this. They've been warned."
Ms. Adie also revealed that the US military are openly asking journalists what their feelings are on the war, and are using this information to block reporters from access to reporting on the conflict.
These actions are "shameless" and "entirely hostile to the free spread of information," says Ms. Adie. "What actually appalls me is the difference between twelve years ago and now. I've seen a complete erosion of any kind of acknowledgment that reporters should be able to report as they witness."
posted by insomnia_lj at 4:52 PM PST - 74 comments
The bubble of American supremacy by George Soros
"I see parallels between the Bush administration's pursuit of American supremacy and a boom-bust process or bubble in the stock market. Bubbles do not arise out of thin air. They have a solid basis in reality, but misconception distorts reality. Here, the dominant position of the United States is the reality, the pursuit of American supremacy the misconception." (From Drudge)
posted by thedailygrowl at 4:04 PM PST - 37 comments
Based on a software analysis of 250,000 CDs for mathematical patterns, and further analysis of the last 5 years of Billboards' Top 30,
Polyphonic HMI thinks they know what it takes to rock your world (i.e., cause a song to shoot up the charts). Of course, major labels
are interested (NYT link, scroll halfway down). Will this cause
mainstream radio to be overrun with inane, soul-crushingly similar music, and crowd out anything different or interesting? Because I wouldn't like that!
posted by luser at 11:08 AM PST - 39 comments
Face Transplants
: "...the harvesting or ''degloving'' of a face would take approximately two hours, depending on the depth of the excision. It is possible to remove not just skin and subcutaneous fat and muscle but....part of the donor's bone and cartilage as well. Still, the deeper the cut, the more complex becomes the reattachment."
posted by troutfishing at 11:06 AM PST - 10 comments
In the dispute over Iraq there is always Plan C
Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But of such dreams Plan C is made. For New Zealand, a country with a record of peacekeeping and independent thought in international affairs, perhaps the compromise is the solution to what otherwise could be a nightmare in the making.
posted by a3matrix at 10:17 AM PST - 27 comments
The Bob Lancaster Gallery of Unusual Playing Cards is a collection and celebration of the beauty of playing cards. The site is over 7 years old and is still updated when Bob comes across a new find. Personal favorites are Le Florentin and the very intriguing Transformation Decks. After viewing the decks, you may wonder
why the ace on the ace of spades is larger than the others.
posted by iconomy at 9:04 AM PST - 24 comments
Serbian premier assasinated
He was shot in front of government offices at around 1300 local time, (1200 GMT).
I know some people are going to cry Newsfilter, but I believe this is worth posting.
posted by tomcosgrave at 6:18 AM PST - 63 comments
March 11
WWTBBD?
Ah, the Beastie Boys; their eloquence re: war is boundless, as evidenced in the
lyrics to this funky fresh jam they just unleashed (for free
download in MP3 – that’s how important it is to them to get the message across!) on an undeserving public. Seriously, if you feel strongly anti war, and you’re a hip hop artist, those two things can (and should) remain separate. I mean, when Ben and Jerry protested the war, they just published an article protesting it, they didn’t make interpretive dairy based dessert products about it.
From BoingBoing
posted by jonson at 11:45 PM PST - 98 comments
Big Show. No Tickets. No Problem.
In case you happen to find yourself about to miss out on the concert of a life-time, because you were 2 spots behind the last person to get tickets before it sold out, have no fear. This article at
Relevant shows you how to get into any concert for no more than the actual face-value of a ticket. (In other words, the legal way.) Useful information.
posted by wondergirl at 10:55 PM PST - 15 comments
Is hypocrisy essential to the New World Order?
Whilst I appreciate the seductive insights and plausible analysis offered by Lee Harris in
this lengthy and generally intelligent essay, I worry that the linking of themes in the intellectual form here merely provides, if not more ammo to the hawks in GWB's Cabinet, the justification for his unending 'war on terror'. There's thinly veiled xenophobia, I'm sure; but also some self-limiting principles compatible with a new kind of 'liberal hegemony' - called 'neo-sovereignty', viz.,
"It (neo-sovereignty) will only be viable if the U.S. scrupulously refuses to intervene in the self-determination of any state except for the purposes of maintaining the double standards in respect of nuclear weapons... At the heart of the dialectically emergent concept of neo-sovereignty is precisely the double standard that Mr. (Richard, the Chief Arms Inspector of the United Nations)
Butler denounced - a double standard imposed by the U.S. on the rest of the world, whereby the U.S. can unilaterally decide to act, if need be, to override and even to cancel the existence of any state regime that proposes to develop WMD, especially in those cases where the state regime in question has demonstrated its dangerous lack of a sense of the realistic." [More inside]
posted by dash_slot- at 8:00 PM PST - 30 comments
MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast), privately known in military circles as "the mother of all bombs," carries 18,000 pounds of tritonal explosives. It replaces the Vietnam-era
"Daisy Cutter" a 12,600-pound bomb. It was tested in public for the first time today in Eglin Air Force base, Florida as PR to
send Iraq a message (plus video). It is the largest conventional bomb in existence.
posted by stbalbach at 7:47 PM PST - 49 comments
Despite American efforts, world criminal court is born
With China, Russia, and the United States refusing to go along with this international court, just how effective can it become? And will the refusal of these major nations to join in add the what now appears the disintegration of global attempts at moderating international affairs?
posted by Postroad at 6:46 PM PST - 7 comments
Users don't like a lot of Flash
- Looks like Macromedia's new
Web site redesign that utilizes all Flash for its navigation isn't winning any awards with users, especially those running Opera and Apple's Safari browsers. It's nice looking, but I prefer a simpler design like here MetaFilter.
posted by MediaMan at 6:41 PM PST - 53 comments
Old And In The Way.
Their economy has lost any resemblance of dynamism, their military might has shrunk to the point of irrelevance, and their society is regressing towards a centrally planned socialist political system. Now with their standard of living dipping below even the poorest sub-group of Americans, is Europe a dying continent, with all its glory days already way behind it? [more inside]
posted by VeGiTo at 6:24 PM PST - 38 comments
How Do You Say ASSALAMU ALAIKUM in Gaelic?
Plans have been announced in the Irish Republic to translate the Koran, Islam's most sacred text, into Irish. The ambitious project aims to bring Ireland's Gaelic-speakers and Muslim communities closer together, Leslie Carter of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Dublin said.
posted by turbanhead at 6:17 PM PST - 14 comments
There's a revolt in the ranks.
Office of National Assessment senior analyst Andrew Wilkie resigned in protest against the stance on Iraq. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has questioned Mr Wilkie's seniority and suggested he did not have access to all available information on Iraq but Opposition leader Mr Crean disputes that. "Not senior? This is a person who has had involvement on terrorism briefings - we know that from the reports," Mr Crean said. "He's also a person that according to the same reports was going to be put on the Iraq taskforce if Australia went to war. Now don't tell me that's not senior, don't tell me that's not connected."
posted by skinsuit at 4:37 PM PST - 5 comments
Freedom of speech at Citrus College
was threatened, but the college president
responded sanely on March 7th, three days after the issue was raised by a watchdog foundation. A speech class professor, Rosalyn Kahn, told the students they could get extra credit for writing an anti-war letter to President Bush. The letter had to protest the war to receive credit. (I would find this just as worthy of mention if she had required students to write pro-war letter.) What struck me was the unmitigated gall of the Ms. Kahn and the fact that she was so completely busted.
UPI,
The LA Times, and
The Chronicle for Higher Education all covered this. There's also mention on
some other blogs.
posted by tbc at 2:19 PM PST - 29 comments
Naked as a Jaybird
is a new book from Taschen chronicling the 8-year lifespan of Jaybird magazine, which rode the hippy wave into a new "groovy nudism." Published under
various titles, from Campus Jaybird to Amateur Jaybird and even Women's Home Jaybird, the magazine found a gray area between naturism and porn, all the while embodying the same
distinctively playful design aesthetic that typified the counterculture (think
album cover art and
Laugh-In). Here's
an interview with Dian Hanson, editor of the Taschen retrospective and an interesting person in her own right.
(Obviously, many of these links are not safe for work.)
posted by me3dia at 12:56 PM PST - 4 comments
At Ford, Why Wasn't Safety Job One?
"Like other car companies, Ford has consistently fought mandatory increases in fuel economy....by invoking fears that higher mileage requirements would result in smaller, more dangerous vehicles. Safety has been used to beat back fuel efficiency regulations. But Ford's own internal documents and a series of recent court cases reveal a company that is shockingly indifferent to safety risks in the very class of gas-guzzling vehicles it most wants to shield from increases in fuel economy standards...All of this leads us to wonder, if Ford is willing to produce a product it knows will injure and perhaps kill a certain percentage of customers simply to maintain profit margins, does the company really have driver safety at heart when its lobbyists aggressively fight easily-achievable standards for higher corporate average fuel economy?" A new review of internal car manufacturer documents, and more questions about corporate ethics.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 11:30 AM PST - 13 comments
Would you like freedom fries with that?
The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings will change the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries," a culinary rebuke of France, stemming from anger over the country's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq.
Ditto for "french toast," which will be known as "freedom toast."
posted by orange swan at 11:10 AM PST - 103 comments
Use Google
to search the term "french military victories", then press the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.
This certain result happens every single time. Is this a hack, a joke, a tragic diplomatic slip up for a international companny or just bad programming?
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 10:31 AM PST - 32 comments
Got Dog Food Cans? Get Broadband.
David Taylor, an IT manager in Britain, has built a 802.11 receiver out of dog food cans, in order to have his access reachable at a Travelodge hotel across town. A fascinating arrangement, and quite the entreprenuerial showing.
posted by djspicerack at 10:08 AM PST - 3 comments
"Mr. Banks, a man with no prior criminal record, is most likely innocent of the charge that put him on death row. Fearing a tragic miscarriage of justice, three former federal judges (including William Sessions, a former director of the F.B.I.) have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to block Wednesday's execution.
"So far, no one seems to be listening." [via atrios]
posted by donkeyschlong at 9:18 AM PST - 15 comments
McDonald's restaurants in three U.S. cities will offer one hour of
free high-speed access to anyone who buys a combination meal. Bookstores, Hotels and Airports are also planning to offer Wireless access to customers.
posted by Stuart_R at 8:54 AM PST - 26 comments
"Listening Post,"
on now at the Whitney Museum, gathers conversational snippets from thousands of chat rooms and bulletin boards, structures them according to word counts, common phrases and other criteria and then displays them on a grid of more than 200 small rectangular electronic screens. Last week's New Yorker admired the resulting "found poems": "Duct tape and plastic for the White House duct tape, and water in the bathtub, eheh hmmm...."
posted by capiscum at 7:34 AM PST - 3 comments
Meet
Disinfopedia -- From the folks that brought us
PRWatch. Started as a place to foster "public understanding of war propaganda," -- for folks to share open content and to find resources about the folks who move and shake behind the scenes: think tanks, PR firms, experts for hire, etc.
It seems to me that a resource like this deserves to outlive the current
info battles (I promised I wouldn't use the word Iraq -- oh, #$#@!).
posted by chandy72 at 7:28 AM PST - 11 comments
ABC's blog "The Note" suspends operations,
citing lack of resources needed for war coverage, the blog's humorous style not being "the right national tonic," and this shocker: "We suspect that the amount of strictly political news — the kind of stuff that is the meat and starch of The Note — is likely to dramatically decrease in the coming days."
GUH? Aren't blogs now more important than ever? Aren't
politics now more important than ever? What message is being sent by the mainstream media here? (Via the indispensable
Lloyd Grove of the Washington Post.)
posted by PrinceValium at 7:00 AM PST - 10 comments
The Puppy Channel.
"No silly humans or unnecessary talk on this net, which seeks to serve up cute and cuddly mini-doggies for 24 hours of pure enjoyment and relaxation. "
Hear [realaudio req'd.] the story of the man behind the puppies.
[from This American Life.]
posted by sklero at 1:50 AM PST - 12 comments
March 10
MMmmm, doughnut.
(NYT link, reg. req'd) Lots of great philosophical answers to the old universe question, like our galaxy is in some giant's fingernail, and others. How about this one? Our universe is the shape of a doughnut!
(more inside)
posted by msacheson at 11:05 PM PST - 14 comments
Fifty years ago this month, then-19-year-old George Mansour was
arrested for having sex with a sailor at a private party -- his name was published in the paper and his acceptance to Boston University was revoked. This fascinating slice of recent history (don't miss the hilarious interview) coincides interestingly with current privacy-related news
at home and
abroad. [via
uffish]
posted by RJ Reynolds at 10:25 PM PST - 13 comments
Pigs Fly.
Orwell is in the house in downtown Beijing: a theatrical production of one of his most famous works opened last November. It
escaped the censors -- actually getting the approval stamp in three days -- though it was altered somewhat by director Shang Chengjun. [more inside]
posted by namespan at 3:57 PM PST - 5 comments
Coming to America!
Rejected by several countries, this relatively small tribe that has been living in slavery and in violent refugee camps is coming to the US.
NY Times reg. req.
posted by Plunge at 1:55 PM PST - 43 comments
The lecture
Thomas Friedman gave at
SAIS a few days ago. A longer form, very interesting and informative explanation of what he's learned post-Sept. 11th about the Middle East. Windows Media video and Real video and audio all available.
posted by turbodog at 11:54 AM PST - 10 comments
I bent my wookie!
(Possibly not safe for work) A new, modern treatment for an ancient problem. Remember, it's not supposed to bend that way.
posted by qDot at 10:22 AM PST - 27 comments
Susan Sontag
gave an interview that was broadcast on BookTV via CSPAN2 back on Sunday, March 2nd. It was an impressive and in depth 3 hour program. It is now available online
here for Realplayer. This is not the sort of thing your ever going to see on commercial television.
posted by Lex Tangible at 9:55 AM PST - 11 comments
Want an MBA - without spending half your life doing it?
It seems as if Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey has put together a 12 week "no frills" program with "just the essentials" to get what they term a "mini MBA". Now I'm not sure what this "mini" certificate will mean when you go to apply for a job and show it to your prospective employer, but apparently some folks are filling out the classes for $2495 each term. You can read more about it in this
pdf, check out page 3.
posted by djspicerack at 8:58 AM PST - 13 comments
Isn't this what insurance is for?
DC/Baltimore got pounded with snow a few weeks ago and it's caused some issues throughout the region. It seems that folks are reluctant to file claims because their home owners insurance carriers are liable to drop them.
I know that life isn't fair, but isn't this why you pay for insurance?
posted by cpfeifer at 8:41 AM PST - 20 comments
There's a lot of news coverage this morning about Afghanistan going live with their official country domain ".af" - the first two advertised sites are
here (?) and
here (via the BBC). There's a less publicized, and much better site
here via google. I guess you know you've made it as a civilization these days when the
glass is lit. I remember how excited I was when the ADSL synchronized and my pop up adventure began. . .
I hope this isn't our farewell present to this country, though.
posted by jdaura at 7:41 AM PST - 11 comments
But I Thought The Danes Were Good Guys...
so what are they doing offering this Godwin's-Law-begging, nasty, violent Flash game? I mean, if it had been a ****** [
nationality protected by political correctness] game, I don't think I'd have been half as shocked. National stereotypes - don't you hate them? But just how strong are they, when they're splattered, as it were, even over online gaming? [
Via good old b3ta.com, who were just as aghast as me at the provenance. Hey, even the URL is scary!]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:05 AM PST - 13 comments
British books, built badly.
British publishers' habit of putting out hardcovers with glued (rather than sewn) bindings and non-acid-free paper makes many rather expensive books start to fall apart after only a few years,
Slate's Christopher Caldwell reports.
posted by mcwetboy at 7:01 AM PST - 16 comments
"Toronto flings garbage at Michigan" no no!... - US Courts Canadian Crud!
...Eh?, well, OK: Toronto
trucks it's tons 'o trash across the border to dump in Michigan landfills, and some Yanks are
eager to buy, although others...
"It's so disgusting we don't even talk about it...Why can't they keep their garbage over there?" .....[''We need to put an end to this desecration of our beautiful state,'' fumed Representative Candice S. Miller, Republican of Michigan who also warned that terrorists or weapons of mass destruction could be concealed
amidst the rotting food and used diapers.]
......"Relations between the United States and Canada have been souring for two years....Canada's wishy-washy stance on the Iraq crisis...has irked Washington" chides the Boston Globe, clearly piqued that Boston is not in a position to
catapult cannisters of it's garbage and toxic waste northward at Canada, towards the "Great Concavity" of David Foster Wallace's
"Infinite
Jest". [other shades of "....Jest" loom as "...a reputed haven for terror groups." whispers the Globe...just like in Wallace's book!]
.....Toronto can't find any Canadian communities willing to furnish an immense garbage pit, while "
Michigan's underused landfills are famous for courting crud from outside the state's borders.": They approached Toronto with the deal.
["Ontario, meanwhile, accepts imports of toxic industrial sludge, low-level radioactive waste, and other dangerous refuse from Michigan and other US states."] Garbage is a protected "free trade" commodity under NAFTA and Michigan may need the 'trash jobs':
NAFTA has spurred automakers to
shift production away from the US and build new factories in Canada and Mexico. Canada's auto
factories are
7%
more productive than US ones and have lower health care costs. [
"The growth of imports to the
U.S. from these factories has contributed substantially to the growing U.S. trade deficit and
the related job losses."]. So: Canada sends garbage and shiny new autos south: the US sends radioactive sludge, spittle, jobs and curses north.
Meanwhile, walk across the border and the
murder rate per 100,000 (per year) drops from
42.6 (Detroit, USA) to
2.2 (Windsor, Canada):
"Are
Canadians somehow flinging all their fear and murderous rage into the US along with the garbage?" (asks the Daily Tabloid)
posted by troutfishing at 5:11 AM PST - 42 comments
The lawyers for the victims of the Rhode Island nightclub disaster are planning to
sue a
radio station that broadcast commercials for the concert.
Wistow said that while he still needs to nail down the precise nature of Clear Channel's responsibility, he's all but certain to name the company [in the suit].
posted by Pretty_Generic at 3:00 AM PST - 34 comments
March 9
Heavy Seas
is an all too brief gallery of terrifying photos of huge waves crashing down around large boats & drilling rigs. I wish it were a little longer, but I did think the photos were impressive, as one who has never been at sea in very rough weather.
posted by jonson at 9:47 PM PST - 29 comments
Wake America from Its Bloodless Trance
"Unfortunately, most of you will never see my anti-war commercial. Why? Because the major network news outlets refused to accept it, claiming that the imagery was too graphic... linking death to war seems to be taboo at a time when the connection should be on the top of our minds. Few in the major media are talking about casualties in the Iraq war, and it seems our nation does not want to confront the reality that the war will result in casualties, anywhere from a few thousand dead and wounded (itself a horrific number) to tens of thousands, according to international experts. Let's be clear – that's thousands of dead or wounded people, at a minimum. "
Six anti-war commercials , featuring, among others,
Mos Def,
Russell Simmons,
Susan Sarandon and
Ben and Jerry.
posted by Espoo2 at 9:27 PM PST - 85 comments
Got Sprawl?
This story from Maine’s Portland Press Herald about a rich widow “from away” (as we say) who wants to build a high-end subdivision on her land in scenic
Falmouth against objections from the Town Council -- which is citing her property as the most valuable undeveloped tract in the town -- illustrates on a very human level (complete with affluent in-family spats) what rural towns in
New England and
the rest of the country feel is at stake in their fight against unplanned development.
(more inside)
posted by damn yankee at 3:34 PM PST - 34 comments
If you are a prominent sports organization suffering under budget cuts and dwindling crowds, not to mention if some of your main players are threatening to form
a breakaway group, what could possibly be your next move? How about
alienating your fans? That's exactly what the Association of Tennis Professionals
(ATP), the governing body of men's professional tennis, did. More inside . . .
posted by somethingotherthan at 2:28 PM PST - 3 comments
Are you ready for some... NASCAR?
"Consider, 4 out of 5 NBA players are African American, 67 percent of NFL players are minorities, and last season, 23 percent of major league baseball players were born in Spanish-speaking countries (an increase of 40 percent from 1989). All of those sports, except football, are experiencing a dip in popularity. Meanwhile, the conspicuously white NASCAR is on an unprecedented run up the profit chart."
posted by owillis at 9:32 AM PST - 82 comments
Surrender so soon.
"The stunned Paras from 16 Air Assault Brigade were forced to tell the Iraqis they were not firing at them, and ordered them back to their home country telling them it was too early to surrender."
posted by The Jesse Helms at 8:51 AM PST - 16 comments
Get your I AM NOT AMERICAN™ shirt here.
From shirt creator Trevor Wilson: "This is not an anti-American web site, nor am I anti-American... These shirts are merely designed for folks from around the world - especially Canadians - to point out that they are not, from the United States. Though there's nothing wrong with coming from the good ol' U.S. of A, in the current political climate this shirt may come in extra handy."
posted by tranquileye at 6:52 AM PST - 72 comments
An American Tragedy:
No
habanos; no
Havana Club; not even a
dram of that lovely new rummy
Glenfiddich malt whisky! Although the embargo is still popular with the Jesse Helms crowd and certain
Cuban immigrés,
resistence is
higher than
ever. Why does it go on? From the outside, it just looks like obstinate stupidity. What is it with the Democrats, especially? Are they still covering up for JFK's mistakes? He, at least, had a
good stock of Cuban cigars [
well, Petit Uppmanns...] with which to sit the
crisis out... What gives? What could possibly justify Americans
missing out on such a massive scale? If for the pleasure of a decent smoke or even proper
mojito or
daiquiri alone?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:21 AM PST - 22 comments
March 8
Smart Mobbing the War.
[nytimes, reg yadda] I love it when the old-school press picks up a bloggish meme - it's like when Sinatra covers a Beatles song. I'm not sure the author gets the premise of the Reingold book quite right -- it's more about the decentralized nature of Internet anti-war organization, than about the specifics of wireless populi. In fact, he doesn't even credit Reingold, or mention the book. But it's a good read anyway.
[By the way, they're protesting a coming war in Iraq, in case you haven't been following the news.]
posted by condour75 at 8:35 PM PST - 21 comments
From a theft at the U.S. Mint to a scam artist in Philly, from a playboy Egyptian king to a Secret Service sting at the Waldorf-Astoria, ending up at a record-breaking $7.59 million auction: the
fascinating history of a coin.
(via BoingBoing)
posted by Vidiot at 11:52 AM PST - 10 comments
The Washington Post reports, findings that some of the "evidence" proving Iraq's search for nuclear technologies are
faked.
"ElBaradei also rejected a key Bush administration claim -- made twice by the president in major speeches and repeated by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell yesterday -- that Iraq had tried to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes to use in centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Also, ElBaradei reported finding no evidence of banned weapons or nuclear material in an extensive sweep of Iraq using advanced radiation detectors."
posted by omidius at 9:34 AM PST - 32 comments
US Lets N. Korea Get Nuclear Data
(Boston Globe) "
Transfer Pact Stays in Effect: WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has not suspended or revoked the authority of Westinghouse Co. to transfer documents related to nuclear technology to North Korea, despite the fact that the Asian nation has admitted that it violated terms of a nonproliferation agreement it signed with Washington in 1994, US Department of Energy documents show."
posted by troutfishing at 8:09 AM PST - 43 comments
Interesting Lead..Were George Harrison and Fred Rogers
terminally sedated?The hospice movement started in this country because people were dying badly, often in pain. I have personal experience that the family is given a bottle of morphine with a eye dropper and a hint.(
MetaonlineJournalism - A subsection of MetaFilter (like MetaTalk) where stories or rumors that need further investigation, research, or verification are actively worked on by webloggers, ideally working together to determine the truth of the matter.)
posted by JohnR at 7:42 AM PST - 26 comments
March 7
Another embarrasment for Oregon.
As if the government of my home state had not reached bottom, as far as actually acting in the interests of it's citizens, comes the news that the head of the State Senate Education Committee,
State Senator Charles Starr, has written a letter urging his constituents to "run, don't walk" away from public schools. This from the "leader" in the state legislature for public education. This ranks with Tonya Harding and the anti-gay Oregon Citizen's alliance as another in the growing list of lowlights for Oregonians.
posted by Danf at 1:58 PM PST - 32 comments
How the Grinch Stole Wisconsin's History?
So, here in Wisconsin, the state government managed to screw up the economy so bad that its making historic budget cuts. Rather than take it lying down, anonymous members of the Historical Society have struck back via the Internet. Thus far, the rewriting of "the Grinch" into "How the Grinch Stole Who-story" is classic. Perfect for Friday.
posted by rev- at 11:29 AM PST - 4 comments
Self-contained ecosystems on your desk.
Eco-spheres strike a perfect balance between members in an environment. Based on NASA studies, they can last past 10 years. Is it feasible to have more complex self-contained systems in the near future? Imagine, a sealed tank with a 'pet' you never have to worry about feeding, watering, or cleaning. That doesn't use batteries. Plus, they look pretty cool.
posted by rich at 9:25 AM PST - 55 comments
Pupcam!
A remote-controlled car, a pup and a video camera. A little Friday diversion. The pup seems to be enjoying himself.
posted by essexjan at 8:38 AM PST - 21 comments
DIVE!
DIVE!
DIVE!
- Markets in free fall. Remember the heady DotCom bubble days, and innocuous scandals - Clinton
& Monica,
the cigar?! Then, WHAM: 9-11, Enron, Worldcom et. al, the push for invasion of
Iraq,
ballooning deficits, while a new US neocolonial American ideology of preemption suggests more invasions to come - with a worldwide surge in anti-American attitudes.
"Irrational Exuberance"
turned to terror, fear, worry, anger, rage.
What possible train of events and U.S. government
policies could more efficiently send world economic markets into free fall? Hold on: it was a
two decade long ride up - the ride down has merely begun. Those among us with a
few spare billion lying around will wait until the bottom, and buy
on the cheap. For everyone else, it's
bankruptcy,
frugality, middle class
decline, cans 'o beans and darned socks. But cheer up: play, joy, creativity, generosity, indeed love itself - and also the classic
"recreation of the poor" are all
free.
posted by troutfishing at 7:34 AM PST - 79 comments
It's not the end of the world, it's the
World of Ends.
Doc Searls and
David Weinberger, from the
Cluetrain Manifesto, come up trying to elucidate "what the Internet is and how to stop mistaking it for something else" in 10 points. In a way it captures back what we could call the "nature of the web" (if it has one - a hint: YES! it has), but it's not a statement, it's more like an
inviting - to join, to understand. The question is... "can you hear us Recording Industry?".
posted by nandop at 7:09 AM PST - 10 comments
Does America Torture?
"The men's death certificates, made public earlier this week, showed that one captive...died from 'blunt force injuries to lower extremities complicating coronary artery disease' while another ...from [a] blood clot in the lung that was exacerbated by a 'blunt force injury'." What steps are we taking in our "war on terror"? What if other countries decide to treat our civilians as "enemy combatants"? Is the Pax Americana so important that we must resort to torture, or, as is most often the case, giving up prisoners to countries that are known torturers?
posted by taumeson at 6:38 AM PST - 113 comments
Astounding Discovery.
Anybody else been waiting with breathless anticipation for March 8th, 2003? It's too late
to debate whether or not this is a hoax (although that particular horse was pretty well beaten
here). Our mystery man
is on the run again, but the
photos are going up tomorrow. Stay tight. The government is closing in. Even with everything else going on in the world, if they can't prevent this information from going public, all I can say is "biblical proportions."
posted by RKB at 5:56 AM PST - 72 comments
March 6
Nominate the world's stupidest security procedure.
UK-based watchdog group, Privacy International, is accepting nominations until March 15th from the general public about the most annoying and invasive security measures with the lowest effectiveness in protecting individual safety. What would you nominate?
posted by jonp72 at 9:23 PM PST - 19 comments
Ford will sell hybrid Escape at a loss.
In order to get technology out to the public, and get feedback from customers, Ford is going to release it's hybrid version of the Escape SUV, and take a loss with it.
With today's economy, who knows what that will mean in the end for an already struggling Ford.
posted by wondergirl at 10:46 AM PST - 51 comments
A set of 24 colour blindness tests
I picked up this link from the comments in another forum, somebody mentioned they were colour blind and provided a link to these tests. Interestingly the colour blind can also see stuff that normally sighted people can't.
[more inside]
posted by substrate at 10:36 AM PST - 40 comments
The Pentagon's New Map
is probably the frankest asssessment yet of why neo-cons want to go marching into Iraq - and, maybe, keep on marching. An instructor at the U.S. Naval Military College tells us why "military engagement with Saddam Hussein’s regime in Baghdad is not only necessary and inevitable, but good."
posted by kgasmart at 9:52 AM PST - 79 comments
"Rabbit Test"
chocolate bunnies ranked- and I do mean
rank.Now you'll know what NOT to bite the ears off of...
posted by konolia at 9:47 AM PST - 17 comments
Intellectual Dishonesty
Intellectual dishonesty is pure poison to the enterprise of the law. Yet countless examples show intellectual dishonesty has now become a routine, expected part of American discourse. The most obvious half-truths and hypocrisies are greeted with shrugged shoulders and a grunt of "what did you expect?"
Is the ultimate goal more important than truth, honesty, integrity and "playing by the rules?" Or, put another way, does the end satisfy the means? "Restoring honor and integrity" would indicate not.
posted by nofundy at 7:49 AM PST - 12 comments
Lynne Cheney parody draws White House ire
An Internet lampoon of Vice President Dick Cheney's wife is no laughing matter at the White House, which has asked a satirist to remove pictures of her - complete with red clown noses - from his
Web site.
But the New York Civil Liberties Union struck back Wednesday on behalf of John A. Wooden, 31, threatening a lawsuit to protect his First Amendment rights to parody the White House and Bush officials on his site, whitehouse.org.
posted by turbanhead at 7:13 AM PST - 56 comments
Clinton and Dole on "60 Minutes"
While the 1996 Presidential Debates weren't seen as the pinnacle of political discourse at the time, they were congenial by today's talk-show standards. Will these 'elder statesmen' have time in a short TV segment to start genuine discussion of critical issues? Is there any other media outlet that already accomplishes this?
posted by stevis at 6:51 AM PST - 7 comments
Kodak, in an
effort to alienate move goers everywhere, will introduce technology that could replace pre-movie, slide based still advertisements with full motion video and other digital media ads (and "other entertainment").
posted by alan at 6:00 AM PST - 43 comments
