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April 2002 Archives
April 30
ITV Digital is
dead. I woke up this morning to find channel after channel replaced with a blue screen, telling me they can no longer broadcast pay-tv. Mtv UK are marking the occasion with lots of slow contemplative music. I want my Mtv! (and E4, UK Gold and ....)
posted by feelinglistless at 10:28 PM PST - 12 comments
Hamas accepts Saudi peace plan:
"There has been generation after generation (of war). Now there is a generation who needs to live in peace, and not worry about their safety," said [Hamas executive Ismail Abu] Shanab. "So it is a generation that wants to practice living in peace and postpone historical issues. We speak of historical Palestine, and practical reality."
Since their official position is that "Leaving the circle of conflict with Israel is a major act of treason" (
Hamas Charter, Article 32), this is a dramatic change in policy indeed. I'm gobsmacked; this is utterly unbelievable, yet apparently real. And genuinely hopeful IMHO. What do you think?
posted by boaz at 9:16 PM PST - 16 comments
Canadians fuzzy on concept of left and right.
A new poll suggests that three quarters of Canadians have trouble telling political left from right. Sort of makes me wonder why voter turnout is higher in Canada than the U.S.. Canadians are also hard to pin down politically, as polls suggests they generally want less taxes
and more government spending.
posted by bobo123 at 9:07 PM PST - 17 comments
Now we know why French was required in school : échangisme, libertinism, Cléopâtre
"For the past 18 months Jean-Charles and Sylvie have had a standing date with each other and with a changing cast of instantly made new best friends at a private club in central Paris called Cléopâtre...échangisme, she said, is something more interesting than the movies to do on a Saturday night...nearly 50 restaurants, clubs and saunas in Paris openly cater to heterosexual adventurers. " Time to bring back Plato's Retreat. [NYT reg req]
posted by Voyageman at 8:42 PM PST - 5 comments
VCards
are sort of a viral(or maybe voyeuristic) greeting card. You send one to someone, and they are sent your note with some attachments. The recipient is asked to run one of them(a VB script), that decrypts the other files, which are three images randomly chosen from the hard drive of the person who sent it to them, and so on. Everything is explained up front, and full source is provided at the web page.
posted by Su at 6:53 PM PST - 10 comments
Havening (sic) a lousy day?
Whenever the IT industry gets me down, I look to this oldy but goody of a link to help me realize that I don't have it all that bad. Have you ever been on any tier of computer support? This is a classic (albeit somewhat cruel) chronicle of working alongside a useless help-desk drone we'll call George.
posted by machaus at 6:26 PM PST - 25 comments
Who caused the great flood?
Yesterday,
Ernie posted a notice that Steve from Blue's Clues was leaving to become a rock star. Now Steve's web site seems to be down for bandwidth overages. They might be unrelated; still, it raises important questions about the possibility of accidentally overloading someone else's server. Where do burdens lie in this scenario? Does anyone have a historical perspective on this sort of situation? =]
posted by spaceboy86 at 4:25 PM PST - 22 comments
Why the towers fell.
PBS is airing a
special episode of Nova about the science behind while the World Trade Center towers collapse. Nova's reputation for converting esoteric science & engineering into understandable explanations for the layman should make the show something to watch. 7PM EDT/PDT on most PBS stations. Set your Tivos.
posted by Argyle at 3:58 PM PST - 23 comments
Aaah, the joys of PetitionOnline.com. As of right now, 840 people have petitioned Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema to
change the name of "The Two Towers," the sequel to The Lord of the Rings, saying that Jackson purposely made the title in reference to the September 11th attacks.
Nevermind the fact that the book of the same name was published by Tolkien in 1954. Naturally, there is a
petition against the petition. Hooray, democratic process!
posted by littleyellowdifferent at 3:47 PM PST - 39 comments
It looks like that the British network
einstein.tv and the
FIDE may open negotiations this month for a reunified world chess championship. The championship was split in 1993 when Garry Kasparov left the FIDE to start his own failed league. Kasparov claims the world championship left with him, while the FIDE claims he abdicated by refusing to play nice with others. Kasparov lost the championship last year to Kramnik. Einstein.TV is
milking the publicity while the FIDE says
we are meeting but no comment. Wood pushers like me are probably better off leaving the politics to the people who can't stand each other and sticking to the
internet chessclub, the
free chess servers or simply
email chess.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 3:27 PM PST - 2 comments
The Ancient Library Of Alexandria:
Its long-awaited re-opening has been
postponed, supposedly because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So it seems the age-old dream of historians and poets everywhere(
Jorge Luís Borges comes to mind)will have to wait a bit longer... I wonder, though, if Egypt's ever-stricter censorship laws and practices will ever be compatible with a true, universal library such as, by most accounts, the original Alexandria Library was.[
Via Nutcote]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:21 PM PST - 9 comments
Japan’s Gross National Cool
- Foreign Policy has an interesting article on the impact of Japanese culture and how it has replaced "Made in Japan" products as the dominant export from Japan. The author points to director Hayao Miyazaki, director/actor Takeshi Kitano, artist Takashi Murakami, and singer/songwriter Namie Amuro, as well as anime in general and Hello Kitty as examples of the global spread of Japanese culture. Do you recognize these people or their work? [more inside]
posted by gen at 2:37 PM PST - 18 comments
Could the end be near
for cult television cartoon family "The Simpsons?"
"I think we are closer to winding it up," the television show's creator, Matt Groening told the Financial Times in an interview published Tuesday."
posted by jcterminal at 2:28 PM PST - 25 comments
Spanish dogs say "guau guau".
Did you ever read comics or something in a language other than your cradle tongue and notice that onomatopoetic words, particularly for animal sounds, are different in different languages? This webpage has animal sounds from loads of languages, organized by language and animal. Indonesian dogs say "gonggong".
posted by jeb at 1:44 PM PST - 46 comments
The Tom Waits Streaming Event.
Anti Records is streaming both of Waits' new albums in their entirety, each in turn for three days starting today, prior to their release. Is the home listening booth for whole cd's a common marketing tactic now?
posted by liam at 1:04 PM PST - 24 comments
Veganism nearly kills baby?
A New york couple is charged with reckless endangerment after there baby is taken to the hospital underdeveloped and near death. The article doesn't specifically say veganism was the reason for the baby's poor health but strongly impies it.
[link via plastic]
posted by drezdn at 10:59 AM PST - 55 comments
Up in Smoke: Drugs and the End of Music.
"It's extremely doubtful whether house would have achieved the dominance it has without E fuelling the nation's clubbers. With ecstasy dictating the musical content of many club nights, the demand for seamless, relentless grooves with little change in tempo has grown and grown ... Dance music is no longer a music that touches the head and heart as well as the feet, as it did with Northern Soul. Instead, it has become a soul-less metronome for the E generation to mark time to."
posted by moz at 9:32 AM PST - 57 comments
Kissinger: Wanted for Questioning.
...as his list of possible vacation spots grows smaller,smaller. Christopher Hitchens details the ever more complex legal situation of former U.S. Sec. of State Henry Kissinger, who is now wanted for questioning by courts in Chile, Spain, and France. Writes Hitchens:
"Recently, I was informed via the former Spanish ambassador to the United States that Kissinger had approached the embassy asking whether he would be safe if he visited Spain. These days he does not travel without legal advice."
posted by Ty Webb at 9:30 AM PST - 30 comments
World of Awe
-- Through a portal on 419 East 6th street in Manhattan, a traveler passes into the Sunset/Sunrise--a desert terrain locked into the mindframe between night and day, in search of a lost treasure. The voyage is documented in a journal found on a laptop evidently built by the traveler in Silicon Canyon, which is a graveyard for old computer components. The journal contains letters to an absent lover, travel logs and descriptions of the unique navigation tools. Following a hi-tech/lo tech, double-sided map (Eep & Moo), the traveler describes a search for a treasure that keeps relocating. The only remains found are crumbs fallen from the body of the treasure that surprisingly resemble candy sprinkles.
posted by boltman at 8:59 AM PST - 6 comments
Prof says pedophilia ain't so bad.
"I don't think it's something where we should just clamp our heads in horror," he said of pedophilia. "In 1900, everybody assumed that masturbation had grave physical consequences; that didn't make it true."
Apologies for yet another NYTimes link.
posted by Samsonov14 at 7:35 AM PST - 102 comments
Do short men get short-changed?
Any real life experiences to back up or refute this study? I found this very interesting:
"If a teenage sense of social exclusion influences future earnings, it may have great implications for youngsters from minority groups."
posted by bittennails at 5:21 AM PST - 65 comments
From a NYT piece
on the horrifying incompetence of NY mental homes:
On a Thursday in June 2000, Mr. Ridges returned from his job and went to his room. He encountered Mr. Chapman and the two apparently argued over rap music, the police said. Mr. Chapman pulled out a brown and gold folding knife. He lunged, stabbing Mr. Ridges more than 20 times in the neck, sternum and arm.
"Me and Greg Ridges didn't get along," Mr. Chapman told the detectives who arrested him.
When Mrs. Ridges did not receive her customary phone call from her son that day, she called the home. An employee told her everything was fine. Wary, Mrs. Ridges went to the home that night, and no one would let her in. Several hours later, police officers showed up at her apartment and told her what had happened.
I get sick of all the NYT pieces on here too, but, damn it, this is just haunting, a long visit in a demented underworld of society that most of us try to ignore. Well worth reading in its (extensive) entirety.
posted by gsteff at 1:03 AM PST - 3 comments
April 29
Fear Can Turn Us All Into 'Good Germans.'
Harley Sorensen takes on the culture of fear and bigotry that's rising in the US and Israel (and other places as well), where people are willing to give up their own freedom in the name of unity, and are happy to
plug their ears when an alternative opinion is expressed. Includes an amazing letter from someone who's "decided not to be Jewish" because of the attitude of his religion.
posted by Jimbob at 11:01 PM PST - 32 comments
Jeez, is Gordon Clune a big jerk or what?
After weeks of anticipation (okay, several reminders from my wife), I sat down tonight to watch the first two hours of PBS's
Frontier House. I thought it was
much better than I expected, but I can't keep the doubts away - is this really just an
1883 Survivor?
posted by yhbc at 8:47 PM PST - 28 comments
"The reality, or substance, of professional wrestling is the ability to perpetuate a fantasy... I can look back and credit my tremendous success to what some would term insanity. I never distinguished between fantasy and reality. I made my fantasy reality for over 60 years."
Lou Thesz, perhaps the greatest pro wrestler of the 20th century,
died yesterday. His autobiography,
Hooker, is one of the best books about pro wrestling ever written.
posted by tranquileye at 7:44 PM PST - 6 comments
Three Dead From Southern Maryland Tornado.
This is the kind of news story you skip because it doesn't happen in your state. It didn't even register to me until I realized that one of my daily reads -
Moire - lives in La Plata. The twister went through her front yard. Her account of the storm and its aftermath is pretty powerful. Were any other bloggers involved? (It's my first post; be gentle.)
posted by web-goddess at 6:42 PM PST - 16 comments
Unlikely Allies Bound by a Common Hatred.
"Herr von Laden is an example for our children." The bridge between radical Muslims and the neo Nazis in Europe and the United States.
In 1991, German neo-Nazis tried to form a "Condor Legion" to fight alongside Iraqis against the U.S.-led international coalition. More recently, members of the European far right have journeyed to Baghdad to express solidarity with Saddam Hussein.
posted by semmi at 5:47 PM PST - 15 comments
Did any other Metafilter parents (or other grown-up fans of children's television) catch
Joe's introduction on Blue's Clues tonight? I've always made an effort to watch whatever my son's watching, so I'm a little sad to see Steve go, but my four-year-old approves of the new host. I am very happy to see that Steve Burns has already moved on to
new, exciting things (including an upcoming album that features several members of the
Flaming Lips). The whole ordeal reminds me too much of the last time a
beloved host was
replaced.
posted by Eamon at 5:27 PM PST - 22 comments
Christians are burning.
News.com has a
story on the latest plan by Liquid Audio & EMI to allow users to
burn CDs of Christian music from net downloads. Are Christians less likely to re-rip the CDs and post them for P2P sharing?
posted by Argyle at 2:35 PM PST - 18 comments
Keep your CEO out of grad school.
I found this article to be provocative. Can the performance of a CEO be judged by just one number (i.e., return to shareholders)? Shouldn't the study be controlling for size of firm, industry characteristics, economic cycle etc.? What do you think?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy at 2:35 PM PST - 2 comments
Time for a change of business strategy focus?
Nokia and VolksWagen are the examples given,
'the heart of productivity growth is what happens inside the firm, and firms are first and foremost organisations of human beings'
positive role models to lead us from downturn alley?
posted by asok at 2:23 PM PST - 2 comments
What happened to sportsmanlike behaviour in hockey?
Islander fans booed the Canadian national anthem hours after a memorial service for the Canuck soldiers who died at American hands. Fine, whatever, that type of behaviour is expected. They also harrassed Toronto fans in the parking lot outside the rink, including stealing their flags and setting the Maple Leaf ablaze. Now if this was Canadians burning the
American flag...
posted by drgonzo at 11:48 AM PST - 52 comments
I have a bad feeling about this.
The UK government has urged employers to be leniant to staff who want to watch the World Cup when they should be working. Isn't this instantly discriminating against people who happen to like football (Soccer) all that much? For example, I'm sure I know what would happen if I broached the idea of turning up for work late on May 16th after I've been to the first showing of
this thing.
posted by feelinglistless at 11:35 AM PST - 15 comments
Alexa, the internet depository that lead to things like
the wayback machine was acquired by Amazon some time ago. A new service,
Alexa Web Search joins the power of Alexa's archive with Amazon's proven interface and feature set with Google's killer-app level searching power.
The results are fairly impressive, adding a related sites layer that may actually help folks browsing the web (as opposed to direct searching). [via
anil]
posted by mathowie at 11:10 AM PST - 28 comments
In re: the middle-east conflicts, you can't believe everything you read, if only because so much that is rather obviously important and relevant seems to be never-the-less falling off the map, so-to-speak. Want proof?
Perhaps someone can give me a rationale explanation as to why this
story is not to be found in
any major news outlet.
posted by BentPenguin at 8:40 AM PST - 25 comments
Introducing eMac,
a new version of the iMac aimed solely at the education market. Rather than getting all slashdotty, let's discuss the looks of it, rather than the guts, and debate the wiseness of this new strategy.
Oh, Apple also released a
new 800MHz TiBook.
posted by me3dia at 8:32 AM PST - 59 comments
Barbie creator, Mattel founder Handler dies
More than one billion Barbies have been sold in 150 countries and has inspired love from girls everywhere and pure hatred from feminists everywhere.
"The impossibly well-endowed doll -- her original figure would be about 39-18-33 if she were human -- has infuriated feminists, inspired artists and intrigued academics around the world. Barbie even was placed in the official "America's Time Capsule" buried in 1976." Can you think of any other toy who has brought about as much ferver as Barbie???
posted by gloege at 7:15 AM PST - 30 comments
What does MX stand for?
It doesn't say, but Macromedia, launched a huge new strategy today to integrate all of its software properties. Very smart, and perhaps too late?
posted by boardman at 4:34 AM PST - 18 comments
Every sport is an extreme sport in Afghanistan.
Sorry couldn't help posting this surreal news tidbit: "A friendly basketball game between U.S. and Afghan teams turned violent, with one American player kicked in the head and two Afghan spectators shot in the leg, peacekeepers and witnesses said Friday."
posted by talos at 4:25 AM PST - 9 comments
Paper money in many countries is really beautiful and often employs great use of typography and color. The designs are sometimes used to showcase an indigenous resource, to pay homage to a cultural icon or national leader, or occasionally as a political weapon. Anyone looking for currency scans on the web usually ends up at
Ron Wise's site - thousands of quality, free for the download scans from every country in the world (I have not verified this), including a
1991 500 Afghanis note from Afghanistan, which portrays the national sport of Butskashi (polo played with a goat carcass). Like the proverbial cake that's too pretty to eat, some of this currency seems
almost too beautiful to spend.
There's also some
speculation that as a deterrent to counterfeiting, American currency just might be getting some color.
posted by iconomy at 3:54 AM PST - 28 comments
May 1st Day of Silence
Hundreds of Internet radio stations and channels across America are shutting off their music streams on Wednesday, May 1st, in a "Day of Silence" to highlight their concern over the upcoming U.S. Copyright Office ruling on royalty rates that may shut down or bankrupt the vast majority of the nascent Internet radio industry.
Write your senators and congressmen and women--
Here's how--the Copyright office (
info here) and the
press. Please note:
Letters to the editor (which must be entirely original and not contain any pasted material) can also be sent to your local daily & weekly papers. In both cases we recommend that you send a copy of your message to all of your congressional representatives. See congress.org for email addresses. A copy via fax is also recommended, since faxes often carry more weight than email. Snail mail to Congress these days is very slow, due to the anthrax screening. Please write, this is important. And thank you, Su, for reminding me.
posted by y2karl at 2:31 AM PST - 2 comments
Medical Compassion
from our friends at Yahoo.
Is this a classic case of overstretching one's ability to adequately provide information and services? Shouldn't companies like AOL & Yahoo be old enough now to be able to focus on core competencies and stop trying to be masters of everything?
posted by Frasermoo at 2:18 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
May 1st Reboot
. On April 25, participating sites shut down and post a Reboot Holder, until May 1st, at which time they relaunch. Why?
Upon review of all of this year's participating sites, a good number of them are not using the required Reboot Holder. Most have simply continued with normal operations and even made updates as recently as this afternoon.
posted by Su at 1:50 AM PST - 15 comments
April 28
Kaycee On Law & Order?
I just finished watching the new episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and there were some striking similarities between it and the whole Kaycee shebang last year. Little sick girl, nobody has met her, corresponds only through email and telephone. And then, *stunner* she's a fake. I mean, sure, there was a big nasty murder in this version, but I think the Law & Order writing crew has been reading Metafilter.
Did you see the episode? Am I wrong? And does this mean that *gasp* web logs are having an effect on pop culture?
posted by benbrown at 8:51 PM PST - 23 comments
When I was a newspaper-slinger back as a youngster, I became acquainted with that odd funnypages subgenre-the
soap opera comic strip(i.e.
Winnie Winkle,
Rex Morgan, M.D. and the pinnacle of the genre
Gasoline Alley).
Moving at the brisk pace of 4 panels a day, these entertainments must have seemed quaint even in their early radio days infancy, yet they gained devoted followings and
Dr. Rex and
Skeezix and the Gang are actually still active. While the strips are published on the web, I'm surprised that there hasn't been a whole-hog revival of the genre. Heck,
Brenda Starr could be truly funky hip modern woman if the right person retooled her a bit and I imagine many web community administrators could relate to
Mary Worth at times.
posted by jonmc at 5:23 PM PST - 25 comments
Utah politics you don't know whether to laugh or cry.
From Paul Rolly's column in the Salt Lake Tribune
"The Republican state convention delegate was discussing with a prominent Utah GOP elected officeholder the issue of immigration when the delegate whined that a fence should be constructed to span the entire USA-Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants.
"What happens when they climb the fence?" asked the politician.
"You electrify it," said the delegate. "Then they won't touch it."
"But what if they touch it? You would let them die?"
"It would be their choice," said the delegate.
"What about a mother with a baby strapped to her back? You would let the mother and the baby die?"
"It would be the mother's choice to kill that baby," said the delegate.
"Then you're in favor of abortion?" asked the officeholder.
Dead silence. "
posted by onegoodmove at 4:49 PM PST - 24 comments
Israel refuses the UN factfinding mission
, as if anyone ever had any doubts about a government that has consistently refused any third party monitoring, fact finding, or international observers, in any aspect of the conflict with its Palestinian neighbors. In doing so, Ariel Sharon's government yells out once more its disdain for
international public opinion, and kicks yet another attempt at establishing an impartial view of the situation in the balls. If Israel acted in rightful self-defence in Jenin, then a UN fact finding mission could only confirm this state of affairs, now couldn't it? How long will we all stand by and watch this happen over and over again? Can we be critical of Israel without being labelled
anti-semitic? Does the Holocaust provide permanent immunity from compliance with international law to the state of Israel? If as a white Christian I feel anger and frustration, what should my muslim brothers in other parts of the world feel? Am I surprised that some of them resort to dispicable means to make their point?
posted by coyroy at 3:09 PM PST - 26 comments
"From my cold dead hands."
A vice-president of the National Rifle Association took credit for President Bush's election Saturday, saying that those who would restrict gun rights are engaged in "political terrorism." Hyperbole aside, is gun control a failure in the USA?
posted by tranquileye at 2:18 PM PST - 32 comments
Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project
sets out to explore the heritage of the cultures of the Silk Road through artistic performances, cultural festivals and educational programs. The Silk Road Ensemble, led by Ma, performs new and traditional musical compositions from the various cultures of the Silk Road and have recently released their first
CD. There is an
article about it all in today's NYT.
posted by homunculus at 10:46 AM PST - 3 comments
If only I can dream.
Okay, everyone listen up. I had this great idea last night -- first, I'm going to purchase a 144 ft. yacht. No, better yet, someone
else will purchase the yacht for me. Then, I'm going to sail from Australia to Greece, stopping in 65 countries. Also, I will producing eight highly anticipated television shows along the way. It's going to be
great! Okay, who's on board? Anyone? Hey, where's everyone going? Hello?
posted by aaronchristy at 5:03 AM PST - 26 comments
April 27
Am I Annoying or Not?
I realize that the whole 'Am I X or Not' is
so 1999, but this is actually pretty entertaining. The amount of research is
astounding if you consider the massive
index that they maintain. As a side note, Jack Osbourne is sitting at
100% annoying.
posted by catatonic at 11:46 PM PST - 19 comments
30,000 tons of turkey poop
to turn an old mine site in Indiana into wetlands. Memo to self, avoid driving anywhere near Lynnville Indiana anytime soon. This is so neat. I mean what else are you going to do with 30,000 tons of turkey poop?
posted by MAYORBOB at 6:43 PM PST - 11 comments
Bush weak and ineffectual
"President George W. Bush is facing the possibility that his presidency may be undone not by an enemy ---- foreign or domestic ---- but by an ally" Is this the "real" Bush, the one the democrats described during the campaign?
posted by onegoodmove at 12:48 PM PST - 31 comments
Was MIT or her parents to blame for a suicide?
Challenging NYTimes article on the suicide of Elizabeth Shin, an over-acheiving college student. With the increasing focus on student achievement from earlier and earlier ages, it's clear that children can be deeply affected. How do we, as a society, raise children to standards that we expect without pressure-cooking them to damage or worse?
posted by gen at 12:24 PM PST - 54 comments
U.S. Blueprint to Topple Hussein Envisions Big Invasion Next Year
"The planning now anticipates the possible extensive use of bases for American forces in Turkey and Kuwait, with Qatar as the replacement for the sophisticated air operations center in Saudi Arabia, and with Oman and Bahrain playing important roles.
As to any war plan itself, the military expects to be asked for a more traditional approach than the unconventional campaign in Afghanistan. Such an approach would resemble the Persian Gulf war in style if not in size and would be fought with even more modern weapons and more dynamic tactics." There is no doubt Saddam is
a bad guy but as his
poll numbers return to earthly levels how exactly can Bush justify sending off 70-250,000 American soldiers to fight (and die) in Iraq - while we will most likely still be engaged in Afghanistan (
looking for Osama) and ripping up Al Qaeda?
posted by owillis at 11:35 AM PST - 44 comments
During Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's visit to Crawford, Texas, this week, his representatives asked the FAA for his flights to be worked
only by male air traffic controllers, according to today's
Dallas Morning News.
posted by rcade at 11:21 AM PST - 13 comments
The Bob Haircut Worship Page
is dedicated to showing respect through picture, word, and deed to this greatest of all hairstyles, the "Bob"...
The whole point is to gaze in awe of the beautiful wearers of this fantastic hairstyle. It might even inspire you to change your own hairstyle. You won't be the first, but you'll be joining a very long line of beautiful and intruiging people from all walks of life...people with one wonderful thing in common, the Bob Haircut!
posted by jcterminal at 10:33 AM PST - 13 comments
Taking navel-gazing to a whole new level: Remember when a company called
Celera decoded the human genome a few years back? Well, now we know
whose DNA they used.
posted by mrbula at 7:40 AM PST - 5 comments
'Cambridge Students Beaten by Israeli Army'
Three of my fellow students spent their Easter vacation on the West Bank as unofficial international observers. In the course of accompanying Palestinian medics to a refugee camp, with medical supplies and food, they were allegedly stopped and beaten by Israeli troops.
While their actions are undoubtedly noble and brave ("we are doing the job the UN should be doing"), the Israeli embassy suggests that "whilst the intentions were geniune, (their) actions have been misguided."
I can't decide what to think. (more inside)
posted by chrismear at 7:03 AM PST - 25 comments
April 26
Terminal Error
was the schlock movie of the week tonight on the Pax network... featuring an intelligent virus spread by - wait for it - MP3 Files. How much do you suppose the RIAA pay for that gem?
posted by Maxor at 8:45 PM PST - 24 comments
The Process to become a Google Researcher
Speaking of google...
So, you want to play librarian and get paid? Here's How, you earn 75% of the price set for a question that you answer.
They have an
FAQ as well, and
Researcher Guidelines for those wishing to launch a researching career outside of a library.
Applying to be a Researcher is a two-step process:
Step 1: Write a paragraph about why you would like to become a Researcher.
Step 2: Answer 5 sample questions.
Sounds easier than getting an M.L.S.
posted by Blake at 1:13 PM PST - 22 comments
McDonald's meat from antibiotics-injected livestock is now the primary source of antibiotics for U.S. children, particularly for uninsured youths from low-income households.
"Unfortunately, some children still fall through the cracks in our health-care system, but luckily, McDonald's is there to lend a helping hand," Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said at a press conference announcing the findings. "So even if a child's family has no health insurance and can't afford medicine, virtually anyone can afford a delicious 99-cent Big Mac with pickles, cheese, and a heapin' helpin' of [the antibiotic] quinupristin-dalfopristin."
Wherein the bastards of the bactericidal, bloody, beef business bear badinage. Fillets
(boneless strips of meat specially cut for roasting), anyone?
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 12:44 PM PST - 44 comments
"What do you expect from a bunch of underprivileged, delinquent teenagers? Certainly not genius, but that's what was happening." Welcome to the
Z-Boy revival. A new
documentary about Dogtown opens this weekend that tells the story about how some
punks from Santa Monica turned skating hardcore and along the way transformed youth culture and spawned a $3 billion dollar industry. A 1999 Spin article
"The Lords of Dogtown" kicked off the current revival.
posted by euphorb at 12:42 PM PST - 4 comments
Squirrels Invade Stanford!!!!!
Ahhh Nuts.
Quote: The campus squirrels have apparently taken to bizarre suicidal death leaps into the path of oncoming student bikers.
"It's really hard to even ride your bike on campus," said Katie Founds. "They're always leaping in front of you."
"They got into one of the residences, and they started typing on the keyboard," Shen said. "They ran over the person's laptop keyboard. They actually somehow renamed the person's hard drive."
posted by lheiskell at 11:29 AM PST - 38 comments
Cancer and Carbohydrates (per FT)
may be closely linked according to recent international study - and not just any carbohydrates but those that are our favorites - deep fried potatoes, rice, and bread all may contain high levels of cancer causing acrylamides. What's your average carb eater to do?
posted by zia at 11:14 AM PST - 13 comments
Pipedown:
The campaign for freedom from piped music (aka elevator music or Muzak). A noble cause if ever there was one.
posted by dchase at 9:52 AM PST - 8 comments
Gerrymandering... uhhh... redistricting:
A fascinating piece from the Economist describing how both of the major US parties are becoming ever more efficient in redefining electoral boundaries to suit themselves at the expense of the electorate. Check out the maps.
posted by pascal at 9:19 AM PST - 8 comments
It's Mr. Nice!
Something to cheer up even the grumpiest MeFite on a Friday afternoon -- dance, Mr. Nice, dance! (Requires Flash and a soundcard helps, too...)
posted by metrocake at 8:47 AM PST - 17 comments
Remember When?
It's like sitting down with one of your grandparents and just letting them reminisce. Except in this form it moves a bit more quickly, and it's far more organized. (Mostly Minnesota/Twin Cities stories)
posted by fnirt at 7:15 AM PST - 2 comments
When I was a kid, we had
Action Rub-down Transfers™ that let you place Batman and his pals across a stock battlescape or different dinosaurs across a junglescape. I get the same kind of vicarious pleasure from
Flashcan Animator, an easy little web-tool that lets even a no-talent ass clown make quick little movies out of other peoples animations. Does anybody know of something similar? I have a whole Friday to waste.
posted by piskycritters at 4:34 AM PST - 7 comments
April 25
Amanda
won. I knew it would be her four episodes ago. I can't believe I missed Will and Grace for this crap.
posted by boardman at 7:05 PM PST - 14 comments
Verisign to lay off 10% of its workforce.
I don't have anything to substantiate my intuition (other than the supposed 'insider' info posted
here, which now seems to be highly prescient), but I have a gut-wrenching fear that Verisign is going to go POOF soon. If it does, what will happen to the 'net as we know it?
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:36 PM PST - 15 comments
Attack of the Hollywood Clones
Flametracker investigates how some actors are being cloned so that they can work on twice as many projects. See also Julia Roberts and Monica Potter, Keira Knightly and Natalie Portman, Robert Redford and Brad Pitt ...
posted by feelinglistless at 3:18 PM PST - 18 comments
Where Did Everything Come From?
Don't say, "the Big Bang." To say that everything came from the Big Bang is like saying babies come from maternity wards—true in a narrow sense, but it hardly goes back far enough. Where did the stuff that went "bang" come from? What was it? Why did it bang?
posted by mathis23 at 1:11 PM PST - 77 comments
Teach dance in prison!
"The Federal Bureau of Prisons...intends to issue solicitation RFQ 50507-012-2 for the provision to provide Dance Instructor Services with a variety of beginning and advanced dance classes to the inmate population."
posted by kirkaracha at 12:51 PM PST - 10 comments
Mail servers down, Yahoo denies all
All my buddies have bouncing Yahoo mail and no one knows what's going on. This, unfortunately for Yahoo, coincides with the launching of their pay for mail service. Does anyone have a scoop on this?
posted by djacobs at 12:11 PM PST - 49 comments
The Saudis are about to deliver an ultimatum to Bush
In a bleak assessment, he [Prince Abdullah] said there was talk within the Saudi royal family and in Arab capitals of using the "oil weapon" against the United States, and demanding that the United States leave strategic military bases in the region. Such measures, he said, would be a "strategic debacle for the United States." How should Bush respond?
posted by Rastafari at 12:02 PM PST - 58 comments
The War over Red Star Records...
Around since 1977, Red Star Records has released albums by Suicide and the Real Kids along with Richard Hell and the New York Dolls. Now, Heineken has formed its own Red Star Records and is trying to trademark the name, which, if successful would give the beer company more legal right to the name than the original label. Who's going to win this trademark battle?
[link via rockbites]
posted by drezdn at 11:32 AM PST - 8 comments
Explosion Rocks Manhattan Building
NEW YORK -- More than 100 firefighters were called to the scene of a possible collapse Thursday at a building housing a technical school in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.
Fire officials said it appeared some type of explosion collapsed some floors of the building.
They said 21 people were being treated at the scene for injuries.
West 19th Street is closed between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.
From The Scene real Player Video
posted by Blake at 9:12 AM PST - 46 comments
Palestinians Evicted From Homes in Dispute With Israeli Rightists
UN Security Council Resolution 446 "Determines that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel's policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East;"
posted by aLienated at 8:54 AM PST - 11 comments
No zero tolerance for ass hunting priests !!
"...the group of cardinals and top bishops stopped short of developing a zero-tolerance plan to punish abusive priests"
Attention all catholics ! Be sure to ask your priest if he has already used his one free, get out of jail for sexually assaulting an unsuspecting child card, before you send your kid to Sunday school.
It baffles me how they cannot have zero tolerance for this.
posted by a3matrix at 4:22 AM PST - 52 comments
ð = "moderately pinocle mollify backup ammonium freshen chromium famine."
Or 3.141592653589793238462643383279...whichever is easier for you to remember.
Mnemesis tries to make it easier for you to memorize numbers by having you memorize words instead.
posted by Su at 3:00 AM PST - 11 comments
Charlie Manson denied 10th parole bid.
Ok, not a surprise. But having just re-read Vincent Bugliosi & Curt Gentry's '
Helter Skelter' book again, and looked at Family member Sandra Goode's (now archived) '
Access Manson' site, I have to say the guy still scares the living crap out of me. He knows what he did - you can tell that from the old Tom Snyder interview (available on Audiogalaxy). The guy's 67 now, having 'committed' the murders 32 years ago. I think it's nearly time....I think you could do a damn good movie about the whole shebang;
who would you have playing Charlie? (I know there was a
TV movie, but they don't count!)
posted by boneybaloney at 12:04 AM PST - 46 comments
April 24
Newspapers fall short of diversity goal
: "The people who report for and edit the nation's newspapers look less like the people who make and read the news than a decade ago. If newspapers are a mirror that a community holds up to itself, the reflection is mostly white." Is it unfair to assume that a newspaper writer (or other media outlet) should share some sort of heritage in proportion to the population it covers to get the full feel of their stories? Or should it just be focused solely on merit without a cultural component?
posted by owillis at 11:47 PM PST - 9 comments
An
Algerian defendant tells a court of his transformation from an irreligious drug dealer on the streets of Germany to an Afghanistan-trained militant, and the
psychic journey of some young Muslim slackers in England to become fighters for Al-Qaeda (NYT).
posted by semmi at 4:27 PM PST - 14 comments
For the first time in forty years,
there is not a single UK act on the Billboard top 100 singles chart. A lot of people argue that it's because manfactured crap is interchangable, so there's no need to import it, but plenty of American artists still make it in the UK, so I'm inclined to believe there's something else at work here. Any ideas as to what that something might be?
posted by aaron at 2:19 PM PST - 71 comments
I eat crayons
is about a groovy guy's
adventures and
comics. His name is Bob.
(Some pages within the site require Flash. Uses frames, so inner links don't have any navigation on them)
posted by jaden at 2:14 PM PST - 8 comments
Dog-mauling convicts' adopted Aryan son might be the Night Stalker
says the SF Chronicle. This case continues to get weirder. The DA now wants DNA evidence from Paul "Cornfed" Schneider -- the Pelican Bay inmate and Aryan Brotherhood gang leader whose Presa Canario dogs mauled Diane Whipple to death and whose lawyers (convicted in that death) adopted him -- to see if he is the missing link in the decades old "Night Stalker" serial killer case in California. Yeesh.
posted by brookish at 1:56 PM PST - 8 comments
"
Dear Sir Charles: I have become extremely confused lately. I know that a man of prestige and standing should not bark and flounce around like a dog, but I can not seem to help myself."
Miss Manners has style,
Marilyn vos Savant has a ludicrous I.Q., and
Ann Landers has longevity. But do any of them have a ward who is eighty-fifth in line for the throne?
Sir Charles Grandiose does, and he deigns to advise the whole vast spectrum of his social inferiors.
posted by snarkout at 1:49 PM PST - 4 comments
"The Myth of Ownership."
Financial Columnist Stephen Moore's review of a new book which claims that it is a "compelling fantasy that we earn our income and the government takes some of it away from us."
posted by Ty Webb at 12:52 PM PST - 28 comments
Pong.
Starting today, you too can watch someone else play Pong, 24-7, all from the comfort of your own home. Call your cable operator today and ask for the G4 network, and
win big prizes. Or not.
The official G4 site is
here.
Flash required for official site
posted by WolfDaddy at 11:38 AM PST - 5 comments
Philip Morris vs. the Patriot Act?
According to this article in The Nation, back in October the tobacco industry convinced the White House and Tom DeLay to arrange the omission of a specific section of the Patriot Act on money laundering. It had been requested by the DOJ, but it would have made some tobacco companies vulnerable to lawsuits they were facing from several foreign governments (the full story behind those lawsuits is
here.) The smuggling charges are bad enough, but that the tobacco industry has a say in defining national security, if true, is infuriating. It also makes the enthusiasm with which the Patriot Act powers are being used to
monitor consumers a galling double standard.
posted by homunculus at 10:30 AM PST - 7 comments
The current issue of PC Magazine includes a very big puff piece on Internet mail praising the virtues of Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. Their review of e-mail clients is relatively uninteresting except for the
sidebar on Disposable E-mail Addresses (DEAs). This is basically the old pseudoanonymous remailer under a different name. Among the free services
sneakemail is the most basic but
spamgourmet has the coolest attitude and allows you to make new addresses on the fly.
Q. How does spamgourmet stop spam?
A. Simple. We delete all of our users' email.
For commercial services there is also
spamex and
mailshell.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:21 AM PST - 5 comments
The Segway revolution has begun.
"Three Atlanta, Georgia organizations are the first to buy a fleet of Segway transporters." "Fleet," what a visually scary word. Forget priests touching little boys in naughty places and the numerous wars going on in this world, the fact someone actually bought a Segway is
CNN’s new top story.
posted by Werd7 at 8:45 AM PST - 33 comments
The Latest Salvo From Gore Vidal, The Last Of The Great Wits:
He's a tremendous snob, infuriatingly opinionated and sets out to upset all and sundry, left, right and centre. But
Gore Vidal is still the meanest, fastest wit in the West.
Harry Kloman runs a magnificent
fan site, bursting with goodies and verbal violence which is an education in itself. Or, for a contrarian view, check out rival wit John Simon's
demolition job. But come on - can
anyone compete with the Master? Christopher Hitchens? Fran Lebowitz? James Woolcott? Clive James? I think not.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:53 AM PST - 29 comments
Free Words
came first, a project of 2000 books stealthily placed in museums, libraries, and bookstores. Next, Sal Randolph spearheaded the
Free Biennial during the Whitney Biennial. This week, she spent 15K and
Ebayed her way into the contemporary art mega-exhibition
Manifesta to present:
Free Manifesta. Sal Randolph is single-handedly bringing free art "to the people, man."
posted by RJ Reynolds at 7:47 AM PST - 3 comments
Former porn star Linda Lovelace dies...
Who could forget the classic pr0n movie of all time...
Deep Throat and that SONG! Can anyone find the intro song (and self-titled) to Deep Throat??
Unfortunately, the movie is also a classic example of women being forced into the pornography business which later led to Lovelace becoming an anti-pornography advocate.
posted by gloege at 6:55 AM PST - 11 comments
Robert Young Pelton,
At first the media complains because they're not getting enough information, they're not being allowed to cover the war. Then when they get to know everything, after the 120-day window, nobody cares anymore. Because once they start spelling it out and saying, "Wait a second, these guys are all from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Why aren't we fighting a war in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and Egypt? Why are they our allies?" And then those are the tough questions that never really get asked, because the public doesn't really care at that point.
Is disbelieving major news organization reports a neccessity to get the
real stories?
posted by bittennails at 5:59 AM PST - 14 comments
The Bard's sexuality comes into question, again, on his birthday.
'The portrait already has considerable intrinsic historical interest, and if you believe that the young man addressed in the sonnets was Henry Wriothesley there is the additional thrill that this could be the face that Shakespeare fell in love with, perhaps wishing its owner was a girl. The magnitude of the thrill depends on how much you think the identity of the young person matters to the poems. Many think it matters a lot.'
posted by skallas at 1:37 AM PST - 19 comments
April 23
Obligatory FadeToBlack Unintentionally Funny Site Post #3
Collect them all while there's still flesh on the bones of this decomposing Equine!
Really though, Amazon can be so precious--check out the customer reviews:
One day it just happened... I realized I was at a dead end. My job, my finances, my relationships - DEAD END. Surfing the net one evening, I was strangely drawn to this book on Amazon's site. Though the anal constriction theme was a bit odd, I thought, "Hey that goodbye depression thing is for me!" It suddenly came to me - what better way to pull myself out of a "dead end" than to liven my "end" up through this boot camp for the bootie? Whew! Almost as good as the ones for
The Ultimate Guide To Anal Sex For Women, for example. No, I'm
not linking that one!
posted by y2karl at 10:10 PM PST - 21 comments
Is this Israel's Rodney King video?
Warning: graphic depiction of an execution. Mahmoud Salah was subdued, stripped and then executed by Israeli soldiers who must have not realized they were being taped. Also reported
here.
This
article makes the assertion that the regular police opposed the killing and Special Forces committed this act.
posted by n9 at 5:45 PM PST - 99 comments
Artist Marc Garrett has used the pseudonym
Eye Opener for several years to produce the Censored Porn project. Images were lifted from the net, and all skin replaced with solid color or patterns, often from the images' own backgrounds. And, no, it's still not really worksafe, although it might take a little work for anyone to figure out just what you're looking at.
posted by Su at 5:18 PM PST - 5 comments
Best Case Ever.
As in computer case, just in case you couldn't case it out. dig? anyways. like someone else said, this thing says 'geek pimp' all over it.
don't be a hater!
posted by jcterminal at 4:52 PM PST - 24 comments
The Green Fields of Vietnam
There was an interesting program aired tonight on RTE (Irish TV), about Irish born soliders who fought in the Vietnam War. Although only one Irish born solider is officially listed as having been killed, there were 20 others, who gave their US address when they enlisted. It's believed that 2000 Irish born men served in that conflict (they had emigrated and a Greencard means you can be conscripted) but the vast majority of these remain unknown.
posted by tomcosgrave at 4:31 PM PST - 2 comments
Autistic's guide to asking a girl out
Autistics.org has written a helpful set of instructions for autistics wanting to ask a girl out for a movie. I'm not sure if this is terribly interesting, but apparently the folks at memepool did. Plus, it humbled me so much that I felt deathly ill as I read it - that's got to be worth something, am I right or am I right?
posted by Settle at 3:45 PM PST - 48 comments
"All democracies turn into dictatorships -- but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it's Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea... It isn't that the Empire conquered the Republic, it's that the Empire
is the Republic."
George Lucas talks about the politics of his new Star Wars films.
posted by tranquileye at 3:30 PM PST - 19 comments
April 22
Death of a Movement (?)
from National Review: Some relevant criticisms of the anti-corporate-globalists mixed in with the prerequisite charges of anti-Americanism.
posted by Ty Webb at 9:37 AM PST - 2 comments
How much freedom should we trade for our security?
That is the title of this years Economist/Shell essay competition. The winner will receive $20,000 as well as inclusion in The Economist: The World in 2003. The closing date is August 15. Anyone feel like entering? If I can learn to write English in time I may submit an essay that takes the form of a discussion between a 68 year old Japanese American ex-internee and a 7 year old Israeli girl.
posted by RobertLoch at 9:29 AM PST - 14 comments
Vincent's Glossblog is a 'weblog on language' by a Brussels-based freelance interpreter. Are any of your favourite blogs
on something?
posted by ceiriog at 9:03 AM PST - 4 comments
Pick your narrative.
A selection of articles on the MidEast crisis from Foreign Affairs, providing various views of the interests, goals, and political dynamics on all sides, as well as the history of the two parties' recent interactions and American involvement in the region. Some stuff to consider at least before mouthing off.
posted by semmi at 8:20 AM PST - 4 comments
What the in duck?
With Episode II coming soon, I'd decided to peruse all sorts of different places in search of as much information as I could and found this online, has anyone else seen it as well?
Anyway, it's good to see that folks that work for Lucas have a sense of humor.
posted by SentientAI at 7:33 AM PST - 9 comments
Google runs into Copyright Dispute...
Does the Church of Scientology have a leg to stand on in suiing Google for linking to church documents? Be sure to check out
Operation Clambake, the site in question who claims all documentation on their site is
", is allowable under the "fair use" provisions of internationally recognized copyright law". If it is truly a question of copyright, shouldn't the Scientologists be suing the
site in question and not Google????
When Google removed the link, it outraged the technology community - can Google win in this case??? Check out what
Don Marti has to say about the issue...
posted by gloege at 6:29 AM PST - 1 comments
Always on the lookout for alternative/screwy browser interfaces ie:
The WebStalker and
Netomat, I ran across
another few tonight, these by Mark Daggett(As always, back out to the main index for more goodies.) Any others? I've got several on various discs I can't even find at the moment.
posted by Su at 3:33 AM PST - 4 comments
April 21
Chemical matching of bullets fatally flawed.
"The assumption that bullets found at a crime scene can be matched to those in a suspect's possession has helped convict countless murderers, robbers and armed felons in the US, Britain and elsewhere...but there are now fears that the technique may have directly or indirectly led to numerous miscarriages of justice."
posted by obiwanwasabi at 11:06 PM PST - 1 comments
Merchants of Morality
Which global injustices gain your sympathy, attention, and money? Rarely the most deserving. For every Tibetan monk or Central American indigenous activist you see on the evening news, countless other worthy causes languish in obscurity. The groups that reach the global limelight often do so at dear cost—by distorting their principles and alienating their constituencies for the sake of appealing to self-interested donors in rich nations.
posted by Rastafari at 3:06 PM PST - 8 comments
Is "Green" Al Gore Back?
In a NY Times Op-ed he slams the Bush "energy policy": "Under the presidency of George W. Bush, the environmental and energy policies of our government are completely dominated by a group of current and former oil and chemical company executives who are trying to dismantle America's ability to force them to reduce the extremely dangerous levels of pollution in the earth's atmosphere."
posted by owillis at 2:26 PM PST - 21 comments
Treesitter Falls to Her Death in Mt. Hood National Forest.
95% of our old-growth forests are gone. A
coalition of grassroots organizations are dedicated to peacefully protecting our forests and watersheds, and have been quite sucessfull in Oregon and northern California. Sen. Ron Wyden D-Ore., an opponent of the timber sale, had announced a few days before that the U.S. Forest Service had reached an agreement to cancel the logging contract after an independent review determined the deal required significant modifications to prevent environmental harm, and tree sitters were days away from leaving the site after a three-year vigil. I appreciate the work and risks taken by these activists. More info at
tree-sit.org.
posted by Mack Twain at 1:59 PM PST - 38 comments
Girls of '64
To continue with what seems like the mood of today, a site celebrating the highs and lows of computer pornography during the 8-bit days of the Commodore 64. As you would imagine, this piece isn't work safe. Or at any other time of the day for that matter.
posted by feelinglistless at 12:41 PM PST - 5 comments
Sacre Bleu!
The French presidential election run-off will be between the conservative Chirac and the extreme-right Le Pen. What's a French liberal to do?
posted by liam at 12:27 PM PST - 40 comments
Two sworn enemies
that have been battling for a hundred years, each with their own agenda. Neither side has the moral high ground, and you would think that one side would know better than to use the tactics they do. Another mid-east post? Nope. Mail-carriers versus dogs.
posted by machaus at 9:27 AM PST - 10 comments
Apparently, over the past months, the IRA has been secretly rearming itself.
and many of the arms seem to be
coming from the U.S.. Post 9/11, peace seemed to be coming to Ireland, but now it appears that just like in the Middle East we're back to business as usual. I believe in a united Ireland, myself, but I don't want a return to the barbarism of the past 30-odd years. The U.S. has pledged neutrality in Ireland, but I honestly dont know if that's the best course. I was honestly hoping that the Emerald Isle would set an example for the other conflicted nations but it seems it's not to be.
posted by jonmc at 7:51 AM PST - 18 comments
Spoonerist Pornography
Not work safe. But what are you doing at work on sunday? Also not pornography. But why would you want pornography on a sunday?
posted by ook at 6:58 AM PST - 6 comments
America Can Persuade Israel to Make a Just Peace
An op-ed piece by former president Jimmy Carter that is going to get a lot of play in the media. Unfortunately, Mr. Carter seems to suggest a rather easy solution: give back the Palestinian lands and have the Palestinians recognize Israel's right to exist. Put the pressure on Israel by withhold financial aid till they do as we bid.
Problem: Palestinians being subsidized by Iraq, Iran, EU and Syria. What about pressure on them? And: Palelstinian issues still in need of resolving: capital and Right of Return....with this left out, we are still not going to get peace. Does Carter simplify or is he on target? reg reqd.
posted by Postroad at 6:24 AM PST - 33 comments
April 20
As another April 20th leaves us behind, try not to remember it for Hitler's birthday and all the screwed up events it's inspired. Instead, remember it as the day President Jimmy Carter was almost viciously mauled by a bloodthirsty
Swamp Rabbit.
posted by alan at 7:46 PM PST - 6 comments
The
iToilet. Oh, it's not like you weren't expecting it. I'm surprised it took this long, actually.
posted by Su at 2:09 PM PST - 15 comments
incriminati
oh no! my parents are coming over. help me to hide the incrimination stuff by dragging and dropping it into the right places.
thanks to
jim for the link.
posted by bwg at 9:29 AM PST - 10 comments
The Agitator
prepares for a big day today. "My first anarcho-enviromentalist-anticapitalist protest. I sprang awake at 6:30am." Per Google, this is only the
second thread in which an agitator has appeared.
posted by sheauga at 6:40 AM PST - 16 comments
Darts.
Highly addictive. The first to reach zero wins, but for the last point, the dart must land in a double points zone.
(Flash required)
posted by riffola at 5:58 AM PST - 14 comments
April 19
A five-year-old kid from Minnesota
has patented a way of swinging on a child's swing. More proof, if anyone needs it, that the government is veering from an institution of reason to an institution of control. At what point is a sufficient degree of absurdity reached that legitimacy is widely recognized to have been abandoned?
posted by rushmc at 5:05 PM PST - 21 comments
ACLU files a lawsuit on behalf of black gay prisoner Roderick Johnson against several Texas prisons who ignored his pleas for protection against gangs who "
bought and sold Mr. Johnson as a chattel, raped and degraded him on a virtual daily basis, and threatened him with death if he resisted." During one hearing, Johnson was allegedly forced by a prison gang member to appear before the committee in makeup. This invited the alleged derision of the classification committee members: "If you want to be a ho, you'll be treated like a ho." Another member allegedly said, "You ain't nothing but a dirty tramp. Learn to fight or accept the f--king."
posted by ao4047 at 11:12 AM PST - 72 comments
'Diver' finishes marathon.
Next time we complain about lugging our heavy shopping home, lets spare a thought for this guy. To raise money he donned an 1940s diving suit and battled on to complete the 26 mile London Marathon. I tip my hat to you sir.
posted by monkeyJuice at 10:47 AM PST - 11 comments
Enter ... The Tickler!
A page documenting all the villians that Spider-Man faced on that classic Tv Show
The Electric Company. Among them "The Mouse: A happy-go-lucky man until an errant associate at McDonald's forgets to put cheese on a specially-ordered Big Mac.He dons a mouse costume and becomes a glutton for cheese."
posted by Shadowkeeper at 10:36 AM PST - 13 comments
Here's a nice, nice internet radio station that may keep you from your work for the rest of the day. I just got through listening to Boards Of Canada, now its playing Destroyer! Wow.
listen
posted by protocool at 8:35 AM PST - 16 comments
A little plastic toy piano discovered at a flea market becomes the focus of
Twink, the whimsical all toy band. Listen to or download the slightly surreal, sugary and surprisingly complex mp3s to hear the piano and the accompanying toys; hurdy-gurdies, musical saws, busy boxes, speak 'n spells, squeaky toys and giggle sticks. The happy-go-lucky yet vaguely sinister "
Hoppity Jones" is a personal favorite.
Twink is the
brainchild of Mike Langlie, icon maker extraordinaire at Yipyop.
posted by iconomy at 6:41 AM PST - 16 comments
Steal Your Face
A Friday afternoon link
Ohhh too much fun!
You should check out the rest of the dynofoo site - some good stuff in there!
posted by snowgoon at 4:39 AM PST - 2 comments
Shove-it-Helsinki
was recently updated. Miika Saksi is credited for pioneering the Lo-Fi Grunge style. He has been working on the web since he was 15, way back in '95!
posted by riffola at 2:44 AM PST - 7 comments
you've got par!
in my part of the world (Belgium, six points...) it's friday which can only mean one thing... Friday wear and virtual mini golf... As always, hole 18 is the most difficult.
posted by Baud at 12:32 AM PST - 32 comments
April 18
Email harvester
poorly disguised as
cute girl who started emailing her friends about great deals (and other interesting tidbits) that she found on the 'Net after she was laid off from her dot-com job. I can't believe anybody would fall for this, but I might just be angry about some one using such a nice name for evil.
posted by jennyb at 8:19 PM PST - 24 comments
"i met ben affleck today. he's the title role in a movie we'll be shooting called gigli. i'm sure you'll hear about it sooner or later... but anyway, this affleck character - he's a pompous asshole. i have tremendous respect for him, don't get me wrong, but there's nothing wrong with this kid that a good ass kicking won't fix." Does this blog belong to the REAL
Christopher Walken? I tried reading it with Walken's accent in my head but I still can't tell...
posted by timyang at 7:50 PM PST - 11 comments
"horrific beyond belief"
says United Nations envoy. Strong stuff from the BBC this time. Personally I suspect Jenin may end up being a turning point, i just wish I knew towards what.
posted by Leonard at 5:33 PM PST - 81 comments
Japan To Host IWC Meeting in Whaling Port
. . .the sheer volume of food they [whales] need has actually become a threat to the ocean environment.
Apparently they feel that when the rest of the world gets to taste whale bacon, or whale soup, they will suddenly realize who stupid we've been in banning commercial whaling.
Am I hypocritical in eating tuna or salmon, but being horrified with the potential resumption of commercial whaling?
posted by Danf at 3:34 PM PST - 16 comments
Abercrombie & Fitch Pulls T-Shirts from store shelves!
A bunch of "Wong Brothers" and "Wok-n-Bowl" shirts offended some Asians, so they are now off the shelves. The Asians are holding a protest tonight in San Fransico if any mefi members would like to attend. Anyone get one of these before they were pulled? If you did I dare you to wear it to this protest. This
geocities site has pictures of all the shirts. I mirrored the site
here because of geocities bandwith limits.
posted by Keen at 3:13 PM PST - 58 comments
Google Answers (BETA)
goes live. Users can ask questions for a fee (pricing ranges from $4 to $50). They're also looking for paid researchers to help them with the service.
posted by kchristidis at 2:27 PM PST - 37 comments
Strike Blog!
When Société Radio-Canada/Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalist Jean-Hugues Roy was locked out by management with 1400 of his colleagues, he didn't just head for the picket line;
he started his own blog (in French) to present the workers' side of the conflict. Interestingly, this isn't the first time SRC/CBC journalists have taken their argument to the web; Radio Canada International (the international section of the SRC/CBC) workers have been fighting their management for years, and last year set up
a web site of their own to get the word out to interested listeners. They've also been locked out as part of the dispute, and have gone with their strengths and started an online strike radio station.
posted by geneablogy at 1:59 PM PST - 5 comments
Was Richard Rodgers The Greatest American Popular Composer So Far?
2002 is his Centennial. He may be less cool and more bourgeois than the other greats like Harold
Arlen, Irving
Berlin, George
Gershwin, Jerome
Kern, Frank
Loesser, Cole
Porter and Stephen
Sondheim. But even the most cursory look at the long list of the wonderful songs he wrote(try the excellent
song search feature), with
Hart, then
Hammerstein(and some other lyricists, including himself)makes it very difficult to deny there never was - and probably never will be - a more talented and versatile tunesmith. Miles Davis was right. He
was a genius. And yet...[
Flash required for the (interesting) intro]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:36 AM PST - 41 comments
"This website
comprises hundreds of documents (texts, scores, audio and video files) associated with music copyright infringement cases in the United States from 1845 forward. All of these documents have been collected, edited, digitized, organized, analyzed, and commented upon by staff at Columbia Law Library and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning." Under the discussion section, there a write-up entitled "Notation Software and Determination of Melodic Similarity". For all those music majors out there who are thinking about law school, this is definitely an alternative career waiting for you where you don't have to throw away all the music.
posted by margaretlam at 9:09 AM PST - 4 comments
The tendency toward
euphemism, catchwords, bites and labels displacing description of uniquicity. Battles of rhetorical titans!
posted by semmi at 8:56 AM PST - 5 comments
"The snack that smiles back... goldfish!"
I know... and it's not even Friday. But you know what? This ad campaign just makes me smile... and even though I mute all the other commercials, I turn up the volume for these absolutely ingenious jingles... la la la "until you bite their heads off"... la mmm mmm...
Now that the song is stuck in your head, what's your favorite jingle?
posted by silusGROK at 8:34 AM PST - 128 comments
Authors Guild seeks to stop Amazon from selling used books.
It's the analog version of RIAA vs. Napster!
"Amazon's practice does damage to the publishing industry, decreasing royalty payments to authors and profits to publishers. In time, as we pointed out to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos when it first began this practice over a year ago, the financial loss to the industry could affect the quality and diversity of literature made available through booksellers. If profits suffer, publishers will cut their investments in new works, and authors facing reduced advances and royalties will have to find other ways to earn income. "
Read
Jeff Bezos' email to Amazon Associate Members.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 7:01 AM PST - 30 comments
The 'Phantom Patriot'
wearing a skeleton mask, body armor and a costume emblazoned with the words "Phantom Patriot," infiltrated the 2,700-acre (1,090 hectare) Bohemian Grove, site of a secretive annual retreat featuring some of the most powerful men in the United States. He was arrested after a brief stand-off with police, and later told investigators he was prompted to act after hearing a Texas-based radio talk-show host discuss possible child sacrifice at the site.
posted by Stuart_R at 6:41 AM PST - 14 comments
Ally McBeal cancelled.
There was a time when we cared, I think. If you feel otherwise then go ahead and scream in the comments but personally, I'll never forgive the show (I used to love it) for subjecting me to Sting and Vonda Shepherd adult-contemporizing "Every Breath You Take"...
posted by logovisual at 6:36 AM PST - 24 comments
Soulwalking
, John Ponomarenko's
Soul Review--two sites with some
serious design issues on the topic of Soul music. As to the who, what. when and where of Soul Music, I direct you to
Peter Guralnick's simply wonderful
Sweet Soul Music. It's still in
print and should be at your library or a better used bookstore, if you are near a larger urban center. (more inside)
posted by y2karl at 6:10 AM PST - 4 comments
How many instances of 'Gee Whiz' can you fit on your hard drive?
With cameras mounted on eyeglass frames, he suggests, we can document every moment of our lives and create a second-by-second digital diary. "There won't be any reason ever to forget anything anymore," he says. Vannevar Bush had a similar idea 50 years ago, though in that era the promising storage medium was microfilm rather than magnetic disks.
Hate to parrot /. But this article was just way too fascinating to pass up not sharing it with any of you no-slashdot readers.
posted by crasspastor at 1:47 AM PST - 9 comments
April 17
A hell of a way to thank someone...
"Teachers would keep more money in their pocket each payday and send less of it to the IRS...Hard-earned money always goes further in a household than in a rat hole."
Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) wants to attract teachers and keep them...by decreasing or removing their income tax liability. As an aspiring teacher, I like the idea...but does it actually have legs, or does the legislation have the proverbial snowball's chance of survival? Has any politician ever tried to introduce a bill that would give a tax cut to a particular profession? How did it fare? Discuss amongst yourselves.
posted by Spinderella56 at 11:00 PM PST - 20 comments
Which Jerkcity Character are you?
The personality test to end all others. PLUS: although it only has a few entries so far,
rands' blog is looking really great. In case you didn't know,
Jerkcity is a daily comic strip enjoyed by all the cool people on the internet, similar to the weekly
Hotendotey or
Sanscomic, (a comic strip by Ecco the cat, who "does anal") but with more mechanical production, more Perl/TCL jokes, and more references to hlauaghaghgah. Please note that you cannot be 1337 if you like RedMeat.
This post is dedicated to Quonsar The Magnificent and all other truly 1337 mefiers willing to stand up for what is right. Remember: argument's are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.
posted by Settle at 8:02 PM PST - 13 comments
Suprise.
Another gaping hole in Internet Explorer. This one's pretty alarming. Mozilla, anyone?
posted by dr_emory at 6:47 PM PST - 48 comments
In one of the
worst cases of child abuse in Canadian history, Tony and Marcia Dooley stand trial for the second-degree murder of Tony's son Randall, who was 6 at the time that he was killed.
The autopsy found that he had 14 broken ribs, a lacerated liver and multiple head wounds. The coroner has said that the wounds inflicted are consistent with being
stomped on by an adult.
I don't understand how
people like this can be allowed to have children in their custody. The case both saddens and sickens me, and (without starting a huge debate on the merits on capital punishment - that's old hat) sometimes makes me wish we were a little harder on our criminals up here in Canada.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 2:36 PM PST - 38 comments
Nigerian Boy Raised by Chimps.
I swear I'm not making this up. A disabled two-year-old Fulani boy was abandoned by his nomadic family because he was mentally and physically disabled, and was raised by a chimpanzee family in Nigeria's Falgore forest for a year and a half. He was found by hunters several years ago, and now lives in a children's home, where he walks and vocalizes like a chimpanzee, unable to communicate with humans normally. So the obvious question: Is it better to have taken this child away from his chimp family to live in an orphanage, or should they have let him continue to live in the forest?
posted by waldo at 2:13 PM PST - 32 comments
New York's Natural History Museum Pioneers Use of Internet2
"Sebastien Lepine, a post-doctoral fellow at the museum, had figured that it would take him a year, using the commercial Internet, to finish downloading two 360-degree digital sky surveys for his study of fast-moving stars. But that was before the museum connected to Abilene."
This indication of how the "commmercial Internet" has become so clogged with crap annoys me intensely. Particularly when the article points out just a few of the research projects that need high bandwidth.
posted by elgoose at 11:32 AM PST - 13 comments
Oregon assisted suicide law upheld.
After declaring his intent to use the Federal Controlled Substances Act to go after doctors who prescribe lethal doses of medication to patients, the AG is faced with a court ruling that "does not prohibit practitioners from prescribing and dispensing controlled substances in compliance with a carefully worded state legislative act." The plot thickens.
posted by shagoth at 10:59 AM PST - 22 comments
Is the environment the next victim of post 9/11 America?
Disputes between the military and environmentalists are nothing new. But the Navy sonar controversy is approaching a climax in what both proponents and opponents say is a new atmosphere created by the Sept. 11 attacks.
The military has been for some time increasingly concerned about environmental "encroachments" of all kinds -- conservation-based restrictions on how training camps and bombing ranges can be used, and now on deploying new technology. Military leaders say the time has arrived to address these concerns, and Congress appears increasingly sympathetic to this viewpoint.
posted by skallas at 9:24 AM PST - 11 comments
Refugees denied human face.
'Taking photographs that could "humanise or personalise" asylum seekers was banned by former defence minister Peter Reith's office, the Senate inquiry into children-overboard claims was told yesterday.'
posted by kv at 7:35 AM PST - 27 comments
Bionic Man? "Australian scientists say they have created a "thinking cap" that will stimulate creative powers. It is based on the idea that we all have the sorts of extraordinary abilities usually associated with savants."
The device is said to improve drawing skills within
15 minutes.
posted by MintSauce at 6:20 AM PST - 24 comments
"Human speech
has two disctinctive yet complementary functions and modes. The Overt mode is spoken forwards and is primarily under conscious control. The Covert mode is spoken backward and is not under conscious control. In the dynamics of interpersonal communication, both modes of speech combined communicate the total psyche of the person, conscious as well as unconscious. " Can this show us new insights into the human mind, or is it merely tihsllub?
posted by cashmein at 5:41 AM PST - 23 comments
French culture in crisis ?
After the
Vivendi Universal french CEO
Jean-Marie Messier fired
Canal+ chairman Pierre Lescure yesterday,
many questions arise in
France. Will Vivendi, through Canal+, continue to help French cinema the way Canal+ did in the past ? Is this the last straw in a long series of acts and declarations from Vivendi's CEO against "Franco-French cultural exception" ? Has The Man finally won in France ? What's to happen in all the other countries were Vivendi (or any of the BigCo) basically
owns the culture through local companies ?
posted by XiBe at 2:31 AM PST - 10 comments
April 16
Shaping the Learning Curve Through a Code.
Please do not discuss any typical computer science assignment solutions here. You might get a Georgia Tech student an F for inadvertently learning from non-approved materials. I wonder if there are Georgia Tech admin moonlighting for the RIAA?
posted by srboisvert at 7:21 PM PST - 27 comments
The Covers Project
is compiling a list of covers, in hopes of creating "chains" ie: Band covered Song by Artist who covered OtherSong by OtherArtist, etc. Also see
prevous thread about Musical Sausage. Unfortunately, that link now redirects to the Grand Royal on-line store, for some reason.
posted by Su at 6:49 PM PST - 28 comments
Matt Besser of the
Upright Citizens Brigade has a home phone number one digit away from tech support for a major ISP. Rather than fight it or change the number he's decided have some
fun with his clueless callers. If you've spent as much time doing tech support work as I have this is some good cathartic fun.
This one is my favorite.
(A few dirty words, so probably
NOT work safe. Requires RealPlayer.
posted by jonmc at 5:04 PM PST - 31 comments
Lost on "Mulholland Drive."
At a film festival in Boulder, Roger Ebert dissects David Lynch's masterpiece frame-by-frame and comes to the conclusion that, well, he doesn't really come to a conclusion.
Or does he?
Meanwhile, the DVD was released last week and instead of a commentary track or funny bloopers, it came with a simple insert that provided "David Lynch's 10 Clues to Unlocking This Thriller." For the sake of space, I'll post them in the comments section and let's see if anyone out there can (or wants to) answer them.
posted by adrober at 5:02 PM PST - 58 comments
Power Company Buys Entire Village
American Electric Power is buying the Gallia County village of Cheshire, Ohio for $20 million after years of complaints from residents about pollution from AEP's massive Gen. James M. Gavin power plant, located along the Ohio River on the edge of the village.
Two months ago federal health experts reported that blue sulfuric clouds from the Gavin plant endangered the village last summer, particularly residents suffering from asthma. I'm not sure what to think about such an odd plan.
"I think the town just had enough of the company's experimentation," said Dale Heydlauff, AEP's senior vice president for environmental affairs.
Note: Registration required to read full story
.
posted by Blake at 3:46 PM PST - 3 comments
Ahhhhhh Synaesthesia....
Industrial Strength Colour-Note Organ - Pictures to Sound. Make yourself some sci-fi soundtracks. Worth the download, although I expect you'll be the judge of that....
posted by Spoon at 3:09 PM PST - 4 comments
Malcom Gladwell's got a new one in the New Yorker about a guy whose investment strategy positions him to profit from unlikely and scary random catastrophes like 9/11. Its' not on newyorker.com, but the story's
subject was kind enough to scan it and
post it.
posted by luser at 1:48 PM PST - 8 comments
The thorn in Ari Fleischer's side.
Russell Mokhiber, writer for Multinational Monitor, consistently asks questions at press briefings which cause Ari Fleischer to create new and strange forms of rhetorical yoga, when Fleischer doesn't avoid answering altogether.
posted by Ty Webb at 1:32 PM PST - 9 comments
IT's about to get a helluva lot better.
Dean Kamen applies for several patents for design and production of his version of the
Stirling engline, the holy grail of mechanical efficiency. Apparently DEKA has perfected technology enabling the engine to smoothly produce electricity and transfer it to anything, be it a power grid or a Segway, with less pollution than a gas stove. Kamen asserts that the engine can run on everything from cow dung to nuclear material. Could this be the cure for energy crises and dependance on big, foreign oil? (See also the
MSNBC story.)
posted by sixfoot6 at 1:24 PM PST - 33 comments
The Supremes defend free speech
in what is sure to be a contraversial decision about virtual child porn. I am all for this, but I am very impressed with the court's ability to make the decision in the face of easy moral platitudes like "Kiddie porn is bad, mmmKay?"
posted by McBain at 9:40 AM PST - 40 comments
Sharon gone too far. Now even the right thinks so.
My vote is that Ariel Sharon's offensive is the stupidest campaign in recent memory. Defined here as a campaign that has solved nothing, increased Israel's problems, intensified Palestinian hatred of Israel, estranged many Europeans and Americans, and fanned Islamic hostility. What is General Sharon up to?
Sharon's policy is scorched-earth. Under his command, the Israeli army has engaged not in isolating the infrastructure of the suicide terrorists. What he is engaged in is wanton damage.
posted by onegoodmove at 8:42 AM PST - 49 comments
How to Think About Security
from Bruce Schneier's Cryptogram. It's a brief discussion with a five point filter to use when evaluating security measures. Good food for thought and best of all, he echos many things I've already spouted off about airport security...
posted by shagoth at 7:15 AM PST - 2 comments
An Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition.
"For the founders of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition, there is a possible way out of the present murderous impasse in the region: a return to the agreement drawn up at Taba in January 2001. Two of those who drew it up, one Israeli and one Palestinian, propose an alternative way forward."
posted by talos at 5:59 AM PST - 1 comments
Is
it unique, or is
it just water?
This has caused an unseemly fuss over here.
posted by emf at 3:38 AM PST - 13 comments
Online journalism, Venezuela style:
"Venezuela's Electronic News," an independent source of news and opinion since 1996, has lots of details about the amazing events of last week. And this
online newspaper from the island of Trinidad/Tobago, only a few miles from the
Venezuelan coast, helped spread initial reports that contradicted the standard line.
Meanwhile, over at good ol' Narco News, journalist Al Giordano has posted a
must-read analysis of the online "counter-coup" against the spin from mainstream news outlets. Were the Venezuelan TV stations that fanned the coup's flames simply "upset with Chavez...over having to pay taxes like any other business for the first time in their history," as Giordano claims? Was this really "online journalism's finest hour," driven by "a decentralized slingshot army - you know who you are - that now has the microphone and will never give it up to the commercially-driven usurpers of democracy again?"
posted by mediareport at 2:42 AM PST - 1 comments
We only had you for the spare parts.
A Melbourne couple have been given permission to have a genetically-modified IVF child to provide stem cells to cure their terminally ill daughter. Bad enough to grow up and discover you were an accident, or adopted, but to learn that you were engineered to supply your sibling with body parts?
That kid's going to have low self-esteem.
posted by chrisgregory at 12:47 AM PST - 27 comments
April 15
Can you stump the Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences?
Every identifiable sequence known to man, including:
Name: Busy Beaver problem: maximal number of steps that an n-state Turing machine can make on an initially blank tape before eventually halting.
Comment: The sequence grows faster than any computable function of n, and so is non-computable.
Keywords: hard,huge,nice,nonn,bref
If your sequence does not appear there, you might want to try the
Super Seeker.
posted by vacapinta at 11:16 PM PST - 9 comments
I just finished e-filing my taxes and I want to tell you about it!
It has been, without qualification, the
worst Internet experience I've ever had. The Quicken/Intuit software was confusing, my ISP and/or the Quicken server timed out and I had to re-log on about 20 times and the software requires far more intrusive answers (like email address & phone number) than any paper forms I've ever used. Anyone have a good experience e-filing or one more like mine?
posted by Lynsey at 10:39 PM PST - 49 comments
An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century.
Because you never know when you'll need to make Marrow Without Marrow (Which No One Will Suspect), forget how to grease your Chicken Called Madhûna, or need to rustle up something for the in-laws (A Dish Praised in Springtime for Those with Fulness and Those with Burning Blood).
posted by obiwanwasabi at 9:53 PM PST - 16 comments
Hacked Palestinian Sites Play Long Flash Movie of Pro-Israel Images
Alnakba.com, a political site, is
here. It and alquds.com, a newspaper's site, are hosted by
Intertech, a PA ISP. I've also found at least one other Intertech site that has been defaced (
1,
2). The Flash file includes a list of names of Israeli citizens killed by Palestinians. At the end, the author has placed a link to his e-mail, "dannyzion@matavtv.net." In the source, the hacker identifies as "Hacked By shmaya / Israeli Operation Force. email- shmaya@shmaya.org.il."
The movie is displayed though a single frame whose source is
here. That site points to a
message board. A mirror of Alquds is
here.
posted by rschram at 8:33 PM PST - 4 comments
Isreal! Palestine! Humour!
Rumproast.com gives you the real solution to these war weary people! My favorite is the "Freaky Friday Peace Plan". I believe it addresses mideast violence the best. Dear mideast violence. How are you? I am fine.
posted by Settle at 7:46 PM PST - 7 comments
EuroAnts
Recognizing that free trade and globalization are inevitable, ants in Europe have formed a super-colony. Does their currency have pictures of generic anthills so no colony feels left out?
posted by srboisvert at 6:00 PM PST - 22 comments
Who's that in the red suit?
This is the American Cancer Society's campaign on colon cancer - you can even "download the Desktop Polyp" (Windows only, so I couldn't try it out). I realize this is a very serious subject, but....eeww.
posted by cakeman at 5:04 PM PST - 8 comments
Why it's a Good Thing (tm).
I can't resist. I just got my copy of the new "tell-all" on Martha Stewart, and it's a great book. Being a fan of hers, I keep hearing people call her a bitch for dominating her sphere of the business world, and making what appear to be some sound business decisions, even if she makes the mistake of neglecting some of the social niceties. Is that a double standard? Probably so. I say more power to her - my MSO stock goes up, and I always enjoy reading "behind-the-scenes" business books. Anyone else reading this?
posted by ebarker at 1:50 PM PST - 17 comments
Huge hydrogen stores found below Earth's crust.
"Scientists have discovered vast quantities of hydrogen gas, widely regarded as the most promising alternative to today's dwindling stocks of fossil fuels, lying beneath the Earth's crust. The discovery has stunned energy experts, who believe that it could provide virtually limitless supplies of clean fuel for cars, homes and industry." This discovery sounds too good to be true (for us energy-hungry humans that is, bad news for the bacteria.)
posted by homunculus at 11:27 AM PST - 29 comments
"In order to master cinnamon, one must be able to simply die for a moment." Pretty words, coming from a site called Stink Factor. A seemingly normal bunch of men who occasionally go temporarily insane, Stink Factor documents their attempts to beat Herculean challenges like...
eating 6 crackers in one minute. Think
you could do it?
posted by iconomy at 10:39 AM PST - 19 comments
Memento: File, File, File.
Tax Day. Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, Choke) reflects on
Memento and
the predominant art form of our time: Note Taking. He writes, "My filing system is my fetish."
posted by jacknose at 8:48 AM PST - 23 comments
Oh cripes. Not again.
Remember like a year or two ago when M&M/Mars switched the lime flavored Skittle with green apple? And it totally upset that harmonic flavor balance you get when you shove a handful of Skittles into your gaping maw? This time, it's much much worse. The lemon Skittle has been replaced with one of nine white Mystery Flavors! Guess all nine and get a "FREE CHEW THE CLUE
TM Screensaver."
Jesus Christ. Quit screwing with my candy, people.
Warning: site saturated with #FFFF00. May cause blindness.
posted by andnbsp at 8:45 AM PST - 43 comments
<Jaws theme> Legislating a sin tax on soda </Jaws theme>
California state Senate Bill 1520 would impose an excise tax on sweetened beverages sold to retail dealers after July 1, 2003. Sen. Deborah V. Ortiz, the bill’s author, anticipates that pop distributors would pass the cost along to consumers. Just let me keep buying Entenmann's crumb cake, ok?
posted by NortonDC at 8:21 AM PST - 34 comments
Anti-immigration candidate Pim Fortuyn forges ahead in the Netherlands
This guy is interesting - he's openly gay yet is the figurehead of the new right in the Netherlands. His party came out of nowhere in Rotterdam to take 17 seats and he has ambitions to be Prime Minister. His policy is to halt immigration into the most densely packed country in Europe, while retaining the nation's permissive and multicultural character. Could this be the model for future right-wing parties in Europe? Or is this just media-friendly fascism with a friendly face and a well-cut suit?
posted by hmgovt at 2:47 AM PST - 15 comments
April 14
Was the Venezuela coup another Chile 1973?
Two months ago, Narco News called attention to the striking similarities between the situation in Venezuela and CIA plots against leftist Chilean president Salvador Allende in the early 1970s. The
CIA's own version of what happened in Chile discusses its "sustained propaganda efforts, including financial
support for major news media, against Allende and other Marxists." Hmm. Chavez shut down five private TV stations after they repeatedly aired what he called misleading footage of the protest deaths last week, after months of relentless attacks against his government. Sure makes you wonder.
On another note, did
eyewitness accounts widely disseminated over the Web help doom the White House spin that "government supporters, on orders from the Chavez government, fired on unarmed, peaceful protestors"? If the Web didn't exist, would the final word have come from articles like this
now out-of-date, pro-business analysis in yesterday's Washington Post?
posted by mediareport at 12:52 PM PST - 47 comments
Right-Wing Bullies Caught in Crossfire
"No doubt all of the above qualities irritate the conservatives who follow party instructions to shun Crossfire. What has shocked them is that the new hosts don’t quite fit TV’s stereotypical 97-pound liberal, ready to be worked over like a talking speedbag. Mr. Carville is a tall, rangy Marine veteran, sports fanatic and jock; Mr. Begala is a born-and-bred Texan who grew up with guns and still likes to hunt. Both have expressed their powerful distaste for the Democratic tendency to wilt under attack."
posted by owillis at 10:15 AM PST - 46 comments
NetMaster 10baseT
[boom chicka wap wap widget widget widget]
I be jackin'. I be crimpin'.
I be tracin'. I be pingin'.
I be routin' yo packets like a Cisco...
I'm gonna grease yo cables with Crisco...
posted by quonsar at 9:53 AM PST - 14 comments
Catholic church plays hardball in the courts.
[NYTimes link, login metafi/metafi] "The dioceses have on the whole acted little differently from commercial institutions confronted by explosive litigation risks. They have tried aggressively to limit exposure to claims by setting up parishes as individual corporations, invoked the statute of limitations, subjected plaintiffs to days of grueling depositions and settled claims in secret." Should the church be behaving just like any private company? What would Jesus do?
posted by boltman at 8:35 AM PST - 16 comments
Why Europeans And Arabs Hate America And Israel:
In this brash, provocative essay for
The Weekly Standard, good old
David Brooks blames what he calls
bourgeoisophobia. He may have gone too far in his desire to make his point, but there's
something in what he says. Is it envy? Is it anti-semitism? Is it hypocrisy pure and simple? There's definitely a ressurgence of the pushy, garish, ostentatious and arrogant "ugly American" stereotype after September 11. Apart from the conservative
Daily Telegraph and
Spectator, it's becoming more and more difficult for Atlanticists such as myself to avoid ritual America-bashing in the European mainstream press. What in the
hell is going on? My feeling is that Americans themselves are going out of their way to reaffirm their way of life and reinforce those prejudices. It's as if you
vont to be alone. Or is it, as I suspect, just us? [
More inside]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:30 AM PST - 84 comments
Interesting
online magazines. Not as popular or commercial as say Salon but interesting reads from a less mainstream perspective. With so many options and so much variety, it’s difficult to stake your claim. What are some of your favorite online magazines?
posted by lostbyanecho at 8:09 AM PST - 19 comments
Rekha Malhotra
is a New Yorker of South Indian heritage who can be given credit for popularizing Bhangra and promoting the UK Punjabi dub and beat sounds in NYC. She says this about an event she hosts regularly: "Basement Bhangra is very urban. It's Bhangra with a hip-hop sensibility. It's raw and percussive, unadulterated. It's got a lot of meat to it and demands that you dance. It's not head-nodding music—it's body-moving music."
More.
More.
More.
posted by Mo Nickels at 7:52 AM PST - 10 comments
April 13
Sneaky! Grr . . .
A few months ago, while surfing for wreck diving info, I stumbled upon
this page as a main link entitled
Nightlife in the Philippines. Because it promotes outright trafficking of women, I made a ruckus and sent an email complaining about it to the site admin and our government's
Department of Tourism. (Prostitution, BTW, is illegal in the Philippines.) Shortly afterwards, the site admin removed the main link. So how come it's still on the site via
this page? I know Southeast Asia (the Philippines second only to Thailand, I think) has a rep for cheap beer
and women, but I HATE the fact that many foreigners (like the owners of
this shop,) feel that they can buy anything they want while on vacation in third world countries, and that it's alright to perpetuate the trafficking of Filipino women under the guise of
tourism. Bah.
posted by lillitot at 11:50 PM PST - 31 comments
revenge
is a dish best served cold. with total lack of html skills.
it's all about the message damnit, not the medium.
posted by jcterminal at 11:18 PM PST - 22 comments
festival international de louisiane
- festival international is an incredibly good free, outdoor music festival held in lafayette, louisiana at the end of april. the bands are from all over the globe and generally of some french influence but not always. i make the pilgrimage back home every year, as do many of the people i know.
what festival type thingys take place in your part of the world that you think are worth travelling to see? i'm just curious b/c i think this could quite possibly be one of the best overall events going on these days, but... i could be wrong.
posted by ggggarret at 10:24 PM PST - 4 comments
Vaisakhi Festival - Sikh New Year.
Well, given the MeFi tradition of announcing religious celebrations et al, I just thought I'd note that today is the Sikhs invite everyone to celebrate Vaisakhi (or Baisakhi) -- traditionally the start of the agricultural year, and for the past several centuries also the birthdate of the Khalsa form of Sikhism. An
interesting history provides some information on how the Sikhs were used and abused by the British, and their struggle (and resulting violence) for independence in the Punjab.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:44 PM PST - 3 comments
This orthopaedic surgery site
seems more like a design exercise than an actual attempt at an informative site. Imagine that someone told you to make the site using poor technology choices, couple it with non-professional content not conducive to trusting the doctors, and add a map to the office that does more to enable chuckles than get people to into the business. It's so bad, it's good, and most definitely do
not skip intro on this one.
posted by mathowie at 2:34 PM PST - 32 comments
Mike Skinner
is a youngish bloke from the English West Midlands. He makes records under the name " The Streets". Over the past month or so he has become ubiquitous in any kind of media you care to mention and everyone is hailing the coming of young laureate for the garage generation. The entire album is avilable for streaming if you follow the link.
Just one of dozens and dozens of astounding reviews can be found
here.
posted by Fat Buddha at 1:54 PM PST - 12 comments
What a cool idea!
A poetry publisher that not only puts out an online journal, but also distributes poems via
gumball machines. As of now there's only 7 Gumball Poetry machines worldwide, mostly in the Western US, but they're ready to
make more. Next time you've got a quarter jinglin' in your jeans skip the gum and get some free verse instead.
posted by jonmc at 1:27 PM PST - 6 comments
Post-orgasmic syndrome
Tired and sweaty after sex? A Dutch doctor said on Friday he is studying a rare new syndrome among middle-aged men who complain of flu-like symptoms for up to a week after having an orgasm.
posted by nonharmful at 1:16 PM PST - 13 comments
Investigating the Power of Prayer
"According to Targ, the prayed-for patients had fewer and less severe new illnesses, fewer doctor visits, fewer hospitalizations and were generally in better moods than those in the control group."
Mayo Clinic researchers have found no such connection. They reported last month that in their trials of distant prayer on 750 coronary patients, they found no significant effect. Why the difference?"
posted by onegoodmove at 11:45 AM PST - 20 comments
Stick figure warning guy.
Catch him giving an oscar worthy performance in
this brilliant "truck tailgate with boxes falling" sequence. Plus a bonus: read the stick figure's comments on each shoot! I always wanted to meet the megastar who protects corporate America from law suits.
posted by Why at 11:21 AM PST - 5 comments
"For the first time
since the University of California tossed out race-based admissions, the percentage of Latino, American Indian and black students admitted exceeds what it was during the last days of affirmative action.… 'On a personal level, I am glad to see it happen. It reinforces my view that black kids can perform as well as anyone else, and you don't need to give them any affirmative action,' [UC Regent Ward Connerly] said."
posted by darukaru at 9:53 AM PST - 16 comments
Simpsons Producer Apologizes to Rio.
James Brooks, executive producer of "The Simpsons," apologized to Rio de Janeiro this week for a recent episode of the long-running animated show in which the city was depicted with rats and monkeys teeming on its streets. "We apologize to the lovely city and people of Rio de Janeiro," Brooks said in a statement on Friday. "If that doesn't settle the issue, Homer Simpson offers to take on the President of Brazil on Fox Celebrity Boxing," he added.
posted by ncurley at 9:42 AM PST - 7 comments
No matter who is right or wrong in the Israel/Palestine matter,
this op-ed piece in the NY Times (login metafi/metafi) pulls at the hearstrings. When the war rhetoric is put to one side and you look at the human reasons why Israel is sticking to its guns, it may make a little more sense. Israelis do have strong reasons for keeping their backs to the wall.
posted by ashbury at 6:21 AM PST - 26 comments
Couldn't he have just bought a fancy car to impress the ladies?
A Minnesota Police Chief is now the owner of nine counts of criminal arson, all in the name of impressing the honeys.
At first,
nobody really knew how the fire happened. Apparently, he lit the buildings on fire with the intentions of going in and saving his ex-girl, who lives in one of the buildings. This chick must have been
somethin' else.
I'm betting the business owners and historical society in the community would be impassioned enough to want to go light up his house in a heartbeat.
I'd say he ought to be due for some good old fashioned time at the Gray Bar Hotel, if he gets any. I shudder to think what cellmates do to cops in prison!
Then there's
This dude!. Can't you go scuba-diving in Key West, like everyone else, man?
Where are our heroes, nowadays?
posted by beejaywhy2k at 1:06 AM PST - 6 comments
April 12
On flight simulators, Tetris, and the CIA
The Sunday Times Mag has a feature on Gilman Louie, popularizer of Tetris who was recruited by the CIA in 1998. " Louie's marching orders were to provide venture capital for data-mining technologies that would allow the C.I.A. to monitor and profile potential terrorists as closely and carefully as Amazon monitors and profiles potential customers."
posted by brookish at 5:43 PM PST - 13 comments
Palast: My only hope for the future of journalism is one word: the Internet.
This interview has everything! Condemnation of the president
(in regard to current events, not just his family, and Nazi money, eugenics, insanity, etc.) and more importantly, condemnation of the press. We all know that the media strikes down important information, and that the state run BBC reports what our informers pass over silently. This article explains this phenomena,
as well as the other member's of the Bin Laden family, why double pullitzer prize winners can't find work in the media, and of course, what we all know, that the internet promises an unmediated relationship between events and people.
What? You don't care? Don't care how credible this guy is? Don't care about the race targeting database used to steal the election? Heard it before? Yeah, me too. Well, don't fret, there was a great link with lots of swearing earlier today. And one with Jackie Chan. o<
posted by Settle at 5:39 PM PST - 15 comments
The Nonverbal Dictionary of Gestures, Signs, & Body Language Cues.
Items in this Dictionary have been researched by anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, linguists, psychiatrists, psychologists, semioticians, and others who have studied human communication from a scientific point of view. What exactly does it mean when someone touches their face, licks their lips, or dodges their eyes? You'll find the answers in this huge compendium. I spent a whole summer reading through this whole thing, and it's helped to give me a new lens with which to view human nature. The most complete collection of body language you'll ever come across.
posted by Mach3avelli at 5:29 PM PST - 10 comments
GeekPAC
Jeff Gerhardt and Doc Searls are forming a PAC to fight the anti-copy technology that Eisner and Valenti are trying to buy. My question is: why hasn't someone done this earlier? What other geek-oriented lobbying groups are there?
posted by RakDaddy at 3:44 PM PST - 9 comments
Good Riddance to Oprah's Book Club, and Her Literary Amateurism
Norah Vincent says Oprah's opinion in matters of literary taste is amateurish to say the least and she presumed where she should not have, and wouldn't want her sticker on his/hers book either.
Just for fun adds People who dislike Oprah's Book Club dislike it for the same reason that they dislike Barnes & Noble. The fact that the two do a brisk business isn't accidental, and the two represent the same pernicious homogenization of American life that makes existential despair all but unavoidable.
Pompous?
posted by Blake at 1:41 PM PST - 53 comments
The Hidden Costs of Career Success
Sylvia Ann Hewlett's
new book is a hot topic among the
business school crowd. Is it possible for high-achieving women to balance career and family?
"high-achieving women are unlikely to get married after the age of 35. They are also unlikely to have a child after 39. Yet 89 percent of younger women believe they will be able to get pregnant into their 40s; many pin their hopes on new reproductive technology."
posted by vacapinta at 1:13 PM PST - 28 comments
Does whatever a spider can... Producers of the Spider-Man movie are being
sued because billboards were digitally altered to promote different products. Since the whole movie is digitally altered in a sense, should we care where
reality ends these days? Is this the next level of
product placement?
posted by FreezBoy at 11:11 AM PST - 25 comments
When I get depressed about the trials and tribulations of planning my upcoming wedding, I visit
Etiquette Hell, and give thanks that I'm not any of these people!
or the web-designer, but it's still a funny site
posted by anastasiav at 11:09 AM PST - 24 comments
Poke Alex in the Eye!
Disclaimer: This site copyright ©2001 Colby Cheese Works. What does that mean to you, the viewer and eye-poking enthusiast? Basically it means that all images, words, sounds, ideas, eyeballs, fingers, donuts, virtual rabbit's feet, wires with lint on them, spinning heads, soda cans, HTML, PHP, Javascript, varicose veins, 14th century Italian sculptures, battleships, thermonuclear devices, dark matter, wormholes, kittens, interdimensional rifts, temporal anomalies, and/or lost galaxies are protected under federal law.
posted by acridrabbit at 10:07 AM PST - 10 comments
Hailstorm now more, kinda.
Microsoft has cancelled/heavily reconsidered the Hailstorm part of their .Net initiative, blaming the fact that businesses were never interested in seeing if consumers wanted to use it or not.
posted by bliss322 at 9:19 AM PST - 4 comments
ABBA refuses $1 billion to reunite.
Either they are staggeringly wealthy or the depth of their hatred for each other vastly exceeds my ability to comprehend. In all honesty, how can you say no to a billion dollars? What would
you do for that kind of money? What wouldn't you do?
posted by Sinner at 9:09 AM PST - 48 comments
I expect crackpot theories about Sept. 11 from the French and the Middle East. But when a
U.S. House Representative starts
peddling one, that's depressing. (Note the smug, carefully worded "I don't have any evidence but an investigation might find some" call for a fishing expedition.) I value healthy skepticism, but this sounds to me more like grandstanding for attention.
posted by pmurray63 at 8:36 AM PST - 30 comments
Soap Reviews
Lengthy, detailed, wierd reviews by David Lynch (not the director). Excerpt: All that was left was the test of Lux's cleaning power. I wrote "Pronto" on my hand with a Scripto Super Stic med. pt. pen, and proceeded to vigorously scrub my hands under warm water. It took me a whole 1 minute and 19 seconds to completely remove all traces of ink from my palm. This is substandard cleaning performance for a soap, and I was somewhat disappointed by this poor showing. That said, I was impressed by the thick yet bubbly lather that was formed while lathering.
posted by andrewzipp at 8:08 AM PST - 5 comments
This is your mission should you choose to accept it. You start at Victoria Peak with bicycles and ride all the way down to the Victoria Harbour without using the pedals, and see how far you can go. The rules are: No pedalling allowed. Keep your feet off the ground. Ride with safety. It's not a time trial. The winner is the one who rides the most distance. Sounds fairly straightforward, but here's the hitch... you'll be competing against Jackie Chan. A
two part mpeg video from a Japanese TV variety show called
Tetsuwan Dash.
posted by riffola at 12:06 AM PST - 13 comments
April 11
Venezuela's Chavez deposed
with the military claiming control for now. The end of a sometimes cringe-inducingly entertaining era. What next? Civilian constitutional rule restored by lunchtime, or not? Will the strike end, allowing oil exports to resume?
posted by dhartung at 10:51 PM PST - 11 comments
U.S. Representative James Traficant
(D-Ohio) has been found guilty on all 10 charges he faced, including kickbacks, fraud, bribery, and racketeering. The Congressman, known for his
hatred of the IRS(
God bless him) and his love of
pork barrel projects, has lit up the Congress with his
bombastic behavior since he was elected in 1984. Controversy has never been far from Traficant, he still claims that the trial is due to the
bizarre, humorous, and grotesque story of his mob-funded election to Sheriff of Youngstown. He claims that he will run as an
independent in the newly formed 17th District in the next congressional election. Will he be out of jail? Does he have a chance? What is
Congress going to do with him?
Fascinating background information courtesy of investigative journalist Dan Moldea's website
posted by insomnyuk at 9:39 PM PST - 11 comments
Getting the Girl. The NY Times Magazine ran a great article awhile back on the emotional and societal consequences of being able to choose the sex of your baby. In the US, the
ratio for the overall population is 0.96 males for every 1 female. But it has been
changing over time and there's some
controversy as to why this is.
posted by euphorb at 8:35 PM PST - 10 comments
Ain't It Cool: Hollywood's Redheaded Stepchild Speaks Out
is the title of
Harry Knowles' recently published book. Written with Paul Cullum and Mark Ebner, the book is a biting, dead-on critique of the film industry. "If smart audiences can't find the smart movies that are out there, then it's only because they have been systematically alientated from movies over a hard-fought twenty years. Films didn't get stupid all on their own; they were beaten and bloodied into submission in the mistaken belief that it would generate greater profits."
posted by Mo Nickels at 8:05 PM PST - 38 comments
Finally!
It may be 20 years too late, but I bet I can finally get my picture taken with the General Lee! Cooter's is spreading!
posted by allpaws at 5:36 PM PST - 6 comments
Subway Passengers: Underground Portraits From Ten Cities
António Jorge Gonçalves rides the subway and sketches whoever happens to sit in front of him, from New York to Lisbon to Tokyo. I find his drawings interesting because there's nothing studied or selective about them. You feel you've already seen these people.
Mathowie recently linked to another Portuguese artist's drawings -
Jorge Colombo, who designed
O Independente with me, the newspaper I founded and edited in 1987. It's a small consolation for a small country like mine that urban sketches by fellow citizens are, as of now, practically a staple here on MetaFilter...[
Flash required; download may be slow for dial-ups at busy times and, whatever you do, don't hit your browser's Back button - use only the one provided.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:23 PM PST - 9 comments
Gateway
asks, "Like this song? Download it for free from Gateway.com. Burn it on to a CD" Gateway is launching an ad campaign against the
CBDTPA bill. They are supporting users to download and burn legal mp3's. Maybe now it is time for the RIAA to wake up and see that they can't stop technology. Watch the ad with Gateway CEO Ted Waitt
here.
posted by futureproof at 3:17 PM PST - 12 comments
Google opens SOAP interface.
I'm not sure what's coolest about this. That Google can be used in all kinds of applications, or that it's free up to 1000 hits a day so the independent developers will get a good crack at it, or that's it the first step of Level 2 of the www arriving in a cascading recombinance of web services and scripting glue.
posted by mattw at 3:00 PM PST - 13 comments
Crimethinc
is a new publisher that’s getting a bit of mainstream
press mostly on the basis of a book called
Evasion, which is a nonfiction account of a latter day Huck Finn
cum Hayduke. (Any store that uses an Evan Dorkin comic to
illustrate a point gets my dollars.)
posted by raaka at 2:38 PM PST - 2 comments
Here's something you don't see every day..
The north Texas radio station
KVIL 103.7FM has a traffic copter which has flown nearly every weekday without fail for years. It's a regular sight in the sky for Dallas commuters. This morning, it
became traffic. Engine failure led to an emergency landing on a city street. Avoiding power lines and oncoming traffic, the pilot lost the tail rotor assembly but otherwise landed his copter intact. A near catastrophe was averted by a very capable, steely-eyed missile man of a pilot. The three reporters in the copter with the pilot suffered only minor injuries. A very lucky day. It coulda been a lot worse.
posted by ZachsMind at 2:28 PM PST - 12 comments
Eww, what's that smell?
It's kind of sad, really, a poor little creature, velella, also known as
"by-the-wind sailor" that spends its life cruising the wavetops, is unceremoniously stranded all along the west coast beaches, due to a shift in the spring winds. It happens in my town, Dillon Beach, every couple of years but they're really thick this year.
posted by Lynsey at 2:12 PM PST - 18 comments
Truth in advertising
is such a rare thing. I particularly like the reply to the VP of Engineering from Polk Audio. You can only wonder if it was a real email or somebody just trying to yank his chain.
posted by johnmunsch at 1:47 PM PST - 9 comments
A 401(k) is not a Pension!
In a pension plan, your employer invests some money and gives you some of it when you retire. In a 401(k), they, um, don't.
Congress seems a little confused on this issue, however. It turns out that the 401k might be more boondoggle than boon to average people planning to retire before they die.
posted by ilsa at 1:19 PM PST - 21 comments
TheraDate
"We stack the deck in your favor—like no one ever has—to help you find the right life partner....TheraDateSM requires its members to currently be in psychotherapy for at least two months or discharged from therapy for no longer than two years."
A new service whereby shrinks play matchmaker for their clients. Blurs the therapist/patient relationship a bit, it would seem. With so many more people in NYC seeing shrinks since 9/11, business should be booming. There's also an article about it in the current issue of
the New York Observer. When the going gets weird...
posted by martk at 11:07 AM PST - 15 comments
Some
say the Taj Mahal pre-dates Shahjahan by several centuries and was originally built as a Hindu or Vedic temple complex. Fascinating theory or a crackpot...more inside >
posted by bittennails at 10:47 AM PST - 10 comments
Quark Star
Observations of two stars, one unusually small and the other unusually cold, have led astronomers to think they are seeing evidence of a new form of matter and a new kind of star, one possibly made of elementary particles known as quarks and denser than any cosmic object other than a black hole. (NYT link: yada yada) Here's a related
link on neutron stars and quark matter. I rather like the phrase
strange quark matter... Anybody else hear about this?
posted by y2karl at 9:03 AM PST - 8 comments
Move over, Jared...
there's going to be a hot new way to lose weight. Scientists have "found the chemical pathways that muscle cells use to build strength and endurance," making it possible to have a fitness pill.
posted by Kevin Sanders at 6:29 AM PST - 9 comments
FDA stops nicotine lollipop, lip balm sales
As a follow up to
This Thread, kiss your pops good bye...
CNN Says The Food and Drug Administration warned three pharmacies Wednesday to stop selling nicotine lollipops and nicotine lip balm on the Internet, calling the products "illegal." They said said the lollipops and lip balm are "unapproved drugs" that need, but do not have, FDA approval. And the pops are "candy-like products present a risk of accidental use by children."
posted by Blake at 4:39 AM PST - 6 comments
Electric Pompeii.
A distant church bell tolls, Tumbleweed blows, a lone wolf howls. Snapshots of websites preserved exactly as they were at the moment when the final redundancy notices were handed out...
posted by Spoon at 2:56 AM PST - 6 comments
The Adrenaline Vault
gives itself a facelift. This computer and videogaming site has always been there for me,
unlike others I could name, and they did it without subscriptions or most other types of gaming site hoo-hah. I raise a toast to a bunch of people that love games as much as hard work.
That's how you survive a ".com collapse" (those
CPL sponsors probably don't hurt 'em). Congratulations.
posted by WolfDaddy at 12:16 AM PST - 7 comments
So the rich get richer? Or just another bleeding heart.
EU and US selling poor down the river
Oxfam report accuses west of double standards on trade
The European Union and the United States are robbing the world's poor of billions of dollars each year in export earnings by preaching free trade while protecting their own markets, development campaigners claim today.
posted by onegoodmove at 12:09 AM PST - 16 comments
April 10
The Swastika & the Crescent
The peculiar bond between white nationalist groups and certain Muslim extremists derives in part from a shared set of enemies Jews, the United States, race-mixing, ethnic diversity. It is also very much a function of the shared belief that they must shield their own peoples from the corrupting influence of foreign cultures and the homogenizing juggernaut of globalization. Both sets of groups also have a penchant for far-flung conspiracy theories that caricature Jewish power.
This is not a direct link. This link takes you to a page titled "Intelligence Project." Once there, Click on "Intelligence Report." Scroll down a bit and click on "The Swastika & the Crescent."
posted by Rastafari at 8:29 PM PST - 21 comments
Queen of the hardwood
A local Seattle sports radio station's grand prize is a trip for two to any sporting event in the world. In the spirit of the NCAA basketball tournament, your task is to take the field of sixty-four women and pick the winners until you wind up with the Queen of the Hardwood. Crass, perhaps, but not much more so than anything else. You still have time to enter.
posted by YohonTheLarge at 7:10 PM PST - 5 comments
Local car dealership commercials that don't suck?
Okay, so, yes, every major metro region has its own crop of idiosyncratic and usually-low-budget car dealership commercials -- god bless Kramer the Magical Donkey -- but Portland, OR has this wonderful sort of Cinderella story guy named Scott Thomason. (more inside)
posted by cortex at 6:46 PM PST - 14 comments
In
China, the sparrow's deadliest enemy is farmers' haphazard and extravagant use of pesticides. They're disappearing from the countryside. Sometimes they "reappear on sticks, skewered and roasted or fried." Yum-yum.
posted by phartizan at 5:53 PM PST - 1 comments
I guess it trumps dying a horrible death (but not by much)
... "A young calf has his belly shaved. Many slashes are made in the skin. A prior batch of smallpox vaccine is dropped into the slashes and allowed to fester over a period of days. During this period of time, the calf stands in a head stall so that he can’t lick his belly. The calf is led out of the stock to a table where he is strapped down. His belly scabs and pus are scraped off and ground into a powder. The powder is the next batch of smallpox vaccine."
(Excerpt from Vaccines : A Second Opinion, and link swiped wholesale from Randomwalks.)
posted by crunchland at 5:13 PM PST - 34 comments
Please, Dad, Tell Me: How Do I Stop Being Complicit?
I actually came across this in
another thread (props to
cell divide), but I think it's worth it's own discussion. As a 30-year-old American Jew, this essay completely echoes the exasperation I feel whenever I have a "discussion" (read:argument) with someone of my parents' generation about the Middle East Conflict. It's true that my generation, in America, has never seen widescale Jewish hatred in our lifetime, but has that made us blind or allowed us to gain a better perspective on Israel?
posted by mkultra at 11:06 AM PST - 56 comments
Famous Self-Injurers.
"Johnny [Depp] has a series of seven or eight scars on his left forearm where he has cut himself with a knife on different occasions to commemorate various moments or rights of passage in his life ... 'It was really just whatever [times when he hurt himself]--good times, bad times, it didn't matter. There was no ceremony. It wasn't like "Okay, this just happened, I have to go hack a piece of my flesh off"' ... 'My body is a journal in a way.'" On this website are accounts self-afflicted injuries from Fiona Apple, Richey Edwards, Christina Ricci and more.
posted by moz at 10:43 AM PST - 18 comments
Anthrax and the Agency
"Now that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has officially put the anthrax investigation on a back burner, it is time for Americans to think the unthinkable: that the FBI has never been keen to identify the perpetrator because that perpetrator may, in fact, be the U.S. Government itself. Evidence is mounting that the source of the anthrax was a top secret U.S. Army laboratory in Maryland and that the perpetrators involve high-level officials in the U.S. military and intelligence infrastructure."
Granted, there's more than a few blips on the radar screen these days, but...whatever happened to this investigation? I'm no conspiracy theorist, but the case laid out in this piece gives me pause. Any other good theories out there?
posted by martk at 10:18 AM PST - 21 comments
Lucas: Powerful reteller of myth - or galactic gasbag?
Salon has a scathing review of Lucas' claim that the basis of the Star Wars saga is in "man's oldest stories" and that he was guided by Joseph Campbell.
"With 'Star Wars' I consciously set about to re-create myths and the classic mythological motifs," Lucas says. "I wanted to use those motifs to deal with issues that exist today."
Hogwash, says author Steven Hart. Star Wars is based not on "The Odyssey" or the "Upanishads", but on Asimov, Heinlen, Herbert and other 20th century S.F.
posted by rshah21 at 10:06 AM PST - 32 comments
Overwhelming
nausea.
Reality is simply disregarded. The evolution of human mind is merely an elaboration of masks, and lies about primal hatred, cruelty, and violence.
posted by semmi at 9:14 AM PST - 37 comments
The Standardized Should I Stalk William Shatner Test
1. When I think of William Shatner, I:
a. Think of Captain Kirk
b. Think of the original "Star Trek"
c. Push my tummy out as far as I can and say, "But, Ssssss… pock!
d. Hold all the muscles in my face totally still so no one can tell what I’m thinking. This is private to me, do you understand? I won’t have you blabbing to him and ruining my chances of becoming his best friend.
(Via About.com)
posted by Perigee at 7:41 AM PST - 24 comments
today is the day of silence,
which was originally a project to raise awareness about hate crimes towards gays, but has been modified by many organizations (including my college) as a blanket protest against hate crimes. is "deliberate silence" an effective way to "end the silence"? if you've ever participated in the day of silence, was it harder than you expected to keep quiet all day?
posted by rabi at 7:20 AM PST - 17 comments
Strategic Competitor.
"the truth browser." interesting because it's in flash and actually has content. gives links to news articles located elsewhere along with small excerpts. interface is kinda unweildy, but he tries to pack a lot into a relatively small space.
posted by juv3nal at 3:45 AM PST - 6 comments
A Few Words About Jack Vance.
Gersen entered a hall with a floor of immaculate white glass tiles. On one hand was the display wall, characteristic of middle-class European homes; here hung a panel intricately inlaid with wood, bone and shell: Lenka workmanship from Nowhere, one of the Concourse planets; a set of perfume points from Pamfile; a rectangle of polished and perforated obsidian; and one of the so-called "supplication slabs"* from Lupus 23II.
* The nonhuman natives of Peninsula 4A, Lupus 23II, devote the greater part of their lives to the working of these slabs, which apparently have a religious significance. Twice each year, at the solstices, two hundred and twenty-four microscopically exact slabs are placed aboard a ceremonial barge, which is then allowed to drift out upon the ocean. The Lupus Salvage Company maintains a ship just over the horizon from peninsula 4A. As soon as the raft has drifted out of sight of land, it is recovered, the slabs are removed, exported and sold as objets d'art.
(Not for season ticket holders to The Short Attention Span Theater
-More within)
posted by y2karl at 1:42 AM PST - 39 comments
April 9
Bush and Pro-Lifers call for complete ban on any clone or stem cell research.
The movement for a ban got a significant boost Tuesday when Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he would support the cloning ban legislation, which the Senate is expected to debate in the weeks ahead. Though not a surprise, the announcement from Frist, a heart-transplant surgeon, is important because his views on medical topics are respected by many in Congress.
"Many are overpromising on the science" benefits that are possible from cloning, Frist told reporters. He also said creating a human embryo "for reason of experimentation leads to destruction of that embryo and to me that is morally unacceptable."
posted by skallas at 11:38 PM PST - 26 comments
Did Arafat actually finance suicide bombers?
Media gadfly Ali Abunimah has posted a dissection of the document produced by Sharon: "On initial inspection, at least five of the names...were not suicide bombers, but rather people assassinated by Israeli death squads."
The alleged smoking gun hasn't been independently corroborated, but commentators like Chris Matthews uncritically accept its validity and
state the connection as fact: "[Arafat] pays for the dynamite and the bullets and relief benefits for their families."
Does the mainstream media check its skepticism at the door when it comes to statements by Israeli government officials or what?
posted by mediareport at 11:01 PM PST - 15 comments
Win a Trip to Bellegarde, Saskatchewan!
No joke. And thousands of people will enter this contest. They're ingenious, these prairie farmers.
PRIZE INCLUDES:
Round-trip airfare for two to Regina from a major Canadian airport.
Three nights' hotel accommodation in Regina.
Limousine ride to Bellegarde.
An official tour of the hamlet by the president of the Bellegarde Rural Development Council.
$250 spending money.
All you have to do? Predict when a rusted out old car will crash through the ice and cause a local, and very minor, environmental catastrophe.
posted by Salmonberry at 8:42 PM PST - 21 comments
Two men arrested for handing out anti-Mormon literature.
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' and Salt Lake City's restrictions on behavior they deem "offensive" on the plaza are now the subject of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver." ... "The deed made it clear it [the plaza] was not a First Amendment forum..." Does the ACLU have a good case?
posted by aaronshaf at 8:32 PM PST - 45 comments
Jay Mohr sells Pete Rose's chewed gum on eBay.
There's no satire like self-satire, is there? ESPN talk-show host Jay Mohr had Pete Rose chew a piece on air, took it from him ("I have to touch it so I can tell the story," he said (more or less)), put it in a beaker that Rose then signed, and is now selling it on eBay to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It's currently at -- no kidding -- US $1,050.00.
posted by mattpfeff at 3:46 PM PST - 11 comments
Drug War Roundup II. An Indian in South Dakota tried to grow hemp on the rez for the last two years. The DEA comes around harvest time with the
weed whackers. He’s going to try again. A Colorado Supreme Court
ruling issued Monday gives booksellers the toughest First Amendment rights in the country. The case started when
Tattered Cover fliers were found at a meth lab. Also on Monday, the San Francisco appeals court heard a government lawyer argue that "
there’s no way of knowing" if someone can get high eating foods containg hemp oil, like potato chips and soda. NORML is using a Mike Bloomberg quote about smoking marijuana, "
You bet I did. And I enjoyed it," in a campaign to legalize the weed, man.
posted by raaka at 3:10 PM PST - 24 comments
Industrial Light and Magic
has released a new plugin to After Effects that may finally bridge the gap between DV post production and film post production. Of course,
DV Cameras are just the less expensive counterpart of their film brethren. With such technology at the hands of amateurs, does this mean the home camcorder will no longer be used for just remembering birthday parties? Will amateurs be able to finally express themselves in ways
only professionals have done in the past? This is certainly being set up as much a
revolution for the amateur artist as the web was.
posted by geoff. at 2:28 PM PST - 31 comments
US Space Command!
Bruce Sterling talks about the militarization of space, citing "The more people learn how dependent we are on space, the more likely they are to figure out, as the Chinese and Russians have, that being able to interfere with our satellites is essential to their strategic interest. The threat to space assets is real and growing." Does the rest of the world suffer from a
minesatellite gap with the US? Plus, some
scenario planning :) and a
sensible missile defense program?
posted by kliuless at 1:57 PM PST - 7 comments
Have you read Dave Gorman?
In the spirit of Gorman's original quest (to meet 54 namesakes), two of his fans are searching for 676 people who have read the book, '
Are You Dave Gorman?', this number arrived at by a suitably complex equation which includes Scrabble letters and a grid. The site itself is wonderful stuff and you wonder what Dave himself thinks of it. Sadly my initials have gone, but I'm sure some of you out there could help ...
[via Miles Mendoza's Website of the Day]
posted by feelinglistless at 1:54 PM PST - 2 comments
Attack Of The 50ft. Website!
How do you kill a monster that never sleeps?! The monster created by atoms gone wild! All New! Thrills! Shock! Suspense! For your own good, we urge you not to see it alone! See the ghastly ghouls in flaming color! The greatest collection of classic science fiction and horror poster art on the net! Now showing in a browser near you.
This website has not been rated.
posted by riffola at 12:08 PM PST - 12 comments
Domestic Terrorism?
One makes you wonder that, while our country is so adamant at fighting terrorism, they are turning a blind eye to what's going on in our own country.
Here's another site with a lot more articles about parents who are hoodwinked into giving these people carte blanche over their kids and then have to fight to get them back.
posted by bkdelong at 12:01 PM PST - 11 comments
Rio Blames It On The Simpsons.
'
The Simpsons...visited Brazil last week (and) made some offbeat observations. (They) found that Rio de Janeiro is a city where all men are bisexual, where fearsome monkeys roam the streets, and tourists are kidnapped by taxi drivers and mugged by children. Unfortunately, the Rio tourist board did not see the funny side and is preparing to sue the producers, Fox, for damage to its international image and loss of revenue. The issue threatens to become a diplomatic incident.'.
How something so obviously ripping the shit out of stereotyping can be so misinterpreted is beyond me, but now '
The Brazilian president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, has entered the fray claiming that the cartoon "brought a distorted vision of Brazilian reality."'
Surely the shows makers were trying to do a service to Rio by rubbishing the stereotypes? Apologies, I ain't seen the show, but if you did, what did you think?
posted by boneybaloney at 10:50 AM PST - 38 comments
Thank God for Police hypocrisy
for keeping me so amused. Seriously though, this is one of the best articles I've read in a long time. It's a five part series regarding the controversy of redlight cameras, and the evidence that those that administer them are in it for the $$$. For one, they seem to be placed on high-traffic / short yellow light intersections instead of the high-accident intersections. Oh, and it's made D.C. alone over $15 million in two years. Read it to find out how the researchers stretched numbers to get " tiny 3 percent increase in rear-enders" from a 767% increase.
posted by LuxFX at 10:21 AM PST - 35 comments
Why Suicide Bombing Is Now All The Rage
Among Palestinians, it has become normal--noble, even--for promising men and women to slaughter themselves in pursuit of revenge and the dignity it is thought to bring. "What was once more of an individual decision by a small group is becoming much more mainstream," says Jerrold Post, an American psychiatrist who has studied suicide bombings in the West Bank. The suicide-homicides have come to be seen by most Palestinians as their last, best hope.
posted by Rastafari at 10:14 AM PST - 47 comments
I'm curious,
isn't this exactly opposite of what we're being told? I'm always hearing the wealthy are benefitting somehow from GWB's new tax plan. I'm certainly no-where near the top 5%, and now I don't want to be.
posted by the_0ne at 10:01 AM PST - 54 comments
Shred Session
is an addictive online game based on the real-life sport of footbag freestyle. Think of it as extreme Hacky Sack. Try to hit as many huge trick combinations as you can without dropping the footbag. Try to pull off the Nemisis, the Paradox Torque or the elusive Bedwetter.
posted by neuroshred at 9:49 AM PST - 1 comments
Weird Paul Petroskey
has been writing songs for 15 years, and has a lo-fi catalog rivaling Lou Barlow (over 400 songs). While everyone else is
arguing who the savior of rock is (Andrew W.K.? Please....), I argue that Weird Paul is the savior of music itself. Pop culture classics such as "Piece of Meat in the Tang" and "Please Don't Break My Atari" are available for download
here. Listen and enjoy.
posted by emptybowl at 9:00 AM PST - 7 comments
The World
is a giant cruise liner on which ultra-rich loonballs can buy (smallish) apartments, compare fortunes with their ilk, and never again have to mingle with the plebs. Judging by the assorted wacky residents (a
knitwear magnate???) interviewed on Britain's Channel 4 news last night it promises to be a fascinating social experiment. How long before they are ripping out each others throats in psychotic orgies, like some crazy JG Ballard novel? I sense an excellent docusoap opportunity...
posted by rikabel at 8:34 AM PST - 33 comments
April 8
Nambla unearthed...
Watch out gay community - you'll soon be under attack (once again) and for all the wrong reasons. An association that was initially intended to be an outreach program to young gay men - and was instantly iconoclized (?) into the realm of socially deviant folklore is the foucs of the current Catholic Priest Witchunt. I'm not sure what angers me more... the fact that priests violated the sanctity of their religion (i.e. trust in a relationship) or the fact that EVERYONE KNOWS THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR YEARS!! Come on, you KNOW you've been joking about priests and boys since before high school.
posted by matty at 11:45 PM PST - 46 comments
South High School Sucks
but not for the normal reasons that most students give. Apparently four students were suspended for
a poll on their website, "the multiple-choice topic of whether a certain assistant principal at the school most closely resembles a witch, Big Bird, or a dead body." David tells CityPages.com that school officials told him the poll is a "death threat."
So they've taken the ball and done something positive with it. They've been mentioned in the
WSJ opinion pages, and they're starting a
coalition that's attempting to help kids practice free speech in their schools.
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:37 PM PST - 14 comments
Margaret Wise Brown.
Margaret Wise Brown, the author of Goodnight Moon and dozens of other children's classics, all but invented the picture book as we know it today. Combining poetic instinct with a profound empathy for small children, she knew of a child's need for security, love, and a sense of being at home in the world—and she brought that unique tenderness to the page. Yet these were comforts that eluded her. Brown's youthful presence and professional success—as an editor, best-selling author, and self-styled impresario—masked an insecurity that left her restless and vulnerable.
My favorite children's book author.
The Runaway Bunny is my favorite title of hers that I've read--I've run her name in Search before but never saw this site before:I had no idea she'd written so many titles. Nor how important she was to the genre. A
biography. An
autobiographical essay.
Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon by Leonard S. Marcus looks interesting, too.
And here's a
fan page. And, just for the heck of it--
a 1957 Little Golden Books display.
posted by y2karl at 10:15 PM PST - 12 comments
French politicians polish cultural credentials.
France's presidential hopefuls have begun pledging to defend the country's cherished culture, hoping to drum up support from artists worried that American films and music will steamroll finer French productions.
This rhetoric makes it sound like American films are picking up guns to massacre poor defenseless French culture. Maybe American films are so successful because they give people something that the "finer French productions" don't, and if so, then is that such a horrible thing? After all, we are just giving the people what they want, right? And if that takes money away from more artsy productions, then whose fault is that anyway?
posted by epimorph at 9:50 PM PST - 15 comments
Real World Studios
If you were a recording musician, how could you
not want to record here at least once? A gorgeous environment that's inspiring on mulitple levels. Peter Gabriel deserves more credit than he gets. He's a forward thinking, decent guy who never stops trying. Now - release "Up" dammit.
posted by davebush at 8:44 PM PST - 8 comments
Under 5,000 Xboxes sold in Japan last week.
This is compared to 100k Playstation2s and 25k Gamecubes. Since its launch, the Xbox has sold 190k units in Japan versus the Playstation's 980k units sold in the first 3 days.
Is the Xbox doomed in the notoriously tough Japan gaming market, or does the Xbox just need a price cut to stay competitive?
posted by jragon at 4:00 PM PST - 51 comments
"It's the ring. It's getting heavier".
This site is offering a 20Mb Quicktime download of the trailer for LOTR: The Two Towers. Very obviously a bootleg filmed in a theatre -- it's got an annoying flicker and the sound is a bit mussy -- but pretty decent quality otherwise.
posted by maudlin at 3:36 PM PST - 21 comments
The Pulitzer Prizes 2002.
The New York Times gets 7; Richard Russo's "Empire Falls" gets Best Fiction; and Best On-Screen Kiss goes to Britney Spears and the guy from "Crossroads" because it made jurists William Safire and Henry Louis Gates Jr. "all teary-eyed."
posted by adrober at 2:51 PM PST - 10 comments
Why aren't ghostwritten works considered frauds? Pop historians are on the rack for using unattributed passages, Milli Vanilla were shamed off the charts for lip-synching, Joe Klein was pilloried for playing coy about a book he
did write. Yet Reagan's autobiography, Clinton's "It Takes a Village", and recent works by V. C. Andrews and Lawrence Sanders weren't written by the names on the jackets. Kind of odd, no?
posted by nikzhowz at 2:15 PM PST - 18 comments
Beer makes me smart...Beer, me make art.
After trying to make little "Golden Child" men out of Bud Lite cans Saturday, I checked the web for other beer inspired artforms. The results are range from the folky-
Beer Label art to cozy
beer bottle homes and dangerous
beer can guns. Even cash can be made...for hilarious
rent woes... to Big $$$ as with David Hockney's
Pearl Blossom Highway currently at the Getty Museum. Anyone else inspired by beer?
posted by hellinskira at 2:07 PM PST - 4 comments
Is
this the script to
Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones? It seems to be the same film
Harry Knowles claims to have watched. (If you prefer, there's a .txt file version
here.)
posted by Reggie452 at 2:05 PM PST - 14 comments
U.S. Foreign Policy: Attention! Right Face! Forward, March.
"...with no foreign policy experience, Dubya was essentially a blank slate, and U.S. foreign policy has been up for grabs since he took the oath of office. As everyone now knows, the main contestants consisted of two factions: one headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who represents continuity of policy with both Bush's father and Clinton; the other, led by Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, whose vision is far more sweeping, not to say Manichean. Since September 11, the latter faction has emerged as dominant and is using the 'war against terrorism' to impose its own, quite radical ideas on U.S. foreign policy and the global order. At their core, those ideas call for a world order based on U.S. supremacy and enforced by U.S. military power--a unipolar world in which the U.S. imposes the rules but, because of its own self-evident goodness, is not necessarily bound by them."
Ah, not quite
lebensraum (yet), but "benevolent"
Bushists bearing
bratwurst abound.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 1:15 PM PST - 80 comments
Major muckraking - Greg Palast on C-Span. God I love C-Span, sitting here in the UK with a broadband connection, going thru the archive. You'd
never see an anti-corporate author given a polite 50 minutes to explain his book in Britain. I'm only wondering when the Homeland Security hawks will get round to rapping the knuckles of Mr. Lamb's outstanding operation.
posted by theplayethic at 12:37 PM PST - 6 comments
What's the oldest MP3 on the web? Not the first MP3 created by the
Fraunhofer Institute, but the oldest recorded sound that's been turned into an MP3? Audio restorer
Art Shifrin has a
1931 detective show; PBS offers some early recordings, including a
1919 track by Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band; but the reigning champeen seems to be
Tinfoil.com, a website dedicated to early recordings, which features a largely unintelligible recording ripped from an
1878 "talking clock" recording.
posted by snarkout at 11:30 AM PST - 15 comments
Mindvox:
The original cooler-than-thou online community. What is it now? What was it then? Anyone else here still searching to discover the person ahead of you in the grocery store line is
3jane or
Simonmoon?
posted by milkman at 9:27 AM PST - 18 comments
McDonald's 'collector' conquers North America
Peter Holden may well be the true burger king, having dined at 11,000 of the more than 13,500 McDonald's franchises in North America.
Surely this has to be damaging to your health? I mean, can the human body really sustain two Maccas "meals" a day?
posted by helloboys at 5:37 AM PST - 18 comments
Internet Killed The Porn Magnate?
"...but the explosion of pornography on the Internet in ever more customized ways may accomplish what the Meese commission on pornography, the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Andrea Dworkin, the antipornography activist, failed to do: the shuttering of Penthouse.
"I'm delighted that Mr. Guccione may be going out of business," Ms. Dworkin said. "The problem is that he is being replaced, quite possibly, by something that is much worse.""
posted by owillis at 2:20 AM PST - 20 comments
Going,
going,
gone.
Despite royalty costs that are lower than for commercial stations, numerous college and community radio stations have either shut down their Internet streams or on the verge of doing so. It's not just royalties killing these webcasts -- there are also regulations that require college stations to report every song they play and restrictions that would force college stations to police how often they play any given artist.
Stations are trying to unite and fight these restrictions, but is it too little, too late? Nearly twenty webcasts have already gone under...
posted by insomnia_lj at 1:13 AM PST - 10 comments
exso
- Epinions for ex-significant others? This public service (?) gives you a forum to tell your ex and the world how you rate him/her -- wonder if this can be used for good and not evil. They also offer interesting
e-cards to send to your ex. The site seems pretty new, but would you use it?
posted by lnicole at 12:36 AM PST - 9 comments
April 7
who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
spongebob sqarepants! absorbent and yellow and porous is he! spongebob squarepants! if nautical nonsense be something you wish! spongebob squarepants! then drop on the deck and flop like a fish!
posted by kd at 9:48 PM PST - 34 comments
Nobody came to my Winter Solstice party
I'm not accusing anyone, just asking why and what gives.
via the most amazing thing I have ever found on the internet, without exception, the spectacular, hilarious, awe-inspiring, truly monumental, brilliant and moving Leisuretown
posted by Settle at 9:23 PM PST - 21 comments
Inside an American Atheists convention.
"Ellen Johnson herself touted a recent City University of New York survey showing that the proportion of Americans who do not adhere to any religion grew from eight percent to 14.1 percent during the past decade. (However, Johnson did not share another finding with the delegates — that just 0.4 percent of Americans consider themselves atheists.)"
Could Atheist activist rhetoric and harsh attitudes towards the religious be responsible for this discrepancy? It looks like agnostics and non-religious people may not want to join what they see as an agreeable but fringe group.
posted by skallas at 8:32 PM PST - 70 comments
I'm here to tell you about the ultimate sporting clash of the titans-
Air Hockey! That's right, the ultimate rec-room sport of the '70's is alive and well. There's
leagues galore including one in
Austin, Texas(home of numerous MeFite's.), and cool
Flash animations of some slick moves. Ever since I bought my first table at age 10 at a yard sale, this has been my game. Nice to know it's still out there. There's even places to buy nifty
tables if you're in the market. Me and the missus used to love playing at the local arcade on
this beauty with the nifty flourescent puck. Now drop the puck and play!
posted by jonmc at 8:19 PM PST - 3 comments
eDesign
is a new magazine/web site dedicated to "interactive design and commerce." Nice design; bummer about the frames.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:17 PM PST - 13 comments
The Red Hot Jazz Archive
-
Louis Armstrong,
Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon,
Ma Rainey,
Don Redman,
Trixie Smith and all the other household names are here. Essays, biographies, discographies, filmographies and
sounds--It's your one stop shopping source for the
Potato Head Blues in its entirety--truly one of the high points in Western Civilization--for example, among many, many other classics. I ran this sucker through here and Google and it doesn't show up--so pardon the double-post if it is so. I mean,
it ought to be. It's just one of my favorite sites. A little hard on the eyes but a delight just the same.
posted by y2karl at 3:18 PM PST - 9 comments
A few laughs at the expense of a "pretty great state"
Legislators' Ignorance Is Embarrassing
Few would argue that "a proper understanding of American history and government is essential to good citizenship," as stated in a bill written this year by the Utah Legislature and signed into law March 18 by Gov. Mike Leavitt.
But in its zeal to put God back in government, the Legislature revealed an embarrassing ignorance of America's history and its Constitution.
posted by onegoodmove at 2:53 PM PST - 23 comments
Uncle Sam Sez: Sheesh! Get Some Exercise!!
A new National Center for Health Statistics survey shows that only seven out of 10 Americans get enough exercise every week. About four in 10 get practically no exercise whatsoever. How much do you exercise, and if so, are you one the three in 10 who do so enough? Is the report full of it? Should I go swimming now, or in an hour? Ride the bike there or take the car? Isn't driving a car to a nearby gym kinda stupid? But I digress. (Pauses, gets his bearings.) Isn't this pathetic?
posted by raysmj at 12:27 PM PST - 71 comments
The only moral and practical answer
that there has ever been to this question: partition, territorial compromise, a two-state solution, the establishment of a Palestinian state in most of the occupied territories with security arrangements in the Jordan Valley and identity arrangements in Jerusalem. An analysis that I can live with from The New Repuclic.
posted by semmi at 12:16 PM PST - 8 comments
Are Your Posts Perchance Too Mealy-Mouthed And Polite?
Do you have difficulty getting your points across?
No problema! Have
The Burn Maker translate your drippy hippy sentences into flame-throwing heat-seeking missiles that will
get you the attention you crave and deserve![
I wouldn't be surprised if this has been posted before - but I certainly couldn't find it...]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:11 AM PST - 82 comments
bowling noir!
exactly what it sounds like. i found this while googling for a succinct definition of film noir, and this was too funny to resist. dig the altered picture of rita hayworth and the music clip, man.
posted by pxe2000 at 10:29 AM PST - 5 comments
Chimera 0.2.0 for Mac OS X
is now available for download. If you prefer using
Mozilla to IE5.x/Mac but dislike the lack of an Aqua GUI, then this is the browser for you. Chimera now supports Quartz rendering and is based on the Gecko engine which means it has great standards compliance. There are still many features missing, but this browser is showing great potential.
posted by crayfish at 4:37 AM PST - 21 comments
April 6
The behavioral elements
character classification system from the Axios corporation at
ourcharacter.com offers a Periodic Table of the Elements for everything ranging from Ambition to Vanity. Friends acting dumb? Send them a link to
stupidity. Feeling all alone in the world? Blog to
loneliness. Wanting to express your feelings about Donald Rumsfeld's attitude? Check out
Narrow-Mindedness,
Ruthlessness or even
Fanaticism. Each element is accompanied by quote by famous figures relating to it, as well as a description and related / contrasting elements. If this is a double post, please show me
Forgiveness.
posted by Hammerikaner at 2:43 PM PST - 8 comments
According to Amazon,
Photoshop 7 is shipping on April 20. The list price is $149 (same as direct from Adobe), and they've got a
$20 mail-in rebate on Photoshop (and a bunch of other programs) until April 25. Plus, you can get free shipping if you select Super Saver Shipping. Can't wait...I just need this and Flash MX and I'll be all OS X, all the time.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:36 PM PST - 34 comments
Rights Group Accuses Israel Of Torturing Palestinians
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem charged today that Israel has tortured Palestinians who have been detained for interrogation during the current military offensive. The group said in a statement that the interrogation methods included breaking the toes of prisoners. The detainees have also been prohibited from meeting with lawyers, the group said...Israel has long used torture against Palestinian prisoners, but an Israeli Supreme Court ruling in September 1999 specifically outlawed most methods being used.
From torture to assassinations (that result in killing of innocent civilians); from attacking Red Cross vehicles and buildings to preventing wounded and ill from receiving medical attention; from firing in the direction of journalists to house-to-house searches that have resulted in looting - it is clear that Israel is not interested in peace at all, but rather is taking this opportunity to institute a complete clampdown on all Palestinians, to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, and to break the will of what is, at its core, a liberation movement. And to Powell's call for a withdraw "without delay," Israel gives the finger and ratchets up its onslaught. Utterly disgusting. And what's more, the repercussions from this brutal military action will be felt for months to come.
posted by mapalm at 11:51 AM PST - 73 comments
2 Hollywood Titans Brawl Over A Gang Epic
-- (NYTimes link, I apologize but am unsure of the etiquette on that issue). Martin Scorcese's project
Gangs Of New York (about pre-Civil War NYC immigrant gangs) is quickly turning into something akin to
Titanic, and not just 'cuz it's got Leo in it. The budget's out of control (maybe someone cheaper than U2 should do the score), the release date's on a backwards spiral (yes, it was supposed to come out last Christmas), some of the content rankles after 9/11, and now Harvey Weinstein wants a new ending. The cherry on top? Its current release date has it pitted against Tom Hanks and Sam "American Beauty" Mendes'
The Road To Perdition, another gangster piece. For a relatively complete diary of the film's woes, try
the film's page at the always-useful
Corona. Think Miramax has its most spectacular dud on the way, or do you trust Scorcese to pull it off?
posted by logovisual at 11:39 AM PST - 17 comments
RIP Kenny McCormack
So, is our favorite foul-mouthed, parka-wearin' cartoon character
really dead? Or do, as usual, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have something up their collective sleeves? Me, I'm thinking that Kenny will return to torment little Butters (who's a fine replacement, really), similar to the character arc
this lady once had on another show that became a pop culture icon. (via
Fark)
posted by WolfDaddy at 11:39 AM PST - 19 comments
Who started the crusades?
Catholic historian Thomas Madden argues that the crusades "were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope or rapacious knights but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two-thirds of the old Christian world." Given all the talk about the crusades in the wake of 9-11, an accurate understanding of the history seems important. But is this accurate or just Catholic revisionism?
posted by boltman at 11:19 AM PST - 21 comments
Tips down at Starbucks
For a while it seemed like tipping was proliferating out of control, including a tip jar in my local Subway, but now it's on the decline in Starbucks due to their new debit card. To get more money out of the customers, employees are holding strategy sessions to come up with "psychology tricks" and managers are reporting back to the mothership.
posted by NortonDC at 10:20 AM PST - 76 comments
Overture sues Google over ad "technology,"
saying Overture invented and has patented pay-for-placement on search engines, and Google's AdWords infringes on that. That strikes me as totally nuts -- how are Google ads paid search engine placement in anything but the very broadest terms? Are MeFi's
TextAds next?
PyRads?
posted by brookish at 9:40 AM PST - 7 comments
Behold Oddpost!
Like they say, it really is "indubitably the most astounding web-based email application on earth." I was skeptical, but their drag-and-drop interface is so clean and functional that comparing it to Microsoft Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail is like comparing a Frank Lloyd Wright house to a birdcage made of Tinkertoys. All DHTML, so it requires IE 5+ on Windows. Netscape, Opera, Mac, and Linux users are out of luck. (Welcome to
the effects of market share.)
posted by monkey-mind at 4:46 AM PST - 45 comments
He needed it to cut an onion.
Under normal circumstances I would have shook my head and said, "Oh, those silly americans". This story, however, is about my 12-year old brother who's facing a 1 year expulsion after bringing a (small) kitchen knife to school for a science assignment. Zero tolerance - or zero interest in what's best for the kid?
posted by mschmidt at 12:55 AM PST - 80 comments
April 5
One Sweet Campaign To Fight Global Warming
officially launched this month with a press conference a few days ago. Every day, human beings put 16 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmostphere. The campaign is a joint effort between
DMB and
Ben & Jerry's which uses the new, previously discussed
ice cream flavor as its vehicle, and asks you to pledge to lose 2000 pounds of CO2 this year through reasonable modifications to your daily routine. Help make the world a healthier place. [warning: flash/music]
posted by tomorama at 8:28 PM PST - 18 comments
Battle for the Holyland
: A very interesting Frontline episode that outlines the tactics used by both the Israelis and the Palestinians in fighting their war. (Most PBS affiliates will rebroadcast the special soon.) Does anyone who saw the special have a reaction?
posted by yevge at 3:55 PM PST - 8 comments
In case you still thought there was still anything even slightly rational, even-handed and non-ideological about the Nobel Peace Prize:
Members of the NPP committee that gave Shimon Peres the Prize in 1994 are now attacking him for not singlehandedly putting a stop to Israeli reoccupation of Palestinian territory, even though here's only a member of the cabinet, not the leader of the country. (Alternatively, they say, he should have quit.) Which would be okay, since what's going on now isn't very peaceful ... except that they've said not a peep about about the actions of one of the other two men that shared the prize that year, one Yassir Arafat. (The third, Yitzhak Rabin, apparently gets off the hook since he's already dead.)
posted by aaron at 2:52 PM PST - 12 comments
The Flag of the Internet (net.flag)
and other interesting web-only interactive works of art via the
guggenheim museum. i thought this was a really interesting flash project that contains quite a few flags of the world, then dissects them and explains the meaning behind every element, then allows you to add that element and others to create your own customized flag. (click on the "net.flag" link, then go to "change net.flag" to customize)
posted by sixtwenty3dc at 12:22 PM PST - 4 comments
Our great grandkids are toast!
A one kilometre-wide chunk of space rock could strike the Earth in 2880, say astronomers... "This is not something to worry about," said Jon Giorgini, a senior engineer at the American space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory... "That's plenty of time to consider the options - 35 generations, in fact."
posted by y0mbo at 12:10 PM PST - 12 comments
The new oddtodd cartoon
I don't think that anyone has posted this yet. Oddtodd has released his newest cartoon. Man, I love that guy. He is da tits. (For those of you unfamiliar with that saying that means he is good/great/cool... you know, da tits.)
posted by aj100 at 11:50 AM PST - 18 comments
Men
as an endangered species. A woman taking part in a controversial human cloning programme is eight weeks pregnant. Are we heading to an all-female society?
posted by semmi at 11:11 AM PST - 28 comments
Robert Jr. Lockwood
is alive , well and still playing and recording.
He learned guitar from Robert Johnson when the latter was hanging with Robert Jr’s mom—hence the Jr—and cut his first 78 in 1941. Yet he’s just
2nd generation. From the first,
Henry Townsend is still alive and
playing, but at 91, doesn't travel that much anymore. Then there is
David "Honeyboy" Edwards —and
he knew Robert Johnson as well--and Tommy McClennan and Robert Petway, too, which is way more impressive to me. He still plays and records, too, in very recent times in the
company of Lockwood and Townsend. And in the third generation, you have
Johnny Otis , still alive and kicking, complete with
virtual mall.
Ike Turner was Howlin’ Wolf’s A&R and piano player when the Wolf cut his first sides for Sam Phillips’ company before Sun, RPM. A helluva a piano player coughAudionotfarfromherecough—apart from the
sordid details of his
personal life,
Ike Turner is, as the aforementioned, a giant in the history of that nearly dead style—the Blues. Alive, playing and recording. Hell, writing, autobiographies, too—
Edwards and
Turner, at least. (and whew, Turner’s is, well,
explicit…) If this were Japan, these guys would be registered as cultural treasures. So why’s everybody wasting their money on some overproduced, overhyped mere johnnyonenote journeyman (if not hack) like R.L. Burnside?
Not an obituary, by any means, but a heads up and props to the surviving masters—and you may have a chance to see the real thing someday soon. But note that, all in all, offer ends... sometime.
posted by y2karl at 11:10 AM PST - 21 comments
Arab world has to change or wither away
Today's editorial from the Daily Star newspaper (Lebanon). "Arab countries are governed by systems and structures designed in another era, one that is never coming back ... It is a recipe for disaster whose results are on display for all to see." Is this just grass-is-greener longing, or a real argument for political and economic reforms?
posted by skyboy at 10:20 AM PST - 18 comments
The ThreeRing Web Mapping project
adds a dot to a blank canvas showing your geographic location (or that of your ISP, as best it can guess based on your IP address). They've also got a code snippet to put on your own site that automagically adds your visitors to the map. The US is already clearly defined, Europe is getting there, and Oceania is coming into view. (They've also got one of them
Tag-Board thingies, which is painful to read for any length of time.)
posted by gleuschk at 9:10 AM PST - 26 comments
Oprah ends book club.
According to
Publishers Weekly: "Today Oprah Winfrey announced on her program that she is ending Oprah's Book Club as it currently exists." (Sorry - only news so far is in email, no direct link to story yet.)
In other news, American publishing collapses. Jonathan Franzen abducted by angry horde of struggling novelists, is strung up by his genitals in Times Square.
posted by busbyism at 8:46 AM PST - 57 comments
bring out your clips!
a decent website where it is possible to get hold of some of the very best of british humour including a large dollop of monty python, not bad eh!
posted by johnnyboy at 7:34 AM PST - 5 comments
Panda Dog!
I don't know what kind of dog it is (and I thought I was a dog-knowing expert) but I want one. If anyone can help me out with the breed (if it isn't a bizarre dog-panda hybrid) I would be really quite grateful...
posted by rikabel at 7:31 AM PST - 18 comments
Is the
hiptop (flash w/ sound) by
Danger Inc. the technogeek holy grail?
It might just be. If it indeed costs $200, has unlimited internet for $25 a month, the separate GSM based cell phone plan has coverage in my area, and it ships in two months, color me sold. (more inside)
posted by machaus at 6:49 AM PST - 25 comments
Skeletor and Gang:
What is it about the combination of stop-motion animation, He-Man action figures, and sped-up heavy metal that makes me laugh until I hurt?
"Skeletor, Mantenna and Grizzlor are having a party! Oh no! Moss-Man attacks! Defend us Squeeze!"
posted by emptybowl at 6:24 AM PST - 7 comments
WebLogs bring less traffic than major media sites.
There isn't any surprize there, but what
kind of traffic does each bring?
...those Google/Scientology articles I wrote didn't get nearly as many links from blogs... but they were of much broader interest to readers than the blog articles, so when a few major media sites linked to them, they got a ton of traffic.
Major media sites have to appeal to a common denominator, while smaller sites (MeFi) can focus on quality and thought provoking content. Is there any wonder there's less people interested in the specifics?
posted by KnitWit at 6:22 AM PST - 12 comments
Utah Judge Rules Medical Pot is In
via the Utahns for Compassionate Use. "During a preliminary hearing for three patients in Cedar City on Wednesday March 27, 2002 Judge Braithwaite bound patients over for trial and ruled that their medical marijuana arguments do count in a Utah Courtroom even though Utah has different laws than California." My question, of course, is: do you really spell it "Utahns?"
posted by massless at 2:43 AM PST - 2 comments
New US paper aims at Afghan war truth
What do you do when you are fed up with the biased and slanted coverage that the major news organizations are giving the "war on terroirsm"? Start your own newspaper of course.
"A newspaper aimed at providing news of the war in Afghanistan is to be launched this month. Its editors argue that the mainstream media in the US are not providing a full picture of the war and its effects. "
posted by futureproof at 1:17 AM PST - 25 comments
April 4
A Refreshing Change of Pace for everyone with an opinion about Isreal/Palestine.
The Middle East Conflict - Has it Been Engineered by Extremist Rightwing Christians and Zionists Hoping to "Force" the "Rapture"? Sounds crazy, looks crazy...but the suggestions are not made on the basis of paranoia alone, unfortunately. The fact that the Americans involved are very religious (and Isreal being the location of a few scheduled divine appearances) is an obviously important but consistantly avoided side of this pile of conflict. So how crazy is this article? Isn't it just a bit naïve to think this is just a big property argument with some jewish/muslim tension thrown in? Hey, as long as we can't decide whether Arafat or Sharon is worse than the other, we may as well discuss something else in the meantime...or discuss something
totally unrelated in this thread, for a
refreshing change of pace.
(From the reputable, extensive and fascinating news website, unknownnews.net)
posted by Settle at 8:18 PM PST - 52 comments
As the violence in the Middle East escalates, and Arab anger grows over American support of Israel (especially among the masses), is
another oil embargo possible?
Oil may be the Arab world's daily bread, but it's also its only weapon — if, say, Arafat is killed or Israel goes too far in its incursions into Palestinian territories, popular sentiment in the already-shaky local regimes could force Arab governments to put up a show of defiance to calm their constituencies.
posted by Rastafari at 8:10 PM PST - 13 comments
Capital Wars!
The US Defense Department wants all large foreign acquisitions of American companies to be approved by a secretive national security committee, a move designed to restrict access to sensitive US technology. Valid measure to protect national security or a return to mercantilism? (via
drudge :)
posted by kliuless at 8:06 PM PST - 4 comments
"He's not gay, and the judge so ruled,"
says Bert Fields, attorney for Tom Cruise. Yes folks, Tom Cruise is now the world's only
legal heterosexual. While this is old news, I've always been fascinated with how much zeal Cruise prosecutes these allegations. This case, though, is unique in that the ruling in favor of Cruise contains a stipulation which states that Cruise is not, nor ever has he ever been, gay. In other words, Tom's heterosexuality is now enforced by the courts. Should we, the moviegoing public, now file a class-action lawsuit to force Cruise to publicly prove his unique legal status as a compulsory heterosexual? Would Tom being a backdoor boy
really damage your enjoyment of his movies, as Cruise seems to think? Just how stupid do Hollywood stars and their publicists think we are? Discuss.
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:14 PM PST - 51 comments
Yuri's Night
is more than 100 parties on the same night around the world, on every continent including Antarctica, April 12, 2002. What's to celebrate? The 41st anniversary of the
suborbital flight of Yuri Gagarin, and the 21st anniversary of the
first space shuttle flight, a fitting tribute to two great space milestones. Is there a party in your city? Set one up! I only read about last year's (initiated for the 40th/20th), but I'm going to try to go this year. There are, of course, even moe 40th anniversaries of significant space events to come. [tip o' the hat to
Rand Simberg, who has even more provocative stuff in his FoxNews.com column -- like relocating Israel to the Moon. And he's serious.]
posted by dhartung at 6:08 PM PST - 9 comments
Where Is The Other Half ?
An intriguing analysis of what Prime Minister Sharon said and didnt, in his latest speech, and wether thats all he can say because of his background.
What does "winning" mean? What will happen after we "win"? What kind of plan does he have for the day after? This performance of Arik, King of Israel, was like shouting: Remember the emperor without clothes? That's me!
posted by adnanbwp at 4:45 PM PST - 4 comments
Meet the Athens Olympics mascots.
I'm not sure when Olympics sites started adopting cartoony mascots, but I'm sure of this much: This pair is the worst I've ever seen. They're supposed to represent Greek gods? Please. They look like they were drawn in about five minutes.
posted by diddlegnome at 4:16 PM PST - 36 comments
Bush plays peacemaker.
Having refused to honor several international treaties since taking office, the Bush administration sees itself as a legitimate peace broker. Opinions solicited, is this likely to improve the situation or cause it to deteriorate further?
posted by jack-o at 3:11 PM PST - 41 comments
Harmful to Minors
In the introduction to her
book she writes that " 'Harmful to Minors' launches from two negatives: Sex is not ipso facto harmful to minors; and America's drive to protect kids from sex is protecting them from nothing. Instead, often it is harming them." Is she right, some think she is just evil.
posted by onegoodmove at 2:59 PM PST - 24 comments
Another trip into TV Hell.
In the UK we're much kinder to bad television -- shows will go on for weeks without an audience and often get comissioned for second series before someone releases they're awful (yes you 'Let Them Eat Cake' -- if that French and Saunder monstrosity had been on UStv it would have been cancelled after two episodes -- if it had been comissioned at all). 'Off The Telly' considers all the things prospective television producers need to avoid if they're going to create something they're proud of. Does anyone else have any bad examples?
posted by feelinglistless at 1:47 PM PST - 18 comments
What's grosser than gross? Ask a nurse.
On this nursing bulletin board, nurses who have to deal with really disgusting stuff in the course of their day-to-day work reveal what even
they have difficulty handling. Sputum and stinky feet are both more popular choices than I would have guessed. If you're brave, read the whole thread, including such gems as extremely overweight folks who hide foot items in the folds of their flesh. [WARNING: not for the faint of stomach, even though it's all text, no pictures.] I won't mention details of the dog story...
posted by beth at 1:24 PM PST - 29 comments
Indiana woman sues doctor for cost of raising her daughter.
She says the doctor botched the operation to sterilize her, so he should pay up. A lower court has already ruled for her, and it is now in front of the Indiana Supreme Court. I did not know this, but California, New Mexico, Oregon and Wisconsin already have given people the right to costs of child rearing in these circumstances. The first this that comes to my mind is: do you think a child put in this situation would feel unwanted?
posted by internal at 12:53 PM PST - 21 comments
A soundtrack to MTV's The Osbournes
is in the making starting with this...
Ozzy Osbourne's youngest daughter, Kelly Osbourne, will sing Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach," with Incubus guitarist Mike Einzinger and drummer Jose Pasillas as her backing band.What other songs would you put on there?
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 11:42 AM PST - 16 comments
Antidote to the Liberal Monotone: Blogging
After reading MetaFilter for a while, I would assume that blogging ticks off all people, left and right, equally. Does exposure like this on a major Op-Ed page show that blogging is on the verge of becoming something big?
posted by dewelch at 11:33 AM PST - 49 comments
Why Are Ventriloquists' Dummies So Damn Scary?
Their annual Convention is this July.
Don't go there! Their
web site reads like a nightmare. The kind that makes
Night of the Living Dead look like
Rebecca From Sunnybrook Farm. But why? I'm curious and can't find an answer anywhere. Why
are ventriloquists and their dummies so damn scary? Someone please tell me what's
wrong with this monkey! He's...he's only wood...
right?[
Via Bonny Burton's guest weblog over on Boing Boing]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:17 AM PST - 39 comments
Understanding what makes America tick
"
The belief that America is exceptional, in the double sense that it is superior and that it is different...The United States had a mission, a manifest destiny, to change the world in its image. This conviction echoes down through American history....Other countries—France, Britain, Russia—have from time to time in their history felt a sense of mission, of carrying their civilisation to other peoples and territories. But in their cases it has been episodic and not deeply rooted—usually limited to when their power was at its zenith and usually clearly recognisable as a rationalisation for what they were doing for other reasons. In the case of the United States, it has been constant and central." [
Centre of Independent Studies in Sydney via
aldaily] American Exceptionalism. Mix it with sole super power status and massive military might. Should make it quite an intoxicating ride these next few years.
posted by Voyageman at 11:16 AM PST - 26 comments
Kalakala.org:
World-famous art-deco Seattle ferry (most recently an abandoned Alaskan shrimp factory) rescued from rusty oblivion.
Gutenberg's earlier
post about "ghost pictures" on the old ferry Kalakala sent me looking for more info on the vessel, which I now know was once the second most photographed object in the world, next to the Eiffel tower. Volunteers are now slowly restoring it near Gas Works Park. Cool.
posted by Tubes at 11:10 AM PST - 12 comments
E Street Band guitarist and erstwhile
Sopranos star
Little Steven is launching a syndicated
radio show to be centered around garage rock of the '60's plus latter day punk as well according to this
story. Steve's own site includes some great
live reviews and excellent garage rock
links . I, for one, am really looking forward to hearing this show. Good luck, Steve.
posted by jonmc at 9:13 AM PST - 11 comments
end of the worlds forests?
are there other very important issues for the world that are slipping by us while the we are caught up with the problems in the middle east the the "war on terror"? should there be US leadership in this area?
posted by specialk420 at 7:45 AM PST - 33 comments
The Death of Saturday Morning Cartoons. Old news? Kind of, as the decline of Big Network cartoons has been happening for a while. However, as a Generation X-er, I'm wondering if it's possible to have a comparable shared-common-experience these days as digital cable and the internet widen our options into smaller, hyper-specific choices.
Roots, Shooting JR, the last
MASH,
Live Aid: would these still have the same impact today?
posted by FreezBoy at 7:25 AM PST - 40 comments
Japanese Devils
is a documentary featuring 14 veterans of the Imperial Army testifying to their brutal participation in Japan's 15-year war against China. Director Matsui Minoru presents a powerful historical record of these soldiers' individual crimes, helping to break Japan's long silence about its wartime atrocities in China.
Please also see
Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking'' and be aware that the Japanese government is
still whitewashing their brutal WWII history via
school textbooks. We must understand the truth of history so that we are not doomed to repeat it.
posted by gen at 6:23 AM PST - 5 comments
Lego Serious Play
"is the first application of Lego for the serious world of adults at work. The method combines 'play' and Lego bricks for the purpose of enhancing business performance." Cute.
posted by ubique at 4:52 AM PST - 8 comments
They see dead people.
Seattle's own floating monument to a bygone era, the ferryboat Kalakala, is rumored to be haunted. The members of A.G.H.O.S.T. investigated earlier this year and claim they caught spectral images on film. Are those hazy orbs actually visitors from the spirit realm or does someone just need a new camera? Go on, tell us—do you believe in ghosts?
posted by gutenberg at 2:11 AM PST - 26 comments
April 3
Things Fall Apart.
Particularly in urban environments. Individually, the moments of entropy-in-action caught here may not mean much; collectively, they recite a visual poem about decay. A slightly melancholy site for you insomniacs out there. (By the way, you have to scroll
right to get to the thumbnails.)
posted by BT at 8:53 PM PST - 8 comments
NYT: Cousin Marriage A'OK, Says Study
A new article in the
Journal of Genetic Counseling reviewing recent studies on incidence of birth defects among children of cousins finds that the increaed risk is so slight as to not warrant discouraging cousin marriage. Discouraging marriage and conception between first cousins is common in the US although in many societies, the first (cross) cousin is the preferred spouse. (
1,
2)
posted by rschram at 4:10 PM PST - 13 comments
Gay Life in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
This is an interesting article in the LA Times about a phenomenon that I noticed 20 years ago when I had a bunch of Iranian teenage boys in a school I worked in for awhile. It seems that every society has its constraints, and ways of getting around these constraints.
posted by Danf at 3:17 PM PST - 4 comments
Five Pillars of Islam
Bradley County, one of several Tennessee counties to vote recently to post the
Ten Commandments, has been asked to extend its endorsement of religious documents in public places to include the
Five Pillars of Islam.
Smith (the commission chairman) said he respects Cate's beliefs but believes that, particularly since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that have been blamed on extreme factions of Islam, it would be inappropriate to post the Five Pillars.
Would it be appropriate to post if there had been no 9-11 or is it just inappropriate.
posted by onegoodmove at 2:22 PM PST - 42 comments
Ever since installing the latest version of the Flash Player, I've been having problems with the sound continuing if I exit the movie, or close the browser window, until I completely kill the program by closing ALL open browser windows. Well, the problem has been
formally acknowledged, though Macromedia is being weird about doing something about it.
posted by Su at 1:20 PM PST - 22 comments
The God Squad
Christopher Hitchens gives (another) one to organized religion, and reminds us of the important role that the Islamic world played in preserving Western Civilization.
posted by Ty Webb at 1:00 PM PST - 7 comments
West Wing is Fictional???
Just in case our friends in New Mexico are concerned, what happens on the West Wing this week cannot happen in New Mexico. "New Mexico has no tunnels" a press release, approved by state governor Gary Johnson, states. Whew...a load off my mind. Is this an example of government being very pro-active, or just plain insulting to the people of NM?
posted by JaxJaggywires at 12:29 PM PST - 14 comments
Nicotine Lollipops:
Next up on the list of products to help you quit smoking but not the addiction. NicoStop, NicoPop and Likatine are some of the brand names these laced suckers carry, but the interesting thing here is that it's not a giant pharmaceutical company making them -- it's
your neighborhood pharmacy, and they're doing it below the radar of the FDA.
(more inside.)
posted by me3dia at 10:35 AM PST - 22 comments
Is "Gourmet" The Best American Food Magazine?
Lookit all the nominations it's got! It's certainly got a lot better since
Ruth Reichl started editing it. Reading about its history one gets to know what American foodies were cooking, eating or just drooling over in the
40s,
50s,
60s,
70s,
80s and
90s(Let no one pretend, after reading this potted history, that food used to be better in the old days). Still, for my money, the best food magazine in the world, better even than the French
Saveurs, is the scrumptious, San Francisco-based upstart
Saveur, whose online version has recently become extremely generous. Like most people I rarely try out a recipe - I just read it as virtual
gastroporn. In fact, it's the only magazine I actually collect.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:11 AM PST - 34 comments
"We're press! Don't shoot!"
Isn't PRESS on a flak jacket like painting bullseyes on your butt?
The Israel Defense Forces have declared Bethlehem, Qalqiliya and Ramallah officially off-limits, and journalists will either be forcibly removed or in some cases shot on sight.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is just one of many organizations speaking out against the unethical treatment of First Ammendment fighters throughout the world. Like this is gonna help. Should enemies of freedom be expected to 'play fair' or should we just accept that some journalists are going to die? Is it possible to investigate the truth right now in the West Bank, or are journalists needlessly putting their lives on the line for nothing?
posted by ZachsMind at 10:08 AM PST - 37 comments
Rioters complain about tear gas.
[Bloominton Hearald-Times, link expires after a week] After Indiana University lost to Maryland in the NCAA finals, drunken fans rioted in the streets forcing police to use tear gas. It was stupid enough to start a riot, but rioters complained that the police offered no warning before deploying tear gas after rioters pelted the police with beer bottles and prevented the fire department from putting out fires in the middle of the street.
"They could have easily done that," Raggs said. "If they would have said, 'You have 10 minutes, then we are going to use the tear gas,' people would have gone away."
Personally, I think the police showed an amazing level of restraint considering that about half of the state troopers on the scene got hit by flying glass.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:45 AM PST - 23 comments
9:05
Remember back in the heyday of
Infocom when you would routinely spend four or five days straight (subsisting on RC cola and beef jerky, only taking breaks to visit the john) trying to crack all the puzzles in Zork II or Suspended? Yeah, those were the days. Now, of course, you're a busy guy -- you can no longer devote entire weekends to the joys of text adventuring. That's why, today on your coffee break, you should play Adam Cadre's
9:05. Playing the entire game, from start to finish, should take you no longer than 10 minutes. But set aside a bit more time, because you'll probably want to play it again.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 7:50 AM PST - 28 comments
On average people laugh 18 times a day
"
It makes us less stressed, lowers our blood pressure and reduces anxiety. It's more common than sex, eating or singing." Still 18 times a day doesn't sound like its enough. Simple solution. "
Tickle, the most ancient and reliable stimulus of laughter, is undervalued..."
posted by Voyageman at 6:42 AM PST - 17 comments
'Over-newsed' and disconnected by thousands of miles:
Will there reach a point where we are intellectually drowned by news from a 'distant' and deepening war? I myself listen to Talk of The Nation daily, read the news hourly (when I can that frequently) and yet I cannot, or better yet, am having a hard time feeling the insane tragedy that has befallen our planet. Will complacence set in as those of us who are concerned feel more and more powerless to even possibly exact the smallest amount of change that each of our voices can in our respective countries? It is painful to not be particulary 'moved' by this link's eyewitness accounts of the battle underway in Ramallah. Is it simply too much to vicariously behold for the mortal human?
posted by crasspastor at 1:24 AM PST - 30 comments
April 2
The best CD I've purchased so far this year is the
latest from the
Blind Boys of Alabama. this record features superb vocalizing, great bluesy guitar, and a Sones(!) and Tom Waits(!!) cover. In an age where "gospel music" has sunk into the quagmire of
"Contemporary Christian", its easy to forget that
old-school gospel both
black and
white were
huge influences on rock and roll. Little Richard, for one, took his trademark "Whoo!" from Marion Williams and countless rockers from Aretha to Elvis learned to sing in church.
Now, can I get an Amen?!
posted by jonmc at 6:48 PM PST - 25 comments
Debka
- given the current situation in the middle east, I thought this might be a good time to remind some of, and acquaint others to, this drudge-like source.
posted by Why at 6:38 PM PST - 7 comments
Will Amman cut off diplomatic relations with Israel?
Jordan in turmoil over mideast chaos. I knew the U.S. gave some 3 billion to Israel yearly, and 2 billion to Egypt, but I had known we are also generous to Jordan too, though the total amount unknown. to me. It was of course Jordan who had the West Bank under their control but gave it up after the '67war, while also absorbing many Palestinians. Now it seems the chickens are coming home to roost. Thus another country that may soon topple its rulers in this volatile area of the world.
posted by Postroad at 5:55 PM PST - 1 comments
Everybody Vogue. Well, really just the thin people.
Vogue Magazine gets a tongue-lashing from Slate. Seems the fashion mag attempted a "body diversity" issue, but their idea of a large-size model is a size 8. Excerpt: "If "tall" and "short" and "pregnant" are body types, and Minnie Driver is "curvy," there's no need to admit the existence of the bottom-heavy, let alone try to dress the poor bastards."
posted by GaelFC at 5:36 PM PST - 21 comments
The Falkland Islands are ours and we'll get them back, says Argentina.
Argentina celebrates the twenty-year anniversary of their invasion of the Falkland Islands. Britain won the Falkland War in 1982, but Argentina now boasts that they'll definitely conquer the islands in the future. Since the majority of islanders are of British descent, does Argentina stand a chance? And shouldn't Argentina be focusing on rebuilding its own economy instead of whining about some insignificant islands in the Atlantic ocean?
posted by wackybrit at 3:44 PM PST - 38 comments
Eight peace activists were shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers. The soldiers apparently (and I could be wrong) fired without provocation -- the activists were unarmed, and were marching peacefully. Israel's Justice Minister was quoted in the Miami Herald today (no web link available, sorry) as saying,
"A person playing with fire should not yell when he gets burned." Essentially, what is being said here is that being a protestor is sufficient reason to be shot. The Israeli army claims to be hunting down "terrorists", but if this is how they define the word I don't feel too inclined to trust them.
posted by tweebiscuit at 12:35 PM PST - 48 comments
Brillian Digital has quietly attached its software to Kazaa
and plans to remotely "turn on" people’s PCs, welding them into a new network. CEO sez a pop-up box will give people a chance to turn it off. Users who've accept "terms of service" already distributed with Brilliant’s and Kazaa’s software are already agreeing to let their computers be used without any payment at all.
posted by ao4047 at 12:19 PM PST - 27 comments
Pornografux has launched, ya perverts. Not really porn, actually, and nearly worksafe, though a couple of the pieces have grating some audio. The initial offering asks what the connections are between our "sexual" and "social" bodies.
posted by Su at 10:33 AM PST - 11 comments
Literary lynching, the practice of attacking authors who make statements against the U.S. government or engage in dissent, gets a comprehensive overview with
a book in progress. As 72 year old author Dorothy Bryant
puts it, "More than ever, we need free exchange of facts and opinions. I hope that looking back on a few cases that have had time to cool off will help us to understand the psychology of literary lynching, and to resist it — not only in others but in ourselves." But in today's world, is there any distinction between a thoughtful response and a downright ugly rejoinder anymore? (via
Moby Lives)
posted by ed at 10:21 AM PST - 7 comments
Islamic nations dodge defining terrorism.
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference is divided over whether Palestinian suicide bombers should be classified as terrorists. On the other hand, there's no question that Israel practises terror.
Rather than stick their necks out and commit to something, they'll leave it to the good ole UN to decide who is a terrorist. That'll solve everything.
More depth here.
posted by badstone at 10:15 AM PST - 14 comments
Jesus! In The Raisin Bread? What Kinda Holy Communion Is That?!
Better read
Helen Hull Hitchcock's fascinating column on
Catholic.net to find out: "
In recent months Catholics from around the country have been reporting with increasing frequency that their parishes are using "real" bread (i.e. table bread) instead of Communion hosts. Many are concerned that the validity of the Mass is affected. "Have I really received Christ?" is a frequent question. Are they right to be concerned? You bet...So, have progressive Catholics gone
too far? And what does the
Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, known to all as
IGMR, have to say about
that?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:22 AM PST - 53 comments
Canadian faces jail in U.S. for trade with Cuba.
James Sabzali faces trial on 77 accounts of of conspiracy and of trading with the enemy, nearly half of which relate to buisness conducted when Sabzali was working in Canada. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Poluka concedes that while living in Hamilton the defendant was "technically not subject to jurisdiction.", but maintains that "foreign nationals cannot aid and abet violations of U.S. law." Does this mean the United States has an open licence to prosecute foreigners for acts committed against American laws on foriegn soil?
posted by astirling at 8:53 AM PST - 15 comments
Teoma takes on Google?
Ask Jeves launched its new search engine yesterday aimed at challenging Google for the best search engine on the web. Teoma offers options to narrow your search using "subject-specific popularity."
For example, if someone searched for the name "
Bill Clinton," Teoma offers ways to refine your search, showing links to topics related to your search, such as "Clinton Scandal" and "Monica Lewinsky."
Will this search engine replace Google as the SE of choice for the Internet savvy? Also, what other search engines do you use?
posted by DragonBoy at 8:36 AM PST - 36 comments
A PC with a sprayed-on case
Yes you read that right, this PC has no aluminium case but a spray-foamed one instead. Weird? Gross? Ugly? Certainly all those at once, but it seems rather as an improvement over cookie-cutter lifeless PC clone cases.
posted by betobeto at 8:25 AM PST - 29 comments
AOL Time Warner Was A Mistake.
The stock price is in the toilet (relatively speaking), and analysts are proclaiming the Biggest Merger Ever to be a thundering dud. Are huge mergers like this unsustainable?
posted by solistrato at 6:47 AM PST - 22 comments
April 1
At least they ask before they track your web usage.
We're all familiar with Neilsen ratings and how a few select families get to decide when 20/20 will finally end. I guess it was only a matter of time before they came sniffing around looking to track popular websites. People who sign up get gifts, prizes and free technical support - at least that's the deal for
Canadians.
posted by Salmonberry at 8:11 PM PST - 4 comments
The story behind the "Work From Home" signs
found all over major cities is a great bit of sleuthing facilitated by the internet. Armed with google and a phone, one guy slowly uncovered the latest MLM scam from Herbalife, and gets to the bottom of how they both shield themselves from wrongdoing, and how nearly impossible it is to make any money. This is personal site content at its very best. [via
Cam]
posted by mathowie at 6:43 PM PST - 33 comments
Media Torrent:
""I think this is one of many weird phenomena that contributes to a national attention deficit disorder."The crawl -- that stream of info-morsels and promotional hooks that seemed so urgent right after Sept. 11, but now seems so annoying and distracting -- seems to carry Gitlin's point with it as it creeps across the screen."
Is this a real problem, or is it just the old guys not hip to the kids' video world? (via
i want media)
posted by owillis at 5:08 PM PST - 22 comments
A
'cussing canoeist' was almost robbed of his right to swear in public. Timothy Boomer yelled the f word close to 75 times in front of a 5 and 2 yo after falling out of his canoe on the Rifle River in Michigan. I damn near fell of my chair laughing!
posted by Why at 3:30 PM PST - 12 comments
While you might want to think so
none of the stories on this site are jokes. Ever since
Network Solutions was assimilated by
Verisign ("Trust is the foundation of every human relationship"), their tactics to obtain (or retain) your business have gotten sneakier. Be warned, non-Verisign domain registrants, you may get an invoice from Verisign that looks like
this. Ethical? Hardly. Try as I might, I can't find anyone trying to stop Verisign from these practices. I'm beginning to think Verisign is really
run by these folks.
By the way, this is my first post. Please be
gentle.
posted by WolfDaddy at 1:53 PM PST - 15 comments
Dutch Legalize Euthanasia
"The Netherlands has become the first country in the world to legalise mercy killing after a controversial law on euthanasia came into force on Monday."
While tolerated for nearly two decades, opponents are comparing the practice to Nazi Geramny. Is this a step forward for those living with severe pain and no hope in sight?
posted by futureproof at 12:49 PM PST - 32 comments
MIT webpage modified for April Fool's Day.
We've seen the Google Pigeon page, and EBay, and even our beloved Mefi (can I say that I actually like this look better?). Have we got a thread which is collecting web page AFD jokes? I didn't see one. If not, perhaps this could serve as a start?
posted by jokeefe at 12:44 PM PST - 10 comments
According to this editorial,
April Fools hoaxes violate a fundamental trust between readers and the media and undermine the mission they're supposed to serve. Though opinion polls have never put "The Media" high on anyone's list of favorite organizations, I probably have to disagree in that April Fools hoaxes actually do
more to help the media by revealing their sense of humor and giving them a touch of the everyman.
posted by tiny pea at 9:24 AM PST - 30 comments
On Martha Stewart Living this morning,
Martha showed how to make the perfect glass of water, how to peel a grape, and how to add a decorative touch to cereal boxes. I was almost sucked in. Nice work Martha, who knew she could laugh at herself? What other April Fool's Day pranks and pages have you found?
posted by jasonshellen at 9:18 AM PST - 17 comments
It's strange to think
Harmony Cousins is part my generation when she's lived ten times the life I have. But the fact that even after all this she can pull herself back to together proves that she's ten times the person most of us are. How many of us have her strength?
posted by feelinglistless at 9:18 AM PST - 29 comments
Suicidal lies (NYT)
"The Palestinians are so blinded by their narcissistic rage that they have lost sight of the basic truth civilization is built on: the sacredness of every human life, starting with your own. All they can agree on as a community is what they want to destroy, not what they want to build. Have you ever heard Mr. Arafat talk about what sort of education system or economy he would prefer, what sort of constitution he wants? No, because Mr. Arafat is not interested in the content of a Palestinian state, only the contours." (more inside)
posted by semmi at 8:01 AM PST - 71 comments
Have you ever owned a car that was "Truly unencumbered by the engineering process"? Did you ever have a car that was so bad that thieves wouldn't steal it even if you left the keys in the ignition for them? Check out
The Worst Cars of the Millenium survey results at Cartalk. I once owned a Fiat that liked to purge itself of major parts on a weekly basis. They just sort of... fell off while I was driving.
posted by iconomy at 7:10 AM PST - 22 comments
PK Interactive receives funding from idealab
According to the article on Yahoo News, "New York's PK Interactive, best known as the owner and publisher of popular "dot-com deadpool" site, F---edcompany.com, has received $18 million in private funding from idealab and its existing investors, Chase Capital Partners, Flatiron Partners and TechFund Capital."
Sort of a strange turn of events, no?
posted by ph00dz at 5:46 AM PST - 2 comments
Porn upsets Palestinians
Porn movies and programs in Hebrew are being broadcast by Israeli troops who have taken over three Palestinian television stations of Ramallah, irate residents of the besieged West Bank town have told AFP.
Psychological warfare?
posted by helloboys at 1:07 AM PST - 12 comments
In the space of about an hour tonight I found, without looking, two web pages that are about film typography: Mark Simonson's "
Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies" [indirectly via
kottke.org] and Joe Clark's "
Typecasting: Review of, and Commentary on, Film Typography," which was inspired by Mark Simonson's page [via the
Me-Fi Projects Mailing List]. I love movies and I like typography, so it was cool to find pages that combined those interests, especially because I really like all of the movies mentioned on Mark Simonson's page.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:11 AM PST - 3 comments
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