April 30
Inform 7 Released. Inform is a language used for creating interactive fiction, and is one of the most widely used languages for this task. After several years of effort, Graham Nelson has released a new version of Inform, and is seeking to create a new way of creating IF, with natural language instead of traditional programming code. [more inside]
posted by zabuni at 8:08 PM PST - 38 comments

SNES OC'd [more] (via)
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:33 PM PST - 23 comments

"So I think we maybe have this sort of snobbish reputation. But we're just really honest, opinionated music fans." (via)
posted by bardic at 1:36 PM PST - 178 comments

RIAA sues family for illegal music file sharing. Wouldn't be new or noteworthy — if the family actually had a computer. Via.
posted by charmston at 11:45 AM PST - 39 comments

...Bush has been aggressive about declaring his right to ignore vast swaths of laws -- many of which he says infringe on power he believes the Constitution assigns to him alone ... President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution. ... Long, eyeopening article laying out what laws have been ignored and why. ...Bush has cast a cloud over 'the whole idea that there is a rule of law," because no one can be certain of which laws Bush thinks are valid and which he thinks he can ignore. 'Where you have a president who is willing to declare vast quantities of the legislation that is passed during his term unconstitutional, it implies that he also thinks a very significant amount of the other laws that were already on the books before he became president are also unconstitutional," ...
posted by amberglow at 10:50 AM PST - 85 comments

This highlight reel of people playing the traditional Myanmar game of Chinlone is pretty amazing. Being a particularly ignorant westerner, I really had no idea of the grace & athleticism involved in the game.
posted by jonson at 9:42 AM PST - 22 comments

Stateline windfarm in Oregon/Washington is the largest windfarm in the world (300 MW). Denmark's Nysted windfarm is the world's largest off-shore windfarm (165 MW). Ireland plans to build a 520 MW off-shore windfarm, while the London Array would produce a massive 1000 MW and be a major feaure in the English Channel. Norway announced a 1,400 MW windfarm in 2005. The world's largest single wind turbine (5 MW).. the worlds largest solar farm (300 MW) planned for New Mexico would cover over 3,000 acres.
posted by stbalbach at 8:45 AM PST - 141 comments

Jimmy Jump. The guy who stormed the pitch and cheekily presented Thierry Henry with a Barcelona jersey during last week's Champion's League match versus Villareal has a website. Regardless of where you stand on pitch invaders, "there will be no way to remain indiferent in front of his universal cause of feeling implicated with what he does."

He's got a few videos, too.
posted by TheFarSeid at 1:02 AM PST - 11 comments

Steven Colbert (TruthyMan!) headlines the White House Correspondents Dinner -- and Bush is not amused. Will there be fallout? C-Span focused on Bush expression (lack of) during the slamming ... (link to story with video).
posted by Surfurrus at 12:05 AM PST - 384 comments

April 29
John Kenneth Galbraith, an influential and unorthodox economist, has died, at age 97.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:26 PM PST - 47 comments

What's worse than not having enough soldiers to fight your war? Not enough buglers to play "taps" at their funerals. Good thing the military has come up with a solution. It's the thought that counts, I guess.
posted by Balisong at 10:12 PM PST - 41 comments

Night Writer (embedded .mov). "The night writer extends the functionality of LED throwies by allowing a writer to catch a tag in lights. It’s cheap, easy to make and writes 12-inch glowing letters 25-feet in the air on any iron or steel surface." From the Graffitti Research Lab.
posted by zardoz at 10:11 PM PST - 21 comments

Paris to Kabul. They won't be the first, or the only to embark on such adventures, but Manu (photographer / technician) and Sophie (journalist) are on a great adventure from Paris to Kabul in a very small car.
posted by pwedza at 9:44 PM PST - 6 comments

In the study of mythology, folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, human hero or anthropomorphic animal who plays pranks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and norms of behaviour.

Tricksters come in all forms, from all cultures. Notable examples include Br'er Rabbit, Odysseus, Eshu, Raven, and Loki; most or all of whom you are likely familiar with.
posted by Eideteker at 9:11 PM PST - 31 comments

Exporting green and leafy water. Agricultural exports, including fresh fruit and vegetables, are an important source of income for many developing countries, but they also threaten the evironmental future of those same producers. "Irrigated agriculture accounts for 70% of the freshwater used globally", while only a part returns to the environment. It isn't just in Africa; in India and in North America, all over the globe, water supplies are being stretched to the point of near breaking. [more inside]
posted by jb at 5:51 PM PST - 12 comments

The Paradigm is the Enemy: A sobering but cogent account of the state of Peak Oil, what it's already led to (reported and ignored), and what is in store for us in the near future. The worst part is the political impossibility of addressing the problem constructively: that would require acknowledging the problem.
posted by LeisureGuy at 5:01 PM PST - 99 comments

Camille Paglia How should the humanities be taught, and how should scholars in the humanities be trained? These pivotal questions confront universities today amid signs of spreading agreement that the three-decade era of poststructuralism and postmodernism is over.
posted by vronsky at 4:04 PM PST - 72 comments

So I'm driving to Salina, KS in the middle of the night and I realize that in all that nothing, I can look out my windshield and I can see stars. Like, all the stars. And I think that it's a bummer that I don't know that much about what it is I'm looking at.
posted by pieoverdone at 2:48 PM PST - 41 comments

Drama is impossible today. I don't know of any. Drama used to be the belief in guilt, and in a higher order. This absolutely cruel didactic is impossible, unacceptable for us moderns. But melodrama has kept it. You are caged. In melodrama you have human, earthly prisons rather than godly creations. Every Greek tragedy ends with the chorus — "those are strange happenings. Those are the ways of the gods". And so it always is in melodrama.
His career as a film director lasted more than 40 years, but Douglas Sirk (1900-1987) is remembered for the melodramas he made for Universal in Hollywood between 1954 and 1959, his "divine wallow": Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Written on the Wind (1956), The Tarnished Angels (1958, William Faulkner considered it the best screen adaptation of one of his novels), Imitation of Life (1959) -- all considered for decades little more than a camp oddity. Now audiences are beginning to look deeper at the films of Douglas Sirk, at how, in megafan Todd Haynes' words, they are "almost spookily accurate about the emotional truths". Now, lucky Chicagoans can enjoy "Douglas Sirk at Universal", matinees at the Music Box. More inside.
posted by matteo at 11:56 AM PST - 14 comments

The Morris dance is common to all inhabited worlds in the multiverse. It is danced under blue skies to celebrate the quickening of the soil and under bare stars because it's springtime and with any luck the carbon dioxide will unfreeze again. It is danced innocently by raggedy-bearded young mathematicians to an inexpert accordion rendering of "Mrs Widgery's Lodger" and ruthlessly by such as the Ninja Morris Men of New Ankh, who can do strange and terrible things with a simple handkerchief and a bell.
(from page one of Terry Pratchett's "Reaper Man")
posted by nonane at 11:32 AM PST - 34 comments

Supertankers are so cool. Click previous sentence for more information.
posted by thirteenkiller at 9:43 AM PST - 43 comments

FBI Investigated 3,501 People Without Warrants Pardon my one link post. I had thought this must be taking place once it became public that NSA could spy on us without court approval. If NSA, then why not FBI? And so it came to pass....
posted by Postroad at 7:18 AM PST - 75 comments

Freedom of the seas World,s largest passenger liner, currently docked in Southampton UK, in prep for voyage to New York. Then a life of cruising the Carib. 15m wider than the QM2 Check out the flash tour.
posted by A189Nut at 3:06 AM PST - 56 comments

Texans reject Bush

Not since the Portland Trailblazers selected Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan has such a draft day blunder occurred. In today's 2006 NFL Draft, the Houston Texans are set to make NC State defensive end Mario Williams - not USC running back Reggie Bush - the top overall pick. Yes, we're talking about this Reggie Bush (YouTube).

Texans fans, prepare for 10 more seasons like the one you just had.
posted by b_thinky at 12:24 AM PST - 104 comments

CU police offer $50 bounty to identify maybe pot smokers.
"Every year on 4/20, students and residents gather on Farrand Field at CU Boulder to defy the authorities and smoke marijuana publicly. This year, the University of Boulder Police Department fought back by taking pictures of as many participants as possible. They have a website with photos up, offering an $50 reward to anyone who positively identifies someone who was photographed." via BoingBoing
Here are 3 local news stories about it: 1, 2, 3. I guess the police want to identify people even if they were not visalby commiting a crime, just so they can bring them in and apply pressure root out the real criminals.

Colorado is home to James Dobson's hyper right-wing Focus on the Family. But Denver and in the west of that state appear to be one of the largest marijuana usage areas in the country (scroll down a bit)

This area seems radically divided. When my family recently visited Colorado Springs we found it very right-wing but when we engaged a rubber boat trip through the Royal George all of our guides were hippie/eco/stoners.

Can anybody explain this in terms of the obvious factions?
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 12:03 AM PST - 96 comments

April 28
REST IN PEACE: EmoKid21Ohio & Emogirl Good riddance! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!
posted by loquacious at 11:55 PM PST - 51 comments

A new book collecting unpublished poems of Elizabeth Bishop offers us unpolished views of work in progress, by one of the 20th century's greatest literary perfectionists. But in doing so, it raises again "An issue as old as the printed word: Is work that a writer chose not to publish during her lifetime fair game after she dies?" [more inside]
posted by paulsc at 11:11 PM PST - 7 comments

Rosie O'Donnell - Flickr
posted by caddis at 8:05 PM PST - 28 comments

The verses no one dares to sing these days ... Till selfish gain No longer stain The banner of the free!
posted by hank at 7:52 PM PST - 39 comments

Rush Arrested! Or maybe not? Either way, he's got one of the best mug shots mug shots mug shots I've ever seen!
posted by underthehat at 6:34 PM PST - 95 comments

Mexico Poised to Allow Drugs for Personal Use -- Mexico’s Congress has approved a bill decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin for personal use. President Vicente Fox is expected to sign the bill.
posted by ericb at 5:54 PM PST - 45 comments

YouTube spending $1m per month, making $0 [less annoying version]
posted by reklaw at 5:41 PM PST - 46 comments

eggbaconchipsandbeans (via)
posted by bardic at 2:45 PM PST - 48 comments

Five Democratic House members arrested in today's Darfur rally. Another large protest in the capital is set for this Sunday. DCist.
posted by borkingchikapa at 2:28 PM PST - 57 comments

Following in the footsteps of Gipper followers -- The Ronald Reagan Legacy Project is on a mission to put the Gipper on the ten-spot and rename a road in every U.S. County after Ronald Reagan. Kenny Hill of AOL's gay blog Worth Repeating has his own mission: name a landmark in every state after Brokeback Mountain.
posted by chinese_fashion at 2:25 PM PST - 34 comments

The worst haircuts on MySpace, and the superheroes they resemble - round one, and round two.
posted by greycap at 1:57 PM PST - 67 comments

Air and water. Photographer and professional diver Emmanuel Donfut takes not-completely-underwater pictures. His latest series involves both fish and fishermen caught in the act, but he's been interested in other aquatic creatures, and alcoholic ones as well. More pics here, and more on the technique used here.
posted by elgilito at 12:15 PM PST - 10 comments

Born in 1938 and raised on a chicken farm on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado ... Dean Reed became the Red Elvis, a huge music and film star in the Eastern Bloc, truly an unlikely icon.. "For a lot of people like Michail Gorbashev he is the first rockstar they see in their life." There are great pictures at this site.
posted by OmieWise at 8:54 AM PST - 24 comments

Living with War. Neil Young's new album is being streamed over the internet in its entirety. (via TMW)
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 8:51 AM PST - 131 comments

Last.fm isn't just for humans. Matt Biddulph, a systems architect for the BBC, rigged a homemade plug-in for Last.fm (Previously on MeFi) that, over the course of a year, transmitted over 50,000 songs played on BBC 6Music to a Last.fm account named Sekrit. (Oh, and wondering what MetaFilter users listen to?) (via waxy)
posted by Robot Johnny at 8:25 AM PST - 32 comments

See country data plotted as 3d bars rising from the surface of Global-i, an interactive animated globe. For other map visualizations of county data, try Maplecroft Maps, Worldmapper, and Social Explorer's Census Data Maps. Worldprocessor has over 300 beautiful physical globes depicting different data sets. A variety of different map-based visualizations are also available at Radical Cartography. For an interesting mind-map visualization of relationships between countries, check out the WINDS relation browser, based on data from the CIA Factbook. Interesting non-map-based country data presentations include Gapminder and the Worldometers. [via information aesthetics]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:20 AM PST - 7 comments

"Welcome to the brave new world of high-tech political assassination, where back-stabbing blogs, scathing cartoon skits and slander served up online are the weapons of choice." (Warning: sound, Flash and video links.)
posted by Otis at 7:55 AM PST - 6 comments

Is George really planning to nuke Iran? Some physicists are worried and have written a letter to the president voicing their concerns. Others have gone one step further and made a flash animation.
posted by piscatorius at 7:49 AM PST - 77 comments

A duel between two artists. One artist supplies a squiggle, the other turns it into a drawing, incorporating the elements of the squiggle. Hence this becomes this and this becomes this. My favourite - before and after.
posted by primer_dimer at 7:05 AM PST - 23 comments

Lymphatic filariasis (or, more dramatically, "elephantiasis") is spread by mosquitoes. The mosquitoes transmit worms to your blood, the worms mate while you sleep, and their progeny travel to your lymph nodes to live a happy life. Unfortunately for you, the worms can get too big, allowing fluid to collect in your limbs or scrotum. Lucky for your neighbors, the disease can be controlled using salt. (China already did it).
posted by stemlot at 7:01 AM PST - 9 comments

The Ty-D-Bol Man looks pretty mellow today. When I was younger, my father - a pediatrician - would routinely clean out the medicine cabinet of old cold medicines, antibiotics, high potency barbiturates, illegal diet pills and other nostrums. Rather than throw them into the garbage "where someone might get their hands on them" he would flush them down the toilet (just like the poison control people recommend). Apparently in doing so he was making sure that everybody got them. Think the quantities are too small to make a difference? Not so, say Canadian fish, who seem capable of getting confused by the residue from birth control pills and changing gender. Don't worry too much about them, though. They're all on Prozac, so they're OK with it. [NB: see comments for .pdf version of first link]
posted by scblackman at 6:41 AM PST - 21 comments

Workplace health and safety dirty dozen (pdf) - profiles of companies that have demonstrated egregious disregard for worker safety. Today is Worker Memorial Day, commemorating workers who die on the job - an average of 16 per day. Workplace deaths are trending up, not down, which, according to an extensive report by the AFL-CIO, is the inevitable Toll of Neglect with this administration's rollback of worker protections. Confined Space offers a daily view of work safety issues in the U.S. for those who would like to learn more.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:16 AM PST - 13 comments

Do the Democrats need just one big idea, one that may sound familiar from Hillary Clinton's time as First Lady when she was hanging out with Amitai Etzioni, Michel Lerner and other advocates of "communitarianism". Or is this just not the right historical moment?
posted by twsf at 5:56 AM PST - 25 comments

April 27
"After our transparently bogus story and our impossibly shitty video appeared on the website... we received a flood of messages from big-shot bigfoot hunters who were dying to find out about [the] footage. Our plan was working." So, Penn and Teller faked the Sonoma bigfoot footage. But only the BFRO fell for it. Conveniently, they deleted the evidence of that. With so many sasquatch enthusiasts expressing doubt about the video when it was released, can our favorite Libertarian and mime really use it to prove that bigfoot is bullshit?
posted by kyleg at 9:34 PM PST - 70 comments

The Great Microsoft Blunder. Short but scathing article about how Microsoft has continually dropped with ball with Internet Explorer.
posted by zardoz at 9:21 PM PST - 66 comments

The victims of Australia's worst mass murder will be remembered today, on the 10th anniversary of the tragedy in Port Arthur in Tasmania. [MI]
posted by sjvilla79 at 8:31 PM PST - 21 comments

Battle of the blogger book clubs! Glenn Reynolds Drudge vs. Glenn Greenwald Kos (I think.) The winner gets* a copy of the current #1 book on Amazon.
posted by homunculus at 8:18 PM PST - 31 comments

Ever wonder how time zones work at the North and South Poles? (No, not this North Pole, the real one.)
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 8:09 PM PST - 12 comments

The songs of the Pete Seeger Sessions presents an ultra-detailed listing of prior recordings of the songs included in Bruce Springsteen's excellent "We shall overcome" album, a majestic tribute to the American musical tradition, with some songs written over two centuries ago. The site lists more than 1,560 eariler recordings, by nearly as many artists, with some full-length audio clips included. Aft
posted by keepoutofreach at 7:32 PM PST - 32 comments

Show some spirit... holy spirit Christian Throwback Jerseys
posted by usedwigs at 3:10 PM PST - 44 comments

The Dot Eaters. A dauntingly comprehensive history of video games, beginning with proto-PONG and Spacewar!. If it's difficult to navigate through Captain O's prize matrix, use the handy timeline/scape (the dates don't work, so don't try). It's an interesting site, for sure, but if it doesn't pique your interest maybe the links page will, since it's the largest I've ever seen. In just minutes I found the First Church of Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros fanfiction (@), and a great Robotron shrine. Plus, this noise (wav).
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 12:46 PM PST - 16 comments

Two years after the Abu Ghraib scandal, new research shows that abuse of detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq, Afghanistan, and at Guantánamo Bay has been widespread, and that the United States has taken only limited steps to investigate and punish implicated personnel. A briefing paper issued today, 'By the Numbers,' presents findings of the Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project... the first comprehensive accounting of credible allegations of torture and abuse in U.S. custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo. The project has collected hundreds of allegations of detainee abuse and torture occurring since late 2001 – allegations implicating more than 600 U.S. military and civilian personnel and involving more than 460 detainees.
U.S.: More Than 600 Implicated in Detainee Abuse

See also Projected Iraq War Costs Soar, See also The Trillion Dolllar War.
posted by y2karl at 12:11 PM PST - 110 comments

Few things are more sacred to Canadians than the nation's medicare system. After years of health spending cutbacks by conservative politicians, debate rages over whether private providers should now be allowed to compete with the public system. In British Columbia, where the government is shovelling tax dollars into the 2010 Olympics, patients are being left to die in emergency rooms and long-term care facilities due to overcrowding and understaffing. Is it too late to save public health care? Should it be saved?
posted by 327.ca at 12:00 PM PST - 89 comments

The Endless Forest is a strange piece of software (that can be a screensaver), where you control a deer in a, well, endless forest. And so do a bunch of other online players. And you can interact all you like with them - with the minor caveat that deer can't talk.
posted by DataPacRat at 11:28 AM PST - 46 comments

The Ryungyong Hotel is a nearly 1,000 foot tall abandoned pyramid in the heart of Pyongyang that North Korea has officially tried to forget. [discussed previously here] The architecture magazine Domus had over 200 entries to a contest to repurpose the Ryungong, a similar project is also underway elsewhere on the web, though some architects think the effort is a bad idea. [For Domus, use:mefier/mefite]
posted by blahblahblah at 11:16 AM PST - 43 comments

Better Comix The concept behind this is to use comics from the same day and mix them, good ol cut and paste style, so that they become a tad more funny, depending on your sense of humor.
posted by jasonspaceman at 11:15 AM PST - 16 comments

Introducing Nintendo Wii The revolution is officially the Nintendo Wii: pronounced "we", as in 'to urinate'. If only we weren't coming to the end of april.
posted by 6am at 10:53 AM PST - 150 comments

Google Releases Sketchup for All. Google has released a free version of SketchUp (video and tutorials), quite possibly the coolest and most intuitive 3D authoring tool. An added bonus of SketchUp is it's integration into Google Earth. Google has also provided a 3D Warehouse for the posting of your models, which can be downloaded into either application (SketchUp for editing, Earth for displaying). Kind of gives you some insight into their plans for using Google Earth as an Automotive (Honda and Volkswagen) GPS service. (Sidenote: how long until this is seen as a threat to national security?)
posted by rzklkng at 10:52 AM PST - 41 comments

For those following the situation in Nepal (previously mentioned here, here, and here), the King has relented and reinstated parliament, though it's not clear whether the new Prime Minister has long for this world. The Maoists have declared a ceasefire, though they aren't happy about the development. Everything is still awaiting a constituent assembly...
posted by graymouser at 10:47 AM PST - 3 comments

Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics (via). Spontaneous cover magic from the great YLT.
posted by bardic at 10:34 AM PST - 12 comments

Re-Mission is a 3rd-person shooter designed for teens and young adults with cancer, developed by HopeLab and RealTime Associates. Players pilot a nanobot, Roxxi, through the body of a fictional cancer patient to destroy cancer cells and infections. The Re-Mission Outcomes Study enrolled 375 teens and young adults with cancer, randomized them to receive a computer with the game or without. Data from the study showed statistically significant improvements in cancer-related self-efficacy, social quality of life, cancer-specific knowledge, and adherence to prescribed medication regimens in patients who played Re-Mission. The game (and related online community) is free of charge to teens and young people living with cancer and will be available to others in May at a suggested donation of $20. (related)
posted by sarahnade at 10:33 AM PST - 13 comments

You are, of course, familiar with Kropilak's Garages, no? via the seemingly unavoidable BLDBLOG, who got it from we make money not art, who got it from the prevoiusly unknown to me regarde.
posted by signal at 10:22 AM PST - 7 comments

Chinese Pod. Learn Mandarin Chinese through a podcast.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 9:14 AM PST - 13 comments

The Illustrated London News :: an archive
posted by anastasiav at 8:58 AM PST - 4 comments

The Return of the Hawk-eye. The Hawks of MIT are back for a second season. Will Little Chirpy get some food? Will Preener finally reveal himself as the Mysterious Doctor Wing? Tune in now to find out! Previously.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 8:26 AM PST - 11 comments

Oxfordshire church photos. For all your Oxfordshire church photo needs.
posted by nthdegx at 7:55 AM PST - 17 comments

Adult Swim Fix. Streaming full-length Adult Swim episodes twenty-four hours a day online. Seven archival episodes will be available at all times, while premieres will continue to debut on Fridays, two days before they appear on-air.
posted by ND¢ at 7:16 AM PST - 24 comments

An unwelcome guest of spam. As thanks for his efforts against link spam, a guestbook spammer uses infotech writer Michael Pollitt's name in its autosubmissions, flooding his inbox with confirmation emails and soiling Google's search results for his name. A special word of gratitude goes out to Ev1Servers for his troubles.
posted by brownpau at 6:56 AM PST - 18 comments

Testicular Cancer and Testicular Self-Exam #1
Testicle Self-exam #2
Testicle Self-exam #3
posted by notmtwain at 4:28 AM PST - 47 comments

Jesus with Erection. In its March edition, the Insurgent (link down), an "alternative" student paper on the Eugene, Ore., campus printed 12 hand-drawn cartoons of Jesus as a response to rival paper the Commentator having published the controversial cartoons of Muhammad originally published in Europe that sparked Muslim riots worldwide. William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, called it "one of the most obscene assaults on Christianity I have ever seen." Hey now!
posted by three blind mice at 1:01 AM PST - 89 comments

April 26
This game sucks. Courtesy of the experimental gameplay project.
posted by boo_radley at 9:51 PM PST - 20 comments

Hands to Boag A love song about web standards with lyrics like, "Tonight I need your CSS, coding in the darkness. From now on no more tables nest; you will meet web standards"...
posted by londontube at 8:51 PM PST - 3 comments

Trekkergate escalates! Canadian blogger J. Kelly Nestruck puts out the call for pics of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, closet trekkie. (I wonder if Harper has has an autographed photo of William Shatner?)
posted by docgonzo at 8:16 PM PST - 29 comments

Mimetic rivalry on a planetary scale. Rene Girard is the author of several books developing the idea that human culture is based on sacrifice as the way out of mimetic, or imitative, violence between rivals. When one rival is successful in obtaining the love object, violence is precipitated, which falls on the head of certain scapegoats, of whom Jesus Christ is the archetype. The violence can be traced in literature.
posted by Tarn at 7:23 PM PST - 19 comments

Wes Anderson does a 2-minute commercial for American Express. (YouTube link). As you might expect from Wes Anderson, the results are "quirky" to say the least. Another bigshot director, M. Night Shayamalan, has made one as well. This certainly isn't the first time big companies have hired A-list directors. I wonder who's next?
posted by zardoz at 7:14 PM PST - 68 comments

“Smithy code” The secret lies in HBHG and DVC. According to news reports the Judge who recently ruled in the Da Vinci Code plagiarism case has included his own code in his high court ruling (PDF). At this time, no one seems to have decoded it all...
posted by tiamat at 6:06 PM PST - 39 comments

The BBC Programme Catalogue: an index of 946,614 radio and television broadcasts, dating back 75 years. (Via BB.)
posted by steef at 4:20 PM PST - 14 comments

OK - Lucas has pretty much ruined Star Wars for me. Still, lightsabers are freaking kewl with a capital K, and true to its title, this one is quite probably The Best Home Made Lightsaber Duel Ever. Man, I wish I was a Jedi!
posted by willnot at 3:22 PM PST - 97 comments

In the murky world of HYIP (high-yield investment programs), on the wrong side of the Internet tracks, Team Aaron and Shara were very well known. They had tens of thousands of fans, eager to know which programs were still paying 1-2% per day (or more!). Now their fans will have to resort to other sites to see who is still paying. Curiously, these programs only seem to take anonymous, non-disputable forms of e-payment, such as e-gold. Now, all that is left of them is their farewell website. Did they retire on all of the referral fees, as some suspect? It is impressive that such effort is dedicated to this snake oil, but the law of large numbers must make it work. Who can resist 1.5% an hour return on investment? Is this what has become of anonymous micropayments?
posted by Adamchik at 2:38 PM PST - 19 comments

Is the Bush administration really serious about NATO and UN protection to stop the Darfur genocide? "Is it only weak and incompetent, or is it two-faced?"

What can U.S. citizens do to help end this genocide? For starters, take to the streets: you can register for an April 30th demonstration on the Golden Gate Bridge & at the Presidio, or in Washington, DC. You can also ask your Rep. to sponsor House Resolution 723, a measure that urges the President to help deploy a NATO bridging force to the Darfur region.
posted by n_s_1 at 12:20 PM PST - 56 comments

Feminism causes rape. Or, maybe not.
posted by nofundy at 11:04 AM PST - 166 comments

Stock Spam Effectiveness Monitor Spam comes in, graphs come out. You are not buying stock based on spam, but surely someone must be, or else you wouldn't be flooded with more spam everyday. This tracks one user's inbox and the stocks spammed therein. A bit more analysis here and here
posted by mikepop at 11:02 AM PST - 11 comments

FINALLY, the HOWTO you've all been waiting for...
posted by spock at 10:54 AM PST - 27 comments

Flatulence free legumes or, a more to the point headline. Although I thought ABC news might be a bit more scientific in their phrasing. Nope.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:43 AM PST - 27 comments

Hey Metafilter, check out my breasts! (NSFW)
posted by jonson at 10:04 AM PST - 147 comments

Happy 50th birthday (bugmenot) to "the box that changed the world". (Video interview with the author, here.) On April 26, 1956, Malcolm McLean, a trucker from rural North Carolina, hired a crane to hoist 58 trailer-sized steel cargo boxes onto a refitted oil tanker. This modest experiment would profoundly alter international trade and the global economy, eventually creating the "biggest real-time datastreaming network in the world."
posted by soiled cowboy at 9:47 AM PST - 27 comments

Apple Computer 1984 Newsweek Advertising Insert :: a complete scan of Apple's 16-page advertising insert in Newsweek magazine, introducing the new and revolutionary Macintosh computer.
posted by anastasiav at 8:49 AM PST - 55 comments

Leo Burnett Ad Agency - A pretty cool site, and, says this rank amateur, the best implementation of Flash I've ever seen (and I hate Flash).
posted by loquax at 8:35 AM PST - 30 comments

Vittles and verse - two great tastes that taste great together. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the poetry of cookery. As an appetizer, Chris Tusa serves up a tasty bowl of gumbo; next comes the entree, Mark Strand's comforting pot roast. Meanwhile, Shanna Compton imagines herself as the food itself -- eager ingredients in the skilled hands of Jacques Pepin. If you'd prefer to dine out, Charles Simic presents the menu of Cafe Paradiso, while Don Winter, a former night manager at a Niles, Michigan Burger Chef, proffers a more downmarket culinary experience. Bon appetit! (Poemhunter.com previously on MeFi here. )
posted by GrammarMoses at 8:33 AM PST - 4 comments

From colorful Eugene, Oregon, comes the new independent film HIPPIES about a group of folks who have not given up their values or their vices, and set about saving the earth. Trailer here. (Note release date.)

Of course, the Oregon Country Fair is still going strong and weird
(minor muddy boobage in last link)
posted by Danf at 8:09 AM PST - 26 comments

The new DMCA: the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006 The 24-page bill is a far-reaching medley of different proposals cobbled together. One would, for instance, create a new federal crime of just trying to commit copyright infringement. Such willful attempts at piracy, even if they fail, could be punished by up to 10 years in prison.
posted by beth at 8:07 AM PST - 36 comments

I can't work out if iKarma is a well-intentioned stab at applying the power of social software to the world of business, or simply a well-intentioned scrape at the bottom of the Web 2.0 barrel.
posted by Jofus at 5:41 AM PST - 32 comments

Charles Babbage's Difference Engines. One built in 1853. A subsequent design completed in 1991. And again in Lego. Both designs recreated in Meccano parts. [more inside]
posted by slimepuppy at 3:15 AM PST - 11 comments

The Ninth Circuit (maligned by many as a hotbed of extreme liberal judicial activism, but defended by others PDF) issued its opinion in the case of Harper v. Poway Unified School District last week. Judge Stephen Reinhardt - who, to some people, embodies the alleged evils of the Ninth Circuit - issued the majority opinion, and Judge Alex Kozinski filed a strong dissent. The majority opinion held that a high school principal who ordered a student to remove his T-shirt that said "Homosexuality is Shameful" did not violate the student's First Amendment rights, reasoning that "limitations on speech" are permissible in cases where speech is "derogatory and injurious remarks directed at students' minority status such as race religion and sexual orientation," and the limitation is "narrow, and applied with sensitivity and for reasons that are consistent with the fundamental First Amendment mandate." [more inside]
posted by Pontius Pilate at 1:36 AM PST - 152 comments

April 25
Whitney Music Box [flash] from KrazyDad. You can read about and see examples of John Whitney's work on this extremely ugly website.
posted by tellurian at 11:55 PM PST - 5 comments

Let me tell you what we're gonna do. We're gonna put them handcuffs in front of ya. Cut you a little slack. But if you don't start operating, we're gonna put the mother fuckers behind your back, and I'm gonna take this slapjack and I'm gonna start working that head over, you understand? ...you sign this son of a bitch, or I'm gonna hit you again. Audio. .pdf transcript. Full Story.
posted by Kwantsar at 11:05 PM PST - 60 comments

It is an official language in this US State, and if somebody writes you a check in it while you're here, you better know your numbers. Although its usage fell after a sharp decrease in the native speakers' population and a later 'ban', (not really) in the late 19th century, it is now making a comeback. Wikipedia gets its name from the language. Sadly, though there are almost 4 million Wikipedia articles, a scant 27 of them are written in it. Of course, if you just need a dictionary, it's not hard to find.
posted by onalark at 10:32 PM PST - 20 comments

The Basiji of Iran.
posted by semmi at 10:07 PM PST - 21 comments

Easily mispronounced domain names. Like mp3shits.com. You'll have to cut and paste the links to see for yourself that someone (or better yet, a committee of people) actually thought a particular domain name was a good idea. Another example: whorepresents.com. The list is short, but through the mighty powers of Mefi members, it could be oh so much longer. via gr?pthink.
posted by josephtate at 9:21 PM PST - 52 comments

You think your tattoo is nerdy? From Dinosaur Comics to Exploding Dog, these webcomic fans show their love in a permanent fashion. Hmm. I'm sure I have room for Choo-Choo Bear somewhere.
posted by frykitty at 9:11 PM PST - 34 comments

Unembedded, stunning images from independent photographers working in Iraq.
posted by piscatorius at 8:08 PM PST - 21 comments

What it costs to live well in the United States. According to Forbes, living well for a family of four in New York City requires an annual income of $483,800, compared to $189,923 in Wichita, Kansas. Of course, living well, according to the methodology, involves a vacation home, a BMW 325i and a Lexus RX 330, weekends at the Ritz, and almost no savings, so you might want to skip one of these things if you are a few bucks shy. Also worth noting, the most expensive ZIP codes and houses in the United States (and the world). Are you living well?
posted by blahblahblah at 7:43 PM PST - 83 comments

I've been grooving on some of the music of Persone a lot lately (some full-length mp3 samples here). They're one of the most noticeable Esperanto 'rokbandoj', though by all means not the only one. I'm fond of Jomo kaj Liberecanoj (sample in Spanish, Esperanto, and French) as well. Of course, Esperanto isn't the only constructed language with some music; there apparently is a CD in Klingon (you only hear samples), and some song translations and info about a CD here, and there is also a bit of recorded music in Elvish (scroll down to "Elvish Music"). But most of it seems to be in Esperanto.
posted by graymouser at 5:46 PM PST - 3 comments

Tony Snow On President Bush: ‘An Embarrassment,’ It seems clear now that we will have Snow In Late April as the Bush appointment to be the new press spokesman. Snow comes to the lawn of the White House all the way from Fox News, where he represented their view of Fair and balanced. So balanced in fact that he said things such as this: "“No president has looked this impotent this long when it comes to defending presidential powers and prerogatives.” [9/30/05]. But that was then and this is now and so can we assume that suddenly Bush will be seen as a masterful leader of his nation?
posted by Postroad at 4:23 PM PST - 63 comments

We've talked about quantum computation a few times before, but how much do we really know? Metafilter, instruct thyself. Don't forget to learn some advanced probability and computational complexity (Scott Aaronson has more). Whoa, that's a lot o' learning, so let's so check out the much easier, and much cooler "sleeping puppy" experiment. I can only dream that will help break quantum mechanics' association with animal abuse. Then, there's the Free Will Theorem that just came out (some discussion on it) and another paper with a new look at an old problem. The latter describes another way of solving ye olde, super importanto Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox using the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics (lots of discussion running around). Whew. We don't need the crackpot ramblings of What the #$*! Do We Know? when we've got real physics to keep us up at night. So, who wants to become a physicist? (t'Hooft has some thoughts for those who want to go theoretical.)
posted by jmhodges at 4:09 PM PST - 26 comments

The Chernobyl Legacy
posted by rinkjustice at 3:54 PM PST - 17 comments

LabLit.com is about scientists, but not so much about science. In the most recent update is an interview with Daniel Glaser about his involvement behind the scenes of the BBC documentary Under Laboratory Conditions. Older articles on LabLit.com are about iPods in the lab, sex in the lab, basically anything besides science that still relates to lab life. "LabLit" is short for "lab literature", and the about page explains the connection between the two and the idea behind the site.
posted by easternblot at 3:53 PM PST - 6 comments

From estate tax to 'death tax' Public Citizen released a report [PDF link] today that "reveals how 18 families worth a total of $185.5 billion have financed and coordinated a 10-year effort to repeal the [U.S.] estate tax, a move that would collectively net them a windfall of $71.6 billion." The rich get richer...
posted by tippiedog at 3:41 PM PST - 73 comments

Alexander Selkirk, born in 1676 in Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland, was the unruly seventh son of a cobbler. In 1703, having grown tired of life in his village, he was able to convince successful buccaneer William Dampier that he was the man to navigate Dampier’s next privateering expedition to South America. After a dispute with the young captain of the ship on which he served as sailing master, Selkirk was left behind on a small island 418 miles west of Valparaiso, Chile. Rescued four years later, he was the subject of several contemporary accounts of his ordeal, and likely served as one of Daniel Defoe's primary inspirations for Robinson Crusoe.
posted by killdevil at 2:40 PM PST - 10 comments

Arguing the ceremony is only for the families, newly-elected Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has forbidden the media from attending today's arrival of the remains of four Canadian soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan. Mr. Harper has also declined to lower the flag on Parliament Hill to half-staff. Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, retired soldier and former lobbyist for various defense contracting firms, says his government is returning to the tradition of honouring dead soldiers on November 11, Remembrance Day. Meanwhile, residents of the northern aboriginal community of Kashechawan, plagued by flooding and drinking water problems, are being evacuated, after government promises to repair a dike went unfulfilled. God Bless Canada.
posted by docgonzo at 2:40 PM PST - 57 comments

A few songs about comic strips. Here is Edward Meeker performing "Oh Min!" (mp3 link), a song about Sidney Smith's "The Gumps". Barney Google also had a song or two (mp3 links). Little Orphan Annie is probably the most famous (Real Audio), aside from Popeye.
posted by interrobang at 1:23 PM PST - 12 comments

Bush Impeachment - The Illinois State Legislature is Preparing to Drop a Bombshell Utilizing a little known rule of the US House to bring Impeachment charges. California Becomes Second State to Introduce Bush Impeachment.
posted by digibri at 12:36 PM PST - 86 comments

I can't think for you. You'll have to decide. Whether the Birmingham Steeldogs have God on their side.
posted by Otis at 12:24 PM PST - 19 comments

Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day. It may not be the world's best ice cream (personal favs), it's also not the worst (universally reviled).
posted by ericbop at 11:25 AM PST - 161 comments

Where do your recycleables go? Minneapolis' Star Tribune has created a very interesting, informative, interactive feature, describing where your recycling goes after it is picked up from your curb. An educational way to spend your afternoon!
posted by santiagogo at 10:46 AM PST - 14 comments

In Praise of Loopholes, simply put, is a great story and an example of fine writing you can only find online. (From our own shadowkeeper).
posted by mathowie at 10:34 AM PST - 21 comments

FollowupFilter - After a two year hiatus (read: punishment ban), Gregg Easterbrook (founder of Beliefnet, Brookings scholar, ex of Slate & NFL.com) one of ESPN's most popular football writers returns, with no acknoledgment of where he went or why. Hopefully he'll keep his mouth shut about ABC and/or Disney related projects this time. As a side note, his two seasons worth of back articles are apparently not available, as they were purged (permanently?) when he was fired.
posted by jonson at 10:00 AM PST - 16 comments

The Way Things Go. (Google Video.) The incredible short by Peter Fischli and David Weiss. (Mentioned before (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) but here is the complete film!)
posted by limitedpie at 9:55 AM PST - 22 comments

Drunken idiot Shawn Seamus hopes an embarrassing video circulating on the Internet will lead to his big break in show business. Hey, it worked for this guy, right? Right?
posted by Dr-Baa at 9:49 AM PST - 19 comments

Dark Age Ahead. Jane Jacobs passes on.
posted by Chuckles at 9:35 AM PST - 49 comments

"Turn it off man, I don't want no problems." Democracy Now attempts to interview Katrina evacuees at a FEMA trailer park. FEMA's private security guards claim that the residents don't have 'the privilege' of being able to speak freely on FEMA property without a FEMA 'minder' present.
posted by empath at 8:38 AM PST - 64 comments

There are plenty of contests whose purpose is to pick out the best looking dog, or flowers or various other things. But what about the ugliest? These sites and contests bring you the ugliest cars, dogs, celebrities (YMMV), buildings in Ann Arbor, MI, and those bastions of cuteness, babies.
posted by darsh at 7:53 AM PST - 16 comments

Top Knots Weddings, no matter how grand, are comprised of many intimate, unforgettable moments, and wedding photographers have just one chance to capture them. The judges of this year's Top Knots competition felt that the work featured in this online gallery succeeded in preserving these moments in a creative and innovative way.
posted by ColdChef at 7:36 AM PST - 32 comments

"For years people laughed at me. But my dream reoccured so often that I was sure that one day the yellow gnomes would visit our planet with a very special message for us. Now I am not alone anymore." These yellow gnomes have apparently appeared all over NW Europe. Today a fresh batch was discovered in Abcoude, Netherlands (in Dutch). And yes, of course there is a forum. Art or crazy?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:04 AM PST - 26 comments

April 24
In the World of Warcraft, Serenity Now - a hardcore Player-verus-Player (PvP) guild - attacked an in-game memorial service held by another guild for a guild member who passed away in real life. They made a video of the exploit, apparently for recruitment purposes. In their wake they left many questions...
posted by bigmusic at 11:12 PM PST - 121 comments

For those of you suddenly obsessed with Iran and the atom. I wonder how that happened...
posted by panoptican at 9:07 PM PST - 13 comments

Save the Internet is a coalition trying to preserve net neutrality and stop Congress from ruining the internet by giving it to the telecommunications industry this Wednesday. (More links, previous discussion, via.)
posted by homunculus at 7:24 PM PST - 57 comments

Making any jokes or statements during the screening process may be grounds for both criminal and civil penalties.
posted by quonsar at 6:13 PM PST - 73 comments

The Desert One Debacle
posted by Kwantsar at 5:07 PM PST - 19 comments

Abraham Lincoln, duelist? Hamilton and Burr were not the only prominent duelists in US history. In the early morning hours of September 22, 1842, a young Abraham Lincoln crossed the Mississippi River at Alton, IL on his way to a small island where he would engage in mortal combat with a political adversary. Lincoln had used his sarcastic wit to write anonymous letters to the editor lampooning a political rival, James Shields. Some of his friends joined in and perhaps went a little too far, including suggestions of Shields' inadequacies with the ladies. One of these friends included Lincoln's future wife, Mary Todd. Shields demanded a duel and Lincoln defined the parameters of the duel - broadswords in a pit.
posted by caddis at 4:16 PM PST - 46 comments

Del Mar Community College in Corpus Christi has blocked all access to MySpace because it was 40% of all Internet usage. (Don't those students know about downloading bootleg MP3s?)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 4:15 PM PST - 60 comments

Chinlone!
posted by Witty at 3:47 PM PST - 18 comments

Crash. Tiny SMART-1, ESA's first lunar probe (also a compact spacecraft technology test bed), has been in lunar orbit since November 2004. Following the success of its primary and secondary missions, ESA now plans to crash SMART-1 into the moon, with a hard landing on the near side which may be visible from Earth. More stuff on ESA's little lunar trooper: SMART-1 lunar imagery, SMART-1 NASA Master Catalog entry, Planetary Society's SMART-1 category, and SMART-1 on Wikipedia.
posted by brownpau at 3:39 PM PST - 4 comments

"This right here beats everything I have ever seen." Michael Mendez, Danny Reeves, and "Master Rick" Sciara were arrested a month ago for castrating at least six men in their sadomasochistic dungeon in Waynesville, NC. Inside the house were found a tin of used instruments, an electric shock paddle, a Physician's Desk Reference, an invoice for lidocaine, and a pair of frozen human testicles.
posted by stemlot at 2:46 PM PST - 61 comments

Air France: Apparently abandoning any pretence that traveling economy in the back of an A330 is an enticing experience, they've launched this site which looks back at the days when women wore fur, men smoked pipes and air travel was glamorous. Quite a few nice little movie vignettes of life chez Air France from the ‘50’s and ‘60’s.
posted by marvin at 2:46 PM PST - 22 comments

i'm not trying to be anyone that I'm not, i'm just a middle class white boy trying to express myself... i'm hoping to get my big record contract... It's just a demo. (mpeg)
posted by sucka_mc at 12:40 PM PST - 62 comments

Perform the painless procedure* Affordable In-Home LASIK Surgery You Can Do Yourself!™
*This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA.
posted by jba at 12:28 PM PST - 21 comments

"Killing the Buddha is about finding a way to be religious when we're all so self-conscious and self-absorbed. Knowing more than ever about ourselves and the way the world works, we gain nothing through nostalgia for a time when belief was simple, and even less from insisting that now is such a time. Killing the Buddha will ask, How can we be religious without leaving part of ourselves at the church or temple door? How can we love God when we know it doesn't matter if we do? Call it God for the godless. Call it the search for a God we can believe in: A God that will not be an embarrassment in twelve-thousand years. A God we can talk about without qualifications." I particularly enjoyed The Temptation of Belief, by a Buddhist exploring evangelical Christianity, and My Holy Ghost People, by an unbelieving daughter in a praying-in-tongues family.
posted by heatherann at 12:26 PM PST - 21 comments

Talk to The Hand .