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Have you ever noticed that the line between the NYT and MF is blurring?
Today I found a whole article about the strange and amazing fact that <a href="http://charlesatlas.com">The ninety-pound weakling company</a> is still in business, and on the Web! I can easily imagine a day when storeis are one paragraph long, and "Abuzz" comments let you know the rest of the details, y'know, like a Hamlet written by 1000 locusts on typewriters, or something...
posted by rschram at 11:52 AM PST - 7 comments

US drug patients vs. the world in AIDS crisis. Brazil is making generic AIDS medicine based upon existing drugs created (and of course patented) by US drug companies. the catch? they are giving the drugs away FOR FREE. US Drug companies want their money. the UN agreed ,52 in favor and 1 not in favor, for brazil's strategy for dealing with the AIDS crisis. guess who opposed.
posted by Qambient at 11:47 AM PST - 38 comments

We're live again. After an eventless trip across the United States, MetaFilter is now happily living again. I was trying to come up with a name for my apartment, now that MetaFilter lives here -- Pyra East? MetaBroadway? I'm not creative right now.
posted by delfuego at 10:12 AM PST - 60 comments

World's Most Likely Person To Get Caught Buying Booze Underage Gets Caught Once More Trying To Buy Booze. Can't she at least get the Secret Service to go to the liquor store?
posted by holgate at 11:01 AM PST - 62 comments

How to get into college Who needs good grades, hard work, and extra activities! All you need to get into college is determination and a gimmick! Look out Harvard here I come.
posted by aj100 at 10:47 AM PST - 9 comments

Amorous Monkey Business Outrages Town A Sri Lankan town being terrorized a monkey (Important note: not a "Monkey Man" or "Invisible Bear") "flirting outrageously with cats and dogs". Aroused monkeys! Hide your children! (Another important note: This is in fact my first link. Be gentle)
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:14 AM PST - 4 comments

The Hoopla 500 is a new writing project by the creator of SMUG. (You remember SMUG, right? The site that taught us "nobody is sexier than you"?) Hoopla 500 should help fill the 'clever writing' gap that Life Serial and An Entirely Other Day have left behind*. Now if we can just get Leslie to relaunch SMUG, all will be well.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 10:10 AM PST - 6 comments

And I thought the market was tight in Boston... A man was charged with killing two people -- one of whom was dismembered -- so he could move into their apartments, police said.
posted by J. R. Hughto at 10:08 AM PST - 6 comments

ALL YOUR EMAIL ARE BELONG TO US! How serious is this threat? What precautions do you routinely take? What precautions do you think you *should* be taking? What viable options do we have today, for those of us who aren't computer programmers by profession? And how secure are they, anyway?
posted by rushmc at 9:56 AM PST - 12 comments

Irish government urges a "yes" vote on death penalty ban.
So, finally, the referendum here in Ireland for the complete removal of the death penalty, and references to it, from the constituation will take place June 7th. I think I know how I will vote on this one - it's going to be a "no". I think it's too vague to simply remove all references to it, and also to never allow it to be reinstated under any circumstances. I'm not a huge advocate of capital punishment, except in the cases of serious terrorist offences and genocide, I just dislike that we can erase any law like that and not allow it to be brought back - ever. I think it sets a dangerous precedent for other laws and other constitutional elements to be removed. Anyway, I'd like to get some views on it - I've not fully made up my mind. More info can be found here.
posted by tomcosgrave at 5:59 AM PST - 25 comments

First a monkey/man, now a bear/man. India is being terrorized by strange mutated creatures. Anyone want to guess what the next spin of the genetic roulette wheel will bring?
posted by crunchland at 5:58 AM PST - 13 comments

Welsh call for ban on Australian genitalia show Morley and Friend also performed a private show at the Christmas party of an exclusive South Kensington jeweller. Guests in his handpicked audience included supermodel Naomi Campbell, U2 frontman Bono, actor Hugh Grant, England soccer captain David Beckham and his Posh Spice wife Victoria, and Elton John and his boyfriend. The two men perform their "dick tricks" dressed only in running shoes, accompanied by a pianist, a lighting show and big-screen close-ups of the action.
posted by LAM at 5:28 AM PST - 14 comments

Welcome to the United States! The same weekend his film opened (to glowing reviews) in the United States, Iranian film director Jafar Panahi was handcuffed and chained to a bench overnight in the bowels of JFK airport because he lacked the proper visa-- even though he was just changing planes. Despite limited English, he was not given a translator. American law "requires every Iranian to be photographed and fingerprinted upon entering the United States. Once in the country, Iranians are not allowed to travel outside a 25-mile radius of New York without permission." Link via Random Walks
posted by FPN at 3:33 AM PST - 29 comments

Do you Yahoo? Kaycee-Nicole does. Just when we thought the dust had settled, the Kaycee Nicole hoax now has its own Yahoo category. If this is a double-post, someone bonk me.
posted by brownpau at 2:36 AM PST - 7 comments

"Oh sure, but can you use the word in a sentence?" The 47th annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee is in full swing, and ESPN2 will broadcast the final round Thursday 7:30 to 9:30 pm ET. Yeah ya hoid me! A sports netwerk's gonna broadcast a spellin' bee! Ya gotta problem wit' dat?
posted by ZachsMind at 1:22 AM PST - 20 comments

So, anyone can get a Nevada carry permit now? You'll have to scroll down a bit, so here's the quote: "On Wednesday, May 23, Governor Guinn (R) signed SB 20 and SB 172. SB 20 allows non-residents to apply for a Nevada Right to Carry permit starting October 1, 2001, and SB 172 abolishes the two-gun-per-permit limitation for Nevada Right to Carry permits beginning July 1, 2002, when the state's computer infrastructure is in place. " An article that explains, to some degree, what the law entails. I'm assuming that someone heading to Nevada to wear all his guns would still have to keep them locked up until he got there.
posted by Ezrael at 12:21 AM PST - 6 comments

Shaggies - No, it's not a "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters" costume, it only looks that way. Just the thing for the Dad or Grad on your list who wants to look like a shambling mound of leaves for that special occasion. Be sure to check their home page for a great group shot. (Even available for pets)
posted by kokogiak at 11:00 PM PST - 4 comments

30 Odd Foot of Grunts It's Russel Crowe's self-described Australian/lyrical/folk/blues-based/country/rock band! Most of you know Russel Crowe from such blockbusters as Virtuosity and...well thats about it, really. According to his profile, he is but 9 and a half years old, but don't be fooled! He's actually quite older!!!!!!!!1
posted by mcsweetie at 7:23 PM PST - 14 comments

Metric Time... it's 95.5 do you know where your children are? (Check out the whole site; it's a wonderful melange of crazy and not so crazy ideas.)
posted by silusGROK at 6:30 PM PST - 14 comments

Payola exposed - for those not "in the know" - if you're wondering why radio sucks so much, this LA Times article is the answer. The concept of Payola is nothing new - it's a long-talked about means of record companies getting radio stations to shove their chosen music down our throats twenty times in the course of a day. It was reported recently, however, that some incriminating documents were uncovered, finally confirming that ALL of the major record company conglomerates are involved in this scam!
posted by twiggy at 5:22 PM PST - 9 comments

Where weblogs go to die: FuckedWeblog.
posted by rcade at 5:18 PM PST - 6 comments

Entireity of New Testament in Tok Pisin available for download.
Here's the OT. I haven't really looked it over. It seems to lack chapter, book and verse breaks. It does have some SGML like tags strewn about. The files certainly seem long enough to be the whole thing. The links are part of a back end for an open source bible analysis tool. Could be useful...
posted by rschram at 5:04 PM PST - 8 comments

Irish Students' Drinking Linked to Dropout Rates -- 38 gallons of beer per year on average leading to a almost 1/3 student dropout .. but its ok because "per capita consumption of alcohol was higher at the bar in the Irish parliament than in student pubs."
posted by stbalbach at 3:45 PM PST - 9 comments

Is this Andrew Sullivan's ass? This morning, Jim Romenesko made a questionable publishing decision. He ran a link to an article in last Friday's edition of the newspaper LGNY, in which Michelangelo Signorile makes a very serious allegation: That Andrew Sullivan has been advertising for "bareback" sex online (anal sex w/o condoms). Such actions on Sullivan's part would be seen by many as exceedingly hypocritical given his voluminous writings of a moral conservative bent and his "arrogance toward the ghettoized gay scene" (as Signorile puts it), if not downright dangerous given his HIV+ status.

If true, this brings up plenty of ideological and moral issues, which I'm sure will be discussed in this thread. But that's not why I'm bringing it up here. I'm posting because of the vaguely Kayceeish nature of the whole thing. If you look at Signorile's article, you'll see that all the evidence is circumstantial. Several people who Signorile really really trust say they answered the ads and Sullivan was the guy that showed up when they met. The photos in the ads look like what most people expect Sullivan's body to look like (minus his head, of course). Also, Sullivan hasn't responded to anyone's questions about this, and after all, if the accusations were false wouldn't Sullivan be loudly denying them (wink wink)?

Complicating the whole mess is Signorile's own journalistic history - he made his name during the late '80s-early '90s running gossipy columns outing famous people against their will - and that Romenesko decided to publicize this article in the first place, thus ensuring that every single person in the national media is fully aware of the allegations, true or not. Is this actual proof that Sullivan is guilty of barebacking, or is he being Borked (Kayceed?)? Should it have been publicized like this in the first place, since a mention in Romenesko is the best way to start up a classic pack journalism action short of running a front-page story in The New York Times? Will other media outlets jump on this now and sully Sullivan's reputation, whether the allegations are true or not?
posted by aaron at 2:41 PM PST - 41 comments

The trials and tribulations of Chad Slacker. He's just a sim... nothing more, nothing less.
posted by crunchland at 2:39 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Not to be outdone by the digital scavenger hunt tie-in for the film A.I., the producers of the upcoming Planet of the Apes remake take their scavenger hunt (back) to the real world -- with a modern twist.
posted by jjg at 2:37 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Someone's written my book! Slack by Tom Demarco (look for the pdf download at this link) is one of the most straightforward, easy -to-read, common sense books on management since Goldratt's Critical Chain. It's the antithesis to the recent headline I saw about Lucent and Alcatel -- Rebuilding With an Ax and a Cattle Prod. How do you build anything with an ax?
posted by fpatrick at 2:22 PM PST - 2 comments

A little while ago matt posted a link about this traceroute app. the link has expired, but the company is still there and, presumably, still sells the product. yet, there is a free version available. very cool visual packet/hop/latency program, lets you zoom in on the maps but i suspect they provide less detail than the neotrace pay version.
posted by donkeysuck at 2:03 PM PST - 3 comments

Unilateralism means never having to say you're sorry. Kyoto Accord? Bah! Anti-ballistic missile treaties? Bah! Didn't you hear, man? We won the freakin' Cold War! Now that we've got a Real Man in office, we don't have to listen those pussies in foreign countries anymore. (found on Plastic)
posted by RylandDotNet at 1:21 PM PST - 5 comments

Now there's no excuse for starting that blog. This software allows you to create entries on your Palm (Windows only it appears :-( )
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 12:54 PM PST - 9 comments

SoCal MeFians take note: The Tahara Project Gala Fundraiser is coming up June 16 at the El Rey Theatre. Lots of amazing dancers raising money to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 12:29 PM PST - 2 comments

Prom dresses getting skimpier (NB: New York Times link). I have to believe that Principal Matakovich would have made prom night a quick roundtrip home for any girl who showed up at the San Luis Obispo High School prom dressed in one of these ... (although one hesitates to use Size 2 Spence girls as a firm sign of a trend).
posted by MattD at 10:50 AM PST - 23 comments

The fit continues to hit the shan? "One (FBI) agent says evidence that he personally obtained - evidence that might have helped McVeigh's case - may have been ignored or not documented by the FBI. "
posted by owillis at 10:46 AM PST - 3 comments

Guns in fanny packs. A guy is encouraging gun owners to bring their weapons to Taste of Chicago, carried in one of fashion's greatest mistakes. How will cops be able to tell who is carrying a gun and who just has no fashion sense?
posted by keli at 10:30 AM PST - 8 comments

How to get $43 millions dollars from the United States

Strip all your female citizens of their human rights
Single out religious minorities (for their "protection")
Agree to crack down on opium farming without any real monitoring

The War on Drugs finds a new ally in The Taliban.
posted by alan at 8:50 AM PST - 18 comments

Seasonals: "Even the toughest gals need gentle protection when they're in season." I just love the coy look on the "gal" in the picture. Fetching.
posted by dfowler at 8:30 AM PST - 2 comments

Supreme Court gives golfer Casey Martin the keys to the cart. Can a private organization be forced to allow something it says is against the spirit of the rules of it's competitions? Will we see Casey play anytime soon? Who else will benefit from this ruling in golf and other sports?
posted by msacheson at 8:09 AM PST - 65 comments

Another way to save energy: make every day a Daylight Savings Time day. Why *do* we (USAians or anyone else with daylight-extending customs) bother to change back to standard time, anyway?
posted by darukaru at 7:39 AM PST - 13 comments

reverse speech "This form of communication can be heard if human speech is recorded and played backwards. Once every five or ten seconds very clear and precise phrases occur.
Reverse speech is the voice of truth and it is complementary with forward speech. The two modes occur simultaneously yet are formed in different areas of the mind. Simply, forward speech is from the left brain and Reverse Speech is from the right brain. "
posted by riley370 at 7:01 AM PST - 11 comments

Victor Kiam dies. This is quite a shame... just thought I'd post and let all know
posted by monkeyJuice at 6:18 AM PST - 9 comments

"Interests - Own navel." (aka "When Web Templates Go Live"> Looks like one of the original participants for Big Brother 2 pulled out at short notice.... (oops, slapped hands, web designers.)
posted by holgate at 2:48 AM PST - 5 comments

How to brew up a new cold war: arm up some rivals and burn a treaty in exchange for setting up a global missle defense system. Can anyone find an upside to this story? Why could this be a good thing for the US and the rest of the world?
posted by mathowie at 11:43 PM PST - 45 comments

USA's new popular export: Their ignorance. A comedian who specializes in political and cultural satire, Mercer's most popular schtick is "Talking to Americans" -- a "Candid Camera"-esque routine in which he travels the United States asking people ridiculous questions to exploit their ignorance about their northern neighbor.
posted by adnan at 9:52 PM PST - 57 comments

Must be weird links day. First we hear, falsely, that Big Bird is being fired. Then we have 2 Prince items, one of which claims that he is now a Jehovah's Witless, excuse me, Witness, and that he also occasionally has a B-12 injection before shows. (Coincidence?) And now, we have Janis Joplin's alleged death certificate up for bid on eBay.
posted by Lynsey at 9:36 PM PST - 4 comments

Blame Canada! Will Canada take over the leading role in space exploration? Via Slashdot.
posted by rushmc at 4:45 PM PST - 18 comments

(via Zeldman) Halcyon turns 30 today...Cake, ice cream and flash movies on his site. Have a good one, buddy!
posted by EricBrooksDotCom at 12:15 PM PST - 11 comments

Prince wants to sell you the Watchtower and Awake magazines. I am very surprised at this turn of events. What's he gonna do about all his songs that have so much sexual content?
posted by summer1971 at 11:35 AM PST - 13 comments

You'd have to be a Rock Star for service like this! It's Nutter butter cookies & Unscented Kleenex for MATCHBOX 20... And better be certain there's no hair in the food for the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy, and for The artist known again as Prince, who likes to shoot up before going onstage, make sure everything is rapped in plastic! and if Mariah should stop by, please provide some crystal champagne glasses & bendy straws.. Rock stars & their backstage requirements, from the The Smoking Gun What would you ask for? (besides bendy straws of course)
posted by danger at 11:29 AM PST - 16 comments

Big bird, fired. Seems the economy has truly fallen on hard times when they start letting the puppet people go. Sesame Street lays off 70; can complete financial collapse be far behind?
posted by monstro at 8:10 AM PST - 41 comments

Introduction to NTK Once self-described as a "Telegraphic Gentlman's Newsweekly", NTK is a treasure trove of interesting links. This is an interview with one of the founders. I subscribe and contribute to it, and look forward to reading it every Saturday morning - in Australia.
posted by flowerdale at 12:26 AM PST - 9 comments

NASA releases new high resolution images of the "Face on Mars" digitally enhanced to make it it look like an ordinary mesa rock formation.
Of course, we know better...
posted by lagado at 12:02 AM PST - 7 comments

New York Times - Some Upset by Twist "The movie does not give even a glancing reference to the scores of Hawaiian civilians the youngest a 3-month-old girl who were killed in the attack, most of them from friendly fire as antiaircraft rounds missed their targets and landed several miles away in Honolulu." Don't let Disney teach you history!
posted by sudama at 12:01 AM PST - 22 comments

Oh, those naughty SMILTs. Or single men in their late thirties. Apparently, they mack on all the twentysomething chicks, and get away with it. Twentysomething guys, really, are too desperate to settle down to merit serious attention. "I'm shy and awkward and desparate for love!" Chandler cried as Janice quickly shut the door behind her.

Thanks to textism for the initial link. It's a great time to be 21!

posted by moz at 11:28 PM PST - 14 comments

Brand virus leaps to another level. Law & Order episodes on TNT next month will have ads digitally inserted.

Which reminds me--I was thinking about a device that would remove objects (say, Bruce Willis) from any channel I pick. . .I say we should get paid for watching ads customized to our specifications. (via Q)
posted by aflakete at 8:51 PM PST - 15 comments

So far, G-Dubya's first 100 or so days in office have been a media party. (What happened to all that liberal media bias Rush Limbaugh was talking about, anyway?) Is it time for the hangover? Reporters are starting to realize that a photo-op at alternative fuels production facilities can't hide the fact that he's paying off his energy business cronies, that different skin colors and genders among Appeals Court nominees doesn't necessarily equal "diversity", and that Bush is generally not walking the walk for all his "compassionate Conservative" talk.
posted by RylandDotNet at 8:08 PM PST - 21 comments

Anybody else forget about Atlantis being in Northern Europe? What with the Mike Mignola-designed Disney Atlantis movie coming out this summer, seems like a good time to examine one of the more elusive crackpot theories...and since this fellow beat me to it, why not just point him out? He's also got a good page on Colin Wilson, who has plenty of fascinating stuff to say on that island that suffered a day and a night of misfortune.
posted by Ezrael at 4:51 PM PST - 12 comments

Its existence has been debated many times, although on the front cover of today's Oxford Mail was a new picture that is speculated to be an authentic image of the Lochness Monster. Could the legend of the Loch Ness Monster be proven true? Whether or not Nessie exists, fishermen are trying to net it, swedish spies are hunting for it, scientists are listening for it, the tourists are on the watch and a witch is trying to provide magical protection. Take a peek yourself and you may see Nessie...
posted by crog at 3:13 PM PST - 15 comments

Football is killing our children - this site is just a riot.. definitely a hearty laugh, and a great parody (ack did I just ruin it for some of you? I mean um... it's serious!)...
posted by twiggy at 2:12 PM PST - 3 comments

I'm sorry, but this is funny.

It's yet another AYB take-off... But well done And with Papa Smurf!

via mempool
posted by o2b at 1:02 PM PST - 5 comments

Pizza delivery sets new altitude record as space station cosmonaut Yuri Usachov receives Pizza Hut order sent via resupply rocket.
posted by Mars Saxman at 10:39 AM PST - 15 comments

Governor Reno? "In a competitive governor's race a challenger who has numbers like Reno's keeps incumbents awake at night,'' pollster Rob Schroth said. "This poll does not suggest she's odds-on favorite but she certainly takes more away from him than any other candidate we tested."
posted by owillis at 9:39 AM PST - 27 comments

Marxist Literary Critics Are Following Me!
"Several months ago I was approached by an individual who I have reason to believe belonged to a covert organization involving politics, illegal weapons, etc., who put great pressure on me to place coded information in future novels 'to be read by the right people here and there,' as he phrased it. I refused to do it."

How Philip K. Dick betrayed his academic admirers to the FBI.
posted by lagado at 6:53 AM PST - 12 comments

the adventive report "While many deadpool websites continue to monitor the failures of the high-profile flops, the aim of the Adventive Report is to highlight the companies that are persisting in the face of an Internet slump. Through testimonials, examples, and editorials, our newsletter showcases a myriad of achievements in an evolving industry."
posted by riley370 at 4:06 PM PST - 3 comments

Spanish Art is the movement which arises from the ashes of Mail Art. Replacing the old outdated term "mail" with the newer and more conceptually perfect name "Spanish". Paging Monty Cantsin!
posted by rodii at 11:53 AM PST - 2 comments

Something else tax-related...
There is NOW a genuine effort in Congress to eliminate the income tax! House Resolution (H.J. Res. 45 -- The Liberty Amendment) sponsored by heroic congressman Ron Paul, that would repeal the 16th Amendment and free us from direct taxation, which is one thing the Constitution originally guaranteed, before it was vandalized by unscrupulous politicians early in the last century, who promised the income tax would hit only "the rich" (where have you heard that before?) and would never be more than a few percent. Politicians have such senses of humor. Anyway, YOU can help Rep. Paul's effort to repeal the income tax: join the petition to the U.S. House of Representatives and encourage everyone you know to do the same. This is a real opportunity, so if you oppose the income tax, here's your chance to do something concrete and effective (and still easy) to help the fight against it. Time is a factor, so please do it today.
Found on deuceofclubs.com, an amazingly witty site where a person can lose countless hours of their life at, reading all sorts of non-tax-related mayhem.
posted by lizardboy at 11:51 AM PST - 13 comments

A Tokyo breakfast like none you have ever seen. I saw this and laughed as I watched it. Warning, some people may find it offensive as the basic premise is the over use of a common racial slur. But it brings up a bigger question. Have we really moved to the point where racial slurs have become an acceptable part of pop culture?
posted by summer1971 at 11:43 AM PST - 32 comments

Congress reaches deal on tax cut. OK folks, remove all jewlery and footwear before stepping into the ring. Libertarians vs. Socialists! GO!
posted by tweebiscuit at 10:42 AM PST - 30 comments

"...the sad truth is there really are no great differences between British and American campaigns."
posted by normy at 10:40 AM PST - 1 comments

Deputy Dawg Cracking cases with his service glock, crackhead Bucks County Barney Fife is the new face of law enforcement
posted by Perigee at 9:09 AM PST - 5 comments

New Episode of Amanda Hades! Check out the latest installment in the Amanda Hades series!
posted by ordinaryworld at 5:33 AM PST - 10 comments

Who is Brendan Lemon's secret baseball player lover? And will professional sports ever be the same if he comes out?
posted by RylandDotNet at 5:16 AM PST - 24 comments

I need a gun in this brave new world.
posted by kramer_101 at 3:40 AM PST - 15 comments

Is it just me, or has this been the slowest-moving weather front you've ever seen come across North America? We're having crazy storms over here. Are we drastically changing our climate? How many people will increase their chance of getting skin cancer this weekend? By how much? Will you please put on some sunscreen?
posted by sudama at 12:34 AM PST - 14 comments

The Sorry Tail of the Catwoman of Petaluma (and Bel Marin Keys, and Sebastopol...) And the cat count is now up to 202...
posted by Lynsey at 11:06 PM PST - 4 comments

"Freddo." "Pancho." "41." "Superstretch." "The Cobra." The Bush nicknames are revealed...
posted by owillis at 10:51 PM PST - 7 comments

Welcome to Christian Fun Mail! Your source for fun Christian Email addresses. Please choose a domain that you would like to have an email address with below and have fun!
posted by tweebiscuit at 9:40 PM PST - 14 comments

"Avoiding Downtown easier these days" I wonder what rock these folks have been living under. Would you believe that "thousands of people are able to live, work and have every service available to them without ever going Downtown"? This was a front-page story here, no less.
posted by binkin at 9:04 PM PST - 26 comments

Heard an interesting MP3 the other day (4.6m). With about 8 gigs of MP3s in random rotation at home, there are some songs that I have never even heard before. A live Radiohead song I got off of Napster started off innocently enough, but then broke into a sparsely instrumented and gravelly voiced song by someone who professes to love a part of the female anatomy that rhymes with mulva. I was struck by peer to peer's potential for art-thug type abuse, and wondered why I hadn't run into it before. Anyone else find some gems buried within their tunes?
posted by machaus at 7:53 PM PST - 11 comments

ICON FEVER! A very cool site, updated weekly, is currently showing a very wild collection of icons...
(Link courtesy of art-tillery.com)
posted by modofo at 6:54 PM PST - 13 comments

One of the worst things I've seen in a while... this reminds me of that 8-story supermarket in Seoul, Korea last year that crumbled from the weight of overcrowding in it's poorly built frame. What does it take for people to know better than to let things like this happen?
posted by prototype_octavius at 12:55 PM PST - 20 comments

What the hell is Martin Garbus up to? Oozing incredulity, a federal appeals court smacked down the injunction barring publication of "The Wind Done Gone", a parody of "Gone With The Wind" from the perspective of a slave, flatly describing the lower-court ban as "an unlawful prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment" -- pretty much what most right-thinking copyright thinkers have asserted all along.

So since when is Martin Garbus, lead counsel selected by EFF to run the DeCSS case, a man who got started by defending Lenny Bruce, a lawyer Feed described as having "a long and unparalleled record as an advocate for first amendment rights", whose free speech bona fides include at one point hiding the Pentagon Papers in his apartment -- why is this man representing Margaret Mitchell's heirs on the definitively wrong side of an open-and-shut First Amendment case?
posted by bumppo at 12:22 PM PST - 16 comments

You be the judge Mercy killing? Perhaps. You be the judge and pass sentence after reading the facts that convicted the father.
posted by Postroad at 11:33 AM PST - 7 comments

Death toll from nCJD passes 100. Is it me, or were we expecting a lot more than that? SEAC called for more post mortem examinations to be conducted on elderly people who die with suspected dementia, in case vCJD is being misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's or senility. Seems unlikely that a diagnosis of Alzheimer's or dementia could be made *without* a postmortem, but there ya go.
posted by methylsalicylate at 10:30 AM PST - 2 comments

Satellite Meteorology : lots of it.
posted by tomplus2 at 10:23 AM PST - 1 comments

What Color is My Hat? I [heart] these mathematical conundrums -- simple, easy-to-state, seemingly obvious logic problems that have solutions that completely defy common sense. Here's another you can spring on a friend: "You want to fry up three pieces of french toast. You have a frying pan that is just large enough to accomodate two pieces of bread at a time. If it takes you 30 seconds to fry one side of bread, and each piece of must be fried on both sides, how long will it take you to cook up three pieces (assuming that the act of flipping a piece or adding/ removing it to or from the pan takes no time). Think about it. Answer inside.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 10:22 AM PST - 24 comments

Another question of journalistic integrity, however this time we were meant to notice. My question is, what was Michael Stipe's role in this ruse?
posted by Oddsea at 9:20 AM PST - 8 comments

How to conserve Metafilter bandwidth: I'm sure you're noticing that MeFi's running slow today. Matt posted in Metatalk that he's running it off his DSL line. In the same post, he asked that people try to limit their front page views to three days or under. If you're new here, here's how you limit the views: Go here. Scroll down to "number of days on front page." The default is seven; I've set mine, as suggested, to two. After you've set that number, don't forget to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "change your preferences." Now you're done! Kaycee fans, if you're not using IE as your browser, or have collapsed the right-hand sidebar, there's also a call to keep Kaycee discussion over at the Yahoo newsgroup. Cheers to Matt for going to all of this trouble. * Thank you, Matt! *
posted by metrocake at 9:00 AM PST - 17 comments

Pearl Harbor is finally here, what did ya think? MeFi user beware! May contain spoilers. Click through with care.
Welcome back Matt!
posted by Brilliantcrank at 8:45 AM PST - 36 comments

Amazing Photo of real hand to hand combat. The page is in Greek but the (600K) picture on top is, I think, worth your while. This is a photo taken by a British liaison officer to the partisans in the Greek island of Crete during WWII (named John Eberson or Emberson), as a group of guerillas confronts a German patrol. What is amazing is the fact that Emberson reached for his camera instead of his gun... This is the closest view of a combat situation I've ever seen captured on film - does anyone know of anything similar on the web? Caption translation inside this thread's comments.
posted by talos at 5:11 AM PST - 11 comments

What if the 'placebo effect' is as unreal as a sugar pill? Danish researchers who have looked at 114 clinical trials involving placebos found "little evidence in general that placebos had powerful clinical effects. Although placebos had no significant effects on objective or binary outcomes, they had possible small benefits in studies with continuous subjective outcomes and for the treatment of pain. Outside the setting of clinical trials, there is no justification for the use of placebos." News links here and here.
posted by pracowity at 12:38 AM PST - 13 comments

Well, we might as well get right to it:

"Democrats moved to take control of the U.S. Senate on Thursday after Sen. James Jeffords announced he would leave the Republican Party, throwing President Bush's conservative agenda into jeopardy."

Isn't that interesting?

posted by Hackworth at 12:26 AM PST - 44 comments

Welcome back. Did you find interesting sites while you couldn't use Metafilter? I happened upon camborg.com and its galleries.
posted by gluechunk at 12:21 AM PST - 14 comments

A story that only gets stranger and sadder. A gold-masked mummy, whose sensational discovery last year sparked an ownership row between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, has turned out not only to be a modern fake but also the apparent victim in a macabre murder mystery.
posted by lagado at 12:14 AM PST - 3 comments

Bush to meet with Dalai Lama! This is a big deal to us Buddhists, as well as Tibetan freedom supporters. Wonder what His Holiness will have to say about the death penalty...
posted by tweebiscuit at 3:05 PM PST - 6 comments

BoobRaffle.com is making Big news on the Web The Internet's first online raffle site where you can actually enter to win breast implant surgery!
posted by Wicker at 2:26 PM PST - 7 comments

NFL Realignment. Seattle returns home. North and South finally get representation after being discrimated against for years by East, West, and Central. And of course, plenty of work for designers and coders to integrate new graphics and site changes. Yippee!
posted by lescour at 2:07 PM PST - 12 comments

A real miracle bra!? The device consists of two plastic domes, a microprocessor-controlled vacuum pump, and a sports bra to hold it all in place. The pump applies gentle suction, no more than the difference in atmospheric pressure between street level and the top of a tall building. Worn for ten hours a day for ten weeks, it increased the size of women's breasts by an average of 100 cubic centimeters, or approximately one cup size. The bra that keeps on giving.
posted by igloo at 1:08 PM PST - 11 comments

AOL to raise rates I have seen this strategy used in business before. Raise rates. Lose some customers. Make up the difference and much more by new charges. Count on habit. Most people too lazy to change from what they are comfortable with.
posted by Postroad at 12:08 PM PST - 16 comments

See Summer Swing Dance is dedicated to the art and spirit of Summer Brannin, a remarkable 21-year-old woman who died of cancer. And before anyone asks ...
posted by rcade at 12:00 PM PST - 3 comments

Search wasn't working. Has there been a cannibalism link for a while? Interesting thought-experiment: If you were a cannibal, what celebrity would you most like to eat? Why? Neat how this turns all the "thin is in" BS on its head -- Camryn Mannheim, anyone?
posted by luser at 11:56 AM PST - 3 comments

Missionaries are frank imperialists. But because they operate in the spiritual realm, they continue to enjoy a fuzzy kind of permission to conduct a kind of business that is largely impossible in other less ethereal spheres of life.
posted by rushmc at 11:41 AM PST - 26 comments

What if oil and natural gas were renewable resources? Prof. Thomas Gold opines that oil is produced by microbes breaking down methane deep within the earth, thus explaining how some depleted oilfields have begun producing again. He even wrote a book on it. Brilliant re-examination of accepted theory or crackpot lunatic?
posted by CRS at 11:36 AM PST - 9 comments

Steve Jackson Games , the makers of such fine pen-and-paper RPGs as Gurps, has been running a blog since 1994. I've been reading it since 1996, and I just now realized: it was the first blog I've ever read. In addition to release information, they also post game industry news, personal stories, and even the Illuminated Site of the Week, all with intimacy and personality we've come to expect from blogs.
posted by tweebiscuit at 11:03 AM PST - 11 comments

mmmm. crunchy. i wonder if the woman will be charged with anything? i wonder if she's liable for anything? in a nation where predators sue their prey when they fight back, anything's possible, i suppose...
posted by fuzzygeek at 11:03 AM PST - 15 comments

"He doesn't say please, he doesn't say thank you." Yeah, it's Survivor, British-style. A natural leader with survival experience emerges, gets his tribe organised, and is promptly voted out in the quietest of revolutions. My American girlfriend, who'd watched Colby marshal his people through the Outback season, is visibly gobsmacked. ("I really couldn't do psychology in this country.") Different levels of power distance at work?
posted by holgate at 9:58 AM PST - 12 comments

Who needs a Whizzinator? Apparently they aren't fooling parole officers. What happened to the good old herbal tea workaround?
posted by suprfli at 9:41 AM PST - 24 comments

World's Smartest? Dumbest? Bookie my son (age 7) asked me the other night how old you had to be before you could get arrested. A good question. Here's an account of "probably the greatest gambling mind in the world," and apparently "the only savant . . . whose gift has run him afoul of the law."
posted by lelilo at 7:56 AM PST - 6 comments

WankyWanky [via /usr/bin/girl] Flash based puzzle pages for bored office workers. Nice, entertaining, and quiet--except for the mirthful giggling.
posted by plinth at 4:55 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

The Kaycee Nicole (Swensen) Faq is now up as per request. If you haven't followed the whole Kaycee thing, you want to read this. You might want to read it anyway. Feedback welcome.
posted by bonzo at 4:28 AM PST - 129 comments

How far will the Taleban go in isolating themselves from the rest of the world? This possible move brings to mind memories of how the Nazis treated the Jews during WWII.
posted by da5id at 4:09 AM PST - 32 comments

Has Pud gone soft? Perhaps all of the money he's generating from his email lists have given him an alternate reality?
posted by fooljay at 12:00 AM PST - 6 comments

"Munchausen" isn't just a fabulous movie – it's a syndrome where you pretend to be (or believe you are) sick in order to get attention. There is also a well-known syndrome called Munchausen By Proxy where a parent makes a child sick. And now (here it comes) there's Munchausen By Internet – people pretending to have illnesses on the net to get attention. It's a subject I would have scoffed at a few days ago, but now....
posted by fraying at 11:46 PM PST - 5 comments

Jet lag causes brain shrinkage
posted by lagado at 10:42 PM PST - 6 comments

Monster Raving Loony Lives! The greatest minor party in the world released a 2001 manifesto: Free Viagra! Close the Channel Tunnel! Let's party!
posted by Erendadus at 10:23 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Coming to a tv near you: WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE - Couples edition. Thus proving 2 people can be stupider than one...
posted by tiaka at 9:37 PM PST - 11 comments

Actually... Chester Phllips started the whole Kaycee sandal. Anybody else want to take further responsibility for this?
posted by msposner at 9:26 PM PST - 6 comments

Danger! Idiot Judge Lives Here! In Corpus Christi, Texas, a judge has ordered 21 sex offenders to post signs in their yards that read "Danger! Registered Sex Offender Lives Here," and bumper stickers on their cars that read "Danger! Registered Sex Offender in Vehicle." Many people are reacting favorably, such as the person who believes "I think the judge is correct and he should make the signs bigger." But if these people are truly dangerous, why did they receive probation instead of jail time?
posted by jameschandler at 9:23 PM PST - 23 comments

Calling all Kaycee detectives! The antithesis of all things Kaycee has been found. "Uninhibited, straightforward and nasty," Slutblog is the journal of one woman's battle to overcome a debilitating nymphomania. While waiting for updates on the Kaycee situation, does anyone care to out the creator of this trash?
posted by dogmatic at 7:23 PM PST - 21 comments

Tick, tock ... tick, tock I generally hate TV, but I'm counting down the minutes until this new series premieres on FOX. Yeah, it'll probably suck, but I'm a big fan of Patrick Warburton. In fact I just saw "The Dish" over the weekend and didn't even realize, until halfway through the flick, that the superintelligence NASA scientist was, in fact, played by none other than good ol' dumb guy David Puddy. Who's your favorite underappreciated actor?
posted by Shadowkeeper at 7:05 PM PST - 13 comments

It says "Nobody Here" but someone's obviously spent quite some time on this site. Just look at the 404 page. (via methylsalicylate)
posted by Cuppatea at 5:30 PM PST - 7 comments

The Cluetrain Manifesto gives real insight into the future of commerce on the net. Anyone with a stake in the online business scene should study this document.
posted by fbeach at 5:30 PM PST - 9 comments

But is it harmless fun, or a breeding ground for pedophiles? We've also got hard hitting stories on pornstars, used car scams, and no-surgery breast implants, here in LA. What kind of stupid, sensationalistic scare stories are your local news stations doing for May sweeps?
posted by owillis at 5:10 PM PST - 9 comments

Are YOU prepared for the icy hand of death? Kaycee didn't croak - but you are going to! Are you prepared for the final curtain? Remember - today is the first day of the end of your life; don't leave loose ends. Drive the last car you'll ever own, don't forget to put in those final requests in a timely fashion to avoid the embalmer's rush, and whistle a mortitians tune. Fictional characters can always be reborn with a deft sweep of the pen - the rest of us can just hope to die with a minimum of inconvenience.
posted by Perigee at 12:13 PM PST - 2 comments

Will he or won't he switch is the question for Vermont Sen. Jeffords. If he does, the Democrats gain control of the Senate. But this Washington Times article seems to be pleading Sen. Jeffords to remain within the GOP. If he is such a stalwart conservative, why the all propaganda from the Times?
posted by Rastafari at 11:20 AM PST - 14 comments

Kudos to the students at Ferndale High in Washington State. Not only for breaking down some barriers, but also for being more mature than most of the adults involved with the school. And, for you readers that have not cast Salon.com into the darkest pits of your memory banks, here's their article which has a surprising, and refreshing, quote from the prom queen.
posted by donkeysuck at 11:19 AM PST - 9 comments

Hmmm, Big Brother is checking out my motor, and no one seems to care anymore. Pretty soon Big Brother will track my personal movements and know my genetic make up! Well, I'm outta here in four days and who knows what life will be like on this Sceptered Isle by the time I get back? Why doesn't anyone seem to care about this anymore!
posted by davehat at 10:46 AM PST - 5 comments

'Welcome to Earl's World' - one of the great forgotten blogs? My project to log people who've registered their first name as their domain name has already found some amazing sites, and a fair few blogs. But this seems to be the earliest, offering a Mahir-like quotability. "One man sees a glass that is half empty. Another man sees a glass that is half full. I see a glass that is twice as large as it needs to be." Does anyone know what happened to Earl? Is he a Mefi regular? What happened with his friend "Susan"? Is Abner Berzon still his stenographer? Film at eleven.
posted by feelinglistless at 10:22 AM PST - 7 comments

The feel good story of the day. Cupcake Brown, a former prostitute and drug addict who nearly died alone on the streets, knew she would cry yesterday when she graduated from the University of San Francisco law school near the top of her class. She wasn't alone.
posted by msacheson at 9:50 AM PST - 2 comments

The plot sickens. The last thread on the Kaycee Nicole hoax appears to be throttling MetaFilter, so I'm publishing this link for those who are still playing along at home.
posted by rcade at 9:43 AM PST - 227 comments

Louisiana legislation decides that Darwin was "racist." It's not just the fundamentalist right... now it's Democrats pushing for the demonization of evolution. The full text of the resolution (in PDF format) can be found here. This is a Salon article about it. And this is the full text of "Darwin's Descent of Man", so that someone can point to me where exactly is Darwin suggesting that some races are "more evolved" than others... I mean don't they read the books before they start putting stickers on them?
posted by talos at 9:35 AM PST - 10 comments

Utah polygynist found guilty... (a follow-up to an earlier thread) the pre-appeals spin from his defense team is that he was "singled out" -- not that he was innocent, just "singled out". No pun intended.
posted by silusGROK at 8:18 AM PST - 7 comments

Attrition: Evolution. Attrition.org has decided to cease updating their archive of Web defacement mirrors. The reasons being the total lack of appreciation on some part as well as the shear volume of mirrors per day, and the fact that it sucked up what little personal lives the staff already had. Fear not, however, statistics and commentary will still be around - just based on the Alldas mirror and stay tuned for the rebirth of their more informative sections like Errata and Security.
posted by bkdelong at 8:09 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

AmIElectableOrNot.com Yay, a UK cabinet with Yoda, Captain Kirk, Ali G, and Homer Simpson in it. Now there's a party I'd vote for.
posted by Rips at 7:55 AM PST - 2 comments

Women bare breasts in Boston seeking right to go topless. I know this isn't exactly the first time this issue has been brought up, but I couldn't find many resources on the web. Can you?
posted by revbrian at 7:26 AM PST - 30 comments

Special Report: Refugees in Britain. The Guardian features excellent video clips of first-person stories of refugees who have made the long struggle from misery toward what they hope is a safer, more prosperous life. Includes stories on political asylum as an election issue, how to claim asylum, why refugees and asylum seekers are choosing Britain (the country with the second-largest immigrant population in Europe, after Germany) and a Flash-based guide on who's seeking asylum and from where.
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:56 AM PST - 5 comments

dack kills his blog
". I want to spend more time making short films, playing golf, and reading books. But what I really want to do is make computers, and specifically the Web, a much smaller part of my life."
I guess there's no enjoyment left in poking fun at dot.com vanity in this day and age...
posted by lagado at 5:17 AM PST - 23 comments

How long's it been since we had a Limbaugh link? He's preaching to the other church's choir as he's stating "50" of the needless to say "things" "environmental wackos" can do to save the Earth. Are the conservatives losing their punch?
posted by crasspastor at 3:34 AM PST - 51 comments

The Republican Administration is ready to back out of the verification and enforcement protocol for the Biological Weapons Convention , only their latest move after abandoning talks with North Korea on ending their nuclear and missile programs, slashing assistance to Russia for dismantling their nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons infrastructure in the new budget, going ahead with plans to unilaterally abrogate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that underlies nuclear arms control, and preparing to place weapons in outer space. It's not a secret that the Administration is leaning toward tearing down the entire edifice of strategic arms control and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, but you would think there would be more of an outcry that the Republicans seem hell-bent on making the world a noticeably less safe place as quickly as possible... especially taking into account the other foreign policy faux-pas they've committed in the past four months.
posted by SenshiNeko at 1:29 AM PST - 15 comments

Huge ads on NY Times site Quite enormous and obnoxious. I thought their long, skinny ads were a reasonable innovation, but this invades the "editorial space." (Hit reload a few times; they've got different aspect ratios.)
posted by aniretac at 11:53 PM PST - 11 comments

Sopranos spoilers! (sorta) Now that the season finale has aired, I guess it's safe to post this site. The writer actively researches rumors about the plots of upcoming Sopranos episodes, without much luck (in hindsight, he batted about .500).

My thoughts upon reading this:

1) Why would a true fan work so hard to ruin the show's surprises for himself and everyone else?

2) How could he work so hard on this and still be so wrong? The poor guy really needs some better sources.
posted by Dirjy at 11:32 PM PST - 1 comments

VoterMarch organized marches on Washington DC and San Francisco on Saturday, May 19. Their mission is to restore democracy in the US by fixing the election system, among other things. These issues, including coverage of the march itself, are rather horrendously underreported in the media. This site is a great resource for filling the gaps in coverage of the major media channels.
posted by caveday at 10:32 PM PST - 6 comments

Well, I *would* have given to The Family Values Party, but, alas, I have tattoos. That makes me a sinner. Sinners can't donate. Neither can gays, women, gun owners, and the guy who sold me my gin this morning. Damn.
posted by jcterminal at 6:26 PM PST - 17 comments

People are stupid. No, wait, stop, what I meant to say is, The Prayer of Jabez is the best-selling book in the US! [NYT link] (Europeans, don't laugh, it'll happen to you too.) You can buy mugs, plaques, t-shirts. I think Reverend Ike would approve. But do people actually believe in it?
posted by rodii at 1:35 PM PST - 31 comments

And so it ends. Kaycee's blog falls somewhere in the "truth based fiction" range. "because i care about people, i was taken in. call me a fool, call me gullible." - BWG
posted by bonzo at 12:09 PM PST - 362 comments

Vivendi buys mp3.com for $372m. The latest attempt to digest and assimilate those "damned elusive" music files.
posted by aflakete at 11:52 AM PST - 5 comments

You're either on the bus, or off the bus. And some people never leave it. Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters marked the beginning of the psychodelic sixties, LSD, the Greatful Dead, San Francisco as the center of the hippie universe, and 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'. Forty years have passed - here's the legendary bus, 'Further', and here are the hippies who never left the age of Aquarius.
posted by Perigee at 11:12 AM PST - 11 comments

Online Scientology critic seeks political asylum in Canada A couple of weeks ago computer engineer Keith Henson was found guilty in California of a criminal act related to posts he made in the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, which contained obviously comical (all right, Sophomoric) references to targeting Scientologists with a nuclear missile.

The United States. Liberty and justice for all. Oh yeah, baby.
posted by SpecialK at 10:28 AM PST - 10 comments

Abolish corporate taxes!? Just saw this on c-span. I doubt it'll happen, but this is the view of our Treasury Secratary (and former CEO of Alcoa). It's on the frontpage of the FT, wonder if it'll make headlines in the States.
posted by kliuless at 7:47 AM PST - 15 comments

Skinless wonders... "Art or anatomy? An exhibition of flayed corpses in Berlin has been greeted with popular acclaim and moral indignation." They plastinate ("a vacuum process in which biological specimens are impregnated with a reactive polymer") and pose the bodies, which they get from various places, including a Siberian madhouse. The show is coming to Britain.
posted by pracowity at 5:55 AM PST - 11 comments

No link here, sorry. I was thinking today of experiences that give me or have given me chills up my spine. When I was young, the national anthem did it for me. What gives it to you?
posted by ttrendel at 2:42 AM PST - 38 comments

Watch your ass marchFirst! Here comes WebTek Systems, "Premier Internet design services" aka the "Hello Ladies" of web development. Don't miss their client list, it's all eye candy.
via Cool Homepages
posted by Brilliantcrank at 11:28 PM PST - 20 comments

they are linking to us. Or we are linking to you. Or something like that. Anyways, right at the bottom of the page there's a little one-letter link to mefi. Wonder how many people have drifted in via k5... Got any referer stats matt?
posted by fvw at 11:27 PM PST - 5 comments

..but no more X-Ray Specs One of those other groups had a pointer to a review of old comic book advertisements; it made me a little nostalgic. I went out, bought a copy of 'Amazing Spider Man', two bucks worth of gum and candy, and went surfing for my old nemesis, 'The Johnson Smith Novelty Company'. I remember buying the x-ray specs (didn't work, but the girls didn't know that - just as much fun) and the six foot Frankenstein screen printed of a 6 foot plastic tablecloth... with two lil glow in the dark stickers to put on the eyes. Anybody else have memories of comic book purchases?
posted by resigned at 10:57 PM PST - 2 comments

Tomorrow night - Sopranos Finale - Will Jackie Jr. get a pass? Will Paulie or Christopher get whacked? Where the Hell did that Russian go? Will we ever see Gloria again? I don't often get wrapped up in a TV series, but damn, I am hooked into this one.
posted by kokogiak at 10:22 PM PST - 15 comments

Why Cops Shoot Police columnist Fred Reed gives practical examples of simulated situations that provoke gunplay. "Test yourself in a dark alley." Maybe the men in blue aren't as brutal as you think.
posted by Erendadus at 9:52 PM PST - 15 comments

See what's cooking in the Poison Kitchen--I think it's a great F***ed Company-style site for journalists.
posted by JDC8 at 6:34 PM PST - 4 comments

Who knew? Apparently porn spammers were actually providing us with valuable service all along! (Me, I'm springing for the penis enlargement.)
posted by tweebiscuit at 5:56 PM PST - 15 comments

Riot grrls! Lost faith in Jesus, but still seeking a reliable moral compass anyway? Then ask yourself: What Would Joan Jett Do? Clearly, she'd order one of these t-shirts. I would myself, but I don't think they make 'em for guys. (via Pop Culture Junk Mail)
posted by logovisual at 3:53 PM PST - 7 comments

Seattle's Speakeasy cafe gutted by fire. A sad day for the city. The Speakeasy cafe is great, and I just switched to them for my DSL account. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
posted by jragon at 11:06 AM PST - 10 comments

Kottke's messing with the system, man! He wants to push this picture to the top of Yahoo's most popular pictures list. Personally, I would never condone or support such an abuse of the system.
posted by dogwelder at 10:54 AM PST - 14 comments

Alone. Ahhh. Sigh. 27 Million Singles Do Whatever They Want. All by Themselves.

The problem with census data is there's never space for a longer answer to the question. (Yes, I live like this but I didn't plan to. See, here's what happened . . . ) This week's newsy trickle across the national spreadsheet reveals, among other things, that more Americans than ever live alone. Twenty-seven million people, give or take. That's a lot of air guitar being played in private. That's a lot of bowls of cereal eaten over the sink around 1 in the morning.....

Do you fit into this scenario? I know I do.

posted by perogi at 7:51 AM PST - 33 comments

The first really interesting cold war relic sale I've seen. It's big ... it's pretty ... it can pummel the sound barrier and NASA spent $30mil retrofitting it. Now if I can just find $10 million I don't need. Maybe if I look under the couch cushions or something.
posted by foist at 7:19 AM PST - 4 comments

Patient confidentiality vs. cancer research. New rules on patient confidentiality prevent "research that recognises dangerous side effects of treatments and it would prevent research that would recognise avoidable causes of diseases and death. " What is more important: 'medical progress' or 'your medical file'?
posted by nonharmful at 4:24 AM PST - 2 comments

The truth finally comes about trashing of the White House as earlier reported (remember the disinformation?). The question now is, will the mainstream press now cover this with the same fervor as the earlier (false) stories, or was it simply shoddy journalism in the first place to report and print "facts" without doing any background checks? Come to think of it, I never did see any photos of all the alleged damages created....
posted by Rastafari at 12:51 AM PST - 13 comments

ABC censors "Christ"? Very odd. On the 5/18 broadcast of Politically Incorrect on ABC, a word was bleeped (either "Christ" or "Jesus") and Bill Maher's lips digitally obscured when he was making a joke/observation that Christ/Jesus (it wasn't clear which he was saying) would be compassionate to someone who needed the drug to ease their pain. Does anyone know more on this?
posted by owillis at 12:23 AM PST - 46 comments

Is it possible that Kaycee did not exist? This is a really delicate thing here. Please be really thoughtful about this. I promise I am not trying to stir the shit without cause. There are some people who are wondering whether Kaycee was a real 19-year-old leukemia patient, and whether things actually occurred the way they've been reported online. More inside, friends.
posted by acridrabbit at 10:00 PM PST - 309 comments

The Myth of 800x600 Stop desigining web pages for 800x600 screen resolutions, says this interesting article. "The use of fixed-size pages is yet another example of our tendency to focus on technology rather than user behavior. The most commonly available statistics are for screen resolution, a measurement of a certain technology. More relevant, though, is the user-specified viewable browsing area."
posted by Outlawyr at 7:57 PM PST - 33 comments

RIP, EOD After a year of daily posting, Greg Knauss is sending An Entirely Other Day to bed. I'm only reiterating what many others have said before me, but the guy can flat out write circles around most other people using this God-forsaken medium. Very few people -- in print or otherwise -- can make the trivial events in their everyday lives so amusing to read. Dammit.
posted by mikeg at 7:00 PM PST - 23 comments

Proof that nerdy girls are awesome.
posted by moz at 6:54 PM PST - 11 comments

Nerdy proof that girls are evil.
posted by betobeto at 6:43 PM PST - 13 comments

Jakob Nielsen on Bill Gates' Micropayment Strategy (news section on right) Jakob Nielsen has acknowledged that Bill Gates might be smarter than him (no sh*t, Sherlock!). Gates would rather integrate micropayment systems into their server apps than IE to make Linux a non-issue for businesses wanting to use their micropayment system. Yet more monopoly nonsense or a smart business plan?
posted by wackybrit at 3:48 PM PST - 6 comments

For the well-shod video game aficionado.
posted by Big Fat Tycoon at 3:45 PM PST - 1 comments

Find a 10 million digit prime number, get $100,000! "Now the bad news. Testing a single 10,000,000 digit number takes a full year on a 500 MHz Pentium III computer." This GIMPS organization merely provides software to do the searching process (not to mention they take most of the profits if you DO find a new prime).
posted by grank at 3:26 PM PST - 3 comments

I know what you've been thinking: "Yeah, Iron Chef is okay and all, but wouldn't it be a whole lot better with Captain Kirk presiding over it?" Fear no more, The mighty UPN is going to give you your wish.
posted by aaron at 3:17 PM PST - 24 comments

"Experience Britney" Ok. The line starts here... (joking;)
posted by justgary at 2:34 PM PST - 13 comments

Joanne's beaus one thru four revealed. Something which really exposes the underbelly of the football (soccer) world. Phone-in host and media guru Danny Baker wrung some milleage a few years ago from a single caller over a number of months. Joanne, a woman of generous virtue, was quietly working her way through the back four of a well known Premiereship football team, and calling Baker's saturday show both morning and evening revealing all but names in shocking yet hilarious detail. The British tabloids and football chatrooms were ablaze with theories about who these four players were and also the two managers involved (one of which paid her £5000 to retain naked photos she had taken of him, lest a red-top get hold of them). Well now we finally know - and with all of Joannes calls collected together for the first time. [Real Audio, streaming and download]
posted by feelinglistless at 2:23 PM PST - 8 comments

Why Dodge Ball Is Good For You... You roll your eyes at the ceiling and hoot like Limbaugh: Ah, the terrors of life in a prosperous, powerful, peacetime society! In a nation rich enough to be morally incoherent and given to media vapors, language inclines to hysteria. Murder ball? Killer ball? Really? People with no experience to teach them otherwise are dumb enough, self-indulgent enough, to equate recess with the intifada.
posted by racer271 at 1:49 PM PST - 14 comments

Station Wagons? All this talk about SUVs made me feeling a bit nostalgic for the ol' Custom Cruiser. Little did I know I would encounter some Kung Fu Fury.
posted by Dick Paris at 1:45 PM PST - 11 comments

Brownies + Sheep + Flash = another pointless yet mysteriously engaging waste of time.
posted by turaho at 1:18 PM PST - 3 comments

Kites are cool, but this kite festival site kills me. ....worth clicking on "directions". Flash for everyone.
posted by tomplus2 at 1:04 PM PST - 5 comments

8 people trapped in a cave have been reached by rescuers. Against advice, they went spelunking during bad weather and got trapped by rising water. After two days they're safe, but they're weak, hungry and dehydrated. Our heros weren't able to find anything to drink in the middle of a flood. (I bet they'd also need to be rescued from an escalator during a power failure.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 1:00 PM PST - 26 comments

Bipartisan Support for SUV Mileage Reform U.S. enthusiasm for gas-guzzling SUVs is itself fueled by idiotic federal policy. These passenger cars have been classified as "light trucks" since 1975, when they omprised only 20% of all U.S. vehicles. Today, SUVs are nearly half of everything on the road. Result: DOT says gas mileage is at a 20 year low. Bush and Cheney distort the truth a lot in order to push pro-oil-drilling agenda. Read what retired president Jimmy Carter says about their misinformation and scare tactics.
posted by steve_high at 12:59 PM PST - 4 comments

If your looking for terrific writing and a gallery of flash art/movies updated monthly, you might want to check out Spark Online. There are a lot of E/N and discorse sites out there, but few I've stuck with as long as Spark. Their forums are usually hot with debate and quality insights. (Again, one of my favs)
posted by Zebulun at 12:56 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Interviews 50 ¢ is one of my all time favorite sites. Alex Chadwick sets up a card table and a handmade sign "Interviews 50 cents". People walk up and tell stories. If they are esspecially moving, he hands them 50 cents, otherwise they put 50 cents into the cigar box. (In Quicktime format and text)
posted by Zebulun at 12:49 PM PST - 5 comments

Addictive game based in large part on discussion. Perfect for MeFi'ers in my book. There's trivia, there's politics, plenty of "strategery", and the heart of it is the message boards. Plus the added benefit of very few trolls, because to make it in this game, you need to be intelligent and literate. No wonder I'm addicted.
posted by Melinika at 12:49 PM PST - 17 comments

Interesting idea, but will it work? "Grub provides a free for download, distributed crawling client, which is used to create an infrastructure (database + volunteers) that will eventually provide URL update status information for nearly every web page on the Internet. Grub's distributed crawler network will enable websites, content providers, and individuals to notify others that changes have occurred in their content, all in real time"
posted by sixdifferentways at 12:44 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

MeFi-O! Bingo for the MetaFilterian masses!

So very meta that it's probably too meta for MetaTalk. Made by our very own iceberg273, you naughty boy you.
posted by lia at 11:40 AM PST - 14 comments

Is there any hope for our public schools? Despite the HUGE influx of spending students in this district do worse every year. teachers have been saying it all along. Without parental support there is only so much a school can do. Very depressing.
posted by keithl at 11:35 AM PST - 11 comments

Some Straights Can Go Gay, Study Says.

Just as I've always suspected.
posted by bondcliff at 10:59 AM PST - 20 comments

life on forbez
one of the funniest comics ever.
posted by bwg at 10:47 AM PST - 15 comments

If you're anything like me you probably need a good therapist. Outside of that, you might also be curious as to what other people have on their desktops. It's free to join, but you have to take the first step.
posted by jcterminal at 10:38 AM PST - 11 comments

'Pope hit by meteor' sculpture sets a contemporary art record at Christie's and sells for $886,000. The artist says, "I like to think of La Nona Ora as a sculpture that doesn't exist, a three-dimensional image that dissolves into pure communication blah, blah, blah... " Has anyone noticed we all live in Bizzaro World.
posted by quirked at 9:29 AM PST - 28 comments

No truth in White House vandal scandal, GSA reports "The agency concluded that departing members of the Clinton administration had not trashed the place during the presidential transition, as unidentified aides to President Bush and other critics had insisted. "
posted by owillis at 9:23 AM PST - 18 comments

The Flip Side of Radical Environmentalism Embracing extremely dangerous forms of "protest" such as tree spiking and holding attitudes like "Property is not human, it is not violent to destroy property." as a justification for arson, self-proclaimed eco-terrorists such as the Earth Liberation Front act with blatant disregard to the rights of anyone who disagrees with their radical agenda. Like the anti-SUV stickerflingers and the kids who get out of control at WTO protests, why can't these folks understand that their unreasonable actions dilute their message to the point of meaninglessness?
posted by Dreama at 8:57 AM PST - 51 comments