May 2001 Archives | MetaFilter

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

The war against perverts. Apparently, in Saudi Arabia, "Saudi police have whipped seven teenage boys after charging them with leering at women in the conservative Muslim kingdom." If only the U.S. could implement the same policy with those involved in child-porn.
posted by msposner at 7:45 AM PST - 22 comments

Voices In My Head... Call me crazy, but I think casting "celebrity voices" in animated flix is counter-intuitive. Think back to the classic Disney movies - "Pinocchio" and "101 Dalmations" come to mind - and the fact that they regularly used professional voice-actors, not a cast of celebrities-du-jour. With the new trend in animated movies, I find myself picturing the celebrity doing the voice, not the animated character of the story. Quick - what's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the movie "Aladdin?" Robin Williams as the Genie, I'd wager. Your thoughts on this weighty matter?
posted by davidmsc at 7:02 AM PST - 36 comments

Mail Expire is a temporary mail forwarding service.
It's free and takes about 30 seconds to set up a bogus email address that will expire after a period of time (the default interval is 12 hours). It's great for signing up to those FREE!! trial Internet services without automatically becoming an "asset" of some database marketing (read: spam) crowd. Because it's your inbox.
Oh yeah, please use this power for good. Don't use it to sign up to Metafilter or anything, I'm sure Matt will ban it anyway.
posted by lagado at 6:05 AM PST - 8 comments

Gap model fan fiction: I don't care what any of you think. I found this amusing. Fan fiction takes on many bizarre forms. From Thundercats (example) to the Lion King (example), the web opens up a level of fan-to-fan community that gives new life to things that would probably be better off left dead. What's the wierdest piece of fan fiction cheese you have ever come across?
posted by hidely at 5:23 AM PST - 15 comments

Interesting UK-based 'techy' sites seem to be somewhat thin on the ground. Pixelix seems to be trying to do different things - on one hand it's a psuedo-blog, where editors post their pieces and users can post their comments, then there's also the 'linx' side, which turns up some real gems which i've never seen on MeFi before. Check it.
posted by metaxa at 3:55 AM PST - 4 comments

John Prescott get's hit by an egg. 24 hours later there are jokes flying around and this Flash Game springs up as well. How quickly do these people work.. Do they know that these incidents are going to happen before they happen, maybe they are aliens???... maybe there's a government conspiracy... maybe hmm just maybe.. To the bat cave!!
posted by monkeyJuice at 2:01 AM PST - 18 comments

Great article on "Shrek" & computer animation by Stephanie Zacharek at Salon.com. I don't deny that the form has possibilities, but I've been getting really impatient waiting for the day the guys at the Pixar/Dreamworks sweatshops realize that the really exciting moments in art only come when you leave some gaps for the viewers to close themselves.
posted by misterzoo at 12:21 AM PST - 15 comments

The U.S. Should buy Greenland I often wonder why politicians and bureaucrats don't act on the ideas of columnists. Maybe because it would be, in the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby, "courageous" of them to do so.
posted by youthbc1 at 10:49 PM PST - 24 comments

Women Rockin' 4 Women 2001 Festival - If you don't live in Dallas Texas USA, you have two days to get here. If you do live in the Lone Star state, you don't want to miss this. Five Clubs. Over 25 beautiful, talented, guitar-carrying women. One night. Proceeds for this benefit go towards helping the victims of domestic violence. We have great music every weekend in Deep Ellum, but this event's gonna be heaven.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:22 PM PST - 8 comments

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is being released in theaters this summer. "Come and see the violence inherent in the system! 'Elp, 'elp, I'm being repressed!"
posted by jennaratrix at 8:37 PM PST - 31 comments

A fans' view chronicles the strange spectacles that are anime conventions. I used to watch a lot of anime when I was younger, and I'm still a fan of some series, but I can't really get into anything new anymore. Besides watching shows, probably the strangest aspect of my old hobby is cosplay, where everyone dresses up as their favorite anime characters. Of course, this can understandably bring some unwanted attention...
posted by moz at 7:50 PM PST - 8 comments

If you've ever wanted your first-person shooter to feel a little less real, NPRQuake may be just what you need. The blueprint and brushstroke versions are nice, but for my money you can't beat sketchy Quake. Unfortunately, the NPR in the name stands for Non-Photorealistic Rendering, not that other NPR, so don't expect Robert Siegel or Linda Wertheimer skins any time soon. (via haddock.org)
posted by jjg at 7:47 PM PST - 4 comments

Bill Clinton Hit by Egg in Poland Does Secret Service procedure consider this an assassination attempt?
posted by matteo at 6:07 PM PST - 10 comments

Spreading the word without filling a single person's pocket. Nice!

INDEPENDENTS DAY is a worldwide event celebrating independent content and design on the web. It's supported by an informal network of designers, artists, writers, editors, developers, and producers who create content primarily to enrich the web rather than their bank accounts.

posted by jcterminal at 3:20 PM PST - 14 comments

Columbine Report Released. Cops get most of the tongue lashing...
posted by owillis at 3:20 PM PST - 8 comments

Grand Old Petroleum. GOP. Get it? The DNC really cracks me up sometimes. This is, however, an interesting development in politics. Is every issue going to have its own clever webpage in the future? The mind boggles.
posted by CRS at 2:28 PM PST - 17 comments

loyalty schmoyalty. So now all the kids that work for AOL/TW (or however the acronym is supposed to be typed) must use AOL as the corporate email system. HA. Now, I've seen AOL's email ..... application. Holy lack of features, batman! And that bit about an "added level of security" with those ever-changing digit codes? Good luck. Eek.
posted by sarajflemming at 2:12 PM PST - 17 comments

Russia no longer has any photo-recon satellites in orbit and doesn't seem to care, New Zealand is disbanding its air force's air combat capabilities, and America is pushing for a Missile Defense Shield - Star Wars II. Make what you will of American military policies, I am just weirded out that someone out there in the targeted banner-ad world thinks I am in the market to buy a submarine.
posted by tamim at 1:23 PM PST - 9 comments

It's Official
The semantic web as acceded from buzz and speculation to a new "Star Wars." There've been many thoughts on future applications of interoperable data formats including hypercitizenship.
posted by rschram at 1:09 PM PST - 10 comments

Well, gee, no kidding! The Indiana Education Policy Center released a study yesterday which stated the obvious: strict zero-tolerance policies do not necessarily create safer schools for children and teachers. Expelling students under zero-tol rules doesn't change student behaviour, unfairly targets minority students and can lead to an escalation of dropout rates.
posted by Dreama at 12:45 PM PST - 15 comments

Mystery-Machine chic? The newest "fad"-mobile? Or the vehicle of choice for today's demanding soccer-mom? Bring out the ex-hippies, it's time for the VW Microbus. Flash required.
posted by robbie01 at 12:08 PM PST - 18 comments

The web is ten years old today! So how has it impacted our lives over the past decade? I'll point out that I am not working in a coffee shop to pay for my failing acting career. So there is one benefit right there (I make a lousy waiter than I do an actor). How has the web changed you life over the last decade? How has it changed society? Or just post your birthday wishes.
posted by captaincursor at 11:46 AM PST - 32 comments

ilor.com is an interesting way to use Google: save search results for later, &c., using a flyover context menu. Neato.
posted by mimi at 11:44 AM PST - 4 comments

Bush's energy plan. We knew it was coming. Arguing the United States "faces the most serious energy shortage since the oil embargoes of the 1970's," Bush proposes the expansion of drilling, a new commitment to nuclear power, and a review of vehicle mileage standards. If you really want to dig--er, I mean drill--into it, the proposal is available on the White House website.
posted by mrbula at 11:22 AM PST - 36 comments

Subliminable messages on CNN? If you crane your head just right and pretend the S was on the same line, and look at CNN's ties to the liberal media, and -- Oh, forget it.
posted by jragon at 11:11 AM PST - 14 comments

OMG. Is this not the best picture of a kitten, EVAR?!? Spread the good vibes kids, we need them.
posted by jcterminal at 10:14 AM PST - 91 comments

Is this an authentic Leonardo Da Vinci painting for sale on eBay? Has anyone even seen this painting that is claimed to have been done by Leonardo Da Vinci before? It looks suspicous to me: the seller does not have a rating and their website looks like it was made by a kindergardner. Is this another eBay scam or something of value?
posted by crog at 9:58 AM PST - 14 comments

I still can't get over the fact that the U.S. President and Vice President have been arrested five times between them. For those keeping score, that's 2 DUIs for Cheney and one for Bush, and two disorderly conducts for Bush. I know, I know, many other presidents have committed far greater crimes, these were mistakes of youth, etc. etc. But five arrests between them? Sigh.
posted by luser at 9:53 AM PST - 25 comments

Audio spotlight directs sound as precisely as, well, a spotlight What an amazing idea, although as the article says "Most of the uses of sound involve spreading it around."
posted by flimjam at 9:52 AM PST - 5 comments

My friends and fellow citizens: I cite these facts and figures to make it clear that America today is stronger than ever before. Our adversaries have not abandoned their ambitions, our dangers have not diminished, our vigilance cannot be relaxed. But now we have the military, the scientific, and the economic strength to do whatever must be done for the preservation and promotion of freedom.

From the speech that President Kennedy would never give. Contrary to Oliver Stone's version of the facts, doesn't read to me that Jack was backing off on Cuba or Vietnam.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:46 AM PST - 9 comments

I'm posting this link mainly so I have an excuse to discuss bike commuting. I recently started riding my bike to work. At first, I did it just to get into shape but I'm beginning to enjoy it for a number of other reasons. The sights, sounds, and smells (not always good, but still...) of the daily ride are much more pleasant than the daily stress of driving. Not to mention the whole "1 mile in a car emits 1 pound of noxious fumes" thing.

Do others ride to work? What are your experiences? Any good stories? Bad stories? How often do you get yelled at to "get out of the road?"
posted by bondcliff at 9:40 AM PST - 44 comments

I'll be giving $50 to some Metafilter user (or group of users). The winner will be the person who links to the item that I consider to be "coolest." I set the bar here: in order to win, your item must be at least as cool as this, otherwise, I will declare myself the winner.

Aside from the increased size of the prize (the result of a few users who chipped in to the collection I took up), all other rules are identical to those of last year's Metafilter $30 Giveaway.

I will make my decision at 5 pm Friday, Chicago time.
posted by jbushnell at 8:40 AM PST - 122 comments

what should we be doing to voice our opposition to dangerous, gas-guzzling, CO2-emitting, vision-obstructing, environment-destroying conspicuously-consumed SUVs? what can one do to prevent others from driving these monstrosities? should we ticket them? should we stick "i'm changing the climate" stickers on them? should we stick potatoes in their tailpipes? should we shoot out their windows? is there any way to educate suburban families that SUVs are simply an unnecessary addition to their lifestyle? should we resort to retaliatory vandalism? can SUV owners ever have a meaningful discussion with those who object to their vehicles? i do my part by not buying an SUV, but could i do more? should i?
posted by palegirl at 8:14 AM PST - 104 comments

Math text battles. Teachers unanimously recommended textbook series that helps students understand mathematical concepts. School Board ignored them and picked Saxon texts that promise to "raise scores on standardized tests." Are we teaching students to understand, or to score high and get politicians off the hook?
posted by darren at 7:05 AM PST - 16 comments

YES! You can help save the US Postal Service! With the USPS raising rates every month, it seems, and continuing to run with a $2 billion deficit, it's beginning to look like this quasi-public agency is going to lose the battle to those other overnight delivery companies. But since there are some people who can't afford the luxury of email or the high prices of FedEx, there must be something the common man can do to help keep Ben Franklin's baby afloat. There is! via Pigs & Fishes
posted by crunchland at 6:55 AM PST - 10 comments

Is there anyone NOT blogging? asks The Washington Post. A mention for our own Jessamyn and Postroad, as well as the obligatory quote from Ev and brief mention of the Blogger-Trellix deal.
posted by briank at 5:24 AM PST - 24 comments

While Utah makes the move on this "multiple marriage family", maybe we should review our Polygamy 101. Take special note that while one might support polygamy, it may not follow to support polyandry, bigamy, polyfidelity and-or polyamory. Phew! Let the lines be drawn!
posted by Dick Paris at 1:45 AM PST - 21 comments

Reasons not to buy a Vagina Washing Rod: 1. Badly translated Korean catalogue entry. ("Purity, an essential device for cleanliness of women daily!") 2. "No, Mom! It's for hygeine! Really!" 3. Look, just take a second, and think about what it does. Now think about where it goes. Still interested?
posted by tweebiscuit at 9:08 PM PST - 20 comments

Besides being great directors, what do Wong Kar Wai, John Frankenheimer, Guy Ritchie, Ang Lee, and Alejandro González Iñárritu all have in common? BMW is cool. ...and Ang Lee is too, the Incredible Hulk, nice touch.
posted by tomplus2 at 8:29 PM PST - 10 comments

Have a guitar collecting dust? Here's an article that tells you how to fake guitar skills to impress your friends.
posted by bonzo at 8:27 PM PST - 10 comments

The mayor of my town is being indicted for murder tomorrow morning, just two days after winning the his party's primary. He is suspected of playing a role in the 1969 race riot slaying of Lillie Belle Allen. This story will probably break nationally tomorrow morning, as he is led away in handcuffs.
posted by MegoSteve at 7:26 PM PST - 18 comments

Fun with microwave ovens including how to make cost effective decoy radar systems for confusing NATO bombers.
posted by lagado at 6:34 PM PST - 10 comments

PicRave is replacing Am I Hot or Not as the next way to see and judge beautiful women (and guys) without looking at porn. More inside-->
posted by ktheory at 6:26 PM PST - 16 comments

Beta Blues: Do consumers deserve protection when software companies sell bad or untested code? Is checking for a patch the first thing you do after you install new software? Aren't you tired of being a member of Microsoft's largest beta testing group...the consumer? Read this article and add your opinion to the poll.
posted by Spanktacular at 6:18 PM PST - 9 comments

Where (and how) does the European Community think they're going to store a million gigabytes of data per day -- for seven years?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:23 PM PST - 20 comments

Adventures in welding: "Unauthorized welding by crewmembers in the main laundry ignited a large accumulation of lint in the ventilation system, leading to a major fire aboard a cruise ship that injured 23 people and resulted in damages exceeding $17 million, the National Transportation Safety Board has found." Now I understand why you have to clear out the lint.
posted by thescoop at 4:19 PM PST - 6 comments

Take a memo: "Lance is back!"
posted by riffola at 3:57 PM PST - 8 comments

Ballot boxing. John Prescott, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister and Tony Blair's right hand (or should that be left jab) man was involved in a skirmish today while on the campaign trail, seemingly throwing the first punch. Politicians seem to be addressing the issue of voter apathy in more erm, 'innovative' ways these days.
posted by Markb at 3:12 PM PST - 23 comments

Hahahah. Big Fish eats another Big Fish. Then says they can't afford to feed their families.
stop struggling. it's all going to end in misery anyway. now twice as many people can be burnt when ugo collapses.
posted by jcterminal at 3:11 PM PST - 1 comments

Liverpool win the cup triple. It's the kind of thing bring a tear to your eye even if you're an Evertonian. I always said Golden Goals were a great idea.
posted by feelinglistless at 2:28 PM PST - 11 comments

This story about the penny seemed to me to be strangely beautiful, for reasons I can't quite define. Money is so interesting. Maybe I should become a numismastist.
posted by jammer at 1:40 PM PST - 12 comments

A look at the book, Free Speech on Campus.
A yet more important achievement, however, is learning how not to take offense. Successful inquiry requires not only a hard head but also thick skin. Like other knacks, maintaining one’s intellectual cool under duress is a talent acquired through experience.
It's about universities, but there are some good points that could apply here.
posted by john at 12:18 PM PST - 13 comments

Something is coming...something wonderful! It's not a monolith but it is black and full of stars. It's iaslash, a new and remarkable slash-site that focuses on information architecture and all the sub-categories that fall nicely underneath. This comes as close to a one-stop-shop for IAs as any other resource available. Visit often and make your comments heard.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 12:10 PM PST - 14 comments

I used to be a grave rubber, but after seeing this (warning: slow page load), I'm thinking before long the :cue:cat is going to be the better medium.
posted by luser at 11:35 AM PST - 7 comments

Teenpeople.com premiering a new Sisqo single (press release too) seems like another example of media conglomerate cross-marketing. You can hear an entire song from a new album 2 months before release on a single website, before even radio or MTV gets it, but why is one corporation using another for an exclusive distribution channel? Are things like this and Madonna selling tickets exclusively through AOL going to remain experimental in nature or is it the face of things to come?
posted by mathowie at 11:32 AM PST - 10 comments

Kids' Abuse Drives U.K. Pensioner to Suicide Stories like this really make my blood boil. This is happening all of the time in the UK. Many of our children are completely uncontrollable. Lots of Brits live in fear of children who bombard their houses with bricks and deliberately scratch their cars.

But the police remain powerless since the courts can't sentence these children to hard time. In a country where hard discipline is discouraged, is it time to start really spanking children again? No, I think it's time to start spanking the parents.
posted by wackybrit at 10:29 AM PST - 25 comments

Towel Day -- tribute to Douglas Adams Here's an idea for those of you who want to show some sort of public sympathy for Douglas Adams. This site is proposing May 25th be "Towel Day" - carry a towel prominently and use it as a talking point for discussing Adams with people. I can't decide if this is lame or cool, so you tell me. (via FARK)
posted by briank at 10:26 AM PST - 30 comments

Monkey Man is on the prowl in India. Robot or remote-controlled alien?
posted by gnutron at 9:48 AM PST - 18 comments

Cool board express dead? Although the link still takes you to their home page, I just got this e-mail: "It is therefore with great regret that we inform you that the CoolBoard Express service will be discontinued effective June 29, 2001. It was a difficult decision for us, but one that we feel is more in line with Centerwheel's primary focus of providing collaborative customer support solutions to enterprise customers." Ack!
posted by Outlawyr at 9:24 AM PST - 4 comments

School Principal Fired for Burning Hamster

blink. blink.
posted by o2b at 8:03 AM PST - 31 comments

At $5.6m (£3.8m) for the original, I think I'll wait until the knock offs are in walmart.

This must have been an interesting auction.
posted by the_ill_gino at 7:26 AM PST - 29 comments

Quantum Computing makes a Leap forward
posted by stbalbach at 7:21 AM PST - 2 comments

Can Linux be anything more than a Server/Developer OS without something like Eazel? Will the open-source community be able to do anything productive with its code? Or have we just reached a point where the OS is superfluous?
posted by machaus at 6:57 AM PST - 52 comments

Scalping. As an amateur historian who concentrates on pre-1900 Texas, I often come across accounts of scalping by the dreaded Comanche. Inevitably, someone claims that the practice was started by Europeans. This link provides archeological proof that the practice was widespread in North America before contact with Europeans. (It also briefly describes a pre-historic massacre of almost 500 people, which in terms of the cultures involved is like wiping out New York.)
posted by CRS at 6:52 AM PST - 5 comments

Man who stopped train with his bare hands "was a longtime railroad man from an era when such boardings were routine.... Today, it is strictly against the rules -- sometimes a firing offense -- to step aboard moving locomotives or cars."
posted by dfowler at 6:42 AM PST - 6 comments

Charley Pride's Copy-protected CD hacked -- or is it? Apparently, the people involved in trying to keep the CD off Napster failed to realize they are dealing with the World Wide Web.
posted by Hankins at 6:34 AM PST - 6 comments

Fans of space age style, especially architecture, may enjoy a visit to Space Age City.
posted by ewagoner at 6:11 AM PST - 5 comments

Beat-em-up construction kit. Which would make it - what... BEUCK?
posted by holloway at 4:15 AM PST - 1 comments

Hollywood dives. Have they got a series on Michael Jackson?
posted by leafy at 4:11 AM PST - 17 comments

Britney to Blair: Good luck!
posted by Mocata at 4:09 AM PST - 21 comments

More info about the soon to be released .biz and .info TLDs...this time, straight from the horses mouth, so to speak.
posted by canoeguide at 1:40 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

From Alternews. For those of you with no interest in paying $25 for the unofficial Oklahoma City Bombing report, more reliable media than previously presented here lay out a surprisingly clear case that Timothy McVeigh did not act alone. The matter will never be resolved. The Guardian. The Independent 1, 2. The Village Voice. One caveat: I have the impression that each of these stories is working from the same alternative data, perhaps the unofficial report.
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:30 AM PST - 6 comments

The creators of Operation Swordfish are attempting to capitalize on the rampant success of The Game in the most lameassed, riding-on-coattails manner possible. Apparently, the first step on the road to ripoff is (not) hiding the password to your 'secret' site in your online trailer.
posted by Danelope at 12:38 AM PST - 1 comments

Does the FBI read Metafilter? Is the FBI gonna lock you up for what you've posted? Has the internet made it easier for the FBI etc. to survey our reach into the world of ideas and thoughts and add our own? I may go by "crasspastor" and I don't want to be labeled crackpastor, but doesn't it all make sense? Seattle Independent Media reports this as of April 27 2001 as a side note.
posted by crasspastor at 12:32 AM PST - 9 comments

Survivor begat SurvivorBlog, which begat SurvivorCam!
posted by owillis at 9:14 PM PST - 7 comments

Texas student kills self after holding class hostage. I brought that up in order to bring this up: the Colorado Governor commissioned ten people to get together and write up a 200 page report about what actually happened at Columbine, and then tell everybody what we're supposed to do about it. I'm reminded of that scene in The Matrix when Neo notices DeJaVu the black cat. And for those tired of talking about this pathetic school shooting crap, I can sympathize. Here's a cute story about Thud the dumb grey cat.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:12 PM PST - 22 comments

The web is now complete! Bosze Oliver’s Home Page gives you the goods on it all!
Mr. Oliver is apparently the authority on everything.
You'll find links to over 90 airlines, The greatest bands on earth, and my personal favorite Taboo Words.
If this doesn't strike your fancy then he'll teach you English!
posted by ooklah at 9:05 PM PST - 14 comments

Slashdot addict? Time to kick the habit.
posted by darukaru at 8:58 PM PST - 14 comments

Who said execs have it rough?... Poor George Shaheen, former CEO of Webvan. His company expanded in to more markets than necessary, gobbled up HomeGrocer (I loved their commercials and catchy theme song - "Would you like to have something to eat") then spit Dallas and Atlanta out.

Here are sweet details of the deal Shaheen negotiated after stepping down last month. Under the terms of his retirement package, Shaheen will receive 50 percent of his base salary and target bonus for the rest of his life.

All to the tune of $375,000 a year for life.

Sob,
I wonder if Shaheen is Irish. Just curious.
posted by lheiskell at 8:40 PM PST - 10 comments

Sometimes you don't know how the hell you wound up at a site. You're out there, surfing, minding your own business, and then you enter the zone, and the next thing you know you're at a page that you would normally never go to, and you have no idea how you got there. This is the only explanation I can come up with as to why I ended up at the official homepage of prog-rock relics Yes.
posted by solistrato at 5:15 PM PST - 17 comments

Another Star Wars reference I'm afraid. Has George Lucas had a church organ installed at Skywalker Ranch? And will we see such natty cardigans in Episode II?
posted by feelinglistless at 3:22 PM PST - 2 comments

Godspeed, Kaycee Nicole Kaycee Nicole passed away May 14, 2001. RIP
posted by tomcosgrave at 1:29 PM PST - 68 comments

Playing the Willie Horton card? The Tories' first party election broadcast claims that Labour has released rapists to offend again. Even a former ex-chairman of the party calls the film "disturbing" for its tacit apportioning of blame, and its similarities to the famous ad used by Bush Sr. in 1988. After Labour's positive but anodyne "we've done nice things, and here's Geri Halliwell" broadcast, are we now set for a dirty media war till June 7th?
posted by holgate at 1:26 PM PST - 11 comments

Qwest Communications pricing the poor out of calling home? Citing the increased use in personal cell phones and an inability to maintain their fleet of pay phones due to lower usage, Qwest is raising pay phone fees to $.50. What about a phone call costs half of a dollar? To me it's like a restaurant selling a soda for $1.95--everybody buys it=an easy hundreds of percantage points profit.
posted by crasspastor at 1:25 PM PST - 7 comments

When the commercial sectors of our suburbs and cities fall, and our entire way of life changes, will we live in stores like Fred Meyers? It's a question posed by not only singer Glen Phillips, but an oldish Wired article as well. [more...]
posted by hijinx at 12:55 PM PST - 12 comments

Backyard Wrestling File this under "funny but sad." You must have a look at few of the video clips of these boys in action. The whole squalid environment reminds me of Gummo. I understand it's just mindless fun but....is this the bottom of suburbia or the frightening norm?
posted by davebush at 12:19 PM PST - 36 comments

Doc Ellis Says He Pitched 1970 No-Hitter Under The Influence of LSD From the article: "It was the highpoint in the baseball career of one of the finer pitchers of his time, and arguably, one of the greatest achievements in the history of sports." Damn right! I wonder if there are any other drug-induced accomplishments in modern history that have been kept a secret.
posted by Karl at 12:11 PM PST - 19 comments

You don't need to be important to be a victim of government mind control -- even fifty year old retired men living in trailer homes can be victims of satellite turn signal sabotage.
posted by tweebiscuit at 10:58 AM PST - 14 comments

"the toothy smile is usually related to cannibalism" -- This 7 minute real audio NPR story on Russell Weston is a must listen. Three years ago Weston killed two capitol police officers, but he hasn't even been arraigned on the charges yet due to his paranoid schizophrenia. For a fascinating glimpse into his mind, listen to this story which includes audio excerpts from a 1997 interview with the CIA wherein he details his paranoid delusions regarding the "Ruby Satellite System" time machine and a conspiracy of cannibals.
posted by ericost at 10:40 AM PST - 16 comments

FBI finds a second batch of McVeigh documents. I hestitate to start a new thread about this but I just wanted to point out this story.
posted by rdr at 9:34 AM PST - 15 comments

Do you really need a car all the time? Or do you need one (or another one) just a few times a month? Car sharing is getting some press lately. Most carsharing programs are for profit, but City Carshare in San Francisco is a nonprofit organization. Is there a carshare program in your city? Would it work for you?
posted by feckless at 9:14 AM PST - 37 comments

This debunks a few myths about PFDs.
posted by dfowler at 8:26 AM PST - 16 comments

Don't make phone calls in Vegas. The Mob is listening. Whores! Wiretapping! Kevin Mitnick! Men nicknamed 'Aspirins' with electric drills! And more, courtesy of The Register. How widespread is this kind of telco infiltration? Should we trust any phone calls, anywhere?
posted by darukaru at 8:02 AM PST - 7 comments

From the International Herald Tribune: How's this whole separation of church and state working out? AG John Ashcroft: "It is against my religion to impose my religion on people..."

However, the department [DoJ] also issued new style guidelines for correspondence that carries Mr. Ashcroft's signature. They forbid, among other things, the use of "pride," which the Bible calls a sin, and the phrase "no higher calling than public service."
posted by dukejohnson at 5:52 AM PST - 64 comments

A label showcase. Last night Ryan Adams and the band Dolly Varden played at a small club called Les Etoiles, near Chateau d'Eau, in Paris. Adams was good, simple, one-man-and-his-guitar-and-piano moody melancholy rock; he used to be the frontman for Whiskeytown. Adams was not as upbeat as I'd expected, but the opening act, Dolly Varden, though only two of the five members made it to France, played appealing countryish two-person songs with strong vocals and simple instrumentation.
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:17 AM PST - 11 comments

Oscar winners live longer ...winning the coveted golden statuette can add four years to your life. BTW, the next article shows that half of heroin addicts die early.
Big surprise: "drugs = bad for ya" and "success = good for ya".
posted by nonharmful at 4:48 AM PST - 9 comments

Network Predatech It's around 2025 A.D. and the IMC is all-powerful. Can a devoted band of courageous hackers make a difference?
posted by ordinaryworld at 4:10 AM PST - 5 comments

Fashion photography stinks: A retrospective Yes, it's Slate. But this is fabulous, and an example of what the mag has been doing best of late; what makes it worth checking out, really. Social criticism in the guise of media/higher-end pop cultural criticism. Besides, fashion photography is insane.
posted by raysmj at 7:39 PM PST - 25 comments

Meatfilter? Mistyped U R L's usually serve you up a porn site, annoying ads, or endless spawning windows. This one though, gave me a chuckle.

note: you probably don't want to click on any of the links 'cept for the meatfilter one
posted by skwm at 5:25 PM PST - 25 comments

Sony's Mission Statement? Maybe. Maybe not. Regardless, it's a damn fine send-up.
posted by jcterminal at 3:31 PM PST - 7 comments

RealArcade is the future of gaming. Online downloads, rating, message boards, and high score lists are just the beginning of this game distribution-turned-instant-community application. When you can buy games online like this, whats the point of having a shrinkwrapped CD? (note most games are win95/8/ME only)
posted by mathowie at 2:51 PM PST - 27 comments

The Tekken Torture Tournament wires competitors into a "modified Tekken III Playstation console which converts virtual damage into a bracing, but non-lethal electric shock." (If you live in the Los Angeles area and have a high tolerance for pain, there's still time to register.)
posted by waxpancake at 2:00 PM PST - 11 comments

If you like mix tapes, Art of the Mix is a must-see site. The site hosts an archive of over 9,000 mix tapes made by music lovers from around the world. You can post your own mixes and contact others for mix tape trades. There's also a discussion forum in which all aspects of making mix tapes are discussed.
posted by Reggie452 at 1:21 PM PST - 8 comments

Something like a gallery except it looks like you can actually create art or modify what you've put up right in the browser. Looks really neat.
posted by jcterminal at 12:38 PM PST - 1 comments

Social Security Numbers and privacy. I refuse to give my number out whenever possible, but it is getting worse all the time. Thankfully I can still buy batteries and refuse to give Rat Shack my telephone number, and tell Toy R Us where to go when they ask for my zip, but this is frustrating. Wasn't this what people feared about having identification numbers in the first place?
posted by thirteen at 12:30 PM PST - 41 comments

Jeb Bush did not have sex with that woman. No, not that one, this one.
posted by swell at 12:27 PM PST - 12 comments

Go to the Moon Museum, install the Moon Browser, and go to the Moon.
posted by dfowler at 12:23 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Ever wonder how much effect the clean air act and emission limits on cars are having on the air we breathe? The the State of the Air 2001 report sponsored by the American Lung Association is for you. An assessment of pollution thorughout the US. Of course my county received an 'F' in this assesment. How is the air where you live?
posted by trox at 11:45 AM PST - 9 comments

Reports of the peanut's demise are greatly exaggerated. Efforts to counter the declining consumption of peanuts seem to be working, the National Peanut Board has announced. Sometimes you should feel like a nut.
posted by tenbroeck at 11:44 AM PST - 5 comments

Woggers, unite! Smite he which is so crass as to make fun of wogging! (giggle)
posted by rich at 11:22 AM PST - 2 comments

Review validates Supreme Court's decision or so says the Miami Herald which endorsed Al Gore for president.
posted by revbrian at 11:16 AM PST - 20 comments

Only in Las Vegas... If you're considering an elopement to Las Vegas, but don't want the friends and family to miss out, the Little White Chapel on the Strip now offers live streaming and on-demand replays of those touching moments when the Elvis impersonator goes into "Falling In Love With You". This is what the net was meant for.
posted by holgate at 11:13 AM PST - 3 comments

Right Wing/Left Wing/Corporate Media? Which is it? Are the biases just in the eye of the beholder, or are they really there? For instance, I find Fox News right wing biased - but to me NBC/ABC seem pretty balanced, if somewhat anti-left wing liberal. Others find all the outlets to be nothing more than mouthpieces for globalist, capitalist propaganda. Is it any or all of these things?
posted by owillis at 10:54 AM PST - 33 comments

The funniest thing I've seen in many a moon. Want to find crazy crap on eBay? Don't waste your prescious time, Disturbing Auctions has done it for you!

This for the golfer in the family.

This for the hawaii-bound honeymooners.

This for... I don't know.
posted by o2b at 9:46 AM PST - 19 comments

Most of us are familiar with stories about government suppression of the free flow of information on the Internet - e.g. China's crackdown on internet dissidents; France's tussle with Yahoo over online sales of Nazi memorabilia; and, fresh from yesterday's news, Iran's closure of 400 internet cafes. But did you know there are no web servers to speak of in North Korea? That you need government permission to own a fax machine or modem in Burma? That Somalia has only one ISP? If you can forgive some of its design peculiarities, this Enemies of the Internet report (by Reporters Without Borders) gives a pretty comprehensive rundown of the international state of online freedoms.
posted by varmint at 9:39 AM PST - 6 comments

See-through electronics as prison-chic [NYTimes link] The see-through iMac and other transluscent and transparent appliances turn out to have a practical uses in at least one segment of the population.
posted by idiolect at 9:17 AM PST - 4 comments

supreme court rejects medical use of marijuana oh, goody.
posted by bliss322 at 9:07 AM PST - 42 comments

A Society of Aliterates? Confused article in the Washington Post Style section indicts an aliterate society (one where people can read, but choose not to) for selling its soul at the going rate of 1 pic = 1000 words. Conflating "printed material" with "reading" and then with "quality", the author completely ignores what information people actually take away from different media (eg, doesn't notice that "reading" may be crappy s-f [hey, I had to give romance novels a break], while tv can be Frontline or 60 Minutes). Further, they throw in a brief screed against multimedia including highway signs. Bizarre and hypocritical, or maybe just illustrative, in that the writer completely forgoes logic and goes for scare tactics like:

You can walk through whole neighborhoods of houses in the country that do not contain books or magazines

in addition to the old stand-by of ignoring any real historical trend in reading. I want to say it's just some old crank, but can't quite, because the article was passed along by a friend earnestly worried about our aliterate society.
posted by claxton6 at 8:34 AM PST - 36 comments

Yar's revenge: Mom plays video game with kids. Back when gaming companies advertised on TV, Atari was king.
posted by bison at 7:53 AM PST - 9 comments

Last summer, lagado posted a link on some interesting mummies found in a Chinese desert. This is an article on the ensuing (and continuing) political problems they've caused.
posted by CRS at 7:14 AM PST - 9 comments

Gravel Road Requiem hits the spot. In Scott's May 14th posting he discusses then links to an amazing song, which he wrote and recorded. This was a nice gentle way to break into my day.
posted by vanderwal at 6:04 AM PST - 4 comments

"Peace? Peace? We don' need no steenken' peace!" Israel rejects freeze on continued building of illegal settlements in West Bank and Gaza; Apocalypse at eleven...
posted by m.polo at 5:45 AM PST - 57 comments

"Men Too" abortion leaflet.
"Men have no legal rights when it comes to abortion. Legally an abortion is a matter between a woman and her doctor - and this is as it should be. "
posted by nonharmful at 3:53 AM PST - 42 comments

A Lament for Douglas Adams by his close friend, Richard Dawkins.
posted by Jongo at 12:27 AM PST - 11 comments

No, really, on a scale of one to ten, how evil am I? This is the most interesting development in forensic psychology in some time. Is one type of murder more heinous than another? Apparently someone's finally giving the idea some thought.
posted by maxBell at 8:02 PM PST - 3 comments

Why Europe hates us, and why we don't need to care. Given the large amounts of US v Europe discussion here of late (see the death penalty and Eurovision threads as examples), I thought this opinion piece would be of interest.
posted by aaron at 4:05 PM PST - 79 comments

And I thought The Force was the oldest religion "This is not a new religion. The worship of The Goddess Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, The Home Arts, Womanly Virtue, and Prudent Warfare, has been documented as being well known and commonly practiced since before the founding of the ancient city of Athens in Greece; and is thus a Traditional and Well Established Religion. It has always emphasized individualism, self reliance, thinking for one's self, and personal responsibility; beliefs and values which led to the founding of Athens. Then, as now, Athena sought the brightest minds. Comet riders and cult followers need not apply. "
posted by feelinglistless at 2:38 PM PST - 26 comments

botched executions:
warning: gruesome descriptions of bungled executions ahead.

also: the execution tapes - audio recordings in real player format.

whether for or against the death penalty, take a look.
posted by bwg at 10:16 AM PST - 20 comments

K....A....B....O....O....M....! Rolls Royce is recalling five of their 2000 and 2001 models after discovering a design flaw can cause the cars to EXPLODE. While only 539 vehicles are affected, 408 are in the US. The flaw was discovered after a technician put the first tank of gas into the $360,000 (!) vehicle, started to drive it and hit the switch to roll up the windows. The explosion blew out all the windows and damaged the convertible top and the interior.
posted by crunchland at 8:18 AM PST - 13 comments

Dr. Pepper vs. Mr. Pibb Why do some places have dr. pepper, and others Mr. Pibb? Contrary to urban legend, Mister Pibb is not simply the same as Dr. Pepper. in a different can, and the mister has its own taste and its own own raving wild fans

Nor is Mr. Pibb the only Pepper-imposter out there. There are at least a hundred store and regionals brands, such as Dr. Radical , Texas Fizz , or the shamlessly named Dr. Shasta.

The other pepper mystery: does it contain prune juice? This mystery appears to have been settled. At least according to Yahoo's crack team.
posted by brucec at 7:53 AM PST - 42 comments

Mr. Casual dies, he was 87. It's really been a sad weekend.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 7:43 AM PST - 6 comments

Kazaa is the most robust peer-to-peer application I've ever seen, and I've seen plenty. Among its innovations are multi-sourced downloads, automatic resume, searching by genre (and other metadata), and "supernodes." And it's getting big fast. 54,214 users online as I type this, sharing 22,250GB of files. (Sorry, Windows only.)
posted by waxpancake at 10:15 PM PST - 25 comments

Is this the face of William Shakepeare? Only two likenesses of Shakespeare are considered to be genuine; both were created when he was in his final years, or after his death. On Friday the Globe and Mail reported that an anonymous engineer in a mid-sized Ontario city has a painting, handed down through twelve generations, of Shakespeare at the height of his career. It may be the only portrait painted of Shakespeare in his lifetime. Family lore states that it was painted by John Sanders, reputedly a bit actor in the same theatrical company as Shakespeare who also did such jobs as painting scene sets.
posted by tranquileye at 8:59 PM PST - 9 comments

Political software licences? The GPL prevents commercial use. Should it also try to enforce human rights?
posted by andrew cooke at 2:16 PM PST - 6 comments

Porn! Now the latest industry to get some representation in the Bush administration. It's like watching the Marx Brothers, only its real.
posted by owillis at 1:57 PM PST - 34 comments

Even fictional serial killer Jame Gumb has an online journal! And it is funny as hell, although the 'serial killers webring' it belongs to freaks me out. Why are fictional online journals like this one, and the Brad Pitt journal that used to be at Diaryland generally so much better than the 'real' journals kept by noncelebrities?
posted by kristin at 1:20 PM PST - 9 comments

I need a new super pogo stick.
posted by Spanktacular at 11:56 AM PST - 4 comments

The FBI uses Equifax subsidiary ChoicePoint to gather dossiers on, well, everybody. No surprise, but many people know how inaccurate these reports can be (see the link). Now they're being used by the FBI? The scene in Brazil where the guy gets SWAT-rushed in his house because of a spelling error comes to mind.
posted by aflakete at 11:42 AM PST - 7 comments

Timber interests spoofs Dr. Seuss's Lorax with the Truax. Here's the Utne article where I saw it mentioned.

They can't seriously expect us to swallow that tripe. [3F03]

Diametrically opposed environmentalism squabbles to follow.
posted by alan at 10:32 AM PST - 13 comments

The Eurovision Song Contest is tonight. Being an American, I don't understand it one bit, especially since the grand prize seems to be a one-way ticket to eternal obscurity. But someone must like it. "I want to shower you with sugar lumps/and ride you over fences..."
posted by aaron at 10:32 AM PST - 42 comments

Apparently arrogance isn't a job qualification I've read some attacks on dot-commers for being self involved yahoos. So the Chron found someone willing to own up to being a self involved yahoo in print. It's painful to read.
posted by rdr at 10:02 AM PST - 24 comments

This guy - Timothy McVeigh, mass murder - wins a stay of execution even though hes admitted several times his guilt. So the FBI mislays a couple thousand documents, from my P.O.V i cant think of anyone who wouldn't want to see him wearing two intravenous lines in his arms and watch the Potassium Chloride flowing as free as a bird......
posted by monkeyJuice at 8:06 AM PST - 58 comments

Theban Mapping Project is full of well displayed Egyptology. In f o u r languages, no less.
posted by dfowler at 6:23 AM PST - 5 comments

Everyone has a hobby.. mine is is playing the guitar (rather badly I may add). I love wholenote .com. Are there any other hobbyists out there who have a site to reccomend?
posted by ttrendel at 5:29 AM PST - 10 comments

Douglas Adams dead? The BBC has reported that the Author of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy has died of a heart attack age 49. I'm in shock...
posted by LMG at 3:54 AM PST - 84 comments

This IS the scientific definition of the whammy... The Scully Marathon is coming soon to an area near you - worldwide, fans of the television series The X-Files are getting together to watch ten of the best shows ever made, as well as raise money and awareness for neurofibromatosis. Don't miss the boat, Starbuck.
posted by ZachsMind at 11:40 PM PST - 20 comments

"If you've got ovaries, you're a female. I'm just old fashioned."
Acknowledging that there may be more to sex than chromosomes, a Kansas appeals court has overturned a lower court's ruling invalidating the marriage of a transsexual to someone of the (now) opposite sex. Some in the Kansas legislature think this is just some gay radical's way of skirting the same-sex marriage ban. There's an opposing Texas precedent that the Supreme Court refused to hear last year, so this one may go all the way. Sadly, it'll probably fall under the much-maligned equal protection clause. Anyone think this poor woman has a chance?
posted by Gilbert at 11:19 PM PST - 14 comments

Yet another design rip-off. This really bugs me. I have no problem with sites stealing layout and code, but actual graphics should be a no-no.
posted by jasonepowell at 2:08 PM PST - 54 comments

Man's remains found in home presumed empty since 1997 ...his skeleton in the living room chair. "It makes you appreciate the fact that you have loved ones."
posted by 7sharp11 at 1:18 PM PST - 41 comments

Any bets on weather Tim McVeigh will beat the Grim Reaper? How stupid can the FBI be, really? I mean, he was good as convicted anyway, so why not release all the documents?
posted by Rastafari at 1:09 PM PST - 25 comments

Furbeowulf cluster ... It could work but there's something about all that yapping from the Furbees that scares me... Considering how literal some geeks can get, I'm afraid... I'm very afraid.. (via NTK)
posted by TNLNYC at 12:10 PM PST - 7 comments

Arkansas court rules fetus is 'a person.' The court's ruling addressed "a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by a man whose wife and unborn child died during birth procedures." What does this mean for the abortion battle under the current administration?
posted by Julia2100 at 11:17 AM PST - 74 comments

And now you know the rest of the story..............good day Well, we got chatting a bit about ol' Paul Harvey the other day, and it turns out that this is the 25th anniversary of his "The Rest of the Story" program. (more inside)
posted by briank at 11:04 AM PST - 13 comments

Oh say can you see? This photo has a clever arrangement of chairs and a blue piece of fabric. Cool photography out of Brooklyn. This photo is used as a postcard.
posted by borgle at 10:31 AM PST - 15 comments

Everyone knows Chank, but there are literally thousands of indie font producers out there, many of whom offer amazing fonts for free. Any MeFi denizens care to share their favorites? The more obscure the better, but I'll start with a relatively well known house of Test Pilot Collective.
posted by FPN at 9:34 AM PST - 37 comments

UK-Dance This is a long-running community website, starting life as a mailing list way back in 1992. Since becoming a member in 1997, I've found it the liveliest, strongest and sometimes most seditious web site community I know. The main tenets are dance music (from jazz, through dub, reggae but most emphatically house, techno, drum'n'bass and whatever the scene throws up), hedonism, politics and networking. You have to subscribe to take part, but if you're a DJ, producer, music fan, clubber, raver, psychonaut or revolutionary, you'll be made to feel welcome. Check it out, but beware if you're a big fan of trance music.
posted by hmgovt at 7:54 AM PST - 2 comments

Rep. Bob Barr (Georgia) in full support of Spam The title says it all. But read his reasoning. He would rid us of Clinton but protect the right of business to annoy us with spam.
posted by Postroad at 7:39 AM PST - 25 comments

The Rumor is spreading. The Tallahassee Democrat gets up to 10 calls and emails a day asking why they haven't printed it. Vanity Fair is sort of writing about it in its July issue, they say. The Internet is all abuzz. But it seems that nobody can prove The Rumor, so instead they're simply going to keep talking about the fact the rumor exists until either someone comes forward with documentable proof, or until practically everyone knows about it anyway and thus the desired damage is done, regardless of whether The Rumor is true or not. It seems to have something to do with high-ranking Republican Florida state government officials and blowjobs, though. The same old "friend of a friend heard that Jeb and Katherine Harris are lovers" BS, or something newer? Doesn't the media have a responsibility to keep their trap shut until and unless they can come up with some real proof, rather than forcing it to come out by making the lack of provability into a so-called news story?
posted by aaron at 6:31 AM PST - 42 comments

IF man could come this long... (via A&L :)
posted by kliuless at 3:56 AM PST - 23 comments

Pollination Pets for the Garden. The UK bee population has almost halved in the last 10 years due mainly to the spread of a mite called Varroa from Asia. The loss of such a large proportion of the bee population has implications for agriculture, horticulture and nature, bees pollinate the majority of plants with no intervention from man, there isn't a more reliable fertilisation method. However an Oxford company has come up with a simple kit to attract Mason bees to nest in your garden requiring no effort and no protective clothing, they're pretty docile too, so it's unlikely you'll get stung. BTW, the US is affected too.
posted by Markb at 2:49 AM PST - 7 comments

Killing Time Shamelessly. How to kill time before leaving your job. This article explains how to fill the endless hours of tedium that make up many working days, with suggestions that include breaking into secure areas of your firm, writing a novel with the contents of your inbox and even...God forbid...doing your job Guess what? MeFi made the list of sites to browse shamelessly...
posted by bloated_guts at 2:32 AM PST - 14 comments

Lost or broken CD case? Ripped a disc and now it's just floating around on your desk? Freewheeling College students to the rescue! You give 'em the lowdown and you get a formatted paper CD case as a .pdf file. Input your own song titles or run an album search through their DB. They even archive mixes for you to share with others.
posted by donkeysuck at 12:02 AM PST - 4 comments

I come from a long line of inbreeders. No more laughing at them there bills from the hills! It seems all us white folk are related to only 50 frisky ancestors!
posted by srboisvert at 7:30 PM PST - 14 comments

Massachusetts' acting governor Jane Swift (R) is bed-ridden, about to give birth to twins. State legislators (mostly Democrats) are challenging her right to run the state via telephone. Sleazy, sexist politics? Or do they have a point? Is it irresponsble for an elected official to start a family while in office? (more inside)
posted by jpoulos at 7:13 PM PST - 41 comments

The XFL is dead! Now who had May 10th in the pool?
posted by TacoConsumer at 5:18 PM PST - 39 comments

Backwash - get paid to blog. Someday. Maybe. "The job of each Backwash Member is to scour the Internet for quality content that they personally find interesting and that they personally would spend time enjoying. The Member then recommends that content to their audience."
posted by todd at 5:10 PM PST - 22 comments

More Scandinavian lunacy. Sure, everyone hates Flash/Shockwave, the pestilence of the Internet, yada yada yada. But everyone loved the race-track builder, and making your own rock video of an iron-pumping cow is easy, fun and worth downloading Macromedia plug-ins. Bonus points for any Finns out there who want to provide a translation.
posted by donkeysuck at 4:19 PM PST - 6 comments

5k 2001 contest winners Winners now listed. It was a great crop, and - as is usual on the Web - porn rules.
posted by kokogiak at 2:42 PM PST - 17 comments

Important Massachusetts Legislation shown here makes me pruod to live in the Commonwealth...
posted by phunkone at 2:21 PM PST - 20 comments

Are the Conservatives actively trying to lose votes amongst the 18-24 demographic? Whilst executives at the BBC are rapidly losing their nerve when it comes to home grown programming, Channel 4 has consistently experimented with new formats and programming styles. The intent of the Blue party seems to facilitate the blanding out of television. Would a privatised C4 have the nerve to show its excellent history programmes in primetime? You can expect it will only lead to attitudes like those expressed by the producers of the US version of 'Survivor'.
posted by feelinglistless at 1:39 PM PST - 18 comments

Robots.cnn.com is a mirror of CNN, without the ads. (It looks like they use it for web crawlers.) This reminds me of channel.nytimes.com, the backdoor for the New York Times that allows you to skip registration for almost every story. Anyone know of any other major media backdoors?
posted by waxpancake at 1:32 PM PST - 28 comments

Britain, down the drain or in heaven? Interesting article from today's Independent (UK) that discusses how Britain's future will pan out. It seems that when we have an election we've got to go and become strangely self-critical before reverting to the usual refined apathy.
posted by nedrichards at 1:09 PM PST - 12 comments

Listen up geek. You know you want to build something like this. Admit it. (Not the site, the content foo!)
posted by jcterminal at 1:07 PM PST - 21 comments

Sometimes, the very worst songs get stuck in one's head. I am ashamed to admit that right now it's a bit of europuff from the comely Kylie Minogue, Your Disco Needs You. But that isn't nearly as bad as an unfortunate friend of mine who couldn't stop whistling the Horst Wessel Lied after seeing a documentary about Nazi Germany. When does a guilty pleasure become, well, too guilty?
posted by tranquileye at 1:05 PM PST - 22 comments

Update on FuckedCompany.com. A lesson for all those who pooh-pooh'ed Pud's move to start a subscriber service from his free site: he's now got 860 subscribers paying an average of $63/month, so he's making over $650K a year. Not bad in less than 2 months. Article is a couple of days old, but I missed it when it came out - sorry if it's old news =)
posted by JParker at 12:49 PM PST - 20 comments

"The Price Of Motherhood" Ann Crittenden explores the contradictory nature of child-rearing in our society. "The policies of American business, government, and the law do not reflect Americans’ stated values. Across the board, individuals who assume the role of nurturer are punished and discouraged from performing the very tasks that everyone agrees are essential. " Do you agree with Crittenden's assessment? If so, what steps can be taken to find a balance between what's good for society and business and what's good for kids? (Assuming that the two are mutually exclusive.)
posted by Dreama at 12:44 PM PST - 7 comments

We haven't had a Salon link on the front page for a while, so I don't feel bad about posting this one. Conserve energy the Dick Cheney way! [Warning: left-wing, liberal, tree-hugging, granola-eating, pinko, partisan parody. You don't have to click if you don't like such stuff.]
posted by jpoulos at 12:35 PM PST - 1 comments

Sure, it's a short-term blip, the change was tiny, and there are unique circumstances. But the number of people online in this year's first quarter actually dropped for the first time since 1980. Not what I expected out of 2001.
posted by luser at 12:17 PM PST - 9 comments

The martyrdom begins here. "David Woodard, a Los Angeles composer, said Wednesday the 12 1/2 minute piece is intended to bring comfort to the man guilty of the worst act of terrorism ever committed on American soil—the 1995 bombing that killed 168 men, women and children at the Alfred P. Murrah federal building. Woodard, however, draws parallels with Jesus Christ, who, he says, like McVeigh 'was 33 and nearly universally despised at the time of his execution.''' (The official Google response to this allegation.)
posted by maura at 12:15 PM PST - 15 comments

Map enthusiasts might enjoy The Geography Network, a new venture from ESRI, vendor of the most used GIS system. The site includes an in-browser viewer, so you don't need to own any ESRI products to see the free data. If you do, though, the data's yours for the downloading. They've already got the latest TIGER census maps as well as a ton of maps and information from around the globe. They hope to create a central location for GIS data sharing, and they're off to a good start.
posted by ewagoner at 11:59 AM PST - 4 comments

Apparently you can teach old dogs new tricks. Injections of a naturally occuring hormone can reverse the effects of osteoporosis. Fortunately, I'm not old enough to need it, but it is comforting to know that as I age, science ain't always bad for me. This is a concise photorepresentation of the discovery.
posted by donkeysuck at 11:05 AM PST - 1 comments

Songbird is billed as a Napster anti-piracy tool. It's job is supposedly for an artist to see the many title variations of their material as documentation for copyright violations. I don't know if this is truly a thinly-veiled claim of legitimacy or whether the author is just being earnest - but because it shows what users have what variations, I'm finding it a great tool to track down songs that I couldn't find before because of Napster's filtering and not necessarily being able to think of every possible variation...Neato.
posted by DiplomaticImmunity at 11:01 AM PST - 7 comments

Boeing chooses Chicago for new corporate headquarters. This, despite O'Hare's growing reputation for cancellations and delays, and the gridlocked politics that prevent a near-term solution to the air transportation problems in Chicago.
posted by ktheory at 10:39 AM PST - 10 comments

UFO spotted? This well may be the new Chinese stealth wave our CIA has been trying to blow away from our shores but to no avail. For the first time, China able to spy on us and to knock down surfers too.
posted by Postroad at 10:25 AM PST - 6 comments

Here's a 40th anniversary that deserves more attention than it probably will get.
posted by darren at 9:59 AM PST - 6 comments

I just got spammed with an offer to preserve my pet's DNA for later cloning. Shades of Repet! Checked out the company, Animal Cloning Sciences, and they used to be "Ovvio Better Life", trading at about $0.16 a share, down from their $5 heyday and slowly sinking into oblivion. Thank God.
posted by JParker at 9:05 AM PST - 1 comments

What's going on America?!? Influential Republicans and Democrats in the House have threatened to hold back $244 million in dues to the United Nations if the United States does not recover a seat on the Human Rights Commission next year.
posted by twistedonion at 9:03 AM PST - 86 comments

Go to a football match. Police arrive with tear gas and start a riot. 130 people die. I wonder if the police get some kind of bonus for killing innocent civilians...
posted by timbooker at 8:17 AM PST - 16 comments

View Askew has released the first Internet-only trailer for "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (J&BSB). Enjoy.
posted by chrish at 7:27 AM PST - 17 comments

History, Mathematics, Religion... All wrapped into a handy, easy-to-use {large graphic} format and distributed once or twice a year via a harmless school paper. This is the Mayday Mystery.
posted by carsonb at 5:18 AM PST - 24 comments

Some things are just wrong.
posted by Spanktacular at 4:22 AM PST - 24 comments

Nothing too big, exciting, scandalous, ironic or wacky, but in this article, several famous people who might be considered "American Achievers" are listed:

"The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Michael Jordan; Jonas Salk; Steven Spielberg; Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, the home fashion guru; Dorothy Hamill, the ice skater; Frederick W. Smith, the founder of Federal Express; and Steven Case, chairman of AOL Time Warner."

My question is: what criteria did the reporter, Elaine Sciolino, use to determine which famous people get an explanation and which don't? I know all of those names, except for Smith. My guess as to why more aren't defined is because it would sound crass to define some of the more impressive careers in just five words: "Jonas Salk, creator of the polio vaccine" or "The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., slain civil rights leader."
posted by Mo Nickels at 2:49 AM PST - 11 comments

The Bush Landgrab George's latest: get the federal government to seize land so the power companies can string more power lines up. Aren't the Republicans supposed to be against federal land-grabs like this, or is it okay as long as we're not saving endangered animals?
posted by owillis at 6:28 PM PST - 22 comments

the truth is out there? Do aliens exist? I'm not sure, but a presentation before the National Press Club does lend a certain credibility to the idea, or maybe it discredits the press instead?
posted by drezdn at 6:09 PM PST - 11 comments

Got Milk? Two reporters win a lawsuit against Fox for being fired when they wouldn't lie about bovine growth hormone.
posted by thunder at 4:59 PM PST - 22 comments

What goes around comes around for Rambus. Like Jacob, I will predict that Steven is not suprised about the fraud claims.
posted by john at 4:39 PM PST - 1 comments

A Cure for Poverty? (NYT, free registration required. It's worth it this time, really). "The depressed poor perceive themselves to be supremely helpless -- so helpless that they neither seek nor embrace support. This means that most people who are poor and depressed stay poor and depressed. Poverty is depressing, and depression, leading as it does to dysfunction and isolation, is impoverishing. " via FMH
posted by frykitty at 4:20 PM PST - 29 comments

Operation Probe: a top-secret, drug-sniffing gerbil program developed in the early 1980s.
posted by cardboard at 4:13 PM PST - 2 comments

Internet bypasses censorship of school paper, when students prevented from publishing multi-article feature on school violence [ChiTrib: free reg] put it online at Geocities. Was the issue too provocative for a school paper that must answer to parents? Is the internet "safety valve" a realistic solution for these all-too-common disputes?
posted by dhartung at 2:48 PM PST - 9 comments

All my life, people have been studying the hidden (sometimes very well hidden) profundities of pop-music lyrics. You know, however, that 99.99% of it is mundane and not worth studying. Wrong!.
posted by luser at 1:59 PM PST - 8 comments

In looking for a Hurricane Andrew image to illustrate a point on the ham radio thread, I came across evidence that the weather geeks may be the geekiest of all. Cool pull quote inside.
posted by baylink at 1:29 PM PST - 9 comments

The Doctor is still blundering about time in a series of new adventures featuring the most 'recent' actor to play the part on TV, Paul McGann. This past season has had the flavour of the Tom Baker stories, with strong writing and acting from some familiar faces, making the lack of visuals a real strength. Pity it's so expensive though . . .
posted by feelinglistless at 1:19 PM PST - 4 comments

Chicago invaded by Bunim-Murray Productions. Well, we can either take this opportunity to culture jam, or spend the next several months griping about camera crews taking up too much space on the El during rush hour. Any bets on what neighborhood they'll be in?
posted by gsh at 1:17 PM PST - 34 comments

The new Webmonkey redesign is slick. Liquid width, CSS positioned boxes (hacked z-index and negative margins to get those overlapping boxes is my guess), easter eggs on the logo, and now a frontdoor split based on skill level. Although this design doesn't lend itself well to their more text heavy subpages, I'd prefer to see a bit more integration than the new on the front and old look inside (the splash of white from every link off the main page is a bit much).
posted by mathowie at 12:06 PM PST - 32 comments

Go is better than Chess. (This discussion started in MetaTalk through topic drift, and it really belongs here.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:05 PM PST - 23 comments

Well, they called a truce. The Chinese Hack attack pack has officially called a truce. Thank God. I was worried about this showing up on my card catalog page again. (happened two days ago, some nice old blue haired lady almost had a heart attack trying to find the new Left Behind book.....
posted by bradth27 at 12:01 PM PST - 6 comments

I've been very disappointed at the lack of Jakob-bashing in recent weeks, so I stopped by useit to see if he had actually stopped being a dope... Nope!

"Two years ago, I predicted that poor intranet usability would cost the world economy $100 Billion in 2001. I just computed a current estimate of the cost of poor intranet usability for Business 2.0 magazine. Surprise -- the result is exactly as predicted: $100 Billion lost per year."

Does anyone else find it fishy that this guy is being asked to verify his own predictions?
posted by o2b at 11:55 AM PST - 34 comments

Finances can be a sticky issue in relationships
Can you pay my bills?
Can you pay my telephone bills?
Can you pay my automo-bills?
If you did then maybe we could chill
I don't think you do
So, you and me are through

Can I get paid to write stuff like this? And just how would one get started?
posted by 4midori at 11:46 AM PST - 18 comments

If you're reading this, then you're probably qualified. This is my job, but I've tendered my resignation so I can move out to Wyoming and become a carpenter. If you know a web-master/designer who's been 'down-sized' (and who doesn't?), hook a brother up.

It's actually a nice place to work. I don't dig the corporate thing at all, but the IS dept is very friendly and you do get a measure of creative freedom. (and i've broken them in, so they're used to off the wall ideas.)

posted by jcterminal at 11:30 AM PST - 22 comments

As a struggling ex-smoker, I applaud these people for the effort. But part of me still wonders if Unfiltered (a "reality TV" webshow about 5 teenage smokers) is going to have any impact on teens who smoke.
posted by Reggie452 at 10:47 AM PST - 3 comments

Survival Research Labs: as covered by KCOP TeeVee in L.A. I like this clip because not only is the contrast between the slick newscaster and exploding, flaming machinery bizarre in and of itself, but there is some great footage of the SRL shows and machinery. Hey, it's summer!
posted by mecran01 at 10:40 AM PST - 9 comments

Vacuum bra: give your bust line a boost "If you suffer from cleavage envy but are averse to scalpels and sacks of saline or silicone, there’s a new option: Hoover-ing your way to a bigger bust with a battery-powered wearable vacuum bra. Physicians are lining up for the chance to offer the Brava Breast Enhancement and Shaping System to their less-endowed female patients." (see also Brava, the creator of the device)
posted by timothompson at 10:25 AM PST - 20 comments

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's global consciousness ... is it for the birds?
posted by sudama at 10:18 AM PST - 3 comments

A Jacksonville aviation company and others are making daily prayer meetings, chaplains and burning frankincense a permanent part of the workplace. Should we thank God, or pray this doesn't happen where we work?
posted by rcade at 9:16 AM PST - 29 comments

Ask the rabbi...about storing your ammo. I love the total randomness of this, including the fact that it's all coming to you from Wisconsin, the Badger State.
posted by luser at 8:30 AM PST - 8 comments

Spam vengeance feels oddly satisfying; a simple click costs spam software companies from a few pennies to a few dollars.
posted by greensweater at 8:09 AM PST - 27 comments

Ben Allinger for fascist dictator page (official). Now there's a young man with big plans for his (our) future. Where does one vote for world dictators? He's as good as they get.
posted by talos at 7:42 AM PST - 12 comments

Vigilantism Taken To The Extreme Man guns down "career larcenist" as he's ransacking his car. No one in the neighborhood is crying for the criminal, who had 47 arrests. They're going to be character witness for the killer, who's charged with 2nd degree murder. Should I feel guilty that I'm not terribly sorry New York is minus one thug this morning?
posted by darren at 6:31 AM PST - 60 comments

How to become heterosexual.
Dr. Spitzer, "a Jewish, atheist, secular humanist" and psychiatrist, has found that it is possible to change sexual orientation.
Question #1
Would it also be possible to make straight people gay?
Question #2
"...11 percent of men and 37 percent of women reported a complete absence of homosexual indicators"
Homosexual indicators? Such as ..........?
Question #3
...... oh never mind.......
posted by nonharmful at 6:03 AM PST - 108 comments

neo-neo psychedelic, man the new new psychedlic art artists are creating with Flash is trippy. . It's like 1968 all over again, without the nasty side effects (nam, nixon). I'm quittin my job and moving to Frisco.
posted by brucec at 5:41 AM PST - 35 comments

Remember my.mp3.com? Remember how MP3.com settled up with the major music distributors for a whole bunch of money? Looks like the smaller fish are trying to get their share. Rights, royalties, blah blah blah, what I'm curious about is, will this hurt Tom Waits's remarkable credibility.
posted by alan at 12:58 AM PST - 9 comments

Not merely content to invent the future, Japan is also hard at work inventing the past.
posted by lagado at 12:40 AM PST - 25 comments

Disenchanted comments on the "Web Standards Project" and he disagrees with it. And I think what he says rings true: "There's no point in hanging a 'No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service' sign outside a web site."
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:10 PM PST - 71 comments

"We’re not behaving, sometimes we’re pretty wild."
The buggy’s interior is upholstered in royal blue velour. A triangular swatch of the same material is attached to the dash. Silver key chains with colorful emblems - Guns and Roses, Cleveland Browns, and a miniature baseball bat - hang from battery-operated light switches.

Five stereo speakers - including a 12-inch sub-woofer - line the inside of the covered buggy.

On the seat is a selection of old cassette tapes: "The Outfield," "Vixen," and "Hooters."

"This thing will rock, I’m telling you," one of the boys says.
posted by quonsar at 6:16 PM PST - 21 comments

Disclaimers. Peter Shank barely has a website, but it has one of the most extensive collections of disclaimers I've ever come across.

No animals were harmed in the production of this file.
All models over 18 years of age.
If condition persists, consult your physician.
Freshest if consumed before date on carton.
Prices subject to change without notice.
Times approximate.
No postage necessary if mailed in Singapore.
If swallowed, do not induce vomiting.

I bet if we add up all the disclaimers and qualifiers out in the world we would find that no one ever actually says anything.

Cynical? Me? No...
posted by o2b at 6:01 PM PST - 9 comments

VMware. Run the Operating Systems You Need, All at Once, on the One Machine.
posted by Zool at 4:58 PM PST - 16 comments

God's Debris by Scott Adams. "I'm distributing "God's Debris" exclusively as an ebook, without going through a publisher... If the ebook sells well it will set a precedent that screws up the entire book industry. If you ever wanted to screw up an entire industry - and who wouldn't - this is your chance."
posted by Neale at 4:37 PM PST - 23 comments

Domain name game to get hot this summer... Kent Jordan, who represented .info registry Afilias, said the process has been challenged by people who believe that trademark holders should not have first crack at domain names containing their names. "We reject that," he told the audience. Interesting...
posted by canoeguide at 3:46 PM PST - 5 comments

The World [Map] According to America Quite funny indeed...
posted by tatochip at 3:40 PM PST - 16 comments

Apple Goes Retail: Good Idea? As this NYTimes Article describes, Apple is planning to open about a dozen stores nationwide. Because Apple specializes in aesthetically pleasing hardware, I actually think this is a good idea for them.
posted by ParisParamus at 1:46 PM PST - 34 comments

R.I.P. R.A.H.
posted by baylink at 1:45 PM PST - 9 comments

BBC to North America and Australia: Drop Dead. The BBC World Service is dumping all shortwave broadcasts to the US, Canada and Australia as of July. If you want to listen you'll have to get it off the net, or hope your local public radio station uses at least a few WS programs as cheap filler material. A couple hundred US stations do this, but did we mention they tend to do it at 3 in the morning? (Scroll down past the Angola stuff in the above link.)
posted by aaron at 1:42 PM PST - 18 comments

Very thought provoking I would say, but you might want to think about the choices for a minute before you answer. It matches you as closely as it can with famous philosophers. Not perfect, but definitely an interesting site. Has anybody seen others like it?
posted by prototype_octavius at 1:38 PM PST - 101 comments

An exchange between James Fallows and Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

[L]et me explain that your book is the account of three month-long episodes of attempting to live entirely on earnings from $7- or $8-per-hour jobs. You show up in low-wage cities and try to get on your feet, like someone "graduating" from welfare to work. One of many intriguing aspects is the juggling of three challenges: landing a job (not that hard, in the "tight" economy of the late nineties); doing the job (sometimes quite hard, as you make vivid); and finding a place to live (nearly impossible, for reasons we will get to).

The material questions are 1) Do we care? 2) What should we do about it? The author makes a couple of suggestion a couple of links into the article. What do you think?

link via adam
posted by Sean Meade at 12:13 PM PST - 51 comments

Remember Screech? Ran across this site today and although I was never a big fan of the show Saved by the Bell, seeing this and hearing the songs made me chuckle quite a bit. Oh, by the way, that's him on the far right of the band photo.
posted by almostcool at 11:50 AM PST - 12 comments

Like smartertimes, but dumber - dumbertimes.com is kind of like the Onion of small independent sites that provide daily criticism of the New York Times.
posted by transona5 at 11:32 AM PST - 2 comments

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) has introduced into the house HJR 45, being termed the Liberty Ammendment, which would not only expressly prohibit the federal government from engaging in any enterprise except as provided for in the Constitution, but would also repeal the 16th Ammendment. [That's the one that made legitimate the income tax, after the US had managed to survive without one for a century and a half]
posted by jammer at 11:25 AM PST - 29 comments

A Day at the Races: PM Tony Blair calls for the General Election on June 7. What will the next month of campaigning be like? Well, Trimble has already threatened to resign his post in N. Ireland.
posted by ahughey at 10:47 AM PST - 6 comments

Every OS sucks... A nice little ditty (requires either windows media player or flash player).
posted by TNLNYC at 10:30 AM PST - 13 comments

Top 25 Women of the Web as selected by "San Francisco Women on the Web". Evidently they have different criteria than I do; no Hannah, no Jennifer Ringley, not even Danni Ashe. In fact, I've never heard of any of 'em. What make these ladies "top"?

Who would you nominate for a list titled "Top 25 Women of the Web", and why?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:18 AM PST - 31 comments

Could this be the straw that breaks the Camels back.
posted by monkeyJuice at 9:32 AM PST - 13 comments

The Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) was founded in 1914 to support amateur radio experimenters (hams) that the U.S. began licensing in 1912. The ARRL's 163k+ members refer to each other by strange codes, speak in arcane abbreviations, and do extremely cool things like talk to the space shuttle and international space station via ARISS/SAREX (in the news recently), do two-way EME (earth-moon-earth) communication, and ragchewing (chin wagging) with folks in other countries via commercial and homebrew equipment. And their handbook is a great reference for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of electronics. Sounds like fun.
posted by jplummer at 9:32 AM PST - 20 comments

This is the NEXT oh who am i kidding? *sob* icy hot stuntaz to parody page in less than a week. is this a record?
posted by jcterminal at 9:30 AM PST - 29 comments

Katie Couric: Your Execution Morning Friend Oh, nothing against Katie. Just seems a smidgen ridiculous to have TV morning shows with live-from-elsewhere coverage centered around the execution of McVeigh. Also, 1600 journalists will be around. I know this is typical media overkill for our times, but is it making a martyr out of the guy? Greta from CNN thinks lethal injection executions are snoozers anyway.(Registration required).
posted by raysmj at 9:21 AM PST - 8 comments

Don't like the rulings? Fire the umpire. Trent Lott got the Senate's parliamentarian, a Republican, fired because he, appropriately, wouldn't exempt some bills from filibuster. It seems the GOP has abandoned any pretense of bipartisanship.
posted by anapestic at 9:20 AM PST - 8 comments

Is this cybersquatting? While researching a new car, I decided to check out the research guide at Edmunds.com. When I misspelled the name, I found that edmonds.com is basically a mirror for Amazon.com, which happens to sell cars. Is that kosher?
posted by jpoulos at 9:13 AM PST - 6 comments

Why love your neighbor when you can sue him? A tiny, Florida-based charity called Love Thy Neighbor is being sued for trademark infringement by a Detroit entrepreneur whose enterprise goes by the name Love Your Neighbor.
posted by revbrian at 8:36 AM PST - 2 comments

Long live Nina Tottenberg, Bob Edwards, Ira Glass and the rest of the gang! "We like NPR! We really, really like it!"

This restores at least a little bit of my faith in the American media consumer.
posted by mapalm at 8:24 AM PST - 37 comments

Sen. Storm Thurmond poster boy for term limits? Is this more hipocracy on part of we need term-limits Republican? Why doesn't he just resign and spend some time with his family?
posted by Rastafari at 7:56 AM PST - 8 comments

"Marion County officer says he feared for his life as he faced a knife-wielding man at arm's length." Man breaks into own home after losing keys, neighbors call the police because of the noise, police investigate, man attacks them. Man gets shot dead.
posted by pnevares at 7:53 AM PST - 10 comments

HR 1542, the so-called Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act, will do exactly the opposite of what its name implies, reducing Internet freedom and broadband deployment by eliminating many regulations designed to force the Bells into being more competitive, and also by outlawing voice over IP.

From the article: "This bill ... does nothing more than strip-mine the remaining competitive safeguards of the current law, green-lighting the Bells to bludgeon any remaining competitors into oblivion."
posted by donkeymon at 7:03 AM PST - 4 comments

Another innocent man gets out of prison - after 15 years Jeffrey Pierce goes home. If he admitted committing the rape, he would have gone free by now, but he stood his ground, and lost 15 years. II
posted by tomplus2 at 6:27 AM PST - 19 comments

A new Darwin Award candidate? "[Henry] Elrod's death certificate lists the cause as multiple organ failure from 'voluntary ingestion of China berries.' Indigenous to Asia, China berry trees produce berries, flowers and bark so toxic that six to eight berries have been known to kill a person." This guy ate them for 19 days while on holiday. He even took some home.
posted by Cuppatea at 5:33 AM PST - 19 comments

Claims based on early census data that "non-hispanic whites" are becoming a minority in many regions of the United States are very devisive and inaccurate, this nytimes op-ed by Orlando Patterson claims. "The misleading reports of white proportional decline are likely not only to sustain the racist fears of white supremacist groups but also to affect the views of ordinary white, nonextremist Americans."
posted by palegirl at 5:07 AM PST - 13 comments

Fatbubble -- include-all blogging in real-time? This new program will allow you to spy on what your instant messenger buddies are browsing on the web, let them know what you think about the sites they're on, rate them, comment on them, send them to a friend etc. (Their press release)
posted by frednorman at 5:02 AM PST - 9 comments

Last week, the United States lost its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

The U.S. has been voted out of something again, losing its seat on the International Narcotics Control Board, a worldwide body which monitors drugs manufacture and illicit drugs trading.
posted by lia at 3:08 AM PST - 33 comments

McVeigh, Nichols did not act alone? U.S. had prior knowledge of the bombing? (via Fark) Interesting piece about a forthcoming 500 page report by the Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee. They conclude, among other things, that the blast has links to bin Laden. Kind of scary how much the allegations remind me of the JFK investigation.
posted by sixdifferentways at 12:37 AM PST - 13 comments

The Greatest Generation? (preventing some thread hijack) While I don't doubt the bravery of those that defeated Hitler, I wonder if it's a little presumptious of any generation to consider themselves "the greatest"
posted by owillis at 8:14 PM PST - 29 comments

Yahoo Shutdown by... what else... California... non-huge-ad non-news.com version the power crunch is getting worse, when blackouts were ordered. Apparently it hit Exodus, and the backup generators didn't kick in properly.
posted by benjh at 7:51 PM PST - 11 comments

NASA to send glow-in-the-dark plants to Mars. While they wait and search for native life form, NASA, in conjunction with Ferl Lab of University of Florida, is sending GM plants that would report back via their glow into the Red Planet. The good doctor has sent his babies into the heavens before.
posted by tamim at 7:22 PM PST - 4 comments

Dinosaurs are back in the new trailers for Jurassic Park 3. You can also read some spoilers for the movie here.
posted by hidely at 6:48 PM PST - 25 comments

Let us prepare for impact. A group of scientists is working on a standardized protocol for dealing with the possibility of a comet or massive asteroid striking the Earth, saying humans can do more than the dinosaurs ever could before a colossal impact precipitated their extinction 65 millions years ago.
"We have now overcome the giggle factor."
I don't know if we have........
posted by nonharmful at 2:46 PM PST - 24 comments

Nanotech Machines overrun by (relatively) giant bugs. Electron Microscope imagery has such a great look to it. Here's a series of images from the folks at Sandia Labs, who - while imaging their micro-machines - placed some interesting creatures in the frame for scale.
posted by kokogiak at 2:44 PM PST - 12 comments

Chris Evans and Billie have wed. What is it with DJs and singers? And I thought this was the strangest showbiz news in the UK this weekend. Doh!
posted by feelinglistless at 2:35 PM PST - 13 comments

Sweet mother of god don't let this be a double post. This little monster is for "the preservation of the command line culture". A whole lot of distractions in such a small bandwidth. Want streaming video? Try 'starwars'. Want adventure? Type... um... 'adventure'. Remember the good old days?
posted by jcterminal at 2:03 PM PST - 9 comments

what the...... Is this self linking? Someone tried to hack into my server and make this my homepage. Anyone got any information on who this is, or know anything about it? I am familiar with Poisonbox...but...not this one.
posted by bradth27 at 1:33 PM PST - 10 comments

New Bose radio hooks up to PC. I just saw their ad in wired and when to check the site. It had some popups so I turned webwasher off and reloaded the page. When I did, I was just redirected to a teaser. So I turned webwasher back on and was able to get to this site, which shows off a new radio that connects to the PC. The funny thing is to try going to http://wavepc.bose.com/ with and without webwasher yields different results.
posted by TNLNYC at 12:52 PM PST - 18 comments

"Dawson’s Creek" is really an indoctrination tool for homosexual activists. "The Family Research Council has taken offense at everything from 'Friends' to 'American Pie'. And don’t even get them started about all the gay people on television".
posted by matteo at 11:35 AM PST - 44 comments

Is TV dumbed down so much these days that even educational or documentary material needs to appeal on a broader audience? It seems that TLC and Discovery are going overboard in their need to draw viewers, though, then their motto 'a place for learning minds' becomes just another example of false advertising. If you were to tune in at prime time, chances are the stuff that's on would be about a)aliens, b)Christianity, or c)aliens and Christianity. Tune in for TLC you'll always get 'worst drivers 3: road rage' or 'plastic surgery gone BAD'. Their good productions, such as the Great Books Series have been shut down over 2 years ago, and these days the most interesting stuff that's on is shown in reruns over at the discovery civilization or science channel. BBC and PBS creates interesting programs, but not all that often.

Sometimes people complain at how Survivor and the rest of the reality show stuff is dragging down TV to the very bottom, but is it really effecting everything?
posted by tiaka at 9:38 AM PST - 47 comments

Highest gas prices in the country will accompany your vacation to the beautiful redwood country. They're now the subject of a folk song (mp3) (framed parent link: khum.com).
posted by fleener at 9:30 AM PST - 19 comments

Early (around 1910) amazing COLOR photographs from Russia by Prokudin-Gorskii, photographer for the Czar. He essentially had three cameras, each with a separate Red, Green, or Blue filter, and snapped the same shot at the same time. So all the "reds" were recorded, in B&W, on one photographic plate, and likewise down the line. Then he could use the filters to recreate the scene and project it onto a screen in color. (more inside) (props to slashdot for the link)
posted by jwells at 8:46 AM PST - 58 comments

Upgrade your PC. With a shotgun. [via fark]
posted by plinth at 7:35 AM PST - 7 comments

Computers burnt by CD software CD burning software in combination with windows 2000 results in the blue screen of death.
posted by nonharmful at 7:07 AM PST - 14 comments

Star Wars Episode 2 Plot Summary Yes, they're making a new Star Wars movie. Ep. 2 appears to be much better than the Phantom Menace.
posted by ordinaryworld at 4:44 AM PST - 23 comments

"..this vengeance, this rage, isn't helping us one bit." The father of one of the victims of the Oklahoma bombing speaks out about why he's forgiven Tim McVeigh. The article also talks about the social pressure on Oklahomans who are against the death penalty and a Colorado politician who's upset because the killer of his aunt failed to apologize before his execution.
posted by jeannepickering at 3:35 AM PST - 16 comments

Icy Hot Stuntaz "Yo punk ass has just come to the hardest, phattest, and tightest group da world has eva seen. Icy Hot Stuntaz in the 2G+1. We aint like yo bakdoorboyz, yo nsucks, or yo britney smears. and if yo think we iz like yo puff mommy, yo snoop pupp, or yo DumMX you iz crazy wrong."
posted by owillis at 1:36 AM PST - 40 comments

New Ancient Civilization found compareable to the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia civilizations. By Crom!
posted by stbalbach at 5:10 PM PST - 31 comments

Douglas Wayne Myres, Jr. died due to an asthma attack. He is a co-founder of G.o.d. games. It's the worst thing when good people die young. He was 36.
posted by john at 4:34 PM PST - 11 comments

We demand more diversity and the exclusion of men. "Hollins (University) drops charges against 2 nude protesters - The protesters demanded more diversity, more money for student services, more power for students and for men never to be admitted as undergraduates."
posted by NortonDC at 1:23 PM PST - 11 comments

has george dubya become an unlikely [and unwilling] role model for feminists? "Bush has given the entire country something almost as valuable [as his support for workers rights] -- his example. With Bush in mind, working parents can demand a promotion and nights and weekends off. After all, why should they have to work longer hours than the most powerful man in the world? Today's [feminists] want power and time to watch Little League. And our friend Dubya is leading the way." Is Bush the Younger really doing it right, or ought he be working harder?
posted by palegirl at 11:20 AM PST - 8 comments

'The new market fundamentalism is more dangerous to the world now than Communism.' George Soros, on the inside pissing in. Capitalism with a human face?
posted by holgate at 11:02 AM PST - 14 comments

Bush Admin., Scientists at odds over power issues. I've been trying to give the President a chance, but it seems as though conservation efforts and alternative evergy sources are being completely ignored. Mere difference of opinion-or something else?
posted by black8 at 11:02 AM PST - 14 comments

Wow, the cubs have actually started off pretty good this year, over .500 since, ohh I can't remember when. I'm kinda excited, but still don't like Baylor too much. Anyway, is anyone else upset at how MLB has redone all the team's sites so that they can be the same? Sure the design is not horrible, but that's not the point, is everything on the net doomed for the cookie-cutter formula?
posted by tiaka at 8:46 AM PST - 47 comments

When soocer dads go bad. Maybe it's the geek klutz in me but I'm always a little leery when people start talking about team sports as a way to build character.
posted by rdr at 4:03 AM PST - 14 comments

I need your help in figuring out why I saw two pop-up windows when visiting Amazon.com several times in the past week: the usual one for Amazon's most recent promotion, and one for one of their competitors. If you see a DealTime pop-up ad while visiting Amazon.com, please help me figure out how it got there. I think something insideous might be going on, but I'm having difficulty re-acquiring the pop-up.

Please see more details inside if you're interested, otherwise you can ignore this. I'll post the results under a separate thread if they're interesting.
posted by dan_of_brainlog at 10:20 PM PST - 35 comments

I'm making a "Top Level Post" at MetaFilter. Why? Because ICANN! Muahahahahahahahahahahaha!
posted by webchick at 10:12 PM PST - 7 comments

as if Godzilla wasn't enough, now citizens of Tokyo have to worry about a guy in a panda suit killing people. what's the world coming to? When cosplay goes too far!
posted by fuzzygeek at 8:32 PM PST - 4 comments

Like shooting fish in a barrel...the story practically writes itself! Cliffs notes founder lived, did some stuff, and then died.
posted by davidmsc at 3:51 PM PST - 5 comments

Pssst -- buddy, wanta buy a kidney? There is a regular trade from China of transplant organs taken from executed prisoners. People from the US have been travelling there and buying organs, then coming back to the US. Should we do anything about this, and if so what?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 3:15 PM PST - 21 comments

APOCAMON! The Book of Revelations, Pokemon style. Yes, that's right. The really strange thing is how seamlessly the Pokemon elements fit into the story. Maybe St. John anticipated more than we thought... (PS: Those with a limited sense of humor about this kind of thing can probably already see where this is headed, and should feel free to just not click the link.)
posted by misterzoo at 1:20 PM PST - 6 comments

Novelist Vidal to watch McVeigh die McVeigh “put his reason (for the bombing) upon a sense of justice,” Vidal said. “This guy’s got a case — you don’t send the FBI in to kill women and children,” he said, a reference to the government’s deadly raid on the Davidians’ complex at Waco. Vidal said, however, he wants people to know how horrified he is by the bombing. The author said he told McVeigh in a letter that if the bomber had blown up FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., “at midnight when no one was in it, ‘you’d be a national hero.’”
posted by matteo at 11:41 AM PST - 25 comments

Program Catches Copycat Students "A professor at the University of Virginia has nabbed 122 students for plagiarism using a computer program he wrote himself". This really sucks, doesn't it?
posted by matteo at 8:52 AM PST - 41 comments

Fla. OKs Election System Overhaul "Florida's governor was eager to change the state's maligned election system after recounts delayed his brother's election for 36 days and left many Democrats believing Al Gore had won".
posted by matteo at 8:50 AM PST - 10 comments

Find out how many radio stations in your area are owned by the same company. Here in Dallas Texas Clear Channel owns six. Then there's four other radio stations owned by Susquehanna Radio which used to be owned by AM/FM Incorporated but they merged with *guess who* Clear Channel last year. So it looks like Clear Channel either directly or indirectly controls almost a dozen radio stations in north Texas alone. How much control do they have over your airwaves? Ever wonder why radio stations all sound the same? Cuz they ARE the same!
posted by ZachsMind at 4:21 AM PST - 24 comments

Pope John Paul II apologizes for the Sack of Constantinople and other atrocities committed by the Crusaders against the Greek Orthodox as he goes on with his controversial trip to Greece retracing the steps of his namesake.
[I am gonna miss the guy when and if he passes away.]
posted by tamim at 12:11 AM PST - 19 comments

Schadenfreude plus Flash equals Cadge Cinema. Nothing groubdbreaking, nothing life-changing, but a nice way to waste a little time by laughing at the misfortune of others.
posted by toddshot at 8:39 PM PST - 3 comments

Ouchy the Clown! He's a disc jockey! And a meeting facilitator! And . . . eh . . . a pro-dom! Did I mention that he's a clown? Terrifying, yet mesmerizing. WARNING: go deep enough into it and you'll see nudies. (Via F2B. )
posted by Skot at 3:34 PM PST - 20 comments

And you thought your 'net connection was slow? On Saturday, a group of Linux enthusiasts in Bergen, Norway, succeeded in exchanging some data using the Carrier Pigeon Internet Protocol (CPIP).
posted by andrewraff at 3:28 PM PST - 7 comments

"Rosen said she expected the relative costs of delivering music online to mirror the costs of selling CDs." Please, can someone lock Hilary Rosen away right now? (The subtext: "we can't admit that we've been screwing the public with CD pricing, so they'll have to suffer if and when we deign to offer digital distribution.)
posted by holgate at 3:04 PM PST - 15 comments

Apple to NUblog: Drop Dead When Joe Clark went looking for information about OS X's out-of-the-box inclusion of multiple languages, Apple's PR agency decided he wasn't worth talking to because he wasn't "credentialed."

As Deborah Branscum writes: Weblogs and webloggers may not get respect at Edelman or, perhaps, at Apple. But they should. Time to wake up, folks, and get a clue. [found via NetworkWorldFusion]
posted by idiolect at 1:46 PM PST - 55 comments

Happy Birthday, A u d r e y :-)
posted by tamim at 1:41 PM PST - 15 comments

Woman's sheep killed in her living room after she blockaded them and herself indoors to stop the foot-and-mouth related culling (this link is slightly behind the news, which was following this Very Important Story minute by minute, including an Sheep Cam inside the house).
posted by methylsalicylate at 12:40 PM PST - 15 comments

Bellsouth raises its rates. Here's another link to the same basic information. To summarize: "Now that we've used our monopoly ownership of the telephone lines to blow out all the small-fry DSL competitors, we're going to reap the benefits by further screwing our choiceless consumers."
posted by goto11 at 12:32 PM PST - 23 comments

Security Threat! But only if your server's running... No crap. I love the Note on Microsoft's security bulletin for it's recent IIS 5.0 security flaw. Did anyone need to be told that?
posted by mecawilson at 12:12 PM PST - 4 comments

Father kills daughters while mother listens on the phone. Even if you are against the death penalty, is a case like this an exception to the rule?
posted by thinkdink at 10:38 AM PST - 147 comments

OK, cue the first GM babies. This time the men in white coats have crossed the line.
posted by CatherineB at 10:14 AM PST - 44 comments

The NEXT next 'All Your Base...' Japanese farting fetish videos for sale. (non-pornographic link)
posted by Dirjy at 10:10 AM PST - 20 comments

Strawberry May Face Prison Time Just another celebrity drug addict, like Downey jr.? Or does he really deserve special treatment because of his cancer patient status?
posted by matteo at 10:04 AM PST - 3 comments

Dr. Carl Winter is an Extension Food Toxicologist and director of the FoodSafe Program at UC Davis. He's also the Elvis of E. coli.
posted by ewagoner at 9:12 AM PST - 2 comments

Quoth the Raven: "Buy A Ford Explorer on Yahoo!" In the category of "new and exciting ways to annoy users - I mean, generate ad revenue," the front page of Yahoo! now has a DHTML ad involving, um, blackbirds flying off a wire and eating birdseed, revealing an ad for an SUV. On the one hand, it's a clever use of DHTML. On the other, I just feel dirty.
posted by solistrato at 8:33 AM PST - 30 comments

Anti-porn groups have declared May to be "Victims of Pornography" month. Looks like some other folks aren't on the same page when it comes to the significance of the month. Which would you rather celebrate? (And for the love of all that is good and right, don't tell us how you're celebrating!)
posted by harmful at 7:38 AM PST - 55 comments

DIY - Dub It Yourself with InfiniteWheel's Dubselector sounds sweet
posted by hmgovt at 6:59 AM PST - 9 comments

Somehow We Survived Survivor 2 "Sunshine" Tina wins, for those who care and for those who don't. Poor Bryant Gumbel... I can't believe he got conned into hosting last night's "special." And we'll never understand why Colby didn't pick Keith to go up against in the final vote, which would've all but guaranteed his own win of the $1 million grand prize. And now, back to your regularly scheduled summer reruns...
posted by yarf at 5:53 AM PST - 30 comments

One for the Darwin Awards me thinks....
posted by monkeyJuice at 5:42 AM PST - 4 comments

Pig Intestine Smuggler Jailed Not everybody's idea of Gourmet food, but...
posted by matteo at 5:14 AM PST - 3 comments

Bad and lack of recent karma sees USA voted out of the United Nations Human Rights Commissionl; while Sudan and Sierra Leone stays on board the 53-nation commission running uncontested in geographic quota. Besides being a sign of Dubya's lacking diplomatic leadership, falling three votes short of securing one of the three seats reserved for the Western nations also means that, for the first time since 1947 America will no longer be a member of UNCHR.
posted by tamim at 2:45 AM PST - 41 comments

I bet you think this [article] is about you, don't you?
(apologies to Carly Simon and anyone inflicted with the earworm.)
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 11:49 PM PST - 95 comments

These are the coolest people ever. I have been using them for newsreading for about a year now; today my pc got fried, got a new hd and all, I've lost my login/pass, asked them again and got a prompt reply. The service is really good, the severs are fast, faster than att's @home, stuff shows up in matter of minutes. It's things such as these that make you remember, if for a second, that not everything's a part of some big corporate whore-machine.
posted by tiaka at 9:08 PM PST - 11 comments

A proposed new extension to Seattle's no-sitting law will include prohibition of walking on public sidewalks:

The new language modifies sections 040.A and 040.B, and includes "leg movement for the purpose of mobility" (walking), "appendicular locomotion" (including hopping and cartwheels), and "excessive forward progression" (running), but expressly permits standing still. "We figured if they managed to get into position and stay there, they were probably fairly with-it, and were likely to look neat and orderly" Sidran said. I live downtown, I have no car, and Kozmo went out of business. Can anyone give me a lift to the gathering?
posted by john at 6:10 PM PST - 11 comments

Given recent concerns about online content publishers and established writers trying to make money on the web while whining about pay-throughs with more than $400,000.00 net profit, I've found some people who are still willing to give it all away. Over at The Clockwork Storybook, you can read to your heart's content. All of it for free. They apparently make money from the site by way of merchandise and selling their own published books. Also, they've just started a writing school of sorts called a Boot Camp, also free. You just can't beat good online content with solid user involvement, can you?
posted by Spanktacular at 5:55 PM PST - 2 comments

Tantalus , one of the longest theatrical experiences ever has finally opened in London, and according to one critic, there is no greater endurance test. Always looking for an angle, The Guardian sent four journalists around London on May Day to see what other culture can be experienced in 12 hours, 40 mins. Merope Mills did film - "9:15pm. Both Dennis and Annette are working at the box office and, on seeing me again, Annette throws me the look of a concerned landlady, as in, "Haven't you had enough yet?" I, drunk on moving images, defy her concern and head straight back in. I might as well not have moved - it's straight back to screen five where I'm feeling rather territorial about the sudden influx of people. Nod off in the epic Traffic (18) for 15 minutes but dream about Michael Douglas so decide this little discrepancy still counts."
posted by feelinglistless at 3:11 PM PST - 4 comments

MS VP Challenges GPL on Moral Grounds In Speech
Admitting that the company is feeling pressure from open source, free alternatives, Microsoft's Craig Mundie, lecturing at NYU, will speak out against G.P.L., which he considers impractical, dangerous and morally wrong. Stallman is quoted as saying something ludicrously funny about the American revolution.
posted by rschram at 1:57 PM PST - 14 comments

Canada's newest political prisoner? "Well-known activist Jaggi Singh, accused of using a wooden catapult to lob teddy bears at police during the Quebec City summit two weeks ago, faces a preliminary hearing on May 16... Mr. Singh is the only protester still in jail among the 463 people arrested during the [FTAA] summit, at which of 34 countries in North and South America met to discuss reaching a hemispheric trade deal by 2005." Of course, the National Post has its own take on things.
posted by tranquileye at 1:10 PM PST - 15 comments

Marriage should be like owning a dog... Or so Rod Stewart believes. Stewart describes just why marriage licenses should be annually renewable, just like dog licenses.
posted by valerie at 12:57 PM PST - 29 comments

You don't need Metacritic to know that Driven blows. But you might need it to learn that Dolly Parton's new album is a gorgeous return to her bluegrass roots, Rififi is a classic french thriller, and You Can Count On Me is getting more 10's than Mary Lou Retton.
posted by geronimo_rex at 12:48 PM PST - 11 comments

If you try the voluntary contributions model, be ready to take some flak. Steve Outing of content-exchange.com talks about his recent "pledge drive." Mostly self-evident conclusions, but more grist for the mill.
posted by acridrabbit at 12:32 PM PST - 7 comments

It might not be strong enough to keep a rebel freighter from escaping your space station, but scientists have built a working tractor beam.
posted by harmful at 11:52 AM PST - 9 comments

"I am Kim Jong Nam." This is funny. Maybe Disney will precipate the collapse of North Korea. Or a nuclear exchange.
posted by ParisParamus at 10:57 AM PST - 8 comments

If you are concerned about global warming, you must watch this film
Some Mefi context
posted by rschram at 10:55 AM PST - 6 comments

Vector Park Fun, rewarding, nice way to spend some time. "Levers" (lower left image) is a challenge, "Park" (lower right image) has plenty of nice surprises. [Flash reqired. Seen on usr\bin\girl & k10k]
posted by kokogiak at 10:30 AM PST - 22 comments

The toughest decision:should my loved one be placed in an assisted computing facility? For family members, it is often the most difficult and painful decision they will face: to accept that a loved one — a parent, a spouse, perhaps a sibling — is technologically impaired and should no longer be allowed to live independently, or come near a computer or electronic device without direct supervision. The time has come to place that loved one into the care of an Assisted Computing Facility. But you have questions. So many questions. We at Silicon Pines want to help. (gleefully stolen from /.)
posted by Lynsey at 10:14 AM PST - 4 comments

Every gadget seems to generate a hobbyist underground: CueCat, TiVo, Big Mouth Billy Bass, DVD encryption, DVD region codes, Web appliances, WebTV, and Palm. The main link is to the New York Times; registration required.
posted by tranquileye at 9:44 AM PST - 7 comments

what energy crisis? forbes responds to cheney.
posted by lescour at 9:40 AM PST - 7 comments

Do not turn them in to the cops! Should you see any of these peope (pictures), do not turn them in! You could find yourself in trouble from one or more sources.
posted by Postroad at 9:19 AM PST - 3 comments

McDonald's Fries NOT Vegetarian After All While I realize that a large percentage of veggies avoid McDonald's on principle, an equally large percentage of them go there for the fries.

A McDonald's spokesman said the restaurant chain had never claimed to offer vegetarian food and that it freely provides ingredient information to anyone who requests it.

I can assure you that no where on that ingredient sheet does it say there's animal products in the fries. They went to a good deal of trouble to switch to vegetable oil so they could say they were healthier. If they've always contained the beef fat and they are not trying to hide that, then why the hell isn't it on the ingredient list?
posted by astrogirl at 8:55 AM PST - 124 comments

John Salvati: not funny. Man imprissoned for 30 YEARS, known to be innocent by FBI, FBI kept him there b/c if the real perp was caught, dozens of informants would have been revealed. 30 years, gone, makes me sick feeling. There will be more news on this soon, I hope.
posted by tomplus2 at 7:36 AM PST - 9 comments

is this the beginning of the end for tobacco companies? an award for damages caused by passive smoking has sparked huge debate here in oz.
posted by cakefork at 7:32 AM PST - 15 comments

It's almost over! and just a few thousand moments too late for most. Unfortunately Survivor 2 isn't the end. With the impending writer's strike still looming over Hollywood, reality programming will become even more commonplace, and may sound the death knell for television. Unless they actually start getting good. [more]
posted by ZachsMind at 7:27 AM PST - 15 comments

The Soul of an Old Machine This is a wonderful article on Ron Popeil, founder of Ronco (remember the pocket fisherman?) and the Showtime Rotisserie. Besides some great reading on the marketing of pre-digital technology, Gladwell has some great things to say about usability.

If Ron had been the one to introduce the VCR, in other words, he would not simply have sold it in an infomercial. He would also have changed the VCR itself, so that it made sense in an infomercial. The clock, for example, wouldn't be digital. (The haplessly blinking unset clock has, of course, become a symbol of frustration.) The tape wouldn't be inserted behind a hidden door--it would be out in plain view, just like the chicken in the rotisserie, so that if it was recording you could see the spools turn. The controls wouldn't be discreet buttons; they would be large, and they would make a reassuring click as they were pushed up and down, and each step of the taping process would be identified with a big, obvious numeral so that you could set it and forget it.
posted by mecran01 at 6:28 AM PST - 21 comments

A new Museum for the tourist What a fun place to take the family for a picnic and day out. See how the other half lived. A tri[p down memory lane for film buffs and those interested in criminal history.
posted by Postroad at 5:18 AM PST - 5 comments

Bottled water a waste of money, no better than most tap water, and environmentally unfriendly.
posted by revbrian at 4:59 AM PST - 54 comments

Someone dispatched a Ninja to kill you? No problem. You can retalliate with voodoo from pinstruck.
posted by plinth at 4:50 AM PST - 6 comments

In a throwaway comment the Telegraph reports an unprecedented criminal charge. "Last week her colleague, Lindis Percy, 59, a former Greenham Common protester, was acquitted of criminal misuse of an American flag". An earlier Independent article covers the background "[T]he Crown Prosecution Service has accused Lindis Percy of being motivated by racist hatred of the American people when she "trailed" the US flag on the road at the US military eavesdropping base at Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire."
posted by Cuppatea at 4:06 AM PST - 6 comments

Despite major American museums' and academia's unwillingness to host his Palestine Poster Project, Dan Walsh has continued for 20 years on his quest to educate Americans about the Palestinian culture and cause with his collection of 3,200 original Palestinian solidarity posters. He has posted about a hundred of them in the online gallery at his Liberation Graphics website. He also has a fascinating collection of Che Guevera posters as part of his Cuba Poster Project.
posted by tamim at 12:15 AM PST - 1 comments

Can advertisers get more stupid? I hope so. I find this entertaining. Bud Light is carding people at the door to their website. Refrigerator door, that is! Type in your birthdate, and enter the fridge. And no fair cheating you juvenile delinquents! Anyone wanna share other Stupid Advertiser Tricks they've found?
I don't know why I care. I drink vodka.
posted by ZachsMind at 11:27 PM PST - 15 comments

This is unquestionably going to be the next "everybody's doing it" on the Web for the next two weeks. (My ninja Sakai Saburo has already been sent on his first mission. Via Robert at CrackerJap)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:15 PM PST - 3 comments

Vouchers are dead. Every once in a while something good happens in Washington... and then we move on to more insanity.
posted by owillis at 10:57 PM PST - 42 comments

Two Air Force servicemen sue the DoD, federal agencies and the manufacturer of the anthrax vaccine the military's forcing personnel to take. I don't know what kind of case they have, but I sure don't blame them. And the ramifications may be even more far-reaching and dangerous.

Of course Spreading The Fear seems to be a Bush Administration priority.

posted by aflakete at 9:49 PM PST - 9 comments

You know those house flags? I recommend finding one with this graphic to send a message to your neighbors. Better yet, how about this one?
posted by geronimo_rex at 8:27 PM PST - 12 comments

ASCAP & BMI -- Protectors of Artists or Shadowy Thieves? Read interested in the internal machinations of the music industry may be interested to read this essay describing how ASCAP works, who it targets, and who it benefit.
posted by faisal at 7:28 PM PST - 2 comments

meet-an-inmate.com . Fetish for danger? Here's a web site for all your prison fantasies. Or you could just be pen-pals. Take for example, Nora, age 44, who is "very sexy, young at heart, dream maker, intelligent, sensitive, strong, kind and easy to talk to."
posted by ktheory at 7:25 PM PST - 13 comments

The most inept saber rattling in the history of diplomacy. "We're through with you rascally Chinese! On second thought, no we're not! We sure want to go to war with you over Taiwan! Or maybe not! We're crazy, yeah - CRAZY LIKE A FOX! You don't know WHAT we're up to, you dirty Commies! PSYCHE-OUT! And stop making such damn nice berets!"
posted by solistrato at 6:02 PM PST - 20 comments

any movement you can dish out. if you look underground, chances are cool hunters will stop you in your tracks and ask to take your picture and learn about your ways. it sure feels good to be recognized. where do they go with your picture, you'd wonder, i mean you never hear from them again. turns out these guys turn around and sell your image to corporations who turn around and mass market it. so much for cool.
posted by elle at 4:49 PM PST - 15 comments

The Baffler offices have been destroyed in a fire.

From their frontpage: "[W]e have no computers, no contact lists, no rolodexes, no desks, and no desk lamps." Those of you familiar with The Baffler, or their book Commodify Your Dissent, know that they are a great source for acute cultural criticism. If this fire deals them a fatal blow, the world will have lost one of its finest publications. (Follow the link for information on where to send donations.)
posted by jbushnell at 3:55 PM PST - 11 comments

4 Years of Labour and he still hasn't delivered. More typically mature Conservative advertising campaigns are revealed.
posted by timbooker at 2:43 PM PST - 15 comments

Stunning stun gun Just in time for globalization protests in the immediate future, a truncheon that doubles as a stun gun-which do you do first? whack 'em and then sting 'em or sting 'em and then kick the crap out of them? We present; you decide
posted by Postroad at 2:25 PM PST - 7 comments

"Britain to install early warning bases in Oregon." These will be sited on US air bases in areas of protected wilderness, but will be leased out to the UK and solely answerable to HM Govt, with no state or Congressional accountability. If you protest outside, you'll be prosecuted on trumped-up charges. Oh, and they'll be tapping your phones and emails as well. (more inside...)
posted by holgate at 2:18 PM PST - 11 comments

Don't laugh at Robert Downey Jr. anymore. It's time for the DEA, the drug czar and all the state and local municipalities to stop persecuting addicts. It's time for Americans to change the way our tax dollars are spent. We need to fund research that will make rehab work for everyone, not just the few poster children who make it through. We need to stop snickering at the woes of the famous who have not been successful at quitting so far and try to help them, plus those who are not so famous but just as unsuccessful. Addiction is a disease, a malfunction of brain chemicals. I urge you to find compassion in your hearts for those who are addicted, and then write your legislators, urging them to change the laws to help people, instead of continually throwing them in jail.
posted by Lynsey at 12:56 PM PST - 48 comments

Garage is dead; long live garage
Before garage/two-step even has a chance to make it in the U.S. and infiltrate commercials everywhere, NSYNC are basing a new song on the style. I haven't even found a non-import compilation to sample the stuff yet and this boy band might kill my desire.
posted by shackbar at 12:34 PM PST - 17 comments

Glassdog to close personal narrative. Well, at least the Life Serial, that is. Will there be a new section to round out Glassdog Services (tm)? We hope so.
posted by rich at 12:34 PM PST - 33 comments

Your laptop is a musical instrument. The Back to Basics software offered by Hard rocking, hard ware band O.R.I. will not garner many comments, but should be tried out. Devo meets Servotron and pretends to be Phillip Glass.
posted by thirteen at 12:10 PM PST - 6 comments

Big Brother Bothering Boozehounds! This Wired story combines two of my greatest fears: Big Brother and weak drinks. What's going on in this great land when your local barkeep can't give you a little lagniappe without incurring the wrath of the State (or at least his/her boss)? I'm moving to Russia, where at least they know how to pour stiff drinks.
posted by estopped at 11:54 AM PST - 8 comments

hitler's secret? - i wonder. take note of the nationality. a search for that name (Czarne Hitler) on google yielded lots of mostly polish discussions. any ideas?
posted by subpixel at 11:53 AM PST - 9 comments

TV to Air Death Chamber Tapes "The tapes were recorded by prison staff and document the events taking place in the execution chamber as narrated by prison officials witnessing the event. The descriptions follow the procedure from the securing of the prisoner to the electric chair to the pronouncement of the time of death and the removal of the prisoner's body from 23 executions. All the tapes are public record".
posted by matteo at 10:46 AM PST - 3 comments

There's an excellent (!) Slashdot thread going on concerning the 2600/DeCSS case.
posted by sonofsamiam at 10:30 AM PST - 1 comments

honey, i pimped the kids - yes, that's the founder's daughter. pretty tasteless in my book. she's just lucky her dad isn't making money off a different sort of file-trading.
posted by subpixel at 10:28 AM PST - 13 comments

A protest of scientific journals, organized by the Public Library of Science with the help of over 20,000 scientists and researchers world-wide, will begin in September 2001 unless old research papers are made freely available online.
posted by techgnollogic at 10:15 AM PST - 2 comments

I hope ASCAP is proud. I don't know about you, but I'll be sure to notify all Girl Scouts I know, that singing copyrighted material (you know like "Happy Birthday and "God Bless America") at camp might just land there camp directors behind bars.
posted by Qambient at 10:09 AM PST - 25 comments

"Country. Admit it. You love it." ...this is what the country music industry's new campaign says. "There was one young woman in Dallas in one of the focus groups that said, `I listen to country music in my car, but if I pull up at a traffic light and I see someone cool pull up next to me, I'll hit the button and change the station."
posted by 7sharp11 at 10:02 AM PST - 39 comments

And now for something really depressing - the Texas Department of Criminal Justice maintains a database including the 'last statements' of all inmates executed since 1982.
posted by OneBallJay at 9:15 AM PST - 32 comments

FREE ICE CREAM!!! Just thought you all should know that today is a very important day in the US...

IT'S FREE CONE DAY!!!! Yea!!!

So, if y'all love ice cream, run out and get your free ice cream cone TODAY!

Baskin Robbins is participating this year, as well as Ben & Jerry's.
posted by zeoslap at 9:15 AM PST - 33 comments

Hit back at China Move number one: order black berets for the entire army and toss the one they had. Move two: have the new ones made in China. Move three: We are pissed at China so we now destroy all the berets. Is this a government or what?
posted by Postroad at 8:41 AM PST - 17 comments

Forbes.com suggests you IT people use shareware or freeware office packages instead of that expensive Microsoft stuff.
posted by jhiggy at 8:14 AM PST - 14 comments

Chan Marshall [Cat Power] Does Karaoke. I realize this link has made the rounds, but I hadn't seen it mentioned on MeFi. For anyone familiar with Chan's fragile live performances, you'll love seeing this rare display of self-confidence as she covers "All Day & All of the Night" and "The Real Slim Shady" in RealAudio!
posted by Karl at 8:01 AM PST - 1 comments

the big book on the election! Unfortunately, though, Drudge highlited this--and we know his stance--and the Washington Times writer wrote it. Well, the Times is owned by the Rev Moon organization, and as Consortium News reports, Moon has many money ties to the Bush family, including big money speaking tours by Daddy Bush. Go figure the objectivity of this one.
posted by Postroad at 7:51 AM PST - 15 comments

Attrition.org's look at the recent China/US web page defacement "war."
posted by skallas at 7:12 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

The Semantic Web is Coming.... There's a new web coming...and this one will surf you. Smart agents will be all the rage, managing your appointments and finding showtimes for movies they know you'll like. What do you want the internet to be? [From Scientific American]
posted by jpoulos at 6:44 AM PST - 10 comments

We can all have the day off today, unless - like me - you read this whilst at work
posted by monkeyJuice at 5:34 AM PST - 6 comments

Drive through drug shops Make things easier for tourists, Dutch contemplate expeditious way to buy drugs
posted by Postroad at 4:55 AM PST - 10 comments

Large-scale, Global Anti-capitalism Protests Putting Smaller, Local, Anti-capitalism Protests Out Of Business: "Kyle Redmond, spokesperson for WorldProtest, which has thousands of members in 20 countries and co-ordinates protests all over the world, defended his organisation's approach: 'We give anarchists what they want. It's a supply and demand situation. We offer a basic menu of building defacement, vandalism of a McDonalds outlet and general looting, ending with a confrontation with the local police. All our research shows that this is what the average anarchist on the street wants'." Satire at its finest...
posted by frednorman at 3:52 AM PST - 4 comments

Internet Community Conference Started by Rusty from Kuro5hin, I nominate matthowie since he's so keen on neat speeches as of late
posted by owillis at 12:46 AM PST - 9 comments

question your science professional MD, PhD, specialist. I've always thought you should seriously question their input on all their advise but most ppl don't.
posted by greyscale at 10:50 PM PST - 6 comments

NY Post quotes Heywood Jablome. Mike Hunt and Dick Hurtz were unavailable for comment.
posted by crunchland at 7:44 PM PST - 13 comments

Chuck Lorre's TV Journal ... Anybody who's ever watched one of my favorite TV shows, Dharma and Greg, has noticed the 2 second "vanity card" that appears after the credits roll (usually where the production company's logo appears). This appears to be the TV equivalent of an online journal, with a mix of insights, personal commentary, and random rambling from the show's executive producer, Chuck Lorre. Some of them are mind-numbing, while others are fairly interesting. Influence of the Web or creative coincidence?
posted by yarf at 6:45 PM PST - 9 comments

Michael J. Fox Database :: How's this for a non-sequitor? That's right, now you too can pain your friends with wacky quotes from Midnight Madness, make relatives loathe you because of your deep knowledge of Teen Wolf and attempt to impress women when you tell them what the "J" in Michael J. Fox really means...
posted by dincognito at 6:10 PM PST - 8 comments

Blogging pay model hits the wires. Would you fork out $4 per month for Image Hosting, Spell Checking, and an xTools editor that lets you cut and paste, format fonts and colors? Think the Trellix eyes will be watching?
posted by netbros at 4:54 PM PST - 15 comments

Research demonstrates mirror self-recognition in dolphins, an interesting dolphin link.
posted by bjgeiger at 4:41 PM PST - 12 comments

Ex-Klansman Thomas Blanton Jr. has been convicted of first degree murder, for the bombing and killing of four young girls in a Birmingham, Alabama church, back in 1963. If anyone here has seen Four Little Girls, you'll probably agree: it's about time.
posted by mathowie at 4:10 PM PST - 18 comments

Did someone really hack Praystation? For shame!
posted by schlomo at 3:51 PM PST - 9 comments

Dew gone Commie. Comrades, just in time for May Day, Mountain Dew launches their new Red Mountain Dew, second in caffeine content only to Jolt.
posted by tamim at 2:44 PM PST - 30 comments

Guns for Kids! -- According to a typical piece of journalism from NBC10, this site offers to children a wide range of hard-to-find munitions, including Wehrmacht Flamethrowers: "Climb up on top of a cafeteria table with a tank full of thick, stinking diesel fuel strapped to your back and watch the reactions of classmates and teachers. Outside, sweep right and left to take out SWAT team members and armored police vehicles. Make it all the way to your local shopping mall and be immortalized in the Guns For Kids Hall of Fame."
posted by johnb at 1:47 PM PST - 16 comments

The Mr. T Name Generator. You know your Wu-Tang name; you know your prostitute name; now find out your Mr. T name. Fool.
posted by binkin at 1:46 PM PST - 15 comments

Whitwell Middle School Holocaust Group: Paperclip Project: During World War II, Norwegians wore paper-clips on their clothes to silently show their opposition to Nazism and anti-Semitism. The eighth-graders at this Tennessee middle school are learning about the Holocaust and are collecting 6 million paperclips as a reminder of what happened. [More inside]
posted by ahughey at 1:40 PM PST - 22 comments

An initiative to force government to stop asking Californians what their race is. This from the people who brought you Proposition 209, the American Civil Rights Institute.
posted by revbrian at 12:09 PM PST - 19 comments

Buddhism is a cult! ...says Representative Arlon Lindner, a member of the Minnesota Legislature. He's mad that the Dalai Lama is going to speak before that august body.
posted by norm at 11:57 AM PST - 50 comments

Apple releases a totally new ibook starting at $1300 dollars, they look like a cross between the sony SR series and the g4 powerbooks. Looks like a significantly more portable notebook than the old ibooks.
posted by chacal at 11:34 AM PST - 44 comments

Joey Ramone birthday bash will go on. That's great, but the band had better not play without him.
posted by jpoulos at 11:11 AM PST - 1 comments

Girls Don't Want to Be Nerds! You know, women like this are the worst enemies women in IT have. I look around the personal web and see nothing but energetic, creative young women embracing technology - not running from it.
posted by gsh at 10:50 AM PST - 28 comments

Phloston Paradise - for real? Now that that multimillionaire tourist got his way into space (brother, money changes everything, huh?) talk about "space hotels" is over the table again. Seemingly, no one has ever thought of lack of oxygen or gravity in outer space... or have been watching Fifth Element reruns a little too much.
posted by betobeto at 10:14 AM PST - 9 comments

Anti-bullying vote blocked by Christian Conservatives The Washington State bill would have required school districts to set up policies against harassment, bullying and intimidation. Christian conservatives that blocked the vote claim "it amounted to censorship of their right to condemn homosexuality." There is no mention of homosexuality in the bill at all. So this leads me to the conclusion that these Christians condone "harassment, bullying and intimidation." How far from the Golden Rule can you stray and keep a straight face?
posted by kokogiak at 9:58 AM PST - 26 comments

Is this a typo? Salon's David Talbot in the NYT: "'A lot of our audience pays $300 a year to join National Public Radio and they don't have to pay anything,' he said. As early as next year, Mr. Talbot said, Salon hopes to impose a fee of $75 to $150 a year to read any of its site with ads." Now, I would have read that last sentence as "to read any of its site without ads", but perhaps I'm just being naive.
posted by bumppo at 9:05 AM PST - 30 comments

He gives a whole new meaning to the word "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy." NY Times
posted by crunchland at 8:54 AM PST - 138 comments

BBC report on the May Day protests On the whole I've been shocked by how uninformed the BBC has been, especially in comparison with The Guardian's comprehensive coverage. Having attended the Oxford Circus demonstration, I be sure of two facts: one, that the gathering was almost entirely peaceful... and two, that the heavy-handed police action is likely to incite frustration and violence. Remember, kids: the 3,000 'protesters' include ordinary members of the public caught in the police blockade.
posted by tobyslater at 8:43 AM PST - 8 comments

Last week I was watching a Nova program on PBS called 'Cracking the Code of Life', which brought to my attention a disturbing fact about the process of mapping the Human Genome; private companies have applied for patents for gene sequences that they've mapped. Many of these patents were applied for before the government began the Human Genome Project. Although the patent office has put these applications on hold until it figures out what to do with them, many drug companies an researchers won't work with a gene sequence if there is a patent application outstanding. You can get involved yourself by petitioning against patents on life.
posted by Sal Amander at 8:30 AM PST - 22 comments