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May 2002 Archives
May 31
Missing Dog Head!
And other /Insane/ things found. Provided to you by
Ubu.com Also check out the
mp3 section for hundreds of audio recordings by other loonies like Artaud, Duchamp, Burroughs, etc etc...
posted by protocool at 7:31 PM PST - 7 comments
Earth Viewer
compiles satellite imagery on the fly to produce a photo-realistic, spinnable, zoomable model of the entire Earth, right on your computer. And I mean zoomable -- one slider takes you smoothly from seeing the entire globe down to seeing individual people queuing to get into the Louvre...
posted by chrismear at 5:59 PM PST - 11 comments
The Dark Side of Google? Google's
first annual programming contest was a shrewd way to encourage Java and Python programmers. But this may be shrewder than the programmers who entered the contest realized.
David Egnor may have nabbed a cool $10,000 as the contest winner, but for all the other entries, Google nabbed "worldwide, perpetual, fully paid-up, nonexclusive" rights.
posted by ed at 11:20 AM PST - 14 comments
"To compile The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s,
we used the most narrow and conservative of definitions -- corporations that have pled guilty or no contest to crimes and have been criminally fined." Just brimming with fascinating business lore, including "The FBI estimates that 19,000 Americans are murdered every year. Compare this to the 56,000 Americans who die every year on the job or from occupational diseases such as black lung and asbestosis and the tens of thousands of other Americans who fall victim to the silent violence of pollution, contaminated foods, hazardous consumer
products...."
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 10:37 AM PST - 39 comments
The Movement for an Appropriate 9/11 Memorial
What is sacred space? The influence of spiritual leaders, philosophers, ethicists, psychologists, anthropologists and other scholars is notably absent in discussions about what to do with the former WTC site.
Among advocates for a large WTC memorial, there is consensus that the site is "sacred." September's Mission wants victims families to take part in a process of determining what will serve the function of connecting people to sacredness. They want public money to be spent in this direction too. But how can people's feelings, behaviors and attitudes be planned? Can popular beliefs be incorporated into large-scale government decisions?
(
1,
2)
posted by rschram at 9:52 AM PST - 18 comments
Questioning the myth of
plastic knives and boxcutters.
"This fictoid serves to divert public attentions from the responsibility, and legal liability, of the government and airlines to prevent major weapons — such as guns, bombs, chemical sprays and hunting knives [all of which were mentioned in flight attendant and passenger cell phone calls]
from being carried aboard airplanes. If such illegal devices had been smuggled aboard the planes, the liability could amount to billions of dollars. If, on the other hand, it could be disseminated that the hijackers had only used plastic knives, such as those provided by the airlines for meals, or box cutters, which were allowed on planes, neither the airlines, the screeners at the airport, or the FAA, which regulates the safety of airports, could be held legally responsible."
posted by fotzepolitic at 9:48 AM PST - 7 comments
"Blow up for nothing?
What is this - trading in the blood of martyrs only so that my handlers can say that they executed the operation?"
Tawriya Hamamra, a young Palestinian woman, who had barely an hour's training in preparation for a suicide bombing recounts her change of heart.
Just how much religion, politics, or personal problems motivates a suicide?
posted by semmi at 9:44 AM PST - 10 comments
Medical professionals are supposed to tell the truth.
But why do they always lie?
I had an exam yesterday and they lied to me again as they always do.
Every time they do the glaucoma test, I have been told that they will get "close" to the eye. I correct them and tell them, no, you're going to touch it. They'll deny it 3 or 4 times before finally conceding that they'll "barely touch it" or something like that.
"The most common way to currently measure pressure inside the eye is tonometry. In air tonometry, a short burst of air hits the cornea. In applanation tonometry, a doctor anesthetizes the eye, then presses against it with a tiny instrument and measures the depth of the indentation." (sorry-- this is where I got the quote-- it's mostly about something else-- even web pages are reluctant to admit they'll touch your eyeball).
I have never recieved air tonometry, it's rarely used and considerred inaccurate.
This only bugs me because years ago a doctor told me he was going to get close to my eye, I could feel him on the surface through the aneshthetic and pulled back. This happened repeatedly. Eventually he told me he had to touch the eye. If he had told me that in the first place, I wouldn't have thought he was screwing up and I wouldn't have pulled back.
Well ok, it also bugs me that a doctor would utter such an obvious lie (you can feel them on the eye and see the cornea distort when it's pressed). What else are they lying about? What are their motives? (I have contacts, I touch my eyeballs all the time, surely they don't think I have an eyeball touching phobia...)
posted by squinky at 9:26 AM PST - 31 comments
Are you David Still?
If not, well, you can be. David Still has given up his personality to the masses, so you can write to people as him, and better still, reply to people who have sent e-mails back to the enigmatic Mr Still. Potential for confusion: I'd say fair to middling...
posted by creeky at 9:12 AM PST - 2 comments
Bye Bye, Privacy.
Despite opposition from civil liberties groups worldwide, the European parliament bowed to pressure from individual governments, led by Britain, and approved legislation to give police the power to access the communications records of every phone and internet user.
posted by tpoh.org at 6:52 AM PST - 17 comments
Porn shop clerk arrested for selling porn:
Am I the only one that thinks this is completely crazy? First of all, how can you prosecute someone for something they have a license to do? And why prosecute the clerk, and not the owner of the store? It's not bad enough to have to work in a porn shop, but you also have to worry about being arrested for selling someone a copy of "All Anal Action"?
posted by emptybowl at 6:51 AM PST - 21 comments
so which site has the best soccer live coverage? is it yahoo!'s
fifaworldcup.com? is it the
bbc? is it someone else? right now from here (germany) it looks like none of the big sites is holding up to the traffic. is any site as well prepared as
msnbc was for the olympics? oh, and it looks like senegal is winning the opening match.
posted by HeikoH at 6:00 AM PST - 17 comments
May 30
Journalists response
to the web wide debate sparked after their
interview with Jamie Kellner CEO of Turner Broadcasting. Where he likened not viewing the adverts to theft.
It's a story I was very interested in and it seems it caused a fair amount of
debate. Other than the
'Osama is evil' explosion what's your favorite meme with legs ?
posted by mrben at 8:00 PM PST - 8 comments
goodbye rankpeople!
hey! is this the end of one of those "amihotornot" sort of sites? is the "my self esteem is so low i need to validate my existence on a website" trend over and done with? no more "i can't feel cool unless other people think i look cool" bubble? alas, i can't help but feel sad over the beginning of the end of an era...
no. not really.
posted by jcterminal at 6:25 PM PST - 11 comments
It's no surprise that
the Sept 11 Compensation Fund will cover gay partners of victims. [nytimes link] It's easy to be generous: Of the 2,800-plus who died, the Fund has found only "22 known gay surviving partners." Never mind that the
Windows on the World waiters alone should have made that number four times higher, based on the "one in ten" formula for estimating the size of a gay population, one would expect almost 300 gay victims on Sept 11. Of course, not all the gay victims would necessarily be uncloseted or have a life partner, but still -- only 22? No wonder the fund is so generous to cut checks for this tiny minority. But does this unintended survey suggest NYC may not be as queer as everyone thinks? In any case, why were so few of gays employed at the WTC?
posted by jellybuzz at 2:03 PM PST - 50 comments
Welcome to the Boomtown.
'Fast Company' magazine profiles the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant -- a rural Oklahoma factory that is the source of nearly every nonnuclear bomb in the United States' arsenal. Man
posted by Dirjy at 1:17 PM PST - 8 comments
Cities with water to burn.
"While some
drought-stricken cities elsewhere in the nation
threaten to jail people who waste water, Cleveland wants people to open their spigots... 'Don't be afraid of it. . . . We have trillions of gallons of water here.'" So why do Clevelanders still have to use low-flush toilets and low-output shower heads?
posted by Faze at 1:16 PM PST - 12 comments
ObitMessenger
Why it's useful: Never miss important obituaries.
Never miss an important obituary because you were traveling, on vacation, or missed the paper.
posted by srboisvert at 12:47 PM PST - 11 comments
Puppetry of the Penis: Tackle Happy (2001)
Any Australian Metafilterians care to explain this? I found a rave review of this DVD on Amazon.com's Future Bestseller's list. "Organ Origami", "The Fine Art of Genital Manipulation" and "Performances with Road Companies at Major Festivals Throughout The World"? I think the world's citizen's are owed an explanation.
posted by dgeiser13 at 11:07 AM PST - 10 comments
Government Will Ease Limits on Domestic Spying by F.B.I.
(NY Times link)
As part of a sweeping effort to transform the F.B.I. into a domestic terrorism prevention agency, Attorney General John Ashcroft has decided to relax restrictions on the bureau's ability to conduct domestic spying in counterterrorism operations, senior government officials said today.
Here's the
Wash. Post's take on the story.
posted by Ty Webb at 9:29 AM PST - 21 comments
The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
"Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth's biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense." More inside...
posted by Irontom at 9:24 AM PST - 21 comments
The Washington Post recently featured an
article about soup maven Patricia Solley. I believe her comprehensive
soup site is going to become a regular destination for me. Where else can you find a recipe for Spock’s
favorite soup?
posted by Fenriss at 7:46 AM PST - 4 comments
Suicide by McDonalds
-- Frank Nastasi was depressed and
wanted to kill himself May 15 when he accelerated his Cadillac DeVille to 95 to 100 mph and aimed for the McDonalds at the end of the road. Nastasi survived the crash, but killed three overnight workers at the 24-hour fast food restaurant. Why did he target a McDonalds? "Because his father ate breakfast there every morning," investigators said.
posted by dogmatic at 2:36 AM PST - 19 comments
May 29
Ok, this one's weird.
On May 11, "Jacksonville, Fla., police arrested a Fort Stewart soldier after finding him armed, wearing black clothes and leaving a power plant where he allegedly left an explosive." The story got
a tiny bit of play, but searches at
CNN and
FoxNews turn up no sign of it, despite the possible terror angle and a bond set at $5 million. Days later, a
follow-up story (can't find the original) quotes a detective saying, "This has been blown way out of proportion." Bizarre cover-up? Or really nothing worth mentioning?
posted by mediareport at 8:19 PM PST - 13 comments
"It was 1931 that we last reported on television, and our readers must be wondering how things are shaping up.
Not any too good." The New Yorker reports on the state of television, 1936.
posted by tranquileye at 1:35 PM PST - 8 comments
World-wide obsession
I am told these sports betting sites are readying themselves for an onslaught of World Cup Soccer traffic never seen in history. Will you play? Does it make the sport uplifting or uncouth?
posted by Voyageman at 12:18 PM PST - 11 comments
A blasphemy trial out of the 17th century
"Let's be clear. Criticising the precepts of modern Islam and the resultant actions of its adherents is not racist. Philosophically, it is the precise opposite of racism. It is an intellectual position arrived at through a consideration of ideas, rather than a cruel and irrational prejudice based upon the colour of someone's skin." Rod Liddle discusses the upcoming prosecution of French writer Michel Houellebecq for a comment he made about Islam in an interview. Some interesting points here about the wider context, in which Houellebecq has been attacked for the beliefs of the fictional characters he creates.
posted by jonpollard at 11:43 AM PST - 23 comments
Underwear, raw eggs, temporary tattoos, condoms designed to match your blood type, emu jerky, marijuana, hot noodles, super glue. What do they all have in common, besides possibly being things you need to have a really unforgettable Saturday night? They're all things that have been sold in
vending machines.
From Raphael Carter, author of the insect-centric Honeyguide weblog.
posted by iconomy at 11:40 AM PST - 9 comments
Dave Marsh on Ticketmaster
: Bands used to be able to get around Ticketmaster's high surcharges by setting aside tickets for fan club members, because TM's "convenience" charges didn't apply to fan club tickets. Now "artists can hold back no more than eight per cent of their tickets, and they can only sell them to fan clubs of which Ticketmaster approves."
posted by espada at 11:22 AM PST - 23 comments
Cadence engineer fired for activism:
So, an engineer for
Cadence Design Systems, on his own time and dime went to Bethlehem to do humanitarian work with the
International Solidarity Movement, a group of pro-Palestinian activists who believe in non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. When he returned, he was immediately terminated due to "inappropriate politics in an area where Cadence does business (Israel)".
Should corporations have the right to mandate the political views of their employees, contractors and subsidiary workers? Would there be more outrage if he was fired for supporting the Israeli occupation? When a Christian's beliefs run contrary to Jewish interests, is it automatically fair to fire the Christian?
posted by dejah420 at 9:54 AM PST - 57 comments
One Nation, Overseas
Wired Magazine on the Philippines as one of the world's leading labor exporters. Hearing the words "flexible, industrious, and frequently skilled" applied to Filipinos is certainly encouraging to us, but... (more inside)
posted by brownpau at 9:39 AM PST - 8 comments
You may have heard of Conway's
Game of Life, where pixels "live" or "die" based on a few simple rules about how many neighbors they have. But did you know that in the 30 years since the game was created, Life enthusiasts have (created? discovered?) an extensive
catalog of (
objects? creatures?) which interact to form some
amazing,
nifty,
grinning, sometimes
beautiful,
rube-
goldberg, occasionally even a little
scary patterns often starting from the
simplest of
building blocks? (Including a
Turing machine!) Or that a
lone pixel can exert
remarkable control over its environment? Now you can see in a few seconds in a
java applet, on your
desktop, or even on a PalmOS
handheld the outcome of simple patterns that, when first discovered, no computer could handle. A mind blowing example of the power of
emergent properties.
posted by straight at 9:03 AM PST - 22 comments
Sorry to post a shockwave.com link, but
Groove Blender 2 has eaten away almost my whole morning. Drag and drop blocks onto the canvas to create your own grooves- the downloadable version includes many more beats and the option to export your groove, or save it to Shockwaves servers. Anyone know of something else this simple that is simlar but allows you to import others grooves?
posted by TuxHeDoh at 8:30 AM PST - 2 comments
Something about Shooting Stanley Fish in a Barrel
Once, when asked by a student how he can get away with his famously unsourced assertions and oddly malicious personal attacks, Stanley Fish replied, "Because I'm Stanley Fish, and you're not." Which he defends by claiming that his actions derive from his theoretical work, mostly on the subjective nature of authority (albeit in a literary sense, but then who's to argue).
So it's a little odd that in this article he attacks journalists - whom, other than a few anonymous beat reporters and David Brooks (who is a columnist and commentator, but hardly an objectivity-seeking reporter), he groups as "they" - for being less than fair to academics. Don't get too riled up, though; this is likely just Fish's latest attempt to bait a controversy and stick his name at the top.
posted by risenc at 7:36 AM PST - 7 comments
Has one of terrorism's former poster children, Qaddafi, finally turned over a new leaf?
At last some genuinely good news from the Middle East. Libya's offer to pay $2,7-billion in compensation to the families of the victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland seems to indicate so. Although the Libyans are almost certainly motivated by their desire to end sanctions against them as a 'state sponsor of terrorism,' this is a hopefully a declaration of 'mea culpa' from the 'colonel' and maybe a sign of better things to come from others in the region that still think that there is something to be gained from blowing up so-called 'infidels' in civilian aircraft.
posted by murray_kester at 7:00 AM PST - 10 comments
Woo, trams to return to London
At last it looks as though there may finally be real progress in tackling the transport problems of one of the world's most congested cities. I wonder whether other nations should take note, or is it all just a pipe dream?
posted by Duug at 5:28 AM PST - 18 comments
Punk was rubbish
, so says Nigel Williamson. Tuneless noise of no merit whatsoever which sought to destroy anything that was good. Nothing good came of it and it has left no credible legacy.
Well, what would you expect from a guy called Nigel?
posted by Fat Buddha at 3:46 AM PST - 112 comments
May 28
The author of
this story argues that by disallowing same-sex marriage, social conservatives are actually working to undermine the function marriage plays in society
"The last thing supporters of marriage should be doing is setting up an assortment of alternatives, but that is exactly what the conservatives are doing, and not only for gays." Interesting views i thought, not that i'm so pro-marriage.
posted by rhyax at 10:32 PM PST - 15 comments
J. Robert Oppenheimer, watching the first mushroom cloud rise above the American nuclear test heartbreakingly codenamed Trinity, said: "Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds." Today, a half century after the first use of atomic weapons, in the birthland of the sacred text Oppenheimer quoted,
12 million people could die at once in a nuclear exchange.
Ah, Shiva as each of us...one hand on The Button, the other writing:
"The only way to live humanly - still - is in resistance to war. The prevention of war, in the nuclear age, must be a central purpose of every person's life."
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 4:40 PM PST - 58 comments
The day is June 3rd, 1999 and one mad genius decides he's going to
photographically document every door or drawer that he touches. Can focusing on minor repetitive actions - normally lost in the whole of the experience - tell us anything about our world and the way we interact with it?
posted by willnot at 4:16 PM PST - 19 comments
Don & Mike v. Opie & Anthony.
O&A are hot in New York, but D&M are doing poorly there. The opposite is true here in DC. At the risk of perpetuating a lie by posting this story here, I can't help but think that the on-air fight between these two radio programs from Infinity Broadcasting seems a little contrived. Anyone on metafilter, or any other online forum, knows that a flamewar and controversy breeds interest.
posted by crunchland at 1:43 PM PST - 25 comments
The Eminem Show reached #2
on the
Gracenote charts last week, even though the album was not officially released until Sunday.
Gracenote doesn't give exact figures on traffic, but it said the No. 2 slot in its charts represented a total figure of listeners in the "mid-tens of thousands" over the course of the week.
posted by ry at 1:11 PM PST - 15 comments
Hexxagon
, yeah, so its not friday flash, but it's sure a good way to waste a few hours on a tuesday afternoon or a wednesday morning. great game with some real strategy involved.
posted by sixtwenty3dc at 12:21 PM PST - 11 comments
RIAA sues
Audiogalaxy. "After targeting decentralized popular file-sharing services such as Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, and Madster, the Recording Industry Association of America took aim at Audiogalaxy in court last Friday..." [via
pfm]
posted by dobbs at 11:49 AM PST - 46 comments
Israel to launch flying casino
Ah...there he goes again. No. This is not about middle east chaos. This is gambling for "high stakes"--casino in the air. Claimed to be a first, can this sort of thing "take off" and be established in other countries? Would you try this form of gambling?
posted by Postroad at 11:48 AM PST - 10 comments
Project Euh
is a self-proclaimed multimedia weblog with many "web experiments" and something I never though I'd see, a curved scroll bar. But that's just the beginning. Click on euh? to load a random experiment.
posted by dgeiser13 at 11:13 AM PST - 16 comments
Stephen Byers resigns
(finally). Here is
a profile of the man. Do politicians have to fall into the same pattern
everytime something like this happens? Press: You've done something wrong. Politician: No I haven't. I'll admit to no impropriety on my part. Prime Minister: I'll stand by my minister. Press: But we can prove he did something wrong. The Public: I'll go with what they say, and he should resign. Prime Minister: Look mate, it's about the voters. Politician: I still don't believe I've got anything to hide but save the government embarassment, I'll resign.
posted by feelinglistless at 10:42 AM PST - 7 comments
Butt For You
"You can do a lot for your pecs, biceps and abs - but when it comes to your glutes you can only go so far. Great for sports!"
posted by kirkaracha at 8:34 AM PST - 29 comments
Extreme Hi-Fi Buff.
"...A further modification to loudspeakers that I found well worthwhile is to fill the cabinet with sulphur hexafluoride gas, SF6, in place of the air..."
posted by Spoon at 7:32 AM PST - 18 comments
May 27
Those family and pet photos relegated to office corkboards (and screensavers)
"...make us feel that we are not separate from our kids; that we are still with them, and they with us, vivid, changeable, in the flesh. They are expressions of pride, yes, and love, yes, but also of guilt and longing....the office photo is an emblem not so much of achievement as of compromise, lurking worries, remembered joys...." I never realized I was so miserable at work.
posted by Voyageman at 10:03 PM PST - 17 comments
Sex in prison, an insiders view.
There's been a couple of threads in MeTa about the inappropriateness of jokes about prison rape (
#1,
#2). I've been reluctant to challenge some of the most severe hand-wringing over the subject in question, but this article from someone in the UK pretty much covers it. No easy answers, just some thoughts from someone who's actually been an inmate (and see inside thread for more).
posted by WolfDaddy at 1:16 PM PST - 23 comments
Bush takes to insulting his critics
"Very good," Mr. Bush said sardonically. "The guy memorizes four words, and he plays like he's intercontinental."
"I can go on," Mr. Gregory offered.
"I'm impressed — que bueno," said Mr. Bush, using the Spanish phrase for "how wonderful." He deadpanned: "Now I'm literate in two languages."
posted by fellorwaspushed at 12:05 PM PST - 44 comments
Guimp.com
claims to be the world's smallest web site. And it probably is.
Jakob must be spinning in his crypt.
You don't have to scroll, though.
posted by Su at 12:01 PM PST - 17 comments
Advances in neurotechnology
are creating a great need for more
public debate of their ethical and legal ramifications, according to these two articles in The Economist. While everyone is focused on cloning and stem cells, will it be neuroscience that turns society into a Philip K. Dick story? If so, I want a
mood organ.
posted by homunculus at 11:24 AM PST - 3 comments
"I get a lot of questions like
'Why are you the King of France?' Hopefully, this document will help those who just don't understand the overwhelming obviousness of it all. Then they can stop living in denial."
posted by moz at 11:07 AM PST - 8 comments
Where have all the bees gone?
Wild bee populations appear to be declining (members of a local naturalists' mailing list I subscribe to report seeing substantially fewer bumblebees in recent years), and domestic honeybees are susceptible to mites. Since one third of our crops require pollination, this is not just an environmental concern but also a very real threat to our food supply. Find out what's being done about it. Fascinating stuff, if a little frightening.
posted by mcwetboy at 8:15 AM PST - 19 comments
Mothers who
wait to have a baby are at risk of evolutionary extinction. "If you want to see your line persist, then it's probably optimum to start reproducing in your early to mid-20s". According to this 220 year statistical model
late-reproducing women [genetic lineage] declined as a proportion of the population from 11 percent to about 5 percent
posted by stbalbach at 8:10 AM PST - 8 comments
Our enemies the Saudis.
In a must-read editorial, Michael Barone makes a scathing attack on U.S. support of Saudi Arabia. Does anyone else cringe when they hear G.W. Bush speak on how much he wants to protect freedom and fight totalitarianism?
posted by bobo123 at 7:24 AM PST - 12 comments
The
Spiegel Grove was supposed to be sunk upright, creating the largest and most accessible artificial reef ever. Cool!
Unfortunately, the ship had other ideas and now appears to be impersonating a
giant turtle. One of the nation's top
marine salvage outfits has been called to the rescue. Looks like a potential Discovery Channel show in the making. (Check out the pictures on the Spiegel Grove site, they're pretty cool.)
posted by groundhog at 5:37 AM PST - 4 comments
How the U.S. Missed the Clues
Time magazine assessmeznt of what went wrong in evaluation of intelligence pre-9/11. I am not yet sure why I find the conclusions a bit evasive but it seems to me the article tries to satisfy differing perspectives rather than taking a stand for a specific point of view. But then that may be my reading and wrong headed.
posted by Postroad at 3:28 AM PST - 7 comments
May 26
Safety of MRI scans
- annoying and temporary free registration required.If movement whilst being scanned may not be safe, then what about the heart, lungs, blood and even a foetus? You can't keep those still.
Background: Of Mice & Magnets.
posted by southisup at 11:45 PM PST - 12 comments
TiVo and the BBC force programming on consumers.
The BBC apparently paid TiVo to command all its boxes -- without consumers' permission -- to record an episode of a drama the BBC marketing department deemed a must-see. Users can't even delete the recording -- it'll be there until TiVo decides to remove it. Can TiVo users expect to be bombarded with paid advertising after all?
(ZDNet article here.)
posted by mattpfeff at 10:32 PM PST - 29 comments
Comics are stupid.
Comics are great. In a pair of twinned articles, the venerable
Boston Globe revisits the whole "dumbing-down our culture" thing, that probably first popped up when the first iconoclast decided to use papyrus rather than good ol' stone. Light the bat-signal, Commissioner, my Spidey-sense is tingling!
posted by yhbc at 7:37 PM PST - 40 comments
Plugging the Analog Hole.
The MPAA has released a report entitled
"The Content Protection Status Report" to the Senate Judiciary Committee, outlining it's plans to find a way to regulate Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) with digial watermarks and "cop chips". In this short essay, Cory Doctorow outlines the main points of the new report and points out how entertainment companies are becomming the de facto regulators of new technologies.
posted by Hackworth at 6:40 PM PST - 8 comments
M. is a girl living as a boy
and his school is helping to keep his secret. Is that just asking for trouble? And should a 13 year old be considered for gender-reassignment therapy or is this just an extreme case of tomboy-ism that s/he'll grow out of?
[NYT mefi/mefi]
posted by mdn at 1:06 PM PST - 32 comments
Dude. I finally got a Philson Stratoblaster Air Guitar. You can get one too, and a free air guitar pick, at the
Bud. R. Philson Easy Air Guitar, Volume One site. Just click on "rock on", and then follow the easy lessons, and in a matter of weeks, you'll be rockin' to "
Stop That Guy, He Stole My Wallet", just like me. Remember, "If it's a Philson, it's gotta be Rock and Roll".
posted by iconomy at 12:42 PM PST - 5 comments
Canadian high speed ISP's are putting caps on downloads/uploads.
Could this spell the beginning of the end of P2P? The "basic" DSL package offered by Bell Canada will now give users 5 gigs up and 5 gigs down. For the average user, this is more than they'll ever use for e-mail, surfing, etc. But for users downloading movies and warez, it could be the end for them unless they're willing to cough up $7.95 CDN / gig - and most won't. Cable modem subscribers in Ontario will also be seeing a similar plan put into place in the next several months.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 12:16 PM PST - 30 comments
Fighting to Live as the Towers Died
: the NYT continues its fine reporting, reconstructing the final moments of temporary survivors on the upper floors, through over 150 e-mail and telephone contacts used to reach friends and relatives (as well as videotapes and recordings of 911 calls and emergency radio bands). Since I briefly worked in the trade center, I have often wondered what this experience must have been like.
You may want to take a moment to prepare, and expect to need breaks.
posted by dhartung at 9:06 AM PST - 48 comments
For anyone in "the know," it's no secret that
Jack + Meg White are not brother and sister but actually are a divorced couple posing as siblings.
Glorious Noise has posted a copy of their marriage certificate.
But aren't we all brothers and sisters in rock n' roll?
posted by modularette at 6:47 AM PST - 31 comments
For the last century, historians, anthropologists and other scholars have searched both human history and the continents to find a matriarchy—a society where the power was in the hands of women, not men. Most have concluded that a genuine matriarchy does not exist, perhaps may never have existed.
Untill now.
posted by stbalbach at 5:42 AM PST - 26 comments
Why Won't We Read the Manual?
I'd say we are a pretty tech-savvy group here. Do you STOP to peruse the instructions before you touch the "on" button of your new "must have" tech toy (to say nothing of your new microwave)?
Probably not. But there are reasons, according to this Washington Post article. I, for one, have been burned royally by manual writers. Scratching my head, I often hear myself mumbling "What the hell are they talking about?" And, in fact, don't you just hate when they are actually wrong?!
Having been a manual writer, I always try to put myself in the place of someone who comes into the situation completely cold. I'm afraid that's not always the case.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 5:29 AM PST - 28 comments
Type experimentats and portfolio by Johnathan Yuen. Flash required, but used simply.
Experimental interface; hover over everything.
posted by Su at 1:19 AM PST - 9 comments
May 25
"Strike the heart, enjoy the florist,
fa la la la la la la la la"
AmIRight collates all of those misheard song lyrics and goes a step further, organizing them by
band,
song, or
decade. Plus for the truly band-curious, they have archives of cool and
stupid band names, song parodies and commentary on lyrics that people think are repetitive, nonsensical, or just
insincere. Sometimes it's tough to tell the wrong lyrics from the right ones... "You strut your rasta wear and your suicide poem"
real or misheard?
posted by jessamyn at 6:54 PM PST - 30 comments
Turner Classic Movies programs Harold Lloyd tribute.
I've seen stills from "Safety Last" for years, but have never been able to track down the movie. Is it as good as all the critics say? I'm looking forward to finding out.
What other old movies have you been wanting to see for years? (I keep meaning to get around to renting "The Bank Dick.")
Along the same lines, what do you wish would be available on VHS/DVD?
posted by Vidiot at 1:13 PM PST - 30 comments
All worldwide conflicts to take a break until after June 30
[NYT reg req] "If the U.S. forward Clint Mathis scores a beautiful goal, Iranians, Iraqis and Libyans will rave about it. Soccer has many uses, and one of them, fleeting as it may be, is universal love." But perhaps more interestingly : " For foreigners, meanwhile, the World Cup is the one time that they get to treat the U.S. like a lightweight. " Indeed.
posted by Voyageman at 10:54 AM PST - 11 comments
mexican military incursion in u.s. soil
An INS agent saw a mexican military vehicle 5 miles inside u.s. territory, he says he was fired by the mexicans. He also says this is "an act of war". I'm mexican and i really doubt about this. It has to be a joke! What do you people think about this?
posted by trismegisto at 9:19 AM PST - 27 comments
The
Eurovision Song Contest gets under way approximately three hours from now. Europeans, who are you rooting for?
(Anyone else, what
are we talking about.....?)
posted by CatherineB at 9:02 AM PST - 29 comments
Instant Suntan.
A supernova in our galactic backyard may be on the verge of exploding. In the (unlikely) event that it happens tomorrow, how would you spend your last day on earth?
posted by Jubey at 4:55 AM PST - 42 comments
You'd be lucky to win a tenner!
Words of UK Lottery CEO Dianne Thompson to an annual dinner at the Chartered Insitute of Marketing. Thompson was previously director of marketing at low-cost high street jewellers Ratners, whose chairman famously turned a £127m annual profit into a £122m loss practically overnight with the immortal words "our merchandise is total crap." Could this be the end of the road for Lotto?
posted by dlewis at 2:04 AM PST - 28 comments
May 24
Cartoon Network
has taken
some heat lately for being too P.C., even
here on MetaFilter. Well, here's their chance to redeem the network. Sunday evening, 9:00 - 10:00 PM Eastern/Pacific,
ToonHeads Goes To War, including four rarely-seen wartime cartoons in their entirety:
"Blitz Wolf" where the three little pigs face off against a treaty-breaking, German-speaking wolf;
"Scrap Happy Daffy" featuring Daffy promoting the recycling of scrap metal and butting heads with a goat that bears a striking resemblance to Adolf Hitler;
"Herr Meets Hare," where Bugs Bunny tangles with Nazi minister Hermann Goering; and in
"Russian Rhapsody", a plane full of "gremlins from the Kremlin" attack a bomber piloted by the Nazi leader himself.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:45 PM PST - 7 comments
This evening
20/20 broadcast a
report on the new payola.Names are named. This explains a lot about the current state of music radio. Ironically, one of those complaining the loudest was good ol' Hilary Rosen of the
RIAA who are doing their damnedest to
destroy internet radio, along with college and public radio, the only alternative to the institutional corruption she decries. But in this case, she's on the side of the angels, it would seem. This report is timely though and does illustrate what's wrong with concentrating media power in too few hands.
posted by jonmc at 7:39 PM PST - 22 comments
What Would Vissarion Do?
A former Russian traffic cop realizes that he is the reborn Son of God. Several devoted disciples agree, yea and verily. Insert own 'water into vodka' joke here. On second thought, please don't.
posted by Dirjy at 2:28 PM PST - 2 comments
Dead Mike
had an accident while
skydiving and fell 80 feet to the concrete runway. He survived and put up this website to tell his story (warning: sound.)
posted by homunculus at 1:01 PM PST - 7 comments
L.A. building Rocked By Explosion
A large residential building was rocked by an explosion and erupted in flames Friday. There was no immediate word on whether anyone was hurt.
The blast hit the building in the Encino area of the San Fernando Valley about 11 a.m., Fire Department spokesman Bob Collis said.
posted by GernBlandston at 12:43 PM PST - 36 comments
Post to a weblog via SMS.
Just this weblog, unfortunately, not your own. I tried it with my Voicestream phone and it works. I'm surprised there aren't more wireless blogs out there that use SMS. (Or have I just been missing them?)
posted by brownpau at 12:26 PM PST - 15 comments
Bowling for Columbine
Michael Moore, the visionary documentary maker, has the big hit at Cannes this year with Bowling for Columbine. Ostensibly a film about guns and violence in America
posted by Niahmas at 12:11 PM PST - 22 comments
Did Fight Club influence Lucas John Helder?
"... in connecting the dots between the places where Helder planted his pipe bombs, one ends up with something resembling
a smiley face—an image etched by anarchists in
Fight Club on a building they had set fire to... If there were an instruction manual for the angst-ridden young people searching for meaning,
Fight Club might be it... [It] might very well be the
Catcher in the Rye for those belonging to Generation Y..." (via
Dead Yet Living)
posted by aaronshaf at 11:22 AM PST - 27 comments
When stupid laws attack:
this article points out that
the widely syndicated article about thwarting the copy protection of sony's CDs is a direct violation of the
DMCA. Will news directors at Reuters, Yahoo, and CNN be seeing fines and jail time soon? How many times does it have to be pointed out that the DMCA restricts free speech as it attempts to thwart piracy at any cost? (via
k5)
posted by mathowie at 10:19 AM PST - 10 comments
Fashion comes and goes, but art that might have come from the side of a van is forever. The cover artists from
Dragon magazine, a staple of my pimply years, all have websites now, from
Keith Parkinson to the ghastly
Clyde Caldwell to
Larry Elmore (who is putting his old
Dragon comic,
SnarfQuest, online). The grand master of bodacious barbarian babe art,
Frank Franzetta, has a site, too. Relive your adolescence through gleaming swords, vanquished dragons, and hyperdefined musculature! (Warning: Not all pictures are work-safe.)
posted by snarkout at 9:40 AM PST - 11 comments
Lyudmila Putina and Laura Bush
apparently forgetting there are cameras around. Switching gears now, for the smokers out there: just drink
water, and you'll be able to satisfy that nicotine craving
and quench your thirst with a single hand motion.
posted by Why at 8:07 AM PST - 11 comments
Attack of the Clones (really).
The Italian fertility expert (...) said on Wednesday three women were pregnant with clones. In
this interview published in the French daily Le Monde, he also says they will be born between December 2002 and January 2003. What good can we make out of this ?
posted by XiBe at 6:15 AM PST - 9 comments
Four best hamburgers
in this survey includes
a place about a mile from my house, and yeah they're great there. It also shows one in NY, one in LA and one in New Orleans - are these the same four you see or are they showing me a place in my town because they know where I am? Mmmm ... hamburgers.
posted by engelr at 5:45 AM PST - 39 comments
Red Cross attacks exile of Palestinians
Mr Fisk (in occupied Lebanon) notes that the Red Cross believes it cruel to separate known terrorists from their families. Neglects to note that all international law opposes the targeting of civilians no matter what the reason or rationalization used.
Perhaps a lawsuit for "cruel and unusual" punishment might allow the terrorists to have family reunions and be compensated for emotional damages and deprivation of marital privileges.
posted by Postroad at 5:17 AM PST - 11 comments
Even if it works, using the detah penalty as deterrent is morally flawed
The mere fact that an orthodontist in Cleveland feels more anxious about crime shouldn't make the state more "right" to take a life. And, if you are in favor of the death penalty, the mere fact that the same orthodontist feels comfortable leaving his door unlocked shouldn't mean that a murderer should pay less of a price for killing a child.
posted by magullo at 2:55 AM PST - 45 comments
About damn time.
If I ever get another email asking me to go to Nigeria on behalf of Mr.Ngkoskusomethingoranother for some large sum of cash I could just...
posted by lostbyanecho at 2:43 AM PST - 12 comments
May 23
Microsoft has designed
a Windows XP patch that will trick computers into behaving as though IE, Outlook Express, and Messenger aren't there, though not removing them, per the requirements of its antitrust settlement. They demonstrated a working version to the AP yesterday.
Oh yeah, and they're releasing it as a 40 megabyte download. In August. And it's other primary function will be to potentially sabotage the operating system.
Good ol' Microsoft.
posted by gsteff at 9:52 PM PST - 14 comments
Finally
some more news about
Orson Scott Card's book Ender's Game, and the plans to make it into a movie. Obviously I do have the fear that they'll make it suck - but if they do a good job with this, I'll be more excited about it than any movie I've seen in years!
posted by twiggy at 4:55 PM PST - 42 comments
Give it away now.
Salon article on cd-music seller
FightCloud.com, which gives CDs away "free" but is profitable. How? By charging a $4.95 "shipping fee". Nevertheless, because of the extremely low cost to produce CDs, an estimated $2.64 of that shipping fee is net profit, which is then split 50/50 with the artist. While FightCloud is a small independent company, is this model something that will eventually challenge the big labels to either change or be eclipsed?
posted by hincandenza at 4:52 PM PST - 10 comments
Can dropping out of school be a good career move?
According to Fabula magazine some teenagers can thrive if they leave state education and endeavor to teach themselves at home. This is 'unschooling' and the writer seems to think it's becoming an increasingly popular way to go: "Unschoolers can read what they want, volunteer, do internships, or become an apprentice. The can also write a novel, tackle advanced math problems, go on hikes, or even audit classes in college (which are very different from high school classes). The point is to do whatever they’re excited about." Which sounds fine in theory, however how are they going to survive in the job market? I'm having enough issues and I've a degree and six years experience in a number of positions. Sooner or later surely things will come home to roost for them eventually. Won't they?
posted by feelinglistless at 12:37 PM PST - 41 comments
Very cool artwork made out of pieces of toast of various done-ness. "The toaster toasts and when it does this it reproduces itself." If I had a nickel for every time I made
that observation. (via
Bifurcated Rivets)
posted by luser at 10:29 AM PST - 8 comments
CA Earthquake forecast...
Apparently, the earthquake that Matt felt recently had been forecast by a group of scientists with a new predictive modelling method. That particular earthquake was just on the edge of their confidence interval, but four other recent earthquakes fell well within the predicted boundaries.
posted by SpecialK at 9:43 AM PST - 8 comments
Coming soon to a supermarket checkout lane near you --
E Ink Corporation's "Ink in Motion" displays will look like a piece of cardboard (like the back of a chewing gum display box), but will
flash a graphic at you. To follow: larger indoor and outdoor signage, screens on PDA devices, etc. Better angle visibility, brightness, contrast, than electronic screens; runs forever on a small battery.
Comprehensive and informative site about technology that has gotten little attention but could revolutionize display technology, the sign business, point-of-purchase marketing, and publishing. (Previous 2001 MeFi mention in a comment but much new info.)
posted by beagle at 9:38 AM PST - 8 comments
While W is off
building the case for a war against Saddam, senior military officials
have serious doubts about the wisdom of a US invasion of Iraq. But they're keeping quiet because "they fear they would come out on the wrong side of Bush's eventual decision." Can you blame 'em?
posted by dack at 8:26 AM PST - 41 comments
US Army Introduces "America's Army" PC Game
Developed by the U.S. Army and Department of Defense experts in simulations and virtual environments, America's Army blends two simulations: Soldiers, a role-playing portion, and a first-person action game, called Operations. The Army will distribute America’s Army for free through distribution partners that include leading computer game magazines, Army events, recruiting stations, and through internet download.
posted by Stuart_R at 7:42 AM PST - 24 comments
Outta my way, or under my wheels!
According to this survey from the American Iron and Steel institute, Miami has the rudest drivers in the country. I live in Miami, and it's true. If you disagree with me, you're a slack-jawed moron.
posted by groundhog at 7:30 AM PST - 21 comments
Morel Sightings 2002
There's a fungus among us. Morels are one of the most highly sought-after, delectable wild mushrooms. Each spring, morel hunting goes into high gear in many parts of the country. This site has state-by-state reports. (mine is in MA) You can learn more about these spongy fungi
here and
here. If you do go out foraging for them, just remember...if you don't know it, throw it!
posted by martk at 7:07 AM PST - 14 comments
Captain of Irish World Cup squad Keane sent home
This is
big news here in Ireland. He's our best player - he keeps the team together on the pitch. But after some incidents in the past couple of days, and some prima donna style behaviour (something he's always been known for), he's been told to feck off.
I think the manager did the right thing, but I can't help thinking that our chances of getting out of our group have been diminished...
posted by tomcosgrave at 6:12 AM PST - 27 comments
Does everyone have a twin lurking around somewhere?
Look-A-Likes seems to think so - they hire out wannabe doppelgangers and tribute artists for all your fake celebrity needs. The resemblance is uncanny in some instances (Xena and George Michael spring to mind). And be sure to visit what I think is the
first version of their site.
posted by iconomy at 6:09 AM PST - 14 comments
May 22
PDN photo annual 2002
showcases their nominated photographs in 8 different categories (including photo websites) for 2002 . It also invites viewers to vote for their favorite photographs.
posted by justlooking at 11:30 PM PST - 2 comments
Ronald Reagan is joining the war
on speeders in Malvern, IA. "Someone had put a dummy in there with a uniform and he has a big smile on his face," City Clerk Julie Powles said. I don't think it's very nice to call a former president a dummy, though.
posted by Kevin Sanders at 4:43 PM PST - 2 comments
Maunday, Toosday, Thursday, Saturday...
The special effects of the Godfather. How did they rig Santino's tollbooth demise? How did Moe Greene get shot through the lens of his glasses? Great reading for any movie or special-effects geek.
posted by GriffX at 4:05 PM PST - 3 comments
Climb a mountain, fall under a curse?
The ethnic spirituality of the Ibaloi tribe meets Philippine environmental politics as President Macapagal makes plans to take a mountain-climbing trip to Luzon's highest peak. While I understand the environmental concerns involved, especially with her entourage of
suckups local gov't officials, there's definitely something amusing about the line,
"cursed by Pulag’s pantheon of Ibaloi gods." Nice pictures from Mt. Pulag here. I've been there once; it's worth the climb.
posted by brownpau at 1:33 PM PST - 3 comments
Dibblez
is a really cute and fun game. Yeah, it's not time for Friday Time-waste, probably, but I love when people create amusing stuff like this. If only someone would do a (better than
scorch2000) networked version of Scorched Earth...
posted by twiggy at 1:13 PM PST - 19 comments
Has anybody here done business with
AIT? After several of their customers switched to our web hosting company with bizarre stories, I did a little research. These folks are a little over the top,
including gun cabinets, razor wire and uniforms. They even claim to have security teams that physically hunt down spammers and such. All of this would be great if they took care of their
customers. Or should I say cared for their customers.
posted by rotifer at 1:11 PM PST - 13 comments
ANTI-BUSH BACKLASH BUILDS
Whores, For Once, Outraged At Dubya's Bullying, Scare Tactics
Bush Likened to Wizard of Oz
Even Paula Zahn Objects! Do you agree the latest warnings have as much to do with diversion as legitimate warnings?
posted by onegoodmove at 12:12 PM PST - 38 comments
Dallas Mavericks coach Mark Cuban wants a little privacy. Is he entitled?
As a general rule, I don't like Mark Cuban. Prior to reading this article (from
Dallas Online), which
fark.com described as "Transcript of Mark Cuban heated call," I expected to groan at more of his braying and
obnoxious behavior. But in large part, I can't deny that Cuban may have a point in asking a reporter not to publish information on Cuban's relationship with his fiancee. Much of what he said makes sense, or at very least raises interesting questions about the rights of the press and a celebrity-hungry public over those of the public figure (and his friends and family). Who's right here, and who's wrong? (via
fark.com, obv)
posted by Sinner at 10:22 AM PST - 18 comments
Shallow Grave
I just heard they found a female body in a shallow grave in Rock Creek Park here in DC. Could it be Chandra?
posted by pjdoland at 9:12 AM PST - 27 comments
Are you depressed?
A federal task force recommended that all adults be screened for depression during regular visits with their doctors, noting that many cases are mistreated and as many as half of all cases are missed.
posted by Irontom at 9:00 AM PST - 10 comments
A Town Rich in Stolen Art, but Not Nosy Questions
Gerstheim, population 3,000, was the dump site for part of one of the biggest series of art heists in history when a mother, furious at her son's stealing, threw 100 of 172 pieces of art into the Rhone-Reine Canal. The hilarious part is the locals seem to not care one whit... how very French of them...
posted by gloege at 7:51 AM PST - 7 comments
May 21
Since we're doing season finales here,
24 ended its run tonight. I thought it was amazing. Anybody else out there fall in love with this show ?(and especially this episode, wow)
posted by dig_duggler at 10:19 PM PST - 38 comments
The Buffy season finale
was possibly two of the best hours of TV I've ever watched. Did you miss it? If you taped it to watch later you may not want to read the article until you see it.
posted by Cyrano at 7:40 PM PST - 62 comments
All Lies, All the Time:
"In the United States of 2002, it's not a scandal unless the corporate media says it's a scandal, and they will not call something a scandal if it centers on the ability of large corporations to procure gargantuan favors from government. It is only a scandal if a member of the political party that's less than 100 percent devoted to granting corporations their every whim is caught doing something wrong."
posted by crasspastor at 4:59 PM PST - 20 comments
And the top 200 prescriptions for 2001 are...
I see Claritin near the top of the charts, with zoloft and paxil not too far behind. Prozac is down, with viagra shooting up the charts like a... hmm. In total 3.1
billion prescriptions were filled in the US, which would be about an average of a dozen per citizen. Also interesting are the previous six years of data, allowing anyone to build a "Rx Zeitgeist" of the american hypochondriac.
posted by mathowie at 4:52 PM PST - 59 comments
ANTHRAX AGAIN!
The World Bank in Washington DC said today that some of its mail had tested positive for possible anthrax contamination. 1200 employees there will be staying home tomorrow. It's the third report of a positive test in DC this week. Hysteria, residue from before, or is it happening all over again?
posted by crunchland at 2:44 PM PST - 11 comments
Google Labs
is a public beta testing area for some pretty cool things they are currently working on: an amazing glossary, voice search by telephone, search results navigated without the mouse and finding additional items to sets defined by words you enter.
With every new feature, they seem to be getting even further beyond the competition. Even though Google is very likable company: is a monopoly on web search a good thing?
posted by c3o at 2:06 PM PST - 45 comments
Our four helmeted kids (or four headed monsters)
I recently heard a child psychiatrist say that everything he had learned was wrong - the single most important factor for parents to focus on in raising children was, not spending time with them, not giving them love and affection, not providing discipline and clear rules and responsibilities, not making sure they ate healthy meals with plenty of sleep and exercise, the most important factor was fostering their "Competence". How well do they do the things they do. From this article:
"The way we realize our potential is through our activities. By ceaselessly striving to improve at the things we enjoy, we come to define, enlarge, and attain our best selves." Whatever happened to stopping to smell those roses?
posted by Voyageman at 1:47 PM PST - 25 comments
Google says: Don't mess with Malcovich
After Anita Roddick called actor John Malcovich a "
vomitous worm" on her Web site (in response to his statement about
shooting journalist Robert Fisk), she received a message from Google noting that her AdWord had been pulled. Google sent a message to Roddick stating: "policy does not permit the advertisement of 'Sites that advocate against groups or individuals (even John Malkovich)' on our website. We also do not permit sites that sell these products to advertise on Google." How extensive is this policy? Has anyone else run up against it?
posted by emptyage at 11:21 AM PST - 29 comments
New book claims the Peppered Moth, natural selection's poster boy, may be a fraud.
In the 1970s, the American lepidopterist Ted Sargent highlighted serious problems with Kettlewell's experiment. But no one wanted to know: his research was ignored by the scientific community and his career stymied. The peppered moth experiment was "sacred"; critics were "demonised", their views dismissed as "heresy". But the evidence grew and in 1998 a prominent biologist, reviewing it in Nature , said his shock at the extent of the doubts was like discovering as a child "that it was my father and not Santa who brought the presents on Christmas eve".
posted by skallas at 11:08 AM PST - 41 comments
Starving Bacteria of Iron Helps Wipe Out Body Odor.
Scientists find that blocking bacteria's supply of iron works better at suppressing B.O. than the traditional deodorant method off killing off the bacteria with ethanol.
"expert odor assessors who sniffed the participants' armpits found that the experimental combination worked better than ethanol at reducing odor, with longer-lasting effects."
Just when you think *your* job stinks. Now, when will they come up with a way to suppress the Indian cooking odor in my apartment building?
posted by Tubes at 9:17 AM PST - 16 comments
The world cup
(of football) is very nearly upon us. You can win tickets to it by playing a
free kick game. I am not sure if it applies to those outside the U.K but it doesn't matter because you would have no chance of winning at all. It is devilishly difficult but quite addictive and tremendous fun.
You can also find a prediction league type thing and other bits and pieces
here. If anyone has the motivation it is possible to set up a private league within the wider thing.
posted by Fat Buddha at 8:49 AM PST - 16 comments
Mystery Illness
such a mystery? Help needed! (old news, new information?)
OK, I'm going to try and do this without naming names...
The British troops in Afghanistan have been struck down by a
mystery illness recently, with an investigation finding that the illness was just a "
winter vomiting" bug.
I've heard different.
The source may have been an Al Qaeda terrorist who had been captured.
The 'mystery illness' may have been caught when the British or US government used biological warfare to make it easier to find and capture members of Al Qaeda.
Can anyone help verify this? I should stress I only have word of mouth from a friend of a friend. All very speculative, but I've not been able to find anything else on this... yet...
posted by snowgoon at 8:17 AM PST - 13 comments
"By Christmas, Microsoft could become the nation's fourth-largest phone company."
So ends an article in the NYT about the upcoming online gaming service for X-Box. What does this have to do with phone service? "A critical component of the social experience planned for Xbox Live will be the audio headset, enabling players to cheer and jeer one another. The technology includes a "voice masking" feature that will conceal the identities and even ages of the contestants — a Disneyland safeguard meant to deter adult exploitation of children online."
posted by gwint at 7:38 AM PST - 13 comments
The Secret Garden
- Albert Richards is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. He has been creating hauntingly beautiful images of flowers by radiography for decades now.
posted by Irontom at 6:45 AM PST - 8 comments
HR-2357.
"The U.S.A. prides itself as being one of the most pluralistic societies on earth, with a stunning variety of houses of worship in many communities. But the right to engage in civic activities, and especially to engage in political speech, is severely curtailed among many faith groups because of the perception that the house of worship will
lose its charitable status if 'politics' is discussed." That may be
about to change...
posted by aaronshaf at 6:39 AM PST - 20 comments
Killer to be executed
even though victim's mother requested a commuted sentence to life imprisonment. Shouldn't family members of the victim have some sort of say in whether a convicted killer should be executed or not? Especially when they are
against the execution of the perpetrator?
Just an add-on to
The Texas Conveyor Belt of Death thread from yesterday.
posted by da5id at 5:46 AM PST - 18 comments
A senior Microsoft Corp. executive told a federal court last week that sharing information with competitors could damage national security and even threaten the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. He later acknowledged that some Microsoft code was so flawed it could not be safely disclosed. (emphasis added.)
Is this a calculated admission, or is Microsoft so completely on the ropes that they'll say anything to keep from being completely dismembered? Doesn't the fact that releasing such a shoddy product that it's a
national security risk mean that Microsoft should be taken to bits in the interest of public safety? If Firestone can't sell unsafe tires, why should Microsoft be able to sell unsafe software?
posted by RylandDotNet at 2:01 AM PST - 22 comments
May 20
Imagine you are moving between apartments. Check out
this Verizon "How do I..." page. Over 40 questions are answered, but the 2nd most obvious question one might have is strangely absent. Then
try to order a basic cable service from Time Warner Cable. Do you have other examples of corporate sites that are less than helpful when what you want is less than what they would like to sell - or when you want to cancel?
posted by edlundart at 9:04 PM PST - 15 comments
A sad day for lovers of good writing. In addition to Stephen Jay Gould,
historian Walter Lord has died. (NYT, blah blah) Lord's 1955 book
A Night to Remember arguably touched off the modern world's fascination with the Titanic, and his 1957
Day of Infamy is an exciting account of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
posted by pmurray63 at 6:34 PM PST - 6 comments
Here's
your opportunity to participate in something gravely important. I'm salivating in anticipation of the DBZ bashing on this thread (sarcasm).
posted by tcobretti at 6:15 PM PST - 24 comments
China to Mine Moon for 'Benefit of Humanity'.
China says it is planning to establish a base on the Moon to exploit its mineral resources. Beijing has not yet put a human into space, but scientists say they expect to do so within three years and they have outlined an ambitious programme for the future. Chinese space official Ouyang Ziyuan said: "Our long-term goal is to set up a base on the moon and mine its riches for the benefit of humanity."
posted by ncurley at 4:50 PM PST - 36 comments
3 Stench Ridden Days
"For almost 3 damned days I couldn't find what was causing this god-awful smell. All of my house mates and I were convinced that there was a rotting mouse either under the floor boards or in the wall. Well I say all my house mates except for James William Ascroft-Leigh, who suggested the smell was coming from my computer. I laughed and called him a fool, claiming that the computer surley wouldn't work with a dead mouse in it..."
posted by aaronchristy at 3:26 PM PST - 23 comments
"The Texas conveyor belt of death rolls on.
Against international law, three Texas inmates face imminent execution for murders committed when they were children. Since 1998, Texas has killed five child offenders - people who were under 18 at the time of the crimes. If Napoleon Beazley, TJ Jones and Toronto Patterson are put to death on 28 May, 8 August, and 28 August respectively, Texas will have executed as many child offenders in a four-month period as Iran, the next worst perpetrator outside the USA, has carried out in the whole of the past decade."
Ha! Yet another area where them loser Axis of Evil® fellas ain't up to the standards of the good ol' U.$. of A.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 1:16 PM PST - 124 comments
Stephen Wolfram
has finished his book, "
A New Kind of Science," which purpotedly is being espoused as a paradigm shift in many fields. But, I'm starting to see a very reductionistic attitude in many of the main theorists of complextity theory and emergent phenomena. Is the idea that the Universe is in lines of code a phallus-extension/masculine overdriven idea? Isn't math a man made mapping and can the Universe be reduced to an equation by a man? Still this book is going to be groundbreaking. Read the following exceperpt from the
wired.com article:
q: "I've got to ask you," I say. "How long do you envision this rule of the universe to be?"
w: "I'm guessing it's really very short."
q: "Like how long?"
w: "I don't know. In Mathematica, for example, perhaps three, four lines of code."
link via
protofunk.org, old similar
thread
posted by nakedjon at 11:16 AM PST - 31 comments
The Talk of the Book World Still Can't Sell
(NY Times link) About two months ago, a new book about women putting careers before babies, and risking going childless, got a lot of publicity and was expected to be a huge seller. Wrong. Did it scare women? Did it sadden women? Was the coverage unfair (most of it highlighted the 'infertility after late 30's' angle, instead of balancing/choosing between career and family)? Or, did the massive publicity subvert sales by summing up the story and findings?
posted by msacheson at 10:35 AM PST - 27 comments
The doctor will not see you now.
Jane Poulson developed Type I diabetes at 13. Her vision deteriorated drastically while she was in medical school, and despite several rounds of surgery, she lost her sight. She graduated anyway and became Canada's first blind practicing medical doctor. Then things got worse.
posted by maudlin at 9:20 AM PST - 10 comments
Overcome Depression: The New Computer -Cognitive Treatment
Overcoming Depression is the world's first self-educative computer program for understanding, dealing with, and preventing depression using a unique dialogue mode that allows you to express yourself freely in your own words and that responds in meaningful every language characteristic of a therapeutic context.
So much for the personal therapeutic process. My question is - can this program prescribe meds??!??
posted by gloege at 6:41 AM PST - 18 comments
Build
your very own 'pinhole spy camera'! This one looks much cooler than the ones we had to build at school. (requires Flash)
posted by kebab at 5:48 AM PST - 2 comments
What is this?
Why is Google licensing Dilbert for their banner? Compared to the subtle holiday theme banners they do, this just seems....tone-deaf.
posted by crunchburger at 4:06 AM PST - 42 comments
Ever wonder if the airplane food sucks everywhere? Find out at
Airplane Meals, or add to this vastly underrepresented body of knowledge by sending him a pic of your next mile-high snack.
posted by Su at 1:15 AM PST - 12 comments
May 19
The Lilith Shrine.
As the story goes, Lilith was the first woman, being created at the same time as Adam but not from him, as with Eve. After refusing to submit to Adam's will, Lilith was cursed by God and ejected from the Garden of Eden.
Although she is only mentioned in the bible
once, do you suppose Lilith ever really existed?
posted by mcsweetie at 11:26 PM PST - 25 comments
The X-Files
TV series is officially over. Two years too late, probably. But the finale definately is in my list of favorite episodes. What are some of yours?
posted by gsteff at 9:29 PM PST - 44 comments
Drug War Roundup III A 70% increase in the price of cigarettes seems to have
dropped the teenage smoking rate by 7%. On May 15 you heard the Drug War Czar say anti-drug ads were a
flop. He announced a
new campaign the next day. San Franciscan test subjects in a medical marijuana study say they're given "
low-potency ditch weed." Subjects in a similiar study in Canada say the weed they're given is way
too good. Lastly, Canada is debating whether to
decriminalize smoking pot on the heels of a committee conclusion that it doesn't lead to hard drug use, committing more crimes or driving fast.
posted by raaka at 3:18 PM PST - 16 comments
House set to 'cloak' amnesty
I have long believed that all bills ought to be limited strictly to the major content of the Bill under discussion and not allow for riders and questionable bills to be tacked on in order to slip them through when there seemingly is going to be stiff opposition. This tacking on seems a favorite gambit in Congress, and it does not matter for me what the bill but (that is, whether I like or oppose it) but the priciple: a bill ought to be about a spcific issue and not contain elements not connected, which mayh slip through or help defeat at otherwise decent bill. Am I wrong in this?
posted by Postroad at 3:04 PM PST - 18 comments
A fascinating analysis of the typological thinking that defined the historical outlook of the Jews for many centuries, and an explanation of why the Jewish people has the image of itself as that of a people forever on the verge of ceasing to be. But the bad is not always the worst. To prepare oneself for the bad without preparing oneself for the worst: This is the spiritual challenge of a liberal order.
http://www.thenewrepublic.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020527&s=wieseltier052702
posted by semmi at 2:21 PM PST - 3 comments
Building Internet Intuition.
"One cannot overemphasize the importance of discipline and a clear research agenda in using the Internet." - Bill Arkin
"The basic rule is to dig deeper into links when pages are getting more relevant, but not when they are taking you far afield from the original query."
posted by sheauga at 1:53 PM PST - 9 comments
Fallacy Watch
In a recent column, law professor Alan Dershowitz appears to be arguing against a petition which calls for universities to divest themselves from holdings in companies which do business with Israel. While Dershowitz may be correct that the petition is part of a "foolish and immoral campaign for divestiture", his column provides almost no evidence for this conclusion.
A great site and an interesting article on the state of discourse in the media these days.
posted by onegoodmove at 12:52 PM PST - 5 comments
"Massively Multiplayer Online Entertainment."
Our own AdrianHon has posted an interesting article to his weblog, dealing with this budding genre. Last year's AI movie web game tie-in was the first of a new breed of online interactive fiction, attracting thousands of players world-wide. Mr. Hon takes a look at the genre and puts forth some interesting ideas about where it could go. (more inside)
posted by SpaceBass at 12:46 PM PST - 7 comments
May 17
Web Snatcher - when Web users go mad
Andrew Wiseman began investigating someone called Dave Van Staveren when he ripped off his 625 Television Room site and several other TV fan sites. What follows is a descent into absolute lunacy. Who is Van Staveren? What does he want?
posted by Summer at 11:07 AM PST - 5 comments
Momo's parts.
All about the different parts of one Japanese man's pet hamster plus illustrations. "I have read that hamster's whiskers shows the width that they can pass through. But Momo forgets. One day Momo tried to go into the cleaner hose. As he has the big hip, he could't go into it. And in his effect to go, he could't get his head out. When I ran to him in a hurry, his head gone out of the hose, and he rolled backward."
posted by moz at 8:41 AM PST - 17 comments
Not so quick on the uptake, eh Ann?
Looks like Ann Landers may have been taken in by an urban legend. So those of you hoping that this fad spreads to your neighborhood, you may want to cancel that X10 order now.
posted by vaca at 7:58 AM PST - 10 comments
In L.A., everyone's a screenwriter. On the web everyone's got a blog and has something to say. But of course, screen credits and blogs do not necessarily make great writing.
But let's not blame the medium for such folly. Bad writing predates film and the net. Enter [stage left]: Nick Page's
In Search of the World's Worst Writers.
The book warns us against the convential wisdom of writing about what we know. Poet Solyman Brown, a dental surgeon who wrote a 54-page poem called "The Dentologia - A Poem on Diseases of the Teeth," is a prime example. (via
Utne Reader)
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 7:17 AM PST - 3 comments
Well, well, well... it's amazing the unrelated links Google can turn up when you're careless about your keywords. Looking for the 75th anniversary Hallmark commercial (with all the people on the hillside), got
this PDF file [110kb] from a UK insurance actuaries organization about the possible risks at the World Trade Center.
posted by baylink at 7:17 AM PST - 9 comments
On Soul, Character and Calling: An Interview with James Hillman
Therapy, or analysis, is not only something that analysts do to patients; it is a process that goes on intermittently in our individual soul-searching, our attempts at understanding our complexities, the critical attacks, prescriptions, and encouragements we give ourselves. We are all in therapy all the time insofar as we are involved in soul-making.
And here is a link to all things
James Hillman. Having just picked up a copy of
The Soul's Code, I thought I'd post something about Hillman here. Here's yet another
interview. See what you think.
posted by y2karl at 3:03 AM PST - 6 comments
More from the
Textual Analysis Department: Spiderman as class warrior. "This battle of good vs. evil features the alter egos of an orphan raised by financially-strapped working class relatives versus an egotistical corporate executive."
posted by raaka at 2:31 AM PST - 16 comments
May 16
The transcript of the forum on the press coverage of the current Middle East fighting was presented by a panel of veteran newsmen hosted by Harvard University and the Brookings Institution on April 24. The session, "Tinder Box: How the Press Covers the Middle East," featured former CBS correspondent Marvin Kalb, Glenn Frankel of the Washington Post, Robin Wright of the Los Angeles Times, David Shipler of The New York Times, and Todd Purdum, the Chief Diplomatic Correspondent of the New York Times.
posted by semmi at 9:07 PM PST - 1 comments
Darth Vader: Neocon
"Lucas confused the good guys with the bad. The deep lesson of Star Wars is that the Empire is good." If it wasn't off the Weekly Standard web site, you'd think it was satire.
posted by Iberaband at 8:49 PM PST - 35 comments
Unocal will get it's pipeline after all!
I guess with all the grief Bush is getting about the warnings in August he can look forward to some happy phone calls from his oil buddies! Oh by the way, Karzi used to work for Unocal. Did the Pres. mention that when he appointed Karzi.
posted by bas67 at 8:04 PM PST - 12 comments
Sim-President?
FutureFarmers have released another thought provoking Flash site that is designed to make you think. Thsi time you get to play at running the country after a terrorist attack (where did they get that idea). Manage the budget, fight for oil and don't piss off big business (or they will assassinate you).
FutureFarmers have a long history of making Flash content with a political message. Their
They Rule site recently won a Net Excellence award from ARS Electronica, and their
Texas Draw site has been featured here.
posted by DragonBoy at 12:35 PM PST - 12 comments
Getting ready to fast this weekend.
We go on vacations from work to relax, recharge, and to gain new perspectives on our life; why not take occasional breaks from food? I do this about every two years and it always seems to "reset" my body and more importantly my mind. Anyone else have fasting experience?
posted by jeremias at 11:52 AM PST - 46 comments
Thursdays Wouldn't Be Thursdays Without Popbitch!
I was nostalgically going over
holgate's archive and came across his March 2001
Popbitch post. In case you haven't heard of it, it's an hilarious, outrageous and probably libelous free weekly newsletter dedicated to
dishing the dirt on (mostly)British celebs.
And yet
it now looks like its founder and editor,
Stevenson, has been head-hunted to edit the vapid monthly stylemag
The Face. [
Sob] So does anyone know of any other similarly outspoken and irreverent webby
gossip sheets?[
On preview: this June 2001 post by mocata is also worth reading.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:29 AM PST - 11 comments
Shakey: Neil Young's Biography. . .
Any big Neil Young fan, and I have to admit to being one, also spends a lot of time hating a lot of his artistic output (i. e. the cringe-enducing
Let's Roll, as well as his all-over-the-map politics.
In the
LATimes book review Hal Epsen mentions that
the reliably perverse Young has been a staunch Reagan supporter and proponent of the death penalty, as well as a devoted husband and a stalwart parent to three kids, two of whom were born with cerebral palsy. He also asserts that Young appeals almost wholly to male listeners.
Young has been discussed here before but not, I believe his biography, which, as has been Neil Young's M. O. from the get-go, is a dictionary-perfect example of a "mixed bag."
posted by Danf at 9:26 AM PST - 35 comments
Anti-Drug Ads are NOT Working:
John P. Walters, the new U.S. drug czar, says survey data show the government's anti-drug advertising of recent years have failed. He goes on to say that they may have even led some youngsters -- particularly girls aged 12 to 13 -- to experiment with marijuana (more inside).
posted by Irontom at 8:21 AM PST - 29 comments
"When a male polar bear and a human are face to face, there occurs a brief kind of magic: an intense, visceral connection between man and beast whose poignancy and import cannot be expressed in mere words.
Then he rips your arms off."
It's rare for someone to pull off morbid and hilarious at the same time. Here's an example.
posted by Su at 4:25 AM PST - 22 comments
Weirdo Leonardo
"This web site is about the stranger artworks and writings of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and includes ideas and images that may disturb." Michelangelo is reported to have said of Leonardo that "He cannot create, only imagine." If so, what an imagination! The grotesque and anatomical figures. The magnificent machines.
posted by vacapinta at 12:04 AM PST - 12 comments
May 15
"This is a war, and we are soldiers."
The first teaser for "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions" has hit the web (QT only). Is this the movie that is going to break the Spider-Man/Star Wars Episode 2 records? Do the fans want/need a sequel? Can they possibly top the "cool fight scene" quotient of the last movie?
posted by Grum at 11:11 PM PST - 23 comments
Ahhhhh….road trips, a time to relax and enjoy the scenery….right?
Not for the participants of the Gumball Rally which just finished its inaugural race on U.S. soil. (More inside)
posted by Eric Lloyd NYC at 10:19 PM PST - 3 comments
Mining Artifacts
"This site is dedicated to those who daily faced the danger, uncertainty, darkness, dampness, heat and cold of underground mining, those who were drawn to toil in the depths of the earth."simply massive collection of mining paraphernalia and images. a veritable gold mine (sorry) of cool stuff!
posted by quonsar at 8:34 PM PST - 3 comments
Fun with Fingerprint Readers.
A Japanese cryptoanalyst recently found that he could reliably fool biometric fingerprint scanners using only gelatin like that found in gummy bears. Not only could he create a fake finger using the original, he was also successful in fooling the scanners based on a gelatin mold of a fingerprint lifted from a piece of glass.
posted by kaefer at 8:32 PM PST - 9 comments
The Christian Right and Israel
is the topic of this interesting article from the editor of
The New Republic, who sees the Christian conservatives' interest in Israel as less than persuasive, as it relies on Biblical legitimacy and not Democratic legitimacy. From the article: "for Christian conservatives like Armey and Parshall, Israel's interests cannot be defined pragmatically, because Israel's primary function is to clarify a larger worldview. Whether or not most evangelicals truly believe Israel's wars will usher in the Messianic Age, they are theologically conditioned to see its struggle as Manichaean".
posted by cell divide at 6:00 PM PST - 8 comments
Boycott France?
An American Jewish Congress trade ad placed in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter compares anti-Semitic violence to that experienced during WWII. Some groups are also calling for a boycott of the Cannes Film Festival.
Woody Allen doesn't agree. Can the actions of an idiotic minority really justify a boycott?
posted by laukf at 3:33 PM PST - 45 comments
Anti-Immigrant feelings sweep Europe
As economies tighten, populations build, hostility to "outsiders" seems to happen everywhere, but as E.O. Wilson noted a few years back, there is bound to be people from third-world nations seeking better lives by moving to nations perceived as better off.
We are told that inexpensive labor is a boon. But is this all that matters?
posted by Postroad at 3:09 PM PST - 23 comments
Spitballs
It's always fun until someone loses an eye and you get charged with
battery causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury and mayhem and are found guilty of two of the charges [via
ObscureStore].
posted by srboisvert at 2:44 PM PST - 11 comments
Three propositions:
- Like everything else cultural, language goes through phases and fads, and what seemed one week like a fresh, inventive phrase quickly becomes debased through misuse and overuse.
- Tracking such things, and commenting on them, is fun, and it's nice to have a corpus of examples to draw on to make your point. It might be fun to take Metafilter as a starting place. You could even build a site around it.
- Those smaller fish that swim around with sharks are called remoras.
posted by rodii at 11:18 AM PST - 94 comments
$cientology pays up for once.
Lawrence Wollersheim won a case in 1986 against Co$ regarding abusive treatment, but it's taken 16 years for him to get paid. "Show me the money," indeed. (more inside)
posted by PeteyStock at 10:01 AM PST - 3 comments
For The Discerning, Segway-Hating Man About Town:
Hammacher-Schlemmer's fantastic
Unexpected catalogue is full of classy transportation devices, among countless other fascinating products, with prices to suit all pockets. The
Two-Person Submarine is a snip at $62,900 but claustrophic types are well catered for too. There's the
Zem 4-person bicycle for $6,499.95; the
One Person Helium Balloon for 20K, the popular
All-Terrain 2-Person Hovercraft; the very European
Vespa motorbike; the extremely enticing
Danish Police Runabout at only $5,999.95; the sexy little
Amphibious Car for $9,995.95 and many,
many more outlandish and distinctive vehicles, from
7 Person tricycles(for you, 16K)to a wooden '54
wooden Mercedes 300SL. For more sedentary gentlefolk, there are Feline Drinking Fountains, Impervious Unbreakable Chip Trays and, for only 25 bucks, a Barbershop
Hot Lather Machine. Fancy anything, Madam or Sir?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:09 AM PST - 19 comments
A heavy turnout has been
reported in the Dutch general election. More on the current situation there:
"A Dutch Radical's Message to Europe". This was published yesterday and was written by a Dutch reporter for the NYT (so I guess you can find it there too, but why go there if you don't really have to?).
posted by Taco at 8:32 AM PST - 10 comments
Born to Run?
A group of New Jersey political activists announced a plan
to draft Bruce Springsteen to run for the U.S. Senate "as a true representative of the state". But there is a big problem: no one has talked to the Boss about the idea.
"Senator Springsteen": how does that sound?
posted by matteo at 8:31 AM PST - 18 comments
Windows XP Pro for $40!
Microsoft is running a special offer where 'partners' can buy Windows XP for >85% off the retail price (free baseball too); all that's (realistically) needed is a .NET passport account. Since the MeFites had such fun
buying cameras, I figured I'd throw this out for discussion; it does seem to involve a wee bit of misrepresentation to take advantage of.
posted by boaz at 8:26 AM PST - 20 comments
Of course it's just a coincidence, but ...
I didn't know that this particular bit of pop culture had already been discussed on
Fark, but it certainly freaked me out when one of the guys at the bar showed it to me last night.
(and wait! There's even more to the conspiracy ...)
posted by yhbc at 7:52 AM PST - 27 comments
They might actually be, you know, be useful.
This year, a student in Nebraska won $1000 for finding the worst example of overuse of the phrase 'you know,' by an athlete who said it 30 times in a 135 second interview. But are they really that terrible? Known as discourse markers, phrases such as 'you know' and 'I mean' are
thought to be essential in conveying information in conversation and helping us understand each other. Discourse markers also exist in
many other languages and possibly even ancient languages.
posted by adrianhon at 7:48 AM PST - 25 comments
Now what?
MS is following Sony's lead by dropping the XBox's price to $199 USD. I don't know about you, but I -was- going to get a PS2. Now I'm not so sure.
posted by shadow45 at 6:18 AM PST - 38 comments
Lying with video.
Researchers at MIT have created videos of people uttering sentences they never said that consistently fool viewers and are accepted by them as real. Once upon a time, it was a lot harder to be false with film, but whether the medium will be in any way trustworthy going forward seems doubtful. What will it mean when you can't even believe your own eyes?
posted by zoopraxiscope at 4:33 AM PST - 17 comments
May 14
I've been using
Kazaa for about a year, but yesterday it spewed out a 30 second audio advertisement for a casino that you couldn't stop, and couldn't get rid of. Quite apart from getting me in deep piles of poo with my boss, surely this is going too far? Audio adverts you can't do anything about - maybe it is time to
move on...
posted by wibbler at 11:45 PM PST - 35 comments
Put a glide in your stride and dip in yo' hip and step on board the
Mothership*. Finally, a comprehensive site for one of the most influential musical agglomerations of the last 30 years. All hip-hop, and most modern R&B and Rock would be unimaginable without these guys. More
Cyberbetabuckdown here if that wasn't enough, plus a great essay by Scot Hacker
here. Like the man says "Uncle Jam Wants You!"
*Flash site. Let the intro finish, then comes the good stuff.
posted by jonmc at 5:21 PM PST - 20 comments
Digital projection coming to a theater near you.
"Lucas says the new format is cheaper and easier on viewers' eyes because it eliminates the pops and scratches from film wear and tear. He accuses the industry of resisting change the same way it snubbed talking pictures until "The Jazz Singer" signaled the end of the silent era."
Any other mefites planning on seeing Episode II at a DLP theater? [
DLP theater list]
posted by skallas at 4:17 PM PST - 29 comments
Cosmic Log - on msnbc.com
Alan Boyle, the science editor for msnbc.com (and former coworker who I respect) has ventured into the land of the blogs, his being primarily science-news based. MSNBC and Alan both seem to be viewing it as an experiment, and are soliciting feedback. If you think a journalist-as-blogger is a good thing (and like the quality of the content of course), you can send feedback, or anonymously rate the page (at bottom of page).
posted by kokogiak at 2:08 PM PST - 15 comments
Rose,
the Dalmatian who greeted the rich and powerful at the Inn at Little Washington, died this morning at age 13...
posted by GriffX at 1:22 PM PST - 21 comments
The Death of Evangelism.
Matt Sturges (of
Clockwork Storybook fame) writes in his blog about how traditional Christian evanglism turns people off more than it draws them in. Are Fundamentalists actually converting people, or just shooting themselves in the foot? Entertaining and informative reading, whether or not you're Christian.
posted by RylandDotNet at 1:02 PM PST - 22 comments
Price War!
Pre-empting a similiar expected price cut by Microsoft, PS2 price will be cut by $100.00, while Nintendo refuses to jump into the fray. Sony so far has shipped 30 million PlayStation 2 units worldwide and 7.9 million in the U.S. (@$299=9,000,000,000). With today's price cut Sony hopes to expand its U.S. market base by another 8 or 9 million units. If you've been holding back is this enough incentive to get onboard?
posted by Mack Twain at 12:40 PM PST - 40 comments
Speaking of Apple...
Rumors of OSX for x86? The Inquirer reports that ATI and Nvidia are investigating ports of their graphics chipsets for a port of OSX to an X86 CPU, suggesting that something of the like might not be far away. It just might be enough for me to jump ship, in a way.
posted by Hackworth at 12:32 PM PST - 28 comments
The Rise of the Creative Class.
The author argues that cities which meet the diverse needs of young people -- through vibrant nightlife, outdoors activities, and gay neighborhoods -- are also the ones best situated in the current economy. He has his own
website, where you can look up your own city. Pretty interesting stuff.
posted by MikeB at 12:06 PM PST - 18 comments
Good news for Mac-owning, Celine Dione fans
"The process is pretty easy: I took a bit of electrical tape and applied it to the edge of the CD, the 'shiny side', - just a half inch of the stuff - and aligned it with the very edge 'data track session ring' visible on these copy protected CDs. Took the tape out to the outside of the CD and put it in my CD Rom."
posted by schlaager at 11:53 AM PST - 17 comments
UnificationChurch Under Siege in Brazil
Rev. Moon's massive land purchases lead to major search-and-seizure operation. Money laundering and other no-no activities. This cult, the Avis to Scientology's Hertz, has paid President Bush I handsome money to speak in their behalf when they began operations in Brazil. They also own the Washington Times, Insight Magazine and many many other businesses, including a university, jewelry stores nationwide, and a ballet company. Their found, Rev. Moon, a convicted felon (taxes). Rumored to get money from Japanese mob to do their conservative activities, and now want to open car plant in China. Gone the days of merely selling roses.
posted by Postroad at 11:46 AM PST - 2 comments
The best even-handed treatment I've seen of the ANWR controversy appeared in the May 13th issue of
Sports Illustrated (Sorry, no link to the article, but my summary and other helpful links inside).
posted by Sean Meade at 11:26 AM PST - 11 comments
GPSdrawing
-- Making giant virtual drawings by moving around with a gps. I found this site searching google with words from cut-ups, and it turns out that the New York Times
has recently covered it. There are recognizable figures, but also experiments exploiting characteristics of the technology and more.
posted by mblandi at 9:32 AM PST - 5 comments
The Stained Apron
is "dedicated to the venting of food servers' frustrations and a harsh education of the dining public." I always try to tip generously, now.
posted by moz at 9:12 AM PST - 24 comments
"Motty is fast, simple and free." Football is quite rubbish, but this is great for us office prisoners.
posted by Dan Brilliant at 8:48 AM PST - 4 comments
We don't like your name - you don't get to fly.
At least not without a great deal of hassle. A 70 year old black woman is repeatedly subjected to lengthy delays by US Airways. Why? Because her name is similar to an alias used by a person who murdered his wife and kids. The interesting part? He's a 28 year old white man. Apprehended 3 months
before the incidents described in the article.
posted by Irontom at 8:33 AM PST - 10 comments
The bad news?
Politically Incorrect is dead. The good news? So is
The Man Show. The bad news? Jimmy Kimmel's getting his own late-night talk show.
posted by darukaru at 7:59 AM PST - 68 comments
Erik Benson has put
Ad Farm and
Nervous Industries "up for adoption." As a user of
Adfarm's text ads, I received an email and refund for ads not yet run: "Last week was one of the most difficult of my life. My brother-in-law passed away at the age of 20. It has woken me up to the realities of time passing, and I'd like to refocus my daily schedule to include things that are more in line with my long-term goals. Being offline is one of them. Being with my family and friends, and working on my novel, seem to be the most important things right now."
posted by dobbs at 12:43 AM PST - 8 comments
May 13
Californians, did you feel the quake?
This 5.2 quake was near the surface which, according to the San Francisco local news, allowed it to travel farther than usual. Did you feel it? If so, where? Did it create any problems? Was anyone at the Sharks game?
posted by emptyage at 10:28 PM PST - 40 comments
Bored at work? Need a new hobby? Want to impress others with your skillful, delicate hands? Try some
pen spinning. Here's a site dedicated to nothing but the art of the spin. There are even
videos. Idle hands are the devil's playground.
posted by ColdChef at 9:34 PM PST - 26 comments
I've been looking for a historical whois lookup: something that would allow you to see earlier versions of a whois record for a particular domain name. Well,
Cool Whois isn't it, but...
posted by timeistight at 4:35 PM PST - 8 comments
djc steps down from evolt.org
After years of insanely large amounts of contributions that sustained the community, Daniel J. Cody (djc) decides he needs to move on to other things. Who will pick up the slack? I guess we'll see.
posted by mwarden at 4:09 PM PST - 5 comments
Revelations regarding Venezualen Coup
Greg Palast, who's been at the front of this story ever since predicting it, gives enlightening details behind the events of Apil. It barely had anything to do with the protests and riots - Chavez was tipped off by an OPEC minister days before the coup was launched. He hid loyal soldiers in the Presidential palace and once Carmona was installed he became as much a hostage as Chavez. Chavez also says he has photos, videos and the names of American officers who entered the coup plotters' headquarters.
posted by raaka at 2:56 PM PST - 30 comments
China has no respect for international law.
In case you hadn't heard, China broke into the Japanese Consulate and forcibly removed five North Koreans seeking asylum. Since when can Chinese Police just waltz into the Japanese Consulate and drag people out? Not only does this demonstrate China's blatant disregard for the sovereignty of another country, it demonstrates how closely they share values with the
Impregnable Fortress.
posted by zanpo at 1:27 PM PST - 37 comments
TiVo fanatics will know the name of TiVolutionary (Richard Bulwinkle), the official TiVo evangelist who helped create one of the most enthusiastic (independent) user communities ever at
AVS Forums. Well, he's
either quit or been fired.
posted by luser at 1:17 PM PST - 2 comments
A Weblog Foundation proposal
aninteresting proposal via http://aintnobaddude.blogspot.com/ to help sustain blogging as an important aspect of media and online community. Any ideas for or against this proposal?
posted by Postroad at 11:15 AM PST - 56 comments
Have you ever wanted to try painting a portrait of
Pappa Hemingway or
Joey Ramone using poppy seed, grits, brome grass, millet, lentils, and white rice? Do you have the patience to recreate Van Gogh's
Starry Night in cream of wheat and split peas?
Crop art showcases artists who use only harvested natural materials to create their art.
Via Coudal.
posted by iconomy at 11:09 AM PST - 9 comments
In an 8-1 ruling with Justice Stevens dissenting,
the U.S. Supreme Court has partially upheld the
Child Online Protection Act against objections that by relying on community standards it was unconstitutionally overbroad in violation of the First Amendment. COPA is the 1998 federal law making it illegal to make pornography available to children on the Internet. Passed in the wake of the Court's 1997 ruling striking down the Communications Decency Act but never enforced because of various court injunctions, COPA is still undergoing other lower-court challenges whose merits today's ruling does not address.
posted by tiny pea at 10:32 AM PST - 4 comments
The Strolling of the Heifers.
It's not exactly the
running of the bulls, but Brattleboro, Vermont's "three-day festival about cows, small towns, small farms and the myriad things that make rural life special" hopes to support the local farming community, which has been
badly squeezed since the expiration of the Northeast Dairy Compact. It features (among other things) a
milking contest between U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, U.S. Senator James Jeffords, and U.S. Congressman Bernie Sanders.
posted by mattpfeff at 9:29 AM PST - 7 comments
Is It Racism If You Admit You're A Racist But Decry Racist Behaviour?
Geoffrey Sampson, Professor of Natural Language Computing at the University of Sussex in the UK is likely to be sacked from the Conservative Party for his defense of "racialism" as a legitimate human emotion. In an interview on this morninn's BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme, he said recognising people's racial prejudices is a scientific fact has nothing to do with espousing discriminatory behaviour. The Observer coyly shrank from linking Sampson's offending article but it wasn't difficult to find:
here it is. Judge for yourselves.[
My two cents and a question for UK Mefis: as a conservative, I'm quite impressed with Ian Duncan-Smith's(the new Tory leader's)efforts to dissociate himself from the Tory Party's reactionary bastions(e.g.The Monday Club) and attitudes. Is it just a pose, electioneering or is there something to it?]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:36 AM PST - 33 comments
Mother jailed for girls' truancy
A question for our British gang, is truancy such a problem in the UK now that this is really necessary? When I went to school in England, lo those
mumblemumble years ago, I don't remember it being this bad. For the rest of the world, do you think truancy in your country would justify locking up the primary caregiver or is this punishing the wrong person? Can parents be held responsible for everything a child does? And better said, should they? When should we grant children the priviledges and penalties of their own autonomous actions?
posted by dejah420 at 8:15 AM PST - 27 comments
Very high level of PCBs in whale raises alarms.
"The orca found dead on the Olympic Peninsula earlier this year carried a level of contaminants that was among the highest -- if not the highest -- ever measured in killer whales, laboratory tests show".
If that is the case with free ranging whales then I shudder to think what similar measurements on city dwelling humans will reveal. Does anyone know of similar contaminant research on humans? (via
Baloney.com)
posted by talos at 7:51 AM PST - 10 comments
Vintage Luggage Labels
"The luggage label evolved in the latter part of the 19th century and was born out of the hey-day of world travel - a period when travel was the exclusive realm of the wealthy and the privileged... During this time, travel was predominantly for leisure and the great ships and trains reigned supreme... Later, they became fashionable objects of conspicuous consumption - identifying the owner as a well-traveled and possibly cultured person of means."
posted by Irontom at 5:58 AM PST - 10 comments
"Only in the case of war, a recession, or a national emergency",
Bush promised during his 2000 campaign, would he ever enter deficit spending. He now repeatedly and rather mordidly jokes that he never imagined that he'd hit the "trifecta" by getting all three- perhaps to explain why we are now experiencing a $100 billion dollar deficit this year. One tiny problem: Bush
never made this supposed campaign promise despite frequently claiming just such as thing, as Jonathan Chait of TNR notes in his recent column. These "special conditions" for deficit spending and depleting the Social Security surplus were spun out of thin air just last summer, and modified post- 9/11, as a necessary escape clause when the budget crunch hit.
posted by hincandenza at 12:28 AM PST - 12 comments
May 12
Victim of Sloppy Journalism?
Wired News Intern Danit Lidor wrote
a
sensational, one-sided story about one of Rod Montgomery's
employer's
customers. Rod was quoted
accurately, but he is
not WordRecords.com's webmaster, was not
responsible for the less-than-swift marketing campaign, and didn't know
the context of Lidor's question at the time.
Lidor's sloppy journalism implies that Rod and his employer are
spam-generators, when this is very far from the truth.
What would you do if you were misquoted or misrepresented in an article
printed in a large Internet news site? Should Lidor post a formal
retraction?
Rod's full letter to Wired can be found
here.
posted by quonsar at 6:42 PM PST - 18 comments
With the daily bloody death counts in the dozens and propagandists rooting for more, perhaps it's appropriate to pause and take into consideration the pain and suffering each individual death creates.
Studs Terkel's interviews with a paramedic, a social worker, an undertaker, and a mother about their experiences with death and dying. (more great links on the site)
posted by semmi at 12:40 PM PST - 6 comments
Katarina Witt's Stasi connection.
SECRET police files on Katarina Witt have revealed that the most glamorous and popular sporting figure in the former East Germany was so close to the Stasi that she considered them a "partner".
posted by skallas at 12:34 PM PST - 9 comments
Cuneiform artifacts for cheap!
"Iraq's economic collapse means the oldest writing in the world can be bought for a song on eBay -- and has scholars racing to digitize Sumerian artifacts before they become paperweights." I've always wanted an original Epic of Gilgamesh cuneiform tablet to decorate the mantel with.
posted by homunculus at 11:56 AM PST - 4 comments
Jimmy Carter
made history today being the first U.S. President [in or out of office] to visit Cuba since
1959. At the initial press conference Mr. Carter switched from English to Spanish, in reverence to his
host [his Spanish was actually pretty good]. What can Mr. Carter
hope to achieve this week and how does his action [albeit as a private citizen] affect the current administration?
posted by plemeljr at 11:38 AM PST - 11 comments
Last night, ninety-five thousand British Internet users took part in '
Test The Nation', an IQ quiz, broadcast live on BBC television, which attempted to survey the intelligence on the national. As a simulcast it was only partially successful -- the questions appearing on television sometimes five minutes before appearing on computer, but the results from those who coped with the technology were quite interesting. Any other UK Mefites take part? The test is still available for the curious.
posted by feelinglistless at 8:42 AM PST - 46 comments
Rubens Barrichello robbed.
Formula One driver Barrichello has just let Michael Schumacher win the Austrian Grand Prix. I've been getting more and more disillusioned with F1, and this has put the cap on it. No more for me.
posted by viama at 6:49 AM PST - 20 comments
What's So American About American Culture?
Richard Pells launches a spirited attack on the notion that American culture dominates the world, noting how almost all its sources are European, which would explain why "
American culture has never felt all that foreign to foreigners". As a sideline and a Sunday
provocation, I suggest to you that, apart from medicine, computers and entertainment(movies; music; web sites) Europe is either
as good as America(art; literature; architecture; universities; publishing)or a damn sight
better: telecommunications; TV; cars; pharmaceutical products; food and drink; luxury goods...In fact, America and Europe complement each other quite perfectly. Though we win in the end, of course, because we're
much better at appreciating this symbiosis. If only because know and enjoy more American stuff than you Americans do European stuff. So
there!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:08 AM PST - 61 comments
May 11
Maybe NISSAN fights for domain names a little too much
If your surname is used by some big company, you may want to read this. And if you have a company which uses your surname , even if properly registerd, you must read this. And if all of above is true and your have a website read the link or welcome to the world of "sue em till they are out of money and die"
posted by elpapacito at 6:58 PM PST - 18 comments
"The smartest scientist on the planet."
[NYT reg req] "Conducting experiments on a computer, where he says he has logged 100 million keystrokes in the last 10 years, Mr. Wolfram wrote simple programs that generated odd and intricate patterns to test his ideas about complexity. He argues that natural phenomena can be explored as if they were, in fact, computer programs." Stephen Wolfram's own company (Wolfram Media Inc.) is now publishing his 1,197-page book - "
A New Kind Science " - which was kept secret until now. They claim "..he is proposing a paradigm shift. A new twist on everything.." in explaining how the universe operates. Sounds big. Is it really?
posted by Voyageman at 5:22 PM PST - 33 comments
Bahrain bans Al Jazeera TV
Help me out on this one. Al Jazeera is said in the West to be very pro-Arab in all things. Now it is banned in a country that says it is moving toward becoming democratic (even allowing women to vote). Is there a contradiction in banning media as you move toward democarcy, or am I perhaps spoiled by my highschool teachers. NOTE: this is NO troll.
posted by Postroad at 5:08 PM PST - 7 comments
Ben's Chili Bowl,
a Washington, DC institution if ever there was one, has put up a site. This eatery was opened in the 50's, when U St. NW in DC was the 'Black Broadway', survived the riots (and the ensuing economic disintegration) and is going strong today, still run by the family that opened it.
Next time you're in DC, go in and order a few half-smokes just like Bill Cosby does - he and his wife had their first date there - and say hello to Mrs. Ali. If you already live in DC, rejoice in the new online ordering interface and have your chili cheeseburger waiting for you when you breeze through the door.
posted by GriffX at 3:55 PM PST - 12 comments
Deserts are dry? Sue.
"The families of 11 immigrants who died [while] illegally crossing into Arizona from Mexico have filed a $41 million claim against two federal agencies, saying the government's refusal to put water out in the desert contributed to the migrants' deaths." Do they have a case?
posted by darukaru at 12:07 PM PST - 53 comments
Who's a .pro?
The new .pro
TLD will only be available to certified professionals
—at first just lawyers, doctors, and accountants—with subdomain strings (“.law.pro, .med.pro and .cpa.pro with more to come”) to identify the professions. [
more info at RegistryPro] Seems pretty clunky to me.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:33 AM PST - 25 comments
What We Think of America
Twenty-four writers drawn from many countries describe the part America has played in their lives—for better or worse—and deliver their estimate of the good and the bad it has done as the world's supreme political, military, economic and cultural power.
posted by semmi at 12:04 AM PST - 6 comments
May 10
Forget the commercial media spin...
here's a no-nonsense article on Pim Fortuyn and how the 'mainstream' media, for the sake of ratings and profits, tried its darndest to make him look like the second coming of Hitler. Heck, I notice that at least one MeFi'er is guilty of that. Article by Adam Curry.
posted by clevershark at 8:01 PM PST - 27 comments
A possible new retina-burning bar-code
"flag" is being proposed for the EU. Surely they will say no, and keep their nice
classic version. As one person said, "This is one of those ideas that would seem great around a boardroom table after a couple of Aussie chardonnays, but in practice it doesn't work." On the positive side the star-design would be hard to add new members, while the bar-code is so busy and ugly no one would notice.
posted by rhyax at 5:39 PM PST - 16 comments
Talk, Talk, Talk!
Everyone has heard (or heard about) Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, Don Imus, and maybe even Dr. Dean, Neal Boortz, and other big-name talk-radio hosts. Take a look at the Talkers' "100 Most Important Talk Radio Hosts" list and see how many you can identify, have listened to, or admire/despise.
posted by davidmsc at 3:16 PM PST - 26 comments
And the word was whack
As a former Congregationalist whose father had a stroke - dropping down on the floor after ordering me from the house for denying the Adam and Eve story Is a fundamentalist literal view of the Bible passe.
posted by onegoodmove at 2:09 PM PST - 62 comments
Feeling evil?
Raise a little hell with your comrades and cohorts...report them via a faux news report for commiting a crime.
posted by pedantic at 11:55 AM PST - 8 comments
The Prom is On
for a gay teen who wants to take his boyfriend to his prom at a Roman Catholic school, as ordered by the court. This dispute has been making news in Canada for a few weeks. I thought it an interesting story because it touches on sexuality, morality, law, the church and education all at once. I wasn't out when my prom came around, so I went with a friend who knew about me. We had a blast, but a more romantic date would have been nice too.
posted by holycola at 11:51 AM PST - 31 comments
the Arafat file
a complete listing of the Arafat connection to terror, terror groups, and economic corruption. Materials taken by IDF. Of course if one wants to disbelieve this, one merely says to look at the source. But then here are the documents and the Arafat actions are in total keeping with these materials. Unless you can show/prove otherwise.
posted by Postroad at 10:59 AM PST - 60 comments
Hit
The Secret Fun Spot for a concentrated dose of nostalgia and some reminiscing about pirates in advertising.
It can be said without exaggeration that pirates are loved by everybody. The statement "all people love pirates more than they love their own families" is truthful, and without hyperbole. It boils down to a simple "if then" statement: "IF you are a living being on earth or otherwise, THEN you wholeheartedly adore pirates and all that is pirate related." So why are pirates rapidly falling out of mainstream advertising? It's enough to make your timbers shiver.
posted by euphorb at 10:40 AM PST - 25 comments
PETA Protests "Packers."
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has written a letter to the principal of Austin (Minnesota) High School, demanding that he change the school's "offensive" nickname ("Packers" is short for "Meatpackers," and the school is so named because Austin is the headquarters for Hormel Foods). PETA's suggested alternative? "Pickers," which would "promote a healthier, plant-based diet." No word yet on a response to that proposal from PETV (People for the Ethical Treatment of Vegetation).
posted by pardonyou? at 10:24 AM PST - 43 comments
Lane Splitting 101.
Do you ride? Do you commute on your bike? Are you insane enough to split lanes?
Or...
Do you drive? Do lane-splitting bikes piss you off? Do they give you heart attacks?
posted by badstone at 10:04 AM PST - 51 comments
All Small:
"A mini-comic that maintains it is all small stuff." I'm enjoying his High Horse series of humorous rants. Waste my Friday away!
posted by o2b at 8:48 AM PST - 12 comments
An interview with Joel Meyerowitz,
the photographer granted permission to document the recovery, reclamation, demolition, and excavation work underway at the World Trade Center site. "I try to take pictures that make sense photographically, that make sense visually as art. I don't shoot evidence exclusively. I don't copy. But visual evidence is important to record. The stuff in the background is historically important and it feeds you some of the feel of the place."
posted by junkbox at 8:39 AM PST - 5 comments
Cyril Connolly
, who once quipped, with himself in mind,
Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising, wrote
The Unquiet Grave, of which Ernest Hemingway wrote,
A book which, no matter how many readers it will ever have, will never have enough. For one, I am curious what smilar books you would add to Hemingway’s nascent list, and for another, what you may have regarding Connolly. (More within)
posted by y2karl at 4:51 AM PST - 30 comments
For All Your Art Needs:
My search for a more contemporary and inclusive supplement to
Artcyclopedia has ended.
Artnet is it. It's an amazing resource and its
list of artists, is the longest and most generously illustrated I've ever seen on the Web. Heaven...![
On preview, I see it's been linked twice before, by RJ Reynolds - of course! - but it definitely deserves a post all to itself.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:29 AM PST - 7 comments
May 9
Live near one of these 10 nuclear power plants?
They either have cracks in their control rod nozzles or are particularly "vulnerable" to cracking. An inspection at Ohio's Davis-Besse plant led to the
completely unexpected discovery of "the most extensive corrosion ever found on top of an American nuclear plant reactor". Radioactive boric acid leaked out of the cracks and came within a half-inch of
burning a hole through the steel containment dome. NRC officials say this kind of corrosion "was never considered a credible type of concern," but nuclear safety groups have been
warning for years that NRC inaction on this issue was endangering the public.
(more links inside)
posted by mediareport at 11:51 PM PST - 7 comments
"The title of my talk tonight is How to Conquer Stupidity, which is actually a pretty stupid thing to attempt. For me, anyway. One, it's not possible. Two, maybe it's not even desirable. That's probably the premise of all of my work, that I embrace my stupidity wholeheartedly and celebrate it, as often as I can."
And you can too,
here.
posted by semmi at 8:48 PM PST - 6 comments
The Mailbox Bomber's band sucks
, according to
Pitchfork Media, one of the most intellectual and pretentious music review sites on the web.
"Can you feel the pain?" Helder implores on "Back and Black," a passable stab at Incesticide-era Nirvana, albeit with horrendous lyrics and a gratuitous punk-rock stomp at the coda. "Stop the game!" Helder winces, as though squeezing out a fat one, and we really can feel the pain.
Related issue: the
band's webpage (also discussed
here) has been taken by Angelfire down for "violation of terms of service." Still,
Google's cache of the page reveals nothing objectionable. Is Angelfire right to take down the webpage of a nationally known criminal (the first time I can think of that the issue has arisen)? Or do their Terms of Service really have a "no domestic terrorism" clause?
posted by tweebiscuit at 5:37 PM PST - 28 comments
Renew! Renew!
Just like people entering the carousel in
Logan's Run, people who renew their domains with Verisign/
Network Solutions aren't getting what they think they're getting. While the gentleman from
scientium.com claims Verisign's domain renewal policy is out-and-out fraud, it seems to me that it's merely business-as-usual in Verisign's increasing predilection to screw their customers by preying on their ignorance. Is there no end to Verisign's deceptive practices?
Is trust the foundation of every human relationship in this day and age?
posted by WolfDaddy at 5:06 PM PST - 27 comments
High Standards, High Expectations For the Select Few
""We have three or four kids that need to be under control when they do something wrong," Ruben said. "The pressure isn't coming from the coaches. It's self-induced. That should be gone by now. When they are 7 or 8, you can chalk it up and say they are only 7 or 8. 'They are 10' doesn't wash anymore."" Somehow, some of us used to
have fun playing baseball.
posted by owillis at 4:42 PM PST - 4 comments
Web of Distraction.
Does the web cause you to lose time, having a hard time stopping browsing, and starting working? I know for me, the sheer inertia of browsing, it's hard to start working.
posted by patrickje at 12:41 PM PST - 12 comments
Saddam's oil scam
....and other tidbits of interest about Iraq versus US. oops. I almost said "and the world," but the world seems indifferent or annoyed at the American threat to Iraq.
posted by Postroad at 9:53 AM PST - 24 comments
Bumfights.com
. There's been alot of talk about this site in the news the last couple of days. To me, it makes me a little sick to my stomach seeing some of this stuff, could this really be legal? It seems almost like kidnapping to me.
posted by jonah at 8:29 AM PST - 68 comments
Media Silent on Pipe Bomber's Leftism
So newsmax says The same media establishment that is quick to label right-wing extremists refuses to call admitted pipe bomber Luke John Helder a left-wing extremist.
I did a little (very little) digging, and they might have something there, more below.
posted by Blake at 7:07 AM PST - 55 comments
Remember how some of us joked that the mailbox bomber was placing his bombs in a smiley face pattern? Well,
we were right.
posted by Reggie452 at 7:03 AM PST - 9 comments
Rich Man's Castle
- A
Guardian piece which suggests the introduction of land-zoning to ensure that all the prime pieces of land aren't snapped up for luxury,
new build homes and are instead designated for affordable housing. With UK house prices on an
ever-upward trajectory, it's unlikely that developers would embrace such a move. At least, not when there are
masterpieces to
construct.
posted by jonathanbell at 7:00 AM PST - 5 comments
England squad
Goalkeepers: David Seaman, David James, Nigel Martyn, Defenders: Rio
Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Gareth Southgate, Wes Brown, Danny Mills,
Ashley
Cole, Wayne Bridge, Martin Keown, Midfielders: David Beckham, Steven
Gerrard, Paul Scholes, Kieron Dyer, Nicky Butt, Owen Hargreaves, Joe
Cole,
Strikers: Michael Owen, Emile Heskey, Teddy Sheringham, Robbie Fowler,
Darius Vassell Well?
posted by Cobbler at 3:53 AM PST - 41 comments
May 8
A fascinating Salon (Premium, alas)
article asks why we haven't heard more about the purported
Israeli art student spy ring. Depending on who you ask, there's either nothing *to* ask, or there's a cover-up of positively Oliver Stone-ian proportions underway. Riveting reading, whichever explanation you subscribe to.
posted by artifex at 10:56 PM PST - 20 comments
Readerville is a community of readers. The site is supported, probably not very extravagantly, by book sales. It describes itself as "The social life of the mind".
posted by theora55 at 7:46 PM PST - 3 comments
Remember all the furor in '70's and '80's over
Backmasking , which for the uninitiated is inserting backwards messages(usually Satanic) into records to seduce the innocent.Usually the allegations came from folks like
this. Judas Preist even found themselves
dragged into court over it.
Thankfully, the audio at
this site you can judge for yourself. More links
here. I don't buy it myself. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go kill my parents.
posted by jonmc at 7:03 PM PST - 12 comments
silicon art
"Looking inside, Chipworks has found creative expressions on many of the chips that we have examined. Our combined facilities house six optical microscopes that provide us with the magnification required to discover the hidden art on some chips. Magnification can vary anywhere from 200 to 500 times the actual size. We think that these masterpieces deserve a wider audience. Have a look at what we've found!"
posted by quonsar at 6:10 PM PST - 2 comments
Las Vegas obstetricians
are turning away newly pregnant women, including existing patients who become pregnant, because they say they cannot afford to deliver more babies ... If newly pregnant women cannot find care in Las Vegas, their choices include moving elsewhere, traveling out of state for care or going without prenatal care and delivering in area emergency rooms or a casino?
posted by lola at 5:18 PM PST - 11 comments
Pocky for Men?
Mmmm, Pocky, I love you. But a flavor for men only? I don't like bitter chocolate!
This is my favorite flavor. It reminds me of Crunch Berries. Mmmm...Crunch Berries. Just because I like a hot pink candy stick doesn't make me any less of a man, does it? Perhaps this is some sort of snack food cultural barrier that needs to be addressed. I admit, I don't get the
green tea 'mousse' style Pocky, but to each his own, eh? Let's hear it for Pocky!
posted by WolfDaddy at 4:46 PM PST - 18 comments
DVD Menu Design:
The Failures of Web Design Recreated Yet Again. We've all been thinking it.
Very Nielsen-esque, for obvious reasons, but without a lot of what we hate Nielsen himself for.
posted by Su at 4:28 PM PST - 18 comments
I Am a Racially Profiling Doctor
"In practicing medicine, I am not colorblind. I always take note of my patient's race. So do many of my colleagues. We do it because certain diseases and treatment responses cluster by ethnicity." (NYTimes link)
posted by Irontom at 11:10 AM PST - 30 comments
Pro-life protester wins settlement.
Background: As Ann Norton, 57, and friend Diane Roberts picketed an abortion clinic, a passerby who disapproved of Norton's sign tore it from its backing, leading Roberts to telephone police. One officer was dispatched to the clinic to file a report, but several days later, the center said, Norton and Roberts were informed by police they were being charged with a violation of state law for displaying the graphic sign. Michigan statutes prohibit the public display of pictures of murder.
posted by aaronshaf at 11:06 AM PST - 21 comments
Small free speech zones
on public college campuses seem incongruous. A more-carrot, less-stick solution might be a free speech zone that was indoors, with seating, like part of
this was. Maybe then, fewer people would want to demonstrate elsewhere. This would probably ony work if people regularly came to listen and debate.
posted by engelr at 10:27 AM PST - 9 comments
16thandmission: Urban Data Stories
is "an investigation into the interplay of data, interactivity and narrative in an urban environment. It takes as its focus the corner of 16th and Mission Streets in San Francisco.... Depending on the state of the bus system at any given moment, the narratives interrelate to a variety of degrees with the map framework." [For you non-san-franciscans, 16th and Mission is a well-known intersection -
lively,
multicultural, gritty]
posted by vacapinta at 10:19 AM PST - 9 comments
Expos declare independence from MLB.
"The grim, bleached-blonde visage of Richie Sexson will serve as a warning to all opponents who attempt to subvert the revolution or phone the bullpen," said Expos second baseman/People’s Minister of Security Jose Vidro.
Few humor sites on the web are truly funny, but The Spitter has a high batting average.
posted by Holden at 9:25 AM PST - 3 comments
ANDDOVUS Nations Authorize ÒRegime ChangeÓ for USA
BUENOS AIRES -- The Association of Nations Destroyed, Destabilized or Otherwise Violated by Uncle Sam, or ANDDOVUS, has authorized the ouster of the current U.S. administration by no later than March 2003. Foreign ministers of the 123 nations that make up ANDDOVUS met earlier this week in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they agreed to appropriate $42.8 billion for what they termed Òregime change in the United States.Ó
posted by mapalm at 9:24 AM PST - 11 comments
Jazzercise Eats Its Words after being accused of weight bias. MeFites may recall the
heated discussion this story originally garnered (and the associated
firestorm in Metatalk) when Jazzercise refused to hire an instructor that did not meet their "fit appearance" criteria. They have since changed their policy
"based upon the information and research that perhaps it's possible for people of varying weights to be fit." The barred instructor has gone on to start her own successful aerobics franchise based on her "fitness-at-any-size" philosophy.
posted by johnnyace at 5:48 AM PST - 46 comments
Koleen Brooks,
in getting elected mayor of Georgetown, CO, was hardly the first to successfully transition from the stage to politics. But what makes her story unlike the high-profile successes of Ronald Reagan (and perhaps more akin to the that of Gov. Ventura both in notoriety and for their "independent" political affiliation) is that her
stage had a metal pole and
lots of nudity (NSFW). In a
recent interview, Koleen Brooks discusses her political forays cut short for now by a recall election last month.
There is certainly nothing new about controversial celebrity characters being elected to office, especially local office, and as the mayor of Inglis, FL has demonstrated with her
anti-Satan proclamation, it is easy to obtain national notoriety while remaining well within the bounds of "traditional conservative values". Nevertheless, might Brooks's successful candidacy be the beginning of a more significant trend within American politics as the sons and daughters of the Sexual Revolution bring their sexual dilettantism into the dominant elderly voting bloc?
posted by tiny pea at 12:58 AM PST - 9 comments
May 7
Just a defacto "Nope".
"Refugees" from the US seeking asylum in Canada will no longer have any hoops to jump through. The hoops are to be replaced by impenatrable legal barriers, otherwise known as "inking the deal".
posted by crasspastor at 10:02 PM PST - 6 comments
Pipe-bomb suspect sent campus paper a suicidal manifesto
The Badger Herald received a letter from pipe bomb suspect Luke John Helder postmarked Omaha, Nebraska, Friday, May 3, 2002. In the letter, signed by Helder, he said he is willing to die for his cause and threatened the lives of others.
"I will die/change in the end for this, but that's ok, hahaha paradise awaits!" the letter said. "I'm dismissing a few individuals from reality, to change all of you for the better, surely you can understand my logic."
posted by sacre_bleu at 5:15 PM PST - 27 comments
No plans, no graduation.
An LA County school district is forcing students to reveal their post-high school plans to participate in their high school graduation. If they refuse to provide evidence of further education or training (college, military, internship, etc.), they will not be allowed to participate. If I was a student, I'd sue. What do you think?
posted by MikeB at 2:59 PM PST - 44 comments
Army Radio reported that at least one person was killed and 30 injured in
an explosion in Rishon Letzion, either at a banquetting hall or a disco, on Sakharov Street in the town's new industrial zone.
Initial reports stated that the explosion occurred at around 11:00 P.M., and emergency service were on the way to the scene moments later. Peace? Yeah right...
posted by martz at 1:49 PM PST - 44 comments
Must people who work in book shops have an English Literature degree?
"At Foyles, the book-lover's bookshop, I approach the counter with a copy of James Joyce's Ulysses. "I bought this book the other day," I say, "and I want my money back. It's full of typing errors and there's no punctuation." But who dumbed down first, the readership or the book trade? Also, I notice Books
etc isn't included, perhaps because the clerks in that chain have to write little reviews of all the books they read, which are then put on the edges of the shelves ...
posted by feelinglistless at 1:39 PM PST - 39 comments
The Magnifier. What a great way to present visual detail and overview at the same time. Why can't Mapquest do this?
posted by luser at 11:42 AM PST - 16 comments
And you thought the middle east was bad...
Here in our own country theres three relatively unknown warring factions using incest, group sex, mutilation and serial killings as guerilla tactics. When will Washington step in and draw the line? When will the madness stop?
posted by atom128 at 11:14 AM PST - 11 comments
Fun with Google: The FBI
released the name of the suspected midwest pipe bomber today: Luke Helder, Rochester, Minnesota. The Internet tells us Luke has a
rock and roll band too. The band's CD is titled, interestingly enough, "Sacks of People."
posted by werty at 9:38 AM PST - 51 comments
Louisiana State University is suing one of their own law students.
The schools is suing over Douglas Dorhauer's (a second year law students) use of the domain
lsulaw.com (
cease and desist letter and
formal law suit ) . The school is claiming violation of federal and state laws that protect their intellectual property, among other things. They are especially displeased with the unauthorized use of "LSU" (which is owned by the university) in the domain. The school feels that people could become confused over who actually runs the site (despite a disclaimer and the fact that it is a .com and not. edu) and the site could lead to misinformation for students. They seem to have a very shaky case, and he seems to have a fairly strong
defense . Legal experts are siding with the student:
They do seem to be focusing their complaint incorrectly on commercial uses. He's not offering any services whatsoever." (Marjorie R. Esman, the chairwoman of the New Orleans Bar Association's intellectual property committee.) Won't it be fairly embarrassing for the school if they loose this case. (nytimes article via
nextdraft)
posted by m@L at 9:25 AM PST - 8 comments
I think he liked the new Spider Man movie.
Not only includes many arguments for why the movie is great, but goes so far as to say that Art is "culturally irrelevant," has been replaced by movies as the most successful reflection of our times, and that this movie will stand not merely as the best film of 2002, but might well be studied in the future as the creative work most symbolic of America in these troubled modern times. Wow. Now THAT's a good flick!
posted by conquistador at 8:01 AM PST - 43 comments
Congress Woman requests Flash game removal
on NewGrounds.com. The game is not being removed for its violent content, or depection of blood and gore. Instead it is the subject matter of the game that has raised the spectre of censorship.
The game in question,
Kaboom!, is about suicide bombers, the object being to blow up as many people as possible.
Do you think that a game about a Palestinian captured by the Israeli army to act as a human shield would warrant the same type fo request?
posted by DragonBoy at 7:43 AM PST - 34 comments
May 6
The
mind-body divide in medicine, whether having medicine embrace the understanding of the psychological aspects of symptoms of pain, for example, is simply a matter of working toward medicalizing psychology. How much is the brain and psychology taken into account in the medical profession?
posted by semmi at 10:56 PM PST - 8 comments
Wal-Mart sells Windows-less PC's
Did you know this? I didn't know this. Guess I'm gonna have to make Wal-Mart my one stop shop for guns AND computers. I guess I have to stop making fun of people who shop there. Definitely will have to lay off the redneck jokes. Is there such a thing as a redneck geek? Oh, wait,
never mind.
posted by WolfDaddy at 7:00 PM PST - 19 comments
Mailbox bomb found in Colorado:
" 'Initial description of the device indicates that its construction is consistent with those found recently in Nebraska and Iowa,' said a press release from the Denver Federal Bureau of Investigation." The boxbomber (that's what I named this person) is most likely heading out west... could the next one strike in California? Where do
you think the boxbomber will strike next?
posted by Kevin Sanders at 6:07 PM PST - 32 comments
Beyond the Axis of Evil
- The United States has added Cuba, Libya and Syria to its "axis of evil" - nations it claims are deliberately seeking to obtain chemical or biological weapons. The Under Secretary of State also warned that the US would take action.
posted by Stuart_R at 5:52 PM PST - 53 comments
Can gay sex succeed where Colin Powell failed?
Great story about Jerusalem's first gay pride parade, planned for June 7. Orthodox deputy mayor Shmuel Shkedi is incensed: "The very existence of these people is a provocation, their existence is uncivilized...This thing must be condemned." Meanwhile, the organization behind the march,
Jerusalem Open House, continues to host meetings of Israeli and Palestinian gays and lesbians on the same street where suicide bombers killed 11 and injured 188 last Dec. And here's a report of Arik Sharon telling g/l leaders,
"I think everybody should live their lives as they choose to" at a Feb. 26 meeting -- the first-ever between an Israeli Prime Minister and representatives of the lesbian/gay/bi/transgender community. Commence group hugging now.
(more links inside)
posted by mediareport at 5:24 PM PST - 25 comments
The New Porn?
The trend toward music subculture-specific porn sites that began with the launch of
raverporn.net more than two years ago has continued with sites like
suicidegirls.com (featuring goth, punk, and raver girls) and
supercult.com (featuring mod and indie rock chicks). SuicideGirls has been
discussed extensively on MetaTalk. What do you think about these sites? Are they porn or erotica? Are the young (mostly male) entrepreneurs who have started these sites making porn less degrading (and/or more appealing) to women OR are they just a new generation of Hugh Hefners?
posted by popvulture at 4:29 PM PST - 44 comments
Operation Snipe: To rescue 76 US hostages?
"Joined by the US and Canadian troops, more than 2000 British-led Special Commando forces under "Operation Snipe" are gearing up efforts to launch a major attack to rescue around 76 soldiers who were arrested by the Taliban and Al Qaida forces during the battle in the snow covered Arma Peaks of Paktia Province in March this year, highly credible sources have confided to PNS."
posted by crasspastor at 4:21 PM PST - 5 comments
Tales of the Tyrant
is one of the best magazine articles I have read all year. A long, fascinating portrait of Saddam Hussein by the author of
Black Hawk Down that has so many interesting/weird/awful details that it's too hard to excerpt just one.
posted by cell divide at 3:05 PM PST - 6 comments
Delete, Baby, Delete.
I really enjoyed this short article from this month's
Atlantic Monthly about the misunderstandings of document/records destruction. Some of the events discussed are the Iranian reconstuction of documents shredded at the U.S. emabassy and printed under the title
Documents From the U.S. Espionage Den, the destruction of the
Library at Alexandria and of course the Enron/Andersen document destruction.
It got me to thinking about cached web pages and the fact that you have to make sure
Google doesn't cache your page if you don't want a permanent record there. It seems like no matter what you do on the web, odds are it's saved somewhere, wether it's google, the wayback machine or any other projects that I don't know about. If you wanted to entirely erase something you did last year on the web, what would you do?
posted by jonah at 2:50 PM PST - 20 comments
A political assassination
on the controversial right winger Pim Fortuijn is reported in The Netherlands. Reports differ about the question if he has survived.
posted by tsja at 9:34 AM PST - 31 comments
Bridget Cross, former member of
Velocity Girl and
Unrest has been
arrested with her S. African boyfriend (geocities link, probably go down) under some very sketchy cirumstances in. The case allegedly involved locals at a bar in Alaska harassing Bridget and her boyfriend due to his being black, a fight ensued, they fled, and were pulled over and arrested by cops. He is charged with intent to kill, and she has been charged with fleeing a crime scene and DWI. He is also being denied access to the South African consolute. [more inside]
posted by malphigian at 9:23 AM PST - 13 comments
This
has to be the funniest article I've seen in a long time. Those wacky Palestinians.
posted by the_0ne at 9:11 AM PST - 21 comments
Aung San Suu Kyi released.
"My release should not be looked at as a major breakthrough for democracy. For all people in Burma to enjoy basic freedom - that would be the major breakthrough," she said. I know, but it's a start.
posted by feelinglistless at 7:33 AM PST - 3 comments
Hilarious prank phone call found at Davezilla. Not only is the caller a prankster par excellence, but the callee obviously enjoys the shenanigan as much as you will. Headphones recommended if the boss is within earshot. 392K MP3.
posted by johnnyace at 3:57 AM PST - 7 comments
May 5
"Do It
is a manual of artist's instructions for you to actualize. It includes works by over 60 contemporary artists ... Once you have actualized an instruction, please send us a picture and your name, we will include it in the manual" I dont know about you, but I'm going to go get some boards and a bunch of bugs to squash right now - for Baldessari, of course.
[via
caterina]
posted by vacapinta at 10:03 PM PST - 3 comments
Potatoland takes code and images from any site and turns it into web art, if it doesn't crash your browser instead. Start with the NetFlag link and work your way down. If you only have time to check out one distraction, pick RIOT; it's an alternative web browser that builds its page and makes art by combining text, images and links from the recent pages that any RIOT user has surfed to. You can check out what's been surfed and combined recently, and add your own sites to the mix. Right this minute the combo is Wired, Fray, and ABC.
posted by iconomy at 7:03 PM PST - 11 comments
There is no far-right Vichyite renaissance
in France, no Pieds Noirs uprising, nor, really, is there any antiSemitic rampage (Le Pen is spasmodically anti-Semitic but systematically anti-immigrant; i.e., anti-Arab.), but it's a safe bet that Jean-Marie Le Pen can never peacefully become President of the French Republic. It used to be said that for evil to triumph it was necessary only for good men to do nothing; in France, historically, for evil to enter it is necessary for good men to tell other good men that nothing is the best thing a good man can do. As the French are now being reminded, it is better to muddle through with your pants around your ankles than to die lucidly with your nose in the air.
How relevent these words and events are here in the US?
posted by semmi at 1:29 PM PST - 32 comments
At large in the blogosphere
And yet another analysis of the world of blogging. Does this one, by a decent literary and cultural critic, present blogs and blogging in a better light than many earlier ones? note: NY Times free reg reqd.
posted by Postroad at 10:31 AM PST - 43 comments
May 4
TiPaint
is for Apple G4 Powerbook owners like me who have blemishes on thier baby's sleek exteriors. I dunno that the fact this product exsits is good or sad, but I know I just bought some and can't wait for it to show up. At least it's not terribly expensive.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 10:07 PM PST - 10 comments
Going to Hell?
According to the Vatican, sexually active homosexuals and divorced Catholics who remarry cannot be forgiven until they give up their sin. However, it came as good news for pedophile priests that priests implicated in the sex abuse scandal can be forgiven. Has the Church lost it's relevancy, or will it just take another 350 years for it to catch up with reality as was the case with
Copernicus?
posted by Mack Twain at 7:02 PM PST - 89 comments
All right, I'll admit it. I've never known
how to fold a fitted sheet. A quick web search on the topic brought me to
these instructions, which I tried, and failed miserably at. I need pictures! Isn't this what the WWW is for ... non-pornographic pictures? Or am I forever doomed to balling the damn things up and tossing them to the rear of my linen closest, where no unsuspecting guest will find it and discover my terrible secret? I guess I could give the things up and just go for
hospital corners.
Martha Stewart, help me!
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:58 PM PST - 19 comments
Swear down the phone
and win a prize. Not much else to say really, apart from it is puerile and the whole site is in questionable taste. It might amuse the more
FARK minded amongst us though, such as myself. Found at
b3ta.
posted by Fat Buddha at 1:32 PM PST - 2 comments
Dale Earnhardt, Inc to honor Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes
tonight at the Pontiac 400, thanks to autopsy photos circulating on the net. "We want to express our deepest sympathy to her family, friends and fans. She was a very gifted young woman who will be greatly missed. She has a huge following here at our shop." The DEI cars -- driven by Steve Park, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip -- will each carry a [black] stripe under the left headlight. In addition, over the wall pit crew members on all three teams will wear black stripes under their left eye in Saturday night's event.
posted by junkbox at 10:14 AM PST - 26 comments
Save Thousands Of Years And Preserve Graffiti Now:
Bijan Omrani playfully argues for the preservation of contemporary graffiti in Oxford's august Bodleian Library. Perhaps they're the modern equivalent of the
Lascaux cave paintings. "Kilroy was here" notwithstanding,
witty graffiti can be found on walls all around the world. Shouldn't some sort of repository be created to safeguard this undeniably pure - and unfairly overlooked - form of popular expression? I'm sorry to say I couldn't find
one single good written graffiti site on the Web. Does anyone know of one - or at least have a memorable graffito to share with the rest of us?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:52 AM PST - 25 comments
The Salem Witch Trials archive.
"The Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription project is an electronic collection of primary source materials, including court records, contemporary books, maps, images, and literary works, relating to the Salem witch trials of 1692."
posted by talos at 2:50 AM PST - 7 comments
M.U.S.C.L.E. Revisited.
I used to collect all of these pink plastic wrestling figures and now i-mockery has finished the big task of giving names and profiles to all of the original figures. 233 to be exact. Great retro memories for me on this one. Some really bizarre (ie: "
Klondular the Barnacle Muncher
"), yet extremely funny descriptions for some of these figures. There's also a
Mr. Blocky tribute in there. I always hated him though since he made one of the prongs in my ring snap off. He was just too fat.
posted by kingmissile at 12:12 AM PST - 9 comments
May 3
Prince Phillip is great with the public.
Firstly he tells British students in China that "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed.", then he suggests that Papua New Guineans are cannibals. Now he tells us that "they have eating dogs for the anorexic now".
Pure champagne comedy.
posted by helloboys at 10:32 PM PST - 19 comments
"Writer William Langewiesche, a pilot in his own right,
explains why a jet packed with 217 passengers plunged 33,000 feet into the Atlantic Ocean in the dead of night--and why it took so long for the U.S. and Egyptian governments to issue an explanation. Using
black-box transcripts and radar records, Langewiesche
meticulously reconstructs the last minutes of the so-called
suicide flight. In a feat of storytelling, he reveals the nasty
combination of politics and culture clashes that delayed the
official investigation."
posted by semmi at 10:00 PM PST - 25 comments
Free Comic Book Day
is Saturday, May 4th, both in the
United States and
around the world (even Brunei). FCBD offers a
variety of comics to help attract new readers and ride the wave of publicity from the Spider-Man movie.
Does the offer of a free comic seem likely to bring
you into a comic store? Will this have an impact on the general public's perception of comics?
posted by JDC8 at 9:54 PM PST - 15 comments
New NASA Satellite Zooms in on Tornado Swath
...the twister's swath is the bright stripe passing through the town and running eastward 6 miles (10 km) toward the Patuxent River beyond the righthand side of the image. This stripe is the result of the vegetation flattened by the storm. The flattened vegetation reflects more light than untouched vegetation.
posted by quonsar at 7:02 PM PST - 9 comments
Call for permanent Jenin presence
The disbanded United Nations fact-finding mission to Jenin has written to Secretary General Kofi Annan calling for a constant international presence in Palestinian refugee camps.
Alas, it was the UN that ran the refugee camp that was known as the bomb factory and home of the suicide bombers. Wouldn't an armed forcez be more effective?
posted by Postroad at 6:25 PM PST - 23 comments
What's Better?
GTA3 or Horse crap? Communism or Mount Rushmore?
It's like Hot or Not... But, ummm... Not...
My choice for a Friday time-waster... Enjoy!
posted by davros42 at 5:27 PM PST - 8 comments
Mailbox bomber at large.
"More than a half-dozen pipe bombs were placed in rural mailboxes in Illinois and Iowa on Friday, and at least two people were injured in explosions, the post office said." Part of the note that accompanied the bomb said "PS. More info. will be delivered to various locations around the country." If you live in the midwest, be careful.
posted by Kevin Sanders at 4:25 PM PST - 19 comments
Maestro Virtuoso
Sir Andre Previn, George Solti, Arturo Toscanini, Giuseppe Verdi. "Conductors have the liveliest, longest and most rewarding sex lives of any human organism....Toscanini loved to give as much pleasure as he took, and he lasted long and well into a lascivious old age. For the supreme maestro, sex was not so much a reward as a repayment." Even Verdi was reputed to give "a certain kind of kiss that, somehow, bestowed the benediction of genius on his indulgence." Maybe its that constant exposure to
heavenly music, heavy doses of
Mendelhsson instead of
Sildenafil Nitrate Tablets.
posted by Voyageman at 1:35 PM PST - 8 comments
"Before There Was Terrorism
...there was land confiscation...settlements...occupation...checkpoints..."[and retreating a little further in time, the Holocaust, repeated
pogroms, the Diaspora, etc.] "In late March, responding to the Seder massacre - a suicide bombing that killed 27 Israelis gathered for a Passover meal - President Bush said that 'justice and cruelty have always been at war, and God is not neutral between them.' He had used this same phrase in his speech to Congress after September 11....Bush believes justice lies entirely with Israel, cruelty with the Palestinians, and that God is therefore on Israel's side. Interestingly enough, Elie Wiesel wrote in his novella Dawn that God is a terrorist. Dawn is Wiesel's story, said to be at least partially autobiographical, about a young man who fights against British control of Palestine in the 1940s by joining the Irgun, Israel's pre-state terrorist organization led by Menachem Begin. Wiesel calls the organization a terrorist organization, without embarrassment, throughout the novella, and about midway through, by way of justifying his hero's actions, he declares that 'God is a member of the Resistance movement, a terrorist.'"
Huh?
God? Has Ashcroft been notified of this? It gets so damned
confusing these days to pick out the
terrorists.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 10:34 AM PST - 16 comments
Nethack for the rest of us.
Ok, all you Nethack purists... sit on your hands for this one. Finally someone has come out with a graphical interface for the venerable ASCII game. Isometric, "Diablo" style -- Maybe it lacks some of the charm and character of the text version. At least I can see what the damn boulder and bear trap looks like. Windows/DirectX only.
posted by crunchland at 10:15 AM PST - 13 comments
"Women Empowering Women".
This
pyramid scheme is spreading like wildfire in the UK, with huge amounts of money involved. Basically you get a lot of people to put up say £100. The more people you attract to add money to the pyramid, the better chance you have of moving up and becoming entitled to many times your initial outlay. However, no investment occurs; this is simple cashflow juggling. Someone I work with gained £12000 on it in under a month - now everyone wants in the act. But (and I've pleaded with these people) the participants don't seem to appreciate the sheer idiocy of such schemes. Their attitude is "
my husband goes to the betting shop, it's just my bit of fun". In the end, if you gain money, you're taking it
directly from another participant. This is exploitation of people (normally hard-up, heavily mortgaged parents, it seems), is
morally wrong and should be illegal -
but it isn't in the UK. Here's
a link to a BBC feature on pyramid schemes (aka trading schemes). This
really boils my piss, but it carries on because individual participants can benefit from the fraud themselves. I understand women are targeted in this case as men are more likely to get in fights when they realise they've lost large amounts of cash.
posted by boneybaloney at 10:08 AM PST - 18 comments
Infant kept on life support
for the sake of the father. Moises Ibarra is being held in jail on child abuse charges and if his 7 month old son is taken off LF, Ibarra will be charged with murder (doctors say the son is basically brain dead and will not recover from his injuries). Meanwhile, the mother wants her son off LF so he can "go to heaven." (Looks like a real life soap!)
posted by Why at 9:28 AM PST - 7 comments
In the vein of bejeweled, tetris, and various other incredibly addictive games, comes
Collapse. Mmmm, Friday flash.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 9:25 AM PST - 21 comments
Treat Yo Mutha Right:
Friday Flash Goodness, just in time for Mother's day. (Warning: Features Cheetara, Mighty Mouse, a disco dancing Danger Mouse, and a rapping Mr. T. Not for the 80's Pop-Culture impared.)
posted by emptybowl at 8:58 AM PST - 14 comments
Dean Allen of
textism,
calls for a Google bomb to be dropped on
Verisign. He's out to
save Hoopla... and in the process, perhaps all the sites which have been stolen as Verisign slept. Think it will work? Will you join in the fight?
posted by silusGROK at 8:31 AM PST - 49 comments
Australia and Europe incensed over U.S. lies on free trade
Bush:
"The final provisions of the farm Bill are also consistent with America's international trade obligations, which will strengthen our ability to open foreign markets for American farm products". In other words, free trade good when we sell to you, bad when you sell to us.
posted by magullo at 6:57 AM PST - 10 comments
Smoking - A quitters diary.
Recommended reading for those wanting to quit, those who have quit and those lucky people who never started and could do with understanding the 'ordeal' of giving up.
posted by Frasermoo at 5:42 AM PST - 76 comments
State of Virginia apologises for eugenics policy.
I'm not American, so perhaps it's understandable that I'd never heard of the scale of such policies, but I'm pretty well-informed, and I'm astonished that it isn't better known-of. I guess I'm mostly posting because I'd be interested in learning how well-known and understood the issue is in the US. There's also an image archive on the subject
here.
posted by jonpollard at 3:37 AM PST - 18 comments
Adobe has won
2.8 million from Macromedia for "patent infringements." Apparently Macromedia may be forced to pull Flash MX from their product line. As an avid Flash-developer I am personally affected. Is there something that we can do about this?
posted by banished at 2:22 AM PST - 24 comments
May 2
Is Bill Clinton the next Oprah? (nytimes, reg. required)
Bill Clinton is looking into the possibility of hosting a daytime talk show. Regardless of you personal and/or political feelings towards Clinton, how do you feel about someone who was the leader of the U.S. becoming a talk show host. For those of you not in the U.S., do you think the general population in your country would view one of their leaders doing this differently than Americans will?
(LA Times story)
posted by m@L at 9:40 PM PST - 19 comments
Fly The Copter
You think it's easy flying a radio-controlled helicopter into somebody's head. My hi-score is 418. See if you can beat it.
posted by sahrens428 at 8:31 PM PST - 20 comments
Can Renee get political asylum in Canada over drug charges?
Over half of those in US federal prisons are in on drug charges, and one in five of those people are there on cannabis-related charges. In a word, this is wrong. It is time for Canada to once again act as the conscience of our neighbors to the south, as we did during the final days of slavery, providing a sanctuary at the end of the Underground Railroad; as we did in the final days of the Vietnam War, providing a haven for its conscientious objectors. Once again it is time to tell America, both firmly and with compassion, "what you are doing is wrong." To do so and to act thus, is a Canadian tradition and an obligation to the world at large.
posted by skallas at 3:55 PM PST - 21 comments
Terror Suspect Puts Court to the Test
In a virulent, 50-minute speech in open court, Moussaoui -- the man government prosecutors say was meant to be the 20th hijacker on Sept. 11 -- fired his court-appointed defense team, accusing them of working with the U.S. government to secure his execution. He also informed U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema that he plans to mount his own defense.
Funny.
posted by Niahmas at 2:12 PM PST - 6 comments
Anti-Idiotarian Coalition/United Blogging Nation?
It seems all this talk of UN bias has has some bloggers so frustrated and angry that they feel it's time to band together as a political force, and the beginnings of a movement are
taking shape. Legal actions, media attention, and even a full fledged political party are all ideas that have been bandied about. They already have a couple of legal eagles and prominent
blogging figures offering services/resources. All they need now are t-shirts.
Oh wait, they have
those too. One Nation, under Blog...
posted by mikhail at 1:49 PM PST - 15 comments
Peru goes GNU.
And I quote:
"You may have heard about this if you watch the free software news, but I just want to repeat it for anyone who hasn't. The Peruvian government has introduced legislation requiring government offices to use free software; Microsoft is unhappy; and a member of the Peruvian Congress has written a response which I highly recommend reading, in which he explains in strong terms why it's out of the question for the government of a democratic nation to use proprietary software."
posted by BGM at 11:43 AM PST - 21 comments
1,200 Brazilians bare it all in the name of art
This is part of a series of public photo sessions photographer Spencer Tunick has been doing around the world on the same theme - masses of naked bodies on open, public spaces representing, in the author's view, "a celebration of life", though some say it is more fitting of the concentration camp shoots of WWII. What's more amazing is the sheer amount of volunteers willing to be photographed, and the fact that almost all of these are men. There must be some interesting sociological observations in here...
posted by betobeto at 10:55 AM PST - 15 comments
Freeze sperm, leave the men behind.
In this article, a NASA researcher explains how a flight to the nearest star would take place within our lifetimes, but require at least a couple generations. The generation that leaves (which could be entirely female to save on weight and maximize potential for offspring) would die, and giving birth to the next crew. Taking a trip like this would increase our knowledge of space many-fold, but would you be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for mankind? Is a trip like this a bad idea?
posted by mathowie at 9:18 AM PST - 52 comments
BlindDateBlog
started it's run yesterday. Ten men and ten women battle it out to be the finalists in the male/female (not-so-)blind date. Can you pic out the MeFites? Can you pic the winners?
posted by silusGROK at 7:58 AM PST - 23 comments
Chicken or Egg?
Well .... neither, apparently.
"One little chap thought that you got orange juice from milk, because the milkman delivered orange juice to his door ".
Anyone else have amusingly misguided, yet (slightly) logical assumptions as a kid?.
posted by MintSauce at 7:56 AM PST - 107 comments
Just fun here.
Pick your favorite Arcade game and comment on why it is your favorite.
Just a little distraction from all the doom and gloom.
Mine is Robotron, so much so that a few years ago I actually bought one. It was first released in 1982 and it claimed many quarters from me.
Very exciting game that really tested your hand/eye coordination.
So, let's hear it for your favorite blast from the past
posted by a3matrix at 7:53 AM PST - 45 comments
There is no news today
The Israelis are the masters of changing the subject, and they have managed (not entirely without his own enthusiastic participation) to turn Arafat into the issue, rather than the occupation and all its machinery of oppression, dispossession, starvation and destruction.
The Arab-American writer and activist, Ali Abunimah, is frustrated and disheartened...but not hopeless. Abunimah's intelligent and reasoned writing gives a solid context to the past few days' events, from the cancellation of the Jenin fact-finding mission by a seemingly duplicitious Kofi Annan, to the distraction of Yasser Arafat's release.
posted by mapalm at 7:27 AM PST - 20 comments
Is the Massaoui trial undermining the U.S. judicial system?
"[W]hen an alleged terrorist and self-professed enemy of the state seeks to use a trial to broadcast his message, incite his confederates, and to possibly pass coded messages to America's enemies, the assumption that a free, open trial is best for this democracy is called into question." How far must we Americans go to ensure that (even self-professed) enemies of the state enjoy the same freedoms as the rest of us?
posted by mkultra at 6:49 AM PST - 13 comments
"Computer technology was supposed to replace paper. But that hasn't happened. Every country in the Western world uses more paper today, on a per-capita basis, than it did ten years ago... This is generally taken as evidence of how hard it is to eradicate old, wasteful habits and of how stubbornly resistant we are to the efficiencies offered by computerization. A number of cognitive psychologists and ergonomics experts, however, don't agree. Paper has persisted, they argue, for very good reasons: when it comes to performing certain kinds of cognitive tasks, paper has many advantages over computers." Malcolm Gladwell, author of
The Tipping Point, on
The Social Life of Paper.
posted by tranquileye at 5:18 AM PST - 14 comments
The
Try Group's site uses a simple Flash "game" to deliver their central idea: that children should be encouraged to look at the world in different ways. There's a little
more info at the developer's site.
Neat concept, and also just fun to poke around in for a little while.
posted by Su at 5:16 AM PST - 6 comments
Missing since January 2001, and no one knew it?
In January 2001, Rilya Wilson was handed over to people who claimed to work for the Florida Department of Children and Families. Department officials say that they do not have custody of the child. In fact, they don't know where she is, or who has her. The child's caseworker's been fired for falsifying documents in another case, and had been slacking in this one. Rilya's grandmother's attempts at following up were apparently stonewalled. No one knows where little Rilya is, but there are some suspicions that she may be the child known as "Precious Doe," a little girl found murdered in Kansas City. How does something like this happen? More importantly, what could be an appropriate consequence for Florida DCF authorities who
lost a five year old child and didn't seem to care?
posted by Dreama at 4:53 AM PST - 12 comments
Robot Rats!Excellent, now i can take over the WORLD!!
Please add, Predator like optics and Universal Soilder healing abilities - I expect to see them on
thinkGeek by the end of the month, thank you.
Although a little cruel, scientist have managed to put implants in rats brains, effectivley given them god like controls of the little vermin.
posted by monkeyJuice at 2:37 AM PST - 16 comments
Newspapers: Where Would Breakfast Be Without Them?
Yeah, online is fine for dipping, checking and scanning but nothing goes with properly brewed coffee like the aroma of fresh print on paper, preferably piled high in thick broadsheet-size stacks. The Wall Street Journal's
Tunku Varadajaran makes the case for us newspaper junkies. What's
your daily fix?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:20 AM PST - 30 comments
May 1
when memes colide
domokun + developers = domopers. even when it's the fuzzy happiness of domokun there's something about balmers raving that makes me have nightmares. on the plus side it's done quite well... so it's got that going for it.
posted by boogah at 3:59 PM PST - 15 comments
Introducing ... Ratbot!
Leave it to the good folks at SUNY to come up with a remote-controlled rat. Best of all: "If the rat correctly followed the cue and turned left, its reward-centre was stimulated, filling the rat with a feeling of well-being."
posted by risenc at 2:16 PM PST - 8 comments
"This Index of Logical Fallacies
looks like it should be required reading for anyone who wants to participate in online discussions. (Hello, Metafilterians? I'm looking in your direction...)"
This from someone named
Meg Hourihan. . .I found the link useful (very) while finding the linker very condescending, in this case. I guess we can consider ourselves slapped, huh?
posted by Danf at 2:15 PM PST - 63 comments
Is Aung San Suu Kyi going to be released?
Speculation's mounting that the military government of Myanmar is going to end opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's 18-month house arrest, after a U.N. envoy's trip to the country. Think that'll help, or even happen? (Suu Kyi's a bit of a cause celebre at the moment -- Bono's had her face on a t-shirt and he wrote "Walk On" about her, so you know something's going on...)
posted by logovisual at 1:15 PM PST - 6 comments
Oh
yes! It's that month of the year again;
read about it, do the
quiz, talk and think about it at various
events, earn some
money for a cause. Or
join in: the fun should be well underway in about 7 hours. (All links NSFW. I wonder why. Do you wonder why?)
posted by disso at 12:40 PM PST - 21 comments
Milton would be proud!
Swingline has finally seen the light and is making candy apple red staplers as is seen in Office Space. People on ebay have been making a mint repainting other colors to be the desired red color for a couple years, Swingline decided that nothing is like the real thing and has started prodcution of this color, via only the website I think. We got ours today in the mail I'm so giddy I think I'm gonna pass out.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 12:19 PM PST - 18 comments
Jenin 'massacre' reduced to death toll of 56.
Propoganda over, it's now official. I guess people will always believe what they want, but this comes straight from the Palestinian Authority.
I'm curious to know if this makes anyone in here feel the slightest bit regretful for jumping to conclusions (since we all know what happens when one assumes...).
posted by crustbuster at 11:59 AM PST - 56 comments
There is bad taste and then there is
really bad taste. I'm not sure how the scoring works, but I think my high score is as follows: dead: 2 men, 3 women, 0 child - injured: 2 men, 1 woman, 1 child.
posted by johnnydark at 10:25 AM PST - 39 comments
Google to Power AOL Search.
America Online and Google today announced a multi-year agreement that will make Google's popular search technology and targeted paid listings available on America Online brands. Google's paid listings will begin rolling out on the AOL service and AOL.COM immediately; they will launch on Netscape and CompuServe in the next several weeks.
posted by ncurley at 9:36 AM PST - 6 comments
Girls forced by principal to show underwear at school dance
What in the blazes is going on in schools these days that allows idiots like this to be administrators? First strip searching primary school kids, now forcing young ladies to lift their skirts and pull down their blouses to prove that they are wearing "appropriate underwear"? If only we were still allowed to
keelhaul people.
posted by dejah420 at 9:26 AM PST - 41 comments
Bowling for Columbine
"The concept is that violence is just another all-American sport," says the source. "In a bizarre way, it sort of lets the shooters off the hook, saying that they’re just part of a culture of violence."
posted by gazingus at 9:03 AM PST - 6 comments
At Si Tanka Huron University, a school of 400 in South Dakota, as many as 50 people may have been exposed to HIV by having sex with an HIV-positive basketball player or two of the women he slept with, according to today's
New York Times.
posted by rcade at 8:51 AM PST - 22 comments
Tonight, when the grill is blackened with meat particles,"
he said, "I will literally clean it with the marinated onions so that all the flavor from the grill goes into them. That allows me to start the next morning. It's like baking sourdough. You have to save some to start the next batch."
Do you have a sandwich obsession?
posted by preguicoso at 8:36 AM PST - 73 comments
File this under "Karaoke Gone Horribly Wrong"
(ASF File) Maybe we all look like this after a couple drinks and a microphone in front of us. Wait, no. I'm pretty sure we don't. (Nothing sexual or anything, so work appropriate, but you'll get some stares, especially if your volume is up high.) I think the girl on the right should start touring with
Andrew W. K.
posted by gramcracker at 7:16 AM PST - 11 comments
(.) (.)
The United Nations: Non partisan independant arbiter of international matters or hyper-politicized arena? You make the call
posted by BentPenguin at 6:34 AM PST - 20 comments
This new trading card game
takes an ironic look a a bunch of "Bad Ideas" from the dot-com boom and bust. The object is to remain in business as long as possible by raising money from VC's and forcing your opponents to spend resources on developing bad ideas... You can't actually generate any revenue, of course :-)
posted by sib at 12:47 AM PST - 7 comments
