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June 2002 Archives
June 30
Textbook Publishers Learn to Avoid Messing With Texas. "Out of Many," the work of four respected historians, is one of the biggest sellers among American history college textbooks in the United States, but it is not likely to be available to Texas high school students taking advanced placement history. Conservative groups in Texas objected to two paragraphs in the nearly 1,000-page text that explained that prostitution was rampant in cattle towns during the late 19th century, before the West was fully settled.
posted by ncurley at 2:54 PM PST - 24 comments
Doubling The Annoyance Factor: The Instantly Recyclable Column. Spot the differences between Taki's
High Life column in this week's
Spectator and his
Le Maitre column in this week's
New York Press. Obviously, all columnists recycle their stuff, specially when they've been on the job for more than 25 years like this guy, but there's generally a time-lag and a modest attempt at hiding the self-plagiarism. No such bloody luck with Taki.[
To my mind, the most objectionable, reactionary, trumpet-blowing, futile, deeply annoying (but, alas, not unreadable...)columnist in the English-speaking world.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:09 PM PST - 16 comments
Chillies. Everything you never wanted to know about the fiery stuff can be found here. Apparently they provide a natural high.
posted by Fat Buddha at 10:18 AM PST - 14 comments
Pork chop shoes results in a lawsuit in Australia. A man who slipped on a grease trail left by pork chop shoes in a pub is awarded £23,000. I guess Nike better think twice before they release their filet mignon basketball shoes. What would be their marketing campaign?
posted by percine at 4:03 AM PST - 8 comments
"
Babe Ruth and I were teammates on the Yankees—and lovers, too. It was no big deal back then. After Sunday games were over, lots of players and writers would come by our little flat in the Morrisania section of the Bronx for one of Babe's famous bean dinners. I also remember the evening when Babe, wearing his familiar pink housecoat, turned out a nice catfish stew for Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Everyone in baseball knew how it was with me and Babe. After the company had gone home and we'd done the dishes, he would lie in my arms and I'd whisper, 'You are my bambino.'"
posted by semmi at 12:06 AM PST - 9 comments
June 29
The Apple rumor mill is buzzing... Tonight marks the expiration for many of their recent
promos
and rebates. The
Apple Store has been closed for a few hours now for "updating." Is a new "insanely great" product about to be unleashed unto the Mac faithful ... or is it just wishful thinking?
posted by Fofer at 11:32 PM PST - 14 comments
are'nt we? i'm no fan of many of the green parties tactical decisions (not tossing the green party votes to the greenest presidential candidate in history for example...) - a very effective ad, never the less - particularly cogent as temperatures reach a sweltering 90 + degrees in northern minnesota today...
quicktime required via newstoday
posted by specialk420 at 11:16 PM PST - 13 comments
How creepy is this? Man poses as sportswriter for USAToday and/or SI For Kids who wants to interview female collegiate athletes.
Some he only gets as far as the phone, one met up with him with her family acting as Scooby Gang.
Police say he hasn't done anything to merit charges. Harmless person with mental disorder or person perfecting routine before he escalates?
posted by sillygit at 10:28 PM PST - 3 comments
Schools conspire against boys: educator I really don't know what to make of this. Nobody complained that schools were "anti-boy" before girls started to do better and outpace male enrollment in college. Boys were always the ones getting in trouble when I was a student too.
posted by Salmonberry at 11:04 AM PST - 47 comments
Sweet! The Flaming Lips' new album,
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, comes out in mid-July. But you can listen to it in its entirety right now. Battling robot goodness.
posted by RakDaddy at 10:22 AM PST - 28 comments
Political "Greatness" (?) [nyt reg req] An attempt to measure political leadership with the "cool objectivity of science", reflecting a leader's "impact on the world, not his personal virtue". Dr. Arnold M. Ludwig, emeritus professor of psychiatry at the University of Kentucky says: "No American president can be regarded as great unless they've been involved in war and been responsible for the death of many." Serious BS.
posted by Voyageman at 10:16 AM PST - 9 comments
"Corporate sleaze carves into our trust," says Dan Gilmore of the San Jose Mercury News. Sheer greed, not CIA meddling, may indeed be the motive.
NameBase investigates the social networks of these perps in
Lies, Damned Lies, and Enron. "It appears that unlike the BCCI scandal, there are no major spook connections with Enron. What we have here, apparently, is an assortment of talented wheelin', dealin', cheatin' Texas oil cowboys. "
posted by sheauga at 8:35 AM PST - 4 comments
Ronaldo experienced a seizure on the day of the WC98 final. This is a good background article on the events of July 12th, 1998 in Paris, where Ronaldo was foaming at the mouth and shaking uncontrollably just hours before game time. Also note the various conspiracy theories; from Nike forcing Ronaldo to play, to organizers bribing the Brazilians to lose the game.
posted by ( .)(. ) at 7:46 AM PST - 4 comments
Want to see my content? It'll cost you your anonymity. Mandatory registration is making the rounds at major online news sites, as media companies try to peel away the Internet's cloak of anonymity and build closer relationships with their customers. But it's a tricky dance, and one that risks alienating news junkies when they bump into registration walls as they surf from site to site.
Registration also throws up roadblocks for weblogs, community news sites, discussion boards and e-mail newsletters that point to news articles. posted by srboisvert at 5:25 AM PST - 24 comments
June 28
A fan adding bass tracks to the
White Stripes album '
White Blood Cells' (a fantastic album), and apparently supported by the duo. For those who haven't yet had the pleasure of hearing the white stripes, they are a two piece, guitar and drums. There are other various instruments throughout the album, but no bass. What do you all think of this?
Have mercy. this is my first post.posted by folktrash at 4:27 PM PST - 24 comments
The Simpsons are indubitably America's first family, and since I'm spending my unemployed Friday afternoon looking for fun instead of looking for work, I thought I'd share. Find a favorite! "See my vest...." to "Ay, Caramba!" Have they lost their zing? Is it time to end (troll)
the best TV show of all time (/troll)?
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:55 PM PST - 39 comments
Cartoon Couture "Nathaniel wears an off the shoulder feathered wrestling tee by Brian Lichtenberg and a mod cap by Nisa, San Francisco ... " Also featuring models called Josty, Roya and Mikey ...
posted by feelinglistless at 1:41 PM PST - 4 comments
View the Wall. Recently a group of photographers took photos of every name on the Vietnam Memorial, did some magic in Quicktime VR, and now you can search the entire wall virtually. Nothing is as good as actually being there, but this is a close second.
posted by jragon at 9:50 AM PST - 13 comments
"Substantial Doubt" over Salon's Survival (NYT Reg. Req'd) And this from its auditors. Hey, these days, if even your auditors can't cover over your poor financial situation, you know you're screwed. Seriously, though, this and a number of other articles point to the end of the Web's erstwhile leading "independent" publication, still ticking but on the decline for the past year. It should be gone by summer's end, they say. Via
The Morning News.
posted by risenc at 9:38 AM PST - 14 comments
Hitting the trifecta. A tasteless joke and a morbid lie from the only person to actually benefit from Sep. 11. Is political advantage really worth this kind of crass lying? A toast to the restoration of honor and dignity to the White House and our appreciation that the "adults" are now in charge! I'm off to buy the new Ann Thrax book to bolster my right wing
indoctrination re-education.
posted by nofundy at 8:46 AM PST - 65 comments
Create your own Monopoly Game Surely the perfect customised gift? You can change the name of the game, the theme, the name of the properties/stations, and also the rules.
Apparently it uses a 'What You See Is What You Get Realtime Interface', which allows users to personalise the game completely to their requirements, and then print out and proof the new design. What I find most interesting about this product offering is that the whole process is completely automated. Once you've designed and ordered your customised game, it goes straight to print/production, and is then sent out to you. No human intervention is required. This appears to me to be pretty ground breaking stuff (well in the Toy World anyway), or am I just way behind the times? (via the
Ecademy discussion list)
posted by RobertLoch at 6:20 AM PST - 28 comments
June 27
A great music editor passes on. Timothy White, editor-in-chief of
Billboard Magazine, died suddenly of a heart attack today. He was a fixture of music journalism. He and his bow-tie will be missed.
posted by aeiou at 9:09 PM PST - 4 comments
The
Yes Men, impersonators who have
dissolved the WTO, among other stunts, released
YesIWill! last year in response to the WTO's attempt to shut down the gatt.org web site. I was checking in on the program today, and was disappointed to see it hadn't been updated any.
Then I found out it's because it's been renamed:
Reamweaver.
posted by Su at 7:10 PM PST - 3 comments
Fireproofing Faulted in Trade Center Collapse... Fireproofing failures -- rather the impact of the plane crashes -- probably caused the World Trade Center towers to quickly collapse, architects and engineers told a federal panel today.
"The insulation is going to turn out to be the root cause," said James G. Quintiere, a professor at University of Maryland's Fire Protection Engineering Department who analyzed the fireproofing in the two towers.
Also worth reading is NY Fire Chief Vincent Dunn's assessment, "
Why the World Trade Center Buildings Collapsed".
posted by zerolucid at 3:21 PM PST - 16 comments
"The right man for the job will be aged between 18 and 21 and will presumably need to demonstrate an abundance of energy and the ability to withstand repeated showers of saliva, the traditional punk rock crowd's sign of respect for performers."
But who is the right man?posted by oh posey at 2:26 PM PST - 5 comments
Court gives the go-ahead on random drug testing for non-athlete students. "Given the nationwide epidemic of drug use, and the evidence of increased drug use in Tecumseh schools, it was entirely reasonable for the school district to enact this particular drug testing policy," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the decision.
Drug tests which really only target marijuana use (alcohol, cocaine, opiates leave the body shortly after use) can now be randomly given to students involved in extra-curricular activities. Is this a further step in the "my anti-drug" campaign? Is debate or drama club YOUR anti-drug? By denying student drug users the privilege of participating in activities, aren't we just marginalizing them further and making the problem worse? What will it be? Drugs or getting involved?
posted by Hammerikaner at 12:18 PM PST - 58 comments
History repeats itself? Lest we forget, constitutional qualms about the Pledge helped bring down Mike Dukakis 14 years ago ... will the Democrats, in an urge to avoid the same fate, let through Bush's slate of conservative nominees? How about a new Justice if Rehnquist retires?
posted by MattD at 11:13 AM PST - 3 comments
Lawmakers blast pledge ruling... Yes I know this thread was started yesterday but at over 130 posts and given the
recent news from lawmakers stating they would push for a constitutional amendment authorising the words "under God" if the Supreme Court did not smack down the 9th circuit courts decision I felt compelled to post again on this subject. Smack me down if you like...
posted by gloege at 6:14 AM PST - 155 comments
Edison schools 'privatization with public money' scheme a failure? School districts such as San Francisco's, which saw Edison as a panacea, may end up worse off for having played the privatization game. If Edison goes under, the district (could) be faced with huge logistical challenges: re-enrolling kids, renegotiating contracts with teachers who were working at Edison schools,
maybe even dealing with the company's creditors.posted by skallas at 2:18 AM PST - 28 comments
June 26
Do you fear a
cyber-attack by Al Qaeda? Seems that several businesses and governmental system infrastructures have had higher than normal traffic routed from the middleast snooping around protected systems. Is this more political rhetoric for stronger control over electronic transmissions?
posted by nakedjon at 11:43 PM PST - 23 comments
"No national railway of a developed country has ever run a profit. They're not supposed to. The correlative economic and social benefits they throw off -- bringing commuters to taxpaying corporations daily, for one thing -- more than offset any net loss they suffer."
[via camworld]
You don't run your home's central heating, air conditioning or plumbing at a profit, so why should a country try to run its infrastructure that way, be it rail, health service, water, ...? Is it forced on us because nationalised services always seem to become fantastically inefficient and bureaucratic?
posted by southisup at 7:16 PM PST - 63 comments
Glastonbury opened its gates today for the insanely keen; the music starts on Friday. A small corner of Somerset becomes transformed into a heaving, crime ridden small city, but without the sanitation. Everywhere you turn a corporate sponsor will be in your face. A ludicrously expensive
fence has been erected to keep the riff raff out. I cant help but feel the thing has lost its identity over the years.
Michael Eavis has said, this will be the last one if there are gatecrashers, really, who would care?
Late Junction on Radio 3 commented that
another festival starts this weekend too. It seems much more in tune with the spirit of the original Glastonbury and is free. Ironically it takes place in the middle of a large city, but I bet the vibe will be much more chilled.
posted by Fat Buddha at 4:09 PM PST - 12 comments
Opportunism at its lowest. A lawsuit filed by Cantor Fitzgerald (who occupied several upper floors of the WTC and was totally devestated by 9/11) alleges that a rival firm, Garban Intercapital Management, conspired to hire away key brokers in the wake of the attack. Mmmm.... classy.
posted by mkultra at 1:12 PM PST - 6 comments
The trailer for Red Dragon is here. Remaking 1986's "Manhunter"? Cashing in on a successful franchise with bigger-name stars? I thought CSI's William Peterson did a fine job as FBI agent Will Graham, but can you go wrong with Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes and Harvey Keitel? What other movies from the last decade deserve to be given a bigger budget Hollywood recreation and decent promotion?
posted by robbie01 at 10:01 AM PST - 39 comments
As heard on NPR this morning "Every month until I die or the Internet becomes obsolete, I have set aside $400--about 12% of my gross monthly income--to help individuals meet small financial needs that they simply cannot afford on their own. "
posted by GernBlandston at 9:55 AM PST - 13 comments
Farmland for sale. $80-100 trillion. Russia's lower house of parliament on Wednesday passed a bill that would allow the sale of Russian farmland for the first time since the days of the czars, but would bar foreigners from buying it.. foreign companies could still purchase Russian land through subsidiaries that are majority Russian-owned.
posted by stbalbach at 8:12 AM PST - 3 comments
To spank, or not to spank?
Some parents -
including Presidents and Princesses - seem to believe it's one's duty to administer corporal punishment of some sort, whereas others clearly wouldn't
even as a last resort. Some, apparently, would leave it to the
Webmaster to decide how many times to raise the paddle!
If westerners are confused about child disciplinary methods, what about their kids? Or is consistency of approach more important than which side of the philosophical divide you stand on? More inside>>>
posted by dash_slot- at 4:39 AM PST - 47 comments
Dasher is a new way to input text on a Pilot or any computer without a keyboard. There's a version available for
download to try out on your desktop, using your mouse. It really is quite freaky to use. The amazing thing is, it actually appears to work. After a couple of minutes experimenting, it's almost as fast as typing for a slow typist like myself.
posted by salmacis at 4:30 AM PST - 21 comments
June 25
A few rather mundane numbers have turned into international chart toppers by being blessed as the 'official song' of the FIFA World Cup
TM or being on the '
official album' and getting airplay as the theme songs for local TV broadcasts. I think this trend started during
Italia '90. Neither I, nor FIFA can remember any official songs from Mexico '86 or Spain '82. While Anastacia's
Boom is this year's FIFA designated 'official song;' I like Tejano singer
Jennifer Peña's upbeat
Vamos al Mundial, the theme song for
Univision's World Cup broadcast. What's the theme song of your local World Cup broadcast? Is it any good?
posted by tamim at 11:58 PM PST - 11 comments
30 days to a more accessible website This series is entitled "30 days to a more accessible weblog", and it will answer two questions. The first question is "Why should I make my weblog more accessible?" If you do not have a weblog, this series is not for you. The second question is "How can I make my weblog more accessible?" If you are not convinced by the first answer, you will not be interested in the second.posted by mikewas at 9:00 PM PST - 10 comments
Non-religious Israeli settlers are financially trapped, argues a sympathetic Tel Aviv University professor. He slams
Ha'aretz Daily for constantly urging Jewish settlers to
just move out, "as if people who somehow managed to buy a cheap housing unit in a settlement could simply leave it behind and buy another house somewhere else." Seems that for a lot of settlers,
financial benefits like reduced income taxes and generous loans are more important enticements than
appeals to
biblical righteousness. Too bad the "doubly cheated" and heavily villified settlers can't get any
financial help when they decide to move back. The solution? "Jews in America and world-wide should therefore use their money to support settlers who wish to leave the occupied territories and return to Israel."
posted by mediareport at 5:59 PM PST - 11 comments
Sound to make an army flee A NEW sonic weapon being developed for the Pentagon makes use of one of the most fearsome sounds known to humans: a baby crying.
The article also talks about use for crowd control. If I were a club owner, I'd buy one so that everyone clears out expiditiously. Clear them out like cockroaches when the lights come on!
posted by Modem Ovary at 5:52 PM PST - 14 comments
Captain America - Black Man. Marvel has had its share of classics and stinkers this year - but this historical look how Captain America might have come to be sounds really smart.
posted by clango at 5:47 PM PST - 5 comments
Brazil is in some trouble. So the question must be asked, can globalization be an extension of imperialism? If so, in this case, is it? If not, how would one explain the current crisis felt in Brazil and all of Latin America?
posted by BlueTrain at 5:18 PM PST - 3 comments
Musicians are really smart. They have larger and more sensitive brains than non-musicians, and their collective IQ is much higher. They have 130% more grey matter in one area of their auditory cortexes. The question of how this explains Ozzy Osbourne nonwithstanding, I'll bet if you're really, really smart, you could be
one of the new members of Men Without Hats. Must be very knowledgeable in midi, sequences, and sampling.
posted by iconomy at 4:59 PM PST - 18 comments
Microsoft unleashes Palladium,
an intrusive doozy of a feature involving specially secure AMD/Intel computer chips and cryptology provided by Microsoft. Newsweek's head-bobbing Steven Levy, the first to get the story,
remains taciturn, failing to call into question Microsoft's
security sins of the past.
Geeks run scared while
digital rights and GPL concerns are wholly ignored by the mainstream media. Is this yet another example of a malcontent media that will never possess the balls to actually question a new feature put out by Microsoft? Even
Wired can't seem to read between the lines of a technology that "stemmed from early work by engineers to deliver digital movies that couldn't be pirated."
posted by ed at 3:58 PM PST - 16 comments
"America As It Was: A Tour Of The USA In Vintage Postcards" is a vast, amazing collection, quaintly presented by my new heroine: an Atlanta real estate agent and church volunteer called
Pat Sabin who dreams of one day visiting Chicago and whose(some would say surprising) love for
all things webby is an example to us all. Please don't be put off by the homey graphics and folksy language - it really is a rich, rich resource! [
My favourite postcard turns out to be from James Lilek's New York collection. Go figure. All I can say is God bless the meetings of unlikely minds!)]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:05 PM PST - 5 comments
The UN Atlas of the Oceans provides information on a wide range of topics relating to the world's oceans, such as geography, economic uses and environmental issues (here's a
BBC article about the atlas.)
Another nice site about the oceans is the
Blue Planet web companion to the gorgeous Discovery/BBC TV series of the same name. Sadly, the
threat to coral reefs may soon rob the oceans of some of their more spectacular biological diversity.
posted by homunculus at 11:46 AM PST - 1 comments
The Classic Typewriter Page. A gorgeous site to behold (and informative). Everything and anything you ever wanted to know about the classic typewriter. Before you ask, What's a typewriter?, check out this site.
posted by jacknose at 11:16 AM PST - 10 comments
I don't know about you, but I won't feel truly secure until the Office of Homeland Security has its own logo. The
White House is still just using the presidential seal: boring. The
Patent Office's
entry has a nice retro feel to it, but some might find it too menacing. The
USDA's is maybe a bit too subject-specific. What do you think: should we
keep it simple, or go with something a little more
strongly stated? What sort of design would make
you feel secure?
posted by ook at 8:43 AM PST - 22 comments
Auto-organic backlinking in Blogspace Jon Udell has an intriguing article describing the automatic backlinking used by Disenchanted and other sites. For example, if you link to a
Disenchanted article, it automatically links back to you. Udell writes:
More than economy is at work here, though. Offering backlinks is a strategy that furthers the ambition of every blogger to engage other minds. It does so by enlarging the surface area and altering the shape of the posted article, which is the unit of information currency in blogspace.
What a groovin' idea. I like that the backlinking is automated, essentially creating new networks of knowledge with every post. Is anyone else doing this? It seems that if this "feature" were included in existing blogging engines, it could change the shape of the net.
--------------------
Link courtesy of
Kairos Newsposted by mecran01 at 6:48 AM PST - 22 comments
Is the FBI dragging it's feet in the anthrax investigation? It appears they have reason to do so. Dr. Barbara Rosenberg presents a compelling argument that the likely homegrown terrorist is known but revealing his identity could be embarrassing to the government.
posted by nofundy at 6:22 AM PST - 26 comments
June 24
Bush's speech today revealed the basis of what the current administration believes is the roadmap to peace in the Mideast. After looking at
the major points of the plan, I feel it's about as good of a deal as the Palestinians are ever going to get and pretty much the only way out for the Israeli's also. What do you think?
posted by RevGreg at 4:00 PM PST - 58 comments
High Finance Run Amok [latimes free reg req] is a Kevin Phillips editorial on the "financialization" of the US economy. "As the financial sector, in short, became too important to fail, the Fed and the Treasury abandoned market economics to embrace socialization of credit risk. No other sector of the U.S. economy, save possibly defense, received such governmental assistance."
posted by electro at 12:47 PM PST - 13 comments
Neighborly love Baited cat traps, regular trips to the pound to get animals euthanized, erecting signs outside a 14-year-old girl's bedroom to taunt her about her missing pet, having another girl arrested at school... Wow.
posted by NortonDC at 7:47 AM PST - 150 comments
Celebrate, Windows users, you too can use the world's best MP3 player, with
the final release of
XPod
today, which gives
iPod compatiblity to
Windows.
And this is not the only option,
ephPod
does the same thing, but does require you to buy a copy of
MacOpener first.
Didn't Apple say they were coming out with their own Windows drivers for iPod
eventually?
posted by Mwongozi at 7:00 AM PST - 19 comments
Israeli backlash to Ted Turner's comments prompts CNN offer a series of pieces focusing on the toll Palestinian terror has taken.
"Ted Turner apologized, CNN's executives were quick to disassociate themselves from him and to announce he has no influence over the content of the broadcasts, and Eason Jordan, news director for the network, hurried to fly over to Israel and offer 'compensation' - a series of reports on the victims of terrorism.". Indeed, a visit to
CNN's website this morning uncovers a series of focus items reporting on Israeli casualties and victims. Is this a case of journalism caving to political and commercial interests, or is Israel effectively combating the liberal bias of Western media?
posted by astirling at 6:31 AM PST - 15 comments
Now
that's more like it.
Finally a design for rebuilding the WTC that captures the appropriate spirit. Far better than the
other designs I've seen. No doubt some will think it too much, though. What's your opinion?
posted by rushmc at 6:27 AM PST - 84 comments
June 23
At
Virus Books(mostly German, but it doesn't matter), you can download short visual summaries of books for your PalmOS portable. Even if you don't have a handheld, there are images of the results, so you can have a look, anyway.
posted by Su at 9:23 PM PST - 2 comments
When all of the good vinyl albums have been bought from the cardboard box at the local church bazaar, Nick DiFonzio buys the rest and scans the jackets. The result?
Bizarre Record Covers. And because beauty, or the apparent lack thereof, is not only jacket deep, check out this trippy
collection of 45 rpm labels from No Relevance, and this detailed
record label discography, where you can see how record companies from the 1950s thru the 1990s kept trying to update and redefine their image by redesigning their labels.
posted by iconomy at 5:14 PM PST - 10 comments
What the
anti-globalists and the
dogmatic left share above all with their newfound fellow-travellers among the Islamic fundamentalists is a loss of faith in the modern age and in Enlightenment ideas. The spirit of their protests was captured by a banner at a recent rally in Berlin: "Civilisation is genocide".
posted by semmi at 9:26 AM PST - 21 comments
June 22
Free The Mouse [Literally this time] This Story from FL says Walt Disney Co. officials have until July 30 to decide whether to challenge the Genesee District Library's mascot for an alleged similarity to Mickey Mouse.
Last summer, the library submitted a trademark registry request with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office for "Book Mouse," a blue, large-eared rodent wearing red-rimmed glasses and a backpack. Book Mouse appears on bumper stickers and in coloring books, and even marches in local parades.
Library attorney Patric Parker said "I don't think we cut into their movie profits this last year."
posted by Blake at 8:46 AM PST - 10 comments
June 21
Presenting the Hero Machine! Admit it, you've always wanted to be a superhero. Well, you can't be a superhero without first having a really
rad costume to protect
your secret civilian identity. Here's the first step on the way to becoming a shining beacon for truth and justice ... or heck, world domination. Either way, this fun little toy has kept me occupied most of this week. I just can't get the right combination of helmet and undershirt. Soon, though.
(Flash required)posted by WolfDaddy at 8:24 PM PST - 3 comments
VHS on its last legs? According to source, Circuit City is already phasing out sales of VHS tapes and players in favor of DVDs. Sure, it's an ancient format, but again, not everyone has a
TiVo (yet)...
posted by betobeto at 6:45 PM PST - 16 comments
Wal-Mart Ships PCs with Lindows Wal-Mart has stood up to MicroSoft's monopoly with its latest computer offerings, being sold
sans Windows. The retailer is selling its super cheap boxes either without an OS or with the upstart LindowsOS. I guess I'll have to start shopping at WalMart to show my support!
posted by misangela at 12:50 PM PST - 23 comments
Precrime: Now that the movie is out, and given the similarity of the movie's pretext to
our current situation, the phrase
Minority Report is rapidly becoming a cliché. But those vividly aware of the implications of current policy seem hesitant to condemn it — Spielberg himself is
"on the president's side in this instance" and Dahlia Lithwick concludes her article with the declaration that "We need a Bureau of Precrime." Are the merits of precrime more weighty than the drawbacks? Is "innocent until proven guilty" becoming an outdated concept
?posted by grrarrgh00 at 11:05 AM PST - 41 comments
Given the vitriolic mood in here the last couple days, I thought I would toss out the most unpolitically correct item I could find.
I present:
Cat Boxingposted by patrickje at 10:07 AM PST - 12 comments
College Students Speak Out, and just 14% can identify the president of Pakistan, 37% would likely try to evade the draft, and 71% "do not believe American values are superior to the values of other nations." Is your local college breeding ignorant anti-Americanists?
posted by dack at 9:28 AM PST - 45 comments
Want to know more about your favorite song? Try SongFacts: sample entry:
Song: "The Things That I Used To Do" by Guitar Slim
Date: 1953
Songfacts:
Slim claimed he was offered a song from God and a song from The Devil. He chose this one, the song from The Devil.
Covered by many guitar greats, including Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Chuck Berry. Slim's innovative playing, including the use of distortion, became widely copied.
A rare R&B song that was popular in the North and South. Most hits at the time were specific to a certain region.
Proceeds from this allowed Slim to feed his liquor habit. He died of pneumonia at 32.
Slim often played guitar with his teeth or behind his back when he performed this, theatrics that would be copied often in the years to come.
posted by lilboo at 8:27 AM PST - 15 comments
China thrown off balance as boys outnumber girls Poor young men here complain that modern women are too picky. ''Before, it was men choosing women,'' says Liu Xicheng, 21, a migrant worker who came to Beijing from nearby Hebei Province. ''Now it is women choosing men. Some have high quality standards. It is hard to marry them.'' I checked and this isn't from
the Onion.
posted by srboisvert at 8:21 AM PST - 20 comments
Arafat ready to accept Clinton's 2000 peace plan. "Clinton's plan had offered Palestinians control of most, but not all of the territory taken by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, and called for Palestinians to scale back their demand for the right of return of refugees, a move Palestinian officials said earlier this week they were willing to make."
posted by o2b at 7:57 AM PST - 22 comments
We wuz robbed. I know, it wasn't really a handball. USA loses to Germany and their amazing goalkeeper. Good run, guys.
posted by McBain at 6:25 AM PST - 30 comments
Interviews of failed suicide bombers, by Israeli defense minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. Both Ben-Eliezer and two Palestinians, who (1) failed to and (2) opted not to detonate their bombs, talk about the motivations behind the current wave of attacks. Should prove interesting no matter which side of the Isreali-Palestinian conflict you stand on.
posted by astirling at 5:15 AM PST - 24 comments
The Underground Publishing Conference . June 22-23, Bowling Green, OH, is for Zinesters, Activists, Comic Artists, Hackers, Low Power FM Broadcasters, Librarians, Web Designers, Filmmakers, Musicians, Artists, Academics,
Street Theorists, Readers and Writers. In other words, YOU! - (via
Clamor Magazine and the crew at
Counterpoise)
posted by sheauga at 4:23 AM PST - 4 comments
England blew it. Enlgand got off to a 1-0 lead before it was tied by Brazil. Even after Brazil was a man down they managed to score a goal and hold the lead for a victory. I really thought England was going to go all the way.
posted by suprfli at 1:37 AM PST - 29 comments
June 20
Do you want fries with that house? Not content with a normal McMansion, the Banner family of Potomac, Md. upgraded four years ago from a 4,500 square foot house to a 8,500 square foot house. Its six bedrooms and nine bathrooms now comfortably accomodate the house's two adults and two children. The unusually ironic NYTimes (reg req.) article does not spare us the absurdities of this arrangement, a growing trend in wealthy suburban enclaves. Interior decorators must now "supersize" furniture to fill up a cavernous "media room". Entire wings of the house sit unused for months, because the suburban rich entertain others at home no more often than their middle-class counterparts.
Suppose you had a $500k income and a completely empty 2 acre zoned lot in Potomac in which to live. What might you build there?
posted by PrinceValium at 11:33 PM PST - 52 comments
If Karl Rove is allowed to use PowerPoint, the terrorists will have won. It's amazing that this master operative is using the same cheesy graphics, poor font choices, and cliched business terms ("synergies") as your boss, but it's true--when his intern dropped a disk with this thing on it, it got into the hands of
Roll Call.
Note especially slide 21 and slide 26--apparently Florida is a "Special Concern"
Via
the NY Observer's Joe Conasonposted by lackutrol at 4:04 PM PST - 13 comments
The Library of Congress blew it. I watched some of the hearings about the CARP-proposed webcasting fees, and I had the impression that the people at the Library
got it. I was wrong. So instead of having all their limbs chopped off, webcasters can now expect only to be cut off at the knees. The end result will be the same, though; say goodbye to Internet radio.
posted by geneablogy at 2:40 PM PST - 30 comments
but does it have vibrate? A prototype tooth implant which picks up digital signals from radios and mobile phones goes on show at the Science Museum in London this week.
posted by moth at 2:34 PM PST - 14 comments
Newsguru is an "experiment in randomized photojournalism." Unfortunately, it doesn't have the bombardment value that
My Left Asscheek(hee!) did, which strangely enough, they bought. Or,
maybe, it just made for a great "press release" title.
posted by Su at 2:11 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
And The Winner Is.... Hurray! I can finally sleep at night, the new M&M color is Purple. The intro is a bit annoying, but the flash page they have to show voting stats by country is kinda nifty.
mmmmmm...purpliscious
posted by Blake at 1:54 PM PST - 25 comments
The new money will be called NexGen™ The Treasury and Federal Reserve make it official: Starting in 2003, U.S. currency will have pretty colors. But they don't say which colors! I say we MeFis oughta lift our voices high with suggestions on what colors our $100, $50, $20 and $10 bills should be.
Is anyone else creeped out that they call the money "NexGen"? It sounds so ... Orwellian.
posted by Holden at 12:40 PM PST - 102 comments
Will electronic music ever break in the US? DJs don't speak. Most don't produce their own full-length albums. When they perform, their only motions are precise hand movements and brief shuffles to record bins that are obscured from view and confined to a 5-foot square area. There are no David Lee Roth jump kicks, synchronized boy-band dances, Michael Jackson moonwalks or Janet Jackson ass-shaking.
For American consumers, this is a problem.
posted by fellorwaspushed at 11:47 AM PST - 73 comments
Gifted elementary kids in California could go straight to college. Students of any age, even kindergarten, could demand to take the state's high school proficiency examination under legislation approved recently by the Assembly.
Passage of the test -- which measures reading, writing and arithmetic skills -- would qualify young students to enter community colleges as if they had obtained their high school diplomas.
Academically, these kids may be ready for college, but are they mature enough to handle being surrounded by students six to ten years their senior?
posted by DakotaPaul at 10:58 AM PST - 42 comments
If you're vegan, this link is what you need to figure out what the hell is really in your food. If you're not vegan, you might find it interesting as well. If you're a total metavore, no, we can't eat our clones yet... bummer.
posted by jcterminal at 10:34 AM PST - 65 comments
An asteroid the size of a football field just missed the Earth last Friday. Coming in fast out of the sun, where we ain't watching, it missed us by an astro-paltry 75,000 miles (a third the distance to the Moon). If it had hit, the impact would have been about 10 megatons -- not a planet-killer, but enough to spoil your picnic.
In related news, Attorney General Ashcroft arrested a box of moon rocks and the entire staff of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA for questioning. The director of the Office of Orbital Security was at a pro-am golf tournament in Fond du Lac, WI and unavailable for a statement.
posted by anser at 9:45 AM PST - 39 comments
NPR.com is now asking that you request permission to link to content on their site. What is the rational behind this? I could see how the
dallas news was concerned with losing advertising revenu when they banned deep linking, but if I'm not mistaken, NPR is non-profit, right? What gives?
posted by Hackworth at 8:34 AM PST - 30 comments
"Soccer scolds" attack! The Weekly Standard's Jonathan Last has had it with gushing soccer writers like Slate's David Thomson ("[Soccer is] something made out of muscle, speed, grace and the soul") who see American lack of enthusiasm for the sport as a deep-seated national character flaw worthy of dire-sounding pronouncements. Is he right, or, as The San Francisco Chronicle would have it, can soccer really bring world peace?
posted by transona5 at 8:21 AM PST - 29 comments
Seems that public discontent with with the state of radio is finally being heard at some major outlets. The most telling part of the story is this:
Those most likely to turn off the radio: teen-agers, long among the medium's mainstays. Along with MTV, the radio practices mentioned in this article are the reason a lot of good music never gets heard. A listener said it best:
He longs for the free-form format of his teen years, when you could hear anything from Elvis Presley to Elvis Costello, the Supremes to the Sex Pistols. . Are you listening Clear Channel? And more important are we? I'm still of the opinion that (pending legaliteis aside) the internet will be what saves radio, but it's not quite there yet.
posted by jonmc at 8:10 AM PST - 38 comments
Disney does Bangledesh "For the last 8 years, young women at the Shah Makdhum factory in Bangladesh have been forced to work over 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, denied maternity benefits, beaten and paid just 15 cents for every $17.99 Disney shirts they sewed."
"Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney, pays himself $133 million a year, or about $63,000 and hour. It would take a worker in Bangladesh sewing Disney garments for 12 cents an hour 210 years to earn what Eisner does in an hour."
posted by headlemur at 6:54 AM PST - 55 comments
Ease of Use? IBM sends mixed message... see how complicated the instructions are to order this poster.
posted by TNLNYC at 6:01 AM PST - 15 comments
Ready To Rumba? Or
Samba? Will
England or
Brazil go through in tomorrow's crucial World Cup game? Predict at your peril. I'd love Brazil to win but, no doubt influenced by the treacherous utterances of
Pele and
Jairzinho[
see penultimate link], say England will tragically but deservedly win 2-1.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:09 AM PST - 36 comments
June 19
Remember this? Rita Wilson's thong check in April?
She was demoted, and will resume teaching students on monday... "I'm very disappointed and deeply saddened," Wilson, 47, said as she wiped away tears and hugged supporters.
Talk about a school board that's out of touch, she now gets to spend even more time with children...posted by jkaczor at 10:30 PM PST - 14 comments
Do you prefer your comics free? Joltin' John Allison is a street level bloke who thinks he is better served having more people view his work for no money than he is with readers paying for it. I'm curious how you mefi kids feel about subscription sites? (Besides our beloved porn)
posted by clango at 5:46 PM PST - 14 comments
Somewhere between Myst and an inventory. . Matt McClintock invites you to enter his home and checkout all his neat stuff. Want to see what is in his medicine cabinet?
Go ahead. What is in the drawer?
Take a look. Perfect for anyone who has ever walked down the street and wondered what the insides of their neighbors houses look like. Beautiful navigation, and oddly compelling content.
posted by thirteen at 12:53 PM PST - 16 comments
In you like f**ckedcompany... ...here's another job site with a naughty word in the title. "Job hunting daily is bad enough without having to deal with employers who want you to speak Swahili for little or no pay."
posted by sassone at 11:10 AM PST - 23 comments
“I accuse the media in the United States of treason.” - A terrorism analyst chides the U.S. media for identifying possible security vulnerabilties, to the advantage of terrorists:
"No terrorist group that I am aware of has the time and manpower to conduct this type of extensive research on a multitude of potential targets. Our news media, and certain think tankers and academicians, have done and continue to do the target vulnerability research for them."
posted by rowell at 10:55 AM PST - 35 comments
Envy of the Literary World, or another Trust-Fund Novelist? Following up on the discussion of J.T. LeRoy a few weeks ago, here's a story from the Observer about Nick McDonell, who's 18, just out of high school and about to publish a major novel (you may have read about him in the New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" section). The catch is, his dad edits SI, his publisher is his godfather, and Hunter S. Thompson, who plugs the book, is a family friend. The book's not out yet, so the quality question is moot at this point. But still ... what gives with all this ridiculously young writers these days?
posted by risenc at 10:36 AM PST - 50 comments
The King Lives! Elvis is back on top of the United Kingdom Singles chart with the remix of "A Little Less Conversation". This is Elvis' 17th UK #1 moving him past the Beatles for the most ever.
In other news, Disney's
Lilo and Stitch features an Elvis imitating alien.
All this is in advance of the 25th Anniversary of the King's Passing, which will be commemorated with an RCA album
"ELV1S 30 #1 Hits", which is to include all #30 of Elvis' hits internationally.
The King Truly Lives!
posted by wsfinkel at 10:22 AM PST - 17 comments
Stupid Movie Physics Tricks discusses bad physics in movies and even rates some movies (e.g., XP - physics not from this universe) based on their faithfulness to the laws of physics. Follow that up with
bad astronomy and finish it off with
bad science in general. (OK, so the last one is more about bad meteorology, but that sucks as a soundbite.)
posted by joaquim at 10:19 AM PST - 26 comments
Nixon's Last Secret The race is on to try to recover the missing 18 1/2 minutes of the infamous Tape 342. While it will be interesting to see what's on the tape (if it can be recovered) the big question is this: Why erase part of one tape and leave all the others intact?
posted by Irontom at 10:11 AM PST - 14 comments
Systemic problems lead to catastrophic failures. More money for the "war on terror" or more government power from the Patriot Act cannot make up for incompetence, poor policy directives and bungling. How many more of these must we see before everyone agrees that a thorough investigation leading to proper reforms is the only remedy?
posted by nofundy at 10:02 AM PST - 4 comments
Happy Juneteenth! On this date in 1865, slaves in Texas were notified that Lincoln had emancipated them two years earlier. It's a state holiday in Texas, and Juneteenth is observed in pockets of other states. Should it become a national holiday?
posted by Holden at 8:35 AM PST - 16 comments
Cloudmark SpamNet "Just like Napster allowed us to share our favorite music, Cloudmark SpamNet allows us to share the spam we receive. Individually this reported spam isn't very powerful, but the collective reports of millions of email users networked together blocks virtually all spam on the Internet."
will this put an end to spam? at least it looks like a pretty interesting solution, brought to us by the co-founder of napster, jordan ritter.
posted by HeikoH at 8:31 AM PST - 25 comments
June 18
.NET integration I use MSN messenger and am notified by it of any mail arriving in my hotmail account. I just logged in to hotmail with the intention of forwarding a few emails to my POP account for download by my mail client, and was informed that my account was suspended, and all mail, folders and addresses deleted, because I hadn't logged in to hotmail for more than 30 days. I've logged in to
messenger virtually every day, but I hadn't received any mail so why would I log in to
hotmail?
Is this a punishment for not requesting spam, or a sign that even Microsoft doesn't "get" integration?
posted by southisup at 11:37 PM PST - 25 comments
I know that
Blogathon is mentioned in the side panel, but I was interested in what MeFi'ers think of it. Did any of you participate last year? What was your experience with it? Who's in for this year?
posted by dobbs at 11:15 PM PST - 65 comments
Fortune Magazine
went roadtripping in search of the technological future by trying (and not succeeding) to blend in with college kids. After getting schooled themselves, they came up with a
list of cool web companies with lots of sex appeal, in the categories of media, communication, biotech, and international.
via Blogger.posted by iconomy at 10:13 PM PST - 6 comments
Angering Arabs for Dummies, By Ariel Sharon. "Israel will respond to acts of terror by capturing PA territory," says Sharon. How, exactly, will this stop the bombings?
Sorry for the I/P post, but this seems fairly important.posted by fnord_prefect at 6:21 PM PST - 34 comments
World Cup Conspiracy. Here's one for the X-Files. The Azurri believe they were the victims of a conspiracy to oust them from World Cup 2002.
Alessandro Del Piero broke his usual cool exterior as anger seeped through. "In ten years of my career I have never complained," said the Juventus star, "but in four games too many strange things have happened."
posted by percine at 5:52 PM PST - 19 comments
A Person Paper on Purity in Language. An old William Satire (aka Douglas Hofstadter) piece that's well worth reading. "One of the more hilarious suggestions made by the squawkers for this point of view is to abandon the natural distinction along racial lines, and to replace it with a highly unnatural one along sexual lines. One such suggestion-emanating, no doubt, from the mind of a madwhite-would have us say 'he' for male whites (and blacks) and 'she' for female whites (and blacks). Can you imagine the outrage with which sensible folk of either sex would greet this 'modest proposal'?"
posted by jacobm at 3:34 PM PST - 21 comments
So
Queer as Folk now has a comic book attached to it, sort of. It's called
Rage. It's set in
Gayopolis. Gag me with a set of pride rings. I think it's time to ask
this question again.
As much as I despise the show, I'm curious where they go with this.
posted by Su at 3:19 PM PST - 31 comments
We are all snobs "I do look down on certain selected people--preferably, it's true, from a distance and until now unbeknownst to them. Yet look down I do, usually with an uncomplicated feeling of satisfaction.....Why did I need to assert my superiority, even to myself, when no one was contesting it ?" We are all
snobs in one way or another.
posted by Voyageman at 1:52 PM PST - 15 comments
Nickelodeon is airing a special tonight on families that have same-sex parents. The concern of some is that this show: "proves that this network has been co-opted by homosexual activists who are targeting children. Sodomy is not a family value. Nickelodeon has now lost the trust of parents."
My issue with it is that it appears that they are not publicizing the fact that they are showing this to the parents to allow them to decide if their children should watch it or not... I couldn't find anything on their website, except the
listing in the schedule for "Nick News Special Edition" (MORE INSIDE)
posted by darian at 1:50 PM PST - 67 comments
It's the plot, stupid.
USA Today runs their usual insightful commentary about the upcoming release of Lilo and Stitch. It obsesses over the absence of CGI graphics pointing to
Atlantis as evidence for the failure of traditional animation to draw box office. Funny me, I thought that
Atlantis bombed because of a plot better left in 50s serial format, a cast of sterotypes rather than characters, and no sense of humor beyind dirty French jokes repeated over and over again. And is huge success of
Pixar due to their pioneering animation, or their brilliant comic talent?
What causes FX myopia anyway? Granted I can understand why fanboys obsess over the wrong things in a movie. Do the studios set it up by trying to hype each new summer release as the next big technical development (while the artistic development gets trumped by
Waking Life and
Insomnia?)
posted by KirkJobSluder at 1:31 PM PST - 7 comments
Korea 2-1 Italy. A classic World Cup in the making? First it was Senegal dumping out the French, and then the Argies and the Portuguese were left biting the dust. Spain and Ireland fought out a nail-biting penalty shoot-out, Saudi Arabia got hit for eight, and now
South Korea continue their miraculous journey by sending Italy home. Next on the cards: let's hope for another classic when England take on Brazil!
posted by arrowhead at 9:42 AM PST - 39 comments
Supreme Court OKs IRS to estimate tips. The IRS can now use estimates of employees' tips in its calculations of what businesses owe in payroll taxes (the dreaded FICA), the Supreme Court said yesterday. The estimates of cash tips -- which are nearly impossible to track directly -- can be based on recorded credit card tips. The IRS said they don't plan to audit servers themselves -- but the effect on restaurants could be chilling.
"Seven out of 10 restaurants are small businesses, many of which operate with slim margins. Quite frankly, this decision could mean the difference between a restaurant staying in business or closing its doors," said Peter Kilgore, general counsel and senior vice president of operations for the National Restaurant Association in Washington.
posted by me3dia at 9:29 AM PST - 27 comments
British papers seem to be the only place we can find out what goes on in the US these days. Probably has to do with the liberal media, wouldn't you say?
posted by nofundy at 8:44 AM PST - 36 comments
Pac-Man fever, tis driving me crazy. It was 1981 or so, I was in 6th grade. I had a mom cool enough to take me out of school for a day, give me a few rolls of quarters and send me to this local bar, where I played Pac-Man all day. I made it to the fourth intermission a few times (which was a damn repeat!), how far did you get?
posted by jeremias at 7:47 AM PST - 26 comments
Greens target Senator Wellstone. "What could possibly explain this idiocy? Natural selection? Ever since Wellstone built the most vibrant left-leaning organization in the nation, any Minnesota progressive with the intellect to tie his shoes has been a Democrat -- leaving the Greens with the sandaled, the shoeless, and the slow. This could just be some Minnesota exceptionalism.
But it's not."
posted by boltman at 7:44 AM PST - 15 comments
"Relax, this is your captain speaking." (Chicago Tribune link, use metafilter/metafilter to view) A United Airlines captain made a refreshingly honest, down to earth statement, in the cabin rather than the cockpit, at the beginning of Chicago - DC flight recently. A Chicago Trib reporter transcribed the pilot's remarks, and they seem to be just the kind of no-nonsense reassurance that the flying public could use more of right about now. Would you like to hear something like this the next time you have to fly?
posted by Dreama at 1:22 AM PST - 48 comments
June 17
Marvin Kalb on PBS about the state of the media, Middle East, Bush, etc.. "If somebody says something to you and you have a requirement to go on the air live, you are apt to say what that person just said to you before you've had a chance to check on what the person said. All of these things now create a rushed tumult, which is very noisy and which sort of goes for news today, but in my judgment, isn't news, it's noise.
posted by semmi at 11:42 PM PST - 1 comments
eu seeks closer ties to iran This approach has got to be better than calling states 'evil'. This is the same as the US keeping links with China, a less than perfect regime, and one that could be called a sponsor of terrorism.
" Mr Patten told the BBC: "It can't seriously be anybody's idea of a good way of promoting stability in the region to think that we should isolate and cut Iran off for ever."
He said there should be recognition of the strength of the reform movement and be aware that there were other elements which were far less friendly to the West.
"If you don't talk to the reasonable people, you fetch up with fewer reasonable people to talk to."
it's been over a decade since i was in Iran (1992) and the reformers/moderates ahve gained very significant ground since then. The Axis of Evil speech did tremendous harm for moderate Iranians, as it seemed to justify the hardliners stance on the west.
your thoughts.....
posted by quarsan at 10:51 PM PST - 13 comments
The Gay Right. Richard Goldstein argues (accurately, I think) that the Right has come to dominate gay and lesbian politics. Even when I don't agree with them, I've always enjoyed reading Andrew Sullivan and Norah Vincent -- but where are their progressive counterparts?
posted by MikeB at 6:19 PM PST - 21 comments
With teeny tiny xGB hard drives like the Archos line available, why do PDAs/handhelds have such small memory capacity? The gorgeous new
Sony Clie has a mere 16 MB to its name, and most PocketPCs top out around 64MB. When do you think we'll see handheld devices that really parallel the capabilities of a desktop computer?
posted by Zettai at 5:16 PM PST - 26 comments
Tired of Fantasy Baseball/Football/Basketball? Then it's time you tried
Fantasy Fugitive Recovery!
"Fantasy Fugitive Recovery (FFR) is an internet game similar to other sports. You pick a roster and are awarded points based on your players performance. In FFR, the aim of the game is to pick five escaped convicts from the master list and gain points based on if your escapees are captured."
Anyone want to start a league (ehh, prison system?) with me?
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 4:49 PM PST - 3 comments
Ever dream of owning a Bookstore? Essay Contest! $250 and 250 words could win this thriving Used Bookstore in Roseburg, Oregon. A very cool, very busy store with a customer base of well over 10,000 people. Someone is going to win and it might as well be one of us.
posted by Mack Twain at 4:09 PM PST - 18 comments
15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense From Scientific American..."Opponents of evolution want to make a place for creationism by tearing down real science, but their arguments don't hold up.
Besieged teachers and others may increasingly find themselves on the spot to defend evolution and refute creationism. The arguments that creationists use are typically specious and based on misunderstandings of (or outright lies about) evolution, but the number and diversity of the objections can put even well-informed people at a disadvantage.
To help with answering them, the following list rebuts some of the most common "scientific" arguments raised against evolution. It also directs readers to further sources for information and explains why creation science has no place in the classroom."
Creation "science?"
posted by martk at 12:57 PM PST - 89 comments
Starbuckling A writer from the NY Post calls Starbucks HQ and says a reader told them that the company's "collapse into cool" ad campaign was too close a reference to Sept. 11 (the campaign posters featured a dragonfly; perhaps the reader misconstrued it as an airplane). As a result, Starbucks pulls the ad, and just to cover its ass said it "had intended no link between the image of the beverages and the terror attacks." Is the company just making a cautious PR move, or is this going too far?
posted by risenc at 12:26 PM PST - 27 comments
In 1997, Scott Shuger created for Slate.com what would quickly become the wildly popular column "Today's Papers."
The column was innovative in its brief and snarky discussions about that day's headlines on all the major news dailies.
The differences between each paper's choice of stories covered, and the variances from paper to paper in their coverage of those same stories was illustrative in a fashion we now take for granted around here on MeFi.
Shuger died suddenly over the weekend in a scuba mishap and is remembered here
by his colleagues at slate.com.
posted by BentPenguin at 11:19 AM PST - 8 comments
A Generous Brazilian Helping Of Cartier-Bresson's Photographs: His work is so vital it's unusually monitor-friendly. This 1999 Brazilian website includes many hard-to-find photographs, interestingly divided by location(Europe, America, India). There's also a nice selection of his classic images on
Photology.com's commercial site and an avaricious but compelling set of portraits of writers
here, courtesy of a Eastman Kodak-sponsored exhibition. [
As far as I can tell, they're all copyright-cleared. Bring your old Leicas out...and despair!].
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:09 AM PST - 14 comments
"Suicide by Cop" Not a Crime?
"A gunman unleashed a furious swirl of violence on an East Village street early yesterday, shooting three people and holding patrons of a crowded wine bar hostage" - New York Times
"I wouldn't characterize this as a crime" - Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.
No? OK, Chief, what is it then?
posted by nobody_knose at 9:08 AM PST - 21 comments
Most Valuable Object in the World The Supreme Purple Star - as it is being called - is a deep purple diamond, turning to crimson when rotated in the light. Diamonds come in a
rainbow of colors and are called "
fancies" in the trade. Some are
beautiful, others
less so. This one is the only one of it's kind, and has been pronounced "priceless". The speculation, of course, is that the owner is looking to sell it.
posted by Irontom at 7:01 AM PST - 20 comments
Ebert gushes: After seeing Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report," my mind was churning with amazement and curiosity. Talking to Spielberg and his star, Tom Cruise, I found myself not an interviewer but simply a moviegoer, talking the way you do when you walk out of a movie that blindsides you with its brilliance.
posted by kliuless at 6:12 AM PST - 41 comments
Now I've seen it all: The Islamic-Christian alliance (with wholehearted Bush support) "
We look at them as allies, not necessarily as friends," said Austin Ruse, founder and president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, a New York-based organization that promotes
conservative values at U.N. social conferences. "
We have realized that without countries like Sudan [Iraq, Iran and Libya], abortion would have been recognized as a universal human right in a U.N. document."
Liberal Western activists and governments, added Mokhtar Lamani, a Moroccan diplomat who represents the 53-nation Organization of Islamic Conferences at the United Nations, had offended the religious and cultural sensitivities of Islamic countries by proposing that a final conference declaration include explicit references to
the need to protect prostitutes, intravenous drug users and "men who have sex with men" from contracting AIDS.
The Bush administration led the coalition in blocking an effort by European and Latin American countries at the U.N. children's meeting last month to include a reference in the final declaration to "
reproductive health care services," a term the conservatives believed could be used to promote abortion.
"This alliance shows the depths of
perversity of the [U.S.] position," said Adrienne Germaine, president of the International Women's Health Coalition. "On the one hand we're presumably blaming these countries for unspeakable acts of terrorism, and at the same time
we are allying ourselves with them in the oppression of women."
posted by magullo at 6:08 AM PST - 17 comments
U.S. Soccer needs you now. The US soccer team has not been this far in the World Cup since 1930. Where is the sea of red, white and blue? Watching mundane sports...like baseball. (match results in link. from
sts)
posted by lostbyanecho at 5:37 AM PST - 47 comments
Home Depot stops doing business with federal government. Home Depot Inc., the nation's largest hardware and home-improvement chain, has told its 1,400 stores not to do business with the U.S. government or its representatives.
[snip]
Most of Home Depot's managers interviewed by the Post-Dispatch shared the confusion. All the managers contacted declined to be quoted, but most said they didn't know what was behind the company's refusal to sell to the federal government.
posted by percine at 3:14 AM PST - 7 comments
One of the teams in the Mexico vs. USA World Cup game
made history. As of before the game, the USA has never won a knockout game of the World Cup - Mexico had never won a knockout game of the World Cup when not in Mexico. Click the article to see which team made history - or if you don't want it spoiled, don't click at all!
posted by twiggy at 1:33 AM PST - 28 comments
June 16
Punks vs. Yuppies in San Francisco I don't know how I feel about trying to get yuppies and punks to reconcile but I do like the idea of a yuppies vs. punks Olympics. It'd be funny if they had one here in NYC (I'd nominate Willimasburg as the location).
posted by zinegurl at 6:40 PM PST - 27 comments
Burning letter started Colorado fire. Isn't there a better way to destroy a letter from somebody you hate? Say, shredding? What would
you recommend to such dummies, to prevent them from creating statewide destruction?
posted by meep at 5:48 PM PST - 12 comments
Congressional Leak. Can't wait? Do as a congressman does. It even was considered a security issue because of where he took a leak. Now that's paranoia....
posted by hockeyman at 12:38 PM PST - 8 comments
DiscT@2: This revolutionary Laser Labeling System allows graphics and text to be burnt onto CD-R disc, eliminating the need for labels. Customers can put graphics, such as signatures, logos, memorandums, and photo images onto CD-R's unused area after data writing.
posted by Fofer at 10:30 AM PST - 11 comments
Got Silk. ''Oh, it's not that weird,'' Nexia's president and C.E.O., Jeffrey D. Turner, says as we walk around the pens, being nibbled constantly by aroused goats. ''What we're doing here is ingeniously simple,'' he says. ''We take a single gene from a golden orb-weaving spider and put it into a goat egg. The idea is to make the goat secrete spider silk into its milk.'' posted by srboisvert at 8:38 AM PST - 18 comments
June 15
name our yacht On a sunny afternoon in June of 2002 Peter James Zielinski and Brett Presson, on an eternal quest to live the lives of rock stars, acquired a contest about acquiring a brand new yacht. As such, they were left with the daunting task of giving a name to said yacht. After much debate, they ultimately came up with the perfect name for said yacht but consequently, they forgot the name of said yacht shortly after said yacht was acquired in a contest about acquiring said yacht. Thus, they'll need your help.
posted by bwg at 10:55 PM PST - 38 comments
Harry Potter released unprotected. In a move that makes me say both "Wha?" and "Kickass!", Warner Bros chose to release the Harry Potter DVD and VHS home versions sans the Macrovision copy protection. It could stand to be quite an experiment, or quite a blunder on their part.
posted by mathowie at 8:32 PM PST - 14 comments
Goodness Gracious! What A Lot Of Ways Of Not Saying "God"! Jeez may be MetaFilter's genteel exclamation of choice, but crusty and trusty old
William Safire of the
New York Times[
registration required]has the gracious goods on
other ways of not(quite)invoking the name of the Lord in vain; whilst proving
en route that Donald Rumsfeld isn't, after all, the wilting sissy or pseudo-Southern belle we all thought him to be...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:10 PM PST - 20 comments
Andersen verdict: guilty
Judge instructs jury: "It's OK if you each think a different person wsa the corrupt one."
How do you say "We are guilty of obstructing justice" in Andersen-speak?
Sorry for posting a CNN link, but they are always first to get a story online.posted by planetkyoto at 9:46 AM PST - 18 comments
Close to home? Worried about transport of nuclear waste? Find out how close to your home it'll pass with this handy map.
In my case, it'll be transported on train tracks that I can see and hear from my bedroom...
posted by delmoi at 2:35 AM PST - 24 comments
June 14
The brouhaha that erupted in Britain last month when it was learned that the prestigious Booker Prize might be opened to American writers by 2004, displays a British inferiority complex and underscores the remarkable persistence of preconceptions that Britain and the United States hold about each other. But it's about ideas and styles and even language being swapped and appropriated across the globe. It's about artists picking from a smorgasbord of techniques and influences to try to get a handle on an increasingly fragmented and cacophonous reality, and in doing so creating a new wave of writing that is richer for its multicultural mingling of styles and voices, its voracious mixing of the high and low, the cerebral and street-smart, the old and the new. Just like in MeFi.
posted by semmi at 9:16 PM PST - 17 comments
Royalties proposed for booming used market as new-CD sales stagnate. (Via
Slashdot).
First sale doctrine, anyone? Section 109 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 109, permits the owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under title 17 to sell or otherwise dispose of possession of that copy or phonorecord without the authority of the copyright owner, notwithstanding the copyright owner's exclusive right of distribution under 17 U.S.C. 106(3). Commonly referred to as the ``first sale doctrine,'' this provision permits such activities as the sale of used books. The first sale doctrine is subject to limitations that permit a copyright owner to prevent the unauthorized commercial rental of computer programs and sound recordings.
posted by Bezuhin at 7:12 PM PST - 23 comments
Pimps and Gangs Subtracted From Math Test "Rufus is a pimp for three girls. If the price is $65 per trick, how many tricks per day must each girl turn to support Rufus' $800 per day crack habit?"
So reads a math test from a now suspended Canadian teacher, apparently modeled after this
joke.
posted by bloggboy at 6:54 PM PST - 13 comments
Cheer for Bush, or face arrest, OSU grads informed. A first person account of how Bush's speech at the Ohio State Graduation today resembled nothing so much as a fascist rally - as graduates who had planned to protest by simply turning their backs to Bush during his speech were informed that if they did so they would be arrested and expelled (no diploma). Inside the stadium, crowds of Bush suppporters had been bussed in from miles away. And everyone was instructed to cheer loudly for the president.
posted by dnash at 6:03 PM PST - 44 comments
Some organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area are dedicated to setting up public wireless access points, avaliable free of charge, which people can connect to with either their exisiting 802.11 NICs in close proximity or with modified wi-fi cards with external antenna connections over distances up to 5 miles away.
While these ideas are all fun and exciting, I was reading the
SF Bay Guradian's recent article about these networks, I was struck by
Tim Pozar's notion of creating these networks
without internet connections, just for community lans. I had almost the same idea about a month ago, concerning a kind of mainstream internet alternative with personally run severs and access points, completely off of big ISP pipes, and have been thinking quite a bit about it lately. Now that I've found all this information on it, my only question is: How do we get started and who's up for it?
posted by Hackworth at 12:49 PM PST - 16 comments
Solar System Akin to Earth's Is Discovered Any minute now, I imagine somebody at a listening station on a smaller, bluer planet a few in from this one making a minute adjustment to their equipment and promptly spraying warm stimulant-laced beverage over their console...
posted by hob at 11:16 AM PST - 13 comments
Would you sign your name to this statement? Why doesn't it appear in an American media outlet?
posted by nofundy at 11:12 AM PST - 70 comments
"Islam was founded by Muhammad, a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives..."
The Rev. Jerry Vines slams Islam while speaking to delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention this week. The group's newly-elected president, the Rev. Jack Graham, refused to denounce the comments since "his statement is actually a statement that can be confirmed." Hmmm... since when is 'demon-possessed' an emperical statement?
Anyone want to guess what the reaction would be if a Muslim leader denounced Jesus with this much venom?
posted by Dirjy at 10:50 AM PST - 47 comments
First JPEG virus discovered... "The W32/Perrun virus, as it is now being called, extracts data from JPEG files and then injects picture files with infected digital images. A fair warning to those individuals who are fond of sending multimedia files to friends and families." Is everyone's porn stash threatened now?
posted by darian at 10:08 AM PST - 28 comments
The eight worst TV dads, according to EW. Just in time for Father's Day. Tony Soprano is #1, Ozzy #2. Aw, Ozzy is a bit mad, but at least he wants to do right by his kids. I make no excuse for Tony Soprano. He'll buy Meadow whatever she wants, but then again, he offed her boyfriend. Any bad (or good) TV dads to discuss?
posted by GaelFC at 9:30 AM PST - 27 comments
Harmik… a name synonymous with the legendary singer Tom Jones. Internationally recognized and praised as the #1 Tom Jones look and sound alike in the world. When Harmik met Tom in 1998, Tom amazed at the resemblance said to Harmik "you look more like me than I do."
posted by kirkaracha at 9:15 AM PST - 9 comments
HP Lovecraft is often seen as the first modern horror writer, and maybe the best. His
stories tend to follow a certain formula: a protagonist investigates strange events and is drawn into ancient horrors and madness. Lovecraft himself seems to have been deeply freaked out by the ocean, and evil from the deeps is another
common theme.
Anyone who has seen
The Deep episode of the BBC's Blue Planet is well on their way to feeling as Lovecraft did. And recently,
strange artifacts and
strange sounds have arisen from the deeps.
Are you Afraid?
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wagh'nagl fhtagn!posted by malphigian at 8:49 AM PST - 18 comments
Spider-Man "too violent for kids" The British Board of Film Classification has given the Spider-Man film (which opens here in the UK today) a '12' certificate because of its violence, meaning no one under that age can see it. Some local authorities have exercised their power to reclassify it as a 'PG' to open it up to younger viewers.
The BBFC's argument runs that "The violence is set in a modern urban setting with a clear message that the use of violence is the normal and appropriate response when challenged." In fact, I'd say, the film suggests that an appropriate response when challenged is to put on an armoured exo-skeleton and fly around on a jey-powered glider. How can the BBFC not get the concept that this is a
fantasy?
posted by jonpollard at 3:05 AM PST - 45 comments
June 13
Food summit 'waste of time' and a shame for many first world countries. Berlusconi and Spain’s prime minister Aznar were the only leaders of wealthy countries present during the summit. And Silvio Berlusconi made the summit end two hours early in order to watch his country's crucial World Cup game with México. I wish the War Against Hunger woukd receive the same attention than the War Against Terror…
posted by samelborp at 11:31 PM PST - 7 comments
In the long line of "take a picture of things" collaborative sites, we now have
Snap Your Desk, which takes a few design
*cough*hints
*cough* from
The Mirror Project.
So show us your crap-covered geek pit.
posted by Su at 10:06 PM PST - 3 comments
Bloop! Scientists have revealed a mysterious recording that they say could be the sound of a giant beast lurking in the depths of the ocean. Researchers have nicknamed the strange unidentified sound picked up by undersea microphones "Bloop."
Is it
Cthulu?
Communist robot sea monsters [pdf]?
posted by badstone at 5:04 PM PST - 24 comments
An article in the New Republic promoting the notion why the Perl video, an advertisment by the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistan Sovereignty, should be seen despite FBI demands to remove it, with link to it.
posted by semmi at 4:43 PM PST - 6 comments
Catholics, Jews, Muslims - all three feel suddenly embattled and isolated [nyt reg req] "This is a rare moment in history, like a planetary alignment: three world religions simultaneously racked by crisis....this confluence is highly unusual but not without precedent... — from 800 to 200 B.C., a period of tremendous violence and upheaval on many continents.... We could use this suffering to create wonderful new religious systems, as the Buddha did, or we could retreat into the spiritual barbarism of hatred ." Perhaps
Karl Marx was right that religion, like opium, results only in illusion and false hope.
posted by Voyageman at 4:08 PM PST - 14 comments
When will?? Asia-pacific surpass the US in Internet users? 2005 according to the good folks at BT Internet and their BTExact technology timeline
posted by bitdamaged at 3:26 PM PST - 4 comments
"If Hillary ran, I'd have to run against her," proclaims Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Interviewed for the new print publication of the right-fringe Newsmax.Com, Schlessinger describes Hillary (and Bill) as "perverse, disturbed and destructive … and immoral." and says that if Clinton throws her hat into the ring for a 2004 presidential bid, she will feel it necessary to follow suit. There aren't really words...
posted by Dreama at 3:01 PM PST - 46 comments
No more Mr. Nice Guy. Nice guys have believed a myth, this myth is the essence of what I call the Nice Guy Syndrome. The Nice Guy Syndrome represents a belief that if Nice Guys are good, they will be loved, get their needs met, and live a problem-free life. Are you a nice guy?
Take the test, if you are, better hurry, there are still
therapy groups available!
posted by patrickje at 2:20 PM PST - 35 comments
Show called "Harassment" results in, well, harassment! MTV and their co-conspirator, the Hard Rock Hotel, are being sued for "invasion of privacy, infliction of emotional distress and fraud, among other things."
posted by ilsa at 2:04 PM PST - 32 comments
Kitschy Kitschy Kootch: Remember Whatshername? Iconophile is a locker-room gallery of B-movie and TV starlets who most people have forgotten about or never heard of. It defines itself, quite accurately, as "
an angry web geek's multimedia reliquary of the lesser, harder-to-find goddesses and saints of the celebrity pantheon". For connoisseurs, there's real
pathos to be found. Not to mention some truly lovely
women hidden amidst the inevitable tat and trivia.
[For the record, my ever-present has-been of choice could only be Mathilda May.].
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:01 PM PST - 9 comments
Holland part of Axis of Evil? The Dutch parliament was shocked by a US legislative proposal giving an official green light to a US invasion of the Netherlands should it be deemed necessary to free US citizens from the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Pretty please, leave us alone, Jesse Helms.
posted by magullo at 11:22 AM PST - 46 comments
This saturday is the 2002 National Day of Action Online communities have done a good job of covering stories about big corporations abusing their powers online to squelch the efforts of programmers, researchers, designers, music enthusiasts, etc. But what about their offline agenda? Masquerading beneath the guise of the
Adventure Pass program is an attempt to extend corporate control to our public lands.
From the press release:
"Among others, primary sponsors of the fee demo and Adventure Pass are Walt Disney Corp., KOA Campgrounds, and Coleman Co. If the fee demo becomes law, the legislation will allow these companies and other to develop
commercial enterprises on public forest lands in partnerships with the Forest Service."
posted by johnjreeve at 9:51 AM PST - 1 comments
Georgian Rep. Bob Barr is a fragile and delicate man. So fragile, in fact, that he has
filed a lawsuit against President Bill Clinton, James Carville and Larry Flynt for "loss of reputation and emotional distress" and "injury in his person and property." He's seeking damages in excess of $30 million. This from the man who called for the impeachment of Bill Clinton
before the whole Monica thing.
James Carville said, "To call this suit 'frivolous' would be to elevate the status of 'frivolous.'"
posted by crunchland at 9:12 AM PST - 16 comments
Country singer Toby Keith
claims he won't be playing his
hot country single Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American) on an
ABC July 4th special because Peter Jennings doesn't like
the song. "I find it interesting that he's not from the U.S.," Keith says of Jennings, who is Canadian. "I bet Dan Rather'd let me do it on his special." (via cursor)
posted by dack at 8:53 AM PST - 59 comments
The Business Software Alliance is now running new radio ads in the Chicago Area (on 101.1 FM and other channels) saying, "Is your boss riding you hard all day? Want to get your boss back? Call the BSA and tell us your boss is pirating software!" Is this
extortion or a necessary wake-up call?
posted by Maxor at 8:35 AM PST - 17 comments
Diggers of the Underground Planet We've had
similar links posted before, but this one about the subterranean geography of Moscow really caught my attention. Discoveries include a 3,000 seat bunker under a cathedral, deserted chemical warfare labs, ancient stashes of the skulls, a second ring of metro stations that were never used and possibly a mass grave from the Stalin era.
posted by Irontom at 8:09 AM PST - 18 comments
June 12
Broken Saints is a beautifully done flash animation. A little anime in feel with some strange sonic diversions every once in a while. The pacing is a little slow for my highly Americanized tastes, but it's gorgeous all the same.
posted by willnot at 11:52 PM PST - 11 comments
BBC's Newsnight reports on a massive security oversight that makes unencrypted NATO video surveillance available on the Internet "Nato surveillance flights in the Balkans are beaming their pictures over an insecure satellite link - and anyone can tune in and watch their operations live," reports Mark Urban of BBC2's late-night news analysis show.
Near-realtime footage of NATO surveillance operations in the Balkans is routinely gathered by spy planes and returned to base as an encrypted signal and then forwarded to intelligence facilities in the US. However, when they are beamed back to Europe for analysis at NATO headquarters, no encryption is used. It is possible to tune into and watch these live video feeds (complete with map references and information about the type of aircraft in use) and so, in theory, an unfriendly agency could use the pictures to see what troops are up to and who they are watching. How long before this loophole is acknowledged and closed? Or should all surveillance data be made
ever more available to whoever wants it?posted by hmgovt at 4:24 PM PST - 13 comments
A harrowing
three part series about the recovery of a severely burned Phoenix police officer. While not for the squeamish, I haven't read anything as poignant in weeks.
Still, the doctor knew if there was a way to save him, this was it. He worked on, though his misgivings would not go away. "We're removing this guy's complete identity," he thought. "We're going to subject him to surviving this."
Each doctor was thinking the same thing: If it were himself on the table, he'd rather die.posted by machaus at 2:16 PM PST - 10 comments
"Dirty Bomber" also John Doe 2? "Here's a discovery to unsettle the average American and elate the average conspiracy theorist: Take a look at these two pictures. Notice any resemblence? The picture on the right is Abdullah al-Muhajir, aka Jose Padilla, whom the U.S. government claims is an al Qaeda operative recently arrested on suspicion of planning a "dirty bomb" radioactive attack on the U.S. And the picture at left? Why, that's John Doe No. 2, the still-unaccounted-for co-conspirator from the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995! What, you say, what? You mean the FBI somehow failed to notice this? Or did they?" (found on rotten.com)
posted by stifford at 2:14 PM PST - 28 comments
Not your average law firm website. Powers Phillips, P.C., is a small law firm located in downtown Denver, Colorado within convenient walking distance of over fifty bars and a couple of doughnut shops.
Powers Phillips is somewhat peculiar in that six of its lawyers are, to put it most politely, uppity women, who through various shenanigans and underhanded schemes control the firm. Found on Overlawyered.posted by internal at 2:04 PM PST - 9 comments
oh my god. what's worse... retouching photos of 38 week stillborns for a living, or the fact that there's some sort of demand for it?
posted by jcterminal at 1:36 PM PST - 29 comments
Artbots 2002: The Robot Talent Show Technology is not interesting. People doing things with technology, particularly when they're doing things that maybe no one really expected them to do, are the interesting part. Motors, sensors, circuitry and other technological raw materials have few inherent biases; it takes human intuition, creativity, and action to turn a pile of parts into a complex, functioning object. This show features the work of a group of humans who spend their time turning piles of parts into art. posted by srboisvert at 12:52 PM PST - 2 comments
Threat of 'dirty bomb' softened Attorney General John Ashcroft on Monday overstated the potential threat posed by "dirty bomb" suspect Abdullah Al Muhajir, Bush administration and law enforcement officials said Tuesday. Ashcroft's remarks annoyed the White House and led the administration to soften the government's descriptions of the alleged plot. "I don't think there was actually a plot beyond some fairly loose talk and (Al Muhajir's) coming in here obviously to plan further deeds," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told CBS on Tuesday.
So, does this mean he'll actually get treated like an American citizen and get to see a lawyer? posted by dejah420 at 11:47 AM PST - 29 comments
Oooh, Martha's in trouble... Looks like her ex-boyfriend may have tipped her off to some insider information (and subsequently got
popped). News of the incident has caused Martha Stewart Omnimedia stock to drop. Not a Good Thing.
posted by shecky57 at 10:39 AM PST - 13 comments
Fairly well-reasoned
WSJ Op-Ed piece concerning the Boston Phoenix decision to link the unedited Daniel Pearl video. Apparently the Phoenix's editor claims he would have wanted it shown.
posted by Su at 10:26 AM PST - 18 comments
Chickflicks? The American Film Institute's list of top 100 U.S. screen romances. But the list lacks my three favorite romantic movies:
Braveheart,
True Romance, and
Bull Durham.
I figured out a long time ago if I wanted a guy to take me to a tearjerker I would need to combine romance with machismo like sports, violence, and medieval weaponary. If you like to see tough guys wind up with trembling lips these three movies always get the job done.
Right guys?
posted by oh posey at 9:54 AM PST - 66 comments
God's Justice and Ours. Justice Antonin Scalia writes on capital punishment in
First Things: "
In my view, the major impetus behind modern aversion to the death penalty is the equation of private morality with governmental morality. This is a predictable (though I believe erroneous and regrettable) reaction to modern, democratic self–government."
posted by Ty Webb at 9:49 AM PST - 28 comments
UMass Researcher Finds Most People Lie In Everyday Conversation UMass Researcher Finds Most People Lie In Everyday Conversation
"Most people lie in everyday conversation when they are trying to appear likable and competent, according to a study conducted by University of Massachusetts psychologist Robert S. Feldman and published in the most recent Journal of Basic and Applied Social Psychology…The study also found that lies told by men and women differ in content, though not in quantity. Feldman said the results showed that men do not lie more than women or vice versa, but that men and women lie in different ways. "Women were more likely to lie to make the person they were talking to feel good, while men lied most often to make themselves look better," Feldman said."
Are you a liar? C’mon now, tell the truth.
posted by martk at 9:29 AM PST - 34 comments
The Internet Pinball Database has shots of backglasses, playing tables, and promotional flyers for just about every pinball machine ever created. I loved pinball. Now, it seems impossible to find a machine to play on. Back when I worked at a local pizza shop, we had a rotation of some great machines. I really enjoyed
the Addams Family,
Star Wars,
Lethal Weapon 3 (which i remember as being really easy), and especially the
Twilight Zone game, with the special white power ball. A walk down memory lane that served me well. Find a place near you to play some pinball
here. Or, you could just
go pro.
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:58 AM PST - 34 comments
"We eat the sweets while the monkeys roam the streets" It is my humble belief that with all of the existing India-Pakistan tension, it would only take the musical talents of two men -- MC Vikram and Luda Krishna -- to bring peace throughout the land and into the hearts of everyone who appreciates down home Indian rap. [QuickTime required for music, but text lyrics are also provided]
posted by aaronchristy at 8:52 AM PST - 5 comments
"SuperHeroes would use Hostess Cupcakes, Twinkies, or Fruit Pies to foil criminal plots, stop potential riots or capture escaping felons. No matter how nefarious the villain or potentially dangerous the situation, there was nothing the taste of fudgy icing or creamy filling couldn’t stop".
An ad man
recalls the silly plotlines and stringent guidelines writing comic book advertisements for Hostess Cupcakes. A great collection of the Hostess ads
here, and more
here.
posted by iconomy at 6:08 AM PST - 17 comments
Homemade Gauss Rifle and other fun science toys for kids. Don't forget to check out the amazing
catalog of cool stuff you can buy to build these things. There's nothing more fun than a 4-pack of (rare earth element) Neodymium / Iron / Boron magnets!
posted by Irontom at 5:22 AM PST - 7 comments
Don't click this link! A woman in Athens, Greece went to the doctor complaining of headaches. Upon examination, the doctor discovered a SPIDER LIVING IN HER EAR. Good night, folks, pleasant dreams.
(via Fark)posted by RylandDotNet at 3:00 AM PST - 32 comments
June 11
Homeland security loophole discovered in 1999: "In the Appalachians of West Virginia, the sun was going down and I was stuck for a place to stay. I knocked on the door of a private farm house. Three college-age girls were in the middle of an LSD trip. They recognized me as Art Garfunkel. I learned that they were three of thousands (millions?) who are "invisible" - pay no taxes, avoid the census taker; they are not on America's books."
posted by subpixel at 10:09 PM PST - 35 comments
Speaking frankly about drugs, the Economist all but concludes the war against some drugs' success a failure in the UK, saying that: "These
figures confirm that the increasing resources employed to disrupt the illegal drugs trade are having little impact." Considering the
present path is not working and
broad swaths of the public (from across the political spectrum!—excepting the tobacco, alcohol, cotton and drug dealer lobby of course :) aren't against decriminalization, then why can't I have my
Bay Golds? Besides, the pharmaceutical industry has a stellar record of
raising prices :) Who knows,
they may want in!posted by kliuless at 6:40 PM PST - 4 comments
911 has had a tremendous impact on us all,
and especially on Dolpho, a drug sniffing dog that can also apparently tell the difference between Blacks and Whites. So now a Pennsylvania councilwoman has moved to put the German shepherd to sleep for his racial profiling tactics while on the job. WOW, almost seems like an Onion piece, although I guess foxnews isn't far from it :)
posted by Why at 5:04 PM PST - 19 comments
$9,324 The GAO concludes that some 'vandalism' took place in the Clinton to Bush White House transition. The
total repair cost was $9,324. I wonder how much we spent on the GAO investigation and it's
220 page report. I bet it was more than $9,324. (via
Drudge)
posted by Argyle at 1:46 PM PST - 48 comments
Election 2000 Enchantment: A love, crime story... From the author's
geocities site: "Election 2000 Enchantment," by Elaine North, is a fun-filled adventure of two young women, who are ballot hand recounters during the Florida election crisis. The young women encounter intrigue, romance, passion, crime, danger and deception as they meet some of the many people from across the country that converge upon Florida due to the derailed presidential election. Exploitation or creativity? You decide.
posted by krewson at 1:19 PM PST - 6 comments
Swimming the Columbia River - lengthwise. What have you been up to for the past week? How about the next 6 months? If you're Christopher Swain, the answer is "swimming - and lots of it". Swain plans swim the 1,243 miles of the
Columbia River from headwaters to the Pacific over about 180 days. The further downriver he goes, the riskier it gets - aside from the rapids and ocean freighters that await him, he'll be in waters contaminated by atomic waste, PCBs and other toxins - which is the point of the swim, to raise awareness and support for river protection. "I learned that tasting every mile of a river is a great way to build the credibility to speak on its behalf"
posted by kokogiak at 1:02 PM PST - 15 comments
ClearChannelSucks.org has launched with the goal of being the "premier source for information about Clear Channel, its corporate mentality, and its practices, on the Internet." Site owern Clint Sharp alleges that Clear Channel strategically uses its monopolistic position as the largest owner of radio stations, the largest concert promoter, and largest outdoorsignage company to stifle competition and set their own tangible price tag on what it takes to have any success as an artist in the music industry.
posted by tomorama at 12:16 PM PST - 40 comments
The hoopla gets deeper. Upon learning that "Sarah Hubert" was a non-person, registrar
AITDomains simply canceled the registration to hoopla.com, releasing it into the wild, where it was picked up by someone from Taiwan. They gave no notice to Leslie or anyone else that I can tell, so that she had no opportunity to grab the name back for herself.
posted by mikewas at 11:30 AM PST - 7 comments
"I just can't believe that I'm having a baby." The yearbook at Pinellas Park High School this year included a 12 page spread about teen pregnancy and highlights some students and their experiences with staying in school while pregnant. Some see it a step in educating students about the issue, others see it as a glorification of teen pregnancy. Having had an older sister almost not finish high school because of a pregnancy, I'm all for education, but is the yearbook the appropriate place?
posted by turacma at 10:54 AM PST - 38 comments
Special Agent Crowley Speaks Up (NYTimes link , normal rules apply)
Ladies like this are the real heroes in our country and she has something to say before Congress about the new Bush agency. Ms. Dowd agrees and said, "The shape of the government is not as important as the policy of the government."
posted by nofundy at 10:30 AM PST - 8 comments
"British Liberty, RIP" A leader article on the danger represented by the British Government's new Statutory Order and the need for Parliamentarians to step in and resist. (The Order will allow a wide range of organisations access to phone and internet records - The Guardian's own story with details is
here.)
Ben Franklin has been quoted here many times before, but I have no hesitation quoting him again:
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
posted by jonpollard at 10:05 AM PST - 10 comments
The
Web Standards Project is back, now in easy-to-swallow blog form. Stand up straight! Close that HTML tag! And wipe that silly browser off your hard drive, mister! And the
other one.
posted by gazingus at 9:04 AM PST - 17 comments
Post-War Jazz: An Arbitrary Road Map In this two-part Village Voice piece, Gary Giddins presents a personal road map to post-war jazz, introducing 57 of his most cherished tracks from 1945 to 2001.
Any glaring ommissions? I'd add
Witchitai-To by
Jim Pepper. In addition to being one of the first jazz-rock fusion proponents, Pepper, a Native American, also blended the music of his people into his compositions.
posted by martk at 8:44 AM PST - 12 comments
One Defining Jazz Track Per Year, From 1945 To 2001? An Impossible Task! Well, not for
Gary Giddins, arguably our greatest contemporary jazz critic. He's just spent five months going through his record collection to come up with a terrific and deliciously debatable list for
The Village Voice. Yeah, how
could he leave out...*
insert your particular obsession here*...
?[
Here's a 74-page 1996 interview with him(in pdf format) that's practically a mini-history of jazz.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:41 AM PST - 14 comments
Le Roi Est Mort, declared the newspapers upon his death. A king
without a country,
Joshua A. Norton declared himself Emperor
Norton I of these United States in
1859. Was he a charlatan? A
genius? Royalty? Or maybe all three? We may never know. Visit his
archives
to find out more.
posted by charlesv at 7:42 AM PST - 12 comments
StreetMattress.com - Much like "found art", this site chronicles the phenomenon of abandoned mattresses, and finally gives the public a forum on which to comment on them. Some if my favorites are
here,
here, and
here.
posted by emptybowl at 5:58 AM PST - 10 comments
City as Loser? Iron City was ranked last out of 40 cities in this year's "Best Cities for Singles" in Forbes magazine. Not that Forbes is the ultimate arbiter of the single life (don't they specialize in male readers over 35 with money?), but your best defense of Pittsburgh or your own medium- or small-sized town would be appreciated.
posted by engelr at 5:48 AM PST - 26 comments
Bon voyage, mes amis... France now holds the dubious honor of being the first World Cup champs to drop out in the first round of the subsequent Cup tournament (i.e. Champs in '98/Goats in '02) since Brazil '66.
Somebody, strike up Sergio Mendez for me...
posted by Bixby23 at 1:37 AM PST - 35 comments
June 10
Firearms exempted from Consumer Product Safety Commission. Why? Erik Zenger lost consciousness for only a few minutes when his black powder gun misfired on a Utah County shooting range, burying a 3-inch steel spring bolt in his cheekbone. . .
There is no national agency or organization either man could have consulted to find out if a rifle or handgun had been recalled. Firearms are specifically exempted from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said agency spokesman Ken Jiles, and no other federal agency is empowered to gather information on safety hazards of weapons.
Neither the National Rifle Association nor the National Sports Shooting Foundation tracks such information or has lists of gun recalls. Consumers must rely on retail stores and manufacturers to determine if weapons have malfunctioned or injured anyone. posted by onegoodmove at 10:31 PM PST - 43 comments
A handheld device that translates simple spoken phrases. "American troops in Afghanistan are using a revolutionary device that instantly translates soldiers' voices into native languages.
. . . The soldier speaks into the machine, which recognizes the words and translates them into another language." Simple phrases only — and a long way from a
Star Trek universal translator — but kindling for the science-fiction-addled imagination nonetheless.
posted by mcwetboy at 7:30 PM PST - 11 comments
Are heart disease, cancer and schizophrenia caused by pathogens? The logic basically goes that a genetic disease cannot have a very high rate of occurrence as natural selection would prevent that gene from surviving (leaving the few occurrences of the disease that are caused by random mutation). Also: how to make diseases more benign by altering the parameters to their natural selection.
posted by fvw at 5:45 PM PST - 19 comments
After the 9-11 massacre, most of us, eager to hear someone in a position of authority make reassuring noises, gave George B. Jr. some props.
Even those of us who had our doubts before were, in that state of anxiety and fear, ready to applaud his actually quite banal statements.
Then came the "axis of evil" speech.
Die hard conservatives and Bush-lovers said "that's okay, he's just using colorful language - and, after all, those folks are evil."
The rest of us groaned a bit.
And now, his trip to Europe during which something very funny happened that reaffirms his 'through the looking glass', profoundly deep ignorance of the world.
posted by Modem Ovary at 4:34 PM PST - 62 comments
Yahoo!'s new front page went into beta today.
I know the story was posted, but I thought the actual page deserved a link that wasn't buried in day-old comments...posted by kfury at 11:35 AM PST - 32 comments
What's not on the net? Here's an example. On Saturday night the town center of Capitola was shut down because of the discovery of a number of devices believed to be pipe bombs. Locally, this was a huge story but it didn't get much play in our
local paper even though Capitola is only six miles south of Santa Cruz. On Sunday, police figured out the the devices were not bombs. The San Jose Mercury (35 miles and a mountain range away from Capitola) published a
story but so far nothing from our local newspaper. The story was never big enough for national new sources like
cnn,
moreover and local usenet
groups are flooded with offensive drivel. Where do you go on the web for reliable, timely local news?
posted by rdr at 8:34 AM PST - 6 comments
Jaw-drop-inducing link of the day The federal government spent $62 million on a building to store and treat low-level radioactive waste at a California nuclear weapons laboratory, then decided the structure wasn't secure enough. So where is the waste kept now?
... Right outside the new building, under tents.
posted by magullo at 8:30 AM PST - 11 comments
Switch. Apple launches its first major ad campaign since "Think Different". Rather than preaching to the converted, it's gunning for the other 90% -- the unhappy Windows users.
Can Apple double its marketshare to 10% as Steve Jobs is hoping? Does this represent a less smug, more aggressive Apple? Are you
considering switching, or have
you switched already?
posted by jragon at 8:15 AM PST - 132 comments
The Peculiar Duplicity of Ari Fleischer "But what Fleischer does, for the most part, is not really spin. It's a system of disinformation--blunter, more aggressive, and, in its own way, more impressive than spin. Much of the time Fleischer does not engage with the logic of a question at all. He simply denies its premises--or refuses to answer it on the grounds that it conflicts with a Byzantine set of rules governing what questions he deems appropriate. Fleischer has broken new ground in the dark art of flackdom: Rather than respond tendentiously to questions, he negates them altogether."
posted by owillis at 8:04 AM PST - 6 comments
Etherlinx, plans to offer high-speed wireless access to the Internet at inexpensive prices. (NYT) Without venture capital backing, in a garage just six blocks from the garage where Steven P. Jobs and Stephen Wozniak launched Apple Computer 26 years ago, Mr. Holt is making his clever and inexpensive radio repeater by modifying inexpensive Wi-Fi cards, the circuitry that sends and receives the signals. Their ambitious target: the cable and phone companies that currently hold a near-monopoly on high-speed access for the "last mile" between the Internet and the home.
posted by semmi at 7:52 AM PST - 2 comments
Revamping Yahoo's Homepage "The redesign is being fueled partly by advertisers, which are increasingly demanding more real estate on highly visible spots such as Yahoo's home page. Advertisers are irked that they can only buy minimal exposure on the main page of a site that draws a massive audience."
posted by Irontom at 7:42 AM PST - 20 comments
Essays added to SATs? I'm glad I don't have to take any more SATs! Among other proposed changes (such as a gradual inclusion of more advanced algebra & trig), the College Board hopes that including an essay portion will force students to spend more time writing. Thoughts?
posted by LuxFX at 6:46 AM PST - 22 comments
June 9
Best. Transformers. Video. Ever. CGI render of a new VW Beetle transforming into a transformer with live background [1.5 meg mpg video]. Makes me wonder if a live-action Transformers TV show would work, with real actors and CGI rendered robots. I'd certainly watch it.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 11:50 PM PST - 28 comments
"A Rift Among Bloggers" is the name of the article in Monday's
New York Times on the state of the blogger these days. A must read if you've ever heard the term "warblogger." Its a mostly unbiased and refreshingly accurate piece written by David Gallagher of
LightningField.com fame.
posted by nyukid at 11:02 PM PST - 43 comments
Kashmir...Palestine...
Sudetenland?? If you've been suspecting that old territorial squabbles never go away, you're probably right.
posted by gimonca at 6:52 PM PST - 4 comments
An Urgent Call to end
The Growing Nuclear Peril.
"A DECADE after the end of the cold war, the peril of nuclear destruction is mounting. The great powers have refused to give up nuclear arms, other countries are producing them and terrorist groups are trying to acquire them. THE DRIFT TOWARD catastrophe must be reversed. Safety from nuclear destruction must be our goal. We can reach it only by reducing and then eliminating nuclear arms under binding agreements." Includes articles, lists of protests and rallies and links to disarmament groups.
posted by homunculus at 5:27 PM PST - 10 comments
Typewriter Dependency (common disorder resulting from metaphysical thinking about punctuation) [nyt reg req] "A recent survey of the top 1,000 living English-language authors finds that more than 80 percent own manual typewriters averaging 43 years in age and three broken functions, with a per-unit resale value of $4.75 and slipping. Yet in a questionnaire about their response if brigands should invade their homes and demand either their beat-up old manual typewriters or their spouses on pain of death, a whopping 96 percent wrote ''Spouse.''
posted by Voyageman at 1:43 PM PST - 23 comments
Bush / Giuliani in 2004? Is this the team the Democrats will have to beat in 2004?Rudy Giuliani is still riding on the wave of popularity from his post 9/11 actions. Apparently he's got his eye on the White House, even if it breaks Dick Cheney's heart.
posted by crunchland at 10:20 AM PST - 34 comments
Sir Mick - "Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger is to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to music, newspapers reported on Sunday." What's the point in knighting old rock stars? What's the point in being a knighted rock star? It probably wasn't even on Her Britannic Majesty's request, but just the result of some silly committee deal.
posted by pracowity at 10:09 AM PST - 18 comments
MI6 warned US of Al-Qaeda attacks MI6 warned the American intelligence services about a plot to hijack aircraft and crash them into buildings two years before the September 11 attacks....
I do not subsribe but this is summary of article and may prove very "annoying" to the agencies and people involved. The Sunday Times is too reputable to be readily dismissed as off the wall.
posted by Postroad at 4:00 AM PST - 38 comments
The
SF Chron's big Sunday story is a very timely and huge package about a Republican Governor who went on to become president cooperating with overzealous intelligence agencies to quash dissent. Revelations: Reagan plotted with the FBI against the President of UC-Berkeley, he wanted to mount "
psychological warfare campaign" and the old rumor about Reagan getting some fellow Hollywood artists blacklisted turns out to be true.
Synposis.
posted by raaka at 2:20 AM PST - 36 comments
June 8
Metaphysical significance of punctuation marks (a) Periods . and commas , are lovely because they are simple... Semicolons ; are pretentious and overactive...
Italics rarely fail to insult the reader's intelligence..."Quotation marks" create the spurious impression of an aristocracy of sensibility...The exclamation point ! is obviously too emphatic, too childish, for our sophisticated ways...Questions ? and exclamations ! betray a sense of inquisitiveness and wonder that is distinctly unmodern....(parentheses) and - dashes - betoken stylistic laziness, a failure of discipline....(a) content footnotes are symbols of failure.
posted by Voyageman at 12:54 PM PST - 36 comments
Punk Rock Aerobics. "Punk Rock Aerobics: The work out that rocks out. No more sucky classes full of braindead bimbos in spandex thongs. PRA is for fun people with discerning taste. An hour and a half of cardio and strengthening class that will have you pogoing and skanking your butt off!" Brought to you by Maura and Hilken (the latter of the band
fuzzy). As they say on the
mission page: "Free your mind and your ass will follow."
posted by moz at 12:23 PM PST - 12 comments
Meet Cyc. This endeavor to produce AI has been going on since
1984. In ’86 it asked if it were human; it later asked “if any other computers were engaged in such a project”. It’s strength lies in a database of assumptions and generalities, in the hopes that it will eventually “generalize as much as possible until further generalization would be false”. Is this going to be the breakthrough, or does it just seem really cool? (yes, via
Slashdot)
posted by sherman at 12:17 PM PST - 9 comments
We're in the midst of the Rose Festival here. I'm watching the
Grand Floral Parade on tv now, since I didn't camp out last night on the sidewalk space I taped out last weekend. Yes, that really happens. From the site:
The Grand Floral Parade is the second largest all-floral parade in North America and the largest, single-day spectator event in Oregon. Pasadena's
Parade is the top one. They expect half a million spectators in person, and even more on TV. Are you watching this with me? What festivals and spectacles do you have in your area?
posted by verso at 10:26 AM PST - 7 comments
In Israeli Hospital, Bomber Tells of Trying to Kill Israelis (NYT) In a conversation that lasted more than two hours, the bomber gave a rare glimpse into the blend of religion, desperation, low technology and cruelty that can produce suicide bombers. He said he was "pushed" to make his attack not by Israeli action or a terrorist group, but by "the love of martyrdom." He added: "I didn't want revenge for anything. I just wanted to be a martyr."
"I know Israel," he said, recalling his six years as a peddler here. "I know that the individual Israeli citizen is innocent like us. Unfortunately, we are victims of our leaders, sitting on their chairs."
posted by semmi at 9:25 AM PST - 16 comments
June 7
Don't be stupid! Not in the sense of poor cognitive capacity, or low IQ, but more in the sense of lack of wisdom and foresight.
Why do smart people make foolish decisions?
posted by aeschenkarnos at 6:16 PM PST - 12 comments
Airborne Laser 21st Century, here we come! According to the always serious folks at
Janes, a new kind of weapon that has a strong smell of fifties sci-fi will soon become really real. An airborne basket-ball sized laser beam should soon be able to destroy missiles before they reach their target. Why doesn't this news makes more confident in the future of this world?
posted by Baud at 1:30 PM PST - 32 comments
Ahhh...the power of suggestion... The Japanese have proven once again that even the best marketing campaigns are weak compared to a good fad--no matter how ludicrous the claim. But instead of Pokemon and Aibo's, all the Japanese are after now are everyday electrons...or are they?
posted by LuxFX at 12:20 PM PST - 10 comments
Next move - nationalizing the internet infrastructure in Europe ? 300 staff and union officials have blockaded themselves at the network operations centre in Belgium following Dutch telecoms company KPNQwest bankruptcy filing. Stocked up on provisions, taking shifts unpaid to keep the centre fully operational. "If we leave, then in three to five days there will be the largest internet slowdown in European history." From the article - KPNQwest's infrastructure covers 60 cities around Europe, estimated between one third and one half of all European internet traffic.
posted by Voyageman at 9:12 AM PST - 10 comments
Film88 Dear Valuable Users,
Our site is READY now,
but we got to
wait for few hours
for our new lines
to take place.
However, you can enter from HERE.
Please take note that
the lines are extremely SLOW.
We feel sorry for
our contractor whose
proxy/caching was blocked
because of somebody's
reaction. (Without Court Order AGAIN!!)
Seems like the Terrorist is identified!!
Regards,
Film88
More Backroundposted by Niahmas at 5:08 AM PST - 3 comments
The Real Biothreat Currently the United States is experiencing shortages of eight of the eleven vaccines required by law for children. In response, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have revised their immunization schedule from "optimal" to "some protection," which means that, depending on the vaccine, kids may get the first shot and not the boosters that solidify immunity, or they may not get the first shot at all until several months past the recommended age...
posted by Irontom at 3:33 AM PST - 10 comments
June 6
The Periodic Table Table now has its own, newly updated website. This had made the rounds on various websites when it was a mere set of construction photos on a bandwidth -constrained site. This is now much better.
posted by vacapinta at 10:44 PM PST - 11 comments
The Pitch Drop Experiment. Everyone should know by now that 'glass is a supercooled liquid' is an
urban legend. But there are true liquids that appear solid at room temperature. Pitch, a petroleum derivative, is one of them. The
Blair Pitch Pro Pitch Drop Experiment, begun in 1927, drips pitch out of a funnel, at roughly one drop every
ten years. It has a
webcam [RealPlayer req.], with a short canned loop of audio explaining the experiment's origins. I tell you, I'm on the edge of my seat watching this thing!
Swiped from The Cellar.posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:52 PM PST - 22 comments
A dazzling solar eclipse... will be on display across a broad swath of the western United States, Mexico, Canada and Asia on Monday, with as much as 99 percent of the sun obscured by the moon. The eclipse will begin at 5:13 p.m. PDT, with best viewing time around 6:20.
posted by GatorDavid at 4:13 PM PST - 8 comments
How far should the commercialisation of fine art go? The British Museum has licensed an on-line company
atelier 350 to sell reproductions of some of the drawings in their collection. This article argues that the sales description is misleading and if replicated on a wider scale could harm the general public's perception of access to the collections in the long run. I agree that museums have to raise funds somehow and I'm not against the selling of some of the more popular images, however, surely their first responsibility must be to educate not to distort or hide the truth in the way which is shown here.
posted by feelinglistless at 3:09 PM PST - 9 comments
Comet Cursor not Spyware claim founders. Just Crapware! "The information we were logging was completely useless, except for charging sites for cursor impressions," said Rosen, who pointed out in Lavasoft's forums that Comet Systems is a company of programmers, not marketeers.
"You may believe that our software is buggy, in which case you may conclude we're lame, but we're not running a direct marketing business like some of the other malware/adware/spyware companies on your list," Rosen wrote. posted by srboisvert at 1:03 PM PST - 5 comments
Dee Dee Ramone dead at 50. First Joey, now Dee Dee. I wanted to be a punk rocker, too, just like Sheena, but I wasn't cool enough back in my rock and roll highschool days. If a punker dies, do we wear white to mourn him/her?
posted by luriete at 11:45 AM PST - 39 comments
While generally not a fan of news links,
this story about entertainers speaking on Capitol Hill was too good to resist. Hmmm...The Backstreet Boys as lobbyists. That's even scarier that what we have now. Although entertainers have long championed political causes, it seems as though the legitimacy of this practice is
growing. Is this part of the ongoing merger between politics and entertainment?
posted by anathema at 11:27 AM PST - 6 comments
Immersive Online Content. The first in a series on digital storytelling techniques, from the Poynter Institute. Examples include stories on baggage inspection, water conservation, the Florida 2000 election and touch screen voting.
posted by sheauga at 8:55 AM PST - 7 comments
This ad was banned in the UK. Did anyone see it? Sounds cool to me. In a time when advertisers are struggling to capture people's attention and
dull advertising reigns supreme, why haven't we gotten over this fear of offending those with 'delicate' sensibilities?
posted by eas98 at 8:04 AM PST - 53 comments
June 5
So what's the difference between the latest suicide bombing and the incursion in Jenin? Both targeted off-duty combatants (13 of the 17 killed on the bus were armed soldiers, the majority killed in Jenin were armed combatants) and both had "collateral damage" of civilians. If one argues that Jenin was a military operation that pursued combatants and unfortunately civilians were caught in between, couldn't one argue the same about this bus bombing? Disclaimer: I oppose both as immoral.
posted by laz-e-boy at 11:47 PM PST - 19 comments
Ralph Nader's at it again. The Nation's Top Consumer Watchdog apparently is a Kings fan. He's taking the NBA to task for the phantom fouls and blatant non-calls in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals. Can't say as I blame him though. That was some pretty crappy officiating. But doesn't he have better things to do?
posted by shecky57 at 4:22 PM PST - 36 comments
The Queen's Golden Jubilee in the UK - did anyone see it? If you were in the UK, it's likely you would have seen at least some of the amazing celebrations of the Royal Family - four days of partying, including
a huge pop/rock concert with loads of famous names, a
classical concert, pomp and pagentry in a
4 ton gold chariot and a
huge carnival drew 14 million TV viewers a night, and millions more went to see the royal knees-up, knocking the
royal critics for six. Even Ozzy Osbourne sang a number, bless him. The final royal flypast rounded off the most amazing scenes I've ever seen. Brits - does this show of affection make your bosom swell with pride? Others - are you jealous, or thankful you weren't there?
posted by wibbler at 2:58 PM PST - 54 comments
Cracked Magazine is back. I used to read this back in the day, but I hadn't seen it in ages. I always thought it was inferior to Mad, but I liked it anyway. Supposedly it's on shelves now. Has anyone seen a new copy?
posted by SisterHavana at 1:54 PM PST - 11 comments
Poll of Palestinians by PCPO May 24 - 30, 2002 We can get conflicting Israeli views in their diverse news sources and polls. Here is a Palestinian poll, recently done It it does not deal with the Israel conflict but rather with the present government. This may provide some useful insights.
posted by Postroad at 12:34 PM PST - 13 comments
I must admit, I've always had my doubts about some of you... Corporations hire viral marketing firms to spread misinformation and bogus votes of support for their products on internet message boards. With all the front page entries about new movies, new records and new colored cola drinks, are we all being manipulated and duped by the marketing weasels even here on Metafilter?
posted by crunchland at 11:29 AM PST - 82 comments
Pat Buchanan the voice of reason? in times of insane government decree's of "with us or against us" and "shoot first ask questions later." Its amusing that wackos like Buchanan's viewpoints start making sense. So what is the price of the american empire?
posted by vincentmeanie at 11:16 AM PST - 36 comments
Try Saying Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Tea And Mint Julep Without Smiling: it can't be done. Coz June is busting out all over in Bourbon country and the mint is as high as an elephant's eye. For this we all rejoice. But - wait - did you know that, for that most perfect Summer drink, the thirst-quenching
nec plus ultra they call the
Julep, "
the most important ingredient is a T-shirt for the mint juice extraction"? Oh yes! The time has come. Here comes the sun. Mmmm...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:26 AM PST - 23 comments
Want to read
Marvel comics without paying for them?
Sign up for
dotComics, a flash based comic download manager/viewer. You can read Spider-Man, X-Men, Elektra, Incredible Hulk and even issues of the new Wolverine Origin series all without the racking guilt of media "piracy". Ahoy, matey!
posted by will at 10:17 AM PST - 5 comments
Along the lines of the guy photographing every door handle he comes across, Aimee Sealfon is chronicling 365 people(
One a Day), each different, she encounters through the year, with a short note about each.
posted by Su at 9:48 AM PST - 6 comments
Thinking Around the Corners , a new but very different creative magazine, launched this morning. The purpose of TAtC to to inspire designers, painters, etc. from the examples of other creatives like writers and poets -- following
Duchamp's thought, "I felt that as a painter I was much better off to be influenced by a writer than by another painter."
This issue features an interview with Jeffrey Zeldman on what inspires him and how he gets through the creative process.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 7:08 AM PST - 6 comments
Notice something missing from today's Washington Post? In a creative protest of management's latest contract offer, Post union members withhold bylines from news stories and columns in the
June 5 edition. Most articles are written "By A Washington Post Staff Writer" and pictures are taken "By A Washington Post Staff Photographer." What other unique forms of labor protest have you seen where the union gets its point across without striking or compromising the quality of the product?
posted by PrinceValium at 6:54 AM PST - 18 comments
June 4
SPAM company sues a complainent Not another spam story! But this one is a bit twisted. An Australian man, sick of receiving junk email, posted the details of the marketing company responsible on a website.
SPEWS discovered the information, blocked their server, and now the spammers are suing the man for lost profits.
posted by Jimbob at 6:35 PM PST - 8 comments
J.T. LeRoy: The Next Lit-Crit It Boy? A report from the trendy and bespectacled world of hipster-lit book-readings and its newest star, the mercurial J.T. LeRoy. From the article: "LeRoy is the mirror image of the New York hipster’s aspiration: the lost soul done good, when so many in the audience, in pricey vintage t-shirts, seemed to want nothing more than to shed the trappings of middle-class life. More than a few in the audience spoke of him with a sort of rapt awe usually accorded NBA stars and minor deities." For more info on LeRoy, check out the author's
official website.
posted by cell divide at 12:50 PM PST - 36 comments
U.S. had agents inside al-Qaeda U.S. intelligence overheard al-Qaeda operatives discussing a major pending terrorist attack in the weeks prior to Sept. 11 and had agents inside the terror group, but the intercepts and field reports didn't specify where or when a strike might occur, according to U.S. officials. ... But later in the article it says: Electronic intercepts as late as Sept. 10 of al-Qaeda members speaking cryptically of a major attack. Two U.S. intelligence officials, paraphrasing highly classified intercepts, say they include such remarks as, "Good things are coming," "Watch the news" and "Tomorrow will be a great day for us." Yeah, that whole "tomorrow" thing...that's a little tricky.
posted by dejah420 at 12:02 PM PST - 40 comments
Tired of the intrusiveness of the Federal Government? Hate the United Nations? Grant County welcomes you! About the size of Connecticut with a population of 7,500, this rural Oregon County recently passed ballot measures banning the UN and allowing people to cut trees on federal land, with or without the U.S. Forest Service approval. Government agencies are engaged in something called
"Rural Cleansing" according to WSJ reporter Kimberley A. Strassel, and the people are having some success standing up to the government. Are these people kooks? Is Civil disobedience wrong? Are you in, out, or straddling the fence? Ready to move?
posted by Mack Twain at 11:54 AM PST - 20 comments
Thanks for the cattle! As a follow up to
This Thread,
This site was inspired by the New York Times
article about the Masai village in southern Kenya who donated 14 head of cattle to the US in sorrow over the 9/11 attacks. This is a place where you can say "thanks" to the villagers who made the donation.
"There are three cherished things that a Masai can offer as a gift -- a child, a plot of land and a cow, which is far more than a source of meat and milk to a Masai."
Source.posted by Blake at 10:51 AM PST - 17 comments
Turin Brakes are back in the studio. And though I am still digging
the last album, some folks must be getting impatient. Their response? "[W]hat can we say but it takes time to write and record something that has to last forever... please hold on it will be worth the wait." Cool.
posted by grabbingsand at 9:52 AM PST - 12 comments
The New Frontier- Preparing the law for settling on Mars. "Like the abandoned launch fields [at Cape Canveral], the Outer Space Treaty [of 1967] needs to have its valuable parts salvaged, and the dangerous ones demolished."
posted by Ty Webb at 9:14 AM PST - 12 comments
June 3
Blogging for credit.... We've had some interesting posts about weblogs on MeFi today - is there room for one more? This one is about a credit course offered at UC Berkeley (of course) on weblogs and weblogging.
posted by Lynsey at 10:32 PM PST - 1 comments
This column (NYT/reg. req) gets my vote for Stupidest Theory of the Day. Basically, he says that movies are more memorable and stay with us longer than TV shows. Huh?! He's kidding, right? (more inside).
posted by sassone at 12:12 PM PST - 25 comments
How to Flirt. "Flirting is much more than just a bit of fun: it is a universal and essential aspect of human interaction." What social science can tell you about flirting and how to do it.
posted by sheauga at 10:24 AM PST - 32 comments
We will strike first announced President Bush at the West Point graduation ceremony.
I was camping this weekend, so I just saw this. I am surprised that it hasn't generated more commentary. The actual text of the speech can be found
here.
posted by Irontom at 7:48 AM PST - 124 comments
Is
this a preview of things to come once the virtual reality of futuristic novels and cinema becomes commonplace? At what point should addiction be treated and is there even any sort of facility that can handle this type of addiction? On a side note, does this make anyone think any different of MetaFilter?
posted by the biscuit man at 7:24 AM PST - 30 comments
Maasai Present Cattle to US Ambassador
To mark September 11, people of Enoosean, a Maasai (Rift Valley Province, Kenya) village, have presented 15 heads of cattle to a visiting US ambassador, William Brencick. The presentation was organized by a Maasai medical student who was visiting New York on September 11.
Brencick said the embassy would find it difficult to ship the cattle to the United States and had decided to sell the animals to raise funds to buy beadwork made in the village for display at a September 11 memorial in New York. (
1)
posted by rschram at 2:58 AM PST - 18 comments
June 2
The Bush 9/11 Scandal for Dummies: Ready to do some 9/11 conspiracy debunking? Read this and lets get some old time MeFi discussion going. It's all there, from the (s)election of Bush as president to the "pre-planning" of the American Patriot Act. As Weiner describes the culprits as:
. . .the HardRight began serious planning for a 2000 electoral victory -- and then implementation of a HardRight agenda, and the destruction of a liberal opposition -- a year or two after Clinton's 1996 victory. (The impeachment of Clinton was a key ingredient to sully Democrat opposition.) The GOP HardRight leaders decided early to select George W. Bush, a none-too-bright and easily malleable young man with the right name and pedigree. They ran into a speed-bump when John McCain began to take off in the public imagination, and so with dirty tricks they wrecked his campaign in the South and elsewhere, and continued on their merry course. posted by crasspastor at 10:44 PM PST - 21 comments
Study Shows Building Prisons Did Not Prevent Repeat Crimes (New York Times link--you know the drill)
The rate at which inmates released from state prisons commit new crimes rose from 1983 to 1994, a time when the number of people behind bars doubled, according to a Justice Department study released yesterday.
The report found that 67 percent of inmates released from state prisons in 1994 committed at least one serious new crime within three years. That is 5 percent higher than among inmates released in 1983.
Criminologists generally agree that the prison-building binge of the last 25 years, in which the number of Americans incarcerated quadrupled to almost two million, has helped reduce the crime rate simply by keeping criminals off the streets. There has been more debate about whether longer sentences and the increase in the number of prisoners have also helped to deter people from committing crimes. The new report, some crime experts say, suggests that the answer is no. (More inside)
posted by y2karl at 10:28 PM PST - 22 comments
Toothpaste for Dinner Everybody's favorite crackpot
Drew is making new drawings and paintings. This site's a lot easier on the eyes, less of those pesky sentences which hurt brains.
posted by clango at 6:13 PM PST - 5 comments
Sensitivity or Censorship? A fascinating article in the NY Times reveals that the the New York Board of Education is editing literary passages used on its high school exit exam to remove passages that might "make a student feel ill at ease" while taking the test. Deletions include all references, no matter how innocuous, to drugs, alcohol, homosexuality, God, race, Congress, unpaid U.N. dues, nudity, sex, violence, and much more. Some of the quoted authors, including Annie Dillard and Frank Conroy, are pretty upset with the state, especially since the passages don't indicate that they have been "revised." On the other hand, standardized tests are often criticized as being
culturally biased so maybe this is a justifiable attempt to make students from different backgrounds feel equally at ease in taking the test. What do you think?
posted by boltman at 10:18 AM PST - 30 comments
The
Glossarist is "a searchable directory of
glossaries and topical dictionaries." Obvious enough. Topic areas are arranged in a Yahoo-like structure.
Now, go find out what all those obscure technical terms you've been wondering about mean.
posted by Su at 9:49 AM PST - 5 comments
June 1
Steven Lightfoot believes that author Stephen King murdered John Lennon, with the blessings of Ronald Reagan. Mark David Chapman was just an innocent pawn in their evil game. Witness the lengths Steven Lightfoot goes to to prove his theories. Here's
the story that the media doesn't want you to read.
posted by iconomy at 9:34 PM PST - 31 comments
Gullible Bum - "The Official Unofficial The The Site." A great web site with a brilliant interface for an incredible band. "Abandon your preconceptions about site navigation."
posted by dgeiser13 at 7:46 PM PST - 4 comments
The Typing Explosion. "These poets are good, sometimes even great, proving that musicians, dancers and actors aren't the only ones who can improvise their way into art." Ingenious, or simply deviceful recreation??
posted by protocool at 7:40 PM PST - 7 comments
Entire EU signs on to Kyoto Enviro Pact All 15 European Union nations ratified the Kyoto Protocol against global warming yesterday and goaded Washington, which has turned its back on the treaty, to do its part.
The pact would have required the United States, which accounted for 36 percent of the industrialized world's greenhouse gas emissions in 1990, to trim emissions by 7 percent from 1990 levels.
posted by planetkyoto at 8:58 AM PST - 37 comments
Summers of discontent ! "This article talks about how the children nowadays utilise their time 'constructively' and as a result, enroll in all kinds of classes and 'summer camps'.
Although I consider these activities good,
I wonder what happened to the summer holidays where all one used to do was play cricket, visit grandparents / relatives in villages / towns, make some innocuous prank and idle away the time without a thought about school and studies in mind ..."
posted by sheauga at 7:08 AM PST - 42 comments
