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September 2000 Archives
September 30
A friendly, non-partisan reminder: If you haven't done so already, you've exactly 10 days left to register to vote. If you've had a change of address recently, you'll need to register again. Remember, this election
isn't simply about the presidency. Depending on where you live, every office from congressperson to school board president could be up for grabs. Register now, and make a difference in November!
posted by aladfar at 11:41 PM PST - 16 comments
Looks like this guy is using the web to spread even more disinformation about sexism. No wonder he has to
GIVE his book away for free.
Among the gems of wisdom, "If women really made 59 cents on the dollar for the same work as men, what business could compete by hiring men at all..."? Sheesh!
posted by murray_kester at 10:53 PM PST - 1 comments
Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic Jakob Nielsen says "to take the Internet to the next level, users must begin posting their own material ...
the vast wasteland of Geocities confirms this. Giving users a home-page editing program does not turn them into good writers."
Meg takes Nielsen
to task: "his recommended approach is crazy ...Why bog kids down with HTML?" Blogs, of course, are her solution. But for
some folks this simply doesn't add up. Saying kids shouldn't learn HTML because Blogger exists is like saying they shouldn't learn to add because calculators exist.
posted by webchick at 8:16 PM PST - 122 comments
Who owns your name? I could not find this story on the web. I saw it in print. It appeared in an article by Geoffrey Vanderburg in the Friday Sept. 29th Edmonton Journal.
Here's an excerpt.
"An internet company with links to the National Firearms Association has been ordered to give up a Web site using Justice Minister Anne McLellan's name. Smartcanuk Internet Services has been told to transfer control of annemclellan.com to Canada's justice minister, McLellan's Edmonton lawyer said Thursday"
Al Green, owner of Smartcanuk... says the ruling sets a "very very dangerous precedent."
"Sandra Sellers, an eResolution arbitrator...., decided Monday to grant transfer of annemclellan.com and annemclellan.org to McLellan."
McLellan was able to demonstrate that the domain name was identical or similar to a trade-mark, that Green had no legitimate interests in the name, and that the name was being used in bad faith....
Green argues McLellan is not a trademark, she's not famous and his use of the Web site does not constitute "bad faith"
I think I have to agree with the arbitrator on this one. If there is one last sacred domain we should be entitled to it is our own names. Although in the case of the John Smiths of the world that position is likely to take some heat. Any thoughts people?
posted by daddyray at 6:40 PM PST - 8 comments
Great Nader flyer, which really points out which issues are being ignored and is completely suitable to be put under the wipers of parked cars at your local Super K-Mart.
posted by skallas at 3:11 PM PST - 1 comments
The Tecno AO electromagnetic bioprotectionoscillator is an almond shaped disk that is 1.2 inches long and attaches to the casing of your cell phone or pager. It emits a magnetic oscillation that may counter the potentially harmful effects of the radiation produced by cell phones.
(quoted from the FAQ)
posted by tamim at 2:46 PM PST - 11 comments
Gnutella -- DeCSS Redux? Anyone catch the
Salon article on gnutella? Speculation by Cary Sherman, general counsel of the RIAA, on how to bring gnutella down includes the following:
"...There are also people disseminating the program, and people who are using it to disseminate materials. There could be legal strategies to address that."
Once again people merely "disseminating" an otherwise legal program are -- the phase I believe is -- actionable.
posted by leo at 1:34 AM PST - 8 comments
September 29
Giddy 3. Not to be confused with the other egg-centric Amiga 500 series of games, Codemaster's "Dizzy". Of course.
posted by holloway at 10:53 PM PST - 1 comments
The Little Graphics App That Could! If you like vector illustraction programs, you should definitely check this out! Xara is a zillion times better than Illustrator, which is major bloatware. The last version of Xara, version 2, was only 7 megs. I've used it for years now. It's lean, fast, and never crashes. Now Xara Ltd. is about to release a new version. You can download the public beta for free at their website. If you buy a copy, it's only $145!!!
posted by grumblebee at 1:38 PM PST - 6 comments
Small town America. In the wake of a scandal involving a hidden video camera taping in the girl's junior high locker room, teacher Dennis Curtis and Assistant Principal Gary Ferguson have been recommended for dismissal.
So what's the problem? Curtis and Ferguson are the whistleblowers, not the alleged culprits. Harry "Noonie" Red Eagle Jr., seen positioning the camera on one of the tapes, has resigned. His father is the superintendent of the school system, and recommended Curtis and Ferguson be fired.
posted by lescour at 9:04 AM PST - 1 comments
Chicago's online crime tracker allows you to see a map showing all reported crime within a 2 week span for any intersection in the city. Type in Grand & Dearborn and set it for 1/2 mile to see the truly astounding amount of crime that happens in River North. No wonder I eat at my desk.
posted by thirteen at 12:24 AM PST - 12 comments
September 28
Baby killing accomplice in trouble with law again. This news item seemed to have fallen through the crack. I am tempted to make some sociological comment about the criminal mindset of people who resort to frivolous baby killing, but, I am too ourtaged to write anything remotely coherent.
posted by tamim at 10:27 PM PST - 3 comments
As conspiracy rumors go, this is a doozy:
World Oil Magazine is hearing from its Mid East sources that the Arab states are so angry with Gore's choice of a Jewish running mate that they're going to cut back production in the hopes of swinging the election to Bush. I'm sure the Gore team gave plenty of thought as to how Lieberman would play in Peoria, but I wonder if they considered how much he would antagonize Damascus?
posted by nikzhowz at 8:50 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
September 27
The best Comic in recent memory NOT written by Scott McCloud Remember the Real World in San Francisco? That was the one with Pedro dying of AIDS and Puck getting kicked off. Well, I just read a book about Pedro and Judd's friendship called Pedro and Me. This is the best comic I have read since 'Jar of Fools' or 'Understanding Comics.' I read it today at lunch and it moved me to tears. Anyone who knows someone with AIDS should read this book.
posted by DragonBoy at 10:37 PM PST - 2 comments
Should I be flattered? Or am I just overly paranoid? I used to cover my page with a cartoon
dabitch ranting about ads, and huge "mail me" buttons (well huge buttons everywhere). It was some kind of faze I was going through last fall - In January this year BrandEra opened it's door - and they have the
ad gal. This is kind of funny. :)
posted by dabitch at 8:58 PM PST - 1 comments
Greek Ferry Sinks; 64 dead. I know this is just another news item to you guys. But to us Greeks it's a travesty (besides a tragedy obviously). Crew watching a soccer game; ferry hits charted, lighted rock; ship was 7 years past European legal lifetime age (to help some shipping companies get fatter profits). Only thing that might get reforms in shipping safety moving is, well, media attention. So, there.
posted by costas at 8:05 PM PST - 1 comments
Free TiVo? Heck, I want a Free Car. I don't care if Amazon is selling Cars online now, I want my next car to be free. This company gives you a free car, wrapped in advertising, for up to two years. Not a bad deal considering the cost of cars these days. You can get a Ford explorer (no word on the tires) or a VW beetle. I'll be watching my TiVo TV from the back seat!
posted by DragonBoy at 6:18 PM PST - 15 comments
I want to be injected with respirocytes. They're little mechanical devices that do the same job as your red blood cells, but they're 236 times more efficient.
This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time, and could certainly be very useful. Among the examples they give for people who could benefit are firefighters (too much smoke? just hold your breath!), deep sea divers (tune the respirocytes to remove N2, and no more long decompression times), and choking victims (this one should be obvious).
posted by CrayDrygu at 1:24 PM PST - 10 comments
Zap those wolves into submission - Conspiracy buffs beware. This one's true.
So the U.S. Agriculture Department, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Department are conducting experiments involving livestock, electricity and wolves in Montana - on a ranch owned by Ted Turner.
Apparently those nasty wolves have a habit of biting livestock, so to stop it they are strapping electric collars on the wolves to train them with an electric jolt when they get "within biting distance" of a particular calf. The "trained" and somewhat damaged wolves are set to be released into the wilds in October.
Beautiful counter-quote for this is from a USA Today article about Ted Turner's preserve. Turner is quoted as saying "You can see what we're doing, right? We're just getting out of nature's way. That's all we want to do - get out of the way and let nature go back the way it was." (halfway down page)
posted by kokogiak at 1:12 PM PST - 1 comments
Talk About Media Bias While some people complain about "most weblogs' liberal bias" (even though the infamous Drudge gets more web traffic than all the blogs combined), here is one of Hollywood's most liberal corporations (with top execs throwing lotsa bucks at Gore) deciding that the way to succeed at radio in one of the most liberal media markets in America is to fill a talk station with voices that start with Limbaugh and turn right (and frequently cross the line between simple Incorrectness and out-and-out bigotry). Explain THAT in 250 words of less (No TiVos will be awarded).
Link lifted from Pop Culture Junk Mail's Alt-Log, an entertainingly biased mediumposted by wendell at 10:54 AM PST - 8 comments
Are you Pee-Shy? YOU ARE NOT ALONE. In fact, recent studies show that about 7% of the public, or 17 million people, may suffer from this social anxiety disorder. Often referred to as Pee-Shy, Shy-Bladder, Bashful Bladder, etc.
It could be more people than that. And the majority of them are men. But how many have the guts to step forward and publicly admit it? Not many.
posted by da5id at 10:08 AM PST - 16 comments
The DropLift: A wonderful culture jamming project. I was involved in the early stages, back when it was initially being discussed. I can't believe that they actually made it happen! The
DropLift site itself provides all the materials necessary to get involved.
posted by aladfar at 9:43 AM PST - 8 comments
i happened to catch bush on larry king live last night. what i found to be especially interesting was his body language. talking about women, being popular with women, winning the women's vote - shaking head "no" the whole time...having women in top level govt. positions - shaking head "no"...he shook his head "no" a lot. talking about reagan and what a great president he was - shaking head "yes".
posted by centrs at 12:57 AM PST - 14 comments
September 26
What if they had a school shooting and no one reported it? *sigh* I watched the typical US evening news broadcasts hoping to see some coverage of this event, but there was none. I don't want to believe that the reason it went underreported was because it happened at an "inner city" school and the media has the perception that "those people kill each other all the time, what's one more?" but the small, dark, pessimistic part of myself is starting to believe I'm right.
posted by likorish at 4:27 PM PST - 10 comments
S26 protests get violent. Once again, those bloody radicals are blamed for turning a nice nonviolent protest bad. I seem to recall someone dismissing my criticism of the movement for not being on the same ideological page.
posted by norm at 1:11 PM PST - 19 comments
They always get this wrong, and it's really annoying. Shouldn't a paramilitary group headed by a marxist be considered "left-wing"? Somehow the definition of "right-wing" seems to include everything the media finds distasteful. Over and over again, I see Hitler referred to as "right-wing" when he was very much leftist. The word NAZI is an acronym for the German Socialist party.
posted by mildew at 10:05 AM PST - 15 comments
C.J. Hunter failed drug tests. What I don't get is why the IOC brought this up now, months after it happened, and right when the track and field events are going. He's not even competing in the Olympics. He's there to support his wife, Marion Jones. What purpose is served by announcing this information except to bring doubt on Marion's efforts to win her events. The IOC and the media have done a bad thing here, in my mind, it confuses and disgusts me.
posted by cowboy at 7:35 AM PST - 15 comments
No way but to decommission the World Bank and IMF -- BusinessWorld columnist Walden Bello explains why the policies of these two institutions have magnified world poverty and inequality, and traces the opposition movement from its origins in the Global South, to Seattle, Prague and beyond:
"The historic Prague Spring of 1968 spelled the beginning of the end of the Soviet Empire. Will Prague, the site of the World Bank-IMF annual meeting for the year 2000, join Seattle in December 1998 and Washington, D.C. in April of this year as one of the catalytic events ushering the beginning of the end of hegemony of corporate-driven globalization?..."
posted by johnb at 3:07 AM PST - 8 comments
September 25
How bizarre. University of Texas at Dallas "Words and Phrases that Offend Students" (mostly blacks and women). So stunned, I don't know what to think of it.
posted by owillis at 11:09 PM PST - 20 comments
Miadora is no more, and in the source of its farewell is this:
<!-- My thanks to all of the great managers, merchandisers and technologists who made Miadora and exciting and challenging place to work. Ted A. McCarty, Web Producer, tmccarty@mindspring.com -->
It's touching, even if it can be parsed as: "I need a job!" Sort of like the caterer passing out business cards in the Titanic's last moments.
posted by luke at 8:27 PM PST - 1 comments
TiVos are raining from the sky! Jason Kottke won, so I entered. I won, and while my piece was obviously a piece of literary genius, it wasn't *that* good. I think we need to do a scientific study -- who can write the stupidest "Why I Want a TiVo" essay and still win?
posted by benbrown at 6:04 PM PST - 169 comments
interesting freenet newsbite at wirednews -- but could something so (potentially) powerful really get folded into IE and netscape? i assume this would be something like setting up your browser to launch the app from a freenet:// link ala hotline. or would microsoft and aol actually work to integrate a file sharing app? i tend to doubt it.
posted by subpixel at 4:18 PM PST - 1 comments
Ken Kesey's page, in which: He offers to burn copies of about two hundred minutes of recordings that he made of Neil Cassady, driving the Magic Bus, in 1964. Here's the kicker....no credit cards, no C.O.D.....you order them, they send them, they bill you, you pay them. Trust me, folks, if you're a fan of the Beats, this is amazing stuff. Hearing Kerouac's muse rant into the night while ballin' down the highway is a rare treat indeed.
posted by Optamystic at 2:50 PM PST - 1 comments
West steps up threats against Yugoslavia -- "The Democratic Opposition of Serbia has signed up to the platform of the G17, a think-tank of market economists again funded by National Endowment for Democracy [an adjunct to the CIA]. This economic blueprint calls for the adoption of the German mark as the main currency for all of FRY, following in the footsteps of the Montenegrin republic last year. Other proposals include reduction of public spending, ending subsidies on food and other forms of social protection. The continuation of US and European economic sanctions on the FRY is being cynically exploited to bludgeon the population into accepting these terms as the condition for ending their economic isolation...." [more...]
posted by johnb at 12:19 PM PST - 11 comments
NBCi relaunches as probably the most boring, blase portal site I've ever seen and their stock
goes up? Is it just me, or does it look like they bought the site from "Al's Do It Yourself Portals"?
posted by owillis at 10:55 AM PST - 7 comments
scheming she-devils, alive and well. the lincoln park trixie society (based in chicago) sounds like a joke: how to bed a rich man, where to find the best puppy-groomer, where to live, ad nauseum. but unfortunately...it's not. good for a laugh (or a cringe).
posted by patricking at 10:17 AM PST - 32 comments
September 24
Barenaked Ladies use ingenuity instead of lawyers to outfox Napster users. Singer Steven Page can be heard in one download telling users: "Although you thought you were downloading our new single, what you actually were downloading is an advertisement for our new album."
In retrospect, it's so clever, it's obvious. We're all smacking our heads thinking, "Why didn't I think of that?" Appropriating the Napster system to recoup valuable advertising targeted to those who actually like the band is so elegant in its simplicity, and everyone but the would-be copier is satisfied. (Until they BUY the album)
posted by mikewas at 2:42 PM PST - 8 comments
Live Russian TV Interesting even though I don't know what they're saying. Rumor has it that you can also see some
live Olympics action there too
posted by owillis at 12:50 PM PST - 3 comments
I don't know how serious
this guy is, but he does have a comprehensive
Fag Facts page. Some times I don't know what is good satire and what is just ignorant hate propaganda.
posted by tamim at 11:32 AM PST - 22 comments
Invasion of privacy may be offset by cheaper insurance If this doesn't scare the hell out of you you don't drive a car.
Sure it is an excellent idea for fleet management and for personal security.
But do we really want insurance companies to know everything about our driving habits and whereabouts? Think about it. They can dictate your rate based on your speed, and ultimately can base your claim on data collected while you were driving.
Big insurance is one of the most financial powerful forces out there, next to big tobacco. They are already invasive, requiring blood samples and medicals for life policies. Imagine if they could collect the intimate details of our daily lives.
posted by daddyray at 11:03 AM PST - 12 comments
Will this
Kritter be the next step in web cams? It uses firewire, instead of USB and claims to offer 30 fps with no compression. Is the video phone here (and functional)? -g
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 7:09 AM PST - 10 comments
Astronomers are looking at the
biggest sunspot in nine years, but what's a lay-person to do?
Slashdot posters recommend projecting the sun's image onto cardboard through reversed binoculars, or just looking at the sun in the morning or evening when it doesn't hurt so bad. By clicking anywhere on the screen you agree not to hold me responsible for stupid things you do that damage your eyes.
posted by sudama at 1:05 AM PST - 1 comments
September 23
Is this really a sport? Anyone remember those McDonalds commercials showing "Future...Olympian's in a given sport" when the baby's were performing similar routines? Little do your parents know. They would tell you to stop jumping around on the furniture. Now just tell them you are looking to be the next Olympic champion.
posted by brent at 8:09 PM PST - 29 comments
Now, I have nothing but respect for Carly Fiorina. She's done an outstanding job at HP and deserves to be rewarded. But I've never understood this business of having the CEO also be the chairman of the Board.
The most important job that the Board of Directors has is to decide when to fire the CEO, which I emphasize that Ms. Fiorina does not deserve in the slightest
at this time. But that time may eventually come, as it does for all CEOs, and how the hell do you do it if the CEO you're trying to fire is also the chairman of the Board of Directors?
Would Corel be in the mess it's in today if Michael Cowpland had not been on its board?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:12 PM PST - 8 comments
Child taken from parents over gender politics. Born Zachary Lipsomb, this six year old child has insisted since the age of two that she's actually a girl named Aurora, and her parents have tried to support her on this -- but the state of Ohio is convinced she's sick and needs treatment.
posted by webmutant at 10:54 AM PST - 21 comments
Old entry, but I like it. "The stores lining the waterfront streets sell what I can only describe as pre-processed trash. This is stuff which possesses an intrinsic value so low that you could legitimately buy it from the store, walk out on the sidewalk and drop it into a trash can. I stopped counting yesterday, when I passed 14 stores which sold some merchandise, which I could view from the sidewalk, that was identical to the merchandise to the store next to it. Fourteen stores in a row, selling the exact same sorry-assed shot glasses with the Golden Gate Bridge painted on it."
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:50 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
September 22
Reuters 09/22 6:34PM -- NBC, which in August bid for the exclusive right to host a presidential debate, said on Friday it would broadcast a baseball game instead of the first showdown between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush. "We have a contract with major-league baseball. You don't seriously think we have any interest in democracy, do you?,''
said NBC spokeswoman Barbara Levin. "If we were offerred more than the value of the baseball contract, we would be televising it.''
posted by sudama at 11:03 PM PST - 6 comments
Homophobic decision in my home state is to be appealled. Requests to change one's name are very rarely denied. This judge has really stepped over the line by worrying about "the appearance of [the requester] being married. . . [and] . . . how this would appear to our neighbors, to our shopkeepers and to society at large."
posted by fpatrick at 2:08 PM PST - 4 comments
"Gee... I'm kinda thirsty... and I think I gotta pee, too... Lemme see, there's this big hotel's lobby, those five or six restaurants... and this hole-in-the-wall-bar with the entrance you could walk right by and not even know it was there, whose patrons all seem to be men casting admiring glances at each other across the room... Seems OK to me..." Yeah, buddy,
I believe your story...posted by m.polo at 12:39 PM PST - 1 comments
Remember
those PSA's the tobacco companies said violated their agreement with the federal government? Well,
they're back, and harsher than ever
I saw the body bag commercial last night at 3 am . . . when all PSA are played.
posted by alan at 11:28 AM PST - 7 comments
There must be something in the water where I live. From the same county that brought you the
2-faced cat, we now have "
The Case of the Bread-Molester." Samuel Feldman had been charged with damaging up to $8,000 worth of baked goods, including 175 bags of bagels, 227 bags of potato dinner rolls, and 3,087 bags of sliced bread over three years.
Mr. Whipple would be proud.
posted by quirked at 7:55 AM PST - 3 comments
It seems to me that this kid is only getting in trouble because a bunch of people are sore losers. Aside from the legal trappings that they used to frame him, don't you think that people stupid enough to take financial advice via postings on Yahoo (or other sites) shouldn't whine when they turn out to be bogus? thoughts?
posted by ooklah at 6:42 AM PST - 9 comments
September 21
Building A Great DHTML Chaser -- by Aaron Boodman. I've built one or two of these - what Aaron calls "Chasers" - you know, the little floating layer that follows you on a web page as you scroll. I was never too thrilled with the outcome for various reasons, but Aaron really put in extra efforts to resolve DHTML animation issues and came up with a fairly slick bit of code. A sample can be seen
here.
Whether you think they're annoying or useful, the based-on-refresh-rate animation info is still fairly useful.
posted by kokogiak at 5:06 PM PST - 10 comments
Click for Clean Air. "Canada argues that clearcutting our old-growth forests and replanting them, and building nuclear reactors in developing countries, is more effective than reducing fossil-fuel pollution. It also wants to buy "pollution rights" from countries like Russia that are burning less fossil fuel because their economies have collapsed."
Not that Canada's alone in the above, and not that the solution is a click away, but you have to start somewhere. For those of you who aren't Canadian, David Suzuki is a respected scientist and public figure who's been worth listening to since...since...forever.
If you're not Canadian, you can still participate.....
posted by ajh at 4:57 PM PST - 2 comments
Democratizing the Mass Media -- A way to finance
Metafilter without banner ads: -- "Under Baker's proposal, the government would grant every adult citizen an entitlement to direct the U.S. Treasury to allocate a specific sum of money (let's say $150 per person per year) to a non-profit communications organization, or portions thereof to organizations, of his or her choice. The allocation could work something like the current taxpayer check-off to political parties, except that non-taxpayers would be entitled to participate as well as taxpayers -- just pick-up a form at the post office or at the ballot box, fill it out, and hand it in."
posted by johnb at 3:49 PM PST - 23 comments
Voting Green where it's white? Nader's strongest showing by far is in Alaska, apparently: polls put him at 17%. Now my knowledge of Alaska is mainly drawn from
Travels with Samantha, so I'm intrigued by the reasons for his support? Is it strictly the environmental issue (although plenty of people are in Alaska to exploit its natural resources) or because, as a friend said, "that's where all the crazies go?"
posted by holgate at 12:06 PM PST - 3 comments
Why Big Oil Backed The Fuel Protests In Europe -- "Watched from a distance, the oil blockades in Britain look like spontaneous popular uprisings: regular working folk, frightened for their livelihoods, getting together to say, "Enough's enough." But before this David and Goliath story goes any further, it deserves a closer reading...."
posted by johnb at 1:01 AM PST - 11 comments
September 20
We've heard of intelligence and emotional intelligence, but what about spiritual intelligence?
Gary Zukav is spiritually
brilliant. He frequently appears on Oprah, from which I assume (accepting all implicit risks) that his audience consists largely of women. Which is too bad, because men have quite a lot to learn from this man as well, and it would do a world of good (being, unjustly, a man's world) if every man did.
posted by sudama at 11:18 PM PST - 39 comments
I want one of these. There's an airplane which comes around here every once in a while and circles overhead for perhaps half an hour, then leaves. I think it's a realtor. (There's been a lot of building in this area recently, with housing developments going in and stuff like that.) It's damned annoying and I get tired of listening to it. Sometimes it's a helicoptor instead.
If I can't have one, then I want
one of these instead.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 8:26 PM PST - 8 comments
Wall of Sound Soundbooth goes public beta
I've never seen an Internet radio site that gives you so much control over what you're listening to. Stations are streamed, but on a track by track basis, so you can pause and skip tracks. You can create your own stations to mix genres, specific albums, specific artists or even specific
tracks. Am I naive? How does it compare to other Internet radio?
posted by dan_of_brainlog at 11:43 AM PST - 18 comments
I like
this site, but it looks an awful lot like
this other site. Have you no respect for the property of others, Stewart? Must you steal to make yourself feel good?
posted by ericost at 8:51 AM PST - 29 comments
Barnes And Noble steps up for sloppy seconds. After Amazon elected not to renew their agreement with Yahoo, Barnes and Noble replaced the online bookseller as Yahoo's premier advertiser for books. It is uncertain as to whether or not Yahoo and BN have had the grueling discussion regarding the number of partners they've each shared in the past, but it looks like an optimistic relationship regardless.
posted by Hankins at 6:51 AM PST - 4 comments
Brilliant and funny
Gore Vidal Interview (Real Audio).
Question: "Al Gore is a distant relative of yours. Do you see a debate going on between him and Texas Gov. George W. Bush?"
Answer: "No, no, there's no debate going on right now. They are essentially the same on the basic issues. They are both candidates of corporate America. They're paid for. How did George W. Bush, a man who has officially [advocated for] education, but has carefully avoided education for himself, end up where he's at? He's about the most ignorant man who has ever run for president...but he got $70 million from corporate America, and they expect him to pay them back." (partial transcript
here)
posted by johnb at 2:09 AM PST - 15 comments
September 19
Equatorial Guinea has a new swimming star: 22-year-old Eric Moussambani. He won his heat in the 100m freestyle,
despite never having learned how to swim at all until January, and having never even raced more than 50m before this race. His winning time: 1:52.72. Since that's about a minute more than it takes most Olympians, it should be noted here that his two competitors had been disqualified for false states, so he had the pool to himself. You really need to see the video of him "swimming" to believe it. But it's obvious that Sydney now has its own Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards!
posted by aaron at 10:48 PM PST - 8 comments
Is everyone asleep at the wheel? "The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill to normalize trade with China, marking a turning point in a half-century of stormy relations between the world’s strongest power and its most populous nation.
In return, trade relations will no longer hinge on China’s human rights record, a link that has long irritated Beijing." It is a sad day for human rights in China.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 8:56 PM PST - 25 comments
The author of
The Anarchist Cookbook wants is to go out of print, but his publisher owns the copyright and keeps pumping them out. I had always heard the CIA published it, and filled it with faulty recipies designed to kill anybody messing with bomb materials.
Might be another twist on recent copyright discussions, but what do I know, I paid for my copy of
Steal This Book.
via
BoingBoingposted by thirteen at 3:51 PM PST - 7 comments
Manny Poppins? Would you hire a male nanny? I don't see any problems with it as long as there is a good back-ground check.
posted by da5id at 9:51 AM PST - 17 comments
We're overdue for a big disaster. "Two years without a harvest? It would probably bust civilisation. People would survive all right. It really would cut us back, and that is the sort of thing nobody really prepares for. It's not some ecological poison or GM foods or nuclear that is going to get us, it is going to be some perfectly ordinary natural event."
Almost enough to make me stock canned goods again.
posted by norm at 8:15 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
September 18
How to tilt at windmills. What these guys don't undestand is that Apple can't make money selling software. They develop software so that they can sell the hardware on which it runs, which is their real profit center.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:15 PM PST - 32 comments
No Refuge: He fled the war in Congo for America. The I.N.S. greeted him by putting him in jail. -- this week's
nyt mag has stories of people who have been in new york city for one year. this one is especially powerful.
posted by palegirl at 5:32 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
Censorship on a public Blog? - When someone posts a link to content that others find shocking to a public blog (in this case Flazoom.com) how should the blog-master handle it. This got me thinking about how we handle the content at MeFi - which is better? Removing the post a few layers, or bereating the poster with lots of mean comment posts?
posted by DragonBoy at 4:54 PM PST - 24 comments
Wired has an interesting interview this month with David Boies, chief counsel for Napster and DOJ vs. MS (unfortunately, this link just points to the fact that the content won't be online until 10.10. With the debate about Napster everywhere (including september 16th below), I thought it helped to clarify exactly what Napster's position is. I thought John Perry Barlow's (EFF) essay was helpful as well.
posted by Sean Meade at 11:40 AM PST - 1 comments
September 17
Another innovation from Digital Convergence: In addition to having a pretty much useless product, CueCat's product-release-to-privacy-violation rate is spectacular! To quote their email:
Dear :CueCat member,
We've been alerted to a security breach in our system that may have
exposed certain members' names and email addresses. As one of the members who may be susceptible, we want to explain to you how you may be affected and what we are doing to rectify the situation.
(more...)
posted by anildash at 9:28 PM PST - 1 comments
What is up with this? I thought the weblogging community was the only one to engage in petty bickering? What I want to know is, while I can understand having a free Geocities site or something just to flame somebody, utterly
removing your paid-for site stikes me as a bit off-kilter.
posted by mrmorgan at 6:20 PM PST - 9 comments
Time Out finally reveal their new direction with their London Shopping Guide, running off Oracle and Vignette. This is a bit of a cheek, but I was wondering what people thought of it. It's not really self-blogging because although I worked on the site, I had a fairly minor part to play, and I figure that "popular site gets substantial new direction and new technology" still counts as interesting and valid under Metafilter rules. Slap me down if I'm wrong.
posted by barbelith at 1:51 PM PST - 3 comments
$14,000 a year for devout Christians attending "top 5" graduate and professional programs, in order to seed national leadership with believers. An alternative approach is
Ave Maria School of Law, founded by Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan expressly because they believe that Christian professional education is essentially impossible in the elite institutions.
posted by MattD at 1:33 PM PST - 10 comments
UK Big Brother ends, and people actually care. (Hint to US producers: An ex-nun who converted to hedonistic lesbianism beats a guy with one leg and a roofer whose idea of individuality is dying his hair.) The thing I'm most interested in, though: Is it true that the UK's National Health Service refuses to do heart and lung transplants on the, um, genetically inferior?
posted by aaron at 11:00 AM PST - 5 comments
Got to get this (just couldn't find a better link on Adobe -- the press release is very dry) which basically means finding someone else who's bought it and copying it of them.
So, given the in depth discussion of design copyright here, where do we stand when it comes to software?
Who can honestly say they haven't got any major pieces of software on their machines that they didn't pay for? And has any private individual ever been caught with same?
posted by James Bachman at 3:41 AM PST - 29 comments
October Suprise. The Wall Street Journal is holding a contest asking readers to predict what Clinton will do to influence the November election.
posted by argus at 12:05 AM PST - 4 comments
September 16
Elian: the Movie - coming soon to small screens everywhere. My TV is riddled with commercials for this epic, touch-your-heart-and-soul 4 hour saga of Miami's favorite son.
posted by tomorama at 10:07 PM PST - 5 comments
Lars' statement to the Comittee - I don't know how many lawyers co-operated for writting this, but it's the art of writing at its best. It almost convinced me to stop trading .mp3 files. What do you think about Lars' speech?
posted by kchristidis at 12:42 PM PST - 24 comments
I have no doubts that people will get exercise from watching
this workout video, but somehow, I don't think it's going to be aerobics. Check the reviews, I didn't even know there was a genre like this. This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen at Amazon, anyone seen anything weirder?
posted by mathowie at 10:25 AM PST - 13 comments
September 15
7-Eleven has Gore, Bush and No Opinion cups. Then on their website is a 7-Election page using daily sale results from 5000 of their stores, you can see which cup is being chosen the most. (The cup gets scanned at the register and each cup has it's own UPC.) Right now the natonal cumulative results are 20% Gore 20% Bush and 60% No Opinion. Very neat idea, they also have links to register to vote for real.
posted by thirdball at 8:08 PM PST - 6 comments
So have you Americans (and others) see it yet? As a cynical aussie and fan of television kitch (eg. I like watching the Eurovison song contest over a pizza every year), I'm interested in people's opinions of the opening ceremony. What images and impressions did you get.
posted by lagado at 5:21 PM PST - 20 comments
Something about this really makes me mad. I saw the trailer for this movie and was totally blown away. They even have a cool url. So I decided to check it out... boy was I disappointed. Sure, they have a neat intro.. but half the stuff on the site is "Coming Soon" and the link for the trailer doesn't even work! How frustrating is that?
posted by epoh at 2:38 PM PST - 3 comments
Proprietary URLs? How many of these non-standard prefixes does
your system support?
Just off the top of my head with the programs I have running right now, I can handle
nap: aim: hotline: and a few others, not counting all the ones built into my browser.
More inside...
posted by anildash at 8:51 AM PST - 2 comments
New Go? Either Go.com really, really sucks, or I am just unable to find where the "new" go.com design is residing. And why doesn't c|net ever put related links in their articles? Do they assume I will just stay within c|net all day long?
posted by Brilliantcrank at 7:55 AM PST - 12 comments
My grocery store tells me my wife's cycle - A few months of shopping after Kroger started its 'Plus' card and they know more about my wife than her children do. Yep, we have been using the Kroger card for a while now, but no more. For the last two months I have received a cupon for tampons only days before my wife needs them. Big Brother is not on TV, he is in the supermarket. Join the boycott at nocards.com.
posted by DragonBoy at 12:26 AM PST - 19 comments
September 14
Customization of a page was never easier. Mark Newhouse of
iBook, iMac, iBlog, has come up with this really cool way of skinning the blog using CSS via a nifty adaptation of a script by
Porter Glendinng. Now if we could mix this concept with
Jason's modification via cookies, you'd get a skinnable site rather than a skinnable page using just CSS and Javascript.
[Found the site via Zeldman]posted by riffola at 8:45 PM PST - 4 comments
A friend of mine has started posting a [true]
story on ThemeStream. Interesting reading (if somewhat smutty and violent).
Plus, ThemeStream's royalty rate goes down soon, so read them now and help him suck even more VC money :)
posted by faisal at 3:35 PM PST - 8 comments
I'm not sure whether I'll actually use it, but the
:CueCat Reader that
Wired Magazine sent me for free is pretty neat. It is essentially a scanner that plugs into my computer and can "read" URLs in special bar-codes on ads or any UPC or ISBN. I scanned my thesaurus and a box of paper clips. Simple things ...
posted by quirked at 12:46 PM PST - 18 comments
This girl is, literally, fighting for her life. Her name is Kaycee, she's 18, and she is desperately fighting cancer. And if everyone could put down their mice, stop typing on their keyboards, close up their browsers, and think
one good thought for this girl --
and her family -- maybe, hopefully, it would help.
Halcyon's
set up a message board for her. If you're so moved, you know what to do...
posted by metrocake at 12:36 PM PST - 58 comments
Yesterday's New York Times says Gore is still in the lead (story gone to New York Times archive hell). A story today says they two are neck-in-neck and Bush has lost his comfortable lead.
Polls are worth about a nickel apiece when you burn them for firewood and can then turn down the thermostat.
posted by Mo Nickels at 11:18 AM PST - 1 comments
You can't copyright the design of a web page in the sense that it's a "form." You can copyright your graphics and text; you can probably copyright your HTML. You can trademark the name of a font, but you can't copyright its design.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
posted by Snarl at 8:33 AM PST - 4 comments
The lead that Al Gore once enjoyed in most presidential polls in wake of the Democratic convention has all but disappeared, according to the latest
Voter.com Battleground 2000 poll released Thursday. The survey reports that the vice president’s numbers are slipping and George W. Bush is back on top for the first time in weeks.
posted by aaron at 7:31 AM PST - 22 comments
Anyone remember Studio Archetype? Man, were they ever great!
Today, as I was looking through the
"Official Site of the Sydney 2000 Games", I was saddened, at how sick it all is, I mean, little 30x50 banners for texaco? or for something called "win big, click here", it all might as well be "Click here for live nude 18 year olds" for all I care. Design?
There is no design, well, a good one anyway, all you see is this little 2point verdana type that shows the news. Seeing, ofcorse, how
no one else does this sorta thing. NOT AT ALL.
All I can do now, is dream of how good the Nagano site looked. And days of Archetype have been long over. Maybe it's sometimes good to look back, you see how every single site has become the same, link news here, provide in-depth stories here, place important graphic here.
posted by tiaka at 7:20 AM PST - 8 comments
September 13
More Evidence of Corruption , as if it were needed:
"Sorry you missed the vice president....I know" you "will give $100K when the president vetoes tort reform, but we really need it now. Please send ASAP if possible."
posted by johnb at 11:24 PM PST - 5 comments
If you could
steal* any web design, which one would you take?
When I get around to it, I would like to do something like
this,
this or maybe
this.
*Stealing is defined as taking only the design codes and not any content off of the site without the designer's permission.
posted by tamim at 8:57 PM PST - 12 comments
DotComFailures Lives Up To Its Name! May I use this occasion to jumpstart a meme for a new acronym: T.O.F.I. - Too Obvious For Irony.
Also notable for the article's use of F***edCompany.com's full name, but then, didn't a rumor find its way into this very forum that FC and DCF were related?posted by wendell at 5:02 PM PST - 2 comments
Rat? Is anyone else seeing the words "Matt Rat" or "Mall Rat" when they open or refresh the the main page of Metafilter? Just a quick flash of the two words, above and below the first entry on the page. Or am I drinking too much Pepsi One today?
posted by paddbear at 3:58 PM PST - 7 comments
FCC: Open up AOL’s messaging "Federal regulators could force America Online Inc. to open its popular instant-messaging service to rivals as a condition of approving its acquisition of Time Warner Inc." I think this is good news for instant messaging, but I'm never really comfortable with the government forcing such things. What do you think?
posted by ericost at 3:46 PM PST - 15 comments
Has Google finally sold out? You may have already seen this via
Robot Wisdom - evidence that Google has monkeyed with their search engine to give preference to partner Yahoo!'s pages.
I guess it had to happen sooner or later, but I'm sad. Anyone know of a better search engine on the horizon that still has integrity?
posted by straight at 10:06 AM PST - 8 comments
Interview with Winona LaDuke Here's a nice little gem. We all know about Ralph Nader, but here's a fascinating discussion with Ralph's choice for VP. Requires RealAudio. (from www.nativecalling.org)
posted by snakey at 8:30 AM PST - 2 comments
Lame I was hoping to start my day by either purchasing the OSX beta or begin the long d/l process. Unfortunately, 30 minutes later and Apple's Store servers have yet to complete the process due to 500 Internal Server errors and 4 timed out sessions. I thought OSX Servers were better than any in the world? So forget it. Steve, you can have your eye candy.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 7:34 AM PST - 22 comments
wow! Make sure all is quiet around you.
Unplug the phone.
Feed the dog with cat so they both will be silent.
These are 8 min 30 during which you will not want to be disturbed.
posted by Baud at 5:19 AM PST - 10 comments
September 12
Considering Copyright Mr. Powazek brings up a very good point about copyright and how it applies to web design vs. John Perry Barlow's idea's about how copyright applies to the future. From the tone of Derek's last few posts, I'd say someone's been ripping off his designs...again.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 5:52 PM PST - 34 comments
OS X had better kick ass. For me this is Apple's final curtain call. I have been a life-long, devoted follower of the Great Apple and now it is time my devotion paid off.
Cool hardware is great Steve, now lets see the goods on the inside.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 1:00 PM PST - 16 comments
DEA Raids Lakota Sioux Industrial Hemp Crop The DEA destroys 1.5 acres of Industrial Hemp with "No detectable THC content" - and devastates a native american family farm. This is the only place I found a story about the Raid. Can you say news blackout?
posted by snakey at 12:23 PM PST - 2 comments
The Washington Post speculates on
the future of Canada. More directly, they question whether it
has a future. Is Canada doomed to eventually join the United States?
posted by aaron at 11:51 AM PST - 25 comments
Sectarian politicians often claim that the First amendment doesn't mandate separation of church and state, but history differs with them. Maybe voters should stop listening to self righteous politicos praying on street corners.
posted by norm at 11:51 AM PST - 3 comments
"Space Survivor" deal is cut to the tune of 40 million. Watch in drooling wonder as perky americans from every age/race/sex demographic go though the trials of a "Survivor" race to be an astronaut- on Mir!! Wasn't Mir supposed to be ditched in the ocean years ago?
posted by metasak at 11:22 AM PST - 7 comments
Wen Ho Lee release delayed, again... as the case falls apart against him, the feds manage to secure a single plea of guilty and arrange Dr. Lee's release after 9 months in solitary confinement. How do you feel about this? Is the an example of the "Evil Empire" scapegoating a minority?
posted by Dean_Paxton at 10:56 AM PST - 14 comments
"Moodwatch" now in Eudora 5.0 "Moodwatch" is, apparantly, something that "watches" for offensive language in your e-mail and then rates your mail accordingly.
According to Eudora, "MoodWatch can detect aggressive, demeaning or rude language in the email you send and receive by looking at both individual words and complete phrases."
I find this to be pretty disturbing. Okay, so right now it can't be used to censor, and right now it can be turned off. But suppose, at some point in the future, it
can be used to censor, it's on all the time, and your employer is monitoring the content of everyone's mail to ensure that no one's offending anyone else?
And who decided on the standard for offensiveness to begin with? If you look in their example, use of the phrase "what are you thinking?" was enough to get the highest "offensiveness" rating. What the
fuck??!!
Oh, damn. There's those three chillis.
posted by metrocake at 9:24 AM PST - 13 comments
Where Are The Hollywood Conservative? Does a liberal cabal of Hollywood executives destroy the careers of conservative performers? Or, is the conservative philosophy (opposed to change, antiquated morals...) just too boring for artists and performers?
posted by Doug at 8:12 AM PST - 23 comments
Smashing Pumpkins encourage piracy "The Smashing Pumpkins printed just 25 copies of their new album - but they've asked fans to make MP3s, please. Reportedy they're flipping the bird at their label, Virgin"
posted by dilok at 6:40 AM PST - 10 comments
September 11
Does anyone really dig the new MSN? I am not a member of the Church of Microsoft but I do really like what they have done with the new MSN. I'm not talking about just the web site but the overall experience with the MSN Preview 2.0. I think they may be in a position to really give AOL a run for the money.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 3:17 PM PST - 13 comments
Friends, family seek "Left Eye". If my friends referred to me as "Left Eye" I would have dumped them, too. But seriously, how does someone famous just disappear like this, especially in celebrity-crazed America?
posted by kristin at 12:35 AM PST - 6 comments
"The knowledge of the poor is being converted into the property of global corporations, creating a situation where the poor will have to pay for the seeds and medicines they have evolved and have used to meet their own needs for nutrition and health care." -- Vandana Shiva lectures on
globalization and poverty.
posted by sudama at 12:22 AM PST - 5 comments
September 10
Yesterday I went to a local Comic Book Store here in Houston, Texas. I was looking for the hard to find '
Death Row Marv' figure that recently made the news across
the nation. After I asked to see the figure (it was kept behind the counter) and dicided that the price was right, the sales person asked me if I was a policeman. I told him I was not and asked why. He told me that the Death Row Marv figure is very popular with the
Houston Police Department. The officers like to have them on their desks and in their squad cars - scary huh?
posted by DragonBoy at 10:53 PM PST - 3 comments
Does GW's great Texas education system really work? Teachers say Texas has given up on normal school subjects in favor of test taking strategy in order to produce nice round numbers for politicians. Kids spend the school year preparing day and night for massively hyped state wide tests instead of actually learning. Is this any way to educate our children?
posted by tomorama at 8:09 PM PST - 26 comments
Western Union's site is down, as
hackers have accessed their "secure" database. Western Union's only suggestion so far is to tell all customers to cancel their credit card accounts. Is anything
really secure on the internet? Do you trust amazon to hold your credit card numbers, Wells Fargo to keep your checking account private, and Kozmo employees not to pilfer your credit card numbers for fun?
posted by mathowie at 6:30 PM PST - 8 comments
It's odd that people reacting against
globalisation
should try to stop the forum meeting in Melbourne this week. It is working to solve the problems they are protesting against, warns the Swiss intellectual who is founder and president of the World Economic Forum.
posted by murray_kester at 3:53 PM PST - 29 comments
Jim Munroe is a zine publisher in Toronto who wrote a couple of small novels, got one (
"Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask") picked up by Harper Collins, and got out of his contract to self-release
his latest book.
I don't know if it surprises anyone that the mainstream book scene is about as non-lucrative and power-consolidated as the music world is, but he's posted all the gory details, as well as a detailed and friendly
how-to for self-publishing.
posted by chicobangs at 1:07 PM PST - 4 comments
Knight to be fired? I know some can find the news at other links, and the story is still developing, however, I at least thought he would last one more year, and retire on his own. Zero tolerence is enforced and the University warned him. I just wonder if he will be hired anywhere else.
posted by brent at 10:47 AM PST - 16 comments
Fire Marshall
killed
at Italian Grand Prix.
I hope the banked track at the new Indianapolis track doesn't kill anyone. Formula
One has never raced on a banked surface before.
posted by tomcosgrave at 10:31 AM PST - 5 comments
September 9
Big Brother Mutiny? The Most Boring Show in History finally gets somewhat interesting with the houseguests
all deciding to walk off on Wednesday...
posted by owillis at 5:29 PM PST - 11 comments
Two highschool seniors are looking for corporate sponsorship to finance their college education. "Imagine your logo on our hats or shirts as we travel the country being the very first corporate sponsored college students."
Creepy.
posted by ar0n at 8:47 AM PST - 25 comments
Music IS Commerce. Awright. I'm sick of this. It is
beyond trendy to lump in Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Backstreet etc. as "non-music" because they're "corporate" and exist to make money.
So? What's the big deal? It's fun music. Why is it there's one generation who refuses to acknowledge what the masses like? Why is it as soon as something reaches critical mass, it is no longer of any "artistic" value?
posted by owillis at 2:22 AM PST - 39 comments
September 8
MC Hawking in da ho-use! Damn straight! You don't know Da Good Doctor till you get his phat beats in your ass. Or something. Check out
the MP3s, yo, and move while you groove to the discography, news and pictures. Wicked science by day, masta gansta rapper by night. Byatch.
posted by dan_of_brainlog at 11:53 PM PST - 9 comments
Bike Messengers Love IndyMedia -- Bike messenger Harim Veracruz says that the IndyMedia site has been "a godsend" for him and his colleagues. "All the messengers are using it," he said. "There's a map of the city, information on who is going to be where, what parts of the city to avoid, how to get from here to there fast, even restaurant recommendations. It's a very helpful site." Veracruz said he's even "gotten educated as to why these people are so angry" by reading some of the political news on the site, and is considering joining a protest walk to the U.N. on Friday.
posted by johnb at 7:13 PM PST - 1 comments
I am hallucinating. Or, this is just peculiar. One of those things that makes me feel as if there's a big joke that everyone else gets but me. (see also, everyone blogging the little-girl-with-the-bike recollection.)
posted by lileks at 12:46 PM PST - 13 comments
hot steamy xxx action. "It just happened,''; "The encounter lasted just a few seconds. That's all that happened.''; "There was contact"; "It's incomprehensible just thinking that the president of the greatest and strongest and most beautiful democracy in the world would dirty his hands..."; "I understand chance encounters, but this is..."; "One can only think that the same stupidity made him [Clinton] have sex with Monica Lewinsky,"; "Was it SATISFACTORY for both partners?"
How does Clinton do it? He gets all the ACK-SHUN.
Ohh, and "As for Castro, who has privately called Clinton "a good boy," he left the Wednesday luncheon to deliver a scathing address on the evils of wealthy nations."
posted by tiaka at 10:18 AM PST - 10 comments
Looks like any other 'amateur' web page with a popular culture slant, is actually the precursor to a BBC TV series about a dot com startup, the site is intended to be a tie-in to the series and viewers will be able to follow the progress of the site while they follow the progress of the characters behind it on TV. More
here.
posted by Markb at 8:30 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
Rebecca Blood's essay on weblogs starts out with a history and explanation of the genre, but moves on to a discussion of how keeping a weblog can empower its author. I'm honestly surprised nobody else has already posted this link.
posted by harmful at 6:44 AM PST - 9 comments
Greg does it again, in an extremely well-written piece on lawyers slapping geeks with a good ol' Cold Fish of Reality.
(thoughts inside)
posted by cCranium at 6:04 AM PST - 8 comments
September 7
Episode II photos posted. I can't find a link, but there is a rumor that there is a stolen script for sale as well. Lucas is ready to throw his stormtroopers at anyone who tries to sell it.
posted by thirteen at 11:59 PM PST - 5 comments
Pretentious blogger Jorn Barger is calling his potential $1,000/yr banner ads/messages an "Experiment." I guess a guy who lives like a
monk in West Rogers Park can't bring himself to admit he's doing business not experiments. Nice blog though, except for his rabid fascination with people living in front of webcams, its not art its
voyeurism. posted by skallas at 10:54 PM PST - 15 comments
Is it just me, or was that the
worst MTV Video Music Awards ever? And Britney Spears did a lot to cement her reputation as a ... well, I won't say it since it isn't nice to use such words on the front page...
posted by aaron at 9:48 PM PST - 37 comments
Yo dawg, peep Bush, he be up and on that whitecrib thang. Believe it Yo. My pager goin off when I saw this word scribble...
Bush (shaking his head mournfully): "Dude, dude. You must be loaded, Holmes. You're cut off on the bong, ace. Your lameness is of a sameness. If every time you're sippin' on a 40 you start quoting Grouchy Marx, my man, you can't be hanging at Epsilon House. Major league bummer!"
True. True.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 9:30 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
A historical rebuttal to the currently rabid NRA. Michael Bellesiles analyzes gun culture throughout American history and finds a number of points that disagree with Chuck Heston's version of 'Merica. Not surprisingly, the NRA is livid. At the risk of posting flamebait, will people ever be able to approach this issue from a reasoned, educated perspective, rather than responding with knee-jerk reactions?
posted by solistrato at 7:23 AM PST - 5 comments
What's wrong with corporate globalization? And why protest on s11? -- "If that is the future the World Economic Forum is pushing us towards, it's not a future we want to go to. There are no unions, the working conditions are appalling, the living conditions are appalling and there is an appalling environmental situation."
posted by johnb at 2:25 AM PST - 26 comments
September 6
More Amazonian sneakery - Depending on a number of factors, among them the type of browser you are using, Amazon will charge you a different price for the same DVD. According to Amazon it's all in an effort to better serve the customer.
posted by Nyarlathotep at 2:08 PM PST - 16 comments
E/N Everything / Nothing is a type of
blog I've just become aware of, with the running theme buying young guys that blog
porn and violence. What do you guys think?
posted by owillis at 11:06 AM PST - 15 comments
Rape Theory Too Much To Take Is it really hard to understand why Randy(!) Thornhill's theories, about rape of women, its origins and what Mr Thornhill derives from all of that, are offensive and sexist? Or is it really about freedom of speech?
posted by piefke3000 at 8:48 AM PST - 13 comments
"the biggest anti-doping program in Olympic history." ``I'm very pleased,'' International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch said of the doping withdrawals. ``I'm very happy. This is very good news. It shows the new system for detecting doping substances will work very well. ... The objective is to have clean games."
Detecting doping? With what? Like a radar, err.. dopler?
posted by tiaka at 8:30 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
Britain's Traffic Problems Sounds like the UK is trying its hardest to catch up with the US in auto-dependency. The Highways Agency is planning to spend US$1.75 billion on "intelligent transportation" improvements, but local motoring organizations are pushing for more lanes as traffic continues to worsen. [more inside]
posted by daveadams at 6:06 AM PST - 14 comments
For people with a sick sense of homour: The makers of
Conarde 2000 present a new game called
Elevator Action. The rules are simple. Just try to stop the free fall of an elevator in a burning TV tower. What's next? A submarine game?
posted by arf at 6:01 AM PST - 3 comments
September 5
Training toddlers to compete. This reminds me of the Dilbert episode where Dogbert holds training sessions for toddlers. I know parents often want to realize themselves through their children, but aren't we going a bit overboard here?
posted by jedrek at 11:21 PM PST - 4 comments
These guys built a case for their computer out of a refrigerator they got at WalMart, and they're cooling the CPU using alcohol at -18 degrees. The lengths to which some people will go to overclock are beyond belief. No word on how fast the mother is, though.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:02 PM PST - 7 comments
Does Amazon deserve my statistics? I knew
this was coming but I was hoping that it would all turn out for the better and Amazon would come to their senses. So the question is, are
Wish Lists worth my data? Will ownership of my spending habits, phone number, address, credit card, browsing habits, and email address become the new price for using the Internet as a consumer?
posted by Brilliantcrank at 10:40 PM PST - 3 comments
Our religion is better then yours, Naa, Naa! “The truth of faith does not lessen the sincere respect which the Church has for the religions of the world, but at the same time, it rules out...a religious relativism which leads to the belief that ‘one religion is as good as another’,” it said.
posted by john at 10:35 PM PST - 14 comments
Jerry Springer guest pulls a Jenny Jones. A guest of the show is suspected of killing his ex-wife, who also appeared on the show earlier this year. I'll admit the Jenny Jones case was worse (getting the guests drunk, etc.), but you know Jerry doesn't really care about his guests when he says things like "The show is television ... this is life and death." What about the guests' lives and how the show affects them Jerry? Is that just television too?
posted by mathowie at 8:38 PM PST - 6 comments
Protect American Snow!
Actually, it's "Protect Americans Now," and will give you a Customized Missile Threat Profile based on your Zip Code. 94110 (San Francisco) is at risk from at least 17 different types of missiles!
posted by peterme at 2:39 PM PST - 9 comments
Put down that remote! The MPAA wants to equip the next generation of video recorders with copyright-protection technology, to allow broadcasters to prevent you from recording their shows.
posted by harmful at 12:15 PM PST - 12 comments
Major league asshole: Y'all have probably heard about this already, but I'm thinking it'd make for good discussion. While I'm always happy to hear of dirt on Dubya, is this really all that big of a deal?
posted by aladfar at 6:45 AM PST - 10 comments
September 4
.ca for us normal folk Many of the old, tight-assed restrictions on the .ca domain are being lifted this fall. The change might be annoying to some existing .ca owners, but a blessing for us regular Joe canadians that wanted to be .ca'ed, instead of .com'ed.
Internic.ca is taking prebookings now.
posted by mkn at 10:21 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
Just DON'T do it. In findings that Nike admitted were "concerning", the Community Aid Abroad-Oxfam Australia report revealed that, not only were female workers only paid $2 per day, despite legal entitlement to menstrual leave each month, they were forced to pull down their pants in front of the factory doctor to claim that leave.
posted by murray_kester at 8:18 PM PST - 5 comments
Imagine that. A chat-enabled telephone... What's next - a broom-enabled vacuum cleaner? A walking-enabled automobile? A hand-scrubbing-enabled washing machine? Next thing you know, they'll want to move all television transmissions to wire, and move all telephony to wireless. Uh, wait...
posted by quonsar at 9:19 AM PST - 8 comments
Amazon's new privacy policy makes any information you give them a saleable asset. I could have sworn that I saw a link to Amazon's new policy here on MeFi, but now I can't find it. Anyway, when I saw the link my first question was how the old and new policies differed. Then a friend pointed me at this CNNfn article. Whaddy think? Gives me the creeps...
posted by silusGROK at 9:05 AM PST - 4 comments
NHS to ban Ritalin for under-fives? See, I agree with this, but it's politically divisive. The commission on clinical excellence has made a couple of controversial decisions to restrict the prescription of expensive new drugs: Allegra for flu, beta-interferon for MS, and now Ritalin. When there's such demand for the latest and greatest drugs, fuelled by the marketing budgets of the pharmaceutical companies, how do we balance the hopes and wishes of patients against the economic restrictions and clinical scepticism of the authorities?
posted by holgate at 2:43 AM PST - 4 comments
September 3
Lizard Tech has these proprietary formats for digital documentation and images that compress really well (3MB versus 150MB PDF etc) and produces better output. According to
Communication Arts Sept/Oct issue there is a new image standard they're working on with other groups called jpeg 2000 that looks pretty cool with better images overall.
posted by greyscale at 8:40 AM PST - 5 comments
Too stupid to be president. The
Ethical Spectacle writes a condemnation of George Bush which is really a condemnation of the Republican Party which is really a condemnation of the American politcal system. What I wonder is, would the Democrats fare any better under the same magnifying glass?
posted by mrmorgan at 8:22 AM PST - 3 comments
September 2
So I was paging through the special section of Indymedia devoted to the upcoming
Melbourne protests, and came across a page about Melbourne University. Apparently their Student Union voted to skip the S11 protest because they thought too many flat-out anarchists and professional agitators were trying to take charge. So someone
posts on Indymedia that this is a case where "democracy was ineffective." What? You lose the vote so there must be something wrong with voting?
posted by aaron at 3:32 PM PST - 5 comments
Burning Man. Does anyone really care anymore? It always seemed like a bogus 'artsy' version of Spring Break to me. Plus it pisses me off that a bunch of rampaging fools trash a perfectly good desert.
posted by Mr. skullhead at 12:34 PM PST - 5 comments
'Commercial' 'blogs I think there are
more out there than we think. Obviously the
format is well suited for breaking news, but are blogs by nature supposed to be non-commercial? I don't think so, but I may be in the minority... (of course, I have a commercial one of my own, so I may be biased)
posted by owillis at 7:12 AM PST - 5 comments
Weblogs.. Personal ones. Who has them, who reads them? Purely out of interest - personal not community ones. Do you have one? You don't have to tell us the address. Why do you have one? Does your friend have one? Do you read it? Have you ever thought about making one?
And lastly, do you find them interesting?
posted by justnobody at 2:09 AM PST - 18 comments
September 1
While I can see how this is beneficial, it still completely creeps me out. Oh, sure, I'm getting used to the fact that I can buy anything and everything on the Internet now, but the idea that I can go to DiseasedOrgans.Amazon.com and toss a coupla pounds of cancer-ridden spleen into my electronic shopping cart is just a little too much for me...
posted by m.polo at 11:47 AM PST - 4 comments
spoofmail A dangerous but hugely amusing pasttime. You could start world war three with this
posted by scum at 6:52 AM PST - 8 comments
Clicking for consciousness Depressingly reductionist. It is wrong to think that if we can't tell the difference between a binary machine in a box and a person in a box we should behave as if there were no difference.
posted by scum at 6:41 AM PST - 3 comments
The recent thread on
genetic engineering sent me on a path to find some
astounding photos. Ignore the ugly yellow background and just click on links to photos. Pages like this make me want to put more effort into my lepidopteran interests.
posted by plinth at 6:23 AM PST - 2 comments
Wen Ho Lee Singled Out... ...but not on
MTV, oh no no no. Amazing how long it's taken for the case against him to fall apart. It's been like water torture, the steady drip of accusations. The first clue that it wasn't gonna happen was the idea that he might have been
padding his résumé. Dig how one of the agents compares the snafu to an earlier spy case where the suspect was white. I think we're looking at one, maybe two mid-level resignations over this -- and zero noise from the presidential candidates.
posted by allaboutgeorge at 2:52 AM PST - 2 comments
