"everyone knows the consequences of killing three Americans" from the guy who hung out with the taleban - and one of the few who actually makes the right call on al queda: "But instead of just always knowing that it was a small Mickey Mouse outfit, now they made it into this huge global conspiracy, which it isn't. Which has created all kinds of problems in the Muslim world because we're sort of demonizing the wrong people. The bad guys are living in America and Saudi Arabia and Germany and the U.K.; they're not sitting in caves in Afghanistan." - say what you will about the guy, hes got b*lls that clank when he walks.
posted by specialk420 at 10:34 PM PST - 26 comments

A Brief History of Goosestepping. Shades of Busby Berkley perhaps? Or something much more sinister? To some, goosestepping is a fun and comical activity. But what about these guys?
posted by The Michael The at 8:52 PM PST - 8 comments

Jasmina's Joy of Bellydancing is a fantastic site that will make your head spin(.mov) with links to every aspect of the world's oldest dance. Maybe you just want to learn a cool party trick(.mov) or lose a few pounds(.mov). Whatever the reason, whether you're young or old, you too can learn. So make your harem pants and cook up some henna, but forget about the navel jewels. Need a little inspiration? Check out these great vintage galleries. Hurry up though because the 13th Annual Belly Dancer of the Universe competition is just weeks away! Questions? Ask the Gypsy.
posted by snez at 8:07 PM PST - 12 comments

How many different Starbucks outlets in North America have you been to? Less than 3,381? If so, this guy has you beat. See Winter's caffeine-propelled roadtrip stats and peruse his mind-numbing photo gallery.
Do not try this at home; you WILL end up looking like this.
posted by PrinceValium at 7:56 PM PST - 31 comments

The moon does not exist! This is no lie. Until recently, I, too, believed in the traditional, establishment view of the moon. But any thinking person, untainted by the biases imposed on us by the controlled media, will have no choice but to reach the conclusion I did once faced with the facts described in this account.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 7:53 PM PST - 25 comments

Ireland's road signs are notorious for getting travellers lost, but the Irish government has announced that it will finally do something about it.
posted by mcwetboy at 5:49 PM PST - 22 comments

How many of the world's top 100 sexiest women have tattoos?
posted by mediareport at 5:01 PM PST - 44 comments

Have you filled out your Arbitron Diary? Radio watchfrogs Arbitron more or less provide the nooses in which Conglomerations hang themselves with (or, switch formats from R&B to Country.) Perhaps your station is losing "ears" and you'd like to beat that system? First, don't play too much music. It gets in the way. Also, your morning show might want to adopt that old sawtooth sawhorse The Birthday Game! ("People perceive their chances of winning a substantial prize in the Birthday Game to be 1 in 365. Plus, most folks think of their birthday as lucky.") Diarists love it. If you're feeling especially sub-moral you should announce the wrong time to your listeners, a sneaky move deemed Time Warping (PDF) that in effect cuts a hole in the space-time collusion, not to mention your competitor's 'Drive-By' block. Arby's getting wise, though: The new-for-2003 The Portable People Meter, a snap-on privacy preventing prosthetic that records "invisible and inaudible" radio station cues removes that pesky Human Element from the diaries.
posted by neustile at 3:39 PM PST - 10 comments

Can't afford those expensive fertility treatments? Just beg for money on the internet! This childless couple has even set up a CafePress store to help bring in cash so they can try to have a baby. Childfree advocates react with expected disdain.
posted by beth at 3:38 PM PST - 13 comments

Hippos Roam Colombian Drug Lord's Abandoned Ranch.
posted by 111 at 3:24 PM PST - 23 comments

"We are male and female. We are artists, athletes, students, and business owners. We have depression, DID, PTSD, eating disorders, borderline personalities, bipolar disorder, or maybe no diagnosis at all. Some of us were abused, some were not. We are straight, bi, and gay. We come from all walks of life and can be any age. We are every single race or religion that you can possibly think of. Our common link is this: We are in pain. We self-injure. And we are not freaks". 29 days until March 1 - National Self-Injury Awareness Day.
posted by nthdegx at 3:03 PM PST - 42 comments

The critique of mass society has been one of the most powerful forces driving consumerism for more than 40 years. This is an article written by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter for This Magazine. They raise the question; if we all hate consumerism, how come we can't stop shopping? They say that consumerism is not based conformity, as seen in movies like Fight Club and American Beauty, but is based on distinction.
posted by Quartermass at 2:55 PM PST - 24 comments

Dr. Kraw's Guide to Better Living for Young Adults at Risk.
posted by holloway at 2:34 PM PST - 15 comments

The State of the Union & The Super Bowl: Two of the biggest television events of the year occurred at almost the same time in 2003, and from where I'm sitting, each seems about as relevant as the other. Both events are pageants of performance and strategy, featuring a lineup of carefully selected special guest stars, played to an audience that mostly supports one of two sides, whose preference is largely dependent on geographical and demographical influences.

So, now that both are over, for your continued entertainment, I present The Real State of the Union, as posited by the good folks of the Atlantic Monthly. If no more relevant than the other two, I hope this one's at least more enjoyable.
posted by grrarrgh00 at 1:22 PM PST - 12 comments

Bound For Victory? One of the trio of "Joe Millionaire" finalists has starred in dozens of kinky bondage and fetish films that feature her being handcuffed, gagged, hog-tied, and bound with duct tape, The Smoking Gun has learned (Disclaimer: While accompanying images contain no nudity or flagrant violence, viewer discretion might be indicated).
posted by LinusMines at 12:55 PM PST - 21 comments

The Met Museum has an online gallery exploring the work of Da Vinci. It allows you to zoom in and out on specific parts of a work thus enabling minute exploration. It's stuff like this that makes the web indispensable.
posted by Fat Buddha at 12:27 PM PST - 6 comments

national philistine is putting a very neccessary look at iraq and it's people - an american in iraq, the blog on the front page is one of the most humanizing things i've read in months.
.. part of the iraq peace team
posted by Peter H at 11:32 AM PST - 10 comments

The warm water ocean currents of the Gulf Stream are why London rarely gets snow yet Boston is fridged despite London being as far north as Montreal, Canada. New weather modeling research from Columbia University may turn this long-held belief on its head; London can thank the Rocky Mountains for its mild winters. Good news for the rest of Europe too in case the Gulf Stream stops due to Arctic melting.
posted by stbalbach at 11:00 AM PST - 22 comments

Don't believe in evolution? Don't get a recommendation. The Justice Department has been asked to look into the case of a Texas Tech biology professor who has made it clear that you won't get a recommendation from him if you believe in creationism. In his online notes to students, Dini writes "If you set up an appointment to discuss the writing of a letter of recommendation, I will ask you: 'How do you think the human species originated?' If you cannot truthfully and forthrightly affirm a scientific answer to this question, then you should not seek my recommendation for admittance to further education in the biomedical sciences." The Liberty Legal Institute, calls the policy "open religious bigotry." Texas Tech supports Lini, saying the decision on whether to recommend someone is a personal one. Clearly, it should be a professor's call on whether to give a student a recommendation or not, but did Lini make himself a target by laying out this criteria this way?
posted by Gilbert at 9:16 AM PST - 182 comments

Keep off the grass These days in London it's okay to smoke grass but not okay to walk on grass. Perhaps it's not all that surprising given that there's been a material breach. Any other current examples of civil liberties being eroded quite so outrageously where you live?
posted by skellum at 7:52 AM PST - 25 comments

The lady with the mystic smile - over the years, she's been stolen, lampooned, revered in song (mp3 file) and the subject of mystery and mania for many. Her visage has been been the inspiration for socks, cookie jars, bathtub toys and lots of kitsch and pop art. What's the secret to the world's long standing love affair with this lady?
posted by madamjujujive at 7:37 AM PST - 32 comments

Do Dogs Have History? For those of you who participated in this discussion a while back (I linked here to the discussion, but be warned the FPP link from that discussion is to a gruesome, sad picture), the author of this book review elucidates many of the reasons why some of us love dogs as much (if not more than?) people. via Robot Wisdom
posted by vito90 at 7:34 AM PST - 26 comments

Welcome to the Russian Wodehouse Society[more] Fellow admirers of the inimitable P. G. Wodehouse have created The Wodehouse Society, Wodehouse information, and The Everyman Wodehouse.
posted by hama7 at 7:13 AM PST - 14 comments

The greatest TV show you will probably never see: Aunty Jack, a ten-foot tall, boxing-glove wearing, motor-cycling, moustached cross-dresser, was the star of The Aunty Jack Show, which ran for thirteen episodes in 1972-73 on the Australian Broadcasting Commission TV network (and was the first show broadcast on Australian TV in colour). Many of the original episodes have been lost (but records of them exist). Re-release on video or DVD of the remaining episodes is tangled up in copyright issues. The 1974 album Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong was re-released on CD, and still seems to be available. It includes such classics as 'Fish Milkshakes' and 'Teenage Butcher' and the song 'Farewell Aunty Jack', which was a number 1 hit in Australia. Some samples can be found here. There were spinoffs from Aunty Jack, most notably the Norman Gunston Show, with Norman playing the prototypical terrrible interviewer and inspiring the much later Ali G, Dennis Pennis and many others. I was two years old when the series aired: Aunty Jack's threat at the end of each episode, that: 'If you don't watch next week, I'll rip your bloody arm off!' meant that I never, ever, missed it.
posted by chrisgregory at 5:02 AM PST - 33 comments

Jeff VanderMeer is not only a great author of weird sf, and a creator of the mysterious city of Ambergris, but has an alternative official site where he makes merciless fun of himself and the whole idea of author web pages. The site includes bad poetry, a secret subsite of the "webdesigner" Garry and a strange alien baby project, just for starters.....
posted by inkeri at 3:21 AM PST - 3 comments

Jesus H. Christ: That's H for Historical. A person of interest to several schools of inquiry, historical whereabouts unknown, somewhere between palimpsest and projection. You have your Jesus Seminar, for one. Earl Doherty asks Was there no historical Jesus? Mystae's The Jesus of History and Archeology is a bit more on the X files tip. A decidedly nonbeliever overview is Infidel.org's The Search for the Historical Jesus. And Gospel.Net provides Jesus of Nazareth in all gospels known to have been written within 200 years of Jesus' birth, a number considerably larger than the canonical four.
That should be enough for a start. Now go in peace and sin no more.
posted by y2karl at 3:01 AM PST - 26 comments

Vonnegut Weighs in on the State of the Union. As a writer and artist, have you noticed any difference between how the cultural leaders of the past and the cultural leaders of today view their responsibility to society?

Responsibility to which society? To Nazi Germany? To the Stalinist Soviet Union? What about responsibility to humanity in general? And leaders in what particular cultural activity? I guess you mean the fine arts. I hope you mean the fine arts. ... Anybody practicing the fine art of composing music, no matter how cynical or greedy or scared, still can't help serving all humanity. Music makes practically everybody fonder of life than he or she would be without it. Even military bands, although I am a pacifist, always cheer me up.
posted by crasspastor at 2:51 AM PST - 80 comments