MetaFilter

A Confessional for Pilots - To improve aviation safety in America, NASA runs the ASRS, a service that collects voluntary, anonymous reports on aviation-related goofs in exchange for certain immunities and suggestions of clemency. Every month selected reports are published in the Callback newsletter, showcasing the full spectrum of factors that lead flyers to bad decisions: distraction, bad habits, overconfidence, poor planning, "get-home-itis", and on and on...
posted by tss at 11:55 PM PST - 9 comments

Ivan Brunetti, in addition to drawing dirty little comics (nsfw) and illustrations, has a great collection of vintage photographs of models, both demure and not-so-demure (again, nsfw), Hollywood starlets, cats, and comics ephemera. Finally, he also has a blog featuring a Doodle-a-Day.
posted by Robot Johnny at 9:27 PM PST - 7 comments

Alice Williamson is bitterly resentful of the Union occupation. The diary of a 16 year old girl in Yankee-occupied Gallatin, Tennessee. Images of the actual diary and a text version with annotations.
posted by marxchivist at 8:52 PM PST - 21 comments

Typing...on a screen! Text (and cover image) of a 1973 issue of Radio-Electronics mag, showing a new fangled way of typing with a TV screen. I like how the mag is billed as "for MEN with ideas in electronics." Heh...
posted by braun_richard at 7:45 PM PST - 8 comments

[x] ok to transmit this posting into outer space (via space.craigslist.org)
posted by loquacious at 7:44 PM PST - 9 comments

The color photo was invented in 1903 by the Lumiere brothers, and the French army was the only one taking color photos during the course of the war.
posted by NickDouglas at 7:24 PM PST - 30 comments

So I finally got around to watching 24, Fox's Golden Globe winning prime-time show. I normally don't go for shows like that, but I'd heard about the controversy surrounding this season's story line. I was pretty damned shocked when the hero decided to spark up some electrodes and torture one of the terrorists to get information out of him. Apparently, this is nothing new for the show. Can anyone think of a precedent for this type of heroic depiction of torture? On a network tv show?
posted by es_de_bah at 6:27 PM PST - 100 comments

Constant Trek is the Australian husband and wife team of Gary and Paula Constant. On the 1st of August, 2004, they left London from Trafalgar square to walk to Cape Town in South Africa. It is a distance of over 10,500 miles, and has been four years in the planning.
posted by thebwit at 5:00 PM PST - 5 comments

Sequels, prequels and remakes, oh my... First Bugs, now Lamar. Having just heard that there will be a new Revenge of the Nerds movie next year, I really wasn't prepared for the coming onslaught.
posted by hellbient at 4:12 PM PST - 27 comments

An American paradox: Why so many families report being financially less secure even as the nation has grown more prosperous. The answer lies in a quarter-century-long shift of economic risks from the broad shoulders of business and government to the backs of working families.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 3:46 PM PST - 28 comments

What do The Passion of the Christ, Hero, Team America, and The Incredibles have in common? They're all among the Top 20 Conservative Films of 2004 according to the Liberty Film Festival. Naturally, they have a blog. Recent entries include free advice for the Oscars, like having Rush Limbaugh emcee.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 3:13 PM PST - 66 comments

The Percy Anecdotes Encompassing the Bar, Crime, Instinct, Shipwreck and much else.
posted by goofyfoot at 2:57 PM PST - 2 comments

Early Modern Texts. Versions of some classics of early modern philosophy, prepared with a view to making them easier to read while leaving the main arguments, doctrines, and lines of thought intact. Recently added: John Locke's Second Treatise of Government. Via Crooked Timber.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:58 PM PST - 6 comments

The Light and the Land
posted by Gyan at 11:35 AM PST - 12 comments

Where has Fiona Apple been? A fair question, and here's an answer. Seattle radio is now playing some new Fiona Apple tracks (you can download them here and here; and if those don't work, there's a mirror here) What can I say? I miss her particular brand of angst ridden piano pop. (via Waxy)
posted by indiebass at 11:21 AM PST - 29 comments

"... Giordano Bruno might have been a pantheist. A pantheist believes that God is everywhere, even in that speck of a fly you see there. You can imagine how satisfying that is—being everywhere is like being nowhere. Well, for Hegel it wasn’t God but the State that had to be everywhere; therefore, he was a Fascist.”
“But didn’t he live more than a hundred years ago?”
“So? Joan of Arc, also a Fascist of the highest order. Fascists have always existed. Since the age of . . . since the age of God. Take God—a Fascist.”
Umberto Eco in the New Yorker
posted by matteo at 11:06 AM PST - 36 comments

Now that's what I call a Jesus Freak. A movement out of Phoenix, AZ, that hotbed of fornication, to reform what it means to be a Christian. They've got some interesting ideas (even if they don't always do a good job of defending them), and of course there are people who like this idea and people who don't.
posted by saysthis at 10:23 AM PST - 37 comments

Optimus Prime Dies of Prostate Cancer "When it comes to prostate cancer, there's more than meets the eye," National Prostate Cancer Coalition CEO Richard N. Atkins, M.D. said. "Often times when one has symptoms for prostate cancer it's already in its late stages, that’s why early detection is so important."
posted by oissubke at 10:18 AM PST - 29 comments

"In politics, the impossible is the immoral." A surprisingly thoughtful essay on the "uniqueness of Palestinian terror" from, of all places, Tech Central Station. I found much with which to both agree and disagree in this article - and on such contentious issues, that's no doubt the case for all readers - but, I found that, in reading this piece, my neurons never stopped firing, which is a rare and unusual sensation these days. 'Tis interesting. Also attempting to deal across boundaries in the Mideast conflict: Bitter Lemons, which features two themed columns apiece by Palestinian and Israeli writers each day.
posted by Sticherbeast at 9:48 AM PST - 8 comments

You heard it here first, ex-soviet, a blog for all the soviet music fan in us all.
posted by drezdn at 9:48 AM PST - 18 comments

Our old friend and sparring partner Laurie Garrett has resigned from Newsday, citing the dismal state of contemporary journalism: "When I think back to the old fellows who were retiring when I first arrived at Newsday – guys (almost all of them were guys) who had cop brothers and fathers working union jobs – I suspect most of them would be disgusted by what passes today for journalism."
posted by IshmaelGraves at 9:35 AM PST - 10 comments

I've lost R2! [inspired by]
posted by Capn at 8:04 AM PST - 9 comments

In Topeka, Hate Mongering is a Family Affair. As the city of Topeka goes to vote on Tuesday for annual city council elections, one race is attracting national attention. Tiffany Muller, head of the Kansas Unity and Pride Alliance and first openly gay council member, is running against Jael Phelps (granddaughter of Fred Phelps), of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church. Add an ordinance that would call for specifically discriminating against gays and you have one of the most interesting local elections seen in decades. [this excellent post provided by a new member]
posted by mathowie at 7:53 AM PST - 33 comments

Be careful where you park. And you thought your morning was bad.
posted by zardoz at 7:29 AM PST - 37 comments

Well I'd vote for him. Or maybe not.
posted by 13twelve at 7:28 AM PST - 8 comments

How to Sell Your Book, CD, or DVD on Amazon [From Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools: he has a knack for asking the best questions]
posted by iffley at 6:59 AM PST - 14 comments

Miracleman is arguably one of the finest superhero comics ever made, but it has been dogged by legal disputes even in its pre-post-modern, pre-Alan Moore days, when it was called Marvelman. But the many fans and would-be fans of the modern comic have suffered greatly as a result of a big rights dispute which kept the existing work from being reprinted, so enthusiasts and interested parties have had to pay big bucks for the existing copies out there or console themselves with companion books (which also go out of print!).

But there is an end in sight! Neil Gaiman, one of the parties in the dispute, has good news to report.
posted by sninky-chan at 6:57 AM PST - 15 comments

Pupna is "the search engine puppy that retrieves EXACTLY what you are searching for (and absolutely nothing else!)" ;-)

This is a simple yet rather humorous search engine parody - are there any other good ones out there?
posted by Metauser at 2:40 AM PST - 20 comments

DOSBox is an open source project dedicated towards emulating DOS and many of the features of computers during DOS's heyday. It's not the only DOS emulation project out there either.

When emulation has been discussed before, it has often been considered the domain of video games. Of course, who says it isn't?
posted by Saydur at 1:02 AM PST - 22 comments

What's Going On In Balochistan? (part 2) Deception and treachery. Live and let die. The ultimate zero sum game. Repetition of bloody history: Call it what you may, something is happening in the Pakistani province of Balochistan that defies comprehension on any conventional scale. From a posting at The Agonist. According to the article Balochistan may be the key to future developments in Central Asia. Two former KGB agents report that Russian, Indian, Iranian and American agents are all supporting a resurgent insurrection which is becoming increasingly active. Why would these countries do this? Two easy answers: Oil pipelines and China's Gwadar Port.
posted by afu at 12:53 AM PST - 9 comments