A study posted at Adobe's website describes how traditionally Mac-centric tasks (rendering using After Effects, Illustrator & Photoshop) are all faster on a PC. These kinds of studies are a dime a dozen; what's interesting isn't which platform is faster, but that Adobe would host a page proclaiming the PC is the "preferred" platform for such tasks. Given the notoriously fickle folks at Quark, I would have pegged Adobe as the biggest Mac boosters in the third party software market. Are times changing?
posted by jonson at 9:40 PM PST - 49 comments

The Subway Page: Links to World Subway and Other Transportation Information Resources.
posted by hama7 at 7:49 PM PST - 7 comments

The World Trade Organization ruled today that the steel tariffs imposed by President Bush last year were illegal. Today's ruling, which was not a surprise, was the second major loss for the United States at the W.T.O. in the last year. The trade panel awarded Europe the right to impose $4 billion worth of trade sanctions against the United States for giving tax breaks to American exporters through foreign sales corporations. Well, at least we are winnig the war...
posted by bureaustyle at 7:16 PM PST - 22 comments

"Armageddon" is not a global conflagration gone totally out of control. It is, instead, the gathering of the armies of Satan in a place called Armageddon at the north end of Israel. Huh? Anyway, it's not like these guys are influencing American foreign policy. Heads up for April 8 when Tim La Haye, co-founder of the ultraconservative Council for National Policy, will release Armageddon, the latest installment in the Left Behind series of millennialist apocalyptic thrillers.
posted by jonp72 at 6:59 PM PST - 21 comments

Dear Raed was the subject of a short piece (Windows Media file) on public radio's The World this evening.
posted by mrbula at 6:43 PM PST - 8 comments

In anti-war protests in Australia yesterday, children as young as 12 were shown on TV coverage participating not only in protests, but in the violence that followed when the protesters attacked police. There has, in the past, been condemnation of those who bring their children along to protests, but this is the first time I have seen large numbers of children protesting on their own behalf - most of whom would have been truant from school and, judging by the way many hid from cameras, without the permission of their parents. Should we take them seriously, or are they too young to really understand what it is they are protesting against? [more inside]
posted by dg at 5:30 PM PST - 28 comments

Well at least the real estate industry is doing ok, I guess this is the pitch, you kill your wife and you need money for the trial, so how do you sell the house exactly?
posted by vincentmeanie at 4:39 PM PST - 3 comments

Where did those chemical and biological weapons come from?
”According to the December declaration, treated with much derision from the Bush administration, U.S. and Western companies played a key role in building Hussein's war machine. The 1,200-page document contains a list of Western corporations and countries -- as well as individuals -- that exported chemical and biological materials to Iraq in the past two decades.”

I’ve always been surprised that this type of report doesn’t get more attention. During the UN hearings I half expected the Administration to level with the world and simply say: ”We know they have the stuff because we sold it to them.”
posted by peebo at 3:13 PM PST - 32 comments

Al-Jazeera Banned From Nasdaq Floor. Despite having a history of questionable exclusives and recent debate over whether its imagery of POWs violates the Geneva Convention, the Arab news network still has a reputation for independent, outspoken viewpoints. Is this move a violation of free speech or a necessary security measure? Is Al-Jazeera a legitimate alternative to the Pentagon? Where makes an "embedded journalist" any different from an A-J reporter getting an "exclusive"?
posted by ed at 2:06 PM PST - 57 comments

Battlefield 1942 Propaganda Posters are very handy for the times when you need to call someone a smacktard.
posted by riffola at 12:40 PM PST - 18 comments

The Fetish Roadmap - a navigable guide to fetishes and their interrelations.
Also avaiable in poster size!  (~200K .gif)
[ NSFW ]
posted by woj at 11:43 AM PST - 28 comments

U.S.-German Rift Reaches Schoolyard Level "A Tennessee high school has called off an exchange with German students...The cancelation was another indication that the disagreement over Schroeder's anti-war stand is beginning to strain German-American friendship at its heart." [more inside]
posted by tippiedog at 11:24 AM PST - 25 comments

Adam Osborne could arguably be called one of the fathers of the laptop, having introduced the first commercially successful portable computer, the Osborne 1. Sadly, he passed away late yesterday. It's interesting to consider that those of us who use laptops day-to-day in our jobs owe a gratitude to one of the less-well-known pioneers of the tech industry.
posted by PeteyStock at 10:57 AM PST - 5 comments

War as Crime is a radio drama by Jugen Hesse, from Virtually American [via AudioTheater.com].

Avatar is the nom de guerre of an intellectual in a breakaway republic of the former Yugoslavia. His best friend, Radek, is a career soldier. Both belong to opposing ethnic groups, formerly living in peace, now at war, civil war. Radek is involved in ethnic cleansing operations against Avatar's ethnic group. ...

posted by hairyeyeball at 10:20 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Albinism in popular culture - the rarity of this inherited condition has fascinated people throughout the ages. People with albinism have been deified, vilified and treated as sideshow curiosities. The social burden of "being different" can be even greater for people of color than for caucasians. Online resources today afford better information and networking, and the opportunity for positive exposure.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:50 AM PST - 9 comments

Friday fun earlier than usual, but a nice distraction. Another avatar based virtual environment, but with flavor, if you like root beer.
posted by CrazyJub at 9:27 AM PST - 1 comments

The US Consitution really isn't that concerned with Freedom, nor Democracy (doesn't even use the word) - it's all about Property. Owning stuff, owning more stuff, and making sure everybody else leaves your stuff alone. Implications for foreign policy? Anybody? You at the back?
posted by klaatu at 6:24 AM PST - 35 comments

If life's a game, how do you win? We've been mapping our paths through life for centuries, but it took an American Civil War-era publisher to turn it into a boardgame (after Lincoln's new beard killed demand for his line of clean-shaven presidential portraits). In the age of the PC we can find the answer to life in games, live parallel lives in games, simulate the evolution of life in games, and search for everlasting life in games - but can they beat the dusty old box and dice? And what life lessons are all these games teaching us?
posted by rory at 3:22 AM PST - 14 comments

Shostakovichiana. Documents and articles about one of the twentieth century's greatest composers, some of them focusing on the problems he encountered working under a totalitarian system. Some highlights :- 'Do not judge me too harshly': anti-Communism in Shostakovich's letters; 'You must remember!': Shostakovich's alleged 1937 interrogation; About Shostakovich's 1948 downfall. More related material can be found at the Music under Soviet Rule page.
There are a number of interesting sites dealing with music expression and censorship generally. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum has a site on the music of the concentration camps - 'While popular songs dating from before the war remained attractive as escapist fare, the ghetto, camp, and partisan settings also gave rise to a repertoire of new works. ' Here's a Guardian article on the Blue Notes, who 'fought apartheid in South Africa with searing jazz'. Here's a page about the Drapchi 14, Tibetan nuns who 'recorded independence songs and messages to their families on a tape recorder' (and were subsequently punished). Finally, a page on records which were banned from BBC radio during the 1991 Gulf War (example :- 'Walk Like an Egyptian').
posted by plep at 1:12 AM PST - 18 comments

The Triumph of Fear- " just as every moment that we choose despair we deepen the likelihood of a world of war, so every moment where we choose to affirm love and generosity and our mutual interconnectedness we increase the likelihood of a world of peace and justice." ....
posted by thedailygrowl at 12:48 AM PST - 5 comments