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April 5, 2002
One Sweet Campaign To Fight Global Warming officially launched this month with a press conference a few days ago. Every day, human beings put 16 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmostphere. The campaign is a joint effort between
DMB and
Ben & Jerry's which uses the new, previously discussed
ice cream flavor as its vehicle, and asks you to pledge to lose 2000 pounds of CO2 this year through reasonable modifications to your daily routine. Help make the world a healthier place. [warning: flash/music]
posted by tomorama at 8:28 PM PST - 18 comments
Battle for the Holyland : A very interesting Frontline episode that outlines the tactics used by both the Israelis and the Palestinians in fighting their war. (Most PBS affiliates will rebroadcast the special soon.) Does anyone who saw the special have a reaction?
posted by yevge at 3:55 PM PST - 8 comments
In case you still thought there was still anything even slightly rational, even-handed and non-ideological about the Nobel Peace Prize: Members of the NPP committee that gave Shimon Peres the Prize in 1994 are now attacking him for not singlehandedly putting a stop to Israeli reoccupation of Palestinian territory, even though here's only a member of the cabinet, not the leader of the country. (Alternatively, they say, he should have quit.) Which would be okay, since what's going on now isn't very peaceful ... except that they've said not a peep about about the actions of one of the other two men that shared the prize that year, one Yassir Arafat. (The third, Yitzhak Rabin, apparently gets off the hook since he's already dead.)
posted by aaron at 2:52 PM PST - 12 comments
The Flag of the Internet (net.flag) and other interesting web-only interactive works of art via the
guggenheim museum. i thought this was a really interesting flash project that contains quite a few flags of the world, then dissects them and explains the meaning behind every element, then allows you to add that element and others to create your own customized flag. (click on the "net.flag" link, then go to "change net.flag" to customize)
posted by sixtwenty3dc at 12:22 PM PST - 4 comments
Our great grandkids are toast! A one kilometre-wide chunk of space rock could strike the Earth in 2880, say astronomers... "This is not something to worry about," said Jon Giorgini, a senior engineer at the American space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory... "That's plenty of time to consider the options - 35 generations, in fact."
posted by y0mbo at 12:10 PM PST - 12 comments
The new oddtodd cartoon I don't think that anyone has posted this yet. Oddtodd has released his newest cartoon. Man, I love that guy. He is da tits. (For those of you unfamiliar with that saying that means he is good/great/cool... you know, da tits.)
posted by aj100 at 11:50 AM PST - 18 comments
Men as an endangered species. A woman taking part in a controversial human cloning programme is eight weeks pregnant. Are we heading to an all-female society?
posted by semmi at 11:11 AM PST - 28 comments
Robert Jr. Lockwood is alive , well and still playing and recording.
He learned guitar from Robert Johnson when the latter was hanging with Robert Jr’s mom—hence the Jr—and cut his first 78 in 1941. Yet he’s just
2nd generation. From the first,
Henry Townsend is still alive and
playing, but at 91, doesn't travel that much anymore. Then there is
David "Honeyboy" Edwards —and
he knew Robert Johnson as well--and Tommy McClennan and Robert Petway, too, which is way more impressive to me. He still plays and records, too, in very recent times in the
company of Lockwood and Townsend. And in the third generation, you have
Johnny Otis , still alive and kicking, complete with
virtual mall.
Ike Turner was Howlin’ Wolf’s A&R and piano player when the Wolf cut his first sides for Sam Phillips’ company before Sun, RPM. A helluva a piano player coughAudionotfarfromherecough—apart from the
sordid details of his
personal life,
Ike Turner is, as the aforementioned, a giant in the history of that nearly dead style—the Blues. Alive, playing and recording. Hell, writing, autobiographies, too—
Edwards and
Turner, at least. (and whew, Turner’s is, well,
explicit…) If this were Japan, these guys would be registered as cultural treasures. So why’s everybody wasting their money on some overproduced, overhyped mere johnnyonenote journeyman (if not hack) like R.L. Burnside?
Not an obituary, by any means, but a heads up and props to the surviving masters—and you may have a chance to see the real thing someday soon. But note that, all in all, offer ends... sometime.
posted by y2karl at 11:10 AM PST - 23 comments
Arab world has to change or wither away Today's editorial from the Daily Star newspaper (Lebanon). "Arab countries are governed by systems and structures designed in another era, one that is never coming back ... It is a recipe for disaster whose results are on display for all to see." Is this just grass-is-greener longing, or a real argument for political and economic reforms?
posted by skyboy at 10:20 AM PST - 18 comments
The ThreeRing Web Mapping project adds a dot to a blank canvas showing your geographic location (or that of your ISP, as best it can guess based on your IP address). They've also got a code snippet to put on your own site that automagically adds your visitors to the map. The US is already clearly defined, Europe is getting there, and Oceania is coming into view. (They've also got one of them
Tag-Board thingies, which is painful to read for any length of time.)
posted by gleuschk at 9:10 AM PST - 26 comments
Oprah ends book club. According to
Publishers Weekly: "Today Oprah Winfrey announced on her program that she is ending Oprah's Book Club as it currently exists." (Sorry - only news so far is in email, no direct link to story yet.)
In other news, American publishing collapses. Jonathan Franzen abducted by angry horde of struggling novelists, is strung up by his genitals in Times Square.
posted by busbyism at 8:46 AM PST - 57 comments
bring out your clips! a decent website where it is possible to get hold of some of the very best of british humour including a large dollop of monty python, not bad eh!
posted by johnnyboy at 7:34 AM PST - 5 comments
Panda Dog! I don't know what kind of dog it is (and I thought I was a dog-knowing expert) but I want one. If anyone can help me out with the breed (if it isn't a bizarre dog-panda hybrid) I would be really quite grateful...
posted by rikabel at 7:31 AM PST - 18 comments
Is the
hiptop (flash w/ sound) by
Danger Inc. the technogeek holy grail?
It might just be. If it indeed costs $200, has unlimited internet for $25 a month, the separate GSM based cell phone plan has coverage in my area, and it ships in two months, color me sold. (more inside)
posted by machaus at 6:49 AM PST - 25 comments
Skeletor and Gang: What is it about the combination of stop-motion animation, He-Man action figures, and sped-up heavy metal that makes me laugh until I hurt?
"Skeletor, Mantenna and Grizzlor are having a party! Oh no! Moss-Man attacks! Defend us Squeeze!"
posted by emptybowl at 6:24 AM PST - 7 comments
WebLogs bring less traffic than major media sites. There isn't any surprize there, but what
kind of traffic does each bring?
...those Google/Scientology articles I wrote didn't get nearly as many links from blogs... but they were of much broader interest to readers than the blog articles, so when a few major media sites linked to them, they got a ton of traffic.
Major media sites have to appeal to a common denominator, while smaller sites (MeFi) can focus on quality and thought provoking content. Is there any wonder there's less people interested in the specifics?
posted by KnitWit at 6:22 AM PST - 12 comments
Utah Judge Rules Medical Pot is In via the Utahns for Compassionate Use. "During a preliminary hearing for three patients in Cedar City on Wednesday March 27, 2002 Judge Braithwaite bound patients over for trial and ruled that their medical marijuana arguments do count in a Utah Courtroom even though Utah has different laws than California." My question, of course, is: do you really spell it "Utahns?"
posted by massless at 2:43 AM PST - 2 comments
New US paper aims at Afghan war truth What do you do when you are fed up with the biased and slanted coverage that the major news organizations are giving the "war on terroirsm"? Start your own newspaper of course.
"A newspaper aimed at providing news of the war in Afghanistan is to be launched this month. Its editors argue that the mainstream media in the US are not providing a full picture of the war and its effects. "
posted by futureproof at 1:17 AM PST - 25 comments
