Bin Laden (1) escaped and (2) is alive. A 'significant defeat' for the U.S. and especially Gen. Franks, who 'ran the war from Tampa with no commander on the scene above the rank of lieutenant colonel'.
posted by xowie at 8:32 PM PST - 35 comments

an opened lettuce to sodd runtlestuntle from dr. winston o'boogie
"John Lennon ain't no revolutionary. He's a fucking idiot, man. Shouting about revolution and acting like an ass. It just makes people feel uncomfortable."
posted by quonsar at 8:07 PM PST - 35 comments

Shaping the Learning Curve Through a Code. Please do not discuss any typical computer science assignment solutions here. You might get a Georgia Tech student an F for inadvertently learning from non-approved materials. I wonder if there are Georgia Tech admin moonlighting for the RIAA?
posted by srboisvert at 7:21 PM PST - 27 comments

The Covers Project is compiling a list of covers, in hopes of creating "chains" ie: Band covered Song by Artist who covered OtherSong by OtherArtist, etc. Also see prevous thread about Musical Sausage. Unfortunately, that link now redirects to the Grand Royal on-line store, for some reason.
posted by Su at 6:49 PM PST - 28 comments

How Time Warner screwed someone over and how they got away with it. An interesting story of a case from hell. In the course of a just a few weeks, inter-racial dating (and eventual marriage) at Time Warner ruin a good employee's career, but Time Warner gets away with it for several reasons. Written by the jury foreman.
posted by mathowie at 6:39 PM PST - 18 comments

Matt Besser of the Upright Citizens Brigade has a home phone number one digit away from tech support for a major ISP. Rather than fight it or change the number he's decided have some fun with his clueless callers. If you've spent as much time doing tech support work as I have this is some good cathartic fun.This one is my favorite. (A few dirty words, so probably NOT work safe. Requires RealPlayer.
posted by jonmc at 5:04 PM PST - 31 comments

Lost on "Mulholland Drive." At a film festival in Boulder, Roger Ebert dissects David Lynch's masterpiece frame-by-frame and comes to the conclusion that, well, he doesn't really come to a conclusion. Or does he? Meanwhile, the DVD was released last week and instead of a commentary track or funny bloopers, it came with a simple insert that provided "David Lynch's 10 Clues to Unlocking This Thriller." For the sake of space, I'll post them in the comments section and let's see if anyone out there can (or wants to) answer them.
posted by adrober at 5:02 PM PST - 58 comments

Power Company Buys Entire Village American Electric Power is buying the Gallia County village of Cheshire, Ohio for $20 million after years of complaints from residents about pollution from AEP's massive Gen. James M. Gavin power plant, located along the Ohio River on the edge of the village.
Two months ago federal health experts reported that blue sulfuric clouds from the Gavin plant endangered the village last summer, particularly residents suffering from asthma. I'm not sure what to think about such an odd plan.
"I think the town just had enough of the company's experimentation," said Dale Heydlauff, AEP's senior vice president for environmental affairs. Note: Registration required to read full story .
posted by Blake at 3:46 PM PST - 3 comments

Ahhhhhh Synaesthesia.... Industrial Strength Colour-Note Organ - Pictures to Sound. Make yourself some sci-fi soundtracks. Worth the download, although I expect you'll be the judge of that....
posted by Spoon at 3:09 PM PST - 4 comments

Malcom Gladwell's got a new one in the New Yorker about a guy whose investment strategy positions him to profit from unlikely and scary random catastrophes like 9/11. Its' not on newyorker.com, but the story's subject was kind enough to scan it and post it.
posted by luser at 1:48 PM PST - 8 comments

The thorn in Ari Fleischer's side. Russell Mokhiber, writer for Multinational Monitor, consistently asks questions at press briefings which cause Ari Fleischer to create new and strange forms of rhetorical yoga, when Fleischer doesn't avoid answering altogether.
posted by Ty Webb at 1:32 PM PST - 9 comments

IT's about to get a helluva lot better. Dean Kamen applies for several patents for design and production of his version of the Stirling engline, the holy grail of mechanical efficiency. Apparently DEKA has perfected technology enabling the engine to smoothly produce electricity and transfer it to anything, be it a power grid or a Segway, with less pollution than a gas stove. Kamen asserts that the engine can run on everything from cow dung to nuclear material. Could this be the cure for energy crises and dependance on big, foreign oil? (See also the MSNBC story.)
posted by sixfoot6 at 1:24 PM PST - 33 comments

Vischeck's colour vision model allows you to simulate how the world looks to people with various sorts of colour deficiency. You can check a single image, or webpage, or just download it. Here's a temporary snapshot of MeFi after being vischecked.
posted by riffola at 1:03 PM PST - 15 comments

The FDA just approved Botox for cosmetic use -- all the more reason to celebrate with a Botox Party! Join us as we sip cocktails, eat hors-d'ouvres and have botulism injected into our foreheads! Is this really "the Tupperware party of the new millennium?"
posted by me3dia at 11:57 AM PST - 6 comments

Space Station*, the first 3D IMAX film, opens this week in the US, next week in the UK. Tom Cruise narrates. Hanks must have been busy.

(*Flash required)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:43 AM PST - 6 comments

Sometimes the really important news takes a while to get here. The Otago Daily Times in New Zealand reports on a sewage truck explosion: "A 50m trail of effluent" running down the road, a very dumbfounded driver, Lorraine Isaacs windshield hit by a flying sluice valve. Let the potty jokes begin.
posted by readymade at 11:35 AM PST - 4 comments

Does the Internet lead you astray?? Is Internet addiction leading to the breakup of marriages or is it just the time and the age of the folks breaking up?? Or is this a plague of starter marriages which has nothing to do with the Net???
posted by gloege at 11:25 AM PST - 14 comments

Amid the ruins of Jenin, the grisly evidence of a war crime. "A monstrous war crime that Israel has tried to cover up for a fortnight has finally been exposed." Strong stuff from the Independent.
posted by Leonard at 11:01 AM PST - 103 comments

Think you know your coffee? I got here because I was arguing over the acidity of coffee with a friend. It's good for knowledge of all things coffee - take a pictorial tour of coffee production, learn how flavors are evaluated, consider some of the political aspects of coffee, watch the techniques of latte art. Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!
posted by meep at 10:06 AM PST - 27 comments

The Supremes defend free speech in what is sure to be a contraversial decision about virtual child porn. I am all for this, but I am very impressed with the court's ability to make the decision in the face of easy moral platitudes like "Kiddie porn is bad, mmmKay?"
posted by McBain at 9:40 AM PST - 40 comments

Mutated frogs! Pesticide is being blamed for giving some frogs multiple sex organs-- sometimes even both male and female.
posted by Kevin Sanders at 9:34 AM PST - 13 comments

Pope calls holed up Boston Cardinal Law and others for meeting on sex abuse scandel. Why is Law hiding out like a new David Koresh, but without any charges brought down on him? Now this alleged accomplice to pedophiles will leave the country. Its called obstruction of justice, Dan.
posted by skallas at 9:04 AM PST - 15 comments

Sharon gone too far. Now even the right thinks so. My vote is that Ariel Sharon's offensive is the stupidest campaign in recent memory. Defined here as a campaign that has solved nothing, increased Israel's problems, intensified Palestinian hatred of Israel, estranged many Europeans and Americans, and fanned Islamic hostility. What is General Sharon up to? Sharon's policy is scorched-earth. Under his command, the Israeli army has engaged not in isolating the infrastructure of the suicide terrorists. What he is engaged in is wanton damage.
posted by onegoodmove at 8:42 AM PST - 49 comments

How to Think About Security from Bruce Schneier's Cryptogram. It's a brief discussion with a five point filter to use when evaluating security measures. Good food for thought and best of all, he echos many things I've already spouted off about airport security...
posted by shagoth at 7:15 AM PST - 2 comments

Dutch government resigns over Srebrenica report...
Dutch Prime Minister Mr Wim Kok announced the resignation of his centre-left government today over a report on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.
posted by tomcosgrave at 6:30 AM PST - 16 comments

oy! got some thing to say well say it at 100 words the website where anyone can spout off as long as they remain within the magical 100 words.
posted by johnnyboy at 6:09 AM PST - 11 comments

An Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition. "For the founders of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition, there is a possible way out of the present murderous impasse in the region: a return to the agreement drawn up at Taba in January 2001. Two of those who drew it up, one Israeli and one Palestinian, propose an alternative way forward."
posted by talos at 5:59 AM PST - 1 comments

MANties, any one? Female underwear for MEN. Gosh, that's one cool idea.
posted by arnab at 5:35 AM PST - 35 comments

Job Opening: Prostitute. 'Secondary education required, prior experience not necessary.'
posted by tpoh.org at 4:16 AM PST - 16 comments

Is it unique, or is it just water? This has caused an unseemly fuss over here.
posted by emf at 3:38 AM PST - 13 comments

Online journalism, Venezuela style: "Venezuela's Electronic News," an independent source of news and opinion since 1996, has lots of details about the amazing events of last week. And this online newspaper from the island of Trinidad/Tobago, only a few miles from the Venezuelan coast, helped spread initial reports that contradicted the standard line. Meanwhile, over at good ol' Narco News, journalist Al Giordano has posted a must-read analysis of the online "counter-coup" against the spin from mainstream news outlets. Were the Venezuelan TV stations that fanned the coup's flames simply "upset with Chavez...over having to pay taxes like any other business for the first time in their history," as Giordano claims? Was this really "online journalism's finest hour," driven by "a decentralized slingshot army - you know who you are - that now has the microphone and will never give it up to the commercially-driven usurpers of democracy again?"
posted by mediareport at 2:42 AM PST - 1 comments

"We were sending informal, subtle signals that we don't like this guy" Is the American Government involved in overthrowing a South American democratically elected government? It appears that the current administration is admitting(anonymously, of course) they might have accidentally encouraged the people behind the Venezuelan coup, giving them the impression the American government would support the coup(which it did). Is this support as stupid as some analysts think? via Joshua Micah Marshall
posted by dglynn at 1:23 AM PST - 19 comments

We only had you for the spare parts. A Melbourne couple have been given permission to have a genetically-modified IVF child to provide stem cells to cure their terminally ill daughter. Bad enough to grow up and discover you were an accident, or adopted, but to learn that you were engineered to supply your sibling with body parts? That kid's going to have low self-esteem.
posted by chrisgregory at 12:47 AM PST - 27 comments