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Google To Start Selling Banner Adverts From the that-didn't-take-too-long-department, Google's ad sales VP Tim Armstrong says Google will now start selling graphical banner adverts. One concession to their old mores is that, for now, the banner adverts will only appear on affiliated websites running their AdSense referral program (as does MeFi), and there is an opt-out. However... "We have no plans to show images on Google.com", said Mr. Armstrong "but we are not opposed to it".
posted by meehawl at 11:31 PM PST - 27 comments

not so junk DNA the idea has always made me uncomfortable. now scientists are taking a closer look at base-pair sequences that have been generally overlooked till now.
posted by jessica at 11:04 PM PST - 9 comments

Cuter than a fangtooth. Beautiful images of bioluminescent sea creatures. Learn the difference between fluorescence, phosphorescence, and bioluminescence, as well as the science behind the amazing chemical reaction. (I like the floppy-eared one the best--okay, the plastic bag looking one is nifty too.)
posted by lychee at 11:01 PM PST - 4 comments

Reading With the Enemy - "Inspired by Supersize Me: What if you spent one month reading, listening to, and watching only right-wing media. No New York Times, no NPR, no network news, no CNN, no lefty blogs, no liberal novels. Nothing left-wing or centrist, and nothing ‘objective.’ Nothing that makes up the world you currently inhabit."
posted by Space Coyote at 10:34 PM PST - 58 comments

VerticalFarm. Highrise Urban Farm (conceptual).
posted by stbalbach at 9:47 PM PST - 10 comments

The pen is mightier than...? Remember Afghanistan? Terry, former Nitpicker, is now a public affairs specialist in Kandahar. He's learned that the children of Afghanistan want nothing more than they want a pen. Maybe we can help them out by sending some?
posted by amberglow at 7:55 PM PST - 14 comments

Don't know ADR from THX? Filmsound.org is for you. Check out their cliches section, and much more besides.
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:32 PM PST - 7 comments

“Counter Culture: Parisian Cabarets and the Avant Garde, 1875-1905. Underdiscussed art movements from the 19th century, such as the Hydropathes and the Incohérents, that intellectually resembled Dada and prefigured it by a considerable amount of time. [Via 2 Blowhards]
posted by dgaicun at 6:01 PM PST - 5 comments

Blah Blah Blogging :: "The following is a meticulously detailed recap of a news segment that appeared on the Chicago FOX news affiliate on Wednesday, May 5th, 2004." -- Intelligent blogger agrees to appear in puff piece about blogging for FOX news. These are the results.
posted by anastasiav at 4:55 PM PST - 43 comments

So good, I can't believe this hasn't been posted before: Something Positive Comics
posted by ColdChef at 3:33 PM PST - 13 comments

Chicken John is quitting! (SanFranciscoFilter) It looks like the Odeon is looking for new management. Does this mean the end of good/bad/scary performance art in SF, or is it just a new beginning?
posted by badstone at 2:31 PM PST - 4 comments

He is a Muslim, a coach of Native Americans, a noted Jazz expert, a Kung-Fu star, a prescription pot smoker, and a best-selling author whose new book is the story of the 761st Tank Battalion, known as the Black Panthers, the first all-black armored unit to see combat in World War II. Who is he? The man that some say is the greatest Basketball player of all time, Kareem Adbul-Jabbar.
posted by chaz at 2:22 PM PST - 21 comments

May 12th is International ME/CFS/Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. If you aren't aware of these afflictions, then it's time to become so. "Fibromyalgia (FM) is an increasingly recognized chronic pain illness which is characterized by widespread musculoskeletal aches, pain and stiffness, soft tissue tenderness, general fatigue and sleep disturbances." The WebMD description. For those who live with chronic fatigue, systemic immunity problems, and long term pain, I think the rest of us, at least, owe our awareness of what these people cope with every day. Again, via the always excellent Watermark, who writes movingly of her relationship with Fibromyalgia.
posted by Wulfgar! at 1:47 PM PST - 19 comments

Best evidence yet (maybe) for keeping the Hubble around: Hubble snaps first photo (maybe) of extrasolar planet (maybe).
posted by 40 Watt at 1:07 PM PST - 13 comments

Modern Ruins are a window into human histories, they tell the stories of the past through the stark presence of objects and architectures. Perhaps the most powerful aspect of ruins is the subject that is missing in the photographs; the people who once worked, lived, walked, talked, slept and dreamed in these spaces.
posted by papercake at 12:37 PM PST - 5 comments

Don't Get High Without It. Interesting article about The Vaults of Erowid and the people behind it. [Via Hit & Run.]
posted by homunculus at 12:12 PM PST - 26 comments

Scientists know that being fat reduces your lifespan, making you more susceptible to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and a host of other bad things. However they are only beginning to understand why. "Fat tissue is now recognized to be the body's biggest endocrine organ," producing 25 known signaling compounds and a variety of proteins.
posted by ilsa at 11:11 AM PST - 37 comments

Remember dong_resin? Of course you do. He's a lovable rapscallion--an affable sort (I don't actually know him but play along). Well, some months back, Mr. Resin penned (in the virtual sense) a blog entry entitled Tink Hilton : One Dog Screaming, a piece about Paris Hilton told from the perspective of her dog. You may, if you're a fan of "the resin" (as I've never called him), have noticed he hasn't been around Metafilter (or his blog) all that often lately. Apparently, he has an explanation: it seems that someone from Warner Books saw the entry and asked him to write a short novel. The result? A short novel with a long name, The Tinkerbell Hilton Diaries : My Life Tailing Paris Hilton, which goes on sale in September.
disclaimer: I do not know the donger in any way, shape, or form, and my shilling (if it is perceived that way) is born out of unadulterated, likely unreciprocated, and clearly unnatural love (or maybe I just thought it was interesting: you decide).
posted by The God Complex at 10:03 AM PST - 35 comments

WiFi Against Bush is an interesting twist on viral marketing aimed at our neighborhoods and the occassional warchalker — let everyone in within range of your router know what you _really_ think of the President.

Via the venerable Shifted Librarian.
posted by silusGROK at 9:57 AM PST - 11 comments

Secrets of the Third Reich...UFO's? "...As Sir Roy Feddon, Chief of the Technical Mission to Germany for the Ministry of Aircraft Production stated in 1945. "…I have seen enough of their designs and production plans to realise that if they (the Germans) had managed to prolong the war some months longer, we would have been confronted with a set of entirely new and deadly developments in air warfare.".....upright, vertical take-off aircraft.....a saucer-shaped craft with enclosed twin rotors.....Cruise missiles....the V-2....[predecessor of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles]....a rocket-powered fighter, the ME 163...These then, were some of the known German advances. However there were also hints of darker technologies not fully understood." Woo woo! So begins the four part "Secrets of the Third Reich" - where does fact merge into fiction? It's such a great read that it almost doesn't matter. A version with pictures lives here (go to menu, "Book 4"). Then, there's The Hunt For Zero Point We have met the aliens, and they are us ?
posted by troutfishing at 9:38 AM PST - 10 comments

"He could separate personal honor from political convictions. A recurring theme of his career? The superiority of forgiveness over revenge". Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton puts "the father of American government" -- the illegitimate orphan from the West Indies who rose to become George Washington's most trusted adviser only to be snared in a sex scandal and killed in a duel by Vice President Aaron Burr -- under a new light. Thomas Jefferson after all, his great adversary, foresaw a nation of independent yeomen farmers. It was Hamilton who foresaw a powerful nation of cities, banks, stock, exchanges. When Jeffersonians favored congressional power, Hamilton argued vigorously that the executive branch was the chief engine of the government. When the Constitution was ratified over the objections of anti-Federalists, Gore Vidal relates, “a parade featuring a ship called The Hamilton, on a float, sailed triumphantly along Wall Street as its ghost still does today.” Anecdote: during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Franklin suggested that there be a pause for prayer. Many delegates supported the move, except for Hamilton. "He did not see the necessity of calling in foreign aid." (.pdf file)
posted by matteo at 9:05 AM PST - 11 comments

Drunken Temple Boxing! You may have defeated my Southern Hook Palm technique, but can you defeat the 1000 styles of Rumsfeld?
posted by kirkaracha at 9:01 AM PST - 2 comments