Chomskytorrents.org provides a gathering place for torrents with progressive and radical content. As for now, it preserves a special place for the work of American dissident Noam Chomsky.
posted by crunchland at 10:18 PM PST - 99 comments

Being caught between a tornado and softball sized hail is probably not something you should try at home, but it does make for some rather incredible video, as this storm chaser's video from May 12 in Texas demonstrates. A lot of really good chasers and even storm tour companies were caught completely off guard by this storm. I'm sure the auto glass companies near the caprock in Texas were thrilled. WARNING: Perhaps understandably, this clip contains some very strong language.
posted by chakalakasp at 8:29 PM PST - 26 comments

Sunday the National Conference on Media Reform featured the first public speech by Bill Moyers since he left PBS. "I always knew Nixon would be back, again and again. I just didn’t know that this time he would ask to be Chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting."
posted by john at 8:27 PM PST - 41 comments

The Thirty Years War: A timeline of the anti-gay movement. From "Holy War," the latest Intelligence Report to come out of the very lefty Southern Poverty Law Center. Includes an interview with former Falwell speechwriter Mel White, a look at 12 major groups in the "Mighty Army" and a slideshow of fascinating quotes from famous figures. [Previous Intelligence Reports: Easy Prey, Age of Rage.]
posted by mediareport at 7:27 PM PST - 16 comments

Dr. Kevin Kavanaugh, ENT, is an ear, nose, and throat doctor. He likes to take educational pictures and videos of mucus, fungus, and ear maggots among other things so we can observe, learn, and go ewwww. (wmv req for vids) ((ear maggots are pretty nauseating))
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies at 6:30 PM PST - 25 comments

"My main interests are sex and death, with romance and violence the obvious runners up. I'm trying to be as cliche, sentimental, and decorative as possible." The Stained Glass Artwork of Judith Schaechter
posted by deafmute at 5:46 PM PST - 15 comments

The Playstation3... Theres a few images out, and so far its all looking official. Full specs here, and Engadget has coverage.
posted by lemonfridge at 5:14 PM PST - 54 comments

I know that some of you are familiar with the sculptor Charlie White, but how about Patricia Piccinini's equally disturbing work? (via BoingBoing)
posted by Specklet at 3:37 PM PST - 13 comments

The star who never was. Part rock and roll history and part cautionary tale, the story of Marcus is too compelling to ignore. Well.... maybe not, but it's worth the read.
posted by elwoodwiles at 3:12 PM PST - 11 comments

Q & A with former Israeli Mossad chief Efraim Halevy. Halevy fields questions from readers around the world. See also his article "The coming Pax Americana".
posted by ori at 3:04 PM PST - 19 comments

When Government Writes History [The New Republic, registration required], a behind-the-scenes memoir of the 9/11 Commission Report, by commission historian Ernest May. [Related reading: Richard Posner's The 9/11 Report: A Dissent in the New York Times and Elizabeth Drew's Pinning the Blame in the New York Review of Books.]
posted by kirkaracha at 2:48 PM PST - 9 comments

Man on death row wants to donate liver to dying sister. I think this opens up many questions and mucks up the waters if you are both pro life(viva Terri), and also support the death penalty. (first fpp)
posted by MrMulan at 2:27 PM PST - 115 comments

Hoodies, Baseball Caps and Ganja, Oh My Fresh from his accountability moment, Tony Blair is tackling some of the thorniest issues facing British society: criminalising "hoodies" and baseball caps while keeping marijuana decriminalised (despite a "get tough" pre-election stance). In the midst of a moral panic, Blair recently came out in support of moves to ban the wearing of hooded leisure tops in public, especially when coupled with the nefariously potent symbol of evil: the baseball cap. Meanwhile, the committe whose recommendation resulted in the Commons reclassification of cannabis in Britain to a Class C drug (a misdemeanour equivalent to possessing a prescription medication without a valid prescription) says it sees no reason to reverse its decision, even as Olympians are tarred and feathered. Meanwhile, sales of verboten hoodies can only increase, while cannabis becomes distinctly less cool.
posted by meehawl at 1:01 PM PST - 43 comments

Raise a glass! Today the Supreme Court struck down laws in Michigan and New York (and by extension, probably those of 22 other states) that forbid interstate sales of wine. The ruling is based on the Commerce Clause, which allows only congress to regulate interstate trade, and which today is held to trump the 21st Amendment. Though some allege that online sales make it easier for minors to buy liquor, the majority found little evidence that this is a major problem. Will protectionist liquor sales laws be felled by this ruling, too? Time (and further litigation) will tell. [MI]
posted by rkent at 11:23 AM PST - 30 comments

The Bluth's will be back -- Fox order's another full season of "Arrested Development."
posted by JPowers at 10:33 AM PST - 70 comments

"I am an American, so that is why I make films about America. America is sitting on our world, I am making films that have to do with America (because) 60% of my life is America. So I am in fact an American, but I can't go there to vote, I can't change anything. We are a nation under influence and under a very bad influence… because Mr. Bush is an asshole and doing very idiotic things."
Lars Von Trier introduces his new film at the Cannes Film Festival: «Manderlay» picks up where «Dogville» left off, with the character originated by Nicole Kidman -- now played by Bryce Dallas Howard -- stumbling onto a plantation that time forgot, where slavery still operates in the 1930s. The film (5 MB .pdf file, official pressbook) ends, as Dogville did, with David Bowie’s Young Americans played over a photomontage of images that range from a Ku Klux Klan meeting to the Rodney King beating, George Bush at prayer and Martin Luther King at his final rest, American soldiers in Vietnam and the Gulf, the Twin Towers. More inside.
posted by matteo at 10:30 AM PST - 69 comments

Radley Balko fisks the DEA's Karen Tandy 'So which is it? Are doctors a "very small part of the problem," or are they "the primary sources of diverted pharmaceuticals available on the illicit market?" ...I guess it depends on whether the agency is trumpeting its victories to Congress, or defending its tactics from critics in newspaper op-eds.'
posted by Kwantsar at 8:07 AM PST - 34 comments

Inward Technology - Directed Evolution of Humans (W.Post - reg.)
"The next frontier..is our own selves"
"We should not just accept but embrace the new technologies"
"But the promise of mastery is flawed. It threatens to banish our appreciation of life as a gift.."
the author, the book via via
posted by peacay at 7:38 AM PST - 12 comments

By the end of 2008, will religious social conservatives be rode hard and put up wet or will they get their Christian Theocracy? Is the American Taliban set to shred our secular government? Some think so. Others however point out that those in power may be simply exploiting their religious base and have no intention of furthering theocracy in any meaningful way. After all we have a president who doesn’t go to church, and a gay-friendly vice president (who we shouldn’t rule for a 2008 run.) Oh and the Faith Based Initiative? It’s simply an effort to get blacks to vote Republican, duh. And if it’s conspiracy theories that interest you then what about Bush’s abortion, or gays in the Whitehouse?
posted by wfrgms at 7:24 AM PST - 45 comments

32 Jackson Pollock drip paintings discovered. (3 images - click on "Jackson Pollock") Alex Matter's parents, the photographer Herbert Matter, and the painter Mercedes Matter, were friends with Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. Alex apparently discovered the small paintings while sorting through his father's archives. Believed to be studies for the large drip paintings, they have been estimated to be worth upwards of 40 million dollars, if real. The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, however, is "reserving judgement" on the authenticity of the paintings.
posted by R. Mutt at 7:22 AM PST - 17 comments

"Defending America's Most Vulnerable" - a new bill, introduced in the House by the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Sensenbrenner (R-WI). Among other provisions, 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for a first-time conviction of distributing a small amount of marijuana to a person under 18 years of age; virtually every drug crime committed in urban areas subject to "drug free zone" penalties that carries a five-year mandatory minimum sentence; a 2-year sentence for those who witness or learn about drug distribution near colleges and do not report it to authorities within 24 hours and do not provide full assistance investigating, apprehending, and prosecuting the offender.
posted by daksya at 7:18 AM PST - 45 comments

Do you know this man? The identity of a man found wandering on a beach in Sheppey, Kent, wearing an evening suit and who will not talk but who expertly plays piano concertos for hours is baffling the police.
posted by mr.marx at 6:12 AM PST - 75 comments

Protesting church policy by wearing rainbow-colored sashes resulted in more than 100 people being denied communion in a Catholic church in St. Paul.
posted by leftcoastbob at 4:18 AM PST - 61 comments

Design Observer and the New York Times (reg. req'd) on modernism.
posted by Tlogmer at 3:43 AM PST - 4 comments