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July 23, 2003
Blessing of the Cars. This Saturday, at at Hansen Dam in Los Angeles, there will be a mass blessing of cars by a Catholic priest, followed by individual blessing of each vehicle.
posted by xowie at 7:35 PM PST - 7 comments
"Un-******-believable" is how this link was related to me, and I think you will agree. The link is a video showing a player of a DDR-type synchrony game involving buttons musical notes. I found his display a simply stunning display of human adaptability. Wow!
posted by rudyfink at 7:25 PM PST - 50 comments
The vagina monoliths? Host to theories ranging from alien landing site to Druid calendar, a University of British Columbia gynecologist believes Stonehenge may have been built to deliberately represent a gigantic female sexual organ.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:30 PM PST - 16 comments
Unbiased (ideally) but not inhuman (hopefully) The Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma at the University of Washington studies the effects of crazy badness ("if it bleeds, it leads") on reporters and studies ways in which the news media can better cover traumatic events in the life of the world: War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. From a piece on the site, "9-11 Journalists Share Memories, Support," "Long before Sept. 11, he was interested in how journalists respond to the pain and misery they encounter in their work, and the lack of support they often find in a traditionally tough-minded business. Then he nearly died while photographing the World Trade Center attack, and found those issues hit closer to home than he ever imagined."
posted by jengod at 5:43 PM PST - 2 comments
Teenagers find the internet a frustrating experience A survey in the north east of England finds that teenagers are increasingly being alienated in their online experience because they aren't being given the skillsets to cope with finding or using the information. Seems to be the old story of schools buying computers but the kids not being engaged enough on how to use them (which has been the case since I was stuck in front of an Acorn Archimedes
fifteen years go).
Here is a similar article from Australia which describes how their eductation system is coping with the issue.
posted by feelinglistless at 3:22 PM PST - 14 comments
Proving that he is the geekiest man in film, Kevin Smith relates the tale of how he
almost got to egg the house of Reese Witherspoon, and why he wanted to in the first place - a rather funny story. Would that all Hollywood ego-battles could be resolved in such a fashion.
An old link, but worth checking out
posted by GriffX at 2:38 PM PST - 47 comments
Congress to bicyclists: get a car! A new transportation appropriations bill would eliminate $600 million of annual federal funding for "
transportation enhancements" (more info
here), such as bike paths and walkways, while
increasing funding for highways. Is this a proper reflection of U.S. transportation habits, or just a scheme to deprive alternate transportation of much-needed funding?
posted by jdroth at 1:57 PM PST - 20 comments
Have you or your neighbors killed any kittens lately? Way back in the mists of time, a
farkism combined a kitty with a couple of
domo-kuns and came up with a saying equating
masturbation with killing a kitty.
This site has taken the concept and is attempting to make it into a community weblog -- except the community is limited to those who are taking
solo flights into orgasm.
The site seems almost innocent, at least now (though it'll probably get over-run with explicit commercial grossness in a while).
Although the interface is nowhere near as clean, my experience with the site reminded me of the early days of amihotornot. I was at it for hours, tripping out on who was masturbating in my state, and what they were thinking, let along who was doing what in other places all over the world (not many global participants, yet).
With this wierd mixture of deeply personal revelations and total anonymity, is this one of those things that only the internet can do? Or am I a total git for thinking this is interesting? (via
memepool)
posted by jasper411 at 1:56 PM PST - 19 comments
A keyless keyboard designed to reduce RSI and other typing related injuries - sounds interesting, but slow, and of course useless for gaming. Bit pricey as well.
posted by Orange Goblin at 11:50 AM PST - 14 comments
Baby you can drive my car. Mini RC cars are all the rage but how often do you get to control a RC car in Tokyo from your browser. Bascule created a web interface for controling an RC car in their office, hooked up a couple of web cams on the track and now allows anyone with the Flash 6 plug-in to log in and drive their car for 60 seconds.
posted by DragonBoy at 11:16 AM PST - 7 comments
A soldier's letter home, or clever propaganda? This "letter" has been making the rounds as an email, supposedly from an officer, stationed in Iraq, named "Mark". He certainly seems to know a lot about what's going on. He loves his job, likes his generals, and admires the Iraqi people, who like him and other Americans; and he hates the press and the foreigners he says are fighting reconstruction.
Sounds a little too good to be true.
posted by kablam at 10:45 AM PST - 45 comments
GOP Warns TV Stations Not to Air Ad Alleging Bush Mislead the Nation Over Iraq They claim that the
ad itself is dishonest, and cite the obligation of broadcast outlets to be free of misleading information. “
Such obligations must be taken seriously. This letter puts you on notice that the information contained in the above-cited advertisement is false and misleading; therefore, you are obligated to refrain from airing this advertisement.” Despite the implicit threats,
only one station has refused to run the ad, a Fox station.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 9:57 AM PST - 74 comments
They’re a little like
Operation. Today students can practice all sorts of skills on surgical models like
TraumaMan®, the
Hillway Man, or
Geri, the Geriatric, who comes complete with wrinkles. There’s
spinal surgery,
gall bladder surgery,
ultrasound/amniocentesis,
suturing, and
casualty kits. Some of them give me the I’m-a-silly-git giggles and naming a company Limbs & Things doesn't help. There’s the
head with all sorts of
things wrong with it, including
“Extraneous Lumps”. The
toe with refills is pretty nifty, but
disturbingly life-like. There are
strap-ons and
table-top models.
(Possibly NSFW) Some could make interesting
conversation pieces.
(Also poss. NSFW)
In addition, Somso, maker of the “dial-a-prostate” model above, also makes interesting non-interactive models like this
fandex of a head, a
larynx with tongue, or a
fingertip. They also have
neat models of
animals,
fungi, and
flowers.
posted by lobakgo at 9:46 AM PST - 7 comments
Genki Gang has the most amazing anime-inspired hats ever. I wonder if I can get a Totoro one in time for the
DC Meetup? Kawaii!
(Sorry, Flash site so no direct links...click on "store" then "hats".)
posted by JoanArkham at 9:40 AM PST - 5 comments
Saving the Net isn't just really about saving the net: the article is a great point of confluence on the issues of Intellectual Property, Property and Success as American values, as well as the future of the Internet as a true commons. Especially interesting is the observation that Presidential candidate Howard Dean's campaign contribution lead – raised via the Internet – is owed to a huge number of small donations, not to a small number of large special interests. If he's being bought, it's by his voters."
[via Slashdot]
posted by weston at 8:17 AM PST - 9 comments
The Gutenberg Bible : the first book printed with movable type, is the one of the greatest treasures in the University of Texas's Ransom Center's collections. It was printed at Johann Gutenberg's shop in Mainz, Germany and completed in 1454 or 1455. The Center's Bible was acquired in 1978 and is one of only five complete examples in the United States. All
1,282 pages now available for viewing on the Ransom Center's Web site.
Also check out the anatomy of a page.
posted by ColdChef at 7:51 AM PST - 16 comments
"GOLDILOCKS. Slim blond avatar of unreasoning womankind: who loved not the porridge itself, nor even the act of receiving it from whatever unknown animal might have been responsible for its preparation..."
From the
winning submission of the Faux Faulkner contest. Also check out
Faux Hemingway.
posted by Pinwheel at 6:37 AM PST - 11 comments
Hate on display. The Anti-Defamation League has a
visual database of symbols devised or co-opted by neo-Nazis and supremacist groups worldwide, as well as numbers and acronyms with racist connotations. Although most of us know what
88 means, there's also info about others such as the communist-separatist
American Front and the
Five Percenters. More neo-Nazi flags
here; flags and badges
here.
Please remember: while racism is always immoral, symbols themselves can have
several meanings.
posted by 111 at 12:01 AM PST - 26 comments
