September 22, 2003

Candidate Camera

Not quite moblogging. Though basically a publicity ploy by the cowbox folks, Candidate Camera is still worth a browse. A digital camera has been offered to every single one of the candidates in the California recall election — from Adam to Zellhoefer — and they're sending in shots from the campaign trail. Clearly some are having fun with the project, from the unknown to the infamous. And while others are going for the mom and apple pie constituency, at least a couple are aiming at the Maxim mindset. Having David Hume Kennerly at the helm adds some credibility, and while his featured photo picks are always good, you can always — in true blogger style — just jump to the latest entries.
posted by pzarquon at 11:15 PM PST - 6 comments

Mutant Rats are Here!

Mutant Rats are Here! Farms in Kyrgyzstan are being overrun with rats that do not respond to the usual poison and target people. It was created in a (mad scientist's?) lab. Apocalypse Now?
posted by billsaysthis at 7:46 PM PST - 34 comments

No redirects! Bad Verisign! No biscuit!

ICANN requests Verisign to stop wildcard redirects. The Internet Architecture Board posts many reasons why wildcards are a very bad thing in root servers. Verisign responds by saying "We don't care and you can't make us." (This is a follow-up to this thread.)
posted by dejah420 at 3:44 PM PST - 66 comments

Dreaming with the Senoi

Dreaming is said to play a vital role in the lives of the Senoi tribe of Malaysia. While this story has it's detractors, Senoi-style lucid dreaming is one technique practiced by those looking to discover just what's going on inside their heads.
posted by moonbird at 3:22 PM PST - 5 comments

Sleeping in Airports

The Budget Traveller's Guide To Sleeping In Airports. Overnight flight delayed far from home? Can't afford a room at one of those boring, noisy airport hotels? Stuck in Japan on a cancelled layover and too chicken to rent out a capsule? Well, why not try sleeping in the airport? The B.T.G.T.S.I.A. has tips for "pro" airport sleepers, best and worst airports to sleep in, and as an added bonus, stories of strange non-airport sleeping places.
posted by brownpau at 3:19 PM PST - 20 comments

"If it can happen, it will happen!"

Why Everything You Know About Murphy’s Law is Wrong
It's about engineering built-in redundancy, the fastest man in the world, and the right to claim authorship. Plus: not a single dumb ethnic stereotype in sight! From the Annals of Improbable Research
posted by dash_slot- at 3:10 PM PST - 10 comments

Behind the scenes with an Election Officer

Behind the scenes with an Election Officer - "Congratulations! You have been appointed to serve as an INSPECTOR for the Statewide Special (Recall) Election." Also good: F'd State.
posted by elvissinatra at 3:09 PM PST - 3 comments

Raiders of the Lost Cock

Scientists Find World's Oldest Known Genitals - A team led by Prof. Jason Dunlop from Humboldt University has found the world's oldest genitals. This new find is older than the previous record holder (discovered by Prof. David Siveter of the University of Leicester) by about 300 million years. The record holder for world's oldest pile of vomit remains unchallenged. Images of whip-wielding biologists in fedoras escaping giant rolling boulder traps to discover penis fossils flood my mind.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:00 PM PST - 9 comments

Anguish Languish

It’s not what you say, it's the way you say it--Part 2. This observation was cleverly illustrated by Prof. Howard L. Chace in Anguish Languish, an exercise to demonstrate to his French Language students that intonation is key to understanding spoken language. Here is the complete text. You can read his best known Furry Tell about a Wicket Woof and a Ladle Gull or hear it read.(Warning-has sound.) I first found out about Howard Chace from an article in The Whole Earth Catalog and certain phrases have rattled around my head ever since. Here is a discussion of Anguish Languish if you want to write your own. Like this version of Gender Cyst from the Homely Babble.
posted by lobakgo at 12:19 PM PST - 5 comments

Language Removal Services

Language Removal Services is a service that electronically removes that which is uneccessary in human speech. The laboratory has come to the aid of California voters by processing recorded speech samples of the candidates in order to "better understand their true positions."
posted by mert at 11:15 AM PST - 28 comments

Veronica Guerin

A new movie holding her name is coming out in the US soon, find out who she was, why she was killed, and why she deserved a movie. Meet the real Veronica Guerin.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 10:43 AM PST - 17 comments

Krugman on Media and Economics

Video of Krugman on Media and Economics
If Bush said the earth is flat, of course Fox News would say "Yes, the earth is flat, and anyone who says different is unpatriotic." And mainstream media would have stories with the headline: "Shape of Earth: Views Differ; and would at most report that some Democrats say that it's round."
So said Paul Krugman during a recent interview in Boston with Chris Lydon, former host of NPR's 'The Connection.'
posted by ericrolph at 10:41 AM PST - 28 comments

It's me, I'm Cathy, I've come home

Is this really the most depressing book cover of the year? Because I kinda thought this one was. [via AntiPixel]
posted by kirkaracha at 10:09 AM PST - 94 comments

Ella Fitzgerald And The Lyrics Of The Great American Standards

The Song Is You: If ever there was a perfect singer - and I do mean perfect - it was Ella Fitzgerald. Her Songbooks (please scroll down for the listings and samples) are still - and will always be - the best collection there is of the great American standards. That is, if you don't mind crying and having the little hairs on the nape of your neck stand up and revolt. And swing. They'd be the last records objects I'd be willing to part with: they're the mother's milk of American Western popular culture. So imagine my surprise when I found their perfect counterpart on the Web: the best-ever collection of lyrics to the songs of the greatest American composers: Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Richard Rodgers. Admirably, the compiler has gone way beyond his duty and included wonderful standards (quite a few unknown to me) that even Ella never got around to singing. Thank you, Todd. And God bless you, Sir!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:02 AM PST - 26 comments

See America!

I have to travel the highways and byways of America by car and train a great deal, and its much more fun if you actually see America on the way. Two of my favorite sites for finding offbeat attractions and tasty eats are By The Way Magazine and Roadside America.
posted by anastasiav at 9:54 AM PST - 5 comments

Monkey Business

Monkeys down tools. - Demand fair pay for a fair day's work. " Researchers taught brown capuchin monkeys to swap tokens for food. Usually they were happy to exchange this "money" for cucumber. But if they saw another monkey getting a grape - a more-liked food - they took offence. Some refused to work, others took the food and refused to eat it. "
posted by Blue Stone at 9:50 AM PST - 21 comments

Seattle Times Centennial

Stories from Seattle history to mark the Seattle Times' centennial in 1996 - altered Indian images, 'new women', the General Strike of 1919, anti-Communist hysteria, out and about at the turn of the century, etc.
posted by plep at 4:54 AM PST - 4 comments

Thanks, MetaFilter, It's Been Interesting

"May You Live in Interesting Times": The 'Chinese Curse' is semi-debunked.
A scholar (over-)documents his search for the true origin of this oft-repeated quote (Google found it 10,800 times). Here's more about/from Professor DeLong. And here's a semi-official response from China. Appropriate, since here's how one writer amended the original. And, just for snarkiness, here's a related quote from a familiar figure.
posted by wendell at 3:43 AM PST - 11 comments

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