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AskPhilosophers what they think about philosophical problems! A philosophical version of Ask MetaFilter. Not much is up yet, but the lineup of panelists is brimming with top-notch academics. Hopefully the site will take off.
posted by painquale at 11:56 PM PST - 11 comments

Harriet Miers -- keeper of the President's skeleton closet. In the run-up to George W. Bush's 1988 campaign, Bush's people paid Harriet Miers $19,000 to review his military records, which are, to this day, mysteriously incomplete. This wasn't the first time Miers has been accused of helping protect Bush's military record. She was also accused in a lawsuit of using a Texas Lottery Commission contract to buy the silence of former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes about the assistance that he gave in placing Bush in the Air National Guard. Barnes kept that secret until 1999, when he was forced to testify under oath about his involvement in getting Bush a position in the Texas Air National Guard.
posted by insomnia_lj at 10:16 PM PST - 51 comments

"F**k you, I'll fly the cash myself to the Bahamas." Cheney's 2004 RNC Speech...subjected to hermeneutic video-remix treatment by a few blessed souls (or is it "buncha folks"?). For all of Dick's big talk, tho, Lynne's coda cameo constitutes the true "money shot". (Main link: 10MB QT, hosted by Crooks & Liars.)
posted by objet at 8:56 PM PST - 23 comments

The RESCU Foundation is a non-profit organization established to promote financial relief and comfort to renaissance festival participants and their families who have experienced medical disruptions and subsequent extreme difficulties. Renaissance festivals have existed for over 30 years. Helping people has been around longer. The thousands of participants who have worked shows know that the value of a community is dependent upon its level of caring. The few that have finally brought RESCU into existence have done so because so many have voiced the need for such an organization.
posted by jcterminal at 7:44 PM PST - 54 comments

Evidence of the "Milky Sea" -- The mysterious ocean glow described by Jules Verne in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and observed by sailors has been confirmed by recent satellite photos. On many occasions over the centuries, mariners have reported witnessing surreal nocturnal displays where the surface of the sea produces an intense, uniform, and sustained glow that extends to the horizon in all directions. Although such emissions cannot be fully reconciled with the known features of any light-emitting organism, these so-called "milky seas" are hypothesized to be manifestations of unusually strong bioluminescence produced by colonies of bacteria in association with a microalgal bloom in the surface waters. Because of their ephemeral nature and the paucity of scientific observations, an explanation of milky seas has remained elusive. Here, we report the first satellite observations of the phenomenon.
posted by billysumday at 5:28 PM PST - 38 comments

introducing plantic : plastic from plants - packaging and display trays made from renewable resources, are compostable, and most interestingly, dissolve when in water.
posted by grafholic at 3:55 PM PST - 31 comments

Harriet Miers's Blog!!! Silly parody web site in the tradition of the Jeff Gannon blog (related: see Knot Jeff Gannon) and the short-lived Osama blog (not too many internet cafes in Baluchistan apparently), or light-hearted response to this really obvious bit of astroturfing by FOBs (friends of Bush) known to bend the truth a little to help out a pal in need?
posted by clevershark at 3:26 PM PST - 20 comments

Mary was just an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life - the type of life just about any girl of that time would lead. She had a normal family, and was engaged to be married to a humble carpenter named Joseph. And then she got a visit from the angel Gabriel and was transformed into a scripture-quoting action figure. (Don't forget to learn how to use).
posted by nobody at 3:04 PM PST - 37 comments

Paul Pena has died. Recognizable mostly as the subject of Genghis Blues, his incredible success teaching himself Tuvan throat singing will hopefully not be completely overshadowed by having written Steve Miller's hit "Big Old Jet Airliner." His early recordings, which never caught on (or necessarily came out), earned him favorable comparisons to Hendrix, and are available at his website.
posted by Eothele at 1:35 PM PST - 34 comments

pem Hov jaj Haw'choHnIS 'eng 'ej Haj. ghoch vIghaj; 'ej pa' muDmo' jIbel. chay' Sesame He vIghoS? SIbI' jIHvaD 'e' yIDel.
posted by brownpau at 1:23 PM PST - 50 comments

“The real world is simply too terrible to admit; it tells man that he is a small, trembling animal who will decay and die." “The defenses that form a person’s character support a grand illusion, and when we grasp this we can understand the full drivenness of man. He is driven away from himself, from self-knowledge, self-reflection. He is driven toward things that support the lie of his character.” Words of Ernest Becker, here summarizing Gestalt therapy and his own existential perspectives in Growing Up Rugged.
posted by semmi at 12:52 PM PST - 26 comments

Nipsey Russell, comedic "poet laureate of television," dead
The opposite of pro is con
That fact is clearly seen
If progress means move forward
Then what does Congress mean?
posted by me3dia at 12:19 PM PST - 33 comments

Bush Considers Military Role in Flu Fight If the flu (say) breaks out in New Jersey, why not use the New Jersey National Guard. Just what is the guard for? Simply to be sent overseas for our bringing freedom to nations not having what we believe we have?
posted by Postroad at 12:18 PM PST - 61 comments

So, there will be a movie made from the video game Halo , which is bad. But it's being Exec. Produced by Peter Jackson, which is good.
posted by jonson at 11:37 AM PST - 72 comments

As old man winter approaches once again, and some of our minds turn to thoughts of flying through the air and sailing down mountains atop our trusted skis, what is there to do for the next month or so before most of our favorite resorts actually open for business? I present to you an assortment of new ski movie trailers, enjoy. [all sorts of Quicktime]
posted by garethspor at 10:43 AM PST - 11 comments

for the bookmarks - free browser-embedded antivirus [IE only, I assume Windows only]
posted by Pretty_Generic at 9:57 AM PST - 30 comments

Victorian and Edwardian photographs: A large collection from the Roger Vaughan Picture Library
posted by Gamblor at 9:32 AM PST - 14 comments

"The line of men, women and children included no whites or African-Americans, he said." _{Mr. Rivera said he had been sleeping in a tent outside the large shelter building since Hurricane Katrina struck just over a month ago, flooding his second-story apartment in nearby Pass Christian and destroying all his belongings, including a pickup truck. "I lost everything I own in the storm. But they said they didn't care. They told us that if we didn't leave they would return on Friday with buses to take us away," he said.}
posted by delmoi at 8:45 AM PST - 88 comments

Monty Python Scripts from every episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
posted by caddis at 8:32 AM PST - 60 comments

How happy are you? Today's NYT has a great article on alternate methods of analyzing the overall well-being of a country, focusing on Bhutan, the largely Buddhist country whose king put forth an alternative to the capitalist-centric Gross Domestic Product: Gross National Happiness. Not only does it fit in with Buddhist ideals, but organizations like the World Values Survey have come to some (not-so) surprising findings regarding the correlation between wealth and happiness. There are similar movements cropping up around the world, such as Australia's Genuine Progress Indicator, which attempts to quantify non-material progress rather than rely on subjective interpretations of happiness. How do you measure your own happiness?
posted by mkultra at 8:21 AM PST - 49 comments

NASCAR? F1? Pah! Now we're talking Rocket Racing!! Apparently not content to sit idle, the founder of the Ansari Space X-prize , Peter Diamandis, has launched a rocket racing league. While this sounds pretty amazing in itself, here's the real clincher: it's scheduled to start its first race in September 2006.

According to the press release: the RRL will see Grand Prix-style races between rocket planes, flown by top pilots through a "3D trackway" just 5,000ft (1,500m) above the ground. Pictures here (make sure to click the concept links on the same page). BBC Story here.
posted by Mave_80 at 6:37 AM PST - 22 comments

Ning is a very cool thing. 'Sign up. Build new social apps. Use new social apps.' [via Torrez]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:16 AM PST - 25 comments

It's celebrity award season. I'm curious as to who people think will get the next few. Personally, I'm going to go with Jagdish Bhagwati for Economics and Oxfam for Peace. I've got no clue on literature. Place your bets. Who are your hot picks?
posted by allen.spaulding at 5:08 AM PST - 7 comments

Running on Fumes -- a fascinating essay by the Nation's Sasha Abramsky on what rising gas prices will do to poor exurban communities.
posted by digaman at 4:34 AM PST - 167 comments

Americans, German win nobel prize for physics. They won for for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique, which among other thing allows them to measure the speed of light to such accuracy that it is now used as the definition for the meter, see if the laws of physics were the same at the beginning of time, and make gps satellites work much better.
posted by stilgar at 4:01 AM PST - 5 comments

Ronnie Barker, stalwart of UK comedy acting, dies aged 76. Best remembered for quite a few hit comedy shows, for me his best work was the evergreen Porridge. Who could forget the Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town?
posted by biffa at 2:18 AM PST - 40 comments

Microsoft retools processes in order to become more agile in their development processes. Yeah, it's probably just a big PR blowjob for Vista, but I was fascinated about the process they undertook to make their development work a more smoothly (and the amount of code that got thrown out). Like Microsoft or hate 'em, it's quite an interesting (though repetitive in parts) article.
posted by antifuse at 2:09 AM PST - 35 comments

High Dynamic Range (HDR) imagery rendered in software is only half the story if your monitor can't actually display that full dynamic range. Bit-Tech has an excellent article on an actual HDR-capable display brought out by a crowd called Brightside Technologies (formerly Sunnybrook Technologies).

Needless to say, you want this. And it can be had, for the bargain price of $50000 USD.

Here's more on various HDR Display technologies. Brightside HDR is also covered at HardwareSecrets and Toms Hardware Guide. The Max Planck Institut has their take on HDR, Hyperfocal Design has a few good links if you're interested in trying your own hand at HDR content creation, and here's Brightside's own take on HDR and gaming.
posted by crocos at 2:08 AM PST - 35 comments

Time machine for sale. Not too novel, no, but the answers to the questions are great. "Its reassuring to me to know that it all works and i was on the right track. i alot of people thought i was dreamin, and said I was crazy and a dick head. the spatial retemporalizer was added after I sold it so can't help there."
posted by Wataki at 1:39 AM PST - 14 comments