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Of all the humorous stuffed rodents in the "novelties" section of customcreaturetaxidermy.com, I can't decide whether my favorite is the squirrel full o'whiskey (with the removable head for decanting) or the "mouse trap gag" (see, the gag is, it looks like a disgusting dead mouse in a trap, when in reality... oh, wait...).
posted by jonson at 10:49 PM PST - 23 comments

ArtsConversations, the archives of the C/IAF's Netropolitan Museum.
Browse works of art, sculpture, photography (some NSFW) , and more. [via->via->via chunky bacon]
posted by woj at 10:40 PM PST - 1 comments

Bush teleconference with troops staged. Nothing in the article says who is responsible for organizing the staged question and answer session, The White House, military officials, or others in the defense department. Just that it infact was staged, and that the troops were coached for 45 minutes prior to the actual teleconference. When Bush, in an unscripted move, asked an officer if he had anything to say, he stammered through a sentence, in stark contrast to the well put together responses to all the other questions, thanking the President and saying, "I like you." More PR from the Bush administration.
posted by SirOmega at 10:40 PM PST - 173 comments

Sorry, gotta go! There are cows going by, our team just scored, and I can't stop coughing!
posted by Robot Johnny at 9:31 PM PST - 8 comments

Singing Fish - The search engine for audio and video.
posted by dobbs at 9:10 PM PST - 13 comments

Seen something like this on one of your credit or debit cards recently? 09/25 DIGITAL AGE 888-529-98 CYPRUS, SE $24.99 Join the crowd. You might remember something from earlier in the summer, when CardSystems Solutions reported a security breach that had gone on for months. Or maybe you remember a bit of more recent news, when "a California judge ruled Friday that Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard International Inc. don't have to send individual warnings to thousands of consumers whose personal account information was stolen during a high-tech heist uncovered earlier this year."

My family was hit on three different cards from three different banks in less than a week. Doesn't seem to matter if you ever used the card online or not. Any guesses where "Digital Age" is getting all these valid credit and debit card numbers? Anyone? So, please, check your statements and be prepared to cancel your card immediately if you've been hit, too. Nothing good will come of these criminals being able to make additional charges against your accounts, using different shell companies to hide themselves, continuing to do this sort of thing for years
posted by RKB at 8:04 PM PST - 32 comments

Bush Ignores Generals and Admirals, Again Once again, President Bush is ignoring the good advice of the most experienced military officers, and endangering our troops in the process. A host of retired flag officers are asking the Supreme Court to stop Bush's military tribunals because it destroys our moral credibility abroad.
posted by expriest at 7:20 PM PST - 16 comments

"Cheap, paper-thin TV screens that can be used in newspapers and magazines have been unveiled by German electronics giant Siemens. The firm says the low production costs could see the magazine shelves in newsagents come alive with moving images vying for the customers' attention as they move along the aisle. The new technology caused a sensation when it was first made public this week at the Plastics Electronics trade fair in Frankfurt....the new screens, which are literally paper thin, can do everything a regular TV screen or computer monitor can do, but cost a fraction of the price....one square metre of the material costs around £30 [US$53], and scientists working on the screens said they should be available by 2007." -- more...
posted by ericb at 7:17 PM PST - 53 comments

Catholic church warns of the danger of fundamentalism. "The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say, but continue: 'We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters.'" (via flambingo)
posted by lbergstr at 6:05 PM PST - 51 comments

Send A Birthday Greeting To Laura Bush courtesy of the (previously linked but always fascinating) Presidental Prayer Team. Here's Mine: Happy Birthday, Mrs. Bush! You and The President are the greatest! I hope Jenna and Barbara recognize that their parents are "cool" — as do the rest of us!
posted by Superfrankenstein at 5:58 PM PST - 15 comments

Winners of the Ig Nobel Prize
posted by semmi at 5:43 PM PST - 14 comments

Happy 60th Anniversary, Worker's Party of Korea (.swf)
posted by mr.marx at 5:12 PM PST - 27 comments

Gone by 2040: Religious Hierarchy, Japan's Passivity, The Chinese Communist Party, Auto Emissions, Monogamy, The Euro, The War on Drugs, Sovereignty... To mark their 35th year in publication Foreign Policy magazine asks 16 influential thinkers which ideas, values, or institutions will be gone by the year 2040. Also discussed on NPR radio today.
posted by StarForce5 at 3:23 PM PST - 50 comments

You know that ranger job in the National Park Service that you're gonna apply for as soon as you get through school or quit waiting tables? Fuhgeddaboutit, unless you've pledged your loyalty to the Ba'ath party President's Management Agenda and its roster of "faith-based and community initiatives," "competitive sourcing," etcetera, and Interior Secretary Gale Norton's "4C's," which seem to have to do with communication, consultation, cooperation, conservation, and Clinton-bashing. (Oh, sorry, that's 5 C's. It's just that Norton can't seem to stop denigrating "the previous administration" -- while advocating drilling in ANWR -- for such absurd ideas as banning snowmobiles from Yellowstone.)
posted by digaman at 3:18 PM PST - 18 comments

lacitedesmortes - documentary on women murdered in ciudad juarez -- lacitedesmontes.net is not in English, but through its flash presentation and navigation, it should explain enough about the brutality of the unfortunate events that took place in Ciudad Juarez. Since 1993, almost 400 women and girls have been murdered and more than 70 remain missing in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico. While the region's law enforcement as well as state's attorney general were either incompetent or corrupt, more than a dozen women's rights groups were created to solve the murder as well as to stop the violence in the region. Thanks to international organizations such as Amnesty, UNIFEM, and IACHR, the number of violent murder on women in the region has degreased for a while, however, the battle still continues. More resources here.
posted by grafholic at 2:34 PM PST - 11 comments

NSA gets patent on locating the physical location of web surfers "There are still many advantages to knowing the physical location of a party one is dealing with across electronically switched networks. For example, in the realm of advertising, knowing the geographic distribution of sales or inquires can be used to measure the effectiveness of advertising across geographic regions." Advertising, mmm hmmm.
posted by jeremias at 2:30 PM PST - 25 comments

Silicon Zoo: Where's Waldo? Hiding in the silicon patterns of a computer chip. Michael Davidson has found a collection of microscopic art hidden by chip designers. This practice has been going on for decades, and the hidden images range from the iconic to the commemorative to the bizarre. Be sure to read the fine print. [See also this CNET story] (via)
posted by stopgap at 2:05 PM PST - 12 comments

In the last three years there had been about 13 similar coincidences - a political downturn for the administration, followed by a “terror event” - a change in alert status, an arrest, a warning. We figured we’d better put that list of coincidences on the public record (.mov.)
posted by The Jesse Helms at 1:32 PM PST - 37 comments

How To Contact Celebrities.
posted by cribcage at 12:48 PM PST - 38 comments

NHL Academy. Become an NHL star at home, at your own pace. [flash + sound ]
posted by srboisvert at 11:59 AM PST - 12 comments

The solution?
posted by threehundredandsixty at 11:44 AM PST - 29 comments

Jim Anchower's homepage is now up. He lists his favourite bookmarks.His employment application and other stuff.
posted by Keith Talent at 10:58 AM PST - 21 comments

POP goes the weasel? "A number of Iraqis apprehended two Americans disguised in Arab dress as they tried to blow up a booby-trapped car in the middle of a residential area in western Baghdad on Tuesday. Residents of western Baghdad’s al-Ghazaliyah district told Quds Press that the people had apprehended the Americans as they left their Caprice car near a residential neighborhood in al-Ghazaliyah on Tuesday afternoon (11 October 2005). Local people found they looked suspicious so they detained the men before they could get away. That was when they discovered that they were Americans and called the Iraqi puppet police. Five minutes after the arrival of the Iraqi puppet police on the scene a large force of US troops showed up and surrounded the area. They put the two Americans in one of their Humvees and drove away at high speed to the astonishment of the residents of the area. Quds Press spoke by telephone with a member of the al-Ghazaliyah puppet police who confirmed the incident, saying that the two men were non-Arab foreigners but declined to be more precise about their nationality.
posted by rough ashlar at 10:16 AM PST - 122 comments

A campaign by Yale University law students – going all the way to the Supreme Court – helps free 300 people held without trial at Guantánamo.
posted by caddis at 10:09 AM PST - 11 comments

WXPN listeners have picked the 885 best albums of all time. In a follow-up to last year's list of the 885 best songs of all time (commented on here), Philadelphia's WXPN has polled its listeners to come up with the top 885 albums and is playing three tracks from each. The countdown is continuing as I type this. I have no doubt the entire Metafilter community will agree on the selections. Here's my prediction for #1.
posted by Man-Thing at 9:58 AM PST - 125 comments

After nearly being wiped out by a fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica), that was first identified in 1904, the American chestnut is attempting to make a comeback with a little help from its fungus-resistent Chinese cousin ... and maybe you. [more inside]
posted by terrapin at 8:31 AM PST - 18 comments

"Killer in Our Midst : Methane Catastrophes in Earth's Past and Near Future" (a free net book) - During the greatest extinction pulse known to have happened in the history of life on Earth - the Permian catastrophe - 90% of then existing species perished. This astonishingly well written, authoritative, free book may be the most important thing you will ever read on the net or off of it : it explains in great detail an inevitable Methane catastrophe, if humans do not stop adding CO2 to the Earth's atmosphere, during which "not only would a considerable percentage of existing plants and animals be killed off, but a large percentage of the human population as well" (or the whole species). In the worst scenarios the atmosphere itself could become poisonous to Oxygen breathing life. Mundane laws of physics, expressed in impending Methane Hydrate release, dictate to humanity : cut CO2 release or perish. Simple.
posted by troutfishing at 8:22 AM PST - 38 comments

God forgives Whippers. If you burn the flag, it is Jerry Falwell's obligation to whip you. In fact, he believes that the Lord will forgive him if he does so. (.wmv video link)
posted by Hands of Manos at 8:12 AM PST - 58 comments

Is there any real possibility of an after-life? Some argue that belief in the after-life is an inherently unfalsifiable proposition. Others argue that science has already ruled out the possibility. Buddhism takes a radically different view, embracing a conception of the after-life far different from any found in the Judeo-Christian faiths. What about the possibility of Eternal Recurrence, as proposed by Nietzsche? Just what do we mean when we speak of the "after-life" anyway?
posted by all-seeing eye dog at 7:47 AM PST - 129 comments

In lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to Republicans.
posted by taumeson at 6:22 AM PST - 27 comments

Color Makes it Real. Hundreds of color photos from World War I. The site is in French, the interface is horriable, but the pictures can be haunting. Click on the links under Accés aux images for the pictures. Via beautifulstuff.org
posted by ShawnString at 6:01 AM PST - 20 comments

It's Pinter. The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to the English writer Harold Pinter, “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms”.
posted by Termite at 4:12 AM PST - 34 comments

Could this be the first ever blogging drama? The World of Margaret has been running all week on Radio 4's Woman's Hour. An extremely funny play about a retired couple who take up blogging in their retirement, it is serialized and will be online until the end of the week. Each day's episode is listed at the right hand side of the page.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 3:08 AM PST - 15 comments

Is it OK to use a patio heater?
posted by johnny novak at 2:37 AM PST - 48 comments

Coin Collectors Divided over New Bush Half Penny: "Each half cent will cost about 0.81 cent to mint, creating an unnecessary deficit every year," detractors complain.
posted by three blind mice at 2:04 AM PST - 22 comments

Concrete Ships Toward the end of the First World War, and during the Second World War, the United States commisioned the construction of experimental concrete ships.
posted by dhruva at 1:49 AM PST - 25 comments

If you wanted to spend $100 on a 512 mb capacity mp3 player with no screen, you could buy an iPod shuffle, or you could get a player in the form of a PEZ dispenser. Developed by a stay-at-home dad who documented the design process on a sadly defunct blog, the only drawback is that it doesn't dispense candy.
posted by kyleg at 1:24 AM PST - 5 comments

The Secret Intelligence Service, aka MI6, now has its own website. MI5 has had one for a while, and apparently now gets most of its job applications that way.
posted by Phanx at 12:11 AM PST - 17 comments