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Now that Michael Moore's chosen to look at the American healthcare industry for his next film, Big Pharma is apparently on red alert for any of his trademark guerilla tactics. On his pre-election tour, Moore has been reading out a company-wide memo that he attributes to Viagra- and Vioxx-pushers Pfizer, warning employees to be prepared (and keep their gobs shut) in case of an inpromptu visit. Pfizer denies the memo exists, but in response, Moore says that the 'non-existent' memo also includes a Pfizer office number to report sightings. Perhaps we should call +1 212 733 2323 during New York office hours tomorrow and find out for certain? Or, alternatively, just mention that a large, unshaven man in a baseball cap has been lurking around any of these locations? (This one was too good to keep quiet about.)
posted by holgate at 10:48 PM PST - 56 comments

American Savagery. "Our role was to try to keep people motivated about [the] election and then to undermine the other side's support by casting them as liars, cheaters, stealers, immoral—all of that." The brutal chicanery of Karl Rove.
posted by four panels at 8:45 PM PST - 25 comments

51 Thoughts on the Apparent Sexiness of John Edwards from nerve.com - hilarious & (generally) SFW,

my favorite:

5. Bill Clinton, of course, was sexy in the former sense. He was sexy in the dangerous, you'd-like-to-sleep-with-him sense. Actually, Bill Clinton was sexy in the dangerous, you'd-like-to-sleep-with-him, and-after-you-slept-with-him, he-slept-with-your-roommate sense.

6. But we miss that playa, don't we?
posted by lilboo at 7:37 PM PST - 24 comments

Child's Play Returns: Last year, Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins got sick of gamers being portrayed as violence-drenched dweebs and asked their readers to pitch in for a toy drive for Seattle's childrens' hospital. They ended up raising over a quarter of a million dollars in toys and cash in the space of just a few weeks. This year, they've added four more childrens' hospitals to their list for their readers to support during the holiday season. Mike and Jerry originally did this as a way to rebut the perception of gamers, but it also shows the power of personal credibility with regards to Web sites -- the people who contributed didn't just do it to redeem the image of gamers, they did it because Mike and Jerry asked them to. This political season we've seen how bloggers can add to the coffers of candidates by endorsing them to their readers, but I think this is an even stronger case of online personal credibility translating into action (a similar case, on a slightly smaller scale: Pamie Ribon of Pamie.com and her readers contributing nearly 500 new books to San Diego County Libraries). Would that more of the "big" bloggers and popular sites did more of this sort of thing.
posted by jscalzi at 6:44 PM PST - 12 comments

Tracking African locust swarms - a rainy winter and spring in northwestern Africa promised a rich harvest for area farmers, but instead has brought plagues of ravaging locusts...
"Swarms of locusts can contain as many as 80 million locusts per square kilometer...a small part of a typical swarm can eat as much food as 2,500 people in a single day."
posted by tpl1212 at 6:01 PM PST - 3 comments

Movie Mistakes. A truly massive and comprehensive site by and for movie enthusiasts, not just the fussy ones either.(via Something Like That)
posted by nelleish at 5:54 PM PST - 10 comments

Pasties are delicious! Smother them in ketchup, but be sure to use Heinz. Help the old folks in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and sample a complete meal in a tidy compact envelope of flaky pastry goodness. Don't forget to check out the beautiful pasty cam pictures.
posted by Shike at 5:33 PM PST - 30 comments

Metrosexuality is out. Asexuality is in.
Sure, you can joke about it, but there are Asexual support groups and even asexual dating services. And don't confuse it with celibacy/abstinence, unless you call it Involuntary Celibacy.
One survey says 1% of Brits are asexual, (it also counts only 3% with 'same-sex attraction'), but the online poll CNN attached to its story on the subject is running 6% Asexual.
Some will still consider it a 'curable condition' that is often caused by other medications. And even when you think you've got a fix, maybe not. And by the way, people you expect to be oversexed may be the opposite.
And, for the record, that anatomically incorrect puppet sex scene in "Team America" is NOT Asexual Porn.
thanks to Cory and the Boingers
posted by wendell at 5:31 PM PST - 21 comments

The 38th annual conference on Anomalous Phenomena is just around the corner. Or, if you're in Europe, there's Unconvention 2004 in just a few weeks. Forteans are the spiritual descendents of Charles Fort, free-thinkers with a sense of humour, open-minded skeptics (as opposed to these guys).
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 3:48 PM PST - 9 comments

The Evolution Control Committee [Motion Picture Experts Group Standard 1 Audio Layer III]
posted by Pretty_Generic at 2:39 PM PST - 8 comments

I'm a Democrat for Bush.
Sarah Baxter is a life-long Labour voter in Britain and a registered Democrat in the United States. So how come she wants George W Bush to remain president?
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 2:27 PM PST - 104 comments

Peak Oil? Include Me Out, is one of the best reads about the whole issue of peak oil. Its author, Mick Winter "is a former Y2K community activist who currently suffers from chronic déjà vu and still hasn't figured out what to do about Peak Oil." I am a peaknik and I can tell you this is a good read, no matter your stance on peak oil! (psssst, if you are already a peaknik, or just curious, Winter maintains a good a peak oil metadirectory. )
posted by samelborp at 12:13 PM PST - 41 comments

Anti-Kerry Film Producer Accused of Libel A Vietnam veteran shown in a documentary criticizing Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites)'s anti-war activities filed a libel lawsuit against the movie's producer Monday, saying the film falsely calls the veteran a fraud and a liar. Kenneth J. Campbell, now a professor at the University of Delaware, said in the suit that "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" combines footage of him appearing at a 1971 war protest with narration that claims that many of the supposed veterans who took part in the event were later "discovered as frauds" who "never set foot on the battlefield, or left the comfort of the States, or even served in uniform."
posted by Postroad at 10:57 AM PST - 19 comments

There are a lot of small sites doing caption contests from time to time, but I've never seen a site with such a long history of them. There's gold in the archives (1, 2, 3, 4), and weekly contests still going on.
posted by mathowie at 10:42 AM PST - 7 comments

Smoke Wagon. A weekly webcomic from Gary Panter (of Jimbo, Facetasm and Pink Donkey & the Fly).
posted by Smart Dalek at 10:04 AM PST - 1 comments

(Didn't Know I Was) UnAmerican by Ian Rhett. Via Monkeyfilter, and hosted by SharedVoice.org. Mirrored by SomaFM.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 9:25 AM PST - 6 comments

My Heart vs the Real World
"He's a normal kid. He's a good kid. He's a real normal kid. And we get him to do the drums and we take him for tryouts and we do everything we can to keep his life as normal as we can make it. We've never lollypopped him. You know, mollycoddled or – we let him try everything. 'Cause if we didn't it would be a big crutch for him. We don't want that to happen. Like I said, we waited – we wanted to have another child right away. We wanted three, we always did. We were scared to death after him. To have another one, to have another baby. What if the third one, you know – what if it were Cheryl and I? Our genes?
-- The father of Grant Skowkron, Fifteen years old, Single Ventricle, Transposition of the Major Vessels, M.V. Prolapse, Implanted Pacemaker.
Photographer Max S. Gerber has had a pacemaker implanted because of his bradycardia. In his website, he tells the story of ten other heart patients -- all of them kids -- with his images, and with their parents' words.
posted by matteo at 8:27 AM PST - 6 comments

Lie Down for America, by Thomas Frank. "'How can anyone who has ever worked for someone else vote Republican?' she asked. How could so many people get it so wrong?"
posted by semmi at 8:10 AM PST - 67 comments

Town Haul: Architecture and New Urbanism meet Reality TV ^tm in NY and Britain
posted by shoepal at 7:03 AM PST - 8 comments

FORCE Ministries "IN 1998....the Lord began opening doors to the SEAL Team community and to military installations nationwide." : "[ Our] Defining passage : "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it." ( Matthew 11:12 NIV ) : An all consuming fire for Dominion. "They are My Special Forces Unit. They are called by My Name. They are called Kingdom Warriors. They are those I have been grooming since birth. They will be sent out against satan's hoard." (more inside)
posted by troutfishing at 5:20 AM PST - 52 comments

KEEP YOUR FUCKIN' LIMEY HANDS OFF OUR ELECTION. A follow up to this post.
posted by sic at 4:31 AM PST - 129 comments