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Europe's not-too-modest anti-piracy proposal. If accepted, it means that "not only could a teenager who downloaded a music file be sent to jail under it; so too could managers of the Internet service provider that the teenager happened to use, whether they knew what the teenager was doing or not." The proposal is being spearheaded by French parliamentarian Janelly Fourtou. Coincidentally enough, her husband is the chief executive of Vivendi Universal.
posted by Ljubljana at 11:33 PM PST - 9 comments

Plants in motion is a comprehensive archive of time-lapse movies (Quicktime format) of plants germinating and growing, flowers opening, tropic responses and circadian movements. Some of the video is quite eerie. The plants really seem...erm...alive... The site also has a guide to making your own time-lapse film.
posted by Jimbob at 8:15 PM PST - 14 comments

Minimal Porn. This is hot. [Flash.] [Via The Cartoonist.]
posted by homunculus at 8:14 PM PST - 19 comments

Several people here are fans of Gregg Easterbrook's excellent column Tuesday Morning Quarterback, available (until this week) at ESPN.com. Unfortunately, in his side gig as a writer for the New Republic, in a blog entry savaging the movie Kill Bill, Easterbrook made comments that came across as perpetuating ugly stereotypes about Jewish people. He immediately claimed 100% responsibility for the ugliness, and apologized completely and without reservation. Within a week, he was fired by ESPN, all his archived columns (nearly two years worth) removed, and the search engine rigged such that searches for his name, the name of his former column, or the nickname for his column all return only the front page of ESPN, as though the search itself had never taken place. Many are beginning to suspect, however, that this isn't a case of political correctness, as much as corporate punishment, as ESPN is owned by Disney, which produced Kill Bill.
posted by jonson at 8:02 PM PST - 80 comments

Love the shows, beware the fans. That seems to be the gist of fandom_wank. And because God knows lunacy isn't limited to fandom, on the seventh day, God created spinoffs. Mock. Mockmockmock. Mockity-mock-mock.
posted by FunkyHelix at 7:23 PM PST - 12 comments

RapidMotion... cool pinball game for an interestingly named german bearing maker. [note: flash]
posted by crunchland at 7:19 PM PST - 6 comments

Love and Yearning: mystical and moral themes in Persian poetry and painting. (Flash req'd)
posted by moonbird at 6:52 PM PST - 7 comments

Outside the Inbox is a compilation of songs inspired by and titled after the subject lines of spam. Brad of Brad Sucks asked artists to choose a subject line from an actual piece of spam and then write a song with it as its title. The result is a fun 14-song concept album filled with some of the great music being made by home recordists on the Internet today!
posted by KathyK at 5:08 PM PST - 5 comments

"As team names went, Victory 2 Vagina was almost run-of-the-mill. There were also the Blazing Saddle Sores, the Weapons of Ass Destruction, and Nocturnal Mission". Welcome to the 24 Hours of Moab, which some consider the country's toughest 24-hour mountain bike race.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:19 PM PST - 5 comments

Oatmeal - Experience Machine (link to HTML; need QuickTime to view episode)
posted by oissubke at 4:18 PM PST - 3 comments

"A ninth-grader in a denim miniskirt exchanges conversational barbs with a boy leaning against a post, then fakes a little scream as the young man steps toward her and pulls up her skirt, putting her panties on display." Kids these days, right? Nope, it's Modern Flirting. [via dangerousmeta.]
posted by emelenjr at 4:17 PM PST - 12 comments

Star Trek: Voyager fanfiction. For years, people have asked themselves, what would happen if certain crewmembers hooked up? Endless combinations have been thought out and pondered, but perhaps the most popular of all, Janeway and Seven of Nine, has been given the full treatment here. Possibly not safe for work (especially the "R" rated stories), because you could be carried out as you laugh yourself to death. A look into the bizarre and often highly amusing world of fanfiction.
posted by insomnyuk at 12:50 PM PST - 66 comments

Tim Davis: images from the sides of boxcars, coal cars, miscellaneous freight cars and a caboose. .
posted by hama7 at 12:47 PM PST - 8 comments

Pontiki Alert! Christmas 2002: Wife buys two Pontiki figures as stocking stuffers. Husband opens the egg shaped toys delighted to discover a small package of eyes, limbs, and other appendages that fit into small holes on the surface of the egg-body. Husband goes wild, buying a dozen other sets and creating many Pontiki figures to excite the senses. Shortly after Christmas, Pontiki disappear from store shelves ... The Present: Anchovy (the creators of Pontiki) and Basic Fun seem to have cut a deal for US distribution of the toys known as the Japanese Mr. Potato Head. They open a gallery for Pontiki creations. The Pontiki Showcase is now accepting submissions of Pontiki art with a grand opening scheduled for October 27, 2003.
posted by blakewest at 7:49 AM PST - 8 comments

Gathering the Jewels. Welsh culture online. 'The goal of the project was to put the cream of Wales' cultural history, from repositories throughout Wales, on the Internet for people to learn from and enjoy. ' Politics, religion, sport, domestic life, emigration (the Welsh in Patagonia), the Welsh landscape etc. Via the 24 Hour Museum.
posted by plep at 3:00 AM PST - 14 comments

The Big Read. Here is the 100 top books as chosen by BBC Viewers, and here are the top 21 finalists you can vote for. It goes without saying that Rowling is going to win, but what books would you like to have seen in the list, and who do you think should win?
posted by seanyboy at 2:29 AM PST - 24 comments