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May 411 quasi-evil Karls dirty dance with Pez dispensers after applying Preparation H to your withered mailman: The Arabian Insult Generator. Though no match for the immortal "May you have an interesting life" (is it Chinese or Jewish?), here is a worthy self-generating collection of curses. (Click "Refresh" for a new batch..)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:37 PM PST - 13 comments

Psst! Wanna download some mp3s? Now you can do so without looking over your shoulder to see who is watching. Creative Commons has compiled a selection of tracks utilising their licensing system for free download. The ability to create derivative works and share them around has resulting in some interesting remixes of one of the original tracks, also. via A Whole Lotta Nothing
posted by dg at 8:44 PM PST - 10 comments

[this is good] [note: flash, music, visuals, etc.]
posted by crunchland at 8:14 PM PST - 14 comments

Rerun Dead at 52 Fred Berry, who played Rerun on tv's What's Happening is dead. {Warning, 2nd link has audio but it's the cool theme song to the show.}
posted by nyxxxx at 7:18 PM PST - 15 comments

Further verification that fuck is fucked. The gradual emasculation of a word once obscene.
posted by the fire you left me at 5:39 PM PST - 54 comments

Memorable TV themes A short but interesting rumination. Blissfully it mentions composers W. Snuffy Walden who along with Mike Post writes the best in the business. I haven't seen thirtysomething in years but I know Walden's tie-in CD inside out. What's your favourite TV theme?
posted by feelinglistless at 3:23 PM PST - 55 comments

Those of you who added reams of ad-blocking software to your PC's in the last two years, almost solely to block ads for the X10 wireless cam, may be shocked (gasp!) to find out that they weren't paying for the ads the whole time. In a dramatic and satisfying turnaround, X10's ad providers have sued them to the tune of 4.1 million USD. When lamers sue lamers, everyone wins!
posted by poorhaus at 2:46 PM PST - 12 comments

As of October next year, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 comes into effect in the UK. Under this act, a disabled person may have rights to sue a service-providing company if they have difficulty accessing their website just as they might if they had difficulty accessing their headquarters. The Royal National Institute of the Blind website includes a "web access centre", which takes a good look at the issue of accessibility and provides sound advice to web designers whether they are legally obligated to tackle such issues or not.
posted by nthdegx at 1:56 PM PST - 10 comments

Reporters Sans Frontières has released its 2003 world press freedom rankings: "Cuba second from last, just ahead of North Korea. United States and Israel singled out for actions beyond their borders....The ranking distinguishes behaviour at home and abroad in the cases of the United States and Israel. They are ranked in 31st and 44th positions respectively as regards respect for freedom of expression on their own territory, but they fall to the 135th and 146th positions as regards behaviour beyond their borders." In related news, "In Baghdad, official control over the news is getting tighter. Journalists used to walk freely into the city’s hospitals and the morgue to keep count of the day’s dead and wounded. Now the hospitals have been declared off-limits and morgue officials turn away reporters who aren’t accompanied by a Coalition escort. Iraqi police refer reporters’ questions to American forces; the Americans refer them back to the Iraqis";"Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins"; and it looks like we may have been using the word "casualties" incorrectly all this time.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 1:41 PM PST - 34 comments

Now's your chance to get with Jenna Jameson... Okay, not really. Apparently, the new gig in Berlin, Germany as of last month is pr0n Karaoke - you and a partner (or two, or three?) get together on stage, with a movie up on the screen, and "act out" the parts being played out graphically. So.... practice your faking and get ready to go!
posted by djspicerack at 12:12 PM PST - 26 comments

I was plussed. It was concerting to see that she was communicado... An 1994 New Yorker story chock full of presumably sensical words that look wacky without their negating prefixes. A Smackeral from the great beebo.org
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:11 PM PST - 24 comments

Butterfly Pee - Pure urine from the wild. In the wild butterflies find their greatest source of sodium, essential minerals and vitamins from wild animal urine puddles and urine-soaked leaves. Now you can bring this natural buttlerfly attractant to your garden.
posted by y6y6y6 at 11:51 AM PST - 14 comments

When Pink Bits Were Not The Norm - The art of X-rated movie posters from the 1960s and 1970s. Considered by most to be the Golden Age of the pornographic movie, the period's rising production budgets generated a dramatic improvement in film quality and plot.
posted by turbanhead at 10:25 AM PST - 6 comments

Prisons have become America's default mental health system. According to a new study by Human Rights Watch, between two and three hundred thousand men and women in U.S. prisons are seriously mentally ill, about three times more than the number of mentally ill who are in mental hospitals. [Via TalkLeft.]
posted by homunculus at 10:16 AM PST - 23 comments

Make me an MCSE or I'll kick your ass. I came thisclose to sending a check for classes. Glad I didn't. We especially regret not being able to call each student individually; we would have preferred that rather than posting a notice at our facilities. It was determined that informing students in person resulted in too high of a risk of physical danger for our staff.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 9:48 AM PST - 27 comments

November's Atlantic Monthly includes their First Annual College-Admissions Survey: a collection of articles intended to give "a realistic portrayal of the admissions system." The survey includes articles on the chaotic nature of the admissions process, the rise of "late-decision" admissions, a way to rank colleges that might actually mean something, whether selectivity actually means anything, and bias in standardized testing. Will this survey restore some sanity to the process (as the editors seem to hope), or is it just the equivalent of the U.S. News & World Report rankings for the cognac set?
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:58 AM PST - 9 comments

Justice Scalia's recusal in the Pledge case has prompted a serious debate on the judicial role. Robert Alt has suggested that the Justice's recusal carries an important warning for the Senate in confirming new judges; if the Senate requires the nominees to answer questions about their opinions on potential cases, those nominees would have to recuse themselves if those cases later indeed came before them. Matthew Franck, on the other hand, suggests "this argument ... permits the requirements of judicial ethics — and even a terribly broad reading of them — to trump the constitutional obligation of senators to inform themselves adequately about the kinds of judges they are being asked to confirm." [more inside]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:36 AM PST - 11 comments

Reflect the pain and desolate loneliness inmates felt when serving time - time in a prison surrounded by a paradise that teased them with what was forbidden.

In 1985, before I left Brazil to live in the United States, I journeyed with some friends to surf at Ilha Grande. One day, while we relaxed on a remote beach, a group of military men suddenly appeared looking for some escaped prisoners. They advised us to stay together. Hours later, a helicopter flew over the sea with two fugitives trapped in a net that was hanging from its belly. ...At that moment, a desire was born in me to see life within the Caldron.
posted by thisisdrew at 6:46 AM PST - 8 comments

In 1898, the United States made a major move in the direction of colonial imperialism with the acquisition of the Philippine Islands from Spain. President Bush, in a recent speech in the Philippines, pointed to that country's story as a model for rebuilding Iraq. Perhaps a history lesson about the American and Filipino experience in this occupation is in order for both us and our President. The atrocities committed during the Filipinos' struggle for independence (including the use of concentration camps), the high death toll (between 250,000 and 1,000,000, according to this article), and the American occupation which spanned six decades lead me to question whether Bush is just ignorant of the associations made in this comparison, or if it's a subtle way for the administration to set the stage for what possessing Iraq is actually going to entail. (Most links courtesy of the outstanding BoondocksNet, a collection of primary and secondary sources related to American imperialism.)
posted by UKnowForKids at 6:36 AM PST - 25 comments

The College Board today released their annual report looking at the costs of college tuitions. Once again this year the report finds that the costs for students are rising. A group of students at the University of Maryland, College Park said enough is enough and have formed a political action committee to fight the state's refusal to increase funding to public colleges in the state, and curb tuition increases. The Student Citizen Action Networkis the first of it's kind, they have a goal of raising over $50,000 dollars, and they have already made substantial progress in their first few days.
posted by mhaw at 5:50 AM PST - 6 comments

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. American comedy legend Jerome Horwitz, a.k.a. Curly Howard(sound) of The Three Stooges, was born 100 years ago today. All right, you knuckeheads, spread out.
posted by planetkyoto at 3:03 AM PST - 5 comments

Man Jumps off Niagara Falls and survives. Kirk Jones is my kinda guy. He always thought he could jump off of Niagara Falls and survive, and yesterday he proved it. Final word must go to his mother "We'd rather he hadn't done that"...
posted by rikabel at 1:16 AM PST - 41 comments