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Wael Abbas is an Egyptian blogger and anti-torture activist who recently won a journalism award for his documenting police brutality in Egypt, which led to the conviction of two police officers. In Egypt, blogging can get you arrested, and Abbas has taken enormous risks. But now YouTube has removed his videos and suspended his account after receiving complaints (possibly from the Egyptian government) about their graphic content, and Yahoo has disabled his email account. Evidently YouTube is not the ally human rights advocates had hoped it would be.
posted by homunculus at 11:40 PM PST - 16 comments

Shrinking Cities (virtual and real): Analysis and Interventions. [more inside]
posted by salvia at 10:56 PM PST - 12 comments

Rails of War is a terrific flash game, where you equip a train with ever-increasing combinations of weapons and guide it through various missions. It is a representative of the growing number of Defense-style flash strategy games started by Tower Defense and friends, which we discussed before. Now you can try Age of War, where you try to destroy an opponents base through five distinct eras; Invasion Tactical Defense where you must manage a nuclear missile plant and its anti-aircraft defenses; the inevitable and previously mentioned zombie defense games; StarCraft FA5, where you are the Zerg defending your base; and the lovely and abstract Red. These is a particularly addictive class of games, so be warned...
posted by blahblahblah at 10:53 PM PST - 19 comments

black men magazine ("for strong, positive, caring brothers") has published six issues this year. (all 2007 covers here) the number of black men on their cover: zero. (the same is true for their 2006, 2005 and 2004 covers.) (more inside...) [more inside]
posted by krautland at 10:47 PM PST - 51 comments

In these times of trouble, A New Hope.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:03 PM PST - 30 comments

The USNS Swift (HSV-2) looks like something a Bond villian would own, but it's actually one of the most advanced ships owned by the US Navy. Highly manueverable and having a top speed of 51mph, it's heavily automated, capable of handling helicopters, carrying cargo, and launching both manned and unmanned vehicles -- all with only 42 people. It's assisted with relief efforts in Indonesia, Lebanon, and after Hurricane Katrina. But the best thing about the ship? It can be remote controlled through a web browser.
posted by QuestionableSwami at 8:32 PM PST - 28 comments

Sean Taylor died on Tuesday after being shot by an intruder in his home. The police are probing, but nobody is sure what exactly happened. [more inside]
posted by Autarky at 8:26 PM PST - 18 comments

Skateboard Kings is a 1978 BBC documentary about the Dogtown skateboarding scene in late 70's Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Featuring a lot of footage of the skaters' daily life as well as an exploration of the business side of skateboarding, the documentary is a time capsule of late 70's Southern California. For more about Dogtown go to z-boys.com. [previously on MetaFilter]
posted by Kattullus at 7:36 PM PST - 10 comments

Thirsty Dragon at the Olympics Dai Qing on China's environmental crisis and the upcoming Beijing Olympics.
posted by Abiezer at 7:23 PM PST - 6 comments

A great quick read from the NYTimes. Why making mistakes is sometimes the best thing for us, and why we avoid it anyway.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 7:20 PM PST - 30 comments

McCain on Waterboarding. [more inside]
posted by chunking express at 6:53 PM PST - 45 comments

Here is an incredibly detailed history of Glasgow in pictures. The site map is probably the best place to start. [more inside]
posted by winna at 5:49 PM PST - 9 comments

Ellen Von Unwerth's Revenge, roughly 60 (out of 190) images from a louche, erotic book (Salon review), recalling the Golden Age of Hollywood and Betty Page.

Other works from the insanely comprehensive site include: Omahyra and Boyd, a glammy, androgynous romp through lite-fetish; and "Erin Fetherworth," a video starring Kristen Dunst.

Be aware that most of her work involves glossy nude photography.
posted by klangklangston at 4:58 PM PST - 32 comments

Before instant messaging, before chat groups, before IRC... there was Diversi-Dial. As the eighties became the nineties, the internet grew, and DDial died. Or did it? More than 20 years later--still at 300 baud and on an original Apple ][e--DDial lives on! [more inside]
posted by not_on_display at 12:43 PM PST - 38 comments

Classic post-punk music videos from, strangely enough, post-punk.com (via largehearted boy) [more inside]
posted by sleepy pete at 11:54 AM PST - 119 comments

Lost in the Static Lost in the Static is a simple little game that uses some surprising aspects of the human perceptual system to create a visible world out of animating static.
Please note that this display is not suitable for everyone! Some people find they get headaches or nausea, or their eyes get "all woggly". If you do not find the experience pleasant, stop playing!

Downloadable .exe. Hello Waxy!
posted by boo_radley at 11:45 AM PST - 38 comments

Intimate in bed
Adoptive iterative
Develop in bed!

[refresh]

Hello my marbles
You have no chance to marble
Make your undoing!
posted by pedantic at 11:41 AM PST - 68 comments

Mid-century American decor's holy trinity of materials were steel, linoleum and plastic., all of which are on display in these galleries from Plan59, which also brings us cars, trucks, food and more. (Including a blog).
posted by dersins at 11:07 AM PST - 11 comments

The Golden Age of Couture is an exhitibion at London's Victoria and Albert Museum exploring high fashion of the 1950s, inspired by designer Christian Dior's pioneering "New Look" styles. Beautiful things!
posted by thirteenkiller at 10:11 AM PST - 24 comments

"Hello, and welcome to Mainly For Men (part 1, part 2). And, as the title implies, this is a programme, fellas, just for you." Yes, everything the BBC thought the red-blooded male back in the late 1960s would be interested in (ie women, cars and shark fishing). The result was so hideous it was never broadcast until a TV Hell themed night many years later. Possibly NSFW... some brief nudity ('artistic', naturally) and mild swearing. And rampant mind-blowing sexism.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:05 AM PST - 85 comments

Cosmopolitanism is as old as the Stoics, but it is being perpetually renewed: Ulrich Beck, Seyla Benhabib, Martha Nussbaum, and Kwame Anthony Appiah weigh in. [more inside]
posted by anotherpanacea at 9:47 AM PST - 13 comments

Not your average beadwork. Natasha St. Michael creates organic-inspired structures from beads. Lots and lots of beads. I mean, wow, that's a lotta beads.
posted by frykitty at 9:20 AM PST - 11 comments

19th Century Schoolbooks, over 140 examples online. Browse the collection and find digital images of such gems as: School melodies : containing a choice collection of popular airs (1852), The American drawing-book (1847), Slate and black board exercises (1857), and of course we got your McGuffey's. [more inside]
posted by marxchivist at 9:00 AM PST - 24 comments

“If you’re a prostate cancer survivor, one of the hardest things to question is whether your treatment was worth it.”
In 2003 Professor Alan Coates, then chief executive of the Cancer Council of Australia, caused a media storm, when he suggested that based on available evidence he personally would not undergo PSA screening for prostate cancer. This month's RSM journal analyses the Australian media response in detail.
posted by roofus at 8:45 AM PST - 43 comments

Pictures from hitchhiking across America. {via}
posted by dobbs at 8:31 AM PST - 29 comments

Humor so dry, at times you might not be entirely sure. The Long Johns mull over the sub-prime mortgage mess. [more inside]
posted by From Bklyn at 6:06 AM PST - 34 comments

"A detective does his job in the only possible way. He follows the requirements of the law to the letter -- or close enough so as not to jeopardize his case. Just as carefully, he ignores that law's spirit and intent. He becomes a salesman, a huckster as thieving and silver-tongued as any man who ever moved used cars or aluminum siding -- more so, in fact, when you consider that he's selling long prison terms to customers who have no genuine need for the product." [more inside]
posted by dhammond at 12:06 AM PST - 96 comments

It is not Christmas without tamales.
posted by bigmusic at 12:05 AM PST - 37 comments