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Gloomy the Vicious Bear - we had a recent thread about the teddy bear turning 100. Here's a cute pink Japanese variation that retains a frighteningly feral blood lust. Osaka-based illustrator Mori Chack's innocent cartoon style belies the macabre nature. Just in time for the holidays, get your Gloomy Bear stuffed toys, hightops or other goodies before supplies run out! thanks, gmtPlus9.
posted by madamjujujive at 8:42 PM PST - 17 comments

David wins Fame Academy! Mix Big Brother with Pop/American Idol and you get the Fame Academy, where 12 gorgeous under-30s are thrown into a glorified stage school for a few months, and only one emerges an idol. The prize? Supposedly the 'biggest TV prize ever.' A £1 million recording contract, a fancy apartment in London, a personal shopper, chauffeur, and more. All is not lost for the 'losers' though, as they've all gained professional management and Mercury Records is considering them all for solo careers. In contrast to the 'Idol' shows, being couped up for weeks on end has caused even the wackiest contestants to grow in their singing and songwriting abilities. So will this show reach the US? Probably, given these other crossover shows.
posted by wackybrit at 6:16 PM PST - 8 comments

the tofte project cool web site. cool project. cool ideas. cool person. cool part of the country. cool use of flash. via k10k.net
posted by specialk420 at 5:41 PM PST - 19 comments

Real cash in a virtual world - a little piece from New Scientist about a new type of massive multiplayer game where you convert real cash in to virtual, and then actually buy things you need to survive in that world.
posted by paladin at 5:19 PM PST - 12 comments

Segata Sanshiro! Why show people the graphics and gameplay of your video game, when you can simply beat them into playing it?
posted by qDot at 3:56 PM PST - 5 comments

Yet another twist to your 15 minutes. Your photo could be on the grocer's shelf next. The one we got sports a 'Tsunami Evacuation Route' sign photo. Just don't suggest rotten celery as a new flavor.
posted by yoga at 3:46 PM PST - 5 comments

"No, Virginia Hayley, there isn't a Santa Claus" A substitute teacher in Florida was reading aloud to her class of Kindergartners when the subject unexpectedly turned to the existence of Santa Claus. Rather than perpetuate a myth, "Mrs. P" chose to come clean with the gathered five year olds, and explained that there was no Santa, and that all presents "come from mom and dad." Well, next thing you know, kids are crying, parents are protesting, and the teacher feels awful. In an effort to "make up for the teacher's lapse," the school district decides to send in a "Santa" to visit the class in order to "set the record straight": "Today's visiting Santa, with a natural, full white beard, should convince even a classroom full of skeptics, said district spokesman Englehart. 'He's the real deal.'" Great! Well, except for the fact that he's not. (via obscurestore)
posted by pardonyou? at 2:05 PM PST - 123 comments

At InfoSecuity 2002, an annual corporate security conference, new "computer forensics" software is on display, including software "that allows corporate IT folks to research employees' criminal histories, credit information, financial asset details, friends and associates. "

The software is called Red Alert 2.0, and more specifically the research software is an optional subscription based add-on called Intelligent Information Dossier plus. Isn't this tantamount to your employer spying on your private life, in real time?

As I work for a very large military contractor myself, I could easily see something like this being used where I work. Would you feel comfortable working for a company that uses this sort of intrusive software?
posted by SweetJesus at 12:47 PM PST - 21 comments

Now They Can Stop Making Those Dreadful Documentary Things. Bowling for Columbine has been named the best documentary of all time by the International Documentary Association. Do we agree?
posted by NedKoppel at 12:46 PM PST - 66 comments

Fly the creamy skies. One man’s flash of inspiration (and frantic legwork) translates 12,150 cups of chocolate pudding into 1,215,000 frequent flier miles. Total cost: $2,235 - including an $815 tax write-off to charity. Photo proof here. [via boing boing (via cardhouse)]
posted by gottabefunky at 12:04 PM PST - 16 comments

What's the Frequency, Moby? Techno superstar Moby was assaulted by a pair of mysterious assailants last night after a concert in Boston. "He wrote on his Web site that he is not angry about the attack, just mystified about the motive. He has asked the attackers to post an explanation." Moby's journal has been discussed previously, but is worth a look if you've never visited.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:15 AM PST - 47 comments

Microsoft engineer pinched for stealing $9 million worth of software. Not a bright thing to do. Furthermore, why would you post pictures of your expensive toys on the internet? Trying to prove to the folks back home you've made it I suppose.
posted by rotifer at 10:57 AM PST - 32 comments

"They're sprouting like mushrooms. And slowly it will become something tourists to most destinations will expect to be part of their itinerary." - Eiran Gazit Welcome to the wide world of miniature theme parks. Have one built to your specifications for just US$ 4,000,000. Or you can build a virtual village for free. Enjoy.
posted by snez at 10:43 AM PST - 6 comments

Sure, we all know the story about how Detroit developed, and then kept under wraps, a 100mpg carburetor is false. However, affordable 80mpg family sedans are real: behold the Supercar! They are the results of a nearly decade-long partnership between The Big Three and the Clinton administration. However the program was quietly shelved last June, the victim of the Bush administration, and corporate backpedaling. Read the whole sordid tale here. [use username/password for login] In the meantime, you'll have to settle for one of these.
posted by thewittyname at 10:39 AM PST - 22 comments

Metafilter, you are my friend. This made me laugh A LOT. Plus you can replace "metafilter" with your friends' names and win brownie points! (Requires Flash and if you're at work, turn the sound down...)
posted by adrober at 9:59 AM PST - 31 comments

Treetop Bloggers Protest Logging A group of anti-logging activists are now ready to maintain their own blog 130 feet up in an ancient redwood. I've considered tree sitting, but find myself much more inclined to do so if I could continue working (or reading MeFi, as the case may be). Interesting intersection of technology and activism. Doncha think? (via /.)
posted by maniactown at 9:58 AM PST - 6 comments

The Overcrowding Police

Belleville inspectors and armed police officers show up without search warrants to check for occupancy code violations, and ticket people who don't let them in -- a practice experts say is unconstitutional.
.....
Invite friends over, babysit your grandchildren or allow relatives to spend the night in Belleville and you risk an armed police officer turning up at your door to search your home and give you a ticket. Enforcement teams consisting of a housing inspector and a police officer do not obtain search warrants before showing up to check for occupancy code violations, a Belleville News-Democrat investigation found.
posted by nofundy at 9:15 AM PST - 14 comments

Check it out party people its the Human Beatbox! So you're hanging out with pals, and one of them starts throwing out the mad rhymes. You've got this incredible urge to back him up by creating wika-wika-wika noises just like the Fat Boys, but how? Learn how to here, and maybe someday, if you work hard enough... you'll be as good as "That Guy From Police Academy."
posted by Stan Chin at 8:16 AM PST - 11 comments

Are you Paraskevidekatriaphobic? If you think Friday the 13th is unlucky, then you are. But you might not be wrong. Hospital admissions due to road accidents increase by up to 52% on Friday the 13th. And of course the fear is so universal, it even spawned a series of movies.
posted by Mwongozi at 8:05 AM PST - 23 comments

The 12 Days of Kitschmas. Just in time for Christmas, 12 'Gadgets for God'.
posted by Sal Amander at 8:03 AM PST - 1 comments

"Tornado in a Can" "To test their theory, the Vortex folks have thrown in rocks, diapers, tomatoes, sweet potato rejects from the farm down the road, 400 pounds of Oreo cookies, frozen pizza dough, even a dead bird.....The jellyfish, however, are a first." picture of "Tornado-in-a-Can" that sure is a big can. don't try this at home, folks
posted by troutfishing at 7:50 AM PST - 17 comments

Female Victims of Church Scandals Speak. With all the news of Cardinal Law resigning, and the church trying to oust homosexuals from their ranks, I thought this article about the under-reporting of female victims of the scandal was timely.
posted by grimley at 6:23 AM PST - 12 comments

Monkey Lander. Flash based friday fun.
posted by Spoon at 5:58 AM PST - 36 comments

Good Ol' Foreign Home Cookin': Mexicans, Italians and other foreigners are just as surprised with what passes for Mexican and Italian food in the U.S. as Indians are to encounter chicken tikka masala or vindaloos in the U.K. Americans and Brits visiting the countries whose cuisines they think they know and love must be similarly surprised. Well, purists be damned! Not only is "faux foreign" cuisine sometimes very tasty (less pretentious than "fusion" cooking, for instance), in some cases (e.g. Tex Mex) it can be a damn sight better than the supposed original. And let no one argue these confusions aren't fun... [Apologies it the post looks funny and full of ampersands and the links don't work: my first no-right-clicking post on a mac...]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:26 AM PST - 74 comments

Keep Grubby Alive! This flash game reminded me of some nightmares I had as a child. But that's a good thing . . .I think.
posted by jeremias at 5:09 AM PST - 9 comments

Heritage of humanity This month's Monde Diplomatique features an essay by one of the 2002 Nobel Prize winners in Physiology and Medicine, John Sulston. Sulston "writes about his battle to make the entire sequence of the genome public despite all the commercial attempts to patent it". His basic point is that: "If we wish to move forward with [Human Genome Sequencing], which will undoubtedly translate into medical advances, the basic data must be freely available for everyone to interpret, change and share, as in the open-source software movement." The public human genome database Sulston refers to, can be found on the Sanger Institute's website.
posted by talos at 1:08 AM PST - 2 comments

The John Ashcroft Snow Globe. Make your own punch line. Other merchandise on the site includes a literal Bible Belt, and what I believe to be Newt Gingrich underoos of some sort.
posted by condour75 at 12:06 AM PST - 9 comments

Moblogging! Yesterday's Guardian Unlimited features a gently snarky piece by Jane Perrone, introducing a wider world to the possibilities of camera+mobile phone+Web publishing, à la HipTop Nation. By my count, that's one month, five days from the word's coining to its first appearance in the major media (if you think the Guardian counts as such, that is). Given such rapid memetic uptake, what do you think: flash in the pan, or new social structure abornin'? (Full disclosure: my site is linked from Perrone's piece.)
posted by adamgreenfield at 12:01 AM PST - 12 comments