December 22, 2002

the spirit of hospice care for the terminally ill

The spirit of hospice - from a blogger with heart.
posted by sheauga at 9:01 PM PST - 4 comments

Where do the ebooks come from?

Distributed Proofreaders is a collaborative effort in proofreading ebooks before they are submitted to Project Guttenberg. [more inside]
posted by phyrewerx at 8:11 PM PST - 7 comments

Donald Rumsfeld quotations competition

Monumentae Rumsfeldiana: A soundbite competition for future tombstone use. [But should a British state-owned corporation like the BBC make official fun of an senior American government minister? Real Audio req. ]
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 8:09 PM PST - 9 comments

Top 50 albums of 2002

And so it begins: while I've already seen half a dozen "best ___ of 2002" lists, the year end list I look forward to, Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums list is out for 2002. It's just the right mix between "so mainstream there are no surprises" and "so indie even your second cousin's girlfriend's brother in that band hasn't heard of them" though perhaps they're leaning towards the latter this year, seeing how I've only heard about a quarter of all the albums listed.
posted by mathowie at 5:30 PM PST - 55 comments

New U.S-backed radio for Iran

How can Britney Spears bring democracy to Iran? President Bush has the answer.
posted by hoder at 4:14 PM PST - 6 comments

Twas the parody before Xmas

Twas the night before Xmas and all through the net,
The geeks would be googling the ascii character set;
Metafilter refreshed on their PCs with care,
In the hopes that their FPP soon would be there;

Then up in the blue there arose such a clatter,
Mathowie sprang up to see what's the matter;
When, what to my wondering eyes there should be,
The canonical list of "Twas" parodies.
posted by Wet Spot at 2:06 PM PST - 11 comments

'The Virgin Mary'

Tonight, the BBC took the controversial decision to screen a documentary which investigated the plausability of the life of The Virgin Mary as it appears in The Bible. As someone who's spiritual without commiting to any one religion, it was a fascinating look at a people and a time. But I can understand why Christians would be offended, especially since the programme suggested that Mary (or Miriam) wasn't a virgin at all, that she was a 'mother bringing up a wayward son under difficult circumstances'. Was this the kind of programme which should be shown at Christmas time?
posted by feelinglistless at 1:19 PM PST - 26 comments

Miss Violet Constance Jessop

The unsinkable Molly Brown Violet Jessop survived three White Star fleet shipwrecks. She was a stewardess onboard the RMS Titanic and RMS Olympic, and a nurses aid on the HMHS Britannic. Violet didn't even know how to swim when her lifeboat was shredded by the Britannic's massive propellers. This amazing woman went on to serve aboard the RMS Olympic after the war and is featured in more than one book.
posted by rogue at 12:03 PM PST - 1 comments

Volunteer work over Christmas.

Crisis. The homelessness charity Crisis is looking for a few volunteers for work in London over the Christmas/New Year period. There is a list of current vacancies here. This seems to be quite a good thing to do if you are free over the holiday period, and I wonder if any MeFi'ers have considered getting involved in something like this?
posted by plep at 10:55 AM PST - 7 comments

It's spanish lottery madness season!

It's spanish lottery madness season! No less than 1.8 billion € Cash Payout for "El Gordo", most of it won today. You didn't have any ticket? Try "El Niño 2003" on january 6th - but only 560 € millions to win. All this makes me wonder: did any fo you ever won anything substancial in a lottery? I once won some stuffed pink bunny at a highschool year end party draw - that's as far as I could go.
posted by ugly_n_sticky at 10:54 AM PST - 10 comments

Coffee, Tea or should we feel your pregnant wife's breasts

Coffee, tea or should we feel your pregnant wife's breasts? Well, like most of you I've read many personal accounts of the change in air travel since 9/11. But this one packs a major wallop, well written, infuriating and containing one of the best concluding sentences . . . ever. ( via Blogdex )
posted by jeremias at 7:18 AM PST - 139 comments

Wealthy Donors

We will take care of it for you The rich, or at least one rich guy in this article, donate money to their preferred political party out of deference to what's best for their employees. Is your boss looking out for your best interests?
posted by chris0495 at 7:12 AM PST - 2 comments

Olduvai Theory,petroleum energyand mineral depletion stone age

The life-expectancy of Industrial Civilization is horridly short according to Richard C. Duncan and his Olduvai theory. Like all of these weird theories it can be found on the outer fringes of the Internet. Duncan's theory kind of tracks the Hubbert Curve model of petroleum depletion that has been posted before on this site. As Isaac Asimov has stated "Indeed, the ability to control energy, whether it be making wood fires or building power plants, is a prerequisite for civilization." Only time will tell if Duncan was on to something we should have paid attention to.
posted by thedailygrowl at 2:13 AM PST - 20 comments

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