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Vigilantes troll for pedophiles in chat rooms, set up meetings and videotape them. Then they out them at Perverted-Justice.com. The ensnared men sometimes exercise their "right of reply" to explain their actions. Huh.
posted by Slagman at 10:38 PM PST - 26 comments

Drawn in the style of a pre-school children's cartoon. But from the sick & twisted minds of the guys from Southpark. Princess, A lap dog who observes the very adult world around her. The sexual content was so extreme shockwave.com halted development of the "webisodes" only after seeing the first 2 of 39 episodes that were contracted. Now you can watch these shorts & judge for yourself. Thanks to the folks at Trio. (username/password required... mefi/mefi)
posted by Dreamghost at 7:34 PM PST - 21 comments

''Complaints should no longer be denied because of a lack of tape, transcript or significant excerpt''. Evidence? We don't need no evidence. Indecent use or not, the FCC will now crack down on all uses of the F-word. I can only assume this will give Stern even more fodder for his new liberal radio show.
posted by FreezBoy at 5:45 PM PST - 47 comments

MIT's blog survey results are in. Some highlights: 55% of respondents use their real names on their blog, 63% of respondents are male, 36% of respondents have gotten in trouble because of things they've written, and almost no one has a good idea of who's reading their blog.
posted by Vidiot at 3:30 PM PST - 5 comments

Country Life: Wildlife Reports From Around The World. Here's a generous helping of trip reports from a group of dedicated naturalists who manage to be thorough and entertaining at the same time. It's part of a travel agency's web site, but not so as you'd notice it. Reading through them, one feels quietly (perhaps dangerously?) optimistic at the astonishing variety of all things bright and beautiful in this grossly over-exploited world of ours. (Well, there may be too many birds in the fauna/flora mix, if you're not a certified ornithologist. Oh - and not enough detail on the local gastronomical delights!)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:53 PM PST - 5 comments

Headvertisement. I'm sure you're asking yourself, 'What kind of modification are we talking about?' Well, simply put, it is not a permanent change, but something that will get you individually noticed in any crowd. What we do is supply you a temporary tattoo, which will be placed on your forehead, by our regional representatives.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 2:36 PM PST - 18 comments

This just in: Sun rises in East Also, the WHO found that "dependence on alcohol and cigarettes has a much greater cost for societies than illegal drugs like cocaine and crack."
posted by soyjoy at 1:51 PM PST - 17 comments

Michael Kenna: Photographs
posted by hama7 at 1:26 PM PST - 10 comments

Religious right fights "Dress-up Jesus" refrigerator magnets "...Urban Outfitters is offering a refrigerator magnet set depicting Jesus on the cross. A variety of clothes for "Jesus Dress Up" include a Satan mask and tights, ballerina, and dogcatcher outfit. The sign above the cross reads, "Hang in there baby!"....A variety of clothes for "Jesus Dress Up" include a Satan mask and tights, ballerina, and dogcatcher outfit....and a Dr. Seuss hat." - So reads an Action Alert sent to the several million members of the Reverend Donald Wildmon's American Family Association which urges concerned christians to bombard Urban Outfitters with letters condemning the allegedly blasphemous magnets. But there is no need to even buy them when you can play "Dress up Jesus" online! - "Dress up Jesus by dragging the items to him with your mouse.", reads the offending website. From the AFA's suggested letter text : "While you may think it is "cute," your decision shows a great disrespect toward people of faith everywhere." - To say that I dislike the AFA would be to put it mildly, but are the refrigerator magnets indeed disrespectful ?
posted by troutfishing at 12:48 PM PST - 134 comments

Blog is dead. (via twodolla.org)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:40 PM PST - 32 comments

Third World Transition Program. It's not a relief effort for resettled refugees - it's Brown University's pre-orientation forum "primarily for students of color." Brown President Ruth Simmons will apparently order TWTP to desegregate, but the organization will continue to invite only "students of color" - apparently self-identified from application forms - to participate. According to one student, the admittance of whites to TWTP "would change the level of comfort that's established." Another argued that whites would "compromise the program's integrity and mission." "I can't help laughing when a white person tells me that they understand and experience racism," adds a Brown Daily Herald columnist. But many TWTP alumni are also its harshest critics. "We were given advice on how to 'deal' with a white roommate," writes one student. "It fostered an 'us vs. them' mentality with white students on campus and directly and indirectly encouraged minority students to seek out friendships with students of color before white students arrived on campus." Another reports that him TWTP peers shunned him when he began reaching out to other campus groups because he "found people who I had more in common with than an ethnic background." When TWTP was founded 30 years ago, it certainly served a valuable purpose in a tumultuous and changing social environment. But how do mainstream folks wrest the debate from both the far left and far right, convince the organization that its harm outweighs its good, and urge it to reform itself from within and help unify rather than segregate the student body?
posted by PrinceValium at 12:06 PM PST - 20 comments

The strange synchronicity of The Last Breakfast. Two paintings, created by two different artists, in two different countries, four years apart, but with striking similarities. (via sdw)
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:52 AM PST - 22 comments

Fake news. How is it legal to present a commercial as real news, without any indication that it is a commercial? And when did it become legal to use government money (i.e. *my taxes*) to push partisan issues, as well as try to influence election politics?
posted by rich at 11:30 AM PST - 12 comments

Batten down the mosquito netting In Iraq: "Now a new wave of unexpected horror, leishmaniasis, is arriving at WRAMC – which has the only accredited leishmaniasis lab in the United States – and its dedicated docs are burning the midnight oil to find a treatment. A model predicts that 1 percent to 4 percent of our soldiers in Iraq can expect to be hit by this potentially deadly parasite, delivered by the bite of infected sand flies as common in the Middle East as fleas on a wild dog. "
posted by Postroad at 11:19 AM PST - 9 comments

Sudden Oak Death is caused by a fungus-like organism called Phytophthora ramorum and it has been discovered at Monrovia and other nurseries in California. Georgia officials have banned all sales of plants from California for the time being. SOD is frequently compared to Chestnut Blight, which killed 3.5 billion trees in about fifty years and almost wiped out the entire species. There is a different mating type of the microbe in Europe and it is believed that if the two were to come together this could potentially result in a much more devastating form of SOD.
posted by bargle at 9:58 AM PST - 7 comments

Fart in a jar. Don't worry there are a few varieties to choose from. Even Butternut Chicken. Will anyone buy these?
posted by trbrts at 9:49 AM PST - 9 comments

Gay Princes defeat NC Parents. Parents object to library book about two gay princes, concerned because being gay "is not part of their beliefs." Presumably books which discuss other things not part of their beliefs could also be an issue. Is this a basic confusion about the purpose of a library, or is any temptation just too much temptation?
posted by ewkpates at 9:29 AM PST - 87 comments

This seems quite a positive thing. Weird what some people have to say about it though.
posted by ed\26h at 9:21 AM PST - 37 comments

William Shakespeare's will (PDF) is just one of over a million historical wills that are now available to the public over the Internet thanks to Britain's National Archives. Among the 100 famous wills available (for small fees) are Captain James Cook, Sir Francis Bacon, William Wordsworth, and Napoleon Bonaparte. An interesting little development in scholarship for the people.
posted by dgaicun at 9:11 AM PST - 6 comments

Monster, Claiming to Be Courtney Love, Goes on Rampage
posted by mcgraw at 9:03 AM PST - 74 comments

Fireworks and Stupid People [ 3.5 MB Windows Media ]
posted by psychotic_venom at 8:50 AM PST - 18 comments