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"Even though the challenges to bring the space elevator to reality are substantial, there are no physical or economic reasons why it can't be built in our lifetime."

Once just a cool sci-fi idea dreampt up by Arthur Clarke, Space.com reports that a 62,000 mile ride is not only possible, but probable. And cheap at only a couple hundred bucks per pound.
posted by tsarfan at 9:49 PM PST - 37 comments

Nuts About Nuts! Where Would Drinks Be Without Them? The Nut Factory is one of the world's greatest sources for nuts, of all kinds and descriptions, handled, roasted and presented in every possible way. Herman Swartz founded the company in 1952. If you've ever enjoyed a few nuts in your life, a good proportion was probably prepared in their headquarters in Spokane,Washington. Their site happens to be the most informative and passionate about nuts on the whole Web. Wherever you click; you learn and drool. Connoisseurs will welcome the chance to match nuts with their favorite drinks. Mmmm... [Mine would be Irish whiskey and club soda with roasted, salted almonds!]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:16 PM PST - 23 comments

Mr. Television, does at 93
posted by Dean_Paxton at 7:07 PM PST - 21 comments

Has the web become boring? (NYT link, registration required) With the demise of the Cool Site of the Day and the transition of MetaFilter to NewsFilter, the question is posed: Where have all the interesting sites gone? Is this the end of the Web as we know it? (...And do you feel fine?)
posted by dogmatic at 7:06 PM PST - 59 comments

Fellow DJs, it seems as though we'll soon be out of a job
posted by ookamaka at 5:56 PM PST - 11 comments

Earthlink founding investor Reed Slatkin to plead guilty of defrauding over 800 people out of $254 million in a Ponzi scheme. Several of the victims were members of the Church of Scientology, where he was a minister. Oh, and he filed for bankruptcy too so there's no chance for reparations... I don't know how to feel!
posted by kfury at 4:22 PM PST - 10 comments

Middle East war predictions "..what we are witnessing looks like joint preparations by the Palestinian Authority, Syria, its Lebanese client, Iraq, and Iran, for war on a regional scale, against both Israel and U.S. interests. I fear we may face a major, sudden, external assault on Israel, meant to precede U.S. action against the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, and indeed prevent the U.S. from going there by enmiring it in the defence of Israel. [From The Ottowa Citizen, lead link in today's Wall Street Journal Best of the Web]
posted by Voyageman at 3:52 PM PST - 14 comments

This New Yorker article is a must read. Long and exhaustive (but well worth the trip), I believe it could have the power to change many minds about what should be done, and when, about Iraq and its dictator. The essential story is about the horrible and terrifying effects of Saddam Hussein's gassing of Kurdish villages, but as the story reminds us at the end "Please understand, the Kurds were for practice"
posted by cell divide at 3:15 PM PST - 13 comments

Our future lies . . . with eugenics??? "The useful and intelligent classes should be allowed, indeed encouraged, to breed, and the murderous morons, who are never going to contribute anything except misery to themselves and others should be discouraged. No one need be killed." If this wasn't published in the London Telegraph, I'd think it was from the lunatic fringe. Is A. N. Wilson attempting satire or auditioning for the lead in Springtime for Hitler?
posted by Erendadus at 3:02 PM PST - 25 comments

Let’s visit with the father of bluegrass, shall we? (inside)
posted by transient at 1:51 PM PST - 19 comments

Google seems to be recruiting. From the Google front page. It would be really fun to work for a company that seems to innately and intuitively do the right thing, the right way.
posted by theora55 at 1:29 PM PST - 18 comments

I was watching Charlie Rose this afternoon and to my delight, he was interviewing my old favorite James Garner. Since I was young, I've considered Mr. garner to be the walking epitome of cool. He's been Bret Maverick(twice!), Jim Rockford even God . I always conside Burt Reynolds to be an pale imitation of Garner. Don't tell me I'm the only Garnerite in MeFi land.
posted by jonmc at 1:01 PM PST - 28 comments

"CraneAccidents.com is the Official Web-site for reporting crane related accidents on a world wide basis. The site is loaded with photos of crane accidents."
posted by kirkaracha at 12:26 PM PST - 18 comments

Indian Scientists find cure for Flatulence I don't know.....this could be even more disturbing than cloning!
posted by Lanternjmk at 12:21 PM PST - 12 comments

Reclaim your favorite sailing spot. A Red Green solution for the frustrated catamaran sailors out there. A bit of a bagatelle, but at least you can get a t-shirt.
posted by joaquim at 11:12 AM PST - 4 comments

Actor Dudley Moore Dies at 66
posted by lostbyanecho at 11:06 AM PST - 28 comments

yEnc tightens up Usenet binaries. It is controversial but good. Newsreaders are evolving too. I like this one. If you don't know what this is about, maybe you shouldn't know.
posted by xowie at 11:01 AM PST - 14 comments

The Next World Order. A fascinating article suggesting that the new guiding principle of American foreign policy, originally formulated by Cheney and Wolfowitz during the first Bush administration, is the prevention of the rise of any other great power which could rival the U.S.
posted by homunculus at 10:52 AM PST - 10 comments

The Solar System Simulator 'is designed to simulate - as realistically as possible - what one would actually see from any point in the Solar System. The software looks up the positions of the Sun, planets and satellites from ephemeris files developed here at JPL, as well as star positions and colors from a variety of stellar databasees, and uses special-purpose renderers to draw a color scene. Texture maps for each of the planets and physical models for planetary rings have been derived (in most cases) from scientific data collected by various JPL spacecraft.' Far too complicated for me to even begin to understand, still I've always wondered what Saturn looks like from Triton.
posted by RobertLoch at 10:32 AM PST - 15 comments

"He nice, the Jesus. He make the good things, and on the Easter we be sad because somebody makes him dead today." David Sedaris on striking cultural differences discovered during French language lessons.
posted by GriffX at 10:24 AM PST - 19 comments

The terrorists have already won. The Lions Club has cancelled their annual Boston Marathon pancake breakfast, due to "fears growing from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks". No, really.
posted by yhbc at 10:15 AM PST - 6 comments

Sleep. "With pop culture so willingly providing countless numbers of prepackaged lifestyles, people no longer feel a need to truly think for themselves and do not bother to take the time to question the true origin of their own ideals and desires. Nothing can be taken for face value. Everything that portrays itself as one thing, turns out to be something else. Enter Slumber Inc."

An Atlanta-based culture-meme, more akin to Obey than Toynbee. But really, aside from drawing the occasional amused or confused glance from passersby, can pasting a poster actually accomplish anything revolutionary?
posted by grabbingsand at 10:10 AM PST - 17 comments

President Bush signed the campaign finance reform bill today. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky immediately filed a lawsuit to stop the bill. Campaign finance reform is one of the most widely popular bills with over 75% of voters supporting it. Why are some legislators so desperate to stop it? Maybe it's because television broadcasters don't want to lose the money paid to air political commercials.
posted by patrickje at 10:08 AM PST - 22 comments

"a huge victory for breathers" of course industry "experts" beg to differ: "EPA tends to overstate health concerns," said Dan Riedinger, a spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute.
posted by specialk420 at 9:55 AM PST - 2 comments

Michael Eisner realigns our moral compass (free mickey) concerning intellectual property and copyright laws, with the help of his "internet guru", Abe Lincoln (free mickey). He champions the implementation of tech standards for copyright protection, among other things. "Most important," he explains, "what is needed is a common conviction that theft of all things is wrong." Tell that to the brothers Grimm, Mike (free mickey) .
posted by sixfoot6 at 9:33 AM PST - 25 comments

Values Fall Prey to Hypocrisy For a long time now, we secular humanists and other skeptics have been denigrated as the apostles of decadence and social decay. A nice article on a recurring theme.
posted by onegoodmove at 9:14 AM PST - 41 comments

"We're looking at this as something fun for them to do while they're looking for another job". Playboy is looking for women staff from the collapsed US energy giant Enron to pose for a special issue of the magazine. Via RTFM (weblog, in portuguese).
posted by rexgregbr at 8:41 AM PST - 4 comments

Would you fly with them? Having the information, whatever you think it proves, would you get on the plane to find out what's behind it?
posted by semmi at 8:04 AM PST - 19 comments

Google rejects AdWords critical of Scientology. I hate this topic but I can't leave it alone. Google is being accused of being overly cautious in all its dealings with Scientology. A Google rep is quoted to say that they are under no pressure from Scientology to reject the ads. (more inside)
posted by maudlin at 7:07 AM PST - 25 comments

Overnight mutation or lousy science? Or maybe an early April Fool's joke. The Gameboy generation's thumbs are as developed and agile as the rest of their digits. "...the younger generation has taken to using thumbs in a completely different way and are instinctively using it where the rest of us use our index fingers is particularly interesting.' " An interesting social phenomenon, certainly, but biology...?
posted by gordian knot at 6:26 AM PST - 17 comments

you gotta love 'em scousers and here we have possibly the best website I can find paying homage to all things scouse (guffaw).
posted by johnnyboy at 3:00 AM PST - 11 comments

Corporate Anthems. Oh boy! I strongly recommend McKinsey and Ericsson ("Network Intelligence - You And Me!").
posted by heimkonsole at 1:38 AM PST - 13 comments

oh glorious rapture, vertu has launched. (flash) the phones (called "instruments" in vertu-speak) are okay, but the real meat seems to be the one-touch vertu concierge: allows one to find theatre tickets, make reservations, or (assumably) order KFC. and, as promised, they are indeed clutch-the-pearls expensive: €6000 to €24000. golly.
posted by patricking at 12:58 AM PST - 12 comments