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Doggie Perfume Sets Tails Wagging. Does this mean it was tested on humans first?
posted by Dark Messiah at 9:13 PM PST - 3 comments

You just knew that as soon as gay marriages were legal they'd be screwing in the trees, and damned if it didn't happen.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:56 PM PST - 54 comments

Designs on the White House -- an online design contest, judged by designers, celebrities, and activists. Winning designs will be available for resale on T-shirts and other products, and all proceeds after expenses will benefit the John Kerry Presidential campaign. Impressive list of judges, including (so far) Milton Glaser, Chip Kidd, Ed Schlossberg, Atrios, and Tom Tomorrow. Designs will be online throughout May, with your votes determining the finalists. (Kerry's official shirts are lacking, imho) Maybe campaign memorabilia always has been?
posted by amberglow at 8:02 PM PST - 9 comments

Frisbees All The Champions. The collection presented here, still in its inception is a geniune showcase of frisbees promoting world champiionships, tv shows, movies, tournaments, food items, music, etc. [via Information Junk]
posted by soundofsuburbia at 5:57 PM PST - 5 comments

Heheheheheheee wipe oooout! The biggest moving mountain ever surfed.
posted by thedailygrowl at 5:23 PM PST - 16 comments

This goes against all my flash hating instincts, but it is friday (local time) after all, and it is damned addictive: Floats.
posted by fvw at 4:51 PM PST - 18 comments

Although the current 2003-04 season of New York City's Metropolitan Opera is winding down, there were two provocative additions to the existing repertoire. Previously banned and restricted from the New York stage (as well as other opera houses throughout the world), the MET offered new productions of La Juive and Salome:

Last performed during the 1935-36 season, the MET reprised Jacques Fromental Halévy's 1835 opera La Juive (The Jewess) after a 68-year absence. Set in 15th-century Constance, the story concerns a Jewish jeweler and his daughter's forbidden romance with a Christian Emperor’s son. The implications of the libretto assert religious intolerance, betrayal, and persecution of Jews, where anti-semitism is the motivating force. Conflicting theories debate whether it was pulled in the 1930's to quell the conflagration of anti-semitism, or if trends were merely shifting away from French opera.

Also reprised was Salome, Richard Strauss's 1905 opera based on Oscar Wilde's 1891 play of the same name. During the performance, Salome performs the highly erotic Dance of the Seven Veils for her stepfather Herod, striping completely naked, and then molesting the severed head of St. John. During the 1907 premier at the MET, the production was so scandalous, that it was cancelled after the first performance. It was then permanently banned until 1934, and has only been reprised four times in past 70 years. The new production continues to reflect on past debates, flagging the licentious strip tease and immoral relationship between Herod and teenaged Salome.
posted by naxosaxur at 3:54 PM PST - 17 comments

Aimez-vous Godard? That Is, If You've Actually Seen One Of His Films. Gilberto Perez's view of Godard is strictly personal, as all opinions of his work must be. It does highlight, however, how neglected the restless author's films have lately been. For people of my generation, he was absolutely essential. The supreme cineaste, both with an accent on the "e" (as a film-maker) and without (as a film enthusiast). Whatever became of the Nouvelle Vague? It seems to me that the contemporary cinema could well do with another blast.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:16 PM PST - 28 comments

Operation Fastlight: Piracy Crackdown [2][3] [4] Let the international war on Piracy begin. DOJ rules for computer seizures. Targetted Groups: Fairlight, Kalisto, Echelon, Class, Project X and APC. Overview of the warez scene. Previous anti-warez operation - buccaneer.
posted by srboisvert at 2:15 PM PST - 31 comments

Archaeologists review the loss of valuable artifacts a year after the looting of the Iraqi National Museum. [Via dangerousmeta.]
posted by homunculus at 1:34 PM PST - 6 comments

A new report [complete PDF here] by the Center for Biological Diversity reports that 114 species have gone extinct in the first twenty years of the Endangered Species Act, mostly due to lack of enforcement and political ineptitude.

Here's a list of currently endagered animal and plant species, and an organization that tracks and lists known extinctions.
posted by moonbird at 11:32 AM PST - 5 comments

The alphabet like you've never seen it (quicktime movie).
posted by Robot Johnny at 8:37 AM PST - 23 comments

Reflections On Our Media of Communication. Traditional news media vs. the internet. Are people really abandoning TV, paper, and radio news? Does the 'net really offer the best in free-press? The ever lovable Fred thinks so, and he's not afraid to tell you why.
posted by eas98 at 8:35 AM PST - 14 comments

Diaper Free! Natural Infant Hygiene and Elimination Communication are terms coined by author, Ingrid Bauer, to define an ancient, natural childcare practice for contemporary parents. They describe a gentle, compassionate and practical way to care for a baby's elimination needs from infancy, with or without diapers.
posted by konolia at 8:32 AM PST - 32 comments

Swallow This, Deep Throat Why overuse of "unnamed sources" is killing decent journalism.

“They called me when I was ombudsman and said, ‘Look, you’ve got all these anonymous sources in here — why shouldn’t I assume that you made it up?’ And when I would speak to people like Woodward and others at the Post and say ‘This is a serious problem for us,’ they say ‘Oh you know people know they can trust me.’ Well, people don’t trust them.”

posted by dnash at 8:29 AM PST - 6 comments

"She was as easy as the Daily Star crossword," and other allegedly actual similes and metaphors from student essays, mangled like pigeons on Baltimore light rail tracks.
posted by brownpau at 8:22 AM PST - 29 comments

The Scoop on Poop and The Facts on Farts
:: via filmgoerjuan's blog, sort of ::
posted by anastasiav at 7:34 AM PST - 12 comments

Motorcycle Jumps for Scantily Clad Women [flash - potentially NSFW]
posted by psychotic_venom at 6:30 AM PST - 21 comments

Here, kitty, kitty. Help control the pet population... buy a Sportka.
posted by debralee at 6:16 AM PST - 30 comments

Red vs. Blue and Political Self-Segregation:

“Republicans and Democrats joke these days that they can’t understand each other, that they feel as though they live on different planets. It’s no joke. They do. One of the reasons American politics is so bitter is that Republicans and Democrats are less likely today to live in the same community than at any time in the last 55 years.”

The Austin-American Statesman’s Bill Bishop begins a series of articles on the increasing political segregation across the US—a variety of segregation that has surprisingly increased while others (for example, racial) have declined. Timothy Noah of Slate has some thoughts. For background, it’s been discussed elsewhere that the traditional 2000 election red vs. blue state map is misleading and that a gradated county map might be more enlightening. Here’s one. Here’s an analysis with a different take on the data. And here are some other interesting cartograms of that election’s results. [Alternative Links Inside]
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 3:53 AM PST - 90 comments