April 24, 2003

american-pictures.com

american-pictures.com
Arriving in America with only $40 for a short visit, a young Dane, Jacob Holdt ended up staying over five years, hitchhiking more than 100,000 miles throughout the USA.
He sold blood plasma twice weekly to be able to buy film. He lived in more than 400 homes - from the poorest migrant workers to America's wealthiest families such as the Rockefellers.
He joined the Indian rebellion in Wounded Knee, followed criminals in the ghettos during muggings, sneaked inside to work in Southern slave camps and infiltrated secret Ku Klux Klan meetings as well as Republican presidential campaign headquarters. See his work !
posted by bureaustyle at 11:50 PM PST - 22 comments

Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright(ly)

When Animal Rescuers Attack? "I wish I could get inside his head," Tippi Hedren said. "In my wildest imagination I cannot understand how anyone could do this." There are other people out there helping tigers, lots of them, even places where you can protect endangered tigers while having a relaxing vacation.
There's other tiger news today:
Two steps forward and one back at the Indianapolis Zoo and proof that you don't need to be in a jungle to get in trouble with a tiger.
But what is it about tigers? "These days the tiger’s huge popularity as a poster boy for endangered species stands in sharp contrast to its grim image in earlier times as the incarnation of evil." Why do we love these animals so much we try to save the life of one that has killed a human? Of course there are other forms of tiger abuse...
posted by wendell at 11:41 PM PST - 7 comments

Daniel Blaufuks, Photographer

The Short Stories Long, Long Photographs Of Daniel Blaufuks: The collected long short photographs stories, some from New York, of an amazingly talented Portuguese photographer.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:24 PM PST - 2 comments

But... who are they?

Anonymous weblogging could be the next big thing for those who want total anonymity online. Using the mixmaster remailer and GPG encryption you can have a truly impersonal weblog. (my thoughts inside)
posted by j.edwards at 9:24 PM PST - 9 comments

Sightings of Famous People

Gawker Stalker and The Elevator Chronicles: I'm a sucker for genuine celebrity sightings (in my experience, they're true if they're thoroughly disappointing and boring) and Gawker has been having a whale of a time with them. The unfolding Elevator Saga (starring Anna Wintour, the editor of Yank Vogue) and Gawker Stalker are great fun, even for profound thinkers such as myself. [My paltry celebrity sighting inside.]
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 7:05 PM PST - 47 comments

Group Art

Doing Their Own Thing, Making Art Together is a NYT piece (mirrored, no registration needed) about modern American art collectives. Some are physical, in a real communal sense, while others are entirely virtual. Does anyone have direct experience with those mentioned in the article or listed here (half-way down). Others?
posted by maniactown at 6:48 PM PST - 2 comments

quackwatch

QuackWatch.Org has long been a solid source for debunking medical claims by alternative health care practioners. But it turns out things are not all they are Quacked up to be, find out who is really behind the QuackWatch Conspiracy at QuackPotWatch.Org
posted by stbalbach at 5:59 PM PST - 40 comments

Sacred Texts

The Internet Sacred Text Archive is an online archive of electronic texts about religion, mythology, and various esoteric topics. The site has many complete books from a wide variety of traditions, including the only (to their knowledge) comprehensive online translations of the Kalevala, Shinto texts, and the Upanishads. There's a lot of fascinating stuff here.
posted by homunculus at 5:02 PM PST - 12 comments

The American Museum of Photography

The American Museum of Photography
posted by crunchland at 4:32 PM PST - 4 comments

Erotic. Not erotic. Erotic. Not erotic.

TSFW
posted by bingbangbong at 3:41 PM PST - 35 comments

[ | ]

Get your Armageddon on. North Korea admits vast nuclear weapon program.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 3:19 PM PST - 46 comments

Digital Afghanistan

The Afghanistan Digital Library Project : From the folks at the Book People mailing list. Nice to know that someone is paying attention to the libraries while our boys are guarding the oil pipelines.
posted by hairyeyeball at 2:31 PM PST - 3 comments

Put safety first

Technology comes to the rescue via the Department of Homeland Security. Now we will never have to fear terrorists, or criminals again. This post is 23 days late, but remains ever so relevant.
posted by caddis at 2:10 PM PST - 9 comments

BBC chief attacks U.S. war coverage

BBC chief attacks U.S. war coverage The head of the BBC has launched a broadside against American broadcasters, accusing them of "unquestioning" coverage of the Iraq war and blatant patriotism.
posted by turbanhead at 1:51 PM PST - 50 comments

Madonna on American values.

I thought this had to be a joke from the Onion. Madonna is quoted as saying that "We as Americans are completely obsessed and wrapped up in a lot of the wrong values -- looking good, having cash in the bank, being perceived as rich, famous and successful or just being famous." She also states that "the only thing that's going to bring you happiness is love and how you treat your fellow man and having compassion for one another." Ridiculing celebrities just doesn't get any better than this!!!
posted by Durwood at 1:05 PM PST - 45 comments

Everybody Run!!!

Student kills principal, self at school. "A heavily armed 14-year-old boy shot and killed his school principal inside a crowded junior high cafeteria Thursday morning, then killed himself, authorities said. " I'm finding nothing else about this other than the AP story. I'm curious what they mean by "heavily armed."
posted by archimago at 1:02 PM PST - 42 comments

TypePad

MovableType,, the blogging software of choice (well, for a lot of us), have launched a new user-friendly service on their own servers, called TypePad (here's the press release). Is this a first direct hit at Blogger, a service they have denied gunning for, in light of Google's move? Will it work? My vote: Hell yes. MovableType have not put a foot wrong yet, and now they've got Anil Dash on board, the lucky tyke...
posted by wibbler at 12:34 PM PST - 29 comments

Quiet Party

Come to the Quiet Party. No loud music, no yelling, no cell phones and one designated area where there is no talking AT ALL!!
posted by hammurderer at 11:53 AM PST - 17 comments

Story Minute

Way Lay is the homepage of cartoonist Carol Lay, creator of the strip Story Minute. In addition to being one of the few places one can view the strip without going through Salon's obnoxious free pass system. The site has the best autobiography I've seen for an artist site and images of earlier bizarre parodies of Salvador Dali and the Shroud of Turin.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 11:45 AM PST - 7 comments

City Size Comparison

City Size Comparison lets you, well, compare the relative sizes of various US cities side-by-side. The site also lets you compare US cities to Baghdad, which "may be useful if you are trying to envision driving through, searching or invading Baghdad, but you've never actually been there." [via xblog]
posted by kirkaracha at 10:22 AM PST - 14 comments

Roger Ebert Goes to More Than The Movies

"I begin to feel like I was in the last generation of Americans who took a civics class. I begin to feel like most Americans don't understand the First Amendment, don't understand the idea of freedom of speech, and don't understand that it's the responsibility of the citizen to speak out....When I write a political column for the Chicago Sun-Times, when liberals disagree with me, they send in long, logical e-mails explaining all my errors. I hardly ever get well-reasoned articles from the right. People just tell me to shut up. That's the message: 'Shut up. Don't write anymore about this. Who do you think you are?'" Roger Ebert chats about dissent, celebrities, the power of film to effect change, and Moore.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 9:22 AM PST - 114 comments

Dog(not)gone!

Dog Survives Car Crash, Gunshot, Freezer... My dog, on the other hand, wets herself when I raise my voice.
posted by vito90 at 7:35 AM PST - 34 comments

Library of Congress celebrates its 202nd birthday

Library of Congress celebrates its 202nd birthday. Today, the Library of Congress celebrates its 202nd birthday. On April 24, 1800, President John Adams approved the appropriation of $5,000 for the purchase of "such books as may be necessary for the use of congress."
The books, the first purchased for the Library of Congress, were ordered from London and arrived in 1801. The collection of 740 volumes and three maps was stored in the U.S. Capitol, the Library's first home. President Thomas Jefferson approved the first legislation defining the role and functions of the new institution on January 26, 1802.
Check out, Jefferson's Legacy: A Brief History of the Library of Congress and a Concordance of Images for more.
posted by Blake at 6:16 AM PST - 12 comments

300 reasons why we love The Simpsons

300 reasons why we love the simpsons The 300th episode of The Simpsons is broadcast today. Find a space on the sofa and read why, in 14 years, Matt Groening's show has become the world's best TV programme.
posted by Cool Alex at 6:03 AM PST - 37 comments

Polari

How bona to varda your dolly old eek! Fancy a bevvy? If so, then you must know how to speak Polari, a language that is a mixture of romany, cockney, criminal slang and Italian. Many people first heard this secret language on the radio show round the horne with Julian and Sandy, but it still crops up now and again. Morrissey even used it on his album Bona drag (see the lyrics to Piccadilly Palare). Gives a whole new meaning to people who troll as well.
posted by ciderwoman at 4:21 AM PST - 8 comments

you're my butterfly, sugar baby

Yesterday the World Health Organization launched a report on diet and nutrition, saying that sugar should be restricted to 10% of caloric intake. Predictably, the sugar industry (press releases) threw fits and called on their cronies in Congress to cut off WHO funding. Apparently they're fighting and clawing even more than the tobacco industry in similar circusmtances, and WHO fears that lobbyists have more power with the Bush administration. The SA believes that inactivity, not our increased sugar consumption, is the primary cause of the obesity epidemic. Are we in for another few years of declarations of junk science and endless gov't investigations into what seems obvious, a la most environmental and health concerns?
posted by fotzepolitic at 4:03 AM PST - 35 comments

4,000,000!

Statistics are great! According to Statistics New Zealand, the population of my small island-nation home reached 4 million today! At 5:35pm (NZST) in fact. Not a big number really but a nice milestone. I think I am number 3,184,236 but I am open to correction.
posted by sycophant at 4:00 AM PST - 11 comments

Napalm for sale.

Psst, wanna buy some napalm?
posted by biffa at 3:44 AM PST - 14 comments

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