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The Tao of Skinny-Dipping. [nytimes reg required] After long days spent defending their positions atop New York's most competitive fields, Manhattan's alpha males need to unwind. From mistresses to treadmills, these men have as many forms of relaxation as sources of stress. But some of the city's titans have a secret. They meet around private pools in private clubs and swim together, naked.
posted by jba at 10:29 PM PST - 27 comments

Some people call me the space cowboy. Yeah, some call me the ganster of love. Some people call me Maurice.
posted by thedailygrowl at 9:10 PM PST - 16 comments

Capturing the Unicorn : How two mathematicians helped the Met to digitally stitch together the Unicorn Tapestry. (via)
posted by dhruva at 9:09 PM PST - 22 comments

Rock, Paper, Scissors: 11 year-old twins close 12 million dollar deal.
posted by alms at 8:41 PM PST - 25 comments

Want to see the results of all the hateful anti-gay rhetoric? While other forms of crime continued to fall, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs has documented a 4% increase in anti-LGBT crime in 2004, coming on the heels of a 26% increase in the last half of 2003. This spike in violence parallels the exact same period since the Right went into demonic, anti-gay hyperdrive following the Supreme Court's Lawrence v. Texas decision in July of 2003. Since then, church pews and the public airwaves have been awash in ugly, anti-gay rhetoric and fear-mongering. "These words obviously do not just vanish into the ether - as intended, they are absorbed and become fuel and justification for violence. To say otherwise defies reality. -- The Matt Foreman, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (via think-bomb)
And these are just the reported incidents.
posted by amberglow at 8:20 PM PST - 114 comments

BBC - Question Time Leaders Special [Windows Media or RealMedia]
- Panorama: Iraq, Tony and the truth [transcript]
posted by Pretty_Generic at 6:39 PM PST - 23 comments

Hasil Adkins passes. Farewell to this wonderfully bonkers rockabilly legend.
posted by jonmc at 5:58 PM PST - 24 comments

Munch's "The Scream" destroyed. (?) According to the paper Dagbladet, it has been. "The Madonna" as well.
posted by absalom at 5:42 PM PST - 75 comments

Muppet Diplomacy - USNews and World Reports has a new must-read article: "The White House has approved a classified new strategy, dubbed Muslim World Outreach, that for the first time states that the United States has a national security interest in influencing what happens within Islam. Because America is, as one official put it, "radioactive" in the Islamic world, the plan calls for working through third parties--moderate Muslim nations, foundations, and reform groups--to promote shared values of democracy, women's rights, and tolerance." This means surprising US-funded initiatives such as restoring historic Sufi (i.e. moderate, non-Wahhabist) mosques, saving 11th Century Uzbek Korans, and convincing Pakistani madrassah teachers to quietly add science and math to the curriculum. Oh, and it means we're funding secular and independent media, including "in what boosters are calling Muppet Diplomacy", an Arabic version of Sesame Street. Can cultural revitalization, increased educational access, nascent democratic movements, and adorable lil' Elmo--all paid for with US tax dollars--be an effective innoculant against the tentacles of Radical Islam? Daniel Pipes, The Progressive Muslims' Union, and Reason magazine weigh in. See also a related RAND Corporation report from March, 2004.
posted by Asparagirl at 5:42 PM PST - 28 comments

Capt. America and Spiderman support the troops, how about you (pdf)? America Supports You! Get a free comic book, dogtag, or maybe even a free body bag.
posted by fixedgear at 2:07 PM PST - 39 comments

Ethan Acres demonstrates the Rapture. The Reverend Acres is both a preacher, who wants to "put the fun back into fundamentalism" (turn the sound down) and an art school graduate. He will christen your children if they so desire (and if they are flowers). And he really, really likes Thomas Kinkade. I just wish I could show you his pigs, but you'll have to go to the library.
posted by TimothyMason at 1:37 PM PST - 14 comments

MyPyramid.org (parody). Not to be confused with MyPyramid.gov. Well, maybe just a little.
posted by CrunchyGods at 1:14 PM PST - 15 comments

Focus on the family is looking for a Macintosh specialist...
"This position is responsible for overseeing the smooth performance of the Macintosh systems and network, serving the needs of the users, and implementing necessary changes. Responsibilities:
Is a consistent witness for Jesus Christ; maintains a courteous, Christ-like attitude in dealing with people within and outside of Focus; adheres to the Standard of Moral Conduct and Statement of Faith; upholds Focus on the Family's ministry in prayer. Demonstrates behaviors aligned with FOF core values."
[via Macintouch]
posted by jpburns at 12:56 PM PST - 85 comments

Safeplaces is an interactive playground. Mushrooms twitch and squeak, trees react and the environment shifts between day and night. It even has its secrets. Further, less adorable work can be found here.
posted by Alison at 12:26 PM PST - 8 comments

A week after Saudi Arabia banned the practise of forced marriage, Hamid Karzai followed suit, announcing he would seek the same freedoms for young women in Afghanistan. In the UK, a special unit within the Foreign Office has handled almost 1000 cases of forced marriage since it was set up in 2000, and this year a special joint Forced Marriage Unit was launched by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office for outreach & awareness purposes. While a law barring forced marriage is expected to publish in the UK later this year, some take umbrage at the often-misleading "forced marriage" terminology and are worried that its criminal-offence status could actually deter women from speaking out against it.
posted by jenleigh at 12:09 PM PST - 25 comments

Kenneth Parker - photographer.
posted by Gyan at 10:47 AM PST - 23 comments

Have you seen this child? LATimes article about the Toronto Sex Crimes Unit's search for the Disney World Girl. The article is haunting, horrifying and fasinating. They are looking for a child who is being actively molested and photographed. It's a disturbing read, but probably SFW. Previous background info discussed here before. Also note the odd additional Trekkie factoid
posted by theora55 at 10:16 AM PST - 163 comments

Al Gore calls it like he sees it - It is no accident that this assault on the integrity of our constitutional design has been fueled by a small group claiming special knowledge of God's will in American politics. They even claim that those of us who disagree with their point of view are waging war against "people of faith." How dare they?
posted by beth at 10:15 AM PST - 53 comments

Can't see the forest for the trees? This mildly interesting java app generates a graphical representation the structure of a website's html coding.
posted by crunchland at 10:06 AM PST - 8 comments

Bullitt location images in San Francisco then and now. Some haven't changed at all . Others are radically different.
posted by Mitheral at 9:27 AM PST - 19 comments

"Mr. Reed's policies are not the policies of Washingtonians, nor should they be the policies of a world-class leader like Microsoft." On the heels of a controversial decision to take away its support of equal protection statutes for gays, bisexuals and lesbians, Microsoft continues its odd and seemingly inexhorable realignment with fundamentalist Christian moral policy with the payment of $20K per month to former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed. What exactly does this man know about software, again?
posted by AlexReynolds at 8:03 AM PST - 49 comments

Putterman also suggests the crystals could be used as microthrusters for tiny spacecraft. By accelerating deuterium in one direction, the spacecraft would be propelled in the opposite direction.
Ok, so I know nothing about physics, apart from what I learned getting beat up in grade school, but this seems both legit and cool. Here's a MeFi discussion of the other kind of desktop fusion, you know, the kind with the bubbles. A picture of the bubble machine.
posted by OmieWise at 7:34 AM PST - 11 comments

Play chess against the computer & Watch it think.
posted by growabrain at 7:15 AM PST - 25 comments

The Nexus of Evil So it seems as though the Chairman of the Colorado College Republicans (Jay Bob Klinkerman, no really, no kidding, that's his name) seems to be the one responsible for the removal of three Democrats from a Bush Social Security Sideshow. For some reason, and possibly it was always the case, all roads in this administration frequently lead to back to the same places, with the same names. What do all of the high profile actors in the current GOP have in common? Some sort of activity or affiliation with either the College Republicans or Young Republicans. If you are wondering about the names - how about Karl Rove, Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, Ralph E. Reed, Jr., Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist, Lee Atwater, and the central organizer, Morton Blackwell. College Republicans have been the footsoldiers for the right since the Draft Goldwater campaign, and have been rewarded for their service throughout the Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush#41 and#43 . You can also find their fingerprints all over the various thinktanks, the direct-mail industry, and fundraising. I strongly recommend taking some time to read up on the history of the College Republicans (PDF).
posted by rzklkng at 7:06 AM PST - 43 comments

Waverly Films are "a Brooklyn-based production company." MeFites have already seen their kitten-filled video for Fatboy Slim's Joker. They've also produced off-kilter videos for Slim's Wonderful Night and Jason Forest's Stepping Out, as well as an evocative-if-not-quite-as-cool promo for The Thrill's The Irish Keep Gatecrashing (embedded quicktime in all three of those video links. Real and WindowsMedia streams for the Fatboy Slim videos can be found at AstrarlWeks;click on "Video Gallery").
posted by yankeefog at 7:01 AM PST - 2 comments

The Grand Coulee dam in northeast Washington state is the largest concrete structure in the United States. First conceived as a smaller dam, the idea of a large project won out and the Coulee's size was limited only by the fact that, if bigger, we'd flood Canada.

It wasn't until the New Deal philosophy of putting folks to work (even songwriters) materialized that the dam was given a green-light. The project, 30 years in development and 9 years in construction, was by all means a rousing success. Unless you were a displaced native. Or a fish.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies at 6:01 AM PST - 14 comments

Screw bigfoot. Researchers at Cornell say they have found the ivory-bill.

[K]nown as an ornithologist's "Holy Grail," [r]esearchers from Cornell University, along with others, reportedly have found the ivory-billed woodpecker in the Big Woods of Arkansas, a rare bird that was last seen in the United States in the 1940s and was believed to have become extinct.

More on the story here. A digression into the legend here.
posted by piskycritter at 5:20 AM PST - 34 comments