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What Blogs Are vs What They Are Not Doc Searls' closing keynote at Les Blogs, Paris, 25 April 2005 A succinct set of 25 slides that articulate the debate raging in the blogosphere about blogs, free speech, the media, citizen journalists . Slides link courtesy Gaping Void.
posted by infini at 9:19 PM PST - 33 comments

"The number of secret court-authorized wiretaps across the country surged by 19 percent last year, according to court records which also showed that not a single application was denied."
posted by knave at 6:52 PM PST - 20 comments

Whatcha doin' tonight? Me, I think I'll mosey over the block and a half to the Pit and take in the vibes at the Gathering of Nations Pow-Wow. Might even try to score some peyote. No, I'm not trying to reinforce a stereotype; I'm truly interested in the experience. Besides, I'm descended from Sequoyah - we're on the Dawes Rolls and everything. Ha! Who am I kidding? I'm just another stupid white girl.
posted by postmodernmillie at 5:55 PM PST - 10 comments

This ain't your grandma's DIY crafting. (most links NSFW)
posted by heatherann at 5:41 PM PST - 30 comments

Manakins (Manacus sp.) are small, colorful sparrow-sized birds found all over Central and South America. Manakin males engage in elaborate courtship dances, including rhythmic sounds they produce with their wings. No one really knew how the birds made this sounds, until Kimberly Bostwick, Curator of Birds and Mammals at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates, went into the jungles of Ecuador to film the birds at 1000 frames per second. As it turns out, different species of manakin use entirely different motion to produce the sounds. The Journal of Experimental Biology has published the results, complete with videos. Mark Barres, who studies avian genetic population structures at the Univ. of Wisconsin, has also filmed the mating dance of the Manakins [.mov].
posted by monju_bosatsu at 4:38 PM PST - 8 comments

School Mistakes Huge Burrito for a Weapon Ok, now it's time to get away from the computer after a long week.
posted by terrier319 at 3:26 PM PST - 42 comments

Sticks and Stones - exploring the US news media from a Canadian perspective, a great documentary produced by CBC's "The Fifth Estate" has been made available for viewing online. I hope the CBC starts doing this more often.
posted by Space Coyote at 2:45 PM PST - 40 comments

love
posted by kafziel at 2:40 PM PST - 18 comments

Princeton Students and Polticians Stage Filibuster -- Princeton students started a filibuster at the Frist Campus Center at Princeton University to protest the impending unloading of the "nuclear option" in the United States Senate. Bill Frist is a Princeton alum and his family donated the building the filibuster is in front of. It's been going on for a whopping 78 hours already and looks to at least go through the weekend. Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) spoke earlier today, and NJ Assemblyman Reed Gusciora was there yesterday. They've even got physicists (one and two) and a Nobel Prize winner.
posted by nathanrudy at 1:50 PM PST - 20 comments

Castle Attack 2... Protect your castle from the attacking horde onslaught. You can use your archers, or lob rocks, dump boiling oil, or crush under burning logs. Extra points for accuracy. [note: shockwave, loud music, death, destruction]
posted by crunchland at 1:15 PM PST - 19 comments

Buy the (new) Pope's (old) Mobile
I used Babelfish to translate it (Google's translation apparently doesn't work on eBay).
Only 1.7 million pageviews so far.
posted by fenriq at 12:03 PM PST - 8 comments

Multilingual bacteria are being used in synthetic biology techniques to display computer functionality.
posted by peacay at 11:19 AM PST - 9 comments

50 Million Firefox Downloads. At 8:58 AM PST this morning, we rolled over the 50,000,000 downloads line.
posted by jikel_morten at 10:24 AM PST - 46 comments

Toads that go bang; toads bang; toads ka-BANG!
posted by of strange foe at 9:51 AM PST - 22 comments

It's about damn time. Since 1966, Daylight Saving Time has not been in use in Indiana. After decades of attempts to change it, it came down to one flip vote at the proverbial last second to make it happen. Next up, Central Time Zone?
posted by internal at 9:33 AM PST - 76 comments

"Sometimes wanting to be famous is really the downfall of people." Funny how initial news reports often don't tell the full story. It seems the gents who claimed to have found buried treasure in their back yard actually found it while doing paid repair work on someone else's house. If they'd only kept their yaps shut...
posted by twsf at 9:16 AM PST - 27 comments

Friday Flash Fun. Take out your aggressions on this little guy, earn $$$, then spend it on more interesting ways of hurting him. I like putting a George Bush skin on him, laying down some mines (tip: they also stick to the walls), and handing him a grenade.
posted by Daddio at 9:05 AM PST - 12 comments

Huntington Beach, California (Surf City, USA) is home to surfing's walk of fame and the International Surfing Museum. See the Duke with the Duke, other legends, pioneering photographers, and kings of the surf both local and international alongside other icons in the collection and exhibits.
posted by breezeway at 8:57 AM PST - 12 comments

Conservatism of faith v. conservatism of doubt- Andrew Sullivan's take on how "fundamentalism is splitting the GOP." An interesting article that is, I think, worth reading for how it characterizes recent changes in the Republican party. He doesn't exaclty see a schism, but he isn't exactly sanguine about the future of the GOP either.
posted by OmieWise at 8:41 AM PST - 38 comments

Actually this is the flash version of hell. I'm sorry
posted by jeremias at 8:39 AM PST - 18 comments

Like a flash vision of Hell. Poke around with earphones on for best results. (via)
posted by Dr_Octavius at 8:13 AM PST - 7 comments

Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798 - 2004 This report lists hundreds of instances in which the United States has used its armed forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict or for other than normal peacetime purposes. It was compiled in part from various older lists and is intended primarily to provide a rough survey of past US military ventures abroad, without reference to the magnitude of the given instance noted. The listing often contains references, especially from 1980 forward, to continuing military deployments especially US military participation in multinational operations associated with NATO or the United Nations. Most of these post-1980 instances are summaries based on Presidential reports to Congress related to the War Powers Resolution. A comprehensive commentary regarding any of the instances listed is not undertaken here.
posted by Postroad at 6:55 AM PST - 28 comments

Bridging the gender gap in computer gaming. Computer games often portray women as victims or prizes . But things seem to be changing. Some see hope in the growing number of games where women play the leading character, especially when the game (NSFW) completely focuses on the character herself. Change, however, may be more apparent than real. If this is real change, it may reduce gender drift (.pdf) in gaming. Women are getting out of the closet (discussed here). Their motto: They grow stronger !
posted by joaovc at 6:48 AM PST - 44 comments

Jesus had a beard, so when people come to my church with a beard or mustache, I don’t condemn them. Apparently the Canadian Navy is not so accepting, going back on a previous decision quoting safety regulations. Don't they realize that a beard is a man's token of superior nature?
posted by debralee at 6:37 AM PST - 30 comments

Rock on. classic concert photosets. [via waxy]
posted by srboisvert at 6:36 AM PST - 23 comments

Hotel Godwin. Five-star luxury in Berchtesgaden, Hitler's mountain retreat.
posted by matteo at 6:20 AM PST - 7 comments

Future Computer: Atoms Packed in an 'Egg Carton' of Light?
posted by dfowler at 6:10 AM PST - 11 comments

Hello to the Krilcic family. Ten years after we last saw you we are alive and well. And I hope you are. We would like to hear from you and see you. Goodbye.
In each episode of Videoletters, two former neighbors, friends or colleagues separated by the Bosnian war exchange video messages. Since 1999, two filmmakers have been helping people from across the former Yugoslavia find and reconnect with one another in this way, often with heart-breaking results. Watch a sample episode here about two young men, Vlada (a Serb) and Ivica (a Croat), whose families were close friends when the war began. [Bit more inside]
posted by Ljubljana at 2:29 AM PST - 3 comments

North Korea has the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear device. "The Pentagon's top military intelligence officer said yesterday that North Korea has the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear device, stunning senators he was addressing and prompting attempts by other defense and intelligence officials later to play down the remarks." Was Bill Clinton right or just an an appeaser?

But don't worry! Our CIA and our military have never failed us yet, and we have wise leaders: "No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq." -- Donald Rumsfeld, testimony to Congress, Sept. 19, 2002. So, will we be protecting America from WMDs, that is, giving the "Gift of Democracy" in Pyongyang, or just buying off Mr. Kim again?
posted by orthogonality at 12:52 AM PST - 33 comments