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The Dream Machine. Did anyone else miss this? The Lucidity Institute has purportedly created a machine, the NovaDreamer, that will help "control and create dreams." Retail price: US $300.00.

I think I'll get one. I wonder if there might be any harmful psychological side effects to always dream lucidly? Oh well.
posted by SilentSalamander at 11:08 PM PST - 32 comments

Pulitzer?! I don't even know her! Yes, folks, the 2003 Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded. Jeffrey Eugenides wins the Fiction award for Middlesex (a NYT link to the book's first chapter), Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post wins for criticism (that links you to his LOTR Two Towers review, which made me laugh) and this picture (NYT link) and this cartoon (also NYT) also won.
posted by adrober at 8:46 PM PST - 14 comments

Will we ever know what is real anymore? The making of the Matrix sequels. After these movies, will we ever be able to tell what is real or not on the small and large screen?
posted by npost at 7:11 PM PST - 72 comments

Believe It or Not! Anomalies Unlimited. See the Lord's Prayer Carved on the Head of a Pin! Marvel at the World's Longest Ear Hair! Indulge in the Deep Dark Secrets of The Wonderful World of Disney! Yes! Step right up. No need to push... there's something for everyone under the Big Top...
posted by crunchland at 3:29 PM PST - 17 comments

"This war's musical outcry is no different from those of the past, with one gleaming caveat. Whatever your feelings on folk music, most of the new protest songs concerning the war in Iraq -- how to put this maturely -- suck fetid donkey biscuits. This is the worst dreck ever to to be digitized 'n' downloaded."
posted by kirkaracha at 3:21 PM PST - 38 comments

The Limbless Association has set up a fund to assist Iraqi children who have been rendered amputees by the war. They were prompted by the public response to the plight of 12 year old Ali Ismail Abbas, who lost both his arms (and most of his family) in a missile strike on his house in Baghdad.
posted by homunculus at 3:00 PM PST - 20 comments

The (not so) Secret Weblog of Laura Palmer brings back many memories of trying to work out who the real murderer was, and being deeply infuriated with how the story ended. As Agent Cooper puts it: "I know that good is stronger than evil and yet sometimes it's difficult to see it. Even in a place like Twin Peaks." [via Caro]
posted by feelinglistless at 2:56 PM PST - 17 comments

The Construction Of Memory: Because any description of this webwork would ruin it, let me just say that saudade [please scroll down] is one of the few words I know that entirely befits this moving, bittersweet evocation. Although one of Christina Rossetti's best known poems captures it just as well. [Flash req; poem inside. ]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:53 PM PST - 17 comments

The CRACK Program (Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity) The organization's premise is radical, if dizzyingly simple: CRACK gives addicts $200 (they'll throw in an extra $50 if a participant recommends a friend) and sets up the medical procedures at a public hospital or clinic. All Nicole had to do was sign a release form, and two weeks later she had her tubes tied at a local hospital. She received a check the following month.
posted by Espoo2 at 1:37 PM PST - 78 comments

The General Motors EV1 electric car is soon to be a museum piece: "As California retreats from its strict pollution regulation, GM is taking the cars off the road when leases expire because it can no longer supply parts to repair them", according to this article. CARB (the California Air Resources Board) has proposed pushing back its Zero Emissions Vehicle timetable another two years [PDF link], to 2005. Is the success of the hybrid vehicle killing progress on the all-electric vehicle?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:56 PM PST - 23 comments

The Roots of a Haunting Song "Billie Holiday's brilliant interpretation of 'Strange Fruit' made the haunting song about Southern lynchings her own. It also helped make the composer, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx, nearly anonymous. But Abel Meeropol (link contains image of lynching) gets his due in a documentary...airing [8 April] as part of PBS' 'Independent Lens' series..." (CNN)
posted by LinusMines at 10:35 AM PST - 28 comments

MetaToiletFilter Self wiping since 1999.
posted by srboisvert at 8:08 AM PST - 12 comments

Blockbuster late fee. I recently returned a movie a few hours late at Blockbuster. I was surprised to learn that the late fee was equal to what I paid for the movie- $3.25. The company line now is- "We don't have late fees. We just bill you for another seven days." This can be as high as $5.44, apparently. There seems to be no mention of this in the usual places. Shouldn't there be a legal limit to how high late fees can be? [The store clerk told me that late fees represented 40% of his store's earnings- I am not sure if this is true across the board.] I am ready for Netflix. Are you?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy at 8:08 AM PST - 156 comments

U.S. Kills Journalists. Three journalists in the Palestine Hotel -- which is known as many reporters' base in Baghdad -- have died after the building was bombed by U.S. forces. Simultaneously, U.S. forces hit Al-Jazeera's Abu Dhabi offices with a missle. Officials claim that they were responding to sniper fire, but journalists dispute the claim. Some journalists believe that this was a deliberate attack. Is the U.S. making good on their threat to "target down" journalists?
posted by waldo at 7:25 AM PST - 79 comments

Did you know that George Eliot's Middlemarch is posted online in its entirety? As is Madam Bovary, Anna Karenina, and Don Quixote. ClassicReader.com contains 769 books and 1041 short stories by 211 authors. (via Bookfilter.)
posted by Pinwheel at 7:19 AM PST - 10 comments

It's a sport with a proud history played on a big field, with big scores and grown men in tiny pants. It's got scandals, bizarre rules, and a few colourful characters. It began in Australia, but it's spreading
posted by backOfYourMind at 7:18 AM PST - 12 comments

Information Radio in Iraq. An interesting look at the US radio broadcasts into Iraq (via the Guardian Informer)
posted by brettski at 7:08 AM PST - 1 comments

Welcome to The dullest weblog in the world. Just as Steve Wright is a genius, so too is this weblog. Be sure to check out the sometimes copious commenting for more comedy gold. If you like it, there's a club you could join.
posted by ashbury at 6:41 AM PST - 21 comments

Mabel Stark was one of the greatest tiger trainers of the 1910's and 1920's. Her life is now the subject of a novel, The Final Confession of Mabel Stark by Robert Hough. The book has created a lot of controversy because it describes the sexual nature of Mabel's relationship with her big cats. Film rights have already been sold; Kate Winslet will play the lead. Writer Rip Sense recalls seeing Mabel as an old woman, still handling big cats in Jungleland, California. Want to raise big cats in your home? See this handy guide to matters such as litter-box training, feeding, and keeping the tigers from destroying the furniture.
posted by SealWyf at 6:36 AM PST - 6 comments

"My Wife Dated Idiots" says Michael Douglas. He, on the other hand, kept strictly to Nobel Prizewinners. Insecurity, assholiness and (admittedly) Simply Red's Mick Hucknall apart, why is it that for ex=XX or ex=XY, one's own exes are always better than one's partner's exes?
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 3:45 AM PST - 10 comments

Has global warming been seriously undermined by new research? I read this interesting article about global warming on the telegraph. I generally believe that global warming is caused by man, though this article has given me food for thought. What do you think?
posted by tljenson at 1:07 AM PST - 44 comments

Cultural Entomology. The role of insects in human cultures from every continent :- religion, art, literature, entertainment, and as pets.
Related :- insect drawings used as teaching aids; insects as food.
posted by plep at 12:17 AM PST - 15 comments