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First it was called The War on Terror. Then it was called the Global War on Terror. It was even, at one stage, called The Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism. Basically, it has had many names. But now President Bush is simply calling it World War III.
posted by Effigy2000 at 6:25 PM PST - 159 comments

"Blood for oil" seems to be the new cry on campus (or at least "Plasma for gas").
posted by 445supermag at 5:49 PM PST - 30 comments

Downtown Helsinki seemed semiapocalyptic tonight while a set of warehouses near city-center burned to the ground. The buildings were previously owned by the State Railway, and (as Wikipedia tells) recently had become an unofficial cultural center hosting BDSM conventions and heavy metal festivals. The buildings were previously scheduled for destruction on Monday to make way for a new music hall, but it looks like the demolition happened early. Fire trucks had visited the scene earlier this week when it was last set on fire during a May Day eve protest-- or was that drunken revelry? Strangely, this wasn't considered significant enough for the police to worry about it. More photos.
posted by taursir at 3:47 PM PST - 15 comments

The audio toolbox for the audiophile:
CD ripper - Exact Audio Copy (Windows)
Media Player - Foobar2000 (Windows)
MP4 Encoder - Nero MP4 command-line encoder (Windows, Linux soon)
Audio techology forum - Hydrogenaudio [more inside]
posted by Sharcho at 3:29 PM PST - 56 comments

Fred Phelps' daughter (direct link to wmv) appeared on Hannity and Colmes to justify her church's protests at the funerals of American soldiers. Rather than using the show to have a discussion, Hannity and Colmes only berate her and keep her from finishing her sentences. Regardless of how cruel her church's actions are to the families of dead soldiers, it's interesting to see how the anchors steer her away from the issue of homosexuality, especially considering how vocal they've been on that subject.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 1:32 PM PST - 147 comments

Canadian musicians protest file-sharing lawsuits. The Barenaked Ladies, Broken Social Scene, Sloan, Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlan, and many other Canadian artists have formed a coalition to protest the hard line taken by the recording industry against file-sharers, and call for copyright reform. Is there a better way to protect intellectual property rights than suing file-sharers?
posted by Johnny Assay at 12:00 PM PST - 35 comments

Wikocracy. Don't like the law? Write it yourself.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 11:56 AM PST - 29 comments

The Song In the world of sports, there is not a more moving moment than the one when the horses step onto the track for the Kentucky Derby post parade and the band strikes up "My Old Kentucky Home". Link has history, lyrics. My Old Kentucky Home [realplayer]
posted by Postroad at 11:27 AM PST - 14 comments

Newsfilter: CIA director Porter Goss resigns. After taking some of the fall heat for bad intelligence in the months before 9/11, Cheney's "cat's paw" finally gets out of the kitchen.
posted by digaman at 11:12 AM PST - 200 comments

Happy Beltane! Today, astronomically speaking, is one of the four Cross-Quarter days, exactly midway between the solstices and equinoxes. To some people, that makes today the start of summer - after all, why would you begin the season that's supposed to be bright and hot on the day when the only direction to go is darker? (Yes, I know they say May 1 - the first site I linked to figures out the exact dates and times mathematically, so I'm more inclined to trust it).
posted by wanderingmind at 10:53 AM PST - 16 comments

Google Maps + World of Warcraft = MapWoW. (Via)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:32 AM PST - 21 comments

Friday insanity: "We are no longer going to be the band that plays old game tunes. We are going to be the band that plays old game tunes on game controllers!" [23Mb DivX, explanation]. Witness Commodore 64 revival band Press Play On Tape playing Cannon Fodder using a bunch of game console controllers. War has never been so much fun.
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 10:13 AM PST - 9 comments

High Dynamic Range Imaging: The dawn of a new era? In computer graphics and cinematography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI for short) is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows. quote from HDR Wikipedia page
posted by spock at 9:30 AM PST - 56 comments

37 versions of Stairway To Heaven, including Rolf Harris [mp3], Dolly Parton [mp3], and SCTV's Dave Thomas [mp3] doing a K-Tel ad for, uh, 30 versions of Stairway To Heaven. (See also 32 versions of Ghost Riders In The Sky.)
posted by Armitage Shanks at 9:02 AM PST - 32 comments

Panic -- makers of "Shockingly Good Mac Software" and visually appealing marketing collateral (including their website) -- have documented the various places their branding has been honored flatteringly borrowed ripped-off on the internets. My favorite is the site selling one of their original icons for $199, promising "exclusive ownership." Is imitation really the sincerest form of flattery?
posted by pmbuko at 8:37 AM PST - 27 comments

Mat Bevel Company is a gizmotronic fanfare of spunk, funk and kinetic junk. [lots of small embedded qt movies]
posted by carsonb at 8:14 AM PST - 10 comments

The Supercharger was a fantastic innovation, but it has its downsides. Volkswagen tried solving them by adding both a Supercharger and a Turbocharger, in their TSI engines, but this solution is relatively expensive. Perhaps the new invention by Atonov has merit. Instead of using a standard Roots supercharger, it uses a more efficient centrifugal supercharger, and adding a small two-speed automatic transmission to the loop, ensuring that the engine operates on boost throughout the rev range.

It may not sound like much, but it may change the way superchargers are working forever, allowing smaller engines with higher performance, or adding obscene amounts of power to large engines
posted by SharQ at 8:04 AM PST - 38 comments

Is Cinco De Mayo For Sale By the Alcohol Industry? In the 1960s, Chicano activists in Colorado promoted a boycott of Coors beer in response to employment discrimination against Latinos at Coors breweries. Coors had two problems. They had to fix their image with Latino consumers, and they had to figure out some way to get college students to drink more beer in May. The solution: start sponsoring Cinco de Mayo! Thus, even though Mexicans in Mexico celebrate their independence day on September 15th and 16th, Mexican-Americans are more likely to celebrate the May 5th anniversary of the Battle of the Puebla, which is not even commemorated with a national holiday in Mexico. In fact, the Battle of the Puebla was a skirmish in the Pastry War, a French intervention in Mexico that began because a French chef demanded several thousand pesos to compensate him for Mexican military officers looting his pastry supply.
posted by jonp72 at 7:21 AM PST - 44 comments