MetaFilter

Umpire offers to quit for cash payment. Cricket has been gripped by a scandal that started at The Oval cricket ground last Sunday. It started with an accusation of ball tampering by one of the match umpires, Darryl Hair, during a match between Pakistan and England. Hair awarded England 5 runs and changed the ball, which is the sanction in the laws. Pakistan then refused to play, forfeiting the match. Ball tampering is an emotive issue for Pakistan, as is Darryl Hair who has previously been accused of bias against teams from the Indian subcontinent (i.e. racism). In a bizarre twist, Hair has now offered to resign as an umpire, in return for a massive cash payment. It shows the regard in which he is held, that his bosses decided to publicise this. It seems unlikely he will ever stand in a test match again.
posted by winjer at 11:04 PM PST - 21 comments

Photographing Squirrels with Cameras No really, taking pictures of real wild squirrels next to real vintage cameras. No computer editing, he swears. Some are completely odd and others entirely cute as hell. Hours of time well spent!
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 7:14 PM PST - 23 comments

" We are the Mods, We are the Mods , We are , We are , We are the Mods."
posted by sgt.serenity at 5:08 PM PST - 26 comments

Paula Hitler: "He was still my brother."
posted by Second Account For Making Jokey Comments at 4:03 PM PST - 53 comments

On Sept. 11, CNN will replay its coverage from 2001 in real time, online. They will make their little-noticed Pipeline service free for the day.
posted by CunningLinguist at 3:32 PM PST - 124 comments

For murder ballads, here's your Mississippi John Hurt's Louis Collins and your Grayson & Whitter's Ommie Wise. Then, for some early white blues bottleneck guitar, here's your Frank Hutchison's K. C. Blues. Not to mention Charley Patton's Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues. All courtesy the Internet Archives 78 RPM tag. where there is way more--like Bix Beiderbecke's first record, Davenport Blues, Louis Armstrong's Ain't Misbehavin' and Geeshie Wiley's Last Kind Words, among many others. Then, for more, Nugrape Records has an mp3 page. The standout there, at least for me, is Gus Cannon's Poor Boy Long Ways From Home. As for their namesake, the Nugrape Twins, well, the Archive has the mp3 of I've Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape. And don't let me omit mentioning PublicDomain4U. They have Mississippi John Hurt's Frankie, for one. Tyrone's Record and Phonograph Links will lead you to more 78 RPM goodness. And don't forget the inestimable and erudite vacapinta first directed us to Dismuke's Virtual Talking Machine.
posted by y2karl at 2:20 PM PST - 48 comments

Beautiful Subways --worldwide--from palatial to postmodern, folksy to brutalist (pee smells not included--and don't miss Tehran's)
posted by amberglow at 2:19 PM PST - 48 comments

Troitsky Church in St.Petersburg is on fire. Terrible pictures
posted by growabrain at 2:01 PM PST - 34 comments

Martha C. Nussbaum reviews Harvey C. Mansfield's book Manliness for The New Republic, and she hands him his own ass.
posted by cgc373 at 1:27 PM PST - 40 comments

Blemph-O! Gymnasium - tHE oFFICIAL pAUL nw pROCH wEBSITE?! More on pAUL pROCH, here, here and here. Warning: this site is so not web 2.0...
posted by mds35 at 12:20 PM PST - 7 comments

Friday Flash Fun Chill out with lasers and mirrors this afternoon. (Apparently similar to this one.)
posted by knave at 11:43 AM PST - 16 comments

Just Imagine Stan Lee's Watchmen! Back in 2002, DC Comics extended an olive branch of comics industry peace to Stan "Excelsior!" Lee, the founder of rival Marvel Comics. The result was the Just Imagine line, wherein we find several DCU heroes reimagined in one-shot comics as only Stan Lee could. Some titles were good. Some were okay. Most were just so. But never in a million issues would DC have let him take on Watchmen -- perhaps the most critically-acclaimed and analyzed series this side of Maus. So since Stan couldn't or wouldn't, Kevin Church has.
posted by grabbingsand at 11:40 AM PST - 41 comments

Santorum on Gorilla Action Friday Fun - A giant gorilla is chasing around Rick Santorum
posted by cjoh at 11:39 AM PST - 11 comments

The downside of being a nerd with your desktop set to a super-hi resolution is that you can rarely find cool wallpapers to use. This massive collection (in a wide variety of resolutions) should help.
posted by jonson at 11:26 AM PST - 26 comments

"I would have your wife right in front of you. I would smoke the last of your glaucoma medication. Then I will surely drink your liquor cabinet dry. However, know this my friend. I will never break an oath to uphold the public trust. My affidavit will be signed in my own blood. A Pirates crimson mark, with real binding effects into my after life. Laugh if you will then ask yourself if you could do it." James Hill is running for congress in Iowa's first district. He accepts no money from anybody.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:01 AM PST - 54 comments

Patricia Todd won a tight Democratic party runoff in District 54 in Alabama. Patricia Todd is also gay and would be the first gay representative in Alabama's history. Gaynell Hendricks doesn't understand why she lost, but maybe it has to do with the race baiting . Hendricks' mother-in-law contests the election for numerous reasons including "illegal votes were given to Todd" and said that "I want this controversy settled.This is happening like when Bush and Gore were running for president. I don't like it." Unsurprisingly, "Hendricks said she is pleased that someone challenged the results. " Weeks go by and the results don't get certified. A five member committee is appointed and bickers. Eventually the committee refrerences an old by law that has apparently not been enforced since 1988 to disqualify Todd. Although it does not seem quite over, it should be by tommorrow. Interestingly enough, Todd said she believes the challenge has nothing to do with the fact she is gay, but is about the fact that she is white and won in a majority black district.
posted by dig_duggler at 10:46 AM PST - 38 comments

What the world creates by hand. The sons of a Peace Corps member, Roberto and Andy Milk had a lifelong interest in artisans in developing countries. They teamed up with Armenia Nercessian, a UN human-rights officer, to create Novica.com, an online marketplace that sells the work of more than 10,000 craftspeople. While Novica operates chiefly in association with National Geographic, NPR also helps to promote them.
posted by owhydididoit at 10:23 AM PST - 14 comments

The Trailer Mash is the spot for movie trailer recuts and mashups. We've done the subject before, but now the subject has its own blog. Current new favorites: Garden State as a murder thriller and School of Rock as a kidnap film. [via mefi projects]
posted by mathowie at 9:56 AM PST - 13 comments

Porn Up, Rape Down
posted by caddis at 9:44 AM PST - 54 comments

wealthymen.com Not covered in previous "dating sites" thread. I just heard the ad on the radio. Wish I could post that, too. It's even better than the site.
posted by wfc123 at 9:43 AM PST - 20 comments

When cloning goes wrong Some funny photoshop creations. Nothing more, nothing less.
posted by namagomi at 9:37 AM PST - 22 comments

Some vintage photographs of ladies trying out for dancing jobs at a South California club. They were taken from the late 1960s through to the early 1970s, and are part of a larger set of 400 or so Polaroids. There are some cool photos here. (No nudity, but it's probably not safe for work.)
posted by chunking express at 9:26 AM PST - 24 comments

I promise to try not to smoke, or drink too much, or eat too much, or be lazy. If I fail, you can cut my benefits. Sign here please. West Virginia recently approved a controversial change to its Medicaid program: a Member Agreement [NB: links to .pdf] that adds several "personal responsibilities" including attempting to avoid smoking, (illegal) drugs, heavy drinking and sloth (not sloths). It also includes clauses on compliance with doctors recommendations, keeping appointments, reading the written materials that doctors provide, and minimizing emergency department visits. Patients who don't uphold their end of the bargain will have some benefits reduced or eliminated (that'll learn them). Lube up the slippery slope arguments. Will it work? Is it fair? Want to hear more? And more (from NPR)?.
(Article .pdfs archived here and here. Interview .mp3 archived here if you can't access them through above links).
posted by scblackman at 8:41 AM PST - 87 comments

Charlie the Pug dressed as famous people.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:28 AM PST - 17 comments

Helen Kane. (Wikipedia bio.) They based Betty Boop on her. MP3 files. WAV files. Podcast.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:55 AM PST - 11 comments

Feds Bust Guy Pitching Hezbollah TV. Censorship, or reasonable use of the Patriot Act?
posted by MarshallPoe at 7:28 AM PST - 53 comments

Elijah Page to be executed in South Dakota. On March 12, 2000, Page and two other brutally tortured and killed Chester Poage near Spearfish, SD.(very graphic description of events). It took Page, Briley Piper, and Darrell Hoadley nearly 3 hours to finally kill Poage. This will be the first execution in South Dakota in 59 years. (more inside)
posted by killThisKid at 7:14 AM PST - 77 comments

Babe-a-lizer! Friday Flash Fun - hotties galore (including pics of the Mercury Girl and the Queen of All Media (warning: music autostart, provocative photos, possibly NSFW) - gotta love the panic button!
posted by GoshND at 6:12 AM PST - 22 comments

SAVE PLUTO
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:24 AM PST - 91 comments

We're Schleswig-Holsteins, darling. (Ah, from the Low Countries.) Cows have accents. Some other animals with accents: birds, otters, frogs, monkeys.
posted by pracowity at 5:19 AM PST - 13 comments

Some tributes to Syd Barrett are good, some bad. But man, what a trip. Still, there was no reason to stalk him.
posted by punkfloyd at 4:56 AM PST - 11 comments

If you're sick of random, crude, sloppy , incredibly NSFW cartoons featuring juvenile humor, you'll love Sick Animation!
posted by Citizen Premier at 1:38 AM PST - 11 comments

Strange Bedfellows: Radical Leftists for Bush Among the German far-left, one subgroup called the anti-Germans holds some contradictory views. Most call themselves communists, yet loudly proclaim their support for Israel and George W. Bush.
posted by telstar at 12:20 AM PST - 29 comments