Vatican to test if trainee priests are gay. As if the Catholic Church doesn't have bigger concerns. They seem to be trying to throw dirt onto their own graves. Organized religion is SO last millennium. If a gay person really wanted to be a priest, wouldn't it be simple to "pass" a psychological screening? And what self-respecting gay person would want to be a part of something that seeks to exclude him?
comment posted at 9:28 PM on Oct-25-02

Pigs aren't the only animals getting cosmetic surgery: Cows in dairy shows are getting all manner of 'boob jobs' in a practice some compare to primping for the Miss America Pageant. "People really hate it when I compare cows to humans, but it's kind of the same," says one dairy farmer. Let's ignore the potential danger to human health of injecting stuff like silver directly into udders. My question is: Is there really such a wide gulf between Western culture's obsession with womens' breasts and and our refusal to wean ourselves, unlike the rest of the world, from milk?
comment posted at 10:36 AM on Oct-10-02
comment posted at 2:08 PM on Oct-10-02

Remember Claire Swires? Or Peter Chung? Well, there is a new man in town ... and his name is Trevor Luxton.
comment posted at 7:17 AM on Oct-4-02

The Street Harassment Project sounds like a pretty good thing. Street harassment has been a crusade for my girlfriend for some time now, and it looks like she's not alone.
comment posted at 4:49 PM on Oct-3-02

The Demon in the Freezer An article by the author of The Hot Zone. " The water contained the whole molecules of life from variola, a parasite that had colonized us thousands of years ago. We had almost freed ourselves of it, but we found we had developed a strong affinity for smallpox. Some of us had made it into a weapon, and now we couldn't get rid of it. I wondered if we ever would, for the story of our entanglement with smallpox is not yet ended".
comment posted at 9:21 AM on Sep-30-02

Alana Dung passed away quietly in her sleep at age 3 from leukemia, but not before inspiring 30,000 people in Hawai'i to register themselves with The National Bone Marrow Registry. Since her parents and brother were not marrow matches, her family made her battle public. To honor her memory, they eventually formed the Alana Dung Research Foundation, an organization dedicated "to support research efforts designed to improve the quality of life for children with serious illnesses." Her brief life also inspired a play. Is your marrow registered?
comment posted at 9:46 PM on Sep-25-02

Mel Gibson wants to do a movie on the last 12 hours of Jesus's life. The only issue? He wants to do it totally in Latin and Arameic without subtitles. A cool way for Hollywood to branch out from the norm, or artsy pretension from a rather boring actor? Time may tell. Seen also on AICN.
comment posted at 11:59 AM on Sep-25-02

Avast, ye MeFi mateys!! I be Red Roger Rackham -- what be ye pirate name?? Nyar!!
comment posted at 1:39 PM on Sep-20-02

The new national divide... In my high school town of Davis CA. it was "Coke". In the rest of California it seemed to be "Soda". Until I moved to the Northwest I always had an extreme hick-ish image of folks who say "Pop" and to a certain extent still do.

Where do you live and what do you say?
comment posted at 3:41 PM on Sep-12-02
comment posted at 4:43 PM on Sep-12-02
comment posted at 5:31 PM on Sep-12-02

72 year old Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin packs a punch and hits out at lunar landing conspiracy theorist.
comment posted at 5:33 AM on Sep-12-02

"...padded bras in my size did nothing for my chest but protect it from flying objects." One woman's humorous and touching story of her decision to get breast implants. For the record, I like boobs, but the idea of having pieces of plastic stuck under one's skin creeps me out no end. To implant or not to implant, that is the question....
comment posted at 6:54 PM on Sep-2-02
comment posted at 7:02 AM on Sep-3-02

No butts about it... Bloomberg plans to ban smoking in small bars and restaurants in NYC. Why not? The pope took it even further. And after all, it won't hurt business owners. Perhaps a better plan would be to limit food portions instead. How do NYC smokers feel about this? I know Carrie Bradshaw will not be too thrilled.
comment posted at 5:18 PM on Aug-9-02

"How Much Starbucks is Too Much?" This article predicts that our favourite caffeine pushers could double the number of outlets in the US without saturating the market. Pretty graphs, but has anyone told this guy about Starbucks' more sinister plans? warning, second link = Onion story
comment posted at 11:41 AM on Aug-1-02

As the biggest, burliest SUV sold in the United States -- nearly 19 feet long and weighing about 7,200 pounds -- the Excursion was attacked by social critics who accused Ford of environmental irresponsibility. I for one, will not miss it.
comment posted at 7:38 PM on Aug-1-02

Felony Arrests As Marketing Gimmick? AdAge columnist Scott Donaton perceives the recent spate of celebrities committing crimes as a new marketing scheme. Although the column is tongue-in-cheek, it raises a good point: could all these shenanigans just be a new way to gain street cred and ink more lucrative endorsement deals? Case in point: Allen Iverson-branded Reebok products flew off the shelves after his arrest, though today a judge threw out most of the charges In the meantime, squeaky clean Kobe has trouble building street cred.
comment posted at 10:11 PM on Jul-29-02

Pork chop shoes results in a lawsuit in Australia. A man who slipped on a grease trail left by pork chop shoes in a pub is awarded £23,000. I guess Nike better think twice before they release their filet mignon basketball shoes. What would be their marketing campaign?
comment posted at 6:01 AM on Jul-1-02

Pork Chop Shoes? Just one question, what kind of place gives pork chops as a raffle prize?
comment posted at 9:12 AM on Jun-27-02

Project Euh is a self-proclaimed multimedia weblog with many "web experiments" and something I never though I'd see, a curved scroll bar. But that's just the beginning. Click on euh? to load a random experiment.
comment posted at 12:04 PM on May-28-02

Three Dead From Southern Maryland Tornado. This is the kind of news story you skip because it doesn't happen in your state. It didn't even register to me until I realized that one of my daily reads - Moire - lives in La Plata. The twister went through her front yard. Her account of the storm and its aftermath is pretty powerful. Were any other bloggers involved? (It's my first post; be gentle.)
comment posted at 7:54 PM on Apr-29-02

"In order to master cinnamon, one must be able to simply die for a moment." Pretty words, coming from a site called Stink Factor. A seemingly normal bunch of men who occasionally go temporarily insane, Stink Factor documents their attempts to beat Herculean challenges like...eating 6 crackers in one minute. Think you could do it?
comment posted at 12:41 PM on Apr-15-02

Wow. (via Plastic) More info. here, if necessary.
comment posted at 12:19 PM on Apr-1-02

The clock in the terminal at Grand Central has gone. Why do renovated public buildings always seem to lose so much character? Isn't it possible to meld the old with the new?
comment posted at 4:54 PM on Mar-20-02

Shoplifters Of The World, Unite And Take Over! An interesting NYT article(reg.req.)says stealing from restaurants is increasing. But it's still only 3% of tableware costs and allegedly doesn't contribute to higher prices. I confess I often lift the odd item from hotel rooms. Not just as "souvenirs" - that would be hypocritical. As booty. So, what ethical constraints and liberties do MetaFilterians think should be taken into consideration when stealing? Does it matter whom you're stealing from and how much money you've previously spent on them? And, for the more immoral fellow members, what are the best strategies for liberating certain objects?
comment posted at 10:15 AM on Feb-28-02
comment posted at 12:43 PM on Feb-28-02
comment posted at 6:18 AM on Mar-1-02

"The Archdiocese of Boston in the last 10 years has quietly settled child molestation claims against at least 70 priests." And that conservative estimate represents about 10% of diocesan priests! Many are priests still. Could there be a safer haven than the Church for these animals? Easy access to children, and if you get caught, worst case is that the church pays off your victims and you get reassigned to a prison or hospital, with no messy publicity. Shameful.
comment posted at 10:26 AM on Jan-31-02
comment posted at 10:39 AM on Jan-31-02

"That's it. I'm done. Done writing books." After Stephen King publishes his next five new books, he's ending his career in publishing. Viewing his latest work as mere recycles of older novels that he has written, he's choosing to stop while he's at the top of his game rather than meet a grim end to his career. Are any fans of his work disappointed or do you feel satisfied with the body of work that he has created over his career?
comment posted at 6:41 AM on Jan-31-02
comment posted at 10:33 AM on Jan-31-02

Which Kevin Smith male or female are you?
comment posted at 5:26 AM on Jan-14-02

Mouseageddon.

So this is what it sounds like when mice cry.
comment posted at 12:56 PM on Jan-11-02

Snow is falling throughout the WRAL-TV viewing area Southern snow. Better get milk and bread! It will be like going to the Kroger in Moscow, but you must have milk and bread. Wow, I love it when it snows hard in the South, what a magic time. Only once every 5 or 10 years do we see a foot of snow.
comment posted at 6:16 AM on Jan-3-02

Band names are out; blog names are in. All of us musical inepts who spent more time thinking up band names than actually learning to play an instrument now have a purpose for our great list of names that rock your world, dude! Here's a really brief list of blog names grabbed from Linkwatcher, any one of which could have been a band name: Virulent Memes, Grouse, The Dome of the Sky, Underduck, Sixth Dev, Ten Reasons Why, Industrial Technology and Witchcraft, Phester, Hopeless Romantics, Next Generation Degeneration, Being Terran, Hit or Miss, Entropy, Wee David, Kitty Kitty, Inexplicable Fancy Trash, etc etc. On the flip side, you could use random band name generators to come up with blog names, too. Some people compile lists of band names. Of course, some sites take band names seriously. What's your best band/blog name ever?
comment posted at 1:57 PM on Dec-30-01

You thought Notre Dame had a tough season. Now they have to play against their toughest opponent, the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jackson urges the university to hire a black coach.
comment posted at 7:57 AM on Dec-20-01
comment posted at 3:37 PM on Dec-20-01

US Surgeon General: Lose some weight, already Overweight and obesity may not be infectious diseases, but they have reached epidemic proportions in the United States. . . Approximately 300,000 deaths a year in this country are currently associated with overweight and obesity . Left unabated, overweight and obesity may soon cause as much preventable disease and death as cigarette smoking.
comment posted at 8:16 AM on Dec-14-01

Science brings the pub home. Have any Guinness faithful tried it yet? Verdict?
comment posted at 8:08 PM on Dec-6-01

Fashion & Farm Sex Benneton Group company Sisley is well known for ...well, uhm... different images in advertising campaigns. Right now they're using cute animals and evil girls... What do you think about that?
comment posted at 6:29 AM on Dec-5-01

Finally a reason to be proud you're a an atheist lefty. There perhaps, isn't a publication more vapid than Focus on the Family's hip christian, college age marketed offshoot "Boundless". In this treasure, the author trashes the intellectual individualism his conservative ideology doesn't afford him. Don't miss the wonderful blurb on the left sidebar which reads: ROTC recruiters never tire of citing the army's desperate need for the kinds of bright minds and "independent thinkers" needed in today's mobile, high-tech military; and yet many of the most promising candidates remain all but off limits to them. I'm glad I'm from another planet. Obviously.
comment posted at 6:44 AM on Nov-27-01
comment posted at 9:06 AM on Nov-27-01

Seems cappuccinos may remove the need for those nasty silicone implants. I think I need to buy some Starbuck's stock. And Victoria's Secret, too.
comment posted at 7:41 AM on Oct-11-01

Find out how good someone is in bed
This site can tell you what someone is like in bed, by
you telling it what they are like out of it.

"Using sophisticated neural network processing, HowGoodInBed.com is able to determine which are the most relevant factors in determining a person's likely performance in bed and analyse your responses accordingly."

If the looming threat of death is making you amorous, you should at least know what (or who) you're getting into.
comment posted at 2:18 PM on Oct-9-01

Dark is Rising (Amazon link) by Susan Cooper. This book, about an 11 year old boy, was given to me by my oldest sister when I turned 11. Now that I have kids of my own, I look forward to passing this book on to my son when he turns 11. Any other age-appropriate books that stand out in your mind, particularly if given when you were the age of the lead character?
comment posted at 9:24 AM on Oct-8-01

Gay, lesbian troops can serve openly -- for now "First, gays and lesbians would be allowed to serve during any war, just as they do now, as long as they remain in compliance with the homosexual conduct policy," said Maj. James P. Cassella of the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs' office."

Sorry we've treated you so crappy, but, uh, we need you to serve now. Of course, when we don't need you any more, you'll be discharged because you're gay.
comment posted at 3:33 PM on Sep-19-01
comment posted at 3:35 PM on Sep-19-01

Internet audio for providing the background noise for your web surfing. Radio Paradise offers up peacenik rock and international music. Support American cornfed Middle Eastern music by listening to Salaam (more Middle East artists from mp3.com.) Or just get your fill of 70s, 80s, or 90s pop rock. Any other good music out there for surfing with your ears?
comment posted at 12:26 PM on Sep-19-01