993 MetaFilter comments by The Jesse Helms (displaying 1 through 50)

It hasn't been updated in a few months, but the Cocteau Twins Podcast is a treasure trove of rare and never-before-heard recordings.
comment posted at 7:21 AM on Apr-21-08

April 18, 1980: Rhodesia is renamed Zimbabwe after it is granted black majority rule.
comment posted at 5:36 AM on Apr-18-08

The pop music industry has sadly come to depend on “heritage acts” – wrinkled, dyed-hair, aging stars – to pack houses and make money.

“Whatever a future superstar act will be, it won’t be as ubiquitous as the acts from the ’60s because we were all listening to Top 40 radio.”
comment posted at 2:19 PM on Apr-11-08

"It's ethnic cleansing happening." Fully ten days after elections that most are speculating were indeed won by the opposition party (Movement for Democratic Change), Robert Mugabe still clings to power in Zimbabwe. The voting results have still not been released, and 5 election officials have been arrested, "accused of tampering with the vote to the detriment of Mugabe's tally." Its been a tense time for Zim, and now the violence and land seizures have started again.
comment posted at 7:01 AM on Apr-9-08

110 Best Books. 'The perfect library' - According to the Torygraph... at least there's a 'Sci-fi' section among the usual suspects (And one or two bizarre choices - Pelzer! What the heck!)
comment posted at 6:59 PM on Apr-8-08
comment posted at 7:02 PM on Apr-8-08

Rickroll everybody! Rickroll everything! rickroll.it!
comment posted at 9:14 PM on Apr-4-08

"Google “brooklyn writer” and you’ll get, Did you mean: the future of literature as we know it? People are coming in from all over. In fact, the physical act of moving your possessions from Manhattan to Brooklyn is now the equivalent of a two-year M.F.A. program. When you get to the other side, they hand you three Moleskine notebooks and a copy of “Blogging for Dummies.” You’re good to go."
comment posted at 7:16 PM on Mar-1-08

Meet The Bloggers. New BBC Radio Four series begins this week which interviews prominant bloggers about their craft. First up Anna of little.red.boat and Annie of Going Underground. Full first programme and unedited interviews here. I think this is the first time a major network has dedicated a whole series to the topic and treated it with such seriousness and intelligence -- I particularly like the moments in which the prose is sonically illustrated.
comment posted at 5:44 PM on Aug-30-06

We've all got one... Almost everyone's got a song with a story - a song that's been ruined by something awful associated with it. This site is the place to share your story...
comment posted at 9:16 PM on Aug-29-06

Wizbang sez that the levy in New Orleans that broke during Katrina was going to break even without a hurricane, and that the Corps of Engineers knew it and suppressed evidence of it until just recently.
comment posted at 8:04 PM on Aug-28-06

Ayten Ahmet is a 16 year old girl who wants to win the Miss Teen Australia Beauty pageant [some links here possibly NSFW]. The problem is some of Australia's Muslim leaders, such as Melbourne cleric Sheik Mohammed Omran, have branded her entry into the competition as a "slur on Islam". Ayten doesn't know what all the fuss is about, saying "As long as you present yourself well, respect yourself and respect others, that's what's important. Religion's not an issue." [more inside]
comment posted at 4:01 PM on Aug-27-06

Raves not dead! The British subculture the government tried so hard to kill is alive and well in Cornwall and Essex.
comment posted at 7:44 AM on Aug-27-06

EPA BEGINS CLOSING LIBRARIES BEFORE CONGRESS ACTS ON PLAN The Environmental Protection Agency has been ordered by the White House to "shut down [its] libraries, end public access to research materials and box up unique collections on the assumption that Congress will not reverse President Bush’s proposed budget reductions." Fifteen states will lose library service immediately, the rest will follow, and the public is to be turned away as soon as possible.
comment posted at 7:56 AM on Aug-27-06

Liberals 'Crush Dissent' because they are sinful, and shouldn't be elected because they would legislate sin. Is this type of insanity due to the ever more depressing polls for the Republicans, or are we at the start of a larger, longer cultural war in this country?
comment posted at 7:02 PM on Aug-26-06

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.
comment posted at 3:49 PM on Aug-25-06
comment posted at 4:16 PM on Aug-25-06
comment posted at 4:22 PM on Aug-25-06


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.
comment posted at 11:10 AM on Aug-25-06

Will Vinyl Survive? Is vinyl on its last legs? Or like Gloria Gaynor, will it survive? Most home listeners chucked out their turntables years ago, but are DJs finally giving in and following suit? DJs face off in a pair of articles discussing the merits of vinyl vs. digital...
comment posted at 7:24 PM on Aug-24-06

Every issue of the New Yorker on a portable hard drive. For $299 you get an 80GB hard drive loaded with every article, poem, short story, advertisement and lame cartoon that has appeared in the over 4,000 issues of The New Yorker Magazine since February, 1925. The vintage ads alone MIGHT be worth it (depending on res/format) but does anyone really WANT every one of those unfunny cartoons? Does anyone outside NYC even care that this magazine is still being published?
comment posted at 7:35 PM on Aug-24-06

Modern times... suck? Bob Dylan has heavily criticised the sound of modern music recordings, claiming that, There’s no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like — static, and that, CDs are small.

Not to exclude himself, he's included his own new album in this criticism, saying that, Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded ‘em. Maybe he's just being a curmudgeon, or maybe he actually has a point about modern music production. It's not like he's opposed to all things modern: after all, he seems OK with file-sharing and iTunes. And, umm, Alicia Keys...
comment posted at 10:31 AM on Aug-24-06

Most 18-year-old students entering the class of 2010 this fall were born in 1988. For them: Billy Carter, Lucille Ball, Gilda Radner, Billy Martin, Andy Gibb, and Secretariat have always been dead. They have known only two presidents. Ringo Starr has always been clean and sober. Paul Newman has always made salad dressing. Gas has always been unleaded and Don Imus has always been offending someone in his national audience. Wisconsin's Beloit College has published its sixth annual Mindset List. [2003 list previously discussed]
comment posted at 12:54 PM on Aug-24-06

Say what you will. The new Land Rover Defender is rad.
comment posted at 7:03 PM on Aug-23-06

NPR's All Things Considered on logging is enlightening, but it also has a moment of comedy genius from about 1min20.
comment posted at 6:21 PM on Aug-23-06
comment posted at 6:43 PM on Aug-23-06

Buchanan Argues For Immigration Moratorium To Preserve White Dominance His new book also explains that western civilization is dependant on white people's "genetic endowments". Could explain why John Gibson famously called for "more white babies" a couple months ago. Is blatant racism becoming less taboo?
comment posted at 1:23 PM on Aug-23-06
comment posted at 1:36 PM on Aug-23-06
comment posted at 2:06 PM on Aug-23-06
comment posted at 2:15 PM on Aug-23-06
comment posted at 7:31 PM on Aug-24-06

It's on the Internet, so it must be true. Are hundreds of Muslims in the East Village infuriated by a topless poster of Kate Moss across the street? See what happens when one blog says so, and various media around the world (1, 2, 3... you get the idea) take the meme and run with it. Trouble is, it didn't really happen.
comment posted at 11:10 AM on Aug-23-06

In Soviet Russia, Flag Flies You! [Google Cache] Just as in election years past, the American flag has once again become a political football. Apparently, flying the flag upside down, a traditional indication of "distress" - (Section 8a. "The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property") - has displeased some patriots as well. Fortunately, the Marines are there [Google cache]... [via digg][Original digg-effected link here].
comment posted at 8:12 AM on Aug-23-06

DAMMIT, DOSED AGAIN! Well, once again I got a cup of full-strength this morning which she swore was decaf, and I'm jittery as a chimp on crack. But soon I won't have to worry; chemists at Washington University School of Medicine are working on a caffeine test strip.
comment posted at 7:55 AM on Aug-23-06

Being a little overweight can kill you.
comment posted at 4:05 PM on Aug-22-06

Red-Hot and Filthy Library Smut. Scanned photos of the insides of some of the world's hottest, youngest and dirtiest libraries. Some of the best from the book by Candida Hofer.
comment posted at 8:22 AM on Aug-22-06

Raed Jarrar was coming home from Jordan wearing a T-shirt with the phrase "We will not be silent" in Arabic script and English. Other JetBlue passengers who could not read the Arabic were "offended" and she was apprehended by security and asked to replace it. She also had her seat changed to the back of the plane. Variations on T-shirt airline censorship have happened before, but, taken to extremes, the fear of foreign language has spawned some unpleasant nights. Where is the line drawn? And where is the path to multicultural reconciliation?
comment posted at 3:37 PM on Aug-21-06

Lonely? Online? Unwilling to fuck people that aren't exactly like you? Good news! The PeopleMeet Empire has a dating website custom designed specifically to fit your needs, whether you're Italian, Jewish, Divorced, Marriage Minded, Asian (nonspecific), Asian (specific), Old, Really Old, Christian (Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentacostal, Born Again, Mormon or Other), Republican, Democrat, Midget, Fit, Fat, the Outdoor type, the Indoor type, a Pet lover, Professional, some kooky Black variation of the earlier types, or even (gasp!) Californian.
comment posted at 12:23 AM on Aug-20-06

"Inthewrongplaceness" is a live art installation whereupon a naked woman cradles a dead pig.
comment posted at 1:16 PM on Aug-19-06

Acoustic OutKast cover by a Tempe, AZ musician named Mat Weedle from local band Obadiah Parker.
comment posted at 9:15 AM on Aug-19-06

Street Cents, a staple on The CBC for 17 years, has been canceled. The Emmy award-winning show focused on consumer and media awareness for teens and pre-teens.

Street Cents is filmed in Halifax, NS and airs without commercial interruption in order to avoid potential conflict with advertisers who were regularly taken to task on the show. The last episode will air on October 1st, 2006.
comment posted at 6:35 PM on Aug-18-06
comment posted at 6:36 PM on Aug-18-06

Due to recent fires, Dell is recalling over four million laptop batteries manufactured by Sony and sold worldwide in the past two years. Pictures of computers on fire (as well as their charred remains) circulated widely online, not allowing the company to easily dismiss the problem as an isolated incident. Other companies claim their products aren't affected by the same issues, but the nightmare might not be limited to Dell. The future of laptops on airplanes is not looking so good.
comment posted at 11:02 AM on Aug-15-06

What If ... 9/11 Never Happened? "The broader culture would have gone its own way, 9/11 or no 9/11—progressing effortlessly from the obsessions of Gary Condit and Survivor in summer ’01 to Brangelina and American Idol in ’06. The Oliver Stone project of August ’06, however, would not be World Trade Center, but, with exquisite timing, Fidel."

One possibility from many in a collection of "could've-beens" compiled by New York Magazine. Other contributions of note: Tom Wolfe, Fareed Zakaria, an alternate-future blog by Andrew Sullivan, and perhaps best of all, a simple sketch from Ex Machina's Brian K. Vaughan.
comment posted at 6:36 AM on Aug-15-06


Bottom half of the final inning, Red Sox batting, Yankees ahead by a run. Runner on third and 2 outs. Up at bat is the Red Sox's star hitter, followed by the weakest hitter in the lineup. Do you pitch to the star, or intentionally walk him? The choice is obvious in the majors, but not so much in the PONY leagues. Or is it? Complicating matters - the weak hitter is a cancer survivor with ongoing health issues. Not surprisingly, there's been a story in the local weekly. Then it got picked up by a major local paper, a radio station, and now Sports Illustrated. A lot of attention for a kid who was last in the paper 6 months ago when he got his Make-A-Wish granted.
comment posted at 9:09 PM on Aug-10-06

Stress building in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina anniversary could spark more problems Like many other New Orleanians nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina, John McCusker was experiencing the overwhelming stress of rebuilding his life. McCusker, a photographer who was part of The Times-Picayune's 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning staff(reg. required, but worth it. Trust me.), was seen driving wildly through the city Tuesday, attracting the attention of police. He eventually was arrested, but not before he was subdued with a Taser and an officer fired twice at his vehicle. During the melee, he begged police to kill him. For some, it's still Katrina every day.
comment posted at 5:14 PM on Aug-10-06

[Newsfilter] Terror plot disrupted. Scotland Yard has arrested about 18 potential terrorists who were planning to blow up UK to USA flights mid-air. The UK threat level is now critical - "an attack is expected imminently". And there's chaos at the airports where hand luggage has been banned from all flights.
comment posted at 8:11 AM on Aug-10-06
comment posted at 10:56 AM on Aug-10-06

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