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Michele's breasts are in your hands! Southern Cali college girl Michele bemoans her "itty-bitty boobies" and asks the world to decide whether she should surgically acquire a set of bodacious ta-tas by donating to her online implant fund. So far the fund has swelled to only $19.36, hardly the push-up Michele was hoping for and pretty far from the $4500 she needs to get [more inside] her Wonderbra. But perhaps Mefites have a silicone dollop of charity left after the holiday season. Then again, maybe this isn't the breast best way to spend your charity dollar. [via El Reg]
comment posted at 2:22 PM on Jan-8-03
comment posted at 2:30 PM on Jan-8-03
comment posted at 2:34 PM on Jan-8-03

Is Gavin Menzies the Stephen Wolfram of history? That's the question today's New York Times (login: dr_mabuse, pw: mabuse) suggests in a Menzies profile. Menzies has a new book out, 1421, which claims that the Chinese discovered America seven decades before Columbus did. Some people have made similarly precise claims about this planet's developments. Others have seen their amateur claims initially mocked and later proven to be correct. Is Menzies onto something or is he a crank? And how do we place the passionate amateur within the realm of scholarly pursuits?
comment posted at 3:57 PM on Jan-5-03

Commondreams.org story on a California court decision that Nike's PR blitz about its subcontractors' sweatshops violates a law against deliberate deception (via Blogdex). "Corporations are non-living, non-breathing, legal fictions. They feel no pain. They don't need clean water to drink, fresh air to breathe, or healthy food to consume. They can live forever. They can't be put in prison. They can change their identity or appearance in a day, change their citizenship in an hour, rip off parts of themselves and create entirely new entities. Some have compared corporations with robots, in that they are human creations that can outlive individual humans, performing their assigned tasks forever." Reminds me of this: REESE (slow, but intense) Listen. Understand. That Terminator is out there. It can't be reasoned with, it can't be bargained with...it doesn't feel pity of remorse or fear... and it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead.
comment posted at 9:40 PM on Jan-4-03

White House halts asbestos alert WASHINGTON (AP) - A warning from the Environmental Protection Agency, informing millions of Americans their homes might contain asbestos-contaminated insulation, has not been issued because of White House intervention, a newspaper reports. The EPA was expected to announce the warning in April, and declare a public health emergency concerning Zonolite insulation, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in its Sunday editions.
comment posted at 8:38 PM on Dec-29-02

The sky is a color of television, tuned to a dead channel, and there's a hole in the sky above Chile. The widening gash in the ozone layer is now over Punta Arenas, Chile, the southern most city in the world.
comment posted at 8:35 PM on Dec-29-02

Futurism and the Futurists is a comprehensive (but oddly self-promotional) website showcasing the ideas, biographies, and works of the Italian Futurists. Enjoy the painting, poetry, the fabulous theatre "sentesi," and of course, all those lovely manifestos.
comment posted at 3:57 PM on Dec-20-02

Pot in Canada may soon be a click away with the launch of a home-delivery service for medical marijuana over the Internet (more info on Canada's medicinal pot laws here ).
comment posted at 3:59 PM on Dec-20-02

Brains vs. bathing suits. University of Michigan researchers gathered men and women together and had them try on either a bathing suit or a sweater to see which they preferred for 20 minutes. Then they were asked to take a math test to "pass the time." The results? No appreciable difference for men while women scored considerably lower while in bathing suits. Could obsession with appearance be holding our girls back?
comment posted at 4:00 PM on Dec-20-02

Meet Senator Burns (R-Montana) "...The senator said the rancher asked him, "Conrad, how can you live back there with all those niggers?"...Senator Burns said he told the rancher it was"a hell of a challenge."...The anecdote was published and Senator Burns apologized...in 1991, immediately after a civil rights bill had been passed, Senator Burns invited a group of lobbyists, some of them white and some of them black, to accompany him to an auction....When asked what was being auctioned, he replied, "Slaves."
comment posted at 2:16 PM on Dec-19-02

"Get some respect, be some patriot." The Department of Homeland Security really, really needs "a piece of identity ware." Adbusters culture-jammers need not apply.
comment posted at 4:19 PM on Dec-16-02

John Bonham lives! Crank up your tiny labtec speakers and rock out in the manner to which you are accustomed.
comment posted at 10:43 AM on Dec-16-02
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comment posted at 11:16 AM on Dec-16-02

Laughter capital of the world? "Declining audiences, dull material, complacent comics: a crisis is looming ....London suddenly appears to be in the grip of a recession for the first time since the alternative comedy boom took off at the beginning of the 1980s." From a nation exporting Bill Bailey(live in NYC this week) ,Eddie Izzard, Ali G, can this really be happening? (BTW I always thought Canada tried to lay a claim to this crown?)
comment posted at 10:47 AM on Dec-16-02

"Eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Can John Ashcroft find salvation in a recipe for chocolate brownies? Hey, every little bit helps.
comment posted at 10:50 AM on Dec-16-02

Not 421 CD burners but "the equivalent of 421 burners". Now, most agree the RIAA is grasping at straws trying to control something they clearly can't, but this seems to be the most amusing yet. This article offers a suggestion or two concerning the possible music industry slump.
comment posted at 11:25 AM on Dec-15-02

Last minute shopping? Still looking for the right thing for that special geek in your life? Perhaps you might cater to the fetish for the modern-day Mona? Or maybe a propeller beanie? Some sophomoric seasonal gag gifts? Some retro kitsch? Some religious memorabilia? Some odd surplus? Or if money is no object, gadgets and robots are always a safe bet. But you better hurry - you're down to the wire! thanks, amberglow!
comment posted at 11:26 AM on Dec-15-02

Benjamin Stein, host of the show Win Ben Stein's Money fears that the United States is squelching what gives it an edge.
comment posted at 5:10 PM on Dec-14-02

I hope this isn't a double post. I've searched but couldn't find anything. It has special relevance to me since I am joining the Air Force in five months. John McCain (R-AZ) and Evan Bayh (R-IN) are pushing a bill through Congress that will allow for a short-term enlistment of 15 months into the military. Being 25 and wanting to pay off my loans, I may have taken this route had it been available to me. It would be especially helpful to college burn-outs to step out of college for a little over a year. Unless you are very anti-military, does this make signing "the dotted line" any more attractive?
comment posted at 12:11 PM on Dec-14-02
comment posted at 5:00 PM on Dec-14-02

2002 looks like 2nd warmest year on record (since recordkeeping of global temperatures began in 1867, that is) and glaciers are melting faster then ever - 30 years from now, after the great climate catastrophe of '017, when kids ask me what I did to avert it, I'll say - "see, there was this internet blog called metafilter that I'd post bad environmental news to sometimes ...what was the internet? what was a "blog"? why didn't I do more? well, there were these people called "skeptics", and there was this other thing called "the war on terrorism", and it all seemed so distant and speculative and we were all so busy, and it was hard to get around without a car, and the dogs needed to be walked, and I needed to have a cavity filled, and there was all that laundry, and my big toe hurt, and, and..."
comment posted at 11:49 AM on Dec-14-02
comment posted at 12:13 PM on Dec-14-02

In some places, they have firing squads or electric chairs. In Prague, they have defenestration. Defenestration, or the tossing of people from windows, is a tradition there, popularized first by the defenestration of 1419 and later by the defenestrations of 1618 and 1948. William Safire name-checked it in in his column a few weeks back, and another mention of it can found in the Houston Chronicle.
comment posted at 11:45 AM on Dec-14-02

Harry Kissinger steps down as 9-11 investigation leader. Now lets get someone in there that isn't wanted for war crimes.
comment posted at 9:14 AM on Dec-14-02

I found no post related to the kid in Bellbrook Ohio being persecuted by his classmates, the high school Principal, and then the Secret Service for wearing a "NOT MY PRESIDENT" T-shirt. The persecution began when he drew crosshairs on the forehead. You can support irony by buying one for $13.00 at Fat Wreck Chords.---I only post it now, three days later, as I see in my weblog's referer log that it's topical enough that that's how a few people found my site.
comment posted at 9:48 AM on Dec-14-02

Music CD Settlement website now available. You'll get between $5 and $20 back, unless more than 13MM people respond, in which case the $67MM pool goes to charity.
comment posted at 9:51 AM on Dec-14-02

Real cash in a virtual world - a little piece from New Scientist about a new type of massive multiplayer game where you convert real cash in to virtual, and then actually buy things you need to survive in that world.
comment posted at 5:37 PM on Dec-13-02

Mommy, where do cubicles come from? Ever watch old movies, and feel a deep pang of resentment and envy at the open, spacious offices depicted therein? What ever happened to the human workplace? The ugly truth is finally revealed: it's all Herman Miller's fault. The introduction of their Action Office system in the late 1950s was largely responsible for the office cubicle as we know it today. While things are obviously not as bad as they could be, people could at least learn how to behave themselves in the modern cube-farm.
comment posted at 4:07 PM on Dec-10-02
comment posted at 4:10 PM on Dec-10-02

CAPTCHA is the Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. The test promises to keep online polls honest, block search engine bots, and end spam as we know it. The program generates and grades tests that (1) most humans can pass and (2) current computer programs can't pass. For example, humans can read distorted text but current computer programs can't. To see if you're human or not, take a Captcha test yourself here. To read more check out this nytimes article.
comment posted at 1:33 PM on Dec-10-02
comment posted at 3:55 PM on Dec-10-02

17 million Latin American people out of work Claimed to be the highest level since 1980. How much longer, or how many more, until nations revert to Che Guevarra or Pinochet and the US to the CIA and intervention? Will history repeat itself, or has history paved the way for an alternative outcome?
comment posted at 12:18 PM on Dec-10-02
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comment posted at 3:58 PM on Dec-10-02

So that's why the economy is so bad. The USPS is looking for $65 million dollars worth of white mail postal tubs. If you work in an office or deal with a mailroom, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The penalty for not coughing them up? 3 years imprisonment and a $1000 fine. (I read it on the side of one of the boxes I have by my desk).
comment posted at 1:14 PM on Dec-10-02
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comment posted at 3:59 PM on Dec-10-02

Should art be destroyed? Burned, perhaps? David Mach sculpts heads from live matches of different colors, then burns the matchhead. Fascinating movies included. (via SeattleFools newsletter)
comment posted at 1:22 PM on Dec-10-02

Everything you ever wanted to know about pimping but were afraid to ask "Money is a motivator. Pimping is perfect for a down-and-out freelance writer. Moreover, I do love danger. Not too much danger though, just enough to keep the nerves popping." A ripping yarn - a San Fransisco treat o< ! (via brutal.com).
comment posted at 8:03 PM on Dec-9-02

The Dubya Doll is making its way through commercial America. With 17 slogans and phrases, such as "We will continue putting food on your family." what red-blooded American wouldn't want one?

"My Daddy was President you know." not included.
comment posted at 5:30 PM on Dec-9-02

Do you have problems finding the cheapest flight? Well so do computers.
Carl de Marcken, the man who created the engine behind Orbitz and other travel search engines posits that finding the cheapest fare from one point to another is a NP-Hard problem. Even if you fix the specific route between destinations there can be as many as 10³⁶ combinations.
comment posted at 4:45 PM on Dec-9-02
comment posted at 2:20 PM on Dec-10-02

oh look. it's chris rock impersonator, chris tucker, up to his old tricks again. ha ha... such a kidder that guy.
comment posted at 5:37 PM on Dec-9-02
comment posted at 8:27 PM on Dec-9-02

Bullets Frozen in Mid-Impact. This may have been posted before, but I couldn't find it; it's a series of photographs of bullets hitting objects, taken with a VERY high speed camera, frozen in mid-impact. This is NOT, for the record, an invitation to discuss your POV on gun control.
comment posted at 4:20 PM on Dec-9-02
comment posted at 12:15 PM on Dec-10-02

This is the text of a painting called "Arsewoman in Wonderland," shortlisted for the UK's Turner Prize 2002. Fiona Banner's painting consists entirely of a textual narration of a porn film; specifically, a porn film dedicated to an extended exploration of anal sex, with an "Alice in Wonderland" theme. (Apparently, dwarves are also involved.) The Turner, which comes with a £20,000 purse, ostensibly recognizes the best British art. Now, I love a good conceptual dig as much as the next guy, but does Banner's painting really challenge the way we "compartmentalise private and public behaviour," let alone represent the best the British art world has to offer?
comment posted at 8:17 PM on Dec-9-02