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For the past few years, networks have been digitally inserting ads and product placements for new products into old reruns.
comment posted at 1:34 PM on Jul-6-11

"You know, I don't really know how else to explain how this makes me incredibly uncomfortable, but I'll just sort of lay it out that I was a single woman, you know, in a foreign country, at 4 AM, in a hotel elevator, with you, just you, and - don't invite me back to your hotel room right after I finish talking about how it creeps me out and makes me uncomfortable when men sexualize me in that manner..." Rebecca Watson, founder of Skepchick, spoke in Dublin at the World Atheist Convention a month ago (video). Afterwards, in a video post (relevant part starts at about 2:30), she discussed an incident that occurred there. She received some dismissive responses. PZ Myers is supportive. Richard Dawkins is dismissive. Dawkins is called out. PZ Myers weighs in again. Dawkins still doesn't get it.
comment posted at 12:08 PM on Jul-5-11

People argue just to win, assert researchers. Rationality may have evolved simply to let people feel triumphant; internet inevitable.
comment posted at 12:56 PM on Jun-14-11

"Mother Jones [and, later, other media outlets] requested [Sarah] Palin's gubernatorial emails during the 2008 election. Almost three years later, the wait is over. ... Today, at [1:00 pm ET] in Juneau, the state of Alaska is scheduled to release 24,199 pages of emails Sarah Palin sent and received during her half-term as governor of the Last Frontier. State workers will distribute six-box sets and hand trucks (which must be returned) to representatives of a dozen or so media outfits" "Volunteers from the League of Women Voters and the Retired Public Employees of Alaska will be at Juneau's Centennial Hall convention center ... look[ing] for any significant or interesting emails, stick a post-it note on the page, and pass them to journalists, who also will be reading through the 24,000 pages. Exact copies of the best of those emails will be posted online immediately. ... In the same room ... a second set of the documents will be scanned for msnbc.com by Crivella West, an analytics and investigative-research company from Pittsburgh, returning the records to their original electronic form, allowing anyone anywhere to join in the crowdsourcing. That free, public, searchable archive will go online, sometime later on Friday, at http://​palinemail.​msnbc.msn.com." "The Washington Post is looking for '100 organized and diligent readers' to work with reporters to 'analyze, contextualize, and research the emails.' The New York Times is employing a similar system.'"*
comment posted at 10:54 AM on Jun-10-11

On Tuesday morning, Stockton, California resident Kenneth Wright's door was forcibly removed from his home at 6:00 AM by a SWAT Team serving a federal warrant for his estranged ex-wife. "According to Wright, officers also woke his three young children, ages 3, 7, and 11, and put them in a Stockton police patrol car with him." Wright has no prior criminal record and claims he had no reason to believe he was the target of any criminal investigation. Initially, local news reports indicated that Wright's ex-wife had been targeted in the raid for being in default on her college loans, but the Department of Education has denied this claim, acknowledging that it requested the search, but maintaining that the request was made as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into possible college loan fraud and not simply due to a college loan default.
comment posted at 2:11 PM on Jun-8-11

Last week, a crotch shot of a clothed male erection was posted to the twitter account of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D - N.Y.). Weiner claimed his account was hacked, but wouldn't confirm or deny that he was the person in the pic. Now, with a new shirtless photo surfacing, Wiener has held a press conference admitting to the original pic.
comment posted at 2:49 PM on Jun-6-11

An easy way to have sex without having to communicate. The Forty Beads method, invented by sex therapist Carolyn Evans, relies on tokens that allow a husband to give his wife a bead (by putting it in her "beadcatcher") when he's "in the mood," with a 24-hour deadline for "redemption." (Evans also says the roles can be reversed for those low-libido husbands/high-libido wives).
comment posted at 9:24 AM on Jun-6-11

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, "the central figure in the tumultuous national drama surrounding assisted suicide," died today at age 83.
comment posted at 7:54 AM on Jun-3-11

According to Financial Blog TooMuch, a new white paper from AdAge claims that the era of "Mass Affluence is over". This means that because the middle-class no longer have the dominent share of disposable income that marketing directly to the super-rich is the future of advertising. This means that if you're over 35 and make $100,000 to $200,000, Madison Avenue no longer really cares about you.

Apparently no one in America really realised what it meant that "The top 10 percent of American households.. now account for nearly half of all consumer spending, and a disproportionate share of that spending comes from the top 10’s upper reaches."

It reminds me of that Steinbeck quote, that 'Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.'
comment posted at 2:52 PM on Jun-1-11

It might be instructive to ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush's compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic (after proper burial rites, of course). Uncontroversially, he is not a “suspect” but the “decider” who gave the orders to invade Iraq -- that is, to commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: in Iraq, the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country and the national heritage, and the murderous sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region. Equally uncontroversially, these crimes vastly exceed anything attributed to bin Laden.

There is Much More to Say by Noam Chomsky.
comment posted at 10:36 AM on May-24-11

"This is an exploration of your brain's affective response system. Nonverbal, emotional reactions to shape tableau will target the portion of your brain that is intuitive and pre-lingual. The associated questions should be answered without tying theses shapes to any narrative or storyline.... There are 20 questions. Your answers will be tabulated at the end and your responses measured against our reference group. Take the test." [warning: blinky]
comment posted at 12:44 PM on Apr-6-11

Last year, the unofficial Dean of the White House Press Corps, Helen Thomas, spoke about the State of Israel on camera. (Previously) Her replies: "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," and that the Jews "can go home" to "Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else," sparked media outrage, prompted her to issue an apology and retire. After months of being out of the the public spotlight, she has now given her first long-form interview, which will appear in the April issue of Playboy Magazine. In it, she explains what she meant, tells us how she would like to be remembered and expands upon her positions regarding Israel, Jewish political influence, Presidents Bush and Obama, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
comment posted at 2:20 PM on Mar-22-11

Michigan State University builds a prototype that would replace the internal combustion engine in automobiles. The wave disk engine runs on shockwaves, and would emit 90% less carbon dioxide, run at 3.5 times greater fuel efficiency, and weigh about 1,000 pounds less than a combustion engine system in a typical automobile.
comment posted at 12:54 PM on Mar-17-11

Republicans remove fiscal measures of Wisconsin's controversial budget repair bill, no longer need quorum denied to them by the 14 AWOL Senate Democrats. After seven minutes and over the objections of the Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, the bill is revised and accepted. The bill passes in the Senate 18-1. Previously. Before that Before even that.
comment posted at 8:48 AM on Mar-10-11

Oscars take a pass on people of color.
comment posted at 8:57 AM on Jan-27-11

Twenty-five years after hitting the airwaves, the Dire Straits hit "Money For Nothing" has been banned from Canadian radio. The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council decision is here.
comment posted at 9:29 AM on Jan-13-11

The radical human rights and subversive hacking group known only as Anonymous has struck again. In a retaliatory campaign dubbed Operation Avenge Assange, the group is conducting distributed denial-of-service attacks against perceived opponents of Wikileaks. PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, the Swedish prosecutor's office, and even Senator Joe Lieberman are among the targeted.

In the face of this onslaught PayPal has partially capitulated: agreeing to release funds from the Wikileaks account.
comment posted at 9:28 AM on Dec-9-10

Julian Assange has been arrested after turning himself in in london. He has been refused bail by the court and has been remanded to custody until at least the 14th of December. Assange is wanted for questioning in Sweden on charges that he committed an offense called "Sex by surprise." He has vowed to fight extradition.
comment posted at 8:37 AM on Dec-7-10

"Every year my wife and I throw a party and when I send out the photos I add famous people."
comment posted at 9:11 AM on Dec-2-10

OK, was it one of you guys? An unknown somebody apparently launched a missile in LA last night. It wasn't me. Ideas on who did it or how we can figure out who did it?
comment posted at 1:43 PM on Nov-9-10

Matthew Weigman, a fat, blind kid, started phone swatting when he was 15. Three years later, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. His exploits include trying to initiate phone sex with Lindsey Lohan, sending swat teams to people's homes and gathering confidential information from Verizon and AT&T.
comment posted at 10:53 AM on Aug-25-09

"Even though my glory years of competitive spelling are long past, some things stay with a person. As I explore, I can't help but notice signs which contain spelling errors. I capture them for posterity with my handy digital camera and present them here for our collective education and entertainment." Thirty-two pages of misspelled signs in the New York metropolitan area -- each one lovingly annotated.
comment posted at 9:25 AM on Aug-11-09

According to the Wall Street Journal, coffee shops in New York are starting to cut back on laptops -- by reducing WiFi privileges, removing outlets, or banning the machines outright. This article has spawned a vast number of spin-off pieces and conversations across the Web.
comment posted at 1:02 PM on Aug-7-09

The director of Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and, as Best Week Ever puts it, every other good movie from 1983-1993, has died of a heart attack in NY. Original report from TMZ, but confirmed by his publicist on CNN's homepage.
comment posted at 2:20 PM on Aug-6-09

Is Barack Obama An American Citizen? "...because Obama’s claim to American citizenship is only supported by evidence and logic, he must not be an American citizen."
comment posted at 2:50 PM on Jul-29-09

Thirty years ago today was the infamous "Disco Demolition Night" at Chicago's Comiskey Park. It didn't go exactly as planned: "In the warm air that night, baseball’s routine and soothing sounds mixed with the tribal cadence of off-color chanting, the drifting scent of marijuana and the sight of vinyl records descending through the summer dusk like Frisbees." It wasn't the first time a 70s baseball promotion went astray. Considered by some "the worst idea ever," "Ten Cent Beer Night" at Cleveland Municipal Stadium five years earlier ended when "a large number of intoxicated fans – some armed with knives, chains, and portions of stadium seats that they had torn apart – surged onto the field, and others hurled bottles from the stands." (Previously on MeFi)
comment posted at 7:06 AM on Jul-13-09
comment posted at 9:30 AM on Jul-13-09

"Yes, I have four children. Four children with whom I spend a good part of every day: bathing them, combing their hair, sitting with them while they do their homework, holding them while they weep their tragic tears. But I'm not in love with any of them. I am in love with my husband."
comment posted at 11:48 AM on May-27-09
comment posted at 11:58 AM on May-27-09

So You Think You Can Dance, the American dance-based reality show with a very high viewership (and more than 10 country-specific spin-offs) has a minor controversy brewing in their fifth season: one of the judges, Nigel Lythgoe, commented "I think you'd probably alienate a lot of our audience" after watching a straight/gay male ballroom dancing couple. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) issued a call to action to contact FOX and Lythgoe. Lythgoe tweeted more of his thoughts, but then went on to apologise for all his comments. Additionally, FOX issued a comment on how auditioners and contestants are reviewed. But none of this addresses the role of gender in dancing, though Lythgoe has clarified his thoughts before: that men "need to be very strong. Dancing is role-playing most of the time. And you need to be strong and lift girls. You need to look stronger than the girl you’re dancing with." Specific roles are assigned by gender in many styles of dance, including Square dancing, Tango, Poi, Haka, and many others. But there are opportunities for gender-role free dancing, as with the Lavender Country and Folk Dancers and other such groups.
comment posted at 11:10 AM on May-24-09

Acting on criticisms and pressure from law enforcement, Craigslist has announced it will shut down its "erotic services" category in the U.S. Reaction is mixed and some are suggesting that online prostitution will simply find a new name.
comment posted at 1:50 PM on May-14-09

Over a thousand photos from Fallsburg High School, 1974-1978. Bonus: non-annoying interface. (via)
comment posted at 7:08 AM on May-7-09

The World Health Organization, which had recently warned of the danger of swine flu, has now raised the pandemic threat level to 5, indicating a pandemic is "imminent". The WHO chief was quoted as saying "all of humanity" is threatened by the virus
comment posted at 2:32 PM on Apr-29-09

The American Hologram We suffer under a mass national hallucination. Americans, regardless of income or social position, now live in a culture entirely perceived inside a self-referential media hologram of a nation and world that does not exist. Our national reality is staged and held together by media, chiefly movie and television images. We live in a “theater state.”
comment posted at 11:37 AM on Apr-23-09

"The editor's guidelines are as follows: First, remember the reader, and respect demands that we should not casually use words that are likely to offend. Second, use such words only when absolutely necessary to the facts of a piece, or to portray a character in an article; there is almost never a case in which we need to use a swearword outside direct quotes. Third, the stronger the swearword, the harder we ought to think about using it.Finally, never use asterisks, which are just a cop-out." - Swearing in The Guardian: A chart
comment posted at 12:23 PM on Apr-3-09

Iraqi shoe-thrower sentenced to three years in jail. Can an internet campaign for his release be far behind?
comment posted at 9:01 AM on Mar-12-09

A Uniter, Not A Divider - Butterfly Ballot - Recount - Chinese Fighter Pilot - Bushism - New American Century - Neocons - Tax Cuts - Energy Task Force - Looked In His Eyes And Saw His Soul - No Child Left Behind - My Pet Goat - 9/11 - Ground Zero - Undisclosed Location - Osama Bin Laden - Global War On Terror - Anthrax - PATRIOT Act - With Us Or Against Us - Mullah Omar - Smoke 'Em Out - Enron - Pretzel - Guantanamo - Bali - WMD - Chemical Ali - Nucular - Mushroom Cloud - Yellowcake - Curveball - Unknown Unknowns - Cakewalk - Coalition Of The Willing - Freedom Fries - Shock And Awe - Private Jessica Lynch - Mission Accomplished - No-Bid - Insurgents - Bring It On - Blackwater - Fallujah - Shake 'N Bake - Abu Ghraib - IED - Islamofascism - Eurabia - Quagmire - Madrid - Valerie Plame - Turd Blossom - Haditha - SWIFT Boat - Political Capital - Terri Schiavo - London - Jeff Gannon - Wiretapping - Surge - Katrina - An Inconvenient Truth - Stephen Colbert - Subprime - Yes We Can - CDS - South Ossetia - Hockey Mom - Joe the Plumber - Socialist - Credit Crunch - Domestic Terrorist - Bailout
comment posted at 2:40 PM on Dec-1-08

A Thanksgiving treat from Lileks. The Gobbler may be the most ill conceived, worst designed hotel to ever grace the American landscape. I sure wish I could have visited there.
comment posted at 9:34 AM on Nov-27-08

A man -- Christopher Handler -- has been arrested in Iowa for possession of explicit yaoi and lolicon manga.
comment posted at 2:39 PM on Nov-25-08

Andrew Ross Sorkin takes apart GM piece by piece.
comment posted at 11:00 AM on Nov-18-08

Pollan for Agriculture Secretary? It has been suggested (and previously) that Michael Pollan, author of Second Nature, The Omnivore's Dilemma, might make a good Secretary of Agriculture. This would be a dramatic departure for an office that has a decades-long history of steering US agriculture policy to the advantage of the largest agribusiness corporations. Especially given Obama's potential connections to Big Corn, how silly would we be to anticipate real change in US ag policy, relevant as it may be to the economic, energy, climate, and national security issues he campaigned on? Via the Brian Lehrer Show.
comment posted at 12:01 PM on Nov-17-08

Back in 1972, there was a fellow who had a novel idea for a porno flick. But when his producer objected to the movie's title, fearing no one would understand it, Gerard Damiano reassured him: "Don't worry, "Deep Throat will become a household word." And indeed it did. Now, 36 years after the infamous and influential film's release, director Gerard Damiano, aka Jerry Gerard, has gone on to that deep, deep throat in the sky.
comment posted at 7:26 AM on Oct-30-08

“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

The Atheist Bus Campaign rolls out today in London.
comment posted at 7:32 AM on Oct-21-08
comment posted at 7:50 AM on Oct-21-08

Caught on Video: Stealing Obama Sign , and again, and again, and again, and this crazy lady, here, here, and here.! WTF . . . over.
comment posted at 6:48 AM on Oct-20-08
comment posted at 9:00 AM on Oct-20-08

Never Say Die: Why We Can't Imagine Death. Why do we wonder where our mind goes when the body is dead? Shouldn’t it be obvious that the mind is dead, too? Examining self-consciousness and mortality.
comment posted at 6:47 AM on Oct-17-08
comment posted at 6:54 AM on Oct-17-08
comment posted at 8:40 AM on Oct-17-08

Palin as President
comment posted at 12:46 PM on Oct-15-08