Wired profiles pediatrician Paul Offit, co-creator of the RotaTeq rotavirus vaccine and a primary target of the anti-vaccination movement. Dr. Offit published a book,“Autism’s False Prophets” in 2008 but didn't tour, because he had received too many death threats. [more inside]
posted by zarq on Oct 28, 2009 - 136 comments

Fear of Cycling, an essay in five parts: introduction, constructing fear of cycling, helmet promotion campaigns, new cycling spaces, making cycling strange.
posted by parudox on Oct 5, 2009 - 204 comments

Is Doctor Who too scary for kids? Parents surveyed by TheBabyWebsite seem to think so. But is being scared a good thing? (via io9)
posted by Artw on May 15, 2009 - 120 comments

From the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody - This is the report in its entirety. [pdf]

From Mark Danner: US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites and The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means [more inside]
posted by y2karl on Apr 8, 2009 - 59 comments

Michael Mararian creates pen and ink drawings of mischievously macabre babies and children. Meet the dark and wicked little demons in his current exhibit or explore the world of childhood terrors in his phobias, foibles and fiends collection (scroll down a few) where humor and horror collide.
posted by madamjujujive on Dec 14, 2008 - 12 comments

Bunkers have a wide variety of uses in today's world. They're not all used by those fearful of a terrorist attack. They are also used to protect from natural disasters and to hide grow-ops. George's got one. Tom too. You can build you own, or have someone do it for you. The Ark Two Shelter is located just outside of Toronto. Tours of bunkers are also available. Be prepared. Previously.
posted by gman on Nov 6, 2008 - 13 comments

The geography of fear. Children map the no-go areas that blight their lives.
posted by WPW on Oct 14, 2008 - 30 comments

The Politics of Fear: Some Political Views May be Related to Physiology video, audio [more inside]
posted by XMLicious on Sep 21, 2008 - 38 comments

The Clarion Fund has been placing DVD advertisements in newspapers. That, in itself is not terribly new. What's new is that they are advertising fear and propaganda, and they're only targeting swing states. [more inside]
posted by tomierna on Sep 18, 2008 - 37 comments

The fire you kindle for your enemy often burns yourself more than them. For want of water, a house burns down. The hydrants were off. Why? Well to prevent terrorism, obviously.
posted by bitmage on Sep 12, 2008 - 76 comments

Criminal Searches - Making you feel safer or increasing your fear? [more inside]
posted by tellurian on Jul 24, 2008 - 44 comments

Goodbye alt.* Andrew Cuomo claimed that his office found child porn on 88 newsgroups--out of roughly 100,000 newsgroups that exist. In a press release, he took credit for [Verizon's] blunderbuss-style newsgroup removal by saying: "We are attacking this problem by working with Internet service providers...I commend the companies that have stepped up today to embrace a new standard of responsibility, which should serve as a model for the entire industry." Verizon eliminates the entire alt. subset of usenet. Today, the alt.* hierarchy is by far the most populous on Usenet.
posted by caddis on Jun 12, 2008 - 143 comments

Kindertrauma is about the movies, books, and toys that scared you when you were a kid. It’s also about kids in scary movies, both as heroes and villains. And everything else that’s traumatic to a tyke! [more inside]
posted by stinkycheese on Jun 12, 2008 - 64 comments

"While her six brothers and sisters messed around in the mire, she stayed on the edge shaking. It is thought she might have mysophobia - a fear of dirt." This little piggy is afraid of the mud. Cuteness ahoy.
posted by yeti on Jun 11, 2008 - 43 comments

Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone (via). More From America's Worst Mom: 9-Year-Old On The Subway, Continued. [more inside]
posted by blasdelf on Apr 11, 2008 - 201 comments

20 percent of academics surveyed by Nature are abusing neuroenhancers.
Calling R.U. Sirius...
posted by mecran01 on Apr 10, 2008 - 78 comments

Slum (youtube: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Dwellers (mp3): how the other billion lives.
posted by hadjiboy on Feb 28, 2008 - 60 comments

Politics of Hate: What's happening to the city of Mumbai
posted by hadjiboy on Feb 13, 2008 - 14 comments

A mouse has been genetically engineered to no longer fear cats. Surely this is now only a matter of time. [more inside]
posted by leibniz on Nov 8, 2007 - 29 comments

"How do you deal with fear? Is it safer for them if I act or stay quiet? I don't want to get on a list."
posted by orthogonality on Oct 26, 2007 - 66 comments

Risking all: the Burmese jokers who laugh in the face of danger. In Burma (Myanmar), comedians are targets in the junta's war on words. [Via BB.] [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Oct 17, 2007 - 23 comments

Hello! It can be hard to say. [Previously] Apparently it is treatable.
posted by St Urbain's Horseman on Sep 21, 2007 - 13 comments

Avoiding Kids: How Men Cope With Being Cast as Predators These days, if Rian Romoli accidentally bumps into a child, he quickly raises his hands above his shoulders. "I don't want to give even the slightest indication that any inadvertent touching occurred," says Mr. Romoli, an economist in La Cañada Flintridge, Calif. Previous article by same author.
posted by agregoli on Sep 13, 2007 - 247 comments

Death Grip: How Political Psychology Explains Bush's Ghastly Success. Interesting article on the work of psychologists Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, and Tom Pyszczynski. [Via Disinformation.]
posted by homunculus on Aug 29, 2007 - 68 comments

The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its citizens then other industrialized nations and that percentage has been increasing even as the crime rate declines. Glen Loury discusses this seemingly odd phenomena and speculates as to the cause. Don't skip the ruminations on perceptions of race and welfare deep in the article. Want to crunch some numbers yourself? US crime statistics, US prison statistics, international prison statistics. Previously on metafilter.
posted by shothotbot on Aug 8, 2007 - 82 comments

1909      >      1920
One of the Guys
When It Was OK to Show Affection
Seeing Males Together: Brokeback Mountain and Picturing Men
posted by y2karl on Mar 17, 2007 - 97 comments

Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision 1978 BBC Omnibus documentary (Google Video)
posted by Elmore on Feb 14, 2007 - 10 comments

Google Demonstrates Capabilities of Space Based Weapon on 50m Insect Menacing German Town All you folks saying Google wasn't out to take over the world, where are your arguments now? Google now has the capability to destroy enormous mutant bugs from space.
posted by fenriq on Jan 5, 2007 - 23 comments

Scared of Santa (via)
posted by gottabefunky on Dec 5, 2006 - 21 comments

About as Subtle as a Terror Attack. We all know Bush doesn't do nuance. Well, apparently the GOP doesn't either, especially not in close midterm elections. The following is a (presumably web-only) video:

A ticking sound reminiscent of a bomb timer grows progressively louder until the last repeated phrase ("What is yet to come will be even greater") is shown, followed by the sound of a beating heart, fleeting images of explosions and terrorists in training, and ending with the message "These Are The Stakes. Vote Nov. 7."

The video can be found here.
posted by rzklkng on Oct 20, 2006 - 91 comments

Had he not died in 1971, Tor Johnson would be 103 today. Who could forget his face? Or that it makes a great mask? Don't we often think back fondly on his remarkable filmography? He made a great partner for Bela Lugosi! Who could forget that he tended to break toilet seats when he sat on them, and so would often steal them?
posted by Astro Zombie on Oct 19, 2006 - 12 comments

Plane/Helicopter Crashes into NYC high rise. ???
posted by craniac on Oct 11, 2006 - 226 comments

Another great Google video. Before "Fear of Girls," the guys from Sleepy Eye, MN made a short film for a 48 hour film project called "Paper Hearts."
posted by a47danger on Apr 11, 2006 - 17 comments

"He was someone who acted out our psyches ... He somehow got into the shadows inside our bodies; he was able to nail down some of our secret fears and put them on-screen... the history of Lon Chaney is the history of unrequited loves. He brings that part of you out into the open, because you fear that you are not loved, you fear that you never will be loved, you fear there is some part of you that's grotesque, that the world will turn away from."
A Valentine for Lon Chaney, the Man of a Thousand Faces. (BugMeNot for the first link; more inside)
posted by matteo on Feb 18, 2006 - 14 comments

So I'm watching this cute little movie trailer . . . and I'm stunned by a quote in the middle of it: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." — Nelson Mandela. Or was it Marianne Williamson? Or does it really matter?
posted by spock on Feb 3, 2006 - 12 comments

Scientists find fear gene; can an army of [literally] fearless soldiers be far away? (Plus some good things, too.)
posted by ryanhealy on Nov 17, 2005 - 40 comments

I have always viewed those large home improvement warehouse stores as dangerous places, but not exactly for this reason. Whew.
posted by terrier319 on Nov 3, 2005 - 34 comments

Creating A Climate for Cross Burnings --the recent reappearance of this horrifying relic of the bad old days of the South, supposedly gone, have many wondering. Now where do you think small-change bigots would get the idea that public expressions of racism and intolerance are ok?
posted by amberglow on May 28, 2005 - 105 comments

Hunter S. Thompson's ashes WILL be blasted from a cannon mounted inside a 53-foot-high sculpture of the journalist's "gonzo fist" emblem. You can see Hunter & Ralph Steadman plan these details in the BBC documentary Fear & Loathing in Gonzovision.
posted by helvetica on Apr 5, 2005 - 22 comments

Leaderless resistance today. An essay by Simson Garfinkel -- on network analysis and headless chickens. This seems a little odd to me, what we call al-qaeda could fit in with a leaderless resistance model.
posted by gsb on Dec 7, 2004 - 12 comments

The Childhood Goat Truama Foundation. All your childhood carpinae-based nightmares are belong to them. (just a brief reprieve from election coverage - via the ultimate insult)
posted by Ufez Jones on Nov 2, 2004 - 12 comments

Terror warnings boost Bush's approval ratings. Cornell sociologist Robb Willard has used a time-series regression analysis to show that a terror alert by the US government predicts an increase in Bush's approval ratings, even on topics unrelated to security. It's often been claimed that the Bush administration manipulates terror alerts for political gain — does this finding make those claims more plausible?
posted by myeviltwin on Oct 7, 2004 - 9 comments

Trains vs. Airplanes. Amtrak has reported record ridership levels for the Thanksgiving season. But the success of the rails is indebted to post 9/11 air-travel anxiety. Maybe, it would be better for travelers to stop fearing hijackings and resume flying planes instead of riding intercity trains out of fear. On the other hand, it could be a good thing that rail travel is getting a second look after years of decline.
posted by gregb1007 on Dec 3, 2003 - 51 comments

Do you have Arachibutyrophobia? Or some other kind of phobia? All kinds of fear from A to Z Which is your favorite?
posted by bluno on Dec 2, 2003 - 7 comments

“We fear the government using the current climate of fear and uncertainty about the future as a means to allow itself sweeping powers without an appropriate consideration of proportionality" ......no-go zones ........ power to ban peaceful protest ...... destroy private property without compensation ........prepare for the introduction of compulsory identity cards .... The climate seems to be changing.
posted by JohnR on Nov 26, 2003 - 3 comments

Oneirogmophobia ...and you though you had problems.
posted by boost ventilator on Nov 16, 2003 - 25 comments

All US Air Passengers to be Profiled, and 1% Will be Banned from Boarding. In the most aggressive -- and, some say, invasive -- step yet, the federal government and the airlines will phase in a computer system next year to measure the risk posed by every passenger on every flight in the United States. Up to 8 percent of passengers who board flights will be coded "yellow" and pulled for additional screening. An estimated 1 to 2 percent will be labeled "red" and will be prohibited from boarding. These passengers also will face police questioning and may be arrested. [More Inside....]
posted by Dunvegan on Sep 9, 2003 - 97 comments

Visit Madison, Indiana. Why? We're not New York City! Sure you can be opportunistic about selling gas masks if you're an internet entrepreneur, but what if you're a small town in Indiana and you want to cash in on fear of terrorism. Why, tout what you don't have, of course. "A safe place to visit...When you visit Madison you will discover that we have no tall buildings to fear, no nuclear power plants, airports or anything anyone would want to blow up."
posted by m@ on Aug 15, 2003 - 16 comments

Buddhism tames the amygdala Covered recently on Metafilter (here), new research at the University of California San Francisco Medical Centre ( into the "Happy Buddhist" phenomenon ) shows that Buddhist meditation techniques "can tame the amygdala, an area of the brain which is the hub of fear memory." [BBC] -Is this the Rx for a nation of Americans gripped by fear? Do Christianity, Islam or Judaism have effective techniques to tame the amygdala too?
posted by troutfishing on May 22, 2003 - 48 comments

PATRIOT forever. Toppling one regime to build another, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and a Republican coalition are pushing legislation to make the PATRIOT Act permanent. It's daylight forever.
posted by four panels on Apr 9, 2003 - 47 comments