Richard Dawkins was recently invited to speak at the University of Oklahoma’s Darwin 2009 series of lectures on March 6th, 2009. The speech to be entitled "The Purpose of Purpose" quickly grew in popularity and even had to be moved to a larger venue to accommodate the quickly increasing crowd. Of course, word eventually reached Todd Thompson. Friction ensues. [more inside]
posted by 5imian on Apr 3, 2009 - 103 comments

YouTube in partnership with The Davos Forum has established a great "contest" although I don't think of it like that. YouTubers are asked to submit a video answering the question "What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?" I thought a long time about the question, and then, after approaching Mayor Gavin Newsom to be in the video, then getting caught up against deadlines, I had the answer: to end racism around the World. Here's the video. Here's Emma Thompson's response.
posted by nickyskye on Jan 27, 2008 - 35 comments

It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi.... Mr. B has risen beyond his real abilities.... His code is not his own; it is that of his class–no worse, no better, He fits easily into whatever pattern is successful. That is his sole measure of value–success. Nazism as a minority movement would not attract him. As a movement likely to attain power, it would.... Mr. G is a very intellectual young man who was an infant prodigy.... Mr. G will never be a Nazi,... [h]e will certainly be able, however, fully to explain and apologize for Nazism if it ever comes along.

"Who goes Nazi?" via sott.net, with added context. [more inside]
posted by orthogonality on Jan 24, 2008 - 76 comments

Singer/songwriter and guitarist extraordinaire Richard Thompson: songs of bittersweet longing, sublime eloquence, dark exuberance and ominous allusion. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on Nov 24, 2007 - 37 comments

"I want those two minutes of my life back." Musique concrète Fred Thompson-style -- a merciless videohack of the candidate's performance at the GOP debate on MSNBC, October 9, 2007. While almost anyone can be made to look foolish edited this way, not everyone was impressed by Thompson's unedited presence at the debate, his TV debut as a presidential contender. Some believe, however, that the former Law and Order D.A. is just the man to "restore the Republican Party to Reagan's default settings."
posted by digaman on Oct 12, 2007 - 69 comments

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

"Never in the history of gaming has a judge ever asked to review a game before its release — and that is going to happen here tomorrow.” Judge Friedman asks Take-Two to produce a final copy of Bully, while Wal-Mart is poised to release the game on Tuesday. Everyone's favorite game censor Jack Thompson (discussed here, and here) couldn't be happier, meanwhile those who've played it say it's without blood or gore and generally innocent.
To add more twists to this plot, the employee picked by Take-Two that will play almost 100 hours of the game for the judge might be unable to make the flight to Miami because of the earlier-mentioned crash of a helicopter plane into a manhattan high-rise
posted by revmitcz on Oct 11, 2006 - 31 comments

So much has been said about Jack Thompson the anti-video game crusader. But now someone has called out his video game challenge hoping to win $10,000 (for charity) making, "a game so gory, so brutal, so devoid of logic and morals that it would make Postal 2 seem like Ms. Pacman. A game so terrible, so repulsive, that a 60-year old serial killer squeezed out his first tear in 40 years when he played the beta. The BETA.". I know they have won my heart *sniff*
posted by BrodieShadeTree on Feb 4, 2006 - 22 comments

Jack Thompson (1992 ACLU Censor of the Year) is an outspoken critic of violent video games. (Previously on...44150 and 44309) His recent "A Modest Video Game Proposal" offers $10,000 to the first game company which "creates, manufactures, and sells" a video game with the (fictional) premise of a father wreaking horrible vengeance on the video game companies whose twisted creations drove his son to bloody murder. More info (@wikipedia)
posted by BlackLeotardFront on Oct 12, 2005 - 32 comments

Total chaos, no way to see the race, not even the track...nobody cares. Big lines at the outdoor betting windows, then stand back to watch winning numbers flash on the big board, like a giant bingo game.

Old blacks arguing about bets; "Hold on there, I'll handle this" (waving pint of whiskey, fistful of dollar bills); girl riding piggyback, T-shirt says, "Stolen from Fort Lauderdale Jail." Thousands of teen-agers, group singing "Let the Sun Shine In," ten soldiers guarding the American flag and a huge fat drunk wearing a blue football jersey (No. 80) reeling around with quart of beer in hand.

No booze sold out here, too dangerous...no bathrooms either. Muscle Beach...Woodstock...many cops with riot sticks, but no sign of a riot. Far across the track the clubhouse looks like a postcard from the Kentucky Derby.
posted by airguitar on May 6, 2005 - 25 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

Break out your tinfoil hats for the conspiracy du jour: It seems just before Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide, he was working on a piece about the WTC attack. It also seems he hinted that the Bush administration was somehow involved . He was talking to his wife on the phone when he died, yet she heard no gunshot. Was it suicide, or murder?
posted by zardoz on Mar 3, 2005 - 51 comments

Funeral Arrangements: Shot out of a Cannon “The optimal, best-case scenario is the ashes will be shot out of a cannon,” ... Other arrangements were pending.

Talk about a funeral that I am going to hate missing...
posted by lilboo on Feb 23, 2005 - 36 comments

Colin Thompson writes and draws children's picture books. These books are a sheer joy to read, both for adults and children, as they feature an interesting storyline and fantastically detailed pictures. You can buy his prints from his site or you could take the plunge and buy this one for U$4800.
posted by ashbury on Apr 14, 2003 - 6 comments

Hunter S. Thompson's Advice to Bush: Quit! Political commentator, sports enthusiast and all around American treasure lets fly. When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.
posted by Ty Webb on Sep 13, 2002 - 40 comments

The Parole Board has decided to release the two murderers of James Bulger. They have made their decision, lets respect it.
posted by twistedonion on Jun 22, 2001 - 25 comments

Don't make Hunter mad. Hunter S. Thompson doesn't think the production company that optioned The Rum Diaries is doing a very good job. And he tells them. Man, does he tell them.
posted by cfj on Mar 10, 2001 - 14 comments