MetaFilter

Built for the Kill. No Halloween costume? How about going as a chameleon? deconstructing the world's deadliest killers. A game by World Archipelago for National Geographic Channel Europe. Guide your Namid chameleon, barn owl, American alligator, grassland cheetah, and Komoto dragon around the screen using the cursor keys. Your stealth and power need to be up to capture prey or they will escape. Finally, guide your Orca around the screen using the space bar to dive under boats or attack prey that are beneath the water. When you reach the beach use the space bar to launch an attack on the seals. (Flash and music ahead....)
posted by Dunvegan at 8:47 PM PST - 2 comments

Blondie's Rapture, a heartfelt cover of it by My Robot Friend. -another Flash link...
posted by giantkicks at 8:33 PM PST - 5 comments

world domination [note: flash, demo version] ... a little tricky to figure out at first, but intriguing.
posted by crunchland at 7:24 PM PST - 5 comments

Doctor Foxglove's Polaroid Tryptich Project.
posted by hama7 at 7:12 PM PST - 9 comments

Play with a virtual ecosphere. [Flash].
posted by nthdegx at 6:29 PM PST - 1 comment

"Little old lady got mutilated late last night..." On this special day, when we all have a certain song running through our heads, I thought a few links on werewolves might be appropriate. So, here's a chance to brush up on German werewolf legends, peruse werewolf myths from around the globe, check out this werewolf filmography, and sift through other werewolf sites. Requiescat in pace, Warren.
posted by UKnowForKids at 6:08 PM PST - 4 comments

Three Rivers Film Festival - fine film comes to the Iron City.
posted by engelr at 3:19 PM PST - 2 comments

The Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertos, "Day of the Dead."
posted by moonbird at 2:38 PM PST - 10 comments

Police find skeleton in Oddfellows lodge. Turns out, they'd already found it, 6 years before (your guess is as good as mine why no one did anything then). Even more interesting, it's not the only one that's been found and subsequently investigated by the police around the country. Makes you wonder about those Oddfellows.
posted by tommasz at 2:06 PM PST - 26 comments

C'mon People Now, Shine on Your Hipster • "A new and disturbing trend has sprung up as of late in our great city (NYC): beating up hipsters for sport. Sucker punching Williamsburg trendsters is the new Whack-A-Mole. It's cow-tipping for urbanites. It's blowing up mailboxes, but with less angst and more anger." (more inside)
posted by dhoyt at 2:00 PM PST - 44 comments

Low Budget Laughs for Friday. I recommend Pez Heads.
posted by uftheory at 1:58 PM PST - 1 comment

Tour the Nasher Sculpture Garden. Can't make it to Dallas. Big D is now home to the one of the first institutions in the world dedicated exclusively to the exhibition of modern and contemporary sculpture with a collection of global significance as its foundation. The Nasher Sculpture Center is further distinguished by a groundbreaking facility and landscaped garden specifically designed for the indoor and outdoor display of sculpture - not to mention the "designer dirt". (flash)
posted by sierray at 12:49 PM PST - 1 comment

EXTREME pumpkin carving!
posted by xmutex at 12:24 PM PST - 19 comments

CocoWeb (trans) is a project which has assembled 516 manifestations of the Bogeyman in Latin America. The list includes the well-known Coco or Cucuy, a dark figure who makes an appearance in the art world as the subject of one of Goya's Caprichos. Any Hispanic child can tell you about La Llorona, a grieving woman who walks in the night (familiar enough to be used in a controversial got milk? ad). In South America they can tell you about the Sack-Man, on of the original bogeymen, who walks in the darkness, looking for children to throw into his sack.
posted by vacapinta at 11:55 AM PST - 4 comments

Schoolgirls attack sexual predator! Kind of awesome in its own "aha, the tables are turned" way--but schoolgirl mob mentality can be horrifying.
posted by jennanemone at 11:09 AM PST - 225 comments

Dark matter flowchart.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:55 AM PST - 11 comments

3d17.org - Ian Clarke of Freenet fame has created a distributed, collaborative document editing web application. Much like a wiki, but geared more purely towards polishing and editing documents. Rather than the "build fast" model of the wiki, 3D17 doc modifications are subject a voting process before being applied. [more inside]
posted by y6y6y6 at 10:07 AM PST - 4 comments

SCO is at it again ... this time they've asked a federal judge to declare that Linux's general public license — a backbone of the free software movement — unconstitutional. Let's hope the judge has more sense than SCO.
posted by silusGROK at 9:48 AM PST - 33 comments

How much do you like your cell phone? (NY Times link - alternate here) Bronx resident reaches into train toilet to retrieve dropped phone, becomes trapped, is rescued by jaws of life.
posted by Aaorn at 9:40 AM PST - 11 comments

The night the devil went dancing Growing up in San Antonio, I heard the story of the devil at El Camaroncito from my dad. We kids had our own spook stories, from the haunted railroad tracks to midget mansion. Here in Austin, we have our own share of ghosts, including the legendary Driskill hotel ghost. What local spook stories did you grow up with?
posted by Gilbert at 8:26 AM PST - 15 comments

a reminder that our world is full of plenty of real horror and monsters. happy halloween. via yewknee.com
posted by specialk420 at 8:21 AM PST - 53 comments

Long Wait for a Taste of Home: Guatemalan Fried Chicken Draws a Crowd. Pollo Campero's first US store in Los Angeles reached the unprecedented sales mark of $1 million in an astounding seven weeks, a daily average of $20.4 thousand. After a full weekend of operation in the Washington DC market, Pollo Campero broke this record by selling $65 thousand in two days, a daily average of $32.5 thousand. At the franchise in Herndon (Virginia), I have personally seen the line exit the store, cross the front of the building and circle around to the back (at 3pm). Is this fried chicken really that good?
posted by probablysteve at 7:01 AM PST - 41 comments

Adult and exploitation movie posters from the 1960s and the early 1970s. Days of Sin and Nights of Nymphomania, Ordered to Love (teen-age girls forced to submit in secret Nazi mating camps!), Uncle Tomcat's House of Kittens, and more! Meow!
posted by sparky at 6:48 AM PST - 4 comments

The Bunny Man. Never mind the witch...here's the D.C. region's other scary legend (Washington Post).

Insist upon the original. Accept no substitutes. Read label carefully. Effectiveness not guaranteed.
posted by LinusMines at 6:48 AM PST - 10 comments

Food, Glorious Food - Of The Real Kind! What pumpkins? Forget about the pumpkins. What you really need is to get your lips round some courges d'hiver, you Yankee varmint philistines! (More inside.)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:08 AM PST - 7 comments

SpookyFilter presents: The Faces of Belmez.
posted by WolfDaddy at 3:44 AM PST - 8 comments

"On a cold winter morning in 1937, a janitor grabbed his flashlight and headed down into the pitch-black basement of the Willard Library to stoke the coal furnace." And so begins the legend of the "Lady in Grey," an apparition said to be haunting the aisles of the Evansville, Indiana building to this very day. In fact, so many have been said to have seen her, and other ghosts, that the library has set up 24-hour online web cams so that others may try their hand at spectre spotting. Whether real or not, the cams have revealed some interesting, yet creepy pictures and, some rather silly spoofs.
posted by snarkywench at 2:50 AM PST - 23 comments

"Actually, we have 999 happy haunts here, but there's room for a thousand... Any volunteers? Well, if you should decide to join us, final arrangements may be made at the end of the tour. A charming 'ghost'ess will be on hand to take your application."
posted by Katemonkey at 2:17 AM PST - 7 comments

SIX SUE SKY OVER SEX-CHANGE SNOGGER: The contestants only discover the truth when Miriam picks the winner and then lifts up her skirt. (pop-up ad on first link)
posted by BobsterLobster at 2:16 AM PST - 102 comments

Live From Nowhere Near You is the name of a benefit CD created in the Northwest by Kevin Moyer and over 75 musicians. Professional contributors include Mike McCready and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam, director Gus Van Sant (singing/guitar), Squirrel Nut Zippers and more.

Might make a great Christmas present.

See also related Billboard story.
posted by Twang at 12:03 AM PST - 2 comments

Mr. Civil Rights reaches out Other, bigger fish ex-CEOs of companies brought down to earth by major accounting, shall we say, woes, may be keeping quiet, even if they haven't been convicted of anything. But not former HealthSouth exec and would-be platinum girl group-manager Richard M. Scrushy, who not only has flaunted his wealth as of late, but produced a personal web site that plays up his humble Alabama roots and which, in a totally bizarre fashion, links his struggle to the Civil Rights Movement. (Note: The site's all screwed up on Mozilla, designed strictly for IE.)
posted by raysmj at 10:27 PM PST - 6 comments

The severed foot : "The force of the blast propelled this severed foot over a high wall, into the yard of an unoccupied house." - In Iraq, has the US seized something similar to the West bank or the Gaza strip (but the size and population of California) in which "The light at the end of the tunnel" casts a wan, pallid light over a future in which such events will seem routine ?
posted by troutfishing at 9:23 PM PST - 29 comments

Bad Writing = Good Writing? The academic journal Philosophy and Literature used to hold a "Bad Writing Contest" to ridicule dense, unreadable academic prose... but a new book argues headache inducing sentences are necessary to express subtle theoretical points.
posted by gregb1007 at 8:02 PM PST - 28 comments

A case study in modern Washington dishonesty. Michael Kinsley responds to Bush's former chief domestic policy adviser's reply to Kinsley's recent article on Bush's stem cell policy. [Via Fark.]
posted by homunculus at 7:03 PM PST - 17 comments

desktop subversibles ... a collection of background subversions and awareness applications for the desktop.
posted by crunchland at 6:58 PM PST - 5 comments

Moovl . Another cool thing from the Sodaplay people.
posted by none at 4:36 PM PST - 6 comments

Where is Boing Boing?
posted by coudal at 1:12 PM PST - 57 comments

Unlike Microsoft, which supports their OS releases for 5 years, Apple is forcing users to purchase new OSX 10.3 to fix security issues. No support is provided for any other OSs in the OSX family.

Sounds like an open door for intentional software bugs and issues.
posted by omidius at 11:12 AM PST - 30 comments

A friend reports that she's in lockdown in her office at The Canon House Office Building in Washington, D.C. due to a man wielding a .38 pistol. The Canon House Office Building houses 1/3 of the members of the United States Congress. Offices are now being searched for the gunman. He is supposedly a shorter man with dark hair and white shirt. News first emerged of the gunman around an hour ago.
posted by ericrolph at 11:03 AM PST - 32 comments

Hats Off! A Salute to African Headwear. 'Many African cultures throughout the continent have long considered the head the center of one's being--a source of individual and collective identity, power, intelligence and ability. Adorning the head as part of everyday attire or as a statement, therefore, is especially significant. '
Related :- African Loxo: photos of hairstyles from the Fifties (in French); mathematical patterns in African American hairstyles.
posted by plep at 10:39 AM PST - 6 comments

Wonderful system of government. Fake democracy, fake elections, fake political system surrounded by humbug and greedy lawyers. This allows business to get on with its tasks, buying candidates, a bribe here, a bribe there. An interview with Karl Marx.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:16 AM PST - 13 comments

some do it with the dead. some wont until they marry. some attempt career resuscitation with it. most twist the same direction during it. and one man teaches it on college campuses.
posted by i blame your mother at 9:56 AM PST - 5 comments

Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News....
Today is the 65th anniversary of the famous Mercury Theatre presentation of War of the Worlds, as adapted for Radio by Orson Welles. The infamous broadcast (listen in Real Audio or RealAudio or TrueSpeech) caused no small amount of uneasyness, and even some outright panic as listeners, already unsettled by coverage of the impending war in Europe, were all to willing to believe that Martians had indeed landed in Grovers Mill, New Jersey. The broadcast led to an FCC investigation and remains a touchstone in the evolution of the American media.
posted by anastasiav at 9:51 AM PST - 15 comments

Studious peeps. A comprehensive and well documented look at the study habits and research practices of marshmallow Peeps. "Our observations indicated that it was virtually impossible for Peeps to remove items from the upper shelves of the library stacks." Conclusion: Marshmallow Peeps have no business doing research at the university level.
posted by y6y6y6 at 9:50 AM PST - 13 comments

New form of mousepox developed. A scientist has created an extremely deadly form of mousepox (a relative of smallpox) through genetic engineering. The new virus kills mice even if they have been given antiviral drugs as well as a vaccine that would normally protect them.
posted by Irontom at 9:35 AM PST - 42 comments

Descansos. Public Altars to an Interrupted Journey.
posted by grabbingsand at 9:23 AM PST - 8 comments

No matter where you go... there you are. It is indeed Trysteroic that the self-suing Fox Television, of all media conglomerates (and seemingly, one of the many scions of YoYoDyne?), should have had the brilliant idea to turn "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai" into a TV series. Perhaps the selected few at the Banzai Institute will find a way to get Dr. Banzai to defeat the evil John Joe Millioniare.
posted by DenOfSizer at 9:19 AM PST - 26 comments

"It's a tragic event ..., but it's an example of the American spirit of protecting our assets." Interesting/odd quote regarding a Firefighter who lost his life yesterday saving the historic mining town of Julian in San Diego County. Tragedy aside, since when is having/protecting stuff a part of the "American Spirit?"
posted by afx114 at 9:05 AM PST - 29 comments

You're probably feeling safer today than you were a few days ago, and you know why? It's Protection from Porn week, direct from the White House. Spurred on from groups such as Morality in Media (who issued a jubilant press release to mark their achievement) you can finally feel safe now that you've gotten out from under pornography's thumb. (note: These links couldn't be any safer for work)
posted by mathowie at 8:50 AM PST - 33 comments

Moo Mixer is a very cool interactive music mixer courtesy of the British Columbia Dairy Foundation. Incidentally, they say that cows are music lovers and will provide up to 3% more milk while listening to music.
posted by debralee at 6:06 AM PST - 7 comments

It's the Cthulhu songbook. Time to go a-carrolling in the neighbourhood with these catchy tunes. Who could resist a rousing chorus of The Great old ones are coming to town? Or maybe you fancy the more traditional Carol of the old ones? So lets get those songbooks out and make it a very merry Cthulhu solstice.
posted by ciderwoman at 5:29 AM PST - 4 comments

A Private Army Grows Around the U.S. Mission in Iraq and Around the World As Report Shows Iraq Contractors Politically Active
--see also Making A Killing - The Business of War, and on the inside...
posted by y2karl at 4:50 AM PST - 21 comments

Neil Armstrong. The awful truth. In 1969, Neil Armstrong made history by becoming the first man to walk on the moon, uttering the immortal phrase, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Or did he? Previously suppressed footage discovered by blogjam shows that Armstrong's reaction was a great deal more uninhibited than history suggests, and that a hasty editing job was needed to prepare the astronaut's moment of glory for broadcast. So here, for the first time, is the unedited NASA film from the triumphant Apollo 11 mission. [Maybe NSFW]
posted by srboisvert at 4:13 AM PST - 51 comments

All The Nudes That Are Fit To Print: It's no exaggeration to say La Repubblica is Italy's finest newspaper. It's liberal, modern, intelligent and independent. Along with Spain's El Pais; France's Libération and Le Monde; the UK's Guardian; Germany's Die Zeit and Portugal's Público, it's one of the mainstays of the European Left and Centre-Left. And yet its website offers calendars in the, er, Pirelli tradition of time-keeping. Imagine the New York Times being similarly... liberal. Can soft prOn and serious reporting live together? Is it an Italian thing? The only other example I can think of is Spain's Interviú, a magazine which in its heyday mixed superb (again, left-leaning) investigative journalism with politically incorrect - and photographically retouched - tits and ass. (NSFW, obviously, unless you're somewhere in Southern Europe or Louisiana.)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:08 PM PST - 49 comments

Mathematics and art are thoroughly explored as two intertwined fields, in this online version of a Dartmouth course focusing on patterns [more inside].
posted by edlundart at 10:03 PM PST - 10 comments

Has the economy got you down? Studies show that if you give suicide the ol' college try your income will increase 36.3%
posted by palegirl at 8:02 PM PST - 21 comments

Hopi dancing in pictures and words: Kachina, ladder, rain, butterfly and snake.
posted by moonbird at 7:59 PM PST - 5 comments

An accurate, real-time planetarium, all made in Flash... Use your mouse to look around the sky (click to start/stop moving). Pointing at stars shows their name, magnitude and constellation (all loaded from an XML file).
posted by crunchland at 6:52 PM PST - 29 comments

Search stock photos by color scheme. I generally hate (hate hate hate) that obnoxious stock photography that shows up everywhere, but this is actually kind of cool. Pick a color, and find pictures that match your site. I'd love to see this kind of tool hooked up to more personal photo galleries.
posted by majcher at 6:34 PM PST - 9 comments

Early eBook designs. William Caxton's first two editions of The Canterbury Tales, probably published in 1476 and 1483, have been put online by the British Library.
posted by liam at 6:27 PM PST - 11 comments

Vintage Poster Art.
posted by hama7 at 5:43 PM PST - 8 comments

Man Pleads Guilty to Raping his own 2 month old Daughter
But wait, that's just the beginning. This guy's daddy heads the state Corrections Department and part of his plea is to reduce the amount of time he's going to spend in jail for this most heinous act.
This guy is facing, if the judge agrees to the plea, only 6 months in jail! The standard sentence for first-degree child rape is seven to 10 years in prison.
He's admitted to molesting a 9 year old in Maine before and has also been convicted of orchestrating an armed robbery.
How in the heck he's going to get ANY leniency is beyond me.
posted by fenriq at 5:32 PM PST - 65 comments

Donald Luskin threatens to sue and "out" blogger Atrios. Donald Luskin, right-wing blogger, has threatened to sue the enigmatic Atrios for "numerous libelous statements regarding Mr. Luskin" in a post on Atrios' blog. Particularly interesting is the threat by Luskin's attorney to use a subpoena to learn Atrios' identity -- which, as far as I know, is a pretty closely-held secret.
posted by Mid at 3:29 PM PST - 53 comments

The good-looking textured light-sourced bouncy fun smart and stretchy page
By one of the guys who did this, so you can do this while you spend the day away here.
posted by magullo at 2:07 PM PST - 6 comments

The Secret History of the Magna Carta. This is a fascinating article on the Magna Carta and the lesser known Charter of the Forest, and the early establishment of the rights of commons.
posted by homunculus at 1:24 PM PST - 7 comments

Getchya Blacklist on "Actor Dustin Hoffman was so dismayed to find his name missing from the NRA's shadowy 19-page list of U.S. companies, celebrities, and news organizations seen as lending support to anti-gun policies that he wrote to the powerful pro-gun lobby group begging to be included. " You can join too!!
posted by GernBlandston at 12:59 PM PST - 28 comments

Welcome to Rawson, N.D., Population. 6. Are towns like these worth saving? Should these "areas" be allowed to go back to their natural equilibrium between man and nature? Is there a "natural" equilibrium? What does this mean for the future of small towns v. urban sprawl? Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times and Drs. Frank and Deborah Popper of Rutgers have an idea.
posted by Bag Man at 11:13 AM PST - 27 comments

American Choices is a pretty cool new site that guides you through a series of questions aimed at telling you where you stand in terms of foreign policy philosophy. It reminds me a lot of the Selectsmart presidental voting thing that matches you up with a candidate.
posted by mathowie at 11:03 AM PST - 21 comments

Web-based Humor at It's Finest
Words fail me. DeCloak sells (I'm guessing) an HTML templating system that works in tables. But they can't make it work in CSS. The good news is there's no reason to use CSS:
Q: TABLES are for TABULAR DATA and not meant for Web Page Layout . . .
A: Last time I checked, most web sites use a database. And databases are just a bunch of tables in the first place, hence tabular data. [from Zeldman]
posted by yerfatma at 10:09 AM PST - 54 comments

The University of the Bleeding Obvious -- down with butterflies! Shave the moon! Death by pastry!
posted by serafinapekkala at 10:08 AM PST - 3 comments

The world's largest card file? "Google is in talks with several publishers to build a service that would allow Web surfers to search the full text of books online, according to a report this week from Publishers Weekly's online site."
posted by sierray at 9:47 AM PST - 11 comments

Blogger Joshua Micah Marshall solicits funding so he can cover the Howard Dean campaign in New Hampshire. Readers respond with nearly $5,000 in 24 hours. See? You CAN buy that kind of coverage.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:37 AM PST - 12 comments

Fecal tongs throughout history.
posted by qDot at 7:55 AM PST - 34 comments

It's official: Napster sucks. The RIAA's newest sticky fingers wants you to download.
posted by the fire you left me at 7:38 AM PST - 30 comments

New software packages help parents keep tabs on teens.
posted by Irontom at 7:28 AM PST - 26 comments

"Rupert Murdoch: Terrific dancer... Study: 92 per cent of Democrats are gay... Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple..."

Fox News threatens to sue the Simpsons (and as a result, its sister company) over news ticker parody, according to an NPR interview of Matt Groening.
posted by MintSauce at 6:38 AM PST - 20 comments

Why, I'll be a monkey's uncle! (Or is that great-great-great-grandson?) I've been reading Neal Stephenson's latest novel, Baroque Cycle Volume 1: Quicksilver and was intrigued by the descriptions of the natural philosophers. I had learned about their laws and how they were discovered in high school and university but not about their other investigations. Intrigued I searched for a bit of additional information and came up with the linked site. It provides biographies and links to other biographies of many natural philosophers.
posted by substrate at 5:24 AM PST - 6 comments

No Microsoft web fonts for Mac OS? With the passing of Internet Explorer for Mac OS it seems that web favourites such as Verdana & Georgia may no longer be available without installing Microsoft software. More discussion here. [via Typographica]
posted by i_cola at 3:58 AM PST - 23 comments

"The Band uses unique instrumentation: the music is performed using obsolete computer equipment for instruments. Currently they are using a 1977 Atari 2600 game console, a 1986 portable 286 PC, a 1983 Commodore 64 computer, and a 1985 Epson dot matrix printer."
posted by cody at 10:32 PM PST - 14 comments

Another day, another blogger gets fired (from Microsoft, in this case) for posting something harmless to their blog.
posted by mathowie at 9:43 PM PST - 79 comments

The Interactive Buzzword-Compliant Semantic Symbiosis Systemization : w00t! What's not to hate? (Other words I truly hate are fancy; delusional; slag; uber; natty and solace.)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:11 PM PST - 30 comments

There's a Sucker Born in Every Medial Prefrontal Cortex (NYT link) Neuroscience + Advertising = Neuromarketers. You will consume and enjoy. You will consume and enjoy.
posted by dejah420 at 8:43 PM PST - 18 comments

The Picture of Everything. If it is a thing, it's in this here picture. [props to Ober Dicta]
posted by Hildago at 8:14 PM PST - 21 comments

Raaga: streaming Bollywood soundtracks. [warning: realplayer, popups, and realplayer popups]
posted by eddydamascene at 7:32 PM PST - 4 comments

NPR's "All Things Considered" had a great piece on the anger management industry today and it's increasingly ubiquitous presence in many strata of American society. This is the most well known anger management company in the biz, while programs like this promote less orthodox techniques of trumping stressors.

Had any network rage lately?
posted by moonbird at 6:37 PM PST - 6 comments

So you've "had enough" and you're talented? Well how about a possible 30 seconds of fame?
WARNING: This link deals with subjects of a political nature and may not necessarily represent the views of MetaFilter.
posted by LouReedsSon at 6:18 PM PST - 8 comments

The end of the world, a scenario. [flash]
posted by xmutex at 5:23 PM PST - 20 comments

Russian Prisoners Sing for Freedom
A strange take on the whole American Idol concept, prisoners in Russia were allowed to take part in a singing competition to get freed. Of the 26 finalists, six were freed. That only leaves just about a million prisoners left. I'm curious about the precedent this sets.
posted by fenriq at 5:04 PM PST - 6 comments

It seems slightly scandalous that Krugman has persisted in noting that the present administration has been moving the lion's share of the money to an array of corporate interests distinguished by the greed of their CEOs, an indifference toward their workers, and boardroom conviction that it is the welfare state that is ruining the country. Krugman has been strident. He has been shrill. He has lowered the dignity of the commentariat. How refreshing. Russell Baker reviews Paul Krugman's The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century. We have now reached a point when even the White House may be forced to sort out how a president who got elected to execute a straightforward business agenda managed to sandbag himself with the coinciding fantasies of the ideologues in the Christian fundamentalist ministries and those in his own administration.... Joan Didion reviews Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle of the Ages by Tim F. LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The New York Review of Books 40th anniversary edition is an especially good read..
posted by y2karl at 5:02 PM PST - 10 comments

3d stress ball [note: shockwave]
posted by crunchland at 4:16 PM PST - 18 comments

Welcome to The Mah Jong Museum.
posted by hama7 at 3:54 PM PST - 5 comments

IEEE bans residents of Cuba, Iran, Libya and Sudan from publishing "The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) recently imposed a ban on the residents of Cuba, Iran, Libya and Sudan from publishing and contributing to any IEEE publication or standard." I think this is something that deserves much wider coverage then it has been getting.
posted by Calebos at 3:38 PM PST - 24 comments

How'd that crazy sign get there? Pressed about the "Mission Accomplished" banner that so strategically hung behind May's rerouted-aircraft-carrier photo-op, Bush says it wasn't his sign, it was "put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff they weren't that ingenious, by the way." Huh. Wonder how Scott Sforza feels about that assessment.
posted by soyjoy at 1:35 PM PST - 80 comments

Ancestry Maps from the 1990 census: Which states have the highest percentage of people of Danish ancestry? Greek? Hispanic? Who (perhaps) doesn't realize that we almost all came here from somewhere else? Using the data provided on 1990 Census question 13, which asked respondents to identify the ancestry groups with which they identified most closely, the State of Minnesota provides us with these nifty Ancestry maps. More info here on 'the ancestry question' from the US Census Bureau. link via ::crabwalk.com::
posted by anastasiav at 11:05 AM PST - 38 comments

The largest solar flare of the current solar cycle shot off the sun earlier today. After the media latched on to what was predicted to be mostly a non-event last week (probably due to a NASA article released around the same time about a super spacestorm) , it's not making as much news this time. But you should pay attention this time. This could be the best and last chance for a lot of us farther south to see some auroras before the sun dives into solar minimum, assuming all the variables line up correctly this time. I recommend watching the Solar Terrestrial Dispatch, as it is a great all around resource for solar activity and auroras that includes live data and sightings reports by the general public. Unfortunately though, no doubt as word IS spreading, that site is being hammered again and may be quite slow.
posted by yupislyr at 10:34 AM PST - 21 comments

Shipwrecks of Lake Superior- Some are famous, others are obscure but amazing.
posted by COBRA! at 9:31 AM PST - 13 comments

PublicRadioFan.com An extensive customizable list of (almost) all public radio stations that offer streaming audio and what they have playing now and in the future.
posted by Mick at 9:31 AM PST - 30 comments

Unloved Garden Gnomes. "A French police station has been stuck with a room of homeless garden gnomes, victims of a wave of gnome abductions, after a fresh bid to trace their owners failed." And I had never even heard of the 'Garden Gnome Liberation Front'.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 9:27 AM PST - 11 comments

U.S.S. Enterprise analyzed. "For StarTrek [sic] fans we tested the USS Enterprise in our super-orbital expansion tube... We perform similar tests on other models investigating dissociation and ionisation processes which occur during atmospheric re-entry."
posted by tbc at 9:13 AM PST - 10 comments

Images from Science - An Exhibition of Scientific Photography.
posted by ashbury at 9:06 AM PST - 4 comments

Fun with Fibonacci numbers. So you say you scored 130 on yesterday's IQ test, did ya?
posted by archimago at 8:59 AM PST - 5 comments

Polyominoes! ! ! ! !
posted by angry modem at 8:00 AM PST - 1 comment

A normal person wouldn't steal pituitaries, and other actual Hong Kong film subtitles. T-shirts, too. How can you use my intestines as a gift?
posted by kirkaracha at 6:20 AM PST - 5 comments

Anchors Away, A Life Unmoored An interesting, albeit sad, story about a once prominent D.C. lawyer who walked away from his life and now lives on a garbage-filled boat in the waters around Annapolis, MD. "Trash People" have always perplexed me; is there anything that society can do to truly help them?
posted by tommyspoon at 5:39 AM PST - 36 comments

Seattle's Museum of History & Industry has compiled a photographic archive of Seattle and its surrounding communities. Over 12,000 images from local museums, libraries and historical societies capture the heritage of King county spanning over 100 years. The project was developed through the National Leadership Grant for Library and Museum Collaboration.
posted by yonderboy at 12:05 AM PST - 4 comments

Tinyurl, Whacked. First there was GoogleWhacking. Now, via the address shortening service from TinyURL.com comes a new game, an entertaining and frightening view into the deranged minds of your fellow internet denizens. (more)
posted by iamck at 11:29 PM PST - 17 comments

Rod Roddy Dies at 66 Veteran game show announcer known for his work on the Price is Right and Press Your Luck succumbs to breast and colon cancer.
posted by dr_dank at 8:27 PM PST - 11 comments

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary... Ok, but ever wonder what "quaff this kind nepenthe" means, or where "the night's plutonian shore" is? You'll be an expert on "The Raven" in minutes with this interactive annotation of Poe's classic Halloween poem. There are many interesting subjects on this site, which was linked previously in a thread about the mysterious toaster who leaves cognac at Poe's grave every year on the writer's birthday.
posted by planetkyoto at 6:54 PM PST - 6 comments

First time I've heard a harmonica AND beatbox used together. Although not a fan of the harmonica, I found this to be suprisingly cool.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 6:35 PM PST - 17 comments

Can it be? Has MetaFilter's front page never visited YERKALAND?* Polish artist Jacek Yerka: Bosch-Breughel-Dali-esque or just trippy fun?
*(Potentially slow on dial-up.)
posted by Shane at 6:31 PM PST - 14 comments

Coming to a phone near you. The creative entries you'll see here fit not only the small screen size, but the on-the-go nature of mobile use. Entries typically run up to 3 minutes. All are sized and purposed to work in small handheld formats. Flash, live action, 3D animation, its all here at the World's Smallest Film Festival.
posted by Grod at 3:56 PM PST - 3 comments

At least four times in the fall of 2002, the president and his advisers invoked the specter of a "mushroom cloud," and some of them, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, described Iraq's nuclear ambitions as a threat to the American homeland... Among the closely held internal judgments of the Iraq Survey Group, overseen by David Kay as special representative of CIA Director George J. Tenet, are that Iraq's nuclear weapons scientists did no significant arms-related work after 1991, that facilities with suspicious new construction proved benign, and that equipment of potential use to a nuclear program remained under seal or in civilian industrial use.

So in regards to Iraq's possession of the one weapon we can be certain causes mass destruction: the atomic bomb, as Gregg Easterbrook put it, the verdict is the unsurprising (and unsurprisingly closely held) nope, not, zero, zip, nada...
posted by y2karl at 3:43 PM PST - 21 comments

Photo studios from around the world (from the latest issue of Colors Magazine)
posted by gwint at 3:06 PM PST - 9 comments

The art of Andrzej Jackowski. [Via wood s lot.]
posted by homunculus at 2:59 PM PST - 6 comments

Iraqfilter. "Sometime between April 2003 and October 2003, someone at the White House added virtually all of the directories with 'Iraq' in them to its robots.txt file, meaning that search engines would no longer list those pages in results or archive them." The robots.txt file is here. And here's the Slashdot discussion. I guess it's hard to restore integrity to the Presidency when people can compare your statements over time.
posted by condour75 at 2:30 PM PST - 29 comments

LAMP is an on-demand music service offered to the MIT campus through its cable TV network. The NYTimes mulls the copyright implications.
posted by liam at 1:47 PM PST - 7 comments

How much would you pay for a pushbutton in your car that changes red traffic lights to green? Like in that dopey Italian Job movie? The correct answer is $300.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:48 PM PST - 29 comments

One of my joys of going on vacation is to get off the interstate and collect a bit of an old historic road. In California over the weekend we managed to grab a bit of Hwy. 1 aka the Pacific Coast Highway past nature preserves, resorts and neighborhoods. Another goal is to do all of U.S. 50, the initial stages of which were reportedly surveyed by George Washington during his tour in the British Army. Wired has a nice article about how a journalist and a photographer ignored the advice of a Federal Highway Administration spokesperson to take a trip down Route 1 from Maine to Florida.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 12:29 PM PST - 8 comments

I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I don't even play one on TV. But every once in a while, I run across the website of one of these individuals that, in its own way, at least appears to make sense. Using photos from the US Army, the DOD and the US Marine Corps., this English translation of a French site asks, "Can you find the Boeing 757 that 'crashed' into the Pentagon on 9/11/01?" [Linked page scrolls to the right, not down as one might expect...]
posted by JollyWanker at 12:26 PM PST - 27 comments

Over the past few years, doping in sports has grown into an arms race of biology, chemistry, and technology as atheletes attempt to push their limits and escape detection. While it's hard to estimate how widespread the problem is or how much it actually improves one's performance, one amateur athelete for Outside Magazine decided to test the latest on himself as he spent 8 months training for an ultramarathon cycling event. The article also notes pro-cheating sites filled with atheletes trading stories of their own programs. Disturbing stuff, when you think of all the records being broken in sports these days. As Rafe says, this might be one of the most important sports articles ever written. note: it's a long article, but worth it.
posted by mathowie at 12:22 PM PST - 14 comments

Win one and lose one.
posted by madamjujujive at 12:14 PM PST - 7 comments

TV and the Hive Mind
64 years ago this week, six million Americans became unwitting subjects in an experiment in psychological warfare.
posted by Irontom at 7:46 AM PST - 12 comments

"Check out the big brain on Brett!" ... A visual IQ test.
posted by crunchland at 7:20 AM PST - 79 comments

Another My Lai. Investigative journalism in action: a small Toledo newspaper called The Blade commits eight months to uncovering atrocities against civilians by an elite group of American soldiers in Vietnam called Tiger Force (pic at bottom). Will we have to wait 36 years to find out what's really happening in Baghdad?
posted by digaman at 7:20 AM PST - 10 comments

Broadcast flag blues?! The EFF seems to be fighting a losing war against the FCC's proposed "broadcast flag" initiative (Salon), but they're making a big last-minute push to get more people to spread the news and contact the FCC. Will the broadcast flag initiative become a "gateway regulation", leading us to a future where Hollywood dictates to manufacturers what they can and cannot create? Mass exodus to Tokyo, anyone?!
posted by insomnia_lj at 6:58 AM PST - 4 comments

Apple: Innovator & Oppressor of Independent Software: As they once did with Karelia's Watson software and, to a certain extent, Panic's Audion, Apple has "borrowed" a concept from an independent, third-party developer without credit or compensation. It would seem that Steve Jobs is not as far removed from Bill Gates as he would like the Mac faithful to believe . . .
posted by aladfar at 6:55 AM PST - 31 comments

Recently, Rick Bayless has been making some appearances in Burger King ads for some new sandwiches they're trying to sell. If you've ever seen Rick's show, you know that he's a true lover of food. Why would he do an ad for BK? The money, you say? Many seem to agree. Here's what Rick Bayless has to say for himself: "I decided that it’s time for those of us in the healthy food/sustainable food movement to applaud any positive steps we see in the behemoth quick-service restaurant chains." I have noticed that Rick looks like he's in pretty good shape, despite the fact that he occasionally cooks with "a little freshly rendered pork fat". Maybe he's for real.
posted by blakewest at 6:24 AM PST - 28 comments

“The string theorists have a theory that appears to be consistent and is very beautiful, and I don’t understand it.” Nova invites Brian Greene to explain everything with the superstring.
posted by the fire you left me at 6:15 AM PST - 12 comments

Astonishing geometric art using only folded paper plates, from Bradford Hansen-Smith at wholemovement. View the gallery of fantastic polyhedral creations, and learn how to do it yourself. (For more fun with paper plates, see also Paper Plate Education: Serving the Universe on a Paper Plate.)
posted by taz at 5:18 AM PST - 7 comments

Everybody needs a 303.
posted by nthdegx at 4:30 AM PST - 9 comments

Indymedia to cease operations. Sure, it's not announced just yet on their homepage. You have to go here to find out why. A hint: they have screenshots of this trash post on the usually very trash commentboards of a fine idea of a website.
posted by crasspastor at 11:20 PM PST - 46 comments

What is old is new again, unfortunately. Wholesome Wear (boy that name just makes you cringe eh?) makes modern, and even less revealing, duplicates of what your Grandma or Great Grandma used to swim in - for the thoroughly modern Mormon (or other religious zealot wackos who cant accept girls have knees). God hates females in swimsuits, I guess.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 8:04 PM PST - 59 comments

Of All The Gin Joints In All The Towns In All The World, (You) Walk Into Mine: In Lisbon, it would have to be Lux for fun or The Ritz for serious drinking. But in all the towns in all the world, only Harry's Bar in Venice, despite the carping, would do. Listen to Hemingway! (More inside.)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:25 PM PST - 12 comments

Mike's Electric Stuff
Glass tubes and high voltages galore. Of particular interest, tesla coils, and how to build a clock using nixie tubes, the prettiest display devices ever invented. If you can't build your own, other people will do it for you.
posted by Mwongozi at 5:06 PM PST - 7 comments

Vintage Technology: home electrical goods from the twentieth century.
posted by hama7 at 4:53 PM PST - 5 comments

Santa Ana Speeds the Spread of So Cal Fires
Five separate fires are burning in San Diego County, including several densely populated suburban areas. Dozens of homes have been burned. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar has been affected, including an FAA air traffic control installation. 16,000 people in the South Bay lost electricity when a major distribution line went down. Many San Diego firefighters went up to Camp Pendelton yesterday. (1, 2)
posted by rschram at 3:04 PM PST - 41 comments

The trade in stolen Asian relics is booming. TIME reports on how cultural sites are being looted and precious artifacts smuggled overseas. Sometimes they're returned, but much of Asia's cultural heritage is being lost.
posted by homunculus at 2:41 PM PST - 9 comments

Napster re-launching on Wednesday as a pay-per-download service. Anyone see this coming?
posted by Ufez Jones at 2:36 PM PST - 38 comments

CEO of Russia's largest oil company in jail The guy sounds like a crook to be sure; but its an interesting contrast to the US. When was the last time in this country someone with limitless financial resources was thrown in jail? Is Key Lay in jail? How about Bernie Ebbers? (Worldcom getting Iraq contracts is of course another story) Jeff Skilling? With all the talk of crony-capitalism anymore its easy to get desensitized. But to get a reality check on how to treat toplevel white-collar crime from Russia of all places is sobering.
posted by H. Roark at 9:51 AM PST - 23 comments

The Diebold Memos' Smoking Gun
Volusia County Memos Disclose Election 2000 Vote Fraud
posted by wsg at 9:43 AM PST - 47 comments

Dezain.net is a weblog about design by Eizo Okada, with links to architecture, furniture, textiles, and other designalicious stuff.
posted by carter at 8:41 AM PST - 4 comments

Mark Lombardi created art out of the stuff of conspiracy theories. Following the money trails, he was just completely fascinated by connections, how one thing led to another, how the C.I.A. would back a coup in Australia, someone would be murdered in Turkey and things would happen in Indonesia." Some of his work here and here, and more about his work here. His drawings satisfy because they address a human need for coherent order drawn from chaos. Such a need, however, is bound to be frustrated. Instead of blueprinting perfection, the works' aura of mastery arises in the context of a sprawling dystopia.
posted by amberglow at 7:42 AM PST - 13 comments

National Register of Historic Places Travel Itineraries. Virtual American travel - Detroit, the Underground Railroad, utopian communities in Iowa, Pipestone, Minnesota, Shakers, Indian mounds of Mississippi, etc.
posted by plep at 1:30 AM PST - 8 comments

Ted Conover is a fantastic, prize-winning author. His book Newjack is, to quote Jon Krakauer, "a compelling, compassionate look at a terribly important, poorly understood aspect of American society." In it, he works undercover as a guard at Sing Sing. You can read the truncated New Yorker version on the site. Additionally, there are many other articles, reviews and interviews, and a pretty interesting group of e-mails from "officers, their families, and others affected by prison." And, just to name-drop once more, Sebastian Junger says: "Ted Conover is a first-rate reporter and more daring and imaginative than the rest of us combined." Check him out!
posted by adrober at 11:56 PM PST - 7 comments

Train Spotters rejoice! Rail Pictures has all sorts of locomotive shots.
posted by jasonspaceman at 10:53 PM PST - 5 comments

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, u, w, x, y, z.
posted by crunchland at 10:40 PM PST - 31 comments

There comes a time when people at a technical conference like this need something more relaxing. A change of pace. A shift of style. To put aside all that work stuff and think of something refreshingly different. So let's talk about coding theory.
posted by thebabelfish at 8:04 PM PST - 7 comments

What time is it? Tonight marks the transition in many parts of the US between daylight savings and non-daylight savings time. Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour!
posted by silusGROK at 6:24 PM PST - 43 comments

Scicult: bridging science & culture through contemporary art.
posted by hama7 at 4:42 PM PST - 5 comments

What's The Best Excuse When You're Caught Reading MetaFilter... when you're supposed to be working? (More inside.)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:34 PM PST - 39 comments

Knee Defender is a product that airline passengers can use to keep the person in front of them from reclining their seat during a flight. They market it as an alternative to deep vein thrombosis and lawsuits (Warning: Flash Menu). It is creating a stir in the news. But people with long legs who do not want to detract from a fellow passenger's enjoyment can always save their money and consult the Seat Guru (SG previously discussed here). (Via Fark.)
posted by cup at 12:17 PM PST - 76 comments

Sand. (Java applet)
posted by Wet Spot at 11:53 AM PST - 13 comments

superhandz is billed as an an x-treme hand sportz site. But impressive as some of these displays are, when it comes to flourish, can anyone even begin to compete with three-year old Mo Kin?(quicktime clip)
posted by madamjujujive at 7:52 AM PST - 16 comments

Pick your poison: highbrow (virtual tour of 10 Downing Street), or lowbrow (virtual tour of the White House). Hint: one of these is funny.
posted by taz at 6:06 AM PST - 10 comments

Building Coffins Boosts Monks' Coffers. Trappist monks at the New Melleray Abbey in rural Iowa turned to casket-making five years ago after their farming operation went under. But the casket business is good. So now, in between prayers, the monks can be found in the wood shop.
posted by bluedaniel at 12:49 AM PST - 8 comments

exploring color ... online utility to help room designers (and maybe even web designers) choose the right color for their project.
posted by crunchland at 10:04 PM PST - 13 comments

Truefire TrueFire is a self-publishing tool and open marketplace for authors and artists wishing to promote and distribute their original poetry, guitar lessons, novels, music, reference material, photography and artwork.
posted by crunchburger at 9:40 PM PST - 4 comments

"If Tom Delay is acting out of his Born Again Christian convictions in pushing legislation that disadvantages the poor every time he opens his mouth, I'm not saying he's not a Born Again Christian, but as a the Lord's humble fruit inspector, it sure looks suspicious to me. " - Bill Moyers interviews Joe Hough.
posted by specialk420 at 7:32 PM PST - 36 comments

The RIAA Strikes Back. (c/o arstechnica.com) What do you do when nothing else seems to be working and you're the RIAA? Do it Soviet style! Take your message to the classroom! Indoctrinate the kiddies! Get them to rat on their friends! I don't know about everyone else, but I think that this latest RIAA tactic is particularly insidious. But what is worse is that schools apparently are welcoming the RIAA. And you thought that Coke machines in the cafeteria were bad...
posted by tgrundke at 3:48 PM PST - 36 comments

Forecasters at the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo., observed two dynamic areas of the sun, one of which has produced a coronal mass ejection, or CME, Wednesday morning at 3 a.m. EDT that appears to be Earth-directed. The forecasters are predicting a strong geomagnetic storm, G-3 on the NOAA Space Weather Scales, that should reach Earth on Friday, October 24. Satellite and other spacecraft operations, power systems, high frequency communications, and navigation systems may experience disruptions over this two-week period. Auroras visible in the lower 48 states are possible tonight and tomorrow.
posted by y2karl at 1:42 PM PST - 21 comments

"We are becoming the masters of our own DNA. But does that give us the right to decide that my children should never have been born?" John Sundman is a science fiction novelist and the father of two children with severe medical conditions. In this two-part article he shares his experiences and thoughts on bioethics, the Human Genome Project and whether genetics research is paving the way for a resurgent eugenics movement.
posted by homunculus at 11:27 AM PST - 56 comments

The Guardian is reporting that blogger Matt Wake, writer of the fictional blog the South London Diaries, has signed a contract to broadcast his stories on Resonance FM. Wake claims that this makes him the world's first "Radio Weblogger".
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:19 AM PST - 12 comments

Start your Christmas shopping now.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 11:19 AM PST - 47 comments

Bunnies.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:53 AM PST - 30 comments

Conkers. For those who can't be bothered to go outside.
posted by srboisvert at 10:39 AM PST - 15 comments

Something wonderful
David Bowman: You see, something's going to happen. You must leave.
Dr. Heywood Floyd: What? What's gonna happen?
David Bowman: "Something wonderful.
posted by norm111 at 9:39 AM PST - 12 comments

Contemporary Art from the Islamic World, including Emily Jacir's Where We Come From, which deals with Palestinians living in exile.
posted by Ty Webb at 9:26 AM PST - 6 comments

Friday Terror! Solar blast expected to hit Earth at 3PM EST!!! Cell-phones, satellites, pagers and electrical grids may be disrupted!!! Could last 12-18 hours!!! Space martians land!!! Bad Friday Traffic!!! ACK!!!! *zap*
posted by omidius at 8:57 AM PST - 25 comments

1250 pages, hardbound. 2 volumes. Over 4000 comics in chronological order with 1100 never seen before. Lady's and gentlemen. I present The Complete Far Side. 1980-1994
posted by bitdamaged at 8:45 AM PST - 32 comments

Ranking Emerging Markets by "Market Potential" Michigan State Univ ranks emerging markets by their market potential. Does this mean that all new investment should go to Hong Kong and Singapore? Anyone willing to sink major $ in country #6- Hungary?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy at 8:23 AM PST - 26 comments

The Jesus O' Lantern - for those still looking for a carving design for this year's Halloween pumpkin.
posted by debralee at 6:08 AM PST - 18 comments

Recipient of largest slavery reparations claim sentanced to 3 years in jail and her father, the accountant who did the paperwork to get the refund received 13 years in jail. The article goes on to report that the IRS estimates the fraudulent reparations payout to be apporx $2.7B. "It was unjust because we are supposed to get reparations as black people -- just like the Jews got it. What do we get? Jail time," said family friend Margaret Roach What do you think?
posted by cpfeifer at 5:58 AM PST - 68 comments

Morality and Logical Coherence
A case in point.
If stem-cell research is morally questionable, the procedures used in fertility clinics are worse. You cannot logically outlaw the one and praise the other. And surely logical coherence is a measure of moral sincerity.
And failing that test would be a measure of what?
posted by nofundy at 5:40 AM PST - 21 comments

A Fresh, Clean Sheet Of Paper: Is anything you can't make love to, eat or sip, more sensual and inviting? In the age of the Internet, fine paper - specially if it's handmade - seems to become ever more precious. Writing or sketching on its slighly grainy texture, sliding ink along its invisible grooves (almost independently of the result...) is an extravagant indulgence; a romantic gesture; an almost guiltless pleasure. And something you can do yourself, satisfying that deep recycling urge, perhaps. A quick tour around some of the outstanding manufacturers and dealers - Fabriano; Canson; Pineider and Twinrocker, for example - will silkily reassure those of us whose pens trembled and blotted with the first mentions of a paperless future. Will it ever come? Unlike so many things in life, the rarer it gets, the better and, paradoxically, the more individual (nice set of paper links here) it becomes. (*imagines a complete multi-handwritten version of MetaFilter on good paper of all sizes and types and instantly snaps out of the daydream, as it reminds him too damn much of his attic*)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:11 AM PST - 27 comments

Another "Google heading for an IPO" report - but this time it's for real, according to the Financial Times. Apparently the shares will be sold through an electronic auction "designed to prevent a recurrence of the sort of financial scandals that have engulfed Wall Street since the collapse of the dotcom bubble". Not that Google was ever going to be Enron.
posted by zimbobzim at 11:10 PM PST - 22 comments

Concorde ends today. So what will it take to go commercially supersonic again?
posted by casarkos at 11:00 PM PST - 31 comments

Videohelper.com sells music and sound effects to film/video producers. Here's their FAQ. It's the most fun FAQ I've ever read when I wasn't even trying to have fun. Though they are a serious business, their entire site is in this style. I want to work there!
posted by grumblebee at 10:02 PM PST - 10 comments

locus novus ... a synthesis of text and image/motion/sound.
posted by crunchland at 9:02 PM PST - 1 comment

Can Islam and Electronica co-exist? Listen to a wonderful track named "Semitones In Darkness" by Subtonal and Fresh Moods from BBC Radio 1's Blue Room this week (Min. 5). You'll hear what Muslims normally say when they are praying: "al-Fatiha" (The Opening), the first chapter of Quran.
posted by hoder at 7:31 PM PST - 12 comments

Press underreports casualties I had never heard of "Editor & Publisher" before, but I came across this link, and thought the news was rather shocking.

So while 106 troops were killed since the "end of hostilities," 1927 have been wounded since the war began, 200 have been killed from all causes, and over 4,000 troops have been medically evacuated from Iraq.

The article says the stats are easily obtained from the Pentagon web site - though all I could find was press releases which just mention casualties one by one. Can anyone out there find a comprehensive listing on the Pentagon's page?

The article suggests that the media are at least in part to blame here (along with the administration's general reluctance to focus on bad news). Why wouldn't newspapers want to cover injuries to the troops? I, for one, would like to see this covered. What do you all think?
posted by jasper411 at 4:50 PM PST - 41 comments

Iraqi official says limited German, French help won't be forgotten "As far as Germany and France are concerned, really, this was a regrettable position they had," Allawi said. "I don't think the Iraqis are going to forget easily that in the hour of need, those countries wanted to neglect Iraq." And the money owed France? Pehaps no Perier or VW outlets in Iraq.
posted by Postroad at 3:23 PM PST - 19 comments

If you were a lab worm [with some modifications], you could live five times longer than a human. This news will likely be celebrated by folks like these and their ilk, while bioethicists and others cringe. Regardless of right or wrong, the ideas of life extension/biological immoratality pose some mighty difficult questions.
posted by moonbird at 2:05 PM PST - 47 comments

The Real Mother Goose, complete with pictures. Revisit your childhood and see how many Mother Goose rhymes you remember, then go through the list to find ones that you don't know. And in the what-were-they-thinking category, check out mothergooserocks.com for wacky tunes (click the music section and play the 3 Little Pigs - go on, I dare you) sung to top 40 tunes.
posted by ashbury at 12:43 PM PST - 9 comments

Poker Redux: Poker is sweeping America (and other countries as well). From million dollar online Texas Hold 'Em tournaments to the weekend nickel, dime, quarter games with friends to the World Poker Tour (heavily promoted on the Travel Channel), poker is forcing itself into the spotlight. [more inside]
posted by hawkman at 12:34 PM PST - 19 comments

A List of Arcane Occupations If I had lived two hundred years ago, I might have been a PUREFINDER - someone who "went about the streets gathering dog droppings which were used for tanning leather."
posted by mert at 12:01 PM PST - 20 comments

Craig and Yvonne are in the process of renovating their 1891 Victorian House. Progress can be followed on their site. Be sure to check out the before and after pics, which are pretty impressive.
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:12 AM PST - 34 comments

Grand Illusions: Optical illusions, scientific toys, visual effects, brain teasers, and (perhaps) just a little bit of magic!
posted by anastasiav at 11:11 AM PST - 15 comments

Vampire babies.
posted by cinderful at 10:53 AM PST - 26 comments

The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Prison Camps (PDF) is a new report by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea on North Korea's prison system for political prisoners. Using testimony and satellite photography, the report documents the kwan-li-so (political penal-labor colonies) and kyo-hwa-so (long-term prison-labor camps,) in which hundreds of thousands of political prisoners work as slave laborers, and are subjected to starvation diets and torture. Also documented are the jip-kyul-so repatriation centers along the Chinese border, where forced abortion and infanticide are common. Unsurprisingly, many North Korean defectors are haunted by guilt over loved ones left behind.
posted by homunculus at 10:26 AM PST - 9 comments

Have you ever wondered how pencils are made ?
posted by limitedpie at 9:53 AM PST - 22 comments

Dying for your country no longer warrants a picture in the paper. Ban on pictures of the coffins of soliders killed in Iraq.
posted by spazzm at 8:58 AM PST - 12 comments

How the Poll Results on Iraq Were Manipulated by James Zogby, Special to Arab News - ...In fact, Zogby International in Iraq had conducted the poll, and the American Enterprise Institute did publish their interpretation of the findings. But the AEI’s "spin" and the vice president’s use of their "spin" created a faulty impression of the poll’s results and, therefore, of the attitudes of the Iraqi people. Consider some of the other poll findings: Over 55 percent give a negative rating to "how the US military is dealing with Iraqi civilians." Only 20 percent gave the US military a positive rating... When asked whom they preferred to "provide security and restore order in their country," only 6.5 percent said the US...
posted by y2karl at 8:25 AM PST - 16 comments

Breaking the ice. "If we can help Palestinians and Israelis understand that even the greatest obstacles can be surmounted through cooperation and understanding, then perhaps we'll be able to positively influence the atmosphere for reconciliation in our part of the world. We want people to see that even enemies can find a way to do great things if they decide to take on the challenge together."
posted by johnnyboy at 8:12 AM PST - 5 comments

The World Scrabble Championship is taking place this week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 98 players from 38 countries are competing in the seventh biennial WSC. The format: everyone plays 24 games over three days, then the top two finishers play a best-of-five match for the championship. Past winners include three Americans, two Canadians and an Englishman, but this year's final pits two Thai players: Pakorn Nemitrmansuk vs Panupol Sujjaykorn.
posted by Daze at 8:02 AM PST - 15 comments

Starting today, every word (33 million) in ALL the books (270,000) sold at Amazon.com can now be searched word for word. File this under technologies used to implement more sales and better service to the end user aka marketing at work for you.
posted by omidius at 6:24 AM PST - 89 comments

Goddess Juice takes you on a ride like no other. Its purpose is to arouse your Kundalini, but be warned; an aroused Kundalini may not always be a good thing.
posted by debralee at 5:42 AM PST - 29 comments

Senate approves S.887 Can-Spam Bill. Spammers unhappy.FTC to report to Congress with a plan for creating a Do-Not-E-mail registry.
posted by elpapacito at 4:05 AM PST - 19 comments

May 411 quasi-evil Karls dirty dance with Pez dispensers after applying Preparation H to your withered mailman: The Arabian Insult Generator. Though no match for the immortal "May you have an interesting life" (is it Chinese or Jewish?), here is a worthy self-generating collection of curses. (Click "Refresh" for a new batch..)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:37 PM PST - 13 comments

Psst! Wanna download some mp3s? Now you can do so without looking over your shoulder to see who is watching. Creative Commons has compiled a selection of tracks utilising their licensing system for free download. The ability to create derivative works and share them around has resulting in some interesting remixes of one of the original tracks, also. via A Whole Lotta Nothing
posted by dg at 8:44 PM PST - 10 comments

[this is good] [note: flash, music, visuals, etc.]
posted by crunchland at 8:14 PM PST - 14 comments

Rerun Dead at 52 Fred Berry, who played Rerun on tv's What's Happening is dead. {Warning, 2nd link has audio but it's the cool theme song to the show.}
posted by nyxxxx at 7:18 PM PST - 15 comments

Further verification that fuck is fucked. The gradual emasculation of a word once obscene.
posted by the fire you left me at 5:39 PM PST - 53 comments

Memorable TV themes A short but interesting rumination. Blissfully it mentions composers W. Snuffy Walden who along with Mike Post writes the best in the business. I haven't seen thirtysomething in years but I know Walden's tie-in CD inside out. What's your favourite TV theme?
posted by feelinglistless at 3:23 PM PST - 55 comments

Those of you who added reams of ad-blocking software to your PC's in the last two years, almost solely to block ads for the X10 wireless cam, may be shocked (gasp!) to find out that they weren't paying for the ads the whole time. In a dramatic and satisfying turnaround, X10's ad providers have sued them to the tune of 4.1 million USD. When lamers sue lamers, everyone wins!
posted by poorhaus at 2:46 PM PST - 12 comments

As of October next year, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 comes into effect in the UK. Under this act, a disabled person may have rights to sue a service-providing company if they have difficulty accessing their website just as they might if they had difficulty accessing their headquarters. The Royal National Institute of the Blind website includes a "web access centre", which takes a good look at the issue of accessibility and provides sound advice to web designers whether they are legally obligated to tackle such issues or not.
posted by nthdegx at 1:56 PM PST - 10 comments

Reporters Sans Frontières has released its 2003 world press freedom rankings: "Cuba second from last, just ahead of North Korea. United States and Israel singled out for actions beyond their borders....The ranking distinguishes behaviour at home and abroad in the cases of the United States and Israel. They are ranked in 31st and 44th positions respectively as regards respect for freedom of expression on their own territory, but they fall to the 135th and 146th positions as regards behaviour beyond their borders." In related news, "In Baghdad, official control over the news is getting tighter. Journalists used to walk freely into the city’s hospitals and the morgue to keep count of the day’s dead and wounded. Now the hospitals have been declared off-limits and morgue officials turn away reporters who aren’t accompanied by a Coalition escort. Iraqi police refer reporters’ questions to American forces; the Americans refer them back to the Iraqis";"Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins"; and it looks like we may have been using the word "casualties" incorrectly all this time.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 1:41 PM PST - 32 comments

Now's your chance to get with Jenna Jameson... Okay, not really. Apparently, the new gig in Berlin, Germany as of last month is pr0n Karaoke - you and a partner (or two, or three?) get together on stage, with a movie up on the screen, and "act out" the parts being played out graphically. So.... practice your faking and get ready to go!
posted by djspicerack at 12:12 PM PST - 25 comments

I was plussed. It was concerting to see that she was communicado... An 1994 New Yorker story chock full of presumably sensical words that look wacky without their negating prefixes. A Smackeral from the great beebo.org
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:11 PM PST - 22 comments

Butterfly Pee - Pure urine from the wild. In the wild butterflies find their greatest source of sodium, essential minerals and vitamins from wild animal urine puddles and urine-soaked leaves. Now you can bring this natural buttlerfly attractant to your garden.
posted by y6y6y6 at 11:51 AM PST - 14 comments

When Pink Bits Were Not The Norm - The art of X-rated movie posters from the 1960s and 1970s. Considered by most to be the Golden Age of the pornographic movie, the period's rising production budgets generated a dramatic improvement in film quality and plot.
posted by turbanhead at 10:25 AM PST - 6 comments

Prisons have become America's default mental health system. According to a new study by Human Rights Watch, between two and three hundred thousand men and women in U.S. prisons are seriously mentally ill, about three times more than the number of mentally ill who are in mental hospitals. [Via TalkLeft.]
posted by homunculus at 10:16 AM PST - 21 comments

Make me an MCSE or I'll kick your ass. I came thisclose to sending a check for classes. Glad I didn't. We especially regret not being able to call each student individually; we would have preferred that rather than posting a notice at our facilities. It was determined that informing students in person resulted in too high of a risk of physical danger for our staff.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 9:48 AM PST - 27 comments

November's Atlantic Monthly includes their First Annual College-Admissions Survey: a collection of articles intended to give "a realistic portrayal of the admissions system." The survey includes articles on the chaotic nature of the admissions process, the rise of "late-decision" admissions, a way to rank colleges that might actually mean something, whether selectivity actually means anything, and bias in standardized testing. Will this survey restore some sanity to the process (as the editors seem to hope), or is it just the equivalent of the U.S. News & World Report rankings for the cognac set?
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:58 AM PST - 9 comments

Justice Scalia's recusal in the Pledge case has prompted a serious debate on the judicial role. Robert Alt has suggested that the Justice's recusal carries an important warning for the Senate in confirming new judges; if the Senate requires the nominees to answer questions about their opinions on potential cases, those nominees would have to recuse themselves if those cases later indeed came before them. Matthew Franck, on the other hand, suggests "this argument ... permits the requirements of judicial ethics — and even a terribly broad reading of them — to trump the constitutional obligation of senators to inform themselves adequately about the kinds of judges they are being asked to confirm." [more inside]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:36 AM PST - 11 comments

Reflect the pain and desolate loneliness inmates felt when serving time - time in a prison surrounded by a paradise that teased them with what was forbidden.

In 1985, before I left Brazil to live in the United States, I journeyed with some friends to surf at Ilha Grande. One day, while we relaxed on a remote beach, a group of military men suddenly appeared looking for some escaped prisoners. They advised us to stay together. Hours later, a helicopter flew over the sea with two fugitives trapped in a net that was hanging from its belly. ...At that moment, a desire was born in me to see life within the Caldron.
posted by thisisdrew at 6:46 AM PST - 8 comments

In 1898, the United States made a major move in the direction of colonial imperialism with the acquisition of the Philippine Islands from Spain. President Bush, in a recent speech in the Philippines, pointed to that country's story as a model for rebuilding Iraq. Perhaps a history lesson about the American and Filipino experience in this occupation is in order for both us and our President. The atrocities committed during the Filipinos' struggle for independence (including the use of concentration camps), the high death toll (between 250,000 and 1,000,000, according to this article), and the American occupation which spanned six decades lead me to question whether Bush is just ignorant of the associations made in this comparison, or if it's a subtle way for the administration to set the stage for what possessing Iraq is actually going to entail. (Most links courtesy of the outstanding BoondocksNet, a collection of primary and secondary sources related to American imperialism.)
posted by UKnowForKids at 6:36 AM PST - 24 comments

The College Board today released their annual report looking at the costs of college tuitions. Once again this year the report finds that the costs for students are rising. A group of students at the University of Maryland, College Park said enough is enough and have formed a political action committee to fight the state's refusal to increase funding to public colleges in the state, and curb tuition increases. The Student Citizen Action Networkis the first of it's kind, they have a goal of raising over $50,000 dollars, and they have already made substantial progress in their first few days.
posted by mhaw at 5:50 AM PST - 6 comments

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. American comedy legend Jerome Horwitz, a.k.a. Curly Howard(sound) of The Three Stooges, was born 100 years ago today. All right, you knuckeheads, spread out.
posted by planetkyoto at 3:03 AM PST - 5 comments

Man Jumps off Niagara Falls and survives. Kirk Jones is my kinda guy. He always thought he could jump off of Niagara Falls and survive, and yesterday he proved it. Final word must go to his mother "We'd rather he hadn't done that"...
posted by rikabel at 1:16 AM PST - 41 comments

Prison Funnies
posted by dobbs at 11:02 PM PST - 7 comments

Musician Elliott Smith is confirmed to have committed suicide this evening at the age of 34.
posted by dayan at 11:01 PM PST - 82 comments

This is important : Cum Vs Moisturizer.
posted by Stan Chin at 9:34 PM PST - 19 comments

OCTOBER 22 IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY!!!
EVERY YEAR WE GET TOGETHER AND MAKE SALMON FOR TOAST, EVERY YEAR WE GET A CROCKETY BLOAT, EVERY YEAR WE GET DRUNK ON THE DOCKS, AND EVERY YEAR WE HAVE SEX WITH OUR CAPS LOCKS!!!!
posted by quonsar at 9:14 PM PST - 48 comments

animwatch ... a monthly magazine showcasing the best in independent animation ...
posted by crunchland at 8:09 PM PST - 3 comments

A Nittle Light Music: A little record label called Morpheus, considerably less soporific than the name implies, specializes in late night music, with many engaging mp3 samples. Though, somehow, they don't seem, in their soft prettiness, to hit the slightly anguished, melancholy spot of the truly nocturnal listener. I might as well come out and say it: what's your night music of choice? (My man is the composer Harold Arlen, who wrote Blues In The Night; "Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe"; "Last Night When We Were Young"; "It's Only A Paper Moon"; "When the Sun Comes Out"; to mention but a few. Oh - and, of course, Sinatra's first 12-inch LP, In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning... /small>)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:47 PM PST - 31 comments

Here's a little more nano for your Tuesday: carbon nanotubes. Currently in the r&d phase, this article promises that they could become hot stuff and technologically indispensible...

"They are stronger than steel and as flexible as plastic, conduct energy better than almost any material ever discovered and can be made from unexotic raw materials such as methane gas." [found on blogdex]
posted by moonbird at 7:17 PM PST - 8 comments

Rupert Sheldrake, author of several books (The Sense of Being Stared At; Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home) that detail evidence for the existence of various extra-sensory perceptions. In a lecture for Microsoft Research [page contains link to a 73 minute streaming ASX file] entitled "The Extended Mind: Recent Experimental Evidence", he attacks the mechanistic view of nature and the materialistic view of the mind, and presents his own theory, which involves fields of Morphic Resonance, formative causation, and what he calls "The Extended Mind". Feel free to dismiss after watching.
posted by goethean at 6:47 PM PST - 34 comments

Hack an email account, go to jail. In what could be the first case of its type, a woman has been sentenced to 60 days of house arrest for obtaining the login and password of her husband's ex-wife and reading her mail. Probably the first of many such cases to come, these will be interesting to watch how the law is interpretted by the court (treat it as a wiretap violation or as computer hacking?).
posted by mathowie at 5:29 PM PST - 19 comments

Matt Taibbi checks in with 'Excerpt from The Rise and Fall of the United States (Putnam, 2037), William Shirer IV. From the chapter entitled, "The Anschluss Begins."' Typically clever stuff, especially the Franzen bit.
posted by GriffX at 4:17 PM PST - 5 comments

Daniel Rozin makes mirrors. But not the boring ones we're used to -- he prefers to make his out of wood, trash and occassionally, shiny balls. His works are a combination of artistic expression and computer vision, and have been on display around the world. Check out the quicktime videos of his mirrors in action and prepare your mind to be boggled. [via cool/lame]
posted by krunk at 4:08 PM PST - 12 comments

Senate passes legislation to ban partial birth abortion which contrary to what is apparently popular belief, is not a clear cut thing and definitions and facts seem to vary rather greatly. Bush is expected to sign the bill. In other news, another Bush is making medical decisions - this time to keep a comatose woman alive - reversing an earlier court ruling that she be allowed to die.
posted by twiggy at 3:27 PM PST - 67 comments

Nanotech? Kids stuff. The nanotech industry and research community has been plugging away steadily since Eric Drexler's cheerleading for it in the early 80's. Now the National Science Foundation acknowledges (in the form of this Request for Proposals) that kids as young as 7th grade must be prepared for living in a nanotech world.
posted by badstone at 1:57 PM PST - 2 comments

Hinterland Who's Who Back in the mid 1906s the Canadian government made what have now become the longest running public service annoucments ever. They're also possible the most boring, but that can't stop them from being amazingly popular. Don't forget to check out the spoofs.
posted by tiamat at 11:48 AM PST - 33 comments

The first Kindergarten for men is now open in Germany. "Women in Hamburg who want to shop without dragging along grumbling male partners can leave them at the nation's first kindergarten for men. This adult daycare center has plenty of amenities to keep the big boys occupied....(women, uh, or guys) can drop off their partners at the "Männergarten," where for €10 ($11.64), the men get a meal, two beers and an afternoon of boy's games, cards, conversation and sports on TV." -how long before this catches on in malls across North America?
posted by giantkicks at 11:19 AM PST - 39 comments

Video game commercials from Japan, USA and Europe.
posted by Slimemonster at 10:00 AM PST - 9 comments

Now class, please turn in your (meta)homework Several classes at Stanford have started relying on multimedia-intensive collaborative websites. A quick browse through the gallery and you will find classes that either rely on blogging or run entirely "wiki style" . While it seems thrilling to see students stimulate and build ideas off one another, will this concept ever filter down to your average high school class? It seems that the whole principle of wiki comes at odds to traditional conventions of authorship. Surprisingly, in this course, students can choose the option of being assessed solely on their experimental participation on the wiki site. When classwork consists of students adding and changing each other's comments, how would you grade each student individually? (By the way, there are a lot of pretty pictures in the gallery.)
posted by alex3005 at 2:34 AM PST - 12 comments

Sen. Dennis Miller, R-California
posted by Espoo2 at 1:51 AM PST - 80 comments

Play money is a blog about a guy trying to make money selling artifacts from online games. The guy is Julian Dibbell, whose work has been discussed on metafilter before.
posted by rdr at 10:49 PM PST - 9 comments

mr. deadguy / biomorphs / death studios / ghastly creations / lubatti designs / nfx studios / monster mayhem / the monster lab / twisted toybox / 1313
posted by crunchland at 8:00 PM PST - 16 comments

"War is a Racket" Hardly news ? Yeah, but the source isn't your usual tree-hugger-rainbow-peace-hippy-noglobal-yourfavouritedissing pal, but no one less then U.S.M.C. Major General Smedley Darlington Butler two times recipient of the Congress Medal of Honor and the only Officer in the Corps to be awarded CMoH two times.Found it while browsing the net , the complete book ISBN number is 0922915865.
posted by elpapacito at 7:33 PM PST - 19 comments

The beautiful and complex culture of the Dogon tribe of Mali... they may have had advanced astronomical knowledge long before their European counterparts. Particularly, their tribe has had a long mystical association with Sirius, leading some to speculate that their ideas had phenomenal roots. Regardless of the mystery, the tribe is also well known for it's amazing masks and intricate art.
posted by moonbird at 7:02 PM PST - 7 comments

Pongomania: one person's imagination and obession with toy modeling clay.
posted by mathowie at 5:44 PM PST - 14 comments

How old are you? The Ageless Project lists 1,800 blogs, sorted by the blogger's birthdate.
posted by PrinceValium at 2:26 PM PST - 19 comments

But this doesn’t mean all W.M.D.? “How can you be certain?” His answer was clear: “I know all the scientists involved, and they chat. There is no W.M.D.” - Jafar Dhia Jafar in the new Seymour Hersh New Yorker article on pre-war intelligence. [ via dangerousmeta.com ].\
posted by specialk420 at 12:27 PM PST - 44 comments

The times had a little blurb about live tv pitfalls that have a life of their own on the internet...actually i just found this hilarious and wanted to share it. Is it just me or does anyone else love bloopers like this ?
posted by Cool Alex at 11:12 AM PST - 34 comments

Self-destructing e-mail Microsoft boasts of a new feature in Outlook- self-destructing e-mail. Killer feature or bloatware?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy at 10:49 AM PST - 46 comments

Beginning in April 2002, the State Department project assembled more than 200 Iraqi lawyers, engineers, business people and other experts... to study topics ranging from creating a new justice system to reorganizing the military to revamping the economy. Their findings included a much more dire assessment of Iraq's dilapidated electrical and water systems... warned... many Iraqis might react coolly to Americans' notion of quickly rebuilding civil society. Several officials said that many of the findings in the $5 million study were ignored by Pentagon officials until recently... The work is now being relied on heavily as occupation forces struggle to impose stability in Iraq.
posted by y2karl at 9:33 AM PST - 9 comments

"There's nothing piano recital-y about it. It's goth." Not only has Pop Princess Vanessa Carlton declared herself Goth-for-a-Day, she has also decided (rather cluelessly) she is wiccan. Somebody call Vanna, 'cause this girl needs to buy a clue. *twitch twitch
posted by evilcupcakes at 8:55 AM PST - 146 comments

The Atomic Duty of Private Bill Bires. 'This is a short history of Pvt. Bill Bires' military duty with Co."A" 231st Engineer Combat Battalion from Ft. Lewis, Washington. Co. "A" was assigned temporary duty at the Atomic Test Series, Buster-Jangle in the Nevada desert, in the fall of 1951.'
'Co. "A"'s military duty at the test site was unique. While the rest of the battalion built the tent city known as Camp Desert Rock, Co. "A" was sent further into the desert to construct the displays of military equipment and postitioned them around the Ground Zeros for the atomic tests. '
'Thousands of troop observers from all parts of the country were brought forward from Camp Desert Rock to witness these atomic detonations. After the explosions, some were marched or bussed even closer to Ground Zero to see the effects of these explosions on military equipment. They then returned to Camp Desert Rock ... '
posted by plep at 8:22 AM PST - 11 comments

Public Faces In Private Places may not be as wise or nice as private faces in public faces but, in the case of Jane Bown's portraits, I'm sure even W.H. Auden would have gladly opened an exception. It's an outstanding collection and it's fun to identify the faces, as their names only appear when you click to enlarge them. (It's a pity the photographs in the first link are so tiny, but blowing them up only makes it worse. )
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:09 AM PST - 2 comments

mumbo jumbo... BBC journalist John Humphrys bemoans the abuses suffered by the English language. At the risk of becoming a Grumpy Old Man before my time I can't help but agree with him, in particular about the Management Speak. I recently came across the verb "to hero" which set my teeth on edge. And just what the hell does "to leverage" mean?
posted by jontyjago at 1:30 AM PST - 70 comments

Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlessinger, William J. Bennet. The "virtuous majority". The people that know what you should and should not do. And how to do it. Yeah! Well, if you 've always been a bit suspicious with the virtuous, the God chosen etc., check this out...
posted by acrobat at 12:58 AM PST - 88 comments

Europe's not-too-modest anti-piracy proposal. If accepted, it means that "not only could a teenager who downloaded a music file be sent to jail under it; so too could managers of the Internet service provider that the teenager happened to use, whether they knew what the teenager was doing or not." The proposal is being spearheaded by French parliamentarian Janelly Fourtou. Coincidentally enough, her husband is the chief executive of Vivendi Universal.
posted by Ljubljana at 11:33 PM PST - 9 comments

Plants in motion is a comprehensive archive of time-lapse movies (Quicktime format) of plants germinating and growing, flowers opening, tropic responses and circadian movements. Some of the video is quite eerie. The plants really seem...erm...alive... The site also has a guide to making your own time-lapse film.
posted by Jimbob at 8:15 PM PST - 14 comments

Minimal Porn. This is hot. [Flash.] [Via The Cartoonist.]
posted by homunculus at 8:14 PM PST - 19 comments

Several people here are fans of Gregg Easterbrook's excellent column Tuesday Morning Quarterback, available (until this week) at ESPN.com. Unfortunately, in his side gig as a writer for the New Republic, in a blog entry savaging the movie Kill Bill, Easterbrook made comments that came across as perpetuating ugly stereotypes about Jewish people. He immediately claimed 100% responsibility for the ugliness, and apologized completely and without reservation. Within a week, he was fired by ESPN, all his archived columns (nearly two years worth) removed, and the search engine rigged such that searches for his name, the name of his former column, or the nickname for his column all return only the front page of ESPN, as though the search itself had never taken place. Many are beginning to suspect, however, that this isn't a case of political correctness, as much as corporate punishment, as ESPN is owned by Disney, which produced Kill Bill.
posted by jonson at 8:02 PM PST - 80 comments

Love the shows, beware the fans. That seems to be the gist of fandom_wank. And because God knows lunacy isn't limited to fandom, on the seventh day, God created spinoffs. Mock. Mockmockmock. Mockity-mock-mock.
posted by FunkyHelix at 7:23 PM PST - 12 comments

RapidMotion ... cool pinball game for an interestingly named german bearing maker. [note: flash]
posted by crunchland at 7:19 PM PST - 6 comments

Love and Yearning: mystical and moral themes in Persian poetry and painting. (Flash req'd)
posted by moonbird at 6:52 PM PST - 7 comments

Outside the Inbox is a compilation of songs inspired by and titled after the subject lines of spam. Brad of Brad Sucks asked artists to choose a subject line from an actual piece of spam and then write a song with it as its title. The result is a fun 14-song concept album filled with some of the great music being made by home recordists on the Internet today!
posted by KathyK at 5:08 PM PST - 5 comments

"As team names went, Victory 2 Vagina was almost run-of-the-mill. There were also the Blazing Saddle Sores, the Weapons of Ass Destruction, and Nocturnal Mission". Welcome to the 24 Hours of Moab, which some consider the country's toughest 24-hour mountain bike race.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:19 PM PST - 5 comments

Oatmeal - Experience Machine (link to HTML; need QuickTime to view episode)
posted by oissubke at 4:18 PM PST - 3 comments

"A ninth-grader in a denim miniskirt exchanges conversational barbs with a boy leaning against a post, then fakes a little scream as the young man steps toward her and pulls up her skirt, putting her panties on display." Kids these days, right? Nope, it's Modern Flirting. [via dangerousmeta.]
posted by emelenjr at 4:17 PM PST - 12 comments

Star Trek: Voyager fanfiction. For years, people have asked themselves, what would happen if certain crewmembers hooked up? Endless combinations have been thought out and pondered, but perhaps the most popular of all, Janeway and Seven of Nine, has been given the full treatment here. Possibly not safe for work (especially the "R" rated stories), because you could be carried out as you laugh yourself to death. A look into the bizarre and often highly amusing world of fanfiction.
posted by insomnyuk at 12:50 PM PST - 61 comments

Tim Davis: images from the sides of boxcars, coal cars, miscellaneous freight cars and a caboose. .
posted by hama7 at 12:47 PM PST - 8 comments

Pontiki Alert! Christmas 2002: Wife buys two Pontiki figures as stocking stuffers. Husband opens the egg shaped toys delighted to discover a small package of eyes, limbs, and other appendages that fit into small holes on the surface of the egg-body. Husband goes wild, buying a dozen other sets and creating many Pontiki figures to excite the senses. Shortly after Christmas, Pontiki disappear from store shelves ... The Present: Anchovy (the creators of Pontiki) and Basic Fun seem to have cut a deal for US distribution of the toys known as the Japanese Mr. Potato Head. They open a gallery for Pontiki creations. The Pontiki Showcase is now accepting submissions of Pontiki art with a grand opening scheduled for October 27, 2003.
posted by blakewest at 7:49 AM PST - 8 comments

Gathering the Jewels. Welsh culture online. 'The goal of the project was to put the cream of Wales' cultural history, from repositories throughout Wales, on the Internet for people to learn from and enjoy. ' Politics, religion, sport, domestic life, emigration (the Welsh in Patagonia), the Welsh landscape etc. Via the 24 Hour Museum.
posted by plep at 3:00 AM PST - 14 comments

The Big Read. Here is the 100 top books as chosen by BBC Viewers, and here are the top 21 finalists you can vote for. It goes without saying that Rowling is going to win, but what books would you like to have seen in the list, and who do you think should win?
posted by seanyboy at 2:29 AM PST - 24 comments

The Final Verdict. Mother Teresa will be beatified today. While the media mostly uncritically reproduced even the wildest claims about her life and work, Calcutta-born writer Aroup Chatterjee has the hard facts on her case. Unlike Christopher Hitchens' polemic "The Missionary Position", Chatterjee's book is full of citations and paints a grim picture of the "gutter saint". The entire book, sans pictures, is available for free online. The reality: Aside from her fanatical opposition to abortion, condoms and the pill, which dominated much of her life since the 1970s, her order's activities often did more harm than help, it celebrates pain and suffering to an absurd extent, and was not involved at all in the major crises and disasters of the subcontinent. If you don't have time to read 400 pages, the Wikipedia article about her gives a much more balanced picture than most media reports.
posted by Eloquence at 9:11 PM PST - 59 comments

pornocombo ... a musical combination of sex and graphicism [note: flash, nsfw]
posted by crunchland at 7:10 PM PST - 6 comments

Trading with the Enemy (Prescott Bush was a bad man) - The mainstream press decides to bring up the Bush/Nazi connection - Newly declassified documents shed new light on the shady beginnings of the Bush family's dynastic wealth: through GW Bush's grandfather Prescott Bush's work as a director of a US bank which was both controlled by the German industrialist Thyssen (who played a key role in bankrolling Hitler's rise to power) and which continued to launder Thyssen Group profits after the US declaration of war against Germany. But if you've been reading Metafilter closely, you would have known the facts almost a year ago. ( * executes clannish, self/Metafilter congratulatory victory jig * ). Will the mainstream press pick up the trail of the story, to the US government secret importation of Nazi scientists immediately after WW2? (don't hold yr. breath)
posted by troutfishing at 6:00 PM PST - 60 comments

David Blaine has a day or so left to complete his latest stunt. While most of us can do basic cigarette tricks, it takes a special kind of person to want to hypnotize another. Even more special is one who gives up studying the art of magic to study transcendental meditation and was convinced that he could levitate.
posted by keli at 4:00 PM PST - 16 comments

Not in Iraq or in Afghanistan, but right here at home. The forgotten front in the War on Terror™? Agents found an underground bunker, thousands of rounds of ammunition, hundreds of pounds of gunpowder and manuals on guerrilla warfare, "booby traps" and explosives....
posted by amberglow at 3:25 PM PST - 27 comments

Iraqi Daily: Saddam Ordered Training of Al-Qa'ida Members The White House had claimed a connection between Osama's terror organization and Saddam. No such connection thus far has been established and as a result the anti-Bush folks have accused the White House of fabrication (to put it kindly). This piece, translated from an independent Iraq newspaper, indicates a strong connection between Saddam and Osama Bin Laden.
posted by Postroad at 2:29 PM PST - 20 comments

World solar challenge 2003. Darwin to Adelaide 19 - 28 October. Check out the route. Meet the teams. Have a look at the Green Fleet class as well, where technology meets reality. I won't be able to watch the race but have high hopes for next year's Olympics.
posted by ginz at 8:03 AM PST - 5 comments

Independent film festivals often see a wide group of styles brought together and none more eclectic than the films being broadcast through the Iconscious Film Festival - "A diverse audio/visual festival featuring online events and live screenings of work from a selection of artists and film makers. A lucid optical experience brought electronically to unsuspecting net users and clubgoers worldwide." Pick of the bunch is probably Ben Milner's No Soul Journey whilst Vector(Remix) is strangely compelling. Real Player required.
posted by Kiell at 12:25 AM PST - 1 comment

The Druze community reside in Israel, Lebanon and Syria who've been rather overlooked as the middle-east situation complexifies. Discover (scroll halfway down) an ancient culture and it's faith that have had to adapt to an increasingly unstable climate.

They share some similarities to the Iraqi Yezidi of this thread.
posted by moonbird at 7:37 PM PST - 5 comments

"pleix is a virtual community of digital artists based in paris. some of us are 3d artists, some others are musicians or graphic designers. this website is the perfect place to share our latest creations." [note: quicktime]
posted by crunchland at 7:02 PM PST - 4 comments

Authors and journalists take note. Junglescan is a way to track the Amazon sales ranking of a book or product over time. One can follow the ranking of a novel, or CD, or you can collectively track the rise and fall of an idea, or group of items. Not everything is tracked only what it's asked to but for a free service that Amazon should/could provide it works well. See also Amazon Hacks (via Kevin Kelly Cool Tools).
posted by stbalbach at 6:41 PM PST - 1 comment

Welcome to The WalMart Wars. It appears that a backlash is underway in a number of communities against the retail giant. Do they have a cause for concern or is this just a bad case of NIMBY?
posted by EmoChild at 6:08 PM PST - 18 comments

Hemmingway did it. Ian Curtis too. But, she did it on a cold London day with her children in the other room. Since her departure in 1963 songs [audio] have been written about her, biographies (even fictional) published with the requisite controversy, (some) private journals revealed, countless articles written, theories posed, medical conditions named in her honor, and now a "mainstream" film, with everyone's favourite pseudo-english actress. What is it about this tortured and talented woman that people find so fascinating?
posted by shoepal at 1:41 PM PST - 58 comments

They Still Draw Pictures. Drawings made by children during the Spanish Civil War.
posted by plep at 12:51 PM PST - 10 comments

A Polaroid in a Polaroid in a Polaroid in a…
posted by Robot Johnny at 12:21 PM PST - 23 comments

Search for the Loch Ness Monster, one of the dozens of classic articles written by Scuba pioneer and legend Walt Deas.
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:30 AM PST - 3 comments

Last night Hosting Matters (and their related resellers) was taken down by a DoS attack attributed to Al-Qaeda. This attack not only disabled the intended target but took down some 3000 sites for a significant period of time. Is this an example of cyber-terrorism or some kid with a script?
posted by cedar at 11:26 AM PST - 48 comments

Southern Folk-Art, Outsider Art & Self-Taught Art • Ginger Young of Chapel Hill, NC who runs this eponymously named art studio, says: "Despite their lack of formal training, these artists have tapped into a powerful wellspring of creativity to render their worlds with passion, pathos, and immediacy." Truly beautiful, unfiltered, vibrant stuff. How could you go wrong with artists named Tubby Brown, Minnie Adkins, Mose Tolliver and Woodie Long? On another note: is this school of thought/art, which comes in and out of vogue every few years, as pure as it seems, or is there an air of exploitation and corniness that comes with fetishizing The Other?
posted by dhoyt at 10:46 AM PST - 14 comments

Shocked and Awed: A gallery of Iraq schoolchildren art. Interesting galleries of crayon works, some obviously have high opinions of the occupation while others may not. [via Dangerousmeta]
posted by mathowie at 10:23 AM PST - 14 comments

Meat or Accident Friday flash ... fun? A disturbing, pointless look at meat and, well, accidents. (link contains sound and flash)
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 9:53 AM PST - 13 comments

Strawberry pop-tart blow torches. Flaming pastries and exploding fruit! Anyone have other good examples of entertaining "science" projects (besides the previously discussed stinky meat and fat projects of TheSpark science)?
posted by gruchall at 9:16 AM PST - 31 comments

The Road to Serfdom, in cartoons. First published in 1944, it still seems prescient today. Here it is in rare illustrated form.[condensed printed version]
posted by insomnyuk at 9:06 AM PST - 20 comments

On October 17, 1815, following The 100 Days and Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte arrived on the Island of St Helena, where he would remain until his death (mysterious or otherwise) in 1821. Discovered by the Portuguese in 1502, St Helena had a long and interesting history before Napoleon arrived, but that history was overshadowed by the story of the Emperor's last years, living in captive exile at the simple yet beautiful Longwood House. Victorians had an insatiable interest for information about the remote island. Today, the picturesque Island is a a tiny bit of England in the South Atlantic, where coffee and tourism (indeed, what some might call pilgrimages) are the main sources of income.
posted by anastasiav at 8:53 AM PST - 3 comments

Voices of Reason
Julian Sanchez on Attack of the Dean-Leaners makes a case for libertarians supporting a Democrat in 2004. Personally, I don't see how real libertarians can have any other position, but then I'm so ancient I can actually remember why the Republican Party started pretending to be the party of "small government". ...
Cathy Young has a fairly dishonest piece called Bipartistan Coulterism ("Who's meaner, conservatives or liberals?") that tries to pretend the left has any equivalent of Ann Coulter. Of course, she finds equivalence, which works if you really think that Michael Moore's outrage about dead kids in highschools is the same as Coulter advocating killing liberals and expressing disappointment that McVeigh failed to bomb The New York Times.

I'm interested in what metafilterians (huh, what?) think of this person's opinions.
posted by nofundy at 7:53 AM PST - 34 comments

Ever wonder who is bankrolling the furor over gay bishops in the Anglican Church? Meet Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr., Newport Beach recluse. Among his greatest hits: funding articles that argue gays should be stoned, and a video by Charlton Heston praising the "God-fearing Caucasian middle-class."
posted by MikeB at 7:51 AM PST - 14 comments

"Never before have so many stories been created to sell a war," says Sam Gardiner, author of a new report {.pdf, here's an html cache} that explains how the world was deceived.
posted by Domain Master 666 at 7:50 AM PST - 35 comments

Marry your pet [silly friday stuff]
posted by ginz at 7:26 AM PST - 5 comments

Damien Rice wins 2003 Shortlist Music Prize. The Irishman beat out Conor Oberst, Chan Marshall, Interpol, The Black Keys and a bunch of other hip artists to take the prize. This year's judges included Cameron Crowe, Chemical Brothers, Spike Jonze, and Tom Waits. MTV2 to air live footage of some of the nominees on Oct 24. Should be interesting.
posted by dobbs at 12:35 AM PST - 20 comments

Forget British. Define English. The perennial ex-pat and honorary Yank Christopher Hitchens may not be the best Englishman to define it - though his embarrassingly reactionary brother Peter is even less suited - but at least he has a go. For everyone else in the world, there are the Scottish, the Welsh, even the Northern Irish - all strong nationalities in their own right, each one older and more culturally solid than the slightly French, slightly German and slightly Dutch English. So why persist, in this post-imperialist day and age, in the myth of the Brit? If it is a myth. Americans, whether from the U.S. or Canada, certainly continue to buy into it. Or is it, for the rest of the world, too dangerous for the English - with devolution raging - to find their own, muddied identity? Think of those football hooligans and their grotesque politics, St.George face-masks and flags. (Via Arts And Letters Daily.)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:31 AM PST - 40 comments

Wayne Joseph of Creole stock and therefore on the lighter end of the black color spectrum, decided on a whim to take a new ethnic DNA test he saw described on a 60 Minutes segment last year, to indulge a casual curiosity about his exact percentage of black blood. The results were staggering.
posted by lola at 11:06 PM PST - 36 comments

WEFAIL - funky, surreal flash, a design collaboration from martin-h and sofake. Click everything. (sound alert & possibly nsfw).
posted by madamjujujive at 10:29 PM PST - 6 comments

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's recent speech to the OIC has drawn criticism from around the world for its antisemitic tone. The same kind of assertion has been doing the rounds for centuries. The question is: where do beliefs like this come from?
Does this kind of conspiracy theory fall neatly out of small-world network theory (coupled with private obsessions and prejudices) or is Kevin Bacon really the Centre of the Hollywood Universe?
Is this an existing kind of inductive fallacy or do we need a new name for this phenomenon?
posted by snarfodox at 9:38 PM PST - 27 comments

the tile machine [note: shockwave]
posted by crunchland at 6:17 PM PST - 8 comments

As the Boston Red Sox are poised to head to the 2003 World Series in a final American League matchup (the first Game 7 featuring opposing Cy Young pitchers) featuring ex-Sox Roger Clemens (the only person to ever win 6 Cy Young Awards) against Pedrom Martinez (3 Cy Young's), I thought I would offer a brief glimpse into every Boston Fan's nightmares: The Curse. [More Horror Inside]
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:00 PM PST - 101 comments

This is one of my favorite miniature knitting sites. I am a very bad knitter, being only able to make long rectangles (a.k.a. scarves), so I'm constantly amazed at the people who do this and do it well. I think I'll stick to Hardanger.
posted by eilatan at 5:01 PM PST - 12 comments

Stu Hart passes away. Anyone who's been more than mildly interested in professional wrestling understands his contribution to the sport. He was father to Bret Hart and the late Owen Hart. He's trained more men than I care to begin to count.
posted by Lusy P Hur at 4:51 PM PST - 6 comments

R.U. Sirius, a cyberculture gadfly known for transhumanist techno-agitprop, has launched a new website about human evolution and nanotech, among other things.
posted by moonbird at 3:09 PM PST - 8 comments

Bush orders officials to stop the leaks. News of Bush's order leaked almost immediately. And speaking of leaks, two U.S. officials are the primary sources of information about Israel's Harpoon cruise missiles which may or may not be used to attack Iran.
posted by dejah420 at 2:16 PM PST - 25 comments

Modern day children-- they don't make 'em like they used to-- review classic gaming. Hilarity ensues.
posted by xmutex at 2:04 PM PST - 40 comments

Why was I still writing for these clowns? Charlie Stross wrote the Linux column in UK magazine 'Computer Shopper' for over sixty months, until a regime change started to impinge on his editorial freedom. The last straw came when he submitted a column regarding weblogging tools for the Linux platform only for it to be bounced because the tools weren't actually part of the operating system ... so he produced this column for himself and emailed his resignation. Part of his decision was based on declining quality and sales. Does anyone still actively buy computer magazines anymore? [thanks Sore Eyes]
posted by feelinglistless at 1:47 PM PST - 22 comments

How conservatives control the political debate: linguist George Lakoff (previously discussed here, here and here) examines how "frames" are used in political discourse. In a more recent article, he looks specifically at how Schwartzenegger's election was framed. But if that's all too boring, you can just make Arnold say what you want him to say [Flash.]
posted by homunculus at 11:53 AM PST - 25 comments

iTunes for Windows! iTunes for Windows! The new phonebook's here! The new phonebook's here!
posted by mathowie at 11:51 AM PST - 112 comments

The Last Jews of Libya.
posted by plep at 10:31 AM PST - 18 comments

VeriSign to Sell Network Solutions The Registry business that is the backbone of the global .com and .net domain name infrastructure currently handles over 10 billion interactions per day, remains with VeriSign as a critical component of its business. The customer-facing Registrar business is the world's leading provider of domain name registrations, and an industry leader in value added services such as business email, websites, hosting and other web presence services. The Registrar, which re-assumed the Network Solutions name in January of this year, constitutes the current Network Solutions business that is being sold. [emphasis added]
posted by quonsar at 10:06 AM PST - 14 comments

Coca culture (NYT) I am a cocalera. I owe my life to coca. My father died when I was 2 and my mother raised six children by growing coca. I was a farmer myself, growing coca for traditional purposes. But the United States says it is better for us to just forget about coca. In the early 1990's, Bolivian officials distributed American money — $300 to $2,500 per farm — and told us to try yucca and pineapples. But 60 pineapples earn us only about eight bolivianos (about $1). And unlike coca, yucca and pineapples are difficult to carry to the cities to sell, and they spoil. So many farmers returned to growing coca.
posted by magullo at 9:35 AM PST - 34 comments

Deb's Historical Research Page. This a ton of links found by a writer of romance fiction for her own reference. Most deal with recent British history and manners. Links vary in quality. Many are fascinating. Check out Boys' Dresses, Imperial Royal Playing Cards, or the discussion of an 18th Century English breakfast.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 9:18 AM PST - 7 comments

WarPhotoLTD.com is a Croatian photography showcase intended to "educate the public in the field of war photography, to expose the myth of war and the intoxication of war, to let people see war as it is, raw, venal, frightening, by focusing on how war inflicts injustices on innocents and combatants alike." Search by Photographer, War, Award or Collection, though the site is obviously new-ish and has a small database. Here's a particularly stunning one from their current collection ("A Decade of War").
posted by dhoyt at 8:20 AM PST - 3 comments

Top 10 data disasters The BBC report on a list of 10 data mishaps and asks for more. Some of the user submitted stories are too funny. So how did you lose yours?
posted by brettski at 6:34 AM PST - 35 comments

The Clinton death list meme, so popular right before the 2000 election, has the possibility to start for GWB. WaPo, Oct 5th; Bush Family Babysitter Killed in Fairfax . I'm just wondering how you get your own car to roll on top of you?

"Officer Courtney Young, a police spokeswoman, said Champagne had gone outside the house about 9 p.m. Monday, reportedly to retrieve something from her car. The vehicle had been in gear, police said, and appeared to have rolled in her direction when Champagne was in front of it."
posted by CrazyJub at 6:31 AM PST - 23 comments

Hatred via weblog. The Jewish Internet Association, a tax-exempt, non-profit California corporation, considers the Internet a battleground, where "every channel must be utilized to resist and convert others to our defense and support." A whois showed they have the same mailing address as palestinefacts.org. However, examining their weblog reveals an agenda that is every bit as hateful as Hamas.

From a recent entry: "The Palestinian Arabs go through a pretense of having a government" .... "This must end. In the past the only way such murderous, bastard regimes have ended was through massive destruction of their people and lands." .... "The same process will be required to end the fraudulant "peace process" and come to the point where there can be a new start."

The JIA site links to a guide for shutting down offensive websites. Do you think the same techniques would work against them too?
posted by insomnia_lj at 6:01 AM PST - 42 comments

The Rush to Recovery. Enjoy a little schadenfreude. Harry Shearer - Real Player.
posted by srboisvert at 4:53 AM PST - 22 comments

Since finding that Tongue In Chic was on CD at last, of late I've thought of the rhythm section nonpareil, Chic, with that welded groove between Nile Rodgers's guitar and Bernard Edwards's bass. As performers and producers--applying the patented Chic sound to an encyclopedia of superstars--what Chic played was a tight and transcendent penthouse funk. Now I find that Nile Rodgers has a homepage, too. The Links pages one and all are motherlodes of Chic-ism, let it be noted. Ah-h-h, Freak Out!
posted by y2karl at 12:28 AM PST - 19 comments

Maggot Art. "A fantastic new teaching tool for use in the elementary school setting. Children get hands-on experience with insects that most people find truly disgusting -- maggots -- while creating a beautiful piece of artwork to share with others."
posted by lola at 9:39 PM PST - 10 comments

The 2000 presidential election was rigged - by God Himself. That's just one of the odd positions held by the man chosen to hunt down Saddam and Osama, General William Boykin, who comes right out and says to muslims, "my god is bigger than your god!" This should win us some friends...
posted by soyjoy at 9:02 PM PST - 78 comments

The can't-look-away / train wreck site o' the day: Awful Plastic Surgery -- a chronicle of celebrity plastic surgery
posted by NortonDC at 8:12 PM PST - 23 comments

Old purple frog danced with dinosaurs: "In a commentary accompanying the study, astrobiologist Blair Hedges of Pennsylvania State University called the discovery 'a once-in-a-century find.'"
posted by The God Complex at 6:08 PM PST - 30 comments

The Third Reich In Ruins
posted by crunchland at 4:56 PM PST - 15 comments

The Notorious C.H.O. has taken to blogging.... Best read out loud to yourself in a sarcastic, take-no-prisoners tone (if you can, do yourself a favor and see her before she winds up this tour...)
posted by JollyWanker at 2:50 PM PST - 43 comments

WalmartFilter: "Wal-Mart controls a large and rapidly increasing share of the business done by most every major U.S. consumer-products company: 28% of Dial total sales, 24% of Del Monte Foods, 23% of Clorox, 23% of Revlon... Wal-Mart plans to open 1,000 more supercenters in the U.S. alone over the next five years.. giving it control over 35% of U.S. food sales and 25% of drugstore sales...The $12 billion worth of Chinese goods Wal-Mart bought in 2002 represented 10% of all U.S. imports from China." Setting aside questions of monopoly, isn't this a potentially dangerous monoculture?
posted by alms at 2:31 PM PST - 95 comments

His name is Steve, and he's a Cubs fan. The Chicago Sun-Times has outed the identity of the fan who snatched a foul ball away from the clutches of Cubs outfielder Moises Alou, contributing to (but by no means causing) last night's travesty. The Smoking Gun and ESPN quickly followed suit. As a result, millions of angry Cubs fans now know where Steve lives and works. Freedom of the press? Or reckless endangerment? You make the call.
posted by PrinceValium at 2:23 PM PST - 58 comments

The Abduction of Modernity. "Western thinkers, many of whom cannot speak or read any non-Western language, are held back in their analysis of modern civilization by the assumption that modernity is an exclusive characteristic of the West. At a time when the sole superpower is resurrecting the practice of imposing national will by military might, Henry C K Liu examines this assumption in a series of articles." Part 1: The race toward barbarism, Part 2: That old time religion, Part 3: Rule of law vs Confucianism, Part 4: Taoism and modernity, Part 5: The Enlightenment and modernity, Part 6a: Imperialism as modernity, Part 6b: Imperialism and fragmentation, Part 6c: Imperialism resisted.
posted by homunculus at 11:19 AM PST - 13 comments

Happiness is a Dream of Fisher-Price
posted by anastasiav at 11:07 AM PST - 9 comments

Celluloid Skyline. New York City as a dream constructed by the movies, with reference photographs and production drawings from Hollywood.
posted by liam at 10:25 AM PST - 8 comments

Here comes the...what the hell is that? Yes, it's almost redundant to mention that bridesmaid's dresses are ugly--I've always assumed this was to make the bride look that much better by comparison. But sometimes the bride isn't doing herself any favors with her sartorial selection.
posted by adamrice at 9:33 AM PST - 30 comments

LEGO Escher is an amazing collection of some of the more famous prints by famous surrealist M.C. Escher rendered in LEGO. There's tons more like this at LUGNET (LEGO International Users Group Network).
posted by Mr_Spook at 9:00 AM PST - 14 comments

“Various people would laugh at various times [during Powell’s speech] because the information he was presenting was just, you know, didn't mean anything -- had no meaning,"
posted by specialk420 at 8:57 AM PST - 61 comments

German man arrested for teaching pet dog Nazi salute
And he had a moustache too.
(No, not the dog.)
posted by Mwongozi at 8:24 AM PST - 22 comments

If you're planning on watching the Rugby World Cup, you'll be sure to enjoy the full football experience by getting all your Rugby info via Australia's finest sporting commentators. (Last link is RealMedia - but you need to hear them to understand the appeal...) Rampaging Roy Slaven and H.G. Nelson. They love sport so much, they even call role-playing games...
posted by backOfYourMind at 8:07 AM PST - 8 comments

So You Think You Know All About Rock Music, Do You? Well, try Rough Music's Rock Challenge quiz. (Click on the top left-hand corner, where it says "Test Your Rock Knowledge", include nom-de-plume and imaginary e-mail addy - with spaces even - and prepare to ransack that befuddled memory of yours.). There's additional fun to be had by betting on each question. I loved it! Be warned, though: if you're any good, it's a great time-waster! P.S. The site itself isn't half-bad either. (Via LinkFilter.)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:16 AM PST - 23 comments

SCOTUS supports state medical-weed laws "The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a Justice Department effort to punish doctors in Washington and other states for recommending marijuana or even discussing the drug's benefits with their patients." (from google news)
posted by jfuller at 7:03 AM PST - 6 comments

Lego Master Builder search
"After kicking off at The Art Institute of California – San Diego on Thursday, Oct. 30, the official LEGO Master Model Builder Search will head to Art Institutes in Washington D.C., Boston, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Los Angeles before its final stop in Orange County, California. Winners from each city will be invited to travel to the LEGOLAND theme park in Carlsbad in 2004 to interview for the ultimate job – and the chance for the coveted spot as the seventh LEGO Master Model Builder." Ladies and gentlemen, start your brick building!
posted by Irontom at 6:26 AM PST - 6 comments

Terri Schindler Schiavo's death by starvation and dehydration is scheduled to begin at 2:00PM today, barring some sort of unlikely intervention. Despite compelling evidence that Terri is conscious of what is happening to her, and a Friend-Of-The-Court brief filed by Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the Florida courts have refused to block the removal of Terri's abdominal feeding tube. She will die in agony over the next two weeks or so.
posted by DWRoelands at 6:07 AM PST - 48 comments

USA surrenders to very small country which must mean it's Rugby Union World Cup time again! With four billion people watching, can England finally be good at something or will New Zealand prove too strong? For those of you whose only introduction to Rugby was from an episode of Friends maybe it's time to learn the sometimes complex rules.
posted by meech at 5:42 AM PST - 19 comments

The billion-dollar juggernaut that is Hello Kitty. Tokyo-based journalists Ken Belson and Brian Bremner have published a history of Japanese character-licensing company Sanrio and their most famous character, Hello Kitty. As Japanese "kawaii" (cute) culture continues to invade the world, this looks to be a great guide to the history and impact of Kitty-chan and her minions.
posted by gen at 3:18 AM PST - 21 comments

15 Days home from Iraq, then back. An interesting article about 1 soldier, out of about 3.600, that get a 2 week furlough back to the U.S., to split apart their now extended stay in Iraq. Shades of "All Quiet on the Western Front".
posted by Espoo2 at 3:10 AM PST - 7 comments

Never Too Late? Descendants of the only European ever eaten in Fiji will get an apology next month from natives. (Another account, and a nice commentary.) We did cannibalism last April, but this is more about saying you're sorry. Is it worth apologizing, after 136 years?
posted by LeLiLo at 3:08 AM PST - 14 comments

My greatest mistake. As Thomas Edison said, "I've failed my way to success"; here a cross section of British great and good confess their greatest mistakes. So, come on then - what's yours?
posted by jonvaughan at 2:33 AM PST - 13 comments

Labor Unions in a free market. Southern California is being gripped by crippling strikes by transit workers and grocery clerks -- both over health care -- that has stranded thousands of mostly poor commuters across Los Angeles and is expected to sap millions from the local economy.

As a person who can't drive due to a visual disability, I am personally effected by the MTA transit strike (that is rumored may last several months). State employees are not allowed to strike. Shouldn't that also be the case for essential services, such as public transit?
posted by lola at 9:14 PM PST - 78 comments

Mullet haiku, brought to you from the fine folks at the Beer Church (The Largest Unorganized Religion in the World!)
It's Two! Two! Two links in one!
posted by yhbc at 8:34 PM PST - 2 comments

Kafka at Camp: The Lost Diaries July 10,1897—In Arts and Crafts, that humid hut, the teacher stops. He looks down. I look up. I am working on something intricate, something simultaneously nothing and everything. It is made of paper. "I always wanted you to admire my origami," I say. "I do. I do admire it." "Well, you shouldn't," I say. "You're a weird little dude, Franzie."
posted by GriffX at 6:53 PM PST - 16 comments

China Launches Manned Space Mission

Godspeed, Yang Liwei.
posted by Argyle at 6:39 PM PST - 47 comments

Founding fathers quotations about religion. Sick of hearing fundie pundies say "the US was founded on a vision of Christianity"? Let TJ and the crew speak for themselves.
posted by condour75 at 6:38 PM PST - 36 comments

The Amazing Baconizer: Take two books, CDs or films and find out how they're connected via Amazon's "people who bought this also bought..." database. (Wiki, including a short FAQ, here.)
[via kegz on eggz]
posted by me3dia at 2:28 PM PST - 15 comments

Groundbreaking music videos (quicktime req'd) courtesy of Palm Picture's exciting new Director's Label. The first collections are courtesy of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry & Chris Cunningham.
posted by boost ventilator at 12:11 PM PST - 13 comments

Unmarried America According to stats [1,2] gathered in this BusinessWeek story, Marriage in America truly is a fading institution. Married Couple Households "have slipped from nearly 80% in the 1950s to just 50.7% today. That means that the U.S.'s 86 million single adults could soon define the new majority. Already, unmarrieds make up 42% of the workforce, 40% of home buyers, and 35% of voters..."

As a percentage, Never-marrieds, Late-marrieds, Widow(er)s, Single-sex Relationships and Unmarried Cohabitation all have grown significantly, while traditional marriage (and remarriage) has faded. I had no idea that there had been such a downturn. BusinessWeek's angle is that this is an emerging dominant demographic, and will be targeted as a whole, like Gen-X or the Baby Boomers. I Guess that means more flavors of Single-Serving Hot Pockets are on the way.
posted by kokogiak at 10:41 AM PST - 227 comments

Now it's officially a trend: Attacking the privacy of those who invade privacy (bottom of page) by publicizing their information. What's the verb for this going to be? I think "Barrying" should be a contender.
posted by soyjoy at 10:25 AM PST - 19 comments

Do you have to be black to possess that elusive quality known as "soul"? Soul Music's New Face: 16, Blond And British. Joss Stone, the 16 year-old winner of the BBC TV talent show Star for A Night, traveled to Miami to work on songs for a pop album. Instead, she hooked up with a group of gifted but long-overlooked musicians who were among the prime movers and shapers of "The Miami Sound" of the Seventies: Betty Wright ("Clean Up Woman"), Timmy Thomas ("Why Can't We Live Together"), Latimore ("Let's Straighten It Out") and Little Beaver ("Party Down"). Some of them had not been in the studio for years; Little Beaver was working for Amtrak and Timmy Thomas was a college administrator when they got the call. Together they recorded her first album, The Soul Sessions, in only four days. Listen on All Songs Considered or download full mp3 versions of the first 2 songs at Amazon.
posted by probablysteve at 10:22 AM PST - 46 comments

Riddles and more riddles - Easy Riddles and Ancient Riddles, Math Riddles and Traditional Riddles, Anglo-Saxon Riddles and Lawyer Riddles, Dirty Riddles and Logic Riddles, Medieval Riddles and Awful Riddles. Finally: Ambiguity, Classification and Change: The Function of Riddles.
posted by anastasiav at 9:33 AM PST - 14 comments

Ever wonder how people buy those fake PhDs? It turns out a number of real people, including psychologists, criminologists, and university faculty are using diploma mill degrees to earn positions. Absolutely fascinating.
posted by MikeB at 9:28 AM PST - 35 comments

A follow up on the debate concerning the Constitutionality of the pledge of allegiance. Apparently the Supreme Court is going to hear it.
posted by sourbrew at 8:58 AM PST - 25 comments

Large buttocks are pleasing to me, nor am I able to lie concerning this matter. A colorful tune is translated into Caesar's tongue. (via boingboing)
posted by gottabefunky at 8:45 AM PST - 26 comments

Americans are not going broke over lattes! Salon (warning: ad click-through required) interviews the author of a book who contends that American middle class overconsumption is a myth. This made me really think about how I relate to my $$$, and what I think is pushing me deeper into a hole. According to this author, kids are forcing people into bankruptcy, and it's not because we buy them gameboys and expensive clothes. The author also claims that credit card companies and mortgage lenders need to be regulated by the govt., as they are feeding off of middle class hardships. It's also making me wonder why real estate developers aren't building small homes anymore, at least in my state of the union.
posted by archimago at 8:13 AM PST - 88 comments

Wisconsin strip club owner discovers art. A Milwaukee Common Council committee last week agreed to designate Club Paradise, a strip club in Walker's Point, as a "Center for the Visual and Performing Arts" based on the art collection displayed there. This would allow the club to admit underage customers.
posted by Durwood at 8:08 AM PST - 9 comments

Travels in America. Another amazing resource from the Library of Congress, this contains "253 published narratives by Americans and foreign visitors recounting their travels in the colonies and the United States and their observations and opinions about American peoples, places, and society from about 1750 to 1920... The narratives in American Notes range from the unjustly neglected to the justly famous, and from classics of the genre to undiscovered gems." Go to "Search by keyword," put the name of a city into "Search Full Text," and enjoy. (The quote in the post title is about Santa Barbara, from First impressions in America by John Ayscough [pronounced "ascue"].) Via MeFi's own plep.
posted by languagehat at 8:00 AM PST - 5 comments

Hoverbump -- float your robust character around and defeat the evil El Bobo! (shockwave - via tui)
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:51 AM PST - 1 comment

Morning person or night person? "Scientists believe they may now know why some of us are early risers while others prefer to burn the midnight oil. ... Researchers have found that people with an extreme preference for early mornings are more likely to have a long version of [a gene called] Period 3." The article also notes "Your day or night preference is obviously a complex behavioural trait. It is not solely down to one single gene." My wife and son are morning people; I am a night person. I have often wondered if I, through force of will, could become a morning person and thus spend more quality time with them. Now I have my doubts. What success have Mefites had trying to change from one to the other mode?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:04 AM PST - 55 comments

So, How Often Do You Do It? And is it true the French do it more? Even, as Joni Mitchell testifies, on Main Street? And how the hell should Kullyfornia start preparing itself for Arnie's Austrian style? (Main link via Bifurcated Rivets.)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:13 AM PST - 23 comments

Seeing with sound.
A researcher in the Netherlands has developed a system that converts pictures from a head-mounted camera into highly complex soundscapes, which are then piped to the user via headphones. After only a week of use, a woman who has been blind from birth can tell a CD from a floppy, and discern whether the lights are on or off. Not quite up to either a bat and/or Daredevil standards, but very cool nonetheless.
posted by Irontom at 4:12 AM PST - 5 comments

Group Hug People Time to confess people. On the site or in the thread.
posted by Frasermoo at 3:07 AM PST - 28 comments

Half century in an iron lung. Actually, its not really, but there's still plenty in this story to make you wince.
posted by biffa at 3:00 AM PST - 10 comments

Starts with an "S" and ends with "ne" and is used to fill breast implants... That's right, silicone is trying to make a comeback as the "it" choice for filling up those implants instead of saline. What's that? They're unsafe? There's a company out there that would like nothing better than to change your mind.
posted by jeddings at 11:31 PM PST - 14 comments

Wink Hauntlie--ghost about town Just the world's most charming homosexual ghost. (4 adorable comics so far--a little well-done halloween fun from the guy who does diesel sweeties)
posted by amberglow at 9:37 PM PST - 11 comments

Alien Space Bugs Attack! [note: Shockwave] ... Cool online 3D first person shooter.
posted by crunchland at 8:56 PM PST - 9 comments

Wang Quingsong: Photos.
posted by hama7 at 6:10 PM PST - 10 comments

Mother of the avant-garde: Maya Deren was a passionate 'visual poet,' student of voudoun, and a revolutionary in experimental film who was fascinated by modern dance and Shaolin martial arts... prodigious work for a Ukrainian immigrant in 1940's America.
posted by moonbird at 5:18 PM PST - 6 comments

South African township art , urban art, and recycled craft, some of it inspired by the anti-apartheid struggle or day-to-day survival in the post-apartheid era (and a common 'language' in multi-lingual townships).
posted by plep at 2:08 PM PST - 2 comments

This square will soon be called NikePlatz. Nike remakes a square in Vienna. A new sort of spatial theory.
posted by the fire you left me at 12:41 PM PST - 25 comments

Why does North Korea hate America? Warning: Quicktime video, and NSFW to boot. Anti-American propaganda video made by North Koreans, for North Koreans. Unintentionally funny, or sheer genius? You be the judge.
posted by moonbiter at 11:58 AM PST - 51 comments

Another aide embarrasses the GOP? The WaPo reported this weekend about Joby Fortson's memo leak, and the Texas Democratic Party appears to have the whole email. While my own sensibilities are mostly offended that the U.S. Congress apparently doesn't have spell-check, it's hard nonetheless not to think also of Paul Tripplehorn's break-up and Kit Bond's aide's tacky website named for the plane that killed Dem Missouri gov Mel Carnahan. Discretion, valor, yadda.
posted by pineapple at 11:54 AM PST - 38 comments

The war on drugs is unfairly targeting doctors who prescribe legal pain medication to their patients who suffer from chronic pain, according to a spokeswoman of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. She was speaking at a press conference of patient and physician advocacy groups, sponsored by the Pain Relief Network, in support of Dr. William Hurwitz. Dr. Hurwitz has been indicted and imprisoned for prescribing high doses of opioid pain relievers, as have other pain-management doctors. But these crackdowns may end up doing more harm than good to patients in chronic pain. [More inside.]
posted by homunculus at 11:50 AM PST - 22 comments

Phylogeny recapitulates potheads. Apparently getting stoned affects the behavior of the smoker's sperm. The little guys start out really excited but then burn out before achieving their goals. Why does this sound familiar? Would it be a good ad campaign? Ah, I can't be bothered to figure it out, pass the bong.
posted by alms at 11:02 AM PST - 23 comments

Chronology of Wilsongate Articles Some may scream "overkill," but I found this illuminating and bookmark-worthy even though I've been reading everything I can find on this scandal. New blogger Alex Parker has compiled links to all the relevant pieces in this story, with annotations. As the WH strategy seems to be to constantly confuse us about what facts are nailed down and who knew, or said, what, to whom, and when, this is a good BS-cutter. (via Calpundit)
posted by soyjoy at 10:16 AM PST - 5 comments

We will create a cybernetic race of robo-monkeys. [via Washington Post]
posted by gwong at 7:37 AM PST - 34 comments

Sim Gallery Project is calling for entries, they want proposals for works or performances to exhibit in a gallery space constructed within Sims Online
posted by atom71 at 1:39 AM PST - 1 comment

You Are As Old As You Feel But... You feel old anyway, right? Well, senectitude is not just an attitude, dude. You are getting older. Deal with it. Listen, for instance, to old man Cicero. He knows. And if you're still enough of a spring chicken to wonder what your emotional age is, (not to mention tolerate Oprah), here's a little consolatory quiz to pep you up.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:22 PM PST - 24 comments

SharingTheGroove.org Trade concerts at this site where BitTorrent tech is combined with DAT concert taping audiophiles. You can read the boards to find music or you can just check their bitTorrent tracker. If you want to go low tech they also have Blanks & Postage or Tree/Vine forums.
posted by srboisvert at 2:31 PM PST - 17 comments

Forgotten Detroit ; the Book-Cadillac, an abandoned hotel in Detroit; Indiana Historic Architecture; the history of Hammond, Indiana; Marktown Historic District, East Chicago, Indiana. The American Midwest seems to be full of interesting, crumbly places.
posted by plep at 1:40 PM PST - 12 comments

The Open Video Project offers nearly 2,000 videos from various sources and collections, including such gems as 34 reels from the 1930s and 40s in the Digital Himalaya Project, a series of classic television commercials, and, from the Library of Congress, some shorts from the early 1900s, including the popular 2 a.m. in the Subway and A Ballroom Tragedy ("Vaudeville" is a good search term for finding more like this). Also, especially for MeFi, Johnny Learns His Manners.
posted by taz at 12:11 PM PST - 16 comments

Boudicca (also known as Boadicea) was the queen of the Celtic Iceni tribe in eastern Britain in 60 AD. As recorded by Tacitus and Cassius Dio, she led a brutal revolt against the Romans and razed London and Southwark. There's a famous statue of her at Westminster Bridge, and Masterpiece Theatre has produced a new historical drama about her, Warrior Queen.
posted by homunculus at 11:32 AM PST - 23 comments

Someone doesn't like Hotmail very much and has decided to offer a cruder alternative. Not safe for working really. Contains strong language.
posted by feelinglistless at 10:40 AM PST - 11 comments

Album Cover Challenge. The challenge is this: there are sixty album covers - some better known than others, but none willfully obscure - from which the artist and title information has been removed. Can you identify all the albums and provide the missing information? [via Travelers Diagram]
posted by soundofsuburbia at 5:40 AM PST - 60 comments

Drink-o-meter: Have you ever wondered how much you've managed to drink in your lifetime? Or how much it might have cost you? You have? (via B3ta)
posted by Ljubljana at 5:21 AM PST - 18 comments

cuneiform digital library A digital library that allows you to browse pictures of cueiform tablets.
posted by rdr at 4:14 AM PST - 3 comments

The Hermitary, a website about being on your tod. Don't miss the blog.
posted by ceiriog at 3:54 AM PST - 10 comments

Aperture Enzyme. Documenting the Toronto indie music scene in pictures.
posted by dobbs at 11:51 PM PST - 7 comments

Many soldiers, same letter.
posted by thedailygrowl at 10:56 PM PST - 31 comments

Barely Edible, But Sometimes Life-Saving: Famine Foods are valiantly being documented in Ethiopia in an effort to spread knowledge and alleviate disaster. The research into famine foods is also a stark reminder of the starving millions of this world and, quite probably, of the continuing failure of the fight against extreme hunger and poverty. The highly restrictive policies and generous subsidies of the fat Western nations come to mind. That's if inveterate foodies don't start pouring over the list in search of possible new trendy vegetables...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:35 PM PST - 13 comments

The Greatest Pumpkin Pie. Just in time, I hope, for your Thanksgiving dinners, I declare the world's best "pumpkin" pie. More inside.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:28 PM PST - 45 comments

U.S. May Expand Access To Endangered Species. With this year being the 30th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, the Bush Administration is considering proposals that "would allow hunters, circuses and the pet industry to kill, capture and import animals on the brink of extinction in other countries."
posted by Stynxno at 3:17 PM PST - 49 comments

The shape of the universe may well be a dodecahedron. New research from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe suggests a finite universe with a definite shape. One up for Plato, who, following Pythagoras, maintained that “God used this solid for the whole universe, embroidering figures on it.”. So it appears. .. all expressed much more lucidly by the Economist.
posted by grahamwell at 1:21 PM PST - 14 comments

The Greatest Stories Ever Told (in Esquire) The magazine picks six candidates to be the best story from its first 70 years. Gay Talese's "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" was their choice as the best.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:12 AM PST - 6 comments

A bucket of water is sold on eBay - not just another crazy auction, as the joke soon turned into a fund raising event.
posted by Orange Goblin at 10:09 AM PST - 3 comments

You are fat because there is too much corn. [NYT, forfeit of first-born son required] I love good old-fashioned materialism, and Michael Pollan (author of The Botany of Desire) scores one for the team with this article on the economics of corn production. Are we fat because New Deal agricultural policy was overturned in the 70s by Rusty Butz? Now there's a trailing question we can all enjoy.
posted by condour75 at 10:09 AM PST - 31 comments

"I looked at the man I shot. He was alive but in bad shape. He looked at me and said that I was lucky that I shot him since he was going to kill all of us niggers."
Really? Just trying to put myself in the mind of a failed white burglar/assassin: If I was shot & bleeding on a black homeowner's living room floor, with his shotgun still pointing at me, would I racially abuse him? Smells fishy to me... Maybe this is a case for MojoFilter?
posted by dash_slot- at 9:34 AM PST - 30 comments

Leno is for elephants (NYT link), Letterman is for donkeys. When did Late Night TV get so political?
posted by adrober at 9:14 AM PST - 31 comments

Did anyone else make the mistake of ordering the worst pay-per-view ever? No, not The House of 1000 Corpses, but ten admittedly beautiful women wearing huge headgear and attempting (with little success) to pound the crap out of each other. It sounds better than it actually was -- trust me!
posted by johnnydark at 8:47 AM PST - 16 comments

Today is the Bands Against Bush International Day of Action. They're encouraging people to get out and go see a band in their local area in protest against George W Bush's presidency. But other than a piece in Rolling Stone and another in Careless Talk Costs Lives magazine, I don't think they've got much in the way of coverage. I'd hate to see all their effort go to waste. Or is informing people about the event on the day itself too late? Would you be able to organise something in time? Well, no. But bands like Radiohead and Coldplay are always going on about how political they are - now let's see them do something about it in the future.
posted by tapeguy at 7:01 AM PST - 25 comments

Science fiction writers on Arnold Schwarzenegger's election as California gov. (more inside)
posted by Tlogmer at 4:48 AM PST - 21 comments

Dominance and Its Dilemmas Noam Chomsky.What more be said? Those on the Left: Appaud. On the Right: sneer. If you are brither than a 15 watt bulb : read and then decide.
posted by Postroad at 4:16 AM PST - 17 comments

Domo-kun! Domokun is "a small brown open-mouthed monster hatched from an egg who lives with a wise old rabbit underground." In Japan, he's the mascot of the NHK BS2 channel and is the star of a series of stop-motion shorts (100MB .mov), the fun and warmth of which aren't lost in translation. In the western world, Domokun is better known as the monster chasing that cute little kitty.
posted by adrianhon at 2:25 AM PST - 13 comments

The Mandala Project by artist Genevieve Gauckler will make you happy. I promise. (For more happiness, also see The Emperors, L'Arbre Généalogique, and everything else.)
posted by taz at 12:59 AM PST - 3 comments

How about tolerance for all? These regular protests in Utah (or other LDS-dense populations) don't seem to make much news, though they'd probably be scandalous if performed against other religious groups.
posted by oissubke at 11:44 PM PST - 133 comments

"We entered the country at midnight on March 26..." Isn't a bit odd how these letters -- all with different signatures at the bottom -- are identical? Pfc. David Deaconson and Spc. Nathan Whitelatch, for example, don't just seem to have the same writing style, they have the same writing! It would seem that at least some parts of the US government still don't quite get the internet. Is this kind of letters-to-the-editor war propaganda standard operating procedure?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:44 PM PST - 34 comments

Armand Hammer: loved, hated and investigated. An enigmatic icon and philanthropist , he was branded as either a communist sympathizer or a monopolistic capitalist.
posted by moonbird at 8:49 PM PST - 8 comments

I always thought non-alcoholic beer would be disgusting, but... ya know... thish shtuff ish reeeeeally awwriiiiiight! (OK, it's only a measly 850 twelve-packs. But I'm already imagining scenarios...lawsuits?)
posted by soyjoy at 2:28 PM PST - 31 comments

Shedworks / uncommon scenes. Naked women. In run down, abandoned buildings. In german. What else do you need to know? NSFW, probably, but that really depends on where you work.
posted by signal at 2:25 PM PST - 15 comments

"I am no victim and do not portray myself as such. I take full responsibility for my problem." Rush Limbaugh finally admits to what everyone's been guessing for a while now...to read the text of his statement, he claims to be making a clean breast of things and taking full responsibility for his own actions. Is this really an example of a vocal ideologue finally living up the standards they proclaim, or is it somehow readable as self-serving hypocrisy?
posted by LairBob at 2:01 PM PST - 129 comments

Did you know that you can Rent the Principality of Liechtenstein (or any of six villages in Austria or Germany) for weddings and corporate events?
Flash Warning Inside!
posted by anastasiav at 1:45 PM PST - 8 comments

Luft '46 - WWII German aircraft projects A great resource for aviation enthusiasts and alternative historians. Aspects of some of these designs can be seen in the most modern planes, like the B-2 bomber or the Beechcraft Starship 2000.
posted by lazy-ville at 1:33 PM PST - 5 comments

Magic Cube 4D [note: java]
posted by crunchland at 1:20 PM PST - 8 comments

A certain psychologist of Hungarian extraction, Mihaly Csikszentimihaly--sounds like stoned sex-crazed muppet: Me High-ee! Chicks sent me highee!--began by monitoring the activities and emotional states of talented adolescent artists with what became known as experience sampling forms, now available in a new, improved hi tech version. He found people reported the greatest satisfaction when actively involved in a challenging task that stretches abilities, to the extent that time, space, and self-awareness become secondary to the accomplishment of the task. He wrote a book about it, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, which flew off the shelves in the Self Help sections of bookstores everywhere--even though there were no easy steps nor Idiots Guide To... included beyond an academic enunciation of the parameters involved: the zone of experience in which Flow existed. [More Within]
posted by y2karl at 1:02 PM PST - 22 comments

Bill of Rights golf! Or, if you'd prefer, "Who wants to Marry a Founding Father?"
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:29 PM PST - 2 comments

More pesky voting machine problems
posted by sourbrew at 9:45 AM PST - 36 comments

ten years of my life seems to be our fearless leader's newest project.
it's an idea i've picked up from time to time and then discarded because i don't think i have the discipline. does anyone know if similar projects out there?
go matt! i'm looking forward to this a lot. (via boing boing)
posted by dolface at 9:31 AM PST - 30 comments

Some believe that Michelangelo's famous work the Creation of Adam depicts God superimposed on a cross-section of a human brain. Michelangelo routinely made use of symbolism and humor in both his painting and sculpture. Was he suggesting man created God? If so, this is delicious irony.
posted by gruchall at 9:23 AM PST - 18 comments

Student sued after revealing CD copying secret. Apparently SunnComm Technologies is under the impression that mentioning that using the "shift" key on your computer will override its program's installation is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. And also, the company's lost $10 million in market value since the story aired. Which may also have something to do with it.
posted by jscalzi at 9:03 AM PST - 20 comments

Nipsey Russell's Funky Palace "Hands down, Nipsey Russell is simply an entertainment master. His work in Vaudville, The Match Game, $20,000 Pryamid and The Hollywood Squares all represent wonders of modern entertainment. However, they pale in comparison to his greatest work, breathing new life into the Disco inspired Tin-Man character in the '70's revival of the classic Wizard of Oz film known as The Wiz." This hyperbole-spouting little site also includes photographs of vintage vinyl from the couplet comic himself.
posted by NedKoppel at 8:53 AM PST - 4 comments

Developers gripe about IE standards inaction "Seeking to goad Microsoft into action, digital document giant Adobe Systems last week unveiled a deal to bolster support for CSS in its GoLive Web authoring tool with technology from tiny Web browser maker Opera Software..." ( via Stopdesign )
posted by poopy at 8:11 AM PST - 17 comments

Impeach "the crazies" now! "Can there be any greater violation of the public trust than to bear false witness to the people's representatives in pursuit of short-term political gain? Can there be injuries more immediate to society than to send American citizens to their death on a fraudulent pretext? With each shooting of a U.S. soldier in Iraq, the case for impeachment grows stronger."
posted by acrobat at 8:04 AM PST - 27 comments

Emeril vs. Cthulhu I don't even know how I ran across this - searching for lobster recipes, I think. A bit of Friday humor for all you Lovecraft fans.
posted by starvingartist at 7:57 AM PST - 10 comments

The Thing With Two Heads! (asf and avi files within) A quick friday diversion, with bonus G.I. Joe remixes. Best worst movie ever?
posted by mcsweetie at 5:47 AM PST - 9 comments

Breathtaking Hubble picture of the Sombrero Galaxy (also identified as M104). The Hubble Heritage team took the original images during May and June of this year using the Advanced Camera for Surveys and multiple color filters. They then stitched 6 images together to make the final composite image.
posted by Irontom at 5:41 AM PST - 38 comments

Pssst. Wanna buy a neuron?
posted by yoga at 5:30 AM PST - 4 comments

Being snubbed socially provokes exactly the same brain response as being physically hurt, say US researchers.
posted by MintSauce at 5:28 AM PST - 16 comments

Construction of the Scottish Parliament in Pictures. The site was way over its budget even before they'd started building it, but it's nice to see they're at least doing something creative with the design. Being a lucky soul, I get to walk past this monstrosity every single day.
posted by bwerdmuller at 4:56 AM PST - 15 comments

Deserts of Our World: A Literary Adventure. Interesting stories and essays, such as birth among the Bushmen.
posted by plep at 4:49 AM PST - 4 comments

The Knockoff Project. Album cover homages and rip-offs.
posted by jimmy at 4:36 AM PST - 12 comments

Won't somebody think of the children? Wired News reports that a Mexican company has launched a service to implant RFID verichips (Technology That Cares) into children as an anti-kidnapping device. "The company envisions placing walk-through scanners -- similar to metal-detector portals used in airports -- in malls, bus stations and other areas where a missing child may appear." Similar plans have been proposed before by the UK's Kevin "Captain Cyborg" Warwick, but while his plans to use the mobile phone network are implausible, this method seems more feasible. So, why not sign up to get chipped today!
posted by TheophileEscargot at 4:35 AM PST - 14 comments

Shirin Ebadi wins Nobel Peace Prize Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi has won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2003. Ebadi is Iran's first female judge and a leading figure in the struggle for women's and children's rights in Iran. She is known for representing the interests of persecuted individuals and has braved reprisals for her beliefs.
posted by dagny at 2:37 AM PST - 8 comments

Russia to price oil in euros
posted by poodlemouthe at 12:18 AM PST - 43 comments

Smithsonian Magazine is holding its first-ever photo contest, open to all adult non-professional photographers to submit entries in five categories. (Professionals may want to see about freelance opportunities here.) I find it particularly nice that there is no entry fee, and no citizenship requirements. For inspiration you may want to browse a gallery of Smithsonian freelance photographers or view the beautiful (and seasonally appropriate) Ghost Towns by Night Light and pick up a few tips on night photography from the photographer.
posted by taz at 12:09 AM PST - 23 comments

The Seven Year Itch (Not To Mention The Solution To All Your Financial Problems): Bankruptcy! Clarissa Dickson-Wright, the surviving (blonder; more corpulent; less Mediterranean; less adept at actually cooking) half of the wonderful BBC cooking show Two Fat Ladies, serves a salty and amusing column on bankruptcy. For those deep in debt - never mind how paltry the sums involved - it offers a legal, no-more-stiff-letters-and-phonecalls solution. And the consequences, credit-wise, seem only to last 7 years. As someone who's lunatically overspent ever since I was born, growing worse and more debt-ridden ever since, I'm sorely tempted. But the apparent immorality of it keeps holding me back. To what extent is it a viable alternative? Are we hoi polloi suckers for not using it more? I mean, rich people use it mercilessly all the time!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:46 PM PST - 51 comments

In the market for sky high real estate? You can build your very own, hire a contractor, or just rent.
posted by moonbird at 8:04 PM PST - 5 comments

"I will hire an outside independent auditor, free of political influence..." Schwarzenegger breaks promise to Californians, hires Donna Arduin to head the 60-day audit of California. Arduin is "on loan" from Florida, where she is Jeb Bush's Budget director. Arduin has been criticized by economists and even prominent Florida republicans for "surreal",misleading, unrealistic, and risky accounting procedures. During her stint as Budget Director, Ms. Arduin oversaw numerous tax cuts aimed at the wealthiest Floridians, while most Floridians saw no significant decrease in taxes. Infact, today Florida has the second most regressive taxes in the nation.The effects of these tax cuts? Unprecidented shortfalls in state tax revenues, with massive budget cuts for public schools, universities, child welfare, vision services for uninsured children, etc.
Class warfare, anyone?!
posted by insomnia_lj at 6:10 PM PST - 63 comments

Peter Ha Photographs.
posted by hama7 at 5:10 PM PST - 8 comments

Ventriloquist dummies...yikes! Lots of kids are scared of clowns, but for my money, there's nothing creepier than these shiny faced little wooden psychopaths. Ahoy, serious nightmare fuel ahead!
posted by MrBaliHai at 3:53 PM PST - 25 comments

This Monopoly parody is causing quite a fuss among "black leaders". Is it a stereotype of the "ghetto life" image the media shows us? Sure. But is this game (and the "ghetto life" image) a stereotype that you connect directly to dark-skinned people, as the clergymen seem to think?
posted by bhayes82 at 3:27 PM PST - 66 comments

Behold the fuzzback! The new $20 bill comes out today, with its peachy background stripe. For a little perspective in how far we've come, Check out U.S. Currency from the past. The largest denomination paper U.S. currency (for bank transfers in the day before electronic money) to the a small denomination in paper (payable in gold dust). The smallest I could find is a 2-cent bill issued by a druggist.
posted by meep at 1:03 PM PST - 21 comments

Vladimir Brajovic does interesting research on "reflectance perception". The result: the Shadow Illuminator, a site that brings out amazing amounts of detail in the shadowy parts of your digital images.
posted by tss at 12:06 PM PST - 23 comments

Ronald Dworkin’s Rights and Terror [pdf]. At NYU's Colloquium in Legal, Political and Social Philosophy, Dworkin provides a useful catalogue of the Bush administration’s restrictions on the rights of both citizens and non-citizens of the US since September 11th. Via Crooked Timber and Larry Solum's Legal Theory Blog.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 11:51 AM PST - 3 comments

Sex makes you smell better. Er, in that it improves your sense of smell. And it reduces the risk of heart disease. And relieves pain. And even improves teeth. This Forbes article explains those and other health benefits of getting a little something-something.
posted by NortonDC at 11:45 AM PST - 32 comments

The new Islam. Husam Tammam and Patrick Haenni in Le Monde (English version) describe the new forms of Islamic culture taking shape in Egypt. I follow the Islamic world fairly closely, but this was news to me. Does it herald an Islam that can live with the rest of the world (and vice versa)?

This entry, both with the hijab [veil] and the nashid [religious chant], into consumerism and syncretism with non-Arab models, has led to an implicit questioning of the old puritanism of the 1970s and 1980s - and above all a questioning of the principle of the ideologisation of religion. The change is important: we could trace similar patterns in the Islamic economy, increasingly affected by the ups and downs of international finance; or in Islamic charity, which has been rethought, within a framework of neoliberalism, as a security net to replace the state's withdrawal from this area (a withdrawal the Islamists have widely supported).

(Via Path of the Paddle.)
posted by languagehat at 10:24 AM PST - 9 comments

what do you call your circle of friends? Two years ago, Ethan Watters wrote an article in the NY Times Sunday Magazine, covering the current phenomenon amongst adults who are marrying late, waiting for the 'right one', and using an extended social circle to fill the need for intimacy and emotional support that has been traditionally provided by a marriage. He has expanded the topic into a book covering groups of friends that have the characteristics of 'an urban tribe' bound by a shared culture of inside jokes, origin myths and communal rituals. Does this apply to your social set? Do you have a Yahoogroup or a Friendster bulletin board that is used to plan movie nights, pubcrawls or group vacations? Does introducing a new romantic partner to your friends feel more stressful than introducing them to your family? Conversely, do you need a chart to track who has dated whom, who has slept with whom, and who has had more than their fair share of drunken hookups? Or is this all one man's conflated introspection of his extended bachelorship?
posted by bl1nk at 10:13 AM PST - 23 comments

astrology in the internet age in the era of full-disclosure, even the astrology sites admit that it's all bogus.
posted by jamsterdam at 9:04 AM PST - 32 comments

I created this website because it seemed to me important that Americans said thank you to Prime Minister Tony Blair and the British people.
posted by i_cola at 8:50 AM PST - 48 comments

Vatican declares fresh Death all around. It seems the Vatican is telling people in countries with high AIDS infection not to use condoms, because the virus is small enough to pass through the porous latex. The World Health Organization believes condoms do reduce the risk of AIDS transmission. To which the Vatican's Cardinal Trujillo replied: "They are wrong about that... this is an easily recognisable fact."
posted by the fire you left me at 8:49 AM PST - 91 comments

eMusic Ends Unlimited Service - starting in November, $10/month only gets you 40 downloads. They're "pleased" to announce $50/month for 300 downloads. eMusic has been one of my favorite sites for a while. Just a moment ago, I cancelled my subscription.
posted by Fantt at 6:27 AM PST - 97 comments

Limerick Challenge. In celebration of National Poetry Day we are invited to write a limerick beginning with the line "On Arnie's first day in the job..." with a warning that "BBC taste and decency guidelines apply". Fortunately there are no such guidelines here.
posted by cbrody at 6:22 AM PST - 48 comments

What do Al Jazeera, AOL, Salam Pax and Sheffield City Council all have in common? Well according to PoliticsOnline they are all "Changing the World of Internet and Politics"...
posted by chill at 6:04 AM PST - 3 comments

Pay your electricity bill -- or Fluffy gets it. Russia's First Channel television reported Dalenergo, an electricity company in Russia's Far Eastern city Vladivostok, is so frustrated by customers who owe around 300 million roubles (6 million pounds) that it has decided to confiscate their pets.
posted by gregb1007 at 4:55 AM PST - 7 comments

Razanne, the Muslim alternative to this, this, this, or this
(Last link possibly NSFW?)
posted by magullo at 1:42 AM PST - 21 comments

Go Ahead And Leave Me, See If I Care! Was not what the late, great Jacques Brel sung. Oh no. (Scott Walker, imo, did the best cover.) And last Tuesday a 16-CD collection was launched, with all his songs - and then some, including 5 he specifically stated he never wanted released. I've heard two of the songs - they're wonderful. But the question remains, with echoes of Kafka telling his friend Max Brod to burn all his manuscripts: should the wishes of dead artists be respected? Does time - in this case 25 years since his death - make it any less problematic? Or the fact that the publication was approved by the Jacques Brel Estate, i.e., his widow? (My favourite Brel song, btw, is his wistful, sardonic tribute to his country: flat, boring Belgium: Le plat pays. It never fails to exercise the tear ducts, nope, never...)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:57 PM PST - 31 comments

MCCXIII is an excellent club in DC. But the reason I link their site is because I am in absolute awe of their web design.
posted by BlueTrain at 9:52 PM PST - 54 comments

Just how large is 87 billion dollars exactly? It's this large, about the size of three costco warehouses by the looks of it.
posted by mathowie at 8:45 PM PST - 57 comments

"Now, this:" Neil Postman dies at 72, on the same day Americans elect a "talking hairdo" to high political office. If that doesn't seem ironic, you probably didn't read Amusing Ourselves to Death, his best-known book. But I did, and as I only realized today, it deeply and permanently affected my worldview. Anybody else? (via Atrios)
posted by soyjoy at 8:29 PM PST - 21 comments

Kilokat's Antique Light Bulb & Vacuum Tube Site
From the pre-1900 antique lamp bulbs to the Crookes and Geissler Tubes, box art and ephemera , I enjoyed exploring this man's magnificent obsession.
posted by quonsar at 6:40 PM PST - 13 comments

A third-rate bugging? Did Pennsylvania Republicans plant listening devices to gain an advantage in the next Philadelphia mayoral election? I think they did and in his words, that's the truth!
posted by Bag Man at 5:59 PM PST - 16 comments

WiFi-SM is "a Wi-Fi-capable patch you stick on your body so you can feel painful shocks whenever news stories are published containing keywords that you enter into the software". (via Mikes List) Who needs this when we have MetaFilter?...
posted by marvin at 5:28 PM PST - 11 comments

But nudity is part of our culture! In a rare move, a French advertising sector association has called on underwear manufacturer Triumph to withdraw a billboard campaign for its Sloggi range, which has been widely condemned as offensive to women. The fear among advertisers is that the ad with its explicit exposure of the models' buttocks will prompt the government to replace the existing system of industry self-regulation with laws on what can and cannot be portrayed in ads.

Some pretty good lines here:

• "It's the strip-tease context which is the problem in the Sloggi ads. ... It is very damaging for the image of advertising," said Joseph Besnainou
• "Since the 19th century, the dress code of prostitutes has tended to set the tone for women as a whole," feminist author Florence Montreynard told LCI television.
• "These models are beautiful by some criteria, but their buttocks are those of adolescents rather than of real women. Are women supposed to get a complex about that?"
• "But nudity will always be used in adverts in France," he said. "It's part of our culture."

The link to some of the ad creative in question. Caution: Flash required, as well as it being not necessarily safe for France, which means it's definitely NSFW in the English speaking world.
posted by psmealey at 2:46 PM PST - 37 comments

O'Reilly "self-terminates" interview on NPR's "Fresh Air" In an apparent effort to balance having had Al Franken last week, NPR's "Fresh Air" asked Bill O' Reilly to appear on today's show. Apparently, O'Reilly eventually decided that it was too much of an "attack" interview, and left.
posted by LairBob at 2:29 PM PST - 101 comments

The Confluence Project aims to "visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location." Includes stories from each documented point.
posted by moonbird at 2:18 PM PST - 14 comments

The results are in! the MeFi guesses weren't too far off, and Escher wins the domokun, while ook wins the booby prize.
posted by mathowie at 2:02 PM PST - 17 comments

Looking over this list of corruption levels by country, it is evident that there is some correlation between corruption and quality of life. But which is cause and which is effect? And since these numbers are only relative, are things getting better overall, or worse? How corrupt is your country?
posted by eas98 at 12:57 PM PST - 11 comments

They fixed my boo-boo. (warning - graphic pix)
Did you ever see this picture? It makes the email forwarding rounds ever so often, and is a fixture in the pro-life community. Taken in 1999, it shows a tiny hand touching the finger of one of the doctors involved in a spina bifida corrective operation. At the time, the fetus was 21 weeks old. Late last month, Samuel Armas (the boy the fetus became) testified briefly before a subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee examining scientific and medical advances in prenatal surgery. [more inside]
posted by Irontom at 12:39 PM PST - 22 comments

This animation shows that biologically and socially relevant information about a person can be conveyed in biological motion patterns. You can adjust the moving figure in four areas: male/female, heavy/light, nervous/relaxed, and happy/sad. While I was intrigued by the concept, I'm not completely sure that the moving figure conveyed the state I had intended.
(I found using 'lines' provided a clearer image of someone walking)
posted by darsh at 12:34 PM PST - 13 comments

This is really, really f------ brilliant. The FCC says the f-word is OK on network TV, as long as it doesn't refer to the sexual act. Naturally, some groups don't like dirty talk. Is this a sea change in the level of discourse, or is the FCC finally acknowledging that it's useless to protect kids from our favorite four-letter word? (Second link is a .pdf file.)
posted by sixpack at 11:37 AM PST - 103 comments

The Book of Roofs is a site to take your time with. Originally an art installation, the web site is a look at the concept of roofs - anthropological, biological, spiritual, metaphysical, social and political - in a collection of "roof tiles" consisting of short articles, personal narratives, mythological references, quotes, historic events, video and photographs, all related to the concept of shelter. If you feel so moved you can even contribute your own tile. Flash and sound
posted by taz at 11:29 AM PST - 2 comments

Is Howard Dean conducting viral marketing? [more inside]
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 10:38 AM PST - 29 comments

Saving Private Lynch From Misinformation.
John Fasano (screenwriter of such classics as Darkness Falls, Megiddo: The Omega Code 2, and Another 48 Hours) offers a very interesting caveat regarding his in-production film about the icon apparent (or not) of Operation Iraqi Freedom. This begs the question: With a public undoubtedly waiting for this made-for-TV movie to know "what really happened to Jessica" and such a blurred line between truth and propaganda, is this responsible movie-making? Many Americans turn to Hollywood for their history lessons, so I have to wonder...
posted by grabbingsand at 9:15 AM PST - 21 comments

Weblogging, the fad most poplular amongst teenage girls, is dying. The "blogosphere" will number ten million souls by the end of 2004, but almost all of them will be dead.
posted by the fire you left me at 8:34 AM PST - 31 comments

US TV news too liberal, say Americans. Nearly half of Americans think its news media is too liberal despite the rise of controversial hard-right cable channel Fox News. Only 14% of Americans believe the media to be too conservative, according to a poll by Gallup.
posted by MintSauce at 8:23 AM PST - 67 comments

Kennedy To Receive Bush Public Service Award
Say Whaaat? "The George Bush Presidential Library Foundation announced that United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy would receive the 2003 George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service." The Elder Bush selects the winner of this award personally... This must mean either that (a) W. had stopped accepting phone calls from his dad or (b) he will now...
posted by wendell at 3:12 AM PST - 8 comments

Arnie wins in california, a victory for Mr schwarzenegger. For a man whose acting ability was described as going all the way from A to B, lets hope for the sake of californians that he is somewhat more adept at politics.
posted by johnnyboy at 1:32 AM PST - 183 comments

"Before the invention of modern billboards, sign painters used to paint advertisements and company names directly onto building walls. These gradually fading painted signs are known as ghost signs."
posted by dobbs at 12:01 AM PST - 28 comments

The Virtual Booktour, brainchild of Kevin Smokler, is currently touring Screening Party, by Denis Hensley.
Stop by and see where the tour goes next!
posted by tomcosgrave at 3:39 PM PST - 1 comment

This weekend the Chinati foundation will be hosting its annual open house in Marfa, Texas. This year the guest artist will be Claes Oldenburg who will be giving lectures on his work and his processes. The Chinati foundation was founded by artist Donald Judd when he decided to move to the wilds of West Texas and enjoy the open expanse of anti-civilization. At the foundation you can enjoy Judd's 100 steel boxes or peruse permanent installations by minimalist Dan Flavin or John Chamberlain. The foundation has created quite a stir, and this year should be no different. This once dying town has been revived through art and one man's vision.
posted by Benway at 3:18 PM PST - 7 comments

The Best-Kept Data-Superpower Secret on the Web RootsWeb is one of the older sites on the Net, and has one of the densest data collections, but it gets very few props. Almost all of the (we're talking terabytes here) data is a.) free; b.) user-contributed. It was open-source and public domain when Linus Torvalds, bless his soul, was still muddling through high school. Sugar-daddy site Ancestry.com does a lot of advertising, but you hardly ever heard about homely, brilliant RootsWeb. RootsWeb hosts many of sites that make up the WorldGenWeb Project, a loose network of genealogical and historical data repositories organized by locality, from the AfghanistanGenWeb through the USGenWeb all the way to the ZimbabweGenWeb. Rootsweb's Social Security Death Index UI is excellent--use it to search for a record amongst 70 million available. The WorldConnect database offers up the family trees of 298,212,965 people. Remember the domain, because after this when you Google, you'll be impressed (I believe) by how many content-heavy sites are hosted by RootsWeb. Any other RootsWeb-hosted sites that MeFites enjoy?
posted by jengod at 2:57 PM PST - 12 comments

The Computer History Museum is hosting this years Vintage Computer Festival in Mountain View, California. Featuring live demonstatrions of a Xerox Alto as well as an auction for a Commodore 64 prototype, this year promises to be fun for geeks of all ages. (via Wired)
posted by starscream at 1:59 PM PST - 5 comments

Scott County, Iowa A very informative website about Scott County, Iowa. Including, but not limited to, Meet Meet Your Motor Grader Operator and Scott County's most wanted.
posted by lazy-ville at 1:40 PM PST - 10 comments

Virus replication is a feature! "If you are using a Macintosh e-mail program that is not from Microsoft, we recommend checking with that particular company. But most likely other e-mail programs like Eudora are not designed to enable virus replication." The original URL is 404. I wonder if Microsoft will be exerting their copyrights to force archive.org to remove this.
posted by tbc at 1:17 PM PST - 3 comments

If you've bought one of BMG's new copy-protected CDs, remember to hold down the shift key while loading it into your PC. That one keystorke will let you be free to rip, mix, and burn it.
posted by mathowie at 12:49 PM PST - 38 comments

The 5pm Deadline is approaching, but the White House doesn't care. The White House--expected to turn in all documents relevant to the Justice Department investigation of the Plame affair--has instead decided that a team of lawyers ought to spend two weeks determining which evidence can be used against their clients. Meanwhile, President Bush continues his two-month initiative to get to the bottom of the matter himself.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 12:43 PM PST - 21 comments

You've laughed at them in the supermarket checkout line, now dirt Magazine lets you create your own tabloid headlines and spread vile gossip about your friends and enemies with a few keystrokes and a simple click of the mouse!
posted by MrBaliHai at 12:08 PM PST - 11 comments

Toronto in 14 hours, by Sam Javanrouh, who owns the number one Canadian photoblog: Daily Dose of Imagery
posted by hoder at 11:54 AM PST - 11 comments

Only 10 days left - Free house and internet cafe business in Alaska all you have to do is write an essay. Well, not an essay, but a story, poem, or limerick. It is tempting. But the entry fee is slowing me down. Stupid gimmick? Nifty idea?
posted by yesster at 11:11 AM PST - 17 comments

Need an Idiom? Check out The Idiom Connection. Think certain phrases are such cliches that they should be banned? Before you condemn or mock them, take a moment to learn more about the origin of some of these phrases.
::via The Tower of English::
posted by anastasiav at 10:57 AM PST - 8 comments

One of my favorite poets is Denise Duhamel, whom I met at a writer's workshop back in '94. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised to find the entire text of her first book, Smile! online.
posted by hyperizer at 9:02 AM PST - 3 comments

We can know more than we can tell. Consider The Tacit Dimension by Michael Polanyi. The Tacit Knowledge and Intuition Website has one take on Polanyi's concept of tacit knowing. Karl Erik Sveiby also has an interesting page in Tacit Knowledge and provides you the opportunity to Test Your Tacit Knowledge. Tacit knowledge and Implicit learning provides yet another view. I don't pretend to understand much of this and yet I feel the concept has merit--ah, as Wittgenstein observed, Of that of which we can not speak, we must be silent.
If you know what I mean... *rolls eyes*
posted by y2karl at 8:59 AM PST - 13 comments

Crap from the Past is a radio show with a nice song archive much in the spirit of April Winchell's (admittedly larger and better quality) sound collection. More David Hasselhoff, the original Mahna Mahna song and a lot of other crap!
posted by ikalliom at 8:47 AM PST - 5 comments

Lester Bangs, rock critic. Some reviews to read and enjoy. Patti Smith. Astral Weeks. Captain Beefheart. The Shaggs. Black Sabbath. Weather Report. Lou Reed. There are books you can read about him, too. (Previous mention in this thread.)
posted by ashbury at 7:32 AM PST - 18 comments

Cold enough yet to warm yourself by a fire? Why not add some interesting color to the flames? Chemicals to make a fire with blue, red, green, and other-colored flames are readily available, and there are a variety of methods to get the ingredients into the fire. You can also buy ready-made stones and sprinkles if you're not much of a home chemist.
posted by beth at 7:14 AM PST - 5 comments

Official Bush-Cheney '04 Blog Now Online, will offer breaking news, grassroots updates, and posts from the campaign leadership.
posted by dagny at 7:12 AM PST - 55 comments

IgNobel 2003 Prize Ceremony. [Real Player Video 1:35:43] Waste your morning listening to the Ignitaries giving their nano lectures.
posted by srboisvert at 7:05 AM PST - 1 comment

Alphabet Evolution
See the evolutionary progression of alphabets through time and cultures. Examples include Cuneiform, Phoenician, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, modern Cyrillic and the Latin character sets. The Latin is the best documented character set and requires a wide screen to see all the evolutionary events (especially Y and Z)
posted by Irontom at 5:44 AM PST - 9 comments

Foamy the Squirrel's long and funny rant. Here's a (Save-target-as) link if you prefer.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 5:03 AM PST - 15 comments

Might as well jump. JUMP! An interesting article (nicked from linkfilter) about suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge. Only 26 people are known to have survived the 220 ft drop into water 350ft deep. I have been across the bridge once and was "amused" by the fact that there is a free counselling phone as you get halfway across. Reading this article and realising the numbers involved, it suddenly seems less funny... BTW, the jumper (who before he went a second time was one of the 26) protesting the Iraq War was discussed here.
posted by jontyjago at 3:11 AM PST - 38 comments

Fragment: a writing meme. For creative writers who might need a small nudge in the ribs, three sentence fragments posted once a week "for you to fit into a bit of fiction/stream of consciousness/what-have-you... a quick bit of dirtiness to get your creative energy flowing". Write your bit and post your link. (via the ever-enlightening Anne, of Fishbucket.)
posted by taz at 2:07 AM PST - 5 comments

Faster Pastor - Billboard Humour - a lovely and very funny pictorial archive of billboards from a British church, done by a Rev. Paul Sinclair, who has other eccentric services as well...
posted by RylandDotNet at 10:36 PM PST - 10 comments

Used Cd's. The RIAA hated used cd stores in the early 90's....until the demon mp3 came along. Garth Brooks even refused to sell one of his cds to stores that sold them, until there was a backlash. But, anyway, here's the top 50 most common used cds.
posted by nyxxxx at 8:24 PM PST - 43 comments

What Did You Say Your Name Was? I mean, would you buy a Freud book from this man?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:10 PM PST - 30 comments

Postcard Man: Worldwide Vintage Postcards.
posted by hama7 at 5:43 PM PST - 4 comments

"'We've got a lot of Canadians wondering how it is that a Canadian citizen gets scooped up and sent off to jail in another country for a year and then arrives back and no one wants to investigate why,' said NDP Leader Jack Layton."
posted by The God Complex at 4:47 PM PST - 47 comments

GAO: Pentagon sold biolab gear "The Defense Department sold equipment to the public that can be used for making biological warfare agents, according to a draft report by the General Accounting Office. " Next: Anthrax on EBay?
posted by Postroad at 4:09 PM PST - 14 comments

Text Soup via Blues' News
posted by WolfDaddy at 4:04 PM PST - 3 comments

Would you like fries with that? Saturday's Washington Post has a touching story about a 58-year-old grandmother who thought she'd be retired by now, but instead finds herself popping four different prescription medications at 4 in the morning while beginning her shift at Hardee's. As a journalist, I found this incredibly detailed story an example of newspaper writing at its rare best.
posted by GaelFC at 2:00 PM PST - 43 comments

Brantacan Bridges I stumbled upon this fountain of bridge information while searching for Pontifex II stuff. As a side note: Japanese webdesign can be a bit odd sometimes.
posted by lazy-ville at 1:01 PM PST - 5 comments

Ever Lose Your Security Deposit Because Of A Room-Mate? Well then damagedeposit.com has the contest for you. The site is run by Adrian Crook, who is authoring a book entitled "Damage Deposit: Stories from the Roommate Realm", and needs some fodder for it. So if you currently have or have had a horrid roommate or two, and can put together a few thousand words, and could use $500, then this is the contest for you.
posted by djspicerack at 11:06 AM PST - 9 comments

What do the pope, Bono, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, and Michael Jackson have in common? They're all part of one of the weakest Nobel Peace Prize slates in history. Peace has been a commodity in such short supply recently that a Norwegian researcher has commented that "no political leaders have distinguished themselves in ways deserving of the prize." Another commentator said this time last year that the committee would send the strongest message to the world by selecting nobody.
posted by PrinceValium at 10:46 AM PST - 27 comments

Delux Rubber Chicken was short-lived zine containing some truly awful poetry and art. And as far as I can tell, they were serious. I love liberal arts students, really I do.
posted by Space Coyote at 10:21 AM PST - 10 comments

California voters recall Gov. Gray Davis 55-45 percent and elect Arnold Schwarzenegger with 45 percent of the replacement vote. That's where the money is in the Iowa Political Markets for tomorrow's recall election. To see how well MetaFilter's pundits fare in predicting the results, I'm offering a bribe ...
posted by rcade at 9:54 AM PST - 115 comments

Top Court Rejects Baby Death Conviction Appeal
"The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday an appeal by a South Carolina woman convicted of homicide and sentenced to 12 years in prison for causing her baby to be stillborn by using cocaine."
posted by jpoulos at 9:50 AM PST - 45 comments

Browse 1.6 million of Enron's emails for free, courtesy of the Federal Energy Regulation Commission. (Click on the "search iCONECT link in the table on this page, and wait through the slow Java check.) In among the secret dealings and strategic discussions are personal emails about one night stands and evil mother-in-laws.
[via this WSJ article]
posted by me3dia at 9:01 AM PST - 24 comments

The Art History of Cheating - just one of the many interesting topics found at Cardshark Online.
posted by anastasiav at 8:54 AM PST - 4 comments

Link Dump. Links for those running out of links. Includes a random link function.
posted by the fire you left me at 8:53 AM PST - 11 comments

Watch and review this years DepicT! 90 second short films. 'How to Tell When a Relationship is Over ' in particular is ideal viewing to cheer up your Monday morning blues. (The archive is well worth a look too)
posted by MintSauce at 8:35 AM PST - 4 comments

Pareidolia. This is my new favorite word. Seeing things that aren't there, whether it's Jesus or Satan, is just one of the neat tricks the human brain plays on itself. Here's a great collection of pareidolic photos, collected by thefolklorist.com. (Warning: Java)
posted by majcher at 8:20 AM PST - 13 comments

Immortal Grand Prix [note: flash] ... a cool little turn-based strategy game based on a japanese cartoon.
posted by crunchland at 8:04 AM PST - 13 comments

There has been a sharp rise in interest in exotic pets nationwide. Some people get exotic animals because they think it will be cool or because they saw one on Animal Planet. "I think there's more tigers in the U.S than there are in India or Russia."
posted by stbalbach at 7:10 AM PST - 10 comments

Every American #1 pop hit since 1950, reviewed, in order. (Start at the bottom of the page and work up.) Great blog project! (blogject?)
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:26 AM PST - 15 comments

The Museum of English Rural Life which includes the INTERnet Farm And Countryside Explorer (INTERFACE).
posted by i_cola at 6:21 AM PST - 2 comments

An Enigma Wrapped In Songs. Here is Laura Nyro.com, the home page of the late Laura Nyro. Laura Nyro.net is the most elaborate fan page ever, with not only photos, interviews, articles, audio and video clips but two virtual reality galleries in VRML!--it's truly the labor of love of all labors of love. The Ectophiles Guide To Good Music! has an informative Laura Nyro Page. Here's a link to a mianfei's So you'd like to... Understand The Legacy Of Laura Nyro --I'd never thought I'd link to an Amazon customer's fan page but she's got Nyro's story in a nutshell, so there it is. And those famous philistines at Wilson and Alroy's Record Reviews presents a, shall we say, more sanguine and detached perspective.
posted by y2karl at 12:53 AM PST - 6 comments

Nothing to do but surf group weblogs? No worries, there's always some hobbies that you haven't considered. Try collecting sugar packets, fruit stickers, toilet seats, join a club, or just go for broke and cover yourself in porridge. There's no excuse to be bored...
posted by moonbird at 6:42 PM PST - 9 comments

You might as well Jump. Van Halen and retro video games.
posted by srboisvert at 5:17 PM PST - 23 comments

How to Write A Thank You Note. [With a sincere thank you to The Morning News.}
posted by adrober at 4:02 PM PST - 37 comments

Simon Swears
A puerile shockwave game. (Lots of swearing, as you might have guessed.)
posted by Mwongozi at 3:33 PM PST - 11 comments

Peter's Rum Pages: Rum Labels, and more.
posted by hama7 at 2:44 PM PST - 2 comments

Do Not Call 317-816-9336. Columnist Dave Barry takes on the American Teleservices Association again, publishing their new number (they had to disconnect their old one after he mentioned it in a previous column.) But please, don't call 317-816-9336, because to suggest "calling somebody who doesnt want to be called, even if you have the legal right to call, well, that's just plain rude."
posted by Fofer at 1:34 PM PST - 39 comments

Weird Gardens. 'It started with the winter blues: I wanted my small rowhouse garden to be aesthetically pleasing - at least to me - all year, not just during the growing season. One Friday evening I discovered a pile of rusted and beautifully shaped boiler parts in my alley; they became the fencing for my new rust garden ... '
posted by plep at 11:11 AM PST - 7 comments

Benjamin Franklin, Civic Scientist. This article in Physics Today by a former science adviser to Bill Clinton discuses Benjamin Franklin's role as the American prototype of a civic scientist. This issue also has an interesting article on Richard Meserve, a physicist and lawyer who applies his scientific training to his legal work. [Via /.]
posted by homunculus at 10:45 AM PST - 1 comment

Israel attacks "terrorist training camp" in Syria Last time I checked Syria was a sovereign State. I don't know if there is a formally declared war already ongoing between Israel and Syria. Is there one now ?
posted by elpapacito at 6:01 AM PST - 126 comments

Phelps to erect anti-Matthew Shepard monument. Anti-gay crusader Fred Phelps' planned monument (PDF, from Phelps' site), to be installed in City Park in downtown Casper, Wyo. (Shepard's home town), would contain the inscription, "Matthew Shepard, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as womankind; it is an abomination.' Leviticus 18:22." (More inside...)
posted by boredomjockey at 1:24 AM PST - 140 comments

Trees and their doppelgangers (!) Kooky konceptual artist Chris Wildrick invites you to match the trees with their look-alikes. Who says family fun is dead
posted by Cranky Media Guy at 12:31 AM PST - 6 comments

Venus Trap [Note: Flash]
What other bizarre and fascinating stuff can you find at Entropy8Zuper?
posted by crunchland at 11:31 PM PST - 3 comments

William Steig, children's author, New Yorker illustrator, and creator of Shrek, is dead.
posted by Robot Johnny at 10:57 PM PST - 9 comments

I Love Egg
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:06 PM PST - 10 comments

Duh Duh Duh, Duh Duh, Duh Duh Duh. Inspired by part of a Latin dance record by Rene Touzet, transformed into a quickie R&B b-side by Richard Berry & the Pharoahs made legendary by the Kingsmen covered by everybody in the universe and investigated by the FBI and the subject of a book. Yes, I'm talking about "Louie Louie" one of the most famous, controversial and influential rock and roll records of all time and origin of the uber-riff and the famously indecipherable lyrics. So let's give it to 'em right now....
posted by jonmc at 6:11 PM PST - 15 comments

Another Top 100 films, but this is the product of Tv Cream and is more special (and I'd hazard closer to our opinions) than the usual lists. I won't give away the top film but if I mention that 'Psychomania', 'The Belles of St Trinians', 'The President's Analyst' and 'Time Bandits' are all in there you'll get the idea. Purposefully obscure at times? Sure. After all, there are still no places for 'Krush Groove' or 'Electric Dreams' ...
posted by feelinglistless at 5:05 PM PST - 20 comments

Folks like Dr. John Dee, Paracelsus, and Comte de St. Germain merged mysticism with science way back when. One could say that the same thing is happening today.
posted by moonbird at 3:00 PM PST - 7 comments

bloggerCON webcast Can't get enough of bloggers incessantly and never-endingly meta-blogging about weblogs? Well, now all the usual suspects are droning on in person and you can watch them do it live. Warning: Not recommended for anyone other than people like me who are fighting a nasty cold and looking for something to put them to sleep.
posted by theonetruebix at 12:33 PM PST - 36 comments

Wiggaz.com, your online source for wiggers, white rappers, gangsters and wigger culture.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 10:41 AM PST - 54 comments

Roy Horn, of Siegfried and Roy fame, was mauled by a white tiger last night during his show.
posted by tomcosgrave at 9:56 AM PST - 64 comments

The Saint Turned Sinner, or the Dissenting Parson's Text Under the Quaker's Petticoats - the bawdy tale of "A Gospel Cushion thumper, who dearly loved a Bumper," from Blackletter Ballads, a small but fine collection of ballads with themes ranging from cutpurses to kings, all gleaned from 17th century broadsheets.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:03 AM PST - 4 comments

America's first president was not George Washington, but in fact its third: John Hanson. (Scroll down to "Who Was the First President of the United States?") [via The Greatest Stories Never Told]
posted by mcsweetie at 8:11 AM PST - 18 comments

Bothering Snape is just a fun little bit of Harry Potter Flash. Sorry I missed Friday, but there you go.
posted by hughbot at 6:55 AM PST - 11 comments

If Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected California can say HASTA LA VISTA BABY to 9 billion according to this article by investigative reporter Greg Palast. According to Palast it turns out that Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter with Ken (Enron) Lay and Michael Milken as part of a campaign to sabotage a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off. For memories sake here are a few of the the details behind the California energy scam in this report. Arnold has previously said that he does not remember such a meeting with Ken Lay.
posted by thedailygrowl at 1:34 AM PST - 58 comments

DVD Easter Eggs ... 1182 of 'em.
posted by crunchland at 11:24 PM PST - 12 comments

A land ruled by chaos. Award-winning writer Suzanne Goldenberg returns to Iraq, from where she reported on Saddam's fall. But in place of the promised peace she finds a country where lawlessness, violence and fear have filled the void.
posted by y2karl at 10:04 PM PST - 16 comments

Seafood For Thought: Ocean Pin-ups. A searchable immensity of fascinating photographs of aquatic creatures, among others. It's a commercial site but unusually generous to the casual browser. (I confess I found them while doing a strictly gastronomic search, goose-necked barnacles being an overwhelming, sea-soaked passion in Portugal and Spain - and, btw, currently trying to take Manhattan, in restaurants such as Ilo. Still, it's funny - not funny ha-ha, but actually peculiar and quite sad - how seeing your favourite delicacies alive and thriving sort of ruins your appetite...)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:59 PM PST - 13 comments

Tsukiji Fish Market: A Digital Walk-Through. [more]
posted by hama7 at 8:31 PM PST - 15 comments

Global warming will never bring a "doomsday scenario" a team of Swedish scientists say -- because oil and gas are running out much faster than thought. Oil production levels will hit their maximum soon after 2010. "The decline of oil and gas will affect the world population more than climate change."
posted by stbalbach at 5:55 PM PST - 40 comments

So let me get this straight. These shoes, they vibrate? All joking aside, the use of tiny vibrations in the soles of shoes to help keep the elderly from falling seems like a very interesting idea...
posted by Lokheed at 4:49 PM PST - 4 comments

For over a decade, reclusive Berliners Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald have published a distinctive style of minimalist techno through Basic Channel and several other labels based out of their record store. In 1996, they expanded into dub with Burial Mix, a series of 10"s featuring long-lost reggae vocalists. (They've also begun reissuing out-of-print releases by NYC's Wackies.) Although their vinyl-centric releases have always been relatively underground, they may soon be reaching a wider audience thanks to a domestic (US) release of their latest CD comp by Asphodel. Also see the latest issue of The Wire for a new quasi-interview.
posted by hyperizer at 4:01 PM PST - 15 comments

High noon showdown on the Internet. Well, 6:00 p.m. showdown, anyway. "For all these reasons, ICANN has today insisted that VeriSign suspend the SiteFinder service, and restore the .com and .net top-level domains to the way they were operated prior to 15 September 2003. If VeriSign does not comply with this demand by 6:00 PM PDT on 4 October 2003, ICANN will be forced to take the steps necessary to enforce VeriSign's contractual obligations." (via Spinnoff, and a followup to this post and this one.)
posted by UKnowForKids at 2:49 PM PST - 26 comments

Following a disagreement over her husband's spending habits, an enraged Ethiopian mother of five refused to give him his dinner. Her husband was so angered by this affront that he tried to beat her. In the melee that followed, the wife grabbed and twisted his testicles, causing serious damage. The man was so embarrassed after the incident that he declined to seek treatment for the injury and died days later.
posted by johnnydark at 2:03 PM PST - 16 comments

How to Fake Being an Indie Rock Expert. The best advice I've seen all day -- "Start somewhere safe: Sonic Youth."
posted by serafinapekkala at 1:45 PM PST - 69 comments

The Lord of the Rings: The Extended Versions: On screen. Got 11 or 12 hours to spare? Want to see Peter Jackson's epic trilogy, all of it, all at once, all on the big screen? Your wish has been granted. See the first one, or see the second one, or on December 16th, see both -- and then see the premiere of The Return of the King, too. Bring your adult diapers, kids.
posted by honkzilla at 1:38 PM PST - 27 comments

Last night I saw Brent Mendenhall on an Asian-language television channel, doing a sometimes-uncanny George W. Bush impersonation. Being able to understand his mock-Texan ramblings but not the host interviewing him was a surreal experience. Upon cursory investigation, I was shocked to find that some suspect Dubya of using a look-alike for particularly dangerous speaking engagements, and that others are available for hire. Saddam, too!
posted by scarabic at 1:22 PM PST - 3 comments

Link from the FEC's website A link off of the FEC's website seems to suggest Hillary Clinton's going to take a shot at the big office. The results can be retrieved like this:

1) Go to The FEC Site
2) Click on "Citizen Guide"
3) Click on "View Reports" under the "Campaign Finance Information" header on the right
4) Click "Search the Report Image System"
5) Search for "Clinton, Hillary"

The first link is for Senate in 2000, the second is for President in 2004. It would seem that she's breaking her promise to the residents of New York State to not run for President during her first term. However, this Wired article suggests she was listed for the same thing for the 2000 elections (though the record now lists 2004).
posted by phong3d at 12:12 PM PST - 15 comments

Jimmie Hatz, the official condom of Hip Hop Kulture™. Available in Great Dane and Rottweiler. Hey, whatever gets more people to use them, no? (flash-based site)
posted by Ufez Jones at 12:09 PM PST - 6 comments

Painkillers destroy hearing - Looks like America's fascination with Vicodin, Oxycotin, and other hardcore painkillers has a lasting effect other than addiction. Studies are showing that "rapid hearing loss, even deafness, in some patients who are misusing the drugs". This is serious enough for Vicodin's manufacturer to add a "warning about the potential for hearing loss to the drug's label."

Is Rush Limbaugh's sudden deafness and recent involvement in a painkiller drug investigation simply a coincidence?
posted by Argyle at 11:25 AM PST - 37 comments

Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans. Suggests that human preferences arise from general properties of nervous systems, rather than from face-specific adaptations, in other words sorry fuglies, it's not socially constructed. N.b this research received a 2003 Ig Nobel Prize.
posted by jfuller at 11:09 AM PST - 21 comments

"The Virtual Truck Route offers many stops along the way. This site has been developed as a tribute to the drivers of the big rigs, to the artists of truck drivin' music, to the DJ's of the truck drivin' radio networks, and to those who love them. Happy motoring!"
posted by soundofsuburbia at 10:38 AM PST - 4 comments

Half-Life 2 source code leaked online Valve Software, the makers of Half-Life 2, said the leak followed a concerted hacking effort on the company's computers over a number of months. Easily one of most eagerly anticipated games ever, Half-Life 2 is regarded by many as the next step in the evolution in First Person Shooters. What does this mean for the future of Valve Software? (More inside)
posted by stazen at 10:20 AM PST - 53 comments

Sorry Matt, you can't post in this thread. Google changes its Adsense agreement so that anyone participating in the program is barred from talking about the program. First rule of Adsense, there is no Adsense.
posted by Mick at 9:46 AM PST - 29 comments

Frog. March. Frog March! Frog? March! Frog March. Frog March. FrogMarch. 'Frog' March. Frog March. Frog-March. Frog, March. Frog March. Frog March. Frogmarch. Frog March. Frog March. Frog March. Frog March. Frog March? and, of course, Frog March.
posted by soyjoy at 8:22 AM PST - 30 comments

Sitcoms Online: an archive.
Be sure to try Guess the Sitcom or Guess the Dictator or Sitcom Character.
posted by anastasiav at 7:21 AM PST - 11 comments

From the Asia Times — "The more commercial television news you watch, the more wrong you are likely to be about key elements of the Iraq War and its aftermath, according to a major new study released in Washington on Thursday." [more inside]
posted by grrarrgh00 at 6:25 AM PST - 44 comments

It's friday, go ahead, whack it. After 100 Goth have graced you with their sullen beauty, the game will end, and you be told just how pathetic your performance was. Words to live by. Afterwards you can chill out watching the show. [via Geisha asobi blog]
posted by danOstuporStar at 6:23 AM PST - 2 comments

The King and Tehanu go to meet dragons. A map of Earthsea. A very large map of Earthsea. The Hainish Encyclopedia. The Ekumen. The Disconnected. Le Guin's World. Ursula K Le Guin's Official Website.
posted by y2karl at 9:29 PM PST - 18 comments

Botanical Record-Breakers - learn about the world's most poisonous plants, the fastest growing, the most painful, the oldest, the ongoing debate about the largest, and much more. Also discussed is the rare coconut pearl - botanical jewel, or hoax?
posted by Jimbob at 9:28 PM PST - 8 comments

surreal photomontages from italy.
posted by crunchland at 8:35 PM PST - 6 comments

Mac Buds Everyone assumes you're gay if you use a Mac instead of Windows. Just because we're not hard-core gamers doesn't mean ... well, I guess the classic logo didn't exactly dissuade this line of thinking. I think it's awesome that people in a niche inside of a niche has a whole site to find one another.
posted by clango at 7:50 PM PST - 33 comments

Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts, with subject and expert searches.
posted by hama7 at 7:44 PM PST - 4 comments

Paging adrianhon ... Everyone's favorite soulless cubicle farm, Metacortex, now has a web presence. You can also visit their strategic ally Underscore Hosting, and even see a currently functionless homepage for their forthcoming Metadex product. In fact, you can even check the status of their Greek fabricated-island resort Aquapolis. Should you need to contact Metacortex or Underscore, their websites offer both e-mail and telephone numbers, both valid. If the name Metacortex only rings a vague bell, it might help to recall their most, ah, celebrated ex-employee, Thomas Anderson. (more inside)
posted by blueshammer at 7:29 PM PST - 9 comments

Clooney gets conned Kaycee'd and is being sued. "THE ACTOR opened his heart last year when a woman told him about her tragic, cancer-stricken daughter, Cindy, and he began making calls and sending gifts to the terminally-ill young woman. Before long, however, Clooney began to doubt that 'Cindy' really existed."
posted by mathowie at 5:39 PM PST - 16 comments

The new Doctor Who might be Eddie Izzard, according to a previous (and best) Doctor, Tom Baker.
posted by Mwongozi at 5:28 PM PST - 29 comments

The court jester in history, and around the world.
posted by moonbird at 5:22 PM PST - 12 comments

The Horror Channel A 24-hour, all-horror, uncensored, digital cable channel plans to be launched for Halloween 2004, with programming to include classic and contemporary movies, specials, documentaries and original series’ each season. CEO and founder Nicholas A. Psaltos (former Director of Acquisitions and Program Administration at Bravo Television Networks) hopes the new genre network will capitalize on the success of other genre channels like Comedy Central and The Sci-Fi Channel. Psaltos has even put together a creative advisory board of genre legends and newcomers including John Carpenter, Roger Corman, Wes Craven, Guillermo del Toro, Tobe Hooper, Stuart Gordon, Lucky McKee, Eli Roth, George Romero and Rob Zombie. Starting a TV network is risky business and The Horror Channel is petitioning horror fans to help with programming by providing a survey on their consumer website. (Via Rue Morgue)
posted by Jeffy at 3:41 PM PST - 17 comments

September 12: A Toy World
"September 12 is a free Shockwave game where players try to solve the terrorist problem - a sort of editorial cartoon rendered in simple simulation." It's not really much of a simulation, and the 'argument' is simplistic to the point of inanity. But as a new medium, interesting. (via gamegirladvance)
posted by jcruelty at 3:16 PM PST - 18 comments

Want to buy the Web? The whole thing? (scroll to bottom of page). Alexa now offers - for sale - the entire web, collected from their crawler, in a portable form: "For organizations capable of hosting or mining an entire crawl index that exceeds 60 Terabytes in size, Alexa can ship the contents of the crawl to your location. Current customers include the Internet Archive and the Library of Alexandria in Egypt. The web-wide crawl takes approximately 2 months to complete. It is over 60 Terabytes in size, spanning over 3.5 billion unique URLs." No price listed, but "If you have to ask..."
posted by kokogiak at 3:03 PM PST - 16 comments

Russian Prison Tatoos.
posted by Ljubljana at 2:54 PM PST - 18 comments

Many2Many a group weblog on social software featuring, among others, Clay Shirky.
posted by turbodog at 2:31 PM PST - 1 comment

"I aim to close every kind of hole in the dike I can find on piracy," and with those words, MPAA demon Jack Valenti banned all DVD and VHS screeners of this years Oscar nominated films. File under "Throwing the baby out with the bathwater." Next up: Valenti plans to remove everyone's eyeballs with a rusty spoon.
posted by WolfDaddy at 1:36 PM PST - 23 comments

"Sweat-hogging" -- seeking out plus-size women for romantic encounters characterized by a remarkably virulent brand of hatred, cruelty, objectification and, it seems, not a little self-loathing. And I use the word "romantic" loosely. Anybody ever run across this pathology before? (via Romanesko)
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:33 PM PST - 45 comments

"This is my brother Larry and this is his face. It has served him well for many years. UNTIL NOW."
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:51 PM PST - 19 comments

Lions in Africa are getting close to extinction. In fact, all the big alpha predators are in trouble. It may only be a matter of time before all the mega species disappear from the wild.
posted by homunculus at 12:47 PM PST - 8 comments

Politics & Science. A recent report (PDF) commissioned by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) of the House Government Reform Committee "finds numerous instances where the Administration has manipulated the scientific process and distorted or suppressed scientific findings." This White House, it says, has interfered with the objectivity of federal scientists – by stacking committees, ignoring or suppressing information, and interfering with research - to an "unprecedented" degree, on topics ranging from breast cancer and food safety to agricultural pollution and wetlands protection.
posted by gottabefunky at 12:09 PM PST - 6 comments

Neutral Good in a Lawful Evil World I'm sure that some of us have played Dungeons & Dragons before. Now imagine applying the D&D alignment traits to a nation. ( for example: Switzerland=Lawful Neutral ). What is your opinion of the alignment of your nation?
posted by patrickje at 11:53 AM PST - 27 comments

Gefiltefilter. Metagefilte?
posted by liam at 11:44 AM PST - 13 comments

New Wrinkles For an Age Old Chore ... A new sport is sweeping the world. It's an outdoor activity that combines the excitement of an extreme sport with the satisfaction of a freshly ironed shirt. It's only requirements: an iron, board and some laundry ... and ropes, harnesses, helmets, boyancy aids, parachutes etc .... Invented in 1997 by Philip Shaw from from Leicester, England, chapters are popping up all over and under. (From a WSJ article quoted here.)
posted by Jos Bleau at 11:01 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures Karl Rove, President Bush (news - web sites)'s top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday. Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff. No wonder 69% of Americans think that an independent counsel should conduct the investigation.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 10:48 AM PST - 48 comments

Wavy Gravy
posted by konolia at 10:45 AM PST - 35 comments

Belomorkanal. The history of the canal between the White Sea and Leningrad, constructed using penal labour and opened 'in Stalin's name' in 1933.
From the International Institute of Social History's collections. Of related interest :- Photo Album Van Marken ('one of the first Dutch entrepreneurs who took care of the social welfare of his employees.'); the William Morris Archive; Zo d'Axa ('Adventurer, traveller, anti-militarist, individualist, satirist, journalist, founder of two of the most legendary French magazines of the 1890s'); Auguste Fabre's 'Les Sky Scratchers', an optimistic vision from the 1890s; Sylvain Maréchal, who 'proposed a new calendar replacing the names of the Saints with those of the "benefactors of humanity" '. More inside.
posted by plep at 10:33 AM PST - 7 comments

Zombies Redux! More Zombies! Cartoon Zombies! More Zombies! Still more zombies! What is up with all the zombies? It's getting kind of creepy.
posted by sodalinda at 8:16 AM PST - 20 comments

Byronic Roleplaying?

Lord Vincent Smallpees (R51 D58 O21) wants to seduce Lady Margaret Whateley (R45 D55 O23), the wife of his best friend Alfred Thompson. He choses to tell her he's been loving her for such a long time, that his heart will shatter if she ever refuses to be kind, or something like that. His Actor choses to roll below Vincent's Despair ; he rolls: it's a 11, which is a Success. Cowabunga!

Welcome to Wuthering Heights: The Roleplaying Game. (More here.)
posted by grabbingsand at 6:33 AM PST - 12 comments

Classic Feminist Writings : an archive
posted by anastasiav at 6:11 AM PST - 34 comments

And the Weasel Award Goes to...
In the best weasel tradition, this poll is exuberantly, unapologetically unscientific. Last year a conservative group rallied its troops to bias the poll to serve its own agenda. We applaud that behavior and find it to be in the true spirit of weaseldom.
Sounds like a challenge to me... [more inside]
posted by wendell at 5:13 AM PST - 10 comments

I've never tried Java, but I can tell you right now it's not a good programming language.
posted by spazzm at 5:02 AM PST - 57 comments

'Compleat Diagram of Strange Persons' Something fun for your Thursday. What strange group are you closely related to? Personally i'm not surprised to see Mac users so closely related to Elitists and the Illuminati... Link via themorningnews.org
posted by efalk at 3:57 AM PST - 31 comments

The On-Line Picasso Project offers 6,893 works for your ogling pleasure, plus an obsessively documented chronological bio. I'm stunned. (please read the user's manual, inside.)
posted by taz at 3:55 AM PST - 12 comments

On sunday, Rush Limbaugh commented that Donovan McNabb, quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, was overrated and was only seen favourably by the media because they want to see a black quarterback do well. McNabb responded, and earlier tonight Limbaugh resigned from his post on ESPN's pre-game show. N.D. Kalu, one of the Eagle's defensive ends, offered this choice quote: "He speaks well, he's well-read, but he's an idiot."
posted by The God Complex at 12:19 AM PST - 98 comments

Ever been to a good old fashioned Pig Roast? (This one's different)
posted by BentPenguin at 8:50 PM PST - 37 comments

A man who was expected to plead guilty yesterday to having sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral will have to answer to a higher authority. Brian Florence, 38, died of a heart attack Thursday in Alexandria, Va., his lawyer announced yesterday in court - surprising the judge and prosecutors.
posted by tpoh.org at 8:36 PM PST - 11 comments

Inside the House : A virtual tour of the Sydney Opera House. [Note: Flash]
posted by crunchland at 8:13 PM PST - 6 comments

Play that funky music Gameboy : An interesting little article on the lo-fi music scene. A synth made from an old dot matrix printer is certainly lo-fi! (via msnbc)
posted by starscream at 4:08 PM PST - 22 comments

While the tragedy of the bombing in Bali was bad enough, evidence has surfaced that the bomb was incorrectly assembled, resulting in less than 1/3 of the device exploding (bare-bones link). Experts using computer modelling have worked out the net explosive quantity of the vehicle bomb outside the Sari Club was between 150kg and 300kg – as opposed to a potential 1150kg and that the toll could have been in the thousands had the bomb exploded as planned.
posted by dg at 4:00 PM PST - 12 comments

Planned Migration? Followup: "Q. Why don't we try 'taking over' a city, a county, a group of counties, or a foreign country?" (previously discussed here about a year ago) Hey, who needs possible sedition charges when you have the governor of New Hampshire welcoming you to move on up! Should residents of New Hampshire be at all concerned or is this just a wacky and carefree group of folks?
posted by lazywhinerkid at 2:28 PM PST - 33 comments

Schrödinger's famous theoretical kitty is one step closer to being/not being validated, revisiting some old conundrums and bright ideas.
posted by moonbird at 2:10 PM PST - 9 comments

Take Action: Iranian woman to be executed for killing a rapist who happened to be the Head of Police Intelligence unit in a southern city of Iran.
Afsaneh Nouroozi was arrested in 1997 after she killed the in Kish, Southern Iran. She allegedly acted in self-defense in order to protect herself from being raped. Afsaneh Nouroozi is now at imminent risk of execution after the death sentence against her was upheld by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei, is the only authority able to grant clemency at this stage. Amnesty International has more detail.
posted by hoder at 1:57 PM PST - 17 comments

"Bad taste science fiction?" In hopes of stirring debate and milking emotion on genetically-modified food, Mothers Against Genetic Engineering in Food and the Environment have placed seven billboards in New Zealand featuring a "modified" nude woman on a milking machine. A protest was also held in front of Fonterra's office, who own ViaLactia, a dairy subsidiary rumoured to have purchased patent rights for human DNA.
posted by myopicman at 1:22 PM PST - 36 comments

Wisconsin has picked its quarter design! Gov. Jim Doyle Tuesday overruled an advisory panel and told the U.S. Mint to put a cow, wheel of cheese and ear of corn on Wisconsin's commemorative quarter, despite fears that it won't reflect the state's cities or its rich ethnic heritage
posted by Durwood at 1:20 PM PST - 34 comments

Here's A Really Neat "Ask Slashdot" feature on how much we rely on the good 'ol Net for our daily dose of news and knowledge.
I've gradually abandoned almost all other sources of news, to the point where TV, magazines and news papers have pretty much disappeared from my life, but unlike the Slashdot guy, I still get a fair amount of "Information" from books.
He's got a good question, and there are some really Good Answers at Slashdot, but I'm curious about the mefites... "Is the Internet Your Source of Knowledge?" From his post:"...but if I'm trying to look up something and can't find it online in a couple minutes I generally just blow it off, as if there's no other place to look. This realization seems sort of stunning. I'm very curious if other Slashdot readers have become dependent on the Internet to that level, and what their thoughts are on the subject." "
According to a study Teens and young adults spend more time online than watching TV, and looking at Other Studies, they all seem to point the same way.
Is print dead?
posted by Blake at 12:47 PM PST - 14 comments

Pick A Lock, Any Lock: Why do Selfdefenseproducts.com's products seem so ill-related to self-defense and so suited to, er, crime and violence? Got your PayPal ready? File under "Only in America". (Via Bifurcated Rivets.)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:13 PM PST - 31 comments

Lifecase. Briefcase to Bullet Proof Vest in Seconds!
posted by gottabefunky at 11:58 AM PST - 7 comments

Iraq: What Went Wrong By General Wesley K. Clark. I appreciate this article. It is simple, easy to read, and represents what I've been feeling for quite some time now. (NY Review of Books)
posted by y2karl at 11:46 AM PST - 21 comments

Beeman's
Brillo
Cream of Wheat
Classic American consumer products in 3-D
posted by putzface_dickman at 10:28 AM PST - 16 comments

From Berkeley to Wai'anae, Bruddah Iz is home. (via Ukulelia)
posted by xowie at 10:18 AM PST - 2 comments

Lick Me, I'm A Mackintosh. One columnist's ode/rant re: Apple's design ethos.
posted by serafinapekkala at 8:54 AM PST - 122 comments

Tea. More than a beverage served hot or cold, for some it is a way of life. The British are renowned for their love of tea, so it comes as no surprise that The Tea Home Page is a vast compendium of tea knowledge, games, quizzes and leaf reading. Not so trite is the Japanese tea ceremony. This site is beautiful in its calm approach to not only tea, but the digital world itself. Be sure to read A Brief History of Chanoyu. You've heard of green and black teas, but what about white tea? Lastly, I introduce you to Yogi Tea, a company that is more than a tea seller. Do yourself a favour and have a cup today.
posted by ashbury at 6:21 AM PST - 66 comments

The story of Fred Harvey and the Harvey Girls is the story of the civilization of the American West. From 1896 to 1945, Harvey House Restaurants and Hotels along the route of the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe represented first-rate food served in clean, stylish surroundings at reasonable cost. His corps of well-trained waitresses, wearing their distinctive uniforms and bound by a code of hard work and good conduct, provided both adventure and independence to generations of young women. Today, all that is left of the Harvey empire is the remembrances of former employees, beautiful buildings which dot the southwest, some vintage recipes, a 1946 Judy Garland film, and (possibly) the enduring term "Blue-Plate Special".
posted by anastasiav at 5:35 AM PST - 8 comments

U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. Privacy & Piracy: The Paradox of Illegal File Sharing on Peer-to-Peer Networks and the Impact of Technology on the Entertainment Industry. View the hearing of September 29. [Real Media].
posted by nthdegx at 5:25 AM PST - 3 comments

A Visual Dictionary of Famous Plane Curves
posted by wobh at 5:21 AM PST - 6 comments

Two women have just lost their right to use frozen embryos from IVF treatment while they were in previous relationships because UK law states that both parties must give consent before embryos can be emplanted.

The women are claiming it's a breach of thier human rights. The men claim that they shouldn't be forced to have children. The London Fertility Centre claims double standards because they would have the right if it was naturally conceived. But what's your opinon?
posted by twine42 at 5:11 AM PST - 60 comments

The Cali candidates, Adam to Zellhoefer, are all listed at California-Recall.com ...and each gets their own page to tell you about themselves. Interesting lesser-known candidates include: Angelyne ("I'm EXTRA large on top, I have a TINY waist, and my hips are JUST RIGHT!"), Joel Britton, "retired meat packer," Art Brown - "I started for publicity, but now that I'm running, I kind of want to run" (such enthusiasm!), William Chambers, "railroad switchman/brakeman," Mary Cook, an "adult film actress" who wants to tax breast implants and wire the Governor’s Mansion with live web cams ("We've had Brown, we've tried Gray, now it's time for some blonde").

Then there's Michael Jackson (no, not that one; this guy's a Satellite Payload Project Manager), Trek Thunder Kelly, "Business Executive/Artist," Paul "Chip" Mailander, "Golf Professional," and Paul Mariano - "I am the only candidate who will appoint Davis as Chief of Staff in charge of the day-to-day governance of California, the job he was duly elected to do." And many more...
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 12:57 AM PST - 10 comments

Chickenhawk Down The Daily Kos challenges readers to come up with a new name for the CIA-Wilson-Plame business that doesn't include the term "gate." Many amusing suggestions have been logged in comments. Entries include The Plame Game, Intimigate, FrogMarch, Novack-aine, and Karl's Bad. Whatever your political persuasion, the name game can be fun. Surely MeFi wags can come up with a few witty ideas.
posted by madamjujujive at 12:43 AM PST - 35 comments