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The Esoteric Archives - for when you are tired of getting your fix of Hermetic neo-Platonism from secondary sources. Or for when you simply must know what on earth those John Crowley novels were about.
Translations of works by Giordano Bruno, Cornelius Agripppa and all your other favorite Renaissance magicians ...
posted by thatwhichfalls at 11:58 PM PST - 11 comments

Bond: Bored and Boozy James Bond. John Lanchester, in an insightful essay for the (beautifully redesigned) London Review of Books, counts (and staggers at) the amount of booze Ian Fleming's alter ego got through in a single day. He needn't have bothered: there's a delightful, knowledgeable and fanatical website, called Make Mine An 007 that does little else but tally up every drink that passes Agent 007's (or his enemys') lips, in his novels and in his films; listing the brands, the recipes and even totting up the glorious, final statistics.[More inside]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:06 PM PST - 31 comments

Return of Bush's Faith Based Initiatives "So the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is pursuing a new agenda that does not depend on the consent of Congress, starting with the development of proposals to change a host of federal regulations to lower the barriers encountered by religious groups in dealing with the federal government." Kind of surprising this was leaked out before the November elections, because much like how social security privatization has been downplayed due to unpopularity ("My social security was in Enron??") - it's intriguing campaign fodder.
posted by owillis at 8:22 PM PST - 10 comments

In an a era where so much music seems overly mechanical Funk45.com and Galactic Fractures are terrific reminders that danceablity can be warm and loose and that human-powered music is the funkiest. These sites have what every good music site should have, encyclopedaic knowledge, detailed info, and truckloads of audio that makes you wanna find a good record store and hunt down the 45's yourself. And it's all presented in a way that encourages you to dig deeper. The song You Got Me Mama by Hayes Ware is a favorite, but there's plenty of great stuff. requires RealAudio
posted by jonmc at 8:09 PM PST - 6 comments

You think your neighbors are bad? Try living with a lady who kept cows in her upstairs apartment.
posted by kingmissile at 2:22 PM PST - 48 comments

Women's group asks CBS to drop The Masters golf tournament With all the issues facing women today in America, I have a hard time believing that getting a female member into the Augusta National Golf Club will help the cause of women's rights. It now appears that the National Council of Women's Organizations are also going after the employers of club members. Have they never heard of the old saying: "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." Wouldn't fighting for equal pay in the workplace for women do more for the average female than getting female members into Augusta National Country Club?
posted by jasonbondshow at 1:59 PM PST - 59 comments

Accounting scandals aren't the only kind of corporate crime, maybe the Justice Department should talk to this guy.
posted by elwoodwiles at 1:21 PM PST - 7 comments

Self-portraits with an edge. "In a series of extraordinary transformations, this young, Korean-born conceptual artist unfolds a multiplicity of lives and identities documented through the lens of her point-and-shoot camera as she "becomes" a young punk in the East Village, a Connecticut-based exotic dancer, or a senior citizen picking through thrift stores in Murray Hill."

Nikki S Lee takes Cindy Sherman in another direction. Sherman's classic photographs, as their title Film Stills indicates, are static and meticulously set up. But Lee takes her characters to the street, using real people as props and set.

Fluidity of identity? Artist-subject relationship? Comment on sub-cultures? Isn't contmporary art great?
posted by statisticalpurposes at 12:27 PM PST - 24 comments

ICANN disses the the dot. The guy who runs the Internet Multicasting Service teamed up with the guy who runs the Internet Software Consortium and submitted a proposal to mange the .ORG registry. ICANN's conslutants [sic] dumped on the proposal (300KB PDF) claiming it is among the worst proposals from a technical standpoint. Mind you, ISC produces the software that runs the DNS and actually operates root and top-level servers. And ICANN thinks they lack the technical mojo? Wow! Are we all ready to admit that ICANN is completely corrupt and beyond saving? More info here. (via IP)
posted by chipr at 12:03 PM PST - 12 comments

"...padded bras in my size did nothing for my chest but protect it from flying objects." One woman's humorous and touching story of her decision to get breast implants. For the record, I like boobs, but the idea of having pieces of plastic stuck under one's skin creeps me out no end. To implant or not to implant, that is the question....
posted by BGM at 10:51 AM PST - 49 comments

FORD Pulling Plug on Electric Car... Ford Motor Co. on Friday said it was pulling the plug on its Think electric vehicle division due to poor customer demand and lack of government support for the environmentally friendly cars. "The bottom line is we don't believe that this is the future of environmental transport for the mass market."
posted by DailyBread at 10:09 AM PST - 32 comments

Codename Marklar: Marklar is maintaining a feature-complete marklar of Marklar running on Marklar as a fall-back marklar in case the Marklar is no longer viable. Maintained since the early days of Marklar, Marklar gains greater relevance in the context of Marklar's inability to deliver higher-frequency Marklars, but is seen as less likely given Marklar's forthcoming 64-bit Marklar-based Marklar. (via Marklar)
posted by mcwetboy at 8:35 AM PST - 20 comments

If you enjoyed the bus company owner's collection of manuscripts, you might also like to check out the Vatican Library exhibit. Loads of extremely clear images of manuscripts with accompanying information.
posted by kate_fairfax at 8:18 AM PST - 1 comment

"Take good care of them. They are my whole life." A young woman painted her life as an autobiographical series of over 1000 gouaches (in 2 years)--image and text, with planned complementing music and songs--and called it Life? or Theater? Charlotte Salomon's life. more inside
posted by amberglow at 7:04 AM PST - 13 comments

Amina Lawal Must Not Face Death by Stoning says UK Amnesty International. Nigerian woman, divorced & single, with 3 kids, to be executed by a Sharia Court for giving birth outside of wedlock. Other pregnant unwed mothers, such as this computer student, are seeking asylum outside of Nigeria to avoid being stoned to death by a Nigerian Sharia Court in accordance with Islamic law principles. Amina's whole convoluted and horrible story is laid out nicely here. Sharia Courts, and their ilk, punish sexual and "moral offenders" through stoning, amputation, crushing the victim with walls, hanging, or even rape.

Meanwhile, in another universe, the Nigerian 419 scam has mutated into Amina Lawal's "barrister" spamming the net with pleas for cash. Instead of that, sign the open letter to the President of Nigeria asking that death by stoning be stopped.
posted by filchyboy at 1:11 AM PST - 14 comments

The Zymoglyphic Museum including the works of Frederik Ruysch. Ruysch made about a dozen tableaux, constructed of human fetal skeletons with backgrounds of other body parts, on allegorical themes of death and the transiency of life.... One fetal skeleton holding a string of pearls in its hand proclaims, "Why should I long for the things of this world?" Another, playing a violin with a bow made of a dried artery, sings, "Ah fate, ah bitter fate."
Ruysch's work was eventually purchased by his student and admirer, Peter the Great.
posted by vacapinta at 9:52 PM PST - 13 comments

Paper of Record provides a hi-res, searchable(!), archive of historical newspapers, generated from microfilm collections. Looks like one for Cory at Wrote['nother couple of similar links there]. Kind of new and largely Canadian at the moment, but worth watching, and subscriptions are cheap. Remember, those are Canadian dollars.
posted by Su at 7:56 PM PST - 3 comments

Ray would stay. Hawai'i actor Ray Bumatai's brain tumor hemorrhaged on stage. He finished the show blind and returned, after surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, to finish the run of the play. Is this taking the old "the show must go on" adage a little too far?
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:46 PM PST - 8 comments

Flocks of sperm turning to the left indicates possible memory. Does this mean every sperm really is sacred?
posted by srboisvert at 6:25 PM PST - 17 comments

SPPLAT Attack!--the largest ever paintball game. Tomorrow hundreds of Federation paintballers will take the field for eight hours of glory against Klingon hordes and Borg legions outside of Chicago (details) led by the inimitable Cap'n James T. Kirk himself! (Onion interview :) "If the weather holds, I will set sail with this 70-pound lawn mower engine on my back, run like hell, float the parasail, gain flying speed and fly into the venue," wow :)
posted by kliuless at 6:22 PM PST - 3 comments

Women Rockin' 4 Women 2002 Festival. THIS IS BIG. Over twenty talented women. Eight female fronted bands. Nine solo female artists. Third annual event. Two sound stages. One venue. One night. Benefitting shelters for victims of domestic violence. More estrogen in one place than you can shake a stick at. You're not busy on September 28th, are ya? Granted, it might be a bit of a commute for some, but... Heaven's gonna touch Earth.
posted by ZachsMind at 4:51 PM PST - 33 comments

The trailer for the new Seinfeld movie is the first I've seen which really takes the piss out of the whole trailer "In a time that land forgot.." sort of thing. I laughed, but I download these things from apple every day and then forget about the actual movies. I just know I'm alone...
posted by Zootoon at 4:50 PM PST - 14 comments

The Twinkies Project: "Tests With Inorganic Noxious Kakes In Extreme Situations." Kids, do try these at home.
posted by brownpau at 3:35 PM PST - 14 comments

A search engine to help you find things you don't know about. gnod stands for The Global Network of Dreams, and is a test of artificial intelligence. Building a database from the user choices, it helps you find books, music and misc. other by having you enter in things that you like, and based on what other people like, it shows you stuff you ought to like, too (which is slightly different from what Amazon does, showing you what other people have bought). Don't know if all the Amazon Associate links detract from it all or not
posted by crunchland at 3:30 PM PST - 25 comments

From The Slow Wheels of Justice [Department] we read that "there have been persistent complaints of excessive force by officers of Prince George's County Police Department, Maryland over many years. Cases of concern include police shootings; deaths in custody from dangerous restraint holds or other force and unresisting suspects mauled by police dogs....In November 2000 the US Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation into the police department to determine whether it engaged in a "pattern and practice" of brutality and racial discrimination....However, after 20 months of investigation, the Justice Department has not yet issued any public findings or recommendations to the police department."
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 3:24 PM PST - 7 comments

Bubble Wrap: The Nation vs. The Weekly Standard "Back in the '60s, the left was the home of humor, iconoclasm, pleasure. But over the last two decades, the joy has gone out of the left -- it now feels hedged in by shibboleths and defeatism -- while the right has been having a gas, be it Lee Atwater grooving to the blues, Rush Limbaugh chortling about Feminazis or grimly gleeful Ann Coulter serving up bile as if it were chocolate mousse"
posted by owillis at 3:04 PM PST - 9 comments

Is Google's use of cookies unnecessarily invasive? Daniel Brandt, described by Salon yesterday as Mr. Anti-Google, says Google "has inadequate justification for planting a cookie that expires in 2038 on every user, and also recording that user's search terms, IP number, and time-date." Brandt is the man behind the NameBase conspiracy database (previously discussed here), and also uncovered the CIA's illegal use of cookies last March. He insists that Google's use of cookies, combined with the Patriot Act, allows U.S. authorities to "do a 'sneak and peek' search of a Google user's hard drive when he isn't home, retrieve a Google cookie id, and then get a keyword search history" specific to the user's computer. Oh yeah, he also thinks PageRank is undemocratic.
posted by mediareport at 2:36 PM PST - 39 comments

Russia to Sign Oil Deal with Iraq. We saw this coming (right?) But is the timing significant?
posted by Shane at 2:36 PM PST - 9 comments

Government favors at Auction Prices. The Bill Simon campaign gets it... they really get it.
posted by mikewas at 2:33 PM PST - 7 comments

PlasticMonkey.com I mean, it is Friday, isn't it?
posted by mikrophon at 2:24 PM PST - 5 comments

Who was Ellen Raskin? Even if you don't recognize the name, you've probably read her Newbery Award-winning YA novel The Westing Game. You might even have her illustrated edition of A Child's Christmas in Wales, which she printed on her own as a sample to show publishers when trying to jump-start a freelance career. She listed some of her influences as "Blake, Conrad, Hawthorne, James, Nabokov, Piero della Francesca, Calude Lorrain, Gaugin, Matisse, Fantasia, baseball, hockey, zoos, medicine, and Spain." [more inside]
posted by redshoes3 at 1:30 PM PST - 13 comments

Essex is the New Jersey of England, but is trying to change the public perception of my beautiful home county. Not all Essex girls are slappers and it's not all industrial wasteland. But why tell the rest of England about our beautiful secrets?
posted by essexjan at 12:16 PM PST - 31 comments

Where's Marlon Brando? Wonder no longer: he's making bad acting videos and is just as nutty as ever. Very interesting and personal Rolling Stone article about one of America's finest (and one of my favorite) actors (I'm talking On the Waterfront and The Godfather here, not that Dr. Moreau crap. Also, there's a companion RealAudio piece from This American Life here, about 3/4 through). He's still every bit the enigma he's been for the past twenty years.
posted by The Michael The at 12:12 PM PST - 12 comments

"Nothing so sharply distinguishes philosophers and Kabbalists as their attitude toward the problem of evil and the demonic." A widely informative study of the historical background and on the mythic passions of the great Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholen by a writer I much enjoy, Cynthia Ozick. (zip up Miguel, my uncle Zen sent this as a contribution to your Sacks)
posted by semmi at 11:21 AM PST - 17 comments

So what if my cool factor drops 10 points cause I'm still curious about Axl Rose who surprised us by performing live on MTV last night. And now I really need to know the real story about that guy replacing Slash who wears a chicken bucket on his head. And could baldness really be the reason behind Axl's madness?
posted by oh posey at 10:44 AM PST - 43 comments

Here I am so elegant ... upside down, I'm quite different.
Just for the "cool!" of them (and not just because it's Friday) - a nice collection of reversible matchbox portraits.
This man patronizes us ... This man wishes he had.
posted by yhbc at 10:06 AM PST - 17 comments

"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "Fraud!" But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed. They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain, and they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again. But will there still be joy in Mudville?
posted by Stan Chin at 9:23 AM PST - 13 comments

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, You May Be Very Liberal But Are You Gay Or Lesbian Enough? And, if you're a sufficiently gay man (congratulations and all that) what kind exactly are you? And are you convincing enough? Not because it's Friday or anything, but you might as well know before you go out tonight, no?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:47 AM PST - 42 comments

I'm the world champion and you're not. Don't worry though, NOVA members may seem to be high and mighty, but don’t be fooled; each of use is human and have our faults. Want to host a tournament? Better learn how to run one. Maybe you'll want to host one at Paradise Racetrack where the recent addition of split levels and spiral curves has the local racing crowd abuzz with joyful anticipation. Is this a Sports Filter post about auto racing? No, it's an eerie look into the world of a Car Wars chapter. (Ever walk into somewhere that you wish you could run out of, but you just can't stop exploring...)
posted by jonah at 8:14 AM PST - 4 comments

Giant asteroid hurtling toward your planet? Don't know what to do? Don't call Bruce Willis. Just build a giant airbag and nudge the sucker away.
posted by gottabefunky at 7:37 AM PST - 15 comments

Marijuana: Fires' timing could devastate crops, locals say... CAVE JUNCTION -- Flames are consuming a bit more than towering trees and the occasional cabin as two wildfires roar through the Siskiyou National Forest. At least some of the vegetation that has made Southwest Oregon famous -- and long ago took a generation of hippie kids off welfare -- also is going up in smoke. Which leads to the question: "Am I Eligible For Disaster Assistance? How Do I Apply?" Friends, FEMA is there for you.
posted by Mack Twain at 7:28 AM PST - 4 comments

Is anyone going away for labor day weekend? Taking a flight? Check out what your airline may be serving at AirlineMeals.net
posted by KnitWit at 6:33 AM PST - 8 comments

Is this the big one? With some 18,000 sick and over 700 people having died of the flu in a country the size of France over the past couple of months, I find it odd that the media seems obsesessed with the US / Iraq thing and missing children. The 1918 flu epidemic killed some 675,00 Americans alone, with a global tally in excess of 20 MILLION killed. Some of the photos taken back then are pretty grim. It seems the power of influenza is that it (ahhem) mutates and thats why it could once again be a big killer. Cynical as it might sound, as a race maybe we need something like this to teach us that we've got a lot more in common with each other than skin colour and religion might otherwise lead us to believe. ObDisclaimer: I'm unemployed right now, have maybe six months of canned goods in the flat; if this hits London, I ain't opening my door to nobody.
posted by Mutant at 6:29 AM PST - 22 comments

Down with Free Speech? Poll shows American support for the first Amendment down. Would any politician be stupid enough to try to capitalize on this sentiment? Should we all be watching our words?
posted by Hall at 6:24 AM PST - 39 comments

A humorously lowbrow Friday cocktail: mix equal amounts of Lucha Libre with the Sport of Kings. Add a jigger of Rock and Roll, shake vigorously and pour into a frosty mug. Garnish with sweaty, hairy lechery (find yer own link), and you've got Los Diablos Guapos. Bottom's Up!
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:20 AM PST - 8 comments

Scientists ruin mouse's day. Or maybe, "discover the end of all ends"? or something. This story is begging for clever headlines, and I cannot think of any. Too embarassing. But still, the possibilities raised by this study are endless. Oh, there you go, another pun...
posted by costas at 5:56 AM PST - 11 comments

Looking a gift horse in the mouth? Saudi Arabia is considering giving a million-dollar racehorse to the families of the September 11 victims. Patronizing gesture or genuine humanitarianism? Did the Saudi's really pay off al-Qaida to the tune of $200 million to leave them alone? Are we preparing to invade the wrong country?
posted by norm29 at 5:55 AM PST - 15 comments

Sinister cult hijacks Weblogs.com? While working on an application that finds patterns in the data supplied by Weblogs.com, Mo Morgan found some disturbing patterns:

"[...] between midnight and five there had been over 60 pings to Weblogs.com from sites that contained the string "srichinmoy" in their URI."

At first it just looks like some idiot abusing the ping system. Or could this be something altogether more sinister?
posted by dutchbint at 5:25 AM PST - 30 comments

Doctor found guilty of offering kidneys-for-cash... though the case against him sounds a little dodgy. It raises all sorts of questions (not least about supposed organ rationining, something discussed in this link) - what level of evidence should industrial tribunals require for a guilty verdict? How legitimate is the kind of journalism pursued here - is this entrapment? And even if it was, does it matter if the guy does say he can get what's needed?
posted by humuhumu at 2:39 AM PST - 4 comments

Does "Tiktok Easy Shop Big Box" remind anyone else of something from a Phil Dick novel? The deli-size vending machine comes to DC's "raffish" Adams-Morgan neighborhood. Will Your Town Be Next?
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:44 PM PST - 38 comments

Along with water, there's been increased interested in food issues lately. Probably the most controversial issue is genetically modified foods. And it looks like here in Canada, they're not going to be labelled. The day after I read this in the paper, Steve Talbott published an issue of his superb newsletter Netfuture, with this thoughtful essay. [more inside]
posted by slipperywhenwet at 10:56 PM PST - 10 comments

Apple doesn't seem to think the DMCA bites Apple is using their interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to prevent third party dealers from providing software to Apple users enabling them to burn DVDs on external drives. They have no problem with them burning DVDs on Apple drives, naturally. And to think I was just about to switch, too. Um, yeah.
posted by John Smallberries at 7:41 PM PST - 37 comments

Virtual reality schizophrenia. Ever wonder what it may be like to experience madness? Coming soon to DVD.
posted by TskTsk at 7:02 PM PST - 24 comments

You may be incompetent and not even know it. According to Dr. David Dunning of Cornell University, the skills necessary to be competent are the same skills needed to recognize competence in others. You can read the whole report here.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:38 PM PST - 24 comments

If it's this good on my duck, think how good it'll be on my dishes! I saw the commercial and was forced to ask "Is this for real?" (it seems to work on dead ducks). Is it me, or is this the strangest line of logic in consumerism ever seen.
posted by NGnerd at 6:34 PM PST - 14 comments

Nine lives? It seems cats do better when dropped...uh, I mean, fall, more than seven stories. Anything less and they fail to reach terminal velocity and don't land properly. Once the cats reach terminal velocity they spread their legs (think parachute) and slow their fall. A cat has a far better chance of survival falling from 32 stories than four. Dwarfs, however, do not benefit from longer flights.
posted by cedar at 6:22 PM PST - 36 comments

This explains everything! Mystified by the recent flurry of corporate meltdowns? Do you find yourself thinking: "Are those CEOs CRAZY?" Well maybe they are!
posted by BGM at 5:35 PM PST - 14 comments

Evidence since the early 1800s hinted that Welsh prince Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd and a colony of Welsh settlers discovered America in the 10th Century and eventually became assimilated as American Indians. New discoveries using DNA from graves in TN and England could show Madoc was actually a relative of King Aurthur and sailed to America in 562 AD! The historians Wilson and Blackett who have a loyal and cult-like following were also commissioned to produce a detailed genealogy of the Bush family by former President George Bush (senior).
posted by stbalbach at 5:19 PM PST - 25 comments

Alexa's Top 500 Websites - Accurate or not, here is Alexa.com's list of their top 500 ranked websites - globally. This has been touched on both earlier today and back in April. Today's top ten sites iclude two korean sites, one japanese, one chinese, and six us-based sites. Also a more-clear definition of Alexa's Ranking system is here, complete with biases listed (such as IE users only, Alexa Users only, etc).
posted by kokogiak at 4:12 PM PST - 22 comments

Talk about culture clash -- the personal opinions of a U.S. military attache/observer concerning Arab military practices. See also the EgyptAir Flight 990 investigation. Big question: how can we make some progress here? [courtesy aldaily.com]
posted by apollo3000 at 4:11 PM PST - 3 comments

Buy a Mach 5. They are making enough for all of us. Freaking Mach 5s people. Those of you with big bladders can hold out for the Shooting Star. We live in paradise.
posted by thirteen at 3:57 PM PST - 9 comments

Gourmet Magazine had a pretty interesting article (wish it was up on line) about farm-raised salmon v. wild salmon. Farm-raised salmon is scary, especially with regards to disease, waste handling, food (feather meal, blood meal, bone meal and other things that wild salmon do not eat) and an industry which is controlled by a very small number of multinational companies.
posted by plinth at 3:50 PM PST - 23 comments

Tuesday Morning Quarterback moves to ESPN.com's Page 2. Err...moved. In April. (Other weblogs missed the move, too; apparently the only clue was a Best of Slate post.) I've always loved reading TMQ and I hope it's just as good at ESPN.com. Alternative viewpoint: TMQ Sucks. [Cross-pollinated from SportsFilter]
posted by kirkaracha at 3:47 PM PST - 7 comments

Sprawl-induced aberrant driving behavior is a theory proposed by University of Ottawa geography professor Barry Wellar. Suburban roads, built for speed, encourage aggressive driving and bad habits that drivers can sort of get away with in the suburbs, but that carry over to other areas. So that's why it always seems that they're trying to run me off the sidewalk.
posted by mcwetboy at 3:34 PM PST - 11 comments

Ah, that back to school feeling is in the air. More papers to plagerize, more ways to beat that test. With some evidence that cheating is on the rise, and that the Internet makes it much easier, it might be time to review alternate ways of making the grade. All credit to this Mefi member.
posted by Wulfgar! at 2:45 PM PST - 35 comments

There's a new pundit out there named Ann Poultry. Writes for Smirking Chimp. Here's her piece on Why Liberals Suck So Damned Much, and one called Let's Go To War. She's truly brilliant. Enjoy.
posted by NedKoppel at 2:23 PM PST - 15 comments

What is truth, said jesting Tony? You may have already seen 24 Hour Party People, an openly self-serving, dishonest and very enjoyable account of the rise and fall of Manchester's Factory Records and its associated projects, such as the Hacienda. I tried to find more accurate, coherent and comprehensive accounts of the company's history. If you have the cash, you can always ring up Tony for some more mythology.
posted by maudlin at 2:14 PM PST - 27 comments

Michael Rivero, formerly an digital effects worker for Final Fantasy and Coneheads has walked onto the scene and stood out when it comes to the conspiracy genre, with his site WhatReallyHappened.com. He has been claiming that 9/11 was the work of the Israelis and the US government to cause a war for Oil in the Middle East, while also making other comments on the War on Terror.

While he seems to boast that his site's Alexa rating is higher than Newsweek's as affirmation that he is popular, no matter how flawed Alexa may be.

Is this what really happened? or merely the posted viewpoints collected by a person who distrusts the Government?
posted by RobbieFal at 12:59 PM PST - 35 comments

Salman says "miscalculations" Is the US so unpopular.Are they willing and able to do anything about it ??
posted by johnny7 at 12:32 PM PST - 56 comments

One in four employees has a serious Web habit, spending more than one entire workday each week surfing non-work-related Web sites while at their desks.
Is this you? This is me right now. Some days I'm not sure how I still have a job. Does your employer try to control frivolous internet time? Does your boss still peek over your shoulder and find you looking at "pr0n"?
C'mon, 'fess, up, tell us your stories...
posted by Shane at 10:54 AM PST - 103 comments

Apparently I live in the most diverse city in the United States. Synagogue arsons, propane-tank-bomb-plotting and suburban hate crime aside, Sacramento is a pretty neat place, especially since my wife (Korean-American) and I (Jewish) can afford to own a house on our meager incomes and still go out to eat Pho (Vietnamese), Kitfo (Ethiopian), Som Tum (Thai), Kalbi (Korean) all within a short drive. It's not San Francisco, but neither is the cost of living. Do you notice the tension caused by resistance to diversity in your town, or are you too busy eating the sushi to notice?
posted by luriete at 10:53 AM PST - 36 comments

If you've ever flown commercially in the past 16 years, you had to answer two questions about your luggage before receiving your boarding pass. Starting today, they are no longer required since they "never prevented a bombing or hijacking."
posted by jaden at 9:58 AM PST - 20 comments

Best. Wedding Proposal. Ever.
Congrats to mefi'er Fofer for taking the plunge and winning big.

Warning: first link points to a quicktime movie.
posted by neilkod at 9:54 AM PST - 55 comments

On The Road... coming to a theater near you (scroll down in link). Francis Ford Coppola is working on a film adaptation of Kerouac's classic (?), starring Brad Pitt. Genius? Heresy? I can see the Barnes & Noble tie-ins now...
posted by serafinapekkala at 7:48 AM PST - 53 comments

So Now That It's Curtains For SatireWire, What's Left To Humour Us? Should we panic yet? Is the Web as funny ha-ha as it used to be? Thanks to this serendipitous find I was tickled to discover Kurt Luchs has some funny pages of his own. David Jaggard's list is quite conventional and brief (lots of glaring omissions), but it cheered me up. [As did this wonderful H.L. Mencken page, with these refreshingly un-pc aphorisms, if I may just shoe-horn it in here...]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:10 AM PST - 34 comments

Is this so called heighted security? Why are we permitting people to bring on carry on luggage at all? If the airlines are unwilling to put a skymarshal on every flight then they need to arm the pilots. We really need to take much stronger steps in this area than the feeble attempts taken thus far.
posted by Wong Fei-hung at 6:23 AM PST - 61 comments

Neighbour jailed for branding pedophile's genitals. A man attacks his two young nephews and his neighbours find out and burn him with a hot spatula as punishment. The neighbour is then imprisoned. I realise this is vigilante justice and on an intellectual level, it's wrong, but emotionally I'm finding it hard to muster much sympathy for people who attack kids and face a backlash like this. What are your reactions?
posted by Jubey at 6:08 AM PST - 43 comments

One of the Marine Corps' greatest living heroes was dying. A donor liver had been found, but he might not live long enough to get it. Who ya gonna call? Semper Fidelis.
posted by swell at 9:23 PM PST - 54 comments

Beverly Hillbillies, Redux! No... not a new movie, but a reality series under development by the shiny and shimmering Tiffany Network. CBS scouts are scouring for a "rural, rustically telegenic" family to be whisked to a brand new home in Beverly Hills, and have a life of luxury bestowed upon them for a period of a year... cameras following them all the way. Crass exploitation of the poor when the gap between rich and poor gets larger and larger? Fun idea to see what happens when someone's dreams come true? Somewhere in the middle? What do people think?
posted by tittergrrl at 9:17 PM PST - 32 comments

This summer, I took a trip to the Brattleboro region of Vermont. Until I picked up Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness" again this past week, I had not realized that I had just made a trip into Lovecraft Country. [more inside]
posted by ursus_comiter at 8:08 PM PST - 12 comments

Spirit Foam: cheerleading has finally been reduced to a spray can.
posted by mathowie at 7:48 PM PST - 30 comments

Onesixty: The SMS Poetry Magazine. Mobile phone poetry, as Andrew Wilson describes it "Text messages are short, so the subject has to be tackled in a way that will fit into 160 characters. A text message poem has to find one truthful moment and describe it." Write your own with this handy abbreviation guide and intro from the Guardian.
posted by Stan Chin at 4:33 PM PST - 12 comments

Leonard Nimoy's Photography - classic black and white photos - very chic. (Is there anything he DOESN'T do? Besides not eat enough salsa?)
posted by thunder at 3:36 PM PST - 18 comments

Strap on your Zyklon B's. Could help shed the pounds from eating all those Temptations.
posted by robself at 3:02 PM PST - 55 comments

Palestinian comic booted from Jackie Mason's comedy show Ray Hanania, a Palestinian comic in Chicago, was set to open for headlining act Jackie Mason. A few hours before the show, Mason had him booted. "It's not exactly like he's just an Arab-American. This guy's a Palestinian," said Jyll Rosenfeld, Mason's manager. "Jackie does not feel comfortable having a Palestinian open for him." Ouch. (Imagine if the tables were turned: "Ray does not feel comfortable having a Jew open for him") Too bad, really. If there's one thing the I/P conflict needs, it's more humor. Like this Muslim-Jewish Comedy Night.
posted by laz-e-boy at 2:08 PM PST - 68 comments

Some people collect baseball cards. Lots of people collect comics. Others collect stuffed animals, salt and pepper shakers, commemorative plates, ventriloquist figures, bottlecaps, hubcaps, antique radios, farm implements, even chainsaws. Some wealthy folks even collect yachts. What makes a thing collectible? Are the best collectibles sold as "collectibles", or is "collectibility" a cynical marketing gimmick? Of course, Elvis collectibles are a whole sub-culture all by themselves.
posted by mrmanley at 1:02 PM PST - 52 comments

Another threat to the separation of church and state? "[S]ome members of Congress want to turn churches into political action committees. A bill in Congress would amend the tax code to allow churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship to get involved in partisan political campaigns."
posted by Bootcut at 12:59 PM PST - 40 comments

Perhaps the world's largest food fight. 38,000 people gathered in Bunal, Spain to throw tomatoes at each other. They were supplied with 132 tons of ripe, juicy ammunition.
posted by caddis at 12:51 PM PST - 25 comments

Netscape market share at an all time low? Not according to Heise Online, a major news site here in Germany. In their very substantial weblogs, Microsoft went from 66,9% down to 65% from March to August of this year, while Netscape/Mozilla rose from 21,3 % to 22,6 and Opera from 7,8% to 8,4%. (Warning: Link in German, but you will understand the tables at the end of the article easily).
posted by vowe at 12:43 PM PST - 18 comments

What's a couple of hours? Some men fishing made a gruesome discovery - a human head. The men placed it in a garbage bag. Then they kept right on fishing: "We didn't want to come in right away… It'd been out there awhile."
posted by ao4047 at 12:32 PM PST - 40 comments

"I think I'm big enough to play the game" says Australian Parliament member Barry Haase, referring to his "purchase" for a day by brothel owner Mary-Anne Kenworthy (heh heh, she said 'member'). Auctioned to the highest bidder (he fetched $1000Australian) at the local Rotary Club charity auction, Haase will perform such duties as cleaning the brothel in a "frilly apron" and conducting a tour of the premises. Wonder if he'll wear anything besides what the proprietress' called her "tour hat"...
posted by runthegamut at 10:12 AM PST - 7 comments

Who owns our water? An interesting question considering the droughts going on and this lady has some good insight into where things might lead. Should a few large corporations be allowed to control our most important resource?
posted by Dr_Octavius at 10:04 AM PST - 39 comments

According to scientists who study sex we can toss some common misconceptions: there is no battle of the sexes; the Mars and Venus book is misleading; extreme body builders are not sexy; breast size isnt always sexy; men and women cheat equally; the notion of man "spreading his seed" is a cultural invention; thin is not sexy. All thanks to our caveman brain.
posted by stbalbach at 9:19 AM PST - 61 comments

MIT's R&D for the US Army of the future appears to be based on a comic book.
posted by dchase at 9:07 AM PST - 31 comments

Yoga in the classroom? EGADS! That reeks of religious implications, say parents in Aspen, Colorado. "For some families, the chanting that accompanies a selection of yoga techniques creates a challenge for separation of church and state." Aspen Elementary says the pilot program "was proposed as a way to help kids cope with their return to school. Rowdy tots could be calmed and readied for class work after recess using a series of relaxing breathing and stretching techniques."
posted by msacheson at 8:43 AM PST - 66 comments

'Girls Gone Wild' goes to Burning Man. The denizens of Black Rock City get pissed; Voyeur Video tries to save face. "Instead of stopping the sale, Voyeur changed the festival's name on its Web site, the suit alleges, to "Rainbow Fire Festival," but kept the description. ("Rainbow Fire Festival is all running around naked and exposing yourself in front of your peers," the Web site now reads.)" Lord help me, why do I find this all really, really funny?
posted by maura at 7:17 AM PST - 62 comments

The Riaa supports sharing? I don't think so, but they have been cracked, and it is a funny piece of work.
posted by Jevon at 7:11 AM PST - 35 comments

Howard Shore tops list of 30 greatest film scores for Lord of the Rings according to a poll from Classic FM. John Williams predictably enough takes a chunk of the top ten. The site also has audio interviews with Shore and Williams. More about the poll at The Telegraph.
posted by Summer at 4:41 AM PST - 33 comments

Mad Bobby Fischer. Listen to reclusive chess genius Bobby Fischer's September 11 rant on the radio. Extra bonuses on the site include a way to contact Bobby, details of his storage dispute and a copy of his sister's will. This was previously talked about on MeFi but is well worth an actual listen.
posted by meech at 4:12 AM PST - 6 comments

nerdc0re. "0wnz0red", Cory Doctorow's fantastispooky new short story. There's something uniquely thrilling about seeing tech talk in fiction. A refreshing change from the literary equivalent of movie OS.
posted by condour75 at 2:20 AM PST - 25 comments

The Puppet Tool Populate your own animated zoo. Brought to you by lecielestbleu (nicolas clauss, frederic durieu, jean-jacques birge) (more at flyingpuppet)
posted by vacapinta at 1:45 AM PST - 2 comments

Profits 1, human dignity 0. Work at the Jim Beam bourbon plant? Need to go to the bathroom? Too bad. Six unexcused pees and you're fired, says management.
posted by PrinceValium at 9:11 PM PST - 80 comments

Howard Dean Get to know that name because you will likely be hearing it often in the coming months. The Governor of Vermont is currently the only Democratic presidential contender who has officially declared his candidacy. He is gaining press nationally and internationally as a potential breath of fresh air on the American political landscape. An interesting mix of liberal populism and traditional conservative fiscal responsibility, he is known to rub colleges from both sides of the ideological spectrum the wrong way. Regardless of your opinion on his politics, do you think this man have a shot? Do the proverbial square pegs in the Democratic and GOP round holes ever stand a chance? Will the Bush and Gore juggernauts forever push differing ideas into the realm of third parties or is there room for descent from within?
posted by EmoChild at 8:27 PM PST - 40 comments

Is Dave Sim going mad? Speculation has been running rampant in the Interweb comic book community that Dave Sim, writer and artist of Cerebus, arguably one of the greatest comic book series of all time, has lost his mind. Granted, many of Sim's essays have been misogynist, and he has publicly challenged Bone creator Jeff Smith to a fist fight for a somewhat trivial slight, but that is hardly evidence of insanity. Has he crossed the line from extremist to madman? Is his writing a Swiftian satire or, as one critic called it, the Mein Kampf of misogyny?
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:27 PM PST - 38 comments

Did you know "88" means "Heil Hitler"? Neither did a buyer at Target. "August 27, 2002 -- Target, the nationwide department-store chain, said today it will pull shorts and baseball caps emblazoned with neo-Nazi hate symbols from its shelves." After dithering for a few weeks, Target responded to tolerance.org's campaign, but is now shooting themselves in the foot again by being less than accomodating of returns of the offending (and I do mean offending!) product. The link above is to the original story, the Aug. 27 update is linked at the bottom of that page. Howcum I never saw this on CNN? 8
posted by BGM at 7:15 PM PST - 104 comments

FuckedCompany knocked offline for two days due to headlines that sounded like Ford's advertising slogans. While FC is no stranger to cease and desist orders, Ford threatened the web host directly, who ended up pulling the plug. Was Ford in the right, or did they overstep their bounds? Personally, it sounds a lot like suing a newspaper when a headline plays on your advertising.
posted by mathowie at 5:00 PM PST - 27 comments

Like Tintin, Asterix, or even the Smurfs? Step right this way, to the dark, spooky side of French cartooning. Jacques Tardi, relatively obscure in this country, brings you many lovely lonely images of cityscapes and small horrors, mostly within the amazing stories of Adele Blanc-Sec, writer and adventurer. At least one of his books is still in print in English, and most can be ordered from overseas, and are well worth it.
posted by interrobang at 4:22 PM PST - 23 comments

The book, Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge by Alan M. Dershowitz, (the one who accused five justices of the Supreme Court of outright corruption in siding with Bush in Bush v. Gore) is reviewed by his old nemesis Judge Richard A. Posner, known best for his Cost-benefit analysis in legal issues. It's your call.
posted by semmi at 3:13 PM PST - 6 comments

More good mp3 news. Thomson Multimedia is now requiring patent payments for MP3 decoders as well as encoders.
posted by alana at 2:56 PM PST - 23 comments

PlayStation 2 launches online service - Hard-core gamers looking for new challengers will now have an Internet full of them. Sony on Tuesday released adapters that make PlayStation 2 the first console player to go online. Playstation 2 players who purchase the $39.99 connector can link to Sony's network through a number of new games, including the military shoot-em-up "SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs" and the football simulator "Madden NFL 2003."
posted by DailyBread at 2:23 PM PST - 24 comments

Betamax RIP? And I barely even knew you.
posted by Rattmouth at 1:47 PM PST - 27 comments

Interesting article about ways in which telecom companies can take what they have and make it more profitable as opposed to pie in the sky broadband/lifestyle schemes. Some cool ideas.
posted by zeoslap at 1:44 PM PST - 7 comments

Civic Responsibility at its Finest: If your city contained dozens of stylish and beautiful fiberglass statues of moose that were repeatedly being vandalized, what would you do?
posted by 314/ at 12:57 PM PST - 23 comments

Wild goose chase - "British wildlife experts are mourning the loss of Kerry the goose after tracking him by satellite all the way from Ireland to an Eskimo's kitchen in Arctic Canada." No, seriously.
posted by paladin at 12:55 PM PST - 10 comments

A robot called Pyramid Rover will explore two 8 inch wide mysterious passages in the Great Pyramid at Giza. A previous robot exploration by the Upuaut Project found the passage blocked by a slab with copper fittings which looked suspiciously like a door. The Pyramid Rove will carry ground penetrating radar and fiber optic cameras to explore what lies beyond the "door."
posted by caddis at 12:35 PM PST - 20 comments

The Bush administration announces the slogan for the campaign to combat adolescent obesity: "Verb: It's what you do." I am totally confused. The website suggests I make a paper airplane (PDF) to get started on burning off those fat rolls. (via Slate)
posted by ao4047 at 12:27 PM PST - 39 comments

SatireWire is closing up shop. Andrew Marlatt, the multi-trick pony behind the site, is citing "creative differences" with himself and is opting to walk away from one of the better-known bastions of Web humor, as well as one of those rare free content sites that, according to Marlatt, is profitable:

The site actually makes money — through advertising, through the book "Economy of Errors," and (primarily) through selling pieces from the site to publications like, say, the Washington Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, or the National Post in Canada. Nice little setup, actually. I've been very lucky. But the bottom line is, it has ceased to be fun. My heart is not in it. My head is not in it.

But just because Marlatt has chosen a different route to the dead pool that those sites that gave up the ghost because they were broke doesn't make this story much more discussion-worthy than any other croaked dotcom. In proper obit style, let's instead remember the great stuff we got from the site; if you've never been, you'll find all sorts of treasures.
posted by blueshammer at 11:43 AM PST - 15 comments

"... virtually unique in their ability to attain dry stickiness." geckos are talented little buggers, that's for certain. effective pitchmen, as well. but what about those toes? just how does a gecko manage to shimmy up the slippery side of your aquarium with the greatest of ease? well, according to researchers at lewis and clark university, it all comes down to hair....
posted by grabbingsand at 11:25 AM PST - 12 comments

Here Comes The Rain Again Virginia Gov. Mark Warner has decided to prove that he's a tough-on-acts-of-god kind of governor. He's no wimp when it comes to weather, our governor. Nosireebob. He's gonna show that weather who's boss! He's appointed a drought czar. "Drought czar?" What's next? An education czar? A jaywalking czar? A stop-breathing-through-your-nose-on-the-elevator-please-goddammit czar? Talk about your linguistic inflation.
posted by NedKoppel at 11:11 AM PST - 19 comments

Remember the Beast? Will there be something like it again? Did you have a crush on Laia, suddenly discover a use for your knowledge of lute tablature, or vote for the Mann act? This is basically an excuse to indulge in nostalgia (how many MeFites were Cloudmakers?), but it'd be interesting to see if anyone is still interested in fan-based interactive fiction gaming, or if it was basically a one-shot movie promotion that could only be supported by the resources of a big company. Is "the AI route" a dead end? What is the line between a movie-supported online game and inspired Web marketing? -- Or hell, just tell some Red King stories.
posted by redshoes3 at 9:20 AM PST - 15 comments

Illusionist Criss Angel emerges from his 24-hour sojourn in a Chinese water torture cabinet in NYC's Times Square. Should an endurance contest really be considered magic? Where are you, David Copperfield?
posted by dr_dank at 9:00 AM PST - 17 comments

Please Mr. Postman look and see
Is there a letter in your bag for me
I been waiting a long long time
For me to hear from that nameless pal of mine.
posted by pedantic at 7:41 AM PST - 15 comments

New Bog Snorkeling World Champion Crowned
People have such odd hobbies and collections.
I'm not talking about things like CrossStiching, or Air Guitar, or Naming Your Pens, but really strange ones.
Air Sickness Bags are art to some, so are Wal-Mart Purchase Receipts, and Nobs, always fun at parties there's collecting navel fluff, I'm not Sure What To Call This, there's Squirrel Fishing , collecting Odd Rod Cards, heck, Books Have Been Written, even The USAToday collects them.
I dunno, is Mefi a strange hobby?
posted by Blake at 7:36 AM PST - 14 comments

Thai company employs Spider-man to deliver cooking gas. Marvel sez: "use monkey suits because monkeys don't have intellectual property rights." 'Nuff Said?
posted by mikrophon at 7:28 AM PST - 12 comments

55,000 angry emails, all because someone decided to forge an email from "pro-palestinian agitator" Francis Boyle. The best part? "the FBI didn't find anything illegal". The guy "spent nearly four days sifting through the messages, writing personal apologies to the offended".

It really is too easy...
posted by mrgavins at 7:24 AM PST - 7 comments

"I don't care what anyone but a court of law thinks," says Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker "Until a court says otherwise, if I say it's constitutional, it's constitutional." Sure, we've talked before about how Delaware is a cesspool of evil, but that was before it was reported that the cops in Wilmington were compiling a database of future suspects, before crimes were actually comitted.
posted by ph00dz at 6:35 AM PST - 78 comments

Australian government refuses to recognize Jedi as an official religion, despite the fact that 70,000 people listed it on their census forms.
posted by swift at 6:30 AM PST - 33 comments

Is Current Israeli Policy Incompatible With Judaism? Jonathan Sacks, Britain's Chief Rabbi and arguably the outstanding Jewish intellectual of his generation, has apparently broken away from the established stance of Orthodox Judaism and made public a series of worries and reservations that rabbis have been making privately ever since Sharon took power. It's not so much politics (though everything is) that is at stake but the dissonance between the highly peaceful (indeed anti-military) and human character of Judaism and the hard, secular realism of present-day Israeli politics. Are they becoming irreconcilable? Were they always so?[Jonathan Freedland, who interviewed Professor Sacks, had this to say about the bigger picture.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:58 AM PST - 103 comments

All you need is three chords and a guitar? Zac 'Mr. Magnet' Monro didn't even have an instrument when he won the 7th Annual Air Guitar World Championships (video) in Oulu, Finland. And it's two years in a row for him.
posted by mathowie at 9:10 PM PST - 15 comments

Lobsters, caviar and brandy for MPs at summit on starvation. Is this really a scandal? Or typical tabloid pabulum? Yes, it is hypocritical, but is it worse than rich people who don't claim to give a damn about the poor eating caviar and swilling champagne? Matt thinks it's "sick".
posted by goethean at 8:00 PM PST - 27 comments

Welcome to "Hawk Tawk" , with your host, Dick Cheney. The Vice President spoke to members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Tennessee today, and unequivocally stated that the United States must preemptively strike Iraq, since there is "no doubt" Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and plans on using them against the US and its allies (excerpt of speech here). In other news, Qatar, a proposed launching off point by US forces, announced its opposition to any attacks on Iraq. In addition, National Reservists will continue to be on active duty for another year, the first time that has happened since Vietnam, and the US Army has been gearing up for new action. What's that Chinese proverb about living in interesting times? (And I know people are sick of Iraq talk, but these are fairly significant events)
posted by tittergrrl at 7:48 PM PST - 111 comments

Topato would never ask his lesbian fans not to kiss. And thanks to his becoming real through the magic of Jenny's Sculpey, we can actually ask him. Any MeFi kids ever play with Sculpey or were you strictly Play Dough toddlers?
posted by clango at 6:34 PM PST - 13 comments

Texas singer asks lesbian fans to not show affection at her shows A budding folk-rocker who also happens to be a high school PE teacher has created a stir with an Aug. 12 email to her fans. "I have had several complaints from bar owners, friends, fans, and potential fans regarding the outwardly show of affection that has taken place at my shows," writes Michelle Mayfield. "This type of behavior, right or wrong, reflects on me as the artist who has brought you to that club...Please be respectful of the places where I am performing by being aware of the actions that can possibly turn potential fans away from my music or from my future shows." The resulting flap, and Mayfield's apology, is made more interesting by questions about Mayfield's own sexual preference, which she called "no one's business in the first place."
posted by mediareport at 5:52 PM PST - 107 comments

Target Iraq - Global Security.org - One stop war / anti-war portal.
Military options, pros and cons of attack, anti-war sites, government, diplomatic, NGO links, military policy, breaking news, military targets, Iraq weather.
posted by sheauga at 5:04 PM PST - 7 comments

The Happy Tree Friends are cute and well intentioned, but clumsily violent. If you prefer cartoons of a less morbid nature, then there might be a mondo mini show for you, like the more NewsFilter friendly This Modern World.
posted by mkn at 3:20 PM PST - 11 comments

What is going on at the New York Times?
More than 100 years ago, the New York Times, under owner Adolph Ochs, adopted the slogan: "All the news that's fit to print". But, critics are now asking if the New York Times only prints news it considers ideologically fit. What has been happening at the Times is far more ominous than just veering to the support of one party or one ideology. There is a type of liberalism, pioneered in America, which tries to be fairer than fair. But trying to be better than fair is like trying to bend over backwards to be straighter than vertical or defining "objective" as being neutral between good and evil. That path leads straight to moral equivalence. Perhaps the slogan should be re-written: "All the Newspeak fit to print".
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 2:22 PM PST - 39 comments

Ann Coulter Explained For the benefit of members of the Left who just don't seem to get it, I offer a link to a short but pithy analysis of Miss Coulter's appeal.
posted by BGM at 1:32 PM PST - 57 comments

The other day a woman on the radio was promoting a charity walk for some disease and stated "every 9 minutes someone dies from this disease. That's a World Trade Center disaster every month" Considering myself on the cutting edge of units of measurement, I thought, have I lost that edge? I guess I Have.
posted by mss at 1:28 PM PST - 21 comments

AIM screen name 'satan' going for $15k in an apparent bidding war that abandoned all sense of reality. Still three days left, let's see if they can break $50k? The dark lord could not be reached for comment, though jesusrox232 called it "ridiculous."
posted by mathowie at 1:26 PM PST - 29 comments

N'SYNC -- in SPAAAAAAACE! (Personally, I'm glad they're sending one of the ugly ones.)
posted by tweebiscuit at 12:24 PM PST - 21 comments

Burp, Ffffft, Flick ... Survey Shows How Gross We Are Nosepicking, burping and passing wind in public are rife among the population, according to a survey which questioned 6,000 people about their personal habits (from The Scotsman)
posted by scotty at 11:53 AM PST - 19 comments

"In the war on terrorism, alliances are not an obstacle to victory. They're the key to it." General Wesley Clark on the lessons of Kosovo and why diplomacy and international cooperation are essential to winning the war on terrorism.
posted by homunculus at 11:21 AM PST - 17 comments

Fighting back: Spammers want e-mail addresses. Give them e-mail addresses. Tons of e-mail addresses. This handy PHP script will add as many fake e-mail addresses to your web site as you want. 20 is the default, with command and space delimited, just like this:

lebsda@fihnekyjvbj.de, tzckk@zcwgituizwjgy.eu, lzteth@gvxmzqphddvhsd.de, wspvnmpitk@adlruenmiupuglcqn.nl, toulr@cttzrgrb.it, gxgb@yqkeermxyxxozvfws.dk, ucldeo@lwytvqqq.nl, brddshal@qmyhquiqtbaeggpx.com, ovu@zzxlbismicnqsuiubkfl.de, txxewr@ogpzcomgrhkd.br, goluv@twcnkfeghsh.com, tfexbuous@heev.ar, zjgeaztzvm@rvonhfrd.de, nhsgikjvjb@stncbqtnyyclaflm.jp, svgfdh@zeynvdd.nl, hxqios@yrdlshpyscndoslt.de, fxglj@sfkdxgyadbqk.ca, mtskzv@carbd.de, pigm@vnkcalneewdulz.com, nqnjwldpfk@ecifc.edu

And each call to the web site will give the spam harvester 20 spanking new addresses. (Web site is german, but the script is in english)
posted by vowe at 11:11 AM PST - 59 comments

The son of a rock god interviews a rock genius... (Scroll down to "Audio") Sean Lennon's 48-minute interview with Brian Wilson covers all aspects of music, from the genesis of a great song, to the competition between artists in the late 1960's. (The interview is in four parts, in RealAudio format.)
posted by greengrl at 10:33 AM PST - 15 comments

Isaac Asimov to blame for "al-Qaida"?
posted by rushmc at 9:16 AM PST - 28 comments

Luxury carmaker achieves relevance with "the kids" by use of Led Zep in ad. Although the article touches on Chevy's decade-long affiliation with Bob Seger, it curiously neglects to mention that Chevy ad with the Mary Chain song, or even the Volkswagen soundtrack album. Did you ever hear a favorite song in an ad or as the theme to a TV show and think "how'd THAT happen?"
posted by britain at 8:51 AM PST - 95 comments

Administration Says It Can Attack Iraq without Congressional Approval Not a new story, per se, but this Post article lays out pretty well the arguments behind the administration's case, one being simply Bush's role as commander-in-chief. It's strange how closely this issue reflects earlier attempts by the administration to avoid Congressional and/or public scrutiny (Cheney's Enron meetings, for example). Why this aversion, and why fight so hard? And I have a sneaking fear that Bush will seek Congressional approval only after invading, and he will bully votes by claiming that reps have a patriotic duty to support a president in a time of war.
posted by risenc at 7:16 AM PST - 62 comments

Osama the CIA Agent , he may not the first in the long line of alleged celebrity CIA agents. What about other supposed agents like Timothy Leary, Yakov Smirnoff, Benjamin Netanyahu, everybody in the media or even a kitty?

I guess, we're all CIA agents in somebody's eyes.
posted by RobbieFal at 5:00 AM PST - 15 comments

"Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. (Damaged Word). There is GOOD out there.We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING (BELL SOUND) --- According to this letter sent to Earthfiles.com this is the translation from ASCII 8 bit encoding, reading out from the center of the spiral of this crop circle. Is anyone out there geek enough to confirm this translation? I love the quirky use of CAPS. Here's the whole "glyph."
posted by gametone at 4:52 AM PST - 32 comments

Well, they've been found. The remains of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis, the highly-publicized first victims of the "summer of child kidnappings," have been found at the [former] home of the FBI's main "subject of interest."

Damn, damn, damn.
posted by wdpeck at 10:51 PM PST - 102 comments

Ralph Gibson's Interchange allows us to create pairs of his dark, lyrical photographs by selecting them from two different stacks. The results are starkly beautiful yet surprisingly coherent. Gibson is often criticized as cold, brainy and aestheticizing, but fans like me love his photography all the more for it. His website isn't nearly as smooth and collected, but it contains a generous helping of recent work. The ex libris and l'histoire de france series are also outstanding: rich and luscious surfaces and fetishes, obsessively stared at and almost erotically immobilized. The gotham chronicles photographs look like a new departure, if perhaps just a tad too recherché.[Those who'd prefer to navigate the site from scratch should go straight to the front page, of course.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:51 PM PST - 15 comments

The Right Way to Change a Regime....By James Baker III Oh no, I'm starting to think that James Baker is making some sense.
posted by bas67 at 8:19 PM PST - 44 comments

Martians may resemble the Spanish. Scientists are studying a red river in Spain which flows through a deposit of pyrite, "has a pH similar to that of automobile battery acid and contains virtually no oxygen in its lower depths" to get an idea of what Martian microbes might be like. The critters found in the Rio Tinto are extremophiles, little microscopic buggers that can live miles underground, or in water 170 degree Celsius under deep-sea hydrothermal vents. (No word yet on whether there's a Portuguese connection.)
[via Red Rock Eater]
posted by slipperywhenwet at 7:03 PM PST - 5 comments

Perp Nation? By the end of 2001, according to a government report, one in every 32 adults in the United States was in jail, on probation or on parole. That works out to 470 out of every 100,000 U.S. residents behind bars, including disproportionate numbers of minorities (scroll down) and over 4.7 million adults on probation or parole. Texas leads the way.
posted by gottabefunky at 6:16 PM PST - 37 comments

Well it is Sunday afterall. The bible in sms. @:-) 3
posted by ginz at 1:27 PM PST - 4 comments

Why should Christianity have the corner market on religious imagery in food and vegetation? God sends his message to all. [via Fark, last link takes a minute. First post, hope it's okay]
posted by oflinkey at 10:35 AM PST - 23 comments

A 63-year old Norwegian bus company owner has amassed one of the worlds largest collections of ancient manuscripts valued at over 110 million dollars. His story, how the collection is used and his plans for the sale proceeds are all first-class and an inspiration to private collectors of antiquities.
posted by stbalbach at 8:24 AM PST - 15 comments

A Lost Tribe in the Land of Broken Promises. Fifty years ago, a group of Oklahoma migrants settled in the Tulare Lake Basin region of California, and many still live there in conditions of unspeakable poverty. (LA Times, first in a series.)
posted by xowie at 7:46 AM PST - 19 comments

The Invisible Library is a catalog of books that appear only within other books: in other words, a collection of imaginary books. With such names as "Growing Flowers by Candlelight in Hotel Rooms", "How Beautiful are Thy Feet" and "The Bitch Pack Meets on Wednesday", though, some of these books are just begging to be written. (more...)
posted by taz at 5:52 AM PST - 39 comments

The old switcheroo: "Almost a week after a suspected commando leader from the armed Basque separatist group ETA walked out of a French prison cell, administrators at the jail discovered Thursday that he had been replaced by his brother." Also at CNN, BBC, Libération (and follow-up), and Le Monde.
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:45 AM PST - 2 comments

"It was amazing," says 101, "we went to club after club. We never paid a cover, we never paid for drinks. We were escorted to the VIP tables. In Minneapolis the Geek Squad has been around for 10 years -- they're treated like rock stars. I mean, when has a computer tech ever been treated like a rock star?" "The Geek Squad offers a flat-rate service. You call them with a problem; they quote you a price; they fix the problem. No matter what. No matter how long it takes. And, each agent guarantees his work -- forever."
posted by bingo at 12:58 AM PST - 14 comments

It appears that there is another twist in the Abu Nidal death as reports are claiming that Saddam Hussein had Abu killed because Nidal didn't want to train Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq and strike the US. This does contradict the Iraqi claims that Abu killed himself for plotting to overthrow Saddam.

This is getting stranger and stranger. Is this just creative writing by Iraqi opposition? Won't these claims be used to justify claims that Saddam is harboring Terrorists? Will the US awkardly praise Abu for turning down Saddam's offer?

Who knows..
posted by RobbieFal at 11:42 PM PST - 15 comments

The British Museum has put together a beautiful interactive display system they call "Turning the Pages" for some of the rarest books in their collection, including the Sherborne Missal. The technology has been developed to realistically replicate the physical act of turning the pages of each individual book.
posted by anathema at 9:50 PM PST - 14 comments

The Virtual Tour of Edo allows you explore the city that would one day become Tokyo, Japan. Classical images illustrate short descriptions of life in this 18th century metropolis. Although modern Tokyo may look very "Western" on the surface, in its heart the spirit of Edo still lives on!
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:35 PM PST - 6 comments

New DVD formats are just around the corner so let the buyer beware. I wonder just how many dvd collectors actually believe they own the final version of their favorite movies?
posted by Beholder at 8:40 PM PST - 23 comments

Followup on Houston's great K-Mart roundup To the great relief of many in Houston, it does indeed appear that heads are going to roll over the mass arrest last week. Or at least, one head will.
posted by John Smallberries at 7:55 PM PST - 17 comments

Sell The Public Libraries Llewellyn says many public libraries have been a disgrace for decades, and, like most public institutions, they are architectural monstrosities.
"They have terrible hours, which they blame on underfunding. Their selection is often severely limited, vacillating between being out of date and carrying only the latest, tackiest bestsellers. Others have gradually purged all books that offer ideas the ruling regime rejects."
It gets MUCH worse! Past threads have shown the average Mefite to be a fan of public libraries, this guy, is to say the least, not.
posted by Blake at 7:31 PM PST - 48 comments

You know the accounting meme has hit the wall when folk singers start to make songs about WorldCom. Any else got some good links to give people a chuckle about the economy? (Forgive me if I offend, this is my first post)
posted by phyrewerx at 7:01 PM PST - 12 comments

Tony Gwynn knows full well how costly a baseball strike could be Baseball still has not recovered from the strike of 1994, especially in Montreal. The Expos were in the driver's seat for the National League East title when the strike hit in August of 1994. Before the 1995 season began, the Expos had traded several key players to lower expenses. Now the team is on Commissioner Bud Selig's contraction list for Major League Baseball. If the players union go out on strike this year, it could deal a fatal blow to the sport that was once was America's national pastime.
posted by jasonbondshow at 4:05 PM PST - 20 comments

Odd, counter-intuitive finding re: radiation
posted by grumblebee at 3:18 PM PST - 33 comments

On Solidarity, Community Spirit And Going Meerkat-Mad: They're cute, they're smart; they're funny, they're sociable; they're even considered the epitome of cooperative living. In fact, they could probably teach MetaFilter a lesson or two. In their September issue, National Geographic has gone stark, raving meerkat-bonkers - and not a moment too soon either. We're talking new desktops here, no mistake..[Flash needed for first link - definitely worth waiting for it to load - Real or WindowsMedia for some other on-site features.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:06 PM PST - 20 comments

In a zone of their own. Despite restrictions and police enforcement, protesters tried to make their voices heard. When did these "Free Speech Zones" start. Maybe they have always been around but I don't recall hearing that you had to be cordoned off to express peaceful dissent.
posted by bas67 at 1:48 PM PST - 18 comments

Smokey's Vault: all about the history of the campaign, the "real" Smokey Bear, and Smokey's unique place in American culture. Created in 1944, the Smokey Bear campaign is the longest running public service campaign in US History. Smokey's forest fire prevention message remained unchanged for 50 years until April 2001, when the Ad Council updated his message to address the increasing number of wildfires in the nation's wildlands.
posted by josephtate at 12:35 PM PST - 11 comments

US terror suspect 'beaten in custody', says the BBC. The US gov't claimed there was a massive amount of evidence to link him to Al-Queda. Now, after 11 months of being held in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer and allegedly being beaten, he has been charged with having crossed the US border illegally in the past (he was living in Toronto when he was arrested).
posted by 4easypayments at 11:02 AM PST - 29 comments

Do you ever just wander? Based upon the ideas of psychogeography and the dérive, a group called Special Airplane is orchestrating Drift next week in Vancouver. Also ref. The Cityspace Cut-Up @ Social Fiction, who seem somewhat responsible for this.
I don't see how Drift is "generative," but whatever; it's an interesting idea.
[badly-behaved javascript pop-links on the page; the supporting links in this post go to the locations directly]
posted by Su at 9:08 AM PST - 18 comments

"They're already calling her the Weblog Candidate." Tara Grubb is running for Congress against P2P bill cosponsor Howard Coble. She has a weblog, and she's getting a lot of support from the weblog world.
posted by Buckley at 7:20 AM PST - 28 comments

Steven Pippin's audacious pinhole camera pieces are epic at times, as the artist often goes to extremes to convert Bayonne, New Jersey washing machines, toilets, gallery spaces, and moving vans (no image) into pinhole cameras. A book about his James Eadweard Muybridge-inspired installation; "laundromat, locomotion". Noteworthy criticism, and how to make your own pinhole camera.
posted by hama7 at 6:27 AM PST - 3 comments

Catching hepatitis while shopping seems to be not limited to one location in North America. North Carolina and Toronto supermarkets, a McDonalds in Wisconsin, is this a "new" trend?
posted by CrazyJub at 6:13 AM PST - 16 comments

What's more fun than a Tiger Woods/Britney Spears duet at a charity event? Canuck radio DJs impersonating Celine Dion to invite the pop 'star' to sing at the bogus gala, that's what! Oh, but it gets even better. The song the diva was to sing? 'Let's Make a Hole in One". Maybe they should have called Courtney, too.
posted by runthegamut at 9:29 PM PST - 9 comments

Watch those Waterway in Florida says the U.S. Coast Guard. Possible terrorist threats include drawing or taking photographs of the shore, being near the shore for a long time, and under no circumstances would any law abiding citizen be doing something as daring and thoroughly terrorist-like as renting a boat.
posted by benjh at 6:18 PM PST - 37 comments

What did kids play with before this came along? Beautiful metal ray-guns like these. This site has a lot of history, and here are some books about these fantastic toys from a long-gone age. Want to start a collection? Be prepared to pay.
posted by interrobang at 2:48 PM PST - 11 comments

Secret Court Rebuffs Ashcroft: A May 17 opinion by the court that oversees the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) alleges that Justice Department and FBI officials supplied erroneous information to the court in more than 75 applications for search warrants and wiretaps, including one signed by then-FBI Director Louis J. Freeh.

Maybe the system actually works.

Thanks to Dack for the link.
posted by mark13 at 2:43 PM PST - 10 comments

Pimp Anthropology (RealAudio file) is the title of a 1999 episode (description) of This American Life. It chronicles the rise and fall of a man that, with three friends in the '70s, became a pimp, didn't follow the rules, and lost everything. It's amazingly honest, interesting and heartbreaking, and doesn't fall into the trap of glorifying pimping and prostitution. This is the best thing I've heard in a while.
posted by The Michael The at 2:12 PM PST - 8 comments

Today is still Friday, right? So bring on the flash! (better with broadband)
posted by DenOfSizer at 2:03 PM PST - 6 comments

Can't think of a name for your new album? Then don't give it one. Apparently none of the songs on the forthcoming Sigur Ros album will have names, either. Taking the "black album" concept a little too far?
posted by gottabefunky at 1:43 PM PST - 50 comments

Bored at the office? Put some of that paper to good use: make some paper airplanes. Those two links should keep you busy for a few days (be sure to try out Nick's Plane. Possibly the best paper plane there is. Thank you Nick, who ever you are..), but if you're looking for something a little flash, you could try folding one of these.
posted by slipperywhenwet at 12:44 PM PST - 18 comments

My buddy and I are in a pub, and I mention this website called Gone and Forgotten, which is all about superheroes who were so ill-conceived that they were quickly abandoned. And my buddy says "What about the Metal Men -- do they talk about the Metal Men?" And I say "The Metal who?" And my buddy says "They were these robots, and they had each had the powers associated with the metal they were made of. Like, Lead could block x-rays, and Mercury could, I dunno, take your temperature or something." And I tell my buddy that, although I don't know if the Metal Men appear on the virtual pages of G.A.F., I am certain that someone out there on the Internet has created a Unofficial Metal Man Fan Page. And I am right.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 11:30 AM PST - 26 comments

It worked for fur; perhaps for SUVs? This article warms my heart. And that of my 19lb road bike.
posted by ParisParamus at 11:12 AM PST - 215 comments

The Mars Exploration Program Landing Sites has kept me enthralled for most of the day. Explore the surface with a beautiful scalable map or argue over a landing site. Personally, I'm leaving a geocache here. (Warning: circa 1994 web design combined with possible browser crashing applets)
posted by Stan Chin at 10:19 AM PST - 2 comments

The Google Quiz tests your knowledge of art, film, and music, general trivia, or (ugh) their stuff for sale. It's only open to US residents, but it otherwise an interesting testament to their product. Armed with just a google search window, you are given five questions that test your research limits. Someone here with l33t search skillz has got to win something.
posted by mathowie at 9:58 AM PST - 24 comments

Peruse public pedestrian photos that portray private ponderings. Phenomenal portraits, I might add.
posted by pedantic at 9:57 AM PST - 54 comments

A new twist on the Nigerian Money Laundering Scam Spam? Everybody has a little cash-flow problem now and then...
posted by TCMITS at 9:42 AM PST - 9 comments

Longtime Friendly's waitress resigns over corporate policy This lady got screwed - want to do something about it? Send your comments to corporate creeps at: http://www.friendlys.com/cgi-bin/comment.cgi
posted by Pressed Rat at 8:38 AM PST - 48 comments

Will the results of this scientific research explain your feelings about your family?
posted by semmi at 8:29 AM PST - 10 comments

So you want a pet monkey? Owning a monkey is a big commitment. Do your research before taking in a primate. For example, consider famous monkeys in history. Don't forget you'll need to learn how to diaper your monkey. If you live with someone, be considerate and discuss your desire for a pet monkey with them or just send them a card. Decide what kind of monkey you want. Perhaps a little red monkey like this or this? If all else fails, try a sock monkey instead. You can buy one or make it yourself. Not into sock monkeys you say? Adopt an out of work dotcommer. Rumor has it there's even a chimp in the White House.
posted by VelvetHellvis at 8:14 AM PST - 60 comments

The emerging internet operating system. Tim O'Reilly has seen the future. "It's just not evenly distributed yet." Alpha Geeks know things we'll all be learning soon: the Internet is an operating system. And they're busy building applications for it. Bonus:the article is heavily annotated for further reading!
Yes, he's talking to Apple developers, and applauds OS X, but this is not an Apple post. If you prefer, he makes the same points and applauds Sun in a speech to their developers.
posted by putzface_dickman at 7:22 AM PST - 4 comments

In the midst of all the talk of possible terrorist deployments of Weapons of Mass-Destruction, this seems like a somewhat dramatic, if effective, approach to pre-empting the threat of blackmarket nuclear proliferation. The co-operative approach adopted by the U.S and Russia - and presumably the Yugoslav Government itself - also seems encouraging. Should this 'surprise-attack' approach now be used to negate the threat posed as nuclear facilities are decommissioned worldwide??
posted by Doozer at 7:19 AM PST - 3 comments

US demands information on long forgotten downed pilot while insisting they not release the names or allow legal counsel to "enemy combatants" held within the US?
posted by specialk420 at 6:55 AM PST - 15 comments

Holidays cut into UK growth... Wow, so much for National Slacker Day being a good thing! Although honestly, I cannot see where they have more National Holidays than the US does... Must be all our 40 plus hour work weeks.
posted by gloege at 6:50 AM PST - 10 comments

British Telecom patent does not cover the Internet. Yea, another overreaching patent holder has gone down in defeat. BT has a patent for a remote terminal/mainframe/modem combination which they asserted covered linking over the Internet. In a recent opinion the US District Court for the Southern District of New York held that BT's patent was not so broad as to cover the Internet. Thank God. Are some people just too greedy?
posted by caddis at 6:47 AM PST - 5 comments

Global Warming with Regional Variations: Antarctic Ice Growing over the last 20 years.
posted by Irontom at 5:58 AM PST - 5 comments

Half a billion Americans? The Economist crunches census data from both sides of the Atlantic and figures that the US will hit the 500 million mark sometime in the next few decades, surpassing the combined population of even the expanded EU. In typical style, the Economist looks at the economic and political reprecussions of this, but skips another interesting question: how will a doubling of the population change America itself? will it make the US more environmentally friendly? reduce urban sprawl? will the shifting population balance change the culture itself?
posted by costas at 4:23 AM PST - 48 comments

National Slacker Day... Friday August 23rd. Kick back, relax, take the day off, do nothing... it's time to slack. Though I fear this only applies to UK metafilterians. The rest of you, hop to it! Work won't wait all day. It was slacker day back in February, too, and last year, and... *yawn... stretch*
posted by humuhumu at 2:25 AM PST - 27 comments

Washington Post launches electronic edition. The whole paper is available online with a combination of Flash and HTML. I even downloaded it as a 20MB PDF for viewing later. Is this the future of newspapers? Are we headed towards paper-less editions of the newspaper? [More...]
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 8:23 PM PST - 29 comments

Growing up in the MTV generation. Reading the earlier Eminem link just reminded me how much MTV has been part of my socialization as a child of the 80's. MTV is a business that has effected not only how i look at the world, but also how i view myself. I'm just curious if there's anyone else out there who have felt so strongly shaped by (through reaction to or following of) MTV.
posted by NGnerd at 7:19 PM PST - 51 comments

Rainy day? Kill time and create an exquisite corpse.
posted by Catch at 5:31 PM PST - 11 comments

Eminem to save America. Suspend your disbelief (like I did) and read what Al Giordano has to say about Slim Shady and his new White America video. (more inside)
posted by crasspastor at 5:23 PM PST - 106 comments

You may have seen the Newseum's collection of newspaper front page images from Sept. 12, 2001. Now you can view the front pages of over 119 newspapers from 23 countries, updated daily.
posted by arco at 4:59 PM PST - 14 comments

Forget the world for a minute, darlings. It's suppertime. Let's use our fabulously round and colorful dishware from America's premier champion of casual living, the handsome Russel Wright. An artist, industrial designer and marketing genius, Wright was a pioneer in spun aluminum before his innovative American Modern dinnerware (designed for the masses, not the classes) made him a star. Housewives would line up for blocks when a new shipment arrived. Some of his pieces are truly museum-quality. Cooper-Hewitt Museum quality, to be exact. Only 3 weeks left in the exhibition. And if you see Carmen, one of the world's top Russel Wright collectors, do tell her hello.
posted by mediareport at 4:19 PM PST - 8 comments

Agency Was to Crash Plane on 9/11 How weird is this??!?
posted by bas67 at 3:46 PM PST - 8 comments

Survive This! Last week the Los Angeles New Times reported that NBC had signed teenage kidnap/rape victims Tamara Brooks and Jackie Marris to star in a midseason replacement "reality show", to be entitled "Survive This!"

After the initial jaw-drops of this revelation and alleged quotes from therapists and sex crime experts that "NBC may actually be doing the teens a service by exposing them to worldwide publicity", further along in the article we get this description of what the show will entail:

'Survive This!' contestants will be briefed by the girls before they are helicoptered to a remote, secret location. If things go according to plan, NBC will have placed several paroled repeat sex offenders in various locations miles from the drop zone. The contestants will have 48 hours to find safety at a remote building made to resemble a rural sheriff's station.

People were outraged. Protests were planned. There was just one catch. The author of the article made up the whole thing.

One wonders how this ever got past the editors.
posted by chuq at 3:41 PM PST - 26 comments

Coincidence? The man being questioned by police in relation to allegations that he took a £1,000,000 bribe during the takeover of Wessex Water (audited by Andersen and previously owned by Enron) is also on the board of the company whose track maintenance may have been responsible for the Potters Bar Rail Crash. Why am I not surprised to see so many of the same fingers in the same rotten pies.
posted by essexjan at 3:35 PM PST - 1 comment

WNEW Dumps Opie And Anthony I guess we know how far too far is now. How long before they make their triumphant return on another ratings-starved radio station?
posted by BGM at 2:36 PM PST - 42 comments

His Blood Warriors: Motorcycle Ministry of lower Alabama. Members wear colors based on outlaw bikers and the directions of God. "Where will the road you're on take you?" [warning: popups ahoy!]
posted by kirkaracha at 2:27 PM PST - 4 comments

An All-American Fugitive When Margo Freshwater escaped from prison 32 years ago, she began a happy and law-abiding life, becoming a devoted mother, grandmother and wife. Now she's back behind bars . . . And unless she's given a new trial or is granted clemency . . . she will remain behind bars until she is an old woman . . . Meanwhile, the man who confessed to the killing probably will die a free man.
posted by mikrophon at 1:41 PM PST - 5 comments

Medical marijuana takes a hit.
Ajulemic acid (also known as CT-3) is a new synthetic THC analog that helps relieve arthritis pain without the side effects of other non-steroidal analgesics, such as aspirin and ibuprofen -- and without the high of its chemical cousin. More inside...
posted by me3dia at 12:10 PM PST - 36 comments

'Car Talk' hits brakes on 3.1m yogurt lids.
How did I miss this incredible story? There must be a good use for these, and we can find it, together. via Current.
posted by djacobs at 11:51 AM PST - 15 comments

NY Times Reporter Jumps to His Death: Matt Drudge reports that New York Times Business reporter/editor Allen Myerson jumped to death at the NY Times building in New York City on 43rd Street this morning. Myerson was the Weekend Business Editor at the NY Times and a member of the Business Journalism Advisory Council. Among other things, Myerson reported on Enron. An abstract of a Myerson article that appeared in the newspaper last December says, "Enron Corp's failure is having repercussions not just on nation's energy industries, but is being felt through retailing, real estate, insurance, banking, Internet services, newspaper publishing, plastics and glass manufacturing, all of which Enron touched in its boundless appetite for risk and growth."
posted by maud at 11:39 AM PST - 52 comments

November 25th, 1997, marked the 134th anniversary of the battles for Chattanooga. On that day, Dave Buckhout and T.C. Moore retraced the route along which these battles flowed. They had cameras, a road map, and an '86 Buick. The resulting website is an example of what's wonderful about the internet.
posted by ewagoner at 11:26 AM PST - 3 comments

Thailand's latest pet craze The Thai government is cautioning people against a new fad sweeping Bangkok - raising giant African cockroaches as pets - saying the bugs could become a health risk if let loose.
posted by DailyBread at 10:44 AM PST - 22 comments

Demythologizing The Blues. Blues reseacher and scholar David Evans breaks it down. Country blues as a living tradition tied to a rural black culture - there is something of that culture left - I think it's essentially over.--that's from this interview with David Evans--scroll past the autobiographical details for the meat and potatos. Paul Garon, of Race Traitor and Living Blues, has strong feelings about White Blues. Similarly, black writer Jesse Douglas Allen-Taylor feels a chill amidst a white blues audience and asks Whose Blues Are They? Also, n a related and timely topic, here's Elvis Presley and the Impulse Towards Transculturation. (Hint: Elvis didn't sound black. Well, duh...) Originally in the NYT--no password needed now!--The Blues Dying In The Land Where It Was Born, and as a bonus, the New Yorker profile on an outfit I love to loathe, Fat Possum. Is is this guy's fault? And if you want to make the pilgrimage, let Junior's Juke Joint be your guide! (don't forget to make that unannounced drop in on raysmj!) Added bonus: R. Crumb's Charley Patton.
posted by y2karl at 10:01 AM PST - 34 comments

Game Studies "is a crossdisciplinary journal dedicated to games research, web-published several times a year at www.gamestudies.org. Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games." A well-designed, well-written site about a media that seems often poorly studied outside of mainstream press.
posted by moz at 9:29 AM PST - 4 comments

He never got as famous as Gary Larson or Edward Gorey, and is best known for his cat pictures, but the rest of his bizarre brand of vulgar social commentary is worth attention. He's B. Kliban, and his humor ranges from the strangely funny to the surreal. More of this gallery here.
posted by interrobang at 9:27 AM PST - 27 comments

It starts with Delaware... Over at Google Answers, a Microsoft Games Studio employee has posted a most interesting puzzle to solve. Over the course of the last twenty months a list of states has been gradually revealed by his boss, but under what criteria are they listed? He's giving $200.00 to the winner; just think of what you could buy. The fine folks at the Straight Dope are already on the case. To the Googlemobile! [via Cardhouse]
posted by thewittyname at 9:26 AM PST - 75 comments

First challenge of Maryland law making animal cruelty a felony results in acquittal. Charges were dismissed against a landlord who forcibly removed two of his tenant's three cats and dispatched them with a 12-gauge shotgun. Judge said law's language fails to clearly define "cruel killing". Also on AP.
posted by LinusMines at 9:23 AM PST - 16 comments

xrefer is billing itself as The Web's Reference Engine, and with 100 reference manuals cross-linked and indexed, it may have support for that claim. I found it last night while looking for a definition for the word eyot, which is where Frodo and Sam camp at one point near the end of the Fellowship of the Ring. The site is easy to use, and provides (at least in my mind) the feeling of browsing at the library, with all the related links that appear in a search context.
posted by hurkle at 8:48 AM PST - 7 comments

need a bmw looks like karyn, of savekaryn.com fame has a new friend. this guy asks someone to be generous and 'find it in the goodness of your heart to make his dream (of owning a $33,000 car) a reality'.
posted by reb at 8:40 AM PST - 35 comments

dumpster sticker says, Don't throw that baby away!. Christine McGuire of the Santa Cruz county District Attorney's Office thinks it's a good idea.
posted by trioperative at 8:31 AM PST - 39 comments

Starbucks announces wireless Internet access in stores and plans to charge customers for it: $29.99/month for access in one store, or $49.99/month for access in all equipped stores nationwide. Seems a little pricey to me. And besides, don't cool coffeehouses offer free wireless Internet access? They're sure getting lots of coverage of the announcement in any case.
posted by tippiedog at 7:58 AM PST - 21 comments

American movie, recording and software executives could be prohibited from entering Australia or extradited to face criminal charges if a copyright protection bill before the US Congress passes into law.
posted by Kellydamnit at 7:19 AM PST - 10 comments

"Know it well, for it is on this day that we fixed the bug that prevented one from attaching files with apostrophes in the filename. We are living in the best of all possible worlds." Oddpost engineers channel Dave Eggers in one of the most entertaining customer support blogs ever. Oh wait, it's the only one (that I've seen). Are there others?
posted by luser at 6:42 AM PST - 14 comments

A sort of inadequate memorial tribute to John Sladek. A twenty-year old interview with an author you've probably never heard of. More literary than Douglas Adams, and at least as funny. Think Terry Gilliam if he'd become a writer rather than a director (the most obvious comparison I could think of, them both being Yanks who emigrated to England). I could have added some more links, but if I tell you that he's even funnier in print you'll be googling away for yourself. Sad thing is, he's dead.
posted by chrisgregory at 1:57 AM PST - 6 comments

Google makes another killer app? Rackmounted servers devoted to googling your own intranet or website. Just look at those specs and features. Google is selling 1 server, retail $28,000, and they are marketing especially for corporate intranets. But imagine the power that would be at the fingertips of archivists, students, and researchers everywhere with a dedicated, customized Google for their own website. Imagine being able to do a detailed search that would literally comb the content of every page published by Project Gutenberg. In seconds, you could call upon thousands of years of writing for any and all information on any specific subject. What kind of implications will this technology have long-term for students, researchers, and archivists?
posted by insomnyuk at 11:02 PM PST - 21 comments

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden imbeciles...

The Oulipians dis Wordsworth. [via Follow me Here]
posted by slipperywhenwet at 9:32 PM PST - 23 comments

Send a sheep to your beloved in Ethiopia. You can choose from Medium, Big, and Very Big sizes...all with a guarantee! I like their holiday specials too -- check out number 5: a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red and a medium sheep. (though I think I'd need a bottle of scotch if someone sent me a sheep.) Similar to this post, but I had more fun with this. Too bad it only delivers to Addis Ababa...
posted by Vidiot at 8:45 PM PST - 6 comments

The Saudis wanna sue. A group of Saudis plan to sue the U.S. government and media organizations for the alleged psychological and financial damage they suffered in the aftermath of Sept. 11, their lawyer said Wednesday.
posted by kayjay at 7:19 PM PST - 23 comments

Tamyra Gray eliminated! Wow, what an upset. I'm embarrassed to admin that I watch this show, but I do watch it. You should have seen the look on the judges faces when she was voted off - total shock. Word on the street is, people are using software to war-dial the voting system and vote for Nikki McKibbin. Is this Fox's fault for not securing their voting system, or is it just part of today's new Internet paradigm?
posted by Maxor at 7:08 PM PST - 53 comments

Comic book retailer sentenced to jail for selling a book to an adult The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's lawyers are filing an appeal in the highest criminal court in Texas in the obscenity conviction of Jesus Castillo, manager of a Dallas comic book store. Castillo has received six months jail time, a year probation, and a $4000 fine. [more inside]
posted by dejah420 at 6:39 PM PST - 33 comments

What He's Really Currently Listening To is a spin on the "currently listening to" feature iTunes users are rigging up to their personal sites. What are you really listening to?
posted by fred_ashmore at 5:26 PM PST - 22 comments

The Insider's Guide to Real Policing. It's a job that connects all your favorite pastimes—sitting around, eating, bullying people, writing incomplete sentences. After years of research and development, our investigators have found that policing is the easiest job in the District. from Washington DC's City Paper.
posted by Ty Webb at 4:35 PM PST - 8 comments

All Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology Why did Bin Laden's homies do what they did on September 11? Why did Lindh (as per the Steve Earle thread below) do what he did? Here is a cogent answer.
posted by kozad at 3:37 PM PST - 19 comments

GettingIt, the hideously green, but biting and amusing webzine that hired every freelancer in the bay area and somehow survived on no revenue for six months is back. The full story of the rise and fall of the publication is a good one. [via waxy]
posted by mathowie at 3:31 PM PST - 13 comments

The track list for We're a Happy Family -- A Tribute to the Ramones looks, uh, ...interesting. No Motorhead though, the shame. I am glad that Rob Zombie is proving that it is possible to produce a tribute album without the omnipresent Sheryl Crow.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 2:56 PM PST - 12 comments

Peaceful co-existence with the animal kingdom, example #240. At a local boat ramp in the Richmond, VA suburbs, there is a problem with black vultures causing damage to cars. The buzzards are being attracted by trash and food scraps being left by fishermen cleaning their catch. The birds are scratching trucks and cars, crapping wherever they please (the nerve!), and ripping out the rubber from windshield wipers. What does Chesterfield County decide to do about it? They hired the U.S. Department of Agriculture's wildlife services program to eradicate the entire flock.
posted by machaus at 2:49 PM PST - 27 comments

Is Preemption a Nuclear Schlieffen Plan? The greatest and most difficult task facing a statesman in international affairs is reconciling the natural tension between the constructive nature of a nation's grand strategy with the destructive character of its military strategy. The emerging doctrine of preemption should be examined in the context of this challenge. With this in mind, the author continues with a "Dr. Strangelove" type warning. Are our leaders "doing themselves in" (and us with them) in the current 'war' on terrorism?
posted by tgrundke at 2:12 PM PST - 12 comments

Oh No! Not Another Underrated Artist Who Was Ahead Of His Time... Oh yes: it's Tom Thompson(1877-1917). This time, though, the Internet has helped exact a sort of revenge. For those unlucky enough not to live in stately Ottawa and be able to visit the exhibition of the great colourist's work there (through September 8), someone has done a great job of presenting Thompson's paintings on the web, including a wonderful selection of merchandise and an appropriately quirky little quiz. So they do win a few, now and again...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:58 PM PST - 8 comments

How to make money off terrorism. This outfit will e-mail you "near real-time notices about terrorism related news and events as a free public service" and expects 50,000 to 100,000 subscribers. According to their news-release page, "when subscribership reaches significant levels the email alerts will be an effective advertising medium for in-house efforts as well as outside advertisers." As in, for example, "Alert: there has been a biological warfare attack. This message sponsored by Clearasil Anti-Bacterial Soap."
posted by beagle at 1:46 PM PST - 13 comments

Da liddle guy checks out (in 18 months) Jean Cretien, the Prime Minister of Canada, has just announced he's stepping down thereby avoiding a party revolt and also neatly sinking his main opponent's chances. Will Canada ever find another PM who is as politically astute and at the same time as cartoon-like and embarassing (cough) Mel Lastman (cough)? Favourite memories, please.....
posted by BGM at 12:02 PM PST - 51 comments

We, the undersigned, think you're untalented. Why do over 20000 people think that RnB singer Ashanti didn't deserve her Soul Train Lady of Soul Entertainer of the Year award? What does Soul Train make of all this?
posted by monkeymike at 11:07 AM PST - 74 comments

What's "the primary cause of cervical cancer?" Did you know that "as many as 40 million Americans are infected?" Should you be alarmed that "There is no direct treatment?" Let's talk Papilloma.
posted by zekinskia at 11:02 AM PST - 31 comments

Go, Speed Racer, Go. The official web site, with Mach 5 specs, character profiles, and leather jackets "by renowned jacket guru Jeff Hamilton." Coming soon: an interactive Mach 5. (See also: Brunching Shuttlecocks ratings of the Speed Racer characters.)
posted by kirkaracha at 10:56 AM PST - 8 comments

The Longlist of the Shortlist Music Prize. Last year's inaugural winners were Sigur Ros. The White Stripes can't win. Which of the nominating musicians and film-makers has taste that most reflects your own?
posted by liam at 10:53 AM PST - 28 comments

Children of the 70s may remember the Brady Bunch Hour, the cornball song-dance-sketch variety show featuring the cast of the famous sitcom. You may also recall controversial cast member, Geri Reischl, a.k.a."Fake Jan". Reischl replaced Eve Plumb in nine episodes of the variety show after Plumb (wisely) refused to appear in the musical revival. Some fans even cite Reischl's exceptional singing and dancing abilities as the highpoint of the Brady Bunch Hour—just ask the fine folks at The Official Geri Reischl Website.
posted by VelvetHellvis at 10:44 AM PST - 14 comments

"'Curious strength' drives every aspect of the campaign." Introduced to the US in 1918, Altoids (Flash) have existed since the reign of George III, and were marketed as a digestive aid for over a century; shortly after their US debut, they were even billed as "an antidote to poisons in the stomach". Today they hold a distinctive place within their industry, with quirky ads and a reputation as being The Mint to Beat. Their tins are tricked out by craftsy types, their history is catalogued (and sometimes embellished), and they have had shrines built in their honor; not to mention their alleged bedroom merits, which are widely accepted despite Snopes' few words on the subject.

BTW: the new Tangerine Sours rock, IMHO, but Cinnamon is thought by some to be Evil...
posted by atavistech at 10:22 AM PST - 32 comments

The copyright cops are lacing up their boots and plan on making an example out of you.
posted by anathema at 9:39 AM PST - 58 comments

Are you a diamond in the rough?
For as little as $4,000, LifeGem Memorials will turn your cremains into a diamond, allowing your loved ones to cherish you forever while admiring your sparkling brilliance.
According to the Cremation Association of North America, about 26 percent of the 2.3 million U.S. residents are cremated, and they predict that rate will jump to nearly 40 percent by 2010. Perhaps we've found an alternative to those other blood diamonds?
posted by me3dia at 8:59 AM PST - 27 comments

Washington, DC bar officially enters Guinness Book of World Records with 'the largest selection of commercially available beers' (1,072). Look over the list (from December 2001). Any hidden gems or missing favorites?
posted by LinusMines at 8:35 AM PST - 51 comments

Bush to Urge Logging Plan to Help Curb Fires (registration metafilter/metafilter). Puppet-boy Bush wants to open up selective national forests to logging to help prevent forest fires. While we're at it why don't we kill all the endangered species before they die out? Let's use those polar ice caps for Poland Spring, they're melting anyway!
posted by mad at 7:47 AM PST - 55 comments

Kids got sunburnt A deputy doing round at a county fair in Ohio noticed three children walking with their mother. Their faces sunburnt like they were "dipped in red paint". Their mother is charged with felony negligence and is facing a 15 year sentence if convicted.
I remember getting a sunburn back in grade school, what's the statute of limitations on charging my 1st grade teacher?
posted by omidius at 7:28 AM PST - 55 comments

A wargame carried out by the US military was rigged to ensure the success of the American side against unspecified Middle East opponents, according to the retired General commanding the Middle East forces. Most amusingly, he managed to sink most of the American navy, and the game had to be stopped so the ships could be "refloated". I have to wonder, does this wargame indicate that America could be biting off more than it can chew, if it decides to invade Iraq by itself, or was this $200million down the drain?
posted by salmacis at 5:52 AM PST - 45 comments

Multiculturalism v/s Democracy On this day in 1858, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Abraham Lincoln, a Kentucky-born lawyer and one-time U.S. Representative from Illinois, began a series of famous public debates on the issue of slavery, during the course of which Lincoln said:

"They [Founding Fathers] meant to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all: constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, every where."

I argue that when a culture values slavery, when a culture is built upon a system of basic inequality, regardless of the reasons, that culture is incompatible with Democracy and the ideals of American society, and can not and should not be embraced by Americans. Is it possible that part of the anger at the US stems from the "spreading and deepening" influence of American principles, and not just at our economic and military mistakes?
posted by ewkpates at 5:43 AM PST - 28 comments

Disposable Planet? Find out how many planets we would need if everyone lived like you.
posted by zoid at 2:23 AM PST - 62 comments

Advertisers are no strangers to controversy. Whether they want it or not. But Cadbury's latest scheme gets filed under 'A' for "Are you insane?"
posted by stuporJIX at 1:39 AM PST - 19 comments

Frans Masereel - a great woodcut artist, pioneer of the wordless novel. You can see all of his 1925 Die Stadt (The City) and Landscapes and Voices (1929) at Graphic Witness (Though his Passionate Journey is one of my favorite books.) "First published in Germany in 1925 The City is a portrait of urban Europe between the wars, told in one hundred woodcuts of exceptional force and beauty. Frans Masereel portrays parks and factories, shipyards and brothels, crowds, lovers, and lonely individuals with remarkable subtlety and nuance while exploiting the stark contrast of the woodcut medium.
posted by vacapinta at 12:37 AM PST - 8 comments

The Bureau Of Public Secrets , Kenneth Rexroth and Sappho. It was while looking for this fragment of hers, translated by him--(Details within)
posted by y2karl at 11:44 PM PST - 7 comments

Qwest Finds Buyer For QwestDex The buyer is a group led by the Carlyle Group and Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe. The question is: Why does an investment firm that primarily deals in Defense Contracts want a phone directory company? Tell me I'm just being paranoid.
posted by bas67 at 9:19 PM PST - 7 comments

You Opportunity To Jump For Joy At the Defeat of a Dreadful, Icky, Arguably EVIL person. No more Bob Barr!
posted by ParisParamus at 8:26 PM PST - 41 comments

Iraq's Aziz Says U.S. Attack Would Fail This is a news story? What is the Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz supposed to say? "W. has been right all along, Saddam is a tyrant. We need to get him out. Even Saddam agrees he has gone to far." or "Now that you mention it, our military is a mess, the stuff we have bought is junk and your tanks will rip it to shreds."
posted by Coop at 7:34 PM PST - 13 comments

Ginkgo supplements don’t help...Um...................um...... A new study suggests ginkgo supplements do nothing to quickly improve memory in healthy people, a finding that goes against years of well-publicized claims that helped turn the supplements into a multimillion-dollar industry.
posted by DailyBread at 4:41 PM PST - 25 comments

Thirty days in jail and $200 fine for using the "N" word?
posted by kablam at 3:33 PM PST - 47 comments

Be thinkful? sure, whatever... It turns out that Phil Donahue's new show is just a sort of left-wing version of Bill O'Reilly's. What a shock. Read how guests are ambushed and shouted down by the guy who "doesn't let the government tell him what to think".
posted by clevershark at 2:44 PM PST - 37 comments

Pentagon busily ruining the credit ratings of service personnel. "Hapless" military personnel are ordered to use a government-issued credit card for travel expenses, then submit for reimbursement. But the reimbursements (and even paychecks) frequently come late, making the soldier unable to pay the credit card bill -- thus branding them as "delinquents", "credit risks" and even causing their wages to be garnished.

"U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan have found themselves stranded in the desert without a dime because their credit was suddenly cut off, according to a May 29 report in the Military Times, leaving families behind in a nasty Catch-22: Swallow the debt, or borrow more money to pay the bills so their credit wouldn't be ruined."

It truly gives one the warm fuzzies to see that our government and military leaders give our service personnel the respect they deserve.
posted by chuq at 12:48 PM PST - 48 comments

Launching this Sept 11th (ok, the 10th, but still): the DEA Museum will open a "powerful new exhibit that traces the historic and contemporary connections between global drug trafficking and terrorism." Good idea. Tasteful timing.
posted by engelr at 12:26 PM PST - 40 comments

A new use for haiku! Ancient Japanese art as spam filter? Habeas seems to think so. Come on kids, let the sorry attempts at poetry begin!
posted by krunk at 12:03 PM PST - 28 comments

Read People's Thoughts Just by Looking at Them

A wild claim, but a very interesting article.
posted by Irontom at 12:00 PM PST - 40 comments

S.K. Thoth is one of a kind. I used to see him around San Francisco, and last night I was surprised to see a documentary about him on cinemax. His material is inspired by the mythological world he created when as a youth, and his solo operas are amazing to behold.
posted by homunculus at 11:52 AM PST - 8 comments

Nasa plans to read the minds of terrorists... NASA wants to use "noninvasive neuro-electric sensors," imbedded in gates, to collect tiny electric signals that all brains and hearts transmit. Computers would apply statistical algorithms to correlate physiologic patterns with computerized data on travel routines, criminal background and credit information from "hundreds to thousands of data sources," NASA documents say
posted by Espoo2 at 11:30 AM PST - 12 comments

Are "multiculturalists" the real racists?
posted by 314/ at 11:06 AM PST - 74 comments

Coca-Cola Accused of Using Death Squads to Target Union Leaders. In a link from yesterday we saw Coca-cola avoid taking responsibility for the actions of one of its franchise outfits. Let's see how they weasel out of this one.
posted by Qubit at 10:07 AM PST - 13 comments

Want to cut taxes? Eliminate libraries. NY Times story (yeah, yeah, reg required, sorry) talks about a ballot initiative in Stevens County, Washington that may totally eliminate its libraries. (more inside...)
posted by PeteyStock at 10:05 AM PST - 66 comments

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where all these profits came from, and why all these acquisitions went sour, what our net income is, and why WorldCom stock prices are in the toilet, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." Holden Caulfield, caught up in the boom.
posted by luser at 9:28 AM PST - 7 comments

Girls seek "divorce" of lesbian mother The Scottish paper seems to take a fairly serious anti-gay stance, where as the report in the Houston Chronicle seems to be a little more factual and less hysterical. But, in either case, do children have the right to demand that their parents "stop being gay"?
posted by dejah420 at 8:35 AM PST - 49 comments

Iraqi Dissidents Seize Embassy in Berlin. An Iraqi dissident group calling for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein occupied the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin Tuesday and took several hostages, including the ambassador. Is this just a stunt before the upcoming German elections?
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 8:31 AM PST - 26 comments

By the power of Grey Skull... Cartoon Network is airing a new He-Man cartoon series. Feel free to reminisce about the original Masters of the Universe.
posted by uftheory at 8:27 AM PST - 53 comments

Ever wonder where stars are born? an unprecedented, detailed view of the entire inner region of 30 Doradus, measuring 200 light-years wide by 150 light-years high. You can go straight to the photo here.
posted by aLienated at 8:27 AM PST - 3 comments

A dangerous drug... Is it possible that the anti-malaria drug Lariam contributed to the recent series of murders at Fort Bragg? Three of the soldiers involved were on the drug, which has been known to cause aggression, paranoia, hallucinations, and thoughts of suicide. After identifying the potential side-effects, why are we still prescribing this drug to our troops?
posted by greengrl at 8:03 AM PST - 20 comments

If Earthlink starts killing pop-up ads will a trend emerge? I hate pop-up ads, but they must have some effect because I see more and more. I can see the logic in Earthlink's attempt to gain customers by promising to block pop-up ads, but will it have an effect? I can get other pop-up killers without getting it from Earthlink. Why don't they address spyware and attack web advertisers where they live?
posted by john_lustig at 7:28 AM PST - 27 comments

Women in Refrigerators looks at the disproportionately grim fates of women superheroes and sidekicks in comics, relative to their male counterparts. Be sure to check out the responses from comics authors and readers, including a well-thought attempt to put it in the context of the medium.
posted by mkultra at 6:14 AM PST - 21 comments

Why are there monsters like this? and perhaps more to the point, why as a society are we so ill-equipped to deal with them effectively?
posted by Pressed Rat at 6:03 AM PST - 128 comments

Something's got to keep all those unruly Beanie Babies in line. HP Lovecraft's got nothing on the attack of the Plush Cthulhu.
posted by SuzySmith at 11:44 PM PST - 20 comments

Manzanar War Relocation Center was one of ten camps at which Japanese American citizens and resident Japanese aliens were interned during World War II. Ansel Adams photographed the camp in 1943 and published a book the following year to publicize the loyalty of the internees. You can take a QuickTime VR virtual tour, tour the camp in 3D VRML (screenshots), or read the memoirs of a woman who was interned there.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:17 PM PST - 22 comments

Jose Padilla is an US citizen being held without any rights granted to US citizens. And now the AG thinks he's a small fish will they let him go or give him a trial? Or will the government just keep him?
posted by elwoodwiles at 7:33 PM PST - 8 comments

Now here's guy who'll be pretty popular with the ladies: Italian man refuses to stop shtupping woman -- whom he'd just met -- in pool, until she has an orgasm.
posted by baylink at 7:11 PM PST - 55 comments

Prejudice! Deaf student turned down for place at Oxford University! Every year we have stories about how students were turned down for places at Oxford and Cambridge (the Yale and Harvard of the UK). The argument usually revolves around elitism, and that not enough state educated students are accepted into the top universities. This year, the story is of deaf student, Anastasia Fedotova, whose mother believes Oxford has discriminated against her daughter for not letting her in. And this just in, thousands of other parents are also claiming their able-bodied children have also been discriminated against. Oh, why can't those heartless admissions staff just accept every applicant!?
posted by wackybrit at 5:01 PM PST - 26 comments

"The Royal Bank, last year, refused to open an account for the "No Committee 2006" saying it believed the committee was violating the human rights of gays and lesbians." (The No Committee being an anti-gay group whose only reason to exist is to oppose bringing the gay games to Montreal.) The Royal Bank stated that "we will not knowingly open and operate bank accounts for groups whose express purpose is to incite discrimination against minorities." (via Soapboxgirls)
posted by monkeymike at 4:06 PM PST - 28 comments

Sell it. Cut notches in a stick. Spit tobbaco. Tie knots in black string. Rub it with a pebble. Bleed on a coin. [more ->]
posted by Spoon at 1:18 PM PST - 50 comments

KEKeKEKe "Possession of blue objects."
Visual poetry diamond of the Hungarian language - I'd love a pronuciation guide. Have you a favorite lexical chunk?
posted by dorcas at 12:53 PM PST - 10 comments

Af-Am poet disses Maya Angelou's new book, gets disinvited to book signing In this calm and thoughtful piece, smart, sharp poet Wanda Coleman reflects on the "furor" she caused in the Af-Am community with a savage review of Angelou's latest work. After the review appeared, she was asked not to attend a signing at a famous black bookstore for an anthology she participated in (story confirmed halfway down this page). She notes, "Critically reviewing the creative efforts of present-day African-American writers...is a minefield of a task." Also: Coleman on American poetry, Coleman recalls a mid-70's interview with Marley and Tosh and ponders black hair, Wanda's all-time top 10 books. [more inside]
posted by mediareport at 12:02 PM PST - 26 comments

Justice, American style. In July 1997, Michelle Bosko is raped and murdered. Police find no sign of forced entry and recover numerous semen and skin samples as well as fingerprints. The detectives ask the husband for his "gut feeling" for who did it. The husband fingers their neighbor. After many hours with a detective with a history of coerced confessions, he confesses and implicates his roommate. His roommate implicates three other men. Subsequent confessions from those men implicate a total of seven men. None of the suspects match the DNA or fingerprint evidence. Two years later, on a chance recovery of a jailhouse confession, a suspect admits to the killing. He has several rapes/assaults to his record and was a friend of the victim. He later confesses to the crime and says he acted alone. He matches the DNA and fingerprint analysis. The district attorney does NOT believe him, and convicts a total of five people for the crime.
posted by patrickje at 12:00 PM PST - 51 comments

The Grey Goo guys gain ground.
"The controversy involves the potential perils of making molecule-size objects and devices - a field known as nanotechnology ... The ultimate nightmare was the so-called Gray Goo catastrophe, in which self-replicating microscopic robots the size of bacteria fill the world and wipe out humanity."

While 'gain ground' may not be wholly accurate (it was alliterative), the theory is being given lots of play in scientific circles as nano-devices approach practical status.
posted by o2b at 11:49 AM PST - 26 comments

Trio arrested in Virginia for alleged sex act in cathedral. Copulating couple and their radio commentator co-conspiritor violated sanctity of church. Maybe if he'd been an altar boy...
posted by runthegamut at 11:46 AM PST - 51 comments

The new tapes obtained by CNN are somewhat disturbing. Has anyone else been able to catch some of them, either online, or on CNN Live? The chemical testing on the dogs is particularily interesting. Suddenly, experts are wondering if Al Qaeda has more technological capability then was previously estimated. Do you think that they have indeed made it past the stage of torturing dogs, and could pose a serious chemical threat? What is the likelihood that these weapons will be used?
posted by dgt at 11:17 AM PST - 34 comments

Oh no...not again... In the latest twist to the long-running Ginger saga, it's now being rumored that the two-wheeled device unveiled by inventor Dean Kamen last December isn't in fact the real deal.
posted by mathis23 at 10:18 AM PST - 39 comments

The other other reparations movement: Penile reparations. "...even where the procedure is performed at the professional standard, a circumcision is litigious if the consent is not informed... An army of lawyers will be there with this precedent and many more in their arsenal." [more inside]
posted by Slithy_Tove at 10:10 AM PST - 158 comments

Chindogu is the ancient Japanese art of the Unuseless Invention -- that is, a creation which seems like a great idea, but which, in reality, causes more inconvenience than it cures. Behold the almost handy Backstratcher's T-Shirt, the Eyedrop Funnel Glasses, the Butter Stick and the Kitty Dust Slippers. Because everyone enjoys a good Unuseless Invention, I have given this book as a gift more than any other.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 9:52 AM PST - 5 comments

Fancy Helping Rearrange The Deckchairs On The S.S.Nation? Witness the lavish excesses of Newport's "gilded age" as you visit the summer cottages of the Vanderbilts, Astors and Morgans; relive the fairy-tale wedding reception of Jacqueline Bouvier at her childhood summer home, Hammersmith Farm... Got a few thousand dollars to spare? Fancy a luxury cruise, leisurely discussing the evils of globalisation and the Bush administration with the likes of George McGovern, Howard Zinn, Katha Pollitt and the editorial gang of The Nation? Welcome aboard! Or perhaps Sir or Madam would feel more at home rubbing elbows and spilling eggnogs with Kenneth Starr, Milton Friedman, Dan Quayle, Tom De Lay on the S.S.National Review. What?! Still too left wing? Well, go ahead and join Oliver North, the NRA and other soft-spoken voices of moderation on their Freedom Cruise to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the glorious liberation of Grenada! Your own private tour of the island, conducted by Ollie himself, is included.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:46 AM PST - 8 comments

Archaeoastronomy examines how ancient cultures studied and worshipped the heavens. From the arrangement of the Stonehenge stelae to the Mayan reverence for the planet Venus, this science has resulted in some fascinating and often beautiful discoveries, including star charts found in tombs in Ireland and Japan, the Lascaux caves in France, and rock paintings of a supernova in 1054 that resulted in the Crab Nebula. My personal favorite is the “Sun Dagger” in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (scroll down for photos).
posted by gottabefunky at 9:36 AM PST - 11 comments

The other reparations movement. According to this article, Jack Kershaw, of Memphis, Tennessee wants to file a lawsuit which seeks redress for grievances with the federal government for gross violation of international law during the War Between the States, especially during Sherman's March to the Sea (some call it a myth). Kershaw is a board member of the League of the South, a non-racial Southern secessionist movement located in Alabama). Can a small secession movement which publishes a magazine called the Southern Patriot and sports a Confederate flag everywhere be taken seriously by mainstream America? I personally don't think Kershaw has a snowball's chance in hell of winning such a suit, but the idea is interesting, especially if one is trying to trace the origins of America's practice of ignoring international law and just conduct in war, which seemed to start with the un-Civil War. What do you think?
posted by insomnyuk at 9:25 AM PST - 45 comments

Lesson learned in Houston, Texas yesterday: shop at a 24-hour Kmart in the middle of the night, go directly to jail. If you're a 10-year-old girl having a late dinner with your father at the next door Sonic, well, it's off to jail with you, too.
posted by ewagoner at 9:23 AM PST - 100 comments

Joint Chiefs planned US Terror back in the 60s to build popular opinion against Cuba. Why is it so hard to believe that this type of 'strategic planning' isn't still commonplace? -via camworld
posted by tellmenow at 9:07 AM PST - 21 comments

WarFlying
Well it had to happen eventually didn't it? Have you ever gone on a hunt for wireless networks in your neck of the woods? Find anything you shouldn't have? And have you ever actually seen a WarChalk yet?
posted by Mwongozi at 8:57 AM PST - 7 comments

Farah Janjua, a diverse photographer has many accomplishments in her field. Since her debut as a photographer in 1990, her work has been displayed in numerous exhibitions both national and international. Her most outstanding achievements include her photograph "Hopeless"(scroll down) being the only photograph from outside the United States published by The International Library of Photography in their book 'America at the Millennium' in the year 1999. My personal favorite is this picture named "Malang" on her official website.
posted by adnanbwp at 8:04 AM PST - 4 comments

Hosting Provider Bans RIAA - According to this press release, Information Wave Technologies will actively block all RIAA IP space because RIAA is intentionally seeking to invade customer networks / hosts to check for copyright violations. Additionally, they are going to deploy a "honeypot" system (simulates a GNUtella client sharing copyrighted material) in order to log requests for the files and correlate them with attempts to invade the host -- RIAA's stated plan to combate music piracy.
posted by Irontom at 6:42 AM PST - 24 comments

The Washington Post follows an agenda. There truly exists a bias in the press and here's an example. Metatalk had a thread on there being so many NYT links, perhaps this helps explain why. Many many more examples of the Post's biases can be found at SpinSanity and other such sites but this one comes from "next door" in Baltimore.
!Only MetaFilter is trustworthy!

( P.S. Looking for an example of "liberal bias?" This isn't it.)
posted by nofundy at 6:08 AM PST - 28 comments

Abu Nidal is Dead. The Bin Laden of the 70s and 80s. Having read his biography years ago he makes Kyzer Soze childsplay...possible suicide.. yeah, suicide Israeli style. The War On Terror heats up one more terrorist scum dead.
posted by stbalbach at 6:07 AM PST - 12 comments

Death to the Prince of Darkness! I have never been prouder to live in CT. We're finally getting some REALLY DIRTY politics.
posted by clango at 5:22 AM PST - 5 comments

Coke paints the Himalayas red. Will this finally boost soft drink sales in the region?
posted by popkick at 1:25 AM PST - 26 comments

The Johnny Carson website, where many episodes are for sale on VHS. Bad news: It will cost me about $3,000 to collect all the Albert Brooks appearances. This week they're playing a (quicktime) monologue from 1977. Anybody else got the warm fuzzies for Johnny?
posted by luser at 12:40 AM PST - 13 comments

Look at Me A stirring gallery of found photographs. Surely, others have gathered such found contacts of human iteration?
posted by plexi at 12:05 AM PST - 16 comments

Iraq: In all but name, the war's on How do you tell a war has begun? This is not the 17th or 18th century. There are no highfalutin' declarations. Troops don't line up in eyesight of each other. There are no drum rolls and bugle calls, no calls of "Chaaa...rge!". When did the Vietnam War begin? When, for that matter, World War I? When mobilizations were ordered setting in motion irreversible chains of events or at the time of the formal declarations of war?
posted by bas67 at 8:44 PM PST - 24 comments

Ask Ah-nold how to pump up your puny little girly legs and ahms. Hear him now and call me later, I tell you to watch out, because he's gone completely nuts. Maybe it IS a tumor. (qt clip from japander.com)
posted by Stan Chin at 8:26 PM PST - 6 comments

Living in the Blog-osphere MSNBC Science and Technology takes blogs more and more seriously. First, they created their own blogs, including some which were already discussed here from the start, for example a Science and Technology Weblog Cosmic Log by Alan Boyle, now articles in the upcoming Newsweek print issue. Are they really onto something here? Are blogs going to be good official forums to present news fast?
posted by neu at 7:15 PM PST - 8 comments

Apple is at work on the iPhone, if you believe John Markoff of the New York Times. Do you?
posted by alms at 5:39 PM PST - 38 comments

Dasht-e-Leili. Is it a remote desert site where the Taliban buried their massacre victims? Or is it where the United States' allies buried theirs? Or is no one to blame?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:01 PM PST - 2 comments

Harry Stephen Keeler has been called one of the strangest writers who ever lived. He has also been called the Ed Wood of Mystery Writers. His plots are labyrinthine, convoluted, insane, built on coincidences. There's a Harry Stephen Keeler Society. His works are now being re-printed. And, if you're feeling brave, you can read many of his works on-line. Keeler created, and was seemingly the sole practitioner of, a genre he called the "webwork novel." This is a story in which diverse characters and events are connected by a strings of wholly implausible coincidences
posted by vacapinta at 3:47 PM PST - 20 comments

"Do loose numbers do more harm than good?" That's the question asked by Norimitsu Onishi in a thought-provoking article in today's NY Times (reg req). Inflated numbers have often had an impact on policy and people's thinking, but when the truth comes out it can make a difference, for good or ill. (More inside.)
posted by languagehat at 3:08 PM PST - 8 comments

Cigarette vending machines put to a good use. The Artomat project makes local art available in cigarette box size packages for a mere $5 a pop. Find out the location of a machine near you.
posted by machaus at 2:42 PM PST - 12 comments

Ah, inspiring food and good writing. Recounting "first taste" experiences of Sea Urchin, Hearts of Artichokes à la Isman Bavaldy, and Cock in Wine, the perfect Pastrami sandwich, the sweet memory of honey and green mangoes, and about the late-onset cook, THE DOMESTIC MALE.
posted by semmi at 2:34 PM PST - 11 comments

The president of a counterterrorism consulting firm has been charged with possessing 2,352 unregistered small military missiles. Investigators also found 4,000 pounds of explosives at High Energy Access Tools (HEAT), an anti-terrorism and police training company that was conducting classes for students from the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. More....
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 1:23 PM PST - 12 comments

"Are you ready to experience the future of digital pleasure?"' That link hit my inbox closely on the heels of my perusing this thread. From a 'moral standpoint', better than/worse than/same as inducing something internally?
posted by JettSuperior at 12:26 PM PST - 23 comments

There has been alot in the news about Slave Reperations lately. Friday while at the store, the register clerk started to ask me about my family history and then accused me of being a descendant of her ancestor's slave master and told me i owed her. What type of scam is this?
posted by crackheadmatt at 11:30 AM PST - 135 comments

Northern Alliance commander asphyxiated "hundreds" of surrendered Taliban in shipping containers "The benefit in fighting a proxy-style war in Afghanistan was victory on the cheap—cheap, at any rate, in American blood. The cost, NEWSWEEK’s investigation has established, is that American forces were working intimately with “allies” who committed what could well qualify as war crimes." (via drudge)
posted by Gilbert at 11:25 AM PST - 21 comments

Noitnetta Setiretlifatem [NYTimes] The French are now even more confusing. Verlan [2] [3] is the modern Pig Latin of France.
posted by srboisvert at 9:04 AM PST - 11 comments

As Jack G. Grubman explains in his letter of resignation (pdf), he is a victim. He made $20 million a year shilling WorldCom and other plunging telecom stocks, he now has Salomon Smith Barney’s $32 million severance package in his back pocket; but, feel sorry for him. The NY Times calls his letter "a whinefest worthy of a 6-year old."
posted by found missing at 8:15 AM PST - 20 comments

The World Summit on Sustainable Development, aka "Earth Summit II," will start soon in Johannesburg, ten years after the Rio Earth Summit. Have things improved at all in the last ten years? While there are some reasons to be optimistic, the data isn't cheerful. Our climate is growing unstable; tens of millions are dying or likely to die, and hundreds of millions more likely to be made refugees, because of environmental pollution and degraded ecosystems; and half the plants and animals on the planet seem headed for extinction over the next century. In short, things are grim. What steps, big or small, are you taking to do your part for the environment?
posted by AlexSteffen at 11:52 PM PST - 30 comments

The war on drugs claims forest as casualty. A forest fire that burned out of control for almost two weeks and devastated over 50,000 acres near San Diego was caused by a helicopter looking for pot farms, a California Department of Forestry investigation has concluded. [link via disinfo]
posted by drezdn at 7:39 PM PST - 30 comments

You have become a nation of monsters, America. Hypocrites. Murderers. Fools. A letter by a Canadian published in the Baltimore Chronicle to all Americans. Is this merely displaced anger; a worthless rant, or does this feeling come from a more real problem?
posted by Hall at 7:19 PM PST - 145 comments

Is there any need for a Men's Movement?
Or is the struggling existence of such organisations, and the sporadic publishing of Achilles Heel magazine, for example, evidence that organised groups and 'movements' for men are redundant? Maybe it's evidence that 'men's' needs are still under rated and unsatisfied, and that we don't focus on our needs because we are working too hard? [More inside] >>>
posted by dash_slot- at 6:17 PM PST - 22 comments

Is The Cult Of Designer Cultures And Cute Primitivism Keeping The Third World Back? In a brief but pointed book review, Raymond Tallis asks whether "the ideology of culture [has] replaced patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel". Can excessive cultural relativism and respect for pre-industrial cultures have the perverse effect of maintaining and indeed reinforcing the conservative, National Geographic/Discovery Channel/geopolitical statu quo?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:08 PM PST - 46 comments

More conjoined twins. Here's hoping they don't get abducted. NY Times link.
posted by swift at 4:22 PM PST - 13 comments

Tick Tock Bang (script) (from CBC's Ideas) (from 1999) is an enjoyable way to spend 45 minutes. A survey of Noise as Music from Schoenberg to Glass to Kraftwerk to Industrial and Techno. Noise Art is here to stay.
posted by vacapinta at 3:32 PM PST - 9 comments

Thomas Frank lays it down for you again, anyone still yearning for a more unfettered free market. via anfin
posted by engelr at 3:13 PM PST - 2 comments

while we're on the topic of iraq anyone suprised about these revelations/allegations? username: metafilter46 password: metafilter
posted by specialk420 at 3:10 PM PST - 41 comments

Just another crazy person's site, but I catch myself wasting way too much time here, so maybe you will too. The guy's name is David Blomstrom if I remember right and he really really really cares about Seattle Public Schools. It's his thoughts on the issue that are intriguing though; he's very right about somethings, horribly wrong about others and crazy as hell through out.o
posted by Slimemonster at 2:15 PM PST - 7 comments

Onward Christian Soldiers. "The Fraternity of St. Sebastian is a military brotherhood, still in formation. We are recruiting young men, called to military life, to comprise the charter membership of a Public Association of the Faithful. In the fullness of time the Association will seek institution as a religious, military congregation. And rather than serving a state or civil government, our Corps will serve the Church."

Though not yet officially "blessed" by an Archbishop of the Catholic Church, plans are under way for a bootcamp and, of course, a training compound, as well as the eventual "turning over of [recruits'] real property" to the Association (in the spirit of poverty and of the Knights of Templar.)

Is St Sebastian a new resurgence of the spirit of the Knights Templar of olde (sic) (as opposed to the new)? A church "security service"? Or a new cult-like militia? WILL I SOMEDAY REGRET GIVING THEM PRESS IN THIS LINK?
posted by argybarple at 1:49 PM PST - 23 comments

The link between geekiness and Aspergers Syndrome (a mild form of autism) is fairly well known, if not scientifically proven. But now, a study reported in tbe BBC says that there's a wildly high incidence of childhood autism where geeks are mostly mating with other geeks...
posted by baylink at 12:28 PM PST - 40 comments

The Bush regime is completely called out. (NYTimes) "If the White House wanted anyone to listen, it would not have staged eight separate panels simultaneously on a Tuesday morning in the dog days of August, assuring that complete coverage would be available only on C-Span."
posted by crasspastor at 12:15 PM PST - 34 comments

The FBI on hacking vs. The Russians That is crazy! 100 hundred years for hacking computers when there are people that actually hurt other people - maliciously...rapists, murderers, US politicians... "If Russian hackers can be convicted on evidence obtained by the Americans through hacking, it means the U.S. secret services may use further illegal means of obtaining information in Russia and in other countries," an FSB spokesman told Interfax on Thursday. Not only that, but the seriously...can this sort of thing just slide by?
posted by Kodel at 10:50 AM PST - 2 comments

So you want to book a show for your college? Norm MacDonald is available for $25k and Dave Attell is a steal at $5k.The Red Hot Chili Peppers go for $100k, though.You could always pass the hat, I guess.To hire these people, you have to go through you-know-who.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 10:14 AM PST - 44 comments

This new RIAA lawsuit really frosts my cookies! I can't believe the Recording Industry Ass. of America has the balls to think they can censor the Internet, but they contend that "As a matter of fact, copyright itself was written into the Constitution before the Framers ever even got to the first 10 amendments." Therefore, the RIAA reserves for itself the right to determine which Internet websites you may view. Please discuss.
posted by Maxor at 10:03 AM PST - 71 comments

Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance National Science Foundation and the Department of Commerce sponsored a workshop in 2001 December and released a 405 page document recently. Several journalists then commented on the report. Recently What utopia can technology deliver? on zdnet, earlier When brains meet computer brawn on cnet and Unfogging the Future on techcentralstation. Was there any public debate following these predictions or was it too much to absorb?
posted by neu at 7:17 AM PST - 2 comments

DCF leader: It's OK to spank The man named Thursday by Gov. Jeb Bush to head Florida's notoriously inept child welfare agency is an evangelical Christian who views spanking that causes ''bruises or welts'' as acceptable punishment. In a 1989 essay entitled The Christian World View of the Family, Regier and co-author George Rekers railed against abortion and gay couples forming families, and emphasized that husbands have ``final say in any family dispute.''
posted by bas67 at 6:35 AM PST - 82 comments

Room for rent. Similar to the Clinton administration that they heavily criticized, the Bush folks have opened a bed and breakfast up in that big White House with the cee-ment pond. Rates are steep but one thing many guests share is a membership in the exclusive Pioneer Club.

One of my favorites is Edward Rose, Mr. Rose is a staunch Bush supporter having donated more than 42,000 dollars in the past along with $2,000[1] directly. Then there is the Betts family, patriarch Roland was Dubyas frat brother and besides selling him the Texas Rangers has donated $19,000 along with another 4K[1] directly. For outright generosity it's tough to beat Brad Freeman, who opened his pockets to the tune of some 190,000 dollars.There's Joe O'Donnell ($9,250)and James Simmons ($27,550)... the list goes on but you get the idea. Aside from the Pioneer Club the only other thing these people share is great wealth and successful business careers, considering his choice in houseguests is this the right person to hold corporate America accountable?
posted by cedar at 5:57 AM PST - 32 comments

The Struggle Continues!. Young Hae-Chang's flash classics include Samsung, the frenzied Royal Crown Super Salon, the languid Jongno, and two amusing masterpieces: Samsung Means To Come, and Hallf Breed Apache. More at her site.
posted by hama7 at 1:44 AM PST - 22 comments

How can we protect our Children?
posted by Spoon at 1:21 AM PST - 57 comments

An aesthetics of inadequacy. "Despite Aeschylus's statement, 'All knowledge comes from suffering,' all that came from my suffering was suffering." An interview with Alan Shapiro, the author of Song and Dance, about poetry as an attempt of mourning.
posted by semmi at 9:31 PM PST - 3 comments

Interrobang ?! Because what we all really need is another bit of punctuation to misuse.
posted by kristin at 9:27 PM PST - 27 comments

There is a hedonistic school of thought which holds that future generations will experience a level of happiness and sense of well being beyond even the finest china white heroin rush and that this will be the norm. While I do agree that our understanding of mental health is limited to our advances in neuroscience, I just can't see how this is healthy or even remotely possible even within the next 500 years.
posted by Modem Ovary at 7:15 PM PST - 48 comments

The bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even is usually referred to as The Large Glass but whatever the name, what is it? Also, did Marcel Duchamp hide the stitches in plain site? For that matter, when did he find the time to make music? Would hearing him in his own words help us make sense of him? What do his Francophone fans think? Does it require a lifetime of devotion to get a handle on his work? How about dragging his readymades into the lab and putting them under the microscope? If not answers then more questions can surely be found in the Duchamp world community or perhaps on its bulletin board. But, really, I suppose it doesn't matter how you encounter Duchamp just so long as you do.
posted by xian at 5:09 PM PST - 13 comments

Around 2,800 people died as a result of the September 11 attacks. This includes 19 hijackers, of which the remains of nine have been identified. What are we to do with their remains?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:17 PM PST - 71 comments

Earlier this week, Bush blocked $5.1 billion in emergency spending, which most visibly included denying a couple hundred million earmarked for firefighters and emergency services. While he claims the block was to curtail wasteful spending, the biggest waste that keeps getting quoted is the new insect collections room at the smithsonian, even though his office specifically requested the money for his budget request for fiscal 2003. If the only example of wasteful spending was something he requested previously, what was the point of blocking the funds? [more inside]
posted by mathowie at 4:03 PM PST - 18 comments

"Welcome to the land of the balloonies." Find out more.
posted by dfowler at 2:35 PM PST - 20 comments

Is there really a $7 billion lawsuit against the Bush administration -- filed on behalf of 14 of the victims' families -- charging that he let 9-11 happen on purpose? Seems like kind of a weird thing for a few web sites to fabricate, but a google search doesn't reveal many mainstream news sources. And what do folks think of the "Let It Happen On Purpose" theory... or more importantly, the evidence that the theorists cite?
posted by queequeg at 1:52 PM PST - 17 comments

Wow your friends [google] and learn a little history behind the best card trick. [pdf]
posted by psychotic_venom at 1:12 PM PST - 17 comments

The post-industrial model is not an assembly line, but an assembly swarm. So shopping means you're just the front end of the machine, eh?
posted by DenOfSizer at 1:09 PM PST - 5 comments

The Axis of Medieval. Claims of support for women and women's rights in the current regime are nothing more than hot air according to Mr. Kristof. He says their record and the facts tell a different story. The details are shocking. Kowtowing to religious fundamentalists in the US causes devastating results abroad. Would programs like these qualify for using some of the wealthiest persons dollars instead of a tax cut?
posted by nofundy at 12:21 PM PST - 46 comments

So what? Jeez, the media's all up in arms about the multiple editions of Fellowship of the Ring being released. Really, is there not enough in the world to legitimately gripe about? Are Rings fans really being ripped off? It's not like anyone's putting a gun to your head and forcing you to buy any of these discs. Isn't more choice better than less, even in the disposable DVD world?
posted by WolfDaddy at 12:01 PM PST - 44 comments

Moon Trees - Trees grown from seeds that went to the moon on the first manned mission, including their seedlings and offshoots. Most of them are marked with plaques, but it's only now that an official record is being recreated after they'd been giving them out willy nilly for decades - heh. There might be a moon tree in your very own town square! Click here to see the list compiled so far. (via Wren's Nest)
posted by thunder at 11:39 AM PST - 21 comments

The Football Prospectus is up and running. The good folks who work on the Baseball Prospectus have turned their attention to NFL. This is their inaugural effort. Their contrarian thinking and in-depth statistical analysis has (slowly) started to creep its way into MLB coverage. Can their unique take and historical perspective change football's conventional wisdom as well?
posted by herc at 11:28 AM PST - 9 comments

Is this a legitmate criticism.... or just complaining that the Administration has lost its aura of invincibility? From the Daily Standard, an opinion piece stating that former Clinton administration officials are unfairly criticizing the Bush administration. A short, interesting read. What's your opinion? Should former officials criticize their new leaders?
posted by pjgulliver at 10:57 AM PST - 19 comments

Baseball Players To Strike Out Aug 30th. Hooray, baseball's most honored tradition is coming back! Baseball strike August 30th unless players get a new collective bargaining agreement. Its like a fantastic step back in time, as baseball has had work stoppages a glorious eight times since 1972. How are you gonna spend the strike days/weeks/years/decades?
posted by tittergrrl at 10:45 AM PST - 67 comments

Tombstone ATM doles out inheritance to heirs in weekly $300 chunks.
posted by mosspink at 10:26 AM PST - 45 comments

UK Nurses tested for clinical competency, but not for English language skills. So when a surgeon has to halt an operation because the nurses can't understand his instructions, does that make him a racist?
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:19 AM PST - 11 comments

Ever hear about the time Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire were taken in by the police under suspicion of stealing the Mona Lisa?
posted by interrobang at 9:06 AM PST - 3 comments

KCRW's morning radio show, Morning Becomes Eclectic has some of the best live in studio performances from a broad range of excellent musicians. And better yet, all of the performances are archived and streamed online. Recently they have had Flaming Lips, Morcheeba and Cousteau. Some of my favorites from the past are the Coldplay show (as well as a solo appearance by singer Chris Martin), Starsailor and DJ Shadow. I know there are plenty of other resources similar to this, but I think it's hard to find a better collection than this for live recordings. (Search the archives here)
posted by jonah at 8:49 AM PST - 33 comments

Excuse me sir, your dad likes hookers. Friday fun for all the family! Enter details about people you know and the PrankBot will send an email prank to them. They only have 3 pranks to choose from so far, but good for a giggle. Your company didn't need that email bandwidth anyway, right?
posted by sonicgeeza at 7:44 AM PST - 23 comments

Broadcast Flag!
Why are the rights of the consumer constantly compromised? Technology may soon be governed by Hollywood Studios...
posted by I am Generic at 7:25 AM PST - 12 comments

900 now dead in flooding, and 25 million are trapped or homeless. Ha! Gotcha. It's just India.
posted by luser at 7:21 AM PST - 70 comments

Trans-fatty acids are described as being "a secret killer", and "about as bad as bad gets". The US FDA does not currently require trans fats to be listed on product labels, but that may soon be changing.
posted by atavistech at 7:12 AM PST - 33 comments

Odd and silly Flash cartoons, for those of you who enjoy this sort of thing. You'll find all the pillars of modern comedy here: evil pants, pipe-smoking chimps and breakdancing robots. Go to "Errata" and you'll find the cartoons. My personal favorites are Danville Hustle and Sassafras. (Warning: chubby download)
posted by picea at 7:06 AM PST - 2 comments

Minutes of lost Rat Pack meeting recently discovered in Las Vegas! This satirical piece by Bob Odenkirk brilliantly lampoons the group dynamic of Old Blue Eyes and his pals.
posted by MrBaliHai at 4:46 AM PST - 17 comments

Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me … "Media arrogance and dishonesty means we are eternally bound to live in a skewed world where Elvis is king of rock'n'roll, Clapton is the guitar god, Sinatra is the voice and Astaire is the greatest dancer." Is it right to celebrate an artist who’s fame derived from appropriating and diluting the original music of black America?
posted by niceness at 4:23 AM PST - 111 comments

State income tax or not? Massachusetts voters get to decide on Nov. 5th. Is this a real possibility or just a publicity stunt for Carla Howell and the Libertarian party?
posted by Hall at 3:55 AM PST - 47 comments

When I Die I Want... The whole world to dance? Stop in its tracks? No one to notice? Everyone else to die too? Or will a simple deleted MetaFilter thread do? It's not only control freaks who have an idea of how they'd like their own funeral to go. Matthew Parris, for instance, wants a trial with a counsel for the prosecution, as well as the obligatory one for his defense... [Cultural attitudes to death vary wildly and convey different images which may or may not exactly reflect the predominant attitude towards life. Well, for making your own very particular arrangements, despite the gruesome sideshows, The Sepulcher and The Dark Side Of The Web are two resources to die for.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:06 AM PST - 7 comments

The King is dead ... long live the King?
posted by walrus at 12:00 AM PST - 8 comments

Don't say nobody told you. Here is NARA's Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, showing every comment, every bill signing, every communication, executive order, and interview the president has made: everything that goes into the history books...
posted by swift at 10:16 PM PST - 6 comments

Wil Weaton cut from new Star Trek movie ... Along with 48 minutes of film, Wil Wheaton's cameo as Wesley Crusher was cut in the first production cut of Star Trek: Nemesis. Rick Berman, Producer, called Wheaton personally to let him know. In heartfelt commentary related through his online journal, Wheaton ended his description of his feelings at the news by saying, "Somewhere in Brooklyn, Wesley Crusher falls silent forever".
posted by SpecialK at 8:35 PM PST - 33 comments

Does invading Iraq require more than declaring Saddam Hussein "evil"? The New York Times reports public opposition from people not easily labeled Brie-sucking scared-of-war libyerals -- people like Henry "Bombs Away" Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft. Meanwhile, hawks argue that not attacking after all Bush's rhetoric would "produce such a collapse of confidence in the president that it would set back the war on terrorism." [registration required]
posted by sacre_bleu at 8:25 PM PST - 62 comments

It's causing some debate. That's a fair bit or porridge (for the Brits) Then again in the US would he have "fried"??
posted by johnny7 at 6:33 PM PST - 15 comments

Demograhics weighed. More flavor into the melting pot, or more strife as another ethnicity to claim the turf for themselves?
posted by semmi at 6:08 PM PST - 3 comments

The old battleaxe is back. Impressed with his performance at the New School, Camille Paglia and the Blog Queen seem to have a bit of a partnership.

I post a link about the conflict in the Levant with fear, loathing, and asbestos, but nonetheless, this mini-article is a well thought-out piece.
posted by goethean at 5:49 PM PST - 8 comments

Are You Up For The Challenge? It's about adventure! Urban Challenge is not how fast or how far you run or how well you know the city. Did Columbus know the seas well enough to look for a new route to the West Indies? Did Lewis & Clark adequately train for their expedition to find the Northwest Passage?
posted by Gargantuan at 3:56 PM PST - 15 comments

The Enemy Within. Which minority group in the U.S. has long since mastered the crafts of free-riding, self-dealing and cravenness? Their cunning results in the victimization of countless honest, hard-working Americans. [courtesy aldaily.com]
posted by apollo3000 at 3:23 PM PST - 18 comments

"Morally Responsible" mutual fund firm blasts WalMart for displaying Cosmo
The Timothy Plan is launching a national campaign to get WalMart to take "soft-core pornography" like Cosmopolitan off its checkout shelves, or wrap them in opaque covers like Playboy. The group alleges that Cosmo and magazines like it are part of a "slippery slope. It's the initiation to hard core pornography, child molestation, bestiality and worse."
posted by me3dia at 2:53 PM PST - 28 comments

Own the Bus that Drowning Pool's Lead Singer was found Dead in. Is this a hoax or a morbid curiosity collectible? Would you buy a Haunted Painting or celebrity death memorabilia? [link via actionmanmagazine board]
posted by drezdn at 2:46 PM PST - 19 comments

Happy birthday, Julia!! American cooking diva Julia Child turns 90 years of age today. She might be slowing, but she hasn't stopped ... and she certainly hasn't stopped eating butter and cream.

Her contributions to American culinary arts, particularly in the area of home cooking, are nearly immeasurable. When you have a look at the way we were cooking before "The French Chef" came along, you'll be doubly grateful for what she's taught us.

She's left her longtime home in Cambridge, Massachusetts for much smaller digs in Santa Barbara, California ... and subsequently donated her legendary kitchen and over 1,200 items from it to the Smithsonian Institution, who disassembled it and painstakingly rebuilt it inside the museum. Julia's Kitchen at the Smithsonian opens to the public on Monday.
posted by chuq at 1:16 PM PST - 35 comments

If You Want to Talk About Class Warfare... Molly Ivins gives it to 'em: Some days, you have to believe that right-wing ideologues have lost touch with reality completely. Their latest proposal to prevent future Enrons is - ta-da! - cut the capital gains tax. And exactly what does that do to prevent future Enrons? Nothing.
posted by Ty Webb at 1:07 PM PST - 9 comments

The strange history of Michael Jackson's face. Kind of like the Anna Nicole show -- unbelievably frightening, yet you can't look away. Anyone catch the VH1 special the other day where they electronically blurred his cheeks? wonder why... (Link courtesy of Slate.com's "In Other Websites" featue.)
posted by Vidiot at 12:34 PM PST - 32 comments

Disgraced stock analyst embarks on second career: Steve Harmon (who you might have seen on CNBC) has fallen from respectability and is now trying his hand at writing a science fiction thriller. The first two chapters of his upcoming novel -- Hybrids -- are online. Unfortunately, Harmon's not a good writer, and his effort is entertaining only as "good God, this is awful." I'm guessing he misses the spotlight and figured a novel would be his way back in. (from Tech Investor)
posted by kurumi at 11:34 AM PST - 20 comments

Is Bald really better? Bald R Us is a website dedicated to those who celebrate their baldness (as opposed to shelling out money for Rogaine or Propecia). They esteem women who like their men bald. (Does hair really matter?) They share Hairy Horror Stories , give romantic tips (for the hairless), and allow viewers to ask questions to the Bald Guy. Their motto: "God made a few perfect heads and on the rest He put hair."
posted by jacknose at 10:33 AM PST - 26 comments

"It's up to us, and I think we can do it," she said. "It's up to us to bankrupt the terrorists and those who finance them so they will never again have the resources to commit such atrocities against the American people as we experienced on September 11."
posted by jcterminal at 10:30 AM PST - 45 comments

Think some executives are finally going to get what's coming to them? Meet David Novak, an ex-con who was convicted of one count of mail fraud. His sentence? Club Fed (scroll down). He is now earning $125 an hour consulting for soon-to-be inmates about how to survive the enforced vacation (with 7-day furloughs to strengthen family ties!). The best part? No fences, no guard towers, nothing to keep you from escaping except the knowledge than when they catch you, you'll have to do REAL prison time. I mean, give me a break...they even have a fucking SUNBATHING BEACH. I can buy the "we don't want to waste a lot of resources [punishing people]" line, but for crying out loud...isn't that supposed to mean concrete cells and no cable?
posted by taumeson at 9:37 AM PST - 37 comments

"While many intelligent people read the site and are not seduced by its methods, the overall effect is to build a self-reinforcing community of aggrieved partisans and to help break down taboos ... against the rhetorical viciousness promoted. The editors' claim that their actions are a justified response to the tactics used by others is both insufficient and, ultimately, circular." Spinsanity describes MediaWhoresOnline, or FreeRepublic, or WarBlogger Watch, or Lucianne.Com, or Smirking Chimp, or Little Green Footballs, or ...
posted by rcade at 9:35 AM PST - 24 comments

Game Boy (and Girl) indeed! The fine folks at Nintendo's Street Team are coming to a festival, concert, or amusement park near you (if you live in one of the eight selected cities.) Appearing like a cross between a robot and a human billboard, these cats attract kids like someone handing out free frozen twinkies. I saw them at the Taste of Dallas festival. Anyone else spotted them? Would you do it for $100 per day? Or would you be more like the guy that said "I would have paid Nintendo to do this job."?
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:05 AM PST - 20 comments

metapet: it isn't friday yet, but by tomorrow you could have some bio-engineered creatures working for you while you play...
posted by ultradian at 7:33 AM PST - 7 comments

The 1940s Again? While this in't to internment level yet, I find it terrifying. What to do about this government? This article was originally LA Times, but has been reposted to Common Dreams....
posted by pjgulliver at 7:28 AM PST - 78 comments

From theories of dissipative structures and autopoesis, Dr. James Lovelock and Dr. Lynn Margulis have concluded that the Earth is alive (sort of). They call this Gaia Theory. (another summary w/lots of good links)
posted by Fabulon7 at 7:10 AM PST - 21 comments

Of all the creatures in the sea, this fish is one of the most bewildering and fantastic.
posted by hama7 at 6:32 AM PST - 59 comments

I speak other languages real good. Contemporary Jack-of-All-Trades Jothanan "J.D." Feinberg has been involved in a variety of projects. As a musician, he was the original touring drummer for They Might Be Giants, and as a software programmer, he's employed by the brains behind the Netomat project, and has currently updated a couple projects which play around with AltaVista's Babelfish. [more]
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:59 AM PST - 11 comments

This seven-year-old girl escaped from her kidnappers and was helped by 2 young boys. Yesterday in Texas, a 13-year-old boy put his hand through a car window trying to stop an abduction. These teens stabbed their abductor with a bowie knife while trying to escape. Is the culture of violence that spawns school shooters also making kids into heroes?
posted by putzface_dickman at 5:57 AM PST - 25 comments

Hooters Air Inc. With all of the discussion about airlines going bankrupt and our economy in jeopardy, some people are surely thinking ahead. If it'll be 'Hooters Girls' flight attendants, it's too early," Cattell said. But she didn't dismiss the idea.
posted by aaronchristy at 5:55 AM PST - 16 comments

Shocking photos which show just how much glaciers have melted in the last century. Now that the North Pole is a swimming pool, the Ross Ice Shelf has, as the Onion put it, embarked on a world tour, and the worst flooding in 800 years is hitting Eastern Europe, aren't we maybe a little bit worried about climate change... just a little, maybe? What freak weather phenomenon is creeping you out these days?
posted by AlexSteffen at 11:05 PM PST - 82 comments

The Cost-of-Living Calculator.
posted by swift at 9:57 PM PST - 18 comments

Mutated genes account for speech. Evidence now suggest that our ability to speak is based on a slight mutation in a particular gene. The mutation is only slightly off from other animals. What genetic discovery thus far do you think will have the most rewarding results?
posted by mhaw at 9:48 PM PST - 22 comments

Producing sperm on the backs of mice. Well, the back of a laboratory mouse doesn't do anything - it just sits back there. Might as well put it to good use.
posted by percine at 9:20 PM PST - 16 comments

UW sells out -- for only $2.3 million. As part of the "Academic Innovation Alliance Initiatives" agreement with Microsoft, the University of Waterloo's Electrical & Computer Engineering department has agreed to teach C# to students. In addition to discussion on uwstudent.org, Slashdot thread, press releases from MS and UW and a rebuttal release from the UW Federation of Students.
posted by paulschreiber at 7:24 PM PST - 19 comments

It's Marching Season! There's an godless american march comin' to DC this fall (November 2) "Our leaders, including the President, must stop calling the nation to prayer, or claim that we are a "Christian" country..."(Amen to that!!!) and "We must remember to not "feed the fundies" by engaging in arguments with religious protesters and hostile "prayer warriors" who want to "save" us."From what I understand, this will be the first big march on Washington since our new wartime laws have been implemented....will atheists become "unlawful combatants?" Anyone up for it?
posted by amberglow at 7:04 PM PST - 50 comments

E-mail is trespass? A disgruntled employee's emails to his former co-workers are a legally actionable form of 'trespass to chattels', says Intel. Have you ever trespassed to chattels? Should you fined or even jailed for it? 3 lower courts in Claifornia have said 'yes' to all or part of that last question. (linked to in a thread today, but it deserves it's own).
posted by Jos Bleau at 5:40 PM PST - 11 comments

Screw you worldcom, enron. In Australia we know how to make a loss. AU$11,962,000,000 in fact. One has to wonder how much of this is a "paper loss" or how much of this is "creative accounting for tax purposes". Or just where the hell did the money go?
posted by Neale at 5:37 PM PST - 17 comments

Princeton Disciplining Staff for Yale Web Site Break-Ins (NY Times) What a great example to set for the students. Princeton officials in the admissions department hack into the Yale Admissions department system. No one gets fired and the university official who first performed the dastardly deed, Stephen E. LeMenager, "...would be moved to another job at Princeton." as punishment. Also, "...its longtime dean of admission and Mr. LeMenager's boss, to remain in place until next June, when he will retire as previously planned.
What is Yale's take on this? "Yale's president, Richard C. Levin, said in a statement yesterday that he was impressed by the thoroughness of Princeton's investigation,...".
This is the best, "...when Mr. LeMenager told a Yale admissions official of his ability to enter the Yale Web site at a meeting of Ivy League admissions officials in May, Dr. Tilghman said, the ensuing discussion at the meeting was about security issues, not about the impropriety of the action."
The president of Princetons final words on the situation, "We will learn from this and make changes," she said, "and move on as a better place."
And now who is surprised by what happened at WorldCom, ENRON, TYCO and on Wall Street ?
Shouldn't Princeton make an example of these clowns?
Shouldn't Yale demand more satisfaction?
I guess they don't call it the Ivy League for nothing.
Fire the bastards!
posted by flatlander at 4:53 PM PST - 16 comments

Another smoking gun. Tobacco companies fought the marketing of anti-smoking products in the 1980s and '90s, by exerting financial pressure on companies that make nicotine gum and patches--like Dow Chemical. (NYT, reg req'd - CBS News version here)
posted by gottabefunky at 2:34 PM PST - 3 comments

Virtual light - "...the wires plug into Patient Alpha's head like a pair of headphones plug into a stereo. The actual connection is metallic and circular, like a common washer. So seamless is the integration that the skin appears to simply stop being skin and start being steel." Cameras that jack into a blind man's brain, allowing him to 'see' may soon be here.
posted by GriffX at 2:19 PM PST - 23 comments

Oh, In-N-Out, how I love you so. Let me count the ways...
posted by MikeB at 2:07 PM PST - 61 comments

Madame Wu Through the Looking-Glass: If you look into a mirror, you might wonder if that mirror-world is a possible world. This mirror-symmetry possibility is known in physics as parity conservation. Well, 1956 was the year that Parity fell. That's the year that Madame Wu created and performed an experiment that revealed once and for all that the Looking-Glass world is not the same as ours. This is an epochal discovery. Nature distinguishes between left and right. Here's some basics of Madame Wu's revolution. Why isn't she better-known outside of Physics? And why wasn't she awarded the Nobel Prize?
posted by vacapinta at 2:01 PM PST - 27 comments

...I swear I heard the Shelby say, "Cut the baby down, fleshbag."

Seanbaby returns with another of his priceless anti-robot rants.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 12:53 PM PST - 17 comments

Would you like to be part of my pyramid?

We all know someone who has tried to sell us a "multi level marketing" product. Usana and Amway are 2 popular MLM companies. Can you really make money with these pyramid schemes? There are sites that talk about avoiding scams and others that show support for those who have been burnt, but they sometimes turn around and support mlm and network marketing.

Does anyone know these people? What kind of cars do they drive? What kind of person gets into network marketing and who are these "successful independant distributers"? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
posted by tomplus2 at 12:51 PM PST - 44 comments

US F-15's almost shoot down Korean Airliner on 9-11 Pilots on Korean Air Flight 85 mistakenly issued a hijack alert at 1:24 p.m. ET on September 11th, as they neared Alaska on the way to Anchorage. Military officials, who had ordered two F-15 fighters to tail the jet, told Anchorage air traffic controllers that they would shoot it down if it did not turn away from populated areas.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 12:44 PM PST - 8 comments

Buy SBC now. "In order to make sure the economy grows, we must bring the promise of broadband technology to millions of Americans,'' Bush said at a White House-sponsored economic forum. "Government at all levels should remove hurdles that slow the pace of deployment.''

Is the USTA happy about this type of talk? You bet. They would like to see passage of S.2430, also known as the Broadband Regulatory Parity Act of 2002. Others wouldn't. Some have studies (300K PDF) that argue local phone companies are slowing the growth of DSL for anti-competitive reasons.

Also, notice how the President said "bring the promise of broadband technology to millions of Americans", not all Americans? Might have something to do with the fact that rural DSL is really, really expensive to provide.
posted by dglynn at 12:39 PM PST - 14 comments

Scientists infuse endurance genes into mice. Researchers say they have created a transgenic mouse with muscles like a marathoner, capable of enduring rigorous exercise for extended periods of time. Is cloning and genetic engineering gaining a little more acceptance? I for one would like to welcome our...ah, to hell with it...
posted by adampsyche at 12:33 PM PST - 8 comments

There's a guy with an "immensely detailed, three-dimensional, interactive, constantly updated map of New York City," which "could provide the DNA for a re-created city" if something happened to destroy New York. Besides the nitpicking (do you want to recreate every awning and kiosk?), there's the big question: does it make sense to try to recreate in detail something that's gone? Or as the article puts it, "At what point do we accept the reality of loss?" And if a city were destroyed so utterly it couldn't be recreated, would its surviving inhabitants wander the world endlessly, keeping their lost home alive in their hearts and customs, like R.A. Lafferty's Angelenos?
posted by languagehat at 11:45 AM PST - 25 comments

Phish ends Hiatus. The band will play four shows beginning with a New Year's show at MSG. Dirty neo-hippies everywhere rejoice.
posted by uftheory at 11:34 AM PST - 26 comments

All your Ideas are belong to US. What happens when you agree that your inventions belong to your employer, even when you aren't done inventing them yet? Why, they sue you!
posted by dwivian at 11:30 AM PST - 14 comments

Winning at Blackjack? Many people claim you can. Some people do. via slashdot
posted by psychotic_venom at 10:54 AM PST - 13 comments

Over-aggressive trademark enforcers "advised to chill". Tommy Hilfiger's trademark is not infringed by Timmy Holedigger perfume for dogs. Perhaps this can be used as precedent in responding to silly cease and desist letters.
posted by kcmoryan at 10:36 AM PST - 12 comments

A) Product. Your visit to this site may be monitored by British Intelligence Services.
posted by josephtate at 10:03 AM PST - 24 comments

Today's lesson: Write a letter to a congressman, get fired for it. Was this abuse of a work email account, or a miffed congressman's office overstepping its bounds? Ah, dissent in the 21st century, what a time we live in.
posted by mathowie at 9:17 AM PST - 66 comments

Trouserpress.com is back! After a hiatus of over two-and-a-half years, Trouserpress.com was re-launched today. The site contains just about all of the band profiles and album reviews from editor Ira Robbins' comprehensive and informative Trouser Press Record Guide book series from the 80s/90s. Since all but the most recent "90s rock" book are out-of-print, it's great to have this amazing indie/new wave/punk/alt rock music reference available once more.
posted by nstop at 9:09 AM PST - 13 comments

Is a 'Pax Americana' possible? And if it is possible, is it a good thing or a bad thing? It depends on who you ask. And if not the US, then who? Europe has neither the force of arms nor the political cohesiveness. China seems to be the only other contender, but it begs the question: should America even try to mediate world disputes, or intervene when (and only when) our national interests are at stake?
posted by mrmanley at 8:48 AM PST - 28 comments

Diamonds , a symbol of love for a large part of this century. Yet there is an underlying monopoly who have socially engineered the whole entire idea that a "Diamond is Forever". Does your notion of a diamond change knowing that a consortium is ensuring that their Monopoly is Forever?
posted by mutantdisco! at 6:54 AM PST - 105 comments

the "Moohnochwa" is coming! A mysterious UFO type object has killed 7 in India and injured more. Mmm Hmm. I for one want to be the first to welcome our new insect overlords.
posted by outsider at 6:31 AM PST - 27 comments

today a fellow mexican will be executed in texas , for killing a cover agent 13 years ago… besides the mexican government, e.u. & u.n. are also calling for clemency; they argue that u.s. authorities denied him legal assistance from the consulate. right now, suárez medina only wants to die. the question is: isn't it better to die than be in prison all your life? i would prefer to be killed instead of living in jail more than 20 years. the sad about suárez medina case is that he has been in jail 13 years from now and anyway he is going to be killed! the texas government should have killed him immediately he was found guilty. “i prefer to die than spend the rest of my life here inside because here there is no life.” said suárez in an interview. in punishment standards i find worst to live in jail forever than being executed. what would be worst for you?
posted by trismegisto at 6:28 AM PST - 28 comments

Nevada looking to legalize marijuana. And not just for medicinal use, but for recreational use as well. So far, it looks like there's a good chance it might happen.
posted by triggerfinger at 6:23 AM PST - 33 comments

Ed Headrick, the principal designer of Wham-O's "Professional Model" frisbee and the father of Disc Golf, has passed away at age 78. His ashes will be molded into flying discs. Cool.
posted by yhbc at 5:15 AM PST - 16 comments

How Al Qaeda Slipped Away "American officials concede that there was a mass escape from Tora Bora—as well as a broader exodus by various routes into Pakistan and Iran—but insist that Al Qaeda now is crippled and too busy running to do much damage. “Perhaps we could have got them wholesale,” says one senior Defense official. “Now we’re doing it retail. In the end, it doesn’t make much difference. We’re getting them.”" We might want to take care of this before we "invade" Iraq.
posted by owillis at 2:17 AM PST - 14 comments

RIAA mistaken, mp3s not the problem says new study. The study has some interesting predictions too. Will we ever pay for tunes if we can get them free?
posted by BGM at 12:20 AM PST - 53 comments

Blogcritics A sinister cabal of the web's best writers on music, books and popular culture miscellanea - updated continuously Could be interesting.They linked one of my mefi posts in this article, too. Don't I get a royalty for that?
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 10:16 PM PST - 4 comments

Acclaim's Turok plublicity stunt. Video game maker Acclaim is allegedly attempting to convince five poor saps to change their name to Turok for a year to promote their video game. However, none of the information on the about page checks out. For instance, there really is a Marketing Science Centre but the name "Simeon Cantrell", appears nowhere on it (nor do related links in a google search.) Is it a stunt or reality? The AP seems to have bought into it. Do you?
posted by kurtosis at 7:49 PM PST - 7 comments

About Face: The Role of the Arms Lobby In the Bush Administration's Radical Reversal of Two Decades of U.S. Nuclear Policy. A detailed look at their relationship and the influence of the defense industry on the policies which they profit from.
posted by homunculus at 6:07 PM PST - 7 comments

Entertainment Industry wants to jail anyone who copies and shares copyrighted material. 1-5 years in a federal penitentiary for sharing a copy of pretty much anything.
posted by raaka at 6:02 PM PST - 29 comments

Gross.com seems like your run-of-the-mill small law firm website, but the fun pages are oddly fascinating, featuring tidbits like Personal Injury Drama and the "Year 2001 Compliance" song. A weird look into one office's collective psyche.
posted by swift at 5:09 PM PST - 5 comments

The 50 richest members of US Congress, each with a net worth ranging from $3.3 mil to $675 mil. Looks like a mostly even mix among the parties, with a heavy California contingent.
posted by mathowie at 4:26 PM PST - 29 comments

As a lifelong DC Comics fan, I think I can truly state that Dr. Fate's fabulous blue and gold costume made me the gay man that I am today. Likewise, Element Lad's admitted shyness towards women (and pretty pink outfit) helped me identify with him as a gay teen. Until now, though, I didn't know where I could find others whose gayness was so closely intertwined with a love of comic books. The Gay League changed all that. Warning, some of the fan-submitted artwork, featuring generously overendowed (even by superhero standards) men and women is probably a little risque for work. We're here, we're queer, we love the Legion!
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:36 PM PST - 24 comments

Stomping on the little guy. Popular weblogger Davezilla has been handed a cease and desist from Toho Co., Ltd, owner of the Godzilla trademark. The text of the C&D implies that they own the rights to any word ending in the letters "zilla". [more inside]
posted by y6y6y6 at 1:31 PM PST - 106 comments

I'll drink to that! A bevy of studies covering the last 20 years have culminated into a general consensus: beer is good for your health. With this news, will you consider a lager a day to keep the doctor away? You can always use the Beer Advocate to search for your drink of choice.
posted by insomnyuk at 1:19 PM PST - 17 comments

"The myth of oil prosperity runs wide and deep". "Petroleum-led development strategies have delivered nation after nation into a spiral of debt and dependency. And yet, governments, corporations, and international financial institutions continue to reinvest in the growing, global oil economy". Consider Nigeria, the point of focus of attention of environmentalists, human rights activists and fair trade advocates around the world. With its annual debt service obligation at over $4 bn, more than a third of its export income, Nigeria has in recent years pegged its annual budget allocation for actual debt servicing at $2 bn. Lower export earnings forced it to cut this to $1.5 bn in the 1999 budget. Who's to blame? Theftocracies, the IMF, World Bank, oil companies, foreign governments? Since it is clear that debt restructuring harms more than helps, will there be more debt relief, and finally, who ends up paying the banks when loans are written off?
posted by Mack Twain at 12:33 PM PST - 6 comments

Tautology isn't just a good idea, it's also the law. From the "Berkeley Sure Is Nutty" Department: "In a philosophical effort to come up with a city law that no one could ever break, conceptual artist Jonathon Keats wants Berkeley to legally acknowledge Aristotle's law, commonly expressed as A=A."
posted by monosyllabic at 12:31 PM PST - 46 comments

Maglev begins testing at 4 miles per hour. Once testing is completed next month this could be the future of transportation. (if this 3 station maglev system is a success) A top speed of 40 mph now, on longer distances the speed can be over 200 mph.
posted by LinemanBear at 12:29 PM PST - 10 comments

Adam Ant, who once assured us that "ridicule is nothing to be scared of", admits pub affray & has been remanded on bail, after using a fake gun to take revenge on pub-goers that took the piss out of his clothes!
Adam seems to have suffered quite a lot - both before and after - his heyday, and his behaviour has led to him being compulsorily detained on at least one occasion.
Quite apart from the fact that Police do not seem shy of killing anyone who could be a threat and might be armed with a pistol, has there ever been such an exact fall from grace for a celebrity - whose personal 'philosophy' came back to haunt him like a Shakespearean tragedy?
posted by dash_slot- at 12:00 PM PST - 34 comments

PBA cards issued by police to friends and relatives are handy in sticky situations (geocities). Anyone lucky enough to have one in their wallet ? Howard Stern has one.
posted by keithl at 12:00 PM PST - 50 comments

Bank ATM gives extra cash Man, why can't my bank do this?
posted by agregoli at 10:55 AM PST - 24 comments

"Microsoft's TrueType core fonts for the Web are no longer available for download" [via kottke] This is going to disappoint The Official Women of Wrestling.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:05 AM PST - 51 comments

Florida's child services system lost track of over 500 children; Sun-Sentinel newspaper locates 9 of them using public records and high tech gadgets like the telephone.
posted by junkbox at 8:54 AM PST - 11 comments

Phil Spector is working again! British quartet Starsailor have recorded two tracks with legendary producer Phil Spector, becoming the first act to work with him in almost twenty years.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 8:52 AM PST - 22 comments

How will Democrats respond to a left-wing, pro-life, presidential candidate? Congressman Dennis Kucinich is being loudly promoted as the left-wing dream candidate for 2004 -- someone who can bring the Naderites back in the fold and send a message, that mainstream / moderate Democrats won't or can't, about being for the "people, not the powerful." Yet he has always and continues to oppose legal abortion. Can he be nominated? Would most progressives prefer a conservative Democrat who is right (in their opinion) on abortion, to a progressive who they see as wrong in that issue?
posted by MattD at 8:50 AM PST - 61 comments

US Catholics soften their position on Jews. Of course, there's no mention of the Vatican approving of this. It certainly blows a hole in the "Christ is the only way to God" line that the church has always taken.
posted by Fenriss at 8:29 AM PST - 57 comments

Tired of your black Dell prefab? Enter the world of extreme computing. Mod your CD drives, find amazing custom cases, and add a window. Timid about hacking up your box? Get inspired by browsing a gallery of "pimp rigs".
posted by xyzzy at 7:59 AM PST - 28 comments

Things you won't hear at the Wacko dog and pony show today on the economy. Would some real discussion of these issues have been so bad? Isn't public discussion and consensus how our form of government is supposed to work? Isn't the keynote speaker a prime example of what is wrong in corporate America today?
posted by nofundy at 7:22 AM PST - 68 comments

We've seen some cool mobile phones before, but looking at the current North American cell phone offerings, I'm sorely disappointed. AT&T seems to have the latest/greatest phones, but their service is by far the worst. T-mobile has the Sony Ericsson t68. But none of these phones can compare to some of those picture snapping Japanese Jskies and i-modes, and cool European Nokias. How hard is it to bring these technologies to the North American GSM network?
posted by mad at 6:39 AM PST - 38 comments

I find it hard to believe that the bio-chemical weapons specialist, and expert Steven Hatfill, was responsible for the tragically amateurish Anthrax attacks, responsible for senselessly killing mainly postal employees. Greenpeace Germany unsurprisingly supports the 'inside job' conspiracy, and whatreallyhappened.com decides to blame it on the Jews again, among other things.
Hatfill: suspect or pawn?
posted by hama7 at 4:25 AM PST - 21 comments

Strandbeesten (=Beach Animals) is a site by Dutch artist Theo Jansen. Over the last decade, he constructed a number of strange constructions from plastic tubes that walk around on the beach, driven by the winds. A bit like Sodaconstructor but now for real. The video quality is a bit poor, but still it's worthwhile.
posted by swordfishtrombones at 12:46 AM PST - 18 comments

Serial killer blog. Well not really. More of a religious rant than true crime novel, but the case of the Son of Sam murders has been reviewed for the possibility of a second suspect. An article in Fortean Times may have opened the floodgates, but I am unable to find an online source. Did anybody else see this story?
posted by destro at 11:17 PM PST - 8 comments

"Plugs in the City" My Spock like left eyebrow went up questioningly at the ease with which Charlotte York discreetly ordered her embarrassing book with 1-click® shopping. She was going to buy it at the books store with Miranda, who had just come from a Weight Watchers® meeting and was trying to resist the cravings for Krispy Kreme®. Mmmm... original glazed is my favorite, too. While I enjoy the fact that HBO doesn't have commercials, I thought that is why I paid $20 a month. Some how I prefer real ads to this insidious crap. It was creepy and also destroyed a lot of the immersion of the show for me. The whole episode seemed stilted and odd.
posted by McBain at 10:10 PM PST - 56 comments

Life as a Blackman: The Game. A board game that depicts life from the perspective of a minority.
posted by josephtate at 9:41 PM PST - 20 comments

Goodbye Galen and Barbara. World-renowned wilderness photographer and writer Galen Rowell, and his wife and business partner Barbara Cushman Rowell, a photographer and writer in her own right, died early Sunday morning in an airplane crash outside of Bishop, Calif.
posted by faithnomore at 9:12 PM PST - 6 comments

Ever get a hankerin' for some Kangaroo?? Now, I know a lot of people who love some game meats, like rabbit or dear meat, but kangaroo? Snapping Turtle? Mmmm, lizard..the other green meat.
posted by lasthrsman at 8:15 PM PST - 35 comments

The unofficial Islaam News Page. Suddenly, everyone's a journalist- but are they credible? What's "unofficial Islam" anyway? Depends who you ask.
posted by sheauga at 7:35 PM PST - 5 comments

Trash homes a.k.a. earthships sound like the way to go. Now if they would start building them here in Seattle...
posted by folktrash at 7:17 PM PST - 15 comments

Redefining the keyboard. CPUs have gotten smaller, monitors have gotten wider, chairs have gotten ergonomic. Technology has resized our machines to fit our lifestyles, business needs, and personal comfort. But for the past 128 years, the mechanics by which we input text into machines has been dictated not by technology, but by the limitations of our hands. Soon, this era may be over if retired engineer John McKown gets his way. McKown has invented a palm-size one-handed wearable keyboard. Should we embrace this giant leap into mobile computing? Or are we not able to part with a century of QWERTY? (Via NYTimes. Similar ideas have also been discussed here previously.)
posted by PrinceValium at 5:15 PM PST - 19 comments

Why Are The English-Speaking Nations Crap At Foreign Languages? The standard explanation is that they're lazy and arrogant and expect everyone in the world to speak English. Well - surprise, surprise - that's not Philip Hensher's experience and it certainly isn't mine either. So why - or what - is it? [More inside.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:07 PM PST - 86 comments

Free Culture (8Mb flash). Lawrence Lessig's keynote speech at this year's OSCON conference is a stirring and effective explanation of how the entertainment industry, with the help of lawmakers, have undermined our fundamental right to create. Lessig asks, what have you personally done to stop them? This 30 minute long flash slideshow (mirror), compiled by Leonard Lin, tells you what happened and what you can do.
posted by waxpancake at 3:34 PM PST - 45 comments

The September 11th 'Ground And Freeze' order which halted air travel for 4 days didn't come from the president, nor SecTrans... not even the Adminstrator of the FAA. Nope, it came from Ben Sliney. [ Actual journalism in McPaper. Whoulda? ]
posted by baylink at 2:52 PM PST - 21 comments

SlamBall is America's newest sport. Combining Basketball, full-contact play, and massive trampolines into an extreme-team sport for the masses. Anyone seen it? Dude! or Dud?
posted by cell divide at 1:02 PM PST - 29 comments

Top-Earning Dead Celebrities Forbes' has published their annual list of what dead celebrities are earning. Shooting to number 4 this year; Dale Earnhardt, who kicks Andy Warhol off the list.
posted by mikemonteiro at 12:51 PM PST - 16 comments

From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: A capital idea. Why did we not fasten a thread to our projectile, and we could have exchanged telegrams with the earth?. Bad idea, said Jules. Great idea, says NASA.
posted by thijsk at 12:43 PM PST - 27 comments

For the Ground Zero memorabilia collector who has everything... 9/11 wine charms! What's the tackiest piece of 9/11 memorabilia you've seen?
posted by illusionaire at 12:05 PM PST - 60 comments

Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe reiterates his threat to re-distribute land. "One farmer, one farm policy." What this fool doesn't realize (or perhaps more terribly, really does), is that this policy will cause a devastating famine, and bring about economic chaos: "Commercial agriculture is Zimbabwe’s biggest private employer, providing work — and, almost invariably, accommodation — for about 350,000 people. If Mr Mugabe carries out his threat to evict 2,900 white farmers, the workers and their families — a total of 1.2 million people — will join the ranks of the dispossessed..." Not only that, but his government has been terrorizing black farm hands and others thought to have opposed him in the recent "election." What can be done about Zimbabwe? The EU seems willing to help in case of famine, but there is no guarantee their money will get past Mugabe's pockets.
posted by insomnyuk at 12:04 PM PST - 30 comments

have you heard of quorn?
some people say it's great, others aren't so sure.
does anyone have personal experience with this type of food, and if so, what's your take? the next big thing or the new olestra?
posted by dolface at 12:01 PM PST - 54 comments

Kinder, gentler minders in Kabul? President Hamid Karzai has re-opened the Department of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Department head Mohammad Wazir Razi Kabuli promises no beatings or jailings for violating Islamic tenets, as was common under the Taliban Ministry of Virtue and Vice. Instead, "propaganda" will be used influence the people of Afghanistan. However, when asked what would happen if, for example, a woman was caught wearing makeup in public, Kabuli said "It's too early to talk about that."
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:56 AM PST - 11 comments

This baby, a Norwegian coastal defense high-tech catamaran can travel at 60mph, fool radar and ride 5 feet above the water was in Washington, D.C. recently cruising the Chesapeake Bay to possibly be bought by the US Navy.
posted by stbalbach at 11:28 AM PST - 12 comments

Perseid Meteor Shower-(Peaks Sunday & Monday) "The August Perseids are among the strongest of the readily observed annual meteor showers, and at maximum activity can yield 50 or 60 meteors per hour. However, observers with exceptional sky conditions often record even larger numbers. Also, during an overnight watch, the Perseids are capable of producing a number of bright, flaring and fragmenting meteors, which leave fine trains in their wake."
posted by DailyBread at 11:19 AM PST - 13 comments

At kuro5hin a couple of weeks ago there was a post about what life was like in your area of the world. The idea led some enterprising person to create a website built for the same purposes using the original questions. Seems like a cool way to read about far away places from real people. It's not too full yet, but I'm sure that will change soon enough.
posted by rhyax at 10:48 AM PST - 19 comments

Can Dumbing Down Save Our Libraries?
An intersting story from The Sunday Herald that says libraries are facing a stark choice: modernize or die.
The author say we just can't win, if we put in a bank of computers we are accused of dumbing things down, if we demand silence in the reading rooms and purchase books that aren't "popular" we find ourselves charged with elitism.
He says the public library has an altruistic purpose of making knowledge freely available through the printed word. The trouble is that those high principles were undermined by the librarians themselves. Facing a revolution in communications, they tried to become all things to all people.
He focuses on England, but I think many of these issues are international. Are public libraries out of date?
posted by Blake at 10:38 AM PST - 26 comments

Tech support war stories compiled by category for your viewing pleasure. Every nuance of hardware and software is represented in this extensive collection. This is why the tier 1 techs wake up screaming at night.
posted by dr_dank at 10:00 AM PST - 14 comments

Amazing 9/11 Photographs From the late photographer, Bill Biggart. (via Fark)
posted by yarf at 8:52 AM PST - 35 comments

WorldCom examiner job goes to dinosaur Dick Thornburgh.
posted by engelr at 7:58 AM PST - 1 comment

The Apostrophe Protection Society: ...reminding all writers of English text, whether on notices or in documents of any type, of the correct usage of the apostrophe should you wish to put right mistakes you may have inadvertently made.
posted by acridrabbit at 7:57 AM PST - 57 comments

Brown Cloud threatens SE Asia Having flown into Mumbai a couple of times over the past years, and to Singapore once, I thought I saw this, but passed it up to gunk on the windows. Turned out it was gunk in the sky.
posted by rshah21 at 3:12 AM PST - 32 comments

Leon Sergeivitch Termen, born in Russia and later a US resident, is best known as the inventor of The Theremin, the first real electronic instrument. The Theremin is played by standing and wavings one's hands. It was used to give a futuristic sound to classic sci-fi films and still looks plenty sci-fi when played[quicktime clip] and the music it produces is strange and beautiful[real player].
Old Leon himself ended up getting kidnapped by Soviet agents and sent to a Siberian prison camp. After his release, he continued to work for the KGB, creating one of the first "bugs" -- then used to eavesdrop on the American Embassy. He was mostly unaware of the fate of his eponymous instrument. Meanwhile, his former lover, Clara Rockmore, went on to try and change the thermin from novelty to serious instrument, she even had her own unique playing style (heard in the real player clip above). Want to play? build your own, or download your own, and join the whole odd subculture.
posted by malphigian at 10:57 PM PST - 25 comments

US Airways Bankrupt. It had to happen to one of the big airlines eventually, what with 9/11 and the hesitancy to fly following. But on top of everything else financially as of late... it just deepens that already sick feeling. Who's next?
posted by dopamine at 10:12 PM PST - 17 comments

IT workers get back to basics. (NYT Registration required) An unemployed IT worker who used to earn $125k opens his own crepe stall in NYC. And Jamie Zawinski (a founder of the Mozilla project) quit Netscape, and opened his own bar in LA! What about mainframe programmer with 30 years' experience who just became a chef? Even Dilbert has been having a bad time. Some people will stay in IT regardless, but with the valley's job market stagnant, call centers and programming jobs disappearing to India, and many unfulfilled dot com prophecies, hundreds of engineers are considering dropping IT for more hands-on pursuits. It's like the movie, Office Space. So, has the 'Great IT Depression' led you to reconsider your occupation? (Warning: Slashdot inspired post.)
posted by wackybrit at 7:58 PM PST - 77 comments

Meet John Clare. In 1832, he wrote to John Taylor, saying:

'in spite of every difficulty rhyme will come to the end of my pen -- when I am in trouble I go on & it gives me pleasure by resting my feelings of every burthen & when I am pleased it gives me extra gratification & so in spite of myself I rhyme on.'*

And John Clare knew difficulty. Born to dirt poor farmers in 1793, he wrote his first poem at 13 and published his first book of poetry at 27. Yet he found himself committed to the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum by the age of 48. Why? It was determined that he suffered from too many "years addicted to poetical prosings."

A poet of the sonnet form, he has suffered from a lack of academic attention until just recently. He does, however, have a society in his name, and a John Clare conference will be held in North America next year.
posted by grabbingsand at 7:40 PM PST - 10 comments

Mention Whirlpools, and people tend to assume you're talking about a Jacuzzi. But not all whirlpools man-made. When powerful tidal currents are forced between a narrow fjord, and then come up against another current traveling in a different direction, the result is a large water vortex. Being tidal means they are predicable. Some of the more famous whirlpools are the Corryvreckian(Scotland), "Old Sow" (Canada), Moskstraumen and Saltstraumen (Norway), and the Naruto (Japan). Notice how they each claim to be the largest of them all. ...Just one more thing to ponder the next time you pull the chain
posted by BentPenguin at 6:54 PM PST - 14 comments

Monkeys use millipede juice as Ecstacy-style party drug They bite the millipedes, then reach behind their back and rub it on their fur...Their eyes glaze over...one monkey shared a millipede with four family members and the entire family turned into a 'writhing mass.' How cute is that? For context, here's a December report of wild primates ingesting plants with stimulant and hallucinogenic properties. Welcome to the new field of Zoopharmacognosy, which studies the spontaneous medicinal (and recreational) use of plants by non-human animals. An intro to the subject. Perhaps now you're ready to chew on Terrence McKenna's visionary notion that psychedelic mushrooms were the spark for the development of consciousness in apes.
posted by mediareport at 4:46 PM PST - 25 comments

Truck-nutz? Can it get any more crude, I mean 'red', than this? (here, another brand and lots of pics - click on mugshots). Who in their right mind would hang these under thier bumper?
posted by tomplus2 at 12:53 PM PST - 33 comments

The Origin of the Hamburger (npr.org). A restaurant named Louis' Lunch lays claims to the original hamburger. Dick's Drive-In has some of the best hamburgers and fries in Seattle. At the Beacon Drive-In in Spartanburg, SC you can get your burger served "a-plenty," meaning hidden under a generous pile of onion rings and fries. What's your favorite burger? Or has the recent beef recall got you down?
posted by josephtate at 12:40 PM PST - 50 comments

Get "Your Ticket to The Future" Here!! From the site :"We establish a fund in current time. You make a small contribution to the fund, and in a few hundred years that small amount grows to a very large amount. From that fund, moneys will be taken and used to retrieve you, perhaps seconds after you join, perhaps even moments before your recorded death, perhaps some other point in your lifetime. Further, the fund may even pay to have you "rejuvenated" medically (assuming this is scientifically possible at that time,) and support you financially for a number of years. (Note: Retrieving you just before the moment of death is just one possible scenario, but one that would avoid any Star Trek(TM) type paradoxes. There are an unlimited number of other possibilities, and we do not know what they will do, we can only make reasonably informed guesses.)"

I wonder, Scam or Genius at work here?
posted by bhmwks at 11:21 AM PST - 30 comments

Well, let's just give into the idea of world-wide tribalism as the fact of life, as groups only understand and condemn (NYT) what hits their own kind. The hell with other kinds of people. They probably suffer differently anyway, if at all.
posted by semmi at 11:04 AM PST - 13 comments

Low self esteem leads to negative moods..... People with low self esteem believe sadness is part of life and you shouldn't get rid of it.
posted by Espoo2 at 10:47 AM PST - 53 comments

A rebuttal to the "cult of Turn Off Your Computer," or as might be more familiar here: "It's Only a Website."
Curious about others' views on this. I've been on-line for so long(shut up, not consecutively), avatars/personas/whateveryoucallem just seem like silly extra work to me, outside appropriate contexts like on-line RPGs and the like.
posted by Su at 10:27 AM PST - 16 comments

Inventor Woody Norris has cooked up a device capable of sending soundwaves to specific targets, these sounds are inaudible to anyone besides the intended target.
posted by cedar at 10:15 AM PST - 6 comments

This nuclear detente, as sponsored by Oracle The growth of the IT industry in India, which has many connections to the US and the West, might be a stabilizing factor in the country's relationship to Pakistan. Hopefully, the presence of western companies and economic growth will also be a check on the growth of hindutva, or Hindu nationalism. (NYT registration required)
posted by rks404 at 9:11 AM PST - 3 comments

Open Source or Bust? "Named the "Digital Software Security Act," the proposal essentially would make California the "Live Free or Die" state when it comes to software. If enacted as written, state agencies would be able to buy software only from companies that do not place restrictions on use or access to source code. The agencies would also be given the freedom to "make and distribute copies of the software."" If open source wants to be taken seriously, shouldn't it compete on the merits (or with martketing) rather than forcing gov't agencies to use it?
posted by owillis at 7:10 AM PST - 44 comments

Is Freemasonry Satanic? Cuttingedge.org replies with a resounding yes! and supplies this ominous map. Other sources are more explanatory and reasonable. Myths about the founding fathers of the United States are too numerous to count, yet there are some pretty spooky assertions, and musings on The Great Seal. Opponents include Antimasonicinfo.com, and the exhaustive Freemasonwatch.
posted by hama7 at 4:02 AM PST - 33 comments

Is The King Finally Dead, After 25 Years? Elvis Presley died on 16 August 1977 and, silly season or not, The Observer, kicking off with Nik Cohn's above-linked essay, has assembled a cracking collection of articles, interviews and humorous pieces about the controversial crooner, mainly directed (I'd say) at non-fans. To my mind, the most enjoyable are Nigel Slater's brave attempt to make the famous Presley sandwich; the weird interview with Larry Geller, his hairdresser and spiritual advisor; the account of Elvis's only (secret) visit to Britain; Michael Odell's funny set of instructions on how not to behave at an Elvis party; an interview with George Nichopoulos, the doctor who wrote out more than 10,000 prescriptions for him; a round-up of ludicrous ex-girlfriends' memories and, as an after-thought, a collector's report on locating that legendary first "Uh-huh" of his. It's all good stuff but one has to ask whether, in this day and age, it isn't, er, overkill. Is Elvis Presley still that relevant or is he slowly becoming a figure of fun? Whether or not he's actually dead, of course, is entirely another matter...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:08 AM PST - 22 comments

Ray Harryhausen brought wonder to my childhood, with the painstaking process of stop-motion animation. In these days of CGI special effects, perhaps a look back to the days of the Hydra and the wondrous skeleton army would not be amiss. There was a real humanity to Harryhausen's creations, as detailed on this nice site. Perhaps even more interesting are the films that never were, like his Baron Munchausen, The Tortoise and the Hare and his vision of War of the Worlds. Also, criticism of Harryhausen. Last link: a chat with Harryhausen.
posted by Kafkaesque at 12:28 AM PST - 26 comments

"When Shiva holds the center of the stage, the role of the personalized Brahman is colored with death and destruction. Shiva's stern asceticism casts a blight over the fields of rebirth. His presence negates and transcends the kaleidoscope of sufferings and joys. Nevertheless, he bestows wisdom and peace and is not only terrible but profoundly benign. Shiva's nature at once transcends and includes all the polarities of the living world." "Shiva opens his third eye only in anger, and the offender is burnt to cinders.
posted by sudama at 11:41 PM PST - 26 comments

The Sky Trust would sell a gradually diminishing number of carbon emission permits to the approximately 2,000 oil, gas and coal companies that bring fossil fuels into the U.S. economy. With the income from these sales, the Sky Trust would pay equal yearly dividends to every American.

An interesting idea, but it seems like any group that plans to ask congress for a charter so they can control the sky would need to think things out a little more. Would auto manufacturers be charged for the emissions made by the vehicles they produce? Would the private citizens who buy them? And what is to stop any corporation from simply, say, opening shop in another country to avoid the hassles. But, the largest question in my mind was, who actually expects the current government to do anything that would place environmental matters over commerce?
posted by Kellydamnit at 10:54 PM PST - 2 comments

Government plans to use Flight 93 cockpit tapes in Moussaoui trial "Additional recordings would be played from the cockpit of an executive jet that tracked Flight 93 on Sept. 11" "An official for NetJets, a company that sells shares in private business aircraft, confirmed that the plane tracking Flight 93 belonged to the company. The official, who asked not to be identified by name, said the company was asked not to comment on the Sept. 11 flight but would not say who made the request." Finally someone admits that there was a plane up there when Flight 93 crashed. But who was it and why?
posted by bas67 at 9:01 PM PST - 15 comments

Tipper Gore's Ticket Tangle Seems the reported Gore hustle to get freebies for the Springsteen concernt just one more piece of nonsense to discredit the guy. Ah, so early and things heating up.
posted by Postroad at 3:48 PM PST - 29 comments

Regime change required for a rogue nation? In a soundbite disseminated by the White House and duly picked up by the media, Bush the younger asserted that "the world's worst leaders" will not be permitted to "harbor and develop the world's worst weapons." With the U.S. hinting at a new, unilateral war effort abroad and suspending constitutional rights at home, Adrian Hamilton writes in the Independent (U.K.), "The government which is spending by far the most on weapons of mass destruction, and is now planning to raise its budget by an increase greater than the total defence spending of Europe, is, of course, based in Washington."
posted by xian at 2:31 PM PST - 27 comments

So long, Big Kinky. "Uncle Tom" Friedman, the father of legendary Texas writer, singer, and cat lover, Mr. Richard "Big Dick" "Kinky" Friedman, has stepped on a rainbow and been called home to Jesus. A touching obituary to a fine man.
posted by shecky57 at 10:11 AM PST - 9 comments

The Brits appear more concerned about 20-somethings and floundering young people than their American counterparts. They acknowledge that replacing grants with debt has a downside: "Students who fear getting into debt are also more likely to suffer from depression."
posted by sheauga at 8:59 AM PST - 49 comments

The threat of war with Iraq. The decline of the stock market and consumer confidence. Continued violence in the Middle East. Erosion of civil liberties. But with all the negativity afloat in the world, just remember one thing: There will always be the music video of Leonard Nimoy's "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins." (quicktime)
posted by PrinceValium at 8:39 AM PST - 34 comments

Dear Mr. Ashcroft: People who download copyrighted music files deserve jail time, and you should start prosecuting them. Signed: Joe Biden, John Conyers, Dianne Feinstein...
posted by xowie at 7:43 AM PST - 50 comments

The Passport: the next step in its evolution may include invisible information encoded into your mug shot, but if you are wondering where it all began, the Canadian passport office identifies one Nehemiah of Persia, ca. 450 BC, as candidate for very first passport holder. Some think that it was all downhill from there. Regardless, there might be very good reasons for getting more than one passport, which you can do legally, or less so. Lenin had a fake passport. So did Hitler, though he didn't know it. (More inside.)
posted by taz at 5:41 AM PST - 5 comments

Water for thought. Is 8ouncesx8glasses a day a myth at best or a beverage industry conspiracy at worst? "I did 43 years of research on that system -- the osmoregulatory system. That system is so precise and so fast that I find it impossible to believe that evolution left us with a chronic water deficit" ..just drink enough to slake thirst -- and this includes coffee, tea, and even beer!
posted by stbalbach at 4:42 AM PST - 30 comments

Legionnaires Disease. Today I have discovered that two people I am related to in the second degree have been stricken with pneumonia. One as you read this is in ICU and near death. One traveled last week to San Francisco. The other to southern Oregon. The two cases are completely unrelated, other than that I know of each case seperately. What do we know of Legionnaires?
posted by crasspastor at 2:21 AM PST - 14 comments

Speaking of butts, here's a little game that challenges you to wash a couple of "fag ends" down the hole at the end of the trough. Good luck, this is my Friday Flash challenge to you!
posted by RevGreg at 12:57 PM PST - 35 comments

No butts about it... Bloomberg plans to ban smoking in small bars and restaurants in NYC. Why not? The pope took it even further. And after all, it won't hurt business owners. Perhaps a better plan would be to limit food portions instead. How do NYC smokers feel about this? I know Carrie Bradshaw will not be too thrilled.
posted by bmxGirl at 12:51 PM PST - 121 comments

This guy apparently doesn't like Gary Busey. I disagree, but I generally avoid movies with Kevin Costner or Will Smith...Who's on your Axis of Evil?
posted by octavius at 12:42 PM PST - 120 comments

You did what on an MRI machine?? [pdf]. Also included is the transcript of one of the 'participants' in this experiment.
(Friday fun - possibly NSFW)
posted by patrickje at 12:42 PM PST - 20 comments

Mighty Wurlitzer Talking Points. Get used to hearing these repeated over and over again.

"The volume covers defense, the environment, taxes, Medicare and other campaign issues. Each chapter includes a section entitled "Answering liberal critics" with suggested answers to potentially troubling questions."

...and how to lie and obfuscate effectively perhaps? There's clearly a lot of worry about being on the wrong side of many issues. I've reported, you decide.
posted by nofundy at 12:16 PM PST - 16 comments

Charton Heston has symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's But he plans to continue to hold the position of NRA President, at least until the dementia means he can no long aim effectively.
posted by djfiander at 11:51 AM PST - 77 comments

"I have been an accomplice to the murders of untold numbers of human beings..." One of Hollywood's most notorious screenwriters claims he and Hollywood are partly responsible for the cancer deaths of smokers. Doesn't Hollywood usually claim they are not responsible for their viewers' actions?
posted by Fabulon7 at 11:45 AM PST - 30 comments

ICKY!
Sometimes I think I made the right Career move. People complain about having to write papers, study, and do too much home work, but, how would you like to hold your hand in a cage full of mosquitoes to determine if they are ready to feed in order to get your degree (in entomology)?
Don't worry, the mosquitoes used in the tests are raised in captivity and do carry not any diseases suchas the West Nile Virus.
If you're like me, you asked yourself, What do entomologists do?
posted by Blake at 11:16 AM PST - 6 comments

"A Contrarian View of Open Source" - Bruce Sterling on the open source attitutude: "Don't like it? Hey, just reconfigure it yourself, don't bother me!" It's the Hippie Squat Model of software architecture. "If I want to paint the doors and floors bright blue and put the toilet right into the kitchen, why not?"
posted by GriffX at 10:48 AM PST - 12 comments

The Illustrated History of the Roman Empire claims to be the leading on-line resource for Roman history, with over 70mb of content. They have many short essays and lots of graphics and interactive maps. The UI could be better (especially for the maps), but it's a good time sink just the same.
posted by ewagoner at 10:45 AM PST - 9 comments

A Kick Butt Political Ad. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME, BOB?" download. I can imagine a lot of politicians with exposure on this issue. Will this hurt them? If so, who will use them more, Libertarians or Greens?
posted by kablam at 10:12 AM PST - 25 comments

Fragx returns. 200 words or less with a 3-word title: one of the earliest and most interesting writing experiments on the web is finally back, and the slate is clean. John Casler's Fragx (short for fragments) challenges the most verbose of us to strip it down, distill it to its most basic elements, then put it up for a healthy flogging by other writers. Sounds like good practice.
posted by frykitty at 7:36 AM PST - 33 comments

Crows better than chimps at making tools? British scientists were reportedly "astonished" when a captive crow named Betty "spontaneously bent a straight piece of wire and used it to retrieve a snack." But another scientist says crows have been seen making two kinds of hook tools in the wild, although he's not sure we should say they have "insight." It's clear that there are lots of different kinds of animal intelligences, so why are humans so surprised when dolphins recognize themselves in mirrors, chimps demonstrate culture and lions engage in social problem-solving? What explains the reluctance to admit that animal "consciousness" exists?
posted by mediareport at 7:35 AM PST - 70 comments

So if bigfoot can be used as an insanity defense when on trial for triple homicide, what does that say for those who actually believe?

Well, at least the incarcerated can do some light reading while waiting for trial.
posted by Kellydamnit at 7:27 AM PST - 5 comments

Not your ordinary collection. Sure, you could collect stamps or butterflies, but wouldn't you like to collect antique surgical instruments and amputation sets instead? Or how about some nice dental and bloodletting antiques?. If that's too gory for you, perhaps antique stethoscopes are more your speed? Having problems looking at these links? Then hurry to Eye Antiques and the Antique Spectacles Page to clear things up!
posted by headspace at 7:16 AM PST - 8 comments

British Film Institute Top Ten Poll for 2002 is out. Compiled every 10 years by the folks who publish the Sight and Sound magazine, it asks 145 critics and 108 directors for their top 10 films ever. Both top 10s are filled with the usual suspects - yes, we all know who always wins. It's more interesting to browse the full list of films voted for. Or read the individual top 10s and occasional comments by directors who voted, such as Michael Mann, Jim Jarmusch, and Roger Corman.
posted by shortfuse at 7:03 AM PST - 28 comments

Who does your favorite baseball team root for? Democrats or Republicans?
posted by mooseindian at 6:45 AM PST - 15 comments

Becketts Bounce A great bit of Flash art for those with literary tastes (words but no pictures) and a soft spot for Sam Beckett.
posted by rolo at 6:31 AM PST - 10 comments

Life Is A Magazine, Chum... Come to the Magazine! A lot of us grew up with Life Magazine and there's a certain nostalgic/narcissistic pleasure in looking at the cover of the week you (if you're over 30, that is) or your parents were born in. Their wacky and classic covers are also worth checking out, even though there are some inevitable repeats. Oh - and never forgetting their astonishing classic photographs, of course.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:05 AM PST - 18 comments

Winners of The 5K Competition revealed. Remember the thread about the call for entries back in May? Well, there were many fine entries, but finally the winners have been announced. Check out the Editor's picks for the cream of the crop. My favorite is Wolfenstein 5K, which ones have you enjoyed? Of course, 'real men' do it in 256 bytes instead ;-)
posted by wackybrit at 7:04 PM PST - 10 comments

Civil War: Political Violence and Robust Settlements -- an article from the Santa Fe Institute Bulletin about game theoretical approaches combined with on the ground field studies to analyze war and conflict. The article centers around work (Forging Democracy From Below: Insurgent Transitions in South Africa and El Salvador | Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador) done by Elisabeth Jean Wood, an NYU professor of political science with a background in physics. "The reason to study violence and suffering," says Wood, "is to understand its origins, processes, andâ?"ideallyâ?"to contribute to its cessation."
posted by kliuless at 7:01 PM PST - 3 comments

This year three first rate Canadian painters have passed away: Kazuo Nakamura (b.1926), was a member of the Painters 11 (flash site, doesn't seem to be working right now, short articles here, and here). Jean-Paul Riopelle (b. 1923) was a member of Les Automatistes whose Le Refus Global helped to completely reshape Quebec culture. Riopelle passed away last March. Finally, Michael Forster (b.1907?) was a WWII vet and a war artist. He passed away in July.
posted by slipperywhenwet at 6:46 PM PST - 3 comments

Clear Channel killed the radio star... Okay, so you and your competition buy up all these radio stations and kill the little guys with the big hearts, then one day your audience turns on you. What do you do? You coldly attempt to mimic the attitude of the once successful radio stations that you and your enemy helped kill years before, and a fickle audience buys into it, at least for awhile. You still look like a bunch of boners, but hey at least the Arbitrons look good for a couple quarters. The Zoo and Q102 are spinning in their vampire-like graves... Is this a success story, or an autopsy? Can good radio survive corporate mentality?
posted by ZachsMind at 6:44 PM PST - 24 comments

Platform gives way, aquarium tourists dumped into shark tank. I don't know about any of you, but my pants would've been full before I hit water.
posted by Ty Webb at 3:32 PM PST - 34 comments

What is the estimated US Population at this very moment? Find out at the official site of the US census. More fascinating information available by checking out the 2000 census homepage. As a post-script, what are your favorite sites for collecting interesting statistics?
posted by cell divide at 3:22 PM PST - 16 comments

The effects of jet contrails on climate. Taking advantage of a unique research opportunity brought about by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on America, when all commercial air traffic in the country stood still for three days, scientists have uncovered the first clear evidence. Link to British journal Nature article on subject and IPCC article.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 3:13 PM PST - 7 comments

"PETA Wins Right to Have Newest Party Animal" Judge orders the D.C. Commission on the Arts to allow PETA to display an entry in an ongoing public street art exhibit featuring elephants and donkeys, entitled "Party Animals Public Art Project".
posted by mhaw at 1:29 PM PST - 39 comments

Is modern literature too pretentious? "In the bookstore I'll sometimes sample what all the fuss is about, but one glance at the affected prose -- 'furious dabs of tulips stuttering,' say, or 'in the dark before the day yet was' -- and I'm hightailing it to the friendly black spines of the Penguin Classics" This essay from B.R. Myers in The Atlantic has been expanded into a book. I thought this defense of Raymond Chandler makes a good point about how literature (or at least its critics) can be exclusionary.
posted by owillis at 11:24 AM PST - 112 comments

Forget TIPS, TIA is the real deal: DARPA's Information Awareness Office is beginning the bidding process for the development of a next-generation information handling system, Total Information Awareness (TIA). The system will capture, cross index and maintain pedabytes of information including: financial, education, travel, medical, veterinary, country entry, place/event entry, transportation, housing, "critical resources", government and communications. By the way: DARPA's Information Awareness Office is run by by John Poindexter, who was convicted of conspiracy, lying to Congress, defrauding the government and destroying evidence.
posted by jonnyp at 9:58 AM PST - 29 comments

As President-for-Life, you have schools, cities, airports and even a meteor named after you. What is left?
Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan, intends to rename the calendar. January for himself and April may be reserved for his mother.

Crazy guy.
posted by i_cola at 9:36 AM PST - 13 comments

Corporate Terrorism Approved "The International Labor Rights Fund filed the suit with the U.S. district court in Washington last year on behalf of 11 villagers from Aceh who contend that they were victims of murder, torture, kidnapping and rape by the military unit guarding Exxon Mobil's gas field."

"the State Department said the lawsuit would "risk a seriously adverse impact on significant interests of the United States, including interests related directly to the ongoing struggle against international terrorism."

I guess the villagers killed weren't part of the axles of evil so it is OK to contract out their murders?
posted by nofundy at 8:49 AM PST - 26 comments

The "Axis of Evil" v. the "Forces of Evil." Saddam Hussein warns the US that any attack on Iraq is "doomed to failure." While the Bush Administration claims that there are no firm plans to invade Iraq, the rhetoric on both sides is intensifying. Are the Hawks on both sides gunning for a showdown? Can a diplomatic solution be reached? If the Bush Administration's goal is to oust Saddam, have we foreclosed any hope of a meaningful "dialogue"? Reportedly, even some generals are wary of invading Iraq. I think containment of Saddam is a much better option than war. Does anyone disagree? What are the alternatives?
posted by Bag Man at 8:39 AM PST - 121 comments

Evidence, ex memepool.
posted by engelr at 7:43 AM PST - 12 comments

Rockbitch have done their last gig. So no more golden condom awards. Rockbitch are/were a band of outrageous gay and bisexual women (and one guy) who live in a sex-commune in France (although they are mostly British). They gained notoriety for their explicitly sexual performances which ended with a golden condom thrown into the audience. Whoever caught it, male or female, would be joyfully fucked by members of the band backstage. Yes for real. It sounds like rock and roll exploitation gone mad but what is surprising is that their philosophy of sexual liberation and magic seems remarkably coherent, and they are very articulate and responsible (a very strong safe sex code). And sexy. Trouble is after a BBC documentary and much abuse in the press it seems they can't play live any more. Is the world just too straight for Rockbitch, or is this the last gasp of sixties hedonism?
posted by rolo at 5:12 AM PST - 35 comments

Computer Scientists find method to quickly discover primes? If the claims outlined in this article are correct, an age-long problem of number theory maybe solved. I wonder about the implications for cryptography; any cypherpunks care to comment?
posted by costas at 4:52 AM PST - 26 comments

Hermit Wanted. Back in fashion at last! Niagara had one. This one was murdered. Why not apply for the job? Give up your soft office job. This guy did. (Don't be put off by the murdering).
posted by Frasermoo at 1:29 AM PST - 11 comments

Women who put babies up for adoption required to publish sexual pasts Web sites can't collect info on minors, but Florida wants all women, including minors, to publish their sexual history in local newspapers before they're allowed to give their child up for adoption. Abortions are difficult to get in Florida, almost impossible for some minors because of parental notification and permission requirements, yet wouldn't this law push more women towards abortion rather than towards adoption?
posted by dejah420 at 10:33 PM PST - 83 comments

Okaaaaaaaaaaaay Daaaaaaaaaavey! After a 31 year absence, Davey and Goliath are making their return to television. It's funny, I had no idea it was religious programming until years after I stopped watching it. Oh, and this news explains explains those great Mountain Dew ads...
posted by chumptastic at 9:41 PM PST - 12 comments

Ben Franklin was a member of a dinner club that evolved into a sort of secret society, think tank called The Junto. That group met every Friday from November, 1727 for several decades. Out of those meetings, the group invented the first subscription library in north america, the most advanced volunteer fire department of the time, the first public hospital in Pennsylvania, an insurance company, a constabulary, improved streetlights, paving and what became the University of Pennsylvania. Has anybody ever heard of this? Could something like this work today?
posted by willnot at 9:28 PM PST - 21 comments

In the colorful tradition of linking, debates about the etiquette and legality thereof, and moronic corporate policy, comes Don't Link to Us: a weblog documenting corporate sites with painfully stupid linking policies. Perhaps, as the footnote points out, public shaming is the only means by which the tyranny of evil men can be fended off.
posted by Danelope at 9:21 PM PST - 12 comments

There'll Always Be An England: Wymondham College Remembered. Where matrons are called Scrotum; food is delightful torture; nicknames and slang surpass anything in "How To Be Topp"; staff cars look like Dinky toys; strange and cruel rules and punishments are perversely celebrated - and smoking is de rigueur in the best bicycle-shed fashion. Before anyone mentions the playing fields of Eton, they should know that aptly acronymed WC is a comprehensive school, i.e. public and free, as opposed to "public" schools which are (of course!) private, exclusive and expensive in the UK. And it's only about 50 years old, though it feels and looks like 500. Anyway, it's a sooper, smashing website, full of the real flavour and fun of olde England. Well, East Anglia actually, old fruit! (These few links I've suggested don't even begin to do it justice. Talk about Monty Python; I nearly died!)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:52 PM PST - 6 comments

c not a constant! Over a period of billions of years of course. If this theory is true, then E=mc² might not apply to a large period of time.
posted by riffola at 8:24 PM PST - 29 comments

Weblogs Goin' To Skool Overview, schedule, and resources posted for that potentially infamous UC Berkeley J-school class on weblogs.
posted by peterme at 8:04 PM PST - 7 comments

...perfectly legal to keep a chimp in a broom closet... What happens to zoo animals when they get old and unphotogenic? When the zoo needs to make room for these? (sadness-making warning)
posted by amberglow at 7:20 PM PST - 23 comments

"SomeoneLikesYou and Crushlink represent a more extreme version of what all crush sites do. They inspire you to reveal your own crushes' e-mail addresses by dangling the lure that they know who wants you. "

I guess no one has a crush on me after all.
posted by Kellydamnit at 6:17 PM PST - 15 comments

Today I played kickball. My team came in third of four, but we'd had too much fun (and Mike's Hard Lemonade) to care. Wanna organize your own game? All you need is a copy of the rules, a few rubber kickballs, a way to invite your friends and beer.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 5:31 PM PST - 19 comments

Adbusters TV launched. Everyone's favourite culture jammers and uncommercialists are looking for your video contributions.

"The next time you and your friends organize a street party, liberate a billboard, shoot an indy documentary, or throw a pie into the ugly face of authority, we want people worldwide to catch it the next day

There is an inaugural contest to get the content flowing. They are looking for video, audio, and animation in three categories: Direct Action (jams, spoofs, pranks, protests); Epiphanies (personal works); and Mini-Documentaries.
posted by boost ventilator at 5:07 PM PST - 10 comments

"Pistol fires accidentally at reception for Georgia's Rep. Bob Barr" someone hands a loaded handgun to a u.s representative -- and nra member -- and it accidentally discharges. how they are going to spin this in can only imagine.
posted by dolface at 5:01 PM PST - 28 comments

A computer aided simulation builds a spiral galaxy from its beginning. In all, 390,000 particles were placed in an arrangement similar to a newborn galaxy. The end result after three months is an event that is believed to take billions of years to occur. (animation)
posted by samsara at 4:14 PM PST - 7 comments

Grrls Update: Many Top Think Tanks in D.C. Remain Boys' Clubs. How to retain women in IT jobs. ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) opponent Phyllis Schafly on "homeland security or homeland spying." Women keep savings accounts a secret from husbands, just in case. Inventor of beer, Ninkasi, receives belated recognition as Goddess in Britain. Gallant GIs assisting besieged Afghan Feminist.
posted by sheauga at 3:59 PM PST - 15 comments

But it was broken when I got here! New numbers indicate that the recession started before Bush came to office. Do Bush's statements succeed in making him less responsible for the recession in the eyes of the public? Do these kinds of statements restore people's faith in the economy?
posted by rks404 at 3:44 PM PST - 24 comments

Esdger Wybe Dijkstra: 1930-2002. One of the last remaining computer science gods has passed on after a lengthy battle with cancer. Few had his eloquence, his wit, or his charm. A sharp writer (check out "GOTO statement considered harmful" or The Humble Programmer [pdf]) and a true pioneer in all areas of the field, Dijkstra had a hand in much of modern computer science. A sad day for nerds worldwide.
posted by Succa at 3:26 PM PST - 21 comments

"Pulp" means a lot of different things today. To many people, "pulp"means something lurid, sleazy and sensationalist. That's what Quentin Tarantino meant when he called his movie "Pulp Fiction," a violent and outrageous look at the seedy side of American life. "Pulp" refers to something thrilling and low-rent at the same time - that, at least, is a common definition of the term. "Pulp," however, can refer to something more specific, a certain kind of magazine. [more inside]
posted by mooseindian at 2:08 PM PST - 15 comments

"The old doctrine was that nuclear weapons were far too big and nasty to use, and now they've moved towards developing nuclear weapons they can actually use". On the aniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, does the development of 'low-yield nukes' threaten to blur the distinction between conventional and nuclear warfare.
posted by gravelshoes at 12:37 PM PST - 29 comments

If cyberspace were organized into a giant neural computer... [NYT, reg req] ...one could in theory "upload" a person's mental software into it: thoughts, feelings, memories, the works. - an interesting sci-fi premise by author john darnton complete with a contemporary 'mad scientist!'
posted by sixtwenty3dc at 12:29 PM PST - 29 comments

“The Obtainium ideal is to find useful and valued material for free.” Here’s a very new resource for low-cost or no-cost stuff of all kinds. It’s a breath of fresh air for those of us compulsive craftfolk who are frustrated with the upscale, hipsterish tone of the current DIY resurgence. Most posters are SF based, but they’d like to broaden their horizons.
posted by Fenriss at 12:26 PM PST - 9 comments

U.S. Defies Judge on Enemy Combatant From the WashPost.....yesterday's action was the first time the government has not agreed to a judge's request. The government's action sets the stage for a constitutional confrontation tomorrow. Is anyone else as appalled and disturbed by this as I am? Isn't defiance of the justice system a deeply dangerous precedent?
posted by pjgulliver at 12:05 PM PST - 65 comments

Airline gives free flights on Sept. 11 Spirit Airlines will give away seats on every one of its flights for the one-year anniversary. Is this a good idea? Will anyone, anywhere want to fly that day, even for free?
posted by ice_cream_motor at 9:23 AM PST - 54 comments

Would the Mac platform collapse without Microsoft? BusinessWeek questions the conventional wisdom.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:14 AM PST - 42 comments

Finally, action from the Vatican. After struggling with what to do with errant priests, several are excommunicated.... ...Whoops. Never mind. These aren't the priests one might expect...or maybe they are.
posted by fpatrick at 5:36 AM PST - 53 comments

Is the planned WTC memorial in the wrong place? "There is a desperate futility in the project as presently conceived, because even if the whole site were turned into a memorial garden it would be in the wrong place. For most of the dead did not die there at all, but a thousand feet away, a sixth of a mile, directly above. "

Finally IMHO the perfect solution! The city gets its office space back, the country gets its memorial, the world gets a shockingly wonderful new piece of architecture.
posted by revbrian at 4:01 AM PST - 59 comments

The Doomsday Argument Rarely does philosophy produce empirical predictions. The Doomsday argument is an important exception. From seemingly trivial premises it seeks to show that the risk that humankind will go extinct soon has been systematically underestimated...[more inside]
posted by crunchburger at 11:36 PM PST - 50 comments

For the past year or so pinhole photography has been an important part of my artistic practice. These are some of the sites that have inspired me: pinhole visions is a great all round pinholing resource, and also hosts the Pinhole discussion mailing list. The discussion list was one of the launching points for the 2nd annual world pinhole day, this past April 28th; check out the image gallery. Artist sites worth checking out include this page on Dianne Bos, Martha Casanave's incredible work (both pinhole and not), pinhole.nl (Dude! Meat cathedral), The Oehl's fantastic self-portraits, and polaroidsandpinholes.com. Finally, if you're heading out to Burning Man this year, you could check out Camp Pinhole where each year they "build, operate, and burn a van-sized walk-in pinhole camera/darkroom" (cool!). (First post. Be nice)
posted by slipperywhenwet at 9:28 PM PST - 11 comments

Right. Let me get this straight. A security guard found a handbag unattended in a night club. He then searched the bag, supposedly looking for ID, and found a small packet containing a white powdery substance, which he handed over to the Central Narcotics Bureau. A woman, Ms. Low, later says the handbag belongs to her. The Judge notes that "There was no denial that this was her handbag. She claimed it was hers." Ms. Low's friend, after being offered immunity from prosecution, then says they both snorted cocaine earlier on in the evening. On the basis of the evidence presented, Ms. Low is sentenced to 18 months in prison.
posted by netsirk at 7:30 PM PST - 44 comments

Timmy leaves his Princess. Josh Ryan Evans, the actor who played Timmy on my favorite soap opera (Passions) died Monday evening from a heart condition.

What's creepy is that the exact same day on the show, his character died.

The producers are editing out anything to do with Timmy, although I really hope that there's a legitimate memorial on the show for the character. He's been the soul of the series, and he simply can't be replaced.

Of course, I expect Tabitha to go full on evil now...
posted by Pinwiz at 4:41 PM PST - 54 comments

How smart are you? Are blondes really as dumb as people say? Does an IQ test administered via television/net/SMS have any validity anyway?
posted by dg at 4:40 PM PST - 9 comments

Did you know that two to three million people (1 in 10) have died from starvation in North Korea since 1995? I didn't. Is branding them a part of the "Axis of Evil" making it worse?
posted by queequeg at 4:06 PM PST - 31 comments

"Please remember the victims, living and dead, of silent, brutal, and illegal electronic, chemical and drug, mind altering and controlling weapons testing, often in their homes. For many this involuntary testing continues to this very day and hour."
Are they really victims of men like Dr. Jose Delgado? Or can we dismiss all of them as crazy?
posted by Fabulon7 at 3:57 PM PST - 14 comments

Talking Cock, a humorous and sensitive look at the penis and the relationships men form with it, is starting to gain a lot of attention in the UK (now bring it to the States, dammit). Based on more than 3,000 responses to a still-online questionnaire, humorist Richard (Dick!) Herring has devised a one-man show that covers everything from Freudian nightmares to different cultural views of the penis, to the biscuit game. Oh, and the reader submitted penis poetry is a hoot. Warning: definitely average nearly nude male picture on the front page. May not be safe for work.
posted by WolfDaddy at 3:51 PM PST - 20 comments

Mathematician Henrik Lenstra was intrigued by a blank space in he middle of a drawing by MC Escher. Over two years he managed to describe the mathematical structure of the drawing, project what should go in the missing space and produce an extraordanary animation of the result.
posted by alms at 2:38 PM PST - 32 comments

A very well designed site on the Analemma. Don't be scared off by the math, as there are excellent diagrams and quicktime movies on this difficult to visualize phenomena. Difficult, but not impossible, to photograph (probably less than 10 photos are in existence) Ulrich Bienert came close, and has a gallery and some tips if you're so inclined.
posted by quercus at 2:01 PM PST - 12 comments

Operation TIPS calls routed to "America's Most Wanted" (Salon premium, sorry) What hack wrote this script we Americans now find ourselves playing out, and why does he have such an on-the-nose sense of humor? Is this funny, depressing, painful or outrageous? Or all four?
posted by busbyism at 1:52 PM PST - 10 comments

The Weekly Standard: Patio Man and the Sprawl People
There he is atop the uppermost tier of his multi-level backyard patio/outdoor recreation area posed like an admiral on the deck of his destroyer. In his mind's eye he can see himself coolly flipping the garlic and pepper T-bones on the front acreage of his new grill while carefully testing the citrus-tarragon trout filets that sizzle fragrantly in the rear. On the lawn below he can see his kids, Haley and Cody, frolicking on the weedless community lawn that is mowed twice weekly by the people who run Monument Crowne Preserve, his townhome community.
More inside...
posted by gen at 1:48 PM PST - 65 comments

Steampunk (alternate) is surging. With the recent works of China Mieville (and his creation of New Crobuzon) and Phillip Pullman (His Dark Materials) and Alan Moore, inspired by the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, there is a new growing fascination with this genre typified by Victorian Anachronism, an alternate history in which technology is overwrought and fantastic. Think Leonardo's machines (though not Victorian), Victorian Robots (prev. mefi thread), The Babbage Engine. 19th Century Science.
posted by vacapinta at 1:43 PM PST - 30 comments

Silt-Filled Turret of USS Monitor Raised From Atlantic
The silt-packed gun turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was raised Monday from the Atlantic floor, nearly 140 years after the historic warship sank during a New Year's storm.
I hope this is not a repost. For any history lovers, this is fascinating.
posted by sahrens428 at 1:41 PM PST - 10 comments

Windows dissatisfaction at all time high. Of 1,500 corporations surveyed, nearly 40% are actively seeking alternatives to Microsoft and their new licensing schemes. "This cumulative dissatisfaction will not necessarily translate into corporate defections to rival operating systems. But it does open the door a crack and raises the possibility that Linux and Mac OS X can gain new footholds in an overwhelmingly Windows world."
posted by jragon at 1:24 PM PST - 12 comments

Walter Mallow dead at 72. Don't know him? He invented clumping cat litter, perfected liquid paper (invented by Bette Nesmith Graham), the heat-resistant tiles on the Space Shuttle, and many other things. Wow.
posted by plinth at 12:41 PM PST - 16 comments

Mice and Martians! Mice sent to Mars, first all-rodent space crew. I like the article's style: "The crew will have no exercise wheels, however. Their motion would interfere with the centrifugal force inside the spacecraft."
posted by agregoli at 11:35 AM PST - 3 comments

Saturday morning TV schedules from the 1950s to today. TV Guide presents the saturday morning schedules for the big three ABC, NBC, and CBS. Although looking through the listings is a nice bit of nostalgia, what's really interesting is watching the rise and fall of pop culture over the listings. From The Beatles to I am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali to Mr. T to Ace Ventura.

Also starting in the 1990s, you can see the networks moving away from saturday morning cartoons. There are several factors, the main two being the Children's Television Act (enacted in 1990), and cable television. Which unfortunately has led to the births of such monsters as Saved by the Bell.
posted by patrickje at 11:31 AM PST - 58 comments

themoviespoiler.com: "WARNING! The ending to these films will be revealed!" Because some of us hate surprises. Or maybe we just want to ruin The Master of Disguise for our "Turtle! Turtle!" Co-workers.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 11:17 AM PST - 15 comments

The Death of a Dirigible - "The airship Shenandoah, nose to her high mooring mast, was floating gracefully with the variable breezes. Her twenty gas bags were about 91% full; her tanks loaded with 9,075 pounds of water and 16, 620 pounds of gasoline..." I was fascinated by this account of the disaster that befell the Navy airship 'Shenandoah', marking the beginning of the end of the era of rigid bodied airships. [ Via a comment on /. ]
posted by GriffX at 9:06 AM PST - 14 comments

Bravo, MetaFilter Grammar Posse! Following this memorable thread, Lauren Weiner, the editor of much esteemed Knuckerap, has kind words for those of us who contributed to it. [Embarrassingly, Ms. Weiner seems to think Matt Haughey's one and only MetaFilter is my web site. I'm honoured, so do please take your time before letting her know it ain't so. ;) ]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:48 AM PST - 43 comments

The Memory Hole " Last month the Office of Management and Budget got sloppy: it issued a press release stating flatly that tax cuts were responsible for only 15 percent of the 10-year deterioration. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noticed, and I reported it here. Now for the fun part. The O.M.B. reacted angrily, and published a letter in The Times attacking me. It attributed the misstatement to "error," and declared that it had been "retracted." Was it? It depends on what you mean by the word "retract." As far as anyone knows, O.M.B. didn't issue a revised statement conceding that it had misinformed reporters and giving the right numbers. It simply threw the embarrassing document down the memory hole."

I'd like to propose a new word, "rovian."
posted by nofundy at 8:42 AM PST - 10 comments

Pranks as an art form. Read about some of the exploits of pranksters Boyd Rice, Jeffrey Valance, Monte Cazazza, and especially Joey Skaggs Skaggs' classic pranks include The "Walk Right" campaign, the Bad Guys Talent Agency and the Campaign to rename the Gypsy Moth. Lots more in this book.a
posted by interrobang at 8:35 AM PST - 13 comments

You've heard of clip art, but have you experienced the wonder of clip copy? Webloggers with writer's block, take note: you can shill for hundreds of corporations, gov't. agencies, and nonprofits by posting a free and copyright-free "feature release" provided by Napsnet (North American Precis Syndicate). Just some of the delightful headlines that can be yours: "The Blinz Is Back!," "Debunking Myths About Incontinence," "How to Avoid Lawnmower Mishaps," "A Career In Roofing Is No Pie-In-The Sky Idea," and "Pet 'Scooting' Could Indicate Tapeworm." For you warbloggers, there's even some propaganda!
posted by kmel at 8:13 AM PST - 3 comments

What a real depression looks like. Total collapse of the middle class, malnutrition, starving bands of marauders eating road-kill, it's every survivalists dream come true. Until last year, Argentines were part of the richest, best-educated and most cultured nation in Latin America. Not anymore.
posted by stbalbach at 7:11 AM PST - 47 comments

One Hell of a Big Bang -- Studs Turkel meets Paul Tibbets the pilot of the Enola Gay. It's a great, though-provoking and disturbing interview to read on Hiroshima Day.
posted by LMG at 6:31 AM PST - 40 comments

Egyptian leader jailed for promoting democracy; Bush admin "disappointed."
posted by engelr at 6:12 AM PST - 8 comments

Promiscuity is good. I knew something felt right about the '70s. (courtesy of Arts & Letters).
posted by fpatrick at 5:22 AM PST - 30 comments

Finally somebody's saying it out loud. A "top Pentagon advisory board" says the real enemy in the War on terrorism is...drum roll, please....Saudi Arabia.
posted by alumshubby at 4:58 AM PST - 74 comments

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. Charismatic and controversial, infamous for introducing the enneagram, claimed by the Sufis, linked to the little known Yezidis, (More here), Gurdjieff--and his school--have their detractors, whether religious or skeptic. His ideas can be difficult , abstruse and are ultimately beside the point. His thesis can be reduced to this: We are asleep, mere machines, acting from habit rather than volition. The goal then is to wake up and stay awake. And that is where the Work comes in. ( A bit more within)
posted by y2karl at 4:49 AM PST - 20 comments

Ned flanders, role model to christains everywhere. Yep that's right folks to christians everywhere ned is the best, why he is even a gospel writer.
posted by johnnyboy at 4:43 AM PST - 10 comments

Maritess Vs The SuperFriends (Flash)
posted by Niahmas at 3:17 AM PST - 7 comments

Scientists in Singapore have grown 'clean' human embryonic stem cells which would pose no threat of infection by animal pathogens if transplanted. Previous ESC lines were mixed with animal cells. Meanwhile in the US, surprisingly little has been accomplished with ESCs in the last year due to the chilling effect of the political controversy. And because of Bush's decision a year ago, any new 'clean' ESC lines could not be be used in federally funded research.
posted by homunculus at 12:19 AM PST - 2 comments

Remember the little fiasco of those child/preteen "model" sites? Well, finally the husband and wife of one of the children have been sent to jail. Two more site operators have cases pending against them. Nude videotapes of the girl found in the couples home is what they were finally convicted for, not the web site itself.
posted by geoff. at 11:36 PM PST - 27 comments

Researchers discover how cancer spreads in the body. They have discovered that a key protein molecule - called Src - helps to loosen the structure of tissues surrounding a tumour, opening the way for cancer cells to spread around the body.
posted by Espoo2 at 9:10 PM PST - 2 comments

Guatemalan girls go head to head before 50 doctors try to pull them apart.
posted by swift at 7:29 PM PST - 32 comments

ACADIA Design Competition: an exploration of the use of computer aided design in architecture, not just as a representation, but as experimentation. My personal favorite. Also, a pretty cool Digital Media Exhibit. One of the participants made a realtime city generator, inspired by one of Italo Calvino's books. Warning: The site pretty slow and some of the projects make extensive use of flash
posted by signal at 6:25 PM PST - 3 comments

Probe: Feds Missing Weapons, Laptops
"Hey Ed, what happened to those UZI's and MAC-10's we had?" "Jeez, I don't know. Last time I saw them they were with the laptops."
I'm glad the INS and FBI don't use SAM's.
posted by flatlander at 5:07 PM PST - 8 comments

"Version 1 is always the most elegant, most evocative trailer that is ever created -- and the one that is never released." The New York Times has an interesting look at the process of making movie trailers, with Signs as an example (minor spoilers).
posted by kirkaracha at 5:00 PM PST - 14 comments

"My So-Called Lungs", is the affecting audio diary of Laura Rothenberg. Laura is a young, articulate woman confronting her mortality as she struggles with cystic fibrosis. Her audio diary aired on NPR tonight. Another excellent piece by the producer Joe Richman. Also written up in the NY Times (reg. req’d).
posted by found missing at 4:09 PM PST - 13 comments

A Seattle group is pressing for a tax on espresso. And recently they've collected the 17,000 signatures necessary to put the issue on the ballot. I'll be the first to mark myself out as a raving anti-taxation loony, but I generally accept things such as the income tax as a necessary evil given our current governmental structure. What annoys me about initiatives like this, however, is the selectiveness of it -- with an income tax, everyone pays proportionately. When you go taxing espresso, you're making some random group that you arbitrarily select pay for something they may not have any concern for. This is a step beyond sin-taxing, in that there is usually a link, however tenuous, between the tax and what it is meant to pay for. Is there any logical connection here?
posted by jammer at 3:33 PM PST - 32 comments

Homer Simpson is Canadian, says Groening.
In Montreal for a performance of "The Simpsons", Matt Groening noted his dad was born in Canada and Homer is named for him so... "That would make Homer Simpson a Canadian".
He goes on to say the show will be on for at least another 14 years.
That should give us something to talk abiot.
posted by Blake at 3:01 PM PST - 24 comments

Ever wonder what beer tasted like 4000 years ago? Looks like some folks in Japan did to...
posted by aaronscool at 2:24 PM PST - 15 comments

Maybe the West wins the Meme Wars... ...because memes propagate best in highly visual and/or aural mediums. These text based memes may not be as powerful as they used to be because they are harder to incorporate than the newer, more aggressive memes.
posted by mrmanley at 1:54 PM PST - 26 comments

Some build on shifting sands...
posted by rushmc at 1:46 PM PST - 7 comments

Whither the Green Party USA? Reporting from the Green Party 2002 midterm convention, The Nation's writer reports an (uneasy) consensus for "spoiling" selected races against the Democrats, but less clarity on how to get from there to a policy-making role in government.
posted by MattD at 1:41 PM PST - 17 comments

Cops Abuse New Anti-Terror Law. The raid was perhaps the state's first known instance of law enforcement officers using new anti-terrorism police powers in a case unrelated to terrorism... Ahh, yes. The War On Drugs meets The War Against Terror.
posted by fnord_prefect at 12:55 PM PST - 13 comments

I come to bury IAmCarbonatedMilk.com, not to praise it. Salon's Heather Cochran muses on reasons behind the demise of some of the 15 million domain names that have been deleted over the past years. DeletedDomains.com lets you search through the graveyard, letting you wonder just what was the thought process behind notrosie.com or sextoyahoy.com.
posted by me3dia at 11:44 AM PST - 60 comments

"The Associated Press, which usually does not report names of sexual assault victims, stopped identifying the girls by name after authorities said they had been raped. The AP resumed reporting Marris' name Friday after she came forward and used Brooks' name after she appeared on national television Monday." Richard Roeper and the Los Angeles Times cover the media decision to cover rape differently than other crimes.
posted by rcade at 10:46 AM PST - 41 comments

Another of our industries,one that actually produces something, has started what appears to be a death spiral. This industry survey was used as supporting evidence as they presented their case to the ITC in May, ahead of a report to be submitted to the House Ways and Means Committee this fall. Some of the business owners comments are here. Who benefits? Near as I can tell, This Guy. (Best if read aloud)
posted by mss at 10:22 AM PST - 4 comments

In 1937, Nebraskan Joycolyn Knapp took a road trip with her family; in 2000, her grandson put her trip journal on the web. In addition to a mileage log and a list of expenditures (229 gallons of gas: $40.02), the journal contains dozens of photos of Depression-era America, including Yellowstone, New Orleans, and San Francisco. The postcards Grandma Knapp chose to save and the things she chose to document are wonderful both in themselves and for their portrayal of the American road trip before the birth of the interstate highway system. (via Portage)
posted by snarkout at 10:14 AM PST - 8 comments

2" GI Joe Rifle Confiscated in Airport Security Crackdown Airport security staff confiscated a TWO-INCH plastic gun from a toy soldier. "They examined the toy as if it was going to shoot them . . . Then they asked me if there were toy grenades as well. I thought they were joking, but they weren’t smiling — they were deadly serious." Have the terrorists already won?
posted by dogmatic at 9:43 AM PST - 43 comments

Freddy vs. Jason. Batman vs. Superman. It seems Hollywood is done mining lame cartoons for movie fodder and has moved on to pitting tired franchises against each other. What's next? Hercule Poirot vs. Indiana Jones? (Actually, that'd be good.) Personally, I'd like to see Bugs Bunny vs. Sauron. We know who'd win that battle. What movie battles would you like to see?
posted by billder at 8:02 AM PST - 146 comments

Harvey Sid Fisher is so much more than a Moment of Zen. Though best known for his astrology songs, which frequently appeared on The Daily Show back in its Craig Kilborn days, he also sings about golf, the battle of the sexes, and why teens shouldn't smoke. Oh, and he's a model, too.
posted by kmel at 8:01 AM PST - 2 comments

Lots of comics news coming from SDCC, including a strong showing for media tie ins.
Television: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation by Max Allen Collins (author of Road To Perdition and several CSI novels) is coming from IDW Publishing and Alias written by J.J. Abrams (writer, director, producer and creator of the TV show) coming from newbie Arcade Comics
Film: John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles with the involvement of film director John Carpenter, producer Debra Hill and actor Kurt Russell coming from Hurricane Entertainment via Crossgen's CGE and Shrek, xXx, Reign of Fire all from Dark Horse.

CSI could translate into a comic really well and Max Collins is a more than capable writer.
posted by davebushe at 7:08 AM PST - 16 comments

Get paid for living. Get paid up to £800 or $1270 for having a unique, non-permanent advertisement tattooed on your body using Timed Tattoo Technology ™. Join here. (or not...)
posted by ColdChef at 7:04 AM PST - 33 comments

MacOS X for $82,402.02 CompUSA feels MacOS X is just that good.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 6:59 AM PST - 18 comments

Every drug dealer knows you give away the first hits for free. Earth & Beyong Free Beta & Magic : The Gathering Online free test drive. [details inside...]
posted by crunchland at 6:36 AM PST - 18 comments

The Brand And Burger Concerto: Luxury And Poverty For All In The U.S.A. Is luxury becoming democratized? Are ostentation and conspicuous consumption not only tolerated now but demanded of anyone but the poorest and least ambitious? As James B.Twitchell, whose well-off father drove a Plymouth, pithily puts it in this adaptation of his book Living It Up: Our Love Affair With Luxury, would you go to a doctor who drove a Plymouth? Well, he confesses he wouldn't. His essay is full of interesting (though perhaps too easily answered) questions. Are time and philantropy really the two remaining luxuries for the truly wealthy? And is it really true almost anyone can now be king for a day or an hour? [I'd add that what he says about the U.S. is even truer of present-day Western Europe, where the stigma previously attached to ostentation was much more powerful among the middle and upper classes than ever it was with rich American WASPs.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:10 AM PST - 23 comments

Could 9/11 Have Been Prevented? From the Time Mag. article " Long before the tragic events of September 11th, the White House debated taking the fight to al-Qaeda. It didn't happen and soon it was too late. The saga of a lost chance.
posted by bas67 at 9:51 PM PST - 22 comments

Reclaiming the Commons "One of the great questions of contemporary American political economy is, who shall control the commons? "The commons" refers to that vast range of resources that the American people collectively own, but which are rapidly being enclosed: privatized, traded in the market, and abused." This is a fairly long, but incredibly well researched article about the "silent theft of our shared assets and civic inheritance".
posted by dejah420 at 9:49 PM PST - 23 comments

Israel weighs response to attacks after the strike on the hamas leader and the collateral damage caused in that attack - a friend of mine and i discussed that it seemed like the people who should be most upset were the relatives and friends of the as of yet undead/injured in the next retaliatory attack... when is the senselessness of the cycle of violence going become clear?
posted by specialk420 at 9:46 PM PST - 20 comments

Black Blobs on Slum Streets. Perhaps this is the way the world will end, instead of a cataclysmic apocalypse, the earth will simply turn into a large ball of unidentifiable goo. Seems logical to me.
posted by jeremias at 8:28 PM PST - 25 comments

Check Out This Librarian There's more to being a librarian than just stamping books and telling people to Shush. The Washington Post has a little Q&A with Jim Gates who has been librarian at the Hall of Fame Library for seven years.
Just in case you think all librarians are little old ladies, you might want to check out This Ad for Mack's Earplugs, it features a lovely librarian, who is also a World Champion Masters Triathelete. Of course, our own Jessamyn has been saying this kind of thing for years now.
After all, The Web Didn't Kill Libraries. It's the New Draw.
Now shush!
posted by Blake at 12:48 PM PST - 27 comments

Verizon v. Ralsky and Additional Benefits LCC Verizon is suing Alan Ralsky in Federal court for sending enough spam -- more than 56 gigabytes -- to "virtually paralyze" their e-mail servers on at least two occaisions. The trial begins Sept. 23. Ralsky's response: "These (anti-spammers) feel we've infringed on their personal space. They want to own the Internet." Ralsky and his lawyer claim that he is picked on because he is open about what he does, yet Ralsky denied it to Brian Livingston last year. More about Ralsky.

Some good anti-spam information sources and tools include Spam Laws, CAUCE, SpamCop, and Spamcon.
posted by pmurray63 at 11:47 AM PST - 11 comments

BlogTree.com is a blog genealogy site: "You can register your blogs and record which blogs inspired their creation." It's an interesting new way to catalog and find blogs in tandem with Blogdex's social network explorer. Which blogs inspired you to start your own blog and have you in turn inspired anyone else to blog? The favorite blogs thread was a long time ago so those of you who've had blogs for years, which new(ish) blogs inspire you to continue blogging now? [ via Blogroots ]
posted by lia at 8:37 AM PST - 23 comments

The Greensboro Massacre: “On November 3, 1979, five people were killed in broad daylight on the streets of Greensboro (NC) by an organized group of men. As they shot into the crowd the killers were filmed by TV news crews and were easily identified by the police. Yet nobody was convicted of a crime for the killings.” (quoted text and links from edcone.com)
posted by jennyb at 8:12 AM PST - 8 comments

I want a lotus blossom bride. I've had enough of these pushy American girls; I'm going to send for Chinese take-out. These folks promise me that I can have "whatever you had imagined in your patriarchal, colonialist longings." Allreet - M. Butterfly, here I come!
posted by Perigee at 4:26 AM PST - 41 comments

HE's Gone Jam>Cryptical>Other One>Stranger Bird Song Lazy Lightning>Supplication Aiko Estimated>Casey Jones Do you know what that means? A very nice, suprisingy rockin' good concert. What did you think of the Terrapin Station 'reunion/tribute' show? Does anyone care (besides me; be gentle) ?? Rolling Stone sure doesn't care about it...deadheads are not a good demo anymore.
posted by msacheson at 2:04 AM PST - 34 comments

"Broken Promises and Political Deception" by Al Gore in the NY Times: " For well over a year, the Bush administration has used its power in the wrong way. In 2000, I argued that the Bush-Cheney ticket was being bankrolled by "a new generation of special interests, power brokers who would want nothing better than a pliant president who would bend public policy to suit their purposes and profits." Some considered this warning anti-business. It was nothing of the sort. I believe now, as I said then, that "when powerful interests try to take advantage of the American people, it's often other businesses that are hurt in the process" — most of all, smaller companies that play by the rules." (I think it's safe to say Al is running)
posted by owillis at 8:13 PM PST - 98 comments

How To Say Yes (Or No) To British Food: Apart from the language barrier (ably demolished by Mike Etherington's magnificent online dictionary), British food has a dreadful reputation all over the world. Yet people who try it, whatever their nationality, often find they enjoy it. If it's properly made, that is. Enter Helen Watson's impeccable and ethnically correct recipes. And those who can't be bothered to cook can always plump for the many ready-made goodies (and some real stinkers) now offered by internet mail order firms. The most promising has got to be, with over 2,500 goodies, the FBC Brit Shop. Unfortunately it's based in Japan and will only start delivering in September. The best of the rest is probably yummy British Delights. My mother's English so I'm obviously biased, but aren't a lot of people missing out on the unique gastronomic charms of the good old United K? Oh yes![FBC link pilfered from the Boing Boing larder.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:25 PM PST - 63 comments

Your new favorite artist: Pinky of Houston and her fabulous decorated eggs. Perhaps Pinky knows that geometric egg art was called pysanky in the Old Country. It later inspired a certain Russian jeweler to new heights. Pinky takes it from there as part of a modern explosion of beautiful eggs, including carved eggs that will make your jaw drop. If you can think of it, it's probably been done to an egg. The emu egg jewelry boxes are particularly elegant. Plenty more at the Egg Art Network.
posted by mediareport at 4:25 PM PST - 10 comments

Save pinball! "It's an American icon," said Stern, ever the salesman. "Pinball is cool because it is retro. It's a Volkswagen bug, a PT Cruiser, khaki pants."
posted by justgary at 3:56 PM PST - 23 comments

As it turns out, Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein were buddies back in the day.
posted by queequeg at 3:43 PM PST - 43 comments

Worldcom staffers to enjoy all expenses paid cruise. Isn't that nice! You've just contributed to the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history! What are you going to do now? Eat filet mignon and caviar!
posted by mark13 at 1:45 PM PST - 12 comments

sick sad world: what if beetle bailey were at the world trade center when it was attacked. . . (i saw the link at pop culture junk mail, scroll down to july 23)
posted by crush-onastick at 7:55 AM PST - 37 comments

The RAVE Act, which stands for "Reducing America's Vulnerability to Ecstasy" courtesy of Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) (via LA Times)
posted by mrhappy at 12:44 AM PST - 63 comments

Oubapo America is a project to identify and explore constraints in Comics. It is the American cousin of the French Oubapo project which shares the same goals. Example: "Draw a comic that is 26 panels long where each panel features in some way the corresponding letter of the alphabet". If this sounds familiar, you may be thinking of Oulipo.
posted by vacapinta at 12:31 AM PST - 6 comments

The anticipation of war stirs uncertainty and puts people on edge, which is the way the country, already shaken by Sept. 11, is feeling these days. It is time for Mr. Bush to level with the nation about his intentions and to talk candidly about why he feels military action against Iraq may soon be necessary, and what the goals, costs and potential consequences of a war would be. (NYTimes, registration required)
posted by sudama at 10:40 PM PST - 48 comments

Perhaps the most wicked celebrity profile yet from wickedly funny celebrity journalist Lynn Hirschberg. In profiling the selling of former Backstreet girlfriend and would-be-edgy-rock-star Amanda Latona, Hirschberg portrays the breakthrough artist as a malleable, fame-chasing airhead and her handlers as just as cynical and corrupt as any caricature of record execs ever created. (NYT link) "The lyric to this song is so Amanda, don't you think? It's very uncompromising." He pauses. "Some artists walk in and they won't budge. Amanda is open to direction."
posted by transona5 at 9:09 PM PST - 27 comments

“London, from one end to the other, teems and steams with eels, alive and stewed; turn where you will, hot eels are everywhere smoking away, with many a fragrant condiment at hand to make what is in itself palatable yet more savoury; and this too at so low a rate, that for one halfpenny a man of the million may fill his stomach with six or seven long pieces, and wash them down with a cupful of the glutinous liquor in which they have been stewed.”
posted by todd at 6:35 PM PST - 22 comments

autechre's new CD/DVD gantz_graf deserves a larger audience than it will most likely receive. not only a brilliant piece of what can be labeled "idm" music, a stunning confluence of hypermodern audio and video artistry.
posted by iceblink at 5:13 PM PST - 33 comments

What's in a name? Apparently not much. One son was named Loser, the other Winner. One became a cop and eventually was promoted to detective - shield number 2762. The other fell into the life of a small-time crook, racking up at least 31 arrests before being sent away for a two-year stretch in state prison - inmate number 00R2807 {found on OpinionJournal}
posted by internal at 2:46 PM PST - 34 comments

Finally, a Reason to Watch Court TV? An Olympics skating vote rigging Russian mafia fraud trial--what fun! Hope this happens, and I hope in happens in New York's Federal Southern District, because, well, what fun to bring down a stupid sport (And remove it from television); discredit the French, Russians... I want seats to this one! Or Perhaps E! will provide the coverage?
posted by ParisParamus at 2:28 PM PST - 14 comments

Robotron: 2084. Presented is an interview with the creator of the fantastic game from the mid 80s; regarding the design of enemies in the game, he has this to say: "Some of the most interesting and deadly aspects of the enemies were bugs caused by improperly terminated boundary conditions in the algorithms. Often these bugs produced behavior far more interesting and psychotic then anything I conceived of." There are many more interviews of classic game authors in the book which is the source for this interview, James Hague's Halcyon Days. (Link thanks to Glish.)
posted by moz at 1:32 PM PST - 30 comments

Bill Moyers, National Treasure, Drunk Driver? Man, I almost hate to post this. Up here in Vermont we think that maybe the state troopers just don't have enough Dunkin Donut's outlets.
posted by dhacker at 12:22 PM PST - 41 comments

Fanatic or aficionado??? 3000 photos, 30 concerts, three oil paintings, and more. Obsess much? If he didn't already live with his mother, he should shack up with the hostess of the now defunct 24 Hour Church of Elvis.
posted by illusionaire at 11:11 AM PST - 23 comments

Rapper Found with Human Remains in Stomach Do you think he's already been referenced in a rap song for this? Talk about street cred. Horrifying.
posted by agregoli at 10:48 AM PST - 84 comments

No perp walk for Enron and Halliburton? Asked to explain why no arrests had been made for these two companies, Larry D. Thompson said, "Some cases are more complex than others." Does it matter what the penalties are for corporate crime? Seems all you need are the right political connections and an adequately complex scheme to defraud investors and employees. Is the White House protecting corporations with their interpretation of whistle blowers? Aren't preventive measures more appropriate than punishments for these crimes? Does wealth truly create a double standard for prosecution under our legal system?
posted by nofundy at 10:30 AM PST - 33 comments

Pressplay to start offering unlimited downloads of their online music database. While it still only (leagally) allows users to burn 120 songs to disc, there are rumors of allowing permanent d/l of songs, too. Is this a sign of the music industry finally starting to do what they should have done from the start, which was embrace the medium and capitalize on its benefits rather than try to stifle it? Regardless of whether or not pressplay suceeds with this tactic, is there anything legal online music services can do to compete with free p2p networks? Discuss.
posted by Hackworth at 9:40 AM PST - 25 comments

Metafilterinkarationicizes! By analyising the frequency of pairs of letters in 45,402 different words it is possible to generate new words which, although, don't have any meaning are reasonably syntatically correct. Enjoy the random word generator.
posted by remlapm at 9:04 AM PST - 33 comments

Go : The future of computing "In recent years, computer experts, particularly those specializing in artificial intelligence, have felt fascination - and frustration - with an ancient Asian game called Go. To date, no computer has been able to achieve a skill level beyond that of the casual player."
posted by jragon at 8:35 AM PST - 29 comments