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Meaningless and funny. I think the web is totally lacking in good writing that is totally irrelevant, funny, and doesn't try to preach. Why does everyone have to take a stance in order to be popular? Irritus is completely immaterial and cracks me up. It's perfect friday material.
posted by Denial of Service at 8:04 PM PST - 5 comments

"Nothing like this will be built again" is the summary, by sf author Charles Stross, of his tour of the Torness nuclear power station in East Scotland.
His enthusiastic descriptions of the extreme coolness of the technology, the combination of near Victorian style brass plumbing and advanced nuclear engineering, go some way to demystify and humanise what I always regarded as one of the more terrifying pieces of architecture I had ever seen when I lived in the area.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 7:17 PM PST - 15 comments

Ever Wonder What Happened to Little Tibia and the Fibulas? You can find out here at the Rocklopedia Fakebandica, a classic compendium of bands that only existed on TV or in the movies. [More inside]
posted by jonp72 at 6:34 PM PST - 13 comments

What a bunch of little nazis. A scout leader in Denmark has been reprimanded for leading the kids (ages 11-14) in a theme based game of tag, with the theme being Nazi's vs. Jews. This included dressing the Jews in yellow Star of David outfits and a sign with the words "Arbeit macht frei". Danish Metafilter members, explain yourselves!!
posted by jonson at 1:47 PM PST - 64 comments

Poppoo, Why Am I So Weird? is heap big Friday Fun. You'll find cute graphics reminiscent of Sanrio's Hello Kitty and a surprisingly addictive and twisted series of online games including Drunk Driving Golf, Exploding Sheep, Astro Poop. Master Poop and You're Fired. Let the games begin.
posted by VelvetHellvis at 1:44 PM PST - 7 comments

Saying they feared government snooping against ordinary Americans, U.S. senators voted Thursday to block funding for a Pentagon computer project that would scour databases for terrorist threats. By a voice vote, the Senate voted to ban funding for the Total Information Awareness program, under former national security adviser John Poindexter, until the Pentagon explains the program and assesses its impact on civil liberties.from wired news.
posted by elwoodwiles at 1:37 PM PST - 12 comments

The long wait is nearly over; tonight, all will be revealed. Who will be Miss Gothic Massachusetts 2003? Come watch as they fasten their fingers to their foreheads with a piece of Victorian silk so as not to strain the gossamer skin on their delicate digits of doom. The Living Need Not Apply.
posted by yhbc at 12:28 PM PST - 15 comments

Monday is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, and the folks that first made it are leading the celebrations by giving away free samples.
posted by ewagoner at 12:14 PM PST - 13 comments

Global newsstand: The Newseum has added a way to scan 169 newspaper front pages from around the world, same day as published, in full color PDF format. A good way to see how the same stories are treated in different parts of the world.
posted by beagle at 11:00 AM PST - 19 comments

"We often do this, changing the subject or saying something really obnoxious, to take the wind out of trolls' sails." Apparently, some people get paid to report on the contents of web discussion boards. What a sweet gig. Especially for a "journalist" who has no ear for irony, and doesn't know what "trolling" is. Quoting an Epinions reviewer as supporting material is a new low point in "news" reporting. (more inside)
posted by scarabic at 10:30 AM PST - 22 comments

An imaginative solution to California's school budget crisis.
posted by semmi at 10:09 AM PST - 24 comments

Possible Films A spot of Friday Flash fun made functional with the official website for filmmaker Hal Hartley's production company. I liked the non-intrusive style that gets its point across stylishly without crashing my browser, though its highly informative content that relies little on promotional bilge is also welcome. What are some of your favourite underrated websites about film?
posted by pxe2000 at 9:46 AM PST - 5 comments

Solemates: The Century in Shoes is the most ridiculously well developed site on shoes I have ever seen. Journey through the decades with advertisements, movie clips, well-researched history, and most importantly -- 360 degree Quicktime views of shoes. How many shoes have you collected over the years? Do you still wear them? Why do women have to buy so many anyway? Are you more concerned with comfort or style now? Of course, I'm still saving up to buy some of those Fish Tank platform shoes from I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.
posted by Stan Chin at 9:36 AM PST - 12 comments

Give a group of Amsterdamers a GPS tracking device for a couple of months, plot their movements over a black background, and the resulting traces map the city through the movements of its inhabitants. Alternately, make your own GPS art, or play GPS Hide and Seek.
posted by gravelshoes at 9:13 AM PST - 5 comments

Is Something afoot at the DC Metro's Crystal City station? First its the mysterious derailment on Tuesday, still unexplained. Now a strange man is spotted with vials of a unknown liquid in the station before the system is even open! What's up at Crystal City? [more inside]
posted by Pollomacho at 8:30 AM PST - 20 comments

The National Park Service and US Coast Guard are dumping Lighthouses for free. The catch is you need to maintain it. What would you do with a Lighthouse?
posted by stbalbach at 7:44 AM PST - 26 comments

Constance Adams, Space Architect She designed the International Space Station's TransHab module (a prototype for manned Mars missions), and says cool things about what the role of architecture is: "Architecture involves forming harmony around the human system, balancing culture, biology, planetary knowledge and technology in counterpoint to the unknowable." (via boingboing)
posted by vraxoin at 7:40 AM PST - 3 comments

Andrew Sullivan rips apart a Rolling Stone Story that claims that 1/4 of new HIV infections among gay men are sought out by people both looking to infect others and looking to become infected. "Bug chasing" may have been around for a while, but according to Sullivan and this Newsweek article also debunking the shoddy Rolling Stone piece, it's nowhere near the numbers being exaggerated. This brings up so many issues: the speed with which false information is spread over the Internet; the decreasing responsibility of the media to actually report facts; how trustworthy are our news sources?; will Drudge, who also reported the RS story without any hint of its falsehood, ever be revealed as the sensationalistic closet case he is? (Okay, that last bit was a wee troll, so ignore!).
posted by archimago at 7:21 AM PST - 20 comments

Warren Zevon, one of the best damned songwriters I've ever heard, patron saint of many famous curmudgeons, and a real cool SOB in his own right, turns 56 today.

Last September, he was told he had inoperable lung cancer, and so he's living out his remaining years in the studio, recording as much as he can. I for one am glad he's got at least one more album in him. Is there a moral to this tale? Enjoy every sandwich.
posted by chicobangs at 7:10 AM PST - 16 comments

Iraq: How Saddam hides the smoke and the guns This account is from an Italian paper and appears in an Israeli site that sums up materials pertaining to the Middle East. Of course I am not able to verify its authenticity, nor would anyone, given the "hidden" nature of the man being interviewed. But it does suggest what the Bush administration and many pundits have been saying or implying for some time now.
posted by Postroad at 6:34 AM PST - 49 comments

Stop-Motion Studies In these photographs, the body language of the subjects becomes the basic syntax for a series of Web-based animations. Many sequences document a person's reaction to being photographed by a stranger. Some smile, others snarl, still others perform.
posted by dydecker at 5:06 AM PST - 23 comments

"Please accept these as a Christmas gift, for I too am a Christian!" Then you added apologetically "But please don't mention this outside my shop, I could lose all if my neighbors found out."
Coptic Christians in Saudi Arabia, and The Christian Coptic Orthodox Church Of Egypt, and why the Embattled Coptic Christians Are Fleeing Egypt.
posted by hama7 at 4:58 AM PST - 13 comments

Friday Flash Fun in the form of online Pictionary...

It's was first posted to MeFi back in 2000. It returned almost exactly one year later, but since it got such a good reception on repost I thought it might be worth posting again... The fact I'm an addict has nothing to do with it. Honest.
posted by twine42 at 3:56 AM PST - 8 comments

W.G. Grace Kong [Flash]
posted by Pretty_Generic at 2:23 AM PST - 6 comments