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Russians going home? Apparently, Russian Olympic Committee president Leonid Tyagachev said there was a 24-hour window to address the situation, and that if Russia left Salt Lake City it probably would not compete in Athens in the next Summer Games.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:38 PM PST - 34 comments

Dr. Paul Linebarger became a spy for the U.S. Intelligence community because he was an expert in propaganda, psychological warfare, and the culture of China. In his other secret life, however, he wrote some of the most wildly inventive and unusual science fiction ever, forming a history of mankind and its Instrumentality that spanned fifteen thousand years. To protect his identity, he published under the name Cordwainer Smith.
posted by Hildago at 7:25 PM PST - 15 comments

Um... not counting that whole WW2 thing. February 18, 2002 -- President Bush, in a speech in Japan. "My trip to Asia begins here in Japan for an important reason. It begins here because for a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times. From that alliance has come an era of peace in the Pacific." Of course, the Official White House transcript corrects the blunder.
posted by crunchland at 7:23 PM PST - 61 comments

Teddy Bears to watch you While other countries are banning teddy bears from Children's hospital rooms, Japan is putting digital high tech teddy bears that will watch you and inform doctors when you need help.
posted by AsiaInsider at 6:25 PM PST - 5 comments

"You were not responsive, lying on a bed of sheets covered with blood." A young woman crashes her car, is airlifted to the hospital, and goes on life support. Her parents continue her 10-year-old diary during her stay in intensive care. Years later it's all posted to the web.
posted by D at 6:18 PM PST - 3 comments

Ethnic Cleansing: Wired Chimes In "We want people to recognize we're average people," Hale said. "If we can influence video games and entertainment, it will make people understand we are their friends and neighbors.... As long as it doesn't denigrate white people or have pornography in it, it's OK with us."
posted by tpoh.org at 5:19 PM PST - 21 comments

The world's leading manufacturer of realistic feminine breasts. Chestal nudity on second page, link is safe for work. "High quality breast forms." Not only do they make foam breats, but they are also using the latest advances in breast technology using Siloxane. Is your breast needing repair? Simply get some breast renovator or some rubber or silicon nipples. The question now is, where can I sign up to work in the factory as a QA tester?
posted by manero at 5:11 PM PST - 15 comments

Frat Boys Gone Wild! "...the last straw came when the national office discovered the chapter's recreational boxing tournament in which members recruited local homeless persons, "liquored" them up, gave them large boxing gloves and "let them go to town,"" apparently as part a "...tradition of cock fighting and gambling in the house's basement."
posted by n9 at 3:25 PM PST - 59 comments

Obese people may get an extra seat for free when they catch a flight in Canada, following an unprecedented legal ruling that is rattling the airline industry.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:59 PM PST - 41 comments

Is Yates kids' memorial website a bit odd to anyone else? Will Andrea visit them here?
posted by jbunch at 2:40 PM PST - 10 comments

File under "How Low Can You Get?". Las Vegas TV station dubs in sound and gunshots on a video tape showing an attempted robbery at Harrah's. Original footage had no sound so it had to be made more "dramatic".
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 1:59 PM PST - 6 comments

Andrew Sullivan on why Bush should sign Campaign Finance Reform.
posted by Ty Webb at 1:40 PM PST - 12 comments

CNN reports Daniel Pearl is dead
Damn.
posted by brookish at 1:37 PM PST - 69 comments

Bush and Giuliani nominated for Nobel Peace Prize Rudy? No way - I still don't know what this guy did beyond being a fatherly voice for NYC. As for GW, well I know some will strongly disagree, but waging war for peace is sorta like having sex for virginity.
posted by holycola at 1:32 PM PST - 15 comments

The Hottentot Venus is going home. An African woman named Saarjite Baartman, apparently EXTREMELY overendowed in the buttock/labia department (second floor, next to men's shoes, watch the doors), she did the freakshow thing in Europe for five years in the early 19th c., was edited down at death to her relevant bits and pickled for posterity. Ever been to an actual state-fair freakshow? I saw the alligator lady in the late 70s somewhere in Kentucky. A morally complicated experience.
posted by luser at 12:35 PM PST - 19 comments

Rental car firm ordered to stop GPS speeding fine (CNN via Wired) Those Acme Rent-A-Car guys in New Haven who were using the GPS units in their vehicles to track and fine customers who were speeding (mental image of Coyote holding just-opened credit card bill with eyes bugging out, mouth wide open, and ears straight up) have been ordered to stop and pay back all the fines they have collected so far. Big Brother held back for another day....
posted by BGM at 12:29 PM PST - 7 comments

Greeting, Dementoids and Dementites! Stumbling upon this site today was like running into an old pal. I remember when I was 9 years old listening to the Demento show in the dark on my headphones and cackling my head off. The Doctor was also a serious music scholar and record collector, who would play stuff like Bullmoose Jackson and Riley Puckett along with the Weird Al and Tom Lehrer, which would whet my appetite for more. He probably did spawned more record geeks in my generation than any other person. Good to see he's still around, even if no station in my area plays him.
posted by jonmc at 11:03 AM PST - 33 comments

Apple's retail stores are drawing visitors but not generating sales, with a disappointing conversion rate so far. Apple doesn't blame its sales clerks: "Apple stressed Mac expertise — not salesmanship — when it trained them. . . . But now Apple plans to beef up its instruction to teach clerks how to close the deal." But John Manzione isn't so sure: when visiting a local Apple Store, he found that "[w]ho I was dealing with here were Mac enthusiasts who cared more about being around the product than selling it."
posted by mcwetboy at 10:47 AM PST - 42 comments

Small Pieces Loosely Joined. If you liked the cluetrain manifesto, you may enjoy this new book. The entire book is available for reading at here. Do you buy what he has to say?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy at 10:02 AM PST - 4 comments

September 11th? "My main thought was: What a pain in the ass." The Globe and Mail's Jan Wong has lunch with Elizabeth Wurtzel, the author of Prozac Nation.
posted by tranquileye at 9:57 AM PST - 20 comments

Clerk accused of inciting murders of "persons unknown" refused bail in the UK. Creating cassettes with titles like "No Peace with the Jews", this trial is one to watch and tread carefully with.
posted by dabitch at 9:51 AM PST - 4 comments

Jheronimus! For real connoisseurs of heaven and hell, i.e. life on earth, old Bosch is still unbeatable. This slightly klunky and perhaps over-ambitious site(The Bosch Game, for instance, didn't work for me) is thorough, scholarly and absolutely fascinating. [Do not view just before going to bed.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:46 AM PST - 6 comments

Russian Musicians brawl during mid-Atlantic Flight In the second incident in a week, a group of drunken musicians create havoc in the air. Earlier in the week, another group of musicians were kicked off a plane stopped at Dulles Airport. They were later allowed to resume their flight only after proving their sobriety
posted by Lanternjmk at 9:44 AM PST - 2 comments

GodHatesFlags "If you don't start burning flags, I am so going to destroy your villages! So sayeth your LORD."
posted by pekar wood at 9:29 AM PST - 17 comments

"I'm ashamed I've done so little," said Senator Jesse Helms who expressed regret that he hadn't done more during his tenure to fight the global spread of AIDS and HIV. Lame ducks are the strangest animals of all.
posted by likorish at 9:08 AM PST - 38 comments

Complete collapse of North Atlantic fishing predicted. North Atlantic catches have fallen by half since 1950, despite a tripling of the effort put into catching them. "We'll all be eating jellyfish sandwiches."
posted by uftheory at 8:53 AM PST - 20 comments

Take a Virtual Hajj Tour (via beliefnet)
Today is the day of Arafat or the day to perform one of the main rites towards Hajj (The Pilgrimage to Mecca). Around 2 Million muslims from all corners of the earth are gathered in Saudi Arabia.
posted by adnanbwp at 8:42 AM PST - 4 comments

Neuroscience Art Gallery Cats Painted in the Progression of Psychosis of a Schizophrenic Artist .....
posted by bunnyfire at 7:39 AM PST - 23 comments

Amazon Easter Egg --Click on "Directory of All Stores" near the bottom, then scroll down to the copyright notice at the bottom. Under the "1996" is an invisible link which will take you to the farewell page for one of their employees.
posted by faceonmars at 7:34 AM PST - 29 comments

The first time as tragedy, the second time... Remember last fall when PETA took the University of South Carolina to task over its choice of mascot? Matt Groening's apparently also discovered the school and its famous @$$-Kickin' Chicken. (Warning: RealPlayer or Windows Media Player required, and you'll need speakers, of course.)
posted by alumshubby at 6:27 AM PST - 6 comments

90% of white males suffered downward income mobility over last 20 years Why hasn't this detailed, well-done study by reputable entities gotten any play from the major media? The study linked above proves that things have gone downhill for the vast majority of people here in the USA. Now what I would like to see are the results of a similar study done for northwestern Europeans.
posted by username at 6:02 AM PST - 45 comments

Scientist discovers way to change mechanical properties of ice by changing its electrical charge. Potential applications: instantly de-ice aircraft wings or car windshields or slow-down skis and snowboards.
posted by costas at 5:51 AM PST - 6 comments

Windows Media Player records your viewing and listening habits. But, it's ok cause Microsoft changed their privacy policy to reflect this. Does anyone get surprised by this sort of thing any more?
posted by jeremias at 4:33 AM PST - 17 comments

Black thugs terrorize white students! So the hooligans specifically target people who they think are white. Soon however they are all caught and put in jail. But these hoodlums were not prosecuted under any hate crime laws. But it gets better: Somehow, David Duke gets involved... and the story still hasn't broke nationally!
posted by Keen at 4:02 AM PST - 30 comments

New Scientist article about the Anthrax attacks. "After months of bungled investigation, it now looks certain that America's anthrax attacks came from within. The implications are terrifying".
posted by talos at 3:31 AM PST - 8 comments

Yes, I know it's kinda late - but perhaps you could save it for next Valentine's Day
posted by Arqa at 1:34 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

I'm gonna get crucified for this here, but Bush remembered to take lens caps off. Yeah i know, you can find millions of idiotic gaffes performed President Bush, but he was all business when staring into the dmz.
posted by rabbit at 12:51 AM PST - 87 comments

Blogzilla is a blog about, you guessed it, Mozilla! Why Mozilla? Because IE sucks. Agreed. I've been using Mozilla and IE interchangeably for the last month, and giving serious consideration to going Mozilla full-time. Very serious.
posted by sillygwailo at 12:07 AM PST - 41 comments