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Crestwood is the "best-run town in America" because it's "run like a business".

"Our budget is $2 million dollars a year while a town of similar size, with 12,000 people, might have a budget of $10 million["], said City Director Frank Gassmere. Added Mayor Stranczek: "Folks are happy here and I intend to keep them that way."

Taxes are so low, property tax payers get rebates! Privatizing local government works brilliantly!As long as you didn't drink the cheap, cheap municipal water -- for the last twenty years.
posted by orthogonality at 11:28 PM PST - 103 comments

Alone Among the Ghosts is an essay from The Nation by Marcela Valdez about Roberto Bolaño's 2666. She interviews journalist Sergio González Rodríguez, who has written extensively about the murders of women in Ciudad Juárez which is the black hole Bolaño's novel orbits around. The journalist was Bolaño's correspondent and main source of information about the femicides. The best English language article about the epidemic of violence in Ciudad Juárez I have read is Max Blumenthal's 2002 Salon article. The website No Angel Came is a good resource for more info on the subject, including a continually updated section with links to articles about the killings. The site's most arresting section is the list of every woman killed in Ciudad Juárez from 1993 to 2006. The epidemic of violence against women in Ciudad Juárez continues.
posted by Kattullus at 7:31 PM PST - 26 comments

The Merkel brothers are the grandsons of steam car makers and sons of an African art collector, and each have carried forward the love of collecting and an interest in cars from the previous generations. Henry Merkel is a recognized White expert, who continues to share knowledge of his family's productions and his knowledge of White steam cars has been published. Ben Merkel focused on collecting Checkered Cabs, and has has a love for peaceful rural junkyards. The youngest grandson of Walter White is Tom Merkel, and his love for collecting old cars outstrips his brothers by miles (print view). Somewhere in the Cuyama Valley, just outside of Los Padres National Forest land is his "car garden," which is also where the snowman that once adorned Santa Claus Lane now resides. His other love is 91+ year old cabin, which he indicates is "Santa Barbara's oldest cabin!" and a "Folk Art Magic Museum!" on the signs around the property, but which the Forest Service wants to tear down. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 5:10 PM PST - 6 comments

The Philippine Comics Art Museum. 1940's to the present.
posted by tellurian at 5:10 PM PST - 8 comments

Recipe Puppy, a new Recipe Search Engine [via mefi projects] A recipe search engine that lets you search for recipes by ingredients. Simply put in the ingredients you have and the type of food you want, and the search engine will return the recipes you are closest to being able to make. You can also specify ingredients you don't have, and ingredients that absolutely must be included in the recipe. [more inside]
posted by yuletide at 4:17 PM PST - 41 comments

Demetri Martin cast in Steven Soderbergh's Moneyball. An adaptation of Michael Lewis' controversial and influential 2003 book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, the film will begin shooting in June and will star Brad Pitt as Oakland Athletics' General Manager Billy Beane, Martin as Beane's then-assistant GM Paul DePodesta, and former major leaguers Scott Hatteberg and David Justice as themselves. [more inside]
posted by ORthey at 4:07 PM PST - 48 comments

A little over two weeks into the season, Major League Baseball has already seen four near no-hitters. Meanwhile, Mitchell High School senior Patrick Schuster has thrown four in a row.
posted by SpiffyRob at 2:44 PM PST - 52 comments

It is apparent to me that Faith does have a brain, despite what the doctors have said. Even though it is generally believed that anencephalic babies are blind, deaf, and cannot feel touch or think... I don't believe that. Not at all. So little is known about the human brain and the only one who really knows what's going on is God. I truly believe that Faith can think and can feel my touch and hear my voice. I can't prove it but I feel like I just know. [images may be disturbing]
posted by Joe Beese at 2:11 PM PST - 263 comments

How delicious is the Beyond The Valley of the Dolls Tarot Deck? Even the man who wrote the movie gave the deck two thumbs up. [more inside]
posted by hermitosis at 2:09 PM PST - 21 comments

Profiles. Google's answer to control what comes up when people Google you. A brief listing of four profiles appears at the bottom of name search result pages. [more inside]
posted by cashman at 1:32 PM PST - 44 comments

The Georgia Guidestones - Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse.
posted by Artw at 1:24 PM PST - 44 comments

Brain Gain: The underground world of “neuroenhancing” drugs. [Via]
posted by homunculus at 1:15 PM PST - 42 comments

Bill Moyers Journal, April 17, 2009 From crime beat reporter for the BALTIMORE SUN to award-winning screenwriter of HBO's critically-acclaimed The Wire, David Simon talks with Bill Moyers about inner-city crime and politics, storytelling and the future of journalism today. Sorry for the one link post.
posted by dougzilla at 1:01 PM PST - 23 comments

It's a simple story about a responsible owl, trying to raise a curious (human) son and a geeky (human) daughter in their giant treehouse while dealing with his longtime bear buddy (and honey researcher), Steve. Though it debuted, humbly enough, in the Cracked.com forums, Benjamin Driscoll's drolly sweet comic Daisy Owl soon gained a loyal following, earning a regular feature there (courtesy of David Wong) and routinely making the front pages of sites like Digg and Reddit. In March 2009, Driscoll went pro, quitting his job to work on the comic full-time and making Daisy Owl one of the few self-sufficient webcomics on the net. Its quirky, character-driven humor, focused mainly on children, friendship, and families, has earned more than a few comparisons to Calvin and Hobbes, as well as plenty of fan art. Highlights: Basement - Honey - Parenting - Shampoo - Skittle on the Moon - Nightmare - Movie Night - Thrift Store - Classic Dad - Wallpapers
posted by Rhaomi at 11:50 AM PST - 24 comments

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have recently unveiled new methods to Twitter from your brain. It may not be as efficient or pragmatic as using your phone, but there's pretty cool potential in this kind of technology.
posted by jon_hansen at 10:50 AM PST - 33 comments

Sidi or Siddi is a "community of the descendants of African slaves and seamen, the ancestors of the Sidis came to India and Pakistan through sea trade with East Africa and the Persian Gulf around the 12th century." The slave trade between India and Africa predates the more infamous transatlantic slave trade by at least six centuries. They have a rich history which included controlling the only fort never to fall against the efforts of the British, Dutch and the Mughals. They have now, however, fallen into hard times . [more inside]
posted by Lucubrator at 9:06 AM PST - 12 comments

Wrong Cards. Some of these are tailor-made for MetaFilter. Some are probably offensive. Some I can even imagine sending to people I know. Which probably negates their mission of being wrong for every occasion, but I guess they can't be wrong all the time.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:00 AM PST - 78 comments

What are writers reading? An eclectic mix of authors answer the perennial question. [more inside]
posted by mattbucher at 8:13 AM PST - 10 comments

Communities of and for foodies. Foodbuzz is about dining out, cooking at home, discovering a new flavor, drooling over a food blog, or swapping recipes. Check out Today's Top 9, a daily feature. Chowhound is the community for Chow.com. Dozens of boards enable you to drill down to local favorites, like this request for live crawfish in Virginia. Both communities have very active memberships.
posted by netbros at 8:01 AM PST - 32 comments

NASA's Cassini spacecraft went to Saturn and all it got were these awesome pictures.
posted by Saturn XXIII at 7:56 AM PST - 71 comments

Thomas Allen's pulp pop-up photography. Allen takes the pulpiest of pulp fiction cover art and restages and redefines it through photography. (book). More pulp: Eclectic Pulp. Lesbian Pulp (maybe NSFW). The George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection. Even Canadian Pulp. (previously)
posted by HumanComplex at 6:11 AM PST - 21 comments

The Gorillaz documentary Bananaz has premiered online and can be viewed in full on Babelgum. [more inside]
posted by slimepuppy at 4:18 AM PST - 17 comments