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The Collected Works of Racter: "A tree or shrub can grow and bloom. I am always the same. But I am clever."
Or, perhaps more useful than poetry, "A Method for Sorting Cows."
Have I read this before, or merely something like it? "A piece that is essentially the same as a piece made by any of the first conceptual artists, dated two years earlier than the original and signed by somebody else. "
In our confusion, we can settle for simple non-sequitor: The Ubuweb Anthology of Conceptual Writing.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:56 PM PST - 7 comments

The Mashin of The Christ "Earlier this month a hacker broke through Negativland's UMN mainframe firewall and stole the final version of Negativland's top-sacred for-internal-use-only "Mashin' of the Christ" video project. Negativland prayed that their in-house project would not make it into the hands of the unsuspecting public, but we all know how hard it can be to stop those "peer to peer" criminals from illegally sharing the property of others."
posted by bob sarabia at 5:35 PM PST - 37 comments

From reporter to relief worker in Afghanistan. An astonishing documentary, Life After War, follows NPR correspondant turned relief worker Sarah Chayes as she struggles to help rebuild a rural Afghani village destroyed in the war. Here is an article she wrote expressing her frustrations with the American media post-9/11 and describing how and why she made this drastic life change. Her organization is Afghans for Civil Society.
posted by callmejay at 5:34 PM PST - 4 comments

The Hirschfeld Follies: A charming and generous gallery of Al Hirschfeld's portraits from The New York Times, spanning from 1928 to 2002 (registration required), indexed by date, person and show. Are there any outstanding young contemporary caricaturists out there who are doing good work (not necessarily in the theatre) we old-timers should know about? [Be sure to accompany with plep's great post on American cartoon and caricature and PeteyStock's January 2004 obituary post. And while you're at it, if you'll excuse the immodesty, my own David Levine post, with a (superb) still-working link.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:30 PM PST - 7 comments

The Gutenberg Bible: On this site you will find the British Library’s two copies of Johann Gutenberg’s Bible, the first real book to be printed using the technique of printing which Gutenberg invented in the 1450s.
posted by hama7 at 4:55 PM PST - 10 comments

Food blogs and online foodie journals gained a cyber-foothold with the now defunct Julie/Julia project. Now, even Gourmet Magazine and Forbes have sung their praises. But all is not just decedent descriptions of cooking in France, culinary adventures in the far east, musings and experiences of the gastronomic variety. Foodie blogs can help an expat cope with food in England, procrastinate law school, learn to make your own chocolate (or if you don't want to go to the effort, find out which chocolates are the best. Some foodies are going through culinary school, some have recently finishes, and some are rather familiar to food network addicts. But whether you're looking to learn all about cheese, compete in the community-wide Is My Blog Burning?, or just enjoy simple beautiful reflections on food and related botany, there's plenty of food porn out there for you.
posted by jearbear at 3:51 PM PST - 11 comments

The One where the Writers Totally Got Themselves Uninvited from Any Parties at Courtney Cox or Jennifer Aniston's House. In the midst of all the dry-as-kindling "Friends" stories being published, there's been one spark: Amaani Lyle's sexual harassment suit against the show's writers. While it's easy to be distracted by the actual meat of her complaint — making Joey a serial rapist (#74), a fill-in-the-genitals coloring book (#56-#58), the importance of spelling "penis" (#59-#60), the twigs in Courtney Cox's uterus (#91), a missed opportunity to bugger Jennifer Aniston (#88-#90) — their defense is even more interesting: Such talk is a necessary creative element of their job. Writes Joanna Grossman: The defendants admitted that many of Lyle's allegations were true. They testified in deposition that they did many of the things she complained of, but argued that the conduct was justified by "creative necessity." The writers' job, defendants argued, was to come up with story lines, dialogue, and jokes for a sitcom with adult sexual themes. To do this, they needed to have "frank sexual discussions and tell colorful jokes and stories (and even make expressive gestures) as part of the creative process." An interesting new permutation in how we classify inappropriate workplace behavior with major ramifications for the creative class, or a big ol' weaselly dodge?
posted by blueshammer at 3:07 PM PST - 75 comments

The Jammin Fighter Jocks
posted by konolia at 1:02 PM PST - 13 comments

Man Survives Bizarre Nail Gun Accident
Six huge nails accidentally fired into Isidro Mejia's head after he tripped and fell on a nail gun.
More pics at Sun UK.
posted by fenriq at 12:19 PM PST - 21 comments

iNetwork calls itself "an in4mation network by E.T.D." I discovered it through its amazing New York Skyscrapers subsite:

In addition to individual building entries and background info, it contains links to other resources, NYC webcams, clickable maps of locations of NYC skyscrapers, a forum for NYC skyscraper-related discussion and more.

But it's also got sections on Functionalism and the city of Viipuri ("a study of the 1930s Functionalistic architecture in the city of Viipuri in pre-war Finland"), the development of the square-rigged sailing ship from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 19th Century, and, uh, Trini Alvarado ("an amazingly underrated NYC film and stage actress"). Something for everyone!
posted by languagehat at 11:58 AM PST - 2 comments

Ed Meese for President! The Yes Men attended the Heritage Foundation's annual Resource Bank meeting. [Via Disinformation.]
posted by homunculus at 11:41 AM PST - 3 comments

Cinco de Mayo, monkey style! Queso, guacamole and nachos, and fun ways to celebrate the Mexican holiday with your favorite terrycloth primate. Also, a little dueling Kahlo haiku for good measure. Viva de Cinco de Mayo!! Ay yiy yiy!!
posted by sparky at 10:24 AM PST - 9 comments

Gosh, hawks! A live feed of 100% Naked Chicks at the MIT HawkCam. They preen, they sleep, and they watch you watching them. Now to settle in for a long afternoon waiting for Mom to show up.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:34 AM PST - 17 comments

Scientists have created a miniature medical computer out of DNA that can detect cancer genes in a test tube and respond by releasing a drug. However, an injectable version [of the nanoscale robots] would have to work inside cells, and that accomplishment could take decades. Says Shapiro: "I'm not sure it will be within my lifetime."
posted by mcgraw at 8:34 AM PST - 11 comments

You might know Ernie Barnes from Sports Illustrated, or from a Marvin Gaye album cover. He has a powerful 9/11 painting. This past February he was named “America’s Best Painter of Sports” by the Board of Trustees of the American Sport Art Museum.
posted by ashbury at 8:18 AM PST - 11 comments

Electoral slight of hand is suggested by NYT columnist Bruce Ackerman in his opinion piece for May 5th, where he suggest that Nader choose Kerry's electoral slate when filing for the November election. It's a clever idea, and I'd be interested in seeing if it has any traction.
posted by silusGROK at 8:00 AM PST - 52 comments

Camilo Mejia is the first US soldier serving in Iraq to run away and proclaim himself a conscientious objector. The Pentagon says another 600 people have done the same, and for the same reasons: they find this war immoral and illegal.
posted by acrobat at 7:57 AM PST - 41 comments

The Visual Record.
posted by Gyan at 6:08 AM PST - 8 comments

Gernot Katzer's spice pages - everything you need to know about herbs and spices - 117 of them, in fact, indexed in multiple languages. It seems some Metafiltarians (among others) have a low opinion of coriander...It's my favourite herb, and I was suprised that some people can't handle it, but this site suggests repulsion against it may be genetic! Lots of great stuff to be found, including plenty of herbs you've never heard of.
posted by Jimbob at 5:52 AM PST - 17 comments

Disney is blocking its Miramax division from distributing a new documentary by Michael Moore that harshly criticizes President Bush. The New York Times reports that Disney head Michael Eisner "expressed particular concern that [the film] would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush's brother, Jeb, is governor."
posted by tranquileye at 4:26 AM PST - 57 comments

Ring ring ring ring bananaphone [flash, via Raffi] Warning: contains badgers.
posted by moonbird at 4:06 AM PST - 20 comments

The big bird race. Will they survive the long-lines? Will I get a return on my investment? Not the first use of the technology but a worthy effort.
posted by johnny7 at 2:36 AM PST - 1 comments