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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 - 28 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 - 34 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