MetaFilter

And now, from the news of the weird..
It appears some weird pranks have been played on some people in Kansas City

The items used in these pranks:
A TV, A bag of trash, A Tire.

And, the link between all these:
They were all painted white and the Elvis song "Return to Sender" was playing on a recorder from all these items.

Weeeeeeeird...
posted by RobbieFal at 9:46 PM PST - 18 comments

Did Lenient Fire Codes Make 9/11 Worse? Tony Fitzpatrick, the designer of the London Millennium Bridge, developed computer simulations with the help of an engineering consulting firm, in order to generate new suggestions for safeguarding buildings from terrorist attack. Fitzpatrick's conclusion: In the end, ordinary fire codes might have saved the World Trade Center victims.
posted by jonp72 at 9:10 PM PST - 10 comments

Jedi (n) and Klingon (n) will now be listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. As will Ass-Backward. Given MetaFilter's interest in grammar this seems worth noting. How the editors decided that "Jedi" is worth inclusion but "Stormtrooper" is not is a conversation I would have loved to have heard. Naturally, people complaining about such inclusions ain't new. However, when words are removed from the same dictionary it's hardly noticed. Clearly unused words go away, so why do people make a stink about this year after year? Slow news cycles? Or is it an extension of the Prescriptivist - Descriptivist Argument with the Prescripts making a push for the "hearts and minds" of the public?
posted by herc at 4:11 PM PST - 36 comments

One of my co-workers commited suicide. There were no apparent signs; on the contrary, she was young, dedicated, driven, and personable. I was shocked to learn that suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. It doesn't make sense to any of us, but it makes you think a lot more about the lives of the people we often spend eight hours a day with.
posted by mad at 3:34 PM PST - 76 comments

Israeli-Arab Hero this kid had a lot of guts - will he get the recognition he deserves in israel or the US? username: metafilter password: metafilter
posted by specialk420 at 3:01 PM PST - 11 comments

An Open Letter to Congress from the editors of The Nation. All the makings of a final plea.
posted by mooseindian at 12:47 PM PST - 91 comments

Scientists grow pig teeth in rat intestines. Wait! Keep reading . . .
[This] experiment suggests the existence of dental stem cells, which could one day allow a person to replace a lost or missing tooth with an identical tooth grown from his or her own cells.
So can I stop flossing now?
posted by mikrophon at 11:58 AM PST - 25 comments

For years, it's been observed that some people infected with HIV never develop full-blown AIDS. Now American and Chinese scientists think they know why. But remember kids, barebacking is still dangerous, and a cocktail is not a cure. Maybe this research will change all that.
posted by WolfDaddy at 11:57 AM PST - 21 comments

cool or creepy? apple is hyping the way forensic detectives in a southern town have gone mac. are we supposed to focus on the guy with the ipod or the corpse on his screen?
posted by subpixel at 11:40 AM PST - 32 comments

War as a Way of Life The latest Reggio/Glass collaboration - Naqoyqatsi - is coming out Oct. 18. From the looks of the trailer, this could be the coolest of the trilogy. Of course, who could forget the scene from Koyaanisqatsi where Reggio jumps from scene of Twinkies rushing through production line to fast-forward scene of daily-grinders moving up escalators in subway station - priceless. Just more 70's grad-student dope-smoking backdrop -- or essential media for our age?
posted by minnesotaj at 11:32 AM PST - 15 comments

Nonograms (also known as "Griddlers" or "Paint By Numbers") were invented by Non Ishida in 1987. Originally trying to design pictures that could be created by turning the lights on or off in the windows of skyscrapers, Ishida soon realized that the same principle could used as the basis for a new genre of logic puzzle. Since then, enigmatologists around the world have wasted hours solving them online and completing entire books of these elegant brainteasers.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 10:15 AM PST - 16 comments

Vovox: An alga consisting of photosynthetic, flagellated cells, organized into a spherical colony, which may contain daughter colonies. But the main issue is: they're really neat-looking. And here they are in anaglyph 3-D.
posted by interrobang at 10:13 AM PST - 11 comments

Whoa! Gag! They did what?? "The history of drinking urine for therapeutic purposes dates back at least to the Holy Roman Empire when great urinal troths were erected in the public squares......" courtesy of WFMU magazine
posted by protocool at 9:15 AM PST - 49 comments

X-treme juggler! Jason Garfield is, apparently, one of the best jugglers in the world. (I'm not a fan, I happened across this link while perusing Todd Smith Juggling Equipment.) Jason is quite a juggler, judging from the video clips (Quicktime). He's also quite full of himself, judging from his bio and his Rules of Life. Just thought I'd share the weirdness.
posted by starvingartist at 9:01 AM PST - 30 comments

Would you have the patience to apply for this job? 142 occupational questions. Some are thought-provoking, others need to be unpacked like a philosophical argument (scroll about halfway down the page for the beginning of the occupational questions section). If you want to apply for the archivist position at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, in Austin, Texas, help yourself.
posted by datawrangler at 8:41 AM PST - 13 comments

Electraum is a great collection of amazing electronic and ambient mp3s(try the Cerebellum, Red Lines or Kunstner for good examples), mostly from unknown artists. The mp3s rotate monthly, and there's a mailing list you can join to remind you when the music changes. You've already missed the previous seven installments, but there's plenty more to go around...
posted by 40 Watt at 8:04 AM PST - 4 comments

CNNNN: Chaser Non-stop News Network. This week, the Terrorthon reveals that Iraq is a bad place. "Last week, President Bush demanded unconditional access for weapons inspectors. And what does Saddam go and do? He gives unconditional access to weapons inspectors. Can you believe the nerve? It was a very aggressive act of compliance. Very provocative compliance. President Bush mustn't take yes for an answer." Must-watch for all Americans... From the same gang that brings you The Chaser, which continues dispite problems with its distributor over this story. Apparently it was in bad taste. I just thought it was funny...
posted by robcorr at 8:01 AM PST - 11 comments

This Saturday is "Public Lands Day" in the US! You can volunteer to help clean up some of the 262 million acres of land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management! While cleaning streams and repairing livestock fencing, you can ponder how come in the 21st century the BLM still leases over 163 million of those acres to private ranchers for a pittance! This antiquated, marginal, money-losing institution has damaged 80% of the waterways west of the Mississippi, threatening entire species and ecosystems. A new book, Welfare Ranching, lists and illustrates the many problems with federal livestock grazing, and there's now a campaign to buy out ranchers' permits and turn the "wild" west back over to nature.
posted by soyjoy at 7:11 AM PST - 12 comments

Expelled for Blogging? Kid threatened with expulsion after having the nerve to blog from school. I assume his high school had nothing else to crack down on other than the gangs of bloggers up to no good like keeping a tech journal.
posted by Coop at 6:59 AM PST - 33 comments

Re-Shape Your Eyes While You Sleep? Wow - I don't know about you, but if I could wear contacts during my sleep that I *took out* when I woke up and didn't have to wear any all day, and I could see, then I'd do it in a second. When will it become reasonably priced?
posted by djspicerack at 6:59 AM PST - 25 comments

NYC Subways and then some. This has been one of my favorite sites for a long time. It's amazingly comprehensive, and not just being content with New York, it covers nearly every other subway in the world as well. If you're not into the technical details, just enjoy the thousands of pretty pictures.
posted by The Michael The at 6:23 AM PST - 20 comments

The street where my office is will most likely be fenced off and guarded by police when I roll in tomorrow morning. Conventional wisdom in D.C. for tomorrow is: a) Don't try to drive b) Don't try to take the Metro, either. Great.
posted by GriffX at 6:15 AM PST - 76 comments

Satire is alive and well? "Taliban Reunited is the simple way to find out what your old terrorist chums and captives are doing now." (Satire is dead?)
posted by MintSauce at 6:02 AM PST - 3 comments

Don't get used to looking at houses on the Internet. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is proposing a rule that allows realtors to withhold some/all of the information in the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) from websites. The NAR says the MLS is intended for "Broker-to-Broker" and not for consumers. It is designed to produce customer leads, not to give sufficient information for decision-making
posted by patrickje at 1:01 AM PST - 18 comments

Typical jokes aside, the Make Your Own Bush Speech application is a great use of flash. Some fun hints: layer phrases over one another for added effect, and always end with the "afghanistan and beyond" blurb. Now if I could only save the speeches out as mp3 files, and layer some beats underneath...
posted by mathowie at 12:47 AM PST - 38 comments

Iraq trains terrorists? Conclusive evidence from our leaders? Why do I suddenly feel like I am living in Oceania?
posted by FilmMaker at 12:37 AM PST - 39 comments

The Guardian announces weblog competition winners! and commends 30 in all, so at the very least there are some new and interesting places to have a little surf. I hadn't heard of any of them before and the ones I have had a look at are worth a second glance, although , at the risk of appearing a mite cynical, there seem to be plenty of Guardian links in a couple of them.
posted by Fat Buddha at 12:35 AM PST - 21 comments