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EA Plays Hardball Just in case locking up the NFL license wasn't enough...
posted by ga$money at 7:27 PM PST - 36 comments

An Industrial Art Gallery Is it just me, or do you find hand-drawn mechanical diagrams capturing concepts of physics strangely soothing?
posted by cosmonik at 6:41 PM PST - 23 comments

Is this any way to sell Volkswagens? [note: QT link] This "viral ad" for the VW Polo has been making the rounds, leaving a trail of exasperated disgust, outrage, and guilty snickering in its wake. VW's ad agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach, however, claims that it's bogus. (I asked them). Paging Snopes.
posted by digaman at 5:23 PM PST - 68 comments

Fractal Maze, one of the most evil puzzles I have ever encountered. It's documented briefly at mathpuzzle.com (scroll down a bit), which also features a smaller fractal maze.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:24 PM PST - 16 comments

From MathNet to that silly song about the number nine, Square One was one of my all-time favourite programs as a kid. It hasn't been released on video or DVD, but luckily there are plenty of fansites with video clips, pics, and other media to take you on a trip down mathematical memory lane.
posted by sanitycheck at 4:11 PM PST - 25 comments

THE HASSELHOFFIAN RECURSION is just about the best thing I've seen in a while. (warning: haunting image ahead)
posted by mathowie at 3:23 PM PST - 83 comments

"Thunder Warrior." In the 1980s, the Italian movie industry -- better-known for "spaghetti" reimaginings of Westerns, crime movies , and "After the Bomb" flicks -- also gave us the Rambo rip-offs "Thunder Warrior" and "Thunder Warrior 2." Only instead of a Vietnam veteran, the hero was a Navajo warrior battling anti-Indian prejudice. (Windows Media File; possibly NSFW) Via.
posted by inksyndicate at 3:19 PM PST - 7 comments

Americanism—and Its Enemies
Puritanism did not drop out of history. It transformed itself into Americanism.
David Gelernter is a contributing editor of The Weekly Standard and professor of computer science at Yale. This essay helps to explain American religiosity..to the rest of us.
posted by dash_slot- at 2:40 PM PST - 49 comments

Springdale Arkansas is now home to the largest population of Marshallese outside of the Marshall islands. ...They all spoke so highly of Springdale and how great it is to work the overnight shift in a chicken factory in the Ozarks. What a strange irony that everyone I knew in Arkansas considered paradise to be on South Pacific islands, with no schedule and great fishing. ..Articles by Christopher Leonard and photos by Benjamin Krain
posted by thisisdrew at 2:12 PM PST - 7 comments

The world's largest passenger plane. The new Airbus "superjumbo" has a 262-foot wingspan, a tail as tall as a seven-story building and it cost $13 billion to develop. In a three-class cabin layout, the A380 will carry 555 passengers -- 33% more than the plane it is designed to displace, Boeing's veteran 747, Sir Norman Foster's favorite piece of modern architecture. The A380 has 49% more floor space. How the plane's extra space is used will be left up to airlines. Low-cost carriers could operate the A380 with a single economy-class configuration accommodating as many as 800 passengers. Virgin company chief Richard Branson said his airline, which has ordered six A380s, will offer private double beds for first-class passengers and casinos. Airbus trailed Boeing Co. until 2003, when it delivered more planes than its U.S. rival for the first time -- a feat it matched last year. Boeing will unveil next year the much smaller, new 7E7 -- with 200 to 250 seats.
posted by matteo at 2:06 PM PST - 49 comments

Salam Pax Interviewed on Zed.
posted by The Thnikkaman at 12:58 PM PST - 8 comments

Boxer Go Barbara Boxer
posted by milkman at 12:33 PM PST - 83 comments

Letters To Martha. A blog novel (a blovel? a nog?) about an unemployed man who writes to Martha in jail. Updated every Tues and Thurs.
posted by braun_richard at 11:55 AM PST - 14 comments

MYSTERY TWISTER 2005 is an international crypto competition. During the year 2005, different tasks will be set, altogether 13 CryptoChallenges, CC1 to CC13, of increasing difficulty, such as, for example, decrypting an encrypted message or forging a digital signature. The variety of topics, which will be covered by the collection of challenges, is intended to provide a survey of modern cryptology. Powered by the Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany), registration required.
posted by tcp at 11:34 AM PST - 2 comments

Viva la Biotech Revolution! Embargo or no, Castro's socialist paradise has quietly become a pharmaceutical powerhouse.
posted by dov3 at 11:18 AM PST - 16 comments

Recent neuroscience research suggests that Democrats and Republicans are not nearly as far apart as they seem (NYT). Will an awareness that we are conning ourselves to feel alienated from each other help to close the political gap? Or, are we conned by science and the media?
posted by semmi at 11:00 AM PST - 16 comments

"In his talk... [Harvard President Larry] Summers also used as an example one of his daughters, who as a child was given two trucks in an effort at gender-neutral parenting. Yet she treated them almost like dolls, naming one of them 'daddy truck,' and one 'baby truck.'

"It was during his comments on ability that Hopkins, sitting only 10 feet from Summers, closed her computer, put on her coat, and walked out. 'It is so upsetting that all these brilliant young women [at Harvard] are being led by a man who views them this way,' she said later in an interview." Summers then responded with the currently in vogue non-apology apology.
posted by occhiblu at 10:48 AM PST - 183 comments

"Survivor" winner Richard Hatch didn't declare his million bucks to the IRS. He'll be arraigned Jan 24.
posted by CunningLinguist at 10:24 AM PST - 53 comments

Picasa 2 Google's entry into the world of photo sharing and management has been released to the world... and it's totally free. Back when Google acquired Picasa, I heard a lot of "it's a total ripoff of iPhoto" well, folks, this version can do things that Photoshop can't even do, to say nothing of how it outshines iPhoto.
posted by coldon at 9:16 AM PST - 61 comments

Dog day in Iraq. PFC Connor, a Marine mascot previously mentioned in this post, was hunted down and killed just 24 hours before his planned departure from Iraq. "We found you at six weeks old. Not much more than five pounds, you lived on potted meat and long life milk. It was all we had. You grew into a little puppy, an Iraqi dog with an Irish name from Boon Dock Saints. For all the times you ran away . . . you ran to me as fast as you could when I whistled for you. It was those times that I loved you the most."
"I'm wondering why they created this policy. Were dogs barking and attracting insurgents? Were they playing fetch and accidentally bringing home IEDs instead of their stick? Does Rumsfeld just hate puppies?
"No, no, and possibly."
posted by insomnia_lj at 9:15 AM PST - 44 comments

Back from the dead? The first mainstream review of the new Amiga hits the 'web. It's taken several years (discussed here at the back-end of 2000) but finally there is new hardware and software available.
Will it set the world alight (again)? Who will replace Debbie Harry and Andy Warhol at the launch party? Will it need to (or be able to) compete with the new Macmini? And - perhaps more importantly - where are Amiga, Inc., and who are KMOS?
posted by Chunder at 6:47 AM PST - 33 comments

Is copyright killing culture? Some documentary filmmakers certainly think so.
posted by shawnj at 5:23 AM PST - 142 comments

Everyone is talking about Clint Eastwood's new movie, Million Dollar Baby (trailer). What you may not know however is that the movie was based on a short story in a book by the name of Rope Burns: Stories From The Corner by the late F.X. Toole (aka Jerry Boyd). The book by the way was called, "...the best boxing short fiction ever written," by James Ellroy of L.A. Confidential fame. Back in 2000 Toole gave an amazing interview on Fresh Air about spending the last 20 years of his life as a cut man and the last 40 years of writing while trying to overcome his fear of rejection before getting his first book published at age 70.
posted by pwb503 at 12:06 AM PST - 19 comments