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It's like Cliff's Notes for Hamlet, but in song form: here's John Wesley Harding's take on the Shakespeare classic. A sure help to any struggling college literature student. (mp3 download)
posted by UKnowForKids at 11:07 PM PST - 13 comments

Ever wondered how the smart people create those weird ♥ √ ⊄ ⊗ characters on MeFi and in other places? Wonder no more. Brought to you via MeFi's own riffola, who has a simplified version of his own.
posted by dg at 9:10 PM PST - 62 comments

The Kerguelen Islands, you say? This guy wanted to go there. This guy went. Him too. And this poor fellow just wants to be a part of it all. What's the attraction? Though not much may have happened there, there are some stunning views. But I think it's the cabbage.
posted by ursus_comiter at 8:49 PM PST - 10 comments

Shop. Destroy. Rule. "We sell. You conquer."
posted by quonsar at 8:40 PM PST - 29 comments

The State of the Union address. "Yet there is power -- wonder-working power"
posted by four panels at 7:10 PM PST - 176 comments

Dobby the House Elf and Russian President Vladimir Putin -- Separated At Birth?
posted by Vidiot at 3:28 PM PST - 10 comments

Justice for Consumers "The owners of the KaZaA file-sharing network are suing the movie and recording industries, claiming that they don't understand the digital age and are monopolizing entertainment." Quote from article by Associated Press. I don't about you but I'm sick and tired of big businesses writing all the new laws in this country. Now maybe the people can get some justice for a change.
posted by tljenson at 3:13 PM PST - 21 comments

The State of the Energy: Ahead of rumors Bush is set to propose a hydrogen fuel plan, fuel cell producer stocks jump. In the event of an Iraqi war, the oil fields there will be siezed to prevent their drestruction and Colin Powell says the US will hold them "in trust".
posted by raaka at 2:06 PM PST - 41 comments

I'm mo' "meta" than you! This USA Today puff piece is claiming that "meta" is the new "cool." What are your thoughts on this? Do any of you use "meta" in conversation or writing without a noun following it? (when you're not referring to the abbreviation for MetaTalk, obviously...)
posted by popvulture at 2:00 PM PST - 64 comments

Obesity may not be unhealthy after all A careful survey of medical literature reveals that the conventional wisdom about the health risks of fat is a grotesque distortion of a far more complicated story. Indeed, subject to exceptions for the most extreme cases, it's not at all clear that being overweight is an independent health risk of any kind, let alone something that kills hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. [The New Republic online, free reg. required]
posted by tippiedog at 1:21 PM PST - 24 comments

Torture by Art. 'Bauhaus artists such as Kandinsky, Klee and Itten, as well as the surrealist film-maker Luis Bunuel and his friend Salvador Dali, were said to be the inspiration behind a series of secret cells and torture centres built in Barcelona and elsewhere '. Maybe there is a future for those Turner Prize winners after all.
posted by rolo at 12:54 PM PST - 26 comments

Syphilis, a Killer Who We Are Still Trying to Solve Did Columbus import or export Syphilis in the New World? Do we really know whom to blame for syphilis? An interesting thought on this, The Columbus & Evolution theories of syphilis. The evolution theory is that it is related to Yaws, a nonvenereal tropical disease of the skin, is the most primitive of all diseases. Please start at the bottom of page 4.
Knowledge of the past may prepare us for our future.
posted by thomcatspike at 12:40 PM PST - 9 comments

Open Content Network "The Open Content Network is a collaborative effort to help deliver large, freely-downloadable content using peer-to-peer technology. The network is essentially a huge "virtual web server" that links together thousands of computers for the purpose of helping out over-burdoned web sites. Using various web browser plug-ins, users can download open source and public domain software, movies, and music at incredibly fast speeds from this global, distributed network." (via boing boing)
posted by owillis at 12:27 PM PST - 6 comments

BE IT RESOLVED, That the citizens of the State of Washington do hereby proclaim that Tim Eyman is a Horse's Ass. Tim Eyman, previously discussed on MeFi, is now the subject of Washington State Initiative 831. This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is democracy in action.
posted by josephtate at 12:18 PM PST - 20 comments

Inattention blindness has been documented in a study of drivers using cell phones. Back when the driving-while-yakking phenomenon first started growing, I told friends I could always tell if the driver of the car ahead of me was on a cell phone: They had a certain style of stupid driving that I couldn't quite describe but I always knew it when I saw it. Now a team of researchers has pinpointed it; they also effectively debunk "you're just as distracted talking to someone in the car"-type analogies. The question remains, now that we know what's wrong with this practice, what do we do about it?
posted by soyjoy at 11:45 AM PST - 82 comments

Freedomads.org is sponsoring a contest that challenges visitors to create video, print, or audio ads that "inspire people with an advertisement for freedom." How would you sell freedom?
posted by pjdoland at 11:39 AM PST - 22 comments

plain talk about small pox
tired of scare stories being spread by some about - WMDs - ?? an excellent article here.
posted by specialk420 at 11:32 AM PST - 1 comments

A Doomed planet orbiting a distant star has been located. No, not Krypton. The planet is going to be consumed by the star soon, but astronomers are not going to wait up for it.
posted by kaemaril at 10:28 AM PST - 7 comments

CSS on Demand allows users to set several preferences for how they want to see your site, rather than just using one of your themes via a switcher. Kind of like Matt lets you do here.
Perl. Free. Try it out.
posted by Su at 9:17 AM PST - 15 comments

17 years ago today, the space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing all seven aboard. I share this primarily as I recall this being the first where-were-you-when of my childhood. So where were you?
posted by xmutex at 9:01 AM PST - 161 comments

The First State of the Union Address - Here is President George Washington's State of the Union Address from January 8, 1790. Have things really changed that much in 213 years?
posted by Argyle at 8:34 AM PST - 15 comments

Steven Harris is a freelance photographer based in Beijing, China, and on occasion in his hometown, Boston. Steven looks for the essence of a place, the spirit of a people, and the heart of a complex story. Incredible pictures from China, Mongolia, Gaudi and elsewhere. Enjoy...
posted by Shike at 8:22 AM PST - 7 comments

Arundhati Roy on the war. This is the text of a speech Arundhati gave at Santa Fe last September. I have not seen it on MeFi before. Hence, I thought it would still be of interest. TWe have talked about her before here- 1, 2, 3. It is a long speech! So, read it when you have the time.
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy at 7:37 AM PST - 11 comments

As American As Apple Pie What Exactly? What food is truly American? Professor Louis Grivetti, of the University of California at Davis, provides a set of excellent, discussion-settling answers, packed with reliable and curious facts. (Be sure to click on the fascinating "Did You Know?" links at the bottom of each of the 10 classic American food groups.) How many Europeans know, for instance, that tomatoes, potatoes, corn, peppers, artichokes and lima beans all came from America? Not much supposedly ancestral Mediterranean cooking could get by without tomatoes, potatoes and peppers...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:31 AM PST - 44 comments