MetaFilter

Battle Over Blocks
These essays offer a thoughtful insight into the Lego bricks we grew up with, and how the toys have changed with the times to reflect an absence of creativity in our society. Features Jeff Bates, cofounder of slashdot.
posted by johnjreeve at 9:10 PM PST - 25 comments

Stephen Wolfram: A New Kind of Science - From the publisher's summary, "Starting from a collection of simple computer experiments — illustrated in the book by striking computer graphics — Wolfram shows how their unexpected results force a whole new way of looking at the operation of our universe." May be big. Thoughts?
posted by paladin at 8:48 PM PST - 26 comments

StreamCast Networks (Morpheus, MusicCity) chooses REBOL Technologies. This could be the big break for REBOL (sounds like rebel), one of the thousands of little languages out there that wants to be a contender.
Granted, it's not open-sourced, and is ridiculed and mocked by Slashdot. On the other hand it's got some interesting features: Scheme like capabilities, urls and email as datatypes, cheapness and smallness (350k) and availability on 11 different operating systems
The REBOL community is tiny but they like to write things like blog/wiki things, network protocol handlers, control functions, and their own mini-languages
posted by otherchaz at 8:43 PM PST - 9 comments

Notorious American correspondence player and chess writer Claude Bloodgood has died. 'A convicted murderer who was sentenced to death but reprieved, Bloodgood was the best known of US prisoner players.' I love obituaries. And what could be sweeter than the cold hand of death dragging Chess Rogues down to Gehanna?
posted by crunchburger at 7:22 PM PST - 3 comments

Ever wonder where barber poles originated? "Yeah, I'd like it short in the back and a little off the sides. Oh, and how about yanking this infected molar, while you're at it? And I need to have this boil lanced...."
posted by mrmanley at 5:40 PM PST - 6 comments

The practical joke that was more of a pain in the *** than colon cancer. I have to admit, this woman has a legitimate gripe. What's the worse practical joke by coworkers you've seen?
posted by kcmoryan at 4:26 PM PST - 38 comments

Two weeks late, but congratulations, Greg!
posted by plinth at 4:26 PM PST - 13 comments

some atrocious reporting from the usually responsible UK Guardian Just an example of bad conclusions from little information. The sensationalist title of this story, reprinted from the Observer, is, "Anthrax attacks' 'work of neo-Nazis,'" (which seems like bad grammar to boot - why the apostrophe after "attacks"?) and then it begins, "Neo-Nazi extremists within the US are behind the deadly wave of anthrax attacks against America, according to latest briefings from the security services and Justice Department."

But if you read the actual article, here's the closest thing they have to a quote or face supporting this:

'We've been zeroing in on a number of hate groups, especially one on the West Coast,' a source at the Justice Department told The Observer yesterday. 'We've certainly not discounted the possibility that they may be involved.'

Is it just me, or is this drawing a lot out of a little, and just confusing the situation?
posted by moth at 3:41 PM PST - 20 comments

The Idea Line is a Java-based timeline of net artworks, arranged in a fan of luminous threads. Each thread corresponds to a particular kind of artwork or type of technology. Note - requires some patience as it streams in slow even over my company T-1. [via IA/]
posted by willnot at 2:52 PM PST - 18 comments

Nipples: Want to get noticed? "....its a nid bit tipply in here."
posted by tomplus2 at 1:28 PM PST - 36 comments

Linklust.com - A European Community Weblog. (found via prolific's weblog.) Get in on the ground floor of this exciting opportunity before it IPO's MetaFilter's gets too many users!
posted by msacheson at 1:08 PM PST - 19 comments

Anthrax: the new shark attack? In all the sensationalist reporting on the anthrax-by-mail attacks, the fact that anthrax affects more than 2,000 people world-wide annually. Does all this coverage remind anyone else of the frenzy surrounding shark attacks this summer?
posted by me3dia at 12:57 PM PST - 23 comments

speaking about socio-economic investments (whether the $200 billion the government is investing into producing the joint service fighter will benefit our society more if invested elswhere)... the seattle times carried an interesting article about the bill & melinda gates foundation on sunday. with an endowment of $24.2 billion, it must find ways to give away the equivalent of $3.3 million each day, in order to meet federal tax rules to remain a non-profit/tax-free organization.

with so much fund at his disposal, it seems bill gates is attacking neglected social and health problems around the world with more resources than the u.s. government has been doing in some areas. with a small (and less bureaucratic?) staff, the foundation appears to be efficient and focused (reflecting the drive, passion, and result-orientation of bill gates). it will be interesting to watch the progress (and impact) bill has on the world besides what he does at microsoft. i wish him success.
posted by kliuless at 11:38 AM PST - 12 comments

Dichotomy is a new project by Jeff Gates which is seeking submissions of 9.11 stories. Plenty of places are highlighting these stories now, but Dichotomy is doing something slightly different. (More inside.)
posted by fraying at 11:25 AM PST - 6 comments

Oh, like, geez. This is *just* who we need, like, making Public Service Announcements.
posted by Fofer at 10:59 AM PST - 44 comments

Oh that whirlwind affair that October in Shanghai. It's a week old. And I hope and pray this hasn't been posted before. But if you like joke fodder about Bush, these photos may be for you.
posted by crasspastor at 10:52 AM PST - 17 comments

All of the talk about Islam, got me thinking about how religions move evolve/devolve and move even more and even sometimes go away. Sure, we’ve all heard of Christianity, Buddhism and Judaism but how many recall this one? Speaking of which, aren’t we due for another Big Ole Religion? What’s the next big God thing in your opinion?
posted by Dagobert at 10:28 AM PST - 73 comments

Does this company currently have a PR problem?
posted by ideola at 10:17 AM PST - 11 comments

Virginia Moment of Silence passes muster at the Supreme Court. Unlike moves to institute school prayer, the moment of silence allows for a moment of quiet reflection, which doesn't infringe on anyones rights to pray or not.
posted by Lanternjmk at 8:56 AM PST - 28 comments

Are We Witnessing A Republican Implosion? The Los Angeles Times has three GOP contenders for governor violating Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment by attacking fellow Republicans. In traditionally Republican Virginia, the Washington Post says a Democrat is well on his way to becoming governor next week. In New Hampshire, Roll Call describes what is to be a very bitter primary against an incumbent GOP senator. And finally, the Robert Novak says the GOP is abandoning its candidate for governor in New Jersey. (More Republican News via Political Wire.)
posted by flip at 8:32 AM PST - 12 comments

Maori challenge Lego to stop using Maori words for its toys Certain Maori objected to what they claimed was Lego's inappropriate use of Maori words, and the way Lego's Bionicle game mixed together strands of many cultures. So what's next? No syncretic philosophy/art? Although I suppose marketing Jesus or Mohammed or Buddha as crappy plastic superheroes might cause a little stir.
posted by phartizan at 8:26 AM PST - 44 comments

Halloween is almost here; time to start work on that Tron costume.
posted by swift at 7:46 AM PST - 13 comments

Murdoch backs down. DirectTV is now Echostars. I'm not at all happy about this. Do we really need another monopoly?
posted by tiaka at 7:41 AM PST - 7 comments

If you crow about your redesign, claiming your site is now "better-looking and easier to use" (and not, say, "sludgy as Hotmail and nearly as ugly"), and you offer a graphical tour to "show you how all these slick new features work", the link to which is a 404, are you the stupidest monopoly around?

Just wondering.
posted by textist at 7:26 AM PST - 26 comments

http://www.newyork.com hacked serbs revenge? check this out
posted by heimkonsole at 5:38 AM PST - 12 comments

Is McSweeney's Sounding More And More Like Random House? Or is it just me? As a lifetime subscriber and fan of David Eggers, I'm sickened by the glib, shameless commercialism that now contaminates what was once an interesting website for new writers. What in the hell has happened? Or is the new book-peddling climate just another tiresome take on post-post-post modernism or, more likely, just blatant PR? (Latest example inside)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:21 AM PST - 19 comments