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The Pennsylvania government is worried that consumers will be “confused” by labels such as “pesticide free”, “antibiotic free”, and “contains no artificial hormones”. After all, doing so might seem to imply that products without such labels might be unsafe! PA Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff is very concerned about that sort of “confusion”, which surely has nothing to do with the fact that he owns a 600-acre dairy farm. Oddly, while Mr. Wolff said his office had received many calls from confused consumers, his office was unable to come up with the name of even one consumer who had complained.
posted by kyrademon at 11:35 PM PST - 27 comments

Man comments on Flickr photos he discarded in an alley dumpster 30 years ago. Vietnam 1967-1968: Darrell Hill, Photographer
posted by thisisdrew at 10:36 PM PST - 29 comments

The poppy is bitterly ironic this Remembrance Day. Borrowed from John McRae's classic In Flanders' Fields, the poppy has shifted from a symbolic meaning to the central subject of an ongoing conflict. As international intervention in Afghanistan continues, opium production has reached record-breaking heights, with this single country now producing 90% of the world's total supply (utterly dwarfing global licit supply). Meanwhile, the world suffers a global opiate shortage(pdf), Canada's heroin maintenance project is threatened by politics, and the National Review of Medicine suggests that prescription opiates are far more dangerous than the "usual suspects".
posted by mek at 9:57 PM PST - 26 comments

Orphaned baby owls find a plushy mom.
posted by stbalbach at 9:51 PM PST - 31 comments

You'll feel like a fighter jet made of biceps!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:08 PM PST - 35 comments

Claude François was one of France's most successful popstars, a complete song-and-dance act who remained at the top of the charts for almost ten years before his career was tragically cut short when he tried to change a lightbulb while in the bath (youtube ahead). [more inside]
posted by jacalata at 8:45 PM PST - 19 comments

Fire Roasted Salsa. Chipotle Salsa. Pico De Gallo. Salsa Verde. Five Green Salsa. Orange Salsa. Apple Salsa. Cucumber Salsa. Yogurt Salsa. Rosemary Salsa. Bean Salsa. Conejo En Salsa De Chocolate. Roasted Poblano and Coconut Salsa. Monterey Jack Salsa. Salsa Negra. Mango Salsa. Holiday Salsa. Artichoke Salsa.
posted by bigmusic at 8:29 PM PST - 27 comments

"Trotsky lived on after Stalin, and to some extent is still alive today, not because young people want the world he wanted: a phantasm that not even he could define. What they want is to be him."
posted by Firas at 8:21 PM PST - 75 comments

38 unreprinted Jack Kirby monster stories. [more inside]
posted by freem at 7:44 PM PST - 11 comments

One hit wonders of the 1960's: Talk Talk. Dirty Water. Psychotic Reaction. Bend Me Shape Me. Hot Smoke and Sassafras. 96 Tears. Wipe Out. My Green Tambourine. Ballad of the Green Beret. San Francisco. Fire. Israelites. You Keep Me Hanging On. Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye. Eve of Destruction. Incense and Peppermints. Liar Liar. Judy In Disguise. Journey to the Center of the Mind. Sukiyaki. Come On Down To My Boat. Double Shot of My Baby's Love.You'll Lose a Good Thing. The Hippy Hippy Shake. They're Coming To Take Me Away. Tiptoe Through the Tulips. In the Year 2525.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:35 PM PST - 107 comments

Win a free MRI machine: An odd medical equipment distribution scheme, winanmri.com will give away a free MAGNETOM to the hospital that gets the most votes for their submitted video. (videos on right hand side).
posted by edgeways at 5:07 PM PST - 14 comments

The Australian Federal election is winding its desultory way towards resolution on 24 November. So far, it has failed to catch much of the electorate’s imagination, and the centrist Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd, retains his comfortable lead in the polls, indicating a change in executive government after 11 years of John Howard’s big-government conservatism. Rudd’s “me too” strategy suggests that ideology is dead in Australia. (Previously) [more inside]
posted by wilful at 4:58 PM PST - 382 comments

In 1897, Elizabeth Smith Miller and her daughter Anne Fitzhugh Miller founded the Geneva Political Equality Club, an organization dedicated to fighting for women's suffrage in the United States. Between them, the two women kept several scrapbooks documenting their efforts through 1911. Via.
posted by Rykey at 2:44 PM PST - 7 comments

10 TED conference videos that may or may not be perspective changing…otherwise named, The Ten Videos to Change How You View the World...The Myth of Violence - Steven Pinker, 10 Ways the World Could End - Stephen Petranek, New Insights on Poverty and Life Around the World - Hans Rosling, Toys That Make Worlds - Will Wright, Technology’s Long Tail - Chris Anderson, Why Are We Happy? Or Not? - Daniel Gilbert, Universe is Queerer Than We Can Suppose - Richard Dawkins, Sliced Bread - Seth Godin, Redefining the Dictionary - Erin McKean, What’s So Funny About the Web? - Ze Frank [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 2:42 PM PST - 25 comments

Yue Minjun, a Chinese avant-garde artist, known for his depiction of toothy, smiling males. More at Asia's Hottest Modern Painters. Bonus: Goldfish
posted by growabrain at 2:11 PM PST - 22 comments

Cigarette? Cigarette? No disrespect to the seriousness of throat cancer, or to heavy smokers, but these devices may help the unlucky ones, and maybe you'll be more fun at parties. There's a few models to pick from. It was the precursor to the talkbox. Frampton and Stevie Wonder rocked it, But not before Pete Drake and his talking guitar rocked it first. Low on cash Make your own.
posted by greenskpr at 1:59 PM PST - 17 comments

Nuclear Facility in South Africa attacked by armed intruders. According to the Pretoria News, four armed men broke into the control room of the Pelindaba Nuclear Research Center, shooting "a senior emergency officer" in the process. The government nuclear agency Necsa has told the paper that publishing the story would be a violation of the National Keypoints Act. The facility seems to be part of South Africa's nuclear weapons program.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:44 PM PST - 18 comments

Coming Home - in honor of Veteran's Day, it might be fitting to check in on the recovery of J.R. Salzman, known here on mefi as Logboy.
posted by madamjujujive at 11:58 AM PST - 41 comments

For 11/11, soldiers' poems of MACV (and interstitial matter):
I can feel traces of my heart / leaving wet rivers / down my manly cheeks.
∞
Stunned now / angry / helpless / bits of torn paper beside / empty red mailbag.
∞
So / You averted looking directly / at their eyes / (That last graveyard / for their fears)
∞
It's getting hard to talk to you, / You don't seem to communicate; / You get upset too easily, / I only asked what it was really like.
∞ (Previously, previously) [more inside]
posted by orthogonality at 11:10 AM PST - 8 comments

Bilingual homophonic translations
posted by fermezporte at 11:05 AM PST - 33 comments

In many Commonwealth countries, today is Remembrance Day. From Wikipedia, it's "a day to commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and civilians in times of war". Today it's worth reading a few famous wartime poems, and pausing in thanks to those who have fought for your country.
posted by dbarefoot at 9:03 AM PST - 83 comments

Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Paris, 1900. Approximately 200 antique photographs of Paris at the turn of the 19th century, mostly from the 1900 Paris World's Fair. French CG artist Laurent Antoine is reconstructing the Exposition in Maya 3D. Bienvenue!
posted by cenoxo at 8:03 AM PST - 13 comments

The Naga Jolokia is the hottest pepper in the world, at 1,000,000 Scoville Units. One seed from a Naga Jolokia can sustain intense pain sensations in the mouth for up to 30 minutes before subsiding. Imagine what eating an entire pepper will do? One intrepid ESPN reporter finds out.
posted by empath at 12:57 AM PST - 84 comments

201 Stories by Anton Chekhov translated by Constance Garnett presented in order of Russian publication.
posted by Kattullus at 12:39 AM PST - 24 comments

Seymour Hersh speaks at third Annual Amnesty International Lecture at Trinity College, Dublin, Oct 24/2007. YouTube links 1, 2, 3, 4.
posted by dougzilla at 12:34 AM PST - 23 comments