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Why use an ax when you can use a bulldozer? Der Spiegel article, summarizing what we have learned about the inception and planning of the 9/11 attack from interrogating captured planners.
posted by crunchburger at 7:00 PM PST - 14 comments

AFGHAN DRAFT CONSTITUTION WORRIES CIVIL-SOCIETY ADVOCATES Ah, the women. Again. I was unable to come up with some flash item to go with martinis so instead posted this. "The draft constitution of Afghanistan seeks stability in an ethnically diverse country whose infrastructure barely survived 22 years of constant war. It outlines a central government with a strong president and embraces principles of independent media and civil law. However, gaps in the draft worry advocates for women and for religious freedom. " And then there is the huge new opium crop.
posted by Postroad at 4:34 PM PST - 8 comments

Wal-Mart as Leviathan. "The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the unemployment line?"
posted by the fire you left me at 3:24 PM PST - 31 comments

Buddhists go badass. "Rathana, an official with a powerful Buddhist group, dismisses Sri Lanka's peace process and urges renewed military action against Tamil Tiger separatists." Let me anticipate mefi's notorious left bunch of bananas and attribute it to this.
posted by jfuller at 2:20 PM PST - 27 comments

The Flawed Dog-O-Matic, a Friday Flash piffle that 'morphs' dog breeds, shamelessly promoting Berkeley "Bloom County" Breathed's new book and Humane Society pet adoption (in that order). Everybody go "Aw-w-w-w-w."
posted by wendell at 1:42 PM PST - 3 comments

Too good to be true? United Internet is launching its public hosting service with a special promotion: a full 500 meg hosting account free for three years. Includes email hosting, FTP and shell access, 5 gigs of transfers, Perl, Python, PHP and MySQL... plus $25 worth of Google AdWords. Sounds fishy to me, but they never asked for my credit card when I signed up.
posted by johnnydark at 12:58 PM PST - 58 comments

"George Bush killed my son." With these words, peace activist Rosemary Slavenas buried her son, Brian, a National Guardsman and "great, big kid" killed in the downing of a Chinook helicopter in Iraq. A tragic story of an Illinois family split in two by the death of their son, who received two funerals -- one military, with honors, and the other, with strong words for the current administration.
posted by digaman at 11:25 AM PST - 96 comments

The Foreign Groceries Museum. (via coudal)
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:24 AM PST - 10 comments

Lyric Quiz - Test your knowledge of memorable lines from various hits of the 80's. Watch your spelling. warning: It's a tad cheesy, but fun.
posted by Witty at 10:40 AM PST - 35 comments

These guys have something for sale here If we all went in on it together, what could we do with it? (Aside from arguing over it, of course.)
posted by trondant at 10:24 AM PST - 8 comments

A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Night
A bedtime story for your Friday fun. Very well done.
Apologies to Judith Viorst, author of “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”
posted by nofundy at 10:02 AM PST - 8 comments

International Jewish Conspiracy Now you can get all the latest Conspiracy News without resorting to hard-to-remember secret handshakes, inconvenient drop boxes, or messy exotic fruits! ¨ Occupy world government! ¨ Dilute the Aryan bloodline! ¨ Read all the latest Protocols! ¨ Get the hottest tips for a successful Cabal!
posted by turbanhead at 9:56 AM PST - 14 comments

Monkey Nut Eating Means Old Nutshells In Carpet, aka mnemonics! They come in many forms, helping you remember everything from taxonomic classifications ("King Phillip Came Over For Good Sex") to the order of the planets ("My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets") to musical staves to the first 31 decimal places of pi to how to spell tricky words such as "rhythm" or "principal." They're more a way of life for med students, birdwatchers, and boaters. Which mnemonics have helped you survive?
posted by kmel at 9:15 AM PST - 54 comments

The elegant universe. A 3 hour PBS NOVA documentary on string theory [in 24 ~5-10 minute chunks of real player or quick time video]. Welcome to the 11th dimension.
posted by srboisvert at 8:40 AM PST - 18 comments

The fascinating story of how a lone security guard in Afghanistan managed to ensure the safety of the Bactrian hoard.
posted by stbalbach at 8:15 AM PST - 3 comments

New Scientist reports that a virus has been built up from mail order components. Other reports on this are in USA Today and Nature. This isn't time life has been created in the lab, as previously linked.
What's interesting is that this study was funded by the Department of Energy to produce a completely man made lifeform that can create hydrogen or consume greenhouse gasses. The present virus is an artificially created copy of a naturally occurring virus.
posted by substrate at 8:14 AM PST - 7 comments

Is David Lynch Really The Best Director In The World? The Guardian, along with many other Europeans, seems to think so, in an impressive but very subjective (not to say that dreaded word quirky) list of the best 40 film directors. (More inside.)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:00 AM PST - 95 comments

Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) doctors the numbers.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:05 AM PST - 30 comments

If You See George W. Bush, Email or Text The Time and Location To... Chasing Bush.

"A special online diary, designed to track George W. Bush for the duration of his visit to the UK.... If he wants to make a state visit that isn't marred by protest, he should do it on another island. He's not welcome on this one; and we're determined to let the world see that."
posted by grabbingsand at 5:30 AM PST - 54 comments

Stories of Krishna: The Adventures of a Hindu God is a lovely interactive Flash presentation from the Seattle Art Museum: Click an image and hear the accompanying tale (or read the transcript), then click "close the story" and mouse over the image icons to explore the characters and view details. After you are finished you can test what you've learned with a drag and drop card game. No broadband? View images of Krishna here and here, and read some background.
posted by taz at 4:38 AM PST - 6 comments

Let them sing it for you. Hours of Friday fun.
posted by MintSauce at 2:40 AM PST - 20 comments