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EasyRGB.com, a site I've recently stumbled across (or forgotten who sent me there) includes a color harmonies calculator that I find very intriguing. While it doesn't always produce great results, I find the idea and the execution pretty well nigh excellent; I just wish I could figure out how it does its calculations. They also attempt to match RGB colors to real-world color systems and paint chips, so if you've just got to make your bedroom match your website you'll be relieved to know that Dutch Boy sells a "3-B-5 Hang Ten" that is devilishly close to #006699.
posted by jplummer at 11:44 PM PST - 8 comments

Here's a piece from NPR for all those people who, even during these crazy times, have a love of getting/receiving mail (need Real Player to hear)...
posted by Miyagi at 9:26 PM PST - 2 comments

The Virtual Autopsy is great fun for those of us who grew up watching too much Quincy. It's also a lot more interesting than playing Operation. Caution, graphic images of internal organs!
posted by MrBaliHai at 8:16 PM PST - 3 comments

"Modern Spiritualism", dark room seances, tin trumpets, and mediums While the Taliban are off hijacking Islam, John Edward and Crossing Over conduct the injustice at home, hijacking time-honored "Modern Spiritualism" so he and his clan can personally profit from his cruel form of emotional abduction. Thankfully, his attempt to deliver the 9-11 victims on national television was cancelled.
posted by Voyageman at 7:58 PM PST - 13 comments

The Taliban's war on art extended beyond merely blowing apart the two monumental Buddhist statues. Here's a nice little piece about a wrecking party at the Kabul Museum of Art lead by the Taliban Ministers of Information and Finance. Their acts of barbarism against women and people who failed to live up to their religious code was unspeakable, but IMHO this willful destruction of art is also worthy of condemnation. This is nothing less than the destruction of a people's culture.
posted by MAYORBOB at 7:58 PM PST - 17 comments

"Universities have a serious problem. The type of liberalism so heavily favored by the intellectual elite has crossed the line. Professors throughout the educational world are supporting murderers and terrorists; they are justifying despicable actions because of the political philosophies of the actors. Murder, slaughter, and terrorism are OK, they say, as long as they are directed at law-enforcement officials or civilian Westerners. It's fine as long as the murderer is anti-capitalist, anti-establishment or anti-conservative." -- Written by a UCLA student
posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:26 PM PST - 50 comments

With Amazon now selling magazines it became slightly easier to buy them. They also can be the gift that keeps on giving. What's everyone's favorite magazine(s), and why?
posted by geoff. at 3:44 PM PST - 70 comments

Mark and Michelle like to take trips, like this one by SUV across the entire width of Asia, from Vladivostok to istanbul, through Siberia, Mongolia, Tuva, Kazakhstan, western China, the Central Asian ex-Soviet republics, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. An immense site, with hundreds of photographs and lots of great stories. Travel narratives like this are a classic use for the web, and there must be lots of them out there. Any favorites?
posted by rodii at 3:33 PM PST - 9 comments

Mary Whitehouse dies. Whitehouse was a campaigner for what she considered taste and decency on TV. So that meant no swearing, no violence, absolutely no sex (no matter who was doing it) and certainly no fun. Her perfect schedule would have been church services, cookery programmes and happy news about animals. For some peculiar reason she targetted Doctor Who in particular during the 70s for being too scary for children which led to that show moving from a taste for horror to tasteless kitch. Oh and Channel Four for be about young people, for young people. As former C4 controller Michael Grade relates: "She really wanted television to be propaganda for a very moral view of the world, not the imperfect world we live in. She was really detached from the reality of the creative process."
posted by feelinglistless at 12:21 PM PST - 24 comments

Not everyone understands the excitement of plane-spotting. Certainly not the Greeks [WSJ subscription link] who have jailed a group of plane spotters as spies. Asperger's Syndrome maybe. But spies? Ask the Romanians and Poles?
posted by Geo at 11:02 AM PST - 9 comments

Chinese planning on going to the moon. I know some would like to see the US return the moon. Some think it was all staged in a big hoax, but could a joint US/Chinese mission be possible by say 2010? What companies in China are working to make this possible? Would having Russia next door make the program any better? Personally, I'm glad to see someone will be returning to the moon.
posted by brent at 11:00 AM PST - 24 comments

What's going on? "A senior Taliban official in Kunduz, whose identity was not revealed, told Northern Alliance officials here in a radio conversation that a Pakistani Air Force plane had landed in Kunduz Tuesday and ferried away several Pakistani and Arab fighters. The Taliban official said the plane was the third to land in the city in recent days." (NYT)
posted by semmi at 10:53 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Somalia's entire internet access and international phone service shut down by the United States.
posted by trioperative at 10:32 AM PST - 10 comments

'Tell Them Nothing Till It's Ovber and Then Tell Them Who Won' Governmental and military censorship of battle news. Is it necessary to winning?
posted by Postroad at 10:29 AM PST - 5 comments

Does an appearance in the 1997 Disney flop "Flubber" make a classic T-bird worth more? Or less?
posted by kcmoryan at 9:56 AM PST - 3 comments

kick back and relax... FLASH!! it's a flash sound site - this one is very nicely put together with some great samples, tidy graphics and a sprinkling of JAH SHAKA BOOOOOM.
posted by Spoon at 9:14 AM PST - 4 comments

More - movie short One of the most amusing Javascript special effects I've seen in a long time. J/k This short movie done in flash rockzor's.
posted by Niahmas at 7:51 AM PST - 15 comments

CellManners.com: "A site devoted to promoting civility between cell phone users and the people around them." Don't miss the Cell Slang. (Brought to my attention by NY Times article "Cell Yell: Why Do Phone Calls Turn Into Broadcasts?")
posted by Carol Anne at 6:06 AM PST - 20 comments

Apparently, the crash of Flight 587 was an accident. The official explanation claims that the American A300-600 encountered the wake turbulence of a JAL 747 which tore off its tailfin. Now, I am no fan of conspiracy theories, but the lack of historical problems gives food for thought (Tripod link via RobotWisdom). [more inside]
posted by costas at 4:52 AM PST - 35 comments

Al Jazeera english language summary. Since the original al Jazeera site is in arabic, this wbur website, gives a summary of the stories covered by the network in english. Of course, one can try to translate automatically (ajeeb, registration required), but the results are usually comical.
posted by talos at 3:58 AM PST - 2 comments