MetaFilter

Choose your seat wisely. Okay, so you already know what your meal is going to be. But, so much of your travel experience depends on the quality of your seat. Seatguru has not only seat maps, but reviews of most seats on the big 6 US airlines. (For links to more seat maps, brave the pop-ups and go here.)
posted by Vidiot at 11:15 PM PST - 6 comments

Ad this.
After seeing a movie premiere last night my idea of advertising is tainted. The movie was listed to start at 12:01 am. Unfortunately there were some ads to kick off the feature. The first ad was met with an ovation of boo's...followed by the next 8. Then came the trailers...another 6. Ironically, an actor from the movie was present and introduced himself much to everyones enjoyment. However, he preceded to plug his next movie (aaaahhhh). Finally came the movie came...just under a half hour later.
Point -> The whole process seemed to take the wind out of the start of the film.
posted by lightweight at 6:38 PM PST - 59 comments

War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning The AC130 video thread yesterday got me interested in this book. The author - a veteran New York Times war correspondent - argues that, to many people, war provides a purpose for living; allowing individuals to rise above regular life and participate in a noble cause. He discusses nationalism, the wartime silencing of intellectuals and artists, the ways in which even a supposedly skeptical press glorifies the battlefield and other universal features of war, arguing not for pacifism but for responsibility and humility on the part of those who wage war.
posted by Zombie at 6:24 PM PST - 17 comments

Tissue-san! In direct contrast to the recent IKEA ad campaigns, Japan seems to embrace the concept of product as person, with the same end result -- consumers buy more stuff at an accelerated rate. Both routes utilize the same tact though, using Anthropomorphism to grab the viewers attention. Is this the natural progression of things to come? (link via boing boing)
posted by hulette at 5:32 PM PST - 12 comments

"This car isn't meant to be an SUV, a mini-van, or a sedan" ... becuase, of course, it's a station wagon (the body type that dare not speak its name), albeit a sleek new Chrysler Pacifica, now starring in double-page spreads in your finer magazines. The Europeans have never stopped making great wagons, but its been a while since anything less apalling than the Taurus Wagon came out of Detroit or Tokyo.
posted by MattD at 4:18 PM PST - 49 comments

The Nashville Scene proudly presents the 12th Annual Boner Awards. Named for disgraced Nashville mayor Bill Boner, this is a rundown of all things "goofy, grisly and gnarly" that went down this year in Music City. From nude fender-benders to shop-lifting Vice Mayors, it's local interest, Nashvegas style.
(The previous few years are also available for the truly curious.)
posted by mikrophon at 2:32 PM PST - 11 comments

"Hell Bent" - the title I've given this sculpture, is the culmination of an untold number of hours work. The sculpture depicts a modern Formula One car at speed, mid-turn, and indeed in the wet.
posted by snez at 12:02 PM PST - 10 comments

Renaissance Man... Prospector, Trapper, Pony Express Rider, Army Scout, Buffalo Hunter, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, National Folk Hero, Supreme Showman, at one time the most famous and recognizable man on the planet, he was also an anti-slavery fighter, a Peacemaker, advocate for the rights of Indians and women, and a conservationist. 1700 fictional dime novels were written about him, but his real-life adventures made him bigger than life. William F. Cody, aka Buffalo Bill.
posted by Mack Twain at 11:46 AM PST - 7 comments

Cluster Bombs: The American Gift That Keeps On Giving. "During its air war in Afghanistan, the United States dropped nearly a quarter-million cluster bomblets that killed or injured scores of civilians, especially children, both during and after strikes, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today....Human Rights Watch found that the United States did not take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties, as required by international humanitarian law....As of November 2002, the International Committee of the Red Cross had identified 127 civilian casualties to cluster bomb duds-a number it stressed was only a partial tally of the total killed and injured since many go unreported. An astonishing 69% of the casualties were children."
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 11:26 AM PST - 62 comments

Gawker.com has arrived. All about New York, "Condé Nastiness, downwardly-mobile i-bankers, real estate porn -- the serious stuff". It's all good. It also looks like the latest attempt to make a living out of blogging. Will that ever happen?
posted by zimbobzim at 10:36 AM PST - 47 comments

augustadiscriminates.org is the website of choice for Martha Burk and the NCWO's "Hall of Hipocrisy", where they name the CEOs of companies who are members of Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters golf tournament. Burk has protested that Augusta should be banned from holding the Masters because they have not let women into their membership. So far, the Masters will have no corporate sponsorship in its broadcast on CBS. A few execs and pols have exited the ranks of members. Will more happen in the coming months to open the doors to women? On a side note, you can check out theburkstopshere.com where you'll find a collection of links to websites protesting Martha Burk.
posted by djspicerack at 9:57 AM PST - 39 comments

FTC creates national ‘do not call’ list While there have been state lists for quite some time, and some organizations (like the DMA) maintain do-not-call lists requiring members to honor DNC requests, the FCC is now talking about a single, federal list that would require compliance from all telemarketers, and levy fines for non-compliance. Is this the end of telemarketing as we know it today?
posted by MidasMulligan at 9:56 AM PST - 40 comments

And this just in, from Germany ... This story is all the rage over there. It's a little too sick to describe, so I'll let you do the reading. What I find odd is that this article (from the English version of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) says he might have been "inspired by Jeffrey Dahmer," and the article in the NYTimes quotes a German saying he would expect this sort of thing in America, but not in his own country. So I ask you: When did America become the home of ritualistic cannibals?
posted by risenc at 9:43 AM PST - 33 comments

At the time of posting, Rotten Tomatoes has 1 'rotten' review and 76 'fresh' reviews for Peter Jackson's The Two Towers. I thought it was a superb film, but I hardly thought it would unite the critics like this. This has got to be one of the most universally praised films of all time!
posted by Pretty_Generic at 9:35 AM PST - 62 comments

AOL owns Instant Messaging? - MSNBC is reporting that AOL's subsidary ICQ has received a patent for Instant Messaging. I would have thought IRC was enough prior art to invalidate the claim, but the Patent Office knows best. Can AOL put the genie back in the bottle?
posted by Argyle at 9:06 AM PST - 15 comments

There's a lot going on in Venezuela. Today they're marching. Yesterday the president responded to Bush's recommendations. Two days ago, the chief of Venezuela's army "condemned the strike." Why are they striking in Venezuela? Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil. (And I thought we could only get it from the Middle East!)
posted by valval22 at 8:59 AM PST - 9 comments

Pehaps one of the advantages of massive cable channel proliferation is the market for geek sports. Full Metal Challenge is the latest creation of Cathy Rogers(slashdot) who also produced Scrapyard Challenge/Junkyard Wars. (Previously discussed here almost two years ago.) Contestants are given $3,000 and a month to build their own vehicle to compete in a variety of challenges with names "sumo", "wetropolis", and "hall of mirrors." One of the things that makes this show work is the color commentary by Rennaissance punk Henry Rollins.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:27 AM PST - 18 comments

WTC Redevelopment Today at 1pm EST, the 7 proposed new plans for redevelopment of the former World Trade Center site will be revealed. Currently, they're carrying the announcements of the new proposals (with architect descriptions of their projects) live on wnyc.org on the Brian Lehrer Show.
posted by callicles at 8:03 AM PST - 30 comments

Man Beheads (statue of) Margaret Thatcher. His "sense of 'satirical humour' left him no choice but to carry out the attack" on the £150,000 Maggie as 'artistic expression and [his] right to interact with this broken world.' Jury fails to convict and a retrial is scheduled. Perhaps there is a creative solution to replacing the head?
posted by Shane at 7:56 AM PST - 17 comments

All together now: NO! 32 Asian nations tell the Bush admin where to stick its opinions on abortion
posted by magullo at 7:11 AM PST - 54 comments

Comic Thief Confronted Notorious Boston joke thief confronted, makes the Boston Herald, causes buzz, makes the comedy trade magazines. Why is the confrontation of a hack comic newsworthy? Because it almost NEVER HAPPENS.
posted by basilwhite at 6:42 AM PST - 4 comments

No White Man To Lose His Vote In Virginia.
Some background resources for l'affaire de Lott:
Lecture Summary: Reconstruction; Race and Place: An African-American Community In The Jim Crow South; The Rise And Fall of Jim Crow; Jim Crow Laws; Remembering Jim Crow; Behind The Veil; The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia; The Politics of Disfranchisement: White Supremacy and African-American Resistance in Charlottesville, Virginia, 1900-1925; Photographs of Sign Enforcing Racial Discrimination and Jump Jim Crow, or did Emancipation Make A Difference?
posted by y2karl at 4:31 AM PST - 64 comments

There's one man that represents where I was brought up in Lancashire. Steeplejack Fred Dibnah. His interests include industrial archeology, traction engines and wearing flat caps. Recently he has been making history programmes for the BBC where his enthusiasm and interest in what other people are saying is given a fresh twist by his working class perspective and respect for the builders of castles, mills etc. A great man with his own way with words. So, who are your local heroes?
posted by quarsan at 2:24 AM PST - 8 comments

The Federal Theatre Project Collection. "The Federal Theatre Project was the largest and most ambitious effort mounted by the Federal Government to organize and produce theater events. It was an effort of the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to provide work for unemployed professionals in the theater during the Great Depression which followed the stock market crash of October 1929." Arguably the high water mark in the history of live theatre in America, The Federal Theatre Project was a program introduced as part of The New Deal. The production archives for three of the major productions (two by Orsen Welles) are of particular interest. The success of Tim Robbins' The Cradle Will Rock may have influenced other's perceptions about the importance of Mark Blitzstein's lackluster (but controversial) play of the same title.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:58 AM PST - 6 comments

One-in, one-out: the nominations. "Who should be granted honorary British citizenship and who should have it revoked?" The BBC's Today programme has its annual poll and this year, it claims, is a little different. Various celebrities, politicians etc will be giving their opinions and the result will be announced on New Year's Day. Who will you be voting for?
posted by Kiell at 1:03 AM PST - 6 comments