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Sony writes 'article' for Salon. In an effort to find new revenue streams, Salon has published an ad/article written by Sony Corp. National Geographic and Parent Soup have also published ad/articles, though the New York Times said no. While the articles do not directly reference Sony products, the feature people who do fascinating things with technology... technology which, it just so happens, is advertised conveniently right next to the technology featuring passage. Is this sort of thing ever ethical? If so, what sort of disclosures are necessary. Clearly the ad/articles are intended to appear to be regular content.
posted by 4easypayments at 10:54 PM PST - 29 comments

Reach In And Touch Someone, Part II. If your experience with the dating service isn't completely satisfactory, you may want to take matters into your own hands. Even so, your perfect soulmate may not be available...

(link via blort, may a thousand chain-gang virgins sing its praises...)
posted by anser at 10:05 PM PST - 5 comments

Gary Westfahl's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Film is an attempt to do for SF film what David Thomson's brilliant "A Biographical Dictionary of Film" does for film in general - to provide a well informed and wholly subjective survey of the most important people who contributed to the field. The BESFF is very much a work in progress, and half the fun is seeing who author Gary Westfahl has chosen to include this month. His entries so far range from the obvious to the surprising to the deeply obscure. Always though, his witty and often compassionate pocket reviews of these carreers show how seriously he feels SF cinema should be taken, and by extension how betrayed he feels by those within the field who don't.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:31 PM PST - 6 comments

'Saddam's men torturted me' A dossier of human rights abuses allegedly perpetrated by the Iraqi regime, including torture and rape, has been released by the UK Government. The full report here (pdf). Amnesty International is criticizing the UK government for the timing of the report's release. What do you think? Moral outrage at the servile scum that run Iraq's prisons or calculated manipulation of UK/US public opinion prior to an inexorable war to keep our SUVs?
posted by Zombie at 8:05 PM PST - 48 comments

Interesting coincidence?
posted by kablam at 7:53 PM PST - 18 comments

Acting White *: In 1986, Professors Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu introduced this phrase into our cultural lexicon, presenting evidence that black academic underperformance might be partially or largely attributable to a devaluation of academic success by black students themselves. Needless to say, this theory was controversial ... [*via Arts & Letters Daily] [more inside]
posted by grrarrgh00 at 5:33 PM PST - 31 comments

Joseph Smith: Magus, Freemason, Kabbalist and Gnostic.

The remarkable founder of the only truly American religion.
posted by y2karl at 4:02 PM PST - 101 comments

Liberty Alliance conceded defeat last week to Microsoft .NET Passport. AOL, a key player in Liberty Alliance, just disbanded it's Magic Carpet team, whose memebers were also the AOL point people for the Sun-led Liberty Alliance Project, and played a very active role in its progression. How long do we wait until they start complaining about Microsoft having a monopoly in unified authentication systems?
posted by riffola at 3:26 PM PST - 6 comments

On September 17, 1998, in response to an armed robbery call, Houston police burst in to the home of John Lawrence. The police didn’t find a robber (nor would they – the call was deliberately false), but they did find Lawrence having sex with another man, Tyrone Garner. Lawrence and Garner were promptly charged with “engaging in homosexual conduct,” a misdemeanor under Texas law. They paid their fine and began a long legal challenge to Texas’ anti-sodomy law. That challenge has finally reached the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, which today agreed to hear their appeal early next year. Standing in the way is the Court’s own 1986 decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, in which it held that anti-sodomy laws are constitutional. That may be about to change.
posted by pardonyou? at 2:49 PM PST - 43 comments

"It's a vast departure from the way we've done business," said Donna Harlan, an associate superintendent in the Northampton school system. "We are not in the business of giving lists of names of kids to anybody. That was tough. The issue was if we were to receive federal or state money, we had to comply with the law."
posted by artifex at 2:18 PM PST - 5 comments

What's Joe's Big Secret? The FOX network has quietly finished production on "Joe Millionaire," a seven-episode series that combines elements of Fox's "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" with ABC's "The Bachelor." I won't spoil the "secret" for anyone who cares but isn't someone's financial status a valid factor when forming a relationship. If you lie to someone the entire time during a relationship doesn't that effect your perceptions and feelings towards the person who lied to you?
posted by suprfli at 1:20 PM PST - 51 comments

Design Playground. Become an avatar, walk around, have fun.
posted by four panels at 1:19 PM PST - 12 comments

Bat Yeor is a researcher of the life of dhimmi (non-Muslims) under Islam. How do other religions treat the 'infidels'? Judaism has the goy, but what's his rights? What about Christianity? Hinduism? Shinto? How has the legal view of the minorities developed in socio-political systems informed by different religions?...
posted by bokononito at 12:14 PM PST - 6 comments

Leniency for Terrorists

CIA memorandums strongly suggest, according to Bardach's book, that Bosch was one of the conspirators, and quotes the then secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, as writing that the "US government had been planning to suggest Bosch's deportation before Cubana airlines crash took place for his suspected involvement in other terrorist acts and violation of his parole".

Bosch's release, often referred to in the US media as a pardon, was the result of pressure brought by hardline Cubans in Miami, with Jeb Bush serving as their point man. Bosch now lives in Miami and remains unrepentant about his militant activities, according to Bardach.

Is there a double standard at work regarding terrorists?
posted by nofundy at 11:08 AM PST - 26 comments

December 2, 1823 President James Monroe made his annual speech to congress and outlined his policy that the American continents were "henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers" Since then the US has, for better or worse, at times stood by the Monroe Doctrine, ignored it when they had bigger issues back home and even argued that it doesn't apply in the case of American imperialism. Is it time to retool our Latin America policy now that Europe doesn't seem so bent on imperialism there, or is the Doctrine needed as much as ever?
posted by Pollomacho at 9:40 AM PST - 9 comments

Want to talk about GOP? Not in the WSJ! The latest WSJ internal style guide has banned the use of GOP (Grand Old Party) as a reference that too few would be familar with. Republicans seem to find it amusing, considering their domain name, however. I'd just been speaking about this to a colleague a few days ago when someone at lunch asked what a GOP was. Do the other mediums follow suit? Is this as big a deal as some publications using the term "homicide bomber" instead of "suicide bomber?"
posted by djspicerack at 9:34 AM PST - 34 comments

Advent Calendars are those paper cards with 25 doors that you open for each day leading up to Christmas. Though they began as a religious custom, many today are just for fun, and they've made their way online. They can be created by web designers, design firms or illustrators to display their talent, by newspapers or hand-drawn by a 7 year old Norwegian kid. They can have a theme like a holiday cookie recipe, a Bengal cat, a perl script, an international custom, a charity or a not safe for work nude babe of the day. They can even tell a story as in the charming Tate the Cat. Download a template to modify your own. Have you spotted any good ones in your web travels?
posted by madamjujujive at 9:26 AM PST - 25 comments

Hungry? Got a couple of minutes and a quarter? Ramen Noodles! The "Official" Home Page, complete with recipies. Not to mention, the history, and inedible uses.
posted by angry modem at 9:19 AM PST - 21 comments

Sometimes Movies Are Even Better Than The Good Books They're Based Upon. [More inside]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:13 AM PST - 56 comments

It would appear that our original warning was not sufficient.This is the second message you receive when you right-click at this website a second time. And then it LOCKS UP YOUR COMPUTER(use ctrl/alt/del to close browser and unlock.) The first time you right-click you are given this warning..Images and all text on our website are protected by copyright--DO NOT attempt to copy."give me one ping,give me one ping only please" What..the..
posted by JohnR at 4:21 AM PST - 85 comments

Buy a real hamster and bugger the expense.
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 3:40 AM PST - 10 comments

Freenoise. "This site exists to provide information on 'unusual' music and arts; the word "unusual" being easily replaced by 'unconventional,' 'non-mainstream,' 'underground,' 'extreme' or by any one of a dozen other useless labels." This includes such projects as Cock E.S.P., Wrong and the fascinating Panelectric Living Sinema. The link page is of particular interest, as it could open up a whole world to the uninitiated. I wish they linked my favorite bug faced noise band, Winter Carousel.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:54 AM PST - 8 comments