February 16, 2006

Tough on Terror, Tough on Stains

Writer Merrill Markoe proposes a novel solution to the issue of having our elected officials turn out to be little more than political figureheads for corporate special interests; why not allow the corporations to run for office directly?
posted by jonson at 11:02 PM PST - 21 comments

Linus Anecdotes

"Oops. Now his master boot record started with 'ATDT' and the university modem pool phone number. I think he implemented permission checking the following day." Linus Torvald's former officemate shares his lighthearted recollections about the creation — and creator — of Linux.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 10:39 PM PST - 7 comments

I Lead a Normal Life

What makes an official executioner? Is it obsession with the tools of death? Does it run in the family? Is it a religious duty? Happenstance? A good way to test your sword? Whatever the reason, one wonders what it takes to make a successful executioner and what it would be like to walk in their shoes. Sometimes there is a terrible profundity in their final act.
posted by Falconetti at 10:04 PM PST - 27 comments

MathFilter(edout)

The Value of Algebra: "Gabriela, sooner or later someone's going to tell you that algebra teaches reasoning. This is a lie propagated by, among others, algebra teachers."
posted by daksya at 9:56 PM PST - 190 comments

La Bella Napoli

Just wandering through the streets of Naples. (make sure to peruse each link as each has more to be seen!)
posted by snsranch at 8:33 PM PST - 9 comments

Forty years of singing hope for black South Africans

In apartheid South Africa, "We were the first blacks to go everywhere, that was the power of our music." Despite dozens of album credits, two Grammys and the long list of major artists they've performed with, their proudest accomplishment may be singing at President Mandella's inauguration and being told "Your music gave me hope when I was in prison." Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been making a difference with their traditional Zulu Isicathamiya music for over 40 years. Listen.[popup w/audio]
posted by raedyn at 7:25 PM PST - 11 comments

“Even if it doesn't reduce the number of meth addicts by even one, stopping the labs is a huge plus.”

Sine-Off is the first brand of cold, flu and sinus congestion medicine to completely reformulate and remove pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient needed to make Crystal Meth.
posted by ijoshua at 6:17 PM PST - 100 comments

The Office of Human Radiation Experiments

The Office of Human Radiation Experiments, established in March 1994, leads the Department of Energy's efforts to tell the agency's Cold War story of radiation research using human subjects. We have undertaken an intensive effort to identify and catalog relevant historical documents from DOE's 3.2 million cubic feet of records scattered across the country. Internet access to these resources is a key part of making DOE more open and responsive to the American public.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 6:01 PM PST - 7 comments

Himmapan Creatures: Beasts of Asian Legend

Himmapan.com features illustrations and photos of artistic depictions of the creatures of the legendary Himmapan (or Himapan/Himaphan) Forest of the Himalayas. Fantastic chimeras of Asian mythology.
posted by Gator at 4:28 PM PST - 7 comments

Jumping up and down on one foot would be more fun than this.

Children review classic games- some more. Back in November '03, 1up.com rounded up some kids from the 8-12 age range and had them play video and arcade games from the 70's and 80's, including Pong, Donkey Kong, and Tetris. The resulting commentary was mostly along the lines of "Tim: They could've just as easily called this game anything—Baseball, Bowling, Escape From the Monsters. EGM: Did you score? Kirk: I bumped into a dot." In December 2004 they brought them back to review Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and the 1983 Arcade version of Star Wars, among others. "EGM: What do those TIE Fighters look like? ...Are they scary? Anthony: No. It feels like they're trying to give me flowers."
posted by Meredith at 4:22 PM PST - 44 comments

Still crazy after all these years

The RIAA would like to remind you that copying purchased music to your iPod is illegal without first gaining permission from the copyright holder. Thank you.
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 2:12 PM PST - 88 comments

Zen and the art of Presidential usurpation

Back when President Bush declared a state of emergency, then did it again, and people were wondering Could Terrorism Result In A Constitutional Dictator? I was reminded of the UN invasion paranoia under Clinton and Senate Report 93-549, written in 1973, which said "Since March 9, 1933, the United States has been in a state of declared national emergency." and the question was have we been living in a state of National Emergency for over six decades? Back then it was easy to write off with the tinfoil hat crowd. But it seems throughout the nation's history, presidents have in fact been using executive orders on "emergencies" to circumvent the Constitution's division of power.
posted by Smedleyman at 2:11 PM PST - 21 comments

Supplemental catfight

"Thank you for the refresher course on contracts. This is not a bar exam question."
'bla bla bla."
posted by orthogonality at 1:54 PM PST - 85 comments

DIY fireflies

LED Throwies (QT) A simple combination of lithium battery, diffused LED, strong magnet and a little tape. Developed by the Graffiti Research Lab division of the Eyebeam R&D OpenLab, full instructions are posted and take only a few minutes to follow.
posted by cali at 1:06 PM PST - 53 comments

The Forgotten War?

"The Korean Saving Private Ryan," or Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004). Reviews. Plot synopsis (spoilers). Box Office: Over 20% of South Korea saw this film.
posted by bardic at 1:03 PM PST - 34 comments

Jews in Cuba

Remembrance on the Island: The enduring legacy of the Jewish-Cuban diaspora, and the existence of the 1,500 Jews that still remain in Cuba.
posted by naxosaxur at 12:57 PM PST - 12 comments

Bundle of sticks

We all know the Nazis picked, and ruined, a perfectly good basic geometric symbol. But what about other symbols of fascism? Not as well known, not as demonized, but interting for students of symbolism.

Oldest, and among the most interesting and enduringly popular, is the fasces, a bundle of sticks wrapped around an axe, from which fascism gets its name. It's pretty rare to see swastikas in public nowadays -- they're so associated with the Nazis that they were universally stripped off American sports jerseys, soda pop promoting watch fobs, and first ladies. And yet, in the United States, fasces can still be found everywhere: medals of honor, the doors to the Nebraska Supreme Court, even behind the president as he speaks at the U.S. House of Representatives.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:36 PM PST - 45 comments

New SEC Executive Compensation Proposal

The SEC has proposed new rules [pdf] to drastically increase requirements on executive compensation disclosure. You can read a summary of the proposal in the SEC's press release, as well as statements from Chairman Cox and Commissioner Atkin. [more inside]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 11:29 AM PST - 23 comments

Just One Victory

A Blinding Flash of the Obvious "The city is too beautiful of a city to be known around the world as the capital of exclusion and intolerance." He was right. Now, a 22-minute film documents the successful fight to repeal an anti-gay ordinance in Cincinnati last year. The campaign was successful because it was honest, and because it included people of faith.
posted by tizzie at 11:20 AM PST - 23 comments

"Symmetry" exhibit explores a design concept that's the basis of Schindler House

"Symmetry": the basis of Schindler House. (BugMeNot)
posted by matteo at 11:08 AM PST - 6 comments

Breaking into the computers of a sewage plant

"[Vitek] Boden had waged a three-month war against the Scada (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system of Maroochy Water Services in Australia beginning in January 2000, which saw millions of gallons of sewage spill into waterways, hotel grounds and canals around the Sunshine Coast suburb." A 2002 Washington Post story on possible al-Qaeda attacks also mentions the Boden case: "Specialists in cyber-terrorism have studied Boden's case because it is the only one known in which someone used a digital control system deliberately to cause harm."
posted by russilwvong at 11:03 AM PST - 3 comments

Supplemental Jurisdiction

28 U.S.C 1367 was a controversial and confusing attempt by Congress to codify and address the issue of Supplemental Jurisdiction established in cases such as United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715 (1966), Zahn v. International Paper, Co., 414 U.S. 291 (1973), and Finley v. United States, 490 U.S. 545 (1989). The Supreme Court tried to clarify some of the confusing issues regarding 1367 in a 2005 opinion. Exxon Mobil Corp v. Allapattah Servs., Inc., (2005) (Kennedy, J., writing for the Court) (Stevens, J., dissenting) (Ginsburg, J., dissenting). The question of whether the Court clarified the issue or made it more complicated remains arguably unanswered.
posted by dios at 10:32 AM PST - 26 comments

A Presidency in Shadow

Notice: henceforth, the Minister of War shall address the people only through the Ministry of Truth. The story-behind-the-story of the Vice President's hunting mishap is the denigration of the MSMTM as the traditional proxy of the public interest, says NYU journalism professor and media critic Jay Rosen. "It strikes me that the Corpus Christi Caller-Times is just as valid a news outlet as The New York Times is," Cheney told cherry-picked Fox "News" correspondent Brit Hume yesterday. GOP spokesperson Mary Matalin underlined the point by saying that Cheney considered holding a news conference, but that "would have meant a lot of grandstanding" by reporters; Donald Rumsfeld often goes even farther, claiming that terrorist organizations manipulate the American press directly through "media committees." Judging by the administration's contempt for the Fourth Estate, says Rosen, "The public visibility of the presidency itself is under revision. More of it lies in shadow all the time. Non-communication has become the standard procedure, not a breakdown in practice but the essence of it." Even arch-conservative pundits like George Will are starting to get nervous about the lack of check and balances under the current regime. There's no doubt that the White House press corps seems angrier these days -- but are they missing the bigger stories by focusing their wrath on Scott McClellan's birdshot spin?
posted by digaman at 10:22 AM PST - 34 comments

The blue brainteaser

Blueprint... Guide the ball to the target by making a path for it to follow. Fourteen levels of perplexity! (Flash)
posted by crunchland at 9:26 AM PST - 35 comments

D: Yes, it does, because I've already had this discussion with him, and I've already been asked to change the signs, and I did. And I looked up all the statutes.

Red State, Meet Police State --take a big anti-Bush bumper sticker, some DHS cops, and an outspoken and educated federal employee. Put them in Boise, Idaho. Mix well. "It's the First Amendment for a reason--not the last, not the middle. The first."
posted by amberglow at 7:32 AM PST - 251 comments

time stock up on leather jackets.

Has oil already peaked? Princeton University geology Professor Kenneth Deffeyes argues that it has, based on the fact that oil production should peak when half the worlds oil has been produced. According to him, that happened in December of 2005, at 1.0065 trillion barrels. critics claim that new methods and economic effects should prevent peak oil from happening, although global oil discovery actually peaked in the 1960s. Meanwhile stock speculators are making mad bank betting on peak oil today.
posted by delmoi at 7:31 AM PST - 75 comments

Lespwa has returned

On February 7th, 2006, Haiti had its first (nearly) bloodless, democratic election Two years since Aristide fled to South Africa (with the "help" of the US), and twenty since Baby Doc Duvalier was overthrown, and the bloody reign of the Duvaliers and the Tonton Macoute were ended.[more inside]
posted by kalimac at 6:55 AM PST - 13 comments

How to bury your dead

File this handy Reuters article for future use: How to bury your dead.
posted by spock at 6:19 AM PST - 46 comments

Another Mac OS X Trojan

Barbarians are at the gates, testing the locks again. Mac OS X users beware: A file supposedly containing pictures of Mac OS X 10.5, actually does other things. Lots of info and links at this first link. Here's the disassembly of the executable (it's just a plain text file) and some notes on the application which comes to this conclusion: "In the end, it doesn't appear to actually do anything other than try to propagate itself via iChat, and unintentionally prevent infected applications from running It seems that this is more of a "proof of concept" implementation that could be utilized to actually do something in the future, depending on how successful it is, or it was simply done to garner attention/press. Which I'm sure it'll get. " Might be a good idea to check out a Mac OS X security primer.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:03 AM PST - 49 comments

The penetrating power of ammunition.

Sheetrock (drywall) doesn't slow any round down much. If you shoot in the house, walls will not stop any serious round. Insulation doesn't help. Metal front doors provide concealment, not cover - they won't stop bullets. "How hard is it to shoot off a lock?" Answer: Very hard. The .44 Magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the world and capable of blowing your head clean off", according to Dirty Harry, penetrates standard issue fragmentation body armour "like an ex-wife through your life savings."
posted by three blind mice at 5:52 AM PST - 89 comments

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