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Do us all a favor and shut up. You're for the war? Wrote an essay about it? Good, good. Good for you. Guess what? Shut up about it. Thanks. Oh, you're against the war? Fantastic. Wrote a poem about it? Find the nearest closet and tell it to the coats. Yea, that's right. Shut it.
posted by raaka at 6:45 PM PST - 89 comments

Jack Valenti (head of the Motion Picture Association of America) has been quoted numerous times recently, saying "A 12-year-old, with a click of a mouse, can send a movie hurtling to all of the five continents". A graduate researcher at MIT set to test out the accuracy of the soundbite, with interesting results.
posted by mathowie at 4:08 PM PST - 42 comments

Listen to what some anti-war protesters had to say this weekend about possible war with Iraq. Quicktime required.
posted by Ron at 4:06 PM PST - 41 comments

Freedom Fries? Patriotism gone to far? I can understand some people's disappointment that the french don't support the war in Iraq. But boycotting french wine, and other french imports? Maybe? But to start renaming things because they have the word french in them? That's what one restaurant owner is doing in North Carolina!
posted by tljenson at 2:44 PM PST - 82 comments

Standing With Osama? "Some of the more bilious right-wing pundits... have taken to describing those who oppose the invasion as 'siding with Saddam.' But if such sleazy rhetoric is allowable, then maybe we should say that those like our President, who seem to have ignored Osama’s decrees, or like Powell, who are hawking a Saddam/Al Qaeda connection based on overblown evidence, are standing with Osama." Is this accusation fair? If so, is it productive? I doubt it, but I'm not certain. Rohan Gunaratna, the author of "Inside Al Qaeda," warns that an invasion of Iraq would undermine the international campaign against Al Qaeda and give terrorist groups a new lease on life. Oh well, at least it's funny. [Via Cursor.] [More inside.]
posted by homunculus at 1:48 PM PST - 21 comments

The author of the worst novel ever published in the English language gamely submits to an interview by the Washington Post.
posted by alms at 1:01 PM PST - 48 comments

SBC Customer Service staffed by bots? The bots themselves don't bother me too much, I think its pretty cool if SBC Yahoo has bots advanced enough that they can use them for online customer service and the bots turn out to be actually helpful (I don't know, since I never have problems with my DSL and have never used them). What is disturbing, though, is the apparent deceit involved by having that the bots insist on being human. Anyone know anything more?
posted by akmonday at 12:48 PM PST - 19 comments

These guys are running across the United States from New Jersey to Oregon and they're looking for a place to stay. Check to see if they're coming to your town or read their blog. It's not as hard as walking around the world or running for 1000 miles in 1000 hours, but it's still ambitious.
posted by Frank Grimes at 12:04 PM PST - 11 comments

Tantric Teddies. There's not a whole lot to it, but it's pretty funny. (nsfw if you can't display plushies pumping. may be sound, but I don't know, I have no soundcard on this comp. via daypop top 40)
posted by Ufez Jones at 12:02 PM PST - 10 comments

Our Almighty Father Indeed Did'nt Write His Bible For Toilet Paper! FOXY RELIGIONIST-POLITICAL discrimination for Inhuman Economic Exploitation forever prevails against our so-called "World's 'Minorities'" so perpetually deprived of Their God-given Most Primordial and Quintessential Human Rights and Property - AND THIS IS INDEED A FIRST-CLASS DOLLAR-CAMOUFLAGED EVIL.
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:59 AM PST - 24 comments

What is Film Sampling? According to Mike Myers and Dreamworks Films, it's a revolutionary way to insert himself into old movies by using the wonders of technology. Have we created so much content in the past 50 years that it needs to be recycled before there is room for anything truly new? Will this work for films the way it's 'worked' in Music? Will the next generation of filmmakers be Puff Daddy clones reworking classic films, and are there films that should never, ever be touched?
posted by cell divide at 11:39 AM PST - 28 comments

"Rad, wicked, bad, barry, and definitely not sad". Amazingly, James Runcie is talking about glasses. He also describes his own endearing misadventures with NHS specs and how he's changed his opinion from glasses as stigmata (used by "the shy, the gangly, the awkward; people whose voices had not yet broken; the pyromaniacs, the mummy missers, and worst of all, the people who actually liked classical music") to the joy of myopia ("we look in a concentrated manner or not at all, for we cannot bear very much reality"). As to Dorothy Parker's famous dictum, the obsessive, often unsafe for work BBS and links on eyescene should offer some evidence to the contrary.
posted by 111 at 11:06 AM PST - 12 comments

"It's a beautiful day..." So i hear U2's singer, the great and charismatic Bono, has just been nominated for nobel peace prize. Of course, we the french, find it very amusing to find Chirac nominated. (Oh, the hysteria if ever he won). Also in the race is ex Gov. George H Ryan, who amongst other achievements declared a moratorium in 2000, before leaving his job a few months ago... with class. Or maybe they'll just choose Bono & Chirac for knowing how to work together on the 'drop the debt' issue? So, what do you say? (i'd have to go with Bono, i'm afraid. Rock n roll but effective and passionate...)
posted by Sijeka at 10:18 AM PST - 39 comments

talking loud, voting on nothing. georgia's new governor is following through on his campaign promise to "let the people speak" regarding the design of our state flag. the flag was last redesigned in 2001 to put to rest a substantial amount of controversy revolving around the inclusion of a confederate battle flag.

this opportunity to voice an opinion will be offered to the populace next spring in the form of a non-binding referendum. and while the results will not result in an official decision either way, the mayor of atlanta has said she will take a strong stance in the matter by "purposely not [voting] either way on the ballot questions."

is doing nothing an effective means of protest? sounds more like a kid on a playground declaring themselves "switzerland" in the middle of a fight.
posted by grabbingsand at 10:02 AM PST - 13 comments

A rather unbiased look at the US-Europe chasm, and the future of European political aspirations, from four different authors (the first is probably the best). Login information inside.
posted by bokononito at 9:51 AM PST - 4 comments

Mamiko picked up a cork that had rolled on the floor at the restaurant where she worked. From it she made her first tiny cork doll. She is often asked where she gets all of her corks. "I don't drink so much, but all of my friends who can drink quite a lot keep many corks for me." The pacifist is my favorite.
posted by iconomy at 9:35 AM PST - 21 comments

Race-Baiting Bake Sale at U of Michigan: student group sells donuts and bagels for $1 to whites, $0.80 to "non-whites," to "raise awareness of the school's affirmative action admission policies." And to piss off a lot of students, apparently. Clever direct political action, or misguided bunch of jackasses?
posted by serafinapekkala at 8:23 AM PST - 111 comments

Matisse|Picasso, head to head. Pablo just couldn't be sure he's number one as long as Henri was alive and working. And he's right to look over his shoulder. I admire Pablo, and even like some of his canvases, but for my money Henri is the greatest painter since the renaissance, with Vincent at no. two and Pablo in third. It's nice to see some other folks starting to give Henri his props. (P.S. here's the introduction to the show. Here's the slide show. Here's a review from slate with another slide show with a somewhat different and larger selection of the images.)
posted by jfuller at 8:20 AM PST - 19 comments

Ever feel a need to molest a statue? Some people seem to enjoy the statues they encounter a little too much. A lot of pictures showing people groping and sucking unsuspecting statues.
posted by sebas at 7:40 AM PST - 18 comments

How to love the US is a story on the newly redesigned BBC pages, just recently mentioned here. I was struck by the tone of the piece, which seemed to me to be a desperate bid to find good things to say about the US.
Have things really sunk so low? Is the US so despised that it needs the BBC to pimp it?
posted by jpburns at 6:50 AM PST - 86 comments

Wonder Woman to turn in her V-Card After 60 long years of chastity, everybody's favorite Amazon (you may remember the Lynda Carter TV show) will reportedly get it on with character Trevor Barnes in a "tasteful and peaceful" manner. Sequential Tart asks what the definition of 'virginity' is, claiming the strong possibility that on an island full of amazons there had to be some lesbian freaky freaky going on somewhere. However, I am far more concerned if she'll suffer from the same dilemma as Superman does in Larry Niven's Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex. Best. Controversy. Ever.
posted by Stan Chin at 6:49 AM PST - 17 comments

Ronald Reagan used many of the same good vs evil themes we are hearing from the current Administration. However, a comparison of his famous Evil Empire Speech with the recent words and actions of the U.S. makes you wonder if we are becoming what we once fought against.
posted by quirked at 6:38 AM PST - 11 comments

Comixpedia is a new site dedicated to discussion of webcomics news. The Comicon.com Pulse is normally a comic book news site, but they're currently running an interview with Keenspot Prez Chris Crosby. Are webcomics finally getting some decent coverage?
posted by clango at 6:27 AM PST - 1 comments

The BBC's News website has undergone a re-design. The primary change is the switch from using a 640x480 based design to a 800x600 design. BBC News Online's Editor-in-Chief explains their reasons for the change here. What do MeFi users think of the re-design? Personally, I find it's a little CNN-esque and I'm not totally convinced.
posted by metaxa at 5:04 AM PST - 38 comments

Site Mirror. Can you hear Satan speaking?
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:44 AM PST - 21 comments

You may remember the Lords of the Rhymes from a previous post, but now they've taken the next step towards Middle Earth-wide fame and released a video. The hour long download on a 56k is well worth it, so get going!
posted by Orange Goblin at 4:08 AM PST - 8 comments