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An easier way to shave (2.3 meg Quicktime movie, about 30 seconds, funny)
posted by jragon at 7:22 PM PST - 17 comments

The Stewart For America Petition. "We, the undersigned, hereby request that French Stewart immediately change his name to 'Freedom' Stewart." Long live America.
posted by adrober at 6:43 PM PST - 16 comments

Dixie Chicks Pulled from Air After Bashing Bush Dude, these Texas people didn't find criticism of the president unpatriotic when Bill Clinton was president. They thought it was a sacred duty...Apparently country stations in Texas and elsewhere are pulling Dixie Chicks albums because their lead singer, while on an overseas tour, criticized Bush, saying she was ashamed to be from the state as him. People who want to criticize the critics of the critical comments are supporting the Chicks by buying their albums and requesting their songs. I never thought I'd buy a Dixie Chicks album, but that's what I'm going to do tonight, and I'm paying full price!
posted by jengod at 4:45 PM PST - 82 comments

CTHEORY the international journal of theory, technology, and culture.
Recent articles:
The Ambiguous Panopticon: Foucault and the Codes of Cyberspace
Posterchild for the Future: Living with Michael Jackson
The Post-Cyborg Path to Deconism
posted by signal at 4:12 PM PST - 22 comments

"Sissy" fights on the playground, at least when I was a kid, were always the bloodiest. Now you can apply the smackdown without hurting anyone. Much. Friday Flash Shockwave Fun
posted by WolfDaddy at 3:35 PM PST - 14 comments

Man accused of spiking child's juice This cracks me up. Apparently a child wouldn't stop crying on an international flight. So a flight attendant took it upon himself to drug the child to get it to be quite. I can certainly sympathize with him. Yes I know it's serious, but it still cracks me up.
posted by tljenson at 1:47 PM PST - 85 comments

No Whammies! In 1984, Michael Larson turned an ample memory and an abundance of free time into $100,000. How? By appearing on "Press Your Luck." And while the producers refused to rerun his episode, you can watch parts of it here in anticipation of the coming documentary and possible Bill Murray movie.
posted by herc at 1:02 PM PST - 28 comments

English Sans without French. Imagine Think of a world of English without any French influence impact, including linguistic. Some beautiful folks at the Christian Science Studies Monitor have done just that.
posted by kokogiak at 12:55 PM PST - 36 comments

Christopher Andrew Phillips, the University of Texas at Austin student accused of "hacking" the school's computer system, has turned himself in. But reading about his method makes me wonder if this really is hacking and/or illegal...
posted by Big_B at 12:53 PM PST - 13 comments

The United States Is In Deep Doo doo! In the end, there is no such thing as a free lunch. You cannot make money grow in value by shaking it back and forth from one bank to another. You cannot prosper a nation by doing each other's laundry, or filling out their government mandated and greatly obfuscated paperwork, or flinging stock certificates around which may have as little real worth as Federal Reserve Notes. To make money, to show a profit, you must make products that somebody else wants to buy, and sadly, that is a capability the United States has allowed to slip away in great measure.
posted by stazen at 12:51 PM PST - 21 comments

Furry Litters and Fish-Eye Lenses (puppies and kittens...right in your face) . Via B3ta. Hail Friday!
posted by LinusMines at 12:19 PM PST - 13 comments

This is Blak. A 31-year-old novelist and former drug dealer, Yanier Moore told his story to NPR and award winning radio producer David Isay, who created "Ghetto Life 101" ten years ago. The first story to pull my attention from impending war in weeks...and inspiring too.
posted by serafinapekkala at 12:03 PM PST - 7 comments

crunch time for ANWR [nytimes link] the administration wants to push through drilling despite what the residents think, a couple of senators in minnesota, oregon, and arkansas will cast the deciding votes... is the issue worth a call to you senator?
posted by specialk420 at 11:19 AM PST - 22 comments

Just how crazy is Kim Jong-Il? The North Korean dictator is also an uncompromising movie producer whose casting tactics make Bowfinger look tame. In In 1978, the North Korean dictator kidnapped his favorite director from South Korea, and forced him to make a terrible, Communist-themed monster movie called "Pulgasari." Keep in mind, the Bush administration considers this guy saner and more level-headed than Saddam Hussein.(registration req'd)
posted by inksyndicate at 10:40 AM PST - 31 comments

Happy Pi Day! At 1:59 PST, the San Francisco Exploratorium kicks off its Pi Day festivities. If you can't make it, here are more activities or you can just sing a song to ?.
posted by turbodog at 9:00 AM PST - 12 comments

"U.S. consumers would not benefit from knowing which grocery stores, restaurants and butchers stocked meat products potentially contaminated with deadly bacteria" sez the USDA. What am I missing here? Yes, I know, protein, but is it really just me? [more inside]
posted by soyjoy at 8:25 AM PST - 20 comments

Bowling to Vegas! Four drunk bowling fanatics from Chicago are bowling their way across country....apparently for lack of anything better to do(looks like a couple of them are unemployed). Also, they're trying to restore dignity to the good old-fashioned Road Trip(and, of course, bowling). Why bowl to Vegas instead of fly? As Mike says: "It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. Nobody has respect for the road trip anymore. Haven't you people seen Fandango?" Follow their progress across country, and buy 'em a round.
posted by 40 Watt at 8:14 AM PST - 7 comments

The Puma "French Pleasure" Campaign: Hoax From felixsalmon.com. via the AdCritic daily newsletter [Gawker AdRants got there first, however, on a tip from MemeFirst], comes a meme-hacking story straight from the Anarchist's Cookbook chapter on propaganda of the semiotic deed: the infamous Puma viral-marketing scam. It was Tim who got the official statement from the marketing geeks:

It has been brought to our attention that several unauthorized, sexually suggestive advertisements portraying the PUMA brand have been released over the Internet. We are appalled that images like these would be created and distributed under the PUMA name. As a brand, we seek to take a unique perspective toward our advertising in an effort to challenge the boundaries of our industry; however we would never consider using these tactics. We are in the process of researching the circumstances and reserve any legal steps available.

posted by hairyeyeball at 7:57 AM PST - 80 comments

Furniture Of Mass Construction. “We found the warehouse in question contained no weapons of mass destruction, just a load of cheap flat-pack pine furniture from Sweden. Who would have thought that the instructions to build a coffee table would be that complicated.”
posted by MintSauce at 7:52 AM PST - 1 comments

Happy Birthday Albert Einstein
posted by Mwongozi at 7:28 AM PST - 7 comments

The most powerful narcotic invented by humankind is war. Former NYT war correspondent Chris Hedges talks about WAR. Frightening and timeless interview.
posted by samelborp at 7:21 AM PST - 15 comments

You'd better come home, Speedy Gonzalez! Just make sure you never drive through New Rome, the fascist little village Car and Driver said was too far-fetched even for Hollywood. [Via Linkfilter.]
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 7:17 AM PST - 15 comments

UN resolution 377, This makes for fascinating reading as this arcane resolution provides for collective action by the general assembly 'if the security council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security'. Hardly applicable.
posted by johnnyboy at 7:01 AM PST - 13 comments

Advice for Conscientious Objectors in the Armed Forces (html version). "A comprehensive, step-by-step guide to applying for conscientious objector status. This edition....builds upon a tradition which began in 1970 with the First Edition. Advice has since reached over 40,000 military men and women who had decided that they could no longer in good conscience remain in the military. The 1970 Advice spoke to a generation troubled by the war in Vietnam. This generation of conscientious objectors, too, has seen war--most recently in the Persian Gulf, and before that in Panama. It has experienced the end of the Cold War and the flowering of hopes for peace; and it has watched as those hopes turned to disappointment in the chaotic, dangerous post-Cold War world." The G.I. Rights Hotline has recently reported they "fielded a record number of calls, mostly from military personnel and families seeking advice on conscientious-objector and other discharges."
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 6:44 AM PST - 7 comments

It's just not cricket - it would appear that the Cricket commentator at The Guardian is having a bad day.
posted by chill at 5:18 AM PST - 24 comments

Mmmm ... Belgian Fries.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 4:48 AM PST - 25 comments

Has PayPal's acceptable use policy become much broader recently? I just received notice of changes to PayPal's acceptable use policy. I was surprised at the number of things that they have restrictions on. One in particular seemed like the kiss of death: No porn for you unless it's from eBay's Mature section. Won't somebody think of the cam girls? With many banks now offering some sort of internet check-writing facility is PayPal really even a valid business model anymore outside of eBay?
posted by substrate at 4:33 AM PST - 10 comments

Wow. Spartacus Educational is a masterwork of hyperlinked history with a rather eclectic list of focus topics that can suck you in and never let go. Start anywhere, and then just click, and click, and click...

In light of recent events, you might begin, if you wish, with a brush-up on the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, and from there go on to find out more about the Black Hand secret society responsible for the killing. You may attempt to sidestep politics by going to cartoonists, or U.S. novelists and poets, but you will find that the site is organized against a backdrop of world politics (viewed chiefly from a British perspective), a point of view that weaves its own endlessly looping and mesmerizing mesh.
posted by taz at 3:55 AM PST - 9 comments

It was winter -- that is, about the second week in November --and great gusts were rattling at the windows... So begins Sheridan LeFanu's Uncle Silas, one of the good, meaty reads proposed by your friendly Litrix editor. Ah books... [More inside]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:17 AM PST - 11 comments