MetaFilter

Who's this years favorite? Anyone want to guess who will win it all? Got that someone in the office that does better than the sports "know it all"? Let the bracket analysis, predictions, and of course trash talk commence for MADNESS!
posted by brent at 9:36 PM PST - 22 comments

Israeli army bulldozes, kills American protester. Rachel Corrie, 23, of Olympia, Washington was killed in the Gaza Strip on Sunday when an Israeli Army bulldozer ran her over while trying to destroy a house in the Palestinian settlement of Rafah. Rachel was one of eight Palestinian Solidarity volunteers from the US and Great Britain at the scene, who were gathered in front of the house of Dr. Samir Masri, which was slated for demolition. Rachel Corrie was a leading organizer of the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace, and was a senior at Evergreen State College, majoring in International Studies. She was also a talented writer, documenting her experiences in Palestine and Gaza.
posted by insomnia_lj at 6:44 PM PST - 189 comments

Waging Peace: Dr. Robert Muller, former assistant secretary general of the United Nations, and one of the people who witnessed the founding of the U.N., says the global body is fulfilling its ultimate purpose: "Never before in the history of the world has there been a global, visible, public, viable, open dialogue and conversation about the very legitimacy of war".
posted by alms at 5:50 PM PST - 19 comments

Tense times all around, globally and here on MeFi! Many of us may be feeling a bit anxious and even a bit desperate. Perhaps a few little flash diversions would help to lighten the mood lest anyone be tempted to kick the cat or tease the dog. We could definitely all use a good laugh or two. After all, you only live twice.
posted by madamjujujive at 5:47 PM PST - 19 comments

Smurfs Gone Wild Not Safe For Work, and it's just another dumb flash cartoon, but there haven't been any unprecendented attacks on Smurf village as far as I know. I think it's all a part of the vast Smurf Conspiracy. Let's all forget about that Iraq thing and discuss the dubious moral character of Smurfette.
posted by Stan Chin at 5:23 PM PST - 21 comments

37 years ago, william shatner launched an unprecedented television sci-fi attack on the american public. (warning: disturbing images). i think this speaks for itself.
posted by quonsar at 4:28 PM PST - 22 comments

58 years ago Harry Truman launched an unprecedented nuclear weapons attack on 2 Japanese cities. (warning: disturbing images). I think this speaks for itself.
posted by letterneversent at 4:04 PM PST - 60 comments

15 years ago today Saddam Hussein launched an unprecedented chemical weapons attack on 20 Kurdish villages. (warning: disturbing images). I think this speaks for itself.
posted by clevershark at 3:43 PM PST - 53 comments

Chasing the Wish was one of those websites that people suspected of being everything from another 8march2003 to another Push Nevada or Cloud Makers. What it turned out to be however was a announcement for a free ARG or Alternate Reality Game as hosted by such groups as the ARGN, Unfiction, Collective Detective, to name a few. Mentioned in this BBC article and this NYT article, as potential ways to study collective problem solving dynamics, it would seem that this type of crossover treasure hunting could yield some very real world knowledge. I bet the folks at Princeton will have an eye on this one. It's already spawned a funny parody site too.
posted by metameme at 2:55 PM PST - 4 comments

Fascinating Freedom-minded Frenchmen in US History No. 1 - Eduoard de Laboulaye: something historical to take your mind off it all for the next twenty-four hours. [...more inside.]
posted by klaatu at 12:47 PM PST - 6 comments

"According to two fish-cutters at the New Square Fish Market, the carp was about to be slaughtered and made into gefilte fish for Sabbath dinner when it suddenly began shouting apocalyptic warnings in Hebrew."
posted by solistrato at 11:40 AM PST - 43 comments

Possible constitutional changes rock Liechtenstein. Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein has vowed to leave the country if he doesn't win a referendum today on legitimizing his rule. Opponents say it's a power grab (NYT link)...and the prince's critics have had mangled cat and pig remains left on their doorsteps.
posted by Vidiot at 11:04 AM PST - 5 comments

Periodic Table of Haiku
posted by blue_beetle at 9:03 AM PST - 7 comments

The Kunisada Project, dedicated to one of the greatest ukiyo-e artists.
posted by plep at 8:54 AM PST - 4 comments

Did you know that March is Poison Awareness month? More than 90% of poisonings occur in the home, more than half involving children under the age of six. Each year, more than five million poisonings are reported in the U.S. alone. How poison aware are you? Are you familiar with the (U.S.) toll-free phone number you can call if you suspect someone has been poisoned? How about the various symbols used to identify poisons in the home: the Mr. Yuk or the more widely identifiable skull and crossbones? Are you following best practices to prevent household poisonings? (Oh, and did you know that Poison Control Centers nationwide are on the front lines of national preparedness and response in the event of a biological or chemical terrorist attack? Now you do!)
posted by Dreama at 8:54 AM PST - 9 comments

Mapping the captive globe (.pdf heavy) (via Metamute)
posted by none at 8:19 AM PST - 4 comments

Canada apologizes to the USA (Real Video). What Colin Mockery does when he's not making stuff up on the fly.
posted by CrazyJub at 8:14 AM PST - 12 comments

Sticking to the gay stuff: The ACLU is threatening legal action against a middle school in Arkansas whose administrators have gone to extraordinary lengths to punish a student for being gay, including outing him to his parents, forcing him to read passages of the Bible, calling him "abnormal" and "unnatural," and disciplining him for mentioning between classes to a female friend that he thought another boy was cute. (via CalPundit) [more inside]
posted by grrarrgh00 at 8:07 AM PST - 29 comments

Chinese-art.com is a web-based portal site designed to provide.. [more]
posted by hama7 at 7:03 AM PST - 4 comments

"Weapons of Mass Destruction", you say? Question: If Iraq is the vicious rat and North Korea the furious pygmy of WMD threats, where is the 800 pound gorilla? Answer - "...law enforcement officials worldwide have seized 40 kilograms of Russian-origin uranium and plutonium since 1991. Stanford researchers have also estimated that only 30 to 40 percent of the nuclear material stolen from facilities in Russia and other territories in the former Soviet Union are ever recovered by authorities." the collapse of the Soviet Union left vast stores of Nuclear weapons and weapons grade plutonium and uranium, and stocks of chemical and biological warfare agents lying about at dangerously underfunded facillities scattered through the vast expanse of the ex-Soviet realm. "Russian stockpiles of weapons and materials are the most likely source for terrorists attempting to acquire weapons of mass destruction", said US Senator Richard Lugar, Republican chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. An international effort to destroy these stores of ex-Soviet WMD's is currently funded at a tiny fraction of the estimated cost of a possible US invasion and occupation of Iraq. (more inside)
posted by troutfishing at 6:52 AM PST - 10 comments

Heimlich falsely claims he invented surgical procedure. Have you ever been choking in a lovely restaurant and suddenly felt the hands of God around you, releasing forth the offending object? Henry Heimlich has long taken all of the credit for this procedure, though it had apparently been performed by Romanian doctor Dan Gavriliu at least four years before Heimlich started to make his claims.
posted by Pancake Overlord at 6:26 AM PST - 9 comments

"There is making of silver sex". Taking bodypainting/messy obsessions to the very edge, Manon Production from Japan sells a wide selection of fetish videos (sample mpeg 1.69MB). All feature illustrative pictures and detailed, eerie Engrish descriptions ("we feel admirable and poor at her black smile"; "Midori's body is changing colourfull"; "a little golden powder enters into her eyes"). Results can also evoke a sculpture, the theater or abstract art. Considering the evident misogyny of the whole effort, is it all the more unsettling because the images are sometimes beautiful (1, 2)? Is it an attempt to somehow bring Sorayama's creatures to life? Could the models be actually enjoying it? NOT SAFE FOR WORK.
posted by 111 at 2:45 AM PST - 16 comments