MetaFilter

Sneaky! Grr . . . A few months ago, while surfing for wreck diving info, I stumbled upon this page as a main link entitled Nightlife in the Philippines. Because it promotes outright trafficking of women, I made a ruckus and sent an email complaining about it to the site admin and our government's Department of Tourism. (Prostitution, BTW, is illegal in the Philippines.) Shortly afterwards, the site admin removed the main link. So how come it's still on the site via this page? I know Southeast Asia (the Philippines second only to Thailand, I think) has a rep for cheap beer and women, but I HATE the fact that many foreigners (like the owners of this shop,) feel that they can buy anything they want while on vacation in third world countries, and that it's alright to perpetuate the trafficking of Filipino women under the guise of tourism. Bah.
posted by lillitot at 11:50 PM PST - 32 comments

revenge is a dish best served cold. with total lack of html skills. it's all about the message damnit, not the medium.
posted by jcterminal at 11:18 PM PST - 22 comments

festival international de louisiane - festival international is an incredibly good free, outdoor music festival held in lafayette, louisiana at the end of april. the bands are from all over the globe and generally of some french influence but not always. i make the pilgrimage back home every year, as do many of the people i know. what festival type thingys take place in your part of the world that you think are worth travelling to see? i'm just curious b/c i think this could quite possibly be one of the best overall events going on these days, but... i could be wrong.
posted by ggggarret at 10:24 PM PST - 4 comments

Be discriminated against for looking too good. In Western Australia, a widow whose husband died accidentally is losing compensation money because she's considered attractive enough to remarry. What stupid laws do you have where you live?
posted by Jubey at 8:05 PM PST - 26 comments

Your Most Important Appointment is with yourself. Which is why you should participate in the Hour of Presence.
posted by jacobw at 7:56 PM PST - 9 comments

Vaisakhi Festival - Sikh New Year. Well, given the MeFi tradition of announcing religious celebrations et al, I just thought I'd note that today is the Sikhs invite everyone to celebrate Vaisakhi (or Baisakhi) -- traditionally the start of the agricultural year, and for the past several centuries also the birthdate of the Khalsa form of Sikhism. An interesting history provides some information on how the Sikhs were used and abused by the British, and their struggle (and resulting violence) for independence in the Punjab.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:44 PM PST - 3 comments

Ever wonder if you're power hungry,'social animal'??? This place can tell you! Tell you something you don't already know?? How about your personality type from a medieval perspective !
posted by protocool at 5:53 PM PST - 8 comments

Pamela Anderson to marry Kid Rock. I'll wait for the movie.
posted by dchase at 5:36 PM PST - 53 comments

Cats in Libraries A searchable map of libraries from around the world that have a cat in residence.
from ResearchBuzz
posted by lucien at 5:18 PM PST - 18 comments

Andyco! Bringing you today's technology, tomorrow. Great spoof of a corporate web site, and really thorough. Be sure to fill out the job application as they "don't discriminate based on one's race, gender, religious preferences, or sexual orientation. Just whether you're French or not."
posted by Salmonberry at 4:53 PM PST - 7 comments

This orthopaedic surgery site seems more like a design exercise than an actual attempt at an informative site. Imagine that someone told you to make the site using poor technology choices, couple it with non-professional content not conducive to trusting the doctors, and add a map to the office that does more to enable chuckles than get people to into the business. It's so bad, it's good, and most definitely do not skip intro on this one.
posted by mathowie at 2:34 PM PST - 32 comments

Mike Skinner is a youngish bloke from the English West Midlands. He makes records under the name " The Streets". Over the past month or so he has become ubiquitous in any kind of media you care to mention and everyone is hailing the coming of young laureate for the garage generation. The entire album is avilable for streaming if you follow the link. Just one of dozens and dozens of astounding reviews can be found here.
posted by Fat Buddha at 1:54 PM PST - 12 comments

What a cool idea! A poetry publisher that not only puts out an online journal, but also distributes poems via gumball machines. As of now there's only 7 Gumball Poetry machines worldwide, mostly in the Western US, but they're ready to make more. Next time you've got a quarter jinglin' in your jeans skip the gum and get some free verse instead.
posted by jonmc at 1:27 PM PST - 6 comments

Post-orgasmic syndrome
Tired and sweaty after sex? A Dutch doctor said on Friday he is studying a rare new syndrome among middle-aged men who complain of flu-like symptoms for up to a week after having an orgasm.
posted by nonharmful at 1:16 PM PST - 13 comments

...the end of existence, the long shadow cast by nuclear weapons. Includes a powerful testimony from a hiroshima survivor.
posted by johnnyboy at 12:13 PM PST - 9 comments

Investigating the Power of Prayer
"According to Targ, the prayed-for patients had fewer and less severe new illnesses, fewer doctor visits, fewer hospitalizations and were generally in better moods than those in the control group."
Mayo Clinic researchers have found no such connection. They reported last month that in their trials of distant prayer on 750 coronary patients, they found no significant effect. Why the difference?"
posted by onegoodmove at 11:45 AM PST - 20 comments

Stick figure warning guy. Catch him giving an oscar worthy performance in this brilliant "truck tailgate with boxes falling" sequence. Plus a bonus: read the stick figure's comments on each shoot! I always wanted to meet the megastar who protects corporate America from law suits.
posted by Why at 11:21 AM PST - 5 comments

"For the first time since the University of California tossed out race-based admissions, the percentage of Latino, American Indian and black students admitted exceeds what it was during the last days of affirmative action.… 'On a personal level, I am glad to see it happen. It reinforces my view that black kids can perform as well as anyone else, and you don't need to give them any affirmative action,' [UC Regent Ward Connerly] said."
posted by darukaru at 9:53 AM PST - 16 comments

Simpsons Producer Apologizes to Rio. James Brooks, executive producer of "The Simpsons," apologized to Rio de Janeiro this week for a recent episode of the long-running animated show in which the city was depicted with rats and monkeys teeming on its streets. "We apologize to the lovely city and people of Rio de Janeiro," Brooks said in a statement on Friday. "If that doesn't settle the issue, Homer Simpson offers to take on the President of Brazil on Fox Celebrity Boxing," he added.
posted by ncurley at 9:42 AM PST - 7 comments

The World Wide Web Consortium Voice Browser working group is developing revolutionary markup languages similar to HTML that, instead of focusing on a visual interface, will cover dialog, speech synthesis, speech recognition, call control and other aspects of interactive voice response applications. "This will allow any telephone to be used to access appropriately designed Web-based services, and will be a boon to people with visual impairments or needing Web access while keeping theirs hands & eyes free for other things. " (via: Internet Scout Report)
posted by peacay at 8:42 AM PST - 3 comments

Palestinian leadership condemn bombings in english and arabic as demanded by the US and Israel... any opinions out there?
posted by specialk420 at 8:29 AM PST - 19 comments

Online Audio Recordings: UC Berkeley Lectures and Events Including speeches by James Baldwin, Walter Blum, Malcolm X, and Noam Chomsky, to name a few.
posted by RobertLoch at 8:21 AM PST - 13 comments

Bipartisan group of House Representatives takes Bush to task: "Aiming bipartisan fire at what it described as the Bush administration's alarming penchant for secrecy, a group of House Republicans and Democrats yesterday introduced legislation to cancel President Bush's executive order restricting the release of presidential records".
posted by jack-o at 6:23 AM PST - 27 comments

No matter who is right or wrong in the Israel/Palestine matter, this op-ed piece in the NY Times (login metafi/metafi) pulls at the hearstrings. When the war rhetoric is put to one side and you look at the human reasons why Israel is sticking to its guns, it may make a little more sense. Israelis do have strong reasons for keeping their backs to the wall.
posted by ashbury at 6:21 AM PST - 26 comments

A petition to give the Nobel Peace Prize to Afghan Nuclear Scientists for hiding radioactive material that could have been used for a nuclear bomb by Al Qaeda. I think it's an inspired and appropriate suggestion, and the petition could be of great use in attraction the attention of nominators and Nobel committee.
posted by adrianhon at 6:06 AM PST - 4 comments

Couldn't he have just bought a fancy car to impress the ladies? A Minnesota Police Chief is now the owner of nine counts of criminal arson, all in the name of impressing the honeys. At first, nobody really knew how the fire happened. Apparently, he lit the buildings on fire with the intentions of going in and saving his ex-girl, who lives in one of the buildings. This chick must have been somethin' else. I'm betting the business owners and historical society in the community would be impassioned enough to want to go light up his house in a heartbeat. I'd say he ought to be due for some good old fashioned time at the Gray Bar Hotel, if he gets any. I shudder to think what cellmates do to cops in prison! Then there's This dude!. Can't you go scuba-diving in Key West, like everyone else, man? Where are our heroes, nowadays?
posted by beejaywhy2k at 1:06 AM PST - 6 comments