MetaFilter

Rumors of his death are greatly exaggerated. Well, not greatly, exactly...

My hometown paper blows it out their collective nether aperture. (News media keep obits of the famous ready to use; here's one that detonated prematurely.) From the Smoking Gun via Drudge. And I cringe, yet again, that I live in this lousy town with its crummy newspaper.)
posted by alumshubby at 10:43 PM PST - 14 comments

The best way to describe the taste is flat Sprite with globs of snot floating in it. [more inside]
posted by jonson at 9:42 PM PST - 35 comments

Degener Fine Prints: Japanese prints, and much more.
posted by hama7 at 8:53 PM PST - 6 comments

The Turbo10.com search engine beta is back online. Here's why it will make Google its bitch.
posted by Space Coyote at 8:46 PM PST - 32 comments

VW Beetle days coming to end. I had a '68 as my college car in the 70's. Girls loved it. Got me where I wanted to go (most of the time). The cute car of the 50's and 60's. Have one? Had one?
posted by hockeyman at 8:06 PM PST - 25 comments

Nice Logo, Dude, But Not On My T-Shirt, Thank You Very Much: 250 of those we hated, got sick of, been utterly indifferent to...and still love. Many missing. Which one(s) would you wear for free? [Via geisha asobi and oink.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:41 PM PST - 37 comments

Muslim woman sues over driver's license photo A muslim woman is suing the state of Florida because she doesn't want to take off her veil to take the photo. If everyone were allowed to take covered face photos, what would be the point of having a photo? "Whaddya mean that's not me? Look at the eyes!" More links: http://www.naplesnews.com/03/06/florida/d896205a.htm http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/01/30/muslim-fla-suit.htm (old)
posted by filecrave at 2:48 PM PST - 46 comments

BBC "Fresh doubts over Iraq's arsenal". CNN "Pentagon: WMD report consistent with U.S. case" Google News lists many other sources on this topic, with varying titles depending on who you read.
posted by CrazyJub at 1:49 PM PST - 29 comments

What do you do for a living? Yet another dreaded weekend approaches, bringing with it invitations to parties. Inevitably, I will attempt to strike up a conversation with someone new, and the question will be asked. As a web developer, I usually get a response about someone's personal problems with their own computer, much like doctors usually get a response about a person's xxxx not feeling right. What do you do and what are the responses you get back? Are you ever tempted to lie about what you do?
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 12:25 PM PST - 101 comments

Rudy Van Gelder was probably present for more moments of musical genius than any other human in history. He began working with Blue Note records in 1953, and went on to engineer thousands of sessions with some of the greatest jazz players of all time. Not bad for an optometrist who started off by building a studio in his parents' living room.
posted by Ty Webb at 12:14 PM PST - 3 comments

Obituaries of those who died in Iraq.
posted by agregoli at 11:07 AM PST - 19 comments

The Winners of This Year's Webby Awards.
posted by Blue Stone at 9:51 AM PST - 17 comments

I guess we all suspected it, but those one-armed bandits were fixed all along. The fruit machines we gamble on in our local pubs follow pre-determined sequences to get you hooked; there is nothing random in their behaviour. How do we know? This U.K. campaign group has built PC emulators to run the actual programme code from the gaming machines's ROM chips. They claim they are not only fixed but illegal (via NTK).
posted by rolo at 9:33 AM PST - 53 comments

The Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, has an impressive collection of online exhibits - from medieval scientific instruments and the history of cameras to images of Tycho Brahe and 'the geometry of war' - mathematics and the early modern European battlefield.
posted by plep at 9:08 AM PST - 7 comments

ArtFilter: Imaginative, innovative takes on the landscape theme. Flatscape, "a [paper] publication about the Panorama," was to be published in Europe late last year (*see inside) . The submissions for the first issue are still online here.
posted by Shane at 8:48 AM PST - 3 comments

Read this interesting article in Saturday's Globe and Mail about how non-native species are being introduced into the Great Lakes and throwing off the delicate balance of the lakes' ecosystem. Sea lampreys, zebra mussels, and the New Zealand mudsnail now thrive in the Great Lakes, after arriving via shipping in the Seaway. Both Canada and the US governments are undertaking measures to curb these alien animals. This got me to thinking; is it necessary to eradicate these newly-arrived critters, or are these invasions just another part of that dizzyingly complex web we call Nature?
posted by Jughead at 8:41 AM PST - 21 comments

Bush "will reveal the truth". But what truth is that? Where he says freedom, he means curtailing press freedoms. When he talks about restoring the dignity of a great nation, he means handpicking Iraq's new government. When he mentions WMD, he could be referring to two trailers lacking any biological agent inside and show no signs that they had been used to produce biological weapons, or alternatively, a swimming pool, a drinks distillery and a factory making car license plates. Curiously enough, it's not him but his pals who find themselves in awkward positions. Then again, maybe it is them who are bringing it onto themselves.
posted by magullo at 8:25 AM PST - 47 comments

Play the instruments of Harry Partch online! (Some assembly required.) My favorite: the chromelodeon -- 43 tones per octave! For more background, see this prior Partch post.
posted by UlfMagnet at 8:13 AM PST - 6 comments

U.S. Dep't of "Justice" Blocks Gay Pride Event ostensibly because Bush has refused to issue a proclamation for Gay Pride month. (Clinton's Pride Month proclamation is here. A list of Bush's proclamations can be found here). How inclusive is your employer? Do you have a corporate pride event?
posted by stonerose at 7:58 AM PST - 45 comments

"Fo shizzle ma nizzle" versus Her Majesty's Justice.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 3:08 AM PST - 15 comments

In this corner Fox's Bill O'Reilly in the other corner Al "Stuart Smalley" Franken. Away from the safe confines of Fox News studio no microphone switch could be found for O'Reilly to shut Franken up as he was conveniently able to do earlier this year to anti-war protester Jeremy Glick
posted by thedailygrowl at 12:21 AM PST - 81 comments