MetaFilter

Mississippi Gulag. Remember Tranquility Bay? Kids being forcibly deported to Jamaica, where they have to earn their right to speak by advancing in a perverted "level" system, with punishment ranging from laying on the floor for hours to painful "restraint" sessions? A report by Assistant Attorney General submitted on June 19, 2003 to Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove sheds light on two different "correctional" facilities, the Oakley and Columbia "Training Schools" in Mississipi. Boys and girls aged from 10 to 17 are hogtied for hours, pepper sprayed for disobedience, forced to eat their own vomit during exercises, or stripped naked and locked in a dark room for days because of suicide attempts. Between torturing sessions, they have to participate in good Christian prayers. These kids have to suffer abuse that would lead to a nationwide scandal if it happened to adults (or if sex was involved). AP has a brief summary.
posted by Eloquence at 11:52 PM PST - 11 comments

I'll say it: It's time someone did something about the Monkeys. Over the last two years they have established a clear cut pattern of terror & harassment in countries ranging from Eastern India, Jakarta, Tokyo, Sri Lanka or New Dehli, and the fact remains that it's only a matter of time before these crazed foreign monkeys make their way to places I could actually find on a map, or possibly even America, (possibly in this guy's pants). When they come, and they will, will our leaders protect us from their savage rampage? Or is it too late - are they already among us?!?
posted by jonson at 11:01 PM PST - 18 comments

Poultry poetry? Bitten by the Silkie bug? Got left over bird diapers that you would like to put to use? Pick up a few new feathered friends at bargain-barn prices. But please, keep the poultry porn to yourself (bad design/mild ickiness warning)
posted by answergrape at 9:39 PM PST - 3 comments

Darwinian assembly lines.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 5:59 PM PST - 15 comments

An Elegant Gothic Lolita, EGL or Gothic Lolita for short, is a Japanese teen or young adult who dresses in amazingly elaborate Gothic looking babydoll costumes. Of course, you could make your own.
posted by signal at 5:26 PM PST - 38 comments

Jesus, Told the US A Bald-Faced Lie, I Got Proof Satan Has A Brother! Good stuff from Prophet Freddie. It says "comedy" on the homepage, but I don't think he's joking.
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:29 PM PST - 2 comments

One Ring Circus -- insanely detailed Lord of the Rings costumes stitched up by some fans...for those who can't wait 147 more days.
posted by serafinapekkala at 1:06 PM PST - 12 comments

Prior to Heinrich Schliemann's excavations in 1871, the academic world held that the city of Troy had never existed; it was just a tale in a book; as silly to search for as Utopia or Robinson Crusoe’s Island. But Schliemann believed Homer’s Troy must have existed. He wanted it to exist, the story had caught his imagination. Acting upon descriptions of Troy’s location from Homer’s ‘Iliad’, (written more than 500 years after the fall of Troy) Schliemann started digging…and proved everyone wrong.
posted by rrtek at 12:57 PM PST - 16 comments

Dissection videos. Dartmouth: Human Anatomy. University of Wisconsin Medical School: Human Anatomy. TissueLink: Liver. University of Michigan: Peritoneum. Palo Alto School District: Sheep's Heart. University of Alberta: Cat; Squalus. American Museum of Natural History: Dogfish Shark. University of Virginia: Frog. Scott Middle School, Fort Knox, Kentucky: Frog; Worm (On the first frog dissection video the teacher tells the students, "He's dead, he won't complain. I promise he won't sue."). University of Kentucky: Esophageal Hiatus. ThinkQuest: Starfish. Carolina Biological Supply: Owl Pellets. Science Man: Television Set. Greg Frederickson: Twist-hinged dissection of an equilateral triangle to a square. More geometric dissections: Geometric dissections on the web.
posted by Mo Nickels at 12:27 PM PST - 10 comments

Cartoon in Times Prompts Inquiry by Secret Service I know these guys have to investigate jokesters and fools who threaten the President, but this has the broad outlines of Federal intimidation of the press. Bah humbug on the SS, good for the lawyers for smackin' the guy down, and double good for the L.A. Times for reporting it to their readers. (Reg. req. to read story. Sorry 'bout that, kittens.)
posted by jengod at 12:14 PM PST - 35 comments

BuyMusic.com debuts, a service that allows the 90-some-odd percent of people out there who use Windows to legally download music like their Mac-loving brethren have been able to do with iTunes. I went and used it today and give it an initial grade of "C": The music collection is adequate but could be larger and definitely needs indie artists, the UI is tolerable but needs improvement, and the music files themselves are generally okay but of inconsistent quality. One major problem I saw is that it listed -- and let people buy -- albums that they couldn't actually download: I had this happen with a Depeche Mode singles collection. Has anyone else used it yet? What are your thoughts? And notwithstanding the imminent Windows version of iTunes (which we are told will arrive by the end of the year), how long until this site has more real competition?
posted by jscalzi at 12:11 PM PST - 36 comments

samorost... an entrancingly beautiful and organic, flash-based puzzle/story. Move your cursor around the screen and figure out how to help the little guy save his home.
posted by crunchland at 11:33 AM PST - 61 comments

St. Jude is dead. Senior editor of influential cyberculture magazine Mondo 2000 (the magazine that arguably inspired Wired) and the original grrl-hacker, dead at age unknown. She coined the term "cypherpunk," wrote interesting books, and encouraged every girl to get online.
posted by waxpancake at 11:23 AM PST - 14 comments

The Mercury Music prize has rolled around again. 12 top artists from the UK and Ireland are up for glory. Winning is no guarantee of long term success, so frankly,what's the point?
posted by ascullion at 10:35 AM PST - 12 comments

Tool Making Crow
"In the experiments, a captive female crow, confronted with a task that required a curved tool (retrieving a food-containing bucket from a vertical pipe), spontaneously bent a piece of straight wire into a hooked shape -- and then repeated the behavior in nine out of ten subsequent trials." The behavior was captured on an amazing video clip.
posted by Irontom at 10:17 AM PST - 55 comments

$15 million burning a hole in his pocket. Having made millions in real estate, this Philadelphia philanthropist is using the money as an object lesson to his children by giving it all away. Now that all the money is pretty much gone, he's in the hospital today giving away a kidney to a complete stranger. Will his children get more out of this example than they might have out of college? Could you do what this couple is doing? (Before you answer, note: they don't even have cable!)
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 9:59 AM PST - 41 comments

RIP: Walter "Matt" Jefferies - designer of the original U.S.S. Enterprise and contributor of much of what made Star Trek what it is today. And the guy who the Jefferies tube was named after.
posted by QuestionableSwami at 9:48 AM PST - 33 comments

PC Audio 'toy' now an inexpensive MIDI controller, thanks to this program. The Mixman DM2 is still a toy, but DM2 to MIDI opens up a world of soft/hardware options for this cheap device. I've tried it with NI's Traktor and Ableton Live, and it works very nicely.
posted by ewwgene at 9:33 AM PST - 18 comments

Harlan Ellison vs. AOL This case has been discussed before, but here's an update from the Wall Street Journal.
posted by sassone at 8:40 AM PST - 73 comments

Dokaka Insane Japanese a cappella that makes Jud Jud or Anton Maiden seem sober. Check out his 3 albums: One of heavy metal covers (including an incredible version of Metallica's Creeping Death), one that includes classics like Ramblin' Man, and another that's just a wonderful hodgepodge (Stevie Wonder Triple, oh my....). He's got a fairly useless homepage, but it's worth keeping an eye on because he posts new songs there.
posted by ubueditor at 8:27 AM PST - 6 comments

Old white Congressman tells black activist to get out of his state: "The people of Michigan have a simple message to you: go home and stay there. We do not need you stirring up trouble where none exists. Michiganders do not take kindly to your ignorant meddling in our affairs. We have no need for itinerant publicity seekers, non-resident troublemakers or self-aggrandizing out-of-state agitators." (pdf link -- emphasis added) You'd be forgiven for assuming this letter was written in 1965 from a southern segregationist to a civil rights activist. But the writer is actually the most senior Democrat in Congress, John Dingell, the activist is University of California Regent (and Affirmative Action opponent) Ward Connerly, and the letter was written July 6, 2003. It seems Dingell isn't happy with Connerly’s efforts to promote a Michigan ballot initiative outlawing the use of race as a factor in hiring and college admissions. But Connerly isn't one to just bow his head and shuffle back to Cali: "[T]he term arrogance does not begin to capture the essence of a United States Congressman advising an American citizen to refrain from participating in the affairs of his government. Ironically, your advice is the echo of southern segregationists who sought the comfort of states' rights to practice their discrimination against black Americans. Have you learned nothing about 'civil rights' from that horrible chapter in our nation's history?" [via Critical Mass]
posted by pardonyou? at 7:24 AM PST - 59 comments

A plucky anti-abortion crusader has convinced Berkshire-Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett to end a philanthropic program that has donated $200 million over 2 decades. She is delighted. Does any of this (his decision, her delight) make sense? What are some other successful examples of small, grassroots movements exerting a major impact on philanthropy?
posted by stonerose at 7:19 AM PST - 28 comments

GWU's Encyclopedia to the 2003/2004 Election Cycle - I was impressed when I checked out "Democracy In Action", GWU's excellent breakdown of everything political in the 2003/2004 cycle. It features an excellent detailed comparison of Democratic presidential candidates (e.g., here's my personal fave) featuring their voting record, stances, finances, and organization. Also, you can understand how a candidate campaigns in NH or IA, see ads that were placed by interest groups, check out which member of congress has endorsed who, where all the staffers from the 2000 election are working now, -- you can even see who's on the Green Party's Presidential Exploritory Committee. Thanks, GWU -- I'll never be productive ever again!
posted by jennak at 6:32 AM PST - 3 comments

Bill Barilko immortalized by The Hip in the song Fifty Mission Cap won the cup for the leafs in 1951. Later that summer, he disappeared in a plane crash north of Cochrane, Ontario. In an ironic twist of fate, the Maple Leafs did not win another Stanley Cup until 1962, the same year that his remains were finally found. Now, The body of a former NHL first-round draft pick who disappeared in Austria almost 14 years ago has been found frozen in the Alps. Someone tell Gord, maybe he can get a new song out of this.
posted by Blake at 6:27 AM PST - 5 comments

Google: the God that failed? is the title of the article on MSN Slate. All of us know Microsoft is working on a new search engine technology. Till date everyone considers Google to be the Guru. MS obviously doesn't like that, so what it is doing? Well, the same thing it always does - to survive competition, eliminate it. The reasons being given by the article are pretty silly and more aimed at 'faming down' Google.
posted by jayantk at 5:17 AM PST - 39 comments

Audiopad is a composition and performance instrument for electronic music which tracks the positions of objects on a tabletop surface and converts their motion into music. More info here. [.pdf]
posted by soundofsuburbia at 4:54 AM PST - 6 comments

MJ pro-tech, anti-jail: "I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans -- mostly teenagers -- in jail for downloading music," he said in a statement from his Neverland Ranch in the western state of California. "It is wrong to illegally download, but the answer cannot be jail. Here in America we create new opportunities out of adversity, not punitive laws, and we should look to new technologies ... for solutions. This way, innovation continues to be the hallmark of America. It is the fans that drive the success of the music."
posted by allaboutgeorge at 2:15 AM PST - 23 comments

Beginner's guide to trackback. Old news to most here, but with even Radio Userland now implementing the technology, trackback has the potential to be another kind of spam, with gratuitous self-links popping up all over the place. When everyone can blog, will the Blogosphere be the next victim of Usenet's neverending September? Whether providing "community support" or "publishing tool", how long before popular bloggers are forced to implement Bayesian trackback filters?
posted by cbrody at 1:35 AM PST - 10 comments

Cirque Du Soleil fires HIV positive gymnast. "It's preposterous for Cirque de Soleil to call Matthew a 'known safety hazard,'" Gorenberg said. "Cirque du Soleil denied Matthew this job not because of sound science or rational concern for other employees but because of unfounded fear. It defies both common sense and science to think that Matthew would exchange bodily fluids with another gymnast while flying through the air."
posted by adrober at 12:28 AM PST - 28 comments