MetaFilter

Women who put babies up for adoption required to publish sexual pasts Web sites can't collect info on minors, but Florida wants all women, including minors, to publish their sexual history in local newspapers before they're allowed to give their child up for adoption. Abortions are difficult to get in Florida, almost impossible for some minors because of parental notification and permission requirements, yet wouldn't this law push more women towards abortion rather than towards adoption?
posted by dejah420 at 10:33 PM PST - 83 comments

Okaaaaaaaaaaaay Daaaaaaaaaavey! After a 31 year absence, Davey and Goliath are making their return to television. It's funny, I had no idea it was religious programming until years after I stopped watching it. Oh, and this news explains explains those great Mountain Dew ads...
posted by chumptastic at 9:41 PM PST - 12 comments

Ben Franklin was a member of a dinner club that evolved into a sort of secret society, think tank called The Junto. That group met every Friday from November, 1727 for several decades. Out of those meetings, the group invented the first subscription library in north america, the most advanced volunteer fire department of the time, the first public hospital in Pennsylvania, an insurance company, a constabulary, improved streetlights, paving and what became the University of Pennsylvania. Has anybody ever heard of this? Could something like this work today?
posted by willnot at 9:28 PM PST - 21 comments

In the colorful tradition of linking, debates about the etiquette and legality thereof, and moronic corporate policy, comes Don't Link to Us: a weblog documenting corporate sites with painfully stupid linking policies. Perhaps, as the footnote points out, public shaming is the only means by which the tyranny of evil men can be fended off.
posted by Danelope at 9:21 PM PST - 12 comments

There'll Always Be An England: Wymondham College Remembered. Where matrons are called Scrotum; food is delightful torture; nicknames and slang surpass anything in "How To Be Topp"; staff cars look like Dinky toys; strange and cruel rules and punishments are perversely celebrated - and smoking is de rigueur in the best bicycle-shed fashion. Before anyone mentions the playing fields of Eton, they should know that aptly acronymed WC is a comprehensive school, i.e. public and free, as opposed to "public" schools which are (of course!) private, exclusive and expensive in the UK. And it's only about 50 years old, though it feels and looks like 500. Anyway, it's a sooper, smashing website, full of the real flavour and fun of olde England. Well, East Anglia actually, old fruit! (These few links I've suggested don't even begin to do it justice. Talk about Monty Python; I nearly died!)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:52 PM PST - 6 comments

c not a constant! Over a period of billions of years of course. If this theory is true, then E=mc² might not apply to a large period of time.
posted by riffola at 8:24 PM PST - 29 comments

Weblogs Goin' To Skool Overview, schedule, and resources posted for that potentially infamous UC Berkeley J-school class on weblogs.
posted by peterme at 8:04 PM PST - 7 comments

...perfectly legal to keep a chimp in a broom closet... What happens to zoo animals when they get old and unphotogenic? When the zoo needs to make room for these? (sadness-making warning)
posted by amberglow at 7:20 PM PST - 23 comments

"SomeoneLikesYou and Crushlink represent a more extreme version of what all crush sites do. They inspire you to reveal your own crushes' e-mail addresses by dangling the lure that they know who wants you. "

I guess no one has a crush on me after all.
posted by Kellydamnit at 6:17 PM PST - 15 comments

Today I played kickball. My team came in third of four, but we'd had too much fun (and Mike's Hard Lemonade) to care. Wanna organize your own game? All you need is a copy of the rules, a few rubber kickballs, a way to invite your friends and beer.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 5:31 PM PST - 19 comments

Adbusters TV launched. Everyone's favourite culture jammers and uncommercialists are looking for your video contributions.

"The next time you and your friends organize a street party, liberate a billboard, shoot an indy documentary, or throw a pie into the ugly face of authority, we want people worldwide to catch it the next day

There is an inaugural contest to get the content flowing. They are looking for video, audio, and animation in three categories: Direct Action (jams, spoofs, pranks, protests); Epiphanies (personal works); and Mini-Documentaries.
posted by boost ventilator at 5:07 PM PST - 10 comments

"Pistol fires accidentally at reception for Georgia's Rep. Bob Barr" someone hands a loaded handgun to a u.s representative -- and nra member -- and it accidentally discharges. how they are going to spin this in can only imagine.
posted by dolface at 5:01 PM PST - 28 comments

A computer aided simulation builds a spiral galaxy from its beginning. In all, 390,000 particles were placed in an arrangement similar to a newborn galaxy. The end result after three months is an event that is believed to take billions of years to occur. (animation)
posted by samsara at 4:14 PM PST - 7 comments

Grrls Update: Many Top Think Tanks in D.C. Remain Boys' Clubs. How to retain women in IT jobs. ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) opponent Phyllis Schafly on "homeland security or homeland spying." Women keep savings accounts a secret from husbands, just in case. Inventor of beer, Ninkasi, receives belated recognition as Goddess in Britain. Gallant GIs assisting besieged Afghan Feminist.
posted by sheauga at 3:59 PM PST - 15 comments

But it was broken when I got here! New numbers indicate that the recession started before Bush came to office. Do Bush's statements succeed in making him less responsible for the recession in the eyes of the public? Do these kinds of statements restore people's faith in the economy?
posted by rks404 at 3:44 PM PST - 24 comments

Esdger Wybe Dijkstra: 1930-2002. One of the last remaining computer science gods has passed on after a lengthy battle with cancer. Few had his eloquence, his wit, or his charm. A sharp writer (check out "GOTO statement considered harmful" or The Humble Programmer [pdf]) and a true pioneer in all areas of the field, Dijkstra had a hand in much of modern computer science. A sad day for nerds worldwide.
posted by Succa at 3:26 PM PST - 21 comments

"Pulp" means a lot of different things today. To many people, "pulp"means something lurid, sleazy and sensationalist. That's what Quentin Tarantino meant when he called his movie "Pulp Fiction," a violent and outrageous look at the seedy side of American life. "Pulp" refers to something thrilling and low-rent at the same time - that, at least, is a common definition of the term. "Pulp," however, can refer to something more specific, a certain kind of magazine. [more inside]
posted by mooseindian at 2:08 PM PST - 15 comments

"The old doctrine was that nuclear weapons were far too big and nasty to use, and now they've moved towards developing nuclear weapons they can actually use". On the aniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, does the development of 'low-yield nukes' threaten to blur the distinction between conventional and nuclear warfare.
posted by gravelshoes at 12:37 PM PST - 29 comments

If cyberspace were organized into a giant neural computer... [NYT, reg req] ...one could in theory "upload" a person's mental software into it: thoughts, feelings, memories, the works. - an interesting sci-fi premise by author john darnton complete with a contemporary 'mad scientist!'
posted by sixtwenty3dc at 12:29 PM PST - 29 comments

“The Obtainium ideal is to find useful and valued material for free.” Here’s a very new resource for low-cost or no-cost stuff of all kinds. It’s a breath of fresh air for those of us compulsive craftfolk who are frustrated with the upscale, hipsterish tone of the current DIY resurgence. Most posters are SF based, but they’d like to broaden their horizons.
posted by Fenriss at 12:26 PM PST - 9 comments

U.S. Defies Judge on Enemy Combatant From the WashPost.....yesterday's action was the first time the government has not agreed to a judge's request. The government's action sets the stage for a constitutional confrontation tomorrow. Is anyone else as appalled and disturbed by this as I am? Isn't defiance of the justice system a deeply dangerous precedent?
posted by pjgulliver at 12:05 PM PST - 65 comments

Airline gives free flights on Sept. 11 Spirit Airlines will give away seats on every one of its flights for the one-year anniversary. Is this a good idea? Will anyone, anywhere want to fly that day, even for free?
posted by ice_cream_motor at 9:23 AM PST - 54 comments

Would the Mac platform collapse without Microsoft? BusinessWeek questions the conventional wisdom.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:14 AM PST - 42 comments

Finally, action from the Vatican. After struggling with what to do with errant priests, several are excommunicated.... ...Whoops. Never mind. These aren't the priests one might expect...or maybe they are.
posted by fpatrick at 5:36 AM PST - 53 comments

Is the planned WTC memorial in the wrong place? "There is a desperate futility in the project as presently conceived, because even if the whole site were turned into a memorial garden it would be in the wrong place. For most of the dead did not die there at all, but a thousand feet away, a sixth of a mile, directly above. "

Finally IMHO the perfect solution! The city gets its office space back, the country gets its memorial, the world gets a shockingly wonderful new piece of architecture.
posted by revbrian at 4:01 AM PST - 59 comments