MetaFilter

Remember when air travel was viewed as glamorous and exciting? Of course you don't. So check out this collection of vintage flight attendant photos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
comment posted at 9:56 AM on Nov-13-07

Justice "live" on Jimmy Kimmel -- An interesting solution to the problem of 'performing' electronic music.
comment posted at 7:20 PM on Oct-24-07

Jon Ronson decides "I'm going to tell my son the worst swearword in the world". His follow up article is also interesting. Incidentally, his "Bad Science" colleague from The Guardian did uncover a list of the worst swearwords from the BBC no less (and previously)
comment posted at 5:36 AM on Oct-23-07

What Cats Know About War. A reporter adopts cats to reconnect with life amid unremitting death. [Via linkfilter.]
comment posted at 4:47 AM on Oct-15-07

NewsFilter: "A Montgomery minister found in his home this summer died with his hands and feet bound behind his back and dressed in two rubberized suits, an offical autopsy showed. ... The Rev. Gary Michael Aldridge was found dead June 24. Police ruled the 51-year-old pastor of Thorington Road Baptist Church was alone at the time of his death and that there was no foul play involved." He's a Liberty University graduate and former Liberty dean.
comment posted at 5:09 PM on Oct-12-07

T-T-T-Tony Snow twenty minutes in the future.
comment posted at 8:31 PM on Sep-14-07

The 25 Best Pop Song Opening Lyrics, like EVER - a spinner.com 'hit list', complete with wry commentary and abruptly cut-off audio clips. Bonus: 25 more, suggested by people who don't work for the webside.
comment posted at 4:16 AM on Sep-7-07

Going After Gore "Al Gore couldn't believe his eyes: as the 2000 election heated up, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other top news outlets kept going after him, with misquotes ("I invented the Internet"), distortions (that he lied about being the inspiration for Love Story), and strangely off-the-mark needling, while pundits such as Maureen Dowd appeared to be charmed by his rival, George W. Bush. For the first time, Gore and his family talk about the effect of the press attacks on his campaign—and about his future plans—to the author, who finds that many in the media are re-assessing their 2000 coverage."
comment posted at 9:26 PM on Sep-4-07

Most of the students entering college this fall, members of the class of 2011, were born in 1989. They never “rolled down” a car window. They have grown up with bottled water. “Off the hook” has never had anything to do with a telephone. Tiananmen Square is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre. Wal-Mart has always been a larger retailer than Sears and has always employed more workers than GM. They never saw Johnny Carson live on television. Wisconsin's Beloit College has published its annual Mindset List. [previously 2003 and 2006]. Now, get offa' my goddamned lawn!
comment posted at 9:31 AM on Aug-22-07

Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? Anyone? Quickly. Where did the Mayflower first land in North America? Nope. Not Plymouth, but Provincetown. On Nov. 21, 1620 the Pilgrims set foot on the sandy tip of Cape Cod. After spending five weeks there, they sailed across Cape Cod Bay to Plymouth. Today Provincetown celebrates the 100 year anniversary of Cape Cod's Pilgrim Monument. The 252-foot granite tower which had its cornerstone dedicated by then President Theodore Roosevelt juts high above the relatively flat terrain of Provincetown and serves as a reference point for landlubbers and sailors alike.
comment posted at 6:24 PM on Aug-20-07

Bush Gets a Spying Blank Check. The passage of the new FISA bill was a hurried response to the revelation that the FISA court recently decided that at least part of the NSA wiretapping program is illegal. It looks to be another step in our gradual transition into a National Surveillance State.
comment posted at 7:42 PM on Aug-5-07

Tom Snyder, host of the Tomorrow Show and the Late Late Show, is dead at 71.
comment posted at 1:20 PM on Jul-30-07

College Republicans National Committe: A video sample of some young supporters. Interviewing just a few of them reveals an interesting pattern of "I wish I could go Iraq, but some external force out of my control is forbidding me". The "teacher" of All Quiet on the Western Front meets postpubescent peer pressure and groupthink ? Via.
comment posted at 7:48 AM on Jul-20-07

Applicant who failed the MA bar exam sues not only the exam board, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and four justices. Why? Because a question on the exam involved a Lesbian Couple, and therefore "the Massachusetts state government...are purposely-advancing Secular Humanism's homosexual agenda." (link goes to pdf of the complaint full of hilarious claims like this one)
comment posted at 11:57 AM on Jul-3-07

Bloomberg running for prez as an independent? You'd almost have to give it low odds but, as an outside possibility, I find it intriguing.
comment posted at 7:06 AM on Jun-20-07

Meet 郑筱萸 (Zhèng Xiăoyú) ^_[WIKI] Former head of the State Food and Drug Administration of China. Recently the quality of Chinese food and drugs has come under fire. You may have heard of tainted pet food from china killing cats and dogs. You might also have read about antifreeze in cough syrup made with impure Chinese glycerin killing people in other countries. Apparently someone in China cares about government accountability, because on May 29th Zheng Xiaoyu sentenced to death.
comment posted at 7:18 AM on Jun-2-07

100 Movies. 100 Quotes. 100 Numbers. If you've got 10 minutes, see how many you can name. I'm hovering around a sure 52.
comment posted at 8:22 PM on May-17-07

Jack Valenti dead at 85.
comment posted at 7:02 AM on Apr-29-07

Jack Valenti, RIP.
comment posted at 5:10 PM on Apr-26-07

"If you can save one life - change two people's minds then you will have done something in life." Noel Martin plans to commit suicide 11 years after a neo-nazi attack left him paralyzed.
comment posted at 7:42 PM on Apr-25-07

David Halbertstam dead in tragic car accident. Experienced, eloquent, and always observant (his dim view of Patrick Ewing being a notable exception), David Halberstam was a journalistic jack-of-all-trades who was probably best known for his stinging indictment of Vietnam warrior Robert McNamara, JFK and LBJ's secretary of defense, in the classic The Best and the Brightest. A superior war correspondent before the era of CNN-televised revolutions , Halberstam was also an excellent historian and sports writer. Halberstam's dense but illuminating The Fifties is an informative and tightly written study on the Eisenhower era. And The Children offers a compelling look at eight young leaders of the Civil Rights Revolution. Moreover, Halberstam's many writings on basketball (The Breaks of the Game, Playing for Keeps) and baseball (Summer of '49, October 1964) rank among the upper echelon of sports books.
comment posted at 7:20 PM on Apr-23-07

An average of 81 people die of gunshot wounds in the US each day. Most of them aren't who you'd expect.
comment posted at 3:05 PM on Apr-22-07
comment posted at 3:41 PM on Apr-22-07
comment posted at 3:44 PM on Apr-22-07

Challenge of the Super Duper Friends looks great, judging from the teaser trailer. Obama as Captain United is probably my favorite.
comment posted at 3:41 PM on Apr-21-07

[Joe] Namath learned to drink as a youngster, back home in Beaver Falls. You could say he developed a taste for hooch as an infant— when he got fussy while teething his mother rubbed his gums with a rag soaked in grain alcohol. (via SpoFi, another story of a great athlete/drunkard)
comment posted at 5:03 PM on Apr-20-07

I Love Vermont
comment posted at 4:28 PM on Apr-20-07

NewsFilter: At least 20 are dead in multiple shootings at Virginia Tech. Just last week, Virginia Tech closed part of its campus as it was the target of multiple bomb threats.
comment posted at 10:31 AM on Apr-16-07
comment posted at 11:08 AM on Apr-16-07
comment posted at 11:13 AM on Apr-16-07
comment posted at 9:57 AM on Apr-23-07

Don Ho passes away. Legendary Hawaiian entertainer Don Ho passed away this morning. Aloha, Don.
comment posted at 6:05 PM on Apr-14-07

Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Pearl star in The Landlord.
comment posted at 11:57 AM on Apr-14-07

Stem Cell Research: An interesting argument on why Bush's policy on stem cell research doesn't make sense.
comment posted at 7:24 PM on Apr-10-07

Don Bolles arrested for soap possession? Germs drummer Don Bolles likes Dr. Bronner's Soap. Or maybe that should be past tense, as Orange County police have arrested him for drug possession, apparently over the hemp oil in his soap bottle. Friends are rallying to raise his bail, and asking sympathetic souls to spread the word.
comment posted at 5:58 PM on Apr-6-07

Alanis Morissette covers "My Humps". This is a single link YouTube post. Thank you.
comment posted at 5:22 PM on Apr-2-07

The 10 Ugliest Men In Heavy Metal History. Well, Metal was never meant for the beautiful people, anyways.
comment posted at 6:34 PM on Mar-31-07

Peter Falk is a multi-talented actor and very likeable guy. He's appeared in many famous films, but around the world he's mostly recognized as TV's Lieutenant Columbo. The guest stars on Columbo were often surprising, and his unconventional but brilliant crimesolving style was so addicting to watch that even his wife got into the action at one point. Columbo is still beloved in many languages and countries, and to this day there are still people hiring themselves out as Columbo lookalikes around the world (although some are clearly better than others). But despite an approved final script & an agreeable Peter Falk, no studio will ever greenlight another Columbo movie. Why? Nobody wants to finance a movie with an 80 year-old lead. Apparently they think there's no way the character can still work, that Peter Falk is too old and he can't possibly have the edge or energy to pull off Columbo now. Obviously, they're sadly wrong.
comment posted at 4:24 PM on Mar-28-07

The Evolution of Homer Simpson Best. (and Longest.) Couch gag. Evar.
comment posted at 6:01 PM on Mar-27-07

United States attorneys can be fired whenever a president wants, but not, as § 1512 (c) puts it, to corruptly obstruct, influence, or impede an official proceeding. "The day the news broke that Ms. Lam, who had already put one Republican congressman in jail, was investigating a second one, Mr. Sampson wrote an e-mail message referring to the “real problem we have right now with Carol Lam.” Bush, Gonzales and Rove are trying to cover their tracks.
comment posted at 6:39 AM on Mar-20-07

Jeopardy history. This early hint came to pass last night; For the first time after 23 years, all 3 contestants in an episode of Jeopardy came to an exact tie.
comment posted at 5:57 AM on Mar-17-07

It's a sticky subject. Romney apologized for his handling of it. Tony Snow felt it was "nice and zippy." John Kerry seems to have embraced it without any problems. Now John McCain latches onto it. Can he free himself?
comment posted at 4:21 PM on Mar-16-07

Ron Paul is now officially running for President. Some say his views, especially on Foreign Policy, make him a longshot.
comment posted at 6:01 PM on Mar-15-07

Was I a good American in the time of George Bush? "Before the current administration, it had always been easy to condemn the "good Germans" who did nothing while Jews, Gypsies and others were rounded up for extermination." Uh, is this just a little over the top?
comment posted at 4:54 AM on Mar-14-07

The dismissals took place after President Bush told Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales in October that he had received complaints that some prosecutors had not energetically pursued voter-fraud investigations...
Sampson sent an e-mail to Miers in March 2005 that ranked all 93 U.S. attorneys. Strong performers "exhibited loyalty" to the administration; low performers were "weak U.S. attorneys who have been ineffectual managers and prosecutors, chafed against Administration initiatives, etc." A third group merited no opinion.

White House Said to Prompt Firing of Prosecutors (NYTimes) - Firings Had Genesis in White House (WashPost) [via]
comment posted at 6:42 AM on Mar-13-07

Ahmadinejad is no Hitler (Los Angeles Times) If you think Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes outlandish comments, consider what Mao Tse-tung said to a visiting head of state in 1954: "If someone else can drop an atomic bomb, then I can too. The death of 10 or 20 million people is nothing to be afraid of."

Nonetheless, 15 years later, a nuclear-armed China was not only contained by the world, it opted for normalization of relations with its archenemy, the United States. Today, it is fashionable to equate Ahmadinejad with Hitler, yet the lesson of the 20th century is that rash leaders can, in fact, be deterred. And Iran's president will prove no exception.
comment posted at 4:45 AM on Mar-13-07

These are all Ween cover bands: Fat Lenny, Weener, Peen, Big Profile's Ween Tribute. Which begs the question: Wasn't one already too many?
comment posted at 7:21 PM on Mar-10-07

Wet cats. Cats in hats. Random kittens. Piano cat. Silly cats. Lucky cat. 26 toed cat. Jumping monastery cats.
comment posted at 10:55 AM on Mar-10-07
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comment posted at 11:20 AM on Mar-10-07