MetaFilter

Hats made of meat. From the canadian, the brisket yarmulke, to the porkpipe, come inside and cherish the present of meat hats. [warning: frametastic, 1995 design, and via [31d1]]
comment posted at 1:02 PM on Jul-25-08
comment posted at 1:15 PM on Jul-25-08

Last Lecture Professor Randy Pausch has died... He was 47. Previously on Mefi.
comment posted at 9:07 AM on Jul-25-08

A jury in Georgia this week awarded a woman $150,000 after she sued her fiancé for breaking off their engagement three days before the wedding....Adding insult to injury, the groom-to-be, Wayne Gibbs, informed his intended, RoseMary Shell, of his decision by leaving her a note in the bathroom." Shell sued for breach of contract ..."[She] said she has suffered emotionally since their breakup." "Gibbs testified that he paid $30,000 of Shell's debt while they were engaged" and "argues he got cold feet after he found out Shell hid [other] debts from him." [video | 0:50] She refutes Gibbs's claim that she was swimming in debt. [video | 03:33].
comment posted at 8:33 AM on Jul-25-08

Microsoft, browbeaten by criticism over Windows Vista, demoed a new operating system code-named Project Mojave to a group of Windows XP users. An overwhelming majority of the XP users liked what they saw. It was then that Microsoft told them they were drinking Folgers Crystals, er, using Windows Vista.
comment posted at 6:53 PM on Jul-24-08
comment posted at 6:58 PM on Jul-24-08
comment posted at 7:29 PM on Jul-24-08

He's 25, She's 84. It is Harold & Maude, The Musical? (slyt, set to Coldplay)
comment posted at 6:29 PM on Jul-23-08

For the first time in the Indian state of Maharashtra, life sentences were meted out based on the findings of Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature(BEOS) profiling.
comment posted at 7:58 AM on Jul-21-08
comment posted at 8:07 AM on Jul-21-08

The žižkov television tower in Prague was pretty weird looking to begin with, since 2000 it's gotten much stranger...
comment posted at 9:02 AM on Jul-19-08

A couple recent documentaries have accurately shown how China is changing and developing at lightning speed. The People's Republic of Capitalism speaks mainly of China's all-consuming economic growth and its ramifications. I was riveted by Frontline's Young and Restless in China and Frontline World: Jesus in China. These show the struggles of the Chinese to keep up with the changes, deal with their hypocritical government and define their beliefs in a society still riddled with corruption.
comment posted at 2:07 PM on Jul-17-08

"I hadn’t gotten beaten by my mom that day, and we hadn’t had any significant arguments over anything. I thought that if I died, I wanted to die without being mad at my mom. So I thought, I might as well take the opportunity to do so before I got back to the house—at which point who knows whether there would be another fight or a beating." Escaping the Amish.
comment posted at 9:39 AM on Jul-16-08

I had sex with my brother but I don't feel guilty. An interesting article in The Times written by a woman who'd had a sexual relationship with her brother that started during their teenage years and continued through to their twenties. Many societies have an incest taboo, but anthropologists have differing views as to how the taboo arose. Claude Lévi-Strauss believed it to have arisen as a method to encourage the practice of marriage outside of one's immediate social group, so that unrelated households or lineages would form relationships through marriage, thus strengthening social solidarity.
comment posted at 8:46 AM on Jul-15-08

A graphic yet poignantly written first-person account of what it is like to weigh 530 pounds. The author of this account is unflinchingly brutal in her candor, which, although it makes some graphic moments in her narrative difficult to read, also brings you deeply into her world and her perspective. (A July 2008 update.)
comment posted at 3:07 PM on Jul-14-08

Cat-scan.com Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
comment posted at 6:40 AM on Jul-14-08

"In humans, the categories of gay and straight are socially constructed.” Researchers are now revealing that animals may engage in same-sex couplings to diffuse social tensions, to better protect their young or to maintain fecundity when opposite-sex partners are unavailable—or simply because it is fun. These observations suggest to some that bisexuality is a natural state among animals, perhaps Homo sapiens included, despite the sexual-orientation boundaries most people take for granted
comment posted at 6:56 AM on Jul-14-08

Lillian Ladele, a Christian registrar, has won her discrimination case after refusing to conduct same sex civil partnerships. " Islington Council cared too much about the "rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual" community, the panel ruled. "
comment posted at 7:23 AM on Jul-11-08
comment posted at 7:29 AM on Jul-11-08
comment posted at 1:32 PM on Jul-11-08
comment posted at 6:05 AM on Jul-12-08
comment posted at 9:10 AM on Jul-12-08

Does WALL-E demonize fat people?
comment posted at 3:47 PM on Jul-10-08

This is the city, Los Angeles California. I work Here. I carry a badge. My name's Friday.
comment posted at 5:21 AM on Jul-10-08
comment posted at 5:24 AM on Jul-10-08

Obama votes to grant telecom companies immunity for illegal wiretapping and "refines" his stance against Iraq to consider indefinite, undefined or vaguely defined occupation. One remarks about Obama's recent move to the right with a new campaign logo. Obama denies any change in policy.
comment posted at 3:41 PM on Jul-10-08

According to Ilechukwu, an epidemic of penis theft swept Nigeria between 1975 and 1977. Then there seemed to be a lull until 1990, when the stealing resurged. “Men could be seen in the streets of Lagos holding on to their genitalia either openly or discreetly with their hand in their pockets,” Ilechukwu wrote. “Women were also seen holding on to their breasts directly or discreetly, by crossing the hands across the chest. . . . Vigilance and anticipatory aggression were thought to be good prophylaxes. This led to further breakdown of law and order.” In a typical incident, someone would suddenly yell: Thief! My genitals are gone! Then a culprit would be identified, apprehended, and, often, killed.
comment posted at 4:11 PM on Jul-8-08

The World's First Software Engineer David Caminer, the System designer behind LEO, the world's first business computer, has died, aged 92. He was a true pioneer, inventing many of the standards now called systems engineering.
comment posted at 3:42 PM on Jul-8-08

Hans Reiser leads police to the body of his wife. Software engineer Hans Reiser, who was convicted in the murder of his wife, Nina, long denied he killed her. His defense was based on the theory that she was hiding out in her native Russia and her body could not be found. Today, in a possible exchange for a shorter sentence he led police to the shallow grave of Nina Reiser, just a moment's drive from the house he lived in with his mother and two children. Previously, previously.
comment posted at 8:54 AM on Jul-8-08

"Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was in Denver, CO, today for a town hall meeting. The event, at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, was billed as 'open to the public.' Yet Carole Kreck, a 61-year-old librarian carrying a 'McCain=Bush' sign, was taken away by police [on orders from McCain's security detail] for trespassing. A police officer told Kreck:

'You have two choices. You can keep your sign here and receive a ticket for trespassing, or you can remove the sign and stay in line and attend this town hall meeting.'

Kreck received a ticket for trespassing and her court date is July 23."^*. Video of Kreck's encounter with the police.
comment posted at 5:35 PM on Jul-7-08

Gabriel’s Revelation: “This should shake our basic view of Christianity... His mission is that he has to be put to death by the Romans to suffer so his blood will be the sign for redemption to come... This is the conscious view of Jesus himself. This gives the Last Supper an absolutely different meaning.”
comment posted at 6:29 AM on Jul-6-08

Fmr. US Senator Jesse Helms, 1921 - 2008.
comment posted at 12:41 PM on Jul-4-08
comment posted at 12:46 PM on Jul-4-08

Amish puppy mills, outrage and controversy.
comment posted at 8:13 AM on Jul-4-08
comment posted at 8:23 AM on Jul-4-08

Bush Stimulates The Porn Industry With His Economic Package When President Bush announced his economic stimulus in January, he bragged that his package was “large enough to have an impact" and would “boost” the economy. It sure has led to “higher consumer spending”, but not where Bush had probably hoped. The adult pornography industry reports that has seen a huge uptick in business thanks to Bush’s package. According to a press release from the Adult Internet Market Research Company. A case of tax relief translating into a venti latte with full release?
comment posted at 12:17 PM on Jul-3-08

This Spring Swedish super-blogger Blondinbella aka Isabella Löwengrip is causing a huge controversy in Sweden. 17 year old Isabella Löwengrip writes Sweden's most read and most discussed blog, Blondinbella. (Here is number two FWIW.) Löwengrip started blogging to recruit members to the political party Moderaterna (what passes for right wing in Sweden) but she discovered readers were far more interested in reading about what she was wearing.
comment posted at 6:48 AM on Jul-2-08

The appearance of Rebel the (quite cute) six-week-old black German Shepherd puppy has resulted in an apology from the Tayside Police to its outraged Muslim community.
comment posted at 7:35 PM on Jul-1-08
comment posted at 7:36 PM on Jul-1-08
comment posted at 7:37 PM on Jul-1-08

I'm voting Republican. Americans from many career types describe why they're voting Republican. More info about the video.
comment posted at 3:52 PM on Jun-30-08
comment posted at 3:57 PM on Jun-30-08

Wal-mart/Sam's Club and Costco are in the process of switching to a re-designed milk jug.
comment posted at 7:02 PM on Jun-30-08

The Great Moon Hoax of 1835. During the last week of August 1835, the New York Sun published a six-part article about the discovery - purportedly by renowned astronomer Sir John Herschel - of fantastical life on the moon, including herds of bison, blue unicorns, "a primitive tribe of hut-dwelling, fire-wielding biped beavers, and a race of winged humans living in pastoral harmony around a mysterious, golden-roofed temple." The public's reaction was a mix of credulity and skepticism. Read the full text of the serialized articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.
comment posted at 1:04 PM on Jun-25-08

Michigan to Palestine: "Stephen and I traveled to Bilin, near Ramallah, on Friday. [...] IDF soldiers began firing CS gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at the marchers [...] here's a video of me running away when the soldiers started firing gas canisters [...] I had my jump kit with me and tried to help a few people [...]"
comment posted at 3:03 PM on Jun-24-08

Alright, Mefites, what did you do on your summer vacation? "Hit the pool a lot." "Sweated like hell." "Got through a lot of summer reading." ... "Went overseas and built a playground for children in a land not my own."
comment posted at 3:14 PM on Jun-24-08

Last week, Genepax Co demonstrated a car that it says runs on water. Video of the demonstration is here.
comment posted at 2:32 PM on Jun-24-08

Here is a handy guide to the various attitudes towards gay marriage from religious denominations. (previously)
comment posted at 9:40 AM on Jun-24-08
comment posted at 12:04 PM on Jun-24-08

Amy Winehouse has Emphysema. The 24 year old artist, whose career has netted multiple awards but has often been overshadowed by her drug use, now faces a lung condition that can be slowed but never reversed, with effects ranging from shortness of breath to cyanosis and heart faliure.
comment posted at 9:37 AM on Jun-23-08