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Switched on Game Boy (zip of mp3's) by Pharmacom , released on 20kbps rec. Wendy Carlos, beware.
posted by bigmusic at 11:17 PM PST - 9 comments

Shuttle crew faces 1-in-100 chance of dying. "Discovery astronaut Mike Fossum described how his family is dealing with the risk: 'I have to look my wife in the eye. ... We've had those discussions. It's not one she is really comfortable with. It's not one anybody really is.' " Launch decision ignores advice of safety officer and engineer. Vaya con Dios, Discovery.
posted by paulsc at 10:02 PM PST - 51 comments

It's not your grandfather's Bazooka Joe. The ol' reliable chewing-gum icon gets hipsterized and multicultified, with a new DJ buddy and an African-American nerd sidekick. The classic pink mouth-filling wad in the goofy wrapper has also been reformulated, apparently. Note that it's not the first time Joe has tried to be down with teh youth, with decidedly mixed results. Next up for Bazooka Janes in Japan: gum that enhances your bustline. (Bazooka Joe previously chewed over here.)
posted by digaman at 8:42 PM PST - 20 comments

Ask A Ninja. Have a question? Now you know who to ask. What is Podcasting? What's it like being a Ninja? How can we save the Internet? Do you want to come over and watch some Merchant Ivory films with me? Oh, and the theme song is pretty catchy too. Lots of embedded flash, with links to download or subscribe as well
posted by JZig at 8:13 PM PST - 11 comments

Andre's NES Emulator — play the classics online
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:09 PM PST - 16 comments

Burned: a photoset on Flickr "In 2001 I met a burn survivor who allowed me to photograph her. She told me that she wanted to be photographed so that people could stare at her without feeling embarrassed. It was such an extraordinary experience that a few months later I flew to a burn conference and set up a makeshift studio in a hotel room, and asked people to let me know if they would like their portraits made. I was astonished at how many people did. What I learned from this extraordinary experience was that every burn survivor has a tale of courage to tell, and that the burns have their own eerie beauty." Amazing, unsettling, inspiring.
posted by mathowie at 6:39 PM PST - 48 comments

Foucault’s Pendulum Art Inspired by Umberto Eco’s novel, entitled: Foucault’s Pendulum the artist Lukas Arciniegas has created a series of beautiful illustrations. Also of note: The Holy War: Mac VS Dos [Do check out the sidebar] "Faith in Fakes"? Also see: an actual pendulum. And Dan Brown? Bleh...
posted by Unregistered User at 5:27 PM PST - 33 comments

America's craziest bookstore has gone out of business. Loompanics, a libertarian publisher in Washington State, has gone out of business. Some blame the changed political climate after 9/11. Others blame Amazon.com and the big bookstore chains. No matter what the cause might be, I will miss them. What will I do if I decide I want to try to cook some crank? And if that doesn't succeed in paying the bills, what if I need to go dumpster diving for my dinner? And if get truly desperate, what if I decide to rip off a drug dealer instead? I'm glad that Amok is still with us.
posted by jason's_planet at 2:59 PM PST - 22 comments

Who are the jihadists? Marc Sageman on the global Salafi jihad: its goals, its history, who the jihadists are, how they're drawn to the jihad, how the movement is organized. [more inside]
posted by russilwvong at 2:28 PM PST - 37 comments

"The Death of Zarqawi", a computer game which simulates the raid that sent Zarqawi to his 72 virgins. "Created within two weeks of the real-life bombing, the episode allows gamers to join the U.S.-led coalition stationed just outside the house where al-Zarqawi is meeting with other insurgent leaders and choose between two strategies of attack: calling-in the real-life air strike that killed Zarqawi, or an alternate on-foot ambush which involves storming the guarded house and attempting to capture the terrorist leader alive."
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:25 PM PST - 71 comments

Gallery of Soviet governmental posters
posted by jonson at 1:30 PM PST - 31 comments

Operation removes lightbulb from anus. Fateh Mohammad, a prison inmate in Pakistan, says he woke up last weekend with a glass lightbulb in his anus.
posted by three blind mice at 12:33 PM PST - 78 comments

Reading up on Sealand's recent fire, I came across Bob Le-Roi's excellent site which covers all manner of information about the English offshore sea forts and various pirate radio squatter groups that utilized them once they were abandoned by HMG -- amazing coverage, really. Lots of candid photos aboard. Warning: 1996-style design.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:57 AM PST - 9 comments

Five U.S. Army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq, a U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday... The killings appeared to have been a "crime of opportunity," the official said. The soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols.

U.S. Troops Accused of Killing Iraq Family
A brief look at the 3rd Brigade, 502nd Infantry Unit, 101st Airborne...
formerly 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment - 101st Airborne Division
see also AP Embed Gets Scoop on Latest Alleged U.S. Atrocity in Iraq
posted by y2karl at 9:42 AM PST - 144 comments

Polluting the blogosphere businessweek is writing about a new company that is basically paying bloggers to write about products --- disclosure is optional... congratulations marketers --- you ruin everything
posted by bliss322 at 9:05 AM PST - 44 comments

Gamma Bros. Some oldschool shooter Friday Flash Fun. Utterly addictive. [via]
posted by popkinson at 8:45 AM PST - 24 comments

Supposing ... I'm too old for MySpace.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 8:05 AM PST - 71 comments

Live videos of TV On The Radio performing Dreams(QT), Final Solution(QT) and Bela Lugosi's Dead(QT) with Peter Murphy and Trent Reznor on vocals.
posted by The Radish at 8:00 AM PST - 23 comments

Like many internet communities, the Harry Potter fan community is a close knit one and prone to outbursts of drama and strife. But what happens when a single member is pulling the strings? This long account is about msscribe who through sock puppetry, trolling, and some flat out lies polarized online Potter fans for the past four years.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:40 AM PST - 88 comments

Big news in the cycling world. Favorites Basso, Ullrich out of the Tour de France. Should make for an interesting July.
posted by dizzycow at 6:48 AM PST - 53 comments

Is doing it in the squat position natural and strain preventing [Human digestion warning]? Regular toilet "thrones" seem to be not very ergonomic, with dire consequences. A study. Colon cancer rates in the developing world (where squatting is still used) way lower.
posted by vertriebskonzept at 6:00 AM PST - 72 comments

The Jimi Hendrix Spoken Word Tape as found by Station Manager Ken at WFMU. A collection of onstage ramblings, interviews and rehearsals.
posted by wheelieman at 5:48 AM PST - 14 comments

DisneyWorld's death toll since 1989
posted by rinkjustice at 5:11 AM PST - 60 comments

Alexander Calder's Circus. A movie by Carlos Vilardebo, in four parts: one two, three, four, [YouTube]. Calder developed his own one-man circus, with tiny performers made of "cork, wire, wood, yarn, paper, string, and cloth," carefully engineered to walk tightropes, dance, tame lions, lift weights, and engage in gymnastics and acrobatics in and above the ring. Acting as omniscient ringmaster, Calder would manipulate the wire performers while his wife wound circus music on the gramophone in the background. via [more inside]
posted by nickyskye at 9:09 PM PST - 17 comments

Texas Riparian Law I found this intriguing because I 1) live in Texas, 2) have walked many Texas creekbottoms, 3) have a lot of lawyer friends, and 4) as an English major, find the language somehow beautiful.
posted by rleamon at 8:10 PM PST - 25 comments

An interesting chain of events culminated today in the resignation of the Dutch cabinet: Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali^{^} embarks on a career in the Netherlands' political fast lane, in her spare time writing the screenplay to the film^{^} that got Theo van Gogh^{^} killed^{1, 2, 3, 4}, plans to leave parliament for a job in the US¹, meanwhile sees the legality of her citizenship called into question by an overeager minister of Immigration^{^1}, causing her to step down early. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:54 PM PST - 36 comments

"When humans were busy fighting each other, the Ants had begun their preparations to take over the planet. Six feet tall, they had emerged from their hideouts in the Andes Mountain and had begun their assault in the year 7757." - Science Fiction in Bengal from 1882-1961 [via]
posted by brundlefly at 4:54 PM PST - 9 comments

Design. Architecture. Football. The awe-inspiring sight of the entire Argentina team moving fluidly as if to some pre-ordained ballet was simply Liquid Football. 24 passes throughout 8 of the 10 outfield Argentines, ... was largely improvised in real-time, entirely determined by the context of the opposing team - which cannot be accurately predicted at all.
posted by signal at 3:59 PM PST - 68 comments

Mac users have the excellent Omnigraffle, Windows users the ubiquitous Visio. Now there's an AJAX diagramming tool called Gliffy. What's next in the Office suite for AJAXification?
posted by dmd at 2:15 PM PST - 31 comments

Hans Rosling is on a mission (flash video). The founder of Gapminder (previously discussed here) gives an inspired talk about the third world, while turning statistics into beautiful graphics. Of course, the folks at Google are already all over this.
posted by neurodoc at 1:10 PM PST - 15 comments

Stanley Kubrick's "lost" first movie, Day of The Fight, has apparently been found. Assuming it's real, this 16-minute 1951 reel is the director's debut. Sadly, unless you're a fight fan, that's about all it has to recommend it.
posted by The Bellman at 12:52 PM PST - 16 comments

Jennifer Holliday's seismic performance of "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" from the 1982 Tony Awards (YouTube link) brought Broadway to its knees. Holliday not only captured the Tony, her recording of the song became a Billboard Top 30 hit. The new Dreamgirls film, cast with a who's who of modern music stars, will open this winter. "American Idol" contestant Jennifer Hudson will attempt to fill Holliday's formidable shoes.
posted by hermitosis at 12:02 PM PST - 33 comments

". . . after 3 minutes of reading your new site my eyes started hurting and my stomach tied up in knots." "I am in misery." Slate redesigns its website once again (previous designs here and here), loyal readership freaks out. The interweb responds here and here (note the presence of at least two positive reviews; not all is lost dear Slate!)
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 11:48 AM PST - 70 comments

Trailers of Historically Significant Films Digital History has trailers (Windows Media) for a ton of movies from 1919 to 2004 (sorted by year of release) using a very loose definition of "historically significant." [via MonkeyFilter]
posted by kirkaracha at 11:43 AM PST - 13 comments

Living with half a brain - hemispherectomy, probably the most radical procedure in neurosurgery
posted by Gyan at 9:15 AM PST - 50 comments

Upon First Meeting : RISD MFA student Jeff Barnett-Winsby takes photos of strangers who answered an ad on Craigslist.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:13 AM PST - 45 comments

BBC News: UK Iconic cinema music gets a makeover (real video) A 30-piece orchestra has recorded a new version of the Pearl and Dean's iconic cinema music (aka Asteroid) at Abbey Road Studios in London. The tune, famous for its "pa pa pa pas", has been made more than a minute and a half longer. David Sillito reports for BBC News.
posted by badlydubbedboy at 8:51 AM PST - 23 comments

Ava Lowery is a 15 year old master of flash-based propaganda, and burgeoning media sensation. Lowery's clips (especially this one but also ones like this and this (more here)), have been described as mere facile emotionalism. Others however regard her work as courageous and truthful. She was enlisted to express the soul of the movement for the recent Yearly Kos convention in Las Vegas. One thing's for sure: Lowery's method of story telling leaves traditional media confused and bewildered.
posted by washburn at 8:22 AM PST - 113 comments

Meet Florrie Fisher, the real life Jerri Blank.
posted by jrossi4r at 8:07 AM PST - 24 comments

Spider-Man 3 Teaser Trailer Available Just in case discussion of the elements in a trailer for a movie that will be marketed upon you relentlessly constitutes spoilers ... [more inside]
posted by clearlynuts at 8:07 AM PST - 69 comments

Sphere and circle arrangements, the Droste effect, and more: mathematical imagery by Jos Leys. The Droste effect article is informative, too.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:50 AM PST - 8 comments

The RSOE Global Disasters Service tracks seismic activity, bird flu, chemical spills and even vehicle accidents by monitoring and processing data of approximately 600-700 news sources, many researching institutes and realtime data of forecasting services. I've subscribed to the RSS feed and you should too . . . you've been getting too much sleep anyway. [via]
posted by If I Had An Anus at 7:41 AM PST - 8 comments

The Chinese Embassy announced today that the world's highest railroad is to go into operation on July 1st. By the way, here's some striking pictures of it all. It also comes with its own Great Green Wall and some problems. Shanghai to Lhasa? Yep.
posted by Atreides at 7:27 AM PST - 30 comments

Bush and Koizumi: Roadtrip to Graceland - NYT link
posted by lilboo at 7:22 AM PST - 10 comments

The Eraser, Thom Yorke's solo album is being played in it's entirety on Australian radio station JJJ this sunday, July 2nd, at 6PM (AEST). Triple J generally have podcasts available (other good shows to listen to include Sunday Night Safran), and The Eraser has also been mentioned here.
posted by jonathanstrange at 6:42 AM PST - 24 comments

Google Checkout is officially unveiled today; the latest service to join the Google arsenal in their race to control the entire www. It has been suggested in the news that the Google payment service was also a big factor in the recent Yahoo and eBay partnership, since eBay's Paypal service might finally have some real competition. More info on the service here.
posted by p3t3 at 6:29 AM PST - 32 comments

Will acts like Gnarls Barkley, promoted by smaller indies with major distribution, signal the end of the music industry as we know it? With stadium rock acts becoming a thing of the past and greater diversity available to the average music fan at a click of a mouse, will the music industry of the future be shaped more and more by online based tastemakers such as Soul Sides or community based sites like Myspace.
posted by triv at 5:19 AM PST - 37 comments

FlexGo™. Microsoft targets emerging markets with pay as you go and subscription models.
posted by davehat at 4:50 AM PST - 13 comments

Transvestite Gang Pesters Magazine Street. "A house fell on my sister..." "That weeping sound of despair? That's just some chick trapped in an elevator." A Baptist Church burned, then destroyed. Mail delivered. Life in New Orleans nine months after Katrina.
posted by bukharin at 1:35 AM PST - 16 comments

Green Parrots: I just finished reading this book by Dr. Gino Strada, a war surgeon and founder of Emergency, an Italian NGO, whose mission is to provide medical treatment to civilian victims of war. A series of essays on his experiences in far away places like Peru, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Sudan and Cambodia where 90% of the casualties he treats are better known as collateral damage. One third are children under 14. He ends with a heartfelt essay that asks, "Is it legitimate to accept war as an inevitable prospect for current and future generations?"
posted by infini at 1:27 AM PST - 6 comments

Newsfilter: "Awkward Moments Abound in Penis Pump Trial."
posted by bardic at 12:33 AM PST - 46 comments

While the nonpartisan Pew Research Center normally focuses on US domestic issues, such as the recently and narrowly failed flag-burning amendment, the Pew Global Attitudes Project takes a wider view with reports such as The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other and 16-Nation Pew Global Attitudes Survey, with results that are parts obvious, non-obvious, foreboding, hopeful and contradictory in how the two societies seemingly feel about themselves and each other. [mi]
posted by Mr. Six at 11:10 PM PST - 8 comments

Henry Porter is the British Editor of Vanity Fair. In the current issue he attacks what he describes as "[Tony] Blair's campaign against rights contained in the Rule of Law". The article follows a series of columns for The Observer and an extraordinary exchange of email between the two men, and has resonance in probably all countries in the Western world.
posted by Neiltupper at 10:08 PM PST - 37 comments

Reverse Color Blindness Test "normal vision humans have a lower degree of color contrast detection in the red spectrum. A colorblind person shouldn't be burdened by that lowered contrast sensitivity and should be able to see the object immediately by picking out the change in contrast at the objects edges" A small oddity that takes but a few seconds of time. (via The Presurfer)
posted by caddis at 8:14 PM PST - 52 comments

David Brooks gets fact-checked by Sasha Issenberg, who finds that Brooks appears to have invented some of his red-state reporting. ... Brooks acknowledges that all he does is present his readers with the familiar and ask them to recognize it. Why, then, has his particular brand of stereotype-peddling met with such success? From April 2004. Via Brad DeLong.
posted by russilwvong at 3:54 PM PST - 39 comments

Faith In America asks a simple question: Is using religious teachings to deny equal rights to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people any less wrong than using religious teaching to discriminate against people of color, against equality for women or against people of different cultures wanting to marry? (check their ad campaign too--some great ones) Meanwhile, clueless elected officials like Barack Obama continue to buy into the GOP lies that all people with faith are conservatives/Republicans, and that Democrats are hostile to people with religious beliefs.
posted by amberglow at 3:40 PM PST - 114 comments

All You Need Is Love. Sometimes, love is all you need. Or maybe aerosolized MDMA
[via longbough]
posted by Freen at 1:19 PM PST - 44 comments

The Supreme Court rules that state legislatures may redistrict at any time, while not harming minorities. The ruling is heavily influenced by Vieth v. Jubelirer, a Scalia opinion based on the premise that there is no objective way to draw a district (How the Census Bureau is trying to help make one). This ends a saga including amid-decade redistricting and subsequent rebellion in the Texas Statehouse.
posted by Captaintripps at 1:16 PM PST - 43 comments

Even after the bad PR brought about by the new balls used in this year's World Cup, the NBA announced today (Draft Day!) a new official game ball to be used starting next season (ESPN coverage). The new ball designed by Spalding is the first official game ball change since 1970 and only the second change in the last 60 years. Vegans will be happy to hear that it's no longer made of leather. Mark Cuban will surely weigh in with an opinion on this...
posted by pwb503 at 12:55 PM PST - 45 comments

Ever wondered what old amounts of money would be worth today? Or what you could buy with your current salary if you went back 200, 400, or 600 years? Now you can find out with a tool that converts English currency from 1270 onwards into today's prices. Based on Treasury records, it tells you that Mr Darcy's £10,000 a year would now be worth nearly £350,000, or that your house would only have to be worth the equivalent of £500 now to qualify for the vote after 1832.
posted by greycap at 11:56 AM PST - 22 comments

A Week of Kindness is an online sketch comedy group; among their bits, I found Nature Footage: The Musical to be the most amusing (albeit, a bit of a one note symphony).
posted by jonson at 10:47 AM PST - 11 comments

Jill Greenberg is a Sick Woman Who Should Be Arrested and Charged With Child Abuse . The "End Times" exhibit in question. And then there is Ms. Greenberg and her husband's response(s). Somebody's over-reacting.
posted by spock at 10:08 AM PST - 269 comments

Great photography... critiqued by pros noobs. via MeCha and matteo.
posted by loquacious at 9:33 AM PST - 39 comments

Mark McCutcheon's book is a Top Science Bestseller at Amazon.com (currently #28, ahead of The Feynman Lectures on Physics. The reader reviews are overwhelming five star. In other news, the correct value of PI is 3.125 and the wheel has been reinvented. You may find this simple method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to physics useful when considering these ideas.
posted by unSane at 8:59 AM PST - 48 comments

How Doctors Got Into the Torture Business
An Interview with Steven Miles: The torture-endangered Society
posted by y2karl at 8:47 AM PST - 59 comments

Comparing Apples and Oranges. Which can you eat faster, onions or cheesecake? ROIs from (some) IFOCE records plotted together. The beginning of Sabermetrics for competitive eating? Of course, we can't ignore the Takeru Kobayashi effect. (See also earlier MeFi on International Competitive Eating.)
posted by skynxnex at 7:51 AM PST - 14 comments

Flesh Shoe (via SpoFi)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:39 AM PST - 35 comments

On this day in 1863 , George Meade replaced Joseph Hooker as commanding General of the 100,000 strong Army of the Potomac, confirming what Meade himself had complained as “the ridiculous appearance we present of changing our generals after each battle.” Earlier in the day, J.E.B. Stuart and 5000 Confederate cavalry crossed the Potomac entering Maryland at Rowser’s ford. Stuart's lengthy absence had made him desperate to execute the order given to him by General Robert E. Lee to “take position on General Ewell’s right, place yourself in communication with him, guard his flank, and keep him informed of the enemy’s movements.” Stuart, whose cavalry was the “eyes and ears” of the 80,000 strong Army of Northern Virginia (warning: awful music), had been out of touch for several days, leaving General Lee ignorant of the enemy’s movement and position. When Stuart finally caught up with his army at Gettysburg, he had missed the first day and most of the second of one of the greatest battles in American history. There are those who say that Stuart violated Lee's orders to him concerning his role for the proposed campaign. Others think that those orders gave him leave to operate as he did. In either case there can be little doubt that his absence from his accustomed place, screening the Army's movements, and scouting its routes, was keenly felt by Lee during the campaign, and played a major part in bringing on the meeting engagement at Gettysburg.
posted by three blind mice at 5:23 AM PST - 66 comments

Utopian Modernism In London: A Series Of Drifts... is a tour of modernist landmarks, tying architectural practice to politics and movements in art. Author Owen Hatherley also keeps a weblog chiefly concerned with art and utopianism in Weimar Germany and the early Soviet Union. Photographer Ludwig Abache's site contains more architectural imagery, from London and beyond. (via newthings)
posted by jack_mo at 3:47 AM PST - 13 comments

It's official. Microsoft-verified. Mefites are predominantly teenage males. 85% of eBay users are female. Most people who search for Britney Spears are 30 year old females. Real men don't use YouTube and no male would be caught dead using Google. Oh and a million other things you're never going to believe about the web.
posted by zaebiz at 1:52 AM PST - 63 comments

A Tail By Any Other Name : Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert thinks it would be awfully handy to have an extra appendage. A Providence handyman sees things a little differently.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:49 PM PST - 21 comments

Roman Coppola (Youtube warning) battles Nokia in extreme slow-motion, reminding me of a previous post.
posted by tighttrousers at 8:27 PM PST - 15 comments

send a hammer is a site that popped up recently to offer something to send a congressman(or woman) to break down the wall that the send a brick folk want made with their bricks. What a strange conversation the nation is having about immigration! It's all the talk from the churches to the white supremacists but ---won't someone think of the kids!! How bad is this an issue to tackle in an election year - don't forget how much madness can get legislated in the shadow of a heated election
posted by donabean at 8:21 PM PST - 25 comments

Stealing al-Qa`ida's Playbook (PDF)
If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete. - Sun Tzu

In 2005 Harvard's Olin Institute for Strategic Studies & West Point's Combating Terrorism Center worked together to translate what appears to be one of the most important works defining al Qaeda's strategic goals & methods, Management of Savagery (PDF) by al Qaeda strategist Abu Bakr Naji. Then they analyzed it along with three other al Qaeda works: Knights Under The Banner of The Prophet by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Between Two Methods by Abu Qatada and Observations Concerning the Jihadi Experience in Syria by Abu Mus’ab al-Suri. The result is Stealing al-Qa`ida's Playbook (PDF) (also Google cached HTML). If you want to understand more of al Qaeda than the simplistic cant that "they're evil", these two books are the place to start.
posted by scalefree at 8:14 PM PST - 26 comments

Saving Corporal Shalit: "I think the only danger to the soldier's life is if there is an actual incursion by Israel into the Gaza Strip."
posted by kliuless at 7:04 PM PST - 42 comments

Dreamies. It's 1972, and affable salaryman and good husband Bill Holt quits his good job at 3M to become a musical pioneer from the comfort of his own basement. The resulting album, Dreamies, is notable for its generous and ahead-of-its-time use of sampling/plunderphonics and became a highly sought-after lost classic until its re-release this year. Bill now has his own website, also called Dreamies, where he releases Eye Candy and Politics in liberal doses. Some are hypnotic, some are, for want of a better term, 'relaxing', others are anything but. And all of them are subtly infused with the slightly unsettling taste of Huh?
posted by nylon at 6:38 PM PST - 8 comments

The Plank started it, using a NY Times piece on MyDD.com founder Jerome Armstrong's recent settlement with the SEC to impune Daily Kos's integrety with accusations of graft and extortion, revealing a secret liberal-blog mailing list. Kos counterattacks. TNR expands their assault. David Brooks piles on. Kos's allies respond. TNR retracts (somewhat), and brings up another skeleton in Jerome's closet. Finally, the adults weigh in.
posted by empath at 6:26 PM PST - 75 comments

While many in the world are glued to the outcomes of the World Cup there is another high-profile international sporting event toiling itself away in the Utah deserts. Primal Quest, a 417 mile expedition adventure race consisting of desert trekking, mountain biking, wilderness navigation, kayaking, and canyoneering, has a prize-purse of $100,000 and many professional, international, and amateur teams have arrived to compete to be the best endurance athletes in the world. Considered by many to be the successor of Mark Burnett's Eco-Challenge the Primal Quest has an expected finishing time of 4 days for the winners and 10 days for the slower teams. Along with the Raid series, Primal Quest continues to give competitive adventurers a grand outlet at the international level but it is to be noted the sport of adventure racing has not been without its problems in the past.
posted by rlef98 at 5:16 PM PST - 9 comments

How to use a cellphone without looking like an asshole. Or maybe you need a primer on ordering wine instead. Once again, Waiter has you covered.
posted by kyleg at 3:44 PM PST - 119 comments

Mish Mash Mush A series of mixes from Providence eclectic label Fort Thunder, home of Ninja Versus Wrestler and Forcefield. As part of an aplty amorphous and chaotic "noise" scene, the mixes contain otherwise unreleased music from bands like Lightning Bolt, Mindflayer, 25 Suave, and a bevy of other bands from labels like Load, Animal Disguise and Bulb. Good music with a dirt-simple interface.
posted by klangklangston at 2:38 PM PST - 15 comments

Collective global wireless network mapping via high-traffic automobile networks
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:14 PM PST - 9 comments

Sleater-Kinney will be going on "indefinite hiatus." Simply put, they're breaking up.
posted by keswick at 1:52 PM PST - 105 comments

Arif Mardin passed away Sunday. Yes, the first is a NYTimes link, but here's an obit from the Independent newspaper, and here's a BBC obit as well. It would be unseemly not to note the passing of the arranger or producer (or both, or co- ) behind the Art Farmer Quartet's Live at the Half-Note, Sonny Stitt's Stitt Plays Bird, Max Roach's Drums Unlimited, the Rascals' "Good Lovin'" and "Groovin'," Aretha Franklin's I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You and Aretha Now, Dusty Springfield's Dusty in Memphis, Donny Hathaway's Extension of a Man, the Stones' Black and Blue, Chaka Khan's first several solo albums, and hundreds of others all the way down to Norah Jones ... a list almost too long to compile. NPR interview here, lengthier article from Sound on Sound here, his discogs.com list here.
posted by blucevalo at 1:45 PM PST - 11 comments

An Inconvenient Truth, but an unavoidable one, too. In a recent AP poll, the nation's top climate scientists are giving Al Gore's documentary on global warming five stars for accuracy. This comes on the heels of an intensifying effort to trash the science of the movie by The Wall Street Journal and The National Review. However, the overwhelming consensus of over a thousand climate scientists in 120 countries, as well as the US' own National Academy of Sciences, is firmly in Gore's camp. With an undeniable agreement among the world's scientists and oil industry hackishness coming to light, is the US about to turn the corner on it's conventional wisdom about man-made global warming?
posted by darkstar at 12:56 PM PST - 128 comments

Coming soon to a crowded sidewalk near you: the Excuse Me Belt. (Flash. First link is video.) via
posted by hydrophonic at 12:35 PM PST - 34 comments

The Dewey Donation System is site that helps re-stock libraries devastated by Katrina, by posting wishlists of Louisiana and Mississippi libraries and letting anyone buy books for them. Cool looking site, to boot. [via mefi projects]
posted by mathowie at 11:42 AM PST - 20 comments

Brazilian striker Ronaldo is now "the most prolific scorer in World Cup history." Controversy surrounded him, literally, regarding his weight in the run-up to 2006 (not to mention a bit of competition from an heir apparent named Ronaldinho). But today is Ronaldo's day, and Brasilia's as well as they try to repeat 2002 and add a sixth star to their jerseys. (The list, updated to include Muller in 2nd, Juste Fontaine in 3rd, and fellow countryman Pele in 4th.)
posted by bardic at 10:35 AM PST - 69 comments

"So, like many of you, I’m sure, I have this huge styrofoam version of my head sitting in the garage." -- Ken Jennings, former unstoppable Jeopardy! killing machine, blogs. [Who?]
posted by Gator at 9:20 AM PST - 32 comments

i began cataloging the colors, and put the color list on the web. over time, the paint catalog turned into a web site.
posted by ijoshua at 9:14 AM PST - 7 comments

Those Clever Conservatives... The outrage from the right hemisphere of the internet over the latest domestic spying on financial records "leak" seems centered on "treasonous" activity by the NYTimes, even advocating violence against reporters. The dominant theory is that "leaks are bad" except when the President or Vice-President does it, an artifact of the Nixonian Era. This has spurred the creative genius of some to create photoshopped propaganda, although the quality is lacking as compared to others (see posts tagged with propaganda on Mefi). In light of the satirical guidelines described here (MeFi), perhaps it's time to remix this poster.
posted by rzklkng at 8:45 AM PST - 111 comments

Color theory is demonstrated before your very eyes, inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johannes Itten, Joseph Albers, Marcel Duchamp and George Jetson. yes it's the COLORBOT© Color Harmonizer-Discorder. via dataisnature
posted by signal at 7:33 AM PST - 26 comments

The Klondike Gold Rush, the last great gold rush of the 19th century.
On August 16, 1896 huge quantities of gold was found in the remote Yukon region of Canada. Word spread slowly, until eleven months later, the steamship Portland arrived in Seattle from Dawson with "more than a ton of gold". Within six months, approximately 100,000 gold-seekers set off on the perilous journey north to the Yukon. Only 30,000 completed the trip.
Resources: Eric A. Hegg's photograph's of the gold rush, stories from the gold rush, women of the gold rush, Klondike Gold Rush Historical Database, info and teaching resources (warning: annoying frames), links, Librarians' Internet Index.
posted by MetaMonkey at 7:16 AM PST - 11 comments

It is difficult to describe how it feels to gaze at living human beings whom you’ve seen perform in hard-core porn. To shake the hand of a man whose precise erectile size, angle, and vasculature are known to you. That strange I-think-we’ve-met-before sensation one feels upon seeing any celebrity in the flesh is here both intensified and twisted. It feels intensely twisted to see reigning industry queen Jenna Jameson chilling out at the Vivid booth in Jordaches and a latex bustier and to know already that she has a tattoo of a sundered valentine with the tagline HEART BREAKER on her right buttock and a tiny hairless mole just left of her anus. To watch Peter North try to get a cigar lit and to have that sight backlit by memories of his artilleryesque ejaculations.

David Foster Wallace on the adult film industry
posted by PenguinBukkake at 6:19 AM PST - 121 comments

Are they music? Unusual ideas about musical notation.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:56 AM PST - 18 comments

Part One of the Channel4 program where Richard Dawkins challenges faith calling it 'a process of non-thinking'. [~48 mins] Part Two: The Virus of Faith. [~48 mins]
posted by econous at 1:14 AM PST - 96 comments

Be my echo. (Be my echo)

Sing what I sing. (Sing what I sing)

Follow the leader and sing after me. (Sing after me) [YoutubeFilter]
posted by StopMakingSense at 1:11 AM PST - 8 comments

The Bat Segundo Show is a (mostly) weekly podcast featuring interviews with current writers. There are almost 50 installments now online, but the show began appropriately enough with a 37-minute interview with British novelist David Mitchell, who created the original Bat Segundo character in his first book, Ghostwritten.
posted by Alexandros at 11:30 PM PST - 15 comments

Following in the tradition of Prince, Cat Stevens and Terence Trent D'Arby, Canadian chanteuse Jane Siberry has changed her name.
posted by starkeffect at 10:00 PM PST - 46 comments

Pull out a US $20 bill. Take a look at the picture of the White House. See that tree peeking in from the right, the 140 year old elm that's been there since Andrew Johnson? Well, it's gone. Yup. Fallen over, thanks to the soaker summer storms which have been hammering the Mid-Atlantic in recent days. Cleanup has started, but no word on whether the $20 bill will be needing another update.
posted by brownpau at 9:27 PM PST - 37 comments

NewsFilter: Limbaugh arrested for possible drug possession. And a few more links so I don't get accused of a single-link post. Oh wait, it's not on that Drudge link.
posted by afx114 at 8:32 PM PST - 105 comments

Not Just for Ice Cream : Breath Palette offers 32 flavors of toothpaste.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 7:12 PM PST - 41 comments

In 1963, a full 3 years before his first MoI recording, a young, beardless Zappa appeared live on the Steve Allen show playing a musical composition on bicycles. Jerry Hopkins, the show's talent coordinator, discusses how the young musician's debut performance came about. Hardcore zappaphiles can view Part 1, Part 2 (Danger: long & grainy B&W YouTube clips, diamonds in the rough).
posted by madamjujujive at 6:58 PM PST - 24 comments

You get the gay from your brothers. Or maybe not.
posted by NortonDC at 6:00 PM PST - 48 comments

"And yet the people who invented this country saw an aggressive, independent press as a protective measure against the abuse of power in a democracy, and an essential ingredient for self-government." Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, publicly responds to criticisms on the publication of information about clandestine surveillance of private bank records of Americans, offering a rare glimpse into the Fourth Estate's complicated negotiations with the government over issues of public interest.
posted by Mr. Six at 4:02 PM PST - 57 comments

The hospital that owns the copyright to Peter Pan is not very happy about a graphic novel by Alan Moore depicting the sexual awakening of Wendy [NSFW images].
posted by brundlefly at 2:58 PM PST - 73 comments

When it started more than 36 years ago, the World Series of Poker was more like a trappers' rendezvous than anything else: a small gathering of professional poker players and road gamblers getting together amongst themselves to see who was “the best.” Now, of course, it is an industry unto itself, with extensive media coverage, televised coverage on ESPN, and a large fan base that follows the daily results of this now six-week long series of tournaments, which culminates in the $10,000 buy-in “main event” to determine the “world champion.” In 1970, eight gamblers put up the $10k each to play in the main event; in 2005, that number had grown to more than 5600, making the total prize pool of $56M one of the largest ever contested, a number that is either exciting or appalling, depending on your point of view. The 2006 WSOP begins today with the casino employees event, and then the larger “open” events begin tomorrow, and continue until July 28, when the main event kicks off. This year’s main event has been lengthened to almost two weeks to allow for enough play to reduce the field from the estimated 6000 starting participants to the final 9 who will vie for an estimated first prize of $10M. Shuffle up and deal!
posted by mosk at 2:29 PM PST - 59 comments

Metaphorical.net - A collection of interactive studies and strange thoughts by william ngan. Favorites: Eichstatt and Sosostris. [via futurefeeder.com]
posted by swordfishtrombones at 1:20 PM PST - 3 comments

Science sites of all kinds for kids. Archeology. Entomology. Natural Symphony. Baseball in Space. Philosophy. Process or Content. Science songs. Physics songs, relativity. String theory. Science and Art.
posted by nickyskye at 12:57 PM PST - 9 comments

Jews and The Russian Revolution: "More often than not, we picture nineteenth-century Russian Jews as residents of hermetically Jewish shtetls, small hamlets saturated with tradition and authenticity. After the Revolution of 1917 perceptions dramatically reversed, as Jews suddenly appeared as consummate insiders in the young Soviet state. How are we to make sense of these disparate impressions, stemming from two adjacent historical periods?" [More Inside]
posted by gregb1007 at 10:45 AM PST - 42 comments

Bush Incompetent? Think again. I know this is a one link post, I'm afraid that I still haven't mastered the art of adding extra links, and I apologise because it is also from a partisan source. However it raises some points that I think are worth discussing, such as, is calling Bush incompetent not playing right into the hands of all those who kind of like his folksy, laidback ways, and who kind of identify with his fumbling style? Anyway, read this and see the results of this incompetence you might want to think again.
posted by donfactor at 10:22 AM PST - 111 comments

SCOTUS strikes down campaign finance restrictions [pdf]. The Supreme Court issued an opinion today in Randall v. Sorrell, striking down limits on campaign contributions and campaign spending imposed by the state of Vermont. The Court, in a fractured opinion (six separate opinions, including two dissents), concluded that restrictions on both contributions and expenditures ran afoul of the First Amendment. More from Amy Howe at SCOTUSblog. Expect more from Rick Hasen later today.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:53 AM PST - 81 comments

Black Gold in Alberta. The tar sands located in northern Alberta, containing 85% of the worlds bitumen could provide for america's oil needs for the next century. The trillion barrell oil pit will continue to grow in importance as the price of oil continues to climb, and investors from around the world pour billions of dollars into the rich dirt.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:17 AM PST - 44 comments

Captain Ahab, an amazing ravesploitation (embedded wav) band from LA, has just won the Snakes on a Plane song contest. They also have some brutal music videos (Youtube, NSFW) and songs on their myspace ('Girls Gone Wild' highly recommended). [mi]
posted by beerbajay at 6:03 AM PST - 21 comments

Gov't Break a Law? Change It The White House is nearing an agreement with Congress on legislation that would write President Bush's warrantless surveillance program into law, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said Sunday.
posted by Unregistered User at 5:04 AM PST - 34 comments

World of ColbertCraft. No, it's not a real game. Yes, it's just a bit of clever believable marketing. But you get to hear Stephen say "Wiiiiiiiii," and that's a keeper.
posted by grabbingsand at 4:50 AM PST - 20 comments

OSVids shows you how to install and use alternative operating systems. Currently demonstrating a wealth of Linux systems, Vista, and soon Mac OSX.
posted by lemonfridge at 1:57 AM PST - 10 comments

New Burger King Superman Returns toys cleverly promote excersise. Not just another merchandise tie-in, this new toy promotion lets you get off your butt and compare with other kids' walking times and throwing records online. Each toy is either a physical activity or an accesory for your workout. The site even features Superman's personal scores, allowing all of us to compete with the Man of Steel.
posted by johndog at 1:32 AM PST - 30 comments

This class has surprisingly readable (albeit few) and informative reports about scientific principles and devices.
go into a folder and open the .html file. its old school style.
posted by dminor at 1:13 AM PST - 3 comments

Chat about any content on the web by adding gabbly.com in front of any URL.
posted by the_bone at 10:28 PM PST - 67 comments

Remember the Mighty Heros? Rope Man, Strong Man, Diaper Man, Tornado Man and Cuckoo Man? Check-out these episodes! The Monsterizer, The Junker, and The Frog.
posted by augustweed at 10:17 PM PST - 11 comments

Gutenkarte: "Gutenkarte is a geographic text browser, intended to help readers explore the spatial component of classic works of literature. Gutenkarte downloads public domain texts from Project Gutenberg, and then feeds them to MetaCarta's GeoParser API, which extracts and returns all the geographic locations it can find." [note: works in Firefox but not IE, for me.]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:18 PM PST - 16 comments

Never wanna work/Always wanna play/Pleasure, pleasure every day. What happens when the jobs go away and don't return? Should we take the surpluses generated and pay people not to work? What happens to the assumption of scarcity when nanotechology allows us to generate potentially anything we want from grass clippings? Maybe Marx had it wrong all along. Maybe, instead of fetishizing work and the authoritarian mindset that it generates, we should have been reading Paul Lafargue instead. Just as a thought experiment, what would you do if your job category disappeared? How would you spend your time? Would you invest more time and energy in friendships and other relationships? Hobbies? If you were your employer, what technologies would you use to get rid of your position and save money?
posted by jason's_planet at 9:08 PM PST - 43 comments

When I invented the Web, I didn't have to ask anyone's permission. Tim Berners-Lee talks about net neutrality.
posted by Drunken_munky at 8:12 PM PST - 55 comments

The world's second-richest man, Warren Buffett, became one of the world's biggest philanthropists Sunday with the announcement that he would bequeath the bulk of his roughly $44 billion fortune to the foundation established by billionaire Bill Gates and his wife.
posted by octothorpe at 6:25 PM PST - 96 comments

How about a 35 foot tall girl, out for a walk with a few of her friends? This one definitely is walking in the uncanny valley as far as I'm concerned. Is this the record for "world's largest marionette"?
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 5:14 PM PST - 59 comments

One hundred and thirty years ago today, George Armstrong Custer divided his forces in the face of a superior enemy and rode to his death at the Little Big Horn. The actual battle lasted about 15 minutes, but the fight over Custer's legacy is going into its second century. Visit the battle memorial (webcam view) explore the archeology of the site, or read an Indian account of the battle. The battle has attracted artists as varied as Charlie Russell (this poster of his painting was distributed by Anheiser Busch and hung in bars across the United States), Thomas Hart Benton, and Kicking Bear (Mato Wanartaka). Little Big Horn is a lonely place today.
posted by LarryC at 4:34 PM PST - 32 comments

Lokheed Martin is currently developing a high-altitude, solar-powered airship for the Missile Defense Agency (aka "Son of Star Wars") for surveillance and communication purposes. Doesn't that sound familiar? Why, it's just the same concept touted by Sky Station International Inc. (headed by a certain Gen. Alexander "I'm in charge here!" Haig) during the Internet bubble years as the broadband provider of the future! Nowadays, Sky Station is only a memory in the vaults of the Internet Archive and a few long-abandoned patent applications but it is interesting to notice that Lockheed Martin apparently was the designated end-to-end system integrator for Sky Station (you'll need to scroll down that text to reach the relevant passage)...
posted by Skeptic at 3:36 PM PST - 9 comments

Inspired by the deep fried bacon double Quarter Pounder? Behold the deep fried brat in all its monounsaturated glory.
posted by Galvatron at 2:51 PM PST - 50 comments

All the scripts to The Inside. Tim Minear, an altogether rather talented producer/writer/director behind Firefly, Angel, and Wonderfalls, created a serial killer show with a difference back in 2005. It was interesting, weird, critically acclaimed, and on FOX, so of course it got cancelled after 13 episodes. Luckily, Mr. Minear has posted on his own site the draft scripts to every episode, as written by himself and his talented friends. They make for fun reading, for those who don't mind reading scripts and would like some tightly-written, throughline-having, serial killery goodness without that funny CSI aftertaste. [via]
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:44 PM PST - 11 comments

Vermont's Painted Theatre Curtains were made between 1880 and 1940 and are on display thanks in part to The Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance and a grant from the NEA. [more inside]
posted by grapefruitmoon at 1:21 PM PST - 9 comments

In 1945-46, some of the (very few) Polish Jews who had survived the Final Solution returned -- sick, poor, wounded -- to Poland. In Elie Wiesel's words, "they had thought all too naively that antisemitism, discredited 6 million times over, had died at Auschwitz with its victims. They were wrong." In 2001 Princeton professor Jan T Gross published the story of the 1941 destruction of the Jewish community at Jedwabne, Poland, and proved how Jews were rounded up, clubbed, drowned, gutted or burned to death not by German forces as previously believed but by mobs of their own non-Jewish neighbors. Now professor Gross tells the story of the Kielce pogrom in his new book, "Fear". Of course, the Kielce butchery took place in 1946 -- more than a year after the end of WWII and defeat of Nazism. More inside.
posted by matteo at 8:25 AM PST - 107 comments

claimID is an online identity management tool, recently out of beta. Essentially it's a way of helping people and search engines understand who you are, but also who you are not. It's closely tied to the OpenID project, discussed briefly in this thread.
posted by runkelfinker at 6:38 AM PST - 35 comments

The Da Vinci Cup Think of it as a gathering of tribes... There's a lot of ritual involved. It's probably the biggest single unifying event that our species can muster. Forget the Olympics. Not even close. Poor poor China. Keeping the romans entertained since BC.
posted by Unregistered User at 2:51 AM PST - 10 comments

Aweseome, but brief Russian photo gallery of macro (mostly) insect (with a little frog thrown in for good measure) photography.
posted by jonson at 11:47 PM PST - 28 comments

The average American uses 20 pounds of coal a day. "our shiny white iPod economy is propped up by dirty black rocks.. I see more people dying of particle air pollution than are dying of AIDS." Coal accounts for nearly 40 percent of America's carbon dioxide emissions. Big Coal by Jeff Goodell.
posted by stbalbach at 9:02 PM PST - 76 comments

The tradition of the Regimental Goat extends as far back as 1775 and the Battle of Bunker Hill, if not earlier. Canada's own Batisse IX is said to be a direct descendant of Tibetan goats presented by the Shah of Persia to Queen Victoria in 1884. Ask any regimental goat and they will tell you they are well respected, but military discipline can be severe when the regimental goat steps out of line.
posted by furtive at 8:53 PM PST - 13 comments

Stevie Wonder performs his classic hit "Superstition" on Sesame Street in 1973, and turns it into an extended funk workout. He sticks around to perform his own killer theme for the show. [via YouTube]
posted by New Frontier at 8:18 PM PST - 101 comments

Iraq to Call for a Timetable for Withdrawal of US Troops President Bush said he'd leave Iraq if they asked. Looks like they're asking. [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha at 7:36 PM PST - 35 comments

A backdoor plan to thwart the electoral college Some states try to ensure that the winner of popular vote becomes president
posted by Postroad at 2:36 PM PST - 114 comments

How do current feminists connect with the issues raised by the Second Wave? Feminist bloggers respond to Carol Hanisch, author of the 1970 essay The Personal Is Political [pdf]. In her new introduction, she writes, "But they belittled us no end for trying to bring our so-called 'personal problems' into the public arena... Our demands that men share the housework and childcare were likewise deemed a personal problem between a woman and her individual man. The opposition claimed if women would just 'stand up for themselves' and take more responsibility for their own lives, they wouldn't need to have an independent movement for women’s liberation." In response, the 17th Carnival of Feminists includes posts addressing how the internet can be a consciousness-raising medium, why we blame individual women for making "bad" decisions rather than blaming a system that forces them to choose, whether women should shut up and go with the flow as Democrats marginalize us in order to win elections, and what "the personal is political" might actually mean. (Many many many other great posts linked from Bitch|Lab on other feminist topics, too.)
posted by occhiblu at 1:08 PM PST - 133 comments

Corpses for any occasion. This one says something very important, but I'm not sure what.
posted by erebora at 12:38 PM PST - 17 comments

I think I can, I think I can...
posted by bigmusic at 12:28 PM PST - 18 comments

Strippers, monkeys, pirates, and fire, a humorously titled account of the 1692 destruction by tsunami of the pirate city Port Royal.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:51 AM PST - 10 comments

I dare you to throw a bunch of compilers at me! Pshaw!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:05 AM PST - 18 comments

Churchill would have approved - or so says this op-ed. New spin on savage behavior?
posted by Surfurrus at 9:49 AM PST - 52 comments

The Cool Hunter is a blog that covers just about everything: design, clever ads, gadgets, art, and more. (via digg. Some posts contain mild nudity.)
posted by Sibrax at 9:30 AM PST - 25 comments

They're Made out of Meat. A short story by Terry Bisson (discussed earlier) has been adapted to the very small screen as a short film.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 8:42 AM PST - 32 comments

Sunday Shopping in Nova Scotia. You might not think there's anywhere left in Western Civilization where this is still an issue. But in the little Canadian province of Nova Scotia, it's causing a storm, with big stores working around the law to stay open, and the government legislating in haste to try to keep them closed. But not all of them - and that's leading to accusations of unfairness and even cronyism too.
posted by thparkth at 7:21 AM PST - 36 comments

Panda, Inc. - National Geographic does pandas, including this surfeit of cuteness clip of Tai Shan and mom playing. Watch for panda mania to break out in the U.S. as we count down to Tai Shan's one year birthday. At 53 pounds, he is coming along nicely - see his progress in his photo album since birth. Meanwhile, in the wild, happy news that the panda population may be double what was previously thought. Yay! (via adorablog's great panda file.)
posted by madamjujujive at 6:25 AM PST - 12 comments

Fill in the blanks, connect the dots. We've had Star Trek special effects possibly redone, we've had Battlestar Galactica "reimagined". Now the BBC is replacing a couple of lost episodes in a live series Doctor Who DVD with animated versions, to match the soundtracks, which weren't lost. Of course, we've seen some Flash based episodes already.
posted by juiceCake at 9:57 PM PST - 7 comments

AJAX graphing calculator with a google-earth style interface.
posted by delmoi at 9:22 PM PST - 25 comments

Don't Copy That Floppy
posted by drezdn at 9:09 PM PST - 45 comments

Ann Coulter discusses her love of The Grateful Dead with Jambands.com.
posted by aburd at 8:06 PM PST - 94 comments

San Andreas primed to "explode." Growing up in SoCal, we constantly practiced earthquake drills in anticipation of the "Big One." Now, new evidence suggests that the Big One will be even worse than we all feared. At the moment, everything looks calm though. People say we're crazy for living in either San Francisco or Los Angeles, of course we think living in New Orleans is crazy too. But cities are rebuilt. And no matter where you go, you really can't escape natural disasters. Besides, some of the biggest earthquakes in the United States were in Missouri! In any case, Forbes compiled a list of the safest and least safest places to live in the U.S. in regards to natural disasters. Apparently... we should all move to Hawaii!
posted by RockBandit at 6:35 PM PST - 48 comments

forum.ma.ru thread on a russian couple who adopted and are raising a fishing cat in their home. Seventy-nine pages of awesome photos of the cat playing, eating, and hunting. Babelfish translation of thread starts here (NSFW warning: many visceral pictures to make animal cruelty activists [and vegetarians] squirm, and one picture of lady taking a bath with bigcat in murky water).
posted by naxosaxur at 4:18 PM PST - 77 comments

High speed chase in which the pursuing cop shoots out the back window of the fleeing vehicle, leaps out of his own car onto the target car, climbs through the shotgunned window pane, and finally throws the driver out of the car, Terminator style.
posted by lilbrudder at 4:01 PM PST - 40 comments

Norman Mineta, the lone Democrat in George W. Bush's cabinet has resigned. He was the longest serving Secretary of Transportation in history. "He was also the first Asian-American Cabinet member during the Clinton administration, and the first Cabinet member to switch directly from a Democratic to a Republican Cabinet." (from CNN article). So why did some call for him to be impeached? Norm Mineta and his family were among the 110,000 Japanese-Americans who were forced from their homes into internment camps during World War II. His experience had such an impact on him that after September 11th, he spoke out against the racial profiling of Muslims, Arabs, and well, anyone with a turban and a beard. Some people didn't agree with him.
posted by eunoia at 3:46 PM PST - 7 comments

Finally, Hollywood is getting on side in the War On Terror :an anti-suicide bombing commercial is soon to be unleashed on all those jaded Iraqi couch potatoes.
posted by Flashman at 2:14 PM PST - 29 comments

The art of Willard Wiggan is the world's smallest art.
posted by walljm at 12:56 PM PST - 23 comments

OperaTube: a large collection of opera videos on YouTube and part of the OperaMP3 weblog.
posted by turbodog at 10:38 AM PST - 10 comments

Playing with fractal generators can result in images that remind some of creatures in the natural world. Did you know that the nudibranch^ can be evocative of certain Julia-set fractals? Especially when you see them in motion. Be sure to check out the "scubadiving" and related YouTube tags for other deep-sea creatures. I especially liked this one.
posted by WolfDaddy at 9:30 AM PST - 16 comments

Are we getting lonelier?
posted by digaman at 8:34 AM PST - 135 comments

Love in the MMORPG world can be something of an odd topic for those that haven't spent countless hours playing one of these online games. Virtual marriages in the game and online relationships that became real life married couples are odd to the average person. Especially when the consequences just go too far.
posted by cleverusername at 7:48 AM PST - 39 comments

Files are not for sharing
An illustrated primer for everyone still unclear on the rights and wrongs of intellectual property by Matthew Baldwin and Goopymart at The Morning News
posted by soplerfo at 7:26 AM PST - 32 comments

RIP Harriet. She passed away overnight from a heart attack. She was 175 years old, the size of a dinner table, and may have known Charles Darwin. She was Harriet the Tortoise, the world's oldest living animal, and lived a life of quiet dignity.
posted by justkevin at 7:26 AM PST - 40 comments

Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution asks: "Assuming you start from a multi-dimensional global utility maximum, which Lancastrian characteristics—with non-trivial shadow prices—would you like more of in a corresponding unconstrained equilibrium?"
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:02 AM PST - 35 comments

A test missile fired from Hawaii was knocked down by a ship-based interceptor, using a Japanese ship for radar tracking. Officials say it's been planned for months, just happens to be coincidence that the test takes place in the Pacific with Japan's assistance, while North Korea threatens to test a new long-range missile, and some call for a strike against the missile...
posted by pupdog at 6:49 AM PST - 78 comments

The Storybook Series. Up and coming artist's versions of some preschoolers drawings of their favorite scenes from Winnie The Pooh. some are very charming and sweet...some are down right scary.
posted by ShawnString at 6:34 AM PST - 30 comments

Today might be a good day to look at the bright side of 'teh internet' life. Lawrence Lessig (author of Free Culture), Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia), various advocates of the Free Culture network organisation and others are all meeting at the iCommons Summit in Rio to discuss Creative Commons, open networks, non-restrictives licenses, global Digital Commons and the fact that maybe, in 2006, 'Sharing is Daring'. A similar summit has been taking place earlier this month in Thailand, under the name of Asia Commons. I for one thinks it's extremely exciting to see all kind of artists, collectives and record labels using the CC licenses for the work they publish. After all, we now all live in a 'Remixed Culture', since everything we ever use was once part of something else, wasn't it? openDemocracy has been publishing a solid set of articles & a debate about the topic.
posted by Sijeka at 3:25 AM PST - 13 comments

The Constitution of the Confederate States of America. The author did a line by line comparison of the US constitution and the CS constitution. It's no surprise that the constitution of the CSA includes specific clauses regarding slavery, but some of the other changes are quite interesting. For instance, the CSA constitution included a "line item veto" for budget measures.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 1:23 AM PST - 45 comments

Gulfport High School class of '61 a facinating collection of life stories. check out the Our Classmates page. David sailed across the atlantic. Babs died when katrina hit the gulf coast. jane has 17 grand-children. C. H. Locklin was a chaplin working at the pentagon on 911.
posted by ronenosity at 12:33 AM PST - 8 comments

Before I was even aware that such a plan existed, the FAA has put the brakes on a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office plan to purchase a fleet of 20 camera-equipped unmanned spy drone planes (only $30,000 apiece) to fly over my city and monitor civilian behavior round the clock. Sadly, the plan is not permanently kiboshed, but merely on hold until authorization can be obtained.
posted by jonson at 10:35 PM PST - 39 comments

Meet Alexa Kitchen, the world's youngest published cartoonist (who R. Crumb says is "fantastic"). Check out here work. Meet her via Rocketboom (Quicktime).
posted by JPowers at 8:56 PM PST - 36 comments

The Thief And The Cobbler. Richard Williams via Garrett Gilchrist. The best of YouTube (to date)? You decide. Want some animated M.C. Escher, Rube Goldberg mayhem, magic, despair, true love, a happy ending...and more? Click the link and try the "Play All Videos" link on the right (17 segments make up the whole). Cast and Crew. If you categorically hate YouTube links, pass it by. via
posted by taosbat at 7:58 PM PST - 22 comments

I pooted. Enigmatic billboard advertisements, apparently promoting a Cartoon Network show, Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends seen in several major cities.
posted by ijoshua at 6:37 PM PST - 53 comments

"This is the kind of idea no politician could put forward now." In light of the recent Yearly KOS liberal blogger gathering, "old media" columnist David Broder surveys the potential emergence of a new generation of liberal blogs that strive to be taken seriously as promoters of actual domestic and foreign policy, including Democracy: A Journal of Ideas and The Democratic Strategist. Broder highlights a piece by Duke law professor (and anti-ironist wunderkind) Jedediah Purdy on "The New Biopolitics" (which suggests that first-world nations today should invest more into third-world economies, with the understanding that those third-world economies will later help pay the booming pensions and medical costs of first-world workers). Will liberal "ranty" blogs give way to more sober online journals of this sort? Or is it just more insider wonkery by another name? Was Woody Allen correct when he imagined what the merger of commentary and dissent would lead to, or can we look forward to a heightening of political discourse in the near future?
posted by bardic at 5:22 PM PST - 13 comments

The Hitler vs. Coulter Quiz. Identify the quotes--Ann Coulter or Adolph Hitler?
posted by zardoz at 5:18 PM PST - 71 comments

Apparently Futurama is to be revived for (at least) 13 episodes. Of course this is not the first time people have talked about resurrecting the show, but it seems pretty official...
posted by clevershark at 4:42 PM PST - 69 comments

This page is 9 quadrillion pixels wide by 9 quadrillion pixels tall.
posted by boo_radley at 4:41 PM PST - 53 comments

Are you a fast sprinter? Do you live in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota? You've probably seen the crazy ads on your local channels for Dick Enrico's 2nd Wind Exercise and always wondered, "What's that guy like in real life?" Now's your chance to find out by signing up to race his web developer Jerry Holland, a geek out to prove that he's not just a desk monkey. They've even got a championship belt! (I don't have the guts to sign up, has anyone out there done this/willing to do this?)
posted by rez at 12:22 PM PST - 10 comments

♇+2. Two new moons of Pluto (itself named by a British schoolgirl) get their own names -- Nix and Hydra. The origins of planetary names can be fascinating, but there are also thousands of other named features that can be examined (with pictures) in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. [Prev. discussion on Pluto here.]
posted by blahblahblah at 12:17 PM PST - 25 comments

As Bollywood goes global its becoming more cosmopolitan - and embracing one of the most controversial aspects of globalization - "Westerners will do a lot of things on camera that Indian's just won't do," says Kaneez F. Khan, a Chennai-based producer. "It's easier just to outsource the role to someone who doesn't have anything at stake." (via.)
posted by Jos Bleau at 11:55 AM PST - 22 comments

United States collapses as Ghana is "sick with happiness." World Cup, we hardly knew you.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 11:12 AM PST - 171 comments

The Digital Library of Appalachia presents an online collection of music files, images, literature, and scanned documents supplied by twelve regional college libraries.
posted by Miko at 11:07 AM PST - 17 comments

Who's Your Grandaddy? Ancestry.com "has compiled an online database of information on 500 million people, culled from every U.S. census record from 1790 to 1930" that "includes screen shots of the handwritten forms filled out by census-takers." Usually you have to pay to access the records, but they're providing three days of free access.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:46 AM PST - 79 comments

The largest gathering of Navy ships in the Pacific since the Vietnam war is happening right now, off the coast of Guam. Valiant Shield 06, the first in a series of proposed biennial joint war-games, is a massive military training exercise involving three Carrier Strike groups, more than 300 air craft, and 22,000 personnel. While primarily an ASW event, all branches of the military are there practicing one thing or another. The Department of Defense has invited a number of other counties to watch the games, including China for the first time ever. Some believe the game was just designed to put a scare into North Korea (Not true, it's been in planning for a year).

But how does one run a massive war simulation? Well, you just find yourself a copy of OneSAF [FAQ] or JSAF (uh, among others [.ppt-to-html]) and you're good to go. (Previously on Metafilter: MC '02 [2])
posted by Fidel Cashflow at 10:39 AM PST - 25 comments

Privacy Schmivacy On the eve of its hearing on charges that it assisted in the government’s illegal spying on millions of Americans, AT&T, the largest phone company in the United States, has changed its privacy policy to clearly establish its ownership of its customers’ personal account information. In its revised policy, AT&T makes it clear that “while your account information may be personal to you, these records constitute business records that are owned by AT&T. As such, AT&T may disclose such records to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process." Oh, really?
posted by squirrel at 8:43 AM PST - 53 comments

Never have a bottle opener around when you need one? Not a problem, as 1000 Arten ein Bier zu öffnen demonstrates how to open beer bottles with a thousand different improvised bottle openers. Today's opener: a giant tortoise. Text in German, but the photos are universal.
posted by ewagoner at 8:18 AM PST - 51 comments

Urban Etiquette : Confused about when to answer your cellphone? Not sure when to take off your iPod? Baffled as to what to say to that guy you saw in that movie with that chick when you see him on the street? Worry no more. In too much of a hurry to read this long article from New York Magazine? This short guide has you covered. Here are a few more New York specific examples. When all else fails, ask Mr. Social Grace. [more inside]
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:05 AM PST - 52 comments

Another wifi-related arrest was publicized today. In the past, the only case readily available to researchers involved additional seedy activities that are what really drew the arrest. The coffeeshop and other open hotspots show up on several sites such as jiwire and wifinder which are devoted to helping people find wireless hotspots.

In this case, a coffeeshop noticed someone leeching their WiFi parked in his truck -- over the course of 3 months, without ever entering the coffeehouse and making a purchase. While not yet convicted of anything, he has been arrested for "theft of services," and this could mean the first precedent set for whether or not "wireless piggybacking" is illegal. The case becomes especially interesting for both sides of the ethical debate on "borrowing" wireless. One one side of the judge's opinion will be the fact that the coffeehouse is a public place, not a private home. On the other side, it turns out the man who was arrested just so happens to be a registered sex offender, though this coincidental fact is not technically relevant to the case.
posted by twiggy at 7:01 AM PST - 259 comments

The End of Marriage An anthropologist's view of the "sanctity of marriage" debate doesn't see much function in the modern world for "an empty ritual that provides little or nothing of value."
posted by jefgodesky at 6:59 AM PST - 69 comments

Opera version 9 - "The browser that everyone forgets about .. " has just been released - and it's good. Why should you care? Two suggested reasons [+ inside]
posted by grahamwell at 6:24 AM PST - 79 comments

Retrobrick sells those old giant clunky cell phones we still called "car phones." To anyone old enough to remember them, it's a little scary to think they are desirable antiques now. Too bad they aren't as sweet as these photoshop fantasies. For a little history, Martin Cooper's account of making the first cell phone call, 33 years ago, on the streets of NYC (to his rival at Bell Labs.)
posted by CunningLinguist at 5:49 AM PST - 18 comments

"hot foreplay and steamy sex" [nsfw]
_{Compelling photos of various hot chicks from various NYC parties, and so on. Some how this guy can make just getting ready to go out seem somehow seedy. Again, not safe for work, although there's not really that much nudity.}
posted by delmoi at 12:52 AM PST - 178 comments

Beautiful pictures taken by Agatha Katzensprung. My personal favourite is this one. [via]
posted by Masi at 12:22 AM PST - 13 comments

Conan O'Brien vs. Bear.
posted by Silky Slim at 11:56 PM PST - 27 comments

The Hanging Monastery of Xuankong is is one of China’s unique and remarkable feats of architectural engineering. It is built about a third of the way up a vertical cliff in Golden Dragon Canyon. The temple consists of forty caves, or rooms, including six main halls, but its characteristic feature is the elaborate wooden façade of pavilions and walkways precariously resting on timbers jutting out horizontally and vertically from the cliff.
posted by jonson at 10:10 PM PST - 25 comments

Printmaker. Painter. Adventurer. Advertiser. One of the most popular graphic artists of the 20th century, he created the Random House logo for his pals Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer and illustrated their first book. His illustrations for another, Moby Dick, are widely credited with resurrecting that novel for modern audiences. His own first book was favorably compared to Whitman's Leaves of Grass and for a time his bookplates were everywhere, but he "virtually vanished from the museum and gallery circuits by the late 1940s" due to his outspoken support for Stalinism. When the State Department refused to grant him a passport because of his political views, he took his case to the Supreme Court and won, establishing that the right to travel cannot be denied to American citizens. Happy birthday, Rockwell Kent.
posted by mediareport at 8:56 PM PST - 16 comments

50 People Who Matter Now or 10 people Who Don't Matter.
posted by JPowers at 7:43 PM PST - 49 comments

The young people that have volunteered for this series have all endured physical pain and personal tragedy. They have developed a strong sense of 'self ' at an early age in order to survive public alienation due to their appearance.

Doug Auld's State of Grace - Paintings of Burn Survivors. via
posted by dobbs at 6:05 PM PST - 26 comments

WMDs? Sorry if this is double post or newsfilter, but fox news is claiming that WMDs were found in Iraq. Is it ethical to state as truth that which was been unconfirmed by anyone but one person? Depending on how this pans out, this could continue the shift of approval that started last week.
posted by klik99 at 5:25 PM PST - 111 comments

Starting a Religion is not as obvious as you think. In true form, Iggy Chaos (hilariously) gets ready to setup his.
posted by Mip at 5:00 PM PST - 36 comments

Zwok! In an unknown place, at an unknown time...Blooz vs. Grienz. A simple, free multiplayer online game.
posted by edgeways at 4:44 PM PST - 29 comments

'Top of the Pops' is set to end on 30th July, 2006 after 42 years on television in the UK. The show has been loved by some and criticized by others for having bands mime their own tunes on the air, but was a mainstay up until a recent ratings slide. Over four decades TOTP saw its fair share of odd incidents and even inspired a few tunes. Presumably this bodes ill for the proposed second US version of the iconic program.
posted by ktoad at 3:26 PM PST - 28 comments

BumpTop is based on the long standing idea of piles as a desktop use metaphor, this seems to bring it to life at last. Will this sort out your desktop?
posted by marvin at 3:00 PM PST - 37 comments

On June 21st, 1964 civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner disappeared in Mississippi. Here is a strange story about how their bodies were found.
posted by flatlander at 2:06 PM PST - 15 comments

Birdy Nam Nam blew me away. 4 DJs from Paris, 4 turntables and no mikes. A little context: Turntablism. Via the very lovely aurgasm.us
posted by econous at 1:52 PM PST - 43 comments

Nobody's watching. part 2, part 3.
posted by reklaw at 12:45 PM PST - 48 comments

Your iPod is Doomed!
Or it can be, it can also be Zelda'ed if you prefer! ipodlinux.org has ported Linux to the iPod (for Linux, Windows and Mac) and, once its installed, you can load up all kinds of good stuff including the aforementioned Doom, as well as the entire Wiki or use your iPod as a Gameboy! And all without screwing up your existing music files (though there are no guarantees).
posted by fenriq at 11:38 AM PST - 32 comments

Ques ça c'est? Scopitones were film jukeboxes in post-war France. See Jacque Brel and Johnny Hallyday in vivid couleur! (via)
posted by klangklangston at 11:16 AM PST - 13 comments

450 Species of homosexual animals and counting ... Fascinating Seed article concerning the existence of homosexual animals and Darwin's conception of heterosexuality.
posted by AllesKlar at 11:15 AM PST - 236 comments

The debate over exit strategies for Iraq. Stephen Biddle. The biggest problem with treating Iraq like Vietnam is Iraqization -- the main component of the current U.S. military strategy. In a people's war, handing the fighting off to local forces makes sense because it undermines the nationalist component of insurgent resistance, improves the quality of local intelligence, and boosts troop strength. But in a communal civil war, it throws gasoline on the fire. Iraq's Sunnis perceive the "national" army and police force as a Shiite-Kurdish militia on steroids. Biddle also emphasizes the need for a compromise based on a constitutional deal with ironclad power-sharing arrangements protecting all parties. Roundtable responses from Larry Diamond, James Dobbins, Chaim Kaufmann, and Leslie Gelb. Anthony Cordesman, who anticipated the current situation (PDF), emphasizes the need for ongoing US involvement in the region. Daniel Benjamin is pessimistic, describing the US as being in a no-win situation whether it stays or leaves. A list of proposed exit strategies collected by the Project for Defense Alternatives. The Onion.
posted by russilwvong at 10:13 AM PST - 90 comments

Kung Fu Tea! Welcome to the complex world of fine Chinese teas. Unlike the Japanese Tea Ceremony, Gongfu ceremonies are designed to extract as much flavor from the tea as possible. Using tiny clay teapots to brew several small batches of tea, the leaves are coaxed into releasing all of their flavor. While some these pots are highly prized and collectable pieces of art, the tea itself is the most important element. (more inside)
posted by cubby at 8:42 AM PST - 17 comments

Do a Barrel Roll! [emvedded WMV, or view it on YouTube here] Test pilot Tex Johnston shows off the capabilities of Boeing's new 367-80 "Dash 80" prototype -- which would later become the Boeing 707 -- at a 1955 air show. The barrel roll (or aileron roll to others), done twice, was a no-hazard 1G maneuver for the Dash 80, but thoroughly impressed the crowd. Following the roll, it's said that William Allen turned to an elderly attender to ask for heart attack pills. You can still view the Dash-80 today at its final resting place, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center.
posted by brownpau at 8:31 AM PST - 36 comments

What is the world reading? The UNESCO Index Translationum database has over 1.6 million bibliographical entries of translated works. Interesting stats such as: The worlds Top 50 translated authors. The Top 10 translated Norwegian authors (or other languages). Number of translations for any given book. Some surprising results, lots to explore, and an interesting lesson on what sells.
posted by stbalbach at 8:09 AM PST - 13 comments

The aptly titled Comic Strip. Get your drunken cowboys, evil Macs, dating tips and pope right here. (warning: risque banner ad)
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 7:28 AM PST - 18 comments

ASCII-art 1940s-style , flatscreen TV in the Fifties, a video phone from 1964. Articles scanned from classic mechanics and science magazines and blogged here. The future used to be so cool. (Via b3ta)
posted by featherboa at 2:17 AM PST - 24 comments

Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone magazine recently spent a few days with Pearl Jam to talk about their latest album, largely hailed as their best work since Vitalogy. The result was this article, which is a must read for all fans of Pearl Jam and music historians generally. In it, Eddie Vedder discusses the stalker whose attempt on his life provided the inspiration to No Code's 'Lukin'. He reveals the real truth behind how the band arrived at the name 'Pearl Jam', and tells us of how he and Kurt Cobain reconciled their differences, albeit temporarily, as they slow danced underneath the stage at the 1992 MTV Music Awards as Eric Clapton played 'Tears In Heaven.'
posted by Effigy2000 at 11:26 PM PST - 111 comments

Ω ΞΕΙΝ', ΑΓΓΕΛΛΕΙΝ ΛΑΚΕΔΑΙΜΟΝΙΟΙΣ ΟΤΙ ΤΗΔΕ ΚΕΙΜΕΘΑ ΤΟΙΣ ΚΕΙΝΩΝ ΡΗΜΑΣΙ ΠΕΙΘΟΜΕΝΟΙ: "Climbing on the hills, I had a surprise. On the top of the highest hill I found a small plaque with a Greek inscription dedicated to the Spartan king, and someone dropped there a bouquet of flowers, still fresh. Fresh flowers. Twenty five centuries after the battle." With a Frank Miller movie on the way, here is some background on the Battle of Thermopylae, maps of the battlefield, debate over the size of the invading Persian force, and insight into life in Sparta, a city often overshadowed by Athens.
posted by Alexandros at 10:49 PM PST - 39 comments

YouTube.com: A New Musical Anthropology. A short essay on YouTube, and a long list of punk and hardcore concert videos. NSFW warning: If you go poking around the forum you'll find a lot of porno spam. I haven't checked out all the videos yet, so you're on your own there.
posted by hydrophonic at 9:37 PM PST - 15 comments

100 Awesome Music Videos Note: not THE 100 MOST Awesome, just 100 awesome music videos. Some you'll know, some you may not, many you'll disagree with, just keep in mind, no one claimed this was a definitive list.
posted by jonson at 9:19 PM PST - 65 comments

the most maritally challenged crop of presidential hopefuls in American political history --meet 3 leading GOP candidates for 08. We've already read about Hillary's sexlife (or lack thereof), but will the double standard hold? ...if the top three Democratic presidential hopefuls each had extra-marital affairs in their backgrounds, it stands to reason that Republicans would have something to say about it--and if the past is any guide, those concerns would find their way into the papers. Will the same happen when it's about the "party of family values and morality"?
posted by amberglow at 8:57 PM PST - 84 comments

Pizazz!
posted by zardoz at 8:02 PM PST - 45 comments

Son of Rambo (not to be confused with Rambo IV: Holy War/End of Peace) is a Hammer and Tongs film about two kids in the 80s making a home video sequel to First Blood. No teaser or trailer available as of post time, but there is a showcase of illustrations by hand-picked and contributing artists that claim to cover the era, themes and content of the film.
posted by boost ventilator at 7:55 PM PST - 6 comments

The Mystery of Sneha Philip, the Possible 2,705th Victim of 9/11 At 4 PM on September 10th, 2001, Dr. Sneha Philip left her lower Manhattan apartment. Credit card records show that she made a couple purchases at the department store Century 21. Then she vanished. What happened?
posted by anjamu at 7:51 PM PST - 36 comments

ASL is a cinematic language.
posted by angrybeaver at 6:57 PM PST - 16 comments

MOG - yet another social networking site. This one's pretty new, and is centered entirely around your music collection. It has an automated helper that catalogues your music and organizes a comprehensive list on your page, tracks recent songs and artists played, etc. It's super customizable and has a good linking/recommendation system, though it's a bit slow at the moment. I know social networking sites are a dime a dozen, but this one's focus solely on music makes it worth checking out. Reminds me of Audiogalaxy, bless its soul!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:51 PM PST - 41 comments

Ray Whitney, helps team win Stanley Cup, but screams "F**king" on prime-time tv (youtube link). When Bono said it the FCC turned the other cheek but then later reversed their decision and said it was indecent and uttering the F-Word would earn a fine. Now mere days after Bush signed legistlation that would increase the maximum fine to $325,000 per station, the question is, will the FCC fine NBC $30 million for the indecency broadcast throughout the country last night?
posted by tsarfan at 3:42 PM PST - 61 comments

Sometimes mistakenly called "locusts", American cicadas come in a wide variety of colors, and make different and distinctive sounds. Some highlights: Diceroprocta viridifascia, Neocicada hieroglyphica, Tibicen marginalis, Tibicen pruinosa, Magicicada septendecim.
posted by interrobang at 3:40 PM PST - 19 comments

[TV Guide Filter] Tonight on Frontline: The Dark Side. An in-depth look at Dick Cheney's battle with the intelligence community to shape the War on Terror. From Boston.com's preview: "Frontline" delivers a devastating look tonight at the efforts of Vice President Dick Cheney to gain control of the war on terror after 9/11. In doing so, the show purports, he compromised the integrity of America's intelligence system. Check your local listings.
posted by justkevin at 3:37 PM PST - 37 comments

Wasted West is a nice short film that pumps some fresh blood in those dried up veins of the western genre.
posted by namagomi at 2:47 PM PST - 13 comments

Why are a blind man's songs so full of images? Smooth, ironic country blues. Echoes of vaudeville. Free mp3s: Dying Crapshooter's blues and Statesboboro blues, his best known. A nice recording, both sound quality and material: Pig 'n Whistle Red
posted by lw at 2:27 PM PST - 12 comments

Gobelins animation gallery. From a top French animation school; my favorites include Burning Safari, Pyrats, Cocotte Minute, Steam Team, and Super Tibetan Racer.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 2:22 PM PST - 19 comments

At approximately 9:20 PM (ET) on January 6th, David E. Rosenbaum, a longtime reporter for the Washington bureau of the New York Times, was found lying on a sidewalk in Washington, DC. He was disoriented. He was bleeding from the head. He was vomiting. And, as it turned out, he had been assaulted and robbed. [more inside]
posted by scrump at 1:24 PM PST - 49 comments

"Shortly before Father’s Day, TAP spoke with Michael Berg, father of Nicholas Berg, about his congressional campaign and the recent death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." [Via Disinformation.]
posted by homunculus at 1:21 PM PST - 22 comments

Leonardo is overrated: the steam turbine was invented two millennia ago by Hero of Alexandria who developed the aeolipile as a toy. Hero was also responsible for the first vending machine (for holy water) and hydraulic automatic temple doors, along with advances in areas as diverse as physics and mathematics. A translation of Hero's influential Pneumatics is available online, featuring illustrated examples of many of his inventions, many of which are related to clever devices for drinking or prayer, or both.
posted by blahblahblah at 11:10 AM PST - 18 comments

Hurricane Katrina in South Mississippi Before and after photos.
posted by ColdChef at 6:26 AM PST - 28 comments

Personality, Ideology and Bush's Terror Wars [...]Just as disturbing as Al Qaeda's plans and capabilities are the descriptions of the Bush administration's handling of the war on terror and its willful determination to go to war against Iraq. That war, according to the author's sources who attended National Security Council briefings in 2002, was primarily waged "to make an example" of Saddam Hussein, to "create a demonstration model to guide the behavior of anyone with the temerity to acquire destructive weapons or, in any way, flout the authority of the United States."[...]
posted by Postroad at 6:22 AM PST - 55 comments

The Pirate Party^ has become a significant voice in Swedish politics, partly due to the illegal raids on the Pirate Bay^ and The Bureau of Piracy (Piratbyrån)^ (which spawned both). Other Swedish political parties are now adding copyright reforms to their platforms. The party's leader Rickard Falkvinge^ gave an intelligent compelling interview "today".
Note: Virtually all major content industries today are the result of large scale piracy or flagrant patent infringement, including the American publishing industry, Hollywood, radio, and the music industry. And the anti-piracy side has essentially no historical evidence supporting its position.
posted by jeffburdges at 5:30 AM PST - 39 comments

Surveillance Nation. Cameras, Cameras everywhere. Welcome to the United Kingdom.

"The UK would appear to have around 4.2m cameras in operation," says Professor Clive Norris, of Sheffield University's centre for criminological research. "That's more than anywhere else in the world, with the possible exception of China. It's one for every 14 citizens."

While you're here, admire the ANPR system, that will record every journey by private car, anywhere in the country and keep the information for five years. It will be switched on this summer. Not everyone is happy.
posted by grahamwell at 2:46 AM PST - 65 comments

Jor-El speaks. Cool clip from Rhythm + Hues studios detailing how they adapted footage of Brando from the original Superman flick for the upcoming Superman Returns. embedded quicktime, and via AICN
posted by WolfDaddy at 10:55 PM PST - 46 comments

Letters by Badsey Council School children describing life in a market gardening community in 1933. A great insight into their lives and some excellent penmanship to boot. [via]
posted by tellurian at 10:45 PM PST - 12 comments

In middle school during the late 80s, the biosphere was the coolness, but it's since fallen on hard times, and will now make way to the unending housing developments between Phoenix and Tucson (top story). Viva la science!
posted by bjork24 at 9:33 PM PST - 22 comments

365 days. One brown dress. A one-woman show against fashion. "So, here's the deal - I made this dress and I'm wearing it every day for a year. I'll throw snowballs in it (wearing additional clothing layers in cold weather for health & safety), garden in it, rehearse in it, travel in it, dance in it, cook in it, prune my pear trees in it, drink wine in it, sing my baby to sleep in it." The project was launched July 7th of last year and is nearing completion.
posted by arcticwoman at 7:07 PM PST - 106 comments

Outsider art is exposed for what it is: beguiling and incredibly enticing. Henry Darger continues to capture new fans and his frighteningly gorgeous mindscapes continue to sell for thousands of dollars. "I found myself hastening past great Dubuffets, and lingering in front of vast ugly works produced by people who, to be honest, didn’t know how to draw…" (first link NSFW)
posted by zenpop at 6:44 PM PST - 43 comments

The London Review of Books has a World Cup blog. So has The New Republic and Tony Blair's spinmeister Alastair Campbell. WFMU tracks World Cup related fatalities on its World Cup Death Watch while Slate's William Saletan sends us Dispatches from the World Cup. And then there's the expected gaggle of World Cup blogs from the mainstream media (NYT, Sydney Morning Herald, Der Spiegel [in english], The Guardian, etc.)

And finally, the mother of all World Cup blogs, worldcupblog.org, with individual bloggers for each country, a main blog, and, my favorite section, a referee's blog.
posted by Kattullus at 6:35 PM PST - 17 comments

Remember when MTV played videos? Music Videos From the 80's: Over 1,400 Videos!
posted by Doohickie at 6:30 PM PST - 107 comments

Comprehensive, high quality archive of box art from Transformers toys. Searchable and organized by year and faction. Tell me this isn't awesome.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 2:58 PM PST - 54 comments

I for one welcome our new dog brain in-a-dish Quake playing overlords... oh wait...nevermind
posted by daHIFI at 12:54 PM PST - 19 comments

The appeal of Gothic Lolita fashion continues to grow and evolve. Originally seen in Japan, it has spread worldwide and into the toy shops. Potentially NSFW
posted by bigmusic at 11:49 AM PST - 68 comments

Wittgenstein, in a letter to Norman Malcolm, wrote: "...A couple of years ago I read with great pleasure a detective story called Rendezvous With Fear by a man Norbert Davis. I enjoyed it so much that I gave it not only to Smythies but also to Moore to read and both shared my high opinion of it. For, though, as you know, I’ve read hundreds of stories that amused me and that I liked reading, I think I’ve only read two perhaps that I’d call good stuff, and Davis’s is one of them... It may sound crazy, but when I recently re-read the story I liked it again so much that I thought I’d really like to write to the author and thank him. If this is nuts don’t be surprised, for so am I..."
Though it is discussed by both Ray Monk, in his biography of Wittgenstein, and Edmonds and Eidenow, in their popular book about Wittgenstein's philosophical clash with Popper (and an aging Russell), it is always interesting to read about this strange man's love of detective fiction. Though I don't necessarily agree with the linked author's conclusions, it makes for a good read.
posted by voltairemodern at 11:26 AM PST - 22 comments

Bunny versus Airbus A380. The bunny was on the runway as the A380 came in for a landing, but managed to avoid getting pancaked by bolting as the behemoth decelerated. We salute you, Runway Bunny.
posted by brownpau at 10:20 AM PST - 139 comments

What is ubiquitous computing or "ubicomp," other than a geeky buzz-phrase for smart objects, "things that think"? In his provocative new book Everyware (freely excerpted here and here), interface designer and MeFite Adam Greenfield provides a thoughtful meditation on one of the digital world's most resonant hopes for the future, encompassing everything from pervasive RFID-chipping, Orwellian surveillance, and a humbly practical magic wand to a "coming age of calm technology."
posted by digaman at 10:16 AM PST - 29 comments

We're losing the war on terror. Just in case you couldn't gather that on your own, people who ought to know were surveyed (MS Word file).
posted by js003 at 9:42 AM PST - 102 comments

The last hope of life on earth: Svalbard. Most of humanity depends on just 12 plant species, down from over 7,000 historically. Fortunately, seeds can be viable for up to thousands of years, and seed banks have already preserved many species, including the entire plant population of Antarctica. But with seed banks being destroyed as the result of wars and accident, Norway has has begun work on an underground facility, protected by polar bears, in the Arctic permafrost that is designed to hold millions of seeds, as "final safety net" for humanity.
posted by blahblahblah at 8:25 AM PST - 35 comments

Caligraft - computational calligraphy.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:45 AM PST - 14 comments

Ironic Newsfilter; Chocolate manufacturing giant Nestle is to buy weight loss company Jenny Craig for $600 million. (NYT Link).
posted by Effigy2000 at 1:43 AM PST - 41 comments

If you know monster makeup, you already know the name Jack Pierce, who created the makeup for Frankenstein's monster, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and many others. But Pierce's career with Universal Studios, for whom he created these masterpieces, came to a sudden, and unexpected, end when, in 1945, he and his entire staff were fired.

The trouble? Pierce's methods were time-consuming and painstaking, involving, among other things, building up his creatures features with cotton and collodion, a process that took many hours. Universal had fallen on hard times, with mergers, sales of its catalogue, and the loss of its 1,500-screen theater chain bringing the bean counters to the fore. They wanted to cut back on Universal's grand-spending ways, and out with the bathwater went the baby. The sorts of makeup men the bean-counters like were George and Gordon Bau, two brothers from Minnesota who had worked at Rubbercraft and brought with them a knowledge of how to make reusable appliances from cheap, lightweight foam latex. Their major accomplishment was House of Wax (1953) and they revolutionized the industry (Dick Smith's work in Little Big Man would be unthinkable without it, as would the entire career of Rick Baker. Best still, it's now possible to buy monstrous and gruesome rubber appliances right off the shelf.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:51 PM PST - 27 comments

"I'm John, and I used to play with my partner Paul." "I'm Paul, and I used to play with my partner Art." Yes, it's youtube, and it prominently features a couple of musicians from the sixties who have been discussed on the blue before with varying degrees of admiration/scorn. I still found this fascinating - compared to today's awards ceremonies, it looks downright ancient. But I love the spontaneity and the humor. Finally, as if that weren't enough - despite some stiff competition, the winner is...
posted by fingers_of_fire at 10:46 PM PST - 18 comments

News Filter - In 2003 the Bush administration rejected an Iranian offer to recognize Israel, end support of Palestinian terror organizations, help out in Iraq, and talk about their nuclear program.
posted by sourbrew at 8:41 PM PST - 66 comments

Donald Hall Is America's New Poet Laureate
The New Hampshire resident, and widower of fellow poet, Jane Kenyon, has been named as the United States' new poet laureate. Hall has won many awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships and a Robert Frost Medal, and has served as poet laureate of his state. He has had a distinguished literary career.
posted by ericb at 6:59 PM PST - 26 comments

Who says illegal immigrants don't boost the economy? Some are profiting right handsomely... (see the bottom of page 16 - 14 of the study) [both links are pdf docs]
posted by pwedza at 6:21 PM PST - 11 comments

Katherine Jeffords , Bishop of Nevada, has been elected Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, becoming the first female Anglican Primate Primate. Having been admonished by the global church about Bishop Robinson and homosexuality, ECUSA has aparently decided to put another thumb in the eye of conservatives.
posted by hob at 5:27 PM PST - 32 comments

Scanned Images, Engravings and Pictures From Old Books.
[via Matthew White's History Topic of the Week or Month or Something]

Over a thousand images from old, public domain books, scanned by Liam Quin. Some favorites of mine are Discourse into the Night, The Catacombs of Naples, A Potter Thumping His Wet Clay, A Writer, with a Castle in the Background and Grotesque Head.
posted by Kattullus at 5:11 PM PST - 24 comments

$200 Bananas Thanks to Cyclone Larry, Australian bananas are getting almost expensive as Japanese melons.
posted by matkline at 5:01 PM PST - 23 comments

Modern Toss. Featuring the beautifully profane, 'Mr Tourette', the all too real, 'Weekend' and the employee’s dream, 'Work'. [Not safe for work, children or the easily offended.]
posted by MrMustard at 3:01 PM PST - 20 comments

Gimmie Gimmie Octopus is apparently a Japanese children's television show from the 1960s.
Yes, it's YouTube, but at least there's no lip synching.
posted by klausness at 2:31 PM PST - 13 comments

So Paul McCartney is 64, Now What? [NYT] Sir James Paul McCartney turns sixty-four today. Will we still need him? Will we still feed him? Probably not, given his recent divorce. Happy Birthday anyway!
posted by grapefruitmoon at 1:49 PM PST - 62 comments

!!Happiness!!
posted by jne1813 at 1:03 PM PST - 24 comments

Naked in the Naked City. Artist Miru Kim takes curiously compelling nude photos of herself in gritty and deserted urban settings like sewers, subway stations, railroad tracks, tunnels, abandoned factories and asylums. (via)
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:17 AM PST - 98 comments

``I managed developer teams in Windows for five years, and have only begun to reflect on the experience now that I have recently switched teams. Through a series of conversations with other leaders that have similarly left The Collective, several root causes have emerged as lasting characterizations of what's really wrong in The Empire.'
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:03 AM PST - 73 comments

Maury and Connie get cancelled after 6 months. Connie says goodbye in song. I am now insane.
posted by puke & cry at 11:20 PM PST - 84 comments

"Sloppiness is my palette." Neal Medlyn is the self-proclaimed "Paris Hilton of Performance Art" who looked for "bits and pieces of coolness in normal things or in anything" when he was growing up in small-town Texas. Now performing regularly in New York City, Medlyn played a nude Dubya shacking up with Karen Finley's nude Martha Stewart in George and Martha (here's a review and another review; photos NSFW). According to the 2000 Austin Chronicle profile (written by his future wife) Medlyn came off as a lunatic in his early performances, many of which were sparsely attended, and involved "music, little routines, and group activities, like having everyone sit in the dark and listen very closely to a song he likes." Medlyn has performed, with Kenny Mellmann, a show of R. Kelly songs (watch him performing one; Google Video); he loves (NSFW) Lionel Richie (whose songs he finds strange and beautiful; watch mpg here); and he wrote a book inspired by his own buttocks (NSFW). Medlyn is currently doing, with Carmine Covelli, a somewhat Peewee Herman-ish video series for Nerve called Neal Medlyn's Land of Make-Believe (NSFW; videos depict group sex, performed by various animal puppets). Here is a 2004 interview with Medlyn. And Medlyn has a Myspace profile.
posted by jayder at 9:50 PM PST - 9 comments

A Vine Romance I spite of his critics Robert Parker has vastly improved the wine experience for all of us!
posted by sameasthem at 9:37 PM PST - 10 comments

"My Unwitting Role in the Rove 'Scoop'" It looks like Jason Leopold tried to juice his "Karl Rove indicted" story by pretending to be someone else. "I don't really know why Leopold may have pretended to be me to Corallo. I can only speculate that he either was trying to get a reaction and thought Corallo would be more likely to respond to a conservative-leaning mainstream paper, or he was trying to get Corallo to acknowledge that Rove had been indicted by bluffing that the Sunday Times had confirmed the story." [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha at 5:43 PM PST - 21 comments

3-Year-Old's Birthday Party Theme: 'NewsHour'
posted by rxrfrx at 5:38 PM PST - 39 comments

The ultimate in outsourcing. Welcome to India, where you can visit the Taj Mahal and get a new knee, all for under $10,000, airfare included. Of course, it's not just for Canadians whose health care system, while free, sometimes necessitates lengthy waits for important surgical procedures. The uninsured in the US and other nations are a potential market as well. And there's potential for medical tourism destinations in the US as well.
posted by greatgefilte at 5:18 PM PST - 38 comments

Say Hello to the all New Genpets from Bio.Genica! The Genpets are Pre-Packaged, Bioengineered pets implemented today!
posted by boo_radley at 4:30 PM PST - 19 comments

craigslist could make $500 million a year. Why not?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:26 PM PST - 64 comments

Tangram House
posted by anjamu at 3:20 PM PST - 12 comments

How an Al-Qaeda Cell Planned a Poison-gas Attack on the N.Y. Subway Al-Qaeda terrorists came within 45 days of attacking the New York subway system with a lethal gas similar to that used in Nazi death camps. They were stopped not by any intelligence breakthrough, but by an order from Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman Zawahiri. And the U.S. learned of the plot from a CIA mole inside al-Qaeda. These are some of the more startling revelations by author Ron Susskind, whose new book The One Percent Doctrine is excerpted in the forthcoming issue of TIME. It will appear on Time.com early Sunday morning.
posted by Postroad at 1:51 PM PST - 73 comments

Mass. school punishes students with electric shocks "They can be shocked for behaviors including ’failure to maintain a neat appearance’, ‘stopping work for more than 10 seconds’, ‘interrupting others’, ‘nagging’, ‘whispering and/or moving conversation away from staff’, ‘slouch in chair’ ' I have spoke before of American Enantiodromia. Further, Thomas Moore wrote in Dark Eros: The Imagination of Sadism , that in any culture that does not acknowledge it's skeletons, --it's sins, if you will-- will have that imagination played out in real life.

The ways of Sade are not limited to bedroom and scenes of bondage or porno theaters or forbidden books. Any aspect of culture, from the great to the small, insofar as it is engaged in issues of power has therefore Sadean qualities. Furthermore, since life is never perfect, every aspect of culture will know the split of power into torture and suffering, dominance and submission, or sentimentality and cruelty.

I wont editorialize anymore than I have, but I can't help but wonder, When did psychological abuse become entertainment? or has it always been thus? Also see: N.Y. report denounces shock use at school. I look forward to your Parallax View.
posted by Unregistered User at 1:33 PM PST - 32 comments

extortr: online blackmail for the masses.
posted by reklaw at 12:13 PM PST - 16 comments

Screech Powers from the 1989-1993 teen comedy series "Saved by the Bell," is hoping to sell enough T-shirts with his photo on them to try to raise $250,000 so he doesn't lose his gray two-story house under a foreclosure order.
posted by Guerilla at 11:40 AM PST - 51 comments

Art teacher in hot water over topless photos - Meet Tamara, a 29 year old art teacher at Austin High School (notable alumni) in Austin, TX. She's in danger of losing her job with the Austin independent School District over inappropriate photos posted to her Flickr account (may be NSFW). "I'm an artist and I'm going to participate in the arts," Hoover said. "If that's not something they want me to do then I want to be told that. I don't feel as if I was doing anything that was beyond expectations."
posted by nitsuj at 11:07 AM PST - 88 comments

When Artists Took Over the Asylum [NYT]: A 450 piece Dada exhibit opens Sunday at MoMA in New York. The collection features works from such Dada greats as Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Jean "Hans" Arp, Hannah Höch, and Baroness Elsa Von Freytag-Loringhoven.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:48 AM PST - 10 comments

The New York Observer has a bridal blog. Read it and weep, my friends.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:21 AM PST - 9 comments

Japanese Rube Goldberg Ramen Machine (warning: link goes to embedded video)
posted by jonson at 9:20 AM PST - 18 comments

James Madison wrote in Federalist Paper No. 47:

The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many...may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

That extraordinary powers have, under Bush, been accumulated in the "same hands" is now undeniable. For the first time in more than thirty years, and to a greater extent than even then, our constitutional form of government is in jeopardy.

Power Grab
posted by y2karl at 7:20 AM PST - 76 comments

The case of Rudolf Margolius and his family in Czechoslovakia during Fascism and Communism.
posted by semmi at 7:05 AM PST - 4 comments

36 years later, the remaining members of The Who will return to reprise their seminal concert recording Live at Leeds. The original record was compiled from one concert, in the Leeds University Refectory, and that's where they'll be playing tonight.
posted by handee at 6:35 AM PST - 30 comments

Bank penalty charges are unenforceable at law and you can get them back.
posted by sgt.serenity at 3:35 AM PST - 28 comments

'Twas blind, but now I see? — Virgil surgically regained his sight after nearly 50 years of blindness: "On the day he returned home after the bandages were removed, his house and its contents were unintelligible to him, and he had to be led up the garden path, led through the house, led into each room, and introduced to each chair." In the end, he and others like him [PDF] would have rather stayed in the Country of the Blind. (A happier ending was the more recent case of Mike Mays, previously posted here.)
posted by cenoxo at 1:59 AM PST - 19 comments

The Pianolina - an addictive flash game - is something like a cross between Pong and WolframTones. Brought to you by Grotrian, piano manufacturers since 1835, the pianolina visualizes musical notes as little squares that chime when they bounce against each other or against a wall. Its sophisticated interface lets you add chords, gravity, or start with the basic notes of well known compositions like Beethoven's "Für Elise".
posted by jann at 10:29 PM PST - 21 comments

Once there was a band called Aqua. You probably know their song Barbie Girl. Apparently, a lot of other people know the song, and like it enough to make videos of themselves lip-synching to it. A lot of people. [a lot more and heavy youtube linkage inside]
posted by Ynoxas at 8:16 PM PST - 67 comments

Sex in Christ: The sex act called fisting is a source of confusion and misconceptions for many Christians. This is unfortunate, because it means that many Christian men and women are depriving themselves of what could be the most spiritual sexual experience of their lives. Like anal sex and BDSM, fisting is often mistakenly associated with the gay community or is considered a sex act too extreme to be appropriate for Christian couples. Not only are these views incorrect, but fisting actually has a scriptural precedent, as we will show.
posted by bigmusic at 7:55 PM PST - 81 comments

So how's the War on Drugs proceeding in Afghanistan? Barry McCaffrey, former drug czar, trumpets, "Opium production has been dramatically slashed by 48% just in the past year[2005].". Oops, actually that's the acreage of opium cultivation; production went down by only 10%, due to increased yields. In any case, that's so last year. Instead of the socially detrimental policy of poppy eradication, wouldn't it be preferable to allow licensing of poppies for legitimate medical needs? The Afghan farmers agree, but some think the idea is flawed.
posted by daksya at 7:23 PM PST - 17 comments

You may have known that Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (GA) has been a crusader for many great causes, such as HB 145, HB 180, HB 425, HB 500 and HB 637. However you may not have know that he has a second love. Which shines some light on why he has chosen to use his extensive knowledge and experience to co-sponsor H.Con.Res. 11 and H.Con.Res. 12. After listening to him explain why these two resolutions are so critical, I was almost swayed.
posted by Mr_Zero at 12:24 PM PST - 96 comments

Dzone is digg for programmers and web developers.
posted by boo_radley at 12:04 PM PST - 29 comments

Visor: Brought to you by the wonderful folks who made the incredible Quicksilver, Visor is a drop down terminal for your mac, similar to the quake terminal. Plus, you can use quartz composer movies as backgrounds!
posted by Freen at 12:00 PM PST - 28 comments

IraqFilter: Who is the US fighting in Iraq? A February 2006 report from the International Crisis Group which provides a detailed look at the evolution of the insurgency, and describes its four main groups: Tandhim al-Qa’ida fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (recently decapitated), Jaysh Ansar al-Sunna, al-Jaysh al-Islami fil-’Iraq, and al-Jabha al-Islamiya lil-Muqawama al-’Iraqiya. In Iraq, the U.S. fights an enemy it hardly knows. Its descriptions have relied on gross approximations and crude categories (Saddamists, Islamo-fascists and the like) that bear only passing resemblance to reality. This report, based on close analysis of the insurgents’ own discourse [particularly their websites], reveals relatively few groups, less divided between nationalists and foreign jihadis than assumed, whose strategy and tactics have evolved (in response to U.S. actions and to maximise acceptance by Sunni Arabs), and whose confidence in defeating the occupation is rising.
posted by russilwvong at 10:52 AM PST - 49 comments

Do you hate Uwe Boll? Did you write about it online? Here's your chance to kick his ass... In person. On film. Which will supposedly be presented in "Postal", one of his so-called movies. -Kristanna Loken
posted by loquacious at 9:22 AM PST - 55 comments

In the spirit of Carlson's Big Ad (the previously linked greatest spot ever filmed) comes this amazing Buzby Berkely inspired piece for Turkish financial institution Akbank.
posted by jonson at 9:19 AM PST - 20 comments

The Strange Case Of Gordon Lee. “It is highly unusual to have a single defendant face three arraignments in less than two years for the same alleged criminal conduct. In my fifteen years of practice, I have never seen such an occurrence.”* [more inside]
posted by grabbingsand at 8:51 AM PST - 19 comments

Yesterduh. [more inside]
posted by jrb223 at 8:30 AM PST - 20 comments

Anderson Cooper Gives me a Boner (Via).
posted by Ricky_gr10 at 6:18 AM PST - 190 comments

The Promise and Perils of Synthetic Biology
posted by Gyan at 4:15 AM PST - 14 comments

The return of astronauts to the moon by 2020? Yeah! Hurricane predictions, long-term monitoring of weather and climate change? Not so much. (related here and here)
posted by Smedleyman at 11:58 PM PST - 78 comments

The Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City, houses paintings by Nicholas Roerich, a Russian artist, who spent most of his life on the Indian-Tibetan border, creating evocative images of night and day in the Himalayan Mountains. (more inside)
posted by nickyskye at 11:36 PM PST - 15 comments

Web comics are fun: Acid Zen Wonder Paint. Explore via the "Random" button or check out my favorites.
posted by JPowers at 7:41 PM PST - 24 comments

When Everyone Else's Party is Your Job The 24-Hour Show is a documentary project and exhibit that offers a glimpse of Las Vegas through the eyes of the people who live and work in the city. It's based on interviews with a diverse cadré of casino and entertainment workers who have made Las Vegas home.
posted by Miko at 7:24 PM PST - 6 comments

"This is my happening, and it freaks me out!" A sequel far removed from its namesake, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, the 1970 sex-drugs-rock-violence classic by Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert, gets a special-edition DVD release this week. Also, at retroCRUSH, a trio of interviews with Casey, Roxanne and the ultra-eccentric Z-Man.
posted by LinusMines at 6:25 PM PST - 14 comments

"I am copying you on this crap since I honestly believe the competitive procurement will never happen." --a multi-billion-dollar no-bid contract to KBR/Halliburton announced only after the fact, Cheney's extensive involvement, the attempted coverup of that involvement, lies, and you. Embarrassment is not sufficient cause for exemption from the Freedom of Information Act, no matter how much some may wish. ...Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press in September 2003 Cheney stated, “I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts led by the [Army] Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the Federal Government.”
posted by amberglow at 6:20 PM PST - 38 comments

The "Bird flu dance" is "sweeping" Africa. Or at least the Ivory Coast. DJ Lewis created the dance (youtube warning) which was described in the BBC article as being "like a chicken with Parkinson's disease trying to dance to hip-hop". There are examples all over youtube (warning: here be lofi youtube videos).
posted by casconed at 4:30 PM PST - 17 comments

Hail Cannons look awesome. They've apparently been around for along time, but they occasionally annoy the neighbors. Can we wipe out hail in our lifetimes?
posted by mattbucher at 3:56 PM PST - 20 comments

Long. Awkward. Poses. People secretly filmed while holding poses for photographs.
posted by liam at 3:41 PM PST - 37 comments

They're all clowns, I tell you! Clowns!
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:17 PM PST - 8 comments

Youtubefilter: Gnarls Barkley performs "Crazy," unites Rebellion and Empire.
posted by bardic at 2:53 PM PST - 50 comments

Gates to Leave Day-to-Day Role at Microsoft in 2008. Following the tradition of previous capitalists-turned-philanthropists such as J.P. Getty and Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates has announced that in 2008 he will quit his full-time role as head of Microsoft to focus his attention on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (whose website seems to be having issues at the moment). [NewsFilter]
posted by justkevin at 2:51 PM PST - 86 comments

Suzanne Swift, a Eugene soldier, has been arrested for refusing to return to Iraq after leave. She reports that she was sexually harassed by superiors. She was picked up at home by Homeland Security agents (according to local heresay) and held in Lane County Jail overnight, before being transferred to Fort Lewis in Washington. More local news here.
(Disclaimer: I attempted to link a Military.com story on it, for balance, but was unable to.)
posted by Danf at 2:01 PM PST - 72 comments

Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher Not quite as politically charged as Real Time or Politically Incorrect, it's Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher. Previous guests include: Jon Favreau, Dean Koontz, The Dixie Chicks and Josh Ritter.
posted by matkline at 1:47 PM PST - 24 comments

Googoosh! In the 70s, there was a pop star in (pre-revolutionary) Iran named Googoosh. She recorded a handful of covers of Motown songs, and lots of Farsi pop that fuses Motown and Persian music. Check it out if you like world music and Motown. There are lo-fi MP3s under the link above, and there are CDs:Best of Googoosh, Vol. 4: Doe Panjereh. She performed in the US in 2000, after a 20-year hiatus, in LA and DC. The concert in DC was something else, both audience and performance.
posted by lw at 12:41 PM PST - 8 comments

Do you know what to do with a stick and a clutch? Only 15% of new car buyers in the US say they'll consider buying a car with manual transmission, and by 2012, only 6% of cars will be offered with a stick. Is it because it's a difficult skill to learn? Or is it really because it's too hard to shift when you have a cell phone in one hand and a Starbucks coffee in the other? Or is a manual transmission simply an outdated system with new fangled technology like CVT, DSG, SMG, and super-fast, 100 msec shifting automatic transmissions available?
posted by jaimev at 11:16 AM PST - 266 comments

In the name of God - Humanoid robot [PDF]. Apparently Iran "is the strongest represented foreign nation, with 50 teams at the world championships [RoboCup 2006]. Six of these teams are made up solely of women." Also participating in the humanoid league: the arabot [PDF, scroll down], [avi-video] from the United Arab Emirates.
posted by vertriebskonzept at 10:13 AM PST - 6 comments

In BC, Canada, you can buy the mining rights to your neighbors' land for a $25 permit and 17 cents an acre, and you can do it all from the comfort of your office chair.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:05 AM PST - 20 comments

Samuel R. Delany has become known for his Silent Interviews, where he responds to questions in writing. But many other interviews are available online: The Onion AV Club; Nerve; Science Fiction Studies; SF Site; K. Leslie Steiner [Delany's pseudonym]; Science Fiction Weekly. Some are not-so-silent: Blackbird; Smithsonian. He also writes fiction. [More Inside]
posted by anotherpanacea at 9:29 AM PST - 24 comments

Excellent photoset documenting the sinking of the Oriskany aircraft carrier to create an artificial reef.
posted by jonson at 9:05 AM PST - 24 comments

Helix is a new Science Fiction magazine on the Internet. Run by managing editor Lawrence Watt-Evans and senior editor William Sanders, Helix is free, with no advertisements or registration. They do accept donations. This follows Watt-Evans's success last year with his Spriggan Experiment, in which he substituted reader donations for the traditional advance from a publisher. The result of that experiment, The Spriggan Mirror will be available from Wild-side Press in September 2006.
posted by notbuddha at 8:59 AM PST - 15 comments

Girl-Wonder.org is a new site tackling the portrayal of women in comics, written in the same vein as Women in Refrigerators and sequential tart.
posted by FunkyHelix at 8:34 AM PST - 18 comments

The staff of The Impulsive Buy are not experts, but they do like to try anything that has any of the following words on the product: new, improved, new and improved, better tasting, reconditioned, less fat, fat-free, best-selling, less calories, reduced for quick sale, limited edition, free toy, 50% off, or now with Olestra!
posted by naomi at 8:16 AM PST - 8 comments

[NewsFilter] "Beginning of the End." The death of al Zarqawi, in itself, may have been a bit of a pyrrhic victory, but the latest news is a "treasure trove" of intelligence from al Qa'ida in Iraq. Of course, al Qa'ida in Iraq is largely an open source movement, so they never kept this exactly secret--but now, it's being widely reported that al Qa'ida "sought war between US and Iran." With speculation that al Zaraqwi's death may lead to a drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq, might his death now also defuse tensions with Iran, as well? Did we end two wars in one blow?
posted by jefgodesky at 5:35 AM PST - 104 comments

"the silly old buggers gone bloody missing" A yobbo cane toad learns the dangers of being one of the less adored icons of the Aussie landscape.
posted by dg at 3:10 AM PST - 11 comments

SupaFormula Destrukt using vvv*. via dataisnature
* a toolkit for real time video synthesis.
posted by signal at 9:36 PM PST - 10 comments

This video shows how to navigate Google maps by simply tilting your thinkpad. The code is here, a blog post about it is here. I knew the first wave of goofy accelerometer hacks would be followed with better stuff and I can't wait to see what else people do with the sensors. Hopefully someone ports this to the newer macs as well. [via dj]
posted by mathowie at 8:45 PM PST - 32 comments

Brian Dilg Photography Long after Jamie Lee Curtis bared all to show the world she's no longer Perfect are we still being fooled by the seeming perfection of photos being presented to us in the media? [note: Feron and Apodaca featured previously on Mefi]
posted by FlamingBore at 8:12 PM PST - 41 comments

$20,000 and you can choose the gender of your next kid. You'd think you'd have to go to the Caribbean or someplace to do it but the practice of gender selective preimplantation genetic diagnosis is alive and well in the United States. (Note how the medical link DOES NOT have an indication for using the procedure for gender selection). Some have already been concerned about a slippery slope. And, it seems regulatory agencies would rather not say anything about the issue so as to let the technology improve and see what we can and can't select in our embryos. Could this be the next big issue in the culture v. science v. religion wars?
posted by skepticallypleased at 7:31 PM PST - 54 comments

The New Yorker suggests that Bush is being pushed by his advisors to fight against gay marriage when he really has no strong feelings either way. According to Bush's close unnamed friend, "I don't think he gives a shit about it." An inspired take on strategic political distraction.
posted by JPowers at 6:42 PM PST - 39 comments

Carnegie Mellon researchers have created a program that can automatically generate a 3-D model from a single photograph, using machine learning. Take a look at this high-res comparison of original and generated images, also demonstration animations and downloadable videos (with executables). [via /. see also: a little on human 3d perception at everything2, groovy dragon illusion]
posted by MetaMonkey at 4:38 PM PST - 42 comments

Google's Flickr Killer?
posted by bigmusic at 2:37 PM PST - 72 comments

Entertainment NewsFilter: the surviving Beach Boys, including Mike Love and Brian Wilson, appeared together in public today, for the first time in ten years, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of Pet Sounds. Mike Love recently sued Brian Wilson for royalties and co-writing credits, again, after Brian released SMiLE, a mere 38 years after originally starting on it. The strife between the two has been ongoing for decades. As Brian grew more musically ambitious in the Pet Sounds and SMiLE era, Mike legendarily admonished Brian not to "fuck with the formula." [m.i.]
posted by ibmcginty at 12:23 PM PST - 59 comments

What is this Sketchzilla thing?! It is whatever you want it to be. It's a community art project. It's a funhouse. It's an art gallery. It's a madlib. It's a mad house. It's an html monster. It's a butteryfly ballot. It's the 10 most wanted. It's a flip book. It's noisy. It's the flag of the internet. Oh and it's occasionally NSFW. It is always changing and morphing and mutating in to something new, by you. I can't believe that Sketchzilla was the only surviving member of its species... But if we continue conducting nuclear tests... it's possible that another Sketchzilla might appear somewhere in the world again.
posted by Sir Mildred Pierce at 10:56 AM PST - 250 comments

Radio streams on the net. A huge compendium of radio stations around the globe which have internet feeds.
posted by caddis at 10:08 AM PST - 22 comments

An audio illusion called the tritone paradox is based on Shepard Tones, a finite self-similar sequence of tones that seem to contiually rise or fall in pitch. Diana Deutch has found that how you percieve these illusions can be strikingly different from person to person and that most people have some form of pefect pitch.
posted by ozomatli at 9:30 AM PST - 42 comments

Superman marries Lois Lane. Superman dies. Batman's back is broken. Robin dies. Spider-Man gets married. But one storyline taboo, revealing one's secret identity, has never been broken with a major comic book character. Until now (big-time spoiler alert).
posted by solid-one-love at 9:21 AM PST - 124 comments

Majority Leader Boehner’s Confidential Strategy Memo For Thursday’s Iraq Debate On Thursday, the House of Representatives will hold a debate on the Iraq war. Media reports say Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) “hopes to match the serious, dignified tone of deliberation that preceded the Gulf war, in 1991.” ThinkProgress has obtained a “Confidential Messaging Memo” from Boehner instructing his caucus to conduct a very different kind of deliberation. Here’s a quick summary:
posted by Postroad at 8:52 AM PST - 70 comments

A history of the online World Cup. Do you remember the first ever official FIFA world cup website? How much we've grown...
posted by ascullion at 8:47 AM PST - 6 comments

Moritz Volz plays for Fulham and Germany- and he has a sense of humor.
posted by wfc123 at 8:05 AM PST - 8 comments

Fascinating photo set of North Korean life, as taken by a Russian tourist. The degree of "Big Brother" style oversight present via the photo narration is daunting.
posted by jonson at 7:22 AM PST - 90 comments

Peanut Gallery: DIY MST3K for OS X. OMFG! Via DF.
posted by mcwetboy at 5:22 AM PST - 12 comments

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, military spending for 2005 increased by 3.4% from 2004, and now tops US$1.12 trillion. Spending has however declined as a proportion of gross world product, from 2.6% to 2.5%. Naturally, the USA is No. 1 all the way, with 48% of total expenditure. China is in the top five with a bullet , although their guns are different, apparently, because they 'promote peace and stability'.
posted by wilful at 12:19 AM PST - 21 comments

Do you like pickup trucks? How about automotive history and evolution? Here are some pictures of old pickups, from the blatantly-obviously named oldcarandtruckpictures.com. And since I got complaints on IRC that the wheels weren't big enough...
posted by Eideteker at 12:17 AM PST - 11 comments

We've just replaced Bob's Folger's with 5000 micrograms of LSD. Let's see if he'll notice the difference. (Quicktime video. Not safe for the reasonably sane or unmedicated.)
posted by loquacious at 8:39 PM PST - 166 comments

Explosion at Iowa Army Ammunition Plant Interesting to note, this plant which is just a few miles from my hometown remained relatively dormant after the cold war ended.
posted by Tablecrumbs at 7:09 PM PST - 39 comments

Yo Gabba Gabba is a new concept for a children's television show, featuring a hip-hop edge, guest starring Biz Markie and Paul Frank's Julius The Monkey, as well as the standard complement of day-glo monsters and songs. Some children's programming is the product of serious thought. Some is completely bewildering. Some just plain rocks.
posted by padraigin at 6:16 PM PST - 17 comments

Ten contestants. Ten days. They all grew up in shelters -- but one of them will claw his or her way to the top. It's the Meow Mix House, where ten cats will vie to become Meow Mix's Feline Vice President of Research and Development. (And, win or lose, they will all be adopted by families.) The webcams. [ article || via ]
posted by milquetoast at 4:23 PM PST - 28 comments

How valuable is your favorite sports star to his or her team? Sports economics take center stage as the NBA finals are underway in the United States and World Cup fever has gripped the rest of the world. Malcolm Gladwell reviews the Wages of Wins, where “Freakonomics meets ESPN”
posted by msali at 4:13 PM PST - 16 comments

The Broad Band has released an on-line protest song: God Save the Internet. Jill Sobule, Kay Hanley, and Michelle Lewis are trying to stir up a webgrass protest against what may already be a done deal. They are in favor of Net Neutrality, by the way.
posted by mmahaffie at 3:23 PM PST - 30 comments

Ever wanted to make jellied moose nose? How about penis stew or cockentrice? Bert Christensen has recipes for all those and so much more.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:16 PM PST - 14 comments

Haughey Dead No, not that one. Charles Haughey – Former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, and probably the most controversial figure in recent Irish political history, has died of complications arising from prostate cancer.
posted by Sk4n at 2:43 PM PST - 26 comments

In which one man sets out to cancel his AOL account: the mp3 phone call (backup link), the blog post.
posted by JPowers at 2:05 PM PST - 78 comments

Hadji Girl (10.6 MB wmv) Some folks think this is funny. Some don't. What do you think?
posted by taosbat at 1:55 PM PST - 159 comments

Mobile Cinema: From the little to the big; DIY to HOLY (pics) COW (pics)! Coming attractions has never seemed so literal.
posted by bjork24 at 12:46 PM PST - 6 comments

Global Fussball OK (video)
posted by LimePi at 12:08 PM PST - 18 comments

Head-On is a riveting 2004 German film which garnered spirited praise and quite a large share of hype. The film went on to win numerous awards. Days after receiving the Golden Bear, some colorful information about the film's female lead broke in the German tabloids and led to a reaction from her traditional Turkish family nearly identical to actions of her eponymous character's parents in the movie. Is this simply a case of life imitating art, or perhaps an inevitable repercussion of casting someone who's life so closely coincides with that of her on screen persona?
posted by kaytwo at 10:36 AM PST - 21 comments

Have your rejection letters printed onto toilet paper. Meanwhile, a small UK publisher has posted a thoughtful open rejection letter.
posted by staggernation at 8:18 AM PST - 25 comments

Unmarked police SUV stolen containing guns, body armor I especially like this part: "The green Ford Explorer was taken from a driveway in the 8500 block of William Cummins Court, said Officer Dwight Mitchell, a police spokesman. The officer was not identified because he works undercover." Searching Google Maps for "William Cummins Ct, Louisville, KY 40228" using the "hybrid" map+satellite view is especially pointful.
posted by davy at 7:44 AM PST - 76 comments

Newsfilter: Rove won't be charged in CIA leak case. More coverage here, here, and here.
posted by Heminator at 7:21 AM PST - 150 comments

Crumbs is a music video to a song built from splicing together instructional tapes for drums, bass & jazz guitar, using loops & selective editing to build a song out of the three distinct elements. Link goes to embedded quicktime.
posted by jonson at 7:18 AM PST - 31 comments

Many news sites already show a list of the most popular stories, but the BBC has gone one further with its BBC News Live Stats. Not only can you see the most popular stories updating in real time and also based on region, but you can also view the flow of the news over a day; this will be very interesting to watch when breaking news occurs.
posted by adrianhon at 5:49 AM PST - 12 comments

“You should consider a new career as a garbage collector in New York City, because you’ll never quote a Joyce text again." A New Yorker profile of Stephen Joyce, the man who controls James Joyce's estate - and, by extension, Joycean scholarship the world over. [more inside]
posted by anjamu at 10:01 PM PST - 75 comments

If you watch enough television, you may have noticed that nobody says good-bye on the telephone. A little google action finds that some are worried that it may be a natural sociological progression. Or maybe it only happens on TV and with annoying telemarketers?
posted by Ekim Neems at 8:36 PM PST - 101 comments

In 1987, Canadian photographer Robin Collyer began documenting houses that aren't houses at all – they're architecturally-disguised electrical substations, complete with windows, blinds, and bourgeois landscaping.
posted by signal at 7:37 PM PST - 31 comments

Revamping the browser Browser add ons such as Browster for IE and Firefox or entirely new browsers such as Flock (limited info) promise to rework the way browsing has been done during the IE only years from 1997 to 2004. More inside...
posted by hockeyman at 7:16 PM PST - 35 comments

The all-new sneeze-free cat this week joins a distinguished roster of altered organisms, such as glowing green pigs and bunnies, ampicillin-resistant maize and tomato, and even a potato with a bacterial pesticide spliced in. And don't forget OraGenics, the company that wants to infect your teeth with bacteria that won't cause decay - and will crowd out the ones that do. Brave New World, indeed. What's next?
posted by ikkyu2 at 6:21 PM PST - 47 comments

Elongated Pennies. Pressed pennies, flattened pennies, squished pennies, smashed pennies, whatever you call them, they are an exciting, kid-enticing presence at any tourist attraction, amusement park, or museum. For two quarters and a penny (pre-1982 preferred by the serious buffs) you can legally flatten the lowest of our nation's currency (and sometimes Canada's) into a souvenir disk that's embossed with a picturesque reminder of your trip. But these pennies don't live and die by the child's pants pocket, pressed penny collecting is serious business. Heck, there's even a museum devoted to the hobby, as well as a thriving collecting scene. So next time you pass by one of these cool machines, pause, elbow the penniless kids out of the way, and get yourself a neat little trinket of remembrance.
posted by lychee at 4:42 PM PST - 51 comments

Net neutrality: Meet the winner As Verizon Communications' executive vice president for public affairs, policy and communications, Tauke has spent the last few months embroiled in a fiery debate over Net neutrality, the concept that broadband providers must be legally required to treat all content equally.
posted by Postroad at 4:07 PM PST - 42 comments

New analysis of the language and gesture of South America's indigenous Aymara people indicates they have a concept of time opposite to all the world's studied cultures -- the past is ahead of them and the future behind. The morphologically-rich language, of which you can hear samples here, may also prove useful to computer scientists due to its unique ternary logic system.
posted by youarenothere at 4:04 PM PST - 42 comments

TRACE - The Transition Region and Coronal Explorer , a solar telescope satellite. Launched in 1998, it has since taken millions of pictures of the sun and its many spots, prominences, and filaments. There are thousands of amazing images for you to browse, some with extensive explanations. There are movies as well, strange and beautiful. And don't be ignant, get your sun facts straight!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:12 PM PST - 9 comments

Who took these photos of young girls with letters written on their foreheads, and why? via
posted by Afroblanco at 2:20 PM PST - 49 comments

So. Paul Bausch of all sorts of fame rolled-out an update to his amazing Amazon feed-builder. What's the big deal? Well, I'm a big fan of Wendell Berry and Craig Thompson, of Naguib Mahfouz and books about New Urbanism... and now, with the help of PB's delicious feed-builder, I'll be notified whenever something new comes from any of these authors or meets the "New Urbanism" search criteria, so I can add them to my Amazon wish list... and I think that's pretty darn cool. Add that to Amazon's pre-existing wish list feeds, which let you monitor other people's wish lists for additions ( you can find a wish list's feed on its "home" page ), and I'm in heaven.

( As a direct result of the feeds I subscribed to this weekend, my Amazon wish list has grown from 1600 to more than 1800 items. I blame Paul... he's such an enabler! )
posted by silusGROK at 1:55 PM PST - 17 comments

Tim Hildebrandt, half of the Brothers Hildebrandt artwork team, died yesterday due to complications from diabetes.
posted by WolfDaddy at 1:44 PM PST - 28 comments

NYT story about superhigh frequency ringtones. A new ringtone at a frequency of 17 Khz is supposedly inaudible to most adults, and so highschoolers and others are using it to sneak text messages in school, etc. BUT. An mp3 of the tone is included with the story and I can totally hear it, though it hurts my ears. And I am in my 40s. Can others hear it?
posted by jfwlucy at 1:39 PM PST - 274 comments

The last liner. Once the longest. Still the fastest. She's off to India to be broken up. The BBC has said its goodbyes. OPEC, the 747 and the need to subsidise Concorde sealed her fate in 1974, despite a mutiny by the crew. She rotted for years in Le Havre, had an unexpected second life as SS Norway, and is now the SS Blue Lady, a nom-de-scrap solely to be used for her final trip.
posted by gdav at 1:29 PM PST - 18 comments

The Impersonals – Our own the jam couldn't find a personals site that he wasn't embarrassed to join, so he made his own. No popularity contests, no horoscopes, no buddy lists. Just profiles made from wide-open text fields and anti-creepiness features baked in at every turn.
[Lifetime membership will be $5, but until it hits 10,000 profiles, it's free.] via mefi projects
posted by blasdelf at 12:45 PM PST - 39 comments

RIP. Composer Gyorgy Ligeti dies in Vienna at age 83.
posted by NemesisVex at 11:57 AM PST - 28 comments

For those who never have seen anything by Jason Nelson. Check out these... uh.... things he made. For instance, there is Uncontrollable Semantics, which is a program that has something to do with words and music and shapes and mice. And then there is the Hermeticon, which apparently is a thing that utilizes letters and 80's kid commerical videos. Or the slot machine that tells you how you will die.
posted by dios at 11:11 AM PST - 19 comments

From the U.S. National Academies Press: 3,000 Science, Technology, Medical, and Social Science Books Available Free, Online. The interface is clunky - you can only see one page at a time, can't download PDFs (except paid) and image view is via TIFF - but! the content is all there, and free. Some is quite technical, but much is readily accessible. Some idea of the breadth: A Doctor's Memoirs of Treating AIDS in Haiti, The "Drama of the Commons", The 1872 Research Voyage of HMS Challenger, Biography of Stephen Hawking, Biotechnology Research in the Age of Terrorism, Risk Reduction Strategies for Human Exploration of Space, Forensic Lead Bullet Analysis, 50 Short Essays on How Mathematicians Think, Recent Research on Non-Lethal Weapons, and Introduction to Tough Topics in Contemporary Science. Also, see their rather spiffy site on the cosmos.
posted by Rumple at 10:57 AM PST - 13 comments

Never Coming Home is about the families of five young men killed in Iraq. Slate presents a short documentary that focuses on the bereavement of the parents, or in one case, a brother. This portrait of grief and sacrifice is brought to life through the use of still photography and the recorded voices of family members.
posted by ND¢ at 10:31 AM PST - 24 comments

Torch my ride! Debt-heavy consumers, finding their pocketbooks unable to support their monstrous gas-guzzlers, are apparently turning to perfectly rational and legal means of debt resolution: insurance fraud. Meanwhile, across the pond, people are are still immolating cars for the more traditional reason: destroying the evidence. Should you find yourself in either situation any time soon Slate has a handy guide for you. If you have no such plans however, you may still want to read this in case your car ignites legitimately. And have a damn good story ready.
posted by baphomet at 9:37 AM PST - 44 comments

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find the article about the flatworm with 230 penises and one vagina referenced (but unfortunately not linked) in this article about the in the amazing Earth, Sea and Sky exhibit which opened today as part of New Zealand's beautiful Te Ara Encyclopedia.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 8:10 AM PST - 24 comments

When taking lessons in English from the BBC, be sure to follow up with remedial "playground-speak"
posted by Mr. Six at 12:40 AM PST - 198 comments

For those of you that love photos of animals getting along with other animals that they would normally be eating, the photos section of the Animal Liberation Front website is for you.
posted by jonson at 12:14 AM PST - 134 comments

Goldfish can be trained to do some pretty cool stuff.[mi]
posted by bigmusic at 11:42 PM PST - 32 comments

I don't read French, so I can't tell you too much Musicovery, except that it is very pretty, very good and I am in love. (flash and obviously, music)
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 10:34 PM PST - 30 comments

Shakespeare in the Bush: in which an anthropologist tells the story of Hamlet to a group of Tiv, and ideas about the universal nature of literature get the worst of it.
posted by a louis wain cat at 8:43 PM PST - 27 comments

Those are dirty numbers!! "The images in this room are created entirely from mathematical algorithms. If you find them offensive in any way, all I can say is that beauty (or obscenity) is in this case most certainly in the eye of the beholder." (via)
posted by JPowers at 8:27 PM PST - 23 comments

Music Competition 1 week left!!!
"Gizmodo Idol" competition to win some serious headphones (reviewed here )
Not too many entries yet,you have a chance still but look out for serious competition.
posted by wuakeen at 6:01 PM PST - 27 comments

Assistive Media is a non-profit organization dedicated to offering audio access to literary works for the blind. They have placed an extensive archive of downloadable magazine articles in mp3 format online, including selections from The New Yorker, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic and American Heritage.
posted by huskerdont at 5:44 PM PST - 13 comments

Power is out for around half the people in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland. At around 8:30 this morning, high winds blew a grounding cable onto high-voltage cables in the Otahuhu substation, causing about 1/3 of the load to fail, including all buildings and traffic control in the central city. I guess no one has heard of redundancy, nor learnt from prior mistakes?
posted by pivotal at 5:24 PM PST - 30 comments

Start or stop Atlantica. [via CBC]
posted by boost ventilator at 2:26 PM PST - 30 comments

"See that pile of money on the floor? There's a hundred million there. All you have to do is pick it up. That's right, bend over, pick it up, and it's yours." Novelist and film critic Stephen Hunter on sequels, including his "Sequel Showdown." (via)
posted by bardic at 11:57 AM PST - 50 comments

Home-brewing of biodiesel is under attack in Salt Lake.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:19 AM PST - 24 comments

If you can't get World Cup on regular cable because maybe you haven't got cable, you can try watching with this software. Schedule of American World Cup TV broadcasts here.
posted by thirteenkiller at 10:05 AM PST - 19 comments

They are not the prettiest creature's around. More information and links here. The aye-aye is endangered mainly because Malagasy regard them as unlucky and kill them on sight. [more inside]
posted by tellurian at 9:38 AM PST - 37 comments

Record meteorite hits Norway. More pictures and information. (last two links in norwegian) No reports of injuries.
posted by pyramid termite at 8:00 AM PST - 49 comments

Three of the clever, committed terrorists in Guantanamo Bay committed an act of war against the United States on Saturday morning.
posted by Malor at 4:13 AM PST - 239 comments

The folks over at Biblical Child Training know that as a parent in today's complex society, it can be rough. That's why they sell a variety of biblically themed products to help you beat instill a set of Christian values in your young'n. Clearly their marquee product, the Chastening Instrument compares favorably to more traditional alternatives, and is, by all accounts biblically approved.
posted by jonson at 12:09 AM PST - 55 comments

Deadwood is back.
posted by JPowers at 8:06 PM PST - 91 comments

This year's Malinowski Memorial Lecture at the London School of Economics was presented by David Graeber, until recently an Associate Professor at Yale, entitled Beyond Power/Knowledge: an exploration of the relation of power, ignorance and stupidity. (PDF link) Although Yale declined to provide a reason for Mr. Graeber's recent dismissal, it's likely that his outspoken anarchism and activism, as well as his support for a union of graduate students, were influences in the decision. He explained some of his views on anarchism, "globalization", and, yes, hope for the future, on the Charlie Rose Show. (Youtube) Weekend reading assignment: Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. (PDF link)
posted by dinsdale at 4:56 PM PST - 22 comments

Flying Dude Man uses ground effect to soar down the face of a mountain. Lots of physics geeks on MeFi. Is this even possible? (ytube)
posted by vronsky at 4:18 PM PST - 43 comments

Seth MacFarlane's Harvard Speech (as himself, Peter, Stewie and Quagmire).
posted by zenzizi at 3:47 PM PST - 29 comments

It's all one's and zero's eh? The complex patterns of the natural world often turn out to be governed by relatively simple mathematical relationships. A seashell grows at a rate proportional to its size, resulting in a delicate spiral. The gossamer network of galaxies results from the simple interplay between cosmic expansion and the force of gravity over a wide range of scales. As our catalogue of natural phenomena has grown more complete, more and more scientists have begun to look for interesting patterns in human society.
posted by Unregistered User at 3:10 PM PST - 17 comments

LET'S DO THIS. Burning the midnight oil typing out a letter best left unsent—who hasn't done that, right? Only, I think Henry Rollins might be the type to go ahead and send this letter anyway. (.swf)
posted by emelenjr at 2:14 PM PST - 42 comments

Meet The Press--in Hell with Jesus, Satan, Coulter, Malkin--... Russert: We’re back with our guests, Bob Satan and Jesus Christ, and our panel Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter. Ann, I’d like to read you a statement by the Virgin Mary, Chairwoman of Mothers Against Armageddon—
Ann Coulter: Oh please. This broad is a millionaire, lionized on frescoes and in scripture about her, reveling in her status as a saint, and stalked by Madonna-parazzies. I have never seen a woman enjoying her son’s death so much. ...
posted by amberglow at 1:38 PM PST - 25 comments

Who killed the electric car? [flash] A documentary film (and flash website) about the mysterious demise of the electric car. The website contains a lot of information about the electric car and other alternative fuel cars in development. The film is coming to a theater near you, if you live in NY or LA. (Ok, actually a few other places.) Watch the trailer. [embedded qt]
posted by jlub at 8:30 AM PST - 80 comments

The 2006 winners and nominees in the first International Color Awards offers a broad sampling of work from some of the world's finest professional and amateur color photographers. View more from Erwin Olaf, Photographer of the Year in the professional category.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:58 AM PST - 9 comments

Princeton Salutatorian - Undocumented Immigrant. Dan-el Padilla Peralta, Princeton '06, has achieved many academic honors. He is also in the US illegally. He has now spoken out. "[A] former roommate of mine wrote that illegal immigrants constitute a drain on American resources and a threat to the jobs of native American workers; that they are intentional law-breakers who should not receive considerate treatment from the government; and that existing laws concerning illegal immigrants should be rigidly and more consistently enforced, even if this results in behavior that could be characterized as inhumane. I was taken aback by his words, but they provided me with the impetus to speak out and emphasize the inhumanity of such a perspective as well as the misinformation it is based upon."
posted by caddis at 5:11 AM PST - 70 comments

The Vintage Mac Museum – if there's anything you remember about working or playing on old black-and-white Macs, anything at all, there's probably an animated .gif screenshot of the program you used somewhere on this site. From MacPaint to Stuntcopter to Photoshop 1.0 to, no joke, Norton freaking Utilities, it's all been preserved on the internet. Go... internet.
posted by furiousthought at 12:13 AM PST - 43 comments

What does the true anime otaku do when cosplay just isn't enough? It's called animegao or kigurumi and it crosses the ridge into the uncanny valley. Some examples: Belldandy, Mahoro and Minawa, Lum, another Mahoro, Naru. Sometimes they wear lingerie, or swimsuits, or vinyl, or do bondage. They pose, and put their pictures online. Some of the sites are quite sophisticated. They create different costumes for themselves. They go on location and try to freak the mundanes. A lot of the people inside are men. And aficionados get together at conventions and party. All of which proves that I'm not nearly afraid enough of the Japanese. (As if that needed proving again.)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 7:54 PM PST - 83 comments

An interview with John Updike on Terrorist, his most recent novel. Some reviews: Kakutani, Donohue (USAToday), and fellow novelist Amitav Gosh (Wapo).
posted by bardic at 5:09 PM PST - 31 comments

New York City's oldest fireboat rides again. Built in 1931, the John J. Harvey served for decades, then was retired by the city in 1994. Local boat-lovers rescued it from the scrap-yard and restored it to new glory. Good thing, because the ancient JJH wound up being called back into service one last time, to save New Yorkers during their darkest hour...

The city has showed its gratitude with grant money, and the JJH's story has now become an award-winning children's book praised as a healthy way to discuss the events of September 11th with kids. Come to Pier 63 for a visit or a free ride sometime this summer!
posted by hermitosis at 3:44 PM PST - 13 comments

Give us all your money
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:11 PM PST - 46 comments

Daniel Gross, economics columnist for Slate, wrote on April 7 : "...if (Bush appoints) an A-list Wall Street CEO (for Treasury Secretary), I'll buy a copy of Dow 36,000 and eat the first chapter." Bush appointed Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson on May 30. Today, Gross makes good on the promise.
posted by suckerpunch at 2:42 PM PST - 14 comments

Sex with your mom is pretty good.
posted by Nelson at 2:26 PM PST - 68 comments

The always interesting sidenote of beer in ancient history
posted by cdcello at 2:25 PM PST - 6 comments

The Archaic Medical Terms Dictionary. This was intended as a tool for genealogists and historians, but it is fun to browse. If you're suffering from Rag-Picker's Disease you are in trouble and Haematemesis looks pretty serious too. If you know what "Black Tongue" or "Painter's colic" are, you can contribute to the author's unsolved page.
posted by marxchivist at 2:24 PM PST - 8 comments

Thailand's King marks his Diamond Jubilee. Just be careful what you say.
posted by the cuban at 2:20 PM PST - 12 comments

I have no idea what you're talking about, so here's a dog with a horse mask on its head.
posted by boo_radley at 2:03 PM PST - 41 comments

Recipes of the Damned. Whet your appetite with Fruit Cocktail-SPAM Buffet Party Loaf or perhaps a nice cold, thick meat-milk shake.
posted by ozomatli at 11:54 AM PST - 8 comments

Ask Greg allows fans of Disney's first dramatic animated series, Gargoyles, to submit questions to series co-creator and producer Greg Weisman. It's been around since 1996 and has become a treasure trove of information and insight into not just the show, but the animation industry in general. Ask Greg and a fan-run annual gathering has kept the flame of the Gargoyles Universe alive and their efforts are paying off. Recently Disney began releasing the show on DVD and now it's set to return in the form of a comic published by Slave Labor Graphics and written by Greg Weisman.
posted by ruthsarian at 11:33 AM PST - 12 comments

Danger Doom "The Occult Hymn" EP available free from Adultswim.com [More Inside] but that is pretty much it.
posted by ND¢ at 10:16 AM PST - 40 comments

I would have thought that these charges could fairly be represented as terrorism, yet in 108 links in Google News, there is no mention of "terror" or any of its derivations. Has the word been hijacked?
posted by Neiltupper at 10:08 AM PST - 104 comments

I just heard some sad news on talk radio. Net Neutrality was found dead in Congress this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the community will miss it. Even if you didn't enjoy its work, there's no denying its contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
posted by brownpau at 10:03 AM PST - 96 comments

Despite its success as a book [NPR] and early cinematic success, China has banned the Da Vinci Code movie [NYT] after protests from Catholics. Are you living in China and want to see it? Try the black market.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:24 AM PST - 25 comments

Randy Cunningham, Jerry Lewis... Duncan Hunter?
Is Duncan Hunter - the California Congressman who staged the cynical pull out of iraq vote/stunt last spring, the next powerful washington insider to be implicated in the growing list of corrupt or questionable California Congressmen?
posted by specialk420 at 9:24 AM PST - 13 comments

17 Million Words / 155 Volumes / One bedridden hypochondriac (?) : Arthur Crew Inman wrote one of the strangest diaries of the 20th century. Listen to his voice (WMA), or see an excerpt from the documentary being made about him (WMV) by the man who wrote a play based on his life.
posted by OmieWise at 8:30 AM PST - 15 comments

Grandiose Survey of Chinese Alcoholic Drinks and Beverages. Includes a section on the Chinese culture of drinking etiquette. Also available in Chinese.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:35 AM PST - 16 comments

The virtual flute - courtesy of the music acoustics group at University of New South Wales. If exploring the fourth octave or pondering multiphonic possibilities isn't for you, you may still enjoy a wander through the long and technical history of the instrument.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:45 AM PST - 6 comments

Wolfmother's White Unicorn. Somebody else's White Unicorn (defaced). (first QT, second youtube)
posted by fungible at 6:39 AM PST - 18 comments

The Death of Perspective. Among the greatest achievements of the renaissance artists was the perfection of the art of perspective: Giving the appearance of depth to a flat surface. Felice Varini uses perspective to do the opposite.
posted by empath at 5:38 AM PST - 38 comments

Shifting between motion and stasis, he shows a man on a horse, a scarecrow, a dog, another dog seen closer, then even closer as it faces the still camera in the last shot. Superimposed over this still photo is the orange red blast of an atomic bomb and its mushroom cloud—the first appearance of color in the film. The photo catches fire, and the image of the dog is slowly devoured by flames. As the photo turns into ashes, a prayer from the Shiite text Nahjulbalagha appears alongside it in English: “Dear Lord, give us rain from tame, obedient clouds and not from dense and fiery clouds which summon death. Amen.”
In "The Roads of Kiarostami", his latest short film (.pdf), Iranian maestro Abbas Kiarostami begins with his landscape photographs and ends with apocalypse. more inside
posted by matteo at 3:33 AM PST - 16 comments

The bats and frogs and Montane voles,
The squirrels, bugs and garden moles,
The creepers, flyers and the swimmers,
All hope that they will be the winners.
 
When we are gone, through choice or fate
'Twill be a cause to celebrate.
Will old return or new arrive,
When Gaia once again can thrive?
posted by missbossy at 2:47 AM PST - 23 comments

A long time ago, way back before the internet brought us gaming news virtually at the click of a button, gamers had to get their gaming news via magazines. For console owners living in the United Kingdom and Australia, the magazine of choice would almost certainly have been Mean Machines. Combining gaming news with classic British humor* with a great layout, Mean Machines made for a great read every issue. Though now (sadly) long dead, nostalgic fans of Mean Machines will undoubtedly be happy to learn that you can now read every one of their reviews online in both HTML and scanned pdf formats at The Mean Machines Archive. With an issue by issue examination of this classic publication, the site is well worth a look if you were a fan of the magazine or just to see what gaming news was like before the likes of IGN (which, interestingly enough, lead editor of Mean Machines Julian Rignall would one day join).

* not an oxymoron
posted by Effigy2000 at 1:08 AM PST - 21 comments

Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites From the fine folks that brought you the Total Terrorism Information Awareness program, another wickedly-named branch of the NSA, the Disruptive Technologies Office (formerly ARDA), is funding research into the usefulness of the Semantic Web for combing through and profiling the 80 million members of MySpace.
posted by bukharin at 1:04 AM PST - 45 comments

When McDonald's Interactive recently gave a presentation at the International Serious Games 2006 conference, they made a startling announcement: "we can no longer stand by while McDonald's corporate policies help lead the planet to ruin. [...] So our team has decided to break away from McDonald's and do something about it." (more inside)
posted by whir at 12:14 AM PST - 19 comments

Cayetano Ferrer is a Chicago based artist whose work involves (among other styles) painting street signs with the images of the items immediately behind them, to give the illusion of transparency (depending on what angle you're viewing from). The latest campaign by Amnesty International seems inspired by his work.
posted by jonson at 11:31 PM PST - 14 comments

New Scientist reports on German project to create a Semantic MediaWiki (MediaWiki is the software behind Wikipedia, Semantic is hidden/encoded meta-data). A sample page markup using the relations annotation. What do the Wikipedia (Wikimedia) folks think of implementing it? "Some members are keen, but some are dubious about additional complexity."
posted by stbalbach at 9:02 PM PST - 11 comments

FDA approves HPV vaccine. It prevents infection from 70% of the cancer-causing strains of human papillomavirus, an STD that will affect nearly 80% of the population at some point in their lives. The vaccine has been approved for use in women ages 9 to 26. Controversy surrounding the vaccine (discussed earlier) has thankfully not stopped its progress. That just leaves a few questions: How long will it last? Who's paying for it? What are the side-effects? Oh, screw all that, where do I get in line?
posted by Anonymous at 8:46 PM PST - 44 comments

Congrats, Tsarfan Tony Pierce, blogger extraordinare, owner of the world famous Busblog, known to MeFites as Tsarfan, has got a hot new gig. Recently (and unfairly) released from his starting third base spot at Buzznet, Tony has moved up in the world. As of Tuesday, he will become editor-in-chief of Laist, the coast city's premier city-based blog and a part of the Gothamist network of blogs. Congrats, Tsarfan
posted by Ironmouth at 4:12 PM PST - 22 comments

New Zealand All Blacks and Hurricanes Captain Tana Umaga has been quite the news maker lately. Umaga, a hard nosed rugby player known for his fierce tackling, equipped himself with a women's handbag to beat his drunken teammate to tears while breaking up a late night fight in a Christchurch bar. Umaga then followed up the weekend be being honored by the Queen for his services to New Zealand Rugby. While it is well known that the Queen favors carrying a handbag, it was not revealed if that weighed into her decision to give Umaga the honor.

Trying to cash in on Umaga mania, the young lady who owned the bag sold it on trademe.co.nz for $22,000 NZ. While the bar owner launched a failed attempt at selling the security video of the incident. Not wanting to be left out Chris Masoe, who was hit with the bag is rumored to be considering selling the napkins he used to whip the tears from his eyes in order to raise funds to pay off the fine he received for the incident. There is still no word yet from the NZRFU as to whether or not the All Blacks will incorporate overhead handbag smashing motion into the newest version of the Haka.
posted by remo at 3:54 PM PST - 38 comments

GOP Senators have lost their bid to kill the currently-defunct estate tax. This defeat of the permanent repeal effort is a major triumph for the 98% of Americans who've never been in danger of having to pay the tax.
posted by maud at 3:31 PM PST - 159 comments

The Netflix Rolling Roadshow, "Imagine watching 'Jaws' from a raft in the ocean just off the Martha's Vineyard beach where it was filmed . . . or watching 'Escape from Alcatraz' in the cell block where Frank Morris, played by Clint Eastwood, was locked up...This August, the Netflix Rolling Roadshow celebrates classic American movies by screening them at the locations they made famous. Each screening is an interactive special event (think scavenger hunts, road rallies, a high school prom, even spending the night on Alcatraz Island). Some screenings will also include cast reunions and question-and-answer sessions with the filmmakers." My favorite: Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. That is going to be a surreal experience.
posted by JPowers at 3:25 PM PST - 38 comments

Super hero pizza man defeats nefarious villain. A delivery driver for Galactic Pizza, a Minneapolis restaurant, recently defeated a purse-snatching neer-do-well with the assistance of some valiant bystanders. Galactic, which is dedicated to delivering pizza with a community- and environmentally-friendly oriented business model, delivers pizzas with 100% electric vehicles and purchases all their energy from renewable sources. Indeed, their vision of the future is refreshing to see from any American business. Oh, and their drivers wear super hero costumes, which seems more than appropriate considering the ethics of both their business and their heroic workers.
posted by baphomet at 2:58 PM PST - 30 comments

2%. (bugmenot login fleeb@fleeble.com, password fleeble) That is the percentage of students in UCLA's incoming freshman class that self-identify as black. Only 96 students in an entering class of 4,852, and the lowest percentage since 1973. Many believe Proposition 209 is to blame, but some want to stop collecting this data altogether.
posted by fugitivefromchaingang at 1:33 PM PST - 46 comments

The Indiana Department of Homeland Security revealed its newest tool for protecting Hoosiers today: a brand new 53-foot mobile command center. It's the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle!
posted by augustweed at 12:43 PM PST - 34 comments

Xenu's chariot. Gentlemen, ignite your potential start your Thetans.
posted by caddis at 12:41 PM PST - 18 comments

Can your lawnmower do this? MowZilla, born a garden-variety (so to speak) Craftsman mower, is now a nitrous-oxide injected, vastly overpowered engine of destruction! (Google Video link) [previous tales of lawnmower abuse: Lawnmower Racing, German style or American style]
posted by arto at 11:50 AM PST - 24 comments

Sir David Attenborough, naturalist and pioneer of the nature documentary, turned 80 last month. To mark the occasion, Britons were asked to choose their favorite Attenborough moment and of all the memorable scenes, his recording of the lyrebird came out on top. In this clip the bird mimics neighboring birds, several cameras, car alarms, and perhaps most impressively, loggers with chainsaws. (wmv, qt)
posted by ewagoner at 11:10 AM PST - 47 comments

The Language of Noncombatant Death - Perhaps, however, what the "incidents" have in common -- and what they really tell us about the war in Iraq (as in Vietnam long ago) -- is this: In both Haditha and Ishaqi, the dead were largely or all civilian noncombatants: an aged amputee in a wheelchair holding a Koran, small children, grandparents, students, women, and a random taxi driver all died... In modern wars, especially those conducted in part from the air (as both Iraq and Afghanistan have been), there's nothing "collateral" about civilian deaths. If anything, the "collateral deaths" are those of the combatants on any side. Civilian deaths are now the central fact, the very essence of war. Not seeing that means not seeing war.

Collateral Damage: The "Incident at Haditha"
The Power Point version: Why Did We Lose In Iraq ?
posted by y2karl at 9:51 AM PST - 63 comments

Memento Mori : both in Europe and The United States, post-mortem photography [pdf] was both reminder of and coping mechanism for death in the 19th century.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:34 AM PST - 11 comments

Bukowski. Complementary to previous Hank.
posted by liam at 7:39 AM PST - 41 comments

Michigan National Guard Gets a Hummer Apparently, even the Michigan National Guard can't protect their vehicles from thieves in Detroit...
posted by risk at 7:17 AM PST - 10 comments

Jugadas Espectaculares WorldCupfilter: clipshow of some staggeringly fancy footwork. Even non-fans should love this. (youtube)
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:06 AM PST - 25 comments

Sorry, But Only One Of These Countries Can Win The World Cup. But which one will it be? And what are the odds? The Guardian's Fiver can be as funny about it as it likes, but this is no laughing matter, not anymore, as we will soon be surrounded by 31 unmistakable, irredeemable, inconsolable losers. Anyway, whatever happens, I'm sure everyone here at MetaFilter will join me in wishing it's one of the countries that speak Portuguese.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:02 AM PST - 108 comments

Hilton Ruiz is dead. The wonderful pianist Hilton Ruiz, who "had been in a coma since May 19, when he was found outside a French Quarter bar with severe head injuries," has died in a New Orleans hospital. He'd played with everyone from Freddie Hubbard and Rahsaan Roland Kirk to Charles Mingus, Betty Carter, Archie Shepp, and Clark Terry. Sad news, especially coming hard on the heels of the loss of Billy Preston.
posted by languagehat at 6:56 AM PST - 16 comments

xkcd: A sketchpad webcomic about love, science and love and science. Plus some other treats.
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 5:22 AM PST - 23 comments

Windows Vista. Microsoft has released a public Beta of Windows Vista. Get your free copy with 2 activation keys that will let you install on 10 PCs per key. Public Beta Link.
posted by tatnasty at 5:09 AM PST - 72 comments

Oil spill in northern British.Columbia, nobody reports it.
posted by angrybeaver at 1:11 AM PST - 13 comments

Won't somebody call bullshit on Ann Coulter? it is possible to believe that this new level of infamy* is about anything other than book sales.
posted by Hat Maui at 1:02 AM PST - 167 comments

Am I allowed to write that I would like to hunt down George W. Bush, the president of the United States, and kill him with my bare hands?

Maybe just impeachment then
posted by criticalbill at 12:52 AM PST - 78 comments

Zarqawi reported dead in Iraq. The Iraqi president has just appeared on TV there, no video grab as yet. Will Zarquai's possible death help end Iraq's sectarian violence? Or is it just a standard colonial tool of occupation
posted by jaduncan at 12:39 AM PST - 235 comments

The Asian Giant Hornet is cool, unless it's baked. Japanese honeybees can detect the hornet's secretion and they attack en masse. With approximately 500 honeybees surrounding the hornet in a tight ball, the temperature within the cluster rises to 47 degrees Celsius which bakes the hornet alive.
posted by tellurian at 12:00 AM PST - 35 comments

Spanish Castle Magic. Stare at the dot in the center of the image for 30 seconds, then mouseover the picture. Don't shift your glance, because until you do the picture will appear to be in color, despite the fact that it's in black & white.
posted by jonson at 8:55 PM PST - 66 comments

Their task may be depressing, but the generosity of their work is inspiring and hopefully thereputic. The photographers who are working with Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep provide their services on a volunteer basis to help families over come the grief of losing an infant. If you're a professional photographer interested in being involved, they're seeking volunteers.
posted by blaneyphoto at 8:14 PM PST - 24 comments

The War They Wanted, The Lies They Needed. "The Bush administration invaded Iraq claiming Saddam Hussein had tried to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger. As much of Washington knew, and the world soon learned, the charge was false. Worse, it appears to have been the cornerstone of a highly successful 'black propaganda' campaign with links to the White House." (Via Sic Semper Tyrannis.)
posted by homunculus at 7:47 PM PST - 24 comments

Jon Steward v. Bill Bennett.
posted by semmi at 7:35 PM PST - 71 comments

Lt. Watada refuses to fight in Iraq and Hawai'i weighs in on their native son's statement of conscience (see vid). More discussions on alternet , in Hawai'i and a news conference today at the State Capitol. Watada is not alone.
posted by Surfurrus at 7:24 PM PST - 40 comments

Defensor Fortis: A Photo Set. A soldier in Iraq has been posting images of consumer vehicles modified and employed by "Civilian Security Contractors". [via] War has always seemed to instill the creative spirit in its participants, and we also have a detailed history of Military vehicles making a successful transition into the civilian marketplace. With the unprecedented rise in Mercenary Employment, it's hard to tell where the innovation is coming from - the top down, or the bottom up? Our favorite grease monkey seems to have missed out on all the hot welding action, but you can't blame him for not trying. At the very least, it seems they can all agree on something.
posted by prostyle at 4:47 PM PST - 29 comments

On the day that the United States Senate rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage Macy's alters a window display marking Boston's gay pride week by removing two male mannequins and erasing references to two websites. Why? A fringe, right-wing group complained. Their leader said that they found the mannequins "really disgusting", mistaking a rainbow-themed towel wrapped around one of their waists as being a "skirt"; muscular pectorals as being "enlarged breasts."
posted by ericb at 4:46 PM PST - 48 comments

I was Russell Crowe's Stooge! Oh dear, famous actor tries to manipulate journalist. Journalist turns whistleblower. Looks like trouble down under again for everyone's favourite Gladiator.
posted by Duug at 4:28 PM PST - 83 comments

The CIA is publishing their top 25 searched-for phrases on the CIA's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) site. Looks like people are still spooked by UFOs, the Soviet Menace, and JFK. I guess some people think that it could still happen here.
posted by mathowie at 4:07 PM PST - 12 comments

Finally, the real reason Brad Pitts is in Africa - he's using a Zeppelin to look for diamonds. Celebrity colonialism indeed!
posted by Jos Bleau at 3:24 PM PST - 23 comments

Coudal (you know) gets clever with book and band names.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 2:29 PM PST - 59 comments

David Lee Roth singing "Jump" with a bluegrass band on national tv - 6/6/06
posted by tsarfan at 2:00 PM PST - 73 comments

Yearly Kos. Over a year and a half after PastorDan, a diarist at DailyKos, suggested a national convention, it's actually happening. Organized, at least at first, with very little encouragement or assistance from Kos himself, they've managed to pull together quite an impressive slate of speakers and panelists. Cspan will be covering it live all weekend. Is this a landmark for blogging?
posted by empath at 1:59 PM PST - 37 comments

In a world that makes no sense at all, you must know what to focus on to see...
posted by ozomatli at 1:27 PM PST - 22 comments

Report on CIA "Spider Web" - image
posted by pwedza at 1:03 PM PST - 20 comments

Christopher Hitchens, grumpy political type, on the blow job.
posted by Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson at 12:58 PM PST - 63 comments

What began as a simple eBay Motors auction... "Again no swaps. What is it with people, when I say no swaps please don't take it as a challange. I have been offfered a caravan, 12 cars, 1 lorry, to have my garden landscaped, some rare fish, and I'm sorry but the very kind gent (Donald) who offered me a weekend with his wife (and him it would appear) I have a special message for you. The pictures you sent me of your wife did not, in all honesty help. Some of them looked more like a traffic accident than something that I might remotely find alluring. I am sure that if you set up your own website (assuming that it's not illegal) there will be plenty of sad sacks (many from ebay land going by this experience) who will indulge your (and your wifes) desires."
posted by daHIFI at 7:51 AM PST - 34 comments

Chess queen triggers 'Gormallygate' Australian WIM (Women's International Master) Arianne Caoili, "the Anna Kournikova of chess" has sent the chess world into a spin with her salsa crazy antics. A love triangle between herself, British chess grandmaster Danny Gormally and the world's No. 3 player, Armenia's Levon Aronian turned ugly in a Turin nightclub during the World Chess Olympiad recently.
posted by kurtrudder at 2:39 AM PST - 70 comments

The internet's favorite color. Subject to change without notice.
posted by Effigy2000 at 2:33 AM PST - 41 comments

Unity 08 An attempt to recruit one democrat and one republican to run as a third party ticket in '08. all online, and hoping to be a big hit with the young people. Other people think it might be a dumb idea.
posted by delmoi at 12:26 AM PST - 70 comments

First American Art. A fine collection of beautiful objects.
posted by hortense at 12:04 AM PST - 5 comments

Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation The University of Oxford's Griffith Institute has put together a fantastic digital collection of records documenting Howard Carter's excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun, including ninety-three pages of photographs taken by Harry Burton during the excavation. You can also read Carter's diaries and eyewitness accounts of the excavation.
posted by LeeJay at 10:18 PM PST - 11 comments

The Oxford Project: in 1984, Peter Feldstein photographed every single citizen in the town of Oxford, Iowa (676 pictures in all). In 2006, he attempts to do it again.
posted by JPowers at 8:20 PM PST - 24 comments

Finders keepers? Some joker found a lost T-Mobile Sidekick, took and uploaded pics. Will they return it? Initially, no because the finder apparently wasn't a "white b***h" dumb enough to return it. Is common decency threatened?
posted by codswallop at 7:38 PM PST - 92 comments

MacBook! Hold the Mayo! Apple's new MacBook is a hot item. At 65C internal running temperature, quite hot indeed. A MacNN reader discovered the MacBook service manual and shared the "Thermal Paste Mayo" pictures. Yikes! [more inside]
posted by cavalier at 7:32 PM PST - 63 comments

Revisiting The French Revolution. It is not for history to supply us with a sense of history. Life always supplies us with a sense of history. It is for history to supply us with a sense of life.
posted by semmi at 6:08 PM PST - 30 comments

Was in Eastern WA this weekend, attending the graduation of my nephew from a high school in Kennewick. He reminded me about nearby Richland High School, and their somewhat unique "mascot", so thought I might do some looking around. For those with true School Spirit, pick up some swag. I'm getting earrings for my wife! --Yikes-O-Rama--
posted by somnambulist at 5:21 PM PST - 41 comments

Frozen water is one amazing mineral. (Yes, that's right, mineral!) With a little effort, you can make fire with it. With a little more effort, you can make camera lenses with it. [via Memepool]
posted by absalom at 4:41 PM PST - 18 comments

The Symmetry Thesis
posted by Tlogmer at 2:44 PM PST - 36 comments

Funny "experiment" conducted by the folks at leftlanenews.com. Can a Ferrari 575 catch up to a Fiat hatckback after a 31-second head start in a single-lap track race? Better still, can an F1 car catch up to both after waiting 1:27? The results aren’t necessarily surprising, but it’s pretty stunning to see.
posted by jonson at 2:33 PM PST - 51 comments

ColorWhore. A directory of nice colors.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 1:43 PM PST - 20 comments

Contrary to popular belief, Vikings did not wear horned helmets, if the Viking Answer Lady is to be believed. Apparently, the whole kerfuffle was instigated at least in part by these guys.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:05 PM PST - 28 comments

ON JUNE 6 2006 (6606) IF THE FIRST OF TWO RAPTURES HAS NOT HAPPENED AND ANTICHRIST HAS NOT DECLARED HIMSELF ON WORLD SIMULCAST TELEVISION, THEN I (PASTOR HARRY) WILL REVEAL THE TRUE NAME AND IDENTITY OF THE ANTICHRIST AT 11:05 PM EST ON THIS SITE AND ON DOOMSDAY TALK RADIO, OUR INTERNET RADIO BROADCAST.
posted by three blind mice at 11:54 AM PST - 145 comments

A Review of Eyes Wide Shut (Introducing Sociology) by Tim Kreider. Also: A thorough Kubrick FAQ.
posted by geoff. at 11:47 AM PST - 103 comments

The "Fifth Beatle" has died... Well, no, not this "Fifth Beatle", or this one (they've both been dead a long time). Certainly not this one. In fact, on some lists, he was The Seventh Beatle. BTW, another "Fifth Beatle" is doing some strange things with the Fab 4's music...
posted by wendell at 11:40 AM PST - 74 comments

It's a bird, it's a plane! , no it's the Special Forces using strap-on stealth wings to zoom silently into battle. We've all fantasized about jet packs, but being dropped from a plane with wings on your back is a silent way to travel great distances before opening a parachute for landing, just like daredevil Felix Baumgartner, who soared across the English Channel. Who wants to go first?
posted by twsf at 11:24 AM PST - 22 comments

Othello - shot entirely in World of Warcraft.
posted by mattbucher at 11:17 AM PST - 13 comments

It's National Yo-Yo Day!
Forget about all this satanic stuff, June 6th every year is National Yo-Yo Day (in the US) when children of all ages pull out their yo-yos and find internal happiness in the state of yo. The yearly day of recognition celebrates the birthday of of Donald F. Duncan Sr, the man who made the yo-yo popular in the US (You do know your yo-yo history don't you?). Of course, that isn't all that Duncan did in his life. He also founded the Good Humor ice cream company, invented the parking meter and made the concept of the premium incentive a popular marketing tool on top of founding the Duncan Yo-Yo Company.

On National Yo-Yo Day yoers celebrate their skill toy of choice, cheap or expensive, simple or complex, by doing tricks ranging from the easy to learn to the completely mind boggling.
posted by DragonBoy at 10:57 AM PST - 14 comments

Tulse Luper Update: Twice before we’ve discussed Peter Greenaway’s “upcoming” multimedia project The Tulse Luper Suitcases: three movies, two books, a VJ tour (.wmv interview about a similar project, Nightwatching, to give you some idea of what a VJ tour is), and more. With the recent launch of the online multiplayer game, The Tulse Luper Journey , perhaps the project is no longer upcoming at all. The story centers on 92 suitcases related to the life of Greenaway’s alter ego Tulse Luper. Discovered in various locations around the globe, the suitcases illustrate the history of Uranium (and by extension the history of the 20th century). Read Greenaway’s lecture on the project here, hear an interview focused on the VJ performance here, or read stories attributed to Tulse Luper here. [More Inside]
posted by jrb223 at 10:09 AM PST - 12 comments

Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga is a Smithsonian webpage (with a pretty cool Flash intro) about the Norse in North America. Along with highlights of the exhibit, there's also an interactive map of the Viking voyages. (Although L'Anse aux Meadows, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the only confirmed Viking colony in N.A.). The Saga of Eric the Red contains the story of the voyages and discovery, but there are other primary sources as well. The Viking Ship Museum has information on the famous longboats that made the voyages, which were as much a matter of luck as navigation. To mark the millenium, some crazy Icelanders sailed a longboat back to Norway (NPR story).
posted by OmieWise at 8:38 AM PST - 27 comments

The Monkey Chow Diaries. In the spirit of Seth Roberts' dietary self-experimentation, Angryman has decided that he's tired of cooking, scrubbing pots and pans, and wasting time in the checkout lines. Instead, he is looking for a constant diet of pelletized, nutritionally complete food: Monkey Chow [pdf]. [via]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:11 AM PST - 47 comments

This painting will not set you agog until you realize it's an early design for a self-righting ship by a man somewhat obsessed. Similarly, this cap pattern is pretty simple, but it represents some deep geek knowledge. In other words, digital artisans can seem pretentiously empty under the physical weight of a carefully considered compulsion.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 6:39 AM PST - 18 comments

Using enough explosives to topple 400 10-storey buildings, China has blown up [bbc news .asx file] a temporary barrier used to hold water back from the controversial Three Gorges Dam.
posted by tnai at 5:28 AM PST - 36 comments

George Washington once threw a knife into heaven, and other little-known facts about our first (and pimpest) President. (Link goes to an NSFW YouTube video, because George Washington doesn't care about your petty little workplace rules.) This important fact-filled documentary was created by comic book artist Brad Neely, also known for Wizard People, Dear Readers, his unauthorized soundtrack to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
posted by yankeefog at 1:41 AM PST - 25 comments

Animator vs Stick figure [This is Flash]
posted by ajbattrick at 12:33 AM PST - 31 comments

A Montage of Perfect Strangers clips (YouTube flash video) I stumbled across this clip of Perfect Strangers clips. I had forgotten the show was so physical.
posted by jragon at 11:12 PM PST - 49 comments

"Brands are an important influence on our lives. They are central to free markets and democratic societies. They represent free choice. They also have a profound impact on our quality of life and the way we see our world. They color our lives. They reflect the values of our societies. Global brands can even embody the spirit of many nations, if not the spirit of an age. Most importantly, strong brands bestow value far beyond the performance of the products themselves. Brands that do this possess an idea worthy of consumer loyalty. The more inspiring the idea, the more intense and profound the commitment. And the more the consumer believes in the brand, the more value the brand returns to its owner."
posted by j-urb at 10:53 PM PST - 53 comments

Stripping The Gurus. Sex, violence, abuse and enlightenment. Chogyam Trungpa, the Dalai Lama, Zen masters, exposing the reality behind the facade of various spiritual teachers. Geoff Falk also writes about the spiritual beliefs of rock stars.
posted by nickyskye at 10:41 PM PST - 65 comments

'The Helmet Project web site is an attempt by its creator, a completely amateur graphic artist and a long-time fan of football at all levels, to create and maintain an on-line "catalog" or "atlas" of uniform-sized, accurate, and up-to-date images representing the football helmets worn by college football teams and teams from a few professional leagues in the United States and Canada.'
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:34 PM PST - 15 comments

Magic realism, "in which magical elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting." A few galleries to peruse, but these are my favs.
posted by JPowers at 5:55 PM PST - 31 comments

Stephen Colbert's Knox College Commencement Speech. In a similar vein to Jon Stewart's William and Mary speech and Conan O'Brien's Harvard speech.
posted by cloeburner at 5:20 PM PST - 55 comments

The truth about Kitty Genovese. They say she was the woman stabbed to death before 38 witnesses who did nothing. They "didn't want to get involved." To many, her name rings synonymous with "public apathy" and the "bystander effect." Unfortunately, the details - and the meat - of her case are largely misunderstood. None of that, however, diminishes the tragedy of her death, not only for her family and friends, but also for her lover.
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:18 PM PST - 40 comments

Pickles - The dog who won the World Cup. There were two amazing events that happened in London in 1966 that focused on the Jules Rimet Trophy (aka The World Cup): 1: England won; 2. the 15 inch, solid gold trophy tall was stolen, held to ransom, and then discovered in a bush by a dog called Pickles. The English FA had commisioned a base metal replica, which - after the Queen awarded the trophy to Bobby Moore - was substituted for the priceless trophy in the England dressing room, when a copper swapped it with legendary Manchester United & England fullback Nobby Stiles. That was the one which toured the country over the next few years - not the the real one. The replica was sold £254,000 by Sothebys in 1997... to FIFA, whereas the original was stolen again in Brazil, and has never been seen since. The replica is on long term loan to the National Football Museum in Preston, Lancashire - though they don't always tell you: it's a fake.
posted by dash_slot- at 4:02 PM PST - 12 comments

Coming off of The Deer Hunter, and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Director/Screenwriter Michael Cimino looked like a rising star. His next film, Heaven's Gate would prove so disasterous as to change the industry forever. [more inside]
posted by Ogre Lawless at 2:19 PM PST - 58 comments

Et in Arcadia ego (flash). Photographs of the scars of war (Afghanistan/Iraq/Bosnia/genocide/Israel-Palestine/Liberia/refugee camps). Also: Afghanistan (no flash version), Thailand/tourism/raves.
posted by carter at 1:18 PM PST - 9 comments

BusRadio has a simple dream: to improve the safety of school bus rides for all students. Or, wait, maybe the dream is to exploit our kids for profit. To be fair, they aren't the only ones who think this is a great idea. Thanks, Massachusetts!
via CommercialAlert, which we've talked about before.
posted by gurple at 9:26 AM PST - 35 comments

Cory Doctorow visits a Radio Shack. via keswick and MeCha
posted by loquacious at 9:06 AM PST - 145 comments

U.S. workers will leave an average 4 vacation days on the table this year, one more than last year, according to the 6th annual Vacation Deprivation Survey sponsored by Expedia. This despite the fact that at an average of 14 days total, we are already deprived, trailing Australia (17), Canada (19), Great Britain (24), Germany (27), and France (39) in holiday time. Why don't we get more time off? And why aren't we using the time we do get? [Full results (PDF))]
posted by madamjujujive at 8:29 AM PST - 88 comments

Black Hawk Down Revisited : (newsfilter) giving cladstine support to the warlords, The American Operation is in breach of the United Nations’ arms embargo on Somalia and therefore in breach of international law. The islamists are claiming victory in Mogadishu. Meanwhile the Somali "leader" sacks Ministers. While the people .... well what do they matter anyway. There's always more from Somali News.
posted by adamvasco at 6:16 AM PST - 14 comments

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is pumping out a pile of podcasts that have covered the importance of offensive comics to Art Spiegelman, 600 bands over 54 shows, Captain America versus the American government, Amy Sedaris and geekdom, the journey of young immigrants, French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut and Harper's publisher John MacArthur discussing Europe and America perspectives since 9/11, the after life, sex with monkeys, what radio producers do, the french word "corps", Bonnie Fuller's "The Joys of Much Too Much: Go For the Big Life — The Great Career, The Perfect Guy, and Everything Else You've Ever Wanted (Even If You're Afraid You Don't Have What It Takes)", Veteran Washington reporter Helen Thomas and some other bits & bobs [Breakdown inside]
posted by boost ventilator at 5:44 AM PST - 25 comments

The Phaeno is a science playground for kids. The architecture by Zaha Hadid is simply stunning. More here.
posted by namagomi at 5:27 AM PST - 7 comments

The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Conventions that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to knowledgeable military officials, a step that would mark a further shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.
posted by EarBucket at 4:39 AM PST - 77 comments

Mispronounced words seem to be making their way into general speech. Newscasters say Febyooary and Artic and of course there are the politicians. Even some grammarians are loosening their standards to include words like gonna and hafta. TV commercials seem to be the worst offenders, with sloppy diction urging us to use claridin and visit our dennis every six months. Maybe we all need lessons. Previously touched on here.
posted by alltomorrowsparties at 2:37 AM PST - 218 comments

Art of Science 2006 'images, videos and sounds—produced in the course of research or incorporating tools and concepts from science.' Previously on MeFi.
posted by dhruva at 12:27 AM PST - 4 comments

Mapping the StarMaze A tale of mathematical obsession: "Before I can explain my decades-long quest to map the starmaze I must acquaint you with a small puzzle...I have a habit of seeing everything (cities, organizations, computers, networks, brains) as a maze, so I named this puzzle the starmaze....The first problem I ran into was that there were a lot of rooms...I invented wacky names for each room...But something funny happened...In that instant I finally grasped that the starmaze was arranged on the edges of a nine-dimensional hypercube..."
posted by vacapinta at 9:10 PM PST - 37 comments

HumanitarianCrisisFilter; Timor Leste, formerly known as East Timor, is on the brink of civil war today. The crisis began after a group of soldiers from the western part of the country claimed that they were being discriminated against in favor of soldiers from the eastern part of the country. During a protest they and their supporters were shot at by security forces after the soldiers apparently attacked a market run by people from the eastern part of the country. What followed was a campaign of violence and intimidation against both soldiers loyal to the government and many innocent civilians, led by the renegade soldiers and their supporters. After gaining permission from the Timorese government, a multi-national task force led by Australia has been operating in Timor Leste for the past two weeks, but the violence has shown little sign of stopping. But even with warnings coming from Australia that Timor Leste must not be allowed to become a failed nation lest it become a haven for terrorists and other criminal activity, at least the situation has provided us with one good laugh (video link).

For those interested in a more comprehensive overview of how the crisis in Timor Leste has unfolded, check out the ABC's timeline of events leading up to the crisis currently engulfing the worlds youngest nation.
posted by Effigy2000 at 5:30 PM PST - 26 comments

Can 1,335 bad lens photographs be wrong? Or 8,516? There are even more if you count Holgas, Dianas, and the like. I'm not sure that digitalsucks, but I applaud the desire to cast off the tyranny of perfection; to expose for the secrets and develop for the surprises with toy cameras, trash cameras and homemade wonders.
posted by cccorlew at 4:18 PM PST - 45 comments

LBJ and the helium filled astronaut. In 1964, the Skylab project wanted to send a phone call to the president. They had a hard time convincing the operators to put the call through. (g2 real audio link from npr) But today, 2 college students in florida discovered that helium can be dangerous.
posted by pyramid termite at 1:23 PM PST - 24 comments

Nature is so fucking horrible.
posted by jonson at 12:19 PM PST - 79 comments

My earliest memory was when I was three. I had a fever and my mother was wiping a cold wet rag on my body. There were fish swimming in my room, as though I was underwater, but I could breathe just fine. That's why I was surprised to find this. "The contemporary art in Japan (english) is naturally influenced by the world contemporary art. But the power of the Japanese traditions, the oppressive presence of a dense urban environment and the various traumatism undergone by Japan for 60 years (defeat of 1945, Hiroshima, earthquakes, economic crisis, etc.) involve a production very rich, original and little known."
posted by sluglicker at 11:59 AM PST - 6 comments

How the hell did Fuzzy sink this hole-in-one?! It hangs for looooong seconds in the rough, then accelerates directly to the hole. I swear, there were magnets involved! Quite possibly the most amazing hole-in-one ever.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:15 AM PST - 54 comments

The Future Just Happened A series of four BBC programmes about the internet from five years ago watchable online (via pre-broadband 56k real) that provide a snapshot of a time when AOL was 'at the heart of the new world', Marillion were releasing music through fan subscriptions and Monica Lewinsky was talking about how she didn't trust email anymore. Amazing.
posted by feelinglistless at 9:06 AM PST - 9 comments

"The sky turned orange as the storm approached, until total darkness blanketed the ground." Sandstorms in Iraq -- caused by heating of the desert sand and a northwesterly summer wind known as the shamal -- can kill. (A similiar storm over Interstate 5 in California in 1991 caused a deadly 164-car pileup.) They can also be uncannily beautiful and dream-like when seen from a distance (WMP link).
posted by digaman at 8:46 AM PST - 35 comments

GAM3R 7H30RY is an online book in progress about computer games. With subjects such as The Sims as allegory for everyday life in gamespace and GTA: Vice City as utopia (or not), GAM3R 7H30RY tries to answer two questions: 1) Can we explore games as allegories for the world we live in? 2) Can there be a critical theory of games?
posted by sveskemus at 2:35 AM PST - 52 comments

How bad does All-Star Batman and Robin suck? Super-bad, apparently. Tales from the Long Box (and it's predecessor Hey Dork! Let's talk comics - all about halfway down the linked page) at i-mockery.com continue the fine tradition of providing perspective on both the anciently awful (such as the transcendental Superman Jr and Batman Jr's Excellent Adventure - Saga of the Super Sons) and the up-to-the-minute. So why is it more fun to read about comics these days than to read the things themselves?
posted by Sparx at 10:52 PM PST - 54 comments

Mona Lisa's voice finally heard. Even if you can't read Japanese, you can still click the buttons underneath each portrait to get playback. Works with Internet Explorer. Suzuki — a co-winner of the Ig Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for promoting harmony between species by inventing the Bow-Lingual, a dog-to-human interpretation device — undertook the project as part of activities promoting the Japan release of the movie "The Da Vinci Code."
posted by nickyskye at 9:00 PM PST - 16 comments

The new lies about women's health (image slightly NSFW) according to Glamour. More on why every egg is sacred to the Bush administration. [via Wired's Sex Drive Daily]
posted by boost ventilator at 6:43 PM PST - 90 comments

The Summa Theologica Of St Thomas Aquinas VERSUS St Augustine's City Of God .(you tube link)
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:07 PM PST - 51 comments

101 Two Liters of Diet Coke. 523 Mentos.
posted by empath at 2:09 PM PST - 70 comments

Well, wouldja, punk? "6/6/06 is only days away! If you were tied to the goat head alter and forced to differentiate between Grind Skronk and Math Prog Metal, would you be able to do it?"
posted by goo at 12:02 PM PST - 28 comments

"Even though everything we did, we made sure was always legal, it still had a sort of illicit quality to it." An interview with Allan MacDonell, author of Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine.
posted by bardic at 11:50 AM PST - 11 comments

Rough draft or a copy made by a Da Vinci acolyte? A painting entitled, "La Gioconda" which bears a striking resemblence to this one hangs in the distinctly non-Parisian Portland Museum of Art (Portland, Maine). Technical studies indicate that it was painted in 1510 (3-7 years after the orignal Mona Lisa). The Portland museum recently decided to re-display the painting [NB: link to public radio story] (having last hauled it out of the basement when the book came out).
posted by scblackman at 11:28 AM PST - 16 comments

Goatse Stickers. Surprisingly SFW, except for a slightly gross toilet picture in the corner of the front page. Some flash and music.
posted by brain_drain at 11:17 AM PST - 8 comments

Big Bad Gay Couples are invading!!! Chicken Little! The sky is falling!!! Cafferty highlights the upcoming speech by Bush supporting the Gay Marriage Ban that is trying to be pushed through Congress. I would say this is mundane and irritating except for the responses given at the end. Especially the one about the divorced man. [via crooks and liars]
posted by Doorstop at 11:12 AM PST - 63 comments

This flash demo for IKEA's kitchen stuff is kinda fun to play with. Takes a bit of time to load, when it does, click the mouse & hold down on the right or left halves of the photo, it's interesting. Note - the flash stuff contains audio, so careful with speaker volume
posted by jonson at 10:15 AM PST - 31 comments

Vince Welnick, former Grateful Dead keyboardist, dies
posted by pyramid termite at 9:55 AM PST - 40 comments

Please, do mention the war. Really, it's hard not to. After all, in a sense football is war, as the General famously joked. Sometimes it's peace. Same goes for that other football, by the way.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:36 AM PST - 11 comments

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child that works hard on the Sabbath Day,
is blithe and bonny, good and gay.
posted by mustcatchmooseandsquirrel at 9:34 AM PST - 12 comments

Experience the intoxicating sounds of the viola...by Rozanna's Sweet Thunder. Be sure to watch the video clip.
posted by mds35 at 8:48 AM PST - 18 comments

Newsfilter: Canadian Police (led by the RCMP) have arrested at least 17 people that were plotting to "launch attacks against targets in Southern Ontario", apparently in large part by monitoring Internet co-ordination and communication. This days after the CSIS deputy director warned of "homegrown extremists" plotting "large scale attacks".
posted by loquax at 7:54 AM PST - 204 comments

The New York office was opened by the founders of the Firm in 1908, the same year women competed in the modern Olympics for the first time. While the Firm moved its headquarters to Los Angeles in 1972, the New York office remains a critical branch of the Firm today, paying tribute to the firm's deeply rooted traditions by undervaluing support staff, requiring formal business attire, and excluding Jews.
posted by grumblebee at 7:02 AM PST - 19 comments

On Bots - results of a year long experiment on search engine bot behaviour
posted by MetaMonkey at 11:48 PM PST - 15 comments

There are approximately 77.6 million owned cats in the United States alone. And at least 20 million feral cats. There are many different breeds of cats. A very popular house pet, cats can be quite odd indeed. Cats can be tiny. And cats can be huge. Baby cats are called kittens and are extremely cute. Indoor cats are frequently overfed. But most importantly, cats can be very, very funny.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 5:56 PM PST - 109 comments

Wen Ho Lee has just won his lawsuit against the federal government and news agencies for violating his privacy rights while under investigation for being a spy. Mr. Lee lost his job, his reputation and racked up huge legal bills as a result of the accusations -- which were later found to be greatly exaggerated. In a case of deja vu, a Chinese scientist at a state lab in Albany, NY recently lost his job (and his wife was placed on leave from her job) after being accused of illegally purchasing weapons -- a charge which was later dismissed. Note that his firing was justified on the pretext of misusing his work computer to visit the ESPN website too often -- a criteria by which a large chunk of the state workforce would be fired. And then there is the ongoing terrorism case against the Albany imam and the pizza shop owner which has had its own evidentiary shortcomings. And to top it all off, the Albany FBI head has just been promoted. Are we feeling any safer yet?
posted by bim at 5:42 PM PST - 13 comments

Curious GWB lays it down for us, gangsta rap-style. [Yes, it's Youtube]
posted by knave at 4:49 PM PST - 16 comments

The Swiss are investigating an international smuggling ring suspected of providing nuclear program components to Libya. There's just one problem. Meanwhile, the United States is opening full diplomatic relations with Libya and removing it from its list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
posted by EarBucket at 4:24 PM PST - 16 comments

O'Reilly insults American victims of a WWII war crime, and Keith Olbermann calls him out. It's been a while since I've seen pure outrage so eloquently expressed. The facts about Malmédy are well known. (WMV and QT video links via Crooks and Liars).
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:14 PM PST - 66 comments

snake on a plane? (newsfilter-ish)
posted by analogue at 3:54 PM PST - 23 comments

Newsfilter. Surveillenve of everything you do online: "It was clear that they would go beyond kiddie porn and terrorism and use it for general law enforcement." Offline: "I'm John Doe, and if I had told you before today that the F.B.I. was requesting library records, I could have gone to jail." Previously, here. On your phone? We've already discussed that, too.
posted by |n$eCur3 at 2:59 PM PST - 36 comments

Cop stops car and sees a gun and home-burned CDs in the car. The CDs made him suspicious so he searched the car for more pirated CDs. Was this a proper search? (pdf version).
posted by exogenous at 2:43 PM PST - 42 comments

Bulletins (more recent ones are PDF only) from the Cold War International History Project. During the 40-odd years of the Cold War, diplomatic historians in the West only had access to documents--papers, memos, cables, and so on--from one side of the conflict. Since the end of the Cold War, the Cold War International History Project has been going through diplomatic archives from the Soviet Union, China, and other countries, translating documents and illuminating the other sides of the conflict. Examples: discussions between Stalin and Kim Il Sung prior to the Korean War. Chinese documents from 1964-1965 on the Vietnam War. Letter to Brezhnev from Czech hardliners requesting Soviet intervention in 1968.
posted by russilwvong at 2:06 PM PST - 14 comments

I guess there is a lesson here for us all. From Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics, OhNoRobot, and RSSPECT fame comes a new project, based on one of his comics: the amazing Regret Index.
posted by revfitz at 2:01 PM PST - 9 comments

IGN relaunches IGN Dreamcast, and plans to re-review every Dreamcast game ever released. Why?
posted by reklaw at 1:54 PM PST - 37 comments

Murders this week: 4; Murders this year: 105 The Baltimore City Paper tracks murders in Charm City week to week. (Check the archive on the right of the page for previous weeks.) Of course, in a city where the most popular underground video is called "Stop Fucking Snitching, Vol. 1," the murder rate can be tough to control.
posted by OmieWise at 12:52 PM PST - 75 comments

Thom Yorke's solo project "The Eraser." Listen to three tracks, hear from Stanley Donwood on the artwork, read the Rolling Stone interview, check out the early reviews.
posted by JPowers at 12:08 PM PST - 74 comments

With all the public smoking bans coming in effect over the past few years, the anti-tobacco movement seems en route to achieve its favored objective: prohibition. Michael Siegel keeps a careful eye on them at The Rest of the Story.
posted by daksya at 11:47 AM PST - 238 comments

Tour America’s Toxic Towns. First off is Times Beach, MO. Uncle Sam bought the town for $32 million, disincorporated it, and evacuated its 2000 residents to spare them from levels of dioxin that were possibly 2,000 times higher than the dioxin content in Agent Orange. Next up is Centralia, PA, completely evacuated due to an underground coal fire that is still burning and may burn for the next 100 years. More recently, American Electric Power purchased Cheshire, OH for $20 million. The town, which was plagued by sulfurous clouds, is now completely deserted. And who can forget the granddaddy of toxic towns, Love Canal.
posted by Otis at 11:38 AM PST - 24 comments

Manhattan Goes Travelling
posted by Tlogmer at 11:21 AM PST - 22 comments

The Tuna Court: Law and Norms in the World's Premier Fish Market. [more inside]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:53 AM PST - 20 comments

Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About.
posted by ND¢ at 10:21 AM PST - 28 comments

"For half a nanosecond I was tempted to join in the discussion. And then I remembered that all internet debates, without exception, are entirely futile. So I didn't." - Charlie Brooker on Internet discussions.
posted by Artw at 9:56 AM PST - 66 comments

Word. Eighth-grader Katharine Close has finally won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on her fifth attempt. She beat out 274 other competitors and won with the word ursprache, sounding it out live on national television. If spelling out rarely used historical-linguistic jargon seems tough, try weltschmerz on for size. That's the word runner-up Finola Mei Hwa Hackett stumbled on. While your at it, why not take a look at the entire word list and see how many you can get, or even just recognize. Prior escapades in spelling documented here, here [YouTube], and if you want to head out to theaters, here.
posted by dead_ at 8:46 AM PST - 98 comments

"Eternal Sunset continuously tunes into different webcams, chasing the sunset around the globe [...] complementing the increased efficiency and productivity associated with the internet." [via WMMNA]
posted by freebird at 8:35 AM PST - 16 comments

Seamless images. Two distinct images in one transitioning without a definite border. [via MoFi]
posted by Mitheral at 8:04 AM PST - 27 comments

The Washington Post gives away books. At least, the first chapters. Tucked away in the Arts and Living section of their site is Chapter One, a registration-free page that links to reviews and opening chapters of new releases. Of course, there are always other options if you're looking for a digital literature fix.
posted by verb at 7:26 AM PST - 12 comments

At long last, the perfect cat toy (link goes to embedded video) has been discovered. Warning: it's kind of expensive.
posted by jonson at 7:14 AM PST - 20 comments

Refi: Metafilter in Review [via mefi projects]
posted by wheelieman at 7:06 AM PST - 44 comments

3D Logic Connect the colors on the cube
posted by Bezbozhnik at 6:57 AM PST - 37 comments

David Lucas will be forced next month to quit manufacturing gallows. He's a farmer in the UK and sells his single gallows for $22,000 USD, which isn't bad for a little side business. He also has a multiple apparatus that goes for $185,000 USD. His customers include Zimbabwe and Libya. Other death manufacturers include Abbott Pharmaceuticals, Organon Pharmaceuticals, Roxane Laboratories and Leutcher Associates, Inc. of Massachusetts, who make gas chambers and electric chairs. Yeah, that Fred Leuchter.
posted by sluglicker at 6:33 AM PST - 40 comments

Every two years, like clockwork, the extreme right need a boost. aka "Best misleading headline ever." He's actually promoting his anti-equal marriage amendment. This FOX News headline is more accurate: Marriage Amendment Could Soothe Angry Right.
posted by andreaazure at 6:22 AM PST - 66 comments

A guide to Twin Peaks: characters and episodes. Spoiler warning--the niftily-designed chart linked at the beginning of this post reveals the identity of Laura Palmer's killer right off the bat. To skip the chart and go straight to the reviews and analyses of episodes, click here.
posted by Prospero at 6:19 AM PST - 43 comments

The Age of AIDS. One of FRONTLINE's most ambitious (and I think very best) web sites. You'll find interactive maps concerning AIDS global scope, information to help explain the science of the virus, an interactive timeline, and interviews with people at the front of fighting the epidemic.

The show will be available at 5 PM (Eastern US) today in it's entirety on the site (except for folks in the UK and Ireland, who unfortunately will have to wait until it airs in their countries.)
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:08 AM PST - 24 comments

He’s the one without the mohawk. This is not exactly a Mr. T fan site. It is a Mr. T memorabilia fan site. So if you are looking for a Mr. T bio or his contact information or “Mr.T vs X” you came to the wrong place.
posted by three blind mice at 4:53 AM PST - 16 comments

Ganjifa cards have a history of more than 300 years. A pack of ganjifa cards consists of ninety-six cards; they are generally circular and made of ivory, tortoise shell, thin wood or hard board material. Dancing, hunting, worshipping, and processions are some of the subjects painted on the cards. Some more patterns: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. However, Ganjifa today is a craft in a crisis.
posted by dhruva at 12:26 AM PST - 10 comments

"This is the underground history of the international Dirty Wars by U.S. allies in South America. It is the first "War on Terrorism" (.pdf) and the parallels to the current wars are a cautionary tale. For much of a decade, six allied military governments engaged in secret warfare intended to wipe out their enemies, kidnapping and murdering up to 30,000 people. At the initiative of Chilean president General Augusto Pinochet, and with initial encouragement from the CIA, they set up a multinational terrorist organization, Operation Condor, to pursue those who escaped to other Latin American countries, Europe and the United States."
posted by j-urb at 10:44 PM PST - 14 comments

"And on the rare occasion when nonwhite heroes were included, names like Black Panther and Black Lightning telegraphed the difference" (NYT). Nonwhite and non-traditional superheroes aren't new, but a "lesbian socialite" Batwoman is. How about "The Great Ten," a "Chinese government controlled superteam" also to be featured in the ongoing "52" Series from DC comics (an alternate superverse bereft of A-league stars like Batman and Superman)? When I was a kid, it was pretty shocking to know of at least one gay superhero (and a Canadian to boot), but I wasn't aware that there were actually so many. Of course, the irrepressible Stan Lee claims he created the first gay superhero in the persona of Pvt. Percival Pinkerton. (Previous mefi discussion of Pavitr Prabhakar, the "Indian Spiderman" here.)
posted by bardic at 6:49 PM PST - 40 comments

The Face of Things . Anthropomorphizing everyday objects can be big business.
posted by nickyskye at 5:31 PM PST - 22 comments

Another massacre. Is this this just what war does to people?
posted by Flashman at 4:32 PM PST - 90 comments

Mefi-attention-span summary: Arctic ocean was subtropically warm (23C, 73F) and covered with floating vegetation. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels above 2000 parts per million (today = 381 ppm.) Life on Earth did not end, went right on about its business. [For longer attention spans, The Cenozoic palaeoenvironment of the Arctic Ocean (Moran et al.); Climate Change: The Arctic tells its story (Heather Stoll); Subtropical Arctic Ocean temperatures during the Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum (Sluijs et al.); Episodic fresh surface waters in the Eocene Arctic Ocean (Brinkhuis et. al);. All from Nature v.441, (01 Jun 2006). Free abstract of Moran et. al; wants money for full texts. Also available for the asking nearest university or public library.
posted by jfuller at 4:20 PM PST - 56 comments

Dance Dance Evolution [YouTube, GMA] . . . Matt Harding just completed his second trip dancing his way around the world with an appearance on Good Morning America. The sublime dorkiness of his first video [YouTube, MeFi] turned him into InternetDancingSensationMattHarding and prompted an outpouring of joyful support, TV appearances, victimization by a YouTube identity thief, tribute videos, and . . . a corporate sponsorship. His next video will include footage from Antarctica , but the real question is whether we'll see the footage from the Parthenon where he was arrested for doing his white boy jig.
posted by donovan at 4:13 PM PST - 7 comments

A Philadelphia house painter may have the answers to the mysterious Toynbee tiles found embedded in asphalt around the world. [previously discussed - 1, 2, 3]

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Justin Duerr, who stars in the upcoming documentary 'Resurrect Dead,' about his search for the Toynbee, "...says he's pretty sure that he knows who the tiler is....The tiler's name, according to Duerr, is James Morasco, and he died in 2003. To continue the mystery though, Morasco's widow denies that he was involved with the mysterious street markers." [via]
posted by ericb at 3:53 PM PST - 27 comments

So, how many subjects are there in a split brain? I know that at least one more mefi user is interested. To get some background information, play this little game from nobelprize.org. Personally, I think they (even though the layout is strange - for an edu site) have it right: [more inside]
posted by vertriebskonzept at 3:50 PM PST - 7 comments

Off2Hunt : So you're the victim of a philanderer, who pretends to be a US Marshall. Whaddye do? Start a web site to out the guy, and get him arrested for impersonating a federal officer. (And create a Myspace page, while you're at it!)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:14 PM PST - 17 comments

THE EVOLUTION OF THE JUST WAR TRADITION: DEFINING JUS POST BELLUM For nearly two thousand years, the just war tradition has provided critical moral guidance on the initiation of war and on conduct during warfare. Today, the tradition must evolve to analyze and develop criteria to apply to jus post bellum.
posted by caddis at 1:44 PM PST - 24 comments

Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House.
posted by EarBucket at 12:54 PM PST - 170 comments

The Room: The Movie. Triple-threat (actor/writer/director) Tommy Wiseau made his cinematic debut in 2003 with the The Room (see trailer and various scenes), "a blend between a softcore porn flick and a Tennessee Williams stageplay." Wiseau ("who's not just one of the most unusual looking and sounding-with an unidentifiable Eastern European accent-leading men ever to grace the screen, but a narcissist nonpareil whose movie makes Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny" seem the apotheosis of cinematic self-restraint...may be something of a first: A movie that prompts most of its viewers to ask for their money back-before even 30 minutes have passed." - Variety), allegedly raised $6 million outside Hollywood to cover production and marketing costs of the self-described "black comedy about love, passion, betrayal and lies" (see various rough dress rehersals). Audience members, including comedian David Cross, have been "marveling at the bizarre editing, bad bluescreen, uncomfortably explicit sex scenes and, of course, the enigma of Wiseau himself" as the film played monthly for years in Los Angeles. Available on DVD, diehard "roomies" swear by the theatrical experience, shout out their own commentary, hurl spoons at the screen and singalong to the soundtrack. Some call it "The Rocky Horror of the New Millenium" and stage "Room" parties. If you look at the marketing campaign or survived a screening you might see The Room as "a seminar on how NOT to make a movie." [Inspired by Boing Boing]
posted by boost ventilator at 12:03 PM PST - 28 comments

Nosheteria including their own Love Theme
Becks & Posh with a new Foodography Challenge
and Mr Cutlets Though not exactly a blog, the book is wonderful (plus his own theme song)
posted by wuakeen at 11:36 AM PST - 7 comments

On the heels of microscopic jewelry rides golden buckyballs (full text).
posted by Mr. Six at 11:28 AM PST - 11 comments

Afghanistan: On the Brink - Ahmed Rashid on Afghanistan's precarious situation. Around three thousand of the 23,000 US troops now deployed in Afghanistan are scheduled to return home this summer and Western intelligence officials say several thousand more may depart before November. The start of an American withdrawal in the midst of a vicious Taliban resurgence naturally infuriates Karzai and his government; it is particularly disillusioning for millions of Afghans who, unlike their Iraqi counterparts, still equate a sizable US military presence with security, continued international funding, and reconstruction. In Iraq practically the entire population wants the Americans to leave, however pleased they are about the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. But the survival of the new Afghan government has depended upon the leadership of the US and its ability to convince the rest of the world to rebuild the country. The US needs to contribute money to carry out its promises and show it is willing to stay the course. It is doing neither. Barnett Rubin. International Crisis Group.
posted by russilwvong at 11:23 AM PST - 31 comments

Federalism and Faith. [more inside]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:52 AM PST - 16 comments

Hannah Arendt's Papers are digitally preserved by the Library of Congress. Read her lectures on Political Philosophy. Browse her correspondence. Here she castigates once-friend, Gershom Scholem, for his poor treatment of Eichmann in Jerusalem. Here she explains forgiveness to the hapless poet she called 'Wystan:' W. H. Auden.
posted by anotherpanacea at 10:32 AM PST - 17 comments

Version 6.06 "Dapper Drake" of Ubuntu / Kubuntu is released today, featuring many GUI improvements and enhancements. It ight be a good excuse to try out linux if you never have, or upgrade if it's been a while.
posted by milovoo at 10:19 AM PST - 42 comments

Freezing Blade, Quiet Moon and Bronze Mustache. A tale from modern China of betrayal, vigilantism and general woe in WoW and Real-Life^TM.
posted by grabbingsand at 9:58 AM PST - 9 comments

Punks, Politicos and Scientists of The World Unite! Depleted Uranium Bill passes the house. To pass the bill, Dr. McDermott took a less traditional route, working with bands like Anti-Flag and speaking to people outside the political sphere.
posted by usedwigs at 9:08 AM PST - 16 comments

Covers of your favorite Pixes songs, by other famous musicians!*

*All other famous musicians simulated. Your milage may vary. Please don't shoot the messenger.
posted by 40 Watt at 9:07 AM PST - 76 comments

Clothes for the sophisticated guinea-pig-about town. Don't forget to check out their wide selection of hats.
posted by ozomatli at 8:41 AM PST - 22 comments