MetaFilter

the economist presents a very clear review of why and how the zimbabwe elections went horribly wrong and what this means for the future of zimbabwe & africa. [this article is neither long nor hard but it's strong. read it] "After 20 years of ZANU government, the average Zimbabwean is a third poorer and can expect to die more than 15 years younger. . . The responsibility for reviving the sick economy still rests with Mr Mugabe and ZANU. Half of the workforce is jobless. Inflation is eating Zimbabweans’ savings at a rate of almost 70% a year. An unrealistic exchange rate has led to shortages of fuel and other imports. Mr Mugabe’s plans to seize white-owned farms without compensation, and his contradictory statements about whether he will do the same to mines and factories, have scared off both foreign and domestic investors. Despite having some of the most fertile land in Africa, Zimbabwe could need food aid this year."
posted by palegirl at 10:28 PM PST - 17 comments

Violent Media is Good For Kids Interesting theory that viewing violent media, reading comics and playing bloody video games is actually cathartic for kids. Not sure it's valid, but it's interesting.
posted by brookish at 3:06 PM PST - 1 comment

Kevin Mitnick's first job denied by his probation officer. Now I'm not one of the people who has any sympathy for Mitnick, but the terms of his probation are interesting: "Mitnick is forbidden to use mobile phones or computers, or work in a computing-related field". MORE
posted by Steven Den Beste at 2:39 PM PST - 15 comments

Well, it's about time that we got around to this. Imagine the freedom we have now. Also imagine the possibilities for abuse. Could a jpeg be legally binding now? We still have a long way to go, but it's a good first step...
posted by dgallo at 2:33 PM PST - 1 comment

Toot! Happy birthday ZG! I think she's great. BTW, The Ruth Truth is pretty damn good too. Hell! Who needs cable? Where do you go for online vidz?
posted by ZachsMind at 9:22 AM PST - 2 comments

What if you didn't need a prescription to get birth control pills? The FDA is thinking about allowing The Pill to be distributed over-the-counter. This would save a lot of effort and money. The concerns over the issue are that women may not continue with their yearly checkups if they don't have to get a prescription; that they may not realize the side-effects of using the pill with other medication, such as antibiotics; or that teenagers might be more likely to start using it without their parents' knowledge. Any thoughts?
posted by daveadams at 8:32 AM PST - 23 comments

Has Amazon.com finally ditched the unsustainable and cluttered one-tab-per-store interface? And if so, is this how they react to their stock falling?
posted by tranquileye at 7:34 AM PST - 12 comments

Deep Leap featured on Yahoo! Daily Picks. And sine I know that Ben Brown loves Metafilter, I decided to let him know. That's for Thursday June 29th, 2000. 062900. Okay.
posted by eyesandfists at 7:21 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Oh, now this is just great. Going into bankrupcy, the most valuable property that a lot of failed dot-coms have is all the information they've collected about their customers in the mean time, like names and addresses and phone numbers and credit card numbers and purchasing patterns and loads of other stuff. In order to appease creditors, three of them are actively trying to sell off their databases right now. What makes that interesting is that they had previously promised never to reveal that information to anyone.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:06 PM PST - 10 comments

I seem to recall an online utility that presents a view of what a web site would look like in multiple browsers and on multiple platforms. My searching has turned up empty. Of course I've been known to choose unsuccessful keywords. Specifically, I'm looking for a utility to simulate the appearance of a web page on a Macintosh. Anyone here know of such a tool?
posted by netbros at 9:38 PM PST - 12 comments

I was looking for info on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and I found this piece of dung. Why are some people so damn hateful and ignorant? Worse, who do they have websites? (Yes, I know I could have just ignored it, but I think it's a dangerous ideal they preach, and one that people need to be aware of.)
posted by Ezrael at 5:53 PM PST - 18 comments

Audrey Kishline, a founder of the "moderation movement" and author of "Moderate Drinking: The Moderation Management Guide for People Who Want to Reduce Their Drinking," in march drove her pickup truck the wrong way down Interstate 90, smashing head-on into a car in an accident that killed a man and his 12-year-old daughter. at the time of the accident she had a blood-alcohol level more than three times the legal limit, and has since been charged with vehicular homicide. so she's taking it all back. now she's saying that the moderation movement "is nothing but alcoholics covering up their problem," said her lawyer.
posted by palegirl at 3:52 PM PST - 15 comments

Hostage situation prompts Disney hotel evacuation: "A police SWAT team was dispatched to a hotel at Walt Disney World today after a guest informed the desk he was armed and holding a food service worker and a 4-year-old child hostage"
posted by palegirl at 3:33 PM PST - 2 comments

It's just a list of links but can there be any doubt that the New York Times was inspired by webloggers?
posted by sudama at 2:29 PM PST - 12 comments

Douglas Rushkoff: "The myth of the internet - and one I believed for a long time - is that most people really want to share the stories of their own lives." And I'd add to that: most of those people who DO want to share their own stories really don't know how to do it. And that includes me...
posted by ericost at 2:01 PM PST - 13 comments

Oh, happy day! Just when thought the 2000 US Presidential Race was going to be a woebegone contest between Dull and Duller, the impish whackjob returns for yet another round of merry hi-jinks and paranoiac delusions presented as fact!
posted by m.polo at 11:29 AM PST - 4 comments

Giving God His Props. The latest Survivor reject thanks the Lord 37 times in his 750-word departing statement -- which is exactly the kind of spiritual Tourette's that got him kicked off the island in the first place. Did I miss the introduction of an 11th Commandment requiring God to be overthanked?
posted by rcade at 9:27 AM PST - 19 comments

The opening bid for the Declaration of Independence, which went on sale at sothebys.com at 9am this morning, was $4,000,000. I can't comment too much, because I work for the Sotheby's, but when the sale closes at 5pm today, it may be the most valuable object ever sold online. We're all going to stand in a big room from 4-5 today and watch the bids come in.
posted by grumblebee at 6:57 AM PST - 13 comments

Well this is Qte! I'm sure I'm probably the last to know about it. And it's probably not fashionable to admit to being a trekkie nowadays, but since when have I been fashionable? Finally they have come out with a Star Trek computer game that I enjoyed. Kinda like the card game. I suck at it, but it was still fun. And it's great for the ego. You get to pretend you're Q...
posted by ZachsMind at 12:53 AM PST - 10 comments

MSNBC's Robert Wright seemes confused in this story about the Global Positioning System. He misinforms the reader about how terrorists can now use the military's encrypted GPS signals for more accurate positioning. (FYI: you are still unable to use the military's encrypted GPS signals, contrary to what Wright claims.)
more inside>>
posted by darainwa at 10:08 PM PST - 2 comments

Craig's List -- the gigantic Bay Area jobs/apartments/ridesharing/etcetra mailing list and website -- is planning on expanding (the Boston site is up), but is there anything else as useful and non-commercialized for other areas?
posted by snarkout at 9:24 PM PST - 3 comments

Red Hat co-founder Marc Ewing files to become a millionaire. Finally. More power to him, I say.
posted by baylink at 7:40 PM PST - 5 comments

The New-Boy Network Finally, the Malcolm Gladwell article describing - all at once! - hiring in the software industry and the scientific basis of first impressions ia onliné. I discussed this very story with a recruitrix from MSN just today. It cast a bit of a pall over an otherwise surprisingly pleasant and reassuring interview (held after hours in a café with me wearing shorts). But I digress.
posted by joeclark at 6:42 PM PST - 5 comments

The Register has an article describing how Oracle hired thugs to prove that Micro$oft did indeed back/finance users groups, watchdog groups, and other entities. (found on the Hacker News Network)
posted by Dean_Paxton at 5:57 PM PST - 4 comments

UK more crime-ridden than US? CBS News has come up with a report describing the UK as a "battleground" for crime, replete with pictures of downtown Friday night battles after the pubs close. You're more likely to be robbed, assaulted, or have your car stolen in Britain than the US, according to recent figures. Then again, according to the DOJ, you're less likely to be raped, murdered or shot. Comparing apples and oranges?
posted by holgate at 4:25 PM PST - 29 comments

Frictionary! Now whenever someone posts crap about the state of MeFi, you can successfully use the phrase, "That's such whipped meme".
posted by Neale at 4:11 PM PST - 2 comments

As most of you know, Diablo 2 came out today. Have any of you bought it yet? Have any of you tried to run it under WINE yet? Did it work?
posted by y0bhgu0d at 3:58 PM PST - 2 comments

Fun & Games with Stevie Hawkings and Einstein.
posted by tiaka at 2:51 PM PST - 3 comments

Human Multi-Tasking: If you count all the things we do two-at-a-time (TV-and-computer, music-and-reading), the average Metafilterer does 29.8 hours a day!
Considering that the survey was commissioned by MTV, the TV channel most likely to be playing in the background while doing something else, it's a little self-serving. Viacom (owners of MTV, CBS, UPN and Nick) needs some way of measurement that doesn't show TViewing going down...
posted by wendell at 2:33 PM PST - 4 comments

Does it bug anyone else that if you have a MetaFilter account with cookies enabled, it automatically enters your password (which can be read in view source)???
Personally I think this is a very bad thing, as I've visited metafilter at the library a few times..
posted by Bane at 12:38 PM PST - 15 comments

Boy Scouts: 1 Gay Memebers: 0 Court Says Boy Scouts Can Bar Gays, which is slightly troubling, in that a psuedo-national organization can make rules that go against government policy. I don't see how a scoutmaster being gay has anything to do with teaching kids how to tie knots and go camping though.
posted by mathowie at 12:00 PM PST - 52 comments

Fidel's victory over the U.S. is complete. Elian will return to Cuba, probably before the next sunrise. Why did this decision take so long? The negligent bungling of the Clinton adminsitration, the Department of Justice, and the INS. When Elian first arrived, the INS placed him in the custody of his nearest kin here in America, and advised them to seek a state court ruling on custody. They relied on that advice and did so. Then, for political resonas, the administration betrayed both the family and the boy, critically undermining our foreign policy objectives in the process. His future as a pawn of the Castro tyranny looks bleak indeed. We can only hope he and every other Cuban are soon freed from Fidel's rule.
posted by mikewas at 11:33 AM PST - 34 comments

:::SCREAM::: wouldn't it be more efficient to just dip britney in wax..?
posted by patricking at 8:59 AM PST - 21 comments

Yahoo-Groups! Yahoo! seems to be building itself into a virtual AOL. I suppose they are going to grab a cable company or entertainment company next. Hey - maybe Paramount's new owners will put it on the block.
posted by rich at 7:09 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Congrats to Greg and Joanne!
posted by plinth at 5:59 AM PST - 2 comments

This has gotta be a first. The first patch for "Diablo II" has been released one day before the product is scheduled to hit the store shelves. A new record!
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:04 PM PST - 7 comments

Another online discussion forum experiences growing pains. Lance writes: "glassdog.CLUB is a good example of what can go wrong in an online community." And so he's pulling the plug. Perhaps killing something while it's still young is the only way to keep it from growing old and dying miserably?
posted by ericost at 10:01 PM PST - 26 comments

If you`re like me, then you believe that as time goes on and technology gets better, information content providers will have fewer and fewer means of preventing their content from being freely distributed - until all information is free, essentially. We`re already seeing this - MP3, motion pictures and whatnot. But let`s stretch our imagination a little and try to conceive the convergance of this trend with Nanotechnology... [more]
posted by SilentSalamander at 7:00 PM PST - 5 comments

I've never actually seen this in use (probably because I'm totally amerocentric in my browsing), but apparently you can get some wäĉkŷ characters in your domain name if you want to, assuming you want a dot-nu domain. If your browser speaks Japanese, you can even have a kanji domain. That's pretty neat.
posted by endquote at 6:24 PM PST - 12 comments

the don rickles of the web speaks what a charming personality....
posted by jenett at 5:30 PM PST - 20 comments

American Review folds its tent. Even if it is temporary, I'm going to miss it. Who will call the Media on its relentless navel gazing now? Of course, there are those who considered AR to be part of that trend...
posted by Ezrael at 4:58 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

so...that must mean everyone here is...ohmigod! (this is the funniest example of pink journalism i've seen in ages.)
posted by patricking at 3:52 PM PST - 3 comments

Random House dictionary brought up-to-date. Does this mean I'll be able to use "gaydar" the next time I play Scrabble?
posted by sandor at 10:46 AM PST - 8 comments

15 hour batteries - Just when we thought we weren't spending enough time with our laptops, IBM comes along and does this.
posted by Cavatica at 10:17 AM PST - 1 comment

And now, here's something we hope you'll really like...
Californian David Simon decided that It Would Be Nice If you could use the Internet like your VCR. The MPAA and the Studios disagreed. Is this guy crazy? Or crazy like a fox?
posted by baylink at 10:01 AM PST - 8 comments

Another day, another piece of unconstitutional net-censorship legislation in Congress. And this time it's authored by your pal and mine, John "Watch Out for Charlies!" McCain. Perhaps we should start a deadpool for all these bills, giving out some cash to whoever guesses the dates on which the courts throw them out?
posted by aaron at 9:52 AM PST - 4 comments

According to a halfway-serious survey, one-third of business e-mailers go :-( when they see :-).
They didn't ask whether it was better with the nose :-) or without :) or in semi-profile :^), or if if the toungue should be represented by the lower-case-b :-b or upper-case-P :-P, and what about when you put a smiley inside parentheses (Here's a survey on THAT topic)
Nominee for Most Trivial Topic on MetaFilter in June!
posted by wendell at 9:48 AM PST - 12 comments

Screenfridge! How many times have you read an article where some 'expert' predicts that even your fridge will be hooked up to the net in the future? Well Electrolux have already invented it.
posted by Markb at 9:18 AM PST - 13 comments

A true American tale: follow the rise and fall and rise and fall of David Stanley, the con artist with Christ-like charisma who dodged a prison sentence, dyed his hair, and began the multi-million dollar startup Pixelon without a driver's license, a social security card, or a shred of technology to sell. The people he has screwed over still love him for his kindess and genius. In Stanley's own words, "God has blessed me with a unique ability to defy reality". Why are people and corporations willing to invest millions of dollars into ideas without proof? And why do I admire this liar?
posted by sixfoot6 at 8:55 AM PST - 1 comment

Prepare To Die. Bill Drummond, half of the KLF and burner of a million quid, has a new project. Apparently he was concerned that some of the funerals he had attended were not what the deceased would have wanted. Make sure you don't have the same problem.
posted by dodgygeezer at 8:26 AM PST - 2 comments

Hee hee...The Boondocks, the most consistently enjoyable of all the daily comicstrips around, deftly compares the NRA to NWA. It's one of those "wish I'd 'a thunk it" moments.
posted by NickBarat at 7:36 AM PST - 6 comments

Oh this is lovely. Sydney, Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, and now... Somebody remind me to move outta Dallas within 12 years, before the gone and forgotten Izzy makes its appearance in my hometown. Sheesh. We need this like we need another DART bus. Or a pipe bomb, for that matter...
posted by ZachsMind at 6:47 AM PST - 7 comments

Jeff Koons on his art: "I'm interested in making objects that you would want to grab and take with you if your house was burning down. " He also says he's really into cereal boxes. New York Times (registration required)
posted by lockecito at 6:35 AM PST - 7 comments

YAHOOGLE!!
Your average weblogger's favorite search engine makes the big time (and they just hit a billion pages indexed, too). Will success spoil the Googs?
posted by wendell at 12:14 AM PST - 5 comments

Tapping Dave Winer's backend , so I don't have to.
Are Webloggers and Weblog-followers getting so jaded as to not even care about the New-And-Improved SubHonker Filter? Let's see: according to Weblogs.Com's Weblog Search, it has been mentioned by only 9 weblogs (including its creator's own) prior to this post, and never made it over the threshold to show up on Beebo's Metalog. Or maybe that's the point. We're not supposed to be counting hits or trolling for readership. But when you're looking for something new and fresh from someone who has something unique to contribute to the Weblog Community (which we're not even supposed to admit exists) is there an easier way to go than a random dive into the SHF's list of "New" blogs? Or maybe you just want to be made aware within an hour of when your favorite web-pundit has posted another magnum-opus (or magnum-bill-the-cat). Do these tools matter anymore? Or is it just that, with a couple thousand registered to weblogs.com, you have to be an obsessive-compulsive nutcase (like me) to even dive into the swamp, no matter how much Dan has improved the filtering interface. (Four hours going through the list so far, and I've only decided Yes-or-No on about 15%, and it's the obvious 15%!)
posted by wendell at 11:52 PM PST - 17 comments

like your news grassroots flavored? this is a really comprehensive list of hundreds of free weekly newsmags across the country. rock!
posted by patricking at 11:01 PM PST - 1 comment

Can't get enough of the Hampster Dance remix? Now you can buy it on CD. I guess some people will buy just about anything -- just ask the people who made the singing fish for proof.
posted by teradome at 6:40 PM PST - 5 comments

Buddy Christ. Perfect for your dashboard.
posted by plinth at 12:28 PM PST - 3 comments

Top Secret Recipes is a site that aims to reveal the secrets of almost any popular restaurant's items. They have McDonalds Shakes, Orange Julius, Hot Dog on a Stick (complete with video), and Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mints. Oh my god, they actually reverse-engineered McDonalds' Secret Sauce. Be careful with the knowledge of that last one, you could be killed just for possessing it. If food is considered a restaurant's intellectual property, how does this site continue without being sued silly?
posted by mathowie at 12:22 PM PST - 22 comments

I'm so glad I live in New York City--especially now that the cows are here. My favorite ones are the huge dancing cows across the street from F.A.O. Schwartz.
posted by grumblebee at 10:28 AM PST - 10 comments

george bush, beating around the bush. good news: he's finally said something about GLBT equality issues. bad news: it ain't much. if he wins, i'm ditching my citizenship.
posted by patricking at 10:13 AM PST - 14 comments

A dose of reality. I apologize for the content of this URL, but this is just too funny not to post. Finally, the world gets a dose of reality that .com != good company.
posted by fusinski at 8:28 AM PST - 5 comments

Here's an interesting one... The Office of National Drug Control Policy apparently decided to buy banner ad rotations on websites... using pro-drug keywords. I actually think that's kind of clever. The problem is that they're using DoubleClick...
posted by baylink at 7:18 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

taH pagh taHbe! (to be or not to be)
posted by plinth at 6:06 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Chicken Run's "dark, concentration-camp-inflected imagery." This new Nick Park film is entertaining, but like Newsweek's David Ansen I couldn't avoid viewing the bleak chicken farm (and neighboring slaughterhouse) as a Nazi death camp. Anyone hungry for a chicken pot pie?
posted by rcade at 5:32 AM PST - 17 comments

SIMbabes ain't putting out... I play The Sims. You probably suspected that didn't you? Well, there's a Blogger Powered weblog by the guy behind the upcoming Blueprint program, and guess what? Copyright infringement once again rears its ugly head in cyberspace. A website called Simcorally has downloaded objects others created and claimed them as his own. So now the SIMbabes are on strike. The upshot of this is I'm still stuck with that obnoxious green couch. I want something better. And that piano looks awful nice. Simlane has more on the topic.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:38 PM PST - 8 comments

teens spin web of the future. great article re: the winners of a competition for teenagers maintaining useful, unique, nonprofit sites.

Emily Boyde, 17, of Newcastle, Australia, was the only female finalist. Her Web site, MatMice, allows kids to create their own Web sites and view sites made by their friends.

She taught herself to write HTML, the language used to create Web sites. "I don't know a lot of other females who do this sort of thing," she said. "But after I saw the Internet, I liked the look of it. So I decided to learn to use it myself."

Emily rocks my world.
What do you think of the winners?
posted by gusset at 5:06 PM PST - 2 comments

«Êtes-vous un mod ou un rocker?» At the earsplitting industry schmoozefest I attended this week (which I am forbidden to link to because I blogged it at one of my sites), I beelined toward the more interesting-looking people. One fella had a full-on mod look. I listen to the show Mods & Rockers on CIUT, and I claim to understand Blow-Up. But I was impressed as hell by an explanation of the origin of the terms mod and rocker. It's the sort of cultural introduction I wish more people would write – after you teach yourself what a concept is, you document that self-teaching for others. Hey, it's the Internet gift kulcha, innit? (Also: Mod films!)
posted by joeclark at 10:29 AM PST - 1 comment

To those who say our
Founding Fathers Couldn't get down with their bad selves...
Peep Washington, Jefferson and da rest of da boyz in an Independence Day Rap. Click on each founding father to let them throw down some phat lyrics too. (Flash required, yo!)
posted by EricBrooksDotCom at 9:20 AM PST - 2 comments

"To achieve memorable badness is not so easy. It has to be done innocently, by a poet unaware of his or her defects. The right combination of lofty ambition, humorless self-confidence, and crass incompetence is rare and precious. "

I wish I was talanted enough to write something really bad. At best, I flirt with the mundane.
posted by grumblebee at 7:02 AM PST - 7 comments

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Human Genome Project completed!!!!!
posted by grumblebee at 5:54 AM PST - 7 comments

Words to web by: "My personal theory, for what it's worth, is that Web sites looking to make real money either need to A) be Yahoo, B) sell porn, or (best of all) C) start small, and win a damn following."
posted by owillis at 12:41 AM PST - 2 comments

David Tomlinson, the father in "Mary Poppins," dies. I remember watching him in both "Poppins" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" and being just blown away by his charm and his ability. Another piece of childhood gone to heaven.
posted by solistrato at 9:59 PM PST - 2 comments

After The Vows: Hemos Post-Nuptual Bliss! Jeff "Hemos" Bates, of slashdot.org fame tied the knot today, and readers (including myself) are having a field day with the topic.
posted by quonsar at 8:43 PM PST - 2 comments

Visual Thinking Weblog. This place is pretty cool, alot of interesting postings there.
posted by y0bhgu0d at 6:56 PM PST - 2 comments

Porn on the net is not a problem. Readers chime in on an opinion column with opinions of their own. My favorites "All one has to do if you don't want to read such garbage is to delete it when you first sign onto the Internet" (this guy obviously has no clue how the web works) and "Is there software I can buy to block out you?" In this article, Porn site supporters and detractors both seem to agree that users have to go out of their way to see pornographic content on the web. You have to click on the link to see porn. Funny how the writer of the original article couldn't figure that out. Is porn really that much of a problem on the web, or are some people just too embarrased to admit that due to some curiosity, they wanted to follow the links?
posted by mathowie at 5:13 PM PST - 11 comments

Clinton Holds Online "Fireside Chat" While Being Serviced By White House Intern. The Prez took this "historic occasion" to unveil a new federal web site - firstgov.gov, a sort-of government portal that would link up to all federal web sites. Firstgov.gov will begin a multi-city advertising blitz once it secures $254 million in venture capital funding. And just wait for the IPO.
posted by solistrato at 11:01 AM PST - 2 comments

Third Circuit panel upholds injunction against Child Online Protective Act, says that "community standards" approach doesn't work in 'cyberspace'. Is sanity breaking out in the federal judiciary?
posted by baylink at 10:01 PM PST - 1 comment

Evidently, there's a whole time capsule industry out there: the going rate is $60 for a 100-year personal capsule; there's a 500-year one as well. Someone at Future Archaeology has done some thinking about relevant time capsule items. What would you include in a time capsule that would be buried tomorrow and opened in 1000 years? What's your rationale?
posted by jkottke at 9:57 PM PST - 14 comments

Three words: Charlie's Angels Trailer. This looks pretty funny, especially with Bill Murray involved. I guess the real question this movie raises is "are the re-makes of yesteryear successes going to continue in the 00's?" Personally, I thought it was a 90's thing, which I often call the "recycled decade." Side question: why don't the angels have guns in the ending silhouette? Is that because of the current anti-gun climate? [thanks Kristin]
posted by mathowie at 3:19 PM PST - 6 comments

Yesterday Justice Philip Cummins looked down at the two clean-cut young men in the dock as they sat close together on a long, leather bench. He condemned the brief, severe assault that caused Hibbins' death. He said their actions could not be justified as a citizen's arrest of a suspect because they punished Hibbins instead of apprehending him. However, he said, they were not vigilantes because their conduct was not premeditated. Instead it occurred because of an unplanned upsurge of emotion in both men. The judge said their behavior belonged in the least culpable category of manslaughter because they were decent young men who entered the park not looking for trouble, who reasonably believed a woman had been raped and who were then caught up in a perverse confluence of events for which they were truly sorry.
posted by murray_kester at 12:43 PM PST - 10 comments

Unsurprising posts: Perhaps this should be in Metatalk (and certainly it's more Matt's business than mine), but I want the readers of MetaFilter to read it. Unless I'm confused, the point of a post to Metafilter is to satisfy two criteria:

1. It's interesting to the readership.
2. It's something they're unlikely to discover or encounter elsewhere on their own.

As I look at MetaFilter today, I see several articles which are nothing except digests of news events which I could just as easily have read at Reuters, or the BBC, or CNN, or any of half a dozen other normal web sites. Unless the post here includes an odd editorial slant, just what does it contribute that I can't get from those other sites?

To contrast this, we spent a great deal of time discussing Elian over a period of weeks, and many of those articles included links to the mainline news organizations. But these were means to permit commentary, not treated as ends in themselves.

If you want to tell us that the Dutch truck driver has been indicted, tell us something else besides which we can't discover by visiting CNN or Reuters or the BBC. And why were we told about the end of the hostage standoff in Fiji? What was added here beyond what I would have discovered on my own at CNN?

Unfortunately, what this looks like is "Gawd, this is neat! I want to participate, too!" syndrome. That part's fine, but before you say something, make sure you have something worth saying!
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:45 AM PST - 25 comments

Are you sick of John Rocker yet? I am. How about Rudy Giuliani? I am.

In the latest round of NYC entertainment, Rocker has promised to ride the No. 7 train to Shea Stadium. Lots of people are telling him to not be a dumbass (little bit late for that). Comedy hijinks ensue.

For what it's worth, I rode the No. 7 for years and nobody looks at anybody on that line (or at least gets caught doing so), as is consistent with NY subway etiquette. Rocker will be completely anonymous, unless he decides to go through the car passing out gift pens with little slips of paper that have the sign language alphabet printed on them. Even then, 98% of riders won't make eye contact with him.
posted by elgoose at 10:24 AM PST - 3 comments

Remember the previous story about 58 being found dead trying to sneak into The UK? The truck driver is now facing 58 charges of manslaughter.
posted by tiaka at 10:07 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Dennis Miller to co-host this years Monday Night Football. "That's the game and I am outta here."
posted by vitaflo at 6:21 AM PST - 17 comments

Deal Announced To End Hostage Standoff in Fiji
President's spokesman Joe Brown announced yesterday that a deal has been reached for the release of hostage MPs, and the former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry. The release is set for 11 a.m. (Fiji Time) today. Additionally, amnesty has been granted to the seven men who led the coup in Fiji on May 19.
The hostages have been held for the past five weeks, leading to the declaration of martial law, the suspension of the country's constitution, and plans for an interim government. Military officials conceded that George Speight, leader of the hostage-taking, has won most of his demands from the government, including enshrining native Fijian political hegemony in any new constitution.

posted by rschram at 5:42 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

The Filth and The Fury. I went to see this film last night and it has to be one of the best music documentary (or, if you will, rockumentary) films I've seen. It charts the Sex Pistols rise and fall and is surprisingly funny and touching. It even manages to capture Seventies Britain in all its revolting glory. I think I shall now go and put a safety pin through my website.
posted by dodgygeezer at 5:32 AM PST - 3 comments

It looks so ridiculous. "School is supposed to be teaching our kids how to read and write. Not about dangerous drugs like PHP."
posted by nims at 3:42 AM PST - 6 comments

Anchors away! Abortions at sea. Another example of people trying to evade the confines of national laws.
posted by Ezrael at 11:48 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Texas Inmate Gary Graham Executed. I always thought that the Governor of a state had the authority to grant a full or conditional pardon or a reprieve if he or she believed that further investigation (?) was required. According to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, said authority is only available "upon the recommendation of the board." Is this common among the States?
posted by chrish at 9:56 PM PST - 37 comments

Longtime dream of Francis Ford Coppola finally comes true. I posted this on my site like 5 times just because I think it's so cool. I've never posted on Metafilter before but felt I had to share this since other blog types aren't blogging it. It's a revolution for artists of all types that (writers, screenwriters, photographers, actors, graphic designers, and more) just opened yesterday. Coppola has been dreaming of it for a while. I've been a member of the earlier Zoetrope site for short stories for two years and can tell you that this is the result of a lot of hard work on the part of the webmasters and Zoetrope company. Go there. Share your stories. Share your images. Share your headshots. Share whatever. I know there are writers and budding photographers and filmmakers among you. And if you go, email me or post it here so I can invite you to my private message board area over there -- it's really one big, fun, family.
posted by tracy at 6:58 PM PST - 4 comments

Gee that was sweet Johnny but the world happens to like suing everyone for everything they're worth be it offline or online so we're going to pretend you never said that. Honey?" "Yes dear." "Where's my lawyer's phone number?" "You put it on speed dial, remember?" "Oh yeah.."
posted by ZachsMind at 5:45 PM PST - 6 comments

Ladies and Gentlemen, Derek has left the building. While I have been amused by reading the life of Derek Powazek, once and a while, I think he has made a sound decision. I really appreciate his last question, who is a blog for? Reminds me of the first question from my Journalism 101 professor: "Is art for art's sake?"
posted by Brilliantcrank at 4:52 PM PST - 37 comments

Pink Floyd and the Wizard of Oz? "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." While no one involved with Pink Floyd has ever admitted to any link between the band's seminal 1973 album "Dark Side of the Moon" and the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz," urban legend purports that the album was conceived as an alternate soundtrack to the film.
posted by 120degrees at 4:26 PM PST - 7 comments

Who's doing a screenplay on the cult of personality? Did I hear you say Inekchok? Or maybe it was the word "trippy", but the 60's flashed before my eyes in a Castaneda blaze. Must have been that cigar on the flight down! (I dont smoke either). Eric, you have made me cry with laughter...
posted by nickyskye at 3:53 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Sports Night No Go on HBO. Despite the fact that Aaron Sorkin (the creator) had already made plans on an HBO-ized show, ABC and HBO have called off talks due to "financial issues which couldn't be resolved." If you were a fan of Sorkin (Sports Night), you may enjoy "The West Wing." I do.
posted by chrish at 11:41 AM PST - 2 comments

The overthrow of Premier Mossadeq Last week the NYT posted PDF files of a CIA report detailing the overthrow of Premier Mossadeq of Iran in 1953. Names of Iranian participants who assisted in the operation were digitally "removed" because of fears that there families would face retribution when their status as foreign agents was revealed. John Young of cryptome discovered that the redacted text was not really gone -- by cancelling the PDF rendering at a certain point, the hidden names were revealed. He contacted the NYT and after some discussion told them he would not post the full files; the Times removed their copies of the files until they could edit out the names more securely. Young has since heard that other people also noticed the flawed redaction and has concluded that the information is therefore public. He is now posting the full text of the files (first installment up now) with the names restored. Is Young playing fast and loose with people's lives? Or does belief in a free press obligate this sort of thing?
posted by tingley at 8:10 AM PST - 14 comments

More Harry Knowles hijinks.
posted by highindustrial at 7:13 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Nortel offering $1 Million to employees who recruit talented friends. Employees are being asked to submit applications from family and friends, and for every new hire the referring employee gets $2,000 and the chance to enter five draws, each with a prize of $100,000. About 1,000 of the 5,300 optical jobs are in Canada, with the rest split between the United States and Britain. For well-connected employees, there is a $10,000 bonus for bringing in three people, and a $20,000 bonus for five.

Did I happen to mention my major is Telecommunications Management, and I graduate in 2 semesters???
posted by da5id at 7:10 AM PST - 3 comments

Found in my referer logs. Does anybody have any idea what this guy is about, or why someone who would go here would visit me, too? :-) [WARNING: Even adults may not want to look at this page...]
posted by baylink at 7:03 AM PST - 11 comments

What will George do? Gary Graham is on death row and would be president Bush has a decision to make. Only one of six witnesses has identified Graham as the killer and four witnesses say Graham was elsewhere when the crime took place. I'm not saying the death penalty is wrong, but isn't it the greatest injustice of all to be executed for a crime you didn't commit.
posted by jay at 3:56 AM PST - 26 comments

Kottke offers a good critique of online discussions (like MeFi), and he makes some excellent suggestions on how to improve them. He quotes an unnamed source: "The problem with online forums is that those who have very little to contribute participate the most while those with valuable information to share participate the least." Now, let's try to keep the conversation cordial...
posted by ericost at 8:15 PM PST - 2 comments

Anonymously written freeware lets YOU bust a Napster/Gnutella user. Anonymously written by the RIAA, no doubt.
posted by quonsar at 6:02 PM PST - 4 comments

Deepleap have undergone a much-anticipated revision. You can now make your information available, just like this wishlist, or these bookmarks.
posted by grestall at 5:22 PM PST - 2 comments

Hate your neighbor??? I wonder why I never thought of doing this to the neighbor that accused me of smoking pot... in front of my mom, for Heaven's sake. Those were the days...
posted by fusinski at 4:57 PM PST - 4 comments

Forget the water on mars, the Israeli parliament and the nuclear disc drives... Here's the news we really wanted to know:
The corporate-pawn pseudo-weblogger Net Buzz seems to have a scoop on the winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Bad Writing Contest (the entries above are NOT on the official site). These may not be for real, (the contest has never listed them in a Top 10) but they're funny enough to see me through until the real thing comes along. (#2 and #1 are kinda predictable, but #6 should appeal to all us MeFi Narcisists)
posted by wendell at 4:10 PM PST - 2 comments

Mach 5 (yes, that Mach 5) now for sale on eBay.
posted by jjg at 3:49 PM PST - 7 comments

One last one before I run out to dinner (sorry for running off at the keyboard this afternoon, folks...)

The Supreme Court had to rule on this? That scares me a *lot*.
posted by baylink at 3:15 PM PST - 2 comments

Do you use Microsoft Word? Or does Microsoft Word use you.
posted by baylink at 2:13 PM PST - 8 comments

This story is *actually* about Lexis, who got their case file in the first place by stealing it from West, suing Jurisline, who in turn bought their CD's and mounted them on a free website, and winning.

Lawyers, in particular, may find this one interesting...
posted by baylink at 11:59 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Feds offer cookies to drug seekers.
posted by highindustrial at 10:42 AM PST - 1 comment

Where am I going, and why am I in this handbasket? What's happening to copyright law lately, why, why ignoring it may well be the best thing to do to fix it, and why Mickey Mouse is a Yakuza. Very nice piece from (former?) EFF Legal Counsel Mike Godwin
posted by baylink at 8:59 AM PST - 6 comments

Pyra.com Ltd. is now Pyra Labs (dot com limited)
  So is the redesign/rebranding the long overdue second announcement of the Week of Two Announcements?
  And when are we going to hear about the money (Remember "It's not VC money, it's cool/smart money...")
posted by rschram at 8:40 AM PST - 5 comments

F.Y.I. the second round of Pimpwars has begun with sign-ups starting last night. New in the 2nd version: 20 members per alliance, 3 different types of weapons, but still the same ole laying the smack down on people.
posted by da5id at 4:59 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

This could be your sysadmins ...
posted by billpena at 12:57 AM PST - 6 comments

Poetry Slam 2000 will be in of all places Providence Rhode Island this August 8th-12th. I have liked this idea and yet could never wholly embrace it. The intensity is strong but the angst seems repetitive.
posted by ZachsMind at 10:24 PM PST - 8 comments

Let web designers have Jakob Nielsen for usability guidance, we Flash designers have our own budding guru of usable Flash on the web at Flazoom.com. The guy behind Flazoom follows up his Cancer piece with some good guidelines for Flash on the web. The best link in the article goes here, where he asks you to find both uses of Flash on the page. I totally missed the first one, even when I knew what to look for. His use of Flash that just blew me away - hardly any animation, just usefullness. I'll stop cheering now...
posted by DragonBoy at 8:40 PM PST - 2 comments

An essential HOWTO For the people that don't know the trauma they are causing.
posted by Foaf at 6:27 PM PST - 3 comments

US Senate approves hate crimes legislation as an amendment to a military spending bill. All of the Democrats (minus Byrd) and thirteen Republicans brought the tally to 57-42. As was recently discussed here, this is a contentious issue, even among those who support some type of increased punitive power based on the perpetrator's state of mind and opinions.
posted by m.polo at 5:17 PM PST - 3 comments

Dru Jay has a good article on voluntary micropayments, and the theme is something the failed micropayments crowd never thought of: instead of forcing the charge before you see it, treat a site as shareware, and pay after you've enjoyed it. Thanks to two individuals, I'm $0.50 richer today. Are voluntary paypal donations the wave of the blogging future?
posted by mathowie at 4:43 PM PST - 74 comments

Um, this is sort of a weblog.
posted by highindustrial at 4:34 PM PST - 7 comments

World Health Report 2000 ranks world health care systems. France #1; UK #18; Canada #30; USA #37
posted by mkn at 4:01 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

"[11-year-old] Greg Smith loves going online and playing soccer . . . he spends afternoons reading outdoors, hiking through the mountains and playing basketball with buddies...except that this 11-year-old has just completed his first year as a full-time student at Randolph- Macon College in Virginia..." Why do I have a feeling this kid is going to be writing a painful memoir about his lost childhood by the time he's 19?
posted by Zosia Blue at 12:16 PM PST - 10 comments

Assistance offered to teachers in Santa Clara, the county with the highest median house price in the US [from fark] See attached flame inside>>>
posted by plinth at 10:25 AM PST - 7 comments

Oh great...another sports riot. Let's hope soccer never catches on in the states. Just imagine what our football hooligans would be up to...
posted by NickBarat at 9:58 AM PST - 2 comments

Gartner Group competitive matrix The Gartner Group released an excell spreadsheet with criteria to evaluate a variety of websites and industries.. good stuff for free..
posted by efader at 9:01 AM PST - 1 comment

Where are they now? Don't front like you weren't pumping Arrested Development back in junior high. Yeah, we now know their whole Afrocentrism schtick was a record company ploy, and I'm sure this new album will be nothing to write home about. But man, I still know all the words to "Mr. Wendal" and "Tennesee" by heart. Sounds like time for a Napster run...
posted by NickBarat at 7:48 AM PST - 2 comments

I pulled up to a McDonald's today and saw a sattelite dish on top for Muzak. Their web site looks hip and cool, completely belying that their output is the work of Demon Spawn. One disturbing thing - doesn't the guy in the lower right look a little too much like Pat McKenna from the Red Green Show?
posted by plinth at 5:56 AM PST - 7 comments

Election fraud in Haiti? I can't believe it! Imagine that...they don't seem to want the US telling them what to do. How novel. Well, I'm sure our compassionate President will respond by feeling their pain, and of course, causing more of it with our laser-guided bombs and the like. Didn't we put Aristede there in the first place? Man, it ain't like the old days, when the US would stand by its tyrant, now is it? (Sorry, but I must obey my Uncle Joe, and I always thought of sarcasm as linguistic bran anyway.)
posted by Ezrael at 11:33 PM PST - 1 comment

Ain't It Uncool News? Seems like all the film scoopers want to start scooping all over Harry Knowles, Austinite poster boy and all-around huge self-promotion machine. And it ain't about money, it's about credit and credentials. Now the AICNers are hacking and slashing other sites...
posted by honkzilla at 2:53 PM PST - 4 comments

Mike Meyers deserves a medal for having the guts to admit that the character he created for a five-minute sketch wasn't going to carry a full-length movie. He gave up a 20-million-dollar payday and saved us all from another "SNL spin-off" movie.
posted by wendell at 2:14 PM PST - 10 comments

I can't help but feel that Flash interstitials (like those one finds at HillmanCurtis.com) are like holographs stuck on book covers. All the little flashing squares and pomo imagery and industrial sounds are wonderful, but they don't seem to add very much to the user experience. Did the Web kill cool multimedia? Have we actually taken a step back from the mid-1990s, when there were interesting projects on CD-ROM?
posted by tranquileye at 1:39 PM PST - 8 comments

Well, we're all screwed. Seems like BT patented hyperlinking years ago, and they plan to aggressively enforce it in the US. Anyone know how to setup blogger for gopher? (free registration is required to view article)
posted by Jairus at 12:31 PM PST - 9 comments

Why does the left ignore Waco? I remember watching Waco burn on tv and being totally radicalized by it. Believing I was experiencing holy truth, I was of course shocked to find alot of people thought they had it coming. This link proposes things I had not considered.
posted by thirteen at 10:56 AM PST - 27 comments

Well, it's about time.
posted by tranquileye at 7:24 AM PST - 8 comments

UK - Eighty-eight people mistaken for tomatoes found dead in a truck.
posted by tiaka at 6:57 AM PST - 4 comments

Gay Elizabethan Spy and Playwright found murdered! Not one, but two Christopher Marlowe movies. Hollywood, thou art such a suppurating whore. Thanks to Pete for the link.
posted by Ezrael at 5:32 AM PST - 9 comments

Because Ben Brown won't answer my e-mails anymore, I've decided to trade him in for a younger, sexier model. Thank the lord for cloning.
posted by Neale at 5:12 AM PST - 18 comments

Lex Luthor for President .
That's all I have to say.
posted by Bane at 11:02 PM PST - 6 comments

Does Gareth Branwyn's / WIRED's Jargon Watch ever acknowledge its debt to Eric Raymond's Jargon File? I mean, the File's revision history states clearly that it began in 1975-- considerably before WIRED came to the trough --so isn't this Jargon Watch book just a rip-off of the print verison of the Jargon File, The New Hacker's Dictionary?
posted by jbushnell at 5:44 PM PST - 10 comments

Coinstar seems like a good idea, however, in the FAQ, they don't give the exact amount of the service charge. How odd.
posted by starduck at 2:48 PM PST - 15 comments

Another new console is set to hit the market. That makes PS2, Dolphin, XBox, and now, the INDREMA! Personally, I think this is a bit too modern for current gamer tastes, but the fact that it runs LINUX makes me think they're going for something else. It saddens me to see all the next-gen consoles turning into computers, because nothing beats holding a controller in your hand. *gets misty-eyed*
posted by starduck at 2:38 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

furnish thy pad. pure design sells some of the best work from the new generation of designers...including douglas coupland (yes, *that* douglas coupland), karim rashad, and nick dine. and they sell it online. superbonus!
posted by patricking at 12:34 PM PST - 7 comments

Weekend box-office shakedown: "[Shaft] skewed younger and male, said Wayne Lewellen, president of distribution at Paramount Pictures, which released the film in 2,337 theaters. It was 'certainly very strong' with black audiences, but also pulled in solid receipts from Canada, he added." I guess "Canada" signifies white people? What a fatuous thought process.
posted by highindustrial at 12:08 PM PST - 2 comments

I get so much phone spam that I leave my ringer off all the time.
posted by grumblebee at 10:11 AM PST - 8 comments

I hope this isn't true. Apparently (at least according to this article) Norma McCorvey is in with the Christian Identity folks. You know, these guys. Wow, times do change, don't they?
posted by Ezrael at 8:58 AM PST - 7 comments

Almost no animals were harmed during the making of this commercial. This is really gonna have those animal-rights wonks hacked off!
posted by quonsar at 8:45 AM PST - 3 comments

I love "The Apartment." It's one of my favorite films of all time. But whenever I've rented it and showed it to friends, they've dismissed it as a fun/sentimental comedy. I think it's got infinitely more depth than that, though it can be seen as a simple love story. Finally, someone else shares my love of this American Masterpiece.
posted by grumblebee at 7:53 AM PST - 11 comments

Windows users rejoice! Finally, a program for Windows 9x that does the same as Kalidoscope... and it works well.
posted by cheaily at 3:34 AM PST - 18 comments

Napster retains (ahem) counsel. The right move I think. Along with the DeCSS case, this may be setting the precedent for what "intellectual property" and "public domain" mean in the 21st century. Hopefully, things will turn out better than in Sterling's "Distraction". Either way, things will never be the same.
posted by aflakete at 1:10 AM PST - 1 comment

it's just not the same on radio but it seems radio morning shows are willing to go to any length to get new listeners.
posted by mkn at 3:34 PM PST - 3 comments

The Oscars TM AMPAS will NOT consider any movie that was first shown on the Internet.
Looks like our firends at HowWrong Productions, the creators of "Jesus! The Semi-Animated Sorta-Movie!" have beenShafted.
Now they'll have to rent a theater for the sequel: "Jesus' Big Score", and then probably nobody'll show up.. cause they'll all be at The Schmolympics!
You owe me, Talbot. Big time.

posted by wendell at 2:16 PM PST - 3 comments

oh.
my.
god.
hasbro made a dr. laura boardgame. (unironically, i might add.) parody, anyone?
posted by patricking at 1:38 PM PST - 8 comments

how helpful. a relatively complete listing of gay pride days around the world. just in case you're proud only once a year.
posted by patricking at 1:20 PM PST - 5 comments

The original programmer of the Broderbund/Mattel "spyware" explains that it's actually NOT spyware. This topic was originally discussed on MeFi in this thread.
posted by grumblebee at 12:10 PM PST - 1 comment

You wanna know what's really wrong with this country? All them homo dogs!
posted by aaron at 11:12 AM PST - 6 comments

Sigh. Apparently it's cruelty when humans hunt and eat "animals," but not when other "animals" do it to each other. (Basic biology flashback: humans are animals!) This is what happens when a species supersaturates its environment. Biological imperative begins to collapse and such furiously futile exercises as "pro-rat protests" are perpetrated in the name of something called ethics (not to mention free publicity).
posted by highindustrial at 11:08 AM PST - 17 comments

Jesus! The Animated Movie. Am I breaking some kind of MeFi law by linking to Neale? Please check out the work of our MetaFilter dad Matt and Neale (a fine father in his own right) and send them a card while you're at it.
posted by hit-or-miss at 8:59 AM PST - 14 comments

It's nice to know that people can still have big dreams. This is not hallucination; these guys are very serious and very practical and their credentials suggest that they know exactly what they're doing. It's the same team which is just finishing the Very Large Telescope project, which when complete will be the biggest scope in the world, and will be more sensitive and get better pictures than the Hubble. Scopes #1 and #2 are now online, #3 is in engineering shakeout, and first light for #4 is coming shortly. All four scopes will work together to generate images using interferometry.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:59 AM PST - 2 comments

All AOL subscriber data now severely compromised.
posted by aaron at 12:14 AM PST - 3 comments

Am I incorrect, or is this the same as last year? All of these articles seem familiar to me, but I could not find them in the archives.
posted by ab'd al'Hazred at 10:50 PM PST - 4 comments

Today I saw an ad on TV complaining that American health care is being “Canadianized.” All I can say is that I wish these Americans would stop lying about the Canadian health care system. While most Canadians seem to agree that our health system is a bit of a mess, we also seem to agree that we don’t want the American system, thank you very much.

The US market-driven medical system spends about 14% of its economy on health care, while Canada's cost is about 9% of GDP. Both countries' health care costs stood at about 7% in 1971, when the Canadian system converted to the public system and the US decided to stick with a market-driven private system. Yet the Canadian system covers everyone; the American system doesn’t. Private delivery of health care means money is lost to the profits investors demand (as much as 15%), higher executive salaries, higher marketing/advertising costs, and lost economies of scale.

Why attack the Canadian system? Part of the answer lies in the fact that to the American health care industry, Canada is just one huge, untapped market that they would love to have access to.
posted by tranquileye at 9:42 PM PST - 24 comments

Having just made contact with another dimension, I thought this was worth a read. It's small yet, and a bit New Agey-Crunchy for my tastes, but I'm convinced that if we could just enfold the shamanic experience with what's coming down the pike for information exhange, we could twist the world into a pretzel. Or whatever.
posted by Ezrael at 9:28 PM PST - 3 comments

House Adds $50,000,000 to Abstinence-Only programs Under Labor, HHS, Education Bill.

What's next, funding for the Easter Bunny?
posted by alana at 8:01 PM PST - 5 comments

A third party candidate? Funny commercial site and great place for links to campaign spoof sites.
posted by TNLNYC at 3:55 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Hotmail users shut out of accounts, find data missing. Don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but it's a nice kick in the ass to remind people: web-based apps aren't all that reliable.
posted by solistrato at 12:57 PM PST - 7 comments

If this little man with the funny haircut has the courage to abandon the policies of his father, there is a chance within three years to witness one of the greatest triumphs of human spirit in recent memory.
posted by netbros at 12:01 PM PST - 3 comments

Everything about the way we use computers is about to change or, then again, perhaps not.
posted by grumblebee at 11:59 AM PST - 2 comments

fellow 3D geeks ahoy! strata 3D is free for download! get it. it's got a rockin' modeler.
posted by patricking at 11:35 AM PST - 8 comments

I like this Web site but its design is just a tad too similar to this one.
posted by tranquileye at 11:27 AM PST - 33 comments

Clearing landmines with a click It costs $3 to put a landmine in the ground and $1000 to pull it out. Along the same lines as The Hunger Site, head over to this site and help make war-torn areas safe again for the people living there.
posted by Calebos at 10:56 AM PST - 4 comments

Is the Boss really in charge? Tucows is -- supposedly legally -- posting tracks from his early album, "Before the Fame" (though that sounds like a title applied after the fact to *me*).
posted by baylink at 8:44 AM PST - 2 comments

Lance Morrow hates hate-crime legislation
Does it really matter what the criminal's intent was? Is killing someone because of hate really worse than just killing someone? Should the government be telling us how to think?
posted by daveadams at 8:26 AM PST - 16 comments

We can try who we like, but don't anyone try to try one of ours.

From the article: "The Clinton administration is offering a "Get Out of Jail Free" card to future Saddam Husseins and Slobodan Milosevics, simply in order to pander to the Pentagon and the Republican right on Capitol Hill. American diplomats are fighting a rearguard action in New York, in tandem with Congress in Washington, to emasculate the International Criminal Court that was established by the United Nations last year in Rome.

"Why does the United States oppose a way to punish the world's greatest villains? In short -- and in no uncertain terms -- congressmen such as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms demand that no such court have jurisdiction over potential American criminals."

Silly me, I thought the law was supposed to apply to everyone or to no-one at all. Am I just being old-fashioned, or is anyone else bothered by the hypocrisy at work here?
posted by lia at 8:15 AM PST - 13 comments

If you don't live round here, you might not have heard of these chaps. They have a nice line in (Flash-animated) semiotics, and their advice for urban gentlemen is pretty useful as well.
posted by Mocata at 7:06 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Is linking illegal? New York Times article about DeCSS linkage fiasco involving 2600. If linking is illegal, the Web is SOL. This is insane.
posted by elgoose at 6:55 AM PST - 7 comments

how in the world did this article, which basically repremands readers from making assumptions about and being intrusive into the private lives of memoirists, end by propositioning dave eggers? i mean really, wtf? the author of the piece, lorri gottlieb, ought to be ashamed of herself.
posted by palegirl at 6:48 AM PST - 9 comments

Speaking of vandalism... What on Earth was Ron Howard thinking? More inside...
posted by plinth at 3:56 AM PST - 4 comments

never acknowledged: evidently, reparations were never made to gay holocaust survivors in germany. never mind that's where the pink triangle came from...
posted by patricking at 12:15 AM PST - 2 comments

I got my copy of Dreamweaver UltraDev today, it shipped with a copy of Cold Fusion Enterprise Server and IBM Websphere Application Server (and yes, they snuck a site redesign in there too).
posted by Dean_Paxton at 9:45 PM PST - 2 comments

Do we really need virtual dolphins? While I really find biomimetic research fascinating, I do sometimes wonder what it will end up actually producing. Then again, I am the guy who secretly wants it to produce battlesuits so I can play Iron Man or what have you. I'm shallow that way.
posted by Ezrael at 8:06 PM PST - 2 comments

You know, after all the GW ads, I'm afraid that this will look rather silly.
posted by tiaka at 5:47 PM PST - 1 comment

What in the hell is it going to take? Broderbund/Mattel puts spyware in kids reading programs... [/.]
posted by baylink at 2:55 PM PST - 6 comments

Do you use Photoshop and and Epson Inkjet printer? Here's a clear article about color management.
posted by grumblebee at 12:57 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

A blast from my past... I know it's improper to do this in MetaFilter but I'm doing it anyway cuz I'm a cad. Actually, well I rationialize it this way... [more]
posted by ZachsMind at 12:04 PM PST - 43 comments

Sure, spud guns have been done, but sometimes we need reminders of the awesome power of a flying tuber. I prefer this design, as it is powered by compressed air, whereas a buddy of mine just finished a device he calls "The Judge" powered by Acetylene and O2.
posted by plinth at 10:53 AM PST - 7 comments

Hey Kids! Add your greeting to a mass telegram (meta-gram?) being assembled by a British website to wish Prince William a Happy 18th Birthday!
Nice to know that the newfangled internet is being put to good use in support of England's embarassingly obsolete monarchy. But then, I suspect some of you more opinionated MetaFilterers would probably have some especially entertaining "greetings" to add to the mix...
posted by wendell at 10:31 AM PST - 15 comments

Whoa! What was that? Did you hear something?
posted by fpatrick at 10:28 AM PST - 2 comments

This is a bit old, but still topical; Louis Freeh propounds his ideas about freehdom... [from BugTraq^HSecurityFocus, via Counterpane Labs ]
posted by baylink at 9:04 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Oh, cool; someone patented banner ads! And they're suing everyone else for using them. (Ok, so they really only patented *offline* banner ads; we could *hope*, right? :-)
posted by baylink at 6:57 AM PST - 2 comments

Did they miss a country? The Amnesty International yearly report really makes you think about how much abuse, brutality, and persecution is still going on in the world that does't make the daily news.
posted by mkn at 12:44 AM PST - 1 comment

I missed the discussion about drugs but this comic probably has something to do with them. View the archives... try and calc out this guy's psychiatry bills... WOW.
posted by Bane at 10:00 PM PST - 5 comments

Is this a crock, or what? Pseudotainment claims to be online tv, but DotComGuy has better quality than this. The audio isn't as choppy as the video, but it's a sad state of affairs when the best we can do with all this technology can't even compete with local cable access programming.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:23 PM PST - 2 comments

POWER ALERT: SF and SJ, CA.
If you, or your website, are located in the *other* bay area :-), you might want to know that The California ISO (the people who run the grid) have declared a power emergency and the City of Palo Alto Utilities, among others, has implemented rolling blackouts.

Again, if you host in this area, this may result in intermittent outages to your site; you might wish to post a notice to that effect, so that regular visitors don't get worried.
posted by baylink at 7:16 PM PST - 8 comments

Why can't I get a job like this?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:08 PM PST - 10 comments

Stephen King's scariest idea yet - A Shareware Novel?
posted by wendell at 4:16 PM PST - 6 comments

Not sure what to title this... 'We come in peace'? dunno... but very interesting
posted by chiXy at 2:30 PM PST - 14 comments

MacArthur Foundation genius grants -- I didn't get one this year, but Ben Katchor did. So did some other astonishing people, such as Patricia J. Williams, of whose column "Diary of a Mad Law Professor" in The Nation I am a particular fan.
posted by elgoose at 1:34 PM PST - 2 comments

Internet dependence among college students Article based on study done by counselor at RPI that identifies characteristics of "internet dependent" students. "What he found is that at least 10 percent of college students use the Internet so much that it interferes with their grades, their health, or their social lives, and that the problem may run much deeper at science-and-engineering institutions."
posted by elgoose at 1:07 PM PST - 10 comments

I despise parades. The author gets a bit theatrical at the end but the core of the editorial is true. I live in NYC and often these ethnic pride parades devolve into some kind of justification for violence. Last Sunday's PR Day Parade was en especially bad example of this.
posted by Nyarlathotep at 11:51 AM PST - 23 comments

Boba Fett hired by NASA.
posted by Nyarlathotep at 11:08 AM PST - 4 comments

test drive a hopeless romantic. this is a couple of years old, but i just re-found it. nobody does romantic like josh mintz. enjoy!
posted by patricking at 11:05 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Does new media want moms around the office? Mothers in Silicon Alley talk about the struggles they've had to face with trying to juggle their (male) bosses and their children. Even working from home doesn't cut it in some bosses' eyes.
posted by maura at 9:44 AM PST - 9 comments

Pimpwars Resets today. I know most of you probably don't care, but from the rumors, the newer version sounds funner than the first: i.e. - 2 different guns, larger alliances, better administration over all.
posted by da5id at 9:44 AM PST - 3 comments

A harvesting we will go, a harvesting we will go... Sorry about the flippancy, but I don't know how else to mention this article without getting creeped out.
posted by Ezrael at 8:53 AM PST - 6 comments

Love unloads This is one of the more comprehensive and insightful takes on the RIAA vs. Napster vs. Record Companies that I've heard. It's long and rambling, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
posted by y6y6y6 at 7:54 AM PST - 35 comments

Pat Methany accuses Kenny G of "lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing." And more! One of the best rants I have ever read.
posted by glish at 7:47 AM PST - 16 comments

404: Blog Nicely III has moved to MetaTalk
Please post your comments there. Thank you (This is a recording)
posted by EricBrooksDotCom at 7:21 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

"mom, dad, i'm a..." 749 ways to make that oh-so-special announcement.
posted by patricking at 12:53 AM PST - 5 comments

her parents must be having coronaries by now. sinead's back in the news. who knew..?
posted by patricking at 11:50 PM PST - 3 comments

"Well, nobody's perfect..." Men in Skirts honored by #1 and #2 in AFI's all-time best movie comedies list ("Some Like It Hot" and "Tootsie") Nuclear War got #3 ("Dr. Strangelove"). So what would the MeFi Top 100 Comedies look like?
posted by wendell at 11:16 PM PST - 28 comments

Napster's screwed: Internal NapsterCo email and documents show that they intended to be a copyright-infringing pirate haven from the very beginning. Should have used PGP, kids!
posted by aaron at 11:10 PM PST - 5 comments

Sanity always comes as a surprise. Apparently, for at least someone, the price is too high. I'm not sure I agree (I don't think drugs are ever the answer to anything, but I doubt we can afford to keep chasing them) but I applaud his concern for his men.
posted by ab'd al'Hazred at 11:06 PM PST - 1 comment

"Bitten by a radioactive Bible..." Just...oh God, just go see this. I need to go defile something to get the stink of that web page off of me.
posted by Ezrael at 9:05 PM PST - 21 comments

My God, someone should get to work on this! Found via Link of the day. A city where babies power everything? Okay, granted, this page is intensely disturbing and misanthropic, but I mean...the dynamo alone made me weep with laughter.
posted by Ezrael at 9:01 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Am I the *only* one here who didn't realize that Rob Malda was a weblogger, too?
posted by baylink at 8:47 PM PST - 12 comments

As someone who has at least one migraine a day, this intrigues me. If any of you suffer them as well, maybe help is at hand.
posted by Ezrael at 8:13 PM PST - 1 comment

The man who came up with the Etch-A-Sketch died. So sad. *shake* *shake* *shake* Gone, but not forgotten.
posted by mathowie at 7:49 PM PST - 9 comments

Ban users? Ban more users? Next step? ban Napster
posted by tiaka at 2:12 PM PST - 10 comments

Crime Does Not Pay, but Somebody Thinks Crime.Com Might
Even though APB News is a financial flop, CourtTV and the producer of COPS are teaming up to compete with it. While it'll probably lack APB's serious investigative journalism, CrimeWeb's site does let you order a criminal background check online on anyone you want. I tried it, and now I know the real reason Neale lives in Australia. ;-}
posted by wendell at 1:27 PM PST - 2 comments

The Digital Sweatshop Continues If this letter is for real (and corroboration would be nice), the CFO of Mylackey.com is berating his staff for having the gall to go home before 6:45pm. In fact, he wants to mandate office hours of 8am to 7pm with a 30 minute lunch.

That'll really boost morale. I don't think I've gotten to work at 8am ever.

Anyway, though I lovelovelove the idea of Mylackey.com, I don't think I'd invest in them anytime soon.

The letter, which states that they're "lagging behind revenue goals" seemingly contradicts the interview with the CEO, where he states "we're exceeding expectations" with revenue.
posted by peterme at 10:59 AM PST - 33 comments

Pope forgives.
posted by tiaka at 10:55 AM PST - 4 comments

"Imagine having your body and bones woven with invisible diamond fabric." Sound like something Ron Popiel would say after spray painting a bald man's head? No. It's Nanotechnology. Also of interest is this idea of Ufog. Will it be a boon to all mankind or just to fat sexually frustrated nerds?
posted by Nyarlathotep at 10:35 AM PST - 9 comments

"FuckedCompany.com is a game based on the classic deadpool, but instead of betting for (or against) people, you're betting on companies. FuckedCompany.com has also pretty much turned into the source for news about dot-com companies. Bad news, that is. "
posted by endquote at 10:34 AM PST - 2 comments

The first episode of 1900 House was really cool, and I can't wait to watch the rest tonight. The main link (above) is to pbs.org's cool site about the project. And if you're not a fan of "reality TV," but you like history, you might still enjoy the Victorian links page.

Note: I love the Victorian period, but there are other periods that also interest me. It would be REALLY cool to watch a show called "Middle Ages House," but I doubt that will ever be possible. There were so many health and safety issues involved in just going back 100 years. In fact, the producers had to make some concessions for the safety of the family. No network would ever take the insurance risk of placing a family in any sort of authentically reproduced early period.
posted by grumblebee at 9:44 AM PST - 12 comments

"Breakthrough in nanotechnology"
posted by grumblebee at 8:49 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Does Judy give judges a bad name? Should they care? Interesting piece written by... B.J Hunnicutt. :-)
posted by baylink at 6:33 AM PST - 7 comments

RIAA, mp3.com & Jack Valenti gang up on napster Media racketeers flex their collective muscle. As long as napster is outside the ring, it's a movement symbol as much as a corporate entity. Where's the money? Where's the music? When will artists just start selling mp3s?
posted by aflakete at 2:23 AM PST - 11 comments

Win a fantasy career from Yahoo! Dot Com! Oh... did we mention that it's your fantasy career in the military? The US gov't must really be getting desperate, they're also blanketing the airwaves with ads that make the Army look like a thinking man's extreme sport.
posted by chaz at 2:03 AM PST - 4 comments

Midwest gas prices declaired unfair. I guess, you know, $1.80 a gallon was fair, ok even, but $2.15 isn't. Take your time. no really.
posted by tiaka at 1:45 AM PST - 27 comments

This illustration of the human digestive tube is just one of the many joys of Gray's Anatomy (1918 Edition). "This 1,396-page ebook is divided into nearly 300 sections, with 1,247 illustrations (many in color and unchanged since the first edition of 1859) rendered in three different resolutions, and with an encyclopedic subject index comprising some 13,000 entries hypertext-linked directly to their respective pages in the text." And it's yours for free at bartleby.com. [via researchbuzz (a very cool weblog which deserves more attention)]
posted by grumblebee at 9:49 PM PST - 1 comment

It has been suggested, to general approval, that the plural really ought to be 'polygoose'.
posted by baylink at 8:01 PM PST - 2 comments

Kids aren't particularly gullible. Though I must admit, I like the slug Neale put on this story better...
posted by baylink at 7:28 PM PST - 7 comments

Designer-programmer-actor-model-waiter? Finally, someone giving one or more fingers to Toronto's tightarsed, outdated nouveaux-médias hiring practices. How would you like to be on call 24 hours a day as an interactive-TV manager for the Weather Network way the fork out in Mississauga? Lila Feng worship isn't enough of a payoff, kids.
posted by joeclark at 7:15 PM PST - 7 comments

Remember that cassette drive on your TRS-80? Well, now, *submarines* can make use of that advanced technology, too...
posted by baylink at 7:07 PM PST - 15 comments

While I think that Jason's point is completely legit, hurting people in the process seems a bit overboard. any thoughts?
posted by phooey at 3:31 PM PST - 127 comments

'Serbian Badman' virus not so bad after all. The Register is calling it a hoax in that a DDoS attack just isn't possible with the alleged virus.
posted by hijinx at 3:11 PM PST - 1 comment

He did it. He tried to find a way to weasel out, but he did it. The people have spoken, and Greg Knauss has taken his, um, medicine like a man.
posted by harmful at 1:48 PM PST - 10 comments

For those wanting details on global warming. The government report is out and it has it's own website. Commentary is open to the public starting today to run through August.
posted by rich at 12:01 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Reel.com is dead. Anyone care to speculate why they failed?
posted by mathowie at 10:35 AM PST - 16 comments

I want to win a webby dammit! Now I have a 12 step program to help me achieve success! Thanks c|net!
posted by Brilliantcrank at 9:15 AM PST - 5 comments

What I did for Boo.com Boo.com workers of the world unite...and speak out.
posted by paddbear at 8:50 AM PST - 1 comment

42! The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy is now real, and you can get it on your cell phone.
posted by owillis at 8:17 AM PST - 6 comments

So Greg, what kind of bug will it be?
posted by plinth at 8:04 AM PST - 1 comment

What?! It's great how BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN is more important to protest than trigger-happiness. I know this issue has already been talked into the ground, but just check the F.O.P. president's quotes. Come ON, guy. Didn't you see the sign above the door that said "Please remove head from rump?"
posted by NickBarat at 7:59 AM PST - 13 comments

Hey Napster fans! Pull your pants up, turn your hat around and get a job. "We'll put all the albums we can on the Internet for free download and to hell with the record companies. See how they'll like that! I know this feels good but they're throwing the baby out with the bath water."
posted by Mick at 7:11 AM PST - 31 comments

The HalfBakery is a site that's probably been posted here sometime in the past, but worth revisiting. It's a site which allows you to post your crazy ideas and get feedback from others, and possibly find links to similar ideas. Kinda cool.
posted by triptych at 12:33 AM PST - 4 comments

It is very hot as I type this. I'm glad to see global warming being treated seriously in the traditional press. This comes after 3 days of near record temperatures here.
posted by zenhues at 10:10 PM PST - 10 comments

If you are interested in interactive fiction, this is a MUST READ. By "interested" I don't mean you want to know about the latest cool games--I mean interested in IF as an artform, its possibilities, its future. NOTE: to understand this exchange, you only need to know that one of the authors is the developer of an interactive storytelling program called "erasmatron."
posted by grumblebee at 9:36 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Junkies stricken with a new, mysterious ailment. All thanks to Follow Me Here for the link. This one's eerily familiar if you remember the Eighties, or just read And the Band Played On once or twice.
posted by Ezrael at 9:19 PM PST - 13 comments

For all of you who remember Cosmic Encounter, a java version of it has been released. Of course, this happened several years ago, I just forgot about it until now. It's a fun game, if you can find the people to play it with!
posted by starduck at 7:37 PM PST - 2 comments

Cash for birth control - if you're a junkie. Came across an ad for this organization while riding a train that serves a number of low income Chicago projects. I'm hard pressed to figure out what this is about. On first glance, it seems to be an effort to help drug addicted mothers avoid unwanted pregnancies. However, upon further reflection, it takes on the guise of a frightening genetic engineering program.
posted by aladfar at 7:36 PM PST - 27 comments

I love old stuff. Tombs, sepulchres, whatever. To me, it's a deep old hole with a mummy in it.
posted by Ezrael at 6:57 PM PST - 1 comment

"For those who are feeling this election doesn't much matter, who think it's a choice between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the court is the reason to care," said Lois Williams, senior counsel for litigation at the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, a liberal advocacy group.

"If we get another Scalia or Thomas, we are courting disaster," said Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way. "We are just one election away, and one or two new justices away, from the civil and constitutional rights we take for granted being eroded or eliminated overnight."
posted by veruca at 5:11 PM PST - 16 comments

So, how big did you say that app needed to be? Radsoft Labs knocks a Windows DNS client down from 3.5MB to 7*KB*. [Via RISKS Digest.]
posted by baylink at 2:07 PM PST - 3 comments

Plan 9 from Bell Labs open sourced. [posted up top so the open source people who weren't reading the unrelated other Plan 9 thread don't miss it.]
posted by baylink at 12:56 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

"Look, just make the damn drugs, would you, kids? My connection needs them...I mean, it's for education." What the hell was this guy thinking? I'm a big booster of the illict pharamceticals, but nevertheless you have to show at least a little common sense.
posted by Ezrael at 11:55 AM PST - 5 comments

We're one step closer to William Gibson's vision as reported in today's NY Times Magazine article, "The Mind that Moves Objects."
posted by grumblebee at 9:33 AM PST - 14 comments

Two-Faced Kitten Dies
And the original AP story (with pictures) lead me to believe that it would survive. Too bad — I have a soft spot for this sort of "abomination" (a two headed/brained-snake was the subject of my favorite paper on cognitive ethology). But seeing this story made me remember the most remarkable case of human conjoined twins [more >>]
posted by sylloge at 3:28 AM PST - 9 comments

texas death row inmate severs chaplain's arm with razor: "A Texas death row inmate Friday grabbed the arm of a volunteer chaplain, tied it with a sheet to a toilet and nearly sawed it off with a razor blade. "It was just hanging by some threads," said a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
posted by palegirl at 8:30 PM PST - 14 comments

Though employers have long asked workers to donate money in support of candidates and issues, in the last decade new technology—e-mail monitoring, Web tracking, and powerful databases—has given executives the ability to determine exactly how cooperative each worker has been. This time, New York Life used its resources to ask staff to support the China trade bill, which was passed last month by the House after an intensive lobbying effort and is awaiting likely passage in the Senate. For New York Life, which last year claimed nearly $10.6 billion in operating revenue, the stakes are high; some observers have speculated that, by capturing just 1 percent of the Chinese market, the insurer could double its customer base
posted by palegirl at 8:26 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Newsworthy it's not -- but hey, it's the weekend: what's with mySimon's creepy mascot? Looks like a cross between MTV's Carson Daily ... and a pod person (if there's a distinction).
posted by highindustrial at 3:57 PM PST - 4 comments

"Fellow citizens, Arabs everywhere, the National and Regional Commands of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, the Central Command of the Progressive Democratic Front, People's Assembly, Council of Ministers, the Armed Forces Command, Vocational Syndicates and Popular Organizations in Syria, the children of the great who departed, Bashar, Maher, Majd and Bushra, the Assad and Makhlouf families, announce to the Arab Nation..." Man, I wish we American peons could get obituaries like this!
posted by aaron at 3:25 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

It's finally happened. Playboy has finally exhausted the supply of beautiful women, and is having to dip into the "second tier" as it were. (This link may not stay current, so I'll explain. Roseanne Barr is gonna pose nude for Playboy. If that's not one of the signs of the apocalypse, it damned well ought to be.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 3:01 PM PST - 10 comments

Activestate VisualPerl in development for Visual Studio 7. For Win32 developers, it looks like it will work as a plug in. Information is not abundant, but they promise more soon.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 12:21 PM PST - 9 comments

Didn't these folks do this last year with Apple's "Airport"? Perhaps they should heed the advise/wisdom of Mr. Bentham...
posted by Wizzle at 10:56 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

New Global Warming Threat In fifty years, computation will be so complex, and so demanding of memory and working on devices of such intricacy" - the sugarcube of Beelzebub - "that a single calculation could change the heat level of the universe."
posted by PaperCut at 8:17 PM PST - 4 comments

Just saw Dogma and I know the rest of the world saw it before me. I waited. All my friends said, "you got to see this movie Zach cuz the way you've talked about religion all your life this is IT!" And I thought that was pretty sour, that Hollywood could ever get my idea of religion right, but Kevin Smith's not Hollywood and I saw it and it was good. It's close. It doesn't quite take it to eleven though. What I find more interesting is seeing Kevin Smith's take on other Hollywood projects. I feel for Kevin. He's like Daniel in the Lion's Den..
posted by ZachsMind at 6:19 PM PST - 3 comments

Reciprocality might sound like some kind of new age sci-fi mumbo jumbo at first, but considering who's behind it, it might just be worth reading about. Remember the Programmer's Stone essay that hit slashdot and made its way around the weblog circle a few months back? Well, this is what became of it.
posted by sabren at 4:52 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

We in the "intelligencia" have nothing nice to say about “Survivor,” but "the masses" can't get enough of it. Yet I watched this weeks episode and was riveted, so I’m turning in my intelligencia club card. And I reject the two lines of criticism that I keep hearing, (1) that the show isn't "real" and (2) that the contestants are losers who can't even start a fire. (more >>>)
posted by grumblebee at 12:59 PM PST - 10 comments

Remember the misanthope thread? Here's an update to the story: the guy actually TALKED to my wife today. She was asking people at work how to get from her office to the Central Park Zoo. Her colleagues were arguing about it, but no one could agree on the correct route. Finally, with great exasperation, the guy said, "all you have to do is walk STRAIGHT UP THIS STREET! You'll get to the park, and the path will split in two. One way is for cars and the other is for not-cars."

"Not-cars???" said my wife.

The guy heaved a massive sigh. "PEOPLE," he said.
posted by grumblebee at 12:24 PM PST - 8 comments

Looking for a new home or to relocate? Then check out some of the finer trailer homes Missisppi has to offer.
posted by remo at 12:05 PM PST - 9 comments

Sinead enters the competition for this year's Donea Memorial Ambiguous Orientation Award.
posted by aurelian at 11:47 AM PST - 4 comments

Need a $99 wireless webcam with base station, power supplies, x10 addressable remotes, and free shipping?
posted by plinth at 11:16 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Intel nixes iMacs at Harvard exhibit. Obviously, this inspires irrational umbrage in my Mac-lovin' heart, even though I would no doubt have a completely opposite "let's stick it to the man" attitude if Apple did something like this to Intel. [via macintouch]
posted by highindustrial at 10:18 AM PST - 1 comment

Russell Crowe's sweaty Gladiator costume If you want it, you can bid on it. Is it just me, or is this at least slightly revolting (no pun intended)?
posted by elgoose at 9:32 AM PST - 1 comment

a few weeks ago, I introduced dr. mcqueen to the breast chronicles. I didn't hear from the good doctor again until he was calling me- "did you look at the breast chronicles today?" He had a tinny edge to his voice that suggested hysteria. While a fan of breasts, I involve my time more with obtuse intellectual trivia and the collection of semen-encrusted socks. then the emails began. dr. mcqueen was surfing- surfing with a pazzion and zeal unseen since the robot wars of '97. my theory is that dr. mcqueen was driven mad by charlotte's admittedly glorious breasts. he had to know and see more. he wanted her legs and her eyes, she became a star to him. soon the emails reached a fevered pitch, charting the four corners of what I have come to call the breast network.>>>>
posted by wisdom at 7:22 AM PST - 17 comments

Gee, stupid me. I thought it was a pretty good statue, myself. Seems someone with a laser beam and time on his hands has worked out that the statue of David squints. Wow. Thanks a lot, mister! I can rest a lot easier knowing that. Why, I might have been misled into believing it was some kind of masterpiece or something. What, he couldn't find anything more useless to do with his sabbatical?
posted by Ezrael at 5:51 AM PST - 11 comments

All he wants, is a fair, um, hearing. When I first read this, I thought to myself, "It is beginning." Meaning that whenever something, or someone becomes really successful and makes lots of money, the lawyers smell the money, and want it. But after reading this, there are a few valid points. And it isn't as if the man is asking for Multi-Millions... He just wants to win the $1 million prize.
posted by da5id at 5:44 AM PST - 15 comments

"We are trying to understand why sex is the most searched for topic on the Internet." MSNBC is taking "what we believe is the most comprehensive cybersex survey to hit the Web," because this online fascination with sex is just baffling to them. I wonder if anyone will be giving honest answers -- I'm certainly not planning to ("yep, monkeys and Jell-O...").
posted by tregoweth at 11:41 PM PST - 5 comments

"Basically, you die earlier and spend more time disabled if you're an American rather than a member of most other advanced countries."

(Some of you might want to consider moving to Japan -- 74.5 average healthy life expentancy, not to mention cheap and yummy sushi every single day if you felt like it!)
posted by lia at 11:39 PM PST - 3 comments

Interest in traffic Web site no accident
after a dramatic increase in fatal accidents, the osaka prefectural police started posting the exact locations of upcoming traffic inspections [for speeding & drunk driving] on their website, and now they are logging record numbers of hits -- the idea being that the more people who know about their plans for traffic inspections, the better. the police feel that disclosing such information will help cut down on the number of deadly road accidents.
whether it has had a noticeable effect on traffic safety, however, is uncertain -- the number of drivers caught for violations is about 10 percent less than by this time last year, but the death toll on the prefecture's roads are about the same
posted by palegirl at 8:51 PM PST - 4 comments

World Internet Animation Competition Winners - Shockwave.com has announced the winners of the World Internet Animation Competition. The contest, held in conjunction with the annual World Animation Celebration, was open to original animated productions in Shockwave, Flash, Quicktime, Pulse or Windows Media formats. Artists submitted more than 650 entries in ten categories. (link from Flazoom.com - where they have a partial list of links to the winners's sites!)
posted by DragonBoy at 8:29 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Corel lays off 320. Why wasn't Michael Cowpland one of them? Why does that man still have a job at that company?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:37 PM PST - 12 comments

I don't care if it's the greatest operating system in the world.. It's still got a stupid name:
Doesn't Bell Labs' Plan 9 OS remind you of Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space?
Watching my Geek Rating drop to minus-23...
posted by wendell at 5:59 PM PST - 5 comments

I knew this had to happen eventually. Someone finally developed a digital camera in the form factor of a roll of 35mm film. That means you can just pop it in your regular ol' film camera, and boom, it's digital.
posted by endquote at 5:48 PM PST - 5 comments

Microsoft fires the final bullet into it's head. As of April 1st, OEMs may no longer ship a CD-ROM containing a full-installable copy of Windows with the machines they build. They can ship a "recovery CD", or just a "recovery partition". So, what did you get for your $90?

You got to rent Windows until you upgraded your machine.
posted by baylink at 2:34 PM PST - 15 comments

Liquid water discovered in a meteorite by scientists at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The rock was discovered in 1998 by kids who saw it fall near a small Texas town.
posted by Mars Saxman at 2:28 PM PST - 1 comment

I know we aren't supposed to toot our own horns... but I just had to share my new page with all ya'll. I hope you enjoy it as it took me months to work on and finish...
posted by da5id at 2:13 PM PST - 14 comments

Pinnacus looks like an interesting idea: a tool for bringing together writers and sites looking for "content." (Lifted from Jakob)
posted by LoganAxis at 12:28 PM PST - 3 comments

The discovery of mirror neurons in the frontal lobes of monkeys, and their potential relevance to human brain evolution — which I speculate on in this essay — is the single most important "unreported" (or at least, unpublicized) story of the decade. I predict that mirror neurons will do for psychology what DNA did for biology: they will provide a unifying framework and help explain a host of mental abilities that have hitherto remained mysterious and inaccessible to experiments.

--V.S. Ramachandran

(after you read the essay, you might be interested in the responses.)
posted by grumblebee at 11:38 AM PST - 1 comment

Angelina Jolie puts Jay Leno in the hot seat. Did anyone catch this? Sounds like media cannibalism fun. Too bad I don't watch Leno.
posted by highindustrial at 10:47 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Chalk one up to Freedom of Expression! *** WARNING *** Viewers may be offended by bare-asses sticking up in the air!!! Is this art? In my view, yes. Maybe next time they can face upward and fill in the potholes, instead of creating more speed bumps.
posted by da5id at 9:42 AM PST - 19 comments

The world's most successful terrorist group strikes again. Although they can't claim the numbers of other terrorist groups, 17 November is considered to be one of the deadliest. Claiming over 20 kills with none of their members ever having been captured or killed is something to be proud of I guess. When I was stationed over in Greece, this group was our biggest fear, besides the fact that it was rumored that the group had links to the Socialist Party of the government and that the party "assisted" (using the term loosely) them from being captured. I had hoped that they had turned to internal terrorism and not International, as I hadn't heard anything about them in the last 7 years, but I guess that hope was optimistic.
posted by da5id at 9:37 AM PST - 1 comment

My new favorite website is explodingdog.com which is the best of a new genre of websites (new to me anyhow) on which an artist creates something based on your suggestions. The artist at this site will draw a portrait of your pet if you donate $75 dollars to an animal shelter. Too bad my hamster died. Another variation on this theme is the digital doodlebox which displays a simple graphic and invites anyone to submit a variation of it. These fun sites have inspired me to add something similar to my site. Do you folks know of any other good sites like these?
posted by grumblebee at 9:30 AM PST - 7 comments

Two of the Salon staffers fired this week were the founders of the Mothers Who Think section. Chalk one up for the other mothers.
posted by rcade at 9:29 AM PST - 3 comments

Do you save your receipts? Aparently somebody saves a little too many.
posted by vitaflo at 8:42 AM PST - 5 comments

Solar Flares!
posted by plinth at 8:41 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Ahhh Yeah - Portible Sony Playstation Wether you are into gaming or not this ranks as cool as the Apple IIc, Sony Sports Walkman, Swatch, Palm VII, you name it! Portible gaming with connectivity...
posted by Brilliantcrank at 8:24 AM PST - 10 comments

Identity swapping makes life relative

Do any of you do the Safeway Card Shuffle? I think I probably would, but then again the level of tracking where I live is currently negligible, so it isn't yet an issue. How about where you live?

And how does this tie in to online privacy, like advertising cookies and programs like RealPlayer and GoZilla that track and report where you've been and what you've been doing?
posted by lia at 1:20 AM PST - 8 comments

The future of filmmaking? These guys shot a short film, and posted it on the web. Most importantly (to me) it's downloadable and not streamed which retains the quality of the filmmakers work without hackin' the heck out of it with Real and Windows...
posted by owillis at 11:32 PM PST - 3 comments

Speculation time: Will MSFT go up or down tomorrow on the market? Whatcha all think?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:13 PM PST - 11 comments

Hey, didja ever want to have an ant farm when you were a kid? Think you want to get one for your own kids? You know, teach them a little bit about what the real world's like?
posted by Lynsey at 7:36 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

SearchBots.net is a search engine, or a weblog, or yet another grituitous Flash site, depending on how you look at it. I think it's neato.
posted by endquote at 6:11 PM PST - 2 comments

Attention, Online Catholics: "Virtual Adultery" is Officially a Sin.
posted by wendell at 4:56 PM PST - 4 comments

Yummy: Spammer on Toast! Forget Microsoft. I'm more excited about the breakup of Rodona Garst's spamming business. Her ICQ message logs, legally incriminating personal files and bare-ass photo are all over the Web today.
posted by rcade at 3:50 PM PST - 8 comments

Judge rules Microsoft must split up
Judge Jackson handed down the verdict today that Microsoft should be broken into two companies: one for Windows OSes, the other for all other applications and services. Many restrictions on Microsoft's behavior would also be put in place, pretty much just ensuring they couldn't lock anyone into exclusive contracts or force bundling deals on anyone.
posted by daveadams at 1:49 PM PST - 38 comments

Titan A.E.'s crappy animation lends itself to this experiment.
posted by highindustrial at 1:00 PM PST - 14 comments

This belongs in the same category as www.malepregnancy.com, which was discussed in an earlier thread.
posted by grumblebee at 12:24 PM PST - 1 comment

OUCH!!!! That had to hurt.
posted by da5id at 12:16 PM PST - 19 comments

Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics is out, as is the final installment of Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan : The Smartest Boy on Earth, making this the best week at the comic book store since, um, ever?
posted by jbushnell at 11:23 AM PST - 19 comments

Lomo Shoots the OreS(o)und - The Lomographic Society plans to mark the opening of Øresund Bron, the longest bridge in Europe, linking Sweden and Denmark, with a huge photo party.
posted by magnetbox at 9:40 AM PST - 1 comment

Egyptian Sesame Street Gender Relations "Khokha, the program’s star, is a very curious pink and fluffy Muppet with dark hair. She wants to become a pilot, a doctor and an engineer — all at the same time."
posted by Zosia Blue at 8:46 AM PST - 1 comment

Black holes blow as well as suck. It's amazing what we find out about the universe. Imagine what we don't know?
posted by crawdad at 8:39 AM PST - 2 comments

Be very wary.
posted by meaning at 7:00 AM PST - 13 comments

So you think you can do better? June 15 sees the start of a new game of Fantasy ISP, where you can be your customers' worst nightmare.
posted by prolific at 3:53 AM PST - 2 comments

The Good News: Iron Chef comes to New York June 25th with a two-hour special...
The Bad News: Fuji TV is pulling a "Fox", serving C&D's to all Iron Chef fansites with "Fuji content". But what do you expect of a Japanese broadcaster who prohibited English-language subtitling of its shows?
BTW, if you feel as P.O.'ed as I do, you might want to just skip the big special and see the results here.
posted by wendell at 11:33 PM PST - 3 comments

Parenting: Is Aol Worse Than TV? After reading this article my first reaction was "what an over-reaction," my second was "Do these parents think AOL is the only way to (not) access the internet?" (stolen from Robot Wisdom)
posted by Mick at 11:32 PM PST - 12 comments

The Megaball needs your help. Mouser is still building the almighty Megaball, and every rubber band counts. It looks impressive, especially the catscan. Only you can help the Megaball.
posted by mathowie at 10:59 PM PST - 4 comments

Human Evolution Will the next significant steps be biological, technical or both?
posted by PaperCut at 8:36 PM PST - 12 comments

Voodoo science? I've been seeing these things at CompUSA lately: little gizmos that you stick on your home appliances, cell phones, monitors, etc. to protect you from all those eee-vil EMF's. The site appears to contain more marketese than convincing science. Does anybody out there know: 1) whether everyday Electro-Magnetic Fields are as dangerous as these guys are saying, and 2) if so, whether a little chunk of inert material is going to have any positive effect? The whole thing sounds kind of fishy to me.
posted by harmful at 7:28 PM PST - 5 comments

Hmm. Why am I not surprised? Muddling with your serotonin in such a drastic way has always struck me as an overreaction to depression. Let's be honest. In a world jam-packed with aggressive apes who deny that they are apes, a little depression is a healthy response. Taking a serotonin re-uptake inhibitor just because you feel blue is like taking 10000 micrograms of Acid because you like the Harry Potter books.
posted by Ezrael at 7:05 PM PST - 26 comments

This is something that has been bothering me for the entire NBA playoffs. Watching the Lakers / Blazers series has seriously made me think about this. Portland down 3-1, Lakers come back for a heroic game 7 victory on a Shaq alley-oop? hmmmm... Does this sound fishy to anyone else? Seems more like a script from a Rocky movie than a professional sport. What do you think?
posted by Doomsday at 5:28 PM PST - 10 comments

Takes money to make money Does this creep anyone else out, as much as it does me. Sad to see how the web, where everyone used to be equal, is slowly conforming to the real-world model of money = worth.
posted by nomisxid at 3:44 PM PST - 8 comments

Everyone sing along: "Are you a boy...or are you a girl?"
posted by solistrato at 3:14 PM PST - 9 comments

Rampant Redesigns: It seems to me that everyone is spending their time redesigning. Could this trend among blogs be revealing a weakness... that the same old thing can and will get boring?
posted by pasties at 3:08 PM PST - 19 comments

Gut check - I find this very disturbing. Inevitable, but disturbing. Look at the page as it loads up and please share the first thoughts or emotions that grab you.
posted by ZachsMind at 12:48 PM PST - 32 comments

Photo.net redesigns Yet another bastion of "webbing like it's 1995" is gone. Nice, clean interface, but there's something really disorienting about a Philip Greenspun site changing so radically...
posted by holgate at 10:46 AM PST - 6 comments

This has nothing to do with the web.. But in case you're like me and the time you spend away from your computer usually consists of drinking beer and/or playing on your neato video game system. You NEED Tony Hawk. the graphics on the DC version kick playstation's ass and its the perfect game to waste hours of time and lots of beers and to destroy your friend's ego.
posted by sikk at 10:31 AM PST - 11 comments

Since I spend about three hours a day on the subway, I have many opportunities to ponder the mystery of And there are lots of great resources on the web, including this summary of current theories and research (which even includes a personal space diagram). This site and this site offer to send discrete letters to people who are violating your personal space, asking them to stop. This site explores personal space in Thailand (where you should NEVER pat someone on the head). And while I am more interested in mundane misdemeanor violations, there are, of course, more extreme personal space crimes. Dancers have to deal with this. So do Asian women on the subway (warning: I found this last link disturbing). But most of the stuff I found is from the point of view of those who feel violated. What about the violators? Why do some people sit right next to me when the train is full of empty seats? Are they trying to be provocative or do they just not care?
posted by grumblebee at 7:55 AM PST - 8 comments

I'm going to break one of the cardinal rules of MF here and post a link to my own Web site. The horror. But! But! But! These links from the ID 2000 Interactive Media Design Review (and elsewhere) are just too damn good not to share with you folks. I got all tingly and fired up just looking at them...damn the rules, full steam ahead!
posted by jkottke at 10:20 PM PST - 7 comments

These guys think they're gonna transmit 50 gigabytes from LA to Atlanta over the internet in four hours. During the day.

Boy, have they got a lot to learn. (You'd think Cisco would know better.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:18 PM PST - 10 comments

And it couldn't happen to a nicer guy... heh heh heh HO HO HO HAH HAH HAH!
posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:30 PM PST - 8 comments

Children are funny.. as sad as it is for me, most of the time, to have 15yr old kids be the majority of the crowd there, it's entertaining none the less. i wish it was that easy to start your own "business".
posted by sikk at 4:04 PM PST - 1 comment

Entitled “Are the 10 Commandments Sexually Biased?: How women lost power as the church evolved” today debuts “the Religious Write” on ThePosition.com, a column written by the retired Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong, one of the few bishops with a fan club.
posted by hoser at 3:38 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Life imitates television! Helicopter escapes -- just like a Quinn-Martin Production! Where is Barnaby Jones when you need him?
posted by elgoose at 2:25 PM PST - 2 comments

Too funny... Napster has hit The Offspring with a cease-and-desist order after the band started selling merchanidise emblazened with the Napster logo. Boo Napster.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 12:58 PM PST - 13 comments

finally! now you too can own a pets.com sock puppet
posted by palegirl at 12:50 PM PST - 2 comments

Can the speed of light be broken? It's not 1 April, so this actually might be true. It'll be interesting to see the paper in Nature, if and when.
posted by aurelian at 12:35 PM PST - 5 comments

So called Gnutella-worm.... So, I'm sure one or two of you have seen press coverage of the supposed spread of a set of vbs-worms, through the Gnutella community (Napster without a centralized server for those who don't know what it is). I have to agree with the Gnutella-folks statement, that this is more an exploit of windows and user-foolishness, than anything technically skilled. What's interesting to note is that it seems to be having a chilling effect...usually there's somewhere around 5,000 hosts, and 10 Terabytes of data online...today, there's barely 1100 hosts. I would have thought the average gnut-er was smarter than to fall for a vbs-worm.
posted by nomisxid at 11:48 AM PST - 1 comment

With all the big companies slapping down anybody who comes close to infringing on their big beautiful trademarks, how come these guys have never gone after this guy? It's not like he hasn't done plenty to denigrate the spirit of those who melt in your mouth but not in your hand?
(And shouldn't Mars Candy be more protective of their mascots?)
posted by wendell at 11:21 AM PST - 3 comments

The end of the dot-com gravy train may have doomed one website that deserves a whole lot better: APB News, the independent news site that covers crime without hysteria, knows the judicial system a LOT better than CourtTV, and beats The Smoking Gun in use of the Freedom of Information Act, is flat broke.
posted by wendell at 10:51 AM PST - 2 comments

"What say you just drop them britches!?" - Well the actual insemination was allegedly done in a slightly more scientific manner, but this guy says he's knocked up. Good Lord! First that candy wrapper thing and now this. Have all the scientist gone mad? (Link via usr/bin/girl)
posted by Nyarlathotep at 9:28 AM PST - 15 comments

Here come de' spam. Here come de' spam...
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:03 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

A spin-off of a previous thread: "The folks at firms like Kioken, who are known to fire their clients if they do not follow them down their ego led path...".

Uh, not to put down Kioken...but does the phrase "The customer is *always* right!" still apply to web design... Or did I miss the revolution...(again)?

posted by EricBrooksDotCom at 7:57 AM PST - 25 comments

You have GOT to be kidding . . . With everything that COULD be achieved by modern science, THIS is what's getting attention?
posted by Zosia Blue at 7:20 AM PST - 16 comments

Patently Absurd. James Gleick, chaos researcher and all-around smart guy, has written a very nice piece for the New York Times Magazine about the current spate of stupidity at the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Most important, in my view, is that unlike the John Perry Barlow piece we discussed earlier, the Gleick piece got national press... which is far more important than we geeks think...
posted by baylink at 6:34 AM PST - 5 comments

peterme's bathroom There's a story... About a man name Haughey... Who attended a party... (sing this to the brady bunch theme song)
posted by efader at 6:31 AM PST - 19 comments

Horse-Cow? Definitely a Navy bar.
posted by plinth at 6:00 AM PST - 4 comments

How about another hole in your head? It's probably been discussed already - i'm not the powerlogger who finds super-obscure links... at any rate, read it and enjoy (or not)... I'll see y'all in a month, i'm leaving for Mexico in about five hours.
posted by cadence at 10:33 PM PST - 2 comments

I want one of these for Christmas. Or maybe for my birthday.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:28 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Malatian Eagle Freedom Fighters take PM of Solomons Islands hostage, demand his ouster
Fijilive.com and ABC News Radio are reporting that members of the Malatian Eagle Freedom Fighters, rebels fighting for the independence of Guadalcanal Island, have taken the Prime Minister hostage.

Fijilive.com reported that it received an e-mail annoucing that the hostage takens had broken into the Armory in the capital of Honiara, stolen weapons, and stormed the Parliament building.
posted by rschram at 8:31 PM PST - 1 comment

Dallas Area Music is of personal interest to me, so I'm not sure if this makes a bad post. It's not my homepage but I'm an active member of the organization. With that cautionary warning, I did read the guidelines over and over and 1) most of you probably haven't seen this, 2) there IS interesting content, and 3) I'd like to hear discussion from others.. [more]
posted by ZachsMind at 8:30 PM PST - 2 comments

Earthquakes hit off of Sumatra, Indonesia
Successive earthquakes measuring 7.9 and 6.7 have killed at least 25 people in Bengkulu, Indonesia, on the island of Sumatra. The epicenter of the quakes was in the Indian Ocean east of Sumatra. The quakes were so storng they could felt as far away Singapore.
posted by rschram at 8:24 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Worried about those horny teenage boys going out with your daughter? [ Courtesy of Flowerhead, though I suppose it really *should* have been courtesy of Charlotte... ]
posted by baylink at 4:19 PM PST - 8 comments

No more POP? And on a weekend too...How unfortunate.
posted by bluechief at 4:04 PM PST - 2 comments

Brig asked the weblog world for a gender check. Four percent said it's not anyone's business. Well if it's not anyone's business why take the poll? 621 people think it's no big deal. And it is no big deal. In fact, who cares what plumbing is behind all these blogs? Why am I even posting this?? Somebody just shoot me.
posted by ZachsMind at 3:07 PM PST - 4 comments

This is scary as hell. I'd like someone to explain to me how this ("update-dll.exe") is any different than "Back Orifice" or "Backdoor G7"? Aren't these guys violating the law? Where's the FBI when we need them?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:47 AM PST - 7 comments

Environmentalists getting into the lumberjack business. Is this a sign of the apocalypse? Sensationalist headline notwithstanding, it still looks like the environmentalists are getting the ability to think reasonably.
posted by flestrin at 11:40 AM PST - 2 comments

A digital camera that plays mp3s? Convergence is a steam train that can't be stopped. In the future, will every piece of electronics priced over $100 include a mp3 player in it? Stuff like this makes me think the mp3 format will definitely surpass CDs and tapes as a delivery medium. Too bad the record companies still want to stop it, they're losing money everyday by not offering mp3 albums.
posted by mathowie at 10:50 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

You probably didn't know this site existed, and that it's as useful as dictionary.com and thesarus.com. The Rhymezone is quick to become the poet and songwriter's killer app. I wish it had better dictionary integration though.
posted by mathowie at 10:36 AM PST - 2 comments

Bye bye online privacy The RIP Bill goes through the Lords this week. Watch as the UK's ISPs and e-commerce ventures up sticks to the US and Ireland. John Naughton has been providing a commentary on its passage (he's well-briefed by the good people at STAND) and how it's such an insidious piece of work.
posted by holgate at 3:56 AM PST - 1 comment

It's been dead since 10/98, but borderequalszero is still super cool.
posted by endquote at 3:08 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

"On Monday, a small international group of computer rebels plans to introduce what they are calling a data haven, perched precariously on a World War II military fortress six miles off England's coast." Sealand will become their refuge for rebel data. Will they remain sovereign? Will they get away with anything?
posted by mathowie at 2:16 AM PST - 15 comments

Priorites. From your local K-mart comes this exercise in futility.
posted by owillis at 11:35 PM PST - 1 comment

Web Stalker, absolutely fabulous new toy for me to play w/, spiders the web, does a visual map of what you are finding. (I was actually workig on something to do almost the same thing, now I don't have to :)
posted by sonofsamiam at 10:03 PM PST - 2 comments

MTV2's new site by Digit will probably be fuel on the "flash = cancer on the web"-fire. Warning, full screen mayhem.
posted by prolific at 4:39 PM PST - 9 comments

Freedom of the press? You won't be needing that, says the United Nations!
posted by aaron at 1:48 PM PST - 12 comments

This is the most action-packed webcam site I've seen in ages. Look at it grow! I think I saw a seedling sprout! It's hours and hours of fun, you can't see it all in one visit...
posted by mathowie at 1:15 PM PST - 7 comments

Americans believe in a recession within the next four years.
    But of course. It's only natural after the most prolonged economic expansion in history. So don't go blaming the next administration when it finally happens.
    If Gore is president, then people will say: "12 years of democrats is enough!", but if Bush is in charge, then the complain will go "You see? republicans don't have a clue".
posted by tremendo at 10:49 AM PST - 6 comments

Am I the only one who's frightened by this development?
posted by highindustrial at 9:40 AM PST - 8 comments

Gilligan must die. I always thought it would end like this.
posted by flestrin at 8:21 AM PST - 4 comments

Three and a half years of effort and what do they get? By all accounts, a real dog. Romero's ass is grass, folks.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:13 PM PST - 1 comment

He's so cute. In the spirit of the web, I'm asking the people of the web to help me name my new cat. Wondering also if there have been other pet-naming events out there?
posted by bluechief at 6:33 PM PST - 15 comments

If we're going to talk about Drugs then really the discussion is incomplete without a link to Erowid, the world most comprehensive warehouse of personal experience reports from users of psychedelic materials.
posted by bug at 5:04 PM PST - 5 comments

HA! How could I have found out about this through something other than Metafilter? You people are slacking!

Anyway, The Offspring are selling bootleg Napster merchandise.
posted by peterme at 4:41 PM PST - 11 comments

John Perry Barlow tries to grapple with the Napster thang, with his usual interesting writing. A buried revelation: Bands are only getting about 5% of retail, rather than the 10% I thought.
posted by aurelian at 4:30 PM PST - 1 comment

Lions and spaceships and talking trees, oh my! For those of us who sneer at MDMA, a more expansive list of chemicals. Am I the only one here who admits to using some of this stuff?
posted by Ezrael at 1:46 PM PST - 16 comments

Napster hits the cover of Newsweek Not a bad overview and presents both sides fairly (IMHO). Also some background on Shawn. Apparently Billy Corgan is napster-friendly.
posted by aflakete at 12:55 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

I almost though it had gone the way of so many other webzines.

Josh needs to learn how to use his tongue . . .
posted by alana at 10:07 AM PST - 14 comments

Madonna's new song leaked to the net, and the Warner Bros. machine is none too pleased.
posted by hijinx at 10:07 AM PST - 8 comments

This redesign looked swell on my Mac, but the tables are all screwy when I look at it through Windows (at work). Explorer 5 ain't the same on both platforms. Argh!! Not a hard fix, but what do you do when your 'blog looks like ass and you can't fix it for a whole day!! I know it's uncool to link to oneself - I'm not just trying to generate pageviews. I'm genuinely pissed off about all these web standards problems!
posted by aladfar at 9:30 AM PST - 11 comments

Canada urging Microsoft to move north It's pretty obvious to everyone that the US government does not believe that Microsoft should be allowed to continue operating within their borders. No problem. We'll take em, as would most other countries. I for one, would love to see Microsoft leave the US. Wouldn't you?
posted by Calebos at 9:09 AM PST - 22 comments

Julia wins
posted by tiaka at 8:54 AM PST - 1 comment

if this gene ever gets in kudzu, we're doomed
posted by crawdad at 8:46 AM PST - 8 comments

The Brunching Shuttlecocks are planning to follow Metallica's lead in seeking out pirates of their MP3 music on Napster. They have different ideas about how to deal with said pirates, though.
posted by harmful at 8:15 AM PST - 3 comments

I used to raise lepidoptera as a kid. Other people still do, and some even sell livestock.
posted by plinth at 7:26 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Sometimes it's heartwarming to go to a site that you haven't seen in years and find it's still there and growing.
posted by plinth at 6:00 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Not for sale at any price. A UK businessman has just turned down millions for the e-buy.com domain name and trademarks. Not sure I'd be able to resist an offer like that.
posted by Markb at 5:40 AM PST - 5 comments

Will someone please just explain Metababy to me? I promise I will try to be patient and understanding... I mean I think I understand the mechanics of it. I think I understand that it's an experiment in social interaction with technology or some such technobabble. What I don't understand is.. well if I could explain the parts that I don't understand then I wouldn't need someone else to explain it to me, would I? ...Just please someone explain it to me... Thank you... I'll just ..be over here..
posted by ZachsMind at 10:20 PM PST - 17 comments

Mutant Mice Drink More Alcohol, Recover Faster Now this is useful scientific research. Please alter my genes.
posted by PaperCut at 10:04 PM PST - 1 comment

Slow Dancing with Jesus.
posted by baylink at 7:54 PM PST - 10 comments

things just keep getting sicker and sicker. anyone have a url for this game?
posted by cadence at 6:35 PM PST - 4 comments

Didn't I see this in True Lies? Life imitates art.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:21 PM PST - 10 comments

Journaux munis d'un blog The Guardian has a Weblog, as does The Age in Oz. Any other coelecanth media taking the plunge?
posted by joeclark at 1:56 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Salon gives in. Back to readability, baby.
posted by jaybarrow at 12:27 PM PST - 8 comments

I started looking for websites about misanthropy after my wife told me about this incredibly unfriendly guy at her office. Both my wife and this guy are artists/temps--she is an actress/secretary and the guy is a director/document operator. Like many New York artists, they support themselves with corporate day jobs. Anyway, whenever she walks into the document center (where he works) and says "hi," everyone there says "hi" back--except this guy, who doesn't even look up... (more>>)
posted by grumblebee at 12:11 PM PST - 29 comments

A Cancer on the Web called Flash - The publisher of Flazoom.com has published a lengthy opinion/rant about evil Flash designers. I love how this guy publishes a Flash site about cool Flash sites, then publishes an editorial about why Flash is bad for the web. His commentary is dead on though, something that all Flash designers should think about.
posted by DragonBoy at 11:30 AM PST - 5 comments

So what's up with this? I think there's something going on here. To prove my theory you only need to read here and here and here. Maybe it's just me.
posted by monkeyboy at 11:02 AM PST - 12 comments

The Big Re-run? "In the first millionth of a second after the universe’s beginning, the entire cosmos consisted of this ultradense, ultrahot brew, scientists say." And now scientists are trying to re-enact the Big Bang. Too big of a task to take on?
posted by Zosia Blue at 10:56 AM PST - 3 comments

Elian's fathers rights were affirmed today, and the decision is already online. One thing I love about the Internet is that things like this take nanoseconds to be available to the public (if the system's working right, at least!) -- where previously you had to rely on the newsmakers' spin on things, now you can read the decision yourself and come to your own conclusions.
posted by delfuego at 10:29 AM PST - 4 comments

But why would I shoot Mister Burns when I can set his soul afire with a slanderous mambo? Alas, poor Tito, I knew him not well at all, but a lot of my friends swore up and down that he was a talented musician, and he was in the running to have shot Mister Burns. Sad that that is what I know him from.
posted by Ezrael at 9:44 AM PST - 3 comments

Beowulf rips off Austin's arm and beats him to death with it! I know it's a month old, but I'm just so excited. Yea, King of the Geats! Boo, bald Texas guy!
posted by Ezrael at 9:40 AM PST - 2 comments

Mankind to Have Three Tongues by End of Century. The writers make this sound like some kind of tragedy. I'm all for it, but, having one of the big tongues, I'm probably biased.
posted by Nyarlathotep at 8:56 AM PST - 9 comments

personal accountability for the failures of managed care -- an odd take on mental health advocacy.
posted by palegirl at 8:52 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

No wonder my mom got hooked. My mother turns 70 years old on the 26th of this month. She's smoked since college. It's the only thing that I really bug her about; try to stop. She quit about five years ago for almost a year, then started again. I know she's lonely, living alone, but then when I see ads like the link above, I get a better understanding of the cultural acceptance of smoking that was prevalent when she was in college. I watch her immediately reach for her smokes when she gets out of the car after a ride; is that her body chemistry screaming out for more nicotine? I just know there's a special place in hell for the cigarette executives; a special room where they're forced to watch videos of their own children lighting up for the first time.
posted by marktucker at 8:24 AM PST - 5 comments

Consumer Whore sued by Starbuck's. Another David vs. Goliath lawsuit over trademark infringment.
posted by Mick at 8:19 AM PST - 2 comments

Word Perhect Now I want my word processor to work like this. It's so beautiful, I want to cry. [from The Age]
posted by plinth at 8:16 AM PST - 1 comment

Dot-com dead pool. Clever. I wonder if you can cross-pick Priceline.com with William Shatner in a human dead pool and double your odds. (Apologies if the URL violates MF decency laws, Matt.)
posted by werty at 7:22 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

id's next game will be a remake of Doom. Details in Carmack's .plan file.
posted by Calebos at 6:50 AM PST - 18 comments

About time too! From today, British Telecom effectively lose the right to block free internet access to UK residents (via Kitschbitch )
posted by Markb at 3:19 AM PST - 2 comments