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Have you ever been at the center of a media storm? It's not pleasant. The link is to just one of many local and city newspaper articles about the tiny rural high school where I work, plus we've had t.v. camera crews trying to sneak into the building and students being pulled out of class to be interviewed for local radio stations. I welcome your comments.
posted by Lynsey at 6:58 PM PST - 35 comments

The End of Money Interesting article about what money really means in the digital age. "If you want currency backed by something tangible, sign up for 5,000 frequent flier miles on a new Visa card. "
posted by zeoslap at 5:01 PM PST - 9 comments

Synthetic virus nearing reality Scientists will have the technology to create a wholly artificial virus within the next five years, a major conference in the US has been told. This is the quote I like best... Prof Hutchinson added: "Am I worried about a synthesised virus? No, you only worry about it if someone does it out of malicious motives."
posted by zeoslap at 4:36 PM PST - 18 comments

U.S. to ban civilians at controls of military vehicles Sec Rumsford has announced a "temporary" ban of civilians at the controls of military machinery, including of course, subamarines. Temporarily?
posted by Postroad at 4:17 PM PST - 5 comments

Remember Mahir? Yeah, now you can send him via email to greet your friends. I don't know if I should laugh or be afraid.
posted by sabbydarling at 3:32 PM PST - 10 comments

This airline review site that I just discovered may be useful if you plan to go on a long air journey sometime soon and would like to try a new carrier.
posted by jammer at 2:13 PM PST - 2 comments

Is electronic puppy love real? Many Aibo owners are as attached to the robotic dogs as they would be to live animals.

"I always thought I was pretty rational but I don't think of her as a toy any more.... She's like a part of the family."
posted by phichens at 12:43 PM PST - 27 comments

A Clarification -- Dave Eggers wants to expose the process, "By reprinting your correspondence to me I hope to illuminate the journalist's mind: how a writer starts by telling me he is a fan of my work, supports my company's endeavors, etc, then writes a snippety little thing full of sneering and suspicion." so he's posted ALL of the email correspondance he had with david kirkpatrick before this unflattering piece was printed... and after.
    "I think it's important that our exchange be published. It's the only remedy commensurate with the impact you enjoyed with your original piece. I want your friends and family to see it, and to say 'David, ew.'"
    Meanspirited all around, but can you blame him?
posted by palegirl at 12:22 PM PST - 43 comments

Presenting the no-gasoline, no-pollution, no-engine personal flier Hydrogen peroxide is used to fuel individual rocket motors at the tips of helicoptor like rotors.... James Bond eat your heart out :)
posted by zeoslap at 11:57 AM PST - 5 comments

(You)^2: Wired Feature on Human Cloning
There's a very long, very fascinating article on the current work being done on human cloning research; or possibly the work that has already been done. Many of those interviewed for the article are convinced that somewhere in the world human cloning has already taken place. Lots of cool/frightening material here.
posted by hanseugene at 11:37 AM PST - 2 comments

They're Not Playing Your Song. This is just mean. Mean, cruel, and awful. Heartless. And, I'm sorry, very funny. I laughed and laughed. I know, I'm a bad person. Are you too?
posted by Skot at 11:07 AM PST - 26 comments

Orange Cones the Virtual Reality tour!
I haven't laughed this hard for a long time! Make sure you read all of the cone pages.
posted by bytecode at 10:48 AM PST - 5 comments

GeForce 3 to be available on Macs first. Check out the 3rd video down. Bonus: A look at the new ID 3D engine for Doom. High drool factor.
posted by john at 10:22 AM PST - 5 comments

Hey, Baby -- did you feel that? The sun, someday, will envelope the Earth and all life as we know it will die. Can we prevent this? Some wacky scientists think that the best thing to do would be to up and move the whole damn planet.
posted by amanda at 9:33 AM PST - 16 comments

August 17, 1995. / Today
posted by tiaka at 9:19 AM PST - 19 comments

A faith based missile defense system... now that's what we really need. Of course, considering the current state of the necessary technologies, that's what we already have. [From Greg Restall]
posted by silusGROK at 8:19 AM PST - 7 comments

Bryan Singer + Battlestar Galactica = relaunch. Yeah, buddy! This could be fun.

What were the fatal flaws of the original 'Galactica'? And how should it be made better this time?
posted by Sean Meade at 8:16 AM PST - 25 comments

Love to argue about Genetically Modified Foods? Hate to be under-informed? The Science Controversies On-line: Partnerships in Education (SCOPE) project has a huge database of resources and links to commentaries on various issues, one of which is genetically modified foods and covers both (all?) side of the issue. The site is still in the works, it looks like it is (and will be) a useful resource.
posted by iceberg273 at 8:09 AM PST - 2 comments

This is how I always pictured internet love. The corpse in the fridge is the kicker. I thought you brits knew we were all nuts in the states.
posted by john at 7:30 AM PST - 5 comments

17 International Olympic Committee inspectors are in China reviewing its bid for the 2008 Olympic Games. Should human rights concerns be a factor in their decision? Does a sporting body have a duty to use compliance with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights as a gauge to measure hosting worthiness for any country (not just China)?
posted by will at 7:08 AM PST - 7 comments

This MeFi thread lead me to the Traffic Cone Preservation Society where you can adopt a baby cone. The web never ceases to surprise: I never knew people were so into cones (though I must admit they are kind of cute). The TCPS links page lead me to Cones As Pets, Evil Cones, and Cone Matrimony.
posted by grumblebee at 4:37 AM PST - 1 comment

A spectre is haunting the Web - the spectre of standards. Jeffery Zeldman takes a bold step and stops supporting "bad browsers". Will the Web follow?
posted by geir at 4:09 AM PST - 47 comments

It's easy to get complacent and not learn foreign languages when you speak native English. In the UK, knowledge of foreign languages verges on the comical.
posted by ecvgi at 2:07 AM PST - 23 comments

Wanted: Web Designer for 'egg': must like startlingly honest employers who don't beat about the bush.
posted by barbelith at 1:21 AM PST - 3 comments

Geez this sounds familiar. Helicopters manned by Americans involved in shootout with Columbian guerillas. Just advising you understand. . .
posted by aflakete at 1:07 AM PST - 10 comments

The Grammys have come and gone.
Reactions? Revulsion? Observations? And what's the deal with Steely Dan?
posted by Optamystic at 11:43 PM PST - 60 comments

Coming soon to your Nintendo: Poo humor, "squirrel love", and "phallic fun". Video games have changed...
posted by owillis at 11:17 PM PST - 7 comments

http://microsoft.sucks.my.metafilter.com I know it's self-referential, but I thought it was funny - I stumbled on this URL while doing a google search. Go on Matt, tell us how you really feel ;) - Also listed was "http://kottke-is-my-hero.metafilter.com" - sentiment as URL.
posted by kokogiak at 10:29 PM PST - 17 comments

EBay has had another software glitch and it's made all sorts of people accidentally opt out of receiving EBay's email advertising by mistake. So, just to help all you nice people out, they've decided to change your preferences so that you permit EBay to send you spam and to sell your phone number to telemarketers, like you really wanted. Time to visit the configuration page. Again.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:25 PM PST - 7 comments

pardon payments to hillary rodham clinton's brother. there isn't a way to spin this that isn't ugly.
posted by lescour at 8:14 PM PST - 28 comments

Woah. Apple dropped the price of the Cube to $1300, released iTunes 1.1, and just started selling the strangest looking iMac you've ever seen.

Now I want a Cube, a G4 Powerbook, a G4 tower, *and* an iMac.
posted by jragon at 7:29 PM PST - 43 comments

Napster takes first steps in trying to appease the RIAA, and specifically BMG. To me this approach is the stupidest thing Napster could have done. Who would want to pay a membership fee to use Napster if one can't even burn the files onto a cd?
posted by JFunk2800 at 6:27 PM PST - 1 comment

"More than anything, I admit, I hate Chelsea because she is a Clinton. Not just genetically a Clinton, but in spirit and habit and manner. The evidence for this is now, I think, sufficient to indict." Gotta love them Conservatives.
posted by owillis at 6:11 PM PST - 43 comments

Ever seen a sonic boom? A NASA website has daily pictures from a variety of astronomical sources. Today's is a little more down-to-earth; the visual representation of a sonic boom, captured when an F/A-18 Hornet crossed the sound barrier.
posted by dragonmage at 1:45 PM PST - 8 comments

Mr. Spock during the Pon Farr? Actually a very funny CGI character test (direct 4.8MB Quicktime movie link here).
posted by quirked at 11:33 AM PST - 3 comments

Go Princeton! Student loans will become grants for any who can't afford $134K for 4 years. How relevant attending college is--except for networking and the social milieu I guess--for the post-Internet teen I'm not sure. But anything which makes information and education more available and less tied to income is a fine thing.
posted by aflakete at 11:02 AM PST - 23 comments

Race-based Science Project Banned Forgetting for a moment how flimsy the premise of science projects at the 5th grade age can be, I think this is a great project. Does anyone find this offensive? Should children be allowed to discuss race and racism in broad daylight and among their peers?
posted by amanda at 9:18 AM PST - 49 comments

We Can Afford a Much Bigger Tax Cut Well, if Jack Kemp says so, it must be true!
posted by rklawler at 8:57 AM PST - 9 comments

Supreme Court splits again I leave it to others to comment on this. All I can offer: don't get a disability.
posted by Postroad at 8:23 AM PST - 16 comments

Yes, I'll admit it, I'm a Nascar fan, and although I never rooted for Dale Earnhardt (just yelled at him), I respected him and will miss him. But it's just plain sick that the racer that bumped him, Sterling Marlin, is getting death threats against him and his family.
posted by Sal Amander at 8:07 AM PST - 27 comments

Haven't web been here before? Why does Lynne Cheney now sound so much like a previous Vice-President's wife seven years ago?
posted by bgluckman at 7:55 AM PST - 9 comments

Bad Subjects Interviews Howard Zinn. I'm not sure I buy globalization as "a more sophisticated kind of imperialism," but given recent efforts to expand corporate welfare and manufacture enemies for a reinvigorated military-industrial complex I think parallels with 19th century robber-barons and the Great BBQ are apt. Lefties and libertarians unite!
posted by kliuless at 7:48 AM PST - 3 comments

Barak Just Says No. Former PM passes on Defense Minister post. Is it just me, or does Sharon's push for a unity government smack of Dubya's call for bipartisanship? I just don't trust either one of them.
posted by jpoulos at 6:17 AM PST - 3 comments

"...I find the language of George W much more offensive," (did I miss a memo about W releasing an album?) Anyway, let's see... 'I was a made man at fifteen years Cuz momma didn't raise no faggotty queer' or 'Even stupid people in Britain are smarter than Americans'.
posted by tiaka at 5:18 AM PST - 17 comments

Opera Technical Preview 1 for Mac out Thursday I like iCab, honest. But until the other day, I'd completely forgotten about these guys. I'm pleased that they haven't forgotten about my peeps.
posted by allaboutgeorge at 1:07 AM PST - 11 comments

Dog Mauling Victim's Partner to Test Wrongful Death Law California law is clear: Only legal heirs -- surviving spouses, children and parents -- are entitled to sue for wrongful death. Not long-term lesbian partners -- but Susan Smith is going to try. [link spotted on web queeries] "The state can't have it both ways, you can't condition a right on marital status, then deny a whole class of people the right of access to be married."
"Any expansion of domestic partner rights is something conservatives in Sacramento, such as the Capitol Resource Institute, will vigorously oppose. 'I sympathize with her loss,' said Karen Holgate, policy director for the institute. 'My second reaction is why would she want to allow herself to be used in her grief for political gains?'"
posted by palegirl at 9:44 PM PST - 10 comments

Racing Past the Truth. A new perspective on Earnhardt's death, the purpose of which is to question the supposed cause of death and general lack of research in the reporting thereof.

The most interesting part, though, is pointing out how the makers of the Head and Neck Restraining System (HANS) are milking his death for all its worth, even though it probably would have done nothing to save him.
posted by thebigpoop at 9:25 PM PST - 10 comments

Love Big Brother? Love Quake 3? Try this
I'm just disappointed that Slash has been ejected already.
posted by davidgentle at 9:04 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Are you a duclod? For at least a decade, mysterious letters have been sent from around the nation to students at a small midwestern college filled with facts about "duclods." From the best I can tell looking at the college newspaper webpage this is not a prank. Has anyone ever heard this term?
posted by croutonsupafreak at 7:18 PM PST - 12 comments

Is it just me, or does it seem ridiculous that Napster will have one billion dollars of expendable net income over the next five years that it will be able to pay to the record labels? The labels would be crazy to accept this; in a year, when Napster files for Chapter 11, the settlement would vanish.
posted by delfuego at 5:27 PM PST - 26 comments

Sonic Death Monkey! Somebody obviously is a fan of Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity," and has either invented a one-man band or invented a website for a one-man band. This site is worth it for the pictures alone, although the half-mad text ain't bad either.
posted by Skot at 3:41 PM PST - 3 comments

another hairbrained scheme. verisign (owner of network solutions) has devised a proprietory system that will allow cell-phone web-surfing fools to type in a phone number instead of a URL. it seems that "www.news.com" is hard on a keypad. you have until april to apply to the new service (called WebNum) for one of the easy-to-remember numbers...1000, say. at which point WebNum (how much do I like saying that?) will decide on the most "effective" assignment of the requested shortcuts.
posted by rebeccablood at 2:27 PM PST - 16 comments

Muffin Films - charming flash animations centered around muffins. [via 50cups]
posted by plinth at 1:35 PM PST - 8 comments

Britain's best footballer, David Beckham, and his wife Posh Spice are almost as important as royalty. That they have agreed to be interviewed by spoofist Ali G is a tad surprising...read the transcript here.
posted by ecvgi at 1:05 PM PST - 5 comments

Metababy is back and in full effect, I think I was the first to modify it!!!
posted by dancu at 12:34 PM PST - 18 comments

starting your own church It might be wise to start your own church. Pres Bush now must decide whether Scientology is or is not a "true" religion. The president's father got big bucks from Rev. Moon of the Moonies, a group that gave generously to Bush the Father, so I imagine that group is a true religion. We too can feed at the spiritual udder. I hope some faith-based charity goes to Travolta and Cruise.
posted by Postroad at 10:51 AM PST - 30 comments

The Key Vanishes: Scientist Outlines Unbreakable Code [NEW YORK TIMES - free reg required]
In essence, the researcher, Dr. Michael Rabin and his Ph.D. student Yan Zong Bing, have discovered a way to make a code based on a key that vanishes even as it is used. While they are not the first to have thought of such an idea, Dr. Rabin says that never before has anyone been able to make it both workable and to prove mathematically that the code cannot be broken.
 
Once this gets out, the debate on exporting strong crypto would seem to be essentially over.
posted by mikewas at 9:17 AM PST - 10 comments

I usually wouldn't post something that I found through the office "humor" mailing list, but this just seemed very MetaFilterable. Physics geeks especially take note.
posted by jpoulos at 9:12 AM PST - 4 comments

Untangling an online breakup. Seapetal vs. Gothimuscle: a bond between author and bodybuilder formed in bondage ends with matching restraining orders. With a "trail of cyber-breadcrumbs" in the form of scurrious emails, chat-room stalking and nude photos that leads all the way to the Fetish Fleamarket, this anti-love story bears all the trapings of a Boston.com headline on a slow news day. But the question remains: where and how do we process crimes of harassment that occur in virtual places under assumed screen names? What's a real-world restraining order good for when all the attacking is done on the net?
posted by sixfoot6 at 7:53 AM PST - 5 comments

Beyond the bar code: Tags on retail products will send radio signals to their manufacturers, collecting information about consumer habits -- and raising privacy concerns. Radio tag technology is already here, used in fields such in livestock, freight-train cargo and highway tolls. The only barrier to widespread use is consumer products is price. When they can be made for a penny, expect to see them everywhere. From the March issue of MIT Technology Review.
posted by jhiggy at 7:51 AM PST - 13 comments

This article about the stereotyped Black man offered up by nearly every reality TV show broadcast in the US ends just as it's getting to the essence: why is this the "reality" the networks -- and damningly the audiences -- are choosing?
posted by sudama at 6:17 AM PST - 80 comments

Trekkers Rejoice! Word is a new Star Trek television series is in development. Time to pull those rubber ears out of the dresser and head out on the SciFi convention circuit again.
posted by darren at 5:49 AM PST - 24 comments

Blair goes along with us to bomb Iraq. Britain was ready to soften boycott against Iraq. We changed Blair's mind. Drudge reports more sophisticated equipment used by Iraq supplied by China.
posted by Postroad at 4:29 AM PST - 3 comments

Chaos rules the classroom in The Best & The Brightest. How many of these precocious tots can you name? (Jeffrey, I presume you saw this coming.)
posted by jjg at 12:48 AM PST - 83 comments

The Oregon Vortex is a nice place to visit if you enjoy places where things roll uphill and things change size base on their position. Many have tried to figure it out. Physicist John Lister spent forty years there only to burn all his notes.

When is someone going to let the vortex genie out?
posted by john at 12:22 AM PST - 40 comments

The new Mahir?
posted by davebush at 6:50 PM PST - 11 comments

NSA has lost the techno war. It says. But do we believe them? Or is this merely intended to lull us into complacency?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 3:18 PM PST - 25 comments

yesterday the times printed an op-ed by clinton in which he made a case for his controversial pardons. [mefi partisans went at it] -- today the times editorial attacks that very piece AND prints a safire op-ed attacking it as well.
posted by palegirl at 2:14 PM PST - 13 comments

Screw cookie sales! Girlscouts try a new funding program. Plans for a father-daughter "pajama party" dance at which dads and their teen and pre-teen daughters would wear only nightclothes proved too naughty for top Girl Scouts officials, who Friday ordered participants to wear sweat suits instead.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 1:01 PM PST - 5 comments

From the U.S. Mint, one year later: "Demand for the Golden Dollar continues to grow. Currently, the U. S. Mint has shipped over 1 billion Golden Dollars through all of its distribution channels." My question: where are these things? Are any of you in the U.S. actually seeing these in circulation?
posted by ChrisTN at 11:24 AM PST - 86 comments

Windows XP Dev Intro Article introduces some of the new issues associated with developing apps for the next generation Microsoft OS. An excerpt from the article reads "Writing applications for Windows XP requires a few new tricks, but they're not difficult. More important is the message we've been repeating over and over, especially since the introduction of Windows 2000: the more your applications behave like good citizens, the more successfully they'll run on Windows XP. Windows XP applications should to follow the rules you learned in kindergarten: share your resources, play well with others, and follow the rules. It's all about cooperation." Lovely.
posted by tatochip at 9:47 AM PST - 12 comments

Gould, earthworms and you: Stephen Jay Gould discusses the recent discovery that the human body has only about 1/4th of the DNA originally estimated. NYTimes op-ed piece. One of the best results of this discovery is that it sounds death knell of reductionist biology; as usual, the human body turns out to be more complicated than anyone could have imagined. ("Gee, we haven't explained life, the universe and everything? Gosh darnit!") I have always thought it was silly to ascribe artistic talent, criminal behaviour, musical aptitude or computer savvy to the foibles of some single gene. Now here's independent confirmation of that opinion...

So once again we find that we ourselves, and not our parents or our grandparents, are responsible for who we are and what we become...
posted by hanseugene at 9:38 AM PST - 14 comments

Through rose-tinted spectacles? It's media waffle for a quiet news day, and comes on the back of a wave of nostalgia, but Reagan's "victory" in this latest poll feels like the triumph of selective memory, and of the desire to reassociate the presidency with jelly-bean eating. (FDR trails in fifth, and there's no mention of Woodrow Wilson, though Carter and Nixon get a look-in.) Which makes me wonder: does the US have a clear sense of its history, as far as Presidents are concerned?
posted by holgate at 9:26 AM PST - 15 comments

This picture of the Space Shuttle and the ray of "shadow" from the moon is pretty cool. I even think I buy the explanation.
posted by aflakete at 7:52 AM PST - 15 comments

Three mirrors of Billy Exorcist: a flash movie parody / combination of two giants of international cinema: http://dyh21.acad.cai.cam.ac.uk/billy/ | http://danhon.com/billy | http://plasticbag.org/billy. As produced by Sean Nadeau of Los Angeles.
posted by barbelith at 7:15 AM PST - 8 comments

Suspects in Dartmouth Profs' Deaths Held in Indiana -- Two teenagers (allegedly) brutally stabbed two professors. Am I the only one deeply disturbed by all these underaged murderers in recent years? And to resurrect an old debate from my college criminology classes: Are these "killer kids" a product of nature (as in, they're born with something loose) or nurture (as in, lousy parenting)?
posted by shauna at 7:09 AM PST - 28 comments

Women Urged to Run for U.S. Presidency -- A group called American Women Presidents is urging Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and more than 100 other women governors, lawmakers and business leaders to consider a run for the White House in 2004. Weirdly enough, this is the same group who offered Monica Lewinsky a job as its corporate VP last year.
posted by shauna at 6:42 AM PST - 20 comments

How to Good-Bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way?
via pigs & fishes. scroll down for the hilarious review.
posted by rmw at 5:43 PM PST - 17 comments

The gift for the man who has everything. Good Heavens! (Is there anything which can't be found on the web now? Link courtesy of [H]ardOCP.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:12 PM PST - 13 comments

Earnhardt dead at Daytona. This came after a much more hideous looking wreck on lap 175 which took out almost 20 cars, but from which everyone more or less walked away. Earnhardt wrecked in the final lap. In a two-car crash. In the rear view mirror of his son. I don't think "ironic" even comes close.
posted by jammer at 4:22 PM PST - 30 comments

"You mean that the Clinton's are Hitler and Mussolini?" And who says so? God, that's who! Linda Newkirk has been receiving personalized messages from God, and what is God telling Linda, who's using the power of the Internet to keep us all informed? Among other things, God says, "the economic bubble, which grew to such tremendous proportions, in the last eight years, is bursting"; "before this month of February, 2001 is over a death nail shall be plunged into the stock market"; "I know that you want Me to speak of what many are calling the 'Early-out rapture' "; and, whoa to us all, "George W's days are numbered to a few; for I have warned him against Lucifer's works, but he does not believe that he will soon die." And then what? Well, it seems those naughty Russians and Chinese met in a tent and signed a deal in blood to start throwing nuclear missiles at the god-fearing and ever-righteous U.S. of A. starting on or before March 31st.

Hey, these are His words, not mine. Although I feel comforted that God uses terms like "economic bubble" and "Early-out rapture." Renews my faith in the power of marketing.
posted by honkzilla at 3:08 PM PST - 9 comments

The stanford prison experiment This site has an interesting, well-written review of the Stanford prison experiment written by one of those involved. See also: Coalition for the Abolition of prisons. [via kuro5hin]
posted by fvw at 9:28 AM PST - 10 comments

Bill Clinton Op-Ed on the Marc Rich pardons: "I want every American to know that, while you may disagree with this decision, I made it on the merits as I saw them, and I take full responsibility for it".
posted by owillis at 1:06 AM PST - 43 comments

From the "When designers grab random images" file: Many Muslim taxi drivers in Seattle are going to refuse to pick up people from a rave tonight. The rave promoters used excerpts from the Koran on the flyer announcing the event. "We had no idea what any of it meant...It looked good on there."
posted by gluechunk at 11:23 PM PST - 5 comments

Another laughable graphic from CNN.com, this time regarding "air rage". Didn't CNN.com just lay off a lot of people? How did this photoshopper not get the boot? Is it actually this hard to get good workers?
posted by jragon at 6:41 PM PST - 14 comments

Bill Joy thinks the world will end unless we stop doing certain kinds of research right now. I think Bill Joy is full of crap, but he has valid points. (More inside)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:02 PM PST - 28 comments

Well, if SETI@HOME is too much of a long-shot for you, then how about something absolutely certain to result in important findings? GENOME@HOME is trying to search the results of the human genome sequencing project to find the place in the genome where certain important proteins are encoded, and FOLDING@HOME is trying to figure out how proteins are folded to become enzymes, where shape is more important than chemistry.

FOLDING@HOME is working on some of the critical proteins of HIV, among other things. HIV has been sequenced and from that they know the amino acid sequences of the enzymes it makes. But without understanding their shapes it's not possible to figure out how they work. This represents one of the best applications of volunteer distributed computing I can think of. With 40,000 participants, FOLDING@HOME has already had successes, including one of the HIV enzymes. (Courtesy of Firing Squad)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:03 PM PST - 14 comments

Dr. Stupid sets things straight. Australian commentary site Crikey is where Dr. Stupid exposes the sloth, stupidity, and duplicity of journalists who should really know better. I enjoyed his autopsy of the recent flurry of Tom and Nicole coverage, and the rest of the column has some nice tidbits as well. Are there columns like this about the American press that you would recommend?
posted by BGM at 10:32 AM PST - 8 comments

The University of California may eliminate SATs scores as a criterion for admission of undergraduates.
posted by MattD at 7:29 AM PST - 38 comments

Manic Street Preachers play Havana tonight - "It'll be like Wham! in China." Following in the footsteps of agit-prop songster Billy Joel, the Boys from Blackwood take Sony-branded anti-capitalism to the last place "that really fights against the Americanisation of the world."
posted by ceiriog at 6:32 AM PST - 9 comments

Payback time Executive orders: nice way to beat up on labor unions!
posted by Postroad at 6:18 AM PST - 18 comments

Quiet that computer! This site offers some great tips on reducing the noise produced by your computer. I just got a new Power Mac G4 and a couple of external FireWire drives to go with it, and was appalled at how loud the setup was -- particularly the fans in the FireWire drive cases. Mike Breeden at Xlr8yourMac.com has a great tip on reducing the fan noise on the G4 itself, which I applied to the FireWire drives with good results (haven't tried it on the G4 yet). If your computer (Mac, PC, or otherwise) is loud enough to be heard over your MP3s, maybe these pages will help.
posted by kindall at 2:15 AM PST - 8 comments

"What is most disturbing about these people is their banality, their normalness... It's the fact that these people are chatting and they are horribly normal, everyday people, yet they are capable of these acts of unimaginable savagery."

Tired of politics and Survivor 2? Let's talk about real cannibalism!
posted by lia at 1:36 AM PST - 6 comments

Anyone have the inside poop on why Dreamless went black tonight for repairs? Apparently there was some skirmishing and hacking activity earlier in the week. Details anyone?
posted by netbros at 10:55 PM PST - 10 comments

According to an Alexa Research report, Web users are morons (entering URLs into search engines to get to sites) and perverts (most popular search term is "sex"). I, for one, am shocked.
posted by tregoweth at 8:26 PM PST - 35 comments

The funniest thing ever, period. Note: streaming video with sound, using RealPlayer. Though I'm not sure of the high-level discussion we can have about this, I don't think anyone in the world should be denied the oppurtunity to laugh this hard. Watch the whole thing - I particularly like around 3:25. Trust me.
posted by swank6 at 7:47 PM PST - 35 comments

Rowdy XFL fans toss paraplegic to Coliseum floor "His 13-year-old nephew, Eddie Cardenas, rushed to his aid and wound up covered in beer and his uncle's blood as fans lobbed brew in his direction...." Hmmm the word Coliseum just stands out to me for some reason. A toast to the Roman Empire!!
posted by metasak at 4:04 PM PST - 15 comments

Reuters confirms that our friend Dubya did in fact authorize the attack on Iraqi radar stations. We're killing people and giving a dictator fuel for the propaganda mill he needs to prop up his regime. But that's okay, because the people who are dying don't share our race and religion and so, in fact, they're not really "people" at all. They're ciphers and objects and statistics. Apparently it's only when white Protesetants die that death really matters. Incidentally, remember this bombing isn't a matter of protecting the Kuwaiti ethnic minority (read: our oil interests), this is over perceived violation of arbitrarily imposed NATO sanctions. Scum. Scum scum scum!
posted by hanseugene at 1:49 PM PST - 40 comments

Casting call goes out for Survivor III CBS issues a cattle call for idiots to broadcast their idiocy on national TV this fall. Is it me, or are the two current cast members who work in the computer industry total dolts or what? Who's the bigger embarassment to the high-tech industry, this guy or this guy?
posted by darren at 12:51 PM PST - 19 comments

Pennsylvania school's anti-harassment code ruled too strict. The 3rd Circuit Court in Philadelphia struck down the State College Area School District's anti-harassment code yesterday, saying the policy restricted students' free-speech rights.
posted by darukaru at 12:25 PM PST - 8 comments

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US Part Deux?? Old World War 1 and 2 posters, revamped. I'm kinda liking this weird trend of glorifying bad translations via Photoshop.
posted by Succa at 11:10 AM PST - 11 comments

Recently released FBI hate-crime statistics for 1999 show that - as many have feared - enforcement of hate-crime laws is skewed against blacks. Of racially-motivated where the offenders race is known, blacks make up 20% of the reported incidents despite representing only 13% of the population as a whole.
posted by mikewas at 11:01 AM PST - 16 comments

America bombs Iraq. What are Dubya's intentions?
posted by quirked at 10:53 AM PST - 35 comments

You're the world's number one Web destination, responsible for 40% of Internet traffic. You've been making money from advertising for years, but you know that you need to diversify your revenue streams. You run a popular auction site with over 2.8 million listings, but the only money it generates is from ads. The number one site in the auction space charges fees, so why can't you? You come up with fees that are lower than your competitor, and implement them. And then, over the next six weeks, the number of listed items on your site falls 86%. What went wrong?
posted by tranquileye at 10:22 AM PST - 13 comments

Advertising just got a little more "In Your Face" Story on a new monster.com banner ad that runs around the monitor talking to you.
posted by willnot at 9:46 AM PST - 17 comments

Virginia regrets.... Lots of boys were named Eugene in honor of eugenics movement, likened here to what the Nazis were also doing
posted by Postroad at 8:15 AM PST - 8 comments

Time to toss the 3.0 and 4.0s in the trash - and I'm not talking about GPA. The biggest problem for Web developers right now is the prevalence of old browsers that don't fully support standards like HTML 4.0 and CSS 1 & 2. Now that we have at least 3 browsers that can handle most of these standards, why not encourage a move from the less standard browsers to ones that will allow us to more easily design sites. Write once view anywhere....Woo hoo!
posted by bkdelong at 6:53 AM PST - 50 comments

No, really now... C'mon, get up. And for chrissakes, stop kissing my boots! I mean it! Anyway, you want my dad... he's back at the ranch.
posted by legibility at 6:29 AM PST - 11 comments

The Layoff Binge The last piece on the page gives a worker’s perspective on the recent attack in the Class War.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 11:00 PM PST - 10 comments

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US OK, I'm obviously the dorky kid coming late to the party -- can someone explain this to me? [via memepool]
posted by kaefer at 8:47 PM PST - 55 comments

Stealing Jeffrey's underpants: A wonderful homecoming for Mr. Zeldman (link courtesy of zeldman.com, of course).
posted by aladfar at 5:20 PM PST - 27 comments

Dave's Soda and Pet Food City - see, they sell pet supplies and soda. The two great tastes that go great together.
posted by plinth at 5:07 PM PST - 10 comments

Microsoft exec calls Linux a threat to innovation? "One of Microsoft's high-level executives says that freely distributed software code such as Linux could stifle innovation and that legislators need to understand the threat."
posted by macewan at 1:03 PM PST - 25 comments

Who needs napster? Lo-tech file sharing staring me in the face - just add your ftp site to the mix et voila - searchable sharing. "Leech and let leech."
posted by J. R. Hughto at 12:07 PM PST - 14 comments

The Privacy Space In every MeFi thread about personal privacy in the digital age, the comment inevitably arises: "You already have zero privacy. Get over it." The article even quotes it. But someone else in the article says, "The idea that technology and privacy are intrinsically opposed is false." Great article (from a non-techie standpoint) on the coming promises of privacy tech.
posted by Skot at 9:55 AM PST - 4 comments

Tales of unmitigated stupidity. Some people belong in jail because it's not safe for them to be left alone in public. (What's the law in the UK for dealing with a minor committing a crime like extortion? In the US, this guy would probably be tried as an adult.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 8:46 AM PST - 7 comments

Network Solutions sells out. The once-monopoly has decided to pool all their domain name registration information and sell it to the spammers of the world. From their marketing website, "Taking advantage of our position as a market leader, we have organized our pool of over 15 million registered domain names into a customer database of over 5 million unique customers. Our data service offers access to the key decision-makers behind millions of leading Web businesses."

True, there is a privacy policy, and you can try and protect yourself following their instructions, but it would seem that once the cat's out of the bag... And, what's to keep someone from purchasing the database of email addresses, fax numbers, telephone numbers, and addresses and selling them off to someone else?
posted by warhol at 8:12 AM PST - 35 comments

Amazon can't patent 1-Click after all Finally somebody realizes the obvious; now if they can get BT to give up on patenting hyperlinks we can all go back to enjoying the Internet.
posted by briank at 5:35 AM PST - 7 comments

Every once in a while I like to throw a big fat monkey wrench into the MetaFilter "post a link and a comment" system and get people to sit down and actually answer questions, instead of lazily following links off into the great blue yonder. And lately I've been hankering for some new & interesting reading material. So tonight, boys and girls: if you could only have one weblog to take with you to the desert island, which one would it be? [Hint: Besides your own log!] Personally, I'd probably go with either Noah Grey's weblog or the Chess Log. What about you?
posted by hanseugene at 9:27 PM PST - 114 comments

fun with faces. using applets, ken perlin built an interactive facial-expression thingy. i found this site because ken is responsible for the cute lil heart animation at google. there are quite a few interesting thingamabobs to check out at his site.
posted by acridrabbit at 9:15 PM PST - 4 comments

Windows XP unveiled... why does it look so bloopy? And all those bright colors and rounded edges! It's like Fisher Price OS! (via K10K.)
posted by wiremommy at 5:04 PM PST - 42 comments

Oh, leave the poor guy alone already. Not the much-harrassed ex-president Clinton this time, but rather Bill Gates and co., who are in the Justice Department's crosshairs yet again, due to Microsoft's investments in Corel.
posted by Sapphireblue at 4:11 PM PST - 14 comments

Man Marries TV
posted by amanda at 1:41 PM PST - 10 comments

globalize the way we eat! save the trees The Chinese, it seems, are destroying their trees for thow away chopsticks and there is building concern that they should recycle their eating utensils. Why not globalize and we can all simply use our hands?
posted by Postroad at 1:28 PM PST - 3 comments

Spineless Pinkos! - The VA Pledge of Allegiance bill (discussed at MeFi two weeks ago here) is withdrawn, after one last old-school McCarthyesque comment by its sponsor.
posted by kevincmurphy at 1:24 PM PST - 17 comments

Valentine's Day may be a remant of the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, in which "young men who were naked except for the skins of goats that had been sacrificed this day, ran from the Lupercal around the bounds of the Palatine . . . striking the women they met with strips of goat skin, to promote fertility."

This factoid resists my every attempt to add further comment.
posted by jbushnell at 1:14 PM PST - 3 comments

Jef Raskin, creator of the Macintosh project at Apple, says the windows-based interface is passé. "In my current interface designs, everything you need is laid out for you. You just zoom in, and as soon as you can read the text or see the graphic details, you can work on them. Then there's no need for windows, which you are forever opening, closing, moving or fooling with."
posted by tranquileye at 12:33 PM PST - 33 comments

Kansas Evolves Yet some school board members still have doubts about the science behind Darwin's theory of evolution. Can't we do an emergency air drop of Cosmos for these folks?
posted by ritualdevice at 10:02 AM PST - 32 comments

blog you*3 egos on display. could the flames be rising? the guys at the "blog you" site get reviewed.
posted by riley370 at 9:21 AM PST - 33 comments

how to buy the new republican party "The tax cuts will make the economy grow. As people do better, they start voting like Republicans--unless they have too much education and vote Democratic"
[this is the recently launched newyorker online]
posted by palegirl at 8:29 AM PST - 25 comments

Blogger server down? Well, a least for me all night and all morning. I don't know if everyone is getting this error: HTTP Error 500-13 - Server too busy

ev says he will be at O'Reilly's P2P Conference for much of the rest of this week.

Anyone knows any other news about this?
posted by neo at 8:08 AM PST - 9 comments

Imelda Marcos to open museum for her shoes.

Not all her shoes, mind you, just several thousand of them.
posted by lia at 8:05 AM PST - 4 comments

Prime Time. A prime is a whole number divisible only by itself and 1. In Aesthetics of the prime sequence one can hear primes, view primes (here also) and test for primes. Quite interesting and not just for math geeks...
posted by talos at 7:36 AM PST - 2 comments

Gates, Buffett & Soros unite to fight . . . the estate tax? I think this is a good thing. It's definitely odd.
posted by aflakete at 2:06 AM PST - 81 comments

Jorn tries pay for play. Seeking to sell links near the top of his extremely-widely-read weblog Robot Wisdom, Jorn Barger has set an (experimental) $20 submission fee: you don't get considered if you don't pay, but if he approves of your site you get a link. (Actually, it's even more complicated than that, which is characteristic of the man.) There's even a $100 fee for certain commercial links. Jorn can do what he likes, of course, but how well do you think this might work?
posted by dhartung at 10:35 PM PST - 42 comments

Never mind the Oscars, here's the Pazz And Jop Poll: which for some reason seems to have more cred than other music end-of-year lists. A double whammy for Outkast, and critical vindication for Eminem? What did they get right, what did they leave out, and what do these big crit-fests prove anyway?
posted by freakytrigger at 4:43 PM PST - 34 comments

The LA Times on entertainment journalism. An obvious but refreshing analysis of what gets reported, what doesn't get reported, and why. Particularly refreshing is the discussion of the ridiculous self-fulfilling prophecy of reporting box office numbers, and how that drastically affects the marketability of more sophisticated films meant to appeal to adults (who don't often see films on opening night).
posted by dan_of_brainlog at 4:14 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Superconducting power transmission cables In another thread, I mentioned that High-Tc power transmission cables were an example of an anticipated use of a technology which never came to fruition, and that the possible energy savings weren't worth the effort. Oops.
posted by UrineSoakedRube at 4:04 PM PST - 2 comments

See the ad, pay, or go away. Is the free ride finally over? Will it really work this time?
posted by owillis at 3:57 PM PST - 21 comments

Razorfish redesigns. Why does it look like MarchFirst?
posted by muta at 3:31 PM PST - 25 comments

Republicans plan energy bill "Legislation to be introduced next week by the Senate energy committee chairman would pay billions of dollars in subsidies to the energy companies, which gave generously in last year's campaign." More here.
posted by kliuless at 3:06 PM PST - 3 comments

Useful recipe ideas for those who believe in jesus... but choose not to worship. And has this guy been informed?
posted by davidgentle at 1:58 PM PST - 5 comments

The truth is out there -- way, way out there. Masons, Mormons, and William Shatner all play a role in this secret history of the millennia-old struggle between three alien factions for control of Earth. The battleground: a vast subterranean complex known as Dreamland.
posted by jjg at 1:28 PM PST - 3 comments

How to deal with bad drivers. Hmm, looks like a very effective means of eliminating tailgaters, but I wonder how cost effective it is? Price estimate anyone? (large image, ~140k)
posted by Hackworth at 12:47 PM PST - 18 comments

In time for Valentine's Day, the fabulous Guardian weblog has a special collection of links to articles about love, sex, cybersex and permutations of those three, from Australia, US, Canada, maybe a few virtual realms, too.
posted by jhiggy at 11:57 AM PST - 2 comments

The obvious next step has been taken: An Oregon state senator introduces a bill that will expand the definition of hate crimes to include ecoterrorism and illegal actions motivated by anticapitalism. Block a street, go to jail?
posted by aaron at 10:40 AM PST - 48 comments

The End of Fair Use? Pat Schroeder and Publishers Go After Libraries "Of all the dangerous and dot-complex problems that American publishers face in the near future — economic downturns, competition for leisure time, piracy — perhaps the most explosive one could be libraries. Publishers and librarians are squaring off for a battle royal over the way electronic books and journals are lent out from libraries and over what constitutes fair use of written material."
posted by timothompson at 10:04 AM PST - 7 comments

Cartoonbank.com is The New Yorker's online database of cartoons. You can search (internet dog, racism), order prints and t-shirts, and launch a pop-up "cartoon channel" window that refreshes with a new cartoon twice a minute.
posted by sudama at 8:21 AM PST - 2 comments

statistics on the death penalty Statistics which suggest that the death penalty does not accomplish what we expected of it. Unless, perhaps, we like revenge.
posted by Postroad at 7:33 AM PST - 76 comments

"Prime Minister Jean Chrétien issued a pointed call to Chinese leaders to build an impartial judiciary that will provide fair trials to all citizens, regardless of their creed, gender or political views." China is of course famous for its treatment of political protesters and religious sects, not to mention the common villager, endangered species, and its own culture. And don't forget Tibet.
posted by pracowity at 6:33 AM PST - 3 comments

The Oscar Nominees Page is up... ...and it looks like both Gladiator and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are the two big movies this time, with 10 Nominations each, including Best Picture. In addition, Julia Roberts finally has her oscar nod, as well as Tom Hanks, Ed Harris and Geoffrey Rush returning for another round in the Best Actor Category.
posted by Cavatica at 6:11 AM PST - 36 comments

When I read about this it made me feel ill. "Life as a human punching bag." A man in Japan is deeply in debt, and rather than filing for bankrupcy he is raising money by letting people try to hit him for a thousand yen per minute. He defends himself but does not hit back.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:32 AM PST - 19 comments

Just your average conspiracy theory. Yale University's infamous Skull and Bones secret society. George W. Bush is a member, sworn to secrecy like the rest. (via The History Channel)
posted by oh posey at 10:18 PM PST - 3 comments

The W3C opens a can of whoopass on the browser manufacturers with this detailed list of bugs they'd like to see remedied. Will this result in any changes whatsoever, or will Microsoft and Netscape continue to ignore what they should be doing?
posted by mathowie at 6:36 PM PST - 13 comments

The Oscar® nominations won't get announced until tomorrow, which means that the noms for The Razzies were announced today. The biggest contender? John Travolta revolting pet film, "Battlefield Earth," with eight.
posted by honkzilla at 6:15 PM PST - 23 comments

This week's bit of helpful corrective to the usual problematic coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the recent election.
posted by Joe Hutch at 5:34 PM PST - 16 comments

Amazon expands again. Does anyone know a reason (other than accesibility to high bandwidth connections) that this wasn't implemented months ago?
posted by tdstone at 5:32 PM PST - 6 comments

IUMA has been "forced to scale operations to the bare minimum." Maybe they shouldn't have used all that funding money on iuma babies.
posted by gluechunk at 5:04 PM PST - 11 comments

The New Transformers Are Coming!
posted by honkzilla at 4:28 PM PST - 10 comments

Clinton Foundation Web Site Real Soon
Are you as excited as I am? Look at the Better Whois results
posted by rschram at 2:50 PM PST - 1 comment

We'll forget it for you wholesale. Privacy portal company Safe Web sells powerful anonymizing software to the CIA. Which can then use it to spy on ? As well as for protecting their agents, of course . . . ;]
posted by aflakete at 1:37 PM PST - 1 comment

NEAR shoemaker lands and survives. The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touched down on a barren space rock called Eros on Monday, in history’s first attempt to land an object on an asteroid. Scientists said the probe still appeared to be sending signals back to Earth after making contact, hinting that the car-sized probe survived the descent. The speed at impact was between 1.5-1.8 m/s. This marks the first time that a US spacecraft was the first to land on another body of the solar system. And, if the server is back up, it's worth checking out the project's website.
posted by warhol at 12:35 PM PST - 11 comments

Children, if you can't play nice, go to your rooms. Microsoft and Sun are now throwing rotten eggs at each other. I haven't seen the atmosphere between two large corporations get this ugly since the MCI/AT&T long distance wars. As Ars Technica puts it, "Man, their bad blood has gone from lengthy legal disputes to 'Oh Yeah? Well your mom is ugly!' type squabbling."
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:05 PM PST - 6 comments

Looks like Napster is still treading water... after the courts feel that the case is a little 'Overbroad', whatever that means.
posted by Cavatica at 10:56 AM PST - 36 comments

Cyber-soulmates under foot, under thumb and under the microscope. I thought my own love life was bizarre..
posted by Perigee at 10:36 AM PST - 11 comments

The official newspapers of staples.com gets huffy about integrity. Back in 1999 the L.A. Times produced a special section praising the Staples center and sort of forgot to mention that they were splitting the ad revenue with Staples. At the time their management was pretty upfront about tearing down the wall between news and advertistisement. Now they've decided to act like journalists again. However, I'm not so sure that what this guy did was all that unethical. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't.
posted by rdr at 10:01 AM PST - 5 comments

Goodbye Deja. Hello Google Groups.
posted by danwalker at 8:52 AM PST - 32 comments

The ninth circuit court will be releasing their verdict on the linked page by 10am PST (noon CST). Is this the end for poor old Napster, or will other options be made available?
posted by Zebulun at 7:58 AM PST - 5 comments

The Last Expression project is a forum to explore the roles, functions, meanings and making of art in the Nazi concentration camps of World War II, focusing on the notorious site of Auschwitz-Birkenau. ... It is neither widely recognized in the realm of Holocaust history, nor in the discipline of art history, that concentration camp prisoners -- victims of the Nazis -- produced works of art during their incarceration. [from the Introduction.]
posted by tranquileye at 7:26 AM PST - 2 comments

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter thinks trying to impeach Clinton again would be a good idea. Did Clinton finally cross the line with his last-minue pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, or are Republicans just bitter about eight years of Clinton presidency?
posted by mrbula at 7:13 AM PST - 49 comments

Ellen MacArthur (24), came in second in the Vendee Globe 2000 race circumnavigating the world.
posted by tamim at 9:52 PM PST - 4 comments

Couples who click online, notably Meg Hourihan and Jason Kottke. Photo as well.
posted by jhiggy at 12:04 PM PST - 52 comments

Bruce Springsteen didn't win the rights to BruceSpringsteen.com, because 2 out of 3 arbitrators decided that The Boss has no right to the domain name. Which is quite surprising considering most other celebs have won the rights to theirs. [ via Signal vs. Noise]
posted by riffola at 10:49 AM PST - 2 comments

"There are only a few hundred genes that we have in the human genome that are not in the mouse genome," says Craig Venter, chief scientific officer at Celera Genomics. Information on the human genome released today reveals that there are far fewer genes than first thought - humans only have double the amount that worms and flies do. [more inside...]
posted by hijinx at 9:45 AM PST - 6 comments

The Independent has a report that excavations at Herculaneum has brought forth some 850 papyri and "Among the works, which academics hope to read using the new equipment, are the lost works of Aristotle (his 30 dialogues, referred to by other authors, but lost in antiquity), scientific works by Archimedes, mathematical treatises by Euclid, philosophical work by Epicurus, masterpieces by the Greek poets Simonides and Alcaeus, erotic poems by Philodemus, lesbian erotic poetry by Sappho, the lost sections of Virgil's Juvenilia, comedies by Terence, tragedies by Seneca and works by the Roman poets Ennius, Accius, Catullus, Gallus, Macer and Varus."
posted by stbalbach at 8:58 AM PST - 20 comments

Pixia is a FREE paint program for the PC.
posted by grumblebee at 7:44 AM PST - 13 comments

Anyone catch the fall of Three Rivers? The Steelers want some footage of the stadium falling. The Kingdome falling made the headlines here before, but didn't have any contests to my knowldege. So I was wondering does anyone know of any other buildings coming down? Any suggestions on what buildings should come down? And does the destruction or closing of a favorite place in your city or recall any fond memories?
posted by brent at 7:15 AM PST - 4 comments

And you thought Microsoft was evil. There appears to be pretty significant evidence that IBM was involved in automating the persecution of Jews by the Nazis. Read more about it here, here and here.

And since we haven't even settled the question of when a nation has atoned for its sins, what exactly is the statute of limitations for a company's sins?
posted by anildash at 3:34 AM PST - 19 comments

Reading through Physics Today (as I'm wont to do on occasion) I came across this absolutely enthralling article on Wolfgang Pauli of whom I've never heard. Truly an admirable specimen among Physicus Intellectus. Also, it behooves me to mention "A Remembrance of Pauli in 1950."
posted by kliuless at 5:42 PM PST - 3 comments

and the world gets just a little more confusing... Wait 'till you read who Elton John, who last year was honored by GLAAD with an award for his efforts in fighting homophobia, has decided to perform a duet with at the Grammys!
posted by BGM at 5:22 PM PST - 16 comments

Artist Demolishes Belongings Inside a defunct department store in the heart of London's shopping district, dozens of yellow bins move slowly along conveyor belts toward the mouth a gigantic blue machine. Workers in jumpsuits systematically catalogue and weigh the contents of each one. This is British artist Michael Landy's newest work: The items in the bins - coats, photographs, paintings, furniture - are all of his belongings. Over the next two weeks, everything he owns - including a red Saab - will be destroyed.
posted by Mars Saxman at 2:23 PM PST - 37 comments

Lego porn is good for the soul.
posted by geir at 12:55 PM PST - 8 comments

Dr. Vulture's Laboratory of Evil Science. You, too, can be a mad scientist; complete how-to here. In particular, hiring staff and proper equipment. (Courtesy of GeekPress.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:24 PM PST - 2 comments

Is this finally it? Ever since I got my Cable Modem, Napster, and a CD burner I have wondered if the genie was ever going back in the bottle. It's gonna be fun to watch them try.
posted by fullerine at 3:02 AM PST - 34 comments

A submarine of the US Pacific Fleet has surfaced under the Ehime Maru, a 191-foot boat used for Japanese fishery training, just off Honolulu, sinking the boat and apparently killing some high school students and teachers who were onboard. Not long ago, on August 12, an American sub was blamed for crashing into and sinking a Russian sub in the Barents Sea. It's not unusual for subs to hit subs.
posted by pracowity at 1:02 AM PST - 8 comments

"The Standard Model" of the universe takes a hit.
Score one for string theorists. Scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory appear to have discovered a new type of subatomic particle that would disprove the currently accepted model for the nature of space and matter.
posted by Optamystic at 11:57 PM PST - 3 comments

It's become second nature for many of us to head straight to Google when trying to find something, and more people seem to be discovering the site all the time. These days, savvy New Yorkers are Googling for love.
posted by Aaaugh! at 8:34 PM PST - 31 comments

Torture Still Widespread In Asia Says Amnesty . On Drudge. Do you think human rights violations of this sort mandate sanctions? I tend to not be a big fan of the U.S.'s ineffective Iraqi or Cuban sanctions but... This is very, very brutal. What do you think the proper U.S./European response should be?
posted by hanseugene at 7:19 PM PST - 3 comments

Icebox doing the dot-com death dance.
posted by amanda at 7:09 PM PST - 10 comments

Burma: Grace Under Pressure Zeldman logged this a couple days ago, but I just got to it today. Geofrrey Hiller's documentary site based on his travel in Burma. I can't say enough good things about it. A moving presentation on a beleaguered country, beautifully photgraphed and sequenced. The world is forgetting what was done to Burma. This should be a reminder.

It's slow, in part deliberately; it uses Flash (well), and it's got big images and sound…but it's worth it.
posted by rodii at 6:55 PM PST - 3 comments

Learn your ABCs... A very nice piece of flash (via harrumph)...
posted by TNLNYC at 6:26 PM PST - 3 comments

20yr old sells soul on eBay for $400 For the auction listing, he displayed a picture of himself wearing an "I'm with stupid" T-shirt.
posted by ritualdevice at 6:11 PM PST - 9 comments

Whew! It's okay folks, no evidence found of desecration of Jewish remains at the Temple Mount. "It wasn't the Muslims who destroyed the Temple,'' [Archaeologist Meir Ben-Dov] noted acerbically. "It was Titus.''
posted by lagado at 5:20 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

I had a nightmare once that Fidel Castro hacked into my PC. Is this nightmare now a reality? Or is this just more goofy and dangerous cyberwar hype?
posted by tranquileye at 4:18 PM PST - 5 comments

I have no idea what this is. monty python meets the near east. (warning: fairly loud audio; flash required) I would think this was one of those "viral marketing" sites except that it's in... turkish? any ideas what this is? babelfish doesn't translate turkish.
posted by rebeccablood at 3:48 PM PST - 8 comments

An online petition has started to save MTV's Jackass, which is under fire by Senator Liberman after a 13-year old kid set himself on fire. Do these online petitions hold any merit though? Or is it a big waste of time?
posted by Mark at 12:41 PM PST - 19 comments

What are you working on? Your office in an art gallery...
posted by owillis at 11:20 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Kittens for Sale! This twisted, yet somewhat humorous site is a PRANK by MIT students. Yet the FBI doesn't think so. They are taking it serious. One would think that catching all the pedophiles online would be a bit more important then a hoax internet site.
posted by da5id at 10:43 AM PST - 32 comments

How things work. Yes I know there's a plethora of physics-related 'how things work' websites out there, but I got absorbed in this one for a long time (run by physics prof Louis Bloomfield). Started with my wondering: "Why do colors fade in sunlight?" The first page though has an interesting bit (with video) about explosive superheated water. Don't try this at home.
posted by kokogiak at 10:40 AM PST - 3 comments

This has to be one of the coolest sites ever. Can't remember of the details of the 1973 saturday morning schedule, the one that turned you into a media junkie. It's here! And now TV Party seems to have partnered with YesterdayLand, "a new entertainment company that produces retro-themed entertainment and merchandise based on classic television, movies, music, toys, snack food, and fashion." What's up with that?
posted by tranquileye at 10:13 AM PST - 7 comments

100 dogs in 100 days! Illustrator Michael Wertz is on a mission to fill his dog blog with "100 pooches in >about< as many days." Help him out by spreading the word or sending him a photo of your favorite canine. Woof!
posted by webchick at 10:10 AM PST - 12 comments

Police victimized while probing Internet child porn. Does this really happen??
posted by justlisa at 7:47 AM PST - 24 comments

Cool, daddy-o. S. Britt lays down some hep cat artwork, ranging from album covers to tattoos to magazine spreads. Plus the interface is smashing, baby. I'm feelin' groooovy.
posted by hijinx at 7:25 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

"What If Linus Torvalds Gets Hit By A Bus?" - An Empirical Study
Every so often there's discussion as to what would happen to Linux if Linus was "hit by a bus". What a lot of people don't know is that it's already been sorted out.
posted by Foaf at 3:53 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Is Tony Perkins a Prophet After His Time? ''For once,'' he asks, ''could you please say that Tony Perkins was fucking right about the Internet bubble?'' Uh, okay Tony, if it'll make you feel better ...
posted by shauna at 3:40 AM PST - 1 comment

A 15 year old girl tried to implicate classmates in a false plot to "shoot up the school". She used her family computer to create fake AOL accounts for 2 girls before having private chats with herself, literally threatening herself on her own computer.
posted by crushed at 11:41 PM PST - 25 comments

if you're planning on doing a bit of burglary, don't forget to steal the web camera as well. or risk international notoriety.
posted by paul at 8:33 PM PST - 11 comments

Execution on closed circuit television? 8 seats in the death chamber where Tim McVeigh will be executed May 16. 250 want to be present. But is broadcasting the execution really a good idea?
posted by sabbydarling at 8:07 PM PST - 9 comments

Never go skiing with a mobile phone. Or rather never try to search for persons burried in an avalanche with your mobile phone turned on. Sad but true.
posted by physics at 7:21 PM PST - 5 comments

"I don't imagine I'll be able to get it up again" A controversial five-story high condom banner is blown off the side of a South African civic center by gale-force winds.
posted by allaboutgeorge at 6:20 PM PST - 6 comments

Motley Fool cuts 115 employees The Motley Fool laid off about 30 percent of its staff Thursday, becoming the latest online publisher to recoil amid cost pressures.
posted by shauna at 6:06 PM PST - 5 comments

What happened to 16 Dominicans lost a sea when their compass broke while trying to sail to Puerto Rico? They were saved by the gift of Faustina Mercedes breasts. Eight men and seven women took turns suckling for just a few seconds each day. Now know as a the "Little Angel of the Sea", Mercedes and the 17 others were safely returned to the Dominican Republic after 12 days.
posted by Zebulun at 1:14 PM PST - 21 comments

Slate experiments with form in its new series "Seed" aka "Genius Babies", a long-form investigative report by David Plotz that will unfold on the web as he interviews and collates sources. The editorial concept is a deliberate attempt to bring 5000+ word pieces to web journalism, while opening it up to the possibilities of the medium.
posted by dhartung at 12:57 PM PST - 10 comments

Blind cod, netted 40 times, retires to aquarium.
posted by jpoulos at 9:41 AM PST - 5 comments

The slashdot random story generator. Think slashdot is not updating often enough. Here's your answer :)
posted by TNLNYC at 9:26 AM PST - 8 comments

Finally! Relief from the Orbital Mind Control Lasers EMF-induced cancers getting you down? Are aliens eating your brain? Aren't you tired of regular, fabric-based clothing? These folks have the latest in tinfoil hats and so much more.
posted by Skot at 9:22 AM PST - 8 comments

Aquarium worker makes turtle stew and people whine about it. The animal was dead already. Why is eating it any worse than throwing it out? I killed a moose with my car once and I was more than happy to see someone haul it away to his freezer. People are so silly.
posted by bondcliff at 8:53 AM PST - 17 comments

Space U-Haul Atlantis on its way. Atlantis is climbing orbit to reach Alpha carrying with it the Destiny module for Space Station Freedom. The module only has 2 inches of clearance from the shuttle itself and will take one hell of a can opener to get it out.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 8:06 AM PST - 9 comments

CNN Aided Suicides? China claims CNN crew knew in advance about self-immolations. Sounds a little like Tom Clancy's latest novel. Given the number of AOL/TimeWarner/CNN layoffs this month, one could argue CNN's guilty of committing suicide than abetting them.
posted by darren at 8:00 AM PST - 2 comments

The Trafalgar Square pigeons are really going now. Bernard Rayner, the last Trafalgar Square birdseed-seller, has settled for a cash payment from the city of London and closed down forever, thus ending a long tradition of feeding and encouraging 10,000 statue-bombarding "rats with wings" to befoul one of London's best outdoor gathering places. Not everyone is happy about this.
posted by pracowity at 7:16 AM PST - 15 comments

Memorex hacked
Question. If you hack a site, is it really a good idea to leave behind your email address?
posted by yangwar at 6:26 AM PST - 22 comments

God's Ghostwriters: Who wrote the Bible, when and why?
posted by lagado at 7:48 PM PST - 26 comments

Technology Weblog in French The Other Solitude finally has a 10.am-style technology Weblog, Pssst. Vaguely hard to navigate. The hot news appears to be in /actu/. ¶ Fun fact: French for Weblog is either webabillard or webillard. (Cf. Spanish bitácora and Italian, Dutch, and German weblog.)
posted by joeclark at 5:41 PM PST - 5 comments

Happy trails to you... until we meet again. Co-writer Dale Evans, dead at 88.
posted by baylink at 5:21 PM PST - 4 comments

A garbage can full of lightbulbs? Does anyone else think that the newish picture of Bill Gates on his Web site is a bit...odd? At least Mr. Monopoly has moved away from the standard corporate publicity picture that's on his biography page, but still...
posted by tregoweth at 5:20 PM PST - 25 comments

The Anti-Defamation League has categorized the circle-A anarchy sign as "General Racist Symbol" (although in the Background info, they state: "The majority of people who identify with this movement consider themselves non-racist or anti-racist"). Kinda wacky.
posted by gluechunk at 5:16 PM PST - 14 comments

I'll never understand people. Some guy integrated a PowerBook with his Nissan Pathfinder in order to play mp3s and he calls it the "Pathintosh." This bad boy's got it all: touchscreen LCD panel for the console, steering wheel audio controls, IR remote for remote playing, wireless AirPort access to download songs from his home computer, and a convenient dock for the PowerBook. The only question is "why." Cool, but definitely overkill.
posted by bbrown at 5:08 PM PST - 23 comments

eGroups.co.uk - same old eGroups look, same functionality Am I hallucinating or have YahooGroups forgotten to update this site?
posted by tobyslater at 4:37 PM PST - 1 comment

"We're sorry, but the number you've dialled..." [ 11 second RealAudio file ] Found here, as part of a collection of recordings most of the rest of which will only be interesting to telecom geeks.
posted by baylink at 4:22 PM PST - 8 comments

Orgasmatronic! A medical implant in the works could offer women a chance to experience orgasms with the press of a button.
posted by ritualdevice at 4:02 PM PST - 21 comments

Groove, by the man who made Lotus Notes. I have played with this new app a little bit and it seems great. It's Napster and Icq in one with a whole lot more. This is what Ray Ozzie wanted to do right after he finished Lotus Notes.
posted by Zool at 3:52 PM PST - 10 comments

Find A Grave : Looking for dead people? Early onset necrophilia? This is a good place to start!
posted by kliuless at 3:45 PM PST - 3 comments

This is Slate?: Any idea what they're trying to do?
posted by owillis at 3:01 PM PST - 6 comments

Got (human) milk? Mother's milk saves 16 lost at sea on a 12-day journey, during an attempted crossing from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. Human breasts can do a hell of a lot more than just sitting there and looking pretty...
posted by beth at 2:53 PM PST - 3 comments

religious action figures! yes! no more stealing my friends' action figures! seriously, this could be good for families with a new testament preference; they have "african heritage" and "caucasian heritage" lines. one odd thing -- the "african" eve is much lighter than the "african" adam... what's up with that? link from k10k.
posted by o2b at 2:51 PM PST - 7 comments

Americans suck at math. Mathematician trade deficit ensues... I only find this article interesting because of a talk with my math teacher recently about how most math teachers these days are foriegners, although she isn't, and not that foriegners are bad. But I'm curious if this a bad problem in today's economy or not? Or if this is a problem? What country is good at math? India and China? That's where most of the Silicon Valley CEO's workers are from these days. Or is that political, financial? I don't know. Do you know?
posted by redleaf at 2:42 PM PST - 22 comments

Gives a whole new poignancy to the term 'hosed'. Hearing about this sort of destruction always makes me feel like time is running out to see the world's wonders before they're gone.
posted by rory at 2:22 PM PST - 1 comment

Did anyone catch 60 Minutes II last night, and their piece on inventor Dean Kamin? After watching this show I felt that the hype surrounding "IT" may not be unfounded. His company's inventions are truly revolutionary. Plus, the guy has some really cool homes that make Bill Gates' mansion look boring.
posted by Sal Amander at 12:39 PM PST - 17 comments

The Business Software Alliance is trying to spook everyone here in Chicago (and other cities) with a major radio ad campaign and mailing. I don't have a problem with their goal, but I do with their scare tactics. Additionally their radio ads, as well as their web site, encourage disgruntled employees to anonymously blow the whistle on their current or former employers. Do we need to encourage unhappy employment at a time in this society when disgruntled employees can easily become violent? Do we need to emphasize disgruntled employees? Or is this a good way to let off the steam before your kettle blows?
posted by Sal Amander at 12:22 PM PST - 7 comments

Police raid Verder dorm room, confiscate computer. Now this normally doesn't sound like anything out of the ordinary... we always hear about this stuff, right? But check out the web page in question. I think this is being taken just a little too far. I used to be an avid StarCraft player too, and I've seen my fair share of clan pages that have a page like the one that got these guys in trouble. Guess we're still in post-Columbine overcarefulness mode...
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 11:47 AM PST - 14 comments

Gore: It was your fault, sleazeball! Clinton: No, it was YOUR fault, automaton! Reports today indicate that Al Gore and Bill Clinton engaged in a heated hour-long blame fest over who caused Gore to lose the election. (Or, to assuage the bitter, caused him to fail to acheive enough of a majority nationwide that the Florida outcome would not have mattered.) Was it Clinton's fault? Was it Gore's? More importantly, does it matter, or does anyone even care anymore?
posted by Dreama at 11:00 AM PST - 33 comments

In Defense of Copyleft.

"...during a legal seminar Tuesday in Dublin on 'Copyleft and Open Source Software: History, Applications and Legal Issues,' Free Software Foundation founder and principle GNU developer Richard Stallman argued that the concept of copyright is inappropriate to the digital age and restricts freedom and innovation."

I'm interested to see what people think about the issue of Copyleft, especially as it applies to web technologies and software.
posted by Hackworth at 10:40 AM PST - 13 comments

Man takes pot shots at Bush. It begins. I've heard lots of people joking about this. It looks like someone took it seriously, if incompetently. Is that old Indian curse true?
posted by captaincursor at 9:16 AM PST - 27 comments

Librarians against UCITA. Librarians on the forefront of preserving the public's right to fair use in copyright law. Kiss your local librarian and ALA member today! For more information, see the ALA UCITA Web site. [Courtesy of ALAWON and NINCH].
posted by leo at 7:47 AM PST - 3 comments

A good explanation of why a missile defense shield should be pursued. Granted, the tech may not be up to the challenge yet, but that's no reason not to try to build it. And if, God forbid, someone was to launch a nuke this way, it would give us a chance of avoiding having to turn someone's country into a glass-covered parking lot.
posted by CRS at 7:11 AM PST - 40 comments

Feminist fun for the whole family: Maxim vs Cosmo. What's the difference, really?
posted by rklawler at 7:09 AM PST - 52 comments

Election Night at CNN called 'debacle' by panel -- Well thank you, Captain Obvious! For this they needed a "panel"? To be fair, though, CNN did announce some changes to its election coverage policies ...
posted by shauna at 4:57 AM PST - 3 comments

Matt has redesigned his home and it's certainly not the same as before. It seems to be the season for redesigning your weblog. Lots of change is in the air, and the results are a breath of fresh air, if these sites are anything to go by. (Note too, that he's using custom coldfusion/SQL code on this box to serve his personal site.)
posted by grestall at 3:50 AM PST - 43 comments

"It's like The Day of the Jackal as conceived by Ned Flanders, and produced by the film and video department of a rural Bible college. Hoo boy, is this thing ever an embarrassment." National Review deliciously - and viciously - skewers the movie version of Left Behind, the Christian fundamentalist Rapture novel.
posted by aaron at 10:55 PM PST - 23 comments

Eminem vs. Paul Simon. And the Grammy goes to...
posted by oh posey at 10:11 PM PST - 28 comments

Old Baby Skeleton Found In D.C. Attic I don't usually crosspost stuff here and on my weblog but this one was just too weird to miss:

Contractors installing duct work in an attic found a suitcase containing the skeleton of a baby who apparently died more than 20 years ago, police said. The home was built in 1928 and occupied by members of the same family until the mid-1990s. The last of three elderly sisters who lived there died in 1995 at the age of 102, and the house was sold five years ago.

posted by hanseugene at 9:26 PM PST - 10 comments

One way to get Internet access... just join the Alaska Army National Guard. From the Nome Nugget newspaper article, "Army National Guard leaders have said they want all 350,000 Guardsmen in the U.S. wired to the Internet by 2005 as part of a plan to improve communication and to create a force of 'Cyber Warriors'".
posted by JParker at 5:54 PM PST - 4 comments

Well, that's it. We're done for. Ebola hits North America...maybe.
posted by ritualdevice at 3:52 PM PST - 29 comments

The space shuttle launches tomorrow at 5:11 pm CST! I know these launches seem somewhat routine, but it's still the most dangerous job in the world, and each launch still fascinates me. You can watch the launch from the Houston Chronicle's live feed.
posted by Sal Amander at 3:47 PM PST - 10 comments

Woman gets drunk, crashes, sues boss successfully A Toronto woman has been awarded CAN$300,000 in a landmark suit. She sued her boss for throwing an office party from which the woman drove home drunk. I am ashamed to be Canadian and I hope that fucking lady gets run down in the street like a dog.
posted by tweek at 3:16 PM PST - 43 comments

Ah-nuld for Guv? Right on the heels of Mr. Schwarzenegger musing on his political future the (left-wing controlled?) press reveals all his dirty laundry. Coinicidence? You tell me...
posted by BGM at 3:15 PM PST - 13 comments

County Chairman Rich Crotty wants to ban dancing in new clubs. Assistant County Attorney Joel Prinsell said, "There's no constitutional right to dance with strangers."

Another strange anti-drug law for you.
posted by john at 3:14 PM PST - 9 comments

This article about Warren Farrell, ex-feminist, now a "masculinist", raises some interesting points for pondering. Is the emphasis on feminism inherently as unfair to men as chauvanism is to women?
posted by jammer at 1:57 PM PST - 77 comments

Anti-globalisation protesters "make me want to vomit" says Michael Moore, head of the World Trade Organisation. Which is funny, since *he* makes *me* want to vomit, too. "Because the poorest people on our planet, they are the ones that need us the most", says Mr. Moore. Oh, the sincerity in his words...
posted by tobyslater at 12:16 PM PST - 42 comments

Adam Gopnik on NPR (NB: Requires Real Player) Gopnik wrote about Paris for the New Yorker for some years. Susan Stamberg interviewed him for Morning Edition today, and he says many things I agree with about what makes for a good city (just to tie into the discussion we've been having about cities).
posted by aurelian at 11:12 AM PST - 1 comment

Israel: How did it get this bad?
...they are outraged by the Palestinians, not only for rejecting Mr Barak’s offer but for turning on Israelis with violence. “We gave them everything, and they shoot us,” is, crudely, the Israeli-in-the-street reaction. Disillusioned and bitter, Israelis are blinkered from any point of view but their own; they are blind to a Palestinian perspective.
posted by cell divide at 11:06 AM PST - 28 comments

"Now it's possible to send a verse from the Koran, an appeal for charity and even a call for jihad and know it will not be seen by anyone hostile to our faith, like the Americans." Osama bin Laden and others are reported to be using encryption to post instructions for terrorist activities on sports chat rooms, pornographic bulletin boards and other Web sites.
posted by quirked at 10:13 AM PST - 28 comments

Vatican might name Saint Isidore of Seville the patron saint of Internet users and computer programmers. The world keeps getting weirder, doesn't it?
posted by christian at 9:25 AM PST - 24 comments

eToys announced plans today to fire its remaining 293 employees. However, the company plans to continue exploring alternatives to closure.
posted by crushed at 8:00 AM PST - 9 comments

Stacy sues Survivor. She claims that producer Mark Burnett urged Dirk and Sean to vote against her rather than against Rudy, in hopes that the last older contestant would not be booted.
posted by rafeco at 6:30 AM PST - 17 comments

Juno's controversial plan to rent space on your PC -- In exchange for free ISP access, Juno customers will be required to keep their computers on at all times so Juno can sell unused time and space on its customers' hard drives.
posted by shauna at 1:00 AM PST - 16 comments

Amazon.Pay? Amazon has a system to allow site owners and sellers of digital content to get paid....
posted by owillis at 9:33 PM PST - 76 comments

Proposed IRS rule could limit the freedom to link. The US Internal Revenue Service is proposing a rule that might make it inadvisable for not-for-profit organizations to provide links on their Web sites to any political site. The IRS is proposing to interpret any link to a political site from the pages of a nonprofit as evidence that the nonprofit is "engaging in political activity" and thus in danger of losing its 503(c) status.
posted by lagado at 6:30 PM PST - 8 comments

Lost but not forgotten? My days of not consuming animals based on the assumption that they are thinking, feeling beings may be swayed by this article on a chicken that lived four and a half years…without a head.
posted by poodle at 6:25 PM PST - 7 comments

Hey! What's this thing suddenly coming toward me very fast? Very, very fast. So big and flat and round... Are you one of those people in search of a new extreme sport? Have you considered spacediving?
posted by Aaaugh! at 2:13 PM PST - 6 comments

Is media bias real? MRC has an interesting collection of quotes by the big 3 news anchors comparing how they treated Clinton & GW Bush on the same issue - abortion. It sure looks like bias to me, but then again, I'm biased.
posted by schlyer at 2:08 PM PST - 36 comments

Engineering students hang VW Beetle from Golden Gate Bridge -- I vaguely remember hearing about some various CalTech annual pranks over the years - but this one took some effort. So much for non-chalantly transporting a rusty Beetle across the border anymore...
posted by mecawilson at 12:31 PM PST - 9 comments

Way to go, Mr. President. Hmm, odd. If you visit the White House's website and click on the president, the text is right, but the picture seems to be a little off... If it's been corrected, I grabbed a screenshot and put it on my server. I'm sure it's just a sign of the attention to detail to come over the next four years...
posted by warhol at 12:21 PM PST - 10 comments

Man, do I need therapy or what?
Article at wired about the legalization of MDMA for theraputic use in as soon as 5 years. It's defined theraputic effect is "empathy". Discuss.
posted by Hackworth at 11:55 AM PST - 10 comments

Remember DotComGuy? He lived in his E-cave for a whole year as a promotional stunt to prove anyone could survive without leaving home as long as they had a laptop and a internet connection. Well he did survive and left the cave on January 1 stating he was taking a break from the net. But now he's back with a new website and a new fiancee he met in a chatroom during his virtual imprisonment. Do we call still call it addiction or a way of life now?
posted by oh posey at 11:34 AM PST - 5 comments

free music? Stumbled on this, it seems like a good idea the artists actually approve the download of their mp3s...
posted by jonpanky at 11:11 AM PST - 3 comments

Is Dubya running his own show? GWB came to talk to Congressional Democrats at their retreat and got a key portion of an executive order he just signed wrong, according to some Representatives. Was it a simple misunderstanding or did he just sign something that a handler put in front of him?
posted by norm at 11:07 AM PST - 41 comments

Microsoft announces the product names for the next version of Windows and Office. They'll be called "Windows XP" and "Office XP", respectively.
posted by milnak at 10:22 AM PST - 20 comments

Tube drivers strike and the queue system falls apart! Getting to work was bad enough thanks to strking tube drivers and crack smoking officials at Hammersmith Bus station, now how the hell do I get home?
posted by Foaf at 9:26 AM PST - 13 comments

A British writer's view of the recent American election We report. You decide. An issue that will not go gently into that good night.
posted by Postroad at 8:33 AM PST - 6 comments

According to the exponential math of a Brown University study , if the prison population were to continue growing at the current rate, by 2053 the United States would actually have more people in prison than out. Newsweek tackles "Abuse In America: The War on Addiction." Are drug courts a sensible solution, or just another bandaid?
posted by netbros at 8:22 AM PST - 8 comments

Government's 50 Greatest Endeavors from The Brookings Institution. Rebuilding Europe After World War II and Expanding the Right to Vote are number 1 and 2 respectively. Do we give our Government enough credit or should this be compared to a list of Government's 50 greatest boondoggles?
posted by quirked at 6:46 AM PST - 19 comments

A new strain of the HIV virus has been discovered and may already be spreading.
posted by hijinx at 6:20 AM PST - 12 comments

Ending racism? This site contains several "exhibits" about race and racism. It makes a pretty non-controversial argument, that racism is evil. But what is racism? Ageism, sexism, ableism, "geneism" and classism all fit the bill put forth here. Can't putting all of these causes under one umbrella be counter productive? [more inside]
posted by croutonsupafreak at 10:02 PM PST - 19 comments

Chack is an artist doing stuff you've never imagined. It's sugar-coated, sappy, happy, cartoony imagery you often find in japanese logos, but the subjects are violent and sexual. Brilliantly funny and shocking. If anyone can translate or knows the story behind this person, please enlighten me. (via andrew and mrpants)
posted by mathowie at 9:59 PM PST - 17 comments

So Shey tried to order a pair of Nike's from their custom shop with the word "sweatshop" on them. They refused three times, listing a new excuse every time. I smell a great culture jamming project. My suggestion? Let's all go do the same.
posted by fraying at 8:04 PM PST - 30 comments

Another unified theory! And this time it's not just about physics, but the eternity domain, diallel lines, sunspots, egg resonance, planetary alignment, plant dehydration and the Book of Mormon too.
posted by rodii at 6:04 PM PST - 4 comments

Why bother with insurance forms--go to the Luxury Hospital. And they're helping Medicare costs stay low too!! (?)
posted by aflakete at 12:04 PM PST - 4 comments

Cringeley, from the Pulpit, on Starband satellite internet, and it's use with home LANs and non-Wintel machines. Yes, you *can* get an Ethernet connection to the external box instead of that silly-ass IP over USB thing...
posted by baylink at 11:42 AM PST - 32 comments

Nice backgrounder for Hannibal. No spoilers.
posted by aflakete at 2:37 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

What do the "Gutsiest Broads" like Courtney Love and Hillary Clinton have that the "Wimpiest Women" don't? By the way who is Darva Conger?
posted by oh posey at 12:00 AM PST - 47 comments

Safari is a new service from O'Reilly which allows you online access to a number of their books for a monthly fee. While the concept isn't entirely new, (books24x7 comes to mind), the use of O'Reilly books and the monthly rate has promising potential. [Via Cam]
posted by alana at 6:43 PM PST - 5 comments

Kill a patent, make a bundle. This is one of the more creative uses of the web to date. A new kind of matchmaker, actually. Patents are a common source of litigation and often a company accused of violating a patent wants to prove that the patent is invalid. The easiest way to do that is to find "prior art", to prove that the invention described by the patent actually existed elsewhere before the owner of the patent filed for it. So this web site offers prizes ($10,000!) for leads to prior art in specific cases. Those offering the prizes are anonymous, though it's often possible to figure out who they are just by the questions they ask if you have a knowledge of disputes in the industry.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:28 PM PST - 3 comments

WHOIS results for AOLTIMEWARNERYAHOO.COM... (via NTK)
posted by tregoweth at 4:57 PM PST - 11 comments

"Logic Mazes" a.k.a. Theseus and the Minotaur -- Spinnwebe led me to this site, where I spent about four (non-continuous) hours trying to solve the fourteenth maze. Don't follow the link unless you have some time to kill.
posted by UrineSoakedRube at 4:13 PM PST - 19 comments

Altavista redesigns. Again. Seems they're trying a Yahoo/DMOZ feel this time, with LookSmart results as their directory. Didn't they do this once before?
posted by danwalker at 1:59 PM PST - 13 comments

Is the US really entering a recession? Even with recent layoffs, the last time unemployement was this low before 1999 was 1970. And maybe a recession is not such a bad idea, what with spending outmaching saving in recent years. [more inside]
posted by croutonsupafreak at 10:10 AM PST - 3 comments

An Ode to the Aeron -- Something good may come out of the dotcom collapse at last! As they all go belly up, having lavished lots of their venture capital on $2000 office chairs, will the rest of us finally be able to afford these marvels of office architecture, even if we do have to settle for them being used?
posted by crunchland at 7:30 AM PST - 27 comments

Yahoo launches a 'pay for position' program which takes the biggest (and one of the last) purely editorially-led directory sites slap bang into the commercial age of post-banner-ad dot-communism. All fairness to them - it's only in the Business categories, where you might otherwise go and look in the Yellow Pages (where of course you can pay for different sizes of advert already), but will it end there? I fear not...
posted by barbelith at 7:11 AM PST - 9 comments

"I think it's dead. I think it's over with; it's gone. There is no long-term prognosis. The patient has died. There is no future." That's the web as content medium he's talking about. [more inside]
posted by rodii at 6:50 AM PST - 27 comments

Good breakdown of complex free speech case in Canada involving student's threat speech, famous writers (e.g. King, Atwood). (from wood s lot)
posted by aflakete at 4:06 AM PST - 5 comments

The XFL takes to the field this Saturday.
posted by tamim at 9:00 PM PST - 32 comments

"Penguins wobble" - a MeFi update (earlier thread here) For those who wondered, Penguins do not topple over backwards over when helicopters pass overhead. A small team of British researchers spent $36,000 and five weeks finding this out. Another study is planned soon with fixed-wing aircraft.
posted by kokogiak at 2:45 PM PST - 2 comments

Kids Korner: "Drugs are Nature's Hugs" The real reason you should be using drugs. (A public service announcement from Something Awful.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 2:14 PM PST - 8 comments

Catholic Church to Kid: "Drop dead"! She wanted to take Holy Communion, but had a disease where she couldn't eat the bread. When she asked for a substitute, the Catholic church refused.
posted by owillis at 1:28 PM PST - 21 comments

Odyssey 2000 has finally ended but many of the riders had complaints (and one person even lost a leg in Sweden).
posted by gluechunk at 12:21 PM PST - 4 comments

There are insults, and then there's harrassment and apparently, a judge thinks that being referred to repeatedly as Monica Lewinsky crosses the line into sexual harassment. A woman's lawsuit against a (now retired) SUNY New Paltz professor may go forward after he called her by the infamous intern's name and made Lewinsky-related jokes towards her throughout a semester. What do you think -- was this just the prof being a mean old jerk, or was this really the creation of a "sexually hostile environment?"
posted by Dreama at 11:47 AM PST - 30 comments

Man with machete attacks school, injures 3 adults. It's not known if any children were hurt in the attack. Expect to hear more about this.
posted by liquidgnome at 11:28 AM PST - 8 comments

It t'was foretold by the ancients! "Come the millennium, month twelve, In the home of the greatest power, The village idiot will come forth To be acclaimed the leader." - Nostradamus [1555] I consider myself someone with mental fortitude. I consider myself not given to listen to foolish ramblings of portents. But in this case I must concede!
posted by thacker at 9:47 AM PST - 24 comments

Piece of thumb found in Sandwich in high school cafeteria
Said a student: "Our lunch is our most valuable time, and now we have to eat fingers."
posted by jpoulos at 9:40 AM PST - 18 comments

Busted! DEA cooks the books to show a 'major success' in the War on Drugs.
posted by snakey at 9:18 AM PST - 11 comments

Bug Chasers : According to this article at Alternatives Magazine, there are gay men who are looking for HIV+ partners who will infect them. In fact, it even claims that some people "fetishize" the virus. I'm absolutely stunned. Can anyone confirm that this is really happening?
posted by ivey at 8:50 AM PST - 18 comments

The L-5 Society was created to support efforts to colonize space (in a very specific way, see article). The interesting part of this history lesson is the hopes people had in the late 60s of living in space in their lifetimes. Was it naivete or something else?
posted by Sean Meade at 5:39 AM PST - 20 comments

Pennsylvania School cut father's opportunity to lunch with his son after he has been there every day for four years. Due to his work schedule this is the only time he has to spend with his son.
posted by Animus at 5:36 AM PST - 26 comments

the SPLEEN , one of the first sites about art & design, is still up and running. I remember linking to Piotr's site six years ago; at the time I had seen nothing like it.
posted by muta at 1:37 AM PST - 2 comments

51,631 dot com layoffs as of Feb. 01, 2001. Is it that the web allows us to simultaneously view the usual failure of 99% of new businesses, a sign of the coming recession, or just a result of bad business plans and get rich quick schemes? Or was it simply too good to last? Whatever the reason, it's depressing.
posted by crushed at 12:37 AM PST - 19 comments

Dubya wishes to end "discrimination" against churches. In regards to his recent faith-based services funding thing, Dubya speaks to the religous folks he's targeting. Apparently, he feels the separation of church and state is "discrimination." Is there any vacancy left in Canada for about four years?
posted by Spirit_VW at 10:31 PM PST - 27 comments

During the Super Bowl fans were subjucted to a "computerized police lineup" as they were entering Raymond James Stadium. According to law enforcement officials, it was used to "scan the crowd for pickpockets and terrorists..." Now the ACLU has demanded that public hearings about its use be held in Tampa. Were local officials using a legitimate tool of law enforcement or were they acting like Big Brother?
posted by Bag Man at 7:22 PM PST - 26 comments

It isn't just Dubya that's making idiotic mistakes in the White House. The Office of the Press Secretary has posted a transcript of a press briefing, in which they themselves identify a source by name that is supposed to be identified only "on background" and as "a White House official." (Who the hell is John Bridgeland, anyway?)
posted by delfuego at 6:28 PM PST - 12 comments

Bugtraq sends a trojan to 27,000 mailing list subscribers. And they did so after having the program carrying the trojan checked by Network Associates, who said (incorrectly) that it was clean. But the height of beauty of this incident is that the function of the trojan was to mount a distributed denial of service attack against the name servers of... (wait for it) Network Associates; which it did, shutting down access to their web servers for a while. Yes, the guy who did it is a criminal. But you've got to admit that he's got style.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:04 PM PST - 24 comments

Warner Bros. Denies Manson Will Play Wonka Nor will Tim Burton direct. I'm actually kind of disappointed. Compared to Nick Cage, Dustin Hoffman, or (bleagh) Robin Williams (as discussed here, March '00,) Manson might have actually been able to creep me out as completely as Gene Wilder did in the original.
posted by Tubes at 3:46 PM PST - 19 comments

A CNN parody site gets bigfooted. "Defendant's actions constitute a textbook case of cyberpiracy under the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. CNN and its marks are suffering irreparable harm as a result of Defendant's actions, and they will continue to unless and until Defendant is enjoined." Yeah, right.
posted by tranquileye at 2:15 PM PST - 4 comments

Glassdog redesigns. Is this GD8 or GD9? I think I've lost count...
posted by annathea at 10:35 AM PST - 14 comments

"Chicken, the deadly white meat." An 8-year-old boy was suspended from school for 3 days after pointing a breaded chicken finger at a teacher and saying, ``Pow, pow, pow.''
... What else do I have to say?
posted by Hackworth at 9:51 AM PST - 16 comments

Mission To Mars What if we could get there in about two weeks?
posted by Skot at 9:35 AM PST - 21 comments

Anti-Semitic Microsoft Font or just another dingbat conspiracy theory? You be the judge!
posted by crunchland at 8:37 AM PST - 10 comments

"economy failed to grow for the first time in 117 months"
posted by tiaka at 8:35 AM PST - 13 comments

I'm Dr. Fetid, and I like weird music, archived for your perusal.
posted by sonofsamiam at 8:30 AM PST - 3 comments

Overwhelming majority favors keeping "Star Spangled Banner". Not fresh (1998 poll) but the topic has come up here several times recently. (more inside)
posted by dhartung at 8:28 AM PST - 12 comments

Rethinking Mad Cow Disease So ususually when I see a story about an "amateur scientist" who has an "alternative theory" to some issue, I get all gooshy inside waiting to see what insane theory it is this time, but this guy has what seems to be a very credible alternative explanation for BSE/CJD occurrences and some credible science to back him up.
posted by briank at 7:57 AM PST - 6 comments

I'd prefer to read more about copycat bakings than shootings.
posted by Hankins at 6:42 AM PST - 6 comments

Ev explains the Pyra situation. Sad news from the makers of Blogger.
posted by prolific at 3:46 AM PST - 178 comments

Blogger, Metafilter and Disturbing Search Requests sweep web awards. You go Matt! [More inside]
posted by Neale at 3:30 AM PST - 18 comments

Haiku the Blog
MeFi Users look!
Other Blog filled with haiku
click link to read more           [via MacGregor.net]
posted by DragonBoy at 12:47 AM PST - 3 comments