MetaFilter

Vitaflo 8. Respect. Lines and Colours. Hidden (from me at least) elements. From this eye (the left one) it is an expansive and daring, maybe refreshing, use of colour. Blew me away really. Also: Vitaflo turns four soon. Like I was saying: Respect.
posted by bruyneel at 11:19 PM PST - 39 comments

Didn't you know? George loves you!. Now don't you feel all warm and happy inside?
posted by Zebulun at 11:18 PM PST - 26 comments

Boeing's new boat will be able to fly 6,000 nautical to 10,000 nautical miles nonstop which means it could circle the earth having to only refuel twice. The linked page includes a nice rendering of what the plane will look like (with concords permanently grounded, boeing might actually pull this off)
posted by Zebulun at 11:14 PM PST - 16 comments

LavaRand ...harnessing the power of Lava Lite® lamps to generate truly random numbers....

That's a bold statement, but who am I to doubt the power of the lava lamp. The mathematical purist may disagree with the "truely random" part, but this geek speak convinced me that LavaRand can handle all my random number needs.
posted by bicyclingfool at 10:37 PM PST - 1 comment

Is violence necessary to fight The Man? Hey, ya can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs. This essay makes some compelling points on the violence in Seattle and at the FTAA protests.
posted by snakey at 4:07 PM PST - 21 comments

How to win friends and influence people! Metallica goes after Seattle ISP for copyright infringement. I got this link from a pal-has anyone else heard about it?
posted by black8 at 3:46 PM PST - 19 comments

Student loans got you down? Try My Rich Uncle. Not a loan, they just skim a little off the top of your future earnings. Besides the obvious issue of whether or not it's a good idea, is the site even for real? They have applications and an address, but none of the legal info like you find on bank and educational loan sites.
posted by Bezuhin at 3:19 PM PST - 7 comments

What Kind of a May Day Protester are you?

(stolen from Boing Boing)
posted by mecran01 at 2:52 PM PST - 7 comments

I'll bet NBC don't do this. Overnight between Thursday and Sunday, Channel 4 network in the UK broadcast an alomost separate station called 4Later, who's stock in trade is cheap documentaries about unusual subjects, Troma films and televised Poker games. Currently, the moments between these shows are punctuated by the opinions of 'The Collective' an on-line community who webcam their thoughts. So a bit like Mefi, but they get to see each other's faces. Funny, sweet and honest . . .
posted by feelinglistless at 2:45 PM PST - 4 comments

As noted earlier this month, there are slew of websites connected to Spielberg’s AI. As it turns out, they are all part of an intricate game that stands to last long after the movie comes out. That game is called “movie marketing,” albiet terribly engrossing marketing.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 1:37 PM PST - 7 comments

I'm Totally and Utterly Gobsmacked Hmm... horses, sheep ... British gay people? Well, it's better than having entrail explode in your mouth, I guess.
posted by bclark at 1:32 PM PST - 11 comments

StoryTime is a site created based on netizen news' layout where hopefully people will go and post memories and the like. It's actually pretty theraputic. (i know linkin your own work is discouraged - I wouldn't link it here 'cept I put a lot of work into it and no besides myself has thusfar posted.)
posted by Zebulun at 1:09 PM PST - 9 comments

Bloomberg to Run For NYC Mayor "Mack added: 'This isn't an ego thing'.'' Really?
posted by matteo at 12:53 PM PST - 9 comments

Is Speech Recognition Software: What is it good fowah? [caution: link to the vulgar FC]. The apparent demise, or at least fraud, of Lernout & Hauspie inspires me to ask whether speech recognition software can be used to create more than garbage writing, fast. As an attorney, I spent a good chunk of the 1990's trying to get permission from people born in the 1940's to draft my own documents with a keyboard rather than a Dictaphone. Fortunately, I don't think SR programs will ever catch on for more than commanding a computer do something. But maybe I'm completely wrong?
posted by ParisParamus at 11:26 AM PST - 11 comments

White House Web Blasted for poor functionality. This Washington Post article says nothing about the use of electronic e-mail addresses (as opposed to...), the non-clickable e-mail addresses for the people in the White House, or the strange navigational constructs used.
posted by vanderwal at 10:09 AM PST - 21 comments

Startup.com the movie...I guess it was only a matter of time before a documentary like this was made. It's produced by the team that did "The War Room." (There's an NYTimes article here.)
posted by treedream at 9:31 AM PST - 2 comments

The winner of Survivor II may have leaked... but CNN and other media won't report it. "Everyone wants to do it," one exec said, "it will just come down to who has the guts to do it first." Possible spoiler? Misinformation?
posted by tranquileye at 8:39 AM PST - 11 comments

No longer Lost in Space. But I wonder: how much longer before a Romulan warship collides with it?
posted by legibility at 8:08 AM PST - 16 comments

Pyramids as old as the ones in Egypt found in Peru. Actually, they're more like ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia but hell anyway they're just as old as their Middle Eastern counterparts. Here's a bit more on the Americas' oldest city.
posted by lagado at 6:51 AM PST - 4 comments

Oh sure, once again, this "theory" proves nothing. Nothing more than another failed attempt to dismiss God's work. When are these morons, with such an imagination, ever going to admit it, that their theory is nothing more than that. I could ramble on and on like these suppose "scientists" about nothing, and make all these supposed "patterns", milarky, lies, and made up falsehoods on how the universe was just made from some wild explosion. Oh sure, that is how it was made.....just some big bang, then the next thing you know, man walked out of the swamp, got in his Mercedes, and drove away....haha Just keep on believing such crap about this big bang "theory". But just like before, this will fail again and prove that God did create the world, and he has been, is, and always will be the creator, not the "big banger". And that is a FACT, not a "theory".....
posted by tiaka at 5:29 AM PST - 62 comments

Drempels Animated desktop wallpaper software. Floaty nebulous. Nuff said.
posted by hmgovt at 5:28 AM PST - 10 comments

the shame of the music industry The industry seems ut to foil any attempt to allow known methods of foiling guards against making copies of music. Is this ethical and right or an imposition of monopolistic control over technology?
posted by Postroad at 3:52 AM PST - 16 comments

"Democratic Schools" Just saw this school on 60 Minutes. The kids hang out all day, play video games, go to class if they want to, learn if they want to. There's no principal or teachers, just "staff". I may be an old-school stickler but this strikes me as retarded. They had an eight year old on who couldn't read because he "wasn't ready for it yet"... c'mon.
posted by owillis at 7:51 PM PST - 70 comments

Buffett calls Internet investing "a big trap"
If only many investors would have listened to Mr. Buffett a few years ago. Today, in Omaha, Buffett said, "But I think the idea that you could take any business idea and turn it into wealth on the Internet is just wrong." Common sense strikes again.
posted by shackbar at 7:35 PM PST - 14 comments

VSA Partners hacked? VSA Partners, designers of MarchFirst's website (among others) appears to have a hacked link in their portfolio. Can't include a direct link (thanks Flash), but click on Work / Portfolio, then on the, uh, 3rd box from the right on the bottom row. The link in your status bar should read "at kearney". I get the feeling it's been up for awhile, and I doubt they even know it's there. Serves them right for having this ridiculous abstract navigation.
posted by robbie01 at 7:34 PM PST - 7 comments

"I knew lots of rednecks that had taken potshots at the [Goodyear] blimp."
posted by holloway at 6:29 PM PST - 9 comments

12-year-old Brittney Cleary wants /you/ to IM her!
posted by ericost at 2:29 PM PST - 40 comments

Mark your calendars for next Saturday's (May 5th.) Million Marijuana March, being organized in 120 cities around the world.
posted by tamim at 2:16 PM PST - 4 comments

Survivor is filled with crap for sale - so why can't I find that groovy Panama hat Colby wears for sale, anywhere?
posted by subpixel at 2:08 PM PST - 3 comments

The Shoshkeles have you So wizard minds of Boston.com claim they've come to hit the Holy Grail of banner ad efectiveness: Simply put, you won't be able to ignore them - (that is, unless you've got a Mac :) Will this "revolutionary" form of ad banner endure? Anyway, it wouldn't hurt those "visionaries" to have a little reading though - what you think?
posted by betobeto at 12:21 PM PST - 12 comments

Alleged FBI Double Agent's Stripper 'Friend' Talks: No easy way to put that, sorry. So this is what Robert Hanssen did with all that money from spying? Or allegedly did? He really was just trying to "rescue" her? Goodness, what a bizarre and disturbing story. Please be warned that this is dizzyingly strong material, especially the part about the fate of the subject's false teeth. It's "Pretty Woman" without the sex, but with the Soviet Union and crack.
posted by raysmj at 12:09 PM PST - 4 comments

workplace disclosures interesting NYTimes article about the [potential] problem of public discussions for employees. mentions Vault, BrownCafe, etc
posted by greyscale at 10:45 AM PST - 2 comments

Filming for Spiderman, the Movie, is underway and going on all this week at various spots in New York. Here are some set pictures of Peter Parker's house and shots of Spiderman saving a baby from a burning building. (clicking links will lead to spoiler pictures and a few plot summaries.)
posted by tomorama at 10:06 AM PST - 20 comments

This is an amazing quicktime movie about 80's games. Just watching it makes me want to go play some pong. I just love the matrix part.
(Warning: This is a 7mb quicktime movie)
posted by bytecode at 8:57 AM PST - 4 comments

There's been two threads in the pretty recent past about the 14-year-old kid who made the animation, Hyakugojyuuichi -- some pro, some con. Let this be the third of such threads.
I don't know if this means that the kid has hit the big time, but I think it's quite remarkable that his animation has landed on the front page of Ifilm.com. I, for one, give a big congratulations to the kid. I hope it's only the beginning for him.
posted by lizardboy at 6:13 AM PST - 13 comments

Survivor tells of death ride [followup to World's steepest street claims a life]
posted by holloway at 3:12 AM PST - 25 comments

FTAA Diary is a 48-page zine (available for download in pdf format) chronicling the experiences of folks who protested in Quebec. Illustrated with powerful black and white photos, the narratives personalize the events like no journalism could hope to.
posted by sudama at 12:10 AM PST - 21 comments

While the latest chapter dates back to 1975 (ignited in 1948-49), the Sri Lankan conflict essentially stems from the answer to which of the two major ethnic groups landed first in the island some 2,500 years ago. Both sides now have websites which routinely boasts of the death tolls of the opposing group.
posted by tamim at 11:29 PM PST - 3 comments

The Tibet Game: Doom for Buddhists. Give away your possessions, pump up your karma, see and hear beautiful Tibet. (Don't forget your high bandwidth, grasshopper.)
posted by luke at 7:11 PM PST - 6 comments

BillG still rules. Forbes says Sunday Times erred, Gates is worth $59 billion, Walton - a paltry $17 billion
posted by owillis at 7:04 PM PST - 15 comments

Safe House--for the spy in all of us. This spy-themed bar in Milwaukee has apparently been around for decades. Sounds hilarious.

But first, Mr. Phelps, you must find it. . .
posted by aflakete at 6:53 PM PST - 6 comments

Mexicans sue for U.S. farm work reparations from WWII Another group suing for reparations. This time, Mexicans who worked as farm help during World War II....a just claim or hopping on reparations bandwagon?
posted by Postroad at 6:29 PM PST - 7 comments

Why isn't Jesse Jackson being prosecuted for embezzlement? Jackson's Citizenship Education Fund gave $35,000 to the mother of Jackson's illegitimate daughter for "relocation expenses". Is this routinely done for all ex-employees of the foundation?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:42 PM PST - 16 comments

200 years to life for fraud? Crime should be punished, but this seems somewhat harsh when there's murderers, rapists, etc. on the loose
posted by owillis at 1:15 PM PST - 19 comments

The Nutty Movie Star: Alternative Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous Eddie Murphy Transvestites, porn actors, crooks, lawyers: all of Eddie Murphy's wacky friends. A priceless story about the people who work for the Hollywood people
posted by matteo at 12:12 PM PST - 11 comments

Wine.com Inc. ceases operations and refers customers to eVineyard, billed as the largest online wine retailer. The email they sent doesn't make it clear if we are now eVineyard members or if we have to sign up again -- and recreate my my 10-page wine.com wish list. Ugh.
posted by thescoop at 11:46 AM PST - 15 comments

The Norwegian neo-nazi organization Vigrid is suing* on behalf of Nordic-looking women seeking damages after suffering from blonde jokes. Are blonde jokes racial slurs?
* Sorry, link only available in Norwegian, but you get the idea
posted by frednorman at 11:25 AM PST - 4 comments

A Reaganesque Metro station The airport, the subway station... What's next?
posted by matteo at 10:02 AM PST - 33 comments

The Guardian reports that George Bush Senior, along with Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf, Dan Quayle and a number of other prominent Americans are unhappy that Botswanan authorities have banned the trophy hunting of lions in that country. The number of lions in Africa has declined by 35,000 to only 15,000 in the last 10 years, but many wealthy Americans still see it as their right to pay big money to hunt a big cat. This just makes me sick
posted by sixdifferentways at 8:45 PM PST - 28 comments

The Karate Chimp I can't think of a caption for this, maybe you can.
posted by davewiner at 7:54 PM PST - 25 comments

A collection of some amazing video clips, designed like a clip-blog. (Some clips contain explicit sexual and violent content not suitable for those not legally allowed to view such things.)
posted by tamim at 6:04 PM PST - 13 comments

Japan to get an army of its own We forced them to agree to no military after the war. They have only a police force but this force has a very large military budget. Now they want their own army...just in case. Maybe we need not spend so much of our tax bucks there from now on.
posted by Postroad at 5:51 PM PST - 15 comments

Microsoft Tech Support vs. The Psychic Friends Network - so who gives better support for MS Access?
posted by paladin at 5:33 PM PST - 9 comments

Should presidential family members be protected from press scrutiny when they break the law? Does majority matter? Will they lose the opportunity for federal aid if they get busted with a joint?
posted by Bezuhin at 5:06 PM PST - 16 comments

The most beautiful woman in France? She's actually a guy! Well, not exactly, but...
posted by matteo at 3:05 PM PST - 6 comments

Boobscan - the name sums it up. Personally I prefer this to the nobscan site posted the other day. Just sharing in the name of gender equality. (Warning: if it's not obvious enough, this link will lead to a site featuring nudity - maracas on the glass plate to be exact.)
posted by sixdifferentways at 2:16 PM PST - 6 comments

Just when you thought that there couldn't be anything stupider than All Your Base and Mahir, comes this.
posted by hidely at 1:43 PM PST - 11 comments

Bianca's is shutting down. One of the oldest community sites on the web is going away. It's been kept alive for so long through the hard work, passion, and sheer enthusiasm of the founders and volunteers who cared about the site. You Burning Man participants take heart though, Bianca's will most likely still continue on as a theme camp.

Bianca loves you.
posted by captaincursor at 12:41 PM PST - 10 comments

American Hollow - The Bowling family has lived in the same rural hollow in Kentucky for seven generations. The Washington Post tells their story using the Bowlings' own words (including audio clips) and photographs with a Web site you might expect from PBS. Urban Americans (and others, too) might be surprised to learn that there are many, many families in the U.S. who still live like the Bowlings.

"It's 1998 and we just last year put running water in the house, into my kitchen sink. We did it ourselves. We bought line, hooked into Iree's well, dug up a ditch and ran it to the house. But I still need a bathroom and a septic tank. I got a rinse tub that we take a bath in. I'd rather have a bathtub, but meanwhile I can make do."
posted by ewagoner at 12:16 PM PST - 8 comments

New web ads: one, two. what do you think? Good balance between ad friendly/obnoxious?
posted by owillis at 11:57 AM PST - 31 comments

"I did not have sex with that man," so says Denise Rich talking about Bill Clinton. She also claims to have never even slept at the White House and doesn't even know what the Lincoln Bed Room looks like. Can we take these statements at face value, or do we need a Bubba de-coder ring to figure it out?
posted by schlyer at 11:41 AM PST - 12 comments

Gag order at Indy Media lifted. Looks like the FBI wanted to get "all user connection logs" from a 48-hour period although the feds were seemingly just concerned with one or two specific postings.
posted by gluechunk at 11:37 AM PST - 6 comments

Falcon watching I've always found falcons fascinating.

A long time ago, I helped out ( in a small way ) with the state effort to re-establish the peregrine falcon in the Midwest. It was in a major Midwest city, where the downtown buildings were a close match to their native nesting habitat of cliff faces and tall trees. The focus for the falcon release was a hack box. Now, the same hack box is being used as a nest by a falcon breeding pair, who have four eyasses ( singular; eyas: i.e., falcon chicks ) this year.

This URL is the webcam of the hack box; it refreshes every 30 seconds. Since falcons eyasses grow fast, they need a lot of feeding, so the parents are primarily out hunting when they are not sheltering their children. Every once and a while you'll see one of the parents feeding the eyasses. In the coming weeks, you can watch these eyasses grow to more than triple their present size and get their flying wings.
posted by dragonmage at 11:32 AM PST - 6 comments

Woman Charged With Stalking Ari Fleischer

Um....why? If you're going to stalk someone, at least stalk someone cute. Or powerful.
posted by jennak at 11:17 AM PST - 14 comments

google restores deja view google restores usenet archives; according to the article, it's a better search engine than before.
posted by bliss322 at 11:07 AM PST - 23 comments

The Flintsons: Based on a True Story According to a recent survey, half the adults surveyed didn't know that the Earth revolves around the sun, and 42 percent said they thought early humans lived side by side with dinosaurs. Seems like we hear about some survey of this nature every year ("87% of high school children can't find the US on a map of the US!"), although this article at least has a citation. I couldn't find any mention of said survey on the CAoS website. (Although if you take a look at their masthead, you can see why some people may be confused about scientific issues, as it seems to show fish revolving around the DinoWorld ...)
posted by Shadowkeeper at 10:20 AM PST - 15 comments

Proxicom bought by Compaq, last week's purchase of Mainspring by IBM, the dissolution of MarchFirst, and the not-so-slow slide of Viant, Scient, iXL and the rest ... is there any future for the independent style of "e-consultancies" which seemed poised to revolutionize the business world only a couple of years ago?
posted by MattD at 9:31 AM PST - 10 comments

Want stats? Income, food consumption, the common cold...Fedstats, the "gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal Agencies", is a treasure trove for info junkies.
posted by frykitty at 9:29 AM PST - 3 comments

God is an Abortionist or so read an ad that a reporter attempted to place in conservative college newspapers across the country. The result? He was even less successful than David "champion of free speech" Horowitz.
posted by turaho at 8:55 AM PST - 5 comments

Motorists who park in disabled spaces are to be shamed into moving by a talking meter
it's a good idea, but sad that able-bodied people still park in handicapped spaces.

perhaps it would work better if the meter announced, "if you aren't disabled when you park here, you will be when you leave."
posted by bwg at 8:48 AM PST - 10 comments

Princeton Backs Down "Litigation is costly, time-consuming, and uncertain, regardless of the merits of the other side's case. We remain committed to free speech and to the value of scientific debate to our country and the world." Sorry for the drama, but as a scientist I have to go off and vomit now.
posted by DiplomaticImmunity at 8:46 AM PST - 5 comments

Recently, officials closed down a local illegal puppy mill and rescued (still amazed at this number!) *147* dogs living in atrocious conditions. The public response has been amazing from across the entire U.S. - Most of the dogs can't be adopted yet, but to help in other ways... To reach Second Chance Animal Rescue, call (831) 623-2337. You can reach Hollister Animal Control at (831) 636-4320. Mail checks to the City of Hollister, 375 Fifth Street, Hollister, CA, 95023.
posted by thunder at 8:39 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Customer gives sick waitress $1,000 tip
i love hearing stories like this, it bolsters my faith in people.
posted by bwg at 8:37 AM PST - 13 comments

Sensible policy toward Cuba developing, or the beginning of the end for Colin Powell? "He's done good things for his people," Powell told Rep. Jose E. Serrano, D-N.Y., who called the embargo of Cuba senseless. For most of his 42 years in power Castro has fomented revolutions and insurgencies, "but he is no longer the threat he was," Powell said.

This certainly breaks with what appears to be a fairly hawkish international stance by the administration, but maybe it's punishment aimed at Florida for not delivering a decisive victory? Poor Jeb.
posted by shagoth at 8:29 AM PST - 22 comments

One small step for man, one giant leap for Tito. It looks like the American millionaire is actually going to make it to space despite NASA objecting. The launch is scheduled for tomorrow.

Oh yeah, and he'll be held responsible if he breaks anything while he's up there.
posted by the_ill_gino at 7:38 AM PST - 12 comments

Join the first-ever Blogger Template Design Contest and you might win part of over $6,000 in prizes!

p.s. contest only open to residents of the United States, so nuts to you if you're a dirty steenkin foreigner
posted by lia at 6:43 AM PST - 49 comments

What do you do when your news company decides to let you go? Why you post a revenge site to mock your former employer.
posted by CRS at 6:41 AM PST - 12 comments

Chinese to launch Hack the USA campaign. As if this weren't enough of a problem from inside the US. Maybe Starbucks should reconsider the free web access in Beijing.
posted by jasonshellen at 8:41 PM PST - 12 comments

Postal Savings is great. Nothing beats having a cash machine on every corner. Except maybe having a cashless Coke machine on every corner.
posted by dfowler at 8:36 PM PST - 17 comments

The Harvard Living Wage Campaign has been sitting in blocking the administration building for 8 days, 8 hours, and 58 minutes. They've been nytimesed and you'd think the college would have to listen to Ben Affleck (and Ted Kennedey and 200 faculty and...).
posted by benjamin at 8:22 PM PST - 24 comments

100 Days of Bush The DNC gets their digs in. I especially liked the Harper's like index. Their commercials section doesn't seem to be active yet - but there's some political ads here
posted by owillis at 4:52 PM PST - 24 comments

A penny for your thoughts? Why not one quintillion pennies!?
posted by MarkBakalor at 4:00 PM PST - 19 comments

School Girl banned from using sign language. Why do I feel theres more to this story than the article is providing?
posted by milnak at 2:47 PM PST - 10 comments

warning! too much testing is hazardous to your health! is it just me, or is this silly?
posted by fuzzygeek at 1:44 PM PST - 29 comments

I'm sorry, but who am I speaking to now? At the risk of turning Mefi into PopBitch, UK chart toppers 'Atomic Kitten' appeared on the BBC's rolling news radio station FiveLive this afternoon and proved that despite all the ex-DJs who are working on the station, they should stay well away from anyone who's appeared in the old Gallup top 40. To hear this stunning (as in stunningly embarassing) interview, click here and then click the little speaker icon next to 'Listen to the Kittens and Fi' - sorry but it's Real Audio only. Be quick. Don't know how long it'll be there.
posted by feelinglistless at 1:39 PM PST - 13 comments

Woohoo! The First Annual Nothings Award... I've never heard of Lileks before, but the snazzy site [almost] makes me forget how frustrating contentless splash screens are.
posted by silusGROK at 1:20 PM PST - 27 comments

Jane Want Relationship, Tarzan Want Sex. A study seems to confirm what women have long suspected -- women seek security in relationships, while men stick around for the sex.

The study says that in most species, monogomy is the top choice when fertility is hidden. Wonder if they took into account the Pill? ;)
posted by jennak at 1:17 PM PST - 14 comments

Fetus is a person? The bill's supporters, predominantly Republicans during the debate, denied the measure is anti-abortion, and instead is aimed at punishing criminals who attack pregnant women. It exempts abortions performed with the woman's consent. Is that all it is or is there a set up for further laws, going into abortion and such?
posted by tiaka at 12:54 PM PST - 38 comments

"I started using it six weeks ago and I have made out with 11 beautiful chicks and slept with 6! This is way the best investment I ever made!" -Mike Delmaire
posted by tiaka at 12:32 PM PST - 24 comments

Did anyone else notice Babelfish now translates Chinese, Korean, and Japanese? This may be old news but we come across a lot of Asian Web site defacements at Attrition. I think this is a huge step to be able to translate a non-Roman character language- and it works.
posted by bkdelong at 12:22 PM PST - 23 comments

SpamCon 2001 gets underway in one month. It's a meeting of the minds to crush spam and guys like this. But it's probably too late. Can legislation ever make a dent in spam? Are technical solutions possible (no open SMTP ports allowed)?
posted by mathowie at 10:48 AM PST - 9 comments

Pamela Anderson's plastic surgeon? The Courts have finally spoken: it's illegal to enlarge somebody's breasts without permission
posted by matteo at 9:56 AM PST - 20 comments

Catalogue your personal library... I have a sizeable library, and have long wanted to catalog the whole thing for insurance purposes and for general gee-whiz potential. The prospect of hand entering information for each of the books, though, has kept me from doing anything. Now, thanks to a link at PB's site, I've got the itch again... and something to scratch it.

Note to Mac users: Mac-Barcode has a USB scanner available.
posted by silusGROK at 9:29 AM PST - 27 comments

Oops! "Weren’t you supposed to watch him?" "Me? I thought you were watching him."

This is what happens when they let the Shrub pretend he is actually in charge.
posted by mapalm at 9:22 AM PST - 46 comments

The Webby Awards List is up... Didn't see it posted here yet and thought this list would spawn some interesting conversation.
posted by almostcool at 9:07 AM PST - 37 comments

Underwater Warpdrives Some naval experts believe that supercavitating systems could alter the nature of undersea warfare, changing stealthy cat-and-mouse stalking contests between large submarines into something resembling aerial combat, featuring noisy high-speed dogfights among small, short-range "subfighters" shooting underwater bullets at one another after having been launched from giant "subcarriers."
posted by hmgovt at 6:15 AM PST - 22 comments

RoboHitler? Paul Verhoeven has hinted that he may go ahead an make a film about Adolf H. ""The idea would be to show that charisma is not identical with good. So basically you would see how a charismatic person would be able to seduce 50 or 60 million Germans"...he's not, however, certain that it will ever make it to the cinema...
posted by hmgovt at 5:47 AM PST - 24 comments

Family complains about dead passenger More air rage! Who said the meals on planes were not fresh and nutritious? Get the guy's gin and tonic.
posted by Postroad at 5:17 AM PST - 12 comments

Yet another "Jackass" injury This time some teenagers were videotaping themselves performing a stunt in which a guy dodges an oncoming car, apparently in hopes of getting on the show. Interesting video of the event, from both inside and outside the car.
posted by Potsy at 3:05 AM PST - 35 comments

Half.com expands to list used electronics. The site (owned by EBay) now allows sellers to list used electronics, computers, sporting goods, and trading cards, but receiving a defective or damaged computer will prove to be much harder to rectify with Customer Service than receiving a scratched CD or DVD. Not to mention the postage cost...
posted by nyukid at 10:35 PM PST - 4 comments

Christina Aguilera... a ditz? Now, whether or not you think she is (and whether or not you are a fan), this quote on her *official*webpage just makes you wonder: "The video's going to be dope," Christina said. "We're going to have cabaret costumes. It's something you've never seen from us before. So, it's going to be fun." ...did she just admit that she sucks?
posted by nyukid at 10:07 PM PST - 17 comments

Who Let the Blogs Out? I would just like to say, for the record, that my juggernautal legal team is currently assembling their case against Yahoo for copyright infringement.
posted by Succa at 8:37 PM PST - 23 comments

Ashcroft and Bush make their move. "Justice Department lawyers have warned that they may soon be forced to abandon the federal government's landmark lawsuit against the tobacco industry because the Bush administration has not proposed enough funding to keep the litigation alive, according to a confidential memo reviewed by The Washington Post."
posted by owillis at 8:29 PM PST - 20 comments

The aforementioned "unlimted bandwidth" has very recently become quite limited. What happened?
posted by arf at 6:17 PM PST - 23 comments

Feeling chest pains? Maybe it's that gun in your pocket! Physicians For Social Responsibility want all doctors to screen patients for gun ownership, ostensibly so that they can warn them about the physical hazards said ownership can cause. Hmmm...doctors don't do that for toasters, trampolines, hammers, paper, and other things that can harm you. I'm no gun lover - don't own one, never will, but this smacks of political agenda.
posted by davidmsc at 4:43 PM PST - 20 comments

David! Cover Up! But it gets so darned hot and humid this time of the year in Florida, even for great art. Is this likely to lead our school kids astray too?
posted by Postroad at 4:40 PM PST - 20 comments

Sen. Bob Kerrey tells a personal Vietnam horror story
And the NYT has posted an advance copy of its Sunday Magazine story to avoid being scooped, which is a first, I believe.
[via <http://www.nytimes.com>] Kerrey, as a lieutenant in Vietnam helped kill a village of Vietnamese women and children in 1969. How many more skeletons in the closets of the current leaders of America? And will this spur the actual beginning of American critical reflection on Vietnam, or will it blow over in a few weeks like when MacNamara's autobiographical confession came out a few years ago?
posted by rschram at 4:15 PM PST - 32 comments

InfoBots are coming. I believe we've touched on this before, but now it seems to be moving from concept to reality: Instant Messenger "buddies" that are actually bots. You send them an IM with a question, such as "Hey pal, what's the weather in Thunder Bay, Ontario?" And it IMs you back with the answer, almost instantaneously. No waiting for messy web sites to load, no funky searches to run. ActiveBuddy has been the most, um, active in developing the technology, but they've been working on it forever without anything to show to the public. Now, it's out there, somewhere. CNET is reporting today that an ActiveBuddy beta bot has been live for a few months; you can play with it right now if you know its name. (And if you do know its name, a tip would be appreciated. I've been jonesing for this for a good while.) A more public version is supposed to be out in a few weeks. Here buddy buddy buddy...
posted by aaron at 3:06 PM PST - 17 comments

The Quote Project... a nifty database of quotes, that I wouldn't have found had dnash not pointed me in its general direction in a recent post.
posted by silusGROK at 2:19 PM PST - 4 comments

Slim Shady poses nude in Cosmo Lemme just be the first to say, "Ew!"
posted by ratbastard at 1:40 PM PST - 13 comments

Does this Guy have an agent?
posted by feelinglistless at 1:25 PM PST - 7 comments

Why it sucks to be in the media spotlight. Need I say more? Why they felt the need to put this in print for the whole world to see is beyond my comprehension. My God... can you imagine?
posted by fusinski at 12:41 PM PST - 24 comments

Robert Downey, Jr. arrested yet again on drug charges. He was fired from "Ally McBeal" directly afterward. Is anyone even surprised anymore?
posted by brittney at 12:26 PM PST - 37 comments

Hello, Peril. The so-called model minority inspire an amazing amount of mistrust, according to a survey of US residents. Featuring the revelation that one third of those polled "said Chinese Americans are more loyal to China than to the United States. "
posted by anildash at 11:34 AM PST - 56 comments

Gendex: A Family History Database For some time, I have been casually researching ways to store and query complex kin relations. I may have found just the model I want, developed by none other than the CJC-LDS (Mormons!) Specifically by the family history department.
The FAMily record is used to record ... family unions caused by two people becoming the parents of a child. There can be no more than one HUSB/father and one WIFE/mother listed in each FAM_RECORD. If, for example, a man participated in more than one family union, then he would appear in more than one FAM_RECORD.
And thank God they thought of a bigamy data model! Now, will it export XML?
posted by rschram at 11:29 AM PST - 6 comments

Generation X washed up? Okay, so it became a marketing term for a demographic I'm part of, and I usually cringe when seeing something described as 'Gen-X', but I still saw some truths while reading this. Was that it? Was the 90's Internet revolution and crash our time in the sun, and now we're "so over"? (And do Gen-Xers really range from 20-38 years old now?) [via obscurestore]
posted by kokogiak at 10:32 AM PST - 56 comments

Should all of America pay for Davenport? If a community has the ability to avoid a natural disaster and chooses not to, are the rest of us responsible? How many times. Apparently, Davenport benefits economically from the great view, unobstructed by a floodwall. Maybe it should use some of those benefits to clean up the mess?
posted by anapestic at 10:09 AM PST - 40 comments

Greenspun Redux. Philip has written an excellent overview of "what went wrong" from ArsDigita's inception to lawsuit phase. It's very detailed, very candid and quite an interesting read. It makes you wonder what stories are behind all the other failed technology and .com companies in the past year and a half.
posted by bkdelong at 9:45 AM PST - 2 comments

Annapolis principal bans "Tag" on the playground. If you take out the inflammatory rhetoric (I know, it affects this guy's credibility), the main point of this article is a little disturbing. Thoughts? Comments?
posted by jennaratrix at 8:14 AM PST - 25 comments

May 1st Skiboot - Reinvigoration of the Ski Footwear.
posted by riffola at 7:53 AM PST - 29 comments

Columbine parents sue game makers Claiming computer games partially at fault for Colombine killings, parents of victims have brought a law suit against game makers...will this be viewed as unprovable cause of the shootings or bring about a study of relationship between violence and games?
posted by Postroad at 7:32 AM PST - 17 comments

Pathology Tribunal Collapses.
One pathologist, who asked not to be named, said last night: "This is going to call into question the credibility of the board. How can the public, let alone coroners and the police, have confidence in the crucial work it does if it can't run a disciplinary hearing?"
posted by methylsalicylate at 7:25 AM PST - 2 comments

Dubya-bashing and Porn to be Salon's salvation? ...Oh wait, there's sassy synopses of reality TV shows too!
posted by BGM at 1:20 AM PST - 39 comments

Erap to be arrested today. Filipinos might be interested to know that a warrant of arrest has been issued to deposed Philippine president Joseph Estrada for the non-bailable offense of economic plunder. A few thousand of his supporters have gathered around his residence in the affluent subdivision of North Greenhills, and there have already been untoward incidents. My family lives there; Mom says anti-riot police are roaming the streets.
posted by brownpau at 9:11 PM PST - 23 comments

What is a Print? is perhaps the coolest bit of informative interactive Flash work I have seen. Well explained, meaningful interaction (not just click and watch), clean, and the transitions aren't too slow. Nice. (Props to xplane for the link.)
posted by jplummer at 5:57 PM PST - 14 comments

Free speech rights of big tobacco Another case for the Supreme Court. This one involves billboard ads close to schools. Protect our kids or protect free speech?
posted by Postroad at 5:52 PM PST - 28 comments

A Suck article on "the death of banner ads" (complete with humorous acknowledgement of the fact that their parent company relies on ads) made me think about the online advertising that I enjoyed or followed up on. What are some effective ads you remember?
posted by jed at 5:51 PM PST - 41 comments

This auction at eBay has to be one of the more entertaining after effects of the dotcom meltdown. Personally, the last suggestion in the ad would be my preferred usage of the item for sale...
posted by Spanktacular at 5:47 PM PST - 5 comments

Well, if there is a tooth fairy.... Doesn't it just make sense that there might be a fairy for some of our other bodily functions?
posted by kristin at 3:45 PM PST - 7 comments

Reverend Fun dishes out church-friendly daily cartoons like this one, which are sometimes [p]funny (and at other times stale). You can also get the funnies in your PDA.
posted by tamim at 3:21 PM PST - 6 comments

Those British boys at it again. It was like this during the war, y'know. I remember my old mate Alan Turing beating the system in much the same way. Saved the world he did. Tally-ho.
posted by feelinglistless at 3:19 PM PST - 6 comments

Granted I don't speed anymore, but handcuffs hurt. Is it just me? But the Supreme court, it seems, cares nothing for the citizenry of this country. Who's hoops are they jumping through, dragging us along with our sore handcuffed wrists?
posted by crasspastor at 2:59 PM PST - 37 comments

Obviously, the answer to global warming is to cut down all the trees. Or maybe we should just paint them all white?
posted by CRS at 2:28 PM PST - 18 comments

It must hurt for M$NBC to report NT hacks. Then again, I suppose the article wasn't about security but rather another triumph for deception and chicanery. For the 'good' guys this time. FYI [thanks for the lowdown Mike Brunker] (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)
posted by donkeysuck at 2:01 PM PST - 8 comments

Logo Contest . Winner will receive US $10,000. Submissions accepted from Thursday March 22 to Wednesday June 22, 2001.
posted by I am Generic at 1:43 PM PST - 7 comments

Say what?
I'm sorry, could you please repeat that, I couldn't hear...
posted by quonsar at 12:24 PM PST - 13 comments

Michael Stipe's neighbors Who said that rockstars aren't like us?
posted by matteo at 12:07 PM PST - 43 comments

Three people may have contracted foot-and-mouth, though all the tests aren't in. This is the first time this has occured during the current outbreak. I think the most, er, interesting thing is exactly how one of the guys got it.
posted by sj at 11:10 AM PST - 20 comments

cell phone rings? the next napster. (could, could, could. do you think record companies will actually pursue this?)
posted by rebeccablood at 11:04 AM PST - 23 comments

Urban Legend, I choose you! Pokemon is being banned in several Muslim countries because of rumour that it is anti-religious. What's your favorite urban legend that resulted in widespread societal changes? (You need not limit yourself to religious edicts . . . an sort of change made by people in power because of an urban legend will be fine.) Why do you think that urban legends have this power? What does this say about human cognition?
posted by iceberg273 at 10:37 AM PST - 46 comments

RIAA threatens watermarking researcher with legal action to prevent conference presentation. Nice, now we can't even do research on it. Apoligies for the must-register link.
posted by DiplomaticImmunity at 9:21 AM PST - 11 comments

Most Arab country net traffic headed for porn sites... I'm not surprised. But not for the same reason's that are put forth in the article... More inside. [Via ObscureStore]
posted by silusGROK at 9:16 AM PST - 20 comments

Center of the World , a new film by director Wayne Wong has a really immersive, erotic website. There seems to be an increasing number of film sites like these that don't just post the trailer and a film information but extend the viewers experience by actually making the site an extension of the film itself.
posted by joshua at 6:03 AM PST - 13 comments

A spam lawsuit is won against now-dead delivery service Kozmo. It's a pyrrhic victory, as Kozmo is now dead and the award was only $77.50. But it should give us all hope.
posted by mtstover at 5:54 AM PST - 10 comments

Oh I don't know, I just liked reading Mrs Aguilera telling someone off.
posted by holloway at 4:27 AM PST - 36 comments

who elected the anti-capitalist convergences? What is behind the mass demonstrations by ngo's (non-governmental orgainzations), and what does it mean for the future?
posted by Postroad at 3:52 AM PST - 9 comments

At the end of the Cold War, a lot of people professed to believe that the USSR's collapse "proved" that communism/socialism/egalitarianism (delete according to the size of claim you want to make) can never work.

Maybe. But this got me thinking you could say the same about neoliberalism.
posted by Mocata at 3:08 AM PST - 17 comments

Corrupt Chinese Officials Plan Escape Routes. Why? Because they believe the collapse of the Chinese government is imminent. Their planning is premature, experts quoted here say. But we all know that experts can often be . . . well, not so expert. Wild headline, to say the least.
posted by raysmj at 10:25 PM PST - 36 comments

Eudora Releases 5.1... an incremental release is seldom worth a post, but with 5.1 comes support for SSL! Which makes me very happy: our SysAdmin banned us from hooking up to our mail server until we had an e-mail client that was A) SSL-enabled and B) not a product of Microsoft... finally! I can get my corporate e-mail without having it forwarded to my Yahoo! e-mail account! : )
posted by silusGROK at 9:50 PM PST - 18 comments

The Museum of Depressionist Art: a very funny collection of art parodies, all done with a 'depressionist' theme. ok, i suppose it's not that funny, but fellow art history buffs(?) might enjoy.
posted by paulrockNJ at 8:43 PM PST - 7 comments

These facts and figures about our TV viewing habits (PDF) come from the TV Turnoff Network, which is busy promoting TV-Turnoff Week April 23-29. Can you quit cold turkey for one week? At first it's seriously difficult to fight the urge to turn on and veg-out. But after the first few days you discover you have time for everything you always wanted to do, although the TV urge doesn't disappear quite so quick.
posted by fleener at 4:01 PM PST - 42 comments

I'm a little flabbergasted that this never made it onto mefi. although graphics intensive, it is some brilliant work(delicate sensibilities beware: sexual situations and profanity abound). unfortunately, it has not been updated for quite some time. i only bring it up because it is another neglected web depot that i regularly enjoyed(like my boot).
posted by donkeysuck at 3:28 PM PST - 14 comments

The 'truth' about letterboxing!?! And I quote: "Lettershlocking will end! Film censorship will be defeated! HDTV will become the Betamax of the late 90's. DVD disks with lettershlocking will become the 8-tracks of the late 90's. FULLSCREEN FOR ME! BAN THE BARS! CANCEL HDTV BEFORE IT BEGINS! LETTERSHLOCKING IS WRONG! IT WILL END!"
posted by feelinglistless at 2:56 PM PST - 60 comments

Snappy Dresser is now to return Tuesday. Before I went to bed last night it said Monday. I haven't been there for a while and don't know what's up. They used to be The Daily Instigator, (now a porn site) but went down because:

"First of all, the word 'Daily' in your title is a death sentence for your ego when you skip a day. Or in our case, a few weeks. Second, it's hard to arrange legitimate interviews with a word like 'Instigator' in your title. The most important moral: don't think of possible magazine titles while on your sixth beer of the evening."

I was also going to link My Boot for his "She hates my futon" story, but it appears down or gone. This was going to be a happy post with me saying things like: "No time in history have so many people done so much for so little." But now I wonder is all this altruism fleeting? Is your URL doomed for porn? The rationale for ftrain is why I am on the web myself. How long can good people with good ideas continue to give?
posted by john at 12:27 PM PST - 14 comments

Turn on your animations and check this page out. Dig the bowing skeletons flanking the skull-shrine at the bottom. A radical new design form.
posted by dfowler at 11:53 AM PST - 17 comments

Have a look at what Miss Israel will be wearing to this year's Miss Universe pageant: "The top of the silk dress, embroidered with diamonds and pearls, is covered by an army-issue flak jacket (emphasis mine) adorned with diamonds for a so-called softer look."

Bulletproof fashion as political statement?
posted by lia at 10:02 AM PST - 30 comments

one bad decision after another... "Three months ago, our new sibling, Plastic, took its first breath and then took off. Being the opportunists that we are, we decided to do some genetic engineering, grafting some Plastic DNA into the FEED site. Today you are seeing the results of this experiment. There are two major changes, and for any long-time FEED readers these will feel more like revivals than outright novelties. The first is the new Filter section, our very own web log..."
posted by palegirl at 9:43 AM PST - 27 comments

Just in time for Earth Day. A colleague forwarded this to me with the subject line "Sac. Bee does expose' on eco-movement!!!", but it doesn't read entirely like that. There's the obligatory "Look how much their CEOs make!" (pdf) as well as a Philanthropic Report Card, rating groups on how much of their budget is spent on a "charitable" purpose. That's the contentious eye candy -- there's also some decent writing. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the week's stories.
posted by dcehr at 9:37 AM PST - 2 comments

Fatboy Slim and the Master of Badass team up to produce one of the phattest music videos I've seen in a long time. I didn't know Christopher Walken was trained as a dancer! (RealPlayer; also possibly dated)
posted by SilentSalamander at 9:27 AM PST - 43 comments

Bill Gates is no longer the world's richest person. According to the Sunday Times, Gates has been superceded by an equally evil supermarket tycoon.
posted by andrewraff at 8:19 AM PST - 33 comments

Save the papers? Nicholson Baker, in his new book Double Fold, tries to convince libraries and anyone else who will listen that we need to keep original newspapers to preserve the historical record. He's even started the nonprofit American Newspaper Repository so that libraries would sell their old papers to him.
posted by amyscoop at 7:45 AM PST - 7 comments

Mom and Dad went to the Execution and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. Timothy McVeigh execution on your t-shirt. I am buying three. They'll make great stocking stuffers. Seriously, this may be the tackiest thing I have seen since Grandma's potholder dress.
posted by bradth27 at 7:30 AM PST - 11 comments

The Rabble Brand new journal--on-line, born in Quebec as a result of the demonstrations. Some good reading here.
posted by Postroad at 6:43 AM PST - 6 comments

Unrepentant Nader Is Nader a Sancho Panza, the realist, or Don Quixote, the dreamer, when he says Bush policies toward environment help ignite attention to our needs and thus good to have? Or is he just a guy who can't believe he might have been wrong?
posted by Postroad at 6:02 AM PST - 76 comments

Andre has updated the FilePile site with several new features. Very cool.
posted by sixdifferentways at 11:06 PM PST - 16 comments

Apparently exposure to violence in media caused the Columbine massacre. There's a best-selling book, readily available in nearly every book store in the US, which includes descriptions of genocide, wars, deliberately-caused plagues, mass killing of children, cities being put to the sword, and which portrays those responsible for these crimes as heroes! Clearly it establishes a culture of violence and should be suppressed. The success of this book (the best selling book of all time, which is regularly given to children!) makes clear that the publishing "industry will not effectively regulate itself, and that court intervention is necessary to keep violent [books] out of the hands of minors."

No question about it: there should be a class action suit against all publishers of the Bible.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:44 PM PST - 48 comments

Soviet Computer Technology circa 1988 (Google Cache).
posted by mutagen at 10:42 PM PST - 7 comments

"U R STINKY"? From one of those surveys: "14% of the seven to 16-year-olds interviewed had received a bullying, deliberately hurtful call or text message on their mobile phone." Beyond the observation that bullies are nothing if not creative, why the hell do these kids need the bloody things?
posted by holgate at 10:18 PM PST - 14 comments

UFOs are sooo last century
posted by johnboy at 9:38 PM PST - 2 comments

'Freddy Got Fingered' is a bad, bad film.

The new comedy from Tom Green, "Freddy Got Fingered," is quite simply the worst movie ever released by a major studio in Hollywood history.

was anyone really surprised?
posted by paulrockNJ at 8:46 PM PST - 38 comments

The Dish [official site/trailer] is the thoroughly charming, (mostly) true story of the crew at Australia's Parkes Observatory and their unique role in relaying telemetry, biometrics and -- most importantly for posterity -- television pictures from the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. [more inside]
posted by bradlands at 7:38 PM PST - 9 comments

Its tough to be a protester in Canada when the cops are taking aim at your crotch with laser sights.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 7:26 PM PST - 8 comments

NOW SHOWING -- It's a Sex Toy and A Candy This link takes you to a Flash animation for an "adult product" called GummyDongs -- gummy candy shaped like a penis, with a real vibrator inside. The animation is mildly amusing, but the concept was pretty funny to me. If you hate Flash, just go to the home page (sounds like pr0n, but it's actually pretty tame compared to the Nob-scan link)
posted by briank at 7:25 PM PST - 1 comment

So we think we're free? Bill Moyers tells us that we're in the grip of the mega-corporate media who know how to lavishly butter their own bread. And if we like jam? Too bad.
posted by caraig at 7:08 PM PST - 3 comments

A new bugaboo will have to be found: The Bush Administration has decided not to attempt to drill for oil in the ANWR.
posted by aaron at 4:52 PM PST - 26 comments

You've seen the movie, maybe even read the book. But have you experienced the website? When the flash intro comes up, click on "You're a dead rat" for a good chuckle.
posted by inviolable at 1:55 PM PST - 7 comments

Paul Knox, Globe and Mail, on the Quebec City summit. "The gestures — the promise to release the draft FTAA negotiating documents and televise part of the summit — were too little and too late to head off protest. One would hardly expect Mr. Chrétien to move the summit elsewhere. But as things stand today, these images of inchoate frustration and visceral repression are the legacy of Quebec City."
posted by tranquileye at 1:19 PM PST - 4 comments

Coffee, anyone? Mints with caffiene, maybe? Anyway, according to a fairly recent press release from a group (I've never heard of) called the National Sleep Foundation, we're all working too much, studying too much or whatever, and sleeping less and having less fun, sex, etc., and suffice it to say that the Other NSF, if you will, thinks it's a big problem.
posted by raysmj at 12:45 PM PST - 13 comments

IMDB Charging Actors/Actress for Pictures The Internet Movie Data Base has provided an invaluable service to millions of Web users over the years. But now, the IMDB sees fit to charge actors and actresses to put a small 'headshot' pic on their pages.

What next? Will IMDB start charging studios to list their films? For an example of a page without a headshot, try the gorgeous Keira Knightley's page. Not so good without the pic, huh?
posted by wackybrit at 12:17 PM PST - 16 comments

The young men and women of America's future elite work their laptops to the bone, rarely question authority, and happily accept their positions at the top of the heap as part of the natural order of life. What's your experince?
posted by semmi at 11:15 AM PST - 41 comments

Phillip Greenspun speaks about what's happening (to him) at aD.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 9:56 AM PST - 2 comments

Do something for Earth Day. Zeldman's recent post talks about doing without television, cell phones and the Internet for an hour. If you're a geek like me who doesn't get out enough, find an event in your area today.
posted by bkdelong at 9:35 AM PST - 20 comments

Why are these people still together? Or maybe they should get married, eh? (By the way, the page is really long, but do a string search for "hit the ground running".)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:33 AM PST - 14 comments

Death by Information: "Does the word 'pedestrian' frighten you? Could you survive for an hour without a cell phone, laptop, or - even worse - a television?"
posted by Zeldman at 6:55 AM PST - 24 comments

This is a list of a 101 things we don't miss in the UK. Actually, it's mostly 70% right. Any suggestions for what's missing?
posted by feelinglistless at 5:59 AM PST - 19 comments

Criminals beware. U.S. police dogs are being equipped with a new weapon in the fight against crime: titanium false teeth. Not just criminals are unhappy about this.
posted by Cuppatea at 5:23 AM PST - 7 comments

Europe's left makes Dubya's tax cut look small: Based on Congressional Budget Office projections, Mr. Bush's tax proposal would provide American taxpayers with an accumulated relief of about 3.6% of gross domestic product between 2002 and 2006. Compare this with the plan from Germany's coalition of Social Democrats and Greens: Finance Minister Hans Eichel will hand back 4.1% of GDP of the world's third-largest economy between 2001 and 2005.
posted by frednorman at 4:13 AM PST - 2 comments

You too can be a felon! Last year, the SDMI Foundation made a public challenge to see if anyone could crack 6 proposed protection mechanisms for digitally-encoded music. All six turned out to be feeble and all six fell. Since then, the SDMI Foundation has been relying on lawyers to cover up for the incompetence of their engineers. They're trying to suppress this article, so everyone reading this has a duty to make and store a copy of it. (Everyone should also own at least one copy of DeCSS. I have the 442-character C version printed on the back of my personal card.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 8:03 PM PST - 12 comments

Melancholy animation is always the best. More, by Mark Osborne. (RealPlayer, on2; ~6 minutes)
posted by SilentSalamander at 1:12 PM PST - 28 comments

HumanClick. This is cool. This allows you to post a little 'chat link' on your site. You can chat online with your visitors that visit your site. I added it to one of my sites and people just drop by and say hello. They don't need to install anything on the client side. Interactivity always seems to benefit sites.
posted by borgle at 12:04 PM PST - 8 comments

Harpers April Index Some interesting stats here, especially on energy-related items.
posted by Postroad at 11:03 AM PST - 11 comments

This is the Joey Ramone obituary that moved me the most. Even National Review must recognize his passing! Rest in peace, great man.
posted by Dr. Boom at 10:38 AM PST - 7 comments

Adobe and SVG: Adobe leverages their Acrobat reader along with Real Player to include their SVG browser plugin. Of note are the SVG with sound, filter effects, and JavaScript animation. Is Adobe gearing up to position this as a Flash competitor?
posted by mutagen at 10:07 AM PST - 16 comments

Summit of the Americas A very complex set of issues that are being discussed in Canada, but for most of us, all we see presented is the police, the tear gassings, the forces gathered in protest. Here, a summary of the complex issues at stake and being discussed.
posted by Postroad at 8:04 AM PST - 53 comments

Napster to Use "Fingerprinting" Technology to help it filter out copyrighted songs. "There are many technological challenges.'' That's putting it lightly. How badly would this slow down their system if they could even get it to work?
posted by Outlawyr at 7:56 AM PST - 10 comments

The Big Breakfast used to be the cornerstone of British breakfast television. In recent weeks, however, it's been looking a bit limp, the recent sacking of a host being the least of their worries. And although much of the country are looking elsewhere for their morning TV, the head of the network it's on has come out in support. Perhaps he should be looking to the past.
posted by feelinglistless at 5:51 AM PST - 3 comments

One of the classier TV channels around has done a site re-design. I think it's pretty neat, but it's a bit um flashy and so drags with a slower connection. I've been watching movies for over 30 years, but I'll still come across a gem on TCM now and then that I've never seen, or sometimes even heard of. They're running some more recent films lately too, like The Hudsucker Proxy a few weeks ago.
posted by aflakete at 11:30 PM PST - 8 comments

So it's come to this. California - my favorite third world country. We've had terrorist rampages; water rationing; more recently, energy rationing; senior citizens holding a *bake sale* for god's sake in San Francisco to raise funds for affordable housing; an encephalitis outbreak in Livermore and now this.
posted by Lynsey at 9:49 PM PST - 7 comments

There's a ban on self-linking, but since this is my brother's instead of mine, it must be okay. He's in the Navy and I think this is one of the best descriptions of what military service , and I do mean service, is like. I hope all of you who look down on our military take the time to read it.
posted by CRS at 5:10 PM PST - 25 comments

Zooooom in from space! Very cool views of our planet
posted by owillis at 4:44 PM PST - 14 comments

¿Headed south anytime soon? This fun, if somewhat depressing, little site is the work of the South to the Future gang. These wicked, evil folks have taken it upon themselves to try and educate the masses here in the SF bay area. What troubles me is despite the pervasive nature of the dang ol' Innernet on our everyday lives, I don't see a lot of people buying into causes of this nature. Maybe I am just jaded and exhausted from dodging SUVs all over town. I mean, there are a lot of hills in SF so why shouldn't people have monster 4X4s? On a lighter note, this seems to be a neat little side project of theirs.....
posted by donkeysuck at 3:41 PM PST - 14 comments

The 420 Philosophy gives a brief overview of the popular marijuana codeword and its likely origin. Today is, after all, 4/20; please celebrate responsibly.
posted by johnnyace at 3:35 PM PST - 31 comments

The estate of a divorced father is freed from paying a failing son's tuition. Basically, the ruling establishes (at least in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) that children have obligations to parents. OK, if you want your parents to pay for your college education, you should at least try to graduate. But what are the other consequences of this ruling? What's the point at which a child's bad behavior releases a parent from their obligations as a parent? If your divorced dad is the Great Santini, can he cut off your child support if you hit him back?
posted by dchase at 3:26 PM PST - 2 comments

Do you have stairs in your house? We are here to protect you from The Terrible Secret of Space. Hilarious! And here's the ICQ prank on which it's based...
posted by cfj at 3:08 PM PST - 21 comments

Some bands split up - others can't even be bothered to do that. For some reason I'm getting visions of henges, dwarfs and T-shirts . . .
posted by feelinglistless at 3:05 PM PST - 14 comments

Summit of the Americas protest ratchets up a notch Have these accomplished anything?
posted by owillis at 12:32 PM PST - 107 comments

Free Starbucks internet use But you might have to go a bit out of your way to use it.
posted by Postroad at 12:04 PM PST - 10 comments

.the .product will make you happy. It might make ya cream yer pants. .the .product "demonstrates 'realistic' and detailed graphics are possible even within the limitations of the 64kb competition." Over a gig of data compressed into this small a space? The potential is frightening.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:32 AM PST - 9 comments

Johnny Ganja Seed
This certainly is not fighting stick figures. It is a series of cartoons about the savior of the herb. Seeing as it is today... I thought I would post it. Flash, large files and funny.
[via Flazoom]
posted by DragonBoy at 8:54 AM PST - 9 comments

Text messaging is inspiring artists to new areas of creativity from theatre to sculpture, says the Guardian.
posted by jhiggy at 8:46 AM PST - 4 comments

True or False? According to Karl Mueller (a.k.a. "Gus"), the FBI came a knockin' on his door after taking his "Trench Coat Mafia" parody site a little too seriously. I can imagine it happening, but considering what a prankster he is, one does wonder whether this is all a late April Fool's joke. What do you think?
posted by lia at 8:02 AM PST - 11 comments

No Hiding Place "According to most experts in the field, a police state with powers of control and surveillance beyond the wildest dreams of Hitler or Stalin could now be established in Britain within 24 hours" Here's how...
posted by hmgovt at 7:33 AM PST - 4 comments

BlueLight (Kmart) screws up Mp3 player price. But refuses to honor order requests. The Nomad Mp3 normally lists for $299 but a glitch had it listed as $29.99. Word spread, and many ordered, but Bluelight is refusing to honor the orders. Is this right or wrong? Granted this was a glitch, but what about truth in advertising???
posted by da5id at 6:45 AM PST - 44 comments

AOLTWWBNBC? The FCC (okay, no more acronyms!) kills off the rule stating that one company can't own more than one broadcast network. The big nets can't merge, but the little ones and big ones can get together.
posted by hijinx at 6:06 AM PST - 12 comments

The Gulf War: Hidden agenda? A documentary just released suggests that the Gulf War was a staged American effort to put American forces into the Gulf region and that there was no abiding reason our troops had to be sent to Desert Storm. You read; you decide.
posted by Postroad at 5:18 AM PST - 20 comments

Apathyology: Ten or twelve years ago, back when I was in high school, some friends of mine were gonna start something called the National Apathy Society. I say were cuz we never did. That was the joke. We were all members of a club about apathy but we were too apathetic to... well you get it don't you? You don't? Well I don't care. My point is, and I do have one, I am highly suspect of any organization which claims to be apathetic but they actually have a website. Especially since I didn't think of doing it first.
posted by ZachsMind at 4:57 AM PST - 10 comments

ShadowTV is tomorrow's technology today -- its "TiVo on steroids," according to Joachim Kim, a creator of a new technology that enables users (which may at sometime include the public on a subscription model) to pull up video-quality or better streaming footage of any television show that aired or is currently airing, including (or not including) the commercials, all in a handy web application.

The limitations are endless.

Such a technology could prove deadly for the big TV networks (down the road sometime), although ShadowTV seems optimistic to work with content providers. [Thanks to Professor Michael Rosenblum at NYU for introducing our Televison and the Information Explosion class to tomorrow' technology.]

Now, let me begin planning that 7-season Star Trek: Voyager marathon...
posted by nyukid at 2:45 AM PST - 45 comments

Outfront is 15 minutes of radio, on daily, which reflects Canada through the eyes and minds of its freelance community. There's no host on this show … it's all about Canadians telling their own stories in their own unique ways. transom.org is another website that archives short pieces by unknowns. see also: radiodiaries.org, soundportraits.org, dc productions... do you know other sites that showcase interesting radio pieces?
posted by palegirl at 10:22 PM PST - 2 comments

Could Microsoft Really Be Doing This Well? Microsoft's earnings up 14%? I find this rather suspect. Any thoughts (standard NYTimes Link caveats...)?
posted by ParisParamus at 7:18 PM PST - 23 comments

aw, so sweet... it seems lately that everyone's first response to copyright and trademark infringement is to jump down the offender's throat and rip their guts out. this company just corrects the spelling of their name and sends presents.
posted by centrs at 5:55 PM PST - 17 comments

Why do people insist on taking my name in vain? Still, it's good to see that there are plenty of Tom, Dick and Henry's available for the psycho ex girlfriend. (I guess Harrys are OK).
posted by dchase at 5:04 PM PST - 4 comments

Harper's Index of Teenage Myths It's not the kids; it 's us, the adults! A child in school has one chance in two million of getting killed by a gun in our public schools. Drugs, guns, violence? Not the kids as much as is touted.
posted by Postroad at 4:34 PM PST - 14 comments

I was looking at this flash stick fight, when I looked for its origin, I found this bit filed under "Western Culture". Is this western culture? kill, power, bad boy, child criminal, morality, abortion, alcohol, castration, hot or not, cleavage, gays on tv in America, indulgence, cosmetic surgery, and cyber-subversives? Like, zoinks.
posted by tomplus2 at 4:13 PM PST - 3 comments

Weenies galore: Pre-internet, it was used to drop your pants and sit down in the office photocopier. Now you can scan your nob and display it proudly to the rest of the world. Now I guess this is what they really meant about the Internet bringing great progress to the world...

(Disclaimer: kids probably shouldn't see this)
posted by betobeto at 3:10 PM PST - 29 comments

'Who the hell is that fella on the end?' If you've ever looked out onto a sports field and wondered who all the imposters are pretending to be your favourite team, spare a thought for Manchester United before their 'crucial' European Cup soccer match last night. During the pre-game photographs, it transpired they'd gained a twelfth man somewhere along the line . . .
posted by feelinglistless at 3:09 PM PST - 11 comments

Internet Killed The Video Star -- More Flash I'm afraid.... but it's a great animated video.
posted by LMG at 2:32 PM PST - 10 comments

Frustrating thy tech savoir faire, the 452 Tech Challenge is a real excercise for the noodles.
posted by tamim at 12:00 PM PST - 12 comments

"THE HANGMAN EQUALS DEATH!
THE DEVIL EQUALS DEATH!
DEATH EQUALS DEATH!"
The New York Observer goes undercover at Yale to reveal the secret Skull and Bones initiation ritual. So, these are the people who will be running our lives for the next few decades?

"Take that plunger out of my ass!"
posted by Dirjy at 11:45 AM PST - 4 comments

Bending over for Boeing: What does it mean when your city will spare no expense in an effort to impress a few corporate suits?
posted by aladfar at 10:47 AM PST - 20 comments

ascii Pac-Man that's free, runs in win/dos and linux, and is complete with color graphics and smart ghosts.
posted by mathowie at 10:44 AM PST - 5 comments

More hours in daycare makes bad kids. "'If more time in all sorts of (child care) arrangements is predicting disconcerting outcomes, then if you want to reduce the probability of those outcomes, you reduce the time in care,' said Belsky. 'Extend parental leave and part-time work.' One of the lead scientists on the study with Belsky, [Sarah Friedman of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Developmen] said, 'The easy solution is to cut the number of hours but that may have implications for the family that may not be beneficial for the development of the children in terms of economics.'" Or, to say that in English, if you want your kids to be cared for at home you have to short them on food, clothing and shelter.
posted by jfuller at 9:56 AM PST - 97 comments

Assume your heroic form with this harmless, addictive bit of Flash. (Warning: probably coming to you by email soon, if not already.)
posted by argybarg at 9:05 AM PST - 19 comments

Oooooh... they described a burning sensation on the arm, and others felt something touch their face and tug at their clothes. No, this is not some S&M fantasy. It's ghosts in Edinburgh. Scientists are looking into it.
posted by borgle at 8:54 AM PST - 4 comments

Pranks for the memories. Fun list of the greatest phone pranks of all time. Wish I'd thought of some of these. Okay, except "Ben Dover."
posted by frykitty at 8:32 AM PST - 4 comments

Hey this marshmallow is a little chewier than I like...eeeeuuuwww!! Girl finds large garden slug in her Rice Krispy Treat...complete with requisite gross-out pic!
posted by briank at 7:51 AM PST - 12 comments

The man who saved "blogging"? Old news about the Trellix/Pyra deal but interesting none the less.
posted by justgary at 6:36 AM PST - 11 comments

I love 80's retro. Between the smoking travesty of "Joe Dirt" and "The Artist" changing his name back to Prince and going on a greatest hits tour, I thought we couldn't revisit the past much more...

Then, for some odd reason, I start to wonder why arms for hostages sounds vaguely familiar.
posted by foist at 5:40 AM PST - 6 comments

Don't you just love Spring in a cold climate? (Courtesy of The Onion and Dack.com)
posted by leafy at 5:36 AM PST - 10 comments

Drug companies drop AIDS drugs lawsuit against South Africa. Shamed into it, of course. Paid legal costs too. Perhaps a significant precedent?
posted by aflakete at 4:41 AM PST - 2 comments

New York to LA in under 20 minutes?
With a cruising speed of 11,500 Km/h , NASA unveils a new plane designed to be world's fastest... Fasten your, um, seatbelts please.
posted by murray_kester at 4:21 AM PST - 14 comments

I spy. You spy too Anything we do you do too: China big in the sky spy game
posted by Postroad at 3:52 AM PST - 4 comments

Giving as good as they get? I don't condone this, but it's the first time in this country that I've heard whites complaining like this (and, symmetrically, the Asian community blaming a small minority).
posted by andrew cooke at 12:00 AM PST - 9 comments

Love in a bottle -- the new herbal drink from Sweden named Niagara apparently works almost as well as its rhyme. [X-rated account of beta test.]
posted by dhartung at 11:46 PM PST - 8 comments

The pilot did it. Remember the EgyptAir crash? NTSB says it was a "deliberate act", but EgyptAir won't accept that explanation instead insisting there was a problem with the plane.
posted by owillis at 11:11 PM PST - 3 comments

The next All Your Base. I mean that in how fast it's gonna spread. I've gotten it from 3 completely separate sources today already. The original site I was linked to has already been taken down (I'm assuming from too many hits - this is one of many mirrors). It's very well done, and damn entertaining. Requires Flash.
posted by swank6 at 8:36 PM PST - 41 comments

"On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five..." Paul Revere never made it to Concord. At two by the village clock he was just being released near Lexington. I'm sure Longfellow's factual slip is what kept this poem out of The Oxford Book of American Verse.
posted by dfowler at 7:47 PM PST - 4 comments

I don't know if any of you have killed anyone (I certainly hope not) lately... But if you have, these guys can help with disposing the body. The telephone number actually works. Somebody is there just to keep the joke going. Now, we've all seen the Bonsai Kitten and Baby Smasher sites (I'm not going to relink those, you know how to use Google, don't you?). How many more of these types of gross satire sites should we expect? What sort of social evolution do these sites indicate? A loss of sensitivity? A devaluation of human life? An obsession with death and killing? A just plain twisted sense of humor? What do you think drives the creators of these sites?
posted by Spanktacular at 5:47 PM PST - 12 comments

From The Register, it looks like the UK has implemented an internet police force.
posted by paladin at 5:02 PM PST - 1 comment

Poor, poor kid. It sucks when you are out there protesting, get apprehended by the authorities, and are so scared that you have a little, ahem, "accident"; it sucks more when a camera's there to catch it.
posted by delfuego at 4:49 PM PST - 41 comments

Gates for president But can he afford to campaign?
posted by Postroad at 2:27 PM PST - 12 comments

Sea Otters. Cute 'n cuddly gentle animals or sociopathic, predatory, sexual killers?
posted by mathowie at 2:05 PM PST - 15 comments

Break in pipeline causes 92,400 gallons of "processed water" to leak into the Alaskan tundra. According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), this is "the biggest spill of industrial material onto the tundra in recent years." The hole in the pipeline was discovered last Sunday.
posted by tamim at 1:59 PM PST - 2 comments

No Need for Actors. While this article has certain phrases meant to incite -- "With quality actors who won’t ask for a bigger trailer or a sauna for their iguana, why then would Hollywood ever cut another cheque for the demanding stars that have always filled our screens?" -- Final Fantasy seems to be the next generation in animation of live actors.
posted by bkdelong at 1:01 PM PST - 15 comments

Castration extends life??? Not that I frequent this site, but the current Playboy reading list includes the Sex Lover's Book of Lists by the authors of the "How to Succeed With Women" and "How ... Men" books. Note the factoid in the review, in the 2nd paragraph, "men live longer without testicles (13 years longer, on average...)". (involuntary crossing of legs here) I've never heard that before, and I am not sure I believe it; I am only sure I don't want to believe it.
posted by JParker at 12:39 PM PST - 11 comments

Scientific breakthrough of the century.
posted by tiaka at 12:10 PM PST - 13 comments

Memo to NY media elite: While you would love if we all sat back sipping lattes while we listened to NPR, watched PBS, and thumbed through The New Yorker - America likes Britney Spears, Survivor, People magazine and Jim Carrey. Get over yourselves.
posted by owillis at 11:35 AM PST - 61 comments

The Guardian are running a competition with a difference. Jumping on the SMS bandwagon, they're offering £1,000 to anyone who can get a poem into 160 chars. It's not easy, but judging by these entries, some magic can happen. Apparently my work wasn't up to scratch . . .
posted by feelinglistless at 10:31 AM PST - 1 comment

10 steps to become the next Limp Bizkit. or the next Orgy. Or Papa Roach. Or Staind. Or the current shitty metal band of the week.
posted by JFunk2800 at 10:28 AM PST - 31 comments

The Fed surprises everyone with a 50-basis-point interest rate cut. (That's half a percent in lay terms.) The annoucement came out of nowhere, and the markets have gone nuts on the news: Dow up 4%, Nasdaq up 9%. But is this good news overall? I don't think it is; I think it means Alan Greenspan has data on the state of the economy that shows it's worse than everyone believes.
posted by aaron at 9:37 AM PST - 23 comments

A primer on assassinations, courtesy of your friend and mine, Osama bin Laden.
via The Smoking Gun
posted by CRS at 9:36 AM PST - 5 comments

Bring down MeFi in one easy step. Matt, does this affect you?
posted by redleaf at 8:51 AM PST - 14 comments

Memorial to Wang Wei Note that there is no religion given. This might explain his sudden departure from his role as stunt man for Tom Cruise. God was not his co-pilot. No Wei.
posted by Postroad at 8:11 AM PST - 15 comments

Sometimes, the good guys still win... Lost in the higher profile Elianapalooza with regard to the Pulitzer Prizes was the editorial writing prize awarded to the relatively small Rutland (VT) Herald's David Moats, who championed the recognition of same-sex couples on an equal legal footing with inter-sex couples. Quietly, eloquently but always with the utmost conviction, Moats' series of editorials together form a compelling, difficult to refute argument, enabling his Pulitzer victory over the Arizona Republic and the New York Times.
posted by m.polo at 7:24 AM PST - 2 comments

Helpdesk fun.
posted by dfowler at 7:05 AM PST - 34 comments

Harry the vulture stuck his head inside the loose-fitting skull and danced mockingly.
posted by holloway at 5:20 AM PST - 14 comments

Arthur Stace. Emperor Norton. These were not Great Men, but they were great men. Eccentric. Inspiring in a way. I have always found an affinity for people who walk to the beat of a different drummer. People with a vision underappreciated in their own time. Someone people would never truly understand. I'd like to learn of more people cut from similar mettle, but what does one put in a search engine? What do you call people like this? Can you think of other eccentrics of history? (and yeah I already tried "eccentrics of history" but search engines bring up nothing of note).
posted by ZachsMind at 4:42 AM PST - 22 comments

"High-profile P.I. Bill Dear believes he knows who killed Nicole Simpson. It's not who you think."

Fascinating read, whether or not you have a strong opinion on the case or just a slight interest. Dear initially thought O.J. did it, but now believes the police department came to a conclusion too quickly and as a result completely missed his prime suspect. [ via Alt-log ]
posted by lia at 4:11 AM PST - 29 comments

Mississippi Reaps What it Sews? Mississippi votes overwhelmingly to keep the Confederate flag as part of the state flag design. Is this democracy in action? This type of issue is usually decided by a state legislature. I understand the idea of heritage but surely there are ways to preserve it without having a banner on every corner widely seen as a symbol of slavery and racism. Even if you don't view the Southern cross as representing this, why hurt the people who do? The Nazi's built their power on the nationalistic idea of German "pride and heritage", but you don't see swastika flags flying today over Berlin. Does anyone think there should be an economic boycott of the State, like the one that was effective in getting North Carolina to remove the confederate symbol from its capital building? (Public buildings here in Texas now display the official Confederate State's flag when flying our "six flags" - not the Southern cross which was actually a battle flag.)
posted by sixdifferentways at 2:45 AM PST - 41 comments

The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy: An Interactive Study Since the development of carbonated beverage in 1886, one of linguistic geography's most important and least investigated phenomena has been the sharp regional divisions in the use of the terms "pop" and "soda."
posted by lagado at 1:23 AM PST - 68 comments

"Big government is good for you, and we'll spare no expense making sure you know it!" New figures show the largest advertiser in the UK is now the British government, with the government blowing about 2 1/2 times as much on ads per year as it did before before Labour's rise to power. This is far more than than any other country's government spends. Dissemination of truly important information, or taxpayer-funded plugs for Labour?
posted by aaron at 10:47 PM PST - 16 comments

Pink Floyd to release a "Best of" collection, scheduled for November this year. November can't come soon enough.
posted by 120degrees at 10:21 PM PST - 16 comments

Hardly Christian. So many questions... were the nuns simply trying to save their own lifes? If so, does that make it any better? And does a Belgium court have the right to preside over crimes in another culture? Can anything good come of this?
posted by Neale at 9:20 PM PST - 7 comments

Experiences on the Toilet This is one of the craziest and most cringeworthy sites I've ever been to. It's a site jam packed with postings from people detailing particular 'movements' they've had.. episodes of blocking toilets with 'whoppers' and 'interesting' odors they've experienced. Yes, it's the ultimate guide to everyone's experiences in taking a dump.
posted by wackybrit at 6:11 PM PST - 11 comments

7 Lessons Learned From The Dot-com Fallout -- "Some of these are so obvious it's almost too embarrassing to list them." Indeed.
posted by shauna at 5:51 PM PST - 8 comments

Texas gets good deal on Bush tax plan.. my state and many others lose....Do I move to Texas or pay more to avoid it?
posted by Postroad at 5:46 PM PST - 7 comments

Stephen Hawking to get English accent "Prof Hawking dislikes the American accent of his electronic voice that's transmitted from the computerised machine fixed to his wheelchair." The award for bizarre pullquote: "I have some nice English accents on my Macintosh -- Mr Vickram Crishna"
posted by mgtrott at 5:38 PM PST - 23 comments

The robot with the mind of an eel. Doesn't this scare you just a little bit?
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 5:32 PM PST - 12 comments

The Martian Internet
This is a cover-eyes-and-post post: NASA has made it a goal to improve telecommunications in deep space. This is good since I would hate to get up to my lunar base, and not be able to check e-mail. For a while, it will probably be Arpanet-level bandwidth. Just when we master this whole optical fatpipe stuff, they redraw the amount of territory an ideal network should cover.
posted by rschram at 5:27 PM PST - 1 comment

We all know the rules — no self-linking on MetaFilter. And yet I've often enjoyed peeking into people's User Profiles and checking out the sites they've put together. So, I'll risk creating a giant love-in thread, and I'll ask: what sites made by MeFi-ers have you enjoyed? (Besides the one you're looking at right now, I mean.)
posted by jbushnell at 5:12 PM PST - 38 comments

Woman lives as teen, graduates high school ... while living with foster families, collecting welfare, and leaving a string of sex accusations in her wake.
posted by dhartung at 4:55 PM PST - 4 comments

How to smash babies in public restrooms across America. Yet another site in the fine tradition of Bonsai Kitten.
posted by Spanktacular at 4:52 PM PST - 18 comments

Apple lawyers target Mac Themes Project -- Apple has issued a cease and desist order against Mac Themes Project (MTP) for creating a theme editor. Apple claims the editor enables third parties to copy its copyrighted trademark themes by "improperly copying Apple's copyrighted software code and graphic files".
posted by shauna at 4:27 PM PST - 13 comments

Kozmo's website is back up but this time with an interesting memo:
". . . any rental item you do not return by April 16,2001 will be deemed a purchase and your credit card will be charged the full retail value of the item."

the site came back up yesterday. not much notice for returns . . .
posted by christian at 3:16 PM PST - 9 comments

If only all radio DJ's were as diligent as this one. One radio DJ pushed over the edge of commercial B.S. overkill. Hundreds more to go.
posted by Qambient at 2:15 PM PST - 26 comments

Is Amazon really in trouble (this time)? Or are discussions like this the same story? Either way, Jeff B. is courting the media and the media sounds a little... bored.
posted by Bootcut at 1:59 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Theocracy in America? Specifically, in Utah, according to the writer of this Washington Monthly piece, who grew up there. Is the article too harsh, though, given the author's apparent lingering bitterness regarding her upbringing?
posted by raysmj at 1:56 PM PST - 22 comments

It's official: Jedi can't, and never could have been, an official religion. There were emails going around New Zealand and the UK claiming if there were enough who listed it as a religion, it could be official, but that's not the case.
posted by paladin at 1:18 PM PST - 4 comments

Venezuela Backs China in plane dispute And I thought we owned all of South America. How could they do this to their parnter up North?
posted by Postroad at 12:40 PM PST - 8 comments

Anyone want to get into Madonna's panties? Leather ones, at that. Studded leather. (Not me. Gack.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:02 PM PST - 13 comments

The American Family Immigration History Center™ will use state-of-the-art interactive computer technology to bring the immigration records on ancestors who came to the USA as long as a century ago to one's fingertips. The data is being taken directly from the ships' passenger manifests, which are currently on microfilm at the National Archives and Records Administration. To be completed in Spring 2001.
posted by frednorman at 11:46 AM PST - 6 comments

While it's good to know that the courts seem to be behind consumer privacy, I wonder about the executive branch's stance on privacy.
posted by fooljay at 11:32 AM PST - 1 comment

Shooting sperm with a condomgun is how the Swiss are attempting to educate people about aids prevention. Just shoot the oncoming sperm with your condomgun, and you can help prevent pregnancy, the spread of viruses and AIDS. At least this is more entertaining than an IRS site geared to children...
posted by Spanktacular at 9:59 AM PST - 8 comments

Jack Kevorkian's lawyer in trouble. He made some negative comments about a few appeals court judges. Not while he was in court, but on a radio talk show. Even so, he could potentially lose his license. His partner said, "Since when is it improper to make comments that are critical of government officials?"
posted by Potsy at 8:33 AM PST - 7 comments

Pay up or get out! ''Please be advised, that you are in default in the payment of tithes to the Holy Tabernacle Church of God in Christ Inc., for a period in excess of 90 days.'' ...If the money isn't paid... ''all privileges of membership in the Church will be immediately suspended....'' God loves you, but we won't if we don't get the cash, Now that's Religion!!!
posted by revbrian at 8:25 AM PST - 21 comments

Affirmative action seems to be taking root in an unlikely place: the Bush White House. "There's been talk inside and outside the administration about having no more than half the 484 political positions in the cabinet and agencies go to white males and at least 30 percent to women," Fred Barnes writes in the conservative Weekly Standard.
posted by rcade at 8:17 AM PST - 6 comments

A pill to cure addiction? No one interested The claim is made that a pill used for epilepsy problems has potential for curing drug addiction but that the government and organizations are not interested in exploring or testing .
posted by Postroad at 8:05 AM PST - 8 comments

Bush Virtual Pet Game Soars in China "In the wake of the downed U.S. spy plane, the Chinese apparently have found a new way to ridicule President George W. Bush - a virtual pet modeled after him" [They need a Palm Pilot to mock Bush?]
posted by Outlawyr at 4:00 AM PST - 4 comments

No child slaves on board. Of course not. Because if I'm the captain of that ship, or the customer, or the supplier, and every newspaper, TV station and website around the world has been headlining the report of my boat and its embarassing cargo for a week, while I'm still at sea, it's time for some creativity, isn't it? I could have them pick up by another vessel in mid sea. Or, like my forbears in the trade, I could chain them all to something heavy, and toss them overboard. The remaining passengers will know that silence is golden, now, and for years to come. Whatever my decision, I can't complain I didn't have time enough to consider, prepare or execute. The flipside of the information age?
posted by coyroy at 2:27 AM PST - 1 comment

Obi Wan - We hardly knew ye. Three new biographies concur on Sir Alec Guinness' well guarded homosexual past.
posted by tamim at 10:28 PM PST - 26 comments

Tom Green's internet promo for his new movie is, typically, both funny and mean. I'm wondering if I'm going to get any tech support calls because of this?
posted by sixdifferentways at 9:51 PM PST - 33 comments

The American Bookseller's Association is taking on the big guys. The trial pits indie bookshops and sellers versus evil corporate behemoths Barnes & Noble and Borders, arguing the big chains get wholesale deal the little guys don't. Does the ABA have any chance in hell of winning?
posted by mathowie at 8:00 PM PST - 13 comments

Road Cheese Hypertour: WI-MN-IA-IL. One of my favorite Olde Tyme Webe links. Not just because the piece of art I reference in my profile is featured, oh no. We're talking Spam Museum, baby! Anyone seen these things in person? Are they just as frightening, or worse?
posted by hijinx at 6:38 PM PST - 7 comments

West Wing Drug Bust Producer of West Wing busted with drugs...perhaps he was not digesting.
posted by Postroad at 6:01 PM PST - 14 comments

Bush's strategy: court the Catholics. Bush won as high a percentage of church-going Catholics as did Reagan in 1984, as Reagan was winning 25% more votes than did Bush. There's a strong Catholic vote in many states Bush narrowly lost, suggesting that consolidating his Catholic edge could assure victory in 2004.
posted by MattD at 5:14 PM PST - 12 comments

Pulitzer winners announced. Bothers me that the Miami Herald won a Pulitzer for "Elian"
posted by owillis at 4:52 PM PST - 13 comments

Dale Earnhardt didn't die of seatbelt failure. An expert hired by the Orlando Sentinal to examine the autopsy photos we discussed earlier concluded that the restraint system didn't fail, and his injuries will just have to be blamed on something else. Hooray for freedom of the press!
posted by norm at 4:49 PM PST - 12 comments

Vigilante against spam: "A self-appointed global army has taken on the mass Internet mailings that annoy users and crash systems. It is a demanding and risky hobby."
posted by paladin at 4:02 PM PST - 11 comments

Bettmann archive (aka Bill's Corbis images) moves to safer storage. Corbis is renting a mine to house the photo archive and slow deterioration. The point in this article that bothered me was the news that Corbis stopped digitizing this archive in January after a round of layoffs. Fewer than 2 percent of the collection is digitized and the new location makes it even less accessible. Will they just deteriorate slowly away and never be preserved in bits? The Corbis press release sounds more hopeful.
posted by girlhacker at 2:52 PM PST - 8 comments

When you line up all the layoffs, it actually looks pretty bad. I suspect the news industry knows recession = increased news consumption & ad sales and are going for it, regardless of how "bad" our current economic climate may be. Will the dot com downturn lead to losses everywhere or will it be concentrated solely in the tech sector?
posted by mathowie at 2:45 PM PST - 19 comments

There's hope for you yet, Mr. Scarecrow. Russian scientists develop artificial brain. [INSERT GEORGE W. BUSH JOKE HERE}
posted by Doug at 1:21 PM PST - 18 comments

U.S. Military worried about Ecstasy use among soldiers. Yeah, I suppose they would be. Last thing we need are a bunch of empathetic, self-aware, hired killers. Seeing one's enemy as an extension of oneself tends to muck up the whole nationalism concept, and we can't have that, now can we?
posted by Optamystic at 10:47 AM PST - 88 comments

interesting first hand accounts , as to what happend' to the American crew of 24 on Hainan island. And from what i gather, it didnt seem too bad. The media and 'analysts' made things out to be much worse i think.
posted by a11an at 10:44 AM PST - 25 comments

Hundreds of children trapped on slave ship The children, from Benin and neighboring Togo, are thought to be as young as 10 and to have been sold for as little as $15 by their parents. They had apparently been sold to work on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast...
posted by Dean_Paxton at 10:23 AM PST - 16 comments

Today is the 105th running of the Boston Marathon. Growing up in Natick, Massachusetts, which is the ten-mile point of the route, the Marathon was always a huge deal. I remember watching every year as the wheelchair racers would zoom by to the roar of the crowd. We'd then wait a few minutes until the State Police motorcycles and the press trucks marked the lead runners. Before long the street was nothing but a solid wall of runners in all shapes, sizes and colors. A favorite thing to do would be to cheer someone on based on the t-shirt they were wearing. One year I saw a man wearing a t-shirt with a picture of the Mandlebrot Set. I yelled "Go fractal man!" He looked at me and smiled, and I knew I gave him a little bit of a boost that day. The race is certainly a yearly tradition around these parts. Does the rest of the world care? Is this big news elsewhere or just a small blurb on Page E-6?
posted by bondcliff at 7:29 AM PST - 37 comments

Ch??? flat in absence of local news [File under "When Headlines Get Weird"]
posted by Outlawyr at 6:30 AM PST - 16 comments

If only United States law were this comprehensive. I got it! Ahhh. . .that's why the US media would even cover stories like this, and as high rated newsreader headlines. . .duh. Reverse propaganda I sez it is.
posted by crasspastor at 3:40 AM PST - 7 comments

"Indeed, so rare and precious are the fruits of [the music industry's] labor that it, unique among the world's enterprises, deserves to have the rules of decent civil behavior suspended." Illegal (even by Taiwan's laws) search-and-seizure of university students' computers. 14 students will be made an example of and 'prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law'... for mp3s. In East Asia, where apparently the record companies have no one better to pick on than college students. *cough*
posted by darukaru at 3:17 AM PST - 8 comments

"Inmate rape has such an established place in the mythology of prison that references to confinement often call forth jokes about sexual assault. But while rape is accepted as a fact of prison life, the subject has received little serious attention and legal remedies are rare. Few prison rapists are ever prosecuted, and most prisons provide little counseling or medical attention for rape victims, or help in preventing such attacks." New York Times: Little Sympathy -- I don't know what this does for recidivism, but it doesn't sound like rehabilitation to me. What's a prison activist to do?
posted by sudama at 1:15 AM PST - 46 comments

Tourists swimming with the fishes... Ok, more accurately swimming with sharks. Summer is coming and with it my little coastal town is starting to endure the first surges of tourist crowds. With the changing of the seasons comes the eternal question, just what can you convince tourists to spend money on? I live in great white shark country so it's unlikely that this particular tourist activity will take off locally. However, we have had problems with commercial shark chummers in the past.
posted by rdr at 10:30 PM PST - 8 comments

Greg Knauss quoted in Wired Magazine! The creator of EOD, one of my favorite daily reads, is quoted in an article about some software guy. Go Greg!
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 10:25 PM PST - 18 comments

something for the web art geek, something for the stoner. Man, I'll take something like this for inspiration over something like this site any 'ol day. All of those simple photos would make almost anyone want to go into photoshop.
posted by foist at 6:52 PM PST - 5 comments

Trellix buys Blogger.
posted by owillis at 5:50 PM PST - 66 comments

Joey Ramone dead at 49. Succumbed to lymphatic cancer.
posted by pnevares at 3:43 PM PST - 45 comments

Could this actually be proof of the legendary Yeti? Scientists may have a sample of Yeti DNA. Clone this, and a wooly mammoth and you'd have one Hell of a sideshow...
posted by Spanktacular at 10:39 AM PST - 10 comments

The ACLU wants to protect your privacy from government electronic surveillance programs like Echelon and Carnivore. Their full page ad in today's NYT claims 4th amendment rights are being violated by the US government, which is overstepping their bounds, and nearly free of up-to-date laws. Is it to late or can anything be done to protect civilian electronic communication?
posted by mathowie at 7:55 AM PST - 7 comments

IF THE VIKINGS HAD FOUNDED New York (and they damn well nearly did), they probably would have called it New Jorvik after their own city of Jorvik (now called York) on the coast of Britain. Despite their reputation as marauders, Viking York was a densely populated and bustling port city which boasted a skyline of high rise buildings. It was the New York of it's day and here's a sense of what it was like.
posted by lagado at 6:24 AM PST - 12 comments

Potty humor. "Because y'see, when you combine The Matrix and farting... you've got comedy right there."
posted by owillis at 9:56 PM PST - 5 comments

New April additions to the "Interior Desecrators" gallery of horrific 70's design will leave you in awe (or gouging your eyes out, it's your choice). You'll wonder who on earth would ever use a bathroom like this, if you were child how on earth could you sleep in this room, and why, why, why? It's already 20-30 years behind us, but I distinctly remember looking at my parents' Better Homes and Gardens books like this and wishing I lived in those high tech interiors. Remember to check back each month for updates.
posted by mathowie at 9:51 PM PST - 14 comments

Reparations for Dixie?! A Southern nationalist group is demanding reparations for "atrocities" committed against Southerners during the Civil War.
posted by brantstrand at 7:35 PM PST - 21 comments

Bush soft on China, so pundits say Spouting a tough guy stance, the talk shows guests, all conservative commentators, suggested Bush whimped out and made America look weak. They preferred a much tougher stand even while the military were "on loan."
posted by Postroad at 4:24 PM PST - 6 comments

Two survivors of the Auschwitz death camp are suing the American government for not bombing the death camp and are seeking $40 billion in damages. (via Fark)
posted by tamim at 3:53 PM PST - 26 comments

"You don't have to burn books now," says Thomas. "You just press the delete key." Two unabashedly partisan reports of the Bush administration's clandestine campaign to "tighten up" anything from online government sources dealing with the development of Alaskan mineral resources. We've done the debate on Alaska, but what about the ability to amend online records? The old administration's sites are meant to be preserved by law, but plenty appears to have been deleted in the name of "polishing": "We changed value-laden words like 'destroy' to 'impact.'" Newspeak in action? Should government-run sites be required to carry a Changelog?
posted by holgate at 3:09 PM PST - 7 comments

Be a jedi on April 29! I know I will.
posted by ecvgi at 1:35 PM PST - 10 comments

J. Philippe Rushton topped? You may remember the controversy over Mr. Rushton's book, "The Bell Curve". The scholarly work linked above has the potential to be just as provocative.
posted by BGM at 1:34 PM PST - 19 comments

Even IGN.com is going subscription! They're calling it Insider, and it's going to cost $20 a year or $10 for 3 months. "Features" include a printable pdf version of IGN, and some other things that seem like total garbage. However it remains vague about what you will keep as a nonsubscriber. I don't see this even remotely succeeding unless they restrict the very basic features of IGN (reviews, etc.).
posted by swank6 at 12:44 PM PST - 8 comments

and she's STILL single? "Before You E-mail Me, This Page is Required Reading" "Underlying everything that I say about chivalry is the fact that I'm looking for a relationship in which it's understood by both the man and me that I'm ultimately in charge." more...
posted by centrs at 11:09 AM PST - 38 comments

Punk rock chickens! This has to be one of the weirdest things I've seen. But when you work with chickens, I guess you get pretty bored. Enjoy!
posted by samsara at 10:44 AM PST - 7 comments

I used to have a 1.2Mbps DSL link when I lived in Atlanta. Now I am back home in Europe and I log on to the Net on a thin old 33kbps dialup. But old habits die hard. I want my web man, I need it. So, I did some thinking, went on Google and found this. And now my question is: how many people out there would like to get thinner, faster versions of their favorite sites? Is there an index of such versions? And if not, how many of you would like to see one? I got some interesting Python spiders lying around...
posted by costas at 5:54 AM PST - 16 comments

How to Overcome a Writers Block? I actually hate fuzzy link descriptions like "Go there! It's great!" But this is really great. And true. Go there!
posted by arf at 4:42 AM PST - 4 comments

Taliban, take note A silly charge for vengeance or a global desire for ethical and moral justice?
posted by Postroad at 4:41 AM PST - 2 comments

the phobia list
what are you afraid of?
posted by bwg at 12:49 AM PST - 31 comments

In search of the real Cleopatra: an exhaustive collection of artifacts exploring the history and the myth of the Queen of the Nile is currently on display at the British Museum. It will run through August 26. (The exhibition will travel state side and be at the Field Museum in Chicago from October 20 through March 3, 2002.)
posted by tamim at 10:57 PM PST - 5 comments

iPix Movies are cool interactive movies, you choose the angle you view while it is playing and you can turn to any angle, up, down, left, right and zoom. This is pretty wild but takes a broadband connection so if you are a dial up user, forget it. I want the little helicopter the camera is on, very cool.
posted by me myself and i at 5:14 PM PST - 11 comments

Mad Cow. Now the bovines are talking back.
posted by netbros at 4:45 PM PST - 9 comments

The semantic web Might make the internet obsolete but what about my porno?
posted by Postroad at 2:02 PM PST - 5 comments

Brando ill. The saddest, scariest part of this story is that he was just getting ready to film Scary Movie II when he got sick. Scary Movie II...and the Oscar for "Most Pathetic Former Genius" goes to....
posted by jpoulos at 12:28 PM PST - 17 comments

David Rumsey is putting his tremendous collection of historic maps online. Using technologies from Luna Imaging and LizardTech, he has so far made available high-resolution images of over 4000 of the 150,000 maps in his collection.
posted by Aaaugh! at 11:29 AM PST - 5 comments

It's about time! Remember the Road Rage case in San Jose where a man threw a lady's dog into traffic last year? He's been found. The man who threw Leo the dog into oncoming traffic last year has been found. Ironically, he was found already in Jail.
posted by da5id at 10:36 AM PST - 8 comments

Is this troll a troll? or is it instead a metatroll or a precursor to a troll or an anti-troll? Do not send to ask for whom the troller trolls.
posted by Postroad at 10:29 AM PST - 12 comments

marchFIRST implodes. We've known it's been coming for a long time, but only yesterday did they finally do the chapter 11 thing. Just one of the bigger victims of the dot-com fallout, or the inevitable result of two companies (Whittman-Hart, USWeb/CKS) that shouldn't have even considered merging in the first place?
posted by mrbula at 10:18 AM PST - 15 comments

Is Radio on the Web Doomed? Does anyone have any thoughts on the legal developments described in this article? I had hoped the Web might be a defense against the downward, ownership concentration spiral of radio; now what?
posted by ParisParamus at 10:09 AM PST - 24 comments

Great little shockwave game here. Like a little slice of childhood.. I remember putting together these racetracks and racing those little electric cars along them. Great fun, and there's even a 2 player option. Sweet.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 10:07 AM PST - 25 comments

The Nation finds 200,000 Floridians disenfranchised in voter-roll purging operations last year, a disproportionate number of them black. They charge this was an effort in direct response to phenomenally successful voter registration drives in the black community.
posted by dhartung at 8:46 AM PST - 34 comments

Davey and Goliath. When I watched this show as a kid, I had no idea it was pushing so much religion at me. Still... memories right? The Clips are pretty low quality in .mov format. Bless you Davey, let's pray.
posted by the_ill_gino at 8:36 AM PST - 16 comments

JavaScript Style Sheets: the CSS that "coulda been". This brief read offers up an explanation as to why CSS support in Netscape 4.x is Quite Awful.
posted by hijinx at 7:24 AM PST - 2 comments

Well that didn't last long.... Yahoo caves in and renegs on the porn thing.
posted by briank at 6:49 AM PST - 13 comments

Steve Buscemi and Vince Vaughn in Barrom Brawl! Yikes! Buscemi is stabbed 3 times in the face, throat, and arm was hospitalized overnight. Somewhat ironic the Movie they were filming is called "Domestic Disturbance."
posted by da5id at 5:35 AM PST - 10 comments

:( Harvey Ball, creator of the smiley face died yesterday. He was paid $45 for designing it for an insurance company. Neither he nor the insurance company bothered to copyright it, and the rest is history.
posted by dchase at 5:13 AM PST - 16 comments

possible treatment for marijuana abuse.
posted by tiaka at 4:59 AM PST - 16 comments

Soul Mates? Black like me. Do black Americans love Clinton because of his "in -your -face attitude" , a legacy going back to slavery, or because he "feels your pain"?
posted by Postroad at 4:25 AM PST - 10 comments

"Why is affirmative action in universities so unpopular when it seems to be working so well? Statistical studies show that the policy has improved racial diversity not only in the classrooms but later in life, in business and the professions, as well, and contributed to improved understanding among races." New York Times Op-Ed: Race and the Uses of Law. Will the Supreme Court decide that racial diversity is a compelling educational need that justifies affirmative action? Should they? (Educators are invited to contribute.)
posted by sudama at 2:56 AM PST - 35 comments

OK if Microsoft is putting this kind of development effort into the Xbox I don't think Sony has anything to worry about. Sheesh, the world's largest software company can't write a bug-free TV listing program. Have TiVo and ReplayTV had these kind of problems too? (And not received as much press because they aren't MS?)
posted by redleaf at 1:18 AM PST - 4 comments

It has to stop! (via rc3) Someone puts up a website, people like it and come back for more, then they tell their friends - and so on. The problem is, the site becomes popular and prohibitively expensive and a valuable resource either gets put behind a pay per view gate, disappears, or the site owner has to bite the bullet and pay a huge hosting fee. (more inside)
posted by owillis at 12:51 AM PST - 35 comments

Lance wants you to be great. Are you going to be great?
posted by christian at 11:43 PM PST - 13 comments

Anti-Semitism on the comics pages. Is it just me, or is this way over the line?
posted by darukaru at 9:24 PM PST - 43 comments

Jason's incredible day is the most moving blog entry I've read this year, if not ever. It's going in my bookmarks under "amazing stories that can move me to tears."
posted by mathowie at 9:12 PM PST - 19 comments

Yahoo to donate $3 million in free banner advertising for Tolerance.org. This ranks up there as one of the coolest things Yahoo has ever done: whenever people search for hate-filled words, they'll get a banner ad reminding them of the effects of discrimination and intolerance. A single banner ad won't change the world, but it certainly can't hurt to spread information about tolerance (via rc3.org)
posted by mathowie at 9:00 PM PST - 13 comments

Pundit scoreboard Some tv pundits much more reliable than others. Here are the stats, the track records.
posted by Postroad at 8:33 PM PST - 2 comments

Today at work I noticed we were running a little low on stickers, and mentioned that we didn't have enough of Mr. Yuk around. My poor, freakish coworkers had never seen or heard of the funny face from Pennsylvania. Although I seem to have doubts about how effective it is at steering young ones away from potentially deadly everyday items and other dangerous materials.
posted by salsamander at 7:54 PM PST - 11 comments

Apple and Palm's new iPhone? Apparently this is just a mockup, and its a little bit unclear what all the little buttons do, but I still want one.
posted by bshort at 7:31 PM PST - 12 comments

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) has been advocating for women's rights in Afghanistan since 1977. The telling story is that the women are not treated any differently now than they were during either the pre-Soviet occupation, or the Soviet and their puppet governments and now under the Taliban regime. The website has some disturbing videos of the public executions mentioned in this MetaFilter thread. (I have not watched the videos.)
posted by tamim at 6:15 PM PST - 1 comment

Casketfurniture.com : because why should you keep your casket in the garage when you could easily store it as a couch or coffee table? Don't forget to check out the his and hers coffins/entertainment center, me and the Mrs. got a set and we couldn't be happier!
posted by paulrockNJ at 5:32 PM PST - 2 comments

The Pirate Attack on Yahoo "How a Gang of Legal Rogues Tried to Gouge $4 Billion from Mark Cuban's Sale to Yahoo."
posted by todd at 5:21 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Too delicious for words: A guy registers walmartcanadasucks.com. Wal-Mart sues. Guy wins. Guy sues Wal-Mart to get them to fork over all the walmartcanadasucks.x they registered defensively after he registered the .com. Cajones, mi amigo.
posted by NortonDC at 5:04 PM PST - 8 comments

There's a wingnut on the streets of Seattle wearing a sign saying "will do web design for food." Not only does his sign have a URL, but he's keeping a weblog of his progress. Here's a [self-link] better photo of the dude who, full disclosure, I do not know at all. Please do not hire him, I want to watch this unfold.
posted by jessamyn at 4:35 PM PST - 28 comments

A Murder Mystery by Abraham Lincoln "In the neighborhood of William's residence, there was, and had been for several years, a man by the name Fisher, who was somewhat above the age of fifty; had no family, and no settled home ......His habits were remarkably economical, so that in impression got about that he had accumulated a considerable amount of money." In 1846, Lincoln, a fan of Poe, wrote about a case that he had defended in Illinois.
posted by riley370 at 4:17 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

SinoFilter.com Can I resume drinking from the made in China Metafilter coffee mug yet?
posted by ParisParamus at 3:42 PM PST - 1 comment

Microsoft to cripple MP3 capabilities I don't think anyone has posted this yet; Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system is set up so as to cripple MP3 copying, in order to nudge users into using Windows Media Player format for all their music files. Of course, the latter is a proprietary format with copy protection built in. Not only does the built-in software not copy MP3 files at a higher sampling rate than 56kps, but third-party MP3 software apparently does not work properly. --As usual, this will not stop knowledgeable users from finding workarounds, but the goal is to make unprotected copying too difficult for the average Joe.
posted by Rebis at 12:00 PM PST - 44 comments

Host an orgy. Something of a twist on a murder mystery dinner.
posted by owillis at 11:37 AM PST - 12 comments

This is amazing. The project seems well underway already, but I searched and didn't find any link on MF. I've spent all morning picking through these designs, reading the updates and discoveries, and I totally wish I was involved. What do people think of this organic/digital media collision? And the anonymous project mythos? Has anyone seen one of the journals, or received one?
posted by legibility at 7:48 AM PST - 32 comments

And so my jaw dropped, be looking out for a straight to video release of American Psycho II.
posted by tiaka at 5:52 AM PST - 22 comments

McVeigh's execution will be on closed-circuit television for the families of bomb victims to watch. Now, as a person who sees dead people fairly often, even I can't imagine watching an execution. So my question is: is this public entertainment for the bloodthirsty, or some misguided idea of providing "closure"?
posted by methylsalicylate at 3:53 AM PST - 77 comments

Kidnapper's cabin surrounded as a hostage drama seems to cap a remarkable criminal career. Anthony Zappa was the fugitive who caused the Mall of America to be closed for a search last month; he got away, then he was going to turn himself in, but instead he fled to Nebraska, where he kidnapped a teenage girl. Oddly, this parking-lot snatch resembled an unsolved case of a missing TV anchorwoman, Jodi Huisentruit.
posted by dhartung at 12:59 AM PST - 5 comments

Credit Card Nation? And people who bought this book also purchased Fast Food Nation. Is the U.S., then, no longer Prozac Nation. Do we live in Hackneyed Nonfiction Title Nation? Or is it really a Credit Card Abusing, Fast-Food Eating Nation on Prozac?
posted by raysmj at 9:24 PM PST - 17 comments

fast company on customer service The thing I loved about this article was the associated forum filled with customer service horror stories. Air travel, cable tv companies, and customer service seem to be things people love to complain about.
posted by rdr at 8:36 PM PST - 5 comments

I spy again As that great American icon says in her song: oophs, I did it again. America to send another spy plane to cruise the Chinese coast. Jesse, keep your bag packed.
posted by Postroad at 7:30 PM PST - 28 comments

"Having flown around the earth in the first satellite I saw how beautiful our planet is, let us not destroy it!"

Remembering Yuri Gagarin, 40 years on.
posted by holgate at 7:22 PM PST - 8 comments

Linus doesn't hate Mac OS X after all. Contrary to what you may have heard, Linus Torvalds has said in an interview with LinuxWorld that he actually has nothing against Mac OS X--as some people here suspected, the original article seems to have been more aimed at creating controversy than at conveying information.
posted by moss at 7:03 PM PST - 2 comments

Astounding Websites dies This evening I received an email from "Big" Dave Bastian with the sad announcement of one of the best online design communities the web had to offer. (more inside)
posted by Brilliantcrank at 7:01 PM PST - 33 comments

Themestream Sinks Just got an email TODAY saying Themestream will "close its doors on April 13, 2001." They also say that they "believe it is very unlikely that we will be able to pay any other creditors- including contributors." Oh, also, you have until April 12 to download your articles if you don't have local copies.
posted by thunder at 4:51 PM PST - 9 comments

Charlotte Judge Says Get Married Or Move Out If you want to be released on bond in U.S. Magistrate Judge Carl Horn's court, you've got to stop breaking that 1805 law against shacking up. He doesn't release habitual lawbreakers! Note that he's a federal judge, enforcing a North Carolina Class 2 misdemeanor.
posted by BT at 4:33 PM PST - 13 comments

Kozmo is dead. I know they weren't making much money, they spent too much on advertising, and they were eventually going to go away, but they're possibly the most convenient and useful service on the web (amazon being the only thing close). I'm sorry to see them go, they were the greatest thing in the world when you're sick or when it's too late to go out for videos and ice cream (kozmo.com is unreachable already).
posted by mathowie at 3:59 PM PST - 45 comments

Harry Secombe passes at 79. I just saw the Peter Sellers bio on American Movie Classics the other day, and found out how important The Goon Show was in the history of comedy. A Hard Day's Night and Monty Python had their roots in this groundbreaking British radio show that ran from 1949-1960.
posted by aflakete at 3:51 PM PST - 12 comments

Slate's MeZine Central offers a sampling of politically oriented journalists' sites, featuring what they call "The Best Political Weblogs".
posted by frednorman at 3:43 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Execution for Dummies, special McVeigh edition. The Bureau of Prisons has thoughtfully printed up a 56-page how-to guide for those in charge of putting Tim McVeigh to death. Now you can follow along in the comfort of your own home!
posted by aaron at 3:06 PM PST - 4 comments

Future Moon Base Sited

the key points:
Shackleton crater (best image)
a resource of hydrogen, likely in the form of water ice, ammonia, and other materials
at the Moon’s south pole and is some 30 kilometers in size
peak of external light - more or less continual Sun. solar energy becomes usable all the time. in the permanently shadowed areas in that region, various astronomical instruments could be operated with telescopic optics kept cold and stable
posted by Sean Meade at 2:29 PM PST - 15 comments

This link is copyright, Eric Costello... aka Glish. No, really, he's serious. Is this really necessary? Comments?
posted by silusGROK at 1:26 PM PST - 40 comments

Dodge ball getting flack for being too dangerous. Nevermind football, field hockey, or lacrosse. *sigh* Shame is, as the awkward, non-athletic kid they're trying to protect, dodge ball was my savior. It allowed me to fully participate in PE without the loss of dignity necessitated by other, mainstream sports.
posted by silusGROK at 1:23 PM PST - 40 comments

75% of Americans favor Government funding of faith-based organizations. However, when asked about specific faiths, that number drops dramatically to 38% for Buddhist Temples and 29% for the Nation of Islam. So what did they expect, their own religion should get funds, but no others?
posted by quirked at 1:18 PM PST - 36 comments

Arrest imperils an internet grant Those who can teach, teach. But sometimes they get drunk instead and lose a nice grant...Not a Bush to be seen here. But still, it is Florida.
posted by Postroad at 12:34 PM PST - 1 comment

A.I. is already into advertising. BELLADERMA-SRL-IT.COM, INOURIMAGE.ORG, METROPOLITANLIVINGHOMES.COM, DONU-TECH.COM, ROGUERETRIEVAL.COM, SPCB.ORG, ELECTRIC-TOYLAND.COM, KATENEI.COM, FAMILYCHAN.ORG, MARTINSWINTONDESIGNS.COM, RATIONAL-HATTER.COM, UNITE-AND-RESIST.ORG, JEANINESALLA.COM, MARTINSWINTON.COM, CORONERSWEB.ORG, TREACLE-WELL.NET, ONE-LUMP-OR-TWO.NET, OFFWITHHISHEAD.NET, ALEPH-NAUGHT.ORG, ELIZAS-TEAROOM.NET, RAVEN-LIKE-WRITING-DESK.NET, www.bangaloreworldu-in.co.nz are all part of the a.i. website.

more inside...
posted by tiaka at 11:37 AM PST - 13 comments

Yahoo sells porn. Is this a huge change? Is it finally time for them to "put a bit of a filter up, put their hand out and take the money" that flows through for masturbatory purposes?
posted by thebigpoop at 11:27 AM PST - 10 comments

Mmmm, stickers in my colon. Next time I'll be sure to wash the apple, doc. (see bottom pick).
posted by tomplus2 at 11:03 AM PST - 11 comments

Clippy dead - news at 11. Anyone who has had to deal with "Clippy" in Microsoft's Office products will appreciate this new spin Microsoft is placing on the animated character.
posted by milnak at 11:01 AM PST - 28 comments

I Love Paul Krugman! He, better than any writer I have seen, cuts through all the political BS to expose the Republican party, whose members, for the most part, obtain office by cleverly deceiving the little people on what is in their interest. I would love to see PK "debate" the President (link to the NYTIMES--make up a username/password if don't have one and you're that concerned).
posted by ParisParamus at 10:58 AM PST - 20 comments

"I buy as many as I can. I freeze them and we eat them all year round,'' she said. Gross. More news on America's... no... the WORLD'S... favorite (cough, cough) treat.
posted by fusinski at 8:07 AM PST - 17 comments

News picks from the Guardian. This is a very useful service of course: The Guardian links to top news stories on the web- weblog style... But is this a weblog or just a related links page...? Either way it's a news junky's heaven...
posted by talos at 6:56 AM PST - 6 comments

Bush is no idiot - or so claims this opinion piece from The London Times. "What a pity that President Bush’s critics haven’t learnt to leave the playground, and its insults, behind." What Bush has done is "show that a conservative isn’t just a leftwinger with better table manners but an honest defender of superior principles."
posted by revbrian at 5:57 AM PST - 28 comments

This Mastercard parody has been on-line for two years, and Mastercard only recently requested its removal. Here is the hilarious response to the cease and desist. What I find amusing is that the MC lawyers never mention that they find the parody tasteless or offensive. Just that it violates their trademarks.
posted by goto11 at 5:48 AM PST - 13 comments

Everybody sing along! (via u2log)
posted by kchristidis at 4:52 AM PST - 1 comment

"You are about to activate your first gesture command in Opera. A gesture command is activated by pressing the right mouse button, and while holding it down, performing a simple movement with the mouse, and then releasing the button"... such as left going back a page, or down opening a new window. Aliens bless gesture interfaces, and Molyneux.
posted by holloway at 3:43 AM PST - 16 comments

I don't like GWB, but even I think this artist goes too far sometimes. Like here. (but he is dead on at times)
posted by owillis at 11:33 PM PST - 18 comments

and speaking of mergers...
posted by johnboy at 10:53 PM PST - 8 comments

Is this banner offensive? I'm all for using a little sex to sell product, but this execution shows no link between the ad and the actual product that I could see...
posted by owillis at 9:31 PM PST - 14 comments

Coach Touretski Suspended Over Steroids Charge - Leading swimming coach Gennadi Touretski has been suspended from the Australian Institute of Sport following allegations of illegal possession of anabolic steroids. This is very big news here in Australia at the moment.
posted by Jase_B at 8:21 PM PST - 5 comments

Riots in Cincinnati. Cincinnati city police have this odd habit of killing unarmed young black males. In November, two men were killed. One was shot, another was crushed or suffocated while already in police custody and, according to witnesses, not resisting. Several weeks later a policeman shot and killed a twelve year old out joy-riding. Saturday night an officer chased down and shot a nineteen year old he 'thought he recognized' as someone with outstanding traffic warrants. Every time someone is killed Cincinnati city council promises to look into the matter but does nothing. Today someone decided to take action, even if it was in a destructive and politically impotent form of action.
posted by krakedhalo at 7:47 PM PST - 21 comments

OtherSide is a program written by Jordan of Digital Swirlee and powered by Audiodenst and MapQuest, that will show you the place on the earth opposite yourself. In other words, it will tell you where you'd end up if you dug a hole straight down and kept digging until you got to the other side. So, where exactly is your other side of the world?
posted by Firda at 7:32 PM PST - 18 comments

This is very old (especially in web years) so i won't be surprised if i'm scolded for a possible repost, but you all have to read this. No description, just these three words: God Save Disney.
posted by paulrockNJ at 7:19 PM PST - 14 comments

Borders outsources online sales to Amazon.com The alliance, scheduled to be announced at a press conference in New York, is expected to involve Amazon effectively taking over the online operations of Borders, according to people familiar with the matter. Borders is expected to effectively exit from the online book-selling business, these people said. Further terms of the alliance couldn’t be learned, though Amazon is expected to receive promotion from Borders through its chain of off-line book stores.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 6:34 PM PST - 30 comments

Focus on the Family Contacts Will & Grace Story Editor
...and gets more than it bargained for!
posted by quonsar at 5:48 PM PST - 47 comments

Does This Website Make Me Look Fat? Tired of websites that showcase weird kinks and fetishes? Me neither. This fellow enjoys photoshopping female celebrities so that they look fat. Ooookay. (Everything I saw was OK for work, but beware irritating Angelfire popups.)
posted by Skot at 3:53 PM PST - 10 comments

eCompany's "Boo! And the 100 Other Dumbest Moments in e-Business History". Some of these are just hilarious.
posted by paladin at 1:44 PM PST - 6 comments

Bill Gates created MacOS X? I came across this memo written by Bill Gates on July 29, 1985 to John Sculley, then president of Apple Computer. In the memo, Gates writes about the possibility of licensing the Macintosh operating system to third party companies. Here's where it get wierd, Bill suggests that Apple talk to AT&T about migrating the MacOS as a GUI layer on top of their UNIX. Makes me wonder who had the idea first, Steve Jobs or Bill Gates?
posted by Brilliantcrank at 1:24 PM PST - 6 comments

Missing server found... behind a wall... Got this from Scott's site and thought I would share it. I'm just amazed the thing stayed up for so long.
posted by starvingartist at 12:45 PM PST - 11 comments

is this justifiable? i'm sure that both sides have their own reasons. but, honestly ... all the fatalities. how can there be any possible rationale for the loss of so much?
posted by a11an at 11:51 AM PST - 15 comments

The 5k entries are now viewable ...and boy are some of them amazing! 5k chess games, 5k pornography, 5k mandelbrot sets, even a bunch of 5k Flash movies...fantastic. Leave last year's entries in the dust. (a MetaFilter password works for login.)
posted by aniretac at 10:58 AM PST - 22 comments

Not the Dot-Com Guy, he's a guy.com An Israeli fellow has legally changed his surname to .com; his website is just the usual personal website and doesn't seem to offer any deeper clues, so you figure it out.
posted by briank at 10:37 AM PST - 7 comments

corporate totalitarianism and the ftaa: Activists will gather in Quebec City, Canada on April 11, 2001 to protest the upcoming Summit of the Americas (SOA) meeting. The purpose of the SOA, which will be held April 18-22, is to hammer out the first full text of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a proposed agreement that would turn the entire Western Hemisphere (except Cuba) into the largest international trading bloc in history.
posted by kliuless at 10:04 AM PST - 3 comments

The first cut is the deepest: Smithsonian to take massive money cuts Under the budget submitted to Congress this week, deep cuts to be made in Smithsonian programs and divisions, as well as personnel. It is, I believe, cuts, seldom making big media stories, that give us an idea of what is viewed as important by our political figures
posted by Postroad at 9:05 AM PST - 11 comments

Palm Vx & cell phone combo has swept the streets of New York ... the Verizon stores sell out of them within hours of each shipment's arrival. I was one of the first, and I am, by and large, extremely satisfied ... more within.
posted by MattD at 8:28 AM PST - 21 comments

Blogs of Our Lives. There I was, enjoying a Burger King breakfast, reading the local Gannett paper, when I turn to their Tuesday technology section and find . . .
posted by fpatrick at 8:18 AM PST - 22 comments

School's mathematics don't add up! PS 234, a primary school in TriBeCa, is at the forefront of the revolution in math instruction being carried out in more than half of New York City's schools. The district's approach to math instruction follows an egalitarian theory called "constructivist math," which is the idea that children shouldn't learn basic techniques for adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying. Rather, emphasis is placed on "feeling good about numbers" etc. Said one angry parent, "The idea that the home has to be turned into the school because the school is the testing ground for inane programs - that's frightening." And leading university mathematicians have joined parent groups in denouncing the method. All things concidered, is it right for schools to use children as guinea pigs in this manner?
posted by frednorman at 7:56 AM PST - 53 comments

He's baaaack. Business news bad boy Lou Dobbs returns home to CNN, and his estranged babies CNNfn and Moneyline. No word on whether he'll have to divest himself of his personal playtoy, Space.com. (My guess is he won't. CNN is desperate.) Can he restore Moneyline's past glory and steal back the ratings crown from Baldy and Bubbles?
posted by aaron at 6:32 AM PST - 8 comments

Conjoined twins separated. But while that operation is always challenging, this one was particularly bad. The girls were joined at the top of the head, and their brains were merged -- and shared common blood vessels. It took eight-eight hours of surgery to separate them, most of which was spent rerouting blood vessels. Both girls survived the operation. This is only the sixth time this operation has been attempted and only the second time that it has succeeded. (Vertical craniopagus is, mercifully, exceedingly rare.) The operation was only possible at all because the surgeons have spent the last four months practicing it with virtual-reality software on computers (presumably using models based on MRI). Anyone have any idea what software package they used?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:31 AM PST - 14 comments

Sure, you've seen Tie-Tanic, Troops and American Jedi, but is there room for another short spoof? Why yes, and I feel like I can watch them all day.
posted by plinth at 6:20 AM PST - 3 comments

Another childhood icon bids farewell First it was Bozo, now Mr. Rogers announces he's ending production on his television series, which has been on the air for 33 years. The show will continue in re-runs, of course. Suddenly I feel very grown up and more than a little wistful. (very sorry for the NYT link, maybe someone can post the free mirror link inside)
posted by briank at 6:16 AM PST - 23 comments

Sometimes conspiracies are real. The real reason the 3d net software is showing up again might best be summed up by a quote from this article: ' "The focus was to get someone to go out and upgrade to a Pentium 4," Benoit said. "We wanted to create new and compelling content that wasn't out there and that would cause people to make a decision to upgrade their processors." '
posted by gdavis at 6:06 AM PST - 12 comments

Strategic Forecasters broke the story that the U.S. was spying on new Chinese Submarines a week ago. NPR just got the story out yesterday. They publish one free story a day. You have to pay to get the rest, but it's worth reading just for the one free forecast.
posted by Wong Fei-hung at 6:03 AM PST - 2 comments

big mac's big voice in meat plants
"Bloodied in past scrapes with animal rights groups, McDonald's has been positioning itself in recent years as an ardent defender of farm animals... the company's headfirst plunge into slaughter policing is revolutionizing the way slaughterhouses do business, according to a wide range of industry experts and observers."
part of an ongoing washingtonpost.com series entitled "Modern Meat."
posted by moth at 6:00 AM PST - 13 comments

Shatner! The man! The myth! The legend! He once told actor Kevin Pollak, who does the definitive Capt. Kirk impersonation: "At 'Star Trek' conventions, I do you doing me and it kills!"
posted by darren at 5:49 AM PST - 8 comments

Brand Ben Brown Software launches
- with Discuss being the debut release; a configurable Perl discussion list script.
posted by williamtry at 5:15 AM PST - 9 comments

Goodness gracious, what is that?
It's Mr. Pugwash, my black cat.
Goodness gracious, are there others?
Yes indeed, my cat Carruthers.

Ann Widdecombe, December 2000.

And you Americans worry about your politicians?
posted by ecvgi at 4:53 AM PST - 10 comments

"These Wall Street stunners are what truly spur aggressive growth," teases Playboy in their latest attempt since failing miserably at luring a TV Analyst to bare all. [Via: The Daily Telegraph (Friday, April 06. Page 37.)]
posted by tamim at 11:07 PM PST - 2 comments

A FIFTH-grade girl at Cincinnati's Mount Airy School says at least 15 boys have been trading soda and cash for sex with at least five girls, according to WLWT Eyewitness News. Police and school officials are looking into the allegation, which claims the students -- some as young as 10 -- were sneaking into closets to do it.
posted by mgtrott at 10:25 PM PST - 25 comments

Roden Crater is an extinct volcano in Arizona and doubles as a $7M land art project by James Turrell. I look forward to visiting the site on my next trip to the Southwest.
"If you're not an optimist, forget being an artist," Mr. Turrell said. "I've been lucky. I never felt any entitlement. I'd hoped interest in this work would get going sooner because it wasn't meant to occupy my whole career." The sun was going down and the sky was red and purple. "But that's fine. I have nothing better to do."
posted by gen at 8:07 PM PST - 2 comments

Free Cone Day- Ben and Jerry's gives the world a cone- May 2, 2001
posted by TuxHeDoh at 7:13 PM PST - 27 comments

Who IS that man on the cover of Brill's Content this month!? A direct link to the cover image is here. Discuss! (I searched to see if this had been mentioned today and couldn't find any threads on it. Forgive me if I missed previous mentions...)
posted by MarkBakalor at 4:04 PM PST - 21 comments

whiteness studies (7.5 MB)
posted by subpixel at 3:53 PM PST - 7 comments

Ginger Interactive!? This seems like a sleazy attempt to capitalize off the Dean Kamen Ginger hype.
posted by revbrian at 3:03 PM PST - 4 comments

Nine Inch Nails gives copyright of song to Black Dog Construction. I don't think so. Visit Black Dog to give a listen to NIN's "Head like a hole." What can be done to protect the rights of the artist?
posted by I am Generic at 3:02 PM PST - 19 comments

Germany Plans Infowar Against Websites? So, Wired News reports that German Interior Minister Otto Schily has said publicly that Germany should stage denial-of-service attacks on right-wing websites housed in other countries. AOL versus Germany as WWWIII/InfoWar I?
posted by bclark at 1:54 PM PST - 6 comments

Jigsaw classrooms are an interesting attempt to foster higher learning and racial harmony. Seems like a win win situation to me. While no panacea for problems in school I don't see this hurting things.
posted by john at 1:50 PM PST - 11 comments

Boingy boingy boingy. Has anyone had any experience with these? The movies on the website look pretty cool.. and it would seem that doctoring those videos up would take some considerable effort, so I'm guessing it's not a hoax?
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 1:14 PM PST - 22 comments

Ewwwwww. Every reason I never eat at those deli salad bars, wrapped into one arrest ... and hey, there might be copycat crimes at other delis in the area! Ewwwww.
posted by maura at 1:13 PM PST - 11 comments

Oz Revealed: The man behind President Bush. "Under [Karl] Rove's guidance, Bush has unrolled initiatives based on his campaign promises, according to a preconceived schedule with virtually no negotiation or modification. Critics say such unilateral actions will backfire and are not conducive to results."
posted by aladfar at 1:10 PM PST - 22 comments

Should we ask him about the meaning of life? According to French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, the most likely answer to the question "who runs the world" is: "Nobody (or chance or chaos theory)."
posted by andrewraff at 12:20 PM PST - 7 comments

Our air and water may be polluted, but by gum, we're going to have smart kids... Bush gives us the new budget, which gives money to Education and the military, but cuts back on Agriculture and the EPA. Guess we're all going to be chewing down on that synthetic corn while wearing gas masks, eh?
posted by Cavatica at 12:15 PM PST - 4 comments

A Flash usability white paper that says Flash can improve the usability of a web site.

"When executed correctly, with attention paid to the needs and wants of users, Macromedia Flash content can actually improve the user experience on any Web site."

Can Flash be saved if developers start thinking about usability? Is this going to impact Jakob Nielsen's 99% figure?
posted by Dugout at 12:04 PM PST - 8 comments

"Uncontacted" tribe contacted in Javari region of Amazon
A team of Brazilian anthropologists has made contact with a group of indigenous people in the Amazon region. They had initially only wanted to learn about uncontacted groups indirectly, but chose to seek out this group to make sure they weren't being exploited by a neighboring group.
posted by rschram at 10:25 AM PST - 9 comments

Free costume dry cleaning. The Justice League of America seeks new heroes. I'd apply but it says quite clearly that "Your weakness cannot in any way be related to a food or beverage." Damn.
posted by amanda at 10:19 AM PST - 10 comments

Gimmie a N-I-K-E! Okay, so this newest bit of marketing brilliance is just a proposal at this point, but it does raise the question "where will it end"? And considering that the athletes and venues themselves are already covered in logos, slapping a few on the cheerleaders seems relatively trivial.

Of course it's just not in sports. This February those of us in Seattle were treated to the sight of an enormous "Microsoft Xp Operating System" flag flying from the top of the Space Needle. The biggest outrage, to my mind, was the fact that no one in town seemed outraged in the slightest. Have we given up?
posted by Shadowkeeper at 9:16 AM PST - 14 comments

Another one bites the dust NBC said Monday it is shutting down its loss-ridden Internet subsidiary, acknowledging that any hopes of it becoming profitable had vaporized along with the online advertising market. Many of the 300 jobs there will be eliminated as the unit’s assets are integrated into NBC.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 7:39 AM PST - 14 comments

NAFTA allows corporations to sue governments. UPS is suing the government of Canada for unfair competition alleging that Canada Post, a crown corporation, subsidizes its courier service, Purolator. This a revolting development, to say the least.
posted by xiffix at 7:11 AM PST - 13 comments

'The deadliest threat facing democracy today?' Noreena Hertz thinks that governments' steady withdrawal from running their own countries' affairs and the concessions made to big business are leading to a society which has lost faith in the political process. I guess there are a few people in California at the moment who'd agree.
posted by Markb at 6:54 AM PST - 5 comments

Is Hollywood right-wing? Mark Cousins thinks it is, and his arguments are impressively barking.
posted by Mocata at 4:30 AM PST - 32 comments

Remotely control your desktop from any Java-enabled web browser. AT&T Labs' VNC (Virtual Network Computing) has existed for quite a while but never mentioned here. The tiny server runs on Mac, Windows and Unix platforms, installs quick and easy, and is free to download and use. See the neat screenshots of various client/server combinations if you're not yet convinced of its usefulness (35k GIF).
posted by waxpancake at 12:25 AM PST - 14 comments

I've been waiting to see this all day!!! I submitted my entry for the 5K contest this morning and have been waiting all day for some kinda word on when we would get to view all the submissions.
posted by darkpony at 10:50 PM PST - 6 comments

Just in time for the easter candyfest. I wonder how many people actually enjoy peeps.
posted by modularette at 9:21 PM PST - 19 comments

Can Salon make it? A great article, if you're interested in Salon, content on the web, and/or online journalism in general. A few things I learned: Salon's peak readership is 3 million unique visitors a month; Salon's office got bomb threats after they broke the Hyde affair story; and Salon's founding editor made $175,000 last year, plus a $50,000 bonus.
posted by acridrabbit at 8:23 PM PST - 22 comments

The redesign may not have been well received but Adobe Studio sounds pretty cool. At Adobe Studio, you'll also find cutting-edge tools that keep you competitive and an online community as passionate about design as you are. Promote your own work to a large audience of potential clients, and discover inspirational and instructional content that you can really use. From forums for sharing tips and techniques to online design critiques where participants can get real-time feedback from industry luminaries, Adobe Studio is all about what matters most — celebrating fresh ideas and unbridled thinking.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 7:33 PM PST - 3 comments

Peter Molyneaux , arguably the greatest game designer of all time, does it again with Black and White. I saw this game at the Game Developers' Conference a couple weekends ago - it really is amazing. It must have the most sophisticated AI of any game to date.
posted by SilentSalamander at 6:59 PM PST - 16 comments

Offshore euthanasia - A pioneering Australian doctor has unveiled controversial plans to set up the world's first floating euthanasia clinic which would drop anchor off the Australian coast and administer lethal injections or drug dosages to terminally ill patients who wish to die in dignity. Certainly a unique way to circumvent the law!
posted by revbrian at 6:01 PM PST - 6 comments

Historic as the moon landing? No man or woman in history has ever held all golf's major championship titles concurrently. Is Tiger Woods' sweep of the Grand Slam an achievement of epic proportion, or just a blip on the radar of personal success?
posted by netbros at 4:50 PM PST - 43 comments

Free as Air, Free as Water, Free as Knowledge : is my favorite link to quote people these days. I like especially the references to Ben Franklin. How do we resolve the problem of fair use in a market driven world? Dan Gillmor's latest column, which calls for people to get active on the issue of fair use, brought the speech once again to mind.
posted by artlung at 1:36 PM PST - 12 comments

Pre-bankruptcy bonuses at PG&E The corruption in California couldn't be any more obvious to me.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 1:14 PM PST - 20 comments

Within a year, one authority expects, a judge will declare fingerprint evidence unscientific. The Age of Genetics is upon us. I didn't know twins have identical DNA, but different fingerprints. And, for other reasons as well, fingerprinting will still be used. Just not the standard anymore.
posted by aflakete at 12:33 PM PST - 4 comments

DeathDorm.com? The Florida ISP responsible for those high-quality entertainment sites VoyeurDorm.com and DudeDorm.com (note that both of those links resolve to "adult content") sues the Feds for the right to put a webcam in the viewing room when Timothy McVeigh is executed on May 16th. As noted here previously, McVeigh wanted the execution televised, so it's hard to imagine he would be opposed...
posted by m.polo at 9:14 AM PST - 17 comments

So that's how it works . A lonely flash animator toils away in the name of medicine. The voice over sounds a lot like Jeff Goldblum. Link was found on Medbroadcast.com.
posted by the_ill_gino at 12:39 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

The Story of Mel - Almost everyone's seen the Story of Mel on USENET or via email... the story of the guy who wrote programs for a particular ancient drum computer by using the characteristics of the drum to handle memory allocation and time delays. In a footnote on the Jargon File, it seems that his last name is known... An interesting footnote to an interesting and probably true story.
posted by SpecialK at 10:30 PM PST - 5 comments

Blogging from space On board with the Expedition One crew. Does Blogger have a "[REDACTED MATERIAL]" command?
posted by owillis at 9:25 PM PST - 6 comments

Important stuff to keep track of on the net, number 18873 in series: the Female Celebrity Smoking List. Ever wondered what movies [insert actress here] smoked in? Did she smoke in real life? What brand? Can you verfiy that "Barry McKenzie Holds His Own"* is a non-cigarette smoking movie? Ever find yourself musing about whether "banana-to-penis is an easier analogy than cigarette-to-penis"? Then you're in luck.
*Which is, not to fork my own thread, a movie starring two guys** named Barry.
**One in drag
posted by rodii at 4:50 PM PST - 2 comments

National Masturbate-a-thon Come for a cause! Have friends and strangers sponsor you per minute of self-pleasuring. Pick up a Sponsorship Form today!
posted by riley370 at 4:04 PM PST - 15 comments

4/5 - "I'm loosening up my arm tonight. I don't want to bounce it in." 4/6 - Bush's first pitch a major league bust. Gee, I hope now we don't have to go to war to regain our mojo.
posted by quirked at 8:30 AM PST - 7 comments

Feds post indecent material. In a move sure to be challenged, the FCC released a report which offfers examples of what they consider to be indecent, and not indecent.

In typical government style, anything that is referred to "sexual" is deemed indecent. But use of the word such as "motherF****r" isn't. This just makes things even more confusing... at least to me.

Examples:

Indecent: "Well, it was a nice big fart. I'm feeling very gaseous at this point."

Not indecent: "The hell I did, I drove motherF****r, oh. Oh."

Indecent: "Sit on my face and tell me that you love me. I'll sit on your face and tell you I love you too." - Montey Python
posted by da5id at 5:43 AM PST - 10 comments

Swedes offer polital asylum to wolf This has definitely put the Swedish nation up in my estimation!
posted by Nick Jordan at 2:22 AM PST - 10 comments

Mobile phones alert husbands to cheating wives
i suppose this could work both ways...
posted by bwg at 11:21 PM PST - 6 comments

A dot com (sort of) that's making money I'd love to post this link to f****dcompany.com but unfortunately these people claim to be profitable. So I have to wonder if some of those really stupid business ideas from the web boom weren't so so stupid after all.
posted by rdr at 10:16 PM PST - 11 comments

"Apple to Users: 'It's Not Our Problem'": Apple is doing nothing about their new firmware update which doesn't recognize some third party RAM chips.
posted by paladin at 7:28 PM PST - 15 comments

George Jetson, your car is here! We have miniature phones, pocket computers, and wristwatch MP3 players/cameras. Now DaimlerChrysler's working on the bubble car! In lieu of faster toasting devices, can a bubble car make driving safer?
posted by hijinx at 7:11 PM PST - 11 comments

Center of the World is a dynamic flash site that takes the viewer into a strip club where he (or she i s'pose) can interact with girls. it's pseudo 3D and there are some other nifty things the creators did to make the experience seem live. It may be soft core porn, but it's really high tech softcore porn with a spiffy interface (found on markside )
posted by Zebulun at 6:15 PM PST - 12 comments

Shockwave 3D Beta - Yet another re-entry into the world of Web 3D, this one long-heralded. It definitely looks a lot nicer than the last one we discussed here, but details on authoring are sketchy. Though it's pretty, it still doesn't really answer the question - is there a need/demand for Web3D?
posted by kokogiak at 2:52 PM PST - 18 comments

Happy 71st Birthday, Twinkies! Let's all just stop flinging doo-doo and bangin' the baloney for a moment and enjoy a true American original -- Twinkies-- which were invented 71 years ago. I'll bet the very first package still hasn't reached its freshness expiration date.
posted by briank at 2:05 PM PST - 27 comments

Britney's Battle Plan? Leaked document or Internet bs, you make the call...
posted by owillis at 12:16 PM PST - 19 comments

No Free Lunchster! No discussion is really necessary-- cause this is just plain stupid...(well, ok, we can discuss if you want:)
posted by schlomo at 11:33 AM PST - 12 comments

New book talks about democracy and the web. The student newspaper that I work for reviewed the new book Republic.com, which talks about the potential problems that the Internet poses to democracy. Contrary the ideal of free information and exposure to new ideas on the Internet, the author concludes that in online communities, people choose to associate with people who share similiar opinions, which subsequently radicalizes their opinions and shuts them out to opposing voices. Food for thought.
posted by ktheory at 11:15 AM PST - 10 comments

If you don't stop, you'll go blind. Americans for Purity winning the war on masturbation. Not sure if this is disturbing, or just plain hilarious. Make sure you check the hate mail, and the responses, which make me think that this is one big joke (or at least I hope so).
posted by trox at 11:10 AM PST - 32 comments

Culture as Culprit. Myron Magnet is the author of The Dream and the Nightmare, which George W. Bush has called the most influential book -- aside from the Bible -- that he's ever read. Is poverty in American less an economic matter than a cultural one?
posted by techgnollogic at 11:07 AM PST - 9 comments

PG & E declaring bankruptcy. So if every website in the bay area goes down, it may not be due to the dotcom fallout. And remember kids, when the lights go off, you'll want to loot your local Fry's before anything else.
posted by mathowie at 10:57 AM PST - 40 comments

Monkeys head/brain transplanted to another monkeys body. Yeah, some poeple think it's unethical, but I think it's cool. At least in fantasy. Imagine the horror stories if they tried it on humans......
posted by SexyParapalegic at 10:49 AM PST - 17 comments

Teens Sue MTV Over Defecation Incident. In addition to a cosmically beautiful headline, this should give everybody plenty of opportunities to gripe about pandering to the lowest common denominator in entertainment, why television is going to hell, etc. Boy, MTV is receiving quite the drubbing these days, eh?
posted by logovisual at 10:16 AM PST - 13 comments

Scientists discover secrets behind aging process raising the possibility that hormonal therapy could add decades to the human life span. While I'm generally environmentally aware and concerned about overpopulation, all I can think is - sign me up!
posted by quirked at 9:44 AM PST - 19 comments

Linus no likey MacOS X Linus apparently doens't like the microkernal that X is based upon. Talk about details. Can't he just get over it and ooo and ahhh over the Aqua?
(side note: Yahoo claims that Linux Torvalds created Linux)
posted by Brilliantcrank at 9:25 AM PST - 24 comments

Help for mathowie's toaster problems? While I don't know about the speed with which it toasts, the sheer novelty (and arguable usefulness) of it may take your mind off the wait. Next: porn on your bagels.
posted by jammer at 8:45 AM PST - 12 comments

"China's lumbering propaganda apparatus" may be an accurate description, but is it appropriate for the New York Times to use such a phrase in a news article, especially given the present crisis?
posted by jrbender at 8:00 AM PST - 43 comments

chunk 666 Bicycles ready for the apocalyse: After the imminent Apocalypse, gasoline and bullets will be rare. Those who already ride bicycles and shoot bb guns and slingshots today will easily dominate the huddled masses tomorrow.
posted by riley370 at 7:39 AM PST - 6 comments

Is anyone else getting really irritated over the no right click java-scripts? The thing does mostly nothing, if you wanted to steal something, you could through the source code, and most of the sites that are tacky enough to place it in there have really crappy graphics anyway. What I use the right click for is opening a link in a new windows, if there's a list of links and you go through them one by one. *Sigh*
posted by tiaka at 6:43 AM PST - 45 comments

Hillary rules out running for president - ever! Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday ruled out ever running for president - a startling declaration that even seemed to leave her own aides stunned. And a domain useless...
posted by frednorman at 4:07 AM PST - 25 comments

Remember Dart Pigeon? Check out this guy's beef on music funding. Please note the authors of both pages. Coincidence? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
posted by Dane at 1:17 AM PST - 7 comments

Rooibos Tea has 50 times more antioxidant properties than Green Tea. It seems the South African brew is over taking the popular Chinese brew in the European health food/herbal tea circles.
posted by tamim at 11:59 PM PST - 9 comments

project delphis
an organization called earthtrust started project delphis in 1985 to determine how intelligent and self-conscious dolphins actually are. this is very cool.
posted by bwg at 11:20 PM PST - 19 comments

GM encourages new SUV owners not to drive. "No injuries yet." But how bad does the defect have to be for them to tell their customers not to drive the damn things?
posted by aflakete at 9:58 PM PST - 46 comments

TANGMONKEY.COM is suffering from server problems. Although their email system still works, I worry about the rash of personal sites (nosepilot/gisol.org, especially, comes to mind) that are going down due to traffic beyond the "moderate" level. The host that TM's using is charging them several hundred dollars as their <=100 hits/day equals > 30 gB outging traffic. What's the solution? Are there cheaper/better hosts? Should "personal" content sites start advertising? I can't imagine that helping...
posted by Marquis at 9:47 PM PST - 4 comments

U.S. SUSPECTS WORLD MAY NOT BE PUTTING U.S. INTERESTS FIRST
hehehehehehehehehe
posted by bwg at 9:29 PM PST - 12 comments

Article on New Scientist about "software that turns everyday language into computer code".
posted by paladin at 6:30 PM PST - 19 comments

Foreign Media Reaction. A regular report from the Office of Research of the US State Department which summarizes opinions, official and journalistic, on hot-button issues in newspapers around the world. Currently covers the Sino-American dogfight. Incredibly thorough. A good one to set up under an Internet Explorer subscription.
posted by Mo Nickels at 6:29 PM PST - 2 comments

Girl dies during radical therapy session. The mother has been given limited immunity for her testimony against the therapists. This is some scary beans -- does anybody have any experiences with this kind of therapy?
posted by OneBallJay at 6:17 PM PST - 11 comments

If Only It Was Arafat. Good. If he was who they say he was, he deserved it. Keep Playing Hardball. The Israelis should play this kind of hardball for a few years. Then the rocks will stop, things will settle down, perhaps the Palestineans will stop claiming Jerusalem, get some kind of real government, and then, perhaps their own little state. Then again, since no Arab state comes close to being a democracy, perhaps that will never happen.
posted by ParisParamus at 4:42 PM PST - 12 comments

Say what you want about him... but STILE PROJECT is as much a part of the internet at MetaFilter ...or, it would be, if he wasn't being shut down for allegedly displaying a copyrighted image in a banner ad that wasn't even stored within his website. And apparently his site isn't the only one targetted.
posted by crunchland at 3:40 PM PST - 15 comments

Parent's name their baby "Espn" after the all sports network ESPN. One of my pet peeves is when parents name their babies something "unique" or "cute." I read somewhere that the director Robert Rodruiguez named his kid Rocket. Don't these parents understand how much teasing their children are going to have to endure? Aargh.
posted by JFunk2800 at 3:01 PM PST - 32 comments

Razorfish for sale. Cheap. Real cheap. "Exciting new media company with lots of potential for expansion (again) for sale."
posted by mathowie at 2:19 PM PST - 14 comments

Bush, Citing Privacy, Swears Off E-Mailing Family. "He said he does not e-mail out of concern his private communications could be subject to freedom of information laws and could be made public... Bush said, however, that his administration will cooperate fully with freedom of information requests..."
posted by tranquileye at 1:51 PM PST - 11 comments

I want my MTV. There was a time when the only ads MTV showed were ads for the network itself. These are some of them. (from the U.K. so they might differ from the slate of ads run in the U.S.) Brings back many fond memories of the animated letters M, T, and V. (link courtesy of Saima)

Please proceed directly to "MTV used to show videos!" and then continue to more forced commiseration and remembrances of media conglomerate advertising as a substitute for a rich shared cultural heritage.
posted by anildash at 1:19 PM PST - 10 comments

Stung by the "Sopranos," the lawyers strike back The Italian American Defense league suing because the HBO show Sopranos defames Italians...is their claim with or without merit?
posted by Postroad at 1:12 PM PST - 40 comments

Internet Explorer 6 and Standards Microsoft says they'll have 100% CSS1 and DOM (I assume level 1) support. A step in the right direction? Too little too late? Discuss.
posted by fil! at 12:48 PM PST - 19 comments

Keanu Reeve's Girlfriend Killed In Car Crash - Jennifer Maria Syme, 29, died on Monday after her Cherokee hit several parked cars and turned over. A police report said two anti-depressant prescription drugs were found inside the vehicle along with two rolled up dollar notes with traces of a white substance inside them . . . Prescription cocaine? When can I see her doctor?
posted by radio_mookie at 12:19 PM PST - 14 comments

Producer of 'Cops' gets DUI in Atlanta . . . Bad boy, bad boy, watcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?
posted by radio_mookie at 12:13 PM PST - 2 comments

Satellite photo shows no Chinese activity near the spy plane. Whom to trust in this crisis? The American media/govt. spin partnership that maintains that the Chinese are taking the plane apart? Or the photo? Is there any trustworthy source left?
posted by tamim at 12:00 PM PST - 23 comments

GargleInSideLlama Gastro Intestinal Scientific Out Law
posted by alsacui at 11:59 AM PST - 4 comments

"SoulXchange is the world's first and only online marketplace for the sale and purchase of human souls. This new soul to soul exchange revolutionizes the process of selling a soul -- cutting down on the cost, effort and inefficiency of traditional soul acquisition. " And it makes for a dandy trading game!
posted by kristin at 11:13 AM PST - 2 comments

In response to Napster's call to arms to its 60 million users to converge on Congress during the Senate Judiciary Committee session yesterday, about 500 people showed up. That's a turn-out of 0.0008 %. In contrast, a far more significant proportion of users indicates in online polls that they would be willing to pay for the service - anywhere from 20 to 50%, depending on the survey.

I wonder if someone in Redwood City is looking at these numbers. All the hype and rhetoric aside; this battle is lost in advance in the political or legal arena, since it belongs in a brightly lit board room, with a few people working out a proper, law-abiding business plan. Like everyone else. That's the cold inevitable truth.
posted by coyroy at 11:12 AM PST - 11 comments

"I love my stillborn daughter so much, I'm putting her picture on my site for all the world to see!" Am I wrong to be somewhat disturbed by this? She even had to have "the bruises" photoshopped out!
posted by aaron at 11:06 AM PST - 42 comments

Life Elsewhere? In an attempt to get away from the Chinese-American situation, scientists have recently discovered 11 new planets, with one possibly inhabiting a "Life-Zone."
posted by da5id at 10:45 AM PST - 9 comments

It's time to potty. First, you might want to drop in on the Toilet Museum. If you're in Tokyo, the Tokyo Toilet Map may come in handy, although the data's a tad stale. Japanese-style toilets are different, but not too difficult to use. Turkish toilets are also different. Just remember to be neat about it and you'll be a-okay!
posted by hijinx at 9:54 AM PST - 6 comments

Perry Wacker gets a 14 year sentence. For killing attempting to smuggle 60 people into the UK, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison. For killing 58 of them he was sentenced to a further 6 years. He should have gotten the death sentence, or at least life-without-parole. Why was he charged with manslaughter instead of murder?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:41 AM PST - 18 comments

Mathowie needs our help... seems he can't figure out how to speed up his morning toast. Certainly someone here can point him towards breakfast enlightenment...
posted by silusGROK at 9:24 AM PST - 25 comments

Sino-American relations in 'more complicated than that' shocker!
posted by Mocata at 8:50 AM PST - 8 comments

"Straight Pride" Sweatshirt Message Is Subject of Law Suit - A 16-year-old boy barred from wearing a sweatshirt bearing the words Straight Pride to school out of concern it would cause fighting has filed suit, arguing his free speech rights were violated.
posted by radio_mookie at 8:37 AM PST - 42 comments

Stun-Gun Kid Zaps Schoolmates - A Queens, NY junior-high student swiped a stun gun from a neighbor's apartment and zapped his schoolmates during horseplay that sent a dozen youngsters to the hospital yesterday - "Nobody thought it was dangerous. Everybody thought it was fun."
posted by radio_mookie at 8:34 AM PST - 2 comments

Chinese F-8 interceptor flying underneath U.S. Navy EP-3E seconds before the crash. EP-3E banks a hard left. How can you figure out who's to blame when both pilots are being this reckless?
posted by revbrian at 7:01 AM PST - 53 comments

Ventura's Latest Meltdown. Transcript is here. The folks in Minnesota are soooo proud. (via the ever-enjoyable MediaNews)
posted by darren at 5:57 AM PST - 12 comments

Freespeling.com (with one el). Because only 17% of native English speakers can spell "height", "necessary", "accommodation", "separate", "sincerely", and "business" correctly. Good idea or bad idea?
posted by Firda at 3:49 AM PST - 30 comments

Remember the old Sierra Games? Remember back in the early 80's when King Quest hit the streets? Did you ever think to your self how they created that game? Sierra used a gaming engine called Adventure Gaming Interpreter, or AGI for short, for many of their popular adventure games. This engine which was "hacked" in the early to mid 90's, and there are groups of people that still develop games to be used with home made hacks of this engine. Find out how you can make your own games like KQ or take a look at what have people created or are creating right now, here. There's even someone saying that they are porting the hacked AGI stuff to Dreamcast.
-Ellis of the now dead Geeknews.com
posted by ellis at 1:56 AM PST - 17 comments

Rent a genius! Got troubles with...well...anything? Not to worry, the answer to all your problems is just a $250/hour genius away.
posted by fiery at 12:22 AM PST - 17 comments

The reason Flash, and quite possibly the Internet itself, was created. It's got a single brief AYBABTU reference, but apart from that, it's pure, random, lunatic genius.
posted by toddshot at 10:57 PM PST - 34 comments

Funny video of a kid talking his friend into telling a cop to eff off. Needless to say, his friend agrees.
posted by JFunk2800 at 8:40 PM PST - 9 comments

Another year, another 25 under-reported news stories. Courtesy our fine friends at Project Censored, take a gander at the articles mainstream media shied away from throughout 2000, while aiming the consolidated investigative spotlight at all that presidential bollocks, and J-Lo's breakup with Puffy.
posted by legibility at 7:06 PM PST - 9 comments

Rudy Giuliani: Cultural Gestapo? C'mon NYC, I expect you guys to be a bastion of liberalism. Is this kind of stuff gonna happen to LA's Porn Valley soon? Not if they elect this man mayor...
posted by owillis at 6:31 PM PST - 10 comments

Who Goes To These Things? Now? Self Explanatory
posted by ParisParamus at 3:50 PM PST - 19 comments

$65 million awarded in the Sex.com case to the rightful owner.
posted by paladin at 2:04 PM PST - 9 comments

The Chinese pilot ejected, but it presumed dead. The US goes halfsies on the apology thing.
posted by milBro at 1:41 PM PST - 10 comments

What Europe thinks of America - the Guardian newspaper has a light-hearted look at the way Europe and America perceive each other. Also amusing is something they wrote for Dubya; 'The World: A Primer'.
posted by adrianhon at 12:43 PM PST - 61 comments

Have you ever wanted to know what hip-hopsters meant when they say things like "gettin' giggy with it," or "man, that's off the skillet"? Well now you can.
Behold: the definitive Hip-Hop dictionary!
posted by mrjoy at 12:18 PM PST - 11 comments

Wow, guess it's not jut oil prices that are rising. Looks like I'll be walking to work wearing hats from now on. Damn that OPEC.
posted by hidely at 10:25 AM PST - 11 comments

I received my nanoloop the other day and it is way cool. It's a techno tracker for gameboy. Another one you might find interesting is little sound dj.
posted by sonofsamiam at 10:19 AM PST - 3 comments

Kill Your PC: a new website launches concentrating on tracking online privacy and fair-use issues. They also are providing information on how to get rid of banner ads, as well as a big list of links you can use to opt-out from user-spying on the major advertising networks. Necessary consumer education, or a dangerous idea that threatens the viability of websites?
posted by matthew at 10:14 AM PST - 3 comments

Tests show U.S. children lag behind A careful reading of this page reveals that for many of America's schools, children lag behind some 16 other countries in math and in science. However: not all states contributred data. But the important thing is that a few schools and areas were right up there with the best in the world. Perhaps then we ought to study those that work instead of bashing our educational system in general.
posted by Postroad at 9:43 AM PST - 18 comments

U.S. Refuses To Apologize to China - This seems to me to be the right decision. What do you think we should do here?
posted by revbrian at 9:42 AM PST - 88 comments

That's My Bush! - Premiers tonight on Comedy Central. From Matt and Trey, the creators of South Park. This is either gonna be really great or reeeeeaaaallllyyy bad.
posted by radio_mookie at 8:56 AM PST - 23 comments

France slams the US.
posted by Mocata at 8:19 AM PST - 33 comments

The less said about this, the better.
posted by anapestic at 7:40 AM PST - 29 comments

M.I.T. to give education for free M.I.T. plans on Wednesday to announce a 10-year initiative, apparently the biggest of its kind, that intends to create public Web sites for almost all of its 2,000 courses and to post materials like lecture notes, problem sets, syllabuses, exams, simulations, even video lectures.
NY Times
posted by Brilliantcrank at 7:31 AM PST - 13 comments

A successful, insightful female CEO and alum as a commencement speaker? What are you, nuts? Stanford students don't what to listen and learn from the woman who now leads H-P. Drat, if only Abu-Jamal could get a furlough! Hiring execs, time to rethink the value of that Stanford sheepskin. (via Boortz.com)
posted by darren at 7:11 AM PST - 11 comments

Suck, Feed and Plastic on the ropes? (item two) Word is that Automatic Media is feeling the pinch and time is running out. The company behind the three already-mentioned properties relies on advertising revenue it is simply 'too hip' to attract, writes to the Dotcom Scoop, and it has apparently tried to license out the Slash-based community publishing system used on Plastic as well. Will they survive? And should they? Discuss. (via MediaNews)
posted by frednorman at 6:50 AM PST - 19 comments

I-resign.com - Don't leave work without it Hey, I was scouting around for a short, sharp letter of resignation and I found this gem! Some of the resignation letters are hilarious (there's one in Morse code, another from an unborn child) and it looks like they've got sound advice for anyone who's looking for a better job. I'm going to mail this to the president. Do you think he'll take the hint?
posted by hmgovt at 6:07 AM PST - 1 comment

Letterman makes like Rodney Dangerfield and goes "Back to School." David Letterman will be a special guest speaker in the journalism class that Al Gore is teaching. On a side note, does anyone else find it ironic that a class on journalism is being taught "off the record"?
posted by JFunk2800 at 5:51 AM PST - 13 comments

Congress Hears Online Music Grievances - Alanis Morrissette said few musicians were hurt by their exposure on Napster, as the structure of recording contracts prevents all but a few from ever seeing any money from record sales. Don Henley, formerly of The Eagles, took a swipe at the recording industry as well, noting that artists have had no say in the negotiations between recording companies and Internet firms. Ted Nugent, a prominent Napster critic, was scheduled to testify but had to cancel due to scheduling conflicts.
posted by radio_mookie at 5:37 AM PST - 17 comments

Bugs eat Paris!
posted by u.n. owen at 5:27 AM PST - 1 comment

Clean and of things to come. My stationery fetish reaches new heights. Cute pads 2cm by 5cm I must have. 1B pencils and thickly nibbed felts in a black rubber coated organiser shaped like a pyramid. This dispenser will go to the left.
posted by holloway at 5:16 AM PST - 2 comments

Hanging a dead chad . . . The Miami Herald has completed the recount of undervotes from all 67 counties in Florida. The findings? The Herald says it best: . . . under almost all scenarios, Bush still would have won. Indeed, in one of the great ironies of the bitter 2000 election, Bush's lead would have vanished only if the recount had been conducted under severely restrictive standards advocated by some Republicans. Go figure.
posted by iceberg273 at 4:28 AM PST - 28 comments

Human Rights Watch report on USA. Rather serious charges against the US government. Nothing new of course, but how come items like this are never discussed in major US media? "As in previous years, serious human rights violations were most apparent in the criminal justice system-including police brutality, discriminatory racial disparities in incarceration, abusive conditions of confinement, and state-sponsored executions, even of juvenile offenders and the mentally handicapped. But extensively documented human rights violations also included violations of workers' rights, discrimination against gay men and lesbians in the military, and the abuse of migrant child farmworkers. "
posted by talos at 3:58 AM PST - 4 comments

Fatima Polattas filed charges against Turkish police for raping her while she was in their custody; she's now facing charges for insulting the security forces and her country's moral integrity for talking about what happened to her, and could spend up to six years behind bars. This is easily the most disturbing thing I've read all day.
posted by lia at 12:41 AM PST - 8 comments

"eBay, the next Amazon"? The motley fool questions who will become the major online retail destination.
posted by bison at 10:33 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Can you camera do this? Kodak's MC3 looks to hot to trot featuring an MP3 player, Digital Video recorder and camera. There's not much reason I can see not to run to the store and grab one now!
posted by Brilliantcrank at 9:03 PM PST - 18 comments

AmIHotOrNot taken to the next level. Who would you sleep with?
posted by Su at 9:00 PM PST - 21 comments

New Remedi.
posted by honkzilla at 8:37 PM PST - 16 comments

Fresh hell.
posted by honkzilla at 8:33 PM PST - 7 comments

Wind power vs. hot air? Shamelessly purloined from ms. nut: wind farms in the Mojave are being left idle because the power utilities won't upgrade the distribution lines. Instead, they buy in power from neighbouring grids, at inflated prices, with the state and the consumer underwriting the cost. (more inside thread)
posted by holgate at 8:28 PM PST - 3 comments

NeoXplane Hey Xplane launched their new site! You know Xplane from such magazines such as USA Today, Wired and that old classic, Business 2.0. Forget Adobe, these guys know how to upgrade.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 8:19 PM PST - 9 comments

Sub Surprize - The Sequel.
Within two months of sinking a Japanese ship (and 24 hours of a recon plane landing in China) the US Navy have angered the Japanese yet again when the nuclear submarine Chicago showed up at a Japanese port without any prior notice.

Let's make a thread to track all the recent American military mishaps.
posted by tamim at 7:58 PM PST - 4 comments

Cheney casts his first tie breaking vote in the Senate.
posted by tamim at 4:23 PM PST - 15 comments

Do you use Hotmail for email? If so, it looks like Microsoft owns all your messages and can reprint or repurpose them however they like. I'd assume the ToS could be extended to cover any content on a passport-using website as well. Scary stuff, considering all the Hailstorm services on the way...
posted by mathowie at 1:31 PM PST - 12 comments

Now they're putting URLs on our license plates. This Internet thing has finally gone too far. (Though the thought of Dale Earnhardt license plates is itself disturbing.)
posted by aaron at 11:46 AM PST - 42 comments

Post Office May End Saturday Delivery... One day I'll be may be able to tell my children, "When I was your age mail was delivered six days a week." My children will respond in awe.
posted by MarkBakalor at 11:35 AM PST - 44 comments

Vault.com did a survey regarding tatoos and piercings in the workplace. Half of the managers responding to Vault.com's survey on body modification in the workplace said they were less likely to hire someone with visible tattoos or body piercings.
posted by radio_mookie at 9:52 AM PST - 13 comments

Adobe redesigns... ew. (Man, am I feeling linky... twice in one day!)
posted by silusGROK at 9:31 AM PST - 16 comments

The-Artist-Once-Again-Known-As-Prince debuts his new single on Napster - The Work - Pt. 1, which is the first track from Prince's new album, The Rainbow Children will be available on Friday. Prince has worked without a major label contract since 1994 after a contract dispute with Warner Music.
posted by radio_mookie at 9:25 AM PST - 10 comments

MSIE leaves the door wide open on your Windows OS... I can't believe that the myriad "security holes" are coincidental... maybe we should call them back doors. I mean, really... who do they think they're kidding? We all know who really wants surreptitious access to our systems. [via Glish]
posted by silusGROK at 9:22 AM PST - 4 comments

The word "minority" to be banned in San Diego. (via Fark) That should take care of minority problems. Heck, and just when in California whites would have been the newest minority.
posted by Postroad at 8:15 AM PST - 13 comments

Automatic desktop shortcuts for websites. These guys claim to have "special" software that does this, but it looks like some sort of standard technology. Anyone know the details?
posted by owillis at 7:59 AM PST - 22 comments

Fighting cancer one computer at a time - Following in the footsteps of the SETI@Home project, a new program is being launched enabling you to use your spare computer power helping to research new treatments in the fight against cancer.
posted by Noah at 6:52 AM PST - 5 comments

Bermi Village - I lived in this small community under Tanzania's Rift Valley for two years. After talks with village leaders, we started to build the site. I'm about to return to the village to develop it further. There's precious little written by Africans on the net and this seems to be the only site by a rural African community. Have you any thoughts or advice for me?
posted by quarsan at 3:50 AM PST - 23 comments

Kremlin Fried Chicken I was bored so I typed "fried chicken" into Google and this was one of the top choices.
posted by Potsy at 2:28 AM PST - 12 comments

The well respected Kaiser Family Foundation teams up with the not so well respected UPN television network to bring you . . . flyingdwarf? I appreciate the message, but the method seems, well . . . at least it's better than The Sexual Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer.
posted by alana at 11:52 PM PST - 4 comments

If your web site is hosted by ADDR.com, you need to read this MSNBC report immediately. Passwords and credit card numbers appear to have been stolen.
posted by netbros at 11:11 PM PST - 3 comments

life cycle of an internet meme: a timeline of the nike "sweatshop" e-mails jonah and i have updated the original sweatshop page at shey.net to also run a sidebar timeline noting the spread of the idea around the world, as tracked through links on the web and stories in conventional media. justin time, too, since adbusters, the nation, and abcnews all put up stories about the e-mails today. and we thought it had peaked.
posted by moth at 8:49 PM PST - 6 comments

Ok, maybe TiVo isn't sticking it to people (over privacy), even though they can. Their competition, however, is. (Link courtesy this week's RISKS Digest, which also has a piece of mine on Internet voting and it's potential pitfalls :-)
posted by baylink at 7:58 PM PST - 11 comments

Wargames. Obviously ripping up Kyoto agreement not quick enough route to total destruction for George.
posted by blackbeltjones at 5:16 PM PST - 30 comments

Babs a Democrat? Say it ain't so! OK, so it's not really a surprise...but if this "memo" from Babs to fellow Dems is, in fact, real (and not a belated April Fool's joke), then I wonder: who the heck does she think she is? Does she hold a leadership position of ANY party, let alone the Dems? Sure, contributors have the right to "influence" their party of choice, but to flat-out admit very publicly that the Dem leadership has no cajones? She's only making it worse for the Dems (ha!). And besides, isn't she doing what she rails against in Republican contributors - using her $$$ contributions to sway her party in directions that she approves of?
posted by davidmsc at 5:06 PM PST - 28 comments

What the Pentagon has lost The American spy plane carried very sophisticted andf important snoopware...did they destroy what they could before landing?
posted by Postroad at 4:53 PM PST - 25 comments

Netscape 4.77??? Apparently someone at Netscape/AOL thinks they can polish a turd. KILL IT ALREADY, and end this sham. NS4.x just isn't viable anymore, and continually repackaging it fools no one.
posted by darukaru at 4:23 PM PST - 61 comments

Government GPS surveillance through your digital camera. A DOJ project to go after pedophiles and obscenity-mongers by regulating digital still and motion cameras is slated to be introduced in Congress:

A DOJ project code-named "Indecent Images" plans to implant technologies developed to automatically recognize hard-core Internet sex images into the next generation of cameras. An II-compliant camera will refuse to take illegal photographs or videos, and could even quietly tip off law enforcement to illicit behavior. . .

The II draft says that "any variant" of digital still or video camera must include a GPS device and a transmitter that is compatible with U.S. pager networks. When a child pornographer takes an illegal photo, the camera recognizes it and transmits an encrypted message containing the image, the date, and the location to the local police -- who would then raid the home and save the child from continued erotic exploitation.

They've got to be kidding. I'm not endorsing exploiting kids, natch, but I can't believe this this kind of surveillance is even being contemplated. . .

Then again, remembering Ashcroft's beady little eyes. . . (via J. Orlin Grabbe)
posted by aflakete at 1:00 PM PST - 26 comments

Man, this guy must give Photoshop a workout. "An Invisible is a screen shot from a movie in which some or all of the actors have been completely removed from their clothing. It's your job to figure out what the movie is." New film trivia site: Filmwise. Fun stuff.
posted by robbie01 at 11:58 AM PST - 33 comments

Read this. No, really. It's worth your time.
posted by baylink at 11:37 AM PST - 14 comments

For those interested in the history of the Internet, the RFC #100 seems like a useful starting point: " For historical reasons and for readers interested in tracing through the stages of development of a topic, a brief summary is given for each NWG/RFC relevant to a particular category."Which is good, since even RFC 1 makes it sound like the Internet had already started. I was hoping that RFC #1 was entitled "The Internet: A Novel Approach to Computer Networks."
posted by rschram at 11:07 AM PST - 3 comments

Human flesh on sale in Moldova

Ew.
posted by mw at 10:56 AM PST - 9 comments

Ars Technica chews Mac OS X up and spits it out. The verdict? Shows a lot of promise, but needs work.
posted by darukaru at 10:24 AM PST - 19 comments

Dead bodies exhibition to come to Britain
is it just me, or is this really sick?
posted by bwg at 10:03 AM PST - 13 comments

US Spy plane lands on Hainan after collision with Chinese jet. Bush wants the crew back. And the plane too, along with all the equipment, please.
posted by Loudmax at 9:58 AM PST - 12 comments

The anti-Napster or Napster's future?... File sharing as perceived by the music industry. I wonder if there isn't a deal with Napster already. But what are they going to do with all the Napster clones?
posted by talos at 9:28 AM PST - 15 comments

Kent State student senate denies funding for the annual commemoration of the May 4, 1970 shooting. The allocation request was for about $16,000, which is a good chunk of change (out of a $300,000 budget) -- until you consider that they shelled out $86,000 for a speech given by Barbara Bush. Should remembering this era in history be a political question? (via the Alt-log)
posted by norm at 8:26 AM PST - 7 comments

The link between Reagan's party and Clinton's persecution After power itself, conservative Republicans have wanted nothing more than to round out the 20th century with the ledgers balanced. They needed a Democratic Richard Nixon and a Republican Franklin D. Roosevelt. Tom Teepen makes a pretty good case here. Clinton wasn't Nixon, and Reagan sure as hell wasn't FDR.
posted by mac at 8:23 AM PST - 16 comments

surf art! tote the zen of the wave... and sprinkle a bit of post-colonial critique in to boot!
Does anyone know of other ventures into this field?
posted by mrjoy at 8:12 AM PST - 2 comments

US China relationship risked by brinkmanship , says a new analysis. White House advisers on China policy grow hawkish, but may not have a well-worked out strategy for dealing with China in this new light. Beijing loses patience, and coincidental events may force a crisis. Allies are expressing concern; everyone expects choppy waters through the fall economic summit. And that was written two weeks ago. If they're bad now, how much worse are they today? Is there an even hand on the keel?
posted by dhartung at 8:10 AM PST - 13 comments

Zippy's Pal Bites The Dust Anyone who reads Bill Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead comic strip will instantly recognize the Doggie Diner statue, which was toppled over by high winds on Sunday. Many SF folks love the statue as a kitsch cult icon even without the Zippy association, but I only knew of it through the strip.
posted by briank at 7:53 AM PST - 7 comments

In the end, what is the ethical distinction between a Brazilian who sells a homeless child to organ peddlers and an American who already has a TV and upgrades to a better one — knowing that the money could be donated to an organization that would use it to save the lives of kids in need?

Does Peter Singer have the solution to world poverty?
posted by Sean Meade at 6:52 AM PST - 42 comments

FAA=The Keystone Cops? What kind of legal fallout can we expect from this? Considering the kind of wealth onboard the doomed flight, how much of us little'uns safety is considered on a general basis? I went to the airport the other day to pick up my dad, and unlike the other times where I'm asked to "change the display" on my phone and my cigarette pack is opened, they now lazily let me pass. Is there really any FAA supervison? We all have stories. Anyone care to share? Links, theories, conspiracy theories, stories. Please tell.
posted by crasspastor at 3:35 AM PST - 4 comments

Guess what? Online film is not dead. Submitted for your approval: the hilarious Ron Howard's Dream, The Award Showdown, and Gwyneth and Steve - our struggle to have a baby. The amusing Upgrade, the haunting Genesis and Catastrophe, and finally, the amazing (and oscar nominated) Periwig-Maker. I only hope that with banner ad revenue going down, and the future of sites like ifilm and atom films in peril, stuff like this still has an outlet and gets made (most movies via ebert's weekly show).
posted by mathowie at 9:26 PM PST - 6 comments

Has anyone else seen this product advertised on TV lately and thought they were watching a fake SNL ad? Then comes that sinking feeling when you realize that it is real. It just started running on TV here in Virginia. Perhaps our median IQ finally reached a suitable level. Don't even get me started on the domain name!
posted by machaus at 7:27 PM PST - 9 comments

Fighting the war on drugs... and winning. In less than a year, without outside assistance, a relatively impoverished country has managed to knock out the world's main source of opium. Who is this progressive regime? Step forward, the Taliban.
posted by holgate at 7:20 PM PST - 12 comments

"The Jonestown Reenactment is an inclusive art project, actively seeking involvement and participation from like minded individuals."

Sorta like the original Jonestown!
posted by jbushnell at 12:04 PM PST - 6 comments

My vote goes to Bonsai Kitten as I'm still getting outraged mail railing against this site, but seeing as it's April Fools day, what are everyone's votes for the best net pranks this year?
posted by captaincursor at 11:26 AM PST - 10 comments

The Seattle Times does a blogging story and educates readers about blogorrhea and blogrolling.
posted by gluechunk at 10:56 AM PST - 5 comments

If you're into such things, how to remove the advertisements from ICQ and AIM.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:13 AM PST - 31 comments

Very important article about Israel, says Jorn An article published on Arab web site, with intro by Gore Vidal, and re-issued with intro by Edward Said, is written by highly credentialled Israeli professor. Well, the opening intro para by Vidal is just plain contrary to facts. The Russian leader, Stalin, was violently anti-semitic and yet his country (33-13) also voted for the State of Israel. Did the "Jewish Lobby" give Joe a few million too? Jorn. This stuff is getting tiresome. Be anti-Israel if you will. But please do not become a bore.
posted by Postroad at 10:07 AM PST - 9 comments

The dog mauling case in San Francisco continues to make for some bizarre news. Turns out that the possible sexual abuse of the animals did in fact happen. The dogs had also previously attacked another woman.
posted by crushed at 7:34 AM PST - 15 comments

"Going Dutch" will never mean the same again. As of today, Dutch law allows same-sex marriages. Though other countries register same-sex couples, this new Dutch law is groundbreaking as it eliminates all references to gender in laws governing marriage, adoption, inheritance, pension rights, taxes and divorce. Even the dictionary's definition of marriage will be changed.
posted by prolific at 6:08 AM PST - 18 comments

Pith and Vinegar is a hosting company now?
posted by ronsens at 3:59 AM PST - 10 comments

Happy April Fool's Day! I just stumbled across my first prank page of the season. How about you?
posted by jjg at 3:19 AM PST - 28 comments

You can forget about the The Ancient Underwater Pyramids of Japan now, divers find a real 4,000 year old city underwater and off the coast of Lebanon. The city of Yamuta was once an important timber trading port but as the coastline gradually disappeared, the city was engulfed by the Mediterranean Sea. The city was last mentioned in 1370 BC. With lots of interesting new underwater finds in the news recently, underwater archaeology really is opening up new frontiers.
posted by lagado at 1:05 AM PST - 1 comment