MetaFilter

Napster sued for putting people to sleep. Yep. A company that produces meditation music is taking Napster to court so they're not responsible for the effect of their music when downloaded, without the warning label. (via Short News)

Yep.
posted by aflakete at 8:39 PM PST - 2 comments

Some guy is pissed at eBay for what he (rightly?) considers stealing his business.
posted by Spanktacular at 8:07 PM PST - 5 comments

The Frank & Fritzy show The latest episode of FBI tapes is on diet:

FRITZY: Nothin'. Nothin'. Once I come out there's nothing you could, I could buy out there other than fruit, an apple or something like that, that I'll have out there.

FRANK: Fruit?

FRITZY: That's all.

FRANK: Yeah.

FRITZY: That's all I'll have.

FRANK: The restaurants kill ya.
posted by john at 12:54 PM PST - 1 comment

The J.W. Westcott II delivers toilet paper, the occasional pizza, and, most importantly, mail to freighters making their way through the Great Lakes. And now it's the only boat in the U.S. to be assigned it's own zip code.
posted by Oriole Adams at 11:38 AM PST - 6 comments

Oh me oh my: Video bootleggers have flooded the underground market with thousands of copies of a film labeled Pearl Harbor that contains only five minutes of the actual movie. The rest of the video contains hard porn material featuring Caucasian and Asian actors. All together now: At Least It's More Interesting Than The Actual Movie. (link only good until the morning of July 2nd)
posted by logovisual at 10:47 AM PST - 10 comments

The $29,900 Styrofoam Cup "The art world, through a masterful manipulation of intellectual insecurities, has made itself largely immune to real criticism for the past 30 years."
posted by drunkkeith at 10:16 AM PST - 21 comments

France's 35-hour work week has boosted the economy and proved a hit with both employees and their bosses. "If the French experiment works then the UK Government may be forced to look at France rather than the U.S. for new ideas about reforming the jobs market." Thanks to AlterNet for the link.
posted by fleener at 8:39 AM PST - 49 comments

I always thought opening this type of restaurant would be a great idea. Fish and Chips in NYC is pure genius. Ripping off the Underground logo was a bit naughty, but this story certainly raised my eyebrows as to how some public transport systems regard their logos as brands outside of their home market. (more)
posted by davehat at 1:26 AM PST - 16 comments

CBS dials 911 4 BB2... Arnold Shapiro (who helmed Rescue 911, Scared Straight, & more) has been announced as Executive Producer, in hopes of resusitating what critics pronounced DOA last year despite above satisfactory summer ratings. Some of new developments sound promising. Some don't. (MORE)
posted by ZachsMind at 10:36 PM PST - 10 comments

True Guide To New York This site is a pretty good interpretation of what New Yorkers are like.
posted by wsfinkel at 8:39 PM PST - 22 comments

Humans Good! Finally...a report on a major TV network that presents (dare I say it?) the truth about progress, technology, and human nature, and eco-terrorists are portrayed in the scathing light of reality.
posted by davidmsc at 7:33 PM PST - 30 comments

Pamie packs it in.
posted by danwalker at 4:13 PM PST - 24 comments

A Man, A Mower and a Mission.
An unknown man mowed a huge '420' sign into two hills in Peoria this week. From the article, an entertaining quote:

"That's strange that somebody would put ("420" in 20-foot-long digits) on our right-of-way," Illinois Department of Transportation engineer George Ryan said said. "I don't think there's any marijuana growing out there."

Maybe he received a shipment too? [*]
posted by DragonBoy at 4:08 PM PST - 9 comments

A working internet business model? Say it ain't so! While checking out my options for hosting companies, i found these guys. They struck me as geeks with a dry sense of humour.

hmmm... Maybe if i trust my websites in the hands of geeks, i won't have to worry about my host disappearing from under me due to some suit blowing capital on a fancy chair. (+2 points for having a site that believes in function over aesthetics. maybe they're on to something here as well...) I dunno, maybe i stumbled on to something grand in the making? A company that actually cares?!? o_O

posted by jcterminal at 3:03 PM PST - 6 comments

Fascinating Washington CityPaper article... "The FBI wanted a bitch. But I refused to snitch. So then I had to ditch. " The print edition came out today, and dang this reads like a movie. When CP is good, it's really good.
posted by GriffX at 2:32 PM PST - 4 comments

Amusing flash movie A fun Super Mario movie; brings back some memories.
posted by 4midori at 2:09 PM PST - 14 comments

Michael Young's critique of the meritocracy is brilliant, subversive and quite possibly based on faulty assumptions. "It is good sense to appoint individual people to jobs on their merit. It is the opposite when those who are judged to have merit of a particular kind harden into a new social class without room in it for others."
posted by lbergstr at 2:03 PM PST - 11 comments

Let me take you down (from 15,000 feet), 'cause we're going to... be landing at John Lennon Airport. The renaming ceremony for Liverpool's airport takes place on Monday. So, who else deserves an airport named after them? [more]
posted by holgate at 1:32 PM PST - 25 comments

Our environment is improving. Good work, guys. Favorite quote: "Cleaner fuels and clampdowns on emissions mean the last time sulfur dioxide emissions in London were so low was in the 16th century. "
posted by techgnollogic at 12:23 PM PST - 16 comments

Corruption Perceptions Index 2001 highlights worldwide corruption
"There is no end in sight to the misuse of power by those in public office - and corruption levels are perceived to be as high as ever in both the developed and developing worlds.
It does not reflect secret payments to finance political campaigns, the complicity of banks in money laundering or bribery by multinational companies. Corruption in the most prosperous countries in the world has many manifestations."
posted by riley370 at 12:13 PM PST - 3 comments

The Global Privileges of Whiteness. "The average White American's attitudes about race and racism are a mixture of self-congratulation and defensiveness -- 'Yes, America has had some episodes of racism and racial bias, but that's all clearly in the past.'"
posted by queequeg at 12:09 PM PST - 13 comments

Yesterday, the Good Morning Silicon Valley webpage at the SJ Merc (which I love since it keeps me from having to see CNET's god awful ads) had an interesting blurb as an offshoot of the whole NY cell-phone safety debacle (scroll to the last item.) Columnist John Paczkowski asked if it was possible to change your pants in a moving car at 65 miles an hour. He got some pretty funny responses. What have YOU done in a moving car that you shouldn't have?
posted by machaus at 11:07 AM PST - 23 comments

Before there was a Yahoo!, There was Yahoo Serious.. It seemed like we were headed for a nice Australian invasion in the lateeighties-earlynineties with Crocodile Dundee and Paul Hogan's subsequent "That's not a knife..that's a knife." commercials. This first Yahoo was to make millions of dollars, and then it, like, didn't. What were the chances of two Yahoo's in one decade? Why does one yahoo succeed while another fails?
posted by brucec at 10:57 AM PST - 11 comments

Nothing like a little religious tiff over God smiting Fargo to keep the editorial page busy. Start from the bottom, and work your way up, skipping the stories on baseball.
posted by nathan_teske at 10:30 AM PST - 9 comments

10 000 lucky ladies will be able to give P-Mate a wiz at this years Ottawa Blues Festival. I can't wait until winter to see names like Jane and Mary spelt out in the snow!
posted by the_ill_gino at 10:27 AM PST - 10 comments

End of an (albeit brief) era
Caroline Casey, of the The Age, one of Australia's finest newspapers, proclaims:
----------
Friday, 29 June

5.16pm: THE BLOG IS DEAD!

I was trying to think of the best way to depart – an appearance on ghost sites? a web-generated apology note? But I decided a listing of my favorite websites was best. ... Thanks for the hundreds of entertaining submissions I have received over the year.
---------
That's it, no explanation. I guess the weblog is a dead concept, for sure now. (More)
posted by rschram at 10:26 AM PST - 22 comments

RIP Jim Ellis. Jim was one of the co-founders of Usenet. Today's a sad day, between Michael's death and Jim's... Why is it that net pioneers die so young...
posted by TNLNYC at 9:13 AM PST - 7 comments

Muslim congressional intern removed from White House During a meeting between Muslim community leaders and the White House office of faith-based initiatives, too. Random administrative error, or religious profiling?
posted by Gilbert at 8:03 AM PST - 19 comments

Scientist Says Mind Continues After Brain Dies. This articles raises an interesting new theory on how the mind works, suggesting that perhaps a person's consciousness exists independent of the brain, with the brain acting as a sort of receiver of thoughts. Interesting and scary.
posted by mcsweetie at 7:56 AM PST - 48 comments

Apparently, these women are made of wood. Ok, I admit that I'm unable to resist a banner ad that shows nothing but claims, "Don't click this link if your wife is in the room." But seriously, the very idea of three bikini clad women stranded on a desert island with only military radio equipment for company choosing to start a pirate TV station is a bit far fetched even for the most knuckle dragging sports fan. Or is it?
posted by shagoth at 7:55 AM PST - 4 comments

Anyone who knew anything about the Netizen movement (or idea) i think, should know that, day before yesterday, the "Original Netizen," Michael Hauben, is no longer with us. he was a good friend of mine (and many others), and had a lot of things to say about the Net and those of us who love it so dearly, and i thought that everyone should know.
posted by tatochip at 7:28 AM PST - 1 comment

Cha Ching! I am not a person who really support the lotto but I couldn't be happier that a poor grocery bagger won millions of dollars. What makes me even happier is they plan to give some of it back to the community.
posted by aj100 at 7:14 AM PST - 31 comments

Bum Ticker. Dick "Big Time" Cheney may need a pacemaker. No big deal, or should he step down?
posted by owillis at 6:57 AM PST - 22 comments

The EU seems quite comfortable with governments keeping data on their citizens, but they restrict what data businesses can keep. Compare and constrast with typical USian feelings on those same subjects. Please write on both sides of the paper.
posted by davidchess at 5:56 AM PST - 2 comments

A fight for Cobain's final song An unreleased gem, thought to be the last song Kurt Cobain recorded before his death. Now the two surviving members of the band and Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, admit in court records that it does exist. But fans may never get to hear it.
posted by matteo at 3:54 AM PST - 69 comments

Neale is being watched. The local press say the data isn't real-time because the CSIRO fear for his safety.

I hope they're over reacting.
posted by southisup at 2:36 AM PST - 4 comments

Court rules U.S. broke rights laws The world court has ruled the U.S. ignored the international legal rights of two German-born brothers who were executed for murder. More excecution controversy.
posted by adnan at 12:51 AM PST - 21 comments

Funny women: Prompted by the Paula Poundstone thread, I decided to start a new conversation. Perhaps you've not been exposed to some of the amazingly funny women out there. The linked site is run by some friends of mine in New York.
posted by acridrabbit at 8:57 PM PST - 25 comments

Do internal memos reveal oil refineries engaged in price-fixing? From Joshua Micah Marshall's Talking Points memo; links to a Paul Krugman NYT op-ed, but far more intriguingly to Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-OR) webpage, where on June 14th he released his report on alleged price fixing by varied oil refineries based on internal memos and documents of these companies. These types of allegations have been made before, but there is some rather damning language from those internal memos...
posted by hincandenza at 7:45 PM PST - 4 comments

Are they grasping at straws here or no? Smartertimes rips on the NYT for making the sweeping generalization that the whole of Europe is opposed to the death penalty. Okay, fine, bad writing is bad writing and maybe someone at the Times should have done their homework, but this guy bases his entire argument on an article written in The New Republic. Not that it's a bad read, but it's hardly going to be an objective take on the topic. No?
posted by Bixby23 at 6:18 PM PST - 11 comments

'Download Beta 10.3 now' was the message that greeted me as i logged on for old times sake and the urge to verify some speculation i'd heard 'You must upgrade your client at http://www.napster.com. * Disconnected from server! (Thu Jun 28 17:22:50 2001) * Unable to reconnect to server! (Thu Jun 28 17:22:50 2001)' shouted my screen in nasty red text. The exclamation marks were the icing on the cake. It seemed my v2.0 BETA 6 just didn't kick it anymore. Left out in the cold! It was like being kicked from an irc channel, except here i had been N-lined!. [more..]
posted by Kino at 6:10 PM PST - 50 comments

"The Olympics isn't so much a sporting event as it is an unfolding drama." Not content with denying American viewers the chance to watch the Sydney games in real time during the infomercial hours, NBC now plans to show events from Salt Lake City on a tape delay to viewers on the west coast, in order to reach a prime-time audience. A sign that they're more interested in the ad revenue (or in shaping the Games to their own melodramatic style guide) than in being a broadcaster of record?
posted by holgate at 5:56 PM PST - 14 comments

Jim Ellis, co-creator of usenet died today. He was 45.
posted by rebeccablood at 5:38 PM PST - 7 comments

Elfwood can anyone out there tell me what the hell this is all about?
posted by Postroad at 5:01 PM PST - 7 comments

Who IS Kilroy? Kilroy WAS Real! James J. Kilroy.....lived in Boston, Massachusetts, served in the Legislature and during World War II worked in a shipyard in Quincy where the famous saying was born.
posted by Wicker at 2:50 PM PST - 16 comments

Guess who's coming to breakfast? The most rapidly syndicated comic strip since Calvin & Hobbes. Not bad for a cartoon that has the relatively narrow purpose of "telling jokes about black people to black people." Is it doing so well because of the politics or in spite of the politics? Or is it just that it's pretty damn funny and well-drawn? In any case, if it gives people even a glimpse of otherwise absent diversity, I love it.
posted by conquistador at 1:50 PM PST - 22 comments

Good Bye! is an opinionated quarterly magazine which chronicles the dead ?famous, infamous and non-famous.
Stuff like this just blows my mind.
posted by thirteen at 1:45 PM PST - 4 comments

Milosevic captured, Microsoft freed, and Jack Lemmon dies. What a day.
posted by dchase at 12:22 PM PST - 12 comments

The World's Largest Music Festival starts today and runs until next Sunday. With acts ranging from Wilco to the artist once again known as Prince, there's usually at least one band worth seeing for everyone. Plus it's cheap, if you go at the right time. But the question remains, what events do you look forward too each summer?
posted by drezdn at 12:16 PM PST - 22 comments

"At some point Yahoo! will shift emphasis towards a billing relationship, that is as good as fact. What they need to decide, however, is whether to lead with a subscription or ISP model."
posted by grambo at 11:29 AM PST - 14 comments

There are still plenty of idiots in politics. Besides Bush that is.
(Link borrowed from The Morning News)
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger at 11:17 AM PST - 36 comments

Baseball is a good game. The nicknames, however, absolutely kill me.

Ridiculous, almost pornographic nicknames like Cannonball Titcomb, Dick Tettleback, Cy Slapnicka, Rusty Kuntz, Pete LaCock and Dizzy Nutter.

Anyone else have any favorite sports nicknames?
posted by norm at 10:45 AM PST - 18 comments

"'I never dreamed of trimming it. All the time I worked for the airline, my moustache attracted many adoring eyes inside the plane and on the ground,' the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

But Indian Airlines takes a different view."
posted by moss at 10:12 AM PST - 5 comments

Q: What's the best thing you can do for your career, if you're a musician?
A: Die.
(warning, page designer has used really small fonts)
posted by darukaru at 9:17 AM PST - 6 comments

Microsoft to stay one company? Appeals say Microsoft to stay a behemoth. I think Clippy is here to stay.
posted by dwivian at 9:02 AM PST - 27 comments

Let the sun do your cooking for you! Not just a great way to save electricity, gas, or charcoal... (particularly if you live in California *grin*) it's delicious too! We built the Solar Funnel Cooker just for the halibut (groan) - cooked it in white wine with shredded zucchini and carrots - and it was the most tender, tasty fish I've ever eaten.
posted by thunder at 8:53 AM PST - 13 comments

Bush's Surgeon General Advises Common Sense Approach to Sex Ed. Be still my heart - the SG swims against the abstinence currents and addresses sex education with rational and realistic guidelines.
posted by gsh at 8:21 AM PST - 19 comments

Condit says he broke off close friendship with Levy 2 days before she disappeared; says she became distraught and obsessive. Sorry to revisit the Chandra issue, but it seems that Congressman Condit is becoming guiltier by the day. (Of stupidity, at the very least -- if not something more sinister.)
posted by jennak at 7:28 AM PST - 38 comments

Learn about the Foolish Workshop at the Motley Fool and let the numbers decide which stocks to pick.
posted by MarkO at 7:23 AM PST - 9 comments

This page (on Sam Brown's great explodingdog site) lists links to web pages displaying red robots*. I love sites that post artwork and then ask other people to create variations on that artwork. My favorite example used to be the Digital Doodlebox, but that site is, alas, closed. Anyone know any other sites like this? *warning:self-link burried somewhere in the red-robot page.
posted by grumblebee at 7:02 AM PST - 12 comments

Microsoft Kills IE6 Smart Tags "External feedback" was one of the factors that led the company to remove the feature, although he indicated it could be resurrected in later versions. Perhaps the constant barrage of complaints worked on this one? They've got it working, now they are back peddling. I for one am glad, "No Squiggly Lines".
posted by benjh at 4:59 AM PST - 60 comments

Aw, what a cute kitty... From the "why didn't I think of this?" department: a photographer adopts a cute little gray cat, posts the sob story of how the cat was orphaned, starving, injured, etc. before he found a good home, and then just as women are all gushy, asks if they want to pose nude with him. Genius!
posted by RylandDotNet at 3:31 AM PST - 24 comments

Jack Lemmon, RIP
These things seem to happen all at once....Johm Lee Hooker, now Jack Lemmon...such a pity :-(
posted by tomcosgrave at 2:53 AM PST - 21 comments

Meanwhile, we find the the current Vice President has not only been making deals with Iran, but has also been selling oil equipment to Iran in the last decade. Steven Baum is a better news source than CNN. Once again, he makes a point as concisely as any human being on Earth. This is the best blog on the web, the best blog that has ever been and probably ever will be.
posted by Ezrael at 2:00 AM PST - 4 comments

American patriotic singer, songwriter and member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy has a ton of hits. Which one's your favorite? How about that little ditty you first heard at ShootFest live, Leave our guns alone? But still you couldn't keep your hands to yourself? Waste no more time, this site's for you!
posted by crasspastor at 9:35 PM PST - 14 comments

A Boy And His Dad... "Bread and butter isn't just a food. It's a metaphor ...Whatever it is that resets you.." I don't want a child of my own, but it's nice to experience glimpses of this father & son dynamic duo thang from Henry's Diary so I know what I'm missing. Thanks for the link, Dreama. And yeah, this was briefly mentioned a year ago, but it's overdue for its due. I like to imagine I'm a tough nut to crack, but this just made me melt. "I wish I was the person my son made me feel I could be when I'm in his arms." everybody! 1-2-3! aaawwwww! now that's sweet!
posted by ZachsMind at 9:10 PM PST - 4 comments

Life Father, like Daughter (Dubya and Jenna, that is...) Did anyone read this piece by Garry Trudeau in Time magazine? It's very funny. What amazes me is a card for intramural stickball league was actually accepted for age id!
posted by Rastafari at 7:55 PM PST - 6 comments

Paula Poundstone Arrested. The details are sketchy and the most that's released is there was "lewd" behavior. What's interesting is the backdoor commentary on the whole affair, and I wonder if people immediately think she's a "dyke" child molester simply because she is who she is. Is she? These trolls seem to think so.
posted by tiaka at 7:24 PM PST - 32 comments

Whoo! I live on the fourth most dangerous intersection in Illinois.

4. Bolingbrook State Route 53 & Boughton Road 1408

Do you live next to an intersection of DEATH?
posted by tiaka at 7:09 PM PST - 25 comments

"We feel confident by 2003 we'll be able to produce an allergen-free cat" Transgenic Pets, in Syracuse, says it is developing a genetically engineered cat that will not cause allergies, an effort that could allow millions of people who cannot now do so keep cats as pets. The company said it planned to sell the cats for $750 to $1,000 each, about the price of some purebred animals.
posted by 120degrees at 4:31 PM PST - 49 comments

So, who let these dog's out? This fits perfectly with my 6th grade humor.
posted by Mark at 3:59 PM PST - 34 comments

Good morning, Sir. Welcome to the National Cheese Emporium! Cheesemaking is an ancient art, and one that is proudly defended. Are you a Cheese Connoisseur? Do you have a favorite cheese? Does it fit your personality? More importantly: is your Cheddar Yellow or White?
posted by iceberg273 at 2:46 PM PST - 47 comments

New Democrats or Old? On one hand you have the New Democrats (Clinton, Gore), who's agendas are more centrist (some would say right leaning) but have had victories (Clinton being elected twice). On the other hand, the more liberal wings seem to say that it's better to stand on principle and convince the populace to come over to your side.
posted by owillis at 1:10 PM PST - 37 comments

Jim Jeffords: Party of One I got so sad reading reading this article. The "Singing Senators" have disbanded because Lott and Craig want nothing to do with him. His picture was placed in a urinal at a Republican club. His wife and son are pissed. (His son threatened to name his child Reagan Nixon Jeffords.)
posted by jennak at 12:45 PM PST - 56 comments

Zeldman's seemingly constant problems with Network Solutions continue. It raises two questions for me. 1. Why wouldn't he change the domain and/or name rather cease publication of one of the best independant publications on the web? and 2. How come they haven't overhauled the domain registration system to have other methods for verification? At the company where I work we have over 50 domains and we're constantly having problems with peoples' names who are long since gone being on the registration and not being able to remove them. Hope it works out for him, I couldn't live without my ALA fix.
posted by abosio at 12:01 PM PST - 37 comments

Online commericals that promote being a "Technical Virgin". This site pokes fun at the "abstinence only" method many conservative groups promote for teen sexuality. But will teens get the joke?
posted by melissa at 10:43 AM PST - 12 comments

Tale of a D.O.S. Attack and its Aftermath from All Things Considered. I like to think that I'm fairly computer savvy, but I'd never have the guts that this guy did to track down the person who shut down his business for a day.
posted by Pinwiz at 10:35 AM PST - 10 comments

Google adds languages to interface including Pig Latin, Hacker and Elmer Fudd. And Bork Bork Bork has been supported for a few months! Just customize your display.
posted by bjennings at 10:01 AM PST - 13 comments

no wonder so few people listen to classical music. "Appreciation of classical music may require more brain power."
posted by drunkkeith at 9:44 AM PST - 30 comments

Do I make you h*rny, baby? [censored] This is far from new, but I just stumbled on this hilarious review of the Austin Powers sequel written by ChildCare Action Project: Christian Analysis of American Culture (CAP). I don't post this to bash Christians or to inspire a bazillion comments about religion or censorship. I just thought CAP's outrage over an essentially harmless film was fun to read.
posted by Karl at 9:42 AM PST - 18 comments

Author Says He Lied in Book on Anita Hill "David Brock, who made his name trashing Anita Hill after the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, now says he lied -- and he's sorry."
posted by saralovering at 8:57 AM PST - 40 comments

Woman sues bar after getting branded "She was drunk, very drunk," Levitt said. "They will say she wanted to be branded. She didn't really want to be branded."
posted by Sellersburg/Speed at 8:48 AM PST - 16 comments

Political Loose Cannon is The View From Here's mum (and in spite of a back problem, no one here's dying of cancer)...I think this is so sweet - anyone know of other (real) parent/child weblogging families?
posted by methylsalicylate at 8:40 AM PST - 5 comments

At his gig on Sunday, Mark Thomas did a show about the continuing repression of the Kurds in Turkey, the appalling record of torture and other human rights abuse there and in particular the building of the Ilisu Dam, a social, environmental and archaeological disaster. And we in Britain are paying for it. Hurrah.

Contrary to that article, UK Gov support for the the Dam has not been dropped. Previous (vaguely similar)MeFi thread here.

Oh and, apparantly wearing a badge can be illegal now.

posted by Grangousier at 7:55 AM PST - 2 comments

Your house is set to become a sprawling, and cheap, computer network. Ninety technology companies — including Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp. and Motorola Inc. — are part of a group that announced a major breakthrough Tuesday in the years-long push to use power lines to transmit data. As early as October, consumers in Canada and the United States will be able to use any plug in their house to connect computers to each other and to the Web. No extra wiring will be required.
posted by tranquileye at 6:42 AM PST - 32 comments

[Inneresting Scientific American article about Hypnosis] including video of a real-live scientific hypnosis session. Have you ever been hypnotized? Has your sister? If not, would you like to be? If so, was it cool? Did it help you control your insatiable craving for prawns?
posted by davidchess at 6:37 AM PST - 18 comments

Answer Yes or No and don't lie. Do you blame the society? If you answer yes to this and 39 other questions (Do you believe in bad eye?), you may qualify to donate $40 to $39,000 to Saeid Yomtobian and "your life will turn into a positive mode immediately because of your decision to bond with the universe." The man who brings you www.iwantjesus.com is looking for a little help in his mission to "promote the message of peace www.iwantjesus.com Through out the world." You can also find the site via some of its alternate urls, including www.fucksf.com, www.iwanttokillyou.com, www.sexbyanimals.com, and many more. Don't miss this crazy story about his meeting with the Dalai Lama from the man who registered www.killthepresident.com for a beastiality site. Would the man who pledged to me that he would "continue to fight until all the injustices and corruptions come to stop" really be responsible for an strangely brilliant ad banner scam? Maybe, maybe not. At least his weird sex education school is only $39.99 a month! Indeed, the internet life of Saeid Yomtobian is a complicated and mysterious one.
posted by ztt at 2:43 AM PST - 10 comments

'XIAMEN: A senior Beijing researcher on Taiwan affairs yesterday called for immediate measures to resist an ongoing bid by the island to promote its cultural independence..'. [More]
posted by Kino at 9:32 PM PST - 11 comments

PNG Students' Anti-IMF Protests End in Riots, 3 Dead
University of Papua New Guinea students were petitioning the Prime Minister to stop economic reforms, and PNG's reliance on World Bank and IMF funds. Here's another report. The protests started in the capital, Port Moresby on June 25th. And the Peace Corps evacuated the other day. But that doesn't have anything to do with anything. I guess even recognized peoples have their problems too...
posted by rschram at 8:54 PM PST - 9 comments

Outsider Art Woman with Downs Syndrome creates works of art by wrapping random objects in masses of colored fibers. She cannot speak, hear, or communicate whatsoever, and she has been deemed too retarded to possibly understand the meaning of art, but still, she goes on creating with an 'intensity' that belies her condition. Does insanity work to produce works of art or other genious?
posted by SpecialK at 7:17 PM PST - 33 comments

Kid sues over right to wear shirt. No... nothing interesting like 'Straight Pride' or 'Kip Kingle, Student of the Year'. No, this time a 19 year old fights for his right to wear a "You Might Be a Red Neck Sports Fan If..." shirt. Wish they let him. It's easier to avoid idiots when they are clearly labelled.
posted by jcterminal at 6:49 PM PST - 15 comments

Former Beiruit hostage Tom Sutherland is now more rich that Donald and his son combined (probably). . . $53m comes from the US tax payers. The other $300m he was awarded to be sifted out Iran somehow. Granted, he and "cell-mate" Terry Anderson spent 70 months chained, gagged and probably unbathed, but can't they honestly say now, this was the best thing that could ever have happened to them? "We're not going to build any new houses or move away from Fort Collins . . .. We'll just be the same guys." Sutherland pooh-poohed the high falutin' rumors. What'd they expect teaching school in a den of lions?
posted by crasspastor at 6:41 PM PST - 9 comments

Commander Porn, at your service! "...one of Canada's top naval commanders has been suspended from duty and humiliated in front-page headlines for accessing ''Penthouse-like sites'' on a portable computer provided to him by the military. "

Commodore Eric Lerhe, the 52-year-old chief of Canada's Pacific fleet, acknowledged to higher brass that he had on occasions downloaded images of naked women while off-duty and alone in officers' quarters during an assignment in the United States.

Isn't this overkill? A reprimand I could see, but does it make sense to punish this to this degree?
posted by revbrian at 6:34 PM PST - 9 comments

US Woman Killed in Malaysia "Police believe an American woman whose remains were recently unearthed in Malaysia was used as a human sacrifice in a ritual to obtain lottery numbers from the spirits..." The article didn't say if they won. Not that it matters.
posted by mcsweetie at 6:09 PM PST - 6 comments

Cheney refuses GAO request for Information Look, I think both sides of the aisle are a bunch of wankers, but what do you think the reaction would have been from Republicans if this had come out of the Clinton White House? (Especially if it had been Hillary making the refusal, instead of Cheney.)
posted by edlark at 3:11 PM PST - 7 comments

Who's your daddy? A pony in Penrith, England, gives birth to a half-zebra foal. The owners of the pony didn't even know she was pregnant. Sounds like a story off Jerry Springer. "No really, I was never with the zebra!" We'll see what the paternity test shows....
posted by 120degrees at 3:02 PM PST - 16 comments

Questionable typography at the new Sapient site. I don't care who your target audience is, you have to use the proper amount of leading! The body copy's ascenders and descenders overlap, for crying out loud!
posted by dayvin at 12:08 PM PST - 70 comments

The Other Monument to the Father of Our Country has its own particular -- albeit weird -- appeal. I've been there twice and I'm impressed by how good a sense of its aesthetic you can get from this website and virtual tour. Of course, the "universally enjoyed" miniature Shriner parade has to be seen to be believed, but the pure American extravagance of the whole thing is nicely documented here.
posted by BT at 10:34 AM PST - 21 comments

Good Old British Ingenuity ;-) Nasa Schmasha, Steve Bennet is out to claim the X-Prize ($10M) in his cement mixer, i mean um rocket....
posted by zeoslap at 10:06 AM PST - 6 comments

The Earth is hollow and habitable within. At least that's what John Cleves Symmes believed. And while you're at the museum, take the test, too.
posted by dfowler at 10:00 AM PST - 9 comments

Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation... the place for places down on their luck. Of course, I can't help but mention that if you think Georgia's flag blows, do I have a few new flags to add to the list. And take a look at all the overlap going on in Burma! How's an advocate of the repressed to decided?

As for a possible hook for the discussion: what do you think of such movements?
posted by silusGROK at 9:21 AM PST - 11 comments

Anyone here a Zen Tupperware rep? I mean, what's the sales spiel? The cool place not to keep your food? The food container that's not a food container? I have to know! Anyone interested in a MeFi Tupperware party?
posted by davehat at 8:59 AM PST - 13 comments

Yet another tale of internet revenge. Is this what the web was really made for?
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:48 AM PST - 13 comments

What would you do if you opened your front door and found two and a half tons of marijuna sitting there?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 8:47 AM PST - 99 comments

Not that this link is of any importance. I just wanted to recognize Schadenfreude as "Word of the Day" today at merriam-webster.com.
posted by 120degrees at 8:43 AM PST - 11 comments

We all have AIDS Yet another article on global AIDS, but it includes Nazi's and the holocaust.
The writer suggests that the CEO's of pharmaceutical companies that reduced the price of anti-viral medication should receive a Nobel Prize because they "save the lives of more human beings than died in the Holocaust."
posted by nonharmful at 8:34 AM PST - 7 comments

[The Extropian vision] Reason magazine reports from Extro-5. Visionaries or crackpots? Just how fast are things going to get strange?
posted by davidchess at 8:17 AM PST - 6 comments

North Dakota considering name change to get rid of lowly "North" tag and switch to plain "Dakota." The people making those commemorative state quarters are giving them stern looks...
posted by Sellersburg/Speed at 7:10 AM PST - 55 comments

You have a better chance being struck by lightning. Or do you? Well it may depend on who you are, where you are, and whether or not you play golf.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:58 AM PST - 45 comments

Scripophily is the misunderstood love of owning stocks and bonds that shouldn't be worth anything anymore. So why not make a business out of it? I'm just glad to see that e-toys is doing good once again.
posted by samsara at 6:16 AM PST - 5 comments

Phone home on the road: GO TO JAIL. In New York it will soon be official - dialing and driving don't mix. Thirty-nine other states may also follow suit.
posted by ZachsMind at 5:32 AM PST - 76 comments

Orlando is under attack by alligators: something that isn't that uncommon, but seems particularly bad this year. We're used to losing a hunting dog or two, but when the gators start taking down horses (don't worry, the horse lived) and killing young children in an urban environment, you've got to wonder what's happening. Tip to tourists from a local: if chased by a gator, flee in a zig-zag pattern (gators are pretty fast, but turn like Sherman tanks.)
posted by bclark at 5:17 AM PST - 18 comments

So much for grocery shopping online... The last online grocer in Texas, Grocery Works, threw in the towel.
posted by ZachsMind at 5:03 AM PST - 8 comments

Breast exams considered harmful. Some Canadian researchers claim that teaching women to conduct their own breast exams does no good as they are more likely to encounter benign lumps, suffer undue anxiety and endure unnecessary surgery. (An associated article can be found here).

"Many breast tumours are found by women themselves, even in highly screened populations. However, in women regularly performing BSE, many self-detected tumours are found incidentally, not during self-examination. In one study, only 7.6% of women with breast tumours who were practising regular BSE actually detected the tumour by means of self-examination. In addition, tumours developing between screens in some age groups (e.g., 50–69) may be inherently more aggressive and thus may not be influenced by slightly earlier detection with BSE. "

So BSE works for only 7.6%? That's a good enough percentage for me, especially as the costs of BSE campaigns is pretty trivial compared to other public health measure.
posted by maudlin at 3:54 AM PST - 4 comments

Call for directions, get cancer...
posted by fooljay at 3:15 AM PST - 4 comments

Want college aid? Bush insists on total disclosure about prior drug use. "The thing that struck me was the Bush administration stance that a non-answer means you're guilty is ironic, since he spent the entire campaign not answering the question about cocaine," Hlinko said. "I don't care if he did coke 30 years ago, but this is hypocritical." I don't dislike Bush to the same degree as some of you, but this pisses me off.
posted by dong_resin at 11:30 PM PST - 21 comments

Mark Twain - Back from the Dead! I just caught this on the Jim Lehrer News Hour. The tale behind the tale A Murder, A Mystery, and A Marriage. A complete, unpublished manuscript of Mark Twain has surfaced, and after 125 years will finally find its way to the pages of the Atlantic Monthly this summer.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:09 PM PST - 16 comments

Cool little site about the real doings of the mob in America today. I love the affected-but-oh-so-hard-boiled writing style. Updated weekly. My only gripe, a very tiny one, is that there's not enough dope on Asian mobsters. Otherwise, pretty neato.
posted by Bixby23 at 8:51 PM PST - 4 comments

Chain bookstores are the book lover's best friend. A compelling and detailed argument that the national bookstores are the best thing to happen to authors, publishers and readers in the last 20 years. Shamelessly lifted from Jorn.
posted by NortonDC at 7:49 PM PST - 45 comments

Obesity is caused by a virus and it could be contagious!
Yet another excuse to give fat people a hard time.
posted by lagado at 6:48 PM PST - 91 comments

Kickass revenge story: Part I and Part II (thanks Follow Me Here!)
posted by grumblebee at 6:19 PM PST - 37 comments

The Road to Springfield hits the second round! Yeah, technically it's a double post, but this is URGENT. Just look what the second round bracket offers: Monty Burns vs. Fat Tony! Apu vs. Kent Brockman! FRINK VS. MILHOUSE! And for god's sake, HANS MOLEMAN is STILL ALIVE!!! Vote early and often! The new round starts Tuesday!
posted by solistrato at 6:05 PM PST - 1 comment

AOL membership tops 30 million. America Online continues to pad its lead as the largest Internet provider, hitting 30 million members — doubling its vast size in just two and a half years.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 5:43 PM PST - 24 comments

Book your visit from the future - Give them a legally binding invitation. Oh, and if you could go back in time, which one of these would you kill? And why?
posted by Kino at 5:32 PM PST - 20 comments

Latest David Horowitz trolling op-ed piece, this time on gays in the military. With his usual obliviousness to irony, he presumes in this piece that anyone who disagrees with him must be the knee-jerk PC police. Question: does posting a link to a troll constitute trolling in and of itself? Discuss.
posted by hincandenza at 4:56 PM PST - 31 comments

Your chocolate bar contains beans picked by child slaves. From the Philadelphia Inquirer. Part of an excellent report into the Ivory Coast cocoa trade. Awful stuff, especially for a corporation like Hershey Foods, which exists for the benefit of a school for disadvantaged children. Apparently boycotts won't help. If we shouldn't boycott, can't take direct action, what can we do? (Via TurksHeadReview.)
posted by ftrain at 4:43 PM PST - 25 comments

I thought they were content to just sit at home and watch Matlock?! "Community officials in Sun City West, Arizona, have reported that over a dozen senior couples have been caught having sex in public in recent weeks. Sexual incidents of heterosexual and homosexual couples engaged in amorous affairs in parking lots, park benches, and swimming pools."
posted by Brilliantcrank at 4:40 PM PST - 25 comments

CSS behavior tag and HTML Component files are some of the new bits that Microsoft has proposed to the standards boards and which are already implemented in recent versions of IE. Of course, I only discovered them by poking around in microsoft.com's source. What do you think of these tools? It looks like it will make Web apps more powerful and application like.
posted by benbrown at 3:28 PM PST - 20 comments

In Pictures: Race Riots in Burnley, UK. After three days of violent race riots in Oldham last month, the troubles have now moved to Burnley. What, with asian vigilantes running around, and the British National Party receiving a record number of votes.. is racial tension on the up in the UK?
posted by wackybrit at 2:08 PM PST - 8 comments

Are U.S Senator Rick Santorum and his 'intelligent design creationism' friends trying to sneak one by us in the Education bill?
posted by quirked at 1:51 PM PST - 34 comments

A hero for the 21st century. Brilliant or just possessed of plain ol' common sense? In today's world, perhaps having the latter qualifies someone for the former adjective. One has to admire a relatively high profile person who doesn't shy away from telling the truth despite the pressures to hedge and equivocate.
posted by rushmc at 12:54 PM PST - 13 comments

"Many individuals have asked me in past months, Why moist towelette collecting? Why not stamp collecting, or numismatics? To be different, perhaps? Well, I must admit that at first that was part of the appeal, but I have since become aware of the strong movement of Moist Towelette enthusiasts, and accepted that I am not alone in my fascination / hobby."
posted by machaus at 12:51 PM PST - 12 comments

Damn, your media player is ugly. You should fix it. This site has one of the best collections of skins for various programs I have ever seen under one URL. They almost make WinMedia worth it.
posted by jcterminal at 11:33 AM PST - 10 comments

Games!!! Games!!! Games!!! What do you guys play when you've got some free time? (I'm personally most interested in free games, but you're welcome to share anything.)
posted by gd779 at 11:26 AM PST - 58 comments

It's just like The Piña Colada Song, only with a modern twist!
posted by jjg at 11:16 AM PST - 4 comments

The Rise and Fall of the Geeks - Three years ago, they had the power to change the world, make a more than decent living and bask on highbrow success - perhaps a justified retribution after many years of world disdain and incomprehension to the geek community. It didn't last... and the article sheds some lights on the probable reasons.
posted by betobeto at 10:36 AM PST - 34 comments

This is a funny comic too. Don't bother if you are easily offended though.

That bear is just plain wrong.
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger at 10:21 AM PST - 24 comments

Ghost World is made into a movie. The comic on which it is based is by Daniel Clowes, an "alternative" comics author of some fame. I think I'm just a bit shocked that, of all comics, a movie would be made about ... well, anything by Daniel Clowes. Starring Steve Buscemi and Thora Birch from American Beauty. (Thanks to URB magazine (print) for the tip and Memepool for the Clowes interview pointer.)
posted by moz at 9:51 AM PST - 9 comments

Man! What a great comic strip! (read the strips from last year first) I haven't seen one this funny in a long time.
posted by Laugh_track at 9:04 AM PST - 9 comments

Tony Blair wants to nix Double Jeopardy protection. A right that has been considered vital since the days of the Magna Carta is under threat from Labour. Blair wants to make it possible that "someone acquitted of a killing can be put on trial again if new evidence emerges". Why not just be sure of the case in the first place? This would only cause a rush to trial by unprepared prosecutors.
posted by dwivian at 7:47 AM PST - 11 comments

Our Dumb Cinema : Miramax Films signed the popular satirical newspaper writers for The Onion, promising to purchase some undisclosed number of screenplays from Onion writers. But what will they write?
posted by tallman at 7:01 AM PST - 40 comments

For Sale. Pre-owned Search Engine $250,000,000 o.n.o

Google is hinting at an end of year IPO for a measley $250 million. Is this the beginning of the end of the dot-com crash?. Via The Register.
posted by fullerine at 6:45 AM PST - 22 comments

The ACLU has been taken over by psychopathic haters in Hawaii. The First Amendment Conference subcommittee of the state board had planned to invite Clarence Thomas to a public debate with ACLU national president Nadine Strossen, as part of a regular series of such debates that has included many big-name conservatives, including Antonin Scalia. But when certain members of the main state board found out, they flew into a rage and demanded the invitation be recinded. Just SOME of the reasons why these three ACLU board members members, all black, are refusing to allow Thomas to participate (note that these are all direct quotes, publicly stated by state ACLU board members): He is an an Anti-Christ. He is an Uncle Tom. He is an asshole. He is a Hitler. He is a Goebbels. And worst of all, he married a white girl. When the ACLU starts to violently attack freedom of speech and freedom of thought, where else can we turn?
posted by aaron at 6:09 AM PST - 27 comments

Gates interview with ZDNet. Open source advocates and *nix users will enjoy his comments on publishing source code and the GPL. Anyone care to do a line-by-line accuracy check?
posted by goto11 at 6:03 AM PST - 19 comments

Usability Analysis of UseIt.com How well does usability guru Jacob Nielsen fare when his site is analysed in terms of his own usability guidelines?
posted by waterfrog at 12:04 AM PST - 14 comments

These guys cool and trap anti-electrons (positrons) and at the same time cool and trap anti-protons. Why? Because they want to make cold anti-hydrogen and compare its properties with ordinary hydrogen. Pretty cool all round, really.

"Any difference between antimatter and matter would be extremely interesting since we do not yet understand why we have a universe made of matter. We would expect that the big bang that originated our universe would create equal amounts of antimatter and matter, which would then annihilate, leaving nothing. The great mystery is why enough matter was left over that we and our matter universe could exist."
posted by lagado at 11:22 PM PST - 11 comments

Current NIDS Data.

I like this page because I can see if my house is going to be fried by a lightning strike or flattened by a tornado without having to put up will all of weather.com or intellicast's popup ad B.S. It's very convenient and timely.
posted by dr. zoidberg at 10:43 PM PST - 9 comments

Internet-crazed teenager jumps to death. Is this what some meant by saying the Internet phenomenon was something "to die for"?
posted by betobeto at 7:00 PM PST - 15 comments

Some give Jet Li a round of applause: In a gesture uncommon for any Hollywood player, martial arts master and action hero Jet Li asked fans not to bring their young children to see his upcoming feature "Kiss of the Dragon." The 38-year-old Chinese star wrote on his Web site (JetLi.com) that the R-rated film is "an adult movie and deals with adult themes," with action sequences geared towards an adult audience. "The movie utilizes very realistic, hard-core, action-packed fight sequences. I'm very proud of the final result and hope that my fans enjoy the movie, however, this is a movie that I do not feel is appropriate for children," Li wrote. "

heh, that's enough to justify me forking over my $5.50 over to Jet Li.
posted by adnan at 2:55 PM PST - 24 comments

You can forget all about that "goat sex" photo thing when there's something as horrifying as this closeup available for public viewing. Good God, he's barely human at this point! All I could think of once it loaded was: "That's just not right."
posted by m.polo at 2:39 PM PST - 19 comments

Diablo II Goes Gold! The official release date is now next week, 6/29/01. Diablo was addictive, Hellfire was even worse. I spent a six months playing Diablo II non stop and now this. I hope my wife doesn't kick me and my Assassin out the door.
posted by me myself and i at 1:51 PM PST - 10 comments

Is Slashdot Toast? I found this using a link from F**kedcompany, who seems to be rather amused by the fact that /. has been down since friday. The posts at geekizoid seem rather flaky for the most part, so I don't know how seriously to take this. But in any case, it's just not like the Slashdot crew to drop off the net without a word.... What have all of you out in MeFi land heard????
posted by BGM at 1:30 PM PST - 22 comments

Is memepool losing it? With two "I'm so stupid" (or am I an advertising agency?) web sites (Miguel's and Amy Ritchie's sites) in the last three days, I have to wonder if the fine folks who contribute to memepool are slipping a bit. Or have I been thinking too highly of memepool all this time? Is it the web community in general?
posted by fnirt at 8:38 AM PST - 13 comments

Minorities are underrepresented in the ranks of geeks. While 84% of the population of the US is white, 90% of geeks are white. (Obviously we need quotas and white angst. Let's get some righteous indignation going here.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:35 AM PST - 43 comments

Trooper Clerks "Just because they serve you, doesn't mean they like you."
posted by ZachsMind at 2:52 AM PST - 9 comments

Update on Bezos' recent clash of interests (shock, horror..) book review.. [More..]
posted by Kino at 11:42 PM PST - 5 comments

SmarterChild, the ActiveBuddy bot that can give you the news, tell you how your stocks are doing, play games and tell you to stop using profane language all at the same time, is finally live on AOL's IM system. Add him/her/it to your buddy list and have fun! (Isn't it interesting how moving backwards to good old lightning-fast ASCII is suddenly being considered the wave of the future? Those of us who have been forced into trading PINE for Web-based email against our will have known better the whole time.)
posted by aaron at 11:10 PM PST - 16 comments

Groovy, luscious, retro...music to "get hip" by! Call it lounge, call it bubbly, call it bizarre, but "space age pop" music (as the site terms it) is undeniably groovy. We've all heard it before, but did you realize how popular it is (in some form or another)? You've probably got a favorite tune or two that falls into this category, and you didn't even know that this IS a category!
posted by davidmsc at 9:50 PM PST - 7 comments

Finally, a view on skateboarding not stereotyping those who partake in the sport as either ridiculously rebellious punks or bumbling idiots.
posted by Laugh_track at 8:12 PM PST - 14 comments

We all know your a bit nuts - you suspect it too: Lets get some proof. (Ignore the part about avoiding 'trying to make yourself look good'; we also know that you need all the help you can get in that department!).
posted by Kino at 3:17 PM PST - 11 comments

Future of computing - Light or Molecules?
posted by tiaka at 2:50 PM PST - 5 comments

Hello Ladies: The Next Generation The "Commander" has nothing on this guy. Engage!
posted by Brilliantcrank at 12:15 PM PST - 56 comments

We help lonely pets find each other My lonely poodle was looking for a little love, I went to pet-match and found him a girl-pooch just like he always wanted! Is this cyber-dating gone terribly wrong? Lonely and horny fish, cats, dogs, reptiles, etc.
posted by zebra_monkey at 11:23 AM PST - 5 comments

Death with Commercials is how the ever apposite Frank Rich sums up the media-saturated McVeigh execution, the ultimate reality show. Rich thinks all the hoopla my have served to turn more people away from punishment by death.
posted by caraig at 10:25 AM PST - 7 comments

Giuliani's son is headed for high school in N.J. where he will attend St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale. The school is known for an excellent football program. Andrew Giuliani, the son of the mayor of New York City, will try out for the football team.
posted by NJguy at 10:17 AM PST - 21 comments

Ice cream is a popular topic here, it seems. This seems a bit rich, don't you think?
posted by davehat at 9:54 AM PST - 24 comments

Disney's Atlantis ripped from the anime movie Nadia. Talk about role reversal (you see, a lot of anime creators style comes from trying to emulate Disney style in the early days of the genre) this site presents some interesting evidence that Disney's summer blockbuster is a complete copy of an earlier film released in 1990 in Japan.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 9:54 AM PST - 9 comments

Cheney caught in lie. "According to oil industry executives and confidential United Nations records, however, Halliburton held stakes in two firms that signed contracts to sell more than $73 million in oil production equipment and spare parts to Iraq while Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of the Dallas-based company."

That would be the same Iraq Cheney/Bush blew to smithereens for his oil buddies.
posted by owillis at 9:44 AM PST - 9 comments

PR Watch outs ongoing public relations campaigns in the Spin of the Day. The June 14th entry offers a search function to find a company’s PR firm. (Database and search provided by O'Dwyer.)
posted by capt.crackpipe at 9:43 AM PST - 2 comments

The Foundation for Internet Begging or FIB has had a website in operation since August of 2000, and as always, they need your help to keep going. You can join them in their noble, tried-and-true efforts; learn more about the people behind the effort and their mission as it stands; and, of course, give generously.
posted by moz at 9:17 AM PST - 2 comments

He was 22, and he loved to travel. While sitting on top of a Land Rover in Afghanistan he wrote in his diary: "Someday, when I am rich, I am going to invite someone from my travels to visit me in America." It took 27 years, but this month, he made his dream come true.
posted by tranquileye at 7:20 AM PST - 5 comments

it's not easy being an african wine lover.
posted by quarsan at 12:56 AM PST - 6 comments

Once Upon a Forest It's the weekend; head for a gallery. Some interactive, some not. Stereo sound makes it more fun.
posted by Dick Paris at 11:41 PM PST - 3 comments

Never mind that Dihydrogen Monoxide stuff, here's the latest eco-horror.... A landfill supervisor urges that this theobromine laced substance not be placed in regular landfills because of the toll it takes on animals. Yet it can be freely bought by children.....
posted by BGM at 11:37 PM PST - 7 comments

"ooh, what a lovely tea party"... I know this link will attract a ton of "Kevin Smith is an overrated hack" posts, but I was surprised it wasn't here already. The second Internet Only trailer for "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back" is up, and the server load has calmed down to the point where it can actually be downloaded. As could be expected, this will make Smith fans cheer and bounce up and down in their chairs, and Smith hatas shake their heads and look for the nearest web forum to post comments about their disgust.

Amusingly, the latter part of that paragraph is apparently a major plot point of the movie, and if you read today's "talk-backs" on AICN you'll appreciate how much fun Smith is having with it. Can't wait to see the flick, and to add to the fun it comes out on my birthday. Nootch.
posted by GriffX at 10:26 PM PST - 4 comments

Black leaders refuse to pledge allegiance to flag is an example of a story that The Washington Times blows way out of proportion. The term *black leaders* would imply that there are multitudes of African-American politicians/community leaders who are refusing to pledge allegiance to the flag. However, if you read the whole story, it turns out that only ONE person, an assembly-women from Tennessee is the focus of the whole story! Of course, the Times doesn't forget to remind the readers that she, and all who support her, are Democrats...
posted by Rastafari at 8:42 PM PST - 15 comments

This White House will Have a Long Memory..... "To join the coalition, you must agree to support the Bush energy proposal in its entirety and not to lobby for changes to the bill... Should the bill change, you must support the changes in the legislation or drop out of the coalition. If you are caught attempting to lobby behind the back of the White House, you will be expelled from the coalition. I have been advised that this White House 'will have a long memory.'" -- Fundraising memo for the Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth, a month-old trade group consisting of representatives from the various energy industries. The letter puts the admission to the group at "a very low price" of $5,000.
posted by brucec at 6:33 PM PST - 11 comments

Exxon "helped torture in Indonesia." The Aceh uprising brings up the point--how far do we allow multi-nationals to go to "protect their interests"? Would you sanction torture to keep the price of gas and other petroleum products low?
posted by aflakete at 5:03 PM PST - 10 comments

"My body has learned that it can fly." Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame) describes his experience in zero G, riding the "vomit comet" - a bare-bones 747 that goes up really fast and then comes down really fast, leaving you weightless for about 30 seconds. His letter is at time hilarious, at times pretty gross (they don't call it the vomit comet for nothing), but most of all, I found it kind of... well, inspiring. Now, more than ever, I want to go into space and experience zero G. (via memepool)
posted by RylandDotNet at 3:34 PM PST - 16 comments

Staff shortages are rife in the UK. University staff, midwives, teachers, police, pretty much every profession (especially unskilled).
 
In nearly every shop or workplace I've walked past in the past few weeks I've seen 'Staff Wanted' signs galore. Too many jobs, not enough workers. With the lowest unemployment rate in 20 years, and average pay rises of 5% per year, is there any hope of filling these positions anytime soon?
posted by wackybrit at 2:07 PM PST - 22 comments

Learn sign language. Or, knowing you - just pretend it's porn.
posted by geronimo_rex at 1:47 PM PST - 12 comments

Big Brother is sorry, but all we have for you is a hatchback. On the one hand, he knew full well that they were monitoring him. On the other, they took the money out of his account without his knowledge, which could have led to all sorts of problems. Inevitable progress, or invasive technology?
posted by Ezrael at 1:34 PM PST - 38 comments

TV Buddy Universal Remote Control/Bottle Opener. I only wish that I had found this in time for The $50 Prize Contest.
posted by jeb at 1:02 PM PST - 9 comments

Where's the EPA on this? Apparently, this stuff is everywhere, but I haven't heard one word on its dangers until now. Christine Whitman, be slient no longer!
posted by jpoulos at 11:58 AM PST - 15 comments

The French, determined to prove that even if they could understand that the "World Wide" web includes France and the rest of the world, they would continue to pretent they didn't. Like Yahoo before them, a web hosting service that caters to neo-Nazi groups (oh, sorry... "racialists"...) has run afoul of the French desire to control what appears on French browsers.
posted by m.polo at 11:53 AM PST - 17 comments

Is "street racing" as popular outside the Bay Area as it seems to be here? Have there been tragic accidents taking the lives of non-racers elsewhere? Will these idiots be emboldened by the release of "The Fast and the Furious" this weekend?
posted by msacheson at 10:10 AM PST - 39 comments

Air Guitar World Championships. Use those skills finely honed while dancing in front of your cat and win prizes, earn fame.
posted by kaefer at 10:08 AM PST - 6 comments

Phil Greenspun's Story of ArsDigita gone, replaced with terse statement. Anyone have background on this? The google cache still exists of the page. Philip is an intelligent web thinker, and I hope he got a fair shake. The confidentiality agreement is a bummer though. Part of the appeal of Greenspun is how his life is so open on the web. Previous threads from MeFi.
posted by artlung at 9:24 AM PST - 11 comments

National Orgasm Day is Coming (Ooohhhh, so sorry for that!). Yes, that special day is July 31, so everyone please rush out to Hallmark and buy your honey a card in celebration. Or visit the sex store that's sponsoring the day. In making the declaration, they said "it was time for women to stake their claim to a full and satisfying sex life." Amen!!
posted by yarf at 9:09 AM PST - 16 comments

NTK launches ill-tempered attack on Popbitch shocker.
posted by Mocata at 8:31 AM PST - 5 comments

News Flash! Gates loses billions! Yet, he still sits comfortably atop the list of the wealthiest people in the world. Larry Ellison, meanwhile, lost $21 billion, but fell to only #4.

The Billionaire Club now includes 538 members in 46 countries, with an average net worth of $3.2 billion. Is it more disturbing that, for a comparison, the GDP of Afghanistan is a paltry $21 billion (bested by the list's top 5)? Or that the GDP per capita of the U.S. is a relatively microscopic $36,144?
posted by padjet1 at 8:08 AM PST - 11 comments

Peter Jonny likes football.
posted by Mocata at 7:17 AM PST - 9 comments

More than half of all black men report that they have been the victims of racial profiling by police, according to a survey by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University.

Overwhelming majorities of blacks, Latinos and Asians also report they occasionally experience at least one of the following expressions of prejudice: poor service in stores or restaurants, disparaging comments, and encounters with people who clearly are frightened or suspicious of them because of their race or ethnicity. This is 2001?
posted by owillis at 7:06 AM PST - 62 comments

The Parole Board has decided to release the two murderers of James Bulger. They have made their decision, lets respect it.
posted by twistedonion at 6:35 AM PST - 25 comments

anguish of a drug war judge moral of the story: if an undercover cop asks you to sell crack opposite the white house, just say no. wrong answer gets you framed for 10 years
posted by quarsan at 12:51 AM PST - 3 comments

Critics call Abercrombie & Fitch catalog soft porn. I can't comment on the catalog itself, since I haven't seen it; I just had to laugh out loud though when I read this sentence: "Boycott organizers contend the company... is wooing younger customers and using sex to popularize its image." Oh, the horror! Also striking was A&F's spin on it, calling it " the Norman Rockwell of 2001." Clearly, a divide in perceptions. Can anyone who has seen the offensive/inoffensive material in question explain why it is/isn't any different from the marketing practices of, oh, say, everyone else?
posted by topolino at 12:26 AM PST - 23 comments

Some of us work on the plantation.
Some of us own the plantation.
Facts are facts.
This hat is for those who own the plantation.
posted by sudama at 12:07 AM PST - 73 comments

Amazon's announces "free" shipping
I have been shopping on Amazon for over 3 years. When I buy books, music and DVDs, I buy on average $80 worth of entertainment. Today I received a order of 10 books. I used the "Wait until order is ready" service because I preordered Neil Gaiman's new book. The total for my books was $123.26 with shipping of $13.39 making the grand total $136.65.

I was shopping Amazon tonight and saw their new free shipping notice. My first though was great! Then when I went to look for some books, I noticed the 20% off prices were no more. Now they are full price or 10%. I searched around and found the total for the books I just purchased using your new pricing. The grand total of my order would now be $147.91 with free shipping. An increase of $11.26 or 8 percent.

I am a fan of Amazon but not a fan of their thinly veiled attempt to raise prices using the bait-and-switch approach taken from offline stores. Nothing is ever 'free.' I know Amazon wants to be profitable by Q4, but this pricing is too aggressive. The email for feedback is free-shipping@amazon.com. Voice your opinion about this offering. Is it warranted?
posted by lheiskell at 10:02 PM PST - 50 comments

By 2004, Wal-Mart plans to open a new store every business day... Call me an out-of-touch lefty, but this PBS documentary bummed the hell out of me. Small town + giant corporation + old-guard legislators = steamroller
posted by GriffX at 8:02 PM PST - 36 comments

A frustrated housewife stabs a 7 year old. After her arrest, the assailant blamed it on her bad mood.
posted by modularette at 7:46 PM PST - 13 comments

Carroll O'Connor dead at 76. Once asked what he thought of his character "Archie" he had an interesting response : "I have a great deal of sympathy for him, As James Baldwin wrote, the white man here is trapped by his own history, a history that he himself cannot comprehend and therefore what can I do but love him?"
posted by revbrian at 7:01 PM PST - 13 comments

Bob Kolody vs. Coca-Cola
"Throughout the late 1950’s and early 60’s the CIA began expanding its operations. In order to effectively fight the Cold War on a global scale, it needed to establish bases in every major country. This meant that agents would need a plausible cover in order to penetrate the borders of international frontiers. They couldn’t just show up with CIA stamped on their passport ... As a solution to the problem the CIA was able to convince Coca-Cola, one of the first truly globalized companies with product distribution operations in virtually every corner of the world, to be used as a cover for the U.S. intelligence agency."
posted by bytecode at 4:44 PM PST - 27 comments

OK, so we all know the cliche about men being visual, and woman being narrative as it applies to the appreciation of web erotica. Is that true? As a male, I know what turns my crank, (I don't think my sharing that is important considering it's banality) but have no idea if the internet has grown as a sensual media by women for women. Nerve.com seems to have a balanced approach, but that's all I know. So I ask all the ladies in the MeFi house what intelligent stuff do you click to scratch that itch, if at all?
posted by machaus at 3:49 PM PST - 26 comments

Poll: Americans See Economic Divide Hey, maybe we're finally starting to catch on!
posted by mapalm at 2:37 PM PST - 13 comments

Can Christians use Marijuana for recreation?
In 1Cor 6:12 Paul writes:
"Everything is permissible for me--but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me--but I will not be mastered by anything." So, does that mean that Christians can use marijuana recreationally, as long as they are not mastered by it? This paper looks at the issue from many angles and should provide good fodder for both sides of the pot debate. Personally, I think God would not have put cannabis on the earth if we were not to smoke it.
[found on 4twenty.net]
posted by DragonBoy at 2:24 PM PST - 17 comments

The real HAL? The Project already has consumed an estimated 500 person years and $50 million in investments.
posted by faithnomore at 1:48 PM PST - 18 comments

Did you see it? The total eclipse of the sun happened this morning at 6:11am. It's not too late, thanks to streaming video.
posted by fooljay at 12:54 PM PST - 6 comments

Attention Web-Dezynx0rs: how 1337 are you? are you cutting edge? are you k10k-rad? :: are.you.the.ginchiest ? ::

i suck. i only got a six. but then again, i'm more concerned about content and accessibility than i am being stylish or trendy. I IS SUCK!

posted by jcterminal at 12:21 PM PST - 28 comments

Press sez "good", public sez "bad" I'm not posting this story to discuss Bush's EU tour (lord knows we've done that one to death), but rather to examine this line: "Mr. Bush's European tour, though it drew largely upbeat news coverage, did not appear to help him in the eyes of the public." I'm a pretty big believer that the media (oh, let's just go ahead and capitalize it: "The Media") plays a huge role is shaping public perceptions of politicians, and I too thought the coverage of Bush's EU trip was pretty positive -- certainly in comparison to the "he's gonna go over there and get suckerpunched" predictions they were running before his departure. And, still, his numbers go down. What do you think? How large an influence does The Media really have? Does the public just believe what Peter Jennings tells 'em, or is it possible that, *gasp*, they can think for themselves?
posted by Shadowkeeper at 12:19 PM PST - 32 comments

I hope you'll consider participating in the "Roll Your Own" Blackout tonight. Just shut off all the lights and appliances that you (reasonably and safely) can between seven and ten p.m. your time.
posted by sudama at 11:35 AM PST - 49 comments

Someone else's Religion or your health? How the Catholic church is manipulating medical research in the United States. Stem cell research offers some exciting opportunities for medicine but the Pope doesn't think so.
posted by keithl at 11:23 AM PST - 48 comments

"Make obstacles obsolete".... OK, I know that SUV-bashing has been done to death on Mefi, but has anyone seen the most recent TV commercial for the Cadillac Escalade? In a long video-game like sequence, the Escalade hurtles through a blade runner-esque cityscape, defeating missiles and a computer-generated robot. The voiceover chimes in to announce the brand and drop the tagline "Make obstacles obsolete."

That really sums it up, doesn't it? Driving an SUV is all about making obstacles obsolete - people, bicyclists, other cars....i'd like to see gas prices hit about US $5 a gallon this summer so that the Escalade would become obsolete...
posted by preguicoso at 10:29 AM PST - 49 comments

Minesweeper - It offends me so ban it!
posted by twistedonion at 9:12 AM PST - 21 comments

New Mexico has the coolest flag. The North American Vexillological Association surveyed its members and the public to identify the best and the worst state and provincial flags. The New Mexico state flag came out on top. Georgia's brought up the rear. [Link via Alex Beam's column in the Boston Globe.]
posted by idiolect at 8:33 AM PST - 48 comments

Bush warned of G-8 terrorist threat Bin Laden's recruitment video shows them taking shots at a video image of Clinton, and possibly a link with the bombing of the Cole. Also, speculation on moving the summit.
posted by owillis at 8:23 AM PST - 7 comments

All your desperate to be the next wacky webcraze links are belong to MetaFilter.
posted by Kino at 8:15 AM PST - 15 comments

The "Tuskegee Airmen" of the Marine Corps. This is sort of a self-link; the history of the Washington DC Chapter of the Montford Point Marine Association is a project I'm working on, but I have nothing to do with their website. The Montford Point Marines were the first black Marines specifically trained to serve in combat, but very few people seem to know about them. I decided to link this after watching a special on A&E about the men who raised the flags (there were two flag raisings) at Iwo Jima. Nothing was mentioned about the black Marines who served and died there, since none of the flag-raisers were black, but they should be remembered nonetheless.
posted by jennaratrix at 8:10 AM PST - 5 comments

A car that makes sense? Fully street and highway legal, it is small, electric, quiet, and inexpensive. You can park in all sorts of places, and since the door is on the right side, you can exit to the sidewalk. And it looks like something.
posted by tranquileye at 7:50 AM PST - 35 comments

Cookie Monster Plan Crumbled -- Your regular idiot assault story, but with some fabulous quotes.

"People started yelling at me that I should be ashamed of myself for hitting Cookie Monster. I did not kick or punch Cookie Monster," says the man arrested for shoving and kicking the 21-year-old woman who played Cookie Monster. A Seasame Street spokeswoman denied the man's allegations that Cookie Monster started the violence: "It is an honor to be Cookie Monster."
posted by jennak at 7:30 AM PST - 12 comments

Swedish toddler, home alone, dies of malnutrition and dehydration while druggie Mom is in police custody. Two thousand turn out for the funeral, and Switzerland engages in an orgy of national anguish. Anybody think this incident would cause the same kind of soul-searching in the U.S.? Or would Americans shrug it off?
posted by luser at 6:18 AM PST - 23 comments

Rental company tracks rental car via GPS... fines rentor for $450 for speeding 3 times. The newest Big Brother incident? Rental companies have been using GPS's for a few years, but what gives them the right? How long before Onstar starts fining its members for speeding?
posted by da5id at 5:16 AM PST - 23 comments

Write here, write now! Is this *really* something that taxpayer money should be used for? At least there could be some sort of scientific merit in spending tax dollars on studying methane emissions from cows, or studying ways to alleviate the energy shortage in California, but a penmanship contest? (groan)
posted by davidmsc at 4:58 AM PST - 18 comments

Does anyone know what Comstockism might be? It sounds quite dastardly, whatever it is.
posted by Mocata at 4:39 AM PST - 5 comments

Watching MTV for 24 hours straight so you don't have to. Michael Daddino is a brave man, especially since his marathon's happening during MTV's bikini-heavy, brain-light summer programming. Will his senses blur until he has visions of Christina Aguilera singing "We're Not Gonna Take It"> Will he break stuff after one too many re-airings of the latest Staind video? Tune in to "The Pornography of Semiotics" throughout the day and find out. (This special is part of the relaunch of Freaky Trigger, one of the few places on the Web where the music writing doesn't, you know, suck.)
posted by maura at 4:30 AM PST - 20 comments

The only thing TaxRebatePledge.org is asking you to do is pledge that when you receive your tax rebate check, you will donate that money to an existing organization that is engaged in the fight against Bush and his agenda.
posted by palegirl at 12:49 AM PST - 50 comments

Wouldn't You Like to Be a Member of the Rebel Alliance? So I'm listening to some radio news show and am amazed to learn that Canada has a Rebel Alliance party. Who wants to be Republican or Democrat when you can be a member of the Rebel Alliance? I'd move to Canada if it wasn't ... you know Canada (joke).
posted by willnot at 12:05 AM PST - 8 comments

Flowers in the attic, anyone? "A 62-year-old woman who last month became France's oldest mother has revealed that her brother was the biological father of the baby."
posted by lia at 12:02 AM PST - 16 comments

Comedy Central airs an episode of South Park where the characters say "shit" 168 times, unbleeped. Trey Parker and Matt Stone prove once again that they aren't afraid to take American television where everybody else has already been.
posted by RylandDotNet at 10:26 PM PST - 26 comments

Fan summits Everest, burns Yankee cap This is what I call a real fan. I tip my hat. (only a redsox fan can understand)
posted by justgary at 9:37 PM PST - 19 comments

Hero Cop Saves Suicidal Woman and it was captured on dramatic footage shot from his squad car. Amazing.
posted by MegoSteve at 8:19 PM PST - 5 comments

Killed by Fabric Softener and the deadly 'Sky Shelves.' Yet another evil of the dread capitalist system. Shop till you drop, anyone?
posted by LeLiLo at 8:00 PM PST - 9 comments

Tote that barge, lift that bale, get a little drunk and you land in jail You knew it was coming..... (click Clip #1 for a little taste of Ol' Man River)
posted by briank at 6:46 PM PST - 1 comment

Tonight is the Sexiest Geek Alive Contest in San Jose. Who will be crowned Sexiest Geek?! I can barely contain my enthusiasm for this (is it just me, or do they sound like the cast on a really awful and boring reality tv show?).
posted by mathowie at 6:34 PM PST - 20 comments

Queen Nefertiti found in the attic. Well, not exactly but the mummy of Nefertiti, the most famous queen of ancient Egypt except for Cleopatra, has been found kicking around in a museum unrecognized for a hundred years. Also, you can own your own Nefertiti for only $39.99 (gold costs a lttle more).
posted by lagado at 6:06 PM PST - 37 comments

There's a sucker born every minute. Some guy raises over $3,000 by letting people post messages on his site called sendmeadollar.com. Is this a new model for ecommerce? [via memepool]
posted by timothompson at 5:11 PM PST - 17 comments

Music CDs sales are down, coinciding with Napster's decline. Personally, I haven't bought a new CD in months because I no longer have a source for finding new music (what I used Napster for mainly). I suppose word of mouth and listening to online streams may help, but nothing compared to finding songs you liked on Napster, and searching others' files with similar tastes and finding new gems. Do you think the RIAA will notice this and change, or is control of distribution more important to them?
posted by mathowie at 3:08 PM PST - 29 comments

Let your three pit bulls maul a young child, hide them, go to jail. This would be a lot less appalling if the SF Chron had not chosen to run it underneath the story about "poodle boy".
posted by swell at 2:22 PM PST - 12 comments

Gay Webmaster Takes Baptist Church Staffer Hostage? Good grief!
posted by Iberaband at 2:17 PM PST - 10 comments

Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. - Jumpin on bandwagons since 1969.
posted by bondcliff at 2:15 PM PST - 15 comments

Sell Drugs... Go to jail.
posted by da5id at 2:13 PM PST - 2 comments

Download stock photos without paying, don't go to jail. Istockphotos.com seems to be offering free stock photography submitted by artists and photographers. And it's endorsed by Zeldman, even. But...what's to keep people from uploading Eyewire images and calling them their own, thereby illegally distributing them to thousands of people who'll use them on websites, magazines, etc. Istockphotos is legally covered, but what about the designer?
posted by Karl at 2:09 PM PST - 1 comment

Kill your five children, go to jail. So, what to do to a mother that decides not to be a mother any more?
posted by dwivian at 1:35 PM PST - 39 comments

Pass gas, go to jail. Well, not really, but I had to find something to keep this idea going.
posted by lawtalkinguy at 1:16 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Smuggle teenage girls into U.S. for sex, go to jail. Worse than throwing a dog into traffic?
posted by msacheson at 1:07 PM PST - 11 comments

Toss a dog in traffic, go to jail.
So, what do you suppose a fair punishment should be? And, consider that dogs, while cute, aren't people.
posted by dwivian at 12:10 PM PST - 50 comments

Microsoft XP Unvevils Blah Blah Blah Oh Who Cares. The full-press marketing blitz, in the face of slumping PC sales, a sluggish economy, and all common sense, will gloss over the fact that you now need 128 megs of RAM to run Microsoft's craptastically ill-conceived OS. Can't wait, Bill - I'm already gripping the sink!
posted by solistrato at 11:46 AM PST - 33 comments

Five five-star reviews on Amazon for G. Bruce Knecht’s The Proving Ground, about the tragic 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race. Of coarse it helps if you're a personal friend of Jeff Bezos. Does anyone seriously believe Jeff Bezos's review was honestly rated "18 out of 18 - helpful" by customers?
posted by swipe66 at 11:21 AM PST - 19 comments

Popluation Reference Bureau What an amazing site! You can find the populations of almost any country in the world here. It does not stop there, there is a mountain of information on the country's politics and policies. Take two seconds and I am sure you will be amazed at this site. It is nice to see that some groups are using the net to help inform people!
posted by aj100 at 10:53 AM PST - 17 comments

Famous urinal now 84 years old "When did it stop being true that an artist is somebody who can do something more or less well which the rest of us can only do badly or not at all?" -- Tom Stoppard
posted by drunkkeith at 10:29 AM PST - 13 comments

The Search For Chandra Levy Chandra Levy was a 24 year old intern who was about to move back to California and receive her master's when she suddenly disappeared on April 30th. The search climbed to a new level last night, when her parents returned to DC and held a press conference with their attorney...and their fingers seem to be pointing a Congressman. (more inside)
posted by jennak at 10:27 AM PST - 21 comments

Currently, consumer personal debt is at an all time high, and at the same time we're being inundated with ads asking us to "live richly" and pay for all those "priceless" moments with credit. Credit card companies have maintained a steady stream of advertising that focuses on living in the now, and worrying about the consequences later. Without discounting personal responsibility, should credit card companies be left to advertise their message unfettered, or does anyone think they are too good and perhaps somewhat responsible for the high consumer debt levels?
posted by mathowie at 10:23 AM PST - 51 comments

Racial discrimination at ford? White male managers accuse the Ford Motor Co. of reverse discrimination, claiming they are victims of racial, age and gender bias. After reading this article, I'm really at a loss as to where the racism is. They are reviewing all management and ditching those in the worst 5%...

"... older white managers who received "Cs" after long highly productive careers say they feel they are victims of discrimination."

Golly Pal. You know, the past counts for something but you have to keep producing or you're gonna get canned. What's the problem here? This isn't racism, it's meritocracy and I'm all for it. If they were giving bonuses to the evaluations based on ethnic background or sex then I could see the gripe. But the article doesn't say they are so what exactly is wrong with cutting the fat?
posted by revbrian at 10:18 AM PST - 11 comments

Boy bands may be blown sky-high. This description is on the front page of cnn, but after chuckling and clicking the link, I was presented with a fairly boring main headline : Going Na Na in Outer Space?

I say they should have stuck with the innuendo.

With internet news sites come a higher chance of errors as well as the ability to fix mistakes for the sake of history. Anyone know of a site that posts screenshots of mistakes before major websites correct them?
posted by jragon at 10:05 AM PST - 3 comments

"Hi, this is Savita Balasubramanyam... er, um... I mean Betty."
A telemarketing firm based in India trains its local agents to speak not just English, but 'American.' They are assigned to watch Friends, Ally McBeal and MTV. They are taught to shoot the bull on baseball, basketball and (American) football.
posted by Dirjy at 9:12 AM PST - 13 comments

There was one streaming radio site that I loved, but it's fallen on hard times. I return to Shoutcast again and again, but I can't seem to find anything interesting. What streams do you listen to during your long work days?
posted by preguicoso at 8:13 AM PST - 77 comments

Studies Show That Children Are Solicited Online (from the NY Times, free registration required) -- "One in five children who regularly go online is approached by strangers for sex, according to a new study."
posted by shauna at 8:03 AM PST - 22 comments

"For the last 19 years ManBeef has been the world's leading human meat distributor. We have established a reputation for having only the highest quality human meat products and dedicated customer service representatives." (The mailbag is a must-read.)
posted by Reggie452 at 7:41 AM PST - 11 comments

Crazy-ass christian fundamentalists are at it again. "The Net Authority is a group of individuals who have taken it upon themselves to govern the Internet." (link via Pixelix).
posted by metaxa at 5:36 AM PST - 42 comments

Mass grave of 24 World War I dead discovered in France. There's no way history is boring. Especially to a Belgian or French farmer.
posted by luser at 3:23 AM PST - 8 comments

Crime: the theft of four cookies from a restaurant. Punishment: jail for 25 years to life Thank God he didn't steal a steak.
posted by matteo at 2:32 AM PST - 39 comments

The wait is over (well, almost) -- Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox are finally going to release Episode I on DVD. This despite the fact that up to now they've been denying that they'll release anything on DVD for "the foreseeable future."
posted by RylandDotNet at 11:44 PM PST - 28 comments

Models, red in tooth and claw. This reality tv show follows a group of girls aspiring to become models. There's so many things wrong with this concept that I'll probably have to watch the first episode.
posted by rdr at 10:39 PM PST - 7 comments

Arbitron just sent me a dollar..? I've been invited to participate in a once (sometimes occasionally twice) in a lifetime opportunity. No wonder our radio waves are so screwed up. Station owners think they learn what the public wants through a short-sighted random process, which obviously doesn't work. What's most amusing to me is they're buying my opinion for a buck. Even jury duty was kind enough to pay me six!
posted by ZachsMind at 7:02 PM PST - 25 comments

"Seventy percent of the profiles on Metafilter are government agents" Don't worry. It's better if you don't believe him.
posted by Foaf at 6:21 PM PST - 27 comments

Bush Wants to Settle Tobacco Case Two Bush administration sources said there has been concern about the government's case. These officials, discussing the matter only on grounds of anonymity, said the department would prefer to go for a settlement now rather than risk losing.
posted by Rastafari at 5:42 PM PST - 6 comments

Taliban Annuls bin Laden Fatwas Against U.S.: That may be the title of the article, but the most interesting part is that Bin Laden claims that he had nothing to do with the Embassy bombings!
posted by adnan at 5:38 PM PST - 2 comments

I think I'll fix myself a cheese sandwich
"Cheese sandwiches, fucked up punctuation and all! I don't give a rat's ass, I just wanna hear about people's lives." Weblogs together are learning to develope community and I miss the great blogs that are gone, but when I surf around it is to read about people's lives. "Are you ready for a breakdown, sugar? Live it up, it's blogtastic!"
posted by riley370 at 5:05 PM PST - 10 comments

Talk is cheap Coming soon: 50-90% off. Discuss (in English).
posted by bregdan at 3:20 PM PST - 48 comments

Another problem with the alternative minimum tax. One of the problems with this tax was discussed back in May when it was realized that the AMT would substantially cut into the tax rebates of many. Now there is a new twist: People who did not cash out stock options before the downturn and are now sitting on a tax bill larger than all their assets combined.
posted by Nothing at 2:54 PM PST - 6 comments

When last we heard, president of Netscape Jim Bankoff was saying that "six months from now, you won't consider Netscape to be a browser company." Many took that statement, coupled with the lack of acceptance of Netscape 6, to mean that the Netscape browser was dead. But Wired.com is reporting today that rumours of Navigator's death have been exaggerated.
posted by tranquileye at 1:19 PM PST - 38 comments

Any West Wing fans out there? (If you don't watch the show (one episode is, apparently, enough :-), this probably won't be all that funny.)
posted by baylink at 11:56 AM PST - 6 comments

After small web sites didn't receive a single nomination in last year's Online Journalism Awards, Robin Miller of Slashdot is offering to pay the $100 entry fee for five of the best examples of small-site journalism published since July 2000. Who deserves the money?
posted by rcade at 11:49 AM PST - 8 comments

Forced to apologize to McDonald's The company recruited students during a school visit, which involved an assembly that was supposed to help students prepare for job interviews. When a student at the assembly criticized McDonald's, he was forced to apologize to the entire school.
posted by riley370 at 11:37 AM PST - 52 comments

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is safe for now. 11 years of rescue operations have ended with the tower stable for what experts hope will be about 300 years. The tower's new lean is about what it would have been in 1838.
posted by jammer at 11:13 AM PST - 10 comments

juan garza was executed in indiana this morning, in the same room where timothy mcveigh died. why no hullabaloo this time?
posted by rabi at 10:37 AM PST - 19 comments

Drummer Tommy Lee Says Drowned Boy Left Alone The boy's father, James Veres, a television producer, told a local radio station on Sunday that more people should have been hired to supervise the children and called his son's death "inexcusable." I smell a lawsuit.
posted by a3matrix at 10:03 AM PST - 35 comments

Any paleoanthropologists here? I heard this story on NPR this morning (real audio) about Kennewick Man and the legal action over whether these remains should be studied further or re-buried. What caught my attention the most was that the first scientist to study the remains found the 9,000-year old skeleton to show european characteristics (which was sort of glossed over in the report). I remember seeing something about these anomalous remains in National Geographic some time ago. What are the implications of this? Do we have to rethink the models of human settlement in North American? Or are these merely aberrations?
posted by trox at 9:52 AM PST - 12 comments

For all of you who missed the Cold War (NyTimes/Free Reg Req.) If America builds a shield, Putin says he'll arm his missles with multiple warheads. Twenty years orf arms control going down the drain for a failed technology. Remember kids, duck and cover.
posted by mister scratch at 9:49 AM PST - 29 comments

Homeless dot-commer maybe not so homeless after all You'll recall the brief discussion the other day about the story about "six-figure dot-commers" now living on the streets. As so often happens, though, somebody recognized this guy and tells a bit of a different story about him. (Yes, it's a Salon link. Enjoy it while you still can.)
posted by briank at 8:43 AM PST - 9 comments

On Americans and their Morals. A look at the demise of morality in America and our history as a country and a culture to always complain that our moral fabric is worse than it really is.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 8:32 AM PST - 5 comments

Too Many Ex-Cons to Handle? A smidgen more enlightening than Bill O'Reilly's absurdist proposal for an Alaskan gulag. The article discusses a sudden boom, and convergence of opinion, in studies of the "re-entry" of prisoners (mostly non-sociopathic) into regular American life. Considering the boom in prisons over the past 20 years, there is a problem here. The research boom is said to be largely driven by pragmatism. An example of the new studies can be found at the Urban Institute (pdf file, longish scholarly monograph).
posted by raysmj at 7:39 AM PST - 3 comments

Policy or Parody? A group calling itself "Citizens for Capital Punishment" ran an ad in the Terre Haute paper (both the NYT and the WP rejected it) showing a family watching the McVeigh execution on television and cheering. This seems too far over the top to be a real pro-death-penalty piece, but if it's satire, the creators are playing it straight. [via Media News]
posted by harmful at 7:39 AM PST - 9 comments

Cal Ripken's farewell tour. Here are the numbers: 2,632 consecutive games, 3,107 hits, 421 homers, 1,652 RBI. Even though some argue he shouldn't be an all-star this year, I think his ticket for Cooperstown is pretty much punched. And to top it all off, his final game will be at Yankee Stadium. I think Lou Gehrig would smile.
posted by trox at 5:55 AM PST - 22 comments

Manhattan Kindergarten "A child stricken with cancer? The collapse of her husband's business? The death of a beloved parent? Menopause? No, the darkest year of Mrs. G.'s life came the year her son was rejected from kindergarten."
posted by todd at 3:43 AM PST - 19 comments

I can't put a serious link up because I don't wanna link it. . . I don't like the fact that if you have your address and number listed in the phone book, suddenly now if someone enters your name into Google along with the city you presumably live in: Your address and phone number come up. I use no other search engines, but I would presume the same happens there. These aren't the days of PENNSYLVANIA-65000 anymore Harrietta.
posted by crasspastor at 3:18 AM PST - 41 comments

Microsoft and Truth This particular mistruth has long been a bone of contention with Microsoft ever since they tried to migrate Hotmail from FreeBSD over to Windows and found that Windows couldn't scale. <sigh> Yet another Microsoft lie? [from rc3.org
posted by fooljay at 2:31 AM PST - 11 comments

Amexica. So, living in two hispanic-dominated regions (Los Angeles, South Florida), I've seen the growth of the latino population create one of the oddest political coalitions ever. Ultra-conservatives (mostly white) want to tighten the borders because they see their "way of life" disappearing or mixing linguistically with Spanish. Blacks are threatened by dropping to #3 in the country's racial make-up, and see whatever political power they've gained begin to evaporate in a numbers game. In LA's recent mayoral race, this coalition became the deciding factor in defeating the latino candidate.
posted by owillis at 11:49 PM PST - 20 comments

Michel Foucault action figure
Keenly aware of the fluidity of social identities, this 6.5" Michel Foucault waves his baton in poststructuralist style at all challenges.
posted by riley370 at 10:18 PM PST - 13 comments

Highway to Hell billboard depicts Satan giving McVeigh his lethal injection. This is an advertisement for the same Dallas radio station that employs the DJs responsible for the recent Spears/Timberlake car-crash rumor. What's the difference between political propaganda and savvy demographic pandering? Via davezilla.com
posted by johnnyace at 9:56 PM PST - 16 comments

Some guy named Lileks asks, Who cares that the European bureaucratic intellectuals are so intent on hating Bush? In a funny way. (Link will eventually move here, since that site's designers don't seem to know what they're doing.)
posted by aaron at 9:38 PM PST - 18 comments

From its origins as Stalinist rhetoric in the 30's, to ironic Left-wing jibe in the 70's, to Iconoclastic taunt in the 80's, to the Conservative pejorative of today, has the term Political Correctness had its day? It's probably just me but it seems to be used far more frequently by people who are in positions of power or by those more in tune with society's mainstream orthodoxy than by those who aren't. Of course, no one ever calls themselves politically correct. What do you think, what does the p.c. term mean to you?
posted by lagado at 8:54 PM PST - 28 comments

The first Friars Club Roast ever open to the public is reported on by Frank DiGiacomo of The New York Observer. Some funny stuff, some interesting stuff, and some vulgar stuff. Who knew that Paul Sheaffer was actually funny?
posted by BGM at 7:34 PM PST - 13 comments

Protect your Right to be Human and practice the freedom to be yourself! Support this peaceful campaign to uphold your right to be human, support the Wherever You Are Global Self-Awareness Action on Sunday, July 1st, at 2pm (GMT)! Go out into the public domain, and take off your clothes; protest naked!
posted by crog at 5:49 PM PST - 7 comments

The next time you receive a pesky junkmail cheque promising you untold riches perhaps you should pause for a moment and consider the prospect that it may not be a zillion miles from the truth afterall. On the other hand - this rather tediously longwinded account of someone scamming a scam might itself be nothing more than just a.. erm.. nother scam.
posted by Kino at 5:32 PM PST - 6 comments

KISS Kasket
"This is the ultimate KISS collectible, " said Gene Simmons. "I love livin', but this makes the alternative look pretty damn good."
posted by riley370 at 5:18 PM PST - 4 comments

Which type of Constitution is better? A MeFi thread earlier discussed the room for error which the US Consitution leaves. So, here's the question: Do we like the very specific but restrictive 136 Article Mexican version or the brief but dynamic 7 Article plus Amendments American-style versions?
posted by Kevs at 5:14 PM PST - 11 comments

Give a sheep. That's what Paul Ford did. He also gave us this.
posted by holgate at 4:11 PM PST - 12 comments

Recreational use of Ritalin is something we have known about for at least seven years. Yet many adults still find it acceptable to medicate young people, then have the gaul to respond in shock when, given the chance, many young people will opt to medicate themselves.
posted by ZachsMind at 3:59 PM PST - 20 comments

MOVE! Get out of our county! Get off our welfare rolls! Here, take this money and get out.

Tulare County, California, pays unemployed to move elsewhere, anywhere, and people love it. One woman says the grass is greener in Arkansas, of all places.

Sounds like a win-win, eh? (NYT link)
posted by msacheson at 2:28 PM PST - 9 comments

"Dog Child" Rescued An 11-year-old Chilean boy who has been living in the wild with a pack of dogs was rescued and taken to a hospital. He survived by drinking the milk of a female dog and eating scraps of food. (Even more amazing is the tale of the boy who was raised by monkeys and rescued in 1991...)
posted by jennak at 2:13 PM PST - 9 comments

It's 2001. Where are the flying cars? We were promised flying cars! I want my flying car!

I guess we'll have to make do with personal autogyros for now.
posted by RylandDotNet at 12:53 PM PST - 35 comments

Who needs a Planet of the Apes remake, when you can just head to Bengal and see it live for yourself.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 12:06 PM PST - 1 comment

I totally don't think that your Paladin would really do that, Sir Balroggan. Give in to your geek side and go find out what your alignment would be if you were a D&D character.
posted by Skot at 10:50 AM PST - 72 comments

McCain Pushes Clinton Program Even as GOP campaign strategists begin to plot his role in the 2002 Congressional campaign season, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is launching a legislative initiative sure to warm the hearts of moderates and liberals and further antagonize some conservatives.
posted by Rastafari at 9:35 AM PST - 28 comments

Oscar goes For Five
He will attempt to join Hall of Famers Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns as the only boxers in history to win world championships in five weight divisions when he challenges WBC super welterweight champion Javier Castillejo on Saturday, June 23. I find the middle weight divisions more credible and fun than the heavyweight division.
posted by riley370 at 9:23 AM PST - 7 comments

"We damn sure are not about to let black folks buy up all the property in our neighborhood. Integration is overrated." Now, change "black" to "white" and the racism magically disappears! Thanks, political correctness!
posted by darren at 8:52 AM PST - 59 comments

CD-eating fungus? I don't live in Central America, but I'm sure that someone that does might move to the USA at some point. Will we need to start watching how we share CDs? Time to rip everything I own and store it on CompactFlash memory.
posted by dwivian at 7:53 AM PST - 13 comments

College Students are massing to go to Europe to protest about the Kyoto treaty. While this may seem to be a non-story, the kids aren't protesting against Bush or Blair for not signing on, but to the attendees of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for thinking that Kyoto would work in the first place.
posted by dwivian at 7:13 AM PST - 9 comments

Should single women lose the right to have babies through in-vitro fertilization?
posted by nonharmful at 4:59 AM PST - 15 comments

Should the killers of James Bulger be released? 8 years ago, two 10-year-old boys killed the toddler James Bulger. Now 18, having served the minimum of 8 years of their juvenile sentence, they are eligible for parole. Have they changed, as some say? Are they safe to be released back into society, albeit under new identities to protect them? Or are the protestors right that they should stay locked up for life? For those not familiar with the case, check this link.
posted by emc at 3:57 AM PST - 107 comments

An all encompassing crypto application sounds great, but is it really feasible? If you try to do too much we'll just end up with another halfass program no one really trusts.
posted by monkeyboy at 3:56 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

The global distribution of income is becoming ever more unequal. One of the proposed solutions? More charity by the ultra-rich.
posted by schoolie at 3:43 AM PST - 10 comments

Not in favor of the death penalty? How about a gulag in Alaska? It sounded ludicrous to me at first, but after reading the article I'm a little more open to the idea.
posted by RylandDotNet at 2:12 AM PST - 55 comments

In favour of the death penalty? Don't worry, it's in the genes
posted by twistedonion at 1:49 AM PST - 9 comments

catholic priests in africa have found a novel, if unethical way, to avoid catching aids. they rape nuns. the foundation for democracy in africa have a frightening report on the epidemic.
posted by quarsan at 1:11 AM PST - 8 comments

Name That Tune, Mr. Spock! Finding two of the same unforeseeable thing online entirely by accident raises an eyebrow. Can you name all the tunes in Glenn McDonald's Audiotests or the equivalent faux-Survivor task by Ron Yeany et al.? (The latter links directly to an MP3 file. See contest page.) ¶ Also, Glenn (ibid.) has an hilarious photo album. And who can explain the reference in the title of this posting?
posted by joeclark at 9:39 PM PST - 4 comments

Who needs Clinton when you have Peeping Bush? Seems the President can't find his campaign when faced with a heaving bosom.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 9:27 PM PST - 23 comments

I usually just ignore Jakob - he has his right to his opinions, tho' I seldom agree with him - but I draw the line at misrepresenting a technology so egregiously... Acrobat's not that hard to understand; I can't believe it's possible for Neilsen to not know that the features he berates Acrobat for missing are, in actuality, right there to be used.
posted by m.polo at 7:33 PM PST - 37 comments

Do you like coffee?
posted by RylandDotNet at 6:43 PM PST - 11 comments

73-year-old woman attacks pit bull in Tallahassee, Florida. God, is it good to hear news from home.
posted by methylsalicylate at 3:33 PM PST - 9 comments

Funniest man on radio. There are hundreds of television channels, and multimillion dollar movies being made, but I'd rather listen to an AM talk show. You can also listen on the internet here.
posted by Doug at 2:08 PM PST - 20 comments

Sen. Helms Takes in U2 Concert It seems that Jesse and Bono are pretty good friends. I just didn't imagine that -- I thought Bono liked Strom Thurmond much better. Show's how politically savvy I am. At least Jesse took his grandkids; I'm sure they would have given him hell for a while for leaving them out!
posted by dwivian at 1:25 PM PST - 6 comments

"I had no idea we had so many weapons," he said. "What do we need them for?" "The U.S. nuclear arsenal today includes 5,400 warheads loaded on intercontinental ballistic missiles at land and sea; an additional 1,750 nuclear bombs and cruise missiles ready to be launched from B-2 and B-52 bombers; a further 1,670 nuclear weapons classified as “tactical.” And just in case, an additional 10,000 or so nuclear warheads held in bunkers around the United States as a “hedge” against future surprises."
posted by owillis at 12:24 PM PST - 42 comments

Digital Renaissance: Convergence? I Diverge. MIT's Director of the Program in Comparative Media Studies, Henry Jenkins, speaks about the different aspects of "Convergence." Working at a large multinational company who is banking on "convergence" for future success, and yet skeptical about "convergence" personally, I welcome MeFiers to post their opinions on Jenkins' differentiation of "convergence" and what you think will be powerful or popular in the near future. Taken from Tomalak's Realm.
posted by gen at 8:28 AM PST - 4 comments

I generally don't have anytime for large scale protest's (wto riots - and mayday riots) and i dont agree with them when they start a vicious offence. Police are only defending themselves with water cannons and tear gas - *BUT THIS* is completly out of hand....
posted by monkeyJuice at 6:00 AM PST - 18 comments

Some good news about Internet Explorer 6? IE6, scheduled to be released in August, will be the first browser to support a new privacy standard called Platform Privacy Preferences, or P3P, which will allow surfers to automatically determine whether a Web site collects personally identifiable information and opt out of the data collection.
posted by tranquileye at 5:37 AM PST - 15 comments

FLASH - O - RAMA!!! The Flashforward Flash film festival finalasts. Hours of fun....
posted by BGM at 1:20 AM PST - 6 comments

Just some light reading... Buck Wolf is a producer at ABCNEWS.com who writes a twice-weekly column on items currently in the news. Nice, light reading, a few laughs, and some stuff you didn't know before (probably). Do any of you have favourite sites with interesting stuff for reading on slow news days?
posted by BGM at 12:28 AM PST - 11 comments

Is this necessary? Don't we already fingerprint/footprint babies after birth here? Is this just an attempt by our overzealous government to have a classification of every citizen on file? Police these days are scary enough for adults let alone children. Save the children...right?
posted by wantwit at 11:08 PM PST - 8 comments

As to be expected the dumb critics are ripping Lara Croft to shreds; I mean really tearing it a new orifice. Which means of course I must see this film. Major argument against? A hack plot designed only to engender scenes of mindless violence. Duh. It's not supposed to have emotional impact. It's just supposed to be fun. Did any of these critics actually play the game? What frightens me though is that Roger Ebert enjoyed it... I'm so torn...
posted by ZachsMind at 4:38 PM PST - 49 comments

Girl stories Brand new site to include stories and photos by young girls as they embrace, encounter, confront adolescence.
posted by Postroad at 4:09 PM PST - 8 comments

China pops back a collective Beano. (NY Times link. Free registration required.) One of Bush's main objections to the Kyoto protocol is China's exemption from regulation, but it seems they're doing their collective best to cut down on CO2 emissions, with success. Even with China's rapid rate of expansion, this weakens our administration's argument a bit by setting forward the number of years it will take China to match our own emissions. At what point do we start to play nice with the other kids?
posted by dong_resin at 1:37 PM PST - 8 comments

Taliban say they underminded the US economy by halting opium production. ``It's known in select circles.. that opium is more influential than oil in terms of its economic role in America in particular and the West as a whole,''
posted by stbalbach at 12:19 PM PST - 7 comments

Japan corners the market on square fruit. I suppose this is the ultimate example of form over function. Finally a solution for the widespread refrigerator overcrowding problems.
posted by ry at 10:39 AM PST - 31 comments

The Maltesos. Well, there's no Webistics, and Big Pussy hasn't turned up floating down the Fox River, but here's your modern American mob family, suburban style. Betty Loren-Maltese, longtime mayor of the Town of Cicero, which abuts Chicago's West Side, has been indicted for looting the town's health insurance system to the tune of at least $10 million. The US Attorney says it is the largest dollar amount in any single organized crime investigation. [more inside]
posted by dhartung at 9:10 AM PST - 8 comments

When does no not mean no? When you are the Irish government and your country is the only one in the EU that requires a referendum to approve the pending EU treaty admitting new members. Last week, 54% of the Irish population who voted turned down the Nice Treaty, and yet Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern insisted "The 'no' vote should not be interpreted as a vote against enlargement..." And the protestors are at it again.
posted by jessamyn at 7:21 AM PST - 12 comments

The Olsen Twins. A magazine. A new tv show. Bestselling videos. Music publishing. Dolls. Six different video games. Did their agent negotiate a good deal with Beelzebub or what? Talking about their show in EW: "We're putting chocolate sauce all over the place and dancing. It's a really cute scene." They're 14. Does Uncle Joey know what's going on?
posted by owillis at 12:31 AM PST - 39 comments

Stalking Dr. Steere Over Lyme Disease -- Dr. Allen Steere was the man who first investigated and discovered Lyme Disease in 1975, but now he is troubled that doctors nationwide are misdiagnosing other conditions as Lyme disease. He has been influential in reducing the number of Lyme diagnoses, only to be attacked by angry patients who hate and threaten him for not letting them have their chosen disease -- Dr. Steere now says, "We've come to have the idea in America that it is possible to cure anything and that everyone could be well, and it's even their right to be well, and they should be angry if the medical profession doesn't make you well."
posted by palegirl at 12:21 AM PST - 6 comments

Right Livelihood Resources - "How can you design your work life so it is an expression of your gifts and makes a contribution to the world? How can you make your time at work meaningful?" Does your work reflect your values?
posted by sudama at 10:01 PM PST - 21 comments

Tickle Me Elmo
The Truth About Sesame Street "I have never understood how any White parent with an OUNCE of dignity or pride could expose their children to the trash of Sesame Street, regardless of how "wonderful" everyone in the " mainstream" world says it is. It's bad enough that we, as adults, are continually subjected to the garbage pouring out of the jew toob."
posted by riley370 at 8:04 PM PST - 49 comments

A mime is a terrible thing to waste. OK, so apparently he's anything but quiet, but, I couldn't resist. As the article states, simply not liking someone isn't enough reason to obstruct a person's livelihood. Does a unique whistle and skillful balloon-animal making make up for homophobic slurs and public drunkenness?
posted by dchase at 7:47 PM PST - 4 comments

Steal my Images IE 6 not only will plaster squiggly lines all over your pages but will help everybody steal your images!! Another fine enhancement from the folks who brought you the Marquee tag.
posted by headlemur at 7:37 PM PST - 19 comments

“Maced wi Macintosh” How to say “Made with Macintosh” in any of several extinct languages. And of course Dutch.
posted by joeclark at 6:56 PM PST - 1 comment

Web Accessibility = Web Shop Salvation? With Federal guidelines for accessibility set to go into law on June 21, you've got a whole hoarde of companies which will need to redesign. Razorfish must be all, "Mmm, I smell money! Time to buy back the Aerons!"
posted by gsh at 5:55 PM PST - 12 comments

I'm not really sure if I feel for these people or not. A lean job market is no picnic, but c'mon, there are other jobs out there. Maybe it is some sort of divine retribution for these shelter denizens after spending months cutting people off while yapping on the cell-phone behind the wheel of the leased Porsche. Yes, that was a run-on sentence.
posted by donkeysuck at 4:49 PM PST - 20 comments

Apparently, the Lt. Governor of Illinois has WAY too much time on her hands.... Of course, rallying public support for a boycott of Abercrombie & Fitch doesn't really seem like what she was elected to do, but hey, never hurts to throw your title around when your teenagers are going ga-ga over half-naked muscle-boys, huh?
posted by m.polo at 3:41 PM PST - 22 comments

Host an exchange Flamingo this summer! Fred and Pinky Lee are lawn Flamingoes with a taste for world travel. Take them in, and show them a good time.
posted by Perigee at 2:23 PM PST - 5 comments

Daisy Rock Girl Guitars Girly-lookin' electric, acoustic, and bass guitars. I may not be a teeny boppin' little girl. but I want one so badly! Oh my god, they are so cute!
posted by mcsweetie at 1:42 PM PST - 29 comments

You've Got Hell. I know there was a link to this site on MeFi two years ago, but it is Friday, and this is, in fact, quite funny. From the people who brought you Modeman, Jesus 2000, and Lance Banyon vs. The Ku Klux Klan.
posted by tranquileye at 1:32 PM PST - 3 comments

Russia-China alliance emerges as a foil to US The enemy of my enemy is my friend.... Not! Post cold war alliances do indeed make strange bedfellows. Does this mean Vodka will now be served with Kung Pao chicken?
posted by Rastafari at 1:30 PM PST - 24 comments

Bush campaign source of debate tape smear attempt. In this campaign follow-up sure to delight all you anti-Bushies--in case Rove's possible insider trading or Bush's disingenuous charm offensive in Europe hasn't sufficed--an ex-Bush campaign aide pleads guilty.
posted by Joe Hutch at 1:27 PM PST - 13 comments

Catholic Church offered solution to AIDS crisis? Though I certainly lean more left than right, I have The National Review in print an online for many years to get some balance in my media intake. I must say, they have run numerous articles online of late that I felt were well-reasoned, fair and insighful. This, however, is crap. "Many have tut-tutted the Church for opposing condoms even as an AIDS prevention tool. Some have even called the Church complicit in AIDS deaths. But, as it has turned out, condoms aren't a very good AIDS-prevention tool after all. [emphasis mine] " So now condoms are not useful for preventing AIDS. Did we miss something?
posted by 4midori at 12:37 PM PST - 27 comments

When police go bad: Boycott Starbucks A Seattle community’s response to what was seen as racially motivated use of excessive force by police was to boycott the company that is funding their own schools and projects. A strange story all around.
posted by Nothing at 12:30 PM PST - 15 comments

Communists infiltrating the Oakland, Calif. teachers union. The Trotskyites of the Revolutionary Workers League, having branched out from the perpetual student-revolutionary ghetto on the fringes of UC Berkeley (2 miles north of the Oakland city limits), are hungering to grab a bully pulpit and $300,000 a year worth of dues, and are well on their well to controlling the union's executive board.
posted by MattD at 11:46 AM PST - 4 comments

Vive la California! France passed by California in rankings of world economies.
posted by msacheson at 11:43 AM PST - 21 comments

Why are you in such a bad mood? Because you are a loser - you just don't know it yet.
posted by geronimo_rex at 10:52 AM PST - 4 comments

Dutch Abortion Ship Runs Aground in a figurative sense. It seems that there are issues with Dutch Law about providing their services off the Irish coast. At least the protests were minimal. Is there really a strong need for International Waters businesses? It makes me wonder what else would fly on a barge-based mall; Look out, Simons! It's the Mall of the Atlantic and we sell EVERYTHING!
posted by dwivian at 10:46 AM PST - 2 comments

The Freak Box: Is This What "Happened" to the Beloved Woolworth Photo Booth? Am I even less hip than I thought or older than I thought? Is this the video equivalent of Metafilter: content created by the community? Apparently, lots of folk want to be outrageous and be on the Web. I feel so tame : 0
posted by ParisParamus at 10:41 AM PST - 18 comments

What's a working mother to do? Funny...I have started wondering about this myself-and of course I read this at work...
posted by bunnyfire at 9:52 AM PST - 25 comments

Charges dropped against Ruby Ridge FBI sniper BONNER'S FERRY, Idaho (CNN) -- The FBI sharpshooter who killed a white separatist's wife in the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff will not be tried for manslaughter, an Idaho prosecutor said Thursday.
posted by racer271 at 9:17 AM PST - 4 comments

Looks like the Internal Revenue Service is trying to soften their image with a cutesy design of their Web site. Are you buying this? I'm not!
posted by Sal Amander at 9:03 AM PST - 12 comments

Could you Blog for 24 hours straight? While some folks are happy spending a day Not Blogging, Cat over at Frykitty is looking for people to join her in her 24 hour charity Blogathon. Sign up to blog with her or just sponsor someone. While I do think spending 24 hours at a PC is a sure sign of insanity, I can certainly respect that sort of insanity.
posted by bondcliff at 8:50 AM PST - 22 comments

Organ Transplants for HIV+ Patients? The Starzl Institute, one of the most prestigious organ transplant centers in the nation, is making waves in the medical and transplant community by offering new organs to patients with HIV and AIDS. (They are currently evaluating Larry Kramer, co-founder of GMHC and Act-Up for a new liver.) Is this progressive, compassionate medicine, or is it, as some critics have charged, a waste of scarce organs that could go to patients who don't have an underlying fatal virus?
posted by Dreama at 8:03 AM PST - 23 comments

The other side of globalization? For over three years, a balloon twister and a photographer went around the world and made balloon hats for everyone they met, for free, and took pictures of them.
posted by tranquileye at 7:38 AM PST - 13 comments

This man is so fascinatingly delusional. Why has he not been required to get some mental health treatment? The overall attitude in the United States toward depression, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses is absurd. Mentally ill people of all types, particularly poor ones, are stigmatized, receive poor or limited or no care. The 1970s discharge of thousands of mentally ill patients onto the streets and subsequent public policy on the treatment of mental illness, particularly in the poor and homeless has continued to impact our lives as well as those of the people in need of care.
posted by jfwlucy at 7:21 AM PST - 15 comments

Lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade - Monty Python dolls^H^H^H^H^Haction figures to go on sale. As noted before I have a penchant for obscure toys. Clearly, they've nailed my demographic. Wish I had the cash to spend on them, though. [via Fark]
posted by plinth at 7:17 AM PST - 13 comments

all tomorrow's parties is the best music festival in the world. so where's the news about ATP - LA, curated by sonic youth, supposedly in october? is it true their site is down due to non-payment by the outspoken promoter Barry Hogan? does anybody know anything?
posted by afro at 6:52 AM PST - 6 comments

You mean there's a war, and people on drugs are winning it? The latest additions to the Gruaniads special report on drugs are interesting. In the top story Scotland Yard is endorsing a more relaxed attitude towards cannabis possession. Nick Davies has written a series of two articles, mostly focussing on heroin, about how drug prohibition actually increases the spread of illegal drugs and causes most of the related health problems. Looks like legalisation is good for everybody.
posted by MrImpossible at 6:24 AM PST - 20 comments

“There’s no such thing as ‘a B+ album’ ” “...or a three-and-a-half-star album or whatever. Value is not an internal property of a work of art, so, to me, grading a record is not just inane and offensive, it demonstrates a profound misunderstanding about how people react to art.” Interview with Glenn McDonald (ibid.).
posted by joeclark at 6:03 AM PST - 12 comments

President Bush, on his European tour, tries to calm Russia's concerns of Western expansion by saying they they shouldn't "fear freedom-loving peoples' expansion to their borders." Is he intimating that Russia's people are not "freedom-loving?

Funny, I heard Bush say those words in an NPR report this morning but when I went to CNN to get the quote, freedom-loving was missing from the quote.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 5:42 AM PST - 4 comments

Disney steals a plot from anime once again, and here is the proof.
posted by Spanktacular at 4:08 AM PST - 16 comments

Thousands take maths A-level sold for £400 on black market
If im paying £400 for these A level papers - i want the answers as well, not just the questions..
posted by monkeyJuice at 3:26 AM PST - 2 comments

A study from researchers at the University of Alberta concludes that unhappy workers perform their tasks at the same rate as happy workers, but with about half as many errors (more inside).
posted by hazyjane at 2:29 AM PST - 11 comments

Another right wing rant about California's predicament. By one of my favourite right wing ranters. But I never knew about this... Kinda cool.
posted by BGM at 12:54 AM PST - 14 comments

No! Not the Glenlivet ! Aaaaaah! I know a couple of guys who would kill this guy without remorse, and then suck on his cheeks.
posted by BGM at 12:35 AM PST - 12 comments

No! Not the ferrets! Aaaaaah!
A wee dilemma for animal rights supporters. Should the prairie dogs be moved to a new location? Or fed to endangered black-footed ferrets (cue Psycho music)! The horror.
posted by CRS at 9:38 PM PST - 7 comments

"The members of U2 kindly request that all fans of the group be physically attractive. In order to have a Beautiful Day, we require Beautiful People. Thank you for your understanding." (BTW, it turns out the article is wrong. HBO had nothing to do with it; it was entirely U2's decision.)
posted by aaron at 9:28 PM PST - 7 comments

Nasubi entered a contest.. A contest that required luck... It soon dawned on Nasubi just what type of luck he had needed to win.
posted by Kino at 5:08 PM PST - 22 comments

ActiveBuddy, Inc. Interactive Agents for Instant Messaging Activebuddies are your automated fact-checking friends, so to speak. All you do is request and recieve information you want right within an instant message window. It's actually quite intuitive. I just spent an hour looking for tickets and playing hangman with Radiohead's activebuddy entitled GooglyMinotaur! Could this be the Gopher of the future?
posted by mcsweetie at 4:11 PM PST - 12 comments

Buy my Virginity! **HOT ITEM** At the time of this writing, there have been three bids bringing the price up to "GBP 1.40(approx. $1.95)." His favourite activities include "Ballet, Dancing, Finger Painting and Jesus" (Jesus is an activity?). "Homosexuals, Munters, TVs or women called Sadie need not apply." Found via Who Would Buy That?
posted by DyRE at 4:05 PM PST - 10 comments

Do you recognize this photo?
This rather ominous photo of military officers smirking and stoic Polynesians with faces smeared with white paint (or who knows what?) turned up recently in the archives of the Historic Preservation Office of Samoa. The archivists believe it to have been taken in the 1930s, but can't say what it depicts exactly. Wierd!!
posted by rschram at 4:01 PM PST - 9 comments

"Everyone who writes original content online needs to get a day job." John Scalzi argues that this is the most likely way that we're going to see quality online content survive as for-profit ventures like Suck continue to crash down around us. He points to cool stuff a lot of us are already familiar with (Lileks and glenn macdonald's The War Against Silence) and some sites I hadn't heard of until now (Rick McGinnis' The Diary Thing). Scalzi practices what he preaches: he doesn't post every day -- hey, he's a professional writer and keeping his family fed comes first -- but what he does post is choice. (Probable future URL for today's article is here).
posted by maudlin at 3:40 PM PST - 20 comments

Cooking With Bigfoot is a flash series about a former TV star turned cable cooking show host (that happens to be a sasquatch). Episode one is up and looks like it could be a fine series when the rest are in place.
posted by mathowie at 3:25 PM PST - 1 comment

Another fun way to waste time on the web. Electrotank.com went live today. Their minigolf game had been available in beta form for a week or two, but the last 9 were disabled. Now they're all there except for #18, and the dreaded hole 8 has been moved to 17. There are other games too, and a "vision" statement, the first item of which is that they will "Provide a place where people can go to play free high quality online games. " Sounds good to me! Flash plug-in required...
posted by BGM at 2:30 PM PST - 11 comments

Don't tell your employer you're using the T-1 to watch Green Acres. It's streamed video of a fictional weed delivery service in the NYC area. Updated weekly, it features cameos by some 'big name' actors including Rosie Perez in episode 2.
posted by donkeysuck at 2:00 PM PST - 5 comments

Energy woes continue in CA and now it looks like there may be a more serious push to consider price caps. But what if that doesn't happen? I've been thinking about this a lot lately and wondering what we as consumers can do. And I came up with this sort of crazy idea that I can't seem to shake: What if we all just stop paying our electric bills? Is this an appropriate form of protest? Would it be immoral? Would it be possible? And most importantly, would it make a difference?
posted by megnut at 1:04 PM PST - 91 comments

Senate passes amendment withholding money from schools that deny use of their facilities to the Boy Scouts on the grounds of their exclusion of homosexuals. Says Jesse Helms, sponsor of the amendment to Bush's education bill, this is meant to combat "the organized lesbians and homosexuals in this country of ours." Is this justified in light of the Supreme Court's ruling that the Scouts have the right to exclude whomever they wish, or just flat out anti-homosexual?
posted by zempf at 12:53 PM PST - 34 comments

Speedle It's a little like Yahoo! News - Most-emailed content, Third Voice, and a collaborative blog. The background on the company can be found here. It utilizes Microsoft's Passport technology, e-mail, and instant messaging. The home page has the most popular links updated in real time. Very cool.
posted by grambo at 12:37 PM PST - 14 comments

Download your very own desktop Theremin today. (via goodexperience.com)
posted by quirked at 12:33 PM PST - 15 comments

**Warning: This Program is not for the Faint of Heart** The American Film Institute has come out with its list of 100 most thrilling movies (presumably, ever). Voters at the AFI website don't quite agree. (AFI #1= Psycho vs. public's Star Wars.)
posted by caraig at 12:12 PM PST - 16 comments

Another PHP Script? Yeah. This one allows you to instantly create thumbnailed galleries from the comfort of your home. (Yeah, I'm sure there are others like this out there, but this one is the *newest*. And the site is funny. dammit.... stop staring at me.)
posted by jcterminal at 11:24 AM PST - 7 comments

New Politics Initiative
"The New Politics Initiative is being launched by a diverse assembly of Canadians who are committed to the goal of creating a new political party in Canada.
The left is at a crossroads. Conservatives and business leaders trumpet a new era in which the supremacy of the market and corporate power are as natural and self-evident as they are irresistible. "
posted by riley370 at 10:33 AM PST - 6 comments

Matchmaking in the White House. "...Bush himself likes to play matchmaker for aides. 'This is definitely a policy priority from the top,' she says So this is what he meant by "I'm a uniter not a divider."
posted by trox at 9:02 AM PST - 11 comments

"Doh!" added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Homer Simpson is the man.
posted by danwalker at 8:58 AM PST - 44 comments

I know someone has posted an Amazon Purchase Circle before for Microsoft, but the one for NASA is hilarious. Introduction to Space Physics?
posted by jeb at 8:50 AM PST - 6 comments

The philosopher's first visit to the web might be a bit distressing: witness aesthetics.com, ontology.com, and epistemology.com...
posted by tweebiscuit at 8:09 AM PST - 18 comments

Harvard Profs Can't Do Everything; For one thing, as seen by this article, they certainly can't rap.
posted by lowblow at 7:54 AM PST - 4 comments

New High-Quality MP3 format debuts... What do the tech-savants think about this? Is this something we really need, or are Thomson Multimedia and the Fraunhofer Institute gettin' all proprietary on our asses? Will "mp3pro" and Microsoft's upcoming attempt (in XP) to restrict users to Windows Media cause trouble for the useful, universal mp3 format? Now that all the majors are getting in the game (late, late, late), what's the next step for free music lovers?
posted by preguicoso at 7:27 AM PST - 13 comments

The Boston Marriage. An article in Ms. Magazine describes the author's choice to live with a beloved friend rather than a sexual partner. The arrangement differs from a typical roommate situation in that the two people involved take care of each other and socialize together like a couple traditionally would, and are even considering raising a child together - yet they are heterosexual and have lovers that don't interfere with their partnership. For straight people that don't want to live alone forever but are disillusioned with marriage... could this be the social institution of the future?
posted by hazyjane at 7:11 AM PST - 17 comments

Bush decides to End Vieques Bombings Wow! I feel like I must be missing something here. Dubya did something I agree with?
posted by preguicoso at 6:41 AM PST - 13 comments

You know it's true/I'm happy to be stuck with you - high school students vie for a $2500 scholarship by attending their proms dressed in outfits made from duct tape. Interesting idea, although I question the No purchase Necessary clause in the rules, and I'm pretty sure that they made more that $2500 from all the Duck brand duct tape sold to make the outfits.
posted by plinth at 6:14 AM PST - 7 comments

More kung-fu flash madness... this time, with Bruce Lee! Someone managed to attach an image of Lee's head in various expressions to make a somewhat 3d version of the stick fight. Wild. (From Usr/bin/girl)
posted by Cavatica at 5:05 AM PST - 6 comments

Don't fear the reaper. Can this really predict my final days!!
posted by kramer_101 at 4:27 AM PST - 28 comments

Congress members urge hip-hop industry to self-regulate. I'm glad that when I was reading this headline, I wasn't drinking. I imagined Coca-cola all over my screen. I thought to myself: 'hip-hoppers are doing a good enough job regulating themselves, look at Biggie, Tupac, Freaky Tah, et al.' And Rep. Earl Hilliard, D-Ala., suggested a ratings system similar to the movie industry's. Oh yeah, we all know how well they work.
posted by youthbc1 at 12:07 AM PST - 7 comments

What's Karl Rove up to? "Karl Rove, President Bush's top White House political adviser, met with senior executives of a high-tech firm (Intel) who were seeking his help in obtaining government approval of a merger at a time when he owned stock in the company worth more than $100,000."

Also, James Hatfield (a shady character himself) - who alleged in a book that Bush was arrested for cocaine and had it removed from his record now alleges that the source was none other than Mr. Rove...
posted by owillis at 11:50 PM PST - 5 comments

"[The child's mother] can punish the whole world because of this affliction of her son. She can punish everybody who doesn't want to call this normal. But it's not normal. And it's not nice." Dr Laura on . . . children with Tourette's Syndrome. Words fail me. Nice story of how people networked on the Net to respond though.
posted by aflakete at 11:24 PM PST - 22 comments

48 States in 6 Days - Charity Ride A motorcyclist is trying to set a new record, and raise a little money for charity at the same time. Averaging 1,200 miles on a motorcycle for 5 1/2 days doesn't sound incredibly enjoyable to me.
posted by 7sharp11 at 9:47 PM PST - 2 comments

Those loveable losers, the Cubbies, are six games up in the standings and have been in first place for most of the season. Are these guys for real? Or will Slamm'n' Sammy and Co. fall to the curse of the goat once again? They're made a believer out of me, but being a Cubs fan I know their failure in '69 hangs over these guys like an evil shadow.
posted by Bag Man at 9:39 PM PST - 14 comments

'Necklace' designed to aid those with profound hearing loss. Almost totally deaf and reliant on lip reading since her 20s, Sherry Cramer couldn't believe her ears in 1994 when she first wore the microphone array necklace that electrical engineering Professor Bernard Widrow and his students had designed. Listening to a CD, she could hear every note of a Rachmaninoff piano concerto as the necklace received and transmitted sound in magnetic form to her behind-the-ear hearing aid.
posted by RylandDotNet at 9:00 PM PST - 8 comments

What your government isn't telling you:
Pot Cures Cancer
posted by lagado at 8:40 PM PST - 16 comments

"My responsibility is to the dead more than to the living." The words of top cop, Walter Dawaram. He's back on the case to bring in Veerappan and is not ruling out a "one-to-one confrontation." Could this be the third act? Eat your heart out Hollywood.
posted by john at 6:55 PM PST - 5 comments

Are you an Audiophile? I found this article on Slashdot, but I know some folks here don't read that site regularly and I think it's worth parroting here. I thought I was going a little overboard with my Technics SL-1200mk2 turntable the other week, but this is crazy. Or is it crazy/beautiful? Anyone here approach the depths of some of these music fans?
posted by moz at 6:43 PM PST - 22 comments

NYT celebrates 40 (or so) years of FORTRAN
The computer language that started it all is remembered in this breezy Times article (reg. req.'d.). [I think it has to do with some recent reunion of original team-members, but any contemporary event to rationalize printing this is buried in the copy.] Do something high-level with your computer today to commemorate. Here's an ibiblio.org text with more information.
posted by rschram at 5:22 PM PST - 5 comments

"I can't teach him what it's like to be black," said Van de Perre, who is white. "But I can teach him what it's like to be Canadian and to be a well-rounded human being."

The endgame of a custody battle between a white, single mother with a questionable employment record and a black, married father who played in the NBA. A lower court awarded custody to Blue Edwards, the father, in part because "[the child] would be better off with the wealthy Edwards family which can raise him in black culture".
posted by Big Fat Tycoon at 5:00 PM PST - 17 comments

Courtesy of the latest RISKS Digest, way too many variations on a theme... that theme being the Blue Screen Of Death.
posted by baylink at 3:49 PM PST - 3 comments

The amazing saga of Nosepilot continues -- Discussed here previously, the story behind the story of nosepilot is nearly as compelling as the animation itself. It has everything: Flash, viral content, independent authoring, bad customer service, how web hosts suck, hack threats, falsified documents, and more.
posted by artlung at 2:27 PM PST - 7 comments

Adbusters, how i love thee. A twist on celebrating the 4th of July, courtesy of the Culture Jammers Network. This is the type of non-destructive activism i can support.
posted by th3ph17 at 1:31 PM PST - 31 comments

Customer-specific solutions
"When the Department of State (or other public sector entities) needs personnel to reconstitute, establish and maintain rule of law in emerging democracies, they come to DynCorp. " Found thru Washington's secret forces in Latin America
posted by riley370 at 1:30 PM PST - 4 comments

Matt H. and MeFi in New York Times (may require free subscription to access) -- an Andy Wang piece about using the Amazon Honor System to keep websites like his afloat. What I want to know: why does Matt wants to hurl that laptop into the bay?
posted by BT at 1:13 PM PST - 12 comments

Become a Netmogul (Isn't it time you RTFM?) Carl Steadman and his fellow Suckites compile a tribute to the Dotcom boom. Sample paragraph: "Want to get into work at 11, spend most of the afternoon swapping email with your pals, and fill the remainder of your workday with Quake deathmatches and figuring out what you're going to do with your million-dollar options package once it's vested? Become an engineer!" [via Boing Boing]
posted by timothompson at 1:10 PM PST - 11 comments

Father's day is almost here, and I KNOW that I deserve a great gift for being such a good Dad!

Not buying it, are you? Neither are my kids, which is probably why I won't be getting one of these. Any other fathers out there with a wish list?
posted by Sal Amander at 12:24 PM PST - 17 comments

I find this very sad... At least they aren't mimicking Eminem.
posted by machaus at 10:46 AM PST - 16 comments

Verizon sues Covad for creating thousands of false trouble tickets. So that's why my DSL took so long!
posted by josh at 9:45 AM PST - 17 comments

Aussie 'Net Old-Timer to Feds: No com.au!
Robert Elz, whom the SMH describes as a computer scientist at the University of Melbourne who was instrumental in wiring Oz for the Internet, has recently renewed his refusal to hand over regulatory powers of the .au ccTLD to the federal government. The SMH states that this is a battle between the old-timers, computer scientists and academics, of the 'Net and the commercial interests. Elz does not like to be photographed. A story with heart!
posted by rschram at 9:25 AM PST - 14 comments

Inkblot , each month, invites writers to submit stories based on a black and white picture. It's approaching two years of operation. Lately it has reached the stage where its submission rate has been fading. How best do good open-call submission sites like this one attract/ maintain/ renew an active participant base?
posted by TimTypeZed at 8:31 AM PST - 15 comments

Unisys Confesses UNIVAC Sins - The company that invented the first commercial computer apologized on the eve of its 50th anniversary for any "unintended consequences" of its use. - Among other things, they apologized for bad joke emails, the dot com bubble, and destroying the concept of normal working hours. It's a pretty funny article.
posted by chrisege at 7:17 AM PST - 14 comments

U.S. reports steepest annual violent crime drop Incidents of violent crime plummeted nearly 15 percent in 2000, the steepest one-year drop since the federal government began keeping track in 1973. Last year's data continue a trend that began early in the last decade. From 1993 through 2000, rapes dropped 60 percent, aggravated assaults fell 52.5 percent and motor vehicle theft dropped 52.4 percent.
posted by frednorman at 7:00 AM PST - 30 comments

WAP is dead. Can the Mobile Services Initiative make the wireless Web really useful?
posted by tranquileye at 6:34 AM PST - 19 comments

U.S. Embassy bomber given life sentence. This is kind of the flipside of the McVeigh execution; Saudi man helps bomb the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi which kills 213 people. Jury cannot agree to execute him, as some believe he would become a martyr for the cause, and others believe this wouldn't "alleviate the suffering of the victims or family members". Why is this any different from the McVeigh situation?
posted by Big Fat Tycoon at 5:03 AM PST - 31 comments

"People can eat Godzilla and become energetic and powerful. It's got dreams mixed in with fun," Takara spokeswoman Yoko Watanabe said Tuesday. Do I even need to comment? They've chopped up Godzilla and they're eating him. Where's Greenpeace when you need them? (Of course, maybe it's the pseudo-Godzilla from the recent American picture...I'd feel less bad about that.)
posted by Ezrael at 4:13 AM PST - 13 comments

Unlike NASA, Walker, a Bend, Oregon toy inventor, can’t afford to build and launch test rockets. The first one he builds is the one he’ll fly in. He will be his own monkey. Aren't we all? God, I hope he pulls this off. Let's take rocketry out of the hands of guys who miss Mars all the time with space probes and back into the hands of backyard inventors. If Goddard could do it, why not Walker? Suborbital flight from his own yard. (And yes, I know Goddard never went suborbital.)
posted by Ezrael at 12:59 AM PST - 28 comments

Republican athlete politicians With trepidation, I post a link to a Slate article (is that akin to posting a Salon article?) Anyway, I've been largely impressed with the "Sports Nut" columns. I think my favourite quote of this one is Brent Jones saying "An athlete is a small business owner whose product is yourself." And Charles Barkely reminding his grandma, unsure of her grandson's political leanings towards the Republicans, "we are rich".
posted by youthbc1 at 11:55 PM PST - 25 comments

Child Soldiers..Global Report 2001
"At any one time, more than 300,000 children under 18 - girls and boys -are fighting as soldiers with government armed forces and armed opposition groups in more than 30 countries worldwide. In more than 85 countries, hundreds of thousands more under-18s have been recruited into government armed forces, paramilitaries, civil militia and a wide variety of non-state armed groups. Millions of children worldwide receive military training and indoctrination in youth movements and schools. While most child soldiers are aged between 15 and 18, the youngest age recorded in this report is seven. "
posted by riley370 at 8:00 PM PST - 6 comments

Well... finally. Now I can get something done.
posted by RylandDotNet at 7:02 PM PST - 36 comments

Deleted scenes, they're not just for DVDs anymore. This summer, they're re-releasing Apocalypse Now with more footage to theaters. So, when the DVD comes out, will it have even MORE deleted scenes, or what?
posted by robbie01 at 5:49 PM PST - 26 comments

The new Belle and Sebastian single is out. If you have it, what do you think of it? Is it a return to pristine form, a limpid mess, or a bold move in an innovative new direction? (This link brought to you by MeFites for Introducing Other Mefites to Good Music they Might not Have Heard Otherwise.)
posted by tweebiscuit at 5:47 PM PST - 26 comments

Families forgive driver who caused death of children Can death-penalty advocates bring themselves to this level of forgiveness? “The parents of four of the five victims of Sunday’s tragedy at Lingwick have asked authorities to withdraw charges filed Monday against Steve Rousseau, 21, the driver of a car that plunged into a quarry.... ‘We forgive Steve Rousseau and we’d like the charges against him lifted. He already feels a great deal of pain over what happened, which was an accident. He’s a little guy who has already been devastated by the burden placed on him. We don’t want to make matters worse,’ says Christian Morin, father of Marie-France. ‘We have no grievance with him.’ ” The Crown will prosecute anyway. (Also second article. All in French.)
posted by joeclark at 4:38 PM PST - 15 comments

Where has Lemon Yellow gone?
posted by tranquileye at 4:03 PM PST - 9 comments

In Virginia, Young Conservatives Learn How to Develop and Use Their Political Voices - a New York Times (registration required yada yada) story about a conservative training camp for how to infiltrate and modify media coverage. Important for correcting a liberal media bias nobody can actually seem to find.
posted by faisal at 3:44 PM PST - 16 comments

Jenna Bush arrested for doing 50 mph in a 45 zone. That satire pretty much sums up the way I feel. Don't you think the hoopla surrounding Jenna Bush has gone too far? I mean come on already.....Barbara is so much better-looking. (I'm not referring to grandma).
posted by hidely at 1:59 PM PST - 28 comments

Boeing is upping the chance you'll be able to surf while you fly.. Question is: will more of these devices also mean a lower price?
posted by jackstark at 1:53 PM PST - 8 comments

Simple but addictive Flash ball-bouncing game. Let's not start posting top scores here! (But, I got 75.) Man, am I easily amused.
posted by nicwolff at 1:26 PM PST - 32 comments

Bugnosis A web bug detector to find out who's using single-pixel GIFs to relay information to third parties. Distributed by the folks at the Privacy Foundation.

I've long wanted to have this information without mucking through the HTML source. Now that it's available, I don't know if I really want to know.
posted by idiolect at 11:58 AM PST - 16 comments

She draws what she eats for dinner. She's pocketpig.com.
posted by webchick at 11:51 AM PST - 9 comments

The home page for the US State Department contains useful information, drug war propaganda, and a press release which made my day.
posted by whuppy at 11:39 AM PST - 2 comments

Bush warns Europe of "new" threats
Question: What's the surest sign that your presidential honeymoon with the media is over?
Answer: When CNN starts putting your rhetoric in quotation marks.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 11:29 AM PST - 12 comments

Attention ChatMonkeys. Are you addicted to chat programs? AIM? ICQ? Yahoo and MSN? Even have two instances of mIRC running? Now there's hope. You can have all of these running all at once using *just one program*. And it uses far less resources than all of those other programs put together. matter of fact, i think it uses less resources than icq itself (like that's hard). It's skinnable too! Score!

/me hands out the needles.
posted by jcterminal at 10:53 AM PST - 20 comments

Has John McCain gone too far? There's a grassroots movement in Arizona intent on yanking John McCain out of office. Apparently, the last straw for the conservatives there is that he supposedly dissed the President by not showing up to a picnic. They need 300,000 signatures in order to have a recall vote in November. It'll be interesting to see what happens with this.
posted by crunchland at 10:35 AM PST - 49 comments

Remind me never to cruise for hookers in St. Paul. How's this for a deterrent? Updated weekly.
posted by BoatMeme at 10:28 AM PST - 52 comments

Do you have a favourite city park? Nominate it for the Great Parks/Great Cities Awards, to be presented this July in New York. And read about Dufferin Grove Park in Toronto; neighbors came together to help the city manage the park when they found out that the Parks Department had allotted no money for its upkeep.
posted by tranquileye at 9:53 AM PST - 19 comments

pink pistols
"Thirty-one states allow all qualified citizens to carry concealed weapons. In those states, homosexuals should embark on organized efforts to become comfortable with guns, learn to use them safely and carry them. They should set up Pink Pistols task forces, sponsor shooting courses and help homosexuals get licensed to carry. And they should do it in a way that gets as much publicity as possible. "
posted by riley370 at 9:48 AM PST - 35 comments

The best blog there is, period! Funny, irreverent, informative, Jason links to some of the best stuff on the web, and he does it with class and style. Plus he's cute! A must read for the digerati and the newbie alike.
posted by ericost at 9:09 AM PST - 152 comments

91-year-old bouncer The triumph of guilt over brawn: OSLO, Norway (AP) - "What the new bouncer at a Norwegian pub lacks in brawn, she more than makes up in experience: She's a 91-year-old great-grandmother. "
posted by christina at 8:53 AM PST - 4 comments

The Chicken Dance inspires lunacy like no other piece of music. I found myself in a giggling fit over the silliness of the pictures on this page. Beware-it has the obligatory embedded MIDI file.
posted by plinth at 8:52 AM PST - 10 comments

I clearly remember that Strawberry Shortcake sold her own brand of douche at one point. Were I in this study, I know I would have fallen for it too. Anyone else find how easily duped we are creepy and disturbing?
posted by dong_resin at 8:16 AM PST - 10 comments

Is it me, or does Bush's new friend look like Hitler? Check out the guy next to GW and tell me that's not the leader of the Third Riech come back from the dead.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 7:58 AM PST - 26 comments

Memes are past their prime.

Richard Dawkins first coined the term meme towards the end of his 1976 book The Selfish Gene initially as an instructive analogy and a way of illustrating the concept of replicators. Memes were just like genes but they replicated themselves through minds and culture rather than cells and bodies. Of course, the meme, like any good self-replicating idea, caught on and spread like wildfire and has been used to illuminate studies into subjects as diverse as the memetics of music and the memetics of suicide. There is an alternate view however that sees the grand project of memetics as completely misguided.
posted by lagado at 6:56 AM PST - 13 comments

The only person that annoys me more than G.E. Smith is Emeril. As if his constant rotation on Food TV wasn't enough, he will now have a sitcom on NBC. Who wants to start the cancellation pool? How could this be funny?
posted by machaus at 6:34 AM PST - 34 comments

"We have executed Guillermo Sobero as a gift to the country on independence day," he said. The most popular phrase to describe guerilla civil war in the past century has probably been sectarian violence. Look, here's more now. Hard to understand how this poor SOB's death advances their cause, but maybe I'm missing something.
posted by Ezrael at 2:03 AM PST - 6 comments

OK, Maybe I don't get the $300 tax rebate after all. More than one-quarter of all American adults will not get a tax rebate this year. Altogether, nearly 40 percent will not get the full amount of $300 for individuals and $600 for couples. Nationally, the study shows, 34 million American adults, or 26 percent, will get no rebate, and another 17 million, or 13 percent, will get less than the full rebate. This sucks. Why am I not surprised.
posted by tcobretti at 10:44 PM PST - 45 comments

And you thought MoFo.com was a bad site name for a law firm
Bull & Lifshitz, LLP
This is the law firm that slaps class action complaints on "as seen on F**kedCompany.com" dot coms. Sounds like a new slang word. NetZero? Autoweb? They got the Bull and Lifshitz. Or it's what happens when you eat bad beef at a steakhouse. I'm here all week!
posted by lheiskell at 9:26 PM PST - 1 comment

John Ashcroft on web porn: "I am concerned about obscenity and I'm concerned about obscenity as it relates to our children". I'm curious what those of you who are more on the conservative/libertarian side of things think about this. Are there special exemptions to the concept of free speech when it comes to this type of content? [more]
posted by owillis at 7:43 PM PST - 40 comments

Echelon rumored to be used in NZ spying on Fiji
Echelon, as seen on TV, is suggested to monitor gobzillions of electronic communications. People are starting to wonder if New Zealand used Echelon to monitor the progress of the May 2000 coup and hostage taking in Fiji, in addition to the tradition undercover operations. Memorable quotation: "It is not a question of if others are spying on Fiji but of who, how and, to a much lesser extent, why."
posted by rschram at 5:06 PM PST - 8 comments

Finally, some good news on the privacy front The Supreme Court today reiterated the right of privacy in the age of technology, ruling in an Oregon drug case that the police cannot use a heat-seeking device to probe the interior of a home without a search warrant. (registration required) The heat device used by the agents "might disclose, for example, at what hour each night the lady of the house takes her daily sauna and bath — a detail that many would consider `intimate,' " the majority held. daily sauna?
posted by 4midori at 4:34 PM PST - 11 comments

In the desert on the U.S.-Mexico border, charity becomes political protest as humanitarian groups seek to put hundreds of gallons of water in the form of "watering stations" -- a few gallons of water and a blue flag -- on federal, military, private, and Indian lands.
posted by sudama at 3:36 PM PST - 3 comments

Green Flash bashes Bush
Greenpeace is launching a contest to highlight the absurdity of the Bush positions on climate change and/or missile defence using Macromedia Flash. The contest, open to everyone and having no prize other than a link, runs through July 6th and should be almost as much fun as the 5k.
[via Flazoom]
posted by DragonBoy at 3:16 PM PST - 7 comments

The Standard revisited The Industry Standard print magazine has launched it's new design. Check your mailboxes and discuss...
posted by brian at 2:46 PM PST - 10 comments

The funniest thing I've read today. Spoofing the recent sulfnbk.exe virus hoax, a fake advisory on Joke-a-Day advised readers to delete the insidious virus file AOL.exe. The result? "Only one AOL person contacted me," Owens said. "Maybe that's because all the others can't get online anymore."
posted by Tubes at 2:34 PM PST - 22 comments

When NASA scientists watch Michael Bay films, comedy ensues. 'The technology is not at all far-fetched,' said Dr Greg Laughlin, of the Nasa Ames Research Center in California. 'It involves the same techniques that people now suggest could be used to deflect asteroids or comets heading towards Earth. We don't need raw power to move Earth, we just require delicacy of planning and manoeuvring.' Oh yeah, nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan. I'm not being a Luddite here...I realize the scientists involved aren't going to be doing this any time soon, if ever. It still spooks me, though.
posted by Ezrael at 1:15 PM PST - 14 comments

History of the (U.S.) Federal Judiciary A fascinating resource for those interested in judges, landmark cases, historical photographs of federal buildings, and other things federal.
posted by frykitty at 1:14 PM PST - 2 comments

Cool. People generally complain about stuff like this but I'm pretty excited. I'm sick of having to watch ads for Metamucil...
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger at 12:30 PM PST - 24 comments

Welcome to the abortion boat.......
A ship carrying an on-board gynaecological clinic has left the Netherlands for Ireland, where it plans to offer abortions to Irish women.
posted by nonharmful at 12:04 PM PST - 14 comments

kick box the queen
A computer security consultant and stand-up comic says "I hereby challenge the Queen of England to either a kickboxing match or a math test (no geometry) for the crown of Canada. She can choose the type of match, and the location of the bout. She has until July 1, 2002 to face me in this competition. If, after that time, she has not accepted my challenge, Canadians can infer that she has forfeited the match, and I will be the effective new monarch of Canada."
posted by riley370 at 10:27 AM PST - 5 comments

China executes 28 in single day Just for some perspective on a day when there is so much hype over *one* American execution...
posted by Rastafari at 10:15 AM PST - 8 comments

Bush to unveil global warming plan. Because our world isn't warm enough.
posted by solistrato at 9:12 AM PST - 58 comments

Invictus is the name of the poem Timothy McVeigh provided as his last words. Written by William Ernest Henley more than a 100 years ago the name means "undefeated" in Latin. What poetry would you use for your last words?
posted by fleener at 9:03 AM PST - 90 comments

The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona is a breathtaking masterpiece. Most of the pictures are worth clicking to see the full view. (And the virtual tour with IPIX is pretty cool. Make sure you pan around.)
posted by Sean Meade at 8:01 AM PST - 12 comments

Romania learns capitialism well Along with a Dracula theme park, it's reported the government wants to help a group of US investors clone Vlad the Imapler (a.k.a. Count Dracula.)
posted by sixdifferentways at 7:50 AM PST - 5 comments

Not Salieri but Schnitzel the latest theory about what did in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is that he might have contracted trichinosis from some spoiled pork cutlets. "Why Antonio, I'd just die for some wiener schniztel right now," Wolfgang exclaimed. "Yes, you would," sneered Salieri.......
posted by briank at 7:22 AM PST - 18 comments

So, after being out of the saddle for so many years, apparently all George needed was a good editor.

Presenting: Episode I.I : The Phantom Edit

link via Ghost in the Machine
posted by lagado at 5:50 AM PST - 22 comments

McVeigh - it's over....
Mass murderer executed by lethal injetion.... I'm not sheddding any tears over it...
posted by tomcosgrave at 5:32 AM PST - 222 comments

The Morality Police. "Our hysterical attempts to shield kids from images of sex and violence are stunting young lives -- and trapping us all in a Big Lie." A well-argued piece, more of an op-ed than a straight-up book review. As a scientist I only quibble with the author's musing that "if there really were a cause-and-effect link between real violence and media violence, then it would have been proven by now."
posted by topolino at 2:32 AM PST - 13 comments

You probably know this already, but just in case you haven't noticed Maggie and Hoppie are back!
posted by rdr at 12:34 AM PST - 13 comments

Absolute sluts, angels, and hotties... Kids today! Parents are returning girls' shirts with slogans like "stripper" written in the most scandalous of places. Are parents being prudish, misunderstanding the irony the kids intend? Or should teenagers put more thought into the words they wear?
posted by drezdn at 11:31 PM PST - 23 comments

Giant Lizard Bites Newspaper Editor I'm sorry, but this is just one of the best no-tongue-in-cheek headlines I've seen in a while.
posted by mapalm at 11:14 PM PST - 8 comments

White Dwarf is a flying HPV. I thought they only existed in books. More fun on a still day than a Frisbee.
Link via:Velo Vision
posted by southisup at 9:22 PM PST - 8 comments

A travesty. It was ok when they screwed up Batman, and when Spawn came out I wasn't expecting much. But know they've turned Superman, the original super hero, into a whiny Dawson Creek-ish brat. Why does my childhood hero belong to AOL? Why?
posted by owillis at 9:21 PM PST - 22 comments

Pauline has lockout; attack milena, xiang until duffer done getlost after belmar merinof not isabelle, tunasand ginaster bliss get stuf.
posted by jjg at 8:52 PM PST - 14 comments

"Mr. Dyson, I'm pleased to inform you that your grandmother didn't sleep around."
posted by lagado at 6:03 PM PST - 8 comments

What is being shared on Napster and company? Let's just say p2p isn't helping to promote your garage band like some would claim.
posted by bonzo at 5:33 PM PST - 13 comments

Good news is hard to find. There's the traditional elitists, the foreign sympathisers, the biased leftists and rightists, and the information-clogged portals that help organize them. Sometimes it seems like we'll have to settle for what makes us laugh. Where do you get your news?
posted by tweebiscuit at 5:03 PM PST - 26 comments

Ethics and Orphans: The 'Monster Study'
Looking back at a 1930's experiment about 'stuttering' and the lives it ruined.
posted by thunder at 4:07 PM PST - 7 comments

At least 12 people are dead and damage could be $1 billion as a result of flooding in the US' fourth largest city of Houston. Some areas received more than two feet of rain in a 24 hour period this weekend after the remains of Tropical Storm Allison regrouped and poured on southeast Texas. Why does this story only get one page on the major news sites, when the Seattle quake was covered extensively all over the country?
posted by LeiaS at 3:29 PM PST - 15 comments

Acts of Becoming: Autobiography, Frankenstein, and the Postmodern Body
"an authentic, developed "disabled perspective" of culture" by Mark Mossman.
posted by riley370 at 12:40 PM PST - 7 comments

Hey you! Yeah you, "intolerant Yalie jerks", don't you know you've gotta show the president some respect? Forget about freedom to dissent. This Christian author thinks you're "obnoxious" and a "jerk" for even considering political demonstration when it's not in lock-step with the powers that seek to control you.
posted by crasspastor at 12:34 PM PST - 27 comments

We all KNEW it was a gag...right? J-Ko hasn't sold out (but it's allright if he had) after all. Just some reassurance for all the left-of-center folks who questioned his motives.
posted by davidmsc at 11:28 AM PST - 49 comments

From Hells's heart, I stab at thee? The link is to F*ck*d Company, which has just announced that Automatic Media has just cashed out, and properties Plastic.com, and Suck.com are about to get toetagged. Anyone want to say a few words over the coffin?
posted by Perigee at 11:02 AM PST - 10 comments

Another NW Earthquake At 5.0, this one was substantially smaller than the last one, but it was strong enough to have us sitting bolt upright in bed at 6:19 this morning here in Olympia, WA. How was it in Seattle and Portland?
posted by arielmeadow at 10:59 AM PST - 13 comments

L.A. movie-goers file lawsuit against Sony -- Not that inventing movie critics is a Good Thing (tm), but gimme a break. Does anyone really see movies based on what some obscure (and apparently fictitious) critic says?
posted by shauna at 10:44 AM PST - 18 comments

Has It Come To This? There's a certain symmetry in the commercialization of the commercialization of music and yet I can't quite get over this.
posted by willnot at 2:09 AM PST - 48 comments

Some Unusual Sumo Photos What do Sumo wrestlers do when they are not competing in the dohyo?
Playing tug of war and dressing up like Sailor Moon. Cool.
posted by lheiskell at 10:36 PM PST - 10 comments

McVeigh says he's sorry --er--in a manner of speaking. "I am sorry these people had to lose their lives," [he said] "But that's the nature of the beast. It's understood going in what the human toll will be.''
posted by caraig at 9:44 PM PST - 32 comments

AV'S WIN THE CUP!!! Bourque finally hoists it over his head.
posted by crasspastor at 9:41 PM PST - 21 comments

WTF?
posted by RylandDotNet at 6:07 PM PST - 12 comments

Do you like watching digital video of beefy kung-fu skirmishes? Do you have a cable modem? Then check out The Kwoon! You can view trailers or full-length episodes, depending on your download speed and your passion for public-access television style pummeling.
posted by JDC8 at 5:31 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Slap Shot 2
The rumours are true. A sequel is coming.
posted by riley370 at 4:22 PM PST - 12 comments

No diploma for you! School official refuses to hand diploma to a girl onstage because the audience is noisy. Girl 'graduates' later, in school cafeteria. Die, public education, die.
posted by gsh at 3:34 PM PST - 33 comments

When is contraception not contraception? When is RU-486 a contraceptive pill and when is it a birth control pill?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 3:29 PM PST - 20 comments

"Ultimately, the system should be offering data that discloses a cell phone user's geographic location, mood and availability." Thought this might be something to think about and speculate on. Fascinating/Creepy, as so much is these days. Reminds me of Erik Davis's piece in the (possibly) late lamented Feed on the erosion of privacy.
posted by aflakete at 12:34 PM PST - 3 comments

The anti-Bobby Flay Jihad is quickly gathering momentum!!!
posted by revbrian at 12:07 PM PST - 28 comments

Am I the only one who thinks that it's really annoying how zillions of celebrities go to lakers games? Maybe I'm just bitter that all I have to look forward to is the occasional Bill Murray or Jon Malkovich sighting. Ah well.
posted by moz at 9:13 AM PST - 28 comments

Vote for Sweatshop Retailer of the Year As the Retail Council of Canada is poised to present its annual Retailer of the Year Award to another of their favourite corporations, the Maquila Solidarity Network is ready to follow suit with our second annual "Sweatshop Retailer of the Year Awards." Categories include Sweatshop Retailer of the Year Award, Sweatshop Smokesceen Award and Sweatshop Transparency Award. Voting is open until June 17th.
posted by elgoose at 8:49 AM PST - 4 comments

Meanwhile, fair and open elections in Iran lead to reformist win. Khatami seems to be headed for a 75% win in an election where voter turnout was the highest in years. I'll let others ponder the significance of that in comparison to, say, the hideously low turnout in American elections over the past two decades, or the win by Britain's Labour party, which also saw record low voter turnout. I'm sure someone smarter than me will figure out something to say about the idea that Iranians seem to care more about the political process than the big Western Republics do.
posted by Ezrael at 12:11 AM PST - 90 comments

"The marriage was in trouble. And Pastor Williams had just the thing to fix it: nude photography." I have no problem with organized religon in theory, but the execution is sometimes disturbing.....
posted by BGM at 10:28 PM PST - 14 comments

Please, I've got to know. I used to use this site in my classes as an example of the smallest possible website (that is, not just a web page). It's cute as hell. As far as I know, it hasn't changed, at all, not the slightest iota, ever. But what is it? Who's behind it? What are they doing? Is there secret tweedlebug content somewhere? It seems to be in San Francisco, so one of you well-connected Bay area webloggers clue me in—what's the story? Anyone know?
posted by rodii at 7:18 PM PST - 11 comments

It worked in the Super Bowl... it can work as our military strategy!

The main quote in this article is, "I think our allies need to look at the Baltimore Ravens. They'll realize good defense wins. A good defense is one which adjusts to the times. A good defense is modern. A good defense is clear."

So let's build lots of missles!

posted by goto11 at 7:09 PM PST - 10 comments

electronics boutique does gaming download ebworld would like you to fork up for 72 hours of gameplay...
posted by benjh at 5:43 PM PST - 8 comments

Next-day doctor's visits, 24-hour availability of physicians and staff, home delivery of prescription drugs---for $1500 a year. Is it the future of healthcare, or simply the future of economic marginalization?
posted by Sapphireblue at 4:19 PM PST - 44 comments

Cracksmoker.com isn't about drugs at all. It's a site that collects information about pro athletes and their run-ins with various law enforcement agencies. They have an All-Cracksmoker team, Cracksmoker Survivor, and databases divided by sport (and yes, Florida State football has its own database).
posted by Reggie452 at 2:19 PM PST - 4 comments

Um, Bob, where did all the cows go ? So much for the theory of how Native Americans and Aborigines have lived in harmony with the land since time began.... Turns out they were just gluttonous killing machines who gorged themselves on steak till all the beasties disappeared (or something like that)
posted by zeoslap at 1:34 PM PST - 14 comments

TV Go Home isn't newsworthy or special but some of the stuff in the archives had me doubled over laughing. Anything that can make you laugh until it hurts is tops in my book.
...and I know TV Go Home has been posted before but that was a long time ago...
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger at 12:35 PM PST - 2 comments

Automatic Media is gone Confirming earlier speculation: Automatic Media's homepage announces that "AS OF JUNE 8, 2001, Automatic Media, Inc. has ceased operations due to an inability to secure additional financing." What does this mean for all the Automatic Media sites? Will Suck's vacation be permanent? Thoughts?
posted by jed at 12:05 PM PST - 29 comments

Great article on the whole Andrew Sullivan and Michael Signoreli fiasco. Finally, a well written viewpoint about the barebacking incident that raised the hackles of gay conservatives and liberals alike.
posted by chason at 11:12 AM PST - 3 comments

Compassionate conservative Bush gives the murderous Taliban $43 million Did anyone else read this from Onlinejournal? This is a disgrace! For what reason would W want to curry any favors with the Talibans?
posted by Rastafari at 10:51 AM PST - 10 comments

"Red" China? Communist Cuba? No kids, its America! Where the government has decided for us that we shouldn't listen to music that "contains unmistakable offensive sexual references. In this regard, portions of the lyrics contain sexual references in conjunction with sexual expletives that appear intended to pander and shock". Aren't you glad Big Brother is taking care of you?
posted by owillis at 10:38 AM PST - 28 comments

Evan Dando is releasing a solo album this summer. (Why not pre-order?) Forget the "alterna-hunk" crap; just download some MP3s of his acoustic live shows and agree with me that his taste in covers (esp. country stuff) is awesome, he can write a hell of a pop song, and his voice -- well, he's the Velvet Fog of his generation (in more ways than one).
posted by luser at 10:36 AM PST - 7 comments

"gorgeous guy" sought on craigslist's "missed connections" forum acquires throngs of lusty admirers waiting along his commute. the next day it was a group of 5 people at his bus stop. The next day, 10. "One guy was holding a camera." As he approached them, they all stopped talking suddenly.
posted by palegirl at 9:46 AM PST - 18 comments

You too can play with U2. With a little forethought and practice, a guy named Glen Goland lived every amateur guitarist's wet dream last night in Boston. Have you done anything to make your wildest dream come true? Or, like me, are you just letting it all ride on dumb luck?
posted by dchase at 9:26 AM PST - 19 comments

Belief in Astrology up 3% to 28% and belief in ghosts up 13% to 38%. I find the new Gallup Poll on Americans' Belief in Psychic and Paranormal Phenomena depressing, but not surprising. Aren't we supposed to be headed in the other direction?
posted by quirked at 8:36 AM PST - 88 comments

Kottke.org, now with x10 ads. Sad, but true. I don't like them, but I suppose if you need the money... Look in the source for confirmation:

var url = "http://ads.x10.com/bluefish/bf23.htm";
var domain = "kottke.org";

at least the girl in the camera ad is kinda cute.
posted by moz at 8:36 AM PST - 83 comments

Texan Teen Lands $550 Fine For Saying 'F*ck' The US school system certainly seems to over-react to small issues (drawing guns on paper, etc). Will this keep American from turning into violent thugs, or not? Recently, in the UK, a man got let off for saying 'f*ck off' to a policeman, since the judge said it was 'the language of his generation'.
posted by wackybrit at 7:38 AM PST - 28 comments

ReBlogger. An alternative to BlogVoices. (Posted for ronsens.)
posted by moz at 7:27 AM PST - 16 comments

Five more years for me to achieve one of my life's goals. I just hope the game isn't Plinko. I'd probably have to take Rod hostage or send in the Samoans.
posted by Pinwiz at 7:17 AM PST - 1 comment

"Parks chief to take over Chico's post" If the Marx Brothers wrote headlines.
posted by Outlawyr at 7:08 AM PST - 1 comment

Mozilla 0.9.1 came out today, marking a big leap in quality from 0.9. It seems like a much leaner, cleaner, faster and more stable build. "New features include Bi-directional text support, LDAP Autocomplete in mail, new combined taskbar, an overhaul of the Modern skin with all new colors and buttons, and lots of performance and stability fixes, with over 30 of the topcrash bugs fixed." Via Slashdot, where the comments are supprisingly supportive:)
posted by tallman at 6:30 AM PST - 17 comments

Not-So-Deep-Blue! Why wait for Spielberg's AI. Play 20 Questions with a computer now. (Click on Play 20Q, then Anonymous Login if you prefer not to register).
posted by geronimo_rex at 4:26 AM PST - 4 comments

Hax0ring, power up, make the next level.
posted by holloway at 2:41 AM PST - 4 comments

"If I don't do this, who can?" Courtney Love, a unionist? She may be the only one to put the Music Industry to task, and challenge practices that enslave struggling artists, turning shining stars into short-lived comets. That is, provided she doesn't just settle out of court. D'ya think she can do it? Or is this just more smoke & mirrors?
posted by ZachsMind at 2:01 AM PST - 22 comments

Unfortunately, the Jam Wrestling Party failed to win a seat in the UK Elections. I think this is a real shame. I mean, can anyone else think of a better use for the Millennium Dome?
posted by davehat at 1:52 AM PST - 2 comments

Eight dead. Five of the dead were second-grade girls. The ages of the other victims were not known. I don't really have anything to add to that.
posted by Ezrael at 1:47 AM PST - 89 comments

Wednesday Week was/is/can be again a "paisley pop" mostly female rock band which I've known about since the early 90s but just recently found them again. Or rather, they found me. I'm so excited to finally know what happened to them. I just had to share. Their music and lyrics are serious, dark, emotive and thought-provoking, with rays of hope shining through the murky waters of life. You can hear them online, and their website's a cryptic but intriguing introspective on the ups and downs of a struggling group in a harsh and unyielding industry. BTW, Kelly Callan is one of the top female drummers of all time. No lie.
posted by ZachsMind at 1:07 AM PST - 1 comment

Trivial Pursuit 1.0 - The Weblog Edition - Line up the 22 little-known (yet hilarious) facts with the right weblogger and win a gift certificate from Amazon. How many can you name?
posted by EricBrooksDotCom at 10:22 PM PST - 42 comments

This make sense. Farm workers are an ideal market for cells. It's weird how fast the way we relate to a technology changes. What do Mefi'ers think that cell phones meant when they first appeared and how has their meaning changed over the years?
posted by rdr at 10:11 PM PST - 44 comments

Labour Party WINS UK General Election Tony Blair's Labour Party now officially wins the general election after getting the needed 330 constituencies. Not all the results are in yet, but it's not important. Labour are past the post. Well done Tony!
posted by wackybrit at 7:01 PM PST - 23 comments

Disney cast members no longer have to wear dirty underwear. Apparently those Mickey and Goofy suits come complete with a set of undergarments that the employee had to wear, and turn in at the end of the day to be laundered -- that was the plan, anyway. Turns out those undergarments weren't being washed thoroughly. "Some workers had complained about getting pubic lice and scabies. 'Things have been passed around,' said Gary Steverson, a stilt walker at Animal Kingdom. 'I know I don't want to share my tights and I don't want to share my underwear.'"
posted by RylandDotNet at 5:33 PM PST - 13 comments

Bye-bye Feed. No press release to link to, so I might be jumping the gun a bit, but my sources say everyone at Automatic Media was fired. That includes all of Feed and the production guy for Suck, though it appears Suck will be going on alone. Apparently, the line is is they’re looking for some quick cash to keep going, but I’m afraid I’ve heard that line often with no results. Supposedly they’ll announce it tomorrow, since no one will be around to update the site. Very sad day.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 5:20 PM PST - 39 comments

Nelson Mandela is a “terrorist and a Communist” according to the Canadian Alliance’s laughingstock postpubescent Member of Parliament for Calgary West, who, incidentally, is also a virgin.
posted by textist at 4:10 PM PST - 24 comments

The Reagan Papers? "The confidential memos, letters and briefing papers passed among Ronald Reagan and his top advisers were to have come out in January -- 12 years after Reagan left office, as established by post-Watergate laws.

But the White House counsel's office asked the National Archives to delay the release until at least June 21 so government lawyers can look at the files that researchers and others are waiting to dig through. "
posted by owillis at 4:06 PM PST - 12 comments

Has anyone noticed an increase in spam after registering with Weblogs.com?

Whenever I have to give a valid email address to a site (for authentication or whatever), I usually give them theirsitename@mysite.com . This is to protect me from spam harvesters. Now, I feel quite sure that the Weblogs/Userland guys aren't harvesting email addresses for commercial purposes, but today's spam for "LONG DISTANCE AT 1.4 CENTS PER MINUTE" marks the second spam in two weeks addressed to weblogs@mysite . Has anyone else noticed this trend?
posted by Unxmaal at 3:06 PM PST - 52 comments

Uptime, a free web server monitoring service I (and many others) have used for over 4 years, is going down for good. Arsdigita is taking it offline tomorrow at 5PM ET, and instead is offering the source. I suppose it probably has something to do with this.
posted by mathowie at 3:03 PM PST - 7 comments

Tivo hackers today released the hack that enables you to get MPEG-2 video out of the box and put it on CDs, share it over the net, etc. No details because the AVS Tivo site (registration required) is being slashdotted...but will this precipitate a TiVo crackdown on the hackers?
posted by luser at 1:36 PM PST - 21 comments

The Baffler's Chicago home base was destroyed in a fire recently. Information on how to help is available at The Baffler's home page, linked above...
posted by preguicoso at 1:31 PM PST - 2 comments

The literary voice of our generation ...err...of his generation...umm...of your generation?
posted by Ms Snit at 12:59 PM PST - 16 comments

Xenon-gas-ignited, high-intensity-discharge (HID) headlights for cars have stired up some controversy, but should they be banned? I wouldn't mind one bit if they were outlawed!
posted by Sal Amander at 12:47 PM PST - 16 comments

Apparently, the death of free ain't over yet. This site is claiming that Xerox is giving away free color laser printers to qualifying businesses. Is it a hoax meant to find new recipients of spam or is it another great giveaway?
posted by mathowie at 12:36 PM PST - 8 comments

LAT Transplant Blasts Frisco. The charming cafe society? "Every pause seems to bubble up with the plaints of 20-somethings who still 'hate' their moms and dads."
posted by josholalia at 12:24 PM PST - 14 comments

D-Day was 57 years ago yesterday. It was 16 years before an article in the Atlantic finally provided Americans an unvarnished account of the carnage that was Omaha Beach that day. I'm in awe of what these 19-year-olds went through.
posted by luser at 12:21 PM PST - 1 comment

Vote early, vote often. (With apologies for sticking this on the front page.) Using your skill and judgement, predict the winning party in the UK general election, size of the majority, and the number of seats won by the Lib Dems. Closest to the actual result gets a gift subscription to Private Eye, the fortnightly antidote to British politics and media, or the equivalent value in that international currency: Amazon vouchers. (And if you've emailed me already, there's no need to post a prediction.)
posted by holgate at 12:18 PM PST - 16 comments

A 12-year-old Little Leaguer has pitched a perfect game -- 18 straight strikeouts, the greatest individual achievement in baseball. And his parents missed the game! But they did take him out for ice cream later. Any Little League vets (or current players) here?
posted by luser at 11:56 AM PST - 17 comments

Who knew NBC Daytime was so wise? Personally, I prefer the simple "the fog made me do it" logic of Passions. But hey, to each their own.
posted by Pinwiz at 11:55 AM PST - 1 comment

A success for gene therapy to help hemophiliacs is announced. This is a first, but only time will tell if the treatment has a lasting effect and can be repeated. So far it's worked for only four of the six patients in the trial. The NY Times explains the research.
posted by caraig at 11:49 AM PST - 5 comments

3D Cell Phones - Japanese cell phone manufacturer J-Phone will be selling cell phones with 3D display capability by mid 2001 (press release). Just seems like everyones scratching hard to be the next big thing - but it surprises me, given the lukewarm to non-existent success of 3D on the Web, that a cell phone maker would go this route, let alone call it the "next logical step". As if the UI on small cell phone screens wasn't bad enough.
posted by kokogiak at 10:31 AM PST - 4 comments

Anger Management Anyone? Turns out that old pc-rage video wasn't that far off the mark...
posted by DiplomaticImmunity at 9:25 AM PST - 21 comments

This guy really wanted a Porsche Boxster... and he got one - life can be pretty sweet sometimes.
posted by johnny novak at 8:23 AM PST - 57 comments

Sixers shock the world, or at least this fan with their OT victory last night. I'm glad to see cocky Kobe and his Lakers' perfect playoff record marred somewhat. And I can't believe the Sixers were able to pull it off. Anyone think they have a chance to go all the way now?
posted by eoligarry at 8:05 AM PST - 28 comments

"Three of the top Net-nerd forum/discussion sites, Metafilter, Plastic.com and Slashdot, have threads discussing ways to block these ads." Ouch. I don't know which I resent more: "Net-nerd" or being grouped with "Plastic.com".
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:46 AM PST - 23 comments

Heaven is just a funky moose.

Complete the frightening experience of returning to the 80s (Star Wars! Cold War! ) with this flash-based Journey retrospective.
posted by mecran01 at 7:45 AM PST - 19 comments

Windows XP inserts its own links into any page on the Web. I especially like the part about their fear that some pages are "underlinked". The implications behind this are huge.
posted by goto11 at 6:31 AM PST - 57 comments

Jump the Shark! "It's a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak." When did your favorite show start to suck. Add your vote, see what others think
posted by Outlawyr at 6:12 AM PST - 12 comments

Arabs donate 'martyr' organs to help Israelis
This story gives me hope.
posted by tomcosgrave at 5:46 AM PST - 4 comments

ELECTION FEVER!
posted by Mocata at 3:34 AM PST - 45 comments

I wanna be your dog. So people are flocking to the opportunity to appear in an "and finally" spot on the news. Nowt so queer as folk, as they say up north.

But just because it gets people's attention, does that mean it's going to convey any useful information? Perhaps if dog-mistreaters were sentenced to being treated like a stray...
posted by Grangousier at 1:45 AM PST - 6 comments

FRANCISCO VARELA (1946 - 2001)^* One of the more quietly influential thinkers of our times. A neuroscientist turned immunologist whose formulation of the theory of autopoiesis (with Humberto Maturana) has challenged conventional thinking in areas as diverse as Artificial Intelligence, Ecology and AIDS research.
The mathematics of self-reference involves creating formalisms to reflect the strange situation in which something produces A, which produces B, which produces A. That was 1974. Today, many colleagues call such ideas part of complexity theory.
On 28th of May, Varela's own autopoiesis ceased.
*pointer via fmh
posted by lagado at 10:47 PM PST - 7 comments

Dori Smith posted a pointer to a page on Winerlog where he's trying to organize a project to get people to hack Manila sites. How do people feel about this? What if your site got hacked? Should UserLand, in your opinion, support this? Is this free speech, or is it screaming fire in a crowded movie theater? What if he starts posting how-to's? Looking forward to an interesting discussion.
posted by davewiner at 9:50 PM PST - 33 comments

Job Rejection Letters by Jack Handey: In this week's New Yorker there was a great humor piece that will be sure to strike a chord with those trying to find a job in the technology field right now.
posted by matthew at 3:20 PM PST - 18 comments

Before you get that cell phone check to see where the tantalum inside it comes from. You could be funding a civil war in the Congo.
posted by kliuless at 2:48 PM PST - 4 comments

Buddy Ebsen's 93, and he's written a book, and it's got hot sex in it! Go git 'em, Uncle Jed!
posted by luser at 2:31 PM PST - 3 comments

Who says drugs have to be legalized to collect taxes? 'Kansas law requires all dealers of illegal drugs to buy the stamps and attach them to their product. They almost never comply.' What a shock! However, this article will let you know how to comply with the law, and where you can buy the tax stamps for your own business needs. (Courtesy of Indigo, who is having trouble posting.)
posted by jennaratrix at 2:28 PM PST - 13 comments

"A fifth-grader was taken from Oldsmar Elementary School in handcuffs Wednesday after a teacher found drawings he had made of weapons" When does too much become too little? That's to say too much paranoid nannying, too little common sense.
posted by MUD at 2:25 PM PST - 40 comments

Is the NY Times ranking its stories by "popularity" as they say, or as this writer suggests, what's "interesting"?
posted by lowblow at 1:54 PM PST - 3 comments

No women on Mars. "Women are likely to be barred from any Russian mission to Mars because they would increase the "probability of conflicts" among the crew, says a Russian space official." We've come a long way, haven't we?
posted by judith at 1:16 PM PST - 22 comments

Possibly the maddest person I've ever seen actually put his deposit down and the best advertisement against smoking too much cannabis I've ever seen too. Still, any MeFiers in Brixton might like to vote for him tomorrow (I'm 250 feet outside that constituency, so it'll have to be the good old Natural Law Party again). if they can wok out exactly what he stands for, that is. Oh, and can anyone actually work out what he stands for.
posted by Grangousier at 12:27 PM PST - 10 comments

And, speaking of raining cats and dogs, is your trick knee going to give you trouble? The Weather Channel knows...
posted by baylink at 12:12 PM PST - 11 comments

It's raining cats and dogs this summer! GEEZ! Pearl Harbor, Shrek, and The Mummy Returns are already in the theaters. This weekend we get Swordfish, Evolution, and even Atlantis: The Lost Empire in limited release. What's next? Oh nuthin. Just stuff Angelina Jolie's been kicking around, Eddie Murphy's little pet project, something Jay & Silent Bob tossed off in the shower, Stephen Spielberg's thoughtful adult film coupled with his token bloodfest for the kiddies... Final Fantasy, Planet of the Apes, Kiss of the Dragon, a painfully predictable looking sequel to American Pie, a predictable but funny-lookin' sequel to Rush Hour, and a predictable sequel to Scary Movie, and the ever present SO MUCH MORE! I skipped half the movies coming out but those are the highlights. Is this gonna be the best summer blockbuster festival ever thrust upon the world's populous, or are we true fans of cinema about to once again take it up the ass? Whatcha think?
posted by ZachsMind at 10:11 AM PST - 100 comments

I'd go see this in a heartbeat Well, maybe not. But it couldn't be worse than "The Mummy Returns".
posted by Shadowkeeper at 10:09 AM PST - 19 comments

Poof. Would everyone please take a look under their couch cushions and check if Sippey's there? Or maybe the site fell behind the desk. I mean, a web site couldn't really just vanish, could it?
posted by dchase at 9:18 AM PST - 27 comments

Jail Cam Raises Hackles and a Lawsuit When Links to Porno Sites Are Discovered

Yuck. Remind me not to get arrested in Arizona...
posted by preguicoso at 9:07 AM PST - 3 comments

NY Times: "..students at some of the most selective private schools in Manhattan visited a Web page this spring to vote for the students they considered to be the most promiscuous. They voted on about 150 names — girls' names outnumbered boys' 3 to 1 — before the page was shut down last month.."
posted by davewiner at 8:44 AM PST - 9 comments

Panty hose for men! Throw out the argyle socks, guys. Here's the latest in high style!
posted by dnash at 8:38 AM PST - 16 comments

The NBA Finals start tonight. I've never been a big fan of watching any sport, but the hometown Sixers have been quite exciting. Now I find myself hoping that they can find a way to win against those smug Lakers and quiet their arrogant, over-confident fans. Anyone else love an underdog?
posted by quirked at 8:21 AM PST - 35 comments

Every rock list ever. Collected on one site - every imaginable list related to rock music. Browse by publication (Rolling Sone, SPIN, NME, Village Voice, etc.), by favorite critic (Christgau, Marsh, etc.), by year (1952 to present), or search.
posted by geronimo_rex at 8:12 AM PST - 3 comments

It's D-Day Someone at work shared this Ernie Pyle column published just 10 days after the 1944 invasion of Normandy. It put a lump in my throat. Maybe it'll do the same for you. Excerpt: "I took a walk along the historic coast of Normandy in the country of France. It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever. Men were floating in the water, but they didn't know they were in the water, for they were dead."
posted by GaelFC at 8:11 AM PST - 14 comments

The Trial of Unit 731 "is the forgotten war-crimes prosecution of the 20th century." In 1949, Soviet courts tried a unit of the Japanese Imperial Army for wartime biological weapons experimentation on human subjects.

This article contains some gruesome descriptions.

posted by dfowler at 7:09 AM PST - 8 comments

Copenhagen is one of the cleanest cities I have ever visited, so what does this mean for the rest of us? My wife and I were a bit troubled when our house guest told us he flicked his butt from our balcony; it's likely that his flying butt did not land on the street--more likely on the balcony two floors below. Quelle horreur!
posted by Dick Paris at 6:20 AM PST - 10 comments

My God, how I've loathed them over the years for their heart-stopping mix of hubris, brilliance, clueless, utter lack of any discipline whatsoever and oh, the sheer arrogance, but after all these years, it's with a distinct sense of ennui that I read that Netscape is throwing in the towel.
posted by m.polo at 5:14 AM PST - 53 comments

16 Pensioners: 1 Island : 2 Static Caravans - When you don't know who to trust - TRUST NAN!
posted by kramer_101 at 5:01 AM PST - 1 comment

Find out where you stand with the political compass.
posted by Mocata at 4:34 AM PST - 26 comments

EEEEEEEEEEEEK. Matt, hope you see this soon.
posted by cheaily at 12:17 AM PST - 49 comments

Stretcher.org launched today, a "grassroots publication...providing a critical, informative survey of visual art and culture in the Bay Area and beyond with a provocative mixture of essays, dialogs, artist projects, and reviews by local, national and international contributors." It's about time -- the Bay Area is in desparate need of more sophisticated and in-depth art coverage than the Comical, Guardian or Weekly currently provide.
posted by msippey at 10:00 PM PST - 3 comments

The Thoughts of Anonymous Pedophiles While researching an unrelated topic, I found a site called The Pedophilia Survey. This survey asks people who have sexual desires involving children to submit a paragraph or two on their feelings on the topic.
 
One of the respondents said: 'Pedophilia is a legitimate sexual orientation.' But, is it? Pedophilia seems so widespread that should, perhaps, we be researching the causes of pedophilia instead of just condemning it?
posted by wackybrit at 8:15 PM PST - 43 comments

San Fran: Matrix 2 Casting Call June 5, 6, 7 I don't live in SF but maybe you do, and maybe you'd be interested in being in The Matrix 2? (sorry, no link and more details within...)
posted by gen at 7:57 PM PST - 3 comments

'I think my standards have lowered enough that now I think ``good design'' is when the page doesn't irritate the living fuck out of me.' Does jwz have a point? (After all, he wrote enough of Netscape to know a bloated browser when he sees one.)
posted by holgate at 7:48 PM PST - 32 comments

The Register "outs" Codex Data Systems This is a followup from an earlier post about CDS' D.I.R.T program. Here's Frank Jones' court documents.
posted by bkdelong at 7:46 PM PST - 2 comments

Your help is greatly needed! Without your participation, the voice of Higgy Baby could be silenced forever! The rest of the site is equally frightening.
posted by machaus at 7:38 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Is this the MeFi for the sci-fi convention set? All the big questions of fandom seem to be discussed here: Questions about lizard-man genitalia, what happens when Vulcan women go into Pon Farr, and so much more. God help me... I used to be one of these people in High School...
posted by Perigee at 4:14 PM PST - 11 comments

Lon Horiuchi is a murderer (or at least a potential manslaughterer), says 9th circuit appeals court. His immunity from prosecution for killing Vicki Weaver while acting as a sniper for the FBI has been denied.
posted by OneBallJay at 3:43 PM PST - 14 comments

Inspired amateur historian. This self described no one in particular with pretty slim credentials synthesizes history with clear and useful maps and analysis. Whatever its shortcomings, this is the kind of website that reminds me why I love the Internet.
posted by geronimo_rex at 2:24 PM PST - 16 comments