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You've got jail? The SEC is no longer alone in investigating accounting irregularities at AOL Time Warner. Tonight the "world's leading media and entertainment company" confirmed that the U.S. Justice Dept. has opened its own probe. This, one day after President Bush signed the so-called Corporate and Auditing Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency Act (pdf of HR 3763) (summary). Tonight, however, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, including Senators Patrick Leahy, D-Vt and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa are criticizing the President for trying to weaken the corporate fraud bill before the ink is even dry.
posted by found missing at 8:44 PM PST - 7 comments

You can't have a cabletv box and live in a flooded area at the same time Unless you're ready to pay $300 for repairs. Corporate lack of clue ?! They didn't flood the place, but they must pay like they did it.
posted by elpapacito at 7:25 PM PST - 18 comments

The EFF is throwing a party, and it's gonna be a good one. Being thrown at jwz's DNA Lounge, the featured event is some celebrity boxing. The combatants? Wil Wheaton vs. Barney and his lawyers.
posted by mathowie at 6:17 PM PST - 23 comments

No TV ads on 9/11? Media/TV critic Tunku Varadarajan of the Wall Street Journal thinks that the companies that have decided not to advertise on 9/11 is disingenuous and self-serving. Advertisers see it as not trying to be crassly commercial on a day of memorial. Regardless of what you think of the Dell dude and the other advertisers taking the day off, should 9/11/02 be commercial-free out of respect for those who lost their lives, or as Mr. Varadarajan suggests, more solemn tribute commercials? As long as advertisers aren't exploiting the tragedy like Cantor Fitzgerald/e-speed I could care less.
posted by birdherder at 5:21 PM PST - 43 comments

I am teh mor3 l337 than yuo! Becuase I pl4y teh QuAEK 3 on teh my NES! SUCK IT CAMPARZZZZ! No, really, this outfit's pretty cool. For a little cash, get a fully functional computar, uh, computer that's wrapped up in an Amiga 1000, Atari 2600, or original NES. Available in Linux or Windows flavors. W3rd. More PCs should be functional, practical expressions of artistry like this. Are you listening, Dell Boy? Gateway Cow?
posted by WolfDaddy at 3:43 PM PST - 12 comments

Electric cars not good for the environment after all (well, not the immediate environment surrounding them)? Thanks to a glitch in the electrical system of a charging Chrysler Gem, supermodel Veronica Webb's home burnt down, taking her dog and almost her husband with it.
posted by mathowie at 3:38 PM PST - 24 comments

The End of the Anti-Hit List? "And with that, the Anti-Hit List is retiring, at least for the foreseeable future."

John Sakamoto's Alternate Top 10 (AKA The Anti-Hit List) was one of the best top ten music lists on the net. It was short and sweet and a great way to discover b-sides, covers and alternate versions of songs from a wide variety of artists. And to think, it all started back on March 12, 1996.
posted by boost ventilator at 3:18 PM PST - 4 comments

Is it wrong for the US to tell other countries how to behave? Is it cultural imperialism when we point out that some practices are backward and savage? Are we justified doing something about it? Should we even try to do something about it? Who decides if a cultural practice is "good" or "evil"?
posted by mrmanley at 3:16 PM PST - 28 comments

Today in Mexico, Pope removes chin from chest to canonize the first Indian saint.
posted by swift at 3:00 PM PST - 26 comments

You must hack. It's your duty as an American. Godspeed, dear patriots.
posted by conquistador at 2:39 PM PST - 7 comments

"The Druids of the ancient Celtic world have a startling kinship with the brahmins of the Hindu religion," according to popular historian Peter Berresford Ellis. Another author examines the parallels between Celtic and Vedic culture in the article The Celtic Vedic Connection, and a particular diety is analyzed in The Horned God in India and Europe. This may not be very conservative scholarship, but I found it intriguing and fun to contemplate.
posted by homunculus at 1:39 PM PST - 6 comments

As the biggest, burliest SUV sold in the United States -- nearly 19 feet long and weighing about 7,200 pounds -- the Excursion was attacked by social critics who accused Ford of environmental irresponsibility. I for one, will not miss it.
posted by hotdoughnutsnow at 1:04 PM PST - 75 comments

The Woman in Hitler's Bathtub (heres the story) was none other than Lee Miller, free spirit, enchantress, Vogue model and renowned photographer. She was at the center of the Surrealist community, a lover of Man Ray, a subject of Picasso paintings, a muse to Cocteau, a friend to Agar and Ernst and Duchamp and Miro and, later, wife of the collector and critic Roland Penrose. Overall, a fascinating woman.
posted by vacapinta at 12:24 PM PST - 13 comments

Doubtful that the US will strike Iraq by the end of this year, says chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph Biden (D-Delaware). "I'm convinced the administration has not made up their mind yet," Biden said. Should we go to Baghdad and topple Saddam, or not? Is Saddam an immediate threat?
posted by Kevin Sanders at 12:20 PM PST - 19 comments

Trafficant vows to get re-elected from prison. I guess if Marion Barry could be re-elected, why not Trafficant?
posted by milnak at 11:18 AM PST - 28 comments

Look no further than John Fiorillo's Viewing of Japanese Prints for the definitive online resource on the art. Covering over three centuries of Japanese print making from Ukiyo-e through Shin Hanga and Sôsaku Hanga, Viewing has detailed histories and critiques of the artists, including such legendary masters as Katsushika Hokusai. The site also includes a wealth of information on the artform itself, with essays on topics as varied as the deciphering of prints and the various forms of poetry found on them, as well as archival notes on print fading. Have a question for the man himself? Shogun Gallery's discussion board is one of his favorite haunts, where he helps users with questions ranging from signature identification to the allusions found within a specific print. Given the wealth of information and beauty of the work, this site's a treasure.
posted by J. R. Hughto at 11:03 AM PST - 9 comments

Have you considered adopting? There are thousands of American children in the foster care system who are without permanent families. The White House has decided to do something about it, including releasing a public service announcement (requires RealPlayer) starring Bruce Willis to help promote a new website, AdoptUSKids.org, which allows prospective parents to browse through detailed profiles of available foster children. Hopefully these measures will increase public awareness about the facts regarding adoption and help more children find good homes.
posted by insomnyuk at 10:49 AM PST - 32 comments

Louise Brooks was a Ziegfeld girl, a classic beauty, and later, an actress in really strange films, mostly made in Germanya
posted by interrobang at 10:46 AM PST - 8 comments

Quit for the kitty? Dr. Antony Moore knows smokers often won't quit to protect themselves or their children. But he hopes his new study tying second-hand smoke exposure to the most common kind of feline cancer will persuade some people to kick the habit. (via bko)

Remember folks, every time you light up, God kills a...
posted by adampsyche at 10:27 AM PST - 36 comments

Security warning draws DMCA threat Find a flaw in HP Code? Prepare to go to prison or pay a $50K fine if you tell anyone. Invoking both the controversial 1998 DMCA and computer crime laws, HP has threatened to sue a team of researchers who publicized a vulnerability in the company's Tru64 Unix operating system. So now, it appears that some technology companies see "security debate" on the same level as "piracy" or "copyright controls."
posted by dejah420 at 10:13 AM PST - 9 comments

Special Operations Soldiers return from Afghanistan and kill wives. With all the talk about going to war with Iraq, is it time to take a serious look at what the effects of modern combat have on the soldiers who we send to fight? In the past six weeks four soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg (all recently returned from Afghanistan) killed their wives by shootings (2), strangulation (1) or stabbing (50 times) and burning the body (note - not a special opps soldier for this one). Are these killings just the tip of the iceberg for a future trend, and what can the US military do to make sure that the training they give to soldiers not turn them into domestic terrorists upon their return?
posted by DragonBoy at 9:17 AM PST - 34 comments

"Al Qaeda Scotland" targets the Edinburgh Festival with a leaflet campaign and no-one seems to be doing anything about it. Don't like this man's chances of getting away with it in London or New York.
posted by Summer at 9:08 AM PST - 12 comments

Back from a vigorous and exhausting vacation of petty but life sustaining activities, I find this overview of our larger reality, without the noisy claptrap of narrowly self serving ideologies, yet worrisome enough to shake the world's boat I'm travelling in with some comfort and some reasonable concern spiced with anxiety. (NYT)
posted by semmi at 7:48 AM PST - 5 comments

"The national security of the United States of America has been hijacked ..." why should'nt we trust what scott ritter has to say - more than bush and his shadowy bunch of cronies?
posted by specialk420 at 7:41 AM PST - 17 comments

Heather Champ is the Queen of the Known Universe. Someone in Brazil really likes some of Heather Champ's photographs. They like them so much that they put them prominently on the top of the main page of their website. But they didn't just put them on the website, they direct linked to them on Heather's server, and this is how Heather found out. So she's done what most webmasters do -- she's replaced the images with new ones. The only thing is, aside from the lack of control one has over access to the original file, isn't direct linking to images (and other content) on servers that aren't your own the whole effing point of the world wide web?!
posted by crunchland at 7:41 AM PST - 56 comments

White House acts to shed arrogant image. The White House will set up a new office to try to salvage America's plummeting image abroad, it was announced yesterday as an independent taskforce reported that even the country's allies saw the US as "arrogant", "hypocritical" and "self-absorbed". This autumn, an office of global communications will take over the job of selling "Brand America" from the state department, which the White House believes has failed to do the job effectively. Propaganda to garner support for an invasion in Iraq, genuine desire to promote the image of the country, or a meaningless facade that's a waste of money? You make the call.
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:39 AM PST - 68 comments

The Emmy nominations are out and the news nominations go to the biggest story, September 11. No surprises there. PBS has 41 nominations and Fox has 0. No surprises there either. Does this say something about the news industry and it's ability to discern serious news from chaff? Is Bill Moyers a national treasure? Do you think perhaps Murdoch should rethink the direction of his media empire?
posted by nofundy at 5:59 AM PST - 19 comments

Attractive people planted in bars are being paid to chat you up...about the New Sony Ericsson T68i!

and so am I
posted by luser at 4:02 AM PST - 35 comments

Don't watch this. Dreamworks is starting up the hype machine for their remake of the Japanese horror film Ringu (aka The Ring), and it looks like they're taking the A.I. route with it. The movie centers on a mysterious videotape that causes those who watch it to die seven days later. Websites are popping up all over the place that seem to connect to the 'mystery'. The first link up top goes to a flash teaser of the actual video from the film, but if you're brave, you can watch the whole thing at iFilm. I'm curious if this will indeed turn out to be an online game like the Evan Chan mystery from A.I., or just some better-than-average Web marketing for what looks to be a damn creepy movie.
posted by toddshot at 2:54 AM PST - 29 comments

Mentor of Steve Jobs is dead Kobun Chino Roshi died tragically a few days ago. There is a mention of Kobun Chino in the book "Infinite Loop". According to the book's author, Michael Malone, Steve Jobs contacted Kobun Chino due to his discomfort at being so immersed in capitalism. Chino advised that he would find little difference between life in a monastery and life as an entrepreneur (pg 85, "Infinite Loop").
posted by fletcher at 10:18 PM PST - 10 comments

Introducing Monday? Apparently not. PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, whose grand plan to change their company name to Monday were previously discussed, came to their senses and sold themselves to IBM. Goodbye new "identity". Goodbye IPO as well. They were planning on spending $110 million to promote the new name -- wonder how much of that went down the toilet?
posted by smackfu at 7:55 PM PST - 20 comments

Typorganism. Type as an organism. Predictable name, but amazing nonetheless. This is just so pretty and fun, I had to share it.
posted by fnord_prefect at 5:38 PM PST - 12 comments

What happens when you combine plywood, 1200 pounds of concrete, and 500 pounds of steel? How about a MadCat BattleMech at 38% scale of a real one? These lucky kids get their father to build them their own BattleMech.
posted by TuxHeDoh at 5:35 PM PST - 19 comments

"We have a dysfunctional global currency and economic system, in which the whole world is set up to sell to the American consumer." As stocks collapse and banks take hits for their Enron complicity, market skeptics like Prudent Bear's David Tice are getting attention. Bears love ripping into herd euphoria and shady Wall Street practices, but deny any joy when businesses fail. Try the Credit Bubble Bulletin, which points out Enron-style vulnerabilities at institutions like J.P. Morgan, then move to the great 401(k) hoax, the myth of accounting reform and Thailand's so-far successful anti-IMF economic strategy. Things will soon get much worse, promise the investors who sneer at "a fascinating intellectual environment where weak analysis continues to dominate discourse."
posted by mediareport at 4:44 PM PST - 27 comments

"Fischerspooner is probably the weirdest band ever" according to a Vanity Fair quote on their equally weird and flash-o-riffic website. If you're an electro-clash fan, or just appreciate interactive flash sites, this is for you!
posted by Lynsey at 4:07 PM PST - 26 comments

"If we sort out Iraq and Detroit develops a hydrogen engine," says a U.S. diplomat, "Saudi Arabia will go back to being a fascinating, benighted part of the world that people don't visit."
posted by artifex at 3:59 PM PST - 19 comments

Bin Laden's eldest son 'takes over al-Qaeda' Does this add to the speculation that Osama is dead, or could it be just another ruse?
posted by darian at 2:52 PM PST - 24 comments

Psssst...He's a Democrat OK, I know there are scummy politicians of every stripe, but why did this article take 172 words before it identified this loud mouthed, bribe-taking, jail-bound congressman as a Democrat?
posted by nobody_knose at 2:22 PM PST - 56 comments

Florida state troopers pull over motorists to fill out a survey. "Off-duty troopers picked motorists at random and directed them to pull off the interstate into a rest stop, where Palm Pilot- toting interviewers waited." Shit, I'd be pissed. Yeah - it's only a 90 second survey but still... (from Camworld)
posted by ao4047 at 1:43 PM PST - 31 comments

The Vancouver Company that created ReBoot will be making a CGI Spider-Man cartoon for MTV. Neil Patrick Harris as Spidey, Lisa Loeb as Mary Jane and Ian Ziering as Harry Osborn will inhabit a "seemingly realistic neon lit city of the immediate future". Will this show set a new standard of production for cartoons based on comics? Will MJ wear glasses?
posted by will at 1:19 PM PST - 23 comments

"Rise of the Empire" Feast your eyes on a fake Star Wars trailer for Episode III done completely with Lego men (and women). It won the Audience Choice award at BrickFest 2002 and is really impressive for a home made production. See for yourself!
posted by boost ventilator at 1:12 PM PST - 15 comments

What you watch can now get you arrested. 115, yes 115 people were jailed for attending a club where there was a live sex show on stage. Of course, the cops watched the show for three hours before busting them all. I wonder how many murders were committed that same night in Atlanta..
posted by eas98 at 1:04 PM PST - 36 comments

The upside-down world of the INS. On September 12th Deena Gilbey (the wife of Paul Gilbey, a EuroBroker that died when the towers collapsed) received a letter from the INS stating that she was now subject to arrest and deportation because her husband no longer retained a valid visa (he was dead). And so the story begins of one Deena Gilbey and of her two children (born in the U.S.) and of the Visa Express pilot program in Saudia Arabia and the UAE that permitted three of the hijackers to obtain a visa without having to go through a consular official.
posted by ( .)(. ) at 12:40 PM PST - 21 comments

Man hijacks al-Qaida Web site. He offers it to the FBI to use for intelligence gathering, but the FBI stumbles around for a week trying to find somebody with the technical abilities to take advantage of the site. By then, the site's militant Islamic visitors had discovered the ruse. Go figure.
posted by TBoneMcCool at 11:28 AM PST - 24 comments

Pickle Man versus giant Pepperidge Farm Goldfish-Mobile. Who would you put your money on? You can also see them on tour this summer.
posted by kingmissile at 11:17 AM PST - 6 comments

Get laid off in public. Vanguard Airlines suspends operations; posts its system-wide pink slip on its HOME PAGE for you all to see. "Wages and salaries owed you as of today are "prepetition wages" and likely will not be paid for a matter of months, if not longer.... Any Vanguard stock you hold (including stock purchased in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan) is almost certainly worthless and it is likely you will be entitled to claim a capital loss on such stock this year." But not all is gloomy: the CEO "wish[es] you the best in your future career. You will be in our prayers." Aww, shucks.
posted by PrinceValium at 11:03 AM PST - 29 comments

Weatherpixie is a cute, customizable weather report graphic, populated by a single pixie/stortrooper for attitude. Does anyone know of other similar weather services which offer regularly updated remote weather reports for your page, whether in text or graphic format? WUnderground's weather stickers, for example.
posted by brownpau at 10:06 AM PST - 21 comments

Guess who got the contract to build an additional 204 cells at Guantanamo? That's right, it's... wait for it... Halliburton! Blatant cronyism aside, "[t]he company has come under heavy pressure this year because of concerns about its liabilities and a probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission into its accounting for cost overruns on construction projects." Oh, and who built the previous round of cells there? Why, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton!

Who says war is bad for the economy?
posted by mkultra at 10:05 AM PST - 33 comments

D-O-S attack disables RIAA site. Do you think someone's trying to make a point about one group lobbying for the power to shut down individual's computers if they SUSPECT them of doing something they don't like, and another group ALREADY having that power?
posted by thunder at 9:55 AM PST - 25 comments

War in October? This wednesday and thursday the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be meeting to discuss war plans in Iraq. Hans von Sponeck was the coordinator of the United Nations' oil-for-food program for seventeen months and Scott Ritter was the former chief weapons inspector in Iraq. These guys have been shut out of much of the media. Listen to what they think.
posted by aLienated at 9:45 AM PST - 22 comments

Under-Ease: Say hello to flatulence filters—kinda like Brita technology for the other end.
posted by mosspink at 9:09 AM PST - 23 comments

Harry Partch: "iconoclastic American composer, musical theorist, philosophic instrument builder, raconteur, hobo, artist -- presents unique challenges and aesthetics." A huge influence on the weirder work of Tom Waits and a great craftsman, his work is still being performed today, albeit with some difficulty.

And, of course, there's always controversy.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:58 AM PST - 4 comments

Play The Britney Spears vs. Shakespeare Game: This is more than a bit of fun from The Philosopher's Magazine. After answering a few questions on your definition of what makes a great work of art, you get to choose two artists and rate them both. ( Yes, you can even pit Britney against Shakespeare). You'll then get a final score on who is, according to your criteria, il miglior fabro. Julien Baggini's essay, Who's The Greatest?, is well worth reading beforehand. [I pitted T.S.Eliot against Miles Davis and Miles Davis won hands down...]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:48 AM PST - 19 comments

Open source music? Give away the songs without copyright, sell the audio source files dirt cheap and waive the copyright. That's the idea behind Brad Sucks. Are any bands you know of doing something like this?
posted by Leonard at 7:52 AM PST - 5 comments

America's CEOs aren't greedy enough, argues Elan Journo: "Far from being too 'greedy,' too many of America's CEOs are not greedy enough. They are pragmatic corner-cutters, who fail to recognize that there is far more wealth to be achieved by a consistent, long-range policy of honesty - by creating a good product and maintaining the company's reputation over many years - than by squeezing out some momentary advantage."
posted by dagny at 7:46 AM PST - 33 comments

Bin Laden alive and planning attacks... I don't think so! Bush should publicly issue a direct challenge to Bin Laden. Just go on every TV and proclaim him dead! "We killed him." Period. If Bin Laden is still alive he would have to respond or be considered a joke.
posted by emorawski at 7:29 AM PST - 32 comments

You've got Jail is a light hearted, easy summer reading and informative article which explodes the myth that malfeasing CEOs get sent to "Club Fed", a prison so minimum in insecurity that its really like an enforced vacation in the country rather than the more typical round of incarceration. Required reading for the Skillings, Rigas, Taubmens and every college student considering an MBA. (So is the MeFi fascination with Prison life an idle one or am I keeping the wrong company?)
posted by BentPenguin at 7:08 AM PST - 5 comments

The UK Parliament Site gets a new design, with live webcasting. They want it better to serve "grazers" as well as "hunters". For comparison, the US House and Senate, and the French Assembly and Senate.
posted by liam at 6:37 AM PST - 14 comments

Dishonesty in defense of tax cuts. Paul Krugman sets the record straight with refreshing honesty. If only he were in charge of our country's economics... From the CEO White House to our Banana Republics to our largest corporations budgetary dishonesty abounds and we'll eventually have to pay the bill.
posted by nofundy at 5:48 AM PST - 7 comments

"Just open a map... Afghanistan is in turmoil, the Middle East is in flames, and you want to open a third front in the region? That would truly turn into a war of civilizations." Profound Effect on U.S. Economy Seen in a War on Iraq.
posted by tranquileye at 4:56 AM PST - 9 comments

There is no support for this Israeli position. If you do not believe me, then just look here and here. This girl seems to agree with me, but wants your input too [javascript required]. However, in all fairness, this guy doesn't think the Israelis have a leg to stand on, and this guy thinks its dope.
posted by piskycritter at 4:27 AM PST - 10 comments

It is not a crime to look at bomb-making websites... or so says Lieutenant Jason Ciaschini, police spokesman in Punta Gorda, where a Briton who was using a computer to look at bomb-making websites is now being held at Charlotte County Jail on immigration violations.
Florida police had evacuated the library and arrested him after he looked at bomb-making websites, and found suspicious liquids in his backpack.
"Looking up stuff on the Internet - everybody has freedom to do that," he also said.
posted by Blake at 4:15 AM PST - 6 comments

Gregg Valentino's Claim to fame is having the biggest arms in the world, and who are we to argue with him? (Link via zFilter.)
posted by h0ney at 3:52 AM PST - 30 comments

Heaven-or-hell argument ends with shotgun slaying
An argument over who was going to heaven and who was going to hell ended with one Texas man shooting another to death with a shotgun, police said Monday.
So now we'll never know who was right - or does murder 1 and effective suicide suggest a spell in the "other place"?
posted by zimbobzim at 1:40 AM PST - 17 comments

Is this the reason for Michael Jackson attacking Sony Records et al? Perhaps money woes are the cause of Jackson making really weird accusations recently: Here and here.
posted by jordanbrock at 12:24 AM PST - 6 comments

So you think you know the blues? Well then take the quiz. This is a 42 question quiz that is a nice mix of easy and not so easy questions. Sample: Which performer called his or her band "The Honeydrippers"(plural)? a. Jimmy Reed b. Joe Liggins c. Charles Brown d. Big Mama Thornton Email addy is requested to process the quiz and results are tabulated immediately.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 10:25 PM PST - 11 comments

So I'm watching Dog eat Dog tonight Mostly for the incredibly tasty Brooke Burns. And for the contestant to win, one of the losers had to miss the question "Which 32'd president said 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself?'". Now the guy said he was guessing and answered "Roosevelt", but he didn't clarify, Teddy? or FDR? They said he got it right so the contestant lost. Personally I think a retraction or apology is due.
posted by bitdamaged at 10:05 PM PST - 20 comments

The Linguistic Fun Page. If you're stuck on a cube-farm somewhere, I especially recommend the Hellatine Dictionary of Bureaucratese. The remote links are much better than the local ones, although I did especially enjoy The Collective Nouns Page (An anthology of prostitutes, a smuth of jellyfish)
posted by anastasiav at 9:45 PM PST - 9 comments

The History of the Boycott. The very first boycott took place as a part of the resistance in colonial Ireland, against the eponymous Capt. C.C. Boycott, beginning a long line in the use of personal ethics by aware 'actors' to make economic choices in pursuance of social and/or political ends. As such, this type of action marries the libertarian attitudes of personal responsibility and Adam Smith's 'invisible hand', with the quasi-socialist collective action and 'power to the people'. _{[There have been a number of MeFi threads on specific boycotts: however none have dealt with the concept as a whole.] What's your favourite boycott? (",) More inside>>>}
posted by dash_slot- at 7:51 PM PST - 6 comments

Artemis Records waives Internet royalty fees. "Artemis Records [the label for Steve Earle, among others] has agreed to issue licenses to internet radio for one year for the master use of songs by all Artemis recording artists. This announcement was made today by Danny Goldberg, Chairman and CEO, Artemis Records and Daniel Glass, President, Artemis Records. During this period, beginning August 1, 2002, Artemis will waive the royalty payments that would otherwise be due them. "
posted by mikewas at 5:47 PM PST - 17 comments

The Times has a story about a preliminary UN report claiming there could have been a cover-up regarding the "wedding-party airstrike" earlier this month. Reuters/Yahoo also has the story but it's not getting much coverage in US media. This blog claims the story is front page material in a few european countries. The US military denies any cover up.
posted by rhyax at 5:47 PM PST - 13 comments

“There are ethical ways to cut costs, and then there is executive greed. Your comment at the recent shareholder's meeting will be your legacy, like it or not (‘I have to make that much money, I have an expensive wife.’).” –says a disgruntled EDS employee to his CEO, Dick Brown in an internal company memo. FuckedCompany rides the corporation bashing bandwagon and branches out to give you further insight into some of your favorite companies. Subscribers to the mother site get complete access. Non-subscribers can view the free rotating posts. Described in NYTimes (password).
posted by found missing at 5:27 PM PST - 9 comments

Drop the marker and back away from the CD-RW drive. Add Senator Joe Biden (D - Delware) to the list of politicians eager to put the brakes on technology, kowtow to Hollywood and otherwise stop the Earth from turning: Biden's new bill would make it a federal felony to try and trick certain types of devices into playing your music or running your computer program. Breaking this law--even if it's to share music by your own garage band--could land you in prison for up to five years. And that's not counting the civil penalties of up to $25,000 per offense. Biden's bill is on the fast track and not getting the same press attention that Sen. Holling's CBDTPA bill had earlier this year.
posted by scottandrew at 4:42 PM PST - 28 comments

Real reality tv. OneWorld TV has launched. "The site features short, Video Nation-style contributions from film-makers, both amateur and professional, from around the world. Subjects range from Aids and global warming to the conflict in the Middle East and the plight of child gold miners in Burkina Faso". You can create your own story line, with different perspectives and sources.
posted by papalotl at 4:02 PM PST - 4 comments

Felony Arrests As Marketing Gimmick? AdAge columnist Scott Donaton perceives the recent spate of celebrities committing crimes as a new marketing scheme. Although the column is tongue-in-cheek, it raises a good point: could all these shenanigans just be a new way to gain street cred and ink more lucrative endorsement deals? Case in point: Allen Iverson-branded Reebok products flew off the shelves after his arrest, though today a judge threw out most of the charges In the meantime, squeaky clean Kobe has trouble building street cred.
posted by me3dia at 3:00 PM PST - 6 comments

Kennedy's core purpose in producing "Nigger" was to assist White Americans in feeling comfortable with using the epithet "nigger" Dr. Martin Kilson, the first black tenured professor at Harvard, responds to Randall Kennedy's controversial book on "the N-word".
posted by McBain at 2:19 PM PST - 33 comments

"It is not an overstatement to describe the arrests in Tulia as an atrocity. The entire operation was the work of a single police officer who claimed to have conducted an 18-month undercover operation. The arrests were made solely on the word of this officer, Tom Coleman, a white man with a wretched work history, who routinely referred to black people as "niggers" and who frequently found himself in trouble with the law."
posted by artifex at 1:29 PM PST - 29 comments

Armstrong Among Best Ever. Mike Celizic at MSNBC states his case for Lance, counteracting an earlier Ron Borges column questioning if Lance was an athlete at all. I'd like to think Mike went into Ron's office and maybe cuffed him once or twice... Score one for the cyclists (earlier discussion here).
posted by jalexei at 12:59 PM PST - 13 comments

Best of British Blogs. Tom Coates of the award winning plasticbag discusses his misgivings with Simon Waldman of the Guardian.
posted by Fat Buddha at 12:47 PM PST - 10 comments

One Man's Meat Is Another's Person. There are certain words which evoke powerful images and emotions. One such word is Cannibalism. There is a lot of myth and truth about this nearly universally distained practice. But it has happened in the United States and virtually everywhere, at one time or another. If religion were removed from the equation would cannibalism still be wrong? Is the fear of cannibalism learned or is it a self preservation instinct which might get in the way of self preservation when starving to death? Is it the last taboo?: We eat meat and we are meat.
posted by Mack Twain at 11:24 AM PST - 76 comments

The Dead Zone's Michael Piller is probably one of the most under-appreciated creative talents in Hollywood. One of the most egalitarian executives, he always lets the fans of his shows have a chance to get behind the scenes. (Acrobat required for download you'll find at link, and more inside)
posted by WolfDaddy at 11:18 AM PST - 17 comments

Not as immediately satisfying as its more recent cousin (tho ugh far better for those of us who value integrity of image color over eyestrain,) let’s look for a minute at some stereoscopy. Stereoscopy has been to the Moon. It’s been used to capture images of famous people and mundane subjects alike, such as some guy’s cat (w a tc h out, John Ashcroft!), what appears to be Jandek’s house, and various city scenes. It’s been used on Mars. It’s not just a source of beautiful antiques, either. Apparently, it’s still around. Want to learn how to do all this yourself? Here’s how. And if you can’t take the strain, you can always buy a book like this and pu t yo ur ow n pictu res in side. More history here and here.?
posted by interrobang at 9:00 AM PST - 11 comments

Wildfires. Mine disasters. Britney giving the finger to Meixcans.

Yes really.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:49 AM PST - 29 comments

Decline in Nudists Threatens Tourist Attraction. Listen people, when you don't go nude, you're letting the terrorists win.
posted by kingmissile at 8:16 AM PST - 11 comments

Comic-Con is coming If you live on the west coast and are even tangentially interested in comics, you should head to San Diego this week. The biggest convention in the country starts Thursday and there WILL be costumed weirdos. (and even worse, web cartoonists)
posted by clango at 7:24 AM PST - 7 comments

World-Wide Cost of Living Survey. Hong Kong has taken over as the world’s most expensive city, Moscow is in second place, followed by Tokyo. The least expensive city is Johannesburg.
posted by Frasermoo at 3:01 AM PST - 37 comments

What to do with your extra mouse pads. Relax from a stressful day
posted by srboisvert at 8:42 PM PST - 22 comments

Intimate Media. As computers steadily move into every aspect of personal life, MiME proposes that instead of allowing intimate media to disappear into the computer, artifacts and systems should be designed to better promote human experiences around the collection, storage and sharing of intimate media. Interesting research by Philips. How will you share your personal artifacts in the future?
posted by hockeyman at 6:56 PM PST - 8 comments

Change your life with the power of phone shui. Look after your mobile, and your mobile will look after you.
posted by premiumpolar at 6:02 PM PST - 10 comments

Clinton Fires Back at Republican Accusations "There was corporate malfeasance both before he took office and after. The difference is I actually tried to do something about it and their party stopped it. And one of the people who stopped our attempt to stop Enron accounting was made chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission." He also talks about the Middle East and the related "Blame Clinton" movement. I can hear the teeth gnashing already.
posted by owillis at 4:19 PM PST - 60 comments

This past week (Sir) Richard Branson (otherwise known as "That Nutty Billionaire"), showed that corporate disclosure is a good thing, as he stripped bare, except for a muscle suit, to launch the U.S.'s first Virtual Phone carrier, Virgin Mobile.
posted by benjh at 2:32 PM PST - 33 comments

Lose 15 Lbs. in 20 Minutes a Day! by playing the flute during sexual intercourse, square dancing while stacking wood, and other easy methods.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:01 PM PST - 2 comments

"Granted, we're a long way from resembling the kind of authoritarian state Orwell depicted, but some of the similarities are starting to get a bit eerie."
posted by jjg at 11:54 AM PST - 54 comments

Dan Savage and sixty nine other (mostly) men want to know who looks best in their tighty whities. [background info]
posted by alana at 8:30 AM PST - 27 comments

Good! It's "Let's Make Fun Of Wall Street" Day At The Miami Herald! Can it be a coincidence that the two funniest columnists in Miami, Carl Hiaasen [Imagine if the entire board of Arthur Andersen were rounded up, blindfolded and flown to Guantánamo Bay for interrogation.] and Dave Barry [Wall Street is in trouble, and things are not going to get better until you, the small investor, stop selfishly thinking about yourself all the time.] have chosen this Sunday to raise a few laughs at the expense of poor, old beleaguered Wall Street? Let's hope not.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:50 AM PST - 10 comments

Out of all the groups of people that annoy the heck out of me (telemarketers, ricers and scientologists to name a few) I still cannot help but crack up when I read something written in 1337 hacker talk. Thank God they don't rule the world.
posted by hidely at 8:53 PM PST - 14 comments

http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=topnews&StoryID=1259595 Miners still alive!!!! Yahooooooo!!!!
posted by bas67 at 8:28 PM PST - 35 comments

The Kid Stays In The Picture is the recently released documentary based on the auto-biography by Robert Evans. The book, read shamelessly by Evans himself, became an instant classic inside Hollywood. Sure, this site is pure marketing, but the virtual Robert Evans is classic. While Evans may have been an egocentric nut, weren't movies better when colorful personalities like his called the shots, rather than todays CEOs and the yes-people reporting to them?
posted by herc at 3:56 PM PST - 2 comments

did anyone else in the dc area see this? and does this man know something we dont?
posted by specialk420 at 1:09 PM PST - 14 comments

I posted about it before and there was a mixed response. But Blogathon 2002 actually started this morning at 6 am PST. Bloggers with a gimmick have posted details here and it's not too late to sponsor. Are you watching? And what's your favorite blogger doing?
posted by dobbs at 1:08 PM PST - 13 comments

The Energizer Bunny does Delta Next time you pack your adult toys, fully loaded, in your luggage, remember that they may discharge at the most inconvenient time...
posted by poorhouse at 1:06 PM PST - 10 comments

Is Fast Track Back? The House of Representatives voted 215-212 to give "Fast Track" trade agreement authority to W in the "early morning hours." Is this the return to all that 'globalism' stuff that was newsworthy before 9-11? And, most of all, what is the Senate going to do about it? Tell him to take a flying leap, or jump on the corporate bandwagon?
posted by kablam at 8:14 AM PST - 7 comments

Is bin Laden dead? Some people in the intelligence community are apparently beginning to think so and are even quietly speaking to reporters about it.
posted by TBoneMcCool at 5:58 AM PST - 76 comments

Generative Art The musician Jem Finer (formerly of The Pogues) has created a musical composition, The LongPlayer, that will play, without repetition, for a thousand years (made with SuperCollider). It is currently playing live at a London lighthouse. The Dream House is another example of a generative art piece, in this case one that was set to run for eight years. These are both examples of Generative Art, Art generated by rules. The GA community is an active one. Also, see Virangelic - a random composition generator. Art generated by Artifical Life swarms. NewZoid - A false News Headline generator. And, N-Gen - computer generated Graphic Design.
posted by vacapinta at 2:27 AM PST - 11 comments

9 Beet Stretch - What if you took Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which normally runs about 70 minutes (this is, incidentally, the reason CDs are the length they are), and stretched it out to 24 hours using digital audio processing? The pitch remains intact; only the length is changed. What you end up with can only be called majestic and ethereal, kind of an orchestral version of loveliescrushing. For your convenience, you can listen to the work in one-hour, twenty-minute RealAudio chunks. Hm, I wonder what other music might work well with such radical time-expansion... (via interconnected)
posted by kindall at 1:14 AM PST - 42 comments

Another discount funeral store. Where overpaying is not dignified.
posted by swift at 12:59 AM PST - 7 comments

Batman vs. Superman movie rumored to be in the works. (scroll down for the good stuff)

"It is a clash of the titans," Petersen told Daily Variety. "They play off of each other so perfectly. (Superman) is clear, bright, all that is noble and good, and Batman represents the dark, obsessive and vengeful side. They are two sides of the same coin and that is material for great drama."

I'm excited. The Batman vs. Superman comic books were always some of the most fascinating ones I'd ever read.
posted by SilentSalamander at 10:14 PM PST - 31 comments

Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687), Lord of Zuylichem, was a poet, musician, diplomat and secretary to 2 Princes of Orange. He attended Oxford and Cambridge and corresponded with virtually every contemporary of any intellectual importance in Europe, including Charles I of England, Anton von Leeuwenhoek and Peter Paul Ruebens, to name a very few. He also played the lute for King James. As the definition of a Renaissance man, he makes me feel sort of inadequate.
posted by charlesv at 8:11 PM PST - 4 comments

Ryan Leaf retires from NFL at 26 This article calls him one of the biggest busts in NFL history. When signed in 1998, he said "I'm looking forward to a 15-year career, a couple of trips to the Super Bowl and a parade through downtown San Diego." Instead he got interceptions, fights related and unrelated to his job (for which he blamed everyone but himself), and a lot of disappointed fans. What happened?
posted by GaelFC at 8:01 PM PST - 23 comments

Marketing, meet Marketing. An Austin Powers-themed PowerPoint template (bottom of the page). The mind boggles. Something tells me the pitch for this was made with PowerPoint.
posted by shecky57 at 4:43 PM PST - 6 comments

I am fat and its your fault Has america really degraded into such a victim society that this is a valid reason to sue?
"They said `100 percent beef.' I thought that meant it was good for you," Barber told Newsday. "I thought the food was OK."
common people, how about getting a clue with that super size.
posted by vincentmeanie at 4:13 PM PST - 76 comments

A ray of hope: Internet Radio Fairness Act . Disappointed in the Librarian of Congress' recent imposition of high fees on web radio broadcasters and the resultant shutdown of many web radio broadcasts (including KIRO and KMTT in Seattle), U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee [right] (D-WA), George Nethercutt [below] (R-WA), and Rick Boucher (D-VA) introduced new legislation to change existing web radio laws.
posted by y2karl at 12:54 PM PST - 22 comments

Mmmmmmmm... pie. I'm pretty sure this site causes brain damage. Visit at your own risk. [flash]
posted by crunchland at 11:31 AM PST - 31 comments

House likely to approve homeland security bill that erodes labor protections "But the Senate, which likely takes up the matter next week, so far has pursued a much different course. On Thursday, the Democratic-led Senate Governmental Affairs Committee crafted legislation that would protect all current civil service protections and make it more difficult for the president to move workers out of unions. Bush and other Republicans said the measure would give the president less authority than he has now."

The House seems to be so much more conservative and extremist than the Senate. Heck they're still working on trying to ban selected types of abortion procedures even when there's a strong chance it won't pass constitutional muster and the Senate isn't likely to support them.

Is it your perception that the House is more conservative? If so, why do you think that's true?
posted by Red58 at 11:23 AM PST - 19 comments

Are English Men The Worst Lovers In The World? Oh yes, absolutely, says Canadian columnist and "acknowledged beauty" Leah McClaren after her disheartening experience in London. And, truth be told, I've never heard any woman friend, whatever her nationality, actually praise their enthusiasm, sensitivity, or prowess. But are Canadians any better? Are Italians really the best of the latin lovers? Are Frenchmen only at their best when adulterous? Are American liberals too self-conscious? Stereotypes are fun and, like clichés, methinks there may be something to them...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:19 AM PST - 60 comments

Gore questions timing of Iraq concern Is it proper to invade Iraq? This would be an unprecedented move for the US military as Iraq has not attacked the US anyone the US has defense treaties with. "Republican National Committee spokesman Jim Dyke called Gore's comments "irresponsible." "This is no time to attack the president or Republicans for their handling of the war for political gain," he said." Hmmm..so he admits the Iraqi attack IS for partisan political gain, eh? I would have never suspected it.
posted by nofundy at 11:16 AM PST - 27 comments

Wars and propaganda in gaming: you've all heard of America's Army by now, but what about Under Ash where you can fight the IDF (no civilians targets here) as a palestinian rambo? Perhaps you'd prefer a more spiritual route, and want to convert heathens? Or the truly repulsive Ethnic Cleansing game? Artists are getting into too with the likes of Cultural Revolution Doom, and some politicians considered doing it the direct way. Clearly, folks with an agenda have realized that games are a way to get their message out, and maybe noticed the success of "realistic" but largely apolitical shooters.
Fortunately for gaming peaceniks (kill pixels not people!), the games mostly suck.
posted by malphigian at 10:41 AM PST - 6 comments

Maxim Saves Journalism "The reason the notion of Maxim saving journalism is funny is because everyone buys into this holier-than-thou notion that Maxim, because it dares to package itself in an easily digestible format and obsess over the real concerns of real people instead of operating on a higher theoretical plain, is anti-intellectual, maybe even partly responsible for what’s being called the “dumbing down of America.” That’s the squawking canard I’m going to try to chop the head off of today. I’m going to take you behind the titillating eye candy and show you what Maxim really is, and how it’s part of a growing movement already blowing the cobwebs out of a truly ancient and intransigent industry." (via medianews)
posted by owillis at 10:01 AM PST - 36 comments

Smoke 'em if you can get 'em? Philip Morris' decision to support FDA regulation of cigarettes has smoke coming from between my ears trying to figure it out. Good, bad, victims of the cigarette tax money-grab?
posted by fncll at 10:01 AM PST - 33 comments

What happens when crude Flash animation meets an absurd sense of humour? The surreal serial Weird Emma, that's what. If Emma's not up your alley, maybe you'd prefer the static cartoons of Wulff Morgenthaler.
posted by dobbs at 9:59 AM PST - 1 comment

Boy's Penis Stitched Back After Donkey Bite. "Donkeys in Morocco are used for laborious work on farms and garbage collection and are often subject to harsh treatment". Okay, but this leaves several important questions, such as Why is the Donkey the mascot of the Democratic Party? Are Concrete Donkeys evil? (and why are the capitalisations of the C and D in Concrete Donkey stressed?) Should we fear a pregnate donkey? Would you consider adopting a donkey needing a home? I will.
posted by Mack Twain at 9:37 AM PST - 27 comments

More band photos for your enjoyment. Site's in German, but the pictures speak for themselves. Yay, Friday!
posted by Gilbert at 8:50 AM PST - 8 comments

Congress agrees, citizens shouldn't have the same right to bankruptcy protection as corporations. The Senate and House, after much lobbying by credit card companies, have decided that consumers don't need protection. Corporations can still file for bankruptcy, leaving stockholders and employees standing in the rain, but Joe Consumer had better not get sick, lose his job, or not pay that usurious 25% interest rate. This is the same bill that Clinton vetoed as being unfair to consumers...but we all know where this regime's loyalties lie...and it ain't the people.
posted by dejah420 at 8:39 AM PST - 34 comments

Hey, punk! If you can read, then point your eyes at Violence Man in: Company Picnic. Remember, "Talking is for little girls."
A fine new webcomic from Evil Monkey Productions. Oop!
posted by ColdChef at 8:22 AM PST - 15 comments

Has Friday Flash lost its spark? Can't buy a thrill? Then what you need is some Friday Frank (as in Zappa). Broadcast by the good folks at radio station WNCW 88.7, out of Spindale, NC, the show is one hour of crispy live cuts from the wealth of boots in circulation. The show starts at 12noon Eastern Time Zone. (Its a Real Audio Stream, here's the Windows Media feed as well.
posted by BentPenguin at 8:22 AM PST - 2 comments

Bait and Switch? (Quicktime Movie) - One of the Mac Faithful at fury.com makes a funny (but true) statement about the new .Mac service charge that Apple recently announced. How far can Apple push their core consumer market with this type of thing? In a News.com report, Apple predicts losing up to 90% of their existing .Mac users. That's some public relations plan. They are indeed thinking differently.
posted by Argyle at 8:05 AM PST - 27 comments

Great feat, but not a great athlete. Let the Cyclist bashing continue.
As a follow up to the pointless Bicycles and cars don't mix column, Ron Borges over at MSNBC wonders if Lance Armstrong is even an athlete.
He says Athletes must do more with their bodies than pump their legs up and down. For his money, being the greatest athlete in the world involves strength, speed, agility, hand-eye coordination, mental toughness and the ability to make your body do things that defy description. Anyone who has ever been in a bike race (Road or MTN) knows it does indeed take all that and more. Anyone who writes about sports, rather than participating, would of course have no clue it takes more than moving your feet up and down.
posted by Blake at 8:03 AM PST - 48 comments

Decision 2002 Friends! The time for action is now. Will you let your voice be heard?
posted by nicholm at 7:54 AM PST - 5 comments

So you think your good on the pull? Give this little test a whirl and find out exactly how good you are or think you are.
posted by johnnyboy at 5:12 AM PST - 45 comments

Challange the Church is a Catholic youth group working to bring a very different set of messages to world youth day. Even though pilgrims have been encouraged by event organizers to "ask tough questions", the church establishment seems to have very little patience for the provocative measures of Milton Chan (Catholic), which include passing out condoms to worshipers. Is this an indicator that the Catholic faith is changing to reflect modern realities, or is the Church too rigid and doomed to irrelevancy? (via existential dishwasher)
posted by astirling at 4:30 AM PST - 17 comments

blog.hotornot.com. call it a sophomoric joke. but i'm betting everyone included in the beauty pageant is afraid of a low rating. the only thing about this i find surprising is that neale hasn't done it already. (via victor.)
posted by patricking at 2:58 AM PST - 15 comments

Behind The Typeface Presents: Cooper Black. The gripping saga of one typeface's trials and tribulations, following its path from the dizzying heights of stardom to the brink of self-destruction and back again. (Flash 5, approx. 3MB.)
posted by youhas at 2:54 AM PST - 31 comments

Chicago Rat Patrol. No, not this kind of rat patrol; for this crew, rat spotting is just a sideline. What these guys skulk in alleys for, though, is discarded bike parts to kludge, especially in strange and unexpected proportions. Most of them work. As a result of their experiments, they're attuned to the kitbashed contraptions used by (mostly) economically marginal folk. Additionally, or superfluously, they're sort of anarchist anti-corporate critical-mass types. Updated until almost a year ago. Note: Geocities site. Tread lightly. And stay away from the "Rodeo" link, where there's a quicktime video, until tomorrow.
posted by dhartung at 2:08 AM PST - 4 comments

It can be stately and elegant, beautiful and swirling or square and modern. It makes a surprising variety of intricate pictures. Why is the written word honored so highly in Islamic art? Find out by diving into the gorgeous world of Arab Calligraphy. Here's a friendly portal to help. Take time to linger over a language that took a different path. (Bonus for font freaks inside)
posted by mediareport at 12:07 AM PST - 10 comments

Skin flicks? Close. Ok, not really. Not at all. Someone had a little too much time on their hands and deconstructed a bevy of actors and their skin conditions.
posted by mikhail at 12:05 AM PST - 6 comments

give jack saturn his old job back! of course one could assault me for posting something found from the infamous j.ko that has to do with blogger - and lord knows there's enough of those threads already - but i found this to be too interesting to pass up. if you weren't already aware, pyra [blogger's parent company/alter ego] is looking for someone to handle customer support and jack saturn [who had the job before and hasn't had one since] is looking to get his job back. i don't know about anyone else, but i'd like to see the old team have the chance to come back....
posted by boogah at 10:20 PM PST - 62 comments

Princeton admissions officers broke into Yale's admissions system using prospective students' birth dates and Social Security numbers. They "viewed Yale admissions decisions" of 11 students; Princeton's dean of admissions says "[i]t was really an innocent way for us to check out the security." The FBI is "assessing the information to see if there is a federal violation."
posted by realityblurred at 6:51 PM PST - 27 comments

Building a community website One of my favorite strategy gaming sites, HeavenGames, gives us a peek under their hood with in-depth reportage on the design process they're undertaking for their new area devoted to the game Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne. I'm no web designer, but the ideas and procedures presented here certainly sure do make it sound easy (well, not really, but it's still an interesting read).
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:05 PM PST - 4 comments

An astonishingly thorough and well-researched biography of Robert Heinlein. A giant of the SF genre; revered and repudiated in nearly equal proportions, his long shadow falls over most SF writing since the 1950's. This site, where the bio is hosted, is a even-handed and thorough repository for all things Heinlein.
posted by GriffX at 6:00 PM PST - 15 comments

Ashcroft's lunacy knows no bounds. In the midst of touting TIPS, he continues to defend his proposal "to immediately destroy government records of people who buy guns, disputing a congressional report that said his idea could help criminals get firearms illegally."
posted by donkeyschlong at 2:35 PM PST - 37 comments

Economic migrants trying to cross into the U.S from Mexico are being driven to risk ever more hazardous routes. Bizarrely, the clampdown on illegal border crossing has led to an Indian (Asian) hanging himself in a Guatemalan jail. Where was that border again?
posted by Fat Buddha at 1:44 PM PST - 32 comments

Keith Olbermann joins Salon with an essay about baseball, September 11, and Sex in the City [Brazenly self-plagarized from SportsFilter]
posted by kirkaracha at 12:45 PM PST - 9 comments

"If this were a sci-fi melodrama, it might be called Speech-Zilla meets Trademark Kong. ... The parties are advised to chill." (PDF file) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is at it again. Aqua's hit song "Barbie Girl" is judged not to be a violation of Mattel's trademark, but to be a parody protected by free speech. And all laboured judgely joshing aside, the decision offers a nice summary of trademark law. Get a plain HTML news story from CNN here. (The chorus is running through your brain now, right? And it's going to be there all day, too. *snicker*)
posted by maudlin at 12:20 PM PST - 5 comments

Murder is my business. Arthur Fellig, aka Weegee the Famous was a photographer in the 1930s and 40s. With the help of a police scanner, which he kept in his car, he was often able to get to crime scenes before the police. His subjects were varied, from dark crime scene photos to Coney Island, to social commentary. Listen to a biography, or look at some photos. or just revel in his connection to Doctor Strangelove.?
posted by interrobang at 11:15 AM PST - 7 comments

"Law and Order SVU" writers, sharpen your pencils! Prep school girls, bored with Dalton boys, are posing as Ivy Leaguers and aspiring actresses to lure unknowing 20-something investment bankers in Manhattan hotspots ...
posted by MattD at 11:08 AM PST - 20 comments

"Well then, can we fight the old-fashioned fun war, where you and an enemy choose up sides, and you pick out a place, and you throw bombs at them, and they throw bombs at you for four or five years, and then you decide who wins and who looses, who pays the indemnity, and who does the helping... Can't do that anymore, because nobody's got the gasoline for it. Except the Arabs. And they can't fight a war unless somebody gives them something to put the gasoline in. So we are already in a world without war. The only thing is that what we need in the 21st century is a world that realizes it's a world without war." - Issac Asimov circa 1974 [more]
posted by ZachsMind at 10:58 AM PST - 6 comments

Food For Thought For Serious Foodies And Would-Be Pros: Egullet.com is mainly written by professional cooks for professional cooks but obsessive, perfectionist gastronomes like you and I can join in too. It's delightful and delicious; like a MetaFilter for fussy gluttons, over-curious gourmets and gastro-porn addicts. Today, celebrated chefs Dan Barber and Michael Anthony, currently wowing New Yorkers at the Blue Hill restaurant, will be answering questions from hoi-polloi such as ourselves. My question's already in...[ From the August issue of Food and Wine magazine, where Michael Anthony was interviewed as one of the best new American chefs.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:53 AM PST - 12 comments

"EX-DICTATOR BROKE, LIVING WITH MOM": This is not an Onion link. In the Washington Post, read the story of Valentine Strasser, former Sierra Leonean military dictator, who took power at 25, was ousted four years later, lived in exile in Britain, went to law school on a UN scholarship, dropped out, lived in London under an assumed name until his student visa ran out and he was deported. He's now back home, unemployed, living with his mother. "The government says Strasser is not entitled to benefits because he took power by force. Strasser concedes the point but says he should be treated better. Last year, the government called on citizens not to throw stones at the former head of state, who without a car, was wandering around Freetown on foot." Link via Sasha, in turn via Glenn.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:49 AM PST - 22 comments

The Cook, the Egg, the server and breakfast. Emeril, eat your heart out. This enterprising chef/computer geek has managed to fry an egg using only the heat sink on his server, some tinfoil and a collection of copper 1p and 2p coins. Sure the egg took 11 minutes too cook, but it did taste "loverly!" Photo's galore!
posted by DragonBoy at 9:02 AM PST - 13 comments

From NPR (The MetaFilter giveth, the MetaFilter taketh away...) Remembering Tuskegee
600 low-income African-American males, 400 infected with syphilis are monitored for 40 years. Even though a proven cure (penicillin) became available in the 1950s, the study continues until 1972 with participants denied treatment. Perhaps as many as 100 died of syphilis during the study (Allen, 1978). Additional resources.

Thirty years ago is not that long a time.
posted by y2karl at 8:35 AM PST - 27 comments

Brian's been a very naughty boy... i would like to tell you lot about brian the watford fan. i have been going out with him for 3 years and he has been cheating on me and i found out last week that he hase given me hepatitis after his holiday in Greece. i know he spends a lot of time on here. some of you will know him.
[a few 100k of download]

A young woman takes revenge on her ex by reporting his activities on the message board of the football club they both support. Global hilarity ensues.

[Warning: contains crude language, allegations of g0at se.x and terrible spelling]
posted by i_cola at 8:33 AM PST - 13 comments

The Moon Also Rises. Or how about: Ask Not For Whom the Moon Rises... Both Karl Marx and Mohammed agree, he da' man..err...True Parent! He's serious but I'm laughing. Please God, make him stop!! Falwell and the right wingers actually suck up to this guy!
posted by nofundy at 8:26 AM PST - 9 comments

When Rock bands leave their irony at home (or potentially never had any). An outrageously hilarious collection of musicians taking incredibly self-concious photographs of themselves. All of my fellow musicians on metafilter, you will find this particularly hilarious (and cringe-worthy, as you wait to see if the next pic will be...you!)
posted by glenwood at 7:44 AM PST - 53 comments

Net Users Try to Elude the Google Grasp (NYT) "The Internet, which was supposed to usher in an era of limitless information, is leading some people to restrict the information that they make available about themselves."
posted by dayvin at 7:19 AM PST - 41 comments

A New Way to Catch Hepatitis
"Israeli doctors have discovered a gruesome new way to catch hepatitis and possibly other blood-borne diseases - from the flying bone fragments of suicide bombers." (empahasis added)
posted by Irontom at 6:27 AM PST - 9 comments

The Website of Anti-Porn Guy Welcome to my site! My name is David McNamara and I am 19 years old. I have 2 cats and I am a senior at Royal Palm Beach High School in Royal Palm Beach, Florida......I want to ban pornography with a 10-year prison term for viewing or participating in pornography, as well as oral and anal sex with a 1-5 year prison term for oral sex and a 1-10 year term for anal sex. I also want to ban the manufacture and sale of contraceptives (birth control) with a prison term of up to 1 year in jail and/or a fine of up to $5,000 for violating this ban. None of these laws will be retroactive. Wonder what he's doing now - his site was last updated 12-10-00. Discuss? Dismiss?
posted by Corky at 4:19 AM PST - 52 comments

On media darlings. Do you think this was deliberate or a coincidence? Who do you think are the other darlings of the mainstream media in USA and elsewhere (i.e. if you accept Slate's premise)?
posted by justlooking at 3:01 AM PST - 5 comments

the choice of dr rowan williams as the new archbishop of canterbury is inspired and his acceptence speech filled me with hope. so, i am hoping that the new archbish will bring some sense of moral guidance to the country and remind us of what the church is for. the guardian has an illuminating introduction to the man and his beliefs: the head of the anglican church in his own words has extracts from his many books. here is a short quote from Writing in the Dust: reflections on 11th september: "Last words. We have had the chance to read the messages sent by passengers on the planes to their spouses and families in the desperate last minutes; and we have seen the spiritual advice apparently given to the terrorists by one of their number, the thoughts that should have been in their minds as they approached their death they had chosen (for themselves and for others). Something of the chill of 11 September lies in the contrast. The religious words are, in the cold light of day, the words that murderers are saying to themselves to make a martyr's drama out of a crime. The non-religious words are testimony to what religious language is supposed to be about - the triumph of pointless, gratuitous love, the affirming of faithfulness even when there is nothing to be done or salvaged." there is a larger extract online: part one and part two
posted by quarsan at 1:01 AM PST - 6 comments

Independent Music Owners in Favor of Internet Radio "This is a list of artists and small record labels who own the rights to some independent music, who have signed up to be counted. This list is to indicate that there are many music owners who view internet radio as desirable, and that they would like to enter into discussions with internet radio to allow their music to be played, and to circumvent the CARP fee . This is not an agreement or release-- it is just a list of interested parties."
posted by lbergstr at 10:46 PM PST - 4 comments

The clash of battling war plans. "Imagine Operation Overlord for D-Day splashed all over the front page of the New York Times. Unthinkable, you say. Then imagine the German high command's plans to repulse the Allied invasion announced by Adolf Hitler himself in a meeting with his closest advisers and then leaked to a London newspaper. Equally unthinkable. But this is how the invasion of Iraq by the United States and Saddam's plans to counterattack have been played out in the New York Times and a Kuwaiti newspaper â?? all before a single shot has been fired." First there was the parade of leaks from the U.S., even an influential insider making predictions on TV. Then there was the apparent counterleak of Saddam's war plan. What is going on? Is the Iraqi leak credible? And if so, what price are American civilians going to pay?
posted by homunculus at 9:01 PM PST - 18 comments

Set your conspiracy phasers to stun!
"If this recollection is correct, the entire incident, and its absence from the public record, raises new questions about the FBI investigation of Moussaoui and even the 1995 destruction of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City." What's the credibility of Jim Crogan and this publication - it's new to me, but seems to undertake serious investigative journalism, and publish 'weighty' names. Now, remind me again, why doesn't the Bush 'administration' want the air crashes on September 11th 2001 (uniquely, it appears) to be subject to the ususal Air Transportation investigations? Aren't there enough unanswered questions?
[NB: Not a troll: it's gentle ribbing....]
posted by dash_slot- at 7:49 PM PST - 7 comments

The only lawmaker voting against Traficant's expulsion was Rep. Gary Condit. Representatives voted 420-1 to remove the nine-term Democrat for taking kickbacks from employees, encouraging the destruction of evidence, soliciting bribes and other gifts from businessmen and filing false income tax returns... only the second time a sitting member has been banished since the Civil War.
posted by crunchland at 7:42 PM PST - 18 comments

Smoke pot, stay out of jail. As your lawyer, I advise you to read this cartoon by Ellen Forney. See also: Bustcard.
posted by xowie at 7:00 PM PST - 23 comments

Dan Goodsell and Dallas Poague bring my (and maybe your) childhood back to life with page after page filled with images of delightful (and sometimes creepy) memorabilia. Oh, the hours I spent commanding a Mission to Mars while sugared-up on Dinky Donuts and Rootin' Tootin' Raspberry FunnyFace.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:20 PM PST - 7 comments

Political cartoons, and lots of them. Updated daily. Better than the Daily Show.
posted by swift at 6:15 PM PST - 18 comments

Bruce Perens to exercise free speech on stage... by explaining how to watch European DVDs on an American DVD player. By circumventing the DRM he may face a $500,000 fine or imprisonment.
I guess there are just some things you're not allowed to talk about, for the good of society.
posted by holloway at 6:05 PM PST - 10 comments

WHICH MeFite boldly proclaims ties to big tobacco? WHO is the person responsible for all the I/P threads? WHY does everyone talk about pancakes? You won't find the answers to these questions in the alt.gossip.celebrities Blind Item Archive, but you will find tons of gooey gossipy celebrity muck in which you may luxuriously wallow. It's good for the skin.
posted by WolfDaddy at 4:28 PM PST - 9 comments

Does Security Trump Union Rights? It has always seemed to me that collective bargaining is a fair way for workers to create a balance of power. Do unions still have a role?

And how many rights is it okay to lose in the name of security?
posted by theora55 at 3:47 PM PST - 7 comments

U.S. tries to block UN anti-torture vote "Concerned about the possibility of independent visits to U.S. civilian and military prisons, the United States sought Wednesday to block a vote on a U.N. plan meant to enforce a convention on torture. "
posted by Stuart_R at 3:10 PM PST - 18 comments

Odds of Death Due to Injury, United States, 1998 Your lifetime odds of dying from:
Air and space transport, 1 in 5,092
Poisoning by solids and liquids, 1 in 344
Drowning, 1 in 9,396
Firearms, 1 in 202
Jumping from high places, 1 in 7,402

posted by Blake at 12:46 PM PST - 50 comments

What happens to malls when they die? Usually, not much. Deadmalls.com chronicles dormant shopping centers through stories and pictures. While the East Coast is filled in pretty well, dead malls in the West and South are barely represented. Any malls near you-all that belong on this site? (Bonus for you shopaholics: a store locator portal!)
posted by me3dia at 11:41 AM PST - 40 comments

Bikes and cars don't mix. At least, according to the author of this column. As someone who cycles for fun and commuting, I was alternately amused by his anti-bike spewing and terrified that he's a case of road rage waiting to happen. Remind me never to bike in Pittsburgh.
posted by RakDaddy at 10:51 AM PST - 77 comments

Although Crokinole's popularity has waned since its heyday in the early 20th century, it is still enjoyed by many and even has it's own World Championship. Players flick "cookies" on a 25-30 inch wooden board, each trying to knock his opponent's disks from the playing field while positioning his own in the high-scoring regions.

Not only is the Crokinole great fun to play, but the boards are often quite beautiful as well. Interested? Well, you could splurge for a top-of-the-line board. But perhaps you'd prefer to start with a $15 cheapo jobbie from Amazon. Heck, you could even give Virtual Crokinole a whirl, or dust off your band saw and make your own.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 10:42 AM PST - 21 comments

WIG (Wing In Ground) boats are something like a cross between a hovercraft and an airplane. Taking advantage of a phenomenon that creates a cushion of air between a wing and the ground, they fly a few feet above the surface of the water, able to reach higher speeds with greater efficiency than traditional boats. The best known WIG boats are the Russian ekranoplans, and the largest and most famous of these was the KM, better known in the west as the "Caspian Sea Monster".
posted by Aaaugh! at 10:39 AM PST - 4 comments

"Verbal orders of the Comdr on 1 Aug. 72 suspending 1st Lt. George W. Bush ... from flying status are confirmed... Reason for suspension: failure to accomplish medical examination." Did I miss this 2 yrs ago? Did you? From page: "Year of refusing to take medical: 1972 Year drug testing implemented in military medical exams: 1972 When pinned down, George W. Bush said he has not taken drugs "since 1974." Era: Viet Nam war, young men drafted and required to go to Viet Nam. George Bush: after suspension, was able to "choose" to undertake civilian duty. Later, was assigned to disciplinary duties in Denver. " The best part is the the things News Editors said when this was sent to them.
posted by bas67 at 10:37 AM PST - 19 comments

American Family Pictures 2002. "2002 was a pretty good year for the family. We made some new friends and re-sparked some old acquaintances. It didn't end on such a good note, but like granddad used to say, 'you can't will em all, even if you are undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.'"
posted by tranquileye at 9:57 AM PST - 4 comments

Mormon Heaven, Mormon Hell, Mormon Underwear?
posted by interrobang at 9:51 AM PST - 71 comments

I don't know about you, but this scares the hell out of me. Do we really need a "Tom Ridge Jugend?" How soon will these 'outcasts from society' get snazzy uniforms and their own ceremonies?
posted by kablam at 9:28 AM PST - 29 comments

Could Donald Barthelme Be The Most Amusing American Writer Who Ever Lived? Is wrestling fixed? Do bears shit in the woods? To my mind, he's the best American writer I've ever read. He's probably also the most underrated and least known master of the short story. Jessamyn's web site is full of his wonderful, endlessly re-readable tales. My favourite is probably The Funeral Of Edward Lear. But they're all quite dazzlingly funny and beautiful. [WARNING: once you've read this small selection you may well find yourself intelligently investing around $100 to get hold of all his books. He died in 1989 but he writes as if he were yet to be born - say tomorrow morning at the latest.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:02 AM PST - 27 comments

The Family Policy Network is suing the University of North Carolina for "forcing freshmen and transfers to study Islam against their will." The flap is over an assigned reading that includes of 35 passages from the Qur'an. The FPN claims that the students' First Amendment Rights are being violated. Does anyone else this find this very bizarre?
posted by Bag Man at 7:43 AM PST - 54 comments

Sign up to fight the filters. As filters get piled upon filters it gets difficult to tell whether the document requests fail due to technical problems or due to active denial. These folk are developing a distributed application which will use idle cycles to map out the boundaries of filter space and help fight the cantonization of the Net.
posted by srboisvert at 7:42 AM PST - 4 comments

Sol: A Great Big Ball of Burning....Iron? Well that's what a UMRolla professor thinks anyway -- instead of being mostly hydrogen, that the sun is actually mostly iron. He's going against all popular belief, and indeed lots of evidence, but his theory states that our sun formed around the iron core of an old supernova.
posted by LuxFX at 6:47 AM PST - 13 comments

Rumpole and the Angel of Death. Leo McKern dies at 82. "Author John Mortimer created Horace Rumpole with only one actor in mind, and as the blustering, grumbling barrister, McKern did not disappoint."
posted by mcwetboy at 5:45 AM PST - 11 comments

Chaim Potok dead at 73 Author of The Chosen, The Promise, My Name Is Asher Lev, and and many others has died of Brain Cancer. Here is a link to a biography and selections of his work for anyone who may be unfamiliar with his life and work.
posted by atom128 at 5:14 AM PST - 7 comments

Is the passenger screening less secure than purely random screening? According to the write-up in this paper, complete with probabilistic analysis and computer simulation, the answer is yes. I've hijacked the link from BoingBoing.
posted by substrate at 5:12 AM PST - 10 comments

The FT is running a series on immigration. So far they've spotlighted Marseilles, Mexican migrant workers, E. Europeans in the West and the expatriate S. Africans, as well as done some broader analysis on the benefits and perils of immigration. (more inside :)
posted by kliuless at 10:29 PM PST - 2 comments

7 Year Old Abducted Girl Escapes Captors, Flees to Safety. In the "Summer of Child Kidnappings," the rest of the US could learn a thing or two from Philadelphia girls. Erica Pratt, 7, escaped her captors Tuesday night by chewing through duct tape binding her arms and legs, breaking through a locked basement door, smashing a window, and then calling to nearby playing children for help.
posted by ncurley at 10:22 PM PST - 42 comments

HBO's Real Sports aired the tape of Al Sharpton negotiating a drug deal with an undercover FBI agent. I saw the show tonight, Sharpton was obviously unprepared to respond. He left and then came back after he figured out what he was going to say. Why would he refuse to watch it if he didn't know he was going to watch something as baldly incriminating as the tape? Why are black Americans (me included) allowing people like Sharpton to represent them in the media? As if you didn't need a reason before this to kick Sharpton to the curb. (more inside)
posted by McBain at 9:04 PM PST - 27 comments

Salon launches blog service. Free for 30 days, then it's $39.95 for the first year of software updates and web hosting. Let the debate begin!
posted by sassone at 8:16 PM PST - 26 comments

Gotterdammerung. It's big, it's bad, and it's due in 2019. Dammit, who's going to rock me to sleep tonight? [via /.]
posted by tankboy at 7:25 PM PST - 29 comments

Congress is about to consider an entertainment industry proposal that would authorize copyright holders to disable PCs used for illicit file trading. "The measure would permit copyright holders to perform nearly unchecked electronic hacking if they have a "reasonable basis" to believe that piracy is taking place."
posted by mathowie at 7:00 PM PST - 40 comments

Neo-Nazi William Pierce, author of "The Turner Diaries," dead from cancer. The world just got a little brighter.
posted by scottandrew at 6:12 PM PST - 17 comments

In a word, Google's goal is to do important stuff that matters to a lot of people. In pursuit of that goal, we've developed a set of values that drive our work, including one of our most cherished core values: "Don't be evil." We already know that Google can deliver the goods when it comes to services -- so what do you guys think? Is it possible that a company could actually be worthy of our trust?
posted by tweebiscuit at 5:20 PM PST - 29 comments

Justice Department's Revised View of 2nd Amendment Is Cited as Defense in Gun Cases. If anyone has the right to own a gun, then committing a crime while carrying one shouldn't be an added charge, right? Now dozens of criminal defendants are asking the courts to dismiss gun charges against them. Maybe Ashcroft didn't think this one all the way through, especially considering the way his edict came out of left field the way it did.
posted by crunchland at 4:06 PM PST - 51 comments

Does anyone even care anymore? 14 Dead in apartment building bombing by missile launched from American-made Israeli-owned F-16. Is there any way out of this half-assed occupation, or will both sides continue to blame each other indefinitely while making no progress towards a political solution?
posted by zekinskia at 1:53 PM PST - 156 comments

When the Japanese do ice cream, you end up with flavors like...well, whatever you're thinking, it's probably not too far off.
Mmm, wasabi.
posted by Su at 1:23 PM PST - 30 comments

savemartha.com Everyone who wants to show support for Martha should bake a cake on August 3rd and give it to someone important to them--an old friend, a new neighbor, or someone in need. It's a great way to reach out and show you care, and a great way to spread goodness to both friends and strangers alike--which is what Save Martha! is ultimately all about.
posted by machaus at 1:16 PM PST - 20 comments

It's not the economy stupid: Right wing radio pundit Rush pins Apple's market share woes not on a nonexistant economic downturn (pay no attention to the plummeting chart of the DOW and NASDAQ) but instead on Steve Jobs' refusal to renounce his personal politics.
posted by nathan_teske at 12:10 PM PST - 40 comments

Catholic priests are amatuers! Move over you bunch of undisciplined pedophiles and let the Jehovah Witnesses show you how it's done! [Insert your crass joke here] Yet another invaluable link that can never be found in the US. Thanks UK!
posted by nofundy at 12:02 PM PST - 8 comments

Xymphora blog has very interesting 9/11 details The links here suggest that the govt had more information than was initially released, and that only through piecing together various reports (here) do we get a fuller picture which seems at odds with what we had previously been told. Important: this is not a conspiracy theory but rather what seems a clarification.
posted by Postroad at 9:23 AM PST - 25 comments

Big Brother is here! Close to a thousand Brirish schools have collected their student`s fingerprints via library scanners; all this without the consent or knowledge of the parents. Please commend my success in refraining from oversentionalizing the story. YES!
posted by ( .)(. ) at 9:23 AM PST - 15 comments

To arms! To Arms! The Jesuits are coming! And here we thought Al Qaeda was the main threat.
posted by mrmanley at 8:24 AM PST - 17 comments

citigroup , the epitome of corporate evil, look like they were in bed with enron as well - nice bunch. time to cut up your citibank credit cards? username: metafilter46 password: metafilter
posted by specialk420 at 7:38 AM PST - 34 comments

Monkeyfish.com : a few gems here, including playing with matches (groovy bar trick) and "Understanding Your Woman" (apparently, a "found" object.) Also, "Advice on Hash and Weed."
posted by ColdChef at 7:06 AM PST - 14 comments

Non-citizens put on notice to file change in addresses
The Ashcroft Gestapo strikes again!

If a permanent resident doesn't file this change-in-address form, they are talking about penalties up to and including deportion! Note we aren't talking about student visa holders or anything like that .. we are talking about people who have lived in this country for 10 .. 20 .. 30 years or more in many cases.

This country is really turning into a police state the way things are going.
posted by ssheth at 4:34 AM PST - 44 comments

Dear Madam Or Sir: Please Allow Esquire To Write That Difficult Letter For You. Has your company just been downsized? So what do you want to do? Tell them to go screw themselves or prepare to seriously kiss some butt? Go ahead and put Esquire's Letter Generator to the test, then! Hell, maybe you just want to resign altogether. [Choose between triumphant mode and contrite mode]. Or perhaps you need to apologize for some unforgivable mistake.[Don't worry: you can make your letter grovelling or optimistic]. Or, hopefully, all you need is to write a simple, yet effective love letter to your beloved [Do you prefer something light-hearted or really mushy?]. Whatever your needs, it's fun and, at least to my mind, not entirely devoid of real savoir-faire. A few corrections here and there and they could almost work in real life...[One or two harmless pop-ups are part of the deal]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:27 AM PST - 8 comments

The final nail in the coffin we call 'flash-meme'. Ok. Now that we have hit the end of the road on this sort of thing... allow us to catch on fire and then dive off the cliff. 'Kay, thanks, good game.
posted by jcterminal at 11:04 PM PST - 19 comments

Mississippi Judge with Big WorldCom and Repubilican Ties Seemed to be "Asleep at the Switch" "Judge Barbour was an ideal adjudicator for the home team. A resident of nearby Yazoo City, Miss., Barbour and his family reside in a state where WorldCom was the biggest source of local pride and a major supplier of high-paying jobs. Mississippi is undergoing a highly charged tort reform battle, with Republicans squarely on the side of curtailing shareholder lawsuits. A Reagan appointee to the bench in 1983, Barbour is a first cousin and former law partner of Haley Barbour, former Republican National Committee chairman and now a high-powered Washington lobbyist mulling a run for Mississippi governor. " In a case filled by shareholders in March of this year Judge Barbour dismissed it and said "The numbers are so large, the stakes were so high, and the fall of the dollar value of WorldCom stock so precipitous, that the reader reacts by thinking that there must have been some corporate misbehavior.... However, after a thorough examination, it becomes apparent that the Complaint is a classic example of 'puzzle pleading,'" or using an onrush of "cross-references and repetition" in lieu of real substance. Forbes link. usr name=metafilter passwrd=metafilter
posted by bas67 at 9:33 PM PST - 9 comments

A new director has been announced for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban For this third installment of the franchise, Chris Columbus will be stepping down to producer, and Alfonso Cuarón has been announced to fill the director's chair. Now if they'll just get somebody else to step in for Rowling actually get the next book written....
posted by LuxFX at 8:14 PM PST - 23 comments

45 Things That Make You A Commie A list from 1961, by an FBI guy. Ironies aplenty.
posted by kablam at 5:21 PM PST - 32 comments

Project Cryo. Immortalize your lego loved ones with this tasteful cryogenic chamber, and always have them close at hand. [via captaincursor]
posted by gazingus at 5:09 PM PST - 5 comments

Is this for real? This company eDigital seems to be selling a very iFamiliar iProdcut. Any iIdeas?
posted by folktrash at 2:20 PM PST - 46 comments

The pursuit of permanent military supremacy. "The question facing all Americans, therefore, is whether the expenditure of hundreds (later thousands) of billions of dollars to defend against hypothetical enemies that may not arise until thirty or forty years from now is a sensible precaution, as contended by the President and Defense Secretary, or whether it eventually will undermine US security by siphoning off funds from vital health and educational programs and by creating a global environment of fear and hostility that will produce exactly the opposite of what is intended by all these expenditures."
posted by homunculus at 1:06 PM PST - 37 comments

Today we'll be discussing Jason, Slashdot's Commander, and Ernie. Apparently there's going to be a class in blogging taught to journalism grad students. Do you rail against this at all? Is it because most students won't get it and eff up blogging as a whole, or is it because this means that the blog has Sold Out To The Man? usual "I searched and couldn't find this" disclaimers apply.
posted by verso at 12:50 PM PST - 25 comments

Coney Island , home to the Mermaid Parade, the nation's oldest and best wooden roller coaster, a swell new music festival, and Sideshow freaks so empowered they even teach classes. The park has a rich history, and the future? ...
Disney?
posted by malphigian at 12:14 PM PST - 12 comments

How Bush made his millions. A short story by a very conservative journalist. "It is the story of a man who has been rewarded for repeated failures by having money shot at him through a fire hose. It is the story of a man who talks with a straight face about having "earned" a fortune of tens of millions of dollars, without having ever done an honest day's work in his life."
posted by nofundy at 11:11 AM PST - 45 comments

Like, Omigod! Rhino Records' latest orgy of nostalgia, The '80s Pop Culture Box, arrived in stores this week. The package boasts seven disks, 142 songs, and an impressive array of extras, including liner notes by Jamie Malanowski of Spy magazine, so this may be all that you need to become an instant '80s expert. If the $99.98 sticker price is too steep for you, and you're already an expert, though, you can try their contest for a chance to win a set (and a whole bunch more!) Gag me with a spoon!
posted by yhbc at 11:06 AM PST - 47 comments

The Ballad of "John Walker's Blues" Not long after Lindh pleaded guilty to aiding the former Afghan regime, maverick country-blues musician Steve Earle released a controversial ballad, "John Walker's Blues," that has infuriated the American heartland with lyrics like: We came to fight the jihad, our hearts were pure and strong/We filled the air with our prayers and we prayed for our martyrdom/Allah has some other plans, a secret not revealed/Now they're dragging me back with my head in the sack to the land of the infidel.
posted by laz-e-boy at 10:29 AM PST - 32 comments

With IPod, Who Needs a Turntable? This club in Manhattan lets their patrons play the DJ... but they use iPods for the music. But be forewarned... "Playing of any heavy metal ballads will result in immediate expulsion from the premises."
posted by darian at 10:16 AM PST - 6 comments

CARP claims a victim. KPIG, the first radio station to broadcast on the net says "oink!" and falls silent. One shoe fell on June 20, when the new digital performance royalty rate was established. The other shoe is soon to fall. Internet radio stations now have a whopping bill for retroactive royalties that comes due later this fall. More links: Save Internet Ratio! ... Radio and Internet Newsletter ... more news via Google.
posted by chipr at 10:12 AM PST - 39 comments

First there was the evolution in schools thing. Now, people are complaining about history books (in Texas no less), with such problems as "Margie Raborn said she wants all U.S. government books to describe the United States as a republic based on biblical beliefs."
posted by benjh at 10:00 AM PST - 26 comments

After the outrage about NPR's linking policy, they've written a new one. The ombudsman explains what happened.
posted by jaden at 8:59 AM PST - 20 comments

Ebay. The place to go for collectors...of evidence.
posted by anathema at 8:43 AM PST - 1 comment

Daniel Pinkwater is a big, fat weirdo who writes really hilarious books for smart children and young adults. He can also be heard doing commentary on NPR. His most famous novels include The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, Fat Men From Space, Lizard Music, and Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars. Some of his books are being slowly republished in omnibus form. You can read an interview with him here, or peruse some obsessive links./
posted by interrobang at 8:41 AM PST - 18 comments

Travelling can be expensive, but there are attractions and activities that won't break the bank. The Guardian provided some suggestions and invited readers to write in with their own. What are your favourite "budget" thrills from around the world?
posted by jedro at 7:03 AM PST - 15 comments

Zionism - Outspoken criticism from the unlikeliest of places. Neturei Karta, members of this orthodox clique condemn zionism, claiming there is no place in the modern world for a jewish state.
posted by johnnyboy at 4:56 AM PST - 74 comments

The Birth of Superman. A complete scan of Action Comics Number 1. (note - if you have a spare copy hanging about, probably net you a measly quarter of a mil...)
posted by Frasermoo at 3:46 AM PST - 36 comments

Have you ever wondered how many Am I X Or Not? sites there are? Check your names here. And if you're looking for inspiration for a new domain name look no further than this nifty tool that they have.
posted by ajbattrick at 2:33 AM PST - 2 comments

Do you seem to feel anxious lately? Well answer a few questions, and Hello Kitty will provide a psychological analysis for you!
This is just a bit scary. The questions are a little bizarre, too.
posted by Su at 1:53 AM PST - 18 comments

Seahawks Stadium was open to the public for the first time this past weekend, with activities on the field for kids, concession stands open with video menus advertising $3.25 hot dogs, and tours of the private box seats and the media room. It's a large stadium with fantastic views of downtown Seattle from some seats and views overlooking Elliot Bay from the western railings, the best hundreds of millions of tax-payer dollars can buy.

On Saturday, the first day of the public open house, a man jumped to his death from a northwest ramp of the stadium.
posted by dan_of_brainlog at 1:18 AM PST - 15 comments

Here's a simple example of a potentially interesting art project. Fill a Usenet post with words specifically chosen to create art based on Google's search word highlighting. Not sure if it's art or spam, but I am waiting for the first ASCII artist to step up to the plate and do something complex like the Mona Lisa.
posted by willnot at 10:34 PM PST - 10 comments

Barry Trotter Michael Gerber's parody of the Harry Potter series. The first chapter is available for download at the site. Well, I think it's funny...
posted by lilboo at 8:59 PM PST - 1 comment

We're back! [2] A new resistant strain of staph has been documented in a Michigan Man. Agricultural and medical abuse of antibiotics has quickly lead us to the point where only very expensive and rarely used antibiotics can treat some new antibiotic resistant strains of staph (and acne). On the bright side you can get your antibiotics by drinking some river water.
posted by srboisvert at 8:17 PM PST - 11 comments

WorldCom goes boom. (NY Times link.) Another big firm with accounting, ahem, "issues" declares bankruptcy. If you're comparing these disasters by size, this one completely blows Enron and Global Crossing out of the water.
posted by mrbula at 7:47 PM PST - 14 comments

Did wild game feasts lead to fatal brain disorders?
BSE/CJD comes to Middle America. How much of a threat is this to the rural, huntin', shootin', fishin' lifestyle?
Or is it just as much a threat to your average carnivore? More inside >>>
posted by dash_slot- at 6:47 PM PST - 23 comments

Welcome to Amerika? Tom Ridge (with the blessing of George W.) thinks it's time to re-examine the Posse Comitatus Act with an eye toward giving the Armed Forces more power to act in a domestic law enforcement capacity. After having the National Guard here during the Winter Olympics, I'm not so keen on seeing armed soldiers patrolling the streets again.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:32 PM PST - 24 comments

The Burqa Incident. British freethinker Sarah Lawrence dresses in a burqa to make a point at the US Libertarian Party Conference, and causes a hotel-wide security alert. Looks like one of those systemic sense-of-humour failures that conspire to spiral out of control these days. But isn't it a bit worrying when even Libertarian Party officials start threatening to report their own conference speakers to the FBI for suspicious dress sense?
posted by ntk at 5:00 PM PST - 17 comments

They're farther along than I thought... You may have heard about Nexia Biotechnology, who have put spider genes into goats to get milk with spider silk protein in it. I thought it was still in the research phase, but Nexia have apparently gone to market with the stuff. They've signed agreements with several manufacturers to produce spider silk protein-based products such as lightweight ballistic armor (like Kevlar, only lighter and non-toxic to produce) for the armed forces and super-strong sutures and prosthetic ligaments for medical supply companies.
posted by RylandDotNet at 12:45 PM PST - 7 comments

Striptease Nigerian style The women, ranging in age from 30 to 90, used a traditional and powerful shaming gesture to maintain control over the facility -- they threatened to remove their own clothing. All jokes aside, these women may know a thing or two about political startegy ... either that, or they have an excellent PR rep....
posted by poorhouse at 10:15 AM PST - 3 comments

Michael Schumacher has won his fifth Formula 1 world championship. He equals Juan Manuel Fangio's forty-five year old record.
posted by riffola at 7:09 AM PST - 16 comments

Idiosyncratic Personal Recipes: You Say Yummy, I Say Yuck! Who the hell says de gustibus non disputandum est? On the other hand, doesn't everyone have a secret culinary delight that would have the rest of the world heaving and retching at the very mention of its ingredients? I know I do. Don't worry, though. Comfort is at hand, whatever your mental age: for we are not alone. Bwahahahaha!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:39 AM PST - 102 comments

Case of the Missing Anthrax "The 400 pages of documents, which I've obtained and which were described by The Hartford Courant earlier this year, quote a newly arrived officer named Michael Langford as saying that he found "little or no organization," "little or no accountability," "a very lax and unorganized system" and signs of covert work and cover-ups." I'm concerned about the stock prices too, but, shouldn't this be on the evening news as well? NYTimes reg. reqr'd
posted by bas67 at 8:59 PM PST - 21 comments

American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections. [more inside]
posted by acridrabbit at 8:04 PM PST - 7 comments

I'll Trade You A Harken for an ImClone. Corporate scandal trading cards, certainly not a limited edition.
posted by owillis at 1:00 PM PST - 10 comments

Alan Lomax , the legendary collector of folk music who was the first to record towering figures like Leadbelly, Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie, died yesterday at a nursing home in Sarasota, Fla. He was 87. Mr. Lomax was a musicologist, author, disc jockey, singer, photographer, talent scout, filmmaker, concert and recording producer and television host. He did whatever was necessary to preserve traditional music and take it to a wider audience. (NY Times- Registraion Required) And... Additionally... And this. Also...
posted by y2karl at 11:48 AM PST - 26 comments

"What are we to make of the fact that the Fearless Leader of the Free World, a man brave enough to challenge terrorists in 80 nations to worldwide war, requires a general anesthetic for a routine colonoscopy?" Spectator magazine columnist David Steinberg raises a stink. (Found on Flutterby!)
posted by rcade at 11:12 AM PST - 21 comments

A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin. Ever wonder how the Middle East got so screwed up to start with? It all happened in an eight year time span, 1914-1922. The destruction of the Ottoman Empire laid the foundation for over half of the current conflicts in the world. Coupled with Huntingtons' Clash of Civilizations, this book does more to explain WTF went wrong.
posted by Mack Twain at 10:56 AM PST - 13 comments

In the case, Janet Reno vs. All Dance Parties That Suck...this court has determined that Janet Reno's Dance Party kicks ass! Play my song!!
posted by yonderboy at 8:58 AM PST - 8 comments

U.S. Aircraft Bombs Texas Home Kinda gives new meaning to "dummy bombs".
posted by Espoo2 at 8:20 AM PST - 7 comments

Get a job. This fella argues that to be a good writer (and by extension artist of any kind) you have to be out in the world of work and humdrum living. It's a big mistake, he says, to train writers as "writers" in little hothouse workshops. Exposure to the brawny world of work should be part of a writer's education. This, he suggests, is why so much modern fiction bites the weenie. (It does not, however, explain his own inability to compose a more coherent essay.) In any case, to get a job, or not get a job, THAT is the artist's question... (from Arts Journal Daily)
posted by Faze at 6:05 AM PST - 37 comments

Seating the duly-elected president in office "President-elect Gore would have to be elected to the house of representatives in 2002, along with enough democrats to give them a majority. they then elect him speaker of the house, at that point, all that's left is the simple matter of a double-assassination, and voila! President Al Gore." It's that easy. Yikes.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:34 PM PST - 23 comments

NASA finds gravitational 'space freeway' that runs through solar system ... Vorgon jokes aside, this could seriously reduce the amount of energy it takes to move around the solar system. [this is good]
posted by SpecialK at 6:25 PM PST - 23 comments

A while back, I linked the world's smallest web site, which was 32px². Of course, someone would take that as some sort of a challenge.
So here's the new smallest site in all its glory: Dot16.
If you revisit Guimp, you'll note they're not too pleased about this.
posted by Su at 4:17 PM PST - 13 comments

All of us abuse the hand sanitizer: True porn clerk stories.
posted by muckster at 2:22 PM PST - 32 comments

100 albums you should chuck out. While I wouldn't necessarily agree with all this blokes selections, he is very, very funny. I can barely believe it hasn't been posted before, I searched and it's not there.
posted by Fat Buddha at 2:14 PM PST - 68 comments

A man has been forced to flee his Canadian home after having sex with two dogs he dressed in women's underwear. best. ananova. story. ever.
posted by swell at 1:16 PM PST - 31 comments

How Safe is the Blood Supply? A tainted donor infects two with HIV in Florida. The people in charge of the blood claim it's safe. But recent books and documentaries raise serious questions.
posted by ahughey at 1:07 PM PST - 12 comments

Corn: Planted over patches of American soil totalling twice the size of New York state, corn is our national symbol of agricultural dominance, writes Botany of Desire author Michael Pollan in the NYTimes. But its proliferation may be to blame for some of the most socially and environmentally damaging food products of the last 20 years.

Plus, since the market price for corn is $1 less per bushel than its production cost, you're not only paying the price of obesity, malnutrition, and environmental damage, you're paying, well, $1 a bushel in taxpayer-supported government subsidies.

Lunch?
posted by PrinceValium at 12:22 PM PST - 27 comments

Lord of the rabbits. No rabbit is more intriguing than the mysterious Jackalope. Worshipped by many, this fabulous creature will capture your heart and beautify your home.
posted by bargle at 11:41 AM PST - 3 comments

Abandoned places and abandoned spaces hold all sorts of mystery for the curious sort, and Zone-Tour takes you along to view some fantastic urban wastelands with pictures and movies. Inspired to do some investigation of your own? Then check out Infiltration - "The 'Zine about Going Places You're Not Supposed to Go"
posted by headspace at 10:41 AM PST - 10 comments

Who hasn't longed to see close-up pictures and diagrams of rabbit genitals? Before sexing your rabbit at home, be sure to know the signs of rabbit anger. And watch out: "Some rabbits are so 'mean' they seem more like predators than prey."
posted by mediareport at 10:22 AM PST - 18 comments

UHaul "Venture Across America Series" - surprisingly compelling content for a moving company. There are about twenty-five features about various states and provinces.
posted by SilentSalamander at 10:00 AM PST - 9 comments

Rockem Sockem Rabbis! Some more Shockwave fun, just in case you had any potential productivity lingering today.
posted by toddshot at 9:55 AM PST - 3 comments

Camper Van Beethoven are playing at the Knitting Factory in New York City tonight. After they broke up, they divided into sucky and non-sucky parts. Some members have been putting out pretty consistently good music by themselves over the years. Here's what they've been up to.
posted by interrobang at 9:47 AM PST - 11 comments

Build your own electric VW Rabbit! It's easy, just order the VoltsRabbit kit and you can have your very own 90-mile range electric car. Bonus boints for converting a Rabbit Convertible to electric!
posted by laz-e-boy at 9:42 AM PST - 3 comments

Welcome to the Rabbit Emporium! We've got your Rabbit cars, your rabbit lures, your rabbit candy, your problem solving rabbits, books about rabbits, blogs by rabbits, games about rabbits...heck, we've got everything you need to know to raise and care for your rabbits.
posted by me3dia at 8:48 AM PST - 13 comments

More friday fun games... In the last three days I killed way to much time on this little game. Being that friday seems to be the day to release links to flash stuff and games, I leave you with Marbles.
posted by thebwit at 8:25 AM PST - 13 comments

It's Friday. How about some insanely cute Flash games?
posted by O9scar at 7:52 AM PST - 6 comments

In honour of it being Friday, and all the mention of rabbits below, I present you with: The Rabbit. The sheer volume and effort truly amazes me, and the stories are...interesting. Oh, and let's not forget the quotes page. The creator of these pages may be a complete genius or totally crazy, but always interesting. (it's entirely possible that some of this may not be worksafe)
posted by ashbury at 7:36 AM PST - 1 comment

It's Not Easy Hating Football... ...or sports in general, when all around you conspire to make you feel an outcast and a, well, spoilsport. Andrew O'Hagan's account of his own brave - but losing - battle against (for a lot of us) the waste of time and intelligence that are spectator sports is the funniest, most obsessive and refreshingly blinkered anti-football tirade I've ever read.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:32 AM PST - 14 comments

Facing Serial Unemployment, it's Time for a New Game Plan. Anyone else frustrated with jobs that disappear out from under them? What is the "new game plan" that works? (Say an unemployed person realizes that these Boston Globe articles disappear just as fast as their jobs do. In solidarity with other unemployed workers, they violate copyright and cache this article on a website. Do we prosecute?)
posted by sheauga at 7:28 AM PST - 4 comments

It's Friday. Poke the rabbit.
Er, bunny.
posted by brownpau at 6:35 AM PST - 6 comments

"Just don't tell my wife" says a guy who shot at a helicopter when it landed in a vacant lot across from his house to pick up a passenger. He was sure they were terrorists. What happened to just calling the police and reporting the helicopter's number?
posted by onhazier at 5:59 AM PST - 26 comments

For Friday, a simple & beautiful game :-)
posted by Arqa at 5:52 AM PST - 14 comments

Pssst, don't look at me, just listen. Were you followed? Good. I've left the information you requested at a drop right in front of The International Spy Museum which opens today in Washington, DC.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 5:07 AM PST - 9 comments

It's Friday. Deep fry rabbits. (Not Flash)
posted by mattw at 4:03 AM PST - 6 comments

It's Friday. Make Rabbits. (Flash)
posted by Frasermoo at 12:25 AM PST - 11 comments

'20th Hijacker' Offers Guilty Plea and Cooperation
He is charged with helping plan the September 11 attack. During his third arraignment on amended charges, Zacarias Moussaoui offered to enter a guilty plea. "For the guilt phase, I'm guilty," he told the judge. "But for the death penalty, we will see." You'd think in this day and age, it'd be hard to pull off a complete surprise. Moussaoui is representing himself.
posted by rschram at 11:46 PM PST - 14 comments

It's Elementary Watson Apple is a big fat thief, and stealing fromthe third-party devleopers it claims to support no less. An Apple faithful, this ticks me off. Apple stole the look, very features and functions of a shareware app called Watson and put it into Sherlock3. Watson is the the very product Apple itself named a few months ago as the "Most Innovative Mac OS X Software". So, they know it exists and what it does, and instead off topping it, they took it. Pure and simple. Did Apple pay for this? Did they buy them out? Did they even ask? Nope. This is the final word from Watson's developer. Man they sound mad. I know I am. If anyone can get the word out, MF can.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 10:33 PM PST - 30 comments

God, you our Fadda. You stay in da sky. We like all da peopo know fo shua how you stay, an dat you good an spesho inside, an we like dem give you plenny respeck. We like you come king ova hea now. We like everybody make jalike you like, ova hea inside da world, jalike da angel guys up inside da sky make jalike you like. Give us da food we need fo every day. Let us go, an throw out our shame fo all da kine bad stuff we do to you, jalike us guys let da odda guys go awready, an we no stay huhu wit dem fo all da kine bad stuff dey do to us. No let us get chance fo do bad kine stuff, But take us outa dea, so da Bad Guy no can hurt us. Cuz you our king, you get da real power, an you stay awesome fo eva. Dass it!

Hawaii Creole English, from the Language Museum, which lists examples of 2000 languges.
posted by swift at 9:13 PM PST - 14 comments

Every wonder why most Hollywood movies completely stink? It's 'cuz all the decent writers get put through the wringer like this guy, and give up. He hasn't given up yet, and does seem to at least be getting a lot of free Evian at the production companies pitches at.
posted by GriffX at 4:11 PM PST - 21 comments

Pregnancy test results are not considered part of confidential medical records. Why, you say? Because the cops wanted to find out who dumped an abandoned baby, and subpoenaed Planned Parenthood's records to see who had gotten positive pregnancy test results recently. The rationale for the judge's ruling? "...the records aren't medical records because the staff who provide pregnancy tests aren't required to be doctors or nurses."
posted by beth at 2:25 PM PST - 14 comments

Mac takes control of Windows! A very useful addition to the Mac desktop for those who administer Windows-based servers. This handy utility allows you to start a Terminal Services session on a Windows machine.

This and a nice X Windows client lets my little 'ol iBook show the big iron who's the boss!
posted by Chief Typist at 2:08 PM PST - 13 comments

Turning on a single gene makes mouse brains grow huge, and fold in the skull similarly to human brains. Fancy discussing Derida over tea with a rodent? more inside...
posted by daver at 1:38 PM PST - 38 comments

All your jpegs belong to us. Another asshat clown patent claim on well known prior art.

Forgent's "fields of use" for licensing opportunities include digital cameras, digital still image devices, personal digital assistants (PDA's), cellular telephones that download images, browsers, digital camcorders with a still image function, scanners and other devices used to compress, store, manipulate, print or transmit digital images.

posted by scottst at 1:30 PM PST - 36 comments

WHAT IS THE CBDTPA? The law would force all new personal computers and digital home entertainment devices sold in the United States to have government-approved "policeware" built-in. This policeware would restrict your use of copyrighted material on these devices -- including music files and CD's, video clips, DVD's, e-books, and more.
posted by Niahmas at 10:28 AM PST - 6 comments

Is this astoundingly bad timing or what? Big Brothers/Big Sisters "will require that all 500 of its local affiliates include active homosexuals as volunteers and mentors to children", according to this article. On a side note, why hasn't this been widely reported?
posted by kablam at 9:33 AM PST - 176 comments

Terrist messages in digital photographs questioned (salon.com). Last week, USA Today raised a stir by claiming that terrorists were trading hidden messages in images on ebay by the "hundreds" using an uncited source. Salon contacting other sources willing to go on the record found that finding hundreds of hidden messages requires sampling more files than were posted to ebay in the past year. In addition steganography analysis turns up a high rate of false-positivies. Is this a case of seeing what we want to see like the Bacon-Shakespeare ciphers?
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:16 AM PST - 18 comments

The WebPlayer is a Shockwave app that turns a web page into music by converting the HTML into numbers and then running that through formulas developed by Arnold Schoenberg, who came to be known as the inventory of atonalism in music, and influential in serialism, which aims to produce music by controlling aspects of the music with number series. Don't expect Beethoven, but sometimes the output is nice.
The Google front page produced a pretty soothing bit of background sound the first time I tried it, but the next, it sounded like several other pages I tried. Some explanation for this and the choice of a single sound can be found in the informative critique.
posted by Su at 7:49 AM PST - 9 comments

AOL Joins the "Irregularity" Parade? "AOL converted legal disputes into ad deals. It negotiated a shift in revenue from one division to another, bolstering its online business. It sold ads on behalf of online auction giant eBay Inc., booking the sale of eBay's ads as AOL's own revenue. AOL bartered ads for computer equipment in a deal with Sun Microsystems Inc. AOL counted stock rights as ad and commerce revenue in a deal with a Las Vegas firm called PurchasePro.com Inc."
posted by owillis at 7:48 AM PST - 17 comments

Follow-up on this thread: the city council of Moscow, Idaho has banned bare breasted women in response to three roommates who staged a roving topless car wash to raise rent money. A sign declaring, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but breasts will never hurt me," reflected the view of most residents who packed the council chambers. Two women pulled off their shirts after the council approved the ordinance. I'm thinking a mass protest is in order - thousands of women should converge on Moscow, Idaho and pull their shirts off. Fight the power!
posted by RylandDotNet at 7:25 AM PST - 82 comments

The U.S. Army pays for lapdances. "In addition to the inappropriate purchases, the GAO said more than 1,200 Army employees wrote bad checks to pay their government credit card bills. Last year alone, that cost taxpayers $3.8 million in higher fees and lost rebates." You mean, the government practices bad accounting? Ron Paul points out that the Congress commits the worst accounting fraud of all. But the most important issue of all is, with the government paying for Strip Club tips, gambling, and wine, does this mean that God will no longer bless America?
posted by insomnyuk at 7:25 AM PST - 18 comments

Just click "Fun" ... and you're ready to rock. I'm guessing this is an idea that came from Japan.
posted by ph00dz at 6:58 AM PST - 16 comments

I was walking past a McDonald's on my way to work this morning, and I noticed a remarkable advertisement in the window. It was a poster of a tiny baby's hand grasping a much larger adult hand, with text at the bottom that asked: "When will she have her first french fry?" (Sorry, I can't find it duplicated online.) I'm not necessarily anti-McDonald's, or even anti-fastfood--although I am pro-slowfood--but this poster turned my stomach. Advertisements have a long history of backfiring, including pop-up ads, pharmaceutical ads, online political ads, automobile ads, and even a recently discussed computer ad. Have you seen any ads recently that didn't exactly have the intended effect? What were the ad people thinking?
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:39 AM PST - 105 comments

SleazeWagon rolls on . . . Big media look elsewhere
DNC chairman McAuliffe's shady business past . . . Democrat Corzine tied to stock scheme . . . Democrat Gephardt received unsecured loan from McAuliffe's bank . . . Big business major source of Democratic leader Daschle's family income; Wife, Linda, is premier Washington lobbyist
posted by nobody_knose at 6:06 AM PST - 20 comments

The CEO White House has yet another CEO with credibility problems. On Mr. O'Neill: "Administration officials "need to bring in someone with real credibility, with a good understanding of economics and who understands politics," said Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee."
posted by nofundy at 5:16 AM PST - 2 comments

Americans for a Third Way in the Middle East - Daily Links to Voices of Moderation. A soldier's blog which had fallen silent resumes. Rantburg salutes the Palestinian Resistance. Research Guide to the Palestinian - Israeli Conflict. You must read all 3719 research links before peace negotiations can resume.
posted by sheauga at 5:00 AM PST - 9 comments

Best British Blog. The Guardian has launched a competition to find the best British weblog. Is this another case of the mainstream media not really understanding what blogging is all about?
posted by crayfish at 3:55 AM PST - 18 comments

Paranormal Deathmatch
About as weird as it sounds. Bit o' fun, though.
posted by Optamystic at 1:19 AM PST - 3 comments

Wallow in a little nostalgia: "Long after his simple home page made him an unlikely Web sensation, Mahir Cagri is still holding on to a fame that he knows he never really deserved...."
posted by donkeyschlong at 1:09 AM PST - 2 comments

The Fairy Feller's Masterstroke (FFM) (in the Tate collection) Richard Dadd, a Victorian gentleman, a convicted murderer and patient at the famous Bedlam asylum, spent nine years carefully crafting his masterpiece. He wrote a guidebook for it and insisted that each of the hundred characters in the painting is assigned a special task. What does he mean? Well, Neil Gaiman, among others, was inspired by this painting (it influenced the Sandman) and considers it a life-long obsession. He also wrote the introduction to a new book being published about the painting as a gateway to the supernatural world.

A bit of background: Dadd was a painter of Victorian Fairy Art. The obsession with fairies was like a fever that overtook the Victorian Mind. Another painter of note was Richard Doyle, the uncle of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes). A.C. Doyle himself was involved in a fascinating controversy that raged at the time. the Cottingley fairies, in which two young girls circulated photos of themselves with fairies. Doyle proclaimed that the photos "represent either the most elaborate and ingenious hoax ever played upon the public or else they constitute an event in human history which may in the future appear to have been epoch-making in its character" Unfortunately for Doyle, it was the former though the hoax was hardly ingenious, relying on cardboard cutouts and the will to believe.
posted by vacapinta at 12:35 AM PST - 18 comments

Inglewood cops indicted in beating. The one guy who slammed the kid down and punched him for abusing his authority. The other one is being charged with filing This false report Funny just yesterday after having watched the video and then seeing the report I was noticing some obviouse holes in the story
posted by bitdamaged at 11:22 PM PST - 3 comments

Classic Nick Homepage. The Adventures of Pete and Pete! Welcome Freshman! Mr. Wizard! David the Gnome! Pinwheel! Eureka's Castle! Count Duckula! Danger Mouse! Salute your Shorts! Hey Dude! They're all here!

Relive your childhood by perusing the pages at the Classic Nick Homepage. Remember whole subplots for shows you can't remember ever having watched! Go that extra step and demand the shows be put back on the air--sign the Petition! Already 5961 signatures strong, maybe there's a chance that MeFi could help the 80's Nick generation to once again experience the majesty of Artie... "The strongest man in the world!"
posted by Hammerikaner at 8:29 PM PST - 41 comments

War, Incorporated. "'War is a racket. It always has been....A racket is best described as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many.' Words of a radical peacenik? Only if a Marine Corps Major General qualifies as such." Of course, this particular Major General was talking about the oooold days when corporations had the political pillow-patter down, and our elected officials were the best money could buy. Not like the way things are today.

And who was this crackpot Ike, anyway?
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 7:04 PM PST - 18 comments

Adcritic is back! Although, "better than ever" to them means $69.95 a year.
posted by mathowie at 6:41 PM PST - 16 comments

Meta Incognita Peninsula, Anyone? Play The Place Names Game! If you're toponymy-mad like me, you'll love searching world-wide for strange, rude, funky or absurd place names on the Getty Thesaurus Of Geographic Names. Meta produced some fascinating results... [ Australia and Canada have their own excellent search machines and, even though the Getty machine is international, I was sorry not to find equally uncomplicated facilities for the known-to-be-hilarious U.K. or the U.S...].
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:25 PM PST - 15 comments

Scrutiny on the Bounty. After investigating a single rape charge, a British prosecutor assigned to Pitcairn Island, the refuge of the Bounty mutineers, began interviewing young girls. Now 20 Pitcairn men may be charged; the island's entire population is just 44. (Most Pitcairners were removed to Norfolk Island, near Australia, in the 19th century; despite the precarious existence, some descendants returned to Pitcairn and have insisted on remaining.) The primary defense is that the island was following Polynesian customs with an age of consent as young as 12; but many Pitcairners are indistinguishable from European expats, and many spend much of their lives in New Zealand or Australia for school or work. Until recently the island's inhabitants {official site} mainly worried about underpopulation and economic isolation despite touting a communal, agrarian lifestyle. "It's like a small English town," said a teacher who spent two years there. "But you can't get away."
posted by dhartung at 4:15 PM PST - 4 comments

"Don't dip your oar in this sordid sea, Dick. You might be besmirched." I've loved this campy show and movie ever since they first appeared, and the never missed opportunities to try to teach/preach through goody-two-shoe'dness such as lecturing Robin, talking tough with criminals, and dealing with women range from the classic: [more]
posted by mikhail at 4:11 PM PST - 10 comments

Tech secrets of Cocaine, Inc. - a look at the IT infrastructures of Colombian drug cartels. "I spent this morning working on the budget," the head of DEA intelligence, Steve Casteel, said recently. "Do you think they have to worry about that? If they want it, they buy it."
posted by edlundart at 3:54 PM PST - 24 comments

Ace Doubles were undersized paperback novels published from the mid 1950s to the late 1960s. One book was on one side, the other, upside-down on the back. Sometimes, they were intended to introduce a new author t o the public by piggybacking the newcomer with a well-known professional (with varying results). Aside from the novelty of the layout of an Ace Double there is the fabulous art by now-unknown artists like Ed Emshwiller (Emsh), Jack Gaughan (my favorite) and Ed Valigursky. I myself am partial to the D series. â??
posted by interrobang at 3:27 PM PST - 17 comments

An interesting idea Create your own bot... Sounds like an interesting service. What do you think?
posted by TNLNYC at 3:00 PM PST - 2 comments

Senate Approves Canada Drug Imports! "Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, said, "If this proposal becomes law, we are just placing our country in the hands of foreign terrorists who could easily get hold of various prescription drug products and spread desolation and disease." Really, Senator, what hallucinogen are you on, and which drug company is buying it for you? I'm sure this bill still faces hurdles, but sounds great to me.
posted by ParisParamus at 2:21 PM PST - 22 comments

Amazon Light is project powered by amazon's SOAP API, with a design and interaction reminiscent of Google's clean no-frills approach. Pretty cool and clean way to use the site (without annoying popups or gold box offers).
posted by mathowie at 1:56 PM PST - 37 comments

Jeb Bush's daughter fails hair-improvement therapy... errr...I meant fails drug program. Says Jeb: "There are consequences for every action we take in our lives, and as her parents, Columba and I wish we could have prevented our daughter from making the wrong choices." Now if somebody could just take that kind of responsibility for his brother.
posted by LuxFX at 1:37 PM PST - 28 comments

Ellen Feiss Apple ad pulled reportedly because she seems "too stoned." You decide. I don't know about you, but it seems very "duuude, you're gettin' an apple!"
posted by mathowie at 1:29 PM PST - 96 comments

Is it a cross between Memento and Shakespeare? Regardless, you'll never forget this short film. Remind Me Again is the funny story of a forgetful lover and his misadventure. (Real player required).
posted by Bag Man at 1:18 PM PST - 10 comments

Massachusetts Legislature kills proposed amendment to ban gay marriage. Is this a breach of grass roots justice? or the majority's right to strip rights from a minority should not be put to a popular or legislative vote?
posted by LinemanBear at 12:53 PM PST - 36 comments

Operation TIPS is a national system for reporting suspicious, and potentially terrorist-related activity. The program will involve the millions of American workers who, in the daily course of their work, are in a unique position to see potentially unusual or suspicious activity in public places. Here's a Boston Globe editorial on the program.
posted by Ty Webb at 12:34 PM PST - 33 comments

Is "T.A.T.U." the next big thing in music? They're a Russian teen-pop duo with a twist -- lesbianism. They appear on stage in wet t-shirts and white panties. One of their videos shows them wearing schoolgirl outfits and kissing in the rain, while another shows them building a bomb and getting naked on a carousel.

There are reports that the girls aren't actually lesbians, and that it's all just a gimmick to make their Svengali-like producer rich (surprise, surprise). We all know that controversy can sell records. If T.A.T.U. manages to get the right people upset, could they become stars in the U.S.? MTV and MTV2 started playing the video last week...
posted by Reggie452 at 10:53 AM PST - 66 comments

Scam: From 1920 to 1933, Oscar Merrill Hartzell bilked thousands and thousands of people out of millions and millions of dollars in the midst of a Great Depression. But when he was forcably returned to the US to face trial, the "common man" hailed him as a hero and savior. As the author of (the highly recommended) Drake's Fortune notes, confidence artists are a perverse echo of the classic Horatio Alger story, as swindlers build wealth by dint of ingenuity, perseverence, and breath-taking chutzpah. Perhaps that is why we love to read books and see films of their exploits. But it doesn't explain why we keep falling for the same ruses over and over again.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 10:32 AM PST - 6 comments

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People I've been waiting for months to post about this. Since I don't remember anyone posting the NYT article about this and Toby Young amuses me to no end, I thought this article is an ideal introduction. (more inside)
posted by rodz at 9:34 AM PST - 11 comments

White couple gets black twins, sue IVF clinic. Experts say a mistake could have occurred in one of three ways.The wrong sperm could have been used to fertilise the right egg, the right sperm could have been used to fertilise the wrong egg, or the embryo implanted in the woman may have been another couple's altogether. Although it is not clear whether another couple has laid claim to the children, legal experts say the judge will be expected to make a modern-day judgment of Solomon on who should be considered the babies' legal parents. This is unploughed legal ground. Is there a fair way to sort this out?
posted by Mack Twain at 9:10 AM PST - 34 comments

Whomever said big things come in small packages was dead on. While most of mankind focuses on building bigger homes, bigger weapons and bigger boobs the researchers at Sandia National Laboratories think small. They are working on MEMS, or MicroElectroMechanical Systems. It's amazing stuff - they're microscopic machines, with gears the size of human blood cells. For size comparisons they used pictures and videos of a mite towering over the gears.
posted by hidely at 8:36 AM PST - 14 comments

New 20Gb iPod - now with official PC support from Apple.
Non-moving dust-proof scroll wheel, fast charge battery, wired remote control, thinner, I want one!
posted by Mwongozi at 8:18 AM PST - 56 comments

Score one for the good guys. Smug.com has been returned to its rightful owner.
posted by ratbastard at 7:37 AM PST - 5 comments

Paranoia or prudence? You decide. Seven people from an American Trans Air Chicago to New York flight were questioned by police, then released after a fellow passenger alerted flight attendants when she saw them "passing notes and changing seats". The plane was escorted to La Guardia by F-16's. Does this sound like safeguarding our freedom or are we getting rather creepy here?
posted by beth at 7:02 AM PST - 37 comments

Steve Jobs Begins Macworld Keynote. Macworld keynotes often bring with them innovative products that mac fans generally go crazy for. Today's keynote is rumored to bring with it 17" iMacs. On the other hand, it is also rumored that Apple will discontinue it's free and widely used iTools service in favor of a paid service. Is this right for a company that only has 5% of the market?
posted by devo at 6:09 AM PST - 86 comments

Whether it is Frank's art, Doug's grids, Vern's brilliant lighting solutions, or Hilde's straw on walls TLC's "Trading Spaces" is a strangely compelling show that, until I found this link at CNN, I thought my fiance and I were the only ones watching. The show is great and all, my question is just that with this, "A Makeover Story", "A Wedding Story" and "A Baby Story", is it really "The Learning Channel" anymore?
posted by McBain at 1:11 AM PST - 46 comments

Palestine. Dying to live. One hesitates to open once more the Palestine-Israel can of worms here, but this ad campaign is interesting in & of itself and because of the response itâ??s getting (on little green footballs, where I found it). The campaign itself is pretty well-done (i.e., the posters seem professional), and probably doesn’t mesh with most people’s idea of Pro-Palestinian propaganda in it’s sober understatement and use of (predominantly) Western icons to make it’s point. Also, the characterization that the campaign is designed to glorify martyrdom seems to be a projection by the viewer—I don’t get that at all from the posters themselves or the site (admittedly, some racist comments have made their way into the Dying2Live feedback page, but the same can be said of some of the comments on the lgf comments page). Am I missing something?
posted by sherman at 1:01 AM PST - 35 comments

Amazon does a Google! APIs for everyone! Cool. Now you can access Amazon's wealth of information via SOAP. This is great news for affiliates who could, potentially, create their own seamless Amazon.com. Amazon even gives some ideas for what cool stuff you could do with the info, including linking keywords from weblogs to their products.
posted by wackybrit at 11:59 PM PST - 16 comments

Commish or Capo? Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig has been sued under the RICO Act for wire and mail fraud. The charge stems from his attempt at the contraction of two teams in Major League Baseball.

Mr. Selig can't seem to get a break from bad publicity. Does he deserve one?
posted by Argyle at 11:53 PM PST - 6 comments

Man and his family booted off airplane after asking if pilots were sober. Hans von Schweinitz, on his way to go fishing in Canada, asked one of the flight crew whether the pilots had taken a sobriety test. They hadn't. A blood alcohol test kit was sent for. Two and a half hours later, with the plane sitting there on the tarmac, the pilots were found to be clean. Then they ordered von Schweinitz and his family to get off the plane, while the other passengers cheered.
posted by RylandDotNet at 9:04 PM PST - 43 comments

Happy 100th Birthday to one of the most important inventions of the 20th century, not to mention the coolest. I would bet that most people that are reading this right now, at least in the US and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, are benefiting from this invention, originally designed to take the curl out of paper. It also made summer blockbusters like Mr. Deeds bearable. (I guess every good thing has some downside.)
posted by fpatrick at 7:28 PM PST - 23 comments

During my long and mis-spent youth, I often spent time traveling the long dusty spaces between southern New Mexico and west Texas. There's a wide patch in the road called Orogrande, New Mexico, a virtual ghost town. I've always wondered why there'd even be a town in the middle of the desert and nowhere. Now I know why. Forgive the numerous pop-ups (and occassional ad for boobies) won't you? This is a tremendous resource for those interested.
posted by WolfDaddy at 5:34 PM PST - 17 comments

We are burning irreplacable fuel for energy at an alarming rate. Commerce is being conducted by crooks. Five members of the house commitee on energy and commerce are upset, but not about that. They're upset about this. I love my government. It's so amusing.
posted by quonsar at 4:43 PM PST - 6 comments

The Nametag Nation gets a voice online. Retail Workers along with our brethren in food service are the bulk of the nations clock-punchers now, and we've got a lot on our minds. Some sites, like the above linked, offer info on serious concerns. Other sites just let us vent. You may not agree with what we think, but we deserve to be heard from.
posted by jonmc at 2:49 PM PST - 28 comments

'A Tale in the Desert' seems to be shaping up into a rather interesting game. Not just another MMORPG, it's based upon the ancient Egyptian 'Seven Disciplines of Man'. From the FAQ:

It contains no combat: no monsters, no player-killers, no swords or armor. Your character advances by completing, participating in, or leading large projects. Negotiation and politics play a very large role. The game has a plot that unfolds in response to player actions, and when the story is over, the game ends.

posted by GriffX at 2:30 PM PST - 1 comment

Someone we trust says something reassuring. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, arguably the most powerful man in the world, blames "infectious greed" for the recent panic-like tail-spins on Wall Street, but says that the economy is on the way to recovery. One comment held that Greenspan was finally able to let out how he feels about what's going on, without shrouding his opinion in economic jibber-jabber.

"For once he really spoke his mind. He usually tends to obfuscate things quite a bit."

But really, how many of you expected Greenspan to say anything other than "the fundamentals are in place for a return to sustained healthy growth"? Does Greenspan actually feel this way? Could it be that he is actually majorly pessimistic, but is using his soothing sweet-song voice and obvious clout and earned respect to somehow buck recent trends? Bush's speech didn't do much for our faltering economy, but will Greenspan's? Can one man's mere words possibly change the course of history? Well?
posted by Hammerikaner at 1:54 PM PST - 27 comments

Invasion of the mall walkers? (NY Times) New Yorkers may well have seen this story about sidewalk etiquette on the front page of the metro section today, but I wonder 1) if other cities experience the same phenomenon and 2) if other New Yorkers have noticed this marked increase in sudden stoppers and other sidewalk amateurs.
posted by lackutrol at 1:44 PM PST - 42 comments

Today's brain teaser: a pro-life activist buys up a bunch of domains (full list at the bottom of this page) similar to organizations (and their directors), newspapers, and products.

Free speech or deceptive domain squatting?
posted by mathowie at 1:16 PM PST - 38 comments

Cheney in Numbers. It's hard to spin hard cold numbers. Here's a few: *Cheney's 2000 income from Halliburton: $36,086,635 Increase in government contracts while Cheney led Halliburton: 91% *Minimum size of "accounting irregularity" that occurred while Cheney was CEO: $100,000,000 (One hundred MILLION dollars) *Number of the seven official US "State Sponsors of Terror" that Halliburton contracted with: 2 out of 7 *Pages of Energy Plan documents Cheney refused to give congressional investigators: 13,500 *Amount energy companies gave the Bush/Cheney presidential campaign: $1,800,000 I also loved this quote: "Cheney and Bush want privacy for their conversations, but not for anyone else's." --Tony Mauro in USA Today, Feb. 27, 2002
posted by nofundy at 12:45 PM PST - 24 comments

Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest international human rights organization, says that 27 million people around the world live in slavery. That is a staggering number. (More information on slavery at iAbolish). Also, the OSCE says that the trafficking of humans has become the world's largest illegal business. The advancement of international human rights has a long way to go.
posted by homunculus at 10:39 AM PST - 5 comments

Somewhere, beneath the cover of an innocuous-looking retail operation, those with true Power have built a facility to imprison forces man was not meant to know . . . things we were never meant to comprehend... dare you peek inside...
posted by zeoslap at 10:27 AM PST - 12 comments

Six WTC site plans released by LMDC public-private partnership. Each idea revolves around a different conception of the memorial and is named for that, while showing variation in the structures that will be built around it. There are 3D renderings from above and from the south of the Battery, and skylines as seen from Jersey City, to show how the concept will fit into the existing neighborhood. None as imposing as the Twin Towers, but several include at least one distinctive structure that will rise above the nearest buildings, so Manhattan pedestrians can navigate again. All may be discussed Saturday in a public meeting at Javits Center, expected to attract 5000. I suspect that figure will be low.
posted by dhartung at 10:11 AM PST - 57 comments

Popup ads on your TV So, the media moguls have decided that they're tired of you ignoring their advertising...and thus, they will now insert popup ads into the live feeds. And you thought product placement was annoying. From Slashdot
posted by dejah420 at 9:21 AM PST - 47 comments

"Kids in the Hall: Braincandy" is finally being released on DVD today! Sadly, it appears to be barren of any added extras, interviews or commentaries. This release is only just making me more anxious for the criminally underrated "The Wrong Guy" (starring and co-written by KITH member Dave Foley) that is scheduled to come out on September 24th. It is a must see for Kids in the Hall fans and the troops absurd brand of humour. (I won't even get into my insane anticipation for the perpetually postponed Mr.Show movie "Run Ronnie Run!")
posted by boost ventilator at 8:39 AM PST - 20 comments

Pull up a folding chair and take a look at the folding chair's four thousand year history, thanks to the kind folks at designboom.
posted by ewagoner at 8:35 AM PST - 7 comments

To write...means campaigning against cliche: "Not just cliches of the pen but cliches of the mind and cliches of the heart."
posted by ColdChef at 7:58 AM PST - 47 comments

MeFi Users: You're Preapproved! Plastic begs for users, takes shots at MetaFilter with lines such as: "Plastic: the MetaFilter that doesn't reminisce about its 'golden era', three times a week!" and "Plastic: The MetaFilter that's already had weeks of unexplained downtime." Is offering "karma" and "mod points" going to make you switch? Isn't complaining about a lost golden era better than never having one at all?
posted by magnetbox at 7:23 AM PST - 27 comments

"Can I see pictures of the actual demining team being sponsored by GYWO?" Yes, another Get Your War On post, but this time to spotlight the benefit work the incredible success of the comic has enabled.
posted by djacobs at 7:11 AM PST - 5 comments

What if they put on a concert and nobody came? Its not sales of recorded music that are in the shitter. Now it turns out that live concert ticket sales are in freefall as well (Lets see Hillary try and blame that on MP3s!) The Clearchannel effect has been discussed here several times, but the concert promotion industry's trade paper, Pollstar, reports that sales are down 10% from last year and assigns the blame squarely on ever higher ticket prices: The average ticket cost across McCartney's recent 29 city US tour was $129.50 !!! CSNY had a tour average of $80. I've always preferred small venue acts, but even those have gotten pricey. I just saw Jorma in a 50 person coffeehouse and the tix were $35. (Coffee not included) So I ask the sizable MeFi musical appreciation crowd: Are you seeing less live music because of the cost?
posted by BentPenguin at 7:09 AM PST - 55 comments

We've Got Blog , with Introduction by Rebecca Blood, is now available. As one of the people in the Metafilter thread that is quoted at the end, I got my copy yesterday in the mail. Matt is among those with their own little section, as are many of your readily recognizable names. Haven't gotten through the whole thing, but seems to be a re-hash of the standard line of rah-rah.. will it appeal to people not online (or online unexposed to blogs)? If not, what value does it give to people who are into blogs and probably have read it all before online?
posted by rich at 6:56 AM PST - 28 comments

alreet canny lads and lasses Having trouble understanding our friends up north? well why not give the english to geordie translator a whirl. Its canny man.
posted by johnnyboy at 6:24 AM PST - 1 comment

It was a dark and stormy opening paragraph; the extravagant tropes and preposterously periodic sentences fell in torrents. The 2002 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest awards have been announced! If you secretly love prose so bad it's good, the Bulwer-Lytton is for you. A taste:

The blood dripped from his nose like hot grease from a roasting bratwurst pierced with a fork except that grease isn't red and the blood wasn't that hot and it wasn't a fork that poked him in the nose but there was a faint aroma of nutmeg in the air and it is of noses we speak not to mention that if you looked at it in the right profile, his nose did sort of look like a sausage.

posted by Slithy_Tove at 6:04 AM PST - 6 comments

There are lots of toys modeled after automobiles, but no automobile has ever been modeled after a toy (?), until now. The insanely popular Choro-Q line of toy cars of Japan (ebay pics here) have inspired a whole new line of impossibly cute real cars, to be unveiled in November of this year. The tiny, brightly colored electric autos look like something straight out of a Roger Rabbit cartoon, seat one, go 50 miles on a battery charge, and cost around $10,000.00 - $16,000. Must...have...one...
posted by iconomy at 4:33 AM PST - 15 comments

Given up on the TiVo wallpaper design contest? Submit a design to the Japanese Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, and Telecommunications' Postage Stamp Design Contest. This year's theme is "Peace". Eight winning designs from anywhere in the world will be chosen, and the grand prizes of up to 200,000 Yen (~$1700 USD) awarded to their creators. Check out some of the previous years' winners for inspiration.
posted by Danelope at 1:23 AM PST - 3 comments

This is some scary stuff. Life in prison for malicious hacking? We can't keep rapists and murderers away from society for very long but now hackers & crackers could be jailed for life? And on top of that the FBI can monitor internet packets without a warrant? If you enjoy your freedom from gov't surveillance, it looks like it's time to start using PGP.
posted by mathowie at 12:22 AM PST - 21 comments

I'm Skeptical. UFOs, psychic phenomenon, Bigfoot, or miracles got you down? Consult the Skeptic's Dictionary. Debunker James Randi is online as well, while psychic Sylvia Browne just refuses to take $1 million dollars.
posted by owillis at 9:50 PM PST - 11 comments

Blogging while "homeless" - two Seattle guys just spent a week pretending to be homeless. They claim this newspaper article heavily misquoted them, but they are getting various flak in their message forums. A worthwhile project or were they just jealous of the Seattle Star Wars fans?
posted by gluechunk at 9:21 PM PST - 18 comments

Pariah dogs of the Middle East No, not these two jokers, but the real thing: Canaan dogs. Like the more refined Saluki, Sloughi, Azawakh, Afghan Hound and "barkless" Basenji (among many others), Canaan dogs have been known for thousands of years. They guard herds for modern Bedouins like they did for ancient Israelites. During the 1930s, when traditional "war dogs" were having trouble adapting to Palestine, Zionists carefully redomesticated the semi-wild animals, turning them into seeing eye dogs and guards for isolated settlements. Canaan dogs became one of the first breeds trained to detect mines effectively, although their use for bomb-sniffing remains a touchy subject [LAT, reg'n]. You also might enjoy pondering the provocative question raised by this detailed essay: Why have all three major monotheistic religions considered dogs "a threat to the authority of the clergy"?
posted by mediareport at 8:21 PM PST - 8 comments

New Starbucks Slogan: "For Your Health".... new research shows that three cups of coffee or more every day might reduce risk of alzheimers by 60%. I'm sure dedicated coffee drinkers really need another reason....
posted by LuxFX at 8:01 PM PST - 14 comments

The Breakfast of Champions! Drinking too much lately? Menudo (tripe) (not these guys) has been touted as one of the best hangover cures known to mankind (mefi'ers agree). Not to be confused with its kinder gentler cousin Posole, Menudo is part of the canon of authentic Mexican food (what mexicans eat).
posted by vacapinta at 7:07 PM PST - 7 comments

Whedonesque.com Come on, it's time to get rid of all those Buffy, Angel and Firefly links/comments on mefi.
posted by roel at 6:49 PM PST - 8 comments

Coyle and Sharpe were two geniuses of street improv. Their man on the street interviews and bizarre senses of humour were unique and daring. Check out these great mp3s. (Great to see MeFi back!)
posted by dobbs at 6:36 PM PST - 4 comments

Does Beer Really Equal Democracy Equal The U.S.A? Max Rudin's somewhat wild assumptions only make this article of his more interesting. But is it true that beer in North America overtakes all the usual class, status and income boundaries? If so, it certainly sets it apart from Europe, where all the old preconceptions and habits still prevail and (at least in the Southwest) a glass of wine is always cheaper than a beer. So I guess the question here is: just how political can beer be? [As a chaser, the British expert Michael Jackson's list of the ten great beers of America seems authoritative and tempting, if a tad disloyal to the cask-conditioned real, live ales of England and Scotland...].
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:33 PM PST - 20 comments

The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil liberties groups.

The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report "suspicious activity".
posted by artifex at 1:22 PM PST - 31 comments

The city of Enoch, Utah, population 3467, has an annual animal-control budget of $25,000. A budget this small means that Enoch's Animal Control must display some creativity when it comes to dealing with the problem of stray or unwanted animals. Mark Havnes of the Salt Lake Tribune describes Enoch's solution:

"No sterile lethal injections here. No pressurized bottles of toxic gas. Enoch attaches a hose to the back of a city-owned Dodge pickup and funnels lethal carbon monoxide into a shedlike death chamber. The unwanted, unadoptable critters then are placed inside...'We have no trouble sleeping at night,' says...the city's part-time animal-control officer... 'We can't see a darn thing wrong with what we are doing."
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:57 PM PST - 4 comments

Failed assasination attempt on Chirac at Bastille Day parade. According to police reports, the man who fired a rifle as President Jacques Chirac passed by in the parade celebrating the French revolution is a neo-Nazi with a history of emotional problems. Chirac was unhurt.
posted by me3dia at 12:12 PM PST - 10 comments

Americans against World Empire. This Conservative/Libertarian coalition presents analysis, articles, links, opinions and rants from every corner of the political spectrum. ""Perpetual war serves a number of purposes.....It is under wartime conditions that the U.S. state will, at least initially, face the least resistance as it finishes the......process of gutting the Bill of Rights and voiding inconvenient parts of the U.S. Constitution......It is under wartime conditons that all opponents of U.S. policies anywhere in the world, including within the U.S. itself, can be most easily labled 'terrorist.'" This statement would have come from a conservative in 1940. Today it is from the Left. (Alternative Press Review, spring 2002).
posted by Mack Twain at 11:51 AM PST - 6 comments

Cat-Scan.com is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted by jkottke at 11:39 AM PST - 27 comments

Something fun I ran into at the St. Louis Science Museum during a recent visit... I ran into this virtual fishtank exhibit when in St. Louis, and found it interesting as a hybrid web site/exhibit. You can create fish in any museum featuring it, or via the web site, then run the fish in a personal tank or in a museum's tank. Then you can see it's impact on that tank.
posted by Samizdata at 11:29 AM PST - 6 comments

Do you, Adam, take this man Steve, to be your lawfully wedded husband ... "... a panel of Ontario judges ordered Parliament to broaden its definition of marriage to include gay men and women, the first decision of its kind in Canada. " Rulings on cases in BC and Quebec to follow.

Good news for the Canadian Tourist industry, at any rate. So far the only heartbreak in all this is the utter lack of Crate and Barrel, Williams Sonoma, and Pottery Barn stores in Canada for these people to register at.
posted by kristin at 11:29 AM PST - 13 comments

This LA Times article goes into some of the details of the Bush/Harken SEC investigation. While it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, it's largely exculpatory.
posted by electro at 9:42 AM PST - 1 comment

Can't seem to finish your thesis? Then this site may be for you. It's a support group for those of us who just can't seem to write up and finish off that Ph.D./Masters degree. It'll either give you hope and motivation or it'll make you more complacent. "Well, I guess I'm not the only one who's taking a long time; I won't stress out about it anymore".
posted by percine at 5:04 AM PST - 15 comments

Sunday's Investment Tip: Snark Inc. This wasn't the sort of snark I was looking for but it's too amusing to pass over. Worth singling out: the Globalization game; the Snark, Snarquila and Serf commercials (this last one good enough to go legit, imho); the Corporate Culture documentary and the Careers questionnaire. All in all, healthy anti-capitalist fun for the whole family! [Click on "View"; Flash required.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:08 AM PST - 6 comments

The Coulter Interview: The Back Story, by Scoobie Davis This is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. Scroll down to the middle to read the transcript of the actual interview.
posted by bas67 at 10:07 PM PST - 10 comments

Elitist, moi? This is interesting in itself, but given some of the comments on MetaTalk at the moment it takes on greater resonance. Should the great unwashed be allowed access to art, or be allowed to produce art from a distinct, lowbrow perspective? Should Mefi only be available to those who post "the best that has been said and thought"? Is elitism good?
posted by Fat Buddha at 6:16 PM PST - 26 comments

Virtual Community to the Rescue!
Two small towns next to a forest preserve, South Orange and Maplewood New Jersey, are unique in many respects. Unfortunately for a group of cons, the towns also have something many do not: an active virtual community.
When a door-to-door salesman's visit left one resident suspicious, she did some digging and found out it was a scam. So she alerted the police and posted a warning to the towns' message boards. Several other residents had been victims, too, but word spread quickly...
What's your story of MeFite sisters and brothers to the rescue?
from Design for Community
posted by planetkyoto at 5:47 PM PST - 5 comments

DARPA: still inventing the future (stand up straight with that exo-skeleton, son). April 2002 list of public projects from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, whose charter (let us not forget) is "to prevent technological surprise from harming U.S. national security by sponsoring revolutionary and innovative high-payoff research." Wonder which one of these beauties will have their payoff in civilian life, a la Arpanet?
And a small niggly point: should this stuff even be made public?
posted by theplayethic at 3:52 PM PST - 8 comments

Michael Jackson keeps finding ways to shoot himself in the foot. The last thread about this is only 5 days old, but there he goes again.
posted by swell at 3:24 PM PST - 20 comments

When I think of Seekers, I think of people on a path to enlightenment, and not the group led by Joshua Armstrong. Despite their good intentions, I can't help but think about this movie while reading about them. There's a lot of variation amongst the states regarding licensing and oversight of private bail enforcers. Should there be federal laws involving bounty hunters? The last effort to do so seems to have gone nowhere. But, this family seems to think so, and they are doing something about it.
posted by bragadocchio at 3:16 PM PST - 5 comments

Emotion and design: Atrractive things work better.
Of note here is that Don Norman works with Jakob Nielsen. In this essay he addresses the accusation that usability people want ugly design.
posted by Su at 2:19 PM PST - 11 comments

His name is Hussein al-Attas. He is 24 years old. Ten months ago, federal agents arrested him at the mosque where he worshipped and took him away. He has been locked in solitary confinement ever since, his only companion a Spanish-speaking prisoner on the other side of the wall, to whom he speaks through the air-conditioning vent."

Deborah Hastings of the Associated Press tells us the story of The man who gave a ride to Zacarias Moussaoui, and his descent into indefinite federal detention.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:46 PM PST - 16 comments

waking life is a wonderful film, both for its amazing animation and its uncommon attempt to bring the mind-body problem to the screen. Curiously, I found this film far more engaging than most of the other films I've seen that use the 'false reality' mechanism. Should more films bring their philosophical subject matters directly into question, instead of relegating it to sub-text?
posted by kaibutsu at 9:47 AM PST - 71 comments

Berlin Love Parade - July 13, 2002 "A million and half techno fans brought together for a day is something you just don’t see in America.... It’s something every American dancer should experience." Can be seen live on VIVA.tv
posted by Voyageman at 8:39 AM PST - 7 comments

They found the treasure in a fallen tree: a small, waterproof box wedged deep in the log's hollow core, the hole capped with a river jack, the rock obscured with the forest's leafy mulch. Get out your carved eraser rubber stamp, notebook, and local list of clues -- it's a great weekend for letterboxing.
posted by picopebbles at 8:16 AM PST - 9 comments

'Antiques Roadshow' Expert Sent to the Pokey. "Russell Pritchard III, a militaria expert, pleaded guilty to making the bogus TV appraisals. He also admitted defrauding artifact owners by giving them low appraisals on items, then reselling them at much higher prices and pocketing the profit." Pritchard was kicked off the show a couple years ago, when it was discovered that he was faking fabulous discoveries on the show in an effort to gain credibility. Fans of the US version of the show may remember the civil war sword found in an attic and the owner claimed he used the valuable weapon to cut watermelons. Pritchard could have received up to 135 years in prison, and $5.3 million in fines, but only received a year in prison, and ordered to repay his bilked clients $830k. I've always wondered about the credibility of the experts on that show, and whether they've ever quoted inflated or deflated values for personal gain. [via megosteve]
posted by crunchland at 7:21 AM PST - 7 comments

Movie Poop Shoot started its web life last year as an in-joke (warning: work-unsafe imagery) for Kevin Smith's film Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, but it recently underwent a rather major overhaul. Now it's an all-encompassing pop-culture news and opinions site, focusing mostly on movies, but also touching on TV, video, music, comics and toys. The contributors who write the many weekly columns are knowledgeable and entertaining, and the site feels sort of like Ain't It Cool News minus the atrocious design and grade-school level writing. Add to that some of the funniest headlines I've seen in a while and The Porn Star Quote Of The Week and you've got a new daily visit for this geek.
posted by toddshot at 3:53 AM PST - 12 comments

Katie Sierra gets her dollar. Anarchy club good. Controversial t-shirt bad.
posted by raaka at 1:49 AM PST - 9 comments

Act quick! Your chance to own an important piece of history may be passing you by. You'll show the TV who the king is!
posted by jazzkat11 at 1:24 AM PST - 2 comments

TV Guide Names 'Jerry Springer' Worst Show of All Time Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! What are some of your least favorites?
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 10:31 PM PST - 43 comments

"A sad day for the United Nations." When it comes to international law, there's one law for the USA and one law for the rest of the world. Disgusting.
posted by tranquileye at 5:49 PM PST - 56 comments

John B Spencer died in March. He was 57 though the first time I saw him in about 1986 he looked about 86 so his early demise isn't that much of a surprise. No one will have heard of him but he was brilliant. Truly brilliant, in that he lit up all around him and inspired the pathetic likes of me. Read his lyrics, hear his albums and just sit and wonder at the genius of the public to ignore such talent. Sorry, my blog doesn't appear to be publishing and I didn't want his death to go unremarked. Google doesn't offer much but this is good enough.
posted by Fat Buddha at 5:20 PM PST - 1 comment

Sumo Addictive online diversion based on the card game En Garde.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 4:39 PM PST - 8 comments

Even though Anne cannot possibly know on her birthday that only a month later she will have to go into hiding, she begins her new diary with the following extremely significant sentence:

"I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support."

60 years ago today, Anne Frank started her diary while in hiding.
posted by mathowie at 4:33 PM PST - 38 comments

And we know how to use Unix, too. Nielsen/NetRatings study finds that Mac users are better educated and make more money than their Wintel counterparts. More fuel for the platform wars...
posted by Chief Typist at 4:14 PM PST - 44 comments

21 songs plus ephemera. Boston's Mission of Burma is a most amazing band that has reunited after two decades and is about to hit the West Coast.
posted by xowie at 1:06 PM PST - 14 comments

Test your instincts: Evaluate your survival knowledge. Sharks and terrorists and tornados, oh my!
posted by acridrabbit at 1:05 PM PST - 31 comments

The National Trust I just cant stop listening to this. I first heard it this morning on a mix disc my friend made me and now it's just on repeat all day at work. I'm buying the album after payday. What albums have you recently heard that stick in your head and your CD/MD/MP3 player? Do you get as obsessed with new bands like I do? Does hearing good new music become as addictive as any drug?
posted by Dantien at 1:01 PM PST - 39 comments

Van Explodes In Northwest Parking Lot Breaking news - not sure if this is just a sad accident, or ... A friend who works in the area said that the place is swarming with cops, and FBI guys. Has anyone else heard anything? Nothing on any of the majors yet. Could be because this will turn out to be minor.
posted by Corky at 12:54 PM PST - 41 comments

Minced words NTK is reporting that a bug in Yahoo Mail causes inbound email containing script keywords like "eval" to be modified even when they are used innocuously. One result is that any instance of the string "eval" gets changed to "review", even when it's a substring of a larger word. Note the large number of documents on the web that use the words medireview (for "medieval"), reviewuate (for "evaluate"), and reviewuation (for "evaluation"). Is this entirely the result of the Yahoo Mail issue, or do these transformations occur in other web authoring applications?
posted by dougb at 12:05 PM PST - 20 comments

Time-Warner to Bob Pittman: "You is my bitch." (NYTimes) Merely another indicator, albeit an entertaining one, that the big media mergers (hello, Vivendi) are in big trouble.
posted by patricking at 11:50 AM PST - 5 comments

The Most Gruesome Toy Ever Well, maybe not, but Retrocrush does make a good argument for this Aurora Monster Model kit of the Girl Victim. Check out the comic book ad, featuring Vampirella and Frankenstein's monster. Do kids still play with monster dolls and monster models, or have they been shelved as un-PC? Never had the models, but as a girl in the '70s, I loved my cousin's monster dolls (uh, action figures?). (Link via Cruel Site of the Day.)
posted by GaelFC at 11:09 AM PST - 16 comments

Last Mile by Laser "The multibillion-dollar optical-fiber backbone that was built to bring...high-performance multimedia..to office and home computers...has come up a bit short" Free Space Optics may be the answer
posted by ajayb at 11:03 AM PST - 2 comments

Error 404. Once y'all start hitting this poor server it will probably have a nervous breakdown. Be nice.
posted by elgoose at 8:24 AM PST - 7 comments

Another Cat Killer Wins "As a property owner, you have a right to do as you please and you have the right to protect it" In Coeur d' Alene, ID, accused cat poisoner Dale Crooks Jr. is acquitted of feeding tuna mixed with antifreeze to the neighbor's cats. What seems most remarkable to me, though, is that everyone is calling the plaintiffs' lawyer a publicity seeker and the cats' owners troublemakers. There must be more to the story than is printed here. Either that, or small town dwellers in Idaho REALLY hate cats.
posted by faceonmars at 8:02 AM PST - 36 comments

It's the Law in South Dakota: Convert to Islam, Lose Your Child Citing a woman's conversion to Islam as a sign of "bizarre behavior" that made her unfit to be a mother, a South Dakota judge removed her 5-year old son Trevor and gave temporary custody of him to his grandparents. "My wife and I are very concerned about Trevor's safety," explained Conrad Rederth, the child's grandfather. "Trevor's mother has engaged in some bizarre behavior, including wearing Muslim garb and declaring herself a Muslim." (Via alt.muslim)
posted by laz-e-boy at 7:37 AM PST - 63 comments

The next wave in Filmmaking? This summer, the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences, along with NVIDIA, will hold the world's first Machinima Film Festival on August 17th in Mesquite, Texas.

Machinima is, simply stated, filmmaking within a real-time virtual 3D environment. In an expanded definition, it is the convergence of filmmaking, animation & game development. Machinima is a very cost- & time-efficient way to produce films.
posted by lilboo at 7:21 AM PST - 11 comments

More attempted monkeying with the Copyright Act. This proposal by two House legislators one would limit backup copies, while another section would let webcasters off the hook for cached copies. This seems fairly transparent considering now that the webcasting rates have been set webcasting may end up in the hands of the larger corporations. Coincidence? I think not.
posted by anathema at 6:54 AM PST - 5 comments

What the law show say about cloning. Francis Fukuyama and Robert Wright, who have written about technology and "societal evolution", discuss the pros and cons of genetic engineering. This is not a discussion about the finer points of technology, but rather the philosophical implications of moving forward.
posted by mkultra at 6:50 AM PST - 1 comment

Every day is a holida at Girls are Pretty. Well, sort of.
But don't "Write Impassioned Letters Confessing Your Blind, Paralyzing Love For People Just To Put The Feelers Out There Day!" and "Go Buy a Shitload of Donuts Day!" just sound like so much more fun than say...planting a tree for Arbor Day?
Yeah. I thought so.
posted by Su at 5:59 AM PST - 23 comments

News Sites Hustle for Profitability
In a recent survey of 429 newspaper Web sites worldwide by media consulting group Innovation, only 5.5 percent of North American sites currently charge a subscriber fee. But many are re-considering that model. Steve Barth, general manager of L.A. Times Interactive feels the need to condition us.
"If we took a leadership position and did our part in helping condition the reader that not everything is free forever, hopefully other substantial news organizations would follow," says he.
posted by Blake at 5:51 AM PST - 5 comments

pop perv or mere satire the price you pay for cottaging I suspect.
posted by johnnyboy at 4:11 AM PST - 8 comments

I Wouldn't Dangle That Modifier If I Were You, Bud: The Grammar Mafia hits town - our town - laying into innocent bloggers; mercilessly gunning down the New York Times mandarins and generally making a bloody nuisance of themselves. They call themselves the Knucklerap gang. And yet one particular sentence has defeated them so far. Can MetaFilter's own Grammar Police come to the rescue?[Sentence inside]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:10 AM PST - 58 comments

"Well, of course I hate you because you are Christian, but that doesn't mean I want to kill you." What a great quote. Sorry, I just couldn't resist. (NY Times)
posted by mrhappy at 1:55 AM PST - 23 comments

Chicago cops fight for right to wear Muslim, Jewish garb on the job. They've compromised, but she's suing for "emotional distress".
posted by owillis at 1:48 AM PST - 24 comments

Using Internet Explorer, Outlook, or Outlook Express on a PC? There's a new hack in town, ready to exploit cross site scripts like nobody's business. Do yourself a favor and disarm ActiveX on your settings.
posted by mathowie at 1:16 AM PST - 6 comments

Tonight, I saw (for the 4th time) one of the greatest live bands on the planet: Sweep The Leg Johnny. They played to a half-empty room in Toronto. Recently, the band put out their fourth CD. Sadly, they're calling it quits after this tour. What are some of the bands you've told folks to Go see now!, but no one seems to listen?
posted by dobbs at 11:25 PM PST - 36 comments

A tale of two dumb-dumbs. This car enthusiast forum story really has me wondering who the dumb one is in this situation: the guy who got his car stolen, or the guy who stole the car.

Guy befriends another guy on the forum, starts talking, gives out his VIN, information on when he drives his car to work, and his address only to have the other forum-goer steal his car. Then, the brilliant car thief posts up parts from said stolen car on the EXACT SAME forum under a new name, then makes the mistake of logging in under his old name and posting a message in his sale thread.

An amusing read to say the least.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 11:09 PM PST - 10 comments

a) A virus is a form of life.
b) Scientists 'assemble' a virus in vitro
c) Man has power to create life.

Discuss.
posted by dash_slot- at 8:23 PM PST - 39 comments

Man Who Taped Police Beating Arrested in L.A. Conveniently dug-up charges, a bizarre radio talkshow detour, what the heck is going on?
posted by donkeyschlong at 6:20 PM PST - 64 comments

Divorce, in the situation of an unhappy marriage, does not necessarily lead to happiness... Does this throw doubt on our culture of individualism and the pursuit of happiness? Maybe we should stop being self-obsessed and stick it out
posted by zia at 4:55 PM PST - 15 comments

Sesame Street's HIV positive Muppet The next season of the South African version of Sesame Street will feature a female muppet who has HIV.

We want to show that here is an HIV-positive member of our community who you can touch and interact with.
posted by Foaf at 4:29 PM PST - 34 comments

Kvetch is dead. So what, right? But some of the lessons Powazek says he learned probably also apply here, such as:

Every collaborative project eventually outgrows its owner. You start a project like this because you have a certain way of looking at the world. But when you open it up for group participation, it always changes.

posted by timeistight at 2:24 PM PST - 25 comments

Knock Down That Wall! The wall that keeps the church and state separated, not the one in Berlin. "Two bills currently being debated in the U. S. Congress would allow churches to spend their funds on political campaigns and to endorse political candidates. H.R. 2357, sponsored by Representative Walter Jones (R-N.C.), would remove a longstanding rule that banned churches from using tax-exempt revenue to fund political campaigns."
posted by nofundy at 12:57 PM PST - 29 comments

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Vent: A collection of readers' responses to news stories. Funny, stupid, silly, odd, thoughtful non sequiturs. Updated daily.
posted by ColdChef at 12:32 PM PST - 22 comments

Last year's most popular baby names in B.C. Fashions come and go, in names as much as anything else. Madison, Mackenzie, and Taylor are on the rise for girls, Liam for boys, with Brandon and Tyler still on the charts as well as more familiar names like Matthew. This page breaks down every registry for last year; how many different ways can you spell Kayley/Kayleigh/Kaylee? What about the 9 people who named their sons Maximus, or the 6 people who have given the world more Keanus? There are also a handful of Aaliyahs, Brooklyns, Montanas, and of course Brittneys. Where does your name stand?
posted by jokeefe at 11:21 AM PST - 93 comments

Idaho city council debates proper coverage of areolas , after some entrepreneurial college students open a hugely profitable topless car wash and practically wipe out the competition. "The latest proposal, to be voted on Monday, sets a minimum of covering the areola with a length of material running in a straight but narrow line across the breast, similar to a pair of suspenders".
posted by brookish at 11:12 AM PST - 36 comments

Bush Took Oil Firm's Loans as Director "As a Texas businessman, President Bush took two low-interest loans from an oil company where he was a member of the board of directors, engaging in a practice he condemned this week in his plan to stem corporate abuse and accounting fraud."
do as i say, not as i do?
posted by saralovering at 11:06 AM PST - 118 comments

Who the heck is Shooby Taylor? By all accounts, he is (or rather, was...it appears he's dead) a musical outsider, but one blessed with a truly bizarre style. Just take one listen to his...unique version of "Lift Every Voice and Sing"(warning: MP3 file, hilarious)... it's pure gold. And there's plenty more where that came from...
posted by 40 Watt at 9:20 AM PST - 16 comments

World Series Champs Suffer Mid-Season Contraction? According to Bud Selig, one MLB team might not be able to make payroll next Monday, and another is experiencing cash-flow problems so severe it may not be able to finish the season. The Houston Chronicle reported that Selig might have arranged to keep the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays alive financially this past winter. But now Selig says, "Major league baseball's credit lines are at the maximum," and "If a club can't make it, I have to let 'em go." Is it a coincidence that neither of these teams is the Minnesota Twins or Montreal Expos? Does anybody care?
posted by subgenius at 9:17 AM PST - 24 comments

Hi-larious! Russian jokes about Americans, while probably not too amusing to begin with, become just too funny in translation. Via Cam.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 8:37 AM PST - 21 comments

No thanks, I'm on Mineral Water. As the MeFi Meetup commences, the Atlantic Monthly offers some tips for teetotalers. And, hey...a designated driver is always a good thing, no? (via a&l daily)
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:10 AM PST - 32 comments

NPR: Sorry we implied you were all a bunch of homicidal maniacs "We have made mistakes at NPR. One mistake was … our report about TVC," said Kevin Klose, president and CEO of the pubic broadcasting radio network, referring to a story that suggested the Traditional Values Coalition was connected to the attempted assassination of two senators.
posted by nobody_knose at 7:39 AM PST - 22 comments

the names all sound like superheroes skystreak. thunderchief. super sabre. firebee. darkstar. and they fly, some of them faster than the speed of sound, but these "vigilantes" weren't born on the four-color pages of a marvel comic book.

they are nasa research vehicles and this way cool photo gallery stretches back to the days of chuck yeager and the x-1 transonic rocket plane. just a little bit of the right stuff for your thursday morning.
posted by grabbingsand at 7:02 AM PST - 8 comments

Homer Simpson: Hack your DVD player. It seems in countries in which the DVD Copy Control Authority doesn't own the government, even the giants of corpmedia don't like the "protection" features the platform foists on consumers. On Fox's Simpsons UK DVD release FAQ page, Homer himself says "I have no idea whatsoever what regional coding means. But it is essential that you buy a multi-regional player. Do it now." Is the DVD region-coding system really only relevant in the United States?
posted by Vetinari at 5:44 AM PST - 25 comments

Transexual Briton Christine Goodwin has won the right to be recognised as a woman in the European Court of Human Rights. The UK is one of only four EU countries not to recognise a sex change as legally valid. Is this something that needs to change in the interests of human rights?
posted by stuporJIX at 5:13 AM PST - 11 comments

Yippee! Free Slurpees!
posted by Fofer at 5:00 AM PST - 25 comments

American Magus

Without Harry Smith I wouldn’t have existed!

Bob Dylan

… I put Harry Smith with the three most dear to me GRAND INTELLIGENCE!! Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Harry Smith…These were sharp motherfuckers… and heavy… talk about heavy!!

Gregory Corso

Harry Smith, a central figure in the mid-20th-century avant-garde, was a complex artistic figure who made major contributions to the fields of sound recording, independent filmmaking, the visual arts, and ethnographic collecting. Along with Kenneth Anger, Jordan Belson, and Oskar Fischinger, Smith is considered one of America’s leading experimental filmmakers. He would often hand-paint directly on film creating unique, complex compositions that have been interpreted as investigations of conscious and unconscious mental processes. Smith began as a teenager to record Native American songs and rituals. He is best known for his Anthology of American Folk Music, a music collection widely credited with launching the urban folk revival.

The Anthology is the focus here, but Harry Smith, the artist, avant garde film maker, polymath, musicologist and quintessential hipster must be mentioned, too. Details Within
posted by y2karl at 11:54 PM PST - 32 comments

What do Erin Brockovich, Gotcha!, and The Big Lebowski all have in common? Not much other than humor and a terrific character actress named Irene Olga López. Every time I happen to see a movie in which she has a bit part, I think upon how much I enjoy seeing her, and how lucky she must be. She's been in a lot of filmed entertainment, has gotten to work with people like Julia Roberts and John Goodman, and probably doesn't get hassled by paparazzi when walking down the street in full daylight. Let's all take a moment to appreciate those unsung actors and actresses who make our moviegoing experiences more enjoyable through the small roles. They may never win any Oscars, but the movies sure wouldn't be the same without 'em. "Jonathan! You sound-a so close!"
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:49 PM PST - 58 comments

Really Old Skull debases "Out of Africa" theory. . . "The find calls into question a widely held hypothesis that the evolution of big brains propelled the exodus of early humans out of Africa."
posted by Espoo2 at 4:28 PM PST - 24 comments

evil! eviiiiiiiiiiil! a flash game most diabolical. is there a way to win?
posted by jcterminal at 2:47 PM PST - 16 comments

Ever downloaded an episode of a tv show through gnutella or other P2P means? The MPAA may be on the lookout for you.
posted by mathowie at 2:37 PM PST - 17 comments

A Q & A session with two guys who work at that aspiring animator's Mecca - Pixar. One of them, Victor Navone is famous in his own right for the great short "Alien Song".
posted by GriffX at 2:24 PM PST - 3 comments

MLBFanStrike.com urges you to stay away from the ballpark on 7/11. I sympathize somewhat, but don't you think this will have little effect? And are they ripping a page out of the Charleston Riverdogs book?
posted by espada at 2:23 PM PST - 8 comments

Gilberto Eyzaguirre may be the most popular waiter in New Orleans but that did not stop the restaurant management from firing him after receiving a second sexual harassment accusation. Watrons are up in arms and even created a web site in support of him. To date, the management refuses to budge (he remains unemployed). This is a long but fascinating read if just for a peek into the passion they have for food.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 1:11 PM PST - 43 comments

New Beck song here.

New Weezer video (with the Muppets) here (it's a RealMedia file).

New Coldplay single here in WindowsMedia and here in RealAudio.

Feel free to argue the artistic merits of these three performers as well as whether this post is worthy of a front page post in the thread (like you people wouldn't do that anyay).
posted by Reggie452 at 12:46 PM PST - 34 comments

Scalia gives divinity school students a peek at what his activism is really about. I can't say it any better than he does so I'll quote: "The reaction of people of faith to this tendency of democracy to obscure the divine authority behind government should not be resignation to it, but the resolution to combat it as effectively as possible." Of course we knew Scalia detested democracy on 12/12/2000 with his decision that infamous day but now he admits favoritism to theocracy.
posted by nofundy at 12:07 PM PST - 39 comments

Oh-oh! Cheney featured in an Arthur Andersen's promotional video Priceless quote: "I get good advice, if you will, from their people based upon how we're doing business and how we're operating over and above the just sort of normal by-the-book auditing arrangement" . This is getting close to surreal.
posted by magullo at 10:10 AM PST - 39 comments

Augusta National defends its membership polcies in the face of opposition from the National Council of Women's Organizations. Augusta is the annual host of the Masters and does not count any women among its 300 members. Does the NCWO have any business telling a private organization how it should structure its membership?
posted by dayvin at 10:09 AM PST - 22 comments

how's your news? mine just got a lot better: camp counselor takes a team of adults with developmental disabilities on a cross-country road trip, conducting 'man on the street' interviews along the way. end product is a hilarious and very human non-exploitive documentary film.
posted by mlang at 9:10 AM PST - 18 comments

Google Zeitgeist now breaks down stats by country (Scroll down.) Most gaining search term in France: "Britney Spears" Zut alors!
posted by Mwongozi at 8:30 AM PST - 18 comments

Big foundations pull funding from city school district. According to my inside source at the Board of Education here, the foundations and the BoE consider the school board's shenanigans to be "marginal." That is, unusual compared to most school boards for districts this size. I would think there are many bad school boards like ours, right?
posted by engelr at 8:21 AM PST - 3 comments

Strictly for the birds. What is the world coming to? Thievery is spreading across species?
posted by semmi at 8:20 AM PST - 11 comments

"... that man has never owned a Christmas tree. He's not a Christian. And I'm thinking, `Jeez, how can he represent me then?'"
Politician makes race easier for opponent by making stunningly awful remarks. The defacto George W. examples aside, does anyone have favorite instances of hearing politicians say something moronic and wondering if they actually knew recording devices were in the room?
posted by ice_cream_motor at 8:09 AM PST - 34 comments

"The bigger the binge, the longer and more severe the hangover." A short history of accounting scandals and fraudulent bankruptcies that follow bubble economies.
posted by raaka at 7:38 AM PST - 3 comments

Which animal are you? I'm a zebra, a bear or possibly a rooster. What other beasts dwell in the MeFi menagerie?
posted by Arqa at 4:25 AM PST - 66 comments

'N Sync member Lance Bass to be removed from the planet Earth, if only temporarily.
posted by bingo at 3:02 AM PST - 19 comments

American West: Don't hate us because we're drunk.
posted by luser at 2:26 AM PST - 33 comments

The King of the Jukebox who disturbed the status quo They called rock music jump blues during the World War II era, and this amazingly talented clown was its master, with over fifty Top 10 R&B hits -- eighteen reached #1 -- between 1942 and 1951. Chuck Berry identified with him "more than any other artist." James Brown said, "He was everything" and considered him one of the earliest rappers. A pioneer of music video, the first black artist to cross over from the "race" market to a white audience and a central link between big bands and rock, he was a primary influence on Bill Haley, Ray Charles and B.B. King, who once said, "I wanted to be like him." Rest in peace, Louis Jordan. [Dozens of one-minute song clips here]
posted by mediareport at 1:08 AM PST - 11 comments

Arthur Anderson night in Portland From the AP wire: The Portland Beavers, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, are sponsoring "Arthur Andersen Appreciation Night" to poke fun at the beleaguered accounting firm... Fans are encouraged to bring old documents to be destroyed at several "shredding stations" throughout the park. The team also will tuck away certificates for a game of "massive debt hide-and-go-seek." A similar story is in the Independent.
posted by paulschreiber at 12:57 AM PST - 3 comments

Even as the fans chanted "Let Them Play" MLB's powers-that-be decided to call the All-Star game after 11 innings. It's only the second time the game has ended in a tie (the other time it was called for rain). Given the game's current environment, could there have been a more symbolic ending to this game? Between the steroid questions, contraction,and the threat of a work stoppage, can baseball fix itself, or is (North) America's national pastime rounding third and heading towards self-inflicted obscurity?
posted by herc at 10:22 PM PST - 40 comments

With friends like the Saudis, who needs enemies? "There is, then, no real need for us to be frightened by the loss of the kingdom's oil friendship. But we should be concerned by the evidence of its strategic enmity. It may be true that the Saudis are neither Iraqis nor Iranians nor Libyans; but it is quite dangerous enough that they are Saudis."
posted by homunculus at 10:07 PM PST - 24 comments

Lots of sites have mirrors, but does Google really need one?
(thanks, memepool)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:26 PM PST - 8 comments

You have sunk my battleships! (Flash game.)
posted by riffola at 8:29 PM PST - 13 comments

Outside of traditional IP structures, there has been ongoing research by WIPO and other organizations to develop a system of remuneration for the use of Traditional Knowledge and Folklore. How could lines be drawn fairly so indigenous cultures could see some kind of return? If you think it's fair to compensate a tribe for technological and pharmaceutical contributions to patents, what about a royalty for that Maori tattoo design on your shoulder? What about drumming styles that have localized roots somewhere in Africa? What would you say is reasonable?
posted by anathema at 7:20 PM PST - 28 comments

Bike the Ike! About 700 riders from Chicago Critical Mass rode on the Eisenhower Expressway for a mile at the last ride. Dangerous and insane, yes, but the cyclist in me thinks it's the bee's knees. Ah, to ride on the 10 all the way to the beach...
posted by RakDaddy at 6:32 PM PST - 23 comments

all aboard! next stop, yucca mt. the proposed yucca mt nuclear waste storage site has been approved by the senate. while only a handful of senators believe "we are being forced to decide this issue prematurely," and others are concerned with "thousands of waste shipments crossing 43 states" - most worry only about the risk of the next proposed dump site being in their state if yucca mt falls through. apparently the buildup of toxic waste at the power plants is getting pretty bad - "I believe it is a safe repository," said Lott. If the country does not find a central place for the waste, he said, "we're going to have to shut down" the nuclear industry. is shutting down the industry a bad thing? if the waste produced by these methods is so deadly and destructive... why aren't we questioning the risk/reward factor of nuclear power plants, instead of just worrying about where to stash the glowing green ooze? they've spent 4.5 BILLION dollars just researching the yucca mt site... could that money have been spent on developing clean power generation and maybe even helped fund its deployment?
posted by ggggarret at 6:09 PM PST - 15 comments

Britain to Relax Laws for Millions of Dope Smokers. The theory is that this move will free up officers and money to deal with more serious drug problems. As far as the classification goes, cannabis will now be grouped with anabolic steroids and growth hormones, two substances that I think are more dangerous than pot. What was it grouped with before?
posted by Miss Beth at 6:00 PM PST - 18 comments

Sharing Eminem tracks on P2P? The "artist" (and I use the term loosely here) describes, in his usual trailer-park eloquence, what he would like to do to you. The real ones in need of a beating are those who made this tard a celebrity IMHO, but then we must take pity on those who know not what they do...
posted by clevershark at 5:14 PM PST - 88 comments

Shoes. There's nothing wrong with being a heterosexual cross-dresser. There's nothing wrong with obsessively blogging about the shoes you wear each day either. Nope. Makes for a pretty interesting read though...
posted by machaus at 5:11 PM PST - 8 comments

The Tesseract Charles H. Hinton, eccentric, bigamist, son-in-law of George Boole (yes that Boole) coined the word Tesseract and claimed that we could all visualize the fourth dimension. He wrote several books and claimed to have created a set of cubes that, used properly, would allow anyone to visualize hyperspace. His ideas were all the rage. Salvador Dali was inspired by him. Robert Heinlein wrote a classic short story about a house built as an unfolded tesseract. Madeleine L'Engle wrote a classic children's story. With the advent of Einstein and his claim that "Time was the fourth dimension", the higher spatial dimensions were forgotten. (Until recently that is) And Hinton was forgotten. Or was he? And what happened to the cubes? Rudy Rucker, a huge fan of Hinton,fails to reprint the instructions. Rumours are that, if you build them and use them, they will drive you insane.
posted by vacapinta at 5:05 PM PST - 22 comments

The Incredible Shrinking Thought stems from this article[Blogroots disc.] you might have read.
"...Blogs are the political dinner-table talk of the web [...] they are not rewriting the paradigms of pages; they are letting people get on soapboxes in new ways"
posted by Su at 4:02 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Steven. Steven. Steven. I can't get enough of this incredibly-cute-but-I-don't-normally-go-for-such-obvious-twinkiness pitchperson for Dell Computers. Apparently, neither can anyone else, as Steven (or more properly, actor Ben Curtis) has been Dell's most successful advertising, uh, tool ever. Why do we love him? His Bill'n'Ted vocabulary? His toothy grin? Whatever the reason, at least now I no longer have to glue myself to the television to watch his latest commercial overandoverandoverand Dude, I'll get a Dell if you deliver it to me personally. So to speak. Is it wrong to love a fictional character so much? Is there a support group? Any other MeFites have a strange attraction going on here? I can't be the only one, can I?
posted by WolfDaddy at 3:51 PM PST - 66 comments

Calling all techie designers: TiVo is throwing a wallpaper design contest, the winners to get a new second series tivo.
posted by mathowie at 3:43 PM PST - 15 comments

Corporate Crook: Nitwit scion turns avenger In sum: Bush talks big about corporate crooks. He is one.
posted by Postroad at 3:36 PM PST - 10 comments

GM are looking to the future with plans to get a fuel cell vehicle (dubbed AUTOnomy) on the road by 2010, unlike past attempts where fuel cell powerplants were shoe-horned into conventional cars GM are redesigning it from the ground up with a six inch flat chassis that contains the fuel cell and powertrain allowing them to plonk a variety of different bodies on top all the while cutting costs by being far simpler to produce than conventional cars.
posted by zeoslap at 3:35 PM PST - 11 comments

Bom is some sort of project management company, but I'm more impressed by their whiz-bang cool design on their site. Kinda like the HabboHotel, Eboy (their town), and k10k aesthetic taken corporate.
posted by mathowie at 3:15 PM PST - 8 comments

Pornographers jack domain name from Florida sheriff. Aycock said the Sheriff's Office had owned the domain name since 1995, and that its registration is current. "When I was told about this, I thought they were kidding," he said. "We dug out a receipt and we're paid up through November. When we find out who's responsible for this we're going to go after them. I am not very happy that this has happened."

The Sheriff may discover that precious few laws protect him and that prosecuting a Canadian company could be tricky. Link from Delaware Law Office.
posted by mikewas at 2:47 PM PST - 5 comments

Prison in the Park
Central Park is a lot of things: the pastoral center of New York City, a relaxing stroll on a Saturday afternoon, a patch of grass lined with horse manure. It’s also home to a minimum-security prison...
posted by cell divide at 2:24 PM PST - 7 comments

Escrew Service. Worried about getting scammed on an Internet auction? "Just use an escrow service," is the customary advice. Not so fast. The latest auction scam is an elaborate swindle involving creation of fake escrow services, complete with convincing Web sites like www.escrow-is.com
posted by srboisvert at 2:07 PM PST - 2 comments

Gnutella pioneer dead at 25. No details on cause of death yet.
posted by sid at 1:50 PM PST - 23 comments

Yahoo! Internet Life Magazine about to close: Remember the mid-90's and its big slew of "hip" net magazines? The Web, Netguide, and too many others to mention? YIL joins the net mags graveyard as, not surprisingly, consequence of the dotcom bubble burst and next-to-nil ad revenue. I would add general user's maturity to the factors.
posted by betobeto at 1:17 PM PST - 10 comments

Actor Rod Steiger Dies at 78 One of the great character actors. I still remember how blown away I was by him in "In The Heat of the Night". R.I.P.
posted by BGM at 11:37 AM PST - 11 comments

Speech of the Prez on corporate ethics. Does it go far enough? Stock market is "uninspired".
posted by beagle at 10:55 AM PST - 44 comments

The Big Book of Sign Language (from rotten.com). Have you ever wondered how to sign phrases such as "I shovel shit all day long", "I want to pull the shrieking voices from my head and smoosh them", and "Unlock my legs and get it over with"? The Big Book shows you how. Inappropriate? Yes. Hysterical? Yes. (Portions may not be safe for work. Link via Magnetbox. Thanks, ben.)
posted by moz at 10:41 AM PST - 29 comments

Billboard on top of family eatery is sexually suggestive, and draws complaints from residents. What kills me is they're changing the sign to an "equally controversial" ad in two months. Here's a picture of the sign. Should the sign stay or should it go?
posted by Kevin Sanders at 9:47 AM PST - 27 comments

Don't let child pornographers share your connection! Now that sharing your Wi-Fi connection with the unwashed masses has become so popular - the BigCo's are trying to shut it down. We've talked about this here and here but I was blown away by this marketing speak from a AOL Time Warner VP


"By having an open transmission, it leaves you really vulnerable," Digeso said. "If you have a Wi-Fi connection in a public park, what would stop, God forbid, a child pornographer or, God forbid, a terrorist using that network?"

Are terroists using your Wi-Fi connection?
posted by dhacker at 9:17 AM PST - 30 comments

And, remember....have your Game Show Host spayed or neutered. Why are all the memories of my youth continuing to remind me that I'm getting old? Arg. Guess it's time for me to get an exam, too.
posted by dwivian at 8:22 AM PST - 4 comments

Logophilia Heard any good words lately? Emo, tribal marketing, google bombing, adultescent, go commando, alpha girl, hand salsa, shoegaze, alcopop, suicide magnet.
posted by andrewzipp at 7:27 AM PST - 24 comments

"When he can't get along with the real world, Wallace goes back to the only thing he has left: his computer. Each morning, he wakes before dawn and watches conversations stream by on his screen. Thousands of people flock to his Web site every day from all over the world to talk to his creation, a robot called Alice. It is the best artificial-intelligence program on the planet, a program so eerily human that some mistake it for a real person. Richard Wallace has created an artificial life form that gets along with people better than he does." A fascinating article (NYT), how a beautiful and original mind survives in our corporate society with the help of "a daily cocktail of psychoactive drugs, including Topamax, an anti-epileptic that acts as a mood stabilizer, and Prozac. Marijuana, too -- most afternoons, he'll roll about four or five joints the size of his index finger."
posted by semmi at 7:21 AM PST - 18 comments

Is anyone else getting their panties into a wad over the upcoming (8 days) MacWorld Expo? Apple is closing the gap and gaining market share; how nice would it be to see them release a knockout punch with some new hardware?
posted by catatonic at 7:19 AM PST - 36 comments

The Democratic Fascist Somebody please tell me that this is some kind of really awful joke: "Quite simply, the Democratic Fascist Movement is a well-organized, rapidly growing group of people, inspired by the work of our Visionary Mr. Sean Hannity, who affirm the necessity for Moral Unity in our Nation today. While we do not reject the Democratic Process, we also recognize the need for bringing conclusion to the mob rule which has characterized our Government of late. It is our belief that, through more stringent voting regulations, power must be placed back into the hands of the Moral Elite if this Great Nation can endure." More inside...
posted by Irontom at 7:03 AM PST - 17 comments

The World Politics Heavyweight Fight: Huntington vs. Fukuyama: Which of these two now classic approaches offers a more plausible vision of the world's future? Huntington's Culture Clash[Foreign Affairs, 1993] or Fukuyama's Pax Democratia[National Interest, 1989]? In an updating mode, Stanley Kurtz[Policy Review, 2002] measures their chances from a political viewpoint. On the same front,Jack Miles[Cross Currents, 2002] offers a refreshingly liberal and optimistic theological perspective. Yep, it's still all about East meeting West, the Muslims and the rest of the us. Or even increasingly...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:45 AM PST - 11 comments

Porn sites main cause of web-related sackings ... "The vast majority of sackings for internet misuse are due to workers surfing pornographic websites, a new British survey shows..."
posted by semper at 5:34 AM PST - 8 comments

The War of the Memes? - An alternative view to the "war on terror".
posted by revbrian at 5:21 AM PST - 6 comments

"I've done my part, now I need you to do yours. I believe that this world is a good place, and if someone needs help, then they should ask for it. SO I'M ASKING... Please help me pay my debt. "

Karyn's done her part, people, by racking up $20 000 in credit card debt, buying Prada, and fancy coffee, and designer clothing. Isn't it time you did yours, by paying that debt off for her?
(link from Erika, via 3WA.)
posted by kristin at 5:11 AM PST - 46 comments

Let's Rock Get a real live musician to write a theme song for your blog. Of course you have to somehow return the favor. "I'm calling it the rockin' blogroll," notes Philip Clark, the multiple band guy that is willingly offering up his own service against silence.
posted by boost ventilator at 4:49 AM PST - 3 comments

"The second law of thermodynamics always rules: Everything is always running down. And so is our Bill of Rights. The current junta in charge of our affairs, one not legally elected, but put in charge of us by the Supreme Court in the interests of the oil and gas and defense lobbies, have used first Oklahoma City and now September 11 to further erode things."
posted by artifex at 3:22 AM PST - 17 comments

From Big to Aidan to...the ballet dancer? Sex and the City's author and inspiration Candace Bushnell got married to 33-year-old ballet dancer Charles Askegard July 4 on a Nantucket beach in Massachusetts. The couple has only known each other for eight weeks.
posted by stevis at 1:27 AM PST - 14 comments

i.heart.poutine. "Because everyone deserves to die of a heart attack before they hit forty, the Quebecois invented poutine. Poutine is the best thing to happen to the potato since just about....ever."
posted by jcterminal at 10:35 PM PST - 19 comments

Blogchalking A good idea for mapping weblogs.
posted by ig at 10:22 PM PST - 14 comments

One browser to rule them all... Looks like IE's win in the browser wars is strengthening its position as the de facto browser as more and more developers code to IE and IE only. I know a lot of MeFiers are developers. What do you do when you develop your sites?
posted by TNLNYC at 8:11 PM PST - 47 comments

For quite a few years now, Autonomedia has been putting out consistently challenging literature. From their books on art, culture and theory, to Graphic Novels by a member of The Fugs. Just browsing the titles will get your brain working.
posted by anathema at 6:35 PM PST - 7 comments

''Tim,'' said Spitzer with a laugh, ''just slaughtered them.'' What's so special about one geek slaughtering other geeks in a game of Quake? Tim is blind and a company named ZForm is developing videogames to help blind people compete fairly with sighted people. Way cool.
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:39 PM PST - 13 comments

"Piracy sure beats manual labor" Can China's Piracy industry be stopped? Should it be stopped? Will this be the fate of all copyrighted material? Lisa Movius offers few answers, but gives a pretty good overview of the situation.
posted by Bag Man at 2:16 PM PST - 12 comments

Michael Jackson: the music industry is racist.
The erstwhile Agent M made some interesting claims about the record industry as a whole while in the midst of a dispute with his record label, Sony. He mentioned such paupers as Little Richard, Mariah Carey and Sammy Davis, Jr. as "vistims of the industry," and singled out Sony Music chairman Tommy Mottola. In other news, Al Sharpton and Johnny Cochran have formed a coalition to investigate financial profiteering off black recording artists.
posted by me3dia at 2:06 PM PST - 43 comments

The 'Gate-less Community "But something changed when George W. Bush became president. The current administration has not lacked questionable behavior: Karl Rove met with Intel executives in the White House even as he held a significant amount of Intel stock; Deputy Interior Secretary J. Stephen Griles, a former coal-industry lobbyist, intervened in an energy-exploration dispute on behalf of former clients; Dick Cheney met repeatedly with energy company officials who appear to have had a strong hand in formulating the administration's energy policy; and, of course, there is White. Yet each retains his job. Eighteen months into Bush's term, his only appointee to resign under a cloud is Michael Parker, the former civilian chief of the Army Corps of Engineers, and not over allegations of corruption, but for what this administration views as the one true deadly sin: disloyalty. (Parker publicly criticized the president's budget.) By contrast, two years into the Clinton administration, 10 political appointees had resigned; under the elder Bush, eight; under Reagan, 13. What has changed isn't so much the conduct of officials, but the standards by which they're judged. The "new tone" that George W. Bush brought to Washington isn't one of integrity, but of permissiveness."
posted by owillis at 1:49 PM PST - 23 comments

LAX shooter is innocent What is the source of this incessant sense of denial that permeates arab society? Between the "absurdity" of an Egyptian pilot committing suicide, the computer generated videos of OBL, and the "impossibility" of a hate crime, why is it that arabs have an over-arching sense of impossibiility of committing crimes of such sort? Is there no crime in arab countries? Do criminal defenses take to form of "I'm a muslim, muslims can't commit crimes, so I didn't do it?".
posted by dreamer98 at 12:59 PM PST - 59 comments

Of all species that have existed on Earth, 99.9 percent are now extinct, yet scientists insist that we make a great effort to save endangered species. If extinction is the natural course of evolution, why bother? And if humankind is the cause of these lastest extinctions and endangerments, should efforts be made to save people so that their exploitation of the natural world can continue? Aren't our efforts to fight diseases such as the aids epidemic in Africa not only a denial of evolutionly forces but also adding to the problem of overpopulation exerting unbearable pressure on the environment? If evolution is truely the force it's claimed to be can it's course be changed by mankind and if so, should it be? Should evolution be allowed to take its course?
posted by Mack Twain at 12:06 PM PST - 44 comments

No student/faculty dating policies? I found it odd that most universities don't actually have written policies regarding student/faculty dating. What's even more surprising is how difficult it seems to get tenured faculty out of their positions despite the number of allegations that happen to have been made against them. Or am I wrong in that type of thinking?
posted by SentientAI at 11:32 AM PST - 30 comments

You're the king of a small african nation. You have an annual health budget of $15 million. Two-thirds of the people in your nation are HIV positive, and two-thirds are living below the poverty line. What do you do? Why, you buy a $31 million private jet, of course!
posted by Reggie452 at 11:25 AM PST - 27 comments

Judicial activism rears it's ugly head. But it is disingenuous to claim that activism is the mantle of liberals. Can you say "strict constructionist?" I didn't think so.
posted by nofundy at 11:24 AM PST - 11 comments

Aladdin Houses. I was told when I bought my house it was one of these, but this is the first time I've run across information about the company. These were houses built from a kit, like the Sears Houses that more people seem familiar with. This site has lots of old catalogs scanned in -- as near as I can figure out, this one is mine. I can attest to the fact that they hold up pretty well. You can still buy prefab homes of course, but they lack the ye-olde excitement of age.
posted by JanetLand at 10:59 AM PST - 11 comments

The Griffith Institute and Oxford's Ashmolean Museum have recently made the complete records of Howard Carter's excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun available on the web. You can browse the complete list of objects as well as read all the original handwritten descriptive cards and view any or all of Harry Burton's original photographs (many taken in situ and never before published). You can also read Howard Carter's complete personal field diaries from 1922 and 1923. Although this is still an work in progress, its an easy way to lose a couple of hours for any MeFi Egyptology fans. with thanks to The Daily Grail
posted by anastasiav at 10:20 AM PST - 4 comments

"It is very necessary to begin the study of science," says His Holiness the Dalai Lama in a speech posted at the Science for Monks site. He says science offers "precise and accurate analysis" of phenomena Buddhists have so far explained only "at a very gross level," like time and atomic structure. Tibetan translations of scientific texts and familiar classroom experiments are part of the plan. Will the "unending positive doubts and constructive curiosities" of modern science deepen or undermine the Buddha's teachings? An army of scientists who've taken a vow of poverty sure would throw an interesting kink into the current debate about corporate science.
posted by mediareport at 9:47 AM PST - 11 comments

It's national vegetarian week, apparently. After reading this article on chicken nuggets, I might be converting, not that I have ever eaten a chicken nugget, of course. It's not just junk food that leaves one feeling green about the gills though. I identified all of the vegetables in this quiz, I don't know that I would want to eat all of them though.
posted by Fat Buddha at 9:46 AM PST - 30 comments

US Marine Expat Burns Passport In Protest. As the International Court of Justice (ICC) in The Hague officially started operations on Monday, US activist and expat Kenneth Nichols burned his passport in front of the US consulate in Amsterdam.
posted by tpoh.org at 9:00 AM PST - 15 comments

eBayPal. Say, if PayPal doesn't deliver its stock, will they get negative feedback? (See also The Reg coverage.)
posted by darukaru at 8:02 AM PST - 16 comments

Perdue to become the next Intel? According to today's Washington Post, researches at the University of Delaware have filed a patent to improve microchip performance by replacing silicon with a compound made from chicken feathers. Test show that chicken feather chips are twice as fast as silicon chips. If this works, be on the lookout for chicken farm IPOs.
posted by monkey-mind at 7:44 AM PST - 13 comments

Student Acquited of Sex Assault - Defense: Sleepwalking. Let the games begin.
posted by yhbc at 4:39 AM PST - 27 comments

action item: explore the seamy underbelly of microsoft powerpoint. how low can you go? pretty darn low: CLICK TO ADD TITLE (a brilliant joint performance of metafilter member leslie harpold (of the hoopla 500 (yes, that hoopla)) and metafilter member michael sippey (of stating the obvious (and a metafilter proposal))).
link via textism.
posted by mlang at 11:14 PM PST - 29 comments

Poverty is Expensive (part 59) The "i-Gen" prepaid MasterCard, available at a Rite-Aid near you, for those who don't have bank accounts (for debit cards) to say the least of credit ratings sufficient to get credit cards. Pay a $10.00 upfront fee, pay another $5 a month plus a "reload" fee of at least $5 every time your card runs down, all for the privilege of letting them hold on to your cash at no interest.
posted by MattD at 9:09 PM PST - 26 comments

Relief At Last: Fighting Headache And Migraine On The Web. I've been a migraine sufferer all my life, so I've tried and read almost everything in the hope of finding something to alleviate the pain. So I was surprised to find a website that was better than any book and really helped deal with it. Headaches and migraines are, alas, still mysteries to even the most studious and experienced neurologists. This resource, bless it, brings welcome relief from a patient's ignorance and unnecessary suffering.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:55 PM PST - 8 comments

Hazy shade of summer Days like today remind me our world is indeed small. Here in the Northeast US the sun never broke through the haze. More forest fires, only these were in Quebec. I had friends as far south as New Jersey notice. How'd the day look to you?
posted by jeremias at 7:04 PM PST - 33 comments

To be a great photographer, Garry Winogrand liked to claim during the 1970's, it was first of all necessary to be Jewish Why didn't they tell me this in art school? (via NYTimes)
posted by mrhappy at 11:51 AM PST - 11 comments

Noah Grey has returned. The photographer shares his amazing eye for capturing an image. Emotion, shadow and light...
posted by yonderboy at 9:48 AM PST - 82 comments

Pamplona is on again.Guess who seems to have won round one. Anybody out there been there done that ??
posted by johnny7 at 9:31 AM PST - 15 comments

The cars that made America CNN/Money picks the 10 greatest American cars of all time
posted by kirkaracha at 9:25 AM PST - 19 comments

As soon as they get him in the grave, he'll no doubt start spinning. Here's a rather unsettling report about recently deceased baseball great Ted Williams' family fighting over the body. Cloning is mentioned. Via Salon.
posted by BGM at 9:16 AM PST - 2 comments

Ratbastard is getting married...
...congrats to him and his other half, both MeFi'ers!
posted by tomcosgrave at 9:11 AM PST - 20 comments

Swallowing A sword may feel unconfortable and leave "a taste of stomach acids and metal" in your mouth, but it's a hell of a party trick.
posted by h0ney at 8:31 AM PST - 6 comments

According to the US State Department's website, New Zealand citizen Mohammed Saffi was not in violation of his visa when intending to attend a Miami flight school for 727 aircraft engineering certification. At least that's what NZ Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke says.
posted by sycophant at 5:45 AM PST - 9 comments

Space Colony... Impossible? Two days ago I wrote in my blog that a space colony is a stupid idea. I don't think this project can do much against the growing threat of terrorism. I don't like one thing is this space colony: living really near a nuclear reactor with nowere to escape should something go wrong.
posted by Baud at 11:59 PM PST - 24 comments

"Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz talks about the corporate looting spree and Bush's woeful mismanagement of the economy." "The fiscal mismanagement of the current administration -- leading to a change in the fiscal position of the United States over the past year -- is absolutely phenomenal; going from huge surpluses to huge deficits and the deficits are probably going to be larger than people anticipated."
posted by semmi at 10:19 PM PST - 25 comments

outer space will have to be colonized "The United States places the greatest pressure on the environment, with its carbon dioxide emissions and over-consumption. It takes 12.2 hectares of land to support each American citizen and 6.29 for each Briton, while the figure for Burundi is just half a hectare." ....meanwhile...its too hot (we're wondering why) here in mid-america - lets go to the mall and forget about it..
posted by specialk420 at 10:18 PM PST - 23 comments

Fat versus Carbs NYT Magazine takes an deep look at the issues of the low fat diet and the modern obesity epidemic.
posted by srboisvert at 7:10 PM PST - 45 comments

Putting The Wit Back Into Wittgenstein: Here's an impeccable satire, involving fog-like sensations, apparently written by the ever-witty Michael Frayn and featured in David Chalmers's magnificent collection of philosophical humour. Although it was clearly written and compiled by and for academic philosophers, most pieces will cause chuckling in anyone with even a very basic knowledge of philosophy. Among its many delights, the Jerry Springer parody and the Philosofighter game give some idea of the range and downright funniness of this richly uneducational resource, so deserving of a wider audience.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:37 PM PST - 8 comments

Director John Frankenheimer is dead. I don't want to make this out to be one of those "random celebrity dies and is suddenly hailed as a genius" things, but Frankenheimer's made quite a few damn good movies (and, yes, some bad ones). While his later works weren't nearly as great as some of his earlier films, his gift for filming action never went away: his 1998 film Ronin wound up on several lists of the "best car chases on film". He was supposed to helm the upcoming Exorcist prequel, but failing health forced him to step aside. Despite the dodgy source material, I would have really liked to see Frankenheimer's take on it. He'll be missed.
posted by toddshot at 4:55 PM PST - 33 comments

"I never had much confidence in the attention span of elected officials for any kind of deep thinking about important issues," jabs Republican U.S. judge Alfred Goodwin in a feisty interview. He seems unfazed by the outraged reaction to his ban on government teachers leading a theistic "pledge of allegiance," ripping into the press "("Their attention span can't handle anything more than a haiku of about four lines"), the President ("I'm a little disappointed in our chief executive -- who nobody ever accused of being a deep thinker -- for popping off") and "this wrap-yourself-in-the-flag frenzy." I'm starting to see why he's "among the best-liked jurists on the 9th Circuit bench, always affable and gracious." [from cursor.org]
posted by mediareport at 4:23 PM PST - 33 comments

"This trend of creating mass media to distribute propaganda methods is particularly frightening -- usually the government agencies don't participate directly in mainstream media. It's the difference between using commercial airtime to broadcast anti-drug messages and having a nationwide government-run cable channel that runs programs devoted to the subject."

The government in question? The American one. The Game? America's Army.
posted by jcterminal at 11:11 AM PST - 31 comments

new counterbalance to israeli nuclear capability if you can't beat 'em join 'em (sort of)
posted by johnnyboy at 9:33 AM PST - 2 comments

"Do you like beer?" ... "Do I ever!" The good folks at Molecular Expressions have taken photomicrographs (photographs taken through an optical microscope) of your favorite beers. Next time I take a sip of Bass, Newcastle or Bohemia I'll know that science is hard at work making this a better world to live in. (via TechTV).
posted by Bag Man at 9:29 AM PST - 2 comments

"We think of an orange as a constant, but in reality it's not." Canadian study finds that fruits and vegetables have lost much of their nutritional value in the last decades--potatoes, for example, have lost 100% of their Vitamin A. The reason, it appears, is mass production and a market that values appearance over substance. Is this symptomatic of deeper problems within a system where produce travels so far before reaching the consumer? Here in B.C., for example, the stores are full of California produce, despite the fact that we grow much the same fruits and vegetables locally.
posted by jokeefe at 9:25 AM PST - 17 comments

Fake Harry Potter novel hits China. An anonymous Chinese author has decided JK Rowling is taking too long to write the fifth book - so has written a new adventure to satisfy the huge Potter market in the country, according to a report in The Times. Harry Potter And Leopard Walk Up To Dragon, on sale in Beijing street markets for about £1, is selling fast to the dismay of the publisher of the genuine Potter books in China.
posted by ncurley at 6:45 AM PST - 14 comments

Israel has about 400 nuclear weapons, according to an air force report. _{(via fark)}
posted by delmoi at 4:48 AM PST - 20 comments

The Official History of net.art, Volume I: History of Art for Airports appropriates the style of universal informational graphics to represent subjects ranging from St. Sebastien and the Pieta, to the Star Trek transporter effect and the international sign for cannibalism you might have seen on a t-shirt.
posted by Su at 3:44 AM PST - 2 comments

Dale Earnhardt Appears In Goat's Birthmark ... sort of.
posted by Dirjy at 9:47 PM PST - 28 comments

"When the Israeli army was asked to comment on the footage, it refused."
posted by donkeyschlong at 6:17 PM PST - 53 comments

There is no more excuse not to know at least where to look for it, --with graphic topography and description of the top entertainment spot, the famed G. Do you know how to find it?
posted by semmi at 5:31 PM PST - 12 comments

Buffy the Terrorism Slayer (PDF link) The Center For Strategic & International Studies, which appears to be, like, a bunch of grown-up ex-senators and accused war criminals and former top spooks and such, released this white paper late last September.

Any structured intellectual approach to describing this situation — and planning for it — is so uncertain that a valid structure can only be developed as an exercise in complexity or "chaos" theory. I, however, would like you to think about the biological threat in more mundane terms. I am going to suggest that you think about biological warfare in terms of a TV show called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," that you think about the world of biological weapons in terms of the "Buffy Paradigm," and that you think about many of the problems in the proposed solutions as part of the "Buffy Syndrome."

I am one vindicated overgrown Buffy fan. (Via Need To Know.)
posted by nicwolff at 5:26 PM PST - 14 comments

"Sir, you're diners club card was declined, we can't accept it."

"For the love of GOD, what has the world come to?! You say the credit card slip had the word 'DECLINED' on it? This calls for immediate action, and fortunately since I'm also a leech, er I mean lawyer, I'm going to sue Diners Club ™ over this egregiously evident case of libel!" YES!!!
posted by ( .)(. ) at 4:16 PM PST - 30 comments

It appears England is made up of an ethnic cleansing event from people coming across from the continent after the Romans left. Our findings completely overturn the modern view of the origins of the English.
posted by stbalbach at 1:16 PM PST - 21 comments

The Best Investigative Reporter You've Never Heard Of died Wednesday from a rare blood disease he picked up reporting in the slums of Bombay. Robert Friedman was beaten by religious zealots after writing about Rabbi Meir Kahane, had a contract taken out on his life after writing about "The Most Dangerous Mobster in the World" and got a Valentine's card threatening rape and murder after writing about Russian organized crime links to the NHL. This December article about the Israel/Palestine situation, which may be the last piece he wrote, is detailed, balanced and yet pulls no punches -- a good example of his hard-hitting style. His death leaves a gaping hole in journalism.
posted by mediareport at 12:57 PM PST - 4 comments

"Four years after father's dragging death, Ross Byrd speaks about his change of heart over executions." James Byrd Jr., was tied to the back of a pickup with logging chain, then dragged along a Texas country road until his body fell apart. White supremacist John W. King was one of two men sentenced to death for Byrd's murder. "On Wednesday, Ross Byrd traveled to the state prison in Huntsville to lead a 24-hour fast and prayer vigil on King's behalf. 'When I heard King had exhausted his appeals, I began thinking, `How can this help me or solve my pain?' and I realized it couldn't,' Byrd said."

So much for retribution. Instead of yet another senseless execution (this next to be performed with 18-gauge intravenous needle in lieu of logging chain), ponder a possible healing...a rebirth...crystallizing from the son of a murdered black man saving the life of his father's racist killer.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 11:21 AM PST - 55 comments

Incompetently drawn hand-made Fathers Day card depicting some sort of blue square holding hands with larger green shape (possibly car?). Message inside reads 'Please Love Me Daddy from Josie' but spelt wrong. £offers. Unwanted Gift. Call Mr Hollyhock on 01999 482762 ..... The saga continues in the classifieds of Britains favourite local paper, The Framley Examiner
posted by grahamwell at 10:16 AM PST - 12 comments

More than 1/3 of Americans think the U.S. Constitution is Marxist. Well, they think that it includes the phrase "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." I wonder what else people might think is in there . . .
posted by kcmoryan at 10:11 AM PST - 6 comments

Accusations hurled at hot dog contest! Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi scarfed down 50.5 hot dogs in 12 minutes at Nathan's Famous Fourth of July international hot dog eating contest... but did he keep them all down for long enough? And you thought the National Spelling Bee Championships were intense!
posted by krunk at 9:01 AM PST - 24 comments

Even Ocicats In Hats Do It! How does this extraordinary woman know her cat is gay? Well: People ask me why I think my cat is gay, and it's really hard to explain in words. If you hang out with him at all, it becomes obvious. His effeminate, overdramatic affectations speak volumes. He will go from languid, swishy posturing to screaming hysterics for no apparent reason, and then will fall over in an apparent swoon. If he is, he's certainly not alone (predictably, even Guinean cocks-of-the-rocks do it). Giraffes are thought to be the gayest of all mammals but cheetahs seem to run a close second.[Please scroll down a bit. Requires Real or QuickTime. First link via Andrewsullivan.com.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:46 AM PST - 21 comments

The Guardian asked readers to send weblog recommendations, and they did, and the Guardian post a whole big bunch of them. Look at the page soon; sometimes these Guardian links change addresses...
posted by jhiggy at 8:43 AM PST - 12 comments

Nuking Lincoln (via www.dailygrail.com). Thaddeus McMullen, 1864. "I showed McMullen’s writings to physicists familiar with nuclear fission and they were stunned," Remarsh states. "His bomb was crude, with maybe a tenth of the destructive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, but it would have worked. Maybe. I suspect this is a hoax, but it's interesting enough to post it anyway. Now whether the Confederates could have refined the uranium to make the bomb out of is another question. Any physicists care to express an opinion?
posted by aeschenkarnos at 4:32 AM PST - 28 comments

Pleix, a multi-disciplinary group of artists, are creating some incredible video works[Quicktime only], including a video for a new track by Plaid[fullscreen, somewhat annoying].
Particularly fun is a group of "commercials" for Beauty Kits(Why Wait for Mother Nature?), which share a sick little theme with this piece by someone I kinda like.
posted by Su at 1:13 AM PST - 4 comments

It's the clothes. A fashion columnist in The Washington Post blames corporate scandals on business-casual clothes, which lead to casual ethics.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:52 AM PST - 30 comments

The media seem to think Steven Hatfill, the guy whose apartment was searched by the FBI last week and former infectious disease researcher for the Army, is the anthrax mailer. Kristoff says Hatfill (Kristoff calls him "Mr. Z," presumably so he won’t be sued for liable) gave some friends who visited him Cipro, he has connections to a Rhodesian army who used anthrax in the late 70s and his security clearance was suspended less than a month before the mailings. Laura Rozen of The American Prospect has news clips of him warning about bioterror attacks. (Bonus for the conspiracy theorists: The Globe and Mail collected info on the "[s]uspicious deaths" of eleven of the world’s leading microbiologists.) [1, 2]
posted by raaka at 10:42 PM PST - 7 comments

Nat Hentoff tells the story of the Northampton Bill of Rights Defense Committee, a grassroots group of citizens dedicated to defending the Bill of Rights "--not only against the USA Patriot Act but also against subsequent Presidential executive orders, and actions by John Ashcroft, that 'threaten key rights guaranteed to U.S. citizens and noncitizens by the Bill of Rights and the Massachusetts Constitution.'". Visit their Web site to find out what you can do to help, including signing the Petition to Repeal the Patriot Act.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:18 PM PST - 3 comments

I want Frank Zappa's Rolls Royce. It's up for auction on Ebay Motors.
This statement of proper British elegance was the daily driver for iconoclastic composer/guitarist and Mothers of Invention founder Frank Zappa. Shortly before purchasing the automobile, Mr. Zappa let his driver's license lapse and never made the time to renew it. However, he thoroughly enjoyed the comfort of this Rolls and as a result, he was driven by a chauffer. Purchased new, it served as a vehicular counterpoint to its owner's avant garde learning. Also up for sale: Dweezil's Aston Martin
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 9:59 PM PST - 6 comments

Worst Election Ever in PNG due to Mismanagement and Cash Crisis
Papua New Guinea's two-week polling period has been extended one week in some areas due to a near complete breakdown of voting infrastructure: corrupt common rolls in some areas, violence in others, and no ballots or cash to pay for election services in still others. Results as they come in are available online. What went wrong? Outright bribery, sometimes. Its a fight over who will control massive natural resources: citizens or international conglomerates. The privatising PM may be heading for a fall, despite his mishandling of election.
posted by rschram at 6:08 PM PST - 2 comments

Xenophobia at its best! " The British and the North Americans are often said to be divided by a common language. Now it seems this linguistic split may apply to the natural world too. [¶] A pair of Canadian otters brought to Britain a year ago are under 24-hour guard at the National Sea-life Sanctuary, near Oban in Scotland, because of fears they will be attacked by indigenous cousins unable to understand their "foreign accents". "
YES!!11 GO CANADIAN OTTERS!!!
posted by ( .)(. ) at 3:48 PM PST - 9 comments

"Boy's walk with upper caste girl led to trial and punishment"
From the newspaper article that is scanned and posted on the blog:

The girl was raped by four men as hundreds of villagers stood outside laughing and cheering, and was then forced to return home naked while dozens of villagers watched.

The sentence was ordered to shame the family after the girl's younger brother was seen walking unchaperoned with a girl from a higher-class tribe.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 3:32 PM PST - 35 comments

Gunman kills one at LAX El Al terminal , is killed by security personnel. Developing. Happy freakin' Fourth of July.
posted by scottst at 12:11 PM PST - 43 comments

Jury (Is it a Civic) Duty? It's Jury Duty time for the bloggers, as I, and several other bloggers have been summoned for service lately. Apparently, it's something you desperately want to do, or would give anything not to do... Have you ever served on a jury? Or better yet, did your excuse to get out of it work or not? Do you know what jury nullification means?... Here in Los Angeles they've been trying to improve the jury selection system with their "One Day, One Trial" program, but I doubt it will ever make everyone happy.
posted by jca at 9:38 AM PST - 38 comments

Music Labels Plant Online Decoys, Consider Suing Individual Users. The music industry is stepping up its fight against online piracy, planting "decoys" on free peer-to-peer services and considering lawsuits against individual song-swappers, sources said on Wednesday.
posted by ncurley at 9:09 AM PST - 9 comments

Unsubstantiated fear of terrorism headlines like this are an incitement to panic for no good reason. I awoke this morning to this one in the Indianapolis Star. Are all medium-sized American cities this reactionary, or is that honor reserved for The Crossroads of America?
posted by jpburns at 8:51 AM PST - 15 comments

If You Take A Book With You, You Travel Twice Over This pleasant essay by Alain de Botton had me thinking what the perfect combination of a book, a destination and a way of travelling would be...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:49 AM PST - 19 comments

It's just like the film Network. Former BBC anchor David Ickes, who claimed he was "the son of god" in 1991 has got a new job at the Sci-Fi channel ranting. In Network, anchor Howard Beale has an on air nervous breakdown. Instead of taking him off the air, the network gives him a weekly show to rant to the nation. Oddly, Icke's idea about reality is very similar to Philip K. Dick's Valis, Grant Morrison's The Invisibles and a recent mefi discussion.
posted by drezdn at 1:31 AM PST - 6 comments

Unchecked Greek aggression near Thebes in 1475AD has brought them to war, but Phoenatican democracy prevails. The, uh, fanatics over at civ fanatics have been playing Civilization 3 game as a democracy, with elected leaders, policy votes, a constitution, a census, the works. Their empire is impressive, as is the player cooperation to make a new kind of gameplay that Sid Meier probably never intended.
posted by malphigian at 9:35 PM PST - 8 comments

Happy Independence Day USA! Celebrate it by asserting your independence. Regardless of any of our multifarious differences, Americans live in a country where it is legal to disagree and dissent. In fact, by simple dint of being Americans we each by default, protect each other's rights to disagree. For without free dialogue we cease to be American at all. So without further ado. Let's celebrate our freedom!
posted by crasspastor at 8:58 PM PST - 32 comments

The light at the end of the tunnel? The findings from a panel of Arab intellectuals on the state of the world's 280 million Arabs, in a Friedman's commentary (NYT). A Palestinian argument against suicide attacks, published June 19 in the Arabic language newspaper Al Quds and signed by 55 prominent Palestinian intellectuals and politicians. "Out of our national responsibility, and due to the gravity of the situation the Palestinian people is in, we, the undersigned, wish to hope that those behind the military actions aimed at [harming] citizens in Israel will reconsider [their acts] and cease pushing our youth to carry out these operations, because we do not see them as leading to any results except for increased hatred, enmity, and hostility between the two peoples, deepening the chasm between them, and destroying the possibility of both peoples living alongside each other in peace in two neighboring states."
posted by semmi at 8:55 PM PST - 6 comments

Canine candidate challenges Harris in FL elections Harris the dog is running as a write-in candidate in the Republican primary. Percy is described as "a compassionate conservative who takes a hard-line with social parasites, particularly fleas and worms. His past is free of sex scandals, due to 'timely neutering.'" A great reminder of why this country is so great.
posted by wackybrit at 8:10 PM PST - 25 comments

History of U.S. Armies in Uniform From His Majesty’s First Independent Company of American Rangers, Colonial America, 1747 to Special Operations, Tora Bora, Afghanistan, 2002. Although this site is very interesting from a historical perspective, I like it because it contains what must be the coolest Action Man collection in existence.
posted by RobertLoch at 7:53 PM PST - 2 comments

“Students, Thomas says, endanger themselves. And that is enough for the court to approve the program. It's enough to force every single American to also submit to suspicionless drug-testing, but Thomas neglects to mention this." The Justices are mostly old and frail and wield massive power. They should be tested for their "protection" and so the American public can be sure they are "physically fit, and have unimpeachable integrity and judgment."
posted by raaka at 5:00 PM PST - 13 comments

Life is Simple I'm not even going to pretend to understand this. On the other hand, I really like the styling, beyond the images.
posted by Su at 4:24 PM PST - 12 comments

"It's the baddest bunny in the bush. It has no known predators in this environment, can grow to 15 pounds, and it can get up and walk. What more do you need?"

For one Maryland community, this has been The Week Of The Snakefish.
posted by LinusMines at 1:44 PM PST - 34 comments

Move over Amsterdam, Vancouver has been voted the world's best spot for marijuana smokers, according to the summer edition of High Times. I'm so proud.
posted by timeistight at 1:02 PM PST - 24 comments

E-mail Reaches the Unreachable via Shortwave in the Solomons
PFNet is an innovative development project which deploys a growing network infrastructure across the largely rural and remote communities of the Solomon Islands. "PFnet is based on a model where community-managed, operator-assisted email facilities provide all groups (even illiterates) the means to send messages and Internet emails. ... Owing to the formidable logistical barriers in this scattered island nation, the mainstay of the network uses HF/Wavemail; a well proven system short-wave radios in Pactor 2 mode." The organization is a finalist for the Stockholm Challenge, an award for innovation in IT development.
    All a community needs is a shortwave radio, solar panels, and a computer running Wavemail to send email, and potentially more. The results are quite impressive: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
posted by rschram at 12:26 PM PST - 5 comments

Sneering at President John Adams as "querulous, Bald, blind, crippled, Toothless Adams" got Ben Franklin's grandson arrested under the Sedition Act of 1798. Federalists like Adams and Alexander Hamilton used the Sedition Act to muzzle highly aggressive elements of the press. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison fought back -- and won. Understanding this early power grab by the U.S. executive branch helps put recent events into historical context. The struggle itself has been part of the United States of America since the beginning, and anyone working to fight Cheney and Ashcroft's unconstitutional assault happens to be in pretty good company. Happy Fourth of July.
posted by mediareport at 12:23 PM PST - 13 comments

Anyone who ever spent any time on the Domain-Policy mailing list before NetSol shut it down without warning a year or more back (it was starting to look evidentiary, you see, and they didn't want to get sued...) will be familiar with much of what's in this Salon piece about John "Gnu" Gilmore, CORE, ICANN('t), and the Great Domain Registration Fiasco.
posted by baylink at 12:16 PM PST - 7 comments

Paths to patriotism "Among these young Americans, children of unprecedented peace and prosperity, the change is something unrelated to festivals and fireworks. After years of being left to themselves to navigate through video games and parental divorce, political correctness and personal computers, they are now confronted with images and emotions they have never seen or felt. Sept. 11 might not have turned them into patriots in the mold of those who stormed the beaches at Normandy, but it is stirring unfamiliar – and as yet unresolved – feelings of conflict, as many young adults struggle to reconsider America and their place in it."
posted by owillis at 11:18 AM PST - 16 comments

The New Gilded Age and its Discontents. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz began explaining why markets fail long before Enron and WorldCom rose, exploded and crashed. But not many people wanted to listen during the boom-boom '90s; Stiglitz was even fired from his position as chief economist at the World Bank after he repeatedly criticized the organization's free-market obsessions.
posted by Ty Webb at 9:36 AM PST - 8 comments

Managing Fundie Eruptions. A short course on how Karl Rove manages the fundamentalists who so often disrupt the regime's plans. He gives them what they want, but secretly, kinda like fundie sex.
posted by nofundy at 8:37 AM PST - 9 comments

you worry me This American Airlines pilot hits the nail on the head for me! Thus far the Muslim voices I hear in America--and they are precious few--always seem to get half way through condemniong this or that and then insert a "BUT" or "HOWEVER." This guy asks for a simple, straight-forward response.
posted by Postroad at 7:20 AM PST - 104 comments

Sentence diagramming. Did anyone else learn this when they were a kid? Brings back memories -- a place for every word, and every word in its place. Fascinating for grammar nuts. The guy diagrams famous sentences -- even the opening sentence of the Declaration of Independence. (Happy Fourth!)
posted by Tin Man at 7:18 AM PST - 27 comments

Another blogging tool/service recently launched, adding to the already numerous options. They all have their own strengths and point(s) of differentiation, but is there a saturation point?
posted by jedro at 7:11 AM PST - 15 comments

(Note to young sportswriters: Always make your steroid question your last question.)
Sports Illustrated Übercolumnist Rick Reilly asks Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa if he would be willing to undergo a test for steroids. After all, Sosa has said he would be "first in line" if baseball required tests for steroids. Reilly asks, "Well, why wait? Why not step up right now and be tested? You show everybody you're clean."
Sosa chuckles ruefully, pats Reilly on the back, and replies, "No, sir, that would weaken the player's union, and besides, your question is quite inappropriate."
Just kidding. Actually, Sosa yells and screams. His answer includes the word "motherfucker." "You're not my father," he tells Reilly. Journalists writing to the letters page of Jim Romenesko's Media News disagree on the appropriateness of Reilly's request.
posted by Holden at 6:50 AM PST - 29 comments

The anomalies of the U.S. Constitution: what next? Ok, not a serious 'polemical' post, more a request for your take on the mysteries which politics brings us...
- how come Wyoming has 3 Senators?
- how come DC has none?
- what other wierd stuff would you fix in the Constitution of your state, given the choice? (for my part, ditching the Windsors and embracing democracy would be a start...)
posted by dash_slot- at 6:50 AM PST - 60 comments

The Inexplicable Mystery Of American Rye Whiskey: Almost nobody drinks it! It's arguably the best American spirit there is. It's great straight and indispensable in such classic American cocktails such as the Manhattan, the Whiskey Sour, the Old-Fashioned and the Sazerac[Chuq's MeFi recipe is my favourite.] Thanks to the dedication of a few master distillers, it's currently being revived. And yet...[More inside]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:00 AM PST - 43 comments

Have the anti-Euro lobby shot themselves in the foot? A video promoting opposition to the UK joing the Euro has been critisized for including a spoof of Hitler praising the currency. It's attracted publicity for the campaign, all right, but has it unmasked the "No" campaign as anti-Europe "little Englanders"? (Guardian link)
posted by salmacis at 3:52 AM PST - 23 comments

I'm sure lots of you know about the Hunger Site, which has been around for quite awhile. Well, in case you haven't visited recently, you might be interested to know that they've just recently added an Animal Rescue Site to their repertoire. Except for the pop-unders (which they allow you to disable if you don't already have Popup Killer or something), this seems like a great little site.
posted by Bixby23 at 1:19 AM PST - 2 comments

The brilliant Cecily Kidd put together a few URLs discussing Title IX and the funding disparity between male and female sports. "[M]ale athletes receive $133 million more in athletic scholarships than female athletes." In one of the few sports where men and women compete (against each other) on the same field and with the same (or similar) equipment: motor sports, where men are no more rewarded for being muscular or women penalized for any female physical attributes; women have not only competed, but won against men. Shirley Muldowney has won four Top Fuel championships, Angelle Savoie has won two Pro Stock Bike championships, Jutta Kleinschmidt won the Paris-Dakar rally, Shawna Robinson won the poll with a track record in 1994 Busch race at Atlanta, Sarah Fisher is the most popular driver in IRL and the cute and lovable Danica Patrick recently won at the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race at Long Beach. So why can't these women get a steady sponsorship deal and a regular ride as a driver? Why do they always have to be 'something more'?
posted by tamim at 11:55 PM PST - 10 comments

Investigators Want Records From Planned Parenthood Where do we draw the line between patient privacy and investigating crimes? A county judge has ruled that the records be turned over to the sheriff. Planned Parenthood is appealing.
posted by justlisa at 10:22 PM PST - 24 comments

Stealing from the "real" President? In a bit of a follow up to a thread last week whereupon Bush joked that he'd only go into deficit spending if he hit the "budget trifecta" of war, recession and national emergency. Well, nobody could ever find proof that he'd said any such thing during the campaign. As it turns out, it's because it was Gore who said it. In related news, it turns out that Bush "borrowed" his June 24th Tough on Palestine speech from Natan Sharansky, Israel's deputy prime minister, who published almost a word for word version of the speech back on May 3rd.
posted by dejah420 at 9:39 PM PST - 50 comments

The Hundred Thousand Years War Q&A.
Our resident Wonderpoultry provides us with a sharp bit of historical reportage.
posted by Optamystic at 9:20 PM PST - 4 comments

Supermodels Are Lonelier Than You Think! (tabloidesque nudity). Combining two of the best things in the world, blogs and beautiful women. This Paris based weblog gives news of the fashion industry along with the occasional inside scoop. Never thought I'd care about the fashion industry but I've been following this for some time now.
posted by geoff. at 8:42 PM PST - 10 comments

So, ummm... does anyone have a magazine published by Man's World Publications Inc.? I heard that there are some nice photos of Jennifer Aniston in 'em, just wanted to confirm. ;) (also @ bbc)
posted by hobbes at 8:28 PM PST - 14 comments

Ah, the law in Florida. (NYT) The rich princess pushed her maid down a flight of stairs, but will be allowed to plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge of battery without having to appear in court, pay a $1,000 fine and give a judge a letter of regret about injuries to her Indonesian maid in the incident. All this because the maid cannot be in court. After she went home to Jakarta in May for her mother's funeral, the United States Embassy there denied her a visa to return to Florida and testify on the grounds that she might try to stay in this country illegally. The maid is also the primary witness in a federal investigation of the princess for possibly employing Ms. Soryono under conditions of involuntary servitude, the Justice Department said. After the court hearing in Orlando, this federal investigation appears likely to end without charges.
posted by semmi at 8:08 PM PST - 4 comments

The TouchGraph GoogleBrowser uses Google's related: links to visualize local maps of the web. Enter www.metafilter.com and watch the spider unfurl its arms. Click on "Show Singles" for more specific pages, or set the "radius" to 10 for more nodes. (Full instructions are here. ) Requires something called the Java Virtual Machine and may be IE-only, but that doesn't matter: my neighbors just called to ask if I was going to keep whooping like that all night.
posted by gleuschk at 3:14 PM PST - 23 comments

The official 5.25" disk sleeve archive those elephant sleeves sure bring back memories .....
posted by rotifer at 2:39 PM PST - 23 comments

The industry-standard effects magazine Cinefex has made some articles from their archives viewable online. One of them is this lengthy and fascinating look at E.T. from a 1983 issues.
posted by GriffX at 1:47 PM PST - 9 comments

Berman's P2P Hacking bill (mentioned last week) has caught the notice of a few people, and it's worth noting their suspicions. Cory from boingboing wonders why there needs to be a law for something that is on the surface, not illegal. Declan McCullagh's request for comments about the bill netted a handful of scary responses. Berman's clearly in Hollywood's pocket, but how far will he go to get his legislation passed? And what will happen once P2P hacking is legally permitted for big studios?
posted by mathowie at 1:39 PM PST - 10 comments

Laurel Wellman thinks blogging is dumb. Well, you knew that was coming.
posted by brookish at 12:22 PM PST - 31 comments

Mike Ovitz uncovers a sinister organization! He claims to be the latest victim of the "gay Mafia." By most accounts, he would also be the first. Is this simple bellyaching from a man who once dominated Hollywood? Or maybe, just maybe, we’re witnessing the birth of a new crime syndicate, and with it, fresh takes on the shopworn mob movies? LA Times link (sigh, registration req.)
posted by herc at 12:16 PM PST - 17 comments

Blonder Tongue?!?!?!?
Scanning through Yahoo's "Anybody and Everybody's Press Release" News, this company name lept out at me. Blonder Tongue Laboratories? Holy Mother of Compost Tumbler! What does it mean? Were the guys who started this company (founded in 1950) named Blonder and Tongue? Does it mean something in a language other than English (babelfish is no help)? Is this electronics firm telling us to "speak Aryan" (a scary corporate message)? Does somebody have really odd pigmentation in his mouth? Or did somebody just open a dictionary to random pages in the corporate registration office?
How would you like to open your cable bill one day and see this company name?
OK, maybe you don't want to know the story behind Blonder Tongue Labs. But what's the funniest, strangest, most non-sequitur (least sequitur?), company name YOU have ever come in contact with? (And, no, I don't have anything more important/serious/relevant for a FPP, thanks for asking.)
posted by wendell at 12:05 PM PST - 50 comments

Covered with moss: I've been a continuous subscriber to Rolling Stone ever since I bought my first issue off the newsstand in October 1975 ("Patty Hearst: The Inside Story"), back when the magazine was still published on newsprint in SF and at least seemed to be a product of the counterculture. Today it's a glossy celebrity rag published in NY and has almost no relevance to anything except the most superficial aspects of pop culture. Publisher Jann Wenner is bringing in a new editor in hopes of appealing to a younger demographic; this piece asks: Why not just pull the plug instead?
posted by nathanstack at 11:25 AM PST - 28 comments

In 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne predicted that submarines would go to the South Pole and be nuclear powered. Leonardo da Vinci, the Florentine Renaissance inventor and artist, developed plans for an underwater warship but kept them secret. He was afraid that it would make war even more frightful than it already was. Get the facts about submarines. Check out the submarine timeline. What's the future for submarines? I want one.
posted by ashbury at 11:22 AM PST - 18 comments

The Leaves Project catalogs sadly too few leaves from trees and personal stories associated with them. Highlight a leaf and click to view the story behind it. From their about page: "The Leaves Project was borne of one simple thought: that every leaf has an inherent beauty and elegance. I have become fascinated with the colors and textures of leaves. This project is an attempt at capturing just a small portion of the wonder to be found in the natural world."
posted by moz at 10:46 AM PST - 7 comments

It's VIVENDI scandal time ! :( One more company with "accounting trouble", not your mom and pop shop.
posted by elpapacito at 10:11 AM PST - 17 comments

A disgusting abuse of civil liberties, while it was certainly possible to obtain a facsimile of a persons driving license in the past this just goes too far in my opinion.
posted by zeoslap at 10:11 AM PST - 18 comments

Goodwill Industries Fires Worker for Being a Communist
Sewing-machine operator Michael Italie was fired by Goodwill for his Marxist beliefs. He had not been proselytizing within the Goodwill plant, and he was not accused of doing so. His political views became an issue after he appeared on television to participate in the Miami mayoral race.
posted by Irontom at 9:54 AM PST - 47 comments

"The music I want to hear hasn't been written yet. And I'm going to write it." What music do you want to hear? What books do you want to read? What films do you want to see? What software do you want to use? What are you doing to make it so? A meditation on the brevity of life and the choices we make of how to spend our time on earth. [more inside]
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:33 AM PST - 26 comments

On July 8, watch your newspaper for a picture of a little girl sleeping under a blanket imprinted with an image of the U.S. Constitution, with the caption: "Security Blanket." It's the first installment in a 13-month, $2.5 million advertising campaign by the American Bar Association to promote the Constitution in a time of terror and get people talking about security and democracy. After all, ads sell. And why shouldn't the lawyers pay for a bit of Constitutional image rebuilding? Without that stained, dog-eared, pissed on, misread, half-shredded little 'ol document, they'd be out of jobs.
posted by jellybuzz at 8:12 AM PST - 25 comments

Don't climb the Andes without minutes on your cell phone. A hiker is stranded in South America's Andes mountains when a blizzard begins. He reaches into his backpack for his cell phone -- only to find his prepaid minutes are up. Lucky for him the telemarketer called just then to sell him more time.
posted by elgoose at 8:04 AM PST - 23 comments

Italian concept artist Piero Manzoni created art, controversy, and statements on the gullible nature of the art-buying public by selling his thumbprints on hard boiled eggs, his breath in a balloon, and his own excrement in ninety little tins, one of which has been sold recently at Southebys and purchased by the Tate Gallery for the sum of $61,000.00. Manzoni stated that he hoped the tins would all explode in time, and at least half of the cans have already obliged him. Are we as gullible as he thought, or is art truly in the eye of the beholder, or both? partially via arts & letters daily
posted by iconomy at 7:37 AM PST - 20 comments

The President "has more familiarity with troubled energy companies and accounting irregularities than probably any previous chief executive." (NYTimes link, reg req'd) Krugman chimes in on Whitehouse outrage to corporate fraud. (See also, Cheney's investigation regarding Halliburton's accounting while he was it's big cheese)
posted by BentPenguin at 7:33 AM PST - 12 comments

Shoot the Dog, George Michael's latest release, will be accompanied by an animated video which lampoons the relationship between George Bush & Tony Blair. The UK Prime Minister appears as an obedient poodle and the video also features Mr Michael's attempts to get jiggy with the PM's wife, Cherie. Clips viewable via this Sky News report

'It could get slated, it could land me right in the shit, but I hope it just gets people debating because there's never been a more important time to talk than now' says the man who is no stranger to controversy following his dalliance in an LA toilet.

Here are the ABC & Reuters/Yahoo versions of the story but Lileks isn't impressed [scroll down a little] and offers a curmudgeonly run thru the lyrics.

This brings up the old chestnut of pop stars as political commentators and further questions regarding the US-UK-EU-RoW relationships, dissenting voices in these various times and, of course, whether the song is actually any good? And what does Bono think?
posted by i_cola at 3:35 AM PST - 28 comments

Study Warns of Stagnation in Arab Societies. "The report, the first United Nations human development report devoted to a single region, was prepared by Arab intellectuals from a variety of disciplines, who do not fault others for what they see as the "deficits" in contemporary Arab culture, Ms. Khalaf Hunaidi said."
posted by Zool at 11:51 PM PST - 11 comments

The Age of Simulation. Do we live in Reality or do we live in a Simulation? Following themes most popularly found in movies like The Matrix or in books like Stanislaw Lem's Futurological Congress, we are being told via email and even by philosophers at Yale, that what we perceive is not what is. Is this merely paranoia?
posted by vacapinta at 9:59 PM PST - 30 comments

"The War Against Bad Things" - A blogger's one-act / one screen play. Politicians with a new and improved metaphor to describe the campaign for civillian safety may stand to win votes. A journalist notes: "If I have learned anything in four decades of covering politics, it is to pay heed when you hear the same questions -- in almost the same phrases -- popping up in different parts of the country ..."
posted by sheauga at 7:32 PM PST - 6 comments

Did you install it yet? You may want to think twice. That new software update for Windows Media Player isn't just a security update, if you read the End User License Agreement carefully, it states:

"In order to protect the integrity of content and software protected by digital rights management 'Secure Content', Microsoft may provide security related updates to the OS Components that will be automatically downloaded onto your computer."

Does anyone know anything more about this? How about recommendations for a suitable replacement for WMP?
posted by Hackworth at 7:05 PM PST - 29 comments

Pixeljam is a "celebration of the pixel." Tiny GIF animations are resized to fill your browser window, resulting in giant blocky washes of color. Make sure to read the info, as there are some potentially important notes in there.
posted by Su at 6:42 PM PST - 9 comments

The other way around. This time a female teacher has been accused of sexual advances on a 13 y-o boy (now 18). The two had passed love notes in class, and when there weren't enough players for a pickup basketball game the then 26 y-o would join and press her hard body against the boy when guarding him.
posted by ( .)(. ) at 5:05 PM PST - 59 comments

Are these the hardest domains in the world to register, despite the changes that took effect 1 July 2002? Businesses can now own more than one domain name and the new .id.au domain space provides somewhere for individuals to live, but there are still many restrictions, not the least of which is the 21,322 word exclusion list. Given the recent instances of domain hijinks discussed here, it is not surprising to see that it has already started in the .au world. Are these restrictions good or bad news for the .au domain space?
posted by dg at 4:43 PM PST - 6 comments

Tupulev and Boeing crash in Germany A tupulev and a boeing crashed in southern germany. Number of victims yet unknown.
posted by knutmo at 4:08 PM PST - 24 comments

J.K. Galbraith shocked at scale of corporate failures. "I can only say I hadn't expected to see this problem on anything like the magnitude of the last few months – the separation of ownership from management, the monopolisation of control by irresponsible personal money-makers." Myself and chrispy came to the same conclusion on the drive home from the resolutely un- (rather than anti-) corporate Glastonbury Festival today. Profit is valued and rewarded by the vast majority of corporations above all else. As a consquence, people with the same values dominate executive positions, to the exclusion of those with more 'humanitarian' or longer-term outlooks. Where is the balance? Should we make hippie non-exec directors compulsory? Or should I just go back to bed and let the drugs wear off???
posted by barnsoir at 3:20 PM PST - 9 comments

The answer to file sharing? Woodstock Systems is Beta testing an Instant Message type music thinger. Essentially, the MP3's on your hard drive can be streamed by people on your buddy list, and vice versa. It also acts as a media player where you can play cds, streaming audio/video and mp3s in addition to ripping cds directly on to your hard drive. You can't download the MP3's though, so will any of those pesky laws that shut down Audiogalaxy and Napster apply?
posted by remlapm at 2:15 PM PST - 23 comments

Should punishments be "creative"? Judge Michael Cicconett has sentenced a kid with a loud radio to sit quietly in the woods, a man to hang out with a pig, at least one guy to run a race to diminish his jail sentence. Now Judge Michael Cicconetti is back in the news for sentencing a couple to print apologies in the local newspaper for their tryst on a public beach. These are rather inconsequential sentences for very minor crimes, but one might still ask: Does creative sentencing seems intuitively more fair and/or effective, or does it seem to leave justice up to the capriciousness of the judge?
posted by sj at 1:50 PM PST - 21 comments

Rep. J.C. Watts to Retire. The only Black Republican in Congress is retiring to spend time with his family. Dems say they have a shot at winning his seat, and hopefully, the House. Republicans are already vying for his #4 position in the House. I'm giddy already.
posted by jennak at 1:20 PM PST - 26 comments

U.S. aircraft attack local Afghan wedding... several were injured and killed, such as Haji Mohammed Anwar, a friend of President Hamid Karzai. But, we've seen this before.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 1:01 PM PST - 36 comments

The Grapes of 8th Grade Wrath.
When Andy Johnson refused to participate in a class reading assignment, his teacher gave him an alternative to detention or suspension: after getting permission from his mother, Johnson showed up at school in grungy clothes, goggles and a shower cap. His classmates lined up and pelted him with jelly. They laughed, he laoughed, the teacher and principal laughed...the school board called for a review of discipline policies at the school.
[via Opinion Journal's Best of the Web.]
posted by me3dia at 12:38 PM PST - 37 comments

An excellent piece of media analysis by Michael Wolff in New York Magazine looking at the current summer-movie-plot version of Al Qaeda being artfully constructed by the NY Times ...
Then, perhaps most disconcertingly, the overall narrative itself is patently a dumbed-down rehash. It's Cold War stuff. There is the ubiquitous and yet unknown and unknowable enemy. There's the international jihad, which, with only minor adjustments, replaces the international communist conspiracy. There's the sudden purported hegemony of the Muslim world -- a new Soviet-bloc-style ideological monolith. There is the otherworldly dedication of operatives bent on overthrowing the West. There are the cells. There is the myth of superhuman discipline. There is now, even, the developing Kremlinology of the next tier of men who replace Osama. And at the center of the story, of course, is the bomb. Whether in massive retaliatory form or as a dirty-bomb package, it serves the same effect.
(link cribbed from Altercation)
posted by mantid at 12:14 PM PST - 8 comments

I designate today 'Government Failure Day'. The Feds can't catch Osama, they can't stop 1 in 4 weapons getting through airport security (but they'll get those nail clippers, mind you!), and government employees again display their penchant for setting thousands of acres ablaze. This problem isn't unique to American government. While we like to burn large tracts of lands and play mind games with airline passengers, a British museum has decided that tins full of human feces are worth more than gold.
posted by insomnyuk at 12:02 PM PST - 32 comments

Outsider Music. From a mailing list, here's a concise description of what is really more an idea than a genre, per se. The Hip Surgery Music Guide has some info on the essential artrists of the phenomenon. If you wanted to stretch the definitions of the form you could include, some better-known artists as well. Unspoiled genius in the rough or merely crude freakshow appeal? The answer I believe is somewhere is somewhere in between. But in an age where most music is either a copy of what is currently popular or a revival of what used to be popular, Outsider Music is a place to go for a "Wow! What was that?" musical experience.
posted by jonmc at 11:53 AM PST - 11 comments

Department of Homeland Security to be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and the Whistleblower Protection Act? The last episode of NOW ran a piece on the FOIA which described how back in 1974 President Ford and his staff, which included Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, opposed Congress' strengthening of the FOIA, and Ford tried unsuccessfully to veto it. Now this new exemption looks like the continuation of a 28 year-old feud. Ridge says it is in order to not "draw a road map of critical infrastructure vulnerabilities," but are complete exemptions really necessary for that? The potential for abuse seems quite dangerous. (Some previous discussions of FOIA revelations here and here).
posted by homunculus at 10:12 AM PST - 15 comments

Mashup of Salt 'n' Pepa with The Stooges! This is similar to the recently popular mashup of Destiny's Child's "Bootylicious" + Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
posted by engelr at 9:58 AM PST - 10 comments

A U.S. District Court judge rules that the federal death penalty is unconstitutional. In related news, the Washington Post reports that everyone's favorite cabinet member, Mr. Ashcroft, has been pushing for the death penalty in federal cases and "frequently overruling his own prosecutors in the process". Here we go...
posted by gimonca at 9:18 AM PST - 66 comments

Spam King Living High In The Bayou Ronnie Scelson, a professional spammer, openly discusses his business and attitudes about spam. Reminiscent of Barry Dennis's infamous "Why I love spam" article recently featured on C|Net.
posted by dayvin at 9:17 AM PST - 30 comments

Steven Berkoff deported from the USA for overstaying his visa by 24 hours, five years ago. Such heavy-handed behaviour must be more harmful than good for the USA as a country. Surely the rules can't be so rigid as to force the authorities into doing this, so why do it? Couldn't they just caution, or even fine him? Or has he upset someone?
[via Wibbly Weblog]
posted by southisup at 6:28 AM PST - 31 comments

Apple Computer buys Emagic, an industry-leading audio software and hardware manufacturer who produces Logic Audio, the professional-level software used to make thousands of records (incl. Radiohead's KidA and Amnesiac.) The announcement heralds the end of Emagic's Windows offerings as well, which will orphan hundreds of thousands of people who paid upwards of $1000 for their software. em411 has some commentary on the announcement.
posted by n9 at 6:02 AM PST - 18 comments

US Ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, speaking on behalf of the Bush administration, vetoes extension of Bosnia's UN peacekeeping force. Negroponte, citing that the US is a "special target" who "cannot have its decisions second guessed by a court whose jurisdiction we do not recognize" has pretty much sealed it up that we're now entering the phase in world history known to western civ students of the 23rd century as: American Imperialism Comes of Age. BBC's (realmedia) streaming coverage shows how (possibly) reluctant Ambassador Negroponte was reading the US's justification for the veto from his script. In other news, the opposition to American Imperialism grows in the heartland of the redstates. Is this just anti-bush, anti-capitalistic, prevaricating peacenik, bleeding heart, wish our president was a liberal--propaganda?

I know this looks like two posts, but I have to ask: Are there other options as to how America (its people, its traditions, its innocents) fits within the rest of the world? Or is how the Bush administration views it, the ultimate in the Progress of Civilization--worthy of preservation? Capitalism as utopia while I juggle these pins, swords and torches and get you to believe I'm talented enough to keep it all in the air infinitely.
posted by crasspastor at 2:01 AM PST - 116 comments

Happy Canada Day! I'm off to celebrate at The Maple Leaf in Covent Garden London tonight. Have a good one eh?
posted by Frasermoo at 1:51 AM PST - 21 comments

FBI enforcing the bandwidth CAP. With broadband caps spreading across North America, I wonder if we will see more stories like this, as users find they want to use more than 4 to 6 gigs a month.
posted by Iax at 1:19 AM PST - 16 comments

The UCSD administration was recently defeated by The Koala, a student satire publication that it attempted to shut down. Said an administrator: "We condemn the Koala's abuse of the constitutional guarantees of free expression and disfavor their unconscionable behavior." The paper's staffers have now sold their blood plasma to raise money for a lawyer to file a countersuit against the administration. Good to see that free speech is alive and well on college campuses, this school's administration to the contrary. And its always good to see an active college humor magazine.
posted by gsteff at 12:13 AM PST - 6 comments