MetaFilter

In the evening, gunfire emanates with the relentlessness of frog "ribbits'' around a summer pond, sometimes sporadic and at other times overwhelming. But in the daytime, it's intermittent at most -- a few pops here and there. Five times a day, the Islamic call to prayer is broadcast through loudspeakers from each mosque in the city. The chant echoes and ricochets through Baghdad's declining alleys and architecture. One experiences a palpably hypnotic engagement with Middle Eastern spiritual life, like living in a movie with this chant as its score. Sean Penn returns to Iraq... and writes about it.
posted by squirrel at 11:17 PM PST - 30 comments

Trusting The Redcoats: How many independent-minded Americans actually rely on the BBC (specially the World Service) for accurate coverage of American politics? Not to mention The Guardian. Is it a strictly an elitist, liberal/left-wing phenomenon? What does it mean? What does it say about better-informed liberal newspapers and media of the U.S.? If so, why aren't like-minded Europeans just as cosmopolitan and, say, pay the same attention to news sources like The New York Times, NPR and others, rather than stolidly sticking to their own national staples?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:52 PM PST - 71 comments

Microsoft's IE team is calling for input into the future of their browser. Over lunch with Robert Scoble they communicated that they're working hard on security patches. So where do you come in?

"The team is looking to work with community members to improve Internet Explorer. That means blogs. That means taking harsh feedback. That means having a dialog about the future that's frank and as open as possible."

With an opportunity like this we should forgo mere whining and name calling, and participate.
posted by will at 9:40 PM PST - 46 comments

Top Ten Drug Stories of 2003. Ten of the more egregrious examples of why the "War on Drugs" is a very bad idea poorly implemented.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:32 PM PST - 20 comments

Creative Class War: How the GOP's anti-elitism could ruin America's economy. This is an interesting and troubling article by Richard Florida on the possible flight of the American "Creative Class." [Via WorldChanging.]
posted by homunculus at 7:18 PM PST - 69 comments

ISeeJesus.com Possible scenario: A church has suffered years of ever lowering attendance. A church elder contracts IseeJesus.com. The following Sunday a righteous and long time congregant notices a pattern of a familiar face in the swirls of dirt and mineralisation on the side of the church...Word spreads and each Sunday sees more people in the pews and more money in the collection plate.
posted by tippiedog at 6:10 PM PST - 9 comments

One of Brigham Young University's basketball players has tattoos. Or does he?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:23 PM PST - 29 comments

Behind the scenes of National Geographic's first all-digital shoot.
posted by starscream at 4:09 PM PST - 20 comments

Gamegeezers A new forum for the mature gamer. As the site says "... the new community for the "not so young" gamer. The reason we're setting this forum up is to provide a home for the great many of us gamers out there who are old enough to remember the beginning of this phenomenon known as gaming and are still going to be at it for the rest of our days. You will find no whiney teenage flamers here. Just a good wholesome community of GameGeezers who wouldn't admit to knowing what "l33t" meant if their life depended on it. "
posted by snowgoon at 3:56 PM PST - 9 comments

The Bible, in IRC logs
posted by Orange Goblin at 2:47 PM PST - 21 comments

Pictures of the tin-foil apartment - a New Year's Eve prank taken to the nth degree...
posted by skechada at 12:59 PM PST - 27 comments

Graham Roumieu is one twisted puppy. His illustrations highlight the absurdities of modern life and should give us all something to chuckle about.
posted by elwoodwiles at 12:24 PM PST - 6 comments

Do Mole People- subway tunnel dwellers- exist? Mole People by Jennifer Toth says yes, and the Straight Dope agrees, while others aren't so certain. On the other hand, Some have decided to make a movie about it. [link via Neil Gaiman]
posted by drezdn at 11:38 AM PST - 14 comments

Not Fooling Anybody What happens when your local Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, or Planet Hollywood goes out of business and is taken over by a lesser-known or less-well-funded business? Bad storefront conversions that's what. :: via Satan's Laundromat ::
posted by anastasiav at 11:29 AM PST - 36 comments

George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics "Why do conservatives appear to be so much better at framing? - Because they've put billions of dollars into it. Over the last 30 years their think tanks have made a heavy investment in ideas and in language. In 1970, [Supreme Court Justice] Lewis Powell wrote a fateful memo to the National Chamber of Commerce....He outlined the whole thing in 1970. They set up the Heritage Foundation in 1973" "So if you go on Fox News....and the question is, 'Are you in favor of the President’s tax relief program or are you against it?' -- it doesn't matter what you say. If you say, 'I’m against tax relief,' you're still evoking that framing. you're still in their frame..."

"George Lakoff, a professor of linguistics and cognitive science at the University of California Berkeley, is a specialist in the technique of "framing," a communication tool that creates a "frame" for a message that defines the terms of the debate." (Interview with Lakoff )
posted by troutfishing at 10:35 AM PST - 75 comments

Child Molestation? Marcus Dixon, an 18-year-old Black high school honor student was recently convicted of child molestation, has been permanently expelled from high school, and is now serving 15 years in the George state prison for having consensual sex with a 15-year-old White girl. Even though he was acquitted of all forcible rape charges, the child molestation charge still earned him the long sentence. Racism? Mandatory minimums strike again?
posted by Bluecoat93 at 10:15 AM PST - 60 comments

Machinery found at Spirit landing site!
posted by Irontom at 10:05 AM PST - 37 comments

Noodling: Catching monster catfish with your bare hands. Personally, I'd rather go fishing with a pole. But, I still find this technique fascinating.
posted by studentbaker at 9:29 AM PST - 14 comments

Nobel Prize Winners Hate School. Not that it takes a genius to figure out that 'school is a lot like prison but worse' (George Bernard Shaw) or that it "smothers every truly scientific impulse" (Einstein)....
posted by limitedpie at 6:29 AM PST - 49 comments

Your tax dollars at work. The Republican congress and the FCC, who evidently have nothing better to do, want to waste time banning the word fuck from all radio and broadcast television.
posted by johnnydark at 5:06 AM PST - 38 comments

New Jersey became the fifth state to recognize same-sex partnerships. The law extends health insurance, inheritance and hospital visitation rights to same-sex couples. Marriage is still illegal, but it's a success for NJ in 2003. I've lived here all my life and this is the first time the toll booth state has left me genuinely impressed and feelin proud.
posted by Modem Ovary at 4:07 AM PST - 12 comments

A collection of absurdly funny stories. Try Cell Phone, Girl Talk, and A Rose by Any Name.
posted by gregb1007 at 12:18 AM PST - 28 comments