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Steroid use by football players? Huh?? Why is Bush wasting time talking about pro athletes in the State of the Union address? Oh, yeah, so the cameras will have to zoom in this guy. They're goooood, these guys.
posted by jamsterdam at 9:35 PM PST - 67 comments

"Anung un Rama, loose the Dragon, for this is the ending of days. You were born into this world for this purpose only. Deliver the world into Chaos. Wake your devil heart. Set upon your brow that crown of fire, for your coming of age is the death knell of man."
posted by Hildago at 9:34 PM PST - 10 comments

Campaigns track voters' personal data. Ever wonder why you get mail and calls from particular political groups, and not others? Turns out the political parties are developing far richer datasets on individuals than the government is. Aristotle International, Inc. (mentioned in the article) is the giant in the field, but there's much smaller ones all over the place (Weave, for instance, helps with environmental activism, and Local Victory is an example on the right). On the one hand, with limited resources, campaigns would say they must do this. On the other hand (as the article points out) it may partially explain why fewer and fewer seem to participate in the electoral process.
posted by MidasMulligan at 8:25 PM PST - 22 comments

A Short, Illustrated History Of The First Toasters
Suitable for those with short attention sp--- Huh?
posted by armoured-ant at 7:43 PM PST - 9 comments

Why do people have to fight? [Quicktime] [Via Milk and Cookies.]
posted by homunculus at 6:23 PM PST - 14 comments

Environmentalism as Religion. An interesting speech by Michael Chrichton, in which he discusses the 'religion' of environmentalism reminded me of an article in Harper's entitled A Gospel According to the Earth by Jack Hitt. Both writers agree that Environmentalism is, or is becoming, a new religion, but their views of what this means are as divergent as possible. Chrichton sees a world where fantasy has replaced reality to the detriment of mankind, while Hitt sees a dramatic and growing movement that imbues environmentalism with a new spirituality and connection with God, as a foil of Creationism and Intelligent design.
posted by cell divide at 4:17 PM PST - 32 comments

Hate Bush? Love to Shop? Putting affiliate programs to good use, this site takes the standard affiliate commissions and donates it toward groups working to replace Bush in 2004. To stay within F.E.C. guidelines, none of the money will go directly to our candidate.  Rather, the money will be sent to democratic/progressive/liberal groups such as moveon.org. Quite a range of online stores represented, too.
posted by amberglow at 3:39 PM PST - 9 comments

Implications of a 4-Star Command in Iraq. In an small press release, it was recently announced that Iraq *may* be getting a 4-star general, but *not* to replace the current 3-star military commander of that nation. So what difference does a single star make? "...In other words, the Defense Department is putting forward the idea of another regional command because it anticipates the possibility of intensifying combat operations throughout the region. The war in Iraq might be coming under control, but from the standpoint of the Defense Department, the end of the Iraq campaign is the preface to follow-on campaigns."
posted by kablam at 3:03 PM PST - 14 comments

The Spook Who Sat By The Door, a movie pitched and marketed as blaxploitation, was a low budget political science fiction thriller about black revolution in urban black America based upon the novel written by Sam Greenlee. It was withdrawn two weeks after its release in 1973, ostensibly at the behest of the FBI. Some remember it fondly, while others revile it in recollection. Thirty-one years later, it has been released on DVD. Sam Greenlee's an interesting man--another book of his, Baghdad Blues, is evidently an autobiographical novel based upon his first hand experience of the 1958 Baath coup in Iraq. Side notes: Researching this post led me to the intriguing Chicken Bones. And here is Elvis Mitchell's take on The Marginalization of Black Action Films.
posted by y2karl at 2:39 PM PST - 6 comments

Why digital cameras = better photographers. Digital cameras don't only eliminate the cost and hassle of film processing, they should help do away with bad holiday snaps and see us all become better photographers.
posted by riffola at 1:30 PM PST - 39 comments

The Arnold Schwarzenegger Total Body Workout (MP3 clips). You'd think the classic Arnie cover was entertaining enough.
posted by boost ventilator at 1:29 PM PST - 6 comments

MusicPlasma
Search for music visually.
posted by fenriq at 1:10 PM PST - 19 comments

Fourteen killer whales were spotted about 90 miles off the coast of Texas on January 18 (Video/stills included). This is one for the record books: There are "only 9 reliable records of collected sightings before 1990. Another 14 have been collected since then," said University of Texas Marine expert Tony Amos. Larger stills from the video are available here.
posted by eclectica at 10:13 AM PST - 11 comments

No future for you...
John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten to appear on a reality TV show. What's next? Cruse ships promoting themselves using songs about junkies?
posted by jpburns at 9:19 AM PST - 30 comments

"You could get a journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month" (PDF, 112k) "The Covert News Network", on Project MOCKINGBIRD - "Watergate muckraker Carl Bernstein uncovered a list of over 400 reporters and a coterie of publishers and media moguls who had basically been rubber-stamping CIA propaganda since the 1950s." Alex Constantine on Mockingbird. "Investigators digging into MOCKINGBIRD have been flabbergasted to discover FOIA documents in which agents boast (in CIA office memos) of  pride in having placed "important assets" inside every major news publication in the country. " ( from Geoff Metcalf on Mockingbird). Cheryl Seal on Mockingbird, with additional links. Enjoy the election!
posted by troutfishing at 7:42 AM PST - 21 comments

Palestinian-Israeli expedition scales Antarctic peak. The "Breaking The Ice" team of four Palestinians and four Israelis, having not shied away from picking the obvious metaphor for the title of their adventure, reached the summit of a previously unclimbed and unnamed mountain last friday, and named it "The Mountain of Israeli-Palestinian Friendship". Apparently, the mountain didn't collapse under the weight of all this symbolism. There was blogging, too.
posted by liam at 6:37 AM PST - 13 comments

George W Bush and the real state of the Union. Today the President gives his annual address. As the election battle begins, how does his first term add up? It's all been said before but it's good (?) to see it all nicely put together.
posted by acrobat at 6:32 AM PST - 82 comments

Miss the original SimCity? Play online for free!
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:26 AM PST - 6 comments

What should you do if you love the president too much? Just calm down.
posted by biffa at 5:11 AM PST - 5 comments