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Letters to the Editor, By Jack O'Neil, Sewickley
posted by filchyboy at 10:34 PM PST - 4 comments

A woman gets a stun gun and a knife past security at LaGuardia and actually alerts authorities after she discovers them in her purse. Anybody feel safer yet? Anybody?
posted by FormlessOne at 5:32 PM PST - 35 comments

The Bird Man of Telegraph Hill: a beautiful story of a formerly homeless man, a flock of wild parrots in San Fransisco, and how their relationship transformed them both. "You see them and you have to love them..."
posted by moonbird at 4:55 PM PST - 16 comments

Gluebalize Magazine: net art
posted by hama7 at 4:36 PM PST - 2 comments

In sum, the invasion of Iraq failed to meet the test for a humanitarian intervention. Most important, the killing in Iraq at the time was not of the exceptional nature that would justify such intervention. In addition, intervention was not the last reasonable option to stop Iraqi atrocities. Intervention was not motivated primarily by humanitarian concerns. It was not conducted in a way that maximized compliance with international humanitarian law. It was not approved by the Security Council. And while at the time it was launched it was reasonable to believe that the Iraqi people would be better off, it was not designed or carried out with the needs of Iraqis foremost in mind. War in Iraq: Not a Humanitarian Intervention
Human Rights Watch finds the post fact rationale for the invasion wanting. It comes from their World Report 2004 - Human Rights and Armed Conflict, where other essays therefrom include: Losing The Peace In Afghanistan, Sidelined: Human Rights In Post-War Iraq and "Glad to be Deceived": the International Community and Chechnya, to name but a few.
posted by y2karl at 3:24 PM PST - 81 comments

Heinz Meanz Beanz: Is America ready for a sassy, intelligent, outspoken, wilful, foul-mouthed, irreverent, garrulous, domineering, flamboyant, freethinking and utterly charming First Lady?* Portugal certainly is - as Teresa Heinz Kerry, born Teresa Simoes Ferreira, is Portuguese and it would be nice to have a secret agent such a close ally in the White House. But there's also a lot of hate about. Do most American voters really take candidates' wives, husbands or partners into account? *Heh. The "utterly charming" was added at the last minute when I realized that all these adjectives could apply to Hilary Clinton.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:56 PM PST - 57 comments

The Buying of the President. A look at the special interests who are bankrolling Bush and his Democratic rivals.
posted by homunculus at 12:09 PM PST - 21 comments

Ikea Walkthrough: Now you are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. A skeleton, probably the remains of a luckless consumer, lies here. Beside the skeleton is a rusty SKARPT high-quality steel knife with hard plastic handle and a shopping cart. Search the body. Take the IKEA GIFT CARD (still has $43 on it). Take and eat the SWEDISH FISH for sustenance. Now go: S, E, D, D, E, SW, W, SW, D, W, U, S
posted by turbodog at 11:15 AM PST - 61 comments

Live From Davos: Frank talk and subtle spin as heads of state take Q&A from corporate honchos, in a session heavy on talk of terror: John Ashcroft shares the stage with Prince Turki al Faisal al Saud, Pervez Musharraf touts his vision of "enlightened moderation," the handsome young King of Jordan keeps his finger on the roadmap, and embattled Ecuadoran president Lucio Gutierrez takes a break from the tear gas to reassure skeptical capital markets. CSPAN for foreign filmgoers. (RealPlayer and Windows Media)
posted by hairyeyeball at 11:14 AM PST - 6 comments

MikeRoweSoft Settles with Microsoft for an XBox
Mike Rowe had a website named after himself that was alot like the mega-corp.
MS wanted to give him $10 to change the domain, he wanted $10k. They settled on a trip to Redmond, some traffic redirection and an XBox.

Followup to this thread.
posted by fenriq at 10:57 AM PST - 20 comments

Breakdancers receive blessing from the Pope. A story about the papacy that isn't frustrating, just for a change. It doesn't say it in the article, but I like to think that His Holiness learned to do the Worm.
posted by Mayor Curley at 10:44 AM PST - 11 comments

Cutting up the King: This seems sacrilegious, even if the tapes are deteriorating. They're planning to cut up some of Elvis Presley's original master tapes from Sun Studio and sell them as collectibles. I suppose one could email the publicity contact if this bothered them. The snipping starts tomorrow.
posted by bendybendy at 10:25 AM PST - 8 comments

A rant about a ranter who gets another 15 minutes starting on CNBC tonight. He was fired from Monday Night Football and his HBO show was finally canceled after the big-word, obscure reference shtick got tired. Much has been made of his post-9/11 ideological conversion, but there's a case to be made he's just showing true colors dating back to his SNL days. At least back then, this ranter says, he was willing to take on any authority figure, without fear or favor. But now he seems to be a lapdog of the power structure, a "Lenny Bruce in reverse." I still admit to a bit of warm feeling for the guy, maybe because it's still a little flattering to understand his references in this dumb-o-centric age. But he scares me a little, now.
posted by Slagman at 9:18 AM PST - 74 comments

Photobucket.com A free place to dump pictures you want to hotlink from sites like eBay, Craigslist, or even your personal site. There is a 100MB limit, but even that isn't absolute. This seems like a too good to be true service, how long can something like this last?
posted by jonah at 7:55 AM PST - 22 comments

Folklore.org "is a web site devoted to collective historical storytelling. It captures and presents sets of related stories that describe interesting events from multiple perspectives, allowing groups of people to recount their shared history in the form of interlinked anecdotes." [via Daring Fireball]
posted by kirkaracha at 7:48 AM PST - 2 comments

Ye olde text puzzle.Some Nordic prince who really likes his mum.(via coolios)
posted by johnny7 at 7:16 AM PST - 6 comments

POWER RANGERS: Did the Bush Administration create a new American empire—or weaken the old one? The left's favorite blogger, Talking Points Memo's Joshua Michah Marshall has been published in this week's New Yorker.
posted by jpoulos at 6:57 AM PST - 29 comments

Hanga Gallery: Side Gallery of Woodblock Prints. Actor, bijin-ga, landscape and wildlife prints, categorised by artist, with informative articles (for example, the articles on Toshi Yoshida and Yoshijiro Urushibara).
posted by plep at 6:32 AM PST - 4 comments

Furl is an elegant application that acts as your web filing cabinet. Store, rate and categorize web clippings with the click of a bookmarklet. Once collected, search, share or publish your links via email or RSS. (via Inter-Alia.)
posted by ajr at 5:51 AM PST - 12 comments

Ping Pong Ball Avalanche Home Page.
posted by srboisvert at 4:54 AM PST - 6 comments

Bill Gates to receive honorary Knighthood. Apparently for his contribution to enterprise in the UK and charity work. He will not be able to use the title "Sir" but will be entitled to put the letters KBE after his name
posted by MintSauce at 3:38 AM PST - 30 comments

After the lunch hour, we'll help you relax a bit. Mood lit, time of day sensitive programming comes to your favorite local newspaper web portal. Will something like this fly? Has it been done before? Is this being done elsewhere now?
posted by crasspastor at 3:01 AM PST - 16 comments