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The International Center for Bathroom Etiquette makes me really glad that I'm a girl. I had no idea there were such complex decisions to be made about where to stand and which sink to use.
posted by anastasiav at 10:51 PM PST - 41 comments

Trashtalking - German Style. Forget talking dolls, Berlin's speechifying its trash cans to thank pedestrians after they dump their litter. But is it appropriate to have immaterial things tell you how to use them? [More Inside]
posted by gregb1007 at 10:07 PM PST - 15 comments

Warp Records becomes the first label to make entire discography available for download as pay-per-track at Bleep.com.

via Pitchforkmedia.com
posted by iamck at 7:46 PM PST - 32 comments

Floraphilia... twenty four luscious images from one garden.
via life in the present
posted by moonbird at 7:12 PM PST - 9 comments

trampoline [note: flash]
posted by crunchland at 6:12 PM PST - 12 comments

Hello, My Name Is Mike And I Have A Dream! How very unusual! Who the hell would want a thing like that? Talk to me about it, Mike...[In other news, PayPal dream projects get way out of hand. Flash or Quicktime required for all links except the last, which is a road test.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:33 PM PST - 15 comments

delenda mp3.com est "Vivendi Universal recently sold the MP3.com domain to CNet. However, they're not selling the approximately one million songs on the archive. (recorded by over 250,000 artists) Instead, they're simply destroying it as of December 3. MP3.com's founder and former CEO, Michael Robertson, is pleading with Vivendi to allow the Internet Archive to preserve the songs." (via Slashdot)
posted by kablam at 4:26 PM PST - 16 comments

The Protean Enemy by Jessica Stern, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2003
What accounts for al Qaeda's ongoing effectiveness in the face of an unprecedented onslaught? The answer lies in the organization's remarkably protean nature. Over its life span, al Qaeda has constantly evolved and shown a surprising willingness to adapt its mission. This capacity for change has consistently made the group more appealing to recruits, attracted surprising new allies, and -- most worrisome from a Western perspective -- made it harder to detect and destroy. Unless Washington and its allies show a similar adaptability, the war on terrorism won't be won anytime soon, and the death toll is likely to mount. Other texts by Jessica Stern: How America Created a Terrorist Haven, Pakistan's Jihad Culture, Talking With Terrorists. Classical Reference: Proteus.
posted by y2karl at 4:02 PM PST - 31 comments

"Dear [katemonkey], I just wanted to drop you a note as to what's happening here in America. The Matrix Trilogy is the latest GROSS thievery by the Hollywood/government in regards to the website www.hammerstrikes.com. The blatant outright and undeniable thievery is ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS! Surely the truth is getting out and suing for millions and millions is the only appropriate and proper course of action. Sincerely, Joe Messineo"
posted by Katemonkey at 3:59 PM PST - 19 comments

There was no conspiracy in the assassination of JFK, according to a new BBC documentary broadcast tonight. Offering a CG reconstruction of the plaza based on the Zapruder film and interviews with people who knew people, convincing evidence was offered that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone gunman acting on his own. Essentially that all these people are misguided. It also carefully worked through some of the other theories, Cuban and Mob and had very few nice things to say about Oliver Stone. For example, there wasn't a magic bullet because the diagram in the film is wrong -- Texas Governor John Connally wasn't sitting directly in front of the president, but below and just off the side, so the round just went in a straight line. This was tragedy effecting millions perpetrated by one man. How often have we heard that story?
posted by feelinglistless at 2:53 PM PST - 59 comments

Oil drilling in the Lofoten Islands? Norway's gorgeous Lofoten Islands were the subject of a great post by madamjujujive last year. Now the World Wide Fund for Nature is sounding the alarm over the prospect of oil drilling there. A decision from the Norwegian government is expected next month.
posted by homunculus at 11:03 AM PST - 15 comments

If you've participated in an anti-war rally, or helped organize a demonstration, the FBI may have a file on you. The FBI claims that they are only weeding out anarchists and other "extremists." But the ACLU and some legal scholars are warning of a return of Hooverism. Attention pinkos: You can run, but you can't hide, because you're probably on the no-fly list.
posted by PrinceValium at 8:58 AM PST - 39 comments

What is this? I really don't know how to make heads or tails on this one. I was listening to last.fm and some of the strangest ambient noise started playing. I ran a google search on the artist and was led here. One of the most unique pages I've ever seen. There seems to be a lot going on with this page. (Notice the poetry that appears on the index page for 1/3 second before refreshing to the main index map). In addition to having copies of the I Ching and the Kama Sutra (no pics) there is poetry and literature spanning back 2000 years, yet nothing I could find about the the original artist I was looking for. Has anyone run into this before or know what it's all about? And what are your thoughts?
posted by daHIFI at 8:53 AM PST - 9 comments

Walmart Nation Wal-Mart's decisions influence wages and working conditions across a wide swath of the world economy, from the shopping centers of Las Vegas to the factories of Honduras and South Asia. Its business is so vital to developing countries that some send emissaries to the corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., almost as if Wal-Mart were a sovereign nation. [First of a three part series in the LATimes. free reg. req.]
posted by srboisvert at 5:59 AM PST - 89 comments