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The best essay on hip-hop I've read...
posted by pabanks46 at 9:13 PM PST - 154 comments

The BBC has a beautiful story of another unsung hero of the Holocaust.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 7:48 PM PST - 14 comments

Cartoon History of Iceland, chapter 1, for those of us who need a quick and painless (except for some of the puns) introduction to the history of one of the claimants to the title of Oldest Democracy. (other chapters inside).
posted by QIbHom at 7:06 PM PST - 12 comments

Old Istanbul Postcards. If you have any fondness for old city views, this is irresistible. Here's a look at the Old City of Istanbul a hundred years ago (Hagia Sophia is just left of center), and here's the gate of the Ottoman War Ministry, now Istanbul University (map). There's lots more where those came from. (Via Desultory Turgescence.)
posted by languagehat at 6:18 PM PST - 14 comments

Safire's latest list of slang
posted by srboisvert at 6:08 PM PST - 91 comments

A lesson every woman needs to learn. I myself practise "hovering" and what the article leaves out is how it can work wonders for one's thigh muscles (ha ha). Seriously, for women, going to the bathroom is a complicated process.
posted by livingsanctuary at 5:23 PM PST - 52 comments

Tired of waiting for that waitress to fill your pitcher? Technology once again rides to the rescue courtesy of two industrious Cornell students. [warning: lots of nerdy details in link...not safe for technophobes]
posted by rooftop secrets at 4:54 PM PST - 17 comments

Infernal Device 49 Examples of Human Perversity
posted by Cryptical Envelopment at 4:50 PM PST - 27 comments

Rats are being trained to detect buried land mines in Africa. Giant African pouched rats! Mine-detecting is definitely not a suicide mission, the rats are trained with care and attention and are expected to give about eight years of service. They can also detect tuberculosis. And so cute! Here's a page on keeping them as pets (but you'd need a spare room and a nocturnal lifestyle.)
posted by aeschenkarnos at 4:38 PM PST - 17 comments

That BBC article about AIDS and NYC? Debunked. This one's for schroedinger, who posted the original BBC story about the documentary accusing the NYC Association for Children’s Services of using children in foster care for drug testing experiments without parental consent on MeFi here. Here's an intelligent and well thought out rebuttal from blogger respectfulofotters to the points made (and sources used by,) the documentary.
posted by zarq at 4:05 PM PST - 41 comments

It's that time of year again. When everyone comes out with their lists of the best movies, albums, TV shows, books, etc, etc. Fimoculous has a page that lists them all so you don't have to search around the web. (And it will be continuously updated for the next month or so, so keep checking back)
posted by braun_richard at 1:54 PM PST - 15 comments

Meet the Landlord. Mr. Bobby Veal, a class act guy, decides to harass and rape mothers living alone on Section 8. Oh, but it gets better, when they refused sex and began to complain, he'd evict them, change the locks and keep their furniture inside. Even after an eventual trial and conviction, what are the women doing now? Living in cars, furniture stolen by Mr. Veal and waiting for the court settlement that many believe will never come. Poverty ain't pretty.
posted by geoff. at 12:41 PM PST - 61 comments

The History of Maps from the the oldest map of the world to prehistoric globalization to early modern worlds to nautical charts. Myths and facts.
posted by cmonkey at 12:33 PM PST - 13 comments

End of an era IBM may sell its PC division to Lenovo, a Chinese company, due to its decade-long dwindling importance in comparison to powerhouses HP and Dell - in a market they helped invent in the first place. Seems like a good enough reason to reminisce about the old bastard.
posted by fungible at 12:21 PM PST - 21 comments

Christ out of Christmas Have the retailers won the war on Christmas over the religious folks? (WMP)
posted by dov3 at 11:59 AM PST - 67 comments

She's baaaaaaaack! Farnaz Fassihi, the Wall Street Journal reporter whose private e-mail to friends lamented the dangers of reporting in Iraq and criticized the Bush administration's war policy, is returning to her war beat next week for the first time since her missive sparked a controversy in October. Reports that she was being punished by her newspaper for the e-mail were apparently false. Her e-mail brought her unexpected attention, raised issues about whether reporters covering Iraq were telling the whole story, prompted some introspection in journalism circles, and led a variety of news outlets to confirm her dour outlook (last link is a reprinted NYT article). Previously discussed here.
posted by owenville at 11:25 AM PST - 4 comments

25 years ago tonight, 11 people died in a horrific crush outside the doors of the Cincinnati Coliseum before a concert by The Who. "Every square foot of that room (the Coliseum’s first aid room) was covered by bodies," recounts then-police lieutenant Dale Menkhaus. Pete Townsend took it hard: "I dealt with it, … by sitting and getting drunk." Lessons were learned, but it happened again. This city’s resulting ban on festival seating was repealed just this year. As Jerry Springer, who was a Cincinnati city councilman at the time of the Who concert tragedy, would say, “Take care of yourselves, and each other.”
posted by tizzie at 11:07 AM PST - 9 comments

Hustler's magazine's anticipated expose of closeted congressman David Dreier (R – California) hits newsstands today. Raw Story reports that the article “offers a handful of new details not previously reported, including a charge that high-level California Republicans have been aware of (and sanctioned) Dreier’s gay lifestyle for many years.” The article recounts how Dreier’s gay life was exposed earlier this summer by blogACTIVE.com, RAW STORY, and then picked up by L.A. Weekly (previously discussed here, here, and here). Dreier was targeted because he had repeatedly voted against gay rights measures – all the while keeping his alleged partner on his office payroll. Hustler gave permission to blogACTIVE and RAW STORY to excerpt parts of the article. The full article is only available in the print edition of the magazine.
posted by ericb at 10:20 AM PST - 40 comments

Look around you... The world is an hilarious place, and there's no better way to confirm that fact than by watching low-budget educational films. If your middle school experience was anything like mine, then you'll remember the intense rush of joy that you felt when you arrived at class to find a TV cart set up at the front of the room. Maybe some of you were excited about the chance to catch up on sleep or pass notes or whatever, but I watched those damn things with a passion, noting every flubbed line, analog-synth-driven soundtrack, and polyester-filled wardrobe like they were keys to a parallel universe.

Thanks to the Internet Archive's AV Geeks collection of films, I've recently rekindled my love affair with the genre and with last night's premiere of Look Around You on BBC America, I've been catapulted directly into geek/kitsch heaven! The series parodies 70s/80s science films and nails the look and tone of these series with such astonishing accuracy that it made my big, comfy couch feel like a cramped uncomfortable desk (with the chair attached). With this show, Coupling, and Trailer Park Boys, BBCA is fast on its way to becoming my favorite network! (Sorry Cartoon Network, it's nothing personal... =)
posted by idontlikewords at 10:02 AM PST - 30 comments

Nominations for the best software essays of 2004. There's lots of reading here, pardners, and much of it is great.
posted by bonaldi at 8:44 AM PST - 3 comments

WalMart? Red. Costco? Blue.
Vote with your wallet, shop in stores that support your political beliefs and stay away from stores that don't.
Home Depot? Red. Circuit City? Red. JC Penney? Red. Sears, Staples, Walgreens? Red. So where's the blue? The Gap, CostCo, Bed Bath & Beyond, Barnes & Noble, Toyota (the only car maker to support Blue more than Red). They get Coors, Bud, Busch and Michelob but that's nicely balanced out by the Blue getting Guinness. The only anamoly I've found so far is Target, a Minnesota based company headed by a strong Democrat, is in the Red.
Will this change anyone's shopping habits? I hope so.
posted by fenriq at 8:25 AM PST - 212 comments

The Washingtonian wants you to know: Kids smoke pot. And sometimes you can't even tell! "You could have the honors student, cheerleader, football-player-dating girl with straight A’s who may be the go-between for some drug dealer, just selling the stuff at school.” Even in the suburbs! Got your pearls clutched tightly? The Washington City Paper responds.
posted by occhiblu at 8:04 AM PST - 76 comments

Doctor Who returns in a few months, here's a teaser for those of us übergeeks who cannot wait. (Realplayer warning on the link!). The "new" Doctor Who returns to BBC sometime in the first half of next year. While this topic was discussed several months ago, more new details have surfaced on the new series. What other TV series have you seen 'resurrected' that you once loved, and what success do you think there was in that resurrection? What made the revived series work or not work?
posted by tgrundke at 7:44 AM PST - 60 comments

Bonds said he unknowingly used steroids Following up on yesterday's article on Giambi's grand jury testimony, the SF Chronicle reports that Bonds admitted using steroids, but didn't know what they were at the time. Gary Sheffield said something very similar in October, and was not penalized by baseball, nor by public opinion. Meanwhile, the Yankees are reportedly trying to void Giambi's contract. What will the fallout be from the Bonds story?
posted by ibmcginty at 7:28 AM PST - 50 comments

Organic Flash is a response to my perception of current design trends. In many popular sites that I come across I sense coldness; an attempt to master nature, to remove us from reality, a struggle to feel superior to our offline world and to one another. ... We are of this earth and though our online world is virtual, I believe that the most fulfilling user experiences will be so because the designer/artist wisely incorporated elements from our natural environment into their presentation. They made an effort to communicate with our humanity rather [than] squash it into cold vector perfection. In addition to speaking with the mind, they bonded with the soul. Yes, we are still left bodiless, but hopefully, when we get up from the computer and finally agree to go to bed, we take with us an enriched soul, rather than a depleted one.
- Kurt Dommermuth, 10 April 2001
posted by jefgodesky at 6:51 AM PST - 61 comments

Abc Australia reports on Michael Long World Football (Soccer) Star and Australian Aborigine Michael Long meets with the Aussie PM after drawing attention by walking from Melbourne to Canberra. As a child of the Aboriginal lost generation he is seeking a voice for his people in the government. Make what you will of the issue, this is a brave, brave man.
posted by lumpenprole at 6:47 AM PST - 27 comments

Harvard's Open Collections program: Women Working, 1870-1930. Includes photos, manuscripts, trade catalogs and books documenting women working in the United States between the Civil War and Depression. Curious about Abercrombie & Fitch's 1913 styles? Or The Working Girls of Boston?
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 4:19 AM PST - 4 comments

Dow Accepts responsibility Twenty years too late but Dow finally does the decent thing over Bhopal. It comes as a surprise to those who were expecting them to drag their feet forever. What next - the extradition of Anderson?
posted by rhymer at 4:10 AM PST - 36 comments

No sex, please, we're Republicans. At the dawn of a digitised, globalised millennium, these creeps want the clocks turned back to a time when the church held sway over our sexuality. They prefer us ignorant and terrified, alone in the dark, the better for them to control us through fear and guilt. Too bad for them that we live in the bright, vivid light of our incandescent dirty dreams.
posted by acrobat at 3:25 AM PST - 64 comments

Adenor Gondim has spent almost 50 years photographing Bahia (English version will be available soon I hear, but the pictures speak for themselves). It's an enchanting part of Brazil, not least because of the sights and the candomblé religion and traditions.
posted by keijo at 2:43 AM PST - 5 comments

In the first open trial for the Eastern Pennsylvania United Methodist Church Council in more than 50 years, the Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud was accused of violating church law by openly living with her partner in a committed relationship. Jurors were instructed that they had a duty to "hold a good pastor accountable to the standard with which we all live'' under the Methodist Book of Discipline. The jury voted 7-6 to withdraw Stroud's ministerial credentials at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia. She was defrocked, so to speak. Laicized. Ostracized. Demonized.
posted by three blind mice at 1:03 AM PST - 58 comments