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Interior department opens talks with Klamath Tribes that could lead to the return of 690,000 acres. Once the richest and most self sufficient tribe with land holdings of over 22 million acres, the Tribes fell victim to various land grabs over the years, the last being in 1954 when tribal status was terminated and they were (eventually) paid $220 million for 1.2 million acres of timber. By 1963, 28 percent of the tribe had died by age 25, 52 percent by age 40. Of those deaths, 40 percent were alcohol related. This is also about timber and water, but mostly it's an opportunity to do the right thing. Can the Bush administration and Congress do the right thing?
posted by Mack Twain at 11:42 PM PST - 4 comments

Why Would Celibacy Cause Pedophilia? I been puzzled by the folks who are blaming the celibacy rule in the Catholic church for the pedophilic priests. Maybe I'm missing something, but the argument sounds counter intuitive to me.
posted by nobody_knose at 10:52 PM PST - 23 comments

Remember that Florida Mayor who banned Satan from town? Well, after she got done talking to mass-media syncophants like Dan Rather, her utterly misguided publicist apparently let her talk to the keen and incisive sleuths from Satanosphere, who, as usual, got down to the really important stuff. Like:

matt: ...The one question everybody has for you is this: Are you planning on banning any other major deities or demons? Like Skeletor?

So, will Skeletor be banned forever from Inglis, Florida? Will the ACLU extend Skeletor the same legal protection as it graciously offered Satan? And perhaps most important of all, what about Wil Wheaton?
posted by rusty at 9:57 PM PST - 13 comments

JOSEPH SABIA RESPONDS!!! "Nearly 30,000 individuals have visited Cornell Review Online to read my March 4th article, College Girls: Unpaid Whores [editor's note: that number is now approaching 60,000]..."
posted by Settle at 8:58 PM PST - 36 comments

Tooling around today, I happened upon small but burgeoning subculture-gay Heavy Metal fans. Headbanging and Rainbow Pride stickers may seem like an odd combo until you think of the number of openly gay performers in Hard Rock (Roddy Bottum of Faith No More, Doug Pinnick of King's X-a gay Christian metalhead, and of course the great Rob Halford formerly of the legendary Judas Preist. I dunno whether this is a large trend or merely people coming out of yet another closet, but it's nice to see metal shaking off it's homophobic image.
posted by jonmc at 8:10 PM PST - 17 comments

Hello, my name is 'Godless Goddess Girl // roasting marshmallows // in the holy fires.' How creative can you get on a name tag?
posted by FunkyHelix at 7:53 PM PST - 6 comments

Once-Secret "Nixon Tapes" Show Why the U.S. Outlawed Pot
Ok, I'll admit that I was amused by the fact that 420,000 people were arrested in that first year....
posted by ookamaka at 7:19 PM PST - 8 comments

"IU WINS! IU WINS! For the first time in years, IU is proceeding to the Elite 8, knocking down the number one team in the country. The last time Indiana beat Duke in the tournament in 1987, they went all the way. Could it happen again?" [thanks to SportsFilter for this one. Aw yeah. Ol' Dickie Vitale must be rollin' over in his grave right about now. Oh, wait. He's not dead yet. Or is that just a matter of opinion...baby?]
posted by Bixby23 at 6:54 PM PST - 18 comments

Google is an amazing resource, and has changed how many access the web. Some say they did it by not hiding the banana. But for those that are curious, here is the research paper that started it all.
posted by patrickje at 3:52 PM PST - 19 comments

NBC is pulling out of air hard liquor ads.
Citing congressional pressure and public outcry, NBC announced today it has reversed its alcohol advertising policy. The decision comes the same day MADD proposed new stricter rules on TV ads for all alcohol, including beer and wine, that are based on the NBC's now-scuttled "time, place and manner restrictions" set for the hard-liquor ads. (See also this AdAge story on MADD's proposal) A spokesperson for the Distilled Spirits Council called NBC's decision decision "unfortunate" and a "disservice to the American public."
posted by me3dia at 2:38 PM PST - 19 comments

Dog Mauling: Knoller and Noel found guilty on all counts of manslaughter, and Knoller becomes the third person ever in the US to be convicted of murder by dog.
posted by kfury at 1:50 PM PST - 39 comments

Is This The Best Bob Dylan Site Or What? Every single song of his reminds us how deeply in debt we are.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:28 AM PST - 52 comments

'Bout time. For those of us holding out on the iPod, waiting for more storage space, the time to buy is finally here. One caveat: instead of dropping the price of the 5gb iPod to $299 and debuting the 10gb model at $399, they've kept the same price for the five gig and raised it a hundred bucks for the ten! Not quite what I was expecting...
posted by andnbsp at 11:14 AM PST - 31 comments

Britain threatens Saddam with nukes. (via Fark) Is anyone else tired of this? Why can't we just leave each other alone for awhile? (You may have to register to see the story)
posted by schlaager at 10:45 AM PST - 33 comments

Pennsylvania school sends notes home if kids are overweight My paper ran this story Sunday, and it's starting to make its way around the Internet. But still: should schools warn parents if their kids are too heavy? And who decides 'too heavy'?
posted by krewson at 10:38 AM PST - 69 comments

Astrology Takes the Semiotic Turn: CURA Promotes New Theories of the Fates
    Almost a year ago, we discussed the case of Sorbonne PhD and famous French astrologer, Elisabeth Teissier (1, 2). She caused a stir with her argument that astrology was a "human" science on par with anthropology and philosophy.
    It seems her case bolstered the hand of other practicioners. CURA (Centre Universitaire du Recherche Astrologique) has an extensive collection of writings on astrology both ancient and modern. More recent papers examine astrological patterns as sign systems, a conceptual heuristic made popular by anthropology and later studies of popular culture. There's also some use of statistical methods, and concepts from cognitive psychology. It seems there's some movement in both directions; Semiotica recently published a paper that's very popular among the astrosociologues (1).
posted by rschram at 9:51 AM PST - 3 comments

The Sans Halen Tour? Former Van Halen frontmen David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar are reportedly discussing a possible summer tour together. They met for the first time recently and are now in talks to team up. Hagar broke the news this week on his official website, saying, "Believe it or not, Sammy and David Lee Roth are talking about touring this summer. Sammy was blown away at how well they got along together." A spokesman for Diamond Dave confirmed only that the two exes "have met for the first time." But Hits magazine is reporting that superstar manager Irving Azoff has signed on for "The Sam and Dave Show."

No matter how bad this tour might be, it's still gonna be better than seeing Van Halen with Gary Cherone. Heck...watching squirrels defacate is more interesting than Van Halen with Gary Cherone. These boys need to realize that Dave sucks without Eddie, Eddie sucks without Dave, and Sammy and Gary suck no matter who they're teamed with.
posted by Reggie452 at 9:50 AM PST - 39 comments

2002 National Magazine Award Finalists Maybe the heavily nominated New Yorker will some day turn a profit. Then again, maybe that's not what it's all about (sure helps when the parents have deep pockets).
posted by Voyageman at 9:26 AM PST - 8 comments

A new temple for new technology (NY Times). The digital arts organization Eyebeam have chosen a design by the web-savvy firm of Diller+Scofidio to build their new Museum of Art and Technology, from a shortlist of thirteen. Any thoughts on architecture for new media? And iMac-colored buildings?
posted by liam at 8:12 AM PST - 4 comments

Jesus-With you Always... except that 'Web Developer' is missing. I guess Jesus is not with me...
posted by slater at 7:56 AM PST - 81 comments

Plagiarism anybody? Cute hyper-referenced spiel whose tech issues are more seriously discussed elsewhere - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/616339/posts?page=1 (which is itself probably a plagiarism)
posted by peacay at 7:44 AM PST - 2 comments

Controversial corpse exhibit, Körperwelten (Body Worlds), is set to display human corpses in London, UK in two days. UK health department concluded that the exhibit did not breach the 1984 Anatomy Act as the law did not cover the preservation of corpses by means of plastination, a technique invented by Professor Gunther von Hagens, the creator of the exhibit.
posted by frenetic at 7:30 AM PST - 9 comments

Government raids pro-US Muslim organization? On Wednesday, federal agents raided Muslim organizations and homes in Virginia and Georgia, bearing search warrants looking for evidence of funding terrorist organizations. Ironically, the main target of the raids was the 20-year old International institute of Islamic Thought, an institution headed by Shaikh Dr. Taha Jaber al-Alawani, who, among other things, delivered a fatwa in October 2001 sanctioning American Muslim soldiers (.pdf) to participate in the War on Terrorism on Islamic religious grounds.
posted by laz-e-boy at 7:16 AM PST - 4 comments

Portrait of a Con-Artist: Due to the efforts of the site StopAglaia! (which was posted here earlier in the year), The New Jersey Star-Ledger printed this facinating story exposing a con woman of "Kaycee Nicole" proportions, and includes an interview with the woman in question. She's impersonated Denis Leary, Henry Rollins, and the manager for Bright Eyes, and she's conned both men an women out of thousands of dollars. Sadly, the printing of this article has caused StopAglaia! to shut down, but their forum is still up, so victims can trade info. [More Inside]
posted by emptybowl at 7:15 AM PST - 7 comments

Velvet Underground tops 'coolest records' list Who decides what cool is? Personally, I'd have any of Pink Floyd's or Led Zeppelin's albums as coolest...
posted by Rastafari at 5:59 AM PST - 84 comments

Genocide Alert for Zimbabwe issued by Genocide Watch, a group founded by a former State Department official on Cambodia and Rwanda issues, Gregory Stanton, who in 1996 devised the Eight Stages of Genocide: Classification, Symbolization, Dehumanization, Organization, Polarization, Preparation, Extermination, and Denial. GW contends that Zimbabwe has reached Stage 6, Preparation. With the arrest of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on treason charges, Robert Mugabe is proving himself impervious to international pressure. Is Zimbabwe really on the brink? If so, what can, or should, we do? Our record isn't good, but we didn't have Stanton's scale then, either.
posted by dhartung at 5:56 AM PST - 16 comments

Growing meat in a laboratory may seem like a good idea. They evey suggest that it might stop us "having to slaughter animals for food." But, to do it, they have to soak the meat in the blood of unborn baby cows.... Somehow, that doesn't sound right.....
posted by dwivian at 5:41 AM PST - 26 comments

The b3ta server appeal is a desperate attempt by the viral entertainment geniuses at b3ta to stay alive... Almost every seriously connected person has seen one of their flash projects - from Buffy's swearnig keyboard, Cursor Love Bunny and The Cat Game and they've worked with (and helped support) rathergood.com's Joel Veitch in his work - most of us have seen Frightened Boy. And if you need any more proof that they need to be saved, then this should do the job.
posted by barbelith at 2:33 AM PST - 5 comments