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The Law of the Mental Mirror Image. We write what we are not. It is not merely that we fail to live up to our best ideas but that our best ideas, and the tone that goes with them, tend to be the opposite of our natural temperament. --Adam Gopnik on Popper in The New Yorker
posted by semmi at 11:33 PM PST - 9 comments

Happy Easter! "Bio artist"/eccentric intellectual Eduardo Kac has made a bunny that -- literally -- glows in the dark.
posted by milkman at 10:17 PM PST - 21 comments

Are You Ready For April Fool's Day? Better read the Museum of Hoaxes's March Newsletter to find out. Certain pranks are already in progress, while other recent hoaxes - of which at least one was seriously discussed here on MetaFilter - remain fresh in our minds. Real aficionados and sleuths, of course, will head straight for the hoax websites pages, where some seem too good - or too awful - not to be true. In Southern Europe, April Fool's Day is known as Liars' Day and everyone is entitled - nay, compelled! - to invent at least one big whopper. Any ideas?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:15 PM PST - 35 comments

Everquest kingdom richer than Bulgaria. Norrath, the setting for the online game Everquest, has been found to be the 77th richest country in the world, sandwiched between Russia and Bulgaria. Research carried out in the United States shows that virtual internal markets, combined with illegal online trading on auction websites, mean that Norrath has a gross national product per capita of $2,266, bigger than China and India.
posted by ncurley at 8:06 PM PST - 16 comments

1970: Paul Quits the Beatles. 2002: Barry Leaves Rockapella. For fans of modern a capella, this is big news.
posted by yhbc at 8:01 PM PST - 20 comments

The Read_Me Festival 1.2 shortlist has been posted, and includes such projects as Carnivore(not the government one, though that was part of the concept), and the DeskSwap screensaver. While this is a "software art" exhibition, it's of particular note that patches or even just instructions for making existing software do things not originally intended are allowable entries. I haven't been through all of them to see if any patches were entered, but it'd be interesting what the publishers might think of these, since it would basically constitute hacking and/or reverse engineering.
posted by Su at 7:53 PM PST - 2 comments

Griffin Dunne as Frank Zappa in VH-1's movie "Parental Advisory". [Link won't tell you much about the movie but it was all I could find] The movie based on senate hearings regarding music censorship. Aside from Dana Carvey's Zappa imitation I don't recall any other actor playing him. Would Dunne have been your choice?
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:49 PM PST - 14 comments

Happy Easter egg hunting "Could be in computer software, movies, music, art, books, or even your watch. There are thousands of them, and they can be quite entertaining, if you know where to look." [Originally referenced in comment in Nov 2000, but perhaps worth another swipe.]
posted by Voyageman at 7:03 PM PST - 2 comments

NYT: CBS's JAG To Explore Terror Military Tribunal
    The Pentagon is reportedly very happy with the show. The episode portraying the secret trial of a Saudi-born terrorist will air on April 30. In this week's episode, a character feels stung when his coworkers favor someone else to win a race in a betting pool. (1, 2)
posted by rschram at 6:27 PM PST - 4 comments

When you drive across America, you may or may not want to take a picture at every mile marker, but be sure to stay at vintage motels, eat at classic diners, and, above all, visit historic mental institutions. (Then thank the site with the Interesting Ideas.)
posted by liam at 3:36 PM PST - 14 comments

''That's a handsome looking beef you've got there.'' (NYT)
Long and involved explication of something I've always wanted to do: raise a cow from birth to slaughter inside of an american factory farm. How does a cow get from being a cute little cow to my dinner plate? Is it safe? Is it moral? Is it yummy?
posted by zpousman at 11:25 AM PST - 31 comments

Battle of the Blurbs. The producers of the badly reviewed Broadway show "The Smell of the Kill" have pissed off Times critic Bruce Weber. Good strategy or Bad Karma? Well, at least they didn't make up their own critic.
posted by adrober at 10:23 AM PST - 3 comments

Queen Mum is dead. Gawd bless her. We all knew it was coming this year or next, now it has come.
posted by vbfg at 10:00 AM PST - 73 comments

Yahoo has quietly changed its privacy policy. Accountholders are now subscribed to lots of newsletters plus junk mail and telemarketing. You can change your preferences and send Yahoo some feedback. You can't prevent them from subscribing you to new products without closing your account. Will going to an opt-out system help or hurt their bottom line? Will there be a backlash?
posted by neuroshred at 8:45 AM PST - 27 comments

Sarah Brady, champion of gun control, buys a gun for her son. The Secret Service, who you can bet are armed, violate federal and state law to keep legally carried arms away from Dick Cheney in Utah. Kofi Annan gets in trouble for machine-pistol carrying guards shortly after the UN's international Small Arms Destruction Day. Diane Feinstein admits the need to feel armed. Rosie O'Donnell wants people to tote guns to protect her son. One of Ted Kennedy's guards brought a machine pistol into the Capitol. I'm not meaning to make a Memepool type linkfest, but these things are extremely under reported, and I'm interested in what people think of the apparent hypocrisy to be found in the people who want to make you defenseless but feel above their rules themselves. Is this defensible? How?
posted by jammer at 8:14 AM PST - 60 comments

The New Patronage? It used to be that citizens buddied up to their elected officials in exchange for money, jobs, or power. In Washington, DC, however, it gets you a three-digit license plate number.
posted by PrinceValium at 7:36 AM PST - 3 comments