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Newspapers fall short of diversity goal : "The people who report for and edit the nation's newspapers look less like the people who make and read the news than a decade ago. If newspapers are a mirror that a community holds up to itself, the reflection is mostly white." Is it unfair to assume that a newspaper writer (or other media outlet) should share some sort of heritage in proportion to the population it covers to get the full feel of their stories? Or should it just be focused solely on merit without a cultural component?
posted by owillis at 11:47 PM PST - 9 comments

All Your Smurf are belong to Smurf
posted by sahrens428 at 11:16 PM PST - 18 comments

An Algerian defendant tells a court of his transformation from an irreligious drug dealer on the streets of Germany to an Afghanistan-trained militant, and the psychic journey of some young Muslim slackers in England to become fighters for Al-Qaeda (NYT).
posted by semmi at 4:27 PM PST - 14 comments

Perfect for those of us with a bit of a nasty streak.
I know it isn't Friday yet but this is really good.
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger at 3:42 PM PST - 23 comments

For the first time in forty years, there is not a single UK act on the Billboard top 100 singles chart. A lot of people argue that it's because manfactured crap is interchangable, so there's no need to import it, but plenty of American artists still make it in the UK, so I'm inclined to believe there's something else at work here. Any ideas as to what that something might be?
posted by aaron at 2:19 PM PST - 71 comments

I eat crayons is about a groovy guy's adventures and comics. His name is Bob.
(Some pages within the site require Flash. Uses frames, so inner links don't have any navigation on them)
posted by jaden at 2:14 PM PST - 8 comments

Dog-mauling convicts' adopted Aryan son might be the Night Stalker says the SF Chronicle. This case continues to get weirder. The DA now wants DNA evidence from Paul "Cornfed" Schneider -- the Pelican Bay inmate and Aryan Brotherhood gang leader whose Presa Canario dogs mauled Diane Whipple to death and whose lawyers (convicted in that death) adopted him -- to see if he is the missing link in the decades old "Night Stalker" serial killer case in California. Yeesh.
posted by brookish at 1:56 PM PST - 8 comments

"Dear Sir Charles: I have become extremely confused lately. I know that a man of prestige and standing should not bark and flounce around like a dog, but I can not seem to help myself." Miss Manners has style, Marilyn vos Savant has a ludicrous I.Q., and Ann Landers has longevity. But do any of them have a ward who is eighty-fifth in line for the throne? Sir Charles Grandiose does, and he deigns to advise the whole vast spectrum of his social inferiors.
posted by snarkout at 1:49 PM PST - 4 comments

$700/month for a New York apartment? Boy, you're bound to not beat that deal ... Yes, via Fark, but it may not be there long, and why should they have all the fun, anyway?
posted by yhbc at 1:16 PM PST - 15 comments

It's been attributed to Green Lantern, Winston Churchill and Richard Nixon. It's been used by U.S. Supreme Court justices, Australian defense ministers, Canadian pesticide manufacturers and columnists as far away as India. The idea behind it may not be new, but Stan Lee's wording of the moral lesson at the heart of Spiderman sure has spread in the last 40 years.
posted by mediareport at 1:06 PM PST - 6 comments

"The Myth of Ownership." Financial Columnist Stephen Moore's review of a new book which claims that it is a "compelling fantasy that we earn our income and the government takes some of it away from us."
posted by Ty Webb at 12:52 PM PST - 28 comments

Pong. Starting today, you too can watch someone else play Pong, 24-7, all from the comfort of your own home. Call your cable operator today and ask for the G4 network, and win big prizes. Or not. The official G4 site is here. Flash required for official site
posted by WolfDaddy at 11:38 AM PST - 5 comments

Maybe now that the Chinese have Viagra they'll stop killing rhinos to get boners. (via FMH) (NYtimes reg req'd)
posted by euphorb at 11:01 AM PST - 10 comments

Wee tiny stuff never fails to fascinate. Photomicrography makes the commonplace seem outlandish and the beloved seem alien. Sometimes it's just as good as traveling. Do yourself a favor: admire something small today. You may have to count on it tomorrow.
posted by gleuschk at 11:00 AM PST - 6 comments

Philip Morris vs. the Patriot Act? According to this article in The Nation, back in October the tobacco industry convinced the White House and Tom DeLay to arrange the omission of a specific section of the Patriot Act on money laundering. It had been requested by the DOJ, but it would have made some tobacco companies vulnerable to lawsuits they were facing from several foreign governments (the full story behind those lawsuits is here.) The smuggling charges are bad enough, but that the tobacco industry has a say in defining national security, if true, is infuriating. It also makes the enthusiasm with which the Patriot Act powers are being used to monitor consumers a galling double standard.
posted by homunculus at 10:30 AM PST - 7 comments

Yahoo Becomes Printer UNfriendly "The text-only news on Yahoo! News has been discontinued. Please use the main Yahoo! News site." What gives?
posted by Erendadus at 10:04 AM PST - 23 comments

What happens when you combine an Atari 2600, an 8-bit NES, an X-Box, a PS2, a GameCube, and a PC?
posted by emptybowl at 10:03 AM PST - 8 comments

The current issue of PC Magazine includes a very big puff piece on Internet mail praising the virtues of Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. Their review of e-mail clients is relatively uninteresting except for the sidebar on Disposable E-mail Addresses (DEAs). This is basically the old pseudoanonymous remailer under a different name. Among the free services sneakemail is the most basic but spamgourmet has the coolest attitude and allows you to make new addresses on the fly.

Q. How does spamgourmet stop spam?
A. Simple. We delete all of our users' email.

For commercial services there is also spamex and mailshell.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:21 AM PST - 5 comments

Elmo appears before Congress. The puppet testifies before the Education Appropriations Subcommittee to urge more spending on musical instruments.
posted by swift at 9:17 AM PST - 21 comments

You can get cancer from everything. Now even the good old spud carries a warning, discovered by the potatoloving swedes.
posted by dabitch at 9:08 AM PST - 17 comments

The Segway revolution has begun. "Three Atlanta, Georgia organizations are the first to buy a fleet of Segway transporters." "Fleet," what a visually scary word. Forget priests touching little boys in naughty places and the numerous wars going on in this world, the fact someone actually bought a Segway is CNN’s new top story.
posted by Werd7 at 8:45 AM PST - 33 comments

Malware (Radlight) will silently remove (vi fark ) Ad-aware when installed. The forums on both sides have already sparked some heated discussions.
posted by ambirex at 8:40 AM PST - 8 comments

The Latest Salvo From Gore Vidal, The Last Of The Great Wits: He's a tremendous snob, infuriatingly opinionated and sets out to upset all and sundry, left, right and centre. But Gore Vidal is still the meanest, fastest wit in the West. Harry Kloman runs a magnificent fan site, bursting with goodies and verbal violence which is an education in itself. Or, for a contrarian view, check out rival wit John Simon's demolition job. But come on - can anyone compete with the Master? Christopher Hitchens? Fran Lebowitz? James Woolcott? Clive James? I think not.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:53 AM PST - 29 comments

Free Words came first, a project of 2000 books stealthily placed in museums, libraries, and bookstores. Next, Sal Randolph spearheaded the Free Biennial during the Whitney Biennial. This week, she spent 15K and Ebayed her way into the contemporary art mega-exhibition Manifesta to present: Free Manifesta. Sal Randolph is single-handedly bringing free art "to the people, man."
posted by RJ Reynolds at 7:47 AM PST - 3 comments

Lesson 37.5 para. ii - Comedy Camera Angles.
This image demonstrates how when taken from the correct angle, photographs of perfectly innocent behaviour could be deemed as... well.... different. More?
posted by Spoon at 7:11 AM PST - 9 comments

Former porn star Linda Lovelace dies... Who could forget the classic pr0n movie of all time...Deep Throat and that SONG! Can anyone find the intro song (and self-titled) to Deep Throat?? Unfortunately, the movie is also a classic example of women being forced into the pornography business which later led to Lovelace becoming an anti-pornography advocate.
posted by gloege at 6:55 AM PST - 11 comments

UN agrees to delay Jenin investigations. What's going on here? At the risk at causing more uproar to YAIPP (Yet Another Israel/Palistine Post)....why the delay? Everyone should be held accountable to Human Rights standards.
posted by bkdelong at 6:39 AM PST - 19 comments

Robert Young Pelton, At first the media complains because they're not getting enough information, they're not being allowed to cover the war. Then when they get to know everything, after the 120-day window, nobody cares anymore. Because once they start spelling it out and saying, "Wait a second, these guys are all from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Why aren't we fighting a war in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and Egypt? Why are they our allies?" And then those are the tough questions that never really get asked, because the public doesn't really care at that point. Is disbelieving major news organization reports a neccessity to get the real stories?
posted by bittennails at 5:59 AM PST - 14 comments

The Rudiments of Wisdom from Tim Hunkin. (people in the UK may know him from TV). If you have kids that are thirsty for knowledge, let them run free with Tim's teaching. It stands to reason that anyone who builds an AutoFrisk machine is my hero.
posted by Frasermoo at 5:49 AM PST - 2 comments

Walgreen's Pharmacist refuses to fill prescription. Do pharmacists have the right to refuse to fill a prescription because of religious beliefs? Should they? Well, they do in Florida.
posted by Stretch at 5:13 AM PST - 103 comments

Chief of Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons sacked, after intense US pressure. The whole thing was predicted a few days ago by Georges Monbiot. It seems that the succesful head of the OPCW wanted to restart UN chemical weapons inspections in Iraq. Washington has other plans in mind.
posted by talos at 3:53 AM PST - 24 comments

Have you got a gay pet? Now you can find out with this super pet-o-meter. (requires Flash)
posted by cashmein at 2:51 AM PST - 3 comments

well its....absurd check out this website that seems to be very aptly named.
posted by johnnyboy at 1:07 AM PST - 6 comments