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Since we're doing season finales here, 24 ended its run tonight. I thought it was amazing. Anybody else out there fall in love with this show ?(and especially this episode, wow)
posted by dig_duggler at 10:19 PM PST - 38 comments

The Buffy season finale was possibly two of the best hours of TV I've ever watched. Did you miss it? If you taped it to watch later you may not want to read the article until you see it.
posted by Cyrano at 7:40 PM PST - 62 comments

All Lies, All the Time: "In the United States of 2002, it's not a scandal unless the corporate media says it's a scandal, and they will not call something a scandal if it centers on the ability of large corporations to procure gargantuan favors from government. It is only a scandal if a member of the political party that's less than 100 percent devoted to granting corporations their every whim is caught doing something wrong."
posted by crasspastor at 4:59 PM PST - 20 comments

And the top 200 prescriptions for 2001 are... I see Claritin near the top of the charts, with zoloft and paxil not too far behind. Prozac is down, with viagra shooting up the charts like a... hmm. In total 3.1 billion prescriptions were filled in the US, which would be about an average of a dozen per citizen. Also interesting are the previous six years of data, allowing anyone to build a "Rx Zeitgeist" of the american hypochondriac.
posted by mathowie at 4:52 PM PST - 59 comments

ANTHRAX AGAIN! The World Bank in Washington DC said today that some of its mail had tested positive for possible anthrax contamination. 1200 employees there will be staying home tomorrow. It's the third report of a positive test in DC this week. Hysteria, residue from before, or is it happening all over again?
posted by crunchland at 2:44 PM PST - 11 comments

Google Labs is a public beta testing area for some pretty cool things they are currently working on: an amazing glossary, voice search by telephone, search results navigated without the mouse and finding additional items to sets defined by words you enter.
With every new feature, they seem to be getting even further beyond the competition. Even though Google is very likable company: is a monopoly on web search a good thing?
posted by c3o at 2:06 PM PST - 45 comments

Our four helmeted kids (or four headed monsters) I recently heard a child psychiatrist say that everything he had learned was wrong - the single most important factor for parents to focus on in raising children was, not spending time with them, not giving them love and affection, not providing discipline and clear rules and responsibilities, not making sure they ate healthy meals with plenty of sleep and exercise, the most important factor was fostering their "Competence". How well do they do the things they do. From this article: "The way we realize our potential is through our activities. By ceaselessly striving to improve at the things we enjoy, we come to define, enlarge, and attain our best selves." Whatever happened to stopping to smell those roses?
posted by Voyageman at 1:47 PM PST - 25 comments

Good news for Lithuanian girls: ob-gyn tests no longer required in order to get a driver's license. Because, after all, an equivalent test isn't required for Lithuanian men.
posted by Badmichelle at 12:26 PM PST - 4 comments

Turn the world into a library. Have you found a book recently?
posted by carsonb at 11:59 AM PST - 6 comments

Google says: Don't mess with Malcovich After Anita Roddick called actor John Malcovich a "vomitous worm" on her Web site (in response to his statement about shooting journalist Robert Fisk), she received a message from Google noting that her AdWord had been pulled. Google sent a message to Roddick stating: "policy does not permit the advertisement of 'Sites that advocate against groups or individuals (even John Malkovich)' on our website. We also do not permit sites that sell these products to advertise on Google." How extensive is this policy? Has anyone else run up against it?
posted by emptyage at 11:21 AM PST - 29 comments

The Villa Rustica in Hechingen-Stein. Take a stroll through the remains of a 1st to 3rd Century Roman villa in southwestern Germany. Includes a 3D reconstruction and panoramas. I was especially impressed by the heating system.
posted by homunculus at 10:33 AM PST - 1 comments

I had trouble sleeping Saturday night because of a CNN story suggesting that "increased level of chatter and activity" indicated that "another al Qaeda terrorist operation could be in the works." The "warnings" have been coming ever since: Cheney said Sunday that future attacks were "almost a certainty" and FBI director Robert Mueller stated "we will not be able to stop it", with Ridge and Rumsfeld spinning similar tales today. Is there a new threat? Ridge hasn't changed the nation's security alert from "yellow," and AP reported today that "a top White House aide said last week's criticism prompted a two-pronged political response: Bush accused Democrats of playing politics with the issue as his advisers reminded voters that America is still a target."
posted by tranquileye at 9:50 AM PST - 57 comments

SEX DIFFERENCES IN THE BRAIN: Men and women display patterns of behavioral and cognitive differences that reflect varying hormonal influences on brain development Sugar and spice versus snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Or was it masculinizing androgens 'organizing' behaviour at critical periods? At least now there is a scientific explanation of why my girlfriend beats me while watching Pat spin the wheel.
posted by srboisvert at 9:34 AM PST - 9 comments

Starving Bacteria of Iron Helps Wipe Out Body Odor. Scientists find that blocking bacteria's supply of iron works better at suppressing B.O. than the traditional deodorant method off killing off the bacteria with ethanol.

"expert odor assessors who sniffed the participants' armpits found that the experimental combination worked better than ethanol at reducing odor, with longer-lasting effects."

Just when you think *your* job stinks. Now, when will they come up with a way to suppress the Indian cooking odor in my apartment building?
posted by Tubes at 9:17 AM PST - 16 comments

The world cup (of football) is very nearly upon us. You can win tickets to it by playing a free kick game. I am not sure if it applies to those outside the U.K but it doesn't matter because you would have no chance of winning at all. It is devilishly difficult but quite addictive and tremendous fun. You can also find a prediction league type thing and other bits and pieces here. If anyone has the motivation it is possible to set up a private league within the wider thing.
posted by Fat Buddha at 8:49 AM PST - 16 comments

Mystery Illness such a mystery? Help needed! (old news, new information?) OK, I'm going to try and do this without naming names... The British troops in Afghanistan have been struck down by a mystery illness recently, with an investigation finding that the illness was just a "winter vomiting" bug.
I've heard different. The source may have been an Al Qaeda terrorist who had been captured. The 'mystery illness' may have been caught when the British or US government used biological warfare to make it easier to find and capture members of Al Qaeda. Can anyone help verify this? I should stress I only have word of mouth from a friend of a friend. All very speculative, but I've not been able to find anything else on this... yet...
posted by snowgoon at 8:17 AM PST - 13 comments

Webcasters win a reprieve. Looks like Shoutcasters will be able to stick around for a bit longer...
posted by shecky57 at 7:53 AM PST - 3 comments

"By Christmas, Microsoft could become the nation's fourth-largest phone company." So ends an article in the NYT about the upcoming online gaming service for X-Box. What does this have to do with phone service? "A critical component of the social experience planned for Xbox Live will be the audio headset, enabling players to cheer and jeer one another. The technology includes a "voice masking" feature that will conceal the identities and even ages of the contestants — a Disneyland safeguard meant to deter adult exploitation of children online."
posted by gwint at 7:38 AM PST - 13 comments

Get Your Publishing Deal On. Coming soon.... Get Your War On: The Book.
posted by Dirjy at 7:26 AM PST - 7 comments

The Secret Garden - Albert Richards is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. He has been creating hauntingly beautiful images of flowers by radiography for decades now.
posted by Irontom at 6:45 AM PST - 8 comments

HR-2357. "The U.S.A. prides itself as being one of the most pluralistic societies on earth, with a stunning variety of houses of worship in many communities. But the right to engage in civic activities, and especially to engage in political speech, is severely curtailed among many faith groups because of the perception that the house of worship will lose its charitable status if 'politics' is discussed." That may be about to change...
posted by aaronshaf at 6:39 AM PST - 20 comments

Mom arrested after sexually oriented party "The 27-year-old admitted wrongdoing after doing nude jumping jacks and talking to girls about sex." - Now that's what I would call a cool mom ;)
posted by heimkonsole at 6:38 AM PST - 38 comments

Killer to be executed even though victim's mother requested a commuted sentence to life imprisonment. Shouldn't family members of the victim have some sort of say in whether a convicted killer should be executed or not? Especially when they are against the execution of the perpetrator?

Just an add-on toThe Texas Conveyor Belt of Death thread from yesterday.
posted by da5id at 5:46 AM PST - 18 comments

A senior Microsoft Corp. executive told a federal court last week that sharing information with competitors could damage national security and even threaten the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. He later acknowledged that some Microsoft code was so flawed it could not be safely disclosed. (emphasis added.) Is this a calculated admission, or is Microsoft so completely on the ropes that they'll say anything to keep from being completely dismembered? Doesn't the fact that releasing such a shoddy product that it's a national security risk mean that Microsoft should be taken to bits in the interest of public safety? If Firestone can't sell unsafe tires, why should Microsoft be able to sell unsafe software?
posted by RylandDotNet at 2:01 AM PST - 22 comments

Good news! It's ok to "steal" golf balls again.
posted by kingmissile at 1:30 AM PST - 12 comments