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The federal goverment is now not allowed to withold funding from libraries who don't use Internet filtering. The Children's Internet Protection Act, an attempt to shield chidren from pornographic [if legal] material, was overturned by a ruling handed down today. Some libraries, like San Francisco Public, had already decided to forego any funding they might be entitled to in order not to be hamstrung by CIPA, but many others were dutifully preparing to install imperfect filters on their public terminals by the deadline of July 1st.
posted by jessamyn at 9:47 PM PST - 23 comments

"It would no longer be a marketplace; it would be a kind of a jungle, where this one unlicensed instrument is capable of devouring all that people had invested in and labored over and brought forth."

Good ol' Cryptome has been kind enough to post Jack Valenti's original congressional testimony against the insidious VCR Threat of 1982. Now we can see his famous 'Boston Strangler' quote in context and pick out a few new favorites. So kick back, substitute the word 'Internet' for 'VCR' and wallow in the sweet irony.

(And don't forget to check out Jack's cool 80s-era Japan-bashing. Keep fightin' the good fight, Jackie-boy!)
[via Slashdot]
posted by Dirjy at 8:21 PM PST - 4 comments

Missing Dog Head! And other /Insane/ things found. Provided to you by Ubu.com Also check out the mp3 section for hundreds of audio recordings by other loonies like Artaud, Duchamp, Burroughs, etc etc...
posted by protocool at 7:31 PM PST - 7 comments

The Complete Holy Writings of Ine. (Parable Edition)
"Submitting yourselves one to another with their uncleanness." (10.5)
"Envy thou not the oppressor, Serve the lord our god giveth us." (24.2)

Now, Volume II: The Book of Moaning is out!. Just what you crazy kids have been waiting for!
"shall vain words have an end?" (3:4)
"repent; or else i die." (7:1)
"submit yourselves therefore to god." (15:3)
posted by geoff. at 7:09 PM PST - 8 comments

Earth Viewer compiles satellite imagery on the fly to produce a photo-realistic, spinnable, zoomable model of the entire Earth, right on your computer. And I mean zoomable -- one slider takes you smoothly from seeing the entire globe down to seeing individual people queuing to get into the Louvre...
posted by chrismear at 5:59 PM PST - 11 comments

Industrial Security Clearance Decisions - names omitted to protect the druggies, shameless debtors, and people who keep dual citizenship so as to get through customs quicker. They really don't like people who lie -- esp. when they lie about something that's in public record. Still, the weirdest one is a a guy open about his predeliction for sex with dogs...
posted by meep at 5:12 PM PST - 8 comments

Nudi of the Week! It's not what you think. Exquisitely beautiful slugs with brilliant colors, funky patterns and a delicious candy coating. Just kidding about that last part. But damn these nudibranchs sure are pretty. Lots of other nudi links at the Slug Site.
posted by mediareport at 1:29 PM PST - 16 comments

Christopher O'Riley is a pianist who has transcribed some Radiohead tunes. Give a listen if you like, and spare me the Radiohead does/doesn't suck thread.
posted by uftheory at 1:25 PM PST - 16 comments

If I only had a brain or a bible thats on fire. "When was the last time your class saw how "HOT" God's Word is? Open this authentic looking "bible" and begin to share the scripture for the day as real flames are seen coming from your "bible". I have not the words.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:28 PM PST - 14 comments

Indiana Jones to return in a fourth installment. "Paramount insiders say the picture will be aimed at a July 2005 holiday weekend berth." Yay!
posted by slater at 11:10 AM PST - 30 comments

The Popcorn Fork ^TM
posted by swift at 11:02 AM PST - 26 comments

The art of Le Parkour. Want to be a real life Spider-Man? Try keeping up with these guys.
posted by homunculus at 10:54 AM PST - 7 comments

"To compile The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s, we used the most narrow and conservative of definitions -- corporations that have pled guilty or no contest to crimes and have been criminally fined." Just brimming with fascinating business lore, including "The FBI estimates that 19,000 Americans are murdered every year. Compare this to the 56,000 Americans who die every year on the job or from occupational diseases such as black lung and asbestosis and the tens of thousands of other Americans who fall victim to the silent violence of pollution, contaminated foods, hazardous consumer products...."
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 10:37 AM PST - 39 comments

This is the story of what happens when a naïve 15-year-old prodigy collides with an upward-reaching football program, some of whose players feel like they own the campus. Brittany Benefield started college at age 15 with the dream of finishing law school before she turned 21. Didn't quite work out that way, and hers is an amazing story. Take the time to read this, and think about it. Would you fault her parents, for letting her get into something she wasn't ready for; the university, for letting this get out of control; the football program, for running roughshod over the school; or Brittany, for her own decisions?
posted by msacheson at 10:17 AM PST - 45 comments

The Movement for an Appropriate 9/11 Memorial
    What is sacred space? The influence of spiritual leaders, philosophers, ethicists, psychologists, anthropologists and other scholars is notably absent in discussions about what to do with the former WTC site.
    Among advocates for a large WTC memorial, there is consensus that the site is "sacred." September's Mission wants victims families to take part in a process of determining what will serve the function of connecting people to sacredness. They want public money to be spent in this direction too. But how can people's feelings, behaviors and attitudes be planned? Can popular beliefs be incorporated into large-scale government decisions? (1, 2)
posted by rschram at 9:52 AM PST - 18 comments

Saudi militants obtain SA-7 missiles Not to worryf. The govt will, I'm sure, crack down on them as if they were adulterers. Besides, they are not in the axis of evil.
posted by Postroad at 9:51 AM PST - 5 comments

Questioning the myth of plastic knives and boxcutters. "This fictoid serves to divert public attentions from the responsibility, and legal liability, of the government and airlines to prevent major weapons — such as guns, bombs, chemical sprays and hunting knives [all of which were mentioned in flight attendant and passenger cell phone calls] from being carried aboard airplanes. If such illegal devices had been smuggled aboard the planes, the liability could amount to billions of dollars. If, on the other hand, it could be disseminated that the hijackers had only used plastic knives, such as those provided by the airlines for meals, or box cutters, which were allowed on planes, neither the airlines, the screeners at the airport, or the FAA, which regulates the safety of airports, could be held legally responsible."
posted by fotzepolitic at 9:48 AM PST - 7 comments

"Blow up for nothing? What is this - trading in the blood of martyrs only so that my handlers can say that they executed the operation?" Tawriya Hamamra, a young Palestinian woman, who had barely an hour's training in preparation for a suicide bombing recounts her change of heart. Just how much religion, politics, or personal problems motivates a suicide?
posted by semmi at 9:44 AM PST - 10 comments

Medical professionals are supposed to tell the truth. But why do they always lie?

I had an exam yesterday and they lied to me again as they always do.

Every time they do the glaucoma test, I have been told that they will get "close" to the eye. I correct them and tell them, no, you're going to touch it. They'll deny it 3 or 4 times before finally conceding that they'll "barely touch it" or something like that.

"The most common way to currently measure pressure inside the eye is tonometry. In air tonometry, a short burst of air hits the cornea. In applanation tonometry, a doctor anesthetizes the eye, then presses against it with a tiny instrument and measures the depth of the indentation." (sorry-- this is where I got the quote-- it's mostly about something else-- even web pages are reluctant to admit they'll touch your eyeball).

I have never recieved air tonometry, it's rarely used and considerred inaccurate.

This only bugs me because years ago a doctor told me he was going to get close to my eye, I could feel him on the surface through the aneshthetic and pulled back. This happened repeatedly. Eventually he told me he had to touch the eye. If he had told me that in the first place, I wouldn't have thought he was screwing up and I wouldn't have pulled back.

Well ok, it also bugs me that a doctor would utter such an obvious lie (you can feel them on the eye and see the cornea distort when it's pressed). What else are they lying about? What are their motives? (I have contacts, I touch my eyeballs all the time, surely they don't think I have an eyeball touching phobia...)
posted by squinky at 9:26 AM PST - 31 comments

Are you David Still? If not, well, you can be. David Still has given up his personality to the masses, so you can write to people as him, and better still, reply to people who have sent e-mails back to the enigmatic Mr Still. Potential for confusion: I'd say fair to middling...
posted by creeky at 9:12 AM PST - 2 comments

Today is the seventh anniversary of the launch of Jeffrey Zeldman Presents. Is this the longest running weblog/journal/daily report?
posted by timeistight at 8:45 AM PST - 6 comments

You can blog if you want to and O'reilly would like to tell you how. Some have commented how antithetical it is for bloggers to keep a secret, even if a book deal requires them to. Well, these folks would like you to comment and contribute.
posted by piskycritter at 8:04 AM PST - 4 comments

Bye Bye, Privacy. Despite opposition from civil liberties groups worldwide, the European parliament bowed to pressure from individual governments, led by Britain, and approved legislation to give police the power to access the communications records of every phone and internet user.
posted by tpoh.org at 6:52 AM PST - 17 comments

Porn shop clerk arrested for selling porn: Am I the only one that thinks this is completely crazy? First of all, how can you prosecute someone for something they have a license to do? And why prosecute the clerk, and not the owner of the store? It's not bad enough to have to work in a porn shop, but you also have to worry about being arrested for selling someone a copy of "All Anal Action"?
posted by emptybowl at 6:51 AM PST - 21 comments

so which site has the best soccer live coverage? is it yahoo!'s fifaworldcup.com? is it the bbc? is it someone else? right now from here (germany) it looks like none of the big sites is holding up to the traffic. is any site as well prepared as msnbc was for the olympics? oh, and it looks like senegal is winning the opening match.
posted by HeikoH at 6:00 AM PST - 17 comments

Pip Tattersall is the first woman to win the Green Beret of the Royal Marines, but she still can't fight in combat. Is the British army ignoring thousands of years of history, or is Martin van Creveld right?
posted by CatherineB at 5:13 AM PST - 24 comments