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Food summit 'waste of time' and a shame for many first world countries. Berlusconi and Spain’s prime minister Aznar were the only leaders of wealthy countries present during the summit. And Silvio Berlusconi made the summit end two hours early in order to watch his country's crucial World Cup game with México. I wish the War Against Hunger woukd receive the same attention than the War Against Terror…
posted by samelborp at 11:31 PM PST - 7 comments

/CSS/ - a guide for the unglued
With site design hitting the front page of the BBC, WaSP's Dreamweaver MX input, Daypop heaving with section 508 references, and articles like this Eric Meyer interview, is the web about to become a considerably more accessible place?
posted by southisup at 11:29 PM PST - 4 comments

Where do products go when they die? The thrill of walking down the aisle at the odds-and-ends store to find the weirdest items. The best one? Edible Worms.
posted by drezdn at 11:07 PM PST - 15 comments

Flag Day everyone
As if we Americans didn't have enough reason to show off our patriotism, today (6.14) is Flag Day.
posted by shackbar at 11:02 PM PST - 27 comments

In the long line of "take a picture of things" collaborative sites, we now have Snap Your Desk, which takes a few design *cough*hints*cough* from The Mirror Project.
So show us your crap-covered geek pit.
posted by Su at 10:06 PM PST - 3 comments

Know-Nothings, Bible Riots and the Catholic Church Take a break from priest abuse news with this detailed history of anti-Catholic bias in the United States. In 1834, an angry Boston mob burned down a convent after Harriet Beecher Stowe's father preached that Catholic immigrants were a threat to democracy. In Philadelphia, the 1844 Bible Riots lasted for days, destroying Irish-Catholic churches and neighborhoods. In 1855, Louisville Know-Nothings went on a "Bloody Monday" rampage that left dozens of Catholics dead. Even telegraph inventor Samuel Morse got into the act with a series of anonymous anti-Catholic letters. Fascinating stuff, but oops, break's over. We now return to our regularly scheduled program.
posted by mediareport at 9:38 PM PST - 25 comments

mysterio sympatico is the latest collaboration between jazz guitarist bill frisell and cartoonist jim woodring, who designed a few covers for frisell's records. in honor of flash friday, whimgrinder is online for your amusement (though sadly without frisell's score). what are some animation/music combos you'd like to see?
posted by pxe2000 at 7:50 PM PST - 6 comments

Homophobia is not a phobia, researchers conclude. Well, DUH! However, it's really going to be difficult to march down the street chanting "Hey hey, ho ho, high negative affect scorers on the Index of Attitudes Toward Homosexuality have got to go!"
posted by WolfDaddy at 7:09 PM PST - 35 comments

Bloop! Scientists have revealed a mysterious recording that they say could be the sound of a giant beast lurking in the depths of the ocean. Researchers have nicknamed the strange unidentified sound picked up by undersea microphones "Bloop."
Is it Cthulu? Communist robot sea monsters [pdf]?
posted by badstone at 5:04 PM PST - 24 comments

An article in the New Republic promoting the notion why the Perl video, an advertisment by the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistan Sovereignty, should be seen despite FBI demands to remove it, with link to it.
posted by semmi at 4:43 PM PST - 7 comments

Catholics, Jews, Muslims - all three feel suddenly embattled and isolated [nyt reg req] "This is a rare moment in history, like a planetary alignment: three world religions simultaneously racked by crisis....this confluence is highly unusual but not without precedent... — from 800 to 200 B.C., a period of tremendous violence and upheaval on many continents.... We could use this suffering to create wonderful new religious systems, as the Buddha did, or we could retreat into the spiritual barbarism of hatred ." Perhaps Karl Marx was right that religion, like opium, results only in illusion and false hope.
posted by Voyageman at 4:08 PM PST - 14 comments

When will?? Asia-pacific surpass the US in Internet users? 2005 according to the good folks at BT Internet and their BTExact technology timeline
posted by bitdamaged at 3:26 PM PST - 4 comments

"If Hillary ran, I'd have to run against her," proclaims Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Interviewed for the new print publication of the right-fringe Newsmax.Com, Schlessinger describes Hillary (and Bill) as "perverse, disturbed and destructive … and immoral." and says that if Clinton throws her hat into the ring for a 2004 presidential bid, she will feel it necessary to follow suit. There aren't really words...
posted by Dreama at 3:01 PM PST - 46 comments

No more Mr. Nice Guy. Nice guys have believed a myth, this myth is the essence of what I call the Nice Guy Syndrome. The Nice Guy Syndrome represents a belief that if Nice Guys are good, they will be loved, get their needs met, and live a problem-free life.
Are you a nice guy? Take the test, if you are, better hurry, there are still therapy groups available!
posted by patrickje at 2:20 PM PST - 35 comments

Orphan Orca captured in Puget Sound this afternoon near Vashon Island. The young female orca, A73, nicknamed Springer, will likely be returned to her pod in Canada after medical tests are completed. live stream.
posted by yonderboy at 2:11 PM PST - 5 comments

Show called "Harassment" results in, well, harassment! MTV and their co-conspirator, the Hard Rock Hotel, are being sued for "invasion of privacy, infliction of emotional distress and fraud, among other things."
posted by ilsa at 2:04 PM PST - 32 comments

Are national governments about to take over the Internet? Has ICANN done such a terrible job that they should be permitted to?
posted by rushmc at 1:49 PM PST - 3 comments

Bloggus Caesari: the weblog of Julius Caesar. This was mentioned in the historical blogs thread in MT the other day by ljromanoff, but those of you who didn't read it shouldn't miss out. Does your favorite historical or fictional character have a weblog?
posted by darukaru at 1:11 PM PST - 16 comments

Mr. Clean Action Figure More proof that you can buy anything online. Better hurry, only 100,000 numbered Mr. Clean Action Figures are available. o_0
posted by lheiskell at 1:05 PM PST - 5 comments

Bookies taking bets on the location of the next suicide attack against Israel. "Betting on Eilat, a Red Sea resort that has not seen any violence during the past 21 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, is a long shot at 17-1, while often-hit Jerusalem was given odds of 1.5-1."
posted by Why at 12:59 PM PST - 4 comments

Kitschy Kitschy Kootch: Remember Whatshername? Iconophile is a locker-room gallery of B-movie and TV starlets who most people have forgotten about or never heard of. It defines itself, quite accurately, as "an angry web geek's multimedia reliquary of the lesser, harder-to-find goddesses and saints of the celebrity pantheon". For connoisseurs, there's real pathos to be found. Not to mention some truly lovely women hidden amidst the inevitable tat and trivia. [For the record, my ever-present has-been of choice could only be Mathilda May.].
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:01 PM PST - 9 comments

Holland part of Axis of Evil? The Dutch parliament was shocked by a US legislative proposal giving an official green light to a US invasion of the Netherlands should it be deemed necessary to free US citizens from the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Pretty please, leave us alone, Jesse Helms.
posted by magullo at 11:22 AM PST - 46 comments

Winer finally makes sense Thanks to Greg Knauss's dissociative translator, Scripting News is more informative and vastly more entertaining. MetaFiter also gets the disassociator once-over.
posted by mikeg at 10:14 AM PST - 5 comments

This saturday is the 2002 National Day of Action
Online communities have done a good job of covering stories about big corporations abusing their powers online to squelch the efforts of programmers, researchers, designers, music enthusiasts, etc. But what about their offline agenda? Masquerading beneath the guise of the Adventure Pass program is an attempt to extend corporate control to our public lands.

From the press release: "Among others, primary sponsors of the fee demo and Adventure Pass are Walt Disney Corp., KOA Campgrounds, and Coleman Co. If the fee demo becomes law, the legislation will allow these companies and other to develop commercial enterprises on public forest lands in partnerships with the Forest Service."
posted by johnjreeve at 9:51 AM PST - 1 comments

Georgian Rep. Bob Barr is a fragile and delicate man. So fragile, in fact, that he has filed a lawsuit against President Bill Clinton, James Carville and Larry Flynt for "loss of reputation and emotional distress" and "injury in his person and property." He's seeking damages in excess of $30 million. This from the man who called for the impeachment of Bill Clinton before the whole Monica thing. James Carville said, "To call this suit 'frivolous' would be to elevate the status of 'frivolous.'"
posted by crunchland at 9:12 AM PST - 16 comments

Country singer Toby Keith claims he won't be playing his hot country single Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American) on an ABC July 4th special because Peter Jennings doesn't like the song. "I find it interesting that he's not from the U.S.," Keith says of Jennings, who is Canadian. "I bet Dan Rather'd let me do it on his special." (via cursor)
posted by dack at 8:53 AM PST - 59 comments

Why the tobacco industry feared The Patriot Act. Rep. Michael Oxley removed a provision involving money laundering from the bill at the behest of the White House and GOP whip Tom DeLay, under pressure from Big Tobacco.
posted by o2b at 8:39 AM PST - 6 comments

The Business Software Alliance is now running new radio ads in the Chicago Area (on 101.1 FM and other channels) saying, "Is your boss riding you hard all day? Want to get your boss back? Call the BSA and tell us your boss is pirating software!" Is this extortion or a necessary wake-up call?
posted by Maxor at 8:35 AM PST - 17 comments

Diggers of the Underground Planet We've had similar links posted before, but this one about the subterranean geography of Moscow really caught my attention. Discoveries include a 3,000 seat bunker under a cathedral, deserted chemical warfare labs, ancient stashes of the skulls, a second ring of metro stations that were never used and possibly a mass grave from the Stalin era.
posted by Irontom at 8:09 AM PST - 18 comments