MetaFilter

Tales from the Mental Hospital. "I fought them the best I could, but it was no use at all. I was rather quickly overpowered and dragged inside. A smart person would have just given up at that point, but at the time I was by no means a smart person. I started pulling and struggling to get these guys off me. This only made the situation worse, as I was forced down onto the floor of the wing so the nurse could come and administer the ever popular needle of Ativan into my ass cheek. I continued to try and fight, until a rather large fellow named Abdullah decided the best way to keep me down would to be to use his knee to pin my head to the rug."
posted by UKnowForKids at 10:25 PM PST - 15 comments

Venus Transits the Sun. Some really gorgeous pics of this rare stellar event.
posted by WolfDaddy at 10:24 PM PST - 10 comments

Alfred Jarry. Writer, creator of pataphysics (the science of imaginary solutions), adopted father of the surrealists and extreme bike rider (in reality as well as in Howard Waldrop's Fin de Cycle). His best known work, Ubu Roi, inspired painter Joan Miro, playwright Samuel Beckett (among others) and gave a music group its name. (More Inside)
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:12 PM PST - 7 comments

As if mad cow wasn't enough. The UK has pulled saskatoon berries from store shelves while they decide if the berries are safe to eat. If not, my family in Saskatchewan should be dead by now. The UK Food Standards Agency is looking for your views on these cute little berries. So juicy, so tasty, so purple. How can you say no?
posted by Salmonberry at 5:53 PM PST - 32 comments

Wizard People, Dear Reader is a bizarre re-reading (or, if you're Tim Burton, a re-imagining) of Harry Potter and the philosophers stone (or sorcerers stone for our friends across the pond). Basically you download it, burn it to CD and play it while watching the DVD. A new art form, a childish gimmick or somewhere inbetween? Everybody will have a copy soon, so get busy with the download (courtesy of the ever vigilant Talking Tina at Sissyfight.com).
posted by ciderwoman at 4:13 PM PST - 20 comments

Female genital mutilation is a blight on women's lives in many parts of Africa. Today's NY Times has a story, "Genital Cutting Shows Signs of Losing Favor in Africa" by Mark Lacey, that gives grounds for optimism:

Slowly, genital cutting is losing favor. Parliaments are passing laws forbidding the practice, which causes widespread death and disfigurement. Girls are fleeing their homes to keep their vaginas intact. And the women who have been carrying out the cutting, and who have been revered by their communities for doing so, are beginning to lay down their knives.

(If you don't want to register with the NYT, here's the Mathaba.net copy.)
posted by languagehat at 4:10 PM PST - 52 comments

The Infinite Art of Kerry Mitchell and Janet Parke.
posted by Gyan at 2:12 PM PST - 8 comments

Dewey Defeats Tampa Bay Lightning! Actually, the Lightning won the Stanley Cup, but someone forgot to tell The Tampa Tribune's crack editorial staff.
posted by tregoweth at 12:35 PM PST - 17 comments

British journalist strip searched and tossed in the pokey for the crime of not knowing about a never enforced 1952 law requiring "special" journalist visas. And she's not alone...according to Reporters with out Borders, the US has deported 15 reporters, 10 of those from LAX. Reporters must now provide a letter from their employer detailing their assignment, and the INS gets to decide who is allowed to report, and who isn't.
posted by dejah420 at 10:14 AM PST - 48 comments

The CEO with the biggest head in America (no, not Trump, I'm talking literally) is recruiting secret agents. (You want spies with that?) Or, if you'd like a slightly less creepy way to get a lot of free really junky food, you can write sauce packet slogans.
*The term "left-of-center" is NOT meant to be political in any way. Mmm-kay.
posted by wendell at 9:45 AM PST - 14 comments

Stalin's Funeral "The crowds were so dense and chaotic outside that some people were trampled underfoot, others rammed against traffic lights, and some others choked to death. It is estimated that 500 people lost their lives while trying to get a glimpse of Stalin's corpse." The string quartet playing at Stalin's graveside wept openly - for Sergei Prokofiev, who died the same day and hour as Stalin. Stalin was first interred next to Lenin, under glass. But five years later, it was time to physically remove Stalin from a place of honor. "Stalin had been a dictator and a tyrant. Yet he presented himself as the Father of Peoples, a wise leader, and the continuer of Lenin's cause. After his death, people began to acknowledge that he was responsible for the deaths of millions of their own countrymen."
posted by stonerose at 8:26 AM PST - 34 comments

The British National Party discover Flash. Britons: remember to vote on Thursday to stop these guys getting their first European MP.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 8:14 AM PST - 32 comments

No Escape!
It's in your your music, plastered all over your public spaces, in your movies, on your clothes and in your art,
it's over there --------------------------------------------------->
(as long as this is the first story on the main page), it's in your books, in your schools
It everywhere except inside your body... until now
posted by Capn at 7:58 AM PST - 21 comments

Speaking of Transit Watching. I found it really interesting to see the collection of AP photos about the transit of Venus today. Apparently the compelling story is not so much the science (planets orbit the sun, got it), but the global spectacle. It's a bit of an anomaly of late, but Venus watching seems to be something the whole world peacefully agrees is a good thing. [View the viewers in Abu Dhabi, Azraq, Bangkok, Beijing, Cairo, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, La Linea, Lebanon, London, Madras, Minsk, Nairobi, New Delhi, New York, Pakistan Paris, Potsdam, Pretoria, Rome, St. Petersburg, Sydney, Tehran, and Yokohama ]
posted by kokogiak at 7:56 AM PST - 7 comments

Unreasonable Search and Seizure? Boston's MBTA to begin randomly searching passenger bags and packages next month on subway and commuter trains. Last month they started playing frequent Big Brother-type announcements as part of their See Something? Say Something(pdf) - Transit Watch program. I'm either reminded of "Loose Lips, Sink Ships" or Starship Troopers' "Do you want to know more?".
posted by FreezBoy at 7:21 AM PST - 28 comments

The 50 Coolest Song Parts [RetroCrush] As always, bringing up our favorites... um... song parts... will be more constructive and fun than destroying the list.
posted by jon_kill at 6:25 AM PST - 139 comments

"End of Oil" rebuts Reagan hagiography ? Amidst the din that is the lengthy US media coverage on Ronald Reagan's demise, the BBC reports on the growing acceptance (with oil industry attendance at a recent ASPO conference in Berlin) of the Hubbert Curve Theory which predicts we are now close to or at the peak of World Oil production. (also see Metafilter,October 2002).

Now, the wayback machine : the year is 1980 and the new President, Ronald Reagan, has ordered a solar hot water system, installed by President Carter, torn off the White House roof. Reagan will preceed to gut federal alternative energy subsidies and federal R&D spending on alternative energy technologies to, instead, spend many billions subsidizing oil, coal, and gas production.... Over the next 23 years, the US lost it's role as the World leader in efficiency and alternative energy technologies.
posted by troutfishing at 6:24 AM PST - 79 comments

Paperclip Art. Beautify your cubicle.
posted by srboisvert at 6:07 AM PST - 8 comments

A history of the IBM Typewriter. When in high school (ca. 1993), a room full of these was replaced with a room full of 286s.
posted by pieoverdone at 6:02 AM PST - 12 comments

These educational cartoons about the upcoming G8 conference are easily some of the worst pieces of animation ever to be considered "educational." Could they be an attempt to create animated subversion from within? Or is it just par for the course when the government tries to sell the G8 to the youth of America? Oh, and if you like the cartoon, try testing your G8 IQ.
posted by hank_14 at 5:46 AM PST - 14 comments

Is Bremer running scared? Chris Neidrich was one of those who died on Sunday when a carefully planned ambush by seven vehicles attacked a Blackwater security convoy headed to Baghdad Airport, killing four and wounding three. Neidrich also guarded Bremer's motorcade.
The day after the attack on Bremer, the following security bulletin was released:
Effective immediately and until further notice, all CPA ground movement to/from Baghdad International Airport is prohibited. Exceptions for mission critical movements may be requested from Force Protection at DSN.
Is the U.S. military incapable of securing 2 1/2 miles of road from the Green Zone to Baghdad Airport, or has a political decision been made to not guard the road, thereby reducing the risk of military casualties. In other words, is Bremer scared, or is Bush?
posted by insomnia_lj at 3:56 AM PST - 19 comments

Sun Microsystems gives each employee a blog. Will other companies follow?
posted by PenDevil at 3:35 AM PST - 16 comments

Lawyers Decided Bans on Torture Didn't Bind Bush
posted by y2karl at 2:02 AM PST - 59 comments