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It appears that there is another twist in the Abu Nidal death as reports are claiming that Saddam Hussein had Abu killed because Nidal didn't want to train Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq and strike the US. This does contradict the Iraqi claims that Abu killed himself for plotting to overthrow Saddam.

This is getting stranger and stranger. Is this just creative writing by Iraqi opposition? Won't these claims be used to justify claims that Saddam is harboring Terrorists? Will the US awkardly praise Abu for turning down Saddam's offer?

Who knows..
posted by RobbieFal at 11:42 PM PST - 15 comments

The British Museum has put together a beautiful interactive display system they call "Turning the Pages" for some of the rarest books in their collection, including the Sherborne Missal. The technology has been developed to realistically replicate the physical act of turning the pages of each individual book.
posted by anathema at 9:50 PM PST - 14 comments

The Virtual Tour of Edo allows you explore the city that would one day become Tokyo, Japan. Classical images illustrate short descriptions of life in this 18th century metropolis. Although modern Tokyo may look very "Western" on the surface, in its heart the spirit of Edo still lives on!
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:35 PM PST - 6 comments

New DVD formats are just around the corner so let the buyer beware. I wonder just how many dvd collectors actually believe they own the final version of their favorite movies?
posted by Beholder at 8:40 PM PST - 23 comments

Followup on Houston's great K-Mart roundup To the great relief of many in Houston, it does indeed appear that heads are going to roll over the mass arrest last week. Or at least, one head will.
posted by John Smallberries at 7:55 PM PST - 17 comments

Sell The Public Libraries Llewellyn says many public libraries have been a disgrace for decades, and, like most public institutions, they are architectural monstrosities.
"They have terrible hours, which they blame on underfunding. Their selection is often severely limited, vacillating between being out of date and carrying only the latest, tackiest bestsellers. Others have gradually purged all books that offer ideas the ruling regime rejects."
It gets MUCH worse! Past threads have shown the average Mefite to be a fan of public libraries, this guy, is to say the least, not.
posted by Blake at 7:31 PM PST - 48 comments

You know the accounting meme has hit the wall when folk singers start to make songs about WorldCom. Any else got some good links to give people a chuckle about the economy? (Forgive me if I offend, this is my first post)
posted by phyrewerx at 7:01 PM PST - 12 comments

Tony Gwynn knows full well how costly a baseball strike could be Baseball still has not recovered from the strike of 1994, especially in Montreal. The Expos were in the driver's seat for the National League East title when the strike hit in August of 1994. Before the 1995 season began, the Expos had traded several key players to lower expenses. Now the team is on Commissioner Bud Selig's contraction list for Major League Baseball. If the players union go out on strike this year, it could deal a fatal blow to the sport that was once was America's national pastime.
posted by jasonbondshow at 4:05 PM PST - 20 comments

Odd, counter-intuitive finding re: radiation
posted by grumblebee at 3:18 PM PST - 33 comments

On Solidarity, Community Spirit And Going Meerkat-Mad: They're cute, they're smart; they're funny, they're sociable; they're even considered the epitome of cooperative living. In fact, they could probably teach MetaFilter a lesson or two. In their September issue, National Geographic has gone stark, raving meerkat-bonkers - and not a moment too soon either. We're talking new desktops here, no mistake..[Flash needed for first link - definitely worth waiting for it to load - Real or WindowsMedia for some other on-site features.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:06 PM PST - 20 comments

In a zone of their own. Despite restrictions and police enforcement, protesters tried to make their voices heard. When did these "Free Speech Zones" start. Maybe they have always been around but I don't recall hearing that you had to be cordoned off to express peaceful dissent.
posted by bas67 at 1:48 PM PST - 18 comments

Smokey's Vault: all about the history of the campaign, the "real" Smokey Bear, and Smokey's unique place in American culture. Created in 1944, the Smokey Bear campaign is the longest running public service campaign in US History. Smokey's forest fire prevention message remained unchanged for 50 years until April 2001, when the Ad Council updated his message to address the increasing number of wildfires in the nation's wildlands.
posted by josephtate at 12:35 PM PST - 11 comments

US terror suspect 'beaten in custody', says the BBC. The US gov't claimed there was a massive amount of evidence to link him to Al-Queda. Now, after 11 months of being held in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer and allegedly being beaten, he has been charged with having crossed the US border illegally in the past (he was living in Toronto when he was arrested).
posted by 4easypayments at 11:02 AM PST - 29 comments

Do you ever just wander? Based upon the ideas of psychogeography and the dérive, a group called Special Airplane is orchestrating Drift next week in Vancouver. Also ref. The Cityspace Cut-Up @ Social Fiction, who seem somewhat responsible for this.
I don't see how Drift is "generative," but whatever; it's an interesting idea.
[badly-behaved javascript pop-links on the page; the supporting links in this post go to the locations directly]
posted by Su at 9:08 AM PST - 18 comments

"They're already calling her the Weblog Candidate." Tara Grubb is running for Congress against P2P bill cosponsor Howard Coble. She has a weblog, and she's getting a lot of support from the weblog world.
posted by Buckley at 7:20 AM PST - 28 comments

Steven Pippin's audacious pinhole camera pieces are epic at times, as the artist often goes to extremes to convert Bayonne, New Jersey washing machines, toilets, gallery spaces, and moving vans (no image) into pinhole cameras. A book about his James Eadweard Muybridge-inspired installation; "laundromat, locomotion". Noteworthy criticism, and how to make your own pinhole camera.
posted by hama7 at 6:27 AM PST - 3 comments

Catching hepatitis while shopping seems to be not limited to one location in North America. North Carolina and Toronto supermarkets, a McDonalds in Wisconsin, is this a "new" trend?
posted by CrazyJub at 6:13 AM PST - 16 comments