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All you need is three chords and a guitar? Zac 'Mr. Magnet' Monro didn't even have an instrument when he won the 7th Annual Air Guitar World Championships (video) in Oulu, Finland. And it's two years in a row for him.
posted by mathowie at 9:10 PM PST - 15 comments

Lobsters, caviar and brandy for MPs at summit on starvation. Is this really a scandal? Or typical tabloid pabulum? Yes, it is hypocritical, but is it worse than rich people who don't claim to give a damn about the poor eating caviar and swilling champagne? Matt thinks it's "sick".
posted by goethean at 8:00 PM PST - 27 comments

Welcome to "Hawk Tawk", with your host, Dick Cheney. The Vice President spoke to members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Tennessee today, and unequivocally stated that the United States must preemptively strike Iraq, since there is "no doubt" Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and plans on using them against the US and its allies (excerpt of speech here). In other news, Qatar, a proposed launching off point by US forces, announced its opposition to any attacks on Iraq. In addition, National Reservists will continue to be on active duty for another year, the first time that has happened since Vietnam, and the US Army has been gearing up for new action. What's that Chinese proverb about living in interesting times? (And I know people are sick of Iraq talk, but these are fairly significant events)
posted by tittergrrl at 7:48 PM PST - 111 comments

Topato would never ask his lesbian fans not to kiss. And thanks to his becoming real through the magic of Jenny's Sculpey, we can actually ask him. Any MeFi kids ever play with Sculpey or were you strictly Play Dough toddlers?
posted by clango at 6:34 PM PST - 13 comments

Texas singer asks lesbian fans to not show affection at her shows A budding folk-rocker who also happens to be a high school PE teacher has created a stir with an Aug. 12 email to her fans. "I have had several complaints from bar owners, friends, fans, and potential fans regarding the outwardly show of affection that has taken place at my shows," writes Michelle Mayfield. "This type of behavior, right or wrong, reflects on me as the artist who has brought you to that club...Please be respectful of the places where I am performing by being aware of the actions that can possibly turn potential fans away from my music or from my future shows." The resulting flap, and Mayfield's apology, is made more interesting by questions about Mayfield's own sexual preference, which she called "no one's business in the first place."
posted by mediareport at 5:52 PM PST - 107 comments

Target Iraq - Global Security.org - One stop war / anti-war portal.
Military options, pros and cons of attack, anti-war sites, government, diplomatic, NGO links, military policy, breaking news, military targets, Iraq weather.
posted by sheauga at 5:04 PM PST - 7 comments

The Happy Tree Friends are cute and well intentioned, but clumsily violent. If you prefer cartoons of a less morbid nature, then there might be a mondo mini show for you, like the more NewsFilter friendly This Modern World.
posted by mkn at 3:20 PM PST - 11 comments

What is going on at the New York Times?
More than 100 years ago, the New York Times, under owner Adolph Ochs, adopted the slogan: "All the news that's fit to print". But, critics are now asking if the New York Times only prints news it considers ideologically fit. What has been happening at the Times is far more ominous than just veering to the support of one party or one ideology. There is a type of liberalism, pioneered in America, which tries to be fairer than fair. But trying to be better than fair is like trying to bend over backwards to be straighter than vertical or defining "objective" as being neutral between good and evil. That path leads straight to moral equivalence. Perhaps the slogan should be re-written: "All the Newspeak fit to print".
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 2:22 PM PST - 39 comments

Ann Coulter Explained For the benefit of members of the Left who just don't seem to get it, I offer a link to a short but pithy analysis of Miss Coulter's appeal.
posted by BGM at 1:32 PM PST - 57 comments

The other day a woman on the radio was promoting a charity walk for some disease and stated "every 9 minutes someone dies from this disease. That's a World Trade Center disaster every month" Considering myself on the cutting edge of units of measurement, I thought, have I lost that edge? I guess I Have.
posted by mss at 1:28 PM PST - 21 comments

AIM screen name 'satan' going for $15k in an apparent bidding war that abandoned all sense of reality. Still three days left, let's see if they can break $50k? The dark lord could not be reached for comment, though jesusrox232 called it "ridiculous."
posted by mathowie at 1:26 PM PST - 29 comments

N'SYNC -- in SPAAAAAAACE! (Personally, I'm glad they're sending one of the ugly ones.)
posted by tweebiscuit at 12:24 PM PST - 21 comments

Burp, Ffffft, Flick ... Survey Shows How Gross We Are Nosepicking, burping and passing wind in public are rife among the population, according to a survey which questioned 6,000 people about their personal habits (from The Scotsman)
posted by scotty at 11:53 AM PST - 19 comments

"In the war on terrorism, alliances are not an obstacle to victory. They're the key to it." General Wesley Clark on the lessons of Kosovo and why diplomacy and international cooperation are essential to winning the war on terrorism.
posted by homunculus at 11:21 AM PST - 17 comments

Fighting back: Spammers want e-mail addresses. Give them e-mail addresses. Tons of e-mail addresses. This handy PHP script will add as many fake e-mail addresses to your web site as you want. 20 is the default, with command and space delimited, just like this:

lebsda@fihnekyjvbj.de, tzckk@zcwgituizwjgy.eu, lzteth@gvxmzqphddvhsd.de, wspvnmpitk@adlruenmiupuglcqn.nl, toulr@cttzrgrb.it, gxgb@yqkeermxyxxozvfws.dk, ucldeo@lwytvqqq.nl, brddshal@qmyhquiqtbaeggpx.com, ovu@zzxlbismicnqsuiubkfl.de, txxewr@ogpzcomgrhkd.br, goluv@twcnkfeghsh.com, tfexbuous@heev.ar, zjgeaztzvm@rvonhfrd.de, nhsgikjvjb@stncbqtnyyclaflm.jp, svgfdh@zeynvdd.nl, hxqios@yrdlshpyscndoslt.de, fxglj@sfkdxgyadbqk.ca, mtskzv@carbd.de, pigm@vnkcalneewdulz.com, nqnjwldpfk@ecifc.edu

And each call to the web site will give the spam harvester 20 spanking new addresses. (Web site is german, but the script is in english)
posted by vowe at 11:11 AM PST - 59 comments

The son of a rock god interviews a rock genius... (Scroll down to "Audio") Sean Lennon's 48-minute interview with Brian Wilson covers all aspects of music, from the genesis of a great song, to the competition between artists in the late 1960's. (The interview is in four parts, in RealAudio format.)
posted by greengrl at 10:33 AM PST - 15 comments

Isaac Asimov to blame for "al-Qaida"?
posted by rushmc at 9:16 AM PST - 28 comments

Luxury carmaker achieves relevance with "the kids" by use of Led Zep in ad. Although the article touches on Chevy's decade-long affiliation with Bob Seger, it curiously neglects to mention that Chevy ad with the Mary Chain song, or even the Volkswagen soundtrack album. Did you ever hear a favorite song in an ad or as the theme to a TV show and think "how'd THAT happen?"
posted by britain at 8:51 AM PST - 95 comments

Administration Says It Can Attack Iraq without Congressional Approval Not a new story, per se, but this Post article lays out pretty well the arguments behind the administration's case, one being simply Bush's role as commander-in-chief. It's strange how closely this issue reflects earlier attempts by the administration to avoid Congressional and/or public scrutiny (Cheney's Enron meetings, for example). Why this aversion, and why fight so hard? And I have a sneaking fear that Bush will seek Congressional approval only after invading, and he will bully votes by claiming that reps have a patriotic duty to support a president in a time of war.
posted by risenc at 7:16 AM PST - 65 comments

Osama the CIA Agent, he may not the first in the long line of alleged celebrity CIA agents. What about other supposed agents like Timothy Leary, Yakov Smirnoff, Benjamin Netanyahu, everybody in the media or even a kitty?

I guess, we're all CIA agents in somebody's eyes.
posted by RobbieFal at 5:00 AM PST - 15 comments

"Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. (Damaged Word). There is GOOD out there.We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING (BELL SOUND) --- According to this letter sent to Earthfiles.com this is the translation from ASCII 8 bit encoding, reading out from the center of the spiral of this crop circle. Is anyone out there geek enough to confirm this translation? I love the quirky use of CAPS. Here's the whole "glyph."
posted by gametone at 4:52 AM PST - 32 comments