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One of the Marine Corps' greatest living heroes was dying. A donor liver had been found, but he might not live long enough to get it. Who ya gonna call? Semper Fidelis.
posted by swell at 9:23 PM PST - 56 comments

Beverly Hillbillies, Redux! No... not a new movie, but a reality series under development by the shiny and shimmering Tiffany Network. CBS scouts are scouring for a "rural, rustically telegenic" family to be whisked to a brand new home in Beverly Hills, and have a life of luxury bestowed upon them for a period of a year... cameras following them all the way. Crass exploitation of the poor when the gap between rich and poor gets larger and larger? Fun idea to see what happens when someone's dreams come true? Somewhere in the middle? What do people think?
posted by tittergrrl at 9:17 PM PST - 33 comments

This summer, I took a trip to the Brattleboro region of Vermont. Until I picked up Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness" again this past week, I had not realized that I had just made a trip into Lovecraft Country. [more inside]
posted by ursus_comiter at 8:08 PM PST - 12 comments

Spirit Foam: cheerleading has finally been reduced to a spray can.
posted by mathowie at 7:48 PM PST - 30 comments

Onesixty: The SMS Poetry Magazine. Mobile phone poetry, as Andrew Wilson describes it "Text messages are short, so the subject has to be tackled in a way that will fit into 160 characters. A text message poem has to find one truthful moment and describe it." Write your own with this handy abbreviation guide and intro from the Guardian.
posted by Stan Chin at 4:33 PM PST - 12 comments

Leonard Nimoy's Photography - classic black and white photos - very chic. (Is there anything he DOESN'T do? Besides not eat enough salsa?)
posted by thunder at 3:36 PM PST - 18 comments

Strap on your Zyklon B's. Could help shed the pounds from eating all those Temptations.
posted by robself at 3:02 PM PST - 55 comments

Palestinian comic booted from Jackie Mason's comedy show Ray Hanania, a Palestinian comic in Chicago, was set to open for headlining act Jackie Mason. A few hours before the show, Mason had him booted. "It's not exactly like he's just an Arab-American. This guy's a Palestinian," said Jyll Rosenfeld, Mason's manager. "Jackie does not feel comfortable having a Palestinian open for him." Ouch. (Imagine if the tables were turned: "Ray does not feel comfortable having a Jew open for him") Too bad, really. If there's one thing the I/P conflict needs, it's more humor. Like this Muslim-Jewish Comedy Night.
posted by laz-e-boy at 2:08 PM PST - 68 comments

Some people collect baseball cards. Lots of people collect comics. Others collect stuffed animals, salt and pepper shakers, commemorative plates, ventriloquist figures, bottlecaps, hubcaps, antique radios, farm implements, even chainsaws. Some wealthy folks even collect yachts. What makes a thing collectible? Are the best collectibles sold as "collectibles", or is "collectibility" a cynical marketing gimmick? Of course, Elvis collectibles are a whole sub-culture all by themselves.
posted by mrmanley at 1:02 PM PST - 55 comments

Another threat to the separation of church and state? "[S]ome members of Congress want to turn churches into political action committees. A bill in Congress would amend the tax code to allow churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship to get involved in partisan political campaigns."
posted by Bootcut at 12:59 PM PST - 41 comments

Perhaps the world's largest food fight. 38,000 people gathered in Bunal, Spain to throw tomatoes at each other. They were supplied with 132 tons of ripe, juicy ammunition.
posted by caddis at 12:51 PM PST - 25 comments

Netscape market share at an all time low? Not according to Heise Online, a major news site here in Germany. In their very substantial weblogs, Microsoft went from 66,9% down to 65% from March to August of this year, while Netscape/Mozilla rose from 21,3 % to 22,6 and Opera from 7,8% to 8,4%. (Warning: Link in German, but you will understand the tables at the end of the article easily).
posted by vowe at 12:43 PM PST - 18 comments

What's a couple of hours? Some men fishing made a gruesome discovery - a human head. The men placed it in a garbage bag. Then they kept right on fishing: "We didn't want to come in right away… It'd been out there awhile."
posted by ao4047 at 12:32 PM PST - 40 comments

"I think I'm big enough to play the game" says Australian Parliament member Barry Haase, referring to his "purchase" for a day by brothel owner Mary-Anne Kenworthy (heh heh, she said 'member'). Auctioned to the highest bidder (he fetched $1000Australian) at the local Rotary Club charity auction, Haase will perform such duties as cleaning the brothel in a "frilly apron" and conducting a tour of the premises. Wonder if he'll wear anything besides what the proprietress' called her "tour hat"...
posted by runthegamut at 10:12 AM PST - 7 comments

Who owns our water? An interesting question considering the droughts going on and this lady has some good insight into where things might lead. Should a few large corporations be allowed to control our most important resource?
posted by Dr_Octavius at 10:04 AM PST - 39 comments

According to scientists who study sex we can toss some common misconceptions: there is no battle of the sexes; the Mars and Venus book is misleading; extreme body builders are not sexy; breast size isnt always sexy; men and women cheat equally; the notion of man "spreading his seed" is a cultural invention; thin is not sexy. All thanks to our caveman brain.
posted by stbalbach at 9:19 AM PST - 61 comments

MIT's R&D for the US Army of the future appears to be based on a comic book.
posted by dchase at 9:07 AM PST - 31 comments

Yoga in the classroom? EGADS! That reeks of religious implications, say parents in Aspen, Colorado. "For some families, the chanting that accompanies a selection of yoga techniques creates a challenge for separation of church and state." Aspen Elementary says the pilot program "was proposed as a way to help kids cope with their return to school. Rowdy tots could be calmed and readied for class work after recess using a series of relaxing breathing and stretching techniques."
posted by msacheson at 8:43 AM PST - 66 comments

'Girls Gone Wild' goes to Burning Man. The denizens of Black Rock City get pissed; Voyeur Video tries to save face. "Instead of stopping the sale, Voyeur changed the festival's name on its Web site, the suit alleges, to "Rainbow Fire Festival," but kept the description. ("Rainbow Fire Festival is all running around naked and exposing yourself in front of your peers," the Web site now reads.)" Lord help me, why do I find this all really, really funny?
posted by maura at 7:17 AM PST - 64 comments

The Riaa supports sharing? I don't think so, but they have been cracked, and it is a funny piece of work.
posted by Jevon at 7:11 AM PST - 35 comments

Howard Shore tops list of 30 greatest film scores for Lord of the Rings according to a poll from Classic FM. John Williams predictably enough takes a chunk of the top ten. The site also has audio interviews with Shore and Williams. More about the poll at The Telegraph.
posted by Summer at 4:41 AM PST - 33 comments

Mad Bobby Fischer. Listen to reclusive chess genius Bobby Fischer's September 11 rant on the radio. Extra bonuses on the site include a way to contact Bobby, details of his storage dispute and a copy of his sister's will. This was previously talked about on MeFi but is well worth an actual listen.
posted by meech at 4:12 AM PST - 7 comments

nerdc0re. "0wnz0red", Cory Doctorow's fantastispooky new short story. There's something uniquely thrilling about seeing tech talk in fiction. A refreshing change from the literary equivalent of movie OS.
posted by condour75 at 2:20 AM PST - 26 comments

The Puppet Tool Populate your own animated zoo. Brought to you by lecielestbleu (nicolas clauss, frederic durieu, jean-jacques birge) (more at flyingpuppet)
posted by vacapinta at 1:45 AM PST - 2 comments