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Bernard Herrmann: I've always loved Bernard Herrmann's music (symphonic or film) but I didn't know until this afternoon that he was responsible for the two most recognizable bars of music in the last 30 years: the theme for The Twilight Zone.
posted by realjanetkagan at 11:43 PM PST - 8 comments

Export Restrictions on a website? I had to agree to this before downloading stuff from Oracle:
I am not a citizen, national or resident of, and am not under the control of, the government of: Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, nor any other country to which the United States has prohibited export.
posted by arnab at 11:28 PM PST - 10 comments

Even Yahoo's getting into the act of remembering last year with a reasonably classy homage on their site. Spot any other tributes on the major sites?
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 11:20 PM PST - 33 comments

I'm off to a conference today to discuss the EU and Asia one year on, in the European Parliament which should be very interesting indeed. Almost every Asian and Middle East ambassador will be present . What are you going to do today?
posted by quarsan at 10:23 PM PST - 10 comments

"First you look at the cover ... probably something rather lurid and colorful that makes you smile for its ingenuity. You are immediately assaulted by the characteristic smell of rotting paper, of pulp wood paper. You pick it up, wondering what strange stories you will find within those badly yellowed and rather crumbly pages - a dastardly deed, a fantastic villain or incredible hero, a love story perhaps, or even a voyage to some distant planet!"
posted by crunchland at 10:19 PM PST - 10 comments

So much for customer servise A website chronicling one guys journey though tech support hell. I laughed my head off at what the guy had to go through and also that he would go so far to document it like he has. Not a lot of fun (but funny because it wasn't me)
posted by Coop at 10:02 PM PST - 18 comments

Yes.. we all know what today is (it's pretty much Wednesday here).. read up on the MeFi reactions, or the reactions from Fark. Hundreds of these have to be around. I'm just linking some ones off the top of my head here. Here's one timeline of last 9/11 also which seems more skeptical about all of this. Here are some events for today.

Do something good for somebody today.
posted by RobbieFal at 9:57 PM PST - 5 comments

The problem is not with your set: Last fall, Sen. Hillary Clinton was lustily booed by the crowd at the Concert for New York City benefit aired live on VH1, much to the glee of conservative commentators. On the DVD release of the concert, Clinton is greeted with rousing cheers, as revealed by ABC's John Stossel. Give Viacom a hand. VH1's parent company also contributed $32,500 to her campaign and owns Simon & Schuster, which is paying $8 million for her memoirs.
posted by rcade at 9:26 PM PST - 44 comments

Ludacris Barks Back At Pepsi... Papa Roach does pornos, Britney is sluttier than ever, but they get the thumbs up. How did this happen?
posted by filecrave at 8:06 PM PST - 27 comments

Nelson Mandela calls it like he sees it: the United States of America is a threat to world peace... Dick Cheney [and Donald] Rumsfeld...are dinosaurs, who do not want [President Bush] to belong to the modern age. His arguments are well made. But is the power of his historical perspective undermined by his forays into oversimplified racial analysis?
posted by alms at 7:44 PM PST - 56 comments

RIP: Hugo Rodriguez. More tragedy befalls America as groundbreaking web cartoonist Hugo Rodriguez died tragically on Saturday. His son Mookie says he lost his keys in Lake Erie and drowned. Can't America ever get a break? I guess that means my favorite weblog is over. Hugo was a true Patriot - always representing for the Canton, Ohio crew. At least we'll all have the day off.
posted by clango at 7:32 PM PST - 5 comments

Celestial Atlases are perhaps some of the most beautiful scientific books ever published, capturing the mystery and the grandeur of the heavens, and rife with beautiful and often intimidating interpretations of the constellations. Out Of This World has been my favorite website since the dawning of time, and one I go back to over and over again even though it never changes. The period from 1603 to 1801 produced the most beautiful star maps, and you don't have to know a thing about astronomy to appreciate how heavenly these are.
posted by iconomy at 5:31 PM PST - 9 comments

Florida just might screw it up again, with problems voting state-wide, with concentrations in the southern portion of the state. With the fame of the Reno vote, along with the controversial gay rights issue on the ballot, can they afford to screw this up? And if they do, what next? More lawsuits?
posted by benjh at 4:55 PM PST - 30 comments

Epileptic fined over $5000 for making a funny face during a seizure. (via Fark)
posted by Espoo2 at 4:47 PM PST - 25 comments

While poking around today, I found a link to Treefold, which isn't all that impressive in and of itself. The reason for my interest was that it's the first use I've come across of the Proce55ing language, which is a sort of continuation of John Maeda's teaching language, DBN(Design by Numbers). While still not ready for general release, it's grown a lot since the last time I looked at it.
posted by Su at 3:55 PM PST - 11 comments

Mark Bingham, 9/11 'hero', honoured by San Francisco. "His presumed actions to thwart the terrorists' activities on board flight 93 helped derail the plan to crash that plane into a target in Washington, D.C."
On August. 15, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission voted to name the gym at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center in the city's Castro neighborhood after Bingham, a former nationally ranked rugby player. Mind you, it's a good job he didn't want to serve his country as a lawyer for the US Army, where gay heroes are not allowed - not even in the front line of Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States military.
In the gay community, there is some dissent about the meaning behind a 'gay hero': would you have made assumptions about him, or other 'heroes', had you not known?
posted by dash_slot- at 3:13 PM PST - 36 comments

The word is out! The current chic in geek is clean-cut. So trim those beards (unless, of course, you practice the Muslim faith), drop the microbrews and drugs, and learn how to appreciate wine. Do it for the children, lest the terrorists win.
posted by WolfDaddy at 3:03 PM PST - 51 comments

One Less Tourbus. Singer/songwriters tearing down the Oil Economy one gig at a time. Next time you're at a show and the musicians are all winded and sweaty before they even start, this is why.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 2:04 PM PST - 12 comments

Hong Kong Debt Collection Gets Ugly. "Collectors have been known to throw snakes, or a swarm of grasshoppers into an apartment to hasten debt repayment, or to hang the carcasses of dogs and cats outside." I think I'd prefer being declined for credit, wouldn't you?
posted by Miss Beth at 1:52 PM PST - 3 comments

Snoop Dogg kicks the chronic, gin and juice.

Will sobriety spoil Calvin Broadus?
posted by mikrophon at 1:50 PM PST - 32 comments

Christopher Reeve is gaining ground in his fight against paralysis. I was prepared for the article to be a typical "celebrity's struggle gets public attention" piece, until I read this:

"No one who has suffered an injury as severe as Chris', and failed to have any initial recovery, has regained the amount of motor and sensory function he has."

Hope is coming for many.
posted by o2b at 1:17 PM PST - 25 comments

"Moon opens for business"
The first commercial trip to the moon has been approved by the US government, according to the BBC. TransOrbital, Inc. received approval to launch its TrailBlazer satellite into lunar orbit in June of 2003; the satellite will not touch down, but instead will orbit the moon and "provide stunning, high-definition (HDTV) video and maps of the lunar surface (at 1 meter resolution), as well as new images of earth-rises over lunar craters." [press release] Another company, Lunacorp, is hoping to send its own satellite up soon.
posted by me3dia at 1:04 PM PST - 29 comments

Blog baiting. This content-free Salon article is pointed to by News.com and chances are it will be picked up by tech weblogs within a couple of hours. Notice the presence of popular (in blogland) underdog in the title (Mozilla). The many blog references in the article body, including a gratuitious reference to the arch-tech-weblog that presumes knowledge of said blog's moderation system. The meta implications of web media composing content so that it may be picked up by weblogs are interesting --and yes, the irony of a MeFi FPP is painfully obvious. What next?
posted by costas at 12:55 PM PST - 25 comments

Troubled Bridge over Water You s'pose this is the real reason we're currently on orange?
posted by DenOfSizer at 12:11 PM PST - 27 comments

Kittens + The White Stripes = "Punk Kittens" I know it's not Friday yet, but I thought this was too good to wait.
posted by Reggie452 at 12:09 PM PST - 22 comments

Implications of attacking Iraq A succinct side-by-side Reasons For and Reasons Against. As always, you read. You decide.
posted by Postroad at 11:55 AM PST - 48 comments

A little (much-needed) comic relief:
Man wearing cooler on his head tries to hold up store.
What's your theory as to what the hell he was thinking?
(more inside)
posted by Shane at 11:39 AM PST - 34 comments

Orlando police find crack cocaine on Gov. Bush's daughter Knowing that W struggled as an alcoholic and with cocaine, and seeing his daughters hit the headlines with their excesses, I wondered if there was a genetic pre-disposition toward addiction. Apparently, this theory is not new.
posted by stevis at 11:14 AM PST - 30 comments

Another unfortunate product naming problem (2 links). How would you like your last name to be the same as an upcoming Erectile Dysfunction drug? This family doesn't.
posted by internal at 11:07 AM PST - 15 comments

Volume Three is finally coming out! For those of you unfamiliar with Larry Gonick, here are a few samples of this cartoonist's historical and scientific cartooning. He's done cartoon books on physics, statistics, genetics, the history of the United States, the environment, sex, communication, and, of course, the history of the universe.
posted by interrobang at 11:00 AM PST - 7 comments

The Shot Chord Heard Round the World! On the morning of Nine Eleven 2002 at 8:46am, over 160 choirs across the world will sing Mozart's "Requiem" to metaphorically stand in for the thousands of voices silenced a year ago. Among all the ideas I've heard to commemorate this occasion, this one seems the most dignified, and least cringeworthy. They mentioned it on NPR's Morning Edition (caution: Real Audio file).
posted by ZachsMind at 10:44 AM PST - 33 comments

Terrorism Status: Orange - High Condition Homeland Security has announced that the Terrorism Advisory Status is moving up to Orange. According to the HSO, Orange alerts mean that we should be "preparing to work at an alternate site or with a dispersed workforce, restricting access to essential personnel only." What is your company's policy for the Orange alert? Will you be working from home tomorrow? Better compose that email to HR now...
posted by DragonBoy at 10:34 AM PST - 45 comments

Its the end of Online anonimity as we know it. Intel announces that its next generation of CPUs will have Digital Rights Management hardwired onboard the chip. See also Microsoft's Palladium, an OS-level identity and rights management scheme. (is this Wintel's idea of how to jump start anemic computer sales?)
posted by BentPenguin at 10:15 AM PST - 28 comments

archive.org recently launched films, audio, software, and text in addition to the wayback machine. The comic goldmine and best find of the new archive has to be the public domain sex ed films from the 1950s, part of the Prelinger Archives.
posted by mathowie at 10:09 AM PST - 10 comments

If you have dignity, the terrorists have already won Ted Rall writes about the cheesification of 9/11.
posted by hmgovt at 10:02 AM PST - 40 comments

The High Line is a strip of elevated railroad on Manhattan's West Side, it runs from 34th Street and 12th Avenue to Gansevoort Street in the meatpacking district. It is a treasure now mostly because it's the structure that time forgot. Who'd thought? Discover what could become NYC's highest park.
posted by sierray at 9:46 AM PST - 17 comments

Surprise! The Pentagon's internal problems are worse than we thought... And in other news, we still find ourselves fit to order the rest of the world around. That the Pentagon's internal management is a shambles is an understatement. Frank Spinney's testimony in June of this year demonstrates not only the complete failure of the Pentagon to manage itself, but also how the political system acts as a dangerous reinforcement, and vice versa. More important for the soldiers in the field, he also demonstrates how/why some of the tools being used are wholly inadequate and inappropriate. On a related note, does anyone else find it strange that our military planners feel a $350 billion/year budget is not sufficient to handle two "medieval countries" (Afghanistan/Iraq) simultaneously? Makes me glad we never had to take on the Soviets full bore...
posted by tgrundke at 9:41 AM PST - 10 comments

9/11: The Musical will feature the "searing guitar licks of Austrian rock band Slash." Something bad wrong here.
posted by fred_ashmore at 9:36 AM PST - 4 comments

"All this costs money. It costs more than we have." One year ago today, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned of a "subtle and implacable" adversary whose "brutal consistency...stifles free thought...and places the lives of men and women in uniform at risk." It wasn't freedom's obvious foes; he was referring to waste in the Pentagon. The DOD uses so many different financial systems and interfaces it won't have auditable books for another five to 10 years. It still manually enters purchases made with electronic purchase cards. It fires whistleblowers who call attention to shady missile defense deals. And every year, it completely loses track of a quarter of the world's biggest military budget.
posted by mediareport at 9:06 AM PST - 7 comments

He came, he swam, he conquered. The swimmer Martin Strel braved whirlpools, snakes, gators and tankers to become the first person to swim the length of the Mississippi River in a single attempt. He swam for 68 days before reaching the Gulf of Mexico, drinking a bottle of wine/day and losing nearly 40 lbs in the process. Crazy? Heroic? You decide.
posted by Ljubljana at 8:20 AM PST - 17 comments

Moses Fleetwood Walker. The first African-American to play in the Major Leagues preceded Jackie Robinson by 64 years.
posted by putzface_dickman at 8:07 AM PST - 7 comments

Ari Fleischer: God, Genius, Liar, or Rapper! You decide.
posted by geronimo_rex at 8:02 AM PST - 11 comments

A resistance to the disease of thought.
"On historic day, U.S. turns away from eloquence."
-- Lewis H. Lapham
"The boundaries of my language are the boundaries of my world."
-- Ludwig Wittgenstein
Submitted without color commentary (even though I do have an opinion.)
posted by nofundy at 7:14 AM PST - 33 comments

U.S. Stops Iraq-Al Qaeda Talk From the Washington Post. Beyond the superficial significance of administration back-tracking, in regards to intelligence there seems to be two key aspects to this story: 1) The article talks about how the CIA was unable to "validate two prominent allegations made by high-ranking administration officials," implying that Bush/Cheney/etc. have been making baseless assumptions about Iraq in their pro-war arguments, and 2) it brings into question whether we know anything at all about Iraq, anyway. What if the same can be said of Hussein's nuclear plans?
posted by risenc at 7:09 AM PST - 27 comments

Server suicide: A group of british artists have set up a webserver that also controls a crusher. The thing is, the webserver is inside the crusher and will crush itself on Thursday at 20:00 GMT. (via found)
posted by edsousa at 6:41 AM PST - 29 comments

A Day in Radio. "On September 21, 1939, WJSV, an AM radio station in Washington, D.C., recorded the entire 19 hours of its broadcast day... Along with the news coverage, the station ran the standard stream of music, soap operas, sports, and other programming." Looks like you can listen to pretty much the entire's day's broadcasts.
posted by Tin Man at 6:39 AM PST - 15 comments