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Only in America can a sitcom about prisoners in a German POW camp can become a cult favorite even 35 years after it debuted

That's right, it's Hogan's Heroes. It's still lingering on the web, either in the form of bands, bobble head dolls, people trying to sell Klink uniforms and of course, creepy fan fiction

In our P.C. society, could America accept a show with such a weird almost-offensive story like Hogan's Heroes, or would it be run off the air in weeks?
posted by RobbieFal at 10:46 PM PST - 25 comments

Well, I know somebody out there in Mefi land will find some use for fifty years of underwear advertising and packaging... I know I did.
posted by Newbornstranger at 10:02 PM PST - 6 comments

Preventing Piracy With Krazy Glue. (NY Times) Man...what will they think of next?
posted by stew560 at 8:13 PM PST - 23 comments

Looks like Boeing finally decided to exploit the wing-in-ground effect. Did they get inspired by the most famous ekranoplan ever, the Caspian Sea Monster?
posted by titboy at 7:40 PM PST - 22 comments

Radioactive Recycling. "If the Department of Energy has its way, the nation's nuclear garbage could end up in everyday items like bicycles, frying pans, and baby strollers." The East Tennessee Technology Park, was once known as "the K-25 site. Its mission: to produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons." Now, efforts are being made to recycle some of the irradiated scrap metal into unlabeled household objects. On the plus side, any radioactive metal that finds its way into your kitchenware won't be headed for Yucca Mountain.
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:15 PM PST - 12 comments

It's 25 Years Ago Today Since Maria Callas Died. There's a badly designed but well-intentioned and informative Italian website to commemorate the anniversary and there's the film Callas Forever, directed by one of her best friends (and the director of many of her most memorable operas, Franco Zefirelli. It premiered today. Mozart's Requiem was also played at the concert held in her honour tonight in Athens. I can't help thinking, though, that the Web is sorely lacking in resources about one of the greatest, most goosebump-provoking singers who ever lived. In fact, classical singers and classical music in general seem very (increasingly) badly served. Even the glorious Andante magazine, which I recently linked to, looks like it's disappeared...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:54 PM PST - 21 comments

Iraq accepts weapons inspectors unconditionally, think vice president cheney is ready to start thinking about a peaceful settlement to the stand-off?
posted by specialk420 at 4:28 PM PST - 91 comments

Robots vs. bunnies! Dust bunnies, that is. Roboticist Rodney Brooks, who you should know because you should have seen Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, co-founded iRobot, which is releasing its first consumer model this week: Roomba, the vacuuming robot. Even once you've seen it in action (which, of course, I haven't), it's probably not going to convince that the future has arrived or get you thinking about the moral rights of robots, but every consumer tech movement has its watershed, and maybe this will turn out to have been a Big Step for getting robots in our daily lives. The author notes that iRobot "hopes that one day Roomba will do for vacuuming what dishwashers did for dishwashing."
posted by blueshammer at 2:10 PM PST - 18 comments

Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MRE)
Developed by the Wornick Corporation together with the DoD Combat Feeding Program, it has been a mainstay of the US Army since it replaced C-Rations in the 1980s. In recent years, the menu has been evolving. (whither Omelet w/ Ham?) Still interested? Read the taste tests and shop for MREs. Also check out the other products coming soon to a battlefield near you (hmmm... Shelf Stable Pocket Sandwiches)
posted by patrickje at 1:47 PM PST - 38 comments

What are the ethics of forwarding an e-mail you were not mean to receive? What if it is sure to humiliate the sender? What if it ends up entertaining untold numbers of people around the globe?
posted by davidfg at 1:08 PM PST - 35 comments

The lost Egyptian city of DeMille In 1923, Cecil B. DeMille built an Egyptian city in the dunes of the Guadalupe Desert north of Los Angeles as the set for "The Ten Commandments," the first true Hollywood epic. Cost over-runs on the filming left too little money for a complete dismantling of the set, so DeMille had it buried instead. In recent years the set has been partially uncovered by Pacific winds, revealing the remains of three-story-tall plaster sphinxes and other artifacts, and leading to a campaign to excavate and preserve this important piece of film history.
posted by me3dia at 1:03 PM PST - 15 comments

GAO to USDA: Put your money where your mouth is! Despite advising Americans to eat "Five a Day" of fruits & vegetables, the USDA still spends a disproportionate amount of your tax dollars propping up meat production & consumption. In the wake of the enormous ConAgra beef recall (after the USDA waited two months upon finding E.Coli), lawmakers and newspapers are now openly questioning the links between the USDA and the meat industry. I think the question's already been answered definitively - a federal judge found a clear conflict of interest in the dietary guidelines panel - but are there alternate explanations?
posted by soyjoy at 1:01 PM PST - 10 comments

The United States has invited you to "War on Iraq"
posted by mathowie at 12:13 PM PST - 38 comments

The Bolan Tree.
Today is the 25th Anniversary of the accident in which folk-singer turned glam pioneer Marc Bolan died. The tree his car hit - driven by his partner, soul singer/producer Grace Jones - has been purchased by a fan group [T-Rex Action Group], who have also contributed a bust sculpted by Canadian Jean Robillard (with Quebec Government Cultural Attaché to Great Britain attending the unveiling today).
You may not think you know his music, but if you've seen Velvet Goldmine or Billy Elliot, watched the NBA Playoffs on TNT [using 'Get It On/Bang A Gong'], or ever wondered where the ubiquitous '20th Century Boy' [with the definitive power chord + squeal opening burst] comes from, now you know.
Marc inspired devotion in his fans, and respect from the likes of Bowie, the Damned and Billy Idol in his own lifetime - and influenced musicmakers like The Strokes & The Red Hot Chili Peppers [according to this article in The Philidelphia Enquirer].
Dandy's in the Underworld, indeed.
posted by dash_slot- at 11:59 AM PST - 34 comments

Recombinant music has been around since the 19th century and now there is an amazing online tool for fans of both the samplers and the sampled.
posted by cadastral at 11:46 AM PST - 10 comments

Killer Carp Must Die! Biological control of invasive species is one solution, but I prefer to support small business. Forget about avoiding perverse incentives, just consider the aesthetic merits of hats over haemorrhages. Of course even the commercial solution can be ugly.
posted by stinglessbee at 11:14 AM PST - 4 comments

Mr. Blonde, Mr. Pink, Mr. White, Mr. Brown, Mr. Orange, Mr. Brinjal.
posted by donkeysuck at 10:48 AM PST - 17 comments

God Save the Subjunctive. Because if he doesn't, who will? And there's more, oh so much more, to this intricate thing we call language. What does it mean?, where did it come from? And how would ancient Babylonians write your name, anyway?
posted by headspace at 9:50 AM PST - 26 comments

The Cat Mantis No more cat hips thrust in your face! No more selfish pussy aggravation!
posted by ginz at 9:36 AM PST - 12 comments

Sweden bucks the trend. In a heated election yesterday, Swedish voters ended the European left's losing streak. Despite having the highest taxes in the industrialized world, Swedish voters rebuffed the tax-cutting, center-right parties that proved so successful in Denmark, Austria, Italy, Portugal, France and Holland. With Germany's Socialists suddenly ahead in the polls, and the implosion of Austria's far-right Freedom Party, is the center-right revolution in Europe out of gas?
posted by Ljubljana at 9:02 AM PST - 23 comments

Where did you sleep last night? Was it in a cave? A lighthouse, or a treehouse? Maybe it was in a teepee, a castle, or a vintage trailer. Perhaps you even slept underwater. What's the most interesting place you've ever paid to lay your head?
posted by gottabefunky at 9:00 AM PST - 28 comments

Religious Fundamentalism: 1, Science: 0. In a stunning knock-out blow to rational thought, the United States tells Darwin, "Not so fast, bud. We better check with God before naming you the head honcho of evolution." Read the article carefully-on first read the new law sounds benign enough. Legislators claim the law will only require that the "debate" between creationism-evolution be discussed. Sounds simple, right? Think again. Once again, the Ohio mentality begs me to flee this state...
posted by tgrundke at 8:38 AM PST - 100 comments

Baseball's Sad Lexicon. Messrs. Tinker, Evers and Chance first appeared in a box score 100 years ago today. (LA Times, &c.)
posted by xowie at 8:23 AM PST - 3 comments

Few Advertisers Use Pop-Ups (or do they?) "Though they seem to be everywhere on the Internet, pop-up advertisements are used by less than 10 percent of all companies that advertise online, according to a report from Nielsen//NetRatings." Do you buy this? Is this industry propaganda or a true description of what is out there? The sites I visit regularly all seem to have pop-ups (e.g. nytimes, espn, slate, theatlantic.com). For the last 1 month or so, ESPN seems to launch two pop-ups when I first visit them, in fact. What has your experience been?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy at 8:19 AM PST - 28 comments

"I can sympathize with you, but I can never feel your pain," as stated by a Turkish taxidermist in the film Taste of Cherry, by Abbas Kiarosatami, Persian director of great works of cinema. This film's poetic, universal message can apply to anyone who is trying to come to terms with loss, especially a year after that day. more inside
posted by insomnyuk at 4:38 AM PST - 12 comments

Need a user's manual for your DNA? Sure that there's some bug in there you could fix if you knew how to? Here are the tools you'll need. I know the web isn't relly about one-to-many publishing, but just sometimes it does it wonderfully well.
posted by alloneword at 4:35 AM PST - 3 comments

AES may have been broken. The new standard in crypto, AES, and other algorithms, appear to be vulnerable to xsl. This is not a practical attack, yet, but if you're interested in crypto it's fascinating (and shocking) news.
posted by andrew cooke at 4:06 AM PST - 7 comments