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The "merger" of the Egyptian Zawahiri's Islamic Jihad and the Saudi Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda in 2001, based on the foundation of Qutb's book "Milestones", provide outlet for those who have no other way of expressing their objections to the authoritarian regimes of the countries they live in, and the reach of American power in the Middle East.
posted by semmi at 9:44 PM PST - 19 comments

Mars Austrailia creates fake band and single to advertise Starbursts. It is the latest marketing idea: create a fictitious group named after your brand and release a cheesy song that gets radio airplay and is sold as a music single to teenagers. The song is Get Your Juices Going, by fictional pop group Starburst. It has secured high-rotation airplay on radio station Nova 96.9 and has had its promotional video featured on Video Hits. The song's lyrics were written by copywriters and the video, in which the group's identity is hidden, was created by television commercial producers. Not once, however, is the pop group linked to Mars.
posted by ncurley at 3:27 PM PST - 67 comments

Your guide to recent corporate scandals. An excellent visual description of recent corporate scandals and all the connections between the different firms and people involved. There is a small pop-up thingie that comes up if you drag your mouse on any box (the techies will know the more precise term for it).
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy at 3:22 PM PST - 11 comments

The following sing I a book. a book of art. of mind art as that which he hid reveal I. Tom Phillips made his first Humument pages in 1966 and continues to make them. He drew new meanings out of a forgotten Victorian novel - A Human Document by W.H. Mallock - by painting over or otherwise obscuring most of the words on the page, leaving pithy fragments. The result is wonderfully allusive, poetic and occasionally wise as well as beautiful to look at. He's used it to comment on Dante's Inferno and Joyce's Ullysses, made a sort of opera out of it, and it's dead postmodern to boot.
posted by Grangousier at 3:00 PM PST - 11 comments

Whoa! It seems so obvious now! This is the ultimate "kill two birds with one stone"...
posted by GernBlandston at 2:20 PM PST - 28 comments

River found under Sahara Russian satellites have discovered a river flowing 700 feet under the Sahara. It carries enough water to supply 50,000 people and is said to surge with "colossal power". ---the thing that interests me most about this is the economic impact that this will have on the area. seeing as how wars are being fought over water supplies in the area, what do you see as the most likely result of this discovery??
posted by daHIFI at 1:48 PM PST - 24 comments

Enron 'Crooked E' For Sale "The ultimate symbol of the bankrupt power trader -- one of the ubiquitous chrome signs dubbed "the Crooked E" for its distinctive slant and commentary on the company's questionable dealings -- is on the auction block." The sign is only one of thousands of items up for sale September 25th and 26th, at the Houston Radisson Astrodome hotel.
posted by gummi at 1:41 PM PST - 7 comments

An unfinished work representing a centuries-old mystery and containing an encrypted signature, Pythagorean philosophy and celestial numbers... Could it be the new Neal Stephenson novel? Actually, it's Johann Sebastian Bach's "Art of Fugue", believed by some to have been conceived as "absolute music" never intended to be played at all. Artist Elizabeth Harington has created a lovely and loving visual interpretation of the work in the form of 14 folded sculptures (nicely presented by Colophon).
posted by taz at 1:11 PM PST - 12 comments

Hearings for court nominees restored. "It was not until the Democrats regained control of the Senate last summer and Leahy assumed the chair that hearings and confirmations resumed. As of this writing, the Democratic-led Senate Committee had held hearings on 82 Bush nominees, approving 80 of them -- including 16 women. The full Senate had already confirmed 73. This is normal -- traditional. It was not that way from 1994 to 2001."

It's enough to make a Shrub hugger angry, isn't it?
posted by nofundy at 12:06 PM PST - 41 comments

If you find the events of the Lindbergh kidnapping too convoluted and confusing (since Bruno Hauptmann may have been innocent), clear up the mystery by reading this really biased series of contemporary comic strips. And on a semi-related note, did you know that Norman Schwartzkopf's father was the main policeman in the case?
posted by interrobang at 11:42 AM PST - 6 comments

Snoop Dog to appear in Muppets Movie "The two-hour film, which is currently in production in Vancouver, will feature cameo appearances by Oscar winners Sir Michael Caine and William H. Macy, Snoop Dogg, Carson Daly, Jon Stewart, Kelly Ripa and Rachel Hunter, among others."
Unless The Muppets has suddenly become a program for adults, not kids, what a horrible idea. Would Jim Henson approve of this? I know, let's put Eminem on the teletubbies show!
posted by 4midori at 11:35 AM PST - 50 comments

The Antarctic Ozone Hole Predicted to Close by 2050
Australian scientists at CSIRO have confirmed their earlier predictions that the ozone depletion in the Antarctic is slowing, and ozone will steadily increase from 2005 on. The "hole" will close by 2050. "[Paul Fraser, chief of CSIRO, said] 'I think this shows global protocols can work,' ... while acknowledging that 'the economics' of greenhouse gases were far more complex than the CFC issue." (1). An interview with Fraser by ABC is here (2) Some past stories (3, 4).
posted by rschram at 11:19 AM PST - 6 comments

Hispanic Heritage Month began in the U.S. this past Sunday. Food, music, dance, art, language - our lives are richer for the far-reaching cultural contributions of our Hispanic neighbors. Who or what aspects of this varied culture would you join me in toasting this month? Me, I raise my glass to some of the wonderful contemporary artists who keep traditional folk themes alive.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:26 AM PST - 47 comments

Seen any St***n S***rb**gh films lately?

CleanFlicks, a Utah (US) based company, is using digital editing to "clean up" popular films by removing the sex, nudity, profanity and extreme violence (for example, the edited natural born killers runs approx. 2.5 minutes, while the CF version of Resevoir Dogs is titles and credits only). Recently the Colorado licensee of Cleanflicks got wind of a potential lawsuit by the Directors Guild of America. Deciding not to wait for this to even get off the ground, Cleanflicks has decided to sue 16 of the directors that are apparently most offensive to them.
posted by i blame your mother at 8:51 AM PST - 116 comments

Some Good News for a Tuesday Now that a third cabinet official has been held in contempt over the handling of funds owed to Native Americans, is a big check in the mail? Or will the Interior Department claim that they are out of stamps?
posted by tommyspoon at 8:43 AM PST - 25 comments

Take a hint from the MPAA, Ms. Rosen. The IBC met to talk about problems with digital video/movie piracy, and came to the conclusion that they're at fault, not movie pirates. "We have met the enemy, and he is us." They realized if they offered a reliable, affordable online video service... it might actually work! I'd sign up for cheap downloads, and no return hassle. You?
posted by gramcracker at 8:36 AM PST - 11 comments

Shazam! The Media have been talking about it for a while, but this Music Identification Service for British (nyt) mobile phones is finally here. For 50p, you can place your mobile phone next to any machine playing groovy unidentifiable music, and within a minute, it'll text and tell you what's playing. So far, I've worked out that it's great at identifying Sheryl Crow and Bush tracks, but it's not so good at identifying traditional Greek folk music.
posted by seanyboy at 8:31 AM PST - 11 comments

Speed of light broken with basic lab kit. Physicists at Middle Tennessee State University report that they've broken the speed of light using only $500 in off-the-shelf equipment that can be set up in less than an hour. Don't expect warp drives any time soon, but this does open up a cool area of science to the "two guys in a garage" arena. Is there a Jobs & Wozniak out there who will kick start a transportation revolution?
posted by mkultra at 8:15 AM PST - 22 comments

Sen. Paula Hawkins was at one time curious about what kind of toys Frank Zappa's children played with. Now we know: Among Dweezil's collection was a 1963 Fender Stratocaster owned, played, and burnt to a crisp by one Jimi Hendrix. Now, Dweezil is selling the thing, but not to buy a new car or house or something. He's trying to raise funds to refurbish his old man's studio. Zappa once wrote an essay about how to raise fantastic children. It seems from this story that he did exactly that.
posted by NedKoppel at 8:06 AM PST - 12 comments

McDonalds will be a franchise in The Sims Online computer game. Will my Sim character get fat if he eats at a Sim McDonalds? I guess we'll need Sim lawyers to help us out on that one.
posted by Beholder at 7:38 AM PST - 27 comments

"One nationally renowned academic ... was recently called by an administration official to talk about serving on an HHS [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] advisory committee.... To the candidate's surprise, the official asked for the professor's views on embryo cell research, cloning and physician-assisted suicide. After that, the candidate said, the interviewer told the candidate that the position would have to go to someone else because the candidate's views did not match those of the administration."
The overhaul of the U.S. public health advisory committee system begins with politics and ends with canning those who disagree with George W. Bush. The public interest is somehow left out of the process.
posted by PrinceValium at 6:38 AM PST - 21 comments

Nüp2 Incorporated will revolutionize the electronic memory business. Using our patented memory technology and our patent-pending "Topolithographic" manufacturing process, we will develop and produce solid-state electronic memory having gigabytes of storage in a tiny package for just a few dollars per Gigabyte. Hoax? Vaporware? Revolution in data storage? You decide.
posted by RylandDotNet at 6:38 AM PST - 3 comments

Bush is "skeptical" about Iraq's announcement to allow weapons inspectors unconditionally. As the administration prepares for war with Iraq, the rogue state led by everyone's favorite madman agrees to pretty much everything the U.S. has demanded. So, we're not going to invade, right? And the fact that this is an election year has nothing whatsoever to do with any of this, right? And Iraq didn't just agree to this to make the U.S. look stupid, right? Right?
posted by vraxoin at 6:32 AM PST - 42 comments

The Fire Piston was a truly ingenious invention, which makes the modern equivalent look pretty primitive. Thanks Prometheus.
posted by shinythings at 6:27 AM PST - 4 comments

City officials to give away weed. A Santa Cruz councilman wants to show solidarity with those arrested in a recent federal raid on a medicinal growing operation. Apparently "the whole community is up in arms about this." This, being the raid, not the medicinal use of marijuana. Is the general public's attitude finally starting to sway?
posted by FiveFrozenFish at 6:23 AM PST - 20 comments

Beauty queens take a stand against stoning. I guess it's bad luck for Miss World that their contest this year was scheduled to take place in a country increasingly subject to Sharia law. Meanwhile Nigerian Muslim activists decry neckless nudity.
posted by alms at 6:04 AM PST - 6 comments

In August, we had Pyramid Rover. Now we know what's behind that door. Another door.
posted by monkey closet at 3:22 AM PST - 15 comments

There appears to be a three-minute discrepancy between the time that Flight 93's black box stopped recording and the time that it actually crashed. Hmm ... I wonder if ... nah.
posted by textureslut at 2:41 AM PST - 69 comments

From the secret world of the "black budget" comes the story of a man who wants to know the truth about the army's research into anti-gravity technology and zero-point energy ("There's enough energy in your coffee cup to evaporate the world's oceans many times over." ). Is he a lunatic? A "Ufologist"? Nope, he's an award-winning defense and aerospace reporter for Jane's Defence Weekly, the highly respected magazine on international military and policy issues. In fact, he says, the loonies may be right! He thinks there probably are saucerlike flying objects, but they're not alien, they're made in the USA (who got the technology from the Nazi's - who else?). He even goes so far as to suggest that the CIA has a program to discredit people who see UFO's. I like my stories rich, and this one is very rich. (via Atlantic Unbound)
posted by NekulturnY at 1:52 AM PST - 13 comments