MetaFilter

Spaced Penguin! Looking for something fun and distracting? This rivals Electrotank's Minigolf on the cute and addictive scales.
posted by JParker at 11:21 PM PST - 19 comments

Extraordinary violinist Isaac Stern dead at age 81 An abridged biography can be found here. As a casual listener, I mourn his death and hope that the gap this has left in music education can be filled.
posted by ttrendel at 9:48 PM PST - 2 comments

Human flag. 72,000 San Diegans came out this past weekend to make a human stars and stripes. Apparently the FAA wouldn't give clearance for a helicopter to take aerial photos. How ironic.
posted by afx114 at 9:27 PM PST - 8 comments

smooth motion graphics featuring 4-D sweater porn. definately check out exp untitled: infinity under "work." more here.
posted by kliuless at 7:51 PM PST - 17 comments

Bid Now! Six more days left if you're looking for someone to beat the living crap out of you. C'mon. You know you want to.
posted by jcterminal at 7:39 PM PST - 11 comments

The Angry Flag Vendor. From Jeffrey Zeldman's glamorous life. The latest entry makes for a very interesting read.
posted by arrowhead at 6:20 PM PST - 36 comments

What did we know? And what are we doing now? The best background summary I've yet seen, and the concrete info on the difficulties the intelligence agencies are facing is sobering.
posted by rushmc at 4:20 PM PST - 3 comments

You wanna fight? One title, many songs. Pick one. An open invitation songfight. (more...)
posted by smt at 2:53 PM PST - 2 comments

Military Codename Generator After Essential Harvest and Infinite Justice the pentagon will need some more names for sure. Here's a little helper.
posted by ronsens at 2:30 PM PST - 15 comments

Fark.Ru has officially begun operations.
posted by HoldenCaulfield at 2:29 PM PST - 18 comments

Ebert's movie answer man features this pretty sharp and dead-on letter from Derek Muller from Royal Oak, Michigan: "Here's an idea for a movie to be made in the year 2060: An epic about the attacks against the Twin Towers. Only let the three-hour film focus mainly on a love triangle stemming from a pair of friends as stock traders in New York and a young receptionist. When one of them is on a plane from Boston to L.A. and another is busy with a client in the Twin Towers, the men are suddenly thrust in the middle of a terrible plot where there is chaos and tragedy, but we completely disregard the 5,000 citizens dead and instead concern ourselves with the love lives of three whining yuppies. Or, we could just look at ''Pearl Harbor'' and think about how horrible it is to trivialize such a tragedy on the screen."
posted by adrober at 1:36 PM PST - 15 comments

"How to deal with an Islamic fundamentalist uprising" by Hafez Al-Assad. Mr. Assad, the late President of Syria, was a Muslim himself. In his rule, he had to deal with some bombwielders who even tried to assasinate him. Certainly his experience in these matters bears scrutiny. What lessons can we learn? P.S. Syria doesn't like our foreign policy either.
posted by quercus at 11:41 AM PST - 4 comments

Coltrane at 75: the Man and the Myths. The evolution of the view of John Coltrane as a spiritual figure. Is this a process that happens to any great musician dying at the height of their powers? (NYT link, registration required, blah, blah) Link via the AJList.
posted by pascal at 11:07 AM PST - 4 comments

"What has America done wrong? In the days since September 11, its president and people have done nothing but demonstrate dignity and restraint. Bush will lash out, the chatterers said. But he hasn't yet. Bush is a bumbling hick, they sneered. But he isn't."
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:02 AM PST - 35 comments

Blacklist! Bush is expected to issue an executive order labeling certain people as "terrorists", which will lock up their assets and generally make life miserable. Who needs checks and balances or due process?
posted by jgilliam at 10:48 AM PST - 21 comments

What is the status of Civics subjects in schools these days? I found this rather old data on the ACLU website, but I'm having trouble finding out the current status of what I call "national pride" activities in schools these days. When I was a kid in the 70's, we always said the Pledge of Allegience every morning as well as had a prayer. I remember when the prayer was turned into a "moment of silence" (early 80's?) but I don't remember when/if the Pledge was discontinued due to ACLU activities like the one above. I've not thought much about this until now, but realizing that many, many kids don't know the Pledge or our anthem disturbs me greatly.
Could anyone enlighten me, please?
posted by misangela at 10:45 AM PST - 33 comments

Used (unwashed) lingerie auction, proceeds to the Red Cross! Come on, now; let's get some bidding going here! (I want the Martian Dildo or the stars-and-stripes thong bikini! [No, I ain't gonna model it for you.])
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:50 AM PST - 13 comments

Sketchy reports that British special forces are already on the ground (and possibly shooting) in Afghanistan.
posted by Mid at 9:44 AM PST - 18 comments

I know it's early for the story of the Grinch, but I thought everyone should re-read it. It is a wonderful diversion from and a good fable about the 9/11 attacks. Granted, he won't be carving our roast beast, but in some pithy, corny way, Bin Laden may realize that our spirit -- our livelihood "doesn't come from a store."
posted by edwardko at 9:19 AM PST - 11 comments

From many voices, onevapproach via NY Times (reg req'd). Facts now coming out indcate that there are many cells, worldwide, that have been set in place over the years and are (or were) to be activated in a continupous terror assault. What our leaders are saying, then, about the length of time requried may in fact be in recognition of the huge job ahead in rooting these cells out.
posted by Postroad at 7:19 AM PST - 5 comments

The Volvo Ocean Race, formerly known as Whitbread Round the World, starts today. After years of preparation for the crews, boat builders and designers, 1500 BST this afternoon will see the eight participating boats cross the Cowes start line on the first leg to Cape Town. The website is more advanced than ever, with virtual racing available, as well as WAP/SMS services and brand new virtual spectator software. Will you be following the teams as they sail round the world, or is sailing simply no spectator sport?
posted by dagny at 6:27 AM PST - 3 comments

A survey of the political climate surrounding President Clinton's strike against bin Laden. Warning: ancient history (1998). Was he really "wagging the dog", or did he have a valid objective after all?
posted by Jack Torrance at 2:48 AM PST - 6 comments

Is Terrorists For Nukes the 2001 version of Arms For Hostages? President Bush has lifted the sanctions on India and Pakistan imposed by the U.S. in 1998 to protest their "tit-for-tat" nuclear tests. In a memorandum just released by the White House, he states that keeping those sanctions in place "would not be in the national security interests of the United States". Is this an acceptable exchange? Just how far should the U.S. go in appeasing Pakistan, not to mention further fuelling its already explosive confrontation with India?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:57 AM PST - 8 comments

Huh? This article swings from sort of equating the WTC attack with AIDS, to something about fundamentalism in music composition. I think. This is NOT for WTC discussion. Rather, I'm curious what people think of the analogy and whether you even follow his argument and/or think it's appropriate.
posted by Su at 12:51 AM PST - 7 comments