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The Nobel Prize for Literature will be announced on Thursday. Two candidates with buzz this year are Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said, better known as Adonis, and New Zealand novelist-memoirist Janet Frame. Other candidates frequently mentioned include JM Coetzee, Philip Roth, Inger Christensen, Tomas Transtroemer, Margaret Atwood and Carlos Fuentes.
posted by Daze at 11:14 PM PST - 20 comments

The Shark That Won't Be Caged: everyone knows the Carcharodon carcharias--usually by its popularized name The Great White Shark--but not many people have ever seen one, due to the fact that one has never survived for any significant length of time in captivity. Until recently, it was thought that the shark's sensitivity to electrical fields was the culprit, but an aquarium in Monterey Bay is out to prove that theory wrong (additional stories on attempt:1, 2). A previous, accidental capture of a Great White in a tuna net off the coast of South Australia suggests that it could be possible if the stress level can be kept low enough.
posted by The God Complex at 9:31 PM PST - 14 comments

"Going Wild in Urban America - To be an individual hunter-gatherer in America is to lead a lonely life." Southern Californian hippy college student alienates friends, gains weight by subsisting on stolen figs (more inside).
posted by troutfishing at 8:59 PM PST - 14 comments

David Brooks nicely summarizes the current state of politics. I appreciate this article. It is simple, easy to read, and represents what I've been feeling for quite some time now. (NY Times)
posted by BlueTrain at 8:09 PM PST - 45 comments

The largest collection of mugshots on the Internet. From famous celebrities to old gangsters.
posted by crunchland at 8:00 PM PST - 4 comments

Journalists say off the record "it was Karl Rove that I spoke to..." (RealPlayer)
Julian Borger of the Guardian reveals that several journalists have revealed "off the record" that Karl Rove revealed the identity of the CIA operative, but that the reporters aren't publicly admitting it, in order to protect their source. But aren't they also material witnesses to a federal crime? Does not revealing their source make them accessories to that crime?
posted by insomnia_lj at 7:49 PM PST - 51 comments

Spam: This Time It's Personal. Andy Markley was really looking forward to a work-free Labor Day weekend far away from his computer. But he made the mistake of checking his inbox before he left for his planned holiday.
posted by lola at 5:24 PM PST - 32 comments

Money Saving Expert is a site for UKians, to play the credit card game and win, save tax, understand consumer rights, and generally be more savvy in all things fiscal.
posted by Blue Stone at 5:19 PM PST - 2 comments

Vaseline Glass is a particular color of yellow-green glass that is made by adding 2% Uranium Dioxide to the ingredients when the glass formula is made. The addition of the Uranium Dioxide makes the glass color yellow-green. A 'magnificent obsession' site crammed with images and information on art glass, novelties, collector themes, and manufacturers.
posted by quonsar at 4:49 PM PST - 11 comments

'24'. Violent content. Complaint not upheld. The British Standards Council (BSC) publish their findings on a regular basis, as they explain which complaints by members of the public regarding the 'offensive' content of some programmes on TV and radio have been upheld or not. This is fascinating for two reasons -- we get to see what people actually moan about and also how the various stations have to justify their output -- some seem more successful at it than others... [pdf format file via Whedonesque]
posted by feelinglistless at 3:38 PM PST - 11 comments

The Texas Transportation Institute released their latest figures on which cities are the most congested, and how many hours per year the average person spends in traffic. Or you can read The Big Picture. I find it amazing that New York City isn't in the top 25 cities. The reason being is that New York City has an excellent public transportation network. Even some Politians are realizing that public transportation is a better bang for the buck.
posted by LinemanBear at 2:36 PM PST - 21 comments

Build your own Howard Dean website! The Dean campaign has released web site "kits" under the GNU GPL and based on the Drupal codebase, which allow web-based communities to quickly and easily build their own sites to support Dean's campaign. Last night, he held a conference call with over 3,500 "house parties" and individuals to spread the word. If Dean gets the nomination, he'll have technology to thank for it. (yeah, via slashdot.)
posted by jpoulos at 1:32 PM PST - 28 comments

A Pretty URL Is Like A Melody: By a waterfall, I'm calling Who's Who In Musicals, diligently compiled by John Kenrick, a wonderful little resource.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:50 AM PST - 6 comments

This new film [25MB, QuickTime] documents the 3rd annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel race, in which a bunch of crazed fools raced headlong down San Francisco's Lombard Street (aka: the crookedest street in the world) on Big Wheels. Good drunk fun! Here are some pics for the bandwidth-challenged.
posted by scarabic at 11:12 AM PST - 22 comments

Madonna's being sued for stealing images from Guy Boudin's photography and using them in her Hollywood video. Here are side by sides. When does imitation/homage become theft? And who gets to decide? Should she have been sued for using this image in her vogue video?
posted by archimago at 9:14 AM PST - 86 comments

Campaign populism, Bush style As democrats raise money online and galvanize grass-roots support, the Bush campaign is becoming responsive to regular people as well. Perhaps you have been wondering about some of the protocol for everyday folks like yourself to show your support for the President. [more inside]
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 9:06 AM PST - 22 comments

Little Joe waited at the bus stop before continuing his bid to escape the authorities. The 300-pound gorilla had just broken out of his Franklin Park Zoo enclosure for the second time in two months, overcoming a newly-installed electric fence, injuring two people and terrifying others. The gorilla was hit with four tranquilizer darts but had managed to pull at least one of them out. Little Joe's namesake reminds us that we've known for at least 70 years that big apes in the middle of cities can cause major problems. Why are they still there?
posted by soyjoy at 8:37 AM PST - 32 comments

Anti-sanctions group sanctioned. Anti Iraq-sanctions group Voices in the Wilderness is being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for bringing relief supplies to Iraq before the war. ViTW has issued an initial response and filed an answer and counterclaim. Does the DoJ have a leg to stand on? What moral and legal obligations do we have to refrain from giving aid and comfort to "enemy" civilians? How about if they live in sunny Cuba?
posted by stonerose at 7:25 AM PST - 19 comments

The Subpoenas are Coming! The FBI, in an attempt to prosecute Adrian Lamo (discussed here) is sending letters to journalists telling them to secretly prepare to turn over their notes, e-mails and sources to the bureau. And by secretly, they mean don't tell your colleagues, editors or lawyers, or risk facing obstruction of justice charges. (Via dailyrotten)
posted by Officeslacker at 6:25 AM PST - 11 comments

Boston Herald sports reporter outs himself in print and asks why people in the world of sports still have to hide. Frankly, I'm out because I can't come up with a single logical reason why I should have denied myself the right to live and work as openly and freely as everyone else. Nor should anyone find a reason why an openly gay athlete should be denied the right to play a team sport without fear of becoming a target of prejudice or physical harm. See Outsports for more info on the subject, and an interesting pro and con on whether gay baseball players should come out.
posted by amberglow at 6:23 AM PST - 59 comments

British bachelors beware. Rachel Greenwald knows how to find a husband using the techniques of Harvard Business School, and she's bringing her methods to the UK. But it's not easy: she advocates careful 'packaging', putting 10 to 20% of total income into a separate 'find a husband' bank account, cancelling newspaper subscriptions so they can be read in public and getting a third party to contact unsuccessful dates for feedback. There's one change for the UK though: here it's aimed at over-30s instead of the over-35s. I always thought "the Rules" were too spontaneous.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:48 AM PST - 40 comments