MetaFilter

Big Bad Gay Couples are invading!!! Chicken Little! The sky is falling!!! Cafferty highlights the upcoming speech by Bush supporting the Gay Marriage Ban that is trying to be pushed through Congress. I would say this is mundane and irritating except for the responses given at the end. Especially the one about the divorced man. [via crooks and liars]
posted by Doorstop at 11:12 AM - 63 comments

This flash demo for IKEA's kitchen stuff is kinda fun to play with. Takes a bit of time to load, when it does, click the mouse & hold down on the right or left halves of the photo, it's interesting. Note - the flash stuff contains audio, so careful with speaker volume
posted by jonson at 10:15 AM - 31 comments

Vince Welnick, former Grateful Dead keyboardist, dies
posted by pyramid termite at 9:55 AM - 39 comments

Please, do mention the war. Really, it's hard not to. After all, in a sense football is war, as the General famously joked. Sometimes it's peace. Same goes for that other football, by the way.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:36 AM - 11 comments

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child that works hard on the Sabbath Day,
is blithe and bonny, good and gay.
posted by mustcatchmooseandsquirrel at 9:34 AM - 12 comments

Experience the intoxicating sounds of the viola...by Rozanna's Sweet Thunder. Be sure to watch the video clip.
posted by mds35 at 8:48 AM - 18 comments

Newsfilter: Canadian Police (led by the RCMP) have arrested at least 17 people that were plotting to "launch attacks against targets in Southern Ontario", apparently in large part by monitoring Internet co-ordination and communication. This days after the CSIS deputy director warned of "homegrown extremists" plotting "large scale attacks".
posted by loquax at 7:54 AM - 204 comments

The New York office was opened by the founders of the Firm in 1908, the same year women competed in the modern Olympics for the first time. While the Firm moved its headquarters to Los Angeles in 1972, the New York office remains a critical branch of the Firm today, paying tribute to the firm's deeply rooted traditions by undervaluing support staff, requiring formal business attire, and excluding Jews.
posted by grumblebee at 7:02 AM - 19 comments

On Bots - results of a year long experiment on search engine bot behaviour
posted by MetaMonkey at 11:48 PM - 15 comments

There are approximately 77.6 million owned cats in the United States alone. And at least 20 million feral cats. There are many different breeds of cats. A very popular house pet, cats can be quite odd indeed. Cats can be tiny. And cats can be huge. Baby cats are called kittens and are extremely cute. Indoor cats are frequently overfed. But most importantly, cats can be very, very funny.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 5:56 PM - 108 comments

Wen Ho Lee has just won his lawsuit against the federal government and news agencies for violating his privacy rights while under investigation for being a spy. Mr. Lee lost his job, his reputation and racked up huge legal bills as a result of the accusations -- which were later found to be greatly exaggerated. In a case of deja vu, a Chinese scientist at a state lab in Albany, NY recently lost his job (and his wife was placed on leave from her job) after being accused of illegally purchasing weapons -- a charge which was later dismissed. Note that his firing was justified on the pretext of misusing his work computer to visit the ESPN website too often -- a criteria by which a large chunk of the state workforce would be fired. And then there is the ongoing terrorism case against the Albany imam and the pizza shop owner which has had its own evidentiary shortcomings. And to top it all off, the Albany FBI head has just been promoted. Are we feeling any safer yet?
posted by bim at 5:42 PM - 13 comments

Curious GWB lays it down for us, gangsta rap-style. [Yes, it's Youtube]
posted by knave at 4:49 PM - 15 comments

The Swiss are investigating an international smuggling ring suspected of providing nuclear program components to Libya. There's just one problem. Meanwhile, the United States is opening full diplomatic relations with Libya and removing it from its list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
posted by EarBucket at 4:24 PM - 16 comments

O'Reilly insults American victims of a WWII war crime, and Keith Olbermann calls him out. It's been a while since I've seen pure outrage so eloquently expressed. The facts about Malmédy are well known. (WMV and QT video links via Crooks and Liars).
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:14 PM - 66 comments

snake on a plane? (newsfilter-ish)
posted by analogue at 3:54 PM - 22 comments

Newsfilter. Surveillenve of everything you do online: "It was clear that they would go beyond kiddie porn and terrorism and use it for general law enforcement." Offline: "I'm John Doe, and if I had told you before today that the F.B.I. was requesting library records, I could have gone to jail." Previously, here. On your phone? We've already discussed that, too.
posted by |n$eCur3 at 2:59 PM - 36 comments

Cop stops car and sees a gun and home-burned CDs in the car. The CDs made him suspicious so he searched the car for more pirated CDs. Was this a proper search? (pdf version).
posted by exogenous at 2:43 PM - 42 comments

Bulletins (more recent ones are PDF only) from the Cold War International History Project. During the 40-odd years of the Cold War, diplomatic historians in the West only had access to documents--papers, memos, cables, and so on--from one side of the conflict. Since the end of the Cold War, the Cold War International History Project has been going through diplomatic archives from the Soviet Union, China, and other countries, translating documents and illuminating the other sides of the conflict. Examples: discussions between Stalin and Kim Il Sung prior to the Korean War. Chinese documents from 1964-1965 on the Vietnam War. Letter to Brezhnev from Czech hardliners requesting Soviet intervention in 1968.
posted by russilwvong at 2:06 PM - 14 comments

I guess there is a lesson here for us all. From Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics, OhNoRobot, and RSSPECT fame comes a new project, based on one of his comics: the amazing Regret Index.
posted by revfitz at 2:01 PM - 9 comments

IGN relaunches IGN Dreamcast, and plans to re-review every Dreamcast game ever released. Why?
posted by reklaw at 1:54 PM - 37 comments

Murders this week: 4; Murders this year: 105 The Baltimore City Paper tracks murders in Charm City week to week. (Check the archive on the right of the page for previous weeks.) Of course, in a city where the most popular underground video is called "Stop Fucking Snitching, Vol. 1," the murder rate can be tough to control.
posted by OmieWise at 12:52 PM - 75 comments

Thom Yorke's solo project "The Eraser." Listen to three tracks, hear from Stanley Donwood on the artwork, read the Rolling Stone interview, check out the early reviews.
posted by JPowers at 12:08 PM - 74 comments

With all the public smoking bans coming in effect over the past few years, the anti-tobacco movement seems en route to achieve its favored objective: prohibition. Michael Siegel keeps a careful eye on them at The Rest of the Story.
posted by daksya at 11:47 AM - 238 comments

Tour America’s Toxic Towns. First off is Times Beach, MO. Uncle Sam bought the town for $32 million, disincorporated it, and evacuated its 2000 residents to spare them from levels of dioxin that were possibly 2,000 times higher than the dioxin content in Agent Orange. Next up is Centralia, PA, completely evacuated due to an underground coal fire that is still burning and may burn for the next 100 years. More recently, American Electric Power purchased Cheshire, OH for $20 million. The town, which was plagued by sulfurous clouds, is now completely deserted. And who can forget the granddaddy of toxic towns, Love Canal.
posted by Otis at 11:38 AM - 24 comments

Manhattan Goes Travelling
posted by Tlogmer at 11:21 AM - 22 comments

The Tuna Court: Law and Norms in the World's Premier Fish Market. [more inside]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:53 AM - 20 comments

Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About.
posted by ND¢ at 10:21 AM - 28 comments

"For half a nanosecond I was tempted to join in the discussion. And then I remembered that all internet debates, without exception, are entirely futile. So I didn't." - Charlie Brooker on Internet discussions.
posted by Artw at 9:56 AM - 65 comments

Word. Eighth-grader Katharine Close has finally won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on her fifth attempt. She beat out 274 other competitors and won with the word ursprache, sounding it out live on national television. If spelling out rarely used historical-linguistic jargon seems tough, try weltschmerz on for size. That's the word runner-up Finola Mei Hwa Hackett stumbled on. While your at it, why not take a look at the entire word list and see how many you can get, or even just recognize. Prior escapades in spelling documented here, here [YouTube], and if you want to head out to theaters, here.
posted by dead_ at 8:46 AM - 98 comments

"Eternal Sunset continuously tunes into different webcams, chasing the sunset around the globe [...] complementing the increased efficiency and productivity associated with the internet." [via WMMNA]
posted by freebird at 8:35 AM - 16 comments

Seamless images. Two distinct images in one transitioning without a definite border. [via MoFi]
posted by Mitheral at 8:04 AM - 27 comments

The Washington Post gives away books. At least, the first chapters. Tucked away in the Arts and Living section of their site is Chapter One, a registration-free page that links to reviews and opening chapters of new releases. Of course, there are always other options if you're looking for a digital literature fix.
posted by verb at 7:26 AM - 12 comments

At long last, the perfect cat toy (link goes to embedded video) has been discovered. Warning: it's kind of expensive.
posted by jonson at 7:14 AM - 20 comments

Refi: Metafilter in Review [via mefi projects]
posted by wheelieman at 7:06 AM - 43 comments

3D Logic Connect the colors on the cube
posted by Bezbozhnik at 6:57 AM - 37 comments

David Lucas will be forced next month to quit manufacturing gallows. He's a farmer in the UK and sells his single gallows for $22,000 USD, which isn't bad for a little side business. He also has a multiple apparatus that goes for $185,000 USD. His customers include Zimbabwe and Libya. Other death manufacturers include Abbott Pharmaceuticals, Organon Pharmaceuticals, Roxane Laboratories and Leutcher Associates, Inc. of Massachusetts, who make gas chambers and electric chairs. Yeah, that Fred Leuchter.
posted by sluglicker at 6:33 AM - 40 comments

Every two years, like clockwork, the extreme right need a boost. aka "Best misleading headline ever." He's actually promoting his anti-equal marriage amendment. This FOX News headline is more accurate: Marriage Amendment Could Soothe Angry Right.
posted by andreaazure at 6:22 AM - 66 comments

A guide to Twin Peaks: characters and episodes. Spoiler warning--the niftily-designed chart linked at the beginning of this post reveals the identity of Laura Palmer's killer right off the bat. To skip the chart and go straight to the reviews and analyses of episodes, click here.
posted by Prospero at 6:19 AM - 41 comments

The Age of AIDS. One of FRONTLINE's most ambitious (and I think very best) web sites. You'll find interactive maps concerning AIDS global scope, information to help explain the science of the virus, an interactive timeline, and interviews with people at the front of fighting the epidemic.

The show will be available at 5 PM (Eastern US) today in it's entirety on the site (except for folks in the UK and Ireland, who unfortunately will have to wait until it airs in their countries.)
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:08 AM - 24 comments

He’s the one without the mohawk. This is not exactly a Mr. T fan site. It is a Mr. T memorabilia fan site. So if you are looking for a Mr. T bio or his contact information or “Mr.T vs X” you came to the wrong place.
posted by three blind mice at 4:53 AM - 16 comments

Ganjifa cards have a history of more than 300 years. A pack of ganjifa cards consists of ninety-six cards; they are generally circular and made of ivory, tortoise shell, thin wood or hard board material. Dancing, hunting, worshipping, and processions are some of the subjects painted on the cards. Some more patterns: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. However, Ganjifa today is a craft in a crisis.
posted by dhruva at 12:26 AM - 10 comments

"This is the underground history of the international Dirty Wars by U.S. allies in South America. It is the first "War on Terrorism" (.pdf) and the parallels to the current wars are a cautionary tale. For much of a decade, six allied military governments engaged in secret warfare intended to wipe out their enemies, kidnapping and murdering up to 30,000 people. At the initiative of Chilean president General Augusto Pinochet, and with initial encouragement from the CIA, they set up a multinational terrorist organization, Operation Condor, to pursue those who escaped to other Latin American countries, Europe and the United States."
posted by j-urb at 10:44 PM - 14 comments

"And on the rare occasion when nonwhite heroes were included, names like Black Panther and Black Lightning telegraphed the difference" (NYT). Nonwhite and non-traditional superheroes aren't new, but a "lesbian socialite" Batwoman is. How about "The Great Ten," a "Chinese government controlled superteam" also to be featured in the ongoing "52" Series from DC comics (an alternate superverse bereft of A-league stars like Batman and Superman)? When I was a kid, it was pretty shocking to know of at least one gay superhero (and a Canadian to boot), but I wasn't aware that there were actually so many. Of course, the irrepressible Stan Lee claims he created the first gay superhero in the persona of Pvt. Percival Pinkerton. (Previous mefi discussion of Pavitr Prabhakar, the "Indian Spiderman" here.)
posted by bardic at 6:49 PM - 40 comments

The Face of Things. Anthropomorphizing everyday objects can be big business.
posted by nickyskye at 5:31 PM - 22 comments

Another massacre. Is this this just what war does to people?
posted by Flashman at 4:32 PM - 90 comments

Mefi-attention-span summary: Arctic ocean was subtropically warm (23C, 73F) and covered with floating vegetation. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels above 2000 parts per million (today = 381 ppm.) Life on Earth did not end, went right on about its business. [For longer attention spans, The Cenozoic palaeoenvironment of the Arctic Ocean (Moran et al.); Climate Change: The Arctic tells its story (Heather Stoll); Subtropical Arctic Ocean temperatures during the Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum (Sluijs et al.); Episodic fresh surface waters in the Eocene Arctic Ocean (Brinkhuis et. al);. All from Nature v.441, (01 Jun 2006). Free abstract of Moran et. al; wants money for full texts. Also available for the asking nearest university or public library.
posted by jfuller at 4:20 PM - 56 comments

Dance Dance Evolution [YouTube, GMA] . . . Matt Harding just completed his second trip dancing his way around the world with an appearance on Good Morning America. The sublime dorkiness of his first video [YouTube, MeFi] turned him into InternetDancingSensationMattHarding and prompted an outpouring of joyful support, TV appearances, victimization by a YouTube identity thief, tribute videos, and . . . a corporate sponsorship. His next video will include footage from Antarctica , but the real question is whether we'll see the footage from the Parthenon where he was arrested for doing his white boy jig.
posted by donovan at 4:13 PM - 7 comments

A Philadelphia house painter may have the answers to the mysterious Toynbee tiles found embedded in asphalt around the world. [previously discussed - 1, 2, 3]

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Justin Duerr, who stars in the upcoming documentary 'Resurrect Dead,' about his search for the Toynbee, "...says he's pretty sure that he knows who the tiler is....The tiler's name, according to Duerr, is James Morasco, and he died in 2003. To continue the mystery though, Morasco's widow denies that he was involved with the mysterious street markers." [via]
posted by ericb at 3:53 PM - 27 comments

So, how many subjects are there in a split brain? I know that at least one more mefi user is interested. To get some background information, play this little game from nobelprize.org. Personally, I think they (even though the layout is strange - for an edu site) have it right: [more inside]
posted by vertriebskonzept at 3:50 PM - 7 comments

Off2Hunt : So you're the victim of a philanderer, who pretends to be a US Marshall. Whaddye do? Start a web site to out the guy, and get him arrested for impersonating a federal officer. (And create a Myspace page, while you're at it!)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:14 PM - 17 comments