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Darfur reality: More killings, more rapes | Despite a cease-fire, the horrible situation in Darfur persists. Based on Google Trends data, it appears that, as of January, people are becoming interested in Darfur again (or at least they're researching it more), which may be a catalyst for politicians to act. Or maybe not...
posted by ashcan at 2:22 PM - 27 comments

Q, a sort of digital art hack of Quake - from Nullpointer, where you can find all sorts of cool digital art-type stuff. The game world is twisted unrecognizably yet the feeling of motion and action is preserved - . Download here and run (8.5mb, Windows only, I'm afraid). It's successor is QQQ, a similar effort done for Quake 3. No download but movies here. Also on Nullpointer is the fantastic WebTracer, a tool for visualizing websites as 3d networks of nodes. Here's what MeFi looks like with 1000 nodes tracked.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:59 PM - 12 comments

A9 gets MS? Amazon's search tool / portal, formerly powered by Google, is now using Microsoft's Windows Live search service. I first noticed when my image results went missing (which sucks, but I still use it for the incentive program). Does this mean MS is shifting out of the half-assery phase of its search strategy? What happens when its adCenter keyword program opens up? [commentary]
posted by grobstein at 11:42 AM - 8 comments

A little over a year ago, the Guiding Hand Social Club issued a stunning press release - after months of infiltration and planning they had fulfilled an assassination contract on the CEO of a major corporation and ransacked the corporation's hangers, stealing almost 20 billion ISK, worth over $16,000 USD at the time. See PCGamer's excellent detailed description of the event: pages 1, 2, 3, 4. As synthetic worlds like Eve-Online and World of Warcraft gain popularity, what should we make of this kind of behavior? Eve's own players respond. Also, a response with a little more perspective. And what's going to happen when the IRS catches on?
posted by heresiarch at 10:37 AM - 56 comments

The Pain in the Brain. (NYT)
posted by semmi at 10:11 AM - 36 comments

Chinese classics and translations. A collection of some of the greatest works of Chinese literature in the original chinese and translated in English and French. Every Chinese character is also a link to a chinese dictionary, allowing you to translate on the fly. Includes the Yi Jing The Book of Changes, Dao De Jing The Way and Its Power, The Analects of Confucius, Sun Tzu's Art of War and many more.
posted by afu at 9:25 AM - 16 comments

BBC interviews news editor regarding the Apple/Beatles verdict. Only one problem: the gentleman in the hotseat was the news editor's driver. Hilarity ensues. (video of the interview here - the driver's expression when he realizes he's been mistaken is priceless.)
posted by aberrant at 8:35 AM - 75 comments

Storm Warning. Seems like Iran has already started flexing it's economic muscles-haven't seen it reported that widely anywhere else, but these two events seem to be connected. Then again, maybe I've been spending too much time reading itulip.
posted by jaksoul at 5:27 AM - 35 comments

5 mins of highlights from yesterday's epic FA Cup Final between Liverpool and West Ham. Read the West Ham and Liverpool player ratings for a good idea of how the players performed individually. This game had everything.
posted by nthdegx at 2:15 AM - 29 comments

"The right man to lead the CIA at this critical moment in our nation's history." (youtube) A nice catch by The Daily Show.
posted by hypersloth at 11:48 PM - 49 comments

An interesting anti-war animation (flash). (via) Another one. More.
posted by IronLizard at 8:20 PM - 22 comments

A memorial ride is taking place tomorrow in New York City in memory of a fourteen-year-old boy who was rundown on his bike last year. This man is responsible for the death and there are many unanswered questions. No charges have been filed, but what is more disturbing is the lack of remorse from the young man who was responsible for this tragedy.
posted by jennababy at 7:52 PM - 73 comments

Silly little fairy!
posted by mischief at 7:48 PM - 42 comments

Chef Kazuki Yamamoto will cook just about anything. Casting aside all concern for the law, he prepares exotic dishes for celebrities and the ultra-rich. No species is off limits; his dishes have included penguin, walrus, whale, seal, dolphin, hippo, rhino, sea lion, chimpanzee, gorilla, monkey, brown bear, gazelle, giraffe, zebra, mountain lion, sea turtle, gila monster, ferruginous pygmy owl, bighorn sheep, Bichon Frise, and (it is claimed) human.
posted by Rhomboid at 7:00 PM - 43 comments

She had been sitting in her arm-chair, telling us a long, beautiful tale; and when it was finished, she said she was tired, and leaned her head back to sleep awhile. We could hear her gentle breathing as she slept; gradually it became quieter and calmer, and on her countenance beamed happiness and peace. It was as if lighted up with a ray of sunshine. She smiled once more, and then people said she was dead. [In honor and memory of our mothers.] Tons of stories by Hans Christian Andersen, from the main site Aesop Fables, and other cool stuff like "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" by L. Frank Baum.
posted by sluglicker at 6:35 PM - 5 comments

Apparently, Karl Rove has been indicted.
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:39 PM - 166 comments

Behold: the self-contained circular kitchen. Design coolness for apartment dwellers. "After centuries of conventional kitchen design, the self-contained circular kitchen challenges many of the notions of a normal kitchen, treating it more as an appliance than a dedicated, inflexible room."
posted by CunningLinguist at 4:10 PM - 36 comments

Lazy Ramadi
posted by ColdChef at 12:30 PM - 20 comments

Cheney Pushed U.S. to Widen Eavesdropping In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Vice President Dick Cheney and his top legal adviser argued that the National Security Agency should intercept purely domestic telephone calls and e-mail messages without warrants in the hunt for terrorists, according to two senior intelligence officials.
posted by Postroad at 11:35 AM - 60 comments

Searchable database of >120,000, reasonably high-resolution editorial cartooons. Mainly from the UK, and from the last 100 years. Search by person depicted (e.g., Thatcher, Gorbachev, Thatcher and Gorbachev); by year (e.g., Hitler and Stalin in 1941 or 1942), by design elements (e.g., cartoons referencing sculpture by Rodin, or cartoons with zebras), by topic (e.g., BSE, Falklands War), by artist (e.g., William Hogarth, L.G. Illingworth, Carl Giles, Steve Bell) or by publication outlet (e.g., Punch, Evening Standard (over 10,000 from Evening Standard alone). There is a handy searching wizard as well.
posted by Rumple at 11:01 AM - 17 comments

The Rational Neo-graphic Magazine. Special Edition: Into Thick Air - the thrilling challenges of low-altitude mountaineering
posted by pyramid termite at 10:27 AM - 9 comments

The Open Mind. First Broadcast in May, 1956, The Open Mind is still produced weekly by Richard D. Heffner, host, historian, and University Professor of Communications and Public Policy at Rutgers University. These conversations with some of the most creative thinkers of the last half-century are available on the Internet.
posted by semmi at 9:49 AM - 1 comment

Oil and Gas are such slut bags! Coal is so cute! Don't you feel like such a schmuck for not liking coal? A NPO promoting the benefits of coal with children for spokespeople.
posted by thefreek at 7:27 AM - 34 comments

Don't Regulate is telecom-sponsored ad dressed up as an underground cartoon, writes Timothy Karr. At issue is net neutrality (previously discussed here).
posted by F Mackenzie at 7:13 AM - 31 comments

What’s a dog worth? Los Angeles kills more animals in its shelters than any other metropolitan area in the United States. For that to change, we will have to figure out what to do with the pets none of us want.
posted by PenguinBukkake at 7:06 AM - 53 comments

It's not about the bike: A dalmation rides a bicycle. Way cooler than those Tony Hawk wannabes.
posted by hindmost at 2:07 AM - 36 comments

Newsfilter: Home of Former CIA No. 3 Man, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo raided by FBI
posted by delmoi at 11:09 PM - 54 comments

Sinatra & Jobim. 6 minutes of Bossa Nova beauty, for your viewing pleasure. (Youtube link)
posted by Chrischris at 6:57 PM - 45 comments

The Show with Ze Frank. Like the Daily Show, but shorter, quicker, and more spastic. The Show has been going for about a month now, but Ze appears to be hitting his stride now.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 5:30 PM - 50 comments

How to kill at the eighth-grade mixer. B3ta master and blogger Rob Manuel collected a slew of tasteless jokes and recently published a compendium called The Bumper B3ta Book of Sick Jokes. But a devoted public demanded (and submitted) even more of these witticisms, so he created the Sickipedia.
posted by GrammarMoses at 4:20 PM - 27 comments

Radial engined motorcycles are insane, but not unprecedented.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:32 PM - 24 comments

Video Wombat, dedicated to burrowing through online video sites, snuffling and culling the best and feasting upon the sweet, sweet media.
posted by darkstar at 2:08 PM - 11 comments

The Case of the Disappearing Affirmative Action Letters In August 2005, letters written by future Chief Justice John Roberts, dealing with the Reagan Administration's policies on affirmative action, disappeared from the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. The National Archives and Record Administration was so concerned they conducted their own investigation, but their report on the investigation has so many redactions it raises more new questions than it answers about White House lawyers who had unguarded access to the papers.
posted by jonp72 at 1:56 PM - 12 comments

There's a USA National Bikini Team? Time was you had to actually have sex with a student before you got in trouble. Now it seems, you don't even have to go that far! After all that, let's hope the good ole U.S. of A. can beat the Swedes
posted by clearlynuts at 12:55 PM - 41 comments

the questionable super soaker. How did this get past the marketing department? A gun that shoots shots of white slime? The product review on the Anazon site has been deleted and locked after a flood of joke reviews of the toy which exploited its pornographic similarities.
posted by Liquidwolf at 12:09 PM - 96 comments

"Sam & Max, Freelance Police" are back, in 3D. The first game of the series will come out this fall. Maybe now we'll finally find out where Max keeps that BFG. ("None of your business, Sam.")
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:01 PM - 39 comments

1987 - Siskel and Ebert - Behind the scenes: Part 1 (28mb), Part 2 (16mb), Part 3 (18mb). Each segment is about three to four minutes long. For those of us who grew up with these guys on TV, almost 20 years ago, this is a side you've never dreamed of. Part one ends on a down-note, but parts two and three...worth the watch. (language NSFW)
posted by rougy at 12:01 PM - 53 comments

"I can give up smoking at any time, but I don't find it affects my pregnancy."
Oh yeah, this expectant mother is also 12 years old.
posted by StrasbourgSecaucus at 10:44 AM - 99 comments

Recycled Robots, hand-made from scavenged parts. Robots, robots, more robots, and their pets. And where there are robots, rest assured, there will be rayguns. (via the eminently readable Drawn!)
posted by Gamblor at 8:59 AM - 14 comments

Halliburton solves global warming! An advanced new technology will keep corporate managers safe even when climate change makes life as we know it impossible. Pics here. oh, wait...
posted by mkultra at 8:59 AM - 20 comments

It's possible. The team's board has resigned on the heels of a possible match-fixing scandal (or at least a ref-fixing scandal) during the 2004-2005 season. Other Serie A teams are implicated, as well. Juve is also being probed for bookeeping irregularities (well, it IS an Italian team... that sort of thing is expected).
posted by wfc123 at 8:28 AM - 15 comments

Heinz Stücke has travelled 335,000 miles by bicycle since 1960. And he's done it all on one bicycle, a 3-speed that weighs 56 lbs. That journey was threatened a few days ago when a thief stole his bike (it was later found by police). He's been shot at, robbed, arrested, and celebrated, embraced and admired in every corner of the planet. Though Charles Veley has the domain name and the top google hit, Stücke is the MAN. "Would I do it all over again? No! I never liked to cover the same terrain I've already conquered. IT'S THE UNKNOWN AROUND THE CORNER THAT TURNS MY WHEEL…"
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:58 AM - 11 comments

Morgellon's disease A new disease is surfacing in Southeast Texas exhibiting what could possibly be the grossest symptom profile ever besides botfly, and doctors are stumped as to causes and treatments. Over 100 sufferers so far have complained of black, tarry sweat, non-healing lesions, a feeling like bugs are crawling under their skin, and worst of all, "fibers" that poke out of the wounds. Happy Friday!
posted by Sidthecat at 7:41 AM - 82 comments

Culture Wars: School buses are riddled with sniper bullets, gas lines are cut, windshields broken, and bomb threats disrupt schools daily. Teachers and custodians must remove nails and broken glass from their school parking lots each morning, and several school buildings have been damaged by early morning firebombs and dynamite. One minister has prayed publicly for the deaths of three board members. 'It was simply overwhelming.' Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. (via)
posted by Otis at 7:21 AM - 27 comments

Black, the final entry in Adidas' Adicolor short film campaign., is seriously messed up, with a fish and a panda playing russian roulette. Also featuring Pink, Red, Blue, White, and Yellow. (via)
posted by blue_beetle at 7:18 AM - 25 comments

What What: I came across this and offer it to the MeFi community, mostly in the hopes you guys can explain it all to me.
posted by ancientgower at 6:23 AM - 12 comments

The Bicycle Ride. This animated short, "The Bicycle Ride," is a fanciful depiction of Dr. Albert Hofmann's discovery of LSD. 3:47 video.
posted by fixedgear at 3:54 AM - 36 comments

A Swarm of Angels is about making a £1 million movie and giving it away to one million people in one year. By using the Internet to gather together 50,000 people willing to pay £25 to join an exclusive global online community – The Swarm – the project’s ambition is to make the world’s first Internet-funded, crewed and distributed feature film. (more inside)
posted by slimepuppy at 2:37 AM - 31 comments

Only 2,029 out of 9,145 veterans with post traumatic stress disorder resulting from combat have been referred to mental health for evaluation/treatment. I say give them the same treatment the IDF gets.
posted by augustweed at 7:21 PM - 42 comments

RobotFilter: Korea Unveils World's Second Android (YouTube), China manufactures personal robot, Japan's domestic robot, Why the Japanese want their robots to act more like humans. Robot runs over water, robotic tentacle (mpeg), 'baby' robot learns like a human (avi 1,2), Pill-sized intenstinal robot, speedy robot, spider robots. Lego Unveils NXT Robotics Toolset, Lego robot plays Super Mario Bros, Connect Four, solves Rubik's Cube. Building an army of robots, Big Dog, (wmv), Robots break Asimov’s first law. [more inside]
posted by MetaMonkey at 7:06 PM - 14 comments