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He was the Taster's Choice model for 16 years and he never even knew it. A jury awards $15.6 million to a man whose face was used on the Taster's Choice coffee jar without his permission.
comment posted at 2:01 AM on Feb-3-05

Swearing Jesus - Is that what you got, pendejo?
comment posted at 5:28 AM on Jan-31-05

Canadian Milk Bags
comment posted at 9:44 PM on Jan-30-05

filmaffinity.com looks like another useful tool to get recommendations for your viewing pleasure-once more of us start rating! It's in English and Spanish now (with more languages yet to come). Movielens seems promising as well. IMDb Pro looks cool too, though I haven't gone that far. However, this guy says beware!!
comment posted at 9:29 PM on Jan-30-05
comment posted at 1:08 AM on Jan-31-05

It's only a matter of time before Canada's last bastion of smoke-filled cafes frequented by tortured artists succumbs to the trend sweeping the nation, and the world. The real question is: do they care about our health, or are they trying to stop a conspiracy? As long as they don't ban poutine, I think we'll be okay.
comment posted at 1:23 AM on Jan-31-05

Flickr-related projects like this depend on licensed photos. The red bands on this image show unlicensed photos, and how much the project could grow. Also of interest is Color Fields, and the Squared Circle Color Picker.
comment posted at 6:49 PM on Jan-30-05

Momblogging. The NY Times (reg. required) looks at some blogging mamas. As someone who's regularly losing friends to the new-parent netherworld of suburbia and early nights, I had previously had little interest in reading about childrearing. I checked out Bad Mother because I'm a fan of the author's husband - the novelist Michael Chabon - and realised it was a hoot. I also like the Pessoptimist. So what other good bringing-up-baby blogs are out there?
comment posted at 5:33 AM on Jan-30-05

Double Cheeseburger? I'd hit it. Oh man, the buns on that quarter pounder are totally hott.
comment posted at 12:36 AM on Jan-30-05

gorgeous women getting waxed for the first time (sfw) "There's hardly a square centimeter of nudity in this video for a catchy pop tune by Markus Nikolai, but we're certain there's a bunch of gently sadistic Brazilian wax fetishists out there getting off on the facial expressions of all those cute twentysomething girls with Australian British accents experiencing the skin-wrenching thrill of the wooden spatula for the first time."
comment posted at 11:30 PM on Jan-28-05

Levitated: the Exploration of Computation Digital flash art ranging from generated poetry to evolution. I could waste hours on this page.
comment posted at 10:59 PM on Jan-28-05

We're all to blame. In January 2002, Scott Ritter called Iraq a "phantom threat" and warned us of Ahmed Chalabi's "dubious motivations" for fomenting a war based on phony intel. Now Ritter is saying that we're all responsible for Iraq, because we, as a public, bought into the unproven argument that Iraq had WMDs. In that light, how should we view the Iranian situation? Is it fair for the US to use its power to insist upon arguably hypocritical terms for a fellow signatary to the Non Proliferation Treaty? Doesn't Iran have legitimate rights for nuclear development? Shouldn't we demand proof of a nuclear weapons program before we even consider starting a conflict our military believes would most certainly escalate? The Bush administration says that "there's NO DOUBT that Iran continues a nuclear program"... an obvious lie. There is no proof of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. Period.
comment posted at 9:46 PM on Jan-27-05

Richard Price: The Comeback Kid of American Literature. [MI]
comment posted at 8:42 PM on Jan-27-05

When Good Things Go American. Fans of The Office on the BBC may feel a redundacy after watching the NBC pilot.
comment posted at 8:34 PM on Jan-27-05

What is it? It's Crispin Glover's feature film. (NSFW)
comment posted at 10:45 PM on Jan-27-05

Redneck ebonics triumphs. Merriam-Webster online now gives "nu-kyu-lar" as an alternative pronunication of "nuclear." While dictionaries have become more descriptive and less prescriptive over the years, shouldn't they at least list it as [idiotic variant]?
comment posted at 9:03 PM on Jan-27-05

climateprediction.net is the largest experiment ever to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century. it's a collaborative project a la seti@home, and they have come up with some interesting results. we've heard about climate change before, but this study indicates that things might be significantly worse than initially thought (double the temperature increase as previously predicted). maybe this is all okay though, even good for you. if you'd like to see that idea nicely debunked, i suggest you check out trust us, we're experts. a lovely little book about how much we can trust all of these studies. makes you wonder if we should have signed this.
comment posted at 4:47 PM on Jan-26-05

The Dictators. Even in this age of crate-digger archaeology, especially when it comes to the roots of punk rock, this band of Bronx miscreants is little known except to cognoscenti. The stream of punk most identified with The Ramones (unapologetically crude three-minute pop singles, pop culture obsessed, based around fun, what Tom Carson called "deadly serious kidding") began with these guys first three albums and lives on in the work of The Muffs, Nashville Pussy, The Supersuckers and countless others. A rock and roll treasure often overlooked.
comment posted at 8:19 PM on Jan-25-05

Best. Protest. Ever. If you read the story last week about an artist in Bayreuth, Germany who's been sticking little American flags into piles of dog crap, here [via jwz via bb] is what looks like that artist's official site.
comment posted at 10:54 PM on Jan-24-05

British TV Channel 4 is to dramatize Belle De Jour. The - possibly fake - blog of a London prostitute has already been adapted into a book. I say bring on 'Rebecca's Pocket the movie' and 'Doc Searls the musical'.
comment posted at 5:35 AM on Jan-25-05

The Dead Letter Office, where you can leave your parting shot to the world. The letters are sad, funny, touching, angry, and insightful. [more]
comment posted at 9:10 PM on Jan-23-05

How does a man enter the realm of the monstrous? How broad or thin is the border between the normal and that realm? The Making of a Molester (NYT Mag.).
comment posted at 5:34 PM on Jan-23-05

North Korea is the most secretive country in the world today, with its main railway lined with walls so high that its foreign passengers can't see the countryside.
comment posted at 9:23 PM on Jan-22-05

USA Today and others are reporting that Doubleday will be publishing "[t]he original thoughts of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders" in a book to be sold in the U.S. (and presumably abroad). From the CNN article, Doubleday plans on donating proceeds from the sale to charity, and openly describes plans to flaunt U.S. law by NOT paying royalties for the use of source materials.

What are the ramifications for a publishing company (which relies on royalty payments and preservation of copyright for self-survival) to ignore their own rules (and U.S. law) when it suits them? Should we expect anyone in the U.S. to care about the royalty payments to these two individuals? Furthermore, could Doubleday's stance affect any of the other copyright infringement actions currently being taken by U.S. organizations?
comment posted at 9:08 PM on Jan-22-05

Architecture of Density, by Michael Wolf • Dizzying photos of Hong Kong high-rise buildings. Think of bamboo stalks, Lego pieces, spinal columns, circuit boards...
comment posted at 1:14 AM on Jan-23-05
comment posted at 1:14 AM on Jan-23-05
comment posted at 4:18 AM on Jan-23-05
comment posted at 4:58 PM on Jan-23-05
comment posted at 6:12 AM on Jan-24-05

eXeem Lite , the spyware free version of eXeem! Violate eXeem's copyright for fun and profit.
comment posted at 12:43 AM on Jan-22-05
comment posted at 1:11 AM on Jan-22-05

Ta-Da List is 37 Signals' latest offering is free sharable to-do lists. You can keep them to yourself, share them with only specific people, or share them with the world. So now you have no excuse for forgetting to buy milk on the way home.
comment posted at 9:34 PM on Jan-20-05
comment posted at 9:41 PM on Jan-20-05

Protest Warriors Clash • Gil Kobrin of the Protest Warriors went down "under a hail of black boots" belonging to anti-Bush peace activists. "It wasn't much of a contest. ProtestWarrior's contingent numbered 13, the other side in the hundreds. If they won any hearts and minds, no one said so." Meanwhile, DC activist group Anarchist Resistance issued their call to action: "There's nothing left to salvage in this empire that is the U.S. government. It's time to bring it down." AR is listed as a resouce by the Internet Liberation Front who Kos reported "hacked and defaced six Republican websites" yesterday. Some commentary on civil disobedience by Thoreau & ActUp.
comment posted at 10:06 PM on Jan-20-05
comment posted at 10:07 PM on Jan-20-05
comment posted at 10:14 PM on Jan-20-05

The 50 Most Loathsome People of 2004 Funnier than The NYP 50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers. And you're in it, to boot.
comment posted at 12:05 AM on Jan-21-05

While the rest of the country seemed focused on the $40 million dollar block party in Washington, D. C., those of us down in the Big Easy were having a protest the best way we knew how, with a jazz funeral, or more specifically, a jazz funeral for democracy. What else would you expect from a party city that voted 77% for Kerry.
comment posted at 7:49 PM on Jan-20-05
comment posted at 7:50 PM on Jan-20-05

Creating Bush's God Talk by Michael Gerson, Bush's chief speechwriter. According to University of Washington professor David Domke, author of "God Willing? Political Fundamentalism in the White House, the War on Terror", here's how Bush's God-Talk Is Different ("When Bush speaks of God, he positions himself as a prophetic spokesperson rather than a petitioning supplicant".)
Bonus: "On What Did They Solemnly Swear? Which president opened his inaugural Bible at random in haste? Which didn't swear at all?". Test your knowledge of presidential inaugural Bible use with this quiz.
And: Prayers of the Presidents -- From George Washington to George W. Bush, a sampling of personal and public prayers of America's presidents.
comment posted at 12:54 AM on Jan-21-05

shooting in tal afar, iraq
what will become of these poor children?
comment posted at 12:24 AM on Jan-20-05

Americanism—and Its Enemies
Puritanism did not drop out of history. It transformed itself into Americanism.
David Gelernter is a contributing editor of The Weekly Standard and professor of computer science at Yale. This essay helps to explain American religiosity..to the rest of us.
comment posted at 11:42 PM on Jan-19-05

Boxer Go Barbara Boxer
comment posted at 12:55 AM on Jan-19-05

A Plea for Better Manners or- How to be an Ugly American from the comfort of your own home. On the plus side, these two are now broadcasting from a New York station that is collecting for tsunami relief.
comment posted at 11:48 PM on Jan-17-05

Before they were nobodies. There are a few bands who never quite made it huge but influenced everyone who ever saw or heard them (the Velvet Underground, Capt Beefheart, Sonic Youth). The best were The Replacements. And recently from their defunct website comes a complete early show of theirs, broken up in bite sized chunks, via quicktime. (more inside)
comment posted at 11:37 PM on Jan-17-05

Physically and sexually mistreating detainees at Abu Ghraib under orders... 10 years.
Abusing prisoners, raping a young Iraqi boy, and lying under oath(allegedly) because you're a "go-getter"... $164 million, $16 to $85 million.

Knowing the President and members of congress on both sides of the aisle have your back so long as you're not enlisted(wouldn't have covered corporate types, but what the hey, thought I'd toss it in)... Priceless!
comment posted at 1:14 AM on Jan-16-05

Farmer Homer McFarland is being sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Monsanto corporation. His crime? Replanting his crops' own seed, as farmers have done for millennia, which violates the biotech giant's intellectual property rights, the company claims. Quietly, Monsanto's aggressive "seed police" have been suing farmers in 25 states for years, often settling out of court for huge sums, according to the Center for Food Safety's new report, Monsanto vs. US farmers [PDF link]. For more information, also see a new documentary called The Future of Food.
comment posted at 5:56 PM on Jan-15-05

Do you remember Hüsker Dü? No, not that Husker Du, this one. This site contains one of the most complete collections of guitar tabs I have ever seen for any band. It might even exceed my previous favorite band site, Swervedriver.com, if not in flash, then in content. The owner of the site seems to be more of a Grant Hart fan than a Bob Mould fan, as there are tabs for most of Hart's solo stuff and for Nova Mob, but only a smattering of Mould tunes and none for Sugar. There is also, suprisingly, a tab of the Posies' excellent song (and loving tribute to the Huskers) "Grant Hart".
comment posted at 10:35 PM on Jan-15-05

The journal of an American soldier. Although it's typically my policy not to reveal the identity of people I know in Iraq, I am making an exception in this case. The journal above belongs to Michael Smith, a LiveJournal friend of mine who died in Iraq on Tuesday when an RPG hit his Humvee. Mike was 24 years old and leaves behind family, friends, and a newlywed wife, who he married in Korea shortly before he deployed to Iraq. As is tradition on LiveJournal, his last journal entry has become a memorial of sorts.
comment posted at 5:13 AM on Jan-14-05

The NHL? Fix it for forget it. ESPN suggests how we could start over.
comment posted at 12:10 AM on Jan-13-05