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Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's dissident ex-deputy PM, released from prison after sodomy charge quashed. More background at the Free Anwar campaign, Human Rights Watch.
comment posted at 4:44 AM on Sep-3-04

The full text of George W Bush's acceptance speech. I feel less safe now than I was before, but as of this week it looks like he's going to win.
comment posted at 10:52 PM on Sep-2-04
comment posted at 1:39 AM on Sep-3-04
comment posted at 5:12 AM on Sep-3-04
comment posted at 5:13 AM on Sep-3-04

Fruity!
comment posted at 1:56 AM on Sep-3-04

Let's Play "Spot the Crosses!" Can you find any in this picture? Others can... and they're pissed!
"My God, where do they come up with this stuff? Does it look to you like it's a cross? I don't think so." - Karl Rove
When Cheney was speaking, our nation's Great Seal was "crucified" -- which is kind of appropriate, come to think of it...
comment posted at 6:13 PM on Sep-2-04

Geography Olympics "Thanks to its global accessibility, the Internet is the perfect medium to hold an international competition such as The Geography Olympics. To join the challenge in support of your country, you simply need to select which country you will be representing and take the quiz. The quiz consists of trying to locate 10 randomly selected countries on a map of the world. It is different every time."
comment posted at 2:54 AM on Sep-2-04

Have time travellers really returned to our present to save the eventual savior? Or was it just an elaborate intricate hoax played by total strangers? The answer lies in part 2 of this bizarre real-life tale. I guarantee that you find this an amusing and quite entertaining read. Hollywood, please take notes. All hail Kolin Pope!
comment posted at 1:06 AM on Sep-1-04

Following a long history of innovative designs Apple has created a loyal following. Today they released their newest iMac into the wild.
comment posted at 1:13 AM on Sep-1-04

Fired from Friendster.com • Scott Sassa, CEO of Friendster, has canned a programmer named TroutGirl for blogging about her job in what appears to be a generally positive and non-specific manner. Some are suggesting we cancel our accounts in protest.
comment posted at 4:22 PM on Aug-31-04

By entering a 2-digit code in a hidden location in the Diebold voting machine, a second set of votes is created. "This set of votes can be changed, so that it no longer matches the correct votes. The voting system will then read the totals from the bogus vote set. It takes only seconds to change the votes, and to date not a single location in the U.S. has implemented security measures to fully mitigate the risks."
comment posted at 2:53 AM on Sep-1-04

Half of New Yorkers Believe US Leaders Had Foreknowledge of Impending 9-11 Attacks and “Consciously Failed” To Act; 66% Call For New Probe of Unanswered Questions by Congress or New York’s Attorney General, New Zogby International Poll Reveals On the eve of a Republican National Convention invoking 9/11 symbols, sound bytes and imagery, half (49.3%) of New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens overall say that some of our leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act," according to the poll conducted by Zogby International. The poll of New York residents was conducted from Tuesday August 24 through Thursday August 26, 2004. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/-3.5. This is probably bad news for Rudy Giuliani.
comment posted at 6:14 AM on Aug-31-04
comment posted at 1:46 AM on Sep-1-04

Miami importer distributes toys depicting 9-11 attack. Makes me wonder how long it'll be before these will be on Ebay...
Don't wait, get your own 9-11 inspired figures.
Tired of toys, how about games?
comment posted at 12:31 AM on Aug-29-04

Former Texas Lt. Gov. says he helped Bush dodge 'Nam. "I got...I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard when I was the Lt. Governor of Texas, and I'm not necessarily proud of that. But, But I did it, and I got a lot of other people into the National Guard because I thought that's what people should do when you're in office and you helped a lot of rich people. And I walked to the Vietnam Memorial wall the other day and I looked at the names of the people that died in Vietnam, and I became more ashamed of myself than I've ever been because it's the worst thing I did was help a lot of wealthy supporters, and a lot of people who had family names of importance get into the National Guard. And I'm very sorry about that, and I'm ashamed. And I apologize to you, the voters of Texas."
Video available here.
comment posted at 10:11 PM on Aug-27-04

Pour Some Sugar On Me, as reinvisioned by Townsend, a boy band. Some would say it's the worst thing they'd ever seen, but I'd hazard a guess that it may actually be the worst thing ever filmed. The song is enhanced with a rap section, and the video is enhanced with the addition of the jackass from Smashmouth, for some bizarre reason. NSFNSAVI (not safe for the non sight & vision impaired)
comment posted at 12:21 AM on Aug-27-04

Met@l Goddess Bellydancing. That's it, what more do you want. The entry page rocks, but I found Crazy Train a more trenchant hermeneutic discourse.
comment posted at 7:27 PM on Aug-26-04

Winnipeg Police Service's Operation Snapshot: Winnipeg is the first Canadian city to post pictures of johns picking up hookers on their website: "The goal is to discourage customers of street prostitution in these areas. It is NOT to publicly identify individuals. These are random video clips of vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the areas known to be frequented by sex trade workers and their customers. The Winnipeg Police Service acknowledges that not everyone depicted in these clips are sex trade workers or their customers. As a result the faces of all persons and the license plates of all vehicles have been blurred out." However, at least one activist is posting licence plate numbers of johns: "Rev. Lehotsky, of the New Life Ministries, said some people complain he is violating their privacy, but he doesn't have much sympathy. "People have privacy concerns," he said. "But I say, if you're pulling your weenie out in a laneway, you've forfeited your right to privacy." ('Police 'john-cam' riles critics', Winnipeg Free Press, August 26, 2004)
comment posted at 11:34 PM on Aug-26-04

Substitutes for your honey from the Far East: For him: Virtual girlfriend on his cellphone. For her: Boyfriend Arm Pillow: "a snuggly alternative to the real thing."
comment posted at 12:48 AM on Aug-27-04

Bush's latest accomplishment may not be one that he's willing to brag about. The Census Bureau is reporting that an additional 1.3 million Americans are now living in poverty. They also offer a number of pretty graphs (all in pdf).
comment posted at 7:30 PM on Aug-26-04

In other news... Bush’s security detail gallantly protects President from triple amputee. Meanwhile, a local father expresses his opinion of Bush’s foreign policy results in a more illuminating fashion.
comment posted at 12:33 AM on Aug-27-04

Dying in Darfur. Can the ethnic cleansing in Sudan be stopped?
comment posted at 11:43 PM on Aug-24-04

I found a digital camera in the woods
comment posted at 7:54 PM on Aug-24-04

Outsource Your Own Job! -- "Says a programmer on Slashdot.org who outsourced his job: "About a year ago I hired a developer in India to do my job. I pay him $12,000 out of the $67,000 I get. He's happy to have the work. I'm happy that I have to work only 90 minutes a day just supervising the code. My employer thinks I'm telecommuting. Now I'm considering getting a second job and doing the same thing." " via BBspot.
comment posted at 11:44 PM on Aug-23-04

There are now more home internet users using broadband than dialup in the U.S. - Does this mean that web designers will continue down the same path as some programmers and create bloated code? Are the days of trying to be efficient and keeping pages less than 70k a thing of the past?
comment posted at 4:27 PM on Aug-23-04

Fear Itself: an american journalist wants to put the threat of terrorism into perspective, and elects to ride on a bus line in Jerusalem, the train line through Madrid, and a British Airways flight said to be a bombing target. He comes away with it unscathed but the stories he tells about the history of terror, especially in Israel, is chilling and daily life in some parts of Jerusalem sounds like scenes lifted straight out of Brazil. [via the big K]
comment posted at 5:44 PM on Aug-22-04
comment posted at 10:57 PM on Aug-22-04

"Libertarianism is the hottest philosophy on the internet! Many famous people are libertarians, including John Stossel and Dave Barry. It seems like everyone is becoming a libertarian, and now you can, too! The answer lies in several simple steps, which anyone can learn. Read on, and you, too, can become a libertarian!"
comment posted at 1:50 AM on Aug-23-04

And when an American mouths off about French military history, he's not just being ignorant, he's being ungrateful. The War Nerd provides a little historical perspective. [via monkeyfilter]
comment posted at 5:48 PM on Aug-22-04

Sapir/Whorf raises its head again in study of the Piraha tribe. I can't stop thinking about this article which appeared in the Globe and Mail Friday.

A study appearing today in the journal Science reports that the hunter-gatherers seem to be the only group of humans known to have no concept of numbering and counting. Not only that, but adult Piraha apparently can't learn to count or understand the concept of numbers or numerals, even when they asked anthropologists to teach them and have been given basic math lessons for months at a time ... the Piraha are the only people known to have no distinct words for colours.
They have no written language, and no collective memory going back more than two generations. They don't sleep for more than two hours at a time during the night or day. Even when food is available, they frequently starve themselves and their children, Prof. Everett reports.
They communicate almost as much by singing, whistling and humming as by normal speech.
They frequently change their names, because they believe spirits regularly take them over and intrinsically change who they are.
They have no creation myths, tell no fictional stories and have no art.

Can any of our anthropologists or linguists comment? I had thought that narrative was the common link in all human cultures....
comment posted at 6:56 PM on Aug-21-04
comment posted at 2:15 AM on Aug-22-04
comment posted at 4:12 PM on Aug-22-04

The NYT's investigation into the birth and background of the anti Kerry ad about his Vietnam service record.
comment posted at 8:24 PM on Aug-20-04
comment posted at 4:25 PM on Aug-22-04

Hello, my name is Tamara! As you can probably tell, I'm a Christian who loves Jesus and cares for all humans, even the wicked. What you probably don't know is that I'm hot.
comment posted at 1:30 AM on Aug-20-04

It's our language, not yours. So, you were born in an English-speaking country founded by the English, speak English, have a degree in English, write and publish in English, have lived in England for years, and would like to become an English citizen? Sorry, you failed our English test to determine whether you have workable English, so you can't be English.
comment posted at 1:01 AM on Aug-20-04

Korean entertainer Yu Zhen Huan aka "Hair Child" - child actor, popular singer even in the face of adversity.
comment posted at 8:20 PM on Aug-18-04

Flickr's been around as a photo posting/gallery/sharing kind of place for almost a year now, but today they launched something pretty impressive (ignore the dumb name): Organizr. Check out the demo movies or try it out yourself if you already have photos there. This is the first time I've used a web application that rivaled my desktop application of choice (iPhoto, for photos). Pretty impressive what you can do in Flash these days, besides singing kittens and work-dodging games.
comment posted at 6:36 AM on Aug-19-04

Dick Cheney, Hugo Chavez and Bill Clinton's Band by Greg Palast
comment posted at 11:36 PM on Aug-17-04

The Conscience of Joe Darby
"Because the irony of all this is that the people in Somerset County who turned their backs on Joe, well, those people would probably feel very different if they knew the rest of the story. That it really wasn't about softening prisoners, gathering intelligence, or trying to win the war. That it wasn't even about losing control in the heat of the moment. It was about getting up in the middle of the night and going somewhere you weren't supposed to go, then beating and raping people there. It was premeditated violent crime."
comment posted at 6:36 AM on Aug-17-04

Is the GOP tampering with Florida elections? The New York Times reports that State police officers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando and interrogated them as part of an odd "investigation" that has frightened many voters, intimidated elderly volunteers and thrown a chill over efforts to get out the black vote in November. Also, see here and here. Why do we even put up with this?
comment posted at 5:42 AM on Aug-17-04

Shyamalan may face legal action over Village - The Village can now join the long list of films accused of plagiarism in recent years. A lawsuit may be filed against M. Night Shyamalan's Blinding Edge Pictures and Disney for alleged plagiarism. Kiddie book writer Margaret Peterson Haddix claims that the movie bears disturbing similarities to her 1995 novel Running Out Of Time. While plagiarism of any kind is no laughing matter, it must be stated that the "disturbing similarity" is a plot twist many of us once used in our own stories back in grade school.
comment posted at 8:39 AM on Aug-16-04

Interesting article about Francis Fukuyama "Americas most famous thinker", who comes up on MeFi about once a year, includes information about his latest book.
comment posted at 8:22 AM on Aug-16-04
comment posted at 8:42 AM on Aug-20-04

Is the CIA tampering with Venezuelan elections? A Venezuelan news organization reports that an email was sent to the world press this afternoon, claiming to be early election results indicating a defeat for outspoken Bush critic Hugo Chavez. The email in question appears to be a fraud, sent from a location in Virginia. There are also reports coming in of phony election results being broadcast on Venezuelan television, and rigged exit polls organized by the very people who supported an unsuccessful coup against Chavez in 2002 -- an organization funded by our government through the National Endowment for Democracy. Your tax dollars at work. Former President Carter reports that the elections are going well, with a huge turnout, but if Chavez wins, will there be an organized effort -- funded by U.S. tax dollars -- to discredit the election anyway?
comment posted at 3:53 AM on Aug-16-04

Corporate culture is nothing more than the "crystallization of the stupidity of a group of people at a given moment", says Corinne Maier, the author of the slacker manifesto, "Bonjour Paresse". Better read this before clocking in Monday. (NYT)
comment posted at 8:13 AM on Aug-16-04

What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It? According to Philip E. Agre, previously discussed here and the guy behind the Red Rock Eater News Service, the answers to these questions are simple (if 13k+ words = simple).
comment posted at 4:06 AM on Aug-16-04

U.S. to Cut Forces in Europe, Asia President Bush will announce Monday that he plans to pull 70,000 to 100,000 troops out of Europe and Asia in the first major reconfiguration of overseas military deployments by the United States since the Cold War ended, White House officials said yesterday.
comment posted at 6:28 AM on Aug-14-04
comment posted at 6:51 AM on Aug-14-04