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Pirate Bay to be blocked By UK ISPs. "File-sharing site The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK internet service providers, the High Court has ruled."
comment posted at 10:43 PM on Apr-30-12

"He’s the ultimate pro. He’s on time, knows his lines, hits his mark with no drama. He makes the other actors want to rise to his professional level." He is "the coolest [expletive] on the planet". [SLNYT]
comment posted at 8:17 PM on Apr-29-12

Take the word AFRICA… without thinking, what images immediately come to mind? War? AIDS? Genocide? Or maybe the vision of a small child with a swollen belly, surrounded by flies? … Too many non-profits ask for your pity by depicting poor, helpless Africans. But like any stereotype, this portrayal has more exceptions than truth.

African Men and Hollywood Stereotypes.

Call Me Hope

Alex presents: Commando

comment posted at 6:26 AM on Apr-30-12

A little grayer, a little wiser, a little funnier. Here's the full remarks of the president, including some "open mic" moments, and a short video about freedom vs socialism.
comment posted at 11:22 PM on Apr-28-12
comment posted at 5:41 AM on Apr-30-12

The blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has fled home imprisonment and sought refuge, according to Chinese dissidents, at the US Embassy in Beijing. Chen gained fame for organizing opposition to forced abortions under China's one-child policy.
comment posted at 9:50 PM on Apr-28-12
comment posted at 10:34 AM on Apr-29-12

More Universities Should Shut Down Their Computer Science Programs
comment posted at 10:43 AM on Apr-27-12

Ready for the Fight: Rolling Stone Interview with Barack Obama
comment posted at 8:31 PM on Apr-25-12

Emirati history would be incomplete without acknowledging the contribution of the country’s imported labour. Without them, the Emirates would not exist the way it does, nor possess the opulence or infrastructure it flouts.
comment posted at 11:03 PM on Apr-25-12

At the end of your Bollywood comedy you have an item song that's supposed to be a tribal song with gibberish lyrics, so why not just list film directors' names? Cue, The Akira Kurosawa song
comment posted at 8:45 PM on Apr-24-12
comment posted at 8:46 PM on Apr-25-12

Li Yang, founder of the most popular English-language school in China, Crazy English, (previously on MeFi) is now found to have beaten his American wife multiple times. Domestic violence is found in some 25% of Chinese marriages (!) but the actions of Li's wife Kim Lee to publicize the abuse has raised the profile of spousal abuse in a country where this was not often publicly discussed previously.
comment posted at 10:48 PM on Apr-22-12

The National Association of Afro-Swedes calls for the resignation of Culture Minister Lena Adelsohn Roth after photos and video surfaced of this "living" cake, which was part of a celebration of World Art Day. The cake's creator talks a bit about the cake.
comment posted at 9:56 AM on Apr-19-12
comment posted at 11:06 PM on Apr-19-12

The findings of a multiyear Vatican study on US nuns have been announced: the largest and most influential group of nuns are promoting "radical feminist themes incompatible with the teachings of the Catholic Church."
comment posted at 9:47 AM on Apr-19-12

The most Epic Photo Ever Taken? Quora users start adding their faourite pictures. History, awesome, pain, anger, death, it's al here. And at least one surfer.
comment posted at 5:46 AM on Apr-17-12

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has signed legislation that would require thousands of people applying for welfare to pass a drug test before they could receive benefits.
comment posted at 9:25 PM on Apr-16-12

The climactic speech from Charlie Chaplin's first talking motion picture, The Great Dictator, re-enacted by Team Fortress 2's own Herr Doktor
comment posted at 3:18 AM on Apr-16-12

India's DEFEXPO 2012, is 'not a carnival in the truest sense', but rather ' the seventh in the series of biennial Land, Naval and Internal Security Systems Exhibition . . . clearly steering the path of steady growth . . . receiving overwhelming and unprecedented international response.' As for arms dealers? 'On arms dealers, the minister [India’s Defence Minister AK Antony] insisted, “There are none I am aware of.”'
comment posted at 12:39 AM on Apr-13-12

A pizza price war in Manhattan is threatening to destroy two businesses, while providing consumers with the cheapest slice in ages.
comment posted at 2:03 AM on Apr-12-12

CBC coverage of the wedding of Steven D'Souza and Nisha Patel.
comment posted at 12:55 AM on Apr-12-12

A magnitude 8.7 earthquake has been recorded off the west coast of Northern Sumatra in the Indian Ocean at 2012 April 11 08:38:38 UTC. A Tsunami Warning has been issued spanning the entire Indian Ocean.
comment posted at 4:09 AM on Apr-11-12
comment posted at 6:02 AM on Apr-11-12
comment posted at 6:10 AM on Apr-11-12

Dinner with Tucker Carlson seemed cheery and worthwhile compared to counseling a bunch of cringing liberals.
comment posted at 11:25 PM on Apr-10-12

Web developer Justin Watt was staying at the Courtyard Marriott in Times Square, New York and using the hotel wifi to access the Internet. He noticed some strangeness on his website... and on every other website he visited (not to mention YouTube was broken.)

In short, Marriott is injecting JavaScript into the HTML of every webpage its hotel customers view for the purpose of injecting ads (and in the meantime, breaking YouTube). Marriott’s wireless internet service provider is a third-party company called Hotel Internet Services, so it is possible, though unlikely, that Marriott doesn’t know what’s going on. But it’s crazy to me that I’m paying $368 a night for a hotel room, and this is how I get treated.

comment posted at 5:05 AM on Apr-6-12

It has been no secret that Hillary Clinton has been a ferociously dedicated Secretary of State, visiting 95 countries and keeping mum about both the 2012 elections and her prospects after 2013. But when a photo of her checking her BlackBerry (still popular in DC!) while wearing Chanel-style sunglasses suddenly went viral, a Tumblr was born.
comment posted at 7:07 PM on Apr-5-12

Just beating Bank of America, Consumerist readers have voted Electronic Arts the worst company in America
comment posted at 11:15 AM on Apr-4-12

How America Is Making the Whole World Fat and Unhealthy It is hardly news that the United States faces epidemic health problems linked to poor diets. Nearly two out of every five Americans are obese. But according to a press release from the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, "The West is now exporting diabetes and heart disease to developing countries, along with the processed foods that line the shelves of global supermarkets. By 2030, more than 5 million people will die each year before the age of 60 from non-communicable diseases linked to diets." [...] De Schutter, whose work usually focuses on ending hunger, just published a new report saying, "The right to food cannot be reduced to a right not to starve. It is an inclusive right to an adequate diet providing all the nutritional elements an individual requires to live a healthy and active life, and the means to access them."
comment posted at 11:35 AM on Apr-4-12

In admitting that they have no expertise in running a corrections system, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that officers have unfettered authority to conduct full strip searches of any arrested individual, even for the most minor of offenses and in situations where officers lack any suspicion of contraband. The ruling comes days after the NY Times ran an analysis suggesting that the current supreme court is the most conservative court in modern history.
comment posted at 9:51 PM on Apr-2-12

The recession didn't gut the prospects of American young people. The Baby Boomers took care of that.
comment posted at 6:05 AM on Apr-2-12

Murdoch's Scandal - Lowell Bergman (the journalist portrayed by Al Pacino in The Insider) has investigated News Corporation for PBS Frontline [transcript]. He depicts Rupert Murdoch's British operation as a criminal enterprise, routinely hacking the voicemail and computers of innocent people, and using bribery and coercion to infiltrate police and government over decades. Enemies are ruthlessly "monstered" by the tabloids. Bergman also spoke to NPR's Fresh Air [transcript]. But the hits keep coming: in recent days News Corp has been accused of hacking rival pay TV services and promoting pirated receiver cards in both the UK and Australia. With the looming possibility of prosecution under America's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, how long will shareholders consider Rupert Murdoch irreplaceable? [Previous 1 2 3 4]
comment posted at 5:58 PM on Mar-28-12

MAIL SUPREMACY - How the Daily Mail Conquered England. 'In January, its Web arm, Mail Online, surpassed that of the New York Times as the most visited newspaper site in the world, drawing fifty-two million unique visitors a month. The Mail is the most powerful newspaper in Great Britain. A middle-market tabloid, with a daily readership of four and a half million, it reaches four times as many people as the Guardian, while being taken more seriously than the one paper that outsells it, the Sun. The Mail’s closest analogue in the American media is perhaps Fox News.'
comment posted at 2:52 AM on Mar-27-12

Yoga Breakdancing
comment posted at 10:57 PM on Mar-25-12

Director James Cameron is currently 32,160 feet underwater and descending further, solo, to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
comment posted at 9:15 PM on Mar-25-12

What Happens When a 35-Year-Old Man Retakes The SAT?
comment posted at 11:30 PM on Mar-24-12

Where is the physician outrage? Metafilter's own jscalzi played host to an anonymous post by an outraged physician who put forth a five point plan for civil disobedience in the face of legislators demanding that physicians prescribe transvaginal ultrasounds to women who may choose to abort.
comment posted at 1:16 AM on Mar-24-12

The true story of a lost child who never forgot his home, a mother who never gave up hope, and google earth.
comment posted at 6:55 PM on Mar-23-12

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
comment posted at 12:10 AM on Mar-23-12

Supreme Court Expands Right to Counsel in Plea Bargains. In a legal landscape that has enforced a right to counsel for criminal defendants, but not, practically speaking, a right to effective counsel except in extreme circumstances (ie: when you can prove that but for the gross incompetence of your counsel, the outcome of the case would have been different) and where the vast majority of criminal cases are resolved through plea bargaining, these two cases may be hugely influential in increasing the rights of the accused.
comment posted at 7:44 PM on Mar-21-12

Enemies, A Love Story, an oral history of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert that first appeared in the premiere issue of The Chicagoan, has been published today as an eBook single by Now and Then Reader. Slate has a lengthy free excerpt, which includes an amusing anecdotal report that the two men began every taping with a game of patty cake. Writer Josh Schollmeyer, executive editor of Playboy, based the 25,000-word article on interviews with 36 participants and observers of the two men who "essentially invented televised film criticism." (Via)
comment posted at 9:04 PM on Mar-21-12

Will the Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up? (SLYT, but incredible)
comment posted at 1:40 AM on Mar-21-12

Welcome to the world of Britain's working poor. The Rowleys belong to a section of society not much mentioned in ministerial and media dispatches. They are neither the very wealthy affected by the 50p tax nor the "squeezed middle" expressing anxiety about child benefit and this week's budget; nor are the Rowleys representative of the long-term unemployed or one of the 120,000 "troubled families" in which the government is investing £448m over the next three years.
comment posted at 4:15 PM on Mar-18-12

A jury found a former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi guilty of 15 charges of invasion of privacy and bias intimidation (under a relatively new New Jersey hate-crime statute) for secretly recording his roommate Tyler Clementi, who later committed suicide.
comment posted at 10:18 PM on Mar-16-12
comment posted at 5:36 PM on Mar-18-12

The British newspaper The Guardian has obtained a cache of 3,000 emails purported to have been exchanged between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, his wife, and a close circle of advisers and friends. The personal emails allegedly show Assad dismissing his government's proposed reforms, mocking the efforts of Arab League monitors to spot military tanks besieging cities, as well as Assad's wife placing extravagant shopping orders, sometimes through intermediaries.
comment posted at 8:13 PM on Mar-14-12
comment posted at 8:19 PM on Mar-14-12

Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, is brash and grandiose—and wildly attractive to young strivers seeking success.
comment posted at 11:02 PM on Mar-14-12
comment posted at 11:21 PM on Mar-14-12