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Fat tax? Any Metafilter readers like to "weigh in" on the proposed fat tax?
comment posted at 7:41 AM on Apr-25-00
comment posted at 9:22 AM on Apr-25-00
comment posted at 12:48 PM on Apr-25-00
comment posted at 7:44 AM on Apr-26-00

"Elian and the Stormtrooper": that famous picture which people have wondered about, makes more sense as part of a sequence. The cameraman was just snapping away, and picked the one picture which was most dramatic. When you see it in context, it makes more sense. The agent had just entered the room and didn't know what he'd find (Great Uncle with a shotgun?).

Once he knew he'd found the kid, he clearly points his gun away.
comment posted at 12:50 PM on Apr-25-00

Now here's a doozy of an ethical dilemma. Sometimes technology creates ethical problems, or un-solves ones we had previously solved. I'd be interested in how people answer the question posed in the title. Hmm?
comment posted at 6:41 PM on Apr-23-00

GirlHacker stikes again! :-) She linked the website for Mental Engineering, a PBS series devoted to deconstructing advertising. Sounds like a great idea to me...
comment posted at 6:41 PM on Apr-23-00

My opinion about the hostage rescue in Miami. (Link to my page; sorry.)
comment posted at 1:53 PM on Apr-23-00
comment posted at 8:06 AM on Apr-25-00

This is one for discussion. Last week, I read an article debating whether or not photography was a true art form like painting or drawing, or if instead it was merely a reflection of reality and not artistic. With that in mind, when we see photos like this one, this one, and this one, why do we assume that any part of what was captured was the truth? Is the camera an impartial observer, or is the photographer staging these images as a painter would? Do you think a photograph has enough reality to be considered the truth, or is a photograph a miniaturized view of reality, depending on what you point a camera at? I'm curious to hear people's thoughts, as I see groups on every side of the issue spinning these photos to support their cause.
comment posted at 11:57 AM on Apr-23-00

Maybe John McCain will get elected president after all, even though he's 'not running anymore'...
comment posted at 8:04 PM on Apr-21-00
comment posted at 11:57 AM on Apr-22-00

Canada arrests hacker' father. Strange, I don't recall anything like this ever happening. Your thoughts?
comment posted at 9:14 AM on Apr-21-00

IU bans Napster again Thursday after Metallica (along with E/M Ventrues and Creeping Death Music) filed a suit against Napster. IU joins Yale (who banned again on April 14) and U. of Southern California...all of whom were mentioned in the suit.
comment posted at 9:12 AM on Apr-21-00

Your chance to come clean to Metallica Here is your chance to pay Metallica back for all the MP3's you downloaded illeagally.
comment posted at 12:20 PM on Apr-21-00

Privacy? What's that? We all know that most of the new 'free' Internet Access Providers pay the bills by selling ads that you're forced to read, and some of them are selling information about *you* to other people. Well, along comes Predictive Networks, who are going to sell information about your surfing even if you're paying the freight. Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
[ from Lauren Weinstein's Privacy Digest ]
comment posted at 1:21 PM on Apr-21-00

The Full Monty was broadcast on Fox last night with copious warnings about nudity. When the final scene arrived, they block-blurred the butt cracks, except for the very last still which was on screen for several seconds. Question: why is it OK to show still tushies, but not moving tushies?
comment posted at 12:24 PM on Apr-21-00

A day after a MSIE bug, a Netscape bug. I figured I had to post this here, since the anti-Microsoft crowd always posts about the MSIE bugs, but seems to stay reeeeeal quiet when a bug is found in their chosen browser. I wish that people would just acknowledge that all software has bugs, and that discovering them is a helpful link in fixing them.
comment posted at 7:01 AM on Apr-21-00

Mother-stabbers? Father-rapers? Methinks the writer of this piece on the repercussions of trading MP3's is a bit too much of an Arlo Guthrie fan, but the info's interesting. 3 years for *1* copyrighted MP on your hard drive? Is it time for the Second American Revolution yet?

[ From Clickz, via NewsLinx ]
comment posted at 10:32 AM on Apr-20-00
comment posted at 1:35 PM on Apr-20-00
comment posted at 2:12 PM on Apr-20-00
comment posted at 7:07 AM on Apr-21-00

Should other states recognize same-sex civil unions licensed in Vermont? Vote and they'll send your vote to state governors, Congress, and the President.
comment posted at 9:13 AM on Apr-20-00
comment posted at 1:39 PM on Apr-20-00

Do security apps like this one actually work? Anyone here with a DSL or ISDN, or other "always on" connections, have any tips on security at home?
comment posted at 8:51 AM on Apr-20-00
comment posted at 7:43 AM on Apr-21-00

They bagged the kid who was responsible for all those Denial-of-Service attacks a couple of months ago. He's Canadian.

Here's an interesting legal question: could the US extradite him? The crimes were committed in the US, but he was in Canada at the time he did it, since he worked through the Internet. Whose laws apply?

(By the way, I've seen no indication that the US is considering extradition; I was just curious whether they could extradite him.)
comment posted at 8:55 AM on Apr-20-00
comment posted at 8:56 AM on Apr-20-00
comment posted at 12:06 PM on Apr-23-00

Does everyone know about the Darwin Awards? (These are the awards given to people who most improve the human race... by departing early...)

The most commonly cited one is the story of the guy who mounted a rocket on his Chevy Impala, and flew it into a canyon wall... well, as with most good stories, it's based on an actual event. [ Reserve an hour or more, and bring diapers. ]
comment posted at 11:33 AM on Apr-19-00

Caroline celebrates her ageing process tomorrow!! Happy birthday!
comment posted at 6:33 AM on Apr-19-00

No money or time to give to charity? Give yourself. [via grasshopper]
comment posted at 6:22 AM on Apr-19-00

HTML Tags the new porn
comment posted at 8:42 AM on Apr-18-00

This whole click tracking thing... There's a spinoff discussion going on concerning the fact that I post links with embedded click-counting munging, so that I can see how many people are interested in the various topics I post, both here and on my own 'log.

On the basis of 2 replies, Matt's decided "he's glad he doesn't do that", and I think that might be a slight overreaction...
comment posted at 6:41 AM on Apr-18-00
comment posted at 8:39 AM on Apr-18-00
comment posted at 11:00 AM on Apr-18-00
comment posted at 1:19 PM on Apr-18-00
comment posted at 1:21 PM on Apr-18-00
comment posted at 6:26 AM on Apr-19-00

Unclear on the concept... You thought Mahir was bad? I just wonder is this one is a put-on or not... [ from Hey, URL! ]
comment posted at 9:28 PM on Apr-17-00
comment posted at 9:51 PM on Apr-17-00
comment posted at 8:46 AM on Apr-18-00
comment posted at 11:03 AM on Apr-18-00
comment posted at 6:29 AM on Apr-19-00

"When you visit a site, you can't take that information and use it for your own purposes, especially for commercial purposes," the lawyer says. Is it just me, or will this ruling render every single search engine illegal?
comment posted at 4:18 PM on Apr-17-00

More news on the IIS exploit After acknowledging the problem last week, Micro$oft is now saying that the backdoor in IIS... is a flaw. M$ Technet seems to have a fix for this problem, delete the offending file! So, if systems are your bag, my advice is to start researching security if you are running M$ internet server products (SQL 7, Exchange, IIS, Index Server, etc.).
comment posted at 8:35 AM on Apr-17-00

The myth of megapixel cameras is explained here in detail, finally "illuminating" why digital resolution is often worse than you'd expect. In brief, digital cameras interpolate to get a color image from a black and white CCD -- losing sharpness in the process, and taking up far more flash card space than reason dictates. Conclusion: buying into the latest technology isn't worth the expense, until camera companies wise up. Finally, evidence which backs up my faith in scanning photos taken on a (decidedly analog) Nikon N70! [via Honeyguide]
comment posted at 7:15 AM on Apr-17-00

NPR on the side of Corporate Radio? Bird on a Wire spotted this Salon story that says that National Public Radio, those bast...ions of freedom of speech, are siding with Clear Channel and Infinity Broadcasting to try and restrict the proposed Low Power FM broadcasting service to third adjacent channels (90.1 -> 90.7) instead of second (90.1 -> 90.5)...

a change that will cut the number of possible stations from thousands... to 75.
comment posted at 7:16 AM on Apr-17-00

deepleap has launched.
comment posted at 9:20 PM on Apr-15-00

Hate vs. Hate Film critic Roger Ebert criticizes Hatewatch, a catalog of hate sites intended for people who hate hate. My commentary is a bit too long for the front page, so I put it on my log. Choose your poison.
comment posted at 10:08 AM on Apr-16-00