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Reparations Sought From U.S. Firms for Slavery. Big U.S. companies were named in a lawsuit on Tuesday filed on behalf of black Americans descended from slaves, the first-ever class action seeking reparations from firms for profiting from slavery. Is this really sensible?
comment posted at 4:14 PM on Mar-26-02
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comment posted at 11:57 AM on Mar-27-02

"Drugs and the Internet: An Overview of the Threat to America’s Youth" It should probably come as no surprise that the government is interested in finding out what kind of drug-related information exists on the internet. What might surprise you is the Department of Justice’s self-described methodology and intent in pursuing that objective, with little apparent concern for such trivialities as oh, say, the First Amendment. For example, take a look at what the DOJ thinks constitutes "offending websites." Or how about this "threat": "Drug-culture advocates are chiefly interested in expanding the size of the community to both legitimize their activity and increase pressure on lawmakers to change or abolish drug control laws." (pressure on lawmakers to change or abolish laws? How un-American!) Needless to say, official statements like this scare some people, including rave fans, who appear to be a particular focus of the government’s efforts. (via overlawyered.com).
comment posted at 5:04 PM on Mar-26-02

Beauty and the Labor Market "Plastic surgery has become one of those things--like reading the tabloids and watching The Home Shopping Network--that Americans like doing and love ridiculing others for doing. Depending on whose numbers you believe, more than seven million of us went under the knife last year"...I had no idea... "In cold, hard economic terms, being attractive helps you get ahead." ...Now I get it, now I understand.
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Clean air? We don't need no stink'n clean air. "The White House firmly defended Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Tuesday as newly released documents showed he held at least eight private meetings with industry leaders -- but none with environmentalists -- while the administration crafted its energy plan." Is this really a surprise?
comment posted at 3:40 PM on Mar-26-02
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comment posted at 10:15 PM on Mar-26-02

Queen & DeNiro to launch "We Will Rock You" Surviving members of Queen have teamed with Robert DeNiro to stage a musical based on Queen's greatest hits.
comment posted at 4:07 PM on Mar-26-02

Swissair reborn: "SWISS Air Lines"... "Our 'Swissness' subtly informs the way we look, operate and care for our passengers. From colour palettes that reflect our natural environment to the cleanliness of our fleet and freshness of our food, our Swiss origins inspire us in all areas of our business." Can the new airline be rebuilt around a new set of "design" principals, spearheaded by Tyler Brûlé of Wallpaper mag fame?
comment posted at 4:11 PM on Mar-26-02

Speedy Gonzales Censored? Cartoon Network officials have banished Speedy Gonzales from their day and prime time lineups for fear of offending Mexican Americans, but fans of the Mexican mouse hero are fighting back.
comment posted at 2:50 PM on Mar-27-02

Dumbing Down The SAT I was reading this article and several recent news stories came to mind (sorry, can't find links). One was regarding the resistance of teacher's unions to adopt teaching techniques that have proven successful in private schools (phonics would be an example) and the other was a radio news story about a teacher's union defending three schools that had failed to meet state requirements as to quality of education being provided. So, my question is, are teacher's unions interested in educating children or simply fighting to lower the standards?
comment posted at 11:45 AM on Mar-25-02

New study claims cold fusion is possible 'A paper by a team of researchers at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory who say they have discovered evidence of what looks like nuclear fusion taking place in a relatively inexpensive tabletop device.' You have to go back to 1989 for the last claim of this kind. Cheap energy - the answer to America's dreams, or Bush's biggest nightmare? (Via Techdirt)
comment posted at 11:55 AM on Mar-25-02

Study: Mobile Phone Users Worse Than Drunk Drivers
It took mobile users half-a-second longer to react than normal, and one-third of a second longer than when they had been drinking.
They were also less able to maintain a constant speed and found it harder to keep a safe distance from the car in front. Participants in the study stated that they found it easier to drive drunk than when using a cell phone.
Here's the fun quote:
"Eventually," said Dominic Burch, road safety campaign manager at Direct Line, "we would like to see the use of mobile phones when driving, both hand-held and hands-free, become as socially unacceptable as drink driving."
Nice graphic Here that explains the time/distance it takes to stop. That fraction of a second = +46 feet stopping time over normal, and +33 over being drunk. More Here and The Full Report[PDF].
comment posted at 2:15 PM on Mar-24-02

Who needs a US disinformation campaign when the Brits will do it for them? (maybe, because we're not very good at it?) "Tony Blair's senior foreign policy adviser, David Manning, planted story of terror lab find in cave in Afghanistan to justify the deployment of 1,700 Royal Marines" - a White House spokesman said "we have received no specific intelligence on a chemical or biological weapons facility". I'm tired of being taken like this - as a dumb schmuck who'll consume the lies which hack politicos generate for their own murderous ends, and not protest.
comment posted at 12:58 PM on Mar-24-02
comment posted at 11:07 PM on Mar-26-02

Empire burlesque: Iraq invasion through the looking glass - "MECCA, March 22, 2005 -- President Osama B. Laden today called for a 'regime change' in the United States, saying the military dictatorship led by unelected strongman George Walker Bush 'is an ever-present threat to world peace.'" Spot on or way off, I found it amusing, in a whistling-past-the-graveyard way, at least. (piece originally appeared in The Moscow Times)
comment posted at 11:43 PM on Mar-23-02

Anonymously rat out your thieving neighbors. Cable companies are mounting a television commercial campaign advertising cabletheft.com, where you can rat out anyone you might suspect stealing cable. Tagline of the commercial: "Sooner or later, you're going to pay."
comment posted at 12:56 AM on Mar-24-02
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Once again, in the U.S. we reap what we sow. Now, I tend to be cynical when it comes to the activities of our government, but even I was shocked by the first two paragraphs of this article...
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The state of college discussion has been on the down-turn. I thought it might just be at my small college in the Midwest where people don't really have much to say. Everyone's liberal, everyone believes in equality, everyone believes that the government should help the poor (and I do too), but no one seems to be able to argue these points or give any reasoning for their own beliefs. Here at MeFi we engage in debate on many subject matters, but recently debate has gotten a bad name. This generation, for the most part, seems not to want to engage in it because it is somehow seen as pointless or destructive. I say bring it on... what is the college experience if not a contentious, interesting one? What would our parents think of us?
comment posted at 12:08 PM on Mar-23-02

Apollo XIII converted to Imax , to be followed by other standard films, only bigger. Good choice. I want to see Contact. What do you want to see, or does Imax make you dizzy?
comment posted at 12:12 PM on Mar-23-02
comment posted at 1:03 PM on Mar-23-02

Polls Come Under Fire. Watchdog Group Issues Rebuke on Poll on Islamic Countries. Meanwhile, those bogus aggregates continue to circulate freely in this country and around the world.
comment posted at 5:46 PM on Mar-22-02

Like Benny Hill, Monty Python, Mr Bean, Eddy Izzard, et al , before him, looks like Sacha Baron Cohen, aka Ali G. is finally heading this way. Although the London Times denounces him, while "frighteningly" proclaiming his latest movie will be a massive hit, and the BBC is royally pissed off, there's no holding him back. Next stop is America and he wants to be massive in da States. Some prior discussions going back all the way to May 2000 here, here ,here, PS You can catch a glimpse of him the next time Shaggy's Me Julie video plays.
comment posted at 1:21 PM on Mar-22-02
comment posted at 1:45 PM on Mar-22-02

The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act is being spearheaded by Sen. Fritz Hollings of South Carolina. He wants to prohibit the sale of any device that can play, copy or electronically transmit one or more categories of media unless special protection technologies are incorporated. Anyone intentionally violating the CBDTPA would be subject to civil and criminal penalties, including prison terms. Welcome to the 21st century.
comment posted at 1:56 PM on Mar-22-02

Schoolchildren Strip-Searched for Lost $5 This, from the same school district that overruled a teacher who failed cheating students. I dunno about you, but making a bunch of 3rd graders get naked in school seems a little out of bounds. Feel free to tell the school board what you think of this little exercise in pedophiliac totalitarianism.
comment posted at 11:42 AM on Mar-22-02
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comment posted at 9:33 PM on Mar-22-02

Nethack 3.4.0 has just been released...If you're not excited then, well, sucks to you.
comment posted at 12:16 PM on Mar-22-02

Why Would Celibacy Cause Pedophilia? I been puzzled by the folks who are blaming the celibacy rule in the Catholic church for the pedophilic priests. Maybe I'm missing something, but the argument sounds counter intuitive to me.
comment posted at 11:12 PM on Mar-21-02
comment posted at 11:42 PM on Mar-21-02

JOSEPH SABIA RESPONDS!!! "Nearly 30,000 individuals have visited Cornell Review Online to read my March 4th article, College Girls: Unpaid Whores [editor's note: that number is now approaching 60,000]..."
comment posted at 10:26 PM on Mar-21-02

Michael Moore San Diego Near Arrest Blown Out of Proportion: Despite Moore's implications that his appearance was somehow a courageous act of dissent, it turns out that the whole thing was a harmless followthrough with a permit: a trivial book signing session, not a rally storming the gates. Is Michael Moore a legend in his own mind? And with self-designated spokesmen of this egotistical caliber, how can the Left as a whole expect to be taken seriously?
comment posted at 8:20 PM on Mar-21-02

Britain threatens Saddam with nukes. (via Fark) Is anyone else tired of this? Why can't we just leave each other alone for awhile? (You may have to register to see the story)
comment posted at 11:39 AM on Mar-21-02
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Pennsylvania school sends notes home if kids are overweight My paper ran this story Sunday, and it's starting to make its way around the Internet. But still: should schools warn parents if their kids are too heavy? And who decides 'too heavy'?
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comment posted at 8:55 PM on Mar-21-02