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It's Webby time. You may now commence (or, in some cases, continue) mocking Tiffany Shlain.
comment posted at 12:03 AM on Apr-30-02

An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century. Because you never know when you'll need to make Marrow Without Marrow (Which No One Will Suspect), forget how to grease your Chicken Called Madhûna, or need to rustle up something for the in-laws (A Dish Praised in Springtime for Those with Fulness and Those with Burning Blood).
comment posted at 10:56 PM on Apr-15-02

EuroAnts Recognizing that free trade and globalization are inevitable, ants in Europe have formed a super-colony. Does their currency have pictures of generic anthills so no colony feels left out?
comment posted at 11:12 PM on Apr-15-02
comment posted at 4:28 PM on Apr-16-02

Huge hydrogen stores found below Earth's crust. "Scientists have discovered vast quantities of hydrogen gas, widely regarded as the most promising alternative to today's dwindling stocks of fossil fuels, lying beneath the Earth's crust. The discovery has stunned energy experts, who believe that it could provide virtually limitless supplies of clean fuel for cars, homes and industry." This discovery sounds too good to be true (for us energy-hungry humans that is, bad news for the bacteria.)
comment posted at 11:06 PM on Apr-15-02

Oh cripes. Not again. Remember like a year or two ago when M&M/Mars switched the lime flavored Skittle with green apple? And it totally upset that harmonic flavor balance you get when you shove a handful of Skittles into your gaping maw? This time, it's much much worse. The lemon Skittle has been replaced with one of nine white Mystery Flavors! Guess all nine and get a "FREE CHEW THE CLUE^TM Screensaver."

Jesus Christ. Quit screwing with my candy, people.

Warning: site saturated with #FFFF00. May cause blindness.
comment posted at 6:40 PM on Apr-15-02

Hoopla.com Stolen, Net Sol says, "Oops! Not Our Problem!" Leslie Harpold's Hoopla.com was stolen from her through a series of dodgy faxes (or something...) and now, Network Solutions is throwing up their hands and telling her they can't do anything. If this doesn't beg for Metafilter community action, I don't know what does.
comment posted at 7:36 PM on Apr-12-02

Bush and Pro-Lifers call for complete ban on any clone or stem cell research. The movement for a ban got a significant boost Tuesday when Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he would support the cloning ban legislation, which the Senate is expected to debate in the weeks ahead. Though not a surprise, the announcement from Frist, a heart-transplant surgeon, is important because his views on medical topics are respected by many in Congress. "Many are overpromising on the science" benefits that are possible from cloning, Frist told reporters. He also said creating a human embryo "for reason of experimentation leads to destruction of that embryo and to me that is morally unacceptable."
comment posted at 12:09 AM on Apr-10-02

Uncle Sam Sez: Sheesh! Get Some Exercise!! A new National Center for Health Statistics survey shows that only seven out of 10 Americans get enough exercise every week. About four in 10 get practically no exercise whatsoever. How much do you exercise, and if so, are you one the three in 10 who do so enough? Is the report full of it? Should I go swimming now, or in an hour? Ride the bike there or take the car? Isn't driving a car to a nearby gym kinda stupid? But I digress. (Pauses, gets his bearings.) Isn't this pathetic?
comment posted at 3:49 PM on Apr-7-02

The ThreeRing Web Mapping project adds a dot to a blank canvas showing your geographic location (or that of your ISP, as best it can guess based on your IP address). They've also got a code snippet to put on your own site that automagically adds your visitors to the map. The US is already clearly defined, Europe is getting there, and Oceania is coming into view. (They've also got one of them Tag-Board thingies, which is painful to read for any length of time.)
comment posted at 9:19 PM on Apr-5-02

Rewriting history in real time. Recent blogging epiphanies and Borg Journalism are creating an amazing system of information sharing. But this article raises some interesting questions about the flip side. If an entry is removed before anyone reads it, does it count?  Or has the collective made it impossible for anything that's said to be retracted?
comment posted at 10:15 PM on Apr-3-02

Eight peace activists were shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers. The soldiers apparently (and I could be wrong) fired without provocation -- the activists were unarmed, and were marching peacefully. Israel's Justice Minister was quoted in the Miami Herald today (no web link available, sorry) as saying, "A person playing with fire should not yell when he gets burned." Essentially, what is being said here is that being a protestor is sufficient reason to be shot. The Israeli army claims to be hunting down "terrorists", but if this is how they define the word I don't feel too inclined to trust them.
comment posted at 3:31 PM on Apr-2-02

Jesus! In The Raisin Bread? What Kinda Holy Communion Is That?! Better read Helen Hull Hitchcock's fascinating column on Catholic.net to find out: "In recent months Catholics from around the country have been reporting with increasing frequency that their parishes are using "real" bread (i.e. table bread) instead of Communion hosts. Many are concerned that the validity of the Mass is affected. "Have I really received Christ?" is a frequent question. Are they right to be concerned? You bet...So, have progressive Catholics gone too far? And what does the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, known to all as IGMR, have to say about that?
comment posted at 7:22 PM on Apr-2-02

After a few good natured google bombs surfaced on weblogs in the past month or so, a recent meme to get an anti-scientology site higher in the rankings for "scientology" searches at Google has reportedly resulted in the removal of all links to Operation Clambake from Google. Has Google overstepped its bounds or did participating weblogs go too far?
comment posted at 5:16 PM on Mar-20-02

Check out the Weblogger CD Swap Now this seems like a really fun idea to me: basically you put your name and address in a "hat" and get the names/addresses of 5 other bloggers and burn a CD of summer music for them. Your reward? Get CD's from 5 other bloggers... is that swanky or what? via Ernie at Little Yellow Different
comment posted at 7:55 PM on Mar-19-02

Man dies before boarding an airplane? Or did he die in midflight? "Authorities disagree on whether Walsh, who had a history of heart- and kidney-related health problems, died midflight or before he boarded the plane." What really gets me is: how could he get on the airplane if he was already dead? Wouldn't the people helping him onto the plane notice?
comment posted at 10:23 PM on Mar-18-02

Do you pick your nose? You'd be surprised.
comment posted at 4:34 AM on Mar-15-02

What you talkin' about Willis? I'm talkin' about bitches and guns and kicking Vanilla Ice's ass so hard he's gonna look like Mr Drummond!
comment posted at 10:14 PM on Mar-14-02

Goliath lost. This and other pro-small billboards are popping up in downtown Atlanta. No doubt they have cousins (little ones, I'm sure) springing up in your cities. I couldn't believe my eyes, because the billboards seemed to be promoting the ever-so-British Mini Cooper.

The Mini is... well... just like it says, the veritable opposite of the stereotypical American SUV. Yes, it is the type of car Mr Bean would drive. But when you see them in their natural Anglo habitat, you can't help but notice they're just perfectly suited to zipping to and from wherever. The site lets you find a dealer, build your own Mini and save it for future reference. The catch is that you have to fill out an opt-in form, but with lines like this as part of your agreement, how could you resist?

"- I agree to chase squirrels around the park now and then and giggle like a madman while doing it."

Yeah. I want one. But will the American public?
comment posted at 2:24 PM on Mar-14-02

Is your date of birth in pi? Of course it is, eventually. But are you one of the lucky 63% whose special day falls within the first 100,000,000 digits? How about your Social Security Number? That club is even more exclusive. A good tool for the pi-curious.
comment posted at 6:51 PM on Mar-13-02

Art Fights Back — an exhibit of poster art at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa — displays images dedicated to the memory of September 11 and support of the Unites States and its troops. Seems like a typical thing to do around war time, right?

Take a close look at the actual poster design. Don't they seem rather non-American in their artistic style? In fact, they recall an era of poster design for a dramatically different context than what was typically thought of as U.S. patriotism.
comment posted at 1:42 AM on Mar-12-02

They call them"echphenomena".It's interesting to discover years later that there's a formal name for something you experienced. Around age 7 to 8, I went through a period where I would repeat everything a second time just under my breath(I could also not hear my self doing so). It eventually went away on it's own, but for a while I was freaking people out. In my twenties I met two other people who underwent similar experiences. Most often, these behaviors seem to be associated with Tourrete's Syndrome or Parkinson's, although I suffer from neither. It is a fascinating phenomena, though. Have any other MeFite's been acquainted with this phenomena?
comment posted at 9:28 PM on Mar-11-02

"Arrr, matey, insecure transaction off the port bow!" Data can be stolen as it is transferred by recording and interpreting the flashing of LED lights on your equipment. Theoretically, then, your data isn't safe within viewing distance of a telescope, unless some engineer comes up with an ingenious workaround.
comment posted at 8:10 PM on Mar-7-02

Trade Wars Bush imposes import tariffs on steel, something I didn't really expect coming from the administration. Dangerous precedent or useful bulwark against laissez-faire globalization?
comment posted at 5:18 PM on Mar-5-02

The Euphemism Generator can create up to 68,289,490 unique phrases! Do you have a favorite euphemism?
comment posted at 2:52 PM on Mar-5-02

CD's? Not for this audiophile! The new race is between Super Audio CD's and DVD Audio. Since we've seen CD-i, CD-3, the 3 inch CD, the dreaded Digital Compact Cassette, and sadly the minidisc fail as the next big thing, where do we go from here?
comment posted at 10:01 PM on Mar-5-02

Pigeons Ride the Subway!(NYT Link) This reporter found truth behind a New York urban legend, train riding pigeons. Any weird stories of urbanized animals in your area?
comment posted at 3:30 PM on Mar-5-02

Huge ice field found on Mars The Mars Odyssey orbiter has found a vast field of water ice stretching from the Martian south pole to 60 degrees south.
comment posted at 3:48 AM on Mar-5-02

spike milligan dies the world needs people like him.
comment posted at 3:04 AM on Feb-27-02

Ethnic Cleansing: Wired Chimes In "We want people to recognize we're average people," Hale said. "If we can influence video games and entertainment, it will make people understand we are their friends and neighbors.... As long as it doesn't denigrate white people or have pornography in it, it's OK with us."
comment posted at 7:19 PM on Feb-21-02

Obese people may get an extra seat for free when they catch a flight in Canada, following an unprecedented legal ruling that is rattling the airline industry.
comment posted at 10:10 PM on Feb-21-02

Alabama Chief Justice on homosexuality: "abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature". The Christian Coalition applauded. This is the same judge who tacked up the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. I'm just happy we learned some lessons from the Taliban.
comment posted at 7:57 PM on Feb-20-02

Why Your Digital Data Could One Day Disappear HBS Working Knowledge has a Story (actually it's an Excerpt of Dark Ages II: When the Digital Data Die, by Bryan Bergeron) that says data stored on discs and other forms of computer storage are anything but permanent. Not only are the disks themselves the trouble (they last 5-20 years), the computers that read/write them are an added problem, tried opening a Commodore 64 file lately, or a 5 ¼ inch disc?
comment posted at 7:28 PM on Feb-17-02

The great Australian lie? THE Australian navy released only two pictures from more than 100 taken of sailors rescuing boatpeople last October, images the then defence minister seized on to suggest asylum-seekers had thrown children overboard..

It doesn't look good for the ruling government, but Australian public opinion is so heavily weighed against the 'illegal immigrants' that the bulk of voters will move on. They'll forget and probably forgive. After all, we expect our politicians to lie and/or manipulate. Don't we?
comment posted at 5:18 PM on Feb-17-02
comment posted at 5:44 PM on Feb-17-02
comment posted at 2:30 AM on Feb-18-02

A POLISH explorer who sets off next week in search of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold in South America, says that he has located it using a 16th-century Jesuit manuscript from the Vatican archives.
comment posted at 5:27 PM on Feb-17-02

Kate, bad breath cramps any girls style! This and a ton of other great Medical oriented advertising from the 1910's to 1940's can be found at the Medicine and Madison Avenue Project. How is it that with all of our 21st century technology we've lost something as crucial as Gardol?
comment posted at 5:44 PM on Feb-14-02

How to survive in London on £7,000 a year: I'd love to be rich, but it is so expensive. Only joking. Spending big money and accumulating material possessions has never interested me. I don't need retail therapy to cheer me up: my desires are focused elsewhere - in social justice and human rights. Via Nutlog.
comment posted at 5:01 PM on Feb-6-02

Notmilk.com hacked? A growing feud between the notmilk man Robert Cohen, who wrote Milk: The Deadly Poison and VegSource.com who hosted his site leads to VegSource removing all content from the notmilk.com site. Cohen sends out a newsletter saying that his site had been hacked, VegSource responds and calls Cohen a "big fat liar". Is this an abuse of VegSource's discretion? Is this just petty name calling? Whose extreme views will reign supreme here in Vegan Stadium!?
comment posted at 5:13 PM on Feb-6-02

E911 technology allows for the location of a cellular phone to be determined by the wireless service provider within several hundred feet. As consequence, privacy groups have been extremely resistant to the implementation of E911. In the wake of the September 11 tragedies, however, the balance between privacy concerns and national security to have changed for many American citizens. Sort of via 2600 This seems to be coming, what do you think?
comment posted at 7:20 PM on Feb-6-02

Researchers at the University of Utah and Ohio State have developed a light-tunable plastic magnet. "The researchers developed a plastic material that becomes 1.5 times more magnetic when blue light shines on it. Green light partially reverses that effect." My mind is now completely blown.
comment posted at 9:21 PM on Feb-5-02

What does Sesame Street and Greta Van Susteren have in common? They both recently received a dramatic facelift.
comment posted at 5:11 PM on Feb-4-02

Todd Ginsberg has counted all of his sneezes since 2000, and he averages about two a day.
comment posted at 7:28 PM on Jan-31-02

wil wheaton sweeps the bloggies
comment posted at 8:17 PM on Jan-30-02
comment posted at 9:24 PM on Jan-30-02

"Stupid" statements that's the unofficial response from Baghdad it seems, regarding Bush's State of the Union Address. Who's overstepping here?
comment posted at 9:58 PM on Jan-30-02

Children can be cruel and remarkably inventive with it, as this directory of playground insults shows. It's the personal remiscences which explain each insult that make it worthwhile.
comment posted at 7:29 PM on Jan-30-02

Is the Internet Suffering from Acute 'Englishitis'? "...the advantage among Net surfers will soon no longer belong to English-speaking users but rather to those who master several languages. Multilingualism is without a doubt the future of the network...."
comment posted at 7:27 PM on Jan-30-02

White House Superbowl Ads Forget Britney's "Pepsi Generation" ad, we've got two commercials costing $1.6 million each linking terrorism with the drug trade! You gotta wonder if Rupert called in a favor.
comment posted at 12:44 AM on Jan-31-02