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Where's my jetpack?
comment posted at 6:50 AM on May-18-07
comment posted at 7:35 AM on May-18-07

The mystery of the disappearing bees might not be much of a problem. That is if commercial bee keepers go organic. (previously 1,2)
comment posted at 7:30 AM on May-18-07
comment posted at 7:36 AM on May-18-07

...In March 1991, a few days after the end of the gulf war, American soldiers exploded two large caches of ammunition and missiles in Khamisiyah, Iraq. Some of the missiles contained the dangerous nerve gases sarin and cyclosarin. Based on wind patterns and the size of the plume, the Department of Defense has estimated that more than 100,000 American troops may have been exposed to at least small amounts of the gases. When the roughly 700,000 deployed troops returned home, about one in seven began experiencing a mysterious set of ailments, often called gulf war illnesses, with problems including persistent fatigue, chronic headaches, joint pain and nausea. Those symptoms persist today for more than 150,000 of them, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than the number of troops exposed to the gases.

Gas May Have Harmed Troops, Scientists Say
comment posted at 9:40 AM on May-17-07

Reaping What We Sow? Right now, White House lawyers are working up new rules that will govern what CIA interrogators can do to prisoners in secret. Those rules will set the standard not only for the CIA but also for what kind of treatment captured American soldiers can expect from their captors, now and in future wars. Before the president once again approves a policy of official cruelty, he should reflect on that.Charles C. Krulak was commandant of the Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999. Joseph P. Hoar was commander in chief of U.S. Central Command from 1991 to 1994. (Washington Post)
Some other opinions. (youtube) Thoughtful commentary. More.
comment posted at 9:08 AM on May-17-07

"War Czar" -- another term for "highly paid radio operator"? So the Decider in Chief wants to have a War Czar* in the White House. He appointed Douglas Lute after three other general officers turned him down. Note that Lute, a three-star general, is actually inferior in rank to David Petraeus, the four-star who's commanding the Multi-National Force in Iraq. Black Five had some thoughts on this, as did Jules Crittenden.
comment posted at 10:25 AM on May-17-07

The Brain Trust Project “is a non-partisan organization dedicated to developing smarter public policy by supporting the role of academics in creating solutions for the political problems facing us today.” The website is the work of USC undergraduates Mathew Morgan and Colin Koproske.
comment posted at 7:17 AM on May-15-07

The Green Scare: Rod Coronado gave a talk in San Diego and the feds called his words ‘terrorism.’ How new laws are equating environmentalists with Al Qaeda. [Via Gristmill.]
comment posted at 7:28 AM on May-15-07

The Illustrated Guide to GOP Scandals
comment posted at 9:18 AM on May-14-07

The end of one-click patents? The Supreme court recently handed down a decision in the case of KSR v. Teleflex requiring courts to use "common sense" in determining what is an is not "Obvious" and therefore not patentable. According to SCOTUSblog, this will greatly affect "combination" patents that involve combining two already existing ideas in a new way.
comment posted at 11:49 AM on May-9-07

Two podcasts from the BBC. Around the world, by every measure, America's reputation and image has never been so poor. Part 1: Venezuela; Part 2: Turkey
comment posted at 11:40 AM on May-9-07
comment posted at 11:52 AM on May-9-07

New Justices, New Rules: How the Supreme Court's Validation of the Federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act Affects Women's Constitutional Liberty and Equality. A two-part FindLaw analysis of Gonzales v. Carhart.
comment posted at 6:15 AM on May-9-07

The Blurter. The Complainer. The Know-It-All. The Spoiled Darling. You can handle them all.
comment posted at 6:24 AM on May-9-07
comment posted at 1:02 PM on May-9-07

Jess does Ubuntu! I know nothing about Ubuntu, but Metafilter's own jessamyn has inspired me to try this on my old PC before I donate it to a friend. (via)
comment posted at 7:08 AM on May-9-07

The World's Most Unbelievable Invention Pursuing the demand for fresh eggs, Chinese manufacturers have come across the most amazing solution: man-made chicken eggs. More here.
comment posted at 7:52 AM on May-4-07

Freaks and Geeks keeping it real. [TNR login=metafilter pwd=metafilter] In late March, New Republic columnist Noam Scheiber posted an article strongly criticizing, among other things, Chicago Economics Professor Steve Levitt's "cute and clever" approach to the dismal science, now famously known as Freakonomics. Levitt replied last week with a post of his own. And now, Scheiber has appears to want some more of this.
comment posted at 11:20 AM on May-3-07

Aptitude Schmaptitude! While the state of mathematical incompetence in this country has been much lamented, most famously in Paulos's brilliant 1988 book Innumeracy, it is still tacitly accepted . . . Being incompetent in math has become not only acceptable in this widely innumerate culture, it has almost become a matter of pride. No one goes around showing off that he is illiterate, or has no athletic ability, but declarations of innumeracy are constantly made without any embarrassment or shame.
comment posted at 7:54 AM on May-3-07

Meet Mark Penn. Pollster to Hillary Clinton and Corporate America. Penn came up with terms like "Soccer Moms" and "Office Park Dads", and if you're reading metafilter you're probably an e-fluential (you can take a quiz to find out. And don't forget about the momfluentials! Oh, and remember, when talking about the war, don't ever use the word mistake. Hillary Isn't)
comment posted at 6:25 AM on May-1-07

"Is Wi-Fi going to turn out to be the tobacco, asbestos or Thalidomide of the 21st century? It's looking that way." Woman choses to live in a Faraday cage to ameliorate the symptoms caused by electrosmog. It's funny that she looks so much like a beekeeper in her fancy hat, given the recent kerfuffle (from another UK paper) about mobile phones wiping out the bees. Coming soon: faraday undies. [via]
comment posted at 12:57 PM on Apr-27-07
comment posted at 12:58 PM on Apr-27-07

Senate backs Iraq withdrawal date The US Senate has voted to approve a bill which requires US troops to be withdrawn from Iraq within 11 months.
comment posted at 11:27 AM on Apr-26-07

impeachy keen! learn why cleveland is the capital of polka, bowling and kielbasa.
comment posted at 11:30 AM on Apr-26-07

A Japanese actress complains that her new poodle doesn't bark and won't eat dog food. Why's that? Because it's a lamb. Apparently as many as 2,000 people in Japan may have been duped. Let the punning commence.
comment posted at 10:08 AM on Apr-26-07
comment posted at 10:28 AM on Apr-26-07

"The story of how high officials misled the country has been told. But they couldn't have done it on their own; they needed a compliant press, to pass on their propaganda as news and cheer them on." Bill Moyers returned to PBS last night with this documentary (transcript) examining the mainstream media's role in the run-up to the US-led invasion of Iraq.
comment posted at 10:17 AM on Apr-26-07
comment posted at 11:34 AM on Apr-26-07
comment posted at 11:35 AM on Apr-26-07
comment posted at 11:55 AM on Apr-26-07
comment posted at 11:59 AM on Apr-26-07
comment posted at 4:42 AM on Apr-27-07

“With the number of human beings having increased more than six-fold in the past 200 years, the modern mind simply assumes that men and women . . . will always breed enough children to grow the population . . . Yet, for more than a generation now, well-fed, healthy, peaceful populations around the world have been producing too few children to avoid population decline. . . . Throughout the broad sweep of human history, there are many examples of people, or classes of people, who chose to avoid the costs of parenthood. Indeed, falling fertility is a recurring tendency of human civilization. Why then did humans not become extinct long ago? The short answer is patriarchy.”
comment posted at 10:27 AM on Apr-26-07
comment posted at 11:22 AM on Apr-26-07
comment posted at 11:37 AM on Apr-26-07

A Michigan blogger recounts a rather gripping tale of him and his wife: how he ended up facing alone a difficult decision for which very few men ever find themselves solely responsible. The subject can be a debate landmine, but that's not a reason not to pass along one of the more powerful and thought-provoking bits of writing that I've stumbled across on the Web recently.
comment posted at 10:33 AM on Apr-26-07

Happy Birthday, Jack Chick! Belated Birthday Greetings! The undisputed king of kings of Christian Comic literature, the inventor of “Chick Tracts” -- Jack is 83 years young this year and still cranking out those little comics So where is the love?! Finally some films are being made of his work: "Titanic" “The Thief” "One Way" and "La Princesita" are but a few. The question remains -- Can any of these every surpass Jack’s own masterwork "The Light Of The World"
comment posted at 6:07 AM on Apr-20-07

Iranian Supreme Court Acquits Murderers Because They Killed the "Morally Corrupt" "Iran's Islamic penal code...says murder charges can be dropped if the accused can prove the killing was done because the victim was morally corrupt. ... This is true even if the killer mistakenly identified the victim as corrupt. ... examples of moral corruption that do permit bloodshed, including armed banditry, adultery by a wife and insults to the Prophet Muhammad."
comment posted at 6:12 AM on Apr-20-07

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is in the middle of his testimony before Congress on firing of eight US Attorneys. The questioning has gotten heated at times, and TPM Muckraker has many highlights from the testimony. DailyKos has been giddily blogging live, and there are many sites carrying the live video feed. Conservative blogs have been mysteriously quiet about this.
comment posted at 12:03 PM on Apr-19-07

The Supreme Court has upheld the federal ban on "Partial-Birth Abortion," in a 5-4 decision. The federal ban provides no exceptions for the health of the mother, the reason previous Courts overturned the law. Justice Kennedy argued the law banning the procedure should stay, as opponents "have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases." In a scathing dissent, Justice Ginsburg alluded to the politics of recent judicial appointments, noting "...the Court's defense of it cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court -- and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives. A decision of the character the Court makes today should not have staying power."
comment posted at 9:16 AM on Apr-18-07
comment posted at 9:38 AM on Apr-18-07
comment posted at 9:40 AM on Apr-18-07
comment posted at 9:49 AM on Apr-18-07

How To Talk To Girls At Parties by Neil Gaiman. Full text and reading by the author: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.
comment posted at 8:00 AM on Apr-18-07

Body Symmetry and Intelligence
comment posted at 9:31 AM on Apr-18-07

The Florida Panty Snatcher is gone, but his last request was granted. The mild-mannered truck driver wanted his long-time CB handle mentioned in his obituary. If you knew your days were numbered, what would your final wish be? What would your epitaph say?
comment posted at 12:33 PM on Apr-17-07

The Pew Research Center released its annual survey on knowledge of current political affairs among Americans. 30% of Americans can’t identify Dick Cheney as the Vice President. But, better than that, the survey discovered that Americans who consider the Daily Show and the Colbert Report to be their primary news source are the best informed. So, it turns out that the satirical news on Comedy Central is the most effective news of all.
comment posted at 7:21 AM on Apr-16-07
comment posted at 9:58 AM on Apr-17-07

Scents from the Bible The world's first spiritual perfume, "Virtue® was conceived out of our desire to provide a perfume that would allow a person to be reminded of their Spiritual Self, by a simple whiff of it's fragrant essence." Smell the holy! (Post not inspired by previous )
comment posted at 7:48 AM on Apr-16-07