MetaFilter

Learn a bit about Alito, and then go along on an audio joy ride as Alito is grilled by our representatives. Listen now.
comment posted at 10:11 AM on Jan-10-06
comment posted at 8:05 PM on Jan-10-06
comment posted at 3:23 PM on Jan-11-06
comment posted at 9:09 AM on Jan-12-06
comment posted at 3:00 PM on Jan-12-06
comment posted at 8:14 PM on Jan-12-06
comment posted at 6:48 AM on Jan-13-06

pwned! Old lady vs. man in a Mercedes. (Google video)
comment posted at 2:36 PM on Jan-9-06

Re-Introducing the Real Windows Vista Bill Gates' demo of Vista from the CES show dubbed over footage of OS X. Apple told Microsoft to start their photocopiers and it looks like they did. [via]
comment posted at 2:28 PM on Jan-9-06

Osama bin Laden is dead?
And, according to Iranians I trust, Osama bin Laden finally departed this world in mid-December. The al Qaeda leader died of kidney failure and was buried in Iran, where he had spent most of his time since the destruction of al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
comment posted at 2:24 PM on Jan-9-06

What’s "Sacred" about Violence in Early America? Susan Juster discusses the "oversized colonial martyr complex" with its attendant paradox: "colonial martyrs were everywhere, religious violence... in short supply." She begins:

One of the most chilling images in early American history is the deliberate firing of Fort Mystic during the Pequot War of 1637. Five hundred Indian men, women, and children died that day, burned alive along with their homes and possessions by a vengeful Puritan militia intent on doing God’s will. "We must burn them!" the militia captain famously insisted to his troops on the eve of the massacre, in words that echo the classic early modern response to heretics. Just five months before, the Puritan minister at Salem had exhorted his congregation in strikingly similar terms to destroy a more familiar enemy, Satan; "We must burne him," John Wheelwright told his parishioners. Indians and devils may have been scarcely distinguishable to many a Puritan, but their rhetorical conflation in these two calls to arms raises a question: Was the burning of Fort Mystic a racial or a religious killing?

She avoids easy answers and makes some interesting connections. If you want to find out more about the Pequot War, there's good material in the History section of this site. (Main link via wood s lot.)
comment posted at 12:38 PM on Jan-9-06

Flaming anonymously is now a federal crime.
comment posted at 8:34 AM on Jan-9-06
comment posted at 12:20 PM on Jan-9-06

Space Suits
comment posted at 7:38 AM on Jan-9-06

Angry and Furious at the Collaborationist Democrats I [Martin Garbus] don't understand. An hour after I saw the Times "scoop" on the Bush illegal wiretapping plan, I wrote that it was clearly illegal and unconstitutional. But as it now turns out, dozens of politicians, as well as the New York Times knew about the surveillance plan and did nothing. Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, and Senator Jay Rockefeller, the Democratic senator from West Virginia, a man known for some sensitivity to civil liberties infringements, and a substantial number of congressmen, plus the New York Times, all knew of Bush's illegal spying.
comment posted at 7:17 AM on Jan-9-06

What is the cost of the war on Iraq? [more inside]
comment posted at 9:05 PM on Jan-8-06

Guaranteed to hear the voice of God or your money back! (via Effect Measure.)
comment posted at 11:36 AM on Jan-8-06

Futurama is probably coming back.
comment posted at 9:01 PM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 9:06 PM on Jan-5-06

"We make no distinction between a small violation of the Constitution and a large one. Both are equally invalid. Indeed, in the system of government envisioned by the Founding Fathers, we abhor the small violation precisely because it is precedent for the larger one." (PDF) By a 5-2 count, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that public monies may not be used to fund private schools, thus closing off avenues for embezzlement and violations of the Establishment Clause that otherwise prevents a US state from endorsing, or establishing specific religious organizations.
comment posted at 8:57 PM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 9:05 PM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 9:09 PM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 9:15 PM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 9:16 PM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 9:24 PM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 9:29 PM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 9:35 PM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 8:02 AM on Jan-6-06

Jon Stewart to host 2006 Academy Awards. "As a performer, I'm truly honored to be hosting the show,' Stewart says. "As an avid watcher of the Oscars, I can't help but be a little disappointed with the choice.'
comment posted at 4:06 PM on Jan-5-06

The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own
comment posted at 2:32 PM on Jan-5-06

Here are the the ten most beautiful science experiments.
comment posted at 2:06 PM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 3:20 PM on Jan-5-06

National Security Agency What is it that NSA does? What are or were its legal parameters and its history? This is a quick "NSA 101" course that might be helpful as stories continue to emerge about the agency. Oddly, as large as this organization is, it has been very much in the background, and only recently when some whistleblowers spoke up, has this agency gained a good deal of public attention. Some of you may recall the fuss raised about some spy agency named Echelon and wonder how this group is or is not connected to NSA. And soon at least one whistle blower will testify before congress, though the White House seems to have convinced some 50% of Americans that the president can do whatever he wants in time of war, ignoring legal constraints upon intel branches. And that raises the question (for me): if NSA can skirt the courts to "fight terror," then what of the FBI, also once requied to have court approval for phone taps. Are they too now free to do as they want in this "fight against terror"?
comment posted at 1:58 PM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 2:02 PM on Jan-5-06

The War on Franklin (Orig. from the NYTimes). It's only fitting as we approach the tercentennial of the birth of the First American, Benjamin Franklin, that there is an ongoing debate as to whether we should "sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety" and if we deserve either. To be sure, Franklin is likely the seminal Colonial American, who's philosophy, inventions, self-determination, self-improvement, entrepeneurship, and witicisms underpin most elements of modern American society, politics, and culture, as well as having edited our founding document, the Declaration of Independence. But Franklin the man was also self-involved, a neglectful spouse and parent, and (likely) a serial philanderer, as well as having never held elected office. (History erases many of the sins of the Foundering Fathers). Surely increasing criticism of both the man and his relavency is soon to follow. Perhaps we can all strive to emulate Franklin's greatest skill - the art of compromise.
comment posted at 8:37 AM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 11:12 AM on Jan-5-06

Don't Even Think About Lying fMRI is poised to transform the security industry, the judicial system, and our fundamental notions of privacy. I'm in a lab at Columbia University, where scientists are using the technology to analyze the cognitive differences between truth and lies. By mapping the neural circuits behind deception, researchers are turning fMRI into a new kind of lie detector that's more probing and accurate than the polygraph, the standard lie-detection tool employed by law enforcement and intelligence agencies for nearly a century.
comment posted at 6:58 AM on Jan-5-06

Lock bumping (pdf). They make it look (63.5 Mb wmv) pretty easy. (via)
comment posted at 2:26 PM on Jan-4-06

Bush could bypass new torture ban [From the here-we-go-again department. ] When President Bush last week signed the bill outlawing the torture of detainees, he quietly reserved the right to bypass the law under his powers as commander in chief.
comment posted at 12:28 PM on Jan-4-06

“I Have The Feeling About 60% Of What You Say Is Crap.” David Letterman, the usually apolitical host who's generally much more concerned with making his guests look good, loses it when guest Bill O'Reilly takes Cindy Sheehan to task on his show. You may remember O'Reilly having a similarly awkward encounter with Jon Stewart earlier this year.
comment posted at 10:25 AM on Jan-4-06
comment posted at 10:32 AM on Jan-4-06
comment posted at 10:40 AM on Jan-4-06
comment posted at 10:50 AM on Jan-4-06
comment posted at 10:53 AM on Jan-4-06
comment posted at 10:55 AM on Jan-4-06
comment posted at 11:09 AM on Jan-4-06
comment posted at 11:17 AM on Jan-4-06
comment posted at 11:37 AM on Jan-4-06
comment posted at 11:39 AM on Jan-4-06
comment posted at 12:42 PM on Jan-4-06