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The Italian Campaign The Globe and Mail has been running an excellent series on the Italian Campaign during WWII by Canadian troops. There are photos, artifacts, and articles, including one by Farley Mowat. (x-posted to MoFi)
comment posted at 9:07 AM on Nov-11-04

Set your TiVos (no really, try this), mooks and midriffs, Douglas Rushkoff has a new Frontline about the "persuasion industry" coming out tomorrow night on PBS. If you caught his Merchants of Cool a couple years ago, you'll probably agree it was a breakthrough program and I hold high hopes for this year's update on how advertisers rule our world.
comment posted at 12:55 PM on Nov-10-04

I was born in NY in the late 60's, and moved to PA in 1985. I'm a Christian, a Klingon, a vegetarian, and a real nice guy with a firm and conservative moral standing.


posted by me for dnab from #mefi
comment posted at 6:41 PM on Oct-4-04

Human Intelligence is a good site from Indiana University that looks at historical influences and current controversies surrounding the study of intelligence. Find out more about topics such as "the Mozart Effect", the theory of multiple intelligences, and the influence of birth order on intelligence, and then browse the brains behind the history of inquiry into human intellect.
comment posted at 4:39 PM on Sep-23-04

Heckling? Good Natured Fun or Verbal Abuse
The recent assault of a fan by Texas Rangers' reliever Frank Francisco with a folding chair is inexcusable, there's no doubt about that. But what about the fans who literally spend every moment at the park needling, heckling and verbally abusing the players?
There's a difference between ribbing the opposing team and calling an athlete a fat f***. Where does the line get drawn and why is any heckling permitted anymore?
comment posted at 2:40 PM on Sep-16-04

Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks tried to do Choose Your Own Adventure books one better with D&D-style rules. These massively single-player games, released in Britain, absorbed '80s nerds into the kind of murky, dead-serious fantasy recently parodied by Trogdor, in a decade when interactive fiction was on the rise. A bunch of the Gamebooks are now available to play online. Hang on to those healing potions.
comment posted at 5:28 PM on Sep-14-04

Echo Company An emotionally trying account of an ambush in Iraq this past April that took the lives of twelve Americans and who knows how many Iraqis, from two journalists who were there. Included is a timeline, audio & video, photogalleries, and reactions from the friends and family they left behind. You can read a USMC account of the memorial service here. via Editor & Publisher [Flash/Real]
comment posted at 10:29 AM on Sep-2-04

Add to this week's professional “secrets”, and scams to rube employers another idea of work: one person’s career can be your next hobby.
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comment posted at 9:41 AM on Sep-1-04

A San Francisco man (an "aspiring" politician) fakes his own decapitation video.
comment posted at 11:32 AM on Aug-9-04

Photographer and pilot Matevž Lenarcic is travelling around the world in an ultralight motorglider. Here are some of the pictures he's been taking.
comment posted at 11:50 AM on Aug-3-04

A threat to national security! Adam McGaughey, the owner of a Stargate fansite has been slapped with criminal charges (Criminal Copyright Infringement and Trafficking in Counterfeit Services) after being reported to the FBI by the MPAA for including Amazon links to encourage fans to purchase DVDs of the show. To build its case, the FBI invoked a provision of the USA Patriot Act to obtain financial records from his ISP. And, since he "conspired" with thousands of fans worldwide by providing these Amazon Market links, he could be facing up to 20 years in jail if the government invokes RICO.
comment posted at 1:24 PM on Jul-26-04
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comment posted at 3:31 PM on Jul-26-04

Lou Dobbs, Call Your Office If Lou Dobbs, the fair-trade crusader, only knew about this one! A few months ago, activists and journalists were blasting the U.S. for plans to buy only branded drugs, made by companies like Merck, to treat patients in poor countries under the president's $15 billion AIDS relief program[...] The result is that the way has been paved for U.S. taxpayers to spend billions to buy drugs made in India that are copies of medicines invented in the United States
comment posted at 9:22 AM on Jul-14-04
comment posted at 10:20 AM on Jul-14-04

Build your own PVR. Why TiVo when you can freevo? A cool little forum for couch potatoes warriors.
comment posted at 10:41 AM on Jul-6-04
comment posted at 11:26 AM on Jul-7-04

Ray Charles is Dead Very sad to hear. My favorite was always "Georgia on My Mind". What was yours? Any personal memories you associate with his music?
comment posted at 7:27 PM on Jun-10-04

Sun Microsystems gives each employee a blog. Will other companies follow?
comment posted at 11:39 AM on Jun-8-04
comment posted at 6:45 PM on Jun-8-04

Reason magazine uses individualized data to give its subscribers a '1984'-style surprise. The idea surfaced a year ago at a cocktail party: What if you opened your mailbox to find a national magazine with your name on the cover and the headline "They Know Where You Live!" — under an aerial photo of your house? And what if, when you turned the page, the editor's note and the advertisements included details about your neighbors? (LA Times/Reg. Rqd)
comment posted at 10:21 AM on May-21-04

Pakistani council aproves rape to avenge honour. "A village council in Pakistan permitted a landlord to rape the sister and sister-in-law of a man he accused of an illicit relationship with his daughter, police said Thursday. (...) The council members, all of them landlords themselves, ruled that Ghaffar, who uses only one name, could avenge his honour by having sex with the farmer's daughter, who is 16, and daughter-in-law, who is 22." (BBC version here). "An estimated 80 percent of women prisoners in Pakistan are in jail because they failed to prove rape charges".
comment posted at 10:58 AM on May-7-04

jeff goldblum is watching you poop... - NSFW.
comment posted at 10:04 AM on Apr-28-04

Urban Haute Couture "is about street art and street art only. Since a couple of years ago there's a boom in street art. To be clear we're not talking about graffiti. We're talking about street art that is spraypaint/marker template based, stickers, posters and combinations of those. This new breed of street art, except for using the urban landscape as a medium, has actually nothing to do with graffiti." Cities include Berlin, Amsterdam and the Romanian Stencil Archive.
comment posted at 8:03 PM on Apr-5-04

The Best Educational Film...Period! (hoisted from filmgoerjuan)
comment posted at 6:59 PM on Mar-18-04

Should 14 year olds have the right to vote? A new amendment is in the works in California: The measure, introduced Monday, would give 14- and 15-year-olds a quarter-vote and 16- and 17-year-olds a half-vote beginning in 2006.
comment posted at 11:02 PM on Mar-12-04

You may be familiar with the story, reported here, about the southern California watch maker who supplied wrist watches for Mars scientists to get to work on time. You may not have seen these time applications that make the time story equally as compelling for the rest of us. What is interesting from a graphics standpoint is the different qualities expressed with these versions, as a table of exact times for specific locations (this site has a lot of great detail about the mission), or as an approximate time with shadows projected on the Mars map (for Mac OS X). Any other Mars time graphics that you know about?
comment posted at 12:44 PM on Jan-23-04
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comment posted at 6:46 PM on Jan-24-04

Minor Washington state quake. It's been a while since I've experienced and earthquake, so when tonight's little one hit my hometown (a mere 3.2) I was a little shocked (and a little excited). I was also really impressed with the seemingly instantaneous response by the USGS and the University of Washington's GeoPhysics Dept. on their websites classifying it.

In the olden-days (eg- pre-Internet) I'd have to wait for the early morning news to find out any information about it, but through the miracle of HTTP I have all the info I want mere seconds after the event. In fact, less than 15 minutes after the quake the USGS site had over 260 responses on their website about the quake from people who felt it and left comments on their site.

I wonder if there are other sites that help classify and/or disseminate information about other naturally occurring phenomenon (hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.)... anyone, anyone?
comment posted at 6:27 PM on Jan-16-04

WeeklyDV is a site that has been around for some time now, but one which I don't think has received enough attention. There is a new theme every week and if you have a digital video camera, some editing software, and a couple hours of free time, you too can participate.
comment posted at 1:24 PM on Jan-12-04

Kazumi Namiki uses a slit camera to capture panoramic pictures onto a whole roll of film. He uses his slit camera to take photographs of Japanese railway trains; lots and lots of trains. [via boingboing]
comment posted at 1:52 PM on Jan-12-04

Photoshop BS - Photoshop CS blocks you from using, opening, or pasting certain images. Namely, this image.
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comment posted at 12:51 PM on Jan-9-04

Two of his children dying from a rare genetic disorder, Dad -- with no science background whatever -- starts a biotech company for the sole purpose of developing a drug that will cure them. Heartrending conflicts ensue. "Many times, I'd be talking aloud about programs and budgets, and at the back of my mind be thinking, 'Oh my God, this is not good for Megan and Patrick.' "
comment posted at 1:00 PM on Aug-26-03

Today is National Failures Day. Do you have any failures that are worth commemorating?
comment posted at 4:53 PM on Aug-15-03

'The Search For Osama'. A long, well-researched article in the 'New Yorker' about the ongoing global manhunt for the leader of al Qaeda and the architect of the September 11 attacks.
comment posted at 5:12 PM on Jul-30-03

He's Canadian, if you know what I mean: According to Matt Drudge, the White House press office specifically tipped him off to the fact that ABC News reporter Jeffrey Kofman is not only gay, but Canadian. Kofman angered the White House with his recent report on the plummeting morale of US troops in Iraq. What's next, White House interns tp'ing the houses of NYTimes columnists? Slam books? Impeachment?
comment posted at 4:11 PM on Jul-18-03

America's Army wants you, Mac users. The recruitment tool game has been out for some time now, available only for Windows, but as of this week Mac users can get in on the action. Broadband and robust Mac horsepower required, but for $6 somebody hands you an M-16 and tells to go shoot stuff. Why not?
comment posted at 5:44 PM on Jul-24-03

The End of the Deep End. Citing safety reasons, North American cities are abolishing the standard public swimming pool that many of us grew up with. The deep ends of existing pools are being filled in, and new pools are being built shallower. Is this action too extreme, or are deep ends a real threat to public safety? (via Manifesto Multilinko)
comment posted at 6:54 PM on Jul-14-03