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AMERICA THE WEIRD VISITING THE U.S. IS LIKE LANDING ON ANOTHER PLANET. But we still like ya...
comment posted at 5:44 AM on Jan-6-02

Small plane crashes into Florida bank tower Small non-commercial plane crashes into a Bank of America tower in downtown Tampa. Followed (chased) by a coast-guard helicopter.
comment posted at 6:09 AM on Jan-6-02

Bad Director! No biscuit! Apparently, the incredibly civilized British have found a way to rid themselves of stupid executives. Using the Insolvency Act, executives can be banned from starting new businesses, or from "materially taking part" of an existing business, if they can be proven to have no idea how to run one ethically. (As opposed to the American model, where this bozo can lose 50 million dollars, and then get hired as an "visionary" executive at Yahoo, where he promptly directed the layoffs of the majority of technical staff.) My question becomes, how do we implement the "stupid manager law" here in the states...and if we did, would there be anyone left to run the RIAA?
comment posted at 3:03 PM on Jan-5-02

It was a little dog Named Checkers. Audio sweetness. 56k mp3 128 Mp3
comment posted at 10:21 AM on Jan-5-02

"The New P.C." Post 9/11 Political Correctness: "In the new p.c., anyone who says anything critical about the president or his administration is branded an anti-American akin to the Marin County Taliban," writes Frank Rich in the New York Times. The old p.c. died when Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" was nearly cancelled. Where will the new p.c. take us in the 21st century? (more inside)
comment posted at 6:22 AM on Jan-5-02
comment posted at 2:31 PM on Jan-5-02
comment posted at 9:42 AM on Jan-6-02

Seattle Star Wars Society member gets in line for Star Wars tickets. Well, I guess he is the line, for now.He says it's an "art project" and he's trying to set a new world record. Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones opens May 16, 2002.
comment posted at 4:38 AM on Jan-5-02

An interesting look at translation: Australian writer Peter Goldsworthy "on being Spanished, Deutsched, Japanesed, Greeked and Malayed", and what he thinks is gained or lost in the process. (Also: translating poetry.)
comment posted at 4:24 AM on Jan-5-02

Killer Paid Online Data Broker for Material Obtained Through Trickery A stalker who eventually murdered his victim acquired her home address via a company named Docusearch. However, Docusearch didn't get it via database mining, but through a process they call "pretexting" (aka "human engineering" or "pretending to be someone else"). Docusearch, on the stalkers behalf, called the victim's business associates posing as an insurance rep or some such, and tricked the colleagues into giving over the victim's address. Legal? Perfectly legal. Ethical? Maybe. It's a tried and true investigative technique employed by private investigators for decades. It reminds us once again that the human dufus at the next desk over is the biggest security risk. However, this is an issue of an investigative firm exercising a typical, long-standing investigative practice for a purpose that, unfortunately, turned nefarious. Given that, why did the Post put the online data broker spin on the article?
comment posted at 6:23 AM on Jan-4-02
comment posted at 7:17 AM on Jan-4-02

Dolly the Sheep cloned five years ago has arthritis already. Already this year we've had pigs cloned for trasplants. Where is this all going and how ethical is it?
comment posted at 6:11 AM on Jan-4-02

There's lots of controversy about Nebraska playing for the national championship in tonight's Rose Bowl because they didn’t win their division or conference and got crushed 63–26 by Colorado in their last game of the season. [more inside]
comment posted at 7:29 AM on Jan-4-02

Farewell Buddy Former Pres. Clinton's dog Buddy was hit and killed by a car near their home in NY.
comment posted at 7:31 AM on Jan-3-02

according to andy borowitz, the cia is using mariah carey's movie "glitter" in the interrogations of al qaeda operatives. apparently, "the film usually induces prisoners to talk after 10 or 12 minutes." yow. the US is fighting dirty! this has got to be one of the most humorous things i've read in a while. (via newsweek)
comment posted at 5:20 AM on Jan-3-02

September 11th and Hero Worship? This is an interesting take on all of the post-9-11 NYPD-NYFD adulation.
comment posted at 6:25 AM on Jan-3-02

I Don't Wanna Grow Up... When did you first consider yourself to be a full-fledged adult? How many more years later was it when you realized what a child you were when you first thought that? :-) The Washington Post had this conversation-starting story this morning about stretching the boundaries of what we consider adolescence. Some social scientists now argue that our (e.g. American) society has allowed the maturing process to take longer and longer, and that many people are still adolescent in their emotional and intellectual development into their mid-30s. Needless to say, there's a lot of disagreement.
comment posted at 6:39 PM on Jan-3-02

Did Homophobia Corrupt Walker, the American Taliban soldier? Articles argues that there was more to the disturbance in Walker's life than merely reading Malcom X.
comment posted at 6:04 PM on Jan-2-02

C'est Si Bon! Jean-François Jonvelle's Sexy Photographs: He's been photographing women for decades and he just gets closer and closer to l'éternel féminin. Meaning reality. His books are beautiful. And expensive. But here's a very generous, unauthorized gallery(click on the cute fenêtre)of some of his best work. So who's your sexiest photographer?
comment posted at 6:04 AM on Jan-2-02
comment posted at 6:53 AM on Jan-2-02

Buy a stuffed fetus, won't you? For the lord.
comment posted at 5:58 AM on Jan-2-02

While some EU countries are negotiating peace after their failed war on drugs, US legislators keep on the old Prohibition path. Just yesterday I noticed the new "My Anti-Drug" campaign included the careful discalimer that "all drugs, even marijuana" are morally wrong to take. Equating the harm and effects of all controlled substances isn't helping kids, it just makes them ignorant. Of course, most Americans' Anti-Drug is alcohol.
comment posted at 7:19 AM on Jan-2-02

The Best Notable Quotables of 2001 Awards by Media Research Covers a wide range of categories from 'Selected Not Elected Award for Claiming Bush Is an Illegitimate President' to 'Good Morning Morons Award.' There are certainly some classics included. (more inside)
comment posted at 5:42 AM on Jan-2-02

Lake Superior State University has issued its 27th annual 'List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness', based on submissions from the public. The most contentious inclusion is the term '9-11', which many people felt trivialised the events of 11 September.
comment posted at 7:37 AM on Jan-1-02

extremely cool site if you like things like this... palindromes, anagrams, spoonerisms, pangrams, oxymora, mnemonics, etymology,
comment posted at 7:27 AM on Jan-1-02
comment posted at 9:06 AM on Jan-1-02
comment posted at 5:01 PM on Jan-1-02

Blair to visit the Indian sub-continent to defuse the tension in the region. He is expected to arrive in Pakistan on January 7 following visits to India and Bangladesh.
comment posted at 4:04 PM on Jan-1-02

Yahoo IMvironments are the latest fad that the company's come up with. It makes your chatting easier, prettier and more fun - and a lot more bulky and resource hungry. I don't know how many people here actually use Y!, but my guess is this wont take long to disappear.
comment posted at 6:35 AM on Jan-1-02

The town of Gander in Newfoundland, Canada is a town of 10,000 where 6600 airline passengers were diverted after the attacks of September. While hearing a radio story about it on NPR, I was moved to flubbery tears by the outpouring of camaraderie and cooperation by the townspeople and passengers. Happy New Year, Canadians, and everyone else too, after quite a tumultuous year.
comment posted at 6:22 AM on Jan-1-02

Is The Economy Broken? It was one thing when it was the tech/Internet sector - the bubble burst, but now the wave continues with the 2002 recovery seeming like wishful thinking. If it's not layoffs, companies are cutting their 401k plans. Argentina's crisis seems like it will have ripple effects as well. Then you have numbers saying people are confident, so are we getting tanked by jittery Wall Street-ers? Oh, there's also a war on.
comment posted at 6:09 AM on Jan-1-02

Is it almost 2002....or 1802? Regardless, it's a good time for a book burning. And this isn't the first time a congregation has taken offence to Harry Potter, nor will it be the last, I'm sure. I don't even know what to say, other than....sigh.
comment posted at 3:13 PM on Dec-31-01

Mean Greenies I realize MeFi sometimes seems like PetaFilter these days, but this new ad campaign [pdf] from the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals struck me as sufficently odd to merit discussion. Long story short: it's a big, expensive ad urging you not to donate money. [more]
comment posted at 3:20 PM on Dec-31-01

The Universe in One Year Every year on December 31 since I was in 7th grade I think of something I saw in an episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. I found this: Imagine that the history of the universe is compressed into one year—with the Big Bang occurring in the first seconds of New Year’s Day, and all our known history occurring in the final seconds before midnight on December 31. Using this scale of time, each month would equal a little over a billion years. Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for almost two hundred million years - from December 25 to December 30 on this time line. Most of our entire written history fits into the last 10 seconds of the year. It's something to think about while watching the ball drop tonight.
comment posted at 4:00 PM on Jan-1-02

The Night They Invented Champagne... Tonight's the night for Champagne. Meaning French. No other is as appropriate or necessary. If you know nothing - or a lot - about this most pleasant and aphrodisiac of all wines, you should still get more serious about it. The Champagne Growers' Association has an excellent website where you can learn how to chill, open, serve and properly taste Champagne. They'll even send you four free, attractive little notebooks to keep in your cocktail cabinet. The green roll-down menus are all enlightening and to the point. But don't think the French have all the experts. There's this amazing American website, called IntoWine, put up by the M2 Communications Wine Education Center, which is just as wise and, typically, more complete and snobbish. Their Champagne section is faultless. Compare cultures by noting how they serve Champagne. Check out their full list of Champagne houses and related movies. Happy New Year, MetaFilter!
comment posted at 8:44 AM on Dec-31-01
comment posted at 5:00 PM on Dec-31-01

Before you drink and think of driving, you should know exactly how drunk you are allowed to be, depending on which US state you're in. The Blood Alcohol Educator (shockwave) will set you straight for a safe new year. Just put in some info about yourself, head off to the virtual bar to pick your drinks and how fast you'd like to slam them. You'll get stats on how legally drunk you are, tips on how to keep your BAC down, and nuggets of info about your current state. Here's to a safe new year.
comment posted at 1:50 PM on Dec-31-01

"Acts of bastardry" are still going around Sydney.
Bad conditions help along the Christmas bushfires started by lightning and mad, wicked behaviour. (I certainly know what it's like.) But why did the fires spread so quickly? Didn't something like this happen in 1997? Is it very dry in southern Australia, or is it El Nino?!
comment posted at 7:01 AM on Dec-31-01

Um... can someone explain to me how a parent could do this to their child? Check out some accompanying links and tell me how this isn't child porn and why these parents aren't in prison right now.
comment posted at 3:37 PM on Dec-31-01

50 things we'll be glad to see the back of in 2002 Yes, its another whimsical list from 'The Guardian', this more vitriolic than most. Personally I'd like to see the back of 2001. What a crappy year.
comment posted at 8:40 AM on Dec-30-01
comment posted at 3:25 PM on Dec-30-01

Are College Students Stupider and Less Informed Than 30 Years Ago? Professor Anders Henriksson says they ain't necessarily so. He's been collecting students' bloopers for 30 years and suggests they aren't getting worse at all. That's assuming they could, of course. Is he right or just pulling our leg? (from today's Los Angeles Times)
comment posted at 9:10 AM on Dec-30-01
comment posted at 3:35 PM on Dec-30-01

So Forsberg is coming back and it means the Avalance could once again be a force to be reckoned with. Can anyone beat Detroit? And in the East, the Bruins are looking good. I care, but do my fellow nerds? It seems there's a serious dearth of computer geeks that follow hockey. Is the gap between ESPN and ICQ that big? Do any of you other nerds watch hockey, or is it dead?
comment posted at 5:35 AM on Dec-30-01

No shopping, no presents, no guilt! End compulsory consumption by resisting xmas. It's never too early to start campaigning for next year.
comment posted at 3:17 PM on Dec-29-01

Pollution Linked to Birth Defects in Recent Study. There is no better example of "terrorism" than maiming children simply to further bloat the wallets of the rich. Of course, our fearless right-wing leaders are right on top of the problem.
comment posted at 3:29 PM on Dec-29-01

African fantasy coffins are produced by the Ga and other tribes of the Ghana coast to confer the status of travel and luxury goods upon the deceased. The coffins themselves are incredibly detailed works of art that range from miniature Mercedes automobiles and cellphones to giant fish and Coke cans. What would you like to be buried in?
comment posted at 3:35 PM on Dec-29-01

The ultimate ride. Don't move for 70 hours...
comment posted at 3:58 PM on Dec-29-01

Image and reality: The role of the US in the Middle East The leading spokesperson for the Palestinian cause chastises Israel and the U.S. No attempt here to see that there may be some shortcomings due to excessses or intransigence on the Arab side. Another binary view of reality or a useful assessment?
comment posted at 10:47 AM on Dec-29-01

John Derbyshire calls for the murder of Chelsea Clinton. [More inside]
Link via Andrew Sullivan's blog.
comment posted at 10:57 AM on Dec-29-01