MetaFilter

When I was in college in the early 90s (B.W. -- before web), I used to subscribe to the daily newspaper just to get my comics fix every morning (back when Bill Waterson, Gary Larson, and Berkeley Breathed were king). Then the web came along and I had to suffer through the only (unfunny) cartoonist to embrace the web. But not anymore. With stuff like Comics-via-RSS and Comictastic I can fire up an app and start laughing every morning. I doubt I ever buy a newspaper again for the funny pages, and on top of that, these even let me avoid the lame ones I don't care about.
posted on Dec-4-03 at 5:09 PM

The popular PBS series Frontline has done a couple investigative reports on Iraq, but for their next one they are doing something interesting: live dispatches blogging from Baghdad throughout the next few weeks as they film and conduct interviews. The finished show is set to air next month.
posted on Dec-4-03 at 1:41 PM

This Super Bowl halftime, make it to the Lingere Bowl. American TV hits a new low by inventing another sport along the lines of Foxy Boxing and Hot Oil Wrestling. The gridiron action features Team Dream vs. Team Euphoria (featuring washed-up former NFL players as coaches) in full contact football while wearing skimpy clothing. Even weirder, but there will be cheerleaders to cheerlead the players that are already dolled up to look like cheerleaders in some sort of subtle hot lesbian action. It's all pay-per-view, but this "Girls Gone Football" seems more like a new low than a step forward for real women's sports.
posted on Dec-3-03 at 10:48 AM

Another Worlds AIDS Day, another statement from the Vatican saying you should never use a condom. [via rc3]
posted on Dec-1-03 at 11:54 AM

Starting with this year's State of the Union address, President Bush began a plan to increase aid to Africa, and at the center of that plan is funding to prevent the spread of AIDS and HIV that has reached epidemic proportions on the continent. Critics however, have noted that aid to clinics comes with strings attached. Abstinence is preached first and foremost and condoms are mentioned only as a last resort. This reporter flat out says the policy to curtail the funding and use of condoms in Africa is killing millions.
posted on Dec-1-03 at 12:08 AM

Make this year's xmas a special one by buying the Flavor Flav Talking Alarm Clock with five alarm phrases "Bass In Your Face, Get Up Get Down, Yo G Yo, Yeaa Boy." Have you seen any other similarly bizarre gifts on sale this holiday season?
posted on Nov-26-03 at 10:37 AM

Inaugural Speeches from Our Action Heroes: "As the first robot/semitruck to be elected to these hallowed halls, I pledge to rebuild America. To repair our crumbling roads and bridges, to lower gas prices, and to increase the speed limit. Things that all Americans need." [via queso]
posted on Nov-25-03 at 11:52 PM

A great PETA ad ...for me to poop on! Amusing recent campaign featuring Triumph the Insult Dog to promote spaying/neutering that is catching heat for a subtle Clay Aiken jab.
posted on Nov-20-03 at 4:05 PM

Who wants to marry a Kucinich? "I think we're in a day in age when partnerships are imperative to making anything happening in the world. And I certainly want a dynamic, out-spoken woman who was fearless in her desire for peace in the world and for universal single-payer health care and a full employment economy. If you are out there call me." -- Dennis Kucinich, Nov 5, 2003
posted on Nov-19-03 at 10:14 AM

Much of the news from Iraq looks grim and it's easy to feel powerless about the whole situation. Mercycorps lets you do something about it, with 92% of all money collected going directly to humanitarian programs to feed, clothe, and provide healthcare to Iraq citizens in need. Looks like a good cause I'm happy to get behind.
posted on Nov-18-03 at 11:52 AM

MetaFilter as a ransom note. Crazified by crazy sites. [via Adactio]
posted on Nov-16-03 at 9:15 AM

"Pending its review, the EPA says it is not now advising consumers to stop using Teflon products. The results of the agency's review of the safety of C-8 and of Teflon-related products that may release it are expected in coming months" Teflon may cause birth defects and illness. D'oh!
posted on Nov-15-03 at 10:13 AM

Just in time for xmas, it's Critters U Love: stuffed animals with robust genitalia. About as apealing as erotic cakes (funny, tho).
posted on Nov-13-03 at 4:29 PM

This excellent overview of pixel noise in digital images also offers up some plugins to help make your photos look better and print cleaner. I'd noticed the effects and noise in much of my digital photos, but had no idea how to remove it -- until now.
posted on Nov-2-03 at 2:34 PM

You're probably feeling safer today than you were a few days ago, and you know why? It's Protection from Porn week, direct from the White House. Spurred on from groups such as Morality in Media (who issued a jubilant press release to mark their achievement) you can finally feel safe now that you've gotten out from under pornography's thumb. (note: These links couldn't be any safer for work)
posted on Oct-30-03 at 8:50 AM

American Choices is a pretty cool new site that guides you through a series of questions aimed at telling you where you stand in terms of foreign policy philosophy. It reminds me a lot of the Selectsmart presidental voting thing that matches you up with a candidate.
posted on Oct-29-03 at 11:03 AM

Another day, another blogger gets fired (from Microsoft, in this case) for posting something harmless to their blog.
posted on Oct-28-03 at 9:43 PM

Over the past few years, doping in sports has grown into an arms race of biology, chemistry, and technology as atheletes attempt to push their limits and escape detection. While it's hard to estimate how widespread the problem is or how much it actually improves one's performance, one amateur athelete for Outside Magazine decided to test the latest on himself as he spent 8 months training for an ultramarathon cycling event. The article also notes pro-cheating sites filled with atheletes trading stories of their own programs. Disturbing stuff, when you think of all the records being broken in sports these days. As Rafe says, this might be one of the most important sports articles ever written. note: it's a long article, but worth it.
posted on Oct-27-03 at 12:22 PM

Hack an email account, go to jail. In what could be the first case of its type, a woman has been sentenced to 60 days of house arrest for obtaining the login and password of her husband's ex-wife and reading her mail. Probably the first of many such cases to come, these will be interesting to watch how the law is interpretted by the court (treat it as a wiretap violation or as computer hacking?).
posted on Oct-21-03 at 5:29 PM

Pongomania: one person's imagination and obession with toy modeling clay.
posted on Oct-20-03 at 5:44 PM

Shocked and Awed: A gallery of Iraq schoolchildren art. Interesting galleries of crayon works, some obviously have high opinions of the occupation while others may not. [via Dangerousmeta]
posted on Oct-17-03 at 10:23 AM

iTunes for Windows! iTunes for Windows! The new phonebook's here! The new phonebook's here!
posted on Oct-16-03 at 11:51 AM

Just how large is 87 billion dollars exactly? It's this large, about the size of three costco warehouses by the looks of it.
posted on Oct-8-03 at 8:45 PM

The results are in! the MeFi guesses weren't too far off, and Escher wins the domokun, while ook wins the booby prize.
posted on Oct-8-03 at 2:02 PM

If you've bought one of BMG's new copy-protected CDs, remember to hold down the shift key while loading it into your PC. That one keystorke will let you be free to rip, mix, and burn it.
posted on Oct-7-03 at 12:49 PM

Clooney gets conned Kaycee'd and is being sued. "THE ACTOR opened his heart last year when a woman told him about her tragic, cancer-stricken daughter, Cindy, and he began making calls and sending gifts to the terminally-ill young woman. Before long, however, Clooney began to doubt that 'Cindy' really existed."
posted on Oct-2-03 at 5:39 PM

Freeland's We Want Your Soul video is a cynical look at the american dream and keeping up with the joneses. Whether you agree with the point of view, it's still a pretty cool and amusing use of camera effects. (note: large quicktime on that page) [via randomfoo]
posted on Sep-28-03 at 12:00 PM

It's talk like a pirate day all the world over, even for kids.
posted on Sep-19-03 at 12:03 AM

Magnatune is a killer new record label that is doing everything a cutting-edge record label should be doing. They offer music from a wide range of genres that you can download, stream, and listen to, but like shareware, you only buy stuff you like after trying it out first. The label splits profits with artists 50-50, and even offers a sliding scale when buying through paypal. After paying for an album, you get both high quality MP3 and uncompressed WAV files for download.
posted on Sep-18-03 at 4:48 PM

You've got to be impressed by Smith College's Brown Fine Arts Center. Not only do they have traveling shows, permanent works, and student installations, they've got one thing few other museums can boast: Restrooms As Functional Art. Check out the photos to see the different ways the men's and women's rooms became works in an of themselves.
posted on Sep-16-03 at 5:39 PM

BlackSpotSneaker: Adbusters aims to take on Nike at their own game, by selling unionized, fair wage sneakers with the hopes of gaining marketshare that rival's Nike's multimillion dollar ad machine.
posted on Sep-11-03 at 10:29 AM

While there may be controversy over global warming, whichever side of the fence you stand on, you can't help but enjoy the colorful spectacle that is temperature variation from 1970-1999, presented as a MPEG from NASA (4.5 Mb). Yellow-to-red means higher temps and the last few years are a doozy. [via the Viridians]
posted on Sep-5-03 at 12:28 PM

Amazing image of the blackout, taken from a space satellite. [via John Hoke]
posted on Aug-22-03 at 2:30 PM

Dolphin or Shark? It's a question that has been brewing on surf boards (ha!) for months. After much armchair marine biology, the photographer posted the answer on his own site.
posted on Jul-25-03 at 2:46 PM

A pole in the ground + an old Plane on top of it = home sweet home. A company in Tennesee is selling old airplanes as homes on ebay. I wonder if the new homeowners ever get tired of eating those little packets of peanuts every night.
posted on Jul-19-03 at 12:53 AM

While shaft-driven motorcycles have been around for nearly a hundred years (and in bicycles even longer), they've only recently been re-introduced to bicycles. Chainless.com is a company promoting a new shaft drive system for use in low-end bicycles (looks like mountain, road, and bmx are offered). Without chains, it's easier to repair, safer, and they claim it is more efficient, though gearing is limited to a few hubs that feature up to 7 internal gears. If it really is more efficient, how long until Lance Armstrong is sporting a shaft-driven Trek?
posted on Jul-17-03 at 1:20 PM

The annual Bulwer-Lytton contest recognizes and awards the very worst opening sentences found in novels. The 2003 results are in (2002 results, 2001 results) and the winning entry begins "They had but one last remaining night together, so they embraced each other as tightly as that two-flavor entwined string cheese..." [via girlhacker]
posted on Jul-16-03 at 9:19 AM

In launching his 21-day "prayer offensive" directed at the Supreme Court, Pat Robertson asks his viewers to help him pray for three justices' death. "One justice is 83-years-old, another has cancer and another has a heart condition. Would it not be possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire?"
posted on Jul-15-03 at 11:32 AM

Supreme Court wisely rules that you can't legislate morality and that privacy between consenting adults is a-ok as the Texas sodomy law (that applies to homosexuals only) is struck down. Ruling invalidates other remaining sodomy laws on the books. Dancing in the streets ensues. And as usual, Scalia gets to add his wisecracks in the dissent. [via SCOTUSblog]
posted on Jun-26-03 at 8:00 AM

This interview with a "pro-choice" suicide site owner is an interesting read. The website she runs was linked to a few suicides earlier this year, but she contends the site helps people cope and prevents more than it enables. [via k diggity]
posted on Jun-24-03 at 3:11 PM

Apple spills its own beans: 1.6GHz, 1.8GHz, or Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5 processors described in desktops found in the store tonight (since removed).
posted on Jun-19-03 at 9:37 PM

The Museum of Anti-Alcohol Posters from Russia's 80's anti-alcohol campaign
posted on Jun-18-03 at 11:28 AM

2fast, 2furious, 2...something. This gallery of tricked-out Japanese big rigs defies description.
posted on Jun-9-03 at 9:37 AM

With today's news of peace between Israel and Palestine my opinion of Bush just shot up several notches, but will the compromises stick and finally acheive peace? In the past, Clinton brokered a similar peace deal, Bush I tried it in 1991, Reagan tried, and even Carter did his best. Even with all the previous work, we're still where we are today, which is less than satisfactory for everyone involved. Will today's announcement finally bring peace to the region or is that too much of a pipe dream?
posted on Jun-4-03 at 9:45 AM

The Credit Card Prank is a project to see how far one could go with their signature on credit card purchases. The experiment goes pretty far and barely runs into any snags. The verdict? People don't seem to care what you sign on a receipt.
posted on Jun-3-03 at 9:15 AM

As media concentration grows, (and grows) today is the big day the FCC announces their changes in regulations. You can hear it live, via realaudio, at http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/, starting at 9:30AM EST, 6:30AM west coast time.
posted on Jun-2-03 at 12:13 AM

It's just after mid-May and that means one thing: it's summit time on Everest. Current reports are mostly good with only a broken leg and attempted rescue reported so far. If you've ever followed Everest, you'll certainly know about the 1996 disaster, the stories that surrounded it, and the constant death toll (4 out of every 100 that attempt the climb will die trying). There are a lot of teams going up this year, including a team with the youngest american to ever peak and an attempt from the oldest (who was also the guy that first climbed all seven summits). Yesterday and today look like the big summit attempt days, with the north side route having the best luck (though it has the more difficult route). Should be interesting to watch over the next few days, especially to see if the british climber with the broken leg will survive.
posted on May-21-03 at 11:10 AM

Total Lunar Eclipse Coming May 15-16 with prime viewing in the US, Europe, and Africa. Looks like the best viewing will be thursday night, on the east coast of the US.
posted on May-13-03 at 8:33 AM

The real meaning of Mothers Day: it's not just for hallmark anymore. "Mother's Day was started after the Civil War by women who had lost their sons. The following excerpts from the original Mother's Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe in 1870 are a timeless reminder of the profound loss and pain war creates for all mothers..." What I foolishly thought was a cheap ploy to sell greeting cards and flowers turns out to be a big day for peace (started by the writer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, no less), and history backs this up [via oaktown].
posted on May-8-03 at 9:42 AM

BookShare is a napster-like service that relies on volunteers to share e-books with as many people as possible, and it's completely legal. The reason? Thanks to a special carve-out in copyright law which states "if such copies ... are reproduced or distributed in specialized formats exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities."
posted on Apr-23-03 at 3:50 PM