January 2002 Archives

Aardappel's tiny game engine Cube is a tiny game engine (8 Mb) hosting a singleplayer/multiplayer first person shooter game.
Note well: the engine is still in beta stages, and also VERY different from any fps engine you have seen before. Failure to read the documentation in its entirety may cause you to:

• miss out on the cool features.
• run it in an unoptimal way for your system.
• conclude it "sucks" prematurely.

Coolest feature: the ability to "edit" the world, to add or remove architectural features and power-ups, on the fly, in the middle of a multi-player game.
posted by otherchaz at 11:18 PM PST - 4 comments

Apple Myths: Over the years, there have been more than a few misconceptions about Macs. Now Apple take's a look at some of the most popular ones.
posted by riffola at 9:25 PM PST - 64 comments

Todd Ginsberg has counted all of his sneezes since 2000, and he averages about two a day.
posted by panopticon at 6:52 PM PST - 17 comments

Was tonight's "Will and Grace" a coming out episode for Rosie O'Donnel? Sure, it was her character that came out---(though, so was Ellen's)---but she seemed a little choked up when she said the line: "Jack, I'm gay." PlanetOut.com discusses the matter and reports that Rosie will be coming out for real in her soon to be published Biography: "Find Me." Either way, though, whether it was just her character or Rosie speaking through the character, it was a prettty memorable TV moment.
posted by adrober at 6:50 PM PST - 49 comments

Mileage Run! Not sitting at the front of the Airbus? Then maybe you need to pack a light bag, book a tight itinerary and rack up those miles. Here's a nice tool for finding efficient flights. Otherwise the terrorists have already won.. ha!.
posted by Real9 at 6:43 PM PST - 2 comments

Are you 25-29? Like to travel? Wish you could influence global politics? Look good in front of the camera? Maybe you should be President.
posted by sandor at 6:08 PM PST - 8 comments

Did Bush niece have Flagstaff arrest (too)? Seems she did and for shoplifting...
posted by Postroad at 5:04 PM PST - 17 comments

Al-Jazeera conducted the exclusive interview with bin Laden on October 21, but declined to air it. Nearly two months later, the network said it did not meet its standards and was not newsworthy.

CNN felt otherwise.

That last sentence is ironic or oblivious or something. Can I hear another zipper sound, please?
posted by donkeyschlong at 4:15 PM PST - 32 comments

The business of crying in Japan Interesting LAT article that discusses the controversy behind a Japanese lawmaker's comment on the use of tears by females.
posted by zinegurl at 2:46 PM PST - 2 comments

Circuit Bending is hacking electronic games and musical toys to produce new sounds. Twisted Speak'n'Spells and Pikachus, for example.
posted by skyline at 2:40 PM PST - 6 comments

If the webmaster is a minor, does it count as kiddie porn? And what is child porn anyway?
posted by magullo at 1:02 PM PST - 15 comments

Don's Amazing Puzzle made me cry. Then I figured it out. He's right. Don't give away the answer to the puzzle in the comments.
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger at 12:25 PM PST - 83 comments

We interrupt your war on terror to attack abortion rights...
The Bush administration has declared that a fetus is an unborn child. And why not? Everyone believes in prenatal care. And of course, if the government wanted to extend medical coverage to poor pregnant women under the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIPS), it could have done so directly. But then, what fun is that?
posted by jellybuzz at 12:01 PM PST - 84 comments

New Scientist release a copyleft article on......wait for it......copyleft. In it, they discuss what's going on in the world of Open Source and how the meme is spreading from software into other areas, like encyclopedias and law. It concludes saying that open source is currently good for things that don't need to be confidential and do need to be consistently upgraded/changed. Does open source have a chance, or is it just a passing fad? via slashdot
posted by taumeson at 11:39 AM PST - 2 comments

Urban Exploration, Japanese-style: lavishly beautiful site documenting Japan's modern ruins, via gmtPlus9.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:32 AM PST - 7 comments

Bill & Melinda Gates' $24 Billion Charity "The Gates Foundation often makes grants only on condition that governments or other nonprofits match them, and requires that recipients meet regular goals for performance—or risk losing their funding. (That hardball approach has met with criticism from some members of the philanthropic community, who argue that holding people to ambitious standards may make sense in Redmond but not in places where millions can’t read.) And experts have calculated that improvements in health care themselves have a huge ripple effect in the poorest countries: if parents believe their children will live longer, they save more and reproduce less. That will help create capital for investment, which will spur more development and so on, in a "positive feedback loop," as the techies like to say in Redmond."
posted by owillis at 10:51 AM PST - 41 comments

Ideas have consequences. On the subject of the Daniel Pearl kidnapping, an interesting letter to Media News today (scroll down to the "Journalists as Political Operatives" item), reads in part, "I would not want to trivialize it for all the world, but I am constrained to point out that it was only recently that Mr. Pearl's newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, felt compelled to praise the book "Bias" which perports to lay bare the 'liberal bias' of mainstream journalism. In fact, the WSJ editorial board has for years persisted, along with other conservative commentators, to label journalists as political tools in service of a larger political agenda. The kidnappers of Mr. Pearl insist that he is a political tool, a spy, for some foreign government (one day the U.S., the next day Israel.) Where could they have possibly gotten the idea that journalists are not the dedicated professionals they claim to be but are instead something else in disguise?" Thoughts?
posted by nance at 9:41 AM PST - 35 comments

Raisethefist.org shut down? This hasn't been picked up by major media yet, but does appear in the Progressive Review. Apparently, raisethefist.org was shut down by Secret Service, FBI, and local law enforcement, for unspecified reasons. Is this a First Amendment issue? Is this a police state in action? Or does anybody have credible evidence that there's genuine illegal activity behind the shutdown?
posted by yesster at 9:33 AM PST - 31 comments

Michael Jackson Wants Global Children's Holiday ``It would mean a lot. It really would. World peace. I hope that our next generation will get to see a peaceful world, not the way things are going now.'' Uh-huh. Does he have any comprehension of his public image about the fixation with children?
posted by McBain at 9:26 AM PST - 24 comments

The chances you've played these games are slim. Very slim. We're talking about arcade games made by Atari limited to runs of 2 or 3. Prototypes from dumpsters and ex-employee yard sales, original (hand-drawn!) marquees, garage-soldered circuit boards.

Somehow, this one guy keeps getting his hands on them. Lucky bastard. Sure obsessions like this might seem unhealthy, but he has working versions of Marble Man, Primal Rage II, and Beavis and Butthead; you don't.
posted by jcterminal at 8:58 AM PST - 11 comments

"The Archdiocese of Boston in the last 10 years has quietly settled child molestation claims against at least 70 priests." And that conservative estimate represents about 10% of diocesan priests! Many are priests still. Could there be a safer haven than the Church for these animals? Easy access to children, and if you get caught, worst case is that the church pays off your victims and you get reassigned to a prison or hospital, with no messy publicity. Shameful.
posted by luser at 8:56 AM PST - 38 comments

The Microflat is a new housing design concept in London. It's a small living space intended for young urban types; as a gimmicky promotion, two people will live in Microflats within a department store. Flash required.
posted by acornface at 8:52 AM PST - 23 comments

Pass it along : GM buys Chumbawamba song for $70,000. Chumbawamba takes money and gives it to corporate watchdogs that use the money to fund anti-GM ads. All of which makes up for how annoying "Tubthumping" got after awhile.
posted by zedzebedia at 7:47 AM PST - 32 comments

Shut down the CBC? Or at least, it's English-language television service? A former top CBC exec says CBC English TV has lost its financial viability, and should be sacrificed before it pulls down the CBC as a whole. What gives?
posted by gimonca at 7:13 AM PST - 8 comments

It ain't just Enron -- This kind of pro forma reporting of "profits" is shifty, misleading, and common practice. Should us small investors be worried? Or do I need to be an accountant to know why this isn't a bad thing? And does this mean that there more Enrons out there, ready to implode in a pile of worthless paper?
posted by BitterOldPunk at 7:12 AM PST - 14 comments

AOL has been actively blocking Trillian users. If you switched over to Trillian and use AIM you've had problems connecting all week. As of this morning, version 0.721 is working but will likely be blocked again. AOL is claiming it as a "security" issue.
posted by tommasz at 6:51 AM PST - 30 comments

Is a technology of ecstasy worth the risk? My favourite critic Barbara Ehrenreich writes a real thought-provoker for Forbes.

"We don't need ecstasy, of course. For that matter, we don't need plain old genitally driven orgasms either; humans can get along just fine and even reproduce without them. But we are, for unknown evolutionary reasons, wired for ecstatic experience--never mind that our current social arrangements do not encourage it. Since ancient techniques of ecstasy like the danced ritual are no longer easily applicable, why not develop new ones, more congenial to an overpopulated and urbanized world?" Well, why not? Aldous Huxley's Soma is way overdue anyway.
posted by theplayethic at 4:01 AM PST - 18 comments

Seatbelts save lives . Nineteen years ago today wearing seatbelts in cars became mandatory in the UK. Almost everyone agrees that they save lives but still many people don't bother, especially in the back seat.
posted by nedrichards at 3:32 AM PST - 49 comments

Surely Pork and Apple? The leader of a maverick team of biotechnicians has created Pigs with an implant of spinach genes. Lambs are to have mint sauce implant in the near future?
posted by Spoon at 1:34 AM PST - 3 comments

Is liquidating arafat the answer? Ariel sharon claims that he should have liquidated Yasser Arafat in 1982, when perhaps he had the oppurtunity. Surely this is sharon diplomacy at its best.
posted by johnnyboy at 1:03 AM PST - 38 comments

The Guardian's story on Blogger Pro covers everything you've heard about in the past week, but gets interesting at the end. "We have a tremendous amount of content flowing through our system, all in these little chunks that are separate from their sites. It should be easy to index and aggregate and present to people in all kinds of different ways." Blogger as the Associated Press of weblog syndication services?
posted by mathowie at 12:49 AM PST - 9 comments

Is this woman really America's Best Christian?
posted by croutonsupafreak at 12:25 AM PST - 15 comments

"That's it. I'm done. Done writing books." After Stephen King publishes his next five new books, he's ending his career in publishing. Viewing his latest work as mere recycles of older novels that he has written, he's choosing to stop while he's at the top of his game rather than meet a grim end to his career. Are any fans of his work disappointed or do you feel satisfied with the body of work that he has created over his career?
posted by crog at 10:04 PM PST - 68 comments

Nineta's story: Video of a AIDS infected Rumanian kid fighting the medical bureacracy for therapy. Rumania has the highest no of pediatric AIDs cases - a legacy of the Ceausescu days when tainted blood and dirty needes were used regularly for blood transfusions (from WP)
posted by justlooking at 9:41 PM PST - 1 comments

wil wheaton sweeps the bloggies
posted by stevengarrity at 8:00 PM PST - 48 comments

"Stupid" statements that's the unofficial response from Baghdad it seems, regarding Bush's State of the Union Address. Who's overstepping here?
posted by wantwit at 6:35 PM PST - 16 comments

Al Qaeda drew up plans to attack the Space Needle, Grand Coulee dam, nuclear plants and more, according to documents the feds found in Afghanistan. Perhaps Dubya was referring to this last night when he said "time is not on our side." Sweet dreams.
posted by gsteff at 6:15 PM PST - 25 comments

Healing Games? NBC announces "that if things go well at the Salt Lake City Olympics, then these could be America's 'healing Games.' Plus, NBC stands to make a lot of money."
posted by jacknose at 5:24 PM PST - 9 comments

Children can be cruel and remarkably inventive with it, as this directory of playground insults shows. It's the personal remiscences which explain each insult that make it worthwhile.
posted by MUD at 5:06 PM PST - 20 comments

Welcome to Fort Bend County, Texas, and the city of Sugar Land, where the congressman is Majority Whip Tom Delay, many of the homes are in the million dollar range, a resident WAS a suicidal Enron executive, and the Chair of the Republican Party is also an Enron spokesman. Oh yes and I almost forgot - The Taliban have been here too. I think I need to move.
posted by Scorch at 3:58 PM PST - 12 comments

US Department of Agriculture under pressure to purchase surplus crops. One solution is to use the crops in school lunches, so they are testing things like sweet potato pancakes and hamburgers with prune puree in them (which makes them healthier by replacing some of the fat).
posted by o2b at 3:49 PM PST - 8 comments

Nice or not. It looks like Verizon manages to get kudos on their service while getting relatively little exposure while they are trying to lock-in their customers. What do you think? Does it make sense to go to 3G with Verizon or should one go with competitive content providers who are willing to let you keep your phone numbers when we leave them? Which is more important?
posted by Adman at 3:32 PM PST - 7 comments

Mean-spirited flash rock mockumentaries: Behind The Music That Sucks
posted by signal at 3:02 PM PST - 8 comments

The latest on the WSJ Reporter ... Damn. "The group that claims it has kidnapped a Wall Street Journal reporter in Pakistan has sent e-mail to news organisations threatening to kill him within 24 hours unless the U.S. government released Pakistani prisoners held in the Afghan war."
posted by MidasMulligan at 2:48 PM PST - 20 comments

Wild GM corn begins to overtake Mexican countryside. "It even grows out of the concrete."
posted by skallas at 2:44 PM PST - 34 comments

Just a follow-up on this MeFi thread, because the link has been making its rounds around the Internet. It's a hoax, folks. Sorry.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 1:22 PM PST - 17 comments

The building of this has kept the average car driving commuter of my fair city enraged for 18 months. Not one person who complained to me, the token non-driver, knew that they were going to be wind-powered musical bus stops. Aren't they going to be happy when they find out? :) There's also an audio (RM) link here.
posted by vbfg at 12:37 PM PST - 16 comments

Is the Internet Suffering from Acute 'Englishitis'? "...the advantage among Net surfers will soon no longer belong to English-speaking users but rather to those who master several languages. Multilingualism is without a doubt the future of the network...."
posted by papalotl at 12:14 PM PST - 18 comments

White House Superbowl Ads Forget Britney's "Pepsi Generation" ad, we've got two commercials costing $1.6 million each linking terrorism with the drug trade! You gotta wonder if Rupert called in a favor.
posted by owillis at 10:43 AM PST - 51 comments

Lileks doesn't like us anymore. He's had it with Metafilter and is looking for some other place to go on the web. Suggestions? [His journal entry will be up until late tonight, then will go into the "previous" section.]
posted by braun_richard at 9:42 AM PST - 122 comments

How To Lose Faith Without Really Trying: I lost mine when I was 13 and only recovered it twenty years later. I slowly read my way back to God. James Grimmelman lost his the same way. Reading Kierkegaard did it for him. Faith doesn't come easy but you can certainly lose it in a hurry...[This article from the Killing The Buddha webzine. Other good stuff by Grimmelman can be found on his web site, Laboratorium.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:04 AM PST - 94 comments

Rats R Us. "Rats are the backbone of much scientific research, but only a few off-the-shelf models are available," says the National Centre for Research Resources. So a new "rat boutique" is being opened to provide scientists with more diverse selection.
posted by sanitycheck at 9:03 AM PST - 8 comments

Beyond Indigo is a site devoted to death and dying. Includes channels on funerals, caregiving, and sudden death, as well as quizzes, stories, memorials, products and more.
posted by swift at 8:51 AM PST - 6 comments

GOP Will Fight GAO Lawsuit. Says Orrin Hatch, "the General Accounting Office, shouldn't be 'trying to impose disclosure on internal White House meetings to determine policy. ... If you have to do that, pretty soon there wouldn't be any meetings.'" This is going to be a tough move to defend come election time.
posted by Pinwheel at 8:47 AM PST - 23 comments

John Ashcroft is a-skeered of kitty-cats. Laughs like Nelson
posted by luser at 7:46 AM PST - 50 comments

Jesus' World Tour 2002 stops in Milwaukee. If Jesus were a tree, what kind of tree would he be?
posted by bondcliff at 7:21 AM PST - 13 comments

Fox News overtakes CNN in viewership even though fewer people get Fox News in their households.
posted by mrbula at 7:07 AM PST - 31 comments

The National Toboggan Championships will be held this coming weekend in Camden, Maine. As a past resident of the area I can say that this event, and toboggan runs in general, are a blast. Read About or Listen to (about 40 minutes into the Real Audio File), descriptions of the event.

Any toboggan runs or similarly impressive downhill snow events in your neck of the woods?
posted by dhacker at 6:58 AM PST - 10 comments

Probe into FBI missarage of justice despite Bush objections over Many Rep[ublican conservative Republicans support the investigation.
posted by Postroad at 6:25 AM PST - 5 comments

The USA Freedom Corps announced last night during the State of the Union address now has a live website for you to peruse. Is this a long-overdue program, or another feel-good waste of tax dollars? Can you name a better way to serve your country and countrymen?
posted by johnnyace at 5:32 AM PST - 21 comments

Convict Heart Transplant A 31 year old 2 time felon just got a heart transplant, costing tax payers close to $1 million dollars. With an annual additional cost of $15,000. Right? Wrong? I'm not so sure.
posted by SuzySmith at 5:26 AM PST - 15 comments

Invest now! The SEC has created a fake website to try and educate the naive. I can't decide if this is a good idea, or if someone has too much time on their hands and is wasting my tax dollars.
posted by FreezBoy at 5:11 AM PST - 8 comments

Lisa Gier King - 'clearly willing and consensual sexual intercourse'

'Yahraus has consistently maintained that his sexual relations with King were consensual, a view shared by the police, the state attorney's office and the court'

or institutional misogyny?
Difficult to comment without seeing the film. Will releasing this film help either case? Hard to find anything online from the alternative viewpoint
posted by asok at 4:53 AM PST - 4 comments

Why does the U.S. government kill citizens who smoke pot? The bizarre and scary story of the Rinbow Farm.
posted by magullo at 4:32 AM PST - 22 comments

Power of Ten View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.
posted by Tarrama at 3:40 AM PST - 19 comments

The Angel of the North inspires me somewhat more than the 'Giant Pizza Cross'. The engineering behind it is interesting, aesthetically I find it pleasing, and I don't think it rams religion down anyone's throat.
posted by Frasermoo at 1:01 AM PST - 9 comments

Jesus at 250 feet. Tom Monaghan, best known as the owner of Domino's Pizza, wants to build a 25 story high crucifix on his Ann Arbor, MI property. Is this a monument to religion or a really tacky roadsign?
posted by fujikosmurf at 11:14 PM PST - 72 comments

More than furs, fancy cars or jewelry, I've always wanted an orrery. If you don't know what an orrery is, check this link out. I want the one with *all* the planets, of course. You may remember that there was a room-sized in Aughra's house in the movie The Dark Crystal. Spotted at Bruce Sterling's Schism Matrix
posted by Lynsey at 9:22 PM PST - 13 comments

Governor of Maryland married his deputy chief of staff; she resigned (effected immediately) from her $103,588 position on Friday, the day the couple were married. I'm sure boss/subordinate relationships go on all the time, but isn't it a problem when the boss is the governor of a state? I'm not one to focus on the personal lives of politicians, but this does raise my eyebrows. What do you think -- should state employees be subject to a dating policy simply because they work in the government? Or is this no big deal?
posted by jennak at 8:33 PM PST - 26 comments

A new dynamic in e-publishing? While at work today, I stumbled on Safari, an online book library of sorts from O'Reilly & Associates, Addison Wesley Professional, New Riders and about 4 other companies (as previously mentioned here). It allows to select from upwards of 1000 books, fully searchable and bookmarkable, online for a flat monthly subscription rate.

Safari is just for tech books, but wouldn't it be interesting to see the technology and business plan adapted for other uses?
posted by SweetJesus at 8:32 PM PST - 13 comments

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher On Why The DMCA Sucks
News.com has a Great Editorial by Rick Boucher who says traditional "fair use" rights are at the foundation of the receipt and use of information by the American people, and those rights are now under attack.
He goes on to say Congress agreed to a fundamentally flawed bill, which created the new crime of circumvention--a crime divorced from over a century and a half of respect for the fair-use rights of consumers. The DMCA, as enacted, quite clearly tilted the balance in the Copyright Act toward complete protection and away from information availability.

"Consider the implications. A time may soon come when what is available for free on library shelves will only be available on a pay-per-use basis. It would be a simple matter for a copyright owner to impose a requirement that a small fee be paid each time a digital book or video documentary is accessed by a library patron. Even the student who wants even the most basic access to only a portion of the book to write a term paper would have to pay to avoid committing a crime."

posted by Blake at 6:55 PM PST - 14 comments

Washtech.com hacked The Washington Post's tech site was hacked yesterday. Here's the text (via FuckedCompany) that appeared after the hack and before the WaPo crew shut the site down. As of tonight, it is still not back up at its own domain. Not sure why this gives me glee. I just wish one day someone could hack something and leave something profound in the way of a message.
posted by brookish at 6:47 PM PST - 6 comments

Obligatory link to the state of the union address. I'm surprised that there isn't a play by play thread yet. Comments?
posted by yangwar at 6:31 PM PST - 105 comments

The most misunderstood and underrated band of the '80's is back. And they've got a website and a terrific tribute album (featuring Motorhead and Chuck D[!]) to go with it.The Sister, as we S.M.F.'s call them, started off a New York Dolls inspired bar band, testified before Congress, and made some undeniably great videos. The old early 70's publicity photos alone make it worth the click. So "What do you wanna do with your life?...."
posted by jonmc at 6:22 PM PST - 23 comments

Butt Candles are an exciting, and time honored, device for internal cleansing. Their slogan? "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack be at buttcandle.com".

And don't miss the FAQ section on how to avoid "folicular ignition".
posted by paulrockNJ at 5:26 PM PST - 21 comments

Why we are stupid with money and will never learn any better. Not even from three-card monte (those bastards). "I'll trade you this two hundred dollars for that banana." "Done and done."
posted by hellinskira at 5:20 PM PST - 13 comments

More than you ever wanted to know about snow, from the physics of formation to just priddy pictures.
[Link via CuriousLee]
posted by Su at 1:51 PM PST - 7 comments

I love hot sauce as much as anyone, but products with names like DOA Cyanide, Rigor Mortis, and Dead Heat (packed with its own individually numbered Certificate of Death, inside a fiery coffin box) make me a little nervous. Then there's Chet's Gone Mad, which comes in a medicine dropper and is 700 times hotter than Tabasco (rating 1,500,000 on the Scoville scale). Am I the only one who's afraid of this stuff?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:12 PM PST - 73 comments

From March 17 through June 30, 2002, The Jewish Museum in New York will present "Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art". This exhibition features art of several young artists including this Lego concentration camp.
posted by nonharmful at 12:51 PM PST - 3 comments

15-year-old acting as own attorney proves in court he was charged with bogus crime. And the judge's admiring reaction? "Don't laugh when you leave this courtroom, thinking you have beat the system because you have looked these things up yourself. We are going to get you down the road."
posted by NortonDC at 11:09 AM PST - 52 comments

State of the Union Blog: quite possibly the first web site devoted to analyzing a speech before it happens. (warning: contains Republican content)
posted by darukaru at 10:36 AM PST - 27 comments

Trillian Users blocked from AIM service? The bit about this that scares me is the solution to the problem involves disabling the Secure IM functions. Is this a technical glitch or a conspiracy by AOL to reserve the ability to spy on our IM chats? Or build intentional security loopholes?
posted by Jeffy at 9:42 AM PST - 29 comments

That's My Bush! Another Bush girl in trouble with controlled substances... Fla. police say Gov. Jeb Bush's daughter allegedly filled a false prescription at a pharmacy, and cops showed up.
posted by krewson at 9:05 AM PST - 73 comments

Save "The Tick" Petition A true travesty of justice was the cancelling of the Fox series "The Tick." In a world where naked statues are veiled at public expense, can we afford to miss out on original programming?
posted by Samizdata at 9:03 AM PST - 31 comments

The Freeway Firing Line - "Caltrans workers often have to dodge objects thrown by irate drivers." How angry do you have to be to roll down your window, grab a beer can and throw it at a highway worker? Has anyone here been on either end of this?
posted by espada at 7:03 AM PST - 77 comments

I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so Someday, the cell phone will be the only contraption I use. (Hopefully in this century.)
posted by Voyageman at 6:43 AM PST - 30 comments

Singing Science Records. You know, for kids.
posted by Spoon at 6:38 AM PST - 12 comments

Eighties' design guru goes all Naomi Klein on us. Deeply impassioned screed from Neville Brody, original designer of the UK style'n'music magazine the Face, on the responsibility of designers (and creatives in general) in an age of extreme economic inequality. From a very interesting conference a few months ago called Superhumanism.
posted by theplayethic at 5:22 AM PST - 15 comments

Aguilera vs the Strokes! George Michael meets Missy Elliot! Nirvana and Destiny's Child get it together! Mutant spliced mp3s: the new rock'n'roll, surely.
posted by creeky at 4:13 AM PST - 36 comments

Svalbard, the Arctic pearl. It appears Svalbard has a tourism industry, a pretty good FAQ, some cold weather, but not that cold, since the Gulf Stream terminates there(scroll down to map). The Polar bears are being studied for PCB accumulation, which strikes me as interesting, considering the location of Svalbard. Granted, it's not out of the way, like Franz Josef Land, but then they don't have Restaurant Nansen, do they?
posted by dglynn at 1:13 AM PST - 14 comments

Girls and Gaming Yes, there are women involved in the gaming industry but always behind the scenes. Does more social interaction through online games mean that more women will become leading game designers?
posted by AsiaInsider at 12:45 AM PST - 22 comments

E-Filing Your Taxes This Year? If your adjusted gross income is $25,000 or less, you can file your taxes with Quicken Turbotax on the Web and waive the $19.99 filing fee through their Tax Freedom Project. Who says that all the good free web goodies are gone?
posted by tpoh.org at 10:04 PM PST - 13 comments

The Mystery of Britney Spears' Breasts. (Requires Flash)
posted by adrober at 6:37 PM PST - 35 comments

Privatizing Censorship "The Official Secrets Act (in the UK) will soon be unenforceable, and the internet already makes absolute control of information impossible, says Northern Irish web journalist Newton Emerson. What worries him is the changing nature of censorship. Over the past 20 years, mostly by accident, he argues, censorship has been privatised." And Emerson should know: his satires have caused an uproar in Northern Ireland.
posted by brookish at 6:29 PM PST - 4 comments

Rock band Creed is not fond of free speech. Creed was slammed on this site recently and their actions toward this music critic in Cleveland doesn't help their cause. In this case, Creed seems to be doing a lot of "Do as I say, not as a I do" speak. I was at the Cleveland show Sunday night and I enjoyed the concert, but this story is disappointing.
posted by munger at 6:13 PM PST - 94 comments

The new COINTELPRO? In an age of massive databases, shared law enforcement intranets, and wire-taps that can collect terabytes of data, privacy may well become an antiquated notion as legislators and law enforcement work to fight the current menace.
posted by skallas at 6:03 PM PST - 5 comments

existential pud : "the Web's Premier Source For The Convergence of Bubble Gum Comics and Existential Philosophy!"
posted by todd at 5:27 PM PST - 3 comments

License for love. Although some might call it a license for stalking. This is a patent for a method to request a date with a someone knowing only their vehicle license plate number. Quite a concept. I wonder what Mr. Wertheim will name this service.
posted by borgle at 4:25 PM PST - 12 comments

Attack U.S. and win aid. Is Afghanistan the 'Mouse that Roared'? Why is Afghanistan rewarded with an outpouring of aid? The reason is simple: U.S. forces defeated Afghanistan's regime and Americans now feel responsible for fixing the country. This reflects the "mouse that roared" syndrome, named after the 1959 movie starring Peter Sellers in no less than three roles. It told the story of a tiny Europe duchy, Grand Fenwick, which finds itself on the verge of bankruptcy and decides to declare war on America in order to lose, then profit from the resulting aid.
posted by Rastafari at 3:42 PM PST - 20 comments

News actuality from September 11th, 2001, from the Television Archive. Live coverage includes programming from ABC, BBC, CBC Newsworld, NBC, NTV Moscow, and China Central Television.
posted by tranquileye at 2:37 PM PST - 14 comments

Honest, Mister: I Was Looking For Literutcher...! Well, I was searching for S.J.Perelman, my favourite humorist, when I came across Foundations of Fashionable Thought, a web site devoted to girdles: girdles in the movies, girdles in 1950 and girdles in every conceivable epoch and sense. It so happens I am partial to girdles, though I'd never dream of searching for them. At least not until now. And the question, I guess, is: has anyone else ever made a serendipitous find on the Internet, almost entirely unrelated to what they they were looking for? [Though, ahem, there are some great Perelman quotes on the main link, not to mention William Carlos Williams, J.D.Salinger, Anne Sexton, Ogden Nash, Mary McCarthy and other great excuses]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:22 PM PST - 9 comments

Indian & Pakistani ex-pats dissect world affairs, write fiction, and discuss anything and everything under the sun. I'm a typically ignorant American, so it's illuminating to read the opinions of others much more familiar with central Asia and the Indian subcontinent than I am. Site features a high level of discourse and exemplary manners.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 1:37 PM PST - 6 comments

Are these kind of constant reminders really the way to heal and bond our future generations from the evil deeds of our grandfathers?
posted by oh posey at 1:35 PM PST - 46 comments

Wall Street Journal bureau chief is kidnapped. Hostage-takers demand better treatment of prisions at Guantanamo Bay. But my questions are, (1) Since when do journalists make good hostages and (2) Isn't there any way more creative than the ole hostage-holding-today's-paper as a way to prove that he is alive?
posted by tsarfan at 11:38 AM PST - 26 comments

Have seen Satan lately? Or written any good anti-Satan poetry lately? If so, here's a website for you. If I were the Dark Lord I'd be shaking in my boots!
posted by Bag Man at 11:34 AM PST - 17 comments

Whatever Capitalism's Fate, Somebody's Already Working on an Alternative. "We may not know the region from which the next Marx will hail or his particular approach. But we can be sure that someone, somewhere will offer an alternative vision." You'll never guess what radical reformer the author has in mind. This is a very interesting piece.
posted by homunculus at 11:03 AM PST - 11 comments

Things that change after University Any other ideas?
posted by feelinglistless at 10:21 AM PST - 33 comments

Family Guy, the uproariously funny and at times controversial Fox cartoon, has apparently been cancelled as of this season. A petition is presently circulating. Many others are writing letters. For me, I'm just sobbing quietly in a dark corner.
posted by nickd at 9:54 AM PST - 50 comments

Ultra Wide Band (UWB) communications: The end of communication technology as we know it, and the dawn of an entirely new paradigm, or just the empty promise of yet another 100 mile-per-gallon carburetor? Robert X. Cringely holds forth...
posted by verdezza at 9:50 AM PST - 16 comments

The Middlesex District Attorney prevented Michael Costin's family from donating his heart for a transplant in case Thomas Junta's lawyer had argued Costin died of a pre-existing heart condition.

"With heart transplants, it's literally a life or death situation," said Dr. Lachlan Forrow, an internist and director of the ethics program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "It's very, very likely that, because of this decision, someone with heart disease died. I think it's tragic."
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:24 AM PST - 10 comments

Speaking of bibles, a man gets 2 years in prison in China for smuggling them to an underground Christian organization. Nothing like religious tolerance.
posted by catatonic at 8:23 AM PST - 85 comments

New gender-neutral bible planned... It seems there is a lot of controversy surrounding the revised bible known as "Today's New International Version," or TNIV. The Council on Bibllical Manhood and Womanhood has released a statement on what is wrong with a gender-neutral bible translation while admitting there are a few improvements regarding changing the word men (which isn't specified by Greek text) to all people, a faithful rendering of the Greek pronoun pas According to some, this is the work of the devil and feminist groups everywhere. There have been outright denouncings of the gender-neutral bible by several Christian groups... but really, what do you think? Is it really the big deal people make it out to be? How can the church teach that man and mankind in the Bible refers to all of God's human creatures and yet, not support a genderless translation???
posted by gloege at 8:19 AM PST - 64 comments

Beast (warning rough language and images) is a PDF-based design zine. According to Chris Casciano’s interesting call to arms/challenge to web designers, Your CSS Bores Me, this type of thing is on the rise. It’s slipped under my radar so far, but I’m sure there must be better examples. Does anybody have any pointers to really good design PDF magazines?
posted by willnot at 8:14 AM PST - 25 comments

After the success of the first free online animated series Angry Kid, triple Oscar winning Aardman Animations announces 12 new Wallace & Gromit short films, delivered exclusively via CD/Web. (Also announced, the title of new W&G feature film and game)
posted by MintSauce at 7:13 AM PST - 2 comments

Wealth Spawns Corruption. Socialist economies could be more at risk from corruption than Liberal ones. Ironically, wealth condensation poses the greatest danger to economies that impose constraints on the accumulation of great wealth - broadly speaking, Socialist economies. Liberal economies that maintain free and unrestricted trade are less susceptible.
posted by stbalbach at 6:46 AM PST - 8 comments

Astrid Lindgren goes to Nangiyala... She wrote some of the most read and loved childbooks in the world. Have you read her books about Pippi Longstockings and The brothers Lionhart?
posted by Ulwen at 4:22 AM PST - 10 comments

Chney refusal to turn over records may soon end up in court Th eEnron scandal begins to mirror the Clinton Whitewater affair, with an apparent suicide, the use of executive priviledge, congressional groups investigating. Now all that is needed is some sex and an independent prosecurtor.
posted by Postroad at 4:22 AM PST - 14 comments

Teddy Bears spread infections In a complicated world, even things we once held dear have become a threat.
posted by AsiaInsider at 12:26 AM PST - 13 comments

Lego isn't just for geeks anymore. The latest video directed by Michel Gondry for the White Stripes melds lego with rock in a wonderful way that just has to be seen.
posted by mathowie at 11:04 PM PST - 16 comments

"Those breasts were lethal weapons," he told reporters. Greene's father, George, won't specify the amount they are suing for, but claims that it isn't about the money. 'Mind-boggling drama,' indeed! (via FC)
posted by scarabic at 10:36 PM PST - 11 comments

Bush wants $100M to urge welfare moms to marry What will he want next $100M to urge Atheists to become Christians.
posted by onegoodmove at 10:35 PM PST - 38 comments

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, its Ace or Gary disguised as Superman! If you thought Peter Pan was a few apples short, then check then keep reading. "... Several brave heroes in spandex ventured to pose in their superhero outfits little did they know what was waiting for them!"

The bondage Spiderman is whack yo! I just want to know where's the Wolverine to torch a blunt and get the freak on?
posted by Brilliantcrank at 10:30 PM PST - 6 comments

Meet "The Osburnes" NYT article on a new MTV show starting March 5 that spends three months with Ozzy Osburne and his family. Best line: "The (press) session became heated when a reporter asked MTV's president of programming if Mr. Osburne's often-slurred, heavy British accent would be accompanied by subtitles."
posted by zinegurl at 10:14 PM PST - 4 comments

Aboriginal leader asks court to spear policeman to death. Ahahah ahah hah ah ahh HAHAHAA (more inside)
posted by holloway at 9:58 PM PST - 38 comments

Q209354 - HOWTO Semi-comic relief. Found on newsgroup.
posted by bjgeiger at 9:18 PM PST - 6 comments

Recipe for Disaster? The World Economic Forum meets in New York this week, and the usual parties are going to converge on the city. With 9.11 so fresh in people's minds will things get way out of hand? It seems like a powderkeg to me.
posted by owillis at 7:13 PM PST - 44 comments

Names, names, names. Whoever Jerry Hill is, he clearly has a glorious obsession with the naming of things, and he's created a massive but reasonably well-organized compendium of relevant links. It's easy to find sites that will offer to help you name your baby, or your pet; but where else will you find one source for links to sites on "Unfortunate Rose Names"? "Naming Your Homeschool"? "Welsh Castle Names"? "Weird Little Taxes with Oddball Names"? "Jamaican Bus Names"? (The only thing I see lacking is a link to any site about how internet users choose their on-line handles, a topic I find fascinating...)
posted by Kat Allison at 6:34 PM PST - 6 comments

Niches of Trust is an Online Journalism Review article about three 'consumer journalism' sites run by individuals who come from journalism backgrounds. They do something now rare in corporate media - provide honest information separate from advertiser influence and, when necessary, are critical of the business or product being reviewed. The sites are The Car Place, Theme Park Insider and Consumer World. What are your favorite run-by-one-person sites that provide critical analysis of products?
posted by fleener at 4:21 PM PST - 5 comments

The Game of Life is a mathematical 'game' which demonstrates how incredibly complex and chaotic patterns can emerge from a few simple rules. This site contains some truly staggering examples of just how complex things can get (click on the 'enjoy life' button to run the Java Applet). Here's an explanation of how the game works.
posted by astro38 at 3:06 PM PST - 10 comments

When cruelty and holidays collide, the weak-willed find solace in self-pity and comfort foods. Despair, Inc. :-( (R) introduces BitterSweets, with messages like "LUV 2 STALK U" and "SEE OTHER PEOPLE".
posted by swell at 2:54 PM PST - 12 comments

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will be launching a morals program designed to teach high school students about "fundamental values and universal moral precepts." This in response to his observation that high school students did not feel a sense of outrage after September 11. Kennedy warned against trying to rationalize the actions of the terrorists, saying that "an explanation becomes the excuse." Do you think the justice system should be in the business of telling people the correct moral response to these events?
posted by Chanther at 1:59 PM PST - 27 comments

New England Patriots heading to Super Bowl. Joy in Boston tempered by realization that it's not the Red Sox.
posted by solistrato at 1:33 PM PST - 30 comments

Sophie's World (a novel about the history of philosophy) is an international bestseller by Jostein Gaarder. Praised by critics for successfully condensing over 3000 years of thought into 400 pages without dumbing the concepts down, itfeatures an enigmatic philosopher teaching a 14 year old Norwegian girl called Sophie. So far, there's been a board game, a movie, a weblog, a musical and a CD-ROM (full text online). It's an absolutely wonderful read and a great introduction to philosophy.
posted by adrianhon at 12:53 PM PST - 22 comments

another school shooting -- but this one was stopped by armed students.
posted by zerolucid at 12:07 PM PST - 36 comments

Lest we forget ...
posted by tomcosgrave at 10:50 AM PST - 11 comments

"America is Blinded on Human Rights" Christopher Hitchens comments on the U.S. and international standards of human rights.
posted by Ty Webb at 10:21 AM PST - 9 comments

Peter Gzowski, Canadian broadcaster, died a couple of days ago. Listen to an old interview with Stuart McLean on CBC Radio RealAudio at noon EST from Toronto, 1pm from Winnipeg, 2pm from Calgary or 3pm from Vancouver. Gzowski and McLean are the voice of the Canadian spirit.
posted by Geo at 8:50 AM PST - 9 comments

10 Days in September: Inside the War Cabinet The Washington Post today publishes the first of an eight-part special series, by investigative reporters Dan Balz and Bob Woodward, on the US government's -- and more specifically, the Bush Administration's -- initial response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The series is based on interviews with President Bush, Vice President Cheney and many other key officials inside the administration and out, and is supplemented by notes of National Security Council meetings made available to The Washington Post, along with notes taken by multiple participants. This is what journalism at its best is all about...
posted by verdezza at 8:40 AM PST - 19 comments

Cicciolina * is considering a return to politics, this time aiming for a seat in the Hungarian Parliament. Perhaps this time, in the interests of world peace, she'll offer to sleep with Osama bin Laden.

*mild nudity
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:38 AM PST - 8 comments

The End of equations? Paul Dirac and Albert Einstein thought equations were things of beauty, Stephen Wolfram, by contrast thinks they are antiquated.
posted by none at 5:31 AM PST - 10 comments

When this appears in newspapers across America tomorrow morning, will dad choke on his Special K and think of his number tucked in the drawer, or will he feel outrage and disgust at the public discussion of drugs ?
posted by Bones423 at 1:24 AM PST - 42 comments

Great article about the decline of obituary writing in American journalism. Notable obits it names include Hunter Thompson's unflattering rendition of Nixon and H.L. Mencken's scathing posthumous indictment of William Jennings Bryan.

Should we go back to obits like these? Damn right we should, says suck.com.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 11:51 PM PST - 10 comments

The Lion of Kabul has died. He survived mistreatment at the hands of the Taliban and even lived through a grenande attack, but it was finally old age that put him in his grave. I'm hoping he's symbolic of the Afgan people -- that they will see their troubled times through to the end.
posted by Wildcat3 at 10:46 PM PST - 7 comments

Did Bungie Software release their April Fool's joke ahead of schedule and under budget?
posted by machaus at 9:47 PM PST - 11 comments

Group Calls for Day with No Internet. Bah humbug.
posted by adampsyche at 7:36 PM PST - 37 comments

A little beyond shredding documents... According to Human Rights Watch, the irrepressible Enron paid local police to beat, harass, and intimidate farmers and fishermen in India who opposed the building of their new power plant in their backyards. Does this, after Exxon-Mobil was taken to court for building torture centers in Indonesia, call into question the power of small states vis a vis humongous multinational corporations?
posted by skoosh at 4:43 PM PST - 27 comments

The Brand Called You: Amazon lists the author of Cascading Style Sheets 2.0 Programmer's Reference as “Eric A. Cascading Style Sheets Meyer”
posted by kirkaracha at 3:08 PM PST - 10 comments

Yahoo adds "premium" search features using technology from Northern Light (now divine). [more inside]
posted by dhartung at 2:42 PM PST - 13 comments

Public Survey for Input to the Planetary Decadal Survey. The Planetary Society is seeking input from the public for NASA's planetary research priorities for the next 10 years. The deadline for taking the survey is January 31st.
posted by homunculus at 2:05 PM PST - 4 comments

A Rose Is A Rose Is A Not A Good Name For Your Daughter: What's in a name? A lot, apparently. Find out at the hilarious Institute for Naming Children Humanely. Still not convinced? Check out the hidden meaning of your name, nickname and cybername at the wacky Kabalarian web site. [First link via utterly linkalicious pelp]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:43 PM PST - 61 comments

28th Amendment to the US constitution? The "Alliance for Marriage" seeks to amend the United States consitution to define Marriage as between a man and a woman only, which would make it a first constitutional amendment to abrogate rather than protect individual freedoms. Bottom of the page has a link to fax your congressperson if you so choose.
posted by mikojava at 12:22 PM PST - 50 comments

A really cool idea. This is how new technology is born
posted by delmoi at 12:01 PM PST - 34 comments

Link from NYTimes front page: as though any party or politician is "Taint" free. Sort of like saying every MF post is thotful, entelligent, and well spelt. [this post notwithstanding]
posted by greyscale at 11:53 AM PST - 5 comments

And speaking of unnecessary design groups, the Queer Design Alliance proposes to educate the masses and show that "gay art" does not equate to erotic art, and that "we are your neighbors, babysitters..." etc. So?
[more inside]
posted by Su at 11:00 AM PST - 20 comments

Batman vs. Superman. Tonight we find out who wins at the end of the seven hour marathon which started a few minutes back on Cartoon Network. All week long the fans have been voting for their favourites, and from the last two hours of this marathon will be dedicated to the winner. [It's on Cartoon Network in the US.]
posted by riffola at 10:14 AM PST - 21 comments

Justice Department Coverup Attorney General John Ashcroft was fed up with having his picture taken during events in the Great Hall in front of semi-nude statues. So he has ordered massive draperies to conceal the offending figures (cost: 8,000 bucks)
posted by matteo at 9:57 AM PST - 40 comments

A victim of it's own popularity, or just a control freak who lost control? Not sure how much overlap there is between MeFi and Hissyfit, but the SysOp over there, WingChun (a notoriously strict moderator), decided that she was just too overwealmed by the whole thing, and for a variety of reasons, pulled the plug. What are the implications for other online communities?
posted by crunchland at 8:01 AM PST - 18 comments

The psychology of weblogs. Interesting story about weblogs and why we continue, daily, hourly, to read them. What makes a weblog great? Is it popularity or the quality of the site that draws the punters in? For me its the characters and the links. (mefi shoutout)
posted by spinifex at 7:50 AM PST - 13 comments

Wot, no black holes? Those wacky boffins in science land have already had a pop at the Higg's boson, but now they're moving on to everybody's favourite theoretical singularity, with a new theory about what happens when a star kicks the astral bucket.
posted by stuporJIX at 3:36 AM PST - 6 comments

Booby Trap is a fabulous Flash video set to a Chemical Brothers song. I was blown away (altho I may be easily impressed). Another wonderful use for Flash is the Control Group's web site. Never heard of 'em? Try an MP3. Check out the video.
Link via Off On a Tangent.
posted by ashbury at 2:28 AM PST - 15 comments

James Bond vs. Austin Powers ...and now for something completely trivial: MGM and Danjaq, the British company that controls the Bond film license, have obtained a cease-and-desist order against New Line Cinema that prohibits New Line from calling the latest installment of Mike Myers' shagadelic spy series Austin Powers in Goldmember. Apparently, the 007 folks weren't too keen on the double entendre of Goldmember--a takeoff on the 1964 Bond classic, Goldfinger--and released the legal hounds to force the name change. That's not very sporting of them, is it?
posted by verdezza at 2:27 AM PST - 25 comments

Mideast vs West. From a conservative-libertarian point of view, what's wrong in the Muslim world, what caused 9-11, and how to fix it. Even if you don't agree with the author's conclusions (maybe especially if you don't agree with the author's conclusions) the piece is worth reading, as an exceptionally clear and forceful articulation of these ideas. Link found on Arts & Letters Daily.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 1:12 AM PST - 19 comments

Troll of trolls In this one tiny piece in Modern Healthcare hot button issues are pressed all over the place: abortion, public funds ($40 billion) for religious doctrine, contraception, patients rights, etc. etc. Of course none of this would be an issue if poor unwed mothers would take West Virginia up on their offer of $100 to just get married. Flame away...
posted by victors at 11:18 PM PST - 6 comments

Alterslash takes all the hard work out of reading Slashdot. On a single page, it compiles the day's headlines, along with the top five rated comments on each, and graphs the signal % over time for each thread. Think of it as an automatic digest, showing just the best of Slashdot, each day.
posted by mathowie at 10:38 PM PST - 15 comments

MMG Strikes Back * The creators of Star Ballz* , an adult cartoon parody, have successfully argued for the lifting of a preliminary injunction in this lawsuit by George Lucas which was keeping them from distributing their video online while the lawsuit was ongoing. (more inside)

*contains some "adult" animation, probably not suitable for those at work
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:52 PM PST - 5 comments

The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, as caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.

The story recounts the wars between nations on an enormous and unnamed planet, of which Earth is a moon. The conflict is provoked by the Glandelinians, who practice child enslavement. After hundreds of ferocious battles, the good Christian nation of Abbiennia forces the 'haughty' Glandelinians to give up their barbarous ways. The heroines of Darger's history are the seven Vivian sisters, Abbiennian princesses. They are aided in their struggles by a panoply of heroes, who are sometimes the author's alter-egos. The battles are full of vivid incident: charging armies, ominous captures, alarms and explosions, the appearances of demons and dragons.

Details within.
posted by y2karl at 6:03 PM PST - 19 comments

Captures from a video of an attack on a Taliban BMP. All I have to say is "holy crap." Graphic. Interesting. Discuss amongst yourselves.
posted by manero at 3:57 PM PST - 24 comments

Message to you Rudy this article is very anti Guiliani.Now as a brit I vaguely rememember Rudy first of all being disliked and then unloved and this article brings it all back. Post 11/9 though he took on hero status even in this house,his first press conference my Mrs said "aww he looks just like Harold Lloyd," how cool is that? Plus alongside Bush he really is iconic ,truly. My point is,has the backlash begun,it seems to have in the U.K,particularly with the "x.ray "camp coverage. Are we at last being allowed to ponder the imponderables? Like are we really that holy?
posted by Fat Buddha at 3:53 PM PST - 8 comments

New Line may add footage to the end of the theatrical release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring. "We're going to change the last reel out and do a preview of Two [Towers] at the end of the last reel..."
posted by tranquileye at 3:48 PM PST - 32 comments

I like football as much as the next guy, but this has to be the lamest attempt at "sports humor" I've seen in a while.
posted by ejoey at 3:35 PM PST - 5 comments

What happens when a LEGO fanatic becomes bored? Or, perhaps the question should be "what should one do with about a quarter million Modulex bricks?" You might remember Eric of LEGO Desk fame...
posted by heather at 3:21 PM PST - 7 comments

Anime weekend. Two anime movies are hitting the big screen this weekend in a handful of locations (luckily for me both are coming to Chicago). I'm not the biggest anime fan but I'm dying to see this stuff on the big screen. I don't know if this is the sign of things to come, but I really missed out when Princess Mononoke quietly snuck into town.
posted by skallas at 3:20 PM PST - 16 comments

blogger goes pro well, it looks like ev has finally gone and launched blogger pro. hopefully, this will prove to be sucessful for pyra. now if you'll pardon me i need to part with $35...
posted by boogah at 3:08 PM PST - 32 comments

This is a site for a book, and a traveling exhibit, of photgraphy of public lynchings in the Not-so-long-ago-as-you-might-wish American past. A friend of mine went to the exhibit in Pittsburgh and said it was hardest thing he's ever done, it was moving and horryfying of what people are capable of when they become an angry mob. However BAD you thoguht the world is now, it was worse just several decades ago.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 2:37 PM PST - 9 comments

An Angel appears in DC.
posted by sheauga at 1:23 PM PST - 8 comments

Want cream with that coffee? Thank god I bring my own. In a sealed thermos, thank you. Link via BKO.
posted by adampsyche at 12:58 PM PST - 26 comments

This is the single best entry I have ever read, written by anyone, anywhere, on any blog.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:50 PM PST - 50 comments

"I have the cost of a really nice Mercedes on my chest," she said. It helps that all of Kleevage's breast-related expenses are tax deductible.
posted by Fat Elvis at 11:40 AM PST - 27 comments

WA Lawmakers try to remove "repugnant" Theory of Evolution from schools . Yes, this is the 21st century, and yes - we in Washington State now have two bills, (Senate and House) before our congress that propose "All textbooks and curriculum that teach the theory of evolution shall be removed from the public schools forthwith and replaced with textbooks and curriculum that teach the self-evident truth of creation".

I don't know whether this is a legitimate effort to change the law, or a (hopefully) doomed effort to curry favor with conservative voters. [originally via fark]
posted by kokogiak at 11:22 AM PST - 46 comments

Enron May Spark a Revolt of the Professionals. James K. Galbraith suggests that the managerial class has had enough.
posted by Ty Webb at 11:04 AM PST - 16 comments

Woman gets stuck to airline toilet for two hours. The American woman used the toilet, but pushed the flush button before standing up.
posted by swift at 10:51 AM PST - 18 comments

'Gen X' Parents would like to see a return to more traditional standards inside their newly-purchased homes and impart to their children the value of hard work, according to a new study in American Demographics. Could it be that we 'Slackers,' are more motivated than the moniker suggests?
posted by keith at 9:32 AM PST - 23 comments

The Rise and Fall of Plastic.com, part one. Freelance writer Mat Honan (Mefi user Emptyage) probes the story behind Plastic, using interviews with Joey Anuff, Carl Steadman, and the rest of the Plastic crew (some conducted publicly). Most Metafilter users never really embraced Plastic, but I can't help but wonder about Carl. $40,000 is a lot of money for one person. Does he know what he's doing? Why does he care so much? Maybe we'll find out in the second part of the OJR article.
posted by waxpancake at 9:14 AM PST - 16 comments

Ex Enron Vice Chair Commits Suicide J. Clifford Baxter was found dead in his car in a Houston suburb Firday. Texas police said the cause of death was suicide.
posted by Lanternjmk at 9:11 AM PST - 40 comments

There's no justice like angry mob justice. "But like vigilante gangs of the American frontier, ad hoc communities seeking justice on the electronic frontier sometimes trample the very laws they seek to enforce, as their quest for justice warps into a plot for revenge." Sounds familiar. Man swindles eBayers out of 125 grand; angry mob takes control of his e-mail account, grills his mother and assumes his identity.
posted by Big Fat Tycoon at 9:08 AM PST - 3 comments

Newsworthy? In Silicon Valley, a sex survey. In Des Moines, a man complaining about his car being taken away for a $35.81 crime. Interesting news?
posted by jacobw at 8:18 AM PST - 6 comments

So When Can The Boy Start Drinking Then? From February 1 you'll have to be 16 to order an alcoholic drink in Portugal. We Portuguese were the last bastion in Europe - with no age limit at all - but have finally given in the to pressures from the European Union. Yet young people here enjoy drinking but rarely get drunk. Age limits vary wildly all over the world and the debate on the ideal drinking age rages on. The U.S. is still the strictest country of all. And yet public displays(and tacit approval)of drunkenness seem to be far more prevalent in the stricter countries than in those who have more liberal legislation. So what should be the minimum drinking age? [The main link, in Portuguese, refers to the political battles that preceded the new law. Interestingly, it reports the Portuguese government resisted EU pressure to limit 16-year-olds to beer and wine, more or less saying "alcohol is alcohol - you can get drunk on anything - so it would be silly to limit young people's choices." ]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:01 AM PST - 40 comments

Male Discrimination? This issue has been building up for the last few years, ever since Title IX has been enforced in high schools and colleges. Now a coalition of male athletes, primarily wrestlers, has sued the Department of Education for depriving men the opportunity to participate in collegiate sports (due to the lack of funds). Here are two contrasting perspectives of the Title IX issue: The Myth of Title IX and Mythbusting.
posted by jacknose at 7:58 AM PST - 31 comments

Why Genetic Engineering Is So Dangerous Environmentalist/biologist Barry Commoner's essay in the February issue of Harper's magazine warns about the unknown dangers of genetic engineering. "...billions of transgenic plants are now being grown with only the most rudimentary knowledge about the resulting changes in their composition. Without detailed, ongoing analyses of the transgenic crops, there is no way of knowing what hazardous consequences may arise. But, given the failure of the Central Dogma, there is no assurance that they will not. The genetically engineered crops now being grown represent a huge uncontrolled experiment; its outcome is inherently unpredictable. Our project is designed to help develop effective public understanding of the dangerous implications of this critical predicament." He asserts that the "Central Dogma", the basis for the Human Genome Project, was known to be flawed prior to the inception of the $3 billion program. Should we be amused/impressed or very worried when we read about pig/spinach crosses and the like? Related article here.
posted by martk at 7:35 AM PST - 16 comments

Americans to arrest Karadzic soon...
US intelligence officials and commandos have found Balkans war crimes suspect Mr Radovan Karadzic and he will be arrested soon, the Nezavisne Novine newspaper said today.
posted by tomcosgrave at 6:19 AM PST - 2 comments

George Saunders imagines the future of advertising: "But Teddy of course did not see Gene Kelly, Gene Kelly not being one of his Preferences, but instead saw his hero Babar, swinging a small monkey on his trunk while saying that his data indicated that Teddy did not yet own a Nintendo." Hilarious Vonnegut-like short fiction.
posted by BT at 5:55 AM PST - 9 comments

rockwisdom Some people claim they never listen to the lyrics, while others listen intently. As they listen to lyrics, some words may be incoherent or misunderstood. Other listeners may not care to know what the words really mean or how they may impact society. Regardless, lyrics are important. They provide expression, communication, and entertainment. They are messages with the potential to be very powerful, and therefore, useful in making points in our daily discourse.
posted by Tarrama at 4:59 AM PST - 36 comments

Is this a real chance at campaign finance reform or are we just in for more partisan back and forth that in the end won't change much of anything? (NY Times link) And how long will the "Enron effect" last?
posted by willrich at 3:47 AM PST - 6 comments

Googlewhacking. A procrastination aid like no other. Find The One -- and score it. I'm getting a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves.
posted by pedantic at 10:41 PM PST - 135 comments

By The Way - food for thought (India Pakistan Relationship) "When scorching winds blow across the Rajasthan desert they touch Cholistan and Bahawalpur too. When the snows don't melt in the Himalayas the effect is the same on the Indus and the Ganges. It is strange though that the pain which soil and vegetation can feel is not felt by the leaderships of the two countries."
posted by adnanbwp at 10:08 PM PST - 1 comments

George Bush: Union buster. 500 federal employees (including US Attorneys' offices, Interpol's U.S. branch, the Criminal Division, the National Drug Intelligence Center, and the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review) fired because the presence of unionized workers would not be "consistent with national security requirements and considerations." [via bb]
posted by mathowie at 10:06 PM PST - 34 comments

I'm fat and I'm suing Twinkies. Art imitating life? Who else saw this past Sunday's episode of The Simpson's? First a bus driver named Otto kidnapping children and now this.
posted by suprfli at 8:40 PM PST - 31 comments

Missing school bus found near D.C. Berks Academy administrator Robert Becker said: "I am totally relieved and thankful to the Lord for protecting these kids." Um, excuse me?
posted by hitsman at 7:45 PM PST - 33 comments

Taleban faction ditches Kandahar, reneges on surrender agreement. My only question is, why were these people not disarmed, or was this some sort of "Munich Pact" surrender agreement?
posted by insomnyuk at 7:43 PM PST - 8 comments

Was Enron a cult?
posted by neilkod at 3:56 PM PST - 12 comments

Fireplace log may cause fire. No kidding? "Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch" releases it's winners of "Wacky Warning Label" contest. Click on "Wacky Warning Label" button. Also, be sure to check out past winners, such the bottle of sleeping pills which says, "Warning: May cause drowsiness".
posted by msacheson at 3:36 PM PST - 16 comments

The "Pardon Effect" - economic theory applied to the death penalty Pardons increase homicide rates. "The pardon effect is a matter of simple market economics... pardons reduce the chances that convicted killers will pay the ultimate price for committing murder. Thus a pardon represents a decrease in the cost of committing the crime and is accompanied by an increase in the homicide rate. Conversely, if you increase the "cost" of committing murder by executing a larger share of convicted killers, then economic theory suggests that the murder rate will fall" . The chairman of the economics department at the University of Colorado claims to have the data to support the theory from their analysis of all 6,143 death sentences handed out between 1977 and 1997 in the United States.
posted by Voyageman at 2:02 PM PST - 23 comments