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December 2000 Archives
December 31
"Mr Bush, the World Doesn't Want to Be American"
"... it is time for America's electorate to be told the blunt truth: that the present situation of the United States, with a part of its population able to enjoy a life of extraordinary comfort and privilege, is not tenable as long as an enormous portion of the world lives in abject poverty, degradation and backwardness."
posted by lia at 11:35 PM PST - 13 comments
Britain's Millennium Dome
didn't even stay open for a full year. The $1.2 billion Dome was shut down today at 6:00 PM GMT. An Irish company plans to provide luxury housing on the site, and make the building into a high tech buisness center.
posted by riffola at 11:11 PM PST - 4 comments
Random Cheer Bombing II: Happy (Gregorian) New Year!
(Yes, I'm early; but I have a ways to drive to get kissed, so y'all can just deal. :-)
posted by baylink at 8:05 PM PST - 5 comments
December 30
Stupid google tricks:
I was looking for links on Chris Ware, author of "
Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth" and "
The Acme Novelty Library." See how I've cleverly included links to material on both those works? I found those links via Google, and they both include the words "Chris Ware" any number of times. But when I search for "Chris Ware"
per se on Google, I only get 11 links. . . and all of them are in German! Anyone got any explanation for this oddity?
posted by rodii at 6:48 PM PST - 22 comments
Bush nominates 'James Watt protege' for Secretary of the Interior.
For those of you who don't remember, Watt was Ronald "trees cause air pollution" Reagan's Secretary of the Interior. He was best known for the following statements: "My responsibility is to follow the Scriptures which call upon us to occupy the land until Jesus returns" and "We don't have to protect the environment, the Second Coming is at hand".
Redwoods, prepare to be chopped! Wildlands, prepare to get drilled!
posted by Mr. skullhead at 7:53 AM PST - 14 comments
December 29
Mario's back!
I'm a couple days late on this, but I just want to say that as a sports fan, I'm glad to see
Pittsburgh Penguins owner Mario Lemiuex has returned to the ice in style. He's a class act and a great player.
posted by snarkout at 6:55 AM PST - 14 comments
One of the most creative and technically solid Flash sites around,
Yugop has some new goodies to explore. I love the industorious clock...so good.
posted by jkottke at 6:52 AM PST - 6 comments
December 28
"I've been declared dead by better coroners than you!"
Just when I'm about to once again lose faith, this happens. Jay Sherman is
back. Jon Lovitz's lovingly annoying show
The Critic has been canned by three (count'em) THREE major networks. Now, it's the Internet's turn! May the fourth time be the charm for this guy. All balding, fat men with big mouths and ex-wives
rejoice! We've got a reprieve!
Warning: above links require shockwave but you already knew that. Gee, I hope the link works. If it doesn't, try this one then look around for a bald guy with a big nose. No celebrities were harmed in the making of this MeFi post.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:53 PM PST - 8 comments
Happy New Year!
It's not too early to think about your safety and well-being at the New Year's bash you're planning on attending (or hosting).
posted by ethmar at 2:35 PM PST - 7 comments
I think they got a bargain.
A company which was in financial trouble let a kid come in for two weeks as an intern. He took a look at their business, immediately set up a web site for them to sell their product, and they promptly received an order for 70,000 pounds through that web site. It appears it will save their company.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:48 AM PST - 5 comments
December 27
Fucked Company is raising money for the victims at Edgewater Technology, "our fellow Internet workers [who] went to work and were murdered." Seems a tad insincere, given that his original reaction to the incident was "Booyah." Then again, there's now a menorah in the FC logo. Perhaps Pud has found God.
posted by luke at 10:35 PM PST - 23 comments
Yahoo appeals to U.S. District Court
to avoid being regulated by the French government. This is one of the first important cases testing jurisdiction on ecommerce sites, and neither side appears to be backing down.
posted by jed at 8:53 PM PST - 5 comments
So we've got opinions about
Bill Gates. But what about billionaire
George Soros? He funds, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, various causes in
the US, in
Europe, and
elsewhere. He's a critic of what he sees as the
excesses of late capitalism. But does Soros represent a good thing? (More inside...)
posted by snarkout at 12:47 PM PST - 9 comments
Eid Mubarak
to all. Eid-ul-Fitr is the day of celebration marking the end of the
Holy month of Ramadan, a month during which Muslims refrain from 'rather Earthly activities' from dawn till dusk.
posted by tamim at 11:47 AM PST - 4 comments
McDermott owed back taxes
Mix one unstable man with a love of ammo. Add in government intervention (which means loss of control). Pile on some kids from HR and you've got a massacre.
posted by amanda at 10:38 AM PST - 74 comments
Jorn Barger seems to be declaring holy war on
Robot Wisdom today, using the following jaw-dropping headlines on stories: "Is Judaism simply a religion of lawless racists?" and "Are Jews incapable of polite discourse?"
posted by rcade at 9:58 AM PST - 40 comments
As one whose gaming never advanced beyond PONG, I know
this must mean something. What that something is, I'm not sure.
posted by red cell at 7:39 AM PST - 3 comments
Think your life sucks?
This moron has spent his entire adult life growing his fingernails. It has cost him dearly. The hand is question is a misshapen claw. He has permanent nerve damage from the weight, resulting in permanent deafness in his right ear. But at least he's famous. (via
joerogan.net)
posted by Optamystic at 1:08 AM PST - 12 comments
December 26
The Pornography of Racist Violence:
NYT Columnist Margo Jefferson reviews "Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America", and says the book is a "record of what we can call civil war crimes." She goes on to say:
"The images are also what the historian Leon F. Litwack calls, in his introduction, race pornography: they were often made into picture postcards that were mailed, with curt, gleeful or venomous messages to friends and foes with nary a peep from the United States postal authorities."
posted by likorish at 11:40 PM PST - 35 comments
How's this for viral marketing?
In order to promote their weblog feature,
Xanga.com created a weblogger. Last week, many Geocities users received the same message (included inside) from
"Bianca Broussard", in which she says,
"I was noticing your writing style, and I think the weblog format might really work well for you." They actually created a fictional person and gave her a blog with over a month of entries. Pretty sneaky...
posted by Aaaugh! at 10:28 PM PST - 17 comments
Other not-so-free-anymore things
Apropos of the NetZero not-so-zero-anymore change, PayPal has essentially made its system unusable for the purpose that first sucked us in -- a fast, convenient way for friends to share rent, settle up bills for dinners and weekend getaways (more inside).
posted by MattD at 6:55 PM PST - 16 comments
So have you heard the one about the Golden Persian Princess Mummy?
Discovered in October by Pakistani police during a murder investigation of an antiquities smuggler, this story has only gotten weirder. Said to be 2,600-years-old, the body of a young woman has been preserved using the
Egyptian mummification process but bears cuneiform inscriptions in Old Persian: "I, daughter of Xerxes, the great king, I am Ruduamna". Since its discovery, the governments of Iran and Afghanistan have each claimed ownership of the mummy and all three countries are now engaged in a bitter war of claim and counter-claim. Now some experts are starting to say that the whole thing looks like it's just an elaborate
hoax.
posted by lagado at 5:53 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
NetZero NotZero?
The "Free ISP" as a business model is now virtually extinct, with NetZero's announcement that, as of Jan. 1st, it'll charge $9.95 to "professional users" who are online more than 40 hours a month.
Does anybody here care? (Probably not, but it's been such a bad day for new posts on MeFi, I had to do
something.)
posted by wendell at 2:59 PM PST - 11 comments
Gunman Madness
Unfortunately the the end of year madness is upon us again. This is really sad. Just the fact that I had to work on the day after christmas was bad enough. The suspects motive is "it was work related". Unfortunately the real sad thing is I can almost guarantee a copycat incident or two within the next week.
posted by neo452 at 2:34 PM PST - 15 comments
Russia to Mir....come in Mir...
Russia's been recently unable to sustain radio contact with Mir. The station itself is empty, but radio communication is necessary in order to control the autopilot. They are supposed to try again in about an hour, but if they are unable to do so within that hour, they'll have to send someone up. I think they're more afraid that it might fall out of orbit before it's planned sinking into the Pacific this coming February.
posted by Cavatica at 5:18 AM PST - 8 comments
This confirms suspicions I've had about "Mr. America Inc." The line between government and the corporate/entertainment-whatever blurs further. Is this a new kind of coup? What lines are being drawn (or erased) here?
posted by aflakete at 2:09 AM PST - 10 comments
December 25
AdCritic has finally posted my favorite commercials: a series of ads for the Fox Regional Sports Report. They present intriguing new sports from around the world. Areas covered include
China,
India,
Russia,
South Africa, and
Turkey.
posted by Aaaugh! at 4:12 PM PST - 11 comments
Is Bill Really that bad?
Giving away money steadily, tens of millions of dollars at a time, Mr Bill Gates has become the single most influential force trying to reverse the growing health crisis afflicting the world's poor. With his wife, Melinda, he outspent the United States Government last year by nearly $US300 million ($538 million), to fight global health threats such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
posted by murray_kester at 4:09 PM PST - 52 comments
Here's a gift for all. Someone got a deceptively simple card game as a stocking stuffer. Three shapes. Three colors. Three shades. Three different numbers of objects. Put 3 things together that are completely similar or completely different, for all four variables. It's a card game that instantly sucked several of us in and felt like playing Tetris the first time. Go ahead and
give it a try (note, I've been playing this for a couple hours today and I could only find 4 of the 6 possible sets).
posted by mathowie at 1:26 PM PST - 32 comments
December 24
Merry Christmas!
(please note: this is not a link. It's just a random cheerbombing.)
posted by Succa at 10:09 PM PST - 22 comments
Tired of Christmas music?
I reckon so. I sure understand. Still, trust me on this. You're in for a treat.
We're Just Three Kings gives me goose pimples on the back of my neck every time I hear it. Most know about mp3c, but few wanna dig around in there. It's like falling into a record bin big as Cleveland. Here let me help you.
I'm recommending only sure-things here - Tamashiro's
What Child Is This is straight-forward, no-nonsense, feelgood Christmas fare. Liona Boyd's
instrumental guitar is heavenly background music that would warm the heart of the coldest Grinch. If you find yourself surprised with a need to have free Xmas music real fast, it's just a pooter away,
Santa Baby.
posted by ZachsMind at 1:24 AM PST - 9 comments
December 23
Victor Borge dies.
The number of comedic musicians who make fun of the form has always been extremely small; I can only think of three. The Big Band era had Spike Jones and his City Slickers. Modern rock has Weird Al. But Classical music had its own, and it was Victor Borge. Like the City Slickers and like Weird Al, in order to do a good job of making fun of something you must be technically excellent at it, and he was a superb pianist, and did do some serious performances. But his main stock in trade was comedy. I remember seeing him perform on TV when I was a kid, which would have been near the end of his career. I don't include Tom Lehrer among their number; he wasn't making fun of music, he was using music as a medium to deliver jokes. The Smothers Brothers perhaps qualify, making fun of folk music, and they too were superb technically when they wanted to be serious. Any others?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:46 PM PST - 14 comments
Good Greed?
If any of you hypocritical snobs think the Christmas season has been ruined by consumerism, University of Florida Prof James Twitchell is here to set you straight -
A century ago, Twitchell says, people relied on family ties, professional status or religion to provide them with...a sense of meaning in life...
Today...an expensive handbag can mean as much as a college degree or membership in a church...And that, Twitchell says, is a good thing.
posted by twitch at 2:32 PM PST - 15 comments
Well, we talked about NORAD a few posts back, I guess now it's time for everyone's *other* favorite agency:
the NSA has a logo. That's funny. No, really, the topic of this posting is their release of Security-Enhanced Linux, including Mandatory Access Control and other cool B-1'ish stuff. Ted T'so has some interesting observations in
this Slashdot thread on the topic as well.
posted by baylink at 11:09 AM PST - 5 comments
Waah! I want my Barbie PC!
(I don't quite understand this; can't someone just put their own decals on their computer? What, exactly was the market here? This one seems to go into the "unbelievably stupid product concept" file.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:59 AM PST - 3 comments
December 22
AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU TOO!
It's getting increasingly more and more difficult to find decent
Bloom County and
Outland fan links. Like the rest of the 'Net, they're being replaced with ebay clones and
page cannot be found errors instead of actual content oriented sites paying homage and tribute to... I know.
Berke Breathed quit several years go. I should be able to just let it go. So I'm nostalgic, so sue me. I started looking for links that weren't broken, and came across... Who the heck is
Lee Vasche ???
"Excuse him.. he's had too many Shirley Temple Cocktails." --Portnoy.
posted by ZachsMind at 11:23 PM PST - 6 comments
Adopt a color
let's you name a colour for $25. Would be great to have MeFi Blue, Zeldman Orange, Kottke Yellow as standard colour names. Would make a good last minute christmas gift for a friend who's got a site.
[via Fairvue]
posted by riffola at 5:08 PM PST - 13 comments
"Brad the Cad"
is disciplined, but not fired. This is the man who forwarded an email, describing his sexual prowess to four people, thus starting a world wide fury. Speculation on exactly how he was disciplined includes losing out on his annual bonus.
posted by karenh at 11:23 AM PST - 12 comments
Kansas City's Secret Santa
has been handing out cash in hundred-dollar bills to needy individuals and random people during the Christmas season for the past
twenty-one years. He's completely anonymous, preferring to give joy without getting any credit. He tries to find people with specific needs and surprises them in their homes or at their jobs with the cash they need. He gives out well over ten thousand dollars every year.
posted by daveadams at 8:13 AM PST - 11 comments
December 21
Warning signs on the horizon...
WARNING Political: Democrats and Repubs point fingers over who's to blame about current and future economic problems. Ok, who forgot that 5 weeks of political indecision has had a big, bad toll on the economy? Also, another in a long series of funny dubya pictures. Check the large hands. How'd they get so big?
posted by evad at 6:48 PM PST - 17 comments
Janna Bush's homework
is funny on so many levels:
- This is college-level work in Texas?
- People in Texas think that people in Harlem attend dances at the VFW?
- Dubya's daughter, having been sent to a state school to bolster dad's political image as a down-home Texan even though she could surely have legacy'd at Yale as he did (and Skull & Bones admits women now!), is getting just the sort of politically correct education that her father's cohort reviles.
posted by nicwolff at 4:47 PM PST - 38 comments
http://www.otnemem.com
is the first movie Web site that ever made me eager to see a movie I haven't heard a thing about. It won't open in the US till March, but it looks awfully clever, and I'm always up for a good short-term-memory-loss revenge thriller. And it's a site whose all-Flash version is better than the HTML version - another rarity. Also, the domain name is pretty clever - the movie's name spelled backwards, which turns out to be thematically and structurally appropriate to the movie.
posted by nicwolff at 3:58 PM PST - 10 comments
1,300 tonnes
of condemned meat sold as fit for human consumption. I think I fancy a veggie burger...
posted by astro38 at 3:15 PM PST - 6 comments
Trafficmovie.com
has piqued my interest in a film more than any other celluloid trailer has in recent memory. Unlike the "Cast Away" previews that seem to give away the whole plot before the film even opens, this site is teasing, ambiguous, and enigmatic, giving away nothing...except for an uber-atmospheric mood. No wonder the movie is
leading the Golden Globe pack of nominees.
Warning: uses Flash (albeit tastefully).
posted by NickBarat at 12:05 PM PST - 6 comments
Mayan Suburbia
Did the Mayans follow modern city development patterns 1500 years ago? Maybe, say some archaeologists who recently uncovered ancient suburbs, complete with subdivisions on artificial lakes, big private lawns, and strip malls.
[ from
Rebecca's Pocket ]
posted by daveadams at 11:27 AM PST - 7 comments
December 20
Has anyone tried and tested
Safe Web?
Seems a lot simpler and easier (not to mention cheaper) than
Anonymizer. Though you have to enter each address, so it's not for people wanting anonymity all the time. . .
posted by aflakete at 11:33 PM PST - 6 comments
To much acclaim and publicity,
a town in Illinois organized a program where people could bring in their violent video games, and trade them for other merchandise at local retailers. The program ran for 6 days.
Not a single person took advantage of it.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:20 PM PST - 7 comments
Can you say
fraud? Can you say it
twice? As strange as it seems, these two are related. After Kurzweil's fraud was finally revealed, the top two execs
went to jail, but there was some question about what was going to happen to the company. Well, what goes around comes around. Lernout and Hauspie bought out Kurzweil Artificial Intelligence. It seems like they picked up the corporate culture, too.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:18 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
Metafilter taken offline
for two and a half days by a Bay Area network outage, along with Blog*Spot, Evhead, and Megnut. Fortunately, everything appears to be back to normal. Good, because I think
the DTs were starting to kick in.
posted by waxpancake at 7:51 PM PST - 33 comments
December 18
GWB
sure seems happy. Wonder what Greenspan is thinking. Warning: not suitable for under 18.
posted by stbalbach at 8:51 AM PST - 8 comments
December 17
Buy 1777.58 acres of the Moon
"Probably the most romantic and original present you could ever give to a loved one." My ass!! You too can claim ownership to planets/stars throughout the universe and sell them over eBay....
posted by grank at 6:32 PM PST - 8 comments
Water found on Jupiter moon
"After months and months of wrestling with the data ... we believe there is very strong evidence of a layer of melted water beneath Ganymede's icy surface," said Margaret Kivelson, a space physicist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
posted by owillis at 12:05 PM PST - 9 comments
Here's a Bush link that everyone can enjoy.
The pro-Bush camp can crow over how great the country will be after all of these promises are put into place. The anti-Bush camp can rant about how the country will go to the dogs if any of these see the light of day. Or you could complain that the "liberal media" didn't run a list of Clinton's campaign promises. I'm just irked that there is a duplicate entry, making the actual total 178. Can you find it?
posted by JDC8 at 8:05 AM PST - 11 comments
December 16
Now
this could possibly be
Schadenfreude at it's best!!
"eToys Expects Lower Than Estimated Fiscal Third Quarter Operating Results" Net sales are expected to be between $120 million and $130 million, rather than the $210 million to $240 million previously estimated. How could they be off their estimate by HALF? Oh yeah, maybe if they hadn't spent so much time (and money) pursuing
ETOY? Who's got the last laugh now?.....
posted by 120degrees at 10:19 PM PST - 13 comments
In the latest Cryptogram newsletter,
security expert Bruce Schneier makes some interesting points about voting, voting machines and computers. The web version of this article won't be up for a few weeks so I have reproduced it here. Read more...
posted by lagado at 5:46 PM PST - 2 comments
Colin Powell to become the secretary of state, which seems ok on the surface, but after looking at the
functions of the position, wouldn't he make a better
secretary of defense instead? I can't say I'm comfortable with the thought of the leading US diplomat and negotiator being someone so closely tied with military force (side question: would a war man negotiate peace treaties or get us into more bombing missions?). I also find it odd that in the acceptance speech, he can speak of the horrors of Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction" and in the same breath talk about how the US should build up a missile defense system (our missiles aren't capable of mass destruction?). What do you think about the appointment?
posted by mathowie at 10:20 AM PST - 35 comments
December 15
See this movie.
Cirque Du Soleil's Journey of Man in 3D IMAX. See this movie. Do whatever it takes. The most beautiful, jaw-dropping thing I've ever seen is the underwater segment. Simply amazing. See this movie.
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:04 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
I'm not Brad F'n Pitt.
Everyone's favorite fake celebrity diary has cleared house today, leaving one of the most contrite apologies I've ever seen. Methinks one of the real Pitt's handlers caught an eyeful of the fictionalized accounts of constant drug use, the assorted sex with various celebrities (including Willard Scott), and Jen Aniston's shower habit and slapped a cease and desist on "Pitt." Although the main link's been deactivated,
the entries are still there.
posted by solistrato at 4:54 PM PST - 9 comments
"Chin up, greedhead"
A discussion of the recent outbreak of affluenza, from the perspective of someone playing
"My Heart Bleeds for You" on the world's smallest violin.
posted by frykitty at 1:00 PM PST - 8 comments
Not the first time a soldier has
come out of the closet, but nonetheless remarkable. Do you suppose the girl is grounded? What is the proper parental punishment for this? (Warning: Salon link)
posted by Niccola Six at 12:26 PM PST - 3 comments
The current RISKS Digest
carries a manifesto of sorts from Peter Neumann (of RISKS), Lauren Weinstein (of PRIVACY DIGEST) and Rebecca Mercuri (one of the AT&T voting wonks, if memory serves) on the dangers of electronic and Internet voting in the current technological milieu. Let's fix the problems, yes, but let's not create worse ones in the process.
posted by baylink at 12:03 PM PST - 2 comments
OK, poor Ms. Swires has gone global. The story was on the front page of the
Times this morning; all the
other papers have their own versions; and its getting third billing on the main
BBC news website as I write. The country is on its knees... For anyone lucky enough not to have received the email in question, Ill post the salient bits in the comments.
posted by Mocata at 9:57 AM PST - 8 comments
Gore parties the night away...
even though he lost. According to the article, Jon Bon Jovi was so upset at the boring party they originally had that he called up some friends and announced there was a "Party at Gore's House!!" The
cover photo and interior shots from the Daily News have Gore looking as if he had one hell of a time.
posted by Cavatica at 4:29 AM PST - 23 comments
The International Space Station is becoming one of the brightest, fastest moving objects in the night sky. This
photo is a 5 minute time exposure taken from the ground which shows the station clearly as an arc across the sky. If you look
closer you can actually see two arcs, the other being that of the space shuttle Endeavour which had just undocked and was pulling away. If you would like to know when you can see it for yourself, try using this handy
calculator. via
APOD
posted by lagado at 3:16 AM PST - 3 comments
December 14
CueCats Held Hostage!
A motley mix of left-wingers and computer geeks plans to march on the offices of the
Dallas Morning News this weekend, armed with pet carriers filled with CueCats, in order to protest what they see as pro-GOP slants in the paper's reporting. If the paper doesn't agree to their demands for more left-favorable reporting, the CueCats will be executed! Why CueCats? Because the company that owns the
News has been plugging CueCats like crazy. (second item on the page)
posted by aaron at 3:20 PM PST - 3 comments
Evolt relaunches a redesigned site
that has been months in the making. Now with article ratings to go along with the existing categorization and commenting abilities. Interface customization is coming soon, but my hat's off to the great collaborative programming and writing on evolt.
posted by mathowie at 2:25 PM PST - 23 comments
For Comment: "Does personality override politics in the Rehnquist Supreme Court?"
File under: "What is the rhetorical and effective nature of constitutional interpretation and judicial review?" I have always been intrigued by the ways in which the justices of the Supreme Court selectively reveal tidbits about their personality and the nature of their interactions. "Scalia and Ginsburg are polar opposites, but are secretly best friends!" "O'Connor likes Georgia O'Keefe, and has several originals in her office!"
While much of this can be explained by the media creating a story where there is none, the above comments by Thomas lead me to wonder that, if 'opinion' is the form by which laws are reviewed, then perhaps 'individuality,' 'style,' or 'personality' have an impact on how the concept of justice and constitutionality are applied.
posted by rschram at 1:56 PM PST - 8 comments
S2K:
So the election is over and you're sad. Right? Right? Er, well, anyway, check out this hilarious (and as-yet-unfinished) online comic featuring the guy we all secretly wanted to vote for. If we didn't already. (Features naughty words at times.)
posted by Skot at 1:51 PM PST - 4 comments
I got in!!!
Remember that link to
Quintessentially a few weeks back? Well, after countless hours of anxious waiting, I finally received my acceptance letter (the complete text of which is inside). At last, I can enjoy the finer things in life - it'll only cost me $600 a year .
posted by aladfar at 7:15 AM PST - 9 comments
Water Pistol Semen-Squirter Faces Jail.
"Nichols stole water guns from department stores, filled them with his semen and then squirted girls. He sometimes took their pictures." Excuse me, but how long would it take to
fill a water gun with.......you know.
posted by pnevares at 4:16 AM PST - 16 comments
December 13
Is it me, or does
MacOS Rumors really really suck nowadays? I used to read it religiously, but it rarely even posts rumors, assuming it posts at all. As an alternative, I've been reading
As the Apple Turns lately, and at the very least it's funny and pretty tongue-in-cheek. Thank god.
posted by ookamaka at 10:42 PM PST - 3 comments
I guess it's their choice.
Because, "they" are forcing you to watch Queer as Folk. It's kinda funny reading stuff like "I wish I had Showtime so I could cancel it." or "I dumped the Disney Channel a few years ago, over their "Gay and Lesbian" week at their park", maybe, it's just sad. [note, free-republic link]
posted by tiaka at 8:42 PM PST - 20 comments
Register.com to Auction Web Addresses
``My shoes are not for sale, but if someone on the street offers me enough money for them, I'll walk home barefoot. It's the same with domain names,'' Is it really? I would think an identity, as many would argue domain names can become, is a bit more irreplaceable than a pair of shoes.
posted by jmackin at 4:42 PM PST - 7 comments
Amputation by choice
people who want to have one or more limb cut off (and in some cases achieve their desire, by self-help or medical intervention) explored in
The Atlantic (more inside).
posted by MattD at 3:12 PM PST - 10 comments
Is Metallica really concerned that
a perfume will harm their bottom line and so they must sue? My question is why would
Guerlain name a perfume after a heavy metal band unless it smelled like stale cigarettes and beer?
posted by thc at 1:49 PM PST - 7 comments
Crap -- Gore's speech is set for 9:00 PM est. That might interfere with keeping up with what's going on with
my president.
posted by fpatrick at 12:43 PM PST - 11 comments
The gender gap
: do women make less wages due to discrimination, or is it their own choice? Or a combination?
posted by owillis at 9:40 AM PST - 3 comments
A student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
wrote a paper on Weblogs and Journals, dissceting the thoughts and blogs of a few people. Very interesting paper, in my opinion (not because I am mentioned very briefly :) and worthy of some discussion and dissection.
posted by Arvid at 9:10 AM PST - 14 comments
Oh,
yeah. Reboot!, truly one of the geek shows of all time, is returning Fall 2001. Two made-for-television moives have been in production forever. But,
now this: not movies, but a freaking full 13 episode season! With talk of another 13 after that! And a season-ending musical number! Fall 2001 can't come soon enough. Reboot! is a Canadian production; anyone know about US release dates and network? (more inside)
posted by mrmorgan at 8:50 AM PST - 29 comments
I've been thinking about a good visible mission for Al Gore
over the next four years, and took a look at this Google search. After all, he is not only a government wonk, but also a technology wonk with an reasonably expected level of passion on the topic. Imagine my surprise when only one of the top hits today was about the US, while the
UK, New Zealand, Canada, and Bosnia were highlighted.
posted by fpatrick at 7:25 AM PST - 8 comments
Joe Rogan's site
Comic, actor, smart and funny guy. Carrying a bit of the torch left by Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, et al...(careful, may be some nudity on the site).
posted by Optamystic at 1:52 AM PST - 12 comments
December 12
As you've probably heard,
The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to reverse the Fla. high court's decision to allow manual recounts on disputed ballots. This essentially closes off Gore's last challenges. Now why can't I find a non-PDF format copy of the decision on the Web????
posted by rschram at 11:36 PM PST - 10 comments
When archaeology goes bad
"For a nation that has always reveled in its cultural uniqueness, the discoveries were more than heartening; they were almost too good to be true. "
posted by lagado at 9:02 PM PST - 7 comments
PlayStation 2 not quite what it was promised to be.
"Japanese have purchased about 3.5 million PlayStation 2s, but there are signs that sales have leveled off."
"Analysts had predicted a runaway success, but now they are forecasting Sony losses of more than $200 million on its game business in the year ending next Marchits first such loss in years."
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:21 PM PST - 20 comments
A good Flash intro?
Other than what the company is about, i was impressed with the Flash intro, especially the music which goes with it.
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