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March 2004 Archives
March 31
Google on the Moon:
"This unique opportunity is available only to highly-qualified individuals who are willing to relocate for an extended period of time, are in top physical condition and are capable of surviving with limited access to such modern conveniences as soy low-fat lattes, The Sopranos and a steady supply of oxygen." Google hits outer space to conduct "high-density high-delivery hosting (HiDeHiDeHo)" and "de-oxygenated cubicle dwelling." Better than April Fool's at Fark? Via
Monkeyfilter.
posted by onlyconnect at 11:19 PM PST - 11 comments
So, when did
Canada become the globe's official Progressive Society Laboratory? They've got the health care, they've got the gay marriage, and now,
they've got 100% legal file-sharing -- a judge has ruled that not only is downloading copyrighted material legal, but sharing it is as well. Um, whoa? How long can this stand on appeal? Is anyone here a Canadian legal expert who can tell us about how Canadian copyright law differs from our own? (Tall order, I know...)
posted by logovisual at 7:43 PM PST - 28 comments
Preserving Life and Liberty
-
The Department of Justices first priority is to prevent future terrorist attacks. Since its passage following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Patriot Act has played a key part - and often the leading role - in a number of successful operations to protect innocent Americans from the deadly plans of terrorists dedicated to destroying America and our way of life. Is this a legitimate way for the government to keep citizens informed, or merely a propaganda tool?
posted by RylandDotNet at 5:48 PM PST - 13 comments
Gmail: Google's newest service.
They're claiming 1Gb of free email, killer spam filters, and a great new webmail interface. They'll likely have Google ads attached to your messages, but I can't wait to see it tomorrow (hopefully it's not just an April Fools prank).
posted by mathowie at 5:41 PM PST - 108 comments
8% of Iraqi academics have Fled, 1000 Professionals Assassinated in past Year - ''
In recent months assassinations have targeted engineers, pharmacologists, officers, and lawyers. More than 1000 leading Iraqi professionals and intellectuals have been assassinated since last April, among them such prominent figures as Dr Muhammad al-Rawi, the president of Baghdad University. The identity of the assailants remains a mystery and none have been caught. But families and colleagues of victims believe that Iraqi parties with foreign affiliations have an interest in wiping out Iraq's intellectual elite...
'' From Juan Cole, who notes, in relation to Chalabi's control of de-Baathification, ''It can't be good for the future of Iraq to lose nearly 10% of its academics. Some of those may have been involved in Baath Party dirty tricks, but were all? And, the campaign of assassination makes a mockery of the rhetoric about democratization."
posted by y2karl at 4:12 PM PST - 24 comments
What happens when you mix Star Trek fan with webblogging yachtsman? You get
Starship Enterprise: sailing stories blogged as Star Trek adventures. I sure like the cut of his jib. Engage.
posted by brownpau at 3:02 PM PST - 3 comments
The file-sharing fight continues. Recording industry associations in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Canada have filed lawsuits or taken other legal action, aiming mainly at heavy users accused of offering a large number of songs online.
In other news,
A study of file-sharing's effects on music sales says online music trading appears to have had little part in the recent slide in CD sales.
posted by ashbury at 12:58 PM PST - 9 comments
Washington cuts Serbia Aid,
due to
Serbian intransigence in cooperating with the Hague
war crimes tribunal to extradite key war crimes suspects. Recently, the Serbian Parliament passed a
controversial bill which gives taxpayers money to war crimes suspects for "legal and other expenses".
In December Serbia elected a new parliament with nationalist sympathies.
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has said extraditing war crimes suspects to The Hague is not one of his government's priorities. Is this the kind of democracy the US wanted?
posted by knapah at 12:57 PM PST - 4 comments
The Dave Sim Misogyny Page
- and a recent
Onion interview.
I find Dave Sim (comic book artist, notable for long-running, multiplevolume
Cerebus) to have deeply troubling, almost poisoned
ideas about women.(despite his efforts, these bitter screeds are almost unexplainable,unless someone here can explain them, that is - please!)Beware if you've never read them. And laugh with me, an apparentlyweak male-feminist (and lovin it!) if you have. Viva la Void.
posted by Peter H at 12:14 PM PST - 53 comments
Car Surfing!
A sort of X-Games for cars, drifting is a steadily growing
japanese sport that is just now making its way stateside, first via Hawaii and California, and now all the way to the east coast through grassroots groups like the NJ-based
DGTrials. "Drifting, in the simplest sense, is the use of an intentional controlled slide to navigate around a turn. ...it can ultimately lead to complex strings of multi-directional slides that use a variety of techniques to maintain extreme oversteer. The pure essence of drifting is to never appear to have control of the vehicle, while always having complete control over the vehicle!" Contestants favor
lightweight rear-drive cars that are often the
polar opposite of the traditional
bling-bling import showcar aesthetic. Lap times are unimportant -
competition is style based, much like actual surfing or snowboarding competitions. Though the attitude tends to be somewhat goofy, the results can be
dramatic [WMV].
posted by tirade at 10:27 AM PST - 22 comments
Looks like Rice will testify before the 9-11 Commission after all.
In a
letter sent by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to the Sept. 11 commission, Gonzales notes:
Furthermore, we have now received assurances from the speaker of the House and the majority leader of the Senate that, in their view, Dr. Rice's public testimony in connection with the extraordinary events of September 11, 2001, does not set, and should not be cited as, a precedent for future requests for a national security adviser or any other White House official to testify before a legislative body.
Separation of powers question: If the institution of the separation of powers is a set of informal arrangements between the branches, which continually look to previous practice, how can this
not be a precendent?
Various blawgs weigh in.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 10:25 AM PST - 48 comments
"The
"Brief Safe" is an innovative new diversion safe that can secure your cash, documents, and other small valuables from inquisitive eyes and thieving hands, both at home and when you're traveling. Items can be hidden right under their noses..." [via
Aces]
posted by bluno at 7:25 AM PST - 10 comments
March 30
Women Lose When Feminists Bash
"
Men generally don't like to complain. A man will endure ridicule and abuse, and then move on with his life. But abuse him once too often, and he will vote with his feet.
And one day, men woke up to the fact that marriage was a losing proposition. The math was hard to refute: Half of all marriages wind up in divorce. In 85% of cases, mothers gained custody of the children. And sometimes, bitter ex-wives would try to turn the children against their father, what psychologists call Parental Alienation Syndrome.
In the face of such dismal odds, men decided to go on a Marriage Strike. "
posted by SpaceCadet at 5:13 PM PST - 72 comments
A few years ago a life simulation game called
Creatures was released. I recently discovered that there was also a free version called
Docking Station which is still available in PC and Linux versions and includes an optional on-line component which allows you to chat, send messages and share creatures with other players. And if the goodies and breeds of creatures that come with the free version aren't enough for you, there are oodles of
web sites still
offering free downloads to
expand on the
game. Or if you gain some joy from hexidecimal programming, you can even play around with their
genetic coding or learn to create your own
goodies.
posted by Orb at 2:14 PM PST - 3 comments
NewsFilter.
I'm a sucker for
treemap applications. This one is pretty neat - it gives you a good visual overview of the days' news, with a handful of filtering options, and live updating. I've had this running full-screen on a second monitor all day, and I'm digging it.
(First link requires Flash.)
posted by majcher at 2:13 PM PST - 12 comments
Canadian expansionism: there's a
plan afoot for Canada to annex the beautifully sunny Turks and Caicos islands.
Why?
"Turks and Caicos would give Canada a warm, friendly 11th province - a southern destination where the Loonie could land without breaking a wing."
posted by moonbird at 1:42 PM PST - 20 comments
Declaring the Era of the Peace Kingdom
"They have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent. This resolution has been announced on every corner of the globe. Respected guests, it is now only a matter of time. Look at the world. Do you see anything that gives you real hope for the future? Sooner or later, we have to give what we have to our descendants and leave this world. What gift could be more precious than that of completing the family ideal in your family, so as to guarantee eternal peace and happiness for your children? Surely no one who has such an opportunity should hesitate to take up the task of building the peace kingdom on earth, for which God has waited thousands of years."
--Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Address to the United States Congress, March 23, 2004
via Atrios
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 1:31 PM PST - 12 comments
The Republican National Committee
is demanding that the Federal Election Commission issue
new rules that would
shut down groups that are in any way critical of President Bush or members of Congress. Under the
proposed rules, nonprofit organizations that advocate for cancer research, gun and abortion restrictions or rights, fiscal discipline, tax reform, poverty issues, immigration reform, the environment, or civil rights or liberties -
all these organizations could be transformed into political committees if they criticize or commend members of Congress or the President based on their official actions or policy positions.
posted by dejah420 at 1:14 PM PST - 20 comments
Technomorality: Are there more
examples of
this, or are the Japanese just better than us? As the potential of technology increases, isn't it just possible that the world really could become a better place?
posted by ewkpates at 12:26 PM PST - 27 comments
March For Women
- because America is not a great place to be a woman.
The time is right for a public demonstration of historic size in support of reproductive freedom and justice for all women. Threats to these rights have never been so systematic and coordinated, and the lives and health of women have never faced such peril.
See ya there! I will be the woman in the embroidered denim jacket - the one my mom wore when she marched for the exact same rights, 40-odd years ago. sigh.
posted by kristin at 11:51 AM PST - 123 comments
Those towering Dutchmen
The height of the average American is roughly the same as it was during the Revolutionary war. The heights of many northwestern Europeans continue to shoot up. Is this simply genetics at work, or could Bush and the Republicans possibly be at fault here?
posted by rks404 at 11:14 AM PST - 38 comments
Chuck Palahniuk
(the author of such brawny reads as
Choke and
Fight Club) has an
online writers' workshop that has monthly assignments subject to peer review, essays on writing by Chucky P., and a real smoove interface. I'm not a big fan of the guy or his work, but his "distinction essays", which are only posted to the site for a limited time, do contain the kind of solid instruction you'd hafta pay money for at a real writers workshop. The quality of the submissions varies, but seems to me to be a bit better than most online freebie writers-circle-jerk sites. Just don't choke on the ego.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 11:10 AM PST - 6 comments
CarpoolCheats.org
If you don't want your picture taken while you're doing something illegal, don't do it in public!. I'm not sure about the ethics (or legality) of putting pictures of license plates online, but the thrust of the site is pretty cool.
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:43 AM PST - 61 comments
The Untitled Project
is a series of photographs of urban settings accompanied by a graphical text layout. The photographs have been digitally stripped of all traces of textual information. The text pieces show the removed text in the approximate location and font as it was found in the photograph.
posted by Ljubljana at 6:45 AM PST - 28 comments
The Harbin Snow and Ice Festival
The temperature in Harbin, China reaches forty below zero, both Fahrenheit and centigrade, and stays below freezing nearly half the year. The city is actually further north than notoriously cold Vladivostok, Russia, just 300 miles away. Rather than suffer the cold, the residents of Harbin celebrate it, with an annual festival of snow and ice sculptures and competitions. The main link actually shows the 2003 sculptures; here are some from
this year.
posted by orange swan at 6:11 AM PST - 5 comments
March 29
Ahmad Chalabi, the Pentagon's heartthrob and the State Department's and CIA's heartbreak, has taken the lead in a yearlong political marathon. Temporary constitutional arrangements are structured to give the future prime minister more power than the president... Chalabi holds the ultimate weapons -- several dozen tons of documents and individual files seized by his Iraqi National Congress from Saddam Hussein's secret security apparatus. Coupled with his position as head of the de-Baathification commission, Chalabi, barely a year since he returned to his homeland after 45 years of exile, has emerged as the power behind a vacant throne... All the bases are loaded for a home run by MVP Chalabi. If successful, it will be an additional campaign issue president Bush could have done without. Saddam was good riddance. But was Chalabi a worthy democratic trade?
posted by y2karl at 10:53 PM PST - 18 comments
The Alexandria Declaration.
Between March 14 and 17, 2004, intellectuals, scholars, economists and activists from around the Arab world met at the new
Alexandria Library in Egypt for the
Arab Reform Conference. Among the recommendations of the conference was that all Arab governments should ratify "all international conventions on the rights of women providing for the abolition of all forms of discrimination against them."
posted by Ty Webb at 9:55 PM PST - 5 comments
The Work Less Party
of Vancouver seeks to regain a little sanity for the North American employee. A 32-hour work week is not a very realistic fantasy for the information age. But at least
someone is standing up for the right to go home earlier.
posted by PrinceValium at 7:45 PM PST - 47 comments
Camera Obscura
trolls the attics and abandoned dressers of the world, finding the great lost portraits of the past, then burying them and posting these laughable ones instead. Develop Dutchophobia and learn to fear the Irma!
posted by snarkout at 5:56 PM PST - 9 comments
Looking Offshore
How one offshore worker sent tremor through medical system
In an ongoing Chronicle series on the ramifications of shifting U.S. jobs and services overseas, this installment focuses on the threat to individual privacy when companies send sensitive financial and personal data offshore.
posted by Postroad at 12:47 PM PST - 10 comments
The peace process in the Ivory Coast has
collapsed (again). I haven't seen it reported yet but have it first hand from an official stationed there that the UN is evacuating all personnel. The evacuations in 2002 were limited compared to this. How could the Ivory Coast have come to this point? What does this mean for the rest of the region?
sigh
posted by Grod at 12:20 PM PST - 3 comments
Time to replace your old Periodic Table.
...a joint American-Russian team has found two new elementsnumbers 113 and 115 on the periodic tablehinting at an impending breakthrough in creating novel forms of matter that will test our understanding of atomic behavior.
posted by mcgraw at 11:12 AM PST - 15 comments
George Lakoff writes in his book
Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think that the book began with a conversation about a single question that might be used to tell liberals from conservatives. His friend offered the question: "If your baby cries at night, do you pick him up?"
Is there a basic belief that underlies all conservative and liberal positions? Lakoff's answer, that our politics are connected to how we view family, is summarized in
this interview. Is he right? What about you, what makes you a conservative or a liberal?
posted by yoz420 at 8:32 AM PST - 67 comments
The
Kaceesque story of a woman in prison for faking her daughter's leukemia to gain thousands of dollars in donations, now says she concocted the scheme to keep her
husband from leaving. Teresa Milbrandt said she regrets what she did, which included shaving her daughter Hannah's head and giving her sleeping pills to make it look like she was undergoing chemotherapy. The husband went to
Prison As Well.
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy is a parenting disorder where parents, usually the mother, fabricate symptoms in their children, thus subjecting the child to unnecessary medical tests and/or surgical procedures, though
It is a highly controversial condition, which
some doubt even exists.
posted by Blake at 7:57 AM PST - 4 comments
Are we witnessing the
end of the 4th Ammendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure? The
United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled (parts
1 and
2) that police in Louisiana no longer need a search or arrest warrant to conduct a brief search of your home or business.
posted by Irontom at 6:54 AM PST - 31 comments
March 28
Life on Mars? Methane has been found in the Martian atmosphere which scientists say could be a sign of present-day life on Mars. It was detected by telescopes on Earth and has recently been confirmed by instruments onboard the European Space Agency's orbiting Mars Express craft. Methane lives for a short time in the Martian atmosphere so it must be being constantly replenished. There are two possible ways to do this. Either active volcanoes, but none have yet been found on Mars, or microbes. The Independent has it as
Methane find on Mars may be sign of life.
The second group to detect signals of methane in the Martian atmosphere is led by Michael Mumma of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, who used powerful spectroscopic telescopes based on Earth. This team is even believed to have detected variations in the concentrations of methane, with a peak coming from the ancient Martian seabed of Meridiani Planum, which is being explored by a Nasa rover. This could indicate a subterranean source of methane which is pumping out the gas, either due to some residual geological activity or because of the presence of living organisms producing it as a waste gas. Asked whether the continual production of methane is strong evidence of a biological origin of the gas, Dr Mumma said: "I think it is, myself personally." As to how...
posted by y2karl at 10:38 PM PST - 25 comments
California's Tsunami Risk.
" In the open ocean, tsunami waves travel at speeds of up to 600 miles per hour... As the waves enter shallow water, they may rise rapidly. Typical peak wave heights from large tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean over the last 80 years have been between 21 and 45 feet at the shoreline... If a large earthquake displaces the sea floor near the coast, the first waves may reach the shore minutes after the ground stops shaking. There is no time for authorities to issue a warning."
40 years ago this weekend the Alaskan Prince William Sound earthquake and its ensuing tsunami killed over 120 people -- 12 as far South as California. Nothing compared to the thousands hit in the
1998 Papua New Guinea tsunami disaster, but still it's worth keeping an eye on
California's tsunami risks. Or the entire
West Coast's activity.
posted by namespan at 10:10 PM PST - 20 comments
factcheck.org
-- a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.
posted by crunchland at 8:07 PM PST - 11 comments
The Song Is You:
and, as if that weren't enough, the melody lingers on! The
Songwriters' Hall of Fame is a magnificent resource (
look for the almost-complete song lists) and a reminder of how one single country (The U.S.A.) produced a
hugely disproportionate quantity of the great popular songwriters. It could arguably be said: almost all of them. How many of the "Rock Era" composers, though, have written standards that will still be as widely sung worldwide, in every conceivable dive or circumstance, in 50 years' time as the songs of Arlen, Porter, Gershwin, Berlin, Kern, Rodgers, Carmichael, Youmans, Warren, Ellington, Loesser, Loewe, Coleman and so many others still are today?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 5:28 PM PST - 16 comments
"What did you think of Seabiscuit?" the young man added helpfully.
Even the deadpan Jarmusch laughed.
Jim Jarmusch's new movie (the first feature-lenght after 1999's
Ghost Dog),
"Coffee And
Cigarettes", is "
a droll, ironic look at two of our favorite addictions". The black and white movie (trailer
here) has a strange (or
Stranger than Paradise?) cast: Roberto Benigni, Steven Wright, Steve Buscemi, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Cate Blanchett, Meg White, Jack White, Alfred Molina, Steve Coogan, GZA, RZA, Bill Murray, ... Jarmusch's philosophy: "When you're watching movies, the guy's girlfriend calls him, she's having something bad happening, and he says, 'I'll take a cab. I'll be right over.' Cut to him getting out of the cab. And my brain always says,
what about the cab ride? The incidental thing, the thing that's not the destination?". (more inside)
posted by matteo at 4:35 PM PST - 18 comments
Camera Lenses
are something i've never really understood, but should. This was the best stab at explaining I've ever read.
posted by mrben at 2:58 PM PST - 8 comments
100 Movies That Deserve More Love
"we've rolled up our sleeves to retrieve some unloved and under-appreciated gems from the dustbin of history...You'll find great movies that you were sure only you knew about, and you'll find movies that you've never heard of."
posted by kirkaracha at 9:08 AM PST - 74 comments
Kerry Calls on Rice to Testify
"John Kerry said Saturday the White House is committing character assassination with its treatment of former counterterror chief Richard Clarke to avoid responding to questions about national security. Kerry also said Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, should testify in public before the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
"If Condoleezza Rice can find time to do '60 Minutes' on television before the American people, she ought to find 60 minutes to speak to the commission under oath," Kerry told reporters. "We're talking about the security of our country."...
posted by Postroad at 8:05 AM PST - 26 comments
A dose of denial.
Cold remedies with PPA caused strokes; drug companies kept them on store shelves for years. Similar to
Lariam, which may be causing the
suicide of many U.S. troops in Iraq.
posted by xowie at 7:42 AM PST - 8 comments
March 27
TrunkMonkey.
Because sometimes, just getting your car back isn't enough. (Flash with embedded movies)
posted by qDot at 3:08 PM PST - 14 comments
YouSendIt.com
With Google-like simplicity, the free service allows you to email up to 1 GB to anyone without flooding their mailbox. 1 GB... that's a whole lotta pr0n.
posted by freakystyley at 12:24 PM PST - 44 comments
10:15 P.M. The WOR news and weather are out of the way. A bugle sounds, and a sprightly theme song comes trotting on the air. The theme has a double meaning: it is the one that calls the horses to the gate at Aqueduct, and it is the Bahnfrei Overture, composed for an operetta by Eduard Strauss, the only member of the Strauss family who did not make good. Presently, Shepherd's clear, rowdy voice intrudes. "Okay, gang are you ready to play radio? Are you ready to shuffle off the mortal coil of mediocrity? I am if you are." There is a noise like a mechanized Bronx cheer (Brrapp!)- it is Shepherd blowing his kazoo. At other times he twangs his Jew's-harp (Brroing!). "Yes, you fatheads out there in the darkness, you losers in the Sargasso Sea of existence, take heart, because WOR, in its never ending crusade of public service, is once again proud to bring you--(Erocia Symphony Up)-- The Jean Shepherd Program!" A man no longer known for much besides
A Christmas Story, Jean Sheperd was the greatest radio raconteur ever. Here is the greatest Jean Sheperd fansite so far--
Flick Lives and, treasure of treasures, here are
The Shep Archives--oh, you'll have to spend a minute or two to register to hear them but what the hey?--with hundreds of Sheperd broadcasts and records in streaming mp3s.
But Wait! There's More!
posted by y2karl at 10:10 AM PST - 14 comments
X-43A Flight.
"The unpiloted 12-foot-long X-43A vehicle, part aircraft and part spacecraft, will be dropped from the wing of a B-52 aircraft, lofted to nearly 100,000 feet by a booster rocket and released over the Pacific Ocean to briefly fly under its own power at seven times the speed of sound."
Watch (RealPlayer) it live.
posted by cedar at 9:23 AM PST - 34 comments
Still looking for Rosebud.
Nine Years after sending a copy of a radio programme he made to Stanley Kubrick, Jon Ronson, is invited to the late Kubrick's "secret lair".
You drive through rural Hertfordshire, passing ordinary-sized postwar houses and opticians and vets. Then you turn right at an electric gate with a "Do Not Trespass" sign. Drive through that, and through some woods, and past a long, white fence with the paint peeling off, and then another electric gate, and then another electric gate, and then another electric gate, and you're in the middle of an estate full of boxes. [...] Tony takes me into a large room painted blue and filled with books. "This used to be the cinema," he says. "Is it the library now?" I ask. "Look closer at the books," says Tony. I do. "Bloody hell," I say.
posted by Blue Stone at 8:28 AM PST - 35 comments
The Panda's Thumb
is a multi-authored blog "dedicated to explaining the theory of evolution, critiquing the claims of the anti-evolution movement, and defending the integrity of science and science education in America and around the world."
[Via The Loom.]
posted by homunculus at 2:07 AM PST - 6 comments
March 26
Ralph Nader: The Unchallenged Hero of Muslims
Before you jump to note that the magazine this appears in is Right of Center, what you need to ask is how well documented is the case being made. For me, what is of interest is that if Nader is in fact liked by Muslims, as this suggests, then Muslims may vote for him and take votes away from Bush or would they take votes from Democrats?
[...]Nader must have made quite an impression, because the next year, ICNA's former president invited him to headline an Islamic conference in Florida with none other than Shaikh Abdur-Rahman Al-Sudais, a top Saudi cleric who has called on Allah to "terminate" Jews -- "the scum of humanity" and "grandsons of monkeys and pigs" -- while urging Muslims to shun peace with Israel.[...]
posted by Postroad at 4:18 PM PST - 31 comments
Digging for Nasal Gold with a Doc's Blessing
An Austrian doctor is proposing that children be encouraged to pick their nose and to eat their boogers. "Dr Bischinger said: 'With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner.'"
And ".....people who pick their nose and eat it get a natural boost to their immune system for free."
Who knew that the dirty kid in your grade school class who picked his nose all the time and ate it would have a stronger immune system?
Do kids really need to be encouraged to go mining in their faces at every opportunity?
posted by fenriq at 11:32 AM PST - 33 comments
Babes Against Bush
"It's no secret that a lot of Americans, and particularly American men, don't pay much attention to politics, and don't seem to notice when their leaders are ruining the country they live in. We wanted to find an interesting and attention-getting way to spur at least some people to sit up and take notice of a some basic facts.....
Bush got into office by virtue of a complacent supreme court-and only 537 votes in the state of Florida.
We think we can convince 538 people to vote against him." And if not, they can at least have make some money for some good causes with
their calendar and have a good laugh at some of their hate mail.
posted by orange swan at 9:18 AM PST - 21 comments
Jesse Friedman's Web Site
from the incredibly powerful and amazing documentary
Capturing the Friedmans. A "documentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes." When watching the film from start to finish I went back and forth on their guilt or innocence and when the film was over I'm still not sure. In the time of the mass media hysteria and questionable police tactics what would you have done?
posted by suprfli at 8:59 AM PST - 3 comments
War Rationale: Version 10.0
In the year since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has repeatedly shifted its justification for going to war and constantly changed its story on intelligence, the United Nations, reconstruction, political transition and the cost to the American taxpayer. We all know (almost) everything about it by now, but this account is hilarious.
posted by acrobat at 8:22 AM PST - 6 comments
Burn some time.
But first, you'll have to find the flint, the rock, and the tinder, then combine the three. Think like a caveman. And watch out for the sabretooth tiger. (Friday
Flash Shockwave Fun)
posted by leapfrog at 7:24 AM PST - 5 comments
Friday Flash Shockwave
Spy Bot. "You work by fighting DataBattles, in which you deploy and maneuver programs to defeat opposing software on the memory grid." Good wholesome fun, and highly addictive.
posted by vraxoin at 7:11 AM PST - 3 comments
Some Of Our Best Poets Are Fascists:
An interesting article by Guy Davenport. My own theory is that an inordinate percentage of great (and minor) Modernist writers were, politically speaking, bonkers. Ezra Pound, Fernando Pessoa and T.S.Eliot were all distastefully authoritarian, anti-semitic and, in general, rancorous old farts. Why is this, if anyone still cares? [
Via Arts and Letters Daily.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:17 AM PST - 22 comments
What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.
Holden Caulfield in Catcher In The RyeJ.D. Salinger did not quite agree but then, if you can't hang out with his secretive self, or any other chosen literary icon, you can build her or him a fitting shrine or two or three. It's not quite
Smoking Dope with Thomas Pynchon but...
posted by y2karl at 12:51 AM PST - 13 comments
March 25
Fun for lunatics:
It shows the phases of the Moon [scroll down] for each day of a selected month.You can set the calendar to any date from 3999 BC to 3999 AD. Clicking any day cell on the calendar will take you to a screen presenting a more detailed view of the moon on that day...
Current Moon:
Waxing Crescent
38.5% of Full
Thu 25 Mar, 2004
These "Virtual Reality Moon Phases" were created by R. Schmidt from ray-traced images of the Moon. A Clementine spacecraft mosaic of the lunar surface was mapped onto a sphere, and scenes were rendered as a virtual Sun "orbited" the Moon.
In addition to the Earth, you can also view the Moon from the Earth, Sun, night side, above named formations on the lunar surface, or as a map showing day and night. You can also make images of the Moon.
Or just check out some
photos of the moon taken from the
spaceships that have been there.
posted by Shane at 5:20 PM PST - 5 comments
I want my LTV, brothuh!
Interesting research in the field of trapping lobsters from the University of New Hampshire. Like so many people, I learned about lobsters on the street, so it's nice to see some hard science.
posted by Mayor Curley at 2:17 PM PST - 9 comments
Turning the Tide
If Kerry and his friends are not far enough from the political center, you might try this,
Noam Chomsky's new blog. I would call it "No lefty left behind" But, hey, whatever packs your suitcase.
posted by Postroad at 1:00 PM PST - 38 comments
There is no room for a left-wing Rush Limbaugh on the radio.
"Do you think Karl Rove might have made a phone call to little General Powell, little Michael and said, 'Let's get this over with. Let's give him the fine and get this done with before Stern gets us all voted out of office,'" the National Enquirers Mike Walker asked Stern.
"First of all, I know that for a fact," Stern answered. "I can't even tell you how, just like you can't reveal your sources. I have two sources inside the FCC. They know exactly what is going on. They had a meeting two weeks ago, freaking out. I seem to be making enough noise that people are realizing we could hurt George W. Bush in the elections. So they are trying to figure out at what point do they fine me. So, you are absolutely right."
posted by skallas at 10:46 AM PST - 42 comments
K5 membership
willl now require new users to be sponsered by current users. Rusty's implementing this system as a way to deal with trolls and crap flooders who have taken over K5 in recent months.
posted by tiamat at 10:27 AM PST - 80 comments
Mascots
and other characters, many of which are as famous as
this guy.
(Flash on intro page. Previous discussion here. Please disinfect and air-dry after use.)
posted by LinusMines at 9:02 AM PST - 4 comments
How Rich am I?
Heard a talk today from the founder of
Gapminder, a non-profit company that creates Flash and shockwave pieces that are somewhere between information visualization, socially motivated art, and interactive educational pieces. Be sure to check out the Human Development Trends, and the Dollar Street (photos of real homes of real people who live on $1-2 per day, $2-5 per day, to $100 per day). See also:
Understanding USA for more nice pictures of statistics.
posted by zpousman at 8:41 AM PST - 6 comments
March 24
Thou shalt not make scientific progress.
"Medical research is poised to make a quantum leap that will benefit sufferers from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, muscular dystrophy, diabetes and other diseases. But George W. Bush's religious convictions stand in its way."
posted by homunculus at 9:17 PM PST - 45 comments
The dulcet tones of Tulsa Drone
were a growing presence on the Richmond scene when I lived there...their new album is fantastic. They've been
described as cinematic and noir-ish by everyone that's heard them. Make your own decisions, but I'll be listening to them on my iPod when I dump bodies in the lake under cover of midmorning fog from now on.
posted by chinese_fashion at 6:11 PM PST - 10 comments
DOJ Asked FBI Translator To Change Pre 9-11 Intercepts
---
FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, was offered a substantial raise and a full time job in order to not go public that she had been asked by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to retranslate and adjust the translations of [terrorist] subject intercepts that had been received before September 11, 2001 by the FBI and CIA.
"My translations of the pre 9-11 intercepts included [terrorist] money laundering, detailed and date specific information enough to alert the American people, and other issues dating back to 1999 which I won't go into right now."
Incredibly, Edmonds said "The senate Judiciary Committee, and the 911 Commission have heard me testify for lengthy periods of time time (3 hours) about very specific plots, dates, airplanes used as weopons, and specific idividuals and activities."
Is this true?
and OMFG
posted by amberglow at 6:07 PM PST - 
