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May 2002 Archives
May 31
Missing Dog Head!
And other /Insane/ things found. Provided to you by
Ubu.com Also check out the
mp3 section for hundreds of audio recordings by other loonies like Artaud, Duchamp, Burroughs, etc etc...
posted by protocool at 7:31 PM PST - 7 comments
Earth Viewer
compiles satellite imagery on the fly to produce a photo-realistic, spinnable, zoomable model of the entire Earth, right on your computer. And I mean zoomable -- one slider takes you smoothly from seeing the entire globe down to seeing individual people queuing to get into the Louvre...
posted by chrismear at 5:59 PM PST - 11 comments
The Dark Side of Google? Google's
first annual programming contest was a shrewd way to encourage Java and Python programmers. But this may be shrewder than the programmers who entered the contest realized.
David Egnor may have nabbed a cool $10,000 as the contest winner, but for all the other entries, Google nabbed "worldwide, perpetual, fully paid-up, nonexclusive" rights.
posted by ed at 11:20 AM PST - 14 comments
"To compile The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s,
we used the most narrow and conservative of definitions -- corporations that have pled guilty or no contest to crimes and have been criminally fined." Just brimming with fascinating business lore, including "The FBI estimates that 19,000 Americans are murdered every year. Compare this to the 56,000 Americans who die every year on the job or from occupational diseases such as black lung and asbestosis and the tens of thousands of other Americans who fall victim to the silent violence of pollution, contaminated foods, hazardous consumer
products...."
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 10:37 AM PST - 39 comments
The Movement for an Appropriate 9/11 Memorial
What is sacred space? The influence of spiritual leaders, philosophers, ethicists, psychologists, anthropologists and other scholars is notably absent in discussions about what to do with the former WTC site.
Among advocates for a large WTC memorial, there is consensus that the site is "sacred." September's Mission wants victims families to take part in a process of determining what will serve the function of connecting people to sacredness. They want public money to be spent in this direction too. But how can people's feelings, behaviors and attitudes be planned? Can popular beliefs be incorporated into large-scale government decisions?
(
1,
2)
posted by rschram at 9:52 AM PST - 18 comments
Questioning the myth of
plastic knives and boxcutters.
"This fictoid serves to divert public attentions from the responsibility, and legal liability, of the government and airlines to prevent major weapons such as guns, bombs, chemical sprays and hunting knives [all of which were mentioned in flight attendant and passenger cell phone calls]
from being carried aboard airplanes. If such illegal devices had been smuggled aboard the planes, the liability could amount to billions of dollars. If, on the other hand, it could be disseminated that the hijackers had only used plastic knives, such as those provided by the airlines for meals, or box cutters, which were allowed on planes, neither the airlines, the screeners at the airport, or the FAA, which regulates the safety of airports, could be held legally responsible."
posted by fotzepolitic at 9:48 AM PST - 7 comments
"Blow up for nothing?
What is this - trading in the blood of martyrs only so that my handlers can say that they executed the operation?"
Tawriya Hamamra, a young Palestinian woman, who had barely an hour's training in preparation for a suicide bombing recounts her change of heart.
Just how much religion, politics, or personal problems motivates a suicide?
posted by semmi at 9:44 AM PST - 10 comments
Medical professionals are supposed to tell the truth.
But why do they always lie?
I had an exam yesterday and they lied to me again as they always do.
Every time they do the glaucoma test, I have been told that they will get "close" to the eye. I correct them and tell them, no, you're going to touch it. They'll deny it 3 or 4 times before finally conceding that they'll "barely touch it" or something like that.
"The most common way to currently measure pressure inside the eye is tonometry. In air tonometry, a short burst of air hits the cornea. In applanation tonometry, a doctor anesthetizes the eye, then presses against it with a tiny instrument and measures the depth of the indentation." (sorry-- this is where I got the quote-- it's mostly about something else-- even web pages are reluctant to admit they'll touch your eyeball).
I have never recieved air tonometry, it's rarely used and considerred inaccurate.
This only bugs me because years ago a doctor told me he was going to get close to my eye, I could feel him on the surface through the aneshthetic and pulled back. This happened repeatedly. Eventually he told me he had to touch the eye. If he had told me that in the first place, I wouldn't have thought he was screwing up and I wouldn't have pulled back.
Well ok, it also bugs me that a doctor would utter such an obvious lie (you can feel them on the eye and see the cornea distort when it's pressed). What else are they lying about? What are their motives? (I have contacts, I touch my eyeballs all the time, surely they don't think I have an eyeball touching phobia...)
posted by squinky at 9:26 AM PST - 31 comments
Are you David Still?
If not, well, you can be. David Still has given up his personality to the masses, so you can write to people as him, and better still, reply to people who have sent e-mails back to the enigmatic Mr Still. Potential for confusion: I'd say fair to middling...
posted by creeky at 9:12 AM PST - 2 comments
Bye Bye, Privacy.
Despite opposition from civil liberties groups worldwide, the European parliament bowed to pressure from individual governments, led by Britain, and approved legislation to give police the power to access the communications records of every phone and internet user.
posted by tpoh.org at 6:52 AM PST - 17 comments
Porn shop clerk arrested for selling porn:
Am I the only one that thinks this is completely crazy? First of all, how can you prosecute someone for something they have a license to do? And why prosecute the clerk, and not the owner of the store? It's not bad enough to have to work in a porn shop, but you also have to worry about being arrested for selling someone a copy of "All Anal Action"?
posted by emptybowl at 6:51 AM PST - 21 comments
so which site has the best soccer live coverage? is it yahoo!'s
fifaworldcup.com? is it the
bbc? is it someone else? right now from here (germany) it looks like none of the big sites is holding up to the traffic. is any site as well prepared as
msnbc was for the olympics? oh, and it looks like senegal is winning the opening match.
posted by HeikoH at 6:00 AM PST - 17 comments
May 30
Journalists response
to the web wide debate sparked after their
interview with Jamie Kellner CEO of Turner Broadcasting. Where he likened not viewing the adverts to theft.
It's a story I was very interested in and it seems it caused a fair amount of
debate. Other than the
'Osama is evil' explosion what's your favorite meme with legs ?
posted by mrben at 8:00 PM PST - 8 comments
goodbye rankpeople!
hey! is this the end of one of those "amihotornot" sort of sites? is the "my self esteem is so low i need to validate my existence on a website" trend over and done with? no more "i can't feel cool unless other people think i look cool" bubble? alas, i can't help but feel sad over the beginning of the end of an era...
no. not really.
posted by jcterminal at 6:25 PM PST - 11 comments
It's no surprise that
the Sept 11 Compensation Fund will cover gay partners of victims. [nytimes link] It's easy to be generous: Of the 2,800-plus who died, the Fund has found only "22 known gay surviving partners." Never mind that the
Windows on the World waiters alone should have made that number four times higher, based on the "one in ten" formula for estimating the size of a gay population, one would expect almost 300 gay victims on Sept 11. Of course, not all the gay victims would necessarily be uncloseted or have a life partner, but still -- only 22? No wonder the fund is so generous to cut checks for this tiny minority. But does this unintended survey suggest NYC may not be as queer as everyone thinks? In any case, why were so few of gays employed at the WTC?
posted by jellybuzz at 2:03 PM PST - 50 comments
Welcome to the Boomtown.
'Fast Company' magazine profiles the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant -- a rural Oklahoma factory that is the source of nearly every nonnuclear bomb in the United States' arsenal. Man
posted by Dirjy at 1:17 PM PST - 8 comments
Cities with water to burn.
"While some
drought-stricken cities elsewhere in the nation
threaten to jail people who waste water, Cleveland wants people to open their spigots... 'Don't be afraid of it. . . . We have trillions of gallons of water here.'" So why do Clevelanders still have to use low-flush toilets and low-output shower heads?
posted by Faze at 1:16 PM PST - 12 comments
ObitMessenger
Why it's useful: Never miss important obituaries.
Never miss an important obituary because you were traveling, on vacation, or missed the paper.
posted by srboisvert at 12:47 PM PST - 11 comments
Puppetry of the Penis: Tackle Happy (2001)
Any Australian Metafilterians care to explain this? I found a rave review of this DVD on Amazon.com's Future Bestseller's list. "Organ Origami", "The Fine Art of Genital Manipulation" and "Performances with Road Companies at Major Festivals Throughout The World"? I think the world's citizen's are owed an explanation.
posted by dgeiser13 at 11:07 AM PST - 10 comments
Government Will Ease Limits on Domestic Spying by F.B.I.
(NY Times link)
As part of a sweeping effort to transform the F.B.I. into a domestic terrorism prevention agency, Attorney General John Ashcroft has decided to relax restrictions on the bureau's ability to conduct domestic spying in counterterrorism operations, senior government officials said today.
Here's the
Wash. Post's take on the story.
posted by Ty Webb at 9:29 AM PST - 21 comments
The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
"Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth's biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense." More inside...
posted by Irontom at 9:24 AM PST - 21 comments
The Washington Post recently featured an
article about soup maven Patricia Solley. I believe her comprehensive
soup site is going to become a regular destination for me. Where else can you find a recipe for Spocks
favorite soup?
posted by Fenriss at 7:46 AM PST - 4 comments
Suicide by McDonalds
-- Frank Nastasi was depressed and
wanted to kill himself May 15 when he accelerated his Cadillac DeVille to 95 to 100 mph and aimed for the McDonalds at the end of the road. Nastasi survived the crash, but killed three overnight workers at the 24-hour fast food restaurant. Why did he target a McDonalds? "Because his father ate breakfast there every morning," investigators said.
posted by dogmatic at 2:36 AM PST - 19 comments
May 29
Ok, this one's weird.
On May 11, "Jacksonville, Fla., police arrested a Fort Stewart soldier after finding him armed, wearing black clothes and leaving a power plant where he allegedly left an explosive." The story got
a tiny bit of play, but searches at
CNN and
FoxNews turn up no sign of it, despite the possible terror angle and a bond set at $5 million. Days later, a
follow-up story (can't find the original) quotes a detective saying, "This has been blown way out of proportion." Bizarre cover-up? Or really nothing worth mentioning?
posted by mediareport at 8:19 PM PST - 13 comments
"It was 1931 that we last reported on television, and our readers must be wondering how things are shaping up.
Not any too good." The New Yorker reports on the state of television, 1936.
posted by tranquileye at 1:35 PM PST - 8 comments
World-wide obsession
I am told these sports betting sites are readying themselves for an onslaught of World Cup Soccer traffic never seen in history. Will you play? Does it make the sport uplifting or uncouth?
posted by Voyageman at 12:18 PM PST - 11 comments
A blasphemy trial out of the 17th century
"Let's be clear. Criticising the precepts of modern Islam and the resultant actions of its adherents is not racist. Philosophically, it is the precise opposite of racism. It is an intellectual position arrived at through a consideration of ideas, rather than a cruel and irrational prejudice based upon the colour of someone's skin." Rod Liddle discusses the upcoming prosecution of French writer Michel Houellebecq for a comment he made about Islam in an interview. Some interesting points here about the wider context, in which Houellebecq has been attacked for the beliefs of the fictional characters he creates.
posted by jonpollard at 11:43 AM PST - 23 comments
Underwear, raw eggs, temporary tattoos, condoms designed to match your blood type, emu jerky, marijuana, hot noodles, super glue. What do they all have in common, besides possibly being things you need to have a really unforgettable Saturday night? They're all things that have been sold in
vending machines.
From Raphael Carter, author of the insect-centric Honeyguide weblog.
posted by iconomy at 11:40 AM PST - 9 comments
Dave Marsh on Ticketmaster
: Bands used to be able to get around Ticketmaster's high surcharges by setting aside tickets for fan club members, because TM's "convenience" charges didn't apply to fan club tickets. Now "artists can hold back no more than eight per cent of their tickets, and they can only sell them to fan clubs of which Ticketmaster approves."
posted by espada at 11:22 AM PST - 23 comments
Cadence engineer fired for activism:
So, an engineer for
Cadence Design Systems, on his own time and dime went to Bethlehem to do humanitarian work with the
International Solidarity Movement, a group of pro-Palestinian activists who believe in non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. When he returned, he was immediately terminated due to "inappropriate politics in an area where Cadence does business (Israel)".
Should corporations have the right to mandate the political views of their employees, contractors and subsidiary workers? Would there be more outrage if he was fired for supporting the Israeli occupation? When a Christian's beliefs run contrary to Jewish interests, is it automatically fair to fire the Christian?
posted by dejah420 at 9:54 AM PST - 57 comments
One Nation, Overseas
Wired Magazine on the Philippines as one of the world's leading labor exporters. Hearing the words "flexible, industrious, and frequently skilled" applied to Filipinos is certainly encouraging to us, but... (more inside)
posted by brownpau at 9:39 AM PST - 8 comments
You may have heard of Conway's
Game of Life, where pixels "live" or "die" based on a few simple rules about how many neighbors they have. But did you know that in the 30 years since the game was created, Life enthusiasts have (created? discovered?) an extensive
catalog of (
objects? creatures?) which interact to form some
amazing,
nifty,
grinning, sometimes
beautiful,
rube-
goldberg, occasionally even a little
scary patterns often starting from the
simplest of
building blocks? (Including a
Turing machine!) Or that a
lone pixel can exert
remarkable control over its environment? Now you can see in a few seconds in a
java applet, on your
desktop, or even on a PalmOS
handheld the outcome of simple patterns that, when first discovered, no computer could handle. A mind blowing example of the power of
emergent properties.
posted by straight at 9:03 AM PST - 22 comments
Sorry to post a shockwave.com link, but
Groove Blender 2 has eaten away almost my whole morning. Drag and drop blocks onto the canvas to create your own grooves- the downloadable version includes many more beats and the option to export your groove, or save it to Shockwaves servers. Anyone know of something else this simple that is simlar but allows you to import others grooves?
posted by TuxHeDoh at 8:30 AM PST - 2 comments
Something about Shooting Stanley Fish in a Barrel
Once, when asked by a student how he can get away with his famously unsourced assertions and oddly malicious personal attacks, Stanley Fish replied, "Because I'm Stanley Fish, and you're not." Which he defends by claiming that his actions derive from his theoretical work, mostly on the subjective nature of authority (albeit in a literary sense, but then who's to argue).
So it's a little odd that in this article he attacks journalists - whom, other than a few anonymous beat reporters and David Brooks (who is a columnist and commentator, but hardly an objectivity-seeking reporter), he groups as "they" - for being less than fair to academics. Don't get too riled up, though; this is likely just Fish's latest attempt to bait a controversy and stick his name at the top.
posted by risenc at 7:36 AM PST - 7 comments
Has one of terrorism's former poster children, Qaddafi, finally turned over a new leaf?
At last some genuinely good news from the Middle East. Libya's offer to pay $2,7-billion in compensation to the families of the victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland seems to indicate so. Although the Libyans are almost certainly motivated by their desire to end sanctions against them as a 'state sponsor of terrorism,' this is a hopefully a declaration of 'mea culpa' from the 'colonel' and maybe a sign of better things to come from others in the region that still think that there is something to be gained from blowing up so-called 'infidels' in civilian aircraft.
posted by murray_kester at 7:00 AM PST - 10 comments
Woo, trams to return to London
At last it looks as though there may finally be real progress in tackling the transport problems of one of the world's most congested cities. I wonder whether other nations should take note, or is it all just a pipe dream?
posted by Duug at 5:28 AM PST - 18 comments
Punk was rubbish
, so says Nigel Williamson. Tuneless noise of no merit whatsoever which sought to destroy anything that was good. Nothing good came of it and it has left no credible legacy.
Well, what would you expect from a guy called Nigel?
posted by Fat Buddha at 3:46 AM PST - 112 comments
May 28
The author of
this story argues that by disallowing same-sex marriage, social conservatives are actually working to undermine the function marriage plays in society
"The last thing supporters of marriage should be doing is setting up an assortment of alternatives, but that is exactly what the conservatives are doing, and not only for gays." Interesting views i thought, not that i'm so pro-marriage.
posted by rhyax at 10:32 PM PST - 15 comments
J. Robert Oppenheimer, watching the first mushroom cloud rise above the American nuclear test heartbreakingly codenamed Trinity, said: "Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds." Today, a half century after the first use of atomic weapons, in the birthland of the sacred text Oppenheimer quoted,
12 million people could die at once in a nuclear exchange.
Ah, Shiva as each of us...one hand on The Button, the other writing:
"The only way to live humanly - still - is in resistance to war. The prevention of war, in the nuclear age, must be a central purpose of every person's life."
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 4:40 PM PST - 58 comments
The day is June 3rd, 1999 and one mad genius decides he's going to
photographically document every door or drawer that he touches. Can focusing on minor repetitive actions - normally lost in the whole of the experience - tell us anything about our world and the way we interact with it?
posted by willnot at 4:16 PM PST - 19 comments
Don & Mike v. Opie & Anthony.
O&A are hot in New York, but D&M are doing poorly there. The opposite is true here in DC. At the risk of perpetuating a lie by posting this story here, I can't help but think that the on-air fight between these two radio programs from Infinity Broadcasting seems a little contrived. Anyone on metafilter, or any other online forum, knows that a flamewar and controversy breeds interest.
posted by crunchland at 1:43 PM PST - 25 comments
The Eminem Show reached #2
on the
Gracenote charts last week, even though the album was not officially released until Sunday.
Gracenote doesn't give exact figures on traffic, but it said the No. 2 slot in its charts represented a total figure of listeners in the "mid-tens of thousands" over the course of the week.
posted by ry at 1:11 PM PST - 15 comments
Hexxagon
, yeah, so its not friday flash, but it's sure a good way to waste a few hours on a tuesday afternoon or a wednesday morning. great game with some real strategy involved.
posted by sixtwenty3dc at 12:21 PM PST - 11 comments
RIAA sues
Audiogalaxy. "After targeting decentralized popular file-sharing services such as Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, and Madster, the Recording Industry Association of America took aim at Audiogalaxy in court last Friday..." [via
pfm]
posted by dobbs at 11:49 AM PST - 46 comments
Israel to launch flying casino
Ah...there he goes again. No. This is not about middle east chaos. This is gambling for "high stakes"--casino in the air. Claimed to be a first, can this sort of thing "take off" and be established in other countries? Would you try this form of gambling?
posted by Postroad at 11:48 AM PST - 10 comments
Project Euh
is a self-proclaimed multimedia weblog with many "web experiments" and something I never though I'd see, a curved scroll bar. But that's just the beginning. Click on euh? to load a random experiment.
posted by dgeiser13 at 11:13 AM PST - 16 comments
Stephen Byers resigns
(finally). Here is
a profile of the man. Do politicians have to fall into the same pattern
everytime something like this happens? Press: You've done something wrong. Politician: No I haven't. I'll admit to no impropriety on my part. Prime Minister: I'll stand by my minister. Press: But we can prove he did something wrong. The Public: I'll go with what they say, and he should resign. Prime Minister: Look mate, it's about the voters. Politician: I still don't believe I've got anything to hide but save the government embarassment, I'll resign.
posted by feelinglistless at 10:42 AM PST - 7 comments
Butt For You
"You can do a lot for your pecs, biceps and abs - but when it comes to your glutes you can only go so far. Great for sports!"
posted by kirkaracha at 8:34 AM PST - 29 comments
Extreme Hi-Fi Buff.
"...A further modification to loudspeakers that I found well worthwhile is to fill the cabinet with sulphur hexafluoride gas, SF6, in place of the air..."
posted by Spoon at 7:32 AM PST - 18 comments
May 27
Those family and pet photos relegated to office corkboards (and screensavers)
"...make us feel that we are not separate from our kids; that we are still with them, and they with us, vivid, changeable, in the flesh. They are expressions of pride, yes, and love, yes, but also of guilt and longing....the office photo is an emblem not so much of achievement as of compromise, lurking worries, remembered joys...." I never realized I was so miserable at work.
posted by Voyageman at 10:03 PM PST - 17 comments
Sex in prison, an insiders view.
There's been a couple of threads in MeTa about the inappropriateness of jokes about prison rape (
#1,
#2). I've been reluctant to challenge some of the most severe hand-wringing over the subject in question, but this article from someone in the UK pretty much covers it. No easy answers, just some thoughts from someone who's actually been an inmate (and see inside thread for more).
posted by WolfDaddy at 1:16 PM PST - 23 comments
Bush takes to insulting his critics
"Very good," Mr. Bush said sardonically. "The guy memorizes four words, and he plays like he's intercontinental."
"I can go on," Mr. Gregory offered.
"I'm impressed que bueno," said Mr. Bush, using the Spanish phrase for "how wonderful." He deadpanned: "Now I'm literate in two languages."
posted by fellorwaspushed at 12:05 PM PST - 44 comments
Guimp.com
claims to be the world's smallest web site. And it probably is.
Jakob must be spinning in his crypt.
You don't have to scroll, though.
posted by Su at 12:01 PM PST - 17 comments
Advances in neurotechnology
are creating a great need for more
public debate of their ethical and legal ramifications, according to these two articles in The Economist. While everyone is focused on cloning and stem cells, will it be neuroscience that turns society into a Philip K. Dick story? If so, I want a
mood organ.
posted by homunculus at 11:24 AM PST - 3 comments
"I get a lot of questions like
'Why are you the King of France?' Hopefully, this document will help those who just don't understand the overwhelming obviousness of it all. Then they can stop living in denial."
posted by moz at 11:07 AM PST - 8 comments
Where have all the bees gone?
Wild bee populations appear to be declining (members of a local naturalists' mailing list I subscribe to report seeing substantially fewer bumblebees in recent years), and domestic honeybees are susceptible to mites. Since one third of our crops require pollination, this is not just an environmental concern but also a very real threat to our food supply. Find out what's being done about it. Fascinating stuff, if a little frightening.
posted by mcwetboy at 8:15 AM PST - 19 comments
Mothers who
wait to have a baby are at risk of evolutionary extinction. "If you want to see your line persist, then it's probably optimum to start reproducing in your early to mid-20s". According to this 220 year statistical model
late-reproducing women [genetic lineage] declined as a proportion of the population from 11 percent to about 5 percent
posted by stbalbach at 8:10 AM PST - 8 comments
Our enemies the Saudis.
In a must-read editorial, Michael Barone makes a scathing attack on U.S. support of Saudi Arabia. Does anyone else cringe when they hear G.W. Bush speak on how much he wants to protect freedom and fight totalitarianism?
posted by bobo123 at 7:24 AM PST - 12 comments
The
Spiegel Grove was supposed to be sunk upright, creating the largest and most accessible artificial reef ever. Cool!
Unfortunately, the ship had other ideas and now appears to be impersonating a
giant turtle. One of the nation's top
marine salvage outfits has been called to the rescue. Looks like a potential Discovery Channel show in the making. (Check out the pictures on the Spiegel Grove site, they're pretty cool.)
posted by groundhog at 5:37 AM PST - 4 comments
How the U.S. Missed the Clues
Time magazine assessmeznt of what went wrong in evaluation of intelligence pre-9/11. I am not yet sure why I find the conclusions a bit evasive but it seems to me the article tries to satisfy differing perspectives rather than taking a stand for a specific point of view. But then that may be my reading and wrong headed.
posted by Postroad at 3:28 AM PST - 7 comments
May 26
Safety of MRI scans
- annoying and temporary free registration required.If movement whilst being scanned may not be safe, then what about the heart, lungs, blood and even a foetus? You can't keep those still.
Background: Of Mice & Magnets.
posted by southisup at 11:45 PM PST - 12 comments
TiVo and the BBC force programming on consumers.
The BBC apparently paid TiVo to command all its boxes -- without consumers' permission -- to record an episode of a drama the BBC marketing department deemed a must-see. Users can't even delete the recording -- it'll be there until TiVo decides to remove it. Can TiVo users expect to be bombarded with paid advertising after all?
(ZDNet article here.)
posted by mattpfeff at 10:32 PM PST - 29 comments
Comics are stupid.
Comics are great. In a pair of twinned articles, the venerable
Boston Globe revisits the whole "dumbing-down our culture" thing, that probably first popped up when the first iconoclast decided to use papyrus rather than good ol' stone. Light the bat-signal, Commissioner, my Spidey-sense is tingling!
posted by yhbc at 7:37 PM PST - 40 comments
Plugging the Analog Hole.
The MPAA has released a report entitled
"The Content Protection Status Report" to the Senate Judiciary Committee, outlining it's plans to find a way to regulate Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) with digial watermarks and "cop chips". In this short essay, Cory Doctorow outlines the main points of the new report and points out how entertainment companies are becomming the de facto regulators of new technologies.
posted by Hackworth at 6:40 PM PST - 8 comments
M. is a girl living as a boy
and his school is helping to keep his secret. Is that just asking for trouble? And should a 13 year old be considered for gender-reassignment therapy or is this just an extreme case of tomboy-ism that s/he'll grow out of?
[NYT mefi/mefi]
posted by mdn at 1:06 PM PST - 32 comments
Dude. I finally got a Philson Stratoblaster Air Guitar. You can get one too, and a free air guitar pick, at the
Bud. R. Philson Easy Air Guitar, Volume One site. Just click on "rock on", and then follow the easy lessons, and in a matter of weeks, you'll be rockin' to "
Stop That Guy, He Stole My Wallet", just like me. Remember, "If it's a Philson, it's gotta be Rock and Roll".
posted by iconomy at 12:42 PM PST - 5 comments
Canadian high speed ISP's are putting caps on downloads/uploads.
Could this spell the beginning of the end of P2P? The "basic" DSL package offered by Bell Canada will now give users 5 gigs up and 5 gigs down. For the average user, this is more than they'll ever use for e-mail, surfing, etc. But for users downloading movies and warez, it could be the end for them unless they're willing to cough up $7.95 CDN / gig - and most won't. Cable modem subscribers in Ontario will also be seeing a similar plan put into place in the next several months.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 12:16 PM PST - 30 comments
Fighting to Live as the Towers Died
: the NYT continues its fine reporting, reconstructing the final moments of temporary survivors on the upper floors, through over 150 e-mail and telephone contacts used to reach friends and relatives (as well as videotapes and recordings of 911 calls and emergency radio bands). Since I briefly worked in the trade center, I have often wondered what this experience must have been like.
You may want to take a moment to prepare, and expect to need breaks.
posted by dhartung at 9:06 AM PST - 48 comments
For anyone in "the know," it's no secret that
Jack + Meg White are not brother and sister but actually are a divorced couple posing as siblings.
Glorious Noise has posted a copy of their marriage certificate.
But aren't we all brothers and sisters in rock n' roll?
posted by modularette at 6:47 AM PST - 31 comments
For the last century, historians, anthropologists and other scholars have searched both human history and the continents to find a matriarchya society where the power was in the hands of women, not men. Most have concluded that a genuine matriarchy does not exist, perhaps may never have existed.
Untill now.
posted by stbalbach at 5:42 AM PST - 26 comments
Why Won't We Read the Manual?
I'd say we are a pretty tech-savvy group here. Do you STOP to peruse the instructions before you touch the "on" button of your new "must have" tech toy (to say nothing of your new microwave)?
Probably not. But there are reasons, according to this Washington Post article. I, for one, have been burned royally by manual writers. Scratching my head, I often hear myself mumbling "What the hell are they talking about?" And, in fact, don't you just hate when they are actually wrong?!
Having been a manual writer, I always try to put myself in the place of someone who comes into the situation completely cold. I'm afraid that's not always the case.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 5:29 AM PST - 28 comments
Type experimentats and portfolio by Johnathan Yuen. Flash required, but used simply.
Experimental interface; hover over everything.
posted by Su at 1:19 AM PST - 9 comments
May 25
"Strike the heart, enjoy the florist,
fa la la la la la la la la"
AmIRight collates all of those misheard song lyrics and goes a step further, organizing them by
band,
song, or
decade. Plus for the truly band-curious, they have archives of cool and
stupid band names, song parodies and commentary on lyrics that people think are repetitive, nonsensical, or just
insincere. Sometimes it's tough to tell the wrong lyrics from the right ones... "You strut your rasta wear and your suicide poem"
real or misheard?
posted by jessamyn at 6:54 PM PST - 30 comments
Turner Classic Movies programs Harold Lloyd tribute.
I've seen stills from "Safety Last" for years, but have never been able to track down the movie. Is it as good as all the critics say? I'm looking forward to finding out.
What other old movies have you been wanting to see for years? (I keep meaning to get around to renting "The Bank Dick.")
Along the same lines, what do you wish would be available on VHS/DVD?
posted by Vidiot at 1:13 PM PST - 30 comments
All worldwide conflicts to take a break until after June 30
[NYT reg req] "If the U.S. forward Clint Mathis scores a beautiful goal, Iranians, Iraqis and Libyans will rave about it. Soccer has many uses, and one of them, fleeting as it may be, is universal love." But perhaps more interestingly : " For foreigners, meanwhile, the World Cup is the one time that they get to treat the U.S. like a lightweight. " Indeed.
posted by Voyageman at 10:54 AM PST - 11 comments
mexican military incursion in u.s. soil
An INS agent saw a mexican military vehicle 5 miles inside u.s. territory, he says he was fired by the mexicans. He also says this is "an act of war". I'm mexican and i really doubt about this. It has to be a joke! What do you people think about this?
posted by trismegisto at 9:19 AM PST - 27 comments
The
Eurovision Song Contest gets under way approximately three hours from now. Europeans, who are you rooting for?
(Anyone else, what
are we talking about.....?)
posted by CatherineB at 9:02 AM PST - 29 comments
Instant Suntan.
A supernova in our galactic backyard may be on the verge of exploding. In the (unlikely) event that it happens tomorrow, how would you spend your last day on earth?
posted by Jubey at 4:55 AM PST - 42 comments
You'd be lucky to win a tenner!
Words of UK Lottery CEO Dianne Thompson to an annual dinner at the Chartered Insitute of Marketing. Thompson was previously director of marketing at low-cost high street jewellers Ratners, whose chairman famously turned a £127m annual profit into a £122m loss practically overnight with the immortal words "our merchandise is total crap." Could this be the end of the road for Lotto?
posted by dlewis at 2:04 AM PST - 28 comments
May 24
Cartoon Network
has taken
some heat lately for being too P.C., even
here on MetaFilter. Well, here's their chance to redeem the network. Sunday evening, 9:00 - 10:00 PM Eastern/Pacific,
ToonHeads Goes To War, including four rarely-seen wartime cartoons in their entirety:
"Blitz Wolf" where the three little pigs face off against a treaty-breaking, German-speaking wolf;
"Scrap Happy Daffy" featuring Daffy promoting the recycling of scrap metal and butting heads with a goat that bears a striking resemblance to Adolf Hitler;
"Herr Meets Hare," where Bugs Bunny tangles with Nazi minister Hermann Goering; and in
"Russian Rhapsody", a plane full of "gremlins from the Kremlin" attack a bomber piloted by the Nazi leader himself.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:45 PM PST - 7 comments
This evening
20/20 broadcast a
report on the new payola.Names are named. This explains a lot about the current state of music radio. Ironically, one of those complaining the loudest was good ol' Hilary Rosen of the
RIAA who are doing their damnedest to
destroy internet radio, along with college and public radio, the only alternative to the institutional corruption she decries. But in this case, she's on the side of the angels, it would seem. This report is timely though and does illustrate what's wrong with concentrating media power in too few hands.
posted by jonmc at 7:39 PM PST - 22 comments
What Would Vissarion Do?
A former Russian traffic cop realizes that he is the reborn Son of God. Several devoted disciples agree, yea and verily. Insert own 'water into vodka' joke here. On second thought, please don't.
posted by Dirjy at 2:28 PM PST - 2 comments
Dead Mike
had an accident while
skydiving and fell 80 feet to the concrete runway. He survived and put up this website to tell his story (warning: sound.)
posted by homunculus at 1:01 PM PST - 7 comments
L.A. building Rocked By Explosion
A large residential building was rocked by an explosion and erupted in flames Friday. There was no immediate word on whether anyone was hurt.
The blast hit the building in the Encino area of the San Fernando Valley about 11 a.m., Fire Department spokesman Bob Collis said.
posted by GernBlandston at 12:43 PM PST - 36 comments
Post to a weblog via SMS.
Just this weblog, unfortunately, not your own. I tried it with my Voicestream phone and it works. I'm surprised there aren't more wireless blogs out there that use SMS. (Or have I just been missing them?)
posted by brownpau at 12:26 PM PST - 15 comments
Bowling for Columbine
Michael Moore, the visionary documentary maker, has the big hit at Cannes this year with Bowling for Columbine. Ostensibly a film about guns and violence in America
posted by Niahmas at 12:11 PM PST - 22 comments
Did Fight Club influence Lucas John Helder?
"... in connecting the dots between the places where Helder planted his pipe bombs, one ends up with something resembling
a smiley facean image etched by anarchists in
Fight Club on a building they had set fire to... If there were an instruction manual for the angst-ridden young people searching for meaning,
Fight Club might be it... [It] might very well be the
Catcher in the Rye for those belonging to Generation Y..." (via
Dead Yet Living)
posted by aaronshaf at 11:22 AM PST - 27 comments
When stupid laws attack:
this article points out that
the widely syndicated article about thwarting the copy protection of sony's CDs is a direct violation of the
DMCA. Will news directors at Reuters, Yahoo, and CNN be seeing fines and jail time soon? How many times does it have to be pointed out that the DMCA restricts free speech as it attempts to thwart piracy at any cost? (via
k5)
posted by mathowie at 10:19 AM PST - 10 comments
Fashion comes and goes, but art that might have come from the side of a van is forever. The cover artists from
Dragon magazine, a staple of my pimply years, all have websites now, from
Keith Parkinson to the ghastly
Clyde Caldwell to
Larry Elmore (who is putting his old
Dragon comic,
SnarfQuest, online). The grand master of bodacious barbarian babe art,
Frank Franzetta, has a site, too. Relive your adolescence through gleaming swords, vanquished dragons, and hyperdefined musculature! (Warning: Not all pictures are work-safe.)
posted by snarkout at 9:40 AM PST - 11 comments
Lyudmila Putina and Laura Bush
apparently forgetting there are cameras around. Switching gears now, for the smokers out there: just drink
water, and you'll be able to satisfy that nicotine craving
and quench your thirst with a single hand motion.
posted by Why at 8:07 AM PST - 11 comments
Attack of the Clones (really).
The Italian fertility expert (...) said on Wednesday three women were pregnant with clones. In
this interview published in the French daily Le Monde, he also says they will be born between December 2002 and January 2003. What good can we make out of this ?
posted by XiBe at 6:15 AM PST - 9 comments
Four best hamburgers
in this survey includes
a place about a mile from my house, and yeah they're great there. It also shows one in NY, one in LA and one in New Orleans - are these the same four you see or are they showing me a place in my town because they know where I am? Mmmm ... hamburgers.
posted by engelr at 5:45 AM PST - 39 comments
Red Cross attacks exile of Palestinians
Mr Fisk (in occupied Lebanon) notes that the Red Cross believes it cruel to separate known terrorists from their families. Neglects to note that all international law opposes the targeting of civilians no matter what the reason or rationalization used.
Perhaps a lawsuit for "cruel and unusual" punishment might allow the terrorists to have family reunions and be compensated for emotional damages and deprivation of marital privileges.
posted by Postroad at 5:17 AM PST - 11 comments
Even if it works, using the detah penalty as deterrent is morally flawed
The mere fact that an orthodontist in Cleveland feels more anxious about crime shouldn't make the state more "right" to take a life. And, if you are in favor of the death penalty, the mere fact that the same orthodontist feels comfortable leaving his door unlocked shouldn't mean that a murderer should pay less of a price for killing a child.
posted by magullo at 2:55 AM PST - 45 comments
About damn time.
If I ever get another email asking me to go to Nigeria on behalf of Mr.Ngkoskusomethingoranother for some large sum of cash I could just...
posted by lostbyanecho at 2:43 AM PST - 12 comments
May 23
Microsoft has designed
a Windows XP patch that will trick computers into behaving as though IE, Outlook Express, and Messenger aren't there, though not removing them, per the requirements of its antitrust settlement. They demonstrated a working version to the AP yesterday.
Oh yeah, and they're releasing it as a 40 megabyte download. In August. And it's other primary function will be to potentially sabotage the operating system.
Good ol' Microsoft.
posted by gsteff at 9:52 PM PST - 14 comments
