skip to main content
May 2004 Archives
May 31
So the
Blogathon is taking a year off to come back bigger and better than ever before, but for all of you just itching to stay awake for 24 hours raising money for charity, there is
Project-Blog, a Blogathon-style event happening July 24th. See previous Blogathon discussion
here.
posted by Orange Goblin at 3:54 PM PST - 2 comments
Alberta Martin, the last known widow of a civil war veteran, has died at the age of 97. Alberta Martin married William Japser Martin, a Confederate veteran, in 1927, when she was 21 and he was 81. William Martin died less than four years later and Alberta Martin married his grandson two months after that.
[Much of the news will cover it (i.e.
CNN,
MSNBC, et all, but the link above is for a site specifically about her.]
posted by bluedaniel at 3:20 PM PST - 12 comments
The False Controversy of Stem Cell Research.
Kinsley: In fact, thinking it through is a moral obligation, especially if you are on the side of the argument that wants to stop or slow this research.
It's not complicated. An embryo used in stem-cell research (and fertility treatments) is three to five days past conception. It consists of a few dozen cells that together are too small to be seen without a microscope. It has no consciousness, no self-awareness, no ability to feel love or pain. The smallest insect is far more human in every respect except potential.
posted by skallas at 10:17 AM PST - 64 comments
Wikipedia has reinvented itself.
It now supports discussions about any article, and provices an easy way for users to look at previous article versions. Maybe it could do this before -- but my memory and the Google cache lead me to think not. To the jaded eye, this looks like just a software upgrade. But the implications are greater than that. Wikipedia is the great white hope for free (as in freedom) information on the web, and this ups the ante. My big questions: Can they handle the load? And how long before anyone notices?
posted by lodurr at 8:36 AM PST - 18 comments
The Paper Trail
"But TIME has obtained an internal Pentagon e-mail sent by an Army Corps of Engineers officialwhose name was blacked out by the Pentagonthat raises questions about Cheney's arm's-length policy toward his old employer. Dated March 5, 2003, the e-mail says "action" on a multibillion-dollar Halliburton contract was "coordinated" with Cheney's office. The e-mail says Douglas Feith, a high-ranking Pentagon hawk, got the "authority to execute RIO," or Restore Iraqi Oil, from his boss, who is Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. RIO is one of several large contracts the U.S. awarded to Halliburton last year"
posted by Postroad at 3:35 AM PST - 28 comments
Popular De Lujo:
A portrait of a city (Bogota, Colombia) through its folk art and street graphics. "Some sections of this site are not translated in order to keep the original and true sense of local idiomatic expressions which have no precise equivalent in other languages. However, you will realize that the graphic language is so rich in shapes and colours, that it speaks for itself."
posted by vacapinta at 1:55 AM PST - 10 comments
May 30
National Security Letters and John Doe
--once only issued against suspected terrorists and spies, NSLs now can be used, thanks to the Patriot Act, against all and any of us. John Doe, the currently gagged owner of a small ISP was targeted for the political speech of his customers and is fighting, along with the ACLU and others.
More here (and more inside)
posted by amberglow at 8:26 PM PST - 20 comments
Calling the 'cleaner'
- like Harvey Keitel, who has both played a 'cleaner' and
become one in real life, Zbigniew Brzezinski now moves in to rectify the mess.
"The present policy - justified by falsehoods, pursued with unilateral arrogance, blinded by self-delusion, and stained by sadistic excesses - cannot be corrected with a few hasty palliatives."
posted by troutfishing at 6:06 PM PST - 16 comments
Interview with David Crosby.
"The people who run record companies now wouldn't know a song if it flew up their nose and died. They haven't a clue, and they don't care. You tell them that, and they go, 'Yeah? So, your point is?' Because ...they don't care. They're actually sort of proud that they don't care.... Now they're going in the tank, because the world has changed, and they did not change with it...I think the only way to sell records that I know about now that does look really, really, really promising is iTunes."
posted by weston at 3:10 PM PST - 46 comments
Pros & Cons of Kerry's Veep Choices
14.
Ann Coulter, columnist
Pro: Flattering position would silence her exposing of the true evil liberal agenda
Con: Is composed entirely of spiders and deadly snakes writhing beneath a latex "skin."
Courtesy of McSweeneys
posted by leotrotsky at 8:07 AM PST - 42 comments
May 29
I stumbled on
The Geek Test today. Very comprehensive (measures more than just technical geekiness). What's your score?
posted by tbc at 2:19 PM PST - 95 comments
Diary of a truck stop cruiser.
"B.J. Cruiser," a self-described obese gay man, shows us that California highways teem with repressed, married truck drivers waiting for an insatiable man like him. Can this blog possibly be for real? Hilarious text not safe for work.
posted by inksyndicate at 1:48 PM PST - 32 comments
One of Ashcroft's "credible sources"
from last week's terror warning came from
Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, a group that has also claimed responsibility for the blackout in the Northeast last year, the power outage in London, the Madrid bombing and has been called
"notoriously unreliable" by U.S. officials. The only thing they haven't claimed credit for recently is the cicada invasion of Washington". Ashcroft blames the FBI who have admitted that claims that terrorists were 90 percent ready to attack came not from al-Qaida, but from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades statements.
posted by gfrobe at 8:03 AM PST - 12 comments
Safe For Work
A photoshop competition just for Metafilter. Nudes from the history of art, only with clothes on. You can see the originals too. My favourite is the water carrier. (SFW!)
posted by Zootoon at 5:01 AM PST - 32 comments
May 28
Defamer.
LA is the world's cultural capital. Defamer is the gossip rag it deserves. Oh, but it's much better than that. Smart, funny, ever so slightly understated satire and snappy, sarcastic commentary. [via
wonkette]
posted by bingo at 6:16 PM PST - 43 comments
It's Rodeohead,
(MP3 download), the radiohead country and western medley. Please note there is absolutely no reason to post this apart from it's Friday, it's a bank holiday weekend and it made me laugh. If you're looking for in-depth then move along, nothing to see here...
posted by ciderwoman at 1:27 PM PST - 26 comments
May 27
Loyola University has received approval to
investigate PolyHeme®'s use as a blood substitute for critically injured and bleeding trauma patients at accident scenes. Blood has a very short shelf life, requires refrigeration, and matching types takes too much time too carry blood in ambulances. The blood substitute has a long shelf life and is compatible with all blood types. It's designed to furnish oxygen which will "prevent organ damage in the brain, heart, lungs, liver and kidneys," until a transfusion can be done at the hospital. - pretty damn cool. I hope it works. [cross-posted on my site]
posted by giantkicks at 5:22 PM PST - 34 comments
The ultimate renewable energy resource - kids. Unlike
Monsters inc, who harness the energy of screams, the
Playpump (also discussed
here) harnesses kids having fun to provide clean water.
If they have to cart water, the
Q-drum (also discussed
here) is a very simple way to make this chore easier. In this complicated world, the best ideas are still the simple ones.
via A Whole Lotta Nothing
posted by dg at 5:07 PM PST - 7 comments
pop vs. soda
what might the "other" terms be? you are from the far north of minnesota or south central new mexico - what do they call "pop" or "soda" in your neck of the woods?
posted by specialk420 at 11:57 AM PST - 73 comments
Clear Channel Limits Live CDs.
A company called
DiscLive has been working with a handful of artists to sell concert-goers a live CD -- of the show they've just seen -- after the concert. However, "Clear Channel Entertainment has bought the patent from the technology's inventors and now claims to own the exclusive right to sell concert CDs after shows."
More inside...
posted by sarajflemming at 11:32 AM PST - 31 comments
Today's news oddity: In October 1973, U.S.-Soviet tensions were peaking over the Arab-Israeli war, and British Prime Minister Edward Heath's office called the White House just before 8 p.m. to ask to speak with Nixon. "Can we tell them no?" Kissinger asked his assistant, Brent Scowcroft.
"When I talked to the president, he was loaded."
It's funnier if you read the above in Kissinger's voice.
posted by soyjoy at 10:34 AM PST - 22 comments
What is the current state of American poetry?
Hank Lazer:
Perhaps, contrary to the laments, we are now living through a particularly rich time in American poetryan era of radically democratized poetry...In its anarchic democratic disorganized decentralization, poetry culture has developed in a manner parallel to the computer: the decentralized PC has beaten the main-frame. No one can pretend to know what is out there, or what is next. Who are some of the most notable American poets active in the beginning of the 21st century?
posted by rushmc at 8:55 AM PST - 33 comments
This turns into one of those cases where researching a story gets weirder. The documentary
Super Size Me centers on a documentary filmmaker's 30 day experience eating nothing but McDonalds. The film is doing
amazingly well as a limited release documentary grossing more per screen than high-budget Troy. Here is the weird part, Reuters has
picked up on a distributor press release claiming that MTV is refusing to air advertising for
Super Size Me because the film is "disparaging to fast-food restaurants". The Reuters short seems to have quite a bit of legs. However a Hollywood Reporter
article details MTVs side of the story placing the blame on the film's distributor. Is this really a case of a network getting cold feet? Or is it a case of distributor trying to pull the "too edgy for MTV" moneymaking ploy? And what is with the continually morphing Reuters clip that is just now being tossed onto doorsteps and stuffed into newsboxes across North America? (The film was previously discussed on metafilter
back in January.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 3:57 AM PST - 23 comments
Racial Slurs
have been around for centuries, and this website attempts to collect them all (2,295 so far) and explain their origins. May not be SFW if someone is reading over your shoulder.
posted by whoshotwho at 1:17 AM PST - 18 comments
May 26
Paul Martin,
Canada's current Prime Minister, running for re-election for the
Liberal party, suggests that voting for him will prevent us from being like the US in his latest
television AD campaign (sorry, they only make a WiMP 9 version available). Will your country be next?
posted by shepd at 11:25 PM PST - 45 comments
Thought June 30th was a real handover of power to the Iraqis?
In a series of edicts issued earlier this spring, Mr. Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority created new commissions that effectively take away virtually all of the powers once held by several ministries. ... The new Iraqi government will have little control over its armed forces, lack the ability to make or change laws and be unable to make major decisions within specific ministries without tacit U.S. approval, say U.S. officials and others familiar with the plan.
posted by amberglow at 9:15 PM PST - 19 comments
New generation lives to see another Che
"Che Guevara is widely remembered as a revolutionary figure, to some a heroic, Christ-like martyr, to others the embodiment of a failed ideology. To still others, he is just a commercialized emblem on a T-shirt.
But for Latin Americans just now coming of age, yet another image of Che is starting to emerge: the romantic and tragic young adventurer who had as much in common with Jack Kerouac or James Dean as with Fidel Castro.
The phenomenon began a decade ago with the publication of his long-suppressed memoir known in English as "The Motorcycle Diaries," which has become a cult favorite among Latin American college students and young intellectuals..."
posted by Postroad at 5:32 PM PST - 24 comments
Eric Alterman on Abu Ghraib and the media.
Alterman: And how pathetic is it that the only cable network really grappling with the media's failure is
Comedy Central? Let's give the last word to the Daily Show's incomparable Stephen Colbert: "The journalists I know love America, but now all anybody wants to talk about is the bad journalists--the journalists that hurt America.... Who didn't uncover the flaws in our prewar intelligence? Who gave a free pass on the Saddam-Al Qaeda connection? Who dropped Afghanistan from the headlines at the first whiff of this Iraqi snipe hunt? The United States press corps, that's who."
posted by skallas at 3:54 PM PST - 12 comments
How Public is Public Radio?
When National Public Radio was launched in 1971, it promised to be an alternative to commercial media that would promote personal growth rather than corporate gain and speak with many voices, many dialects. Does NPR really represent the "public?"
Do those "not-advertisements" present an alternative to commercial radio?
For those who consider NPR a "liberal bastion", know that the times they are a changing. Give to Air America instead with your donations perhaps?
posted by nofundy at 10:27 AM PST - 42 comments
Nick Hornby discusses pop music in this NY Times essay:
"Maybe this split is inevitable in any medium where there is real money to be made: it has certainly happened in film, for example, and even literature was a form of pop culture, once upon a time. It takes big business a couple of decades to work out how best to exploit a cultural form; once that has happened, 'that high-low fork in the road' is unavoidable, and the middle way begins to look impossibly daunting. It now requires more bravery than one would ever have thought necessary to try and march straight on, to choose neither the high road nor the low. Who has the nerve to pick up where Dickens or John Ford left off?
In other words, who wants to make art that is committed and authentic and intelligent, but that sets out to include, rather than exclude? To do so would run the risk of seeming not only sincere and uncool - a stranger to all notions of postmodernism - but arrogant and vaultingly ambitious as well."
posted by grumblebee at 10:11 AM PST - 28 comments
Finally
the NYT offers up an analysis of its pre-war coverage. "But we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged or failed to emerge."
posted by raaka at 2:29 AM PST - 35 comments
open debates
is a nonprofit that's working to reform the
presidential debate process for the american election. they have some pretty big names on their board from across the political spectrum, including
john b. anderson,
angela "bay" buchanan, and
randall robinson.
From the website:
Currently, the presidential debates are secretly controlled by the major parties, through the private bipartisan corporation called the Commission on Presidential Debates, resulting in the stultification of format, the exclusion of popular candidates, and the avoidance of pressing national issues.
The major party candidates never pay a political price for their antidemocratic practices; posing as an independent sponsor, the Commission on Presidential Debates shields the major party candidates from public criticism and public accountability.
posted by christy at 12:42 AM PST - 9 comments
May 25
Blogging Festival in Iran:
"Attempting to form a society of the web Persian content providers, this festival tries to improve the quality of the published information by the means of discussing sessions, roundtables and the exhibition. This festival, backed by the
PersianBlog team, as the greatest Farsi weblog provider, and the
National Youth Organization of Iran, is the first practical attempt for sponsoring the bloggers and internet magazines."
posted by hoder at 10:01 PM PST - 2 comments
The French Pro-Nuclear Proliferation Lobby
"...I have no hesitation in saying that we must consider giving the Arab side a large enough force, including a large enough nuclear force, to persuade Israel that it cannot simply do whatever it wants. That is the policy my country (France) pursued in the 1970s when it gave Iraq a nuclear force..."
-- Paul-Marie Couteaux, Member of the European Parliament
posted by kablam at 4:26 PM PST - 25 comments
Kerry pokes fun at Bush mishap
Whats going on here? As the
CNN article has changed from earlier. What I notice is that originally the CNN article said along the lines; Mr. Kerry had his own bicycling mishap earlier this month, taking a spill while riding with Secret Service agents through Concord, Mass. Mr. Kerry fell when his bike hit a patch of sand. He was not injured. Which if iirc this similar statment was after Kerry commented about the accident. Saying he is glad Bush was ok, then being surprised Bush rides.
posted by thomcatspike at 3:53 PM PST - 57 comments
The wisdom of crowds
and
the miracle of aggregation, arguably, are the reasons why
markets and
democracy work as well as they do. As
New Yorker James Surowiecki explains in his
new book, "consider the show
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. When a contestant on the show is stumped by a question, he has a couple of choices in asking for help: the audience or someone he's designated as an expert. The experts do a reasonable job: They get the answer right 65% of the time. But the audience is close to perfect: It gets the answer right 91% of the time, even though it's made up of people who have nothing better to do than sit in a TV studio and watch Regis Philbin."
The new, new tipping point?
posted by kliuless at 2:45 PM PST - 25 comments
An announcement from Trey:
"So Coventry will be the final Phish show...For the sake of clarity, I should say that this is not like the hiatus, which was our last attempt to revitalize ourselves. We're done. It's been an amazing and incredible journey."
posted by methree at 1:58 PM PST - 20 comments
It's all in the cards:
an interesting look at the development and design of playing cards.
Despite their global origins, playing cards are a uniquely American art form. Looking at a deck of cards provides a glimpse of social, economic, and advertising history.
posted by jazon at 11:46 AM PST - 6 comments
Would you like to live in a Christian nation with government similar to the early United States?
Well, heres your chance! Are you disgusted that the gays are stomping on the Consitution? Do you demand the return to a moral government? Become part of the solution and help to redeem the nation, one seceded state at a time.
posted by archimago at 11:10 AM PST - 76 comments
Protecting the Cradle
Kirkuk Air Base -- US Army Colonel works with Iraqi archaeological officials to protect nearby ancient sites.
Meanwhile at more secluded mounds,
looters continue to plunder the sites and to erase the tangible record of the world's earliest civilizations. "When you come here at night, it looks like a city, there are so many lights," [Archaeological official Abdul-Amir] Hamdani said, looking out over the arid scrubland where thieves swarm after dark.
posted by mcgraw at 10:41 AM PST - 6 comments
Exit Strategy
How to get out of
the quagmire that is Iraq:
To implement this exit strategy, we will have to practice running quickly. It is further recommended that, while running, the eyes be cast down, to avoid witnessing any last-minute people trying to kill us. We will have to establish excellent communications so that the moment that final person begins dying, we can all begin running quickly at the same time, eyes cast down, quickly, to our vehicles, to get to the airport and get out of the country.
posted by dayvin at 10:27 AM PST - 4 comments
Political ads fail their mission.
In an
Advertising Age poll, 92% of respondants said the ads had not swayed them to change their prospective votes. More than half said the ads didn't influence them, and nearly a quarter found Bush's ads "not at all persuasive." Before you liberals get cocky, consider this: 29% thought Kerry's ads were totally unpersuasive.
posted by me3dia at 9:29 AM PST - 19 comments
Die DUCKOMENTA.
German art gallery of Disney-centered pastiche art. The Wall Street Journal says "This Exhibit Is No Featherweight,
so You Better Duck."
[Stolen from waxy]
posted by riffola at 7:24 AM PST - 7 comments
May 24
Trout Stomach Pump
: Summer's almost here, so you'd best start
looking for clues.
" Finally I observe what the fish are actually feeding on. To do this I have to catch a fish. This is frequently the hardest part, but I can usually scam one up somehow. I then pump it's stomach.....while securely holding the fish I gently insert the tube down the fishís throat as far as I can. I take particular care not to injure the fish during this process.....The suction created by the pump extracts the stomach contents. I carefully release the fish unharmed into the water (I have never lost a fish in this process). Then I squeeze the bulb and deposit the fish's stomach contents into my hand. It is then a simple process to match the stomach contents to the contents of my fly box"
posted by troutfishing at 10:16 AM PST - 24 comments
May 23
Closing in on Tenet
"The senate intelligence Committee is getting closer to delivering a scathing report on the CIA's prewar intelligence on Iraq. Sources tell Time that the assessment, which is nearing completion, is so tough that it is sowing doubt even among longtime fans of CIA Director George Tenet. One panel member dodged a question from Time about whether the member still had full confidence in the director, saying Tenet "has done incredible things" for the CIA but adding, "This is not going to be a happy report." ...."
posted by Postroad at 2:01 PM PST - 19 comments
Ban on Camera Phones in Iraq
Q: What do you do if your troops take pictures of physical and sexual abuse in American-run prisons in Iraq?
A: Ban cameras, of course. What the people can't see don't happen.
posted by dayvin at 1:22 PM PST - 73 comments
"We can fix your teeth, you know. We can give you a great smile."
Apparently the best way to get your teeth fixed these days is to visit a South American dentist. It's a really honest piece about a subject most people probably wouldn't open up about - and it's interesting to see something positive about going out of the U.S. for skilled services in these days where everyone is complaining about outsourcing. (free registration required, same site as Bridezilla last year)
posted by clango at 10:07 AM PST - 23 comments
Anatomy of a Refugee Camp.
A Flash presentation of how refugee camps are set up, and very educational for those of us in the world lucky enough to have never seen one.
[via
airgid.com, the designer's website]
posted by jb at 9:32 AM PST - 4 comments
May 22
Trusted Computing. Microsoft and friends are proposing some major
alterations to the way that computers work, the ostensible goal being to increase security. But
others say that the real goals are much more insidious.
posted by bingo at 11:08 PM PST - 15 comments
Festival de
Cannes update:
The new Michael Moore movie received a 18 minutes long
standing ovation , a couple of days ago, which was already meaningful to him and his film crew.
Tonight Moore also received the prestigious
Palme D'Or prize, making sure the film will receive an adequate distribution in the United States.
His speech was quite powerful, beginning with him visibly stunned, looking at Quentin Tarantino (who was in tears) in disbelief, saying
What have you done? Im completely overwhelmed by this. Merci.
posted by Sijeka at 3:34 PM PST - 69 comments
Attacked By Thugs!
-
Maciej Ceglowski is accosted by young, dorky thugs in Warsaw. After flagging down a van full of police to report the incident, frenzied pursuit-driven hijinks ensue. Almost makes me want to move to Poland and become a cop. Anyone have any sort of similar, amusing, crazed police experience?
(I realise there are plenty of non-amusing, crazed police stories out there too, unfortunately.)
posted by DyRE at 1:01 PM PST - 7 comments
Why $2 Gas Is Amazing
Gasoline is now selling at more than $2 a gallon, which, after inflation, is higher than it's been since 1981. But that's not the amazing part. Actually, there are three amazing parts.
posted by Postroad at 12:27 PM PST - 99 comments
The Rejection Hotline
is a number you can give out to somebody who asks for your phone number if you just don't want to give out your real number. Located in over 30 cities nationwide, and with people having cell phone numbers from all over the place, you never have to deal with telling someone no again. Get your number before you head out tonight.
posted by thebwit at 9:14 AM PST - 21 comments
US demands war crimes immunity
But human rights campaigners said the Iraq prison abuse scandal proves that the US needs to be held to account.
"Given the recent revelations... the US has picked one hell of a moment to ask for special treatment," said Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch. -- the annual renewal of US protection from international prosecution for war crimes when serving under UN auspices comes to a vote on Monday.
posted by amberglow at 6:58 AM PST - 34 comments
Kinsley goes Zola on Brooks
"In his writing and on television, he actually seems reasonable. More than that, he seems cuddly. He gives the impression of being open to persuasion. Like the elderly Jewish lady who thinks someone must be Jewish because ''he's so nice,'' liberals suspect that a writer as amiable as Brooks must be a liberal at heart. Some conservatives think so too."
via A&L Daily
posted by leotrotsky at 6:07 AM PST - 6 comments
May 21
A Visit to Old Los Angeles
"A pictorial survey of downtown Los Angeles, and certain other areas, focusing on the years 1900 to 1915, though occasionally making use of images from other times. This series will follow, primarily by means of actual postcards of the era, the travels of a farming family from the great plains as they visit Los Angeles and its environs in the early years of the Twentieth Century." In 29 episodes, and with
lots of postcards.
posted by carter at 12:25 PM PST - 5 comments
Chicago is sinking
at the rate of about a millimeter a year(or about 4 inches per century), and it's being caused by melting Canadian glaciers that cause the land to shift.
posted by geeknik at 11:45 AM PST - 16 comments
Monsanto Wins Fight to Control Plant
The Canadian Supreme court sets international precedent by ruling that since Monsanto holds a patent on a gene, it can control the use of the plant.
So does this mean that in the future that an engineered human gene could be patented, and therefore if you receive this gene you will have to make royalty payments? And if you renege on paying can they repo the gene?
posted by batboy at 10:28 AM PST - 34 comments
