August 2002 Archives

The Esoteric Archives - for when you are tired of getting your fix of Hermetic neo-Platonism from secondary sources. Or for when you simply must know what on earth those John Crowley novels were about.
Translations of works by Giordano Bruno, Cornelius Agripppa and all your other favorite Renaissance magicians ...
posted by thatwhichfalls at 11:58 PM PST - 11 comments

Bond: Bored and Boozy James Bond. John Lanchester, in an insightful essay for the (beautifully redesigned) London Review of Books, counts (and staggers at) the amount of booze Ian Fleming's alter ego got through in a single day. He needn't have bothered: there's a delightful, knowledgeable and fanatical website, called Make Mine An 007 that does little else but tally up every drink that passes Agent 007's (or his enemys') lips, in his novels and in his films; listing the brands, the recipes and even totting up the glorious, final statistics.[More inside]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:06 PM PST - 31 comments

Return of Bush's Faith Based Initiatives "So the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is pursuing a new agenda that does not depend on the consent of Congress, starting with the development of proposals to change a host of federal regulations to lower the barriers encountered by religious groups in dealing with the federal government." Kind of surprising this was leaked out before the November elections, because much like how social security privatization has been downplayed due to unpopularity ("My social security was in Enron??") - it's intriguing campaign fodder.
posted by owillis at 8:22 PM PST - 10 comments

In an a era where so much music seems overly mechanical Funk45.com and Galactic Fractures are terrific reminders that danceablity can be warm and loose and that human-powered music is the funkiest. These sites have what every good music site should have, encyclopedaic knowledge, detailed info, and truckloads of audio that makes you wanna find a good record store and hunt down the 45's yourself. And it's all presented in a way that encourages you to dig deeper. The song You Got Me Mama by Hayes Ware is a favorite, but there's plenty of great stuff. requires RealAudio
posted by jonmc at 8:09 PM PST - 6 comments

You think your neighbors are bad? Try living with a lady who kept cows in her upstairs apartment.
posted by kingmissile at 2:22 PM PST - 48 comments

Women's group asks CBS to drop The Masters golf tournament With all the issues facing women today in America, I have a hard time believing that getting a female member into the Augusta National Golf Club will help the cause of women's rights. It now appears that the National Council of Women's Organizations are also going after the employers of club members. Have they never heard of the old saying: "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." Wouldn't fighting for equal pay in the workplace for women do more for the average female than getting female members into Augusta National Country Club?
posted by jasonbondshow at 1:59 PM PST - 61 comments

Accounting scandals aren't the only kind of corporate crime, maybe the Justice Department should talk to this guy.
posted by elwoodwiles at 1:21 PM PST - 7 comments

Self-portraits with an edge. "In a series of extraordinary transformations, this young, Korean-born conceptual artist unfolds a multiplicity of lives and identities documented through the lens of her point-and-shoot camera as she "becomes" a young punk in the East Village, a Connecticut-based exotic dancer, or a senior citizen picking through thrift stores in Murray Hill."

Nikki S Lee takes Cindy Sherman in another direction. Sherman's classic photographs, as their title Film Stills indicates, are static and meticulously set up. But Lee takes her characters to the street, using real people as props and set.

Fluidity of identity? Artist-subject relationship? Comment on sub-cultures? Isn't contmporary art great?
posted by statisticalpurposes at 12:27 PM PST - 24 comments

ICANN disses the the dot. The guy who runs the Internet Multicasting Service teamed up with the guy who runs the Internet Software Consortium and submitted a proposal to mange the .ORG registry. ICANN's conslutants [sic] dumped on the proposal (300KB PDF) claiming it is among the worst proposals from a technical standpoint. Mind you, ISC produces the software that runs the DNS and actually operates root and top-level servers. And ICANN thinks they lack the technical mojo? Wow! Are we all ready to admit that ICANN is completely corrupt and beyond saving? More info here. (via IP)
posted by chipr at 12:03 PM PST - 12 comments

"...padded bras in my size did nothing for my chest but protect it from flying objects." One woman's humorous and touching story of her decision to get breast implants. For the record, I like boobs, but the idea of having pieces of plastic stuck under one's skin creeps me out no end. To implant or not to implant, that is the question....
posted by BGM at 10:51 AM PST - 49 comments

FORD Pulling Plug on Electric Car... Ford Motor Co. on Friday said it was pulling the plug on its Think electric vehicle division due to poor customer demand and lack of government support for the environmentally friendly cars. "The bottom line is we don't believe that this is the future of environmental transport for the mass market."
posted by DailyBread at 10:09 AM PST - 32 comments

Florida to settle 2000 election lawsuit. Major provisions include a promise for massive reforms in voter registration, voter-roll maintenance and polling practices, as part of the lawsuit pushed by the NAACP. Granted, it's good that a large angered group is "getting over it" as many (even on this board) have still been explaining, but should skeptics (read: Democrats) such as myself read the Florida legislature's desire to settle as a sign that they may not have thought they would have won against charges of rigging the election?
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 9:49 AM PST - 11 comments

Codename Marklar: Marklar is maintaining a feature-complete marklar of Marklar running on Marklar as a fall-back marklar in case the Marklar is no longer viable. Maintained since the early days of Marklar, Marklar gains greater relevance in the context of Marklar's inability to deliver higher-frequency Marklars, but is seen as less likely given Marklar's forthcoming 64-bit Marklar-based Marklar. (via Marklar)
posted by mcwetboy at 8:35 AM PST - 23 comments

If you enjoyed the bus company owner's collection of manuscripts, you might also like to check out the Vatican Library exhibit. Loads of extremely clear images of manuscripts with accompanying information.
posted by kate_fairfax at 8:18 AM PST - 1 comments

"Take good care of them. They are my whole life." A young woman painted her life as an autobiographical series of over 1000 gouaches (in 2 years)--image and text, with planned complementing music and songs--and called it Life? or Theater? Charlotte Salomon's life. more inside
posted by amberglow at 7:04 AM PST - 13 comments

Amina Lawal Must Not Face Death by Stoning says UK Amnesty International. Nigerian woman, divorced & single, with 3 kids, to be executed by a Sharia Court for giving birth outside of wedlock. Other pregnant unwed mothers, such as this computer student, are seeking asylum outside of Nigeria to avoid being stoned to death by a Nigerian Sharia Court in accordance with Islamic law principles. Amina's whole convoluted and horrible story is laid out nicely here. Sharia Courts, and their ilk, punish sexual and "moral offenders" through stoning, amputation, crushing the victim with walls, hanging, or even rape.

Meanwhile, in another universe, the Nigerian 419 scam has mutated into Amina Lawal's "barrister" spamming the net with pleas for cash. Instead of that, sign the open letter to the President of Nigeria asking that death by stoning be stopped.
posted by filchyboy at 1:11 AM PST - 14 comments

The Zymoglyphic Museum including the works of Frederik Ruysch. Ruysch made about a dozen tableaux, constructed of human fetal skeletons with backgrounds of other body parts, on allegorical themes of death and the transiency of life.... One fetal skeleton holding a string of pearls in its hand proclaims, "Why should I long for the things of this world?" Another, playing a violin with a bow made of a dried artery, sings, "Ah fate, ah bitter fate."
Ruysch's work was eventually purchased by his student and admirer, Peter the Great.
posted by vacapinta at 9:52 PM PST - 13 comments

Paper of Record provides a hi-res, searchable(!), archive of historical newspapers, generated from microfilm collections. Looks like one for Cory at Wrote['nother couple of similar links there]. Kind of new and largely Canadian at the moment, but worth watching, and subscriptions are cheap. Remember, those are Canadian dollars.
posted by Su at 7:56 PM PST - 3 comments

Ray would stay. Hawai'i actor Ray Bumatai's brain tumor hemorrhaged on stage. He finished the show blind and returned, after surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, to finish the run of the play. Is this taking the old "the show must go on" adage a little too far?
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:46 PM PST - 8 comments

Flocks of sperm turning to the left indicates possible memory. Does this mean every sperm really is sacred?
posted by srboisvert at 6:25 PM PST - 17 comments

SPPLAT Attack!--the largest ever paintball game. Tomorrow hundreds of Federation paintballers will take the field for eight hours of glory against Klingon hordes and Borg legions outside of Chicago (details) led by the inimitable Cap'n James T. Kirk himself! (Onion interview :) "If the weather holds, I will set sail with this 70-pound lawn mower engine on my back, run like hell, float the parasail, gain flying speed and fly into the venue," wow :)
posted by kliuless at 6:22 PM PST - 4 comments

Women Rockin' 4 Women 2002 Festival. THIS IS BIG. Over twenty talented women. Eight female fronted bands. Nine solo female artists. Third annual event. Two sound stages. One venue. One night. Benefitting shelters for victims of domestic violence. More estrogen in one place than you can shake a stick at. You're not busy on September 28th, are ya? Granted, it might be a bit of a commute for some, but... Heaven's gonna touch Earth.
posted by ZachsMind at 4:51 PM PST - 33 comments

The trailer for the new Seinfeld movie is the first I've seen which really takes the piss out of the whole trailer "In a time that land forgot.." sort of thing. I laughed, but I download these things from apple every day and then forget about the actual movies. I just know I'm alone...
posted by Zootoon at 4:50 PM PST - 14 comments

The Twinkies Project: "Tests With Inorganic Noxious Kakes In Extreme Situations." Kids, do try these at home.
posted by brownpau at 3:35 PM PST - 15 comments

A search engine to help you find things you don't know about. gnod stands for The Global Network of Dreams, and is a test of artificial intelligence. Building a database from the user choices, it helps you find books, music and misc. other by having you enter in things that you like, and based on what other people like, it shows you stuff you ought to like, too (which is slightly different from what Amazon does, showing you what other people have bought). Don't know if all the Amazon Associate links detract from it all or not
posted by crunchland at 3:30 PM PST - 25 comments

From The Slow Wheels of Justice [Department] we read that "there have been persistent complaints of excessive force by officers of Prince George's County Police Department, Maryland over many years. Cases of concern include police shootings; deaths in custody from dangerous restraint holds or other force and unresisting suspects mauled by police dogs....In November 2000 the US Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation into the police department to determine whether it engaged in a "pattern and practice" of brutality and racial discrimination....However, after 20 months of investigation, the Justice Department has not yet issued any public findings or recommendations to the police department."
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 3:24 PM PST - 7 comments

Bubble Wrap: The Nation vs. The Weekly Standard "Back in the '60s, the left was the home of humor, iconoclasm, pleasure. But over the last two decades, the joy has gone out of the left -- it now feels hedged in by shibboleths and defeatism -- while the right has been having a gas, be it Lee Atwater grooving to the blues, Rush Limbaugh chortling about Feminazis or grimly gleeful Ann Coulter serving up bile as if it were chocolate mousse"
posted by owillis at 3:04 PM PST - 9 comments

Is Google's use of cookies unnecessarily invasive? Daniel Brandt, described by Salon yesterday as Mr. Anti-Google, says Google "has inadequate justification for planting a cookie that expires in 2038 on every user, and also recording that user's search terms, IP number, and time-date." Brandt is the man behind the NameBase conspiracy database (previously discussed here), and also uncovered the CIA's illegal use of cookies last March. He insists that Google's use of cookies, combined with the Patriot Act, allows U.S. authorities to "do a 'sneak and peek' search of a Google user's hard drive when he isn't home, retrieve a Google cookie id, and then get a keyword search history" specific to the user's computer. Oh yeah, he also thinks PageRank is undemocratic.
posted by mediareport at 2:36 PM PST - 39 comments

Russia to Sign Oil Deal with Iraq. We saw this coming (right?) But is the timing significant?
posted by Shane at 2:36 PM PST - 9 comments

Government favors at Auction Prices. The Bill Simon campaign gets it... they really get it.
posted by mikewas at 2:33 PM PST - 7 comments

PlasticMonkey.com I mean, it is Friday, isn't it?
posted by mikrophon at 2:24 PM PST - 5 comments

Who was Ellen Raskin? Even if you don't recognize the name, you've probably read her Newbery Award-winning YA novel The Westing Game. You might even have her illustrated edition of A Child's Christmas in Wales, which she printed on her own as a sample to show publishers when trying to jump-start a freelance career. She listed some of her influences as "Blake, Conrad, Hawthorne, James, Nabokov, Piero della Francesca, Calude Lorrain, Gaugin, Matisse, Fantasia, baseball, hockey, zoos, medicine, and Spain." [more inside]
posted by redshoes3 at 1:30 PM PST - 13 comments

Essex is the New Jersey of England, but is trying to change the public perception of my beautiful home county. Not all Essex girls are slappers and it's not all industrial wasteland. But why tell the rest of England about our beautiful secrets?
posted by essexjan at 12:16 PM PST - 31 comments

Where's Marlon Brando? Wonder no longer: he's making bad acting videos and is just as nutty as ever. Very interesting and personal Rolling Stone article about one of America's finest (and one of my favorite) actors (I'm talking On the Waterfront and The Godfather here, not that Dr. Moreau crap. Also, there's a companion RealAudio piece from This American Life here, about 3/4 through). He's still every bit the enigma he's been for the past twenty years.
posted by The Michael The at 12:12 PM PST - 12 comments

"Nothing so sharply distinguishes philosophers and Kabbalists as their attitude toward the problem of evil and the demonic." A widely informative study of the historical background and on the mythic passions of the great Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholen by a writer I much enjoy, Cynthia Ozick. (zip up Miguel, my uncle Zen sent this as a contribution to your Sacks)
posted by semmi at 11:21 AM PST - 17 comments

So what if my cool factor drops 10 points cause I'm still curious about Axl Rose who surprised us by performing live on MTV last night. And now I really need to know the real story about that guy replacing Slash who wears a chicken bucket on his head. And could baldness really be the reason behind Axl's madness?
posted by oh posey at 10:44 AM PST - 43 comments

Here I am so elegant ... upside down, I'm quite different.
Just for the "cool!" of them (and not just because it's Friday) - a nice collection of reversible matchbox portraits.
This man patronizes us ... This man wishes he had.
posted by yhbc at 10:06 AM PST - 17 comments

Paracelsus: the mercucial mage. The Fortean Times' David Hambling on one of the 16th's century's most colorful figures. A rabble-rousing non-conformist medical genuis who arguably was centuries ahead of his time, but also an egomaniac, drunk, alchemist and self-described "Prince of Philosophy and Medicine" and "Monarch of all the Arts"
posted by skallas at 9:35 AM PST - 5 comments

"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "Fraud!" But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed. They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain, and they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again. But will there still be joy in Mudville?
posted by Stan Chin at 9:23 AM PST - 13 comments

Three Supreme Court Justices publicy oppose executing teenage criminals. In a rare move, Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Stevens made a public statement in a delay request to state their opposition to executing someone who committed murder before the age of 18. With the Court already banning the execution of the mentally retarded this year, is this another sign of a soon-to-be next step in the abolishment of the death penalty? Or does the average American still believe that regardless of what time, when you do the crime you walk the line?
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 9:05 AM PST - 49 comments

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, You May Be Very Liberal But Are You Gay Or Lesbian Enough? And, if you're a sufficiently gay man (congratulations and all that) what kind exactly are you? And are you convincing enough? Not because it's Friday or anything, but you might as well know before you go out tonight, no?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:47 AM PST - 42 comments

I'm the world champion and you're not. Don't worry though, NOVA members may seem to be high and mighty, but don’t be fooled; each of use is human and have our faults. Want to host a tournament? Better learn how to run one. Maybe you'll want to host one at Paradise Racetrack where the recent addition of split levels and spiral curves has the local racing crowd abuzz with joyful anticipation. Is this a Sports Filter post about auto racing? No, it's an eerie look into the world of a Car Wars chapter. (Ever walk into somewhere that you wish you could run out of, but you just can't stop exploring...)
posted by jonah at 8:14 AM PST - 4 comments

Giant asteroid hurtling toward your planet? Don't know what to do? Don't call Bruce Willis. Just build a giant airbag and nudge the sucker away.
posted by gottabefunky at 7:37 AM PST - 15 comments

Marijuana: Fires' timing could devastate crops, locals say... CAVE JUNCTION -- Flames are consuming a bit more than towering trees and the occasional cabin as two wildfires roar through the Siskiyou National Forest. At least some of the vegetation that has made Southwest Oregon famous -- and long ago took a generation of hippie kids off welfare -- also is going up in smoke. Which leads to the question: "Am I Eligible For Disaster Assistance? How Do I Apply?" Friends, FEMA is there for you.
posted by Mack Twain at 7:28 AM PST - 4 comments

Is anyone going away for labor day weekend? Taking a flight? Check out what your airline may be serving at AirlineMeals.net
posted by KnitWit at 6:33 AM PST - 8 comments

Is this the big one? With some 18,000 sick and over 700 people having died of the flu in a country the size of France over the past couple of months, I find it odd that the media seems obsesessed with the US / Iraq thing and missing children. The 1918 flu epidemic killed some 675,00 Americans alone, with a global tally in excess of 20 MILLION killed. Some of the photos taken back then are pretty grim. It seems the power of influenza is that it (ahhem) mutates and thats why it could once again be a big killer. Cynical as it might sound, as a race maybe we need something like this to teach us that we've got a lot more in common with each other than skin colour and religion might otherwise lead us to believe. ObDisclaimer: I'm unemployed right now, have maybe six months of canned goods in the flat; if this hits London, I ain't opening my door to nobody.
posted by Mutant at 6:29 AM PST - 22 comments

Down with Free Speech? Poll shows American support for the first Amendment down. Would any politician be stupid enough to try to capitalize on this sentiment? Should we all be watching our words?
posted by Hall at 6:24 AM PST - 41 comments

A humorously lowbrow Friday cocktail: mix equal amounts of Lucha Libre with the Sport of Kings. Add a jigger of Rock and Roll, shake vigorously and pour into a frosty mug. Garnish with sweaty, hairy lechery (find yer own link), and you've got Los Diablos Guapos. Bottom's Up!
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:20 AM PST - 8 comments

Scientists ruin mouse's day. Or maybe, "discover the end of all ends"? or something. This story is begging for clever headlines, and I cannot think of any. Too embarassing. But still, the possibilities raised by this study are endless. Oh, there you go, another pun...
posted by costas at 5:56 AM PST - 11 comments

Looking a gift horse in the mouth? Saudi Arabia is considering giving a million-dollar racehorse to the families of the September 11 victims. Patronizing gesture or genuine humanitarianism? Did the Saudi's really pay off al-Qaida to the tune of $200 million to leave them alone? Are we preparing to invade the wrong country?
posted by norm29 at 5:55 AM PST - 16 comments

Sinister cult hijacks Weblogs.com? While working on an application that finds patterns in the data supplied by Weblogs.com, Mo Morgan found some disturbing patterns:

"[...] between midnight and five there had been over 60 pings to Weblogs.com from sites that contained the string "srichinmoy" in their URI."

At first it just looks like some idiot abusing the ping system. Or could this be something altogether more sinister?
posted by dutchbint at 5:25 AM PST - 30 comments

Doctor found guilty of offering kidneys-for-cash... though the case against him sounds a little dodgy. It raises all sorts of questions (not least about supposed organ rationining, something discussed in this link) - what level of evidence should industrial tribunals require for a guilty verdict? How legitimate is the kind of journalism pursued here - is this entrapment? And even if it was, does it matter if the guy does say he can get what's needed?
posted by humuhumu at 2:39 AM PST - 4 comments

Does "Tiktok Easy Shop Big Box" remind anyone else of something from a Phil Dick novel? The deli-size vending machine comes to DC's "raffish" Adams-Morgan neighborhood. Will Your Town Be Next?
posted by adamgreenfield at 11:44 PM PST - 38 comments

Along with water, there's been increased interested in food issues lately. Probably the most controversial issue is genetically modified foods. And it looks like here in Canada, they're not going to be labelled. The day after I read this in the paper, Steve Talbott published an issue of his superb newsletter Netfuture, with this thoughtful essay. [more inside]
posted by slipperywhenwet at 10:56 PM PST - 10 comments

Apple doesn't seem to think the DMCA bites Apple is using their interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to prevent third party dealers from providing software to Apple users enabling them to burn DVDs on external drives. They have no problem with them burning DVDs on Apple drives, naturally. And to think I was just about to switch, too. Um, yeah.
posted by John Smallberries at 7:41 PM PST - 38 comments

Virtual reality schizophrenia. Ever wonder what it may be like to experience madness? Coming soon to DVD.
posted by TskTsk at 7:02 PM PST - 24 comments

You may be incompetent and not even know it. According to Dr. David Dunning of Cornell University, the skills necessary to be competent are the same skills needed to recognize competence in others. You can read the whole report here.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:38 PM PST - 24 comments

If it's this good on my duck, think how good it'll be on my dishes! I saw the commercial and was forced to ask "Is this for real?" (it seems to work on dead ducks). Is it me, or is this the strangest line of logic in consumerism ever seen.
posted by NGnerd at 6:34 PM PST - 14 comments

Nine lives? It seems cats do better when dropped...uh, I mean, fall, more than seven stories. Anything less and they fail to reach terminal velocity and don't land properly. Once the cats reach terminal velocity they spread their legs (think parachute) and slow their fall. A cat has a far better chance of survival falling from 32 stories than four. Dwarfs, however, do not benefit from longer flights.
posted by cedar at 6:22 PM PST - 36 comments

This explains everything! Mystified by the recent flurry of corporate meltdowns? Do you find yourself thinking: "Are those CEOs CRAZY?" Well maybe they are!
posted by BGM at 5:35 PM PST - 14 comments

Evidence since the early 1800s hinted that Welsh prince Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd and a colony of Welsh settlers discovered America in the 10th Century and eventually became assimilated as American Indians. New discoveries using DNA from graves in TN and England could show Madoc was actually a relative of King Aurthur and sailed to America in 562 AD! The historians Wilson and Blackett who have a loyal and cult-like following were also commissioned to produce a detailed genealogy of the Bush family by former President George Bush (senior).
posted by stbalbach at 5:19 PM PST - 25 comments

Alexa's Top 500 Websites - Accurate or not, here is Alexa.com's list of their top 500 ranked websites - globally. This has been touched on both earlier today and back in April. Today's top ten sites iclude two korean sites, one japanese, one chinese, and six us-based sites. Also a more-clear definition of Alexa's Ranking system is here, complete with biases listed (such as IE users only, Alexa Users only, etc).
posted by kokogiak at 4:12 PM PST - 24 comments

Talk about culture clash -- the personal opinions of a U.S. military attache/observer concerning Arab military practices. See also the EgyptAir Flight 990 investigation. Big question: how can we make some progress here? [courtesy aldaily.com]
posted by apollo3000 at 4:11 PM PST - 3 comments

Buy a Mach 5. They are making enough for all of us. Freaking Mach 5s people. Those of you with big bladders can hold out for the Shooting Star. We live in paradise.
posted by thirteen at 3:57 PM PST - 9 comments

Gourmet Magazine had a pretty interesting article (wish it was up on line) about farm-raised salmon v. wild salmon. Farm-raised salmon is scary, especially with regards to disease, waste handling, food (feather meal, blood meal, bone meal and other things that wild salmon do not eat) and an industry which is controlled by a very small number of multinational companies.
posted by plinth at 3:50 PM PST - 23 comments

Tuesday Morning Quarterback moves to ESPN.com's Page 2. Err...moved. In April. (Other weblogs missed the move, too; apparently the only clue was a Best of Slate post.) I've always loved reading TMQ and I hope it's just as good at ESPN.com. Alternative viewpoint: TMQ Sucks. [Cross-pollinated from SportsFilter]
posted by kirkaracha at 3:47 PM PST - 7 comments

Sprawl-induced aberrant driving behavior is a theory proposed by University of Ottawa geography professor Barry Wellar. Suburban roads, built for speed, encourage aggressive driving and bad habits that drivers can sort of get away with in the suburbs, but that carry over to other areas. So that's why it always seems that they're trying to run me off the sidewalk.
posted by mcwetboy at 3:34 PM PST - 11 comments

Ah, that back to school feeling is in the air. More papers to plagerize, more ways to beat that test. With some evidence that cheating is on the rise, and that the Internet makes it much easier, it might be time to review alternate ways of making the grade. All credit to this Mefi member.
posted by Wulfgar! at 2:45 PM PST - 36 comments

There's a new pundit out there named Ann Poultry. Writes for Smirking Chimp. Here's her piece on Why Liberals Suck So Damned Much, and one called Let's Go To War. She's truly brilliant. Enjoy.
posted by NedKoppel at 2:23 PM PST - 16 comments

What is truth, said jesting Tony? You may have already seen 24 Hour Party People, an openly self-serving, dishonest and very enjoyable account of the rise and fall of Manchester's Factory Records and its associated projects, such as the Hacienda. I tried to find more accurate, coherent and comprehensive accounts of the company's history. If you have the cash, you can always ring up Tony for some more mythology.
posted by maudlin at 2:14 PM PST - 27 comments

Michael Rivero, formerly an digital effects worker for Final Fantasy and Coneheads has walked onto the scene and stood out when it comes to the conspiracy genre, with his site WhatReallyHappened.com. He has been claiming that 9/11 was the work of the Israelis and the US government to cause a war for Oil in the Middle East, while also making other comments on the War on Terror.

While he seems to boast that his site's Alexa rating is higher than Newsweek's as affirmation that he is popular, no matter how flawed Alexa may be.

Is this what really happened? or merely the posted viewpoints collected by a person who distrusts the Government?
posted by RobbieFal at 12:59 PM PST - 36 comments

Salman says "miscalculations" Is the US so unpopular.Are they willing and able to do anything about it ??
posted by johnny7 at 12:32 PM PST - 56 comments

One in four employees has a serious Web habit, spending more than one entire workday each week surfing non-work-related Web sites while at their desks.
Is this you? This is me right now. Some days I'm not sure how I still have a job. Does your employer try to control frivolous internet time? Does your boss still peek over your shoulder and find you looking at "pr0n"?
C'mon, 'fess, up, tell us your stories...
posted by Shane at 10:54 AM PST - 103 comments

Apparently I live in the most diverse city in the United States. Synagogue arsons, propane-tank-bomb-plotting and suburban hate crime aside, Sacramento is a pretty neat place, especially since my wife (Korean-American) and I (Jewish) can afford to own a house on our meager incomes and still go out to eat Pho (Vietnamese), Kitfo (Ethiopian), Som Tum (Thai), Kalbi (Korean) all within a short drive. It's not San Francisco, but neither is the cost of living. Do you notice the tension caused by resistance to diversity in your town, or are you too busy eating the sushi to notice?
posted by luriete at 10:53 AM PST - 36 comments

If you've ever flown commercially in the past 16 years, you had to answer two questions about your luggage before receiving your boarding pass. Starting today, they are no longer required since they "never prevented a bombing or hijacking."
posted by jaden at 9:58 AM PST - 20 comments

Best. Wedding Proposal. Ever.
Congrats to mefi'er Fofer for taking the plunge and winning big.

Warning: first link points to a quicktime movie.
posted by neilkod at 9:54 AM PST - 55 comments

On The Road... coming to a theater near you (scroll down in link). Francis Ford Coppola is working on a film adaptation of Kerouac's classic (?), starring Brad Pitt. Genius? Heresy? I can see the Barnes & Noble tie-ins now...
posted by serafinapekkala at 7:48 AM PST - 54 comments

So Now That It's Curtains For SatireWire, What's Left To Humour Us? Should we panic yet? Is the Web as funny ha-ha as it used to be? Thanks to this serendipitous find I was tickled to discover Kurt Luchs has some funny pages of his own. David Jaggard's list is quite conventional and brief (lots of glaring omissions), but it cheered me up. [As did this wonderful H.L. Mencken page, with these refreshingly un-pc aphorisms, if I may just shoe-horn it in here...]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:10 AM PST - 35 comments

Is this so called heighted security? Why are we permitting people to bring on carry on luggage at all? If the airlines are unwilling to put a skymarshal on every flight then they need to arm the pilots. We really need to take much stronger steps in this area than the feeble attempts taken thus far.
posted by Wong Fei-hung at 6:23 AM PST - 61 comments

Neighbour jailed for branding pedophile's genitals. A man attacks his two young nephews and his neighbours find out and burn him with a hot spatula as punishment. The neighbour is then imprisoned. I realise this is vigilante justice and on an intellectual level, it's wrong, but emotionally I'm finding it hard to muster much sympathy for people who attack kids and face a backlash like this. What are your reactions?
posted by Jubey at 6:08 AM PST - 45 comments

One of the Marine Corps' greatest living heroes was dying. A donor liver had been found, but he might not live long enough to get it. Who ya gonna call? Semper Fidelis.
posted by swell at 9:23 PM PST - 56 comments

Beverly Hillbillies, Redux! No... not a new movie, but a reality series under development by the shiny and shimmering Tiffany Network. CBS scouts are scouring for a "rural, rustically telegenic" family to be whisked to a brand new home in Beverly Hills, and have a life of luxury bestowed upon them for a period of a year... cameras following them all the way. Crass exploitation of the poor when the gap between rich and poor gets larger and larger? Fun idea to see what happens when someone's dreams come true? Somewhere in the middle? What do people think?
posted by tittergrrl at 9:17 PM PST - 33 comments

This summer, I took a trip to the Brattleboro region of Vermont. Until I picked up Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness" again this past week, I had not realized that I had just made a trip into Lovecraft Country. [more inside]
posted by ursus_comiter at 8:08 PM PST - 12 comments

Spirit Foam: cheerleading has finally been reduced to a spray can.
posted by mathowie at 7:48 PM PST - 30 comments

Onesixty: The SMS Poetry Magazine. Mobile phone poetry, as Andrew Wilson describes it "Text messages are short, so the subject has to be tackled in a way that will fit into 160 characters. A text message poem has to find one truthful moment and describe it." Write your own with this handy abbreviation guide and intro from the Guardian.
posted by Stan Chin at 4:33 PM PST - 12 comments

Leonard Nimoy's Photography - classic black and white photos - very chic. (Is there anything he DOESN'T do? Besides not eat enough salsa?)
posted by thunder at 3:36 PM PST - 18 comments

Strap on your Zyklon B's. Could help shed the pounds from eating all those Temptations.
posted by robself at 3:02 PM PST - 55 comments

Palestinian comic booted from Jackie Mason's comedy show Ray Hanania, a Palestinian comic in Chicago, was set to open for headlining act Jackie Mason. A few hours before the show, Mason had him booted. "It's not exactly like he's just an Arab-American. This guy's a Palestinian," said Jyll Rosenfeld, Mason's manager. "Jackie does not feel comfortable having a Palestinian open for him." Ouch. (Imagine if the tables were turned: "Ray does not feel comfortable having a Jew open for him") Too bad, really. If there's one thing the I/P conflict needs, it's more humor. Like this Muslim-Jewish Comedy Night.
posted by laz-e-boy at 2:08 PM PST - 68 comments

Some people collect baseball cards. Lots of people collect comics. Others collect stuffed animals, salt and pepper shakers, commemorative plates, ventriloquist figures, bottlecaps, hubcaps, antique radios, farm implements, even chainsaws. Some wealthy folks even collect yachts. What makes a thing collectible? Are the best collectibles sold as "collectibles", or is "collectibility" a cynical marketing gimmick? Of course, Elvis collectibles are a whole sub-culture all by themselves.
posted by mrmanley at 1:02 PM PST - 52 comments

Another threat to the separation of church and state? "[S]ome members of Congress want to turn churches into political action committees. A bill in Congress would amend the tax code to allow churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship to get involved in partisan political campaigns."
posted by Bootcut at 12:59 PM PST - 41 comments

Perhaps the world's largest food fight. 38,000 people gathered in Bunal, Spain to throw tomatoes at each other. They were supplied with 132 tons of ripe, juicy ammunition.
posted by caddis at 12:51 PM PST - 25 comments

Netscape market share at an all time low? Not according to Heise Online, a major news site here in Germany. In their very substantial weblogs, Microsoft went from 66,9% down to 65% from March to August of this year, while Netscape/Mozilla rose from 21,3 % to 22,6 and Opera from 7,8% to 8,4%. (Warning: Link in German, but you will understand the tables at the end of the article easily).
posted by vowe at 12:43 PM PST - 18 comments

What's a couple of hours? Some men fishing made a gruesome discovery - a human head. The men placed it in a garbage bag. Then they kept right on fishing: "We didn't want to come in right away… It'd been out there awhile."
posted by ao4047 at 12:32 PM PST - 40 comments

"I think I'm big enough to play the game" says Australian Parliament member Barry Haase, referring to his "purchase" for a day by brothel owner Mary-Anne Kenworthy (heh heh, she said 'member'). Auctioned to the highest bidder (he fetched $1000Australian) at the local Rotary Club charity auction, Haase will perform such duties as cleaning the brothel in a "frilly apron" and conducting a tour of the premises. Wonder if he'll wear anything besides what the proprietress' called her "tour hat"...
posted by runthegamut at 10:12 AM PST - 7 comments

Who owns our water? An interesting question considering the droughts going on and this lady has some good insight into where things might lead. Should a few large corporations be allowed to control our most important resource?
posted by Dr_Octavius at 10:04 AM PST - 39 comments

According to scientists who study sex we can toss some common misconceptions: there is no battle of the sexes; the Mars and Venus book is misleading; extreme body builders are not sexy; breast size isnt always sexy; men and women cheat equally; the notion of man "spreading his seed" is a cultural invention; thin is not sexy. All thanks to our caveman brain.
posted by stbalbach at 9:19 AM PST - 61 comments

MIT's R&D for the US Army of the future appears to be based on a comic book.
posted by dchase at 9:07 AM PST - 31 comments

Yoga in the classroom? EGADS! That reeks of religious implications, say parents in Aspen, Colorado. "For some families, the chanting that accompanies a selection of yoga techniques creates a challenge for separation of church and state." Aspen Elementary says the pilot program "was proposed as a way to help kids cope with their return to school. Rowdy tots could be calmed and readied for class work after recess using a series of relaxing breathing and stretching techniques."
posted by msacheson at 8:43 AM PST - 66 comments

'Girls Gone Wild' goes to Burning Man. The denizens of Black Rock City get pissed; Voyeur Video tries to save face. "Instead of stopping the sale, Voyeur changed the festival's name on its Web site, the suit alleges, to "Rainbow Fire Festival," but kept the description. ("Rainbow Fire Festival is all running around naked and exposing yourself in front of your peers," the Web site now reads.)" Lord help me, why do I find this all really, really funny?
posted by maura at 7:17 AM PST - 64 comments

The Riaa supports sharing? I don't think so, but they have been cracked, and it is a funny piece of work.
posted by Jevon at 7:11 AM PST - 35 comments

Howard Shore tops list of 30 greatest film scores for Lord of the Rings according to a poll from Classic FM. John Williams predictably enough takes a chunk of the top ten. The site also has audio interviews with Shore and Williams. More about the poll at The Telegraph.
posted by Summer at 4:41 AM PST - 33 comments

Mad Bobby Fischer. Listen to reclusive chess genius Bobby Fischer's September 11 rant on the radio. Extra bonuses on the site include a way to contact Bobby, details of his storage dispute and a copy of his sister's will. This was previously talked about on MeFi but is well worth an actual listen.
posted by meech at 4:12 AM PST - 7 comments

nerdc0re. "0wnz0red", Cory Doctorow's fantastispooky new short story. There's something uniquely thrilling about seeing tech talk in fiction. A refreshing change from the literary equivalent of movie OS.
posted by condour75 at 2:20 AM PST - 26 comments

The Puppet Tool Populate your own animated zoo. Brought to you by lecielestbleu (nicolas clauss, frederic durieu, jean-jacques birge) (more at flyingpuppet)
posted by vacapinta at 1:45 AM PST - 2 comments

Profits 1, human dignity 0. Work at the Jim Beam bourbon plant? Need to go to the bathroom? Too bad. Six unexcused pees and you're fired, says management.
posted by PrinceValium at 9:11 PM PST - 81 comments

Howard Dean Get to know that name because you will likely be hearing it often in the coming months. The Governor of Vermont is currently the only Democratic presidential contender who has officially declared his candidacy. He is gaining press nationally and internationally as a potential breath of fresh air on the American political landscape. An interesting mix of liberal populism and traditional conservative fiscal responsibility, he is known to rub colleges from both sides of the ideological spectrum the wrong way. Regardless of your opinion on his politics, do you think this man have a shot? Do the proverbial square pegs in the Democratic and GOP round holes ever stand a chance? Will the Bush and Gore juggernauts forever push differing ideas into the realm of third parties or is there room for descent from within?
posted by EmoChild at 8:27 PM PST - 41 comments

Is Dave Sim going mad? Speculation has been running rampant in the Interweb comic book community that Dave Sim, writer and artist of Cerebus, arguably one of the greatest comic book series of all time, has lost his mind. Granted, many of Sim's essays have been misogynist, and he has publicly challenged Bone creator Jeff Smith to a fist fight for a somewhat trivial slight, but that is hardly evidence of insanity. Has he crossed the line from extremist to madman? Is his writing a Swiftian satire or, as one critic called it, the Mein Kampf of misogyny?
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:27 PM PST - 39 comments

Did you know "88" means "Heil Hitler"? Neither did a buyer at Target. "August 27, 2002 -- Target, the nationwide department-store chain, said today it will pull shorts and baseball caps emblazoned with neo-Nazi hate symbols from its shelves." After dithering for a few weeks, Target responded to tolerance.org's campaign, but is now shooting themselves in the foot again by being less than accomodating of returns of the offending (and I do mean offending!) product. The link above is to the original story, the Aug. 27 update is linked at the bottom of that page. Howcum I never saw this on CNN? 8
posted by BGM at 7:15 PM PST - 104 comments

FuckedCompany knocked offline for two days due to headlines that sounded like Ford's advertising slogans. While FC is no stranger to cease and desist orders, Ford threatened the web host directly, who ended up pulling the plug. Was Ford in the right, or did they overstep their bounds? Personally, it sounds a lot like suing a newspaper when a headline plays on your advertising.
posted by mathowie at 5:00 PM PST - 30 comments

Like Tintin, Asterix, or even the Smurfs? Step right this way, to the dark, spooky side of French cartooning. Jacques Tardi, relatively obscure in this country, brings you many lovely lonely images of cityscapes and small horrors, mostly within the amazing stories of Adele Blanc-Sec, writer and adventurer. At least one of his books is still in print in English, and most can be ordered from overseas, and are well worth it.
posted by interrobang at 4:22 PM PST - 23 comments

The book, Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge by Alan M. Dershowitz, (the one who accused five justices of the Supreme Court of outright corruption in siding with Bush in Bush v. Gore) is reviewed by his old nemesis Judge Richard A. Posner, known best for his Cost-benefit analysis in legal issues. It's your call.
posted by semmi at 3:13 PM PST - 7 comments

More good mp3 news. Thomson Multimedia is now requiring patent payments for MP3 decoders as well as encoders.
posted by alan at 2:56 PM PST - 23 comments

PlayStation 2 launches online service - Hard-core gamers looking for new challengers will now have an Internet full of them. Sony on Tuesday released adapters that make PlayStation 2 the first console player to go online. Playstation 2 players who purchase the $39.99 connector can link to Sony's network through a number of new games, including the military shoot-em-up "SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs" and the football simulator "Madden NFL 2003."
posted by DailyBread at 2:23 PM PST - 24 comments

Betamax RIP? And I barely even knew you.
posted by Rattmouth at 1:47 PM PST - 27 comments

Interesting article about ways in which telecom companies can take what they have and make it more profitable as opposed to pie in the sky broadband/lifestyle schemes. Some cool ideas.
posted by zeoslap at 1:44 PM PST - 7 comments

Civic Responsibility at its Finest: If your city contained dozens of stylish and beautiful fiberglass statues of moose that were repeatedly being vandalized, what would you do?
posted by 314/ at 12:57 PM PST - 23 comments

Wild goose chase - "British wildlife experts are mourning the loss of Kerry the goose after tracking him by satellite all the way from Ireland to an Eskimo's kitchen in Arctic Canada." No, seriously.
posted by paladin at 12:55 PM PST - 10 comments

A robot called Pyramid Rover will explore two 8 inch wide mysterious passages in the Great Pyramid at Giza. A previous robot exploration by the Upuaut Project found the passage blocked by a slab with copper fittings which looked suspiciously like a door. The Pyramid Rove will carry ground penetrating radar and fiber optic cameras to explore what lies beyond the "door."
posted by caddis at 12:35 PM PST - 21 comments

Man missing since 9/11 found. Missing for almost an entire year, give or take... well, actually take exactly 14 days... a 46-year-old schizophrenic amnesiac is found to have been resting in a hospital since the day he went missing in the general area of the World Trade Center. No one knows where he went, why he was there, and how he ended up in a hospital. Strangely, the mans' family's faith was so strong in his survival that they refused for an entire year to collect 9/11 compensation, or for that matter even obtain a death certificate. Umm.... wow?
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 12:32 PM PST - 14 comments

The Bush administration announces the slogan for the campaign to combat adolescent obesity: "Verb: It's what you do." I am totally confused. The website suggests I make a paper airplane (PDF) to get started on burning off those fat rolls. (via Slate)
posted by ao4047 at 12:27 PM PST - 40 comments

SatireWire is closing up shop. Andrew Marlatt, the multi-trick pony behind the site, is citing "creative differences" with himself and is opting to walk away from one of the better-known bastions of Web humor, as well as one of those rare free content sites that, according to Marlatt, is profitable:

The site actually makes money — through advertising, through the book "Economy of Errors," and (primarily) through selling pieces from the site to publications like, say, the Washington Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, or the National Post in Canada. Nice little setup, actually. I've been very lucky. But the bottom line is, it has ceased to be fun. My heart is not in it. My head is not in it.

But just because Marlatt has chosen a different route to the dead pool that those sites that gave up the ghost because they were broke doesn't make this story much more discussion-worthy than any other croaked dotcom. In proper obit style, let's instead remember the great stuff we got from the site; if you've never been, you'll find all sorts of treasures.
posted by blueshammer at 11:43 AM PST - 15 comments

"... virtually unique in their ability to attain dry stickiness." geckos are talented little buggers, that's for certain. effective pitchmen, as well. but what about those toes? just how does a gecko manage to shimmy up the slippery side of your aquarium with the greatest of ease? well, according to researchers at lewis and clark university, it all comes down to hair....
posted by grabbingsand at 11:25 AM PST - 12 comments

Here Comes The Rain Again Virginia Gov. Mark Warner has decided to prove that he's a tough-on-acts-of-god kind of governor. He's no wimp when it comes to weather, our governor. Nosireebob. He's gonna show that weather who's boss! He's appointed a drought czar. "Drought czar?" What's next? An education czar? A jaywalking czar? A stop-breathing-through-your-nose-on-the-elevator-please-goddammit czar? Talk about your linguistic inflation.
posted by NedKoppel at 11:11 AM PST - 19 comments

Remember the Beast? Will there be something like it again? Did you have a crush on Laia, suddenly discover a use for your knowledge of lute tablature, or vote for the Mann act? This is basically an excuse to indulge in nostalgia (how many MeFites were Cloudmakers?), but it'd be interesting to see if anyone is still interested in fan-based interactive fiction gaming, or if it was basically a one-shot movie promotion that could only be supported by the resources of a big company. Is "the AI route" a dead end? What is the line between a movie-supported online game and inspired Web marketing? -- Or hell, just tell some Red King stories.
posted by redshoes3 at 9:20 AM PST - 15 comments

Illusionist Criss Angel emerges from his 24-hour sojourn in a Chinese water torture cabinet in NYC's Times Square. Should an endurance contest really be considered magic? Where are you, David Copperfield?
posted by dr_dank at 9:00 AM PST - 18 comments

Please Mr. Postman look and see
Is there a letter in your bag for me
I been waiting a long long time
For me to hear from that nameless pal of mine.
posted by pedantic at 7:41 AM PST - 15 comments

New Bog Snorkeling World Champion Crowned
People have such odd hobbies and collections.
I'm not talking about things like CrossStiching, or Air Guitar, or Naming Your Pens, but really strange ones.
Air Sickness Bags are art to some, so are Wal-Mart Purchase Receipts, and Nobs, always fun at parties there's collecting navel fluff, I'm not Sure What To Call This, there's Squirrel Fishing , collecting Odd Rod Cards, heck, Books Have Been Written, even The USAToday collects them.
I dunno, is Mefi a strange hobby?
posted by Blake at 7:36 AM PST - 14 comments

Thai company employs Spider-man to deliver cooking gas. Marvel sez: "use monkey suits because monkeys don't have intellectual property rights." 'Nuff Said?
posted by mikrophon at 7:28 AM PST - 12 comments

55,000 angry emails, all because someone decided to forge an email from "pro-palestinian agitator" Francis Boyle. The best part? "the FBI didn't find anything illegal". The guy "spent nearly four days sifting through the messages, writing personal apologies to the offended".

It really is too easy...
posted by mrgavins at 7:24 AM PST - 8 comments

"I don't care what anyone but a court of law thinks," says Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker "Until a court says otherwise, if I say it's constitutional, it's constitutional." Sure, we've talked before about how Delaware is a cesspool of evil, but that was before it was reported that the cops in Wilmington were compiling a database of future suspects, before crimes were actually comitted.
posted by ph00dz at 6:35 AM PST - 78 comments

Australian government refuses to recognize Jedi as an official religion, despite the fact that 70,000 people listed it on their census forms.
posted by swift at 6:30 AM PST - 33 comments

Is Current Israeli Policy Incompatible With Judaism? Jonathan Sacks, Britain's Chief Rabbi and arguably the outstanding Jewish intellectual of his generation, has apparently broken away from the established stance of Orthodox Judaism and made public a series of worries and reservations that rabbis have been making privately ever since Sharon took power. It's not so much politics (though everything is) that is at stake but the dissonance between the highly peaceful (indeed anti-military) and human character of Judaism and the hard, secular realism of present-day Israeli politics. Are they becoming irreconcilable? Were they always so?[Jonathan Freedland, who interviewed Professor Sacks, had this to say about the bigger picture.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:58 AM PST - 103 comments

All you need is three chords and a guitar? Zac 'Mr. Magnet' Monro didn't even have an instrument when he won the 7th Annual Air Guitar World Championships (video) in Oulu, Finland. And it's two years in a row for him.
posted by mathowie at 9:10 PM PST - 15 comments

Lobsters, caviar and brandy for MPs at summit on starvation. Is this really a scandal? Or typical tabloid pabulum? Yes, it is hypocritical, but is it worse than rich people who don't claim to give a damn about the poor eating caviar and swilling champagne? Matt thinks it's "sick".
posted by goethean at 8:00 PM PST - 27 comments

Welcome to "Hawk Tawk" , with your host, Dick Cheney. The Vice President spoke to members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Tennessee today, and unequivocally stated that the United States must preemptively strike Iraq, since there is "no doubt" Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and plans on using them against the US and its allies (excerpt of speech here). In other news, Qatar, a proposed launching off point by US forces, announced its opposition to any attacks on Iraq. In addition, National Reservists will continue to be on active duty for another year, the first time that has happened since Vietnam, and the US Army has been gearing up for new action. What's that Chinese proverb about living in interesting times? (And I know people are sick of Iraq talk, but these are fairly significant events)
posted by tittergrrl at 7:48 PM PST - 111 comments

Topato would never ask his lesbian fans not to kiss. And thanks to his becoming real through the magic of Jenny's Sculpey, we can actually ask him. Any MeFi kids ever play with Sculpey or were you strictly Play Dough toddlers?
posted by clango at 6:34 PM PST - 13 comments

Texas singer asks lesbian fans to not show affection at her shows A budding folk-rocker who also happens to be a high school PE teacher has created a stir with an Aug. 12 email to her fans. "I have had several complaints from bar owners, friends, fans, and potential fans regarding the outwardly show of affection that has taken place at my shows," writes Michelle Mayfield. "This type of behavior, right or wrong, reflects on me as the artist who has brought you to that club...Please be respectful of the places where I am performing by being aware of the actions that can possibly turn potential fans away from my music or from my future shows." The resulting flap, and Mayfield's apology, is made more interesting by questions about Mayfield's own sexual preference, which she called "no one's business in the first place."
posted by mediareport at 5:52 PM PST - 107 comments

Target Iraq - Global Security.org - One stop war / anti-war portal.
Military options, pros and cons of attack, anti-war sites, government, diplomatic, NGO links, military policy, breaking news, military targets, Iraq weather.
posted by sheauga at 5:04 PM PST - 7 comments

The Happy Tree Friends are cute and well intentioned, but clumsily violent. If you prefer cartoons of a less morbid nature, then there might be a mondo mini show for you, like the more NewsFilter friendly This Modern World.
posted by mkn at 3:20 PM PST - 11 comments

What is going on at the New York Times?
More than 100 years ago, the New York Times, under owner Adolph Ochs, adopted the slogan: "All the news that's fit to print". But, critics are now asking if the New York Times only prints news it considers ideologically fit. What has been happening at the Times is far more ominous than just veering to the support of one party or one ideology. There is a type of liberalism, pioneered in America, which tries to be fairer than fair. But trying to be better than fair is like trying to bend over backwards to be straighter than vertical or defining "objective" as being neutral between good and evil. That path leads straight to moral equivalence. Perhaps the slogan should be re-written: "All the Newspeak fit to print".
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 2:22 PM PST - 39 comments

Ann Coulter Explained For the benefit of members of the Left who just don't seem to get it, I offer a link to a short but pithy analysis of Miss Coulter's appeal.
posted by BGM at 1:32 PM PST - 57 comments

The other day a woman on the radio was promoting a charity walk for some disease and stated "every 9 minutes someone dies from this disease. That's a World Trade Center disaster every month" Considering myself on the cutting edge of units of measurement, I thought, have I lost that edge? I guess I Have.
posted by mss at 1:28 PM PST - 21 comments

AIM screen name 'satan' going for $15k in an apparent bidding war that abandoned all sense of reality. Still three days left, let's see if they can break $50k? The dark lord could not be reached for comment, though jesusrox232 called it "ridiculous."
posted by mathowie at 1:26 PM PST - 29 comments

N'SYNC -- in SPAAAAAAACE! (Personally, I'm glad they're sending one of the ugly ones.)
posted by tweebiscuit at 12:24 PM PST - 21 comments

Burp, Ffffft, Flick ... Survey Shows How Gross We Are Nosepicking, burping and passing wind in public are rife among the population, according to a survey which questioned 6,000 people about their personal habits (from The Scotsman)
posted by scotty at 11:53 AM PST - 19 comments

Easly High, home of the Scarlet Letters. Students violating the dress code of the South Carolina high school will now be forced to change into t-shirts bearing the phrases "Dress for Success" on the front and "Today I did not meet the dress code policy for proper attire" on the back. Boy, it's a good thing they're putting them on teenagers, because they would never think of creative ways to violate this idea in... what, about thirty seconds? Discuss your ideas for the new fashion trend: custom punishment signs!
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 11:43 AM PST - 34 comments

"In the war on terrorism, alliances are not an obstacle to victory. They're the key to it." General Wesley Clark on the lessons of Kosovo and why diplomacy and international cooperation are essential to winning the war on terrorism.
posted by homunculus at 11:21 AM PST - 17 comments

Fighting back: Spammers want e-mail addresses. Give them e-mail addresses. Tons of e-mail addresses. This handy PHP script will add as many fake e-mail addresses to your web site as you want. 20 is the default, with command and space delimited, just like this:

lebsda@fihnekyjvbj.de, tzckk@zcwgituizwjgy.eu, lzteth@gvxmzqphddvhsd.de, wspvnmpitk@adlruenmiupuglcqn.nl, toulr@cttzrgrb.it, gxgb@yqkeermxyxxozvfws.dk, ucldeo@lwytvqqq.nl, brddshal@qmyhquiqtbaeggpx.com, ovu@zzxlbismicnqsuiubkfl.de, txxewr@ogpzcomgrhkd.br, goluv@twcnkfeghsh.com, tfexbuous@heev.ar, zjgeaztzvm@rvonhfrd.de, nhsgikjvjb@stncbqtnyyclaflm.jp, svgfdh@zeynvdd.nl, hxqios@yrdlshpyscndoslt.de, fxglj@sfkdxgyadbqk.ca, mtskzv@carbd.de, pigm@vnkcalneewdulz.com, nqnjwldpfk@ecifc.edu

And each call to the web site will give the spam harvester 20 spanking new addresses. (Web site is german, but the script is in english)
posted by vowe at 11:11 AM PST - 59 comments

The son of a rock god interviews a rock genius... (Scroll down to "Audio") Sean Lennon's 48-minute interview with Brian Wilson covers all aspects of music, from the genesis of a great song, to the competition between artists in the late 1960's. (The interview is in four parts, in RealAudio format.)
posted by greengrl at 10:33 AM PST - 15 comments

Isaac Asimov to blame for "al-Qaida"?
posted by rushmc at 9:16 AM PST - 28 comments

Luxury carmaker achieves relevance with "the kids" by use of Led Zep in ad. Although the article touches on Chevy's decade-long affiliation with Bob Seger, it curiously neglects to mention that Chevy ad with the Mary Chain song, or even the Volkswagen soundtrack album. Did you ever hear a favorite song in an ad or as the theme to a TV show and think "how'd THAT happen?"
posted by britain at 8:51 AM PST - 95 comments

Administration Says It Can Attack Iraq without Congressional Approval Not a new story, per se, but this Post article lays out pretty well the arguments behind the administration's case, one being simply Bush's role as commander-in-chief. It's strange how closely this issue reflects earlier attempts by the administration to avoid Congressional and/or public scrutiny (Cheney's Enron meetings, for example). Why this aversion, and why fight so hard? And I have a sneaking fear that Bush will seek Congressional approval only after invading, and he will bully votes by claiming that reps have a patriotic duty to support a president in a time of war.
posted by risenc at 7:16 AM PST - 65 comments

Osama the CIA Agent , he may not the first in the long line of alleged celebrity CIA agents. What about other supposed agents like Timothy Leary, Yakov Smirnoff, Benjamin Netanyahu, everybody in the media or even a kitty?

I guess, we're all CIA agents in somebody's eyes.
posted by RobbieFal at 5:00 AM PST - 15 comments

"Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. (Damaged Word). There is GOOD out there.We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING (BELL SOUND) --- According to this letter sent to Earthfiles.com this is the translation from ASCII 8 bit encoding, reading out from the center of the spiral of this crop circle. Is anyone out there geek enough to confirm this translation? I love the quirky use of CAPS. Here's the whole "glyph."
posted by gametone at 4:52 AM PST - 32 comments

Well, they've been found. The remains of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis, the highly-publicized first victims of the "summer of child kidnappings," have been found at the [former] home of the FBI's main "subject of interest."

Damn, damn, damn.
posted by wdpeck at 10:51 PM PST - 102 comments

Ralph Gibson's Interchange allows us to create pairs of his dark, lyrical photographs by selecting them from two different stacks. The results are starkly beautiful yet surprisingly coherent. Gibson is often criticized as cold, brainy and aestheticizing, but fans like me love his photography all the more for it. His website isn't nearly as smooth and collected, but it contains a generous helping of recent work. The ex libris and l'histoire de france series are also outstanding: rich and luscious surfaces and fetishes, obsessively stared at and almost erotically immobilized. The gotham chronicles photographs look like a new departure, if perhaps just a tad too recherché.[Those who'd prefer to navigate the site from scratch should go straight to the front page, of course.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:51 PM PST - 15 comments

The Right Way to Change a Regime....By James Baker III Oh no, I'm starting to think that James Baker is making some sense.
posted by bas67 at 8:19 PM PST - 44 comments

Martians may resemble the Spanish. Scientists are studying a red river in Spain which flows through a deposit of pyrite, "has a pH similar to that of automobile battery acid and contains virtually no oxygen in its lower depths" to get an idea of what Martian microbes might be like. The critters found in the Rio Tinto are extremophiles, little microscopic buggers that can live miles underground, or in water 170 degree Celsius under deep-sea hydrothermal vents. (No word yet on whether there's a Portuguese connection.)
[via Red Rock Eater]
posted by slipperywhenwet at 7:03 PM PST - 5 comments

Perp Nation? By the end of 2001, according to a government report, one in every 32 adults in the United States was in jail, on probation or on parole. That works out to 470 out of every 100,000 U.S. residents behind bars, including disproportionate numbers of minorities (scroll down) and over 4.7 million adults on probation or parole. Texas leads the way.
posted by gottabefunky at 6:16 PM PST - 38 comments

Well it is Sunday afterall. The bible in sms. @:-) 3
posted by ginz at 1:27 PM PST - 4 comments

Why should Christianity have the corner market on religious imagery in food and vegetation? God sends his message to all. [via Fark, last link takes a minute. First post, hope it's okay]
posted by oflinkey at 10:35 AM PST - 23 comments

A 63-year old Norwegian bus company owner has amassed one of the worlds largest collections of ancient manuscripts valued at over 110 million dollars. His story, how the collection is used and his plans for the sale proceeds are all first-class and an inspiration to private collectors of antiquities.
posted by stbalbach at 8:24 AM PST - 15 comments

A Lost Tribe in the Land of Broken Promises. Fifty years ago, a group of Oklahoma migrants settled in the Tulare Lake Basin region of California, and many still live there in conditions of unspeakable poverty. (LA Times, first in a series.)