September 2001 Archives

The corruption of Everything -- For quite a while now I have been happily reading and enjoying the entries in Everything2 As Metafilter has seen a number of references to user contributed guides I thought it might be a good time to discuss a common phenomenon that seems to be now finding it's way into Everything... more in the thread ->
posted by soulhuntre at 7:19 PM PST - 16 comments

Anyone else remember Wired's theory of The Long Boom from 1997? I guess they were wrong.
posted by endquote at 6:57 PM PST - 20 comments

Remember Zork, Planetfall, and the other creations of late game company Infocom? Well, "interactive fiction," as the format is called, is still alive and well. Every year the IF community -- which is known for releasing work of quality far surpassing even Infocom's masterpieces -- holds a competition for short works, and this year's contestants have been released! Read this post's comments for more info...
posted by tweebiscuit at 6:56 PM PST - 13 comments

Contentville goes Splitsville. Steven Brill's online newsstand -- originally funded with $130 million from CBS, NBC and Primedia in February 2000 -- closed their doors today. In a memo to his staff, Brill wrote, "My idea for Contentville just didn't work." I'm guessing that heavy competition from other online retailers and an abundance of freely available online content did them in.
posted by waxpancake at 6:29 PM PST - 9 comments

De La Guarda (Flash-only, navigate through to 'Shows' section) This Argentinian collective mixes dance, music, climbing and circus skills in their show 'Villa Villa', which has played in London, Las Vegas and (currently) in New York. They've managed to sum up the whole tribal, visceral experience (think rave rather than Cirque de Soleil) via this site's interactive elements.
posted by skylar at 3:18 PM PST - 7 comments

The next step in paperless offices? "Augmented Surfaces" is a research project at Sony. They've developed continuous workspaces that use wall and table surfaces as an extension of the computer desktop. Amazing stuff, though I can't think of a use for it besides exchanging info during meetings.
posted by mathowie at 1:47 PM PST - 19 comments

W3C and Fee-based Standards for the Web The last call review period is over today. If you have an opinion that needs to be heard by the W3C, get it to them now. At last check, they had received 396 comments. What's your take on the proposed policy change? Will the W3C survive?
posted by bragadocchio at 12:42 PM PST - 1 comments

Headache and hiccup remedies form Health 911. Do you have a remedy? Got a new one at work last night..
posted by bjgeiger at 12:20 PM PST - 11 comments

An FSU coed wandered around topless at Mardi Gras, and was videotaped without her knowledge. She was included in a commercial tape called "Girls Gone Wild" and is now suing. Do you think she has a case?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:33 AM PST - 69 comments

Track Records Don't Count in a Town that Likes Pretty Faces --Comment #: 427 In a thread from Defense In The National Interest’s Fourth Generation Warfare page Also interesting is the Federation of American Scientists ' Intelligence Resource Program , where there's a long list of Para-State Entities
posted by y2karl at 11:00 AM PST - 6 comments

80's plan to lock up Arab Americans. I thought that all of that crap stopped after WWII.
posted by Atom Heart Mother at 10:08 AM PST - 16 comments

This is definately a fine cocktail. Although not one that I would drink.
posted by Wet Wednesday at 9:53 AM PST - 17 comments

Kansas state senator decries women's suffrage in a shocking speech given at a League of Women Voters luncheon. "We have a society that does tear families apart," Sen. Kay O'Connor said. "I think the 19th Amendment, while it's not an evil in and of itself, is a symptom of something I don't approve of."
posted by MegoSteve at 9:11 AM PST - 46 comments

Justice O'Connor foresees cutbacks in personal liberties. Sandra Day O'Connor, during remarks given at the groundbreaking ceremonies for a Law School Building at NYU, cautions Americans that we may face restrictions in our personal freedoms. No real specifics in the remarks, but intriguing in that she would be among those having the final say as to the constitutionality of any laws that arise out of the "War on Terrorism". She poses some interesting questions in her remarks. And she is considered to be one of the moderate Justices.
posted by MAYORBOB at 8:19 AM PST - 13 comments

Top tunes. Get down and boogie with your Mullah.
posted by Wet Wednesday at 8:12 AM PST - 5 comments

Defense of Freedom Medal: Civilians on government business who were injured or died in the course of 9/11 to be awarded a new Defense of Freedom medal. Interesting, but this will mean little for the thousands of civilians who were in private employment. Link via the online version of Stars and Stripes.
posted by DBAPaul at 8:01 AM PST - 4 comments

Crackpot Sunday Brunch: Would You Like a Canadian Club to Go With That Bloody Mary, Sir? No, not from The Onion. Much better. A real-life, in-all-sincerity, 100% Canadian solution to all the U.S.'s current problems. (More inside)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:08 AM PST - 65 comments

From the essay by Ziauddin Sardar: Scroll 2/3 of the way down--it's from I.S.I.S. The Institute For Islamic Secularization A Call for Caution and Prudence * We need free inquiry of the religious premises of the growing conflagration. * We need rational debate of the questionable premises of a "holy war" or jihad. * We need a rational debate of the biblical call for retribution. * We call upon the United States not to act unilaterally and to petition the United Nations to establish a peace-keeping force. * All terrorists when apprehended should be brought to the World Court at the Hague and put on trial. * The basic constitutional civil liberties of America should not be abrogated. --Perhaps we're all best off with the godless making the rules?
posted by y2karl at 12:03 AM PST - 8 comments

Taliban leader's ex-bodyguard says "We laughed when we heard the Americans asking Mullah Omar to hand over Osama bin Laden," he said. "The Americans are crazy. It is Osama bin Laden who can hand over Mullah Omar - not the other way round." Take a look at this insider's personal account of the Taliban that some are so eager to apologize for in the name of cultural relativism.
posted by rushmc at 6:17 PM PST - 27 comments

Stop having sex. Swaziland's King has ordered the women in his 25% AIDS infected country to stop having sex. Good idea or will this just encourage the even more riskier homosexual sex among frustrated males?
posted by skallas at 5:45 PM PST - 33 comments

Robert Johnson is the first black billionaire, and ranks #172 on the list of richest Americans after he sold BET to Viacom. Does he have a social responsibilty to show more than T&A and comedy on BET, or is he being unfairly singled out?
posted by owillis at 1:10 PM PST - 32 comments

Wikipedia is a free on-line encyclopedia that allows users to write entries about nearly any topic. MSNBC's take on it can be found here.
posted by ttrendel at 12:58 PM PST - 8 comments

Real's Last Hoorah? A beta version of their next-generation player, "RealOne", is now available to download: it's pretty, and does all the media library/ripper/encoder things we're now accustomed to seeing. But the with Microsoft aggressively marketing Windows Media Player as part of XP, with much the same features, is Real set to go the way of Netscape, or will its streaming format keep it in business?
posted by holgate at 12:51 PM PST - 37 comments

You Gotta Love Those New York Firemen Or "How Cartman's Fireman Suddenly Took On A Whole New Meaning". Just to show there is always an upside to everything, it seems some Manhattan girls are doing their bit for their country and enjoying themselves into the bargain. Hey, is this the spirit or what?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:42 PM PST - 27 comments

Did the earth move for you? Encouraging to see good things coming from bad. Suddenly bickering with a partner doesn't seem so clever. Hugging and - yes - sex might just be the right response. Relationships stronger after 9.11? How's yours?
posted by grahamwell at 12:06 PM PST - 16 comments

Speaking of famous people and religion, Jet Li talks about religion, and his views on them.

"...upon closer inspection, the underlying heart and central principle in every religion is the same. Every religion boils down to love, to a respect for all living things, to choosing peace over violence as a means of resolving a conflict."

posted by jcterminal at 11:36 AM PST - 13 comments

Yusuf Islam (the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens) is donating a hefty chunk of the royalties from his forthcoming US 4-CD Box Set (spanning 1965-1997 and due out 30 Oct 01) to the September 11th Fund, with the remainder going to homeless charities in underdeveloped countries. He's issued two statements on the WTC tragedy; a brief initial comment from September 12th and a more considered message on September 18th. (more inside)
posted by RavinDave at 11:28 AM PST - 8 comments

Terrorists should be tried in front of military tribunals instead in civilian courts in front of juries.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:26 AM PST - 19 comments

After al-Qaeda? Since the "battle against terrorism will be fought worldwide", is it going to target, among others, the groups in Northern Ireland, ETA, Kach and Kahane Chai(!)? Also, it's notable there has been no mention of the long history of financing and arms for the IRA and such that emanates from the US.
posted by mmarcos at 10:21 AM PST - 10 comments

Full-Text Of Terrorist's "Last Night" Document. The document found among Mohammed Atta's effects, and also among the wreckage.
posted by tpoh.org at 9:26 AM PST - 12 comments

Food For Thought? A beautifully-done site that's both a catalogue and compendium of information on plants with legendary powers. (Mandrake root, anyone?) But is this kind of ethnobotany a useful discipline? Should we be cultivating exotic species just for their trippiness?
posted by holgate at 8:06 AM PST - 17 comments

Considering marriage? Now, with the RPG You Stupid Bitch! you can experience the bliss of marriage (or, as the author of the game puts it, "the struggles between two manipulative vipers") with only your imagination and some old D&D dice. In a more literary mood? Try the Wuthering Heights RPG. [Original link via Portal of Evil.]
posted by arco at 7:00 AM PST - 1 comments

"Hout! Such a mean contrary beast!" Auchh! Who's in the mewd for some good Scottish folk tales, laddies and lasses? Deep in the Highlands, in a bitty crofter's cottage, there lived a wee wee mannie, his kind auld mither and their Big, big coo... (More from The Royal Stuarts.)
posted by brownpau at 6:32 AM PST - 2 comments

Stop motion animation using LEGO bricks. "Some of these movies will be quick childish animations, some will be well thought out, lovingly crafted works of intelligence and creativity."
posted by tranquileye at 5:16 AM PST - 5 comments

21st Century Warfare I've been waiting for the new issue of G2mil The Magazine of Future Warfare to be posted to get Carlton Meyers' line on all things post September 11th and it's an all-you-can-eat buffet chock full o'links from a former Marine Corps officer--an anti-imperialist, anti-military/industrialist contrarian extraordinaire. Check out the special war supplement and assess the military options in Afghanistan before you launch into a by jingo paean to what he refers to as Tom Clancy fantasies about the Rangers. Do some extensive research in the magazine's back issues to read articles like Demobilize The US Army, 21st Century Battleships - the U.S. Navy's greatest need, why China can't invade Taiwan--not to mention the $$$ saving concepts like the B-747 bomber...& his line on National Missile Defense? The irony is that, if a workable NMD system is ever fielded, it only guarantees that a better method of delivery would be used, like a civilian airplane, ship, or truck. Tons of drugs are smuggled into the USA each year, can NMD stop that dangerous cargo? Almost two million people illegally cross America's borders each year with un-inspected luggage, can NMD stop them? Why spend billions of dollars each year on NMD while ignoring the real dangers? That was from July...
posted by y2karl at 12:41 AM PST - 16 comments

Find A Grave is a searchable database of 2.8 million grave records. Many records include photos, especially the famous graves. They include the good, the bad, and the ugly. The award for most famous graves in one photo might be this one.
posted by stevis at 12:19 AM PST - 13 comments

MSNBC reporting 5 Americans arrested in Afghanistan near Iran border and that they are part of a special ops team.
posted by slowlightning at 12:16 AM PST - 2 comments

Praystation 3 - The latest from Joshua Davis I'm sure many of you are familiar with praystation.com and its stunning use of flash and/or imagery. Check out his new release.
posted by wklang at 11:05 PM PST - 26 comments

My Mom just got back from the Ionesco festival in New York. It sounds cool - it's usually hard to find stagings of even Ionesco's most famous plays, but these people seem to be doing everything.
posted by crunchburger at 9:29 PM PST - 2 comments

Oysterhead is Primus bassist Les Claypool, Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, and Police drummer Stewart Copeland. Having listened to sample cuts from their forthcoming debut album, all I can say is: omigod! What would be your musical dream team?
posted by scottandrew at 5:57 PM PST - 55 comments

You know Jakob Nielsen's old saying "users don't scroll?" Maybe it's because you'd be violating his patent if you did. You got mail? Nope, that's also Jakob's patent. When was the last time this site updated? Again, don't ask or you could owe Jakob. Did I misspell anything in this post? Don't hit the spellcheck button, or it's violation time again. And that's just the tip of the scary patent iceberg. Is it a good idea for Jakob to have all these patents on basic internet application functions?
posted by mathowie at 4:46 PM PST - 23 comments

Never post another Onion link again! Because now you can be certain we've all seen it, and others like it. Gagpipe is a satire and humor headline aggregator. Includes American, British, Australian, Canadian and French sites. Link stolen from Need To Know.
posted by Mo Nickels at 12:54 PM PST - 11 comments

Interested in taming your man? Upon first review of the advice given, I was guffawing, and thinking man what kind of milksop would this be effective on. After thinking some more about it, I started to wonder if I would be affected by it. I mean would my Pavlovian response to sex, in effect, allow my wife to train me, and would I mind?
posted by patrickje at 12:35 PM PST - 11 comments

Sometime during the 19th century, a fat woman died and her body changed almost entirely into soap. So it seems that people can turn into a soap-like substance after they die, in a process in which fatty tissues turn into adipocere, aka "grave wax" or "corpse cheese". I wonder what else can happen to my body chemically after death.
posted by meep at 11:31 AM PST - 40 comments

London pilot taught hijackers I found this on MSN, and since no one mentioned it here on MetaFilter today, and it was dated for today, I decided to post it. How many people were involved in this???
posted by Katy Action at 11:26 AM PST - 13 comments

A large & unknown group of the WTC missing: temp workers. (more inside) (via not my desk)
posted by epersonae at 11:07 AM PST - 10 comments

Dear Muslims: Please Respect Women So That We Can Respect You Islam is a noble religion but it does have a massive problem with women. Who, at the last count, actually represent over 50% of human beings. Yes, they are that -perhaps even more than men; but, at least, just as much. Psyche and rev up your agenda with a great(and unusually short!)article by great historian David Landes and another not-less-worthy member of the Landes tribe. P.S. It's good to be back. Thank you warmly!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:03 AM PST - 50 comments

Osama talks to Bush over AIM. I'm kind of embarassed that I found this so funny.
posted by ookamaka at 10:02 AM PST - 26 comments

I was watching "The Craft" last night, and noticed that they censored the image of Robin Tunney's parents' plane going down (actually a Glamour, but you know that), and later Nieve Campbell's character says "you know the [silence]", they actually cut out the words "plane crash". Has anybody else noticed this kind of censorship? Would anybody have been really shocked to hear Nieve say "plane crash"? Do you think the WB would've been swamped with calls? It's bad enough what they did to homer or what the geniuses at clear channel are doing. Good movie, though.
posted by signal at 9:42 AM PST - 16 comments

My favorite art site After going to the Smithsonian's Scenes Of American Life when it came through Seattle--about the first time I'd gone to an art exhibition in years, to show you what a scenester I'm not--I went looking for online works by George Tooker after seeing In The Summer House there. I came across The Tigertail Virtual Museum--for quality, this is the best site I've yet to see, even if it lacks the breadth of my previous favorite; Carol Gerten-Jackson's CGFA--no Bouguerau's, for instance. But beau coup works by 20th century American artists--now you can send spam or Three Stooges Wallpaper and it'll be aht... Cool or what? And your favorites?
posted by y2karl at 9:42 AM PST - 1 comments

Cats always know. Great photo of a kitten + current events. I'll probably have this forwarded to me via email at least 47 times by next week.
posted by jragon at 9:26 AM PST - 5 comments

Osama's Place... "In a town full of soldiers, on the edge of Fort Bragg, there could be worse names for a restaurant these days than Osama's Place, but it is hard to think of any."
posted by stchang at 8:46 AM PST - 14 comments

Tool played in Philly last night, and I was lucky enough to go. Always wanted to see them, but for certain reasons, never have till now. Any bands out there you've been wanting to see live, or wanted to see live before a split-up ruined your chances?
posted by mich9139 at 7:28 AM PST - 93 comments

...the Terrorist Deportation Plan can't wait. There will be two fail-safes: (1) Muslim immigrants who agree to spy on the millions of Muslim citizens unaffected by the deportation order can stay; and (2) any Muslim immigrant who gets a U.S. senator to waive his deportation -- by name -- gets to stay......Ann Coulter, expanding on the whole 'Love thy neighbor' thing
posted by thewittyname at 7:25 AM PST - 28 comments

Newest scare meme: Nukes and the al Qaeda Wired news chimes in bin Ladin's attempts to aquire fissionable materials. If true, why is al Qaeda's history full of low tech attacks?
posted by skallas at 6:54 AM PST - 7 comments

1998 essay by Peggy Noonan predicts a "big terrible thing" for New York and D.C. Poetic and eerie. (found at: Follow Me Here).
posted by xowie at 6:37 AM PST - 15 comments

Subscription-based web tools: another nail in the coffin of free web services? Yahoo is apparently testing the waters for a subscription-based web Office app. I use their (free) email, notepad, bookmark and briefcase tools on occasion. Nice to have, but you have to wonder how long they can remain free. Don't know if I would pay for them, depends on what service level guarantees they would offer in return. How would people would react if they suddenly started charging for these things? Is it still too unrealistic to wonder how long till our operating system needs a local drive only to boot up?
posted by mmarcos at 6:32 AM PST - 8 comments

Women Fear attacks more than Men More Women fear terrorism are the men afraid to say so
posted by timetostepback at 6:01 AM PST - 9 comments

Sex no longer interesting. "All the major search engines reported that the word 'sex' had fallen out of their top ten search terms for the first time in the web's young history, replaced with the likes of 'BBC' and 'CNN'." (Scroll down to "SARAH LEFT ON INTERNET NEWS".)
posted by pracowity at 5:12 AM PST - 14 comments

A sign of Global recession? For the first time I can remember, it's cheaper to buy a console in the UK than it is the States. Over here, we're used to seeing straight dollar to pound conversions ($299 = £299), so this is a first. Do you think it's sign of recession or just Sony developing a conscience?
posted by jiroczech at 2:49 AM PST - 10 comments

The worlds heaviest people. And by god they are heavy.
posted by Wet Wednesday at 10:44 PM PST - 45 comments

Leaking troop movement? This new report says the U.S. has had special forces troops inside Afghanistan for two weeks now. I understand "everything" is leaked in Washington, but shouldn't there be something sacred about the locations of troops?
posted by owillis at 10:16 PM PST - 30 comments

Jeff Koons , Damien Hirst, David Salle, and Eric Fischl are some contemporary, living artists who have caught my attention. Who are some of your favorite living artists?
posted by crog at 10:02 PM PST - 21 comments

dependent films has made a lot of interesting, quirky, and humourous short movies. the newest is - how to sprain your wrist: without even trying.

be sure to check out the video section for more downloadable short films.

i love how the web allows people to exercise creativity. any other film artists out there?
posted by bwg at 9:29 PM PST - 7 comments

The Froggy Page was the Cool Site of the Day from August 8, 1994. It's the oldest site archived there without the disclaimer, "site no longer live". The page sure looks like it was built in '94 -- not even a single table! (Can anyone who was coding back then confirm if the code is really that old?) Does anyone have a favorite site from those good old days?
posted by mattpfeff at 7:10 PM PST - 36 comments

polish posters not only does poland have the best cinematographers, but their movie posters are really awesome, too. inflammatory, erotic, surreal, and cute... well, not cute :) truly art as advertisement and good for decoration!
posted by kliuless at 5:53 PM PST - 26 comments

Whomever's hosted on Exodus, raise your hand. Yeah, me too. So... where do we go if they shut down? Anyone?
(5 points for me for not saying something about a 'mass exodus'.)
posted by jcterminal at 3:59 PM PST - 14 comments

Are you smarter than Miss America? She got 6 out of 8 right. How'd you do?
posted by me3dia at 2:42 PM PST - 75 comments

The Few, The Proud, the Geeky "U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has called for the creation of the technology equivalent of the National Guard: 'That's what I'd like to propose. What this country needs is essentially a technology equivalent of the National Guard: a National Emergency Technology Guard - NET Guard - that in times of crisis would be in a position to mobilize our nation's information technology, or IT, community to action quickly, just as the National Guard is ready to move during emergencies.'" Akk! Volunteer geeks on patrol!
posted by bclark at 1:43 PM PST - 19 comments

Disturbing Search Requests is redirecting all traffic from search engine results to this page as a statement about America's response to the terrorist attacks. (To see how this works, click the first result in this search.) Is this really the right message to put in the minds of newbies looking for Britney naked?
posted by me3dia at 12:59 PM PST - 24 comments

I'll show you mine... "DeskSwap is a multi-user screensaver that swaps images of the user's desktop with others using the screensaver."
posted by o2b at 12:12 PM PST - 9 comments

Anna Nicole Smith is going to get the $474 million after all a federal court ruled that the former Playmate of the Year should receive the huge sum. despite the fact that she was J. Howard Marshall's wife for only 14 months (the last 14 months of his life), never lived with him, and was never in his will. [more...]
posted by tsarfan at 11:30 AM PST - 24 comments

comment of "the superiority of Western civilisation" have provoked outrage in Arab countries not such a smart or nice thing to say right now.
posted by m2bcubed at 11:04 AM PST - 43 comments

Air Force One wasn't a target, and administration officials now doubt there was a threatening phone call. And radar data indicates that the plane that hit the Pentagon was not headed for the White House.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:00 AM PST - 37 comments

Turn off the TV because it's Banned Books Week once again in the US. Personally, I've only read about 15% of the top 100 most challenged books from the past decade, though many of my favorites are there. In the midst of our freedoms being curtailed during the Current Situation, enjoy your freedom to read while you can.
posted by mathowie at 9:44 AM PST - 53 comments

Star Trek-Enterprise Yes, last night was the debut of the latest Star Trek Saga.. the tale of the first shape..the first Enterprise. Rather then sitting through the fan boy never ever seen a woman necked that was in 2D opinions over at slashdot, I decided to sort through some (sic) intelligent statements. So what did you think.. more inside.
posted by crackheadmatt at 9:21 AM PST - 98 comments

Taliban miraculously finds bin Laden! Afghan authorities have delivered a message to Osama bin Laden advising him of a decision by the country's clerics recommending that he leave Afghanistan voluntarily, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan said Thursday.
posted by madreblu at 9:01 AM PST - 14 comments

NaNoWriMo... Yes, boys and girls, it's time to prepare for the National Novel Writing Month! 50,000 words in 30 days. Are you up to the challenge? I'm taking the plunge... [Via Caterina.net]
posted by silusGROK at 8:04 AM PST - 27 comments

The Liberty Alliance Project has been formed. What a marvelously patriotic name. I bet you can't guess what it's about without reading the link. Come on, I betcha can't. Just try.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 8:03 AM PST - 20 comments

Mommy Liberty and Eliza Gauger a younger American lets us old folks know what she thinks with some art
posted by Kami at 7:37 AM PST - 4 comments

Um...you might want to reconsider that American Airlines flight... The Federal Aviation Administration has given American Airlines special permission to allow passengers to board its flights before the airline determines whether they are on the FBI's watch list, according to an FAA security directive obtained by USA TODAY.
posted by tpoh.org at 7:08 AM PST - 6 comments

Sen. John McCain’s eulogy for Mark Bingham, one of the passengers who apparently caused Flight 93 to crash in a field in Pennsylvania. Whether or not you support him politically, McCain is a good man. (via Kausfiles)
posted by luser at 6:58 AM PST - 24 comments

In the wake of the 11th, I've heard from people I haven't spoken to in months or even years. Are you reconnecting with old friends? It's easier than you think.
posted by tranquileye at 5:07 AM PST - 6 comments

SNL Producer declares Bush "off limits," despite what it says in the link. In the wake of the Bill Maher crucifixion, Lorne Michaels has decided to play it safe, according to the paragon of journalism. Does this mean no airport metal detector skit?
posted by curiousg at 4:11 AM PST - 28 comments

Conspiracy nut sells ad space for subs. WTC and MSG free post.
posted by skallas at 3:00 AM PST - 7 comments

All this talk of US retaliation is stirring even more waters in Pakistan's religious instutions: "Now listen, American, and listen well," says Hussain Zaeef, 21. He reads from Page 12 of the manual: " 'Bomb their embassies and vital economic centers.' That's what I will do to you and your country. I will get your children. I will get their playgrounds. I will get their schools, too. I will get all of you."
posted by agnok47 at 2:46 AM PST - 14 comments

Family fude.. to fly, or not to fly? That is the question.. mother and daughter have debate over flying the American flag.. sad sad sad world it is today.. well.. at least her daughter has good sense..
posted by KimmishKim at 1:19 AM PST - 33 comments

The ever catty Michael Musto (of The Village Voice) first gives us a sad look at Windows on the World's Executive Chef Michael Lomonaco and the great loss he sufferred. But what makes this column linkable, I think, is Musto's defense of preserving irony in the face of those who declare it dead: "I'm also going borderline thanks to all the columnists, editors, and talk show hosts declaring the end of irony (excuse me, but a wry, mocking sense of perspective is the hallmark of a free society), and saying that what they do is now trivial and irrelevant and they're having trouble continuing. Funny, they did their trivial s**t all through the AIDS crisis and other globe-threatening horrors, but now they're thinking twice? Well, I've always thought my subject matter was smallish and specialized, but I approach it with utter seriousness, because it matters to me and aims to provide relief, entertainment, and sometimes even information to others. If I could cure cancer or reattach limbs, I would, but this is what I do, and in the face of threats to our liberty, it's crucial to seize back the chance to do what we do! Besides, there are enough people beating their chests, waving the flag, and screaming, 'Get the bastards!'"
posted by adrober at 10:46 PM PST - 12 comments

Is Mars the answer? The healing process will take years. The moon landing was a peaceful demonstation of America's technological leadership in the 20th century. Could a Mars landing do the same for the 21st?
posted by Loudmax at 10:34 PM PST - 30 comments

Jesse Jackson invited to visit the Taliban. They've asked him to lead a peace delegation to come talk to them; he's thinking it over. My question is this: How far does he have to go before he's providing "aid and comfort" to our enemies (i.e. before he's committing treason)? I hope he'll do the right thing (stay home and shut up) but I doubt it.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:00 PM PST - 24 comments

Breast-feeding increases babies' IQ by 3-5 points, compared to the babies fed with formula. This is probably for two reasons: better nutrition and maternal bonding. Premature babies receive the greatest benefits.
posted by antimarx at 9:01 PM PST - 18 comments

On the O'Reilly Factor, Phil Donahue leads a compelling argument for why bombing Afghanistan may NOT be the best course of action. It's obvious how the conservative O'Reilly feels about this and although the transcript hardly does the interview justice, Bill O'Reilly finally gets out-interrupted and is verbally handled by his own guest. (more)
posted by edwardko at 8:36 PM PST - 9 comments

An Exhibit on Campus Celebrates Grisly Deed. The exhibit at Al Najah University, the largest in the West Bank, has outraged Israelis since it opened on Sunday. The most contentious section is a mock-up of the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem where 15 people were killed in a suicide attack in August including not only gnawed pizza crusts but bloody plastic body parts suspended from the ceiling as if they were blasting through the air. (Registration Required)
posted by tpoh.org at 8:16 PM PST - 1 comments

Who is a "terrorist"? Is the US, in an effort to build a coalition all too willing to break bread with states that sponsor it? I scoffed at the notion that "terrorism" is a subjective word until this article pointed out that one of our prospective coalition partners is attempting to define the "separatists" in Taiwan and Tibet as such. "Are you willing to look the other way while Iran funds Hezbollah?"
posted by phatboy at 6:13 PM PST - 16 comments

No More AOL CDs! I was going to post this on September 11th. (This was before I realized we weren't simply dealing with a single errant airplane.) Send this guy your AOL coasters. When he gets a million, he's going to dump them on AOL's doorstep.
posted by tpoh.org at 5:04 PM PST - 21 comments

In the case of airport security, the free market has failed to provide for the public good.
posted by Ty Webb at 4:29 PM PST - 16 comments

So you read the "Madman and the Professor" and thought it interesting. Edward Ruloff is another murdering philologist with the extra cachet that his 1871 trial for killing a dry-goods clerk was one of the first to test the admissability of photographs as evidence. The Supreme Court agreed with lower rulings that they could be allowed; Ruloff was hanged. In 1845, he had been accused of murdering his wife and child and was imprisoned for ten years for the abduction of his wife, but without a corpus delecti, he could not be convicted for the murder of his child. This man is writing a biography of Ruloff; a publisher could do a lot worse.
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:06 PM PST - 3 comments

Infinite Justice is out, Enduring Freedom is in. "The change was made after the initial name -- 'Operation Infinite Justice' -- last week ran into objections from some Islamic scholars on grounds that only God, or Allah, could mete out infinite justice in their view."
posted by swerve at 2:49 PM PST - 24 comments

The eXile's take on the rush to war.
posted by GriffX at 2:44 PM PST - 6 comments

Any hotline users out there? I haven't seen any comment on this. Personally, I use Morpheus now, but I'm still sorry to see Hotline go.
posted by signal at 2:34 PM PST - 15 comments

Love Bomb! Finally, a creative idea for the "New War." Granted, it wouldn't solve the whole mess, but it might be a step in the right direction. It sure wouldn't make us any new enemies. "A panel of four Williams College professors urged restraint in the so-called war on terrorism Monday, with one of them calling upon America to bomb Afghanistan not with explosives but with food and medical supplies. Anthropology professor David Edwards, speaking during a public forum at Chapin Hall, said airlifts similar to those provided to West Berlin by the United States and Britain in 1948 and 1949 could prove a public relations coup and an unexpected blow to terrorist Osama bin Ladin, in a country wracked by starvation, civil war and oppression. "Bin Laden expects us to strike with military force. It's what he's prepared for. In dealing with terrorism, you have to do the unexpected," said Edwards, an expert on Afghanistan who was joined on the panel by political science professors Marc Lynch, Gary Jacobsohn and James McAllister."
posted by martk at 1:54 PM PST - 31 comments

White House Reprimands Bill Maher... Remarking on Bill Maher's recent (and ill-timed) comments, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said "Americans ... need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that; there never is.''

Mr Fleischer: there's never a time for a comment like that from the White House.
posted by silusGROK at 1:40 PM PST - 69 comments

A University of Michigan study has concluded that terrorists were not using hidden messages embedded in eBay auction images to plan the attacks. However, speculation that Ritz cracker advertisements were used has not yet been refuted.
posted by jjg at 1:07 PM PST - 5 comments

To buy a gas mask, or not to buy a gas mask. That is the question. I found this pretend discussion, that includes real quotes from a number of intelligence official, particularly disturbing. What is the reality on this? I don't wish to be ignorant any longer.
posted by Atom Heart Mother at 12:47 PM PST - 16 comments

you have one new message
posted by bitcrank at 12:24 PM PST - 7 comments

Grootnik P. Bargelights' Golden Shower of Hits! For those of you still mourning the loss of GoGaGa Brand radio, Grootnik spins the eclectica like noone's business. Grootnik is a member of the Evolution Control Committee (of Rocked by Rape fame) and you can find show archives on their sounds page.

PS - You can also get a little GoGaGa fix at ropeadope. They have a very nice set by John Schaefer, who is now trying to start a new life at a little joint called airbubble.
posted by badstone at 10:46 AM PST - 4 comments

Further Flag Folderol Teacher gets suspended for allegedly burning the American flag in front of his class. Will this wave of disrespect continue its unflagging pace? I wonder what the rest of the staff thinks. And you, of course.
posted by gazingus at 10:45 AM PST - 44 comments

From safety to where. This article provides a great, in-depth look at the World Trade Center from an architectural standpoint. Beginning with its lead architect, a Japanese man who suffered himself from the racism of the WW2 era, it goes over the structure of the buildings and reasons why the center withstood the 1993 bombing -- and, for a while, the impacts of the two hijacked planes -- and what the future for New York and the businesses affected may hold. (Thanks to overmorgen for the link.)
posted by moz at 10:19 AM PST - 5 comments

Whoa! Amazon.com's added a new tab to it's menubar. And it's got MY name on it!
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 9:51 AM PST - 46 comments

Jihad vs. McWorld I read this in college, and it was recently talked about on NPR. (I did a search on MeFi and couldn't find it linked). Interesting article written 9 years ago but significant today, addressing the "brutal realities of Jihad and the dull realities of McWorld". Thoughts? (warning, loooong read)
posted by adampsyche at 8:53 AM PST - 8 comments

Teddy is the best character to come out of movies in years. Shame about the movie. Seen it?
posted by Frasermoo at 8:38 AM PST - 11 comments

Who needs Burning Man? Austin [well, Round Rock, actually] has the Hairy Man Festival! "One highlight of the Festival is 'the Hairiest Man Contest.' This year's Grand Prize is a 4-night cruise for 2 from Galveston to Cozumel!!" And don't miss the Legend of the Hairy Man!
posted by tippiedog at 7:59 AM PST - 4 comments

The upcoming war in Afghanistan and how the U.S. will fight it. I know we have linked to Stratfor in the past but these seem to be very well reasoned approaches that I haven't seen elsewhere. If this is what the U.S. is planning, doesn't it (pleasantly) surprise you that we have taken the option least likely to involve civilian casualties? Do you agree with their analysis? Is anyone else happy that we didn't just blow up an aspirin factory again?
posted by revbrian at 7:50 AM PST - 16 comments

Make World event in October, Germany - about borderless digital culture, no doubt curated long before The Current Situation, but I'm sure will be rendered far more relevant as a result.
posted by blackbeltjones at 6:37 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

The Jordan Effect. The more important question regarding MJ's return is if he will be good for the economy. Remember back in '98 when Fortune reported that the overall value of the Jordan Effect was around $10 billion and counting. Could he be the answer for our sagging economy? Not likely. But then again remember that What's Good for Michael Jordan is Good for America. (At least, that was Salon's take back in the day.) So whether we're Wizards' fans or not maybe rooting for Jordan should be our American duty.
posted by jacknose at 6:10 AM PST - 3 comments

Evolution on PBS - this is going to upset those who think the earth is only 6000 years old
posted by scotty at 5:02 AM PST - 21 comments

Starbucks charged rescuers for water. This is the kind of thing that makes me really sick, even if they appologized after.
posted by HoldenCaulfield at 3:40 AM PST - 59 comments

Ketchup.
posted by blackbeltjones at 1:29 AM PST - 20 comments

A few WTC things to start the day: 1) If you have a desire to move "off the grid" or just simply disappear, has the City of New York got a new program for you! Now you can get yourself declared dead with nothing more than a copy of Acrobat Reader and an ability to lie through your teeth. 2) The arguments over what to replace the WTC with are starting to gather steam. 3) That last piece standing of the WTC has been removed for probable use in a memorial. God please save us from another huge OKC-style Memorial From Hell.
posted by aaron at 12:48 AM PST - 16 comments

SomethingAwful.com closes its doors... temporarily or otherwise. A similar traffic-induced fate befell our own James Lileks, resulting in a sorrowful, pared down site. Is this developing a trend? Could the Internet be getting too big for its ad-free, humorous britches?
posted by Dane at 10:58 PM PST - 22 comments

"Placing The Blame For Attacks On Muslims Is Wrong" This editorial appeared yesterday in the Ventura County Star, it was written by Roufeda Ebrahim of Ventura, a Muslim. The 18-year-old graduate of St. Bonaventure High School is a freshman at Ventura College, where she is studying journalism and English.
posted by tpoh.org at 9:10 PM PST - 18 comments

Operation Infinite Mercy : Emergency relief for Afghan refugees fleeing Taliban rule and/or threats of American attack. Amid the scores of funds, accounts, websites, banner ads, and buttons that have popped up advertising ways to 'help the victims', it's been near-impossible to find somewhere online to make a donation to assist some of the other people affected by the aftermath of September 11th...
posted by SenshiNeko at 7:52 PM PST - 19 comments

CBS posts 'Survivor: Africa' cast profiles If reality TV is even marginally relevant to anyone anymore, the bios of the latest Survivor contestants have been posted. My questions are: 1. are these people representative of the American population at large? Almost all of the women list In Style magazine as their favorite and one picks "shopping and ads" as her favorite section of the newspaper... and 2. will more or less people be watching Survivor post-WTC tragedy?
posted by popvulture at 7:42 PM PST - 26 comments

the ONION to the rescue! America's most trusted insightful ironists seem to have risen to the challenge. Dinty Moore beef stew condemns terrorism.
posted by Zurishaddai at 7:07 PM PST - 89 comments

WalkingTom getting back on the road Tom is a guy who started to walk across the US in 1997, and who started to log his journey on the Web in 98. In 2000, he took a year's break to get married, but in a few days he's finally getting back to finishing his journey. What travelogues have you been addicted to? Are there any good current ones?
posted by wackybrit at 6:48 PM PST - 8 comments

Americans like to pretend that we live in a classless society but we don't, not by a long shot. I caught this PBS documentary a few days ago called People Like Us (the link is to the companion site) which focusses on class in the US (what it means, how it works) in a refreshing way. I'm sure they'll be replaying it soon. I didn't much care for the companion site, but it did provide a link to this creepy marketing service that tells you what sorts of people live in your neighborhood (based on your zip code) and what products they're likely to buy.
posted by wheat at 5:59 PM PST - 21 comments

Another interview with bin Laden, with a twist, just to show everyone what a pacifist I really am. Slightly slow-loading, completely interactive. Fun and games for a Tuesday night.
posted by mirla at 5:43 PM PST - 4 comments

Hackers face life imprisonment under 'Anti-Terrorism' Act
Hackers, virus-writers and web site defacers would face life imprisonment without the possibility of parole under legislation proposed by the Bush Administration that would classify most computer crimes as acts of terrorism.
posted by venegas at 5:14 PM PST - 40 comments

Remember the scary-sounding Hailstorm that was set to prove how evil Microsoft's system is? Well worry no longer, because it's now called .NET My Services. How could something with such a cute, gentle name like that be bad for users?
posted by mathowie at 3:39 PM PST - 15 comments

Lasoo, location-based search engine. Really slick. They've improved it a lot since I last visited.
posted by SilentSalamander at 3:10 PM PST - 12 comments

Movie Review Query Engine Encompassing old-hat IMDB data and scores more sources, the Movie Review Query Engine is estimable. Like ISBN.nu, its scope is vast and it seems to be a single-person operation (here, Stewart Clamen).
posted by joeclark at 2:53 PM PST - 6 comments

Silicon Valley backs Senate bill that would allow companies to report computer network attacks to the government without having to worry about the public finding out. The reasoning: it would encourage more companies to report the problems and help the government track down the culprits. A similar bill is in the House.
posted by thescoop at 2:22 PM PST - 3 comments

Jordan is back. Officially. The question is: does he still have what it takes to reach the top?
posted by kchristidis at 1:43 PM PST - 30 comments

Just crazy enough to be true. How about that 1 mill a minute??
posted by johnny7 at 1:02 PM PST - 18 comments

Always use protection - the Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie protects your brain from most electromagnetic psychotronic mind-control carriers.
posted by kd at 12:19 PM PST - 9 comments

Bush wants military aid for Syria and Iran So what if both nations on the American terrorist list (previous to recent attack on us). I just returned my army (old) uniform back to the closet. I won't go.
posted by Postroad at 12:19 PM PST - 14 comments

What's the worst that could happen? Discuss. [from The Guardian]
posted by feelinglistless at 11:50 AM PST - 10 comments

Deepend.com calls it quits. U.K. web design firm Deepend has decided to fire all 90 employees and liquidate assests, due to the ripple effect of the 9/11 attack. That's their excuse anyway. If most or all of their clients were air or travel related I could believe their reasoning. What do you think?
posted by catscape at 11:24 AM PST - 11 comments

Are the airlines pulling a Chrystler? "The President and Congress agree the airlines should get $5 billion in cash grants right away -- more than Federal spending this year on worker training, or food and nutrition assistance programs. Help with new security spending boosts the down payment on a rescue to $8 billion. This is close to the combined market value of American, United, Delta, US Airways, Northwest, America West, and Continental."
posted by theMargin at 10:42 AM PST - 26 comments

Princeton's Global Consciousness Project Readings Spiked on September 11. Was there, as The Boundary Institute believes, a "disturbance in the force" recorded by Princeton's GCP? Seems crazy to me, but the "princeton.edu" in the URL and the complicated-looking graphs must mean something.
posted by vraxoin at 10:29 AM PST - 18 comments

A heartening story about the increased patronage of an Afghan restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area. Have you heard/seen/been a part of reaching out to Afghans and Muslims who are as shocked and against the terrorist attacks? "Ahmad and Rahimi say they are living in an extraordinary moment. When they expected suspicion, they found trust. When they worried about rejection, they found the embrace of friends and customers."
posted by msacheson at 10:27 AM PST - 9 comments

Rodents will swim for fresh tuna? "Wrecked Taiwanese tuna vessel. Still had tons of tuna on board. Thousands of rats had taken over ship with relatively unlimited food supply." The boat is in open water. Maybe the rats sent out a reconnaisance team first? Do they really swim that well or could it be the tide goes down and they run for it? If they do swim that well, how did they get on to the boat?
posted by mmarcos at 10:07 AM PST - 16 comments

Did you subscribe to the Industry Standard? Expect to start seeing AOL CDs in the mail, thanks to them buying up the subscriber lists at the Standard's firesale yesterday.
posted by mathowie at 9:53 AM PST - 12 comments

National identification cards The pros and the cons are given here. Do you have a preference after considering these arguments? What would we do with the 11 million illegals said to be here now?Send them to New Jersey?
posted by Postroad at 8:52 AM PST - 52 comments

Gartner's opinion proliferates into the mainstream Internet news sources. any further thoughts?
posted by tatochip at 8:24 AM PST - 10 comments

Bookmark Sync to start charging users. From an e-mail this morning: "Starting November 1, 2001, BookmarkSync will be available for a one-time fee of $50. Paid customers will receive the software and unlimited, ad-free access to our web services for life."
posted by mrbula at 7:17 AM PST - 25 comments

Bush a posible Nobel Peace Prize winner?
That is, if he avoids war....so what do reckon?
posted by tomcosgrave at 6:51 AM PST - 33 comments

On the art of Propaganda Propaganda is a vital part of warfare and we're about to see a lot of it. This site analyzes the techniques of propaganda and discusses specific examples from history.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:43 AM PST - 3 comments

Virtual Carp fishing - Strangely compelling. Wait for the screens to refresh.
posted by kramer_101 at 5:30 AM PST - 3 comments

CLICK to see hot, TRIPLE XXX chair-on-chair action! !!!!!!NOW!!!! The HOTTEST site on the Web for HARDCORE furniture action! If you're ready to see some HOT, HORNY home furnishings get their freak on then CLICK!! You wont beleive what our furniture will do! ----> SEE THE BONDAGE SEAT! <---- This raven recliner likes it all wrapped up! Grab your cushions and CHECK THIS OUT!!!
posted by tranquileye at 5:07 AM PST - 13 comments

Notes for new students by Gwyn Alf Williams. Good advice for those of us just starting college courses. Or making contributions to community weblogs.
posted by ceiriog at 4:30 AM PST - 3 comments

Journal of a guy recovering from schizophrenia. Interesting, he includes some stuff from his madness on the site.
posted by paladin at 12:36 AM PST - 5 comments

Blogging behind bars. "Before he sent me to the hole, the administrator looked at me and said, "You should have thought about this before you started playing games." I didn't start this journal to play any games, but now that we're playing, I'm determined to win."
posted by obiwanwasabi at 11:49 PM PST - 9 comments

Bush and bin's brother linked - Toronto Sun Headline: Bin Laden's Brother was Bush's Biz Partner, Pair started texas oil firm. There is no story online however, just the front page. Anybody else hear about this? Field's Dangerous places says in its bio of bin Laden that a brother, Salim, was killed in a hang glider accident in Texas in 1989.
posted by PMcCann at 9:54 PM PST - 23 comments

James Woods Reported Suspicious Passengers to FBI "On a flight from Boston to Los Angeles about a month ago, Woods observed four men of apparent Middle Eastern origin acting so oddly that he reported them to the flight attendants and authorities on the ground when he landed."
posted by saturn5 at 9:33 PM PST - 10 comments

Air pistols cause security alert. "TWO Norwegian schoolchildren caused a security alert at a Scottish airport after boarding a flight home with an air pistol in their luggage, police said. Passengers on board the Norwegian-based Braathens Airways flight were evacuated from the aircraft minutes before take off, an airport spokesman said." I remember getting a simple plastic water pistol (one of the hollow-squeeze things) at a carnival in the UK when I went there on holiday and I had to unpack my hand luggage after it showed up as a six-shooter on the Xray. I don't recall that event making it to the international news feeds.
posted by krisjohn at 8:18 PM PST - 5 comments

More tragicomic WTC news. Apparently, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had a pending trademark patent on the official logo for the WTC commercial district. The logo was Published for Opposition, in which third parties could oppose the patent filing. If gone unopposed, the logo would then be granted the patent. ...Note the status date.
posted by Down10 at 7:24 PM PST - 9 comments

Taliban Magic Trick: $43m...now you see it, now you don't! "Afghan farmers are ready to swamp world markets with heroin amid signs that the Taleban has dropped its ban on opium growing."

Okay...can we please end the War on Plants now?
posted by tpoh.org at 6:57 PM PST - 11 comments

The Clash of Civilizations? An extraordinarily prescient and compelling 1993 essay, with some chilling predictions that in the last two weeks begin to seem dead on target. [more inside]
posted by dhartung at 5:08 PM PST - 28 comments

Describing disaster ¶ Gregory Rosmaita posts links to a couple of pages of described photographs of the WTC attack (by Stephen Cope and Lisa Seeman). Could have used the longdesc tag, but there you go. (Hat tip: Jesse the K)
posted by joeclark at 4:34 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Little Osama Check out the Brady Family photo of young Osama Bin Laden and his 22 brothers and sisters, published in The Sun... Full story here.
posted by crunchybird at 4:16 PM PST - 30 comments

W32/Vote@MM - -is being called "low risk" according to McAfee
posted by scotty at 3:20 PM PST - 8 comments

Local radio commentary on WTC I know we have heard it all so many times in so many different ways, but I like this one.
posted by Oxydude at 2:19 PM PST - 6 comments

Publishers of this excellent book (+film) on electronica were trying to raise awareness of afghanistan's problems before WTC. Their subsequent statement impressed me and I'm planning to buy some music. Buying from decent people is a painless way to change the world - where else for more slightly-more-ethical-than-normal retail therapy? (clunky frames site, but you can suffer a little)
posted by andrew cooke at 1:29 PM PST - 7 comments

Simple pleasures. The beginning of fall means pumpkin carving to me. Try something new. Pull a prank. Roast some seeds. Visit the Mecca of pumpkins. Carve a pumpkin underwater. But for god's sake, please don't forward me this picture again in email. Be a kid again and share your favorite jack o' lantern story.
posted by machaus at 12:33 PM PST - 20 comments

Tiny windows games are diversions designed specifically to meet the needs of today's bored office worker. Check out the actual-size screenshots to see how easy it would be to conceal these on the desktop (try saying "it's a server monitor" if you get caught). [via fark]
posted by mathowie at 12:11 PM PST - 20 comments

Maybe people will finally see "Glitter" after all. More than 200 movie theatre companies will donate all ticket sales and concession revenues to the United Way and the Red Cross for all films shown Tuesday. After two weeks of dreadful box-office grosses and sour moods, maybe this will prime the pump.
posted by tsarfan at 12:05 PM PST - 9 comments

Variety reports (subscription temporarily not required due to the attacks) on changes in upcoming television programming due to perceived (and probably real) audience sensitivity. While we've seen some of this before (like concern over the plane exploding in the premiere of "24"), I see at least one change I'd feared: "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson," (episode 4F22, originally aired four years ago today as the season premiere) where Homer's car is booted at One World Trade Plaza and Homer climbs both towers looking for a bathroom, has been pulled from syndication and, unless Twentieth Television changes its mind, will not be aired again.

Also, Showtime has indefinitely postponed its airing of the well-received indie film "The Believer," about a "self-hating Jew who becomes an anti-semitic skinhead." Overly-senstive reactions or justified changes for a mourning nation?
posted by mdeatherage at 11:33 AM PST - 29 comments

Al Qaeda to cut at least 5,000 jobs -- Citing worldwide reaction to last week's terrorist attacks, multi-national terror network Al Qaeda announced Thursday that it would lay off 5,000 or more holy warriors.
posted by andrewraff at 10:13 AM PST - 16 comments

The Greens and Social Democrats in Germany just lost big in local elections in Hamburg this weekend. Is this the first political fallout from the "War on Terror"? (Here's an English link too, from the Sydney Morning Herald. Couldn't find anything in the U.S. press--thank heaven for Australians.)
posted by gimonca at 9:47 AM PST - 15 comments

Bush or Chimp closes shop. Another stalwart anti-Bush site has folded in light of recent events. The irreverent bushorchimp.com, dedicated to visual comparisons of the President and various look-alike primates has closed down. I understand that we're in the midst of a crisis, but is Bush now beyond criticism? Ok, maybe pictures that compare Bush to monkeys aren't exactly thoughtful criticism... Still, NOW where am I going to get novelty t-shirts for friends and family this Xmas?
posted by mattpusateri at 9:36 AM PST - 48 comments

Thanks to FoodTV and online recipe sources, it seems like more of us are cooking (and more of those who do cook are even cooking well)...
Inspired by that (and the popularity of the beer and liquor threads) I thought we ought to move on to food:
What's your favorite recipe?
(My ceviche inside)
posted by Jako at 9:30 AM PST - 73 comments

The register chimes in on new anti-terrorist bills that attack due process, the fourth amendment, and encryption. Sample letters and information on how to contact your reps are available at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Act quickly, because congress sure will.
posted by skallas at 8:33 AM PST - 42 comments

Daily comic strips have started to react to the attacks. The only two I noticed in today's paper were Fox Trot and The Boondocks. Their tones are, predictably, somber. The one comic I'd expect to have something to say, Doonesbury, is still stuck on an older storyline. Have other strips referenced September 11?
posted by sandor at 8:05 AM PST - 26 comments

Sources say that Giuliani will seek to extend his term. It was unclear whether the mayor would try to amend those laws so voters could elect him for a third term or whether he would try to extend his current term. Do these circumstances warrant a term extension? Or should Giuliani retire at the end of the year and head up the clean-up efforts?
posted by phooey at 6:53 AM PST - 22 comments

A Hermaphrodite Moose was just shot by a hunter. Hermaphrodite animal rights activists around the world feel its pain.
posted by kingmissile at 6:08 AM PST - 18 comments

Isolationist information and international ignorance -- Whenever I visited my sister in Hong Kong over the past five years, I was always impressed with how much I didn't know about what was going on in the world. This link is a commentary on the feedback to an interview with a CNN Afganistan correspondent who said something similar, and got lambasted for it. Maybe if something good comes out of 9/11, it'll be a shift from celebrity news to real news. Ignorance can be dangerous.
posted by fpatrick at 5:38 AM PST - 13 comments

Spaced Penguin! Looking for something fun and distracting? This rivals Electrotank's Minigolf on the cute and addictive scales.
posted by JParker at 11:21 PM PST - 19 comments

Extraordinary violinist Isaac Stern dead at age 81 An abridged biography can be found here. As a casual listener, I mourn his death and hope that the gap this has left in music education can be filled.
posted by ttrendel at 9:48 PM PST - 2 comments

Human flag. 72,000 San Diegans came out this past weekend to make a human stars and stripes. Apparently the FAA wouldn't give clearance for a helicopter to take aerial photos. How ironic.
posted by afx114 at 9:27 PM PST - 8 comments

smooth motion graphics featuring 4-D sweater porn. definately check out exp untitled: infinity under "work." more here.
posted by kliuless at 7:51 PM PST - 17 comments

Bid Now! Six more days left if you're looking for someone to beat the living crap out of you. C'mon. You know you want to.
posted by jcterminal at 7:39 PM PST - 11 comments

The Angry Flag Vendor. From Jeffrey Zeldman's glamorous life. The latest entry makes for a very interesting read.
posted by arrowhead at 6:20 PM PST - 36 comments

Abandoned Buildings. Slightly eerie. More on urban exploration. Any MeFi urban explorers?
posted by skallas at 5:02 PM PST - 29 comments

What did we know? And what are we doing now? The best background summary I've yet seen, and the concrete info on the difficulties the intelligence agencies are facing is sobering.
posted by rushmc at 4:20 PM PST - 3 comments

You wanna fight? One title, many songs. Pick one. An open invitation songfight. (more...)
posted by smt at 2:53 PM PST - 2 comments

Military Codename Generator After Essential Harvest and Infinite Justice the pentagon will need some more names for sure. Here's a little helper.
posted by ronsens at 2:30 PM PST - 15 comments

Fark.Ru has officially begun operations.
posted by HoldenCaulfield at 2:29 PM PST - 18 comments

Ebert's movie answer man features this pretty sharp and dead-on letter from Derek Muller from Royal Oak, Michigan: "Here's an idea for a movie to be made in the year 2060: An epic about the attacks against the Twin Towers. Only let the three-hour film focus mainly on a love triangle stemming from a pair of friends as stock traders in New York and a young receptionist. When one of them is on a plane from Boston to L.A. and another is busy with a client in the Twin Towers, the men are suddenly thrust in the middle of a terrible plot where there is chaos and tragedy, but we completely disregard the 5,000 citizens dead and instead concern ourselves with the love lives of three whining yuppies. Or, we could just look at ''Pearl Harbor'' and think about how horrible it is to trivialize such a tragedy on the screen."
posted by adrober at 1:36 PM PST - 15 comments

"How to deal with an Islamic fundamentalist uprising" by Hafez Al-Assad. Mr. Assad, the late President of Syria, was a Muslim himself. In his rule, he had to deal with some bombwielders who even tried to assasinate him. Certainly his experience in these matters bears scrutiny. What lessons can we learn? P.S. Syria doesn't like our foreign policy either.
posted by quercus at 11:41 AM PST - 4 comments

Coltrane at 75: the Man and the Myths. The evolution of the view of John Coltrane as a spiritual figure. Is this a process that happens to any great musician dying at the height of their powers? (NYT link, registration required, blah, blah) Link via the AJList.
posted by pascal at 11:07 AM PST - 4 comments

"What has America done wrong? In the days since September 11, its president and people have done nothing but demonstrate dignity and restraint. Bush will lash out, the chatterers said. But he hasn't yet. Bush is a bumbling hick, they sneered. But he isn't."
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:02 AM PST - 35 comments

Blacklist! Bush is expected to issue an executive order labeling certain people as "terrorists", which will lock up their assets and generally make life miserable. Who needs checks and balances or due process?
posted by jgilliam at 10:48 AM PST - 21 comments

What is the status of Civics subjects in schools these days? I found this rather old data on the ACLU website, but I'm having trouble finding out the current status of what I call "national pride" activities in schools these days. When I was a kid in the 70's, we always said the Pledge of Allegience every morning as well as had a prayer. I remember when the prayer was turned into a "moment of silence" (early 80's?) but I don't remember when/if the Pledge was discontinued due to ACLU activities like the one above. I've not thought much about this until now, but realizing that many, many kids don't know the Pledge or our anthem disturbs me greatly.
Could anyone enlighten me, please?
posted by misangela at 10:45 AM PST - 33 comments

Used (unwashed) lingerie auction, proceeds to the Red Cross! Come on, now; let's get some bidding going here! (I want the Martian Dildo or the stars-and-stripes thong bikini! [No, I ain't gonna model it for you.])
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:50 AM PST - 13 comments

Sketchy reports that British special forces are already on the ground (and possibly shooting) in Afghanistan.
posted by Mid at 9:44 AM PST - 18 comments

I know it's early for the story of the Grinch, but I thought everyone should re-read it. It is a wonderful diversion from and a good fable about the 9/11 attacks. Granted, he won't be carving our roast beast, but in some pithy, corny way, Bin Laden may realize that our spirit -- our livelihood "doesn't come from a store."
posted by edwardko at 9:19 AM PST - 11 comments

From many voices, onevapproach via NY Times (reg req'd). Facts now coming out indcate that there are many cells, worldwide, that have been set in place over the years and are (or were) to be activated in a continupous terror assault. What our leaders are saying, then, about the length of time requried may in fact be in recognition of the huge job ahead in rooting these cells out.
posted by Postroad at 7:19 AM PST - 5 comments

The Volvo Ocean Race, formerly known as Whitbread Round the World, starts today. After years of preparation for the crews, boat builders and designers, 1500 BST this afternoon will see the eight participating boats cross the Cowes start line on the first leg to Cape Town. The website is more advanced than ever, with virtual racing available, as well as WAP/SMS services and brand new virtual spectator software. Will you be following the teams as they sail round the world, or is sailing simply no spectator sport?
posted by dagny at 6:27 AM PST - 3 comments

A survey of the political climate surrounding President Clinton's strike against bin Laden. Warning: ancient history (1998). Was he really "wagging the dog", or did he have a valid objective after all?
posted by Jack Torrance at 2:48 AM PST - 6 comments

Is Terrorists For Nukes the 2001 version of Arms For Hostages? President Bush has lifted the sanctions on India and Pakistan imposed by the U.S. in 1998 to protest their "tit-for-tat" nuclear tests. In a memorandum just released by the White House, he states that keeping those sanctions in place "would not be in the national security interests of the United States". Is this an acceptable exchange? Just how far should the U.S. go in appeasing Pakistan, not to mention further fuelling its already explosive confrontation with India?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:57 AM PST - 8 comments

Huh? This article swings from sort of equating the WTC attack with AIDS, to something about fundamentalism in music composition. I think. This is NOT for WTC discussion. Rather, I'm curious what people think of the analogy and whether you even follow his argument and/or think it's appropriate.
posted by Su at 12:51 AM PST - 7 comments

Okay, you are now officially allowed to be scared. Larry Ellison is not only calling for a national ID card, he wants it to be Oracle-based.
posted by aaron at 10:25 PM PST - 31 comments

just plain wrong
posted by tsarfan at 9:12 PM PST - 19 comments

Potential missile defense system stronger or weaker? In different days the creation of a cabinet post called "Director of the Office of Homeland Security" would make a lot of people nervous. The choice of Tom Ridge (former Governor of Pennsylvania) could be worse. He served in Vietnam and is known as being "tough on crime". An interesting note is that while in Congress he "led repeated fights against the anti-missile system nicknamed Star Wars." Meanwhile, would you want this guys job?
posted by jeremias at 8:38 PM PST - 5 comments

A Congressional Research Services report on Near East terrorist groups and state sponsors, published on Sept. 10, 2001. A laundry list of targets for a war on terrorism, published with uncanny timing.
posted by damn yankee at 8:31 PM PST - 1 comments

Is there really legitimate cause for alarm that small towns in the US are unprepared for terrorist attacks? Smacks of yet another excuse for more pointless, ineffective bureuacracy, if you ask me. Which you didn't.
posted by saladin at 5:08 PM PST - 10 comments

Did Osama leave Afghanistan? Is he in Somalia? Does anyone really know?
posted by raaka at 5:05 PM PST - 67 comments

Slightly less downbeat stories about race relations, for a change. Hopefully a harbinger of a backlash backlash?
posted by donkeyschlong at 4:43 PM PST - 2 comments

URI terminology demystified Quasi-Socratic Q&A on what the hell URIs are. “Q: What a mess! Are you serious? For a technology so architecturally core to RDF and the Web, that’s quite a kludge-tower! A: What can I say? That's the state of the art as I understand it”
posted by joeclark at 3:18 PM PST - 4 comments

Who wants to be a Princess? Remember "Who wants to marry a Multimillionai