September 2003 Archives

The Shark That Won't Be Caged: everyone knows the Carcharodon carcharias--usually by its popularized name The Great White Shark--but not many people have ever seen one, due to the fact that one has never survived for any significant length of time in captivity. Until recently, it was thought that the shark's sensitivity to electrical fields was the culprit, but an aquarium in Monterey Bay is out to prove that theory wrong (additional stories on attempt:1, 2). A previous, accidental capture of a Great White in a tuna net off the coast of South Australia suggests that it could be possible if the stress level can be kept low enough.
posted by The God Complex at 9:31 PM PST - 14 comments

"Going Wild in Urban America - To be an individual hunter-gatherer in America is to lead a lonely life." Southern Californian hippy college student alienates friends, gains weight by subsisting on stolen figs (more inside).
posted by troutfishing at 8:59 PM PST - 14 comments

David Brooks nicely summarizes the current state of politics. I appreciate this article. It is simple, easy to read, and represents what I've been feeling for quite some time now. (NY Times)
posted by BlueTrain at 8:09 PM PST - 45 comments

The largest collection of mugshots on the Internet. From famous celebrities to old gangsters.
posted by crunchland at 8:00 PM PST - 4 comments

Journalists say off the record "it was Karl Rove that I spoke to..." (RealPlayer)
Julian Borger of the Guardian reveals that several journalists have revealed "off the record" that Karl Rove revealed the identity of the CIA operative, but that the reporters aren't publicly admitting it, in order to protect their source. But aren't they also material witnesses to a federal crime? Does not revealing their source make them accessories to that crime?
posted by insomnia_lj at 7:49 PM PST - 51 comments

Spam: This Time It's Personal. Andy Markley was really looking forward to a work-free Labor Day weekend far away from his computer. But he made the mistake of checking his inbox before he left for his planned holiday.
posted by lola at 5:24 PM PST - 32 comments

Money Saving Expert is a site for UKians, to play the credit card game and win, save tax, understand consumer rights, and generally be more savvy in all things fiscal.
posted by Blue Stone at 5:19 PM PST - 2 comments

Vaseline Glass is a particular color of yellow-green glass that is made by adding 2% Uranium Dioxide to the ingredients when the glass formula is made. The addition of the Uranium Dioxide makes the glass color yellow-green. A 'magnificent obsession' site crammed with images and information on art glass, novelties, collector themes, and manufacturers.
posted by quonsar at 4:49 PM PST - 11 comments

'24'. Violent content. Complaint not upheld. The British Standards Council (BSC) publish their findings on a regular basis, as they explain which complaints by members of the public regarding the 'offensive' content of some programmes on TV and radio have been upheld or not. This is fascinating for two reasons -- we get to see what people actually moan about and also how the various stations have to justify their output -- some seem more successful at it than others... [pdf format file via Whedonesque]
posted by feelinglistless at 3:38 PM PST - 11 comments

The Texas Transportation Institute released their latest figures on which cities are the most congested, and how many hours per year the average person spends in traffic. Or you can read The Big Picture. I find it amazing that New York City isn't in the top 25 cities. The reason being is that New York City has an excellent public transportation network. Even some Politians are realizing that public transportation is a better bang for the buck.
posted by LinemanBear at 2:36 PM PST - 21 comments

Build your own Howard Dean website! The Dean campaign has released web site "kits" under the GNU GPL and based on the Drupal codebase, which allow web-based communities to quickly and easily build their own sites to support Dean's campaign. Last night, he held a conference call with over 3,500 "house parties" and individuals to spread the word. If Dean gets the nomination, he'll have technology to thank for it. (yeah, via slashdot.)
posted by jpoulos at 1:32 PM PST - 28 comments

A Pretty URL Is Like A Melody: By a waterfall, I'm calling Who's Who In Musicals, diligently compiled by John Kenrick, a wonderful little resource.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:50 AM PST - 6 comments

This new film [25MB, QuickTime] documents the 3rd annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel race, in which a bunch of crazed fools raced headlong down San Francisco's Lombard Street (aka: the crookedest street in the world) on Big Wheels. Good drunk fun! Here are some pics for the bandwidth-challenged.
posted by scarabic at 11:12 AM PST - 22 comments

Madonna's being sued for stealing images from Guy Boudin's photography and using them in her Hollywood video. Here are side by sides. When does imitation/homage become theft? And who gets to decide? Should she have been sued for using this image in her vogue video?
posted by archimago at 9:14 AM PST - 86 comments

Campaign populism, Bush style As democrats raise money online and galvanize grass-roots support, the Bush campaign is becoming responsive to regular people as well. Perhaps you have been wondering about some of the protocol for everyday folks like yourself to show your support for the President. [more inside]
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 9:06 AM PST - 22 comments

Little Joe waited at the bus stop before continuing his bid to escape the authorities. The 300-pound gorilla had just broken out of his Franklin Park Zoo enclosure for the second time in two months, overcoming a newly-installed electric fence, injuring two people and terrifying others. The gorilla was hit with four tranquilizer darts but had managed to pull at least one of them out. Little Joe's namesake reminds us that we've known for at least 70 years that big apes in the middle of cities can cause major problems. Why are they still there?
posted by soyjoy at 8:37 AM PST - 32 comments

Anti-sanctions group sanctioned. Anti Iraq-sanctions group Voices in the Wilderness is being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for bringing relief supplies to Iraq before the war. ViTW has issued an initial response and filed an answer and counterclaim. Does the DoJ have a leg to stand on? What moral and legal obligations do we have to refrain from giving aid and comfort to "enemy" civilians? How about if they live in sunny Cuba?
posted by stonerose at 7:25 AM PST - 19 comments

The Subpoenas are Coming! The FBI, in an attempt to prosecute Adrian Lamo (discussed here) is sending letters to journalists telling them to secretly prepare to turn over their notes, e-mails and sources to the bureau. And by secretly, they mean don't tell your colleagues, editors or lawyers, or risk facing obstruction of justice charges. (Via dailyrotten)
posted by Officeslacker at 6:25 AM PST - 11 comments

Boston Herald sports reporter outs himself in print and asks why people in the world of sports still have to hide. Frankly, I'm out because I can't come up with a single logical reason why I should have denied myself the right to live and work as openly and freely as everyone else. Nor should anyone find a reason why an openly gay athlete should be denied the right to play a team sport without fear of becoming a target of prejudice or physical harm. See Outsports for more info on the subject, and an interesting pro and con on whether gay baseball players should come out.
posted by amberglow at 6:23 AM PST - 59 comments

British bachelors beware. Rachel Greenwald knows how to find a husband using the techniques of Harvard Business School, and she's bringing her methods to the UK. But it's not easy: she advocates careful 'packaging', putting 10 to 20% of total income into a separate 'find a husband' bank account, cancelling newspaper subscriptions so they can be read in public and getting a third party to contact unsuccessful dates for feedback. There's one change for the UK though: here it's aimed at over-30s instead of the over-35s. I always thought "the Rules" were too spontaneous.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:48 AM PST - 40 comments

This post is about nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
posted by moonbird at 10:19 PM PST - 36 comments

megaman vs. metroid [Note: Flash]
posted by crunchland at 7:57 PM PST - 19 comments

smallpox vs. aids: the pandemic smackdown!! Researchers are [very, very cautiously] suggesting there might be a link between the end of smallpox vaccinations in the early 1980s and the rise of HIV. Pinwheel, in the RFID thread: "All I can say is that it's a great time to be a lazy paranoid schizophrenic--modern society is doing all of the work for you."
posted by jengod at 5:49 PM PST - 24 comments

"You men are visually stimulated creatures. Seeing a woman, in hot clothes, get pelted by pies is a rarity." Meet Phoebe Rodriguez everyone. Read her story, and of course, watch her videos (nsfw or pies)
posted by Peter H at 2:34 PM PST - 30 comments

P2P United, the new lobby set up by peer-to-peer software developers, publishes a code of conduct.
posted by liam at 1:46 PM PST - 6 comments

My Mixtapes is a site for users of emusic. Members can post album reviews, create mixtapes, and compile thematic lists of albums, all with direct links to the songs or albums so that subscribers to the mp3 service can download directly "via" my mixtapes.
posted by dobbs at 1:33 PM PST - 6 comments

We've discussed it before, but RFID, that fun-loving little radio transmitter that can be attached to everything from that stereo system to a carton of milk, is plowing ahead faster than you can say "unregulated." Earlier this year, Wal-Mart issued a mandate that required its top 100 suppliers to include RFIDs on their merchandise by 2005, bringing new meaning to the phrase "panties in a bunch." (Incidentally, Wal-Mart was also the benign corporation that ushered in bar codes for mass consumption in the late 70s and early 80s.) With no regulations on the table, the New York Times reports that the Defense Department plans to issue a statement requiring all suppliers to use RFID. Hitachi has even offered to put it in your currency. Imagine a store a few years from now that can track all of the objects in your cart, and that, thanks to a microscopic RFID stuck to your shoe when you slide through the doors, can determine how many seconds you or your children react to a display. Imagine a world that tracks exactly where each one of your dollar bills go. (So much for the anonymity of johns and porn enthusiasts.) Is this the kind of world we want to abdicate to large retail corporations? Is this the kind of information that governments or private institutions are entitled to know? Discuss.
posted by ed at 1:20 PM PST - 96 comments

Décolleté takes you on a fascinating guided tour of decapitation through the ages that covers biblical head severers Judith and Salome, the hapless victims of the Tudor axe, as well as the dreaded guillotine. Site contains some mild artistic gore, but nothing too horrendous.
posted by MrBaliHai at 1:07 PM PST - 3 comments

100 Documents that Shaped America. (Via Fark, of all places.)
posted by PrinceValium at 10:41 AM PST - 18 comments

Is This All There Is To Modern Design? Although Design Within Reach is a commercial website, it's well put together, with interesting features that provide biographies and a a potted history of modern furniture design. However, like the plethora of coffee-table books on the subject, the uncomfortable (!) feeling remains that it crystalizes the accepted and the historical - the so-called modern classics - rather than engage with what is truly contemporary. This is, after all, highly traditional modernism and post-modernism. And it's rife. Where is the avant-garde? Is there one on view to ordinary mortals? You end up feeling that the truly new designs - this century's, after all - are being swept under the carpet, awaiting some boring committee process of consensus and approval.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:59 AM PST - 35 comments

Drug War Victims. "Increasingly, people are dying because of the tactics of the drug war. Military operations are being conducted on our soil, and collateral damage is inevitable... Every now and then, a death happens that is particularly grotesque -- that points out the horrific folly of our actions. This page presents some of those deaths." This is part of the Drug WarRant blog. [Via TalkLeft.]
posted by homunculus at 9:25 AM PST - 41 comments

Final Lord of the Rings trailer [Quicktime Movie]. No sign of it yet on the official site. (Via BBC)
posted by MintSauce at 9:01 AM PST - 37 comments

What software version numbers really mean. Not sure who started the latest trend of dropping version numbers from software. We could always blame Microsoft with Windows ME . But Macromedia is at fault too with the whole MX thing. And MX doesn't even stand for anything. Now Adobe is getting into the mix. There will be no Photoshop 8 or Illustrator 11. Just CS . So is this a good thing? Version numbers may not be exciting but it sure did make it easy to keep track of the latest upgrade.
posted by jeremias at 7:14 AM PST - 42 comments

The Fanimatrix is an amazing zero-budget amateur MATRIX film made by some great folks in Auckland, NZ. Finally, somebody gets it - The Matrix is an action film.
posted by anser at 6:42 AM PST - 23 comments

The Bolles Collection on the History of London at the Tufts University Perseus Digital Library contains, among other transcripts, the searchable text of all four volumes of the Henry Mayhew's classic 19th century account London Labour and the London Poor: Volume 1 (costermongers and street-sellers); Volume 2 (more street-sellers, cleansing, and sewer work); Volume 3 (vermin destroyers, street entertainers, labourers, cabbies, vagrants); and the Extra Volume (vice and beggars). Read of the sellers of fake pornography; snail-sellers; death and fire-hunters; a depressed street clown; "pure" (i.e. dog dung) finders; and more. The past really is another country.
posted by raygirvan at 4:52 AM PST - 11 comments

The entire 50 years of Peanuts are to be reprinted in chronological hardback volumes by Fantagraphics in a project that will take 12 and a half years to complete.
posted by Robot Johnny at 11:24 PM PST - 49 comments

SpeechEasy - a true fluency device to alleviate stuttering.
Janus Development Group, Inc. fluency products are therapeutic devices designed to dramatically reduce stuttering. They employ altered auditory feedback in the form of auditory delays and frequency shifts to provide maximum benefit to individuals who stutter.
posted by starscream at 8:54 PM PST - 8 comments

SkyHigh Airlines is one of the funniest, most well done and fleshed out parody sites I've seen on the web. Try everything, plan a trip (notice the luxurious ports of call they fly into), track your lost luggage - oh hell, just click everything, you'll be glad you did. Even the Chairman's letter is funny.
posted by Dome-O-Rama at 5:09 PM PST - 22 comments

How bad is it really in Iraq? The majority of the media stories have covered the attacks on American troops and the unrest among Iraqi citizens. But is that the full story? An Iraqi Catholic bishop thinks the media is lying about the postwar state of the country. An Iraqi journalist writes that Basrah is moving towards religious stability. There are other stories of the renewed economic opportunities in Iraq. An American federal judge visited the country and found overwhelming support for Americans. Even a Democratic Congressman thinks the negative media coverage is dangerous. More coverage from in-country and polls (NY Times) that show Iraqi optimism.
posted by marcusb at 4:03 PM PST - 73 comments

Welcome to Maskon.com. Your one-stop resource for female latex masks on the Internet. [via Cup of Chicha]
posted by soundofsuburbia at 3:59 PM PST - 9 comments

Before there were videogames ... an archive of old penny arcade machines.
posted by crunchland at 2:36 PM PST - 7 comments

WiFi Speed Spray "It's an amazing product, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone who has a computer or would like to have a computer." [via Michael's So-Called Life]
posted by DBAPaul at 1:29 PM PST - 15 comments

A little Iraqi girl -- no more than eight years old -- squatted beside the road with tears of humiliation streaming down her cheeks. Twenty feet away, three American soldiers had their rifles aimed at her as she was forced to relieve herself in full view of a long line of parked cars. From inside their vehicles, the Iraqi onlookers screamed their rage at the U.S. troops. Whenever one of the Iraqis ventured to step out of his vehicle, an American officer bellowed, "Get back in the car, a--hole!" and the .50-calibre machinegun mounted on the U.S. Hummer would swing menacingly toward the protester.
posted by tpoh.org at 1:18 PM PST - 116 comments

Theodore Roosevelt 'Hound Dog' Taylor
posted by wobh at 12:24 PM PST - 8 comments

Freeland's We Want Your Soul video is a cynical look at the american dream and keeping up with the joneses. Whether you agree with the point of view, it's still a pretty cool and amusing use of camera effects. (note: large quicktime on that page) [via randomfoo]
posted by mathowie at 12:00 PM PST - 14 comments

The Blur Building. Now you can spend your day in a literal fog.
posted by srboisvert at 11:20 AM PST - 5 comments

Rupert Murdoch, The Guardian Newspaper Group, magazine group IPC (and others) have formed an unlikely coalition, the British Internet Providers Association, in order to do one thing: decimate the BBC Online website, and protect their own online ventures. They demand that "BBC Online should be scaled back to being a 'news portal' and...should release its internet source code to commercial organisations." Spin-off projects such as iCan, the grassroots political site which the BBC is set to launch in October, would be trashed, and the BBC's use of its website to promote programmes, magazines and services would be restricted. In addition the BBC would face a cost ceiling on its online budget and be forced to "provide links to the news services of its competitors."
The Governement's closing date for submissions to the BBC Online review is November 17th, 2003.
posted by Blue Stone at 10:41 AM PST - 32 comments

The 24 Hour Hitch. Howell Parry, a student at Manchester in the early 90s, undertook three fund-raising 24-Hr Hitchhikes with the aim of getting as far as possible. Parry kept logs of his second and third trips (the first hadn't been too successful, getting only as far as London). Nomadic Simes, a wandering web designer, presents hitchhiking tips. See also history's hitchhiking record holders.
posted by nthdegx at 10:37 AM PST - 6 comments

Yes, We're The Mini*Pops! For a few brief, shining years in the 80s the Mini*Pops were the ne plus ultra of every pre-adolescent's rock star fantasies. From the classic Mini*Pops, to the haunting Mini*Pops Let's Dance, to everyone's seasonal favourite Mini*Pops Christmas, the Mini*Pops embodied the hopes and dreams of ~~pedophiles~~ children everywhere. Of course, no retrospective of the Mini*Pops would be complete without listening to their ~~bastardization of~~ tribute to Abba.
posted by filmgoerjuan at 10:26 AM PST - 12 comments

The British find WMDs, evidence of gruesome experiments on human guinea pigs. This, plus recent shipments of the chemical precursors needed to produce sarin and other chemical weapons to countries such as Libya, Iran, Syria, and Sudan should pretty much wrap things up, no?!
posted by insomnia_lj at 8:40 AM PST - 18 comments

How to hack an election 1.12: Diebold tries to silence incriminating evidence : Diebold, maker of proven-to-be hackable voting systems, plays global whack-a-mole, in effort to scare ISP's into taking down websites with incriminating material. They used the DCMA to shut down BlackBoxVoting.org.

But the incriminating data just keeps popping back up on the Net, and Gun-and-Voting rights activist Jim March calls the bluff and challenges Diebold Diebold: You are cordially invited to bite me. Bring it on. Make my day.". March has created a legal strategy/toolkit for voting rights activists who want to fight Diebold, a company which has knowingly - for 10 years - sold security-compromised voting technology, and whose CEO, an aggressive Republican fundraiser, has said he is "he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." In internal memos published by Scoop, Diebold's officials admit that their voting records database is (and has been for a long time) hackable ( [anyone can] "access the GEMS Access database and alter the Audit log without entering a password" ) but that this isn't necessarily a problem because "It has a lot to do with perception. Of course everyone knows perception is reality." For background to this story, see my summary of Mefi posts on the Voting Fraud story, from this thread. Diebold's funky voting systems are in the process of being "Certified", in Maryland and elsewhere, by SAIC, a company convicted of major frauds within the last decade and which has extensive ties to the Bush Administration, the CIA, and which "proudly lists DARPA in its annual report as one of its prime clients.", and owns Network Solutions, Inc. SAIC has not, it seems, noticed the GEMS database story (see main link). If Diebold systems win certification, we can expect an awful lot of This sort of thing. Computer security expert Dr. Rebecca Mercuri has some pointed analysis on the subject.

You can join the effort to demand truly secure voting systems at VerifiedVoting.Org by David L. Dill, a Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. Go team.
posted by troutfishing at 8:26 AM PST - 35 comments

Medical histories of American Presidents - Washington "exuded such masculine power as frightens young women just wakening to the opposite sex." Jefferson had all his teeth when he died at 84. Wilson's handshake was described as "a ten-cent pickled mackerel in brown paper." Taft was once laid up for a few days after a bug flew into his eye. Facts & trivia about presidential health.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:12 AM PST - 15 comments

I'm starting to think I was only one to ever buy a Rubik's Clock. The hours I spent trying to work it out, the effort I put in, whilst all along there's a simple solution to the infernal thing. While we're on Rubik's games, this man with an audiacious mullet has lots of tips on solving them, and another man can solve the Rubik's Cube in 16 seconds (.mpg file). Impressive, although his social life must have suffered...
posted by wibbler at 4:06 AM PST - 16 comments

Weapons of Mass Drunkenness. The ever vigilante U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency has been monitoring the web cams at the Bruichladdich Scotch Whisky Distillery on Islay island, Scotland, to make sure the facilities are not being used to make chemical weapons. I, for one, am glad to know that my government takes the safety of whiskey distilleries seriously. [First link via Boing Boing.]
posted by homunculus at 9:55 PM PST - 12 comments

Italy-wide blackout ongoing I'm right in the middle of a nation wide blackout. 2 hours without electricity so far, luckly sunrise is near. Guess now I know what they guys in U.S. East coast has felt. Link goes to italian language realtime news on event, for interested italians abroad.
posted by elpapacito at 8:36 PM PST - 22 comments

What do the Great Wall of China, the Paraguay Railway System and Historic Lower Manhattan have in common? They're all on the World Monuments Watch list of 100 Most Endangered sites.
posted by moonbird at 6:14 PM PST - 5 comments

Who'dda thunk it? We interrupt our usual story about how badly the Cubs suck to say that the Cubs just made the playoffs this year. Will long-suffering Cubs fans be vindicated? Is this the end of the billy-goat curse? Bonus: link to audio of Harry Caray yelling "cubs win!"
posted by answergrape at 4:57 PM PST - 17 comments

The Spirits Of The Times: Whatever's Next? In an unstable marketplace, good old spirits have been undergoing an extraordinary renaissance since 1988, with 2003 the best year yet. And growing. With summer over and thoughts turning to the more warming libations, I wonder what the next big drinking craze will be. My bets are on the wonderful, underrated fruit brandies, distilled directly from fruit juices with nothing else added: kirsch, framboise, mirabelle. Mmmm... The best eaux-de-vie, in my experience, are those from G. E. Massenez and above all (though they're quite expensive and alcoholic) from the Swiss Paul Morand distillery. (Flash req.) An ice-cold Williamine, served in a shot glass surrounded by an old-fashioned tumbler full of shaved ice: oh what bliss on an autumn night, after a late dinner with old friends!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:57 PM PST - 12 comments

Man charged in Blaine paint attack "A 28-year-old man has been charged with criminal damage for allegedly throwing pink paint at the box illusionist David Blaine has made his temporary home." It's not the first time he has been attacked. Here are the stunt details, a progress report and the box's location.
posted by ifenn at 1:48 PM PST - 50 comments

Cops Say Legalize Pot. Ask Me Why. Howard Wooldridge, a retired law enforcement officer, a long rider, helped found Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and is riding his horse Misty across the United States to raise awareness of the folly of the drug war.
posted by filchyboy at 1:18 PM PST - 12 comments

Experts say putting ice cubes up the rectums of unconscious people has no physiological benefit and can even lead to seizures and stroke. "An overdose in a club is embarrassing enough for the person involved... The sight of the incapacitated person with their pants around their ankles having people inserting ice cubes is beyond humiliating and potentially dangerous."
posted by quonsar at 1:08 PM PST - 28 comments

Bill Gates, the philanthropist. It's not mentioned enough that the world's richest man, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has donated more than $3.2 billion to combat disease and improve education for the poorest people of the world. Bill and his wife Melinda have pledged to give most of their money away before they die -perhaps following Carnegie's philosophy "The Gospel of Wealth" in which he states that the rich have a moral obligation to give away their fortunes.- Just last week they donated $168 million to combat Malaria in Africa, this came "atop $120 million" they already gave towards fighting the disease. Not only is "Malaria, the Terrorist's Friend," but worse every year it sickens 300 million and kills 1.1 million. -does donating Linux to the world make Linus Torvalds a Philanthropist?
posted by giantkicks at 12:40 PM PST - 50 comments

The Life & Art of Winsor McCay ... part of Coconino Classics, "ressource encyclopedique sur l'histoire de la narration graphique."
posted by crunchland at 11:11 AM PST - 9 comments

Cleveland Press Shakespeare Photographs Er, no, not photographs of Shakespeare--that would be difficult--but of Shakespeare's plays in performance, 1870-1982. Covers productions in all media; photographs can be browsed by dramatic genre (tragedy, comedy, etc.). On a related note, see also Harry Rusche's Shakespeare Illustrated (outstanding and extensive site devoted to nineteenth-century paintings of scenes from Shakespeare's plays).
posted by thomas j wise at 9:47 AM PST - 6 comments

Planet Autism
"Last summer, a man in California shot his 27-year-old autistic son to death and then shot himself. I understand why." (warning - Salon link)
posted by Irontom at 8:19 AM PST - 16 comments

An Audit for the Soul As we enter the Jewish High Holy Days--the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah (the new year) and Yom Kippur (the day of atonement)--some examinations on how personal reflection and renewal is essential to a healthy life, whether continual, periodical, or annual.
posted by amberglow at 7:47 AM PST - 6 comments

"Sick Nick" is a cartoon blog by Nikahang Kowsar, the Iranian cartoonist. He drew a cartoon that could be interpreted as an insult to a top cleric, therefore he was arrested and the paper was closed down. He now lives in Toronto, fearing of going back to Iran.
posted by hoder at 4:00 AM PST - 5 comments

Daphne Oram, Godmother of Electronic Music During WWII, Ms. Oram worked for the BBC as a sound engineer while indulging an obsessive curiousity of experimental audio in her free time. In 1958, she finally convinced the BBC to open the seminal Radiophonic Workshop, which also fostered the talents of sci-fi composers Delia Derbyshire and Ron Grainer. During that period she developed a technique known as Oramics: manipulating 35mm film to create electrical charges and thus, editable sound.
posted by dhoyt at 12:52 AM PST - 6 comments

CIA Seeks Probe of White House
At the risk of a Newsfilter callout, this is pretty big news. The CIA has asked the Justice Department to find out if White House officials were responsible for blowing Valerie Plame's cover. Previous Plame discussion here.
posted by emelenjr at 11:48 PM PST - 132 comments

Let's go on a rocket trip to the Moon! A collection of space art in children's books, 1883 to 1974. These books, and their evocative art, instilled in a generation the romance and wonder of space flight. I grew up in the 1950's, and as a kid I could pour over this book and its illustrations for hours, dreaming.
via A Voyage to Arcturus
posted by Slithy_Tove at 9:31 PM PST - 8 comments

The Anti-Squatter... A web-based sidebar to the recent passing of WKRP Manager and Maytag Repairman Gordon Jump: the 'dot-com' address with his name (as well as those for living and dead celebrities including Jack Palance, Bob "Captain Kangaroo" Keeshan and Flip Wilson) are owned by Richard Shumaker of "Wilmerding World Wide", who, on each homepage, editorializes against "Celebrity Name Cybersquatting", declares he has "captured" the names for "safekeeping", and promises "At no charge, I will be more than honored to transfer domain name ownership." [more inside]
posted by wendell at 8:49 PM PST - 12 comments

General Paranoyacx
posted by lazy-ville at 4:05 PM PST - 7 comments

From Russia, with love.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:56 PM PST - 14 comments

"I'm Speaking Out On Whatever The Hell That BUGS ME!" Would someone please get this man a kidney, stat? [Warning: inline sounds, last link has startling close-up photograph.]
posted by britain at 2:47 PM PST - 8 comments

Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music, v. 2.0. Now covering 140 genres with 635 samples. I'll just go ahead and say it: [this is good]
posted by grabbingsand at 12:50 PM PST - 74 comments

I attacked and took over two countries... Friday Debunking Fun! It's been popping up all over in the past month. The problem is, none of its claims are referenced. I challenge my fellow MeFites to come up with the links to debunk or support the charges filed in the Presidential Confession. What's true? What isn't? What's relevant to the election?
posted by badstone at 10:50 AM PST - 40 comments

Segways recalled.
posted by liam at 10:15 AM PST - 59 comments

PandaCam: Bai Yuns cub(male) is big enough that now theres something to see on the webcam in her birthing den at the San Diego Zoo. Shes quite the attentive mother and hes becoming quite the wiggly baby. You can also view videos here.
posted by lobakgo at 9:54 AM PST - 12 comments

The Paris Review Editor in Chief George Plimpton dead at 76.
posted by lilboo at 9:39 AM PST - 10 comments

The tallest man on record was Roger Pershing Wadlow which I discovered after finding this curious photo. His 8'11.1" stature dwarfed Andre's mere 7'4" height. Both suffered from the rare pituitary disorder of gigantism or acromegaly. China has some really tall people including Defen Yao. If her height of 7"8.5" is accurate, it is more than an inch taller than Guinness record holder Sandy Allen. By comparison, the top 50 tallest basketball players provide some scale. (centimeter converter). Apparently, girls and giants are a popular combo.
posted by madamjujujive at 8:57 AM PST - 20 comments

It's Friday, and you don't want to work. You want to practice your hacking skillz instead.
posted by Melinika at 7:23 AM PST - 35 comments

Doctor Who is back
posted by Mwongozi at 7:05 AM PST - 46 comments

SUPER MARKETING: ADS FROM THE COMIC BOOKS
"A look at some of the best, most-memorable, and most-audacious ads from American comic books."
posted by crunchland at 6:45 AM PST - 19 comments

The New Republic . . . is one of multiple sources featuring variations on Bush-hating in recent weeks. What's up with the sudden currency of the phrase?
posted by palancik at 6:42 AM PST - 24 comments

Drop charges against accused 9-11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui? In a statement, the Justice Department said, "We believe the Constitution does not require, and national security will not permit, the government to allow Moussaoui, an avowed terrorist, to have direct access to his terrorist confederates who have been detained abroad as enemy combatants in the midst of a war." Confused? I know I am.
posted by hairyeyeball at 6:38 AM PST - 19 comments

This one time, at band camp....
posted by spazzm at 6:30 AM PST - 5 comments

80's singer Robert Palmer has passed away. CNN reports that the British rocker who is famous for his 80's hit "Addicted to Love" died of a heart attack in Paris at the age of 54.
posted by nyukid at 5:38 AM PST - 25 comments

Bruce Willis offers $1million dollar bounty for Saddam. "Its awesome. Soldiers identify with action movies and action actors. He's a guy's guy." said commander Col Michael Linnington.

"..being over here just a couple of days, seeing how well our troops and the allied troops are being received here, (I) think the Iraqi people are happy we're here," the Hollywood star said. (But later admitted he had not met many Iraqis because he had been travelling the country by helicopter.) [Via BBC]
posted by MintSauce at 5:24 AM PST - 31 comments

Levi Strauss to Shut Last Plants in U.S. Levi Strauss & Co. said that it would close the last of its North American manufacturing plants, laying off almost 2,000 workers. San Francisco-based Levi, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, said it would shutter two plants in San Antonio by the end of the year, displacing 800 workers there and marking the end of its U.S. manufacturing operations. And Cone Mills Corp., the world's largest denim fabric maker, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and accepted a letter of intent from W.L. Ross & Co to purchase all of its assets in a $90 million transaction (more inside)
posted by matteo at 5:06 AM PST - 18 comments

Venerdì del Flash Via Universal Rule. Ahhh, ho perso l'aereo perché c'era lo sciopero!
posted by e.e. coli at 4:13 AM PST - 4 comments

I didn't know geeks could dance like this. (Quicktime; via Celsius1414)
posted by timeistight at 1:15 AM PST - 16 comments

"How To Do The Asian Squat" is a 1950s style mockumentary by Daniel Hsia which explores the mystery and wonder of the Asian Squat. [Quicktime.]
posted by homunculus at 10:57 PM PST - 9 comments

Happy Birthday, Speccie! Your 175th, actually. There's a special issue out - only five free articles on the web, of which the Graham Greene competition is probably the funniest - but The Spectator itself (my favourite comic in the whole wide world, I have to say) is still in fine fettle. Among the more interesting articles in today's issue, Paul Robinson's delirious defense of West Point and its highly questionable Code of Honour (whereby you're compelled to rat on your fellow cadets if they lie, cheat or steal, or be expelled if you're found out covering up for them) and Melanie Phillip's firm opinion that the evidence of the Hutton Inquiry shows that Blair - Shock! Horror! - spoke the truth about Iraq are probably the most provocative. Damien McCrystal's tirade against fat nannies is the most predictably outrageous and typical. But the whole issue (I am particularly fond of Jeremy Clarke's column) is a cracker. No other weekly (or even monthly) conservative magazine is anywhere near as good. Congratulations, old fruit!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:18 PM PST - 12 comments

Amazon as search engine. Is it just me, or does every search on Amazon.com result in 90% results for discontinued items or stuff they don't bother to sell? I'm not very confident.
posted by troybob at 9:10 PM PST - 11 comments

Ted Rall has a theory as to why some people hate George W. Bush. Some of us got beyond the hate and just plan to support Frickles the Mudcat in 2004. A Frickles regine benefits you!
posted by clango at 9:04 PM PST - 38 comments

27 Israeli Pilots have been grounded by the military after refusing to take part in airstrikes carried out in the occupied territories. Some active, some retired, they were accused of "making cynical use of the Israeli air force to express a civilian view," but in a joint letter to their command, they spoke out against "air force attacks in civilian population centers." Either way, Edward Said may be resting a little easier, at least tonight.
posted by scarabic at 8:02 PM PST - 10 comments

Biggest cruise ship ever, the Queen Mary II, launches. Thousands watched as the giant 500 million pound cruise liner, which stretches the length of four football fields, left Saint Nazaire in western France on Thursday for a three-day test run. "We will push it to its maximum power to check that it can achieve 30 knots," said a spokesman for Alstom-Marine. "After that, we'll stop it brutally, and we will go in zigzags to check its stability." Thousands, and not one thought to take a picture.
posted by Poagao at 7:46 PM PST - 23 comments

Tucker Carlson's phone number is 703-519-6456.
posted by angry modem at 7:36 PM PST - 37 comments

8.0 Earthquake in Hokkaido, Japan. Holy crap. The Kobe quake in 1994 was a 6.9 - am I right to think that an 8.0 is about ten times worse than that one? Any mefites in Japan who can give us more information?
posted by majcher at 1:57 PM PST - 61 comments

Deep Fried Live! with your host, Tako the Octopus.
posted by me3dia at 1:15 PM PST - 11 comments

The worst jobs in Science. Brought to you by Popular Science. Everything from Flatus Odor Judge to Metric System Advocate.
posted by Ufez Jones at 12:48 PM PST - 18 comments

This made me spit Yoo-Hoo on my PDA. Humor for 3D graphics nerds.
posted by jpburns at 11:43 AM PST - 17 comments

Chinese Manned Spaceflight as early as October. After years of preparation, China appears poised to join America and Russia in manned space efforts. Tons of details at spacedaily.com. Rumor has it that the goal of the Chinese is a permanent lunar base and a visit to Mars. Will it take international competition to get the US moving in manned space flight outside of Earth orbit? The Space Exploration Act of 2003 sits as a bill in Congress, awaiting support. Will children dream of being a Yuhangyuan (Chinese term for space explorer) instead of an astronaut or cosmonaut?
posted by Argyle at 11:35 AM PST - 49 comments

DVDRHelp. Ever wondered about the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R? Want the best tool for ripping VHS to DVD? All things video are revealed at DVDRHelp. Discover freeware tools like Tsunami MPeg Encoder. Compare the latest DVD burners. Be overwhelmed at the learning curve of making your own DVD videos. AKA VCDHelp.
posted by Wulfgar! at 11:28 AM PST - 29 comments

Dyson telescope game. Fiendishly addictive. Don't ask me what it has to do with industrial vacuum cleaners. (Via Bifurcated Rivets)
posted by gottabefunky at 9:10 AM PST - 29 comments

Things That Have Been Sold In Vending Machines. Also, Skybox, the world's first vending machine for home use.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 9:10 AM PST - 10 comments

Galvanic Experiments on the Dead Body of a Criminal : The macabre electrical reanimation of Matthew Clydesdale`s hung body. Excerpts from The Young Man's Book of Amusement (1854). Just one of the fascinating "weird science" entries at Lateral Science.
posted by crunchland at 6:41 AM PST - 9 comments

Quicksilver Metaweb is the companion wiki to Neal Stephenson's much anticipated new book. If you've found his home page a bit on the off-putting side, but you still had things you wanted to know, or maybe chitchat about, this is the place for you.
posted by jessamyn at 5:20 AM PST - 11 comments

"My symbiotic relationship with squirrels is rather complex and multi-leveled, but I think I can sum it up in two main points: 1. I give them food; 2. They like food" says Jon, at his World o' Squirrels. Some people think squirrels are cute, others think there is more to them, while others still deem them ruthless killers.
posted by nthdegx at 5:05 AM PST - 29 comments

Need more hits? Try adding some of these 'spook words' to your meta tags if you'd like more traffic from your friends at the NSA. first link via Reality Carnival
posted by moonbird at 3:49 AM PST - 22 comments

Michael Moore's comprehensive response to criticisms of Bowling for Columbine. An interesting read, should make up for some interesting comments. Unfortunately, I do not have one of my own, yet. I wish Michael Moore himself would post here. [via BoingBoing]
posted by zerofoks at 1:50 AM PST - 126 comments

"Individuals Active in Civil Disturbances". Rare Alabama publication from the Civil Rights era. Courtesy of the Memory Hole.
posted by plep at 11:47 PM PST - 5 comments

Florida band plans to stage suicide. If you're dying of a terminal disease, you could always go this route.
posted by Lusy P Hur at 11:11 PM PST - 19 comments

Bring Back the Elephants! This article proposes returning these "super keystone species" to the Americas, which were inhabited by proboscideans for so long. The eating habits of free-ranging elephants would help prevent wildfires, and this extreme exercise in rewilding would restart the evolution of one of humanity's own "evolutionary nursemaids."
posted by homunculus at 8:54 PM PST - 23 comments

Caribou Coffee is smacked with a lawsuit for doing nothing when four employees complained of same-sex harassment from their boss. Among the allegations, one claims that the woman "[invited] one of the plaintiffs to her house to engage in some type of sexual activity with her dogs." You've gotta love the local tv news treatment of any given situation. Streaming video also available.
posted by Hammerikaner at 7:32 PM PST - 6 comments

The IAAIS othersise known as "Radio Reading Services. Policy Statement: Everyone with a visual impairment, physical disability or learning disability has a right to equal access to all forms of information available to the general public. IAAIS works actively to promote and protect this access.

More inside.
posted by ashbury at 7:14 PM PST - 4 comments

In a move sure to please independent record store owners and further alienate everyone else, music giant Universal has scrapped its to lower CD prices to a MSRP of $12.98. Just when you thought they might be getting it.
posted by keswick at 6:08 PM PST - 25 comments

"You'd think that predicting human behavior would be easy ...everyone should be a rational economizer, busy calculating their individual costs and benefits, and acting accordingly. Right?" So begins the review of Socionomics: The Science of History and Social Prediction on slashdot. I've always thought the Elliot Wave Theory sounded like psuedoscience, but found the rational choice theory problematic as well, even ridiculous at times. What's voodoo, and what's promising in advancing predictive social sciences?
posted by weston at 3:24 PM PST - 15 comments

U.S. court rules FTC overstepped its authority when it set up the list to block telemarketing calls. Damn.
posted by MidasMulligan at 2:45 PM PST - 64 comments

American Routes with Nick Spitzer is one of the best radio shows ever. It's a "... two-hour public radio program produced in New Orleans, presenting a broad range of American music -- blues and jazz, gospel and soul, old-time country and rockabilly, Cajun and zydeco, Tejano and Latin, roots rock and pop, avant-garde and classical. Plus stories and conversations with musicians and everyday people, known and unknown." There are great archived interviews with people like Dick Dale, Calvin Cooke, Sleepy LeBeef, Koko Taylor, Bob Moog, Nick Hornby, Ahmet Ertegun, John Hammond Jr., Keely Smith, Jim Jarmusch and everyone in between. Playlists back to April 1998. Photos. The shows usually have a theme--"Cool", "Arabs and Jews in Jazz & Blues and Beyond", "East Texas / West Louisiana"--and are always interesting. Get even more info. at Deep Routes .
posted by lobakgo at 12:53 PM PST - 7 comments

Did you ever go to summer camp? Today I ran across the Adirondack camp and was struck by the beauty of the pictures on the site. However, I was stunned by the expense when I looked at their tuition rates. All of my summer camp experiences were at Boy Scout camps (Philmont, Emerald Bay, El Rancho Cima and Camp Orr). I never knew it before, but there are lots of kinds of camps: fine arts camps, camps for disabled children, camps affiliated with various churches and other organizations. So, did you go to camp? What was it like?
posted by Irontom at 12:48 PM PST - 50 comments

Hybrid Humans Very early on in the womb, two fertilized eggs that would have normally created fraternal twins will occasionally fuse to form one embryo, producing a "chimera": one person with two sets of DNA. The link goes to a Nature article, here is an NPR piece.
posted by o2b at 12:35 PM PST - 15 comments

Sexy? NOT! Nerve.com lists their top 50 "genital retracting people, places, and things". Safe for work. Linked via the the Sporting Press...
posted by vito90 at 12:24 PM PST - 50 comments

Historical Revisionism
All text is verbatim from senior Bush Administration officials and advisers. In places, tenses have been changed for clarity.
posted by nofundy at 12:23 PM PST - 5 comments

Sex for Money, Money having Sex? Ban on Russian ads depicting euro having sex with dollar. Immoral or are they just dancing?
posted by kodas at 12:12 PM PST - 14 comments

Ugh - and Ooqa Ooqa The company that brought us "shoshkeles" (flash ads plastered over your webstite of choice), United Virtualities - has now launched a newer, more annoying ad banner/tool/, ooqa-ooqa, which basically takes over your browser, removes your toolbar, and inserts ads. (They call it a "Branded Browser", and say it's fully "opt-in", which it wasn't for me) I saw it in action here, at Forbes.com (to be a victim, I believe you need IE5+ on a PC, maybe not). Wasn't the idea of taking over the end-users browser squashed, chalked up as never a welcome or good idea years ago, when the ability to do it first arose?
posted by kokogiak at 11:47 AM PST - 47 comments

DynCorp Disgrace "Middle-aged men having sex with 12- to 15-year-olds was too much for Ben Johnston, a hulking 6-foot-5-inch Texan, and more than a year ago he blew the whistle on his employer, DynCorp, a U.S. contracting company doing business in Bosnia..."
posted by psmealey at 11:31 AM PST - 27 comments

Sonnet Central Wordsworth once said of the sonnet that he hoped that those "[w]ho have felt the weight of too much liberty,/Should find such brief solace there, as I have found." Sonnet Central offers a copious library of sonnets, mainly in the Anglo-American tradition but with examples from around the world. Those who wish to explore further in the sonnet's paradoxically expansive "scanty plot of ground" (Wordsworth again) may also wish to try Petrarch's Canzoniere (complete set, Italian with English translations); Shakespeare's Sonnets (self-described as "amazing"; the full cycle with glosses and paraphrases, plus illustrations and links to other poems); Golden Age Spanish Sonnets (translations); Christina Rossetti's Monna Innominata: A Sonnet of Sonnets (a reflection on the traditional sonnet sequence); George Meredith's Modern Love (a bleaker revision of the sonnet sequence tradition, featuring sixteen-line "sonnets"); and an excerpt from John Hollander's Powers of Thirteen (do the math and you'll see the experiment--it's an interesting modern sequence).
posted by thomas j wise at 10:49 AM PST - 24 comments

A Cautionary Tale: DNA Analysis of Alleged Extraterrestrial Biological Material: Anatomy of a Molecular Forensic Investigation .pdf file
::From The National Institute for Discovery Science via The Daily Grail::
[more inside]
posted by anastasiav at 10:07 AM PST - 7 comments

It's not democracy if Republicans don't win! After spending $1.6 million to save California, Darrell Issa tells Republicans to vote No on recall if it means a Democrat will win.
posted by badstone at 10:02 AM PST - 25 comments

Directory of Iranians who blog in English
posted by hoder at 8:52 AM PST - 7 comments

Swedish band postcards via a machine that generates excitement
posted by mookieproof at 8:36 AM PST - 3 comments

Tehelka is the Indian journalism Web site that published video of bribe-taking on the Net, launching a Watergate-like corruption scandal at the highest levels of government. Since breaking the story, however, "Tehelkas staff has gone from 120 people to three; its office has been vacated; its staffers arrested and harassed; and its debts have spiraled." But the site perserveres. And Malaysiakini seems to be following in its footsteps. As Doc Searles says, it's "the duct tape of journalism."
posted by hairyeyeball at 7:33 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Massachusetts governor has new plan to get death penalty re-introduced. Romney claims that his science is so tight that guilt will be irrefutable. It's an interesting angle to take to change legislation. I do, however, wonder how science can irrefutably detect crooked cops.
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:24 AM PST - 33 comments

Wind Power cheaper than coal, electric car does 0 to 60 in 3.7 w/300 mile cruising range

It's official: wind power is now cheaper than electricity from Coal, Stanford Researchers report in a study published in the Journal Science. Quiz for Metafilter science wonks: how much of current US energy consumption could be supplied by spending 200 billion dollars on wind turbines?

Meanwhile...Powered by 6800 lithium-ion batteries, the Tzero "from zero to 100 and through the quarter mile, will run with, or beat, the $281,000 Lamborghini Murci
posted by troutfishing at 6:53 AM PST - 53 comments

Psychedelic Flash [note: flash]
posted by crunchland at 6:24 AM PST - 8 comments

Important expose and interview runs on Salon today. "This evening the site the aritcle features is shut down. As soon as we get that new server up we'll host the materials (yes, we have a copy) that Diebold doesn't want the public to see. Diebold cannot silence everyone. " The links (2) for this piece can be found at URL given here. "If you're not outraged you are not paying attention. " The Agonist, as usual, is both outraged and paying attention.
posted by Postroad at 6:14 AM PST - 47 comments

Have more sex says the Conservative party in the UK, procreate for the good of the economy and solve the looming pensions crisis. "Europe's real demographic crisis is not longevity but birth rates". Research says, apparently, that most women want more children than they have, but could it also be the case that a growing number of people just don't see the attraction?
posted by jonvaughan at 4:44 AM PST - 30 comments

In her autobiography, "Living History," Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton recounts how China's imprisonment of a prominent human rights activist, Harry Wu, caused a sensation in the United States and nearly derailed her plans to attend a United Nations women's conference held in Beijing in 1995. In the officially licensed Chinese edition of Mrs. Clinton's book, though, Mr. Wu makes just a cameo appearance. While named, he is otherwise identified only as a person who was "prosecuted for espionage and detained awaiting trial." But nearly everything Mrs. Clinton had to say about China, including descriptions of her own visits here, former President Bill Clinton's meetings with Chinese leaders and her criticisms of Communist Party social controls and human rights policies, has been shortened or selectively excerpted to remove commentary deemed offensive by Beijing. My question: is anybody other than Hillary really suprised by this?
posted by RevGreg at 12:57 AM PST - 14 comments

"A Kmart Exclusive! This Inflatable Costume from Pumpkin Time is sure to make you the comic hit at any Halloween Party. The cool and comfortable costume self inflates and requires 3 "AA" batteries (not included) to do so."
Other designs:
--You think your kids are scared of clowns now...
--Can Paul Prudhomme sue for this?
--Aarrgghh!! My eyes!!!
"So, Little Tommy, what do you want to go as for Halloween?" "I wanna be Jiminy Glick!"
...with 3 AA batteries. Now it's official: Kmart is doomed.
posted by wendell at 10:37 PM PST - 40 comments

An Elevator to the Stars. The paper of record claims this isn't science fiction, but do we really believe that in ten years we'll be able to build a 60,000 mile long cable capable of supporting 13 ton cargo loads? Would you trust this to take you into asynchronous orbit? (Or maybe you just want to make like Joe Kittinger and jump out at 100,000 feet.)
posted by alms at 6:34 PM PST - 24 comments

Bill Is Thinking About The Children. MSN has decided to close almost all of it's chatrooms across the world. It cites concerns about paedophiles targeting and grooming children. Some children's charities are delighted. Some of MSN's competitors are less impressed.
posted by Blue Stone at 5:50 PM PST - 33 comments

Plenty of pop music explosions have been international in scope-metal, punk, hip-hop. But none as much as the initial blast garage rock and roll that erupted after the Beatles and Stones broke big. Cutie Morning Moon does an astounding job of documenting the far flung outposts of garageland like Chile, Hong Kong, Sweden, Holland Japan Uruguay, Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe. It also includes the story of Japanese Brazillian expatriates Os Incriveis , plenty of wild photos, movie footage of swede legends the Tages and an article on the secret history of Joan Jett's #1 hit " I Love Rock And Roll". This site is seemingly bottomless, but if that ain't enough there's great links too. If the whole world gan get together and dig three chord boogie, I say there's still hope. *some pages are translated from Japanese. The prose can be awkward. But the feelings there.
posted by jonmc at 5:44 PM PST - 13 comments

Digital Fiction attempts to make something artistic using Flash. Monochromatic darkness, crazy writing and some weird visual effects.
posted by seanyboy at 3:04 PM PST - 3 comments

The requirement to carry passports while visiting US, that will eventually include biometric markers such as iris scans as well as digital photos, leaves Canadians unhappy.
posted by riffola at 2:59 PM PST - 23 comments

President ~~confirms~~ ~~denies~~ confirms link between Iraq and terrorism! " The regime of Saddam Hussein cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction."

In other news, we're at war with Eastasia. We've always been at war with Eastasia... Food rations have jumped by 10%! Doubleplusgood!
posted by insomnia_lj at 2:51 PM PST - 39 comments

Jim Munroe, author of Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask [free e-book here] and other books, is also the creator of No Media Kings, an anti-media monopoly site where you can learn to make your own books (why & how). Jim also makes movies/cdroms and recently co-created The Perpetual Roadshow [careful, sound].
posted by dobbs at 1:52 PM PST - 3 comments

The Most Phallic Building In The World? Cabinet Magazine collected assorted nominees, both circumcised and not. Of course, these days we prefer our erotic architecture to be user-friendly.
posted by liam at 12:02 PM PST - 44 comments

Hooray For Leonard Feather's Scrapbook: Here's something wonderful to go with proud owners of his epochal Biographical Encylopedia of Jazz . Seminal articles and delicious jazz clips (Quicktime req.) are part of the pleasure.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:57 AM PST - 4 comments

The Alphabet: Meaningless shapes arbitrarily linked to meaningless sounds. When George Bernard Shaw died in 1950, his will provided for the development of a new alphabet for the English language, an alphabet of at least forty letters that could be used to write English without all the oddities of our traditional spelling. Learn more about the history and origins of The Shaw Alphabet, and look at some of its competitors, including the initial teaching alphabet, Inglish Simplifíd Speling and The Unifon Alphabet - a 40 character alphabet resulting from the Shaw alphabet competition. Or, read what Mark Twain had to say on the subject.
posted by anastasiav at 10:04 AM PST - 10 comments

Iraq's governing council bans Al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya TV stations. "US officials have accused Qatar-based Aljazeera and Dubai-based al-Arabiya of giving too much prominence to anti-US attacks and providing a forum for backers of ousted President Saddam Hussein." Wouldn't buying them be more American?
posted by Eloquence at 9:58 AM PST - 44 comments

Warblogger as Goodwill Ambassador Chief Wiggles, one of the major military warbloggers, is running a toy drive for Iraqi children. Seems like it might be a nice way to engender some good vibes in the next generation of Iraqis.
posted by jengod at 9:56 AM PST - 30 comments

In the long tradition of Google anouncements may I present to you Google Location search (which if you recall was the winner of the competition they held last year)
posted by zeoslap at 9:45 AM PST - 7 comments

Search the dead Internet. (via Q Daily News)
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:07 AM PST - 1 comments

another canary tips over
as the administration (more specifically the white house council on environmental quality and its head james l. connaughton) continue to ignore and bury the warnings of the effects global warming from their own scientists.
posted by specialk420 at 7:31 AM PST - 52 comments

Glasgow University Library Exhibitions. Some nice online exhibits : nineteenth century views of Glasgow, sixteenth and seventeenth century anatomical illustration, British bookbindings, Glasgow Cathedral windows, rare Spanish books, music books, flower illustration, etc.
posted by plep at 6:46 AM PST - 2 comments

Does India belong on the UN security council? A fascinating analysis of UN politics from a developing country's perspective.
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy at 6:41 AM PST - 15 comments

rockface rescue [note: flash]
posted by crunchland at 6:17 AM PST - 5 comments

Skype, a new P2P Telephony service from the people who created KaZaA. [more inside]
posted by davehat at 6:08 AM PST - 16 comments

Breaking the silence Last night ITV1 in the UK ran a documentary that is unlikely to be shown in the USA. It is by a respected journalist called John Pilger and amongst other tidbits it shows Colin Powell saying in 1991 that Iraq poses no threat and also Condoleeza Rice confirming the same thing. It also quotes some US officials that the current bunch who seem to be running US foreign policy were known during the administration of Bush senior as "the crazies". Plus much more.
posted by donfactor at 5:45 AM PST - 101 comments

The myth of the "friendly and harmless" Dalai Lama exposed. While the Lama's PR machine runs in high gear here in the states only a few voices have come out about the truth behind the oppressive theocracy that was Tibet and how specially sanitized and marketed the Lama is when he crosses the Atlantic. It turns out the Lama isn't very different than any other man in a position of power and has much more in common with the Pope than, say, Deepak Chopra.
posted by skallas at 2:00 AM PST - 79 comments