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November 30
It's a girl!!
Japanese Crown Princess Masako gives birth to a daughter. Congratulations to the Imperial family and to MeFi readers in Japan.
posted by shylock at 11:46 PM PST - 15 comments
At Yale, A Theft Of Historic Proportions
"A college student is accused of abusing his position at Yale University's rare books library to steal more than $1.5 million in one-of-a-kind historic signatures and other items then selling them on the Internet."
posted by dayvin at 8:32 PM PST - 8 comments
Copy-Protected CDs: The List!
Buying CDs as gifts this holiday season? If the people on your gift-giving list have MP3 players or listen to their CDs on their computers, you'll want to have this list handy, as these CDs have intentional "copy-protection" defects that may render them unplayable on computers, certain car stereos, and some other high-end audio equipment.
posted by tpoh.org at 8:08 PM PST - 14 comments
Want free admission to a baseball game? Get a tattoo.
The Daytona Cubs, a minor league affiliate (high A-ball) of the Chicago Cubs, are running a promotion where "Any fan 18 or older who gets a Daytona Cubs tattoo from Willie's Tropical Tattoo in Ormond Beach, Fla., will receive a lifetime general admission ticket."
"I'm not squeamish about where someone wants to put it," said Charlie Subock of Tropical Tattoo. "It might be disrespectful to get it on your butt. But if you didn't like the Cubs, that may be the place to put it."
posted by moz at 3:10 PM PST - 9 comments
I can't get past 23
on this damn Flash game. All you have to do is click on a ball to keep it in the air, but it's tough.
(Old link, but I don't see it in the archives)
posted by jragon at 2:01 PM PST - 26 comments
If you're selling your multi-million dollar cable network
be sure to heed Ted Turner: "My advice to younger people in the room is be real careful who you sell your company to." With regards to being fired by Gerald Levin: "Turner recalled that Levin said 'Ted, youre my best friend. I said, Im your best friend? Jerry, Ive never been in your home. If Im your best friend, whos your second best friend? "
posted by CosmicSlop at 11:40 AM PST - 9 comments
This
is a must read for anyone that is in a band or that has friends in a band.
A lot of people will already know about these practices, I'm posting this for those that don't.
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger at 8:56 AM PST - 24 comments
What's inside?
Surely this is a man thing. We get something with screws in it and have to take it to pieces.
this man bought a
gamecube.
He says that it still works.
There are a few pages of pictures here so be warned..
I thank you.
posted by Spoon at 8:30 AM PST - 13 comments
Univ. of Georgia applicants evaluated on the basis of academics only.
Without regard to race, gender or country of origin. On the other hand, we have the UC system
undertaking a more "comprehensive" system. Predicition: If this continues for 20 years, there will be a huge shift in the academic centers. The UC system will be regarded as a diploma mill, while schools like UGA, which implement tough, academic-based admission policies will be the leading schools of the country.
posted by prodigal at 8:23 AM PST - 31 comments
Athena Parthenos,
the cult statue made by Phidias, once in the Parthenon: here rendered by the Franch Beaux Arts architect Benoit Loviot. Slow but worth the wait, with more inside.
posted by y2karl at 5:56 AM PST - 12 comments
World Views.
This Saturday at the New Museum is an opening reception for the artists who had studio space in the World Trade Center on September 11th. If you are in New York this weekend and are looking for something to do, your presence would be greatly appreciated.
posted by darkpony at 3:21 AM PST - 2 comments
November 29
IBM gets the bill
for less-than-standard advertising methods supporting Linux.
The city of San Francisco yesterday quashed some of the warm, fuzzy feelings associated with the Linux operating system when it reached a settlement with IBM that calls for the vendor to pay $120,000 to compensate the city for damages caused by a "guerrilla" marketing campaign centered on Linux.
posted by trioperative at 11:48 PM PST - 15 comments
Just when you thought things couldn't get any more unsettling,
some of America's biggest radical racists glorify Al Qaeda's grit. "I wish our members had half as much testicular fortitude," says Billy Roper, a National Alliance official. White supremacists and Islamicists like Osama bin Laden just plain agree on a lot of things--in particular, that globalism and multiculturalism are the uber-enemies, and that separatism and cultural purity are the answer.
posted by semmi at 10:05 PM PST - 15 comments
Ashcroft's Visa Carrot Trick
Ok, considering the
PATRIOT Act -empowered changes in our government's pursuit of terrorists, and the
DOJ's current
"throw every non-American you can find behind bars indefinitely and secretly" anti-freedom
spree -- then are there any non-U.S. citizens out there dumb [or desparate] enough to fall for John Ashcroft's visa-carrot-for-terror-info trick?
posted by blackholebrain at 9:36 PM PST - 21 comments
Will members of the religious right pass on smallpox vaccines
in the event of an attack? Apparently many of the smallpox vaccines now in use come from work done in 1966 on aborted fetuses which presents a small dilemma for some anti-abortion conservatives.
"I think this scenario puts pro-lifers in a tough spot, and I'm not sure we need to accept this as the only alternative," Earll said. "We need to call on the government to put more research effort into this before we invest our tax dollars into a vaccine that comes from a tainted source."
Of course these are the same people who oppose potentially life saving research on
stem cells and
cloning. Some think that eventually the religious right will have to make some
hard choices about their stance on fetus research. As scientific research marches on, will potential medical pay offs out weigh moral opposition in the future?
posted by wfrgms at 8:27 PM PST - 14 comments
It's His Fan Club I Can't Stand.
Mayor of Florida town issues official proclamation...um...banning Satan.
"Be it known from this day forward that Satan, ruler of darkness, giver of evil, destroyer of what is good and just, is not now, nor ever again will be, a part of this town of Inglis. Satan is hereby declared powerless, no longer ruling over, nor influencing, our citizens."
posted by tpoh.org at 7:50 PM PST - 56 comments
You too can piss off Jerry Falwell.
It seems
Bev of FunnyTheWorld had an idea: "...when Christmas comes around this year and all those [Salvation Army bell-ringing] Santas take to the streets, I will have a card ready to slip into the pot. The card will let them know that I really wanted to contribute money for them to help the needy at Christmas time, but because of their
homophobic philosophy, I have taken the money I would have donated and have given it, instead, to a local AIDS organization." Well,
Saundra of HeadSpace liked the idea too and shared it with gay-rights organizations. Now Jerry Falwell is
pissed off.
posted by fleener at 6:49 PM PST - 28 comments
If you miss Weblogs.Com's capability to keep a list of your favourite weblogs, you might want to try
Yaysoft Weblog Directory (YayDir). It allows you to create weblog reading and favourite lists and keep track of their updates. The directory is searchable, which makes setting up reading and favourite lists a breeze. It currently tracks only weblogs that ping Weblogs.Com but I read
here that they're going to have their own crawler soon. Neato!
posted by Firda at 6:41 PM PST - 2 comments
Creem Magazine
is back. After an 8-year hiatus, the classic rock rag that launched the career of editor/author/Springsteen-worshipper
Dave Marsh, elevated
Lester Bangs to rockcrit boddhisatva status, and introduced me to the Velvet Underground and the Stooges is online and ready to roll the presses once more. Will they give a much-needed kick in the ass to a moribund field of journalism, or are they a bunch of old hippies cynically cashing in on Cameron Crowe's
Almost Famous vibe? Don't forget to dig the
scanned covers. Boy Howdy!
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:38 PM PST - 10 comments
Fighting Words on White Rap:
but not what you'd expect, especially from the
Village Voice:
Our childrenare in crisis, trapped in the grip of a culture that glorifies drug use and debauchery, slovenly dress, and lack of respect for authority. A culture whose worship of antisocial behavior and debasement is rivaled only by its amoral concessions to the dictates of mammon.
This can largely be attributed to the unfortunate dominance of black popular culture, andmore specificallyhip-hop. In the past, mainstream culture refined raw black cultural materials, resulting in musical zeniths such as the recent neo-swing movement, which briefly presented a viable outlet for young dancers unwilling to subject themselves to the degrading influence of rap and rave music. This has got to be a put-on . . .
posted by ryanshepard at 12:32 PM PST - 87 comments
Anime from a religious perspective
This could never get tiresome - Jack Chick and others may think they have cornered the market in (unintentionally) hilarious Christian interpretations of popular culture, but this
excoriation of Anime by (I suspect) a Baptist and definitely a fundamentalist is wonderful reading, and provides some competition. Quite apart from the fire and brimstone article itself, the pictures are a good laugh too.
posted by tiny pea at 12:20 PM PST - 14 comments
For the last year or so, I've been messing around with a little app called
Blender. Blender is a piece of 3d rendering and animation software that does quite a bit of what high priced renderers like 3D Studio Max and Ray Dream do [
samples]. The difference is that Blender is
free.[more...]
posted by eyeballkid at 11:57 AM PST - 15 comments
Excite turns out the lights.
For the last four years
Excite's portal page has been my daily stop for news, stocks, showtimes, weather, etc. But they've been turning off services for weeks, and now the whole portal seems to be dead. Are free news portals soon to be quaint memory? [more inside]
posted by y6y6y6 at 11:28 AM PST - 35 comments
Tune In To The Fine Art Search Machine:
Artcyclopedia continues to be too good to be true. It's updated regularly and all you have to do is follow your favourite artists around the many participating museums, going "
Aaah..." at every click.
My particular obsession is
Milton Avery. I first saw
a painting of his at the old Tate Museum in London, when I was about 12, and have been intrigued by him ever since. Is he an American Matisse or just a less obviously picture-postcardish Raoul Dufy?
To cut to the chase: what painter keeps
you unable to make your mind up about him or her?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:17 AM PST - 15 comments
Jerry Falwell being defended by ACLU.(via FARK)
Now I've heard everything. Now, I like Falwell about as much as the rest of you, but he may have a case. To give the ACLU their due, they always stand by their principles regardless of whose rights are being violated and whose political sensibilitie it might offend. I hope however, this will keep ol' Jerry from villifying the group in his sermons from here on out.
posted by jonmc at 10:43 AM PST - 9 comments
Adios Ayer by Jose Padilla
(Track 13 of Cafe Del Mar Vol. 6) is one of the most emotionally touching songs I've heard. What songs have touched you on a deeply emotional level?
posted by physics at 10:13 AM PST - 37 comments
AirSnort.
The dangerous app with the unlikely name allows users to snatch data being passed over wireless networks, eventually capturing passwords to the network.
posted by o2b at 9:27 AM PST - 7 comments
Moodstats
the latest offering by the mighty
K10K is finally available. The program is a shareware, a serial costs $15, but does it also cost K10K their anti-commercial attitude?
posted by riffola at 9:10 AM PST - 21 comments
I've been accused in the past of only posting
fun and games type links - so just to prove that i'm no fly-by-night-non-serious-funster here is a news link.
It requires no flash plugins of any sort..... ladies and gentlemen i give you....
Fisherman playing game electrocuted.
i thank you.
posted by Spoon at 8:23 AM PST - 8 comments
Walk for Capitalism
is scheduled for this weekend (Sunday, December 2nd) in over 100 cities around the world. One of the few rallies actually
for something, and certainly first global campaign for
capitalism in history. Will you stand up for the principles set forth in their
position statement?
posted by dagny at 5:05 AM PST - 34 comments
Mexican government going to take care of unfinished business.
President Fox made this a major campaign promise and it looks like it's going to be one he's going to keep. Sounds like shades of Argentina and Chile. The only difference between Mexico and those places is that the head hombre in Mexico doesn't feel he owes the ones who were in power back when the murders took place anything. Interesting to see how this develops.
posted by MAYORBOB at 4:23 AM PST - 1 comments
RallyTrophy
is a great slot-car game. Build your own track race the little car around the track. Amusing... classic toy... I want one for christmas :)
posted by dancu at 3:02 AM PST - 13 comments
November 28
Court of Appeals upholds ban against DeCSS. More significant than the banning of DVD cracking is the edict directed towards 2600, which has been forbidden to post any links related to DeCSS. My concern with this decision is whether the current decision may be interpreted in a broader context, preventing others from linking to sites that aren't as sexy as Mom and Apple Pie to the powers that be. Maybe I'm overreacting. But could we see bloggers forced to remove certain links and led to the Tombs if they refuse? Discuss.
posted by ed at 11:20 PM PST - 15 comments
We can all breathe a little easier now,
but it comes at a hefty price - $428 million. That's a boatload of money for a security blanket we may not even need. It's times like this, though, that make me happy (not necessarily proud) to be an American. What do you think?
posted by catatonic at 10:58 PM PST - 11 comments
PrintCafe sues idiot.
Literally. They are suing several individuals who posted anonymous comments on F---edCompany's message boards. So far, all they have are the aliases the comments were posted under, namely "Ex-DLJ", "sucky-me", and "idiot!". Apparently that's all they're going to get, since Pud says
here, "FC servers contain no logs
". Also of note is item number 4 on
this page of the letter Pud received.
posted by Potsy at 10:29 PM PST - 8 comments
Culture clash.
A pilot's investigation of the crash of EgyptAir 990, and the cultural reverberations of a seemingly straightforward airplane crash. Truth as political expediency.
posted by semmi at 9:33 PM PST - 3 comments
According to this editorial,
the Russians have outmaneuvered the US oil interests by encouraging the Northern Alliance to take Kabul. "The alliance is now Afghanistan's dominant force and, heedless of multi-party
political talks in Germany going on this week, styles itself as the new "lawful"
government, a claim fully backed by Moscow."
posted by electro at 6:22 PM PST - 14 comments
Richard & Judy's new show on Channel 4 has begun.
Three episodes in and Judy still looks nervous and Richard's marbles have still escaped him. But they've also taken a turn in 'National Enquirer' territory, featuring an item about non-movement excersise programmes and a video about a man who could change shape. As 'Off The Telly' reports: "This pandered to Richard and Judys well-worn obsession with anything of a freakish nature. The footage showed an ordinary person - or Spookman as Richard instantly dubbed him - whose face ostensibly changed into others as you studied it. The studio crew were convinced, gasping on cue, and Richard was rapt: Oh man, I could watch this all night
posted by feelinglistless at 4:39 PM PST - 15 comments
Sports & Leisure Wash®
Ever get that not-so-fresh feeling after a big game? Are you interested in "a thorough bath in just 10 minutes with NO shower or tub, NO water, NO soap, NO towels, and NO laundry"? Sorry ... I just can't see how you can possibly get a
thorough bath without water ... ewww ...
posted by GatorDavid at 4:17 PM PST - 2 comments
@Home pulling a Northpoint?
Looks like excite@home might go dark on friday. I've gotten three emails from AT&T on this and this week looks like it might be it. I feet a great disturbance in the net, Like millions of voices cried
out in terror, then were silenced."
posted by skallas at 3:16 PM PST - 39 comments
In praise of bad habits.
Interesting lecture that postulates our bad habits make us human, and help fulfill an evolutionary need for risk. The lecturer also poses some interesting moral questions about the "health police":
"Engaging in risk - smoking, drinking, creating the possibility of sexually transmitted diseases, eating fat, sugar, salt and avoiding too much exercise - is characteristic of a different strata of society - the poor and marginalised, the working classes, ethnic minorities and 'deviant' groups. When the proponents of healthism are urging changes in lifestyle in order to achieve, in their terms, 'well-being', they are advocating changes for others much more often than they are for themselves. In this sense they are essentially moralists seeking to stigmatise specific members of society."
posted by kittyloop at 2:38 PM PST - 15 comments
Just think, it's normally worth a red card.
(from espn) MADRID -- Sevilla's Francisco Gallardo is totally surprised that the Spanish Football Federation has opened an investigation into his bizarre goal celebration during his team's 4-0 victory over Valladolid last weekend. Gallardo was caught on camera bending down and
biting teammate Jose Antonio Reyes' genitals in celebration of the striker's goal early in the second half of the match. "I don't think what I did was very noteworthy," Gallardo was quoted as saying by Spanish media Wednesday.
"I just felt a slight pinch. I didn't realize what had really happened until I saw the footage on television," Reyes was quoted as saying by the French Press Agency. "Gallardo hasn't heard the end of this. The worst thing now is the stick I'm getting from the other players," he added.
posted by crabwalk at 2:36 PM PST - 26 comments
Looking the World in the Eye
Huntington, a Harvard prof., lays out his vision for the future of the clash of civilizations in an article in The Atlantic Monthly. The main points are-
The fact that the world is modernizing does not mean that it is Westernizing. The impact of urbanization and mass communications, coupled with poverty and ethnic divisions, will not lead to peoples' everywhere thinking as we do.
Asia, despite its ups and downs, is expanding militarily and economically. Islam is exploding demographically. The West may be declining in relative influence.
Culture-consciousness is getting stronger, not weaker, and states or peoples may band together because of cul tural similarities rather than because of ideological ones, as in the past.
The Western belief that parliamentary democracy and free markets are suitable for everyone will bring the West into conflict with civilizationsnotably, Islam and the Chinese that think differently.
In a multi-polar world based loosely on civilizations rather than on ideologies, Americans must reaffirm their Western identity.
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy at 1:27 PM PST - 8 comments
Boy Left At Bus Stop In Snow, Cold
"Nicholas Degnan was left standing in snowy and cold weather about a
quarter-mile from his house... Nicholas said that his legs were sore after the long walk in deep snow."
Hard news, bland food. I love my state.
posted by mecawilson at 12:13 PM PST - 39 comments
Dead Men Walking
Thomas Lipscome urges us to think about 4th generation warfare, the nature of the battle, and the potential dangers well beyond the idea of nations such as Afghanistan and Iraq. From the article:
"Terrorists become extraordinarily resourceful playing weak hands against the strong and rich. So do revolutionaries. And it is time to realize bin Laden is both" This article is short yet wide-ranging, neatly bringing together the Balkans, Clinton, the Media, and 4G warfare.
via follow me here
posted by cell divide at 10:49 AM PST - 3 comments
Whoops, turns out it wasn't Bin Laden who planned 9/11 after all; it was
KOLVENBACH, THE BLACK POPE!!! Dispensational Fifth Monarchy Seventh-Day Baptist-Calvinist White American Freeman anti-Jesuit conspiracies, anyone?
posted by brownpau at 9:18 AM PST - 24 comments
"The Web, left to its own devices, would be the exact opposite of that: It's like a giant city with no neighborhoods; it needs these kind of
meta-filters, these second-level kind of things, whether it is Yahoo or Google or Slashdot, to rein in that chaos and turn it to something more organized." From the
second page of
an interview with the author of
Emergence, Steven Johnson (also co-founder of
Feed).
posted by adrianhon at 8:36 AM PST - 10 comments
I've been accused in the past of only posting serious news item type links - so just to prove that i'm no stick-in-the-mud here is a fun link.
It requires shockwave plugins.....
ladies and gentlemen i give you....
table tennis!! please enjoy this during work hours.
posted by Spoon at 7:44 AM PST - 31 comments
The End of Gay Culture.
In a nutshell, the author is saying that the next generation of homosexuals is discarding gay culture after being accepted into society for its financial clout. What do you think? Is this good, bad or way off base?
posted by Poagao at 1:06 AM PST - 24 comments
November 27
What's up with this Iraq stuff?
No more formal way of putting it, sorry. Can anyone say what the hell is going on
here, exactly, when bin Laden hasn't even be found and the Taliban is still putting up a fight? Is Bush, in saying Saddam will
"find out" how the U.S. will respond to its refusal to allow inspections (again), just throwing a small bone to the hard right? Is the national press on too much of an adrenaline rush, or bored with Afganistan already? Or are the Dr. Strangelove wannabes talked about here really taking over?
posted by raysmj at 11:53 PM PST - 81 comments
"Movie Mask Player
is software that gives you the choice to watch any movie at your comfort level. If you don't want to hear profanity, view graphic violence, or see nudity or sexual content in the movies you watch, then mask (remove) those scenes with Movie Mask. You are now in control over the movies you choose to watch." I can't wait to see what it does to the first 20 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan."
posted by KLAX at 7:00 PM PST - 33 comments
Judge tells Mickey D's to McForget about it.
Chinese guy in England has audacity to name his restaurant McChina's Wok Out. Mickey D's says we own the rights to everything that begins with a Mc. Don't you just love a story where McDonalds is told to go Mcfuck themselves?
posted by MAYORBOB at 6:39 PM PST - 22 comments
coolest christmas songs
i'm trying to put together a really great Christmas c.d. I have some Burl Ives, the Chipmonks, David Bowie with Bing Crosby. But I know I'm missing some great tunes. Do you know of anything cool?
posted by tsarfan at 3:53 PM PST - 123 comments
Name that TV theme song!
Found this little gem while I was googling for a theme song I needed for a school presentation. I'd imagine this would make for a pretty interesting drinking game.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 2:20 PM PST - 6 comments
Cool high-school science experiment:
Mapping The Homunculus. The 15 year old in me wonders why nipples and other naughty bits aren't mentioned, though. Bet they'd be really big!!!
posted by luser at 1:50 PM PST - 8 comments
Watch all 6 New York Miracle Spots!
I've been waiting for them to put these online for a long time. Which one's your favorite? (Mine's Woody Allen...how'd he learn to do that?!) Oh, and you need RealPlayer to view them.
posted by adrober at 12:43 PM PST - 13 comments
Take the
1980s Music Quiz (via Net Buzz).
Guess the song and artist of each. Hint: No two songs are by the same artist, and all were produced between 1980-1989. 222 lines from 222 songs from 222 different artists. This is quality time-wasting.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 12:16 PM PST - 10 comments
Minneapolis declared a snow emergency this morning. That means parking will be banned on all parkways tomorrow. What's a parkway?
The city has a simple answer.
So, the question is, how does
your city torment
you?
posted by mrbula at 9:39 AM PST - 62 comments
"X-men: speed mutation" is a rich and fun analysis
of issues of body, minority struggle, other-ness and the evolution of science fiction in the comic book and film idioms of the X-men. It may even argue that the X-men's overwhelming popularity is owed to something greater than stylized violence and skintight outfits: relevance as a cultural text.
"Immune systems are information systems. Biological space is pervaded and negotiated through exchanges of genetic data; biochemically, we are in a constant state of alienation from our "selves". ... The world of X-Men is inverted on its own processes and intertexts. Its gaze is focused on the technologies of the body and on the intersections between the body and the mind, the body and the self."
posted by scarabic at 8:55 AM PST - 1 comments
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom
Bush has said this in a recent speech.
The Nightwatch Officer also says this to Zack in the Babylon 5 emp "Messages from Earth". Does B5 mirror our reality in a strange warped way? Can a shadow of President Clark be seen in President Bush? Is Ashcroft heading a real world Nightwatch? Where does the line blur between TV news and ISN?
posted by mfoight at 7:46 AM PST - 29 comments
Since the gift season is right around the corner, what are all the audiophiles looking for? Is it a
minidisc? Or
mp3? Or some kind of
combination? Maybe something to integrate into your
stereo system?
Which side of the tradeoff is worth it? Cheap capacity with real-time recording limitations or ease of use and multi-format support with high priced memory?
posted by rich at 7:14 AM PST - 37 comments
I know what I'm buying this year.
Reverend Rose of the Grace Episcopal Church in Hartford, CT has released his annual
Warped Toy List. "A variety of toy stores and discount chains are visited on a monthly basis by members of the Grace Church Warped Toy Committee, in order to track what sort of toys are being offered for children ... Only the very worst, most psychologically dangerous and most offensive toys are selected."
posted by MegoSteve at 6:36 AM PST - 37 comments
November 26
Finally a reason to be proud you're a an atheist lefty.
There perhaps, isn't a publication more vapid than Focus on the Family's hip christian, college age marketed offshoot
"Boundless". In this treasure, the author trashes the intellectual individualism his conservative ideology doesn't afford him. Don't miss the wonderful blurb on the left sidebar which reads:
ROTC recruiters never tire of citing the army's desperate need for the kinds of bright minds and "independent thinkers" needed in today's mobile, high-tech military; and yet many of the most promising candidates remain all but off limits to them. I'm glad I'm from another planet. Obviously.
posted by crasspastor at 10:35 PM PST - 79 comments
Little Marcy
was one-half of a Christian ventriloquist's act, but I wouldn't be surprised if her creepy grin and high-pitched singing were responsible for frightening more kids into becoming atheists than converts.
posted by MrBaliHai at 8:25 PM PST - 8 comments
Giddyup Big Boy.
Is this guy hot to trot or should he just be put out to pasture? Personally, I find HBO's Real Sex to be a real waste of time. That and the sight of this stud in his little leather gear is, well, it's just downright disturbing.
posted by MAYORBOB at 6:22 PM PST - 30 comments
Snoop Dogg will save Cadillac
Want proof: I don't care how much it costs, I don't know what it looks like, but I want one and I have begun saving up already for the Snoop Deville.
Hopefully bulletproof windows and roach-clip are standard.
posted by tsarfan at 3:48 PM PST - 44 comments
Why Don't Prosecutors Want to Let Her Go?
An interesting article from Texas Monthly about journalist Vanessa Leggett, currently clocking record-setting jail time for refusing to turn over names of her sources. The article speculates on the rationale for the prosecution's hard line.
(via Romenesko)
posted by BT at 2:07 PM PST - 13 comments
Has anyone read "Swimming Across" by Andy Grove?
It appears to be pretty far from the traditional "look-at-me, revel in my vision, I'm an uber-CEO," self-promotional book; he never even gets into his Intel career, apparently. Instead it's
an account of Grove's childhood in Hitler and Stalin's Hungary and the story of how he came to America. The book has been
getting great reviews, from people as diverse as
Tom Brokaw, Elie Wiesel and Monica Seles. Still, the cynic in me says that no matter how dramatic the tale, when you're a Fotune 500 CEO, you always have other motives. Perhaps I'm just too cynical. So again, has anyone read it? What did you think?
posted by emptyage at 1:16 PM PST - 3 comments
"Hello, world!" in 114 programming languages.
Whenever picking up a new language, it's customary to write a program that prints "Hello, world!" to see how one goes about writing anything in said language. Now you never need be curious about what language to write your custom-designed CMS in.
posted by moz at 10:48 AM PST - 19 comments
The Age: The perils and joys of fleadom
(where flea=independent businessperson).
"Sadly, Handy says, a world of fleas and small organisations has led to a more selfish society ... 'What we need particularly is somewhere for the unhappy fleas to belong to.'"
So, for all those people who will be unsuccessful in business, and join the have-nots instead of the haves... what could they possibly belong to that would make things allright?
posted by kv at 9:22 AM PST - 4 comments
Unknowingly sending all your personal finance information through the servers of a sleazy ad service: Priceless.
Do you pay your AMEX bill online at
americanexpress.com? If you do, you should know that you're being ported through
the ad.doubleclick.net advertising service. Mouse over the links on the AMEX homepage and see. All your information travels through doubleclick's servers on its way to AMEX. Nice, huh?
posted by jpoulos at 8:49 AM PST - 13 comments
The next supposed Japanese video game craze is about spanking.
The game is simple, you poke a fake derrier for points. Its stupid fun, yet everytime something odd becomes popular in Japan I have to hear two or three pundits explaining to me why its a social phenomenon and how clever the inscrutable designers are. I find it hard to believe that there isn't simply tasteless marketing, no-brainer toys, and bad ideas in Japan. It seems Wired, and others, can't get enough over-analysis.
posted by skallas at 6:37 AM PST - 18 comments
A classic economist would tell you MetaFilter aint worth the server its hosted on. Hed say it has negative worth, since
maintenance probably costs more than the
gains. In classic economic terms, then, MetaFilter is not worth having around and might as well be shut down. Readers might object to that the benefits they recieve are both intangible (information) and immeasurable (community). The information era, with its economy of multiplication, will have more experience with and give more attention to positive sum games if you gain, I'll gain too through feedback loops.
Time to update the Dismal Science.
posted by raaka at 5:19 AM PST - 22 comments
BBC Panorama exposes far right group
and hosts a detailed website, that gives chapter and verse. well, that the BNP are a bunch of nazi's is no real expose, but as someone who fought against these fools in the 70's and 80's, we need to remain vigilant
posted by quarsan at 4:40 AM PST - 4 comments
R2-D2 Beneath the Dome
is cute, funny, silly and the most despicable ploy to hype a movie ever in the history of cinema. Most importantly, it diminishes the stature of
a great man, by failing to mention Kenny Baker's contribution to the successful phenomenon. It's like talking about Indiana Jones "behind the scenes" without mentioning Harrison Ford.
posted by ZachsMind at 12:10 AM PST - 20 comments
November 25
Surrounded on all sides
by religious interolance, these two men prove that you can staunchly maintain your faith under an oppressive regime and still be an utter a-hole.
posted by Hildago at 9:40 PM PST - 11 comments
Just Wave The Flag, And Nobody Gets Hurt.
On Friday, Oct. 26, two Secret Service agents, along with Durham police investigator Rex Godley, came to [A.J.] Brown's apartment. Special Agent Paul Lalley, who did most of the talking, spoke first. "Ma'am, we've gotten a report that you have anti-American material, or something like that, in your apartment," he said, according to Brown. Then the female agent asked if they could come inside.
The "anti-American material"? A poster critical of George Bush.
posted by tpoh.org at 9:21 PM PST - 45 comments
U.S.' first Afghanistan conflict casualty may be C.I.A. operative "Mike"
Time magazine's Alex Perry reported from the scene outside Mazar-i-Sharif that at least one American, whom he identified as "Mike'' and said belonged to U.S. special operations forces, was missing and presumed dead after prisoners began firing smuggled weapons. If the man was confirmed as a soldier, it would be the first known U.S. combat death in Afghanistan since Washington began attacking Taliban forces - although it is suspected that "Mike" is a covert CIA operative.
posted by marc-hamilton at 8:43 PM PST - 4 comments
Dot-Com Is Dot-Gone, and the Dream With It
A New York Times article on the dot-com-crash.
"Each day, the old idols seem to fade further into the dim past, barely recollected in a country where the languages of "revolution" and "warfare" are no longer just business metaphors. This is the next step after the bursting of the dot-com economic bubble the bursting of the cultural bubble, the end of the nerd as a crossover hit, of the I.P.O. zillionaire as role model to college students."
I agree that our country is in the beginning of a cultural revolution; starting with the dot-com crash last year and accelerating with 911. Am I alone or does anyone agree?
posted by Oxydude at 7:34 PM PST - 23 comments
Annoyance or Invasion?
Sure, most of this information is available when you do a WHOIS search on someone, but does anyone else think that this site is putting a little bit too much information out in the open?
posted by almostcool at 7:33 PM PST - 20 comments
P.J. O'Rourke's Finest Moment:
National Lampoon.com has just re-released his classic 1979 article, "
How to Drive Fast On Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink". This was long before he became the sedate, Republican C.E.O. of the Sofa he is today. Is it still funny today? Or only to us nostalgic boomers who remember the spirit of 79?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:54 PM PST - 9 comments
Rising Sea Level Forcing Evacuation of Tuvalu.
"During the twentieth century, sea level rose by 20-30 centimeters (8-12 inches)." The 1,196 tiny islands of the Maldives are "barely 2 meters above sea level". "In 2000 the World Bank published a map showing that a 1-meter rise in sea level would inundate half of Bangladesh's riceland." Here are
EPA and
NASA sites on the sea level. (NASA? They may be promoting justification to colonize other planets ASAP!)
posted by mmarcos at 12:55 PM PST - 17 comments
Military Justice is to Justice as Military Music is to Music.
Alan Dershowitz in The Village Voice: "A long-term resident of the United States who President Bush believes may have aided a terrorist can now be tried in secret by a military commission and be sentenced to death on the basis of hearsay and rumor with no appeal to any civilian court, even the Supreme Court."
posted by adrober at 11:44 AM PST - 29 comments
MIT's Erotic Computation Group.
"By developing advanced sexual appliances and techniques, we seek to broaden the range of human amative expression and heighten our potential for sexual gratification." Good to see that at least some people are doing research that will benefit all mankind.
posted by Eloquence at 11:42 AM PST - 22 comments
November 24
The Burka and the Bikini
"Our war against the Taliban, a regime that does not allow a woman to go to school, walk alone on a city street, or show her face in public, highlights the need to more fully understand the ways in which our own cultural ''uncovering'' of the female body impacts the lives of girls and women everywhere. ... Whether it's the dark, sad eyes of a woman in purdah or the anxious darkly circled eyes of a girl with anorexia nervosa, the woman trapped inside needs to be liberated from cultural confines in whatever form they take. The burka and the bikini represent opposite ends of the political spectrum but each can exert a noose-like grip on the psyche and physical health of girls and women."
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:12 PM PST - 55 comments
In death, J.D. O'Neal leaves few with fond memories
Jerry Dow ONeal II owned
The Current News, a small gay magazine. [...] By last month, when J.D. O’Neal committed suicide to avoid prosecution and shame, hardly anyone in Kansas City considered him a good friend. The 37-year-old white-collar crook and gay-rights opportunist had created enemies throughout the community. [...] ‘It was important for [J.D.] to appear successful.’ [...] ‘I’ll believe he’s dead when I see the body’ ”
posted by joeclark at 6:18 PM PST - 3 comments
Hank Steuver
from WaPo :
When did this happen? Where are the kids who are supposed to be beating up the kids who like Harry Potter? Where is the bully who is going to tell them what kinda dorkface fairies they're being? Where are the kids who don't like to read? So, come on, bullies! Get with the program!
posted by swell at 3:33 PM PST - 34 comments
WE ARE WATCHING YOU.
"The FBI added that its research is 'always mindful of constitutional, privacy and commercial equities,' and that its use of new technology can be challenged in court and in Congress." No really, go ahead, try and stop us if you don't like it. That's your (snicker, snicker) right.
posted by rushmc at 9:17 AM PST - 12 comments
F*ck off you crazy old dyke
In 1993 Camille Paglia and Julie Burchill had this fax exchange over a book review Burchill had done for the Spectator. This brings back all that 80s anti-PC, pro pop culture journalism I loved so much in my youth. Pity both Paglia and Burchill seem to have had their time and run out of ideas. Sorry this is so old, but I only learnt about it while reading Toby Young's
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
posted by Summer at 5:37 AM PST - 30 comments
SpaceWeather.com
is predicting another aurora showing this weekend due to the sun erupting a coronal mass ejection toward earth on Nov. 22nd. Although I live in the far west Chicago suburbs, others around my area saw the wild aurora showings on October 28th and November 6th. I missed them both because I didn't know about these events (which is why I now subscribe to the SpaceWeather.com mailing list). Had I known, maybe I could have seen
this, or
this, or maybe
this, all from around the midwest! One thing's for sure, I'll be outside this weekend. The sky is very busy this fall!
posted by Sal Amander at 1:04 AM PST - 9 comments
November 23
Here's
a piece from NPR for all those people who, even during these crazy times, have a love of getting/receiving mail (need Real Player to hear)...
posted by Miyagi at 9:26 PM PST - 2 comments
The Taliban's war on art
extended beyond merely blowing apart the two monumental Buddhist statues. Here's a nice little piece about a wrecking party at the Kabul Museum of Art lead by the Taliban Ministers of Information and Finance. Their acts of barbarism against women and people who failed to live up to their religious code was unspeakable, but IMHO this willful destruction of art is also worthy of condemnation. This is nothing less than the destruction of a people's culture.
posted by MAYORBOB at 7:58 PM PST - 17 comments
"Universities have a serious problem.
The type of liberalism so heavily favored by the intellectual elite has crossed the line. Professors throughout the educational world are supporting murderers and terrorists; they are justifying despicable actions because of the political philosophies of the actors. Murder, slaughter, and terrorism are OK, they say, as long as they are directed at law-enforcement officials or civilian Westerners. It's fine as long as the murderer is anti-capitalist, anti-establishment or anti-conservative." -- Written by a UCLA student
posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:26 PM PST - 50 comments
Mark and Michelle like to take trips, like
this one by SUV across the entire width of Asia, from Vladivostok to istanbul, through Siberia, Mongolia,
Tuva, Kazakhstan, western China, the Central Asian ex-Soviet republics, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. An immense site, with hundreds of photographs and lots of great stories.
Travel narratives like this are a classic use for the web, and there must be lots of them out there. Any favorites?
posted by rodii at 3:33 PM PST - 9 comments
Mary Whitehouse dies.
Whitehouse was a campaigner for what she considered taste and decency on TV. So that meant no swearing, no violence, absolutely no sex (no matter who was doing it) and certainly no fun. Her perfect schedule would have been church services, cookery programmes and happy news about animals. For some peculiar reason she targetted Doctor Who in particular during the 70s for being too scary for children which led to that show moving from a taste for horror to tasteless kitch. Oh and Channel Four for be about young people, for young people. As former C4 controller Michael Grade relates: "She really wanted television to be propaganda for a very moral view of the world, not the imperfect world we live in. She was really detached from the reality of the creative process."
posted by feelinglistless at 12:21 PM PST - 24 comments
