Yahoo IMvironments are the latest fad that the company's come up with. It makes your chatting easier, prettier and more fun - and a lot more bulky and resource hungry. I don't know how many people here actually use Y!, but my guess is this wont take long to disappear.
posted by arnab at 10:29 PM PST - 20 comments

Ha! Suckers! The first post of 2002 belongs to me. EST. Screw you Pacific Coast types.
posted by yerfatma at 9:10 PM PST - 16 comments

You can't make this stuff up. How much you wanna bet this results in an interesting ad campaign or at the very least a related product name change.
posted by jonmc at 8:06 PM PST - 4 comments

The town of Gander in Newfoundland, Canada is a town of 10,000 where 6600 airline passengers were diverted after the attacks of September. While hearing a radio story about it on NPR, I was moved to flubbery tears by the outpouring of camaraderie and cooperation by the townspeople and passengers. Happy New Year, Canadians, and everyone else too, after quite a tumultuous year.
posted by readymade at 6:07 PM PST - 15 comments

Euro the new European currency is now official in 12 European countries. In Crete the ancient home of Europa who was a Kings daughter abducted by Zeus, Europa gave Zeus 3 sons and he in turn promised to name a continent after her. Now Europa has a currency as well. In Italy it may not mean love but it does mean cheaper sex. Tonight the ATMs are restocked and even Monopoly money is reprinted.
posted by stbalbach at 4:59 PM PST - 8 comments

Wishing you all a happy new year from the GMT zone, specifically, Dublin, Ireland, where it's now appproximately 10 minutes past the hour!
posted by tomcosgrave at 4:10 PM PST - 14 comments

coming to the stark realization that i will probably be sitting in front of a terminal when the new year arrives i was wondering how any other socially maladjusted people will be spending new year's eve. of course, you can always watch everyone else have a good time over at earthcam but if there's something more exciting i can point my browser and beer at, please enlighten the group.
posted by boogah at 3:33 PM PST - 37 comments

This year's Oscar race is shaping up to be populated entirely by dark horses. In the absence of any clear shoo-in nominees, the disputes among Oscar voters (as well as the marketing campaigns mounted by the studios) are growing increasingly heated.
posted by jjg at 2:08 PM PST - 26 comments

Is The Economy Broken? It was one thing when it was the tech/Internet sector - the bubble burst, but now the wave continues with the 2002 recovery seeming like wishful thinking. If it's not layoffs, companies are cutting their 401k plans. Argentina's crisis seems like it will have ripple effects as well. Then you have numbers saying people are confident, so are we getting tanked by jittery Wall Street-ers? Oh, there's also a war on.
posted by owillis at 1:24 PM PST - 13 comments

Is it almost 2002....or 1802? Regardless, it's a good time for a book burning. And this isn't the first time a congregation has taken offence to Harry Potter, nor will it be the last, I'm sure. I don't even know what to say, other than....sigh.
posted by videodrome at 12:53 PM PST - 24 comments

By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA. From the website at the Library of Congress, the posters consist of 908 boldly colored and graphically diverse original posters produced from 1936 to 1943 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Of the 2,000 WPA posters known to exist, the Library of Congress's collection of more than 900 is the largest. These striking silkscreen, lithograph, and woodcut posters were designed to publicize health and safety programs; cultural programs including art exhibitions, theatrical, and musical performances; travel and tourism; educational programs; and community activities in seventeen states and the District of Columbia. For examples, see a poster on the health dangers of Syphilis and one for the play Alison's House: A Poetic Romance.
posted by moz at 11:28 AM PST - 4 comments

Mean Greenies I realize MeFi sometimes seems like PetaFilter these days, but this new ad campaign [pdf] from the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals struck me as sufficently odd to merit discussion. Long story short: it's a big, expensive ad urging you not to donate money. [more]
posted by Shadowkeeper at 10:35 AM PST - 62 comments

Tonight is Silvesterabend, the last night of the year. While some feel that champagne and huge, rollicking parties are in order, others feel that quieter times with family and friends are the way to go. Of course, you must also have your pork and sauerkraut for good luck (my mother always asks to make sure I have) and a little Bleigiessen, or fortune telling by pouring molten lead into a liquid, for entertainment. Personally I think champagne tastes like ass so I'll be drinking bottled Gluhwein from my friend's winery.
posted by RevGreg at 10:24 AM PST - 18 comments

Notre Dame expected to hire Stanford's Willingham Can't help but to cheer for this opportunity for Willingham. Can't help but to weep that my beloved Cardinal is losing the best coach they have had in years.
posted by gazingus at 10:22 AM PST - 7 comments

No high school diploma or GED required for new aiport security screeners. The author of the bill, Senator Kay Bailey-Hutchison of Texas, "said Sunday she would prefer airport security screeners have at least a high school education, but it is a "judgment call." The DOT requirements page requires a h.s. diploma, ged, or "one year of any type of work experience that demonstrates the applicant's ability to perform the work of the position." In a rush to overhaul the system, are we setting our standards too low?
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:48 AM PST - 18 comments

The Universe in One Year Every year on December 31 since I was in 7th grade I think of something I saw in an episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. I found this: Imagine that the history of the universe is compressed into one year—with the Big Bang occurring in the first seconds of New Year’s Day, and all our known history occurring in the final seconds before midnight on December 31. Using this scale of time, each month would equal a little over a billion years. Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for almost two hundred million years - from December 25 to December 30 on this time line. Most of our entire written history fits into the last 10 seconds of the year. It's something to think about while watching the ball drop tonight.
posted by stevis at 8:49 AM PST - 28 comments

The Night They Invented Champagne... Tonight's the night for Champagne. Meaning French. No other is as appropriate or necessary. If you know nothing - or a lot - about this most pleasant and aphrodisiac of all wines, you should still get more serious about it. The Champagne Growers' Association has an excellent website where you can learn how to chill, open, serve and properly taste Champagne. They'll even send you four free, attractive little notebooks to keep in your cocktail cabinet. The green roll-down menus are all enlightening and to the point. But don't think the French have all the experts. There's this amazing American website, called IntoWine, put up by the M2 Communications Wine Education Center, which is just as wise and, typically, more complete and snobbish. Their Champagne section is faultless. Compare cultures by noting how they serve Champagne. Check out their full list of Champagne houses and related movies. Happy New Year, MetaFilter!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:53 AM PST - 28 comments

A Plea For Realism This is the first time I have seen an on-line or paper eminating from the Arab states and serving the Arab/Muslim community suggest a new approach that is peaceful for bringing about a resolution the the chaos that has marked this past year in that area of the world.
posted by Postroad at 6:13 AM PST - 8 comments

Sacred Commerce? Funny, I walked daily to work past the World Trade Center, and have been in the Middle East more than once, but it never occured to me to connect the WTC with Islamic architecture until I read this.
posted by MidasMulligan at 5:46 AM PST - 1 comments

Two in a week! That must be a record or something. Nobody knows where is Argentina going, and the rioters keep making damages in the capital. Nice way to spend the New Year's eve.
posted by Flor at 5:28 AM PST - 10 comments

Prophets of doom In June 2000, Lynne Palmer, a 69-year-old Las Vegas resident, published her Astrological Almanac for 2001... On page 95 of the book, buried among advice on the best days to go to the movies and worst days to lend people money, Palmer had written, in an odd combination of the obvious and the prophetic: "Avoid terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001."
posted by raaka at 5:06 AM PST - 23 comments

Before you drink and think of driving, you should know exactly how drunk you are allowed to be, depending on which US state you're in. The Blood Alcohol Educator (shockwave) will set you straight for a safe new year. Just put in some info about yourself, head off to the virtual bar to pick your drinks and how fast you'd like to slam them. You'll get stats on how legally drunk you are, tips on how to keep your BAC down, and nuggets of info about your current state. Here's to a safe new year.
posted by mathowie at 1:54 AM PST - 21 comments

Greek Mythology told in a much different manner than when I was in school. Check out Achilles' page, where you can play the Iliad game. Test your knowledge of the epic story. The illustrated Cupid and Psyche story is...interesting.
posted by ashbury at 12:17 AM PST - 5 comments

Attention hipsters: Afghans for Afghans is a grassroots project inspired by "the Red Cross Knitting Tradition" which is soliciting hand made afghans to send with the American Friends Service Committee to refugee camps. So if you've recently taken up knitting to be trendy or to deal with these troubling times, make yourself useful -- knit or crochet an afghan for an afghan refugee. (And hurry, the deadlines are fast approaching.)
posted by palegirl at 11:17 PM PST - 7 comments

"Bart to the Future", Simpsons Season 11 Episode 13 (airdate 2000-03-19), featured the following quote from a wheelchair-bound Krusty 30-years in the future: "Let's start off with a joke. I got one: What's the difference between Pakistan and a pancake? I don't know any pancakes that were nuked by India! Ha-ha! What? Too soon?"
posted by gojomo at 9:28 PM PST - 14 comments

India brags that "We will win a nuclear war"
posted by Oxydude at 6:39 PM PST - 35 comments

"Acts of bastardry" are still going around Sydney.
Bad conditions help along the Christmas bushfires started by lightning and mad, wicked behaviour. (I certainly know what it's like.) But why did the fires spread so quickly? Didn't something like this happen in 1997? Is it very dry in southern Australia, or is it El Nino?!
posted by rschram at 6:38 PM PST - 11 comments

Um... can someone explain to me how a parent could do this to their child? Check out some accompanying links and tell me how this isn't child porn and why these parents aren't in prison right now.
posted by tsumo at 3:14 PM PST - 54 comments

Is it buyer beware or Ebay's responsability when 75 winners of Playstation 2 systems receive nothing but a picture of the unit that cost them $300.00
posted by Eric Lloyd NYC at 1:39 PM PST - 42 comments

Taj Mahal camouflaged The Taj Mahal is to be covered with a '400 metres of khaki, black and green cloth' to protect it from possible Pakistan attacks. Bizarre and sad that it's nescessary, though. Before posting, I noted a link shown on the same page, offering another solution... Sorry, couldn't resist to post it.
posted by swordfishtrombones at 1:00 PM PST - 31 comments

The Tora-Bora Manuscripts As soon as I published this journal at Blogger.com its servers were hacked. I believe it is a conspiracy perpetrated by the enemies of the TRUTH, trying to stop me. A lame but amusing hoax? Or dangerous and ancient secrets that will blow things wide open?
posted by y6y6y6 at 9:13 AM PST - 16 comments

An ancient 3,200-year-old papyrus map has led to the discovery of pharoanic gold mines in Egypt's eastern desert that will give Egypt one of the top 10 gold reserves in the world. The original pharaonic map, which is the world’s earliest surviving geological survey, was discovered in Luxor in 1820 and has since been on display in a Turin museum.
posted by stbalbach at 9:02 AM PST - 10 comments

Band names are out; blog names are in. All of us musical inepts who spent more time thinking up band names than actually learning to play an instrument now have a purpose for our great list of names that rock your world, dude! Here's a really brief list of blog names grabbed from Linkwatcher, any one of which could have been a band name: Virulent Memes, Grouse, The Dome of the Sky, Underduck, Sixth Dev, Ten Reasons Why, Industrial Technology and Witchcraft, Phester, Hopeless Romantics, Next Generation Degeneration, Being Terran, Hit or Miss, Entropy, Wee David, Kitty Kitty, Inexplicable Fancy Trash, etc etc. On the flip side, you could use random band name generators to come up with blog names, too. Some people compile lists of band names. Of course, some sites take band names seriously. What's your best band/blog name ever?
posted by monkey-mind at 7:47 AM PST - 38 comments

50 things we'll be glad to see the back of in 2002 Yes, its another whimsical list from 'The Guardian', this more vitriolic than most. Personally I'd like to see the back of 2001. What a crappy year.
posted by feelinglistless at 7:19 AM PST - 23 comments

Himalayan Art Project Take a look when you next have a quiet moment. "There’s too much beauty upon this earth for lonely men to bear" (R. Le Gallienne).
posted by Voyageman at 6:31 AM PST - 2 comments

Sexchart Degrees of Separation (from this Wired story). Picture a connect-the-dot puzzle in which the dots represent people, mostly computer geeks and their ilk, who have hooked up romantically with others. And, whew, there are a lot of connected dots.
posted by helloboys at 6:20 AM PST - 17 comments

Are College Students Stupider and Less Informed Than 30 Years Ago? Professor Anders Henriksson says they ain't necessarily so. He's been collecting students' bloopers for 30 years and suggests they aren't getting worse at all. That's assuming they could, of course. Is he right or just pulling our leg? (from today's Los Angeles Times)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:58 AM PST - 45 comments

So Forsberg is coming back and it means the Avalance could once again be a force to be reckoned with. Can anyone beat Detroit? And in the East, the Bruins are looking good. I care, but do my fellow nerds? It seems there's a serious dearth of computer geeks that follow hockey. Is the gap between ESPN and ICQ that big? Do any of you other nerds watch hockey, or is it dead?
posted by Samsonov14 at 12:18 AM PST - 30 comments

No shopping, no presents, no guilt! End compulsory consumption by resisting xmas. It's never too early to start campaigning for next year.
posted by mathowie at 2:16 PM PST - 65 comments

Pollution Linked to Birth Defects in Recent Study. There is no better example of "terrorism" than maiming children simply to further bloat the wallets of the rich. Of course, our fearless right-wing leaders are right on top of the problem.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 1:30 PM PST - 32 comments

African fantasy coffins are produced by the Ga and other tribes of the Ghana coast to confer the status of travel and luxury goods upon the deceased. The coffins themselves are incredibly detailed works of art that range from miniature Mercedes automobiles and cellphones to giant fish and Coke cans. What would you like to be buried in?
posted by MrBaliHai at 1:02 PM PST - 13 comments

Help build an embassy for Aliens! It's good to know that even in the 21st century humanity hasn't lost it's taste for bizarre causes and mindless superstition.
posted by MidasMulligan at 11:58 AM PST - 9 comments

Two men are flying a Cessna from South Africa to Alaska. "When I'm feeling romantic, I like to think of us as a modern-day Lewis and Clark (or maybe Huck and Jim), two guys on a once-in-a-lifetime aerial road trip. But there's more to it than that. Amid the mundane details and daily routine inside the Cessna cabin, I expect there to be unforeseen revelations and epiphanies – about the world seen this unique way and perhaps about ourselves." [check out the ultra-cool map]
posted by skallas at 11:09 AM PST - 6 comments

Learning propper english gramar ain't gotta suck no longer. Someones made it fun and enjoyable for everybody! And when you meat someone who can't write good, you'll know why. This could even be the dearth of the MeFi grammar flames even! (nahhh)
posted by BentPenguin at 10:42 AM PST - 6 comments

The ultimate ride. Don't move for 70 hours...
posted by jacobw at 9:40 AM PST - 9 comments

Image and reality: The role of the US in the Middle East The leading spokesperson for the Palestinian cause chastises Israel and the U.S. No attempt here to see that there may be some shortcomings due to excessses or intransigence on the Arab side. Another binary view of reality or a useful assessment?
posted by Postroad at 9:32 AM PST - 5 comments

John Derbyshire calls for the murder of Chelsea Clinton. [More inside]
Link via Andrew Sullivan's blog.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:54 AM PST - 44 comments

Maryland Rescuers Find a Kitten and Look for Justice "In an act of cruelty that recalls last year's road-rage death of a California pooch named Leo, a driver in Poolesville dropped a 10-week-old kitten into the middle of busy Route 107 on Christmas and then took off. Somehow, the animal was not hit by traffic. But in its fright, it darted toward the curb and into a storm drain. And there it likely would have died if not for the lengthy effort of several do-gooders -- one of whom crawled 30 feet through a storm pipe to grab the two-pound bundle of fur. That's an unquestionably happy ending. For chief rescuer Ellie Truman[e], though, the ending won't be complete until the man who abandoned the kitten so egregiously is identified and charged." (Even the Washington Post loves kitten stories!)
posted by Carol Anne at 8:48 AM PST - 7 comments

EU to independent farmers: Drop dead.
posted by darukaru at 8:46 AM PST - 8 comments

Oscars Smoshcars, here's the Felix awards.... Michael Musto at his bitchy best, handing out dishonorable mentions to a variety of media and showbiz faux pas. Any other year end articles worth a read out there?
posted by BGM at 12:26 AM PST - 19 comments

A week before filing for bankruptcy protection, energy giant Enron Corp. donated $100,000 to the Democratic Party committee that helps Senate candidates, campaign finance reports show. Enron has been talked about before, so do people think this is an important sum of money, if not why is CNN covering it?
posted by rhyax at 8:39 PM PST - 13 comments

The Solution?...Fly Naked
So you can sneak a bomb in your shoe. The only solution is to fly naked. You can't bring anything on board; it all has to be shipped separately on cargo jet. There has to be an air marshall on every flight -- no in plain clothes (because nobody's in clothes) but sitting in front of the cockpit, heavily armed and ready. It's getting that ridiculous. What can we do?
posted by riley370 at 8:33 PM PST - 23 comments

Commentary on the state of morning TV? A New York TV station ran a two hour video of a burning piece of wood on Christmas day and it beat Good Morning America, etc. in the Nielsens.
posted by mragreeable at 5:22 PM PST - 22 comments

Vanishing America. While doing some research on the "neon graveyard" in Las Vegas, I ran into this site which seeks to "discover, procure, document and preserve through photographic media the architecture and cultural landscapes situated along the highways of the U.S." While I wish that the gallery had more entries, the links section is a real gem. How else would you find out about stuckonstuckeys.com or The grotto of the redemption?
posted by machaus at 3:23 PM PST - 8 comments

Jorge Colombo has been creating daily portraits of New Yorkers for almost three years straight. While in the past they've tended towards the whimsical, after September 11th, they took on a different tone. [via media nugget]
posted by mathowie at 1:55 PM PST - 7 comments

Survivor 4 Completes Filming in the Marquesas
    Supposedly this was a big secret, but if you live in Tahiti and the Marquesas, it was public knowledge that the next Survivor series will be set in Nuku Hiva, in the Marquesas Islands (Map: French Polynesia).
    Of note, people have been trading gossip about the show's many secrets. This site release regular reports on what's afoot on Nuku Hiva, and speculates on the content of next season's show. Unlike the last settings for Survivor, Nuku Hiva is convenient for tourists (Map: Nuku Hiva Amenities), and is densely populated by Marquesans and Tahitians. This must have been the leakiest Survivor ever.
    It may be worth watching next year, just for the scenery! (Scroll down for pics.)
posted by rschram at 1:18 PM PST - 19 comments

Pakistan Tells US It May Move Troops: So what happens to the alliance against terrorism, and recalling 4,000 troops, do they seriously think in a war that number would make a difference, or is all of this a ploy to get the US to back Pakistan in the war against India.
posted by bittennails at 12:12 PM PST - 25 comments

Damn! That is alot of snow Buffalo has gotten over five feet of snow. I hope everyone is ok. This is just amazing.
posted by aj100 at 11:48 AM PST - 22 comments

"From northern Alberta in the days of his cub-hood, a bear went astray and experienced the evils of alcohol and drugs and found it un-"bear"-able." Now you too can become a mascot costumed character! (In this case, Sober Bear.)
posted by kahboom at 11:14 AM PST - 9 comments

NAKED MOLE RATS!!! Aren't they cute?
posted by peterme at 10:40 AM PST - 15 comments

ePimps tell your tales! Uber and So New Media have a special request for all the "eLovas" of the world. Have you got an eLove story to share? And is this funny, or a commentary on the lengths to which people will reach for love?
posted by spslsausse at 9:48 AM PST - 20 comments

CD prices to drop due to competition from the net? "(We) believe music software CD prices may soon permanently decline to $9.99 given weak sell-through of new artists and continued Internet piracy that appears unstoppable."

Is there an economic model for competition from piracy pushing prices down? This seems to contradict the rhetoric about the rest of us paying more because of pirates.
posted by NortonDC at 7:39 AM PST - 53 comments

With the impending release of Episode 2 this summer, be prepared for an onslaught of new toys, including some that will bring back memories of Return of the Jedi, as well as resurrect old flaps over the not-so-subtle cultural stereotypes in the movie series. On a side note, I like what they've done to Obi-Wan's hair these days.
posted by manero at 7:02 AM PST - 29 comments

Reid (shoe bomber) used Web top buy explosives Or so he has claimed. Who said the Web does not have its important uses? Should such purchases be allowed" Is there now a need for disallowing some items on the Net?
posted by Postroad at 6:05 AM PST - 18 comments

New Year's Resolutions 4 days to go, can't start the year without it, so here goes - yet another one which will make me feel good but I will inevitably break: learn something new by taking all the free seminars at Fathom, the best learning site I could find. And you?
posted by Voyageman at 4:40 AM PST - 24 comments

Two new baseball stadiums for New York! At a time when NYC seems to be barreling towards huge debts, public workers aren't getting raises and the city needs to be rebuilt, the Yankees and the Mets -- two of the richest teams with the highest attendence -- are getting brand new stadiums courtesy of the city budget. Giuliani wants the deal finished as he leaves office.
posted by argybarg at 7:57 PM PST - 45 comments

A New Year's Idea: Pay For Some
So, slashdot says A Great New Year's Idea is to Pay For Some Freedom, eg. BSD, EFF or MozillaZine to name just a few, but what else can we do?
Metafilter, OddTodd, IMDB [Aren't they already owned by Amazon?], lots of good places to spread the holiday cheer. Seems like there is no shortage of Folks who are looking for something.
I like the idea of Getting Something In Return, not sure if that makes me greedy, or scroogey.
Seems like the web has really given us a new list of worthy causes...
posted by Blake at 6:10 PM PST - 5 comments

This might be really untimely investigative reporting or a very slick piece of disinformation to rework a very crude and obvious earlier attempt to spread more of the same. Whatever the reason, FoxNews published the story on their website (in 4 parts), and then they mysteriously took it down. Without any explanation.
Meanwhile, none of the other news outlets are going near the story. Except for www.cryptome.org. So, info or disinfo, you make the call...
posted by BentPenguin at 4:12 PM PST - 17 comments

The Seven Wonders of the Web according to The Guardian. Something missing surely?
posted by feelinglistless at 2:03 PM PST - 51 comments

Iceland moves to become the first country to replace fossil fuels with hydrogen for all its energy needs. I find it fitting that a society descended from Vikings will become the world's first hydrogen society.
posted by homunculus at 11:04 AM PST - 32 comments

It's That Pesky Skin Color Thing Again. An Arab-American member of President Bush's security detail was denied passage on an American Airlines flight from Baltimore to Dallas Tuesday evening... "They didn't see an American, they didn't see a law enforcement professional. All they saw was a racial and ethnic profile that they didn't want on their flight." -- NY Times site.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 10:47 AM PST - 41 comments

This is ODD. I was reading a flash/videogame forum and clicked this one looking for more video game information. Any info?
posted by Niahmas at 9:45 AM PST - 21 comments

Recidivism being what it is among terrorists, we should kill 'em all, sez George Will in today's Washington Post. Does America have the stomach to do what its adorable chipmunk-cheeked pundits advise be done? Is he actually suggesting we line up the enemy against a wall and start shooting? Again?
posted by luser at 9:30 AM PST - 33 comments

WebVerbix can conjugate verbs for you sixty-four languages, ranging from French and Spanish to Dutch and a variety of creoles. The best part is that it'll do it for free (though you can buy the software and conjugate in 100 languages.) It's sites like these that remind me why I love the Internet.
posted by headspace at 9:01 AM PST - 16 comments

northern-lights is a site dedicated to the Aurora Borealis- the science behind it, lights-spotting, forecasts and historical interpretations. If you live in North America and don't want to miss it, take advantage of the Aurora Alarm, thanks to Mark Haun and his skywatching friends.
posted by kahboom at 8:37 AM PST - 4 comments

An Original approach to armed robbery. And they say countries like Bangladesh are more repressed than the USA. Of course, this must have been an interesting day for the sketch artist down at the police station.
posted by jonmc at 7:59 AM PST - 15 comments

Court TV Seeks to Broadcast Moussaoui Trial. The Senate has passed a bill allowing for the closed circuit televising (similar to that used in the case against McVeigh and Nichols) of the trial in this case to a number of locations for victims of the crimes associated with the terrorist acts of September 11th, who have an interest in attending, but can not do so because of inconvenience and expense. Federal rules prohibit TV cameras in the courtroom, but Court TV argues that the prohibition is unconstitutional. Television coverage has come a long way from the first case involving the impact of radio and television broadcasting before the U.S. Supreme Court, which resulted in an overturned conviction. Should cameras be allowed in the courtroom, and if they are, will they shape the outcome of the trial?
posted by bragadocchio at 10:55 PM PST - 14 comments

Crazy talk from the State Department! “Any conflict between the two countries can have no good result for either country. They need to resolve their differences through dialogue.”
posted by raaka at 10:21 PM PST - 29 comments

The BBC are testing out Ogg Vorbis for audio streaming. Ogg is a completely Free and open audio codec. This is great news for Ogg Vorbis, as you don't get a much better endorsement than one of the most respected media services trialling your system.
posted by helloboys at 7:56 PM PST - 9 comments

Hot air balloons! Great site out of Belgium with a database of 850 balloons from all over the world, from panda bears (Japan) to yellow submarines (Russia), and including multiple versions of such shapes as Humpty Dumpty, Tony theTiger, and (especially) liqour bottles. And check out the album. Any balloonists out there?
posted by ferris at 6:33 PM PST - 12 comments

FCC Wants To Revoke Kevin Mitnick's Ham Radio License. Don't they have better things to be worrying about right now? (from Politech)
posted by tpoh.org at 4:40 PM PST - 35 comments

The Zen of Dumpster Diving: The strangely moving tale of one frustrated man, and how he reinvented his life with trash. You can also listen to author Dirk Jamison read an abbreviated version of this story.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:52 PM PST - 15 comments

Memories from a vanished life Paul Battaglia died in the World Trade Center attacks. His Web page, however, lives on, complete with photos of his now-crumbled office and the view he once had. He also had a Blogger-powered Weblog on the front of his site, the last post of which is on Aug. 23.
posted by GaelFC at 12:07 PM PST - 22 comments

Cambodians Lead Social Evolution Through Tactical Weapons.
Phnom Penh, a shining city on the hill of cultural evolution.
posted by basilwhite at 10:52 AM PST - 10 comments

the grinch that hacked Blogger with all of its users and weekly issues, what would be the glory in hacking into a system that breaks on its own?
posted by tsarfan at 9:39 AM PST - 25 comments

Sometimes, often even, life imitates art. Rarely is it as spot-on as this example. Recall if you will, actor Robert Downey's character in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. Compare Downey's character to this photo.
Now, try not to laugh.
No, really. Be serious, because this picture pretty much sums up everything thats gone wrong with modern journalism (and does so without even so much as a caption).
posted by BentPenguin at 8:57 AM PST - 17 comments

Sir Nigel Hawthorne dies. Goodnight Sir Humphrey.
posted by feelinglistless at 8:02 AM PST - 8 comments

"But at some point along the path to discovery, the reader confronts his or her reading mortality. There's only so much time. And there are so many great books." I must come to grips with this myself, even as I anxiously await the inaugural book club discussion. I must admit, though, that people like this [NYT link] make me feel my own "reading mortality" more acutely. (I wish I could read that much so quickly...)
posted by arco at 11:45 PM PST - 18 comments

All You Need To Know About Aphrodisiacs. Forget mistletoe this holiday season, try onions instead, or better yet, brush up on your mathematics.
posted by Voyageman at 4:22 PM PST - 8 comments

India, Pakistan enjoy theatrical proxy war A ceremony to lower the flags of the two perennially hostile neighbours at Wagah, their only rail and road crossing point, has been transformed into a show of highly stylised aggression, and one which draws huge and noisy crowds to taunt each other. Better than the real thing, I suppose.
posted by Rastafari at 9:31 AM PST - 26 comments

Arthur Miller, playwright, fears for American Civil Liberties Here is a distinguised writing Lefty who sure does not give up and hits away at what he perceives as enemies as he did so many years ago. Usually, with age, lefties grow up and move Rightward.
posted by Postroad at 9:27 AM PST - 32 comments

How about another gadget to carry around? A laptop, an mp3 player, a cell phone, a PDA, a digital camera, and now, i-glasses?
posted by jacobw at 9:14 AM PST - 18 comments

What is AWCA? "It’s an illness that can strike at any time, that can affect even the most sensible and rational blogger. It strikes slowly at first — a glance at The Nation or Village Voice, a quick peek at what the Berkeley City Council is up to this week — but can develop into a full-bore obsession. Minutes trolling on Indymedia turn into hours, ridiculed websites make their way to the Windows Favorites list, until finally one cannot bear to turn off the computer before seeing the words quagmire, proportionality, Arab street, root causes, and “terrorists” (in quotation marks only)." My name is Steve, and I suffer from AWCA.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:42 AM PST - 29 comments

Like cranberry sauce on turkey.... if the cranberry sauce had been sitting open on the counter for a week... Already had a snootful of cloying, pre-fab Christmas Cheer? Some good old black humor is what you need! Neil Swaab, creator of the anti-Pooh, Mr. Wiggles, has posted an excerpt from his tome "I Got Pregnant Off A Pity F*** And Now My Kid Looks Like Jerry Springer: A Book About Kids"
posted by BGM at 1:23 AM PST - 4 comments

Bush Admin contemplating the quarantine of super computers made in the US.
posted by HoldenCaulfield at 10:04 PM PST - 11 comments

Perry Farrell helps free sudanese slaves. Yes, the same Perry Farrell from Jane's Addiction. apparently he risked getting shot down by militia forces to rescue 2,300 women and children from slavery. wow.
posted by mcsweetie at 8:29 PM PST - 27 comments

Joyeux Noël from Paris ! I hope everyone around here is having a great time with their friends, families and/or relatives, wether you celebrate X-mas or not. Besides being a commercial outrage nowadays, it's a time for giving/sharing, spending time with the loved ones and feeling like a child again. So : "yay !"
posted by XiBe at 6:22 PM PST - 9 comments

Feliiiiiiz Navidad... en SANTO DOMINGO!
Just a reminder, Jared the Butcher of Songs is still ready to torture and aggravate your friends and family this holiday season. Jared is available for both Windows and Macintosh, as well as for weddings, birthdays and Bar Mitzvahs. Make sure to read Jared’s liner notes as well.
[Warning: heavy link-rot.]
posted by Down10 at 2:47 PM PST - 7 comments

"Jingle Bells" is the first Christmas song we learn. It's the Christmas song no one ever forgets. But when "Jingle Bells" was written in the 1850s by Boston native James Lord Pierpont, it was not a Christmas song. It had nothing to do with the holidays. "Jingle Bells" was what you might call pre-Civil War rock 'n' roll. In its seldom-heard original form, it's about having a flashy vehicle, driving it too fast and using it to pick up girls. (by Larry Katz, Boston Herald--via Fark.com)
posted by Carol Anne at 2:08 PM PST - 3 comments

S-11 Redux: (Channel) Surfing the Apocalypse So, in the face of our media's shameless propaganda campaign, we have taken it upon ourselves to intuit what the intentions and goals of this war truly are. In what is surely a departure from our traditional NewsVideo format, GNN presents S-11 Redux: (Channel) Surfing the Apocalypse. Culled from over 20 hours of television footage recorded over a one month period and across 13 networks, S-11 Redux is a sound-bite blitzkrieg that challenges the messages we have been fed from our mainstream media and the government it serves. Be warned - this video moves quickly and will require at least two viewings to digest its full impact. You may never be able to look at the coverage of S-11 and its post-impact coverage the same way, ever again
posted by Niahmas at 12:50 PM PST - 31 comments

Google Year-End Zeitgeist. "From 'Harry Potter' to 'Osama Bin Laden' and 'Florida Supreme Court' to 'Napster,' the Google Year-End Zeitgeist reveals the collective focus of the online mind, highlighting the main events that drew the attention of a global audience"
posted by skwm at 11:47 AM PST - 16 comments

Why is American architecture so bad? "American architecture is, as a rule, conventional, bland, and dull. This is true almost across the board: from public buildings sponsored by federal or state governments to commercial buildings; from privately sponsored civic institutions, such as museums and concert halls, to local community centers and religious sanctuaries; from public-housing projects to private housing."
posted by rushmc at 11:26 AM PST - 37 comments

Singing the holiday blues? Its quite a common affliction. Nothing like a collective brush with death however, to put stuff all back into the proper perspective.
posted by BentPenguin at 11:24 AM PST - 5 comments

English It's the language of Metafilter, Internet, eveything. Everybody happy? I'm a native speaker but I don't live in an English speaking country. Apart from the it's inevitable/ I couldn't give a crap, it's my language stuff, is anybody out there ambiguous? (More inside)
posted by Zootoon at 11:17 AM PST - 62 comments

Notable Deaths of 2001. I knew Ken Kesey, Eudora Welty, and Dale Evans had died this year, but had missed some death notices - R.I.P Gregory Corso, Joey Ramone, Poul Anderson, Sir Fred Hoyle.
posted by ferris at 8:34 AM PST - 24 comments

Was Christmas TV really ever all that special? 'Off The Telly' reviews three decades of Christmas Day television in Britain. "It's funny...that Christmas time is actually an excuse for some of the worst TV atrocities of the year to be inflicted upon us. Christmas telly does not equate with quality. And yet, never does TV become a more integral part of our own family or personal routines and traditions. And never are we so receptive to a gathering of disparate middle-of-the-road celebrities and their stale party pieces." And for the ultra-cynic, TV-Go-Home's Charlie Booker presents an alternative schedule.
posted by feelinglistless at 4:44 AM PST - 17 comments

Restroom Ratings is a site where you can scope out the possible nastiness of a bathroom before you need to go use it. Most of the rated bathrooms seem to be centered around the Minneapolis, MN area. You can even send a restroom e-card to your friends (or enemies).
posted by manero at 1:40 AM PST - 11 comments

The most popular board game in Argentina now is called "Deuda Eterna", Eternal Debt. It's been flying off the shelves. It has the players trying to operate South American countries which are rich in natural resources while trying to outfox the IMF. (The name is a play on "Deuda Externa", Foreign Debt, on which Argentina just stopped paying interest.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 1:05 AM PST - 12 comments

Ironic Spam article Does anyone find it ironic that a NY Times article on the horrors of spam is accompanied by one of those ads that automatically plays annoying music and requires you to find and then click on the off switch every time the page loads?
posted by Poagao at 9:46 PM PST - 8 comments

I got this today. Does it mean the terrorists won if I dont get a .USA account?
posted by sadie01221975 at 7:57 PM PST - 22 comments

When do the war powers expire? (LA Times) With a state of War being used to justify increased security measures, spending bills, unlimited detention and international military action is anybody else uncomfortable with the vagueness of the 'current situation'? How and when can we say we have won and declare it peacetime again?
posted by srboisvert at 7:37 PM PST - 10 comments

State government run amuck -- I'm usually proud to be from Jersey, but what's been going on in Trenton recently with lawsuits to stop acting governors from signing spending bills that the budget can't handle is nothing compared to what's going to happen in January. . . A couple of 2-day governors (one from each party) are going to have their way with the state house, governor's mansions, stationery, and POLITICAL APPOINTEES. . . . A POX ON BOTH THEIR HOUSES!
posted by fpatrick at 7:14 PM PST - 9 comments

Digital Beauties is a book full of beauties...er computer animated beauties that is. Courtesy of the german online magazine (in english) Taschen.
posted by HoldenCaulfield at 6:43 PM PST - 13 comments

Santa cleared for interstate flight. The DOT has approved Santa's request for Christmas Eve air travel in the U.S. I find it interesting that, this year, "Santa also says that he has a sky marshal of sorts aboard."
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:44 PM PST - 22 comments

Pedestrian Killer Pointless bloody fun. Zoom around a patch of roadway, squishing people as they try to make it across.
posted by Su at 1:02 PM PST - 14 comments

Super-Typhoon Faxai Glances Guam and Saipan
A typhoon with winds of >160mph at the eye moves into the Marianas Islands. Major cities will not be severly impacted, but the storm will move incredibly close to islands with two dozen people on them. I would not like to be on an island with a only few dozen other people, storm or no storm! (NWS, News, SuperTyphoon, Tiny Places)
posted by rschram at 11:24 AM PST - 7 comments

Do you support the WTO? No one protested the WTO 2001 Summit. Perhaps because you were too busy going to the bathroom 10 times a day. Don't miss the thousand names contest.
posted by fleener at 10:53 AM PST - 6 comments

The meaning of Stuart Adamson Glenn McDonald: “Supernatural is death music to me now, in a year when the last thing I need is more contemplation of death. The gift the end of a record gives us, and so too the end of a career or a life, is the opportunity to go back to the beginning again... All my grandparents are dead. The leader of my favorite band is dead. Two of my favorite writers are dead, and one of the others hasn't published a book since 1963. We too will vanish, whether in flames or our sleep or capitulation.... Mean what you are. Do nothing that can be undone, and live or die with the consequences. Live in such a way that if you tell people to stay alive, and then die nevertheless, they will know that what you and they believed together was stronger and truer than anything that merely happened”
posted by joeclark at 10:49 AM PST - 5 comments

Kuro5hin's xmas gift to the EFF. Rusty and the gang over at k5 have decided to donate all their site's income to the Electronic Frontier Foundation from now until midnight, December 25th. The EFF fights for high profile cases like Dmitry, but also to protect the rights of everyday citizens.
posted by mathowie at 10:35 AM PST - 9 comments

Giuliani is Time's Man of the Year. For a year when the choice would have been hard before 9/11, this seemed like one of the most obvious choices. It's feel-good and he really did do a lot to rally the city. Were you expecting it? Should they have chosen Osama bin Laden or the firefighters?
posted by onthestereo at 6:29 AM PST - 67 comments

Is it me or does this animated beer ad owe a not inconsiderable debt to this internet 'classic' (their phrase)? WARNING! WMV and Flash links respectively, also whilst I'm at it, WARNING! Ladies Beer and Language/Dismemberment respectively.
posted by wassock at 5:32 AM PST - 6 comments

Well what did you expect? After years of forcing taxpayers to pay for stuff they hate, the National Endowment for the Arts "has been transformed from a lightning rod and punching bag into a benign institution, averse to controversy and with a significantly different mission than it had a decade ago."
posted by BGM at 1:18 AM PST - 32 comments

Xmas Fifties Fun For Shameless Kitsch-Loving Bachelors: Weren't girlie magazines awful? Coarse they were. But where else can you get a jolly seasonal story like The Xmas Present ("Charlotte had his gift all ready when Robert got home from the office party...")or real quality fiction such as On Vickson("With a snootful of booze, Santa delivered his goodies to the wrong apartment...")? If you are an unmarried male chauvinist pig(remember those?)Java's Bachelor Pad is definitely the place for all your tackiest and most questionable requirements. There's an Essays section for you more thoughtful types, where you can bone up on How Sex Lead Me To Communism or solve the mystery of The Mislaid Brassiere. Non-intellectuals are well catered for in the Femmes Fatales gallery, where the same elegant sophistication reigns.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:59 PM PST - 5 comments

Here's what American Muslims think. What do you think? They come off modestly better than they did in a poll conducted in England a month back. But then, no embarrassing questions were asked this time.
posted by Real9 at 6:26 PM PST - 6 comments

"They can throw the tapes or DVDs in there and they don't even know their kids are there." Before the rise of back seat DVD theaters and gameboys, more kids used to play various (non-video) games while stuck in the back seat. On long car trips, would you rather have your kids watching Shrek for the 10th time or have them playing games like Punch Buggy?
posted by gluechunk at 6:13 PM PST - 25 comments

Sexual apartheid suported by American companies such as McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and other U.S. firms operating in Suadi Arabia. Sun City anyone?
posted by Mick at 5:32 PM PST - 46 comments

Lord of the Rings stars get tattooed. "The nine stars who made up the fellowship in the blockbuster movie trilogy were tattooed with the same symbol by Wellington tattooist Roger Ingerton at his Roger's Tatooart studio. Sunday News can reveal the symbol is a number nine in Elvish - a language spoken in the films."

And no, that isn't a spelling mistake. They got inked by at a tattoo parlour that seems to be missing a 't' in the name.
posted by animoller at 5:23 PM PST - 16 comments

It's not on any of the websites yet, but apparently a man with a fake passport, and fuse-activated bombs for shoes, was on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami.

They stopped the man before the bomb went off, as they smelled the match and saw the fuse being lit.

The plane is now down just nearby me, in Logan airport in Boston.

Is this a random incident, or an example of things to come? I need to baord a plane sometime after Christmas, and I'm beginning to get concerned.
posted by christian at 2:14 PM PST - 35 comments

Interesting claim - the military's investigators say that the Red Cross buildings which were bombed on October 25th were not marked and that the military had not been given their coordinates as claimed. Has anyone found more information about this?
posted by adamsc at 1:47 PM PST - 1 comments

Should this country be our next target in the war on terrorism? hmmmmm...
posted by bunnyfire at 12:51 PM PST - 42 comments

FBI warns Microsoft XP users "The FBI is urging computer users to unplug and don't play when it comes to addressing serious security flaws found in Microsoft's new Windows XP program." "Microsoft admitted this week that there are several serious glitches in the new software. " Really?
posted by headlemur at 12:40 PM PST - 24 comments

Model health law empowers states. "Patients could be forced to take medicines or receive vaccines for contagious diseases that pose a public health threat, such as smallpox, under the model law." (originally published in Boston Globe, but that link is now gone)
posted by kat at 12:31 PM PST - 2 comments

The dying wish of terminally ill 15-year-old has sparked debate over whether it was appropriate that it be granted. His wish: to lose his virginity before he died. His friends arranged for a prostitute to grant his wish outside of hospital grounds earlier this month without the knowledge or consent of his parents. He died last week.
posted by MegoSteve at 11:04 AM PST - 82 comments

Enron and India: is there more dirt hiding here?
Enron's monstrous failure sure seems to have been triggered --or at least propelled-- by the fallout between them and India over the $3B Dabhol Power Plant near Mumbai that Enron backed out of earlier this year. Maybe it's just a coincidence...but does anyone else think there's more here than just bad business between Enron and India?
posted by blackholebrain at 10:56 AM PST - 3 comments

Review of Frank Miller's sequel to the Dark Knight Returns. I just picked up the Dark Knight Strikes Again a couple days ago and I really enjoyed it. Its darker than the original, a bit net-savvy, and well illustrated. Also the story, written before 9/11, has some relevance regarding current events.
posted by skallas at 10:54 AM PST - 9 comments

Taliban Defeat Revives Talk of Trans-Afghan Oil Pipeline.
What are the real objectives of the war in Afghanistan? Could they include a Trans-Afghan Oil Pipeline? The new U.S. envoy to Kabul (and broker of the new Afghan government accord), Zalmay Khalilzad, was a former consultant to Unocal (and liaison to the Taliban, among others) when they wanted to build a pipeline through Afghanistan in the 1990s.

Could the U.S. be taming wild territory for the construction of "the new Silk Road," as the multi-billion-dollar pipeline is allegedly called?
posted by busbyism at 10:19 AM PST - 11 comments

The Big Ten infographics that accompany The Nation's latest issue on big media conglomerates lays out just how big they are (maximize your browser for the viacom and AOLTW ones, there's a lot of small type in there).
posted by mathowie at 10:03 AM PST - 9 comments

The journal Nature reports the discovery of how red wine protects against heart disease. Its long been known red wine helps but now we know why. Cabernet Sauvignon had the highest impact.
posted by stbalbach at 8:07 AM PST - 8 comments

Winter Olympics budget nearly $2 billion! Sydney's 2000 Summer Games cost $1.97 billion, The Atlanta Games in 1996 cost $605 million, while the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 1984 cost $75 million. Congress got a wakeup call today for just how expensive it is to host the Olympics.A new government analysis shows the federal tab for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City will cost taxpayers about $1.4 billion. “How many important public safety projects and other programs in other cities were postponed or canceled so that these cities could put on an Olympics?” asked Senator John McCain. Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt spoke of the games as a chance to bring the world together. "The world needs events like this," he said. "Good has always been the target of evil, but this is an event of such importance that we can transcend the events of September 11th."
posted by Mack Twain at 11:14 PM PST - 16 comments

FBI Declines to Release Hijack Flight Cockpit Tape "While we empathize with the grieving families, we do not believe that the horror captured on the cockpit voice recording will console them in any way,'' [an FBI spokesman] said. While the FBI claims they need to keep the information secret due to a criminal investigation, partial transcripts of the tape have shown up in Newsweek. If the FBI can leak to Newsweek, surely they could get the family members to sign a confidentiality agreement and let them in on the secret too, no?
posted by hitsman at 8:43 PM PST - 76 comments

Léopold Sedar Senghor, poet and first president of Senegal, dies at 95
He was the founder the négritude movement in French poetry, and a leader of African socialism. This "This Day" article discusses the political side, crediting him with Senegal's relative peace and success. This Libération article gives some biographical details. Like his friend and colleague, Senghor's negritude poems used images and symbolism of African folk cultures in French modernist verse to create a liberated identity for Africans.
posted by rschram at 8:33 PM PST - 6 comments

"Why do so many young Americans end their own lives?" With so much attention focused on understanding why Islamic youths are so driven to suicide, this article I ran across about U.S teenagers really hit me hard: "The suicide rate for Americans aged between 15 and 24 tripled between 1950 and 1994.....but when it comes to working out why young people end their lives, much of the clarity of the research disappears."
posted by Voyageman at 4:04 PM PST - 50 comments

Cast your vote for "Kenny of the Year"! This site first hit MeFi back in March, but now it's time to vote for the best Man Who Looks Like Kenny Rogers. I'm in favor of Kenny #1.
posted by CosmicSlop at 1:27 PM PST - 10 comments

Amazon spamming search engines? Looking around for reviews on Cooper tires, I came across 2 links in the top 20 search results on Google for sites that look legitimate, but are actually redirect pages to Amazon.com (which doesn't even sell auto tires!). What's going on here? Since when is it legitimate for large corporations to spam search engines!??
posted by yarf at 12:05 PM PST - 43 comments

The real hero of "It's A Wonderful Life" as viewed through neo-conservative goggles.
posted by Ty Webb at 11:26 AM PST - 16 comments

I think the recording industry has finally gotten it right. Let the post-post-Napster era commence!
posted by thebigpoop at 10:52 AM PST - 20 comments

ECMA ratifies C# as standard. In other news, Microsoft eats Sun's lunch. As Robert Cringely puts it: "Now Java begins its slow decline as C# becomes dominant. I don't want it to be this way, but it deserves to be this way." Does it?
posted by gazingus at 9:14 AM PST - 29 comments

Victims' families of Sept. 11 attack to get average of $1.5 million. Will this include the families of those who are still listed as missing instead of dead? Is the compensation structure fair? Should the families have to give up most of their rights to sue (and who would they be able to sue)?
posted by bakiwop at 8:49 AM PST - 19 comments

New type of RC plane going for around $100 They're electric as opposed to gas powered, lighter than their gas powered cousins, and a fraction of the cost. I've always wanted to get into RC planes, but the cost was prohibitive until now.
posted by skallas at 8:25 AM PST - 11 comments

Making plans for 2008
It's the feel good story of the day. A 12 year-old German school girl gets her place in the Guinness Book of Records for her tounge.
"I'm just proud that now people everywhere can read about me and my tongue." [via BoingBoing]
posted by DragonBoy at 8:20 AM PST - 32 comments

The Rocklopedia Fakebandica is an exhaustive compendium of non-existent musical acts from television and film. Need to know the complete lineup of Evar Orbus and His Galactic Jizz-Wailers? It's here (via Grouse!).
posted by MrBaliHai at 8:05 AM PST - 17 comments

Two boozy British Airways staff face disciplinary action for drunken and abusive antics in first class on a flight to London
posted by scotty at 8:03 AM PST - 3 comments

Is the Bush Administration complicit in hiding the source of the anthrax? An interesting theory with intriguing, albeit rather weak, evidence is presented. What do you guys think?
posted by donkeymon at 7:31 AM PST - 15 comments

So you think the expansion of the universe is accelerating? Think again! (Contains links to full paper in .pdf etc.)
posted by stuporJIX at 7:03 AM PST - 2 comments

Black Top Street Hockey ... it's ON! A new trend for urban sports, Black Top Street Hockey requires "...very little skill, but a lot of pent up aggression and hatred." Well, not really, but the Voice thinks it's kewl and among the best leisure sites of 2001. Reminisce about your own experiences, get some phat accessories, sticks and goals, and you'll be all set. If you're still looking for Xmas gifts, you might be too late, but you can read about the hockey experience.
posted by purplecow at 6:12 AM PST - 3 comments

The Queen's latest portrait was bound to cause controversy, what with the artist being Lucien Freud. Today a photograph of it was plastered over the front pages of nearly every major newspaper. The tabloid press are, as ever, 'up in arms' about it. I rather like it, but the palace isn't commenting as yet.
posted by davehat at 4:37 AM PST - 40 comments

Wooden Stakes? Deductible! What's the best way to make financial planning an accessible topic to young adults? Get a handful of CPAs together to examine the Vampire Slayer's cash flow problem, of course! (Via The Usual Suspects)
posted by headspace at 2:26 AM PST - 6 comments

The Holiday Season Without Vintage Port? Unthinkable, Dear Fellow!... But what vintage? I suggest the year you were born. Find out what your Vintage Port was like; how it's drinking now and what it says about your particular harvest (More inside)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:40 AM PST - 23 comments

How would you sell America to the Muslim World? Three Top U.S. Agency Executives Weigh In. Their responses really are inspired. Jim Ferguson (creator of 'Brand Bush') tops the bill with, ‘a lot of it is like selling soap.’ In another Ad Age special the important question of ‘Should American values be marketed to Muslim Nations?’ is discussed. Their answer is yes, I scream, NO! God, it can’t be long before we here calls for a marketing crusade. Please, can someone stop the advertising industry getting involved. This isn't Coke.
posted by RobertLoch at 12:46 AM PST - 26 comments

There is growing evidence that Somalia may be the next target in the "war on terrorism". Let's hope that the military doesn't repeat the same mistakes it made in the last intervention in Somalia chronicled in the book Black Hawk Down. All of this is great news for the upcoming movie based on said book. And you can't buy marketing like that. Or can you?
posted by euphorb at 12:24 AM PST - 15 comments

Bizarre new species of deep sea squid - Yes, you may have read about it earlier, but this link is a photo of one of the strangest new species to be discovered in a long time. Seventeen feet of weirdness 10,000 feet below the surface. It's cool that we can still find new alien life forms without yet venturing into space.
posted by kokogiak at 11:47 PM PST - 34 comments

BlogBack RIP, November 16th. SnorComments: RIP, about a week later, due to a massive migration of BlogBack's deserting rats. With the blogging community reaching critical mass, is it possible for a remotely-hosted comments service to survive the bandwidth bludgeoning?
posted by tweebiscuit at 10:56 PM PST - 37 comments

Singapore bans divorce via SMS. I think what weirds me out most about this is that apparently it's still legal in Dubai... and not infrequent.
posted by louie at 10:42 PM PST - 5 comments

Small World Research Project After all the work we've done training newbies not to use the Internet for their chain letters (via this New York Times article)
posted by dgeiser13 at 9:51 PM PST - 4 comments

Covering for our "oil buddies" It seems there were some choice statements about Saudi support for Osama's terrorism that were removed from last week's "party tape". Wouldn't want to mess with Bush/Cheney's oil pals, now would we?
posted by owillis at 7:06 PM PST - 27 comments

Goodbye Trust (Hello Shyster?) After 60+ years of Yawkey ownership and a year's worth of politicking, the Red Sox have been sold to a group headed by the current Florida Marlins owner and the man who presided over a fire sale as owner of the Padres (and is pals with Satan). The local heroes dropped out of the group today after a spat. The new owners' remaining local talent consists of former senator George Mitchell and Les Otten, a man who had trouble making money in the ski business. And staying out of trouble.
posted by yerfatma at 6:04 PM PST - 17 comments

Guitar Geek diagrams, in loving detail, the (probable) effects and speaker setups of an incredible number of guitarists and bassists. Examples range from super-stripped down to staggerly huge to downright bizarre. It's pretty cool (and, admittedly geeky) in a sick, fanboy kinda way.
posted by 40 Watt at 3:20 PM PST - 36 comments

Famous Name Changes What a turn off when you find out Paul David Hewson, Vincent Damon Furnier, William Michael Albert Broad are your favorite rockers (inside)
posted by Voyageman at 3:20 PM PST - 18 comments

Mars and The Red Cross now offer red, white, and blue M&M's with proceeds going to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. I'm forced to wonder what would happen if you went into a candy store and asked for "any kind but the red, white, and blue ones."
posted by Danelope at 2:54 PM PST - 17 comments

eek! at+t broadband cable units to be bought by comcast. this means chicago cable service will shift to its third owner in two years (at+t broadband having purchased prime cable just last year, and having just gotten cable modems back online from the excite@home failure two weeks ago). anyone have any clues about the ramifications of this purchase?
posted by patricking at 12:46 PM PST - 21 comments

According to witnesses, the US Army invaded a small nation in the Indian Ocean yesterday. Sources say the firefight is still raging, but it's becoming clear that it wasn't the US Army at all. At the nation's official website, you can see the flyer the soldiers passed out, written in French.
posted by ewagoner at 12:41 PM PST - 21 comments

ADHD/ADD and Drug Abuse They found a link between children with common 'behavioral' disorders and drug abuse later in life. Well what do you expect when we teach kids that the best way to deal with a problem is to turn to drugs (ritalin).
posted by crackheadmatt at 12:33 PM PST - 27 comments

Muslims blast CNN polling techniques. CNN apologizes and offers up an excuse to justify act. But is poll (1) out of place, (2) unjustified, (3) a fair assignment to get some interesting and/or useful information? (4) an overreaction on the part of those who would control what their children should and should not know and see.
posted by Postroad at 12:00 PM PST - 20 comments

McDonald's will replace Ronald McDonald with Asterix in France. Hoping to appease anti-American anti-junk food sentiments in France, they're giving Ronald the boot.
posted by panopticon at 11:35 AM PST - 32 comments

The Worst Committee Charge Ever
A rather interesting Story from Normal, Indiana, where after an "animated" 1 1/2-hour meeting Wednesday, the Normal library board voted 5-1 to form a committee to develop suggestions in the wake of a dispute over a board member breast-feeding her toddler at the library during story time. They say about two dozen people were in the audience, some passionately explaining the importance of breast-feeding, including in public, and it gets waaay funnier. And, no, I am not making this up.
posted by Blake at 11:04 AM PST - 48 comments

Microsoft's newest version of Windows.... billed as the most secure ever, contains several serious flaws that allow hackers to steal or destroy a victim's data files across the Internet or implant rogue computer software. The company released a free fix Thursday.

A Microsoft official acknowledged that the risk to consumers was unprecedented because the glitches allow hackers to seize control of all Windows XP operating system software without requiring a computer user to do anything except connect to the Internet.
posted by bkdelong at 10:30 AM PST - 60 comments

Banker withdraws a £100,000 pledge to his old college at Oxford University after his son was turned down for a place - a newsworthy event in the UK not because the man's son was refused, but because he presumed that his donations would have bought his son's entrance. An interesting comparison with family privilege and US private colleges, perhaps?
posted by kitschbitch at 9:30 AM PST - 10 comments

An in-depth journalistic look at what happened at the home base during NaNoWriMo. Once mention of NaNoWriMo hit MetaFilter.com, an online clearinghouse for issues being discussed by "bloggers" ... it spread like a literary Ebola.
posted by fotzepolitic at 9:18 AM PST - 17 comments

The Life of an Indian-American Teenage Girl. A friend sent me this link and I felt quite sad reading it. Agreed, the teen years are cruel to everybody. But, it seems like the unique constraints that are placed on member of a minority community(especially with first-generation parents) can uniquely exacerbate the angst. I was particularly taken by one statement- "Although you have the ideals and values of an American, you look like an Indian". What advice would you give this sixteen-year-old?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy at 9:08 AM PST - 16 comments

The Dark Side of the Washington National Cathedral. Is this real? If so, why would they put an icon of evil on the outside of this place, "intended for national purposes, such as public prayer, thanksgiving, funeral orations, etc.,and assigned to the special use of no particular Sect of denomination, but equally open to all."
posted by zanpo at 8:32 AM PST - 22 comments

French Diplomacy in action. Is this guy insane, or is he just trying to make Prince Philip look like a good ambassador?
posted by phalkin at 8:15 AM PST - 15 comments

There's no escaping Britney I take this to be a sign that she is in the 14th minute of her warholian fame.
posted by BentPenguin at 8:10 AM PST - 18 comments

Reuters reports this is the funniest joke in the world. This is the result of Laugh Lab, a British experiment. They had a survey and this is the announced winner. There's no accounting for taste, but surely we can do better.
posted by tommasz at 8:04 AM PST - 115 comments

You thought Notre Dame had a tough season. Now they have to play against their toughest opponent, the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jackson urges the university to hire a black coach.
posted by Oxydude at 5:49 AM PST - 29 comments

Israel proposes gradual withdrawal from Area A. here's the next step in Israeli policy, and just to show we're not all talk, IDF troops begin withdrawal from positions in Ramallah area. This has been tried several times before, yet Arafat has never been proven successful in stopping terror. Will things turn out any different this time?
posted by martz at 3:29 AM PST - 40 comments

So who saw LOTR? What did you think of it? Were you thrilled like Harry Knowles? Or did you feel closer to Roger Ebert's 3 stars out of 4 review? I just saw it and was more disappointed than I thought I'd be...
posted by adrober at 1:26 AM PST - 136 comments

Obsessively detailed Springfield map. Every locale mentioned in the Simpsons must be here. Area 51A, Crackton, Bumtown, its all here! [map broken down into parts] via boinboing.net
posted by skallas at 12:43 AM PST - 32 comments

Argentina Declares State of Siege. After a prolonged national strike (the 8th in two years), protests due to social tensions, violence, and looting have broken out, and in