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February 28
The Election Story Never Told
On its face, this article is about corruption in Florida before the election. It is still basically an known story in the US, but it is very popular in Britain. Also of note is the continued record of a lazy corporate media refusing to do any sort of journalistic legwork.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 5:23 PM PST - 8 comments
MSNBC hacked.
That faith-based missle defense thing again. Check it out, good-looking hack. I might put up a mirror if it gets changed.
posted by lbergstr at 2:21 PM PST - 13 comments
Do you have too much Freedom?
Might be interesting to all except for the ideology sales pitch at the end. Here is where the warning that it is a Harry Browne/Libertarian penned article goes. George Bush is a Communitarian?
posted by thirteen at 12:50 PM PST - 20 comments
Latest on Christopher Lydon's lockout from The Connection
Not being a Bostonian, I was late to the news that the host of
the only call-in show I think is listenable has been locked out by WBUR in a dispute over money. I don't know who's got the best case: but I know that his is one of the few radio talk shows -- and the only call-in show -- I care to listen to anymore. Sensibility and intelligence very uncharacteristic of a major media outlet. And there'll be one less reason to listen to my NPR station any more if he's gone.
posted by BT at 11:39 AM PST - 15 comments
The state of Florida has charged a teenage student with a felony violation of a
wiretapping law for taping her chemistry class lecture.
posted by jfuller at 11:15 AM PST - 32 comments
Big earthquake hits downtown Seattle
I'm sitting at work in the Real Networks building. We have just experienced close to a minute of jostling and shaking. There is now a six foot crack on the wall of my office. Looking around, nothing appears to have fallen over, but there are crowds of people on the sidewalks. [I'll post a link in a comment when king5 gets around to reporting it.]
posted by Mars Saxman at 10:59 AM PST - 97 comments
Mmmmm. Hu-ming.
A British archaeologist finds evidence that cannibalism still existed amongst the Celts as recently as two thousand years ago, during Roman Times.
One grisly find includes a femur which had been split lengthways in order to scrape the marrow out. Tastemungus mates :)
posted by zeoslap at 9:59 AM PST - 6 comments
Kathicam.com is fake! [NYTimes, free reg. req.]
A new twist in advertising online? ESPN.com has created a fake website called kathicam.com, put up a blinding pink background and created a character who writes poetry, has a webcam, is sorta attractive, and
hates ESPN.com. Each page of "kathi's" site has a prominent link to ESPN.com, and they've gotten a ton of click-through traffic. Inspired? Insipid?
posted by acridrabbit at 8:56 AM PST - 38 comments
Blogging On
I'm in the first paragraph of this San Fransisco Chronicle article on weblogs and Blogger. I interviewed with Mr. Yim last month as "someone who reads a lot of weblogs" and he complimented me on my own work. However, it seems he pulled a Newsweek on me and although he included me in the first paragraph of the piece he didn't include the url for my site, Retrospection, in the final article! Huh.
posted by hanseugene at 8:11 AM PST - 54 comments
are behind a wave of burglaries in the port city of Durban"
"The adaptable vervets have become ingenious and efficient raiders who break into houses..." / "The monkeys, about 75 centimetres tall, like to squeeze through security bars and small windows." / "Police have rejected the idea of shooting or poisoning the monkeys, but that does not stop residents from taking potshots at monkeys that feed in their suburban gardens. The gunshot victims - those that survive..."
posted by tiaka at 4:55 AM PST - 13 comments
Yet another rail crash
in the UK, and trains are still not back to normal in the wake of the last one. It will be interesting to see how this increases road travel, something the country clearly isn't prepared for.
posted by methylsalicylate at 4:32 AM PST - 18 comments
Mardi Gras riots
are a disturbing trend as almost every celebration these days turns bad. What's different that these things happen? My personal experience in Seattle inside (because it's a self-link)
posted by john at 4:13 AM PST - 17 comments
Top Brazilian performers refuse to sing it. A big-city mayor begged radio stations not to play it. Women say it is degrading and dangerous. It's the
Face Slap, an uptempo ditty about a woman who asks her lover to hit her.
posted by crushed at 3:47 AM PST - 22 comments
February 27
"This stuff is still great."
Paul Ford reminds us, as ever, why we're here, and thinks smart about the downturn: "We thought that Metcalfe's law on networks and Moore's law on processor power would change everything. But people don't change every 18 months; cultures don't start moving faster than processors. People don't increase their value with the increase in value."
posted by holgate at 7:00 PM PST - 18 comments
eBay takes a leaf out of eToys' book.
Everybody's favourite auction site is threatening legal action against EBay Pty Limited, an Australian company thats been around for twenty years but only got online recently. eBay has the
ebay.com.au domain name, so EBay bought
ebayaust.com in late 1999 for their small business selling self-published books.
Now eBay wants EBay to stop using the name both online and
offline, the latter of which seems highly dubious given the relative ages of the companies.
In what is becoming an increasingly global marketplace, where do we draw the line between disparate companies with similar names?
posted by Georgina at 6:26 PM PST - 6 comments
Unholy war in the Holy Land
Though the Israeli and Arab conflict seems nearly always on the front pages of the papers, here is a minor religious struggle going on in area, an area where claim, counter claim, strife, bitterness and emotional toil seem the order of the day. This just odd enough to stand as symbolic of the area and its uniqueness.
posted by Postroad at 3:21 PM PST - 3 comments
Thrown off the scent.
A fascinating story about The Pill and its effect on women's mate choice, and the effect of these choices on evolution. T-shirts belonging to unknown men were given to women to smell. All they had to do was say which smelt best. Women on the pill chose exactly the opposite t-shirts to those that didn't - find me free will, personal taste and the nature / culture divide in that if you can... [found via
Plastic - and if you want to talk about
that, then
click here]
posted by barbelith at 2:51 PM PST - 27 comments
Grrrlz R the future of computerz!
A suprisingly warm-hearted and atypically unguyish analysis of the ridiculous new iMac colours and what they represent for future computer use. If Apple blew it by not letting teenage boys play games, are they smart to make iMacs attractive to sensitive, design-focused people (including grrrlz) as so-called digital hubs? Or will the boyz shoot em up on Wintel while the grrrlz rip boy-band MP3s on groovy iMacs? (My claim: Bondi blue remains the bestest iMac shade ever. Discuss.)
posted by joeclark at 1:59 PM PST - 17 comments
hoursong:
A streaming index of songs based on ideas and associations to a
different theme. Whether it's the song, the artist, the album, the lyrics, the video, whatever; the theme can be tied to anything, and everyone can submit their own song that relates. You can also create discussion and song threads on every submission.
posted by magnetbox at 1:01 PM PST - 16 comments
The Marine Corps is preparing to unveil perhaps the
biggest breakthrough in weapons since the atomic bomb a nonlethal weapon that fires directed energy at human targets. The
Vehicle-Mounted Active Denial System is designed to stop an individual in his tracks and make him turn and flee.
posted by tremendo at 12:03 PM PST - 38 comments
London's Millennium Dome
for sale, or at least
its contents, which are being auctioned today at bargain-basement prices (
view live online here.) Meanwhile former Dome boss PY Gerbeau, hoping to buy the attraction itself, wins an injunction to remove hundreds of items from the auction.
This photostory shows the carnage as the Dome's insides are ripped out in preparation for this year's biggest yard sale: a sad and humiliating end.
posted by tobyslater at 8:56 AM PST - 7 comments
OpenCola Soft Drink
"source code" has been released under General Public License and is freely available for download from their website. It marks the first time that open-source licensing has been applied to a consumer product. Or so they say.
posted by Firda at 5:24 AM PST - 12 comments
February 26
Have you been getting those annoying ICQ ad banners like me? Well, it appears that AOL/TimeWarner has been
testing out ads in the ICQ IM interface. The backlash has begun.
Here's a site that'll tell you how to get rid of some of the banners. My
friend's also gone ahead and taken the liberty to hack the ICQ dll that causes the ads to appear and has full instructions on how to remove the ads permanently from your ICQ. Hurry and grab those dll's before he gets
slashdotted!
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 11:37 PM PST - 14 comments
Although I firmly believe that my
panties abduction was real, I have tried to be as broad-minded as possible and show as much integrity as I can in questioning myself and the whole terrible experience.
posted by gleemax at 6:20 PM PST - 6 comments
It's official. There was life on Mars!!!
"I am convinced that this is supporting evidence for the presence of ancient life on Mars,'' said Kathie Thomas-Keprta, an astrobiologist at the space center and the first author of a study appearing Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
posted by zeoslap at 5:46 PM PST - 12 comments
If Napster does die, what then?
Industry Standard relays a report that investor Bertelsmann isn't just sitting there waiting for the axe to fall. They may be behind the development of their own Napster cloneSnoopsterto move in on the wide-open territory Napster leaves behind. The catch? Snoopster only searched online services, not your own files. Services like... Napster.
posted by honkzilla at 3:06 PM PST - 1 comments
Powazek on Metafilter
Not sure if this has been posted before, but I just found it on a new sub-site of Communication Arts that appears to be more focussed on web design. Derek is writing a book on online communities, but I still got the impression that the interviewer didn't know who he was.
posted by jmcnally at 2:14 PM PST - 13 comments
Ow my head hurts
Doctors operate on the wrong part of a mans brain because the CT scan is placed backwards on the viewing screen. Doh!
posted by zeoslap at 2:07 PM PST - 3 comments
Dan Rhodes
is a talented British author whose books have been recommended to me by many web-people, and now he's got a website. It's an opportunity to sample his
Anthropology collection (hit refresh a few times), and boasts a
reviews page which should please fans of the Eggers Po-Mo style. What I think is interesting about Rhodes is how much his little stories remind me of the tiny vignettes you find in, uh, 'daily web publishing'.
posted by freakytrigger at 1:46 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
This article
is rather interesting. I moved to Arizona last year and have noticed and commented on the high amount of female construction workers both here and in New Mexico compared to the amount you see in other states. If Arizona is 1% ahead of the national average, and still needs to hire more to meet requirements, I wonder how many states are far below requirements and just what they're doing about it, if anything. How often do you see a women workers in your state?
posted by crushed at 5:22 AM PST - 10 comments
February 25
"That's one slurpee and five mp3s. . . "
Music Tellers will happen one way or another, I'll bet. And there will be places--legal or not--where fast downloading of whatever will be available for a price. (It's been a long time--7-11s still have surpees don't they?)
posted by aflakete at 10:11 PM PST - 2 comments
At first I found
Junkyard Wars (imported) and thought it was the funniest show on TV. Then I found
Iron Chef (also imported) and it was even better. I got hooked. Now I've found
BattleBots (homegrown! Buy American!), and I have to wonder if TV has any more pleasant surprises for me. As long as I stay away from the big networks I seem to do fine.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:25 PM PST - 21 comments
'Is media bias real?', part two:
Left-leaning media criticism folks
FAIR have produced a report detailing some examples of of publishers, advertisers, and government officials killing stories they don't like and placing stories they do. What about the Chinese Wall between the business of news and the actual newsgathering? To quote a CBS news producer on the distinction between entertainment and news, "That line was over a long, long time ago....That line is long gone."
posted by snarkout at 3:51 PM PST - 18 comments
Blogger
collapses once more - this time with the message: "Error 103:java.sql.SQLException: java.sql.SQLException: The log file for database 'pyra' is full. Back up the transaction log for the database to free up some log space. [more info]" It's an old theme, but a pertinent one to a large number of people on this site so don't kill me. It's being talked about
here. Look - we all know that this is not the fault of
Pyra, but it's getting absurd.
Prol has already migrated over to
Grey Matter - and from the look of the mailing lists, she may be the beginning of a flood. I have so much invested in Blogger working, that I'm prepared to be slapped for saying something must be done.
What can we do?!
posted by barbelith at 10:16 AM PST - 37 comments
February 24
phoons
No, don't hate me for the uninformative title--it would take longer to explain than it does to look.
posted by rodii at 5:12 PM PST - 10 comments
Khallid Muhammad, RIP
Did this man do anything for African Americans? There is the argument that you need extremists so the moderates can get something done, but this guy was just a kook!
posted by Dr. Boom at 1:48 PM PST - 12 comments
We Live In... Hell?
Tanya Corrin on Josh Harris as profoundly fucked company: "By day 60, I had to get out. By day 78, still unable to find an apartment, I chose couch surfing instead of remaining in a very public nightmare."
On the one hand, deeply satisfying; on the other, deeply sad.
posted by holgate at 7:47 AM PST - 13 comments
Don't look behind that wall
, Mr. Olympic inspector. In advance of the ongoing assesment by 17 Olympic inspectors, thousands of unwanted people have been tossed into a detention center in China, without trial. For a month, 500 to 600 people a day have been tossed in. Human Rights in China interviewed former inmates of the detention centre, and they reported
"There were no bathing facilities, food was poured from buckets and fought over by mice, and beatings with leather belts were common."
Is this what China does to "put on its game face"?
posted by will at 3:56 AM PST - 3 comments
This ad
, by the PETA had me LOL and still makes me laugh each time I see it. Actually it's pretty terrible, but that's probably why it's so funny.... See for yourself (Quicktime required)
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 1:21 AM PST - 9 comments
All Good No Bad
Singapore is a country where markets are perfect and it is known globally as the economic miracle. A country where politics, intellectual life and criticism is sacrificed on the altar of the market. A nightmare, should I say?
(Link courtesy of
Arts & Letters Daily)
posted by asamee at 12:13 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
February 23
geek girl beats out just sex
- Ev analyses click through rates on ads at weblogs.com
- "I did a little sifting through the banner ads and stats at weblogs.com. The average click-through rate for all 689 ads is 0.60%."
posted by rmw at 9:56 PM PST - 9 comments
Bozo Matic.
No, it's not a toy, or appliance, or a poorly thought out website, it's a real given name - and yes, he's a real person. It just so happens he's Croatian, and is now the new chairman of Bosnia's government.
posted by kokogiak at 9:48 PM PST - 3 comments
Crapping Tiger, Hidden Death
-- gotta be worse than watching porn on Wal-Mart equipment. Is this guy a front runner for the 2001 Darwin Award?
and, secondarily, is
ananova a legitimate news source? they always seem to have the kooky stories....
posted by donkeysuck at 4:49 PM PST - 7 comments
Do you have an abnormally large male genital?
Have you been injured by one in the recent past? My favorite part:
"While it is true that 1.5% of home accidents are caused by large penis related incidents, only a small number have ever been known to be fatal. A large penis is a friend as well as a foe. Treat it as such."
posted by Jeremy at 4:03 PM PST - 8 comments
Feeling like the odd man out in your favorite geek chatroom? Looking for new ways to alienate your parents, or maybe add a little spice to that threatening email? What if I told you that with
one mouse-click you could transform yourself from l4M3R to l33t haX0R? The dream is real with
L33t-5p34K G3n3r@t0r .
posted by gimli at 12:43 PM PST - 6 comments
Plastic is dangling carrots in front of users,
but my first thought is "ewww." Many successful communities have feedback mechanisms, but is a monetary one the best choice? Is this a good way to encourage high quality posts at Plastic, or does it seem like they're trying to create an instant community for $150?
posted by mathowie at 11:57 AM PST - 18 comments
Wrongwaycomeback?
Is Wetlog really going away? Neale has been a prankster in the past, but with his recent re-styling as a memory bank and the tone of the message, I worry about one of my favorite blogs. Someone say it ain't so.
posted by Skot at 10:44 AM PST - 24 comments
How To: RTFM.
M$ steps up its Support Services. The information in this article applies to: general lamers.
posted by tallman at 10:22 AM PST - 11 comments
the web becomes theatre
about face youth theatre is a group for gay/lesbian/transgender kids. every year, they create a stage show - from scratch - based on their own experiences. this year, they're writing the script from stories gathered on this website. rock on!
posted by patricking at 9:21 AM PST - 2 comments
Chicken or egg?
Life (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) imitates
art (Satirewire.)
posted by jfuller at 9:18 AM PST - 1 comments
Noah
proposes a new term-
"Bioblog - weblog-type sites in which the primary (but not necessarily exclusive) focus is on its author instead of the web or other external media, but which, of course, is still more aligned in spirit and form to weblogs rather than traditional online journals."
posted by TuxHeDoh at 7:38 AM PST - 58 comments
15 of the 18
sentences beginning with the word "Well" in this transcript mark a speaker responding to a question or taking his/her turn. I'm sick of it.
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:48 AM PST - 27 comments
February 22
Have you ever been at the center of a media storm?
It's not pleasant. The link is to just one of many local and city newspaper articles about the tiny rural high school where I work, plus we've had t.v. camera crews trying to sneak into the building and students being pulled out of class to be interviewed for local radio stations. I welcome your comments.
posted by Lynsey at 6:58 PM PST - 35 comments
The End of Money
Interesting article about what money really means in the digital age. "If you want currency backed by something tangible, sign up for 5,000 frequent flier miles on a new Visa card. "
posted by zeoslap at 5:01 PM PST - 9 comments
Synthetic virus nearing reality
Scientists will have the technology to create a wholly artificial virus within the next five years, a major conference in the US has been told. This is the quote I like best... Prof Hutchinson added: "Am I worried about a synthesised virus? No, you only worry about it if someone does it out of malicious motives."
posted by zeoslap at 4:36 PM PST - 18 comments
Is electronic puppy love real?
Many
Aibo owners are as attached to the robotic dogs as they would be to live animals.
"I always thought I was pretty rational but I don't think of her as a toy any more.... She's like a part of the family."
posted by phichens at 12:43 PM PST - 27 comments
A Clarification
-- Dave Eggers wants to expose the process, "By reprinting your correspondence to me I hope to illuminate the journalist's mind: how a writer starts by telling me he is a fan of my work, supports my company's endeavors, etc, then writes a snippety little thing full of sneering and suspicion." so he's posted ALL of the email correspondance he had with david kirkpatrick before
this unflattering piece was printed... and after.
"I think it's important that our exchange be published. It's the only remedy commensurate with the impact you enjoyed with your original piece. I want your friends and family to see it, and to say 'David, ew.'"
Meanspirited all around, but can you blame him?
posted by palegirl at 12:22 PM PST - 43 comments
(You)^2: Wired Feature on Human Cloning
There's a very long, very fascinating article on the current work being done on human cloning research; or possibly the work that has
already been done. Many of those interviewed for the article are convinced that somewhere in the world human cloning has already taken place. Lots of cool/frightening material here.
posted by hanseugene at 11:37 AM PST - 2 comments
Orange Cones
the Virtual Reality tour!
I haven't laughed this hard for a long time! Make sure you read all of the cone pages.
posted by bytecode at 10:48 AM PST - 5 comments
GeForce 3
to be available on Macs first. Check out the 3rd video down. Bonus: A look at the new ID 3D engine for Doom. High drool factor.
posted by john at 10:22 AM PST - 5 comments
Hey, Baby -- did you feel that?
The sun, someday, will envelope the Earth and all life as we know it will die. Can we prevent this? Some wacky scientists think that the best thing to do would be to up and move the whole damn planet.
posted by amanda at 9:33 AM PST - 16 comments
Love to argue about Genetically Modified Foods?
Hate to be under-informed? The Science Controversies On-line: Partnerships in Education (SCOPE) project has a huge database of resources and links to commentaries on various issues, one of which is genetically modified foods and covers both (all?) side of the issue. The site is still in the works, it looks like it is (and will be) a useful resource.
posted by iceberg273 at 8:09 AM PST - 2 comments
This
is how I always pictured internet love. The corpse in the fridge is the kicker. I thought you brits knew we were all nuts in the states.
posted by john at 7:30 AM PST - 5 comments
17 International Olympic Committee inspectors
are in China reviewing its bid for the 2008 Olympic Games. Should human rights concerns be a factor in their decision? Does a sporting body have a duty to use compliance with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights as a gauge to measure hosting worthiness for any country (not just China)?
posted by will at 7:08 AM PST - 7 comments
It's easy to get complacent and not learn foreign languages when you speak native English. In the UK, knowledge of foreign languages
verges on the comical.
posted by ecvgi at 2:07 AM PST - 23 comments
February 21
http://microsoft.sucks.my.metafilter.com
I know it's self-referential, but I thought it was funny - I stumbled on this URL while doing a google search. Go on Matt, tell us how you really feel ;) - Also listed was "http://kottke-is-my-hero.metafilter.com" - sentiment as URL.
posted by kokogiak at 10:29 PM PST - 17 comments
EBay has had another software glitch
and it's made all sorts of people accidentally opt out of receiving EBay's email advertising by mistake. So, just to help all you nice people out, they've decided to change your preferences so that you permit EBay to send you spam and to sell your phone number to telemarketers, like you really wanted. Time to visit the configuration page.
Again.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:25 PM PST - 7 comments
Woah.
Apple dropped the price of the Cube to $1300, released iTunes 1.1, and just started selling the strangest looking iMac you've ever seen.
Now I want a Cube, a G4 Powerbook, a G4 tower, *and* an iMac.
posted by jragon at 7:29 PM PST - 43 comments
Napster takes first steps
in trying to appease the RIAA, and specifically BMG. To me this approach is the stupidest thing Napster could have done. Who would want to pay a membership fee to use Napster if one can't even burn the files onto a cd?
posted by JFunk2800 at 6:27 PM PST - 1 comments
Ever seen a sonic boom?
A NASA website has daily pictures from a variety of astronomical sources. Today's is a little more down-to-earth; the visual representation of a sonic boom, captured when an F/A-18 Hornet crossed the sound barrier.
posted by dragonmage at 1:45 PM PST - 8 comments
Go Princeton!
Student loans will become grants for any who can't afford $134K for 4 years. How relevant attending college is--except for networking and the social milieu I guess--for the post-Internet teen I'm not sure. But anything which makes information and education more available and less tied to income is a fine thing.
posted by aflakete at 11:02 AM PST - 23 comments
Race-based Science Project Banned
Forgetting for a moment how flimsy the premise of science projects at the 5th grade age can be, I think this is a great project. Does anyone find this offensive? Should children be allowed to discuss race and racism in broad daylight and among their peers?
posted by amanda at 9:18 AM PST - 49 comments
Yes, I'll admit it, I'm a Nascar fan, and although I never rooted for Dale Earnhardt (just yelled at him), I respected him and will miss him. But it's just plain sick that the racer that bumped him, Sterling Marlin, is getting
death threats against him and his family.
posted by Sal Amander at 8:07 AM PST - 27 comments
Bad Subjects Interviews Howard Zinn.
I'm not sure I buy globalization as "a more sophisticated kind of imperialism," but given recent efforts to expand corporate welfare and manufacture enemies for a reinvigorated military-industrial complex I think parallels with 19th century robber-barons and the Great BBQ are apt. Lefties and libertarians unite!
posted by kliuless at 7:48 AM PST - 3 comments
Barak Just Says No.
Former PM passes on Defense Minister post. Is it just me, or does Sharon's push for a unity government smack of Dubya's call for bipartisanship? I just don't
trust either one of them.
posted by jpoulos at 6:17 AM PST - 3 comments
February 20
Dog Mauling Victim's Partner to Test Wrongful Death Law
California law is clear: Only legal heirs -- surviving spouses, children and parents -- are entitled to sue for wrongful death. Not long-term lesbian partners -- but Susan Smith is going to try. [link spotted on
web queeries] "The state can't have it both ways, you can't condition a right on marital status, then deny a whole class of people the right of access to be married."
"Any expansion of domestic partner rights is something conservatives in Sacramento, such as the Capitol Resource Institute, will vigorously oppose. 'I sympathize with her loss,' said Karen Holgate, policy director for the institute. 'My second reaction is why would she want to allow herself to be used in her grief for political gains?'"
posted by palegirl at 9:44 PM PST - 10 comments
Racing Past the Truth.
A new perspective on Earnhardt's death, the purpose of which is to question the supposed cause of death and general lack of research in the reporting thereof.
The most interesting part, though, is pointing out how the makers of the Head and Neck Restraining System (HANS) are milking his death for all its worth, even though it probably would have done nothing to save him.
posted by thebigpoop at 9:25 PM PST - 10 comments
Are you a duclod?
For at least a decade, mysterious letters have been sent from around the nation to students at a small midwestern college filled with facts about "duclods." From the best I can tell looking at the
college newspaper webpage this is not a prank. Has anyone ever heard this term?
posted by croutonsupafreak at 7:18 PM PST - 12 comments
Is it just me, or does it seem ridiculous that Napster will
have one billion dollars of expendable net income over the next five years that it will be
able to pay to the record labels? The labels would be crazy to accept this; in a year, when Napster files for Chapter 11, the settlement would vanish.
posted by delfuego at 5:27 PM PST - 26 comments
Sonic Death Monkey!
Somebody obviously is a fan of Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity," and has either invented a one-man band or invented a website for a one-man band. This site is worth it for the pictures alone, although the half-mad text ain't bad either.
posted by Skot at 3:41 PM PST - 3 comments
another hairbrained scheme.
verisign (owner of network solutions) has devised a proprietory system that will allow cell-phone web-surfing fools to type in a phone number instead of a URL. it seems that "www.news.com" is hard on a keypad.
you have until april to apply to the new service (called WebNum) for one of the easy-to-remember numbers...1000, say. at which point WebNum (how much do I like saying that?) will decide on the most "effective" assignment of the requested shortcuts.
posted by rebeccablood at 2:27 PM PST - 16 comments
Britain's best footballer, David Beckham, and his wife Posh Spice are almost as important as royalty. That they have agreed to be interviewed by spoofist Ali G is a tad surprising...
read the transcript here.
posted by ecvgi at 1:05 PM PST - 5 comments
Metababy
is back and in full effect, I think I was the first to modify it!!!
posted by dancu at 12:34 PM PST - 18 comments
The Key Vanishes: Scientist Outlines Unbreakable Code [NEW YORK TIMES - free reg required]
In essence, the researcher, Dr. Michael Rabin and his Ph.D. student Yan Zong Bing, have discovered a way to make a code based on a key that vanishes even as it is used. While they are not the first to have thought of such an idea, Dr. Rabin says that never before has anyone been able to make it both workable and to prove mathematically that the code cannot be broken. Once this gets out, the debate on exporting strong crypto would seem to be essentially over.
posted by mikewas at 9:17 AM PST - 10 comments
Untangling an online breakup.
Seapetal vs. Gothimuscle: a bond between author and bodybuilder formed in bondage ends with matching restraining orders. With a "trail of cyber-breadcrumbs" in the form of scurrious emails, chat-room stalking and nude photos that leads all the way to the Fetish Fleamarket, this anti-love story bears all the trapings of a Boston.com headline on a slow news day. But the question remains: where and how do we process crimes of harassment that occur in virtual places under assumed screen names? What's a real-world restraining order good for when all the attacking is done on the net?
posted by sixfoot6 at 7:53 AM PST - 5 comments
Beyond the bar code:
Tags on retail products will send radio signals to their manufacturers, collecting information about consumer habits -- and raising privacy concerns. Radio tag technology is already here, used in fields such in livestock, freight-train cargo and highway tolls. The only barrier to widespread use is consumer products is price. When they can be made for a penny, expect to see them everywhere. From the March issue of
MIT Technology Review.
posted by jhiggy at 7:51 AM PST - 13 comments
This article about the
stereotyped Black man offered up by nearly every reality TV show broadcast in the US ends just as it's getting to the essence: why is this the "reality" the networks -- and damningly the audiences -- are choosing?
posted by sudama at 6:17 AM PST - 80 comments
Trekkers Rejoice!
Word is a new Star Trek television series is in development. Time to pull those rubber ears out of the dresser and head out on the SciFi convention circuit again.
posted by darren at 5:49 AM PST - 25 comments
The Oregon Vortex
is a nice place to visit if you enjoy places where things roll uphill and things change size base on their position.
Many have tried to figure it out. Physicist John Lister spent forty years there only to burn all his notes.
When is someone going to let the vortex genie out?
posted by john at 12:22 AM PST - 40 comments
February 19
From the U.S. Mint, one year later:
"Demand for the Golden Dollar continues to grow. Currently, the U. S. Mint has shipped over 1 billion Golden Dollars through all of its distribution channels." My question: where are these things? Are any of you in the U.S. actually seeing these in circulation?
posted by ChrisTN at 11:24 AM PST - 86 comments
Windows XP Dev Intro Article
introduces some of the new issues associated with developing apps for the next generation Microsoft OS. An excerpt from the article reads
"Writing applications for Windows XP requires a few new tricks, but they're not difficult. More important is the message we've been repeating over and over, especially since the introduction of Windows 2000: the more your applications behave like good citizens, the more successfully they'll run on Windows XP. Windows XP applications should to follow the rules you learned in kindergarten: share your resources, play well with others, and follow the rules. It's all about cooperation."
Lovely.
posted by tatochip at 9:47 AM PST - 12 comments
Gould, earthworms and you:
Stephen Jay Gould discusses the recent discovery that the human body has only about 1/4th of the DNA originally estimated. NYTimes op-ed piece.
One of the best results of this discovery is that it sounds death knell of reductionist biology; as usual, the human body turns out to be more complicated than anyone could have imagined. ("Gee, we haven't explained life, the universe and everything? Gosh darnit!")
I have always thought it was silly to ascribe artistic talent, criminal behaviour, musical aptitude or computer savvy to the foibles of some single gene. Now here's independent confirmation of that opinion...
So once again we find that
we ourselves, and not our parents or our grandparents, are responsible for who we are and what we become...
posted by hanseugene at 9:38 AM PST - 14 comments
Through rose-tinted spectacles?
It's media waffle for a quiet news day, and comes on the back of a wave of nostalgia, but Reagan's "victory" in this latest poll feels like the triumph of selective memory, and of the desire to reassociate the presidency with jelly-bean eating. (FDR trails in fifth, and there's no mention of Woodrow Wilson, though Carter and Nixon get a look-in.) Which makes me wonder: does the US have a clear sense of its history, as far as Presidents are concerned?
posted by holgate at 9:26 AM PST - 15 comments
This picture
of the Space Shuttle and the ray of "shadow" from the moon is pretty cool. I even think I buy the explanation.
posted by aflakete at 7:52 AM PST - 15 comments
Suspects in Dartmouth Profs' Deaths Held in Indiana
-- Two teenagers (allegedly) brutally stabbed two professors. Am I the only one deeply disturbed by all these underaged murderers in recent years? And to resurrect an old debate from my college criminology classes: Are these "killer kids" a product of nature (as in, they're born with something loose) or nurture (as in, lousy parenting)?
posted by shauna at 7:09 AM PST - 28 comments
Women Urged to Run for U.S. Presidency
-- A group called American Women Presidents is urging Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and more than 100 other women governors, lawmakers and business leaders to consider a run for the White House in 2004. Weirdly enough, this is the same group who offered Monica Lewinsky a job as its corporate VP last year.
posted by shauna at 6:42 AM PST - 20 comments
February 18
Earnhardt dead at Daytona.
This came after a much more hideous looking wreck on lap 175 which took out almost 20 cars, but from which everyone more or less walked away. Earnhardt wrecked in the final lap. In a two-car crash. In the rear view mirror of his son. I don't think "ironic" even comes close.
posted by jammer at 4:22 PM PST - 30 comments
"You mean that the Clinton's are Hitler and Mussolini?"
And who says so? God, that's who! Linda Newkirk has been receiving personalized messages from God, and what is God telling Linda, who's using the power of the Internet to keep us all informed? Among other things, God says, "the economic bubble, which grew to such tremendous proportions, in the last eight years, is bursting"; "before this month of February, 2001 is over a death nail shall be plunged into the stock market"; "I know that you want Me to speak of what many are calling the 'Early-out rapture' "; and, whoa to us all, "George W's days are numbered to a few; for I have warned him against Lucifer's works, but he does not believe that he will soon die." And then what? Well, it seems those naughty Russians and Chinese met in a tent and signed a deal in blood to start throwing nuclear missiles at the god-fearing and ever-righteous U.S. of A. starting on or before March 31st.
Hey, these are His words, not mine. Although I feel comforted that God uses terms like "economic bubble" and "Early-out rapture." Renews my faith in the power of marketing.
posted by honkzilla at 3:08 PM PST - 9 comments
Bill Clinton Op-Ed
on the Marc Rich pardons: "I want every American to know that, while you may disagree with this decision, I made it on the merits as I saw them, and I take full responsibility for it".
posted by owillis at 1:06 AM PST - 43 comments
February 17
Well, if
SETI@HOME is too much of a long-shot for you, then how about something absolutely certain to result in important findings?
GENOME@HOME is trying to search the results of the human genome sequencing project to find the place in the genome where certain important proteins are encoded, and
FOLDING@HOME is trying to figure out how proteins are folded to become enzymes, where shape is more important than chemistry.
FOLDING@HOME is working on some of the critical proteins of HIV, among other things. HIV has been sequenced and from that they know the amino acid sequences of the enzymes it makes. But without understanding their shapes it's not possible to figure out how they work. This represents one of the best applications of volunteer distributed computing I can think of. With
40,000 participants, FOLDING@HOME has already had successes, including one of the HIV enzymes. (Courtesy of
Firing Squad)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:03 PM PST - 14 comments
Dr. Stupid sets things straight.
Australian commentary site
Crikey is where Dr. Stupid exposes the sloth, stupidity, and duplicity of journalists who should really know better. I enjoyed his autopsy of the recent flurry of Tom and Nicole coverage, and the rest of the column has some nice tidbits as well. Are there columns like this about the American press that you would recommend?
posted by BGM at 10:32 AM PST - 8 comments
Manic Street Preachers play Havana tonight
- "It'll be like Wham! in China."
Following in the footsteps of agit-prop songster Billy Joel, the Boys from Blackwood take Sony-branded anti-capitalism to the last place "that really fights against the Americanisation of the world."
posted by ceiriog at 6:32 AM PST - 9 comments
Quiet that computer!
This site offers some great tips on reducing the noise produced by your computer. I just got a new Power Mac G4 and a couple of external FireWire drives to go with it, and was appalled at how loud the setup was -- particularly the fans in the FireWire drive cases. Mike Breeden at Xlr8yourMac.com has a
great tip on reducing the fan noise on the G4 itself, which I applied to the FireWire drives with good results (haven't tried it on the G4 yet). If your computer (Mac, PC, or otherwise) is loud enough to be heard over your MP3s, maybe these pages will help.
posted by kindall at 2:15 AM PST - 8 comments
"What is most disturbing about these people is their banality, their normalness... It's the fact that these people are chatting and they are horribly normal, everyday people, yet they are capable of
these acts of unimaginable savagery."
Tired of politics and Survivor 2? Let's talk about
real cannibalism!
posted by lia at 1:36 AM PST - 6 comments
February 16
Anyone have the inside poop on why
Dreamless went black tonight for repairs? Apparently there was some skirmishing and hacking activity earlier in the week. Details anyone?
posted by netbros at 10:55 PM PST - 10 comments
The funniest thing ever, period.
Note: streaming video with sound, using RealPlayer. Though I'm not sure of the high-level discussion we can have about this, I don't think anyone in the world should be denied the oppurtunity to laugh this hard. Watch the whole thing - I particularly like around 3:25. Trust me.
posted by swank6 at 7:47 PM PST - 35 comments
Rowdy XFL fans toss paraplegic to Coliseum floor
"His 13-year-old nephew, Eddie Cardenas, rushed
to his aid and wound up covered in beer and his
uncle's blood as fans lobbed brew in his direction...." Hmmm the word Coliseum just stands out to me for some reason. A toast to the Roman Empire!!
posted by metasak at 4:04 PM PST - 15 comments
Reuters confirms
that our friend Dubya did in fact authorize the attack on Iraqi radar stations. We're killing people and giving a dictator fuel for the propaganda mill he needs to prop up his regime. But that's okay, because the people who are dying don't share our race and religion and so, in fact, they're not really "people" at all. They're ciphers and objects and statistics. Apparently it's only when white Protesetants die that death really matters. Incidentally, remember this bombing isn't a matter of protecting the Kuwaiti ethnic minority (read: our oil interests), this is over perceived violation of arbitrarily imposed NATO sanctions. Scum. Scum scum scum!
posted by hanseugene at 1:49 PM PST - 40 comments
Recently released FBI hate-crime statistics for 1999
show that - as many have feared - enforcement of hate-crime laws is skewed against blacks. Of racially-motivated where the offenders race is known, blacks make up 20% of the reported incidents despite representing only 13% of the population as a whole.
posted by mikewas at 11:01 AM PST - 16 comments
Time to toss the 3.0 and 4.0s in the trash - and I'm not talking about GPA.
The biggest problem for Web developers right now is the prevalence of old browsers that don't fully support standards like HTML 4.0 and CSS 1 & 2. Now that we have at least 3 browsers that can handle most of these standards, why not encourage a move from the less standard browsers to ones that will allow us to more easily design sites. Write once view anywhere....Woo hoo!
posted by bkdelong at 6:53 AM PST - 50 comments
February 15
Who needs napster?
Lo-tech file sharing staring me in the face - just add your ftp site to the mix et voila - searchable sharing. "Leech and let leech."
posted by J. R. Hughto at 12:07 PM P 
