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Perhaps This Public Image/Persona Thing Has Gone Just A Little Too Far: Luís Campos Lopes, the manager of the Portuguese football team Vitoria de Setúbal has just been sacked for "projecting a negative image of the club". [Link in Portuguese, but please read on.] The reason? Just watch the photo-sequence in the main link. Luís Lopes had trouble putting on his Setúbal vest during a crucial game with Benfica! I.e. the powerful sports media in Portugal and Brazil have had a riot with the photographs and the poor widdle proprietors were embarrassed. So? He may not be a brilliant manager - but isn't this blatant lookism? Isn't "image" becoming much too big for its boots, as it were, in professional sports? [Here is the only English language reference I could find. Please scroll down to "Luís Campos".]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:20 PM PST - 26 comments

Mr. Noodle's Brother Mr. Noodle a.k.a. Michael Jeter passed away over the weekend. Those of us with young children glued to Elmo's World will know him on sight. With everything going on in Iraq, we don't need any more bad news, but the loss of this actor has really effected me. Silly Noodle...you'll be missed.
posted by lasthrsman at 9:17 PM PST - 10 comments

Save the Pacific Tree Octopus! There have been many debates about loss of habitat for localized species, but a little known fight is underway to help save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. "An intelligent and inquisitive being...the tree octopus explores its arboreal world by both touch and sight." Won't you help?!
posted by Salmonberry at 8:16 PM PST - 19 comments

Remember everyone tomorrow, April 1st, is Make Fun of Dick and Lynne Cheney day, (because Neal Pollack said so). If you run any kind of website or publication and have the power to mock, belittle or poke fun at the second family, it's your patriotic duty to do so.
posted by alan at 8:15 PM PST - 18 comments

Milk is bad for you? Is nothing sacred? When I was growing up, milk was about the purest, cleanest and healthiest thing you could drink (except maybe for the warm carton that we were give at school every day). Now, it seems, we have been killing ourselves slowly by drinking the wrong kind of milk. The authorities and some vested interests are not convinced, but there certainly seems to be quite a bit of evidence to support the theories.
posted by dg at 7:19 PM PST - 25 comments

Nuclear War Survival Skills: Journey back sixteen years to a simpler time, when the impending apocalypse was a much less complicated affair. [more inside]
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:14 PM PST - 9 comments

Lord, Bless This Defender of Freedom. "No matter where his mission takes him, he'll never be beyond the reach of God's protection. As the brave members of the U.S. military head out to defend our freedom, it's comforting to know that each one is sheltered in the loving hands of God." Order your Defender of Freedom, complete with hands of God, for only $19.95 plus shipping. Assault rifle included.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 3:42 PM PST - 44 comments

Beautiful gallery of ice sculptures. Well, not "scupltures" in the traditional sense of blocks of ice carved into horses and such, but rather abstract shapes, with fixed lighting. Really attractive. via BoingBoing
posted by jonson at 3:40 PM PST - 12 comments

...implants a device in his body that delivers agonizing pain at the push of a button, and over the course of many days attempts to wear him down through a disturbingly simple process of psychological warfare. He is seated in a chair with four bright lights shining in his face, and the captor attempts through painful coercion to make him say that there are, in fact, five lights. Every time he refuses to say there are five lights, he is drilled with pain. In essence, he is expected to deny the reality described by his own eyes, and surrender the will of his mind to the definition of reality offered by his captor. Four Lights, a thesis [2]
posted by holloway at 2:35 PM PST - 39 comments

Human Filter. "U.S. troops killed seven Iraqi women and children at a checkpoint Monday when the Iraqis' van would not stop as ordered, a military official said."
posted by four panels at 2:04 PM PST - 95 comments

Foreigners are plotting to revisit an ancient menace upon New York, and indeed the whole country! I would have thought this sort of terror was something that could have been left in the past.
posted by GriffX at 1:42 PM PST - 5 comments

Secret Police strike again. What country is this, again?
posted by donkeyschlong at 1:23 PM PST - 63 comments

Happy birthday, Kasimir Malevich! The Guggenheim has curated an exhibition (currently in Berlin and coming to New York in May) to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of this Russian avant-garde painter who, among other things, was a major influence on El Lissitzky and worked alongside Liubov Popova. The story of how the show itself came to be -- featuring many works never before seen in the West -- makes for rather dramatic reading, to boot. (NYTimes link; reg. req.) [more inside]
posted by scody at 1:20 PM PST - 8 comments

World War 1 Memoirs and Diaries , by soldiers, nurses and chaplains. 'With the advent of the world wide web, an opportunity arose for the descendants of many survivors to publish fragments of diary entries for the education and interest of others. '
The diary of Edwin Jones, who fought in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Via the firstworldwar.com website, which also features poetry and prose (including an overview of British World War 1 satire and how it reflected the class system at the time); propaganda posters; and miscellaneous features on everything from the Christmas truce to the disputed sexuality of T.E. Lawrence.
Related :- an interview with one of the last British WW1 survivors, aged 107 ('I survived the trenches - and would never go back'), and the BBC's 80th anniversary site, which includes five poignant, sometimes tragic, letters from soldiers to family and friends.
posted by plep at 1:14 PM PST - 8 comments

With an increase in the number of cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, Canada now poses more of a direct threat to the American way of life than all of the weapons in Iraq combined. As the relationship between these two North American real estate holders continues to deteriorate, are we Canadians to expect border closings and escalated hostility due to this?
posted by jon_kill at 12:54 PM PST - 17 comments

An exhibit of the art of Radebaugh and what the future looked like from the 50's. "The post-World War II optimism that pervaded the nation extended to the not-too-distant future, with its promise of spaceship-traveled skyways whirring in a utopia of streamlined cityscapes. Now, the works of A.C. Radebaugh -- a top illustrator of the day whose works helped define that future-vision -- are being shown in a retrospective at a quirky art gallery obsessed with Americana of the mid-20th century."
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:42 PM PST - 1 comments

One hundred years later, the question remains: Did Pearse fly?
posted by Silune at 11:53 AM PST - 3 comments

Need a diversion from you-know-what? Make something out of paper. When you get tired of origami, paper airplanes, and paper balloons, try paper craft. Yamaha has a great site with downloadable papercraft templates, including not only their great motorcycles, but many animals as well. Canon also has a great selection, including a spectacular architecture selection. Not geeky enough? Try these Star Wars templates. Not difficult enough? Try this Mistubishi FTO. Not cute enough? Try these. For those of you that need some connection to the war, here you go. Last but not least, this index contains links to all kinds of great paper projects.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 11:38 AM PST - 8 comments

Celebrity TV journalist Geraldo Rivera kicked out of Iraq: Pentagon I had seen Geraldo drawing the map referred to. Geraldo was not "embedded" and therefore acting as a real reporter. Did he give away key info? My suspicion is No. I had earlier seen retired officers (they all retire and then go on TV) make similar marking to show where our forces were on the way toward Baghdad. I knew in advance where Geraldo would conclude his map in the sand because I had seen it on the "embedded" reports on various cable stations.
posted by Postroad at 11:34 AM PST - 29 comments

Operation: Cover George's butt? As the backpeddling and fingerpointing over "cakewalk" predictions continues, Talking Points Memo notes a recent article in the Charlotte Observer that quotes "senior administration officials" in saying that "dissenting views [about the war plan]' were not fully or energetically communicated to the president.'" Sounds like someones taking out an insurance policy, don't it?
posted by Gilbert at 11:31 AM PST - 15 comments

Cesar Chavez Day With our focus on the war lets not forget what DOES make this country great, its people! I have to confess ignorance of this mans accomplishments until I turned my calendar today. Read,enjoy, learn something about a man who fought injustice with the most powerful weapon...his mind!
posted by hoopyfrood at 10:46 AM PST - 10 comments

Should news be independent The BBC stands accused (from some quarters) of being biased in its coverage of the Gulf war. Of course news reporting will always have a bias - but whose bias should it be?
posted by daveg at 9:31 AM PST - 30 comments

A journalist with principles When Katy Weitz, an anti-war feature writer for UK paper 'The Sun' picked up Thursday's edition and saw the headline, it was a step too far. She went in the following day and without another job to go to, handed in her resignation. It was no longer possible for her to write for a paper whose views she didn't agree with. I once gave up a marketing job because it ran against my principles as well. How far can we stretch ourselves before we have to shrug our shoulders and say ... it's only a job?
posted by feelinglistless at 9:21 AM PST - 16 comments

A Pyrrhic victory in a catastrophic "March of Folly"? - historian Barbara Tuchman asked: why do leaders persist in pursuing catastrophic policies? Regardless of Baath regime executions of Iraqis, the Islamic world will witness mainly "American Atrocities" - and be outraged by gruesome images, on Al Jazeera and elsewhere, of every single child killed by American bombs. Iraqi tactics - of suicide bombing, ambushes, and faked surrenders - will erase the civilian/combatant distinction, leading to more and more incidents like this (to be televised to an appalled Islamic world): and all this merely a foreshadow of what may be urban warfare on a scale seldom seen in the 20th century. Grozny comes to mind. Mainstream US media asserts that the solution for the whole "miscalculation" is just more US troops

But the war is tailor made to provoke tribalistic, Pan-Islamic fury (and corresponding, furiously tribalistic US patriotic support for war). Escalation is in the air: statements by Rumsfeld, Powell, and the US State Dept. indicate an awareness that the current war could spread, drawing in Syria and Iran. Consequences also could include the destabilization or the takeover, of nuclear armed Pakistan, by Islamic militants, and a Nuclear miltarization across a wide region, from Iraq to Japan.

If only this were "South Park: The Movie", where the onset of Armaggeddon can be stopped by an heroic act of sacrifice by Kenny.
posted by troutfishing at 9:19 AM PST - 27 comments

The Code of Hammurabi is generally recognized as the first laws ever written. Hammurabi was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon (present day Iraq), the world's first metropolis.
posted by stbalbach at 8:33 AM PST - 14 comments

How on Earth was this image made? Here is an opportunity for you to play image detective. How on Earth was this image made? Is it a painting, or a map? Is it a photograph? If so, was it taken from a high-flying aircraft, or from outer space? Is it a satellite image, or possibly even something else? Click to read the feature article when youre ready to check your answer. (cheers, lagado)
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:25 AM PST - 16 comments

Science in the kitchen. It's more star trek then home-ec, the cooking of Blumenthal and the legendary Ferran Adria from El Bulli, brings the chemistry set into the kitchen. Egg and bacon ice cream anyone?
posted by ciderwoman at 8:25 AM PST - 6 comments

~~Friday~~ Monday Fun ('cuz we need it now): Hip, very '70s-flavored t-shirts. Fun stuff (and almost totally WarFilter-Free).
posted by Shane at 7:59 AM PST - 19 comments

"Now America is reappraising the battlefield, delaying the war, maybe a week and rewriting the war plan. The first plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another plan." Seems patently obvious, no? But tell Iraqi state television that and suddenly you're speaking from "a position of complete ignorance," according to the White House.

Peter Arnett, highly respected, Pulitzer Prize winner and the first journalist to interview Osama Bin Laden on film, wouldn't back down the last time a network caved into craven submission at hands of the American military, and he's been sacked by NBC/MSNBC for again refusing to do so. There's no First Amendment case, obviously, and no real surprise that the military would be exerting pressure to maintain control over information, but does the firing of high-profile Arnett for the repeating the obvious increase anybody's confidence that we're hearing anything resembling the truth?
posted by JollyWanker at 7:42 AM PST - 30 comments

Washington Post gives a warblog round up. The timing of the blogging going mainstream vs. Iraq war couldn't be more ironic and oddly appropriate. Washington Post provides an interesting war blog roundup that includes the usual suspects: Vodka Pundit, Instapundit, Kuro5hin and others. Are there some notable blogs they overlooked?
posted by cpfeifer at 7:36 AM PST - 7 comments

Michael Moore is making a deal with Mel Gibson's Icon Prods. to finance "Fahrenheit 911," a documentary that will trace why the U.S. has become a target for hatred and terrorism. It will also depict alleged dealings between two generations of the Bush and bin Laden clans that led to George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden becoming mortal enemies.
posted by archimago at 7:07 AM PST - 37 comments

Children's Books Online: The Rosetta Project is an incredible online resource for 19th century children's books. From the site: "The Rosetta Project's collections currently contain about 2,000 antique children's books which were published in the 19th and early 20th century. We shall be putting these combined collections on line as funding permits. Our current goal of putting 2,000 volumes on line will create an online library of aproximately 65,000 html pages. However, as we are still collecting books from around the world, we expect the Rosetta Project online library to eventually reach millions of html pages." (via coudal.)
posted by Pinwheel at 7:01 AM PST - 7 comments

Tired of losing the puzzle pieces under the couch? War? What war?
posted by konolia at 6:40 AM PST - 8 comments

It's opening day! (Forget that silly game last night.) Whether you follow the evil empire or the best barnstorming team, today is the start of another season. Old-timers, fantasy players, card collectors, men, women, young, old: all love America's pastime.
posted by ?! at 6:19 AM PST - 19 comments

Just how well do you know The Lord of the Rings? Test your knowledge here, courtesy of the Tolkien Sarcasm Page. Also of interest: the LOTR board game, and a brief synopsis of LOTR for you students who have to write a quick book report but just don't have the time to read the actual books.
posted by UKnowForKids at 5:25 AM PST - 6 comments

"A cowboy who had gone out on a jolly" British soldiers talk about surviving friendly fire, and call for the US pilot who attacked them to be prosecuted for manslaughter.
posted by brettski at 2:57 AM PST - 32 comments

Forget all this new reality claptrap. How about the good old eighties-style claptrap? Why do I remember Manimal so fondly?
[more inside]
posted by zaack at 12:50 AM PST - 8 comments

Damaging collateral in Iraq: US Marines turn fire on civilians at the bridge of death. After surveying a scene of killed Iraqi civillians an American solider says: The Iraqis are sick people and we are the chemotherapy, said Corporal Ryan Dupre. I am starting to hate this country. Wait till I get hold of a friggin Iraqi. No, I wont get hold of one. Ill just kill him. [reg: cpunks/cpunks]
posted by skallas at 12:33 AM PST - 78 comments

Osama's niece wants to be a Western pop star. No, really.
posted by magullo at 12:11 AM PST - 15 comments

U.S. loses faith in Canada "We would be there for Canada, part of our family. And that is why so many in the United States are disappointed and upset that Canada is not fully supporting us now," says Paul Cellucci, U.S. ambassador to Canada. As pro-US sentiments from prominent Canadian figures are harshly criticized while blatant (and rather tasteless) anti-US remarks go more or less ignored by the government, has the relationship with our longtime friends up north been irreversibly soured?
posted by swank6 at 11:41 PM PST - 35 comments

People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die. If you've been hanging around the net for a while, chances are you've seen this in someone's sig. In fact, it's so frequently quoted that it makes finding Jim Davidson's original post in alt.folklore.urban just a bit difficult to find -- but it's worth looking for! It sits in the middle of an interesting debate about how poisonous plutonium is, spurred on by the rumor(?) that it's one of the "most toxic poison[s] known to man." Deadly poison, Los Alamos Scientists, levitating hemispheres of metal... all it really needs to round it out is true love.
posted by namespan at 9:17 PM PST - 10 comments

Language Bullies! An interesting somewhat compelling article asking us to forgive Bush's "nuccular." But will you forgive these needless exclamation marks?!!!!!
posted by adrober at 8:42 PM PST - 25 comments

MIT Liguist Naom Chomsky The New Yorker has a good collection of links to his articles and speeches online
posted by nish01 at 7:01 PM PST - 35 comments

"Pray that the President and his advisers will seek God and his wisdom daily and not rely on their own understanding" i think these people might be on to something.
posted by specialk420 at 6:29 PM PST - 20 comments

Last Call to fire up a smoke in NYC has now chimed. As of today, it is now illegal to smoke in any public indoor space, including bars. The New York City Indoor Smoke-Free Air Act of 2002 gives further detail as to what defines a public indoor space. That, not including your residential lease that may prohibit as well. As Andrew Jacobs writes, Walk a Mile for a Camel? Not Far Enough Anymore.
posted by bluedaniel at 3:57 PM PST - 162 comments

Hey Jude, what does that song mean? The Beatles Discography lets you look up almost any Beatles song, and find out about its history and meaning. According to this, one of my favorite Beatles songs, "Paperback Writer," was written after Paul's aunt challenged him to write a song that wasn't about love. And "She's Leaving Home," another favorite, was based on a newspaper article about a runaway 17-year-old girl. and supposedly was attacked in the U.S. as being somehow pro-abortion. I always wondered if there was a real "Polyethene Pam," but I had no idea her name was really Pat, and that she ate plastic. Fascinating stuff.
posted by GaelFC at 3:23 PM PST - 25 comments

Before 9/11, Before War on .... there was serious concern that Halliburton would be forced into bankruptcy / The company -- and Cheney's million-dollar paychecks -- were saved. Praise Allah! Never in American history has a group of government leaders profited so directly from war -- never. Like their brothers-in-arms, Saddam's Baathists, the Bushists treat their own country like a sacked town, looting the treasury for their family retainers and turning public policy to private gain. Like Saddam, they feed on fear and glorify aggression. Like Saddam, they have dishonored their nation and betrayed its people. But the money sure is good, eh, Dick?
posted by bureaustyle at 2:50 PM PST - 26 comments

Sheela Na Gigs are stone grotesques found decorating old churches in Europe. They are characterized by "[a] huge head, staring eyes and hands reaching down between [her] wide open legs to spread [her] swollen and oversized womanhood." While the posture implies prostitution, the Sheelas are said to be representations of the Great Mother, and they are said to keep evil away. There are even some male Sheelas, like this one at Lower Swell.
posted by jessamyn at 1:45 PM PST - 24 comments

A Celebration of Women Writers. 'Women have written almost every imaginable type of work: novels, poems, letters, biographies, travel books, religious commentaries, histories, economic and scientific works... '
'All too often, works by women, and resources about women writers, are hard to find. We attempt to provide easy access to available on-line information. ' Categorised by country, century and ethnicity; with links to some interesting specialty collections :- 19th century African-American writers (including slave narratives); school stories (covers and links); children's book illustrators; travel writers; early Japanese poets and poet-painters; sci fi, and more.
posted by plep at 1:07 PM PST - 9 comments

The vegan diet can be a killer, at least that's what the State of New York thinks. Was a "strict vegan diet" the cause of a 15-month-old's demise or did New York health officials have a hand in the death?
posted by Bag Man at 12:46 PM PST - 51 comments

Bell System Memorial. State approved, centrally planned and controlled: no, not this, the old Bell System. Don't miss the photos (including the first car phone!) and ads (sometimes ironic). Offsite: the affiliated Telephone Tribute, a few old Bell ads from the Prelinger archives, and an entertaining US telephony history from Bruce Sterling's famous Hacker Crackdown.
posted by tss at 12:27 PM PST - 4 comments

Who are these neo-conservatives? Pat Buchanan tells all.
posted by Voyageman at 12:10 PM PST - 20 comments

You may remember the Ohio National Guardsman changed his name to a Optimus Prime. He is a firefighter deployed to the gulf. Well now he has a weblog. You can also check out some photos of him on his website.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 12:06 PM PST - 13 comments

Plans Under Way for Christianizing the Enemy. "Two leading evangelical Christian missionary organizations said Tuesday that they have teams of workers poised to enter Iraq to address the physical and spiritual needs of a large Muslim population." (from Buzzflash) God please save me from your followers!
posted by thedailygrowl at 11:25 AM PST - 47 comments

The Cosmopolitan Illusion, by Lee Harris, is a challenging response to Martha Nussbaum's inspiring essay, Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism. Nussbaum's essay was the subject of a previous thread. [Via Ye Olde Phart.]
posted by homunculus at 11:07 AM PST - 5 comments

The Information War: "Every few minutes, another burst of satellite imagery and Internet information impacts among an interactive global audience. Ambushed by info, U.S. military commanders confident in their overwhelming firepower are increasingly expressing concern that the 'velocity of information' is spinning out of their control." [more inside]
posted by poopy at 10:24 AM PST - 20 comments

War in Babylon has evangelicals seeing Earth's final days, reports the SF Chron. End-Time Interpreters See Apocalyptic Meaning in Iraq War, reports Belief Net. End-times radio from End-Times.com. Israel's End-Time Gamble, from World Net Daily. Jimmy Carter notes that a stance against war is

an almost universal conviction of religious leaders, with the most notable exception of a few spokesmen of the Southern Baptist Convention who are greatly influenced by their commitment to Israel based on eschatological, or final days, theology.

Factoid:

The Southern Baptist Convention has more churches (over 37,000) in the United States than any other religious body even more than the Catholic Church.

posted by hairyeyeball at 9:34 AM PST - 23 comments

Take Stock in Weblogs - Blogshares is a web-based simulation of stock market where the commodity is weblog linkage. Currently, Metafilter is worth $27774.44. What's your weblog worth?
posted by Argyle at 9:07 AM PST - 23 comments

Iraq says 4,000 Arabs in Iraq for 'Martyrdom' check the math: each martyr promised 72 virgins in Paradise times 4,000= 288 thousand virgins. Howq many virgins in your Heaven?
posted by Postroad at 8:19 AM PST - 18 comments

The Tampon Thread - ok, boyz, think you know enough about tampons? Bet you didn't know about this utterly humiliating application! There's both an art and a science involved in tampons. You really can't say you know tampons until you've gotten hands on with them, perhaps even worn a few out in public. Come on guys, take the plunge and you too can experience that fresh feeling! (Oh wait, and these tampons - you say they vibrate?)
posted by madamjujujive at 6:50 AM PST - 45 comments

Red-Haired Barbarians: The Dutch and Othe Foreigners in Nagasaki and Yokohama 1800-1865
posted by hama7 at 6:01 AM PST - 9 comments

The museum of unworkable devices... Gravity -- it's not just a good idea, it's the law. Perpetual motion, and other wonderful things.
posted by Krrrlson at 10:53 PM PST - 5 comments

An American Myth Rides Into the Sunset

One cannot imagine F.D.R., before declaring war on Japan, or even Ronald Reagan before Grenada, pumping a fist and saying of himself, "Feel good" as President Bush did before he announced the beginning of the Iraq war. Indeed, the doctrine of pre-emptive warfare flies in the face of the humble, reluctant cowboy myth Mr. Bush holds so dear.
posted by y2karl at 10:24 PM PST - 9 comments

The Virtual MetaBanquet: Eat, Drink And Be Merry! Any class which includes A.M.Bowie's stimulating "Thinking With Drinking" paper in the bibliography, has to be worth taking but John Porter's The Ancient Symposium/Convivium course description is full of wonderful links to all that is classical wining, dining, conviviality, friendship and other forms of philosophical and physical cheer. Brush up on your Plato and Xenophon!
...Which, together with the Cooks' Thesaurus linked yesterday by plep led me to imagine a glorious Sunday MetaFilter Banquet...[More inside.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:02 PM PST - 11 comments

The war is now a stalemate. From Reuters: Much of the supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles has been expended, aircraft carriers are going to run out of precision guided bombs, and there are serious maintenance problems with tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment. "The only hope is that they can hold out until reinforcements arrive," a former US intelligence official said. "This is the mess [Rumsfeld] put himself in because he didn't want a heavy footprint on the ground."
posted by johnnydark at 9:05 PM PST - 84 comments

Classic Games Convention. For those of you into vintage games, tomorrow is the last day to check out PhillyClassic 4, a vintage game fest at which developers will release new vintage games. Some industry personalities will be present, including Sid Meier of Civilization fame, and Cindy Morgan from everyone's classic game movie, Tron, soon to have a sequel (the game, not the movie). Play a vintage game on a current system, or relive the good old days of Vectrex. Leave your quarters at home (the games are on free-play), but bring your joysticks to donate to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
posted by ringmaster at 8:43 PM PST - 3 comments

ZoomView is a satellite image of Baghdad from March 27th that allows zooming to the level of cars and individual trees and panning around the city. Data loads realtime called "sharpening". Other cool ZoomViews of Basra, Tikrit, North Korea nuclear reactor site, Qualcomm Stadium San Diego.
posted by stbalbach at 6:31 PM PST - 11 comments

Takoma, the Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphin, had been in Iraq for 48 hours when he went missing on his first operation to snoop out mines Takoma has now been missing for 48 hours and the solitary figure of Petty Officer Whitaker could be seen yesterday patting the water, calling his name and offering his favourite fish, but there was no response.
posted by raaka at 6:16 PM PST - 21 comments

Iraq T-Shirts - Nuff said.
posted by betobeto at 4:01 PM PST - 51 comments

For his kindness, Saddam was once given a key to the city of Detroit.

Apparently Saddam Hussein once donated money to Chaldean churches all over the world, including Chaldean Sacred Heart, in the motor city.

"He was very kind person, very generous, very cooperative with the West. Lately, what's happened, I don't know," (Rev. Jacob) Yasso, 70, said Wednesday. "Money and power changed the person."

Yasso was later invited to Iraq, where he presented Saddam Hussein with a key to the city, courtesy of then-Detroit mayor, Coleman Young.
posted by wondergirl at 3:50 PM PST - 12 comments

US soldiers beat, inhumanely detain, expel independent journalists. One of the dirty secrets of this war is Kuwaiti anti-semitism against journalists. Boaz Bizmuth and Dan Scemama are two such Israelis who faced that discrimination. When the war started, they took off in a jeep with Luis Castro and Victor Silva, two Portuguese journalists, following US troops. Somewhere around An Najaf, they were told that at least one of the Israeli journalists had problems with their papers and needed to be accredited by the Kuwaitis. They slept for the night, only to be woken at gunpoint by US military police. They were accused of being spies and detained for 12 hours without food. When one of the Portuguese journalists asked to use the phone, both were beaten, and one was knocked to the ground and kicked, breaking several ribs. They were detained without contact for another 36 hours, before being flown back to Kuwait.
CNN Germany is covering this story ... so why isn't CNN?
posted by insomnia_lj at 2:28 PM PST - 27 comments

"Build frame-lattice lancework set-pieces on the roofs of insurance buildings or schools--a kundalini-snake or Chaos- dragon coiled barium-green against a background of sodium- oxalate yellow--Don't Tread On Me--or copulating monsters shooting wads of jizm-fire at a Baptists old folks home. "

I really have no idea, but it's awesome anyways.
posted by kavasa at 2:08 PM PST - 17 comments

Operation Teenage Angst Fest. Is all the war talk getting you down? Make like your younger self and wallow in some self-obsessed teen angst. You might even want to dig our your old journals and submit. Keep in mind the cardinal rule, though: it has to suck.
posted by maud at 12:02 PM PST - 7 comments

The cuilte. They're a segment of society often ridiculed. They are artists with their own slang and special tools. They have a rich history full of stories, myths and mysteries. Though many think they originated in America, they can trace their roots to numerous locations on the globe. They are peaceful activists. As it happened so often the English borrowed their name from the French. That's how the cuilte became the quilters.
posted by ?! at 11:07 AM PST - 18 comments

The Himalayan Art Project. An online collection of Himalayan visual arts and heritage, '...containing over 8,000 records, 10,000 images and 700 thematic sets'. The exhibits page is good: here's a collection of photographs of Tibet as it was in the 1950's, and here's an essay on the history of 'visual Dharma'.
Some related links :- Mongolian stories and anecdotes about politics, religion, sport and horses (Mongolians belong to the same religion as Tibetans); a privileged witness to a sky burial (via the Tibetan Studies Virtual Library); the Tibetan game of rebirth.
posted by plep at 10:59 AM PST - 3 comments

Qatar Home of Central Command and Al Jazzera television, it's a small oil-rich country we've all heard of, and that's the problem: I hear Qatar called Cutter, Gutter, Katar, and Kwatar. How do the Qataris' pronounce it; is it possible to accurately pronounce foreign words in English? Who decides? More inside...
posted by Mack Twain at 10:01 AM PST - 32 comments

The Bartender gives tips for those of you who are worried that the war will hinder your ability to "hook up with foreign hotties."
posted by Juicylicious at 9:16 AM PST - 10 comments

Fox News "revises" its own news scroll during New York war protest. "The news ticker rimming Fox's headquarters on Sixth Avenue wasn't carrying war updates as the protest began. Instead, it poked fun at the demonstrators, chiding them. 'War protester auditions here today ... thanks for coming!' read one message. 'Who won your right to show up here today?' another questioned. 'Protesters or soldiers?' Said a third: 'How do you keep a war protester in suspense? Ignore them....' Still another read: 'Attention protesters: the Michael Moore Fan Club meets Thursday at a phone booth at Sixth Avenue and 50th Street.'" Fox claims the network "didn't mean to insult anyone."
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 8:17 AM PST - 95 comments

Scrapbook of the Revolution: Interpreting the Mao Era
posted by hama7 at 3:38 AM PST - 10 comments

The Improv Page, not to be confused with The New Improv Page. You may also find important improv comedy information at The Improv Encyclopedia, The Learn Improv Page, Chicago's Improv Resource Center or perhaps even The Spolin Center. There is much more happening in the world of improv comedy than the increasingly unsatisfying Whose Line is it Anyway?
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:47 AM PST - 9 comments

Use a misleading domain name, go to prison. A new bit of pending legislation (warning: PDF) called the "Child Abduction Prevention Act" (and really, who WOULDN'T vote for that?) has made the use of misleading domain names for sites of "purient interest" punishable by a sentence of up to two years in prison. Seriously. This is going to be very troubling to the White House. No, this White House.
posted by jonson at 11:09 PM PST - 22 comments

Be a one heart- It is a time to celebrate and not allow yourself to get sucked into fear. "A lot is up in the world today the War in Iraq changes everywhere on the planet. Now we have the 911 attack and the male ego is out in full force. Kill the evil-doers is the chant and the march to war is upon us. No doubt there is much happening in all parts of the world in this transition period, but in the end what is important is how we as individuals and as a collective conscience react or proact to these changes. As individuals, as nations, as humanity we will set the tone for what kind of a world we will begin the next epoch with. What humanity does now will flavor the world in which we live for a very long time. My life will be spent proacting the ways of peace and stability, what will you spend your life doing? " "Message from the Hopi - People of Peace August 2002 You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell them that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered: Where are you living? What are you doing? What are your relationships? Are you in right relation? Where is your water? Know your garden. It is time to speak your Truth. Create your community. Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader. This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and so swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold onto the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The Elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our heads above water. See who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey, comes to a halt. The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we have been waiting for. The Elders Oraibi, Arizona Hopi Nation " TOP
posted by thedailygrowl at 10:11 PM PST - 27 comments

Bring your blog to new heights of uninspired mediocrity with Brunching's Apathetic Online Journal Entry Generator, so that you too can enjoy the wonders of a dull blog.
posted by brownpau at 9:04 PM PST - 19 comments

"Journalists" vs. The White House - MSNBC's Tom Curry reports on the Bush administration's frustration with the war coverage. Rumsfeld: Fortunately... the American people have a very good center of gravity and can absorb and balance what they see and hear.
posted by cinematique at 8:23 PM PST - 9 comments

Songfight is a site where users compose songs based weekly titles. Then the public votes and a winner is decided. While necessarily indie, there is a wide variety of styles present and many great songs (mp3 links) have come out of this site. (Check the archives).
posted by ODiV at 5:59 PM PST - 7 comments

Halliburton out of the running for the $600 billion contract to rebuild Iraqs infrastructure. Andrew Natsios, director of the USAID, which is handing out most of the postwar contracts, is keen to counter any allegations of favoritism or political influence. "If I got a phone call from anybody putting any political pressure on me, I would report it immediately". Halliburton is the company formerly run by Dick Cheney, VP of the United States.
posted by stbalbach at 3:55 PM PST - 19 comments

Why the war has become a clusterf**k On my way back from lunch I was listening to Fresh Air and an interview with Christopher Dickey. The things he was saying about the motives of work-a-day Iraqis came as a big surprise to me. In particular: It sounds like they'll keep fighting us long after Saddam and his army are gone. [more inside]
posted by y6y6y6 at 2:25 PM PST - 72 comments

Reality is beginning to seem more and more like Naoto Hattori's surreality; check the gallery and see if you agree. ("Money, Blunts, 40's And Bitches" just amuses me hugely - I think it's the "bitches".) I particularly like the "Extras" section, in which he reveals a bit of the process behind the paintings. (Plus, snowboards!)
posted by taz at 1:50 PM PST - 10 comments

X-Ray of George Bush. This explains everything. [Via This Modern World.]
posted by homunculus at 12:56 PM PST - 20 comments

Google.ac is some kind of fake Google site that seems to return nothing but sponsored results. Is it supposed to fool somebody?
posted by hammurderer at 12:41 PM PST - 14 comments

The Two Micron All Sky Survey at IPAC has been completed after 4 years and 5 million images. Detailed infrared images have been mapped into beautiful false color images. Be sure to check out the 2MASS home page at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. So, what's your favorite astronomy related site or image? (via CNN)
posted by onhazier at 12:38 PM PST - 5 comments

Will the web be the only place left to cover "unpopular" stories? Exhibit A: This WP article reporting that media consultants are recommending TV and radio not to cover protests. (It's unpopular, therefore decreases ratings and therefore bad for business). Exhibit B: Clear Channel tells their stations to ban the Dixie Chicks (Clear Channel wants to get in good with Bush). Exhibit C: Courts rules the media have no obligation to tell the truth. Will a distributed or topic-specific IndyMedia be the best or main source for deviant news? Something like the The Internet Topic Exchange or pb's recent peacetrack? Another reason to work on the Metafilter Online Journalism Project? [more inside]
posted by gramcracker at 12:18 PM PST - 42 comments

This whole damn battlefield is entirely screwed up. Journalists are informants are medics are soldiers are noncombatants are enemies are friends are puppets are war criminals are spies are civilians are terrorists are injured are paramilitary are POWs are freedom fighters are MIA are bloggers are bystanders are children are involved. Will there ever again be an American war where it's clear who's who? And who's on which side?
posted by jengod at 11:39 AM PST - 15 comments

Dog Island
posted by Pretty_Generic at 10:46 AM PST - 37 comments

Embedding? Rumsfeld et al Tried to Embed Bechtel and Themselves with Saddam as Iraq Gassed Iranians. "Our examination [issued by the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network and the Institute for Policy Studies with recently released supporting documents] shines a new spotlight on the revolving door between Bechtel and the Reagan Administration that drove U.S.-Iraq interactions between 1983 and 1985. The men who courted Saddam while he gassed Iranians are now waging war against him, ostensibly because he holds weapons of mass destruction. To a man, they now deny that oil has anything to do with the conflict. Yet during the Reagan Administration, and in the years leading up to the present conflict, these men shaped and implemented a strategy that has everything to do with securing Iraqi oil exports....[This paper] notes that the break in US-Iraq relations occurred not after Iraq used chemical weapons on the Iranians, nor after Iraq gassed its own Kurdish people, nor even after Iraq invaded Kuwait, but rather, followed Saddam's rejection of the Aqaba pipeline deal. Finally, this paper shows that the main actors in the 1980s drama are now back on center stage, this time justifying military action against Iraq in terms of national security....The Bush/Cheney administration now eyes Bechtel as a primary contractor for the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure." (via Progressive Review.)
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 10:43 AM PST - 9 comments

Hackers to the rescue! This is where the real war is being fought folks.... "Hacked by Patriot, Freedom Cyber Force Militia"
posted by protocool at 9:33 AM PST - 29 comments

Space-time continuum abused for financial gain Federal investigators have arrested a Wall Street whizz who made $350 million from an initial investment of just $800 in two weeks. The man has confessed to insider dealing, explaining that he travelled back from the year 2256 in his 'time craft' specifically to make a killing on recorded past stock plunges. The kicker? There's no record of the man's existence prior to December 2002.
posted by skylar at 9:08 AM PST - 41 comments

ORCH HITS HIT YOU HARD. it's the big business.
posted by angry modem at 8:53 AM PST - 7 comments

Amy Goodman AMERICAN HERO but not on WAMC? Democracy now an informitive and hard hitting program produced by Pacifica Radio was asked for many,many times during WAMC's recent fund drive prompting WAMC's dictator in charge alan chartock to state "its on a lot of stations but not WAMC" Why is that? Afraid of rousing the ire of AG ashcroft?I think we should see if old alan is up to giving a good reason why!
posted by hoopyfrood at 8:48 AM PST - 9 comments

Free songs from a free record label, Protest-Records.com. Punk, folk, rock, rap. Thurston Moore and NY designer Chris Habib curate. State smashin' stencils for download too.
posted by damehex at 8:40 AM PST - 10 comments

Richard Perle resigns the Defense Policy Board chairmanship. Richard Perle, after being accused of profiteering and conflict of interest, has resigned as chairman of the Defense Policy Board. Was this the real reason he resigned, or is the administration distancing itself from Perle due to his claims the Iraqis would be "dancing in the streets" after a US invasion, his links to an advocate for invading Saudi Arabia, or perhaps his call in the British press to get rid of the UN?
Don't start missing him yet, however. Perle will still remain on the Defense Policy board at Donald Rumsfeld's request.
posted by insomnia_lj at 8:20 AM PST - 5 comments

Windows RG (Really Good) - a new build for the demanding windows user, and an early christmas present for all mac users.
posted by gravelshoes at 7:50 AM PST - 12 comments

Chuckie Egg Its not quite a Friday Flash Game, and its not quite a discussion of the great 8-bit games we played when we were young, but it seems to fall neatly between the two camps, so I thought Id post it. For those of you on the other side of the pond, Chuckie Egg was one of the biggest selling games here in the U.K. For those of you who hanker for the old days of your BBC Micro, heres a little bit of 80s magic. PC only, but its less than 200K of download, and as an extra bonus, it allows you to create your own levels.
posted by seanyboy at 7:06 AM PST - 9 comments

The Stone Pages. 'Over the last 14 years we have personally visited and photographed all 529 archæological sites you will find in these pages (117 in the six national sections and 412 in our Tours section), creating the first Web guide to European megaliths and other prehistoric sites, online since February 1996.'
Related :- Ancient Stones, a personal photographic guide to the stone circles of Britain; Megalithic Walks, diaries of days out visiting some of these places; the Prehistoric Monuments of Wales; the interactive Megalith Map. These sites also have great links pages to more megalithic resources.
posted by plep at 6:35 AM PST - 13 comments

Gary Hart launched a weblog. "From time to time, I'll post my thoughts on current policy matters, as well as share some stories about where I'm traveling and the people I'm meeting. I'll also ask some of my friends to share their thoughts as well. I cannot promise to be as skillful at this as many of those who have made the blogger universe such an important part of the internet. However, I'm committed to using the Internet as a vital tool to engage people on critical policy matters and the future of our country." Hart joins Howard Dean as the only other 2004 presidential hopeful with a weblog.
posted by PoliticalJunkie at 6:14 AM PST - 19 comments

Some Friday fun. Mr. Cranky, hollywood's surliest film critic, takes a stab at the war news coverage. I thought I was the only one disturbed by the perma-smile on Lester Holt's face. Tongue in cheek, but as Homer J. Simpson would say, It's funny because it's true.
posted by archimago at 6:12 AM PST - 8 comments

The Historian of Things That Never Were: Edgar Governo collects timelines, chronologies, and histories of events that never happened, to people and things that never existed. Like who? Like Dr. Who, and Final Fantasy VII, Gargoyles, Buckaroo Bonzai, Gulliver's Travels, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and many more.
posted by iconomy at 5:28 AM PST - 13 comments

Friday mini-DVCAM, low-budget music video fun: the Ukes of Hazzard would like you to meet their Gay Boyfriend.
posted by MrBaliHai at 4:25 AM PST - 3 comments

Brighton West Pier is on fire. Could this be the 'final end' for this historic UK landmark?
posted by i_cola at 2:57 AM PST - 28 comments

VandalSquad Always fancied yourself as a "Writer" but don't want to get covered in paint or arrested? This download allows you to deface a train wagon to your hearts content and then upload it to a gallery. Not the real thing but as close as most of us will ever get...
posted by jontyjago at 1:54 AM PST - 1 comments

The Chant of the Weed. "Think of the received image of the jazz musician, the young man with a horn or the tortured singer with the gardenia in her hair. And think what baggage they carry, along with the reeds and the valve oil and the spare mouthpieces. Somewhere in the flight case or purse, tucked away out of sight but still seemingly essential to the image, a little something for after the gig, maybe weed, maybe white powder, maybe a discrete bottle of pills. Like it or not, drugs are very much part of the history and still more of the mythology or jazz." And you gotta hear the clip of Cocaine Habit Blues.
posted by theplayethic at 1:01 AM PST - 12 comments

Image Conscious The fall of CNN, and what it means for the war.
posted by cmacleod at 12:27 AM PST - 18 comments

It's Always Some Poor Writer's Birthday: So thank you, I guess, good old Uncle Garrison, for remembering them on good old Minnesota Public Radio. A rather good bunch was born today, too: Nelson Algren [Party in Chicago on Saturday!], Gorky, Vargas Llosa, Russell Banks and Frederic "A Fan's Notes" Exley. [Literary types will inevitably want to play the good old "What do this motley crew have in common?" game. Cheating and false analogies actively encouraged, of course.] In fact, it's been a good week altogether. Be sure to go back to 2001 and 2002 for extra snippets. The notes, written by Keillor, are unassuming, interesting and admirably synthetic. There's also an excellent daily reading of a poem [Real Audio req.] and a running celebration of the calendar's most significant dates. I defy those who are put off by Keillor's sock-knitting, eggnog-sipping, home-on-the-range style not to grudgingly feel, amid the grrrr, an unwelcome twinge of gratitude.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:13 AM PST - 14 comments

"These Enemies of Humanity would like to claim the world for themselves." No, this is not about either side in the Iraq War, it's part of the opening of Act I of "Ghosts of Albion", a serialized Friday Flash thingy from BBC-interactive, animated by the people who brought us "Dangermouse", and co-written by the actress behind a dead "Buffy" character (I admit it: I got the link from BuffyFilter). The site's got everything from a profile of Lord Byron's Ghost, to (dare I say it?) a Weblog.
But is the "dramatisation" dramatic or scary or funny or worth going back to every week? IMGUO*, it doesn't get off to as good a start as Ep.1 of "Tales of the Blode", but consider the pedigree... Then again, the BBC did bring us both "Monty Python" AND "What Not to Wear"...
* IMGUO: In My Generally Unpopular Opinion
posted by wendell at 12:03 AM PST - 4 comments

A patriotic potpourri. Say what you want about the war. It certainly has helped some people find their special purpose. Terrorists beware! You have gone to far this time & WE will DESTROY YOU. Also Current World News, War Infofmation, Kill Osama Pics, Games, Laughs & More..... (warning: crammed full of multimedia files, including (but not limited to) Bon Jovi cover songs interspersed with screeching eagles.)
posted by Ljubljana at 11:13 PM PST - 10 comments

Things going squish on my scanner - time lapse scanner fun with surprisingly cool results brought to you by Kamikazee Killmouse. I'm partial to the kiwi. His page of short animated choppings is also an amusing place to while away some time in a b3ta kind of way. (via j-walk)
posted by madamjujujive at 11:01 PM PST - 9 comments

House Resolution 153 recognizes the need for the American public to pray and fast in order to secure the blessings of "Providence" (read: Jesus) for our Armed Forces. Seriously. "Resolved that the President should issue a proclamation designating a day for prayer & fasting for all people of the United States". I take back the thing I said earlier about the Freedom Fries being the stupidest Congressional legislation I'd ever seen.
posted by jonson at 10:16 PM PST - 75 comments

Planet Kite is an ambitious website dedicated to world kites with notable appearances by Cambodia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, Japan, and the sublime Southeast Asian Leaf Kite, among many others.
posted by hama7 at 10:05 PM PST - 5 comments

Ground Laid for Historic Presidential Powers Push But as recently as March 4, Attorney General John Ashcroft was being coy about it, refusing to discuss any of the 86-page draft at a Senate hearing. Among the more extreme powers Patriot Act II would grant the executive branch: The ability to strip citizenship from an American who supports a group the feds label as terrorist. Secret arreststhe government could avoid revealing the location of, charges against, and evidence on someone it was holding. Far looser checks on search-and-seizure activities of law enforcement. And a DNA database for people deemed to be terrorist suspects. But with this "really cool war to watch on TV", who will even notice before it's too late?
posted by bas67 at 8:45 PM PST - 29 comments

According to UPI, the United States has been offered by coalition partner Morocco its tide-turning force of 2,000 monkeys trained to detonate land mines. It wouldn't be so unbelievable if the U.S. wasn't already training dolphins and sea lions to do the same. Considering the carnage already happening to humans in Iraq, this news doesn't inspire thoughts of happy endings for our animal friends.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:55 PM PST - 28 comments

Unless you take long breaks from your busy internet-trolling schedule to read print media, you did not see this chilling litany of stupidity from Elsa Walsh's 3/24 New Yorker profile of Bandar bin Sul "The meeting was scheduled to last twenty minutes, but Bush and Abdullah talked for two hours. At one point, the Crown Prince handed Bush the photographs of the dead Palestinian children. Do you think it's right? he asked. Bush appeared surprised by the photographs and his eyes seemed to well up. One person familiar with the conversation summarized Bush's comments: "I want peace. I don't want to see any people killed on both sides. I think God loves me. I think God loves the Palestinians. I think God loves the Israelis. We cannot allow this to continue." At one point, Bush told Abdullah that he believed Muslims and Israelis were all God's children and that God didn't want to see children from either side die." (Link via Atrios)
posted by crasspastor at 5:30 PM PST - 22 comments

Risks and realities of urban warfare Urban Operations Journal collects "open-source information on urban military operations," including military doctrine, an image library, war game reports, a quotes collection and much more. Lessons from Grozny, Hue City and Beirut shed light on what might be coming in Baghdad. The training section links to a number of documents noting the "scarcity of training resources" the U.S. devotes to urban warfare, including this PBS story in which an urban warfare specialist makes the claim U.S. forces are "not proficient" on the urban battleground, where the casualty rate is "about 30 percent."
posted by mediareport at 4:26 PM PST - 13 comments

Al-Qaeda fighting with Iraqis, British claim So say interrogated Iraqi POWs. But wait. Al Qaeda the group that killed 3 thousand Americans and now they are inside Iraq helping Saddam? Were they there when Blix lads inspecting? Do the French know about this? If so, do they think we should give Al Qaeda a chance to reform?
posted by Postroad at 3:36 PM PST - 29 comments

Kim Jong Il (the illmatic)'s LiveJournal
3:39 am Dear diary. Bush still doesnt get it. I tried making my feelings clear but hes too busy ignoring me, he is such a jerk. Everything in his life is just Saddam, Saddam, Saddam and I am sick of it.

On the plus side, I think my hair looked pretty good today. Also I went frolicking at Paektu Mountain and the rainbow came out again. After dinner some of my subjects sang me a song because I invented Outer Space.
posted by woj at 2:18 PM PST - 20 comments

"Chaos in the Middle East is not the Bush hawks' nightmare scenario--it's their plan." This is a fascinating and disturbing article by Josh Marshall for next month's Washington Monthly, released early due to recent events. Of course, whether or not the war will destabalize the Mideast is open to debate.
posted by homunculus at 12:42 PM PST - 68 comments

~~Friday~~ Thursday Flash ~~Fun~~ Art. Suspended Gardens 2 allows you to plant virtual flowers in Iraq. You can customize your flower and include a message. As Metafilterarians like to state their opinions, do not miss this opportunity. [more inside]
posted by MzB at 11:06 AM PST - 3 comments

Blair, the war criminal Tom Dalyell, a Labour MP with over 41 years of service in the House of Commons has voted with his Labour Party constitutency to call for Blair to reconsider his postion as party leader. He further states that he believes "[Blair] should be branded as a war criminal and sent to the Hague".
posted by lometogo at 10:25 AM PST - 22 comments

You're all a bunch of x-Eating y Monkeys!
posted by Pretty_Generic at 10:20 AM PST - 29 comments

A meteor hit the Chicago south suburbs last night, and the flash was seen as far away as Ohio. This flash was also caught on video. I missed the flash, which lit up the night sky like a nuke attack. Did anyone else see it?
posted by Sal Amander at 9:36 AM PST - 60 comments

The Myth of the "Civilian"? Rationalizing the status quo or hard-headed realism for "interesting times"? Baghdad coming shortly...
posted by dgaicun at 9:03 AM PST - 18 comments

Last August, Metafilter readers learned of the story of Laura Rothenberg, a student at Brown University who chronicled her battle with cystic fibrosis on NPR's Radio Diaries. Sadly, Laura died last week at age 22. NPR remembers her here and a moving tribute aired earlier this week on All Things Considered.
posted by PrinceValium at 7:22 AM PST - 13 comments

The Iraq-September 11th smoking gun? Finally, near proof that Iraq was involved in the September 11th attacks on America: a mural in the Iraqi military headquarters in Nasiriya depicts a plane crashing into a building complex similar to New York's twin towers! (Okay, seriously, are some folks so desperate to make the connection that this might become an actual story?)
posted by johnnydark at 7:15 AM PST - 50 comments

Electronic Arts released it's latest in the popular "Command & Conquer" series, "Command & Conquer: Generals" C&C are strategy and warfare games, that have bloodless and non-explicit violence. But this month the German government listed the game on their index of media that can not be advertised or displayed on shelves in Germany, although they may be kept under store counters and sold to adults. Most video games on this list show "especially brutal acts of violence," unlike C&C [more inside]
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 7:09 AM PST - 23 comments

The Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments about the constitutionality of homosexual sex. While this may not be news, just listening to some of the comments by the conservatives on the court can be a chilling experience, whether you are straight or gay. Is it possible that there can be supreme court justices, supposedly the best of the best, who are really this ignorant?
posted by eas98 at 6:59 AM PST - 68 comments

gigposters -- a collection of posters created by artists and musicians to advertise their shows and events.
posted by lilboo at 6:53 AM PST - 4 comments

How Will we know America is winning? Thomas Friedman poses six questions against which to judge US success...
posted by brettski at 6:41 AM PST - 19 comments

The G.I. Jones Photographic Archive of Southeastern Nigerian Art and Culture. 'This is an archive of digitized photographs depicting the arts and cultures of southeastern Nigeria. The collection includes examples from Ibibio, Igbo, Ijo and Ogoni speaking peoples. All of the photographs were taken in the 1930s by the late G.I. Jones, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge. The majority of the images are from the Igbo speaking regions where Jones conducted most of his research. The materials included here represent only a sample of the complete Jones collection. The photographs are unique for the creative brilliance of the art represented, the quality of the photography itself, and the cultural and historical significance of photographic records from this time period in Nigeria.'
Some related links :-
American Museum Congo Expedition 1909-1915. A truly interesting site, which includes field notes, photographs, watercolours, historical maps, anthropoligical objects, and so forth.
A Clickable Map of the Art of the African Continent, via Africa: The Art of a Continent.
The Woods Collection of African Art, with another clickable map.
Nigerian Stories.
posted by plep at 6:30 AM PST - 11 comments

Maryland voted to reduce penalities on folks who smoke marijuana for medical purposes. It's passed the house and is on it's way to becoming law!
posted by cpfeifer at 6:11 AM PST - 11 comments

Have a fling...or have a cow. Or fling a cow. Fried-day Flash Fun. (Gratuities are welcome, but please, no "tipping.")
posted by Dunvegan at 5:11 AM PST - 7 comments

nifty ancient eyecandy
posted by crunchland at 3:41 AM PST - 12 comments

Robert Fisk in the Independent Today's front page of the UK broadsheet comprises solely of a text-only report of yesterday's bombing of a Baghdad marketplace, beginning: "It was an outrage, an obscenity. The severed hand on the metal door, the swamp of blood and mud across the road, the human brains inside a garage, the incinerated, skeletal remains of an Iraqi mother and her three small children in their still-smouldering car..." This is how war reporting should be.
posted by garyh at 2:07 AM PST - 110 comments

A study posted at Adobe's website describes how traditionally Mac-centric tasks (rendering using After Effects, Illustrator & Photoshop) are all faster on a PC. These kinds of studies are a dime a dozen; what's interesting isn't which platform is faster, but that Adobe would host a page proclaiming the PC is the "preferred" platform for such tasks. Given the notoriously fickle folks at Quark, I would have pegged Adobe as the biggest Mac boosters in the third party software market. Are times changing?
posted by jonson at 9:40 PM PST - 49 comments

The Subway Page: Links to World Subway and Other Transportation Information Resources.
posted by hama7 at 7:49 PM PST - 7 comments

The World Trade Organization ruled today that the steel tariffs imposed by President Bush last year were illegal. Today's ruling, which was not a surprise, was the second major loss for the United States at the W.T.O. in the last year. The trade panel awarded Europe the right to impose $4 billion worth of trade sanctions against the United States for giving tax breaks to American exporters through foreign sales corporations. Well, at least we are winnig the war...
posted by bureaustyle at 7:16 PM PST - 22 comments

"Armageddon" is not a global conflagration gone totally out of control. It is, instead, the gathering of the armies of Satan in a place called Armageddon at the north end of Israel. Huh? Anyway, it's not like these guys are influencing American foreign policy. Heads up for April 8 when Tim La Haye, co-founder of the ultraconservative Council for National Policy, will release Armageddon, the latest installment in the Left Behind series of millennialist apocalyptic thrillers.
posted by jonp72 at 6:59 PM PST - 21 comments

Dear Raed was the subject of a short piece (Windows Media file) on public radio's The World this evening.
posted by mrbula at 6:43 PM PST - 8 comments

In anti-war protests in Australia yesterday, children as young as 12 were shown on TV coverage participating not only in protests, but in the violence that followed when the protesters attacked police. There has, in the past, been condemnation of those who bring their children along to protests, but this is the first time I have seen large numbers of children protesting on their own behalf - most of whom would have been truant from school and, judging by the way many hid from cameras, without the permission of their parents. Should we take them seriously, or are they too young to really understand what it is they are protesting against? [more inside]
posted by dg at 5:30 PM PST - 28 comments

Well at least the real estate industry is doing ok, I guess this is the pitch, you kill your wife and you need money for the trial, so how do you sell the house exactly?
posted by vincentmeanie at 4:39 PM PST - 3 comments

Where did those chemical and biological weapons come from?
According to the December declaration, treated with much derision from the Bush administration, U.S. and Western companies played a key role in building Hussein's war machine. The 1,200-page document contains a list of Western corporations and countries -- as well as individuals -- that exported chemical and biological materials to Iraq in the past two decades.

Ive always been surprised that this type of report doesnt get more attention. During the UN hearings I half expected the Administration to level with the world and simply say: We know they have the stuff because we sold it to them.
posted by peebo at 3:13 PM PST - 32 comments

Al-Jazeera Banned From Nasdaq Floor. Despite having a history of questionable exclusives and recent debate over whether its imagery of POWs violates the Geneva Convention, the Arab news network still has a reputation for independent, outspoken viewpoints. Is this move a violation of free speech or a necessary security measure? Is Al-Jazeera a legitimate alternative to the Pentagon? Where makes an "embedded journalist" any different from an A-J reporter getting an "exclusive"?
posted by ed at 2:06 PM PST - 57 comments