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March 31
PrayStation . Year Zero
"For those who don't know. Every year for the past 4 years April fools day has always been when I tear down my current website - and replace it with praystation year 0 - my very first posting to the domain. Enjoy it or hate it."
Don't miss this link. It's only up for one day only.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 10:18 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
You've got Blogs! AOL buys into homegrown media.
April Fools Day starts with a bang in the UK. Determined to get linked by many a weblog, they put out a story about AOL purchasing popular weblogs.
In related news, MetaFilter was said to be signing a merger agreement with Kuro5hin to pool content between the two sites.
posted by wackybrit at 7:13 PM PST - 14 comments
Really Good Haiku (in English!)
Yes, some complain about the abundance of humerous haiku on the internet and otherwise (wherever that is), but the fact remains: we all love it, perhaps because it is so easy to do, but probably because it enriches our lives, like a really well made stone wall, or Sam Cooke. I have found some haiku which were actually written
in english, about the sorts of things which we all like to laugh at. Enjoy them now!
[sfx: gong]
posted by Settle at 6:18 PM PST - 14 comments
Holi
.
Now Ruz. The
Hindu Festival of Colors. The
Persian New Year. Easter and Passover are not the only religious holidays associated with the first full moon of spring. Both appeal to mein Holi people go about splashing each other with colors, powder and paint, and in Now Ruz I see Halloween--
Last Tuesday night in March before Ruz is Chahar-Shanbe-Soorey in Iran... Children wear masks, and go door to door to get candy. People jump over bon fires while wishing for good health--surely the greatest religious festival we celebrate. And, ancillary topic, polytheism fascinates me: so, let me get way way pre-medieval on your collective ass and drop some
James Hillman on you via
Marc Fonda (you may have to scroll down to
III. Polytheism as an Alternate Paradigm for Psychology).
Hillman, author of
Dream And The Underworld and co-author of
We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy And the World's Getting Worse, among others, is, of course, a name no stranger to these pages.
Both Holi and Now Ruz seem to celebrate a victory of by a legendary king over demon sources, and both celebrate Spring. Both I know little aboutso enlighten me, please. A belated happy Holi to all you real brahmins, Boston or otherwise, and a belatedly same happy Now Roz to all you Teherangelenos here on MetafFilter. And do play
Virtual Holi.
posted by y2karl at 5:16 PM PST - 11 comments
Im probably really late to the boat for
Epitonic, but goodness, if youre looking to sample mp3s, videos, sometimes
entire albums, for indie or otherwise unknown bands this here is it. Genres from punk to folk to various electronica-delectica all the way back out to hip hop, jazz and
contemporary composers. Theyre all here:
Styles of Beyond,
Solex,
Blue Six,
Sporto Kantes,
Couch (Alle Auf Pause),
Gonzales, on and on. They must eat bandwidth like Jim Morrison and mescaline caps.
posted by raaka at 4:39 PM PST - 11 comments
Why Doesn't the US Value Art?
In Italy, school children have notebooks with grids. In America, you have notebooks with lines." In other words, we are taught to think in a linear manner, while they are taught to think spatially. First, is it true that the US doesn't value art? Second, does ruled note paper, or any number of other seemingly minor details of life, really materially effect the way somebody generally approaches the world?
posted by willnot at 2:58 PM PST - 38 comments
Happy Easter! This morning, as Christians pray for peace in the Middle East, it's a great opportunity for everyone to celebrate the spirit of forgiveness and new life. Where on the web do you find inspiration, faith in human nature, and new beginnings?
posted by sheauga at 9:05 AM PST - 94 comments
The pinacle of automobile racing now provides technology for your feet.
Pininfarina designed
Scuderia Ferrari replica shoe based on their Formula One cars, made by Fila is here. "The 3 Action system provides superior cushioning and the Speed Tech shank offers maximum responsiveness, stability and torsion control. And, so that you may choose your path, the racing tire-inspired outsole provides maximum traction on every surface."
posted by riffola at 7:57 AM PST - 21 comments
Donnie Darko.
Aside from being a great movie with a great flash site, it's also appropriate for Easter (since the movie does have that freaky bunny in it 'n all).
posted by kingmissile at 7:39 AM PST - 18 comments
March 30
The Law of the Mental Mirror Image.
We write what we are not. It is not merely that we fail to live up to our best ideas but that our best ideas, and the tone that goes with them, tend to be the opposite of our natural temperament. --Adam Gopnik on Popper in The New Yorker
posted by semmi at 11:33 PM PST - 9 comments
Happy Easter!
"Bio artist"/eccentric intellectual Eduardo Kac has made a bunny that -- literally -- glows in the dark.
posted by milkman at 10:17 PM PST - 21 comments
Are You Ready For April Fool's Day?
Better read the
Museum of Hoaxes's March Newsletter to find out. Certain
pranks are already in progress, while
other recent hoaxes - of which at least one was seriously discussed here on MetaFilter - remain fresh in our minds. Real aficionados and sleuths, of course, will head straight for the
hoax websites pages, where some seem too good - or too awful -
not to be true. In Southern Europe, April Fool's Day is known as
Liars' Day and everyone is entitled - nay, compelled! - to invent at least one big
whopper. Any ideas?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:15 PM PST - 35 comments
Everquest kingdom richer than Bulgaria.
Norrath, the setting for the online game Everquest, has been found to be the 77th richest country in the world, sandwiched between Russia and Bulgaria. Research carried out in the United States shows that virtual internal markets, combined with illegal online trading on auction websites, mean that Norrath has a gross national product per capita of $2,266, bigger than China and India.
posted by ncurley at 8:06 PM PST - 16 comments
The
Read_Me Festival 1.2 shortlist has been posted, and includes such projects as
Carnivore(not the government one, though that was part of the concept), and the
DeskSwap screensaver. While this is a "software art" exhibition, it's of particular note that patches or
even just instructions for making existing software do things not originally intended are allowable entries. I haven't been through all of them to see if any patches were entered, but it'd be interesting what the publishers might think of these, since it would basically constitute hacking and/or reverse engineering.
posted by Su at 7:53 PM PST - 2 comments
Griffin Dunne as Frank Zappa
in VH-1's movie "Parental Advisory". [Link won't tell you much about the movie but it was all I could find] The movie based on senate hearings regarding music censorship. Aside from Dana Carvey's Zappa imitation I don't recall any other actor playing him. Would Dunne have been your choice?
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:49 PM PST - 14 comments
Happy Easter egg hunting
"Could be in computer software, movies, music, art, books, or even your watch. There are thousands of them, and they can be quite entertaining, if you know where to look." [Originally referenced in
comment in Nov 2000, but perhaps worth another swipe.]
posted by Voyageman at 7:03 PM PST - 2 comments
NYT: CBS's JAG To Explore Terror Military Tribunal
The Pentagon is reportedly very happy with the show. The episode portraying the secret trial of a Saudi-born terrorist will air on April 30. In this week's episode, a character feels stung when his coworkers favor someone else to win a race in a betting pool. (
1,
2)
posted by rschram at 6:27 PM PST - 4 comments
Battle of the Blurbs.
The producers of the badly reviewed Broadway show "The Smell of the Kill" have pissed off Times critic Bruce Weber. Good strategy or Bad Karma? Well, at least they didn't make up their own critic.
posted by adrober at 10:23 AM PST - 3 comments
Yahoo
has quietly changed its
privacy policy. Accountholders are now subscribed to lots of newsletters plus junk mail and telemarketing. You can change your
preferences and send Yahoo some
feedback. You can't prevent them from subscribing you to new products without closing your account. Will going to an opt-out system help or hurt their bottom line? Will there be a backlash?
posted by neuroshred at 8:45 AM PST - 27 comments
The New Patronage?
It used to be that citizens buddied up to their elected officials in exchange for money, jobs, or power. In Washington, DC, however, it gets you a three-digit license plate number.
posted by PrinceValium at 7:36 AM PST - 3 comments
March 29
Congress is now calling for
public comments on the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA).
EFF has a new
action alert about it and a sample letter. Everyone should write, even if you have already.
posted by rhyax at 9:48 PM PST - 3 comments
Run faster, jump higher.
What happens when you cross stilts and pogo sticks? The next 'extreme sport' on the verge of the big time, or a new and fun way to really injure yourself?
posted by KnitWit at 8:01 PM PST - 12 comments
Pacific Island States To Sue Western Countries Over Rising Sea Levels
At the meeting of Pacific Conference of Leaders' Standing Committee at the East West Center in Honolulu, members discussed the use of lawsuits to draw attention to the risks which climate change pose their countries, and to pressure the US and Australia to sign Kyoto. (
1)
The conference nearly coincided with a report by the AU National Tidal facility which reported sinking sea levels in Tuvalu. (
1,
2,
3) This story is particularly interesting (
1) on human impact on Tuvalu.
Heading into another major El Nino year, there is no doubt that Pacific states are vulnerable, but how should they argue for recognition of climatic inequalities?
posted by rschram at 5:11 PM PST - 9 comments
Here at Metafilter - as in
many other places on the web -
we spend a lot of time talking about (and in) Haiku. For some reason the web-enabled generation
has come to think of Haiku as a hip,
funny, and
somewhat ironic way to express ... anything. But lest we forget that Haiku is, first and
foremost, a beautiful, traditonal art form. How many of you out there know much about the
history of Haiku? Did you know
that Japan is full of
monuments to Haiku?
Have you heard of or read any of the great traditional haiku poets, like
Masaoka Shiki, the
man for
whom the
International Haiku Award is named?
If you enjoy reading traditional-style Haiku, you can read
any number of
magazines devoted
exclusively to Haiku.
Many of us have not tried to write Haiku since Junior High - do you perhaps need
some instructions on
how to write Haiku?
If you really enjoy reading or writing Haiku, perhaps you might wish to join the
Haiku Society of America.
And, of course, if you wish to know more about Haiku, there are
any number of other resources out on
the web.
posted by anastasiav at 4:51 PM PST - 26 comments
The Bottom Feeders.
Are these truly the 5 worst movie critics in America? Personally, Ebert gives me migraines and Joel Siegel makes me want to claw out my eyes. Who's your most hated movie critic?
posted by tankboy at 3:18 PM PST - 30 comments
This article in "The Nation"
bemoans the fact that the U.S is dissing its new best friend Russia, and that the recent entente cordiale is under threat.
This article at the the Institute for War and Peace Reporting suggests that the U.S could, perhaps, be a little more selective in choosing its friends.
I have often wondered if the west would have stood for Russia or the U.S.S.R using force on a scale to that which we have recently witnessed in Afghanistan or Chechnya. It looks like they have become our sons of bitches.
posted by Fat Buddha at 1:41 PM PST - 3 comments
The Philadelphia Daily News has
recently covered a
series of articles on "Malternatives," those hard liquor laced beverages like hard lemonades and vodka based alterna-beers that have sprung up in the last year. Even though they contain 100% distilled alcohol,
they are taxed as beer, saving Smirnoff over $80 million in taxes last year alone. Among their other advantages for manufacturers, they get to advertise on TV and be placed for sale next to milder forms of alcohol, dodging laws against hard liquor. Is this a boon for the industry or deceptive practices?
posted by mathowie at 12:29 PM PST - 27 comments
The Animated William Blake
"embraces both the freak and the genius, illuminating the artist's visionary poetry with juggling and physical theater." Earthly delights include t-shirts and fortune cookies.
posted by bingo at 11:45 AM PST - 4 comments
Immortal classics
I remember as if it were today when I first listened to Marvin Gaye's "Whats Going On" when it first came out. This album has never tired. "What's Going On was the first album out of Motown to include the printed lyrics of the songs in the album liner. Marvin Gaye had something to say and he wanted to make sure people got the message. Thirty-one years later, we're still getting it." Always bewildering why an album becomes immortal.
posted by Voyageman at 11:20 AM PST - 14 comments
Anti-immigrant parties gain support in Europe
as they tap long-standing fears about security and the dilution of national identity. The deep running concern, as in Israel, is that their countries are involuntarily becoming multicultural as guest workers and refugees, mostly Muslim, establish themselves in residence. There are about 15 million Muslims in Europe, making Islam the the continent's largest non-Christian religion.
How important is national identity? What would become of democratic values in a Europeann country with Muslim population explosion? How would it affect their economy, as the immigrants are largely unskilled, heavily relying on the welfare system?
posted by semmi at 10:38 AM PST - 9 comments
About Sydney Poitier
Something one of my professor's brought up. He said, "I'm tired of everyone being politically correct in Hollywood. They say African-American because they are afraid to say Black." His point being that Mr. Poitier is from the Bahamas and not Africa. What do you think?
posted by ProfLinusPauling at 8:32 AM PST - 74 comments
Death threats from Quale?
Former Prime Minister of New Zealand claims that during his term in the mid to late 80's, then vice-president Dan Quale threatened to have him "liquidated". Apparently it was due to NZ's anti-nuke policy and it happened during a meeting with the Australian cabinet. I don't know if this is funny or sad.
posted by Hackworth at 8:29 AM PST - 19 comments
Phyllis Chesler calls it as she sees it in her latest feminist manifesto.
This is not what you think folks - Chesler toes the line at anti-feminism according to most modern day feminist. I well remember reading Chesler's
Letters to a Young Feminist eight years ago and patting down misogynistic tendencies in the hopes of bettering the lives of women everywhere. She calls for sisterhood to further opportunity and does not condone manhating and oppression from the masses which makes her arguments
logical as opposed to seething, vituperative vitriol. We all seemed to be begging for a discussion on feminism and issues between the sexes yesterday in
this particular post and after reading salon today, felt I would provide one...
posted by gloege at 7:27 AM PST - 3 comments
Despite what you may have heard, nationally syndicated dee-jay Don Geronimo, half of the team
Don and Mike,
is not dead. Two weeks after falsely reporting that the radio personality had a "grape sized tumor", the "fan" site
DonaAndMikeFans.com (now understandably defunct), reported Geronimo's "death" from said tumor, complete with a perfectly mocked up Washington Post story (sadly now gone from Google's cache). Needless to say, Geronimo was not amused. Between, Westwood One, The Washington Post, and Geronimo himself considering legal action, I'd say that webmaster is screwed. A joke taken too far, or a case of Shock Jocks not being about take what they dish out?
posted by emptybowl at 6:13 AM PST - 7 comments
Double Feature: An American History Test & "The Paula Principle"
Larry David's experiment in web animation may be somewhat disappointing, coming from
Seinfeld's funniest writer, but the
Voting Booth Test that precedes it, about American presidential antics, is funny, informative, brilliantly presented and...damn
difficult! At least for us poor foreigners...[
Needs Shockwave or Flash or something. Just click on Play to get to the voting booth.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:27 AM PST - 7 comments
Barabbas
was spared by the mob in lieu of Jesus on Good Friday.
Pär Lagerkvist, a Swedish novelist, explored this incredible character in his 1950 novel:
The novel BARABBAS (1950) was immediately hailed as a masterwork...Barabbas, the criminal in the New Testament, is pardoned instead of Christ, and is sentenced to the silver mines. His is incapable of loving, but becomes gradually aware of greater forces guiding his life.
Now I am myself atheist/agnostic, but I think this is cool. It reminds me of Vonnegut's description of Kilgore Trout as a badly aging Christ, whose sentence of crucifixion had been commuted to life imprisonment.
posted by crunchburger at 2:03 AM PST - 4 comments
Among the 'American Taliban' in Smalltown, USA.
"I discovered that Taliban-style attitudes are not restricted to Afghanistan and Pakistan. They exist tenaciously in American towns like this one. Sometimes tolerance prevails in small towns; other times the dark fears and hatreds of the "American Taliban" -- vicious fundamentalists -- are resurgent."
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 12:44 AM PST - 3 comments
March 28
You may have heard of the
Dark Side of the Rainbow, the synching of
Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz. But this isn't the only mystery that surrounds the band. The
Publius Enigma is the story of an anonymous Usenet
poster connected to the band in some way that claimed that The Division Bell album held a very tangible and real prize. Was it a cosmic mystery of an esoteric nature or just a gimmick to sell records?
posted by euphorb at 10:35 PM PST - 26 comments
Interview with an Ol Dirty Bastard.
This is the first interview with ODB I have seen since he was thrown in the slammer. ODB's first two releases were crazy brilliant and full of life. Now he sits in one of the worst prisons around, depressed and unmedicated, for parole violation. Reading this, do you think the court succeeded in breaking his spirit? Is he doomed to flame out when he gets out? Is it wrong that his new cd seems made without his input, and is weak compared to his amazing first two? Would you want to get out of prison and find someone made a book out of your throw off writings? Finally, do you like ODB?
posted by zenhues at 7:57 PM PST - 28 comments
Get your unique 32x32 piece of net art at
Image::copy. Give your e-mail address, select which part of any of three images you want, and get it within a few minutes. The section you receive is then blacked out in the original file.
posted by Su at 5:15 PM PST - 20 comments
The rental cars that the 9/11 hijackers used
are available for auction. The rental company wanted to get rid of it because customers had negative feelings about the cars. At the time this article was posted, there haven't been any bids for the cars. I can't seem to find the cars on the
website, though. Would
you buy one of these cars?
posted by Kevin Sanders at 4:53 PM PST - 15 comments
Hollywood loses another giant.
Billy Wilder passes on at 95. Just the quick list of movies at the top of the article gives me pause..
Stalag 17, Some Like it Hot, The Seven-Year Itch. Damn, this is definitely a sad week in the entertainment business.
posted by PeteyStock at 4:17 PM PST - 15 comments
Rukeyser Out at Wall Street Week In Advance of 'Young' Format
The long-time host ever in search of 'value in today's markets' quit rather than accept a diminished role in a revamp of the show's format. Guest hosts will replace him next season until a permanent host is found.
PBS is quietly removing references to elves from the W$W website. The new show will be a co-production with Fortune Magazine. (Ick.) Guess
its Paul Kangas for me!
posted by rschram at 3:52 PM PST - 16 comments
Lego-lovers
beware...because this is fun to play with.
(I haven't seen this link before, but if it's a double-post, my apologies. I live in fear of making a double-post)
posted by Badmichelle at 12:56 PM PST - 20 comments
The "Sum Of All Fears"
trailer recently went online, and is already causing some
heated discussion over major changes from the book. In the wake of 9/11, it seems that terrorists in the film have been changed from Muslim to Neo-Nazi (who then go on to detonate a bomb within the United States). Hollywood knee-jerk reaction or a good call given the timing of things? Discuss...
posted by almostcool at 12:34 PM PST - 28 comments
Musharraf
reportedly told the US ambassador in Islamabad that he would rather "hang himself" than extradite Sheikh Omar Sayeed.
I had made an earlier front page post on the issue of extradition, Omar's in particular, and most opinion then seemed to feel that he would be extradited. I am interested in your opinion on whether it's Musharraf who is playing games with the US, only to sustain power, all the while allowing the US to feel that they are playing him.
posted by bittennails at 12:32 PM PST - 36 comments
Who owns the products of slave labour?
Or, more broadly, how do we remember the Holocaust?
A unique dispute over ownership rights to artwork in the case of the Auschwitz Memorial Museum vs. former camp prisoner Dinah Gottliebova Babbitt illuminates underlying moral questions about the Holocaust and post-Holocaust culture. Babbitt, now living in southern California, is a university-trained Czechoslovak artist who has been fighting to reclaim her art from the Auschwitz Museum since 1973... [She] was a Jewish prisoner there in 1944 when Josef Mengele learned of her artistic skills and forced her to make watercolor portraits of dying Gypsies in order to get the kind of documentation he wanted on exact skin color and ear shapes. Gottliebova Babbitt made a dozen such portraits, seven of which are now tucked away in Room No. 11 of the Auschwitz Museum. [...] "Mengele ordered me to do it as slave labor. But it was my work, my paintings."
posted by jokeefe at 10:41 AM PST - 20 comments
Sony's PEG-NR70V
is a PDA/digital camera/mp3 player with a swivel 320x480 color display that runs Palm OS 4.1. it comes with a built-in keyboard, can be used as a remote control for your TV/VCR/DVD player, uses memory sticks, and has a "jog dial" somewhat similar to the
iPod (via
newstoday)
posted by gwint at 10:40 AM PST - 36 comments
Globe software just released
globeProductive for Windows for an introductory price of $75. The software offers a basic office suite with a single file format. In addition, Sun has announced plans to aggressively market
StarOffice 6 for $100 and
reach out to foreign government agencies. Sun donated their product to the Chinese Ministry of Education for deployment in schools with the obvious benefits of growing your own loyal market by the millions. Neither of these packages includes an e-mail client at this time, but there is always
Mulberry and
Mozilla.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:49 AM PST - 11 comments
The male, heterosexual victims of spousal abuse.
"Blood streamed down my face. Internal injuries dislocated my ribs. Lacerations and multiple abrasions marked my back and groin. My attacker had no injuries. I told the officer that I wanted the crime report to note my injuries and the names of witnesses. He responded, 'We ain't takin' a report from you, buddy.'" The officer refused to take Stanley seriously because he was a man who had been beaten by his wife.
posted by moz at 9:08 AM PST - 82 comments
This is why
Yasser Arafat's, and the Palestinian Authority(sic)'s days are severely numbered: the sham capture and release last year of the guy responsible for yesterday's massacre. My prediction: Israel will completely reoccupy the territories in the next three months to clean out the place.
posted by ParisParamus at 8:30 AM PST - 55 comments
More disturbing mismanagement in Kansas City
This time at the VA hospital:
A recent report in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine said that the hospital in Kansas City was overrun with flies and mice in mid-1998. Nurses even found maggots growing in the noses of two comatose patients. Both patients, astoundingly, were in the intensive-care unit.
posted by milkman at 8:03 AM PST - 6 comments
Spinning Egg mystery solved
Still recovering from the cold fusion 'breakthrough', the scientific world has finally cracked another mystery: why does a spinning egg flip to a vertical positon ? A few days before Easter, what a coincidence!
posted by swordfishtrombones at 2:30 AM PST - 6 comments
After an extensive search of my personal archives (box of stuff stored at my parent's), I stumbled upon the true inspiration for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Seven years prior, video game manufactuer
Koei Games released Aerobiz, an airline management simulator. Its boxart features this
chilling image of the New York City skyline. I am not a New Yorker so please, correct me if I am wrong, but the positioning of the Empire State building and the Chrysler building would seem to place the office inside one of the World Trade Center towers.
posted by nathan_teske at 2:05 AM PST - 22 comments
March 27
"Even though the challenges to bring the
space elevator to reality are substantial, there are no physical or economic reasons why it can't be built in our lifetime."
Once just a cool sci-fi idea dreampt up by
Arthur Clarke, Space.com reports that a 62,000 mile ride is not only possible, but probable. And cheap at only a couple hundred bucks per pound.
posted by tsarfan at 9:49 PM PST - 37 comments
Nuts About Nuts! Where Would Drinks Be Without Them?
The Nut Factory is one of the world's greatest sources for nuts, of all kinds and descriptions, handled, roasted and presented in every possible way. Herman Swartz founded the company in 1952. If you've ever enjoyed a few nuts in your life,
a good proportion was probably prepared in their headquarters in Spokane,Washington. Their site happens to be the
most informative and passionate about nuts on the whole Web. Wherever you click; you learn and drool. Connoisseurs will welcome the chance to match nuts with their favorite drinks.
Mmmm... [Mine would be Irish whiskey and club soda with roasted, salted almonds!]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:16 PM PST - 23 comments
Has the web become boring?
(NYT link, registration required) With the demise of the
Cool Site of the Day and the transition of MetaFilter to NewsFilter, the question is posed: Where have all the interesting sites gone? Is this the end of the Web as we know it? (...And do you feel fine?)
posted by dogmatic at 7:06 PM PST - 59 comments
Earthlink founding investor Reed Slatkin to plead guilty
of defrauding over 800 people out of $254 million in a Ponzi scheme. Several of the victims were members of the Church of Scientology, where he was a minister. Oh, and he filed for bankruptcy too so there's no chance for reparations... I don't know how to feel!
posted by kfury at 4:22 PM PST - 10 comments
Middle East war predictions
"..what we are witnessing looks like joint preparations by the Palestinian Authority, Syria, its Lebanese client, Iraq, and Iran, for war on a regional scale, against both Israel and U.S. interests. I fear we may face a major, sudden, external assault on Israel, meant to precede U.S. action against the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, and indeed prevent the U.S. from going there by enmiring it in the defence of Israel. [From The Ottowa Citizen, lead link in today's Wall Street Journal Best of the Web]
posted by Voyageman at 3:52 PM PST - 14 comments
This New Yorker article
is a must read. Long and exhaustive (but well worth the trip), I believe it could have the power to change many minds about what should be done, and when, about Iraq and its dictator. The essential story is about the horrible and terrifying effects of Saddam Hussein's gassing of Kurdish villages, but as the story reminds us at the end "Please understand, the Kurds were for practice"
posted by cell divide at 3:15 PM PST - 13 comments
Our future lies . . . with eugenics???
"
The useful and intelligent classes should be allowed, indeed encouraged, to breed, and the murderous morons, who are never going to contribute anything except misery to themselves and others should be discouraged. No one need be killed." If this wasn't published in the
London Telegraph, I'd think it was from the lunatic fringe. Is A. N. Wilson attempting satire or auditioning for the lead in
Springtime for Hitler?
posted by Erendadus at 3:02 PM PST - 25 comments
I was watching Charlie Rose this afternoon and to my delight, he was interviewing my old favorite
James Garner. Since I was young, I've considered Mr. garner to be the walking epitome of cool. He's been
Bret Maverick(twice!),
Jim Rockford even
God . I always conside Burt Reynolds to be an pale imitation of Garner. Don't tell me I'm the only Garnerite in MeFi land.
posted by jonmc at 1:01 PM PST - 28 comments
The Next World Order.
A fascinating article suggesting that the new guiding principle of American foreign policy, originally formulated by Cheney and Wolfowitz during the first Bush administration, is the prevention of the rise of any other great power which could rival the U.S.
posted by homunculus at 10:52 AM PST - 10 comments
The Solar System Simulator
'is
designed to simulate - as realistically as possible - what one would actually see from any point in the Solar System. The software looks up the positions of the Sun, planets and satellites from ephemeris files developed here at JPL, as well as star positions and colors from a variety of stellar databasees, and uses special-purpose renderers to draw a color scene. Texture maps for each of the planets and physical models for planetary rings have been derived (in most cases) from scientific data collected by various JPL spacecraft.' Far too complicated for me to even begin to understand, still I've always wondered what Saturn
looks like from Triton.
posted by RobertLoch at 10:32 AM PST - 15 comments
Sleep.
"With pop culture so willingly providing countless numbers of prepackaged lifestyles, people no longer feel a need to truly think for themselves and do not bother to take the time to question the true origin of their own ideals and desires. Nothing can be taken for face value. Everything that portrays itself as one thing, turns out to be something else. Enter Slumber Inc."
An Atlanta-based culture-meme, more akin to
Obey than
Toynbee. But really, aside from drawing the occasional amused or confused glance from passersby, can pasting a poster actually accomplish anything revolutionary?
posted by grabbingsand at 10:10 AM PST - 17 comments
Michael Eisner realigns our moral compass
(free mickey) concerning intellectual property and copyright laws, with the help of his "internet guru", Abe Lincoln
(free mickey). He champions the implementation of tech standards for copyright protection, among other things. "Most important," he explains, "what is needed is a common conviction that theft of all things is wrong." Tell that to the brothers Grimm, Mike
(free mickey) .
posted by sixfoot6 at 9:33 AM PST - 25 comments
Google rejects AdWords critical of Scientology.
I hate this topic but I can't leave it alone. Google is being accused of being overly cautious in all its dealings with Scientology. A Google rep is quoted to say that they are under no pressure from Scientology to reject the ads. (more inside)
posted by maudlin at 7:07 AM PST - 25 comments
Overnight mutation or lousy science?
Or maybe an early April Fool's joke. The Gameboy generation's thumbs are as developed and agile as the rest of their digits. "...the younger generation has taken to using thumbs in a completely different way and are instinctively using it where the rest of us use our index fingers is particularly interesting.' " An interesting social phenomenon, certainly, but biology...?
posted by gordian knot at 6:26 AM PST - 17 comments
oh glorious rapture, vertu has launched.
(flash) the phones (called "instruments" in vertu-speak) are okay, but the real meat seems to be the one-touch vertu concierge: allows one to find theatre tickets, make reservations, or (assumably) order KFC. and, as promised, they are indeed clutch-the-pearls expensive: 6000 to 24000. golly.
posted by patricking at 12:58 AM PST - 12 comments
March 26
The Onion's lead story
this week is about as succinct an indictment of the drug war as you can get. "If you are paying taxes and keeping your yard tidy, we're not going to hassle you if you come home from a hard day of work and want to enjoy a little pot or blow. But if, on the other hand, you're one of these lazy, shiftless types hanging out on the street all day looking for your next high, we're coming after you."
posted by McBain at 11:35 PM PST - 18 comments
E Online
(via Yahoo news) just can't seem to get enough of itself. I'm all for creativity in presenting light-news pieces, but one line in this piece strikes me as over the top:
"The feds launched their, um, probe into the matter after fielding dozens of viewer complaints about the salacious commercial cum fall-sweeps stunt."
Did a major news organization just use a pun on the word "c*m" in one of their stories? Is this what our media has sunk to?
posted by gsteff at 11:19 PM PST - 9 comments
Long Bets.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--In 28 years, commercial airline passengers will routinely fly in pilotless airplanes. Sound ludicrous?
Not to Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Craig Mundie, who recently bet Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt $2,000 that the prediction will come true.
This site is all about, well long bets. Oh, and it's all for charity.
posted by Zool at 9:18 PM PST - 10 comments
It's the Shperiks!
Those wacky mascots for the upcoming FIFA World Cup Korea-Japan!
I can't tell what the heck is going on here, and if it weren't for the upbeat BGM, I'd probably be scared to visit this site again. But it was an interesting little adventure...
posted by Bixby23 at 4:22 PM PST - 6 comments
"Drugs and the Internet: An Overview of the Threat to Americas Youth"
It should probably come as no surprise that the government is interested in finding out what kind of drug-related information exists on the internet. What
might surprise you is the Department of Justices self-described methodology and intent in pursuing that objective, with little apparent concern for such trivialities as oh, say, the First Amendment. For example, take a look at what the DOJ thinks constitutes "
offending websites." Or how about this "threat":
"Drug-culture advocates are chiefly interested in expanding the size of the community to both legitimize their activity and increase pressure on lawmakers to change or abolish drug control laws." (pressure on lawmakers to change or abolish laws? How un-American!) Needless to say, official statements like this
scare some people, including rave fans, who
appear to be a particular focus of the governments efforts. (via
overlawyered.com).
posted by pardonyou? at 2:14 PM PST - 16 comments
Beauty and the Labor Market
"
Plastic surgery has become one of those things--like reading the tabloids and watching The Home Shopping Network--that Americans like doing and love ridiculing others for doing. Depending on whose numbers you believe, more than seven million of us went under the knife last year"...I had no idea... "
In cold, hard economic terms, being attractive helps you get ahead." ...Now I get it, now I understand.
posted by Voyageman at 2:12 PM PST - 10 comments
Robot Guard Dogs
- two new types of robo-dog on their way to market (in Japan) next year from Sanyo (the T7S
Type 1 and
Type 2) About 3 feet long, 80 pounds of Aibo-style security for $750. Cool factor - their onboard CCD cameras and cell phones can watch for intruders and beam images to your own 3G phone.
posted by kokogiak at 1:29 PM PST - 17 comments
Writing about child porn/abuse is artistic.
Robin Sharpe has successfully defended himself against child porn acusations; case went all the way to the SC in Canada.
In unrelated news (except that both stories are from the front page of the Toronto Star) a Taiwan scientist has
created a bubble (soap) that you literally can't burst, no matter how hard you try, for days.
posted by Why at 1:22 PM PST - 13 comments
Clean air? We don't need no stink'n clean air.
"The White House firmly defended Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Tuesday as newly released documents showed he held at least eight private meetings with industry leaders -- but none with environmentalists -- while the administration crafted its energy plan." Is this really a surprise?
posted by aj100 at 12:13 PM PST - 33 comments
Swissair reborn: "SWISS Air Lines"...
"Our 'Swissness' subtly informs the way we look, operate and care for our passengers.
From colour palettes that reflect our natural environment to the cleanliness of our fleet and freshness of our food, our Swiss origins inspire us in all areas of our business."
Can the new airline be rebuilt around a new set of "design" principals, spearheaded by Tyler Brûlé of
Wallpaper mag fame?
posted by hulette at 10:57 AM PST - 9 comments
Food Drops Found To Do Little Good
"The Bush administration's much publicized food ration airdrop in northern Afghanistan - hailed by the Pentagon as a way to feed starving residents while winning their loyalty - achieved neither goal in many targeted areas, military experts, aid workers, and a report by retired US special forces officers now conclude." Problems included spoiled food, greedy Afghanis and poor planning. US military claims success. Maybe we should just stick with the guns and skip the butter.
posted by martk at 9:22 AM PST - 12 comments
Mathematical beauty in science (NYTimes)
Though I can't say I've seen a moment of God's glory in finding a balanced checkbook (on the first go), I have been in academia in physics and math enough to know the almost mystical pleasure its practitioners get from the "unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics", and the simplicity and elegance of the equations at its core. I was wondering -- are there other fields where this occurs, where people get the feeling they've tapped into some bare beauty of nature? Philosophy? Art? Architecture?
posted by meep at 8:13 AM PST - 24 comments
A judge has ordered a smoker to stop lighting up
at home or in her car if she wants continued visitation rights with her 13-year-old son who has complained about her pack-a-day habit. "Where the child's health is involved," the judge said, "the court would intervene, even if it meant overriding the parents' religious beliefs." Is this in the best interest of the child or an intrusive ruling?
posted by phooey at 7:11 AM PST - 104 comments
Space, Here We Come!
The Chinese make significant progress in their quest for the stars. A good bit of
background from Wired explains that they're leveraging off of Russian tech but China still considered the program their
#1 sci-tech advance last year. As an aside, some nice
spy pictures are available of the Jiuquan Space Facility although I imagine it's been a developed a bit since then.
So, will getting a man into space signficantly change the world's opinion of China as it slowly evolves in a major world player? For Americans, will it be
1957 all over
again except the little
beep beep is replaced by a Chinese man waving back at them?
posted by warhol at 6:41 AM PST - 27 comments
"
In a park in Bali, they found a monkey, a pig-tailed macaque, kept in a cage so small it could not lie down properly, and with one leg chained to the bars.
posted by leafy at 6:30 AM PST - 6 comments
March 25
Speedy Gonzales Censored?
Cartoon Network officials have banished Speedy Gonzales from their day and prime time lineups for fear of offending Mexican Americans, but fans of the Mexican mouse hero are fighting back.
posted by Iberaband at 9:01 PM PST - 21 comments
A gumby post
for those sick of hopeless conflict posts and the like, inspired by the news that Rhino Video is about to release SEVEN DVDs containing the entire works of Gumby (it's not up on their site yet, so no link). More importantly, am I the only one who, as a kid, Gumby the scariest thing on television? Or perhaps Mefi's member base is too young to know about Gumby at all?
posted by ParisParamus at 8:26 PM PST - 22 comments
Saddam stokes war with suicide bomber cash.
"The hall was packed and the intake of breath was audible as a special announcement was made to the war widows of the West Bank - Saddam Hussein would pay $US25,000 ($47,000) to the family of each suicide bomber as an enticement for others to volunteer for martyrdom in the name of the Palestinian people."
posted by Zool at 6:51 PM PST - 68 comments
A savior for my generation, finally (?)
ANDREW W K = grunge - whining + innocence + rocking out something frightening + lust for life + humour + lots and lots of energy. Also keep in mind that I hate popular music. I think he's incredibly cool, and by incredibly cool I mean totally sweet. Anyway, my take is insignificant - what do
you people think of this kid?? The cure for the Linkin' Park disease? The aural Creed ointment??
posted by Settle at 5:28 PM PST - 62 comments
Sneak peek at the new look for the Wall Street Journal
"Print buyers were presented with non-disclosure agreements when shown the pages...No media buyer was shown the front page, redesigned for the first time since the 1944." Pretty esoteric subject, but still remarkable how much influence the "look and feel " of a newspaper can have on its reader. Hard to imagine the WSJ looking different. It must be a very tough
endeavor to get right. (IMHO the recently revamped Int Herald Tribune looks way messier and more confusing than before.)
posted by Voyageman at 1:50 PM PST - 17 comments
The Flo Control Project
is a test project for image recognition algorithms developed by
Quantum Picture. Basically, they rigged a home computer to control their cat door using image recognition software so that it would only allow cats to enter the house (and not skunks or raccoons), and then only if the cat wasn't carrying prey items (to play with in the comfort of the living room). The newest version of the experiment can differentiate between the two cats currently living in the house. Interesting stuff, not least because many
people couldn't tell two cats apart simply by looking at their profiles. I suspect there are some wide-ranging non-feline applications as well.
posted by biscotti at 1:50 PM PST - 19 comments
The Plastic People of the Universe
are a reminder of how powerful and important a force rock and roll can be for positive change. Many American and British acts spoke of revolution, but they usually only meant it in the cultural sense, for these guys living in Iron Curtain-era Czechoslovakia, they were talking about the real life-or-death McCoy. Inspired by the Beatles, Frank Zappa, and future Czech president (and sometime collaborator)
Vaclav Havel,the Plastics created some
amazing music and were often surveilled or imprisoned as "enemies of the state" for their trouble. Thankfully, they lived to see a free Czech republic, although founder Milan Hlavsa passed away in early 2001. Special props to my main man rodii, for jogging my memory about the Plastics in
this comment
posted by jonmc at 1:33 PM PST - 6 comments
The Economist
recently completed a survey of Gulf countries. Much of the content is 'premium access only' or available in the print version. This article, subtitled "The Gulf states have come a long way, fast. Now they need to think about where they are going" is online and examines the swift changes in economy, institutions, and population trends in this in-the-spotlight region. Some fascinating stuff.
posted by cell divide at 12:44 PM PST - 1 comments
Depressed?
Cheer up, it's not the end of the world. You know, it seems that
The more things change, the more they stay the same . Undecided?
When in doubt, consult your inner child . Sure it hurts, but
No pain, no gain .Many believe
There is truth in every cliché , while others say you should
Avoid cliches like the plague . What's your most hated or loved cliche?
The Book of Clichés.
posted by Mack Twain at 12:42 PM PST - 24 comments
Dumbing Down The SAT
I was reading this article and several recent news stories came to mind (sorry, can't find links). One was regarding the resistance of teacher's unions to adopt teaching techniques that have proven successful in private schools (phonics would be an example) and the other was a radio news story about a teacher's union defending three schools that had failed to meet state requirements as to quality of education being provided. So, my question is, are teacher's unions interested in educating children or simply fighting to lower the standards?
posted by billman at 10:44 AM PST - 66 comments
New study claims cold fusion is possible
'A paper by a team of researchers at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory who say they have discovered evidence of what looks like nuclear fusion taking place in a relatively inexpensive tabletop device.' You have to go back to 1989 for the
last claim of this kind. Cheap energy - the answer to America's dreams, or Bush's biggest nightmare? (Via
Techdirt)
posted by RobertLoch at 9:26 AM PST - 31 comments
Hey guys, want to play with some manly paper dolls...er, I mean manly paper
action figures? You do? Rev up your printers and sharpen your scissors, then. You can download and play with your very own
Elvis or
Ziggy Stardust, or maybe
Billy Ray Cyrus, The Dead Milkmen's
PunkRockEr,
Bob Dylan,
Brad Pitt,
Leonardo DiCaprio,
Oliver from Green Acres,
Professor Henry Higgins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks'
Mr. Brown, the fetching dual poses of
Mr. Humphries from "Are You Being Served?",
Brave Colonists From Mars,
Trekkies,
Luke Skywalker and his tons of
cool duds,
Dylan Hunt from Andromeda,
Tom Sawyer,
Hercule Poirot,
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Neil Gaiman's
Morpheus, Monet's
Young John, or
Diego Rivera.
(more inside >>>)
posted by iconomy at 7:13 AM PST - 8 comments
Berry, Denzel Make Oscars History
Denzel Washington is only the second African American male to win an Best Actor Oscar since Sidney Poitier's win for
Lilies of the Field in 1963. Halle Berry is the first African American female to win Best Actress ever.
Berry's speech was quite good (albeit long) but it leaves me wondering how all those "women who stand behind her[sic], Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox and it's for every nameless faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened" feel about being named inferior. And why didn't the camera flash onto Jada Pinkett-Smith when Berry said that? Now, that would have been a true Oscar moment.
posted by gloege at 7:02 AM PST - 60 comments
2002 Worst Manual Contest
- as selected by Technical Standards, Inc (a documentation company). Some pretty good examples of confusing or confounding manual design (also check the
2000 - 2001 winners), with everything ranging from poor translation ("Operate it on the loosen condition of the levers without comfirmation can cause the handle pole bent and cause Incident") to perplexing images to just poor or absent proof-reading. PDF-intensive.
(Heard about this on NPR's "On The Media")
posted by tpl1212 at 6:35 AM PST - 6 comments
March 24
Mel Lyman 1938-1978.
Mel Lyman was controversial. He was the brilliant folk musician who soothed the Dylan-ruffled crowd at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, the Fort Hill guru whose prose in the undergound newspaper Avatar shocked conservative Bostonians of the late 60s... Many years of collecting, and help from numerous people has resulted in the large collection of articles reproduced here. Some say L 
