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Tired of haikus? Then it might be time for tanka. Older than haikus, tanka is 31 syllables divided into lines of 5-7-5-7-7. There's been a World Tanka Competition (mostly in Japanese, but the poems are translated into English) and a modern tanka poet, Machi Tawara, has had her work turned into movies, television shows, and a musical revue. All that's needed now is to make it popular in the English-speaking world...
posted by Katemonkey at 1:31 AM PST - 5 comments

You're an animal and you're obscure - that much is clear. But which one are you? Perhaps you're an obscure band? Or a strange being? Or just some punk? Either way, I think we should know. ;)
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 12:18 AM PST - 19 comments

Rumsfeld helped Saddam during war with Iran, while they had precise information about daily use of chemical weapons such as mustard gas, nerve gas, anthrax, and sarin. He met Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and passed on the US willingness to help his regime and restore full diplomatic relations, in order to help Iraq win the war. [source: Guardian]
posted by hoder at 10:15 PM PST - 60 comments

"Where is Raed?" Here's a blog from Baghdad.
posted by ubueditor at 7:43 PM PST - 11 comments

Samuel Pepy's weblog. Starting on January 1, 2003, Phil Gyford will be running Samuel Pepy's diary entries (who's he?), starting with January 1, 1660. [via Interconnected]
posted by kirkaracha at 5:30 PM PST - 10 comments

This is Baader-Meinhoff. Extensive info about the West German terrorist phenomenon of the 1970s, compiled by a guy whose father was head of the US Army's Bomb Disposal unit in Berlin while Baader-Meinhoff (aka the Red Army Faction) was on the run. Other leftist "urban guerillas" included Movement 2 June and the Socialist Patients collective. The detailed timeline, art criticism, terrorist bios and info about 1970s terror groups in the Mid-East and South America make fascinating reading. There's also the Joe Strummer connection, of course.
posted by mediareport at 3:48 PM PST - 20 comments

Och, It's Wee Jonnie Updike. A verging-on-the-Brigadoonish rewrite of Scottish national bard Robert Burns (you'll be singing his "Auld Lang Syne" in about 24 hours), by the scrofulous old Joyce of the 'burbs himself. The original verse is "To a Mouse", rewritten after the news that geneticists find a lot in common between the DNA of mice and men.

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
Braw science says that at the leastie
We share full ninety-nine per cent
O' genes, where'er the odd ane went.

'At the leastie'!? Jings, crivens, help ma boab, I think he's jeopardised his joab.
posted by theplayethic at 3:16 PM PST - 4 comments

The King As Art. Artist Naoki Mitsuse writes, "I remember reading an article in the morning paper about a local teenage girl who had thrown herself out of a balcony of a tall apartment building, leaving a note that said something like, 'now that Elvis is dead, I have nothing to live for and goodbye.' This had a profound impact on me and I realized then, that Elvis was a very powerful man." So the artist created two series of Elvis paintings that are way better than any Elvis on black velvet you might find on eBay.
posted by VelvetHellvis at 2:49 PM PST - 10 comments

Poverty and the Welfare State: Dispelling the myths This working paper (PDF file) states that "debates on poverty and welfare in Britain are full of myths." Among them (culled from the exec summary, since I'm still reading the paper): 1. The belief that poverty is long term and is passed from generation to generation is not consistent with the evidence. 2. Poverty is not caused by people behaving differently (although people act differently after they become poor), or by people having too many children, or by racial differences. 3. Scare stories about spiraling costs and abuse are greatly exaggerated. 4. Welfare does not encourage dependency. Just in case anybody's writing a major paper over the holidays or anything. I found this via the fantastic Canadian Social Research Links web site. (And if this came up in a previous post, I apologize; I searched on just about every relevant term I could think of.)
posted by 314/ at 12:30 PM PST - 32 comments

Rubbish Portland's top brass said it was OK to swipe your garbage--so this weekly newspaper grabbed theirs. Informative and adventurous story results.
posted by sparky at 8:36 AM PST - 22 comments

list of deaths in 2g2 -win a few of those 'are-they-dead?' arguments in 2g3.
posted by alfredogarcia at 8:35 AM PST - 23 comments

Chickens are "natural born killers". This is the basic message of a recent ad from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. This organization has filed a lawsuit against Tyson Foods for making false health claims. I came across this organization and its campaign on an entertaining C-Span program[Did anybody else watch this program?]. On the program, Neal Barnard, the leader of this organization, said that when you heat chicken(and other meats) certain carcinogenic amines are created. But, when you heat a veggie burger, it just warms up. Therefore, he recommends a 100% vegetarian diet. It looks like the organization's next move is a TV ad with this message. Your reactions?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy at 7:51 AM PST - 43 comments

The Best Thing on Television in 2002 The WPIX Yule Log makes its triumphant return.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:16 AM PST - 14 comments

Is It Better To Look Marvellous Than To Sound Marvellous? Like The Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop and (controversially) David Bowie, Patti Smith, specially when photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe, looked way cooler than she sounded, imho. What other rock legends were more beautiful than the music they made? And, conversely, which artists' music was better than the image they projected?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:54 AM PST - 88 comments

Dow Chemical takes over a parody site Long time reader, first time poster... So what's the lesson learned here? If you make a parody, don't register your domain with a faked name?
posted by mhh5 at 11:59 PM PST - 18 comments

Dave Barry's Year in Review is a hilarious month-by-month recap of 2002. Always funny, and sometimes rather poignant, for Dave. Also, a great UK Year-in-Review satire. Enjoy.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:14 PM PST - 10 comments

Should military service become mandatory? New York's Democratic representative Charles Rangel thinks so. Would this help curb the enthusiasm our elected leaders have in using our armed forces? Obviously, the details need to be explained and hashed out... but does this effort have any substantial support?
posted by cinematique at 9:49 PM PST - 48 comments

Plein Sud - 'A unique vision of the Americas on the Web.' If you enjoy travel documentaries, this is for you. Two French Canadians take on the Americas in this epic site cram packed with videos (for 56k and broadband), interviews, and travelogues. Originally produced for TV, you can now watch the full episodes from the site.
posted by wackybrit at 4:10 PM PST - 22 comments

The republic of Kalmykia is a unique place. A member of the Russian Federation, it was settled in 1608 by Mongols from what is now the Chinese province of Xinjiang. It is the only state in Europe where Buddhism is the dominant religion, and probably the only state in the world whose president claims to have created an "extra-sensory field" around it. Kalmykia's spiritual leader, Telo Rinpoche, is an American from Philadelphia who was appointed by the Dalai Lama. There has been a long history of migrations between Europe and Asia. In one really intriguing case, 3000-year-old mummies with reddish-blond hair, Caucasian features and wearing tartans similar in design to Celtic ones, were discovered in the Takla Makan Desert in Xinjiang. If these ancient Caucasians were absorbed by the population of Xinjiang, then perhaps the Kalmyk migration might have unknowingly been a return to their ancestral lands. [First link via plep].
posted by homunculus at 3:04 PM PST - 12 comments

White House halts asbestos alert WASHINGTON (AP) - A warning from the Environmental Protection Agency, informing millions of Americans their homes might contain asbestos-contaminated insulation, has not been issued because of White House intervention, a newspaper reports. The EPA was expected to announce the warning in April, and declare a public health emergency concerning Zonolite insulation, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in its Sunday editions.
posted by Captain Ligntning at 12:19 PM PST - 25 comments

The sky is a color of television, tuned to a dead channel, and there's a hole in the sky above Chile. The widening gash in the ozone layer is now over Punta Arenas, Chile, the southern most city in the world.
posted by four panels at 12:00 PM PST - 23 comments

Cinergy Stadium Goes Down. The odds are that the Vet in Philadelphia is next. Watching these ball parks is destroyed is something else. Anyone witness it? Do you miss those places and what would you like to see fixed up? Is this the answer rather than Soldiers field or Lambeau fix it up? Some are worth keeping (Wrigley) but maybe Fenway and Yankee stadium need to go.
posted by brent at 10:00 AM PST - 21 comments

Alternate realities - as we approach a new year, you may want to measure some things differently - your age or your weight, for example. Some calculations may be flattering, others rather alarming. Even "wasting time" apparently can have some value. No matter what your age, there are some calculators that will help ensure longevity.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:43 AM PST - 13 comments

Industrialised society's fascination with useless invention: as a kid I used to love the work of Heath Robinson, inventor of (among others) a method of testing safety matches, the potato peeler, and an inoffensive method of weighing a lady friend. His American equivalent was the slightly more scientific Rube Goldberg. Occasional attempts of the patently useless to make the leap into the real world have been furthered considerably by the Japanese art of Chindogu, made popular by Kenji Kawakami, inventor of (among others) the Hay fever hat, the portable road crossing, and dusting shoes for cats. Maywa Denki seems to transcend earthy Chindogu with fish-based and musical (via sharpeworld) inventions.
posted by gravelshoes at 4:45 AM PST - 4 comments

The Clone Crone: Is Brigitte Boisselier the scariest woman of 2002? Will she replace the Bride of Wildenstein in our epidermic disaffections? The Sunday British tabloids seem to think so. How much does protagonists' physical appearance influence our perception of public events, such as the alleged cloning of a human being? [ See MeFi's recent thread.] Are rampant male chauvinism and female cattiness making a comeback? In other words, would people take the other, more famous Brigitte more seriously if she were still beautiful? Or a man?
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 9:25 PM PST - 28 comments

Harpo Marx ran secret documents past Stalin. Really.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 7:19 PM PST - 20 comments

Betting on Mini-Cows "ROCKWELL, Iowa -- Dustin Pillard is betting his farm on compact cows...Pillard has 50 tiny cows on his northern Iowa farm" MEANWHILE..."In a May dispatch from Cuba, the Wall Street Journal reported that Fidel Castro proposed in 1987 to alleviate a chronic milk shortage by trying to get his scientists to clone the most productive cows, shrunk to the size of dogs so that each family could keep one inside it's apartment. The cows would feed on grass grown inside under fluorescent lights." Now I'd like a mini-polar bear, please, and a mini-elephant, while you're at it...
posted by troutfishing at 10:32 AM PST - 18 comments

By their billboards ye shall know them: the Tehran street advertising collection. See Western luxuries, goofy icons and hardline Islamist and reformist propaganda compete for Iranian minds. Watch out for those changing Iranian ad standards, though. [via hoder]
posted by mediareport at 9:16 AM PST - 8 comments

Beckett's Bounce and Riviera in English, and another version in Chinese.
The latest from Young Hae Chang.
posted by hama7 at 5:13 AM PST - 12 comments

Girl to sue over detention "The family, who want compensation, will argue that the detentions were unlawful because they took place in Freya's free time. " If you can't give kids detention, how else are they going to be punished for breaking school rules?
posted by feelinglistless at 3:57 AM PST - 88 comments

Pinpin Lelapin ...While surfing on a Singapore site called FlashMove, I came across a zany Flash site: A wonder bit of inscrutable Japanese-inspired French animation from Studio Tanuki in the form of Pinpin Lelapin, an adorable pink balloon bunny rabbit who farts on people. In addition to the giddy animation and stylised artwork on the site is the unique "Super Mario"-type run-and-jump navigation. (Note: Mostly in French, with some Japanese and broken English. Contains Flash, music, farts, giant mecha battles and a Sailor Moon parody.)
posted by Down10 at 2:41 AM PST - 8 comments

Joel Roberts Poinsett was the first American ambassador to Mexico, Martin Van Buren's Secretary of War, and a founder of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts, which later became the Smithsonian Institute. But his most lasting legacy at Christmastime is as the namesake and American "discoverer" of the poinsettia.
posted by jonp72 at 8:48 PM PST - 4 comments

Black-eyed peas before noontime is a good luck custom in the U.S. southern states, often served in Hoppin John. Spaniards favor twelve grapes at midnight, Greeks munch on a slice of vasilopita bread baked with a foil-wrapped coin, the Dutch breakfast on hot oliebollen, while the intrepid Japanese defy death by snacking down on mochi rice cakes. Every culture seems to have a traditional food or beverage to celebrate the New Year - do you have a gastronomical favorite to mark the occasion?
posted by madamjujujive at 7:59 PM PST - 26 comments

Jan 1 - 100% Canadian Gun Registration. I'm surprised that the London gun crime epidemic, after they outlawed guns, hasn't slowed down gun control elsewhere. I know it's a contentious issue, so I'll just try to keep the question focused: will gun registration work in Canada?
posted by kablam at 6:24 PM PST - 29 comments

Ice-T to promote ice cream I wonder if they'll have an Ice Tea flavor.
posted by Lusy P Hur at 12:57 PM PST - 27 comments

Private zoos in China. This is one of the saddest pieces I've ever read--all the stories are terrible but especially the one on the bears. I thought the article made a good point on the focus on human right violations in China with a lack of attention on the treatment of animals. There should be some kind of organization either from outside or internally that addresses this issue.
posted by zinegurl at 10:57 AM PST - 17 comments

Monkey Painting. No, it's not monkeys that paint, but rather a new fad in low-rent art circles. They're selling like hotcakes on ebay. But don't forget sock monkeys, sea monkeys, and of course, those monkeys typing out Shakespeare.
posted by vraxoin at 10:39 AM PST - 32 comments

The Fly Guy is a Flash toy/game/greeting card with lots to explore and a seemingly (but not actually) endless number of things to interact with. Nothing groundbreaking, just cute and amusing. Enjoy!
posted by jonson at 10:14 AM PST - 18 comments

Michigan to Drop Minimum Sentence Rules for Drug Crimes. Although many people have known for years that minimum sentencing rules for drug offenses are seriously flawed, some states seem to be finally doing something about it.
posted by gwint at 9:11 AM PST - 5 comments

Is the Ad Aware project dead? Luckily the SpyBot application is still being updated and its still free.
posted by skallas at 8:20 AM PST - 25 comments

FDA now officially useless? Well, it's looking that way.. They are now about to allow unverified health claims on food labels. They say this is a good thing. I wonder... What function does the FDA have now if it's not to protect the consumer from wild and potentially false claims on their food products?
posted by eas98 at 7:11 AM PST - 13 comments

Are Corporations Legally Persons?

Orthodoxy has it the Supreme Court decided in 1886, in a case called Santa Clara County v. the Southern Pacific Railroad, that corporations were indeed legal persons. I express that view myself, in a recent book. So do many others. So do many law schools. We are all wrong.

Mr. Hartmann undertook instead a conscientious search. He finally found the contemporary casebook, published in 1886, blew the dust away, and read Santa Clara County in the original, so to speak. Nowhere in the formal, written decision of the Court did he find corporate personhood mentioned. Not a word. The Supreme Court did NOT establish corporate personhood in Santa Clara County.

Pardon me while I go to the bookstore. This looks to be a book well worth reading. Imagine the US government controlled by the best interests of real people instead of corporations.
posted by nofundy at 6:44 AM PST - 25 comments

Is the Washington Times perpetuating a fraud? the Palestine Media Watch is reporting on a rumour that has been floating around for a while, that the Washington Times' "Sayed Anwar" is actually Paul Martin, a correspondent out of their London office. Now while this Times doesn't boast the circulation of the NYTimes or even the LA Times, it still lands on the doorstep of the President of the US every day. How's this for journalistic integrity?
posted by djspicerack at 6:39 AM PST - 15 comments

DC Suburbs slowly getting denser I've been a participant for the past 5 years in what is easily the 2nd-3rd most insane housing market in the US: Washington DC. Apartment occupancy is 99% in the desirable areas, and "affordable starter homes" (in finger quotes) are priced at $250-$350k. People with good jobs can barely afford this. So what happens to folks who are just getting their feet on the ground in the country? More the merrier. How do you strike a balance between providing affordable housing that is accessible to living-wage jobs without running out the existing neighbors?
posted by cpfeifer at 5:40 AM PST - 50 comments

Time Magazine's 2002 Persons of the Year. A distinction that has been given to such newsmakers as Gandhi, Hitler, Jeff Bezos, a machine, and a planet, now belongs to three whistleblowers at Enron, WorldCom, and the FBI. Is Time magazine way off or right on target?
posted by MarkO at 12:55 AM PST - 29 comments

Cult says it has first human clone, and it's a girl. Clearly this is an incredible achievement for science, but what consequences will this have on the near and distant future? Is cloning technology being utilized by the wrong people? Some consider the fear of human cloning to be superstitious. But what if somebody taught the clones karate?
posted by luckyclone at 9:13 PM PST - 33 comments

a bleak moment for beauty: herb ritts has died. nytimes link.
posted by patricking at 8:29 PM PST - 30 comments

metropolis, on kcrw (previously mentioned here) is a radio show i've been listening to since 1996. it's on most weeknights from 7:00 to 10:00 for those lucky enough to be within broadcast range, for the rest of us it can be found at here starting 7:30 pm (realplayer, mp3 or windows media).
if you like electronic music (i hate the limitations of that label) check it out. jason bentley mixes records and hosts the show (among other things) and does an excellent job of combining new music, out-of-the-way stuff and interviews . it's not hyperbole to say that this show changed my life by introducing me to the music of ltj bukem (warning: flash, frames, bad design, all manner of horrors)
posted by dolface at 8:14 PM PST - 10 comments

Hot Little Igloos And Tutti-Frutti Toadstools or Living In Your Own I-Pod: Affordable housing gets seriously cute and makes Hobbits or Bubble boys and girls of all of us. The floor plans are versatile and the rentals (from $68 to $110 a week) are enticing. The "idea that governed the whole planning of Dome Park Lane and really became our goal was to provide clean, secure and -- most importantly -- affordable housing for low-income individuals." Are monolithic domes too good to be true or too weird to catch on? I sincerely hope not. [Via Linkfilter].
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:39 PM PST - 11 comments

15 months after the first waves, Blogging seems to prove so popular among young Iranian boys and girls that now the number of Persian (or Farsi) weblogs has jumped to more than 9,000. Almost half of them are using Blogger.com's free service and other half are using a similar but more Persian-friendly online application, created by Iranian programmers, called Persianblog.com. Tomorrow, they are gathering in a big conference hall in Tehran to meet other colleagues and bloggers and to share what they've experienced during their lovely days of a rare thing in Iranian history: absolute freedom of expression
posted by hoder at 7:05 PM PST - 12 comments

Hurry! Not much time left to buy this entire town!
posted by Pretty_Generic at 6:15 PM PST - 18 comments

UN finds no banned weapons - that's a relief. Now the only "weapons of mass destruction" in the current debacle are owned by the US i.e. 27 stealth bombers, capable of completely destroying much of the world in just a few seconds.
posted by scotty at 5:53 PM PST - 47 comments

Roundabouts are growing in popularity, in Utah of all places. It's a good thing there's a website and an official government guide to teach us how to use them, because we really suck at driving.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:52 PM PST - 24 comments

Du-blog-ious Achievement Awards Marc Weisblott cannot even keep from slagging himself: “Maintained a personal blog without permalinks, archives, or even dates on the posts, thus preventing the sort of critical scrutiny he performs on others. Barely earned more money at age thirty-one than he did at twenty-one. And – oh, yes – enough of a coward to not be able to compile a Worst Blogs of 2002 list without attaching himself to the end of the list. Or is that just unadulterated self-loathing?”
posted by joeclark at 5:40 PM PST - 8 comments

"Feith and Luti see everybody not one hundred per cent with them as one hundred per cent against themit's a very Manichaean world," a defense consultant said. the "Office of Special Plans"???? i thought the new homeland security bill was going to get people to start working together?
posted by specialk420 at 5:39 PM PST - 1 comments

Kenya switches off Internet access Don't let Rumsfeld know about this. Might give him some ideas. If there is a lesson in this it is that putting all your eggs in one basket (GE, Home Depot , energy and phone companies etc) is at best a questionable practise if a government can get a grip on the basket's handle. No fear that it will happen in America? Then notice how the threat of not handing out federal monies gets compliance with what the government wants,ie, education, etc.
posted by Postroad at 6:54 AM PST - 9 comments

Happy Xmas (War is over) This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the UK release of John and Yoko's perennial Christmas classic. A very Merry Xmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear War is over, if you want it War is over now. Happy Xmas
posted by thedailygrowl at 2:57 AM PST - 1 comments

I See the Promised Land"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord"---MLKing Jr.
posted by JohnR at 2:17 AM PST - 4 comments

Christmas Music that Doesn't suck. I know I get tired of all that Christmas music, but I have one CD by Mojo Nixon that I really enjoy all year. Horny Holidays is a fantastic CD with versions of many classic Christmas songs like "Happy Birthday", and "The Grinch", and who really does know all the words to "Good King Wenceslas"?
posted by Eekacat at 11:01 PM PST - 11 comments

Donate Your Old Computers The February issue of Woman's Day magazine has an interesting blurb on recycling old computers. Two places mentioned in Woman's Day were Share Technology and PC's For Schools. Both have search engines to find local places to donate your computer parts and accessories. Tis the Season.
posted by sadie01221975 at 9:20 PM PST - 8 comments

"There Is Only One Sale" is the traditional January sales slogan of Harrods' department store in London, where the elbow-fest begins next Monday. With disappointing Christmas retail sales being reported more or less everywhere, it looks like the U.S. National Retail Federation's statement "What's going to be crucial now is the week after Christmas" is not the usual BS. Sales in Europe are still month-long extravaganzas where unique bargains can be had. In the U.S. they seem to be more frequent, shorter and somewhat diluted. Assuming you're normal (a stingy, somewhat gullible and opportunistic shopper like the rest of us), what are your post-holiday shopping objectives? Which department stores will you be hitting? Or is it all just a big con?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:07 PM PST - 10 comments

Steal cars and kill prostitutes for points The fourth instalment of the popular Grand Theft Auto video game has become the fastest selling title of all time in the UK. In its first five days on the U.S. market, GTA:VC sold 1.4 million copies of Grand Theft Auto. Entertainment Weekly rated it No. 1 on its 10-best-game list for 2002. But unlike most video games, where the player represents a hero struggling against evil, Grand Theft Auto invites players to pose as a vicious criminal named Tommy Vercetti. Tommy earns money for his crimes, which include running over pedestrians, hiring and then murdering prostitutes, and killing other gangsters with guns, Uzis, swords and Molotov cocktails. Unsurprisingly, the game has its critics and protestors. Real life crimes have been linked to it. Well, MeFiers, is a society ever justified in banning something like this video game?
posted by orange swan at 6:36 PM PST - 39 comments

Merry Christmas from Scandinavian Airlines! Scandinavian Airlines has offered a special online-only deal for each day of December. You go to the site and open the day's date (like an Advent calendar) and a new European city is offered--you can then fly to that city roundtrip from the US for about $250 US. The catch? You have 24 hours to book, you must travel between January and mid-March, and you must depart from Seattle, Newark, DC or Chicago. It's a neat deal, but today's the last day, and so as a great holiday surprise they've opened up all the past cities. Pick any of the previously offered destinations, get thee to one of the four departure cities, and enjoy a great airfare deal! London, Paris, Madrid, Oslo, Stockholm, Milan and other cities are offered. (Not a plug--I don't work for or have any connection to SAS.)
posted by GaelFC at 4:14 PM PST - 19 comments

Men, desperately looking for that last minute Christmas gift? Well maybe your wife would appreciate you not being such a goddamned pervert. (Link safe for work)
posted by vito90 at 12:41 PM PST - 60 comments

The world's most wanted man has embarked on his annual breaking-and-entering spree! Stop him before he reaches your house, using the power of NORAD. Track him as he wends his way around the world...(see! Missile-defense technology IS good for something!)
posted by amberglow at 11:31 AM PST - 14 comments

King William's College Christmas Quiz - Pupils at King William's college on the Isle of Man have suffered its annual general knowledge quiz since 1905. Until 1999, it was compulsory and the average score was two (out of 180). Nowadays the questions, set by an unidentified islander, are posted to parents with the end-of-term report. See how you fare. Answers will be posted in the new year. (last year, last years answers).
posted by BigCalm at 9:03 AM PST - 38 comments

Crackpots and the Nature of Truth If you're a busy guy like me, you take on faith a lot what is promoted as scientific truth. But there's usually a "crackpot" minority who may find a few data points which don't fit the orthodox scientific theory and claim them as evidence of a conspiracy or mass delusion. On very rare occasions (and this is probably NOT one of them), they may even turn out to be right. For this reason, the unaligned unscientific masses find it easy to side with the crackpots. Those within the orthodoxy often take the position that confronting the minority in a fair and open debate would unduly dignify the minority's position. Unfortunately, the orthodoxy at the same time often loudly denounces the minority's position as "unscientific," but doesn't go much beyond that. To be sure, the minority's position often is truly "unscientific" because, for instance, it's unfalsifiable. The orthodoxy seems to be missing golden PR opportunities in articles like this. If the orthodoxy is truly concerned about winning converts away from the crackpots, shouldn't they AT LEAST take advantage of these opportunities to say a few words about what science is and is not, to inject some of the basic concepts of science (hypothesis, experimentation, theory construction, falsifiability, etc.) into the popular memesphere?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:03 AM PST - 28 comments

Joe Strummer Dies at 50. Not exactly what I was hoping to get for Christmas... I have a feeling that my wife is going to be quite sick of Sandinista! and London Calling after today...
posted by badzen at 8:49 AM PST - 17 comments

What does the Bush Administration want for Christmas this year? An extension to the Nation's Credit Card limit.

"Currently, national debt subject to the $6.4 trillion debt limit stands at $6.3 trillion"
"...warning that it may hit the current limit on the federal debt by late February."

Merry Christmas USA!
posted by CrazyJub at 7:44 AM PST - 13 comments

African village attacked by vampires. I thought this article was an email hoax until I found it at Yahoo news via AP. Bizarre.
posted by fred_ashmore at 7:36 AM PST - 24 comments

Just in time for Christmas, Jakob Nielsen unleashes his list of Top Ten Web-Design Mistakes of 2002. [via the k10k]
posted by riffola at 3:30 AM PST - 38 comments

Tis the season to give pardons, fa la la la la la la President Bush decided to give out some pardons for the Christmas season. Pardons for crimes like stealing copper wire, altering an odometer, selling moonshine and not reporting for military induction in the 50s. These are small crimes, most occuring around 30 years ago (on average) with punishment of probation.

This brings up a question, thinking about the controversy over pardons by past Presidents and all that. "How should a President use his pardon power?"
posted by RobbieFal at 9:38 PM PST - 10 comments

This is one the sickest , saddiest stories I've ever read on the net. Can anything be done to stop it, or is it wishful thinking?
posted by Macboy at 1:37 PM PST - 99 comments

2002: The Year in Pictures - as collected by Reuters, UPI, Yahoo [Flash], MSNBC [Flash], CBS, Newsweek, Time Asia, BET [Flash], BBC UK, BBC World, Guardian UK, Corbis News, Corbis Features, Corbis Entertainment, and Corbis sports. You didn't have anything else to do today, now did you?
posted by kokogiak at 12:48 PM PST - 7 comments

The Cult of the Gym Anorexia and obesity have both been beaten to a bloody pulp...but how about "bigorexia", or "muscle dysmorphia."? It has many of the same characteristics as anorexia, such as never being satisfied with the way one looks no matter how big and muscular they get, and it shares with obesity the same propensity for discovering a "quick-fix" mentality. This author likens the cult of the gym to the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment through the church of one's choice.
posted by vito90 at 12:35 PM PST - 14 comments

Artist For Freedom! I'd never heard of Arthur Szyk before I came across him while doing random Google searches today. I really like his artwork! We had a post awhile back with poster art addressing the "current situation. I wonder what Mr. Szyk would've made of the times we live in?
posted by black8 at 11:34 AM PST - 6 comments

A billboard just for you. A new technology is being implemented in billboards that will pick up what radio station drivers are listening to and calculate what product to advertise. Is this a good thing, like Tivo, or should we call Adbusters? Some people thought the day would never come. What's the next step for marketers? Space Advertising??
posted by Espoo2 at 10:52 AM PST - 22 comments

For decades, Iowans found jobs making atomic bombs and non-nuclear weaponry at the Middletown Ammunition Plant. Now their bodies are paying a heavy price.. According to today's installment, the US government and other groups denied knowledge of this plants' role in our nuclear history.
posted by justlisa at 10:50 AM PST - 2 comments

Apparently "Total Information Awareness" doesn't extend to the TIA project's own website.
posted by artifex at 10:38 AM PST - 13 comments

Best Ideas Of 2002: From 'The Ambulance-Homicide Theory' to 'Women Are Just as Jealous as Men', the NYTM 2nd Annual Year in Ideas details 97 recent Gibsonian additions to life in these modern times.
posted by yonderboy at 10:35 AM PST - 9 comments

"e-filing" your land transactions - could it streamline a process that is quite cumbersome? 11 of the 21 counties in New Jersey are working to convert their current paper-based system of filings to an electronic format. Some say it would lower mortgage costs and time constraints because of the movement of paper. Some say it's a disaster waiting to happen. I think it would be an excellent move and would give NJ some first mover status (I think?) to be proud of.
posted by djspicerack at 10:10 AM PST - 5 comments

The Worst Modified Cars in the UK. Car modification is becoming a way of life for all trendy 17-25 year olds. When you can't afford a decent off-the-shelf car, you can just turn your cheap wreck into a sporty glory! Or check out an American car with a WOODEN body kit! Alternatively, just check out the ugliest cars in Britain or LoserCars, the worst cars in the USA! (Found on uk.rec.driving)
posted by wackybrit at 9:32 AM PST - 21 comments

Will 2003 Be The Year Of Real Espresso In America? With the wealth of good machines, fresh coffee beans and online knowledge now available, not to mention tempting offers like Illy's subscription (though the pods turn out expensive in the end, it allows absolute beginners to make acceptable espresso) it's surprising Starbucks-style coffee (big, milky, watery and sweet) hasn't yet been dethroned by the pleasure of straight espresso (tiny, thick, creamy and intense), preferably restretto. I should add that, despite many efforts over the years, I've never had a decent cup of espresso in America. In fact, outside Southern Europe. What gives?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:34 AM PST - 61 comments

Buy a Flight Manual, Get a Grand Jury Subpoena? A guy qualified to fly and instruct on the Boeing 737 buys a CD on Ebay that contains the ground course for the same plane. Then the FBI gets involved, and, courtesy of section 501 (d) of the "USA Patriot Act", he can no longer even discuss the issue. [more inside]
posted by Irontom at 7:59 AM PST - 24 comments

"Hang in there, help is on the way."

The director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., recently asked the Defense Department to lower the 2004 pay raise from its expected 3.7 percent to 2 percent. Daniels also wants future raises tied to inflation, rather than basing boosts on what civilians doing comparable jobs in the private sector might make.

Many of our military families already qualify for welfare and food stamps. Pay raises are out of the question when there's NMD and tax cuts to the wealthy needing funding.
posted by nofundy at 7:51 AM PST - 7 comments

Washington salutes its new Blog Overlords When Trent Lott finally fell from (g)race last friday, the ensuing MeFi thread discussed how Lott's statements were at first a sleeper in the mainstream media but that the blogosphere forced the story onto the front pages. However, this theory was met with some scepticism However, the theory of blog ascendancy has legs. In fact, the story is all over the place this morning. With this level of discussion, right or wrong, Blogs just arguably went mainstream. (It might also be the end of our golden era of blogging.) There are greater and lesser blogs. Its hard to tell which blog deserves the credit for toppling Lott. How will they determine the alpha blog? The winner could be the next "Drudge".
posted by BentPenguin at 7:45 AM PST - 43 comments

"We are singing for peace. We are against war. We are now singing against checkpoints," said Gabi Baramki, one of the founders of the Jerusalem Chorus. "It's a very sad Christmas." One in ten Palestinians is Christian, and Christians such as Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah are prominent among the voices calling for a campaign of nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation.
posted by skoosh at 3:03 AM PST - 10 comments

50 is an odd age for a rock star to die. 25 or 75 both seem right. But fifty? That's absurd! And he never got round to reforming the Clash ...
posted by alloneword at 2:15 AM PST - 64 comments

Miniature Earth ... Sure, you may have already seen something like this before... but as we're about to turn the calendar over for another year, it's as good a time as any to thoughtfully reconsider the world we live in. Miniature Earth is a flash presentation that compresses the world's population down to a community of 100 people, and gives statistical proportions. Work with passion; Love without needing to be loved; appreciate what you have; and do your best to make a better world.
posted by crunchland at 12:04 AM PST - 22 comments

The spirit of hospice - from a blogger with heart.
posted by sheauga at 9:01 PM PST - 4 comments

Distributed Proofreaders is a collaborative effort in proofreading ebooks before they are submitted to Project Guttenberg. [more inside]
posted by phyrewerx at 8:11 PM PST - 7 comments

Monumentae Rumsfeldiana: A soundbite competition for future tombstone use. [But should a British state-owned corporation like the BBC make official fun of an senior American government minister? Real Audio req. ]
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 8:09 PM PST - 9 comments

And so it begins: while I've already seen half a dozen "best ___ of 2002" lists, the year end list I look forward to, Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums list is out for 2002. It's just the right mix between "so mainstream there are no surprises" and "so indie even your second cousin's girlfriend's brother in that band hasn't heard of them" though perhaps they're leaning towards the latter this year, seeing how I've only heard about a quarter of all the albums listed.
posted by mathowie at 5:30 PM PST - 55 comments

How can Britney Spears bring democracy to Iran? President Bush has the answer.
posted by hoder at 4:14 PM PST - 6 comments

Twas the night before Xmas and all through the net,
The geeks would be googling the ascii character set;
Metafilter refreshed on their PCs with care,
In the hopes that their FPP soon would be there;

Then up in the blue there arose such a clatter,
Mathowie sprang up to see what's the matter;
When, what to my wondering eyes there should be,
The canonical list of "Twas" parodies.
posted by Wet Spot at 2:06 PM PST - 11 comments

Tonight, the BBC took the controversial decision to screen a documentary which investigated the plausability of the life of The Virgin Mary as it appears in The Bible. As someone who's spiritual without commiting to any one religion, it was a fascinating look at a people and a time. But I can understand why Christians would be offended, especially since the programme suggested that Mary (or Miriam) wasn't a virgin at all, that she was a 'mother bringing up a wayward son under difficult circumstances'. Was this the kind of programme which should be shown at Christmas time?
posted by feelinglistless at 1:19 PM PST - 26 comments

The unsinkable ~~Molly Brown~~ Violet Jessop survived three White Star fleet shipwrecks. She was a stewardess onboard the RMS Titanic and RMS Olympic, and a nurses aid on the HMHS Britannic. Violet didn't even know how to swim when her lifeboat was shredded by the Britannic's massive propellers. This amazing woman went on to serve aboard the RMS Olympic after the war and is featured in more than one book.
posted by rogue at 12:03 PM PST - 1 comments

Crisis. The homelessness charity Crisis is looking for a few volunteers for work in London over the Christmas/New Year period. There is a list of current vacancies here. This seems to be quite a good thing to do if you are free over the holiday period, and I wonder if any MeFi'ers have considered getting involved in something like this?
posted by plep at 10:55 AM PST - 7 comments

It's spanish lottery madness season! No less than 1.8 billion Cash Payout for "El Gordo", most of it won today. You didn't have any ticket? Try "El Niño 2003" on january 6th - but only 560 millions to win. All this makes me wonder: did any fo you ever won anything substancial in a lottery? I once won some stuffed pink bunny at a highschool year end party draw - that's as far as I could go.
posted by ugly_n_sticky at 10:54 AM PST - 10 comments

Coffee, tea or should we feel your pregnant wife's breasts? Well, like most of you I've read many personal accounts of the change in air travel since 9/11. But this one packs a major wallop, well written, infuriating and containing one of the best concluding sentences . . . ever. ( via Blogdex )
posted by jeremias at 7:18 AM PST - 139 comments

We will take care of it for you The rich, or at least one rich guy in this article, donate money to their preferred political party out of deference to what's best for their employees. Is your boss looking out for your best interests?
posted by chris0495 at 7:12 AM PST - 2 comments

The life-expectancy of Industrial Civilization is horridly short according to Richard C. Duncan and his Olduvai theory. Like all of these weird theories it can be found on the outer fringes of the Internet. Duncan's theory kind of tracks the Hubbert Curve model of petroleum depletion that has been posted before on this site. As Isaac Asimov has stated "Indeed, the ability to control energy, whether it be making wood fires or building power plants, is a prerequisite for civilization." Only time will tell if Duncan was on to something we should have paid attention to.
posted by thedailygrowl at 2:13 AM PST - 20 comments

PoliSciFilter! Say you really wanted to know how the recent elections in the Seychelles went, or you needed to know the URL for the Turkish Communist Party. Check out Election World, rounding out the trio of recently posted political reference websites with a semi-comprehensive non-partisan database of every national election in every country on earth, including some countries where the results don't mean all that much, and some ominous blank spots where there are no election results worth reporting, plus a massive list of political parties (with weblinks) from virtually all over. Of course, if you want to find out whether these trappings of democracy are actually making a difference in people's lives, it's worth reading the Country Reports in the annual Freedom in the World survey, or just checking out what color country you're in on the PDF Map of Freedom.
posted by sexualchocolate at 11:40 PM PST - 1 comments

American and European Companies Profit from Iraqi Weapons What do Dupont, Hewlett Packard, and Eastman Kodak have in common? They all supplied parts for the Iraqi weapons program under Saddam Hussein, according to this list taken from Iraq's newly released weapon programs dossier. The Associated Press also weighs in with this wire report.
posted by jonp72 at 10:39 PM PST - 10 comments

Can I Have A Glass For This? Yes, you can. Riedel make the best glasses in the world (well, with a little competition...), painstakingly suiting each drink to the best shape and size of container, for the benefit of nose, mouth, eyes and hold. A very recent addition, not yet found on their official list, is the bourbon glass, made with expert advise from Fred Noe, of the legendary Noe family, overlords of Jim Beam. Form means content indeed! More's the pity that the great majority of drinks are served in inappropriate glasses and therefore never fully enjoyed.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:16 PM PST - 62 comments

Meet J. C. Leyendecker, the Golden Boy of American Illustration. He helped codify the modern image of Santa Claus. His Baby New Year covers for the Saturday Evening Post invented a pop culture icon. He was "the most out front closeted gay man of the twentieth century" - a hugely popular artist whose work was often clearly homo erotic. The young Norman Rockwell used to stalk him and once said, "Leyendecker was my god." In 1905, he created advertising's first male sex symbol, the Arrow Shirt Man, which "defined the ideal American male" for decades, got more fan mail than Valentino and inspired a 1923 Broadway play. A detailed, opinionated biography and 14 pages of gorgeous Post covers.
posted by mediareport at 6:18 PM PST - 5 comments

Ladies, Gentlemen and New Yorkers, this is to inform you that World New York is back.
posted by riffola at 5:52 PM PST - 14 comments

Rulers.org is the semi-modest page with the task of listing every leader of every country ever. They have sections for Iraq, America, Greenland and every other country. [More inside]
posted by RobbieFal at 4:30 PM PST - 7 comments

The GM Futureliner It began with the Streamliner and GMs 1936 Parade of Progress, the brainchild of inventor Charles F. Kettering. The show was a tremendous success. Redesigned in 1941 and again in 1953, the 12 Futureliners and its band of Paraders were ready to hit the road, set up shop in a town near you, and showcase the marvels of science. Of the original 12 built, 9 have been found, 2 are being used for parts, 1 is for sale, and 1 is being lovingly restored by a group of volunteers. [more inside]
posted by snez at 12:45 PM PST - 11 comments

Have you hugged a psycho killer today? Possibly the best black humour on the whole of the Internet! Jason meets Dilbert... kinda
posted by DrDoberman at 11:24 AM PST - 15 comments

The Marijuana Policy Project, after several set backs, is taking a shot back at the Drug Czar, John P. Walters, whom they see as the main opponent to their failed initiatives in november.
posted by sourbrew at 10:54 AM PST - 8 comments

Lelo ledung, pu'va pu'va, eh-e... In honor of the shortest day of the year: Lullabies from around the world. Midis and mp3s, from Bangladesh to Turkey, to send you off to dreamland, wherever it may be.
posted by amberglow at 9:57 AM PST - 15 comments

US wrecks cheap drugs deal Many of us have sorely miss VP Dick Cheney. Here is what he has been up to of late. Gosh, we will sure try to help the sick and the dying. Just not for the forseeable future. See Dick act. See Dick block help. See Dick help lobbies.
posted by Postroad at 9:24 AM PST - 105 comments

The BBC television show The Sky At Night, which opened in April 1957, is one of the longest-running in the world. Its longevity is undoubtedly due to host and national treasure Sir Patrick Moore. Amongst his other contributions to mankind, the uniquely-voiced bemonacled one plays the xylophone [Flash], is an endless source of inspiration for comedians [MP3], and was, of course, the condescending yet benevolent GamesMaster. But in this festive season, can he explain the Star of Bethlehem [Real]?
posted by Pretty_Generic at 9:18 AM PST - 14 comments

Looking Through a Child's Eyes. The historical children's art collection at the very well maintained Papa Ink : the International Gallery of Children's Art features child drawings from many relevant events. Some of particular interest are Witness to Genocide: Children of Rwanda, holocaust drawings from the Jewish Ghetto in Terezin, treatment of women under the Taliban in Afganistan, and remnants from medieval Russia from a boy named Onfim.
posted by Stan Chin at 10:14 PM PST - 7 comments

Live Phish (for flame's sake, this is not a post about the band itself) is a new service created by Phish through which people can download SHN or MP3's of their upcoming new years eve shows and burn them themselves, for a fee of course. The recordings are due to be available two days after the shows are over. It will be interesting to see if the service is successful and profitable. Assuming it is, will there be an effect on the music industry and the RIAA? Might they realize they can make money on music downloaded on the internet? Only time will tell.
posted by kurtosis at 8:19 PM PST - 15 comments

Shooby Taylor, the Human Horn, Has Been Found! In 1983, the retired postal worker, William "Shooby" Taylor, recorded a legendary bootleg tape at Angel Studios, Manhattan. After the tape attracted attention from the legendary freeform WFMU radio station, a underground cult of Shooby fans developed, enthralled by his unique scatting style resembling Dadaist sound poetry. Shooby was believed dead, but the dedicated efforts of his fans found him.
posted by jonp72 at 6:18 PM PST - 6 comments

Quite possibly the most fun I've ever had with Flash. Oh, yes, there's trouble in River City, and only Jesus, Hitler, Ryu, and Custom Guy can save it. Courtesy of the fine folks at Something Awful.
posted by WolfDaddy at 4:32 PM PST - 13 comments

Let's cruise though the Footnotes to History which includes independent countries in the US [More inside]
posted by RobbieFal at 2:36 PM PST - 13 comments

Further Gov't WOD policy contradiction... Turns out the weel-publicised friendly fire incident in Afghanistan last year may now be attributed to the pilot and bobardier being strung out on speed? Why? Because in the Air Force, crank is standard issue and refusal to partake can even render a pilot not fit for duty. This is what they mean by "The War on Drugs"?
posted by BentPenguin at 1:19 PM PST - 30 comments

Futurism and the Futurists is a comprehensive (but oddly self-promotional) website showcasing the ideas, biographies, and works of the Italian Futurists. Enjoy the painting, poetry, the fabulous theatre "sentesi," and of course, all those lovely manifestos.
posted by Pinwheel at 10:58 AM PST - 15 comments

Pot in Canada may soon be a click away with the launch of a home-delivery service for medical marijuana over the Internet (more info on Canada's medicinal pot laws here ).
posted by Badmichelle at 10:08 AM PST - 16 comments

Brains vs. bathing suits. University of Michigan researchers gathered men and women together and had them try on either a bathing suit or a sweater to see which they preferred for 20 minutes. Then they were asked to take a math test to "pass the time." The results? No appreciable difference for men while women scored considerably lower while in bathing suits. Could obsession with appearance be holding our girls back?
posted by hipnerd at 9:28 AM PST - 37 comments

Iraq and the Arab's Future, by Fouad Ajami Some real background, and analysis.
posted by semmi at 9:08 AM PST - 21 comments

Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time ? No Mr Magoo no Atom Ant, although Bugs Bunny, Homer Simpson, and Rocky and Bullwinkle in top spots may well be deserved. What a vast world to choose from in Toonopedia.
posted by Voyageman at 8:44 AM PST - 40 comments

"Researchers" study 50 years of Playboy magazine and determine that the characteristic differences between men and women are becoming less pronounced.
posted by swift at 8:28 AM PST - 24 comments

Lott Resigns As GOP Leader. Senator Lott has bowed to internal and external pressure and has resigned his position as Senate majority leader. He will, however, not resign from the Senate altogether. Will Republican be able to recover, or have they been permanently weakened? Will Democrats still be able to capitalize on the scandal?
posted by ncurley at 8:21 AM PST - 95 comments

"Ana By Choice". Oh dear. To maintain your christmas cheer, avoid this saddening message board. By the way, for the Brits out there: more people are on anti-depressants today than voted for Pop Idol.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 7:37 AM PST - 18 comments

Girl Culture, the photography of Lauren Greenfield explores the relationship that women and girls have with their bodies. Sometimes to positive effects, and sometimes to negative effects, but always intensely self-aware, as a guy I found myself often wondering how much of this was contrived for cheap effect. There is an underlying current of honesty in it though that makes it very effective.
posted by willnot at 7:28 AM PST - 25 comments

1000 Miles in 1000 Hours - London Marathon organizers plan to reproduce the feat achieved almost 200 years ago by a legendary sportsman and gambler called Captain Robert Barclay. Five contestants will run 1000 miles in 1000 hours and then compete in the London Marathon to decide the winner.
posted by Frank Grimes at 5:59 AM PST - 15 comments

Let Me See Your Beauty Broken Down: Here's an illuminating song-by-song commentary of the work of Leonard Cohen, along with a slide-show of his "Closing Time" notebook; some dodgy drawings; a lot of grainy photos of the great man, and Pico Iyer's liner notes for the recently released Essential Songs. Yeah, right. As if anything he ever wrote or sang or said wasn't. [Cohen fans will forgive the shabby web design. Thank you woods lot for the heads-up.]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:46 AM PST - 17 comments

Smallpox Vaccination? The New England Journal of Medicine made available today an early release of articles from their planned January 30, 2003 issue, designed "to help inform the current national debate about smallpox vaccination" [more inside....articles unfortunately available only in PDF....]
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 12:26 AM PST - 31 comments

An Exercise in Identity A group of writers seeks to collaborate under a single pseudonym, not for fear of scorn or ridicule, but presumably because they think it makes for better business. Do readers have a right to know who a work's author really is, or can identity just be another aspect of the fictional work? (via Kuro5hin queue)
posted by Erasmus at 7:45 PM PST - 27 comments

Distributed spam filtering. Sure, your spam filter may be hot stuff, but Spamnet takes filtering to the communal level. With its easy install, point and click simplicity, and Outlook support could Spamnet be the SpamCop for the masses?
posted by skallas at 7:37 PM PST - 36 comments

"Picasso of keyboard funk" - Professor Longhair would be 84 today if he were still alive. His distinctive meld of boogie woogie, blues, funk and Latin makes for piano that is quintessentially New Orleans...Tipitinas, one of the more famous local music bars, took its name from his signature song. "Fess" was a seminal influence on such musical greats as James Booker, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, Art Neville, Doctor John and Marcia Ball, one of my current favorites. You can hear a few Fess samples from Crawfish Fiesta, arguably his best recording, issued just after he died in 1980. He was inducted in the R&R Hall of Fame as an early influencer in 1993. Happy birthday, Professor!
posted by madamjujujive at 7:24 PM PST - 17 comments

Soccer Penalty Shoot-Outs Cause Heart Attacks English reasearchers have determined heart attacks increased shortly after an England/Argentina match that ended in a penalty shoot out. They conclude that in the interest of public health, penalty shots should be abandoned. Are they seriously saying this with a straight face? And what on earth prompted such a study?
posted by davebush at 5:31 PM PST - 20 comments

The F-22 Raptor is the next generation fighter for the United States. At nearly 97 million each, it will be deployed in 2004.This site gives a remarkably detailed report regarding its design and function. Including such gems as "first-look, first-shot, first-kill capability" and " Humans are good differentiators, but they are poor integrators."
posted by JohnR at 5:19 PM PST - 53 comments

Come up and see me, make me smile. [Flash mouse-over from Bifurcated Rivets.]
posted by Carlos Quevedo at 4:19 PM PST - 8 comments

With negotiations breaking down, the Chicago Cubs have decided to sue "rooftop clubs" that sell tickets to watch games on rooftops surrounding Wrigley Field. Apparently the tickets cost between $70-$130. The Cubs are claiming unjust enrichment and public performance of a copyrighted work, due to the "clubs" showing the games to patrons via television. (via the Trademark Blog)
posted by anathema at 3:03 PM PST - 19 comments

The Naked Mole-Rat is naturally naked. Conversely, these others are naked for reasons of disease (like this bear with alopecia and hairless chimpanzee) or mutation (the Sphynx cat; the Mexican hairless dog; the Chinese Crested Dog; the Naked Chicken; the Hairless Rat; a hairless ferret; the Nude Mouse; and the Hairless Hamster). What is the attraction of encouraging mutations that make normally furry animals furless?
posted by raygirvan at 1:54 PM PST - 36 comments

Prof. George W. Hart, of the Computer Science Department at SUNY Stony Brook, has an enviable web presence. His Encyclopedia of Polyhedra alone is worth the visit, his geometric sculptures make the nerd in me weep at their beauty, and his trilobite recipe looks mighty yummy.
posted by ewagoner at 12:48 PM PST - 12 comments

The job, the blog, and you. Interesting Washington Post article I ran across today that discusses the pitfalls about blogging about your job. Makes some good points, especially how the blogging community needs to take account of things such as non-disclosure clauses in employment contracts.
posted by PeteyStock at 10:19 AM PST - 16 comments

On PBS last week, Senator Bob Graham said that there is "evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States," but that "It will become public at some point when it's turned over to the archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now. And, we need to have this information now because it's relevant to the threat that the people of the United States are facing today." Do you trust the government to keep the right informatin classified, or do we need to know?
posted by cell divide at 10:06 AM PST - 16 comments

Photos and more photos from the Nautiles firsts dives to the Prestige wreck, a single-hulled tanker that broke in two while it was towed to open sea after the discovery of a breach in its hull.

It has been an ecologic and economic disaster for Galicia, Spanish northwest coastal region famous for its seafood. But it also has been a political scandal for the PP (Partido Popular), in the government both in Galicias autonomic parliament and in the central government, because of its late response and efforts to hide the catastrophe manipulating the public broadcast system (and the friendly private networks). Too little, too late, Jose Maria Aznar.

While politicians throw shit to each other, a quarter of the 20.5 million gallons of fuel oil already spilled are now spreading through the coastline covering everything with what locals call chapapote, a sticky mix of sea water, fuel oil and sand. The Prestige sits now at 3.500 meters of depth, slowly leaking fuel oil to the surface. The Nautile, one of the few mini submarine that has been used to record and take pictures from the Titanic wreck, its being hired by the Spanish government to asses the situation (Spanish language link) and try to stop the leakage.

Popular action in the form of a white tide of volunteers has been phenomenal, forcing the government to act and assume responsibilities. But the issue at hand is much larger: will the European Union effectively ban single-hulled tankers? Why the rules that govern the seas permit flag of convenience ships that can elude so easily its responsibility?

See more images (slideshow).
posted by samelborp at 9:54 AM PST - 12 comments

Information deemed useful to terrorists is disappearing from government Web sites. I know this is old news, but this article details some of the specifics of whas has been happening. "The previous presumption, that publicly-funded information is the rightful property of the public until proven otherwise, has been replaced by the presumption that the public has to prove to a suspicious government that it deserves the information." I understand that as a nation we are hypersensitive now to terrorism, but isn't this just what the terrorists want? The loss of our freedoms to information?
posted by archimago at 9:50 AM PST - 14 comments

Zap those road burners!! Following up yesterday's banal car-talk thread, the Guardian reports that Dubya's Son of Star Wars is already taking out, inadvertantly , its first targets. In this instance hapless BMWs and Jeeps. Excellent I say- go for anything over two tons, 4WD, and moving on on a public thoroughfare.
posted by marvin at 9:48 AM PST - 12 comments