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Sidewalk Chalk Drawings.
posted by srboisvert at 7:04 PM PST - 8 comments

"First Wives Club" author Olivia Goldsmith dies. How? Plastic surgery.
posted by adrober at 6:04 PM PST - 20 comments

"Loved Like a Milkshake" is an 18-track tribute album to the beloved outsider musician Wesley Willis. It's a joy-ride. It really whips the camel's ass with a belt.
posted by starkeffect at 5:33 PM PST - 17 comments

Welcome to the Fiji Museum.
posted by hama7 at 5:27 PM PST - 3 comments

Making the Mind. "The general outlines of how genes build the brain are finally becoming clear, and we are also starting to see how, in forming the brain, genes make room for the environment’s essential role. While vast amounts of work remain to be done, it is becoming equally clear that understanding the coordination of nature and nurture will require letting go of some long-held beliefs."
posted by homunculus at 5:26 PM PST - 16 comments

I love Karl Rove -- an "erotomaniacal diary” : Few things get my Blubblenumpkin's whities tighter than the texture of a musty Vellux blanket on his bare tushie while he's gripping a Gideon bible in one paw, and a moist lump of mushed-up vending machine Nutter Butters in the other. Especially if the TV is wired for basic cable so I can tweezer-tend his lower back tufts to the background dulcet tones of Lou Dobbs. Ahhhh…heaven. created by Kat Kinsman (more about her and the Secret Service here
posted by amberglow at 5:01 PM PST - 5 comments

Books I Did Not Read This Year: For novelty or perhaps for gleeful one-downmanship, Kieran at Crooked Timber shares a list of books he did not read in 2003. Literary guilt is hardly new, but some argue our neuroses about unread books grows as our distractions multiply. Of course, this attitude (besides bordering on criticism of the glib, "pop lite" type) usually comes part and parcel with the common complaint that paper culture is dead. And one could easily make a distinction between neurotic englit-geek Guilt and the casual reader's mere missed opportunity. Without rehashing either of those discussions, what are the (presumably) best books (or any pieces of art) you didn't consume in 2003?
posted by ifjuly at 1:04 PM PST - 45 comments

State of the Union scorecard. The president will deliver his State of the Union address on Monday night. Tompaine.com makes it easy to keep score at home. (via TPM)
posted by jpoulos at 12:02 PM PST - 8 comments

Iraq Coalition Casualties Count
posted by anastasiav at 10:48 AM PST - 38 comments

Next Best Thing to Being There. A Quicktime Mars Rover Simulation.
posted by kozad at 9:17 AM PST - 8 comments

Israeli ambassador to Sweeden vandalises artwork. This is front page stuff in my part of the world and I truly hope, but doubt, that he will find himself out of work tomorrow. The question is: what was he thinking? Was it intentional? Could he have chosen to interpret the upsetting work of art in another less disturbing way?
posted by FidelDonson at 8:02 AM PST - 94 comments