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A Canadian reporter looks at Texas healthcare.
posted by gimonca at 8:35 PM PST - 51 comments

Pictures of rock stars when they were kids. Nice hat, Ozzy.
via Neurastenia
posted by MrBaliHai at 7:18 PM PST - 25 comments

TechTV's Top 20 Gifts for this Christmas. (via sdw)
posted by Ufez Jones at 5:34 PM PST - 21 comments

Gore is set to endorse Howard Dean tomorrow. Does that mean it's already over for the other Democratic candidates? (Will you even get the opportunity to vote for a candidate in your state's primary? Heck, should we consider limiting the campaign period?)
posted by jennak at 2:33 PM PST - 94 comments

Don't you hate it, when after a night out, you just can't find the lock?
posted by Orange Goblin at 2:12 PM PST - 36 comments

Laughter may or may not be the best medicine, but researchers have discovered it's a good drug, at least.
posted by Spezzatura at 12:20 PM PST - 9 comments

Hi Kofi. Diplomats from 191 countries meet this week in Geneva for the three-day United Nations World Summit on the Information Society. It's the occasion for The Helloworld Project to project thousands of 500-foot-high laser-light SMS messages onto the Geneva fountain. Internet users everywhere can post billboard thoughts almost instantly onto the fountain -- or onto the northern façade of New York's U.N. building, the face of a mountain in Rio de Janeiro or the front of a Bombay skyscraper.
posted by the fire you left me at 12:02 PM PST - 15 comments

At least one person is dead when Toronto theatre The Uptown (a frequent haunt of my childhood) collapses. The 2000 seat Uptown was built in 1920 and closed in September of this year, right after the Toronto International Film Festival, which regularly used the theatre for its screenings. Ignoring a Cinema Treasures' petition, and heartfelt articles from local media, Famous Players, the theatre's owners, decided to sell the building to a condo developer after losing a two year battle with The Ontario Human Rights Commission, who were insisting that the venue be made wheelchair-friendly. Oddly, as I was walking past the site last night, I considered contacting the demolition company about what was being done with the theatre's sign when it finally came down.
posted by dobbs at 11:58 AM PST - 12 comments

eBay Auction of Tidings of Comfort and Joy
posted by fenriq at 11:49 AM PST - 32 comments

Rub the lucky Buddha and..... It dispenses - Darwin's Origin of Species, Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, Voltaire's Candide, Loren Eiseley's The Immense Journey, Huxley's Doors of Perception, Lewis Carrol's Through the Looking Glass , Thomas Paine's Common Sense, The Age of Reason, Rights of Man, and Crisis #1, Buckminster Fuller's Grunch of Giants, Descartes' Discourse on method..., biographies of St. Francis and Joan of Arc, Twain's The Grateful Poodle, and more...
posted by troutfishing at 10:02 AM PST - 13 comments

Environmental Scorecard. Get the facts on local U.S. pollution. This environmental pollution tracking site is a must-see if you're worried about your hometown. The site has maps of the United States that show levels of various pollutants and a community area where you can enter your zip code and to get a list of all the environmental issues in your neighborhood.
posted by VelvetHellvis at 9:11 AM PST - 14 comments

Mitsubishi Virtual Design Museum - look at the past, present, and future of industrial design in Japan. :: via Yesterday's Tomorrows::
posted by anastasiav at 8:21 AM PST - 8 comments

Japanese Yoyo championships. [7:17 wmv - with music]
posted by srboisvert at 7:52 AM PST - 22 comments

Pancakes! Not just your everyday pancakes this time though. Alan Clark has turned his family recipe into a c13 isotope lased medical breakthrough. - via Fark (of course)
posted by KnitWit at 7:04 AM PST - 9 comments

New Medicare Bill Bars Extra Insurance for Drugs
"Millions of Medicare beneficiaries have bought private insurance to fill gaps in Medicare. But a little-noticed provision of the legislation prohibits the sale of any Medigap policy that would help pay drug costs after Jan. 1, 2006, when the new Medicare drug benefit becomes available. This is one of many surprises awaiting beneficiaries, who will find big gaps in the drug benefit and might want private insurance to plug the holes — just as they buy insurance to supplement Medicare coverage of doctors' services and hospital care." [warning: NY Times link]
posted by Irontom at 4:48 AM PST - 16 comments

Where Would You Send Someone You Love For Christmas? If you had unlimited funds, what would be your Hannukah or Christmas present for someone you thought really deserved one? For instance, our genial host and the owner of MetaFilter, Matt Haughey. A lot of us are presently engaged in clubbing in to offer him a short visit to Iceland. y6y6y6 has even set up a website to solicit funds and suggestions, following enormous interest on MetaTalk. Well-known weblogs like boing boing and anildash are chipping in too. isn't it time we showed our appreciation? (Matt, please don't read or delete this!)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:00 AM PST - 101 comments