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Drive Thru Church Service? Check. Drive Thru Wedding? Check. Drive Thru Funeral? Check. Drive Thru Strip Club? Huh? If you're too lazy or too tired to get out of your car, Fogonazos has a list of convenient drive-thrus for you.
posted by amyms at 11:33 PM PST - 28 comments

In the 1920s Joseph Rock, an Austrian-born botanist went to live in Lijiang, in Yunnan province. During expeditions over the next three decades he photographed shamans, trulku, petty kings, nomads, astounding scenery and flora and fauna across much of southwest China. He also studied the language and culture of the Nakhi people previouslywhose homeleand centred around Lijiang. A contemporary blogger is now posting some then-and-now images of the places and people Rock recorded.
posted by Abiezer at 10:07 PM PST - 18 comments

Taxgirl is a tax lawyer who invites you to ask her offbeat and unique questions about federal taxation in the United States, as well as Philadelphia-specific tax questions. She also covers the fun side of taxation and the not-so-fun side of tax evasion, usually the domain of Posse Comitatus and white supremacist groups, but lately extending in bizarre ways to celebrities like Wesley Snipes and Ron Isley.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:19 PM PST - 20 comments

Some Friday night entertainment:
• Baby Got Back - Gilbert and Sullivan Style (mp3) (youtube) (wmv) (via)
• George W Bush Role Playing: Screw America (youtube) NSFW
• Cancer Has Become the Number One Killer Disease (pdf) (youtube) (flash) (via)
posted by sequential at 8:32 PM PST - 27 comments

Sunset on Mars. Crop Circles in Kansas. Total Eclipse. Tenerife. Meteor Crater, AZ. European Superstorm. Lake Effect Clouds. Where on Earth...?
Find these and other images, as well as a learning lab and data animations, online courtesy NASA. If you are patient, also see Visible Earth (previously . . ).
posted by owhydididoit at 7:38 PM PST - 14 comments

A sneak peak of the upcoming Showtime edition of This American Life (direct QT link).
posted by JPowers at 7:33 PM PST - 38 comments

The First Freedom Project --new from the Dept of Justice, announced at the Southern Baptist Convention along with a call for their help---specifically and only to protect the religious from discrimination against them. Many are not impressed: The administration has often ignored the importance of the no establishment principle by supporting attempts of governments to endorse a religious message, using tax dollars to fund pervasively religious organizations, allowing religious discrimination in hiring for federally funded projects, ... Legal strategies and actions from groups like the Alliance Defense Fund and ACLJ are now official DOJ policy, it appears. ...In his statement, Gonzales mentioned several cases litigated by ADF and its allies ...
posted by amberglow at 7:13 PM PST - 56 comments

Video: Nuclear Weapons: Who's Got 'Em?
posted by augustweed at 6:47 PM PST - 13 comments

I Am Babycakes, created by Creased Comics' Brad Neely (who did that "Washington" video seen some time ago), is the good-natured, incredibly dark musings of a man-child who lives with his dad/wizard, roleplays ("I had described to my friends the most beautiful demon"), writes songs, and fills both his diary, and his days, with emptiness. Alternating funny, then sad, then cool as one turns it over in the mind. Or I think so anyway. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 (All links NSFW due to language.)
posted by JHarris at 5:31 PM PST - 15 comments

"Tired of the LIBERAL BIAS every time you search on Google and a Wikipedia page appears?" At Conservapedia, a "conservative encyclopedia you can trust," you can learn that "faith" is a concept "exclusive to Christianity," and about how Wikipedia is biased in matters such as its description of the Bell Trade Act of 1946, its gossipy treatment of the private life of NPR reporter Nina Totenberg, and its seeming acceptance of evolution. The Wikipedia bias entry also complains of a "rant" against the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a group for which Conservapedia founder (and son of conservative gadfly Phyllis Schafly) Andrew Schlafly has worked. Signups are here; its take on evolution is criticized here.
posted by ibmcginty at 5:17 PM PST - 153 comments

Foolyoo is a flash game where you fight masked eyeball monsters, avoid disrobing village idiots, slice vegetables according to the ever-changing edicts of a mad old monk and learn how to count in kanji.
posted by Kattullus at 4:30 PM PST - 9 comments

Restaurant crybaby lashes out at NYT's Frank Bruni (pdf). Jeffrey Chodorow's new restaurant (where each diner is constantly threatened with impalement by samurai sword, apparently) got a (funny and) decidedly lukewarm review in the Times. So he took out a full-page ad to complain about it (pdf linked above), price tag: at least $30k. He also whines about it on his new blog. The word "critic" is deployed in scare quotes.
[via this Slate piece by a former NYT food critic; interesting in itself]
posted by grobstein at 4:18 PM PST - 53 comments

How do you subdue a crazed astronaut? Duct Tape! By now we've all heard of astronaut Lisa Nowak's diaper-clad race to kidnap/kill her competition for fellow astronaut Bill Oefelein, but today we learned how NASA plans to deal with such trouble-makers in space: duct tape them into submission. NASA's idea isn't very original - restraining people with duct tape has been well documented in the movies, for use on airplanes, by bad parents, and for unruly patients. So, it appears this miracle adhesive can not only save us from terrorists, it can save us from ourselves. Bless you duct tape.
posted by Muddler at 3:30 PM PST - 30 comments

Yoshiro Nakamatsu aka Dr. NakaMats has invented everything, other than all the other stuff that the rest of us have invented. He has 3218 patents to his name. (Edison had 1093.) Among his many inventions? The compact disc, the compact disc player ('natch), the digital watch, a unique golf putter, the floppy disk (!), and a water-powered engine. Besides being the founder of the World Genius Convention (where the world first learned of ingenuity of ADR ceramic disks, for instance), Dr. NakaMats was voted by the US Science Academic Society as one of five greatest scientists in history - in the company of Archimedes, Michael Faraday, Marie Curie, and Nikola Tesla - and he plans to live until 144!
posted by humannaire at 3:09 PM PST - 27 comments

Kirupa.com is a resource for designers who want to become better developers. Whether you want a tutorial to help you make a Flash zoom motion blur, some help with php and html, learn object oriented programming, or use photoshop well, kirupa might be of assistance to you.
posted by localhuman at 12:07 PM PST - 6 comments

Tea Birds Nothing but pictures of cute girls at tea. A tea blog like no other. [nsfw]
posted by Stynxno at 12:00 PM PST - 63 comments

Chomsky on Iran, Iraq, and the Rest of the World.
posted by chunking express at 11:42 AM PST - 74 comments

Want to increase your energy efficiency and use more renewable energy? Want to install solar panels on your roof, buy a hybrid car, put in new storm windows, or make any number of other green improvements to your home or business? Want to save money doing it? DSIRE is a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and federal incentives that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. Just click on your state and take it from there.
posted by alms at 11:21 AM PST - 13 comments

Yuri Kochiyama: held in an internment camp during WWII, cradled Malcolm X as he took his last breaths, raised six children, and has spent her life working towards radical social change. Last year she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Read an interview or listen to one, watch footage of her, or if you want more, there are two books and a couple documentaries about her life.
posted by serazin at 10:57 AM PST - 24 comments

Bachmann on Iran: “There’s already an agreement made. [Iran is] going to get half of Iraq and that is going to be a terrorist safe haven zone.” Claims made by Minnesota's freshman 6th district representative Michelle Bachmann during a taped interview. Bachmann is previously known for her compelling arguments in favor of intelligent design (YouTube), getting attacked in a Scanida bathroom, opposing same sex marriage, and, perhaps most famously, catching President Bush in an awesome death squeeze.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:38 AM PST - 60 comments

Born to War is a series of paintings of American women killed in Iraq. The combination of the increasing role of women in the American military and the blurring of lines between combat and non-combat roles in Iraq have made this the first war in which female US soldiers have died in direct combat. The focus on a smaller number of women provides a more approachable view of casualties than more general sites like Iraq Body Count and raises some interesting questions about the role of women in the US military.
posted by scottreynen at 10:27 AM PST - 13 comments

Newspaper Blackout Poems "So much thrives on facsimile that when you see the real deal, it has none of the passion and feels like a desperate pose."
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 8:46 AM PST - 25 comments

Chile Pepper's Lonely Endorphins Club Cinema: I, II, III

Can all this be explained by Dr. Paul Rozin's Benign Masochism / Constrained Risk theory? I, for one, am not buying it, but any way you slice it, hot cock sauce is here to stay.
posted by NaturalScinema at 8:37 AM PST - 35 comments

Say What Again [audio NSFW] Pulp Fiction dialogue done with motion typography. [via]
posted by kirkaracha at 8:24 AM PST - 26 comments

The Illustration Portfolio of Lauren Simkin Burke. See also the Drawing of the Day.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:41 AM PST - 3 comments

Indian Government proposes bill to penalize children for neglecting their aged parents.
posted by hadjiboy at 7:35 AM PST - 22 comments

Resolved, that Richard B. Cheney, vice president of the United States, should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors and that these articles of impeachment be submitted to the American people. If the evidence presented at the Scooter Libby trial was not already enough of an indictment of Real Journalism in the U.S. mainstream media (when it falls to New Yorker magazine to break the really big stories) it takes a magazine with the political prowess of GQ (and bloggers) to make a cohesive case for action against most unconstitutionally powerful Vice President in U.S. history. Those following the Libby case closely are beginning to realize that the Plame leak prosecution is anything but over. With a guilty verdict for Perjury and Obstruction of Justice, Libby would effectively be removed from being a defense witness in any forthcoming charges against Cheney. Fitzgerald still has Sealed v Sealed in his back pocket and it is now beginning to dawn on some that it indicts not Rove, but Cheney. Hat's off to Emptywheel for seeing this as far back as Oct. 30th, 2005: Tricky Fitzgerald!! He's been hiding Dick right in the middle of his Libby indictment. Now with a job approval rating in the teens the Curse of Dick Cheney continues. (Interesting to note that both New Yorker and GQ are owned by Conté Nast)
posted by spock at 7:26 AM PST - 112 comments

Dave Sim gets a book proposal from a furry.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:12 AM PST - 79 comments

Havidol® (avafynetyme HCl, 20mg tablets & suppositories) When more is not enough.
posted by theemperorhasnoclotheson at 7:04 AM PST - 24 comments

"I think that the appetite for me is to make a movie that feels more like Taxi Driver than like Fantastic Four."
Zack Snyder talks about his upcoming Watchmen adaptation, which may start filming this summer.
But some fans couldn't wait: 1, 2, 3 (youtube)
posted by empath at 6:03 AM PST - 109 comments

Best opening (or closing) paragraphs of academic works, a discussion at Crooked Timber. (This is of course different from first lines of novels, as discussed here, there, and elsewhere.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:21 AM PST - 39 comments