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Musician on the Moon Lucia Pamela passed away this June at the age of 98, but not without garnering several moving tributes from her fans. Ms. Pamela not only believed that she had a pink Cadillac that could fly to the moon, but released a concept album about it. She also sponsored a coloring book contest to promote a surrealistic space-age coloring book that later inspired a song by Stereolab. A true American original.
posted by jonp72 at 9:26 PM PST - 5 comments

"We're Jeff and Tracy. We're Your Good Neighbors. We Smoke Pot." Jeff and Tracy were tired of drug war advertising that demonized them. So they decided to create their own ads to 'come out' as normal, all-American pot smokers.
posted by Dirjy at 8:07 PM PST - 155 comments

Liberalism FAQ and Conservativism FAQ describe the differences (and similarities) between the two oft-discussed by seldom understood political mindsets. Both FAQs are detailed, concise, enjoyable, and not annoyingly biased. Read with caution: Knowing your enemies sometimes makes it less fun to bash on them.
posted by oissubke at 5:21 PM PST - 25 comments

Centre for Contemporary Images. Provides things such as Up to 625.
posted by plexi at 5:19 PM PST - 2 comments

Making the case for United Nations intervention against the United States - Ted Rall takes a look at the world situation from a slightly different perspective. The scary thing is that this could run unedited in the newspapers of many countries around the world and their readers would agree with it. Is America out of touch with the rest of the world?
posted by Argyle at 3:56 PM PST - 68 comments

The Truth Squad - ABC News wants your help. Specifically, the ABCNEWS Political Unit Election Watchdog (PUEW), looking to keep upcoming elections as truthful as possible, wants you to gather up your election mail; take notes about the campaign-related phone calls you get; and send them your tips and credible accounts, so that they can go through them. They have a page of descriptions of what they are looking for. Are they expecting things to be particularly ugly? Are they trying to dig something up, or is this really an attempt to neutralize election season lies?
posted by mikhail at 3:08 PM PST - 8 comments

How many Saddams are there? "A German television network said on Thursday it had made a scientific study of 450 photographs of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and concluded there are at least three doubles posing as the Iraqi president."
posted by owillis at 1:54 PM PST - 38 comments

CSS Art? The weblog of Steven Champeon is in hiatus-mode now. At the moment it presents certain photos on the first page. Photos? If you click one, you get something that looks like a badly increased jpeg or something. But it isn't. Take a look in the source code. How did Champeon made that? And: Why?
posted by ronsens at 12:23 PM PST - 20 comments

Two ways to destroy Chemical Weapons. When UNSCOM was in Iraq they destroyed in place tons of chemical weapons: VX, Sarin. and Mustard gas were burned out in the open. The effort to destroy the United States' aged chemical arsenal includes building special incinerators costing over 1.5 Billion Dollars each. If we didn't need them in Iraq why do we need them here? What's the difference? And now that the incinerators are ready for testing why is the goverment switching from burning to neutralization with water at three sites? Billion Dollar toilet seats?
posted by Mack Twain at 11:47 AM PST - 7 comments

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) could cost the Democrats control of the Senate after a former aide tried one of the dumbest political stunts ever. The aide attended a strategy session of Harkin's opponent, Rep. Greg Gaske (R), and taped the discussion. He then gave a transcript to Harkin's campaign manager. As expected, Republicans are turning it to their advantage. The Democrats control the Senate by just one seat. Did Harkin's campaign just hand the Senate to the GOP?
posted by PoliticalJunkie at 11:25 AM PST - 34 comments

Meet ILL Mitch. He raps, he boards and sometimes he punches and raps.
posted by Bag Man at 11:00 AM PST - 13 comments

Information gods amongst mortals is the first in a series of three blog entries (so far, anyway) by Brad Wardell on the topic of the growing knowledge gap between the net-savvy and the non-wired. I found the link in a newsletter from WinCustomize today. They plugged all three:

1. Information gods amongst mortals
2. The Information Gods respond
3. Information Gods Srike Back

He explores the theory that those who are net savvy are quickly leaping ahead of the non-wired among us: "You know the situation. Someone has told you something you want to know more about and within a few minutes you have gotten yourself up to speed on it. You did it through the use of the Internet. A combination of search engines and helpful websites have educated you on that topic."
posted by tbc at 10:17 AM PST - 12 comments

Comic books, cannibalistic worms, albinos, copyright infringement, and the Blues. This story has it all.
posted by anathema at 10:07 AM PST - 6 comments

Blondes 'to die out in 200 years' . The last natural blondes will die out within 200 years, scientists believe. A study by experts in Germany suggests people with blonde hair are an endangered species and will become extinct by 2202.

[Insert blonde joke here]
posted by MintSauce at 9:50 AM PST - 66 comments

A course that uses LEGO beams, plates, gears, motors, a 68HC11 microcontroller board programmed in C, and various sensors to construct autonomous (i.e., self-contained, no direct human control) robots to hunt down and retrieve eggs. How come I never got to make things like this when I got my engineering degree? There's video too. Other cool projects are a walking machine, a human powered sub, or a future truck. I wish the real world of engineering was as fun and creative as college.
posted by jonah at 9:39 AM PST - 8 comments

'The guy who tried to kill my dad.' Setting aside partisan bickering, this description of Saddam Hussein by George W. Bush today sent my mind reeling. Is this in reference to something published in the past that is just escaping my mind? The Reuters version of the story adds that it is reference to "an Iraqi plot to kill former President George Bush after the 1991 Gulf War." Anyone have a link to that older story?
posted by bclark at 9:36 AM PST - 36 comments

Scott Ritter on Weapons Inspection, Chemical, Biological and Nuclear WMD Why hasn't the American media picked up on these issues that are being put forth by Scott Ritter? Is Mr. Ritter correct in his assessment of Iraqi capabilities?
posted by FullFrontalNerdity at 9:20 AM PST - 44 comments

Think of the children! Is the crayon-toting lobbyist the next big thing in politics? Is this a legitimate political strategy or despicable behaviour on the part of the teacher? Charles Helwig at the University of Toronto has some evidence that elementary school age children have some understanding of democracy and freedom of speech and "can use those concepts to evaluate political systems". How old does a person need to be to voice an opinion? (via plastic)
posted by snarfodox at 8:14 AM PST - 23 comments

First there was L. L. Cool J vs. Kool Moe Dee and the Bridge Wars. Then came Biggie and Tupac with the west coast, east coast rivalry. Now rap battles have transcended mediums, I give you Ludacris vs. Bill O'Reilly. Word.
posted by Dr_Octavius at 8:11 AM PST - 49 comments

Do you feel a little lighter when you go to visit your Aunt Betty in Poughkeepsie? Maybe this gravity map can shed a little light on the subject.
posted by NedKoppel at 8:07 AM PST - 7 comments

At last, the United Nations earns it's keep.
posted by flatlander at 6:19 AM PST - 40 comments

Rubberboy demonstrates that alphabet art can be used as more than just a creative teaching tool for kids. Artists have a long tradition of using the ABCs as a canvas for the macabre, the sacred, the erotic and the just plain kinky. warning! links contain flash and some NSFW material.
posted by madamjujujive at 4:57 AM PST - 10 comments

Hurah! It's Friday! Time to do some work! Well, actually, no. But this is a seriously good game that combines "pairs" with something of the "Street Fighter" genre. It's also written by a mate of mine who I went to uni and shared a house with. Anyone else got any 1 or 2 player games worth wasting the day with? 5 hours to go to beer and counting ...
posted by ralawrence at 4:13 AM PST - 10 comments

If you still go to raves, think twice before popping that pill this weekend. A new study by JHU suggests that the long-term effects of esctasy could lead to conditions similar to Parkinson's. [related: Erowid's MDMA vault]
posted by hobbes at 3:32 AM PST - 37 comments

What's So Absurd About Partisanship? The Lying in Ponds* website is a clever attempt to measure partisanship in the daily columns of the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Although - or perhaps because - its methodology is simple and straightforward, its conclusions, though necessarily unsurprising, are quite interesting, often amusing and seem fairer than er, more partisan "media watch" thingies [Don't miss their 2002 Top Ten.]. But why is being openly partisan seen as such a terrible thing in America? Why is so much time and effort expended to hide it or deny it? Or, put another way, why is bipartisanship such a desirable thing, often presented as being somehow above politics? Is it American exceptionalism again?
*[Echoing what Dennis said in Monty Python And The Holy Grail: "Listen!Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!"]
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:04 AM PST - 20 comments

A professor of vision science at MIT understands that life isn't just black and white, even though we often see it that way. This amazing illusion proves it, and these slick, fast-loading, Flash demonstrations of lightness perception show how it's done. (My favorite is the "Koffka Ring".) White paper here, for deeper background.
posted by taz at 1:27 AM PST - 29 comments

Wilton's Word and Phrase Origins is a well researched etymology site that puts out a fine newsletter in .pdf form, has a pretty consistently interesting discussion group, and is sometimes referenced by MeFites.
posted by sklero at 12:19 AM PST - 5 comments