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Give ten grains of rice for each word you get right. It builds up very quickly.
comment posted at 3:36 PM on Oct-18-07

How many times as this happened to you? (warning: video/audio). It's late at night, you're in bed & you need to kill someone with a shotgun, only to find out the gun is ALL THE WAY across the room. Well, friend, your prayers are answered.
comment posted at 6:45 PM on Oct-17-07

Stephen Colbert is running for President. Seriously. Seriously.
comment posted at 7:14 AM on Oct-17-07

Two recent reports on immigration in the UK, a published study on its economic effects, and an expert panel report on its and public service consequences, paint very different pictures. Not that the press need logic or evidence: they made their minds up about those Poles a long time ago, like people did about the West Indians, Bangladeshis and Jews . Is a rational debate on immigration even possible?
comment posted at 12:49 AM on Oct-17-07

I Can Get Your Kid into an Ivy. A look at the practices of college admission consultant Michele Hernandez, who boasts a 95% acceptance rate for fees of up to $40, 000.
comment posted at 10:48 AM on Oct-15-07

Iraq was just the beginning. According to retired General Wesley Clark, a top-secret memo detailed a plan for “taking out” seven countries in five years, ending with Iran.
comment posted at 9:57 AM on Oct-14-07

"I want those two minutes of my life back." Musique concrète Fred Thompson-style -- a merciless videohack of the candidate's performance at the GOP debate on MSNBC, October 9, 2007. While almost anyone can be made to look foolish edited this way, not everyone was impressed by Thompson's unedited presence at the debate, his TV debut as a presidential contender. Some believe, however, that the former Law and Order D.A. is just the man to "restore the Republican Party to Reagan's default settings."
comment posted at 10:33 AM on Oct-13-07

A British mine disposal expert has been killed in Lebanon while clearing cluster bombs dropped by Israeli forces during last year's war with Hezbollah. True to form, Israel has refused to provide the UN with accurate maps showing where cluster bombs were targeted during the war, making this deadly task even more dangerous and further endangering civilian populations.
comment posted at 10:22 AM on Oct-12-07
comment posted at 10:54 AM on Oct-12-07

It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your cats are? They might be off helping to translate the Old and New Testaments of Teh Holiez Bibul.
comment posted at 9:19 AM on Oct-9-07

"Humanity will wither and die. It’s inevitable now..." It's a work of fiction, or so one would hope. I humbly submit for your perusal if not approval, Humanity’s Final Message to Those Who Would Come After by Jeff Harrell. "It’s not hard to understand why. The big picture is scary. The big picture is that we’re all dying. Every last one of us."
comment posted at 1:17 PM on Oct-7-07

The Erosion of a Murder Case Against Marines in the Killing of 24 Iraqi Civilians. "Last year, when accounts of the killing of 24 Iraqis in Haditha by a group of marines came to light, it seemed that the Iraq war had produced its defining atrocity, just as the conflict in Vietnam had spawned the My Lai massacre a generation ago. But on Thursday, a senior military investigator recommended dropping murder charges against the ranking enlisted marine accused in the 2005 killings, just as he had done earlier in the cases of two other marines charged in the case. The recommendation may well have ended prosecutors’ chances of winning any murder convictions in the killings of the apparently unarmed men, women and children." [Via The Agonist.]
comment posted at 6:27 PM on Oct-6-07

Lies. Tania Head told a bunch of lies about 9/11. As a fiction editor for the NY Writers Coalition, she apparently knew her fiction. I guess it's nice to feel important.
comment posted at 2:02 PM on Sep-28-07

Americans Not Making Time for Making Love according to Durex® [note: PR and attendant conflicts]. "Americans are having a lot less sex than just about everyone else in the world, and when they do, less than half are fully satisfied." Also from the 2007/2008 Durex® Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey: Where is sex safer?
comment posted at 5:22 PM on Sep-26-07

Zahra al-Azzo was murdered by her brother last January in a horrible, but all-too-common Syrian honor killing. Public outcry at her murder is growing.
comment posted at 11:58 PM on Sep-25-07

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, tells Mahmoud Ahmadinejad where to get off. In response, Adams gets called a "Jew hater" who "may have just alienated a good fraction of [Dilbert's] readership." The next day, when Adams clarifies his position, he ends on a perhaps even more provocative hypothetical.
comment posted at 7:14 PM on Sep-23-07

Star Simpson, a MIT student, wears her art project to the airport. Fearing her to be some sort of bomber, she is arrested for having a fake bomb. It sure looks like a bomb to me. I call the Boston tag.
comment posted at 1:27 PM on Sep-21-07

"It is a horrible device nonetheless, and you are forced to wonder what the world has come to when human ingenuity is pressed into service to make a thing like this." Raytheon says, "The system is available now and ready for action."
comment posted at 3:05 PM on Sep-20-07

The Flat Earth Society considers the notion of a round earth to be a conspiracy. Flat earthers turn to the Bible to support their claims. A map of the flat earth (oddly similar to the UN logo), where

N is the central open sea, I, the circular wall or barrier of ice, L, the masses of land tending southwards, W, the "waters of the great deep," surrounding the land, S, the southern boundary of ice, and D, the outer gloom and darkness, in which the material world is lost to human perception.

A 3D view of the Zetetic universe.
You know who else thought the earth was round?
comment posted at 8:16 PM on Sep-19-07

Dan Rather sues Viacom and CBS for $70 million. Complaint (PDF).
comment posted at 7:14 PM on Sep-19-07

Ye come seeking adventure and salty old pirates, aye? Sure you've come to the proper place. But keep a weather eye open, mates - and hold on tight, with both hands, if you please! There be squalls ahead, and Davy Jones waiting for them what don't obey!
comment posted at 8:57 AM on Sep-19-07

Land of the free. So long as you don't wear unapproved pants. The racist angle kind of surprised me; I would think people would be outraged on the basic principle alone.
comment posted at 2:38 PM on Sep-17-07

Mistery plane What was this plane doing over the DC on 9/11?
comment posted at 1:49 PM on Sep-13-07

Miss Teen South Carolina would like to explain why Americans are so clueless about geography.Single Link YouTubery
comment posted at 9:48 PM on Aug-28-07

360-degree quicktime VR panoramas of the new seven wonders of the world.
comment posted at 7:26 PM on Aug-28-07

Press embargo be damned, pictures of the 2009 Jaguar XF are popping up on the Internet. Perhaps the final design has strayed too far from the original concept. Hopefully there are better designers in India.
comment posted at 12:58 PM on Aug-27-07

The X-Seed 4000 is currently the Earth's tallest proposed structure. The project is currently on hold, due to a funding shortage^, but adventures in Arcology will probably continue.
comment posted at 9:54 PM on Aug-25-07

Discovering Porn (On Your Boyfriend’s Computer) [SFW]
comment posted at 11:58 AM on Aug-24-07
comment posted at 2:48 PM on Aug-24-07

On July 16th, 1918, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia - along with his wife, their children, and a handful of retainers - was assassinated by Bolsheviks in the basement of the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg. The bodies were split up and buried in different locations; it was not until 1989 that a mass grave was located and exhumed. In 1991, the found remains were officially announced as belonging to the Romanovs...or at least, most of them. Conspicuously missing were the Tsarevich Alexei and one of his Grand Duchess sisters (likely Maria but most popularly believed to be Anastasia). The report of primary executioner Yakov Yurovsky indicates that the assassins had wanted to complicate the discovery of the remains as much as possible in order to keep the "White Guards" from locating the bodies and exalting the murdered royals, thereby undermining support for the Bolshevik cause. However this week it was announced that the missing remains may have finally been located.
comment posted at 10:34 PM on Aug-23-07
comment posted at 10:46 PM on Aug-24-07

One of the few to speak the truth about the Middle East, God-like journalist Robert Fisk holds more international journalism awards than any other foreign correspondent. He has covered every major event in the region for the past thirty years. He rarely gives interviews to anyone, but agreed to talk to edgey/angry youth culture magazine, Vice, about his life in the danger-zone.
comment posted at 8:57 AM on Aug-21-07

Do You Want To Live Forever? [Google Video - Channel4 documentary] Aubrey de Grey is a genius, a weirdo and predicts the death of death. Don't miss his lectures and some interviews as well. Who is going to be the first immortal MeFite?
comment posted at 6:14 PM on Aug-19-07
comment posted at 6:20 PM on Aug-19-07
comment posted at 10:58 PM on Aug-19-07
comment posted at 7:40 AM on Aug-20-07

Newsfilter: Someone is clearly nostalgic for the good old days of the Iron Curtain.
comment posted at 11:21 PM on Aug-18-07

Even experts don't know what (3 and 3/16ths) times 20 is. But it has something to do with square roots and kinetic energy. [single link to excellent youtube deposition]
comment posted at 6:47 PM on Aug-17-07
comment posted at 6:58 PM on Aug-17-07

Instances in which corporations have amended Wikipedia entries that might affect their reputation. Thanks, Wired.
comment posted at 9:41 AM on Aug-17-07
comment posted at 10:25 AM on Aug-17-07

Asian Giant Hornets in action. Asian Giant Hornets on the palm of your hand. Asian Giant Hornet vs Mantis. Asian Giant Hornet vs Asian Giant Hornet.
comment posted at 8:47 AM on Aug-17-07

"You've reached this page because the site you were trying to visit now blocks the FireFox browser". Because Firefox has endorsed and allowed the Ad Block Plus plug-in, which is "is an infringement of the rights of web site owners and developers," some folks aren't too happy. With links to How to Block Firefox, Firefox Myths, and The Firefox Cult.
comment posted at 8:21 PM on Aug-16-07

The marine flatworm Pseudobiceros hancockanus engages in penis fencing [video]. SFW, I guess, unless your boss is a super uptight nudibranch or something.
comment posted at 10:06 AM on Aug-15-07

See who's editing Wikipedia. The most shameful Wikipedia spin jobs and another one from Fox News. Meet Virgil Griffith and find a few interesting Wikipedia battles of your own with his new creation.
comment posted at 9:46 AM on Aug-14-07
comment posted at 3:12 PM on Aug-16-07

Warning: Explicit sexual content. "These firefighters dedicated their lives to save the lives of others. They did not sign on to become unwilling props to a controversial political and social agenda," says Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, representing a group of brave men in uniform who were subjected to "vile sexual taunts" at a San Diego gay pride parade. Via Gawker.
comment posted at 4:11 PM on Aug-8-07

Rule 34 is alive and well. Latest example: 9/11 Terror Porn. [NSFW, requires login and as always via]
comment posted at 9:14 AM on Aug-8-07

In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Don't Feel Rich [NYTimes Link] Mr. Kremen estimated his net worth at $10 million. That puts him firmly in the top half of 1 percent among Americans, according to wealth data from the Federal Reserve, but barely in the top echelons in affluent towns like Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Atherton. So he logs 60- to 80-hour workweeks because, he said, he does not think he has nearly enough money to ease up.
comment posted at 9:30 AM on Aug-5-07

I'm sure everyone remembers last year's kerfuffle about Hwang Woo-Suk, the disgraced scientist who fraudulently claimed to have created human embryonic stem cells by cloning. Well, it turns out he actually did something more remarkable - he created human stem cells from unfertilised eggs by parthenogenesis. The verification of this was published with a suitably dry title for consumption by scientists, but the popular press was quick to jump on more loaded phrases.
comment posted at 10:02 PM on Aug-4-07