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Research shows that a new trend for pre-teens is posting how-to videos explaining the finer points of crushing up smarties, inhaling the dust, and then puffing out powered sugar.

Smarties: America’s favorite candy wafer roll! Of course you can eat them. But did you know kids are smoking them? How to smoke Smarties with the best! What do you do in the face of such unwelcome PR? Perhaps the best option is silence. Learn in 7 easy steps, Better than candy cigarettes. Some of these videos have been around since 2007 so why are they catching on now? This is the American candy, not to be confused with the European chocolate confectionery. (via and via) (related previously)
comment posted at 1:25 PM on Mar-17-09

The niftiest thing at Coin Op World? The mp3 files of Classic Arcade Sounds.
comment posted at 9:42 AM on Mar-13-09
comment posted at 11:12 AM on Mar-13-09

How Science Fiction Found Religion
comment posted at 7:33 AM on Mar-13-09

Good grief! Described as "arguably the longest story ever told by one human being", the entire run -- just shy of 50 years -- of Charles Schulz's Peanuts can now, legally, be read online.
comment posted at 7:26 AM on Mar-12-09
comment posted at 7:26 AM on Mar-12-09

Supreme Court Enters the YouTube Age. Previous posts have shown that video is a powerful tool. Now The Supreme Court views video evidence through it's eyes. Most but not all are ready to let the video speak for itself.
comment posted at 2:33 PM on Mar-2-09

Pioneering science fiction writer Philip Jose Farmer, who won a Hugo in 1953 for Most Promising New Talent for his disturbing story, The Lovers, died today at age 91.
comment posted at 8:43 AM on Feb-25-09
comment posted at 9:50 AM on Feb-25-09

Today marks the 200th Anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln. Let's party like it's 1809!
comment posted at 1:42 PM on Feb-12-09

Vince Offer, better known as the ShamWow guy or the SlapChop guy, isn't just a salesman. He's also a filmmaker, and he's battling the Church of Scientology.
comment posted at 8:27 AM on Jan-30-09

R.I.P. Bob May - better known as "The Robot" in the 60s T.V. series "Lost in Space."
comment posted at 8:16 AM on Jan-19-09

In 1986, most gamers who were lucky enough to own a new video game system at home were playing the original Nintendo. It's launch in 1985, a year before the Sega Master System was launched in the states, allowed it plenty of time become the most popular console in the market, and the game Super Mario Bros. quickly became the best-selling video game of all time (a title it continues to hold, having sold over 40 million copies to date). However, even though Nintendo commanded 95% of the North American video game market at the time and the CEO of Sega made little effort to promote and market it, some people still bought and gave the Sega Master System a chance. Perhaps it was the 3-D glasses or it's unique ability to read multiple media inputs... or perhaps that the original version of the system had a secret game built right into it (and it was unbeatable!).
comment posted at 1:38 PM on Dec-22-08

According to the majority of critics who have seen it so far, Frank Miller horrifically butchered Will Eisner's legendary comic The Spirit with his upcoming Sin City-esque film adaptation opening next week. In order to make the pain about a thousand times worse, here's an in-depth story about how there was almost a chance two decades earlier for Brad Bird, director of The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, to have done an animated version with the help of future founder of Pixar John Lasseter.
comment posted at 7:26 AM on Dec-19-08

Martian maps and a few others in good quality PDF.
comment posted at 10:56 AM on Dec-16-08

Ted Staunton's archive of labels from 78 rpm records. Perhaps most easily explored through the massive "Decades" pages of thumbnails.
comment posted at 8:28 AM on Nov-25-08

"Ham Radio is a life long learning experience. You never stop learning." Don, W3RDF, is a CW enthusiast who shares with us his love of a hobby that has been a source of many friends from around the globe. With Solar Cycle 24 just beginning, the Ham Bands have been heating up with activity. Perhaps you might want to listen to what they are saying.
comment posted at 12:38 PM on Nov-21-08

Change my ass... For months on the campaign trail, Barack Obama promised to bring change to Washington. But now that he's president-elect, his first potential Cabinet picks indicate that he may bring more years of Washington experience to his administration than Bill Clinton or George W. Bush did.
comment posted at 3:28 PM on Nov-20-08

You should contact me if you are a skinny woman. If your words are a meaningful progression of concepts rather than a series of vocalizations induced by your spinal cord for the purpose of complementing my tone of voice.... Are you Libertarian? And Lonely? Is the Atlas in your pants "Shrugging"?
comment posted at 9:07 AM on Nov-19-08

Crowd Control
comment posted at 8:58 AM on Nov-17-08

GOP 2.0 There's no doubt that the internet operation of President-Elect Obama was a key part of his success. While it appears that he is attempting to turn that success into an engine for keeping citizens and supporters engaged with the revolutionary Change.gov,(Previously), the other side also is looking to harness the wave of internet electioneering.
comment posted at 9:43 AM on Nov-10-08
comment posted at 11:12 AM on Nov-10-08

'the plausible impossibility of death in the mind of cartoon characters' via
comment posted at 9:15 AM on Nov-10-08

At 12:00am EST, in the Ballot Room of the Balsams Resort in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, the 2008 Presidential Election began.* The vote was 15-6 Obama -- the first time a Democrat has carried the village since 1968. Despite their "first in the nation" status, though, they have only picked the winner 50% of the time.
comment posted at 8:42 AM on Nov-4-08

As a young man in the 1920s, Dock Boggs [previously] recorded some songs that were released as 78s, and they are wonderful treasures of southern Americana, but I was always even more fond of his recordings from the 1960s, when, as an old man, he was rediscovered during the folk boom. So I was delighted to find that three of his 60s-period performances have recently shown up on YouTube. Here's Pretty Polly, Country Blues and I Hope I Live, all from 1966.
comment posted at 8:39 AM on Nov-2-08

Flash Friday Fun with Splitter. Cut things to solve puzzles. Sort of a destructive Incredible Machine.
comment posted at 9:01 AM on Oct-31-08

The Kid's Halloween Candy Code from cockeyed.com.
comment posted at 1:53 PM on Oct-30-08

And the B-Boy Shall Bust Moves To The Bluegrass.
comment posted at 10:14 AM on Oct-29-08

Ladies and gentlemen, Carmina Mefi.
comment posted at 1:22 PM on Oct-28-08

Electoral maps, going all the way back to the beginning.
comment posted at 1:44 PM on Oct-27-08

Okay, this election is officially weird. Opie, Andy, Richie and the Fonz apparently want us to vote Obama. Sadly, it's missing the kind of catchy songs featured in Fonzie's other PSA (NSFW).
comment posted at 11:13 AM on Oct-23-08
comment posted at 11:15 AM on Oct-23-08

The New York Times reports that tens of thousands of voters from swing states have been illegally purged from voter registration lists using social security numbers. Unsure whether your vote will count? Check here.
comment posted at 1:25 PM on Oct-9-08
comment posted at 1:28 PM on Oct-9-08

Thomas Nast, Honoré Daumier, Bill Mauldin, David Low, Theodor Geisel, Herblock, and good grief, more Herblock! In honor of some sort of election that's apparently coming up, Comics Should Be Good! will be featuring one ink-stained satirist every day this October! Visit the Stars of Political Cartooning Month Archive for daily updates.
comment posted at 9:38 AM on Oct-7-08

Sarah Palin may be a better debater than you think... Sarah Palin, much derided for reasons best not gone over again, may be a better debater than people tend to think. Andrew Halcro, a Republican from Alaska says, "I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do."
comment posted at 7:50 AM on Oct-2-08
comment posted at 7:54 PM on Oct-2-08

Video of the destructive reentry into the atmosphere of the Automated Transfer Vehicle back from its trip to the ISS.
comment posted at 7:59 AM on Sep-30-08

The cab ride I'll never forget.
comment posted at 7:33 AM on Sep-29-08

Congressman Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has called Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin disabled.
comment posted at 7:15 PM on Sep-21-08

She's an Ardent Democrat And boy, did she let her feelings be known through her work. Here's her website(NSFW).
comment posted at 8:32 AM on Sep-13-08

As simple as a typo. Your vote in the 2008 U.S. election won't [2:00-9:00] count if voter caging parties can help it. Vote caging works basically like this - (1) Send do-not-forward mail to the address listed on your registration. (2) If it comes back return to sender, your registration is challenged and can be thrown out without notice. "A challenged voter will likely cast a provisional ballot....Nearly a third of all 1.6 million provisional ballots cast in 2004 were thrown out." Previously (somewhat).
comment posted at 10:23 AM on Sep-8-08

Today's date? Why, it's...July 11, 2052, and man has been cowering in terror, self-sealed in his own living-tombs since that day of horror in...1952. Remember? 100 years ago, the sky above America turned black...with the dread flight of millions of ferocious, gigantic ants!
comment posted at 5:15 PM on Sep-5-08

penaddiction.blogspot.com - a blog about pens, with links to lots of other pens and stationery blogs.
comment posted at 11:14 PM on Sep-4-08

Fox, the BBC and CNN have all revealed that Republican US presidential candidate John McCain has picked Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate on his 72nd birthday on the eve of the start of Republican National Convention. Despite being wildly popular in Alaska, Palin has recently been involved in an investigation over whether she dismissed a public safety commissioner because he refused to dismiss her former brother-in-law.
comment posted at 9:07 AM on Aug-29-08
comment posted at 10:36 AM on Sep-1-08
comment posted at 2:47 PM on Sep-4-08

In Historic Vote, Obama Officially Claims Democratic Nomination (Washington Post) With a theatrical flourish, the roll call vote was rushed to allow Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to suspend the vote and "in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory," declare Obama the nominee by aclaimation. "Let's declare with one voice that Barack Obama is our candidate," Clinton said to thunderous applause.
comment posted at 4:21 PM on Aug-27-08

Using images from Google Earth, scientists have determined that grazing cattle and deer align themselves with the Earth's magnetic field.
comment posted at 3:04 PM on Aug-26-08

Not just for religious pharmacists anymore: the Department of Health and Human Services proposes a rule that protects anyone who refuses to provide medical services on moral or religious grounds.
comment posted at 9:41 AM on Aug-24-08