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"If that's what's on, then that's what they watch. It's either that, or a cricket match between Scotland and Bermuda. Now, I am an educated man, Charlie, but when someone tries to explain cricket to me, all I want to do is hit him in the head with a teapot." Cricket Explained (An American Viewpoint) for those, following a recent cricket thread, that want to get it, but don't quite yet.
comment posted at 11:11 AM on Aug-3-06

Australia is well known for having more than it's share of dangerous wildlife. However only a few examples are well known outside of the continent. The funnelweb spider might be Australia's most infamous horror. But the redback (a relative of the American black widow) and mouse spider both deserve your respect as well. Long hyped as causing severe ulceration, the reputation of the white-tailed spider might not be as deserved but is still a spider of concern. (more inside...)
comment posted at 4:49 PM on Aug-2-06

Quality from the Himalayas. Amid continuing civil violence, Nepal has just made a big push to escape poverty through your local Starbucks. Working with Winrock International, Nepal's tea growers are finalizing a Code of Conduct that would eliminate pesticides banned by the EU and commit tea growers to replenishing the soil, using organic fertilizers whenever and wherever possible, and using fair labor and wage practices -- making Nepal Orthodox Tea more environmentally- and worker-friendly than its better-known rival Darjeeling. In the process, they hope to create a gourmet niche product (pdf; go to p. 8) that appeals to the taste and sensibilities of socially-conscious Westerners through a partnership with Tazo (Starbucks' main tea supplier), as well as to modernize the local industry to create greater international awareness of its products.
comment posted at 12:55 PM on Aug-2-06

MTV turns 25 today. Music Television, otherwise known as MTV, was launched with its first broadcast on 1 August 1981, 25 years ago today. Famously, the first video broadcast was the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star." Ironically, MTV evidently isn't going to acknowledge its anniversary on-air in any way, with a spokeswoman saying that "We made the decision when MTV was founded to always stay young and evolve with our audience. To do that, it has been important to serve our audience at that moment, not our audience of yesterday." This is about par for the course, though, since when was the last time that MTV actually broadcast music videos? A broader question: does anybody who wasn't weaned on MTV (or anybody who was, for that matter) care anymore?
comment posted at 1:03 PM on Aug-1-06

Cthulhu: The Movie. Filmed not in Providence, but on the other side of the country in Astoria. Starring nobody I've ever heard of. Featuring a cameo by Tori Spelling. Given that previous attempts over the last forty or so to capture Lovecraft's mythos on film have been more miss than hit, all these signs point to yet another missed mark. But I must confess ... the last tracking shot over the water in the trailer compels me.
comment posted at 2:11 PM on Jul-20-06

50 Albums that changed music. Fifty years old this month, the album chart has tracked the history of pop. But only a select few records have actually altered the course of music.
comment posted at 10:49 AM on Jul-19-06

"You live in the big here. Wherever you live, your tiny spot is deeply intertwined within a larger place, imbedded fractal-like into a whole system called a watershed, which is itself integrated with other watersheds into a tightly interdependent biome. At the ultimate level, your home is a cell in an organism called a planet. All these levels interconnect. What do you know about the dynamics of this larger system around you?

30 questions to elevate your awareness (and literacy) of the greater place in which you live.
comment posted at 1:41 PM on Jul-13-06

Syd Barrett passes on. Pink Floyd founder (paid tribute to by his former bandmates in "Shine On You Crazy Diamond) who had succumbed to mental illness passes away due to complications of diabetes. RIP.
comment posted at 3:08 PM on Jul-11-06

Today Jefferson County Sheriff's office released over 900 pages of documents [32MB pdf] relating to what happened at Columbine High School in 1999.
comment posted at 10:34 PM on Jul-6-06

[T]his pattern, grade for the sake of a grade, work for the sake of work, can be found everywhere. Ladies and gentlemen, the spirit of intellectual thought is lost. I speak today not to rant, complain or cause trouble, and certainly not to draw attention to myself. I have accomplished nothing and I am nothing. I know that. Rather, I was moved by the countless hours wasted in those halls. Today, you should focus on your child or loved one. This is meant to be a day of celebration, and if I’ve taken away from that, I’m sorry. But I know how highly this community values learning, and I urge you all to re-evaluate what it means to be educated.

- from a graduation speech by the valedictorian of Mainland Regional High School, Kareem Elnahal, critiquing his school's education process.

The principal's reaction? “My hope was they did not hear or understand what he was saying. ... He was belittling the diplomas of every one of those kids.”.
comment posted at 7:52 PM on Jul-5-06

Why Vegetarians should be force fed lard
comment posted at 6:13 AM on Jul-2-06

Sometimes mistakenly called "locusts", American cicadas come in a wide variety of colors, and make different and distinctive sounds. Some highlights: Diceroprocta viridifascia, Neocicada hieroglyphica, Tibicen marginalis, Tibicen pruinosa, Magicicada septendecim.
comment posted at 5:20 PM on Jun-20-06

Ganjifa cards have a history of more than 300 years. A pack of ganjifa cards consists of ninety-six cards; they are generally circular and made of ivory, tortoise shell, thin wood or hard board material. Dancing, hunting, worshipping, and processions are some of the subjects painted on the cards. Some more patterns: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. However, Ganjifa today is a craft in a crisis.
comment posted at 5:31 AM on Jun-2-06

David Pogue is the rudest man alive! "My wife and I were excited to receive, as [a] very generous Christmas present from a relative, a Magellan RoadMate 300." He then goes on to absolutely obliterate the gift, *on the New York Times website*, for 20 paragraphs, after which he demands, "For the gift-giver: Do your research. Read the customer reviews. Beware outdated products on store shelves." It's a gift! Learn some tact dude.
comment posted at 7:00 AM on Jun-1-06

This is perhaps the greatest video in the history of music.
comment posted at 5:50 PM on May-31-06

Harry Reid accepted free boxing tickets from the Nevada Athletic Commission says John Solomon of the AP. Solomon implies that Reid might have gotten himself into an ethical dilemma as the NAC opposes the creation of a federal boxing commission, something the Senate was considering at the time. The article also tosses in some digs at Reid by repeating the claim that Reid is involved in the Abramoff scandal.

However, Media Matters points out that Reid did not act in the NAC's favor and instead allowed the passage of legislation that would create a federal commission, in opposition to the giftgiver's wishes. This is not the first time Solomon has attacked Reid. Politics/News-filter
comment posted at 3:37 AM on May-31-06

No Death Sentence for '20th Skyjacker' Moussaoui (he Newsfiltered), and as he was led from the courtroom, the defendant, who had looked for the last few weeks like he was campaigning for martyrdom, clapped his hands and said “America, you lost. I won.” (I had severely underestimated this character's skill at Political Theater) In spite of the final spit-in-the-face-of-the-US, MSNBC.com's Unscientific Instapoll has 51% saying it was the right decision, while CNN.com's Poll says 63%, and Foxnews.com's poll... is about tax cuts. Disclaimer: Yes, I do some writing for the Entertainment section at MSNBC.com, but the News department does not know I exist and doesn't want to. And newssite instapolls are so-o-o Web 1.0, I know, but still, what's with the non-outrage?
comment posted at 5:49 AM on May-4-06

Mahatma Gandhi. Everything you ever wanted to know about Mahatma Gandhi including image galleries and his complete collected works.
comment posted at 2:02 PM on May-3-06
comment posted at 10:32 PM on May-3-06

Today, April 7, is the 73rd anniversary of the end of Prohibition, marking the day in 1933 when FDR signed emergency legislation to allow the sale of beer (and reportedly had the first public delivery of beer sent to the White House). Breweries all over America are celebrating Brew Year's Eve. In other news, marijuana prohibition has continued in the US for almost 70 years. There's a Nevada initiative on the ballot this November to end it -- by allowing the legal cultivation and sale of marijuana.
comment posted at 10:10 PM on Apr-7-06

Lewis The Cat In Hot Water After Alleged Attacks
comment posted at 1:46 PM on Mar-29-06

Other loves
still breathe deep inside me.
This one's too short of breath even to sigh.
"First Love", by Wislawa Szymborska. (via the Daily Poems of poems.com)
comment posted at 7:40 AM on Mar-29-06
comment posted at 7:42 AM on Mar-29-06

Stanislaw Lem: 1921-2006. Polish science-fiction giant Stanislaw Lem died this morning. He was 84. Though Lem was not as well known as Asimov or Heinlein or the other "Masters", he was just as important to the genre. Lem was not a fan of traditonal science-fiction, and in his work tried to approach futuristic themes from a more humanistic, almost psychological, perspective. (And his books are funny!) His best-known work, Solaris, was twice made into a film, most recently in 2002. [Woefully out-of-date official site.]
comment posted at 8:58 AM on Mar-27-06

That Kate Bush song where she sings 150 digits of π and gets it wrong [possibly]? Turns out it contains secret references to, among other things, some stones in Cornwall that look sort of like a steam locomotive and a number of megalithic sites. No, seriously. He's got proof.
comment posted at 3:47 AM on Mar-27-06

Penny dreadfuls, six cent weeklies, and dime novels were aimed at youthful, working-class audiences and distributed in massive editions at newsstands and dry goods stores. Though the phrase conjures up stereotyped yarns of Wild West adventure, complete with lurid cover illustration, many other genres were represented: tales of urban outlaws, detective stories, working-girl narratives of virtue defended, and costume romances.
comment posted at 8:02 AM on Mar-24-06
comment posted at 8:39 AM on Mar-24-06
comment posted at 8:48 AM on Mar-24-06

Character Counts! Last year, Arizona State Treasurer David Petersen stood in front of the International Building Cities of Character Conference to deliver a keynote address. Inside the Character Training Institute's headquarters, Petersen took to the conference podium to tell how his state's Family Services Committee passed "Character Education Legislation." "All schools now have it implemented," he said. "We're fighting for the soul of this nation." Petersen added that he attributed his passion for character to a personal meeting with evangelist Bill Gothard, founder of Institute in Basic Life Principles. Petersen is now the focus of a theft and fraud inquiry alleging that he used his position and state funds to promote the character education program, a program to which he had financial ties. Is your city a City of Character?
comment posted at 3:01 PM on Mar-23-06

What to read. A list of lists for book recommendations, includes a compiled "Great Books" Lists with a World Literature list and lots more.
comment posted at 8:14 AM on Mar-21-06

Sleep tight, don't [pdf] let the bed bugs bite.
comment posted at 10:21 AM on Mar-20-06
comment posted at 1:07 PM on Mar-20-06

Nearly Half of Americans want to let states legally regulate and tax marijuana the way they do liquor and gambling.
Zogby International will pimp there services to just about anyone these days, including NORML for a poll on American's attitudes towards pot. According to the poll 65% of 18-29 year olds and 50% of 50-64 year-olds are cool with weed being legal and controlled like booze. The former slackers of Generation X, 30-49 year-olds, oppose it by 58% and the geezers over 65 oppose it by only 52%.

The pool shows some interesting generational attitudes. Is the 30-49 age group still following Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" mantra or is this the attitude of parents worried about their kids? I thought these folks were supposed to be the slacker generation, and now they're the strongest opponents to legalization.
comment posted at 11:12 AM on Mar-17-06

Africa splits (Geographically speaking). Take a look at the photos, they are breathtaking.
comment posted at 8:15 AM on Mar-16-06

The Nano-Road is paved with gold.

Rice University built these single-molecule vehicles which measure just 4x3 nanometers and have four buckyball wheels connected to four independently rotating axles and a organic chemical chassis. They're also building a "nanotruck" which uses nitrogen atoms to be able to carry a payload.
comment posted at 3:19 PM on Mar-14-06

On Evil: An Interview with Alain Badiou
comment posted at 8:10 AM on Mar-13-06

Just when you thought you'd seen all that the Internet had to offer: Um, here's some lovely, haunting x-ray porn. Yeah, it's art, but it's still probably NSFW. [MI]
comment posted at 10:13 PM on Mar-12-06

"The Hayward Fault is locked and loaded. It is ready to fire at any time." The U.S. Geological Survey has a Google Earth-based "virtual helicopter tour" and other annotated views of The Hayward Fault. There's a 70% probability of a major earthquake hitting the San Francisco Bay Area before 2030, and Hayward is the most likely fault [PDF] for an earthquake (or is it?). Bad things will happen. Fortunately we're completely unprepared. [more inside]
comment posted at 3:20 PM on Mar-10-06

When Gregg Revell packed his bags for a trip to Pennsylvania last April, he had no idea how far he'd be traveling. Before the week was out, the 57-year-old suburban real estate agent and grandfather would be arrested, thrown into one of the country's most notorious jails, strip searched and inoculated against his will. The soft-spoken Utah native would be on his way to becoming a poster child for the National Rifle Association in a $3 million lawsuit.
comment posted at 10:21 AM on Mar-10-06

What are nudibranchs? Jewels of the sea. Page after page of photographs of these squishy hermaphrodites.
comment posted at 7:08 AM on Mar-10-06

"God created man exactly how Bible describes it." A Gallup report released today reveals that more than half of all Americans, rejecting evolution theory and scientific evidence, agree with the statement.
comment posted at 10:16 AM on Mar-8-06

A Kurdish family in Turkey can only walk on all fours. Some claim that their genetic defects have led to a sort of "backward evolution." An upcoming BBC documentary (pdf) will share their story.
comment posted at 3:36 PM on Mar-7-06

Colbertfilter: Stephen waxes nostalgic with the release of Stormreach: DnD Online. Need a glossary? Len Lakofka. Lawful Good. Displacer Beasts. Beholders. GenCon. Mindflayer. Need some new dice? What DnD character are you? Grognards rejoice! You are not alone!
comment posted at 7:51 PM on Mar-5-06
comment posted at 8:10 PM on Mar-5-06

The Order Of The Stick is a great "hifi-lofi" webcomic from Rich Burlew about the meta-adventures of an adventuring party in the D&D world. Lots of inside humor to go along with broad appeal. It's been running for over 2 years, so there are close to 300 episodes to rummage through.
comment posted at 9:17 AM on Mar-2-06

The Case for Impeachment. An essay by Lewis H. Lapham. Another one by Garrison Keillor. And Elizabeth Holtzman. Legislation by John Conyers.
comment posted at 1:04 PM on Mar-1-06

Random Rules , a new[ish] feature of the Onion: A.V. Club. They ask a rocker/writer/comedian/whatever to set their MP3 player to "shuffle" and comment on the first few tracks that come up. This probably could have been very boring, but it actually ended up kind of interesting. See Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse call Belle and Sebastian a “one-fuckin'-trick pony”. Enjoy David Cross waxing poetic about R.E.M.’s Murmur. From the main link, read the description of the raw sexual chemistry that existed between David Berman of the Silver Jews and the actress that played Ginger on Gilligan's Island.
comment posted at 9:33 AM on Mar-1-06

Creative Home Engineering is a registered contracting company that adds value to homes by integrating silent, automated, hidden passageways. [note: flash]
comment posted at 3:03 PM on Feb-28-06

The Sarong Theorem Archive is the premier online repository for pictures of mathematicans in sarongs proving theorems.
comment posted at 11:20 AM on Feb-28-06

Never Mind the Bollocks.
comment posted at 11:17 AM on Feb-27-06