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Do you ever get the calling to witness to atheists but don't respond because you don't know how to start? Have you ever tried, but got pulled around from one point to the next spending hours getting nowhere? Are you just too chicken to do it? Well fret no more - help is here! The Chat-O-Matic is specifically designed to get you started on the right foot when debating skeptics on the Christian faith. It will also help you obey Jesus' command in not throwing your pearls before swine. (An Atheist Witnessing Tool for the rest of us)
comment posted at 2:46 PM on May-1-06
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comment posted at 10:36 AM on May-2-06

Exporting green and leafy water. Agricultural exports, including fresh fruit and vegetables, are an important source of income for many developing countries, but they also threaten the evironmental future of those same producers. "Irrigated agriculture accounts for 70% of the freshwater used globally", while only a part returns to the environment. It isn't just in Africa; in India and in North America, all over the globe, water supplies are being stretched to the point of near breaking. [more inside]
comment posted at 6:26 PM on Apr-29-06

Five Democratic House members arrested in today's Darfur rally. Another large protest in the capital is set for this Sunday. DCist.
comment posted at 3:09 PM on Apr-28-06
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comment posted at 2:48 PM on May-1-06

Living with War. Neil Young's new album is being streamed over the internet in its entirety. (via TMW)
comment posted at 10:29 AM on Apr-28-06
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comment posted at 2:37 PM on Apr-28-06

Wes Anderson does a 2-minute commercial for American Express. (YouTube link). As you might expect from Wes Anderson, the results are "quirky" to say the least. Another bigshot director, M. Night Shayamalan, has made one as well. This certainly isn't the first time big companies have hired A-list directors. I wonder who's next?
comment posted at 7:37 PM on Apr-26-06

OK - Lucas has pretty much ruined Star Wars for me. Still, lightsabers are freaking kewl with a capital K, and true to its title, this one is quite probably The Best Home Made Lightsaber Duel Ever. Man, I wish I was a Jedi!
comment posted at 7:20 PM on Apr-26-06
comment posted at 7:29 PM on Apr-26-06

Happy 50th birthday (bugmenot) to "the box that changed the world". (Video interview with the author, here.) On April 26, 1956, Malcolm McLean, a trucker from rural North Carolina, hired a crane to hoist 58 trailer-sized steel cargo boxes onto a refitted oil tanker. This modest experiment would profoundly alter international trade and the global economy, eventually creating the "biggest real-time datastreaming network in the world."
comment posted at 7:27 PM on Apr-26-06

Tony Snow On President Bush: ‘An Embarrassment,’ It seems clear now that we will have Snow In Late April as the Bush appointment to be the new press spokesman. Snow comes to the lawn of the White House all the way from Fox News, where he represented their view of Fair and balanced. So balanced in fact that he said things such as this: "“No president has looked this impotent this long when it comes to defending presidential powers and prerogatives.” [9/30/05]. But that was then and this is now and so can we assume that suddenly Bush will be seen as a masterful leader of his nation?
comment posted at 5:58 PM on Apr-25-06
comment posted at 7:25 PM on Apr-25-06
comment posted at 8:53 PM on Apr-25-06

From estate tax to 'death tax' Public Citizen released a report [PDF link] today that "reveals how 18 families worth a total of $185.5 billion have financed and coordinated a 10-year effort to repeal the [U.S.] estate tax, a move that would collectively net them a windfall of $71.6 billion." The rich get richer...
comment posted at 5:49 PM on Apr-25-06
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comment posted at 7:03 PM on Apr-25-06

Researchers have found that prolonged concentration on a difficult task actually switches off a person's self awareness. Fancy experiencing this sensation for yourself? That would be an oxymoron in existence. Just lay back and let the orgasm take hold.
comment posted at 8:37 PM on Apr-20-06

Rolling Stone One of America's foremost historians assesses George W. Bush with the cover story: The Worst President in History? Check out the respectful cover illustration.
comment posted at 7:49 PM on Apr-20-06
comment posted at 6:19 PM on Apr-21-06

The 3rd Battle of New Orleans, a post-Katrina group weblog, visually debunks the notion that most of New Orleans is 10 feet below sea level and that not enough residents had flood insurance.
comment posted at 8:00 PM on Apr-7-06

What? From WFMU: "What happens when a man covered in microphones walks into a room covered with speakers? Feedback. Lots of it." (might be NSFW)
comment posted at 9:36 PM on Apr-7-06

Jesus walked on the water ice. So sayeth... um... well, this guy at Florida State. Doron Nof has released a paper positing that when Jesus walked on the water in Galilee, he was actually walking on a patch of floating ice. What's interesting about science like this to me is that it both validates and invalidates scripture, since if Jesus was walking on ice... no miracle (although, it's a miracle he didn't slip and fall, har har har). But if Jesus was walking on ice, then at least he historically existed, which is still an open question at least in some quarters. In case you think you recognize Mr. Nof's name, you may be remembering his work explaining that the parting of the Red Sea was totally possible (flash video link).
comment posted at 11:47 PM on Apr-5-06

Early in the morning on November 21, 1980, twelve men abandonded their oil rig on Lake Peigneur in Louisiana, suspecting that something was wrong. Little did they know they created a SWIRLING VORTEX OF DOOM!
comment posted at 10:24 PM on Mar-28-06

The number of patient fatalities in mifepristone abortions is estimated at 1 in 200,000¹, about double the rate for suction-aspiration abortions of comparable terms, and about equal to the combined early and late term fatality rates for vacuum aspiration abortion.² (source) (via) [More inside]
comment posted at 7:32 PM on Mar-17-06

No Hunting on the Sabbath, Y'all: RALEIGH, N.C. - A longtime lobbyist for the National Rifle Association has stepped down from the job because he can't support the group's endorsement of Sunday hunting in North Carolina.
comment posted at 5:12 PM on Mar-17-06
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comment posted at 7:53 PM on Mar-17-06

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 9:57 AM on Mar-17-06
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comment posted at 12:16 PM on Mar-17-06

Quotes from pundits during the beginning and early stages of the Iraq War. I love the Joe Scarborough rant where he calls Scott Ritter the "former chief U.N. weapons inspector who played chief stooge for Saddam Hussein...".
comment posted at 10:23 PM on Mar-15-06
comment posted at 11:36 PM on Mar-15-06

Dr. Ross tells Arianna Huffington to stop making things up. A few days ago, Metafilter reported on a post seemingly written by Clooney on The Huffington Post where he apparently wrote "... [I]t drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, 'We were misled.' It makes me want to shout, 'Fuck you, you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic." Bottom line: We and the readers of The Huffington Post were mislead because, as it turns out, Clooney didn't actually write the article. In actual fact, the article was nothing more than a compilation of remarks Clooney had made in several media interviews over the years. [more inside]
comment posted at 4:14 PM on Mar-15-06

In February, President George W. Bush signed into law a bill that did not pass the House of Representatives. Did he do so intentionally, and will the error be corrected?
comment posted at 12:18 PM on Mar-15-06
comment posted at 2:15 PM on Mar-15-06

What is it about hybrid cars that brings out such ignorance and bile?? Some Massachusetts columnist named David Baumann has some fresh new disinformation about hybrid cars. He states that hybrids are just too dang complicated for an American driver, that they actually get 25 mpg, and people are either being tricked into buying them, or buying them as some kind of political statement. I wonder which party I got enrolled in when I bought mine? I should check on that, I might want to vote in the primaries. I don't mind that he doesn't like them, he's not required to. I do mind that such a bizarre mashup of rumor, misinformation, and dark fantasy can be presented to the public under the guise of being news.
comment posted at 10:11 AM on Mar-15-06
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comment posted at 10:44 AM on Mar-15-06