Millions of historic LIFE images are now hosted by Google.
This is what the US electoral map would look like if only young people voted. Take that as you will.
A blogger explains why he did not vote for Obama. He gives some great reasons.
A "real life" Photoshop. Cool.
Opie, Andy, and the Fonz hope you'll vote for Obama.
We have more mommies attempting to ban books. Only this time, the lady has kept the book and refuses to return it.
"It is a comic book, but that's not funny. Not at all," Anderson told the Albany Democrat-Herald newspaper. "I don't care if your kid is 16, 17, 18. It's wrong."
Anderson contacted Principal Julie Knoedler, who told her about the district's book-challenge policy.
Anderson plans to fill out the forms, but she's not taking any chances. Once the review is over, regardless of the outcome, she plans to burn it.
"They're not getting this book back," she said, adding that if the library replaces it: "I'll have somebody else check it out and I'll keep that one. I'm just disgusted by the whole ordeal."
When will these people learn? You can't do that.
Here's a short article about the evil and futility of banning books.
I still watch Saturday Night Live sometimes. Usually on Saturdays. Mainly for the nostalgic feeling, guest appearances by Tina Fey, and rare gems like this one from last night's episode. Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals:
I've liked Mark Wahlberg since Three Kings. Lindsey secretly makes fun of me for it.
Happy birthday to my wife, who shares the day with animals everywherer: it's World Animal Day.
Started in Florence Italy in 1931 at a convention of ecologists, World Animal Day has since expanded its focus from its original intent, which was to bring attention to endangered or threatened species. The day is now set aside as a time to reflect on all of the animals we share this world with, and our involvement with them - and to spur action to commemorate that respectful relationship. Half the world's mammals are declining in population and more than a third are probably threatened with extinction, according to an update of of the Red List (an inventory of biodiversity issued by the IUCN), released on October 6, 2008
There are some amazing photos over at The Big Picture.
I figured with all the videos already here, I might as well throw on another.
This made my stomach turn. I hope she answers in similar fashion tonight, though I'd wager she's been practicing non-stop with people who know what the hell they're doing.
Yes, this person gets to vote.
The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.
C'mon, Jews, do your part.
And now for something completely different.
The McCain campaign wants to delay the vice presidential debate indefinitely. No. No, no no. This is all a bunch of crap. Is McCain sick again? Is he afraid? Why would he be afraid? Because of Sarah Palin? Click on that link and watch Palin dance with Katie Couric. If I had seen these videos a few months ago, I would have said, "Really!? This is really the vice presidential candidate for the Republicans?"
They know she isn't ready to talk about the issues in front of the nation, especially when debating Joe Biden.
Don't delay the debates.
Update: They didn't. The CPD said it would be better to go ahead with the debates as planned. Hooray!
A mother in California is working to remove The Kite Runner from classroom reading lists. She has moral objections to the sexual content and, apparently, the wisdom of the overall work. The same goes for Of Mice and Men, which is being challenged in Kansas City for similar stupid reasons: too many instances of the word "nigger". Thankfully there are some smart people in charge in the latter case, at least:
"It's not a pleasant part of our history," David Smith, a spokesman for the school district, told KMBC-TV. "But kids these days need opportunities to learn about it, understand it, not in a sanitized 21st-century way, because that's how we move forward in society."
Mommies and Daddies, you cannot force your morals, your standards, your beliefs on everyone else.
Video: 103-year-old badass typographist Dr. Edward Rondthaler advocates simplified, more logical spelling in the English language. It's cooler than it sounds. I swear!
Sarah Palin's daughter should give birth in about four months. She's the seventeen-year-old daughter of the Republican candidate for vice president. People will make a big deal out of this, but they shouldn't. Sure, I disagree with Palin on several issues, and she might not be qualified for the job, but we should not let this hurt her campaign. The only thing I think this has any impact on is her advocacy of abstinence-only sex education. Does not work. But the fact that her daughter is pregnant does not reflect on the character of Sarah Palin or her ability to be governor or vice president. The best parents with the best values can have sons or daughters in this situation. McCain might agree, as he knew about the pregnancy before selecting Palin:
Senior McCain campaign officials said McCain knew of the daughter's pregnancy when he selected Palin last week as his vice presidential running mate, deciding that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way.
If that's even true. Whatever the case, I pity the girl because of the white-hot spotlight that is about to blind her.
I'm tired of people focusing on the wrong things. A great president was nearly kicked out of office for getting some blow jobs and lying about it. Good Lord.
But seriously.
This is not a Christian nation. It's a democratic nation. Anyone can do anything they like, as long as it doesn't interfere with the rights of another.
So I say, thank God for the assholes—we know we are free!
It's Lovely! I'll Take It! is a blog about poorly chosen photos in property listings.
Beginning on August 9, you can seek a wide, personal view of George Orwell over at the Orwell Diaries. Published online 70 years to the day after they were written, his diary entries will allow the reader to follow Orwell into World War II.
Orwell was a big critic of English writers. He thought too many authors use vague language that renders prose abstract and impotent whereas it could be concrete and meaningful. In "Politics and the English Language," he listed six rules for writers to reverse such habits:
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive voice where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
Excellent rules to follow. Incidentally, I take this opportunity to recommend Nineteen Eighty-Four, which I read for the third time last year. If you haven't read it, please do. There's also a decent movie, a free online edition of the text, a comic, and an NBC radio adaptation from 1949 that's available for download. There are rumors of a new film to be released in 2009 or later, with Tim Robbins as director. He began directing the play at the Actors' Gang in 2006.
Woodrow Wilson, white supremacist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was on the $100,000 bill. What does that tell you about the world?
After 50 years and 110 million record sales, The Ventures were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. It's about time.
I'm amazed that someone not only thought to create a game within a favicon (the tiny 16x16 pixel icon in the address bar) but was able to pull it off: Defender of the Favicon. It doesn't work in Internet Explorer.
Simple flash game that lets you play with falling sand. There are some great submissions in the gallery. Update: awesome.
Oh, baby. I found this music video for a Russian metal band's "tribute" to Mikhail Gorbachev quite hilarious. Zombies, boobs, guns, guts: everything you could want.
Cornstarch on a subwoofer. Watch and be amazed.
Skeletal studies of cartoon characters. The exaggerated traits of the bodies make for some very cool, uniquely distorted skeletons.
Lightmark displays some beautiful photos from a German project. Be sure to check out the "making of" section.
Old and erroneous mathematical models are to blame for incorrect estimations of extinction rates. "The older models could be severely overestimating the time to extinction. Some species could go extinct 100 times sooner than we expect." Those species may only have a few years or even months left.
Lilypad, an amphibious city designed to house 50,000 people, may be a solution for future climate refugees. As Pruned points out, Lilypad could be a viable option for Kiribati, a Pacific island nation that might be submerged within a century. The president of Kiribati asked for help last month with the relocation of its citizens.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Through the Fire and Flames" rendered in Mario Paint. Man, I invested hundreds of hours into that game as a kid. Never made anything this cool, though. There are lots of others.
Just in time for the Fourth, George Washington's childhood home has been found.
There's more in the archives.
