Merry Christmas #3

Santa's Christmas Blog 2005 - Frequent Updates From North Pole, Inc. Chairman & CEO Santa Claus On Preparations For Christmas FY05

Merry Christmas #2

Santa Track - NASA's Marshall Space Center also gets into the St. Nick act with a map of the jolly old man's course.

Merry Christmas #1

Santa On Radar - The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) celebrates 50 years of tracking Santa Claus by radar on his big night.

The Revolution

Women in a Croatian village have seized power from their lazy menfolk in local elections.

Eight Years, Two Americas

Operation Eden - "A personal chronicle of what hurricane Katrina has done to my poor proud people."

"But I'm glad this person half-assedly referred to the Red River Flood of 1997 in particular, because it can remind us all just how low our government's been brought, in such a short time. We can compare what an effective, competent 1997 FEMA looked like before it was gutted, neutered, a foppish good-old boy installed asleep at its 2005 controls."

My common sense tells me that I'd be far better off in the America that helped Grand Forks in 1997, not the America that says "We don't owe you a damn thing" to New Orleans in 2005. What a difference eight years makes. Which America do you want to live in?"

Oracle Eye

Plausible Futures Newsletter - news and analysis about futures studies and scenario planning. Browse Plausible Futures articles on topics such as information warfare, nanotechnology, and habitat, or see the latest newsletter.

Three Sizes Too Small

Mr. Grinch's Blog - Ho...Ho...Ho.. and all that crap.

It's Only Polite

The Emily Post Institute offers etiquette advice and manners advice

Dooms Day

A Brief History of the Apocalypse

Ghost Of Christmas Future

Future Wiki - user-written reference to futurism and future studies. Includes predictions, scenarios, timelines, as well as overviews of future progress in areas such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence.

Merry Christmas Alaska

The Bridges to Nowhere are back Alaska's Congressional delegation celebrates the Season of Taking.

Nessie's BACK!!!!

The monster of Loch Ness has been spotted again.

Dreaming of A Streaming Christmas

Play Christmas music through your computer RIGHT NOW! You never have to be without it.

Show Me The Money

A Washington Posts chart outlining Abramoff's cash flow and a daily Kos diary pointing out some omissions in the chart.

Approach The Bench

Wikilaw - user-built legal information database focusing on U.S. law. Includes reader-contributed articles about treatises, case briefs, legislation, and motions, as well as a legal dictionary and a collaborative law review.

I'm Listening

The storm of controversy notwithstanding, Friday's revelation that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to conduct warrantless eavesdropping in the United States should come as no surprise. The press tends to shy away from covering America's largest and most secretive intelligence agency, fearing precisely the kind of scolding President Bush delivered to the New York Times. But the truth is that the NSA—which has an estimated $6 billion annual budget bigger than those of the CIA and the FBI combined—has a decidedly checkered history when it comes to playing by the rules. Both before and after Sept. 11, 2001, the secrecy surrounding the eavesdropping agency has obscured a dangerous institutional tendency to overreach.

Fringe Movement

A Biblical Blue Makes a Comeback. A Dye Born in the Glands of a Snail Colors the Corners of Prayer Shawls.

Most Wanted

Lycos Top 100 Searches of 2005

Real Terrorist

CIA Chief Goss finally admits to American use of torture after six-hour beating with a hose and electrocution from a car battery.

Another Abramoff Deal

Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, facing trial on fraud charges Jan. 9 in Florida, is negotiating a possible deal with the Justice Department, in which he would agree to plead guilty and cooperate in the wide-ranging political corruption investigation focused on his dealings with members of Congress and executive branch officials, people familiar with the talks said last night.

Grounds For Impeachment

The AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, an alliance of over 100 grassroots organizations, has launched a new campaign called CensureBush.org in order to support new legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers that would censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney and create a select committee to investigate the Administration's possible crimes and make recommendations regarding grounds for impeachment.

Please Hold

Order your Santa Call Today!

Evil Twin

Letters From Bad Santa

New World Order

New research by economists Professor Andrew Oswald at the University of Warwick, and Dr Nattavudh Powdthavee at London University's Institute of Education, reveals that the more daughters a family has the more likely the parents are to vote for left of centre parties. Sons, by contrast, make people more right-wing.

The Art Of Dying

LifeArt - Encourages people to explore the creative and special ways they remember your loved ones. "We hope LifeArt coffins enable you to focus on the life being remembered and cherish."

Still Searching

Top Ten Alternative Search Engines

Executive Order 13233

A new executive order issued by President George W. Bush (Presidential Records Act Executive Order 13233) restricts access to the records of former presidents. The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association (ALA) and The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) urges libraries to alert their patrons and the public about this effort to close the public record. The ALA has created an ongoing list of historical works that would have been affected by Executive Order 13233

Winner Takes All

UK Gameshows - Gameshows on British TV, past and present.

It's Not Easy Being Green

Muppet Wiki - Muppet Wiki is a collaborative project to create an encyclopedia for everything related to Jim Henson and the Muppets.

Taking Liberties

The pharmaceutical industry is bracing itself for criticism when the film 'The Constant Gardener' opens next month. But Jeremy Laurance reports that away from the Hollywood script is a true story of how multinational drug companies took liberties with African lives with devastating consequences.

False Start

Post On My Forum - provides a team of qualified posters to post new topics or replies on your forum, message board or community. Our posters are selected in regards to your specifications. Our deep and diversified team allows us to provide you with posters who have a genuine interest with your website’s topic. They will join your forum and interact with your members, hence stimulating discussions and enhancing interest on your boards.

Public Broadcast

Public Radio Fan - Features program listings for hundreds of public radio stations around the world. Follow the audio links to hear your favorite programs and discover new ones.

Underhanded Dealing

In a dramatic endgame strategy, Senate Republicans are using the calendar and a must-pass Defense spending bill to move some of the most controversial issues of the 109th Congress.

God Bless Minigolf

San Jose officials are still wondering how a miniature golf course landed on a federal list of the most attractive terrorist targets.

A New Hope

Wookieepedia, a Star Wars database

A Brand New Car

Buried Belvedere - On June 15, 1957, a new gold and white 1957 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe was buried in a time capsule in downtown Tulsa, OK. The time capsule was part of Golden Jubilee Week: Tulsa‘s celebration of Oklahoma‘s semi-centennial. The car is buried under the sidewalk in front of the Tulsa County Courthouse, approximately 100 feet north of the intersection of Sixth Street and Denver Avenue.

What You Really Really Want

Most Popular Internet Search Terms of 2005 Revealed

Your Hired!

Santa's Little Helper - Inspired by his favorite reality programs, Santa Claus invited eight elves to the North Pole for the purpose of selecting one as his new protégé. Through a series of rigorous holiday competitions, Santa has whittled down the group to the final two candidates - congratulations, you're one of them! Now you must manage a rag-tag team of previous cast-offs in one final competition. Succeed, and you will have earned the coveted position of "Santa's Little Helper".

All For Me Grog

Arrr!!! Sea Shanties and Drinking Songs.

One Trillion Dollars

The annual list from Forbes of America's Largest Private Companies.

Lacking In The Administration

Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year 2005

The Man

Tim Berners-Lee has a blog

I Wish

I Resign - 'Guarantee a stylish and dignified exit by using one of these template resignation letters. You can now customise each one before printing, to fit your own circumstances...'

Twentyfour Little Hours

Every Day A Holiday - The Earth Calendar lets you know there is something to celebrate every day.

And Many More

Everything Birthdays - offers birthday party themes, games, and recipes.

Fill'er Up

Clean Car Maps - location information for clean fuel stations including ethanol, methanol, hydrogen, natural gas (CNG and LNG), and electric charging stations for EVs.

Egg-tastic

Perfect Scrambled Eggs

Just Can't Get Enough

The TV Commercial Blog - Three new TV commercials from around the world every week day. This blog features TV ads and commentary about them.

Lock, Stock And Barrel

How to Stock Your Bar for a Party

Beautiful Sunset

Sixteen provisions of the USA Patriot Act expire December 31 if not renewed by Congress

Yet Another Absinthe Update

The Virtual Absinthe Museum - An extensive reference collection of original artifacts documenting every aspect of the history of La Fee Verte, from its use as a medicinal elixir in ancient times, to its heyday as a fashionable aperitif in the 19th century and its prohibition at the beginning of the 20th.

Taking Liberties

Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

The Bush Bubble

Bush likes to say that his hero is Ronald Reagan, a true-blue conservative who knew his own mind. But Reagan also knew when to compromise, and when he got into trouble early in his second term, he reached out for help, making a moderate, former senator, Howard Baker, his chief of staff. The chance that George W. Bush will give a top White House job to an establishment moderate (say, Brent Scowcroft, his father's national-security adviser) is about the same as that Texas will become a province of France.

Ping Pong

Celebrities Playing Table Tennis.

Break Away

How To Make Fake Glass

Total Cost Of Ownership

Green Car Journal - coverage of vehicles and technologies that takes environmental performance into account.

Generosity Update

The Generosity Index is a hoax. Please see wabash's analysis at the Progressive Indiana.

Vewy Vewy Qwiet

A $300 million Pentagon psychological warfare operation includes plans for placing pro-American messages in foreign media outlets without disclosing the U.S. government as the source, one of the military officials in charge of the program says.

Like Father

Jenna Bush’s infamous ID-gate videotape is raising more questions than the Zapruder film. According to a source who has seen the footage—which features a self-described downtown coke dealer relating his late-night run-in with the First Daughter, and brandishing her college ID as a souvenir—the man insinuates that the two shared more than just drinks.

Ghost Of Christmas Past

Penguin books has put a podcast of Dickens' A Christmas Carol online, read by actor Geoffrey Palmer. Episode one is available for download now, and you can subscribe to get the next episodes delivered to your feed reader. You can also get the 'casts in ITunes.

Haim Yehudi Bar-Anders

Jack And The Beanstalk - Rabbinical Interpretation

Hitchhikers' Guide

Hitchhikers' Guide to Hitchhiking is a collaborative project to build an encyclopedia for the needs of hitchhikers. It's a compilation of tips about good hitchhiking places, knowledge about hitchhiking possibilities in different countries, general knowhow about what to pack and when to go, what to eat and how to stay safe. The project has just started. So far we have 40 destination guides and other articles written and edited by hitchhikers from around the globe.

An Academic Autopsy

In May 1993 David McCullough, the Pulitzer-prize winning biographer of Harry Truman, warned the graduates of the University of New Hampshire that we are becoming "a nation of historical illiterates ...losing our past, losing our story." "To aspire to quality citizenship demands an understanding of our background," McCullough cautioned, adding that "Truman once said the only new thing in the world is the history you don't know."

Where The President Isn't

Reporting that President Bush steered clear of the White House's own Conference on Aging yesterday -- making him the first president ever to do so -- fell to the regional newspapers and NPR, not the big guys.

The Perfect Gift

Romeo Shops ('because guys can't shop')

Waste Of Time

Productive Strategies - Time management and personal productivity resources blog.

Flip A Lid

Bottle-Cap Monument

Darfur Update

Spotlight On Darfur

Exploding Cars

40 Things That Only Happen In Movies

Subversive

Is the Pentagon spying on Americans? Secret database obtained by NBC News tracks ‘suspicious’ domestic groups.

I'd Like To Thank

2005 Golden Globe Award Nominations - press release contains the 2005 nominations for the 2006 Golden Globe Awards ceremony.

Inalienable Rights

Whatever else he is, Jose Padilla is an American citizen. That inescapable fact explains both the Bush administration's decision last week to charge him with a crime — and the importance of the Supreme Court's upcoming decision on whether to hear his case.

Where Was Yours?

First Kiss

Take A Toke

The lead attorney in the government's landmark racketeering case against the tobacco industry retired from the Justice Department yesterday, saying her politically appointed bosses showed little support for her or her team's work on the case.

Sharon Y. Eubanks had led a group of career government lawyers who this summer recommended a $130 billion penalty against the tobacco industry, in part to fund smoking-cessation programs for millions of Americans. Her supervisors, appointees at the department, scaled back the proposal to $10 billion.

The Religious Left

When hundreds of religious activists try to get arrested today to protest cutting programs for the poor, prominent conservatives such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell will not be among them.

Long And The Short Of It #2

Pencil Carving

Picture This

Find 74 bands in this picture...

Sold!

Way Out Auctions - Watching the Wild & Wooly Auctions Going On At eBay.

Partisan Politics

A law that will make democracy all but moot in Ohio is about to pass the state legislature and to be signed by its Republican governor.[with the lowest governor approval on record (5%-8%)]Despite massive corruption scandals besieging the Ohio GOP, any hope that the Democratic party could win this most crucial swing state in future presidential elections, or carry its pivotal US Senate seat in 2006, are about to end.

Birth Right

For nearly 140 years, any child born on U.S. soil, even to an illegal immigrant, has been given U.S. citizenship. Now, some conservatives in Congress are determined to change that.

Pre-Emptive Strike

Israel's armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed.

That Is The Question

Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

Reach Out

Write a Senior Citizen

On The Wall

Top 100 Beers

Happy Holidays

December Holidays - A directory of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa related sites, includes sites with activities, games, stories, recipes, and more.

Who Owns Stock?

A Harvard grad student is charging that the U.S. government is hyping the threat of the annual (non-avian) strains of influenza. Specifically, Peter Doshi says, the estimate of 36,000 flu-related deaths a year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is unsupported by the available data.

Under The Hood

Complete PC Maintenance Checklist

Got Lost?

LostPedia - The Lost Encyclopedia

B Side

Christmas carols reviewed

A Good Idea?

Strange New Products

The Bottom Line

AlterNet's 14 Worst Corporate Evildoers

Don't Pass Go

Print your own Monopoly money

The Dead Body Guy

Help Me Live My Dream -- Let Me Play Dead

Parking Space Roulette

It's the holiday season, and the parking lot at the mall is busy. You're looking for a parking space. What's the best strategy for selecting a "good" spot quickly?

CUT!! Take Two Hundred

The 30 most mistake-filled movies

Enter The Dragon

About.com Guide Picks - Top 10 Chinese Martial Arts Movies

Pre-Screening

Rolling Stone's Top 25 DVDs

A Phone Box

The Salisbury TARDIS Builders Guild - The site gives you easy access to tardis plans and a guide on how to put it together.

Yeomen Of The Guard

The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive.

Now I'm Found

The Internet Lost and Found is the largest and most comprehensive website devoted exclusively to the recovery of pets and personal property.

Misheard Christmas Lyrics

Joy to the world! The Lord has gum!

Four Score

Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln - Full text of a 1953 eight-volume set.

'B' Girls

Cult Sirens - Hammer horror actresses, Bond girls and other classic cult film beauties.

Outsource It

One of China's newest factories operates here in the basement of an old warehouse. Posters of World of Warcraft and Magic Land hang above a corps of young people glued to their computer screens, pounding away at their keyboards in the latest hustle for money. The people working at this clandestine locale are "gold farmers." Every day, in 12-hour shifts, they "play" computer games by killing onscreen monsters and winning battles, harvesting artificial gold coins and other virtual goods as rewards that, as it turns out, can be transformed into real cash.

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night...

A large archive of first lines from books, alphabetized by author.

Blinded Me With Science

A Compound Microscope - An article that shows you how to construct a very simple low-cost compound microscope.

He Wants You

Uncle Sam Image Gallery - 'Pictures and historical information about an American legend.'

Drifting Away

Earth's north magnetic pole is drifting away from North America and toward Siberia at such a clip that Alaska might lose its spectacular Northern Lights in the next 50 years, scientists said Thursday.

What if...

The Christmas cult classic "A Christmas Story" re-marketed as a horror film, called "A Christmas Gory."

Downtown

A Brookings Institute analysis of Who Lives Downtown giving population, household, and income trends in 44 selected cities from 1970 to 2000.

Cruise Control

Tom Cruise probably will sue South Park over this clip

High Society

A list of the members of Yale's Skull and Bones

Xoogle

Xooglers - A gathering spot for ex-Googlers to reminisce and comment on the latest developments in search.

Up In The Air

Federal Air Marshals website.

Potty Break

Restroom Ratings - ever-expanding public restroom reviews from around the world.

What They Want To Hear

Truth in advertising - vintage cigarette & tobacco ads.

Making A List

Santa's Journal

Darfur Update

The Greater Darfur Crisis

Blast Off

Dawn - Send your name to the asteroid belt on the Dawn spacecraft. Your name will be recorded onto a microchip that will be placed aboard the spacecraft accompanying it on its mission to the asteroid belt.

Record High

According to Bankrate.com's latest survey of large banks and thrifts, ATM fees have hit a record high and, despite rising interest rates, interest checking accounts still don't add up. In short, consumers are finding that money sometimes comes out of their checking accounts faster than it goes in.

The study's key findings are:

• The fee for using the "wrong" automated teller machine - one owned by a bank where you don't have an account - hit an all-time record high. You'll be hit twice for a single withdrawal once by that other bank's ATM fee and once by your own bank, for a total average fee of $2.91. Bankrate.com estimates that American consumers will pay more than $4.3 billion in withdrawal fees for using ATMs not owned by their own bank in 2005.
  
• Bounced-check fees have gotten sneakier. While the average insufficient funds fee fell a few cents, from $27.13 to $26.90, Bankrate found more banks are instituting tiered fees that ramp up the more often you bounce a check or leave a check uncovered. Even at $26.90, the bounced-check fee remains the second-highest recorded since Bankrate began surveying checking accounts in 1998.
  
• Interest-bearing checking accounts remain an unattractive option, where you have to pay a lot more to open an account and lock up a lot more money to gain a pittance in interest.

High Court

Clash over military recruiters on campus. The Supreme court must decide if schools can discriminate against military if it discriminates against gays.

It's What's For Dinner

South Dakota State University has outlined the formula for determining the amount of meat one gets from an average cow.

Andromeda Strain

List of fictional diseases.

Nazi Computer Worms

iDefense, a division of Verisign, reports the next planned attack of the Sober worm is slated to start on January 5th, 2006 based on commands hard-coded within the worm. The attack coincides with the 87th anniversary of founding the Nazi party.

Grounded For Life

How To Do Stuff - "WARNING: Some things described on this site are potentially dangerous/illegal. The writers of this site assume no responsibility for the consequences that may result from attempting the activities described here."

Darfur Update

African Union: The Situation in Darfur

At Your Service

Corporate Consumer Contacts - offers contact information for more than 650 company corporate headquarters. Allows customers to file complaints with the right department and/or person.

Look It Up

Alphabetical index of facts

History Repeats

Ford Motor Company embraces homophobia in order to appease the religious right

Ad Hominem

A professor whose planned course on creationism and intelligent design was canceled after he sent e-mails deriding Christian conservatives was hospitalized Monday after what appeared to be a roadside beating. University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul Mirecki said that the two men who beat him made references to the class that was to be offered for the first time this spring. Originally called "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies," the course was canceled last week at Mirecki's request.

Darfur Update

The need to interfere in Sudan's Darfur Region

The Long And The Short Of It

Pencil Revolution - A pencil blog.

Widow's Son

Secret Masonic Handshakes

When The Tigers Broke Free

An original and complete analysis of Pink Floyd's The Wall

Booking Billions

Forbes Magazine brings you the world's top 15 super-rich people who don't exist

What Is Perception?

Rendon Group Wins Hearts and Minds in Business, Politics and War

Smells Like Nirvana

Ragnar Bjarnason and Rumal Noorkuu do very original spirited covers.

via

Nightly Reading

The New York Times Ten best books of 2005

Greasy Spoon

Diner City - photos, reviews, and guides to diners near you.

None Of Your Business

America's Largest Private Companies, annual list from Forbes.

Velcro Veep

The most powerful vice president in American history finds himself at the center of storms these days over prewar intelligence, a proposed ban on prisoner torture and the CIA-leak investigation that has ensnared his top aide. Critics say he has helped shape an administration that — on the war, energy policy and other issues — is unwilling to admit mistakes, wedded to secrecy and increasingly embattled.

Trade School

GlobalCPR - features information on national income, globalization, international organizations, green economics, and international trade.

Formal Affair

ToTieATie.com - Every thing you needed to know about tying a tie.

Darfur Update

Peacekeeping a struggle in Sudan

So Called

Airquote.org - Is an organization that was founded by citizens concerned over the improper use of "airquotes".

Stinking Rose

Garlicster - garlic recipes galore

Nouveau Gauche

Julie's Tacky Treasures.

Deep Space

SPACE.com gives it's list of the Best Space Movies of All Time.

True Lies #2

Eye Movement and Lying - How to tell if someone is lying based on the movements of their eyes.

True Lies #1

How to Detect Lies - Learn the secrets to become a human lie detector.

Death Row

1,000th Inmate Executed Since 1976. Kenneth Lee Boyd, 57, was executed by lethal injection in Raleigh, N.C. at 2 a.m. local time, after Gov. Mike Easley rejected a request for clemency.

Where Will They Go?

Limbo -- the place where the Catholic Church teaches that babies go if they die before being baptized -- may have its days numbered.

Survive An Airplane Crash

Popular Mechanics Archives: Worst-Case Scenarios

If I Only Had A Hammer

Nailhunter - a pictorial guide to date nails

Via

I Call Shenanigans!

A memo from the Department of Justice in Texas' voting division reveals that, back in 2003 during the Texas GOP's redistricting push, the division unanimously agreed that the redistricting plan sponsored by the state GOP and Rep. Tom DeLay was illegal under the Voting Rights Act. The plan was pushed through anyway, being the most effective in securing additional House seats for the GOP.

Gimme A Break

Lunchclock is a JavaScript clock that distorts time to give you a longer lunch hour. Lunchclock discreetly runs fast in the morning, runs slow over lunch, and runs fast again in the afternoon.

Via

Rock Paper Scissors

Paper Forest

Ever Expanding

The 2005 List of Lists from Fimoculous

Number Five

America's Most Literate Cities in 2005,

Thank you Ray for the find.

Trapped In A Box

I Hate Mimes - The official site for people that are annoyed by, or just plain hate, mimes.

Follow The Foot Steps

Wikipedia Blog - Wikipedia is an open-source encyclopedia. It's radically open -- anyone can edit it as much as they want -- and increasingly relevent. This (unofficial) weblog tracks its progress.

Final Resting Place

Pat's Presidential Places - a look at the gravesites of US Presidents, Vice-Presidents, presidential and vice-presidential hopefuls, and New York Stae Governors.

Table For Two

OpenTable - Find restaurants and make reservations

Approaching The End?

History Magazine: Survivor - The History of the Library - article traces the history of libraries through the ages.

Per Gallon

The price of gasoline remains one of the cheapest liquids available for sale. Here are 47 liquids and their prices, in order, from cheapest to most expensive.

Though I bet this get skewed differently if you figured out average usage per day and calculated a price per day.

(In California the price of gas per gallon moves to number 5, in between Clorox bleach and lowfat milk)

A New Flavor

TV Scoop - a new British TV blog

Doctor Doom

Dispatches From Latveria - the online journal of Victor Von Doom, Lord of Latveria