Home Sweet Home

Noted Individuals Who Have Experienced Homelessness

(I want to take a moment to remind you that nearly the entire city of New Orleans is Homeless and they need your help, please donate to Habitat for Humanity and their efforts to rebuild a community in New Orleans)

Better Luck Next Time

A word processor accused of stealing damaging documents about electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Election Systems was arraigned Tuesday on three felony counts. Stephen Heller was charged in Los Angeles Superior Court with felony access to computer data, commercial burglary and receiving stolen property. He pleaded not guilty. "It's a devastating allegation for a whistle-blower," said Blair Berk, Heller's attorney. "Certainly, someone who saw those documents could have reasonably believed that thousands of voters were going to be potentially disenfranchised in upcoming elections."

Those Who Help Themselves

Senator Rick Santorum's charity donated about 40 percent of the $1.25 million it spent during a four-year period - well below Better Business Bureau standards - paying out the rest for overhead, including several hundred thousand dollars to campaign aides on the charity payroll, records show.

Just Say It

Pictures Of Walls

Another Corona

Eclipse Calendar

Listable Not Lunchable

Listible is a new way to get relevant resources quickly. Listing combined with tagging and voting gives you a greater relevancy.

Case For Impeachment

Why we can no longer afford George W. Bush

If Looks Could Kill

The Top 10 Deadliest Animals.

Homeland Defense?

Governors of both parties said Sunday that Bush administration policies were stripping the National Guard of equipment and personnel needed to respond to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, forest fires and other emergencies.

Compass & Square

The Symbolism of Freemasonry

Would You Like A Mint?

Breath Palette - The world's first 32 flavor toothpaste kit.

Were Not Your Monkey

Sex Pistols turn down Hall of Fame honor.

Build A Better One

Photos of antique mouse and rat traps.

A Metafilter Meme

"Bush should read this book".

One Hand Clapping

These Zen Koans, or parables, were translated into English from a book written late in the thirteenth century by the Japanese Zen teacher Muju (the "non-dweller"), and from anecdotes of Zen monks.

Take A Letter

International business address formats and personal salutations.

Jeb's State

Black Box Voting has released their study of the Palm Beach County voting machines in the 2004 election, and found a lot of anomalies, including votes stamped two weeks before the election. Here's the explanation, from Black Box Voting's website.

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Can We Ban GOP Marriage Too?

Ohio lawmaker to propose ban on GOP adoption.

Star Wars Origins

How did George Lucas create Star Wars?

Control The Demand

1982 article on De Beers' great diamond scam - diamonds originally not being all that special a gemstone until they orchestrated one of the most successful cartels ever.

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Hard To Get A Good Case

DoD Staffer's Notes from 9/11 Obtained Under FOIA

Ultimate Theory

Here is a discussion thread from the 'Fuselage' discussion board on what is so far my #1 guess/theory as to the backstory behind the TV show LOST.

Captain's Log

Captain Picard's Journal - A diary of a harassed star fleet officer in the 24th century

Pedantic Pundits

The Word Nerds - A very interesting podcast about "why we say the things we do."

AISB AIC

Internet Shorthand - A comprehensive list.

Litmus Test

Legislation meant to prompt a national legal battle targeting Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, was approved Wednesday by the South Dakota Senate, moving the bill a step closer to final passage.

Broken Yardstick

The Effects of Government Taxes and Transfers on Income and Poverty: 2004 - The report provides alternative national poverty rates that range from 8.3 percent, using a more comprehensive definition of income that includes the value of noncash benefits and excludes taxes, to 19.4 percent, using another definition of income that excludes all government payments and does not deduct taxes. The official U.S. poverty rate of 12.7 percent was announced last summer.

Egghead Instructions

Egg-peeling strategies

In Name Of Love

Name Origins of Well Known Companies

Lego My Eggo

Spite Your Face Productions makes illustrations, animations and LEGO short-films.

Window Dressing

The Energy Department said it has come up with $5 million to immediately restore jobs cut at a renewable energy laboratory President George W. Bush will visit on Tuesday, avoiding a potentially embarrassing moment as the president promotes his energy plan.

Read The Dictionary

Nurse Investigated for 'Sedition' After Writing Letter to Editor

se·di·tion (sĭ-dĭsh'ən)
n.

1. Conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of a state.

Need To Know

Bush Administration Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Seven Year Review

All Along The Watchtower

Halliburton Watch is a project of Essential Information and the Center for Corporate Policy organization working to stop corporate threats to democracy.

Build It

Thousands of scans of Lego instructions from 1957 onwards.

Go Go Go

Go Speed Racer!

Land Of Plenty

Americans have always believed that hard work will bring rewards, but vast numbers now cannot meet their bills even with two or three jobs. More than one in 10 citizens live below the poverty line, and the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening.

Money Can Buy Happiness

Republicans are happier than Democrats.

Paul Is Dead

It has been called the discovery of the 7th sense. The research into this phenomenon has been described as being of "Nobel calibre". It has been featured in numerous publications around the world, and in the United States it became a household name in the late 90s. It is called Reverse Speech, the phenomenon of hidden backward messages in speech.

Lost Track

Hidden Songs - a comprehensive listing of hidden and unlisted tracks from albums by all types of artists.

In From The Cold

Chilling Effects - Aims to help you understand the protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities.

Speak For Or Against

ProCon - A nonpartisan, independent, and nonprofit corporation whose purpose is to inform the public about controversial issues using facts, news, and hundreds of diverse opinions in a pro-con format.

Follow The Footprints

Cryptomundo - A place to enjoy the adventures, treks, theories, and wisdom of some of the most respected leaders in the field of Cryptozoology. This is a place for all ages to share, read, see, and learn about the finds and evidence of the most elusive and rare animals (cryptids) on this planet Earth … Bigfoot, Yeti, Chupacabra, Ivory Billed Woodpecker, Nessie, Yowie, and more.

My Morning Cup

Caffeine Research Today - A free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Caffeine, including details on addiction, drugs, effects, coffee.

Brothers Keeper

Human Rights Watch World Report 2006

Finger Lickin' Good

The general rule with utensils is to start from the outside of your place setting, and work your way toward the service plate (the main meal plate): soup spoon first, then fish knife and fork, then service knife and fork.

All A Geek Needs

A Beer Dispensing PC

Go Gonzo

Muppet Wiki - A Muppet database that anyone can edit.

Feeding At The Trough

The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.

Oil War

Exxon Profit Sets Record. Its annual and quarterly profit are the highest for any public corporation.

Red State, Police State

A federal employee gets hassled by Homeland Security for antiwar stickers on his car. Is it a mistake, a new rule, or the part of a trend of the First Amendment being bullied out of existence?

Left In Disarray

The Government Accountability Office's audit of how Katrina-relief funds were spent. We are just now beginning to learn how our tax dollars have been misspent. Read the report, the abstract, the highlights, the Full report.

Shot In The Dark

Media's Aim Misses Real Cheney Misdeeds

Your Local News

AP News on Google Maps - Where you can find location of a story on Google Maps.

Get A Job

flylittlebird.org - Online experiment in building collective wisdom from hundreds of undergraduate commencement addresses. Features an extensive archive of graduation speeches by world leaders, celebrities, and educators, as well as notes on the major themes from the speeches.

A Murder Of Crows

There are so many different collective nouns that all mean "group" but which are specific to a particular thing.

You Can't Get There From Here

Timeline for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Bestseller

Bestseller Lists from 1900-1995

In The Field

Top Ten Sources - A new site that finds best blog sources on a topic.

1950

What was the first personal computer?

Xenopedia

A-Z of Alien Species.

Presidential Definition Of Frivolous Law

The American Bar Association denounced President Bush's warrantless domestic surveillance program Monday, accusing him of exceeding his powers under the Constitution.

The Lupercus Lottery

Not Like it Used To Be

Canada Connection

I Have Some Secrets For You - A Blog made to share unknown, exclusive information about secret history.

Time's Up

The How And Why Of The Mayan End Date In 2012 A.D.

Update On Prepackaged News

How much is good press worth? To the Bush administration, about $1.6 billion.

Or Help Lisa

Renew New Orleans Foundation - Established by a group of New Orleans natives who want to contribute back to their hometown. Hurricane Katrina wristband profits are donated to local charities.

(For the same amount you can donate directly to a worthy Katrina Survivor, see top right link)

Hunting Season

Dick Cheney bags a lawyer on a shooting trip.

Matchstick

The Ability to Make a Fire Can Save Your Life

State Of The World

State of the World 2006, an annual research report prepared by the Worldwatch Institute, has just been released, with a special focus on China and India.

Vegimite Sandwich

What is the difference?

Lack Of Money

The Top Ten Causes of Debt

Cost Of Dying

A recent estimate says that the cost of the Iraq war could exceed $ 2 trillion. The Galloping Beaver has a post which tries to conceive of exact what One Trillion Dollars could buy.

A Present

Riddles in the Dark: The Lost Version. The following is a side-by-side comparison of the two versions of Chapter 5 of the Hobbit, presented in order to provide insight as to how the smallest of details can affect the overall themes of Tolkien's work.


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Retrophone

Turning the Bell Model 500 desk phone mobile.

Listen Up

Support a Full Congressional Inquiry into Illegal Wiretapping. Congresswoman Heather Wilson has defied her Republican leadership and called for a full congressional inquiry into the wiretapping scandal. Tell your representative you agree.

Get Your Glasses

The Libraries and Librarians Flickr Pool - Find photos and images by and about libraries, librarians, and library life on Flickr.

S M V E M J S U N P

Planetary Fact Sheets

Screw You

Virtual Corkscrew Museum - Presents a collection of old corkscrews.

How Far Is Too Far?

The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity.

In The Curl

Photo gallery from the Maverick's surf competition which just took place south of San Francisco.

Sleight Of Hand

If you read enough numbers, you never know what you'll find. Take President Bush and private Social Security accounts.

Last year, even though Bush talked endlessly about the supposed joys of private accounts, he never proposed a specific plan to Congress and never put privatization costs in the budget. But this year, with no fanfare whatsoever, Bush stuck a big Social Security privatization plan in the federal budget proposal, which he sent to Congress on Monday.

Star Catcher

The Milky Way appears to have stolen about a million low-mass stars from a dense "globular cluster" in the constellation Ophiuchus, astronomers have discovered.

Following Orders

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.

Creationist

Trading Card Maker - Create a customized trading card from your digital photographs

Vision Of Childhood

Ice cream Face
Originally uploaded by techrcg.

Just A Theory

Administration official: “Big Bang” is just a theory. George Deutsch, a presidential appointee in NASA headquarters, told a Web designer working for the agency to add the word “theory” after every mention of the Big Bang, according to an e-mail message from Mr. Deutsch that another NASA employee forwarded to The Times. The Big Bang memo came from Mr. Deutsch, a 24-year-old presidential appointee in the press office at NASA headquarters whose résumé says he was an intern in the “war room” of the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.

Degrees Of Separation

Six degrees of Wikipedia - How many steps it is between any wiki article and any other article.

Hiding Under The Desk

Protect and Survive - This booklet tells you how to make your home and family as safe as possible under nuclear attack.

(202) 456-1111

Darfur Update: Stop the next holocaust, make a phone call. For Goodness Sake.

Cut Tax And Military Spend

The White House has just released the budget for 2007. If approved by Congress, this budget would increase defense spending by 24%, cut money from healthcare, education, and the environment all while adding another $354 billion to the U.S. debt.

Us And Them

A study by Andrew Gelman, a statistics and political science professor at Columbia, finds that there are wider differences between how the richest versus the poorest residents vote in low-income states (Red) than in high-income states (Blue). Or - the rich are much more likely to vote Republican in a state where they are in a population with lots of much poorer folks.

May The Force Be With You

The Star Wars Collectors Archive, launched in 1994, was the first Star Wars collecting site on the Internet.

The Big Bets

Super Bowl XL Commercials

Can We Impeach Him Yet?

Senator Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says President George W. Bush's warrantless surveillance program appears to be illegal.

Word Up

Study shows Republicans more likely to be racist. Shocking!

License To Kill

Can the President Order a Killing on U.S. Soil?

You Pay For It

Did you know the Pentagon has an internet TV channel that presents military news?

Lost In Space

The Lost Cosmonauts

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You Figure It Out

Nasty Little Truth About Spacetime Physics

All Rise

The Grand Ole Docket - Tracks trial dates, court appearances and sentencing hearings for players in the current array of national political scandals.

Frank Chu And The Twelve Galaxies

Local Nutters - Everywhere in the world has its fair share of wacky people. Share yours.

A War Economy

100 Companies Receiving The Largest Dollar Volume Of Department Of Defence Prime Contract Awards For 2005

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night...

100 Best first lines from novels

All The Cool Kid's Are Doing It

Do you remember of Darth Vader's Blog? Now there is Chewbacca's Blog and a Yoda blog too.

Jingle Jangle

Advertising jingles

Where's The Beef?

Classic TV ads

Purple Pedigree

Potentially useful diagram of the New Riders of the Purple Sage family tree.

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Small Time

And, in the surprise of the night, conservatives became Bush's target. "In a complex and challenging time," Bush said, "the road of isolationism and protectionism may seem broad and inviting--yet it ends in danger and decline."

I, Spy

On NSA Spying: A Letter to Congress - Fifteen constitutional scholars and former government officials express their concerns regarding the administration's warrantless electronic surveillance program.

Big Cheese

Federal Reserve Board: Chairman Bernanke - Biography of Ben Bernanke, the new Fed Chairman.

Super Size It

Supersized meals

City Lists

Top 100 List of lists of cities

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Palace Revolt

They were loyal conservatives, and Bush appointees. They fought a quiet battle to rein in the president's power in the war on terror. And they paid a price for it.

Death Of The Dinosaur

Is ethanol the answer?

Enron Endgame

Enron: TrialWatch - Blogging the trial of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling with the Houston Chronicle staff

Lying Liar

I know Ray intentionally missed President George W. Bush's annual State of the Union Address on Tuesday, as did I for much the same reason. But here is a recap of the lies he told and the agenda he is pushing.

Bipartisan Internet War

Congress caught making false entries in Wikipedia

Fondues And Don'ts

GoFondue - The Home of Fondue - There is much more to fondue than bread and cheese. Hot oil, broth, and dessert fondues are making a comeback too.

Cyber Psy-Ops

A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military's plans for "information operations" - from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.

The operations described in the Information Operations Roadmap include a surprising range of military activities: public affairs officers who brief journalists, psychological operations troops who try to manipulate the thoughts and beliefs of an enemy, computer network attack specialists who seek to destroy enemy networks.

Good Old Days

Dungeon Generator - Configure the dungeon by selecting from the options and then click the "Generate Dungeon" button to see the result. (Show of hands for those that use to play D&D)

Mechanical Marvels

Victorian-era Robots - Read illustrated accounts of the world's first robot, the Steam Man, created in 1865!