Renault Ballet

Watching cars do an intricate group dance is nice, but it’s even better when something goes wrong! (via the Presurfer)

Information, useful or not.

How did people make toast before electric toasters? By setting a gadget over a fire or a stove burner. This site has some of these antique implements for sale, with descriptions on how they were used. (via Grow-A-Brain)

The man who saved the world by doing ...nothing.

The proper procedure for bringing your own wine to a restaurant.

Recipe for poutine.

Caffeine Facts.

The longest non-stop flight ever measured. Yes, it was a bird! A bar-tailed godwit flew 7,145 miles from Alaska to New Zealand—without taking a break for food or drink.

Follow Aurora Borealis season with online webcams and galleries.

Crocodiles have a powerful homing instinct. Move them, and they’ll travel hundred of miles to get home. This just-released study is the last paper by Steve Irwin.

Ten full-length classic movies available online, ranging from the chilling Nosferatu to the heartwarming It’s A Wonderful Life. All worth watching!

School Integration in Little Rock

15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford was the first black student to attend a white school in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Journalist Will Counts took this picture of Eckford’s entrance, with student Hazel Brown shouting at her. 50 years later, Vanity Fair looks at what happened then, and what became of Eckford and Brown and their relationship. More pictures here. (via Metafilter)

Some fun links

The Condom Cannon.

The One Semester of Spanish Love Song.

This is just too funny. I felt bad about laughing out loud about this street crime, but I couldn’t help myself.

What do you mean, unemployable? Inked, Inc. has profiles of heavily tattooed doctors, lawyers, professors, etc.

Donkey Kong in real life is a whole lot harder than the video game.

Worst use of a file photo ever.

Today they came for my bicycle.

Eva Heyman was a Hungarian Jewish girl who kept a diary during World War II. On this Flickr page, you’ll find an entry about the day they took her bicycle away.

One of the policemen was very annoyed and said: All we need is for a Jewgirl to put on such a comedy when her bicycle is being taken away. No Jewkid is entitled to keep a bicycle anymore. The Jews aren’t entitled to bread, either; they shouldn’t guzzle everything, but leave the food for the soldiers. You can imagine, dear diary, how I felt when they were saying this to my face. I had only heard that sort of thing on the radio, or read it in a German newspaper. Still, it’s different when you read something and when it’s thrown into your face. Especially if it’s when they’re taking my bicycle away. Actually, what does that nasty policeman think? That we stole the bicycle? We bought it from Hoffmann for cash, and Grandpa and all the others worked for this money.

Eva was sent to Auschwitz whenshe was 13 years old. You can read the end of her story here.

Real-Life Donkey Kong

Eisenhower Campaign Jingle

That’s what the 2008 campaign is missing -catchy jingles! (via PCL Linkdump)

Around the Blogosphere

Momma K at Petroville ran a contest for the Worst School Picture Ever. I sure wish I had posted this before it was over... that’s what I get for being sick and behind. Here’s the winner! See other entries here.

RockyJay has decided to give up blogging in the usual way, and specialize in what people, er, men, come to his blog for in the first place.

Marti tells about how the SWAT team busted into Grandma’s house.

Wendell Wit is dedicated to protecting the Right to Pun.

Hoss went to Hawaii. I am so jealous!

Why do the most interesting bloggers decide to just up and quit? Maybe because they have a real life. Farewell, Homo Escapeons!

Links to Make You Think

When asked about the economy, Bush said, “You know, you need to talk to economists. I think I got a B in Econ 101. I got an A, however, in keeping taxes low and being fiscally responsible with the people’s money.” In college, he actually got a C- in Economics.

List of countries by their account balances. Who is in the red? It took me a while to find the United States.

Jon Swift asks the question: Are We Tasering People Enough?

So you’re about to be invaded by the United States. Advice for Iran. (via Grow-A-Brain)

The US Embassy in Baghdad. This is the largest US Embassy built – roughly the size of Vatican City – and at $600 million (£300 million) the most expensive. At a time when millions of Baghdadis outside the green zone receive only a couple of hours of water and electricity daily, Iraqis observe that this project has been completed on time, on budget, and is entirely self-sufficient with its own fresh water supply, electricity plant, sewage treatment facility, maintenance shops and warehouses. (via Grow-A-Brain)

British health care professionals react to Michael Moore’s movie Sicko. They are appalled at the American system, think that the British system may not be as great as the movie paints it, but that’s only because the British don’t spend nearly as much money on health care as Americans do.

Moonwalking Bird

The manakin bird is quite a dancer. Evolutionary ornithologist Kim Bostwick introduces the manakin bird’s dance in this clip from PBS’s series Deep Jungle. (via Dump Trumpet)

Theraminbot and Thumpbot

Watching someone play a theramin is weird enough, now here’s a robot playing the theramin! The “Theraminbot” is named Lev, and his friend on percussion is a “thumpbot.” Here they perform Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy. (via Arboath)

Let The Sun Shine In

The finale of the movie Hair, where Berger mistakenly boards for Vietnam in place of Bukowski.

News You Can Use

How to sleep on a plane.

Some Moral Dilemmas: What would YOU do?

Index of celebrity mugshots.

Unusual articles in Wikipedia.

The legend of Prague’s Astronomical Clock.

30 Code Words For Sugar. Remember these when you read food labels.

The IRS has unveiled a new website section for those undergoing foreclosure. Just one more indication that the bubble has indeed burst.

Sixteen reasons we should operate on a four-day work week.

Lazy-Ass Nation. Really, this is not a response to the above item!

October 8, 1871: The deadliest fire in the history of the United States occurred, but NOT in Chicago.

Velociraptor, the terrifying predator made famous in the movie "Jurassic Park," appears to have had feathers in real life. It puts me in mind of the 6-Foot Man Eating Chicken you see at carnivals.

Darth Vader Blues

OK, admit it. You’ve thought about this before, haven’t you? (via Gorilla Mask)

The Last Lecture

46-year-old Carnegie-Mellon professor Randy Paush delivered his final lecture, entitled “How to Live Your Dreams” on Tuesday. Paush has terminal pancreatic cancer. The lecture is powerful and uplifting.

"What we're not going to talk about today," he continued, "is cancer, because I've spent a lot of time talking about that ... and we're not going to talk about things that are even more important, like my wife and [three preschool] kids, because I'm good, but I'm not good enough to talk about that without tearing up."

What he was there to discuss was how to fulfill your childhood dreams, and the lessons he had learned on his life's journey.

Link to story.
Link to video.
Link to full lecture (opens in new player).
Link to Pausch’s website.

I Just Wanna Make Love to You

Fun stuff!

Internet Retirement Party. This is funny!

LOLsecretz. Also see Lolthulhu and Icanhasderbygirlz.

No fewer than 150 Monty Python videos - and the number of videos posted shall be 150. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink. Say no more!

Contact lenses that will frighten everyone around you. (via the Presurfer)

Hedgehog put through laundry cycle; comes out squeaky clean. (via Arbroath)

You know you’re getting older when you realize the president of the United States speaks Valley Girl. (via Grow-A-Brain)

Dancing hot dogs. (via Miniature Brainwave)

NYC Subway Map Hoodie. (via Dump Trumpet)

Train in a Bangkok Market.

The World Beard & Moustache Championship Winners 2007. See first through third place winners in seventeen categories. Seventeen!

Harry Potter in the Hood

H. Piddy in the role of his life! I thought I would have to listen to this two or three times to catch all the pop culture reference, but the lyrics are avilable if you scroll down this page.

Political Roundup

Republican Scandals of 2007 (via J-Walk Blog)

Of course, it’s only September. The guy who made this says its not even inclusive for the first nine months of the year! See the details and more here.

Why U.S. Food Aid Benefits Big Business and Not Starving People. This article deals with international aid, not domestic policies, although a similar mindset in involved.

Open letter to John Stossel from Julie Pierce.

John Edwards wants Congress to give up their health care plan. Ha!

Music Scholar Barred From U.S., but No One Will Tell Her Why.

Why do they hate the stork so much? (via Grow-A-Brain)

Seeking Justice for Yang Yin.

Time Wasters and Fun Stuff

Fun with a drunk buddy.

Famous poems rewritten as limericks!

Lifting a car with water.

Animals that only bite tourists.

Why I hate Star Trek and why it sucks. (via Look at This)

Cute kitten eating a melon.

A closer look at chocolate addiction, including the many happy chemicals it contains.

Do you like tennis? (via the Presurfer)

Fractal art based on the patterns from electroencephalograms (EEGs).

Get a Shave!

Chris Crocker reacts to Fox News

Chris Crocker didn't know what nonsense he started with his Leave Britney Alone video. The parodies include Chris' Dad, a response from "Britney", a response from Seth Green, an interview on Jimmy Kimmel, a report by Keith Olbermann, 1460 video responses on YouTube, and one I particularly like, Leave General Petraous Alone!

Now, here's Chris reacting to the coverage on Fox News. You go, girl!

Drop Bear

At mental_floss, I posted an article today called Animals that only bite tourists. One of the subjects was the Drop Bear, a marsupial that drops from a tree and eats the brains of unsuspecting tourists in Australia. Jase suggested in the comments that I look up this video. Hilarious!

Stuff you should know.

Letter from the mother of a gay man.

The movie Iron Man won’t be out til next May, but you can see the trailer now. And yes, you get to see Iron Man, although he is traveling pretty fast. (via Fuzzytopia)

Top 529 eternal questions in popular music.

25 Skills Every Man Should Know.

10 Google Video Documentaries You Have To Watch.

The 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time.

The truth about recycling: Is it worth it?

What's the best way to praise a child? Be specific.

The 8 Most Common Sci-Fi Visions of the Future (And Why They'll Never Happen).

Forevertron: World’s Largest Scrap Metal Sculpture.

The New Zealand All Blacks rugby team popularized the ceremonial haka {wiki} dance worldwide, although they are far from the only sports team to use it. The blog Rugby World Cup 2007 has several videos explaining the meaning of the haka, plus the lyrics.

Study finds bras don’t support bouncing breasts.

A Four-Dimensional Tribute to the Late Madeleine L'Engle.

Freegans: Anti-Consumerists or Just Tightwads?

Beware the world’s worst credit card.

Why the first kiss means so much.

The Scariest Thing I Have Ever Seen.

1964 FSU Ad

This 1964 promotional film for Florida State University stars an aspiring young actor and student named Jim Morrison, before he and Ray Manzarek formed The Doors.

Platitudes vs. Life

"Children need both mothers and fathers, and marriage is society’s way of obtaining them." (Republican Party of Texas in their "Talking Points on marriage" brochure)









Check out this devastating photo gallery featuring quoted platitudes and pictures of the real world.

Shakin All Over

Political Stuff

Political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.

Reaction to the above article.

Map the Candidates uses Google Map technology to show you where the candidates are, and where they are spending their time campaigning. (via Neatorama)

There's something very wrong when the very youngest people with the brightest futures and happiest lives laid out in front of them pick up a gun and go fight a war that no one really understands, no one really wanted, and no one can really see a way out of that everyone can get behind, and come home to find out that the injuries and insults their bodies absorbed on our behalf are not only underappreciated, but UNappreciated by the blood-thirsty vultures who demanded this sacrifice from them in the first place.

More along the same lines: How to make cancer in veterans disappear.

Bush: Just so you know.

Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction.

Why Bush's Mortgage Bailout Plan Is a Bad Idea.

What you say can come back to bite you a few years later.

Maxim’s favorite political sex scandals.

9/11, Six Years Later

How to Remember 9/11.

The 2,996 Project last year had bloggers writing memorials to one person each. You'll find a list of those posts here.

My memorial post last year was for Robert C. McLaughlin.

The perspective of a New Yorker: I Am Not Afraid.

Dark Roasted Blend has a post of images that date from before 9/11, but seem eerily prescient.

What progress has been made in rebuilding at Ground Zero?

Ursi’s Blog has lots of 9/11 memorial links today.

Metafilter has a ton of music video links for Patriot Day.

News coverage of the anniversary in New York City.

Fun Links

Batman by Dostoyevsky.

Homemade flamethrowers in action.

Paleo-Future has a series of French prints from 1910 depicting what life will be like in the year 2000.

You can teach a robot to swim, if its a robotic fish!

A really cute laughing baby.

7 Amazing Holes. No goatse or Ground Zero.

An old clip of the best-named racehorse in history.

The More You Know...

What you should know before you donate your hair to charity.

The banana-snapping world record. (via Gorilla Mask)

What “labour shortage” means is that employers can’t find workers with the right skills at a price they like. It’s a British story, but applicable to America. And helps explain why food is so cheap and you still can’t afford health insurance.

The folks at NPR wondered if $55 Bling H2O really tasted better than other bottled waters. They conducted a taste test featuring Bling H2O, normally-priced bottled water, and Manhattan tap water, and posted a video report. I don’t think the results will really surprise you. (via Metafilter)

A century of helicopters, in pictures.

The 50 Worst Cars of All Time.

Laud Humphreys and the Tearoom Sex Study.

The 100 Best TV Shows of all Time.

Daddy Scares Little Girl

I'm sick!

I feel worse than I've felt in a LONG time. Took FOUR naps today! And still managed to catch up on some work for Mental Floss, but that's about it. I should be back to normal by Monday (I hope). Meanwhile, go visit Miss Cellania for this week's best links. And a couple of jokes.

Apple IIc

I had one of these in the mid-80s, but it was a hand-me-down, so I didn’t pay for it. It was a fun toy til I discovered Macintosh. (via Consumerist)

Friday Fun

Internet People.

You might think that having a robot solve your Rubik’s Cube takes the fun out of the toy. But robots are cool, and Straydog Scraps has eight different puzzle-solving robots, with videos.

My Hoover sounds like Chewbacca!

Ball of Being, a pleasant abstract animation. (via Grow-A-Brain)

I am an IDIOT--But thank you for your concern.

Eight videos of Luciano Pavarotti singing with pop stars.

Look at me! I’m so pretty, you can’t even see me! Can you spot the big bug in this photograph? It’s an African Flower Mantid.

Attorney Mark Goodall creates science fiction sculptures from antique and art deco appliances and toys. (via Everlasting Blort)

A vast collection of unusual musical instruments.

Jackie Chan’s ten worst movie injuries caught on film.

Dogs just wanna have fun.

How to keep an idiot busy.

Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam

Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam is a documentary scheduled for release in 2008. It was directed by Tammy Nguyen Lee, founder of Against the Grain Productions.

"Operation Babylift" was a $2 million dollar US initiative that airlifted over 2,000 Vietnamese orphans out of a war-torn country to protect them from the impending threat of the Communist Regime. Coined by some as "one of the most humanitarian efforts in history," it was also plagued by lawsuits and political turmoil. Even with the best intentions, these adoptees grew up facing a unique set of challenges in America, including prejudice overshadowed by a controversial war and cultural identity crisis. Now, over thirty years later, this documentary takes a candid look at a significant yet untold event as seen through the eyes of the volunteers, parents, and organizations directly involved, as well as uncovers the "lost" stories of the the adoptees and who they have become as adults. This documentary is not just a a historical piece, but gives a contemporary voice and perspective on international adoption today through the eyes of the adoptees themselves.

Read more at the film website. (Thanks, Kris!)

Interesting

The Secret of Star Wars Fandom.

Drive your car to death, save $31,000.

What really goes on at a telemarketing center.

Is it a good thing to have a urinal in your house? I personally think a bidet would be better.

People can be really good at heart.

Voyager I was launched 30 years ago, and is still sending signals back from 9.5 billion miles away! They don’t make things like that anymore.

Sitcom Aliens.

Radical Honesty: Good idea, or just plain stupid?

Politics as Usual

Read more on Fred Thompson at Simply Left Behind.

The Fed may bail out the banks and mortgage companies, but they are not going to help the working class schmoe who still may lose his house.

Another horror story about our airport security measures and how we treat visitors from other nations.

Why liberals are obsessed with Larry Craig.

What would happen if we got rid of all the illegal immigrants?

A progressive group of U.S. nuns has called on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. (via Crooks and Liars)

My Own Bob Dylan Video!

My own Bob Dylan video!

You can make your own, too.

(via the Generator Blog)

Morph Thing

Morph Thing is an application that lets you combine two faces! Combine two celebrities, or register and upload your own faces to morph. I tried it -go here to see the results.

Around the Blogosphere

Congratulations to Wellington Grey on his recent wedding!

YesButNoButYes has a new server, or platform, or something and you can now comment again, after a couple months of very dry posting.

Raggedy is back on the computer, but dealing with the aftermath of a tornado that hit her town August 26th. You can see a lot of pictures of the damage at her site.

Good news from Astryngia finally: her tumor is shrinking!

Se7en finally moved into a home of his own, two years after Katrina, but had a worse-than-usual runaround from the utility companies.

LBB went fishing, and caught a big one.

What will they think of next?

You can't stop progress! Oh yes, here's a song for Larry Craig.

Fun and Funnies

I think you need to go see this ad for Cadbury chocolate. I’m not telling you anything else about it, except that it make me smile. (via Metafilter)

Partial Face Transplants. Some very good Photoshop users made portraits by using the left side of one person’s face, and the right side of another. Cover half the face with your hand to recognize who it is. (via Dump Trumpet)

I honestly thought this Star Wars/Simpsons mashup was from the TV show, but it was done by animator Rich Cando. (via YesButNoButYes)

Show them to me. (NSFW)

Gravity, explained in a retro animation. (via Everlasting Blort)

Crosswalk Prank. (via Cynical-C)

I’ll bet he can do it better than he can say it. (via Boing Boing)

The evil eye of the Vampire Squid.

Durian is a hypnotically beautiful animation. Take five minutes and chill out to this. (via Miltant Platytpus)