Plurib.us

After the previous hoopla regarding the Kansas School Board's decision to endorse Intelligent Design as an evolution-alternative in textbooks, and the proposition from venganza.org/ to include the Flying Spaghetti Monster as possessing equal responsibility for creation, the fine folks at boingboing.net have made the following bold statement:

We are willing to pay any individual $250,000 if they can produce empirical evidence which proves that Jesus is not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

boingboing.net/2005/08/19/boi...

I really like food.  It tastes great, and it can sometimes be good for you!  Resources for food are both vast and unreliable, but I have found my new daily food site:

slashfood.com/

More and more, I (and others I know) have been awe-inspired at some of the amazing stuff at wikipedia.org.  Both the breadth, and depth of information (the latter is especially inspiring that the writing style tends to lack bias).  For example, I was re-amazed just today after I found out my great grand parents most likely immigrated from Grodno, Poland.  I looked it up, and they have a year-by-year history of its change of government throughout the existence of the city.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrodno

(I found out also today that they are making the editorial process a little stricter to prevent increasing abuse.  It's a little sad, but I don't think I mind.)

I've been reading Sun Tzu for a long time.  I should have been keeping a closer eye on his editor:  mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/12...

Ebert's Most Hated

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sometimes, Roger Ebert is exposed to bad movies. When that happens, it is his duty -- if not necessarily his pleasure -- to report them (fairly, accurately) as he sees them. Whether they're so bad they're funny, so bad they're not funny, or so unfunny they're not funny, he must critique them.

rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...

Elevated camera session 2005-08-06:
plurib.us/photo/2005-08-...

Last weekend Peter & I got my camera off the ground again.  --designed, built, & pictures taken all in one day.  (For those counting, it's been over 5 years.)  I wouldn't call these the final products.  But I did do some manipulation (namely, took out color and tweaked contrast), so they aren't straight raw images either.

Digital camera:
plurib.us/photo/air_came...

Fisheye:
plurib.us/photo/2005-07-...

Peter's camera (making of):
plurib.us/photo/air_came...

Now scooters can go where bikes go, in MN.
startribune.com/stories/462/55...

Mitch and Katie are engaged!!!

plurib.us/tuliptime2005/...

Can you stand it?????

The Struggle to Right Oneself: Photographs

skarbakka.com/portfolioNew.h...

Janet Van Haaften
1917-2005
plurib.us/tuliptime2005/...

Selig sind die Toten, die in dem Herrn sterben, von nun an. Ja ser Geist spricht, daß sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit; denn ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach.

Pop quiz: Identify the source of each quotation:

1) "I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

2) "Rail as they will about 'discrimination,' women are simply not endowed by nature with the same measures of single-minded ambition and the will to succeed in the fiercely competitive world of Western capitalism."

3) "You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense, I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist."

1) George Bush, Sr.
2) Pat Buchanan
3) Pat Robertson

From the unfortunately aptly named "The American Taliban"
reandev.com/taliban/

Intriguing prospect of meat grown in labs.

newsdesk.umd.edu/scitech/releas...

Lions free kidnapped girl. (!)

"If the lions had not come to her rescue then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage," he said.

"Everyone ... thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people," Wondimu said.

edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/afr...

An open letter to the Kansas School Board:

I am writing you with much concern after I read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design to be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design..

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

venganza.org/

Butter-sculptures are cliche. Lard is the new medium for clogged-artery art.

bctf.ca/PSAs/BCCASA/BC...

Unfortunately, the traditional symbols for "peace" (and "live long and prosper") are symbols of satanism, witchcraft, and freemasonry. Fortunately, my only external symbol is that of a closed fist.  Boo-yah!

nisbett.com/symbols/peace_...

Corset-piercing.  Not for the faint-of-heart.

snopes.com/photos/bodymod...

Step 1) michaelbach.de/ot/col_rapidAf...

Step 2) Follow the instructions.

Step 3) Wonder if this could be on a t-shirt. 

(via metafilter.com)

South Africa changes the name of its capital city to something more friendly (originally named during the Apartheid after an Afrikaner "hero"), and racist Afrikaners start being vocal.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/afr...

Just had another evening of spot checking the internet.  It's still astonishingly uncategorizable, and a big waste of time.

Your next birthday on other planets:
exploratorium.edu/ronh/age/

Early-rising method that works for at least 1 person:
stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/h...

Blank cards, made to be unusual:
unusualcards.com/memories.html

A preposterous sex predictor theory (this is a real news story):
news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...

For those of us who spend a lot of time trying to decode what we just wrote, here's a handy guide to improve your handwriting:

paperpenalia.com/handwriting.ht...

Guardian readers have questions.  Luckily, other Guardian readers have answers.

guardian.co.uk/notesandquerie...

Somewhat interesting analysis of American people and their political leanings.  (New, statistical, sociological, but readable.)  I heard a guy talking about this on MPR this morning.

people-press.org/reports/displa...

Finally, an update on FireFox usage stats:

websidestory.com/products/web-a...

A plastic version of 20-questions, with the accumulated brain-power of the eerily accurate 20-questions web site.

gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadget...

Tulip Time in Pella, IA 2005.  The photographic record resides  within:

plurib.us/tuliptime2005/...

Cool QuickTime of Cassini's orbit around Saturn up to 2007.  Note Titan's orbit, and how it alters Cassini's orbit.

saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/vid...

Current image of the Earth from a geostationary satellite, updated every 3 hours.  (This is way cool, but it would be so much cooler in color.)

space.com/spacewatch/ear...

And of the Sun (don't look at it directly), updated every 4 hours.

space.com/spacewatch/sun...

Farewell, Sacagawea.

usatoday.com/money/2005-04-...