Barack Obama has a stalker. "For the past 10 days, U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama hasn't been able to go to the bathroom or talk to his wife on his cell phone without having a camera-toting political gofer from his Republican rival filming a few feet away." Jack Ryan, the Republican candidate for the Senate, has assigned a campaign staffer to film everything Obama, a current Illinois state senator, says and does while he's in Springfield. Ryan's spokeswoman says this is "a normal way for us to make sure that his message is being consistent in both parts of the state." (Chicago Tribune link, registration required) But isn't this going just a little too far?
posted by SisterHavana at 3:20 PM PST - 33 comments

Kung-fu Bunny [Silly Flash]
posted by dayvin at 2:06 PM PST - 9 comments

How much is your soul worth? I really couldn't say. Currently this dude's soul is worth 97 dollars.
posted by chunking express at 1:38 PM PST - 21 comments

Middle-Class 2003: How Congress Voted (executive summary) Who is doing better under the a Republican White House and Congress? If you're part of the vast majority...the middle class...it isn't you. So finds a very useful new report out today from the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, a non-partisan think tank. Full report here. (PDF) The study defines middle class as Americans with incomes between approximately 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold and those of the top 5 percent of earners -- roughly $25,000 to $100,000 a year. (Which excludes Congresscritters, who have consistently given themselves raises to well over 150k a year.)
posted by dejah420 at 1:22 PM PST - 13 comments

Red and green dots have never been so interesting. At least to a geek like me. I love it when my brain plays tricks on me.
posted by jeremy at 12:30 PM PST - 33 comments

A Visit to Old Los Angeles "A pictorial survey of downtown Los Angeles, and certain other areas, focusing on the years 1900 to 1915, though occasionally making use of images from other times. This series will follow, primarily by means of actual postcards of the era, the travels of a farming family from the great plains as they visit Los Angeles and its environs in the early years of the Twentieth Century." In 29 episodes, and with lots of postcards.
posted by carter at 12:25 PM PST - 5 comments

"The directives have not changed anything. They are just clarifications of what is in the regulations that were written by the National Organic Standards Board" Think your "organic" food is pesticide free? Not if the Bush Administration has their way. War is Peace and all that jazz... via Grist Magazine
posted by Windopaene at 12:05 PM PST - 10 comments

Chicago is sinking at the rate of about a millimeter a year(or about 4 inches per century), and it's being caused by melting Canadian glaciers that cause the land to shift.
posted by geeknik at 11:45 AM PST - 16 comments

I hate my dumbass town. Come for the ennui, stay for the police logs.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 11:41 AM PST - 33 comments

Ginsberg's Celestial Homework is the reading list Ginsberg handed out on the first day at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics as "suggestions for a quick check-out & taste of ancient scriveners whose works were reflected in Beat literary style..." Founded in 1974, Ginsberg taught at the school until his death in 1997.
posted by Satapher at 11:29 AM PST - 16 comments

Father and 12 year old daughter camp undiscovered for four years in city park. A heartwarming story of love, generosity, and happy endings.
posted by karmaville at 10:56 AM PST - 38 comments

Monsanto Wins Fight to Control Plant The Canadian Supreme court sets international precedent by ruling that since Monsanto holds a patent on a gene, it can control the use of the plant. So does this mean that in the future that an engineered human gene could be patented, and therefore if you receive this gene you will have to make royalty payments? And if you renege on paying can they repo the gene?
posted by batboy at 10:28 AM PST - 34 comments

Bill Gates on weblogs and RSS. It was inevitable, wasn't it?! Embrace and extend, baby. Embrace and extend...
posted by insomnia_lj at 10:25 AM PST - 17 comments

Robin Hood Tales. Also including the Google cache because it is on Geocities.
posted by bargle at 10:04 AM PST - 1 comments

Douglas Feith - "What has the Pentagon's third man done wrong? Everything."
How many people know who Feith is? As the #3 man in the Pentagon, and a key architect of the war in Iraq, with many interesting affiliations more should. ,
posted by specialk420 at 8:36 AM PST - 13 comments

"I showed them everything from a simple hook to a nonfunctioning artificial hand to a $50,000 bionic arm," Agris says. "They all picked the bionic arm." 7 Iraqi men recieve tattoo removal and a bionic arm.
posted by tomplus2 at 8:19 AM PST - 13 comments

UnPop : Features such menaces to society/artists as Jim Goad and Boyd Rice. Most works of art and site NSFW.
posted by angry modem at 8:16 AM PST - 10 comments

Remember Mac System 6? If you do, then P.dro Classic™ is for you. Relive the glory days of 1 bit-per-pixel porn (it's almost life-like if you squint) and Pong-like games with the mouse! Hey, it's Friday and this is Flash. For me, it's the Startup Sound that makes this.
posted by tommasz at 7:03 AM PST - 15 comments

Diaries of the Lewis and Clark Journey. American Journeys has a collection or primary source documents about the Lewis and Clark Journey across America, including the diary of Sergeant Charles Floyd (the only member of the expedition to die en route), Jefferson's letter to Clark where he suggests the expedition, and 63 engravings of Places and People. If you're into history, you might also want to vote on Wisconsin Turning Points, a ballot to determine the most interesting topics in Wisconsin History.
posted by rev- at 6:13 AM PST - 3 comments

Cargo cultists versus Christians. Two religions enter, one religion leaves! Differences have led to murder on an island near Oceania. Many of us learned about cargo cults from Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. However, it seems that there's more to the story, including a Lyndon Johnson connection.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:26 AM PST - 15 comments

Brandon Bird is originally from Sacramento. Bird's art serves to spread the light of truth and freedom across a nation of bitter and oppressed souls. We've seen his Law & Order coloring book, so see the rest!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:04 AM PST - 6 comments

Thomas Wright Waller would have been one hundred today! The web is filled with brief profiles, even Ken Burns has got in on the act and laid his deathly touch on him. Luckily there are some sites with a little more meat, a nice article from The Atlantic, streaming audio so you can hear some of his music, pictures, an explanation of stride piano (.au) by Billy Taylor, and a nice piece from Weekend Edition. Happy birthday Fats!
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 4:49 AM PST - 6 comments

From Abba to Zappa
posted by davehat at 4:36 AM PST - 16 comments

So You Think You're Fundamentally Badass, Do You? Well...*hearty guffaw*... take the test and think again, dude! ( That is, ass if I knew what badass or kickass or even ass itself meant...)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:47 AM PST - 27 comments