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On the night of April 27th, 1805, US Marine Lt. Presley O'Bannon led a ragtag army of Greek, Arab and Berber mercenaries in a desperate charge into the teeth of the fortifications of Derna, Tripoli (now Libya). The defenders inexplicably turned and ran, leaving behind loaded cannons which, turned around, secured victory for the US in its first land battle in the old world.

In recognition of his bravery, Lt. O'Bannon was given a sword by Hamet Karamanli. William Eaton (no, the other William Eaton ) had led O'Bannon, six other US Marines, and the five hundred odd mercenaries across six hundred miles of North African desert in order to replace the usurping Pasha of Tripoli, Yusef, with the rightful heir, his pro-American older brother Hamet.

Shortly after the battle, Yusef reached a peace with Col. Tobias Lear, the American Consul to Tripoli, and hostilities between the US and Tripoli ceased. Eaton, O'Bannon, and Hamet Karamanli, along with the Marines and most of the Greeks, departed aboard American warships, leaving the Muslim mercenaries behind in Derna. Unpaid.
posted by hob at 11:48 PM PST - 11 comments

The folks at Gaussboys sell these great Neodymium magnets that are many times more powerful than your ordinary magnet. Cylinder #3 works great for the fridge; I hear Disk #20 is good enough for hanging up your bike.
posted by MarkO at 10:48 PM PST - 35 comments

instant karma [note: flash, nsfw]
posted by crunchland at 8:58 PM PST - 11 comments

The FBI has been given increased surveillance powers without court oversight under the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, which was signed into law on the day Saddam was captured. The law was recently used to have hotels and airlines in Las Vegas turn over guest and passenger names and information for the holiday period.
posted by homunculus at 8:55 PM PST - 35 comments

indieWIRE's Top 20 Undistributed Films and Film Threat's 10 Best/Worst Unseen Films of last year.
posted by boost ventilator at 8:24 PM PST - 24 comments

www.helpjohngetdivorced.com "I would be lying if I told you that I wasn't pissed off at my future ex-wife, however, I am not bitter about our divorce. Quite the contrary I would like to move on with my life, but she is not allowing this."
posted by wuakeen at 6:59 PM PST - 8 comments

Talking trash to Dig Dug (4.5 MB .mov file), and other oddities. Short films promoting Out of Our Heads, a Columbus area improv group.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 6:51 PM PST - 9 comments

Are you tired of two-party politics? Cheer up. You can be a Beer Drinker or a Nazi [possibly NSFW] or a Fascist. Join the Pot Party or even the anarchosocialist Birthday Party.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 1:00 PM PST - 25 comments

Walt Whitman! [Courtesy of My Robot Friend.]
posted by monju_bosatsu at 11:11 AM PST - 16 comments

Iraq's Arsenal Was Only On Paper
posted by FormlessOne at 10:38 AM PST - 52 comments

Why Did Attorney General Ashcroft Remove Himself From The Valerie Plame Wilson Leak Investigation? If there is a witness willing to testify against one -- or both -- of the leakers in exchange for immunity, what then? It seems likely that Fitzgerald will move very quickly to find out if there is indeed a case to be made against the leakers. To bolster his case, he may call Novak and others to the grand jury or, as noted above, subpoena Novak's (and others') phone records over the relevant period. Even Ashcroft himself could in theory be called to the grand jury. If this case does not make headlines in 90 to 120 days, it will be quite surprising. There has been too much high level action and Comey, a presidential appointee, knows that politically it would be better for Bush & Company to have the matter flushed out within the next few months, than to have it arise just before the November election. Needless to say, this could be an interesting year for the White House, with more than reelection to worry about.
posted by y2karl at 10:37 AM PST - 8 comments

Laura's Girls Jenna and Barbara have not campaigned or reined in their adolescent rebellions. They have not appeared engaged in any of the pressing issues their generation will inherit, nor shown empathy for the struggles facing their mother and their father, the president of the United States. They have not treated with respect their Secret Service details, those highly trained men and women who literally would take a bullet for them. They don't show their faces at the White House often. So far, they have shown little inclination to embrace the life of public service modeled by their parents, uncle and grandparents. They are girls born rich, blessed with intelligence, good looks, trust funds, loving parents, boundless opportunities, freedom from many of life's daily vexing challenges. Yet they persist in seeing themselves as victims of daddy's job. In this attitude, they have been subtly encouraged by their mother.
posted by amberglow at 10:24 AM PST - 78 comments

PowerLabs : Science in action! Explosions, sparks and EM mayhem. Hours of fun. (Days of fun for those on 56k dial-up).
posted by swordfishtrombones at 10:23 AM PST - 2 comments

Watergate: The Scandal That Brought Down Richard Nixon, at watergate.info. Extensive.
posted by plep at 9:42 AM PST - 10 comments

Etch-a-Sketch
posted by oissubke at 9:39 AM PST - 3 comments

Rumors of rape fan anti-American flames "They are raping our women!" - This is the eternal tribalistic cry and lament, often all too true but also often used as a baseless or exaggerated claim for war propaganda, to incite to hatred of a "barbaric" enemy who commits unspeakable acts ( see The "Rape of Kuwait"). The history of Rape in Warfare is long and may be instinctually driven, at least in part. Now, mass rumors spreading through Turkey - which seem to have inspired a recent indigenous Turkish terrorist car bombing - allege mass rapes of Iraqi women by American troops. "There are more than 4000 rape events on the record" claimed the Turkish journal Yeni Safak, on October 22, "citing" (though the purported supporting citation contains nothing about such atrocities) internet sex therapist Dr. Susan Block's piece on the metaphorical "Rape of Iraq"[ Warning : preceding link is NSFW ! Here's the work-safe CounterPunch version]. Having more or less invented modern PR and propaganda techniques (see Ed. Bernays, Ivy Lee) - handy during both war and peace - Americans are now on the receiving end of Propaganda's use of the shameless lie. (identification of "mystery meat" links inside)
posted by troutfishing at 9:22 AM PST - 13 comments

The United States of America bans urination. "The U.S. Transport Security Administration are now requiring that passengers on flights to the U.S. are not to congregate in groups in any areas of the aircraft, especially around the lavatories..." When did America become one big Onion article? More importantly, why does the American public let their government *do* this kind of thing? And what are you doing to make things better? You know - other than complaining about it in your weblog.
posted by kristin at 9:13 AM PST - 47 comments

Why I hate Personal Weblogs While the Introduction to this psuedo-research paper is a bit rough and profane, I couldn't help but agree with much of the content, although I generally don't hate personal weblogs. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 2 - Why Do They Do It, as well as the the final snippet which asserts: I, in an effort to separate the wheat from the chaff of weblog authors, propose that all weblog authors create a Statement of Audience once per month (or, every two weeks if possible) to facilitate understanding of their place in the universe and the importance of their writings.
posted by jonah at 8:30 AM PST - 41 comments

Two Zombies Later... "Strange and unusual music from the Exotica Mailing List". Featuring Br. Cleve & His Lush Orchestra playing "Shaken Not Stirred", not to mention the mad stylings of Scotch & Soda covering Herb Albert's lovely "Lonely Bull" — with a tuba and optigan. I'd think "college radio" if it weren't so damn good. And I would probably not post it if the kind folks at Comfort Stand records hadn't been so kind as to have served up the entire two CD collection via lo-fi MP3s — a definite find. : ) [Via GoodExperience]
posted by silusGROK at 8:16 AM PST - 10 comments

We landed on Mars. The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has captured its first color image of Mars. It is the highest resolution picture ever taken of another planet. Fascinating.
posted by mad at 7:58 AM PST - 27 comments

Hillary Inserts Foot In Mouth Bubba supporters like us should say something.
posted by turbanhead at 7:51 AM PST - 63 comments

Lunarama is a user-edited listing of late-night and 24-hour establishments listed by city. Anyone fancy adding a few? It'd be nice to have a resource like this when visiting a new city. It's much more comprehensive than simply looking up Kinko's in the phone book.
posted by clango at 6:39 AM PST - 9 comments

Lunar Photo of the Day started January 1st, 2004 to document human's never ending obsession with the moon. LPOD now joins APOD, MPOD, and ESPOD as quality picture of the day websites.
posted by jasonspaceman at 5:11 AM PST - 2 comments

Pathetic Geek Stories have moved onto their own place. No longer a sub category of The Onion, or more correctly, The A.V Club, PGS is a collection of humiliating points in adolescence, some that bring tears of laughter and others that make you cringe. As a long time fan, I love to go through the archives and relive my junior high pain. Navigation is simple and they load quickly for me (T1). Enjoy!
posted by Dagobert at 2:32 AM PST - 9 comments

Fish, Glorious Fish: They're all here. In fact, I'm having great trouble stifling my natural instinct to call it the most useful, wonderful website in the world. Unless you don't like fish. And even then...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:10 AM PST - 19 comments